Erik and Tramma Set Out for Gil’s

[Jim Roberts]

[Feb 2 AM – The Holymolders]

> Focusing his mind in devout prayer, he was easily able to armor his
> mind against any distractions of what his neighbour might be up to.
> Just when the sounds of carnal celebration subsided, Erik could not
> readily say. By the time he emerged from his deep meditative prayer,
> all was quiet in the camp, and he could then proceed to an undisturbed
> sleep.

He was up quite early the next day. Happily, earlier than his
neighbours. On the more than likely chance that his neighbours would
wish to repeat the highlights of their previous night’s dance together,
Erik decided that he’d best make himself scarce. Quickly, the knight
dressed in a minimum of clothing. Armor would come later, and even the
padded gambeson worn underneath would have to wait. It’s warmth would be
welcome on this winter’s morning, but until he had completed a morning
wash and other necessities, simple trews and a shirt, reinforced by a
heavy cloak would suffice.

After completing his morning ablutions, he decided to pay a call on
Miracle. He knew full well that his Divine Steed had been well looked
after, but a knight and his steed are never far apart, and he wanted to
check in on his four legged partner. As he had anticipated, Miracle was
indeed doing quite well. The steed was rather amused as he reported that
the Holymolders had quite wisely not even considered hobbling this horse
or attempting to constrain him in any other way. Instead, they had
simply shown the Divine Steed the best available meadow, and begged
Miracle to let them know if there was ANYTHING he wanted at ANY time.

Miracle’s amusement grew when Erik in turn related how HIS night had
been spent. The Divine Steed did not seem at all perturbed to hear his
Rider’s unwilling overhearing of Tramma’s night time activities, and
instead simply nodded sagely, clearly expecting nothing less. And at
Erik’s gentle question, Miracle affirmed his earlier offer to bear both
Tramma and his Rider at the same time. This was not something that most
horses were entirely comfortable bearing for more than the shortest
distance, but Miracle was far above “most” horses. That, and they were
only travelling as far as Huntress Gil’s druidic Grove, a distance that
was insignificant when compared to the leagues upon leagues that Knight
and Steed had travelled together.

From the activity back at the Holymolder’s camp, Erik judged that it
was probably now safe to return. Unless Tramma wished to serenade a now
very awake village, she was PROBABLY done with her morning fun. His
guess turned out to be on the mark, as outside of her guest wigwam, a
radiantly smiling Tramma was giving a Holymolder gentleman that Erik
recognized from the previous night an affectionate kiss. The bard was
still wearing her beadwork proclaiming herself as an acknowledged bard,
though the garments underneath were completely different from what she’d
been wearing the day before. Had she been asked, she would have claimed
to have simply thrown on whatever was to hand, but any of her galpals –
or longer term lovers – might have had a dissenting opinion. But just
now, nobody was questioning the bard’s sartorial choices.

The two acolytes, Morden and Sabia, were standing nearby. One was
holding what any camper would recognize as a field coffeepot, while
another carried a stoneware teapot. Both were looking at Tramma in
amused surprise.

“You seem more awake than expected, friend Tramma,” Morden chuckled.

“Particularly as we have not yet been able to ply you with either coffee
or our finest yaupon tea,” Sabia added with a smile.

Their giggles were infectious, as Tramma laughingly replied, “Oh,
there’s more than one thing that can get me awake in the morning!”
Another fervent kiss exchanged with her gentleman caller reinforced that
notion. After breaking from the kiss, the bard looked longingly at the
offerings in the acolytes’ hands. “But some of that lovely brew ALSO
smells very enticing…”

“Coffee, or yaupon tea?” Morden asked.

Sabia, however, anticipated an answer, and started to fill a pair of
stoneware mugs with each.

“Both!” Tramma happily agreed, accepting a mug in each hand. “I’m young
and healthy, my heart can take it!”

Now that it was safe to return back into his tent with a gratefully
accepted mug of coffee of his own, Erik could turn to the next of the
day’s necessities. Beginning with another session of prayer. Not to mask
out any distracted amorous noises like the night before, but to prepare
himself with the various Divine Prayers that he had selected for the
day. And next door, he could hear Tramma absently doodling on a small
flute as she meditated as she prepared her mind to be able to reach her
Bardic Arcane spells for the day. But unlike the previous night, these
sounds were not at all distracting. If anything, they were rather
soothing, and not at all in conflict with the Holy Knight’s own prayers.

The morning’s “spell preparations” complete, Erik was then able to turn
his attention to getting formally dressed for the day. Fortunately, the
magical Window of Dressing made that task easier, particularly as he
started to don each component of his stout armor. Getting each and every
buckle exactly adjusted would be close to impossible to do on his own…
were it not for the Dressing Window’s magic that made a valet or
assistant unneeded.

And after a low key but entirely friendly breakfast with Grandma Rayga
and the other dignitaries of the Holymolders, Erik and Tramma were soon
on their way. Miracle stoutly stood by his earlier promise, and
reiterated that it would be his pleasure to bear Tramma and Erik both
over the few leagues that separated them from Gil’s Grove.

If Erik had been concerned that Tramma might take advantage of the close
proximity this would require, those concerns were put to rest. Of
necessity, his arms were on either side of the bard as she sat in front
of him, his hands extended past her to hold the reins. But that was more
from habit than anything else. A Rider and Steed as experienced at
working together as Erik and Miracle really did not need reins to
communicate. In addition to Miracle obviously being able to understand
speech, and the mental bond any Holy Knight shared with his Divine
Steed, Erik was a sufficiently skilled horseman – and Miracle a well
skilled horse – than even shifting his weight was enough to communicate
with his mount, should spoken word or empathic thought be too slow for
the job.

But really, no communication at all was needed. Miracle knew where they
needed to go, and could tell when the two riders atop him were properly
settled, Erik pausing only long enough to draw his heavy cloak forward
so that it could provide protection from the winter chill for both
himself and their guest.

And after a fervent farewell that was more of a boisterous “Hope to see
you again SOON!”, the horse and his riders set off. And when they were a
fair ways from the camp, Miracle struck up a conversation with Tramma.
Rather to Erik’s surprise, the topic of the conversation was Tramma’s
activities for the night just gone by. And Tramma’s answers were not in
the least bit sparing of any details.

Listening silently to Tramma’s tale, encouraged by Miracle’s followup
questions, Erik was initially quite puzzled. Why ever would a Divine
Steed be interested in hearing about THAT? But interested Miracle was,
as each question encouraged even more detailed responses. Was this a
conspiracy between Bard and Steed to get a rise out of the Holy Knight?
Surely not.

Erik was aware that Tramma had spent time chatting with both Miracle and
Maximus, and Miracle had even told his Rider about that one evening when
the Steed had loaned Max his magical halter that allowed speech to
facilitate Tramma and Tregarth’s Divine Clydesdale having a good chinwag
together. Could this be a followon from these chats?

But as the question and answer session continued onwards, Erik couldn’t
help but notice that most of the questions posed, and the remarkably
detailed answers given, had less and less to do with actual anatomical
plumbing, and considerably more to do with Tramma’s motivation. And
under Miracle’s probing questions, it was becoming increasingly obvious
to Erik that Tramma was more than just a “good time” girl after her
latest sexual thrill. While that most certainly WAS something that
Tramma enjoyed, Erik was beginning to realize that what Tramma
particularly seemed to savour was the emotional connections she was
forging with her ever growing circle of friends and lovers, the two
categories having a significant overlap. Tramma was, Erik understood,
fundamentally a “people” person… and sex was clearly her preferred way
to “get to know” someone rather quickly. All while most obviously
enjoying the physical aspects of the deed as well as the emotional
connections the act would forge.

Yes, Tramma really DID enjoy sexual relations. But was it really
“casual”? It was becoming increasingly evident to the knight that Tramma
deeply CARED about people, and this was one of her favourite methods of
both enjoying and communicating that care.

This method of using carnality to forge personal connections was
entirely different from Erik’s upbringing. But did that make it… wrong?
Nothing in the Norse Teachings he so devoutly followed had anything bad
to say about that. Not so long as sufficient precautions were taken to
avoid accidental procreation. Which clearly was the case here. Erik well
understood that any spellcaster had access to Divine or Arcane spells
that would prevent THOSE sorts of unwanted results.

And under Miracle’s continued probing, it was becoming increasingly
clear to Erik that Tramma was emotionally invested not just in extending
her circle of friends, but most especially in making certain that each
and every friend was enhanced by the experience. In no way did it appear
that Tramma EVER wanted to play “homebreaker”, wrecking more traditional
and nominally exclusive bonds of matrimony. Nor, was it apparent, that
Tramma would ever set her hat for someone unless both were going to
benefit from the encounter. Cruelly “loving and leaving” a trail of
brokenhearted lovers behind was not at all in the bard’s character.

And this quite openminded approach towards physical love was not out of
line with the generally relaxed attitude shared by most of the Forest
People, Erik well understood. Even if those attitudes put Tramma rather
at odds with the more conservative beliefs of the more staid members of
the Fort Lucas community. And especially of their Belmakian leader.

Erik understood the customs of the local tribes well enough to
understand how big a deal it was to have a smart, gorgeous, and
intelligent woman like her out there representing the interests of the
settlements to the Forest People in a way they could relate to. Even if
a lot of people among the Stone House Folk might look down their noses
at somebody as cheerfully promiscuous as she was, but her attitudes
actually fit in quite well with the Forest People's mores.

"Not everyone looks past the surface into the deeper person," the Holy
Knight gently interjected into a pause in the ongoing question and
answer session. Erik paused for a bit and added, "In some ways, I'm both
the victim of, and have done myself."

Looking down at his passenger, Erik could see Tramma nod as she replied,
“Of course, I’m just as guilty of it myself.”

The bard paused for a moment, and there was an unexpected tone of
hesitation in her voice as she added, “Mind if I lean back? It’s kinda
hard to talk to someone facing away, and this way, at least I can look
up at you.”

Before he could answer, Erik received a silent empathic suggestion from
Miracle. The mental link between a Holy Knight and his Rider was nothing
short of a minor divine blessing, but it was rather more complicated
than speech. It was not full telepathy, but rather an empathic link. For
an experienced pair like Erik and Miracle, it was almost as good, and in
some ways better than being able to exchange “mere” words. But that did
mean that there was often some interpretation needed, as horses, even
Divine ones, and humans were simply different, particularly when it came
to emotions.

So this particular mental suggestion from Miracle clearly had several
layers of communication, and required a bit of unpacking. Fortunately,
Erik’s mind, trained to respond to messages from his Steed in less than
a heartbeat on the frequent times that their lives depended on each
other’s effective communication in battle, could readily grasp the
emotive thought’s multiple levels.

The surface concept was easy; Miracle approved of Tramma’s suggestion,
and strongly recommended that his Rider agree. And not just because it
would make it easier for the Divine Steed to handle the extra weight on
his back. Beneath the surface approval were Miracle’s deeper motivation
– the Steed thought that this would help knight and bard grow
incrementally closer.

That thought would have been enough to have raised one of Erik’s
eyebrows, had it not been for the deeper emotive layers wrapped up in
this message. Miracle was not trying to “hook up” the two; the Steed
well understood that his Rider was not angling for a sexual encounter
with their guest. Not that Miracle himself would have disapproved if his
Rider had demonstrated any plans in those directions. But a deeper
subtext suggested that the Divine Steed recognized that at some level
Erik couldn’t HELP but be interested, Tramma being a demonstrably
attractive lady and Erik, despite being a Holy Knight, was also a
healthy human male with entirely healthy appetites.

But Miracle also understood and respected his Rider’s wishes. So why the
prod to allow Tramma to lean into him? Unpacking that took only a tiny
amount of additional consideration. Miracle could empathically sense
that Tramma connected to people physically as well as emotionally, the
one facilitating the other. And while a purely friendly and platonic
snuggle was not Tramma’s preferred physical approach, Miracle was
confident that it would help the bard open up to the knight. And vice
versa. And that was something that had Miracle’s firm approval.

Trusting to his Divine Steed’s innate “horse sense”, Erik gently
replied, “Of course you may.”