In Kuroinu

The Great Forest filled the horizon by midafternoon.

It didn't creep up on us. One minute the road was climbing a long rise through open grassland and the next we were at the top and there it was. A wall of green stretching left and right as far as I could see, the canopy so thick and dark it looked solid, the trees taller than anything I'd seen in this world. The treeline was sharp against the sky like someone had drawn a border and everything past it belonged to a different country.

Llusse stopped walking.

Her ears went rigid. Both of them, pointed forward, then swiveling slowly, then forward again. She was staring at the forest with her mouth slightly open and her hands loose at her sides.

"Something's humming," she said. "In there."

Nobody else heard it. Leonora was scanning the treeline for threats. Filia had her hand on her sword. Mila's ears were up but she was responding to Llusse's tension, not the sound.

Tianne cocked her head. Closed her eyes. Her fingertips flickered gold.

"I feel it too," she said. "Like a heartbeat. Very faint."

The Holy Tree. Alfheim's source, failing, its pulse carrying through the forest, and Llusse's elven blood was picking it up from miles away.

I said nothing.

"What is it?" Filia asked. She was looking between Llusse and Tianne and her hand was on her sword.

"I don't know." Llusse's ears were still forward. "Old. Big. Alive."

"A threat?"

Llusse was quiet for a beat. "No. It's just... there."

The forest waited. The wind came off it carrying a smell I couldn't place, green and deep and wet, like rain on moss but stronger and laced with a hum at the edge of my senses. The Blessing in my chest vibrating at a frequency that matched whatever Llusse was hearing.

"Decision time," Leonora said. She'd dismounted and was studying a map. "Around adds twelve to fourteen days. Through the forest is three, possibly four, but the interior is uncharted. There are no established routes."

"Around," she said. "The safer option."

"We don't have two weeks," I said.

Everyone looked at me.

"The Shield Alliance. They're expecting us. Every day we're late is a day the northern front goes without additional support." True enough. Also, Alfheim was in that forest and I needed to get there and I couldn't explain why. "We go through."

Leonora's mouth thinned. "The risk profile-"

"I'll take the risk."

"You're the asset. That's not your decision."

"Haruto," Filia said. "His name is Haruto. And yes, it is his decision."

Leonora looked at Filia. Looked at me. Her jaw worked.

"Through," she said. "We camp at the treeline tonight and enter at first light."

Camp went up fast. Tents in a semicircle facing the tree line. Fire in the center. The air was colder here. The trees blocked the south wind and the north wind came over them carrying that smell, wet and ancient and alive.

Llusse ate facing the forest. Her ears twitching.

"You okay?" I asked.

"Fine."

"Your ears haven't stopped moving."

"They do that."

"They don't, usually."

She looked at me. Her green eyes were strange in the firelight, brighter than normal, and for a second she looked less like an annoyed elf archer and more like an animal that had caught a scent it recognized but couldn't place.

"It's calling me," she said. Quiet. "The humming. It's not just a sound. It's for me. For my blood." She blinked and went back to her stew. "It's fine. I'm fine."

She wasn't. I didn't push.

Leonora took first watch. Everyone turned in. The forest was a dark wall against the stars and the humming was louder now. The Blessing pulsed in time with it.

Alfheim. In there. Nol and Lucie and Firis. Misery and Delva and Evelyn. Real and close. I knew what they needed. The Blessing was designed for exactly what the Holy Tree required.

Later.

The tent flap opened.

Filia was crouching in the entrance. Sleeping shirt. Hair down. No sword. That's how I knew.

"Move over," she said.

She came in and knelt on the bedroll beside me and in the half-dark her eyes were bright and her breathing was already fast.

"Filia-"

She pushed me flat. Both hands on my chest, her weight on me, and she swung her leg over and straddled my hips. Her hands slid up to my shoulders and pressed down.

"Don't talk," she said.

She rolled her hips. The pressure of her against my cock through the clothes, the heat of her even through the thin linen. She ground down and the friction was rough through the fabric and she was pressing hard enough that the shape of her was there, the warmth concentrating where she was wettest, and the linen between us was starting to dampen.

Her eyes were on mine. Short controlled breaths through her nose. The forest, the unknown, the decision I'd made. When Filia got wound up she needed to do something with her body and right now what she was doing was me.

Her hips rocked harder. The heat through the fabric sharper, her wetness soaking through, and my cock was fully hard and straining against her and every time she ground forward the head caught and she bit her lip and her rhythm stuttered.

"Filia."

"I said don't talk."

I grabbed her hips. She sucked in a breath and her eyes went wide and her grinding paused. She looked down at me. Pupils blown.

I pulled her hips forward. Set the pace. Slow and firm and she shuddered and her jaw loosened and "Nn-" slipped out between her teeth. Her thighs flexed on either side of my hips and her chest moved with her breathing, breasts shifting under the sleeping shirt with each roll, and the damp spot where she was grinding had spread and the friction was slicker and the wet fabric between us was audible in the quiet tent.

She reached between us. Pulled the linen aside. Hers and mine.

No buildup. No tease. She wrapped her fingers around my cock and positioned it and the head pressed against her and she was hot and slick and the cold night air on my shaft disappeared into the heat of her as she sank down. All of me. One drop.

Her mouth opened. Her hand came up and clamped over her lips.

"Mm-!"

The camp was right outside. Leonora on watch. Tianne and Llusse in the next tent. Filia's hand was pressed so tight over her mouth that her knuckles were white and her eyes were squeezed shut and she was sitting on my cock with all of me inside her, her pussy clenching in involuntary pulses around the shaft.

Wet. Wetter than the grinding should have made her. She'd been thinking about this before she came to my tent. The slide had been smooth and fast and her wetness was at the base of my cock already, coating me, warm against the cold tent air.

She rose. Dropped.

Fast. Her thighs working, bouncing on me, and the wet sound of each drop was louder in the quiet than either of us wanted. The muscles in her thighs flexing under my palms. Her pussy hot and tight and gripping on every outstroke, the friction of her walls dragging along the ridge, and then the drop back down and the heat closing around me again. The cold air on the base of my shaft where her wetness had run down made the contrast sharper.

"Nn- nn-"

Each thrust muffled behind her palm. Her hair swinging. Her breasts bouncing under the thin shirt with each drop, the fabric pulling tight across them on the upstroke and settling on the down. Her eyes squeezed shut. She was chasing it. Desperate, fast, no patience for buildup. My cock throbbing and she was getting wetter with every stroke. Each time she dropped the sound was slicker. Louder.

Her free hand found my shoulder and gripped. Fingers dug into the muscle the way they'd grip a sword hilt, knuckles locked, tendons standing out.

"You're shaking," I said.

Her eyes opened. She was. Thighs trembling around my hips, hand shaking on my shoulder. The rhythm falling apart. Close, trying to be quiet, failing. The wet sounds constant now, each bounce a slick slap echoing in the tent.

Her cheeks were red. She knew how loud it was. She couldn't slow down.

I drove my hips up into her. Hard.

Her eyes went wide. Her hand over her mouth slipped and "Ah-" came out and she flinched at her own volume and shoved her palm back. Her pussy clenched around me and her jaw was working behind her hand and her breath was coming in short sharp bursts through her nose.

Again. Harder. Driving up into her from below while she dropped and the depth doubled and she made a sound behind her palm that was closer to a sob than a moan.

"Nn- nn- ah- nn-"

Constant. Every thrust. Her hand wasn't enough. The sounds leaking past her fingers. Her body rigid above me, thighs locked, pussy clenching in fast rhythmic pulses.

Her sword hand gripped my shoulder hard enough to bruise.

She came.

Thighs locked and she ground down on my cock and her whole body went tight and the sound through her fingers was low and broken and she was grinding in short desperate jerks, clenching in hard waves that squeezed me in rhythmic pulses. I held my hips still. Let her ride it. Her face turned up and her eyes squeezed shut and the clenching went on, each wave tighter, and the tent was silent except for her breathing through her fingers and the wet sound of her grinding through the aftershocks.

She collapsed on my chest.

Her hand fell from her mouth and her face pressed into my neck. Breathing hard. Hot against my skin. Her hair everywhere. Still pulsing around me in fading aftershocks.

I hadn't finished. My cock hard inside her and the ache at the base of my spine and my balls tight and I was right there but I'd held it.

"I'm not scared," she said into my neck.

"I know."

"The forest is fine."

"Of course."

Her breathing slowed. Then her teeth found my jaw and bit. Pressure, not pain. Her mouth against the bone.

"One more?"

"You're insatiable."

She grinned against my jaw. Didn't deny it.

I grabbed her hips and rolled.

She went onto her back and I pulled out and the cold air hit my cock, wet and slick with her, and she sucked in a breath at the emptiness. Her hips lifted after me. I lined up and pushed back in and the heat after the cold was staggering and she gasped and her legs came up around my hips and her hands found my back.

Different angle. Deeper from above. Swollen from the first round and everything tighter, wetter. Her breath caught when I bottomed out.

"Nn- careful-"

She didn't tell me to stop. Her legs pulled me deeper. I started slow because she was sensitive and each thrust made her flinch and grab, her nails scraping my back. The wet sounds were worse. Louder. Her first orgasm had left her dripping and every stroke was slick and obscene in the quiet.

She bit the bedroll. Turned her face into it. "Nn- nn-"

"I'm not going anywhere," I said.

Her eyes opened. Looked up at me in the dark. Flushed, hair spread across the bedroll, lips swollen from biting. Her legs tightened around my waist.

Longer strokes. Deeper. The friction gone entirely, replaced by slick heat, and each thrust produced a sound that would carry through the tent walls. Her body rocking under mine, breasts shifting under the shirt, mouth open against the bedroll.

"Ah- nn- harder- please-"

Her hips rising to meet me. Taking me deep. The fit tight and hot. Her pussy clenching in waves that tightened around me on each thrust. My own pressure building hard, the ache spreading up from the base.

Her sword hand found my shoulder again. Gripped.

I drove harder. The bedroll muffled her but not enough. "Nn- nn- oh god- don't stop-" Her legs crushing my hips. Her pussy clenching. My cock throbbing and the pressure right there and I couldn't hold it.

Her body locked under mine. Her second orgasm hit and her pussy clenched in deep waves and her legs went rigid and I drove in deep and came. Pulsing inside her, thick, warmth spreading, and my vision went white and my hips jerked and I couldn't-

Her hands on my back. Her heartbeat through her chest.

Breathing.

Heavy on top of her. Her arms around me. Legs loosened. Breathing ragged. The warmth between us was everywhere, sweat and the damp heat of two bodies in a cold tent.

Her voice was rough.

"The forest is going to be fine."

"Yeah."

"I'm not nervous."

"You're not."

She hit my ribs. Light. Her fist against my side.

"I'm not."

"I believe you."

"You don't."

"I do." I kissed her forehead. "Go to sleep, Filia."

She didn't move. Her arms around me and the tent was cold and the forest was humming.

She fell asleep first. I pulled out carefully and she shifted and her hand found my arm and held on.

The forest hummed.

Tomorrow.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!