Chapter 146: Nereida’s Voyage
They retreated to the cabin, joining Aella and Egaz. Aella was in the kitchen, boiling the kettle and stirring cider in a pot. Egaz had changed his clothing, his wet, snowy clothing held on the mantel with stones, so that the fire would dry it out quickly. Aella’s shoulders dropped and her relief was palpable when they entered. Nereida took time to fuss over both boys, and when she was satisfied that they were not hurt, she set them up with warmed cider stirred with sticks of cinnamon. The boys gasped audibly at the treat, and held the mugs reverently in front of their noses.
Nereida retreated to the kitchen, watching the boys warm themselves by the fire and sip their drinks. Aella offered her tea, which she gladly took.
“We need to take a trip to the seaside,” Nereida said softly. “I need to confirm something that we heard in the river. It was garbled. But….” she glanced to Alejo, who was whispering to his brother. Egaz squealed and nearly dropped his mug into his lap. “Alejo heard the words “tooth” and “coming” and… he is certain that the ship is coming back.”
Aella was frozen for longer than Nereida would have liked, until a single tear started running down her cheek.
“She’s coming back? Our Epelda?”
“I think so,” Nereida replied softly. “But I can’t be sure until I can hear the song without the river’s interference.”
“We’ll go back tomorrow,” Aella said, her voice shaking.
They spent the rest of the day in the cabin, enjoying the quiet and the closeness. The boys, exhausted from many treks up the hill, went to bed without complaint or fuss. Their hearth was burning low, and Nereida made sure the boys had plenty of blankets as they cuddled together in the massive bed. She kissed them each goodnight, and then shut the door.
Nereida then spent the next hour or so reading to her wife from one of the books they found in the hope chest in their room. It smelled strongly of mothballs, but the story was entertaining. It was about a princess made of ice who needed to be rescued from the clutches of a sentient stone gargoyle. As they read, Aella’s arm looped around her, pulling her in close. Aella kissed her shoulder as she read, the kisses slowly trailing up her neck. Nereida moaned, losing track of what she was reading.
“Keep reading, love,” Aella whispered into her neck. “Pay no attention to me.” Nereida tried to read the sentence again, but as she began to say words she was certain she had already read, Aella gently nibbled her ear. “If you can get to the end of the page, love, we can go to the bedroom,” Aella whispered, her voice soft and low. Nereida whimpered, and tried to find her place again as her wife repositioned to massage her shoulders, putting glorious pressure on parts of her that ached after carrying her son. She got another line, then two, before the massage ceased, and Aella’s hands began to wander to breasts. She kneaded them gently, rustling the fabric of her overdress. Nereida found that the words might have well been written in the demon’s language for all that she could read the words as her wife kept touching and teasing.
“Aella,” she breathed.
“Do you want me to stop, love?” Aella asked softly, her hands wandering lower to roam over Nereida’s stomach, her touch still teasing.
“No,” Nereida replied breathlessly.
“Then keep reading.”
Nereida obliged, reading another sentence. The words had stopped making any real sense, and she struggled for each word. When she was halfway through the page, Aella’s teasing touch briefly stopped, only for her to climb down off the couch. Nereida made a face, reading a line twice as she wondered what her wife was up to. Aella knelt on the ground, disappearing under Nereida’s skirt. Her agile fingers teased outside her drawers, drawing lazy, gentle circles. Nereida gasped in delight, and forced herself to repeat the sentence, hoping each word made sense to her wife, because she was far past the point where the words had meaning. She felt heat and wetness building as Aella teased, her fingers undoing the ties of her drawers as she read about another princess with hair of gold.
“Almost there,” Aella said, her voice muffled by the fabric. She gently pulled the drawers down slightly, blowing gently to ruffle Nereida’s curly hairs. Nereida mewled at the sensation, losing her place as Aella’s fingers slipped inside her. “Keep reading love, nice and easy.” Nereida gulped, catching her breath before stammering her way through the words on the paper. It was nearly impossible to concentrate, and the words had fuzzy edges as she grew closer to coming apart. Aella slowed her pace, returning to lazy circles.
“Not yet,” Aella breathed. She began to kiss the scaled leg, her tongue getting in between the scales to the sensitive flesh beneath. “Keep going, my love. Read to me.” She said the word as if it meant something entirely different, but Nereida forced herself to read the last passage, the heroic knight finally kissing the princess she’d been pining after. As she read about lips parting, Aella parted an entirely differing kind of lips, slipping her tongue inside Nereida. She moaned her wife’s name as Aella tasted her.
Aella came up for air, a satisfied smile playing across her face.
“That was for the snow fight,” Aella declared.
“I should make war with you more often,” Nereida managed, her heart pounding. She leaned in to kiss Aella deeply as her wife was still kneeling on the floor. Aella leaned into the kiss, sucking her lip and not letting go for an extra moment. Nereida offered her wife her hands, and helped pull her to her feet. Aella groaned as her knee popped. Together, they made their way to the bedroom. Aella slid the lock closed.
“Now, my darling,” Aella said, her expression back to mischievous, “I think you surrendered far too easily outside.” She took a few steps toward Nereida, lifting her hand to her mouth and kissing each finger. “Do you want to try something… different?”
“Different how?” Nereida asked breathlessly.
“Let me undress you, and show you,” Aella suggested. Nereida smiled.
“I trust you,” she whispered, kissing Aella’s neck.
Carefully, slowly, deliberately, Aella began removing Nereida’s clothing. With each tie, buckle or button Aella removed, she placed a kiss somewhere on Nereida’s body, starting at the top of her head, but with no rhyme or rhythm to where she’d kiss next, the neck, her fingers, a leg, her back. Each touch of her lips made Nereida smile, her heart pounding and her small hairs beginning to stand on end. Once her clothing was on the ground, Aella gently pushed Nereida down onto the bed. She produced a silk scarf from their luggage, and brought it up to Nereida’s eyes.
“Yes,” Nereida whispered to the unasked question. Aella covered her eyes with the scarf, tying it tightly so it wouldn’t slip off as they moved, though not so tight that she couldn’t pull it off. Nereida’s heart pounded as she lay naked on her bed, blindfolded. She felt the bed shift as Aella retrieved something else, and silky fabric was suddenly being dragged gently over Nereida’s wrists. The soft touch made her giggle even as she felt lust crashing into her.
“Please,” she whispered. “Aella, tie me up, please.”
“As you wish, my ice princess,” Aella replied. She kissed Nereida deeply, her weight shifting as she moved to tie Nereida to the oak headboard.
She was well secured, when Aella suddenly got off the bed, the sheets shifting. Nereida felt a burst of cold air, and heard a strange squeak. She heard Aella slam something after a moment, and the cold air began to warm. Nereida was about to ask what was happening, when she felt a sudden shock of cold being dragged over her stomach. She managed not to cry out. All the fine hairs on her body stood up, and she arched her back.
“Now, now, don’t surrender yet,” Aella whispered. “Show me, love, how strong you can be.” Nereida nodded, helpless to answer. Aella’s warm mouth was suddenly on her breasts, kissing, licking, before she switched out soft, sucking kisses for cold snow rolling over Nereida’s nipple. She whimpered at the unfamiliar touch, arching her back as her nipples hardened to the cold. Aella alternated warm kisses and icy snow, driving Nereida into a tizzy. She was not sure when she started begging, or even what she was begging for, but Aella placed a single finger over her lips.
“Soon,” Aella promised. She rolled the snowball over Nereida’s stomach, leaving a long, cold wet trail as she went. “My ocean…” her voice was husky now. “Do you take all the moon offers you this day?”
“Yes!”
Still rolling the slushy, dripping snowball over her stomach, Aella’s other hand was suddenly slipping inside her, cold and wet from the snowball, warm and wet from Nereida. She gasped out Aella’s name, falling to pieces at her wife’s expert touch. Aella’s mouth was suddenly on her, kissing where the snowball touched, warming it with her breath, all the while her fingers danced inside until Nereida gasped out, coming apart again.
Nereida spent the rest of the night beneath the covers, naked with her wife, touching, tasting and warming themselves after their play.
“I love you,” Nereida whispered into her wife’s neck.
“I love you too.” Aella kissed her head chastely. “Was that too much?”
“No,” Nereida cuddled in. Aella held her close, her cold hands on Nereida’s back making her shiver. “But maybe mittens next time?” Nereida suggested cheekily. Aella laughed and kissed her head again, a perfect, content smile on her scarred, beautiful face.