Forest Guardians

     Thankfully the rain had let up well before noon, giving the soil enough time to slowly absorb the moisture and mostly revert from mud to plain dirt and grass. Unfortunately though, Linias was nowhere to be seen again. With an aching feeling, Haetia left the shelter to find his suspicions confirmed. Linias was leaning against the same tree and he clearly hadn’t slept judging from his weary eyes alone.

“What did I tell you?” Haetia spoke in a scornful tone, making Linias have a minor jolt.

“Ah–I was going to–Well I tried, but I couldn’t.”

Haetia continued to stare at him, seeing if he would break, but since he didn’t he figured he wasn’t lying so instead he sighed.

Linias stood up and wiped the exhaustion out of his face which somehow did wonders towards him looking a lot more energetic now.

“I think I have an answer for you.”

“Already? I thought I said–”

“I know, but since I couldn’t sleep I thought about it, or it was the other way around, sorry. Point being, I..I’ll stay with you for now, until I can find a way to help the dryads, and until I see for myself if I’m comfortable leaving you on your own.”

“You sure? You’re free to change your mind later on too you know.”

Linias firmly nodded.

And right on cue, Myrin crawled out of the shelter as well followed by the manticore, causing whatever moderate to good mood Linias had to drop.

“Oh-I hope I’m not interrupting I can go back to bed if you want.”

“No, we’re fine.” Linias scowled at the beast and retracted his roots. “We can go whenever you’re both ready.”

“I can eat on the way.”

Myrin yawned his leftover draug while Haetia also nodded. Yet although he gave him confirmation, he felt a strange tickle and fever start to creep into his throat which only worsened the more he continued to eye his retainer, and he only hoped it wasn’t what he thought it was.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*

     The sensation didn’t get any better so to avoid Linias’s worrying he made sure to stay behind him – out of sight and hopefully out of mind, until he suddenly turned back and as they met eyes Haetia knew for certain what was plaguing him. His heat. He’d completely forgotten that was something he’d need to take care of eventually and now was arguably the worst time for it to happen.

“Centaurs. Not very many of them but we should still hide.”

Haetia didn’t even register the words that were being spoken to him and instead could only think about how sultry his low tone was, not even realizing that Linias had grown shrubs to hide them. Myrin and the manticore were together a fair distance away so as to not seem suspicious, while he was with…Linias. Crouched down and huddled together.

Heart rate skyrocketing and breaths vocalizing, Haetia tried to make some distance between them but Linias jerked him back by his arm.

“Careful, we can’t let them see us–”

Linias stopped mid whisper. He placed the back of his hand over Haetia’s forehead and he swatted it away just as quickly. His retainer quickly diagnosed the cause, knowing that his master had never been and never could be sick, which left one other answer.

“Are you in-?”

“I’m fine!” He yelped in a hushed voice, avoiding his eyes as much as possible but he could still feel the concern radiating.

“You’re not. If it gets any worse it’ll be a problem later on, we could at least dull it for now.”

“I said it’s fi-”

Before he could finish Linias swiftly pulled him close and covered his mouth. The once distant gallops quickly became louder until they’d slowed to a trot, and right by them no less.

“We’ve done the perimeter twice already.” One of them whined.

“Always you young ones…” Another groaned.

“Still as green as a fawn. You can never be too sure, and if any of those white creatures make it close it’ll spread like wildfire.” A third lectured.

With his back to his retainer’s chest, he could feel his calmly beating heart, which completely juxtaposed his rapid one. Linias guided Haetia’s hands over his mouth, signaling for him to keep quiet while his hands descended lower. For once he wanted to resist his advances but it’d undoubtedly create enough noise for them to get caught, especially with the abundance of leaves surrounding them.

His stalwart arms were wrapped around and against him, not leaving even the slightest bit of space to move, and luckily too since as soon as his skin made direct contact with his private he jolted in place.

“But don’t they move pretty slow? We would’ve seen them by now if there were any.”

“Never assume much about an enemy you know nothing about.”

“We’d once gotten one that started out like that, but as soon as it locked eyes with us it pounced like a starving beast.”

To limit the noise to its absolute bare minimum, Linias ever so slowly oscillated his hand enough for Haetia’s hips to buck into his fist, though it came out as another slight jolt with how tightly his arms were coiled around. The light and ever tranquil breaths of his retainer graced his ear and traveled down the side of his neck, sending a shudder across his frame and driving his worsening fever to leak and spread elsewhere.

“And..?”

“And you never know when we’ll get another case like that, or sylphs forbid worse.”

“What could be worse than that?”

“Hah! If they started out fast and aggressive!”

“Or other mythicals if that’s even possible. They’ve only been human-like so far.”

By now his length was at a full excited stand and proudly pulsating with every stroke. Haetia began to fold into his retainer’s constricted hold the more the strength was sapped from his body, surrendering himself to the ministrations. If it weren’t for the exceptionally tender pace he maintained, the transparent streams that steadily soaked his palm would’ve squelched on occasion. Normally this wouldn’t be enough to have him as squirrely as he was, but his heat set his sensitivity at a peak. Haetia struggled to muffle his voice, let alone his heavy breathing, resulting in a plethora of swallows to cope.

“Who’s to say they aren’t their own species of mythical?”

“The sylphs said they aren’t.”

“Human origin, and done by human hands. Ugh.”

“One could only wonder why they would do such a thing to themselves.”

In the midst of Haetia’s muted turmoil, Linias suddenly licked and then nibbled the rim of his ear and sent him deeper into an endless spiral. Saliva seeped through the corners of his lips, trailing down his chin and jaw as he fought wars against himself to keep his mouth and ever approaching limit shut.

“You’d be left wondering for a lifetime if you tried to figure out the methodology of humans. Come, we still have more ground left to cover.”

The gallops remerged and gradually faded off into the distance once again, and as soon as they could no longer be heard Haetia finally burst.

“Hha~!!”

His spurt mostly shot onto the shrub’s leaves, with only a few spilling onto Linias’s hand but evidently he didn’t mind since he nonchalantly lapped it up and re-did his master’s pants, trying to set him as straight as possible before receding the bushes.

Though he still maintained a slight fever, his arousal began to subside although a small part of it still lingered, knowing full well it’d return later.

“Are you feeling better?” His retainer asked.

Haetia bashfully nodded with darting eyes. “..Y-Yeah, but you didn’t have to…you know. And I thought you, um..didn’t like doing things outdoors?”

Linias’s eyebrows raise. “I didn’t before but–...” He traced his ear. “I’m not sure how to answer that.”

Just as the awkward tension teetered on unbearable, Myrin approached with the manticore close by. Right away he noticed their expressions and put two and two together, but ultimately decided not to poke fun for now.

“I couldn’t hear much from over there but I think they said something about coming around back again so I suggest we come up with a better idea than suspiciously large shrubs because I don’t think that’ll work again.”

“We could kill the manticore.” Linias suggested. “You can control it, right Master? You could order it to attack them in a believable way but not enough to actually hurt them much or kill them. Then we could show up and kill it so it looks like we helped, that is if you’re fine with killing it.”

Slapping the shyness and embarrassment from his cheeks, Haetia heavily sighed to quiet whatever thoughts that his heat whispered.

“Sure!” His voice cracked and reignited his embarrassment. “I-I mean–ahem–That’s fine. It’ll probably make it harder to get on their side anyway if we keep it.”

Haetia directed the beast accordingly and right away it made a fair amount of distance between them while the group was elevated into the trees thanks to Linias’s vines.

For once he was using a massive axe instead of his usual staff. By comparison Haetia only had his ice and that dagger he took from those thieves, and Myrin only his water. Yet little did they know it wouldn’t matter what they had in the end.

As soon as the centaurs reappeared, they immediately clashed with the manticore. Haetia looked to Linias for some form of signal but he continued to gesture for them to wait, and overtime the centaurs lost ground and contemplated a better change of strategy the more cornered they felt. Then at that moment Linias leapt down in a flash while Myrin and Haetia were forced to chase after him, but before they had even caught up the deed was already done. In a single full force swing, Linias sunk the axe straight through its neck and it collapsed with a thunderous thud.

Heaving, the three centaurs gawked in amazement, completely forgetting to speak in the process.

“T-Thank you.” What appeared to be the leader of them rushed to say. “Do my eyes deceive me or are you truly a dryad?”

Linias’s resentful scowl blazed on as he continued to stare in disgust at the beast, then rubbed his resent away and adopted his usual neutral countenance. “I am.”

Myrin and Haetia finally reached him somehow just as out of breath as the centaurs.

“Your companions I assume?”

“Yes!” Myrin yelped then in a muffled voice asked, “What happened to helping?!”

He glared at the manticore again while their leader glared at Haetia, peering under his hood.

“Your friend there bears a lot of resemblance to that beast and others such like it. Why are you here?”

“For that reason, we’re trying to learn that ourselves so we came to speak with the sylphs.”

“And they’re sentient? What about their fever? Are they sick?” One of the others asked.

“Yes I can understand you. And I’m not sick.” Haetia tried his best not to reply with sarcasm but it still came out with some sass.

“The weather is just a little warmer than what they’re used to.” Linias quickly covered up. “I’m Linias, and they’re Haetia, then Myrin.”

After looking between each other for mutual approval, they soon enough replied.

“Elerios.” The leader said. “We’ll allow you to come with us and ask on your behalf for an audience, but you may only stay as long as it takes for them to see you.”

“Which is?” Myrin asked.

“Usually a few days at most.” The younger centaur answered. “Hope you don’t have somewhere to be hah!”

“Should any of you cause a scene or bear ill intentions, then we’ll take care of you accordingly. But I trust that a dryad would do no such thing, nor would the company he keeps.” Elerios concluded and snapped his hooves around, giving them no other sign but that to follow.