NOVEL NEXT 81. A Gaggle of Maids
By the time she had made it back to the area the camp was located, she found herself being charged by a pack of 15 gnolls of varying levels. With what she had available to her, she hit them hard, managing to wipe out a third of the group before backing away to try and maintain some distance. By the time she was in close enough range to use her sword, a second group was already on its way over.
She had managed to catch the second lot off guard by teleporting into the middle of their group and releasing whatever spells she could, however, they quickly recovered and tore her to bits again.
And her last attack struck as the sun began to rise… well, that had actually gone far better than she had expected. She had encountered a group of gnolls who she assumed had been out hunting for wherever she kept coming from and ended up directly in her path, away from the camp and their support.
The fight had been relatively short as she cleared out the lower-level gnolls at range with her magic before engaging with the 4 higher levels that would present her with a challenge.
With a little bit of teleporting around, and use of the nearby terrain and clusters of rocks, she had wiped the group up in time to see another small mass approaching her from a different direction.
Much in the same way she had dealt with the next group, however, there had been a level 57 gnoll who had managed to badly slice open her leg, severely hindering her movement. And that was when she had seen the top of the sun rising to reveal the rest of the gnoll horde already halfway from their camp to her, charging in a wild frenzy.
It was apparent they had selected a leader who proudly ran at the front, a gnoll whose fur was particularly white and wore a notable bone headdress and necklace. Since she was badly injured and her movement were severely resected, she could only wait till the gnolls were within range to bombard them with as much magic as she could.
Her magic had caused some damage, but she was out of options, so in another last second attempt to deal damage, she tried to teleport directly into the new chieftain's path with her sword thrust towards his heart.
Sadly, she had misjudged the distance and its speed, ending up appearing behind the chieftain and killing a different high level gnoll behind it. And that attempt ended with her pinned underneath the gnoll she had killed thanks to its momentum, and another gnoll ripping her throat out.
Yeah, she had been through a rather trying night, that was for certain.
Harold returned a few minutes later with painkillers and a glass of water to wash them down. After her butler had left, she forcefully dragged herself into the bathroom, stripping out of her mildly sweaty clothes and stepping into her steaming hot bath.
The whole bathing process had thankfully been a little easier this time. Due to the headache, she was able to focus on the task at hand without having to deal with other issues like getting aroused or distracted by staring at herself.
That being said, she had forgotten to condition her hair, so had to stop herself from exiting the bath at the last minute to complete the important haircare task.
After she started to dry herself off she could feel the relaxing bath’s impact as her headache receded a little, improving her mood significantly and making her feel more energised.
With her hair slightly dryer from using her towel, she wrapped it around herself as she made her way out of the bathroom and into her walk-in closet.
The sight of all the potential things she could dress herself up in filled her with a mild sense of anticipation. She mentally restrained herself, thinking about her choice of clothing with more thought as she sifted through the racks.
With the days worth of meetings and corporate dealings on her schedule, formal wear was a non-negotiable choice, but she was stuck between a dress or a blouse and skirt. Taking a few moments to look through her choices she chose the combination of a blouse and skirt since it would be closer to her previous normal attire. Additionally, having one thing less on her mind as she navigated the complexities of the day would only benefit her, even if she wanted to see herself in the beautiful form-fitting black dress staring her down.
With an almost inaudible sigh of exasperation she picked up her choice and made her way to the wide underwear draws. With a quick glance at her white blouse, she selected a white set of bra and panties, after all, she did not want to advertise her bra’s colour through her white top.
She also pulled out a pair of 50 denier tights so as to cover more of herself. Even just thinking that sentence filled her with a sense of weird acceptance that she was already becoming accustomed to using terms associated with women's clothing so casually.
But while she was slowly starting to become accustomed to her new body, the idea of showing off her bare skin still felt foreign, almost wrong, especially when she had always been dressing conservatively.
It was too much for her to handle at this moment, so she committed to the idea of tights. Even if they might feel a little odd, they were, in her mind, almost like trousers, so would be more familiar to wear over having her legs bare, especially since she felt that they would highlight her long legs.
With another casual sigh, she took her selection to the bedroom, laying it all out on the bed. She first put on her underwear, leaving her tights off for now and wearing her new silk dressing gown. Her maids had made their wishes known through Harold, and she was not going to turn them down when she would need to be looking her best.
She reached over from her bed and pulled on the cord to summon Harold, but when the door opened she instead saw Regina, Hilda and Ingrid bustle in, their arms all filled with various cases and bags stuffed with an ungodly amount of what Aurora could safely guess was makeup, haircare and whatever other products women managed to spend hours messing around with to ready themselves to go out.
They all moved over to the new dressing table that had apparently been placed in her room overnight. The revelation that she had not noticed the new furniture till now slightly startled her since it was no small object to overlook, covering nearly a quarter of the wall near her door.
Hilda, after clearing her arms of beauty products came over and grabbed her by the hand and lead her from the bed to the stool In front of the long dressing table.
Aurora looked up and into her slightly dishevelled appearance, admiring the natural beauty before her. Her attention however was drawn to the reflection of Hilda in the mirror as she started to speak, starting to explain what they had planned.
“Alright Madam, since this is going to be your first time we will go relatively easy on the makeup - not that you will actually need much, it will be to add some colour to your skin while accentuating the definition of your face, eyes and lips. Is that alright?”
Aurora raised an eyebrow in surprise since from the impression Harold had given, she was in for something far more intense. Aurora let out a breath as she replied, her response bringing large excited smiles to her maids.
“Alright, that was nowhere near as bad I was expecting. Although I will need a nice cup of tea to help me get my head straight, if you don’t mind?”
Hilda beamed as she responded, giving a light clap of her hands in anticipation.
“You need not worry, Harold explained your desire to not look like a ‘drag queen’, and I quite agree. Regina, would you please go and brew some tea please? Ingrid, could you start by drying our lady's hair?”
With a moment of contemplation, Hilda rested her thumb and index fingers on her chin while sucking on her right cheek, clearly deep in thought.
“I think leaving most of your hair to fall down in its natural gently waving curls would be best, but using a half up fishtail braid to keep it in place. How does that sound?”
Aurora contemplated for a few moments before giving a light nod, a slight smile playing on her lips.
“Most definitely, it sounds like a practical solution to preventing my hair from becoming something I need to worry about getting in the way.”
With Aurora’s decision made, the two remaining maids got to work on her hair, carefully drying it, followed by braiding. Just as they were finishing up Regina returned with her tea. From there the three maids efficiently worked on her makeup, first cleaning and moisturising her face.
