Ch: 254 Gimmie The Beach Boys And Free My Soul
Liam helped Shai spackle him up with violet goop; when they finished, he departed with a smile for his little clan of weirdos. Esperanza, all three kids, Becky, Shai and now the empress were all nestled together in the grotto, among the water plants.
“Gary, stop letting people put holes in you…” Becky complained gently.
“Aye, though methinks Gary were late tae the party, somehow.” Shai murmured, she looked tired and was sinking slowly onto her man’s chest.
He groaned and spoke softly as she caressed him tenderly. “Mmm, someone smuggled a cursed object into me… They shipped it to us and Liam unloaded it right inside my soul… genius move, but I was working on kicking her out, while she was still playing with my…”
“So we need to tighten up operational security…” Becky interrupted him smoothly. “I’ll talk to the gang about it as soon as possible. We’re on lockdown right now, relax. No one is getting in or out without an invitation.”
“The guys really stepped up…” He murmured tiredly. “Gotta thank them.. They figured out I wasn’t there and made all the right…” He began to snore softly, in perfect harmony with Shai.
“Well, that’s a normal day around here… come on. Let’s get dressed for dinner. The orphans should have brought you some clothes.” Becky said gently, as she tugged the empress out of the bath, with the kids following after.
“Why do they get to stay?” She whined, looking at Shai and Esperanza, fast asleep all together, around Gary’s still form. “Even with him in there, that bath is divine.”
“Gabbie, don’t be a brat.” Becky landed a mildly startling swat to the imperial seat, drawing a squawk of surprise from the empress’ frontside, while she rubbed her backside.
“Becky!” She bleated in outrage.
“Sleepover rules, Gabbie. I can’t put your undies in the freezer, so deal with it.” Becky scolded. “And be nice to my brother. He can be alarming, or even scary… at first.”
Upstairs, Becky and Amy helped her dress in clothing that fit her just so, snug here, loose and unrestricted there. Plumping this, flattening… well there wasn’t much on the slender ebon beauty that needed flattening, but the option remained available, in case of… Cheesecake?
Rio helped Wilf, while the girls were busy. His shift to a non bifurcated lower half, had made dressing and keeping dressed much less problematic. He was a kilt man, all the way through.
The little crew of troublemakers hit the common room floor as the sun went down. They were over napped, undersnacked and looking to blow off some steam. It was too late to play horsie… and Gabbie was a raw noob anyway.
Becky called the team in for a quick pre game. Once they were huddled in the corner by the fireplace, Becky laid out the plan.”Trooper Wilf, I need you to go up the middle, you need to distract Ivy. Bare buttcheeks, soldier!”
Wilf snapped a crisp salute, as his kilt fell down to his slippers. He wriggled twice and all of his remaining clothes wound up piled on his kilt. Amy squirreled it all away for him with a smile.
“Trooper Rio, Corporal Amy, come in from the workshop door, acquire the assets… extract via that route. If spotted, break for the private bath. Understood?”
They both nodded in silent agreement and slipped into the shadows.
“Gabbie, follow my lead and try to have some fun, it’s been a stressful few days.” She drew a harp from her clothing… somehow. With a sweet smile and a trilling spray of notes, she began a local favorite.
‘Gone to Buy Sugar’ was a sweet, nonsense children’s song by day, with some very raunchy, explicit lyrics that the grownups sang when the kids were in bed…
Every kid over six knew both arrangements and most were constantly working to expand the already near endless variety of rude stanzas in the canon.
Wilf was a prodigy in the art and science of saying outrageous things and getting away with it, by playing it super straight. Somehow Gary always wound up taking the heat for his shenanigans.
Sweet miss Maisie,
She smelt like a daisy…
Fresh as new mown hay.
‘Til she turn’t around
And pulled ‘em down
A brown eyed susan bloomed to-day!
Gone to buy sugar, it’ll take all day…
Off to get honey,
from the girl round the way…
She’s got bee stung lips,
And hips that sway…
He sang loud and proud with his rosy cheeks blushing above and below. The toddling terror knew a disturbing number of off color verses and was generally a slippery, naked rascal.
Laughing, half serious friends and relations tried to capture the singing streaker, but he slipped under tables and around barstools like an eel through seaweed.
Ivy, by ancient orphan tradition, took the bait and allowed herself to be neatly distracted from a tray of fresh ragamuffins; a crisp, buttery pastry, filled with warm, melty chocolate and a hint of sweet spices.
They were named for the famous… and fictional secret society of orphan pickpockets and pie thieves that featured in almost every village story of petty crime.
Your best feast day shirt vanishes off the clothesline? Ragamuffins took it! Lost your prize duck? Ragamuffin’s Guild. Pie missing from a windowsill? Ok, there’s a good chance an orphan really did that one. Who leaves pies on a windowsill in this economy? Asking for it!
In any case, those warm pastry ragamuffins vanished in an eyeblink, along with a pitcher of freshly whipped hot chocolate that happened to be nearby.
They reappeared, briefly on the other side of the room, headed for the little nook by the fireplace where the Wards practically lived, when not up to mischief or in the bath.
Rio and Amy reached their objective, with plenty of time to spare and all the assets on their objective list. Amy even had the forethought to burgle extra, extra mini marshmallows and a small sack of full sized ‘mallos, for funzies. She was a risk taker and Adventurer to the bone.
Rio was more restrained and conservative… and less stealthy. Ivy nearly spotted him as he seized the moment and the pastries.
Becky and Gabbie provided cover, as tall people… relatively… and provided the illusion of adult supervision, like Wilf’s fake ‘stache.
Speaking of… Trooper Wilf was still engaged with the enemy, whooping and hollering for the naked joy of it and living his best life. He dashed under tables, vaulted chairs, took a run down the bar and wound up by the entrance door waving his boy parts and singing lustily.
It was Nara who finally caught him. Or rather, he caught her. She slipped in the door, silent as always… directly into his giggling, wiggling, jiggling butt. “Hi Nara!” He chirped. “Gary’s hurt again, he’ll be fine.”
“He should stop letting people put holes in him.” She observed, while hauling him gently by the ear, back over to his siblings. She eased into the sofa beside Becky with a sigh.
“There’s a patch of wild catnip and a sunny spot to nap just down the road.” She purred happily. “It caught me like a poacher’s leghold trap, til sundown.”
She was dressed for a country faire, in a floral embroidered pinafore and skirts of sturdy but fine indigo linen. Her poofy underlayers of pale pink and blue offset her natural silver and black stripes and huge, golden eyes.
Gabbie sat aghast in shock, when the furry woman snuggled in with her new sister and gave her an affectionate nuzzle.
“I’d heard, but didn’t believe…” She whispered. “Emmie said, ‘almost like they were people’… and I didn’t believe!”
Those huge, golden eyes turned on her dilating wide in animal instinct, while her brow lowered in sentient disapproval. “Are you an… imperial?”
“Gabbie, Nara is family and we love her.” Becky said firmly, backed up by all three tots. “Nara, Gabbie is new and has lived a very sheltered life, please excuse her ignorance.”
Both looked abashed and chastened by their small friend’s gentle scolding.
While the two women eyed each other and considered their next steps, Becky poured the cocoa, while Rio and Amy distributed the tasty pastries… Wilf was still working on redressing himself.
When the treats were distributed and everyone was seated, Becky took a firm grip on the situation.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Now, Gabbie, rub Nara’s ears in apology. Nara, let her rub your ears, as a reward for personal growth… for both of you!” Becky smiled happily at Gabbie. “They’re so soft, you’ll wish you could sleep in them.” She cooed in excitement.
#
Sprawled and scattered in the fading sunlight and traumatized in new, horrifying ways, Damsen’s battered psyche and consciousness fled into some other place, a familiar sense of…
She opened mortal eyes, in a hazy, half focused dimly lit cavern, once more sprawled among strange limbs… with a comforting presence beside her. She reached out and felt smooth, soft, skin… strangely familiar and… at her gentle touch, the form rolled over and embraced her in a tidal wave of pale, creamy flesh and coppery red hair.
A warm and familiar hand grasped her rapidly hardening, hot, throbbing cock? With a start, Damsen tried to pull away from the giantess’ gentle caress and fond whisper.
“Aye, lad? Feelin’ better? Dinnae exert thyself, sweet Shai hae thee…” She cooed in a voice of warm, rough velvet and honey.
“Mmm…” Someone moaned and writhed in the throes of passion, as that warm, firm hand began caressing and stroking very intimate things that Damsen was not usually in possession of…
She felt the body she was wearing writhe and moan as the woman increased the pace and vigor of her ‘handiwork’ with a sly, shy smile of delight. “Tis fine fun tae be on the other side…” She whispered in the ear she was gently nibbling.
“I hae the script fer this evening’s entertainment… an ye shall dance tae my tune.” She gave a gentle but decidedly firm squeeze to her meaty fistful and a happy, frisky tug or two for good measure. “He shall take a pounding this time, lad… an give poor, sweet Shai’s tenders a break.”
“Hey…” That strange man’s voice echoed in her… or rather his own ears, filled with gentle, loving mockery and outrage. “He was nowhere near you last night! I’m a good boy!”
“Yet ye did finger puppet me abominably, boy of mine!” Her voice held hunger, delight, passion and a little feminine pouting as she gently scolded her lover over some ‘puppet show’ her body’s usual occupant had put on… “T’was awful an humiliating tae be so used!”
She made her point by tightening her grip on her toy and giving it a violent battering.
“You didn’t complain… At the time…!” He gasped, as he arched his back and writhed in her iron grip.
Damsen desperately tried to find an escape from this weird, distressing and frankly pleasurable experience. The woman was beating that poor lump of gristle like it owed her money, while her mate squirmed and gasped in pleasure.
‘Huh… All of that’s fine, but one little kick in the balls and they crumple…? Men.’ Damsen sighed to herself.
“Babe… we have a voyeur.” The man’s voice was suddenly cold and hard, despite the activities still going on down below. “Someone is peeping on us and I’m not interested in giving them a show.”
“What?” The giantess demanded, her grip tightening even more, eliciting a soft yelp from her mate. “Fie! Sorry lad.”
“It’s fine sweetie… But I think there’s still some sand jammed in the crack of my…”
#
Damsen landed back in her pile of sand, humiliated, embarrassed… and just a little turned on. Which had also not been an issue since before… ‘God I miss fucking. And eating… I could really go for a steak and a big shit.” She mused, reflecting back on those long forgotten days, while contemplating her most recent forays into corporeal existence.
‘That girl really knows how to handle a cock…’ She sighed to herself, as the sun slowly sank.
It was a full three hours after moonrise that Damsen finally had enough energy to pull herself back together, then slowly pile up onto an amorphous blob… So that she could start sifting out the lumps, nuggets and clumps.
The ship’s cat had come by to visit those pretty, sweet smelling flowers; he’d taken a roll in them, frisking and thrashing about like a fool. After a nap in the sunshine, he’d dropped by the sandy spot as well…
‘Gods’ curse on, all fluffy, furry, pettable adorable…’ She grumbled, as she got to work.
Damsen sighed in exhaustion when she finally recovered the last of her grit, from the feline shit. Now she needed to figure out how to get the rest of herself back!
In the form of a shiny red fox, she skirted the edges of the strange domain surrounding the house by the river. She could approach it, but a sense of deep unease and unwelcomeness made her feel as if every window and shadow was filled with hostile watching eyes. She was in a vulnerable state and without her primary weapon… things looked grim.
Time was her greatest asset; humankind tended to see things only at the surface level. She would soon be forgotten, or someone would slip up and she would seize an opportunity to strike…
The small blonde girl with the metal sucking machine rolled her keg out of the house, down the road and back to where Damsen had been so rudely ejected and spilt. She set the barrel upright, drew a simple steel mace from her belt and bashed in the top with a single blow.
“Most of rest of you is still in here. We’re keeping the harp and the rest until you come talk to us… or you can go jump in the river.” She called into the darkness; then she turned and went back inside.
She knew, they… knew. These provincial hayseeds had figured out the nature of her existence and knew how much of her essence was spun out in silver strands on that rosewood harp. Things just kept getting worse.
#
Tony was in the basement with Filly, Becky, Adele, Ivy and Shai… all staring at a small vial of red and amber sand. Or was it a vial of tiny, perfect garnet gems?
A beautiful rosewood harp mounted and embellished in silver and strung with shimmering strands of silver that seemed to only somewhat exist in the real world, sat on the worktable. It was firmly clamped in a padded vice and secured with a length of iron chain. It seemed to sigh softly to itself like a restless sleeper, just barely almost audible… if one listened closely.
“Gary said to give all the sand back, but I had this sample in the sucky machine. It took some time to sift it all out.” Ivy mumbled, still peering at the sand, as it glittered and sparkled in the bright shop lights.
Becky was eyeing the harp and having trouble restraining herself from reaching out through Gary’s chalk circle to strum it. “So tempting!”
“Gary says it’s strung with an unwilling person’s soul.” Tony rumbled softly. “Please don’t.”
“Yeah… when you say it that way… It sounds even more metal!” She complained sourly.
“What can you tell us about this entity?” Tony asked Ivy, with a frustrated sigh for the high priestess of Knowledge.
“It’s a human soul trapped in there, all right… The construct is powered by the energy released as the tortured soul struggles to free itself and come back together… It’s diabolical and super complicated.” She murmured, lost in the magical intricacies of the being.
“I don’t have the fine control needed to mess with this thing and Gary is a little shaky right now. He thought we should call it in for a chat, before anybody has a chance to do anything desperate or stupid.”
Ivy smiled wickedly and went on. “Gary still had a few grains in his hair and between his buttcheeks, I gather that it was peeking through his senses while he and Shai were… together.” She giggled and peered at the vial of sand more closely.
“I’m not sure how it works, but somehow, a portion of a soul is stuck in each of these little crystals, trapped in there…”
Liam interrupted a moment later, calling out to them from the stairs. “We have a visitor, all hands on deck.”
#
Damsen circled the strange building a few times, staying well outside the inner perimeter. The outer edges of the effect went on for a quarter mile in every direction, including from above and below.
Taking the form of a huge owl allowed her the power of flight… briefly. The amount of energy she had to expend to keep herself aloft drained her away quickly. If she pushed too far she could wind up scattered across the local area, forced to struggle herself back together over several days… again.
Burrowing was a simpler matter, she compressed herself into a dense mass and started grinding her sand crystals into the soil until she cut a passage through the earth. The warding effect continued as far down as she could reasonably follow… It seemed a complete sphere, composed of Will and Animus and stretched out into an unbelievably vast personal domain.
Entering that zone of roiling personal energy would leave her even more vulnerable. Yet, with her harp in hostile hands…
With a sigh of hopeless exhaustion, she took on her human form. She appeared naked, since her robes were with her harp, somewhere inside, but this wasn’t her real body anyway. She stepped up to the boundary and slipped inside, under cover of darkness.
The strange people inside seemed to be aware of her nature and capable of using that knowledge, so things couldn’t really get much worse…
“Hold, demon.” A rich, purring voice whispered from the shadows, as that damned cat woman appeared.
“You…” Damsen hissed angrily. “Show me to the master of this house… You filthy animal!” She snarled.
“Ohh, is today my day to encounter bigots and fools? Perhaps I shall see what color you bleed?” The silver striped feline hissed, circling and sniffing at the nude, red skinned woman shining in the moonlight. “Come, before I violate my friend’s hospitality, by tearing you apart.”
“That wouldn’t help Nara. She’s composed of sand and magic.” A small, dark skinned girl with her hair in a brightly beaded plait called from the doorway of the house. “Come inside, so we can talk. You can’t sneak in, if you try anything, we will be ready.”
“I don’t answer to you, child!” She snapped, still glaring at Nara. “Call off your pet before I clip her claws!”
“If my brother has to bring you in with your harp, he will. Your only hope is to come in and negotiate.” The girl snapped coldly. “You didn’t try and hurt anyone yet, so you have a fingernail’s width of goodwill remaining. Come this dawn, my brother will bring you in and handle you as he sees fit; until then he has left your fate with me.”
“With you? A child who’s yet to bleed and his pet cat?” She scoffed. “I’ve been walking the earth for centuries, spratling. I have arts and skills to…”
The girl produced a harp from her robes, silencing the crimson woman, until she realized it was not hers. It was lovely though…
A swift flying stream of melody, played skillfully and directed at her with a stream of strange sorcery hidden among the notes, slapped her across the face. There was no physical force or manifestation, her left cheek just exploded into a spray of glittering red sand.
The cat woman looked at the dusting of coarse, sparkling crystals on the ground and smiled evilly.
“I thought you smelled familiar…” She chirped and chittered like a cat that espied a juicy bird, just on the other side of the window.
“I had a roll in the ‘nip and there was this sandy spot…” She winked at the girl on the stoop, who was still strumming idly and smiling. “Deuces are wild!” She giggled.
“Nara! You didn’t!” The girl sang her laughter, in harmony with a sweet melody aimed at the moons high above.
“I did…” The cat woman giggled and strutted abominably, just inside the boundary. “Avoid that fried fish cart by the public docks… My butthole is still throbbing!”
“Oh, sweetie… everybody in town knows not to have the fried river carp.” Becky sang happily to her friend. “Especially not with the spicy sauce!”
“If you bitches are done…” Damsen snapped. “We were threatening and posturing at each other…” She fumed and paced the edge of the ward, glaring at both of them. “This is not how the game is played!”
“Yeah, but Nara used you as a litterbox… I can’t take you seriously anymore.” The miserable little bint said with a smile. “Surrender, or at sunrise, we will drag you and your master out into the light and banish you both forever. This is not a negotiation.”
“Curses on all humans and their pets!” She snarled, as she stepped across the boundary and into yet another being’s control. “Gahh!” She spat in agitation. “This realm belongs to that body I was running around in…”
“No, it belongs to my brother, whom you possessed, fondled, forced to assault his own guests under his roof, injured and tried to enslave to your will.” She snapped right back. “He will be far less understanding than I…”
“Whatever sick harem fantasy you are enjoying, I care not. I want my harp back.” The red figure grumbled, as she put on a robe in the foyer. “Give me my property, then you can all go jump on his gristlestick till the sun burns out.”
“Yer mighty free wi insults, fer a fondler of strange cocks.” The red haired giantess growled angrily from behind the bar. “I’ll hae a reckoning fer that, in all. Tis my toy ye played wi an tried tae steal.”
“My sister is rather cross with several people right now… that’s why she’s behind the bar. If she comes out from behind there…” The girl shook her plait slowly and sadly. “Let’s not make things worse… for you.”
Walking into that bright and homey inn felt like stepping into the maw of a ravenous beast; while slathered in gravy and garnished with bacon bits. Damsen wished she had saliva… and a throat to swallow it down, as she stepped onto the steps up into the room.
#
Gary woke in the grotto pool, to the sweet, muffled sound of glass breaking. It sounded and felt like a delicate set of crystal windchimes had been rolled in a towel and smashed, right beside his head. He rose from the water plants and dressed slowly, still feeling weak and battered.
Dannyl was seated by the grotto door with his guitar on his lap, strumming the theme to an otherworldly opera softly. “Name that tune, bro.” He had his wooden training whip coiled on his lap, as well as a firm look in his eye.
“Bolero, Shai’s favorite… that isn’t dirty.” He gasped weakly. He manifested Wanderer’s Legacy in the form of a cane and slowly eased out the door, with Dannyl’s help. “Something’s happening out there…” He whispered as they made their way to the common room.
The whole gang was there, except the kids and Gabbie. They were all upstairs, passed out in the big bed, under the watchful eyes of ‘auntie Ess’. Who was no one’s auntie, as evidenced by the red hand tattoo hidden in her hairline. Gary could feel them, safely upstairs. He could also feel whatever the fuck was going on in the common room.
Everyone, even Willow and Ester, were raptly staring at a miniature tornado of red-gold, glinting sand jewels, sparkling and swirling in a tight formation just inside the entryway.
One of his conjured green robes was nearly lost in the slashing sandstorm; twisting and writhing as pointy, jagged sand grains shot around and through the insubstantial shadowstuff. Rather than shredding into nothing, the garment changed, shifting in shape, cut, color, size… As he watched, it became a towering suit of field plate armor in glimmering green, filled with that red sand. She loomed eight feet tall, with brutal spike knuckled gauntlets and viciously pointed boots. A sword of that same shining red substance appeared, with a hilt of bright green bronze and leather.
“Now you will face the wrath of the demon I serve! I can use the powers of this place against you!”
Her cruel and terrible laugh echoed in the room as she stepped forward aggressively on a massive, armor booted foot.
#