Goblin Story

It was late in the evening, the sun just beginning to set off the coast of Azsuna as Tayla settled herself firmly into her vantage spot. Tucking a strand of electric blue hair behind her long pointed ear she casually lifted her gun, checking through the sight to make sure that she had a good view of the road. Satisfied she glanced down at the base of the tree to where Gnasher, her mechanical dog, was waiting patiently as it lay there completely silent. With a sigh Tayla settled back and began to wait patiently, resting her gun in her lap. “Alright girl. Time to make some money.”

Though a casual observer might think that Tayla was quite calm and collected at the moment, internally she was anything but. Right now she was on a mission, one that she had picked up from the job postings back at Trueshot Lodge. The Wardens were offering a sizable gold reward for the demise of Warbringer Mox’na, a felguard who had been prowling this stretch of road for the last couple of days and killing any who crossed his path. Though she had considered bringing along some help, she was confident that she could deal with the demon herself. That and if she had brought help then she would have to split the money as well. Part of Tayla did regret that choice as the minutes ticked by, but by this point it was far too late to worry about it.

Finally, after what seemed like hours there was a movement in the fading light. It took a moment for the figure to come into view but there was no mistaking the tall form of the demon, clad in heavy spiked armor and wielding two large and wicked-looking red swords. At both sides he had a felhunter, their scaly, eyeless faces in a permanent snarl as their tentacles swung about as if on the lookout. Tayla felt her heart beginning to pound in her chest as she readied her gun, took aim and began to wait patiently once again. There was a tense few moments when she was sure the demon would see the traps she had laid along the side of the road, or would at least suspect something, but he seemed to be quite oblivious as he strolled into place. The only sounds now were the faint noises of the demon’s armor as he walked and the gentle distant movement of the ocean.

Without hesitation Tayla pointed her gun at one of the two felhounds, pausing for only a brief second to steady her aim before firing. The noise tore through the calm, and the felhunter was knocked over by the sheer force of the bullet as it opened a sizable hole in its’ flank. The creature screeched loudly, and while it did get back up it was clearly wounded badly. While Tayla was hoping that her hiding place would at least give her a moment, she was dismayed when Mox’na looked directly up at her. He pointed up at her as he let out a guttural bark in his demonic language, and both felhunters sprang to life at once, quickly covering the distance to the tree as he ran towards her as well. Tayla felt the first icy fingers of fear grip her when she saw that the felhunter she shot was still quite fast even with its injury. “Shit…” she murmured as she loaded her second barrel, took aim and fired at the Warbringer. The shot had been a bit hasty and was off the mark, hitting the demon in the shoulder but not slowing him down.

“Shit, shit!” Tayla murmured desperately as she began loading a couple more shots into her gun, her hands shaking slightly. Looking down at Gnasher, she let out a loud whistle. The dog sprang to life almost as if by magic, the dark eyes flaring to life as the lights came on. It bounded forward, mechanical jaws opening wide as it charged at the first felhunter. The two met in a flurry of claws and teeth, but Tayla didn’t have time to see how Gnasher was doing. She turned her attention back to the other felhunter, who was getting perilously close to her tree. Thankfully for her, she had some secret weapons. Pointing her gun at a barrel hidden in the felhunter’s path, she waited once again for the perfect moment. She fired, and shut her eyes against the bright blast that followed. Opening her eyes she saw the smoldering pit where the barrel had been, and lying not far away was a very dead felhunter. Tayla was a bit frustrated, she was hoping to use that on Mox’na himself but she had seen those felhunters climb trees in the past. Better to be safe than sorry.

Looking to Gnasher Tayla was excited to see that the extra weight from his metal body seemed to be winning out over the felhunter. Currently it had the demon pinned down as it tried to grab the thing’s throat and the felhunter couldn’t seem to muster the strength to push it off. Turning her attention back to the felguard closing in on her position, Tayla whipped her gun up and fired again after a brief moment’s aim. The demon stumbled as the bullet tore through its’ leg, though it unfortunately didn’t seem to do much as he actually sped up, roaring with fury. Though she felt nervous, Tayla couldn’t help but grin as she saw he was heading right into her second trap.

As the Warbringer’s foot stomped down on a patch of grass and leaves, a bear trap sprang to life, stopping the demon fast as it howled in rage. As it dropped one sword and began to pry the metal contraption open, Tayla was already finished reloading her gun. Hoisting it up she fired, the demon doubling over as the bullet tore a hole in his gut. He snarled, and clearly frustrated picked up his sword again and swung it down at the trap, smashing it to pieces. Stomping forward he was glaring up at Tayla with pure hate in his eyes, but she had one last ace in the hole.

Gnasher came bounding out of nowhere, latching its’ metal teeth onto Mox’na’s leg as it began raking the demon with razor sharp claws. It had taken care of the second felhunter, which now lay dead with its throat crushed and its guts strewn about. The Warbringer whirled around and slashed wildly at Gnasher, but the mechanical dog weaved away from the attack before leaping back, snapping and making a low clanking sound. Tayla took advantage of this new distraction to line up another shot, this time at the demon’s head and fired. To her dismay the shot pinged off the black metal of the armor, though it did snap his head back and allowed Gnasher to close in, clamping its jaws around the demon’s other leg.

That feeling of confidence was returning again as Tayla reloaded her gun for the third time. This was it, she had him now. Even if he did deal with Gnasher she doubted that he could climb this tree and get to her. A grin spread across her face as she took aim and fired twice in rapid succession, both shots tearing into the demon’s flank as it tried to rally. That brief bravado was finally shaken however when Mox’na screamed in fury and lashed out with both weapons. Gnasher was caught mid-leap by the first sword, knocking him into the air before the second came down and slammed the mechanical animal violently into the ground. The metal frame cracked and pieces went shooting everywhere, and though Gnasher’s jaws still opened and closed weakly he was clearly down for the count. The demon wasted no time, turning and sprinting towards the tree seemingly faster than before.

Now Tayla began to panic as she tried to reload her gun. Her hands were shaking terribly and she couldn’t seem to get them to stop. Once again Tayla wished she had brought some help along. Extra gold was nice but it didn’t matter much if you were too maimed to enjoy it. As she struggled to reload the gun, Tayla froze as a booming, guttural voice cut through the night. “You’re dead, goblin! I’ll kill you slowly, break every one of those little fingers of yours!” Glancing downwards as she thankfully managed to load the gun, she saw Mox’na reaching the base of the tree and figured that if he could climb then she probably still had a few seconds. To her dismay however the demon gripped both his swords tightly and began to spin rapidly, his swords flaring a bright red as they began to trail flames. He tore right into the trunk of the tree, rapidly searing huge chunks of wood away.

Tayla felt the whole tree creak as it began to fall backwards, and as it began to plummet to the ground she made a desperate jump, unfortunately dropping her gun in the process as she grabbed desperately to another nearby tree. Her hands sought frantically for a grip to stop herself but she found herself unable to locate one as she slid down, hitting the ground not far away from Mox’na as the fallen tree smashed to the ground. The demon looked triumphant as he stalked towards her, his pace slow and assured as he watched Tayla get to her feet. Reaching down to her belt she pulled out a her backup pistol and pointed it at the demon, hands shaking as she kept one finger firmly on the trigger. “Stay back! I’ll shoot you dead!” Despite her words, Tayla was beginning to feel despair now. Her pistol wasn’t nearly as powerful or as magical as her rifle, so unless she got a lucky shot this was not going to end well for her.

“You have nowhere to run now.” Warbringer Mox’na didn’t even slow down as he advanced. “Maybe I won’t even kill you. Maybe I’ll just hand you over to the Shivarra. I’m sure they’d love to spend a day making a little morsel like you scream in agony.” The felguard laughed as Tayla took aim with the pistol, already looking for the best way to flee.

There was a flash of movement and Mox’na stumbled, eyes widening in shock. An arrow was buried in his side, and he whirled around with renewed fury. Tayla also whipped her head to the side, following the demon’s line of sight. There was a figure clad in dark green standing there, already nocking another arrow in his bow as he fired at the demon again, this time hitting him in the shoulder. “I’m your opponent now, demon!” the figure shouted, reaching down to his quiver. Mox’na looked absolutely livid now as he bellowed and charged this newcomer wordlessly.

Though she briefly considered shooting the demon as it ran, Tayla took the opportunity to slip her pistol into a pocket and quickly search the area for her fallen rifle. Thankfully it wasn’t far away, and a brief inspection found the gun still in loaded and in working condition. Whirling around she expected to see the newcomer firing arrow after arrow, but he was calm and collected with a single arrow still notched as Mox’na drew closer, only mere seconds away from contact. She wanted to shout at the man to just shoot already, but before she could do anything he finally released the shaft. Even from here she could see clearly as it pierced Mox’na’s eye, driving in deep before quivering to a halt. The felguard slowed even as the archer leapt backwards for good measure, almost as if he was just tired. At long last Warbringer Mox’na finally slumped to the ground, and didn’t move again.

Things were quiet for a long moment as Tayla tried to catch her breath properly, sitting down with a thump on the fallen tree and putting her gun in her lap. She still felt like she was in a state of shock as she willed her hands to stop shaking. “Hey, are you ok?” came the voice of the archer a he strolled up to her and removed his green hood. Looking up Tayla saw that her savior was a human with messy brown hair, and he was looking her over with some concern. “You don’t seem to be hurt or anything. Can you stand?”

A feeling of annoyance shot through her as Tayla sprang to her feet. “I can stand just fine.” Feeling a bit embarrassed with the human’s gaze on her she walked over to the Warbringer’s body and inspected it warily, making sure that the demon was indeed dead. The human looked vaguely familiar to her, she was sure he was another one of the hunters that had been invited to stay at Trueshot Lodge.

“You’re lucky I showed up when I did. Looks like he almost had you back there” the human said conversationally. “Why were you out here all alone?”

Whirling around Tayla glared at the archer, that feeling of annoyance bubbling over now. She hated being patronized. “For your information he didn’t ‘almost have me’. In fact I had him right where I wanted him, so don’t get a big head or anything” she lied, looking away in a huff as she crossed her arms.

“Hmm. Fine.” Looking annoyed himself now the human slung his bow across his back, turned away and began to walk off without a look back. “In that case sorry for interrupting.”

Turning to watch the human walk away, Tayla had a feeling of guilt wash over her. She hadn’t meant to snap at him like that, especially when he just saved her life. She was just angry with herself right now, she had been so unprepared that it made her embarrassed to even think about it all. It had just been easier taking it out on her savior here. Finally she turned to his retreating back with a scowl. “Hey, wait a second!” The human stopped and turned back curiously as she jogged a bit closer. “I guess I should thank you somehow. I’m Tayla. What’s your name?”

The human hesitated for a moment before relenting. “Leo” he replied simply.

“Alright then Leo… I’m assuming you were here for the bounty on the demon?” Tayla gave him a grin as she got into a haggling mood. “Well since you did assist me I guess I could split the profits with you. How does… 80/20 sound? Since I did most of the work, of course.”

This time Leo just sighed exasperatedly. “I don’t know anything about a bounty. I came down here because I was flying by and I heard an explosion. When I got down here it looked like you were in trouble.” Leo turned away from her again, looking bored now. “Just keep the money, how about that? I don’t really care.”

“Fine! But you better not come asking for your share later on, you hear me?!” Tayla shouted after Leo as he began walking away. Her hands balled into fists as she scowled at his back.

“Ok” Leo called, raising a hand and waving. “By the way, you’re welcome!”

Opening her mouth, Tayla wracked her brain for some retort to yell back but frustratingly she couldn’t think of anything. She just watched in silence as Leo made it to his mount tethered not far away, a black and brown gryphon, saddled up and took off. It was only now as she watched the gryphon fly away that Tayla realized how late it was. The sun had almost completely set, and she still had a lot of work to do. For one, she needed to take proof of the kill to the Watchers, and then it would probably be prudent to burn the demon bodies. Not only that but Gnasher needed to be repaired, and there was also her wyvern that was tethered not far from here that would need to be seen to soon. With a sigh Tayla holstered her rifle and pulled out a large hunting knife as she began to work. “Just think of the money…” she muttered.

While she worked on first removing Mox’na’s head and then piling the demon bodies to burn them, Tayla would occasionally glance up, towards the area where Leo had disappeared. She tried to just forget about him. He was just some stupid human after all. So what if he had tried to help her? It wasn’t like she ASKED him to or anything. And what, had he been expecting some sort of thank you? For her to get down on her knees and cry and say ‘oh, thank you Mr. Big Strong Human’ or something? After all she had that situation completely under control. Tayla paused for a moment. Well, not completely under control. But certainly under control. Sure she may have been in a little bit of hot water but she could have made it to her gun in time. If Leo had arrived a minute later he’d probably have found her already having her victory drink.

It was only after she doused the bodies with oil and was looking for a light that Tayla happened to glance at Gnasher properly for the first time since he’d been damaged. Though it was still twitching slightly she was shocked to see how much damage had been done. “Oh, Gnasher…” she whispered, her heart sinking as she walked over and knelt down beside him, looking him over. “He got you good, didn’t he?” A sad smile spread across her face as she began gathering pieces, not even knowing where to start. “He… he almost got me this good too, huh?” she asked, her hands starting to tremble slightly despite her best efforts. Sitting down on the ground, she put her head in her hands and just tried to calm herself.

A few minutes later after the trembling subsided, Tayla got up and took a deep breath. She found her flint and steel and soon had the demon bodies blazing in the night. As she began to work on repairing Gnasher, at least enough to get him back to the lodge, Tayla had a sinking realization come to her. “Fuck!” she swore loudly, taking a drink of water. “He did save me, didn’t he?” she muttered, not exactly pleased.

-

“Here’s to you, Tayla!” cried Beruna, her Tauren friend as she raised her mug of ale, smiling broadly.

Katine, her Blood Elf friend, just had the usual smirk on her face. “Indeed, it was a most impressive kill.” She finished filling her own cup from the cask and lifted it up, touching Beruna’s mug with a clink. “To you, Tayla.”

Tayla grinned back at both of them and raised her mug as well to cheer her friends before they all downed their first round of drinks in one go. Tayla grinned gratefully at Katine as the elf took her empty mug and began filling it up again. “Thank you, ladies. It was nothing much. It just took a little planning, that’s all.” Accepting the full mug from Katine with a smile Tayla settled back against the log she was propped against and sipped at the ale slowly this time. While her friends poured themselves another round Tayla took a moment to close her eyes and relax. There was a modest bonfire not far away, she had plenty to drink now, and she had plenty of food in her belly. Now all she needed after this was a good sleep. She had hardly slept the previous night as she turned in the demon's head to the Wardens, returned to the Lodge and patched up Gnasher. Thankfully she had squeezed in an hour nap, but tonight she was going to sleep like the dead.

Beruna was the last to get her mug filled, and she sipped it gratefully before looking to Tayla again. “So, tell us. What happened? I heard that Mox’na was quite a dangerous one. I’m surprised you got out unscathed.”

“Well, I wouldn’t say completely unscathed” Tayla responded, glancing over her shoulder at Gnasher. The mechanical dog was at least functional again, but one glass eye was cracked and dim and there were notable creaks when it moved. She sighed, later on tonight she was going to have to do more repair work, maybe even use some of the money and have a new frame made over in Dalaran. “But everything turned out alright.”

“You know, you could have waited for us to come with you.” There was a disapproving tone to Katine’s voice though she didn’t stop smirking. Beruna didn’t say anything but she also glanced at Tayla, the suggestion of a frown on her face.

Feeling her cheeks getting a bit red Tayla looked away and took a gulp of her ale. “...Sorry. It’s just, you guys were out and… I was feeling lucky I guess.” She felt a bit guilty, though it was true her friends were gone when she left on her mission she had intentionally waited for them to leave the lodge before departing herself. The bounty had been quite significant, and the thought of splitting it three ways had been distasteful. Of course if she could do it over again she probably would have asked them for help, then she wouldn’t be indebted to that stupid human. The thought of Leo walking off with that ‘you’re welcome’ made her angrily scowl at her drink and she took a long swig to try and forget about it.

“Tayla” Beruna said in a slightly raised tone of voice as she nudged the goblin’s shoulder.

Tayla looked up, realizing she had let her mind wander. “Huh?”

“I was asking if you wanted some of this jerky I made.” Beruna held up a wrapped bundle of jerky to Tayla, who wordlessly nodded and took a piece. “You seem angry about something. Is everything alright?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s nothing.” Wanting to stop thinking about Leo Tayla looked down at the jerky in her hand, tore off a chunk and chewed. To her surprise it was tender and flavorful, and she gratefully took another piece as she wolfed down the first. “This is pretty good. What is this? Venison?”

“Worm meat actually, from those Brulworms. I used some sauces, a little bit of honey and liquid smoke, and some peppers to flavor it.” Beruna replied with a smile, taking a piece herself and chewing on it. “I’m glad you like it. Katine won’t even try it.”

Tayla stopped chewing and looked down at the meat. Now that she was paying attention it did seem… darker than normal beef or venison jerky. Looking to Katine she was annoyed when she saw the elf trying to hold back a laugh. Finally deciding to hell with it, Tayla shrugged and swallowed before taking another bite, a bit less enthusiastically than before. It was still delicious, despite its origins. “Sounds great. You should give me the recipe.” Hesitating as she chewed, she finally swallowed and took a deep breath. While she had strongly considered just not telling them about Leo, he kept cropping up in her thoughts and she really wanted to talk to someone about it. “Look. I have something to confess. I wasn’t exactly one hundred percent… on top of things during the whole affair.”

“What do you mean?” Katine’s face had dropped the smirk as she sat up straight. “You are ok, aren’t you? Did that demon hurt you?”

“No, no. Nothing like that.” Tayla once again felt that guilt when she saw how concerned her friends looked. “I mean, I’m just a little sore from sliding down that tree really. But when I set up a trap for him I kinda… underestimated him. He got pretty close to getting me. He even messed up Gnasher, obviously.” Wanting to just push on through she took a deep breath and continued. “Things were looking pretty bad but this human showed up and... helped out. Shot the demon dead with a few arrows.”

“A human with a bow? Is he one of the hunters here?” Beruna asked curiously.

Making a face, Tayla nodded. “Yeah. He says his name is Leo.”

“Hmm. Leo? Yeah, I know of him. He stays in a tent up near the tower” Katine confirmed with a nod. “He kind of reminds me of you a little.”

“What?!” Tayla demanded, sitting up straight. She could feel her face going red as she took another large drink to calm herself. “How am I like that guy?”

“Well, it’s mostly that both of you like going out on missions alone to be honest.” Katine’s face was a teasing as she smirked. “So… why do you seem to get angry whenever he’s brought up?”

Feeling annoyed now Tayla avoided Katine’s gaze. “I mean sure he helped me and all but he was so infuriating about it. He was all like, ‘wow it almost got you!’ and stuff and then he just walked off! I swear…” Though she was angry Tayla felt that stupid guilt come back. “He even marched off before I could say thank you properly.”

“He saved your life and you didn’t even thank him?” Beruna looked disapproving as she finished her ale reached over to the keg. “That’s some bad karma.”

“She probably just lost her temper with him. It happens” Katine replied with a shrug.

“Hey, it’s not like I didn’t want to thank him or anything.” Tayla ignored the comment about her temper though she really wanted to say something in return. “I was in a bit of shock after the whole ordeal, that’s all. I even tried offering him some of the bounty but he turned it down.”

“How much of the bounty?” Beruna asked, narrowing her eyes as she sat up straight. “Fifty percent?”

“Well. I mean. I did do most of the work.” Tayla muttered as she avoided Beruna’s glare and drained her mug, leaning over to refill it. “Anyhow. I guess I’ve just been annoyed because I feel like I owe him one and I don’t know what to do.”

“You could always just forget about it” Katine said with a shrug. “I mean he’s just some human, who cares?” Though Tayla did partially agree, she found herself frowning as she considered this.

Beruna rubbed her chin for a moment as she thought. “Hmm. If it were me, I would at least do something to show my appreciation. Try to make things even and all that.”

“Even, huh?” Tayla mused, nodding. “Alright then. I’ll think about it. Now then…” Tayla slowly tilted her mug upwards as she once again drained it in one go. She felt like changing the subject, she was supposed to be celebrating, not wallowing in pity. “Why don’t we get around to finishing this keg?”

-

It was quite early in the morning two days later as Tayla sat on the floor in the Trueshot Lodge’s stables. All of the hunters had their mounts kept here, and thankfully she was able to locate Leo’s black and brown gryphon after a brief search of the place. She had thought long and hard yesterday about what to do and had finally come up with an idea, now all that was left was to wait for Leo to show up.

Thankfully she didn’t have to wait too long. After a few hunters came and went with their mounts, she saw the familiar figure of Leo stroll casually into the stables as he ate a piece of bread. He stopped when he saw Tayla, and she was annoyed when he made a face. “Oh, hey. Good morning.”

“Morning.” Tayla stood up and brushed some loose straw from her pants as she took a deep breath. “Look, I’m going to be honest with you. I owe you one, and I hate being indebted to someone. So here’s the deal! I’m gonna come with you for the next few days. You get into dangerous situations all the time I’ll bet. All I gotta do is wait to save your life and I’ll be off the hook.” Grinning mischievously, Tayla leaned forward. “Of course, we’d split all profits during our brief partnership. Normally I’d charge you a service fee of 10% at least.”

Leo looked less than amused as he finished off his piece of bread and just looked at her for a long minute before responding. “Look, if this is about saving you the other day then just forget about it. It wasn’t a big deal, ok? I don’t need a partner, or someone weighing me down.” Brushing past Tayla, Leo opened the door to his gryphon’s pen and stroked the beast gently as he applied the saddle and harness.

“Well I don’t need to be indebted to some… stuck-up human who looks down on me!” Tayla cried back, stamping her foot in frustration. “Look, I am going to pay you back. And if I can’t come with you then I’m gonna annoy you every damn day until I DO return the favor!” Crossing her arms, she glared even harder at him. “And by the way don’t worry about me weighing YOU down. You should be glad I’m deciding to even do this for you.”

For a moment Leo looked like he wanted to argue or complain. His mouth opened and shut, but eventually he just shrugged and looked back to his gryphon as he began to lead it out of the stable. “...Fine. Just meet me outside, ok?”

Feeling a savage sense of satisfaction, Tayla rushed to where her wyvern was kept. She would show him. She’d probably save his life before lunch and be back bragging about it to the girls.

-

Two weeks later, and as Tayla sat next to a campfire roasting a fish she couldn’t believe how naive her past self had been. It had certainly been an eventful few weeks, and to be honest a profitable one as well, but she felt like she was no closer to her goal of paying Leo back. While they had certainly gone on dangerous missions together Leo hadn’t exactly needed her help all that much. She had assisted on said missions since they had agreed to split the profits they made while partnered, but so far Leo hadn’t been in any real life threatening situations. He was a lot more cautious than her, sometimes waiting hours for the perfect time to take a shot. While it was impressive how efficient his kills were, Tayla secretly hoped that they would get into a more perilous situation soon.

It was early that afternoon when her prayers seemed to be answered. The two of them were camped out by a river in Highmountain, Tayla eating a freshly-roasted fish as Leo busied himself with the pelt of the sabercat they had slain earlier for a bounty. She was just thinking that maybe she would lay down for a minute by the river when a sudden voice cut through the calm.

“H-help! Please!” Both hunters turned to see a Tauren rushing towards them, limping slightly as he slowed down and caught his breath. He had what looked like the remains of a spear, the haft smashed so it looked more like some kind of bizarre short sword. “My… my family. We were moving to Thunder Totem for protection, but we were ambushed by Drogbar. I only barely managed to escape their cave in the confusion Please, I think they’re going to feed my family to their brulworms… please, you must help me!”

“Of course we’ll help!” Tayla got up at once, finishing off her fish on a few quick bites and throwing the remains in the river. “Just let us get our things.”

“Hey, wait a second Tayla” Leo muttered, looking concerned as he walked closer to her. “Maybe we should take a moment to think about this, I-”

“Don’t tell me you’re chicken or something? Anyhow if we don’t hurry they could be hurt, right?” Tayla shot back. She was excited now, maybe this would finally be the chance she was looking for to finally pay Leo back.

Nodding, Leo dropped what he was doing and grabbed his bow. “You’re right. Sorry.” Looking over his shoulder to the Tauren as he slipped his quiver on, he nodded. “Lead the way.”

As the three of them quickly made their way to the nearby mountainside, the Tauren led them along as he moved at a brisk pace, scanning wildly for the cave entrance. After a few tense minutes of searching they finally found what must be it, two Drogbar posted at the entrance, and thankfully they were able to duck out of sight before they were noticed. Tayla was dismayed when she saw that apart from their quite bulky bodies, these Drogbar unmistakably had green glowing eyes, which meant that apart from everything else these creatures were likely infused with fel magic.

This didn’t go unnoticed by Leo as he snorted in irritation, unslinging his bow as he withdrew two arrows. “Fel. They’re going to be tough.”

“ToughER you mean” Tayla replied with false bravado, loading her gun. “Well, they’re not immune to bullets, so c’mon.”

“One closer to us?” Leo asked, nocking the arrows.

Tayla snorted through her nose, laying down on the ground as she started lining up her shot. . “Obviously.” Looking to Gnasher, she gave him the signal to get ready and the mechanical dog hunkered down, ready to spring.

Closing his eyes, Leo took a deep breath. Tayla tensed up, knowing this meant things were about to happen. “Three… two… one…” he counted down softly before suddenly stepping out from cover, lifting his bow as he aimed carefully. Leo fired, sending two arrows streaming towards the oblivious Drogbar. Hearing the twang of the bow she had been waiting for, Tayla let off a shot of her own from her first barrell as Gnasher took off towards the guards.

The effect was immediate as the Drogbar staggered from the attack. Leo’s arrows had hit him in the chest while Tayla’s bullet ripped through the thing’s neck. It didn’t fall at first as it began to stumble their way but thankfully it collapsed, clutching its neck with one hand. Tayla didn’t have time to celebrate however as the other guard reacted almost at once, roaring in fury as he hefted a huge stone and started in their direction. He reared back and flung it Leo, who barely dodged behind cover as it went whizzing past.

Tayla turned her gun on the second Drogbar now and aimed her shot carefully. It was already reaching into a pouch and pulling out another throwing stone when she fired. The creature screamed and tripped as its kneecap exploded with the force of the bullet, sending the thing crashing to the ground. Leo wasted no time, stepping out from behind cover again with another arrow nocked. He aimed for a long moment as the creature screamed in pain and fired, striking it in the chest and silencing it forever.

Standing up with a smug expression, Tayla looked to Leo expectantly. “Nicely done” Leo said curtly with a nod, taking out another arrow as he moved towards the cave entrance without a glance back.

Feeling like she was due a little more than a ‘nicely done’, Tayla grumbled as she followed behind, applying a silencer to her gun. If she was going to be firing in a cave it’d be better not to completely blow her eardrums.

Though the cave wasn’t too large, it took them a few minutes to find the captives. Leo was careful and quiet, killing as many of the Drogbar as he could with his bow as they made their way to the back. The Tauren with the broken spear had thankfully found a large hammer on one of the fallen guards, and he took up the rear as Leo did his work. Finally the tunnel they were in widened into a large open room, where three hooded Drogbar stood around the bound Tauren. A fiendish green circle was drawn on the dirt floor of the cave, and Tayla noticed for the first time that the ground here was strangely disturbed, as if it has been plowed recently.  It looked like they were chanting something, and curiously even though one seemed to see them he didn’t stop.

Both Tayla and Leo raised their weapons at once. “Stop what you’re doing. Now!” Leo demanded. They waited only a moment, not expecting or receiving any sort of response before firing. Tayla’s bullet hit the farthest hooded Drogar square in the chest. She wasted no time before firing again, a second hole appearing right next to the first. The thing stumbled, and amazingly it still tried to continue the ritual, raising its arms to the ceiling. But quickly the blood began to pour down its chest as it sank to the floor. Leo’s arrow caught the second spellcaster in the back, followed swiftly by one to the head for good measure. The last spellcaster looked desperate now, almost screaming his words but he didn’t move or even slow down as he continued. While Leo and Tayla each rushed to fire first, a bellow of rage startled them both. The Tauren rushed past them, hefting the hammer he had taken from earlier. With an angry snort he swung the hammer around and connected with the Drogbar’s head, sending blood and teeth and bits of skull everywhere. Both Leo and Tayla lowered their weapons and gave each other a shocked look.

The Tauren wasted no time, dropping the hammer before taking out his broken spear head and using it to cut the members of his family free from their rope bonds, a two females, a male and three children. Tayla figured the younger female Tauren must’ve been his wife, because as soon as she was freed she burst into tears and hugged him fiercely. He soothed her, holding her tight as he stroked her hair. “I’m so sorry my love” he said quietly. Helping her to her feet, the Tauren nodded at both of them. “Thank you. I am... more grateful than words can say.”

“It’s no problem” Tayla said bashfully, feeling awkward as she thought about how to bring up the subject of a reward.

“We were glad to help” Leo said with a nod. “Why don’t you get your family out of this place? We’ll meet you at the entrance, I just want to make sure everything’s clear in here first.”

With another quick thanks the Tauren led the others out of the cave, leaving the two of them alone as Leo began to wander about the cave, frowning down at the green circle. Tayla felt annoyed as she waited near the exit, tapping her foot impatiently. “What are you doing exactly? Let’s just go.”

“I just wish we knew what they were up to” Leo said absentmindedly as he kicked at the lines making up the circle, knocking up a green dust as the pattern was further disturbed. “Yeah, let’s-” he began, until he was cut off when the ground suddenly began to tremble violently. Eyes widening in panic Leo started to run towards Tayla just a moment too late. The floor seemed to explode as a huge brulworm erupted from the earth, screeching loudly as it dripped a horrible green goo from its maw. Just the portion they could see was at least ten feet tall and five feet wide, it seemed to fill the whole cavern. Leo was sent flying, crashing to the ground and sending his bow and arrows clattering across the floor. The worm looked towards the fallen figure and snapped its jaws hungrily as it reared back to strike, Leo desperately scrambling to his feet.

As the creature lunged forward and Leo desperately dived for his bow, the sound of Tayla’s gun firing twice echoed through the cave. Two holes appeared in the side of the worm’s head and it screeched again in pain as it whipped around to focus on the goblin. Thankfully Gnasher was already bounding forward, legs compressing briefly before it sprang up high and latched itself to the creature where it began to shred the thing’s flesh with its razor sharp metal claws. When the worm turned to deal with new threat Tayla had already reloaded and took no time letting off another volley of shots before beginning to load another. By this time Leo had also got his bearings back and he began letting loose with arrow after arrow, backing away a safe distance.

The arrows must have particularly stung because the worm turned to face Leo again, mouth opening wide for a moment before letting out a stream of green fluid. Thankfully Leo managed to dodge in time and the stuff hit the floor instead where it began to bubble horribly. Feeling calm and confident, Tayla raised her gun and waited for her moment. As Leo once again backpedaled to keep his distance from the worm, it looked to her this time. “That’s right, open your mouth you stupid piece of shit…” she muttered, finger on the trigger. Right on cue the thing opened wide, and Tayla could swear she could see more of the green slime bubbling in the back of its throat. She fired off both rounds of the rifle directly into the gaping maw, directly on target. Wasting no time she dodged to the left just in time as another stream of acid hit where she had been standing.

Springing to her feet Tayla moved to reload her gun, but paused when she actually observed the brulworm. It was swaying back and forth dangerously, making a horrible gurgling noise before it finally slumped over backwards, head crashing to the ground. Gnasher leapt off gracefully before being crushed, landing on the floor with a thump. Tayla could see from here that her shots had gone out the back of the thing’s head, mortally wounding it. Feeling a sense of relief flow through her, Tayla let out a laugh as her body began to to relax. “I… I did it!” As Gnasher walked up to her Tayla reached out and pat his head, smiling. “And you did a very good job.”

Leo, who was still trying to get his breath back, had sat down on the ground. He looked up at her, bewildered. “Huh?”

“I did it! I paid you back! I saved your life!” Beaming, Tayla felt just a little smug. “I told you we should have just left. There. Now we’re even. Guess I wasn’t ‘weighing you down’, huh?”

Tayla felt an immense sense of satisfaction as Leo’s face went red and he glanced down at the ground. “No. No, you weren’t weighing me down. ...I’m sorry I said that to you back then. I know that was rude of me.”

Grinning, Tayla propped her gun on her shoulder. “Well, you should be sorry. I-” Something skimmed right over Tayla’s head, cutting her off, and she jumped in shock as a rock smashed on the ground not far away. Whirling around Tayla located the source immediately, a Drogbar was perched on a small outcropping high up. He seemed to curse his bad luck as he hefted a much larger stone this time, eyes narrowing as he prepared to throw. Tayla felt frozen in place with panic but she managed to raise her rifle, aim despite her shaking and pull the trigger. The gun clicked as nothing happened. The bottom dropped from Tayla’s stomach she she remembered, she hadn’t reloaded after finishing off the worm. What a stupid, rookie mistake. Without thinking she moved to reload her gun, then realized that would be stupid and she should just dodge and…

As the Drogbar made to throw the stone, the sound of a bow string being released echoed out and as the creature released the rock he stumbled with an arrow buried in his forehead. He keeled forward, falling over the edge and hitting the ground with a thud. The rock he had thrown reached just short of Tayla, smashing to the ground and rolling past her stunned form and veered to the right. Tayla’s heart was thundering in her chest as she tried to control her breathing.

Before she could really comprehend what just happened Leo was in front of her, kneeling down with a look of concern. “Tayla. Are you alright? That rock didn’t hit you right?”

There was something about the way he asked her, something about the way he looked so concerned that made Tayla’s temper flare up out of nowhere. It was like she was a child or something. “Oh… you couldn’t even wait one minute, could you?!” she yelled, putting her gun away as she balled her hands into fists.

“I… what?” Leo looked completely confused as he leaned back a bit from her.

“Yeah congratulations, you did it! You saved the poor helpless girl again!” Tayla cried, throwing her hands in the air. She knew she was being silly, and more than a little unfair, but this whole situation was unfair to her right now. “Fine, I still owe you one. That’s what you want to hear, right?!”

“Now you listen to me.” Leo stood up, eyes blazing as he met hers. “Frankly, I don’t give a shit about what you owe me. I was just TRYING to see if you were ok! Why do you have to be such a bi-”

“Um, excuse me?” Both Leo and Tayla looked up from each other angrily to see the Tauren from earlier looking at them, warhammer at his side. “You didn’t show up and we heard some noises… is everything… ok?” he asked, looking back and forth between the two of them.

Her anger doused by the interruption Tayla glanced at Leo, who glanced sheepishly back. “Yeah. We’re fine… just had a disagreement” Tayla said, feeling a bit foolish as they followed the Tauren to the cave’s exit.

-

It was nearly two hours later as Tayla and Leo led the Tauren family to Thunder Totem. Tayla had been annoyed when Leo offered to see them there without need of payment, but hadn’t made a big deal of it seeing as most of their possessions had been destroyed. Right now she was riding on her wyvern as it walked slowly at the front of the group, Leo to her right on his gryphon and Gnasher trailing along not far behind her. The three Tauren children were walking right behind the mechanical dog, whispering to each other as they marveled at it. Bringing up the rear was one of the pack moose from the caravan Leo had managed to track down, though the Drogbar had apparently killed or driven off the rest the Tauren family was able to load this one up with much of their stolen supplies they recovered from the cave.

Tayla glanced at Leo surreptitiously before quickly looking forward again. They hadn’t talked to each other at all since leaving the cave. Tayla wasn’t surprised, she felt that creeping guilt again when she realized she had blown her chance to say thanks and had just let her temper get the better of her again. Every time she tried thinking of something to say it just sounded stupid, so she just sat in silence as they rode on. She got the impression once or twice that Leo was going to say something to her, but every time she glanced over he was very pointedly looking away.

“You know, I’m afraid we don’t have much to offer you when we get to Thunder Totem.” Tayla looked up in surprise, as did Leo when the Tauren from earlier strolled up alongside them. “But what little we can, I know we can give. We managed to find our food stocks the Drogbar had stolen, my wife and I would be delighted if we could treat you to dinner for all you’ve done for us.” Reaching out a hand to Leo, the Tauren smiled. “I don’t believe I ever introduced myself by the way. I’m Kono, Kono Hillrunner.”

“Leo. Leo Thatcher.” Looking over his shoulder, he motioned to Tayla. “This is my… partner, Tayla.”

“I’m very glad to meet both of you” Kono said pleasantly, nodding pleasantly. “So, would you honor us with your presence tonight?”

Hesitating partially because she felt bad taking what little food these people had, and partially because she didn’t much like Tauren cooking, Tayla was annoyed when Leo spoke up. “Yeah, we’d be glad to. Thank you.”

“Great. I’ll let her know. Thank you two again, we’ll never forget the help you gave us today.” Though he began to fall back to the rest of his group, he stopped and caught back up again. “By the way, you two make a good team. Have you been partners for a while now?”

“I-it’s just been two weeks!” Tayla piped up, a little louder than she’d intended.

“Oh, I see.” Kono looked a bit embarrassed now as he grinned. “Well, all I meant was you work well together, that’s all. Excuse me.”

As Kono fell behind to his family, Tayla and Leo rode in silence next to each other once more. Tayla once again made sure to look straight ahead, feeling more embarrassed than before for some reason. The silence was broken when Leo cleared his throat, drawing her attention. He was looking at her, his face serious. “Hey, Tayla. Um… thanks. For saving me back there from that worm. I’d have been in a lot of trouble if you weren’t around.”

Looking away from his face, Tayla felt herself blushing as she stared straight ahead again. “Well, ok. As long as you realize that. Good.”

The two were silent once more as they rode along. Tayla squirmed in her saddle after a minute, not wanting to seem too quick to respond. When she finally spoke she was slow and hesitant. “Hey… look, don’t take this the wrong way. I didn’t need your help or anything but…” Tayla looked over at Leo, who was gazing back quietly. “...Well, thank you. For helping me. Both times.” Feeling awkward under his stare, Tayla looked away from Leo’s face. “A-and I’m sorry I was acting like… kind of a bitch. Both times.”

“It’s alright.” Leo actually gave her a brief smile. Tayla was amazed, this may have been the first one she’d seen. He was a lot cuter when he smiled. “I wasn’t exactly innocent myself.”

Once again Tayla and Leo rode along in silence. However, something had changed. The two were still silent as they rode along but that awkward atmosphere present over the last couple of weeks seemed to have vanished. True Tayla was still annoyed that she owed this guy one, but she wasn’t quite angry about it anymore. Of course, it certainly wasn’t because she had secretly liked being saved back there. Of course not.

-

It was late that evening as Tayla sat next to another bonfire outside Trueshot Lodge with Beruna and Katine. She and Leo had both dined with the Tauren earlier that night, which Tayla had to admit was way better than last time she had Tauren cooking. There had been fried fish, a hearty bean and moose stew, cornbread and some preserved fruit for dessert. Even now she was stuffed, though not quite full enough to say no to a few glasses (or more accurately, mugs) of wine when Katine had offered.

Right now Tayla was only half listening as Beruna talked about a hunt she had gone on with her new friend she had met in Thunder Totem. Though she kept insisting they were just hunting companions, Tayla was pretty sure that Beruna had a pretty serious crush on the guy. It was pretty cute watching as her Tauren friend would awkwardly avoid questions about him with an embarrassed look on her face.

While she was focused on Beruna as she took a long sip of wine, she didn’t notice at first that Beruna was observing her in turn with a grin until after her story was finished. “So… you haven’t mentioned yet today. How are things going with Leo? Did you save his life yet?”

Feeling her cheeks flushing, Tayla avoided her friend’s gaze. “Yes… and no. I finally managed to save his life today, but of course he went and saved mine right back.” Sighing in frustration, she took another gulp of wine before gratefully accepting more from Katine. “At this rate I’ll never be off the hook. Heck he might even save me again, then I’ll be indebted to him twice.”

“You know, you’re not really ‘on the hook’ with him or anything.” Katine took a long sip of wine herself before continuing, settling back. “I mean, you did save his life, even if he did save yours back again. Sounds pretty even to me. Just buy him a fruit basket or something.”

“No, I can’t do that. Not at this point. It’d feel too much like… letting him win.” Tayla frowned as she thought of it. For some reason it would just feel wrong never going to see Leo again like that. She imagined him secretly gloating that he had won and she found herself narrowing her eyes dangerously.

“Well, you could just do something to pay him back besides saving his life” Beruna said with a shrug.

Sitting up straight, Tayla looked at her with interest. “What do you mean? Like, doing what?”

Beruna shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe you can… challenge him to something? Or just give him something he really wants? Or maybe even just pay him.”

“Yeah, just think of the situation more like a Goblin” Katine agreed with a nod. “You know, just trick him out of it.”

“I don’t know about that” Beruna replied after a moment of hesitation. “I mean, you still do owe him a life debt and-”

“Think like a Goblin, eh?” Tayla mused, looking down at the wine sloshing in her mug. “Yeah… yeah that’s some good advice, thanks girls.” Already Tayla had an idea brewing, and she grinned as she sat down and began to scheme.

-

The next night Tayla was feeling quite confident, her feet crunching through the snow as she made her way to Leo’s tent. The bag she carried carefully over one shoulder clinked gently as she moved along, the wrapped bottles inside thumping against each other. They had set aside today to take care of some personal concerns, and so Tayla had spent the day preparing for this evening. She’d be free of this whole life-saving thing in a few hours, guaranteed.

After only a few minutes of searching she found Leo’s tent set up within a patch of trees. It was a large and rather sturdy-looking one, big enough for a man to stand inside and thick enough to keep out the cold winds up here. Tayla hesitated as she approached it, not exactly sure how to ‘knock’ on a tent door. Finally she reached out and opened the tent flap slightly to let her voice in. “Uh, hello? Leo? Are you here?”

“Yeah, come on in” came the casual reply. Pushing the flap aside Tayla entered the tent and was greeted by Leo, who was sitting at a small wooden table with two chairs. He waved her over to the chair opposite himself as he put down the book he had been reading. “Oh, hey Tayla. What’s going on?” Though he didn’t smile again, Tayla did notice that he at least sounded pleased to see her.

Sitting down, Tayla had a moment to scan the place but there really wasn’t much to see. There was a chest in the corner of the tent, a bear pelt with a few heavy-duty quilts and a pillow on top, an armor stand, and small rack which held his bow. She didn’t really know what she had expected. Turning to Leo she grinned. “Actually, I was just wondering if you wanted to have a few drinks. I don’t like drinking alone and my friends are out tonight.” Reaching into her bag Tayla pulled out two wrapped bottles, unwrapping one to reveal some wine she had purchased in Dalaran. “What do you say?”

Looking skeptical, Leo glanced down at the bottle in her hands for a moment. She was sure he was going to ask a question or just refuse for a moment, but to her surprise he shrugged. “Sure. Why not? Red wine, right? I have some cheese that’ll go good with that.” As he turned away to the chest in the corner of the tent and withdrew a wrapped package of cheese and a half loaf of bread, Tayla grinned to herself for a moment. Phase one was underway.

Over the next hour or so the two drank as they snacked and talked about nothing in particular. Tayla had to admit it was actually rather relaxing, when Leo drank he got a little more talkative and it was fun hearing him go on about the various hunts he’d been on. In the back of her mind though, she was waiting for the perfect moment to strike. That moment seemed to come when they got to the bottom of their second bottle of wine. Leo went to pour himself more and found there was only ¼ of a glass left. Frowning, he sighed and sat back. “Well, that was fun… but I guess that’s over then.”

“Not quite” Tayla said with a smirk as she reached down into her bag once again. She took out a third wrapped bottle, and as Leo watched in rapt attention she dramatically pulled the cloth aside to reveal another bottle of wine. “I actually have one more.”

“Oh, great!” Leo looked quite pleased now, smiling faintly. “Well, let’s open it then.”

“Actually, I have an idea. A way to make things a little interesting.” Tayla’s smirk didn’t drop off as she reached into her bag again and pulled out a small pull string cloth sack. Opening it, she dropped five dice into her palm. “Why don’t we play some dice while we drink this bottle?”

“What, just… play dice?” Leo asked, confused. “For money or something?”

“No, something more interesting. We’ll play for the debt I owe you.” Seeing his face not lose that skeptical look, Tayla sighed and explained. “It’s simple. We’ll play a game of Dead Man’s Dice. If I win, then I don’t owe you anything and I’m off the hook. If you win, then I owe you two.”

“I dunno…” Leo said, hesitating as he looked from her to the dice.

“Oh, come on!” Tayla goaded him. “I don’t like being your partner, and you don’t like being mine. If I win then I’ll be out of your hair that much faster.”

There was a curious moment where Leo paused. He gave her a strange look for a moment before he spoke. “You… don’t like being my partner?” he asked, his voice unreadable.

“Well…” Tayla found herself awkwardly avoiding Leo’s gaze. “Well, I mean both of us would rather be somewhere else, right?” she asked. It wasn’t a real answer to his question, and a small part of her wondered why she had avoided it.

There was a brief pause as Leo just looked at her, and then shrugged. “Fine. Let’s just play dice then.” Unlike earlier he sounded annoyed now as he finished off his glass of wine and looked at her expectantly. There was a moment where Tayla considered asking him what was wrong, but decided to just push on with the dice game.

“The game is simple. We roll five dice. If any of them come up as a two or five, you put those aside and reroll. If there’s no two or five, you add the numbers on those dice to your score. We do that until we both run out of dice, compare the scores and whoever has higher is the winner.” Grinning, she dropped the handful of dice onto the table. “We’ll play best out of five rounds. Sound fair?”

Leo considered for a long moment, but nodded. “Yeah. Sounds fair.”

“Great!” Feeling cocky now, Tayls reached out and grabbed the bottle of wine, opening it after a moment and filling both their glasses before settling back. She had to admit, she was starting to feel a little tipsy. “You go first then.” Sitting back in her chair, Tayla watched as Leo picked up the dice and shook. She had to stop herself from smiling, time to move onto phase two of her plan.

Things were quiet and tense around the table as Leo threw his first hand, grunting with annoyance when one dice turned up as a five. Without saying a word he put that one aside and shook again, throwing out the next set. Annoyingly that turned out to be free of of any dead dice and Leo quietly counted up the numbers before picking up and throwing again. This continued for another minute or so until his last dice finally came up as a two.

“Not bad, not bad. Nineteen points then.” Scooping up the dice herself, Tayla grinned as she shook them in her palm. This was the exact reason she was glad she was wearing long-sleeved clothing. As Leo looked away for a brief moment to take another sip of his wine, Tayla slipped one of the dice up her sleeve and dropped another into her palm. When Leo looked back he was none the wiser, and with a smug smile on her face she threw the dice. The first round had a two, which was annoying, but she confidently picked up the dice and threw again. This time there was no dead dice and after a brief pause to calculate reached down to shoot again.

After another Tayla was down to two dice, but she was feeling assured of her victory now. She was at fifteen points. Though she briefly considered putting the rigged dice back now victory still wasn’t in the bag, and a silent Leo still seemed to have no idea of her deception. Not wasting any more time she rolled the dice with bold certainty.

The dice hadn’t even stopped moving when Leo’s hand came whipping out and snatched them up before Tayla could do anything. “H-hey what are you doing? You’re ruining my turn!” she complained desperately, standing up in her chair as she reached over to try grabbing them back.

Leo just leaned back away from her grasp as he balanced the dice in one hand for a moment. Then he carefully picked one up and held it up to her without saying a word. Tayla felt frozen in place as Leo reached down and rolled the dice, which came up as a four. He rolled again, and got a four. A third roll, a third four. Finally he put down both dice, folded his arms and glared at her.

“Um… yeah.” Tayla felt humiliated as she sat back in her seat, her face red. “Did… you know the whole time?”

“I’ve played dice with Goblins before” Leo answered back simply.

“Alright then… you know what? Why don’t we just call this off? You caught me.” Tayla started to put the dice up, feeling a bit sheepish.

“No.” Leo got up from his chair and walked over to his chest, rummaging around inside before extracting a small cloth bag of his own. He reached in and counted out 5 dice before returning to the table and setting them down. “We’ll use mine, that way you can’t cheat. And you’ll redo this round of course.” He grinned unpleasantly at Tayla’s now uncertain face. “Don’t tell me you only gamble when you’ve got the cards stacked in your favor? That doesn’t seem like you. You can still walk away though, I don’t mind.”

Feeling her cheeks flushing, Tayla glared at Leo as she reached out and scooped up the dice. He really knew how to piss her off.  “Oh, go to hell. I’m gonna make you eat those words” she muttered before rolling.

-

It was nearly a half hour later, and the last bottle of wine had already been drained. Fortunately Leo had pulled out a bottle of brandy after that, which was good for Tayla because her nerves were shot right about now. The two of them were down to the fifth and final game. Both had won and lost two rounds, this would now be it. Leo had already gone, gaining only fifteen points, so now all she had to do was beat that score.

Both Tayla and Leo were almost completely silent now as Tayla rolled her first round of dice, and Tayla groaned when one came up a five. Putting it aside angrily she rolled again quickly. Her heart almost stopped when she saw, a six, a three and two ones. Not the best roll, but she now had eleven points. Only four more to beat him. Feeling excited she shot again, and nearly screamed out in anger. Two twos and a five stared back up at her, and just like that she was down to just one dice. “Come on…” Tayla muttered, shaking the single dice in her hands. She paused briefly to take a large gulp of brandy before continuing. “Come on…” she pleaded before dropping it. The dice rolled to a stop, and her heart sank when it was another five. She simply stared at the dice for a moment before sitting back and putting her face in her hands.

“Well. Guess we’ll be stuck with each other a while longer I guess” Leo said with a shrug as he scooped up the dice and returned them to his chest. “Good game.”

“I’m such an idiot…” Tayla muttered, running one hand through her hair as she sighed. “So I guess I owe you two now, huh?”

“Yeah. Sorry about that” he replied sarcastically, reaching down and taking a large gulp of his brandy.

For a moment Tayla glared at Leo and was about to start arguing with him again, but honestly she just didn’t feel like it. Maybe it was the alcohol or the fact that she just lost but she was feeling pretty down on herself right now. “No, I’m sorry. I thought this was going to work out for the best. I mean… after all, you don’t really want me here, right? I imagine you want to get back to doing what you used to do before I was around all the time.”

“Well…” Leo hesitated, and his face softened a bit. “It’s just… I never said that I wanted that” he mumbled.

For some reason Tayla felt really embarrassed right now as she avoided Leo’s gaze. “W-well anyhow. I guess I’ve got to be your partner for a while longer either way so... “ she trailed off, still not quite able to meet his eye. In the awkward silence that followed Tayla fought for something to say, finally latching onto something Beruna had said earlier. Tayla was finally able to meet Leo’s gaze as she grinned. “Oh yeah, is there anything else I could do for you? There’s gotta be something you want that’ll make up for what I owe you, right? How about money? I could get some of that together for you if you gave me some time.”

“What? No. I don’t want anything from you. I don’t want any money either.” Leo looked away stubbornly as he finished off his brandy.

“Well damn. I didn’t think so.” Tayla felt annoyed now as she reached out for the bottle of brandy, uncorked the top and poured herself one more glass. However when she went to recork the bottle her hand slipped, and she splashed a bit of alcohol all over the front of the coat she was wearing. Swearing loudly, she put the bottle onto the table before reaching down in irritation. “Dammit, does brandy stain?” she asked as she pulled the coat over her head. She looked it over with a frown, it didn’t look too bad, though she’d probably have to bring it to the cleaners in Dalaran. “Hey, sorry about that” she said casually to Leo, glancing at him.

Tayla was a bit surprised when she saw Leo’s face. He was staring right at her, or more specifically, he was staring directly at her breasts. She had been wearing a simple white shirt under her coat with no bra, and that combined with the fact that she had been sweating a bit in the relative heat of the tent meant that it was partially see-through at the moment. Leo made brief eye contact with her before looking away, his face crimson now.

Things were quiet for a minute as Tayla slowly got up to speed. Then, feeling a little like teasing him, she smiled at Leo as she leaned forward. “Leo. Were you checking me out?”

“What?” Leo scoffed, face still red. Tayla noticed that he still didn’t look directly at her. “What a ridiculous thing to ask.”

“So… you don’t want to see these?” Tayla asked innocently. Leo finally looked in her direction as she reached down to her shirt and slowly began lifting it up over her head. As she passed her breasts she let them bounce free, her nipples hard as Leo watched in fascination. With a smirk knowing that she had his full attention now, Tayla looked Leo in the eye. “I know something I can give you to pay you back. I’ll jerk you off. You can even touch my tits, how about that?” Tayla knew that she was acting a little reckless right now. If she hadn’t been drinking so much she probably wouldn’t be considering this. However she couldn’t really deny that when she got drunk she tended to get a little… handsy, and something about Leo’s reactions had really spurred her on.

For some reason Tayla expected Leo to think about it or at least consider it, but to her surprise he eagerly nodded almost at once. “Yes. I’m ok with that.” Hesitating a moment, Leo pushed his chair back a bit and reached down to his pants. After a moment of fiddling he pulled them down in one go as his cock sprang free.

There was a moment where Tayla hesitated as well. She didn’t know why but she had somehow expected Leo to get embarrassed or turn her down. However, she really wasn’t against the idea of jerking him off, and if it erased a portion of her debt to him then all the better. As Tayla pulled her chair closer to Leo’s, she took a moment to marvel at his penis. She hadn’t ever seen a human dick before, but she had to admit at least this one was rather impressive. Sitting down Tayla found herself reaching out to grasp it, but Leo suddenly stopped her. “Hold on one second” he told her, grabbing his pants with one hand as he made his way to his chest again. Rummaging around inside he took out a small glass bottle, which he passed to Tayla as he sat back down.

“What is this?” she asked, looking the bottle over. There seemed to be some sort of cooking oil inside.

“It’s uh… lube” Leo said simply and awkwardly.

“Oh. Right.” Though Tayla wanted to ask Leo why he had a bottle of lube in his tent, at the same time she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction. Opening the bottle she let a bit drip onto her palm, put the it aside and rubbed the lube between her hands. Without wasting any more time reached out and grasped Leo’s shaft.

Beginning slowly, Tayla ran her hand along the length of Leo’s penis as she marveled once again at the size. She had been with a couple goblin men before and had jerked them off too, but it had been nothing like this. She felt like she could barely get her hand all the way around it. As she reached up and felt the head of his penis Tayla heard Leo groan in pleasure as he leaned back. Smirking, Tayla began slowly moving her hand up and down along the length of his dick. Her composure was broken slightly when Leo’s hands reached up and cupped her breasts, kneading them gently as his fingers came up to brush her nipples.

For a minute or so there was silence as Tayla worked at Leo and he in turn played idly with her breasts. She was really beginning to get turned on now, her legs grinding together as her hand worked at Leo’s penis. Glancing more than once at Leo’s clothed chest, Tayla found herself slowing down. “Hey, Leo? Can you take your shirt off too?” Seeing the look on his face she avoided his gaze. “It’s just so we’re even, ok?”

“Alright then.” Leo had a slight smile on his face as he reached down to his shirt and pulled it off, dropping it on the floor. Not wasting any time he reached out his hands and grabbed Tayla’s breasts again, making her squeak in surprise as he began kneading them. “You have some really nice tits by the way. Just fantastic.” He smirked as he gave both of her nipples a gentle pinch, making Tayla bite down hard on her lip to stop from moaning out loud.

“Thanks” Tayla managed as she began to stroke his dick again. With her free hand she reached out tentatively to Leo’s abs and brushed them gently with her fingers, leaving a streak of lube behind. “Y-you have a pretty nice body yourself” she said, feeling a bit self-conscious as she caressed his chest. It was true enough; he was well-toned and lean, Tayla wondered how she hadn’t really noticed before.

After another few minutes of palpable tension, Tayla was beginning to feel slightly annoyed. Try as she might she couldn’t seem to get Leo to come and her arm was beginning to get tired. Looking up at Leo’s face, she frowned. “Look, is this going to take you all night?”

Frowning back Leo stopped massaging her breasts, though his hands stayed firmly attached. “I’m sorry but it takes me a few minutes, okay? What do you want me to do about it?”

“Well, is there a way we can make this go… faster for you?” Tayla asked a bit hesitantly.

“What do you mean exactly?” Leo looked curious now as he sat up straight.

Looking away from his face again, Tayla cleared her throat nervously. “I’m asking if there’s anything I can do to make this go faster for you.”

Another quiet moment passed as Leo thought about it. “Now that you mention it, I would like to see you without your pants on.”

“Oh… well, alright then” Tayla said after a brief hesitation. She didn’t see why not, after all she was basically seeing Leo naked. Tayla stood up and unclasped her belt before unbuttoning her pants and letting them fall to the floor. Again she hesitated for just a moment before she slowly pulled down her panties this time, thumbs hooked into the band as she let them drop.

“Wow” Leo said in some astonishment as he looked her up and down properly. He looked down at her pussy for a particularly long time before grinning. “So, you don’t naturally have blue hair?”

“No, I don’t.” Tayla felt just a little irritated that she couldn’t think of anything clever to throw back at him, and just pointed at the pants bunched around Leo’s boots. “You take those off too by the way.” Without a word Leo nodded, pulling off his boots, pants and socks as Tayla sat down again. Though she was a bit more anxious now, there was also a strange kind of excitement too. Tayla couldn’t help but think about how the two of them were now alone, drunk and naked. Part of her was saying to just back out now, but a much larger part of her took over as she grasped Leo’s penis again with both hands now. Caressing the shaft gently with one hand she began to fondle his balls with the other, making Leo groan louder. To her surprise one of Leo’s hands came down to Tayla’s hip and began rubbing slowly up and down the length of her leg back towards her ass. She thought for a moment about telling him to keep it above the waist, but as she found herself beginning to enjoy it she just decided to roll with it.

Even with all this, another couple of minutes past and Leo remained stubborn. Tayla’s arm was certainly tired now, and she sighed as her arm slowed. This was going to take forever unless she mixed things up. Preferably someway without having to use hands…

Tayla slowed down more before finally releasing Leo’s penis. He looked down at her curiously as she glanced from him to his dick. “Listen. I am just doing this to make things go faster, ok? You should consider yourself lucky I don’t charge you another favor for this.” Before Leo could ask what she meant, she shifted position slightly before leaning into his lap, taking his penis and running her tongue gently along its length. Then she opened her mouth wide and engulfed the head with her mouth, running her tongue along his cock as she began bobbing her head.

“F-fucking hell…” Leo moaned as he put a hand gently on the back her her head. “I guess I’ll just count myself lucky then...”

If there hadn’t been a dick in her mouth right then, Tayla would have smirked. Leo had finally lost that cocky look on his face. That almost made it worth it right there. Pulling herself closer towards his lap, Tayla was painfully aware of how horny she was as she pushed herself even further down onto his penis, letting the tip slide gently down the back of her throat as she tried to fit in as much as possible. Leo gasped as he began to run his fingers through her hair, groaning appreciatively.

It didn’t take much longer after that. Tayla bobbed her head and sucked eagerly for another couple of minutes until Leo’s breathing began to quicken. “I… I’m about to…” he managed, eyes shut tight. Tayla pulled herself off his lap just in time as Leo came, his cock sending out a spurt of semen. “Oh, wow… Tayla. That was amazing.” Leo had a look of pure bliss on his face as he ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath.

“Right, thanks.” Tayla sat back in her chair, trying not to frown. Yeah it was well and good that Leo had his fun and she was down one favor, but now she felt stuck. She couldn’t exactly just start masturbating right here, then he’d know how horny she was. Of course, the thought of putting on her clothes and walking back to the lodge, just to go to her shared room and then masturbate was even more daunting. Biting her bottom lip, Tayla looked around at her piled clothes as one hand went down to absentmindedly brush herself. Yeah, she was soaking wet now of course.

“Hey, Tayla?” Leo’s voice asked, breaking Tayla from her concentration. She glanced up curiously and saw him looking back at her with some concern. “Do me a favor. Lay down for me.” He pointed at his bed, the pelt and blankets looking rather cozy right now to her.

Though she almost went and laid down without even thinking, she stopped herself and glared at Leo. “Why?”

Looking exasperated, he gestured at the bed again. “Just lay down, ok?”

There was a moment where she wanted to argue with him, but there was something about his expression that made her pause. “Oh… fine then.” Slipping onto the quilt, Tayla was pleasantly surprised how comfortable it was. “Now what?” she asked, her knees in the air as she swung them back and forth.

Standing up, Leo moved towards her feet and knelt down without saying a word. Tayla watched him expectantly, her heart beating a little faster now in apprehension. Without warning Leo reached out and grabbed her knees with his hands, gently moving them apart and exposing her vagina to him. “H-hey!” Tayla cried, sitting up slightly. “What do you think you’re doing?!”

“Just paying you back.” Leo grinned at her as he moved his right hand from her knee down to her groin, making Tayla whine with pleasure. “You looked like you really wanted it.” Not wasting another moment he leaned in and buried his face in her lap, giving her clit a gentle lick before slowly running his tongue along her labia.

For just a moment Tayla had wanted to stop Leo and think about this but as he began to lick her she moaned wildly for the first time, reaching up behind her head to grab two handfuls of the quilt. Her breath was coming out in ragged gasps as Leo slowly inserted two fingers into her, his tongue flicking at her clitoris gently. Tayla really wasn’t sure if humans just had really flexible tongues or if Leo was just particularly good but she was practically panting as he slipped her thighs over his shoulders and lifted her whole backside into the air.

It was hard to focus right now as Tayla tried not to cry out. She had her eyes screwed shut, one hand on Leo’s head and the other at her left nipple as she tweaked it. When she felt Leo suddenly slow down she finally opened her eyes and looked up. Leo was looking back at her, smiling before putting his mouth over her clit this time, sucking gently as his tongue flicked at it. Tayla barely had time to register this before he inserted his two fingers into her again, gently caressing her inner walls.

“I…” Tayla screwed her eyes shut again. “I…” she tried, but couldn’t quite make out any words as she came, hands gripping the quilt tightly for a long moment before finally letting go. She took a few deep breaths to calm her heart as Leo shrugged her thighs off his shoulders.

“That didn’t take long at all” Leo said in a casual tone of voice as he sat up, though she could see that he had quite a self-satisfied look on his face. He reached over and picked up a canteen from nearby, taking a drink before passing it to Tayla. “I’m a little disappointed. I was enjoying myself.”

Snatching the canteen from him, Tayla took a long drink before sitting up and glaring at Leo. He flinched back, confused at her sudden anger. “Thanks a lot! I mean, that was… really good and all, but we’re right back to square one aren’t we?”

“Huh?” Leo asked, looking baffled.

Crossing her arms over her tits, Tayla frowned at Leo’s clueless face. “Well I’m not really paying you back if you eat me out right after I jerk you off right? You basically just cancelled the whole thing out. I guess I still owe you two after all.” Sighing in annoyance, Tayla looked away from him, feeling embarrassed again for some reason. It was really unlike her to just give back a favor like that but it did make logical sense right?

“I mean, I guess?” Leo said with a shrug. “If you say so. I enjoyed it too, so we could just call that one down if you want.”

“No, we should do this fairly” Tayla insisted, looking back at him stubbornly. “I owe you two and that’s final.”

“Alright then.” Leo nodded, a faint smile on his face. “Agreed.”

A silent minute passed between the two as they just stared at one another. Tayla was torn, part of her felt that she should probably put her clothes back on and go to the Lodge. It was late, she was certainly a little drunk and all this had probably gone far enough. On the other hand… she couldn’t stop looking at Leo. Her eyes dropped to his penis, which was already getting hard again even as she watched. Her mind was racing, surely it would be most prudent to just go back right?

“L-Leo?” Tayla asked, annoyed to feel a blush on her face as she looked him in the eye again. “Is there… anything else you want me to do? To work off that debt?”

Leo looked back at her with his lips pursed in thought. Tayla watched as his eyes roamed down her body before making their way back up to her face. “Well… anything?” He shifted closer to her as brushed her knee with his fingertips and made his way slowly down her leg.

Giving him a brief frown, she tried not to let it show on her face how much she was enjoying his touch. “Within reason” she warned.

“Alright then.” Reaching a hand up, Leo grasped Tayla by the shoulder before pushing her gently onto her back as she let out a surprised squeak. He climbed on top of her, holding himself above her with his arms. His smile was wolfish as he locked eyes with her. “In that case... I want to fuck you.”

“Oh, fine.” Tayla felt a little embarrassed again when she how large the grin on Leo’s face was. She really didn't want him thinking she was too eager. “But I'm charging you both favors for this, you hear me?” Though that did take the wind from his sails slightly, Leo obviously didn't let it slow him down much. He moved into position above her, an intense look on his face as he lined the head of his penis up, lightly brushing her labia as she let out a moan. As turned on as she was though a thought occurred to her and she gave Leo a fierce look. “By the way, if I tell you to stop or something then you stop ok? If… if you’re too big that is.”

“Don’t worry.” Leo lifted a hand to her face and tenderly stroked her cheek. “I promise. I won’t hurt you.” Tayla could feel a blush rising to her cheeks as she gripped the quilt again and simply nodded.

It seemed almost painfully slow as Leo eased the head of his penis into Tayla’s vagina. She gasped as he entered her, eyes shutting tight as he began to push his way further in. His cock had felt big before when she could barely get her hand around it but now as it seemed to fill her completely it felt absolutely massive. Feeling Leo slow down Tayla opened her eyes and saw him gazing back with a questioning look in his eye. Tayla just nodded again and on cue Leo continued to slide his length inside of her. Leo’s breathing was a bit more labored as he let out a deep satisfied groan. “Tayla… you feel absolutely incredible. You’re so… so tight…”

“I-it’s not my fault your dick is that big you idiot!” Tayla shouted back, feeling like her face was on fire. Reaching one hand upwards she ran her hand up and down Leo’s chest appreciatively, biting her lip.

Finally after what seemed like an eternity of easing in Leo’s pelvis hit hers and Tayla was acutely aware that he was now fully inside of her. They stayed that way for a moment as they stared into each other's’ eyes. Then with a grunt Leo pulled out almost completely, only the head of his penis inside her before driving back inside. Almost like some sort of spell had broken Leo began fucking Tayla, slowly at first as he sat up straight. Tayla just closed her eyes and enjoyed it for a moment. She felt like Leo’s penis was hitting the deepest parts of her right now, it was all she could do to stop herself from shouting out loud.

“Holy crap this is amazing” Leo finally said after a time, breaking the relative silence. Tayla felt him leaning forward again and opened her eyes to see Leo moving his mouth down to her left breast, where he took the nipple between his lips. He started licking and sucking at it even as one hand came up to play with her right breast. Tayla cried out as Leo continued to tease her, switching breasts after a minute as he now began nibbling at her right breast’s nipple, tenderly working the flesh with his teeth as to not break the skin.

“I... I should… charge you extra for… using my tits like this…” Tayla gasped out loud. She didn’t know why she was still being stubborn, maybe she just didn’t want Leo to know how much she was holding back. Leo didn’t respond, a smirk on his face as he played with her tits and continued to fuck her.

Once again just as Tayla was settling into the pace Leo switched things up. He sat up and pulled out, making Tayla almost whine in protest until she stopped herself. Then Leo reached down to her right leg and lifted it up, turning her whole body to the side as he held her leg close to him. “You know until a couple of days ago I never realized how cute you were.” Wasting no time Leo briefly lined up before thrusting back inside her. Tayla did cry out this time, not like she could help it much. From this angle Leo seemed to be fucking her even deeper than before. “And even more recently I’m just realizing…” Leo slipped his free hand under Tayla’s ass, lifting her backside up and allowing him a better angle to continue thrusting inside her. “...how fucking sexy you are too.”

“What? T-that’s crazy. I’m not sexy or cute” Tayla said, surprised she could speak so well right now. She ran one hand up and down Leo’s arm for a minute, gasping as he continued to thrust deep into her. Try as she might Tayla couldn’t help herself from asking “W-what about me is supposed to be cute?” as she glanced at his face.

“Everything” Leo responded immediately. Suddenly he dropped her ass back into the bed, grabbed her firmly by the waist with both hands and began fucking her harder than ever before. Tayla cried out in pleasure now, not even bothering to hide it anymore as her whole body rocked back and forth. “Your hair, your tits, the way you thank Gnasher when he does a good job…” he grinned down at her as one hand came up and cupped her breast before his thumb and forefinger gave her nipple a pinch. Tayla let out a gasp, and just held onto Leo’s arm as he pounded at her pussy, their bodies letting out a soft thump every time they collided. “I even think... the way you get angry… is cute” Leo huffed, not slowing down for a moment. “That’s why I said… everything.”

Though Tayla tried to form some kind of retort, Leo’s hand left her breast as it brushed her clitoris. That was it for her and Tayla screamed out in ecstasy as she came, her whole body shuddering in bliss as the orgasm hit her. As she squeezed down on Leo that also seemed to push him over the edge as well and she could feel him come inside of her.

As the moment passed Leo pulled out of Tayla’s vagina, sighing in contentment as he flopped down next to her. The two were quiet for a long moment, both unsure of what to do. Then, hesitantly, Leo reached out and drew Tayla towards him. Tayla hesitated for a moment herself as he began to cuddle with her but nevertheless she wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her head into his chest. For a long few minutes neither spoke as they just enjoyed the silence and each other's warmth.

After some time Leo’s hand began to rub her back, and he broke the silence. “You are amazing, Tayla. You know that?” He smiled, his eyes still closed.

“Yeah… I’m sure you say that to all the girls” Tayla mumbled back, lifting her head up slightly.

Letting out a chuckle, Leo opened his eyes and looked into Tayla’s. “Only the amazing ones.” His hand crept down to her ass and then slipped down to her thighs, rubbing her gently. “So you’re the only one I’ve said that to.”

Though Tayla thought the line was corny she couldn’t help but feel herself blush at how earnest Leo looked as he said it. That and the fact that she was starting to feel really horny again as he began to rub near her vagina. “You were pretty good too” she conceded. “A little room for improvement of course, but solid.”

Leo’s fingers finally brushed her labia and Tayla let out a soft moan, grinding her hips into him. “Well...we do have all night for me to improve. Should we go for round two then?” he asked as he began sitting up.

An idea formed in Tayla’s mind as she placed a hand on Leo’s chest and pushed him back down. “No, wait.” She sat up and looked down at Leo’s dick, pointing straight up as he lay there. Feeling quite frisky now she got up and straddled his pelvis, grinning down at him. “I want to go this time.” Reaching down Tayla gripped his penis as she lowered herself down, guiding it back into her snatch. When she felt the tip enter her she let go, putting both hands on Leo’s chest as she lowered herself down onto him. Tayla let out a soft moan of pleasure as she sat down on him completely, biting her lip and savoring the feeling of him filling her up. Her grin widening, Tayla began bucking up and down, her hands rubbing Leo’s body. “How’s this?” she whispered, her breath coming in sharp bursts.

“I… I love this” Leo groaned, eyes half closed as he ran his hands up her legs, one hand coming up to feel her stomach as the other clutched her waist. “You’re absolutely magical, Tayla. I just love fucking you.” The hand rubbing her stomach also moved down to her waist, and he gripped her tightly as he suddenly thrust up into her as she was coming down. Tayla let out a yelp of pleasure as Leo began fucking her in rhythm with her humping, arching her back and moaning appreciatively. “I could do this for hours.”

Try as she might Tayla once again couldn’t think of a response for that under the circumstances. She just wiped the sweat from her brow, and steadied herself as she rode Leo. She was beginning to think this might not have been the most well thought-out plan. While this was nice, amazing in fact, Tayla was sure she was going to be coming soon. Normally that was perfectly fine but Leo didn’t seem to be anywhere near close right now judging how eager he was. Tayla looked down at her hands rubbing Leo’s chest and stopped herself. She tried thinking of something that would cool her off a little, like… Beruna’s worm jerky for instance. Yeah, that would do.

That worked for a moment, until thinking of worms made her think of Leo’s penis driving in and out of her and she gave that up. Instead she just tried closing her eyes and controlling her breathing. Tayla was quickly interrupted from her thoughts as Leo’s hands drifted up her body to her breasts, where he kneaded them before giving each of her nipples a gently pinch. She let out a gasp and began panting as Leo played with her tits, lovingly caressing them as he kept fucking her. “By the Light your tits are perfect. I can’t get enough of them.” Tayla opened her eyes to see Leo smiling back at her before his gaze drifted down her body. “But your pussy absolutely takes the cake. You really do feel incredible.” His hands made their way down to her waist again, one hand grabbing on for support. The other moved slowly down towards her vagina before extending his thumb and forefinger and giving her clitoris a tender stroke.

Tayla had been right on the edge but this sent her tumbling over. She cried out unabashed as the orgasm hit her, slamming her butt down onto Leo and shutting her eyes tight as her whole body trembled from the pleasure. She just sat there on top of Leo, opening her eyes slowly to see him looking back at her with a smirk on his face. As Tayla’s breathing finally normalized again, she was finally aware that Leo was still quite hard inside of her. He hadn’t come at all. She glared down at him, wiping the smile from his face to be replaced by confusion. “Oh, come on. Really?” she asked, climbing off of him reluctantly and kneeling down beside him. “Of course, I come and you don’t. Typical.” Tayla reached out and gripped Leo’s penis and began stroking it gently as he gasped. “What, do you still want me owing you one?”

There was a strange look on Leo’s face as he slowly sat up, looking her in the eye. “Owe me one? What?” Tayla’s hand halted on his penis, but before she could say anything something seemed to have dawned on Leo. “Wait a second, wait a second… Are you saying that every time I come I owe you one, and every time you come you owe me one?”

“Well… yeah.” For some reason Tayla felt her heart beating faster than before as she looked back at Leo. There seemed to be a palpable tension in the air. “I mean… that’s fair, right?”

“Right.” Leo nodded, and Tayla felt his cock jump in her hand. He grabbed her by the shoulders, and to her surprise pushed her roughly back down onto the quilt. Leo came down and began eagerly licking her nipple as his hand came up to tease the other. His other hand snaked down between her legs and he slipped two fingers inside of her, eliciting another cry of pleasure from her. “I get what you mean, don’t worry” he said, face playing against her skin before sucking happily at her teat.

“What?” Tayla asked in some confusion, squirming underneath Leo. It was like a switch had been flipped in his head, his hands were more purposeful than ever and as he drifted down her body and his tongue was wilder as he began licking her vagina again. “W-what do I m-mean?” she barely managed, her back arching as he brushed his tongue along her clit.

“I mean, there’s only one reason you’d make up a ridiculous rule like that” Leo said with certainty, sitting up again. He crawled on top of her, looking down at her vagina as he ran the length of his penis along it. “You want me to fuck you. Badly. To make you come over and over again.” One of Leo’s hands came up to brush Tayla gently across the cheek. “So I’ll do it. I’ll fuck the hell out of you.”

“Wait just a second” Tayla said, grabbing Leo’s hand and looking him sternly in the eye. Leo running his cock along her vulva was making her exceptionally horny right now but she tried to push that aside. “I-I never said I wanted that, don’t put words in my mouth!”

“Fine then.” Leo had a slight smile on his face now as he watched her closely. “Then just say you don’t want this.”

“Huh?” Tayla asked, not quite getting it.

Leo’s smile widened. “Tell me you don’t want this and I’ll let you jerk me off again. Then we’ll call it even, how about that?”

Glancing down at Leo’s cock and then back up to his eyes, Tayla hesitated. “Do you… do you really want to fuck me that bad?” she asked, her tone curious. “Was the sex that good?”

“Good?” Leo laughed as he stared at her with an incredulous look in his eye. “No. I’ve had good sex before. I’ve even had great sex before. But this…” he ran a hand down Tayla’s body, making her break out in a brief fit of goosebumps. “This is unrivaled. It’s the best sex I’ve ever had.” Moving his hand up her body again, Leo grinned as she shuddered with pleasure. “But you avoided the question. Do you want me to fuck you, or do you want to just finish me off and call it square?”

Tayla just looked back into his eyes as her mind worked. Maybe that would be the most logical thing to do. Then she’d have paid Leo back and even got a few orgasms out of the deal. That same internal battle happened again as Tayla glanced down at Leo’s rock hard penis. “I… I don’t…” she began, wavering, If she admitted that she wanted it that badly that would be tantamount to letting Leo win. “I…” she tried again, until she was interrupted once again by Leo sliding the length of his erection against her.

“Yes? You what?” he asked curiously.

“Oh…!” Tayla growled in frustration before reaching up, wrapping an arm around his neck and pulling herself towards Leo. She kissed him for the first time, tongue entering his mouth as it desperately began entwining around Leo’s. Leo looked a bit surprised but quickly recovered as he began kissing her back, pressing his body close to hers. For what seemed like a long time the two just made out, one of Leo’s hands coming up to stroke her cheek tenderly as Tayla ran her hands over his pecs. Finally she broke it off, breathing heavily as she looked him with an intense need in her eyes. “Just fuck me already!”

Without speaking Leo nodded, kissed Tayla briefly, and then began to ease his cock inside of her. Once he was fully inside one hand came down, steadying himself on her waist while the other came up to grab her shoulder as he began roughly thrusting into her. Tayla dropped all pretense as she just moaned loudly, her breasts shaking back and forth as her body rocked under Leo’s continued pounding. He was more savage than ever now, the hand on her shoulder allowing him to pull her body back against his every time he reared back. One of Tayla’s hands came down to play with her clit while the other gripped Leo’s waist, pulling herself back against him with every thrust.

For Tayla the feeling was indescribable. Now that she had let go, the sense of total ecstasy she had made her previous intimate experiences seem like pale shadows of actual sex, like she was being being fucked proper for the first time. “Leo!”” she cried, her voice needy. “T-this… this is… the best sex I’ve ever had too!” She looked Leo in the eye fervently as she wet her lips, panting. “Fuck me harder, Leo!”

“Your wish is my command” he said, removing his hands from Tayla’s body as he pulled out of her, making her whine in frustration. Not wasting a second Leo gripped her legs with both hands and bent them back towards her head, pointing her vagina straight up. Getting into position Leo moved his hands to her waist now, holding her firmly in place before plunging back in her.

As she lay there with her legs in the air, getting fucked harder than she had in her life, all Tayla could do was grab onto Leo’s upper arms for support. She moaned in bliss as she began to drool a bit from the side of her mouth, screwing her eyes shut. “Y-you’re incredible Leo… your d-dick is the best… t-the best…”

The two rocked that way for what might have been five minutes or thirty, Tayla had lost all track of time by this point. Eventually however, she began to feel the climax coming. Before she had a chance to try mustering words Leo spoke first, his voice labored. “Tayla… I can’t hold out much more…”

“M-me neither!” Tayla admitted, closing her eyes again. “Y-you’re too good! Don’t stop!”

Leo obliged, pumping into her for another minute longer before Tayla felt him feverishly speed up. “Tayla!” he cried out as he thrust deep inside her one final time and came, filling her to bursting with his seed.

“Leo!” Tayla shouted in jubilation as she came, seizing up all over as she squeezed his arms nearly hard enough for the nails to break the skin. After the orgasm passed she slowly dropped her arms to her sides, panting as she felt the sweat cooling on her body. Leo stayed on top of her, also trying to catch his breath as he puts his hands down on the quilt. He laboriously pulled out her after a moment and laid down next to her, leaning in to kiss her gently. Tayla responded in kind, moving her body closer to his as she pressed her breasts into Leo’s chest.

After they grudgingly ended their kiss, Leo looked hopefully down at her. “So…” he said, trailing off as he ran his fingers lazily along Tayla’s back, “Round three?”

“Already?” Tayla asked in shock. Reaching down, she wasn’t too surprised when her hand brushed Leo’s erection. Yep, he certainly wanted to go again. Like earlier, she considered turning him down. At this rate she was probably going to be too sore to walk by tomorrow. But on the other hand… that’s what priests were for. “Alright. Fine. One more time for tonight then” Tayla said, nodding.

Smiling down at her lovingly, Leo sat up and got back to his knees. “Let’s make this one count then. Tayla, could you put your ass in the air for me?” he asked, a wolfish smile on his lips.

She probably would have felt embarrassed just a bit ago doing this for Leo, but right now in the moment Tayla didn’t even hesitate. She rolled onto her stomach before lifting her rear high, looking over her shoulder. “Like this?” she asked innocently, giving it a shake.

“Perfect” Leo said hungrily, moving towards her. He positioned himself slowly over her, almost covering her completely. Tayla was acutely reminded right now of dogs mating, Leo was mounting her right now in much the same way. Just thinking about it made her hot, she supposed that this meant she was essentially Leo’s bitch now. Leo’s hand slapped her ass, making her yelp in pleasure before moaning again as she felt Leo pressing the head of his penis against her waiting vagina. “You’re so beautiful” he whispered before nibbling along her neck. With that he pushed his way into her, hands holding himself up as he began to fuck her from behind.

Burying her face into the quilt, Tayla’s hands grabbed two handfuls of the blanket. Her body began rocking back and forth more than ever as Leo’s whole body hammered against hers, and it was all she could do to continue thrusting back against him. She was grunting savagely as she bucked, not really even able to process much besides the fact that she was getting fucked. She felt Leo sit back up on his knees, reach down and grab her ass with both hands, kneading the flesh as he fucked her. Without warning she felt him smack her ass again, but at the moment even the stinging pain was just a different kind of pleasure. “Again!” Tayla cried. Leo slapped her across the buttcheek again, this time hitting the other side. “Again!” she shouted, not wanting this to stop.  A third time now Leo smacked her, Tayla screaming in pleasure before Leo seized her buttcheeks.

“Tayla… I’m sorry if you don’t like this” Leo told her through his grunts of exertion. Tayla was just about to ask what he meant, but that became apparent very quickly. She felt something poking at her butt, and it took her a moment to realize that Leo was slowly easing his pinky finger inside the crack of her ass. Tayla wanted to say something but she was too late as the finger pushed slowly against her puckering butthole. Crying out, Tayla redoubled her grip on the quilt as it eased its way into her. She thought it would be unpleasant, but as much as she hated to admit it the feeling of his finger sliding in and out of her anus was amazing. She whimpered as she felt the now-familiar orgasm hit her, her body trembling as she bit down hard on the quilt. Of course Leo was still hard as a rock as he pulled out of Tayla, letting her collapse gratefully back down.

After a moment to regain her breath, Tayla sat up and glared at him. “Leo?” she asked, dangerously.

Looking apologetic, Leo grinned sheepishly. “Yeah?”

“You… are very lucky I didn’t hate that.” Tayla felt like it was a lot less effective than what she wanted to say, though the truth was that despite being sudden and unexpected she hadn’t disliked it at all. However she couldn’t just let Leo do whatever he wanted all the time. There had to be SOME boundaries. “You ask me properly next time, ok?”

“Right. I’m sorry.” Leo leaned in and kissed her again, Tayla wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him back after only a brief pause. She felt his hands moving down her body until they grabbed her ass, and then to her surprise Leo took a moment to steady himself before standing up, lifting her up with him. Tayla held on tight to his neck as Leo let go of her rear with one hand and lined up his penis once more with her vagina. “So… are you ready?” he asked excitedly.

“Geez, give me more than a second next time…” Tayla grumbled, a little of her old attitude returning. Despite her words though she already felt wet with anticipation as the head of Leo’s penis rubbed against her vulva. Pressing her face into the nape of Leo’s neck, she stuck out her bottom out just a bit further for easier access. “Ready.”

Lowering her carefully, Leo groaned appreciatively as he impaled Tayla slowly with his cock. As she was lowered onto him Tayla wrapped her legs around Leo’s waist, securing herself in place. Both took a moment to savor the feeling before Leo lifted her ass, pulling almost completely out of her before slamming her back down. He started to slowly build up speed, bouncing Tayla’s body up and down on his cock. Tayla just panted as she kissed and ran her tongue along Leo’s neck, her legs tightening around Leo’s waist as she humped back against him. She didn't even mind that he was covered in sweat right now, after all she was as well. Their bodies gleamed in the flickering light of the lantern as Leo stood there fucking her, the only noises for a long while being each other’s moans and their bodies smacking together. Tayla felt almost mesmerized right now, her breathing quickening at a steady pace. She wished this moment in time would never end.

“Tayla…” She came back to reality again when Leo’s hands began tightening on her ass, the pace of his thrusting accelerating. Tayla let out a gasp and leaned back, hands holding onto Leo’s shoulders by her fingertips. Her breasts shook as her body rocked, flicking beads of sweat off as Leo’s pace became more desperate. “I… think I’m-”

“I-it’s ok! Me too!” Tayla interrupted, knowing what he meant. The two swayed together for a moment before she looked Leo in the eye. She held his gaze for a moment before pulling herself back towards him, tilting her face upwards and kissing Leo as he came down to meet her. As their tongues coiled against one another Tayla broke the embrace for just a moment, whispering “come inside me” into Leo’s ear before continuing. It didn’t take long after that as Leo finally began to slow, finally burying his penis inside her one final time as he came. The feeling of him filling her up was enough for Tayla as well as she hit her peak, gripping Leo tight as she let out a high-pitched scream of satisfaction.

Just like that, it was all over. Tayla was panting like a dog, head resting on Leo’s shoulder as her whole body seemed to droop. Before she could say anything she heard Leo let out a huge sigh of relief as he sank to the floor, practically collapsing onto the blanket. Tayla rolled off of him and splayed out, and for a few minutes the two just regained their breath. Leo reached over at some point and passed Tayla the canteen, which she drained as he went and thankfully retrieved a third canteen of fresh water he had stored away. The pair passed it back and forth wordlessly, each calming down in time as their breathing normalized.

“So…” Leo began, looking towards Tayla inquiringly.

“Not… again” Tayla huffed, glancing back at him. “As it is I think… I’ll be sore enough already… in the morning.”

“Oh, no not that.” Leo reached an arm under her and pulled her towards him. “I was gonna ask, you’ll keep on being my partner right?”

Reaching a finger out Tayla drew lazy circles on Leo’s chest. “Hmmm…” she hummed as she pretended to think, not wanting to seem too keen. “Well, I suppose so. I have made a lot of money these last few weeks, and I do still owe you one.”

“Two” Leo shot back, smirking.

Feeling her face burning, Tayla nodded. “Fine. Two.”

“You are so damn cute” Leo said with a chuckle as he leaned in and kissed her, long and passionately. Tayla responded in kind, hands roaming his chest. When he finally broke it off he smiled and pulled the second quilt over the two of them before reaching over and putting out the lantern.

“You’re not… bad looking yourself” Tayla finally responded, glad that Leo couldn’t see her red face in the now-dark tent.

The pair squirmed against each other for a moment, getting comfortable. “Good night, Tayla.” Leo yawned, one hand sleepily rubbing her back.

“‘Night Leo” Tayla whispered back, throwing one leg across Leo’s to make further use of his body heat. She closed her eyes and let out a fulfilled sigh as the couple drifted off to sleep.

-

It was six months later and Tayla was once again sitting around the campfire with Beruna and Katine. Tonight they were having a really delicious warm apple cider that Beruna had brought, and the three were having a merry time as they discussed a Draenei girl they had seen earlier at the lodge. She had been wearing a suit of armor that while functional had completely mismatched colors, and they had spent the last hour talking cattily about her while they drank.

Feeling that the topic had begun to finally exhaust itself, Tayla grinned as she looked to Beruna. “Anyhow, how’s it been going with your… friend recently?” she asked, raising her eyebrows suggestively.

Beruna looked absolutely embarrassed as she looked at the fire, taking a long gulp. With a stick she poked at three sweet potatoes sitting right next to the fire. They looked to be getting near done, and Tayla’s mouth was already watering thinking about eating hers. “W-well… we actually took a pretty big step in our relationship a few days ago. He was… being really forward that night.” The smile on her face told them that she didn’t mind said forcefulness.

“Oh, wow, congratulations!” Tayla said, surprised but happy for her friend. For Beruna that was moving lightning fast.

Katine was also smiling, though she looked equally amazed. “Yes, that’s great news. I’m very happy for the two of you.” Her smile also turned suggestive as she leaned closer. “I take it this was your first time?”

“I-I guess that’s pretty obvious, huh?” Beruna looked absolutely giddy now as she looked at them. “I’ve never kissed a guy before so I don’t know if he was really good but… I really liked it. So I guess he wasn’t bad at least.”

Both Katine and Tayla looked blankly at each other for a moment before staring at Beruna. Thankfully Tayla recovered quickly, giving her friend a warm smile as she patted her hand. “That’s fantastic, Beruna. I’m so happy for you two.”

“Same here. I’m sure you two will make a fine couple.” Katine’s smile broke out into a huge grin as she put down her mug and hugged Beruna. “Oh, you are so adorable sometimes, I swear!” Deciding to hell with it, Tayla joined in, wrapping her arms around the Tauren. Beruna looked a bit confused but hugged them both back, beaming at the two of them with tears shining in her eyes.

It was a few minutes before things calmed down again, everyone getting a fresh round of drinks. It was right when Tayla was taking a long satisfying gulp of cider that Katine struck. “So… speaking of guys… how are things going with your boyfriend, Tayla?” she asked innocently.

Tayla nearly choked on her cider, coughing as she lowered the mug to the ground. She was annoyed to see that Beruna was looking at her with great interest now. Taking a deep breath, Tayla composed herself before responding. “If you mean Leo, he’s my partner” she said evenly, taking another sip of cider to clear her throat.

“But he’s ALSO your boyfriend, right?” Katine persisted, a wide smirk on her face now.

Avoiding Katine’s gaze, Tayla looked into the fire and took another long sip of cider. “Well… maybe” she mumbled, her cheeks flushed. While part of her wanted to lie about it, the two had indeed begun formally dating just the previous week. Leo had been asking her for a while but Tayla had resisted at first, not wanting him to win. When he persisted she had said that she would do it, but only for fifty favors. She had made the number up arbitrarily, thinking he would just give up after a while and then she would give him a more reasonable amount. Of course Leo had risen to the challenge, and the last few months had seen the two of them fucking like rabbits as he diligently saved up his points. Last week was when he finally broke fifty favors, and so once Tayla had got her breath back the two became an actual couple.

“What, really?” Katine said, letting out a laugh and giving her an astonished look. “Wow, I was joking!”

“The two of you are finally official?” Beruna smiled down at her. “That’s wonderful!”

Though Tayla felt a bit irritated, she also couldn’t help but let a smile spread across her face. “It hasn’t been so bad, yeah.”

“So tell us…” Katine had a mischievous look on her face. “How long is it going to be until the two of you kiss?” Beruna looked to Tayla as well, the joke going right over her head.

Tayla looked away and finished off her drink, clearing her throat. “No comment.”

Beruna looked back to the fire and used her stick to move their sweet potatoes away from the heat. “Are you going to be visiting him tonight too?” she asked casually, snatching the potatoes gingerly after a minute and passing them around.

“I mean, probably” Tayla mumbled. Though she hated to admit it, she spent most nights with Leo nowadays. Sometimes on nights where she did sleep alone she would just end up feeling too cold or too lonely. She still remembered one night a month ago when she had crawled into her bed in the Trueshot Lodge drunk and tried to sleep. She had ultimately tossed and turned for over an hour before giving up and going to Leo’s tent for the night where she was happily invited inside. “It’s surprisingly warm in there.”

Katine raised an eyebrow as she peeled back the blackened skin of her sweet potato and blew on the bright orange interior to cool it down. “Yeah I’ll bet it is” she muttered, taking a bite.

Feeling just a little irked with Katine Tayla opened up her sweet potato as well, taking a bite after blowing on it. Though it was still a bit too hot it was absolutely delicious, and Tayla savored the taste. “Beruna, these are always so good.”

“Thank you, it’s one of my favorites. Simple but delicious” Beruna agreed, taking a bite herself before her eyes widened in surprise and she dug in her bag. “Oh that’s right! I almost forgot. One last thing.” Beruna passed both of them a small yellow block with a satisfied smile. “Butter, of course.” Reaching one last time into her bag she took out a tiny jar as well. “And I have a little salt too.”

“You are too good to us” Tayla said in complete sincerity, brushing her next bite liberally with the butter and a sprinkle of salt. She took another mouthful and sighed in pleasure this time, those two ingredients really did make all the difference.

“You didn’t… make this butter yourself did you?” Katine asked, pausing as she was about to apply it to her potato.

A look of confusion crossed Beruna’s face for a moment to be replaced by utter shock. “N-no! It’s moose butter! Moose!”

Katine laughed heartily as Tayla joined in, and even Beruna’s face broke into a wide smile. The trio continued to enjoy their evening, drinking and chatting together.

-

It was late that night as Tayla found herself trudging through the snow towards Leo’s tent. She took a swig of cider from the bottle she was carrying as she walked, feeling in a rather good mood. Though she wasn’t drunk she was by no means sober right now, and as she saw the tent come into sight she knew that she’d soon be nice and warm as well. Picking up the pace she reached the entrance and entered without even a moment’s hesitation.

Inside the tent was lit with the dim light of the lantern, and Tayla was pleased to see Leo still awake as he put the book he was reading aside and smiled at her. “Well hello there” he said pleasantly. He patted the space next to him invitingly. “Come on over.”

Without a word Tayla began to strip, quickly peeling the clothes from her body before slipping her panties daintily off and crawling in next to him. “Leo, I’m cold” she said with a pout, looking at him imploringly.

Leo reached out and drew her close to him, a look of exaggerated concern on his face. “This sounds serious. I suppose we’ll have to think of something to do.” He inclined his head towards hers and the two kissed gently, becoming more intense as Tayla ground against him needily.

Breaking off the kiss, Tayla grinned as she climbed up on top of Leo, sitting right above his dick. “Just you wait… tonight’s the night I pay you back completely” she said as sexily as she could as she ran a hand across his stomach. Now that the two were officially a couple Tayla no longer charged Leo a favor for sex, but for one reason or another the two still had the old orgasm running score going. Tayla was a bit annoyed when she remembered that even after Leo cashed in those fifty favors she still owed him four at the moment. Of course, she'd try her best tonight to bring that number down.

As Tayla was moving her ass backwards, fully intending to fuck Leo as soon as possible, Leo’s hand suddenly came up and lightly grabbed her arm. She looked to him and saw a strange expression on his face. “And what happens when you do pay me back?” Leo asked.

The question confused Tayla, who just stared back at him for a moment, uncomprehending. “Huh?”

“Let’s say you do pay me back tonight. What then? I guess the two of us will… just be done then?” Leo’s face was blank but Tayla could see his eyes staring intently into hers.

Even now it took a second for Tayla to get what she was being asked. When she did she squirmed a bit uncomfortably, and avoided his gaze. “Well… it’s not like that’s going to happen, right? So why worry about that?”

Leo sat up now as he kept looking at her intently. “What about if you happen to save my life four times in a row?” Leo’s face was joking for a moment before getting serious again. “What if I get hurt one day? Bad enough that I can’t make love to you the same?”

Feeling a blush rise to her cheeks, Tayla kept avoiding Leo’s eyes. So… he was asking about them. As in, their future. It wasn’t something that Tayla thought much about. Not because she didn’t care, but because sometimes this seemed almost too good. Sometimes she thought that if she questioned it too much it might disappear like some kind of mirage. However now there was no running from it as Leo looked up at her expectantly. Tayla shifted nervously, though her face took on that haughty demeanor from her first time meeting with him. “Well obviously since we’re full partners now I can’t just have you running off suddenly. So if we were ever in a situation where you fell behind in your favors then… well…” Tayla cleared her throat and though she tried she couldn’t quite meet Leo's eye. “I guess it would only be fair to… give you some time to bring your accounts back up.”

Leo looked at her silently for a moment before bursting out in laughter. When Tayla looked annoyed he shook his head quickly. “Sorry! I didn’t mean to laugh like that. You’re just so adorable sometimes. I really love that about you.” Moving in closer Leo drew Tayla near as he kissed her, their naked bodies pressed together. Then to her surprise Leo spun around, pinning Tayla underneath him as he stared wolfishly down at her. “Sorry, I know you wanted to go first, but…” Leo just trailed off as he drifted down her body before seizing her thighs and moving her legs apart. He moved into position, guiding his penis to her waiting vagina and thrusting up and inside of her.

“Leo” Tayla muttered, hands running up and down his waist as he picked up speed. Soon she’d be screaming out loud, but for now she just savored the feel of him inside of her as she looked into his eyes. “You’re so good… I love this too.”

As the night went on the wind blew outside the tent, the two of them making love as if oblivious to everything else in the world. Within a few hours they were asleep in each other's’ arms, hands interlocked under the quilt.