Elves are fun!

Not sure what to expect on the island of the World Tree, I decided to land en force. The landing party consisted of our core group plus about half of the pirate mermaids aboard the MS Fish. The mermaids were thrilled to be going into action. Bonnie's inspirational speech didn't hurt, either. When she was finished, the mermaids raised their cutlasses and gave a battle cry as they exited the small boats that took them to shore.

Alice had informed me to expect plant monsters, as this particular island was the second most important habitat for the plants aside from Plansect Forest. My orders to our force were not to fight unless attacked. No plants had participated in the attack on the human kingdoms, so it was not a certainty that the plants would be hostile. But alas, they were quite hostile due to the strong magic that emanated from the island, magic that enraged the monsters on both sides. It was all I could do to keep my mermaids under control. Only the mermaids' general dislike of killing kept them somewhat in check. Still, the fighting was savage. I didn't even know that the MS Fish was going to provide us with artillery support until heavy fire crashed down onto a line of plant monsters that attempted to block our path. It was a miracle none of the plants were killed.

Bringing a large force had been a good idea. While the fighting was hard, the outcome was never in doubt. Our mermaids' muscle and sword play, along with heavy magic support by my companions, especially Aradia, left the plants completely overmatched. Within the hour, we stood before the source of the magic, or so we thought: the Queen Alraune.

"Why would you come to a place like this, just to pick on plants?" the queen asked.

"There's a spell coming from this island that's screwing with your emotions," I tried to say calmly. "Are you responsible for it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" the queen yelled. "For harming my subjects, you shall face my wrath!"

"She won't listen to you in the state she's in!" Alice shouted. "We'll just have to beat her down to calm her!"

I'd give you the heroic play by play of me bravely battling the queen and making her see things my way, but alas I got taken out early in the battle. I inhaled some perfume that the Queen Alraune emitted from her flowers, because I foolishly charged right in. I remember nothing after that, although I can give you the gist of what happened next.

The poison fragrance had been mean to knock some of us out. It had done that quite well, taking me and several of the mermaids out. With me lying on the ground unconscious, the queen decided to further use me as a distraction by casting a dark magic spell that caused the mermaids to go into a feeding frenzy, or what counts for a feeding frenzy to mermaids. They wanted semen, and nothing, not even my unconsciousness, was going to stop them. Alice every so helpfully urged Sonya not to defend me and concentrate on defeating the queen, which meant that for the entire battle I was getting dogpiled by mermaids. She'd unleashed a few more tricks on my companions. Ilias had been rendered incontinent, much to her embarrassment, by another spell cast by the queen, while Sonya had been lost in a trance after inhaling yet another fragrance emitted by the versatile queen.

In the end, it had fallen to Alice to deliver the blows that brought the queen to her senses. Triumphant, Alice had ordered the queen to lift the spell. Except the queen wasn't responsible for the spell. To absolutely no one's surprise, it was revealed that Black Alice was behind the spell, which was cast by one of her servants, a legendary monster from ancient times known as Azi Dahaka. Alice beat her up too, with an assist from a dozen mermaids, who were in a fighting mood after being forced to violate my unconscious body. That battle, alas, was inconclusive. Alice and the mermaids, with Aradia's help, clearly defeated Azi Dahaka, but not decisively enough. Realizing she was outnumbered, the ancient dragon teleported away. But at least the spell had been lifted. With Azi Dahaka in retreat, Aradia had simply dispelled it. We were fortunate that Tamamo had not put the spell in place, otherwise it would have been nearly impossible to get rid of without calling on our own Tamamo.

I awakened, being ministered to by the Queen Alraune, who had a breast to my mouth feeding me a milky substance which rejuvenated me. I didn't understand at the time why I was so tired. I remembered passing out, but hadn't been told what the mermaids had done to me. But at Alice's urging, I accepted Queen Alraune's milk, which restored me to one hundred percent quickly, for all that it mattered given that the battle was over.

"I have been such a fool, allowing myself to be manipulated so," the queen lamented.

"It's not your fault, Queen Alraune," Ilias said, surprisingly reassuringly. "It seems as if everyone is getting brainwashed lately."

"What I don't understand is how you'd be susceptible to it in the first place," Alice said. "You've always been peaceloving. What would lead you to such hostility?"

"I'm afraid I've been isolating myself on this island," the queen answered. "Just as the elves and fairies have on theirs. The world has changed, but we haven't changed with it due to our isolation. Perhaps it is time for us to see the world and learn to get along better with humans. If they are open to better relations, I am willing to engage peacefully with them."

So the queen decided to come with us, along with a few of her best soldiers. Those included a dryad, a walraune, one of the most incredibly gorgeous alraunes I'd ever seen, a redhead named Aria, and a pitcher plant. The Queen herself would need some time to recuperate in the castle after the battle, as Alice was far less gentle than me when it came to beating sense into people.

"So where to next?" I asked my companions, in the mess hall of the MS Fish. It was nice to eat dinner that I didn't have to make. Ashel was pretty good at cooking.

"There are still three other monster tribes attacking human cities," Sonya noted. "Do we take them all down one by one?"

"It may come to that," Alice answered. "But the most important thing we can do to end this war, as I told the assembled monarchs, is to confront my mother. So our job is to get the orbs unless something more pressing comes up."

"We only hit Fairy Island because it was low hanging fruit," Ilias said. "It's good that we did, because we found out where the red orb is, and we found out about that spell. We probably should try to deal with the other three monster tribes, but I agree that the orbs are the quickest way to put an end to this conflict."

"Okay, so we see this Elven Princess in Yamatai?" I asked. "Sounds good, although I feel uncomfortable with this whole situation. I'm not marrying that princess. It seems wrong to meet with her under the misconception that I might court her."

"It's not as if you're being deceptive, Luka," Alice said. "She assumes nothing. She only wants to meet you, and if she likes you, she'll try to persuade you to begin a process that you can end at any point. You don't even have to start that process if you don't wish to."

"She's not giving you the red orb conditionally," Ilias added. "The Elven Princess wants to live just like everybody else. You'll get the orb whether she likes you or not. We just needed to lure her out of her manor with the promise that there might be something she's interested in outside of it."

"If she likes you, she'll give you another gift, one you didn't ask for," Alice said. "And if that happens, it's totally up to you what you want to do with that. Any man would be honored to be the husband of a monster princess."

"Are you saying you want him to court the princess!?" Sonya exclaimed.

"I want Luka to do what he's been doing from day one," Alice answered. "What he thinks is best. For the world, and ultimately, himself."

Left unspoken was the fact that I didn't expect to be around to marry any Princesses.

I teleported us off the MS Fish to Yamatai. "Shouldn't I be meeting her alone?" I asked. "Why am I bringing you three?"

"Don't you know anything about royal courting?" Alice asked. "No, I guess you wouldn't. Your experience never involved formal courting. So here's the rundown. She has her staff with her, to also meet you and later give their opinions on you. We serve the same purpose for you. At this point meeting alone would be improper."

"But isn't she a monster?" I asked. "I didn't think monsters were so…. Victorian about it."

"I don't know what means. But if you mean conservative, it's important for you to remember that sex, feeding, and love are three different things for monsters. And I don't believe the Elven Princess has ever had a sexual experience with a man. Chances are she eats second hand semen. That's how I had to live my life until a few months ago. The tribes that want to get along with humans don't let their children hunt. It would be bad if they grew up thinking of humans as mere food. Now add that to the fact that she's a shut in who only associates with other elves. She almost never sees a man. You'll be quite the novelty for her."

We arrived at the appointed meeting place, the snake shrine. The Elven Princess was already there and I got my first glimpse of her. She stared at me for a moment, then ran. Was that good or bad? She was quite beautiful in a delicate way. I'd never been into the relatively dainty, small elves, preferring my women to be larger. Or maybe I was just influenced by falling in love with a 15 foot snake. But I had always been fascinated by how the blood of Yamatai mixed with monsters. Miko was a good example, probably the loveliest lamia I'd ever seen. This Elven Princess was one of the loveliest elves I'd ever seen as well. It was no wonder many elves favored living near Yamatai, where they could have access to the most high quality men in this world. They certainly made beautiful offspring.

In traditional Yamatai fashion, we sat on the floor on one side of a table, while the princess' entourage sat on the other. I couldn't see the Princess. But I did notice that there were a couple of shadows behind a screen used to partition the room. I assumed she was hiding behind that screen. Not surprising, given her famous shyness. The princess confirmed my suspicions when she peeked out, then rushed to kneel next to one of her aides, whispering in her ear. She then rushed back behind the screen.

"The princess says, 'I am honored to meet you'," her aide informed me.

"I know she's shy," Alice said. "But is it really appropriate to do it this way? She really should come out and sit down."

The princess rushed out again and whispered into her aide's ear once again.

"The princess says, 'I like you very much'," the aide said.

"I'm honored," I said graciously. "I think she is very lovely."

That brought the princess out again. This time she stared at me for a moment, expressionless, then whispered into her aide's ear again and handed her something.

"The princess says that this is proof of your acquaintanceship," the aide said. "Please accept this."

The aide handed me a red orb. Outstanding! I had expected the red orb to be the most difficult one to acquire.

"Thank you so much," I said. "Because of this, we'll be able to save your world."

I turned quickly to Alice and added, "What's acquaintanceship?"

"It means you now know each other," Alice said back. "There are no obligations. You aren't even friends yet. She is simply acknowledging that she now knows you and would like to know you better in the future. Normally you'd begin exchanging letters starting in a few days. I think our work is done here. Princess, I thank you for your hospit-"

The princess rushed out again, carrying a scabbard and handing it to the aide, whispering in her ear again.

"The princess also wants to send you this treasure that has been passed down from the village," the aide said. "Please accept Mugen, a famous katana that is counted among the seven legendary blades."

"Wait, seven legendary blades?!" Alice exclaimed. "A gift like that goes way beyond acquaintanceship!"

"Is this really okay?" Sonya asked.

"Alice, is something happening here that I should know about?" I asked.

Alice started to answer, although her expression told me that she wasn't sure at all, but before she could, the Elven Princess rushed out again, this time with a box, which she handed to her aide, whispering in her ear again.

"In addition," the aide said, betraying no hint of an opinion on any of this, "the princess wants to send you off with the following items. They will prove useful on your journey."

The aide pushed the box towards me. I opened it and looked at the items. There was another weapon, a shorter sword, a fan, a robe, a veil, a ring, and a small rod.

"Those are…..!" Alice started.

"This is some pretty weighty affection!" Ilias exclaimed. "Those are all powerful magical items!"

"What responsible monster princess would just hand items like this over to a human she just met?!" Alice asked.

The princess ducked back out again.

"There is no need to be concerned," the aide said. "The princess says it is natural to serve a gentleman's heart. You also need these for your journey. The princess is committed to assisting you in any way possible."

"Well, I guess that makes sense," Alice agreed grudgingly. "Luka's heart is in this quest most of all, so giving him items that will help him in his quest definitely counts as serving his gentlemanly heart."

"We accept these gifts with gratitude, Princess," I said. "Honestly, while we've had a lot of help from the various monster tribes, this goes above and beyond. I am grateful to you beyond words."

"Luka!" Alice said in shock. "You said the magic word!"

"What magic word?" I asked, confused.

"Grateful! Don't you realize what that word means to a monster?!"

The princess rushed out again, whispering into her aide's ear, this time for a more lengthy period. She stopped for a moment to give me a sweet smile, then shyly went back behind the screen.

"The princess says," the aide reported. "That regarding the wedding, it can be performed in a shrine or in an Ilias church if that is your faith."

"That's it!" Sonya yelled, grabbing her club and rushing behind the screen. "Luka says, 'A woman that moves too fast is annoying!!!!"

"Who is this uncivilized girl?" the elven Princess said, speaking audibly for the first time. Apparently she was not so shy around women.

"Uncivilzed?!" Sonya raged. "Let me show you just how uncivilized I can be!"

Several armed elves rushed into the room and went behind the curtain, where a struggle was already raging.

"Should we stop this?" I asked.

"No," Alice said firmly. "Sonya acted out inappropriately. Let her take her beating."

"I can't just let Sonya get beat on and do nothing!" I objected.

"If you go behind that screen and fight at Sonya's side, the elves and the princess will assume that you've chosen Sonya over her. The elves won't hurt her too badly. If things get out of control, we'll intervene. You stay seated."

The screen toppled as an elf was thrown into it. The elf quickly got back up and rejoined the fray. Sonya was brawling like a madwoman and shockingly holding her own.

"I think…. That maybe we should stop this before someone gets hurt," Ilias said.

"That girl gets emotional," Alice added.

So a few minutes later, it was all settled, and surprisingly there were no hard feelings. If anything, the elven princess was intrigued. She understood that she had misjudged my use of the word "grateful" and recognized that my heart was up for grabs, although that was a rather simplistic way of describing a very complicated situation. The upshot was that the elven princess vowed(speaking only through her aide, of course) that she would not lose the battle for my affections, and that she would begin writing me letters at once.

"Sonya, are you okay?" I asked as we walked through the castle doors.

"Oh, I'm fine," Sonya replied listlessly. "I just battled the elves' most elite warriors. I'm pretty sure I have all the concussions."

"You did surprisingly well," Ilias said. "It was fun seeing you beat up all of those monsters. You know, I think I've changed a lot, but it still brings me such joy to see a human beat the snot out of a monster. And you did it for love. Sigh."

"Ilias, goddess of romance," Alice muttered sarcastically. "In any case, we got what we came for. Tomorrow we go get the other three orbs. And then…."

"And then, we end this war," I finished for her. Despite my words, I wasn't eager to do this at all. I was worried that somehow, some way, Alice's mother would get me to kill her. Or even if I didn't, that her mother's fate was so certain that no matter what I did, she would die.

I dropped the box of magical items on the table in front of Tamamo. She looked at the items inside and her eyes got wide.

"These items are no joke, Luka!" Tamamo said. "Some of these are dangerous! She must really be into you! I'd call this irresponsible if not for our desperate need."

"So what do they do?" I asked.

"The sword you can give to an ally that you trust," Tamamo said. "It's legendary not because of its enchantment, which is actually fairly weak, but because of how well made the blade is. It will cut through just about anything like butter. The balance is amazing. Compared to Angel Halo, which has the most powerful enchantment in the world, it's far more lethal."

"Sounds too dangerous for someone to wield in a party where we try not to kill," I noted.

"That's why it should go to someone with a lot of control and scruples."

"How about you?"

"I'm not a swordswoman," Tamamo chuckled. "Not that I can't use a sword, I'm pretty damned good. But not that good. I'd be cutting off limbs and heads if I tried to wield that blade. Granberia could use it. But the blade was designed for use by an elven warrior. Elves naturally have the agility and precision to use a weapon like that the way a surgeon would use a scalpel. You should give it to one of them."

"How about Alice?" I asked.

"Alice? Really?"

"Oh yeah, she has a temper."

"That's putting it mildly," Tamamo chuckled.

"Okay, so an elf it is. What about the other items?"

"Now this fan I can use," Tamamo said, grabbing the fan and opening it, partially covering her face. "Don't I look mysterious when I do this?"

"I like it. But what does the fan do?"

"So many things in creative enough hands," Tamamo answered. "This fan can hold almost any enchantment. That means I can use it to magnify the effects of my spells. The fan also works as a magical reflector. If someone was to cast a lightning bolt I could block it with this and send it right back at them. It also cuts like a sword when used correctly."

"How about the ring? I've used rings before."

"I don't recognize the ring. I can sense a lot of power from it though. Let's give it a try."

Tamamo placed the ring on her finger and pointed it at the ceiling. She concentrated for a moment and mumbled something. The ring flared to life, sending a bolt of light at the ceiling. Small pieces of the ceiling rained down on us.

"Oops," Tamamo giggled. "Light ring. Fires a focused beam of light at a target. Very common."

"I thought these were all rare magical items."

"They are. What makes this ring unusual is its power potential. I just used a simple spell that invokes a magical item's power at its minimal level. At full blast this ring would make even an Ancestor say ouch. It would obliterate a normal opponent."

"Oh, so a lot like my power. So I don't need that, but perhaps someone I trust could use it?"

"Sonya," Tamamo said. "Sonya was worried about not being able to contribute enough in battles. That holy arrow spell Ilias taught her is solid, but it won't do her any good if she faces that other Tamamo again. This, on the other hand…. Even my counterpart wouldn't be able to ignore this."

"Okay, so that leaves the rod, the robe, and the veil. What do those do?"

"The rod I wouldn't touch," Tamamo replied. "It's got an extremely powerful enchantment, but it's too random."

"Too random?"

"You know how Saki has that deck of cards? These types of magical items are designed to enable weak magic users to create powerful magical effects. But there's a price for wielding powerful magic. It's a law of nature. One cannot wield magic more powerful than they are fit to control without some kind of tradeoff. In the bad old days, that tradeoff was usually your life or at the very least your quality of life. The magic you used would age you faster, or give you a horrible wasting disease, or corrupt you. We live in gentler times now. What some smartass magician did was create a less harmful tradeoff. You can wield very powerful spells without selling your body and soul, but the price is that the magic is unreliable. It might not be there for you when you need it."

"So sometimes it just doesn't work?"

"Oh, it always works," Tamamo laughed. "It just doesn't always give you the effect you need in a given situation. Actually, I know this wand! It has an identifier that makes it unique. See, it has a word engraved on it."

I looked closely at the rod as Tamamo showed it to me. There was indeed a single word engraved on it.

"Amazing," I read.

More of the ceiling came down on our heads as a lightning bolt erupted from the rod and gouged another hole right next to the one Tamamo had made with the light ring.

"Don't say it!" Tamamo laughed. "This wand was made for idiots. You need literally no magical ability to invoke it. You just say that word and the wand executes a random magical effect. The last person who used this wand died."

"I can imagine. Should I be afraid to ask how?"

"It's not terribly horrible. An adventurer found this rod on the body of a monster he'd slain. She deserved it, actually. I don't know who she was precisely, but she was some sort of carnivorous monster bent on eating him. You could say she bit off more than she could chew. He defended himself, she died, and he looted this rod off of her. Then, as the story goes, he ran into some trouble at the local bar. He was being cheated at a card game and when he challenged the villains who defrauded him, they attacked him. He was losing due to being outnumbered, so he yanked out this rod, said the word, and they were instantly vaporized."

"So he must have thought he had found something ama- incredible."

"Pretty much. He used this rod to defeat many monsters. It became a crutch. Encounter monster, pull out the rod, say the word, and your enemies fall before you. Sometimes lethally, sometimes not. But then one day he was attacked by a pack of wolf girls. He drew out the rod, said the word, and…. A plate materialized and fell to the ground shattering. He survived long enough to use the rod again. The cooldown for the rod isn't long, only a few minutes. He desperately fought off the wolf girls as long as he could with his sword. Then, when he had his back to the wall, figuratively speaking, he used the rod again. Guess what happened."

"I'm guessing whatever did happen wasn't enough to save him."

"Nope," Tamamo said. "The rod summoned a cloud of stinking gas. He and the wolves coughed and retched and puked, and when the gas cleared, they raped him to death. Covered in his own vomit."

"Ew…." I said. "The veil?"

"It's a true seeing veil combined with an illusion."

"I don't get it."

"The enchantment only works for females," Tamamo explained. "Any woman who wears it sees things as they truly are. To those who see her, she appears as she wants them to see her. Behold!"

Tamamo put the veil on. She immediately grew back into her ture form. The form of the Tamamo I had loved for so many years.

"Now that's interesting," Tamamo said.

"What's interesting?"

"You," Tamamo said, removing the veil and returning to her diminished form. I assumed that must have been the illusion. "You're not who you think you are."

"You're going to need to explain that to me," I said.

"I don't know if I can. You're definitely Luka, but you're…. more. I'm not sure what it means either."

"I thought that thing showed you things as they truly are."

"It did, but that doesn't mean I understand it. It's like…. You were in front of me, but there was more to you than initially met the eye."

"You and Alice have both said that there's more to me than is first apparent," I said.

"No, it's not the same. Well, forget it for now. We have enough mysteries on our plate. Ah, now this is cool."

Tamamo was wielding the short sword. It had a pitch black blade with a blue gem on the hilt.

"That looks very interesting and very evil," I noted. "What does that do?"

"It's a moon sword. This weapon is a normal sword during the day, although still quite good because it's very well made. But at night, the gem absorbs the moon's power to turn it into a powerful weapon. This is another example of a weapon made for someone with no magical ability. The tradeoff here is that it's only exceptional at night, and only if the moon Is bright in the sky."

"Why does there have to be a price for magic use?" I asked.

"Just a law of nature, as I said. The universe doesn't want everyone to just use magic willy nilly. Magical ability always comes with a price. The only acceptable price to pay is to work hard to learn how to use magic. Only then can you use magic without penalty, because you've already paid the price with sweat. But if you don't sweat, the price is blood. Or unreliability."

"So what does that weapon do at night?"

"The main purpose of weapons like this has historically been to slay lycanthropes. This one's old. There aren't any more lycanthropes. The idea is that the weapon is most powerful during a full moon, so that's when you'd need it most if you're going to fight a werewolf or something like that. But I'm keeping this one. As you know, I am at my most powerful when the moon is out as well. Give me a full moon and I could so some incredible things with this weapon. I could even stand up to my counterpart without having to use the Word of Dispel."

"Outstanding!" I said. "That just leaves the robe."

"That one's simple," Tamamo said, pulling out the robe.The robe was as dark as the black blade.

"Let me guess," I said. "The robe is completely dark, so it can make you invisible? I saw that in a Harry Potter movie."

"I have no idea what that is," Tamamo said. "And no, it's not an invisibility robe. It's an anti-dark magic robe. Not even the most powerful dark magic can penetrate this. If you were to face a monster who primarily used dark magic, this would be a superb counter. Even the most powerful dark magic spells would have no effect on you."

"In my experience, most dark magic wielders also use the elements. Who are we likely to encounter who only uses dark magic?"

"I can think of one person," Tamamo said. "Black Alice. She does have some elemental familiarity, but not at a very high level. Where Black Alice excels is in dark magic, or at least she did when I knew her. It's been five hundred years, though. The Black Alice of this world might have learned a lot of new tricks. But your 'Alicetroemeria', she's Black Alice as she was. If she turned on you, this robe would be very useful."

"Do you think she will turn on us?"

"Hard to say. She clearly recognizes that the fate of all universes is in your hands. She wants to live as much as any of us do. But she's insane. She could decide one day that she wants to watch it all burn. You can never trust Black Alice. Black Alice can't trust Black Alice."

Wow. That was a problem. A very scary problem.

"So what did you think?"

That was Claudia speaking to me.

"About what?" I gasped. I gasped because it's very difficult to have a conversation when you're balls deep inside an elf.

"About the princess," Claudia prodded.

I was sitting on a couch, with Claudia straddling me, doing all the work. That wasn't unusual with monsters. Most monsters preferred to be in control. If you're eating, do you want to be in control, of have your food feed itself to you?

"She's lovely, and very sweet," I stammered. Oh my. Elven pussy is legendary for a reason. I could write a book on how different monsters' lady parts feel. Mermaids are the softest by far. Succubi are the most intense. Dragonkin are the hottest. Kitsunes are the most interesting and varied, truly a treat for the connoseur of fine pussy. Harpies are notable as well, although it's hard to describe if you haven't experienced it. Their canal is shaped oddly, so that it's not terribly tight entering, but right at your tip it shrinks around you. But elven vaginas are also extraordinary in their own way. Super tight, due to elves' slighter stature, and also super wet. Rumor had it that elves were always wet because they were perverts. I assumed it was more biological. Their mouths were also more wet(they generated ungodly amounts of saliva, making for every sloppy blowjobs), and even their hands were always a little moist(and silky soft) Promestein had once clinically explained to me that elves ere 80% water, in contrast to humans, who averaged 60 to 70 percent water. Or maybe they were just more perverted than most monster races. Just don't tell them that. Elves get very touchy about that stereotype.

"So does that mean you're interested?" Claudia asked slyly, pumping away at me.

"Is this really what we should be talking about now?"

"It's important to my people. You're the great hero. Your fame is spreading. For the elves to have you as our own would be very significant for our race. You know how much we elves value strong blood. It's why we established a village near Yamatai."

"I can't really think much about that kind of thing right now," I said. "I don't think I'm going to be here once my quest is complete. Whether to consider her very flattering offer is going to be up to this world's Luka."

"It looks like you're leaving that Luka with a very complicated situation," Claudia giggled. "Rumor has it that this other Luka is a virgin who doesn't know anything about women. I have to be honest, I can't wait to see how THAT turns out."

"Ah… Ahhhh…."

"Another satisfied customer," Claudia said, making eye contact with me as I orgasmed.

"Aren't you the customer here?" I asked.

"Don't try to convince me you aren't having the time of your life."

Claudia had slowed down during the orgasm, since she was a conversational sort who didn't want to render me incoherent. Once I was finished, she resumed her vigorous movements.

"Someone I once knew told me that I should enjoy what life had to offer, because I might die," I said. "I never really followed that advice until now. Now I know that this ends in my death, so I guess part of me just wants to experience as much as I can."

"That's a good way to think," Claudia replied. "I assume she wasn't speaking in general, but about you specifically? You seem like the type who's always in danger of dying."

"There have been short periods in my life, yes. But that same person who told me that, I was married to her for hundreds of years. During that time I felt completely safe and content. There was never any danger. No urgency. The crazy thing is that during that period I probably enjoyed myself more than I ever had."

"Lots of sex with lots of monsters?" she asked.

"Actually, no. Just her. Well, there were some incidents over the years, but that's just life with a powerful monster. There were actually a lot fewer incidents than when I was married to the Monster Lord. Now that was complicated. There were relationships to maintain, others to cultivate…. Ahhhh…. Oh my god…"

"Mmmm…. Your semen is so potent," Claudia purred. "Next time I want to taste it directly. I want you to shoot it in my mouth…"

"Ahhhhh!!!!" Orgasm number three.

"Wow, you're easy," Claudia giggled. "And fun."

Claudia apparently decided that three was enough. Elves may have had reputations as perverts, but except for their dark elf sisters, they weren't in the habit of being greedy with men. Claudia began quickly getting dressed again.

"Claudia, before you go, there's something I want to give you," I said.

"Oh really?" Claudia asked. "A gift, perhaps?"

"Not a gift, so much as a tool. You're an important ally now, and so you should have the best equipment."

I reached behind the couch and pulled out Mugen, the legendary sword that the elven princess had given me. I held the sword, still in its scabbard, out to Claudia.

"That…. That's….." she stammered.

"It's Mugen," I said.

"I heard that the princess gave you gifts, but she gave you Mugen!? And you're… giving it to me? Was I really that good?"

"I'm not giving it to you because you nearly sent me to heaven, I'm giving it to you because I trust you can you can make the best use of this. We don't like killing in this group. That sword is way too dangerous for any of us to wield. But it was made for an elf's hands. You have the skill and precision to use it without killing. Please, take it, and use it well."

"I…. I'm honored!" Claudia said in disbelief, taking the scabbard from me and pulling the sword out halfway. "I will use this faithfully and return it to you when our quest is ended."

"No, I want you to keep it," I insisted. "That's an elven sword. It should stay in the elven tribe. The princess gave it to me unconditionally, and I'm returning it to the elves by giving it to you. When the time has come for you to lay down your sword, you can pass it down to someone worthy of it as well."

Claudia set the sword down on the coffee table and embraced me, kissing me deeply. I'd been working on getting up off of the couch, not easy when you're in critical ecstasy from three orgasms. Even her light weight, eighty pounds at most, made it impossible for me to stand up.

"You know what this means?" Claudia asked, her sweet breath teasing my nostrils.

"It means…. I'm not leaving this couch anytime soon?"

"You're a smart boy. Now just lay back and enjoy. I'm going to get that taste now."

As her kisses trailed down my chest towards my groin, I thought of Tamamo's words to me so many years ago, about how I should have been enjoying as many monsters as I could, knowing I would probably die soon. If she could only see me now…..