Raider is out on Amazon! If you all like my novels and would like to support me and my writing I would appreciate it if you thought about purchasing it on Amazon, it helps me out a lot. Also, can we give Darkcurs3 a round of applause for getting it done so quickly? He did pretty awesome if you ask me. The link to it is in the Author's not above, and thank you in advance.

Markious.

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“Relax will you?” Lira snapped, she was addressing the sacred Gwenice as she was being measured, or rather attempting not to be measured.

“No! this is not what I agreed to!” she yelled, and Leon not being able to take any more of her squirming and holding up the process peaked into the room, she froze when he did that, seeing as she was currently in nothing as they had stripped her down to get the most accurate measurements possible. Her eyes wide she watched in shocked horror and something else in her eyes as his large hands wrapped around her waist, holding her firmly in place.

The seamstress shot him a thankful look but when she did she gasped as she took in his appearance. Both Lira and Gwenice followed her gaze and found that he was completely naked, it would seem that he was also in the process of being measured.

“Wha-” Gwenice started, but her throat was dry, so she coughed and tried again, attempting to get words around the lump in her throat, and also attempting to tear her eyes off of his naked form.

“Done!” the young seamstress who had been attempting to measure Gwenice shouted out, holding up the cloth tape that she had been using with a triumphant expression. Leon nodded to her and let go of Gwenice and walked back to his room to finish up his own measurements. All three of the women in the room watched his bare backside as he walked out of the room, Lira and the seamstress were the first to break out of there trance.

“What just- I- I-” Gwenice stammered as her cheeks died deep green.

“As I was trying to explain, a nice new dress does not mean you are getting married.” Gwenice looked over at Lira numbly, she watched as Lira stripped down out of her clothing, the robes fell in a silken pool around her ankles and she stepped out of them. With practiced ease, she unhooked the bra she was wearing and slipped off her panties. The wide hips, small breasts, and the forward curving horns gave her a wicked look, but those eyes were different. The golden color one that even Gwenice had never seen before. “Though I will not lie to you, Leon does have some, hmm, shall we say curiosities about you?”

“And you are ok with this?” the previous statement broke her out of her trance.

“No,” Lira said without hesitation, lifting her arms above her head as instructed as the seamstress got her chest measurements. “Not at all, but then again I was against Fluffy and Krya to start with as well.” she smiled over at the dryad. “How to put this,” she closed her eyes. “Leon, he is the reason I am still alive, and I don't mean he saved me from being killed multiple times,” she paused. “Though he has also down that, no, what I mean is I would have committed suicide if he had not been there with me.“

Gwenice gasped, “What? Why?” she breathed out.

“I am a bastard child, one that is hated by everyone, even my own mother in the end, but I think that was more of her pain talking, she was not terribly coherent,” she lowered her arms and spread her legs, allowing the seamstress to measure the inside of her it. “About a year ago I received a letter telling me that my father’s second wife had become heavy with child, something they had been trying to do for years.”

“Meaning you weren't the heiress anymore,” Gwenice said, an understanding dawning on her.

“Indeed, I fell so deep into despair that he had to scare it out of me,” she smiled at Gwenice, as the seamstress circled her waist taking the measurements. “I am his, and he is mine,” she stated it firmly, as though she was trying to convince herself as well as tell Gwenice. “And I decided that as long as he is not taken from me I don't care,” she looked over at Gwenice, “Are we clear?” she asked, her voice hardening, the cute look on her face replaced by cold determination.

“But I- I am not even in a relationship with- I mean-”

“If there is one thing you should know about Leon, it's that he gets what he wants, one way or another.” she looked over at Gwenice, “So you have to decide, will you come willingly or will you make him chase, though I warn you, he loves a good chase.”

“That he does,” Krya said as she walked in, closely tailed by Fluffy both of them wrapped in simple shifts the store had given them. Krya turned her ice blue eyes on Gwenice, “So what will you do?”

“I do-”

“Before that,” Lira said cutting the dryad off, “How do you feel about him?”

“I, uh I don't know?” she phrased it like it was a question.

“That's not good enough.” Fluffy placed her hands on her hips, gone was the playful she-wolf, she was entirely business now.

“But I don’t I have never been propositioned and have never been in a relationship and-”

“Wait,” Fluffy held up a hand, “You mean to tell me that in the what hundreds of years you worked at that school there was not a single nobleman who wanted to have a piece of-” she looked the naked dryad up and down. “Well, that?”

“I uh- well no, I assume it was because I was not attractive, or something.”

“That’s not the problem,” Fluffy shook her head, and both of the other girls nodded in agreement. “We will have to explore this later, so you have never felt this way before yes? Describe it to us.”

“I,” she paused, looking at the girls around her, the seamstress had back off and was watching this all with a rapt face, no doubt committing it all to memory so she could pass it along to her co-workers. Gwenice sighed, this might, after all, be the only chance she got to be accepted by someone other than her family. Closing her eyes she began to speak. “I don't know, I find myself drawn to him and, when I saw him and fluffy together I felt annoyed, annoyed that it wasn't me, and that was crazy seeing as at that time I had never seen him before and,” she paused, eyes still screwed shut. “He scares me,” she whispered. “For I am a forest, and there is nothing more terrifying to a forest than a flame.”

“But is it not true,” Krya asked softly, “That fire helps a forest?” Gwenice opened her eyes and looked at the icy-eyed woman, realizing for the first time she was seeing her without the mask, there was a smile playing on her beautiful red lips. “Does it not clear the forest floor of debris, opening it up to sunlight, and nourishing the soil?”

“A fire can help, but there is always the risk of it getting out of hand,” Gwenice whispered, her fear palpable in her voice as it shook. “What if it burns to hot and damages the forest?” she whispered.

Lira slipped an arm around her shoulder. “Fire can be controlled,” she said, squeezing the other girl’s shoulder. “You just need the right help.”