Double Crosses Don’t Mark the Spot

King Gutrek’s latest Wild Hunt had been going on for some time already. This was not unusual. Many would-be treasure hunters met their early demise when they encountered deadly traps or just their unscrupulous rivals. Yet, the promise of unspeakable riches from the king who possessed more wealth than the entire neighboring kingdoms combined lured in just as many new daredevils as it chewed out.

One of the poor souls that got dragged into the events that transpired was Rory, the rockling. He didn’t want to have anything to do with the Hunt, but the same couldn’t be said for his friends. They wanted to capitalize on the distraction such a big event caused and get their fair share of the king’s wealth. Sadly, even such promising plans don’t always go as planned and one of the clever young guy’s friends paid the ultimate price for it. Rory got away, but his life took another turn he had not planned for. Being trained to read and write, he was deemed useful enough to become the apprentice of Abdul, a powerful sorcerer. Though that turned out to be nothing but a euphemism for a servant who does all the dirty work for a lazy magician.

At least there was one constant in the rockling’s life. Even though most situations he found himself in were miserable, they never stayed the same for long. His life was about to take another drastic turn.

Abdul had left his wizard’s tower for some business he did not consider Rory worthy to know the details of. That was his chance, or so the young guy that was so down on his luck thought. The wizard had been collecting rare artifacts and trading them, amassing quite the fortune himself. This was the day he was going to get paid for his long time of servitude and then he was going to leave this place for good!

“Being a sorcerer’s apprentice sucks! I bet even a monk’s life is more fun.” He grumbled as he paced up the stairs in the tower. One of those many stones on the wall, one of those magical torches must have been the one that would unlock Abdul’s secret chamber! It was the only thing that made sense, why else would the crazy guy keep those instead of putting up light bulbs? His feet were dangling in the air as he hung from one of the torch holders, trying to pull it down with all his weight. “When I agreed to this, I thought I’d at least learn about the secret arts and become a sorcerer myself! Instead all I do is clean up this bastard’s shit and cook his meals for him!”

He sighed when he landed back on the ground. Then he tapped some of the stones in the wall, those that looked slightly out of place. Nothing happened. “If only there were at least some girls here! But no other soul comes into this place. Just that Abdul and me. I’ll go insane. Then there will be two crazy bastards living in this place!” He smashed his fists against the wall. But like so many times before, it did not budge, nothing happened. The only sounds he could hear were the wind blowing outside and the torches crackling inside.

“I’m done. I wish I could get the hell out of here; I don’t even care where I end up anymore. Anything is better than being locked up and serving this weird turban-wearing asshole for free!” He wandered through the hallway until he ended up in the sorcerer’s library. This was the only safe entrance and exit of this tower, one of these shelves could slide to the side and grant passage into the king’s palace. That was how the rockling had gotten into this place by accident on that fateful night a long time ago.

The rockling gazed on shelves upon shelves full of books. “Why does he even keep those here? He’s not smart enough to have read them all! He never invites anyone over, who is he trying to impress?” Most of the heavy tomes that were bending the shelves under their weight were gathering dust. Rory was sure that many of them would have crumbled to pieces had anyone just touched them. That was the only reason he didn’t try pulling them all out to find the secret mechanism that would set him free.

“I wonder where he hides the gold. I should take something valuable with me as a compensation for all this time serving him. It’s only fair!” The rockling nodded. Suddenly he looked at the big chest up against the back wall of the library. Usually there had been a heavy magical padlock keeping it safe from the scribe’s prying eyes. This day, the lock was on the ground next to the chest. “He must have left in a hurry! That is my chance, maybe there’s something in his trunk! Let’s see!”

The hinges that kept the chest together were creaking as the rockling opened the lid. He stared inside and noticed that it was almost empty. “Did he take all the goods with him? What even is this thing?” He picked a massive wooden rod out of the treasure box and turned it to look at it from all sides. “That’s all there is? What is this piece of crap? Is it at least a magical staff?!” After staring at the pitiful piece of loot that he had found for a while, Rory noticed a button on the back of the strange contraption. “Well… here goes nothing.” He whispered before pushing down on it.

‘Sproink!’

The device swung open, one of the arms extending from it hitting the rockling’s face. He held his nose and looked at his hand. “Just great!” He bit his tongue as he wiped a few drops of blood off of his pants. Only then did he notice that he was holding a foldable kite made for flying in his hands! Cloth was spanning between the spread-out arms of the thing. The rod had folded out enough for a small being like himself to stand on. Jumping from one of the windows of the tower would have meant certain death! But not with this newfound treasure. “Well I’ll be damned!” Rory said, his mood visibly improving.

It was the rockling’s curse, though, that no lucky break could last for long. Even though he was breathing excitedly, he could hear footsteps coming from the other side of the shelves. “Damn, the bastard is coming back so soon today! I’ll have to make a run for it next time he’s gone. Hope he doesn’t notice his toy missing!” He quickly pushed the kite together, tried to get it back into the compacted form that would have been easier to hide. Just in time, he kicked against the chest to get it to close again and hid the kite under his clothes.

He wiped away the sweat on his forehead. That was close. The big shelf swung aside, and he expected his master to enter the library. Maybe he was drunk and tired and would leave him alone. That’s what Rory was hoping for. Instead, he gasped when it wasn’t the sorcerer that stepped into the library. The surprise visitor hissed when she spotted Rory.

They both came to their senses almost at the same time and spoke in unison. “Who are you? You are not supposed to be here!” Instead of the grumpy old sorcerer, there stood a scantily clad tigress. She was dressed like one of the many servants of Baelzed who were allowed to walk freely through the palace. She wore golden bracelets and anklets, a single strap of cloth covered her crotch, spanned over her back, passed between her breasts. Golden clasps kept her nipples covered, but there wasn’t much that was left to the imagination. Especially not the imagination of a lonely young guy’s mind.

The shelf swung back behind Xela, the intruding tigress, as she was stunned by the surprise of meeting someone when the princess had assured her that she would keep the sorcerer busy and make sure she could search the tower unhindered. Both Rory and she herself were now trapped in the tower together. “No! Shit!” She snarled angrily and pushed the rockling against one of the shelves, squeezing the poor guy’s face right into the tuft of fur on her chest. Her scent filled the apprentice’s nose. He had been without a female companion for far too long, and he quickly couldn’t think quite straight anymore.

“How did you get in here first?” She asked him before moving away enough to let him speak. Rory shook his head and tried to clear his mind. He was less than successful, there was a cute little bulge in his pants now. “Hold on, lady!” He replied. “I have been here this whole time! I’m the sorcerer’s apprentice.” He knew he was exaggerating by uttering that euphemistic title he had been given. But at least he thought there could be a chance to impress this surprise visitor! Maybe she would have been willing to serve him like she would have served the sorcerer. Yes, she must have been a concubine, he was certain!

Xela leaned her head to the side as she eyed that guy who just introduced himself to her. She scratched her chin. Slowly, she relaxed and adjusted her plan in her head. Her cover required her to wear this revealing clothing, she was not allowed to bring weapons into the palace but realizing that the rockling was mostly harmless and unarmed himself made her feel at ease. In the worst case, her claws would have still been superior to his bare hands.

Her claws and the sharp blades she usually carried with her were not the only weapons the tigress expertly knew how to wield. A few quick glances, and she noticed how Rory was looking at her. Other than most guards she had to seduce, he was very cute, she outright liked him. “Apprentice? When did he accept you?” Rory shrugged and gulped. His eyes had dropped down to the tigress’ crotch. That piece of cloth barely kept her modest. It seemed like a miracle to him that the scarf-like piece of clothing didn’t just slip into her pussy. The princess’ seamstresses were truly experts at their craft.

It cost him all the willpower he could muster to look back up into her eyes. “It’s so dark in this tower, days blur into each other! I don’t exactly know.” Xela looked back into his eyes for a while. She squinted and skeptically watched him. Normally, she could tell if someone was lying almost instantly. She was one of Baelzed’s most well-trained agents after all. It seemed like Rory was telling the truth, and that he was completely entranced by her.

She raised her arms to point at the massive shelves of books all around them, well knowing that this would lift her breasts enough to let some of the pink skin near her nipples slip out from under those golden clasps. Immediately, she noticed the rockling’s gaze dropping down to her chest. “Look at all these books. Surely, Abdul needs you to help him with his research, right?” Her voice was husky, seductive, calm. Rory just nodded, unwilling to take his eyes away from the seducing tigress in front of him. “And since you are so good at helping, you can certainly help me, too? I can make it worth your while.”

Hearing that offer got Rory to blink and look back up into Xela’s eyes once more. He jumped back against the bookcase behind him when he noticed that she was looking down at his crotch, and that he was sporting the biggest boner he had in a while. The tigress glanced at it just long enough to let him know that she saw it, too, but she didn’t comment on it. It was the apprentice himself who had to clear his throat before he could speak. “What… what do you need help with?”

“Oh, it should be an easy task for a smart apprentice like you.” Xela replied, praising him. “The princess is extremely interested in the ancient history of our realm. You wouldn’t believe it, but she has her pretty nose in her books almost the whole time!” Even though she kept talking, she noticed that Rory was barely using his large ears to listen to her. He was staring at her swaying breasts, entranced by her gorgeous form. “She wants me to bring her all the notes or books that Abdul has on this ancient tome, Danesh ax’Abizu!”

Rory blinked and for the first time it was easy for himself to tear his gaze away from the tigress’ seductive body. “The tome for the Wild Hunt?! Why would she want to know about that? She doesn’t need more gold!” He protested, getting a little wary of the surprise visitor. She was not a concubine at all! But maybe she could make it worth his while. Why should he be loyal to the grumpy sorcerer?

Xela playfully chuckled. She reached behind her, making the wary apprentice back away from her slowly. He froze in his steps, though, when he heard metal hitting the ground, and more importantly, the tigress suddenly standing in front of him topless. She had dropped those clasps holding her wonderful tits back. The sight of her perfect shapely breasts made his boner throb and ache in his pants. Before he could say another word, the tigress stood right in front of him once more. She took his hands and held them.

“I told you, it’s a historical interest! And you know the princess is very generous, she instructed me to be generous, too.” Her muzzle with those sharp saber teeth was so close to the rockling’s ear as she whispered to him. Then she guided his hands up to her exposed breasts, letting the apprentice feel her up. “Must have been a long time since you got some relief… I can help you with that.” Rory was shivering, he wanted to squeeze those soft mounds under his hands.