Hungry Heart - Book #3 - Ch. 12 (Patreon)

Chapter One / Chapter Two / Chapter Three / Chapter Four / Chapter Five / Chapter Six / Chapter Seven / Chapter Eight / Chapter Nine / Chapter Ten / Chapter Eleven 

Chapter Twelve – Happy Celebrations

Toru stared wide-eyed at the transformation that part of the forest had gone through during the time since Shearah, the young witch, had inspired new life into the dwellers of the place. From seemingly out of nowhere, fires surrounded by spikes stabbed into meat had appeared, and at one side, someone was fiddling with a large pot, tasting from it time and again. Toru looked a bit closer, as the silhouette seemed familiar, and when the cook turned, he recognized Willow right away.

“Toru,” he said happily, “care to taste the raspberry sauce? I think it still needs a bit of mint.”

Toru made a face that told Willow everything he needed to know about what he thought of that combination of leaves and fruits. The bearshifter laughed and Toru snickered, too, his ears tickled by that sound. It was so strange to think that so little time ago, this living, breathing, handsome man had been reduced to nothing but a handful of dust. He had to admit to himself that it was a pleasure to look at Willow. Toru couldn’t remember seeing someone so tall and yet moving with such elegance and grace. Even now, as he leaned over the pot in which his terrible concoction boiled, he did so delicately, bringing his lips to the long ladle like he was tasting the ambrosia of kings and gods from a silver spoon.

“I’ll taste it,” someone offered from Toru’s left.

He grinned as he saw Beast. If there was someone who could offer any kind of competition when it came to eating, that bearshifter had to be at the top of the list. Toru was looking forward to measuring the power of his belly against Claw’s childhood friend. Only when Beast stood by Willow’s side did he realize that the two were of almost the same height. Because Beast was wonderfully round, he seemed shorter, but otherwise, he was in the same league as Willow.

None of them compared to Claw, though. Even among the bearshifters, he stood so tall, so majestic, that he deserved to be their king. As Toru looked at him among his kin and other dwellers of the forest, he wondered briefly why the bearshifter had chosen to leave his place of birth. As an adventurer, he understood why, but Claw looked so at home that he couldn’t stop thinking that he belonged here. Varg was there, too, Claw holding him by the shoulders, and Toru smiled as he remembered how well the two fit together.

“It is the most wonderful sauce you’ve ever made,” Beast concluded and embraced Willow, lifting him off the ground.

“Put me down, you clown,” Willow scolded him and even wagged the ladle at him playfully.

“You wouldn’t dare hit me with that,” Beast provoked him.

“Try me.”

“I’m doing that right now.”

Toru snickered as Willow promptly hit Beast on the forehead with the ladle. A splash of red sauce began pouring down his nose, and Beast just stuck his tongue out and caught the drops. He smacked his lips in delight but put Willow down, who immediately rinsed his ladle in a nearby pot filled with clean water.

Beast found his next victim in Toru. He first patted him on the back, hard enough to almost make him take a step forward. Toru dug his heels hard into the soil to stop Beast from having his way since it was all a matter of proving himself to Claw’s friends. His resistance didn’t stop Beast from hugging him and lifting him off the ground, the same as he had done with Willow. “What do you think of us, Toru?” Beast asked as he twirled him around like they were a bunch of kids playing.

Toru didn’t find it unpleasant so he played along, hanging from the bearshifter’s thick neck with both arms. “Are we going to eat yet? I’ll tell you what I think after that,” he said as Beast put him down, satisfied that Toru hadn’t berated him like his friend had. “I always judge people by how good the meat they serve is.”

“Only the prime cuts for our heroes,” Beast declared and began pulling Toru away.

“I want to beat you in an eating contest,” Toru stated while walking side by side with Beast.

“You do?” Beast seemed surprised. “You have no idea who you’re going against, boy.”

“Boy?” Toru looked stricken. “I’m a hero and I’m also magical.”

Beast laughed and patted him on the back. “And also a boy who thinks he can eat like a man.”

Toru grinned. He didn’t mind the challenge, and the victory would be all the sweeter when he would prove Beast wrong.

***

There was so much happiness around them that Varg found it difficult to believe what had happened only hours ago. The night was not yet over, and The Quiet Woods were a different place. This was the kind of thing Duril would have to write down in his tome in that small neat handwriting of his.

Claw pulled him aside after allowing the numerous dwellers of the forest to come and offer their gratitude and words of praise for his and his friends’ feat. Varg felt his neck starting to cramp from nodding and bowing politely so many times. Back in Whitekeep, he had been used to being a part of the town’s politics when the need arose, and the mayor had convinced him one too many times to preside over happy get-togethers, but even for someone as versed as he was in talking to others, the situation was starting to become a bit tiresome.

He couldn’t and wouldn’t complain, of course. These people could enjoy their new lives because of Toru, Duril, and him. Varg hadn’t ever been one for false modesty and he wouldn’t start now. So, he was a bit curious about what the big bear was up to when Claw saved him from the grateful crowd.

“What is it, flea bag?” Varg asked as soon as they were hidden from view by the trunk of a large tree. It was almost unfathomable to believe that a tree big enough to hide Claw existed, but here, in The Quiet Woods, everything was possible, it seemed.

Claw flicked his ear playfully and then pulled him into a warm hug. “Everybody keeps telling you ‘thank you’, forgetting that I should be the first to do that.”

Varg patted him on the back. “I’m happy we did what we did. We succeeded because of the magic that lives inside Toru, his kind heart, and his courage. And because Duril is such a great speaker to the trees, and now to the wind.”

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Claw caressed his hair in a tender gesture that made Varg shiver a little at how pleasant it felt. “Someone with a heart as big as the moon?”

Varg smiled. “I’m not forgetting.” He made a little show of pretending to punch Claw in his hard belly. “I saved you, flea bag.” To be at the receiving end of so much tenderness was new in a way for Varg. He didn’t know what to do with it, nor how to behave.

Claw moved him to rest his back against the tree and caressed his jawline. “Don’t you dare hide behind poorly chosen words, puppy.”

As grating as that nickname had felt at first, now Varg was happy with it. Compared to Claw, his impressive stature no longer appeared so impressive. It should have irked him to no end, but that wasn’t the case. Yes, under that sweet caress, he could rub his head against the rough hand and pretend to be a bit of a puppy still.

There was nothing sweet in how Claw kissed him. No, not one bit, because the kiss was ravenous, demanding, and Varg’s body responded enthusiastically. Claw was hard and hot against him, pressing him more and more, and making the blood rush to his groin.

“Don’t we have a celebration to attend?” he asked breathlessly when Claw allowed him to breathe at last.

“Unfortunately,” Claw admitted and quite shamelessly reached for Varg’s crotch. “Good, I won’t be the only one who’s going to pray for all this to end so that we can finally be where we want.”

“Aren’t you a sneaky one?” Varg scolded him and grabbed one of his ears. “I was fine and dandy before you put your hairy paws all over me.”

“Oh, you were fine and dandy?” Claw pursed his lips and wiggled his eyebrows in playful disbelief. “All the more reason for me to remedy the situation, then.”

Varg elbowed his friend in the ribs, not too hard, but not too easy either. “You are sneaky, indeed.” He stopped for a moment and then pulled Claw to him. “We’re tied together, you know that, right?”

Claw nodded solemnly. Varg was longing for him to say the words, to say that he would join them and walk the world until they found the root of the evil threatening Eawirith. Maybe he was trying to fool himself a little and make himself believe that it was only for the higher good that he wanted Claw to be part of their tribe, their pack. But that wouldn’t be the whole truth, as he was well aware of. He wanted Claw for himself, selfishly, without taking a break to look around and see that the bearshifter was at home, there, in the heart of the forest, surrounded by his kin, his people, his longtime friends. Was he so petty as to demand Claw to leave behind what mattered to him most in the world? The fight they were engaged in wasn’t Claw’s to fight. And Varg wanted to believe that he was strong and just enough to admit it and move on.

Claw couldn’t know what he was thinking. He wasn’t allowed to, either, despite what Varg wanted desperately to ask of him. “You’ve seen me at my best, Varg,” he said in a voice that was now devoid of all the playfulness from before. “And you’ve seen me at my worst, a broken man, incapable of protecting his own people like he should. You’ve seen more of me than anyone else I know.”

Varg nodded. Claw was about to add something more, but at that moment a strong bellow coming from the improvised camp interrupted them. “Varg! Claw! Where are you? I’m going to beat Beast at eating deer steak!” Toru shouted at them, although he couldn’t possibly see them, as hidden as they were behind that large tree. “And I’m not going to cheat and have any sauce!”

Claw laughed and shook his head. “We’ll talk some more. Now, we have the solemn duty of choosing a winner between these two fiends.”

Varg joined him and wrapped one arm around Claw’s waist. “Who do you bet on? Your friend Beast?”

“It is a tough choice, indeed,” Claw admitted. “I’ve come to know your Toru, too, and that kitty can eat anyone I know under the table when he puts his mind to it. But he’s going against the pride of The Quiet Woods, you know? And people here know a thing or two about eating until they drop.”

“Sounds like a real feast,” Varg said with a grin. “Let’s leave them to their naughty ways, and we’ll just eat like normal people.”

“Speak for yourself, puppy. After going hungry for centuries in that prison you saved me from, now I’m ready to eat a whole deer.”

Varg couldn’t argue with that. “Will you take a bet on that, too?”

“I will, why not?”

They both laughed as they headed over to Toru who waved happily at them as soon as he saw them.

***

The heat from the fire made their cheeks look ablaze. In the throng of unfamiliar faces, Duril read all that he needed to know. Everyone was happy to have been rescued from that terrible fate. He had yet to understand some of the things that had happened, and he knew that he had the right person to ask. While Toru and Beast began ripping the roasted meat from giant bones with unhidden delight, as the entire audience erupted into encouragements, cheers, and shouted wagers, he stepped a bit back and sat by Shearah’s side on the stump of an old tree. She had taken a small leaf and placed a small cup of what looked like soup on it and she was watching the happy reunion with eyes full of hope.

“I see that you decided to let Toru and Beast have all the meat,” he said as he gestured at what looked like a meager meal compared to the feast taking place only feet away from them.

Shearah laughed, her laughter like silver bells that caressed the ear. “I cannot eat any meat. I’m made that way,” she explained.

“You were made from fragments of wind,” Duril said. “Do you mind my sitting here with you?”

“How could I mind? I must admit that of everyone I know only Willow might be able to pretend that he has the same perfect manners that you do, master healer.”

Duril laughed at the compliment, a bit embarrassed. “I don’t know how much of a master I am.”

“You healed an entire forest,” Shearah said and gestured all around. “What else should I call you?”

“Duril is fine,” he offered.

Shearah laughed. “So modest. You want to ask me something, don’t you?”

“Yes. What gave me away?”

“That would be my secret,” Shearah replied in a coquettish manner that was in an accord with her appearance as a young woman. “Tell me, what is it that you want to know, Duril?”

Duril hesitated for a moment. Maybe Shearah the witch didn’t know what had happened to Shearah the wind spirit. However, asking about her wouldn’t hurt anyone. “The eagleshifters took Shearah with them,” he started. “But will she be fine?”

Shearah examined his face with her large luminous eyes. “You worry about someone who, as unwittingly as she did, almost brought this place to ruin.”

“Her heart was in the right place.”

“And her head in the wrong one,” Shearah added. “Mind and heart should be in accord, don’t you think?”

Duril nodded. That was something that reminded him of the words the eagleshifters had said, about how his heart was bigger than his wisdom.

“You don’t have to worry about her,” the witch said. “And before you find my words harsh, know that I’ve always loved her, and I always will. Sometimes, we cannot bring ourselves to agree with everything the people we love do, don’t you think so? But we continue to love them anyway.”

Duril pondered those words. He couldn’t think of one situation in which he would consider himself on the other side of the fence from those he loved.

Shearah patted his shoulder. “It’s all right. You don’t have to think too much about my words. Amarant might be partly to blame. Some of his old bark must have rubbed off on me. I’m a lot older than I look. Roots are bitter sometimes.”

“But fruits are sweet,” Duril added. “You,” he slowed down to choose the right words, “you are a bit angry at her, aren’t you?”

The witch nodded and her smile was sad. “I know they did the right thing, the eagleshifters, by taking her away. But that doesn’t mean that I won’t miss her, most of all people. They,” she gestured at the feast from which laughter and songs could be heard, “won’t remember her the way I always will.”

Duril took her hand and held it. “It must be the bravest thing to remember the people dearest to you, even if they’re not by your side anymore.”

Shearah wiped a tear discreetly. She laughed, a bit embarrassed at being seen in such a vulnerable state. “Is it brave to shed tears like a child with a scraped knee?”

Duril tightened his hold and made her look into his eyes. “It is,” he said with determination. “Because you don’t ever let go, and that’s the most important thing. And what you do, your mark on the world, continues and keeps their memory alive while you get nothing in return to ease your pain.”

Shearah smiled fondly. She blinked a few times to chase away the tears. “You lifted a burden off my heart, oros. It looks to me that you can heal more than forests and wounds of the flesh.”

“I’m honored by your words,” Duril said.

“Don’t you want to join them?” Shearah said, gesturing at the others with her chin.

“I’ll sit with you a little more. And you still didn’t tell me where the eagleshifters took Shearah.”

“Ah, that’s supposed to be a secret, but I can tell it to you. Come closer,” the witch said and gestured for him to lend his ear. “It’s the place where the wind gets born,” she whispered.

Duril felt her small hand pressing against his chest for a moment. When she pulled away, he noticed a silver flower on his leather vest, but then it disappeared and a small burning sensation on his skin in the exact same spot startled him. “What was that?” he asked.

Shearah smiled all-knowingly. “Didn’t you find the Silverlight a bit annoying?”

Duril looked around as if it was possible that the three eagleshifters might appear from the woods and chide them for behaving like a pair of gossiping schoolchildren. “Maybe a little,” he confessed.

“I bet they didn’t tell you how to ask the wind about what you need to know.”

“I think I managed to figure it out when the Vrannes found their home over Amarant’s roots,” Duril explained. He had not yet confessed to his friends, but it had been a feat to understand the wind at the time. For all that the Silverlight told him about how he could speak to the wind, he feared that he was guessing more than actually hearing and understanding it when it chose to speak to him.

“You’ll hear it loud and clear now,” Shearah said. “You’ll see the flower on your chest later.” Duril touched the place where the symbol had been, but nothing felt different now that the burning sensation was gone.

“You gave me something. Like Lady Amethyst in Fairside.”

Shearah nodded. “Now you’re a full-fledged speaker to the wind, too, talker to the trees.”

“Thank you. That’s an amazing gift. Can you tell me more stories about this place? I’d rather not be present when Toru and Beast start fighting all that roasted deer when it threatens to climb up their throat the way it went down.”

Shearah laughed. “Why? Aren’t you a master healer?”

“Yes, but I know Toru. He’ll be embarrassed, and I will treat him later when there’s no one else around to see how much he likes to be babied.”

“You are one very considerate friend. But you’re more than that, aren’t you?” Shearah searched his face, looking for something.

They had no reason to hide from anyone who and what they were. He nodded and smiled. “They are the most important people in the world to me right now, and I will never leave them,” he said solemnly.

As if Toru was capable of hearing him where he stood, he suddenly jumped to his feet from his place and began waving at him. “Duril, Duril,” he shouted, “I won, I won! Come kiss me!”

Shearah laughed gently. “There is no doubt,” she said. “Go kiss your champion, master healer. He looks like he cannot stand a second without you by his side.”

Duril stood and bowed slightly. “It was a pleasure to get to know you and the rest of The Quiet Woods, Shearah. You are worthy of her name.”

She waved at him, encouraging him to hurry to the feast, and her luminous eyes no longer appeared as hurt as they had earlier that night. Maybe there was a bit of truth to be found in that, too. Words could heal and reach deeper than any poultice or bitter concoction meant to mend a wound.

***

They had slept well into the afternoon, and Toru shifted from one side to the other a couple of times until he decided that he couldn’t sleep a wink longer. He noticed that he was the last one to get up and looked over at the small clearing in which people were already busy preparing lunch or a late breakfast. Duril was among them, as well as Varg who seemed engaged in private conversation with Claw, as they sat in a circle with some of the other dwellers of the forest.

Cautiously, he sniffed his armpit and made a face. If he wanted Duril to kiss him properly, he needed to take a bath. He rose quietly and made for the river without making a fuss so that no one else would notice him before he made himself presentable enough for his friends’ company.

The cold water of the river made him shiver at first, but he quickly found the sensation turning pleasurable as the last fragments of sleep were chased from his eyes. He made all sorts of sounds as he cleaned his face and his body, his very few clothes abandoned on the bank of the river.

Just as he was about to get out, he heard something. Someone was having fun, he thought, as hushed whispers and laughter that seemed difficult to contain reached his ears. Curious about who it was, he waded through the water until the river turned, hiding the next bend behind a curtain of thick rushes.

Toru rested his arm on a low hanging branch while leaning forward. His eyes grew wide when he saw who it was, but that didn’t stop him from continuing to watch, anyway. Beast and Willow were there, close to the shore, in a part of the river where the water ran low, just as naked as he was, and they seemed to be having, indeed, a lot of fun. Beast’s hairy paws were caressing Willow down his back, finding an intimate hold on a pair of perfectly shaped buttocks.

Toru felt his manhood stir at the sight. Willow threw his head back, causing his long hair to fall away from his shoulders and allowing Beast to nuzzle his neck. But then, to his surprise, after the two shifters shared a passionate kiss, it was Beast who turned and allowed Willow to caress his back and then take him from behind.

That made him think of how he had seen Varg being possessed in the same way by Claw and made to cry out in pleasure. Ever since that time, he had wanted that, to find a strong body under him and make its owner bend and abandon himself to him. But no, not just anybody, Toru thought, but his friend and lover who always seemed so in control, so strong and collected.

The branch breaking in his fist took him by surprise. The sound also startled the two lovers who turned their heads in his direction. He waved at them, knowing that running away wouldn’t do him any good.

Willow laughed, to his relief. “Toru,” he said and there was a naughty glint in his eyes that reminded him of Claw. “What are you doing over there, you little peeper?”

Toru let his eyes slide to Beast for a moment, but the other bear just smirked at him. All the while, the two didn’t pull away from each other. Willow even continued to move his hips slightly, going in and out of his lover and making Beast push his butt higher to allow him easy access.

“Sorry,” he offered but didn’t move away. It felt like so long since he had made love and the lower part of his body seemed to have a mind of its own, springing up at seeing two wonderful people going at it.

Willow grinned and his all-knowing smirk told Toru that whatever his body felt, it was quite obvious. He looked down to see his manhood peeking out from underneath the water.

“I believe something needs a bit of attention,” Willow commented while eyeing him shamelessly.

Toru felt his want grow at the provocation.

Willow’s eyes lit up. “And it looks like you’re about to receive it,” he added.

Toru had been so engrossed with the scene in front of his eyes that his ears must have failed him. A strong hand squeezed his shoulder, taking him by surprise. “What are you doing, kitty? Are you trying to steal my friends?”

Claw’s sonorous voice made him turn his head fast. He wanted to protest but other strong arms wrapped around him from behind. Varg nuzzled his ear. “You were gone a bit too long. Duril started to miss you.”

Toru’s eyes grew wide when he saw that the healer was there with them. “Is the food ready?” he mumbled.

“Didn’t you eat your fill last night?” Varg scolded him playfully. Then, without shame, he reached for Toru’s manhood, running a finger up and down its sturdy length. “It looks like if we leave you unattended, you have no qualms about searching for love in other places.”

“I wasn’t,” he protested, but only feebly because Varg wrapped one hand around Toru’s hardness and began stroking it.

“Don’t scold our hero,” Willow said. “And why don’t you all step out of that shadow and come here, into the sun, where we can look at you properly?”

Toru had no problem with that but only if Varg let him breathe a little. And Claw, who leaned over and stole a kiss from him. He watched in a daze as the bearshifter walked forward and then splashed water toward Willow and Beast. Willow laughed, but Beast growled. “If you’re not here to make love, too, go away,” Beast warned them, but his tone wasn’t entirely serious, either.

“Can we do it?” he whispered. “With them watching?”

Varg chuckled in his ear while continuing to stroke him. “We’re watching them and they don’t seem to mind. Look at Beast, bending over so nicely for Willow.” The wolfshifter’s whisper was hot in his ear, pouring sweet dark honey in his veins.

“And he looks so strong, too,” he expressed his wonder.

Duril laughed and moved to face him. The healer cupped his cheek with his hand and kissed him. “I heard Varg saying something about how you don’t think I’m strong.”

“That’s not true,” Toru denied, but his words came out strangled as Varg increased the pace of his strokes.

Duril shook his head in mirth. “I don’t mind, but maybe you want someone stronger?”

He wasn’t allowed to say a word because Duril caught his lips in another searing kiss. Toru wanted to tell him that no, he didn’t want anyone else, but that would have been a lie, and there were no lies between them.

They didn’t have to push him any further. He understood as much, Duril expected him to do something, Varg just continued to tease him, now moving his hand slower.

“I want to have Varg,” he murmured when Duril finally allowed him to breathe.

Both his friends chuckled. “Then why don’t you do something about that?” the wolfshifter prodded him.

“But what about Duril?” Toru whispered.

“Hmm,” Varg purred in his ear, “how about allowing him to have a little bit of fun, as well?”

“What do you mean?” Toru asked.

“Just look.”

Toru followed Varg’s gesture and then he noticed Claw looking at them with hunger in his eyes. “Do you want him, Duril?” he asked, his voice deep and low. “Do you want the big strong bear?”

“Only if you let me,” Duril said softly and caressed his face. “No other way.”

“Then go and make him love you,” Toru said. Only days before, he would have never dreamed of thinking such a thing, let alone saying it.

They all wanted Claw with them, Toru realized. Even if the bear looked like he was a king among his people, even if this was his home and maybe, just maybe, he was tired of adventuring. No one was ever tired of that, he argued in his mind. And Duril, sweet Duril, could surely convince him to come along.

“Are you really sure?” Duril asked him.

Toru looked into the warm eyes he knew and loved so much. He was the one to plant his lips firmly on the other’s. “Yes. Show him what he’s going to miss if he doesn’t come with us.”

“Sneaky,” Varg purred in his ear.

“Duril can do it,” Toru replied.

The healer laughed and moved away, walking toward Claw with purpose. Willow and Beast had resumed their lovemaking like it was a natural thing, and Toru’s hungry eyes were filled with the sight of their passion. Soon, he didn’t know where to look. Duril took Claw by the hand and kissed him, while the bearshifter began to caress his chest and belly, going lower.

But that wasn’t the most maddening thing. Varg dragged him into the light and moved to stand in the same way Beast stood as the stocky bear presented his butt to Willow. Toru’s whole attention was trained on the wolfshifter’s arched back and his strong buttocks.

With newfound courage, he grabbed the two mounds of hard flesh and pushed them apart. That earned him a short, hitched breath from Varg right away, as well as a whistle of admiration from Willow.

He used his fingers to enter the enticing hole presenting itself, and the appreciative moan coming from his lover assured him that he was on the right path. As much as he had enjoyed watching Claw possessing Varg with a lover’s passion, he worried a little that he might fall short.

But not for long. Varg looked at him over his shoulder, enticing him, his dark eyes glowing with heat. “Do you think you have what it takes, kitty?” he challenged him. “Or do you need some help?”

“I don’t need any help,” Toru replied and pushed suddenly inside that strong body, startling a small, surprised yelp from Varg.

The wolfshifter should know better than to provoke him like that, he thought with a smile, as his manhood twitched happily inside that warm, strong body.

TBC

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