Warp Token Update

2.5k words

***

“Take it slow on the beer, lass,” Roderick said, placing a tankard in front of her, pouring her drink until the foam reached the rim. “It’s not a competition.”

“Why can’t it be?” she asked, knocking the drink back until half of it was gone, only pausing so she could take a breath. “Bet three warpstone Roderick can’t match thirst.”

“Oh-ho, you want a drinking game?” he chuckled, pouring his own. “Sure, I’ll bite. Whoever concedes first sleeps on the floor. Winner gets the bed.”

“Deal!” she snickered. “Man-thing has no chance.”

Not wanting to lose face, he sculled his beer in the time it took Skyseeker to finish off her first, the Skaven blinking up at him in awe. She quickly masked her reaction by slurping at her tankard, droplets of beer dripping down her muzzle. When she put her drink back down, a moustache of foam was plastered on her face, Roderick laughing as she wiped it away.

“This all very strange,” Skyseeker began, spearing a slice of roast onto a claw. “In Skavenblight, whenever I eat things, always felt at my most exposed. Enemies always watching and plotting to steal from me.” She devoured the meat, tilting her muzzle up at him. “But with you, Roderick, I feel… not like that. Makes Skaven feel… what? Why you laughing?”

“Because you said my name properly for the first time,” he chuckled. “That ale’s going right through you.”

He wasn’t mocking her, but she seemed to take his words as a challenge, gripping her drink in both paws. They shared another round, pint for pint, Skyseeker smacking her gums together when she finished. His belly was cold with ale, the bitter after on his tongue complementing the sensation. No doubt Skyseeker was feeling the same thing.

“As I was saying, before I was RUDELY interrupted,” Skyseeker continued, taking the bottle and refilling their tankards. “is that, what’s stranger-er, is no rat before Roderick treated me this way-way. Skaven has old and very wise saying – kindness is stupid. This what I believed in for longest time until… until… Hey! Where food gone?”

There was only a slice of bread left on the platter, Roderick offering it to her when she stared at it like she was a starved wolf eyeing up a chicken. He may have Skyseeker beaten on the drinking front, but she could put away the pounds like they were nothing.

“Perhaps I should have bought a meal for three,” Roderick mumbled, lifting his tankard. “Oh well, this’ll have to suffice.”

“Perhaps, I can go on kitchen raid!” Skyseeker suggested, spilling some of her drink as she took a draw. She set it down hard, tracing the rim with a claw as she began to slur her words. “Grab all the food and ale, yes-yes. Share some with man-thing friend of course.”

“Appreciate the offer, but I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Roderick replied. “Seems like decent fold run this establishment, let’s not spoil the mood by robbing them.”

“Oh, Roderick, you worst friend,” she grumbled. “Never like my schemes.”

“Just looking out for you, lass.”

“That’s it! That’s what’s confusing me!” she exclaimed, gesturing to him with her tankard, spilling some of the ale onto the table. “Why do you look out for Skyseeker? Roderick like Skaven or something?”

“Well… certainly I like you,” he stuttered, feeling warmth in his cheeks. “I’ve not had many people I can be so… open with before. It’s nice.”

“I see,” Skyseeker mumbled, finishing off her drink. She slammed her tankard down, Roderick blinking as she poked him on the arm. “Another!”

Realising he’d been staring at her, he refilled their drinks, raising his tankard to her as they drank together. They downed one round, then another, Roderick laughing when Skyseeker started to doze off, almost slipping off her chair at one point. She snapped back into the present when he gave her a playful nudge, tapping his drink to hers and sculling it without waiting for her.

“Man-thing cheats!” she growled, grimacing when she swallowed a shot of ale. “M-Must have given Skaven more potent cup! Where’s the food gone?”

“You ate it, remember?” he asked, setting his empty tankard down. “Keep up, lass, you’re lagging.”

She slammed a fist onto the table, the plates and cutlery bouncing with the impact. “Arrgh! You take victory, Roderick. Stupid man-thing and his stupid man-thing ale. Bet you not so good if we had to share warpstone!”

“Hey, it was your idea to challenge me,” he said, chuckling for no particular reason. “I just… encouraged you to raise the stakes.”

“I’m going on raid!” she exclaimed, bracing herself against the table as she stood, the Skaven smashed beyond belief. When she set off towards the door, her tail waving around lazily behind her, her foot got caught on the leg of her chair, and she slipped, slamming face-first onto her plate, which happened to be covered in excessive amounts of gravy.

“My eyes!” she yelped, cradling her face in her paws, her pink nose covered in sauce. “Send help!”

“Ouch. You alright?” he asked, taking her by the shoulder, the Skaven swaying on the spot.

“Just dandy… ish,” she giggled, her tongue snaking out to lick her chops, the gravy sticking to her muzzle in clumps. “Ale making Skaven feel all… buzzy. Must be man-thing equivalent of warpstone. Skaven likey~”

Her tail whipped to the left, sending her empty tankard flying across the room, Roderick wincing as it made a loud crashing sound against the wall. Perhaps a drunk Skyseeker wasn’t such a good idea in hindsight. But as long as he kept her confined within the room, he should be able to contain whatever chaos she might ensue.

“Let’s get you cleaned up,” he said, leading her toward the bathtub, her light frame easy enough to support. He turned the hot water on, testing the temperature with his finger to make sure it wasn’t scalding.

“Wassthis?” Skyseeker asked, leaning in the rim of the tub, her red eyes watching the water level rise.

“Might as well give you an all over, you’re covered in what appears to be corn, and Sigmar knows what else.”

“You want Skaven to bathe!?” she asked. “Only thing I bathe in is success!” She dipped a paw into the tub, clicking her front teeth together. “Hmm… it is very warm-hot. Screw it.”

She began stripping off her disguise, the tarp piling around her ankles as she discarded the heavy clothing. Next she shrugged off her tattered cloak, the cloth flitting away to reveal her dark fur. Like a woman discarding a bath robe, she flung the cloak aside, Roderick clearing his throat as she stood there in just her sling and loincloth.

He turned around, giving her some privacy, hearing the Skvaen unclip her many belts and pockets. After dumping those, there was a loud splashing sound, Roderick feeling water on his back. She must have divebombed straight into the bath.

“Ooohh, now this is nice-nice,” Skyseeker sighed, Roderick taking a peek to make sure she hadn’t hurt herself. Her modestly was still covered by her sling, thankfully, the Skaven dunking her head into the water, her black fur becoming waterlogged. She threw her muzzle back after a moment, droplets of water flinging across the room, her fur so heavy it clung to her back and shoulders, accentuating her athletic build.

Careful to avert his eyes, Roderick walked over, the tap squeaking as he turned the flow off. “Looks like they only gave us the one bar of soap,” he said, appraising the cleaning oils provided to them. He grinned when Skyseeker submerged herself again, the Skaven blowing bubbles in the water. Her ears were the only thing not submerged, the little membranes twisting in his direction. “Try to save some for me, lass.”

“You got it, stinky!” she chimed, reemerging to flash him a toothy grin. She watched him as he moved away, stacking their plates and cutlery together and setting them on the platter, Skyseeker whistling that clumsy tune again as she started running her padded hands through her damp fur.

“Man-thing,” she began. “What’s soap, and how does Skaven use it?”

“It’s that white bar on the shelf there, and you just scrub it against yourself. Don’t you have soap in Skavenblight? Actually, don’t answer that. Dumb question.”

“Need demonstration,” she chimed, covering her moth as she began to snicker. “Can… can man-thing show me how?”

“You… want me to wash you?” he asked, feeling heat in his face again. Damn it, why was he getting so easily flustered? Perhaps he’d had too much to drink himself…

“Is that not what man-things do?” she asked. “Skaven bathe together all the time.”

“Considering how feral you all are, I find that hard to believe. Besides, didn’t you just say you don’t bathe?”

“Just help me, man-thing! Like you always do!”

He guessed she was still clothed, so he didn’t have to worry about things getting weird. “Very well,” he said. “Just let me get these vambraces off. Don’t want them getting rusty.”

She chittered in amusement, Roderick shooting her a suspicious look across the room. She only laughed like that when she had a little scheme going, or perhaps it was simply a result of all the ale she’d drunk.

Setting his bracers down, he made his way over, crouching behind the Skaven as she turned her back to him, passing the bar of soap over her shoulder.

He took it, his hand brushing her soft paw as he did, Roderick dunking the bar into the water. He started off on her shoulder, sliding his fingers down her toned bicep, feeling her firm muscles twitch as he touched her. She was clamming up, bundling herself in her arms as though the water had suddenly run cold, Roderick remembering that in her very first moments of living, she had almost been eaten by her sibling. Since then, she had never let anyone lay a hand or paw on her, and the fact she was enduring his close proximity was a good step in the right direction.

Skyseeker’s fur was in a state just like his armour – mangled and covered in filth, globs of dark fluid seeping away as he spread the lather.  She hadn’t been lying when she said she only bathed in success, which probably meant piles of trash in her culture.

He moved over to her other arm, kneading the soap into her developed shoulders on his way over. She was built like a swimmer, her porcelain flesh just soft enough to be malleable, while still retaining all the muscle groups that gave her the dexterity one of her profession demanded.

He washed away more grime from her dark coat, the bathwater turning brown around her.  He raised her paw by the wrist, making sure he scrubbed at the underside of the limb, Roderick frowning as he encountered resistance. Near her elbow joint, her short fur had tangled into a knot, Roderick able to see the individual strands pulling away from her flesh. It looked painful, but she had never uttered a complaint about it before.

“Your fur’s all twisted,” he grumbled, Skyseeker watching as he rummaged through the shelf of bottles. “Let’s see here… ah ha!”

He held up a short hair comb, an unspoken question in the Skaven’s eyes as she watched him bring the plastic teeth closer. He elected to let the comb do the explaining, swiping it across her coat. When he brushed across the tangled fur, Skyseeker grumbled, Roderick stroking against the clump from different angles until the hairs started to untangle themselves.

“This is weird!” she complained, but whether she was talking about being groomed, or by the way he was combing her, he couldn’t tell. Maybe it was a combination of both.

“Just hold still,” he grumbled, holding her shoulder so she stopped twisting away. “It might hurt a little, but it’ll feel much better after, trust me.”

“Fine…”

Her tail flicked across the walls of the tub as he worked out the knot, finally able to comb across once it had come loose. He found another clump on her shoulder, and he worked that one out next, Skyseeker letting him manipulate her body so he could get the right angle. This one was much worse than the last, Roderick able to see a patch of her underlaying pink skin near the root of the knot. Some of her fur must have torn loose after so much tension had built up there. Was she not in serious pain? Perhaps she was, but had come to the point she was no longer bothered by it.

“I don’t think I can save this one,” he said, reaching for his hunting knife. “Hold still.”

She flashed him a sceptical look as he brought his knife down, slicing the knot away at the base, the Skaven gasping in surprise. The result was immediate, her skin slowly falling away to rest in its natural position, the tension melting with it, if her blissful expression was any indication.

“Change mind,” Skyseeker sighed, trembling as he combed against the grain of her coat in search of more knots. “Weird is good-good…”

“It’s a miracle you’ve gone on for this long,” he commented, the Skaven bending forward so he could work at her upper back, using his free hand to untangle the next clump. “If I ever got a knot in my hair I’d have to stop immediately.”

“That’s because dumb man-thing’s weaker than Skaven,” she answered. “Skaven toleration much higher! Eeek! Not so hard!”

“Sorry,” he said, stifling a chuckle at her immediate contradiction. She sucked in a breath as he worked out the tension in her back, running his hand through her wet fur as he trailed lower. The flare of her hips was all the more pronounced at this angle, the dimples of her cheeks hidden just beneath the waterline. Even with the distortion of the water, he could see how pert they were, like two softballs full of springy muscle.

“See anything?” Skyseeker asked, snapping him out of his peeping.

“W-What? Oh, you mean the knots? Just a few more here…”

“Thank you, Roderick,” she mumbled as he cut another clump loose, stowing his knife away once he was done. “Feel much better now.”

“Glad to hear it. Now it’s on to phase two.”

He retrieved a bottle of shampoo from the shelf, upending it onto his palm, rubbing his hands together until they were crowded with suds.

“What’s phase two?” Skyseeker asked, eyeing his hands over her shoulder.

“Shampoo. This’ll wash out all that crap you’ve been lugging around. It’s meant for hair, but fur’s the same thing. I think.”

He delved his fingers into her coat, starting at her neck. Her fur was so fine, the strands indiscernible from another at a touch, almost making it feel like soft velvet. Her tension seemed to have melted away along with her tangled fur, Skyseeker slowly relaxing with each stroke of his fingers, her head lolling forward as he worked the suds in deep.