Right after my last post, my boy decided to go butthead on me, and I wasn’t in frame of mind to do anything but pull my hair out.

Gotta love children.

Anyway, the bug to write didn’t go away, so I’m going to get back to Barren Harvest while I have a chance.  He’s still off at daycare, and I’m going to get off work early tomorrow to go pick up my car ( Brakes blew out on me.  Fortunately, I managed to get stopped enough to only bump the deer that prompted me to stomp on the brake pedal )

How about a little preview of SOTM 14 ( even though it still needs a lot of re-editing )

Gently roiling fog glimmered in the glow of the magical lights above. The mists partially swallowed the nearby desks and chairs of the study, while the others appeared to float on clouds. Danica and Celes coalesced from the misty wall, and stepped into the study.

Danica stretched her hands over her head and groaned, glad to be home after a long evening of cleaning up after the goblin battle. Behind her, the mists slowly settled, leaving not a trace of their passing. “I need a bath – badly.”

“Aye,” Celes agreed, and then said, “That’s getting to be second nature – using my gift.” The raven-haired witch walked over to Danica’s desk and shuffled through the notes regarding Ashley’s cottage, summoning up the conviction to make a suggestion. “I know you think you have the beasties under control, and I’m not arguing with you, but I think we should use my gift to get around instead of the Hellgate.”

Danica let out a silvery laugh and stepped over to take Celes’ hand. As she tugged her friend toward the door, Danica said, “I wondered why you were taking such pains to learn about your gift.”

“Seems to me that we can do anything with it that we can do with the Hellgate.”

Danica nodded to the left, toward her room, and held up the letter she carried from Heather’s family. “I’m not arguing with you, either. We’ll do it your way when we can. If nothing else, we should experiment to see what else you might be able to do. You can already find a place you’ve never been. Maybe you can find someone you’ve never met.” Danica leaned into her room and placed the letter on her desk near the door.

“Never thought of that,” Celes responded with a little pleasant surprise in her voice. She took the lead around the edge of the common room, heading toward the hallway on the opposite end. A quick peek into Marlena’s room revealed Ashley asleep in the Illusionist’s bed. Celes dropped her voice to a whisper and said, “I thought I’d get more argument from you.”

Danica whispered back, “I think the spell is useful, but I do know it’s dangerous. Your gift seems to work just as well without the danger. I’m still going to test the Hellgate, though. I think I could help the three of you more if I can summon up the Soulblade outside the gate to use against demons. I haven’t been able to call it up for more than a minute or two so far.”

“Fair enough,” Celes agreed with a little reluctance. The pair of friends passed the kitchen, lit only by the banked coals in the ovens and stoves, and turned the corner of the hallway. Celes cocked her head and listened ahead for a moment or two. “Notice something – or rather the lack of it?”

Danica chuckled. “The girls are probably just closing their doors now. It’s a little early still for them to have worn themselves out with their toys.” Once past the darkened kitchen and within the entrance hall of the manor, Danica pointed toward the girls’ wing and nodded.

Hearing the faint sounds of pleasure as well, Celes shook her head and chuckled. After cutting across the corner of the entrance hall, Celes said, “You know, we didn’t pick up anything to change into after our bath.”

Danica shrugged and responded, “I have a couple of shifts in my bag, but you could just teleport us back to my room.” Danica quickened her pace a little. “Right now, I just want the stink of smoke and goblins off me.”

Celes picked up her pace as well. Danica grinned mischievously and walked a little faster. Celes smiled and caught up to pass her friend. By the time the pair turned the corner at the end of the hall, both were almost jogging. The playful contest ended in a tie at the entrance of the baths.

Both women stripped down and sank into the bath with content sighs. Danica dunked her head almost immediately, the smell of smoke clinging to her hair tenaciously. Celes followed her lead, and then both women sat back to relax after washing their hair.

Resting her head on the edge of the tub, Celes slowly ran a washcloth over her body, luxuriating in the bath as much as washing. The sensation was nothing more than a faint tingle at first, but steadily grew. If she’d harbored any doubts about her connection to Ashley and Andrea before this moment, the feeling of intense, slow-burning arousal reaching across the miles from Andrea to her sister witch would have dispelled them. Celes knew without a doubt that Andrea was steadily building toward a breathtaking climax, and her body was responding predictably. It was all she could do not to gasp out and reach between her legs to tame the growing need there.

Danica’s eyes popped open. She looked over at Celes and could see faint traces of the arousal the woman felt. Danica could feel it as well, her psychic powers latching onto the emotion. She pouted a little when she saw that Celes was resisting, but cared enough not to press, despite her own arousal. With a surge of concentration, she broke the psychic connection to Celes, hoping to calm down before the Awakening swelled within her and unnaturally eroded Celes’ willpower.

Concentrating on what she planned to write in her letter to Heather helped distract her, and Danica managed to cool the heat in her loins. That in turn made her feel good, because conquering the Awakening within her was no small feat. Feeling that she could resist now, Danica climbed out of the tub and reached for a towel.

Celes opened her eyes with a sigh and followed Danica’s lead. Danica picked up her bag of holding once she finished drying off and asked, “Could you teleport us back to my room? That way, I can just leave what I have in here for when we might really need it.”

Hanging her towel over one of the wooden racks, Celes nodded and took Danica’s hand. A moment later, both women stood in Danica’s room. Danica walked to her chest of drawers to retrieve nightgowns for them both.

Celes gestured, and then declared, “Ha!” She shook out the nightgown she’d translocated from her own room with a triumphant smile.

Danica laughed and put the second gown she’d picked up back in the drawer. Once dressed, she sat down at her desk to compose the letter to Heather. Celes walked in behind her, and something within the drawer caught her eye when Danica opened it to retrieve a pen and paper. “What’s this, then?” She asked.

“Nosey,” Danica teased, but she pulled the notes she’d made for Edna’s toy out and handed them to Celes. She then went to work on her letter while Celes perused the sketches and notations of the design.

“Trying to outdo yourself, are you, Dearie?” Celes remarked.

“I wanted Edna to have a toy that works without any need for hands,” Danica explained as she continued to write. A few seconds later, she finished the brief note she planned to send with the longer letter from Heather’s aunt, and turned back to Celes. Danica’s eyes twitched upward just a little when she saw Celes tracing the drawing of the phallus with a fingertip.

Celes noticed the reaction and rolled her eyes at her friend as she put the sketches down on the desk. “Told you already that I can understand the idea of a cock without a hairy man attached to it.”

Danica stood up, placed the two letters into her message bowl, and spoke a word of command, sending them speeding off to the similar bowl in Heather’s house. “Do you want to borrow one of my toys?”

At that very moment, miles away in Blackhawk Hall, Andrea and Christi reached a simultaneous, thundering climax on each other’s tongues. Celes let out a gasp as the feeling washed over her, mingling with her fascination about Danica’s toys. Danica put her hand on the desk behind her and gasped as well when the sharp thrust of Celes’ arousal cut through the psychic controls Danica had placed between them.

Celes nodded her head, still panting from the wave of shared ecstasy. She turned toward the bed, pulling the straps of her nightgown off her shoulders as she walked to let the garment slide down her body to the floor.

Danica followed, dropping her nightgown as well, her eyes locked on Celes’ perfect bottom. Celes crawled into the bed and rolled over on her back. She’d barely settled before Danica straddled her and leaned in for a kiss.

As their lips parted, Celes darted her eyes toward the nightstand next to the bed, where she knew Danica kept her toys. She then nudged the redhead’s hand toward the drawer.

Danica let out an excited moan and opened the drawer, pulling out the first toy that her hand closed over. She spoke the command word to bring the magical cock to life, intensely aroused by the thought of using it on Celes. She wet the tip with a few teasing licks, and then asked, “Do you want it?”

“Gods, yes,” Celes gasped, parting her legs to tease her moist folds.