Kal tossed her away and the rock girl flew much further than he expected considering the amount of power it had taken to lift her. He could feel the heat from the strength rune through the leather of his bracer, he wouldn’t be able to do that many more times. When she landed next to the opposite wall her feet stuck to the floor as if glued there but momentum bent the rest of her body backwards. To Kal’s surprise, the rocky part of her head bounced off the side of the cave instead of sinking into it.
The rock girl stood up straight and stared at him in surprise.
Kal took the chance to repeat himself, “You get this, then you take me back,” he said with the appropriate hand gestures.
Giving no discernable response, or even changing her expression, she turned around and walked into the side of the cavern.
When she didn’t immediately return Kal’s shoulders slumped as the tension of the encounter drained away. He had a good feeling she would be back, after all, he had something she wanted. Not that he really minded giving it to her, the girl’s human side was certainly attractive enough though he couldn’t help but cringe a bit at the idea of having those rocky legs wrapped around his waist like Ikuno sometimes did.
Kal followed the sound of dripping over to the side of the cavern. Water poured out of a tiny hole, dropping into a groove eroded buy the small stream over many years before running down a small crack and disappearing. Collecting some in his hand he sniffed it before taking a tiny sip to make sure it was clean then drank heartily of the icy water in hopes of calming some of his hunger pangs. While being chased about the cavern he had noticed that his pack was missing along with his other bracer meaning that he didn’t have access to any of the food they had brought for the stay with Aradelle.
Kal walked over to the area covered in the spongy moss and sat down, the lack of food complicated his predicament. He didn’t know how long he had been here but assumed it had only been a short while since he wasn’t feeling weak from not eating. Still, he needed to come up with a way to force the issue of taking him back to the surface before he got to the point where the rock girl, a golem if he remembered correctly now that he had a chance to think about it, could just take what she wanted without giving in to his demands.
The warmth of the cavern was making his winter cloak uncomfortable, he took it off and wrapped it into a tight ball before laying down and using it as a pillow. Since he didn’t feel the golem meant to actually harm him, Kal canceled the light spell. Within a couple of minutes, the sound of trickling water lulled him to sleep in the glowing cavern.
——
Bonn’s hooves pounded the ground as Perra came riding up to Ikuno’s cave, jumping off the horse before he had come to a complete stop. Reaching into a pocket she grabbed her glowing stone, yelling the activation word as she ran into the oni’s cave. Coming out the other side of the entry tunnel she saw the oni over by the shelves that held her spell components, carefully picking out those she would soon need.
“Have you found out anything yet?” she asked walking over to the large blue woman.
“Not specifically,” Ikuno said without turning, “but I felt him wake earlier, for a few minutes he was in some kind of distress but then calmed down and went back to sleep, near as I can tell he is fine. Since you came yesterday I’ve combed my library for information on golems and learned quite a bit about them. Now I’m getting things together for a spell he will need, then going to see Aradelle.”
“Why are you going all the way to see her?” Perra asked as Ikuno tied up Kal’s travel pack with all of the things she needed inside.
Ikuno pointed at her horns. Perra had noticed they were completely black yesterday when she came to see how things had gone with Aradelle and Eludora. Today the area around the base had returned to a golden color. “I need to get topped up with magic and Aradelle is the best way I can think of,” said the oni, “I did something similar a long time ago and promised I never would again, I hope she is okay with me breaking that promise to save Kal.”
Perra blushed bright red, in a talk about Aradelle, and how her nectar pertains to his inks, Kal had done an exceptionally poor job of avoiding where exactly the nectar came from. To Perra’s relief, Ikuno was already headed out of the cavern and didn’t see her embarrassment.
“Good luck Ikuno! Bring him home safe. I don’t know if Mom could take it if something happened to him, she’s beside herself with worry.”
Ikuno stopped at the cave entrance and glared at the girl, “I told you not to tell her, to make something up like he was staying with me for the next few days.”
Perra stood her ground under the oni’s gaze, “I did tell her that and she immediately called me a liar and demanded the truth, telling me not to underestimate the abilities of a mother to know when something is wrong with their child. To be honest, she’s pretty pissed at me right now. On the other hand, I haven’t seen her this lively and active in months.”
“Hmm, tell her it was my idea, I didn’t want her to worry. Goodbye Perra, with luck Kal and I will be back soon,” said Ikuno as she started up the rocky trail on her way to see Aradelle.
“Godspeed,” she called after the oni before walking over to Bonn where he was grazing and mounting up to head home.
——
Hours later Ikuno came tromping into Aradelle’s clearing, stopping as she passed the line of trees to catch her breath.
“Ikki!” yelled Aradelle happily, but her face quickly turned to worry. “Why are you breathing so hard?” she looked past the oni into the trees, “and where is Kal?”
Ikuno held up a finger while she took a couple of deep breaths, “After I came down off the mountains I ran the rest of the way here,” she said walking over to stand next to Aradelle’s flower. “The second question will take a bit longer to answer.” Ikuno gave the alarune a quick rundown of the events since Kal slipped and hit his head, punctuated by gasps from alarune. “I spent the last couple of days learning all about golems and coming up with a plan, now I’m here,” she said finally.
Aradelle’s petite hands covered her mouth and she stared wide-eyed at the oni as she finished her explanation. The alarune then looked at Ikuno in confusion, “Why are you here Ikki?” she asked.
Ikuno looked uncomfortable, tapping her darkened horns she said, “I hope you can forgive me ‘Dell but I didn’t want to go searching for Kal when I’m running dry. I know I prom…”
“Forgiven,” Aradelle stated flatly, twin vines grabbed Ikuno’s arms and spun her around so her back was to Aradelle. The alarune rose up and over the oni’s head and sat backwards with her legs over Ikuno’s shoulders so her sex was firmly planted on the oni’s mouth. Aradelle grabbed Ikuno’s horns and pushed her head back so they were looking at each other, “You’re going to have to work for it, after your little tale I’m more worried than in the mood right now. Just promise you’ll bring Kal back to me.”