Supernatural Earth Pt. 02

Daniel's heart danced at the prospect but he could tell that something was wrong. He cocked his head as her expression had changed to worry. "What's happened? What's wrong?" He lay back down next to her and listened as she related everything that had happened from the Werewolves kidnapping, raping, and killing a maiden, to the Vampires who'd brought the maiden's body back, to the Queen's declaration. At first Daniel was skeptical at first but then took the whole thing serious when he remembered that he did just have sex with a woman who had yet to use the front door to get into his apartment. "Wow," he said at last as he digested the information. It was a lot to take in at once but his beautiful maiden had a pleading look in her eyes as she waited for his answer.

He finally nodded and smiled at her. This was too good of an opportunity to pass up if it meant being with her all the time. "Uhm, I'll have to make some arrangements real quick. But then again, it's not like I have a lot to pack," he said, glancing around the apartment.

"You will not need anything," Lily said, overjoyed that he accepted. "Besides, you've already terminated your previous position."

"How the hell did you know that?"

"I put the suggestion into your mind right before I came here to you."

Daniel rocked back at that. "But that was last night!"

Lily looked confused again. "Yes... right after the Queen had given us our orders." She cocked her head to the side as she struggled with the Human frame of reference. "Ah, yes, it would have been the previous night for you since I can only move as fast as the cold winds can take me, which is still faster than any of your adorable human conveyances."

While Daniel struggled to wrap his mind around that, Lily stood up and walked around the bed to him. She took his hands into hers and pulled him to his feet. "Are you ready?" she asked, the air around them seeming to swirl. Daniel watched in amazement as her clothes seemed to vanish until she was standing before him as naked as he was. "Ready?" she asked him with a smile.

Daniel nodded once, unsure as to what was about to happen. Lily took a step forward and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her naked body to his. "Hold on tightly!" With that, the air roared inside of the apartment as the wind gathered them up and blew them both out of the window that continued flapping in the cold arctic breeze long after they were gone.

***

Chapter 3: The Winter Contender

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A/N: Originally published 10/25/14 to Literotica.com under my other screen name of DieselJester

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I'm waking up, I feel it in my bones, enough to make my systems blow.
Welcome to the new age, to the new age...

-Imagine Dragons, "Radioactive" (2012)

Have you ever walked alone at night like a man against the world?
No one takes your side; a boat against the tide.
When your faith is shaken you start to break and you heart can't find the words.
Tossed upon the sand I give you a man against the world...

-Survivor, "Man Against the World" (1986)

*

"Geez, and I thought that it was cold back in Alaska," Daniel said the moment he and Lily arrived at the Ice Palace. Teeth chattering, he wrapped his arms around himself and started rubbing his biceps in an effort to get warm. He swore that his balls had just crawled back up into his body to the point of burrowing into his stomach.

"Oh!" Lily exclaimed. "Sorry! I forgot that you're just human. Here," she swirled her hands around. The icy wind with snow wrapped around them both tightly. When the air cleared, Lily was back in her normal white leather clothes.

Daniel was clad in a white leather breastplate that was cut off at the midsection and had white furs across his shoulder and down his back like a cloak. To complete the tribal look he had on white leather and furs shorts as well as white furred leather boots that came up to his knees. "I look like some wild man that got lost in the arctic," he commented on his new attire. "Your people actually wear this?"

Lily nodded, pleased at her work. "It's the standard garb for all of our warriors. Do you like it?"

"I'm still cold, Lily, I was looking for something a little more... practical? Maybe something that covers my legs up completely?"

Lily cocked her head as she contemplated the request. "Right! You humans are always wearing those things that completely cover up your lower bodies. What are those called again?"

"You mean pants?"

"Yes! That's it!" Lily made a gesture and white furred leggings encased the rest of his bare skin from the waist down. Daniel sighed as he resigned himself to whatever passed as the fashion police around here. Ah, fuck it, he thought, at least I'm warmer now. Lily grabbed his arm and led him forward. "Come, I want you to meet the Queen. She wants to see all of the Champions that we've chosen."

They walked into the throne room and Daniel could not help but be impressed by the grandness. The place was like it was straight out of a fantasy movie complete with ornate ice columns lining the hall and ice chandeliers dangling from the ceiling. He whistled in amazement. "You live here?"

"This is just the main entrance, do you like it?" she asked him. He could just nod as he took it all in and Lily smiled. "Great! I hoped that you would. "

They waited at the end of the receiving line for only a moment as the Queen inspected and blessed each of her Maiden's choices for their Champion. When it was finally their turn, the Queen's eyes narrowed, zeroing in on him as they walked up. Daniel had the feeling of being a bug inspected under a microscope. "Who is this?" the Queen asked, her cheerful demeanor now gone.

"This is my Champion; Daniel Butler of Alaska." Lily said proudly.

"A human!" The Queen recoiled with a gasp. "You brought a human here?"

Lily shrugged much like she'd seen Daniel do. "We've had humans here before. We just had a couple of them bring back one of my sisters."

"Those were duly appointed representatives of the Vampiric Nation. That's not the same as bringing one here to stay as your Champion!"

"He helped me when I was in danger last season. He stepped up to defend me when no one else did."

The Queen's eyes widened even more. "THIS is the human that you consorted with?"

"I feel like I'm missing something here," Daniel said cautiously. Fae, Werewolves, and now Vampires? What was next, people who could do magic?

"Silence, mortal. You have no standing here." The Queen said, her anger briefly transferring to him before going back to Lily. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"You said that our Champion was our choice!" Lily said. "You never specified who that had to be or what they had to be."

"It was assumed that you would choose one of our kind, not one of his kind." The Queen said evenly. She waved her hand to her guards. "Get the uninvited moral out of here," she said as her gaze fixated on Lily. "As for you, you will choose another Champion and it will be one from our kind."

Daniel saw the two guards that were flanking the throne bring their spears down into a ready position and advance on him amid Lily's protests to hold the Queen to her original edict. He mentally drowned out the argument between Lily and the Queen as he focused on the incoming guards. The one on his right got to him a moment before the other one did and Daniel used that opportunity to go on the offensive. He had no clue what was going on but he was not about to leave Lily without a fight, not that he'd been reunited with her after all of this time.

When the guard got close, he gave a little thrust with his spear to get Daniel moving. Daniel's hand shot out to grab the spear where the head met the shaft and pulled hard. The off balanced guard pitched forward and Daniel planted his knee into the guard's midsection. He let the spear continue its momentum past him as he rolled his wrist. Daniel whipped the spear around his head, using his neck as a fulcrum, to bring the shaft down across the face of the guard on the left. The wood shattered under the force of the blow and both guards were now down at his feet.

The heated conversation at the throne ended abruptly as Daniel downed his two assailants within seconds. Daniel's eagle eyes flicked up at the now shocked Ice Queen as he advanced on the throne. The other fae and their champions looked at him with a mixture of fear and curiosity. Other guards came out of the icework, but were now not as hasty to move on him after seeing him take down two of their own so easily.

Daniel stopped within a foot of the Queen, still holding the spearhead in his hand. He spoke clearly and evenly so that she would hang on his every word. With someone standing so close to you with a weapon in your hand, that kind of thing deserves notice. He addressed the Queen. "I have no idea what is going on. I have no idea why I was brought here outside of that some wolves are knocking on your door and you need people to protect your girls." He said with a tight voice as he reigned in his anger at being jumped. "Lily asked me to help her again, and that is what I plan on doing." Daniel reversed the spearhead in his hand and presented it to the Queen with the point facing him so that all she had to do was shoot her arm out and it'd gut him on the spot.

The Queen studied him again, this time in a new light. The corners of her mouth twitched up in a smile. "Humans," she said at long last. "You continue to surprise me. You are a warrior among your kind?"

"Lily didn't bring me along for my looks, I don't think."

Now the Queen smiled broadly at the human's bravado. "Indeed," she said, taking the spearhead from him and handing it over to another guard. "You might be useful after all." She shooed Daniel back a couple of steps for room as she began to pace in front of her throne as she thought things over. Daniel stepped back down the stairs to be within arm's reach of Lily. The Queen then stopped and regarded him. "Lily has, no doubt, informed you of the situation we are facing. What do you think of it?"

"I think that y'all are screwed." Daniel said. He swept his hand down to indicate the two guards that were now being helped up by their friends. "I've faced play-acting guards who know better than to close within arm's reach of an unarmed subject while wielding a polearm. Had they any sense, they wouldn't have got so close to the point that I could grab their weapons. I've been in security and law enforcement long enough to know that you have complacent guards placed haphazardly around here to the point that had I wanted to do you harm, I could've taken you down, mowed through about half of your contingent and been out of this chamber faster than your subjects could say 'My God, what happened here?'"

Daniel walked in a slow circle around Lily to keep her close to him while he looked around the throne room. He gave the place an appraising gaze. "You have at least a dozen or so nooks, crannies, and blind spots in here that an assassin could hide in for days waiting for you to expose yourself. One good shot with a rifle or even a crossbow and your people would be selecting someone new to lead them." He stopped and gave the Queen a hard stare. "I'm guessing that it's been some time since you've been in a real conflict?"

"Not so long ago in our terms," the Queen sniffed indignantly, her nose raised high.

Daniel glanced at Lily for confirmation and she pondered the question. "I think that you humans call it The Middle Ages?"

"Holy shit," Daniel rolled his eyes. "Yeah, in that time humans have fought multiple wars; two of which were on the global scale. You might've heard of them?"

"Yes, we had to bring the seasons about quickly during those times for fear we would be caught out in the open," the Queen said.

"I don't blame you. Had Hitler and his goons got a hold of one of you; God knows what he could've found out." Daniel didn't even want to contemplate what could've happened in history if that had happened.

Glowering, the Queen narrowed her eyes at Daniel. Her gaze flickered briefly at Lily, who wrapped her arms around one of his. "Very well," she said stiffly. "You have certainly shown your prowess and intelligence. We will see how long you last in the trials, if you survive at all that is," she told Daniel. "So long as you are here you will submit to our laws and Lily will be your steward."

"Thank you, your highness," Lily beamed, bowing low at the waist with a curtsey of her legs. She held it long and gave Daniel a quick tug on his arm.

"Oh, right, nobility," Daniel said, getting the idea. He gave a low, formal bow as if he were play-acting in the SCA. "Thank you for keeping me, your highness," he added.

"Well, at least it can be taught manners," the Queen sighed, dismissing them with a wave of her hand. She looked up to her subjects and raised her voice. "All Champions and Maidens are to get rest and relaxation tonight. At the next dawn the trials will begin to see who will represent Winter when we meet the other seasons." She clapped her hands three times before turning to retire to her own chambers.

"Other seasons?" Daniel asked, frowning, as Lily took him by the hand and they walked out of the throne room. "You Fae are not all united?"

"Are all of you humans united?" Lily asked innocently.

"Point," Daniel said with a slight shrug and bob of his head. He couldn't really argue against simple logic like that. Humanity has been at each other's throats ever since Cain had a sideways glace in Abel's direction. "So how do you all break down the seasons? By two or by four?"

"Four; Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter," Lily said. "Right now Autumn is in ascendance. Soon, it will be Winter's turn."

"Ascendance? As in they're in charge right now?"

Lily nodded, leading him through a maze of large snow tunnels with doors lining the walls until they came out inside a grand cavern that went for several thousand feet deep. Daniel let out a low whistle as he looked down into the central part of what he could only imagine was the center of the Winter City that he'd seen in his dreams. It reminded him of the cliff cities that he'd seen one time when he went to Arizona; only in ice and snow. "Wow, you live here?"

"Actually, I live up here on the highest level since I am one of the Queen's Maidens." Lily said, turning him around and showing him an ornate door of ice that looked like it was carved into the side of the wall. I want you to wait in my chambers while I go check on something. I won't be long."

"I'd like to come," Daniel said at once, moving to follow her.

Lily stepped up to him and put her finger to his lips. She shook her head slowly with a sad look on her face. "We cannot allow visitors in the main city and that is what you are." When Daniel tried to argue the point, Lily shushed him. "I've already tried the Queen's patience once by brining you here, my love," she said. Lily closed her eyes and gave him a gentle, passionate kiss. "I promise that I will be back soon and I will tell you all about it when the time is right." With a casual wave of her hand, the door to her chamber opened up. Then with a twirl, she was off down the corridor faster than Daniel could comprehend any living thing moving. By the time he'd blinked she was already two levels down on the corridor that spiraled down the outside of the ice cavern.

While his mind wrapped around the speed that apparently the women around here could move at, Daniel walked into Lily's bedchamber and stopped just inside of the door. The room, or luxury condo as he wanted to name it, could easily put any single five star hotel penthouse to shame in his opinion. The door closed on its own behind him, shutting him inside. "What is this, some kind of prison?" he muttered as he examined the door and could not find a doorknob, let alone how the thing swiveled open.

But, he figured as prisons went this definitely was top of the line. Daniel could certainly think of worse places to be held at. The ice condo, as he started thinking about it as, was two levels and sunlight seemed to filter in through the ice from the vaulted ceiling. He wound up gravitating towards the living area where there were places to sit on plush white furs and pillows around a central fire pit. What really caught his eye were the multitude of books on shelves lining the wall close to the ramp that led up to the second level.

Daniel ran his hand along the spines of the books, trying to find one that he recognized. Unfortunately they were written in a script that he had no idea what language they were in; provided they were in any kind of human language to begin with. To him, they looked like elven runes from Lord of the Rings. He abandoned the idea of reading for now to look around. The first level was nothing more than the living area with a dining area and what he took to be the kitchen and bathroom. He hoped that he didn't confuse the two. The second level was half the size of the first and was open like a studio apartment loft and was totally dedicated to bedding with more furs and pillows. The lighting under here was considerably dimmer.

Sometime later he was back on the lower level flipping through books when the door creaked open. "Daniel!" Lily called out for him as she entered.

"That was quick," Daniel commented sarcastically. He paused when he saw the multitude of weapons that were floating in behind Lily through the door. They ranged from small daggers all the way up to halberds and greatswords. "What are those for?" he asked, making sure that he stayed clear of the procession of weapons that were filing in.

"Well, I didn't know which weapon you favored, so I was able to convince our weaponeers to give me one of everything we had so that you could make your choice." Lily said, directing the weapons in to stand up against the wall of the ramp in a way that reminded Daniel of a Disney fairy godmother. Once all the weapons had leaned themselves against the wall, Lily let out a sigh of relief and wiped her brow with the back of her hand. "Phew, those were heavy!"

Daniel wasn't sure if she was joking or if she was serious. He decided not to pursue the subject of her magic. "So this was what you were checking up on?"

"No, the weapons were after," Lily said. "I hate being up here away from... uhm... down below in the city," she said, biting her lower lip. The darkened expression cleared up at once though. "But that will be resolved once the trials are over. In the meantime, we both should retire for the evening. Tomorrow is going to be a very big day for you."

"Yeah," Daniel said absently as he looked over the newly formed armory in the room. He wondered what it was that Lily wasn't telling him.

Then, Lily's arms were wrapping around him as she hugged him from behind. "I'm so glad that you are here now and that the Queen has accepted you," she said with a sigh. "Let us go to bed."

That got his attention along with getting his cock to rise at that prospect. "I thought that you'd never ask," he said with a smile as he allowed himself to be led back to the bedding area. Right before they got to the area of furs and pillows, Daniel swept Lily up into his arms and fell into bedding with her giggling all the way. Daniel brushed a strand of her white hair from her face and kissed her deeply.

Lily melted into his kiss and embrace, pressing her body against his. She murmured something that Daniel didn't understand. Before he could ask what she'd said, he noticed that both of their clothes had disappeared. "That's a nice trick," he commented. She smiled sweetly at him and pulled him back into a kiss. Lily kept hold around his neck so that she could roll, pulling her on top of him.