I've had bad days as an adventurer. Being trapped inside a tomb, digging myself out slowly with the help of a few sturdy bones lying around. Being caught up in an assassination plot, and losing friends that happened to be too close to me. Having spots of no work, and surviving the horrors that the common city street has to offer. I've been stabbed, shot at, stripped naked on several different occasions by several different people, I've seen friends die and was unable to help them. I've seen several quests I've gone on go south in the worst possible ways.

In retrospect, being captured by a tribe of orc women rates as one of the least terrible thing that's happened to me, because at the end of the day, only I was hurt, and my chances of dying were pretty slim.

That's not to say being an adventurer is all bad, of course! When I did have money, I lived like a king (which is probably why it went by so fast). I'd met some traveling companions I've truly cared about, and I've kept a piece of each of them in my thoughts. I've seen things that, for better or worse, no other man has seen. I have lopped the heads off the necks of giants. And, at least a few times, I've fallen in love. And I guess that's where this story starts, so let's stop beating around the bush, shall we?

Heh. It's funny, because this story involves a nymph.

This story starts like a lot of them do: at an inn. Cliche, I know. But an inn's the melting pot of the town, where all the people meet together for business arrangements. Not that you'd find some shadowy stranger who'd give you a pouch of gold to investigate some tomb. You'd chat up some people, get problems, get names of people trying to solve those problems, and see if they're recruiting. Tedious, time-consuming. Not every part of the job was fun, though.

I ran the people and locations through my head. The mayor had bugbears and bandits being bothersome, the bailiff had some thieves skulking about stealing what wasn't nailed down, the blah blah blah, words words. The tedium caused me to not pay attention to where I was going, my mind focused on other things. Which is when I bumped into her.

When I say “bumped into her” I mean in the literal sense. I saw the poor girl tumble on the ground.

I reached down to pull her off of the ground, and I got an eyeful.

She was a young woman, with a pair of elfin ears poking around the messy tangle of auburn hair on her head. Young as in I could barely grow a mustache at this point, and she was younger than me. And despite her apparent age, she was rather eye-catching, sporting curves that an older woman would be jealous of. I could tell the extent of these curves because she was scantily-clad, to the point that I'd seen “working girls” with more on. A short skirt of grass, and an even shorter shirt of leaves, were the only things keeping her generously proportioned assets covered.

I blushed, stammering a bit.

“I-ah-I'm sorry for that, miss, um... that is...”

The girl tilted her head, a worried expression crossing her face. “Your face is red. Do you have a fever?”

A few of the older men in the inn chuckled. I thought that the damn hyenas were alternating between laughing at me, and having lewd thoughts about the girl that I'd run into. Or maybe I was projecting.

“No, no, I'm perfectly fine! Um... I'd much prefer to not talk in here, though.”

“But... don't people usually talk in this place?”

Imagine that for the next hour. Me trying desperately to get the girl away from prying eyes (that weren't my own), and her wondering what the hells I was talking about. That was the first conversation I ever had with her.

Hell of a first impression.

Skipping forward, I decided to take on the bugbear assignment. There was a good deal of coin in it, and there were only one or two bugbears in the area. Simple, profitable, quick. What wasn't simple was the presence of the nymph walking next to me, still cloaked in next to nothing, surveying the forest as we walked forward.

We'd gone into the forest at dawn. A mat of dead leaves littered the ground, giving a crunching sound with every step. The atmosphere was getting awkward rather quickly. Or at least, to me, it was getting awkward.

“So. We've gone this far, and somehow, neither of us has properly introduced ourselves.”

The girl looked at me warily. “Well... I was waiting for you to introduce yourself.”

“Then you should have made that a little clearer.”

After the first impression, I became a bit annoyed at her. It seemed like our acquaintanceship would be short lived. It seemed that way... until I saw her eye a rather large pile of dead leaves.

“Well, if you want to get my name, you'd better find me!” With that, she bounded forward with inhuman speed, landing face first into the leaves and quickly being enveloped by them. I shook my head. I had money to worry about, I didn't want to have to chase some leaf-covered doxy through a forest while I was at it.

I sifted through the leaves, quickly shuffling through until I found the bottom of the pile. And I saw nothing at the bottom.

Before I could ponder the disappearing young woman act, I felt a tap on my shoulder, and wheeled around, startled. There she was, smiling at me. She beckoned me with a playful gesture, and ran off through the trees.

I was young at the time -- as I've said earlier -- and the hardships of the world hadn't quite crushed my playful spirit. I ran after her, a smile on my face as I dodged through branches, my eyes focused on a prize that bounced up and down in front of me, seemingly perpetually out of reach. My breath became heavy as the chase went on, and I was about to collapse, right as the girl stopped, turned around, and held her arms out. Something in that gesture spurred me on, giving me a burst of strength that let me keep running. I was like a man possessed.

I grabbed her by the waist, pulled her close to me, still panting, still smiling. And, even after that run, I could barely see any sign of strain from her. My breath caught up to me, and finally, I spoke.

“My folks wanted me to be as strong and stalwart as a rock, so they named me Cairn.”

She reached a hand up to my face, resting a soft, delicate palm against my cheek. “No one named me, but I have a name: Fernweh.”

I pulled her in closer, embracing her in a somewhat clumsy manner. “That's a beautiful name for the girl I've fallen in love with.”

It was sudden. Two days before I'd met her, even a few moments before the run, I wouldn't have uttered anything as cheesy as that. I had to think a bit, after that line. It seemed like some specter of young love, or young lust, had grabbed hold of me.

Fernweh blushed at my declaration. “Why me? And why so suddenly?”

I couldn't answer that question. I didn't know why I was acting this way, just that I was. So, I just acted with it. A hand went up to her chin, and I pulled her face close to mine. Without another word, I kissed her. Her breath tasted odd, the scent of earth mixing in with hints of berries as I reached deep into her mouth. I felt energy flow into me from where my lips made contact.

She wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and kissed back. Vim filled me, the aches of running and carrying all of my equipment shed from my shoulders. As the kiss breaks off, I feel like I'm in a haze.

“Well... I'm flattered that you've fallen for me. But sit down, and let me get to know you first.”

A nice change of pace, was my first thought. At this time in my life, the two other women I'd bedded had skipped talking, and moved straight to the sex. And I'd realized... I didn't know what to say. No one had ever asked me about where I was from, or why I did what I did, or anything of that sort. I was a bit intimidated.

“Well... my mother and father were cotters. Living out in the woods, hunting when food was sparse, eking out a meager existence and praying to the fae for guidance and help. It was a hard life. Out there, in the sticks, we always hovered between satiation and starvation. And yet, somehow, we always managed to scrape by.”

Fernweh's brow was furrowed now, and a frown was on her pretty little face. “But you didn't live out there forever... out in whatever 'the sticks' is?”

I nodded. “No. I was sick of being poor all the time. I was sick of having to live harvest to harvest, hunt to hunt. I wanted to go out, and do something that seemed significant.”

I held my hand aloft, waving to our surroundings. “That's why I'm here, in this forest, hunting for my next big meal.”

She taps her chin with her finger. “So you've gone from living harvest to harvest, to simply living hunt to hunt?”

“Kind of. Between hunts, I at least have enough to indulge myself a little before I tighten the belt. A much larger buffer between satiation and starvation.”

She sits in front of me now, staring into my eyes. Concern has dominated her face. Taking a deep breath, she leans forward. I can feel her breath on my face, a light, gentle heat contrasting with the damp autumn chill. “Does that make you happy?”

I had to really think about that one. And after all my thinking, I still feel my answer was unsatisfactory.

“I don't know. It's lonely, and violent. I could meet my end by a deathtrap in some abandoned fortress, or at the hands of an orc or goblin horde. I could get on the bad side of a sorcerer and suddenly find myself on fire. I could even be stabbed in a dark alley, and bleed out as someone loots my pockets.”

There was dread on Fernweh's face as I went through all of these deathly possibilities, and I paused, trying to think of the positives.

“But in the end... in the end, I'm a free man. I wander where I wish, and I do as I please. It takes resolve to be free, and cunning to stay free.”

I grinned, pulling one arm around her. “Dad had an expression for it: fools don't go with what's easy, when they can go with what's hard.”

And on the topic of hard... I was feeling a bit hard, myself. A beautiful young woman draped under my arm. The lustful and unending thoughts that came with youth. A crisp, clear autumn day. And the sudden assessment that I may die at any time in my career. They all led to me taking initiative.

I do realize that the last part isn't that romantic. My bad.

The initiative, regardless of romantic intent, was taken. I grabbed her by the hands, and seated her on my lap, her legs sprawling as she landed on me. One hand darted towards an ample breast. I took some time to appreciate every facet of Fernweh. The moans and murmurs as I massaged her gently. The supple flesh that seemed to melt under my touch. The warmth, the subtle pulses under her skin that told me that she was real, somehow confirming that this wasn't some mad fever dream. Somehow, it was important to me that she was real, like she could slip out of my grasp at any moment.

One hand trailed up, along her pointed ears. The tips felt fragile in my hands, as I gingerly rubbed them. I felt like I was exploring a new frontier. Fernweh's pleased sighs assured me that I was on the right track. I kissed her, first on the lips, then on the cheek, and bent down to kiss her neck. Her skin tasted sweet and fresh, like an apple straight from the tree. I took in her scent, like a thousand wildflowers in bloom.

I had to have more.

I felt a hand slip into my trousers. A lewd smile stretched across Fernweh's features as he stroked my member. I gritted my teeth. Two could play at that game. I moved my hands down, one tugging at her breasts, the other flitting across her belly and towards her thighs. I felt the slick, moist flesh of her vulva underneath my fingertips. As my fingers rubbed up and down her slit, I felt her hips move reflexively against me, her own stroking beginning to intensify. I wasn't about to let her finish me off first.

I nipped at her sensitive ear, and slipped a finger into the depths of her vagina. I raked the inside, trying to find some spot of weakness. As my erection intensified, I felt moisture accumulate on my fingers. Where the moisture fell, it was like a wave was washing away the calluses on my hands, the stiffness in my joints. It felt like I was being reborn from her pleasure.

Before I could continue plumbing the depths of the girl on my lap, she turned back towards me, her free hand tugging down my trousers. “I think we've warmed up enough.”

Nonchalantly loosening my belt and pulling the trousers to my knees, I nodded. “I agree.”

She straddles my hips, her arms around my neck, and slowly, ever so slowly, she creeps her way down my shaft. I shudder, a refreshing feeling hitting me as my member is swallowed up in her. It's like a cool drink of water that washes over me, down into my soul. The worries and regrets I'd had in my life seemed to vanish as I pumped away at her.

The blissful feeling carries me forward, and even as I reach my first peak and fire a shot of cum into her, I continue, my motions growing in intensity. Kissing and licking wherever my tongue could reach, I took in her taste as her pleased cries rang in my ears.

I would not stop until both of us were satisfied.

The intensity of my thrusts climbed, as I toyed and teased with her body. Before long, I felt her tighten up, her muscles constricting around me. I continued to thrust as the first orgasm racked her body. It would not be the last.

At that point, my memory gets hazy.

All I remember after that is waking up, Fernweh and I entangled. She looked at me expectantly. I didn't exactly know what she meant, until she pointed at the sky. I could tell by the sun that it was already going into the evening. From how long we'd been going at it, I should have been sore all over. But I felt perfectly fine. Even better than I did when I had woken up in the morning.

I disentangled myself from her, sighing with some parts content, some parts annoyance. “Well. Looks like I'll hold off on that quest until tomorrow. Should we find a room to stay until then?”

“No, no...” Fernweh's fingers circle my chest, causing a tingling sensation at her touch. “Instead, let's just lie here... have a good rest.”

I look down at her. For the first time in my life, I feel like the luckiest man in the world. I feel like I could take on anything.

Too bad she'd be gone soon.