Love as a Form of Binding Ch. 17

Tereth had one quick glimpse of a scene far back in the cavern where many of the female goblins were now killing the one that Tereth had wounded. He seemed to have started an insurrection, by the look of it.

He landed on his back and the ogre had him by the throat. Tereth wondered how long it was going to take for the idiot to realize that the shaft of an arrow was in his brain. He reached out to grab the shaft and stir it around in there, but things began to grow black as the hamfists closed tighter over his throat.

He as fading, but he did see the ogre smashed aside by Gortruk when she arrived with a howling cry to drive her blade deep into the thing's ribcage. He watched as she leaned back and howled down at the stricken ogre as she held that sword in place, reefing it in him with her fist to make it hurt.

Tereth's grasp of the slayer dialect wasn't that good, but he wanted to smile when he thought he heard her promise that she'd fuck his bleached skull for him at the top of her lungs.

Whatever slow nervous system that this particular walking hilltop had, the message was not getting through to his brain. Gortruk hung onto her sword, twisting it while pounding her fist into the ogre's face over and over in her desperate rage. Tereth felt the way that the ground under his back shook with each impact. The ogre was well-dead before she stopped.

Tereth looked over and couldn't actually identify a single feature on that head anymore. It was caved-in pulp. If he lived through this, Tereth resolved to always stay on the good side of slayers.

She got to her feet to stand over him with the blade of her sword running with black blood. He watched as she shook her long mane back and raised her head in a loud bellow. It might have been a challenge, he thought, or more likely, she was just trying to release the tension in her while expressing her fury.

Tereth tried to look up, wanting to laugh and curse at the same time. He was losing consciousness, and still he was trying to get a look up through the darkness of her underside. He still couldn't see, but he wanted to so much now. What she had must surely be as lovely as the rest of her, he thought. He felt as though he was falling away into a different kind of darkness.

Tereth felt light and weak again as his vision began to clear now and then for a second or so. Suddenly, the worry-stricken face of Gortruk was there over him as she fretted.

He smiled up a little weakly, "Well, Gortruk, my beautiful new friend, did we do alright?"

He thought that he could see the beginnings of tears in that sweet face there above him. The slayer nodded, making noises about the two of them having found enough food to feed the legions for a good long while.

Tereth thought that it was still a bit of a toss-up, though he'd never tell her. He decided that he'd still like her face and her incredible body, even if she'd turned out to be a male earlier. He liked the goatish eyes that he saw looking at him, though he really didn't like to see her so fearful for him.

"You look as though you are terrified that I'm going to die," he smiled, talking nonsense. "I guess that all there is left for you to do is to kiss me then."

She gasped and stared at him, "You -- you want for Gortruk to, ... kiss Tereth?"

"Well, only if you want to," he said, chattering foolishly and knowing it, "I must admit that, at first, your legions looked so different to me that I didn't have much in the way of feelings for any of you, but now it's different, you know? I think that you're all so strong and beautiful. You most of all, Gortruk, you're the most lovely one of them all, "he said, feeling a little more faint, "So please, Gortruk, kiss me now so that I can die happy."

He didn't think that he was going to die at all, really, though he was very weak and everything looked to him as though it was all struggling to remain in his sight, somehow. He just really wanted a kiss from her if he was going to pass out.

Gortruk leaned down and kissed Tereth softly and the hunter reached up to caress the slayer's head when he heard her sigh. When he saw that face as she lifted it up, he saw her soft smile there and had a inkling of how it felt for just one second to be a demonlord.

"Gortruk likes Tereth," she said, finally admitting things now that he looked as though he might die. There was a lot of blood everywhere, and Gortruk couldn't tell in the dim light how much of it came from the wound on his head. "Gortruk saw Tereth walking and wanted to talk, but Gortruk is shy. General Brinack told Gortruk to follow and protect. Not die, Tereth, please not die."

Gortruk looked up and saw the female goblins approaching slowly, armed with whatever they could find. They weren't a very threatening bunch, but there was the injured hunter to think about. Gortruk was in enough trouble for how he'd been hurt already.

Tereth felt himself being lifted up, and hefted very carefully for the best balance before Gortruk began to run. He kept hearing his name as a part of the mantra that Gortruk repeated over and over through the breaths in and out. The ceiling was too low here, the slayer thought.

"Not die, Tereth, Not die."

There was a bump and a bit of jostling at one point. Tereth felt some water against his back and he saw more of it in the air around him as Gortruk crashed into the stream to splash across. After that, things smoothed out for Tereth. The slayer needed only a slightly longer run to take off and Tereth was borne on the slayer's heavy and powerful wings now. Then they were on a landing far up on the stairs, near the top, going upwards quickly on Gortruk's strong legs.

"Not die, Tereth, please not die,"

When they reached the storeroom, there was no one in the scullery. Gortruk still had strength for them, though, as Tereth was carried at a run through the scullery and out into the great hall where at last, Gortruk ran out of steam and sank to her knees.

He watched as Gortruk lifted her head and brayed out a long call. He thought that her throat was so beautiful.

He saw her look down at him and he saw that she did have tears now. His head wound bled very freely and all that Gortruk could see was that he was a bloody mess. It was all over them both. One tear fell from her nose to land on his cheek and he wanted to reach up, but his hand wouldn't obey him.

He heard that she still kept up her mantra, but in an almost silent whisper now, "Please Tereth, not die now."

Hundreds of slayers ran over to them.

His free hand relaxed and the bruised little piece of what was grown down below rolled from his fingers to stop in front of Brinack and Lily.

"Food," he said weakly, "they grow food down ther-"

Tereth lost the battle to remain conscious and his body went limp.

Gortruk's eyes closed tightly and the slayer's head hung down.