Chapter 125: An Altar And An Offering
The group moved slowly through the ancient temple, Zora and Pip leading the way.
Pip lights the corridor simply by glowing, a soft golden pulse radiating off his frame, while Zora flicks little spheres of light into the air that bob along silently overhead, illuminating mural after mural along the crumbling walls.
The murals show ancient tribes kneeling before a towering, naked figure. Gifts piled at her feet, dancers mid-spin, musicians frozen mid-song. And everywhere around her, green. Vines curling up temple columns, rivers cutting through fields, animals grazing in herds. Not a grain of sand in sight.
"Hard to believe this was ever anything but an oven," Veena murmurs.
"I bet the goats were incredible back then," Penelo says, squinting at a particularly detailed mural of livestock. Lula nods in quiet agreement.
"Look, this one’s a carnival," she says, pointing at a row of dancers mid-cartwheel. "There’s a guy juggling what I’m fairly sure are melons."
"Those are not melons," Sera replies.
"They’re absolutely melons."
"Sera’s right, actually," the desert spirit chimed in without turning around. "Those are ceremonial gourds. Big difference."
"Oh, right," Lula says solemnly. "Ceremonial gourds. Big difference."
Zora drifts closer to a mural showing an especially enthusiastic tribute dance and tilts his skull thoughtfully. "You know, for a supposedly extinct religion, they had excellent production values."
"That one’s doing a backflip," Veena notes.
"That one," Zora corrects, "is doing a backflip while on fire. Now that’s commitment."
They reach a wide, circular central chamber. In the middle, on a raised stone platform, sits a large altar, weathered, but unmistakably ceremonial.
Sera lets out a low chuckle the second she sees it. "Ohh, that brings back memories. First time I ever got pounded with people watching." She taps her chin. "Kinda kinky, honestly. I’ll go again."
Lula and Penelo practically pounce on her. "You are not hogging another altar!" Lula sneers.
"We want to summon a demi-goddess with our orgasms too," Penelo adds, with the deadly seriousness of someone stating a life goal.
"Me too!" Lula agrees. "You got the Seedmother. This one is on me!"
"Me!" Penelo snaps back.
"Ugh... do they draw straws?" Veena sighs.
"Coin flip." Vuvi nods.
Veena and Vuvi share a look and start laughing. "Feels insane that this is the second time we’re doing this exact bit," Vuvi says.
The desert spirit tilts her head. "Where did you do it the first time?"
"We summoned the Seedmother," Penelo says breezily. "Pip got busy with her too."
The spirit freezes. "Wait. Seriously? Him... with an actual demi-goddess?"
They all nod like it’s the most unremarkable fact in the world.
"She got a power up too." Penelo says with an air of smugness.
"Then this might actually work!" the sprite says, pacing now, practically vibrating. "If we lay a strong enough tribute on that altar, it might be enough to bring the Earth Mother back. But she’s been gone for decades. We’ll need something really, really good."
Penelo and Lula’s hands shoot into the air like eager schoolgirls fighting for hall monitor duty.
The spirits looks them over and considers them both, then brightens. "That... could actually work. If Pip brings the two of you to divine bliss together, at the same time, right there on the altar... there might be enough spark to wake her."
The two women turn to each other, high-five, and then both look at Pip with something dangerously close to animal hunger.
Five minutes later, they’re naked, oiled, mentally prepped, and arranged salaciously on the altar. Pip stands off to the side, hands on his hips, patiently waiting for his cue like a true professional.
Behind Frostlick, Raikya peeks out, using the hound as a full-body shield between herself and the altar. Frostlick’s tail is a blur, ears perked, panting with intense focus.
"You are waaay too into this." Raikya mutters at her.
Frostlick’s eyes never leave the altar.
The sprite gives the signal to begin. A finger on one hand poking through hole in her other.
Pip nods and climbs onto the platform.
"Be gentle," Penelo reminds him quickly. "I still can’t handle direct contact without fainting."
Pip sends a thought-wave back, steady, warm, unmistakable.
I’ve got you. I promise.
Both women go weak in the knees and pounce him at the same moment.
A heartbeat later Pip is flat on his back with Lula straddling his hips, bouncing gently as her moans hitch when her thighs slap against his pelvis in to the diligent motions of Pips hips. Penelo hovers above them both on a spinning column of conjured air, Pip’s free hand weaving glowing tendrils of water and pulsing vine-light across her skin and fur. She quivers and jerks, moaning through it, eyes rolling back, her long ears flopping limp on either side of her head. Shuddering through moan after delight-filled moan while Pip’s magic massages her mind, body and soul through three levels of sensual euphoria.
Lula’s wings tear free from her back in a burst of smoke and embers as she digs her claws into Pip’s shoulders and trembles through her first climax of the performance. Above her, Penelo’s whole body goes rigid. Once. Twice. Then her limbs go slack and she spins gently through the air, boneless with bliss as she endures her first as well.
"IT’S WORKING!" the spirit shouts, standing before the two enormous doors at the chamber’s far end. Runes flare to life across the stone in cascading, spiraling lines, glowing brighter with every passing second, bright enough that Raikya has to shield her eyes from behind Frostlick. Then dimming again, like a candle flicking before a breeze.
The sprite’s face folds with disappointment. "So clooooose! It’s not enough. We need more!"
Veena and Vuvi, halfway through a flask of plum wine with a spread of snacks laid out on a cloth between them, decline politely without so much as sitting up.
"We’re strictly observing, dear." Vuvi says.
"Very important work," Veena agrees, popping a grape into her mouth.
"You’ve been observing for eleven minutes without blinking," Sera calls over.
"It’s a thorough observation," Vuvi says, refilling her cup without looking away from the altar. "Brilliant technique, Pip!" she calls out, toasting a glass to the air in tribute of Pip’s prowess. "You might have actually broken the bunny this time. Carry on!"
Zora, floating above the whole scene scribbling furiously in a notebook, adds, "I too am strictly here for scholarly documentation. Unfortunately."
"What exactly are you documenting?" Veena asks.
"Wing-to-ear-flop ratios at moment. Purely academic, of course." He pauses, quill hovering. "Also I may have started a small betting pool. Sera’s in for two silver on ’Penelo faints before the doors open.’"
"I did not agree to that."
"You absolutely did, you just don’t remember because you were three drinks in."
"Ah... that does ring bell." Sera nods. She rolls her neck, cracking it audibly. "Guess that’s me, then. Honestly, I had a feeling you’d need me for another demi-goddess appeasement session. Happy to help, though!"
But Frostlick whimpers... a small, plaintive sound that makes Sera, Vuvi, and Veena all turn at once. The hound rises up, tail still wagging, and reveals Raikya crouched behind her.
"What!?" Raikya says snaps.
Frostlick noses her forward.
"Absolutely not. I am not getting involved in that."
Frostlick whimpers again, louder, and licks her cheek.
"That is emotional blackmail and you know it, mutt."
Frostlick licks her again, somehow more pointedly.
"Stop that. I said no!"
The hound sits, gives one slow, deliberate tail-thump against the floor, and stares at her with the biggest, saddest eyes a Frostmane Hound has ever produced.
"...I hate you," Raikya mutters, completely straight faced.
"It’s fiiine," Sera calls over, unbuckling her swordbelt. "I totally understand if you’re too scared, Pip can be a handful—"
"I am scared of nothing!" Raikya snarls.
"Oh..." Sera grins. "Prove it, then, Paws."
"I... " Raikya hesitates, "I don’t even know how demi-goddess summoning altars work."
"Neither did they, fifteen minutes ago." Vuvi says, nodding toward the altar, where Penelo was still lazily rotating in midair, eyes rolled back, a blissed-out grin plastered across her face as pulsating vines and thrumming tendrils of water weaved in and across her naked body with a divinely erotic precision.
Below her Luna bounced on a Pip at a completely undignified and mechanically impressive frequency. Her toes curled, wings limp down her back, steam curling from her nose in tiny puffs timed perfectly with the rhythm of Pip’s pelvic rotations.
Veena whistles low, "That’s their first time up and they’re doing juuuust great."
Raikya bares her fangs at her, then glances toward the altar, where Pip is currently reducing a dragon and a bunny-kin to quivering, boneless wrecks with what appears to be minimal effort.
She swallows hard.
"Fine," she mutters, turning back to Frostlick. "This is your fault if he breaks something in me."
Frostlick throws her head back and howls, tail thrashing with pure, unbothered joy.
"Oh, don’t sound so pleased with yourself," Raikya grumbles, jabbing a finger at her. "You’re not even getting anything out of this."
Frostlick, completely unbothered, flops down directly beside Vuvi and Veena’s snack cloth and helps herself to a strip of dried meat.
"Actually," Veena says, patting the hounds head as she chews happily, "I think she’s enjoying this immensly." She flicks a pastry at Raikya, "Go on then wolf-girl. Let’s hear that howl."
Raikya sighs, peels off her clothes with the grim resolve of someone stepping onto a battlefield, rolls her shoulders once, cracks her knuckles like she’s about to throw the first punch of her life, and stomps toward the altar like she’s picking a fight she fully intends to win.
"For the record," she calls back over her shoulder, "if I end up liking this, none of you get to bring it up. Ever."
"No promises, darling." Vuvi chuckles cheerfully as she whips out her notebook and quills.