Chapter 155: Entering the High Fen
Ashlynn’s next several days after departing the High Pass were oddly relaxing for days spent traveling through frigid mountains in a carriage. As before, additional horses had been arranged to allow the group to move both day and night.
Unlike her trip to the High Pass, however, Nyrielle all but forbade any additional training or studying during these days and nights.
"You worked hard to be ready for the High Pass," Nyrille said on the first night of their journey. "The High Fen isn’t like the High Pass. You don’t need to prepare the same way and if you throw yourself back into intense study, you’ll only exhaust yourself. Take these days to rest and recover from what you have just been through."
As much as Ashlynn wanted to protest, Nyrielle was adamant. It didn’t help that the vampire took advantage of the close confines of the carriage to have her way with Ashlynn at every opportunity.
Whether it was the hollow of her hip next to the witch’s mark, the subtle spot where her delicate neck met her rounded shoulders or the ticklish spot behind her knees, there was no part of Ashlynn’s body that Nyrielle neglected during the nights of their journey.
The nights were becoming even shorter, but each time Nyrielle slid her slender fingers along Ashlynn’s creamy thighs, teasing at her most intimate places while her lush lips feasted on Ashlynn’s mouth, the young witch found herself helplessly melting into her lover’s embrace.
A few days after setting out, the carriage finally began to descend from the mountains on the far side of the pass. The barren, snow-covered landscape gave way to sparse, hearty trees that quickly became thicker when they entered a mountain forest.
"Are those... the Clan of the Great Claw?" Ashlynn asked Heila as they followed the ancient road out of the mountains. In the forest, she saw several of the bearish men felling trees and clearing away any brush that had grown too close to the road.
In the kingdom of Gaal, this kind of work, keeping the king’s roads from being swallowed by nature, would be done by convicts or bondsmen but when Ashlynn looked around she didn’t see any jailors or chains on the men working. In fact, they seemed rather... happy.