Chapter Three: Caravan to the City (Patreon)

Outside the ruined town the group met up with a small caravan. Three wagons pulled by armored lizards. Chloe didn’t recall the exact species, but she was familiar with the archetype. Armored lizards were a common pick in the Underdark. They were strong, durable, low maintenance, and reasonably fast. More importantly, they were well suited to the conditions commonly found in the Underdark. As a result, they were quite the common draft animal in this part of the world.

As they drew near the caravan, Chloe picked out details of the camp. The wagons had been placed in a half circle. A few tents were set up and a fire was already started. Where a couple of women were preparing a meal. They were quickly noticed as well and it wasn’t long before someone came over to meet them. A young lady about her size, who seemed quite excited.

She barrelled right into the mage, crying out, “Alicia! You’re back! How was the town?”

The mage giggled, “It was fine, maybe a little dull, but we did find someone.”

The girl soon noticed Chloe and turned to introduce herself, “Hey there! I’m Sae, and you are!?”

“Um, Chloe.”

Sae smiled, “You are cute, want to play dress up?”

She shuddered, “NO!”

Sae frowned and then pouted, “You don’t?”

Alicia crouched, hugged Sae and told her, “Some people don’t really like clothing. Remember how little some of the drow and dark elves wear? Well Chloe’s people don’t wear clothes at all. Just like the spider people don’t, understand?”

The girl nodded, but still didn’t seem happy. So Chloe moved closer, “Say, want to see a trick?”

The girl blinked, “huh?”

Chloe took a bit of magic, picked up a rock and then tossed it into the air, where it burst into a shower of light and flowers. Which the other girl smiled happily at. “That was so cool! Do it again!”

Alicia gave Chloe a look, “Where did you learn that?”

She smiled, “It’s just a little display of magic. Anyone can do it with enough mana and understanding of what they are doing. Does help to have the right affinities.”

“So you have some magic training and talent. We should talk later, I might be able to teach you a few things.”

Chloe doubted it, but it would be a great way to learn the current state of magic. So she quickly agreed. Before showing Sae another trick. The two of them entered the caravan to play. She figured it was the best thing she could do, and Sae was rather cute. As they played she noted the trio went to report to a larger man who seemed to be at the head of the caravan.

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Sae led Chloe to one of the three wagons before clambering up the back and into the bed of the wagon. Chloe followed her up, where she found Sae was already pulling out a small chest from a bundle on the left. It looked to be her things, a nice bedroll, a pack that was a little over-stuffed, and that small chest she was pulling out.

Sae smiled as she opened the chest to show Chloe her doll collection. “I got these from my mother after her trip to Bordertown. I’m so glad I get to accompany Alicia on this trip. I really want to see Bordertown.”

Chloe frowned, that was an odd name for a town. Who names a town Bordertown? It must have been a newer settlement since she did not know it. “So Bordertown?”

Sae looked up from her doll, “It’s a town to the far north located in the Borderlands between the Rosewood Empire, Dwarven Queendom of Ironbarrow, the Elven Queendom of Stormwind and the Elven Queendom of Bluewood.”

“Queendom? Weren’t those Kingdoms?”

Sae frowned, “Um, your history teacher must be a bit of out of date. There hasn’t been a king on the throne of those countries in nearly a hundred years.”

She blinked, “I guess they were.” Then she recalled what she had heard about the Theocracy,” What about the Theocracy?”

“It collapsed almost a hundred years ago. Some of its northern territory is now part of the Borderland, the Dungeon Queendom. The rest of the northern lands were taken by either the Bluewood, the Empire, or the Queendom of Blackmist. We are currently below the southern lands of the Theocracy, which is now ruled by Queen Arrieta, who founded the Holy Queendom of Cloudfeather. In honor of the Goddess Xeria, who was once part of the great Cloudfeather clan in life.

Cloudfeather eh? She almost giggled, once upon a time she had known Xeria Cloudfeather. She had been the most chaste member of her clan at the time. Chloe recalled that they had met early in one of her past cycles before she had started raising an army of the dead. Xeria had impressed her with her strength, but at the time she had not been ready to oppose the girl or her clan of celestials. She would have made a powerful undead, but instead Chloe had used a lust-aligned demon artifact to cast a curse of unending lust on the girl. It had proven quite effective on her, very effective. She became widely known for her sexual exploits and her many daughters. She was impressed that child actually made it to godhood. “Xeria became a God? What are her domains?”

“Oh, are you still learning about her early exploits? I guess I can help you impress your teacher next time you meet!” Said Sae as she started stripping her doll out of its dress.

“Xeria became one of the fertility gods with dominion over pregnancy, daughters, lactation, corruption, and lust. She is quite popular in the Queendom of Cloudfeather, where sons are banned.”

Chloe had a feeling that she should look into the Theocracy more. What she had just heard was a bit illuminating. She wasn’t surprised that a kingdom worshipping Xeria banned male children. As she never really liked men, and even with that curse she tended to partner with girls. Only picking up a man when she needed to get pregnant to satisfy the lust curse Chloe had cast on her. At least until she learned to cast spells that let her do it with a girl. She wondered if Xeria ever broke the curse, or if she still suffered from it to this day. Chloe made a mental note to visit the Queendom of Cloudfeather and see if she couldn’t find a shrine to talk with her. It had been a long time, and she knew the gods were forbidden from attacking her.

While she was thinking, Sae successfully removed her doll’s dress revealing the dolly’s naked body. Chloe blinked, she hadn’t been expecting the doll to have a proper pussy and boobs with nipples. “Um, your doll has...”

The girl fingered the little pussy, “you mean this? Mom said she bought it from a lust demon. I kinda like it.”

“I guess it’s neat to have,” she said as she picked one up. Deciding to probe it with her magic. It was made of some quality magic materials and enchanted. That was interesting. She also noted it had some interesting features not yet present on the doll. They would unlock once the owner was ‘ready’ for them. 

“Well they look more real and I like that. Some dolls are a little creepy, you know?”

Chloe recalled some of the ones she had seen and had to agree. Demons tended to have a good eye though, and this was probably the lust demon eye for detail at play. That and their culture. They always included these features in things like dolls, statues and even their golems. “You do have a point.”

“Want to play dress up with the dolls?”

Chloe really wanted to go eavesdropping, but she figured it better to just stay here. “Uh, sure?”

She ended up spending a couple of hours with her just dressing dolls in various outfits.

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While Chloe was off playing good girl with Sae, the three adventurers who found her were off talking to the client who was part of this traveling caravan. Not everyone in it had the same destination. With some groups heading as far north as Bordertown. Others would be stopping at towns closer to their current position.

Alicia forced a smile as they drew close to the greasy man. She didn’t really like him, none of them did. There was something about him that rubbed them all the wrong way.

He smiled when he noticed them. “I saw you came back with a kid, but did you at least bring back what I asked for?”

Derrick responded, “We found the room.” Then he gestured for her to bring out the treasure.

Alicia pulled a chest out of her inventory. Opening it to reveal glimmering mana stones, enchanters ink and other valued items for enchantment.”

The man’s smile widened further. “Excellent! This is exactly what I was looking for.”

He took the chest a moment later, levitating it with a spell. Before tossing a bag of coins their way. Derrick took it. Taking a moment to count before saying, “Count looks right.”

The man chuckled, “As if I would short you three on the agreed reward. I’m not that poor.”

“I would never suggest that you would, but it is always good practice to check.”

He scoffed and then turned to Elie. Just as Alicia felt her mind fog a bit. He grinned, “Since you ladies are back why don’t you come into my tent for a bit? I have a little something I’d like to show you.”

Alicia shook her head, “I’ll decline, I have someone to look in on.”

“Sure, sure, go ahead. I wanted Elie more anyway.”

As he said that Elie nodded and followed him back into his tent. Some part of her was telling her this was wrong, but she wasn’t sure why. He was a bit of a creep and she didn’t trust him, but she was fairly sure that Elie could take care of herself.

That thought helped her a bit, and as Derrick said he was going to talk with the cooks, she went to check in on little Chloe. Sae had run off with her, excited for a new friend. She was sure that Sae was trying to make her a proper one.

Sure enough she found the two at the back of a wagon playing with Dolls. She smiled, it was so cute. Too bad she didn’t have an image crystal to record the sight with. A picture of two young girls playing with dolls would have been wonderful to have. Well, no point crying about it. Alicia set herself down to watch them for awhile. Merely enjoying the pleasant feelings she got watching them bond. It seemed the naked young lady they found didn’t mind playing dress-up when she wasn’t the victim of the game.