<56> Drenan spat at the ground before him, his saliva tinged with blood. “Maybe for a moment, but this won’t end how you think it will.” The paladin glared fierce daggers at the shaman, but the more blood that left him, the less strength he was able to muster for it. “I see you’re still not above manipulation tactics to get what you want. Those dead centaurs out there are on you.” Keldah let out a raspy cough. The shaman still clearly had not fared well after his exile. His fur was matted in several spots, and his ornate, feathery robes had been replaced with tattered rags. He looked like a walking skeleton of a tauren with most of his meager weight held up by a bent staff. “Tell yourself whatever you wish if it helps you sleep at night, but it sounds unnecessary when your next sleep simply won’t end.” “Murder is too simple for someone like you,” Drenan stated bluntly. “You have another angle.” “Of course. Lyrah was the one who got away, you know,” he wheezed. “Karnum should be keeping her busy for a while, but once she comes to find you, you’ll be long gone. I’ll just have to tell her how foolish you were for defying the centaurs, and she’ll fall right into my arms.” This caused Drenan to muster as boisterous of a laugh as he could in Keldah’s face. “An’she has burned away your sanity. The fact that you think so little of her is your undoing. It is what took away your power in the first pla-” Drenan’s words were cut short as the shaman sharply cracked him across the jaw with his staff. “Silence! You know naught about what I’ve been through!” The angry shaman reeled his staff back for a second blow… … but Drenan saw it coming a mile away. The paladin caught Keldah’s staff in mid-strike, and in one swift movement he pulled the shaman in his direction, caught him in his open arm, and pinned the elder to his chest with the staff against his neck. “Any of you strike and I break his neck!” Drenan roared to the centaurs, all of which were quick to grab at their own weapons, though all save for Krigan stood down. “Krigan does not care about tauren affairs,” the head centaur spat. “But Krigan needs his weapons. Paladin, if you can force Keldah to tell Krigan where the weapons are, Krigan will let you kill him. You may go free after, if you wish.” Keldah did not struggle against Drenan’s strength, but his eyes widened in sudden panic at the centaur’s betrayal. “After all I’ve done for you, Krigan!? I saved your life!” “Krigan has repaid that debt. Krigan bent many of our customs for you, and you should be grateful for Krigan’s mercy. We are not negotiators.” Drenan glared fiercely at the disgraced shaman. “Well? The next move is up to you. Honestly, I should kill you in a heartbeat for threatening my daughter… but Krigan presented the deal first. Still feeling talkative?” The aged farseer began to visibly shake. His knees suddenly buckled, and it became only the weight of the staff on his neck that held him aloft. Several long moments of dead silence followed, until finally Keldah started with, “I… they-” Out of seemingly nowhere a gargantuan explosion cut off the shaman’s words from somewhere outside the tent. The ground trembled viciously from it, causing several of the centaurs to lose their balance entirely. Drenan’s grip on the staff was jarred too viciously for him to keep it, and the two tauren fell opposite directions from each other. The centaurs who remained on their feet sprinted from the tent, though their cries of surprise and pain were soon to follow. Through the chaos, Drenan did his best to collect his bearings, but by the time he had, Keldah had clambered to the far end of the hut and forced his way through the meager grass-woven walls. The paladin snarled and sprinted after the hole the shaman had made, though a second blast shook the ground enough to fall into a headlong dive for the hole. As Drenan’s upper body drove through the hole, the war-wise paladin took a few moments to take in the settlement for the sake of bearings. It was complete and utter chaos. Several of the huts were engulfed in flames, jagged spikes of earth had impaled several centaurs, and lightning strikes flashed across the sky in rapid succession to take down even more of them. The braver attackers seemed to be charging toward the main gates, though Drenan’s position didn’t allow him any view of it. Among the chaos, however, the foolish Keldah was making a break for the southern wall of the camp. A portion of the wood had been blasted open and charred as an impromptu escape route. The burly paladin grunted as he pulled himself out of the hut, but as he went to properly stand, his vision abruptly turned blurry. Drenan gritted his teeth in an effort to fight the haze, but as he looked down at himself he realized he’d lost much more blood than he’d thought. The numerous cuts on his arms and legs were bleeding steadily, and much of his fur was a matted, crimson mess. Drenan only mustered a single step before his body collapsed, dropping him to the nearby rocks into a seated position. At the front gates, centaurs fled by the dozens. Fire and earth alike turned against them at the command of none other than Lyrah herself. The shaman roared fiercely as a spike of earth threw a quartet of centaurs several yards to the ground, followed by a gout of fire which kept them down for good. “Dad! Where are you?!” she called among the din, though the screaming, angry centaurs drowned her out completely. Her initial approach had provoked immediate attack from the centaurs, so she knew right away that Drenan had to be there. As the main council filed out from the tent, Lyrah summoned forth a cluster of earthen hands to reach up and grasp as many as she could. Two escaped, but the other five were firmly cemented in place, including their one-eyed leader. The concerned Lyrah strode toward him without fear, waving her hands around her to push away anyone who might near her with mighty gusts of wind. She stopped just a few feet from him and threw down a full set of four totems, all of which thrummed with energy and lashed out and any other bold assailants. “Where is he!? I know he’s here!” <57> “Krigan killed him!” the leader spat abruptly. “Now Krigan want you to leave us be! No reason to fight Krigan!” Lyrah glared at the centaur as he spoke. “You’re lying. Your attempt to save your life will only cost it, so I’ll ask nicely one last time. Where. Is. HE!? Where’s the paladin!?” Krigan swallowed hard, and as barbaric as his race was, he knew when he was beaten. “Inside, assuming Keldah has not killed him already.” The shaman hardly had time to register the name, and ignoring the captive centaurs she bolted past them and into the large hut. “Dad!” she called again. No answer. The hut was empty save for the heavy trail of blood of someone who’d been dragged in and led out through a sizeable hole in the hut’s back wall. Lyrah wasted no time in following, though her look of concern turned horrified as she found her father, bloodied, battered, and barely conscious against a nearby rock. “By the Earthmother, hold on!” she called to him and dropped to one knee beside him. Many of his cuts were bleeding profusely, and it clearly took him a few moments before he realized she was there. “Lyrah?” the paladin gasped and grunted in pain. His eyes blinked a number of times to try and see her through the haze. “Keldah… Karnum… we were set up…” he wheezed, followed by several ragged coughs. “Shh, easy, just… just take it easy,” she told him and gently held him in place against the rock. “We need to get you to some proper healers. I… I don’t thinK I can fix this all on my own.” “No!” he cried suddenly and jerked back upright, only to cough some more and slump back against the rock. “Karnum… kill us… not the glade….” Lyrah furrowed her brow. Waves of frustration were cut through by the severity of her father’s situation, and while she didn’t fully understand why, she nodded in affirmation. “Alright. I’ll see what I can do.” With a wave of her hand she placed a new totem next to him, and a moment later gentle, blue waves of cooling water began to radiate from it and wash over his injured form. Lyrah moved her hands in soft, flowing circles above his body, and soon a steady stream of green-colored energy joined the blue waves. The outer wounds slowly appeared to close themselves, and after a few minutes of treatment his outer bleeding ceased altogether. Both tauren breathed deep, heavy sighs of relief. “Okay… I think that stopped most of it… how are you feeling?” Drenan groaned and slid his eyes open slowly to find his vision had refocused. He looked up at Lyrah and offered her a light smile. “Better… in a lot of pain, but better.” Lyrah looked at him with concern. “I don’t think I was able to reach some of your deeper wounds. You could be bleeding internally. We need a professional healer.” “Agreed,” he gasped as he sat himself upright again. “Just… not at the glade.” Despite the chaos around them, Lyrah couldn’t help but feel her anger return. “And why not?” Drenan looked at her gravely. “Karnum set us up. He sent me here to stop some supposed centaur raids. I was ambushed at the front gate, and when they brought me inside I was used as a bargaining chip for weapons.” Lyrah’s ears visibly drooped. “But… why would-” The sound of shattering rock cut her off. The council had freed themselves, and she knew it would only be moments before they found them. “We need to go. Now.” Drenan nodded sharply. Lyrah quickly stood and helped pull her burly father to his feet to wrap her left arm around his waist for support. His right arm draped around the back of her neck, and with her support the pair began to move, step by step, through the fray. He had more strength than before, but he found himself leaning heavily on her in order to move forward. Drenan pointed toward the same path Keldah took. “That way will get us out. If you need to hurry-” The shaman cut him off with a sharp kiss to his lips. “Move more, talk less. I’m not leaving you.” And that was that. Step after step brought them across the more open portion of the town. Dead centaurs littered the once-slate-colored ground, painting it with deep bursts of crimson. Lightning continued to rain down from the skies, and if it were not for that distraction the tauren pair would never have had a chance. Occasionally a centaur would spot them, though a strike of lightning would often push them back into the chaotic fray. As they neared their escape route a stray spear came flying in their direction, and before either of them noticed, the stone edge struck Lyrah’s right shoulder and plunked into a nearby pillar of wood. Lyrah cried out in agony, but the cry melted into a fierce growl as she threw her right hand toward the centaur and unleashed a powerful orb of magma his way. The magma coated the bold centaur, and as it cooled it left but a statue of the agonized creature behind. The spear had, fortunately, not cut so deep as to render her arm useless, but it had cut clean through the mail of her top and severed the binding that held the mail aloft to leave her right breast fully exposed to the elements. As quick as a whip, the injured Drenan dropped his right hand to cover her open flesh, and just as the pair hobbled through the broken wall Lyrah couldn’t hold back a light giggle and a, “Such a gentleman.” Beyond the wall, there was no sign of Keldah. The ground appeared unnaturally smooth, which Drenan knew as a sign of shamans shifting the ground to cover their tracks. The chaos behind the walls did not seem to extend beyond them, and as the lightning storm began to subside, so did their cries. The pair of tauren put as much distance southward between them and the settlement as they could, and to their good fortune, not a single centaur was in sight to follow them. <58> “But… why would Karnum sell us out like that? I thought…” Lyrah murmured incredulously. The pair had made it all the way to the southern edge of Desolace before night fell. The couple had toyed with the idea of using a mount, but they realized the last thing Drenan needed was to have his internal injuries jarred and further damaged. Their trudge had proved fruitful, however, as a small, empty cave sat at the base of the tall ridges that divided Desolace from Feralas to provide them with shelter for the night. A small fire crackled toward the cave’s mouth, near which laid the injured Drenan. What remained of the straps of his chest armor had been removed and balled up to use as a makeshift pillow, and Lyrah dutifully knelt next to him as the pair conversed. “Keldah,” Drenan said grimly. “If he had the centaurs coerced, I’m certain Karnum was under his influence as well. If the glade was struggling, of course a powerful shaman could bend the elements to obey him. All Karnum had to do was separate us and throw us to the centaurs. It almost worked.” Lyrah turned her gaze to the stone floor. “I thought he was my friend…” “He likely was. I imagine he did not realize you would be dragged into this. I doubt he realized how strong you have become, otherwise I would like to think he would have turned to you.” Her cheeks flushed as a small smile crossed her face. She silently appreciated her father’s acknowledgement of her strength. “I would have helped him if he’d just asked.” Drenan let out a heavy, steady exhale. “You did not know, sweetheart. Unfortunately, desperate circumstances can change people. The glade became his priority, not the travelers. By the Earthmother, I did not know his intentions. I believed him, too.” The shaman looked back to her father in surprise. “You did?” “I did. He said the centaurs attacked the glade at night, and he asked me to deal with them. I had planned on telling you, but he advised against it.” Drenan’s gaze drifted to the cave ceiling. “I should have known better. I am so sorry, Lyrah.” “Shush,” Lyrah added quickly. Slowly she moved forward over top of him and propped herself up on her hands to look directly down in his eyes. “I should have listened to you when you said to be careful. Maybe… maybe if I’d bothered to actually take a closer look at Karnum, I might’ve….” Drenan shook his head before leaning up to lightly brush his lips against hers. “You only did what you thought was right. As did I.” “You’re right… I’m so sorry, dad. I really, really am.” “So am I, but I promise everything is alright now. From now on, let us just both be more cautious, okay? I hope you know your opinion means the world to me, and I value you more than anything. If I ever lost you to Keldah….” He let his words hang in the air sadly. Lyrah lowered herself to wrap her father in a gentle embrace, cautious not to irritate his wounds. “You won’t, daddy. I promise. I’ll be more careful.” Drenan reached up with one arm to wrap around her back, holding her close to him. “I know, sweetheart, and I promise not to be so stiff from now on. My approach to all of this was not kind, and truthfully this should be a fun experience for us, not a chore. I will try to relax a bit more at our next destination.” The shaman let out a raspy giggle at this as she pulled back to look at him again, smiling widely. “Thank you, daddy.” “Anything for you, Lyrah,” he returned as the pair shared a second, deeper kiss. “I believe there is a small camp not far into Feralas. If we can make it there by midday tomorrow, there should be a healer there for the local sentinels. After that, we can pick our next destination, because honestly I take no comfort remaining in Desolace for much longer.” “I agree,” Lyrah assured him. “If the glade isn’t safe, nowhere in Desolace is. I don’t think I wanna live somewhere so dead like that.” “Me neither,” he agreed. “Who knows? Maybe we will find somewhere calm and secluded in Feralas, even.” “Very true. For now, I’m just glad you’re alive and safe,” she added and rocked back to sit on her knees again, looking her father over slowly. “Is there anything I can get you? Are you comfortable?” Drenan kept his head straight, though he glanced over to her as best as he could. “As long as I do not move much, I am fine. It would be much worse without the fire,” he noted gently. Only one of his legplates and a plate covering his crotch had remained intact, though the rest of his armor was pretty much unusable. The fire, thankfully, warmed his bare skin enough to keep him comfortable. “I would worry more for you than myself.” Lyrah looked down at her half-torn top, and with a disgusted sigh she pulled the rest of it from her body. “I don’t think I can fix this. I’ll have to find something new tomorrow. At least the wound wasn’t too deep,” she mused gratefully and glanced at her bandaged shoulder. “It should be normal again in a couple days.” The wounded paladin lazily let his gaze drift to her bare chest unashamedly. “We will find you something, I am certain. Do we have any more bandages?” Lyrah laughed dryly. “Even if we do, I seriously doubt we’d have enough to cover these,” she remarked and looked down at her own chest. “Mmh. Thank your mother for those,” he rumbled. “I’m pure muscle. You’ve got muscle and more.” Another laugh. “I guess so, not that I’m complaining.” She looked back to her father with a loving smile and edged a bit closer to him, gently resting her hands on his chest. “I am a little chilly so far away from the fire though….” <59> Drenan raised an eyebrow at this. “You can get as close as you like, sweetheart. Don’t let me stop you.” Lyrah’s smile shifted into a light smirk as she leaned closer over his body, her hefty breasts swinging dangerously close to his muzzle. “Mmh, thank you, daddy. Much better. I was starting to feel sore.” The cold had taken more of a toll than she’d initially though, and even from Drenan’s prone position he could tell her nipples had stiffened considerably with the chill air. The longer Drenan looked, the more his own body began to react, though he silently cursed himself for doing so since he had no desire to risk heavy movement. Nonetheless. the meager, loose plate over his nethers did little to hide his arousal, and as Lyrah shifted to warm her hands she flinched when her elbow brushed it. “Sorry,” Drenan murmured somewhat sheepishly. The shamaness let out a gentle giggle, and in a bold move she lightly brushed aside the armor plate and wrapped her fingers around the base of his steadily-hardening shaft. “You’re okay. I didn’t realize.” “You’re teasing me,” he grumbled back in an exaggerated fashion. “I can’t exactly do much about that.” Lyrah slowly looked between her father’s gaze and his growing manhood. “Maybe I can take care of that for you, hmm? Or… should we be worried out here?” Drenan bit his lip as a wave of concern ran through his mind, and after a few moments he said, “We are all alone out here. The glade is far from here, as are the other settlements in the area. I think we are safe… if you wish.” Lyrah’s azure eyes settled upon his manhood as she began to gently stroke the warm flesh. “Thank you… can I tell you something?” “Anything,” her father assured her as he exhaled slowly from the gentle pleasure. Her smile widened slightly as she watched him grow harder from her touch. “I really didn’t wanna sleep in a different bed from you tonight. I mean, I would have, but… it would’ve really sucked.” “I know,” he assured her. “I did not want it either.” Her fingers steadily began a set of longer strokes as he came to full mast. “I just… I don’t wanna hide who we are, you know? I mean, I get not telling people we’re family and all, but not saying we love each other like that just… it feels wrong.” Her gaze turned to his, though her hand continued to glide softly over his heated flesh. “I love you, you know? Like, more than just as your daughter… and I want people to see that.” Another long exhale left Drenan before he responded. “I don’t want to hide it either. I love you more than anything, and it pains me to hide it. I just hope you know it’s for your benefit. If you were treated poorly because of me….” “I know, daddy,” she assured him and leaned over to kiss him tenderly once again. “I just… I guess I don’t really care, you know? Why should anyone else care about who I love?” Her hand never stopped moving as she spoke, though her strokes slowed slightly when she wasn’t looking at it. “They shouldn’t,” he added softly, his gaze drifting down to her moving hand. “People are… strange that way, but most might say the same about us.” “I guess so,” she admitted with a soft laugh. “As long as we’re happy, I don’t care what they think.” Drenan smiled up at her with pride. She seemed so much more adult right then than ever to him. “Well, with this kind of bedside care, I see no reason not to be happy.” A much more coy smile adorned Lyrah’s face at this. “You deserve it. After all you’ve done for me, you deserve so much more.” She looked back to his length, and with a brief lick of her lips she leaned in and slowly slipped the head of his manhood into her mouth… but she didn’t stop there. Drenan’s eyes widened as her muzzle continued to lower, and a few seconds later her lips were pressed right against his groin, having taken his full length in a single, smooth swallow. The paladin gasped in shock, and Lyrah seductively opened one blue eye to gauge his reaction. She held that pose for several long moments, but suddenly she jerked her head back off of him and let out several rough coughs. “Whoa, are you alright?” Drenan asked, and with a pained flinch he slowly raised his left arm to gently pat his daughter’s back. After a few moments she swallowed hard and gasped, though her smile returned all the same. “Sorry, I’ve really wanted to try that for a while. Did you like it?” Drenan breathed a sigh of relief and lowered his arm again. “I did, but if it hurts you I’d rather not try it too much.” His own breathing had grown more ragged from the pleasure her throat had brought him. “I know, but I wouldn’t mind practicing sometimes,” she admitted with a tinge of color running across her cheeks, though with respect to his concern she went back to stroking him again. His length was now well-slicked, and her strokes moved a bit faster this time. “The last time I had my mouth down there, you were unconscious,” she admitted sheepishly. “I suspected as much,” he returned nonchalantly. “I recall having a rather good dream at the time to go with it, but for the life of me I can’t remember how it went.” His ragged breathing had slowed a bit, but still wasn’t normal just yet. “However, next time perhaps I won’t be so immobile when you try it. I already miss touching you.” Even more color filled Lyrah’s cheeks, unable to hold back a flattered giggle. “I’m only here to make you feel better, daddy. If that means giving you all of myself, then so be it.” Her stroking suddenly ceased at this, and with slow, calculated motions the shamaness rose to her feet and slipped her fingers into the waist of her kilt. Her hips swayed gently as she worked the band loose and wiggled the kilt down over her lush thighs to let it fall to the cave floor, leaving her body completely bare for her father’s eyes alone. Just as gracefully, Lyrah propped one hand beside each of her father’s shoulders and lifted her left leg as high as she could before resting her hoof next to his right hip. A sultry shift of her body brought her beautifully chubby form onto all fours with her legs straight, leaving her rump high in the air and her bare nethers hovering inches above his erect manhood. Lyrah’s tail swished happily behind her as the tuft of hair at its tip teasingly brushed over his balls and shaft, while her hefty breasts once again hung tantalizingly close to his lips. “I’ll be gentle. I promise.” <60> Drenan took a long, silent moment to look over his beautiful daughter. His azure eyes traced every glorious curve of her body as his smile continued to widen. “Please… a night without you is no night worth living.” Lyrah returned his smile twofold and slowly began to lower her entire body all at once. As their lips met, so her nethers met his as if kissing him a second time. While her muzzle fell lovingly to his own, her bottom continued to descend, and with gentle shifts she felt the head of his manhood softly glide between her honeyed nether lips and spread them little by little the lower she went. Quiet moans of pleasure left her as she moved, until finally she let out a long, drawn-out gasp at the sensation of her nether lips pressing against her father’s groin. Her muzzle quivered as she steadily broke the kiss, whispering to him, “It’s… it’s all the way in.” Drenan bit his lip as he felt his manhood slide smoothly inside his daughter, his agony silent as he struggled to remain immobile. “I… I noticed…” he gasped, his gaze blatantly focused upon her magnificent chest. The paladin’s lips opened hungrily, and with a light giggle Lyrah lowered her upper body down just enough to lovingly smoosh her right breast against his muzzle, his lips closing to tenderly latch onto her nipple. It was all he could do to touch her, though Lyrah didn’t seem to mind the freedom she had with him. The shaman smiled warmly as she began to raise her hips, only going up a few inches before ever-so-slowly lowering back down again. A soft squeak of a moan left her as she felt her father hold tight to her nipple, though she dared not move too far away should she lift his head off the floor. “Mmmmh, daddy,” she cooed seductively as her hips fell into a gentle rhythm of bobbing up and down. “Lemme take care of you… doctor Lyrah says... you need lots… and lots… of rest,” she added coyly, her bottom pressing down against his hips before each pause. The paladin reluctantly let Lyrah’s nipple go, only to bite his own lip as he felt warm pleasure wash over his prone form. “A doctor... and... a therapist,” he teased, his back twitching as if he wanted to arch it. “I guess… I hit… the jackpot….” “Shhhh,” Lyrah returned and gently pressed one finger to her father’s lips. “Don’t stress yourself, mister. You’re hurt,” A cheeky grin spread across her face as she sat herself down on his manhood and gently ground her hips back and forth for several moments. It wasn’t that she ever felt she was powerless against her father, but having a bit more control than she was used to seemed to put her in quite the cheerful mood. Despite the pain throughout his body, the more pleasure Lyrah brought him, the less the pain seemed to bother him. His arms began to twitch after several minutes of her tender grinding, and without warning, Drenan was able to lift both of his hands with minor pain to take hold of and squeeze the shaman’s luscious hips. Lyrah couldn’t hide a squeak of surprise. “Feeling… feeling a bit better, hmm?” she teased and put a bit more weight onto him. Drenan even gave her a soft nod. “Indeed… the pain is much less with you so close…” “Good… then tell me… is this painful?” Once again Lyrah raised her hips, this time ascending until just the head of his tool remained hidden, and with a swifter movement she sat herself right back down on his lap, her movement punctuated with a long, drawn-out moan. The paladin cringed harshly as the movement initially caused severe pain, though to his surprise, that pain melted into sheer pleasure and seemed to nullify the pain itself all at once. His grip grew tighter on her waist, his weathered hands steadily making their way further up her body until they’d reached her shoulders. “Better…” he gasped as he brought her back into another kiss. Lyrah happily moaned into her father’s kiss as she brought her hips back up again, though before she could come back down, Drenan jerked his hips upward to meet her, forcing her to release another moan right through their kiss. “Oh dad… I think I might…” “Do it,” Drenan whispered sharply, his gaze intensifying as it locked with hers. “I want to feel you… around me…” The shaman continued her bobbing rhythm with increased vigor. She moved no faster than before, but the added pressure of Drenan’s hips pushing up against hers seemed to bury him even deeper inside her. Lyrah could feel the pleasure throughout her bare body intensifying with each joint thrust, and mere moments later she sharply buried her muzzle into her father’s neck and brought her rump crashing down onto his hips. That final, intense thrust threw her right over the edge, and her muffled cries were joined by a powerful little geyser of her nectar all around her father’s manhood. Her body quivered helplessly against his as waves of climactic ecstasy washed over her, her strength failing as her curvaceous form suddenly slumped atop him, utterly spent and twitching happily in pleasure. Drenan grunted harshly as she fell upon him, though the pain it caused him was heavily outweighed by the pleasure he felt from Lyrah’s quim gripping his buried length. Her twitching body gripped his tool as firmly as ever, the added pressure being enough for him to let out a groan of delight of his own, his manhood erupting with thick seed that flooded his daughter’s nethers and slowly oozed out from between them alongside her nectar. Father and daughter laid intertwined for many, many long moments. Drenan no longer felt near the pain he had before, and once he felt able, the paladin slowly slid his daughter off to one side and worked himself back to his hooves, standing almost perfectly straight, albeit not entirely painlessly. Without a word, Drenan laid back down next to Lyrah and pulled her close. Their fire had nearly died as long as they’d spent together, though the shelter of the cave was enough to last them the night. They were going to need the rest for all that Feralas had in store for them the next day.