Ikuno panted as Kal’s tongue lapped hungrily at her clit, Kal tried to adjust himself as his erection was rubbing uncomfortably against his trousers.

“No touching,” Ikuno reminded him putting a hand on the back of his head and pressing him into her sex.

Kal growled in annoyance and sucked her clit into his mouth swirling his tongue around until Ikuno gasped and her legs began to shake as she came.

Ikuno stepped away and let the leather flap fall hiding her pussy from him.

“Now-now,” she said smiling as her breathing returned to normal, “you agreed to this. Back into your stance.”

“I know I agreed to it,” Kal grumbled getting back to his feet, “but you made it sound a lot more fun than it really is.”

“I’m having a wonderful time,” she laughed.

“No surprise there, you’ve gotten off three times so far. While here I am…” Kal gestured at the prominent tent in his trousers, Kal’s cock had grown to fit Ikuno and that was giving him little room to adjust with his pants still on.

“Count your blessings, Kal, I know quite well how bad it can be to go without for a long period of time. At least you know you will be going home properly drained.”

“You do have a point,” he said dropping down into the fighting stance Ikuno had taught him, “but trying to concentrate with this monster trying to burst out my pants is difficult, to say the least.” A small wrist cuff with a strength rune flared then settled into a red glow as he activated it, “Ready,” he announced.

Ikuno set herself, “That’s why it’s called incentive.”

Ikuno rushed forward and aimed a kick at Kal’s chest that he sidestepped. Lifting an arm he blocked Ikuno’s fist as it came in high from the right then immediately jerked his head to the side as another came from below aimed at his chin. Grabbing her arm as it whistled past his head he used it as leverage to swing his leg up and land a kick on Ikuno’s side. Ikuno swung the arm he was holding across her body while bringing her knee up into his stomach. Kal realized his mistake and let go of her arm accepting the hit and angling his body so he would be pushed out instead of up. Ikuno’s knee sent Kal up and away from her, he hit the ground rolling then jumped up and dropped back into his stance as quickly as he could.

Ikuno charged again this time crouching and leading in with a leg sweep, as had happened far too often for Kal’s liking he underestimated how long her arms and legs were. He lifted his leading foot to allow Ikuno’s leg to pass under, but her foot caught his trailing leg as well, turning his whole world sideways as he found himself suddenly airborne. Knowing he had a split second to react he twisted in the air so his hands and lead foot would hit the ground first. Digging his fingers into the dirt as he landed he kicked off and pulled his body forward launching himself out of the way of Ikuno’s descending heel.

Ikuno didn’t give him a chance to reset himself this time rushing in with a flurry of punches and kicks that Kal was managing to just barely block, or more often turn away so it was just a glancing blow instead of a full force hit. Ikuno spun around aiming a kick directly at Kal’s head, Kal brought an arm up to block, but the kick whistled short and Kal found didn’t have enough time to react to the feint before Ikuno’s fist caught him square in the face sending him reeling backwards before falling unceremoniously on his butt into the snow.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit,” he muttered as he checked to see if his nose was bleeding, a small streak of red told him that he didn’t escape completely unscathed despite using the strength rune.

Ikuno was walking towards him brushing the snow and dirt off where Kal had kicked her, summoning a magic circle in her hand, the bruise that had just started to form beneath the debris quickly disappeared.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself, Kal,” said Ikuno as she bent down and healed his nose along with all of the smaller bruises he received in their last exchange. “You are improving quite fast, taking a hit and using it to put distance between you and your opponent was a good bit of improvisation along with getting away from my foot coming down on your back.”

“A better fighter would have never needed to do either of those,” he grumped.

“True, but you’ve only been doing this for a couple of days, getting good takes time and lots of practice just like magic. To be honest, I’m just glad you haven’t taken to martial arts like some kind of prodigy the way you did with magic,” she said pulling him to his feet.

“You don’t like how good I am with magic?” asked Kal.

Ikuno smirked, “It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s amazing to be quite honest, it’s that your ability is unique. For someone as old and traveled as I am that can be… unsettling… at times, unique isn’t a word I use often. How you are learning how to fight, on the other hand, is as normal as normal can be.”

She gave Kal a predatory grin, “Enough about that. I won again, and I want my prize, but not out here in the snow. Since we are going inside, I’m calling an end to the sparring for today. I figure we can work on forms later before you go home and maybe get some studying in too, now that you can use your runes to get back and forth to your farm.” Ikuno reached down and stroked him through his trousers, “I enjoyed the hell out of your tongue earlier but now I need this inside me.”

Kal groaned, “Then we’d better get moving because if you keep doing that I won’t make it that far.”

Ikuno chuckled releasing him, “Meet you inside,” she said kissing him hard then jogging back into the cave.

“Ikuno!” he yelled after her, “Wait! I can’t see in… the… dark,” he trailed off as the oni disappeared into the blackness beyond the cave entrance. “Dammit, I need to get back to town and see if someone picked up my stone,” he said to himself making his way towards the cave.

------

Kal felt like he could punch through a mountain with as much power as he was putting into the strength rune on his wrist, even so, the red glow wasn’t doing a great job of illuminating his way through the darkest part of the cave entrance, at least it was keeping him from running into walls. The light from Ikuno’s cavern started to brighten the cave allowing Kal to cut the flow of power into the rune. As he walked into the cave his eyes were drawn to blue curves of Ikuno’s body as she bent over her bed, tantalizingly swaying her ass back and forth. He could see her sex glisten in the torchlight, small rivulets of her juices ran down her legs from her pussy and even his human nose couldn’t miss the strong scent of her arousal filling the cavern.

As much as he wanted to plow into her, Kal did want a little payback for teasing him outside. He casually stripped his shirt off taking his time to undo each of the fasteners, he pulled his shirt off and threw it on the stone chair with Ikuno’s discarded clothes.

“You bastard,” she said looking over her shoulder while her hips continued to swing back and forth, “you’re doing that on purpose. Hurry up, I need you.”

With an exaggerated sigh, as if it was such a bother to please the woman, he undid his belt and dropped his trousers freeing his enlarged and engorged cock to Ikuno’s appreciative eyes. As he reached for the ties on his wrist cuff Ikuno stopped him.

“Leave it, sometimes I like it when you are stronger than me,” she said in a voice thick with lust.

He gave her a questioning look then walked over to the waiting oni, the rune on the cuff lighting up and glowing a slightly brighter red than when they had been sparring. He reached out and swatted her swaying ass as he walked past, which got a passionate moan followed by a groan of annoyance from Ikuno. Kal jumped up onto the bed, standing with his prick pointing at the larger woman’s face. Wrapping her long white hair around one hand he pulled her head forward as the other aimed his cock at her mouth. Ikuno obediently opened up, her tongue playing along the underside as he slowly fed her his dick, when he bumped the back of her throat he looked down.

“Are you sure you like it when I’m stronger?” he asked with a knowing smile.

Instead of answering Ikuno looked up and locked eyes with him, then swallowed the head of his dick. As her lips slid all the way to the base she began working the muscles in her throat and her long tongue slid out and started lapping at Kal’s sack. Part of his reason for picking her mouth was she had teased him most of the morning and he knew this first one was going to be quick. Holding tightly to Ikuno’s hair he moved her head back and forth, her horns were easier to hold on to, but using her hair like this turned her on more. Within only a few strokes he felt his balls tighten up and he held the head of his prick just inside her lips as his body clenched and he filled her mouth with seed. She sucked the last few drops out and hummed happily, her eyes once again locked on his as she slowly let his half-hard cock slip from her lips.

Ikuno put her head down and shook her ass back and forth letting Kal know what she wanted next. He was used to her ‘savoring’ the taste whenever he came in her mouth and didn’t expect her to be saying anything until she was done. Kal hopped off the bed and walked around behind the oni, taking his dick in hand he rubbed the head up and down her slit a few times before guiding it into her pussy. Ikuno kept moaning behind her closed lips as he pressed his still half-hard prick into her sex. Once buried to the hilt, he held himself in place as Ikuno’s pussy squeezed and rippled up and down his length, slowly bringing his cock back to full hardness.

Ikuno gasped as she swallowed the last of his spunk, “Fuck me Kal, I want to feel you fill my pussy,” she panted looking back at him.

Kal put his hands on her hips and started thrusting into her, Ikuno letting out little moans each time he speared into her dripping sex. Using his strength, Kal adjusted Ikuno so he was angled slightly down as he slid into her and rubbed directly against the rough spot inside her pussy that drove her wild. Within a few minutes, she clamped down on his cock and her legs shook as her fluids now ran down both of their legs.

After coming in Ikuno’s mouth Kal still had some time before he was ready, using his enhanced strength he lifted the large woman and set her the rest of the way on the bed then flipped her over onto her back before slipping his cock back inside her. Ikuno gave him a sultry look, from her face down to the tops of her breasts she was flushed with excitement from being manhandled. Taking a leg in each hand he tilted her hips back so he was rubbing against the same rough spot with each thrust but now the head of his cock dragged along it each time he pulled out as well. The effect on Ikuno was immediate and sent her racing towards another orgasm, the strength rune glowed a little brighter as Kal held her down and continued to fuck her as she came, his hips a blur as he pounded into her dripping pussy mercilessly. A second orgasm crashed into her before she could fully recover from the last one, followed quickly by a third, when the fourth then the fifth one slammed into her Ikuno shrieked and shoved Kal away pushing him off the bed and onto the furs that covered the rocky floor of her cavern.

Kal jumped to his feet to see Ikuno curled into a quivering ball with both hands between her legs covering her sex protectively, every second or so her entire body would jerk as if she had been shocked.

Kal rushed over to check on her, “Ikuno! Are you…”

“DON’T!” Ikuno bellowed, “touch me,” she finished in a shaky but much softer voice.

Kal froze his eyes wide, “What’s wrong Ikuno?!”

A smile played across the oni’s features, “Still… cumming…” she panted, “sensitive… need a… minute… don’t… touch.”

Kal stared in awe at Ikuno, he plopped down at the bottom of the bed, Ikuno jerking her feet away from any accidental contact even though they were well out of Kal’s reach.

He chuckled as he relaxed, “I’m not sure whether to be worried about you or proud that I put you in this state.”

“Fuck you, Kal,” she said smiling at him. The aftershocks were coming less frequently, and she wasn’t shivering as much, even though she was still holding her hands over her sex, “you’d better damn well feel proud of that, but we may need to put your cuff off to the side except for special occasions.”

Kal looked at the strength rune, “Really?”

Ikuno uncurled and rolled onto her back, one hand shielding her clit from being touched, though small movements of her lower lips as she changed positions still sent jolts of pleasure through her body, “Something about you holding me down and not stopping like you usually do when I come.” Unable to come up with a good explanation she shook her head, “I don’t know what it triggered, but it was amazing,” she said with a blissed-out look on her face.

Kal looked down and his penis, it had shrunk and returned to its normal size. “Looks like I’m done for the time being,” he said with just a little disappointment in his voice.

Ikuno looked apologetic, “I’ll be sure to take care of you before you go home. Maybe we should work on your forms as planned.”

Kal sighed, “I guess you’re right.” Kal stood up and walked over to the stone chair that held Ikuno’s clothes.

“Leave them,” she said, “I don’t think I can wear anything just yet, I’m still pretty sensitive.”

Kal looked at where her hand covered her sex, “But your clothes don’t even touch you there.”

“It’s not just there, Kal, I’m sensitive everywhere, as if moving too much might set me off again,” Ikuno looked down at the fur covered floor, “Maybe I should wait a while before trying to stand up.”

“That sound both amazing and annoying at the same time, I think I might be a little envious,” said Kal laughing at her predicament.

“That’s an extremely accurate way to put it, and it’s all your fault!” she said smiling.

Grinning wide Kal raised his hand, “Guilty!”

------

“Back! Center! Left! Center! Knees bent Kal!” Ikuno barked as Kal quick-stepped in the direction she called while maintaining his stance. “Forward! Center! Back heel off the floor! Arms up, elbows in! Left! Center!” Sweat was dripping into Kal’s eyes and he glanced over at the leather cuff laying on Ikuno’s bed. Ikuno stepped forward and grabbed his wrists, “Pay attention, Kal! You asked me to teach you combat so you wouldn’t have to shield bash your way out of your next fight, your magic should enhance your skills in battle, not replace them.” She let go of his wrists and stepped back.

Kal looked apologetic, “Sorry, I didn’t expect this to be so difficult when I asked you to teach me.”

Ikuno glared at him in annoyance, “And I was expecting to do something a lot more fun the day you came charging in yelling, ‘Ikuno, I need you to teach me how to fight!’ instead of, ‘Hi Ikuno! You look like you’ve been all worked up the last couple of days! Let me take care of you then I want to ask you something!’”

Kal could see she was having a hard time not smiling, trying not to smile himself he said through clenched teeth, “You must really like my dick.”

She managed to maintain her glare as she leaned in close, “I do.”

Kal snorted as he tried to keep a straight face but quickly broke down and burst into laughter, followed a second later by Ikuno.

“In fairness, Kal, I did warn you how horny monster girls are all the time.” She dropped into a fighting stance, “Copy me,” Ikuno started throwing slow punches in front of her that Kal immediately started to mimic. “Speaking of horny monster girls, I have a couple of trips planned for us this spring after we plant Eludora.”

“Okay, I’m interested. What do you have?”

“First we need to visit a harpy that lives not far from here and get one of her eggs and possibly some feathers. Next, there’s a salamander that lives to the west beyond the mountain pass who we will need to burn the egg and feathers to ash.”

Kal’s movements stuttered, “Explain please, because that sounds like a horrible thing to do.”

Ikuno grinned, “You’re getting too used to all this magic stuff. You were more fun when you would panic when I said things like that.”

Kal rolled his eyes, “Sorry to disappoint you.”

Ikuno switched to practicing low kicks, “As you probably guessed we won’t be turning any baby harpies onto ashes. Like ‘Dell they only produce chicks when they mate while in season, unlike ‘Dell they come into season every couple of months. However, they lay eggs once or twice a week depending on how healthy and how old they are. Since it takes so much energy and resources to make each egg they often eat the unfertilized ones to get some of that back.”

“Seems a little weird from a human standpoint, but makes sense, I guess. What if we accidentally took a fertilized one?”

“Can’t happen. They know exactly which ones are going to turn into chicks and which can be eaten, even if it isn’t their own eggs. They also get extremely protective and have no problems with throwing their own lives away to protect their young. The old stories of a harpy swooping down and ripping a man’s face off or tearing their throat out, those come from people threatening their eggs or chicks.”

“What’s so special about their eggs that we need to burn it to dust?”

Ikuno switched back to punches but quicker now, “Like all monster girls harpies are highly magical. Even though they tend to be very light for their size and have wings, part of their ability to fly is magic in nature. When they put all of that energy and effort into creating an egg inside their body some of that magic is infused into the egg, whether it gets fertilized or not. We need the ashes of something with that kind of magical infusion burned by a salamander as part of a more permanent ink.”

Kal stopped, “That makes sense, I do have a concern though. If we do the trade that you mentioned to me and Perra, am I going to end up with another kid out of this?”

Ikuno stayed in her stance, “I won’t say it’s impossible but with luck, she won’t be in heat and even if we find out she is, we can try to time things so that doesn’t happen. If you continue down this path you will likely have to accept the fact that you may end up with children out there that will only see you on rare occasion.”

Kal dropped into his fighting stance, but before Ikuno could restart their training his face clouded up, he looked up at the oni, “Why am I doing this Ikuno?”

Kal stepped out of his stance followed by Ikuno who was at a loss to answer his question. He walked over and sat on the bed picking up the cuff with the strength rune.

“Why am I doing any of this? I could have done exactly what you told me to; gone home, married Perra, worked the farm and lived a good life. Doing things on the farm take a fraction of my time now that mother knows I’m learning magic, my life could be easy. Yet here I am learning more magic, learning how to fight, and making plans to travel across the land, possibly leaving a trail of children behind me. In search of what? Power? I’m a farmer I’ve never desired power. To fight oppression? Our King hardly knows we exist down here in the middle of nowhere, as long as he gets his taxes he couldn’t care less about Tilsen. Women? I could spend the rest of my life here with you Ikuno and be perfectly happy. Money? I’ve never lusted after money the way some people do, and the bag you gave me when we first met made me the richest man in Tilsen and likely all of the surrounding towns. You think I’m destined for some great adventure, and I honestly believe you are right. I feel like I’m being pulled to do something, but I don’t know what that is.” Kal dropped his head into his hands, “I’m so confused.”

Ikuno stood quietly as Kal talked things out, her tiny gasp and smile when he said he would be happy to spend the rest of his life with her went unnoticed. She sat down next to Kal and put an arm around his shoulders pulling him close as he tried to make sense of his troubled thoughts.

“I don’t have any answers for you Kal,” she said quietly, “But there are some things I can tell you that might help, though you may not agree with me. First, farming is what you do not who you are, that may have been different if you had never come back to my cave, but you are a mage now and will eventually become a runesmith, by my estimation a very powerful one. Second, you didn’t realize it at the time, but you were lying when you told me you would give up magic for me,” Kal’s head snapped up with a hurt look on his face, “settle down, what I mean is that magic is… addictive, for lack of a better word. You begin with chopping firewood faster, then you wonder if you can get the logs to position themselves on the block, pretty soon you have developed a spell that takes a tree splits it into fire logs then dries it and stacks it next to the house all in one spell. With magic, there is always something else to learn, to improve upon, or to achieve. That brings me to the last thing; you also lied about not wanting power.”

“Now, wait a second…” Ikuno held up her hand stopping him.

“I don’t mean that you want power like the King or the lords and ladies beneath him. With you it’s knowledge, as you have gotten better at reading and able understand more of what’s in these books,” she waved a hand towards her library, “your thirst for knowledge has gotten bigger. In the world of magic-users, knowledge is power. Keep these things in mind as you look for your answers.”

Kal laid back on the bed, holding the leather cuff above him he ran his fingers over the intricately detailed rune that he had yet to draw well enough to add to his bracers. “I have to agree with you Ikuno, the more I learn the more I want to know,” Kal took in a deep breath and let it out slowly, “I don’t want to admit this, but you are right; I could never go back to being just a farmer with what I know now. I just wish I could see the purpose behind doing all of this.”

Ikuno smiled down at him, “Give it time Kal. Keep learning and improving and a purpose will reveal itself.” Her smile turned playful and she reached down to run her fingers over the bulge in his trousers, “maybe you’ll find that your only purpose is to make a bunch of monster girls deliriously happy by putting this inside them. You’ve certainly done it for me and ‘Dell.”

Kal laughed and shooed her hand away, “Stop it, that tickles.” He relaxed back on the bed, “So much for a serious moment,” he said but there was no heat in his voice.

“Things were getting kind of heavy there,” she said apologetically. “Why don’t you go study some while I make us something to eat.”

“Good idea, I’m still really curious about how protection is layered into the strength rune. I would like to do that with speed as well, and avoid any more broken arms, hopefully.” Kal said rubbing the arm he injured in the fight with Emrick. “Thanks for listening to me ramble, you may not have had any answers for me but at least I feel a bit better,” he said standing up and giving Ikuno a kiss on the cheek making the oni blush purple. Kal stared at her for a moment, “I don’t get you sometimes, we spend hours in bed, you talk like a wanton whore when you’re horny, yet you blush when I kiss your cheek.”

Ikuno managed to turn a deeper shade of purple. Standing up, she herded him towards the library, “It’s a woman thing! Go study!”

------

Kal carefully painted in the last of his latest attempt at the strength rune, Ikuno had made him the cuff for sparring practice but refused to put it on his vambraces until he could draw it himself flawlessly. Kal had done the same with the other four runes he currently had, he put down the ink then Ikuno, with her better knowledge of magic came behind and set them into the leather. The strength rune continued to elude him, unlike the other runes the strength rune was a combination of a basic strength rune and a more advanced protection rune. Ikuno mentioned that it had many of the same characteristics as another protection spell called stoneskin but had been modified to protect the user from shattering bones or turning their hands into pulp with their enhanced strength.

Kal drew another small rune on the table next to the books he was studying from, taking three fingers and making a motion like he was lifting the rune and setting it over on the other side of the tomes, a transparent magical sheet flickered into existence and fell over the books to protect them. Having a rune explode next to one of Ikuno’s precious tomes almost qualified as a near-death experience for the boy, Kal never wanted to see her that mad again.

Kal checked and double checked the rune to the one in the book, making absolutely sure that it was an exact copy. Placing his finger on the leather next to the rune, another precaution borne of experience, he began pushing energy into the ink. This was high-quality ink but not magical like that made with Aradelle’s nectar, it was good for testing but would burn out after only a few uses. As the magic filled the rune a small spot in the upper left corner caught Kal’s attention, it looked like the fanned-out lightning just before Sir Balthus’s crystal had cracked, instead of making a smooth transition to the next glyph. Kal only had a fraction of a second to see this before there was a popping noise and Kal was suddenly covered in black freckles as the rune failed and sent the ink flying into the air.

Kal groaned and leaned back in the chair closing his eyes, he didn’t even flinch as something cold and wet landed on his face.

“Thanks,” he mumbled from under the linen before he reached up and wiped the ink off with the washcloth.

“Remember what I said earlier, Kal. Right now, you are thinking like a farmer, try to approach this the way a mage would,” said Ikuno.

Kal thought hard for a moment, “I’m not following, Ikuno. How do you mean think like a mage?”

“How could you use magic to draw the runes?”

Kal looked at the table, drawing a small rune in the air Kal’s paintbrush floated upward. Looking at Ikuno he asked, “Is this what you mean?”

“Close, that would likely help your accuracy since the brush is moved by your will instead of your hand. What if you take away the brush?”

Kal looked down at the brush then at the inkwell, “oh… Oh! I see now!” The paintbrush floated back to where it was resting and a small ball of ink floated out of the inkwell.

“Too much, Kal, a little ink goes a long way,” said Ikuno watching from off to the side.

“Got it,” a streamer of ink made its way back into the well until he had only a handful of drops in the ball. Looking carefully at the diagram in the book he began to shape the ink to match the drawing. Once he had made a perfect replica of the rune he took a closer look at the glyph that failed on his last attempt, with the rune still in the air he reached out with a tiny tendril of magic and touched it. As he had seen before his last failure the magical energy did not flow freely to the next symbol, getting bound up within the ink. Kal double checked and made sure that his floating rune was an exact replica before going back to examining the errant glyph. Kal switched to a couple of other symbols that were roughly similar but ended up coming back to the original when none of them were doing better.

“What are you doing Kal?” asked Ikuno watching intently.

“Modifying some of the symbols on this outer ring that holds most of the protection-based glyphs, something isn’t working right,” he answered without taking his eyes off the rune.

“Still a novice and trying to make improvements?” she teased.

“I may not need to worry about broken fingers anymore, but I am getting sick of being peppered with ink every time I attempt this rune. Besides, there is something wrong here, I’m just trying to fix it. Ikuno can you tell me what this symbol stands for? I can’t maintain this and read the book at the same time.”

Ikuno studied Kal for a moment then looked carefully at the floating ink, “That represents skin, it keeps your skin from tearing when you are super strong. Wait a minute…” Ikuno held out her hand and the cuff with the strength rune she had made lifted off the bed and floated into it, “Looks like I made the correction without thinking, I used a skin character from another spell when I copied it.”

Kal looked at the symbol she had used and shifted the rune in front of him to match, feeding power to it showed that it would work, but the glyph was meant for magic like Ikuno used and the transfer was leaking energy badly without the user's direct will to contain it. Kal switched back to the original once again.

“If I do this here,” the symbol changed shape slightly, “that’s better but still not good enough…”

Over the next hour, Kal made dozens of tiny changes to the symbols on the outer ring of the rune, occasionally asking Ikuno for clarification on a glyph’s particular purpose. At one point she stopped him.

“I understand that you can see the magic flowing through the characters but are you sure you should be making all of these changes?” she asked, “You could end up with a totally different spell or one that blows up in your face. I don’t think I need to remind you how new you are to this.”

Kal thought for a moment, “Yes I’m absolutely sure, I think the best way to describe what I’m doing is like when I was learning how to write. This is a group of words here: skin, bone, sinew, muscle, organs, heart,” he said pointing to their symbols in turn, “the base glyphs stay the same in the ones I change but now it reads more like: skin and bone then muscle and sinew then heart and organs. I’m just making it easier for the power to flow into the next symbol. Now that I say that, runesmith magic works from the inside out, it should be: heart and organs then bone then sinew and muscle then skin,” The characters gently glided into their new positions on the rune.

Ikuno’s brow furrowed, looking away she summoned one of her magic circles in front of her hand, the same type of strength spell that Kal was currently working on. Studying it closely for a moment she looked at the strength rune on the cuff and whispered, “I’ll be damned.”

“What is it Ikuno?”

“The order you put those in seemed familiar, look here,” like Kal she pointed to each symbol in turn, “Heart, organs, bone, sinew, muscle, skin. The same order as you just put them in.” Releasing the spell Ikuno put up her hands in surrender, “you just fixed two problems with this rune that I never even saw,” she tossed the cuff back out onto the bed, “so I’ll just sit over here and trust you know what you are doing. Just make sure I don’t have to reattach any limbs.”

Kal cringed, “I’ll be sure of that,” and dug back into his work.

------

Hours later he leaned back after laying his ‘improved,’ but yet untested, strength rune onto a piece of leather, after Ikuno set the ink he grabbed another strip that was set aside for cuffs like the one Ikuno made. Quickly copying the rune onto the strip, he again placed his finger next to the rune. Feeding power into it the strength rune flashed bright red then popped in a shower of leather, leaving Kal sitting there stunned as small bits of ink-stained hide rained down on his head. Ikuno stepped over to console the poor boy after wasting so many hours of work, she was caught up short when he looked at her.

Beaming with pride he proclaimed, “It worked!”

Glancing at the shredded piece of leather she gave Kal a wary look, “Are you okay Kal? That’s not what it’s supposed to look like when things ‘work,’”

“It did Ikuno! The ink failed, not the rune! The rune worked exactly as it was supposed to!” jumping out of the chair Kal stepped over to one of the bookshelves and picked up Aradelle’s ink.

Ikuno put a hand on his shoulder, “Are you sure about this? We can’t make any more of that until spring.”

Kal nodded, “My biggest worry is that we may need a stronger ink, if so then I may need to see if there is some way to throttle back how much power the rune can take and how fast it activates.”

Ikuno looked incredulous, “You think you can do that?”

“Not sure,” he said as he sat down, “but after today I’m willing to give it a try.”

Kal quickly copied his version of the strength rune but this time with the ink made from Aradelle’s nectar, placing his finger next to the rune once again he began to feed power into it.

The strength rune lit up smoothly and evenly without the normal flare as it activated, pushing more energy into the magical ink the rune became gradually brighter and brighter until the entire library was bathed in a red tint despite the magical lantern on the table. Kal cut off the flow of magic and leaned back.

Throwing his hands up in the air he shouted, “Yesss!” Kal jumped out of the chair and wrapped his arms around Ikuno, momentarily forgetting that he couldn’t pick the large woman up. Reaching back, he grabbed the new strength rune and activated it, going back to Ikuno he picked her up and spun her around the middle of the cavern yelling, “It works! It works!”

“Dammit Kal! Put me down!” she laughed.

Kal set Ikuno down as the rune winked out, he walked over to the bed and flopped down on his back, “That feels amazing, part of me can’t believe I actually did it.”

“So, my young runesmith, you have a new strength rune that works,” with a small magic circle Ikuno summoned the cuff with her strength rune on it and Kal watched as it wrapped around her wrist and tied itself, “now let’s see how well it works.”

Kal sat up and gave her a confused look, “Ikuno, your normal strength spell should be far more powerful than that,” he said nodding at the cuff.

“True, but my strength spell just ‘is,’ I can’t feed more and more power into it like I can with this,” he said indicating the rune, “if your new strength rune is as amazing as you say then we should be able to burn this one out,” she said smiling.

“Didn’t you mention something earlier about NOT reattaching limbs?” said Kal getting up, “this seems like a good way to end up doing just that.”

“You worry too much,” said Ikuno then gave Kal a sly grin, “How about a little wager? If I win then I get to lay on the bed and you do everything to me that I want for the next hour.”

“Okay, and if I win?”

“You get to lay on the bed and for the next hour I do everything to you that I want.”

Kal nodded, “I’m game... hey! Wait a second!”

“Too late! You agreed!” said Ikuno laughing at the flustered young man.

“Fine,” Kal grumbled, “How do you want to do this?”

Ikuno held out a hand with her fingers splayed, “Uncle.”

Kal shrugged and put his hand in hers interlocking their fingers. Uncle seemed like a good choice as there was a lot of leeway if or when one of the runes failed. Even so, he was thankful they both had access to healing spells.

The contest was brief, with Kal then Ikuno stepping up the power going into their respective strength runes, after only a couple of minutes Kal’s rune was casting red shadows about the room when a sizzling noise came from Ikuno’s cuff, she hissed in pain from the burning rune as Kal pushed her hand back and touched her shoulder. Kal dropped his strength rune to the floor and looked over his shoulder, with a quick motion of his fingers his bracers floated over and into his hand, he turned and took hold of Ikuno’s arm as she removed the piece of charred leather. Holding the vambrace, Kal’s healing rune glowed bright white and within a minute the burnt skin on Ikuno’s wrist looked like it was brand new.

“Thank you, dear,” she said kissing him, “It’s so cute when you are so worried about me you forget I can heal myself,” Kal blushed a bit in embarrassment. “You won, so strip and get into bed, I’ll be with you in a moment.”

Kal picked up the piece of leather with his strength rune on it, “You don’t seem very upset about losing.”

“I’m not, as long as ‘Dell’s ink could handle it I figured you would win with how much magic you were able to pour into your rune,” she said walking towards the library. Stepping inside she turned and made a motion over the library entrance, a shimmering curtain cascaded to the floor right behind her hand turning jet black as she completed the spell.

Kal began stripping down, from the sounds buckles being undone coming from the library so was Ikuno.

“You’ve been holding out on me, I’ve never seen you use that spell before,” he called into the darkness once he had climbed into bed and covered up.

Shuffling he couldn’t identify came from the library before she answered, “It’s not intentional, I’m better with physical and natural magics, I’ve always struggled with mind magics like illusions or divination, and I’ve never been able to grasp astral magic. You will have to search out masters of those schools if you want to learn them. The curtain is an illusion and isn’t much harder than the minor telekinesis cantrip we always use.”

“I’m not sure why but as long as you’ve been on this earth, I think I assumed that you knew every kind of magic.”

Ikuno barked a laugh followed by a strange jingling noise and a whispered, “Oops, dammit.” She answered a moment later, “Sorry to disappoint you but I learned the magics that were easy and that would help keep me safe, one of the drawbacks of being immortal I suppose, there’s always time to learn things later. Back when I was young, I used to have the same drive and thirst for knowledge you do, it faded away long ago without the specter of having only so many years on this earth driving it.”

“I’m not disappointed, just surprised I guess. I never really thought about having to learn from someone else.”

There was a faint tinkling noise then Ikuno spoke from behind the curtain, “I’ve been planning this for a while, just waiting for the right moment. I think your breakthrough today qualifies as a good reason to celebrate. Are you ready?” there was a faint tremor in her voice as she finished.

“I am,” answered Kal, “Are you okay back there?”

“I learned what I’m about to show you from some desert nomads a very long time ago and it’s been more than a century since the last time I’ve done anything like this, I’m a little nervous.” There was another faint noise like many tiny bells ringing as she moved around. Ikuno’s hand passed through the curtain of darkness off to one side holding a small very ornate box, she set it on the floor and her hand disappeared behind the illusion once again. Something had been odd about her hand but Kal couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

The torches suddenly went out and one of Ikuno’s light orbs floated out from the magical darkness into the middle of the cavern, instead of giving off light in all directions like normal, this one was only shining straight down leaving the rest of the cavern in shadow. Kal peered about the room making out the various shapes of things he was familiar with, until Ikuno walked out into the light. If there had been a giant in the cave it wouldn’t have gotten a second glance once Kal saw the cobalt skinned oni.

A small blue pendant hung from Ikuno’s horns held in the middle of her forehead by a delicate golden chain, as Kal looked closer it appeared that most of her body was draped in gold. Her necklace was made up of concentric rings of a type of flat interlocking pattern he had never seen before. The bottom ring was attached to another delicate chain that ran above and below her breasts, between these was a piece of gossamer cloth that left nothing to the imagination. Another jewel set in gold that matched the pendant on her forehead covered her belly button. The slightly larger gold chain around her waist had strings of coins hanging from it, the longest hanging partway down her right thigh and getting shorter as they came across to her left hip, behind those was another piece of gossamer fabric like the one over her breasts that followed the edge of the strings of golden coins. Ikuno lifted her arms and crossed her wrists above her head and Kal saw what was different about her hands, she had painted her claws to match the gold adorning the rest of her body.

Ikuno settled into a pose with one leg slightly in front of the other, toes pointed down and heel raised, with the knee of the other leg slightly bent. Ikuno looked down at some random spot on the floor to her left and after taking a deep steadying breath, which did wonders for how all of the gold shimmered across her chest in Kal’s eyes, she made a small motion with her hand. Out of the corner of his eye, Kal saw movement over by the box as the lid opened up.

The sound of a slow staccato of drums filled the cavern and Ikuno’s hips began to sway in time with the beat, the top half of her body not moving an inch. Soon a stringed instrument that sounded vaguely like the lyres he had heard at the inn joined the drums. Ikuno brought her hands down and her head up but kept her eyes on the floor in front of her, with her hands partially open and her thumb and forefinger touching she gracefully moved her arms from one pose to another. An almost haunting sound came from the music box that Kal reasoned must be some type of flute or large whistle, he didn’t get to think on it long as when the flute started Ikuno began to move with the music.

“Whoah,” Kal whispered under his breath, the giant from before long forgotten, now a rampaging dragon would have had a difficult time peeling his eyes from Ikuno.

Ikuno glided about the circle with a grace that seemed out of place for someone so large, her hips swaying and body undulating sensuously as her arms flowed effortlessly from one position to the next in time with the music. Kal was completely entranced by the blue-skinned woman having never seen something so beautiful before, made even worse by the occasional thrust of her hips that gave him tiny teasing glimpses of her sex or bottom as the strings of coins lifted for a fleeting moment.

The music’s tempo picked up slightly as did Ikuno’s performance. Every motion of her body and hands seemed to accentuate or draw attention to her sexuality, from slow rolls of her hips to quick thrusts of her chest. Ikuno was no longer just looking at the ground as she danced, glancing at Kal with eyes hooded from lust and running her tongue over her lips during her more bawdy movements.

The music reached a crescendo and Ikuno stood up on her toes, feet apart, arms down with her splayed hands slightly out from her hips, back arched with chest thrust out and head thrown back with her eyes closed and mouth slightly open as if gasping. After a momentary pause, the drums and stringed instrument started into the slower and more relaxed final section of the music. Looking down at the floor Ikuno began moving again, her hips again began to sway with the slower beat as she moved back to the center of her spotlight bringing her arms up she crossed her wrists and assumed her starting pose just as the music ended, with another motion of her hand the lid on the music box gently closed.

Hearing nothing from the bed’s occupant she relaxed and moved out of her pose. Having been standing in the light during her performance, she had been unable to see more than vague shapes outside the spotlight, as such she hadn’t seen Kal’s face yet. With her nervousness from before setting in she motioned at the orb of light to illuminate the entire room, squinting for a moment as her eyes adjusted she looked over at Kal.

Wide-eyed Kal just stared at Ikuno with a look of wonder, “Wow,” he said.

Ikuno arched an eyebrow, “Just ‘Wow’?”

“Oh, no no no no. Amazing. Outstanding. Awesome. Stunning. You have a better way with words than I do, think of something better than any of those and that might come close to how mmmph!” Kal was silenced as Ikuno stepped over to the bed and put her lips over his.

Ikuno pulled away and she reached behind her back to undo her top, “Time to stop talking, Kal.”

A thought crossed Ikuno’s mind and she pulled her hands away from the clasp for her top.

Throwing the covers off Kal she straddled his already hard cock, placing him at the entrance to her pussy she let herself down onto him with a long moan. With another motion of her hand the light orb floated up above her and the spotlight narrowed so it shone only on her without reaching Kal’s face.

At Kal’s questioning look she raised her arms up and crossed her wrists, with a small wave the lid on the music box flipped open.

Kal laid his head back and groaned as the drums started and Ikuno’s hips began to sway back and forth the same way as when she had been dancing. When the strings joined in she brought her hands down but instead of doing the motions in the dance she held them out for Kal, reaching up he interlaced his fingers with hers. As the flute’s haunting tones began Ikuno started moving just slightly up and down while continuing the sensuous swaying of her hips. That little bit of extra stimulation was enough to send Kal over the edge, making his hips buck up into Ikuno and filling her with everything he had to give.

Ikuno stopped moving as Kal came, milking him with her inner muscles but not wanting to hurt him when he got sensitive.

As Kal relaxed he looked over at the music box then back at Ikuno, “Keep going till it’s done?” he asked.

Ikuno smiled and released his hand then reached behind her, Kal felt the tingle of her recuperation spell on his balls and the base of his cock. Taking his hand in hers again they looked into each other’s eyes as her hips started moving again.