Little One 2

New chapter! you may have noticed these are coming thick and fast, even if the characters aren't. there is a reason for that. I am still establishing plot, and most of it is alreay written, so speedy updates are abounding. I am trying to keep three chapters ahead of my posting, just in case i hit a dry spell of get busy.

Enjoy!


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Hours later, three to be precise, Rene again knocked gently on Kaia’s door. She opened it cautiously, just as she had the time before, but she visibly relaxed when she saw him. Muttering to come in she backed up into her room and stood waiting for some sort of instruction from him. He entered but didn’t bother to close the door, they would be leaving soon anyway.

“You alright?” he asked.

“Yeah, I think,” she replied. She was looking up more, he noticed, and she seemed to have calmed her nerves a bit since the last time he had been there.

“Alright, then, let’s go.”

“Where?” She squeaked, her cool façade breaking with the thought that she would be going so soon.

“The baths, first of all. You are still a bit grimy from the trip aren’t you? Wouldn’t a bath be nice?”
She relaxed at his soothing response. She nodded her agreement and followed him down the hallway into a room she had not seen before.

“This is the bath,” he began, indicating the large heated pool in the center of the room. A waterfall splashed joyously opposite them into the pool. It was empty now, which she was grateful for, since she couldn’t imagine undressing in front of others and bathing publicly. That thought sparked a second and she turned to him with a slight protest on her lips. “I’ll be back in twenty minutes,” he cut her off, resolving her hesistancy before she even voiced it. “The bottles there are marked, shampoo, bath oils, soap, the like. Do whatever you wish, just, uh, please be clean.” He smiled at her again before leaving and shutting the door behind him.

She took a second to look around the room. It had a low ceiling, compared to the other rooms she had seen so far in the palace, and the walls were almost entirely covered in cloth, draped curtains and tapestries. Both were meant to hold in heat, just like they had hung up blankets on the walls back home in the winter. It insulated the room and kept the warmth from escaping too quickly. The pool took up most of the space in the room and was in fact lined with various bottles, each with little labels according to its contents.

Towels were piled on shelves in a corner, along with a hamper meant for the dirty ones. She walked around and grazed one of the thick towels with her fingertips, feeling how soft and fluffy it was. She glanced around one last time before raising her shirt up and sliding her pants down. Even though she was sure she was alone, she felt self conscious stripping in such a large room. It was as if the space was staring at her.

Feeling more and more uncomfortable she moved to the edge of the pool and slipped under the warm water. It was deeper than she expected, and she found she that if she waded out a bit she could stand and the water still lapped over the tops of her breasts. She kicked off the bottom and dove, swimming around until she came close to the waterfall. She dunked her head under it. It was warmer than the pool. It must be the source then, where the water was pumped up from wherever it was heated. She stood under it, letting its constant downpour ease away the stiffness in her shoulders.

After she grew a good deal more relaxed she swam over and began to lather her hair and body with the oils and soaps she found in the bottles. Dipping back under the water she rinsed it away and swam back to the side she had gotten in. she didn’t know how much time had passed, but she didn’t want to be naked when Rene came back to fetch her.

The towel felt even better wrapped around her body than it had when she had first touched it. She was warm and happy, really for the first time since arriving. Silly how such a small thing as a bath could make one feel so much better.

She looked down at her travel weary clothes and wondered if she ought to put them back on. It seemed to defeat the purpose, and they were still filthy. She opted for completely wrapping herself in another towel and sitting with her feet still in the tub until Rene arrived a few short minutes later.

She looked up and smiled sheepishly at her lack of clothing, which didn’t faze him, but made her feel slightly embarrassed.

“I didn’t want to put my dirty clothes back on so…” she trailed off, knowing he understood.

“That’s ok, glad you thought of it. Sorry I didn’t think to get you a robe. Come on, you can sneak through the hallway, no one’s around and it’s a short distance.” He held out a hand and beckoned her forward.

Securing the towels around herself she stood and followed, though she didn’t take his hand. Kaia firmly kept her hands attached to the towels covering her. He laughed when he noticed and withdrew his hand, turning instead to lead the way.

The next room they entered was small and somewhat cramped due to the mass amounts of clothing racks it held.

Every color, cut, and fabric stood represented by the fanciful display of clothes around her. Rene was digging through one rack, muttering mostly to himself but she caught a bit aimed at her.

“…saw something here earlier should fit you, and I think your skin would go well with AH Ha!” he exclaimed.

Pulling a thin, low cut shirt from the rack. It was the prettiest pale peach color she had ever seen and she couldn’t tell what fabric it was, something like cotton but more finely woven. His hand found her towel covered back and he guided her behind a curtain into a small dressing room. From there his hand came up and felt her hair.

“Dry enough I suppose, doesn’t seem like it will drip.”

She noticed his speech pattern changed when he was working, or thinking about something else. But then he pushed the shirt into her hands and closed the curtain. She could hear him rustling through the racks again, ostensibly for pants or a skirt. This was confirmed when his hand appeared through the corner of the curtain with a pair of pants draped over it. They were light brown, almost tan but dark enough to contrast the peach shirt. She slipped into the proffered clothes silently, knowing he was just outside the curtain, waiting for her.

Rene turned when she peeked around the curtain and came out. She looked good, he had to admit. The color really did suit her well, and the cut of the shirt revealed her bosom without being vulgar.

It really wasn’t what he normally sent girls out in, but he got the feeling she would protest to some of the more risqué things in the room. Hopefully if she felt more comfortable about her appearance she wouldn’t be so nervous.

She blushed again at his appraising stare, an idiosyncrasy he noticed in her that he found adorable.

“Come on, one more stop,” he said, nudging her back to the door.

They wound up in what appeared to be an empty bedroom, though unlike hers, this one had a large mirror and a stocked vanity. He pressed her shoulders down until she sat in on the overstuffed cushioned bench. He wrapped one of the towels he had brought with them from the dressing room around her shoulders and laid her hair on top of it, just in case it was wetter than he thought. Next he took up a brush and began working through the knots that had tangled through her hair over the past few days.

She held still, only barely wincing when he pulled her hair a few times. He had said that this was their last stop, and he mind wandered down that path to the Empress’ door on its own accord. Her eyes sunk down to the top of the vanity, hands folded in her lap, twisting against one another.

“Rene?”

“Yes?”

“What’s she like, really?”

“Well,” he began carefully, “what do you want to know specifically? She is like a lot of things.”

“I dunno. I mean, everyone’s heard rumors…”

“I haven’t. I don’t hear what most people say about her,” he replied somewhat cryptically.

“Well, everyone says she’s amazing on the battlefield, that she’s probably a better fighter than most of her generals, and the only reason she isn’t out there now is because she’s to valuable to the empire to risk in the field,” she rambled, starting with something she thought was more general and a bit away from what she wanted to know.

“She might argue that; Kateri doesn’t like to brag about how well she can kill a person. More diplomatically minded, when it comes down to it.”

“And, um, they say other things. That she has dozen of young girls constantly at her disposal.”

“Not quite, as you may have noticed. Your one of the younger ones, though so is Jess. And Kateri’s only 26 herself, so it’s not much of a difference anyways. And there are a good number of boys in her bed too. Yours truly included. And she doesn’t exactly walk around followed by hoard of adoring slaves, I imagine that would get annoying pretty quickly.”

Kaia giggled at the image of dozens of starry eyed slaves in skimpy clothing following a noble and dignified queen around. Most of the rumors started sounding silly in her head now.

“Kateri is a gentle lover, who cares for each person she takes to her bed. She isn’t quite as promiscuous as she is made out to be; usually she has just three or four favorites she keeps close to her.”

“So what am I?”

“You are someone that interests her, though you could become one of those she keeps close to her.”

“Oh.” Her voice fell quiet after that, and Rene sensed her slip back into her own mind as he finished brushing her hair and twisting it up onto her head in an elegant bun.

He let the silence reign in the small room before lifting her chin up so that she saw herself in the mirror and said, “Well, that’s that, unless you want makeup. Not that you need it.”

“Thanks,” she murmured, both for the compliment and the whole past hour.

“Ready?”

“Yeah.”


Can I please get a review? Pwease?
KaS