The cockatrice had been dead for about ten minutes now and Rain still had bits of it in her hair.
She ran her fingers through the short, dark brown mess on her head and pulled out a chunk of... something.
Organ, maybe. Gland, perhaps. She didn't want to know.
She flicked it off the side of the road and kept walking. Her greatsword was strapped to her back, still coated in enough monster blood to make a healer faint, and every muscle in her body ached like she'd been beaten with a sack of bricks. Her shoulders were the worst. Her shoulders were always the worst.
"You know," Haytham said from a few steps behind her, sounding like he'd just come back from buying groceries, "I think that went rather well."
Rain didn't turn around.
"You got thrown into a tree."
"I got thrown near a tree. Important distinction." She could hear the grin in his voice. She didn't need to look at him to know that his coat was still clean, either. His fucking coat. Rain had cockatrice guts in her teeth and this man looked like he was on his way to a dinner party. "Besides, I did land that binding spell."
"After it already bit me."
"Timing is an art, not an exact science."
Rain groaned.
The road stretched on through green hills and farmland.
According to the last signpost, the nearest village was like another hour's walk, and Lumendell was still days away after that.
She could already picture the Guild hall, the paperwork, the stack of forms she'd have to fill out to confirm that yes, she did in fact kill the cockatrice, and no, she did not cause excessive property damage in the process.
... Well, not excessive property damage. That barn had already been leaning.
And then, after all of that, she got to look forward to her exciting new career as a teacher.
She wanted to throw up just thinking about it.
"You're brooding," Haytham observed.
"I'm walking."
"You can do both. You frequently do."
Rain finally turned her head to glare at him.
Haytham was tall and lean, with a sharp jaw and a neatly trimmed goatee, and had the kind of face that made you want to check if your wallet was still in your pocket.
"I'm not brooding," Rain said. "I'm thinking about how in three weeks I have to stand in front of a room full of teenagers and pretend I know how to teach."
"You're teaching combat, aren't you? Just tell them which end of the sword they're supposed to aim."
"That's not how teaching works."
"How would you know? You've never done it."
"..."
She opened her mouth. Then closed it.
Then turned back to the road.
---
The village didn't have a name that Rain could remember, but it had an inn, and that was good enough.
What she hadn't expected was the festival.
The whole place, maybe two hundred people on a good day, was packed with twice that number. Humans, elves, dwarves, and fairies all crammed into a central square decorated with colored lanterns and ribbons. There was music, the smell of roasted meat in the air, and kids running around with enchanted sparklers.
"Oh, wonderful," Haytham said, his eyes lighting up. "A celebration."
"Great. Let's find the inn, get a room, and skip it."
"Rain." He put a hand on her shoulder. "We just spent four days tracking a cockatrice through a swamp. We are covered in filth. We are tired. We are, dare I say, in need of some joy."
"A bath and eight hours of sleep would bring me plenty of joy."
"We can have both. After a quick drink." He steered her toward the square. "Besides, look, they've got a stage. Live entertainment. When's the last time you had fun that didn't involve something trying to kill you?"
... Rain couldn't actually remember, so she ended up letting herself be dragged along.
They found a spot near the back of the crowd, two mugs of ale in hand, freshly procured by Haytham. Up front, a man was announcing something about a traveling troupe, performers from all across Velthara, a once-in-a-lifetime experience, the usual hype.
Rain took a long drink and let the noise wash over her.
The music started. Drums first, then strings, then someone with a breathy voice started singing. The performers came out in a wave of color and movement, all of them dramari, which explained the crowd's enthusiasm.
Dramari had that effect on people. It wasn't just that they were attractive (though they were), it was the mana that rolled off them like heat from a bonfire. Even from the back, Rain could feel it.
There was this certain... warm, pleasant hum that just made you want to lean in and pay attention.
The dancers moved across the stage in pairs and trios, spinning, leaping, doing things with their bodies that made Rain's back hurt just watching. They were good. Very good, for a countryside festival, as far as Rain was concerned. She was halfway through her second ale when the formation on stage parted.
A new dancer stepped forward.
Rain's mug stopped halfway to her mouth.
She was a dramari too, but where the others had pale, grey skin, this one had warm bronze skin and black hair streaked with red. She wore less than the other dancers, just enough silk to technically count as clothing, and her body was...
Well, Rain had eyes. And those eyes were working overtime right now.
[Good gods...]
Huge tits, toned stomach, hips that moved like they had their own agenda. But that wasn't what made Rain lower her drink and sit up straight.
It was her aura.
The other dancers were projecting too, but this girl was doing something different. Every time she moved, every spin, every extension of her arm, the air around her tightened.
Rain watched the crowd, heads turning in unison, eyes tracking the dancer like she had strings attached to every person in the audience. A man three seats down had his jaw on the floor. A woman next to him had forgotten she was holding a drink and it was pouring down her arm.
[That clever little...]
Rain smiled.
This girl was projecting aura with the kind of control Rain had only ever seen from B-rank adventurers.
Veterans who'd spent years learning to push their presence outward in a fight. And this dancer was doing it on a stage, like it was nothing. Like it was just part of the choreography.
"Haytham," Rain said, not looking away from the stage.
"I see her."
"That's aura."
"I know."
"That's good aura."
He smirked.
"I know, Rain."
The dancer spun, dropped low, arched her back, and the crowd held its breath.
Rain could feel it, the way her mana pulsed outward with every beat, pulling focus, commanding attention, making it damn near impossible to look anywhere else.
But soon, the performance ended, and the crowd erupted.
Rain clapped with one hand because the other was still holding her mug, and she realized her heart was beating fast.
The dancers took their bows and filtered off the stage. The girl with the red-streaked hair looked up, out over the crowd, and her amber eyes landed directly on Rain.
Rain held her gaze. The girl smiled.
[... Fuck me.]
---
Rain was on her back.
This was not, generally speaking, a position she enjoyed. She was supposed to be the one putting other people on their backs.
But the dramari girl, who had introduced herself as Ashara with a smile that made Rain's brain shut off, was currently on top of her, and whatever complaints Rain might have had about the arrangement had died around the time Ashara's cock first pushed inside her.
That had been a while ago.
Ashara's hips slammed down and Rain grabbed at the sheets with both hands because she needed to hold onto something or she was going to lose her fucking mind. The dramari girl's cock was thick and Rain could feel every inch of it stretching her out as Ashara drove into her, deep and steady. Her huge tits bounced with each thrust, her black-and-red hair stuck to her skin with sweat, and she was looking down at Rain with those amber eyes and smiling, like she was still on stage and Rain was her only audience member.
"You're louder than I thought you'd be," Ashara said, not slowing down.
"Shut up," Rain managed, which came out a lot less intimidating considering the noises she'd been making for the past twenty minutes.
Ashara laughed, leaned down, and kissed her. Rain wasn't usually a kisser, way too personal, way too intimate, but she kissed her back because what the fuck else was she going to do, say no?
The girl tasted like wine. Her tongue was soft, and her hips picked up the pace. Rain's toes curled hard.
Then Ashara sat back up, grabbed Rain's thighs, and really started going.
[Fuck, fuck, fuck...]
Rain's back arched off the bed. Ashara's cock slammed into her harder now, faster, each thrust pushing a sound out of Rain that she would absolutely deny making later.
The bed was creaking. The headboard was hitting the wall. Rain looked up at the dramari girl riding her into the mattress and thought, very clearly, that this was the best she'd felt in years.
She came so hard her vision went white.
---
Afterwards, they lay side by side on the tiny inn bed, both staring at the ceiling. Rain's legs felt like wet rope. Ashara had one arm behind her head, looking completely at ease.
"So," Rain said, once she remembered how words worked. "You ever think about being an adventurer?"
Ashara turned her head.
"What?"
"An adventurer. Fighter. Whatever." Rain kept her eyes on the ceiling. "That aura control you've got isn't normal. You were projecting like a B-ranker out there. Maybe better."
Ashara laughed. Not a polite laugh, a real one.
"I'm not really sure what you mean, ma'am, but uh, I'm a performer, not a fighter. I dance. I like my life."
"..."
Rain blinked.
[She was doing that by accident?]
Now she really wanted Ashara to come back to Lumendell with her.
"With training, you could be something special."
"I'm already something special." Ashara stretched her arms above her head and yawned. "I appreciate the compliment, though. But I don't want to fight monsters. I want to dance, travel with my troupe, and have sex with beautiful women in small-town inns."
Rain snorted. Couldn't argue with that.
She lay there a while longer, turning it over. The girl's aura control really was something else. You couldn't teach instinct like that. Either you had it or you didn't, and this dancer had it.
But you also couldn't force someone onto a path they didn't want.
"Here." Rain reached over to her pants on the floor and pulled something out.
"What is it?"
"A token." She flicked it into the air and Ashara caught it. "If you change your mind, bring that to the Lumendell Adventurer's Guild. They'll know what to do with it."
Then she closed her eyes.
---
Morning came with sunlight through a window and Ashara already gone.
Rain found a note on the pillow. "Thanks for last night," with a little heart drawn next to it. She stared at it for a second, folded it, and tucked it into her pocket for no particular reason.
Then she got dressed, strapped her greatsword to her back, and went downstairs.
Haytham was already in the inn's common room, his travel pack at his feet and a cup of tea in his hand. He looked up at her and his eyebrows climbed just high enough to be annoying without technically being a question.
"Don't," Rain said.
"I didn't say anything."
"You were about to."
"I was going to say good morning."
"No you weren't."
Haytham took a sip of his tea. He was clearly, actively trying not to laugh.
"... You look well-rested."
"I will end you, Haytham."
He raised his hands in surrender, still grinning, and stood up.
They gathered their things and headed for the door. The morning air hit Rain's face, cool and crisp, and the road to Lumendell stretched out ahead of them.
Three weeks. Three weeks until she had to stand in front of a classroom full of kids and pretend she had any business teaching them how to fight.
She reached into her pocket. The note was still there.
So was the memory of aura so controlled it made her skin prickle from twenty rows back.
[... God, I hope she changes her mind. That kind of aura control being spent on performances? What a waste.]
Rain pulled her hand out of her pocket and started walking.
---
Author Note:
And that's it for our little prologue here. Now, before we continue, a few things to note:
1. The MC (that's Ashara) is, as you found out up above, a futa. That said, while *some* love interests will also be futas, a lot won't (hence the futa/yuri).
2. That title isn't an exaggeration, Ashara is a proud hoe.
3. Finally, if you see an asterisk (*) in the title of a chapter, it means "sex scene", so you don't get jump-scared while you're at work. I mean, most chapters will have at least some generally slutty behavior, but asterisks mean full, detailed sex scenes.
Anyway, that's all, hope you enjoy the story!