BAD CROW MOUNTAIN (Lesbian)

CHAPTER 20 Ladies first?

The kikimora keeps disappearing underwater and then reappearing. Several times we slip, and the elfia tears the hem of her pants, and something sticky and green falls from a tree onto her beautiful olive shirt. Zil and I keep up energetically, accustomed to excursions in the forest for herbs, practical lessons, or just to find some privacy behind thick bushes: in short, the academy turns you into the chief forest lover whether you like it or not.

I don't know why, but it seemed to me that we would wander through the forest with the kikimora for a long time. I'm not afraid of her, but my belief in water creatures is shaken. It seems I've lost my tender childhood mermaid fetish, that very one when I first saw sea mermaids on my first trip from the academy to the coast with my fellow mage classmates.

Before a single church candle passes, the kikimora freezes and doesn't move anymore. Her smile seems to have reached her ears (it seems it really stretched to her ears!!!).

"And what now?" I say tiredly, slightly out of breath. We were running and jumping from bump to bump very quickly, afraid to lose sight of her. "I hope we didn't rush for nothing..."

"Not for nothing," Svartalf says, looking excitedly at her stone, which has risen into the air and is pulling her towards an old tree. The tree is split in half by lightning or some random magical spell many years ago, as the tree looks like a stranger among the evergreen coniferous neighbors, as if it came long before the forest appeared. It's hollow inside, providing shelter for other plants and animals within itself like a female womb. Its branches are spreading and resemble oak or chestnut, but it's awfully low-growing, although in such swampy soil, all the trees should ideally be thin and tall, like birches growing on overly moist soil. Its leaves are so big and beautiful. Sunlight shines through them, casting a gentle greenish-pink hue on us.

We freeze. All three of us start inspecting the tree from all sides.

"Found it!" the boy shouts, and the kikimora nods again, sometimes emerging from the water up to her shoulders, sometimes dipping with only her eyes visible.

On one of the roots, resembling bear paws, we notice the same stone, only larger and adorned with old elvish symbols. Nobles like to decorate their hearths and other interior and clothing items with such symbols, even without knowing their meaning. Once, I had to expel two pseudovampires from the house of such a stupid wealthy man who adorned his entire interior with the symbols, thinking they were just trendy doodads, without bothering to find out what they were. When I arrived, it turned out that the combination and sequence of elvish symbols created a summoning spell for bloodsucking evil.

Without hesitation, the elfia presses her impatient stone against the 'lockstone.' A ripple runs through the air like on the surface of water. A passage appears in the hollow part of the tree leading to a clearing with blue cornflowers.

"At last! Follow me! You'll soon meet my mother," the elfia puts her right foot into the passage, ready to go. The boy rushes after her. I block his path with a small barrier in the air. He stops abruptly and immediately turns to me, thinking I want to teach him a lesson in gallantry.

"Apologies, Madam! Ladies first. He wants to let me go ahead, but I shake my head "no," staying in place.

***

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