23. A Land to be Traveled
Chapter 23
A Land to be Traveled
T hey returned to camp in the afternoon, and to her surprise, she had an uninvited guest.
“It seems I have a challenger for your company.” Azure smiled.
Celestine approached Garo and petted his muzzle, before breathing into his nostrils. It was a technique that Azure had shown her. She felt closely bound with him. She was his rider. He was her mount. A choice—a partnership. Like everything in this realm of the Blue Banners.
“This camp has never moved,” Celestine said, touching Garo’s face. “But you have brought me so far.”
It was true. It was a singular truth that she owed not just to Garo.
She turned to Azure. “Thank you. For everything.”
Lord Azure didn’t turn from staring at his armor on the stand. The circlet on his brow, a blue metal that matched the swirling movement of the sky and the clouds within it. He reached out, touching his ornate knight’s armor.
“What you needed was always within you.”
“It’s time to leave,” Celestine said. It wasn’t a question. She felt it. The restlessness, the need to move, to run, to be seen.
“Being with Garo has healed much, but the final step is walking into sunlight. Sunlight means people. Abusers isolate and separate. The flower dies without its family nearby.”
“I take it there are no cut flowers in your realm?” Celestine joked.
Azure turned, coming towards her. His arms were around her, one hand caressing her cheek. His eyes, beautiful and blue, stared into hers.
They changed. They changed with the sky. They were brown for the earth, and now it’s time to leave.
“There is one, but I keep it close.” Azure bent and kissed her, and like every time, he felt like wind and sunlight. Like a wall broken loose and banished, the rubble spread amongst the proud and defiant sky.
“To Skye,” Celestine said. “To the tourney. Show me your cities, your people.”
“As you wish,” Azure whispered. His hand slid along her back. “It is time to be seen.”
That afternoon, they broke down camp. She saw Azure change from his nomadic linen and soft leather to the proud plate of a knight. There was a saddle for Garo that he showed her how to properly fit. Unlike others of her own realm, this was a simple sheepskin pad with two thin stirrups, not the heavy tack of a warhorse. Garo took to the bridle easily. Then they mounted for their journey to Skye.
“May I?” Celestine reached out to his spear-standard. There was a slot for it on her own saddle. “I would bear your standard, lover.”
Azure smiled, handing it over to her.
“It is not mine, Celestine.”
She looked up, seeing the gift. Azure had made her her own banner. His was a blue standard, the emblem of a hawk upon it in white.
Hers was blue, with a brilliant white star stitched in diamonds. It was what he sewed in the evenings, she saw now. She had always thought he was working on his own, modifying it.
All he has ever wanted from me is to hold my own banner and win for myself, no other.
Celestine’s eyes watered as they trotted, the two pack horses trailing behind them. The plain turned into a gallop as they turned into the valley, a faster way to travel than the weeks of walking barefoot. They did not speak. She did not tell him what this banner meant to her, her own declaration. Proud, high.
Seen.
They did not make it to Skye the first day. It would take another. But the realm of the Blue Banner shifted as she explored more of it. More of him.
Along the coastline, she saw castles and keeps in great stone spires. Each one had grand stables and large training grounds. Beyond that, there were no markers of claim upon the land. She saw peasants or workers, common people that Azure always stopped and hailed, greeting them.
None spoke to him or addressed him as lord. He was only Azure to them. He rode proudly, Ferro his grand hawk always on his gauntlet or shoulder, sometimes flying, but always returning to him.
They met many of his people. Trainers, horsemen. Riders. She saw squires playing a game on a checkered board and young women training their goshawks with bags on long strings, spinning and spiraling, dancing around as their birds of prey soared past them.
There were nobles of his land as well. She saw peasants camped just outside the walls of castles, stringing short curved bows for hunting. In the Painted Realm, to hunt on some lord’s estates could warrant a noose. Not here. Everything was shared, everything was seen.
All talk was of the tourney. As they spoke to more and more people, she learned of the many contests. There would be jousting, which Azure competed in. Races. Bouts of archery and a passage of arms to defend specific locations.
Each time they stopped at a keep or castle or alongside a caravan of nobles traveling to Skye, they were bade welcome. They were offered hospitality from the first lance of Lord Azure, House Bluewing.
The tent overflowed with people as it had tables large enough to host fifty people. Azure and Celestine sat at a table, and both peasants and knights sat equally at the same level.
The first lance of Bluewing, Edmer, came to their table as they ate. Celestine had her hand’s full while playing with a small child, giving their parents a chance to eat in peace.
“What you requested, Lord Azure has already been delivered. We did not know you were stopping here. I apologize. It awaits you in Skye.”
“No apologies needed, Edmer, please. We thank you for your hospitality, and I thank you for your timely work.” Azure stood and embraced Edmer as a brother. Celestine bounced the young boy in her lap, but her eyes were on Azure. She remarked on how he elevated his First Lance. He elevated everything around him. Her eyes took in his frame, larger than most mortal men, sturdy and quick, even in his plate armor. Fierce pride showed in the bannermen of Bluewing, to see their own liege honored so.
“I wish you great luck in the tourney, Lady Celestine.” Edmer bowed to her.
“Thank you,” Celestine said, unsure really of what he meant by that. But she could guess.
Azure sat back down at the bench, his large physique somewhat comical as he ate from a small bowl of porridge. Celestine hugged the young boy to her chest where he giggled, then spat up a long line of milk on her shoulder, making her laugh.
“He is the only one I see call you Lord,” Celestine said.
Azure glanced up. “He is my First Lance. It is a military title, that is all. Among my people, I am simply Azure. To call me Lord is to do him honor, not me.” Then he reached across the table, plucking the young boy from her arms and laughing, holding him high. “To this one, I am Azure!”
Celestine smiled. Seeing him in a new light among his people. He didn’t command respect; he warranted it. Seeing him bouncing this child in his arms, the raw mirth of joy in his blue eyes…
“Azure,” Celestine said. He looked at her. “We should see to the horses. Now.”
Azure smiled.
Before they set off, Celestine threw him down among the hay bales and took him. Their lovemaking was laughter and flying hay until it was the hushed groan of him filling her as she sat upon him. His eyes were so blue now that they traveled. Her hands steadied herself on his war plate, and she stared into his eyes as she rode him. His size always stretching her, always filling her so.
“Fill me, Azure.” Celestine writhed on top of him. He felt exquisite, strong. “Fill me, my love.”
Azure reached up, gripping her shoulders and striding into her, bending her close.
“Grip it for me,” he groaned. She did, clenching her spasming quim around him. “Yes, my sweet, sweet girl. Yes.”
There was a movement beyond the stable bay, and she looked up to see a young man her age, awestruck, with a rake in his hand. Azure turned his head, seeing him, then he raised an eyebrow at Celestine.
She shuddered, then looked at the young man. He had brown hair; he looked fraught with fear.
“Come closer,” she called to him. “Watch me take my Lord.”
“Yes…” Azure groaned beneath her.
The young man came closer, the gate of the bay between them. Celestine’s eyes traveled down to the bulge in his pants, seeing his hardening cock. The young worker fixated his eyes upon her, and Celestine felt the electricity of being watched, the beauty of being seen.
Caught.
Celestine moaned, reaching up, and undid her shirt blouse. She spread the cloth, baring her breasts so they would slide back and forth under the linen. The young worker’s hand reached down to the outside of his trousers, hesitating.
She spread her blouse to encourage him. When she saw the sight of another man pulling his cock out, hard because of her, she groaned in pleasure on Azure.
Celestine hopped up and down, leaning back, letting him see her take the long hard cock into her stretching quim. Celestine nodded to the young man and watched with delicious arousal as he produced his hard member, stroking it, watching her.
“Show him,” Azure commanded. “Show him how you take me.”
Celestine rode faster. Groaning, she could feel the young man’s eyes on her. She felt so discovered, so warranted. So unhidden. It turned her on to see him tug at his cock furiously, not matching her, racing to complete himself in case this dream ended and he woke.
“That’s it,” Celestine whispered.
The young man’s lip was locked between his teeth in sweet agony. His cock was swollen, darkening as he tugged on it.
“Bring it closer, show me,” she said.
The man approached the stall, his member pearling its pre-release.
“Ride with me,” Celestine groaned. She hoped he understood what she meant. She slowed down, gyrating on Azure. The groom matched her cadence.
“Good…” Celestine opened her mouth, running her tongue along her lips. “Such a good boy.”
She shuddered, and so did the groom, his strokes matching her. They stared at one another as she picked up speed. His lip was between his teeth, his eyes feverish, searching every part of her, wanting it burned in his memory.
Celestine rocked back and forth rapidly, galloping with Azure within her.
The groom abandoned matching her cadence, stroking himself frantically. It was so arousing to be the subject of his lust, his torment. A young man witness to the beauty of her fucking a demigod of Summer. But his true focus was her. It was her glistening body, her aching and stretching cunt.
“Give it to me,” Celestine murmured to him. The groom’s eyes squinted, his face locked in a torrid exertion.
“Yes,” she said.
He came at the bidding of her words. Her command. Her permission. Rope after rope of seed erupted from his turgid head. It spurted for her. Landing in thick, glistening strands. To see his manhood spasming, it felt so raw. So freeing. She climaxed instantly, groaning and opening her mouth as he ejaculated.
Celestine’s quim clamped down on Azure, milking him. Azure groaned and filled her, bathing her womb in hot lancing strands of his desire. Celestine shuddered, the arrival dancing across her body. The young worker stood, hypnotized and spent. After a moment, a flush filled his cheeks, and she pulled his trousers up as Celestine was filled by this Lord of his lands. He seemed embarrassed now that clarity had found him and rushed away.
Celestine collapsed beside Azure in the hay, withdrawing from his palpable size. They kissed.
“You squeezed so hard for me, my dirty little bride. That stable groom will never forget that.”
“Did you like that? Him watching and coming for me?”
Azure stroked her hip. “The sight of you makes me proud, to walk in such viewing. I would never share your touch, but to allow witness is… freeing. Exquisite.”
“You told me no one belongs to anyone here,” she teased him.
“Every lover belongs to each other until they don’t.”
Celestine stroked his brow, fingers touching his circlet. “Your people do not wed?”
Azure turned to her, leaning on one elbow. “It is easy to stay, Celestine. To stay upon the plain, where the earth heals your soul. But the heart beats when we wander, when we move. Look at the flavors and colors of the world now that you have ventured forth. Do they not amaze you?”
“You want me to leave?” Celestine asked, the terrible disappointment threatening to turn her to tears. “After all this, after healing me?”
“Never. I am selfish like any other. But I want to see you fearless, full of life. You love my land, and you will love my people, Celestine. But I am not the fire of Encarmine, nor the shackles of Solis. I did not heal you. You did. Life is a beautiful, twisting palette of tastes. I would see you free and happy, the wind at your shoulders.”
Celestine nodded. They rose, and Celestine began to dress, reaching for her trousers.
Azure looked at her, the seed still dripping from her.
“Don’t,” he said.
She stopped pulling her leggings up. A grin spread across her face. It had been delicious to be seen. Azure’s eyes blazed blue; they were lovers, and in that, they belonged to one another. But unlike Tristien, he didn’t want her hidden away.
“A group of squires is outside, likely gossiping about what that young man just saw. All are of age. All are traveling to make a name for themselves among the tourney.” Azure slid closer to her, fingers touching her slick folds, drawing her forth. He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “Why don’t you walk past them, letting them see the state of you? How free you are. How full. Our horses are just beyond.”
It wasn’t a command. Or an order. It was part of his lust and hers now, too. It was simply an offer.
Her heart pounded at the rawness of such an act. Ladies didn’t walk around in undress, drawing the eyes of others in her realm.
But this wasn’t her realm. She thought of the desire inside of her at being watched, at making a stranger come.
She reached for the stable gate, but Azure wrapped a powerful hand on her neck.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“Outside…to let them see.”
Azure’s flesh pressed against her from behind, his dark manhood hardening again.
“My sweet little bride… you have much to learn.” He began to play with her quim, hand encircling her.
She groaned the words, “About what, Azure?”
He bent low, whispering in her ear. It felt like the wind.
“That the wind’s howl is boundless…” And with that, he slid inside her again.
He was so hard. He was always so hard for her.
There was a hunger in him after seeing her seen. Their session before had been for her. Now she felt him. He lifted her into the air from behind, a saddle for him to use and plunder.
She was in the air, held by his powerful hands and arms. Their gallop was drenched, the strong thick slap of him as he took her. Each stroke plunged more seed from her. She was being churned. She was overflowing.
“You take it so well. It’s big, isn’t it?” Azure murmured into her ear.
“Yes,” Celestine uttered.
“I’d have them see you full… overflowing…”
“Yes.”
“Can you take it all?”
“I’ll try…” she promised.
“Such a brave little bride.” With that, Azure bent her forward, not letting her touch the ground. Her world shifted forward as he held her, bent over, hovering. “I’m going to fill your soul with this cock.”
Celestine wailed as Azure made her take all of him down to the hilt. She was grunting like an animal that belonged in these stalls.
“I am that part of you that wanted to be seen. To be free. To roam.”
“Yes,” Celestine groaned, the mixture of pain and pleasure. He always knew how to read her more than any other.
Azure withdrew, only an inch, and plunged into her again. And again. She was a marionette toy, suspended, in his hands. He pounded her, never withdrawing more than an inch and battering into her. The insane size of him, she felt beyond full. She was at her limit.
“Brave girl, show me how brave you are. I’m going to fill you. Submerge you.”
“Yes,” Celestine huffed. But her words slid away as he fucked her mercilessly. Her groans turned to guttural cries filling the stable.
“Now, take me,” Azure growled and filled her.
It was a torrent. A squall inside her. Azure’s cock flexed, filling her with his bounty. The volume was immense, and it did not stop. With his size, it spurted out of her quim. He held her up now, above the ground, his chest to her back.
“My Lord…” Celestine pleaded. Whether for more, for less, she didn’t know.
“Take it,” he praised her. “You can do it.”
Celestine’s body was rigid, every muscle locked. Azure came more and more. An ocean inside her, the sound of it trickling like a spigot onto the bales. He slowly raised her, withdrawing slowly, but where his size left her empty for a moment, his cockhead flexed inside of her, painting any emptiness with his fill. She rose to his mid-length as he filled her; the feeling was wondrous, and still he continued. When he was at the edge of her, still he pressed on, flooding her with so much of him that her cunt stretched from the volume alone.
When he finally was at the very tip, his praiseful breath met her ear.
“Hold it in,” he said, letting one arm free.
She reached down as he lowered her to the ground. Finally, he withdrew the end of himself, one last spurt filling her. When he freed his manhood, it was coated with their lust, swinging heavily between his legs. Celestine did as she was told, holding the enormous volume of him with her hand and clenching her muscles and thighs.
“I’m so proud of you,” Azure kissed her from behind, wrapping his arms around her. “Do you feel me, my seed, an ocean within you?”
“Yes…” Celestine was beyond flush. Every nerve ending in her body was like a wheat field in a summer fire.
It’s like the sky is an ocean, and it churns inside me.
“Now go forth and be seen, my sweet bride.”
Celestine’s pulse quickened as she walked into the sunlight, the strong warmth bringing heat to her flesh.
Azure was correct. Eight squires in light armor stood, speaking closely. Garo .
Celestine walked bottomless, her cheeks sliding with sweat and seed. Her legs were close together, trying to contain the immense volume within her.
Every squire turned, eyes going wide in sequence. All she wore was her unbuttoned blouse, open in the middle.
“Good morrow,” Celestine said with a lump in her throat, walking barefoot towards them.
Eight heads turned, men of twenty and older. The youth on their smooth cheeks now turning to the growth of first beards—bad ones at that.
Celestine removed her hand from her quim and shuddered. Any shame was burned away by pleasure. Filled to such a brim, she finally let go. With each step, she flexed. The come didn’t drip from her. It gushed onto the ground, dashing her feet and ankles. A wet and sloppy trail behind her, their looks and surprise added only to the intensity of her arousal.
The young men parted, and she walked slowly, each bare step making her pulse rise higher and higher. The wind blew, and the left side of her shirt flew from her chest, giving them a full view of her breast and midriff. Celestine groaned at the touch of the wind, knowing it was Azure. The pressure finally released, the filthy but extraordinary feeling of them seeing was tantalizing. The need to hide and be seen warring within her.
She walked past, the long blouse covering her bottom, giving them sight of her legs, her hair falling behind her.
“Lady Celestine,” One managed to murmur.
Celestine’s heart was thundering as if she were back in battle in the Red Bannered Realm. As she stepped on it, the earth brought her back to herself, towards Garo where Azure waited.
“My love,” he said with a smile and kissed her deeply. His hands slid down from her hips, and she ground herself closer to him, feeling all the eyes of the young squires on her. He could read her. He knew what she wanted, even if that was a secret inside her. Azure lifted the edge of her shirt, giving them a full view of her plump cheeks, the sun kissing them, her mound swollen in the small nook between her thighs.
“You enjoyed that,” he said when their kiss broke. He bent forward, nibbling at her ears. “They are still staring. They cannot believe their eyes, my little gift. The beauty of Celestine is something they will never forget, watching you emerge from a stable filled with me.”
Celestine shuddered.
“You will ride with me,” Azure stated. He pulled her to his horse, mounted, and then pulled her up, still half bare, into his lap.
“To Skye,” he said. “Garo will follow, do not worry.”
The sun shone on them as they rode, and what she had just done filled her with such emotions. Seeing the lust in their eyes, yet how safe she had felt among these people who loved to be seen.
Now they rode.
“Azure,” she sighed. The Final Bride wrapped around the Lord of the Blue Summer.
Azure’s eyes blazed blue now, his circlet swirling like the skies above.