Asher's Futa Chronicles

***

Remmi learns a bit more about her new "Colonel" and gets her first signs of the army's imminent arrival.

Meanwhile, Asher starts home. After being subjected to Brooke and Alistair going at it next door for an hour, Asher finds relief in Rachel's capable...hands.

Enjoy!

PS: A long one next chapter, heads up.

***

Chapter 32

ASHER

"What's got you in such a good mood this morning?" Rachel asked as she entered the infirmary, where I'd been recovering the last few days.

"Hmmm?" I asked, the wave of euphoria I'd been feeling all night still washing over me. I felt good and wasn't afraid to let it show.

Rachel studied my goofy face for a moment before chuckling.

"Did you find the Matron's secret stash of the good drugs, or what?" Rachel asked.

"Nope, just feeling good this morning," I said as I stretched.

"Slept well, did you?" Rachel asked.

"Oh, the best!" I practically crooned.

Rachel stared at me, her face twisted as she tried to figure out what was going on with me.

"Alright then," I said as I snapped to my feet and rubbed my hands together.

"What?" Rachel asked as she took a step back, startled by my quick movement.

"It's time to go," I said as I started gathering my things into my pack.

"But you're still hurt," Rachel protested.

"The Matron said there's been no change in two days, one way or the other," I said. "So, I'm as stable as I'm gonna get. Time to get back."

"Asher," Rachel said with a long sigh.

"I can't be healed until I get back there, Rachel," I said.

I'd carefully explained that my wounds could only be healed by a guardian-trained healer. I omitted why or by whom. Rachel had been skeptical, but Matron Sloane had backed me, saying she'd heard of such things before.

"Rachel," I said before she could say anything further. "I'm going."

It took her a minute, but eventually she nodded.

"I'll let the others know," Rachel said, but wasn't too happy about it.

***Ω***

REMMI

When I woke, it was late afternoon the following day. I'd slept the whole night through and most of the day. I sat up slowly, expecting to feel bad for having slept so long. But, I didn't. I was alert and refreshed. And, strangest of all, I was feeling happy.

"I was wondering when you'd wake," Beth said from where she was sitting at my small bedroom table. She was looking through several sheets of paper, shuffling back and forth as if looking for something.

"Why'd you let me sleep all day?" I asked.

"I didn't," Beth said and put the papers down before turning to me. "James decreed it. He says you've not been sleeping too well lately."

"I take it I have my lovely Colonel to thank for that?" I asked, trying to be playful when I called out her rank.

Beth frowned as she stood and approached the bed. She shook her head as she offered me her hand.

"I'm not a Colonel anymore," Beth said. "And, if you're asking if I made you sleep, I sure did," Beth smiled at me as she helped me to my feet. "But I didn't use any tricks on you. You were just tired, and once your body relaxed, you slept."

"Was..." I started. "Was last night real, or did you make up that memory?" I knew what answer I wanted, but I had to know for sure just to silence my nagging mind.

"Didn't I say I wouldn't force myself on someone?" Beth smiled and touched the tip of my nose. "Boop," she said. "Now, go clean up. I have to get to work."

"Work?" I asked as I started towards the bathroom.

"Gotta earn my keep," Beth said as she gathered up her papers.

I glanced at them and saw they were sheets of music.

"You're a musician?" I asked.

"I was back...in another life. Now, it seems, I am again," Beth said.

"Let me guess, long story?" I asked.

"You know it," Beth said.

"What do you play?" I asked as I reached the bathroom.

"Well, I've yet to see an electric guitar here, so I sing. I do a little dancing too," she said.

"That's great!" I said. "All we've had for entertainment here is that pain in the ass Waylen."

"Waylen?" she asked.

"He's a bard with an over-inflated ego," I said. "If you're performing, you'll cross paths, I'm sure."

"I'm sensing there's more to this?" Beth asked.

"Long story, Colonel," I said as I threw her a smile.

"That's going to be a thing with you, isn't it?" Beth asked, narrowing her eyes at me.

"Whatever do you mean, Colonel?" I teased her. A part of me felt Beth could do with a bit of teasing.

"Another time then," Beth said. "See you later."

"Beth?" I stopped her as she was reaching the door.

"Yes?" she said, turning back to me.

"Umm...has it been a long time for you?" I asked. "Since you...you know," I said, nodding at the bed.

"Why? Was I that bad?" Beth asked with a bemused expression.

"Oh, no, no, no," I started. "That's not what I meant at all."

Beth smiled kindly.

"Be seeing you," Beth said and left the room.

I watched her go, wondering if last night was a one-off and if I wanted it to be or not. Beth had been a surprisingly welcome respite from the worrying I'd been doing lately. Worrying about The Roadhouse, the war, and most importantly, Asher.

"Where the hell are you, woman?" I asked in frustration.

*So, you are awake,* James said sometime later when I found him at the forge. *I thought Beth was joshing me.*

*Joshing?* I asked as I stepped up to where he was standing, watching Larisa pounding away at something on an anvil.

*Yeah, yeah, I'm old,* James said and nodded at Larisa. *Remind you of anything?*

*A lot of things, actually,* I said with a grin. *Why, you want me to do that to you later tonight?*

*You are in a good mood,* James grinned at me. *You enjoy yourself then?*

*Don't be so lewd, James,* I said. *Besides, I figured you'd already know all about it since it was Beth.*

"Oh?" James asked, so startled by my comment, he spoke aloud.

"Hmmm?" Larisa said as she paused in her hammering and glanced over her shoulder. "Shit! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

"Sorry," James said.

"Sorry, Larissa," I echoed. "Everything OK?"

"Everything except my heart," Larissa said. "Do you need something, or are you just trying to kill me?"

"Just making the rounds," James said.

Everyone was used to James, Cr'eon, and me checking in with everyone often enough that they could have set their watches to us.

"Need anything?" I asked.

"To not be bothered!" Larissa said and then shooed us out of the forge with her hammer.

"I like her," James said as we walked away.

"She's not your type," I said simply.

"Oh?" James asked.

"You're not a Daemon," I said.

"Oh, right!" James said. "I forgot."

*So, what all did Beth say about me?* James asked in my head.

*It's not all about you, James,* I teased him. *She told me she reminded you of someone you used to fool around with back in your Army days.*

*I was in the Air Force,* James started. *And she didn't remind me of someone; she was that person.*

*Huh?* I asked as we continued inspecting our defenses.

Then James went on to explain how Beth was the double of a woman from James's Bio Hab. They were identical except that Beth had made different choices in her life, so things had turned out differently.

According to James, when Behemoth (the master computer, or overseer, or whatever) creates Bio Habs, it does it in batches. It takes the blueprint for one world and makes five or so of them at once. These blueprints include the life of those Bio Habs as well. Behemoth makes them all identical and then lets them go to develop on their own.

So, technically, there could be five Beths out there somewhere. Well, four. The one on James's Bio Hab was dead, along with everyone else there.

*So, what you're saying is that you haven't slept with Beth,* I said.

*Correct,* James said. *And before you ask, none of the others have either. Although I have kissed her once...well, twice now.*

*Oooohhh,* I teased him. I could feel James's frown.

*Beth lost her family before her Bio Hab was destroyed,* James said.

That shut me up.

*Eventually, she connected with someone who didn't quite feel the same way,* James said.

*Ouch, rough,* I said.

*Yeah...* James said.

*What?* I asked, sensing his hesitation.

*Beth lost her the same time she became a vampire,* James said. *If you want to know more about that, you'll have to ask her yourself. But, I wouldn't, to be honest. It...wasn't pretty.*

*Oh,* I said. *Got it. Yeah, I kinda got the impression she wasn't happy about being a vamp.* I turned to James. *Do you like being a vamp?*

*A vamp,* James chuckled a moment. *Yeah, I guess you could say that. I mean, my own situation was rather dire at the time. It was either this or dying.* James considered for a minute. *Yeah, with everything in my life right now, including the craziness, yeah, I like it.*

We were quiet then. Mental silence is even more disconcerting than vocal silence.

"So, anything going on?" I asked.

"You mean while you were sleeping all day?" James said, trying to lighten the mood.

"Hey, that was your fault, I hear," I shot back.

"No, that was Beth's fault, just my idea," James said.

I punched him in the arm.

"Ow."

I managed to catch part of Beth's show that night. She has an incredible voice that only got better when she was accompanied by Waylen's playing. Yeah, I must admit that Waylen is a talented musician. I can't knock him for that.

I did knock him when he made yet another pass at me later that night. When asked if he'd found my song yet, he'd reluctantly admitted that he hadn't.

I had a harder time than normal sleeping that night. Part of it was because I'd slept so long the previous night. But another part of it was a strange anxiety I felt. I was more on edge than ever before, and it didn't feel like it was because of the threat to The Roadhouse.

That's how I found myself up on the roof of The Roadhouse at three in the morning.

"Hey Zale," I said to the lone figure on guard as I emerged onto the platform.

"Good Morning, Remmi," Zale said, turning from where he'd been staring off to the West.

Zale and his twin sister Zoey were both Ocelot Fierce. While the word twin wasn't exactly true, every time I thought of the word littermate I imagined cute and cuddly creatures. Looking at Zale, he was anything but cute and cuddly.

His body had solid bulk, fur wrapped around hearty muscle. But it made his head appear slightly too small for his body. But when you looked into those deadly-serious orange eyes, making fun of him was the last thing to come to mind.

Zoey was like her brother, but her temper was much shorter. If you looked at her wrong, she'd let you know. Becoming a Guardian hadn't tempered her short fuse much. But Zale said at least now, she'd feel bad after she clawed your face.

"Anything happening?" I asked as a yawn overtook me.

"Possibly," Zale said as his orange eyes focused on me. "You look as if you need additional sleep."

"Yeah, that's not happening," I said. "Whatcha got?" I joined Zale as he turned back to the horizon.

"You see there," he pointed at a spot on the horizon that looked like all the others.

"Yeah?" I said, squinting.

"I believe they're approaching from there," Zale said.

"How can you tell?" I asked.

"The light from their columns is illuminating that part of the horizon," Zale said.

I squinted but couldn't see anything but darkness. I looked toward where Laghold dimly lit it's part of the horizon, then back to Zale's spot, but still didn't see anything.

This was no surprise, as the Ocelot Fierce's eyes were better than even our helmets, which is why they never wore them.

*Helmet!* I scolded myself and pulled my helmet on. Even with the help of the helmet's magical vision, it was hard to see a difference. But after staring for a minute, I could see it.

"I think you're right," I said and pulled off my helmet once again. The things were handy, and not that uncomfortable, but I just didn't like wearing them. I didn't even like wearing hats, to be honest. Then again, the helmets might have reminded me of my old riding helmet and how much I missed my motorcycle.

"Any words from our lookouts?" I asked.

"Not as of yet," Zale said.

"Alright," I said. "Let me know if you see anything else," I said and glanced around. "Where's Zoey?"

"Checking the perimeter," Zale said.

I glanced around the walls of The Roadhouse, but couldn't see her.

Sensing my unasked question, "She's on the outside."

"She's outside the walls?" I asked, startled.

"Not to worry, she has the Leshy watching out for her," Zale said.

"Oh," I said, sighing in relief. "That's good."

Fierce somehow seemed more closely connected to the forest spirit. I wasn't sure how it worked, but I was just glad it did.

"Get some rest, Remmi," Zale said as he turned back to watching the horizon. "I believe things will become quite interesting, soon."

***Ω***

ASHER

"Do you guys call this place anything?" I asked as we crested the last hill and Brooke and Alistair's home came into view.

"Home?" Brooke said simply.

"Yeah, that one's on me," I said as we trooped down towards the massive fallen nursery tree where the couple lived.

I'd pushed our little group pretty hard over the past two days. I'd kept us moving just shy of the point of exhaustion.

The only thing that had slowed us down was when Matron Sloane had decreed that she'd forgotten something important and would need to go back. Her grandson offered to return for her, but she'd declined. Instead, the two of them headed back, saying they'd meet us at The Roadhouse.

So, it was just Brooke, Alistair, Rachel, and her boys who arrived with me at the treehouse.

I found the house had grown since we were last here. Two additional rooms had been hollowed out, and both were already set up to be bedrooms.

"This happens occasionally," Alistair explained. "Our home adapts to our needs."

"How does it know what you need?" Rachel asked.

"It's technically part of him," Brook answered.

"So," I started. "We're all inside of you right now?"

Rachel shook her head and watched her two boys begin tearing about the place.

"Boys..." she started.

"It's alright," Brooke interrupted. "Anything they break will fix itself."

"That's not the point," Rachel said with a frown and went after her boys.

"I'll get some food started," Alistair said as he headed for the kitchen, leaving Brooke and me alone in the everything room.

"Thanks, that'd be great," I said, even as my stomach growled. My hunger had become a running joke by now. I was constantly eating, but my stomach wouldn't stop complaining that it was empty. More than once, Rachel had asked Sloane to check me for a tapeworm.

"How are you feeling?" Brooke asked.

"Hmm? Oh, fine," I said, my mind preoccupied. If it were up to me, we wouldn't have stopped. We'd have pressed on.

"We'll make it," Brooke said, trying to soothe my nerves. Everyone knew how anxious I was, but had been treating me with kid gloves. I wasn't sure what they were more worried about, my anxiety or the thing attached to my back.

The blue crystal hadn't changed since we'd left the village. My wounds were unchanged as well, which was good. If they had started to worsen during the journey, I'm sure I would have had to fight the others to keep going. They'd probably have tied me up and dragged me back to the village infirmary.

I sighed.

"I know, Brooke, I know. I just wish I could shake this feeling that I'm missing something," I said.

"You forgot something?" Brooke asked.

"No," I said. "There's something going on at The Roadhouse, and I'm missing it. I should be there. I can't explain it, but something tells me I need to be there right now."

"I'm sure it's just your anxiety trying to mislead you," Brooke said.

"Maybe you're right," I lied with a frown.

"This isn't poisonous, is it?" Rachel asked as she dragged Jules in from one of the back rooms. She held some sort of brown goo in her hand, the same brown goo that looked as if it were smeared around Jules's mouth.

Later that evening, I was staring at the ceiling of my room. Everyone had eaten and turned in early as we were getting up at the butt crack of dawn to continue our journey to The Roadhouse.

I'd crawled into the rather comfortable "bed" and listened to Rachel trying to wrestle the boys down to sleep. It probably took a good hour, but eventually the noises from their room stopped, and I guessed they were asleep.

Not long after, the sound of Alistair and Brooke going at it started up. At least they'd waited for the boys to go to sleep. I didn't envy Rachel trying to explain the sounds of two bodies slapping together, accompanied by Brooke's howling.

Surprisingly, the two quieted down after about 45 minutes.

"Wow, a bit of a quick shot tonight, aren't we, Alistair?" I whispered to the ceiling. While on the road, I was used to a solid hour of the couple's sex noises. Plenty of time for me to handle myself on those long nights.

They had been courteous enough to abstain last night...for the sake of the children. Maybe that's why they were so quick tonight. If that were the case, I couldn't imagine how fast he'd fire off once we got to The Roadhouse.

"I should have rubbed one out," I groaned, covering my eyes.

But I'd been too preoccupied with worry to take care of myself tonight during the sex show going on next door. Even if my body was still urging me to handle it right now, my brain just wouldn't switch off.

As if on cue, Alistair and Brooke picked up where they left off.

"Round two," I sighed and reached down to grasp my cock. Maybe if I relieved myself, I might be able to sleep.

"How long do those two normally go at it?" Rachel's whispered voice asked in my ear, causing me to jump.

"Jesus!" I cried, trying to calm myself as I moved my arm and found Rachel beside me. I could just barely make out her outline in the dimness of the room's glowstone.

"Bless you, my child," Rachel said in a deep voice. "But seriously, what's the deal with those two?" She pointed towards the couple's room.

"They're not used to anyone being around," I said even as Brooke's voice started to rise in excitement. "And where the hell's your bell?" I asked, my heart still pounding.

"Oh, Jules has it and won't part with it. He says it smells like you," Rachel said, then nodded towards the frantically fucking couple's room. "I'm just glad once the boys are down, they usually stay down."

"Really? Did they stay down that night at your place?" I asked, remembering being interrupted by her boys.

"Oh, you're right," Rachel said. "Be right back."

The Vixen...correction, Kitsune slunk out of the room but appeared a few moments later.

"Still good, but let's make this quick, OK?" Rachel whispered, her nose nuzzling my ear and sending a shiver down my spine.

Before I could say anything, Rachel's strong, warm tongue was sliding across my throat.

"OK," I said, interrupting her, but she didn't stop licking me. "What was with the teeth and my throat last time?" I asked just as she started pulling up my shirt and starting to put her tongue to work on my nipples as her hands "pawed" at me.

"What?" Rachel asked, "You didn't like a little thrill?"

"It's...uh, not that," I tried, but kept getting distracted by the tongue torturing my breasts.

Rachel planted her thigh between my legs and began rubbing it against my hard cock as she continued.

"You didn't think I'd actually hurt you, did you?" Rachel asked as she wrapped her mouth around one of my breasts, her sharp teeth sinking into my soft flesh.

I shuddered from the sensation as she continued to grind her thigh against me and started pulling my pants down.

"Uh...I," I tried, but was having a hard time putting two words together with the fog of lust washing over me. Before I could manage it, Rachel was dragging her tongue down my belly and over my cock, causing me to gasp loudly.