Place: a Burmecian village
Date: 24 January 1800 (the day after Cleyra is destroyed)
Rating: NC-17
Kigaeno Moondancer
Claire, Priestess in Training
Puck Burmecia, Prince

Claire sat up in bed, shaking violently. Physically, she was completely undamaged other than a few scrapes and bruises, but psychologically was quite a different story. She looked to the side of where she lay. It appeared to be a common small room in a fairly poor looking house, "W-w-whe.."

"We're in a village on the outskirts of Burmecia, maiden." Fratley placed a hand on her shoulder to try to calm her, "Most of the residents have fled into hiding, but it seems like this village was lucky enough to be overlooked by the enemy forces thus far, so you should be safe here."

"There was a child with you, he is ok? Were there others?" Claire's mind flooded with what had been happening, turning to the dragoon that had apparently saved her.

"Lord Puck is quite well, thankfully. I spent last night looking for survivors so he is doing so today. There was a small group of civilian residents we found last night. The Oracle Kildea had led them out, and she said she was going to take them to Daguerro. I told her I would take you there as well if you wanted." he sat on the edge of her bed.

"This is horrible. This can't have happened." she sat up beside him and wiped tears from her eyes. There were so many people there. How many of her friends had died? She didn't even know where she was or who this was she was with, "My name is Claire."

"You must not dwell on it. Rather on what can be done." of course Fratley's idea about what was to be done was to go smite the ingrates on their way out, but he knew a cleyran would never go for that, "I am told that I am Fratley." he worded it well, since he was unable to recall more than the last few years that he had traveled with Puck, "The child I travel with is Lord Puck." Puck had told Fratley that it was 'Prince Puck' but Fratley didn't know if he quite believed him yet.

Puck arrived back into town after several hours of unsuccessful searching, and he was getting tired of this anyway. There was nothing for him left in this place, not for a while at least. He wanted to go back to Alexandria, even if they'd just attacked his people, since that was where he was use to living. Now that his father was presumed dead they would want him to be King here, and he didn't know if he could handle that responsibility.

Fratley met him at the door to the small house and opened it for him to come inside, "Lord Puck, the townsfolk brought us food. Claire is awake and eating now, but has been mostly silent."

"Didn't find anyone else, I think I'm going back towards Alexandria."

"But Lord.."

"Very well. But I must defy you in this and stay here in Burmecia. It is my place as a knight of the kingdom to defend it." Fratley didn't know why he felt like this, but it was the only faint memory that he had. He had to defend this place.

Puck looked over at Claire who was silently listening to them and pretending that she wasn't listening as she ate. The food was good, probably the best they had to offer. She didn't understand why they would have done this, and neither did Fratley, since he didn't realize with his loss of memory that his name was near legendary to the people of Burmecia. Most likely they were trying to keep him there so they'd be safe.

"I'm going now.." Puck turned and without another word was gone. He never was one to give people time to say goodbye. Fratley sighed, and turned back to Claire.

"I apologize my lady, but we have found none others." he spoke in his stereotypically knightish fashion, "But I swear I will defend those that remain from evil."

When she looked at him silently he continued, "You are best to stay here maiden Claire, I do not believe this place will be attacked. These people have sworn they will take care of you."

"We didn't believe Cleyra would be attacked.."

Fratley shook his head, feeling as if there was something he needed to remember, "I will stay here the night, then I will continue to Burmecia and the Grotto to make certain no enemy soldiers remain there. I will return for you, I promise." Had he made that promise to someone before? He couldn't remember.

Claire sat on the edge of the bed, tears streaming down her face anew thinking of everything that had happened. The knight had been kind to her, introducing her to people in the village that would care for her, and doing so much more than she felt she deserved. He had even purchased her new cloths, since dressing like a shrine maiden seemed rather out of place here, and she was now dressing common pants and shirt, her dirty and damaged shrine cloths boxed up in the corner of her room.

It was her fault, she just knew it. The strings on her harp had broken during the ritual and the wind storm had stopped immediately afterwards. Had it been something she had done.

She shifted as she realized that someone had sat beside her. It was Fratley again. He had left his hat and coat at the door, and it was probably the first time she'd had a clear view of his face.

He opened his mouth as if to speak, and stopped. It wasn't easy for him to deal with emotional types. The response to his silence was for her to lay her head on his shoulder and began to outright sob, which made him even more uncomfortable, though the feel of her arms around his waist as she obsessively clung to him wasn't entirely unpleasant.

"Claire.." he took a deep breath and put an arm around her shoulders and another around her front, "Please try .." he wasn't sure what to ask her to try to do, so he just held her close to him. His mind went back to Freya for a moment, and wondered if she'd died at Cleyra or escaped like the others. He still didn't remember who she was, and he hoped he wouldn't if she was indeed no longer alive.

"You lost someone too?" she recognized the concern in his eyes, even if he didn't, "Someone close to you?"

"That I do not know." he would leave it at that, and his words sounded as if they did not want to be questioned.

She pulled him closer, "If you need comfort.." She had no idea why that came out, but being around the soldier was so different than what she was used to and it seemed to bring something out of her. None of the males in Cleyra were like him. They were all nice, but none of them made her actually feel physically safe as he did, because none of them knew how to fight. She found her fingers feeling over his frame as if comparing his muscular form to that which she was more use to.

Fratley's entire body became still for a moment as if being defensive, but then he took a deep breath and relaxed. He had no reason to take insult by this, but didn't want to seem like he was taking advantage of her in her present mentality of needing protected, "There is no need for you to do anything special for .."

His words were broken by her muzzle as it met his turning to the side and working his maw open with her teeth, giving him a brief kiss and licking over his lips. She knew she shouldn't try, but she felt like she needed this to feel safe and to forget for at least a while, and he would be gone tomorrow. She may never even see him again, so it couldn't hurt.

His instinctual response was to press back into the motions, and he didn't resist this, squeezing her close as he did so and returning the affection with his tongue over the right side of her face. It'd been a while for him, and he didn't feel like taking the effort to resist one so fair as her. Deciding that speaking wasn't the best thing to do at the moment, he pulled away briefly and went to the room door, closing it even though he didn't expect anyone else to be in the house, and making a glance at the window to determine that they weren't easily visible from it.

When he turned back towards, it was a bit surprising to see his maiden 'friend' was already removing her new shirt and tossing it to the side. She was breathing visibly heavy as she looked up at him, watching him stand still there and almost blushing as if she wondered if she had taken things too quickly. A smile from him confirmed that she hadn't, and she looked at him with near hunger.

"It is important to me.." he spoke one last time, "That we remain friends, I can't commit.." he removed his shirt as he spoke, and stepped forward towards the bed as he undid his pants, which had begun feeling increasingly tight on him as his mood increased.

"I understand." she knew Burmecians weren't quite so casual about things as Cleyrans, and that he might take it to be more than it was. Either way she was happy that was cleared up, and wasted no time removing her pants, growing slightly frustrated at herself as her feet claws got caught on the cheap material and took some work to get off.

He watched as the remainder of her cloths quickly abandoned her form, and his eyes grazed over her obscenely soft body. Being a warrior he might have preferred someone with more physical strength or tone, but her body certainly wasn't lacking even in the slightest. She had breasts that looked perfectly fitted for a hand to grasps, and hips that seemed ideal for grabbing hold of. He felt little guilt as he pulled his own pants and underclothes down and stepped out of them, crawling up onto the foot of the bed and nearing her.

She watched him approach her, and crawled up onto the bed to face him, realizing fully that her tongue was lolled out of the side of her maw and not really bothering to contain herself as she stuffed her previous stresses to the back of her mind. His body was like a work of art to her eyes. She'd never seen someone that looked so strong, and she couldn't help but wonder about the fact that he was a professional dragoon. Someone that could jump the height of buildings must have excessively strong hindquarters.

Their noses met and their long tongues slipped out against one another simultaneously and Claire wasted now time before shoving her head below his chin and pressing down beneath his body. The fur on her head felt like silk beneath him as it moved down his chest and belly before stopping, her head just far enough away from his maleness that he could feel the warmth of her breath against his bare flesh.

She inhaled his clean scent deeply and enjoyed it for a moment. She was certainly no stranger to this, as innocent as an exterior as she normally showed, and her lips immediately slipped over his tip and down his formidable length, carefully withdrawing her teeth and oozing her tongue and gums over his skin causing him to shiver above her, half closing his eyes and giving a short appreciative groan.

Not wanting to leave her out of the process, he worked his arms around her lower portions and moved her over to her side. To his delight her hips moved with is motions, and she was nearly flexible enough to turn her body completely around. Seeing that she seemed completely comfortable this way, he moved his own muzzle down and ran his tongue across her soft and increasingly damp nether parts, rubbing his chin into her clit and easily eliciting a returning groan from her as his tongue made its way between her delicious folds.

For the next few minutes the otherwise quite room was filled with the wet sounds of them as they enthusiastically pleasured one another. Their species certainly had no problems with this sort of activity, their muzzles and unusually long tongues seeming almost obscene in their usefulness. Moans and squeaks were exchanged, each sound sending shivers of pleasure through the other's body. Ultimately, Fratley felt Claire's muzzle pull away from his throbbing member, a string of fluid pulling out from her maw to his tip as she drew her face away, and he followed by pulling his own gooey maw away from her slit.

Their bodies drew up to face one another as previously, and their lips met, eagerly exchanging the taste of their fluids, scooping back and forth as their tongues placed together, muzzles locked in a perfect fit over one another. Hiking her tail upward, Claire pulled away and turned around, body heaving with excitement and fur becoming increasingly damp with sweat as she turned her perfect rump up to him and offered herself fully, and perhaps recklessly.

He growled softly as he grabbed her hips in his claws, digging them into her fur, enough to get her to squeak from it but not enough to break the skin. He had already grown fond of hearing that squeak from her. His muscles clenched and he pulled her back across the bed towards him, wrinkling the blankets further and laying his dripping cock against her posterior, resting it between her cheeks and letting her feel it throb longingly before pulling it downward and facing his tip against her sopping wet cunt.

Slipping inside he nearly bit his tongue at the warm wet feel of her insides massaging over his penetrating length, and didn't wait to make sure she was comfortable before hilting it quickly inside her. He was rewarded with another sharp squeak from her as she gripped the sheets in all fours, saliva and various other fluids dribbling from her muzzle and eyes rolling to the back of her head as she felt him began to thrust repeatedly into her. Moving his arms around her, he gripped into her belly with his right claw as his left moved to massage her clit in time with his motions, which drover her even further into her delightfully comatose state of mind. For a moment the room around both of them seemed to blur to nonexistence, and for that time they were only conscious of one another as their body slapped together wetly.

The sound of wet fur slapping together competed with the strained sound of the bed squeaking as they continued for as long as they could possible contain themselves, not wanting to give up possibly the only moment they'd have together like this until they had to. During this Claire quite securely lost count of how many times he put her over the edge, her screams growing louder with each consecutive experience.

Finally he was equally unable to hold himself, his hips tensing up as he slammed his hips against her a few more times, carelessly allowing his seed to coat her insides with their hot wetness and holding himself inside her as he cried out against the back of her head, causing her ears to ring for a few moments.

Movements slowly went to a halt, and their bodies lay against each other, her rump snuggling and happily wriggling against his belly only slightly. Breathing heavily against her, his arms went around to grab hold of both of her breasts, enjoying either of them as she lay beneath him, both equally sated and forgetful of their problems.

"T-thank you.." she was finally the first to speak, and he nodded his face against the back of her neck as he gave her a lick.

Moving slowly from atop her, her lay himself beside her and has she turned to face him snuggled her close, pulling her head against his chest and allowing her to drift into sleep against him. He massaged her head and back gently, and gave a last sigh before trying to slip into sleep himself. He didn't mean to have done that, but there was no point stressing her out by worrying about it now. He knew he didn't really have feelings for her, and felt that for some reason he'd never be able to do such. Something in the back of his head, something to do with that other he had met in Cleyra. Pushing aside any lingering guilt for now, he drifted off to sleep with his temporary lover.