Chapter 11
Previously: Obsidian: Ash and Moonbeams – Chapter 10
He laughs, “Okay, then!”, shifts his grip, slings her over his shoulder and gets back to walking. She feels like a fur collar, the same way she has on Daddy’s shoulders. Daddy is big, but Caliban is even bigger.
It feels so nice to fit around his neck like this, but great, now she thought of Daddy and how she fits around his neck, too, and she misses him. No, bad, she needs to focus on the here and now. She’s missed Papa so often that she’s gotten really good at pushing missing somebody away.
The way Caliban tried to just throw her over one shoulder, though, was a bit like Gregory would do it, so she has to bark, has to smack him a bit, clearly dog fish means dog fight. Turning human-shaped again, she laughs, too.
“Hey, you brought that on yourself by teasing me!”
“What? You are a puppy. Running up all happy to the stranger. Doesn’t mean you’re not a puppy with nice fangs.”
Yes, still need to bark at him, he’s clearly a bit silly, but that’s okay, she can deal with dogs. She likes dealing with them. Her drac is nodding at her. And really, that just means that she’s a wolf puppy with a dog, and that works well. As does lounging out on his shoulders, they are wide and comfortable and that just means she can sniff him more…
Wait, still meant to bark back, which comes out a scoff.
“Just because I’m not afraid of you doesn’t mean I’m naïve. It just means I trust my own strength.”
~
“You are a hell of a lot tougher than regular Midgardians, I’ll give you that,” he agrees. “And a lot more fun for being fearless.” He turns his head to grin at her, with teeth. “Still could tear you to pieces.”
“Nope,” she tells him, before raining down around his shoulders as mist.
Which… “Touché,” he laughs, gives a playful swipe through her. He’s seen her use that power against that undergrounder, stupid of him not to remember about it. It puts an excited sizzle into his stomach, the idea of someone who’s not… so fucking breakable. Without being a fucking Aesir.
Fucking Heimdall. And whoever else was involved in this.
For a moment, he wonders whether Faomir knows yet. But even if he does, it’s not like he’s got convenient leyline access.
And anyway- fun puppy. Puppy with deliciously sharp points.
~
There, now they have a bit better of a barking hierarchy. Dogs.
She could giggle about his need to fight it out, who’s the puppy here, really? But that just means she can play with him. She needs to play, her drac needs to play. It’s what she does with her men, too. She knows what this big puppy is after, and she doesn’t mind, no, Quincy said it’s okay, they’ve hunted together, she can hunt on her own for what her drac needs.
Even though part of that is to be held and not feel so far away from its pack.
Huh? Oh well, she’s around a big dog, so of course that’s how she would think. But it’s true enough, she doesn’t want to feel alone here, and she doesn’t have to, she can run with Caliban. And together they’ll find a way to get back to her men, her real husbands.
Turning rat, she holds on to his hand as he swipes through her, gives his palm a very quick nip, just about enough to let a bit of magic trickle through, before climbing up his arm.
Yes, this is good play, she’s run up and down John, too. Yes, John, that’s who Caliban’s smell makes her think of. Her big strong man. Yes, she fully believes John will be just as big as Caliban, he’s already just as sexy.
Ugh, drac brain!
That’s okay. She knows it is, so she follows her instincts and turns human-shaped again on his shoulder, and because she really likes to hear his laugh and it makes her feel better about the situation, leans in to kiss him again.
~
He stops walking for that, since the terrain is really too rough to not have his eyes on it while he does, and enjoys the kiss with a rumble of pleasure. Damn, it’s been too long since he’s had something nice like this. The want for more itches at him.
~
With a sigh, she kisses him for a while longer because, yes, getting her nose close to something that smells nice is such a relief in this place. But kissing him makes her think that she’s really done with the barking. She can do it, but she doesn’t want to! No, that’s just silly when there’s nobody else around here.
“Thank you. For making me feel better and for carrying me. Now tell me why you keep threatening and posturing. We might both be dogs and wolves, but I don’t want to bark about the hierarchy anymore. I’m your ally, no reason to pose all big and dangerous with me.”
“Posturing? Am I?” he asks, and she thinks he looks surprised, which is funny that he didn’t even notice, but then, she has drac brain, at the beginning she never noticed what she was doing then, either. She’ll be nice, she’ll keep telling him, especially because he is carrying her, they are moving again and faster than she could on her own.
“You totally are. Telling me you’ll eat me, that you could still tear me to pieces. You’re trying to make yourself sound really big and strong and mean. It’s a bit silly really.”
Draping herself better over his shoulders so she isn’t resting too much only on one side, she sticks a hand into a pocket and finds her comb, gently starts to work on his poor hair.
“I’d say I’m giving you fair warning- I might still decide to eat you. The local wildlife tastes like ass,” he informs her as if that wasn’t more posturing. Or maybe he’s been around mean people and thinks that’s how he has to be. Well, he’s her doggie fishie now, her drac and her won’t be mean to him. Easy enough, she can talk to someone like him.
Huh, for a moment she has the weirdest association with Radu.
Hurt. That’s what’s under there, isn’t it?
Yes, totally is. Good, now she spotted it!
“I live off of blood. I already told you I could eat you, too. You don’t run from my bites. We’re even, and you don’t find me posturing all over the place about it.”
Rolling her eyes, she huffs at him, but it’s a bit for show, so that he doesn’t think she’s stopped barking.
But under that huff, yes, starting in on loving it better! She doesn’t even give her drac a look for that. Sure, if that’s what it wants to do, Darcy has long learned they are better when they agree, no reason to say no.
So she keeps focusing on all those terrible tangles in his hair, just one more thing she can do for him, he clearly needs a woman’s touch to see better to himself in a place like this. She’d clean Quincy and John up, too. Quincy would preen, John would grumble but hold still for her. Yes, just things she can do to be good.
~
He chuckles. “Maybe I’m enjoying your utter lack of fear.”
Also maybe she has a point. Pushing until you get put in your place or put the other one in their place is kind of the Aesir way.
(He remembers plenty of occasions of Faomir conceding a challenge with a tilt and duck of his head- while giving him the raised eyebrows and unimpressed stare of exasperation at the Aesir nonsense.)
But this puppy is delightfully not-in–her-place-puttable.
It makes him like her.
And he’s definitely enjoying her combing his hair- a comb does a much better job than his fingers, and it’s pleasantly intimate. Of course, it only makes him think more about whether she’d be up for a fuck once they reach the marginal comfort of his camp.
~
Yes, she can definitely tell what he wants. That smell always makes her grin, it’s even more musky on him than it is on John… She so wants to stick her face closer to that sexy smell of horny man!
Oh, is there a bit more to his barking? She should clear that up and keep being nice, he clearly actually enjoys the attention.
“Oh! Well, that’s okay then! I like being good for people I care about. I just don’t want you to posture; posturing is silly. If we’re playing growly games, that’s fine. I play growly games with Quincy, too.”
After saying it, she sticks the comb between her lips to get her fingers around one really bad tangle, starts to pull hairs out of the knot one by one, then chirps in triumph when she manages to disentangle it.
~
“Do you always take to strangers you meet in miserable places this quickly?” Really, the way she is both utterly unafraid and also adorable is way too much fun. “And we’re definitely playing growly games.”
~
Did she do something weird? She might have, John has told her repeatedly that her mind is special, that her drac does what it wants, and he loves her for it.
Duh!
John, of course!
She had that feeling about him, too, this sense of knowing him, knowing how to talk to him. And she really doesn’t do that normally with strangers. So Caliban just is special. Her drac knows these things, she doesn’t have to understand how it knows them, just trust it. Quincy can figure out why once she’s back, he’s good at these social things, she doesn’t have to deal with them.
But that only means she can more freely grin at her big dog fishie. “Only if they’re manly men that make my instincts go ping. I did the same with John after all.”
~
He laughs again. “I am very manly,” he agrees, then drops his voice into a more suggestive tone. “So how exactly are your instincts going ping?”
Instead of matching him with innuendo and flirting, she chuckles and nudges his shoulder with a knee. “Just ask what you want to ask. Seriously, I’m not human. I don’t like this whole asking around something. Also, wolf brain from hunger, I’m about as perceptive as a rock on subtleties right now.”
Oh well, he can work with that, too. Again, the contrast between her pretty courtier outside and unfettered wolf inside is striking and unexpected. And interesting.
He returns the chuckle and a grin. “In that case: wanna fuck once we get to my camp?”
~
“There, that wasn’t so hard.”
He’s more like John, but even John likes rewards when nobody points that out. Well, Quincy always does, but Quincy also is the first to demand rewards, so it probably works on all men. Oh, and it works on the puppies, so there, Caliban is just a big one, so reward it is!
He asked the question in a drac way, not a silly human way, and she definitely wants to train him to be like that with her. Not too many silly words that don’t make anything clear!
And she has just the right reward! Shifting position, she finds a good angle and sinks her fangs into his shoulder. It’s funny to keep it at a hunting bite when she’s talking to him, but maybe she can do more later when they know each other better. And well, what he suggested would work for that, wouldn’t it? It wouldn’t be like with Gregory, or Llew, or even vision quest Lancaster.
No… oh, oh! He asked! Just like she asked, well, tried to, earlier. Caliban is making sure she consents. Aw, he’s such a sweetie under all that posturing. And he smells so very sweet, too. And she wants to feel close to someone. She misses her men terribly and he reminds her of John so much.
Yes, yes, she wants to.
Not that the way he asks doesn’t make her blush and giggle, normally, they are already at the foreplay before Quincy gets the dirty talk like that out.
She likes it very much.
So yes, she grins and answers without stopping to giggle: “You smell sexy like John, talk dirty like Quincy, and Quincy also said that faithful depends on what we make of it. We’re dhampirs, we have lots of libido, that’s nothing bad… Also, I’ve had to deal with fae for a week! A week of not being close to anyone! So yes, that sounds really nice, thank you for asking.”
~
He rumbles in pleasure at the bite. “Oh, I can do direct- that wasn’t hard, but now my cock is. And a week? Try 150 or so really fucking long Muspellheim days…” He sighs dramatically.
Now she looks downright shocked, but apparently more at his plight than his words. She really does like it direct, clearly. “I think I would have died after that long! You poor thing!”
“I am very poor,” he agrees. “Much longer and I might’ve been desperate enough to fuck the wildlife.”
“Gross!” she declares, then blushes but giggles. “At least you probably can take care of yourself in contrast to me.”
“Desperate times,” he says sagely. “And how can you not take care of yourself?”
“Dhampir weakness.” Pulling a face with a huff, she turns on his shoulder (she is so damn tiny!) to nuzzle in against his neck, licks and kisses his skin in a decidedly appreciative way.
“That seems like a strange and very inconvenient weakness,” he observes, chuckles. “And don’t get too carried away up there, I still have to walk for a few hours here.”
Not being able to masturbate? What kind of magic causes something like that?
~
How long?! A few hours?! No, she no wanna! Yes, she knows that pout is drac deep, and she fully agrees. Her drac has priorities!
“Ugh! Let me try again. Walking over terrain like this is silly. I could get us to your place much quicker!”
This silly planet is being mean to her, just like Quincy normally says the grey world is mean to him. She’ll try to fight it here, too!
Glaring up at the sky, pout still well in place, she thinks through if there’s any better way to get off the ground. Jumping didn’t work, and there’s nowhere she could climb up to to gain some starting height.
Wait, starting height, that could work! Stowing her comb safely back into a pocket, she slips from his shoulders but holds on to his arm.
“Throw me. Please, as far as you can. It’s harder to get up from the ground. Maybe that will help.”
“Alright,” he agrees. Good, no talk back, so much for him always needing to bark. Now if she could manage to not get distracted by the way his hands shift over her, that would help. But it’s just to find how to actually best grip her, she’s sure. He crouches and asks her if she’s ready.
“Do it!”
All muscles tight, she tries to be as stiff as she can make herself, so it’s on him. She’d go rat shaped, but it’s still easier to go from human to bat, especially because she wants her big bat form. Back home, it makes no difference, it’s both easy enough, but back home she could also just jump and take off no problem.
Back to feeling clumsy with her drac it is. She hates it!
He’s clearly trying his best, though, she can feel the way his muscles tense, and if not for having her mind on her task, she’d be giggling, it’s fun to be thrown!
It’s not very far sadly, twice his body height maybe, barely enough for a full wingspan as she turns to her giant bat form.
At least she can find the form easy, maybe she could have gone from rat, after all.
Not the point now.
She struggles hard, buffets him with gusts of ash from every flap, but barely manages to stay in place, let alone gain altitude. If she can’t lift herself higher into the sky, how is she supposed to carry him? This is straining her for nothing, so she turns human again, let’s herself plummet down, then stomps, pouts, and glares at the ground with crossed arms.
“No fair!”
He dusts the ash from himself. “Maybe you need more practise. Bigger bat, more for gravity to pull. And that was a big damn bat.” Then he smirks. “Big damn balls, too.”
Did he just…? She can feel herself turn red, then white, then red again, because she doesn’t know what to think and feel and just, what the?!
Nobody talks about her balls, well, it’s not balls. She’s… special, yes, that’s what Quincy told her it is.
What Papa told her, too. And Arthur read up on that medical text and told her there’s nothing wrong with her!
But it’s… it’s still embarrassing to have it pointed out like that.
Or maybe, maybe it only is because Caliban reminds her of John so much, and John doesn’t ever talk or, she’s sure, think about her like that.
He wouldn’t like it! He wants her to be his wolf-girl. He only likes girls. She’s just about enough girl for him.
The same way as she’s just about not a girl for Quincy. She tries to remember, but no, she, uh, no, she doesn’t think Quincy ever said she has balls. Would he like her to have any? She’s not sure. Not what’s important to him.
Although, uh, she did hear him joke about John having blond hair and freckles down there. So maybe her balls aren’t balls enough to comment on?
Why is her body always special but not quite right?
With a sigh, she starts walking the way they were going anyway. She doesn’t know what to answer, and probably her dog fishie is going to tell her how something is off about those big balls next. She’s really not in the mood to bark about her body. Especially when she wanted to feel less alone by being close to him and her drac. Now he probably doesn’t want to anymore.
That’s just mean.
~
Caliban tilts his head, looks after her- no come-back? That seems unlike her.
Did he just kill the mood with his comment?
But why? She’s been all over being straight-forward, liked it when he just said things bluntly. They’ve been flirting nicely, they’ve agreed to fuck, so presumably, he’d see any balls then, anyway. Why would she mind him complimenting them now?
Is this a Midgardian thing?
Well, she wanted straight-forward, he likes straight-forward, she’ll have to cope with him continuing with it.
“What, you don’t like them?” he asks her as he follows her where she’s stomping off. (Which is still such a fun and cute thing to watch, the way she puts down her tiny feet like they ought to be clad in combat boots and the ground should tremble under them.)
~
What kind of question is that? What does it matter what she thinks about them? Still not balls. She looked at the medical texts by now.
And well, she’s seen balls. Several different ones. Is he teasing her? They were playing growly games, but it doesn’t feel like one.
And she still doesn’t want to feel alone.
He didn’t sound mean. He asked her.
For a moment, she feels confused tears sting at her eyes, her drac doesn’t know, her drac doesn’t understand, never has.
All her drac understands is that she’s upset, and that makes it whine, makes her whine. More, makes her stop and reach her arms for him.
“It’s not about me. Just, now you probably don’t want to be close to me anymore, and I need to not feel so alone. I don’t want to always be so alone in here!”
Her arms quiver as she stomps with the exclamation.
~
Huh. Well.
Okay.
Okay, she’s upset, and he… actually kind of cares?
Hearkening back to their empathy discussion from a little while ago, it’s not something he bothers with a lot. He’s a predator, and very happily so.
But she’s a fellow predator, and for all that it’s a whole planet, he knows well enough that Muspellheim is his fucking prison.
A prison that’ll be a lot more bearable with some fun company.
So, yeah, fuck it, if he wants to care a little, he’s going to care a little about this intriguing little Midgardian puppy, and if she sounds like she’s looking for more than a few orgasms to relieve the boredom… So be it.
He grabs her around the waist to lift her back up, puts an arm around her arse and thigh to carry her against his torso. That puts their faces at a similar height, and he can study her expression.
Yeah, definitely upset.
“There, I’ve no problem being close to you. Why should your big bat balls make any difference? Is this a Midgardian thing?” he asks again.
~
It’s so nice to feel him against her, close, warm, and smelling good. Smelling of big, strong man. Like her John, and that makes her only more upset, so she digs her face against his shoulder, the same way she would cuddle in against John.
She misses him so much.
“Not balls. I know what those look like. I’m enough woman for John and he only likes girls. Just, well, Quincy only likes men, so I needed to be special to be good for both of them. But you remind me so much of John, and I know he never would say something like that. You say you’ve been here lots and that there’s no one here. I don’t want to be alone. I hate it. I want to run with you, let my drac play with you. You feel good. You feel right. I don’t want to be not good for you, but well, you obviously aren’t like Quincy.”
~
He considers her words, but… “Yeah, I don’t get it. I know what balls look like, too, seeing as I have some, too, and what dangled under your bat butt there sure looked like a pair. So, what, you think I won’t want to fuck you now that I’ve seen them, and not calling them what they are is going to make any difference? Because it does for one of your men back home?”
~
Why does he insist on it?! She smacks a fist against his chest and starts pouting. “Are not. My balls aren’t in there and they aren’t fully fused or anything. I do…” Great, now she’s blushing while her drac is so confused what the problem is. She’s hungry enough to not have inhibitions about thinking about genitalia, but it seems she still isn’t used to just saying things out loud.
Not true, she does with her men, but normally only when, well, when they are making love to each other.
It has associations and she likes those associations. Just, saying it when it’s not in the middle of touch and love and turning each other on is weird. But he keeps insisting and she doesn’t like it.
She doesn’t have balls!
She’s special! Both her men told her!
“I don’t have balls the same way I don’t only have a cunt!”
Eep, that was Quincy’s crass term, but this is Caliban, she was all over teaching him to use drac words with her, so now she can’t be shy about it. Also, it feels important. Her drac is all nodding along. Yes, she’s good for both her men, not just one!
~
Ah, maybe he’s getting the picture now. “Intersex?” he asks. “Is that why it’s a big deal?”
Not like Midgardians are the only ones who have issues with the people who don’t neatly fit into pre-defined boxes and categories.
He would know.
~