Essences chapter 6: Native

It was early evening when Din arrived town. She had had a clear plan about returning to town, but not what she was going to do once she arrived.

At least she could finally get a decent bath. With a bit of luck, she'd even be able to wash of the stench of sweat without resorting to a shovel. It felt about that dense now.

She made her way to the same place Din and Rob had rented a room earlier. The rent was fairly cheap, and it was a decent in more than one way. For a start, there was a landlady and not a landlord, which felt a bit comforting right now. Din still had some money left, enough that she had no reason to worry immediately.

Like earlier, she attracted a lot of stares. She tried as best she can to avoid meeting any eyes, walking as fast as her tired feet would carry her while looking mostly down. It really bothered her. She wondered if it felt like that for other woman all the time, or if there were something special about her. She really wished they'd just ignore her like they had mostly done when she was still a boy.

The landlady was thankfully home, and opened the door quickly. She looked middle-aged and fairly plump, but nice as long as you didn't test her patience. Right now, she looked a bit puzzled at Din.

"Yes? What can I do for you, girl?" she asked, her tone indicating that she really wasn't sure what to make of her.

"I'm in need of a room for a few days," Din asked.

The landlady looked slightly more puzzled. Had Din said anything wrong? Was she somehow suspicious?

"Yes, that can be arranged," the landlady replied, "How many rooms do you require?"

Now it was Din's turn to be a bit puzzled. "Only one. For me."

"Oh," the landlady said, "I'm sorry. I just assumed you were a maid from your dress and your lack of accent."

Din hadn't thought about that. Most natives spoke with at least a bit of accent.

The landlady led the way inside. "No luggage, dear?" Din shook her head. "Perhaps you've run away from your master, hmm?" the landlady inquired. She caught that Din looked a bit scared. "No need to worry, dear. I'm not going to tell anyone. In fact, if you don't want me to, I won't even say you're here if they ask."

"T-that won't be necessary. No one will come asking for me," Din stuttered in reply.

"No? That's a rather sad fate, having no one miss you," the landlady said as she handed Din the key. "Second floor, first room on your right."

The room was simple, and fine. It was next to the room where Din and Rob had lived until recently. She could stay here for a bit, until she figured out what she would do. Or until her money ran dry.

She wondered what her family thought. Rob was going to tell them that Din wanted to stick around some more in town, but that story wouldn't hold up forever. She was fond of her family, but that didn't mean she wanted to return home, live with her family and eventually get married away.

It was time to get the bath she had thought of for quite some time now. In order to do that, she had to fetch a bathtub, get water from the well, heat it up in the common room below, and carry everything up. The landlady commented how she was happy that Din found herself comfortable in the middle of the second bucket of water. It dawned to Din that it might have been a better idea to ask first. She didn't want the landlady to get suspicious. Well, more suspicious.

Finally, the bath was ready. Din undressed fairly fast, making sure not to breathe in with her nose, and lowered herself into the tub. However, the tub wasn't big enough to cover everything, and so she had a very good look at her breasts above the water.

She had both dreaded and looked forward to this. Dreaded because she now had to find out more about her new body, and she was still uncomfortable about it. Looked forward to because it turned her on a bit. That, in turn, brought even more mixed feelings.

When she emerged from the water a good while later, she had learned quite a bit. For a start, she was very sensitive several places. Second, she had no experience at this. Finally, it had been so many strange feelings that she didn't know where to start.

Sleep came fast. She had been hungry, but not enough to prevent her from easily falling asleep.

She saw herself. Or, another version of herself. The priestess. She was clad in a kind of dress so thin you could see the silhouette of her body through it. She was leading a man to a tent. Judging from the scars and the muscles, the man was a warrior. He was also recently wounded, the bandage around his head was fresh with blood. He was wearing nothing but something that resembled a pair of pants.

As soon as the "door" was closed, the priestess started kissing the warrior. He reacted with almost animal instinct, kissing her back and holding her tight. If Din could close her eyes, she would've done so. However, even closing her eyes wouldn't help, she could somehow feel the warrior's aggressive kissing on her lips, his strong hand fondling her butt, and his warm and hard body against hers. Not to mention the very hard thing about crotch-height.

The kissing didn't last very long, because the warrior was far too impatient. Soon he was kissing her neck. His other hand reached down, between her legs...

She darted up to a sitting position in her bed. Momentarily confused, it took her several moments to figure out where she was. The dream had felt so real. She felt really strange between her legs. Wet, too. She touched her lips and her neck where the warrior had bitten her. She couldn't feel anything there right now, but the memory was still vivid and alive.

It took some time before the mix of panic and arousal settled down. She tried to think rationally about what had happened, but it was hard. Tendrils of panic and ... something else kept creeping into her thoughts.

After a few minutes, her thought started to swim. She gave up trying to make sense of it. Whatever had happened and possibly still was happening wouldn't be any easier to handle if she was lacking sleep as well.

------

note: The title 'Essences' is just a working title. I have a feeling it'll stick, but I reserve the possibility to change it.