Trouble With Horns

** Taylor **

“Alright, we’ll camp here for the night I think,” I said, pointing to the patch of nice open ground in front of us.

We hadn’t made it too much further along the road after the fight we’d had with the stream snipers. Well, fight was a strong word with idiots like them, but I figured I’d be courteous and call it that.

The site I’d chosen for our camp was within a sheltered little copse of the low, gnarled trees that grew in these parts. The ground was dry and I could hear a stream burbling away nearby as it rushed towards the sea, so we could refill our water if we were low too.

The were mountains now looming over us like some sort of oppressive storm cloud, and given the type of crap that lived up there, and the type of people fighting up there, it may as well have been a storm. Something about the gigantic, god-made mountain range just attracted shit and corruption in the same way politicians did.

“Oh! Okay,” Millie chirped from next to me. “Uh, where do we sleep though, I’m not used to this region. I was just using the Fallihal trees back in Gienia.”

“Right, yeah I remember from watching your streams,” I said, stifling a grimace. At least I could get her out of the dirt and tree detritus this time. “Well, I guess I’ll be introducing you to the novelty that is warding totems and a tent,” I said wryly, summoning the warding totems.

“Oh I’ve heard of those things! I just never got around to buying them, I was always too busy,” she said, watching me begin to stake them into the ground.

I gave us a little room to work with for the camp, staking out an area that was roughly ten yards in either direction. Then I got the tent out of my inventory, cheating entirely because it was already set up. This was because it wasn’t your average tent, no this one was a rigid structure made of wood, with waterproof fabric stretched across it. In any normal scenario it would have been impossible to lug out into the wilderness all premade like that, but this was a video game.

“Wow! That’s basically a little house!” Millie gasped. “That’s so smart! I keep forgetting to remember a lot of the game elements to Cora.”

“It can get like that in VR, for sure. People forget it’s a game. I personally find it fun to see how I can use the gamelike mechanics to make things easier, and this is one of them. I had the tent custom made by a very confused NPC,” I grinned, still remembering how the carpenter woman had looked at me as I explained what I wanted.

Before I could even hammer the pegs into the ground in case a wind came up, Millie was inside the tent and babbling. “Is that a bed? Why is there a chest in here… how does this all fit in your inventory? This must weigh a ton! Oh geez, you have a little chandelier.”

“Because I’m a filthy pay to win whale and I bought a coupon that nullifies the weight of an  item,” I called as I went around the outside bashing the pegs into place with a gauntleted fist.

“Wait, those exist?” she asked, poking her head out of one of the windows like a little animal out of its burrow.

“Yup, right there in the cash shop,” I nodded, fighting the urge to grab that adorable little face and kiss her silly. Her big eyes were making my heart do all sorts of strange yoga moves. Don’t know why I thought of yoga there, but it’s not important.

Her head dipped back inside and she was silent for a few moments, before I heard a thoughtful, “Ahhhh.”

Guess she’d found the cash shop then… I hoped she wasn’t going to buy anything just yet, there were a bunch of things in the store that were fairly useless. Game companies loved to put that shit in their games. We called them newb traps, items that appeared to have value to a newbie, but an experienced player would know they were garbage.

“Don’t buy anything!” I called as I finished with the last peg.

“Why not?” she asked as I entered the tent, her big eyes looking up to find mine.

“There’s some shit in there that’s complete garbage. I’d hate for you to waste money,” I explained.

As she mulled that over, I went through my character sheet and unequipped all my armour and gross travel clothing, replacing it with much more comfortable leggings and shirt. Then I cast a cleaning spell on myself, something that frankly all adventurers should go and get their hands on. If they couldn’t use their ability trees, they should play a mage to enchant the spell into something for them.

The spell summoned a bubbling stream of water that snaked in under my clothing and rushed around like a little animal. It felt incredibly weird, but it beat going to sleep all gross and sweaty. Honestly, I still enjoyed a shower or a bath over it, even if the spell was more convenient.

“What is that?” Millie asked all bug-eyed.

“Cleaning spell,” I grinned mischievously. “Would you like to try it?”

She frowned at me for several moments, trying to figure out what I was playing at, then sighed and nodded. “If it really does clean me, then yes please. The one thing I don’t like about Cora is feeling so gross all the time.”

Casting it on her, I chuckled as she squeaked in surprise and squirmed around. Somehow she managed to throw off her cloak and robe in one go before the spell ended, leaving her standing there in a sports bra and thin linen pants.

“So, I take it you’re ready for bed then?” I asked with a laugh as she stood there looking bewildered.

“What?” she asked, looking up from her discarded clothing.

“You’re almost naked already Millie,” I chuckled, pointing out how she’d thrown her clothes on the ground.

“It felt weird!” she huffed, trying to defend her strange actions. “I was so not prepared for how completely strange that felt!”

“Yup, it does feel weird huh? You get used to it though,” I smiled, giving her a quick pat on the head. “You do realise we’re still streaming right?”

“What? Oh no!” she gasped, quickly going through the motions of ending her stream.

“Well, I guess that’s my cue to sign off too,” I laughed, waving to the camera. “See you all tomorrow!”

“That is so embarrassing!” she exclaimed, hiding her bright pink cheeks with her hands. “Why did I even take my clothes off! I’m such a dork!”

“I’m not complaining,” I commented with an appreciative smile. She had a gorgeous body under all the layers that she’d been wearing, and it was true that I couldn’t help but stare. She was short and just a little chubby, in that way that made girls seem hot and soft.

Her eyes somehow got even bigger as she stared at me after I spoke, her mouth opening just slightly as she panted for breath. She didn’t remove her hands from her face for a long while, instead just standing there and staring at me. I could see all the little cogs and pistons whirring away within her mind as she processed my words, until she finally dropped her hands with a sigh.

“This is dumb,” she said nervously, her mood shifting dramatically.

“What’s dumb?” I asked, moving to sit on the edge of the bed, feeling that we were about to have an intense discussion and wanting to be sitting down for it.

“Me! I’m dumb!” she exclaimed, her hands shaking as she waved them around. Then, visibly controlling herself she took a step towards me. “I don’t know how or why, but I like you a lot, in a romantic way and… well I’ve never liked a girl like this before. I’m really confused, I don’t know what’s happening to me. Am I gay? Am I pan or bi or something?”

Whoa, okay. That was incredibly forward and pragmatic from someone who had been an anxious disaster about everything between us so far.

“You don’t have to label yourself, just uh, I don’t know. Explore your feelings, see if you like it,” I said awkwardly, trying to keep myself from walking right over to the gorgeous girl and pulling her into a toe curling kiss.

“I can’t stop thinking about when I kissed you!” she blurted instead of responding to anything I’d said. We did seem to be thinking along similar lines however.

Shit though, my heart was beginning to feel this in a rather uncomfortable way. Uncomfortable in the sense that I wanted so badly to be holding her right now, but I couldn’t. I wanted to pull this girl into my arms, run my fingers through her beautiful silvery-white hair, kiss her slender, arching neck. I wanted to go further, I wanted to bring her so much wonder and pleasure.

“I’ve been thinking about that quite a bit too,” I said, shooting her a longing look before I could help myself.

“You have?” she asked in surprise.

“Yes, of course,” I smiled wryly. “I’ve been flirting with you and trying to impress you this whole damn time. I think you’re fucking incredible.”

“You… you think that? About me?” she gawked, her breathing coming in shorter and shorter gasps. “But I’m… I’m not… why?”

I didn’t answer, because I lost the battle of wills within my mind and pushed myself off the bed. It only took two steps to bring her into range, my arms rushing forward to wrap around her smaller frame. The moment I could feel her body pressed against mine, it was as though weeks of tension left me. Fuck it had been a striggle to hold myself back.

“I’m going to kiss you now,” I told her gently. “Shake your head if you don’t want it.”

She started to shake her head, then quickly nodded vigorously and said, “I meant yes! You just said shake your head, so I did, my brain is dumb, it just followed instructions, I really want you to—“

I leaned down and cut off her words with that kiss that she and I both wanted. At first it was just my lips against hers and a surprised squeak from her, as though I hadn’t just warned her it was coming. Then she melted against me, and oh it was so good. My heart gave a little stutter as our lips worked together with aching desperation. She was so hungry, the depths of her need at stark odds with her scatterbrained timidity from the last few days.

Arms found purchase around my neck as she pressed herself tighter against me, our lips slipping and brushing sweetly against each other, each new press sending shivers of sensation across my body. I was quickly finding myself lost to her, the way she clung almost desperately to me, the way she was clumsy and eager with the kiss, the way her tongue urgently asked for access to mine.

“Taylor,” she murmured breathlessly when we parted for air. “Holy shit, Taylor.”

“Yeah?” I whispered, leaning down to kiss her jawline absently.

“You’re so… Can we… lie down? I feel fuzzy and floppy,” she said with a sweet little giggle.

Letting go of her was so hard, but I did, moving over to lay my tired body down on top of the covers. It had been a long day, but I was beginning to feel energized all over again. Scrambling up and over to me, then on top of me, she didn’t even give me time to breathe before she was kissing me again, making little moans of happiness as we picked up where we’d left off.

Her hands were on my shoulders as she dove her tongue between my lips only to find mine rebuffing and pushing it back. Then I showed her just how freakishly long it was. Seriously, it was like several inches of length once it left my mouth.

She jerked back in surprise and stared down at me in shock. “What is… what? How?”

I grinned, sending my tongue out to it’s full, weirdly long length.

“That’s just so weird!” she exclaimed with huge, worried eyes.

I raised a single eyebrow in challenge.

“But…” she whispered, as a thought occurred to her. “That could be useful too.”

Holy shit, wow, that was dirty! I choked on my own saliva in surprise at what she’d said, sputtering and coughing to clear my throat.

“Are you okay?” she asked with concern, her hands going to my cheeks.

“Yup,” I coughed again. “I’m fine, you just took me by surprise with that line there.”

“Oh right… I’m not like… ready for that yet, but I couldn’t help thinking it,” she blurted with another incredibly cute blush.

“Come back here and kiss me, you little— mmf,” I grumbled, and she was back on me in an instant.

I really hoped we’d get some sleep tonight, but at the same time… this was going places and I had no intention of putting a stop to it.