Volume 18 - Ski Lodge Kobold, Chapter 140 - Everyday Skiing with Monstergirls

On a Friday evening, a massive stretch-Hummer limousine pulled up to the main entrance of the Ski Lodge Kobold resort. The limo was Tokai Taxi Company's largest cab in the Okayado region, but it almost wasn't big enough for its occupants. The side door slid open and liminal women started filing out, their appearances as diverse as could be.

First was a petite harpy with blue wings and hair. She zipped around the carport area, unbothered by the cold air and happy to be able to move again. After her came a full-size centaur with brown fur and long blonde hair. She called out, "Don't stray too far, Papi. You know how bad your night vision is."

"Okay, Cerea!" Papi called back.

Then Centorea worked with the taxi driver to get a wheelchair ready for the next woman to exit: a pink-scaled mermaid in regal gothic lolita fashion. Once she was situated in her high-tech wheelchair, Meroune said, "Thank you most kindly for your assistance," then rolled herself toward the lodge entrance, eager to get out of the dry mountain air.

After that, a white-haired woman with inhuman blue skin beckoned toward someone else still inside the limo. "Come now, Suu. The dark world of the spirits of the deep mountains awaits us."

"Suu senses something," came a wavery voice in reply, sounding like a child speaking through a tank of water. "Another slime was in here. Or two. Suu wants to meet them!"

A dark and silky voice cut in, "Well they aren't here anymore. Please exit the limo so I can stretch my legs. Go play with Papi or something."

That got Suu moving. The lime-green slimegirl slid out of the limo and chased after her energetic harpy friend.

"Wise stratagem, Rachnera," the blue-skinned woman commended.

Eight glistening black legs extended out of the door, bearing a busty woman with six red eyes. "Thanks, Lala," the femme-fatale arachne replied as she unfolded to her full height of six and a half feet.

Then a reptilian woman emerged with long red hair that matched her long red tail. She was already shivering despite her heavy coat and tail cover.

"Are you alright, Miia?" a male voice said from inside the taxi. The last to exit was a human man with plain black hair and a puffy winter coat.

"As long as you're with me, Darling," Miia replied sweetly.

Centorea approached, her sides loaded up with luggage retrieved from the back of the limo. "Are you sure it was wise to come with us on this trip, Miia? It's far too cold for lamias, in my opinion."

Miia crossed her arms under her sizable breasts that were still small compared to Centorea's. "I'll be fine, and there's no way I would let my Darling go on a vacation alone with all of you girls."

Papi flew by, still stretching her wings, and called out, "He won't be alone if we're all with him!"

"That's exactly the problem!" Miia shouted after the harpy. She actually had a good relationship with all the other liminal girls, but she was very possessive of her 'Darling', Kurusu Kimihito.

Kimihito put a hand on her shoulder and said, "Come on everyone, let's get inside and checked into our rooms." He wore a simple golden ring on that hand that would have seemed unimportant, except it was on his ring finger.

Miia grabbed his hand and held it close, causing her own matching ring to gently clink against his. "Yes, let's get checked into our room."

On Saturday morning, once the sun had crested the rim of the valley, Kimihito and his many homestays started their first day of skiing. The one exception was Miia, who stayed indoors. Ski Lodge Kobold offered full-body suits to allow cold-blooded liminals to enjoy the pleasure of skiing, but Miia was content to cuddle up with some hot chocolate around the fireplace, waiting for her Darling to return.

But before they could ski, they all needed to learn how. They hit up the so-called 'bunny slopes' where an instructor was on hand to give help and guidance. The instructor started by getting them all set up with the appropriate equipment.

"If you're used to riding in a wheelchair, then a sit-ski would be good match for you," the cat-earned instructor named Luru said to Mero. Had she known that Meroune was a princess, she probably would have been more formal. "But we also have tail-attached snowboards, if you have good tail strength."

Mero blushed and admitted, "I don't have much practice standing on my tail, since I tend to travel by wheelchair."

Cerea scoffed and said, "That's just because you like being wheeled around by Master."

With a glint in her eye, Mero said, "Perhaps…"

While Mero was getting situated on her sit-ski, which looked like a chair with a single ski blade underneath, a blur of blue flew past. It was Papi, flying a few feet above the ground with her skis swinging wildly through the air and threatening to take someone's head off.

Kimihito leapt into action. Reaching right into the dangerous airspace, he caught Papi by the leg and pulled her back to earth, then said, "You can't fly around with your skis on, Papi. Just use your wings for steering, not for lift."

"Like this, Boss?" she asked as she properly slid down the short practice slope, using her wings like ski poles to steer and stay upright.

"Exactly like that. Great job."

Then the ever-busy host turned his attention to the other accident prone member of his household: Suu. She was wearing her favorite yellow raincoat, but it did little to keep out the cold and she was starting to get slushy with ice. She lifted one leg, shook it, and frowned at all the ice swirling around inside. "Suu thinks this is bad."

"Agreed," Kimihito said as he directed Suu back toward the equipment rental building that was next to the practice slope. "Let's see if they have something here that can help."

Slimes weren't the only water-based liminals who had freezing issues, and Ski Lodge Kobold had a solution: a de-icing sport drink filled to the brim with electrolytes and salts that lowered the freezing temperature of water. Suu slurped it down and it immediately took effect. Within seconds, her legs were slush-free, but something else had changed.

She grinned menacingly and said, "Shit, Suu's gonna pwn those slopes now, and all the noobs on 'em. Outta my way, scrublords!" With that salty declaration, Suu skied away.

Meanwhile, Cerea was deliberating on which kind of skis to rent. As a quadruped, she could wear a small ski on each foot, or two larger skis, one on each side.

Luru beckoned Cerea aside and whispered, "With the current snow depth and your weight, I recommend using two wide skis. That setup also tends to be easier for beginners."

Cerea furrowed her brow and pulled her ears back. "I take offense to that! I'm not that heavy, nor am I some hapless squire with no worldly experience!" Then she paused and took a deep breath. "On second thought, one should not overestimate one's skill, and I am a beginner at this. I'll take the two wide skis, please."

After her twentieth trip down the beginner slope, somehow still not bored, Papi said, "Hey, where's Rachnee-san?"

Kimihito quickly answered, "She decided that skiing wasn't her thing. She rented some snowshoes and went off on her own." Kimihito couldn't have known that the mischievous Rachnera was planning to prank her unsuspecting friends with triplines and nets. Her webs were impossible to see against the snow and she would manage to snare her housemates nearly a dozen times before the day was done.

Once everyone was outfitted in their ski gear, Lala stood tall at the side of the practice area and proclaimed, "Let us venture forth to the treacherous mountains above. Our destiny shall wait no more." The dullahan was wearing a black and purple snowsuit, and since she had a human-shaped body she didn't need any special liminal equipment.

Then she strode ahead of the group to be the first on the ski lift. When the chair swung up behind her, she sat down hard. The jostling knocked her head right off and it tumbled backwards into the snow.

"Ahh! Aid me!" her head cried out as her silently flailing body was whisked away by the chairlift.

Thankfully, Kimihito was nearby and quick to act. He zipped forward and swept Lala's body off the chair before it left the ground. He guided Lala's body to safety, then began the tricky task of getting Lala's head out from under the line of fast moving chairs without getting hit by one.

As soon as she was reunited, Kimihito took her back to the equipment rental counter, against her feeble attempts to resist.

"I am darkness incarnate, and I do not need special accommodations to rule over this mountain."

"You're a girl who needs some equipment to ski safely, just like everyone else. I promise you'll have more fun if you don't have to worry about losing your head on every bump and corner."

She eventually yielded and rented a harness that kept her head attached without significantly affecting her mobility or field of vision. Then Lala and Kimihito joined the other girls for their first run down the lowest difficulty slope.

"Wow, that was so much fun! I wanna ski more!" Papi proclaimed as the group shuffled into the lodge, shaking off any clinging snow. They had returned all their equipment to the rental counter for storage, but they had it on reserve for one more day.

Kimihito said, "We'll ski more tomorrow. It's getting too dark now, and it's time for dinner."

At the mention of dinner, all the girls started salivating. Skiing was quite the workout and it worked up a heavy appetite. And the one of the best things about a vacation was getting to eat new and delicious food.

"We just need to find Miia first…" Kimihito mumbled.

A cry of "Darling!" was the only warning he got before he was tackled and quickly wrapped in over 20 feet of loving lamia. At first he was worried that she'd lose too much heat from touching his cold clothes and exposed skin, but Miia had been lounging around the fireplace and she had heat to spare.

"How is it, Darling? Being wrapped in my warm embrace and feeling the chill of the outdoors just melting away?" she cooed as she stared into Kimihito's eyes.

"It feels wonderful, Miia. Thank you. Want to go get dinner now?" he asked. When Miia nodded eagerly, he turned to the other girls and said, "I already called ahead and put our names on the waiting list for the restaurant, but it's the dinner rush so it may be a while. I figured we could all get hot chocolate and tea while we wait to be seated, if you're still chilly."

A chorus of voices replied with things like "Yay, chocolate!", "I shall have my chocolate as dark as the night", and "Some tea would be quite welcome."

Everything that the hotel offered for room-service was also available in the lodge common room. While the group got situated in a cozy nook in the corner of the room, Kimihito pressed a button that was built into the pinewood and glass table. Within a minute, a kappa waiter zipped over to where they were all seated. He took their drink order, then returned in a flash with a tray of eight steaming mugs. The hot drinks did their job of warming everyone from the inside, but they did something else too: got Rachnera quite tipsy.

"Did you get black tea, Rachnera?" Cerea asked. "You know that has a lot of caffeine, right?"

"Oh, I know that, and I know what I like." With that, Rachnera cast a rope of web around Kimihito and pulled him close. "I finally caught you, Honey. You were the only one to dodge all my traps today."

Miia was immediately up in arms. She hissed, "Get your claws off Darling. You girls had him all day and it's my turn now."

Rachnera's eyes narrowed menacingly. "And you had him all last night. We could hear it from our room."

Cerea nodded seriously. "It's a good thing that interspecies marriage amendment passed, or you'd be deported for sure."

Mero smiled. "Of course it passed. After all, my dear Beloved was the one chosen as the first human to take part. And now that he's married, I can finally be a proper mistress."

"Oh no you don't!" Miia shouted.

Suddenly the temperature in the lodge dropped significantly. Snowflakes started to materialize in the air and fell right onto the group of noisy liminals. They all went silent in confusion, then they went still when they saw the source of the snow.

A few feet away, between the group and the wide outside window, a woman with blue skin and crystalline hair had her arms spread wide. "Excuse me! I ask that you please be more courteous of the other guests while in the common spaces." Everyone immediately recognized her as Rosty, the resort's resident mountain god.

Papi's eyes went wide and she hopped closer to the woman, clutching her mug of tea with both wings. "Oh! You're that mountain spirit lady! You really can make it snow whenever you want! That's so cool!"

Papi relied on her wings for balance and she could be quite clumsy when they were otherwise occupied. Additionally, she was so distracted by the pretty frost elemental that she didn't notice Miia's tail on the floor. With a squawk, she tripped and started to fall forward.

"Oh no!" Suu proclaimed, but she was too far away to do anything for her klutzy friend.

Thankfully Rachnera had quick reflexes even when she was tipsy. She quickly lassoed Papi with some webs, but she was unable to stop the forward momentum of Papi's tea. In a moment that seemed to stretch into forever, the entire group watched the mug tip forward and dump a wave of steaming hot tea all over the frost elemental.

Rosty was quite surprised, but she was too durable to be harmed by a bit of hot liquid. Everyone else was even more surprised when Rosty's clothes started to fracture and melt away. Apparently they'd been made of ice all along.

She didn't seem bothered by her accelerating nudity, but Kimihito flushed red and tried to look away. Before he could even turn his head, the tip of Miia's tail whipped out and covered his eyes.

As Rosty's clothes continued to disintegrate, she calmly said, "Oh right, female nudity can be a big deal to men. I apologize for that, but I would still ask you to keep it dow—"

Rosty suddenly cut off and a hint of red crept up her face as she spotted a muscular kobold entering the room.

The kobold was just wearing blue gym shorts and a black short-sleeved shirt, but he carried himself with an air of respectability. None of Kimihito's group recognized him as the owner of the entire resort.

"K-Korbin?!" Rosty finally seemed embarrassed to be showing so much skin and covered her chest with an arm. "Please don't look at me. I'm not decent…"

Korbin averted his eyes, but kept approaching. When he reached her side, he grabbed the bottom of his own shirt and tugged upwards. He peeled the stretchy cloth over his broad shoulders, then held it out to Rosty. "Please wear this until you can regrow your own clothes."

Without his shirt on, Korbin's substantial muscles were on broad display. Rosty fought not to stare, but the other women in the room had no such qualms. They openly ogled his impressively fit physique, and they appreciated his romantic gesture of offering Rosty the literal shirt off his back.

With a shy smile, Rosty reached out with her free arm and took the offered shirt. Then Mero, who had been swayed by the wonderful romance of the whole situation, rolled her wheelchair close and helped Rosty put the shirt on.

Korbin turned toward Kimihito and his homestays and said, "I am the owner of Ski Lodge Kobold, and I apologize for the disruption to your evening, and for appearing before you so indecently. If this has harmed your vacation experience, please let me know what I could do to make it right."

All at once, the liminal girls started babbling that it hadn't hurt their experience at all, and that it had actually been their fault. Someone even said that it had improved the evening. Then Miia finally released Kimihito's tail-blindfold, leaving him blinking and trying to piece together what had just happened.

Korbin bowed slightly and said, "Very well. If there is anything I can do for you, please just pick up any phone and ask for Korbin. I'll personally see to it that your weekend is wonderful." Then he put a bare and beefy arm around Rosty's shoulders and walked her out of the room while quietly asking her if she was alright.

Rachnera let out a held breath and said, "Well, that was certainly an interesting experience. Do you think a table's opened up in the restaurant yet?"

Miia glared at Rachnera and Meroune and said, "Don't think I forgot your attempted homewrecking." But before she could get into another argument, the waiter from before arrived to tell them their table was ready in the restaurant.

The thought of steaks and sushi and exotic food from liminal homelands was enough to put an end to that drama. The eight mismatched friends followed the waiter to a land of delicious delight.

The next day, everyone leveled up a little and took on more challenging routes, and Miia even attempted a little snowsports of her own. She rented a full-body suit and went snowshoeing with Rachnera. Miia actually just slithered on top of the snow, but she did enjoy sliding down some of the hills and she couldn't deny how beautiful the snow-covered mountainside was.

They also made sure to visit Rosty's shrine. Miia had experience working as a shrine maiden, so she guided the group on how to properly pay their respects for a Shinto spirit. They all prayed for good fortune, and at least a couple of them wished that Rosty and Korbin's relationship would continue to grow. It had been obvious that they liked each other, but they didn't seem to be formally dating yet.

After the sun set behind the mountain, the group got changed out of their heavy winter clothes, checked out of their hotel rooms, and hailed a cab to take them to the train station. The same Hummer limo arrived, since it was still the only one in the fleet that would fit such a large group.

"That was a lot of fun," Kimihito said after making sure everyone and their luggage were safely inside the cab. "I'm really glad we were all able to go on a vacation together like this."

Centorea nodded, sending her long ponytail and massive breasts bouncing. "Skiing was much more thrilling than I expected, and good exercise too. One could use it as a kind of combat training during the winter months."

Lala struck an unusual pose with her arms parallel across her chest and her palms outward, then said, "No doubt this weekend shall be spoken of for eons, in hushed whispers and dark incantations."

When Suu and Papi both blinked in confusion, Rachnera translated. "She means she enjoyed herself and will remember it fondly."

"Ohhhh, me too!" Papi cheered. "Eons of hushed whispers!"

Suu joined in, "And dark incinerations!"

Rachnera raised a finger, planning to correct Suu's terminology, then thought better of it. Whether incantation or incineration, it was all just chuunibyou nonsense.

Miia sighed wistfully. "I just wish there were more warm things to do in the mountains in the winter."

The cab driver glanced back through the divider and said, "There's actually a hot spring inn on the other side of the valley. It's called the Mountain Lily Inn, and like that ski resort you're coming from, I hear it's real liminal friendly."

Mero's eyes sparkled. "Ooh, I hear that those springs are just wonderful for the complexion."

Miia pictured herself and Kimihito together in a mixed bath, sipping sake and intertwined in the steaming water, and her eyes lit up. "Change of plans," she told the taxi driver, "Take us to that hot spring!"

"Wait, wait!" Kimihito called out. "We have to get on the 7pm train so we can get back home tonight." He framed it as a scheduling requirement, but the bigger issue was money. A ski resort weekend for eight people was far from cheap and he couldn't afford anything else until Miss Smith came through on his Interspecies Activity reimbursement.

He apologized to Miia and the other girls that had become excited at the prospect of visiting a hot spring. "Sorry, but we'll just have to visit that hot spring inn another time."