FIC :: Fables of Tone (2/?)

["C S Armitage" <soren_nyrond@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here it is, then ::


 
TITLE: Fables of Tone (2/?) 
AUTHOR: Soren Nyrond
DISCLAIMER: All characters in this part belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Some Archetypes are being used in this story: they look like they belong to Other Companies, but it's the Archetype I'm borrowing, and not their characters.  
SUMMARY: It's got Buffy and Willow in it, it's got a generic city-state andit's got exposition (for those who like such things)
SPOILERS: None, except that some smut happens.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: All nice feedback welcome. Thanks to all those who've written so far.
 
P.S. Re-reading the Group Rules, I see I'm supposed to put something in about archiving. Does "Yes, We Have No-o Archives" cover it, as I have no means to do an archive ? Otr is it obligatory ? Advice gratefully you-know-ed.

 
On with the story ::

Fables of Tone - - Part 2

 

 

Buffy froze for a moment. Her spirit flared up, incandescent, at the thought Willow was in trouble.

Then she saw the sudden, explosive flurry of movement from the farther sideof the melee. One man quite literally flew past her. Two more shrank away from her, as she forced her muscles to at least take an aggressive stance, even if they wouldn't follow through on the moves she wanted to make.

Then a third man, together with his horse, fell back towards her and, as Buffy (athleticism in no way impaired) swerved out of his way, she saw the reason for the sudden commotion.

 

Willow Rosenberg, red hair lashing about her shoulders, was doing the sort of gymnastics that earned straight 10s at the Olympics, gold medals at cheerleading contests and a contract in the sort of videos Joyce had hidden at the back of her wardrobe (in a bag labelled 'Health and Beauty Tips by Chambers and Fox'). What made this unlikely ever to reach the Adult Top 10 at Weird Ralph's sleazy Video Store (just behind the Sunnydale branch of 'Hides and Scales :: Leatherware for the Discerning Adult') was that she was doing it waving the hand-and-a-half sword, and doing serious decimation to heropponents.

She was also . Buffy decided to call it 'yodelling' for want of a better term.

Buffy got over there as quickly as she could, finding that, little by little she could do more of what she wanted to. So, by the time they were shoulder to shoulder, Willow had dealt with four, Buffy two (one was unconscious, the other clutching himself wishing he were: her Hemery gym teacher had taught the girls where the tender bits were on a man), and the last two werelooking nervous, uncertain, and at Willow, Buffy, each other and for possible ways out.

"Ten seconds," Willow shouted. One fled, the other stood his ground and, ten seconds later, was put down by Willow vaulting (seemingly self-propelled) over his head, chopping him with her sword as she did so, before flic-flacking back, in the style of a champion gymnast, to Buffy's side.

"There, that's them taken care of," Willow said, in a chocolatey-brown tone, before her eyes went up inside her head and she collapsed.

Buffy's muscles responded to the challenge: Willow didn't even fall to the floor. She scooped her friend up, and set off toward the walls, to find that gates she hadn't seen before had opened up,and people were coming outt omeet her.

 

It was cool, it was quiet, it was . soft . 

Willow half-opened her eyes, saw beams across (or under) a wooden ceiling above her, and let her lids close again.

"I don't think we're in Kansas any more."

"Wizard of Oz," Willow replied automatically, before realising she wasn't playing the game with Xander: it had been Buffy's voice.

"Buffy !" she said, and sat up, promptly getting thoroughly kissed. "What's been going . " Her voice trailed off as her memory filled in bits. "Oh.Oh. Did I really - "

"Someone really," Buffy said, stoically. "But whether it was you - - oh, come here."

They hugged again, and kissed a bit (several bits, in fact, but all stage one stuff) and then Buffy mentioned food.

 

There was a small feast on the table - meat, fresh lettuce-like stuff, nutsand fruit, and some fruit-juice-type liquid to drink.

"Where are we ?" Willow asked in between bites (of food).

"Upstairs in the Pig and Blanket," Buffy said. "The Golden Metwand doesn'ttake 'common travellers', even if they have just fought off brigands and killed their chief, and I couldn't let them take you to the Palace of Earthly Delights. It might be luxurious, but your mother would never forgive me if I'd let you go into one of those houses."

"What sort of - ? Just a minute:" Willow wanted to get some things straight in her mind. In fact, getting her mind itself straight would, she felt, be a step. "What brigands ? Whose chief ? Who killed - ? Where is this ? Did I - ?"

"Calm down, Will - here: this is the right one, isn't it ?"

>From the magick bag Buffy had extracted a plum-sized crystal, blue, opalescent. It was indeed the one Willow used for focussing, for calm and cleat thought. She looked into it, repeated the mantra which Jenny had taught her, and felt her confusion ebb into the Waiting Place at the back of her mind.

"I'll finish my food first," she said, primly, "and then you can tell me everything."

"Fine," Buffy said, equably, and proceeded to consume a good deal of what was left in double-quick time.

 

Then they settled on the side of the broad bed, with a goblet of whatever it was each, and the explanations began, punctuated by Willow's questions.

"So this is - ?"

"Qu'dim," Buffy replied. "Independent city-state on the border of Parthia and Mesopotamia. Ruled by a Council, who send you their thanks, and the meal."

"For doing what ?"

"The Clan of the Brazen Serpent have been besieging Qu'dim for as long as the people here can remember - which seems to be between two weeks and this morning, depending who you talk to. They were the men on horses with the curvy swords, bad breath, bad attitude and homicidal tendencies. You drove them off."

"There were eight of them."

"I know. You killed their chieftain, a man called Druthar."

"I . killed . "

Buffy had anticipated the reaction, and reached out and cuddled Willow, in a non-threatening way, resting her friend against her chest.

"Not you - whatever's possessed you. I think it has to do with the armour.The people here seem to think you're Serena the Warrior Scout."

"And who're you, in all this ?" Willow asked scrunching round so that they 

sat with her spooned in Buffy's arms.

Buffy coughed. "Not the Slayer," she said. "Apparently they think I'm your faithful companion, either Gabrelina or Gabrelita, depending on who you ask. You do the fighting and I back you up."

"Well, you're doing that right now," Willow said, with a chuckle, wrigglinga bit, to sink deeper into Buffy's embrace.

"Yes, but . "

"I know - you want to be Slayer-Girl. You are, you always will be. You - give 

smoochy."

Buffy complied - she liked to, and Willow liked it, too.

"Tired," Willow said. "Lie down." She pulled herself up, and lay down, then got halfway up again.

"Armour," she said, pithily. "In way. Take off. Cuddle."

Buffy sniffed the contents of her goblet. It was fruit juice. It was alsofermented. Willow was . well not drunk, but not sober. Buffy herself could feel a warmth stealing through her veins, but .

"Help," Willow said. "Chafes."

 

Buffy knelt beside Willow and tried to work out whether the armour did comeoff. Under a flap of leather there was a little button and loop arrangement. That opened a cunningly concealed flap down the back, where there was lacing, tied at top and bottom. Buffy, got Willow to lean on her elbow, toget access, and released the knots and the lacing started to open.

Before she could do more, Willow had turned over again.

"Chafes, " she said, and pointed to the top edge. As the armour peeled back, Buffy could see a line of irritation, along where the leather had pressed into Willow's skin. Gently she pressed her lips to it, to kiss the pain away.

She eased more leather away and exposed more of Willow's delicate,and beloved, skin.

"More chafing," Willow said, and directed Buffy's attention to her nipples.Whoever had though of the armour hadn't thought of friction: there was nothing that protected there. Buffy gently kissed and then, as the fire burned hotter within her, delicately lapped at those nipples, feeling them riseand swell.

The rest of the armour was shed, and Willow got the sport-bra-thing off Buffy and kissed her nipples in return. They cuddled, feeling flesh against flesh.

"'s late. Come to bed," Willow said.

Just then, Buffy couldn't think of a better thing to do. She slipped off the skirt, and the panties she still wore beneath, and turned back to Willow. Her love-buddy had dispensed with whatever had been under the armour andwas naked, in a nest of pillows and blankets.

Buffy came to lie down beside Willow, and then noticed another irritation line, from the bottom of the armour, running at the tops of Willow's thighs.Thinking to be thorough, she started kissing that, too, and then, gently,lovingly, found herself guided to somewhere else.

"Did it rub you there, too ?" she asked.

"No, but you could, if you wanted," Willow replied.

"I could," Buffy replied. "But only if you want."

"I want."

"Then I will."

And she did.

 

In the hills above Qu'dim, the witch-doctor of the Brazen Serpent Clan built his fire to a blaze and threw on handfuls of scared herb. He would not be foiled: the two strangers would never pass beyond here. The dark powers would come to his command and all would fall out as the Scriptator's emissary had demanded.

 

 

Bit 3 to follow - looks like there might be four, since we've got two scenes to go, plus some more exposition.

 

Keep viewing, folks.