Dao Divinity 2 Chapter 27 (Patreon)

“You three look ragged.” Sasha eyed Dar’s clothes, which now had a few new holes in them, thanks to Amber and Marcie.

“It was for a good cause, I swear.” Dar gave her a quick kiss before taking a seat in their dinner circle.

Sasha looked unamused. “Great. I can’t wait to hear it.”

The rest of the girls were already there, watching the two of them.

“Marcie, Amber, and I were training in the forest. We focused less on our dao and more on our enhanced bodies.” Dar smiled and looked at the rest of them. “I think it should become a family training session every night before dinner.”

Shifting his focus, Dar looked at Mika specifically. “I was wondering if you ever had any formal training? From your time in the tribes?”

Mika paused, seeming unsure of her answer. “I’ve been trained, but it’s nothing like what they teach in Kindrake. It’s a little more savage, less straight formations and formality.”

Shrugging, Dar didn’t care what it looked like. It might even be better if they had a unique style that others hadn’t trained to fight against. “That’s fine. Would you be willing to run us through some of the training routines you used to do tomorrow?”

Amelia cleared her throat. “After we get back from the ocean. And am I invited?”

“Of course.” Dar paused. “To both of those. We’ll do it after you get back, and you are welcome to join us. I trust you to help keep our secrets.”

The salt spirit smiled and went back to her meal.

“Excuse us.” Amber bowed and stood, pulling Marcie along with her to the central hearth.

“Why are we learning to fight?” Cherry asked.

Dar nodded towards the two girls walking away. “They actually fought very well today. If I didn’t have my enchantments, they could have taken me. Given we expect trouble in the future, I realized that we should all hone our skills so that we can best handle any situation. Brute force won’t always be what is needed in the situation, and so far, it has been my go to.”

Sasha wrinkled her nose in distaste, but her answer contradicted her face. “That makes sense. I don’t want to be anywhere near the ettercaps or a human soldier. Even though I don’t want to fight, I don’t think I’ll have that luxury next to you Dar. I’ll join you in training.”

“Neko?” The cat girl pointed to herself.

“Of course. But no claws.”

She nodded firmly to herself, flexing her hands with a slightly worried look. Dar did not get the feeling that she was truly confident she wouldn’t end up trying to use them in a fight. He decided he should spar with her first, his hard dao ready, in case she slipped up the first few times.

Neko sat there for a moment, extending and retracting her dao of sharp around her fingers. Nodding to herself when she’d held it back.

Marcie walked up then, coming back with a bowl of stew and handing it to Dar. As he went to eat it, Dar realized it really wasn’t much of a stew; most of the dish was filled with meat. “They really wanted to use up this bison, didn’t they?”

He took a bite; it was gamey but tender. He knew wild kills were hard meat to work with, so he was happy with the surprisingly tasty dish.

Song emerged over by the fire, and Dar looked over to see Russ danced around the flames with the bison bull’s head on his shoulder. He was doing a small jig, swinging around while his women clapped on from the sides to the beat of the music.

Spotting Dar watching him, Russ broke away from his dance and came over to their circle. “Like the meat?” He had a wide grin across his face.

“Very good. Thank you, Russ. The entire village is eating well tonight thanks to your efforts.” Dar gave the demon the accolades he wanted.

And the gnoll couldn’t have grinned wider at the praise. “Thank you. There’s plenty more where that came from!” Then he danced away with the bull head to the next group.

A thought flickered through Dar’s mind, and he quickly looked around, trying to find Lou in the crowd. Lou could easily object to Russ dancing around with a bison head, and Dar wanted to cut off any tension quickly. But when he spotted the minotaur, Lou was sitting with Mer, eating the stew, seemingly happy. They were caught up in some discussion that had Mer giggling and nudging Lou in return.

Relaxing, Dar went back to enjoying his food. “Russ seems happy.” Dar commented to the girls.

“He found his place.” Sasha pointed out. “I think after everything with the ettercaps, he’s figured out where he stands in the pecking order. So, now he’s focused on doing his role the best he can, including bringing back a bounty of food.”

“As long as he’s happy. I haven’t seen him smile this much before. I’m glad he has a sense of purpose now.” A smile touched Dar’s lips as he looked around the circle at the lovely ladies that made up his home. They were with him one hundred percent, and he loved them for it.

Glancing around the circle again, Dar’s eyes caught on Marcie. She didn’t seem quite as pleased as the others; her face was filled with confusion more than anything.

Clearing his throat, Dar asked, “Marcie, mind helping me with something?”

He had noticed there was something on her mind before when they were training, but she’d never spoken up. Maybe one on one she’d be more willing to open up.

“Sure.” She jumped to her feet and handed her bowl off to Amber.

Sasha gave him a questioning look, but he waved to her that he had it under control and walked away with Marcie.

“Milord, where are we going?”

“Just for a walk to talk.” Dar answered, and then decided to be direct. “I noticed you had something on your mind earlier and then again tonight at dinner. I wanted to get you alone and see if you wanted to talk about it?”

“Oh.” She drew up short. “I—uh. I’m confused.”

Dar waited, giving her his attention as they kept walking, letting her set the pace. He couldn’t help until she figured out how to put what she felt into words.

“You see, after the other morning, I’m not sure how to feel.”

“About when you woke me up?” Dar clarified.

She nodded, some of her hair falling in front of her face. “Amber gushes about how it feels to make you cum with her mouth. She acts like it’s the best thing ever.”

Dar nodded. Amber had certainly been eager and seemed to enjoy himself, so he wasn’t surprised, although it was always nice to hear. “But for you?”

Marcie paused before responding. “It wasn’t bad, but it was weird. And, when I went deep, it got a bit uncomfortable. Maybe I’m just no good.”

Dar paused, pulling her chin up to face him. “You don’t have to feel the same, Marcie. I have no expectations. There are other things we can explore when you are ready.”

Her cheeks grew rosy at his comment, and she quickly responded, “I don’t mean to say never again. I liked it; I did! It just, it wasn’t as I expected. I think I’d just always thought it would taste like… the dao fruit… based on how everybody talks.” 

Dar laughed. “Well, I wouldn’t know, but it seems hard to compete with dao fruit.” Turning more serious, he added, “I’m sorry it wasn’t what you’d imagined. We’ll have to play more to find the things you enjoy most. What’s it like with you and Amber?”

“Lovely.” Marcie blushed and looked towards him.

Dar had seen enough to know the two women were very close. He wasn’t surprised that they also enjoyed each other. “What do you like?”

Thinking for a moment, Marcie replied, “Amber sweeps me up and pins me down until I beg her for release. Even then, she just does with me as she wants. It’s very… possessive.”

Dar nodded, everything becoming clearer for him. “She takes the lead? Pushes you down, aggressively pleasures you, and doesn’t take no for an answer till you pop?” That sounded exactly like Amber, and he suddenly realized that Marcie might have been taking tips from a girl who enjoyed the opposite role that she did.

“Yes.” She ducked her head.

“And was waking me up with a blowjob her idea?” Dar asked.

Marcie seemed to realize he was onto something. “Yes. That’s what she said was so amazing.”

He smirked. “Marcie, sex isn’t the same for everyone. People like different things. What makes it like a sunrise for the first time for Amber isn’t the same for you. Actually, it sounds like it might be just the opposite.”

The maid made a silent O with her mouth before coming back to herself. “Then what would make a sunrise for me?”

Dar considered it, coming up with an idea. “How about this. I’ll give you a teaser of what I’m thinking, and you can try it with Amber. If you like that, then I think we have a lot of new things to explore.”

“Okay.” A flicker of excitement danced in her eyes.

Dar continued. “Ask her to tie your hands behind your back. And ask Sasha if she can’t make you a small silk rope, so it isn’t uncomfortable.”

Marcie looked confused, but there was an interest as well. “Okay. I… I think I will.”

“Just try it. If you like that, I have more ideas.”

“Thank you.” Marcie blushed, looking away.

Dar turned her to face him once more. “No, thank you for confiding in me. I know this isn’t an easy topic to talk about.”

“En.” She nodded with a small noise of approval.

With that, they turned and walked quietly back to the circle. As soon as they approached, Amber grabbed Marcie’s arm, dragging her off. Dar had no doubt Amber wanted debriefed about what they’d talked about. He hoped she’d be open to helping Marcie try it out.

Pivoting his attention to the leader’s circle, it looked like they were already kicking off their discussion. Dar went over to join them.

“Evening folks. I hope you all enjoyed Russ’ bison. I found it super satisfying.” Dar tried to give Russ the recognition he seemed to crave.

Mindy wasn’t far behind him and gave Dar a winsome smile and thumbs up.

Russ puffed his chest out a little more. “If those bison are still here, that means they might be weathering the winter in that field. We’ll have easy meat all winter.”

“It’ll get harder to cross the river, but I’m sure we’ll find a solution. It’s a big step towards food security for the winter for sure.” Dar agreed. “How are the crops Cherry?”

“We’re filling the new containers. Now that we’ve decided the smaller cave is for food, we are moving everything in there. We’ve started plowing out a third field, in case we have a few more weeks before the weather turns.”

Samantha spoke up. “I don’t think we have that long. I can feel winter coming. But I’ll be right there with you, hoping for it. How about the homes?”

Dar looked to Bart for that update.

“The ladies are making bundles for thatching out of the stalks of the crops. They won’t be perfect, and we’ll probably need to replace anything we use for walls next summer, but they’ll hold for the winter. Wood is coming in, but there’s no way we’ll be able to make enough planks in time to cover the houses.”

“Are we good on the material for the thatch?” Dar asked.

“Reeds and grass would be better, but the girls promise me that the corn husks can work in a pinch. There’s apparently a big pile of them they were going to burn, so they were already bundling those for roofing material. We’ll have to thatch the walls too, but thankfully we only have half a wall to thatch.” Bart gave Dar a big grin.

Dar noticed that the old blacksmith looked a touch more youthful, and gave him a bigger smile. Most people would likely assume it was just that he was more excited and that was causing less stress on his face, but Dar could tell that he’d been successful at working with Amber.

Dar looked around at the rest of the participants before focusing on the task that he was most concerned with. “So. Ettercaps. Rex, anything to report?”

“Nothing from the forest. We are still running double shifts, but the girls are getting worn thin. I was going to ask if we couldn’t relax things a bit.” The avian demon’s expression was impossible for Dar to read, but based on his voice, he had some genuine concern about the girls getting burned out.

Dar wished he could agree, but it was still too risky. “I don’t think we can do that. Instead, how about we bring a few more people under you, Rex? Give your girls a break at least.”

The entire group nodded at that, and Sam spoke up. “We have enough meat for a week easily. Russ, could you and your girls help give Rex a break?”

The gnoll looked crestfallen that he was about to lose his hunting time, so Dar jumped in.

“Not permanently. Just mix in with Rex’s people for a couple days and let his people cycle out for some much needed rest. You’ll be back to hunting bison in no time.”

Hearing that, Russ nodded. “I suppose we make the most sense, with our skill set being the closest to the guard. But, I don’t always want to do this.”

“Agreed. That brings us to the next point. We need to start focusing on a solution for the ettercaps.” Dar looked around the group. “Sam, how’s training going with your husband?”

The old lady smiled. “Great. He says the demons are some of the best soldiers he’s worked with, and that’s not just cotton to stuff between your ears. I can tell by how happy he is that it must be going well.”

Dar looked to Rex, who seemed to agree. “Great, I was thinking if the ettercaps slow down in the winter, we look at starting to strike into the forest on the first snowfall.”

“Get them while they are slow?” Glump clarified.

“Something like that.” Dar had a few other plans in his head. It involved mastering the dao of combustion and coaching Amber and Marcie through the same exercise. They’d make up a solid group capable of destroying the webs.

“This is going to be an effort for the full village. Even if we can’t kill them all, we have to push them back into the forest. Do we see any during the patrols?”

Rex nodded slowly. “Yes, and it’s gotten worse. They have been active in the southern woods the last two days. It isn’t like before, where they seemed to come into the woods to attack. They are actively living and hunting in those woods now.”

The rest of the group tensed at that news.

“Why is this the first time we are hearing this?” Sam demanded.

Rex held up a hand to forestall her. “One day was an anomaly. Today was the second day, and I’m reporting it. I am also worried, but there was no point in alarming everyone if they were just agitated yesterday and retreated today.”

However, Dar was very concerned. Animals moved like that for one reason. “They are hungry, and it sounds like they are running out of food deeper in the forest.”

“You’re worried that might get them to leave the forest?” Glump asked.

“Best motivator there is for a predator like those ettercaps. If they get hungry enough, I doubt that the edge of the woods is going to be a deterrent.”

The group went quiet at that, each of them stewing on their own issue.

“Should we start the palisade again?” Bart offered.

Dar shook his head. “I doubt that will do much to stop these guys. They’d just scale right over it and make some nice webs that completely make a wall useless. They climb into the trees, no problem. Let’s continue to monitor and make sure we continue to show a strong force. I want to look like it would be a lot of work to get food from us.”

“I could lead a party to harass them?” Russ offered, and Dar suspected he wanted to get out of guard duty for that.

“That might not be a bad idea, but let’s get everyone training with a weapon and give Rex’s people a rest so they can help you with that. The last thing we need is to lose anyone. Let’s not give the ettercaps a taste for humans and ancients.”

Russ deflated, still clearly frustrated at being stuck on guard duty. But it was the right thing for the village. If ettercaps were getting more active, it was the most important time for the guard to be alert when they were on watch.

And it also meant Dar was running out of time to remove them as a threat.