The Song of Roland Ch. 13-14

Her eyes rounded. She seemed to be genuinely taken aback by his accusation. "A coven...?"

"You've got us all following you, protecting you,feedingyou- hiding you in plain sight. You're getting stronger. Worse: you're getting more assertive, and I don't know what to do to stop it. How long, Kelsea? How long will it be, before you're capturing innocent maidens on the side of the road? Taking them to your cave to be broken for the fun of it, like what Grevich did with you-"

She swept her hand out and scratched him, his face burning from the nails that clipped themselves in a brutal drag across his face. His hand reached up to shakingly touch the spot she'd raked, feeling something wet and warm against his fingers. He turned back to look at her and saw her eyes aflame, shifting from her false blue to the distinctive crimson hue of Kelsea's demonic side. Her face struggled with the outburst of passion that coursed across her complexion; he'd never seen her so emotional. "I willneverbe like him!" She snarled, her face alternating between blinding rage and horrid alarm. "How could you- I don't..." Her red-rimmed eyes bugged out of her head as she looked down and stared dumbly at the blood dripping from her fingers. "What am I-"

She opened her mouth to speak, but her voice left her. A low, feminine whine emerged from her lips. True, honest realization seemed to wash over her as whatever human part of her left seemed to grasp what she was doing. Her facial expression collapsed, she pushed Roland roughly away from her "Agh!" She groaned, her mouth gaping as she began to look visibly dismayed and disgusted with herself. "No-" She crumpled to her knees, her hands moving like crucified spiders to cover her face. "I-I didn't mean to-" Her back bent forward, "OhGods!"

She looked like a child, her head buried in her hands. She began to sob, her shoulders wracking as her body hunkered flatly upon the ground. "I don't- I-I can'tah-huh!" Her voice devolved into inaudible wailing as she lost whatever inner battle had been raging to stem the tide of her surging feelings. Roland watched her with a helpless sense of dread, like seeing a beloved parent age into an impotent stupor. He stood over Kelsea, observing her conscious mind's reaction as she finally came to understand that she'd been sleepwalking this whole time. A wave of wretched pity subsumed him, and he bent down on one knee to comfort her.

"Kelsea..." Roland said, extending his hand out to her.

"N-no!" She shrank back from him like he was poisonous, her back huddling against the cliff face as she adopted a sitting fetal position. "Stay away!Please..." Her head shook from side to side, her cropped black bangs shifting across her returned blue, tear-stained eyes. "I-it's me..." She sputtered, "I did this, I'm- I'mjustlike h-him...hugk!" She turned her head away from Roland and gagged. "I'm- I'm such a-" She babbled, her throat wheezing as she began to hyperventilate.

Roland sat down next to her, his breath letting out a deep, world-weary sigh. The girl cowered from his touch, terrified of her effect upon him. Undeterred, he put a hand upon her forearm. He squeezed it, feeling the unbearable heat of her skin upon his own. It was strangely soothing. The Succubus shivered as she grappled with her own existence. "Come here," Roland said, opening his arm for her to plant herself within the crook of his side. She didn't seem to hear him. Roland purposefully put his hand against her far shoulder and pulled her to his breast.

Despite her painful hesitation, once she leaned into him her body melded against his like a lifeline. She threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest as she sobbed wholeheartedly. Kelsea didn't even seem to know where she was, anymore. "I can't stop..." She wept, "I can't stopfeelingthis-" Her grip tightened against Roland's body. "His voice is in my head-"

"He's not here, Kelsea." Roland whispered, his body rocking them back and forth gently. The mountain wind began to pick up, and he pulled his cloak about them like a blanket. "You're okay. It's just us; It's just the two of us."

"Help me!" She said into his body, "I don't want to feel this anymore! I don't want tobethis a-any-huuh!" She sounded panicked, as if the understanding had finally struck and she couldn't see a way out of it; she was a prisoner to herself. She lost all control over her own transformation, her body shifting to the natural state of her new, true form. Roland watched as her blue eyes turned back to red, her pink skin changed to purple, and her tail and horns sprouted from her like the cancerous growths of corruption that they were. Somehow, it only made her look more vulnerable.

"Mum!" She cried out, "M-mum, I'm so s-scared! He's chained me to the pole again, a-a-and he won't stop-" She trembled. "I just want to go home! I want to sleep in my bed, I d-don'tcareabout the fight-" She shook her head and pushed her face deeper against Roland's body, trying to bury that part of her, back down beneath the rubble of her new persona. The Mercenary sat in silence as a hard clench of muscle came to his jaw. He could feel his cheek throbbing.

"I-I didn'tmeanto- I just wanted you to-" She whimpered, her fingers clinging to him, scrabbling at his chest. Roland put a hand behind her neck and pulled her to his shoulder, kissing the top of her head. Her horn brushed against the trailing cuts on his cheek. She continued to speak to her absent mother, her mind falling back down to a dark place she had not visited in months.

They sat together while she cried, his arms around her as she shook every so often to a full-body sob. Roland stroked her hair, his eyes shutting as he pictured her, as she'd once been. "I can't stop..." She said, letting out a deep, shuddering sigh. Her grief was winding down, her breath coming in longer and more audible inhales. "I can't stop... I can'tstopmyself, Roland." Kelsea's arms huddled up to her chest, her body leaning into him as he cradled her in his arms. "I-I can't control my emotions, I can't control my desires... What do I do?Pleasetell me what to do!"

Nothing. He thought grimly, the eternal pessimist whispering only the uncomfortable truth in his ear. "Breathe." He said instead, "Take in a breath, put a foot in front of the other.Breathe."

"I- I can't believe I... toyou-of all-" She blubbered. "I didn't evensee. I was so focused on the Harpy, so- somadthat you might've... I didn't even stop to think-"

"Shh." He said, "Breathe. Another time, we can talk about this. Breathe. For me."

She did. She inhaled her life-giving air and suffered through the painful act of continuing to fill her lungs. Kelsea breathed, her body hiccuping every so often as her voice steadied and she began to regain some semblance of control, again. "I'm... I'm sosorry, Roland." She at last managed out, her body curled against him, but chastely, without heed to his sexuality. "I... I'm losing myself."

"You and me, both." He replied. They sat there, for a time, heedless of the passage of sunlight or the far distant footsteps of Carl Hale, still picking his way down the hillside. At last, as her human psyche repressed itself again, a sliver of that syrupy tone crept back into her voice.

"Can't I-" She started to say, before she stopped herself, "Is there some way to...?"

"To go back?" He said, his eyes searching the blue emptiness of the sky, noticing that the Harpy was nowhere to be seen.

"No." She said, her tail falling flatly in his lap. "I'm not that foolish. This is..." Her exuded sigh was deep and thick with emotion. "This is me, now. Is there some way I can... 'manage' myself?"

"I don't know." Roland said honestly. "I've never heard of a penitent Succubus, before. You're a bit of an abnormality, if you haven't noticed."

Her throaty chuckle was as bracing as it was teary-eyed. "As are you." Kelsea pulled a little closer to him, "W-who ever heard of a mercenary with morals?"

"I've got less than you'd think." He said. "You just happened to catch me on a good day, back at the cave."

"-And the day after that." She said, lifting her eyes to gaze at him. There were still wet marks rolling down her cheeks. "And every day after that one." Her face softened, a strange, reflective sheen coming to her eyes. "Why did you-" Kelsea trailed off, shaking her head as she thought better of the question. "No. I've done and asked enough of you, the last few days."

"Why did I...?" He enjoined, goading her. His eyes tilted down to meet hers. "You had a question there, yeah?"

"Why did you save me?" She murmured. "I keep running it around and around in my head, and I still can't understand it. You didn't know me, or what had happened in my life. For all you knew, I was lying about everything I told you."

"Youstillcould be lying." He said. She giggled wearily.

"I-I suppose I could be... did it work?" She said, her smile building as she momentarily shook off the burden of her earlier thoughts.

"Somewhat." He said, "You're still a hapless whore, though."

"I know." Kelsea said. She was so warm in his arms. "Gods above, I of all people know."

"Why did I save you?" Roland said thoughtfully, his red mane and brown cloak blowing in the breeze as the wind kicked up. They stared out across the mountain range, to the white-capped peaks soaring far above, hanging off the edge of the world, moving in a direction that none of them particularly knew where it led. The Harpy came back into sight from behind the treeline, she let out a jubilant cry of elation. Roland looked down, and saw Kelsea staring deeply back at him; he tilted her chin, and she closed her eyes. His thoughts idly trailed to the past. "Maybe it's because I need to savesomeone. Just once." Roland planted a delicate kiss upon her lips. "At least once."

________________

The day passed with the lethargy of an agonizing battle drawing to a languid conclusion. Night, when it came, was a blessed partner pulling her blanket of darkness over the whole, tired world. Roland and Kelsea only managed to reach the bottom of the road, both too emotionally exhausted to continue the climb. Meeting Carl at the base, they agreed to save the onerous struggle for the next day. Carl set up the camp, the Harpy swooping down to nest again once the fire had been built. She let out a short trill of greeting as she landed, casting a shy glance towards Roland. Clutched in her long claws was the mangled body of a rabbit, her inhuman smile widening as she displayed her bounty proudly. "Kraa!" She said, tossing the thing in the air like it was a ragdoll before catching it and holding it out to him boastfully with her extended leg.

The evening meal was spent in blissful silence, the only two people capable of true speech being too tired of talking to engage in it. Carl chewed at a bit of jerky while the Harpy gnawed upon her cooked meal. She'd gazed, amazed as Roland had set it on a small spit he made from a sharpened bit of stick, and had eagerly gorged herself upon the warm, tender meat. Seeing how her companions sat around the fire, the naked woman crossed her bird legs and plopped her fat rear upon the ground and feasted, patently ignoring the occasional smack her long wingspan made against the heads of her neighbors. She'd all but sang as she licked her fingers clean.

When the food was finished and the others had curled up to sleep, Kelsea waited by the fireside, staring into the embers in her human form, her body hunched as her feet pressed together like a prayer. Roland watched her for a time before rolling himself into his bedroll and turning away, listening to the soft crackle of the fire as it died. An unknown time passed, and he suddenly felt her sidle up behind him, her arms threading gently through his own as she hugged him close behind. "Follow me." She whispered, "I don't want to wake them." She stood up, taking one of his hands and pulling him away into the darkness.

She led him to the cliff face on the left side of the road. Above them, the heavy shadows of out jutting rocks and tepid handholds cast a slightly deeper black than the low darkness of the star-studded sky. He could see her, a glowing silhouette in the darkness. Kelsea called a small flame to her hand, and she came into sharp, orange relief. The thin, little conjured blaze danced and squirmed like the heat of a passionate courtesan, the Succubus' human face flickering in the tender light. From a distance, the two looked like an island of light in an empty ocean of darkness. They gazed at one another from between the flame.

"I was terrified of you, you know." She said, her open hand reaching out to squeeze at his bicep. "-When you came into that cave, the first day we met and saw me with- what was his name?"

"Sten." Roland said, thinking about the man for the first time since he'd left the naked, terrified peasant back at his village.

"Sten." Kelsea said, saying it like it was an old friend she was reminiscing about. A faint smile crossed her face, "When you first came upon the two of us, I was so scared! I turned around to the sound of you, and there you were: sword out, muscles bulging, withthisfella-" She reached out and playfully tugged at his long, red whiskers. "Hanging out for everyone to see." She chuckled, "Gods, I was such a fool. You looked like such a beast! How was I-" She lowered her head, her eyes closing as her hand slid up to grip him by the side of his neck, near the shoulder blade. "H-how could I have known then that you were...you?"

"I have that effect on people." He said, his large hands circling her narrow hips. She stepped into his touch, her hand swiveling the makeshift torch about to keep it from burning either of them. "Why didn't you defend yourself?" He said, "A babe could have slayed you, with how much resistance you put up to me."

She laughed in a low tone, her toes moving vertically as she stood high enough to whisper into his ear: "It's a secret." She said.

"Aye," He said in response, turning his head to match her face, "-and I'm a virgin."

"Oh, I don't think so." She said, her eyes lidding as a deep, contented smile grew upon her face. "The fact that I'm here right now tells you you're not. Why else would you have kept a useless harlot like me around? Certainly not the company. I-" She suddenly looked away, her jovial grin fading as a pained expression grew on her face. "I proved that, didn't I?"

He put a hand flat against her cheek, turning it back to him. She leaned into his grip, her breath coming out in deep, threading exhales. With how cold the night air was, he could see her white breath rise like steam from her face. Her body was so warm against him that he didn't even notice the chill. She put her hand atop his own, a low moan building from her lips. "Roland-" She breathed, half-gasping his name. There was something...desperate, in how she called to him.

He lowered his head, and she lifted hers. They met in the middle, their lips pressing to one another. She felt strange against him, an unfamiliar sense of something beyond her normal lustful advances leading her actions. Before he knew what was happening Roland had swept her off her feet, bending her back around his waist as he leaned his head hard into her face, kissing her deeply. The fire in her hand went out, her arms reaching up to pull herself tightly to him. "Roland!" She moaned as she pulled her lips back from his, her body pressed so tight that he could feel the whole of her against him.

"Kelsea." He said, palming her head in his hand. "I..." Still, he couldn't bring himself to say it. Despite everything that final barrier had yet to be crossed. Instead he lowered his head again, silencing her heady breathing with his mouth.

"Mmmph!" She said, her hands tugging at his shirt. He stood up, letting her both catch her breath and stand on her own two legs. His arms remained glued to her.

"Not now." He said, "It's too cold out."

"You-" She said, her voice high in pitch. "You don't need to be naked. Just let me-" Her hands slid like warm stoves against his crotch; fumbling with his pants, she managed to pull his thick erection from his trousers, peeling them only down to his crotch on the front side. "Warm you up." She finished, her two hands moving across the offending member with slow, gripping movements. Roland moaned as he felt her hands, warm and comforting against him. They kept him from shivering in the high, mountainous air as she tugged at his cock.

"Get these off of me!" She said, thrusting her waist against him and sandwiching his sex between them. Roland obliged, hooking his fingers into her pants and pulling them down. He bent forward, peeling the long, black pants free as she kicked them off her feet, freeing her lower body. His task completed, Kelsea pulled him by the back of the neck back into her, forcing him to step forward and press her squirming body back against the cliff face. "Much better." She cooed, her limber leg lifting up like a contortionist and curling itself at the knee around her lover's hip, drawing him into her exposed. "Here," she said, "I'm waiting for you."

She didn't have to tell him twice. Roland let her take his manhood in hand, angling it up against her waiting slit as he stepped into her personal body space. He took her leg, holding it up with one hand as she put her forehead against his. He could hear the pleasured way she sighed. She stroked him several times, his head teasing the entrance to her slit, coating itself in the juices she'd already leaked from her insides. She seemed to burn like a furnace. Even only on the periphery and he could feel how hot she was. "You're wet." He said, as if it were a revelation.

"It's you." She said back at him, as if that explained everything. Roland let out a deep, masculine chuckle.

"I've heard that line before, yeah? I didn't believe it then, and I don't believe it now-ooh!" He grunted as her curled leg took him hard by the waist and forcefully pulled him up into her, his penis sliding into the tight confines of her vagina like a key entering a peephole. She did not wait for him to finish, taking his hand and planting it firmly against her hip as she steadied herself on one leg. Roland leaned in, their bodies pressing tight as her body heat alone managed to stave off the frigid air of the mountains at night.

"Ahn!" She gasped. He began to move within her. "You're so-uhnnn!" Roland thrust upwards, the angle of his penetration providing the perfect measure to twist and pump his hips. Kelsea draped her arms around his neck, her leg bouncing in tune to the push of his hips as he leaned against her for leverage. "Haaah!" She breathed, her corrupted breath blowing in his face. Roland kissed her fiercely, and the Succubus returned it with a passionate moan. He enjoyed feeling her lower lips clench and cream around his dick at the same time her tongue leapt out and poked its way past the barrier of his mouth. They traded tongues as he pushed his face tightly against her.

He picked up the pace, his knees bending as he pulled back from the sharp angle of ascent before pushing upwards, harder and deeper than he had before. Soon he was as far as he could go, and he felt her warm, inner walls rub against him. The lifted leg meant that she was even tighter than usual, her pussy only contracting further as he reached the apex of his inundation. "Hnn!" She enunciated, when he hit a particularly sensitive spot. He endeavoured to repeat the process, and soon she was letting out short, gasping yelps of pleasure.