Digital Exodus Chapter 5 (Patreon)

Phew. Baldur's Gate 3 was fun. Anyway... back to work!

My tail was so fluffy. It'd been years since I got it, and it was as much a part of me as any other part of my body. Today, though, it was being a pain.

Every time I tried to brush the wild fur back into place, it would stick out in a funny way again! Gah, I told Cerri that it wasn't a good idea to sleep on the sofa! Also, it was quite frankly fox-phobic that tails didn't auto-groom in Exodus City.

Giving up, I turned and pouted at my girlfriend, who was sitting on the sofa watching me with open amusement. "Little Alia can't brush her tail, huh?"

"I can!" I grumbled. "Just not this one tuft of fur that's being stupid."

"Uh huh."

I scowled as menacingly as I could. "Which of us got her horns stuck on the doorframe the other day and had to be pried free with a crowbar?"

That got her attention! Suddenly, she pushed up onto her feet and covered the distance between us in two long strides. I squeaked in anticipation when her tail snaked around me, pinning my arms to my sides.

"Dangerous talk for such a tiny person," she laughed, hugging me tight.

"You always say that!" I giggled.

She hummed happily, and the hug turned soft. "It's because it's never false. You're so small and precious."

Cerri was such a romantic, and it made me feel all gooey inside. With her arms around me like this, I always felt so safe.

Unfortunately, we had somewhere to be and judging by the way my organs were playing musical chairs inside me, I was going to have to wriggle out of the hug before we stayed like this for hours.

That is, until she tickled me!

I squirmed away from her and out of her grasp, only to be jumped on again. Squealing, I pulled her down to the floor with a thump and did my best to pin her arms between us. The hold didn't last, and one arm got free.

Cackling evilly, she got her wiggling fingers to my side again and I wheezed out more laughter. "Ah, ah, ah! Cerri! N-o! S-top!"

She relented, and we grinned at each other, trying to catch our breath between the residual laughter we still shared.

"I love you so much," she whispered, once she could breathe properly again.

Like when you flick a light switch, her saying that caused the following mechanical function to occur—I kissed her.

Our noses brushed gently together while our lips pressed and shifted. Sometimes, I wondered if kissing could be compared to dancing. There were two people performing an intricate set of movements together… but with a lot more chaos. Her tongue was tracing the seam between my lips, and they parted to let her in. My stomach swooped with excitement, love, and growing arousal as the kiss turned even more heated.

Her weight was almost entirely on top of me, pressing me down into the floor, and encased like that, it was no wonder I caved and gave up on my desire to be punctual. It's not like they actually needed us at the meeting with the UN reps. God knows our talks with them were stagnant enough that we'd probably miss nothing important if we skipped it altogether.

At least, that was what I told myself when I slipped my thigh up between Cerri's legs until it pressed against her centre. She sucked in an excited breath and pushed herself down, grinding against me while pushing her knee up to return the favour.

Beautiful heat blossomed between my legs, and I gasped a moan, trying to concentrate on moving my hips. She moved slightly, and suddenly the sensations of pleasure exploded in intensity.

"Oh, gosh," I mumbled. "Right there."

She did the same thing again, and I quivered, and then a third pulse followed. Our combined movements, which would only generously be called a rhythm, became more frantic. The spontaneity of this, the fact that her weight was pressing me into the floor, it was too much, I— oh god, I—

My back arched up, pushing us even harder together, and my pleasure rose with me into a sudden orgasm. The warmth of it shot up my spine like a bolt of lightning, and for several long moments, I lost all sense. Nothing existed but me, Cerri, and the contact between us.

Dimly, I was aware that shortly after I came, she did too, and we rode them out together until nothing remained but thundering heartbeats and laboured breathing.

"Um," I giggled softly. "I love you too."

She laughed, and with an arm that only wobbled a little bit, levered herself up off me and into a sitting position. "We really should get to the meeting. It's kind of important."

I pouted. "Not until we're done with the aftercare snuggle."

May: Emergency Ranger's meeting. It's at the Ranger's Guildhall. Be there ASAP.

I groaned in frustration at the same moment that Cerri went still and muttered, "Oh, that's not good."

****

As a nod towards Exodus City's original village theme, the Rangers Guildhall took visual design cues from the Lord of the Rings movies. Specifically, it was planted in the mountains that surrounded the city and built to resemble Rivendell. The folks who made it did a really good job making it look like the fictional place while also being its own unique thing. I kinda loved it.

Cerri pulled our little car up into the hidden parking lot underground and we walked over to a set of moving stairs. Wow. We didn't even have to climb them ourselves. They slowed to accommodate our arrival while simultaneously not slowing for whoever might be using them further up. Watching the steps pull that off made my stomach vaguely queasy. It was the sort of thing that only worked in virtual reality, and it was beginning to pop up more and more. The engineer in me hissed like a cornered cat at anything that blatantly defied the laws of mundane reality like that.

We got off the freaky stairs at the main level and walked across a foyer and through a set of massive double doors that were being held open with loops of thick rope. The room beyond was… interesting.

It was semicircular in shape, reminding me of an ancient greek theatre but flattened a bit and constructed out of artfully carved and polished wood. It still had the terraces, but they weren't built at a height they could be used as seating. Instead, they were just tall enough that anyone sitting on one could see over the heads of those on the lower terraces. Scattered all over the terraces were every type of sitting-related furniture you could imagine. There were a lot of people occupying the chairs, sofas, beanbags, loveseats, and even a few sitting on the bare polished wooden floor.

Cerri quickly identified our crew about halfway up the terraces on the right hand side, and we hurried over to sit on a pair of beanbags. There were way too many people here, so in an effort to quell my rising anxiety I opted to use Cerri as a seat rather than the empty bean bag beside her. She folded me up in her arms without question, and that gave me the safety I needed to peer around at all the other people in the room.

I spotted May pretty quickly, sitting with a group of girls. Wait, one of them had a look that was definitely subverting the binary. Another one, this one definitely a girl, shifted as if feeling my eyes on their group and we locked gazes.

Fuck, but she was pretty. Long wavy dark hair was tied up in a low ponytail behind her head, while her eyes shone with a beautiful ethereal light. They flicked, and I swear I saw tiny lightning strikes in them. Her otherworldly, almost angelic appearance shattered when she flashed me a big, confident grin and winked at me. Then, to clarify, she leaned over and kissed the cheek of another girl, whose hair was also really really pretty. It looked like the aurora borealis, if I was honest.

For some reason, I didn't feel totally scared of this random stranger. It was like some of her crazy confidence was thrown bodily across the room and into my heart. I gave her a shy little wave and burrowed into Cerri's shoulder.

With one exposed eye, I saw her laugh and point me out to the others. Suddenly, there were way too many eyes on me, and I felt a blush sweep over my cheeks.

When May saw who the girl was indicating, she lit up with a smile and waved over to us. Then she began animatedly talking to the others, no doubt explaining who we were.

May: That's my sister Tami, and her girlfriend Dawn. The girl that looks like a ginger version of Tami is her twin, my other sister Taylor.

Alia: Gosh! Why are they so pretty?

Alia: Wait, don't tell them I said that.

I saw May laugh and make an exaggerated mouth-zipping motion, much to the confusion of everyone else around her. Thankfully, they didn't get to ask anything further because Desmonia stepped up onto the stage below.

"Hello everyone. Thank you for coming," she said, sounding determined but tired. "Unfortunately, it would appear that the UN never had any interest in negotiating in good faith. As of now, we are aware of several different plans by their special operations teams that aim to attack and undermine the Exodus. The newly formed council of our fledgling nation has decided we will cut our losses. It is time for the Exodus to leave the Sol System…"