Thulka checked Enormerous' saddle straps again; they were fastened securely, and all the gear and supplies for the journey were safely stowed. Her trusty mace, Head-Smasherizer, was freshly polished, with all the old dried-up bits of owlbear picked out of it, and her armor and leather boots were freshly oiled to a pleasant softness.
There was only one thing left to collect, then, and speaking of "a pleasant softness"...
"Aren't you really yet, barmaid?" Thulka grinned, rapping on the bedroom door with one meaty first. "The sun's not getting any lower in the sky, you know."
"Just wait, it'll get there."
"Ha, ha. What's the holdup?"
There was a pause from behind the door. "I--I'm just getting dressed now."
Thulka casually knocked the door open to find Jalinda huffing and puffing on the bed, struggling her way into her riding pants.
"My, my, honey, I told you all those second helpings would come back to haunt you."
"I've almost got it!" the barmaid gasped. "Uhn! There!" She stood up proudly.
"Well, now I see why they call it riding gear," Thulka said, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow.
"Why?"
Thulka slipped behind Jalinda and wrapped her thick arms around the still much-smaller maid, jiggling her pot playfully. "Because it's got quite a lot riding on top of it, here."
"Oh, shut up!" Jalinda said, slapping her playfully. Of course, her playful slaps were enough to knock a normal human senseless, but to Thulka they felt featherlight. "Maybe you'd like to help me work some of this off, hmm?"
"Don't start that. We'll never leave." Thulka smiled. "Or if we did, with the way you make breakfast afterward they'd have to roll us both all the way to Ogma. Come; a day on the road ought to tone those plump little sausage legs of yours a little."
------
Ogma was several days' travel away, but fortunately the roads were well traveled, and got busier and busier as they approached the great city. There were plenty of inns ("not as nice as ours, of course", Jalinda said of every one) and after a hard day on the road, the soft beds and hot baths were welcome.
"You really are out of shape for this," Thulka teased her wife at the first stop. Jalinda gingerly lowered herself onto the bed.
"I'm so-ho-ho sore," the poor barmaid groaned. "My ass feels like it's been slapped with a board for ten hours straight!"
"Now that's an idea."
"Don't even think about it! In fact, don't think of anything dirty. I don't even want to move until morning."
"Then you lie back, and let me do all the work..."
Jalinda soon toughened up to riding, and after the first few nights they enjoyed testing out exactly how strong the beds were along the road to Ogma. Despite the constant exercise, Jalinda also insisted on putting the kitchen staff through their paces, and thus hadn't managed to take off even a pound by the time they came in sight of the massive walled city.
Passing through the west gate, the two women found themselves entering a bustling world of crowds and commerce. To Thulka, used to the open land and the empty sky, it was nerve-wracking, and she constantly fought the impulse to pull out Head-Smarsherizer and thin out the crowds a little. Jalinda, however, was in merchant's heaven, her eyes sparkling with every sight of an exotic shop or strange stall.
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