Monster Girl Sanctuary

UNRELATED BONNIBELLE ART

I absolutely expected to be scolded by all my monster girlfriends when I got back to the Sanctuary. On some level, I feared it, my body tensing a few times as I flew home with Etherea on Blue’s back. Still—after everything I’d been through, I figured I’d earned a little jaunt on my own terms.

Was it smart of me to take my near-fatal injuries into a possible combat situation hundreds of miles from anyone who could help? No, admittedly not. But—did I avoid trouble anyway? Also no. I made a new possible clingy enemy in the form of the nymph babe in that magical fucking forest.

But it wasn’t a total wash. I mean, on a technical level—mission freaking accomplished. I managed to avoid her sexy capture attempt for the time being and was enjoying the cool Lusterian air blowing at high velocities into my chiseled face. Most importantly, I got the scars on my arms healed.

“I hope she’ll be okay,” I grunted aloud as we soared through the sky on my blue dragon-steed’s scaly back.

“WHAAAAT?!” Etherea shouted in my ear. The wind was loud. She didn’t hear me.

“I said—FUCK IT, NEVERMIND.”

When we landed a half mile from the keep and Tater Town, I half expected a throng of beautiful monster girls to come charging into me and express their worry. It didn’t happen, though. None of them showed up. I could guess why. It was early—few of them would even be up.

We strolled back into town and I felt like a million bucks. I’d escaped the fabled “consequences of my actions” after all. I could tell from Etherea’s face, though, that she had been hoping I’d be caught.

“Alright,” I said, stretching, “I’m headed back to the keep. Thanks a ton for the huge favor. It was great to have your company and help.”

She nodded curtly, looking around as though she were going to sell me out to anyone that happened to walk out of a cottage at that moment. “This is our secret, right?”

She studied me through narrowed eyes. “Good luck keeping this secret, hero,” she said. “Your arms will be noticed.”

I shrugged. “Miraculous recovery? Think anyone will buy it?”

She didn’t laugh.

“Relax,” I said, leaning in and giving her a pacifying hug, “I’ll tell them I went on a top secret mission and got my arms all healed up, and there will be much rejoicing. Hell, they’ll greet you as a hero if they know your role.”

“Don’t tell them unless they ask,” she muttered, looking askew at Bonny’s smithy. “What’s next for you?”

I shrugged, looking around the blissfully idyllic scenery of Tater Town from atop its hill. Behind the cottages, the hills rolled and sprawled out into grassy plains dotted with distant cabins whose chimneys were already puffing smoke into the air. The sunrise captured the scene in my mind. I looked upon it with all the fondness that I had for it at first sight, and then some.

“I don’t know what’s next,” I said. “I’ve got some marking to do.”

Her eyes lit up. “Autumn?”

I nodded. “And Bonny, I’ve decided. She has certainly earned her place.”

“She is a good woman and a good mother,” Etherea added.

“How about you?” I asked.

“How about me, what?” she said, uncertain as to what I was getting at.

I leaned in and whispered. “I have one point available for marking an elf. Is that… something that would interest you?”

She blushed and looked away. “It would—but Ivy deserves it and wants it more than I do. It would break her heart if you chose me over her.”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t about to make a choice,” I said. “I was only asking, exactly for this reason.”

She looked up at me, taking a step back to see me from a greater distance, to put all of me in perspective. “Next time it can be me. If that’s something you would like to do.”

I grinned lasciviously as I reached out and put my hand on her waist, tugging her back in. “It would definitely qualify as something I’d like to do.”

Just then, I heard the door to a nearby house creaking. Looking over my shoulder I saw Bonny coming out with Flopsy and Cottontail attached to either leg in a death grip. She caught my eye and smiled.

I smiled back. “Good morning, Bonny,” I said.

“Good morning, Mr. Drake,” she said back to me. “And good morning, Etherea. What are you two doing?”

“Top secret hero stuff,” I said with a wink. Bonny giggled and smiled in response.

“Will you be stopping by to see the girls later?” she asked.

“What a dumb question,” I grunted. “Every chance I get. But now I should be heading back to check on the newborns.”

She nodded, and I noticed Etherea excusing herself back to her own cabin.

“Get some rest, hero,” she said as she disappeared behind the doorway. “With you healing so well, the coronation will no doubt be soon. I have a feeling the Goblin Queen won’t go all that easy on you.”

I chuckled. “I won’t go easy on her, either.”

Bidding them both farewell, I headed back into the keep. I traced my steps back to my room, opened it up, and was greeted with the sweet aroma of all my girls asleep on the bed, save for Daisy who was sitting on a cushion in the corner, nursing Bonnibelle.

“Hey there,” I said, walking up to her and sitting down in front of her. She leaned in and planted a kiss on my nose.

“Morning, honey,” she said. “She’s almost done feeding. Do you want to hold her?”

My eyes went wide. I just nodded. A few seconds later, Daisy handed my daughter to me, and that familiar fear crept back in.

“Why is everything precious so fragile?” I said, staring down at my daughter’s big brown eyes.

“What do you mean?” Daisy said, sounding troubled by my tone more than my words.

I shook my head and frowned. “I love her so much.” I looked up. “Just as I love you. But she’s so tiny. It’s terrifying how little it would take for her to be hurt.”

Daisy made a face at me. “Don’t talk like that,” she scolded me. “Not around the baby. She can understand you.”

I had forgotten already. Although she looked like a baby with an unusually full head of hair and an expressive face, she was more intelligent than any human infant I had ever known.

“Daddy,” she said to me, her voice so soft and disarming. It’s all she said.

A tear formed in my eye as I looked down on her, and I didn’t get to it in time before it rolled down my chin and fell on Bonnibelle’s perfect little face. I pulled her close and breathed in, imprinting the smell of my child into my mind. I would never forget this smell, the look of her, the sound of her voice. I wanted to always know where she was, what she was doing, who she was with…

“Your face is troubled,” Daisy said, placing a hand on my knee as I held Bonnibelle. “Are you alright, honey?”

I nodded, but couldn’t form words.

She looked down at my arms and gasped. “Your scars! They’re mostly healed!”

I just nodded.

“How?!”

“All that matters is that they are better,” I said. “Soon I’ll be able to pursue the Dragon Empress and start the next stretch of my quest.”

“You’re not going anywhere for at least another month,” Daisy growled through a furrowed brow.

“Daddy, don’t go,” complained Bonnibelle’s airy voice. She sniffled, the prelude to a cry.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised. “I’ll always be here.”

***

I slept through breakfast and lunch. I was peripherally aware that people had come in to check on me as I slumbered. The news of my magical recovery had spread fast. Only Etherea and Autumn knew the truth, but I could tell that others suspected I had been up to some manner of shenanigans in order to pull off such a quick convalescence.

When I woke up at last, I was face to face with Ivy, who was sitting at the foot of the bed and watching me through leering, suspicious eyes.

“What did you do?” she asked me coldly.

I thought fast. I had one chance to avoid consequences. “Hey, I’m going to mark you,” I blurted out.

Her eyes went huge. “What? Really?! Are you sure?”

I nodded. “Hell yeah. As soon as I’m fully healed.” Fuck—I brought the conversation back around to the healing.

She cocked her head at me, but she looked far less annoyed. “You are already looking pretty good,” she said.

“Well you don’t look too shabby yourself,” I grunted back with a playful roll of my eyebrows.

She smirked. “Be honest with me, Bucky. I won’t be mad. What did you do?”

I took a deep breath and inhaled, sucking in as much air as I could. Some of it went down the wrong pipe and I started coughing. Ivy scrambled over to where I was on the bed and started slapping me on the back.

“I’m not choking!” I said. “I’m fine!”

When it was all over I had a case of the hiccups, but was otherwise no worse for wear.

“Drink this,” Ivy said, pouring me some water from a pitcher into a clay mug.

I obeyed, slurping it down.

“What did you do?” she asked again, more firmly this time.

I shrugged, smiling dashingly at her. “Hardly anything, really, honestly. I just got some nymph’s tears and healed my arm. Easy peasy, lemon-squeezy.”

“Where in Lusteria did you find nymph’s tears so nearby?!” she said. “The nearest woods with nymphs in them are days away on foot.”

I tugged down her top, letting her bosom fall free. Her leaves hit the bed, and she gasped. “How about I mark you right now?” I suggested as I stared at her green nipples.

“Bucky, come on, you—”

I latched onto one of her tits with my mouth and reached around her back, pulling her body against me. She let out a desirous moan and ran her fingers through my hair.

“Okay—you win,” she whimpered, her red hair falling in front of my eyes as she sat in my lap. “Mark me, Bucky Drake.”