Page 45 of Eight Embers

I try a different tactic with my easily spooked demon. “I won’t let anything bad happen to you, Rush. Would it help you if you wrapped your arms around me and just let me lead you? You can keep your eyes closed. You won't have to look at all the scary unicorns that way.”

He takes a deep breath and nods, briefly getting to his feet with his eyes squeezed as shut as he can make them.

It's definitely not my fault when I immediately forget he's there and turn sideways to see something and make him walk into a signpost, but after that things go a little smoother. I keep a hold on his arms as they cross over the front of my shoulders, reassuringly patting them occasionally.

When we finally make it to our destination, Saladriel opens the door for us and we enter what passes for an inn here, all of us nearly dead on our feet after the long day we've had. I didn't even think about needing to stop and sleep until Saladriel pointed out the sun doesn't set in the same time frame as it does back home, so we need to remember to sleep and pay attention to our bodies.

Before any of us can even ask for a room from the receptionist, he's reaching behind the counter and grabbing a key and slapping it on the counter. “Penthouse suite. Full package.”

Saladriel groans. “I was afraid of that. Thanks, man.”

“What does he mean by full package?” Wil asks as we follow our resident unicorn to a cloud elevator.

“Your girlfriend specifically said she didn't want to be spoiled. You'll see when we get there,” Saladriel tells him as he pushes some buttons that don't look anything like buttons inside the elevator.

The cloud rocks gently and Wil peeks at me sideways. “Is that what you are? My girlfriend?”

“If you're not ready for me to call you my mate yet, then sure. If that's what you want,” I say with what I hope is a smile. I'm actually just counting down until I can find the privacy of a bathroom, because I’ve been holding my bladder for hours now, feeling icked out by peeing on a random cloud. And I’d do some pretty questionable things for a shower.Gods, how I want to shower.

Before Saladriel lets us into our room, he turns to the group one more time. “I would like to warn you before we go in; does anybody want my warning? Because once we walk through this door, it might be a bit until the room decides to let us out.”

We're all scratching our heads at this, but it's Spencer that speaks up. “What, is the room like, sentient or something?”

Saladriel plays with the key that has a little room tag attached to it. “Yes and no. Look, it's kind of like the love tunnel. The goddess has done everything she can,everywhereshe can, to encourage romance and bonding between us. This hotel... it's one of her more…shall we call it,aggressivemethods? But there's nowhere else to stay. My apartment wouldn't fit more than two of us, and I have a feeling we should be sticking together right now.”

There's a strange energy running through me, aside from the fact that I'm already getting hungry again. “Staying together is good,” I say with a bit of rasp to my voice. All four of them whip towards me at my tone, and I can feel the lust rising in them.

“Again?” Rush asks with a bit of a laugh. Then he looks down at his dick. “Listen here buddy, we've been waiting for this for years. We're not gonna let this chance go by, you hear? First chance we've had to lie her out like this in what feels like forever, and you're not going to go all scaredy cat on me and shrivel up because of a couple innocent...”

Saladriel gets sick of waiting and opens up, revealing a room that might very well be trying to get me pregnant.

“Rainbows...” Rush says dryly.

It's so very different than the clouds outside, that it's hard to believe we're in the same place.

There are no clouds here, the goddess has put in actual furniture made of rainbows themselves. I squat down and give a big kiss to the front of Rush’s crotch just so he doesn't feel left out.

The place is huge, with flat surfaces of varying heights and contours everywhere. Literally, every single one is begging me to bend over them and get taken.

I don't think I'm being clear enough. I can sense that they're not alive, but they're literally whispering, ‘Fall on your back and arch your chest to the ceiling’, or ‘I have an indent to cup your breasts while you flop forward on me’.

They have talking instructions on how to use them, and pretty much every piece of furniture in the room seems to be a sex bench of various types.

Saladriel sits in the entryway with a hand covering the lower half of his face, horrified and embarrassed at the same time, but I'm giddy as a fucking unicorn. “It's like a park!”

Ain't no need to still have clothes on. I throw them into the washing machine I spy next to the kitchen and wander ‘til I find the bathroom, my jaw-dropping open at the huge, opal-tiled shower big enough to fit a couple of unicorns easily. There are even grooves in thoughtful places for hooves to fit so they can mount each other in there without slipping, which honestly is just so considerate. Nice touch.

“Oh I'm gonna get you so dirty,” I tell the shower. But first, toilet.

Not to get super gross here, but isn't it the absolute fucking worst when you really need to fart, but you're around somebody you're trying to impress or sleep with? Like, when do you let that out? You just have to keep letting it build, right? Until you can tear yourself away for a bit of privacy. That's when all hell breaks loose.

The relief of sitting on an actual toilet is unmatched, and it really honestly just puts me in such a better mood to pee in peace. Amongst other things.

I yank the hair tie out of my hair and give my scalp a good scrub before cranking the shower all the way to the hottest setting. “It's big enough for all of you if anybody wants to join me,” I call out to the rest of the hotel room.

Still not sure what to think about the whole ‘Trope Inn’ thing on the sign that was out front, but I'm guessing it's just something kind of cheesy to help inspire people to get frisky and flirty.

That is, until I wash my hands and start to get my hair wet, and I make the mistake of touching the tile wall in the shower. My hands stick. Not like glue, but like a magnetic or magical current is locking them there.

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