I’d expected a poor level of hygiene (for the Dyriel are predominantly a primitive, nomadic people who subsist on the fruits of their savage raids), one that carried with it an odorous stench. To my surprise, the queen didn’t just smell passable; her aura was an almost palpable veil of femininity, a mix of grapefruits and mint and apples.
Even so, the archers flanking the throne had had to train their weapons on me in a silent threat before I came to my senses and dropped to my knees before her spreadeagled form. The impulses of the masculine are inherently powerful, and I couldn’t help but feel the stirrings of arousal as I let my eyes rove over her. All thoughts of the raid, of the strangeness of my predicament, of my puzzlement as to why the Dyriel would risk their revered, almost deified queen by putting her in such peril, evaporated.