Dao 3 Chapter 4 (Patreon)

Dar settled into bed with his dao companions curled up around him. He paused, enjoying the moment in their new home. Sasha’s scent wafted over to him, and he breathed it in, relaxing into the bed she’d softened.

Drifting off, Dar let his mind descend down into his subconscious and his inner world.

Cherry was there already waiting for him, her boundless excitement for the little dao tree always keeping her attached to the space. Sasha had also joined him before in the inner world, but she needed her rest. The fight with the ettercaps had completely worn her out.

“Look at it!” Cherry bounced in front of him the moment he opened his eyes in his inner world. He wondered how she’d even reached him so quickly from wherever she’d been in the inner world.

He looked around slowly, trying to find what she was referencing. Cherry grabbed his face, clearly not willing to let him waste a moment before seeing whatever she was excited about.

She pointed him towards where the little dao tree should have been.

There, in the circle of loose dirt, was still a tree, but he almost didn’t recognize it. The little dao tree wasn’t very little anymore. It had grown significantly, and now black veins ran through it. They had grafted on part of Cherry’s old cherry tree and it was in full bloom with pink blossoms, while the branches that emanated from the black vein in the tree had pitch black leaves.

Dar moved forward, placing a hand on the rough bark. He closed his eyes, feeling how it connected to him and his dao.

The tree pulsed with life and power. More than ever before. There was some sort of new power that was just out of his reach; the little dao tree had taken on the aspects from the Mo it had absorbed.

“This is… incredible.” Dar gasped.

“I know.” Cherry beamed up at him with wide, just a tad crazy eyes. “Can you feel the dao it has aligned with?”

“Yes. It feels like a dao I’ve already tried to study, but so large.” It was faint, like something at the tip of his tongue. He could feel a path to a dao far above those he had studied. “Maybe I should go hunting more Mo.”

“Dar, the Mo had a celestial dao, or possibly something beyond even that. It was heavily weakened by the seal. If it hadn’t been, we wouldn’t have stood a chance.” Cherry spoke in a hushed whisper. “We got lucky.”

The chill that went down his spine had nothing to do with the weather. “I know. None of us expected something that powerful to be there.”

“There’s more.” Cherry pushed. “What if there are others coming free of their seal? Lilith left this world, and the Mo was only the first we’ve found that was breaking free from her seal. There are likely others, others that might be weak enough for the little tree to absorb.”

“You want me to go after them?” Dar realized. “We could be wrong and not go after one that’s weaker. We could easily walk into something way out of our league.”

The petite dryad wasn’t backing down that easily. “You have people who could scout. You can get support from multiple skilled spirits and demons.” Cherry gave him an impatient look.

Dar sighed, running his hand through his hair as he just stared at the newly improved dao tree. He sat down next to it.

Things were just settling down. He’d enjoyed the thought of burrowing in for the winter, working on some small projects. He was planning to exercise his new technique and learn some more dao to get stronger.

But Cherry had a point. He’d be able to progress much faster if he went hunting. He could already feel that his dao was going to take leaps from the changes to the little dao tree.

Cherry came and sat next to him. “Lilith didn’t give her life for you to hide, Dar. You are the Black Knight. You are meant to protect this world from the devils. Get out there and find the weakened Mo, kill them.”

A punch to the gut. She had to bring up Lilith’s sacrifice.

Dar leaned into her, knowing she was right. He’d expanded his path to include building his village and a population of other immortals, but his original path was still there. Devils were attacking the villages in increasing numbers. With Lilith gone, they were either breaking free or just less scared. They would only continue to become more bold and expand, like the ettercaps.

“Okay. So let’s say we go after them. How do we locate them?” Dar asked Cherry.

“Well, we found this one by backtracking the ettercaps. Maybe the sudden increase in gremlins and trolls attacking Bellhaven has a similar root cause? We could follow some back to where they are coming from, they are rather stupid.” Cherry offered.

It made perfect sense to Dar. “Add it to the list of things to do when we venture to Bellhaven with The White’s emissary. I assume you’ll be coming with me to Bellhaven?”

“I sure as shit won’t be coming alongside you. In case you forgot, they likely haven’t forgotten my face after what happened.”

He winced. She was right. After Mark had her tree set on fire, Cherry had lost it and nearly killed the nobility of Bellhaven. “So, you’ll ride along in here?”

“Yes. And I’ll be bored, so get me all the seeds you can. That way I can keep busy taking care of trees. Otherwise, I’ll just be feeding the little dao tree.” She gestured to the side, where a massive mound of ettercap and spider corpses were lying, still needing to be processed.

“That’ll be a lot of fruit.” Dar sized them up. “I think that might even be enough to help the whole village along in a transformation into immortals.”

The pile was like a treasure trove. He stared at it and then looked back at his dao tree. “Guess I can’t call it the little dao tree anymore, can I?”

“You still can.” Cherry walked around it and pulled down one of the dark limbs. “But you need to see this.”

Dar walked around to join her. In her hand hung a cluster of small fruits so dark red that they were nearly black. It wasn’t hard to guess what those were; they were from the Mo it had absorbed. Each small fruit rippled with unknown power.

“Any clue what dao those are?” He asked.

“Not a clue, but there are a few new types of fruits started growing on it. I’m unsure if they are all from the Mo or if the tree’s evolution has changed the variety we are getting. Although, it could also be that there are just so many of these ettercaps that we are getting some new ones.”

Dar plucked one of the new fruits off the branch, rolling it in his hands. “One way to find out.” Cherry turned to say something, but stopped as Dar grabbed and bit into the juicy fruit. Immediately, he could feel the new dao seeping into him. He ate the fruit in a few bites.

Dar waited, wondering what would change. But as he stood there, the shadows cast by the little dao tree drew his attention. Brow furrowing, he realized that he felt connected to the dimness in that space. He smiled, knowing what dao he’d consumed then. “Dao of dim.” He let out a soft whistle. “We won’t be giving these to anyone outside the family.”

“Why?” Cherry asked, confused.

“Because, if you put quiet and dim together, you start to get to some very interesting things that have a reputation for being quite deadly.” As much as Dar trusted the villagers, he did have to be careful. He’d given them the quiet dao because it could easily help protect them without being too dangerous. Dim led to shadows and darkness which had other connotations.

Although he was excited to try it out for himself.

“We are just going to leave them there?” Cherry asked.

“You are free to have one. And we’ll share them with the others as well. Amber and Marcie will love it. No doubt they’ll start trying to train to use it immediately.” Dar plucked a few fruits and set them aside for the morning. “What else do we have?”

“More of the fruits with the sticky dao.” Cherry pointed them out, and Dar ate one of those as well. He didn’t see a use for it now, but maybe one of these days he’d like to scale a vertical wall like a superhero.

Together, they looked through the tree, searching for others, but there were no other fully formed fruits. Dar was curious to see if the ones that were still growing would mature with the rest of the corpses.

He looked at the pile. It was a lot of work to bury all of those. Even though Cherry was going to stay in his inner world for a while, he didn’t want to leave her with the literal mound of work.

So instead, the two of them spent the rest of the night dumping the bodies into the soft soil around the little dao tree and letting it absorb them.

Cherry’s excitement hadn’t lessened, and with it, her sex drive seemed to increase. There were more than a few times they took breaks in their work to enjoy each other. During one break, when Dar pressed Cherry’s back up against the tree to take her, she’d nearly lost her mind.

***

“Alright, I think it’s about time for me to get up.” Dar patted Cherry’s apple red ass. She’d wanted it rough.

“Go ahead. I think I’m going to avoid meeting Karn for now.” She lay down in the fledgling grove of apple trees they had started the previous week.

Dar realized that her history as a dao companion with one of the oldest demons might make her recognizable. If she didn’t want to meet Karn, that was fine by him.

Rolling over and giving her a peck on the cheek, he left his inner world and settled back into reality on his bed.

Sasha was there on her side, watching him sleep. “Morning.” Her hand trailed soft touches along his chest.

“Morning.” He grumbled, his body protesting his first movements. He was still sore from fighting his way through the army of devils. “Did I miss anything?”

“No. Amber and Marcie took turns keeping an eye on our visitor. He’s still asleep in our old hut.”

Dar gave a grunt of affirmation and pulled out one of the fruits of dim for her. “New fruit.”

“Wonderful.” She took it, a gleam in her eyes. When her face turned to him, sincerity shone in it. “I want you to know that I appreciate this. What you are giving me is priceless.”

Dar shrugged. He didn’t want to make a big deal of it. “You gave yourself to me, and I think that’s worth far more.” He claimed her lips for a proper morning kiss, pressing her back to the bed as the fruit rolled out of her hand, forgotten. “But, I do need to get going.”

Even as he said that, her leg rubbed up against his thigh.

He groaned. It was tempting, but he’d have to make it up to her later. “I need to get going.”

Sasha let up with an understanding smile. “The girls brought in breakfast too.”

Dar got dressed and padded out into the open area. Amber stood in the kitchen, stirring a pot over the enchanted stove he’d designed. It had taken him a few tries, but he’d figured it out.

“This thing is incredible.” She gushed; she kept looking down at the stone surface as the air rippled above it.

“Glad you like it. Just be sure to turn it off when you are done.” He walked over to her. “Also, here’s a gift.” He held out another of the fruits.

Amber didn’t ask any questions; she just picked it up and stuffed it in her mouth. “If ood.” She tried to talk with her mouth full. And then her eyes lit up as she swallowed, looking around the room. She licked her lips and smiled. “Dim, I wonder if I can ambush you better next time with this.”

“I figured you and Marcie would enjoy this one.”

“Yes, Milord.” She bobbed her head. “May I take Marcie’s to her?”

“Has she been a good girl?” Dar asked, holding out the second fruit.

Amber gave him a wicked smile. “Yes. Thank you for the advice the other day.”

“Just don’t let it get out of hand.”

Amber took the fruit and gave him a small curtsy. “I’m just training her for you, Milord.” Amber’s voice dropped down to a low whisper.

As long as the two of them were consenting and enjoyed the play, Dar was perfectly okay with whatever story they built around it. It wasn’t surprising to him that Marcie was submissive in bed, nor that Amber was dominant in their relationship.

“Go on, give her a reward.” Dar shooed Amber away and gave himself a serving of what she’d been preparing on the stove.

“You spoil them both.” Sasha said, walking out of the bedroom.

“If they were lazy, I wouldn’t dote on them as much. But every time I do something, they only work harder.” Dar took his bowl and sat down at the table.

He frowned. Having not used the table before, he was now realizing how cold and homely a stone table and chair could be.

This was something he should replace with wood. They just didn’t have the spare materials lying around for something like that at the moment.

As if his presence at the table summoned them, Neko and Blair wandered out of their rooms. They followed Dar’s lead, grabbing food and a place at the table. Mika wasn’t far behind, reentering the cave. “Morning.”

“You rose early.” Dar commented. He’d missed his lovely wave spirit when he’d opened his eyes.

“Russ wanted to cross the river early in the morning to hunt at the crack of dawn. And you slept in today.” She pointed out.

Dar looked around, but realized his sense of time was lost in the cave. There was nothing to reference. He’d have to figure out a way to resolve that in the future.

“Everyone deserves a good rest after yesterday. But, I’m glad to hear Russ went out early in the morning. He needs to keep burning off all that excitement he has.”

The table chuckled, clearly in agreement.

Dar laid down a fruit in front of each of them. “Dim.” He only said the one word, but that was apparently more than they needed. They each grabbed a fruit and eagerly ate it.

Well, everybody except Neko grabbed a fruit. She smacked it back and forth between her hands, like a cat playing with a ball.

“Don’t you want more dao?” Dar was surprised the jaguar demon hadn’t immediately eaten it.

“I will eat it, eventually.” Neko rolled her eyes. “Just fun.”

Dar pulled a lump of granite from the floor, shaping it into a hollow ball with a few round pebbles inside to make some noise. “Knock yourself out.”

Neko gave it a tentative tap, her face skeptical. But when it made noise as it rolled, she popped the fruit into her mouth distractedly and played with the ball, batting it around.

“You had to give her something that made noise, didn’t you?” Blair narrowed her eyes at Dar while Neko made a racket with the new toy.

“I’m not dumb. You try. You’ll understand.” Neko held the ball out to Blair, who sighed and put it on the table, hitting it back and forth between her own hands for a moment.

“Sorry, not my style. There are other things I’d like to play with to keep my hands busy.” She fixed Dar with a lustful stare, only to be smacked in the back of the head by Miki. “Ouch.”

“You told me to.” Mika responded, shrugging and ignoring Blair’s glare.

Blair rubbed the back of her head. “I know, but did you have to hit so hard?”

“Only way you’ll learn. And I keep my promises.” Mika gave a proud smile.

Dar ignored them, focusing on his food. Although he hadn’t realized, Blair had asked Mika to help her tame down her intense flirtiness. It was sweet that she’d taken to heart their discussion and his ask that she not be quite so forward and instead let them build their relationship naturally.

As he thought about Blair, he remembered something he had meant to ask her a while ago.

“Hey, Blair, think you could do me a favor and show me your bright rune?” Dar pulled Sasha’s booklet out of his inner world. He’d added his own dao characters to it. And he intended to add the rest of his companion’s to it as well.

Blair’s eyes bugged out as he flipped through the booklet containing numerous dao characters. “Who’s all are in there?”

“Sasha’s, and then I started putting mine, and Cherry has added hers.”

“Mika?” Blair asked with a strange expression.

“Not yet.”

Blair snatched it out of his hand and scrambled for a quill and ink. Then she started jotting down all of her dao characters.

Dar looked to Mika for an explanation.

The wave spirit only gave him a wink and a nod that it was okay. Apparently, Blair adding her dao characters to his booklet had significance that he wasn’t aware of.

But then he realized that typically only dao companions share their dao with each other. This in her eyes must be an affirmation of her place in his family.

And that was fine. She fit in with their family, and he’d already given her a place in their home. Although his emotions for her were still rather shallow, he planned to make an effort to explore if there was something more.

He’d already promised her a date when he got back, and he was excited about it. It would help him firm up if there was something deeper there.

Blair finished jotting her dao into the book quickly, then flipped the page and continued until she had added every dao she knew. “Here you go.”

“Hold up. Help me figure out which is which. I want to label yours.” Dar opened the booklet to the first page she had been drawing in so she could label the dao she added.

“Bright, like you asked.” Blair pointed in the book.

Dar marked it and went through the rest of them with her, marking each page and then sucking the booklet back into his inner world. “It’s safe there. No one will get your understanding of dao without first taking my life.”

“Not sure if that’s as reassuring as you meant it to be.” Mika said dryly.

Shrugging, Dar focused back on his meal, chowing down and finishing up the grit-like porridge that they favored in the village.

While Mika was right, he’d be pretty hard to kill. The enchantments covering his body allowed him to fight foes far beyond his limitations. While he wasn’t about to take on a full strength Mo any time soon, he was confident that he was well above average strength in the world.

“Anything else we need to discuss?” He looked around the table, enjoying having them all together. It was a different location, but it was their same family huddle in the mornings.

“Nothing I can’t handle while you are out.” Sasha patted him on the shoulder. “Go, enjoy your trip.”

Dar did a round of kisses with everyone, and against his better judgement, he even gave Blair a peck on the cheek. He could tell she wanted more, but she sat still and didn’t push.

Neko and the maids trailed after Dar as he left the cave and set out into the village, looking for Dane Goodhaul and Karn.

As they walked, the merchant was easy to spot. His boat workers stood out like sore thumbs; their shoulders were broad and muscular from carrying heavy cargo all day, making them extra stocky. The big men surrounded the portly merchant as he talked.

“Morning Dane.” Dar called out, even as several of the villagers talked with the merchant. They were holding bags of what he knew to be salt, and Dar was glad they’d gotten their reward and were getting to trade.

“Ah. Dar.” Dane turned to him. “Can I help you?”

“Finish up with these people first, but I’d like to talk about hitching a ride down Bellhaven for a few of us.” Dar gave the merchant his most charming smile. The merchant nodded, focusing back on the trades in front of him. He was in full negotiation mode.

It didn’t take long for the merchant to finish; the people of Hearthway mostly wanted luxury items that they had abandoned when they fled their homes in Bellhaven. They’d bought things like brushes, perfumes, and delicate tools that might require a jeweler to craft.

Dar took it as a compliment that they felt secure enough with shelter and food that they could spend their salt on such items.

When the crowd cleared out, Dane turned to Dar. “What was it you wanted? A ride to Bellhaven?”

“Yes. For myself, the people here with me, and one more.” Dar gestured to Neko and the maids.

“Not a problem. Who’s the last person?” Dane asked, looking around.

Right on time, Karn stepped out of Dar’s old hut. His white fur and stature made him obvious at a glance.

“That one.” Dar pointed to the large bear demon.

Dane’s face drained of blood, and Dar could see he wanted to say no, but the man was too afraid of The White’s emissary. And rightly so. Karn could tear Dane and his whole vessel apart.

“Karn.” Dar called out. “I got you a ride to Bellhaven. These ladies and I are also going to join you.”

The demon tried to reassess Dar, but after a moment, came to the same conclusion as the first time and shrugged. “I look forward to seeing how the city treats your return.”

Dar was curious as well. For Bellhaven’s sake, he hoped they opened their arms wide and rolled out the red carpet. “Come sit. Eat. I think Merchant Goodhaul here will be leaving soon. Lucky for us, river boats are really a quite comfortable way to travel.”

Karn huffed, but he grabbed a bowl of porridge brought to him from the pot at the central hearth. He downed it in one slug and wiped his mouth. “Let’s go. I lost too much time yesterday. Hopefully, this boat can make up for some of it.”

Dane was sweating bullets as he watched the demon head towards the river and his boat.

“Don’t worry. I’ll handle him.” Dar tried to reassure Dane, nudging the merchant. But Dane just grunted a weak, high-pitched sound.

Laughing, Dar clapped Karn on the shoulder as he caught up to the demon, Dane hurrying to catch up behind.

AN- The wife noticed I had a countdown on my white board today. It took her a solid minute to realize I was counting down till the little one goes to day care. Though we've been working to get me some dedicated writing time and it's been helping me get back ahead. I'm 8 chapters ahead of patreon now, which is much more comfortable than the 3 chapters I was when I finished Dragon. Good news I've trained myself to hyper focus and get my writing done, so maybe when I get more time again I can blast forward ^^.