Chapter 44: Danica Joins the Party

The first thing that Lexi saw when sensibility and volition returned to her with the dissolution of the curse’s pink haze was the tiny elf happily scooping up gobs of stringy cum off the shaft of her flagging erection and sucking the white goo from her fingers like it was delicious whipped cream. Though the futanari, in the back of her mind, knew that she had just been sucked off by Danica, seeing the vision of the delicately small girl gleefully slurping up her cum was enough to leave Lexi at a total loss for words.

“…”

“Oh, hi!” the elf said happily, swallowing down a mouthful of sticky cum. “Your eyes aren’t all pink and glowy anymore. Does that mean that your curse is sleeping again? Did I put it to sleep sucking on your thingie? Did you even know it was me doing that, or are you totally out of it when your eyes go all pink? And, anyway, why do you have a thingie after all? No one ever ended up explaining that to me, and—”

“Gaaahhh!” Lexi shouted, scooting her butt back from the chattering elf and sitting up into a cross-legged position with her now flaccid cock having been licked clean. “Too many questions at once — especially right after I’ve been zapped by that motherfucking curse. New rule, one and only one question at a time. Okay?”

Cowed by the paladin’s ire, her eyes as big and shimmering as any Disney character, Danica simply nodded in compliance.

“Now,” Lexi continued. “Since you did already ask me like fifty questions already, lemme see if I can answer them, as you did just help me out big time.”

Even the minor word of encouragement from Lexi lit the elf’s face like a sunbeam, drawing a broad smile that curled up almost to the tops of her long pointy ears.

“You’re right about the curse having subsided now. If you’re hanging around with us and you see my eyes start to go pink, watch out, because that means the curse is kicking in and — like Gretel and Samantha probably explained — I kinda lose control of my body and end up trying to stick my dick in the nearest lady’s hole. But, when you made me cum — thanks again for that, by the way — that satiated the curse temporarily. It’ll come back eventually, but once it takes over me, the only way to sublimate it at all is for me to cum. And, as for my…err…thingie, I’m not a boy or a girl. I’m a futanari, so I’ve got a pussy and a cock.”

As Lexi explained this final part, she lifted her flaccid dick to show the pink pussy lips beneath it.

“From what I gather,” Lexi explained. “Futas are really uncommon among all the humanoid races, so I’m not surprised that you’ve never met one till now. But, just so you know, that doesn’t have anything to do with the curse. I’ve always been this way.”

It was a lie insofar as Lexi had, up until three days ago, lived in a completely different world in a completely different body. However, in the time she had spent in Fantasy Adventure Quest, she had come to identify so strongly with her new life as a futanari paladin, that it was becoming difficult for her to really even imagine herself as a cock-less girl sitting alone in her college dorm room. Every time she had another mind-blowing orgasm through her magnificent futa cock, every enemy she slew with her enormous broadsword, Lexi’s old personality and life crumbled away a little more, and the new reality of her being a futanari paladin became more and more cemented in her mind.

“That’s sooo cool!” the elf said, when Lexi’s monologue concluded. “I never imagined that there was something other than just boys and girls. But, that’s why I’m out here on the continent exploring — trying to learn everything I can and experience all the kinds of neat things that I would never have gotten to if I’d just stayed on teensy little Tarynth.”

“Well in that case,” Lexi said, a sly smile growing on her face. “What would you say to adventuring with us? The three of us have only been together for a few days so far, but we’ve gotten into all kinds of interesting situations in that short time.”

“Yes,” Gretel said with her patently dry sarcasm. “Interesting is definitely a word that could be used to describe our quests so far.” The mage followed this with a mutter that Lexi could barely make out. “If you’re completely delusional.” The voluptuous pink haired girl threw her leader a quick wink, however, giving Lexi her silent approval of the proposal she had made to Danica.

“Like we were explaining before I…uh…you know,” Lexi continued. “Our target right now is the ruined Abbey of Xoth just a day or so North of here, up near the Zin Mountains through the Pass of Qalish. The main reason we’re headed there is that there’s supposed to be a holy relic of Xoth, something called the Starseed, that the high priestess can hopefully use to de-curse me. And, since the slavers we just took care of were apparently planning on selling you at a market in the same spot, it looks like this quest will be a two-for-one special. So, if you want to join up for some fun, we’d be happy to have you. With that bow of yours, I think we could seriously fuck with this slave market.”

“Yes,” Danica said, attempting to put on a serious face, but looking much more like a kid trying to look serious when surrounded by grown ups. “I would like to…fuck with…that’s the word? Yes, fuck with the slave market. Nobody should be trying to steal people — especially not me!”

“Great, well in in that case welc—” Lexi started, but was almost immediately cut off by the excited elf.

“And,” Danica blurted out. “I would also like to play with your thingie again. That was really fun!”

Lexi choked on the saliva in her mouth and, eyes bulging at the extreme naive openness of the elf, started violently coughing. Gretel buried her face in her hands, unable to stifle the renewed fit of giggles which assailed her. Samantha was the only member of the team who retained any semblance of composure. She simply walked over to the elf, placed an enormous brown hand on her shoulder.

“Welcome to the party,” she said in her typically clipped accent. “I think that we will all get along very well together.”

“Gee, thanks!” Danica replied, beaming up at the enormous monk, her emerald eyes sparkling in the sunlight.

A cascade of system alerts flooded Lexi’s peripheral display, clearly alerting her to the fact that Danica was now officially a member of her party.

You Gained an NPC Follower!

Danica Woodbine

The paladin was also pleased to see that she got some experience points as a result of this, although it was just barely less than she needed to hit the next level.

Attribute

Modification

New Value

Reason

Experience Points

+500

19,750

Gained 1 NPC Follower

Wanting to see how the elf stacked up against Gretel and Samantha, Lexi issued the subvocal command to pull up her overarching table of followers. The paladin was pleased to see that despite her advanced age in comparison to the humans, Danica’s experience was almost exactly in line with that of the mage and monk — which pointed more to this encounter being part of a “plotline” architected by the game’s AI than it being random.

Role

Name

Race

Class

Level

XP

HP

SP

MP

Leader

Lexi

Human

Paladin

4

19,750

35/35

7/8

9/9

Follower

Gretel

Human

Mage

2

7,000

22/22

17/20

6/6

Follower

Samantha

Human

Monk

2

8,250

25/25

3/6

7/7

Follower

Danica

Elf

Ranger

2

9,000

25/25

0/6

8/8

Lexi was also interested to not that, despite only having cast the one spell — or prayer as the elven ranger had referred to it — her spell points had been exhausted. Which apparently meant that despite having access to a prayer powerful enough to fully heal her entire party, the elf could likely only do it when her spell points were at full strength, and could definitely only do it once during an encounter. It was still an incredibly valuable addition to her team’s repertoire, but one to be used very judiciously.

Now a quartet, the party made their way back up the hillside to where Gretel had stowed their trusty pack mule, Thomas, and continued along the road towards their ultimate destination in the North. The hours passed much as they had prior to the unexpected encounter with the slavers, except that the conversation was oftentimes largely one-sided — consisting of a seemingly endless stream-of-consciousness style of “conversation” that flowed from Danica’s mouth. It was, to Lexi at least, more endearing than annoying, and the paladin found herself smiling down at the chipper little elf more often than not as they walked together.

Before too long, dusk began to descend upon the four now road-weary adventurers. Lexi was just about to suggest that they look for a good place to stop and make camp when Danica just about jumped out of her skin. The little elf was so brimming with excitement that the other three girls could practically see her tiny body vibrating.

“Do you smell that!?” she asked, unable to hold it in any longer.

“Now that you mention it,” Gretel said, wrinkling her nose. “I do smell something a bit…off. Kinda like rotten eggs, yeah?”

“Yep,” Lexi nodded. “I smell it too. I think it’s coming from that way.” The paladin indicated a small footpath leading off of the left-hand side of the trail. “What’s got you so excited about rotten eggs, Danica?”

But, before the excitable elf could answer, Samantha shocked the rest of the group by stepping in with a reply. “I believe that what we are smelling is a hot spring,” the monk said softly.

“Yes!!!” Danica cried. “I love love looove hot springs! Please say we can camp here, Lexi, please please please!”

“Gaaahhh! Fine!” the paladin cried, throwing her hands up in mock defeat. “You win. But, why does it smell like that?”

“The heat comes from deep within the earth,” Samantha explained. “The water that bubbles up to form the hot spring carries the heat along with it, but also bears the sulphurous scent of the underworld from whence the warmth originates.”

“How do you know all that?” Danica said, her mouth gaping in astonishment.

“Such things are not uncommon in Soraoth, where I come from,” the monk said, the shadow of a smile crossing her face at the elf’s stark wonder.

“Shit,” Gretel said. “A dip in the spring would be so nice after today.”

Lexi nodded in agreement. “Yeah, no joke. Let’s stow our gear and get to it.”

And so, the party made their way happily down the footpath, a spring in their collective step. As expected, just a ways down the trail, they came upon an enormous bubbling hot spring. The spring was lined with large rocks, covered almost entirely with damp moss, due to the incredible amount of moisture in the air. A thick white sheet of steam hung over the spring, concealing the bubbling waters below, which were only evident to the adventurers from the constant burbling sound the bubbles made when rising to the surface from the — apparently infernal — depths beneath the earth.

After tying up Thomas the mule with a generous length of rope so that he could explore the campsite, the quartet set about unpacking their gear and getting the camp set up. Although, as Samantha quickly reminded them, this would not include a fire tonight, given the close proximity to the mountains. Any lit fires this close would make them easy targets for any greenskin scouting parties — which was the last thing they wanted to attract, particularly in the dark of night. Nonetheless, once the bedrolls were all assembled, and foodstuffs for the night were collected, it was time for a dip in the spring.

After all, Lexi thought to herself, chuckling internally at the eminently predictable logic of the game world. What anime or manga would be complete without a hot springs episode, right?