[Rae, can you make a smaller fort far enough back in the trees that people in the camp won’t hear us? I would like to take Dana for an evening alone.] Karl requested.
[I can do that. I will get everything set up for you, and I know the perfect spot.] Rae replied instantly, suggesting that she had already been thinking about this topic.
Rae exited her space in the distance and darted off to a spot near a river that Hawk had scouted on his way back from hunting for good food.
It was over a kilometre from camp, far enough that sensitive ears shouldn’t hear what they were up to, and in nice strong trees, so they could be up in the air, like a proper fort should be.
[I will get everything set up for the evening. Trust in the spider, I know about these things.]
Well, Karl couldn’t say that he had more experience with women than Rae did, so he wasn’t going to argue with her logic.
Now, he just needed a smooth way to get Dana away from camp. Really, it shouldn’t be too hard. Hawk was in the tower of the fort, and if he stayed there all night, Karl would have his early warning system in place in case something went wrong.
Fifteen minutes later, Rae was confident that she had everything that she needed ready.
[There is a fort, the birthday gift for my Dana, a change of clothes for the evening, and everything you might need.] She informed Karl as she settled into her security office web a few dozen metres away.
The other crews at the dungeon had brought pressure cookers, so the clerics teamed up to make a proper stew with the deer creature that evening. Bob had made fresh bread for them, and the smells coming from the fort were incredible.
But the rest of the camp was cooking dinner as well, and the bureaucrats weren’t the sort that skimped out on their meals when they were in the field.
So his team likely could have made something fancy just by pilfering the three groups for some specialties. The government researchers had brought plenty of supplies for the Elites that they were holding on station, but Karl’s team had always preferred to cook for themselves.
“What is the plan for the evening? I am guessing that Karl is going to steal the birthday girl for the evening.” Bob asked as they finished dinner.
Karl winked. “Rae has already set it all up. But Hawk will stay here all night, so if something happens, we can be back in only a minute or two.”
“Then shoo. Have a good night, and we will prepare for the birthday celebration when you get back in the morning.”
Karl held out a hand to Dana, who blushed and accepted the help to her feet, before Karl swept her up into his arms and jogged off into the woods.
“Where are we going? We’re supposed to be protecting the civilians.” She asked as Karl ran through long grass in an open field on the way to the river.
“We will only be a kilometre from camp. Close enough to be back before most of the humans have even noticed anything is wrong. Trust me, it will be worth it.”
Karl spotted the fort right where Rae said it was supposed to be, with the Bloodbath Spider waiting in a nearby tree. She had made it a simple design, spacious, with a fully suspended floor, so that it would all be stretchy and soft, with no hard spots where branches passed underneath.
[There is a change of clothes inside. Have fun.]
“Rae says she made us an outfit for the night. I don’t know what she made, but there is a present in there for you to open in the morning as well.” Karl explained.
“You know, my family could never afford birthday gifts when I was growing up. This is a whole new experience for me, and a private fort overlooking the river in the moonlight is like something out of a fairy tale.” She whispered.
Dana got excited about the idea of a fairy tale birthday and hopped out of his arms to run up the ladder and check out the view and the gift that Rae had left for her.
Karl jumped up from ground level, and found Dana holding up a bit of thin black silk with a deep blush on her cheeks as she stared out into the fading twilight through the open window.
“I think it will look fantastic on you.” Karl whispered as he stepped through the entry.
“There are clothes for you as well.” Dana smirked with a gesture toward a pile of cloth beside the door.
Karl picked up a matching black set of silk pyjama pants with his name embroidered on them in white thread, though his were a bit thicker and less detailed than what Rae had made for Dana. He suspected that the spider had an innate bias, but she was giving them as much privacy as she could with her mind linked to Karl’s.
Dana licked her lips as she saw Karl strip down and change into the thin silk, then steeled her resolve and changed into the nightie that Rae had left for her.
The silk fell to her knees, but as thin as it was, it wasn’t actually hiding anything.
“Absolutely stunning.” Karl stammered as he took a step in her direction.
He barely registered her nails digging into his back as he pulled Dana into his arms and pushed her bouncing curls away from her face.
Dana closed her eyes in pleasure at the feeling of his fingers massaging her scalp and gasped at the feeling of soft lips on her neck as Karl kissed his way down to her collarbone. She instinctively leaned forward into his body as he pulled back, longing for more contact, but as his hands slid up her hips under the silk of her night gown, her back arched in pleasure.
There was something strange about tonight. Her skin was far too sensitive, every touch was like lightning through her body, and she couldn’t get enough.
She found herself straddling Karl’s lap as he fell back into a swinging chair, and when his lips found hers, all thoughts of anything outside the fort faded away.
———————-
Dana blinked her eyes in the early morning light, and flashes of last night came crashing down on her brain, along with a soreness in her body like she had never felt before.
She recalled the intense urge to taste him, and falling out of the chair when she tore his pants off. There was no silk between their bodies now, and Dana desperately hoped that her gift from Rae had survived the evening. It was definitely the sexiest piece of clothing that she had owned in her life, but it was so soft that she would happily wear it to bed every night.
More memories of the evening returned to her mind, and she buried her face in Karl’s chest in embarrassment.
“I think it’s a bit late to be body shy.” He whispered in her ear.
“Do we have to get up?” Karl kissed her forehead. “We can stay here a little longer. Remi set up a shower in the corner of the fort, and we’re going to need it before we leave, but we don’t need to hurry.”