The Merciless Alpha(erotica)

Tavorwen cocked her head to the side, “This has been an enlightening discussion, but we should try to rest. We have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow.”

She pulled what looked like a sleeping bag from her pack and handed it to me.

“Do you have one for yourself?” I asked.

“I’ll be fine.” She assured me, wrapping her thin cloak around her shoulders as she laid in the grass.

I could feel the chill beginning to set in. The sun was just setting. I knew it would get colder. Tavorwen was thin enough I had a hard time believing she would produce enough body heat to stay warm in that cloak. Perhaps it was magical.

I rolled out the sleeping bag next to my guide and found I barely fit, length wise, in the bedding. It was comfortable, though.

There was enough going on in my head that I found it hard to sleep. I was having to make a large number of adjustments to my thinking about this new world. It was a strange and bizarre place. Any humans that existed here lived far beyond the influence of the elves I had been sent to help. My brain was racing, trying to figure out what I had been sent to do. I had a few ideas, but I’d need to talk to the craftsmen, or craftswomen, among these people to see if they were even possible.

The sun had finished setting and I could feel the cold air on my face. The temperatures had dropped precipitously. I was glad for the bedding I had wrapped around me. They held my body heat nicely.

A sound caught my attention, like a rattlesnake or something. An almost chittering rattle. I didn’t sit up, not wanting to give away my position to any potential threats. Then I realized what the sound was.

It was Tavorwen’s teeth, as she shivered uncontrollably.

The she-elf was freezing. Her body was doing its best to keep her warm, but by the sounds of it, she was fighting a losing battle. I had easily realized I had hit a nerve earlier, accidentally insulting her endurance and stamina. I wondered if her insistence on giving me the bedding had been an attempt at salvaging her pride. Assuming elven biology at least paralleled human biology, the fact that she was shivering so hard so early in the night was not good. If she kept getting colder, she could suffer hypothermia and perhaps perish by morning.

I knew what I had to do. I couldn’t make it to her people without her to guide me. I parted the bedding, reached over and pulled my guide into the bedding with me. She was light enough it took little effort to move her. Her body was tiny and easily fit in the bedding with me.

“What are you doing?” She hissed between chattering teeth.

Her body was like ice. I could feel it warming even in the second she was under the covers with me. I knew I had to do something to help placate her pride.

“I was freezing. It’s too cold to sleep so far apart. We need to pool our body heat or neither of us will be up to another day of hard travel.” I told her. I knew she would know from the heat I was putting out that I was fine. I hoped at least she’d accept my offering and survive until morning.

“Well, if you need the heat…. I suppose I can do what is necessary.” Tavorwen relented, and I felt her body melt into mine to get closer to the heat.

Now, I hadn’t been a virgin, back before my death. I’d had half a dozen lovers, mostly extremely short term. Cuddling a woman was always nice. But something about having the tiny elf pressed against me seemed even nicer. My thoughts shifted from all of my concerns to the tiny form pressed against me, and within minutes I slipped into sleep.

The pre-dawn light hitting my closed eyes woke me. Tavorwen was still pressed against me, her body warm and her breathing showed signs rousing. A moment later, her eyes fluttered open and she slipped out of the bedding. I gave her a minute, then pretended to just be waking up.

Tavorwen was investigating the ground. I saw what she was looking at and immediately became alert. There were tracks on the ground. Large tracks. I had no idea how something that large could have gotten so close without me hearing them. I had always been a light sleeper.

“Thank you, for allowing me to rest with you in the safety of the Bedroll of Sanctuary.” Tavorwen breathed. “It looks like we had a visitor last night, and were we both not within the enchantment of the bedroll, the unprotected individual would likely have not survived. Regardless of the night-time temperatures.”

She gave me a piercing look. She knew I had brought her in to protect her from the cold. It was obvious.

“What was it?” I asked, looking at the tracks. They were slightly larger than a dinner plate.

“Dire tiger. Silent predators. Are you familiar?” She asked.

“There are creatures we call tigers back home. Felines that are about ten feet long from head to tip of tail, about three feet tall at the shoulder and weighing between six hundred and seven hundred pounds. Orange and white fur with black stripes.” I explained.

“Dire tigers stand from seven to nine feet tall at the shoulder and are eighteen to twenty-five feet in length from head to tip of tail. They weigh between four thousand and ten thousand pounds. Their fur matches your description.” Tavorwen acknowledged.

“Do they normally attack people?” I asked.

“A meal is a meal.” She shrugged. “Though it would take multiple elves to feed a dire tiger.”

I began to pack up the bedroll, “So the bedding is magical?”Copyright Nôv/el/Dra/ma.Org.

Tavorwen nodded, “It prevents any outside sources without sufficient mental strength from interfering with the rest of those within. Mages and others with superior mental strength can push through the enchantment, but wild beasts have never had the mental strength to do so.”

She gave me more of the dried rations for breakfast, and we headed out.

I was now watching the trees, realizing a predator of that size and temperament that would view the two of us as little more than a late morning snack had raised my level of alertness.

“So, is the bedroll the only enchanted piece of equipment you are carrying?” I asked, trying to make small talk.

“Most of my equipment is magical in some sense.” Tavorwen explained, raising her hood and drawing her cloak around herself. The cloak seemed to shimmer and began perfectly matching the trees around her. Perfect active camouflage.

“Wow. That’s a trick.” I smiled.

She allowed her cloak to float free and lowered her hood. “My blades and arrows are magic as well, in addition to the quiver I showed you yesterday. My pack is enchanted as well to help prevent time and the rigors of travel from spoiling our food and ruining the other contents.”

I rubbed the stubble on my chin, “If you don’t mind me asking. Why don’t you have anything like that for me? It seems like you’d want to have two of everything for traveling if you were coming to the temple to summon aid.”

Tavorwen lowered her head, “I couldn’t carry them and make the time I needed to in order to beat the soldiers of Kathra to the temple. They would have weighed me down too much. That and if I were captured, we couldn’t afford to lose the supplies. Since the massacre, we have not had the plenty we once had. We have less than a tenth of the enchanters we once had, and our crafters are hard pressed to keep what soldiers we have armed and their equipment in good repair.”

I nodded, that made sense. “Fair enough. I can manage well enough, I was just curious.”

I looked out as we crested a hill. There was nothing but forest as far as I could see.

“So where is the city?” I asked.

“We dwell among the trees.” She explained. “It is the reason the shadow elves haven’t found and exterminated us yet. The forest is our home and our ally. It protects us as the sea protects the elves that live beneath the waves, the mountains protect the elves who live there, the clouds protect the elves who live in the sky, and the swamps and grasslands protect the elves that live there.”

As we descended into the forest I was reminded of visiting the redwood forests in northern california. The trees were massive. Some were well over twenty to thirty yards thick. The canopy seemed to stretch higher and higher as we moved into the depths of the forest. Tavorwen guided me in a wandering path, steering us wide around threats, some I saw, like bears so large they made the grizzly bears I’d seen look like a child’s stuffed animal, others I didn’t, but I had faith that my guide was keeping me safe.

I insisted we rest regularly. Tavorwen was still trying to prove her endurance, but she accepted the forced rests. She looked like I’d expect soldiers to after two weeks of hard march with fully loaded rucksacks, despite my understanding she had only been traveling for four or five days and her load appeared much lighter than my squad would have carried. I needed her to guide me to the city. There was no way I would find anything in this sea of trees.

As the sun began its descent, I saw my second elf. The female seemed to materialize as she lowered the hood of her cloak and greeted Tavorwen. Her bow, taller than she was, was strung and in her hand.

This second elven female showed me that beauty and grace were inherent among the elves. The allure of the slim and wiry feminine form was undeniable. The slim legs and body lines drew the eye to all the right places. The angel’s statement about finding a spouse really was sounding more and more true.

“Welcome back, sister.” The new elf greeted, “I see your mission was a success.”

“Hail, sister.” Tavorwen replied, “The gods have indeed granted us a summon. I hope this will satisfy the Elders.”

As quickly as she appeared, this new elf disappeared.

We proceeded further and the detritus that covered the forest floor cleared and gave way to clear packed soil between the trees. Tavorwen led me to a place where a tree had a spiral of bark covered steps that swirled up into the branches. I was glad that I did so many stairs with my ruck, otherwise my legs would have been mush by the time we reached what was evidently the city of the wood elves.