Coye Vol 2 Ch 1 (Patreon)

It begins.

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Coye was crouched down amid a swaying ocean of tall grass, taking one careful step after the other. The boy’s movements were silent even as the earth crunched beneath his leather boots. His breathing was slowed, his eyes were trained- Coye was stalking his prey.

Some thirty feet away from the adventurer, a tree rustled, and fresh leaves fell. It coincided with the sound of a vicious monster hissing. From one of its branches lowered what looked to be a vine with a serpentine head. This creature was one of the lesser threats encountered within the Gnarled Woods- a Vine Viper.

At a glance, this tricky snake was nigh indistinguishable from any other vine that grew among the tree-tops. Its camouflage was a shrewd weapon that it utilized against anything weaker than itself, but it wasn’t that hard to spot if you knew what you were looking for. Average vines didn’t flick their tongues and hiss, for one.

The Vine Viper remained stationary while scanning the perimeter with intense, slitted eyes. It was a clever creature. Although it couldn’t see, hear, or smell anything out of place within its forest home, it had the sense that it was being watched. Yet, what was there to do when the source of the threat couldn’t be found? It chose to continue with its business, keeping its guard up as much as possible while continuing along the path it set for itself.

The snake slithered out of the tree it was on and coiled its scaled body around the branches of another, pulling itself onto a new perch. It would then repeat the process, moving from tree to tree with expertise. Another thing that set it apart from the plant matter it imitated, as vines were not known for their roving behavior.

Wherever the Vine Viper wet, Coye was never far behind, and he took comfort in the fact that he had a dependable companion by his side. A little winged woman wearing black booty shorts and a tube top sat on his shoulder, clutching the fabric of his tunic. She was no taller than eight inches, her body glowed faintly blue, and she stared down the monster with bright pink-and-blue eyes.

This Pixie’s name was Shayla, and as of four days ago, she was Coye’s partner. Their partnership hasn’t amounted to much as of yet, as Coye has been more interested in exploring his budding sexuality with the shapely sprite than he has been in taking on quests that were worth a damn. If it weren’t for the Pixie threatening to withhold her body from the boy, he wouldn’t even leave the dorm. A compromise was made, and Coye had been forcing himself to at least undertake one bronze-ranked quest a day.

Coye’s current objective was a simple task for someone of his level. A local Alchemist was looking to stock up on Vine Viper eggs and was willing to pay 30G a piece. All he needed to satisfy the client was to provide four of these eggs minimum, but anything beyond that would be rewarded appropriately. Not that the boy intended to work any harder than he had to. Even as he followed after the monstrous snake, Coye was preoccupied with thoughts of pleasing his own.

Shayla was close to hitting a breaking point, but at the moment, she was glad to be giving her poor body a rest. As her partner began to draw closer, she saw fit to guide him out of force of habit. ‘Careful, now.’ Shayla warned, using her telepathic voice.

He nodded in response and followed until the Viper stopped moving to new trees and began ascending its current one. Higher up, Coye saw an unnatural nest made of dried grass held together by hardened purple gunk. This substance was the snake’s venom creatively used as a glue that held the nest together and deterred other creatures from approaching. There was no mistaking it for a bird nest- this was it.

Typical snakes didn’t make nests for their young, but the Vine Viper was a monster. It was smart enough to know it needed to protect its kin from the evils of the Gnarled Woods and chose the high tree-tops as the place to do so. Now the only problem was separating the mother from its eggs.

Coye could wait it out and see if it would leave on its own, but that wasn’t the wisest plan. There were the psychological effects that these woods had on him to consider, and the longer he spent out here, the longer he had to wait to quell both his hunger and his lust. It would be quicker to kill the monster and be done with it.

Coye drew his sword out over his shoulder, making very little noise as he did. The blade shone with its magical light, reminding Coye he still had access to the sword’s magical projectile- at least until the next time he took damage. Now was as good a time as any to make use of it, considering he’d lose his chance if he so much as bruised himself.

Before the monster could get too close to its nest, Coye swung the blade downward in an arc. A beam of white light erupted from the tip and shot out like a laser. This light enveloped the snake once it hit, and though it wasn’t an element the monster was weak to, it inflicted enough damage to knock it out of the tree. The Viper hit the ground hard, where it started writhing like a rope in a tornado.

“Nice!” Shayla congratulated her partner using her actual voice, no longer worried about alerting their prey.

“Thanks,” Coye smiled at the compliment but kept focused on the target. He built up energy in his foot and performed Quick Step, hoping to rush in and lop off its head in one blow before while it was still flailing.

The Vine Viper recovered sooner than Coye expected it to. It twisted right side up and zigzagged across the grassy terrain out of Coye’s striking range, maneuvering behind him by a good fifteen feet. Once it reached what it deemed a safe distance from the Fighter, it hissed and opened its impressive jaws. Baring its twin fangs, a thick purple venom drizzled like saliva out of its mouth. After sucking down a gasp of air, the monster launched a stream of this liquid death at the adventurer.

Coye had slaughtered more than his fair share of these D-rank serpents over the last few years and was well aware of how fast they could be. Even so, this particular specimen surprised him with how quick it managed to flank him. He realized that it was trying to protect its eggs and felt a pang of guilt.

The adventurer whipped his body around to face the oncoming projectile and raised his shield to protect himself, only to find he had nothing to fear. Coye’s partner already had him covered.

With a snap of her fingers, Shayla used a simple jinx to manipulate the environment in a way that would make this problem go disappear. Shayla weakened a tree branch hanging overhead enough so that it would fall right in the path of the venom.

On contact, the branch corroded, and its leaves withered. Whatever was left of the stream fell down, eroding the dark green grass until the ground was spattered with lifeless muck. The Vine Viper was stunned by the sudden noise of falling trees. It became distracted as it gazed skyward, giving the adventurer all the time he needed to finish things.

Coye took off a second time using the same Art, slicing the Viper’s head off in one slash as he flew past it. Rich, red blood sprayed out of the writhing tube of slain meat until the last ounce of life left its body, and it fell over in death. The boy swiped his sword through the air to clean it of blood, then returned it to his sheath.

Now that the battle was done, Shayla flew off of Coye’s shoulder and cradled her aching stomach. The Pixie was looking green in the face. “Ugh, I hate it when you use Quick Step...” She groaned, fighting back her sudden bout of motion sickness.

“Sorry,” He frowned and dragged the tip of his cap over his face.

“I’m good, I’m-” Shayla stopped mid-sentence as a bulge surged upward through her throat. For a moment, it looked like it could go either way, but it did not pass. Her willpower to hold her breakfast down was too strong. “I’m good...”

She looked pretty bad, so Coye made doubly sure. “Are you sure? Anything I can do to help?”

“Nah, don’t worry about me. Just... gimme a second and go do your thing, big guy.” Shayla dismissed him as she floated over to a mossy boulder and sat herself down.

Coye nodded back at the Pixie in response. Given how they’d only been at this for a couple of days, the way that they fought together as a team still had a lot of kinks to work out. He wasn’t used to having to adjust his fighting style to accommodate a partner, let alone one who rode around on his shoulder. Granted, he didn’t want to risk letting Shayla fly around the battlefield on her own, where she could be targeted separately from him.

All of this tactical nonsense was too much for Coye to deal with. He sighed and pushed it out of his mind as he approached his deceased foe. Although Coye only needed the monster’s head to serve as proof of kill, he chopped it up into four segments of equal length to bring the corpse back and sell it at the market. He didn’t know the specifics but knew that every part of a monster had some sort of use to someone, and it was always preferable to carry a kill back home if that was an option.

Once the Vine Viper was tucked neatly into his bag, Coye hopped up onto the tree and began to climb. Inside the snake’s nest, he found six large, oval-shaped eggs. “Huh,” he muttered to himself as he picked the first one up and turned it around in his hand.

“What’s up?” He heard his partner call out from below.

“These are pretty different from bird eggs.”

“Well, duh,” Shayla laughed. “Snakes aren’t birds.”

“I guess that makes sense.” Coye tilted his head, shrugged, and pocketed all of the eggs into a second bag. He jumped out of the tree with everything he needed and landed on his feet.

He tied off the top of the bag, fastened it to his belt, and rejoined Shayla. She was already looking a lot better and greeted him with a smile. “Didja get enough?”

“Yup. There were six.”

“Niiiice. How much money are we looking at, again?”

“30G for each egg, and the Guild will give me 125G for bringing in the snake’s head. That’ll be, uh...” Coye paused and performed some mental math. It wasn’t his strong suit by any stretch of the word, but he was better than a Pixie. “305G in total.”

“Okay... now remind me, is that a lot, or what?” Shayla strained her eyes as she tried to comprehend the value of all those digits. Capitalism was a foreign concept to Fairies.

“Um, it’s okay. It’s not that much compared to usual, but it’s still more than most people make in one day, I think?” He had to think about it and wasn’t all that sure. Coye knew that adventuring was a profitable career but didn’t know how the pay compared to the average commoner.

“Alrighty then,” Shayla nodded, trying to follow along with the frustrating topic of economics. “The quest said they’d pay if you brought back more than four, right? Are you gonna go looking for some more?”

“Actually, I- uh, I think I’m good.” He smiled and scratched behind his long ear, averting his gaze toward the ground. The boy was intentionally trying to look cute because he knew that Shayla was about to get on his case, hoping it would distract her.

Shayla let out an annoyed groan and collapsed against the boulder as he expected. “Come on, Coye, really? We’ve only been in the woods for like, two hours tops! Shouldn’t you get back on that grind and put a little more work in, for once? I’m sure we could track down another one of those scaly jerks if we tried.”

“Y-Yeah, I’m just... not really feeling up to it, and it’s not like I need the money.” Coye hadn’t even touched the gold he’d received for ‘slaying’ Jack O’ the Pumpkins. If he wanted to waste some time for a while, he had the financial windfall to do so, especially since he was no longer buying any of the random adventuring tools that his Guild Mistress tried selling him.

Shayla was afraid he would say that, and it was wearing on her nerves. It wasn’t about the money. She craved action, adventure, and above all else, for something more entertaining to happen. Shayla just wanted Coye to do something beyond screwing her little brains out. “I don’t know how much more of you sitting on your ass I can take. All we’ve been doing is these lame-ass quests and having mindless sex. I want more, damn it!”

Coye hung his head in shame, feeling his cheeks burn red. He knew where Shayla was coming from and did, on some level, feel sorry for the current state of things, but it wasn’t like he could help the way he felt. Defending himself, he muttered, “I-It’s not my fault I feel this way...!”

“You trying to say it’s my fault for setting off your libido, huh?”

“Well... uh... maybe?” He didn’t know why he was going through this intense sexual awakening, but it did only start once he had sex with Shayla. As far as he knew, it could somehow be her fault. Not that pointing fingers would do him any good.

“Can’t believe you, kid. Three days of on and off sex, and you still can’t think about anything else? We gotta stop some... time?” Shayla paused as she watched Coye’s reaction change from shame to something else.

“Unbelievable,” She shook her head as Coye hunched forward, slumped his shoulders, and conveniently covered up the front of his groin with his shield arm. “We can’t even casually talk about sex without you pitching that magic tent of yours? Is that really where we’re at right now?”

“N-No, it’s not just that... I haven’t said it before, but, um... it feels even worse when we’re out in the woods.” Coye admitted, and he watched as Shayla became more sympathetic. “It’s distracting, and I don’t wanna go on more dangerous quests when I’m so... so turned on...”

This changed things. Shayla was born in the Gnarled Woods and was no stranger to the bizarre, psychological effects it had on people. She’d never heard of it affecting someone and giving them an increased libido, but it wasn’t out of the question.

“You really should’ve told me that earlier, you know,” Shayla grumbled as she sat up and propped up her face with both hands. “Why didn’t you?”

“You know why.” Coye bit his lower lip.

In truth, sex and bronze-ranked quests weren’t all they had gotten up to in the days they spent together. There was a fair amount of getting to know each other mixed in, too. Shayla knew that Coye didn’t talk much and had trouble expressing himself. The fact that he’d opened up to Shayla as much as he did in so short a time was nothing short of miraculous.

“Right, right. Just don’t go forgetting that I’m here for you and I’m not gonna judge you.”

“Thank you-”

“But, this was important, and you should’ve let me know. We aren’t ever gonna get anywhere with our partnership if we don’t communicate. Got it?”

“Yeah... I got it.” Coye smiled and felt himself relax somewhat. It felt good to have someone he knew he could trust, given how few people he actually talked to back in town.

Shayla was satisfied, but also not. Reaching an understanding was one thing, but searching for a solution was another. If Coye’s libido really was a product of the Gnarled Woods, then it might be beyond her capability to fix. It was a good thing that there were other options and that there was still something she could fault her partner for.

There was something Coye said that he would do yet had made no progress on. She’d let things continue on the way that they had been longer than she should’ve, and now the Pixie felt it was time to push him towards action.

“Now that we’re being all honest with each other, I gotta say... I’m flattered you wanna fuck me as much as you do, but-”

Coye took an optimistic step toward his partner, excitement evident on his face. He couldn’t even wait for Shayla to finish her sentence. “D-Does that mean you’ll help m-”

Shayla’s eyebrow twitched, and she snapped her fingers. A jolt of Pixie magic exploded in front of Coye’s face like fireworks, spooking him into taking a step backward. “No, you little perv! You know damn well it’s too dangerous to ever do it in the woods.”

Like an apologetic dog, he apologized profusely. He even had a tail tucked tight between his legs. “R-Right. I’m sorry, Shayla. I’m so sorry...”

“Of course you are. What I was trying to say was that I’m running ragged as it is... and if you don’t get a different source of pussy, I don’t know how much more I’ll be able to take!” She declared.

It was an odd thing for Shayla to admit. She had a high libido, as all Pixies do, so sex was one of the things she was most looking forward to in becoming Coye’s partner. It would’ve been different if he hadn’t turned out to have secretly harbored a lust that out shadowed even her own.

Pixies were magical creatures who defied logic. They could safely mate with Humans despite the difference in size, but even magic has its limits. On top of being an over-excited boy who recently lost his virginity, Coye also had problems controlling himself. Whenever he got ahold of Shayla, he would lose his mind and pump her up and down his length until he passed out with a satisfied, drooling grin on his face with little regard for his partner’s well-being.

Shayla had pushed him to start seeking out other girls seeing just about every woman in the town of Cransmere has their eye on him, but it fell on deaf ears. Coye was shy and otherwise content to just keep pounding away at his little pocket Pixie. She wanted to help him, she really did, but it was time to give the kid an ultimatum.

Getting Coye a hole or two that was the right size might even calm him down enough to focus on work again. That was Shayla’s hope, at least.

“You’re giving me no other choice here,” She sighed and folded her arms. “I’m cutting you off. No more sex from me until you hook up with at least one other chick.”

Coye’s heart stopped. His eyes opened wide. Sweat dripped from his brow. It had only been several seconds since he learned he was about to go without, and he was already suffering withdrawal symptoms. He was devastated, looking like someone had just told him everyone he knew and loved had been devoured by monsters. “W-What...?!”

Shayla threw up her hands. “Hey, I don’t like having to do this! I like having sex with you, really!”

“But-”

“No buts! I won’t last if you keep fucking me into oblivion!” Shayla stood up from her boulder and flew right in front of his face. She was red with anger and embarrassment as she addressed him.

His restless mind looked for excuses. “I-I’ll be gentle, I promise, I-”

Shayla started laughing. “We both know that’s bullshit. Come on, I wasn’t born yesterday.”

Coye swallowed deep. Shayla was right. He knew he couldn’t hold himself back once he got started. It was a bitter truth for him to swallow, but he did care about his partner’s health more than he did about satisfying his primal needs- at least when she wasn’t wrapped around his cock, and he had control over his thoughts, that is.

There was no way that Coye could be gentle with her.

This realization made him understand it was time to make good on his word, even if he couldn’t imagine talking to other girls the same way he spoke to Shayla. His mind was filled with doubt, asking, “What if it doesn’t work out...?”

“We’ll figure that out when we get there, kid. The important part is for you to get out there and try.” Shayla sighed, floated closer, and stroked the side of his cheek. “Why’re you so nervous, anyway? It’s not like you’re a lame little virgin anymore.”

“Because... it won’t be the same as talking to you. It’ll be harder, um, you know... you’re easy to talk to. Special? Yeah, special...” He had a lot to say about how Shayla made him feel, but all he could get out was generic mumbling that couldn’t properly convey his thoughts. Even so, it was enough to stir a reaction from her.

She blushed, turned away from him, and puffed out her lips to pout. Shayla hated how cute this kid was. Hell, he wasn’t even trying. Coye was just saying how he felt, and that was enough to make her little heart throb. It wasn’t fair, and it made her feel worse about not fully satisfying him.

“Yeah, yeah. Are you gonna go hit on girls later, or not?”

“I... I will.” He shut his eyes and nodded.

“Really?” Shayla peeked over her shoulder, her eyes narrow with doubt.

“Yeah...” That should’ve been it. Coye knew that and that adding in anything else would ruin the moment. Yet that was precisely what he did. “But-”

Shayla sighed. Lucky for him, she expected this. “Here we go,”

Coye took this as permission to continue, or close enough to it that he continued on although she was irritated. “When we get out of here, would you... um... p-please, just once. It doesn’t have to be sex, just help me calm down a little, or I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to girls today!”

She turned over and looked him over head to toe. He was desperate. It wasn’t just a selfish demand, either. That erection of his was probably painful. The thought alone aroused her, but what really got Shayla going was the fact that she could comfort him, even if only a little.

Besides, Coye was probably right. There’d be no way he could go hitting on girls with a big, fat, half-elf hard-on straining his trousers. Shayla licked her lips, thinking, Guess it can’t be helped.

“You’re really something else, you know that?” The Pixie chuckled as she flew back to Coye’s shoulder and sat down on her designated seat. “Come on, big guy. Let’s get out of here so I can help you shoot one off, I guess.”

Although relief was still a bit further off, Coye exhaled and smiled. “Thank you, Shayla, thank you so much...!” He was on the verge of crying tears of joy, which threatened to make Shayla laugh over how adorably pathetic he was.

With emotions running high for both parties, they began the trek out of the woods. Coye was looking forward to the pain going away, and Shayla was looking forward to not only a day off from her sexual duties but the amusing aspect of her boy trying to hook up with someone and maybe even succeeding. Shayla would help him pull it off, of course, but she couldn’t wait to see him squirm.