Ch: 92 Light As A Feather, Stiff As A Board
She dressed and went out into the inn to face the mob of interested parties gathered in the common room and garden. The public bath was nearly full, with not exactly water running down the overflow channel and into Ivy’s garden in a steady stream.
Maple, Plumeria and Axio were together in a quiet corner, screened off by thick bamboo and hanging vines, discreetly awaiting news. Streeka and Nara were nowhere to be seen, as usual.
She fended off any questions with a mysterious wave from behind her ceremonial robes. Being a faceless harbinger of the unknown is really good for personal space.
#
‘Morrigan. That one is mine. Will you tell me to run and hide in a hole?’ Beast asked, in the voices of every creature and plant of the eternal wilds. The echoing cry of a raven carried on and on, long after he finished speaking.
“You know I would not have… that would ruin everything. Besides, he needs all of that for what’s to… come!” She giggled, pointing at his painfully, comically, unhealthily engorged genitals.
Morrigan trailed her black pointed nails over his chest in lazy circles while she spoke, resting her bottom on the table beside his slack, drooling face. “When lucky fucky Shai, becomes sad Shai the weeping widow, he will be mine to enjoy… fully. All things come to she who waits.”
She stood with a happy sigh and smiled down at the weakly struggling creature, trying to thrust his hips at anything in range. She reached out and with one slender talon… and gave his prick a flick, right on the glans.
She vanished in a cawing, cackling, giggling fluff of black feathers and the warm breeze off an open grave.
‘Well, even like this we can speak, my child… perhaps in your case it will be easier as you are…’ The gleaming celestial being whispered sadly. ‘Mortality is a great blessing, child. Even… especially when it is painful. You will find your rest soon.’
#
Tawny slipped into the bedroom, as Shai was tucking the sleepy, agitated children into bed and preparing to join them. “Naptime will have to be delayed Shai… something has… come up.”
Tawny snorted a barely restrained giggle for some reason, but her smile eased Shai’s heart like a warm sunbeam.
“Enchant the children off to sleep at least. They would visit wi their kin and rest some.” Shai whispered as she put on a robe.
“Ohh no dear, not that.” She scolded gently. “Naptime is canceled for now kids, up up! We are staying up, because Gary is going to need us all awake and alert!”
At her nod, Dannyl gathered the sleepy kids and took them downstairs, while Tawny turned on Shai with a vicious, stranger’s smile.
“What means this, Tawny?” Shai demanded. “Be Gary well? Dinnae toy wi me!”
“Shai, sweet Shai… Gary needs help… and I am certainly not qualified to administer this treatment.” She half snorted another giggle. “Now, let’s get you dressed. It’s going to be a messy job… Ah! Just the thing.”
Tawny advanced on her confused and worried friend with a soothing whisper, as though calming a fretful horse.
Coaxing a bit and bridle past a restive pony’s antics would be child’s play, compared to the struggle that ensued in that pleasant chamber.
#
Finally a red faced, furiously blushing Shai came downstairs. She slunk into the crowded common room, wrapped in a long green flannel robe. Tawny had her by the sleeve, tugging insistently, forcing her to follow, or lose her robe.
“Everyone out! Bathers and family in the house only, physician’s prerogative.” Tawny barked, sounding for all the world like a common street hawker, inside a giant brass bell.
Friends and relations scattered for the garden, blown out the doors by the sound of a physician priestess in her element and near the peak of her powers.
“Now,” She said in her normal, golden tones. “The rest of us will go outside and manage this mob, while Shai ‘helps’ Gary with his ‘discomfort’. We will be mature and responsible adults about this entire situation.” Tawny’s crisp and clear commands left no doubt, until she grinned and giggled again.
“We propped him up in the private baths, carrying him upstairs seemed like a fool’s errand. How could we get him around the landing?” Liam said… barely restraining a grin.
Esperanza danced up, alive with excitement and kissed Shai on the cheek. In the process she tugged the folds of the smith’s robe open for a peek.
She giggled and bounced as Shai rearranged her garment with a huff. “Sisterly curiosity is all… Oh, you lucky girl… come children, we will sing songs and tell stories… do you like fairy tales?”
The whole group vanished into the garden leaving only Tawny, Liam and Shai.
“What be all this? He were in a terrible state, now…” She demanded in righteous fury.
“He is still in a ‘state’, Shai but I cannot go near him. Tallum had to roll him up in a mundane blanket and carry him out by main force.” She said, finally looking serious.
“Then I shall get the kids an we shall watch o’er him taegether, come Becky… where be Becky?” Shai began fretting again, fidgeting with her robe. “I must dress an find them…”
“No! Shai, Becky and the children cannot see him like this. Go, all will be well.” She shoved the larger woman into the private bath and pulled the door closed.
“Oh! He do look much better, his back be nearly heale… EEek!” Her muffled shriek was followed, shortly after by the woman herself, dashing through the door.
“Whae hae happened tae him Tawny…? Tis…” She swallowed and cleared her head with a gasp. “Tis nae normal.” She said calmly. “Can aught be done? Be there a medicine or procedure fer… that?”
“There are two possible treatments…. I could lance the… growth, but he would lose a fair amount of blood. He is already running low on blood, well, most of him is short on blood, the supply seems to be highly localized.” She said calmly.
“An the other? The other treatment? Whae be needful? Tis a medicine or some drug?” She asked, desperate and deeply upset.
“Indeed, the prescription has been prepared, now we need only administer it to the patient. It is entirely up to you. I suspect he will awake in an hour or two if you do nothing but sit beside him and keep him company. He does thrive on that.” Tawny said with firm and professional detachment. “His life is not in danger from this… condition. He will be in great discomfort and distress when he wakes and a familiar and beloved presence will be helpful in any case.”
“So I am tae keep him company while he sleeps… wi that standing there?” She asked.
“If you know some way to banish it, by all means. He will be much more… manageable if…” She giggled and blushed a rich, molten bronze color. That made Liam shift uncomfortably, as he tried to hide his own blush and smile.
“Just don’t look it in the eye. Remember, they can smell fear…” Liam said, unhelpfully, as she slid the door closed behind her.
#
Gary was sprawled in a mass of loose bedding, on the pavers near the bath. He writhed slowly and languidly, lost in some dream of desire and animal hunger. His breast was marred by a bright red and angry scar, with another on his back.
The lance wound and sword cut to his thigh were largely vanished, but a terrible affliction remained.
Gary’s poor member strained and thrashed along with his pounding heartbeat. With back arched in agonized bliss, he moaned softly and gasped ragged breaths through barely parted lips.
Waves of heat, warmth and pleasant coolness washed from him as he struggled, occasional bright flashes of light or cool crawling shadows appeared and vanished at the edge of her perceptions.
Strange, throbbing music pulsed, just almost audible from so far away it might be imagined. Shai stepped closer to the stricken man and sat down on the blankets beside him, taking his flailing hand in hers.
At her touch he setted and fell still. A slow, easy sigh passed his lips, with a soft moan of lust, pleasure and hunger. She laid her head on his chest, being careful of his rock hard nipples, they looked bruised and inflamed as well.
The rest of his body relaxed as she caressed his abdomen the way he liked, trailing her nails in slow, lazy circles. The heat radiating from his manhood was a physical thing, carefully she reached out and touched the poor dear.
It was so hot and inflamed, Shai could almost imagine scalding herself on it, were the thing to contact a sensitive area...
She took a firm hold and smiled to herself. “Aye, tis a big job, an one I shall enjoy the forging of. Sweet Shai will tame this beast…”
She stood and let her robe drop as she watched him struggle towards consciousness. Slowly his fogged eyes sharpened and his slack face became animated. He moaned in agony and pleasure, or the pleasure of agony… or… He locked his red, watery eyes on her and groaned.
Smooth, shining spidersilk in spring green draped over her, barely concealing anything, while highlighting everything.
Slippery, shimmering shortyshorts, cut high up at each hip and barely more than a wisp, tried to hide her secrets, nearly failing so many times in so many ways. From the length of her smooth, strong, dancer’s legs to the supple roundness of her bottom they revealed so very much more than they obscured.
The slick, clinging fabric slid and shifted like a live thing, giving peeks and glimpses of a smooth crease there or a subtle shimmer as it snugged to her curly tufted mound. His bleary eyes lit up as the shining silk slid over her little patch of fluff.
“I shall keep that after all… just fer thee.” She purred. “I see ye do enjoy seeing me in the works of yer hands.” He twitched and flailed in her direction, mutely desperate.
“Nae, I would hae ye fully awake ere we begin lad. Ye are mine, and I would hae ye know that full well.”
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She stepped just out of his reach and let one of the ridiculously thin straps fall, bearing one smooth, pale breast almost entirely. The gossamer cloth hung up on her nipple, clinging heroically and nearly slipping off with each languorous breath she took.
“Tis a filmy, flimsy thing ye hae made…” She took his hand in hers, caressing his palm with her short, blunt nails. “I dinnae think such hands could craft wi delicacy and care, till I did see ye play.” She sighed as he struggled to clear his head.
“Dae ye nae hear me clear lover? I say ye must wake ere we play wi that toy… Nae, tis a weapon. I would nae hae that wielded at me by a beast, even one that I do love.”
“Sh Shai? Really? Really Shai?” He murmured weakly.
“Aye, tis sweet Shai, come tae aid thee, but ye must wake. Ye must be in yerself, lest ye hurt me wi that. Ye would nae hurt me… Gary?” Like a magic spell all her own, his name on her lips jolted him awake.
“Shai? Oh… that hurts…” He tried to curl up around himself, but that only increased the ‘pressure’ on his tenders. He thrashed backwards arching his back as though trying to thrust himself off of… himself.
She laid her palm flat on his straining tummy and slid beside him, putting her other arm around his shoulders, pulling him to her breast. “Go on Gary, hae a nice long motorboat. I hae thee. I hae thee well in hand.”
And she did, even though it was nearly too hot to touch and throbbed as though it possessed a will of its own.
“Dinnae move… I would nae be battered ta flinders lover.” She said softly as she mounted him, with great caution.
“Fie! It had best go back tae what it were lad o’ mine!” She gasped. “Tis almost tooo…!”
She stood up off him at his first involuntary twitch, as he gasped with need and frustration.
“Steady Gary… tis a fraught working… an a dangerous tool an all. Ye could strike sparks wi softer an temper steel wi cooler!”
#
Her supple silk negligee was a tattered rag at the end. Torn, bedraggled and stained… so thoroughly stained. She moved to toss it in the pool to be destroyed but Gary stole the wrecked thing away.
“I’ll make you something you will want to wear love, but this has more work to do.” He said, as he took the besmirched garment from her hands with care.
“Be this fer some dark art or foul summoning boy?” She growled. “Or be ye some depraved sniffer of…”
“Dark arts! Dark arts love!” He stammered. “I’m going to use this to get revenge on someone. There’s so much sexual energy packed into this, it could go off like a firework. A very kinky firework.”
#
When the couple finally dragged themselves out of the private bath and staggered off to bed, they were barely able to walk. Shai’s trick for summoning snowballs in his house came in super handy.
With crotches in igloo mode, they stumbled to the grotto to sleep. At the door, Gary paused.
“I’ll be right in. I’m gonna touch base with Becky and the kids, they must be frantic.”
He conjured waterproof hammer pants around his ice diaper and waddled off to find his sister, while Shai slipped inside the cave gratefully.
#
Axio and the three dryads stepped out of their hidden spot in the bamboo grove by the waterfall.
“That was educational.” Maple remarked calmly. “The ironmonger is quite the trooper.”
“I am coming around on her.” Plumeria whispered. “The iron in her blood and bones is distressing, but so much passion and lust for life…”
Axio draped a mushroom arm around the three and smiled. “Let’s not mention we got stuck in here. Mortals are unpredictable about these things.”
“Honesty is the best policy, the boy made these marvelous bodies, he knows we have no genitals, I am certain it won’t get weird.” Solange said calmly. “We are all adult entities here, we will wait a little while first… perhaps in a few centuries.”
#
Out of the evening darkness in the garden, Gary appeared. He stepped from the shrubbery, looking haggard and tired, but moving around on his own.
“Becks…” He mumbled after a quick hug and kiss. “Tell the kids that we are fine. If you see any of my new friends around, don’t worry. They are here to help, to help us all…” He turned her loose and started heading inside.
“I’m gonna go sleep with Shai in the grotto for a while, she’s exhausted, poor thing. When I wake up, let me work ok? I’m on a clock here.” He grabbed her up for one more squeeze and went inside to collapse. He was walking funny for some reason.
#
The duo crawled out in the morning, looking very cozy and still moving as though they were tender… downstairs. They were in the kitchen at first bell, serving breakfast to the Bathers that stayed over and their guests.
Gary eased down onto a round donut shaped pillow and sighed. Shai joined him a moment later, conjuring a huge, plush cushion on her seat.
Becky came downstairs with the little ones a few minutes later, she bent down and whispered in their ears for a moment. Both kids rushed forward and jumped into his lap. They squealed and danced in relief and happiness, leaving him gasping in pain and desperately struggling to keep his cool, as a happy ruckus jostled around on him and his battered… parts.
“Nae Amy, Wilford, Gary is still… sore. Dinnae bounce on his… lap.” She said gently, causing them to bounce over onto her lap, with a similar result.
Before too much more damage got inflicted, the little family went out into the garden for morning stretches and workouts.
Back inside after a very short and tender run, they eased into the bath together and relaxed.
“Liam, get in the bath, we don’t need a guard in the house.” Gary barked, fed up already. “Nobody can hide from me here. Nobody…” He said, eyeing the dryads and Axio, over in the shallow side with Amy and Wilford.
“Ahh, yes… sorry about that Gary, Shai… we, uhh… got stuck in here, with all those strange humans around we thought it best to hide…” Axio fumbled and mumbled, while the dryads looked abashed. Except Maple. She swam over, set herself beside Shai and grinned wickedly.
“I am impressed by your resilience, young ironmonger Shai. Let me bask in your glow a while, hmm?” She murmured, leaning against the confused and embarrassed smith before the woman had a chance to answer. “I may come to savor the trickle of unlife, he has mixed in with your radiance and fire.”
As soon as Liam got into the bath, Plumeria and Solange bracketed him. “Almost ripe… the golden woman too…” Plumeria whispered, excited and hushed.
“Ivy.” Wilford said. Just her name, but all the dryads snapped their attention to the small blonde in the pixie bob, locking their gazes on her startling blue eyes.
“How did we not notice her all along?” Solange demanded, glaring at Plumeria.
The tiny dark haired dryad grabbed Liam’s hand while red haired Solange caught Tawny’s pinkie in a firm grip. They pulled the young couple over to where Tallum and Ivy were canoodling near the bamboo. Solange looked Tallum over with a critical eye.
“Nope, not this one, not for a while.” They closed in beside Ivy, dragging Tawny and Liam close too, cutting Tallum out.
“Those two are ripe, but tainted with unlife… Maple may have acquired a taste for adventure, but we prefer…” She inhaled deeply, leaning in and burying her face in Tawny’s curls. “Ohh, that’s the stuff. But so much better. Grounded in this world, but brushing the unseen skies of the beyond…”
Plumeria curled up beside Liam and toyed with her hair, pressed close against him. “The combined light of the two of you is quite something… Now miss Ivy, such a lovely name… how have you kept your light hidden from us?”
“Uhh, I have a gift for fast mana regeneration, it’s been going a little wild lately… almost like mana is bubbling up inside me…” The two dryads clapped in joy and excitement.
“And you even have a Contract with Beast… tell me Ivy… Liam enjoys the art Gary calls bonsai…” Solange said, blushing petal pink and shyly smiling. “Would you nurture a cutting of me, under his guidance?”
Plumeria smiled wide and gushed. “Oh, please, he has one of me and it is a revelation! I cannot describe the sensation. When he sleeps beneath my boughs so far from me it feels…”
“Liam…” Tawny interrupted the excited spirit. “Is that lovely, tiny tree in your room… miss Plumeria? The tree over your bed… where we…”
“Ohh yes!” Plumeria enthused. “Thank you, it was very helpful. I was able to explain much of what we saw last night to the others, thanks to your kind tutelage. My new friend Thirp is studying mortal reproduction, specifically in humans and related humanoids, fascinating…”
#
They were seated around the fireplace with Otho the dog minding the kids, while they discussed matters.
“I knew the Morrigan’s reputation going in, I thought she would be more… Or maybe less… More or less. Instead, she was everywoman all the time. She figured out how to emulate Shai’s vibe and picked all my locks. She’s strong, crazy strong, crazy.”
He shuddered and sank down in the bath. “Brigid is awesome, you are gonna love her Shai. I don’t remember meeting Beast, but I guess he came by.”
“So ye did sign articles wi Beast an two unknown entities… an were nearly… abused by one. An that were why yer… were…” She faltered and gave up halfway to being angry and settled for upset.
“Brigid and the Morrigan are known where I come from. They are natives of this place, they just went off for a while, now they are back for a visit at least.” He scratched his shaggy head, trying to clear the lingering fog.
“I’m taking it easy today, we enjoy the festival, watch our friends get married and come home. Tomorrow, I go fishing… I just need some bait.”
#
Heading out to spring festival armed and armored was usually in such bad taste, that one would receive less negative attention if one showed up wearing a midden heap.
No one remarked on the armed and armored Adventurers attending the wedding festivities. They were two full bands fully kitted out, with the Sparrowhawks. They spread out in twos and threes around the little family, also fully rigged for war.
Wilford’s green and brown snapping turtle armor fit perfectly, allowing him to gambol and tumble on the lawn without restraint.
Amy’s dress of cobalt blue crackled with protective enchantments when she put it on, tapping into her latent magical radiation to fuel its charms. Luna had trouble looking at it with her magic sight, even when no one was wearing it.
Dannyl preened and strutted in his new armor, fresh off Gary’s bench. Water proof, acid proof, too slick to grab and too tough to tear, a simple suit of triple knit spidersilk left him free to move. Embroidered with runes and charms that only the madman could read or even really see, it fit and felt like normal clothes in dark brown. Plates of reinforced spidersilk and haunted plum wood laminate protected his arms, legs and vitals, they were also enchanted ‘up the wazoo’ wherever that was.
His helm was the best part, a close fitting cap of bronze, with a wide brim, lined with plush worm hide and fur fit his head and vanished from his awareness. It was almost weightless and did little to obscure his vision. A trailing skirt of woven spider silk guarded his neck and throat. When not needed it could tuck up in the lining and vanish, making the armor piece appear as just a leather hat, lined with fur.
The hatband was some kind of fish skin, spangled with shell beads carved in fanciful shapes from a hyper magical, extraplanar magical mollusk shell. Tiny animals wrought in shell and enchanted, capered around his hat, frozen in their joyous dance. Apparently each one also had a ‘wazoo’ to cram magic into.
The sturdy hatchets and cased chain whip at his side were a comforting weight in these troubled times.
The groups slipped through the sparse crowds with ease, fewer people were out after the events of the day before. A heavy presence of brown armored city guards eased people’s minds, but murder was still a big deal.
Spears, halberds and mancatchers bristled from the three man teams roaming the fair. They mingled with and accompanied the Adventurers seamlessly, watching the happy throng as people joined the activities.
Gary bounced and sprang from one booth to another, strumming his guitar and singing short snatches of songs, making a giddy fool of himself.
Wheatford’s gossip grannies were overjoyed to see the local madman up to mischief, that word spread almost as quickly as the news of the previous day’s violence had.
Shai and the kids roamed around in a group, with a red armored warrior silently accompanying their every move. His menacing and imposing form created a small pool of calm around the little family. Staring into his hideous, insectile mask gave those who dared, cold shivering chills that lingered.
Just as imposing, the black panther armored woman lurking nearby, she appeared and vanished without a sound, always near, rarely seen.
Shai walked slowly with her menacing guardians, herding the children with Becky’s help.
It would be hard to beat the armored, sword wielding high priestess for a bodyguard, but the massive smith with a bronze strapped and studded tree trunk propped on his shoulder standing nearby was a good bet too.
As fifth bell signaled the end of the festival day and the beginning of festival evening, the town began to assemble on a low, bowl shaped depression near the river.
A former clay pit, it had been smoothed and planted with a luxurious clover lawn. Now it was an amphitheater capable of seating most of the town, near fifty thousand. This evening it was uncrowded, several hundred eager, fidgeting people roamed and socialized among the terraces and lawns.
Down in the bowl, Otho stood at a low stone lectern, coated with a luxurious growth of moss. The stone, not the man. He raised his hand for silence and received it quickly.
“Welcome, citizens of Wheatford… this, our Spring Festival is a tradition stretching back hundreds of years, we will not be stymied by a fool with a crossbow and a grudge. The unpleasantness of yesterday has been resolved, our wounded are healing and all is well.”
“On this fine evening, we will be joining in sacred marriage, no fewer than eighteen pairs of joyous celebrants…”
Gary recognized most of the faces, but few of the names. The ceremony was brief, heartfelt and simple, followed by a light feast, catered by the cult of Joy. At the end of the buffet a small group of green capped orphans had slipped in and established a cocoa booth. They were busy passing out samples of chocolate and small steaming cups of pleasant feelings and warm happiness, topped with mini marshmallows and whipped cream.
Mad, capering Gary spotted master merchant Angbold in the cocoa line and descended on him like a stooping hawk.
He began strumming and sweeping his strings in a frantic, upbeat pattern, while gyrating his hips and prancing around the pudgy, balding man. The fellow tried desperately to ignore his insane tormentor as he sang in happy, joyful tones.
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
Your first sweet kiss thrilled me so
Sweets for my sweet, sugar for my honey
I'll never ever let you go
If you wanted that star that shines so brightly
To match the stardust in your eye
Darling, I would chase that bright star nightly
And try to steal it from the sky…
Oddly, no matter how he danced and pranced, he never made a sound beyond his voice and instrument. Nor did he bump, or get bumped in the milling crowd. The fool seemed to always just be always, exactly where no one else was.
The merchant finally gave up and fled, abandoning the queue just a few steps before his goal. The fool’s songs followed him all the way back to his inn, ringing off the stones, even so far away.
You might not feel it now
But when the pain cuts through
You're going to know and how
The sweat is going to fill your head
When it becomes too much
You're going to shout aloud
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle
You know that what you eat you are
But what is sweet now, turns so sour
But you'll have to have them all pulled out
After the Savoy truffle
#