Heshvan 10, 6767
The day arrived for mother, me, and Huxian to leave for the Dragon's Spine. I spent the morning sitting in a chair with Bastet's plump bottom in my lap as I petted her. She didn't say anything, and neither did I. We both knew that no matter what we said, it was only going to make my leaving that much harder. So, in silence I ran my fingers across the soft fine fur of her face. Tracing the edges and curves of her nose, brow, cheekbones, and jaw. I caressed her wide, overly plump, pink mouth. I indulged in combing my fingers through her long, curly, black hair, and rubbing her long triangular cat ears as she purred.
"When you return," She whispered finally as her large hazel eyes stared up into mine, "I want us to run away for a week, and all we will do is eat, and nap, and breed."
"It sounds like a wonderful week to me," I answered, then becoming solemn I caressed her chin as I continued, "I hope you know how special you are to me? You have been with me from the beginning. We've been together forever. You are my most trusted, and best friend, and I love you from the very core of my heart!"
Bastet's eyes became more and more tearful by the word, and she was smiling irrepressibly as she threw her arms around my neck and kissed me in rapid passionate succession. As she expressed her love, her passion became more frenzied as I combed my fingers through her fur and cupped her ample bottom. She moved to straddle me, spreading open her thighs as the folds of her aroused pink sex. She started rubbing my dick, and I was quickly rising to the occasion when Huxian came in and said quietly, "It is time my Lord."
Bastet pulled away as she sighed heavily before whispering, "I wish for the days when it was just you and me again."
I caressed her cheek, and then pulled her in for a final tender kiss before I whispered, "I understand. Be strong for me, and know that I love you." With those final words Bastet crawled off my lap and I left her in our room.
Walking up to Burza, I transformed into a Harpy and wrapped my wings around her while she hugged me as we kissed. When we pulled back I whispered, "When I return we will go flying together and perform that mating flight you mentioned the other day."
"I look forward to it, my Raptor King," Burza purred happily.
We hugged again, and then I left her to transform into a Lion-hybrid as I pulled Leandra into a fierce hug with many kisses. She pulled away and looked up at me with a blush as she purred, "Keep up with your sparring practice. I want you in good form when you return. That way maybe we will have a more private competition between just the two of us."
I smiled as I brushed her red mane of hair behind a long triangular cat ear and caressed her cheek, "I look forward to it Leandra," I whispered before leaning and kissing her.
——(!)——
Outside the house Huxian, Glenna, and I said our final goodbyes to Summerset and Shadowlynn before boarding the shuttle for a quick ride to the city gates.
"So why couldn't we just ride the shuttle all the way to the Spine," I asked once we were on our way.
"The private shuttles chauffeur system is programmed to stop at pull-outs and await their owners," Glenna explained, "Our shuttle would never return home, and riding a long distance shuttle is equally inadequate since it would want to take us all the way to Olympia. So, we are forced to walk." *fn-C1
"Well, maybe not," I purred with a self-satisfied grin.
When we reached the gates, we disembarked and the guards saluted me and Glenna as the Lord's son and Lady of Valeland. We had no luggage. We were not going on a camping trip. We were going to stop a catastrophe, and we were dressed for battle, though mother out shined us all.
She looked like a goddess herself, dressed in silver. There wasn't a piece of jewelry that she owned that she didn't have on. From a diadem of her station sitting upon her brow to three earrings in each ear to a septum nose ring dangling in the philtrum of her top lip. On all four arms she had silver and gem encrusted bicep bands and bracers, and on every finger and thumb was a ring if not three. As for armor, she wore a silver under-bust corset that pushed under the sag of her overly plump breasts and encased her body all the way to her hip flares. Clipped to rings along the bottom of her corset was a silver mail dress divided in the center so that her sex was exposed per the divine edict of her Goddess while the chainmail skirt covered her thighs. To complete her armor for war she held a longsword in her right secondary hand and a maul in the left.
Next to her I looked...underwhelming. Even Huxian was more spectacular than me as she pranced around only in her fur, every movement seemingly exaggerated by her voluptuousness even when all she was doing was shifting her weight from one hip to the other or wagging her tail.
The men's mouths fell open as they ogled mother and Huxian while several of the female guards' smiled appreciatively as their eyes glinted in delight when I removed my boots and pants and put them back in the shuttle. Even as a young Alfar growing up in a culture where sexuality and nudity was embraced, I still felt my cheeks blush to a deeper shade of walnut until Quebracho grew platemail to cover me.
"Mmm, you are...quite delicious looking," Quebracho purred in my head. Then sighed, "If only I was two or three thousand years younger, and not a half a world away..."
I could feel her loneliness like a spike in the chest, and I wished I could do something to take it away for her.
"Oh, Virdy," Quebracho purred in my mind, "I see now why all your women love you so much. Thank you, for wanting to console me."
"Ah, you're welcome," I whispered, still unused to speaking without hearing myself.
I could feel her smiling as she purred, "You have no idea how much you have done for me just by putting me on and being able to talk to me. It has been so...long...since I have had someone to share my thoughts and life with."
Quebracho felt like a long lost love since dawning her breastplate. I could always feel her presence like a lover just behind my shoulder. A shadow that fluttered in my periphery. I found that I would turn sometimes as if to tell her something and then I would remember that she wasn't really there.
"One day, I am going to come visit you," I promised Quebracho.
She smiled warmly, but I could feel a touch of sadness too as she whispered, "I look forward to that then. I only hope I don't disappoint you…"
"I am sure you could never do that," I retorted.
"We shall see," She whispered as I quietly transformed into a pure lion.
"What the hell is that," A young officer yelled as he jumped back and started to draw his weapon.
"Don't be a fool," Glenna snapped sharply and glared at the young man's hand on his weapon, "Did you not see before that he is my son, Viridian Vale, the heir of Summerset? Now you see your Lord's power as the Guardian of the Moon Goddess. Show your respects!"
I looked around and all of the guardsmen looked so small. Looking back at my body, I was as long and as large as the shuttle. I was taller than Glenna at my shoulders, who was taller than all the guardsmen, and I was very long from my forelegs to my hindlegs with a long thick tail. Most of these men and women had never seen a real lion, and even if they had, I was at least twice maybe three times larger than how I remembered them from my previous life.
"Quebracho," I spoke aloud and surprised myself, I hadn't thought I would be able to speak as an animal.
"Yes my Lord," She answered in a warm purr in my head.
"Can you make a saddle for two," I asked.
"Can I make a saddled for two," She laughed prettily, "Of course I can my Lord. As long as you allow me to access your life-force and the skills you inherited from Sequoia..."
"Have at it then. I'm trusting you with my life, I trust you with this as well," I answered with a mental wink and a smile.
Quebracho chuckled, and then I felt her spirit moving inside me as she accessed Planted, Barkskin, and Entangling Roots as she grew a saddle from my back. The saddle was long and swooped out and up so that I would be carrying Glenna and Huxian on my shoulders.
"I will run alongside my love," Huxian said, excusing herself from riding as she shapeshifted into a fox.
"You're a sprinter, remember my love," I answered in a purr, then laid down so Glenna could climb on, "Please, plant that superlative bottom of yours in my saddle and enjoy the ride."
Huxian returned to her humanoid form and sighed at me before tousling my mane. She climbed up and wrapped her hands around Glenna's waist, and I felt the weight of the saddle and breastplate shift as Quebracho made further adjustments to her form so that she was tighter around my chest and there wouldn't be any chafing.
She also made a scabbard and a cradle for Glenna's sword and hammer under the saddle. Glenna purred in delight and remarked that now she wouldn't stab or pummel me the whole run to the Spine. Once everything and everyone was onboard and secure, I looked at the guardsman and requested, "If you would be so good as to open the gate please?"
She nodded and hurried to comply, as the gate swung open and we walked through she saluted and shouted, "Go with the blessing of Gaia, Lauma, and Seline!"
Once we were outside the city I padded over to the brick road that led to the Dragon's Spine, and on through to Olympia. Looking back over my shoulder at a nervous but smiling Glenna I warned, "Make sure you hold on tight!"
With those final words I charged forward at a full gallop!
Trees turned into a blur of brown and green walls on either side. The wind was in my nose, and I found a joy I had never known before. I ran for hours, amazed when I didn't seem to tire at all until I caught the smell of water. I realized I was thirsty, and turning aside I slowed and came to a stop at the river's edge and laid down so Huxian and Glenna could climb down and take a breather as well.
"Argh, I think I am going to be sick," Huxian groaned as she stumbled over to a tree and puked loudly.
"If you're feeling sick," Glenna said as she dismounted, "Then come and drink my milk again."
"Thank you Oracle," Huxian answered with a nod. She washed out her mouth, and then walked up to Glenna and grabbed her breasts and began suckling aggressively, first the right breast, and then the left as I watched in stunned amazement!
Glenna moaned and gave little mewling's as her body shuddered and her tail whipped back and forth furiously. Within seconds I smelled her arousal trickling out of her sex. She smelled so familiar, like clean water and sugar cookies with lavender and licorice. My head began feeling fuzzy as my lion dick suddenly grew and stiffened with my arousal. Padding around behind Glenna, I pushed my nose right into her ass just under her tail as it went rigid in shock. She looked back over her shoulder at me and gasped, "Son?"
She didn't have to wait long to find out what was happening. Pushing my long rough cat's tongue through her thighs, I licked all the way to her smooth pubic mound, and then withdrew while pressing between the folds of her labia, lashing her clitoris and lapping up her nectar.
I didn't stop, I couldn't stop!
The more I tasted her the more I wanted her, until her thighs were shaking and she shrieked as she squirted her release across my tongue and into my mouth.
"It's a little unfair to be ambushed by both of you at the same time," She complained mildly in a sultry purr as she squatted in the river and splashed water on her pinked and irritated sex. She hissed at her tenderness,
"This is going to make the rest of the ride almost unbearable."
"I'm sorry," I apologized with a shake of my lion's head, "This is my first time in this form, and well, it turns out that the smell of your arousal is like catnip to me."
"Well," She purred huskily as she stood up and trudged out of the water, "I guess I better watch myself, or you'll be breeding me next!"
I laid down and let her and Huxian mount and then I ran on for another hour before Glenna called for me to come to a halt.
"This is the place," She announced, "This is where we will intercept the Svartalfar attack force."
It didn't look like anywhere special to me, but then, she was the Oracle while I was her Guardian. I looked around and found a good spot to lay down and let Glenna and Huxian dismount.
"I need to speak with you privately, my love," Huxian said as she climbed down.
Glenna smiled secretively, knowing what Huxian had to say to me and announced that she was going to go find fire wood. I transformed into my fox-hybrid form, and let Huxian take my hand and lead me on a walk down to a lake.
"Viridian, my mate," Huxian began nervously as she slipped her arms around my waist and looked up at me with a nervous smile, "It seems that the rules don't apply to you one bit."
I looked at her perplexed before she continued, "I am pregnant with a litter of our children! In the next four weeks I'm going to get big and fat and then we will be parents!"
"Wait...what? Really!" I exclaimed as I picked her up and swung her in a circle. Then I reverted to my Alfar form and I kissed her plump mouth until she was pulling away for air.
I knelt down and rubbed her belly, and sure enough, she had a pronounced roundness to it I hadn't noticed before. Laying my head against her belly I tried to hear their heartbeats, but regrettably I heard nothing so I wrapped my arms around her hips and hugged her tight.
"I have more news," Huxian said with a laugh as she combed her fingers through my hair.
"Better than this," I mumbled into her belly.
"No," She chuckled and shook her head, "It's more like, more of this. Burza and Leandra are pregnant too, and most likely if you got us pregnant then it means that Sequoia is seeding as well."
"Why didn't you all tell me sooner," I asked as I looked up Huxian's abdomen to gaze into her eyes through the cleavage of her breasts.
She looked over at Glenna for a moment, and then she looked back down at me and answered, "We thought the news might make leaving for this mission too hard, so we decided it would be best if I told you once we arrived here."
I sensed that it was Glenna who had counseled my ladies on discretion, but I understood her reasons as well. She was right, I would have found it nearly impossible to leave if I had known. Burying my face in her soft fur, feeling Huxian's breasts resting on my head, I mumbled, "I understand, you were right to act as you have. I am so happy, my love, so so happy!"
Huxian squealed, giggled happily, and hugged my head tight...
——(!)——
Aalyn Abendroth looked out over the Dragon's Spine Mountains as her troops marched from one shadowy valley to another. The overlook afforded a rare glimpse of the morning sun, casting her world in purples, pinks, oranges and yellows as the sun rose and reflected off the early snowfall carpeting the mountain peaks. As the last of her five-thousand soldiers, men and women alike, passed by, her surround was cast in a misty golden glow that made her feel like she was walking in the heavenly white realm, and she hoped she would see those golden shores when her course in this world was run. *fn-C2
Looking down at her one ungloved hand, she was reminded that she was Svartalf. Her skin was as black as the night sky, her hair was the color of the clear white moon, and her eyes were the color of amethyst. Her people had no hope of attaining to the golden shores of heaven. Their fate was a much darker one, or so their priests and priestesses professed.
With no hope of attaining a glorious golden afterlife she dedicated herself to attaining glory in the one life she had. Unlike her mother and sisters, her faith in the Goddess Arachne was less than...whole-souled. She had many doubts, and it would take nothing less than speaking to the Goddess directly to revitalize her faith. Until then, she worked hard to become the youngest General in a generation, receiving her first Command by the age of seventy-eight.
It was a rather simple mission, but it was hers. She was to lead her men into the Valeland and kill the renegade Villralfar and confiscate their livestock. It would be easily done. They were all soldiers while Valeheim's reported populous was fifty-thousand civilians with a standing militia of maybe two hundred guards. Reports also said their Animal population was close to two-hundred and fifty-thousand, but they wouldn't dare interfere with the Primes knowing it would be certain death if they did. Still, the best strategy was to strike Valeheim swiftly, kill or capture the Villralfar and Animal leadership before herding their new livestock back through the mountains to new stockyards.
Two beautiful Svartalfar women came sauntering up, each wore their long white hair loose and falling down their backs. The oldest of the two was Thurdain Abendroth, her younger sister by twenty years, and a Priestess of Arachne. The other woman was Illglan Abendroth, her youngest sister forty years her junior, and a Disciple under Thurdain's apprenticeship. *fn-C3
Both of them wore little to nothing despite the cold weather as the station to their Goddess demanded. Each of them wore a curved silver under-wire that perfectly sculpted to the curves under their breasts, and must have been enchanted to stay where they were because the impractical items didn't fall down to their waists like they should have. The next farcical item they wore were silver hip-chains with dresses sewn to them. Thurdain's purple dress looked like it was barely clinging to her hips. The linen cloth was nearly completely transparent and showed everything; her sex, buttocks, and legs except where black leather cut to look like spiderwebs was sewn over the fabric. Illglan's dress was crimson linen, also so sheer that it hid nothing of her body beneath, and also sewn with leather webbing. Besides the silver under-wire and the diaphanous hip-chain dresses, the only other thing they wore were fleece cloaks also enchanted to be transparent and they were bedecked with rings, bracelets, and necklaces.
Aalyn shook her head for the millionth time and thanked a nameless Goddess that she had no aptitude or faith for the priestly class. She was happy to be wearing her fleece-lined leather bra and linen panties, her heavy wool shirt, fleece-lined leather britches, and her black stained leather armor and solid silver-plated breastplate and gauntlets, and then there was her heavy fleece-lined leather cloak and sturdy leather boots. She was warm. How her sisters didn't freeze, she had no idea.
The last of her soldiers passed by and bringing up the rear of her regiment were the cooks, blacksmiths, tailors and leather workers, and finally a hundred Initiates of the Goddess Arachne who would tend to the...needs...of the men and give Arachne's blessing from their bodies for the upcoming battle.
Aalyn's plump mouth twisted into a sneer at the sight of them, and she quickly covered it with her gloved hand as she pretended to scratch her nose. There were those that coveted her station, and they would use any excuse to accuse her if they could. Three such individuals that she knew of were Hayden, Grunngrul, and Rweble, all brothers of a rival House, her lieutenant colonels, and hundreds of years older than her. They hated her because she was a woman, and they hated her for her meteoric rise in the military. It didn't matter that she had easily beaten them in armed combat and military tactics for the promotion. However, even though much of her achievements were from her own hard work, she had to admit that her mother and her House's strong standing in Idavollr had a lot to do with it too. *fn-C4
House Abendroth was seventh in line to the Governorship of Annwyn, and fifteenth in line to the Queenship of all Svartalfheim. Her lieutenant colonels were of House Faline, eighth in line from the Governorship and sixteenth in line from the Queenship making them particularly bitter rivals. The fact that they were appointed as her subordinates spoke volumes of Governor Elhanor's opinion of their continuous feuding. She wanted it settled, one way, or another. *fn-C6
Looking at the priestesses, the tradesmen and her soldiers, she wondered how many were spies and assassins for House Faline. It would be interesting to see how her subordinates would betray her and her sisters on this mission, and it would be even more interesting countering it. Smiling maliciously, she followed her troops down the steep decline out of the early morning light and back down into the comfortable shadows she has known all her life.
Her sister followed closely. They were nimble and quick as they double timed it back to the head of the marching line, led by Lieutenant Colonel Hayden, just in time to call a halt to the for lunch on the next valley overlook.
Taking a long pull on her water flask, she sighed as she bit into her bread, cheese, and a few berries she found growing wild a few yards off the trail. Pulling out her map, she marked their location and estimated that they had three more days before reaching Valeheim.
"We've been marching for four days," Illglan said as she chewed a piece of beef jerky and cheese, "We should arrive in three days. Is that how you read it, Aalyn?"
"It is," She answered with a nod. She looked up and around at her commanders. She wanted to push her men for speed, but if pushed too hard they would be exhausted when they arrived at the Valelands, "We will reach the other side of this valley and pitch camp, and then cross over in the morning."
Everyone nodded. It was strategically safer.
They didn't want to be seen in the dark, and their campfires would make them a beacon in the night. Instead they would camp in the valley, safely within the embrace of Gaia's bosom and under the cover of Lauma's dark foliage.