Demesne Snippets 7: Sticks Over Bells

Riz woke up when she felt the bed shifting underneath her. For a moment, she was confused, since the pillow she was laying one was firmer than she was expecting, and surprisingly warm—

Oh.

Moving carefully so she wouldn't wakeup Mikon—she was still getting used to the idea she had a woman as well as a man, but every day she found was enjoying the idea more and more—Riz raised up her head from the weaver's chest. Mikon was wearing her blouse, though only the buttons at her bosom were fastened. Giving the nice pillows a fond squeeze, she looked around to find Rian quietly putting his clothes on. Unfortunately, his loin cloth was already in place. "Rian?" she said, her voice low. It was quieter than whispering, after all.

He looked towards her as he finished pulling his trousers up. "Did I wake you? Sorry."

She did the hand waving thing that the Great Binder did. Even in her head, it was hard to refer the woman by her name. "It's fine. Going to take piss?"

"Among other things," Rian said as he grabbed his shirt and started putting it on.

"Well, hurry back," Riz said, lying back down and wiggling her backside towards him slightly for emphasis. "We can get a ring or two in before breakfast."

Rian hesitated. "Uh…"

Riz blinked, and concern shot through her. "Rian?"

"I was actually hoping to do a little practice this morning…" he said, looking embarrassed. "It's been months now since I practiced with the sword, and… n-not like I don't want to ring your bell, but…"

Relief that was quickly followed by amusement washed through Riz, followed briefly by guilt as she remembered she hadn't done any spear or quarterstaff drills in a while herself. Not that she needed to, since she was retired now, and she didn't really need to do anything beyond… protecting their Dungeon Binder…

…

For a moment, she looked down at her still sleeping woman lying on the bed next to her. Mikon had one arm around Umu, who was somehow pressed up against the other weaver's side. Riz still wasn't aroused by other women, so she felt nothing at seeing Umu's naked form, but Mikon…

Well, Riz still wasn't really aroused by the sight of her, but knowing how good Mikon could make her feel… that made her aroused to think about. Especially the part that knew that as soon as Mikon woke up she'd be willing to start ringing Riz's bell…

With a sigh, Riz carefully slipped out from around the arm Mikon had around her, and started looking around for her trousers and shirt. Mikon always folded the clothes she'd worn the night before and set it aside so…

Riz carefully got to her feet and grabbed her folded trousers—making sure there were the ones she'd worn last night and not the ones Mikon had set aside for her to wear today, and now feeling guilty about how much the other woman had been doing for her all this time, she'd had friends who'd been left for taking things like that for granted—and pulling them on. It was a bit uncomfortable without a loin cloth, but it would only be until she went to take a bath.

"Riz?" Rian said as he finished pulling on his shirt.

"I'll go with you," she managed not to sigh. "If I'm going to be protecting the Great Binder, I need to keep up my skills."

"Oh. Well, I wouldn't mind the company… to be honest, I'm always worried a choker or leaper is somehow going to sneak up behind me and attack when I practice this early." He picked up the walking stick he kept on top of the alter-like stone table, the one he'd brought back with him from Covehold Demesne. "Uh, can we not spar just yet? It's been a while for me, so my skills aren't what they should be."

Riz grabbed her shirt flapped it open and started pulling it on. "Sure." She should probably make sure her skills hadn't gotten colored. While her spear handling was still good, she wasn't sure how well she could pull back her strikes.

Well, she supposed this was something that simply between her and Rian. As much as she was learning to enjoy being with Mikon… well, there wasn't a lot of time to be with Rian. He spent a lot of his time working, or finding work to do.

Besides, she wanted to see if he was actually any good. Sure, she'd heard how he'd handled himself in handling discipline when the Great Binder had taken charge of River's Fork, but using one's fists and using a sword—or even a stick like it was a sword—were different things entirely.

Not that she knew how to use a sword, since she'd never had one due to never being an officer, but she'd seen it used and she knew how to fight someone with one. In her experience, there were two kinds of people who used swords: officers and bandits who thought they were better than a spear for some reason because 'all the rich people had them'.

And if he was bad at it… well, she'd have to teach him how to use a much better weapon.