Steel Wolf

Fire Demons

Tanaya's eyes shot open, every one of her senses straining. Something had awakened her. The candles had burned low, a few had gone out. She lay motionless, staring at the ceiling, willing the "something" to manifest again. There it was. A small hissing sound from the direction of the tub. Not a snake's hiss. More the hiss of a candle or fire stick meeting water. Oh, shit. Fire demons. In this room, not ten feet away. They obviously hadn't sensed the two nude women or they would have attacked by now. How many? She ever so slowly raised her head to spot three fire demons studying the tub. Two of the fire demons were standing where the puddle of water from her bath had been. That was the hissing she had heard. They had manifested in the puddle.

Why in hell hadn't they detected the women? Tanaya flicked her eyes left and right, trying to look around without moving her head. To her right was the fireplace, cheerily providing warmth. Ahhhh...that was it! They were masked by the heat from the fire. Since the fire was hotter, it obscured their heat signatures. It was just a matter of time, though, before the demons began searching the entire room for their victims.

Slowly, Tanaya leaned over the sleeping princess, face to face and clamped a hand over the noble's mouth to stifle any sound. Serenna's eyes flew open to spot Tanaya's warning look. She blinked and nodded slightly, acknowledging that she would remain silent. Tanaya slowly removed her hand and cut her eyes to the demons that appeared to be arguing without making any noise. They gesticulated wildly to each other, pointing at the offensive water-filled tub.

Barely daring to breathe, Tanaya hugged Serenna close to her and slowly rolled toward the fireplace, silently placing the girl on the floor to the side of the bed, the side away from the demons. She pointed to her armored chest piece and made motions that the princess was to curl up behind it. Serenna carefully crawled behind the chest piece and peeked over the top at her lover. Tanaya motioned her completely down and the lovely royal's head sank out of sight.

Tanaya retrieved a candleholder from the night table beside her and pitched it across the room into the far corner beside the fireplace. The demons instantly stopped bickering and pounced on the sound. As soon as they moved, Tanaya sprang from the bed and bolted for the tub. She took two enormous strides and leapt into it, water geysering out to flood the floor around it. The demons turned their attention back to the tub and moved into the huge puddle. They sizzled for a moment before they realized they were standing in their worst enemy and backed out of it.

A long arm snaked out of the tub, Tanaya being out of sight of the demons, quickly grabbed the pitcher from the table and yanked it back into the water. A fire bolt sizzled overhead, mere inches from Tanaya's nose, as one of the demons saw the movement and reacted. The firebolt splashed harmlessly against the rock wall behind Tanaya. She sat up quickly, instantly spotting the closest demon and threw the contents of the pitcher at it, hearing with satisfaction the hissing of full contact as she dropped from sight again. Even though the tub had magically refilled after her leap into it, and she would have unlimited ammunition against the demons, her luck wouldn't hold until she had dispatched them all. She needed help.

Keeping her head below the rim of the tub, out of direct sight of the demons, she splashed more water on the floor to keep them at bay. She was safe from attack for the moment, but if the princess made a sound...the demons were less than twenty feet from the royal.

"Princess," she said, in a loud voice. "Don't answer or they'll know where you are. Prepare yourself. Things are going to get wet in here"

Tanaya reached above her head to grip the back of the tub. She arched her back at the same kicking a leg upwards, water flying towards the demons. Tanaya used her hands as pivots as she sprang up and over, performing a backward somersault to land on her feet and again drop from the demon's sight. Fireballs sailed overhead through the space she had occupied a mere moment before.

This should be a neat show, she thought. A constantly refilling tub...

Squatting behind the tub, she got a good grip on the underside. Her muscles tightened and bulged as she stood up, upending it and spilling its contents on the floor toward the demons. A river of constantly flowing water cascaded from the tub, soon filling every corner of the room and running under the door into the hallway. At least the princess would be safe from a direct touch of the monsters. And, they were too busy trying to get out of the torrent to notice that the royal had dropped the shield to watch as they hissed and sizzled, their fiery beings growing shorter in stature.

Pounding on the door. Yelling from the hallway. Tanaya yelled back.

"Make sure you're shielded fully before coming in! Three fire demons just...!"

At the loud utterance of the word "fire," an intense downpour filled the room, more water simply pouring from the stone ceiling to douse the rooms. A magical fire extinguishing system. The unflappable Tanaya Paulsdottir was so startled by this development that she dropped the tub with a loud crash.

The three fire demons literally surrounded on all sides by water, hissed, sizzled, steamed, sputtered and dwindled to nothingness. The door to the chamber burst in. Ten guards, shields up and swords at the ready, poured through the wrecked doorway and looked around. Four instantly spotted the nude commander, chest still heaving from the exertion of overturning the huge tub. One of the guards narrowed his eyes at her. They quickly scanned the rest of the room. The others focused on the princess huddled behind Tanaya's chest piece. The girl spoke clearly to thin air.

"Fire out! Stop the rain!" Instantly, the downpour ceased, not an extra drop falling.

-o0o-

The clearing of a gravelly-sounding throat at the door brought Mynletta back to reality. Vardus' broken body smoldered at her feet. She breathed deeply of the burned flesh, a tingle running through her again.

"What is it, lieutenant?" she asked, her voice flat, fingers idly stroking her mound.

"The High Dracoform commands your presence at first light, Mistress," came the guttural reply.

Mynletta stretched sensuously, drawing a deep breath. That had been one of her better orgasms.

"Very well, clear the road to the valley below. I shall travel alone," she said, still breathing heavily, taking a sip of wine and licking her fingers. "Wake me when the sky first begins to lighten. Send an imp in here to clean this dead refuse from my floor. Begone."

Hearing the replying grunt from outside, she finished her wine and settled back to sleep in the nude.