To Find a Bath

Azalon sighed and pushed his notebook off to the other side of the small desk. It had been two weeks since their ship had docked at Wolgur and business had been unexpectedly slow. They knew the adventurers were having trouble progressing into the dungeon, but hadn’t realized how bad things were until they got here.

What made the situation odd was that the dungeon wasn’t even particularly difficult. The rocky clefts to the south and the nearby graveyard seemed on par with the first several floors of most dungeons. As the guild started pushing deeper into the mountain tunnels however they found that further progress seemed to be impossible. It wasn’t that the dungeon’s traps or monsters were keeping them at bay, there just didn’t seem to be any way to progress past the caverns.

The guild of course wasn’t overly worried about it. This operation was still new after all and eventually some method of progressing further would be discovered. They already had scouting parties circling the island once again, looking for other entrances that they might have missed.

The situation though left the vulpine scholar with very little to do with his days. What treasures there were being pulled from the dungeon weren’t particularly interesting or valuable. While some of the items found in the crypts were of minor interest they had all been deteriorating and bereft of magic, worthless in other words.

Though it was barely past midday he was about to give up on getting anything useful done when he heard a loud knocking at his cabin door. Without waiting for an answer a slender sylph pushed his door open and immediately began to loudly curse, “Gods but this place fucking reeks!”

Azalon smiled at her as she floated into the room and perched on top of the other chair in his cabin. He had met Lili about a month ago, shortly after setting sail and they quickly became friends. They had played around a few times, but it didn’t take long for them to figure out that they weren’t really compatible, at least not sexually. He was grateful that their relationship hadn’t devolved into something awkward and had been able to remain friends.

He had to admit though, the entire town did smell like rotten fish that had been left out in the sun to rot. “They say you get used to it.”

Squeezing her eyes shut, she emphatically shook her head, “The fuck I will. This is deep stank. It’s clinging to my wings. I’m going to go find a bath, and I’m never getting out.”

The fox chuckled a bit at that, “Good luck with that in this town, unless you’re looking to bathe in ale.”

“I hear the brothel is open now. They’d have baths right?”

“You’d go to the brothel just to take a bath?”

The sylph blushed, her light blue skin turning a deeper shade, “Well, maybe not just a bath…”

Azalon just shook his head. He was fairly certain that the sylph was just fucking with him at this point, but then like him she was probably dreadfully board at the moment. Because of their natural affinity with wind magic, sylphs were often employed by shipping companies to pick up a breeze when there wasn’t any or to quiet storms that might appear along their route. While these were incredibly useful skills to have when you’re out at sea, she didn’t actually have any tasks assigned to her when they were in port.

The sylph smiled as she leaned over towards him, “Anyway… you need to get out more. You’ve been cooped up in here for too long. We’re on shore leave! Let’s go have some fun.”

The fox looked up at her a little doubtfully. He had been avoiding the town for the last couple of weeks. He had at least ventured out a couple times since their arrival, but hadn’t been impressed with what he’d seen. Past the shoreline more of the town had been rebuilt than he had initially seen, but besides people’s homes the only places of note were the tavern, the brothel, and the guild hall. “Wait, so… you want to take me out to the brothel then?”

Lili grinned from ear to ear as she nodded to him. It might not have been her plan before he mentioned it, but now that she had the idea in her head she was determined to make it happen. Azalon wasn’t exactly opposed to the idea. He had grown up in Montblanc after all, famous the world over for its love of hedonism and debauchery. If anything he was worried that the place just wouldn’t be up to his standards.

Azalon stood and walked over to his wardrobe, deciding that if he was going out he might as well put on something a bit nicer. Lili smiled and watched as he stripped off his plain roughspun tunic. Though they hadn’t worked out as a couple it wasn’t because of a lack of mutual attraction, and he really didn’t mind her staring as he stripped nude in front of her.

“Besides,” she said as he pulled his breaches off, “maybe they’ll offer you a job. Give you something to do besides moping around here.”

He sighed as he selected one of his nicer black surcoats, the one with the golden embroidery, “I’m not moping. And that’s a stereotype I’d really rather not play into.”

Vulpine had a bit of a reputation after all, namely that they were as a species unusually lascivious, or to put it less kindly, complete sluts. Perhaps not as bad as the nymphs, but the prevailing opinion was that most foxes, male or female, would be willing to bend over and lift their tails for just about anyone. And while in Azalon’s case that was also completely true, he didn’t want just anyone knowing that about him.

As soon as he had finished pulling on his boots Lili grabbed his arm and began pulling him out of the cabin, “Come on. It’ll be fun. You don’t even need to do anything, just find someone cute to wash your back.”

Azalon allowed himself to be tugged out onto the deck by the sylph, her excitement rather infectious.

✦ ✦ ✦

Even at midday the streets of Wolgur were nearly empty, reminding Azalon again that this wasn’t really a village in the traditional sense. There were no families living in Wolgur, no farmers, no fishermen even. This was the frontier, nearly as far from civilization as it was possible to be. It would grow eventually, the presence of the dungeon guaranteed that, but establishing a village here that wasn’t completely dependent on food and supplies from the outside would take time.

Azalon wasn’t sure if that was even possible. While the village seemed safe enough they were technically in the dungeon right now, and dungeons were capricious things. While the village seemed to reside inside of a safe zone, that is an area free from any kind of monster spawn, there was no guarantee that it would stay that way. It would be just like a dungeon to lure people in, waiting until they had become complacent, to then suddenly turn deadly.

The presence of the guild and several high level adventuring groups helped to alleviate that fear somewhat, at least as far as the village itself was concerned. Past the shoddy looking village walls though monster attacks would come with some regularity; far too often to even consider farming or any other industry outside of the town.

Azalon took a deep breath as they approached the village square. The air really was much better up here. Wolgur was built on a steep slope, and by the time they reached the center of town they had already climbed three stairways, up into the highest terrace where the nicer buildings were. Looking behind him Azalon could see that they were about even with the middle of their ship’s mast, fifty yards higher than sea level or so.

Of the buildings that had been rebuilt most all of them bordered the village square and as such there was more foot traffic here than there was below. Adventurers gathered around the tavern in small groups or walked between it, the guildhall, and their homes, or out through the large gateway at the southern end of the town. There was one group in particular that caught his eye as they exited the tavern. A minotaur towered over the group, standing at least two heads higher than the five women who surrounded him. The man was clad horn to hoof in ebony plate mail, while the rest of his party’s armor was… less practical.

Azalon had never really spent much time around adventurers himself. There were no dungeons in Montblanc so the few adventurers he had met were usually wizards of some persuasion or another who needed access to House Dennavar’s extensive archives. And while he was by no means a prude, he found it odd that the women at the minotaur’s side were showing as much skin as they were, especially in this climate.

Leaning over to Lili he nodded his head towards the elf in the chainmail bikini and asked, “Is that normal?”

Lili nodded, “Hmm? Oh yeah, they’re a harem group. You see that a lot, one guy with lots of pretty ladies. Probably enslaved to him too.”

He shook his head, “No, no I meant her armor. Does she actually fight in that?”

The sylph nodded and smiled as the minotaur’s group walked away from them, her eyes glued to the elf’s ass cheeks as they bounced with each step, “Hehe, yep. The dungeons tend to make stuff like that, magical of course. Probably works even better than big boy’s armor there.”

Azalon nodded, at least somewhat familiar with armor enchantments. Even though the armor might only be covering her breasts and maybe half of her ass he had to assume that the enchantment created a barrier of some sort that covered her whole body. “Well, I like the aesthetic, but… it looks cold.”

“Magic again probably, temperature regulation spells. Might have fire and cold resistance and who knows what else.”

Azalon nodded as the group turned down one of the side streets, “Hmm, surprised she’s not wearing something over it though.”

Lili shook her head, “Nope, doesn’t work like that. If the armor is covered up the enchantments stop working.” She gave him a shrug, “If it’s something made by the dungeons at least.”

“Really?” Now that he was living inside of one, Azalon was regretting not spending a little more time researching the dungeons. “But why is that? I mean why would the dungeons care how sexy the adventurers’ outfits are?”

Lili gave the fox another shrug, “Dungeons are perverts?” Grinning, she playfully punched him in the shoulder, “You think too much. Dungeons just make copies of whatever people normally wear. Come on, I want to get some tits in my face.”

✦ ✦ ✦

Azalon looked up at the colorful wooden sign depicting an exceedingly busty equian. Her back was to the viewer, looking over her shoulder while giving a sultry wink, beckoning the passerby to come inside. He chuckled when he saw that the place was named “The Winking Mare,” and wondered how many people would catch the double entendre.

Lili was floating next to him, looking a little flushed and nervous. Seeing that she seemed a little unsure of herself he asked, “Everything all right? This was your idea after all.”

She chuckled and nodded, “Um. I’ve never actually been to a place like this before.”

Azalon laughed, which was of course completely the wrong thing to do in this situation. He really couldn’t help himself though. With all of her bluster he hadn’t expected that. The floating sylph frowned and balled her fists, “Hey! It’s not like I have trouble getting laid.”

He shook his head and gave her a reassuring smile, “Ahh, I’m sorry. You just surprised me is all.” He was getting a better idea of why she wanted to bring him here. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close to him, “I get it. Doing something like this can be pretty scary the first time when you don’t really know what to expect. Do you want me to handle the arrangements?”

She nodded shyly, “Thanks. I don’t know why I’m feeling so nervous.”

He took his arm off her shoulder and adjusted his coat, “Mmm, I know the feeling. On one hand there’s the fear of the unknown, but on the other there’s… anticipation. Gives you butterflies.”

She nodded at that and he continued, “Before we head in though, is there anything in particular you’re looking for?”

“Um, I was thinking a girl would be nice. Just something gentle and relaxing would be good. Um… someone with big boobs,” she added quietly. He nodded and smiled understandingly. Sylphs, as a general rule, were completely flat chested. Their species only developed breasts during pregnancy and lost them shortly after nursing. As wind spirits, their bodies had to be as lightweight as possible after all.

He smiled at her as he took her by the hand and led her up the stairs, “Sounds good. I believed I was promised a bath as well.”