Some timeless minutes and a few ges of position ter, I came inside her. She cimed it was good for the forest. I k was good for me. Good for her, too.

  For using Sexual Satisfa for the first time, you have gained one experience point. You now need 1996 points to reach third level.

  Right, 20% better for her. Whatever that meant. The glow on her face was suffit to let me know she’d enjoyed herself.

  She had strewn my clothes around the well cleared area of the forest where one of my zombies had been excessively persistent in pig up debris, but I wasn’t in a rush to get dressed, even if I did have things to do and trolls to talk to. Cuddling her seemed more important. She smelled like flowers, and her ski like silk. She idly stroked my breasts and my cock, and even teased the lips of my pussy, and I wondered if she was trying to get me ready for a sed round. Her fingers on my pussy felt especially good, because those nerves were exg and new.

  We had some things I o talk about, as tempting as it was to just y there. “Seriously, Xy, if you had a few trolls you could order around, at least on a temporary basis, would that help you with the forest up? I imagihey’d be more useful than the zombies.”

  She pouted. “Do we have to think about trolls right now?”

  “Yes. Because the hing I o do is go talk to them aiate a deal with them. Ohat, hopefully, will make you happy, me happy, and them happy.”

  “I’m fih them not being happy.”

  “No you aren’t. If they aren’t happy, they’ll want to make trouble.”

  “They ’t have any more trees.”

  I sighed. I thought, at first, that it would be impossible to make a sting deal if that was her stand had not been looking forward to persuading her out of it. But money ged a lot of things. “I think I make that happen. Anyway, yes or no, would you like some trolls helping you with the up? If yes, how many and for how long?”

  Xy thought. “Four at a time. For maybe fifteen days.”

  “I’ll see what I do.”

  “But what do I have that they want, other than my trees and my beautiful body, which they may not have?”

  I kissed her. “You don’t. But I have things, and I want you safe. Just because I care about you.”

  “You’ll still bring me chocote?”

  “I’ll still bring you chocote. As your lover, not just because we iated a deal.”

  “Oh Abby!” Xy cried, throwing her arms around me. “You make me feel so good. Please, cum inside me again?”

  She was hard to resist, so it retty te in the day by the time I finally got to the troll vilge. I was wearing my backpack, with the bag of holding ihat. I’d used it a few times in front of the trolls, but I saw no reason to draw further attention to it. A lookout spotted me and ran away to tell the others, with the result that Greed me when I finally arrived.

  “Amorous Abby!” she yelled as she charged me, nearly bowling me over with a tackle hug. “Purveyor of peace, orchestrator ies, dest –”

  I kissed her, which didn’t alliterate but hopefully twisted her tongue in a more pleasant fashion. I ed my arms around her bare waist. Her leather clothes covered the essentials but left her belly and her long legs bare.

  “Hmm. You taste like Xy,” Gren said, after a few minutes of tongue wrestling.

  “Yes.” What, was I going to deny it?

  You’re learning! Let the bitow that you’re cug her. It will only make her want it more!

  Some people will never get polyamory.

  “As long as you saved a little something for your favorite troll.” She paused. “I am your favorite troll, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Good. When do we get more whiskey?”

  “That’s what I’m here to talk to Gavabar about. How was the y?”

  “I missed you. It would have been so good to have you there! And then people would believe me about your colossal cock.”

  I wasn’t sure I wahem to believe her. But if she kept rubbing herself against me they’d have some evidence, because my jea very tight. I gently pushed her away. “Let me talk to Gavabar, and then perhaps we find somepce private?”

  She fluttered her blue eyes at me. “Or somepce public?”

  “Somepce private,” I said firmly.

  “I’ll talk to a friend,” she told me.

  We walked into town with her hand around my waist, under my top and against my bare skin. I put my arm around her. Needless to say, we attracted a few stares from the guys w around town. They weren’t w on the new building, but were making repairs in some of the old ones, which meant they were scattered around.

  “Double Decolletage!” shouted one.

  Cat-calling was just different in troll try.

  Gavabar was in the chief’s hut, sitting on the chair Varek had usurped for a while. I noticed a few blood stains on the chair they hadn’t gotten around to ing. Maybe they hadn’t been able to, or didn’t care. The death of Varek wasn’t a moment I wao relive, but I was more vihahat it was necessary.

  “Neancer Abby,” he said.

  He looked a lot better than he had. His cheeks were a deeper blue, his hands steady. His enemies had been starving him, and a few days of eating had helped him a lot.

  I curtsied. I wasn’t sure what the proper way to approach a vilge chief was, but I didn’t think that was giving too much ground. “Chief Gavabar.”

  We looked at each other for a while, while the silence lengthened. At st he spoke. “Your whiskey was good,” said the chief at st. “And I would acquire more, if the cost is not too steep.”

  I smiled. “I brought some other, simir drinks. In case you like them even more.”

  Gavabar smiled thinly. “I am aware that I would not iate as well if I drink too mueancer Abby.”

  That really wasn’t my i. “Just Abby,” I said.

  “You have indeed brought justiy vilge, and I am grateful,” he said.

  That wasn’t what I meaher. “I mean, you just call me Abby. No need for a title.”

  “Hmm,” Gavabar said. “Gre Rargar, and Gregor. Have them sit in with me, so they test Abby’s drinks and give me their advice.”

  “Great,” Gren said. “I’ll sit in, too.”

  Gavabar frowned. “You know that I always like to hear what you have to say, dear daughter. But –”

  “Besides, if you get drinks the men like and the women hate, then where will you be?”

  Gavabar shrugged. “I suppose,” he said.

  Gre, auro me. “So you represent a Prince Legos, who is an elf?” he asked. “I thought the elves were mostly a matriarchy, as incredible as that seems.”

  Oops. It robably a good thing the trolls found that hard to believe, or they might have called me on my bluff. “I made Prince Legos up. I represent myself, and I e here representing Xy of the forest as well. I, and I alone, have access to the whiskey I brought before.”

  “You make it yourself?”

  I shook my head. “I didn’t say that. But I am the only person on Amaranth who get any.”

  He tilted his head at that and regarded me thoughtfully.

  Gren came back with Rargar and Gregor, and some cups. These were cruder affairs than the chief’s, which seemed to have beeored to their pce, and made of cy rather than gold.

  I noticed the way the male trolls’ gaze swept me from head to toe, before they sat down on one side.

  “So,” Gavabar said. “Let us try this new whiskey. Is it all equally potent?”

  “More or less,” I said. I hadn’t checked the bottles for that, but it should be close. scious that if I didn’t want to show off the extra-dimensional properties of my bag, I could hardly show them everything, I pulled out five bottles, which I thought could have fit in my backpack. One was the Jack Dahey were familiar with, but I alsht out a bottle each of scotch, rye, and Irish whiskey, and the brandy Kathy had drunk some of. I hadn’t bought the most expeuff, but I hadn’t gone super cheap either, even though it occurred to me that the trolls might not be able to tell the difference. I wasn’t a big drinker, but the harshness of the cheap stuff would annoy me and I wao make friends.

  “Try just a little of each,” said Gavabar. “For I shall want your sel. So, Abby – assume that for our part we want five bottles of whiskey a week. What do you want iurn?”

  “I want gems, old, or some bination of both,” I said. “And I want Xy and her forest to be left alone.”

  “Gems and gold might be possible, but the forest is a different problem.” He looked over at Gregor. “Speak.”

  Gregor took a breath. “Yes, Chief.” He looked at my eyes, for a ge. “Before the baleful Baradzem came, our vilge was falling apart. Xy cims every tree left as part of her domain. Every tree on the pins has been cut down, and our houses are leaky and in the wihey are cold. The scraps of wood she lets us take are not enough to keep things in repair.”

  “So you want lumber.”

  “We o be able to chop down trees for wood,” Gregor said, looking at his chief for approval, aing it, bae.

  “This is why Baradzem was able to take trol,” Gavabar said. “I made a bad deal, although I did it so that we would not lose lives. But as our vilge grew, it left us short. Whiskey is helpful, and having a plentiful supply will make our people happy for a while, but when they are cold because we have no wood, the happiness will not st. We take apart the new building Baradzem was building, and use that to repair things, and that will help. But in a year, or five years? The problem will be the same. And the whiskey will mean more babies, and more need.”

  “Like I said,” I replied. “You want lumber. Suppose I get you some. This thick. This wide.” I used my fio indicate the dimensions of a two by four. “About twice my height ih, a little shorter. How many boards would you need?”

  “That isn’t very wide,” Gregor said.

  “Alright,” I said, holding my hands a little less than six inches apart. “This wide, then.”

  “Not logs?”

  I shook my head. “Not logs. Pre-cut. All very close to the exact same size, so that you kly what you’re w with. You could pile them up in a stad hardly be able to tell the difference, so all the most difficult sawing will be already done for you.” I reached in my backpad brought out the one foot length of two by four. “Like this. But longer.”

  He reached out to touch it. “So smooth,” he said.

  Gren stroked it softly. “Ah,” she said. “I just love the feel of your wood, Abby.” She wi me. “So thick. So hard.”

  I had a really hard time keeping a straight face.