Chapter 286: Tight Spacing

Ann is a woman of many talents and tastes. I gotta say that her compatibility with Kat's definition of flirting is entertaining to say the least. Who fights as foreplay? Kat practically starts dripping when she takes a hook to the jaw! Anyway, I think you can guess what's happening right now.

Ann wanted to get an early start the next morning. The longer she spent underground, the more uneasy she was feeling. It was like this pervasive itch in the back of her head saying that something was wrong and that she was under attack. It was instinct, she knew, and ignorable through being a sapient creature with impulse control, but it still drove her emotions a bit higher than normal.

Camp was an unfortunately tight affair. They’d set themselves up in a row along the tunnel. Lucia and Bren had the rear, Minnie was set in the middle, and the girls were closest to the semi-explored tunnel network. The logic was that since Ann was planning to take out some stress, their sound barriers would be best placed here. The secondary benefit was that both front-line fighters were near the most likely point of attack unless the ghost came back. There was a little concern about the ghost, since she’d demonstrated she could absolutely interact with the physical world, but less so than giant pregnant spiders or wandering worms.

No cooking was to be done underground, so it was cold or salted rations with water for dinner. Bren soaked some tea leaves in water to effectively cold-brew a batch to soothe himself for the night. Ann wished she could have some coffee, but the caffeine at this time (Minnie had said it was around an hour after dusk) wasn’t a good idea. Yeah, she was going to blow through whatever energy she had left here in a minute, but the chemical in her system making her feel more wired wasn’t exactly a healthy way to do either.

While they ate, they went over the spoils of the other party’s expedition. Ann was surprised at how varied the gems were. She saw the usual quartz and other minerals that could be used, but also a ruby, tourmaline, some topaz, an emerald, and lapis lazuli. It wasn’t a lot, and fit in a bag just bigger than Ann’s head, but the variety was the point, apparently. Minnie was exhaustive in her explanation that the more types of gemstone they brought back, the better they’d be able to negotiate prices on expeditionary rights and mining operations. It was especially important after their only point of ingress was through a tight crawlspace, and that they’d need to hire a Stone Shaper to make the trip and open the way for easier access. Apparently that wasn’t cheap since the people with that skill set were in high demand for pretty much everything else in the kingdom. Since it was just lifting a section so that people could walk through, a journeyman in the magical craft would be sufficient. They might even bring out an apprentice and give a discount for them teaching someone on the job.

By the time their food was gone, Ann’s head was swimming with rocks she couldn’t get off. They split up and headed to their own tents, ready to wind down for the day. Well, most of them were ready to wind down. Ann was nowhere near ready to bunk down. She’d made Kat a promise that she meant to keep.

“You’re seeming more comfortable around Minnie,” Ann said offhandedly as she undid her corset.

Kat paused for the briefest of moments when undoing one of her straps. “Aye. We had a good talk durin’ the time ye were scoutin’ wit’ Lucia.”

“Oh?” This was Kat. Ann was allowed to be nosy about her girlfriend.

“They were really cute,” Rosalyn said, carefully folding her robes up, leaving her naked from the waist up. “Kat was being all big and protective, and I could tell Minnie felt really flattered by it.”

“Was doin’ me job,” Kat huffed. “She’s the escort fer all o’ this. Not gonna let shite ‘appen.”

“And when she tripped, and you caught her with her arms around your neck?”

Ann could feel her entire body vibrate at the thought. “Gosh Kat, that sounds downright romantic.”

“I… ye… but!” Kat sputtered.

“It’s been so long since you’ve caught me in a stumble. Gonna make a girl feel all jealous,” Ann teased.

“Ye never trip!” Kat barked. “Neither does Rosalyn, now!”

“Ooops,” Ann swooned, faking a trip in the most ridiculous way possible. Sure as the stone under their feet, Kat was there in the next moment. Ann wrapped her arms languidly around the woman’s thick neck, leaning up to kiss her. “My hero.”

Kat dropped her.

Rosalyn burst out laughing.

Ann yelped as he elbows hit the uncovered rock floor. “Ow!”

Kat looked down at her, sprawled in a heap, unimpressed. “Ye coulda rolled out o’ that in a dozen different ways ye mangy mutt.”

“Hey, I am very well groomed!” Ann retorted, sitting up and rubbing the bruised base of her tail. “Not a single patch of mange on me, thank you!”

“Aw, doggy proud o’ ‘er fur. Ain’t that adorable, Rosalyn?”

Rosalyn snickered. “Super cute. You see how she brushes it all the time? Swear she pays more attention to it than us!”

“Watch it,” Ann warned, feeling her temper starting to rise.

“Or what? Ye gonna hit us? Know our little pup is too much o’ a softie tae do anythin’ like tha’.”

Ann felt her hackles rise, that strip of fur running down her neck and back bristling at the taunts.

“Not like ye could do anythin’. Not wit’ those weak-ass punches o’ yers,” Kat laughed. Her last piece of armour hit the ground with a clunk. She spread her arms wide, baring her scaled body for Ann to drink in. Gods, she was incredible like this. The scales did such a wonderful job accentuating her muscles without hiding any of them. Larger plates on her sides, smaller scales around points of mobility and squish. Her body was a masterwork of fortitude. One Ann would happily worship at the foot of.

That was, if that masterwork wasn’t doing its best to piss her off.

“Bitch got yer tongue? Aww, did Waheela train the fight outta ye?”

Ann flew forward, hearing Rosalyn giggling off to the side as her girlfriends started to play-fight. She knew Kat well by now, and knew better than to go for her stomach. Where someone would have the wind knocked out of them was where Kat’s core formed an iron wall. Instead, she aimed at one of the spots her scales had actually tried to cover. There was a gap just below her armpit of connective tissue and no muscle. Ann hit it with her forefinger and middle finger’s knuckles, enough to put blunt force into the pressure point and make it sting, but not enough to actually do damage.

Kat took the hit and groaned… then moaned?

Ann glanced up to see a bit of a blush on Kat’s face. She also saw the fist headed her way.

Fast as she was, she wasn’t fast enough to get out of the way of getting taken by surprise, and stars swam across her vision as Kat landed a square hit on her jaw. Ann spun her head with the blow to lessen the impact. It helped some, kinda like how actors did in movies, but Kat was really trying to hit her.

Know what? Ann wanted to win tonight. She grabbed Kat’s wrist before she could pull it back and used the woman’s own recovery against her. Ann swung for Kat’s face just the same she’d done to Ann, but found a very hard forearm in the way. Letting go, she took a step back to shake out the pain in her hand. If they had more room than the tent, she’d be dancing around Kat, but the limited space forced her into a boxing match with a heavyweight. Still, she had reach on Kat.

Kat stepped forward, arms up, and took an experimental jab at Ann.

Ann swayed back, easily avoiding the flurry. Jesus, Kat was a monster when she couldn’t run away from her. Every hit would obliterate her if they made contact, so she did her level best to make sure they didn’t. It wasn’t exactly like fighting Remmi, but Ann could recognise patterns of someone who relied on Strength in their fighting style.

Kat tried to trap her in spots she could twist out of. A jab would feint a brutal hook from the other direction. Ann would have to use Kat’s body against her as much as she was using her own body to dodge.

When Ann got a good hit on the woman’s knee, they fell to the ground to grapple, where both women were on even footing. Ann was slippery, and could bend her way out of holds that shouldn’t be escapable, but Kat was fucking strong. Any grip she got, she held the fuck on.

Ann winced as she felt her forearm bones grind against each other when Kat twisted her onto her stomach, quickly mounting her. Before she could put her weight down, Ann swivelled her shoulders and pushed against Kat’s Grip to slide out behind her. Getting her hands to slip out of the grip wasn’t too hard when Kat slackened as she sat on nothing.

Taking her position and using her height, Ann yanked at one of Kat’s legs, then shoved against the back of her neck. She was pleased when Kat teetered and had to catch herself with a hand. Before she could push off, Ann had another leg pulled out, putting her girlfriend on all fours. From here, she clambered onto her back.

All of these scales made Kat a more slippery target than she’d normally be. Every time Ann tried to get a grip, if she didn’t drag against the grain, the polished plates would make her hands just glide off. Kat was trying to use this to get Ann off of her back, but Ann had gotten a good grip on the woman’s upper arms and was ignoring the pain as she felt the scales digging into her hands, thus securing her position.

“Persistent… bitch,” Kat grunted, bucking her back to try and get Ann to let go by strength.

“When… oh shit,” Ann’s hands slipped, but she managed to get back into the grapple. “Always for you.”

“Gerroff!”

“Never!”

Ann had to lock Kat’s legs next. If she let the woman get to her feet, she’d just lift them both up and start making things way more difficult. Ann felt muscles rolling under her chest and stomach as Kat tried to do just that, but Ann hooked her paws around the backs of Kat’s calves and did her best to lock the knee joints.

Kat threw an elbow that nearly knocked the wind out of her. Orenous, if Alruna was stronger than this, Ann really didn’t want to get into a fight with the woman. Ann prepared for the second strike and caught the elbow. She pulled up and tried to hyper-extend the shoulder, but Kat overpowered her and got another hit in.

Another thing was making this way more difficult than normal. Well, two things actually. Ann was hard as a rock, and all of this friction was not helping, especially where her crotch was grinding into Kat’s ass. Every movement had to be careful since she was so much bigger than an average person. Things down there didn’t need to bend.

Kat rolled, putting Ann beneath her and her own chest to the sky. Either position was fine for Ann, who could manoeuvre better in crushing squeezes, but Kat had more freedom like this. She redoubled her efforts, using the space in front of her to curl her arms inward at a slow but inexhaustible rate. Ann felt her muscles giving out as the strain overwhelmed her.

She let go.

Kat’s arms nearly clapped together with how much of her might she’d been putting into the movement.

Ann wrapped her arms around Kat’s neck and squeezed hard. This was dangerous. Remmi had shown her how to do the real thing, and this could kill someone. She did also know that there was a safe way, and not to put too much pressure on the front of Kat’s neck, focusing on cutting off circulation through the sides. It’d make Kat light-headed and might make her pass out, but wouldn’t have the awful possibility of crushing her windpipe.

Kat, of course, struggled. Keeping a grip on someone who could crush your wrist if she really wanted was a brutal undertaking. Ann eventually had to relinquish her hold and swapped to pinioning her girlfriend on top of her. Ann had no clue what it was actually called, but she dug her thumbs into Kat’s shoulders and yanked hard, deadening the nerves and cutting off circulation to these parts.

Ann thanked Remmi for never actually teaching her on a target that stayed still. Every single time they’d practised a hold, Remmi would be doing what Ann could expect from someone trying to get away. It let her keep up the pressure while Kat’s shoulders thrashed, and the rest of her body flew into action before her arms were disabled.

It barely worked. Ann felt her arms screaming at her to let go when Kat’s lost all coordination. It’d take a minute or so before Kat got feeling back, so Ann dropped the weak limbs and returned to the rear choke.

“Give up?” she growled in Kat’s ear.

Holy shit, the way Kat fought her after that question was asked nearly threw her again.

“Give UP?” Ann repeated.

“Feck, I… damnit!” Kat shouted. “Aye. Yield.”

All of the tension in Kat’s body fled, and Ann released her, rolling the heavy woman off her and face down.

“Why’d ye never fight me like tha’ before?” Kat asked, her words muffled as her cheek was mushed against the stone. Ann knew she could sit up, but was just lying there.

“Cause we were fighting with strikes? You’re apparently not the best at this, and I was fighting how you fought. Best way to learn, you know?”

“Feck, ye need tae fight more like this when we’re sparrin’. I need tae learn how ye did half o’ tha’.”

“You did it!” Rosalyn cheered, tackling Ann from the side with a hug. “I knew you’d get it someday! Can’t believe you finally won a fight with Kat!”

Ann was a little sweaty, but she wrapped up Rosalyn in a tight hug anyway. “I did, didn’t I! Huh! Funny that it was playfighting, though. Still need to win a real fight with real skills and stuff.”

Rosalyn had frozen in her arms. Ann looked down to see her eyes glossed over slightly.

Sniff.

Sniff sniff!

Rosalyn buried her face in Ann’s chest and took a deep breath. Adjusting quickly, she pressed one of Ann’s arms up and inhaled. A shaky moan escaped her lips. “You smell… so good.”

Kat actually sat up at that, peering at the druid curiously as she continued whatever this was.

“Ah!” Ann yelped as she felt something warm and wet on her skin. “Did you just lick me?”

“MMm, salty,” Rosalyn purred, and… did it again!

“The feck?” Kat asked, scooting over.

No sooner was she within arm’s reach than Rosalyn had switched her target completely. She let go of Ann and burrowed into Kat’s chest, rubbing her face all over the woman’s muscles. None of them had gotten a chance at a wash since Ann had railed Rosalyn in the tunnel, so they were all kinda stinky. Something Rosalyn was apparently revelling in.

“Oi! Off, ye beast!” Kat protested as Rosalyn licked her armpit, completely uncaring about the hair that’d grown out since they’d left civilisation.

“It’s… mmm… so good,” Rosalyn hummed happily. “Smells so sexy. Like… like you’re working out, and you’re all… unf… all ready and warmed up to make me all sweaty like this.”

“Ann, how in the Hells did we not trigger this before?” Kat asked, watching with very horny amusement as Rosalyn licked over a nipple.

“She did warn us that one time.” Ann pulled up behind Rosalyn, making sure to squish her firmly between them. The give her curves had was amazing for positions like this. How they fell asleep with Ann in the middle more often than not was a crime.

“Shite, she did. No holdin’ back now, love?” Kat asked the dutifully licking Druid.

“Mm-mm,” Rosalyn hummed. She wasn’t gonna move unless someone made her.

Now, Ann could make her move and start having fun, but there were always other positions. Really fun positions that left everyone happy like this.

“Kat, lay down,” Ann said, adjusting her positioning a bit to slide further backwards.

Kat did as she was told, hugging Rosalyn in place as she rolled in giggles with the tickling tongue.

Ann had made Kat a promise. They had enough room to have two kinds of fun here.