The sun broke over the horizon with Ailsa hovering directly above Blair while Lachlan and Elizabeth glided in circles high above the trees. It took all of a few minutes for them to find Gabriel's house once they went aloft, but it was again turning into a much longer march through the forest.
Elizabeth returned and landed beside Blair. She was too nervous about the wolf returning to leave for a prolonged length of time. However, she had to admit, she found flying to be exhilarating. Even if she was much slower and clumsy than Ailsa and Lachlan.
Lachlan came in for a landing, and soon was walking hand-in-hand with Sah'Laehn. She smirked as she walked, and they both blushed, which was even more funny to watch on Lachlan since he was a machine with metal plating with only translucent silicone skin that pinked according to his reactions. That he was a machine didn't seem to matter to Sah'Laehn at all either. Privately, Elizabeth thought that Sah'Laehn was probably so starved for a normal, loving relationship that it didn't matter that Lachlan was ten, or that he was a robot or cyborg. Actually, she had no idea what Lachlan was technically since his body was his own, and that it had been turned into a robot by the magic of Gabriel Shara's property!
Blair sidled closer, wrapped her arm around Elizabeth, and leaned and put her head on Elizabeth's shoulder as she whined, "Can't we stop for a little while? I am so tired."
Elizabeth looked back over her shoulder at her party. Everyone looked disheveled. They all smelled like campfire smoke, and they were all covered in ash. The funeral pyre had been a bad idea, she thought in hindsight, it would have been faster and cleaner to have buried Connor Amaroq. With a shake of her head she resigned herself to the fact that there was nothing to do about it now.
Wrapping her arm around Blair's waist, she sighed, "Let's try to go a little further, and then we'll stop."
They walked until noon, and as everyone ate cheese and bread Elizabeth, Lachlan, and Ailsa took to the sky once again. Once they broke through the canopy and were out in the open air Ailsa hovered in position over the company in the forest while Elizabeth and Lachlan located Gabriel's house. It seemed that it should have only taken them no more than thirty minutes to walk the distance, but it hadn't. It was now their third day lost within the forest since they arrived at Gabriel Shara's property!
Elizabeth signaled for Lachlan to follow her, and then returned to the others.
"This is the craziest thing I've ever experienced in my life!" She complained loudly once they landed, "The house is literally a five second flight, that way!" She hissed as she pointed to the east.
"It was the same this morning too," Ailsa agreed.
"And yet, we've been walking for hours," Blair whined.
"It's because we are in the Hercynian Forest, are we not," Pyrun answered, "That is where our cottage was located, so that must be where we are!"
"No," Elizabeth answered with a shake of her head, then asked, "We are in the United States, on the North American continent. Tell me about this Hercynian Forest…"
"I do not know of this United States or North America you speak of," Pyrun replied with a shake of her head, "but, Father once told me a story about a Roman legion that followed the northern barbarian tribes into this forest and never returned."
"Mmm, I guess the world would have changed a lot since the era your story was set in," Elizabeth mumbled as she raised a hand to her chin and rubbed her tusks with her thumb and pointer finger before asking, "What happened to the Roman army? Did the barbarians meet up with them and defeat them?"
"Our story?" Pandora parroted with a questioning expression, then shook her head, "No, the barbarians eventually navigated their way through the forest and escaped while the Roman's simply disappeared."
"Uh, nevermind! It's too complicated to explain right now. At this rate it will take us weeks to reach the house," Elizabeth replied with a shake of her head and a wave of her hand before continuing their second conversation, "So, once we entered the forest, if we don't know how to navigate it, we could be lost forever within its borders?"
"Father said that Druids enchanted the forest after suffering terrible attacks by tribes of sorcerer led cannibals," Pyrun explained, "Then they took their people into the forest and disappeared."
Elizabeth shook her head as she listened, the more she heard the worse their situation sounded.
"What if," Lachlan offered with a hesitant pause and a shrug, "We fly everyone to the house?"
Elizabeth's breath caught as her eyebrows lifted in surprise, and then they furrowed as she brought her hand up and stroked her tusks as she thought it over. With a nod she brought her hand away from her tusks and agreed, "That's not a bad idea. This forest may be enchanted, but the sky isn't! But, we will have to be careful or we could drop someone by accident…"
Lachlan nodded that he understood.
Once everyone had eaten and rested, they began testing out how they were going to carry an extra passenger when Sah'Laehn gave Lachlan an all too promiscuous smirk while holding her arms open for a hug. Elizabeth walked up while shaking her head and wagging her finger reprovingly, "Not so fast mister! You will practice with your sister, and then I want you to take her to the house first!"
"Yes, Elle," Lachlan acquiesced with a sigh as his shoulders slumped.
Sah'Laehn gave him a consolatory grin before bending down to kiss him on the cheek and whisper, "Don't worry, I will be waiting for you!"
Elizabeth's sharp ears twitched as she cut her eyes to the woman and frowned. The double meaning was not lost on her, and she was going to have to have a private word with the woman once Lachlan wasn't around.
Turning away while shaking her head, Pandora approached her with Pyrun in tow and asked, "If you don't mind lady Elizabeth, please take Pyrun to safety first?"
It took her all of a second to agree with a nod. She knew very well those motherly instincts to protect one's child. Sure she had no children of her own, but for the last six years Ailsa, Blair, and Lachlan had been her charges and responsibility.
A half hour later Elizabeth stood naked with Pyrun face-to-face with her. She found out that she was much stronger now than she had been before entering Gabriel's property and being changed. Pyrun was not as tall as her, but she was no lightweight either, and she would never have been able to carry her on the ground, much less fly!
Through trial and error they figured out that Elizabeth's armor pinched at Pyrun, and her strophion caused her grip to slip. Their solution was that Elizabeth stripped. Pyrun hopped up and wrapped her legs around Elle's waist, then they used Elle's strophion as a wrap around her breasts and chest, under her wings, and over her shoulders so that Pyrun could wrap the ends of the fabric around her wrists and hold on.
Lachlan and Blair had similar problems. The exception was that it was Blair's kimono causing the issue. The solution had both Blair and Lachlan blushing when Blair called upon her kitsune magic and her fluffy black fox tail grew eight pink magic tails made of 'Foxfire' from its base. As her magic tails appeared her kimono disappeared leaving her with only her obi girding her waist, her fundoshi, sarashi, and geta.
They didn't say anything to each other. She imagined it was as humiliating for them as constantly finding herself naked in front of them was for her. With grim expressions and rosy cheeks Lachlan and Elizabeth tightened their grips on Blair and Pyrun before leaping straight up.
She could feel the strain on her muscles as her wings struggled to find purchase in the air. Lachlan laughed as rockets rotated open in the heels of his shoes and two booster rockets popped out of his back just below his wings of synthetic light and helped him gain altitude.
"This is so awesome," He chortled as he looked back over his shoulder.
"Pay attention to your flying," Blair shrieked as they veered toward a particularly thick tree branch.
"Oh shit!" He exclaimed as he altered their trajectory, missing the limb, but not without several whip thin offshoots spanking Blair's bare tush as they flew past!
She hissed and yelped, a few tears were shed but she wouldn't dare let go so that she could rub her bum. Looking away from Lachlan she whimpered, "I so hate you right now!"
"I'm sorry," He apologized through unrepentant snickering.
Elizabeth found that as she tapped into her dragonic power and her belly began to warm, the hair on her head and tail lifted up and turned into golden flame.
"Oh!" Pyrun gasped as Elizabeth's belly and breasts began to glow, "You are getting quite warm!"
Elizabeth nodded and tightened her hold on Pyrun as she answered, "Tapping into my dragonic power made it so you're lighter and flying easier, but I think if I draw on my power anymore I'll burn you."
"Let's not do that," Pyrun chuckled, "I have too many scars as it is. At this rate I will never find a man that will marry me!"
Elizabeth smiled but said nothing. They were high in the air now and she could already see Gabriel's house. She couldn't exactly see if Lachlan was following her, so she would have to trust that he would keep up as she began her descent.
Once she landed with a thud in the front yard, Pyrun immediately unwrapped her legs and her feet down with a, "Well that was a ride I will never forget, thank you lady Elizabeth!"
Lachlan came in for his landing accompanied by the high pitched whine of his booster rockets slowing his descent. As soon as his feet hit the ground Blair was disentangling herself from her brother. She immediately punched him in the shoulder while growling, "Jackass!" Then set about rubbing her buttocks before she released her magic and her kimono reappeared.
"Thanks," She finally offered with her head down and cheeks rosy from blushing before quickly moving to stand beside Elizabeth.
"Who goes there?" Yelled an old man with wispy white hair and a long mustache and braided beard. He was dressed as a butler, but he was short, only four feet tall and broad with a stout beer belly making it easy to identify him as a dwarf. He wore a monocle over his left eye and a large horn pipe with gold trimmings dangled from the corner of his mouth, and he casually held a large maul in his right hand.
"May I ask who is inquiring," Elizabeth asked in return.
"Hmm," He grunted as he took a step down from the porch of the old colonial farm house as he looked Elizabeth up and down, "You are a dragoness by the looks of you, but only half or you would be much uglier. I can see the scales beneath your skin, however that same skin and those ears say that you have elven blood coursing through your veins, and there are those hooves and tusks which are distinctly orcish…"
Looking at Blair he continued, "And you my dear are a kitsune, a Fox spirit. Very interesting!"
Then he turned to Lachlan, "And you are one of the Dolls known as a Palamek."
When he turned to Pyrun he looked her up and down and then dismissed her as a normal woman before answering, "My name is Basgarthimel Ironhammer, though most just call me Bas. I am Lord Gabriel Shara's stewart when he is indisposed. So, how does a human, an orc-elf-dragoness, a kitsune, and a Palamek come to be in a party together, and how did you find your way here?"
"I am Elizabeth Wright," She answered before gesturing to her company as she continued, "And this is Blair and Lachlan Thornburn, Gabriel's niece and nephew while I am their nanny. This other woman is Pyrun Amaroq-Pandorasdottr, and we have three more companions left behind in the forest, Ailsa Thornburn, Pandora, and Sah'Laehn. We have come to live with Gabriel since Craig and Elsbeth Thornburn died a few weeks ago in Paris."
"I see," Bas replied as he scratched at his beard.
"Whose come to disturb the Master, Mister Ironhammer," A portly woman only three and half feet tall called from the porch.
Though she was short, it was very discernible that she was older by the silver streaking her thick brassy red hair that was braided and looped into two large buns held by silver rings above each ear.
"That is my wife," Bas introduced, "Gretl Stouthearth, she is also the cook."
"No, Missus Stouthearth," He answered as he turned back to her and beckoned for her to come forward, "We have guests and Lord Shara's family has come to live with him!"
"Oh my goodness!" Missus Stouthearth exclaimed as she trotted forward and down the stairs as she wiped her hands that didn't need cleaning on her apron. She came to a stop and bowed low as she said loudly, "Welcome to Gryphon's Reach House, home of lord Gabriel Shara! I am Missus Gretl Stouthearth, your cook. Please come inside and let us make you at home…"
She paused when she reached Elizabeth and saw that she was naked for the exception of the fabric of her strophion wrapped around her breasts and chest. Missus Stouthearth blinked in shock while her wide, plump mouth worked to make words. She finally found her ability to speak again when she cut her eyes to Mister Ironhammer and saw that he had a too satisfied grin underneath that burly white beard of his!
"Mister Ironhammer!" She hollered indignantly, "You are supposed to be a honorable dwarf! How dare you ogle this poor dragoness like she is some prostitute from the Rose District!"
Elizabeth wasn't sure if Missus Stouthearth was chastising Bas, or if the woman was insinuating that she was a whore. She found that her cheeks were burning while Bas looked away as Missus Stouthearth walked over and punched him hard in the shoulder as she continued, "Since you can see they mean us no harm, go find Miss Lanthromil and have her ready the rooms!"
"Yes Missus Stouthearth," Bas answered in a harassed voice as he turned and left.
"Where is Gabriel Shara," Elizabeth asked pointedly of Missus Stouthearth, "His sister and brother-in-law died in Paris a few weeks ago and no one can get in touch with him!"
"Miss," Missus Stouthearth began to answer, "First let's get some clothes on you, and then we can show you to the Lord and you will see for yourself."
"No, I can't yet despite how I wish I could put on some clothes," Elizabeth answered with a shake of her head, "We still have friends and family in the forest. Lachlan and I must return to them and fly them here and then we can accept your hospitality."
"As my lady wishes," Missus Stouthearth replied with a patient smile, "I shall be here awaiting your return with a variety of modest dresses for your selection."
"That sounds delightful," Elizabeth said with a toothy smile before turning to Lachlan and calling, "Come on Lachlan let's get back to the others!"
——(!)——
"What took you so long to get back," Ailsa demanded as soon as Elizabeth and Lachlan landed.
"There was a butler and cook at the house when we got there," Lachlan explained.
"I have to admit I was surprised," Elizabeth added, "I didn't expect Gabriel to have domestic workers, much less dwarves."
"Dwarves?" Ailsa gasped.
"Yep," Lachlan answered cheerily as he swaggered up to Sah'Laehn who was waiting to wrap her arms around his slim shoulders, "The old guy was about my height while the Missus Stouthearth was even shorter than me!"
Ailsa smiled excitedly as she nearly hopped in place and clapped her hands together, "Really! I can't wait to see!"
It took roughly fifteen minutes for them to go through all the traveling packs and discard what wouldn't be needed anymore, and then they took to the sky again. This time Sah'Laehn was wrapped around Lachlan to the point that he could barely be seen while Pandora was holding on to Elizabeth much the same way her daughter had. As for Ailsa, she transformed into her hummingbird fairy-form and flew circles around them all the way to the house.
When they arrived Missus Stouthearth was waiting for them with a pleasant smile. Standing next to her was another woman who was much taller. Between them was a mobile rack that had been brought out just for Elizabeth, and on it were many pants, blouses, skirts, and dresses of different colors and styles. Once they landed, Missus Stouthearth intercepted Lachlan and Sah'Laehn. She smiled grandmotherly at Lachlan as she presented him with a glass of ice tea and a plate with a turkey, lettuce, and bacon sandwich on it. For Sah'Laehn she had a flat stare as she scrutinized her outfit made up of a long bolt of cloth hung over her shoulders so that it covered her breasts and sex, but little more.
"Young master Lachlan, you may go on inside. You will find refreshments in the dining room where your sister Blair is waiting for you," Missus Stouthearth offered in a firm tone that conveyed that her offer was more of a command.
"But," Lachlan tried to protest as he was pushed along by the robust dwarf woman.
He looked back at Sah'Laehn, but Missus Stouthearth stepped in front of him and waved for him to shoo as she reassured, "Don't worry, everyone will be joining you just as soon as they are dressed appropriately!"
Lachlan gave a last fleeting glance at Sah'Laehn and Elizabeth before going inside. Once he was gone, Missus Stouthearth turned around and fixed the three women with a determined glare as she gestured to her companion, "This is Miss Damson Lanthromil, and yes, as you can see she is a succubus!"
Miss Lanthromil was an elegant woman appearing to be in her late twenties or early thirties. She had long opalescent hair that fell freely down her back all the way to the bottom of her bum. Her eyes were bright, crystal clear, yellowish orange of purified citrine bordered by supernaturally long and thick opalescent eyelashes. She almost looked human except that her skin was a deep garnet color, she had four inch long garnet devil horns protruding from her forehead, a five foot long tail whipped and curled lazily behind her, and hybridized legs that ended in opalescent hooves!
Elizabeth's eyebrows raised at Damson's introduction, she had expected a succubus to be wearing black lace and latex, and brandishing a whip and handcuffs. Instead she wore a very modest cream gown with a tight bodice encasing a copious bosom that rivaled her own. Damson's gown sculpted to an almost impossibly slim waist before swooping out over exotically wide hips and thick buttocks.
Elizabeth couldn't hold back a sudden bout of chuckling as she held out her hand to Damson and purred, "You're not how I imagined you, hello I'm Elizabeth!"
The demoness's eyes narrowed and her mouth turned down in a frown as she took the remark as an insult. Half-frame reading glasses materialized as Damson peered down her nose regarding Elizabeth with a contemptuous expression before prudishly offering her fingers to be shaken as she retorted, "And you are far less than I expected of a dragoness…"
Elizabeth took her fingers but couldn't hide her sneer at the other woman's bitter remark as Damson pulled her hand away as she continued, "Your elvish bloodline barely softens your absolutely brutish physique. Your breasts are too fat, your hips are too wide, and your ass! I can't even quantify how large your ass is! Your muscles are too thick… To call you a woman is a disservice to all women everywhere!"
Elizabeth's belly began glowing, starting at her pubic bone and traveling up as the golden scales began to appear beneath her honey-brown skin. It reached her sternum when a white glow halfway between her navel and sex began to glow white and spread upward and overtook the golden luminance of her dragonic power as she growled, "If you goal is to infuriate me, your doing a superlative job at it!"
Damson smirked as she looked Elizabeth up and down, but her eyes kept returning to the white glow low in Elizabeth's belly. Tearing her eyes away, Damson turned away from Elizabeth with a miffed sniff as she retorted to the air in front of her, "Brutes always do resort to violence when presented with a hint of criticism. Come on then dragon lady, let us see if I can find some clothes that will... feminize you…"
Elizabeth blinked in disgruntled confusion. Her mouth was still turned down in a grim frown. She let go of her anger with a hiss, and as of seething steam were whistling through her teeth the glowing in her belly subsided before she grumbled, "Unless you have clothes that are fireproof, I fear anything you give me will only get burned to ash."
"Hmm, let's see," Damson hummed as looked through the undergarments first. She picked up a tiny white leather thong with white fleece and murmured, "Panties of the Himalayan yeti, guaranteed to keep your lady bits nice and cool… No matter how hot and bothered you get…"
"I will take those," Sah'Laehn purred as she stepped forward and snatched them from Damson's fingers and slipped them on.
"There's a matching bra as well," Damson offered as she pointed to the other side of the rack, "It keeps the tits and nips the perfect temperature year round."
Sal'Laehn moved away to search for the bra as she purred, "Oh that sounds divine!"
Damson continued flipping through panties as she narrated, "Leech skin panties, no matter whether you have a heavy flow or not there's never any leaking. The only drawbacks are a slight sucking sensation and they're a little clingy when trying to remove them."
The silence was deafening. Elizabeth glanced over to Ailsa and she almost laughed because she was sure Ailsa's expression of revulsion must have mirrored her own. At least she wasn't alone in thinking the leech panties were disgusting.
Damson chuckled when she looked back over her shoulder at us and saw our expressions, "You might think they're horrid at first, but trust me, they beat any absorbency pad on the market hands down! Now, let's see what else we have…"
"Hmm, spider silk thongs, for those occasions when you don't want unsightly panty lines… I must admit this is my go to undergarment of choice…"
"Let's see, gryphon down-feather panties for when you want that fresh breeze feeling…"
"Oh! Here we go! Salamander scale panties, for when you're so hot to trot you just might burn somebody!"
She turned around and offered the slim g-string to Elizabeth who took it with a reproachful look as she quipped, "Not much to them is there… I'm not sure I see the point…"
"Hey," Damson retorted as she looked Elizabeth up and down, "It's more than you're wearing now!"
"That's true," She had to admit as she accepted them and pulled them on as she asked, "You don't happen to have a matching bra do you?"
"As a matter of fact I do," Damson answered as she moved to find it. When she pulled it out it was nothing more than a two triangle and string bikini top sized for a size two woman with B-cup breasts.
Elizabeth took it as she shook her head, "First, there's no way this will fit me. Second, even if it did, there's no support for these monstrous breasts!"
"Oh my dear dragoness," Damson chuckled as she suddenly stepped forward and cupped the undercurve of Elizabeth's breasts as she lifted them slightly, weighing them, "You needn't ever worry about support, dragon cooper's ligaments never stretch. A dragoness's bosom sag is only due to their bountiful volume, not because of weight. Also, all my clothing, undergarments, and lingerie are all one size fits all."
Elizabeth's mouth fell open as Damson took the bra back and began tying it in place around her ribs below her breasts, and to her amazement the salamander leather triangles grew to give her the coverage she wanted. When Damson came back around Elizabeth asked with an air of hope, "So, do you have clothes that are fireproof too?"
——(!)——
When Elizabeth finally walked into the Shara House everyone stared. Elizabeth wore a collarless, red fire worm leather coat over a sheer magma spider-silk blouse tucked into a succubi's, hellfire leather, backless britches.
"So, what do you think?" She asked as she spun around.
"I'd be lying if I said I didn't like you naked better," Lachlan answered with a scoundrelly smirk, "But, you look marvelous Elle, as usual!"
Elizabeth gave him a flat stare for the first and a smile for the last and then chuckled as she admitted, "To be honest the last few days have been humiliating mostly, but also exhilarating and liberating as well. I must admit I do feel more confident in my body than ever before."
"Well, that is always good," Blair agreed.
Ailsa walked into the house wearing green leaf leather ankle boots and a green harpy feather gown that made her truly look like a human hummingbird.
Everyone "ooh'd" and "ah'd" appropriately over how beautiful she was, and then Sah'Leahn swept into the house. She was wearing a white gown inlaid with silver scrollwork and onyx, while her feet were adorned with onyx encrusted slippers.
Lachlan's mouth fell open as he just stared speechlessly.
Pandora came in last wearing a blue Spartan styled chiton with silver shoulder clips and silver corded belt while she was barefoot.
"You all look like you took baths," Blair said just as Missus Stouthearth and Damson walked into the receiving room.
"Would you believe me if I said that Damson has this tiny porcelain house that's really a bathhouse, and she's able to invite anyone she wants inside to bathe with her!" Elizabeth answered.
"Now that everyone is present," Bas said loudly, interrupting Blair who looked disappointed that she had missed the opportunity to bathe, "Will Gabriel Shara's family come with me."
As Bas led Elizabeth and the children through the house to the study, he was calm while Damson and Missus Stouthearth seemed apprehensive as they followed behind. As they approached the door to the study Bas stopped and turned to them, "What I am about to show you will explain all of your questions. For the Master's safety and your own, we ask that you do not approach him. You will see why in a moment."
He gave each of them a grim stare until they nodded that they understood, and then he opened the doors and led them inside.
The room looked like it was far larger than was structurally possible given the way the house was laid out. The study looked like a small library. Shelves full of books lined the two side walls and wall they walked in from. The only wall without shelves was the exterior wall and it had a cathedral style painted window depicting a haloed woman handing a pen to a man that was kneeling before her. Below the window facing them was a large black walnut desk, and behind the desk sat Gabriel Shara looking down at a tome. He was smiling as his right hand moved back and forth like he was writing though there was no pen in his hand.
It was immediately discernible that something wasn't right. Everyone moved into the study, and yet, Gabriel Shara didn't look up. He didn't greet them. Nothing…