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  It was early in the afternoon when I got back to the Boar, and after paying for a room and a bath, I took a long soak to get rid of the dust and cobwebs from the ruins. With some gold in my pocket and without the need to spend all of it on Shaping, I left the bath in search of Mable.

  I found her in the kitchen taking a break after the lunch hour rush.

  “Hey Jacky,” she smiled sultrily at me. “Come for a little taste of serving wench?”

  “As a matter of fact, I did,” I answered with a smile of my own. “Care to join me in my room?”

  She set down her mug of ale and rose to her feet, straightening her skirt and tugging her shirt down to properly display her assets. “I would be delighted. I was beginning to fear you weren’t interested.”

  “And I was beginning to fear I’d never be able to afford it, but I got lucky in my last scavenging trip.”

  “And you’re going to get lucky again now,” she giggled.

  Laughing, I took her arm and led her upstairs to my room. As soon as I closed the door behind us, I shoved her up against it, lifted her hands above her head and kissed her. Her mouth opened eagerly under my assault and her tongue slipped into my own open mouth. She tasted sweet, with a hint of the Boar and Barrel’s rich ale on her breath. I pressed my body against hers, feeling her large firm breasts against my chest. I held both of her wrists in one hand and brought the other down and under her shirt to caress the smooth skin at her side, then raised it up to grasp the supple globe.

  The kiss ended what could have been an eternity later, but was probably just a couple of minutes. “Oooh. I didn’t take you for the aggressive type, Jacky.” The breathless beauty whispered. “I like it.”

  “I’ve wanted to do this for a long time,” I gasped, breathing hard myself.

  It’s been months since I’d been with a woman, and even then she wasn’t close to Mable’s beauty, and I was rock hard after just that one kiss. But I wanted to take my time and enjoy the serving girl’s curvaceous body properly.

  Still holding her hands over her head, I leaned in and kissed the corner of her mouth, then slowly kissed and licked my way down her jaw and towards her neck. Her skin tasted of the light sweat she’d worked up during the lunch rush, and the combination of her own sweet scent and the light salty taste was driving me wild. I reached the juncture of her neck and shoulder and bit down gently, drawing a gasp of pleasure from her mouth.

  Breaking away from her for a few seconds, I fumbled at the strings of her shirt and managed to pull it up over her head. I twisted it so it caught her hands and pushed it back against the door, and reached down to take her hard nipple into my mouth. I was rewarded by another, louder, gasp, and she started to grind against me. Keeping the sweet nipple in my mouth, I placed my hand on the small of her back and then caressed down and under her skirt until I could grasp her firm cheek and squeeze it.

  As much as I wanted this to last, I couldn’t wait any more and I released her to hastily remove my clothes. Mable also took the opportunity to finish undressing, and I took a minute to look at her magnificently nude body. Her skin was milky white and completely unblemished, and she was completely hairless below the neck. Her legs, fit from hours of running back and forth from kitchen to common room, led up to wide hips and a large, firm ass. Her waist was narrower, but not nearly as narrow as the corseted ladies in the richer parts of town. Her mouth-watering breasts were large and firm, and had barely begun to sag, and her nipples were still hard enough to poke into my skin when I closed and embraced her again.

  I backed her up towards the bed and shoved her on her back, and she giggled again when I caught her thighs and spread them. I leaned in for another deep kiss, then leaned back to enter her. She was wet and tight and warm, and it took all of my willpower not to release immediately as I slid all the way in.

  “You feel so good!” I whispered to her, still not moving and trying to hold on.

  “Mmm. Nice and hard. Just the way I like it.” She moaned.

  I almost lost it then, and had to force myself to remember some of the less savory parts of my explorations to help me hold on. When I felt back in control, I started thrusting in and out. Her tight channel gripped me whenever I pulled back and then released to let me back in. Mable was moaning loudly, and I myself couldn’t get enough air to speak. I settled down into a slow and steady rhythm, and then leaned forward to take her nipple back into my mouth. She gasped and her arms and legs locked around me, holding me to her as I continued moving.

  “I’m safe,” she managed to breath between moans and gasps. “I want you… inside me…”

  In all honesty, I wasn’t at all sure I’d be able to stop, but her words spurred me even more, and I began to increase the speed of my thrusts. Her moans came louder and quicker, and eventually rose into a wordless scream as she clenched down around me, causing me to lose the remnants of my control. I felt my muscles locking in bliss as my member pulsed inside her, releasing months of pent up need.

  When I was done, I collapsed on top of her breathlessly. We remained that way for long minutes before she finally released her hold and I rolled over to her side. She raised herself to look at me and gave me a light kiss. “This was absolutely wonderful, Jacky. I wish I could stay and cuddle, but I need to get cleaned up before dinner.”

  She got dressed while I just lay there looking at her and enjoying my lassitude, then opened my purse, took a silver coin, blew me a kiss and left.

  ✽✽✽

  I was in a much better mood the following morning when I left the Boar and headed towards the Forrester mansion. My tryst with Mable was followed by a good dinner, sleep in a soft bed, and a hearty breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon. Darren was waiting for me when I got to the mansion, and accompanied me into the Pattern room. He raised an eyebrow in interest when I approached the Hawk Pattern instead of the Hound, but didn’t say anything until I was finished Shaping a pair of the birds.

  “I thought it was about time for you to start diversifying, but I’d have thought a Horse would come first, since your recent haul was limited by what you could carry.”

  “A Horse won’t do me that much good right now,” I answered evasively. “Hawks are much better for what I have in mind.”

  “Which you aren’t going to tell me about, right?” he said astutely.

  “Not here, at least. I’m not very happy about your family for some reason.”

  “For some reason,” he agreed, and followed me in silence as I went to the market to buy a far larger amount of food than I was used to packing.

  “You won’t be able to carry much loot with your backpack full of jerky and cheese,” Darren pointed out, probing for more information.

  I just shrugged in answer and shouldered my full backpack. I could almost feel Darren’s curiosity as we walked through the gates and left the town behind, and I took a perverse pleasure in tormenting him. Eventually, I felt that we’d left Gerald’s Rest far enough behind us to prevent anyone from seeing the Boat, and I stopped and turned to him.

  “Where are you Hounds?” he asked before I could say anything. “Even if you didn’t Shape new ones today, you should still have three or four of them from last time.”

  “That’s part of my secret, and before I tell you anything I need you to swear that you won’t tell anyone what you’re about to see and hear.”

  “You know that I’m loyal to my family, Jack. I can’t promise anything that will hurt them.”

  “This isn’t anything that might hurt your family, but it’ll really hurt me if people learned about it. I know that you’ll keep your word if you give it, just like I know it was Owen and not you who told your family about my last haul.”

  “Figured that out, huh? The old blabbermouth was telling everyone and anyone that he had a source of whitesteel and was accepting commissions.”

  “A blabbermouth all the way. He actually told me it was his fault and gave me a higher rate for my second load of ‘steel.”

 
“That’s nice of him,” Darren sobered up. “What if I tell you I can’t promise?”

  “We’ll walk to the almost empty ruin I got the whitesteel from so I can show you where it is.”

  “And?”

  “And nothing. I promised to tell your family about the ruin, and I will. Anything else you’ll have to live without.”

  “Fine. You have my word that I won’t tell my family about your secret, as long as it doesn’t actively hurt them.”

  “Thank you,” I smiled.

  “Well?” he said half a minute later. “What’s this big secret you were so mysterious about?”

  I smiled wider and pointed up, and wished I had a way to capture his expression when he caught sight of the Boat descending towards us.

  “What…” he sputtered. “What is that?”

  “My Boat,” I said when the Boat settled down besides us.

  “It’s a flying boat,” He said wonderingly. “How is it that you have a flying boat?”

  The sole remaining Deckhand left its position near the wheel and went to lower the gangplank, and I started climbing it.

  “Are you coming?” Darren was still standing with his mouth open and looking at the Boat. At my question, he shook his head wildly for a moment and ran up to join me, followed closely by his Sentinels.

  I left the Deckhand to deal with the gangplank and went straight to the wheel to raise the Boat back to a safe height. With the sails all furled, it would stay immobile in the same spot unless a major storm hit it. That’s how I knew precisely where to go when I left town. The Boat hadn’t moved from the position I left it at.

  “Give me a couple of minutes to get us underway, and then I’ll explain everything,” I told Darren and headed to the cabin. I needed to Unshape the Deckhand and Shape two new ones to properly sail the Boat, and I needed the Attire to be able to captain it. It was still strange to me how I could learn all about how to captain a flying Boat when I was wearing it and then forget everything completely when I took it off.

  Darren was in an even bigger shock when I came back out. “They’re Shapes?” he asked in a shrill voice. “You have a Pattern now?”

  I motioned him over to the wheel and started telling him about the giant spider and finding the Boat Pattern. The Deckhands took five minutes to unfurl the sails and prepare the Boat for sailing, and I continued the tale while piloting us in the direction of the ruins.

  “There’s no way I would have believed any of this if I wasn’t standing on a blasted Flying Boat,” he shook his head when I was done. “No wonder you don’t want any more Hounds. Though I wonder why you didn’t go for some Guards.”

  “The Deckhands are decent in a fight, and I wanted some scouting ability for now. I’ll probably get some Guards at a later point though.”

  “It’s definitely going to be easier for you with a Pattern of your own to cycle with. Blast it. No wonder you wanted me to promise I won’t tell my family about this. Father will move mountains to get those Patterns out of your hands.”

  “Yeah. I’m still not a hundred percent sure telling you was the right thing, but I needed to tell someone, you know?”

  “Yeah, I get it. Hard not to just shout something like this out for everyone to hear. Don’t worry, Jack. I’ll keep your secret. Father will just have to live without knowing about it.”

  “Thank you, Darren.”

  “With all of this, there’s still one thing I can’t believe though.”

  “What’s that?”

  “You’ve got this fantastic flying Boat, and you’re flying it around, and you still haven’t gotten around to naming it?”

  “Naming it? Why would I need to name a Shape?”

  “It’s a Boat, Jack. Boats need a name. That’s the rule.”

  “There’s no way that’s an actual rule Darren.”

  “It’s an immutable law of the universe. A boat needs a name.”

  “So what do I call it? I’m really lousy with names.”

  “Fortunately for you, you have me here! Let me see,” he pondered for a few minutes. “I’ve got it! Your Boat is the Cerulean Swift! Like those blue birds the farmers like so much.”

  “The Cerulean Swift,” I repeated the name to see how it felt. “It really does fit, doesn’t it?”

  I have to admit, Darren’s company made the trip back to the ruin a lot more pleasant. I’d been spending most of my time for the past few years alone or in the company of my Shapes, and it was nice to have someone to talk to. I was on good terms with Darren, but it wasn't like I had too much time to spend socializing with him. Not that Darren was a very talkative man, on the occasions that I did spend an evening drinking with him. He'd always clammed down whenever the talk turned to personal matters.

  It might have been the wonder of the long sail that caused him to drop his guard, or possibly some lingering shame at blackmailing me into taking him to ‘my’ ruins, but whatever the reason, he was a bit more forthcoming aboard the Swift, and we talked a bit about our very different lives.

  My parents were decently successful bakers. They had a small shop in town, and while they never catered to the richer clientele, they never had a problem supporting themselves and their children. When I was sixteen, a gang of bandits led by a rogue Shaper attacked the town. Darren’s grandfather, Gerald Forrester, was a powerful Shaper himself and gave his life repelling the bandits. But not before they rampaged through the marketplace and killed everyone they encountered. Including my parents.

  My elder brother, Richard, inherited the bakery, and would have gladly employed me if I showed even the slightest sign of interest, but I was determined not to be vulnerable to the next gang of bandits, and the day after the funeral I was on my way to the ruins to scavenge. Richard never accepted my choice. He always claimed that we were bakers, and should remain bakers. We didn’t part on the best of terms, and never managed to patch things up, and it’d been at least half a year since I was last at the bakery.

  Darren was an only child, and his entire family was his grandfather Gerald, his father and his aunt Evelyn. His father was a harsh man and all business even with family, so that Darren had only access to a small stipend to live from, and if he wanted anything more, he had to get it himself. It was only when we reached the ruins and I brought the Swift down to land that I realized he never once mentioned his mother, and that his story was full of omissions and glossed-over parts.

  I tried to ask him about her, but he jumped down from the Boat as soon as the gangplank was down. “I’ll be back in a couple of minutes,” he said and vanished into a nearby bush.

  I shrugged and waited until he reappeared, smoothing down his ruffled shirt. “OK. I’ll want to take a peek at the ruins, and then you can take me back.”

  I could tell that the businesslike Darren I was used to dealing with was back, and that there wouldn’t have been any point to asking him for any further details, so I called for my Hawks and one of the Deckhands to join me while the remaining Deckhand brought the Swift back up.

  There were still a few spiders left that I’d missed on my last exploration, but Darren’s Sentinels were strong enough to take a full venom blast without even blinking, and nothing in the ruins was even a little dangerous to them. Strangely enough, both of his Sentinels were maxed out and he left the vim for my own Shapes to syphon.

  I showed him the now-empty room where I found the whitesteel, and the large room where I fought the giant spider. The bone pile was still there, and I mentioned that I didn’t search through it and there might still be something worthwhile inside, but his face showed as much distaste as I myself felt at the thought of sifting through it.

  “Well,” he said a half hour later after we left the ruins and were waiting for the Swift to descend. “You did tell me you more or less emptied it.”

  “Yeah. I’d say your father got the raw end of that deal, but it’s not like it actually cost him anything.”

  “Nothing other than your good will, which I have a hunch wi
ll be more important than he expected soon enough.”

  I didn’t have a good reply to that, and we waited in silence for the Boat. We spent the way back to town in a comfortable silence, which I didn’t want to ruin by asking about the things he left out from his story. It was getting towards evening when we got back to town, and I once again stopped the Swift far enough away that we could land unseen and approach the town on foot.

  “What are you going to do now?” Darren asked on the way back to the Boar and Barrel. “I'll tell my father that the ruins were close by, and completely empty, but even if he doesn’t do anything about them, you’ve pretty much cleaned them out already.”

  “I haven’t actually thought about it yet,” I answered. “I still have whitesteel on board, and I’m not nearly as desperate for gold as I was before. I guess most of what I need now is vim, so I’ll probably head out beyond the border and do some monster clears.”

  “Might want to start out small though. Those Hawks of yours are far better scouts than they are fighters, and your Deckhands aren’t precisely combat oriented Shapes themselves.”

  “Sure, but I can go after the ground bound ones. Keep up and out of range, and use the arbalest to help the Hawks out.”

  “Heh. You do seem to have the head for this sort of thing. When you go out there, don’t be a stranger, Jack. I don’t think the loner life is good for you.”

  “You’re probably right,” I agreed. “I’ll make sure to come back every now and then.”

  “Good,” he clasped my hand and then left to head towards his family mansion. “See that you do.”

  Chapter 5 – The Wilds

  I left town early the next morning with two Deckhands, two Hawks and enough supplies to last for a month and headed away from the settled lands.

  It’s a fairly established fact that the old-worlders’ population covered the entire world. When the old-world was destroyed most of the land was wiped out, leaving isolated pockets of civilization scattered without any discernible pattern. The kingdom of Arianor, of which Gerald’s Rest was a part of, originated in one of those isolated spots and we’ve met, and clashed, with several others.