mugen91 said: Now, Serra, I think I know where you got the name, though her temper doesn't seem suited for angelic creation :P Actually she's not named after the MTG Serra Angel, but rather an elven princess in the warhammer total war 2 game also named Serra. |
MetallumOperatur said: mugen91 said: Now, Serra, I think I know where you got the name, though her temper doesn't seem suited for angelic creation :P Actually she's not named after the MTG Serra Angel, but rather an elven princess in the warhammer total war 2 game also named Serra. Darn it. Though I meant Serra herself, who created the Serra Angels :P |
| Huh. New chapters in two stories this week, both featuring elves. Interesting coincidence. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
Chapter 22 – Twenty Shades of Blonde... Another time, another place “I reckon I could squeeze myself out through your titties next time. Might save you from feeling sick after having to vomit me back up. I wonder, though, would that turn me into an apsara?” The tiny undine spy pondered out loud. Upon seeing the look on Michiko’s face she said, “Pfff! Spare me the lecture. We both know a not-so-small part of you now wonders the exact same thing!” “Ugh… Remind me why do I keep you around again?” Michiko groaned, still nauseous from the rather invasive method she had to use to transport the undine. “Because else you would be known as Michiko, the boring lord of the seas, obviously!" The undine replied with a sugary sweet voice. “Now what do you say to conducting a little experiment after I’ve completed this mission for you? All in the name of science, of course! Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?” “Just focus on getting back from this mission alive and undetected first. We can quarrel over your ‘unconventional research methods’ and their potential side effects after all this is done.” It was rare to see Michiko this worried over a spying mission. “You sure sound gloomy. Have a little faith in me, am I not your sneakiest spy? Now, whose privacy do you need me to violate?” The undine asked unfazed by her lord's mood. Michiko’s face grew even darker. “I am afraid the task I have for you is a grim one. Due north is the mouth of a small river. Follow that river upstream for about half an hour and you will pass a small town. The town should be deserted, but nevertheless be careful. There will be a large villa on a bluff overlooking the town. Xaviera de Tarraco and Drana Kalestruria, two… acquaintances of mine live in that villa. I have reason to believe that lord Yara and her right hand Dorothy may commit a grave crime by turning against these women. If my suspicions prove to be correct, then the only thing I can do for them at this time is have you bear witness their murders. As gruesome as it might be, it is imperative that you observe every little detail of this horrible act.” “You want me to spy on lord Yara herself while she is out to kill someone? Well, that explains a thing or two…” The undine’s cheerful demeanour was being replaced by a more professional one. “If I am to provide you with those kind of details, then I will have to get close... dangerously close. I cannot guarantee that if Xaviera and Drana were to put up a fight and the whole place goes up in flames, I can remain undetected. It is my sworn duty to remind you that if this goes tits up, you risk a war with Yara and her domain. Are you absolutely certain the cause is worth the risk?” ”Thank you for reminding me, my friend. Alas, I am absolutely certain the cause justifies the risks. But I am not going to take any bigger risk than needed, that is why you are the only one I can entrust this mission to. I’d prefer it if everyone were to remains oblivious to your presence, but should things go 'tits up' then know that Yara actually holds no jurisdiction over Xaviera’s county. If they were to capture you, be sure to remind her of that, for it might save your life,” Michiko answered. "If Yara has no jurisdiction there, then to whom do Xaviera and Drana have to answer?" The spy asked surprised. "They need not answer to anyone." ------------------------- Back to the present With twenty-one elves joining in, the snu-snu pit was now officially too small. Even while sitting shoulder to shoulder, there were still over a dozen girls who had to make due with someone’s lap. I was sandwiched between Aisly and a sand-blonde elf with remarkable deep jade-green eyes. She seemed to have no issue with me, making her the fourth elf that did not act as if I carried the plague. To my amusement, most of the other elves had become much more subtle with their act—I was now convinced they had to be putting on an act—due to the constant ridicule they had suffered. Not surprisingly Serra was among the few that had refused to make any concessions. While the elves might be pretending to ignore me, I had no such reservations. And with them having taken off their capes, weapons, and armour there was now a whole lot more elf for me to check out. I noticed a few more elves that had those long funky eyebrows. Which really intrigued me, so I asked the jade-eyed elf, who had introduced herself as Myrra, about it. She explained to me that they were an inherent trait of some elven tribes. When I asked if that meant their group did not all belong to the same tribe, I got a vague answer that boiled down to them being from the same tribe but that it was complicated. She did not seem to like talking about this topic, though, so I changed the subject. Myrra turned out to be an engaging conversation partner. I figured she might be another potential guide. Though, I liked Fiora better and not just because she had let me watch while she touched herself. It was hard to describe what it exactly was, but I felt that Fiora had that “special spark”. If that makes any sense. Myrra was a solid plan B, though, in case Fiora was not willing or able to be our guide. During dinner I caught a few elves peeking at me. So, not only were they “ignoring me” but they were pretty bad at it too. Every time I caught one, the elf quickly looked away while a blush formed on her cheeks. Seems Aedelind had been right on the nose about the elves. I wondered why they acted this way. Were they perhaps playing hard to get? Maybe I should confront one of them one-on-one tomorrow, just to see if I could get a few answers. Unlike the previous evenings there was not a whole lot of flirting going on between the girls. The obvious exception being Fiora working on wooing Tish. It seemed my wife had either put one and one together, or she was simply in the mood to be coddled, for she really made Fiora work for it. One girl after another excused herself to go to bed early, so the snu-snu pit was clearing out quickly. Tish and Fiora came over to say goodnight and when they left Tish gave me an mischievous wink before letting herself be dragged off towards the elven camp. Not much later I was the only one left. Well, technically the alraune was there too, but she was sleeping somewhere inside her now closed giant flower. It was nice to have some alone time, though, so I just leaned back and enjoyed this rare moment of solitude. I do not know how long I had been staring into the slowly dying flames, but at some point I must have fallen asleep, for I woke up disoriented and still inside the snu-snu pit. Though the sky was growing lighter, the sun had yet to rise. A quick look around revealed that the entire town was still fast asleep. Since I was not really hungry I decided to go for a bath. I grabbed a towel that had been drying outside and wrote a brief message in the mud to let them know where I had gone. It would be a bit of a hike to get to the stream, but thankfully there was an easy to follow trail. ------------------------- Oh boy! This sure is going to ruffle some feathers! In front of me was an elf in a most compromising act and position. I guess you could say that Fiora had warned me, but I was still not prepared for this. Even more so when I recognised the elf in question as none other than the rude elf from yesterday—Serra. She was lying spread eagled and buck naked on a patch of soft grass while fanatically rubbing the pearl of her glistening wet womanhood. The similarities with Fiora’s private show were striking. Between the moans and the groans she occasionally cried out my name quite loudly. Even though I had not tried to conceal my approach, she did not seem at all aware of my presence. I just stood there dumbstruck for a few seconds while watching the lewd spectacle. Though Serra had been acting like a bitch, I could not deny that she, like all other elves, was very hot. Not for the first time my eyes were drawn to her tits. Without the constraints of her outfit, they turned out to be even bigger than I had imagined them to be. If she had been as tall and broad as Aedelind they would have suited her well, but as a substantially shorter elf they were a little too big, even for my liking. Not that they were not attractive, just that a bit less would have been better. “Oooh, Erwin! Harder! Spank me! Harder!” Serra moaned as she arched her back. She upped the pace and switched from rubbing her pearl to roughly spanking it. “Ehm… You called?” I blurted out. I had not meant to reveal myself like this, but then again, I could not just keep standing here either. The elf froze in place for a second. Before letting out a startled yelp and making a laughable attempt at covering herself with her arms. Yeah, it is a little too late for that… She looked up at me, first in shock, then in horror and shame, and finally in anger. “You snuck up on me? You filthy pervert!” She spat at me when she finally spoke up. I just caught you masturbating while crying out for me to spank you, yet I’m the pervert here? How rude! I resisted the urge to immediately defend myself. Instead I took a deep breath plus two seconds to think. It was just enough to realize that her haughty behaviour allowed me to easily turn her own words against her. So, with no small amount of sarcasm and theatre I replied, “You are telling me that you, a graceful and vigilant elf, have let yourself be caught off guard by me, an uncouth human?” It took her a second to realize what she had just implied, but when she did the look on her face was priceless. I do not think that she could have looked more sour even if I had bitch-slapped her. “A human catching an elf off guard? Preposterous! Especially if that human is as loud as you are!“ I raised an eyebrow. Now that was a lie if ever I've heard one! Serra clearly did not realize that her answer only tightened her own proverbial noose. “Well then, care to explain why you kept furiously masturbating and yelling out my name, even though you knew someone was coming?” “That is because I wanted to expose you for the degenerate that you are!” Serra proclaimed haughtily. Is that so? It was funny how that little moment of “stepping back” to look at this conversation from a spectator’s perspective, had made me completely indifferent to her insults. In fact, I found them rather amusing. “If you were already convinced that I am a degenerate, what does that make you? Someone who masturbates to the fantasy of getting spanked by a degenerate, I guess.” Again the look on her face was priceless. Again Serra did not think her answer through. So, again it created more avenues for me to attack her than it closed off. I had her fully on the defensive now, and her answers became more and more incredulous. This back and forth continued on for a few highly entertaining minutes, as everything she said I could and did use against her. Finally the elf snapped but not in a way I had expected. She haughtily stuck up her nose and looked away before saying, “Enough already! Just get it over with.” “Get over with what?” I asked, while trying to mask my surprise. “Do you really think that I don’t smell your animalistic lust for me? Go ahead make me your slave. I know I will not enjoy this one bit, but I am powerless to stop you from brutishly raping me. Gagging me so no one can hear me scream. Spanking me until I’m all bruised. Biting me there where it hurts the most. Abusing me till you leave me a bloody mess. Choking me till I faint. But no matter what filthy acts you have in store for me, know that I… no, elvenkind will never submit!” I almost lost it. This elf was truly an piece of work! With what she had been crying out mere moments ago and the fact that the elf’s ears were as red as an lobster—watching Fiora had taught me this was a clear sign of arousal—I was certain that in truth she had just confessed her own fantasies to me. Seems she wants it rough…Very rough! For a moment there was the temptation to just play along and give the bitch the punishment she so obviously craved. But I reminded myself that I would be playing straight into her hand if I did. No, I would not betray my own values today, nor would I confirm her prejudiced views on humans, or let her get away with not taking any responsibility for her own actions. So, I replied, “I would not rape you even if I believed your bullshit about you being ‘powerless to stop me’.” I do not know what she had expected, but getting rejected had clearly not been among the possibilities she had considered. She gasped in disbelief. “You… You are not going to rape me?! You sure had no problem fucking the honeybee or the amazonesses, but I am not good enough for you?!” The elf complained as if I was the one being unreasonable. “And here I was thinking you’d be happy you would not get raped today. Silly me, not realizing that in fact you wanted me to force myself onto you. But wait… if you want it… then it is not fucking rape now, is it?! You want to know why the others got laid? They had the guts to ask me for it. They did not shy away from taking responsibility for themselves. If you like it rough and want me to smack you, then be honest and upfront about it. Trying to goad me into ‘raping’ you just makes you a coward who is refusing to take responsibility for her own sexual fantasies. But enough about this. I’ve got better things to do than to listen to your bullshit. So be my guest and go continue fucking yourself.” With that I just turned around and walked away without looking back. Undoubtedly I left behind an elf in shock. ------------------------- The trail led to a place where the stream had formed several kettle-shaped potholes in the underlying bedrock. Since the water of the stream was of a pleasurable temperature, all the amazonesses had to do to turn these potholes into natural hot tubs was regularly removing the rubble from the bottom and adding a few large stones to function as seats. I sat down in the largest pothole and immediately slouched back for some well-deserved relaxing. With relaxing time came contemplation time. This ordeal with Serra made the irony of this world all the more clear; I was not at the top of the proverbial food-chain any more as pretty much every mamono could kick my ass, yet I was now more in a position of power than I had ever been simply because I could decide who would get the D and who would not. Having used that power to deny Serra had made me feel really good about myself. Perhaps I had even grown a little bit smug or cocky, for I now truly felt that I was the alpha in this neck of the woods! Of course this brief moment of feeling really good about myself was immediately followed up with the sound of a small splash that told me I was not alone any more. Fate is truly a fickle mistress, for when I opened my eyes I was met by the only person that would and probably could challenge my position as the alpha. She had the body of a goddess—and yes, I mean one of the good looking ones! She was truly blessed with the whole package. Long, but not freakishly long legs? Check. Wide curved hips? Check. Hourglass figure? Check. Flat toned belly? Check. More than a handful, yet perky breasts? Check. Symmetrical pink nipples? Check. Smooth tight pussy and lips? Check. A firm booty? Check. Flawless skin? Check. Beautiful long golden hair? Check. Long pointy ears? Check. Attractive face? Check. Sexy lips? Check. Her piercing gaze was intimidating—I could now confirm that her eyes glowed indeed—her pale green eyes were also intriguing. Though her strong presence made me feel uneasy I would not just roll over, so when our gazes met I did not avert my eyes. In fact I defiantly and blatantly checked out every centimetre of her near perfect body, while letting her know full well I was doing so. If she had any issues with it, then she was welcome to bugger off, this was my hot tub right now. “Aranessa, what the hell are you doing here?” I asked, as she sat down across from me. The water coming up to the very pleasant height of right underneath her breasts. “Shadowing you,” she answered casually. “You were shadowing me? Kinda rude, don’t you think?” I had not noticed her following me at all. She threw me a questioning look, but then shrugged and replied, “I have been tasked with keeping everyone safe, and you are a human.“ Apparently being human was a sufficient reason to shadow someone without their knowledge. “So, the weak human can’t take care of himself?” I asked somewhat annoyed. “Indeed.” was her curt answer. I failed to suppress a chuckle. “Well, at least you are honest, unlike the previous elf I met. I take it you heard that whole ordeal with Serra then.” “I did.” Aranessa replied with the hint of a smile. It was the first time I saw her crack a smile. “I found it quite… arousing.“ She stood back up and slowly made her way over to me, while making no attempt at covering herself. The way she moved reminded me more of a predator closing in on a kill than woman trying to seduce someone. What she wanted was pretty obvious, but at the same time I realized she was rapidly taking the lead here. If I wanted to keep any say in what was going to happen next, then I had to man up and rise to her challenge. “That is close enough…” To my relief she stopped her slow advance immediately. Encouraged I continued, “Tell me, is this part of your ‘task’ as well?” Now I was not the most gifted person when it came to reading other people, but at least with Aranessa I was certain that even those who were would struggle too. “No, it is not.” Despite her godly body I still had my reservations towards fornicating with Aranessa. Her being naked had not made her any less intimidating, and then there was her odd personality too. I knew that agreeing here would be like playing with fire. Yet, just like with playing and fire, it was hard to simply dismiss her. “Then what do you want?” “Slightly violent hate sex,” Aranessa stated as if she was talking about buying a loaf of bread. I raised an eyebrow. Had I heard that right?! “Slightly violent hate sex?” “Yes.” Aranessa was not a woman of many words, but at least she did not try to sugar coat her intentions. I could respect that. “Does that mean you hate me?” I questioned. “I do not hate you.” She stated, but she did not bother to explain why she called it hate sex then. I decided to not to press the matter and just weigh my options. Aside from her creepy stare—for which I had reason to believe she did not really do that on purpose—she had not wronged me in any way. In the end curiosity and lust for her godly body won out over my hesitation because of her odd personality. “Alright, I accept on one condition: I get to be on top.” Aranessa shrugged. “Fine with me.” ------------------------- Don’t you dare let her hear you complain! Say anything and you will have to live with the shame of being a whiny bitch for the rest of your life! I kept repeating these lines in my head like a mantra. I gritted my teeth and used all my willpower to endure my torment without complaining. With every step it felt as if my back was flogged with a hundred and one whip lashes. Droplets of blood trickled down my face, and there was a searing pain coming from my left shoulder where Aranessa had bitten me. I could not tell whether the collarbone was broken or not. Today I had learned what it meant when a psycho like Aranessa likes it rough. I had no regrets though, for the sex had been amazing, even though Aranessa's definition of "slightly violent" differed from mine. I wondered how the others would react when they would see the fruits of our activities. As if reading my mind, Aranessa stopped while we were still outside village, and said. “You need healing. I’ll have one of my sisters take care of your back and shoulder.” Yes please! Taking care of back and shoulder sounds really good! “Are you sure? Most of your sisters don’t seem too thrilled with me.” I grunted, as I tried not to sound too agonized. “They will either heal you, or they will be in need of healing themselves,” Aranessa answered without showing any emotion. There was no doubt in my mind she was dead serious. Had I already mentioned Aranessa was a psycho? “And what about you?” I asked as we walked in an arc around Highleigh. “I’ll be fine.” She led me to a fairly large tent that was mostly hidden from view as it was set up behind a large, fully laden wagon. “Get in, undress, and lay ready.” I did as she had instructed. A few agonizing minutes later an elf entered the tent. To my relief it turned out to be Myrra. That at least made things not even more awkward than it already was. She was carrying a bag and wore a thin white silk gown. Two large bulges in her dress hinted that Myrra was quite the busty woman. Nice! Her nipples poking through the fabric gave away that she was not wearing a bra. Really nice! Recalling what Fiora had said about elves and panties I was fairly certain the gown was the only thing she was wearing. Really, really nice! Despite my current state I could still appreciate the finer things in life, like scantily clad busty elves. “Good to see you again Myrra,” I welcomed her with a agonised smile. “Nice to…” She gasped when she saw my back. “By Elizabeth! Aranessa did this to you?! Ugh, I should have warned you to be careful with her. She tends to easily get carried away.” She kneeled down beside me to inspect my wounds. “Yes I noticed that. To be fair, she’s as messed up as I am. If you feel the need to check my dental records, just have a look at either one of her breasts. Also, her back and ass are covered in as many scratch marks as mine. But, yeah, I’ll admit we have let things get slightly out of hand.” In fact, it had been even more crazy than that, but I decided to leave out some of the details. Like, when after I had sunk my teeth deep enough into Aranessa’s breast to draw blood, she had calmly declared that she did not like asymmetry and therefore made me leave a similar bite mark in the other breast too. “Still she should have held back. No offence, but we elves are a bit more resilient than humans. Especially Aranessa who is tougher than most ogres. Those bite marks might take a little longer, but the scratches will be healed within a day or two, probably even faster now that she has gorged herself on your spirit energy.” It was still a bit weird to hear people talk about how they can “feed” on my spirit energy. I guess it was similar to how I got to gorge myself on Kayley’s milk every day. Myrra focussed on my wounds again and murmured, “At least the scratches are mostly superficial. This should not be too difficult to heal.” She then quickly got to work. Though I could not see much of what she was doing, the results of her healing magic spoke for themselves. The pain was quickly replaced with a lightly glowing, tingling sensation. It was really strange how I could feel the scratches and cuts on my back close under her light touch. “Myrra! This is amazing! Thank you so very much!” I proclaimed, when it looked like she was done. “Man, I wish I could have seen you use your healing magic. I have never seen something like that before.” “You have never seen healing magic before?” Myrra asked curiously. Apparently she was not done yet for she gently pushed me back down when I tried to turn around. She then began rummaging through her bag. “No. I have only seen magic being used once, and that was merely a split second. Maybe twice if Aranessa’s eyes are glowing because of magic,” I replied. “We are not sure either why some elves have glowing eyes, but if I had to guess then I would say it is not due to magic. Now lay still for me please, I would like to put some ointment on your back to help remove most of the demonic energy I used to heal you. It does have some temporary harmless side effects, though.” Myrra explained. Seeing that she had just healed my back, I trusted Myrra on this one. “Sure go ahead. Just out of curiosity, what might those side effects be?” Myrra poured some kind of cool gel on my back. Then she whispered with a breathy voice, “It doubles as a potent aphrodisiac. But don’t worry daddy, I will make sure ALL your needs are met!” She then began rubbing the ointment all over my back using only the softest pair of breasts I had ever felt. Did she just call me daddy?! EDIT 1: Typos and grammar. |
MetallumOperaturJul 13, 2019 5:04 AM
TsunamiSeeker said: The elves do seem to complement each other now do they? :-P Lucky lucky guy! Having a round of rough elf hate sex followed by a round of gentle elf healing sex? TsunamiSeeker said: Ow she blew it, like really really bad. If she wants to have a shot at getting on the bone train, then she'll have to swallow a whole lot more than just her pride. ;-)Though it looks like Serra will have to swallow her pride and politely ask the "uncouth human" to fulfil her sexual fantasies if she wants to get on the bone train. Wouldn't blame him if he made her beg for it... |
| And here I thought that elves usually manifest their perversions after they've been deflowered by a lowly human... Guess those two have had experiences before :P |
mugen91 said: I imagined it like this: their perversions are already there, slowly gestating in their minds growing more and more extreme as they keep (subconsciously) fantasizing about it. But at the same time they are in heavy denial about their own perversions and desires. After being deflowered they can't really fight those perversions and desires anymore and they make that 180 degree turn. And here I thought that elves usually manifest their perversions after they've been deflowered by a lowly human... Guess those two have had experiences before :P I also imagine there is a minority of elves that are much less stuck-up and more honest about their desires to begin with. I like to think that this group of elves is the main reason the elven numbers don't drop too fast. As for the three elves in question. Serra seems to fit the general premise of being "in denial" quite well. Aranessa scores probably quite high on the psychopath scale, and does not care about silly emotions like pride. Now, Myrra is indeed a mystery, as there are several possible explanations that could fit the bill. She could have had her deflowering already. She could be part of that minority group of elves with less reservations towards fornicating. Or, she could just have been presented with an irresistible and perfect opportunity to get laid and instincts took over; there has got to be the first time after all. There is a slightly darker possible explanation too, namely that Aranessa gave her a "suggestion" on how to serve the tribe. |
MetallumOperaturJun 16, 2019 5:03 AM
MetallumOperatur said: I imagined it like this: their perversions are already there, slowly gestating in their minds growing more and more extreme as they keep (subconsciously) fantasizing about it. But at the same time they are in heavy denial about their own perversions and desires. [snip] I also imagine there is a minority of elves that are much less stuck-up and more honest about their desires to begin with. I like to think that this group of elves is the main reason the elven numbers don't drop too fast. I suspect that the haughtiness is a mechanism for keeping their numbers down. Consider: mamono are descended from the monsters and large carnivores of that world. There aren't many creatures that can prey on them. Add to this life expectancies that can be measured in centuries, if not millennia, and healing magic to limit maternal and child mortality, and you've got a recipe for overpopulation even with limited breeding opportunities. The only things in nature that can control mamono populations are disease, natural disasters, and other mamono. An attitude that limits the willingness to exploit breeding opportunities at least keeps the birthrate down. The fact that the worst example of said attitude appears in the dragonkin -- the apexiest of apex predators -- lends credence to the theory. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
tygertyger said: I disagree with you on this one. This haughtiness only applies to a select few species. There are plenty of species that have no such limiting attitudes and will gladly jump on every opportunity to fornicate (succubi and youko are noteworthy examples). Even within the dragonkin family jabberwocky and wurms are (in)famous for being insatiable letches. So at best this mechanism would only help control the population of a select few species. Therefore I suspect there is a different primary reason for such behaviour, though it is hard to point out what that reason then would be. I suspect that the haughtiness is a mechanism for keeping their numbers down. For the dragons, several stories including Em's have mentioned that ever since the dragon wars their numbers are dwindling. And if I remember correctly, in Kami's story it was stated that the number of elves (even though they are still quite numerous) is dwindling as well. My story also presumes that the elves are on a slow decline, though this assumption it not really crucial to the story. |
MetallumOperaturJun 16, 2019 5:35 PM
MetallumOperatur said: at best this mechanism would only help control the population of a select few species. Dead on the money... and note that, in most stories, species that don't exhibit this behavior aren't said to be in decline. Elves and dragonkin, OTOH... It does beg the question of what mechanisms, if any, are in place to control the numbers of other mamono species. The succubus family certainly seems to be in need of such. I imagine in their case the main limiter is limited fertility. Indeed, I can see the depressed rate of conception to be due to a spell limiting other mamono to the normal rate for succubi. Constructs are made rather than born, so what limits their numbers is the expense of making them, not to mention the investment of time and energy necessary to learn how. Lower-tier undead (ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, etc.) are also made rather than born, so the limiting factor for getting more of them is the death rate (of humans and mamono). And some undead require not only that someone die, but that they die under certain conditions. Higher-tier undead (i.e. vampires and wights) can give birth, but they tend to have the same haughtiness problem that elves and dragonkin do. Elementals are tricky, as they can be born from normal couplings but can also arise spontaneously. The latter requires high levels of mana, though, so it can't happen everywhere -- and even where it can happen, it probably can't happen often. And an elemental might well need high levels of ambient mana to conceive. Marine mamono probably have only one restriction on their reproduction rate; how rare it is for human males to show up in their environment. A man who arrives in the world far out to sea will quickly drown if there are no mamono close by. A strong swimmer might be able to tread water for hours... but let's face it, most guys aren't strong swimmers. Beast-types (including harpies, grizzlies, lamias, and the various types of canid, felid, and bug) and ogrekin probably have the fewest breeding restrictions, but they also are the mamono most likely to be preyed upon by other mamono or to pick fights they can't win. And as the least magically powerful mamono they're often at the bottom of local hierarchies, which means their access to men might well be at the sufferance of more powerful mamono. Echidnas are a notable exception here, but their lifestyle guarantees that they only breed with the most capable human males... which limits their opportunities just a bit. The ones that should worry everyone are the slimes. They reproduce quickly, have no incest taboo (daughters will readily mate with their fathers), and can survive on food of such low quality that other mamono would get sick eating it. Good thing they're limited in terms of the environments they can survive in (nothing too cold or too dry). |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
tygertyger said: Dead on the money... and note that, in most stories, species that don't exhibit this behavior aren't said to be in decline. Elves and dragonkin, OTOH... It does beg the question of what mechanisms, if any, are in place to control the numbers of other mamono species. Was this haughty behaviour specifically adopted/evolved to avoid overpopulation, or did it came to be for other reasons and is a birthrate reduction a side effect? Seeing as it is only present in a few races I would argue that the latter case is much more likely and that population control had nothing to do with how this behaviour came to be. Could this behaviour be the cause of the slow decline in the numbers of elves and dragons? Sure. In fact that is one of the assumptions made in my story. Though in the case of dragons I think they are also still reeling from their massive losses in the dragon wars. This decline in numbers as well as exposure to other, less reluctant races, is a reason why a minority of the elves (say ~10%) and even some dragons (e.g. Rigel introduced in Mugen's story) have developed less haughty attitudes. Since these individuals are more likely to find a mate/visit a brothel it would stand to reason that this group has relatively more children and thus help combat the decline of their race's numbers. |
MetallumOperatur said: Was this haughty behaviour specifically adopted/evolved to avoid overpopulation, or did it came to be for other reasons and is a birthrate reduction a side effect? Seeing as it is only present in a few races I would argue that the latter case is much more likely and that population control had nothing to do with how this behaviour came to be. I have to agree; the haughtiness most likely came about for cultural reasons, and few mamono who fall into that trap are introspective enough to truly see how it limits their reproductive opportunities. in the case of dragons I think they are also still reeling from their massive losses in the dragon wars. Definitely. And not just direct losses during the war, either; there would likely have been a certain amount of scapegoating after the suffering that war caused. Not that dragons have much to worry about from hate crimes, but they are as vulnerable to being shunned as anybody else. Another side effect of riding a high horse; even less haughty mamono have their pride, and it's hard to get someone to share her man with you when you insist on being the First Wife despite the fact that she had him first. And while a dragonkin would usually have an advantage in a direct confrontation, there are several species that can give dragonkin a run for their money -- especially if taking the ancient form isn't an option (i.e. underground). Indeed, lots of mamono have abilities that a wise dragonkin would respect. *Fire breath? Doesn't impress an ignis, and she can do things with fire no dragonkin can. *Flight? Harpies might be faster, and are certainly more maneuverable. *Strength? Ogrekin and minotaurs can probably match, possibly exceed, the strength of a dragonkin in mamono form. *Natural weapons (fangs, claws, etc.)? The dark beasts in general -- manticores in particular -- match dragonkin in this regard, as do soldier beetles. *Numbers? This is an area in which dragonkin are inferior to other mamono. And some -- giant ants, honeybees, and hornets especially -- are natural cooperators who live in large groups. A dragonkin against a honeybee is a one-sided fight... but so is a dragonkin against a honeybee hive. The honeybees would take horrendous losses, but in the end the dragonkin has to make hundreds of kills to win. The hive only needs one. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
Chapter 23 – ... and Two Shades of Red “…follow the right outstretched arm of the Belly Dancer in the direction of the Maid. You will come across eight really bright stars aligned in a wavy row, that is the spine of the Echidna. Keep following the spine towards the Maid until you get to the very end. There you see another group of eight stars, though they are less bright, those are the head and fangs of the Echidna. The yellow star right in the middle is its eye. That is Dhruva, though we usually call it the Mother Star. While all other stars travel across the sky, the Mother Star always stays in her home to guide us back to ours,” Aisly explained with great enthusiasm while pointing up towards the stars she was talking about. “Ah, Polaris,” I mused. “Polaris?” “Polaris, also called the Pole Star or the North Star, is our star that, like the Mother Star, does not move across the night sky.” “Ooh, you have a Mother Star too!? Do you also use it to find your homes again after you went on a long hunt?” Aisly kept showing great interest in Earth and was asking questions whenever I mentioned something about it. While I loved to talk about Earth, it was also a painful reminder that I was infinitely far away from home and that I was not getting back any time soon… “In the past people used the stars to navigate, especially sailors, but now we usually navigate using other means like a compass.” I decided not to make things confusing by mentioning satellites and GPS systems. “I never learned how to navigate using the stars, though. Did you learn it?” “Of course, my mom is our tribe’s shaman after all. She taught me it when I was fourteen. I could teach you, if you like. It will take a while to learn though…” Initially she was really enthusiastic, but towards the end her voice trailed off and her enthusiasm audibly dropped as she realized something. “Ow, sorry… I forgot… You will be leaving with the elves…” I sat up and looked at her. We were bathing in the light of a nearly full Moon. Her ruby hair was fanned out around her as she was laying on her back on the large blanket we had brought for our stargazing date. We had headed into the heathlands where we had found a small sand-drift that provided a soft underground and an unobstructed wide open view of the night sky. It was reminiscent of the night I had spent with Tish somewhere out here about two weeks ago. I had asked Aisly on this date to both have a good time and to ask her to come with us. Now was as good a moment as any. “You know, I was thinking about going on foot rather than joining the elves. I’ve been told that will be much faster travelling. Only problem is that neither Tish nor I knows these woods. So we are looking for two people who are willing to come with us to Westholm. I would be honoured and grateful if you were one of those two…” Aisly’s mood made a full one-eighty in the matter of a few seconds. With barely contained excitement she exclaimed, “Yes! Yes! Yes! I want to come with you!” She looked like she wanted to jump me, but awkwardly tried to restrain herself. I opened my arms to show her she was welcome for a hug and immediately was squished in a big bear hug, as she began to lightly sob. I guess the duel had left quite the mental mark on her too. “Thank you so much!” Aisly said when she had finally calmed down a little. “Thank me? I should be thanking you. I’m the one asking for help and I’m the one who can offer little in return. I owe you big time for this.” “Why would you owe me anything? I don’t even know the way to Westholm…” “You know how to survive in the forest, that is more than can be said of me. Also we should have that covered as Jillian offered one of her elves as a guide, that is if I can find a volunteer. I’m confident that there are a few who could be convinced. For now, however, you and I are still on a date and I really enjoyed learning about the constellations. So what do you say we do just that for a little while longer?” Obviously Aisly needed little convincing. I suppressed a smile when I noticed that this time we were laying even closer to one another than before. I pointed at the spiral galaxy. “Let’s start with that one.” “Ah, that is the Chained Maiden. The Maiden you can see easily, but if you look closely you can see her chains too.” And with that we were back to stargazing again. It was clear a great burden had fallen off her shoulders, for she seemed more relaxed and she had finally found the courage to make the occasional flirtatious remark again. When it seemed she had covered all constellations, I asked, “Tell me, which one of these is your favourite?” “The Huntress.” “The Huntress?” I could not remember her mentioning that constellation. “Yes, the only constellation you can see right now that I have not taught you yet, as I saved it for last. You remember The Vixen?” “The Vixen were those three stars over there, right?” I said, as I pointed towards a fairly distinct trio of stars. “Close, but no. Those three are the skirt of the Concubine. The Vixen is right next to it.” Aisly said as she pointed below the Concubine. Then I remembered that the vixen was practically ogling up the concubine’s skirt. “Doh!” “No need to be upset, no one learns all the constellations in a single night,” Aisly remarked. “There you see the tail of the Vixen. Follow it and about two hand widths to the right from the tip of the tail you will see a really bright star. That is the hand of the Huntress holding her bow…” It turned out the Huntress, like our Orion, was quite a sizable constellation. “…and now for the best part, you see those two bright reddish stars? The left one is called Siné, and the right one is called Deala.” She giggled. “Those are her nipples.” “What? Hold on a second! Let me get this straight, the Huntress has stars for her nipples?!“ I asked baffled. “Yes she has. And it gets even better, take a close look at those much fainter stars around them…” Well I be fucking damned! The Huntress, like Aisly, was quite the busty woman. “Stars for nipples and stars for tits… That… Is… Absolutely… Amazing and awesome! I have to ask, though, why of all constellations is the Huntress the topless one?” “We huntresses always hunt topless when we are out to catch a special prey.” Aisly said suggestively. I already knew where this was going, but I liked the direction so I took the bait nonetheless. “Is that so? And what might that ‘special prey’ then be, if I may ask?” “Oh, that would be a cute man like you…” Aisly now had turned to purring. It was good to see that the confidence she had shown during our first encounter was slowly coming back. But if she wanted to talk big, then she better deliver. So I silently grabbed my coat that was laying besides me and challenged, “Oh, really?! Well then huntress why are you still wearing your top?” After that things went lightning fast. I simultaneously threw my coat over Aisly’s face and jumped up. I had clearly taken her by surprise, for she was a tad slow to react. Before she had ditched the coat and gotten up on her feet, I had already made my way out of the small sand-drift and onto the tiny dirt path, while playfully taunting her, “Better catch your man before he is lost to the forest, huntress!” Then I bolted down the path heading straight for the forest’s edge. I was a fast sprinter, had a good head start, and the treeline was only a hundred or so meters away. Yet when I had nearly made it, Aisly had also nearly caught up to me. I could hear her sprinting right behind me. I could not resist the urge for a quick glance even though I knew that might cost me the race. I was just in time to witness her take off for the final leap. A split second later I was firmly in her grip as we crashed onto the forest floor. The execution of her leap had been downright amazing as I somehow ended up on top of her with my face buried her very generous bosom for an amazingly soft landing. True to her word Aisly had ditched the top. The absolute mad lass! ------------------------- “Where is everyone?” I asked Frosya between bites of a mid-night snack. The village had been nearly empty this afternoon when I had asked Aisly out on the date. I had not thought much of it back then, but now that Aisly and I had gotten back fand it was near bedtime the snu-snu pit was still only filled with eleven people, myself included. Conveniently everyone I considered asking to join us on the road trip to Westholm were among those that had stayed behind. “We found fresh tracks of a boar herd heading south this morning, so most have left on an impromptu hunting and foraging trip. They will probably be going as far as the edge of the Deep Woods. I don’t expect them back before tomorrow night,” She answered while looking bemused at Esme who was trying to pry details about our date from Aisly. “The Deep Woods. Jillian mentioned that place too yesterday. If I recall correctly, she said that no road goes through there. What kind of a place is it, aside from being, you know, woody?” I asked curiously. “It is the rugged and uninhabited part of this forest due south of here. Occasionally we hunt or forage in its outer parts, but for the most part it is unexplored. All I know is that it gets more mountainous the further inwards you travel.” “Unexplored you say? Sounds thrilling,” I mused. I had always been fascinated with the great expeditions that had explored the earth. Hearing that there were unexplored regions relatively close by filled me with a sense of wonder and adventure. Then again, this entire world was terra incognita to me. Talking about adventures, since I already had successfully recruited Aisly earlier this evening, I figured that the time was ripe to recruit Fiora too. I excused myself and walked over to where she and Tish were sitting. Fiora was still committed to buttering Tish up. “Tish would you mind if I borrow Fiora for a while?” ------------------------- The hunting party had only returned for an hour or so, when Kayley and Jillian came over and invited Tish and me to join them for a meeting. This was a bit odd given the time of night, but we followed them nonetheless. Without her armour and only wearing a set of light clothes I noted that Jillian was surprisingly slender for someone who travels for weeks on end in plate. I also couldn’t help but note that she did not lack curves either. Like all other elves she was madly attractive. Fiora and Aisly had been invited to the meeting too and were already seated inside Kayley’s cabin. Once we had been seated too it was Jillian who did the talking. “Let me start by saying that I think you made two excellent choices for travel companions. Though they are young, Aisly and Fiora are good at what they do, they complement each other as well as Tish, and they get along. Were it not that we have run into a problem this morning, you would have been all set to leave for Westholm. “You ran into a problem while out hunting in the forest?” I had only just formed my travel group, so it sucked that there were already bumps on the road. Yet, at the same time Jillian’s demeanour did not suggest that it was any major issue, which left me rather curious as to what exactly was going on then. “Your confusion is understandable, so let me elaborate. For every currently inhabited village, farm, and estate there are at least a dozen abandoned ruins, if not more. An inevitable side effect of both the human and mamono population being on a steady decline for millennia. While many of these ruins are nothing more than the overgrown foundations of some long abandoned farm, there are still thousands of ruins that warrant further investigation in the Westholm province alone.” Her remark peaked my interest as archaeology was a big hobby of mine, but there was also a certain melancholy in learning that this world was on the decline. “This morning we found such a ruin when we stumbled upon a heavily overgrown road. A rather peculiar find as this mysterious road is not only absent on the map we have of this area, but it also appears to be heading further into the Deep Woods. As far as we know nobody lives in the Deep Woods, so obviously this raises a lot of questions. It is part of our job to try and answer at least some of these questions before reporting our findings to the administration in Westholm.” These elves sure had an extensive job description. But it did not explain why this affected us. Then Jillian turned to Fiora. “Have you already told Erwin about your profession?” Fiora shook her head. “No I have not.” She then looked at me and said, “I am a cartographer and a bit of an explorer so to say. That means I am the one who investigates and maps discoveries like these.” Ah, so that is their problem. “A cartographer, eh? That is a pretty awesome job!” Fiora was clearly flattered by my reaction. “As you can see, we have a problem on our hand as we need Fiora to both investigate this road and to guide you to Westholm. That is why we would like to ask if you are willing to make a detour and help Fiora explore this road before starting or, depending on how far south this road will take you, continuing your way to Westholm.” Both Aisly and Tish were quick to voice their willingness to help Fiora with this “side quest”. Obviously they were not in as much of a hurry to get to Westholm as I was, and I could hardly blame them for it. I too was intrigued by this mysterious road, and to a certain degree I even felt obligated to agree. After all, these elves were going above and beyond by offering one of their own to come with us as a guide, just so I could shave a few weeks off the travel time. Then again, in my defence, I had a good reason to want to get to Westholm as soon as possible; I needed to find a way back to Earth. And every day that I spent dilly-dallying could mean another day passing on Earth that I remained missing. But was it really, though? The truth was that I did not know. I did not even know if there was a way to go back, let alone did I know how time passing here correlated to time passing on Earth. Two months here could just as well correspond to two milliseconds on Earth, as it could to two millennia. My hesitation to say yes had not gone unnoticed, and Fiora was apparently getting nervous. “What is the matter Erwin? Is this because of the ear massages?” Jillian’s ears perked, and she was quick to put one and one together. It seemed that Fiora had somehow royally pissed her off. “Fiora Windrose! Have you been asking for favours for your services!?” If there had been any doubt about it, Fiora’s face pretty much spelling “O, shit!” made it abundantly clear that Jillian had been right on the nose. She stammered, “Eh… I only asked for a few ear massages… I was going to return the favour, I swear!” Jillian was not at all impressed and none too pleased, for she went off to tear Fiora a new one. “Of all people we should know how it feels to be torn away from nearly everyone you love without warning. Now add to that being thrown against your will into a strange world you barely understand while owning nothing more than the clothes on your back, and maybe, just maybe, you get a vague idea as to what Erwin is going through right now. And here you are deciding to try and milk his situation just so you can get off!? Do you even know why he wants to get to Westholm in the first place, or have you been too blinded by your lust?!” When Jillian let a brief pause fall, Kayley was quick to speak up, “We should allow the elves some time to sort this out with Erwin. Come, we can stay the night in the longhouse. Erwin the cabin is all yours for the night.” And with that she motioned for Tish and Aisly to follow her. Neither seemed too worried about the situation. Tish even gave me a quick wink as she left with a big smile on her face. Do they know something I do not? Jillian waited till they had left, only to tell Fiora to get out and wait outside. As Fiora drooped off with hanging shoulders and ears, I kinda felt sorry for her. Sure, she had put up an act to get me to agree to owing her a few favours, but it wasn’t like she had been asking for anything big. “Aren’t you a bit harsh with Fiora? After all, I’m asking quite the substantial favour of her, so I have absolutely no issue with her asking for a few small ones in return.” “To us elves ear massages are not a small favour to ask for. Our ears are incredibly sensitive to a human’s touch, so she could just as well have asked for you to go down on her. Second, we all understand why you would like to get to Westholm sooner rather than later. So, she should not have tried to influence your decision whether or not to accept our request. She knows that I would have never forced her to do her job of exploring this road over escorting you. And last, it is a matter of principle. We are being well compensated for doing these patrol rounds by Westholm. And even if she would not get paid a single coin, then still she gets more than two whole weeks of pretty much alone time with you. You four aren’t suddenly becoming celibate just because you are on the road. If you were to lay her just once in those weeks, you would already be even.” Dayum! Is sex really that valuable!? “Almost every girl here would give their left teat to swap places with either Fiora or Aisly.” I raised an eyebrow at that remark. Was this how the super-stars felt when the groupies were gathering in front of their doors? As if she could read my mind, Jillian addressed exactly the other thought I had been thinking. “And yes, that includes all us elves. Aranessa reported to me about your run-in with Serra. That whole mess demonstrates quite well how ‘totally not interested in you’ we elves really are.” “Then why do they put up the act then?” “That is complicated, and truth be told I don’t fully understand it either. But in part I think it is because they are scared.” “Why the hell would they be scared of me?” “Oh, I don’t think it is you or humans in general that they are scared of. Rather… how shall I put this… we elves tend to have many and rather extreme fetishes even by mamono standards. Not many elves have come to accept that truth about themselves yet. But, I’m sure you will learn all there is to learn about us elves and our fucked-up sexual desires while on your way to Westholm. So how about we bring this conversation back to the reason we invited you to this meeting in the first place?” Jillian said with a wry smile. I swallowed and was not sure whether to be weirded out or turned on by the knowledge that elves tended to have extreme fetishes. Guess I had already seen the tip of the iceberg with my encounters with Serra, Aranessa, Fiora, and Myrra. But Jillian was right, this was hardly the time to talk about that. I had a decision to make. “Yeah you are right. I would love to go explore this road with Fiora, it was just…” “You miss them.” Jillian observed. “Yeah. Though, me missing them is far from the worst part. It’s my parents. They have entered the twilight years of their life, and I am their only child… I don’t know if they will ever recover from me suddenly having vanished. I want to be there for them when they can’t take care of themselves anymore.” This was the first time since arriving here that I had spoken about my worst fears and biggest worries. A few tears welled up in my eyes. This conversation sure had made my emotions make a full one-eighty in a matter of seconds. “Permission for a hug?” Was all Jillian asked. When I nodded, she tightly embraced me in almost a motherly hug and patiently waited till I had calmed down. Then she said, “I’m sorry for bringing it up, but keeping these emotions pent up inside you will eat away at you. You should talk to them about this while on the way. There isn’t much they can do about your situation, but they can help you cope with it a bit better. While it is true that the thing we mamono want the most in this world is to fuck you silly, that does not mean we don’t care about you or your problems.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at that. “Yes I will talk to them about it. Thank you.” Only then Jillian broke the hug and sat back down in her own chair again. “While we sure would like this road investigated sooner than later, it will add at the very least a week to your travel time. We will understand if you don’t want to delay your journey to Westholm.” “It is fine. We can go explore this road. Archaeology has always been a great interest of mine, so I’m quite curious about this road myself. Besides it can’t hurt to have some extra time to get to know Tish, Aisly and Fiora a bit better.” “Are you sure?” “Yes.” “Then it is my turn to thank you. We will be needing two days to prepare you four for the task, so you will be leaving at dawn three days from now.” Jillian said. Then suddenly a most mischievous smile appeared on her face. “Since Fiora has been demanding favours in exchange for her help, how about you teach her a lesson by paying her back in her own coin?” “Oh?” Jillian gave me a conspiratory wink, before putting on a serious face. “Because of your selfish behaviour, I have decided that you, Fiora Windrose, will do your job, with or without Erwin. I hope for your sake that you can convince him to come with you, or else he will be travelling to Westholm without you.” As her plan began to dawn on me. “Wow, you are really going to deliver me Fiora’s ass on a silver platter!?” “More like, Fiora delivered you her own ass on a silver platter. But, I would not worry too much about her, she won’t be doing anything tonight she does not want to do. Luckily for you there is very little she does not want to do.” Jillian chuckled and then got up to get Fiora. While I still had many more questions for Jillian, especially since she had so explicitly included herself when talking about elves and their fetishes, but I decided against asking them right now. So I bade Jillian a good night and waited for the fireworks to commence. I had to give it to Jillian that she played her role with passion. Had I not known what she was up to, I would have sworn that Jillian was still incensed with Fiora, as not much later a thoroughly scolded Fiora came scuffling back into the cabin. “Are you also as mad with me as Jillian?” she asked timidly. “Ehm… Yes! I am very angry with you. Seethingly so, I dare say! There is not a single hair on my head that would even consider travelling with you after this absolutely reprehensible behaviour of yours!” Her face immediately lit up when hearing my way over the top mock anger and she practically jumped me for an intense hug. “Thank you,” she whispered in my ear. Then she straddled my lap and assumed her role in this play. “Oh no! What am I going to do, now? I am helpless without you! It seems I have been left no other choice than this.” Then she started to remove the accessories she was wearing, and began unbuttoning her blouse. “I… will… do… anything… to… change… your… mind! Anything!” To emphasise the anything part she firmly placed my hands on her now bare breasts. Fiora did not even come close to Aisly when it came to boob size, but that was more a testament to Aisly having giant knockers than to Fiora’s being humbly build. Her bosom was more than voluminous enough to easily and fully fill my cupped hands with heavenly squishy. As I began roughly kneading them, I spoke up, “Ha! You must be joking, to think that this will be enough to sway my mind! No harlot, my conviction is as hard as steel!” “Is that so?” Fiora retorted amused as she began unbuttoning my pants. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but once steel is heated up it can be bent and shaped. And it so happens that harlots like me, are experts in heating things up!” With that she gracefully slid off my lap and took me in her mouth. “Maybe that is true, but… ehm… it requires a lot of heating before steel can be properly bent. Yes! A lot of heating indeed!” I replied while the awesome sensation of Fiora’s oral stimulation began to fill my mind. She was good! “Well, it is a good thing then, that this harlot has got all night to do just that!” ------------------------- “I knew I had forgotten something!” Kayley exclaimed as she pulled a tent out of her backpack. “It appears we accidentally send them on their way with only one tent.” “Aren’t these two person tents?” Jillian remarked. “Yeah exactly, that is why they were supposed to get two of them. How sloppy of me!” Jillian raised an eyebrow, “If you were to run, you could still catch up with them in less than an hour.” “Yeah, I know right!? But that would totally leave me winded, and late for dinner, and it would be super awkward too. A real shame, but I guess those four will just have to make due with very, very cosy nights...” Kayley replied theatrically with the biggest and most devious grin Jillian had seen in a long, long time. If Erwin did not enter Westholm with two new red-headed wives, she would eat her armour. Edit 1: Grammar, typos, and phrasing |
MetallumOperaturFeb 26, 2020 7:27 AM
| It's back! Yay! Dang, Jillian and Kayley are sneaky. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
One does not become the leader of one's tribe by being daft ;-) |
| Nice to see another chapter after all this time! Who'd have thought that Erwin would actually leave Highleigh without getting married to the entire tribe of amazons. I also think the constallation scene was very well done! |
venomwolf said: Can't see the pictures, but that may be on my end due to mobile and all that. Yeah I think that might have something to do with being on a mobile phone. As the pictures show just fine for me. Maybe a link rather than loading the image helps in that case, NSFW: Kayley: https://i.imgur.com/9Yd8vkM.jpg Esme: https://i.imgur.com/xXQv7J6.jpg TsunamiSeeker said: Who knows, maybe that constellation had not risen yet ;-)I would be sure at least one monster girl on a planet full of such horny women would have made out such a distinct shape in the stars... 😂 TsunamiSeeker said: This is pretty much how I imagine how elves will react to getting their ears massaged:Hmm... So ear massages equate to oral sex for elves... I could honestly see that being the case. TsunamiSeeker said: Too be fair, the fact that they are not extinct yet, tells us that in the long run many Elves eventually do get laid. So this kind of behaviour might not be hurting the species as much as one might think on first glance. Maybe unconsciously their behaviour serves to weed out those guys that might not be OK with their weird and extreme kinks.But still... For such an intelligent and long lived race I would have thought they might have come up with another solution. I wonder... TsunamiSeeker said: To be fair, most of his interactions were with the four elves that did not act stuck-up at all. So I wouldn't be too quick on calling him experienced in that regard.Wow. Erwin is really getting the hang of working these elves isn't he? 😆 mugen91 said: Looks like they were content with him bedding almost all of them and pawning off Aisly. But who knows what other devious plans they have in store for him.Who'd have thought that Erwin would actually leave Highleigh without getting married to the entire tribe of amazons. |
MetallumOperaturFeb 26, 2020 1:35 PM
MetallumOperatur said: TsunamiSeeker said: Who knows, maybe that constellation had not risen yet ;-)I would be sure at least one monster girl on a planet full of such horny women would have made out such a distinct shape in the stars... 😂 I see what you did there. :D |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
FlunentDirty said: Glad you like the story so far. Love the way the story is progressing. I sometimes wish I could be as creative as the authors like yourself. Keep up the great work and I'll keep reading. As for your remark about having a lack of creativity: would that be a lack of ideas for a good story plot, or would that be finding it hard to turn story plot into written-out text? Because if it is the former, then we actually have a few "what would you do?" scenarios and / or other tools laying around to help writers come up with a story plot. |
FlunentDirty said: I struggle with pretty much the same issues:I have lots of ideas, however, I have trouble starting and putting them into text. I come from a technical writing background and I get bogged down because I want to give detail, specifics, equations, etc.
So yeah I understand that it is daunting to start writing. While Tsunami has already given you some really good tips, here are also some of mine:
That is about it what I can think of. Maybe @tygertyger has some more tips for us. |
MetallumOperaturFeb 28, 2020 12:18 PM
| Writing tips, eh? I can think of one critical one: Write what you know. That the rules say your protagonist for your first story has to be based on you works in your favor, because it gives an excuse for the protagonist to know anything that you know. Are you a martial artist? Mechanic? Eagle scout? Then so is your character. Do you know how to survive in the wilderness? Navigate by the stars? Make tools via flint knapping? Then so does your character. Can you make pottery? Identify edible plants? Sing? Then so can your character. Write scenarios in which your rl skills advance the plot. There's a reason why Sun Garden has more musical scenes than fight scenes. Now, for the inevitable times when you have to write something that you don't know, I can only recommend research. For some things this just means finding a good reference on the subject and adapting that information into the existing setting (because actual folklore doesn't match up exactly with the MGE, let alone the MSG). H-scenes are worth a special mention here. For those who have little sexual experience these can be quite daunting. To overcome this obstacle I recommend two solutions. 1) Read erotica, and emulate the kind of stuff that you find most moving. 2) Don't write h-scenes. They're not required, you know. Nice to have, but not required. As for those who have plenty of sexual experience, allow me to point out that none of us has ever had sex with an alraune, or a slime, or a mermaid... you get the idea. This is OK, as in this area you have more freedom to make stuff up -- dcw's reference to using the spinneret during sex with an arachne is an excellent example to follow. For anything else I'll wait for specific questions. I'm always available to answer those. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
Chapter 24 – Life is Not Always Fair Another time, another place “Your visitors have arrived my lady,” Nahoko’s seneschal announced. “Good. Please send them in immediately, we have pressing matters to discuss,” Nahoko replied. “As you wish, my lady… and my lady,” the seneschal answered with a little bow to both Nahoko and her visitor. A few moments later four humans, the elected leaders of New Tarraco, entered the room. Up front walked an elderly woman and an elderly man. They were followed by a young woman and man. The way these humans governed themselves intrigued Nahoko; they showed respect for the wisdom of their elders, yet they also gave a voice to their younger generations. She wondered if they had adopted such an inclusive system because many new-tarracoans had fled from oppression. “Welcome. Please take a seat,” she invited. The humans threw curious glances at the mermaid who was also sitting at the round table. She was well dressed, wearing a sea silk indigo tunic and a sharkskin half-cloak that was fastened by a mother-of-pearl brooch. She wore a silver bangle around her left arm and had a golden ring on her right hand. “Thank you for coming at such a short notice. I take it none of you has met lady Michiko, lord beneath the waves, before?” Nahoko said. The humans exchanged a few glances before the older man spoke up, “Indeed, none of us has met lady Michiko before.” “Then it would be rude to skip the introductions. Lady Michiko this is Hadiza Akakpo, she represents the senior women of New Tarraco.” Nahoko said as she gestured towards the older woman. She had ebony skin, dark eyes, and was wearing a large, colourful head wrap that was matched by an equally colourful dress. Then Nahoko gestured to the elderly man who had grey hair, a bushy grey moustache and beard, brown eyes, and light brown skin. “And this is Kavyansh Brahmbhatt, he represents the senior men of New Tarraco.” Next came an attractive lithe young woman with honey skin and long wavy black hair which she had adorned with a white flower. She had been quick to adjust to the island life and had already made an absolutely mindboggling number of friends among the local mermaids. “This is Tiare, she represents the junior women of New Tarraco. She is also an off-worlder hailing from an island called Otaheite.” Last came a most remarkable young man with almond shaped eyes, long straight shiny black hair, a short balbo beard, piercing green eyes, and a confident demeanour. He was well dressed in fine black and green silks and wore high black leather boots. Around his neck hung a small silver necklace of an eagle. “And this is… Muunokhoi Altangerel. He represents the junior men of New Tarraco. Like Tiare, he is also an off-worlder though he hails from Greater Mongolia.” While the pause lasted only a fraction of a second, it did not go unnoticed by Michiko. “Hadiza, Kavyansh, Tiare, and Muunokhoi this is lady Michiko. Since the subtle differences between the mermaid species can be confusing: she is a sea bishop.” “While normally I would say that it is a pleasure to meet you, I fear that this meeting will be all but a pleasure. I hope you don’t take it personally,” Muunokhoi stated with a small but respectful nod towards Michiko. “You are correct in assuming I come bearing grave news. No offence is taken,” Michiko answered. “Please, do not sugar-coat your words to spare our feelings. While she did not tell us much, we know that Drana did not sent us here merely for a change of scenery,” Hadiza spoke up. “By doing so she has probably saved your lives, or at the very least your freedom. Lord Yara and her right hand Dorothy attacked New Tarraco yesterday. Drana, I am afraid, did not survive.” Michiko’s eyes were an unusual grey. Nahoko did not know the exact nature of her relation with Xaviera and Drana, but she could sense that this went deeper than her having to break this terrible news to the humans. Even though the humans had come expecting ill news, learning that their homes had been attacked and that Drana had died her second death still hit them like an earthquake. Eventually it was Muunokhoi who broke their silence. “And Xaviera?” “She stood her ground against lord Yara’s assault. It was only after Dorothy had killed Drana and began barraging her with spells that she began losing ground. Whether they killed her I do not know, as she and the mansion both have vanished. I doubt it was Yara's or Dorothy's doing, though, as they seemed livid.” “I do not wish to question your word, but how do you know what happened so quickly and in so much detail? It sounds as if you were there to witness it yourself,” Hadiza noted. “In a sense you could indeed say that I witnessed what happened. Immediately after receiving word from Nahoko I dispatched my best spy to New Tarraco with great haste. While she was in no position to help Xaviera and Drana, it was through her memories that I have seen what happened there.” “What you mamono can do with magic keeps baffling me every day,” Kavyansh mumbled. Then the young woman spoke up. “I know that some people wanted Xaviera and Drana gone, seeing how they provided a safe haven for us. But why would lord Yara and Dorothy personally come to attack them? That makes no sense.” “Alas, as for their reasons I can only speculate. It is a question I would like to see answered too,” Michiko replied. “While I share your desire to make some sense of it, Tiare, we have more immediate issues weighing down on us. With our patrons either dead or missing, we have become refugees. And I suspect that lord Yara will probably want us back, which is a problem,” Kavyansh said. “While I have no doubt that lord Yara will claim you as her subjects and is going to demand I return you to her domain. I am not convinced that you are in fact her citizens, hence I see no reason to comply if she were to make such a demand.” “You believe we are not citizens of Yara’s domain. Why is that?” Hadiza asked surprised. “Her county is indeed situated in Yara’s domain, but Xaviera, and by extent her wife Drana too, owes loyalty to no one. Hence as her citizens, only Xaviera has jurisdiction over you. So unless Xaviera is the one to make the demand, I am under no obligation to extradite you to anyone. You are welcome guests, and as such fall under my protection for the duration of your stay,” Michiko answered. “I see. But then what happens if Xaviera does not reappear?” Hadiza pondered. “That will complicate things substantially. There are too many of you for me to turn a blind eye and claim plausible deniability to ignore the interdomain treaties regarding giving citizenship to someone. Hence, in such a case the treaties demand that it be brought before a high judge of the Teremir court for interdomain disputes. It just so happens that one such a high judge, Gertruda Berylbraids, is preparing to set sail from Krak-Atau to strike a trade deal with Nahoko. I expect her to arrive here in about three weeks. If Xaviera is still missing when she arrives here, I will be obligated to bring this case before her. I've dispatched a team of lawyers from the Sunken city to aid you in preparing the case. I am confident that we can get a verdict that is favourable to you.” ------------------------- Back to the present “I cannot help but notice that you are missing a few select pieces of clothing,” I said to Fiora as we sat around a small campfire in the late afternoon. She was sitting cross-legged across from me, and it was neigh impossible for me not to notice that she was not wearing panties as her skirt had ridden up substantially when she sat down. With Tish and Aisly briefly away to get water from a nearby stream I figured now was a good moment to inquire about her wardrobe malfunction. “Yeah, Jillian confiscated those on some trumped up charges,” Fiora huffed indignantly. “Oh no? Why would she do that,” I asked while trying my best to hide my bemusement. “Apparently I am now representing our tribe, which means no more bra and panties for me as that is what dwarves wear…” Fiora grumbled. “What a travesty!” I gasped, while trying to keep a straight face. “I know right!? Can you believe that nonsense!?” “And she seemed like such a level-headed person to me… It comes as an absolute shock to me that she subscribes to such uninformed superstitions.” Fiora tried to keep a straight face, but failed miserably and burst out laughing. “I need to remember that one! Jillian is one of the few that knows it is nonsense, but she never bothered to mention anything to the others so I thought I’d get away with it. I guess she saw an opportunity for a little revenge on behalf of the others.” She paused for a moment before mentioning, “You know Jillian got an eye on you, right?” “She does?” I replied surprised. “You did not notice?” Fiora asked incredulously. “No I did not. Sure she was really kind to me, but I figured that she was just that: being kind. In fact I kinda expected that she already has or had someone, as the tribe leader she has to be hundreds of years old after all.” “Not at all, she’s merely fifty-three that’s only a few years older than me. She, like everyone else in our tribe, has yet to find someone,” Fiora answered. “I thought mamono could grow really old. Isn’t she then a bit young to be the tribe’s leader?” The question seemed innocent enough to me, but Fiora’s mood darkened immediately. “I’m sorry, I should not have prodded,” I quickly apologised when I noticed. “No, no, don’t be sorry. You could not know that it is a sore subject to us.” She then let out a long sigh before continuing. “Sooner or later you’ll have to learn it anyway... Our tribe is quite different from other tribes, as in we are what remains of five other elven tribes. We’re a tribe of orphans so to say. As one of the oldest Jillian has to carry the burden of raising and leading us.” “So that means that your parents are…” “Dead? I never knew my father, so he’s probably alive somewhere, but my mother and three of my older sisters are all dead as are the mothers and sisters of everyone else in our tribe.” Fiora answered. I guess that was what Jillian was talking about when she said that of all people they should know what it was to lose nearly everyone they loved. “That’s awful. What happened?” I asked. “About two decades ago the domain was plunged into several weeks of chaos after Elizabeth was freed from her magical prison and killed former lord Dorothy and her pawn Yara. My tribe as well as several neighbouring tribes were summoned to the capital to help restore order. Every elf older than thirty-five was expected to come. The tribes gathered and went to the capital together, fully expecting having to deal with keeping the peace. They were taken by total surprise as the perfect ambush sprung on them.” She paused for a moment and swallowed. “We only learned that something was wrong after all the dust had settled in the capital and the elven high leader showed up at our village angrily demanding answers as to why our tribes had failed to comply with her summons. Once it was clear that something had gone terribly wrong a search party was organized, but…” Tears began to well up in her eyes, so I came over and sat down next to her so I could pull her into a hug. I was now doing the same for her as what Jillian had done for me. “but… it was in vain. They only found corpses. Too much time had passed to find out who the ambushers were or where they had went. There seemed to be no rhyme or reason to the attack other than that they were out for taking war trophies. Eighteen-hundred elves were killed for that.” What can you say after hearing something so horrible? I could not even begin to imagine what it was like to lose one’s mother and sisters in such a pointless and brutal manner. Fiora must have went through hell because of it. I just held her in a tight embrace and patiently waited. “Thank you, I needed that,” Fiora said after she had calmed down. Then she continued her story, “After the new lord Elizabeth learned what had happened to our tribes, she declared that rather than letting us be absorbed into other elven tribes, we were to form a new tribe with the survivors of the neighbouring tribes to keep the legacy of our tribes alive. Governor Irene took pity on us. She invited our tribe to come live near Westholm and offered us all free tuition at her university. She even gave us a new purpose by assigning us this patrol route. While it is the longest route in the whole of Elizabeth’s domain, it is also the safest. Practically we are a bi-yearly trade caravan that also does some side jobs like what I am doing with investigating and mapping the ruins we find in the area.” After that she fell silent and we just sat there in an embrace for a while until Aisly and Tish returned with the water. ------------------------- “Tell me, do the creatures and critters sweep your roads for you?” I asked offhandedly to none of the girls in particular. “What? No, of course they do not. That would be silly...” Aisly answered puzzled before falling silent. Then she added somewhat hesitantly, “Or do they do that for you on Earth, and is that why you are asking?” Fiora was giving me a look that was a mix between confusion and slight worry, and even Tish looked at me as if I had lost my mind. I smirked. “Ha, you should see yourselves right now. I appreciate your concern, but I’m not crazy yet, or at least not more so than I was yesterday. And no, our forest creatures do not sweep our roads for us either. The reason I am asking is because we can barely see the sky through this thick canopy, yet if this road is as long abandoned as it looks then why is it not buried underneath a thick layer of leaves and mulch? I mean, sure the cobblestones are weathered, uneven, and the cracks between them are overgrown with weeds, but we can still see it no problem.” Que three minds simultaneously being blown as the realization sank in. Fiora pointed at me. “You… You are absolutely right!” She set down her backpack and dropped to one knee. She opened one of the cases on her belt and pulled out a crude pencil and a rather strange notebook that could be rolled up. She quickly scribbled down some notes before putting on her goggles. “Now what could keep this road free of leaves, yet leave the plants in the cracks undisturbed? Could it be that there is some strange magic afoot here, or is something else going on?” While Fiora was thinking out loud, Aisly demonstrated that she had a more practical way of thinking as she simply grabbed a fistful of leaves and then strew them out on the road. “Looks like nothing’s happening. Perhaps strong gusts of wind? That could explain why the leaves are blown away, yet the seeds that fell between the cracks remained.” “That could explain it were it a mostly open landscape. I don’t think there is ever much wind beneath the canopy of a forest as thick as this one,” I reasoned. “Hmmm…. true,” Aisly conceded. “Maybe it is magic after all then.” Meanwhile Fiora had gotten down on all fours and was now sniffing the road. It presented us with a nice view of her shapely rear. As I briefly glanced over at Aisly and Tish I noticed that they were checking out Fiora’s ass as much as I was. “So you too eh?” I said and started laughing. Tish gave me a mischievous smirk while Aisly immediately blushed. She then quickly tried to save face by saying, “Ehm... How about you keep an eye on the elf while Tish and I set up camp? I saw a good camping spot a bit back.” I didn’t mind watching Fiora, besides it was good to see Aisly and Tish working together; it looked like Aisly was finally getting comfortable around Tish. I nodded and handed Tish my backpack before waving them off. I crouched down next to Fiora. “So, what are you exactly doing?” “The more we discover about this road the stranger it gets.” She then pointed at the cobblestones. “They smell… off. I could not pace it at first, but I think these stones are not from here. They don’t match the rocks around us.” “The cobblestones might be from somewhere else? As in, these stones were imported?” I asked. Fiora nodded and took off her goggles. “Why would anyone go through the trouble of importing stones for a road when there are plenty of rocks laying around?” “I don’t know. It seems like quite a pointless effort to me, but it could prove a valuable clue in unveiling the secrets of this road. I will bring a few samples of the cobblestones to Westholm. Maybe the geologists there might be able to identify where they are from,” Fiora replied. She then rummaged through her backpack till she pulled out something that was unmistakably a geologists hammer. Together we picked out a few cobblestones that she could chop a shard off to be brought with us to Westholm. When we were done with collecting the rock samples, I pondered for a moment. “And what about the weeds?” “What about the weeds?” “Are they what you would expect to find here in the forest, or is there something off about them too?” Fiora gave me an odd look I could not really place before saying, “You have a knack for this, you know?” And so we went back to closely inspecting the road again, this time specifically going over the various weeds that were growing between the cobblestones. I used the moment to finally ask Fiora a question that had been on my mind for a while now, “So, Fiora Windrose and your profession is a cartographer. Coincidence?” She gave me a sly smile. “Quite a fitting name don’t you think?” “It sure is,” I acknowledged. “A few years ago when I was studying natural sciences in Westholm I tried out a cartography course out of curiosity because of my last name. Turned out I loved it, so that could count as a coincidence I guess.” She interrupted herself by pointing at a grassy looking weed. “Well, well, what do we have her; looks like there are indeed some weeds that do not belong here in the forest. Though, whether it means anything I am not sure. After all, if the rocks are indeed imported, then some seeds could have easily accidentally been brought along.” I nodded. “A possible and likely explanation.” We looked around for more clues for a while, but did not find anything else of particular interest. Eventually we decided to call it a day and head back to Aisly and Tish. ------------------------- The landscape had been gradually changing from a lightly hilly forest to a rugged mountainous forest over the last few days, but these last two hours the changes had been dramatic and strange. The air had turned thick and stale while the temperature had plummeted. The canopy had grown so thick that we were shrouded in a perpetual twilight, though the trees here were gnarled and twisted with curtains of moss hanging from their branches. Large mushrooms grew at the bases of the trees and the forest had become eerily silent. To top it off gossamer cobwebs with small droplets of moisture glued to the threads like beads on a string were hanging everywhere. “Now I sure like forests, but this is getting a bit freaky.” I looked over at the girls and noticed that while Tish could not seem to care less about the cold, Fiora and Aisly were both shivering. Ever since we had left Highleigh Aisly had been wearing the sexy outfit that barely covered anything again, so her backpack was probably the warmest thing she was wearing. And while Fiora’s outfit covered more skin it was also quite thin. They clearly were not dressed for this cold, however, stubborn as they were, they had not asked for a break to put on something warmer. “Yeah this place is giving me the creeps too,” Aisly agreed. Suddenly Tish let out a distressed moan. She stopped dead in her tracks and pointed at a barely visible wisp of writhing mist that was slowly creeping over the road. It did not reach higher than a metre or so from the ground up, but it had a faint unnatural sickly pale green hue to it that was seriously unnerving. “What the fuck?!” I muttered perplexed. “That colour. I’ve never seen something like this,” Aisly replied quietly. “Neither have I. Really odd,” Fiora added. As she scratched her head. Tish motioned for us to stay back while she approached the strange body of mist. She stretched out her hand and let the mist envelop it. When nothing happened she then dropped to one knee and deeply inhaled it. “What is she doing?” I asked. “I think she is testing whether it is dangerous,” Fiora answered. “And what if it is indeed dangerous?” I asked worriedly. “Then she’ll surely let us know.” “Obviously, but she’s inhaling that stuff, what if it’s poisonous?” “She’s an undead, so unless it is some kind of wicked magic it is not going to do anything to her.” Tish got back on her feet and moaned an “all is clear” kind of moan. I guess it was not dangerous after all then. Fiora needed some time to scribble down notes about this weird body of mist, so I just watched its writhing motions for a while. It was strangely mesmerizing like staring into a fire. It did not take long before the mist began to thicken. It was almost as if the very ground itself was oozing it out of its pores. Oddly enough it did not reach upwards, so we were wading through a sea of greenish fog that was swirling around us. To say the experience was surreal would be putting it lightly. Were it not for Aisly’s keen eyes we would have missed it as the mist obscured most of the forest floor, but there was a small path branching off the main road. Given how up till now there had only been the road, this was a major find. Therefore we decided to dedicate the rest of the day to investigating this side path. Our decision paid off, as only ten minutes later we ran into a large dilapidated barred gate that guarded the entrance to a walled compound. While the gate had been rusted shut, a good push from Aisly forced it open. The compound was not too large, maybe two hectares but in the centre there stood a sizable manor. It looked abandoned; its windows were grimy but intact, large parts of the walls were overgrown with ivy, and paint was peeling off the window frames. The manor was build atop a raised fundament that was about as high as the layer of thick fog, creating the illusion that the manor was floating. The surrounding garden was, again, overgrown but still far more open than the forest it was situated in. Strangely enough there was barely any more light there than the perpetual twilight in the forest even though it was still only three in the afternoon. We should have been euphoric as finding this mansion had to be a huge breakthrough, but everyone seemed to be a bit on edge. I was the first to speak up, “Can’t say I expected to find a mansion out here, then again I do not know what I did expect to find either. It does not look like anyone is living here, though.” “Judging by how overgrown and decrepit it is, I’m inclined to agree,” Fiora answered. “Yeah, it seems uninhabited to me. Lets have a closer look then,” Aisly proposed. We climbed the raised terrace. “Look at all that glass,” Fiora said in awe as she approached one of the grimy windows. “So this is glass?” Aisly asked as she followed Fiora. “Yeah, though it is not supposed to be this dirty. When it is clean you can see through it,” Fiora replied. “Be careful though, it is really fragile like fine pottery.” “I’ve never seen glass before.” Aisly mumbled. It was really odd to hear them talk like that about something as simple as glass. I guess it should come as no surprise that in a world where people still carry around spears and swords, glass is a rare commodity. While the redheads were checking out the windows, Tish and I went over to the wooden door. By force of habit I tried the door knob. Tish let out a surprised yelp when it actually turned and I managed to push the heavy door open. I called Aisly and Fiora and then we entered the manor. The foyer was fully furnished and had a rather typical layout; there was a large staircase right across the room and several closed doors to either side. A carpet, presumably once red, ran from the entrance to the stairs. Everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. I could see no footprints or any other signs that the dust had ever been disturbed since the moment it had begun accumulating. So it was safe to assume this building was indeed uninhabited. There was a set of leather chairs and a round wooden coffee table placed in one of the corners. In the other corner stood a single richly decorated wall console table. Atop it lay a linen bound notebook. Curious I walked over. The book was in pristine condition, but what really made it stick out like a sore thumb was the fact that there was not a single speck of dust to be found on it. “Eeeh, girls… you should check this out…” I stammered before being overcome with an irresistible urge to pick it up and open it. The notebook turned out to be someone's diary as on the first page was written in a beautiful calligraphic handwriting: Whitwick, June 24th Anno Domini 1874 Diary of Anastasia Bloodworth |
MetallumOperaturJun 15, 2020 3:53 PM
| Finally! A chapter update! Yay! |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
| Nice new chapter! Can't wait to see where it'll go from here. |
TsunamiSeeker said: I do like how Aisly and Fiora are too proud/stubborn to change into warmer clothing. Don't know if that's because they value their traditions... Or because they want to look sexy at all times in front of Erwin. I strongly suspect option B. Gotta say though. I would not want to even approach a mansion like that. Let alone go inside... Let alone freely pick up a mysterious book. Am I the only one who thought this would be a great place to put a maiden of the mirror? Or a banshee? |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
TsunamiSeeker said: Good questions. MC should definitely inquire into that once she's a bit more talkative.I am wondering how Tish could know if something was poisonous or not though... Would she still feel pain if she took in something poisonous even though she's undead? Or would she be able to tell the difference in some other way? tygertyger said: Well Fiora sure is not too big on traditions and pride if they do not suit her. Erwin's eyes wandering towards her hard nipples poking through her blouse, however, is a different story. As for Aisly... She's definitely on a mission to woo the MC.TsunamiSeeker said: I do like how Aisly and Fiora are too proud/stubborn to change into warmer clothing. Don't know if that's because they value their traditions... Or because they want to look sexy at all times in front of Erwin. I strongly suspect option B. TsunamiSeeker said: Well to be fair they are with four. Also Jillian and Kayley would most definitely not have send them on their merry way if they were not confident in the ability of a certain group member to protect them should things turn sour. Hint: it's not the MC ;-)Gotta say though. I would not want to even approach a mansion like that. Let alone go inside... Let alone freely pick up a mysterious book. TsunamiSeeker said: Tune in next chapter for answers ;-)Part of me hopes no Exorcist shit will happen. But another part of me hopes that we'll get some Tish/Aisly/Fiora VS ghost fighting... tygertyger said: Those would be excellent candidates to make an appearance indeed. Next chapter will reveal more about this mansion ;-)Am I the only one who thought this would be a great place to put a maiden of the mirror? Or a banshee? |
MetallumOperaturJun 18, 2020 7:19 AM
Chapter 25 – The Diary of Anastasia - Part 1 Whitwick, June 24th Anno Domini 1874 How does one start writing a diary? Frankly, I do not know. When mother gifted me this diary she told me that I am supposed to write down my thoughts and feelings in here. It was the last gift I received from her before she so unexpectedly passed away last year. I know she had wanted me to use it, but I could never bring myself to writing as it reminded me too much of her. Today, however, is my seventeenth birthday. I am on the cusp of womanhood now. Oh, how I wish mother was here to celebrate this day with me. I miss her so much. But alas, wishing upon a star will not bring her back. What I can do, however, is finally face my demons and entrust my thoughts and feeling to this diary in honour of her memory. ------------------------- “This sure is an interesting building,” Fiora remarked as the two redheads entered the hallway. They looked around in bewilderment. Then the elf noticed that I was holding something in my hands. “Ooh, what is that?” she asked. “An odd diary,” I replied. I closed it and pointed at the cover. “Everything in here is covered in dust except this.” I then gestured at the console table where a clear outline could be seen in the dust. “Yet that suggests it was already laying there before the dust started to settle. Which makes me wonder, why is it not covered in dust too?” The girls—oddly enough they preferred being called girls over being called women, something about the latter making them feel old—came over to have a closer look. “Hmm… Strange indeed…” Fiora concurred. “Maybe there is a ghost who only cleans this diary. Or it could be some kind of enchantment. Though, I do not know why anyone would go through the trouble of enchanting a book just to keep it free of dust. Surely there are more useful enchantments to choose from.” “Since no one has confronted us about trespassing their home yet, I doubt any ghost inhabits this place,” Aisly pointed out. “Oh fuck, ghosts are real? And one might… eeh… be living here?” There was clearly still much for me to learn about the different mamono species. “I should definitely have knocked before inviting myself in… Maybe my rude behaviour has scared her off? After all, how is one to know we do not mean harm?” “Unlikely. Ghosts are not easily intimidated. They can turn incorporeal after all, so there’s not much that can hurt them. Besides if there had been one residing here, I bet my tits she would have been busy sweet-talking her way into your pants by now. They’re quite lustful,” Fiora replied offhandedly. “Aren’t we all?” Aisly added quietly, but not quiet enough for Tish not to moan in agreement. Fiora uncharacteristically ignored the lewd remark and instead asked, “Is there anything written inside?” I opened it and said, “It says this is the diary of a girl or woman named Anastasia Bloodworth.” Her interest piqued and eager to catch a glimpse, Fiora wormed herself into my personal space to get a better view. She almost immediately pointed at the date. “That is odd. It looks like a date, but it’s written quite strangely.” “That is how we write our dates. Admitted this is a rather formal and old-fashioned way of writing it, nevertheless almost everyone would recognize it. As for the date itself, 1874 was almost 150 years ago, or at least it was before I was brought here,” I explained. “So, this diary is from your world then?” Fiora asked intrigued. “I think so. In fact, this might not be the only thing here that is from our world.” I gestured around with my free hand. “This whole place looks an awful lot like it is from Earth.” Fiora’s eyes lit up. “You think this entire mansion could be from your world?! If that is true, then this is an even more significant find than I dared hope!” She was jumping up and down from excitement. “We should thoroughly inspect this place! I don’t think there has ever been a case where an entire building from your world was teleported to ours. There is so much we might learn in here; there is so much I would like to learn about your world!” While there was something seriously unnerving about this mansion, Fiora’s excitement was highly contagious. Besides, I too was filled with a sense of wonder. What was this place doing here in the middle of nowhere? Was this place really from Earth? What had happened here? And who was this Anastasia Bloodworth? While the girls made a short round through the foyer, I flipped a few pages to read another entry. I felt like a voyeur for doing this, but it was not like I could ask Anastasia for permission, and it might provide some insight into what had happened here. ------------------------- Whitwick, December 30th Anno Domini 1874 It might be the long and dreary winter nights, but I am in a melancholic mood as of late. Often I find myself gazing up at our family painting in the dining room. I was so young back then, mother was so beautiful, and father… he was so happy. Oh, how the times have changed. Regrettably it has been for the worse. I don’t think I ever have seen father smile since mother passed, let alone hear him laugh. There was nothing he could have done, yet he is haunted by guilt over her death. His grief and self-loathing have made him turn to the bottle. I am probably the only reason he has not yet left for a life in obscurity in the colonies, or worse... He tries to be a good father. He really does. He even quit his job to raise me and to help me with the housekeeping. It shames me to speak so harshly of him, but truth is that he is more of a burden than a help... ------------------------- “Are you coming Erwin?” Aisly asked. Fiora and Tish had already opened one of the doors and had walked into the next room. I nodded and joined the amazoness as we followed suit. “Whoah, look at that!” Aisly cried out as she pointed at a huge painting on the wall. I immediately realized that this had to be the painting Anastasia had mentioned in her diary. It depicted an unmistakably English gentleman with his gorgeous blonde wife and their equally blonde daughter. “Hello Anastasia, nice to meet you,” I muttered quietly under my breath as I beheld the painting in awe. One might think that with her long pointy ears Fiora would have been the one with the sharpest hearing, but Aisly had her beat. “What? One of them is the Anastasia who wrote the diary? How do you know that?” I pointed at the daughter. “That is Anastasia, though she was a fair bit older when she wrote this diary. I just read a passage where she mentioned a family painting hanging in the dining room. This sure looks like a dining room to me,” I reasoned as I gestured around the room and at the large dinner table in particular. Aisly shivered, though not from the cold this time. “Uncanny...” she whispered. Nevertheless, we all kept gazing up in awe at the painting while Anastasia and her parents smiled back at us. ------------------------- Whitwick, July 11th Anno Domini 1875 I found father in the billiard room yesterday. He was too drunk to stand on his own. I had to take him to his room and put him in bed while listening to his drunken ramblings—a task that has sadly become all too much routine. While helping him up the stairs father made a rather strange claim about a hidden family treasure that is supposedly buried in our garden. I did not pay it too much attention for he often makes incredulous claims when drunk. Normally he cannot even remember what he has been talking about the next morning. Yet, somehow he had not forgotten about this claim, for he mentioned the treasure again this afternoon. And this time he had not even finished his first bottle yet. Nevertheless, I find it hard to believe there is any truth to his drunken ramblings. When I questioned him about it, he could only tell me that he somehow knows there is something somewhere. I fear the alcohol abuse might be catching up to him. ------------------------- At the centre of the next room stood a heavy billiard table. The cue sticks as well as the billiard balls lay scattered on the floor, one of the chairs in the had been knocked over as was the small side table next to it. There were well over two dozen empty bottles strewn about in the room. Fiora let out a long low whistle as she picked up one of the bottles. “Looks like someone has had a bit of a party.” She then wiped the dust off the label. “Absinthe…” “The green fairy?! That is some strong stuff,” I remarked. “Green fairy? You just saw a green fairy?” Aisly asked bewildered as she tensed up a little and scanned the room. Before I could express my confusion over hers, Fiora clarified, “He does not mean the species, Aisly. ‘The green fairy’ is the nickname for this liquor in his world.” “That is correct,” I confirmed, without wondering how Fiora knew that because I was still processing the existence of yet another mamono species. A moment later I added, “I don’t think there was a party here, though. Anastasia mentioned that her dad could not cope with the death of his wife and had begun drinking heavily because of it. She wrote how she found him too drunk to stand in this very room and had to assist him up the stairs to put him in bed. It was not the first time she had to do that.” “Well that must suck,” Aisly remarked. “Yeah I don’t envy her,” I agreed. ------------------------- Whitwick, August 17th Anno Domini 1875 How naïve was I to believe that father would eventually forget about this supposed garden treasure. Despite being near perpetually drunk—or perhaps because of it—he has not stopped talking about it. He even swore to me that finding this treasure is going to take care of all the problems that have been plaguing us since mother died. This morning I learned just how obsessed he has become with this supposed treasure when I found him digging manically in our garden. It seems he just picked up a spade and started digging somewhere. I am at a loss as to what I should do, or whether I should do anything at all. What he is doing is pointless and he is damaging our garden, but I doubt that I will be able to sway his mind on the matter. On the other hand, this has given him some sort of renewed purpose and the fresh air and exercise are doing him well. Nevertheless, his adamant belief in this “treasure” worries me greatly. ------------------------- Through a small door tucked away in a corner we entered what appeared to be a pantry. There was not much to see here, but there was another small door which led to a sizable kitchen. A pan still stood on the stove, and several pieces of silverware as well as a silver plate lay on the kitchen counter. “Such finely made cutlery…” Fiora mumbled impressed, as she picked up a silver fork, wiped it clean, and examined it closely. Fascinated the girls began opening the drawers looking for more “exotic” kitchenware. Meanwhile, my eye had been caught by a door in the far corner of the kitchen. It led to a tiny hallway with two other doors. One clearly being the back door. A shovel and a pair of sturdy working boots stood in a corner of this little hallway. Given how old I suspected them to be, they were in a remarkably good condition. Like the front door, the backdoor opened easily enough. The world outside was eerily silent. I made a small round over the terrace to breathe in the atmosphere. While doing so, I made a fruitless attempt at trying to find where Anastasia’s father had been doing his digging, but there was not much to see as the fog obscured everything that was not tall enough to rise above it. I turned around and made my way back to the backdoor. I noticed thin waves of wispy mist rolling over the terrace and silently crashed into the doorstep. Since these “fog waves” had not been there when we entered the mansion. I suspected the fog had finally begun to rise. I made sure to close the door behind me when I went back inside. Better safe than sorry. Before I could check out where the other door would lead to, I heard giddily yelps coming from the kitchen, so I headed back to see what the excitement was about. As soon as I walked in Aisly enthusiastically said, “Erwin, you should see this!” Her tail was wagging back and forth. Then she turned on the faucet and a steady stream of clear water came out. “You can even drink the water; Tish checked it,” Fiora added. I looked over at Tish who gave me a double thumbs up. Guess her being an undead made her an ideal guinea pig for such tests. “So, the faucet actually works and the water is potable too? That is pretty amazing!” “Oooh, this is called a fou-set?” Aisly asked. “Yeah, faucet or tap is how we call it,” I confirmed. “I wonder where the water comes from. I did not see nor hear any stream outside, so maybe there is a water reservoir here somewhere,” I speculated. “A water reservoir? You mean like a barrel or a bucket?” Aisly asked. Her remarks reminded me how low-tech she had been living in Highleigh. Pretty much everything in here had to be new to her. “Yeah. A reservoir is typically much bigger than a barrel but the gist of it is the same. Make sure the reservoir is placed somewhere up high. Then connect the reservoir to the faucet with pipes. Fill the reservoir with water, and it will want to flow down. Then when you open the faucet water will flow out.” I could see Aisly trying to visualize what I had just explained. When it seemed she had a clear picture in her mind she commented, “That sounds really clever.” She pondered over it for a few more seconds and then changed the subject “Oh yeah, look! We also found these.” She pulled a cardboard box out of one of the cabinets. It was filled with dozens of candles. “Ooh, you found candles! Nice! They might come in handy. Do you think you will be able to light them?” I asked. “Yeah, that should not be too hard,” Aisly replied. “Awesome!” “So what were you doing by the way? Found anything interesting?” Fiora asked. “As a matter of fact, I did. The diary mentioned that Anastasia’s dad kinda went insane and had begun digging in their garden. There is a pair of working boots and a spade standing there. I also went outside and made a small round over the terrace. Did not see much there though as the fog obscures everything that does not rise above it. Which reminds me. I think the fog has begun to rise. We might want to close the front door if we do not want the mansion to fill up with fog.” “The fog is rising? Then I think we best stay the night inside; setting up the tent is going to be a challenge,” Aisly remarked. “Yeah, I agree. Besides we are far from done exploring this place. We can look for a room to stay the night in and then sweep the worst of the dust out. Should be quicker and easier than trying to set up the tent in the fog,” Fiora agreed. Judging by her moans Tish agreed as well. “This place is kinda freaky though… But I agree that setting up our tent outside is not ideal either… Fuck it! Let’s go upstairs and see if we can find a guestroom. If we’re staying here anyway then I’d like to see if we can sleep in a bed.” ------------------------- Whitwick, August 24th Anno Domini 1875 It is only natural for daughters to look like their mothers, right? With every passing day I resemble her more and more. While cleaning mother’s room today, my eye fell on a photograph of her. I have the same eyes, the same hair, and even the same nose. It is uncanny how much we begin to look alike. And when I tried out some of her dresses, they fit me as if they were tailored for me. While it is comforting to know that part of her lives on through me, at the same time I can’t help but wonder whether my growing likeliness to her is the reason father cannot find closure. ------------------------- When we got back to the hallway the fog was already seeping in. Aisly quickly put a stop to it by closing the front door. “If the fog keeps rising like this, it will eventually begin to blot out the light when it comes up to the windows. We should find a room to stay the night while we still have natural light coming in,” Fiora pointed out. We all agreed and so headed upstairs where we presumed would be bedrooms and guest rooms. There an u-shaped hallway wrapped around the staircase. Tish picked a door at random and opened it. A shiver ran down my spine; it was immediately clear that this was not a guest room. The sizeable room was richly decorated and fully furnished. To our left stood a large canopy bed that still had its silken curtains. Next to it stood a small night-stand with a round turntable mirror on top. A fireplace with an elaborate marble framework that included two waist-high caryatids was built into the wall across the room. To our right stood a low antique drawer table with two colourfully decorated porcelain vases on top. A huge mirror was mounted on the wall above. A few typical Victorian chairs and cabinets were placed throughout the room. Finally, in one of the corners stood a small writing desk. It immediately caught my eye for there were several framed pictures placed on top. I had a creeping suspicion as to what those pictures would be showing, so I went over there to confirm. I picked them up one by one and used my shawl to carefully wipe the dust off. As suspected one of them was a black and white photo of the pretty woman from the painting downstairs. Neither her dress nor her loose plait hair style struck me as typically Victorian though. “What kind of strange picture is that?” Fiora asked as she strategically stepped closer to get both a better view and to snuggle up against me. Tish followed Fiora’s example and claimed my other side. Meanwhile Aisly seemed distracted by the large mirror and did not pay us any attention. “It’s an old photo of Anastasia’s mother. Though according to her diary that is also roughly how Anastasia looked like when she wrote it. She mentioned how uncannily similar she looked alike her mother,” I answered as I showed it to them. “Oooh! I’ve never seen something like it. It looks so real.” Intrigued both girls observed the photo in great detail. “Hmm, how best to explain it?” I pondered. “We call this a photograph, or photo for short. It is a picture, but instead of being drawn or painted by someone it is made using chemistry, or alchemy as you might call it. This a black-and-white photograph for it lacks colours. Back in Anastasia’s time photographs were a fairly new invention. Making coloured ones was both really expensive and arduous, so almost all photos that were made in that period were in black-and-white.” “Oooh! You use alchemy to make pictures, that sure sounds wondrous,” Fiora remarked astonished, while Tish seemed to be equally mind blown. “Yeah. It’s quite an ingenious technique.” The girls turned their attention back to the woman in the photo. “She’s really pretty… I would not have minded eating her out, too bad she’s gone,” Fiora remarked casually. When Tish agreed with her yet again, Fiora threw her an appreciative sultry look and said, “I like the way you think.” Eventually we put the picture back on the writing desk. While the elf and the zombie went to marvel at the canopy bed, I went over to Aisly. She was meticulously checking herself out in the mirror. “Like what you see? Because I sure do.” She snapped out of her trance, and looked a bit bewildered. “Eeeh, I guess…? I’ve never seen myself like this before.” “Really? You’ve never seen yourself in a mirror?” I asked incredulously. “No… We do not have mirrors in Highleigh. I’ve only seen myself in the small hand-mirrors some elves carry with them or in the water, but that is quite a different experience than this...” She looked a bit pained. “Also the last time I saw myself was before, eeh, well...” She touched the side of her head where her horn used to be. “Ah… yes, of course. I understand. If you want some more alone time I can go back to pestering the others. Or I could attempt to make you feel better by flattering you. You know, pointing out all the things I find beautiful about you.” She smiled faintly. “Yeah, being flattered sounds good.” ------------------------- Since no one felt comfortable sleeping in Anastasia’s mother’s bed, we continued our search for a room to spend the night in. The next room we checked out was promising. The entire interior of the room was covered by large linen sheets. While it was slightly off-putting at first, I quickly realized how easy it would be to clean this room. “This room gets my vote,” I said. “Yeah, this is an excellent room for us to settle for the night,” Aisly agreed. We quickly got to work. By cautiously folding the cover sheets and then carefully brooming the floor we got rid of the worst of the dust. Then we made the large bed using clean bedlinen in superb condition that Aisly had found in one of the drawers. Finally we put candles in the various wall scones and candleholders. Aisly then got to work on lighting them. Not entirely oblivious to the lustful glances the girls were throwing me, I sat down in a large and comfortable leather saloon chair to read yet another entry in the diary. They would get their snu-snu after dark. ------------------------- Whitwick, September 30th Anno Domini 1875 I apologise for my atrocious handwriting, but my hands are still shaking from the strange things that have transpired today. I cannot believe that I am forced to admit that somehow father had been on to something with his drunken ramblings about a hidden treasure in our garden! This morning he insisted that I should help him with the digging. It was an odd request to ask from a young lady, but he explained that I always had been lucky when it came to finding things. I did not want to disappoint him, so I put on some old comfortable clothes and went outside to help. To my utter surprise my spade struck wood within the hour. My first thought was that father had went insane and was playing some kind of twisted joke on me, but it quickly became clear that the crate I had found was far too large and heavy for him to have hidden it there without me having noticed anything. It was so heavy that it required the both of us just to lift it out of the hole. We hauled the crate to the library where we opened it. Inside we found two most remarkable and huge dark purple crystals. They were easily over a foot-and-a-half long and were cut flawlessly into egg-shapes. They weighed a little over fifty pounds each. I don’t know much about crystals, but these have to be worth a fortune. ------------------------- “Hey girls… This latest diary entry has taken a really strange turn. Maybe I should read it to you,” I said. I don’t know why, but somehow my remark was also interpreted as an invite for them to sit on my lap; an opportunity which the girls immediately seized. Before I knew what was going on all three girls were sitting on my lap and looking at me expectantly. Despite some concentration difficulties—Aisly’s marginally covered bust was exactly at eye-height and a pleasant sight to behold—I eventually managed to give them a brief summary of what had happened so far and then read them the entry. After I was done, Fiora said, “Odd indeed. I wonder if them finding these strange crystals has anything to do with how this place ended up here in our world. Also I noticed something else that is just as strange. Almost every room we entered, you could tell us something about what had happened in that specific room because you had just read about it in the diary right before we entered that room. In fact, this is the first room you did not read something about. Maybe this is a sign we should explore the library next…” She paused for a moment and then her gaze turned sultry. “But the library will have to wait till tomorrow; it is getting dark.” She then pointed at the window. By now the fog had risen high enough to cover more than half of it. As if on cue the girls began unbuttoning my shirt while Fiora whispered while panting, “So how about you put that diary away for now and help us try out the bed?” |
MetallumOperaturNov 1, 2020 5:10 PM
| Chapter became too long and was split in two. Where have I heard that before? :P A very nice chapter and I'm looking forward to finding out more about the mystery behind Anastasia. |
Maku_The_Blue said: The two crystals also sound interesting... Being that size and weight would mean they're probably one of the most valuable gems on the planet. I wonder how much they would be worth on Arcadia... Quite a bit, I imagine... but not just in currency. Crystals that size and mass, especially if they're flawless or have useful inclusions, have got to be priceless as magical foci. At the very least they'd be good mana sinks. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
Chapter 25 – The Diary of Anastasia - Part 2 Judging by the angle of the bleary Sun the dense fog had persisted till well past noon, and even now it still lingered just below the windows. Like yesterday, it covered the ground outside in a thick foggy blanket. The dark morning had had its upsides though. For we had caught up on some much needed sleep by sleeping in shamelessly late. We had a brunch in bed. Afterwards we made use of the running water to refill our water skins, to wash our dirty clothes, and to take care of our personal hygiene. It was amazing how the girls managed to keep looking and smelling good even after these long days of travel; I barely noticed any difference. What was even more amazing was that I somehow still turned them on even though I did not possess such a talent. Refreshed and in a spare set of clothes, which in my case meant that I was back in the clothes I had arrived in this world in, we continued exploring this mansion by looking for the library. We went back to the main hallway and then picked the door opposite of the one that led to the dining room. As we had come to expect by now, the diary had been right yet again and we entered the library. The centrepiece of the room was a large hearth flanked on either side by wall mounted shelves filled with books. Around the hearth four large leather lounge chairs were positioned in a semi-circle. Tucked away in a corner of the room stood a large wooden desk. The desk had been cleared except for a single large wooden crate. Assuming it to be the crate Anastasia and her father had found in their garden, we immediately headed over to inspect it. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprising at all, there was not a single speck of dust to be found inside of the crate. It was also completely empty. Tish got the luminous idea to lift the crate. While there was nothing hiding underneath it, Aisly did notice that something was carved into the bottom of the crate. We turned it over to have a better look. Three huge parallel scratches scarred the wood. They reminded me a bit of the tiger stripes the Cassini mission had found on Enceladus’ south pole. “It’s a claw mark,” Aisly stated. “A claw mark? As in from a single claw?” I asked astonished. It had to have been a huge claw then. “Not exactly, more like as in a set of claws on a paw or a talon that made this in a single swipe. Judging by the angles it was probably a left arm or left front leg,” Aisly corrected my interpretation. Making the mark even more impressive than it already was. “Are there any animals that could leave a mark this size in your world?” Fiora asked. I thought about that for a moment, but came up blank. “Not that I can think of, no. Even a bear does not have large enough paws. Maybe someone forged these claw marks and either deliberately or accidentally made them too big?” I speculated. “I am fairly certain this is not some forgery. If it is, then it was done extremely well,” Aisly stated before pointing out several more minute details as to why she believed it to be genuine. “But, if these were not made by a human and no animal on Earth has large enough claws, paws, or talons to leave a mark like this, then why are they here? How about this world? Any candidates here that could leave marks like these?” I asked. “Hmm… No animals come to mind, but there are a few mamono who might qualify. A jinko, a wight, or some of the dragon species for example. There are probably even more possible species if we include the possibility of it having been made by a particularly large individual,” Fiora replied pensively. “Then again, the diary clearly mentioned that they dug it up from their garden in your world… While occasionally someone is teleported from your world to ours, I don’t know of any instances of anything being teleported from our world to yours…” While that remark was a stab in the gut, I could hardly blame Fiora for answering a question I had implicitly asked. So I tried to ignore it as best as I could and focus on the current mystery at hand. “Well, given all the weird things I’ve seen here already, I will not rule out the possibility yet. In fact, with so many things that just don’t add up, it might be one of the few explanations that still makes at least a sliver of sense. Think about it. If he knew about it all along, then why did her dad not mention this treasure years earlier? If he did not know about it all along, then why did he suddenly proclaim its existence while dead drunk? Why did Anastasia almost immediately find this crate the moment she started digging while her father had presumably been digging in the garden for well over a month? Was Anastasia somehow destined to be the one to find it? And then there are the other things too. Why is there a claw mark on the crate that is so big it cannot possibly have been made by any animal from Earth? Why was this whole mansion teleported here? You mentioned that was something you had never heard of before, too. And lastly what is going on with this diary? Why does it seem to know which room we will be entering next?” “Those are all valid questions and observations…” Fiora said pensively. Then suddenly her eyes lit up. “You know, there is a test I could run to see if there is any trace of demonic energy demonic energy left on the crate. It’s a long shot, but maybe we get lucky.” “You can actually sense demonic energy on things?” “Yeah. I guess you could compare it somewhat to it having a certain scent or taste. When it is fresh it’s easy to sense, and I might even be able to tell whose demonic energy it is. It fades away with time though, so that’s why it is not at all certain I might find something on the crate, even if it indeed came from our world before somehow ending up in yours.” “That’s pretty cool. I, for one, am in favour of investigating any possible lead. Is there anything I can do to help?” I asked. “I’m afraid this is not something you could help me with… You being human and all. You know, demonic energy, mamono stuff… It will take a while too, so perhaps you could read the next few diary entries. So far they have been quite insightful, and maybe there are more clues hidden in there,” Fiora suggested. Aisly wiped the dust off one of the chairs and then sat down. “How about you come over and read the entry aloud to us?” “Sure can do,” I replied. A subtle tug by Tish directed my attention towards Aisly’s expecting gaze. Only then I realized she had meant for me to sit on her lap rather than claim my own chair. I silently thanked Tish and then headed over to the redhead, while Tish stayed with Fiora. ------------------------- Whitwick, October 1st Anno Domini 1875 Father left with the coach for London to find a reputable appraiser this morning. I know the doctor prescribed restorative beverages for him to help cope with the grief. But given how often he can barely walk by the end of the day, I have strong doubts as to whether him bringing two boxes laden with alcoholic tonics along for the journey is wise. Father seems not to care though. The journey from Whitwick to London is at least four days. I don’t think he will be able to stay atop the coach for that long, let alone find his way to London while doing so. While I fear for his safety, I am thankful that he at least decided to leave the crystals here at home with me. He agreed that it would be better to invite the appraiser to come over to our abode to assess their value rather than risk losing them while on the road. On the upside, having the mansion all to myself for a while is nice. I know it is selfish of me to think like this, but not having to take care of him nor clean up the mess he makes is liberating. ------------------------- With Fiora and Tish still busy doing their thing with the crate, and with my well cushioned “seat” being quite comfortable, I flipped the page to read the next entry too. ------------------------- Whitwick, October 2nd Anno Domini 1875 It has been well over a year since I started writing this diary. I read back some of my writings today, and I noticed that most of it has been awfully bleak. Today, however, I will share one of my happiest memories. I don’t know why, but somehow these crystals keep bringing back memories of my trip to the cliffs of Dorset with mother in the summer of 1871. Mother had become intrigued with the life story of Mary Anning, a fossil collector from a village near Dorset, after having read an article about her life by the famous writer Charles Dickens many years ago. She had already bought a fossilized skull from some sort of flying reptile that was found by miss Anning. We still have it on display in our parlour. In fact, I am looking at it while writing this. That summer mother wanted to see for herself the cliffs where miss Anning had been searching for those fossils. I still remember the fierce wind blowing through my hair while standing atop them and looking out over the English Channel. That vacation was the first and only time mother and I were travelling with just the two of us for an extended amount of time. My memories of the conversations we had and the lessons she taught me about life during those weeks I will carry in my heart the rest of my life. ------------------------- “What are fossils?” Aisly asked after I finished reading the entry. “Ah… Hmm, how to explain in a few sentences what fossils are... You know what? Why don’t I show you one first? That should make things a lot easier to understand. Besides, the diary mentions there is one on display in the parlour, so it should not be too hard to find, I think.” “Sure, I’m game,” Aisly replied cheerfully. As the two of us got up to go and look for the parlour, Fiora enviously pouted, “I would like to learn about fossils too…” While I understood why Fiora wanted to join, I also realized that if these girls were to grow jealous of one another this endeavour would turn sour real quick. Given where we were we could not afford disharmony. So I decided to deny her. “While I understand that, I’m going to say no. All three of you were willing to share. That also means that you’ll have to accept that I occasionally do something with just one of you. While this mansion is really nice, we are still out in the middle of nowhere. I don’t think we can afford compromising our group’s cohesion for envy. So, I am going to look for this fossil with only Aisly. You and Tish will get your private time with me later. For now you can finish examining the crate. In about an hour or so, I will gladly explain to the both of you what fossils are a second time.” I was relieved to see Tish nodding in agreement, that helped my case a lot. Fiora had a really funny expression on her face as she bit her lip. It took her a good two seconds before she cast her eyes down. “Ahh… You are right… I’m sorry.” She then looked away. I was rather confused by her reaction, for I could not tell whether my words had hurt her, she was disappointed, or perhaps ashamed. At a loss as to what to do I looked at Tish for help. She smiled warmly at me and then motioned for Aisly and me to leave. Which we did. “Can’t say I’m an expert on Victorian floor plans, but I think it would make the most sense if the parlour is adjacent to the library. So, let’s find that fossil,” I said as I opened the next door. “Whaaah!” Aisly and I cried out in unison as we were met with what was undoubtedly the biggest jump scare of our lives. While the room was shrouded in darkness enough light came through the door opening to reveal the back of a naked woman floating mid-air in the centre of the room. Before I had even finished my startled cry though, something grabbed me by the shoulder and threw me backwards with great force. I crashed into Aisly which send us both tumbling down. Luckily Aisly had been far enough back for my head to have slammed into her shock absorbers rather than her face. Immediately after a distressed Fiora came running into the hallway. “Tish!? Erwin!? Aisly!? What happened!?” She immediately followed it up with an “Are you alright?” when she saw us down on the floor. “Yeah, I’m alright. But what the hell was that?” I groaned, still a bit disoriented from the impact. “I think that was Tish,” Aisly said, as we scrambled back to our feet. With her immediate concern addressed, Fiora turned to the door opening just as Tish came walking back out. “What the fuck?! Wait! Tish are you a…? Whoah! Who is that?!” Fiora uttered. The woman was not only floating mid-air, she was also slowly rotating. So, while her back had been turned to us when we had opened the door, now she was facing us. Her eyes were closed and aside from the slow rotation and a faint heaving in her chest she was otherwise perfectly still. It looked as if she was in some sort of trance or perhaps even a stasis. In her arms she cradled two large egg-shaped purple crystals. “It appears we just found Anastasia!” I muttered in awe and shock. |
MetallumOperaturJan 29, 2021 10:58 AM
venomwolf said: Yeah it was more the way she asked it rather than the actual request itself.And thats an interesting point of view from the mc there, he's got a point, but on something as simple as looking at something in another room for a few minutes you would think hed show everyone. |
Maku_The_Blue said: Please do share, I love to read what my readers are speculating.Btw, I kind of have my own guess on what claw made that scratch, but I'm not going to say it for fear of sounding crazy because it's a long shot. |
MetallumOperaturJan 18, 2021 5:05 PM
| Ah, new chapter goodness... I love the history lesson in this chapter! I'd never heard of Mary Anning before this, so I had to Google her. Kudos for enhancing the story with some real-world details. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
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