Ch: 261 Circle In The Sand
Shai was at the bar, chatting with Jerry and Carlos, before they went out on a run, when Harlan and Leo came in, looking uncomfortable. Fortunately, Gary was out at the public bath with the kids, singing a silly song about duckies…
She removed her apron, excused herself from her few guests and sat across from Leo, beside her Papa. “Hae ye com tae bargain, master Leo?” She asked calmly. “He will listen, an ye kin convince me tae do whatever it is.”
Leo looked at Harlan, who made no reply at all, he sat immobile and silent.
“Yes, I’ve come to bargain… I need your crew back at work. Clearing up… whatever you did for Grace Sheng is all well and good, but we need more.” He said firmly.
Shai looked back blankly. “I’m waitin’ fer the offerin’ of a contract… we did hae a verbal agreement, which yer minions did violate… most egregiously. Me boy were even so generous as to return Shaheen’s noggin, tae his house.”
She smiled coldly. “After some convincing, he did wish it fer a chamber pot.”
“Yes… journeyman Shai, your restraining influence is very helpful.” He murmured softly. “Had thoughts along those lines often, while his head was still attached to the rest of his worthless, scheming… regardless, we need your services.”
“Nae.” She answered firmly. “Offer a contract, we decide on her merits. There be no more ‘blank checks’ nor ‘freebies’ fer the forces of ‘the establishment’ we ‘fight the power’! From the heart, it's a start, a work of art!” She chanted with a smile custom designed to infuriate, the mad boy’s crooked smile of amused glee. The one he wore when making jokes only he understood.
“When the job’s worth doin, we’ll do it well. Fer savin lives an preserving the people… nae more will we do any ol’ job.” She stood and nodded to the thinly disguised duke, kissed her huge Papa’s cheek and strolled away.
“Me Papa and his friend Leo be always welcome in me home… an they do no mischief.”
She vanished into the inner reaches of the house, replaced by Ivy, smiling and polishing spotless glassware, just cause it felt like what one should do, behind the bar.
“Beer or wine? There’s chicken and dumplings in half hour.” She said, as chaos erupted outside. Shai turned and hurtled out the door, headed for the bath with a dangerous look on her face.
“So, chicken and dumplings?” Ivy asked with a calm smile.
The hot, fragrant bowls landed on their table, just as Shai stomped past again, still looking angry enough to chew rocks. “Best we not ask now, Leo.” Harlan muttered.
#
Upstairs, after yet another attempted murder, Gabbie was a blubbering wreck… again. Another very nice shift was having a very bad day… though Gary was a whiz with laundry… She brought her tired mind back to the shattered girl in her arms.
“Shhhh…” Becky whispered gently. “Everything will be all right. I have a medicine for you to take and then we will have a nap together, just you and me. Ok?” She slipped the tiny golden candy pill to her new sister and made all her clothes vanish. Carefully she stripped Gabbie bare, maximum skin contact was gonna be needed for the flustered girl to calm down.
Becky shoved and tugged her big sister into the little spoon position and wrapped herself around the bony darling, hugging her thin frame close. With their legs entangled, they floated away in the pillowy, cloudlike bedding.
#
Gabbie woke feeling good… really good. Becky was curled in her arms, so tiny and frail… she felt a surge of emotion, looking down on the small, fierce woman curled up against her and soundly asleep.
“Those maternal stirrings are a source of great power…” A soft sweet voice of wisdom and comfort whispered from all around. The musical, chiming sound carried through the large, open cottage like a freshening spring breeze.
“Where am I, who are you?” She demanded.
“Dreaming… you are dreaming…” Becky murmured as she woke. “I’m so tired I almost didn’t make it here…”
“Excellent, sister Becky.” The voice sang sweet and high. “Without you, this could be traumatic, if past is precedent with mortals of your species.”
“Yeah… let me warm her up first, ok?” Becky murmured, pulling Gabbie from the bed. Somehow she was wearing a green silk shift that fell to just above her knees and the most scandalously pretty, skimpy panties, just like Becky’s…
With every step of her slender brown legs, a glimpse of pink and white briefs appeared… just like hers, of green.
“The soul we’re camping out in is really into ‘fanservice’... the Pantsu Problem is not worth worrying about. We’ll get dressed properly before we go out.” Becky sang happily as she skipped around her lovely one room cottage arranging things to suit her current fancy.
She raised her hands and spun in place, turning in a tight circle; with a flash of colorful sparkling lights, she was fully dressed in a moment. Clad in her usual… all the colors of a late autumn forest, set ablaze.
“Now you try!” She giggled. “This is essentially a shared dream. You should be able to clothe yourself in Will and imagination with a little effort.
Gabbie nodded grimly, closed her eyes and twirled… coming to a stop clad in a thin, pale blue, gauzy gown of transparent silk. It clung and draped alluringly, displaying everything she had to supreme advantage. It swirled and danced between her long slender, legs of deep chocolate brown. The fabric cupped and slid over her modest breasts, skittering over her dark, trembling nipples, even as her buttocks felt the silken caress of the soft cloth running across the sensitive skin.
“Ok, Gabbie… try again, without thinking about Jocomo.” Becky sighed.
It took a few, sexually charged minutes, before they got it solved. Her dress was opaque at least. Becky took stock of the close fitting top and loose flowing skirts of her new sister’s summer dress of violet and gold.
“Still pretty darn sexy Gabbs, I like it. Come outside, but be ready, we’re not in kansas any more. Whatever a kansas is…” She chirped as the door opened for her, all by itself.
“Maple! Are you home?” She called into her lovely walled garden.
“Becky!” The tree beside the koi pond answered with a joyous, leafy song. “Who is this? A new sister, a druid untainted even a little?” She cooed happily. “I scent Willow on her… that soggy little…”
“Maple!” Becky giggled at her… tree friend, as Gabbie stepped out into a world of madness.
Colorful ponies ran among trees scattered so artfully, that they seemed unreal. Wildflowers and meadow grasses abounded, all in perfect hues of bright, springtime abundance and growth. Maddeningly colorful insects buzzed, crawled and leapt among the flowers, each one perfect, like a jewel crafted by a master.
Huge black bees buzzed around, carrying wads of outrageously colorful pollen on their legs, flying drunkenly from bloom to bloom. Four other cottages stood nearby, three smaller, one of similar size but less extravagantly colorful than Becky’s.
“That’s the kids’ and Angie’s there…” Becky whispered as the empress struggled with all this. She turned to the sky above, seeking a… nope…
It was a swirling mass of ribbons and bubbles, mostly concealing and obscuring a terrifying vista of alien stars and nebulae… winking in sinister colors.
“Don’t look at the sky… you’re not ready for that yet.” Becky cautioned her bigger sister, drawing her gaze back to the odd place they were standing.
“The main house is up on the hill, we have an appointment with a pair of professionals, for the next few hours.” She stretched up on her tippy toes to kiss Gabbie on her sweet, dusky lips. “Don’t be afraid, despite their looks, they are both extraordinary beings. Thirp is a specialist in psychological trauma and the side effects of binding magic… while Marduk has a more human perspective and aspect.”
“There are people here?” She asked softly, looking around the pleasant, cultivated, yet somehow untamed and dangerous wildland around her.
“There are… A large number of them. They are all people, no matter how they may appear, sister. I need you to be strong and open minded… how do you feel about spiders?”
“Spiders?” She asked, in utter confusion.
#
Jocomo woke in that bedroom, unguarded and unbound. His body was bare, but he found neatly folded clothing nearby. He shrugged into his uniform, uncaring how or where it had been acquired. It felt good to be properly dressed again…
“Now, if only I could convince someone to take my head…” He muttered, as he slid the chamber door open.
“No one here will slay you, Jocomo. This is a place of healing and contemplation.” A tiny blonde child sang sweetly to him, standing directly on the other side of the door.
“I am Marduk, I will be your guide and guardian here. None will seek your life, but this is not a place that is truly safe for you.” He said calmly.
“Another of that witch’s slaves?” He grumbled harshly.
“Hardly, young Fool… It feels odd calling someone else that…” The tiny boy shuddered in his golden sandals and smiled sadly.
“We are here to help you all, this fine afternoon… Let’s meet the rest of the group!”
In the common room of the inn, several people sat in a loose circle, in comfy barbarian furniture… Those soofaas and couchers they preferred over proper cushions and mats on the floor.
That fool Gary Ward was seated there, wearing odd eye and ear coverings with long strands leading down to a small lap desk. He constantly fiddled with two metal wheels, set on the top of his little desk, occasionally playing with various knobs and sliders set in the strange thing.
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“Dj, this is Jocomo… He’s one of the ones causing the problem.” The tiny boy told the mad fool, who only nodded… Though he had been nodding rhythmically the entire time.
Marduk led him to a seat beside the knob twiddling man with dark lenses over his eyes… something seemed different about him…
“You’re not Gary Ward…” He muttered softly.
“Exactly.” Marduk exclaimed happily. “Just so, I told you he would come around! Just you watch, Dj!” He crowed.
“This is Eponna, my boo. She’s quite a filly, I can tell you!” The boy cooed and smiled at the voluptuous, radiant woman seated nearby, wearing a skin tight gown of celestial beauty.
She gave him a wiggle fingered wave and a shy smile. “I never meet normal humans…” She giggled happily.
“Next is Gary Ward, The Hanged Man, say hello, please.”
“Hi…” The brown haired, brown eyed, burly child growled at him. Even at around fourteen years, the boy was huge… and somehow disturbing and frightening, even when seated across the circle with his hands in his lap. “I’m pretty mad at you still!”
“Thank you for sharing your feelings…” Marduk said gently, stroking the lad’s hair with paternal fondness, despite the boy being larger and older than the blonde lad of twelve.
“Ahh here comes the rest of the group…”
#
Gabbie stepped over the boundary of Becky’s little garden and felt a strange rush of unfamiliar emotions… A swirling tempest ran up her feet and out the top of her head, the moment her foot touched the path outside the garden.
“Just breathe through it. You aren’t on good terms with our host, so things will feel… Less welcoming, out here.” Becky explained, poorly.
She took Gabbie by the hand and led her to the house on the hilltop overlooking a crystal blue sea, skipping and whistling up the short path. “Now stay cool, Gabbs. Remember when I asked you about spiders?”
The empress nodded serenely, as her gaze wandered the vista before her. The horizon was strangely close, less than a mile away, curving abruptly, as though they were on a tiny round island floating in a sea of sky… “Yes, spiders or whatever…” She murmured, lost in new sights and sounds.
“I’m not sure Thirp…” Becky murmured into the shrubbery.
“She’s lived a pretty sheltered life.”
That sweet musical voice from before sang out in calming chimes and dulcet tones. “Gabbie, my dear… I am not a human, in form… are you ready to see me?” She asked
“Show yourself… nothing will surprise…” She sighed, watching colorful giant seahorses race against the colorful ponies on the seashore below, across shining white sand.
The white furred, buxom spider woman who emerged from the verdure startled Gabbie, but only briefly. “I am Thirp, She Who Spins In The Void… that always feels so pompous… just Thirp, please. We will be very close friends…”
The chatty, white furred woman smiled in a way that was somehow warmly reassuring, despite the silvery fangs and mobile jaw parts hiding behind her plump red lips. Twin golden lightning bolts decorated her low slung, white furred abdomen. She balanced on four legs, with two of her arms clutching a beautiful harp of braided web.
Two more arms reached out to embrace the slim, dark empress, an embrace she fell into with an exhausted sigh.
Becky laughed with girlish delight and seized Gabbie’s left hand, while Thirp took her right. Together the three new friends skipped and scuttled up to the door to the house in a happy, chattering cluster.
#
Jocomo gasped with relief when her radiance entered with her new barbarian confidante, only to be stunned into horror stricken paralysis by the nightmare scuttling in behind her.
The monster, spider, boob creature bared its venomed fangs, in some crude approximation of a human greeting, making things so much worse...
“Jocomo, meet my new friend Thirp! She’s mostly spider!”
His beloved, infallible empress sang happily. “The rest is all tits!” Gabbie playfully grabbed at her new, horrible companion’s enormous, white furred breasts, while giggling foolishly.
“Yes…” The monster gigged back. “Spiderboobs are silly… and ticklish!” The monster used its… her, four white furred arms to gently-pitty pat and fanny-swat her glorious majesty into one of the seats, right beside the angry young man across from Jocomo...
“I’m pretty mad at you too… but Shai, Becky and my children love you… so I’m gonna be extra mad at him.” The serious child grumbled softly. “I’m still a little angry, though.”
“Thank you for sharing, Gary. Let’s get to know the new members of the group… Eponna, Dj, Gary…” Marduk began. “Gabbie and Jocomo are new friends who are troubled by generational and personal trauma, curse magic and psychological manipulation. We are going to be working intensively with them today, as a part of our new ‘Helping Others Helps Us Heal’ program.”
Thirp looked to Hohuh, the Whippoorwill goddess, perched on a nearby plum tree just outside the open window. “Thank you for your input… I still say that name is no coincidence…”
“I Have no Hidea wHat you mean, tHirp, my dear… tHese are simpHly tHe lessOns I’ve learned Hin my stHudies of Human trauHma.” She hooted gently, with a sly wink.
#
Gary was pedaling in a vast circle around the town, no motor assist, just legs pumping the anger out of his system… Shai came rolling up on Sandi, trotting after him, her bells jingling. He pulled over among the apricot trees and leaned his bike against one with a disgruntled sigh.
“Aye… lay out a blanket lad, let Sandi hae a wander an graze while I take my ease on thy lap…” She cooed. “Tis exhausting chasing thee.” Somehow the laces of her top had come pretty well undone…
Gary and Shai reconvened with the kids after lunch.
Dannyl was busy educating them in the finer points of chalk art while the chaos unfolded, refolded and became complex.
“Gabbie an Jocomo hae some things tae work out betwixt each other, ere’ they can stop tryin’ tae murder yer Papa an play nice. Tis grownup nonsense an fiddlesticks ye need nae worry on.” Shai whispered to the tots when they gathered around her skirts.
“Dinnae vex Gary, an he must avoid those two fer some days. Twill be awkward an I’ll hae no pranks wi thee three!” She admonished her children, while Gary struggled with the weird feeling of having two people he did not vibe with, inside his waking soul.
“Ghaaa!” He grumbled. “I gotta go for a run!” Just like that he bolted out of the gate, trying to flee a sensation that would follow his hapless body wherever it might hide, run or roam.
“Come on kids, we’re running, I do suppose.” Shai sighed, then whistled for the horsies to come along. Poor Sandi sayed in the barn, she’d had her run already.
Their small herd followed Gary’s trail around the community garden, giving him enough space to feel… whatever it was, in peace. The kids rode bareback, while Shai trotted along, enjoying the exercise and the warm early summer afternoon. She was a little too tender to sit a saddle, bareback was not happening!
#
Harlan and Leo sat in the common room, sipping weak beer and chatting as men do, about pregnant wives and children growing more independent and fractious…
“...at least I’ve no worries with Rolf, that boy is as steady as a waterclock and has more sense than I do. Pity he joined the clergy; he would have made a marvelous duke… No offense Harlan.”
“Nae offense tae thee, an I say, if’n he went duke, I’d bemoan that he’d make a fine priest of Order…” Harlan grumbled around his pipestem. “Laws be changing, times be changing…. I did dream last night… the strangest thing.” Harlan muttered softly, leaning close.
“Of late, me wife, bless her an the life she carries, me own blood… She willnae, kinnae sleep, unless the moon shines on our marriage bed. Tis an odd fancy, but when they are child-bearing, who can deny their silly demands?” He shrugged his massive shoulders.
“Yes, it seems to be a craze among the…” Leo sighed and shook his head. “They call them ‘Tawny’s Tummys’, her armada of bathtime pregnant ladies. They are all ‘moonbathing’ on her recommendation…” He smiled with long suffering patience for the silly women in his life. “It causes no harm I suppose.”
“Aye, save that I hae been… dreaming. An they are passing strange, under the light of the moon.” He whispered. “This very morn, before sunrise I did wake frae a dream… t’was what I did just say. ‘Change is coming’ a Voice did bellow, soft as whisper that shook me very bones! Then was I standing naked on the walls of Wheatford town, above this very gate in me dream. Blind me for an old fool, but the mountains an hills… they did lift their grassy skirts an dance!”
Leo giggled and almost lost his stache, sticking it back on with frantic hands. “I thought I was going mad…” The duke nearly fell out of his seat with relief. “In my dream, I too was standing above the gate… behind your naked bottom.” Leo whispered, when he had regained his composure. “When the hills lifted their skirts… answer me together now, my friend… what color were their panties?”
“Green”
“Green!”
Duke and smith priest whispered in harmony.
“Gods… that’s why I came to see you, really… I thought I was going mad… nice arse, by the way. Cultivation is really paying off.” Leo muttered softly.
“Amelia Likes it just fine…” Harlan cooed happily, sckootching on his barstool with glee. “Now I hae but to stand just so an flex one cheek… she comes a’ runnin!” He crowed, as his smile tried to touch his ears.
“My wife always chases me away, once she’s with child…” Leo muttered with a frustrated scowl. “I have to make do with shameful dalliances in the hay barn, or seducing peasant barmaids like the wicked, lustful dukes in stories!” He complained sadly.
“Gods, I hope my wife never finds out my filthy secret…” He reached out and gave the barmaid a pinch on her bottom as she passed, eliciting an outraged squeak from the poor woman.
“Meet me in a room, wench.” The disguised duke whispered to the unfortunate serving woman, who obediently curtsied and whisked away…
“It’s good to be the duke.” He muttered to the grinning smith.
“Fie, you two never change.” Harlan rumbled, as Leo dashed off in pursuit of Celeste, the humble barmaid, trembling in a private room… at the mercy of a lustful duke.
#
Harlan burst into his home, above the forge with a wide grin on his face, kissed his wife and carried her upstairs, despite her very brief squeak of protest and outrage at such treatment.
“Silence woman! Yer husband Hae needs!” He grumbled softly, in an imperious voice so unlike his usual soft spoken ways at home and his loud bluster in the forge.
He assaulted her with a deep, passionate kiss that curled her toes in her horsie slippers, setting off the Wardco Clippity-Clop Cantering Castanets™ hidden inside.
They sounded slightly like a cheering section, encouraging the deliciously muscled brute to ravish her trembling, helpless form... Smart horsies!
#
Exhausted and hungry, the Wards and their equines trotted home and into the public baths. The locals were accustomed to the horses joining the bath regularly, now… it had been awkward at first for some reason.
Some folks got weird when Otho or Nara dove in too… maybe it was a fur prejudice… Gray mused on those ideas, while soaking his cares away with his woman, kids and friends before dinner.
The whole town felt like it was buzzing with excitement, more than a festival could account for. People were out and bustling earlier and later than the longer hours of sunshine could account for, to his mind.
The whole region felt like it was about to go on stage with a belly full of Redbull and nachos: Excited to the point of nausea.
He felt it himself, things were churning and bubbling inside him, tonight was gonna get weird. In desperation he clambered out of the bath and slipped into a discrete grassy lawn to hammer his magic circle tool into the turf around himself.
With a flex of Will and a bit of Mana, he empowered the device and peace flooded him. “Ahhhh… that’s the stuff!” Gary moaned, as he felt his shadow stop sneakily crawling after every living soul within a mile radius of his location.
He lay back naked on the little garden alcove surrounded by morning glory vines and grape arbors.
Shai joined him shortly, stepping over the ‘Circle Of Fifths’ with care and settling down; with her head resting on his tummy. “Feel better, lad?” She murmured. “Ye were boiling over a mite there.”
“Yeah, there’s a lot going on inside me right now… And I realized I have…” He paused to count on his fingers for a moment.
“Three outsiders in my clutches, of varying provenance, one mystery plant that could be a beast or could be a people and a fig tree that is still trying to figure out whether it’s alive, undead, or undying. That’s a lot of stress!”
“Shush lad. Be at ease, yer family an sweet Shai are wi thee.” She cooed gently, as she rolled on her side to see his face… And so she could caress his tummy and chest, the way he liked. That provided her a comfy and very firm headrest to lean against. She smiled up at her boy, feeling his rock steady heartbeat, through some of her favorite parts…
“Ye will never be alone again lad.”
#
The man standing before the clerical triumvirate of the Empire of Light was wearing the brown robes of the Taxmen’s and Assessor’s guild… the robes of a journeyman.
“Why have they not sent a master of the guild for this important meeting?” Luxor of Order demanded coldly.
“No masters are available… radiant and honored clerics. The unseen masters have been called to the capital…” He muttered fearfully.
“Then they should present themselves…!” General Tully sputtered.
“To the capital of Man, honored clerics… some two nights ago, they simply left at moonrise. None remain within the empire.” He cringed and fell flat to the floor, as one should in the presence of only the empress herself. “When queried, they would only reply that they had been recalled… The hidden masters are inscrutable and unquestioned… honored clerics…” He wailed piteously.
“How many do we have left?” Artificer Greggor demanded of an Order cult functionary standing nearby.
“Guild journeymen, two, of apprentices… some score or more.” He replied, after checking his ledger.
“Torture this one… put one more to the question and… a third of the apprentices. Make the rest watch. That should glean us some answers.” Tully ordered calmly.
“No!” Craft and Order barked together.
Pontiff Luxor took control with a firm hand. “We cannot simply put them to the question, that is the prerogative of her majesty's Whispers…”
“The ones you let escape.” Craft snapped angrily.
“Let’s not quarrel… now we have to execute this one… so frustrating.” Luxor complained sourly.
“All is not lost…” Greggor of Craft mumbled, once the blubbering taxman was dragged away. “If the hidden masters have been recalled and the Whispers are missing, we simply find a new empress… ourselves!”
“Oh, capital idea!” Tully clapped his liver spotted, iron hard hands together in glee. “I have a great great granddaughter just the right age!”
“Sold!” Greggor chimed with a smile.
“I find that solution very… Orderly.” Luxor sighed happily. “Now, someone find a palace servant with a mop… that taxman left a mess on the floor.”
“They are all gone…” Greggor sighed. “Even Susie the pastry chef… all the Whispers fled, even the servants.”
“Gods damn it Geggor! I told you three empresses ago to stop raping the kitchen staff!” Luxor snapped. “Not the ones who cook and handle our food, you fool!”
#