I spent most of the next few days relaxing and getting caught up on my orders. While the Bitsy storefront wasn’t going to allow me to just retire, it was at least something that would keep the lights on. If things got better and I got even more content up and selling, then it might improve to the point where I wasn’t always feeling tense when I was back on Earth.
It is amusing that I don’t even think about these problems while I’m on Cortha. My entire focus is on the girls, whether it’s protecting them or just being around them, I thought with a smirk while I sat at the kitchen table and molded a hunk of landscaping granite into a statue.
The statue was one for just me, though I’d debated putting similar ones up on Bitsy to sell. I’d already finished three others like it but with different subject matter and they turned out well.
A tug here with the magic, smoothing there with a finger, and impressing on the Manipulate Element ability what I wanted, and the thick mass began to take on the striations and texture of hair.
Tugging on a portion of the back, the nub I had left there flowed outwards to make a long and slender length that wound around the figure before terminating above the head. Another thought gave the right texture, and I set the statue down next to the others.
My four primary contracted companions—I had to think of them like that as I couldn’t really call them ‘my girls’ anymore since the queen had contracted with me too so I could help her communicate with her daughter—sat before me in granite. They lacked color and a lot of features, but the simple statues did an adequate job of capturing each of their personalities.
Kassandra was perched on her coiled length, her serpentine lower half carefully gathered underneath her to support her. One arm was held over her tummy to shelve her breasts on even though she didn’t need it with how her underbust corset supported her. Meanwhile, her other arm was up, delicate fingers adjusting her glasses while she smirked wickedly from underneath her mass of bombshell curls.
Rieka half-stood, half-leaned forward with her hands behind her back. One ear poked up from her long mane of straight hair like the tip of an exclamation mark, while her tail had the feeling of motion behind her, giving the impression of it sweeping back and forth. My wolfish princess looked like she was about to say something teasing, with a gentle smile curving her lips to soften it.
Just to one side of them, Shayla stood with her shoulders slumped, but her wings spread wide. My moth-girl’s enormous eyes peeked out from under the bobbing tips of her fluffy antennae, clearly studying her surroundings curiously while trying to tug her wings back out of the way. Her loose dress clung to her curves, but I’d swayed out the bottom to give it the appearance of floating in the wind.
And to round out the set was the last one that I’d just finished. Jane was caught mid bounce, a broad smile on her face while her staid, almost librarian outfit flared with the motion. The little mouse-girl’s rounded ears were up and out in excitement while her long, tuff-tipped tail waved over her head. Jane had both hands up as if she was excitedly explaining something to whoever was in front of her.
Smiling down at them, I scooted the statues around so they all sat in a circle facing each other, and it reminded me of a few times that I’d seen my girls—I meant my primary summoners talking.
Then again, they are my girls. Rieka’s mother, the queen, is just another contracted. These are my girls though, I thought, after having to correct myself once more.
It wasn’t any slight on the queen, but these four were my primary concern and the source of most of my contracts. The queen hadn’t summoned me except for the one time necessary to make the bond.
Idly, I reached up to thumb the fifth tattoo that sat on the upper part of my forearm. Queen Gemma’s symbol had taken on the shape of a seven pointed snowflake. Touching it gave me a general sense of the contracted person’s emotional state, and what I got from it was a sense of amusement that melded into a grim determination. As there was no worry flowing with it, I left it alone.
I’ll need to talk to Rieka to make sure she explains this to her mother. The last thing I need is to have it cause problems for them, I thought while standing from the kitchen table and striding over to the kitchen, where I opened my refrigerator to grab a cold bottle of water out.
I’d just started twisting the cap when the edges of my vision flashed and a message cruised through my sight.
Rieka Coldeye has sent a non-urgent request for your presence regarding planning with her.
Transit? View summoning?
Cracking the lid of the bottle, I took a deep drink while selecting the View Summoning option. The image that floated into being next was of my four girls all arrayed around in a room I recognized as Rieka’s, with Kassandra having taken over an entire couch for herself in the absence of one of the large pillows that she liked to use.
Not seeing anything to concern me, I was about to hit the Transit option when my eyes landed on the statues of the girls sitting on the kitchen table and I was reminded of the treat I’d picked up to share with them.
“Dimensional Pocket, go!” I laughed, flipping the fridge open and prodding the item to send it to storage before I accepted the summon.
Being summoned to another world was just as strange the first time as it was now. The sensation was something I’d gotten used to, but since it was never the same sounds, sights, or smells with each subsequent trip, it still felt so odd.
This time, I was tugged downwards through the floor, phasing out of existence between heartbeats before racing off with the speed of an open-top bullet train. The color of a laughing child filled my mouth as the sound of a baby’s smile echoed through my head.
Colors I barely recognized zipped past like I’d been strapped to the mixing tip of a paint machine before everything parted and I was treated to the sight of a trio of people riding on the back of what looked like a grizzly bear the size of a small bus. They crashed through a field of waving grass while being chased by a whole tide of screeching horrors.
I barely had the time to wish luck to whoever that group was before I was engulfed in colors once more.
Should ask Cariad if what I see between dimensions is real or not. For all I know these are nothing more than vivid hallucinations like a dream or a nightmare, I had time to think before the taste of lemon Jello filled my lungs and I was deposited in the cozy center of Rieka’s dorm room.
“Hello ladies,” I said as Rieka was the first to throw herself into my arms, beating out Kassandra for once. Though I think that was more to do with the fact my dwarf lamia was still wrapped around her couch by the fire and hadn’t been expecting me.
“Liam! How are you doing? Sorry that none of us summoned you after the matches finished. I think we all believed you needed a few days off,” Rieka said happily as she hopped into my arms.
Not content with just a simple hug from my favorite wolf girl, I scooped her up and spun with her, eliciting a happy laugh from the platinum blonde even while Kassandra grumbled in annoyance from her spot nearby.
“Rieka! You didn’t tell me you’d summoned Liam yet. I wasn’t ready to greet him!”
“I thought you said you were always ready for time with Liam?” teased Jane, the grinning mouse girl already bouncing out of her chair to hop over and hold her arms out for a hug.
Since I wasn’t ready to let go of Rieka yet, I just bent and scooped the much smaller Jane up into a hug as well, getting a happy giggle from her, too.
“We all missed you, Liam,” Shayla said gently, rising from her chair to stride over with her colorful red, brown, and cream moth wings pumping behind her.
Kassandra continued to grumble while unwrapping her coils from the couch. Normally, my dwarf lamia was the first to greet me with an attempt to tackle me off of my feet and hug me half to death, but it was clear that Rieka had planned around that outcome this time.
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“Yes, we did!” Jane exclaimed. The normally timid mouse girl had been getting better lately, and she threw her arms around my shoulder and hugged me tightly. Jane was short, almost as short as Kassandra was when my dwarf lamia slithered about, so there was a level of adorableness to the hug.
Rieka gave a wiggle, clearly asking to be let down but not verbalizing it yet. Her tail whipped back and forth, the fuzzy appendage beating a happy tune against my side. Knowing my wolf princess, she was being thoughtful, so I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and allowed her from my grasp.
Jane wiggled free next, smirking up at Shayla as the large moth woman continued her slow and steady approach with her arms open wide and antennae bobbing and wiggling happily.
Since Jane was just a summoner and not one of my lovers, she didn’t demand a kiss, but she did rub her face into my shoulder before hopping down to scamper out of the way.
“Hello again, Shayla,” I said to the over six foot tall moth woman as I enfolded her plush form in my arms carefully.
Her wings flicked behind her as I said Shayla’s name, a gesture of happiness and contentedness that was further accented by the soft kiss she laid on my lips while her antennae stroked over my face like a second set of fluffy hands. The fuzzy fur that lined her neck and wrists naturally was cloud-soft against my skin and I hummed happily as the two of us shared a gentle kiss.
Shayla was normally the most reserved of my girls, but she purred contentedly while she molded herself to my chest for a long moment and I enjoyed every soft curve that she pressed into me at that moment.
“Glad to see you are doing well, Liam,” Shayla murmured, nuzzling into my neck for a moment. I felt a soft sensation there as she kissed the side of my jaw before my beautiful moth woman gently disengaged. I knew that Shayla would happily cling to me as long as I would let her, but she also knew exactly what was about to happen next.
“Liam!” Kassandra yelled as she threw herself at me.
My dwarf lamia had managed to unwrap herself from the couch closest to the fire and coil herself on top of the red-and-brown-scaled length of her long tail. As soon as she had a clear shot at me, Kassandra launched herself into a flying tackle like a red-haired comet with her long tail trailing behind her.
With the ease of long practice, I caught Kassandra about the waist, pulling her human torso to mine and turning in place, letting her weight and momentum carry us in a spin that left her giggling happily and me with a cuddly snake-skin belt wrapped low around my hips.
Kassandra proceeded to use the coil wrapped around me to climb higher, so that she pressed her waist into my hip with one arm wrapped around my back and the other across my chest to my shoulder.
“Hello Kass, missed you too, love,” I said, leaning down to give Kassandra a light kiss.
Clearly, my mischief macaroni had plans otherwise, though. Kassandra gave a happy squeal and used her grip on my waist and shoulder to haul me down and hold me in place while she locked lips with me.
Our tongues danced together for several long minutes, with the other three watching in amusement for a bit before Rieka decided to intervene when it became clear Kassandra wasn’t planning to stop anytime soon.
My wolfish princess snuck up behind Kassandra and did something. I couldn’t tell exactly what it was she did because of the angle, but Kassandra squealed into the kiss and her slitted brown eyes popped open behind her silver-rimmed glasses. Kassandra disengaged from my lips a moment later, swatting furiously at Rieka with one hand while she turned to glare at her friend.
“No hogging the guy, Kass,” Rieka said haughtily, shooting me a wink before nodding towards the couch that Kassandra had abandoned.
It was clear that, despite Rieka’s words, the wolf-eared woman had no problems with Kassandra clinging to me like usual, but she had something she wanted to talk about, so we had to focus.
“Fiiiine,” Kassandra grumbled, though she didn’t disengage just yet. Instead, she just snuggled into my side, so I got an arm tucked around her to support the dwarf lamia and sidled over to plop down on her couch.
Despite her shorter stature and status as a ‘dwarf’ or miniature breed of lamia, Kassandra was still quite large. At a bit over fourteen feet long, she easily weighed nearly five hundred pounds. It was why I had learned that trick of catching her and turning with the momentum to bleed off some of it, otherwise she’d take me off my feet regardless of my System-enhanced strength.
Kassandra’s weight was directly proportional to the length of her serpentine tail, and she had quite a bit of it. As a tradeoff, it was rare that her body was entirely off the ground unless she was actively clinging to me. When she was, Kassandra did her best to help manage the weight so it wouldn’t overbalance and knock me over.
Shifting around, I settled onto the long couch and Kassandra wiggled about to unwind some of her coils, but obstinately remained tucked into my left side. This resulted in my right side being open and both Rieka and Shayla moving to take it.
“You go ahead,” Shayla demurred when she noticed the other woman going for it.
“No, be my guest, Shayla,” Rieka replied, though I could see her disappointment in the way her tail slumped and her ears fell to either side.
“I couldn’t,” Shayla replied, blushing and knotting her fingers in front of her.
“I insist,” Rieka said, stamping one foot lightly on the wooden floor.
“You realize that whoever doesn’t get his side can just sit on his lap, right?” Jane’s suggestion made both of them start in surprise. Kassandra’s amused giggle broke them out of their surprise and both my wolf princess and my artistic moth shared a blush.
The rest of their conversation was held with a handful of gestures and meaningful looks, which ended with Shayla snuggling into my right side and Rieka plumping herself down on my lap.
“You look so smug like that, Liam,” Jane giggled from her spot in a puffy armchair nearby. The short mouse kin woman was beaming as she watched Shayla lean into me, her fluffy antennae bopping the side of my face while Rieka’s tail bounced in the moth woman’s lap.
“You’d be smug if you were in my spot too, Jane,” I teased her back.
“No, I’d be squished is what I would be. I’m still astonished you can handle Kassandra’s exuberance.”
“He’s got plenty to spare. I’m sure we could find a spot for you too, Jane,” Kassandra teased the smaller woman back, smiling joyously as she ran her fingers up and down my left thigh meaningfully.
Rieka snorted in amusement and poked Kassandra right in the boob where they threatened to spill over the redhead’s corset-top, getting an eep from the dwarf lamia and a brief slap fight in my lap as the two batted at each other.
It is good to be back here with them, I thought with a sigh, leaning over to lightly kiss the base of one of Shayla’s antennae, making the curvy woman shiver into my side as she rubbed her head on my shoulder happily.
“I’ll keep it in mind,” Jane replied before she turned her attention back to Rieka. “You brought him here to plan, right?”
Rieka stiffened slightly, and she got a guilty look on her face with her ears laying back, the black-tipped appendages giving her the look of a scolded puppy for a long moment. It was obvious Rieka had promptly forgotten about that when presented with my lap.
I fixed her embarrassment by shifting to bring the arm that was around Shayla up so I could lightly stroke those fuzzy triangles, digging my fingers into their bases and eliciting a low moan from my princess as she slumped into me.
Yup. Headpats and ear scratches are king and queen to my girl, I thought with a grin, while Shayla smothered a laugh as well.
“What kind of plans did you need to make?” I asked instead, tilting my head to look around Rieka at the mouse girl.
“Oh, just wanted to make sure you were open to the idea of another camping trip this weekend. We talked about it yesterday at dinner that we all want to go and have another look at that facility you showed Shayla and me back before the competition. And with that being over, we have a week off while the scores are tabulated and we can make the trip out.”
Jane’s explanation made sense, and I knew that both Cariad and Cerebaton would like it if I could confirm the ancient human research facility was clear of threats or hints at the kind of magic necessary to entrap entropic creatures.
Especially good for me to know and confirm, since I might start counting as one of those soon given my powers, I thought before pressing a kiss to the jaw of a very distracted Rieka. My wolfish princess let out a surprised meep before turning to bury her blushing face in my neck when she realized everyone had seen her melt into my affection.
“That sounds like a good idea. Plus, it’ll give you all a chance to practice away from Juneau and there is a lot of interesting stuff in the ruins that might be useful. Kass, do you think Shayla might have a use for some of the tools and chemicals we saw in the storeroom? I know we saw a bunch of metallic ingots there but…” I trailed off as I considered it myself.
There had been stacks and stacks of iron ingots there, as well as other base metals. I knew that my Dimensional Pocket was far too small to carry much of it, but I could actually put some of those metals to use with my crafting.
Thinking about the Dimensional Pocket reminded me of the treat I had stashed in there, and I gave the back of Rieka’s head a pat.
“Actually, hold that thought. I brought you all something from my world.”
My statement made Rieka perk up and peek out from her hiding spot, one sky-blue eye glimmering amongst the myriad blonde hairs hiding her face, while Kassandra bounced excitedly on my other side.
“Oh, what is it?!” Jane demanded, shifting forward on her cushion to stare at me in wonder.
A quick glance confirmed what I had remembered, that Rieka had a tea service set, and that there was steam rising from the pot. Every time I’d visited, they’d always had a hot drink ready, so I’d gotten them something to go with it.
Previously, while I’d been camping with just Rieka and Kassandra, I’d treated them to stories of sweets and other things from my world, and they’d made me promise to bring some to share when I’d had the time. I knew Kassandra was fascinated with the idea of a corn-dog, but that would have to wait for another time.
I let my right arm shift and lengthen, using Shape-Shifting to be able to do it without moving from my spot buried in women. A moment later, a clear plastic container appeared on my palm and I set it on the low table in front of the seats.
“What are these? They are pretty!” Kassandra asked, leaning forward to peer at the colorful shapes.
“Some of my favorite treats from back home, handmade sugar cookies,” I said with a grin as Jane joined Kassandra in poking at the package to try to figure out how to open it.