Day ~104~Part Two~

Rea didn't waste any time. While scouring the passage, she left permafrosted markers so that they wouldn't get lost. Using [Psychometry] and [Prospecting], she went about detecting unusual patches of earth. In tandem, with Sereda, they quickly turned walls to sand and gathered whatever treasures there were to be found... they made sure not to pile the sand higher than two apples. Wouldn't wanna drown a murff.

A while in Sereda began to complain about the humidity, it was making breathing a bit difficult. Activating freezing aura in short bursts solved that problem. Sereda was incredibly happy to breathe easy again. Rea, looking at Sereda's cloth shirt, was incredibly happy for an entirely different reason. The cold may make men less appealing, but with women...

Remembering the time she'd spent in Melody's cooler, Rea decided that this was too distracting. The next time they burrowed into a wall she sealed them in. As countless little lanterns shot about the chamber Sereda smirked, then turned to face Rea. She had gotten the message. When her clothes slowly fell, the hopeless ophidian dug in voraciously. Sereda's screams as warm lips made contact with chilled flesh, echoed throughout the chamber. It was so embarrassing that she covered her own mouth, Rea noticed and forced her arms back. Sereda cried out again as Rea thoroughly melted the peaks. When the woman convulsed Rea looked up into her lusty eyes, "I didn't even touch... impressive."

Sereda bit her lip, "That was mean."

Rea poured mana into her exposure rune, "Care to return the favor?"

*AHHHHHHNNNN!*

Sereda had forgotten that her wife is an incredibly loud screamer.

Day ~105~

The more they dug the higher her [Prospecting] got. The higher her prospecting, the better their results. Rea was ecstatic with the amount of rare ores they were digging up. Earth magic really was making this a breeze. Their entire day was spent digging, resting, eating, wrestling, and wrestling. Sereda still clearly remembered that encounter, the one where she tried to harm Rea. The smaller woman had easily thrown her about and broken her like a glass doll. Sereda was determined to learn everything she could from Rea. Now if only her wife would quit getting distracted and tearing their clothes off during training...

Day ~106~

While Sereda mined under Rea's guidance, the ophidian, after being scolded, was now mending some torn clothes. Watching the woman who had lost her last pair of cloth breeches use magic to dig around with nothing but a shirt on was doing wonders for her concentration. Now if she could just concentrate on the right thing...

Later that night they sealed themselves in as usual and began to cook up some dinner. As Rea fried some wyvern bacon Sereda gave her an unusual look, "What?" she asked.

Sereda bit her tongue, she wasn't sure she should ask, but she couldn't hold back, "Your daughter, I want to know more."

Rea nearly dropped the pan, "That was sudden."

Sereda rolled her eyes, "Not really, I've been thinking it since you fell apart on me."

After a long drawn sigh Rea cut off the heat. Waltzing over she plopped down in her usual spot on Sereda's lap, Rea smiled. "You know, I usually get angry or sad when I think of Elizabeth. I think this is the first time I'm just... content."

Sereda folded her arms around Rea's abdomen and leaned against the wall. "Why is that?"

Burrowing her head into a familiar neckline, taking in the cayenne scent, Rea added, "I think its because I'm happy right now, I... want you to know about her. She is the reason for almost everything I... we do now."

Sereda moved one hand to pull Rea in closer. As Rea absently put her hand on Sereda's own, the one that was now resting on her chest, just below her neck, the woman spoke up. "I would like to know why we'll be fighting dragons. Other than immortality and what not, I want to know more about the reason.. about your past, about the only person you've ever loved."

Rea felt a bit sad as Sereda said that, she had been a bit wrong. The bronze woman was still fully aware of how she felt. "I doubt this is what you call love, but you are special Sereda. Never doubt that." Sereda smiled as Rea looked at her, after a gentle kiss Rea spoke again, "Elizabeth was... special, a brat. She was life itself."

Sereda chuckled, "I'm not sure I'm following Rea."

Rea perplexed a bit, "I don't know how else to put it. I told you I was born in the middle of a war?" Sereda nodded, "Well I was also born in another world."

"Another world?"

"A place different from this one, there wasn't any magic or monsters. I swear I almost lost my mind when I first saw the stuff of nightmares running around." Sereda nodded in understanding, she didn't doubt Rea for a second. "Anyways, in that world there were weapons that even children could use, with relative ease, to kill grown men. So sometimes, in really terrible wars, you saw the worst of people. Some were willing to turn children into monsters... I... I avoided that fate but I still saw it happen to all of my brothers and sisters. We lost our home, and I watched them fight, watched them die." Sereda tightened her grip on Rea, "I avoided dying because they planned to use me as a bomb. You know what a bomb is?"

Sereda affirmed, "There's a fire spell that explodes called fire bomb."

Rea nodded this time, "Sort of like that I guess, anyways the people I was supposed to run at... I ran away from. For some reason my bomb never went off. I think they were mercenaries or something, but what I'd done didn't go unnoticed. They... dispelled the bomb and saved me. I made my way to a kinder part of the world, but I was already pretty messed up, I guess. When I was a bit older, a young woman... I met a man, my teacher, I thought I was in love. But when I got pregnant he said he wouldn't marry me. When we got in an argument he used this gaseous liquid to put me to sleep. The next time I woke up I was under a knife, they wanted to take my child away. I desperately fought back and somehow, I got away."

Sereda tightened her grip again, trying to stop the shaking. Rea could clearly remember that day, looking up at a dumbfounded doctor. Taking then using his own scalpel to slash the man's throat. Killing the man that should've made her happy, should've saved her. Running like mad, from everything.

"I found a nice rural place and settled down, I had my daughter alone. The locals took me in without asking any questions. They loved and took care of me like I was one of their own. I had my daughter in the kindest, warmest place I had ever known. Elizabeth was happy, and every moment I spent with her, every smile, every laugh, every stupid joke brought me back. I can't go into detail about raising her, about the moments and days we spent together. Because when I do I remember what happened..." Rea bit her lip hard enough to draw blood, her voice shook, "the past doesn't stay dead, her father had family... they found me, found us."

Sereda dearly regretted asking about her daughter as Rea's voice progressively became lower and quivered with rage. "Aside from the man who was Elizabeth's father, his family, and their families, the ones that were involved in her death, were the first people I killed. I was blinded by so much hatred that I didn't even think as I did it. I tracked them down and threw away everything to kill them. Those people were the only ones I had a right to end, but I didn't stop... I told you before that I murdered a lot of bad people, now you know why."

Taking hold of Rea and falling over on their fluffy fur bedding Sereda claimed, "I probably would've done the same, I can't blame you for it. I even feel ashamed for the way I first felt when you killed Rastel." Sereda let out a sigh and buried her face into Rea's hair. "I'm sorry... I don't know what to do."

Rea gripped Sereda's forearm and folded the furs over them with her other hand, "This is enough, just let me get some rest."

That long night was spent in desolate silence, Sereda had trouble getting to sleep. Rea... slept like a rock.

Day ~107~

Still a bit out of it, after a quick breakfast, instead of getting back to mining Sereda started to tell Rea all sorts of stories. The ophidian was rather happy hearing about a few of her maids. The bronze woman was entertaining to say the least. She'd been teased a lot as a child, and her first encounter with another woman was one of the maids. The maid had been older than her, and very honest about how appealing her height and bronzed skin really was. It was thanks to that woman that Sereda even realized other women could be a target for lust. She'd been corrupted, from what Rea was hearing, corrupted rather easily. Hearing a few sweet words from the woman had let her give in without any struggling.

The next bit about her first encounter was a bit sadder, the maid had been using her. Once the maid got what she wanted, money, she had fled. Her father wasn't sure how the woman had done it, and Sereda never told. That had made her insecure again, so she ended up taking advantage of every other nearby woman, maids and friends. Some of the encounters were comical, others... a bit wrong.

One such encounter was when her father nearly caught them and she had to hide behind a curtain. Her father proceeded to proposition, then enjoy the half naked maid's attention... the maid was happy to have a doubled salary that year. Rea burst out laughing and got a bop on the head for that. Seriously, not a very good family to be employed by. At least, from what Rea could tell, neither her father or Sereda had ever forced themselves on a servant. The employees had even been warned by others, the Duranholms had quickly gained a reputation in the servant's circle.

Rea thought back to an earlier moment in their relationship, "Is that why you were afraid that I found you unattractive?"

Sereda nodded, "Well, it had always been in the back of my mind. I'm not blind so I know I've got the looks... just, they're a bit odd."

Rea proceeded to topple and shower her bronze giant with attention. Today was the first day her pet dragon got any attention. By that I mean it got snapped in half before getting anywhere near the cave. Rea cried out in dismay... then burst out laughing at the thought of what would happen if a man ever got near her.

Day ~108~

Finally getting back to work the pair were digging like there was no tomorrow. Supplies were dwindling and there was nothing to hunt down here, so they wanted to make good use of their last day. With her skills hitting a pretty high point Rea was able to identify some abnormalities and rewarded greatly for it.

Ability [Digging Rank Up].

Ability [Prospecting Rank Up].

Ability [Digging Rank Up].

Ability [Freezing Aura Rank Up].

Ability [Prospecting Rank Up].

Ability [Job-Adept Miner] learned.

Ability [Toughness] learned.

Ability [Digging Rank Up]

Ability [Prospecting Rank Up].

[Job-Wrestler] Level 50!

Ability [Job-Pro Wrestler] learned.

Ability [Vigor Lv. 1] learned.

Ability [Digging Rank Up].

Ability [Freezing Aura Rank Up].

Ability [Prospecting Rank Up].

Ability [Aqua Limbs Rank Up].

Ability [Digging Rank Up].

Ability [Prospecting Rank Up].

Ability [Digging Rank Up].

Ability [Digging Rank Up].

Ability [Freezing Aura Rank Up].

Ability [Prospecting Rank Up].

Ability [Job-Master Miner] learned.

Ability [Mining-Keen Eyes] learned.

Lugging around plenty of earth spirit stones, along with an assortment of rare ores, the pair were happily on their way out. When they were coming up on the next marker, some rather obscene noises distracted them, a couple of blue murffs were... wrestling a dislodged marker... Unfortunately it took the pair a while to find their way out. Murffs like permafrost, lesson learned.

They set up camp near the mines entrance that night, seriously beat. Both were laughing like mad when Rea decided to drop a bunch of permafrost around. They hadn't realized it, but the murffs had been following them and picking up all of the discarded lesser ores, i.e. iron, copper. Rea had only taken a little of both and saved room for more precious materials.

Day ~109~

On their way out, just as they were leaving the final sublevel, Rea was stopped by a dwarf. She was being summoned by the forgemasters, at her earliest convenience. Rea looked down and sighed, best not to keep the big boys waiting. Being led off she apologized to Sereda and asked her to go deal with selling the less useful stuff. Sereda huffed and reprimanded Rea... the ophidian had forgotten again that they do have targets on their backs. The dwarf, after hearing that, hurried along quickly.

A horn had sounded as soon as she agreed on the meeting, that was likely to inform the masters. She was being led into a rather massive stone building, not unlike the library actually. Deeper inside the barren structure there were massive statues of dwarves, hammers, and forges. Sitting around a few separated round tables were fourteen dwarves. When she entered the room there was an applause then a huff, "What's the Duranholm bitch doing here!?" he shouted.

Rea took offense, turned, and spoke, "I'll be leaving with my wife, I apologize for cutting our meeting short. Fuck you very much!"

The dwarves gaped as Rea and Sereda happily walked out of the building. Sereda looked down at her worriedly, "Was that alright?"

Rea shrugged, the dwarves had harshed on her mellow, "Ehhhh, I've got enough dwarven friends. Let's go find a forge... I guess we need to go to a human forge, mind taking the lead?"

"We can use the Duranholm forge, this way." Rea ignored the happy kick in her wife's step. She was sure tonight would be... unintentionally rewarding.

One quick stop at a very pleased merchant's shop later, they were both arriving at the Duranholm estate. This time, a woman opened the door, took one look at Sereda, and blushed profusely. Rea took in the cute, short, white haired elven maiden. She then looked up and grinned at an uncomfortable Sereda, "You know, I'm not opposed to threeso..."

*POW!*

At this point Rea was clutching her head while being dragged across the foyer, up some steps... owowowowow. Then through a door's threshold that led out back. Sereda let go of her leg and made a wide gesture, "The forge."

Rea took one look at the impressive forge... almost identical to the one on Melody's farm, just bigger. She then looked back to the cute maid that had followed them in confusion, "You know, I'm not opposed to thr..."

*POW!*

Sereda carried an unconscious ophidian into the smithy and dropped her roughly on the ground. She then asked the maid to bring refreshments, she also informed her that they would be here for a while. When the maid asked if she would require... the usual nightly service as well. Sereda absently kicked a now awake and laughing ophidian, then politely declined. The elven maid looked at Rea with some very needy eyes, "Wow Sereda, what did you do to her... She really wants..."

*Rumble Rumble*

Rea looked up vacantly at her wife who had just used earthen magic to gag her. She didn't dispel the magic until a certain elven girl finally left. Looking down at Rea she said, "You're pushing your luck wife."

Rea laughed like mad as she went about inspecting the smithy. "Have you ever forged anything?"

"Father wanted me to get married, I refused to attend the lessons he did have planned for me. So other than actual normal schooling, I didn't do much of anything."

"Other than the maids..." Rea cringed at a tightening fist, "...I'm sorry."

Sereda let it go, "I would've enjoyed it I bet, blacksmithing."

"Wanna assist me then?"

Smiling from ear to ear Sereda approached, "I'd love to, what should I do first?"

Rea poured mana into her exposure rune, turned around, and sat with her legs spread across the anvil. She shot a toothy grin at her none too pleased wife, "Something entirely inappropriate first."

Muttering a few curses she didn't bother complaining and waltzed right up to the trouble maker. Rea was actually very much enjoying the feeling of cold steel between her legs. Sereda grinned wholeheartedly as Rea yelped while the bronze fingers slowly made their way down her pelvis. As Rea leaned back and took a deep, startled breath, Sereda mocked, "You're enjoying this too much."

Rea laughed, then took in a sharp breath as Sereda realized just how much she was enjoying this. Seeing her wife was still capable of blushing, Rea happily claimed, "You forgot something."

As she continued to please Rea immensely, Sereda asked, "What did I forget?"

Rea gripped the anvil with one arm and raised her other. Sereda looked in the direction she was pointing and gaped. An elven maid was blushing while watching, as soon as Sereda noticed her the girl fled after putting down some refreshments. Sereda looked back to a rather pleased woman, then tightened her grip.

Rea cringed at the intense, not entirely pleasant feeling, "...sorry?"

Sereda loosened the grip, then violently forced the attack, "You just ran out of luck."

About an hour later Sereda was sitting on the ground enjoying refreshments alone. She wasn't sure what to do next. Looking over at the despondent ophidian she'd left bent over an anvil, Sereda commented, "Everything alright over there?"

"... gimme a minute. You know these scales aren't toys right?" Rea ignored various masochism rank ups, she really was getting tired of her own antics.

Sereda, feeling a bit guilty, put her drink down. Walking up behind Rea she got on her knees, slid both arms under Rea's legs, and let her hands rest on the woman's lower back. "..sorry."

Rea, looking at the ground, joked, "I've never had someone talk to my... *Ahn* ...shutting up."

Rea gripped the anvil and surrendered herself without struggle as Sereda thoroughly made the past hour's rather rough treatment very worthwhile. Looking up she noticed a certain elven maid again, peeking through the door this time. The girl fled when Rea winked at her.

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