CH 233: Morning Before her Departure
Jasmine awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. Claire switched her new punishment on at some point last night, forcing Jasmine to get a full night’s rest. She awoke in Ursa’s arms, and the Ravian stirred slightly as Jasmine woke up. Jasmine shuffled out of her arms and looked around. Ana was missing; she must have volunteered to take Jasmine’s watch last night. She’d have to thank Ana later. She turned back to Ursa to wake her. But she stopped.
Ursa looked rough. There were visible bags underneath her eyes, and she wasn’t waking up. Jasmine shook her gently. “Nng, not yet…” Ursa mumbled to Jasmine. The assassin tilted her head. Ursa was the second softest sleeper of the party, her stirring would normally cause the woman to wake up.
“Ursa? Are you okay?” Jasmine whispered.
Her eyes shot open. She looked up at Jasmine before holding her forehead. She winced in pain for a moment. “Fuck. This is why I don’t do magic.”
“Aww,” Jasmine felt bad for her. She wrapped Ursa in a soft hug. “Sorry for making you do that.”
“D-don’t,” Ursa winced. She could hardly speak or think. She had a head-splitting headache from using up all her mana last night. “I’ll be fine. I think.”
Jasmine kissed her forehead. “Ana will make sure the pain goes away.”
Behind the two, Hannah and Claire stirred. Claire had Elsie in her arms, who had Toni in hers. Hannah was curled up next to the three since she fell asleep watching Toni sleep.
“Good morning,” Claire yawned. She rubbed the sleep out of her eye. “Is it time?”
“Not yet,” Jasmine smiled back. “Soon, though.”
“Okay,” Claire yawned. She stretched out and then gently roused Elsie and Toni from their slumber.
“What’s wrong with you?” Hannah asked as she scooted closer to Ursa. “You look exhausted.”
“Mana exhaustion,” Jasmine gently patted Ursa’s back. “Calling the wolf pack to help took a lot out of her, it seems.”
“Yeah,” Ursa struggled out of Jasmine’s grasp and lay her head back down on the pillows. “I hate magic.”
“Mmm,” Elsie sat up with a mix of bed head and dried cum covering her face. She looked at Ursa before crawling over to her. “Thank you for going easy on me last night.”
“Couldn’t even if I wanted to,” Ursa mumbled and opened her arms.
“Ah,” Hannah very nearly clapped her hands. She stopped herself before making aloud noise, “Sorry. That was a good example of bantering.”
Ursa glared at her in annoyance as Elsie cuddled up to her. Elsie called out to her sister, who was dutifully on watch. It was almost sunrise, so Ana was about to come in and wake the others.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to be so loud,” Hannah continued. She offered Ursa some food in hopes it would help. “Just got a bit excited to see you properly respond to Elsie.”
“Be excited quieter,” Ursa grumbled. She pulled Elsie into a tight embrace. The older twin fit snuggly between her toned arms.
“Yeah,” Elsie said as she quickly drifted back to sleep.
Toni shook Lily awake, the last one asleep. The alchemist stirred and immediately planted a kiss on his lips. “Morning, Toni.”
“Good morning, Lily,” Toni said, grazing a finger against his lips. “I, um, need help cleaning myself.”
“Oh, right,” Lily chuckled. She slowly pushed herself up and looked around. “Forgot to tidy up last night.”
The carriage had dried puddles of cum and arousal all over. Usually, Lily would use her magic after she was done or during her watch. But she forgot and wasn’t on watch last night.
“My bad,” Lily pushed her glasses up and readied her spell. She’d clean Elsie up later. She looked too comfortable in Ursa’s arms. “Hopefully the smell isn’t too bad…”
“I enjoy it,” Ursa mumbled without thinking. “Smells like all of your…”
They all looked at her. She’d fallen back to sleep mid-sentence, not realizing what she just said.
“Cute,” Claire said while watching the two. “I didn’t think I’d see the day they got along.”
“Me neither,” Jasmine moved to get closer to Claire. “Maybe Elsie can focus on Ursa now, instead of annoying me.”
Ana entered the carriage. “Sh-she won’t do that. Um, she likes teasing you.” The younger sister said as she readied her wand. “It’s how she shows her affection.”
Ursa glowed in a radiant yellow as Ana’s healing magic eased her fatigue. Jasmine got hold of Claire and turned to Lily. She beckoned her oldest friend over to join them.
“Damn. Thought I could get a break when I get back.”
“Nope,” Ana giggled. She could vaguely understand Elsie’s feelings at that moment. While they were dreaming, the twins could only really communicate feelings instead of words. Elsie felt extremely relaxed and didn’t know her sister was talking about her. “She likes you too much to stop.”
“What about Claire and Lily? Or Toni?” Jasmine groaned. “She doesn’t tease them.”
“You are different,” Ana kept explaining as she finished her spell. “She loves to see when your facade finally breaks. When you finally react emotionally.”
“Did she even stutter?” Hannah whispered to Toni, who was intently watching the younger twin.
“Nope,” Toni smiled brightly. “Not when she’s talking about her sister.”
“Gods,” Hannah gulped. A month ago, she’d have had extremely mixed feelings about the twins. But now, their love just seemed so hot.
“Whatever,” Jasmine huffed. She glanced down at the older twin for a moment, then refocused on Claire and Lily. “I only have a bit of time before I need to go. I want to focus on our plan.”
She felt Claire’s body tense. “Right. We’ll need space in here for her. And a place for her back in Restol.”
“Mhmm, but more immediately,” Jasmine replied. “What’s the plan after I find her? Hunker down and let the wolf pack find you?”
“Makes the most sense,” Claire nodded. “Moving around makes it harder for us to find you. But that makes it easier for the other parties to find you, too.”
“Maybe hole up in a cave if you find one,” Hannah chimed in. She had picked Toni up and placed him in her lap. “Or, since there’s a village nearby, maybe a barn or an abandoned building?”
“Getting her too close to people is too risky,” Jasmine shook her head. “I’ll have to find us a place to hide. I just hope the parties aren’t here for her.”
“I didn’t even think about that,” Claire mumbled. Could one of them be out here hunting a lamia that was spotted in the area? It seemed far too fast a response given the time that’s passed since she departed, but it could be possible.
“Hope for the best, and plan for the worst,” Hannah shrugged. “Find a place to hunker down while we deal with those thugs, then we’ll find you.”
“I hope it’ll be that easy,” Jasmine squeezed Claire and Lily.
Ursa sat up after Ana’s healing magic helped ease her pain. She looked towards the back entrance right before a scratching noise could be heard. One of the wolves was at the door.
“Ugh,” Ursa groaned as she gently placed Elsie back on the bed. She got to her feet and stretched out. “They’re hungry.”
“We’ll have to get more food after taking care of those women,” Lily said as she watched Ursa walk towards the door. “We still have one more contract we need to get to.”
“That’s okay,” Jasmine whispered. “If this works out, they’ll be more than worth it.”
“That’s true,” Claire mumbled. “I hope we are overreacting to the situation and everything works out best.”
Elsie roused from her sleep, missing the warmth Ursa provided. She sat up and looked around at everyone. She was still a mess of bedhead and dried cum, but she had a tired smile on her face.
“Morning,” Elsie yawned and stretched. “When’s breakfast?”
“In a bit,” Lily chuckled as she tidied up Elsie’s appearance. “Toni and I will start it momentarily.”
“Did Jazz leave yet?” Elsie asked as she rubbed her eye. She glanced at Jasmine, then smiled. “Oh, not yet.”
“After breakfast,” Jasmine smiled. She let go of Claire and got up to help Lily and Toni.
The rest of the party slowly trickled out after her. They spent the morning in relative silence while they got their carriage and breakfast ready. It didn’t take long until breakfast came and went.
Then, it was finally time for Jasmine to depart.