Book 3: Sound And Fury

  Ch 9 Me, Myself and I

  “Are you alright, papa?” Amy asked softly, when her Gary sagged into a chair he conjured to catch himself, just like in the old days, so long ago.

  “I’m fine, sweetie… Use your spooky voice to tell your mom I’m about done for tonight…” He muttered through a huge yawn. “She’ll come to collect me. I can’t touch the soil tonight.”

  The pair of them were alone on a floating raft, managing the pyrotechnics from the middle of the lake, where the cold, still waters would buffer him against whatever energies having so many ‘special guests’ might churn up from his depths.

  “You’re really sleeping on the ship tonight?” She asked softly, after contacting Shai with her gift for whispering through shadows.

  “It’s probably best…” He muttered. “Too much going on in the house and grounds. Too much going on inside me.” He visibly wrestled down a belch, or maybe something more… and grimaced at his daughter. “It’s a little volatile inside me right now.”

  “Come on pops… into the boat.” She gently helped her father into her tiny, tippy, skiff, MissAdventure and cast off from the raft, once he was seated in the bow. “No barfing in my command! I run a tight ship, swabbie!” She scolded him gently, as she motored away toward the dark bulk of Moonrise, unmoored from the pier and slowly sailing into the deep portion of the lake.

  The tall red haired figure of her mother waved from the helm as Amy’s little cockleshell pulled alongside, so that Gary could clamber over the gunnels and board the family yacht.

  “See ye all fer breakfast, Amy!” Shai called, in her rich, rough voice of hammered brass, accompanied by her ever present sash of singing, ringing magical chimes strung around her swaying hips.

  As Amy’s silent little skiff cut across the placid lake, she heard her parent’s voices, drifting on the silent summer night…

  “What’s this? A stowaway on dread pirate Shai’s vessel!?” She demanded archly, her voice thick with amusement and delight.

  “I’ll see that thou shalt work off thy passage… As my cabin boy!”

  “Yes ma’am, captain Shai!” Her papa answered, sounding tired, but equally excited by their private pirate time.

  “Oh no! I seem to be stuck in this hatch!” Shai’s faint call sounded through the slowly rising mist. “Help me, Step cabin boy… Wait, is that a belaying pin, my lad?”

  “Gods! Those two…” Admiral Amy sighed softly as she sailed for home, hoping to be safe in bed before things could get weird… or weirder.

  /

  “Heya! Whatcha up to after the show, long, lean and human…?” Cosmos’ whistling, piping, musical voice had gotten his attention right away. When the others began singing along in three part harmony, he was hooked…

  At barely three feet tall, slim and beyond petite, the trio of bat girls had swept down on him at the end of his impromptu flute concert in the park and simply carried him away with the force of their combined cuteness.

  They were slim, small busted, long legged and brown furred almost all over, with wide, membranous wings of warm dark skin stretching from their insanely long arms.

  Their big, luminous brown eyes glimmered in the moonlight, reflecting the dim glow and drawing his gaze inexorably. Dressed in bright colored, scanty shorts and narrow bandeaus of shining silk to conceal their modest breasts, they had wasted little time in luring him to his ‘doom’ in their ‘deadly forest lair’.

  The soft and sexy ‘vampire maidens’ had made quite a game of slowly stripping him bare and suspending him from their home tree; nude and terribly vulnerable to their wicked depredations and attentions.

  The girls only seemed alike at first glance; Aster’s leaf shaped nose shaded to pink and purple at the long, wriggly tip, where it ended above her soft furred, cleft lips. That, along with her quick, easy smile and wicked giggle made her the ideal bait to lure him into their trap. Her playful little laugh was a strong lure all by itself.

  Cosmos’ long, pointed ears were furred with the softest silver hairs inside their curved shells, while her warm brown fur smelt of oak leaves in the sunshine and a hint of musk. She had the biggest, most easily audible voice among the three… and the biggest boobs, boasting a scant double handful on her slim torso. Her brusque brash and bratty sexiness scratched a bunch of other itches in the tall, helpless victim as well.

  Amaryllis’ big, dewy brown eyes, soft, seductive whisper and shy demeanor concealed a ravenous appetite for man-flesh; which was surprising in a purely vegetarian and nectarivorous species.

  It was her hungry, longing glance at the bulge of his Frontman in his entirely too tight pants that had sealed the deal and resulted in this awful predicament.

  Star stretched luxuriously and sighed, enjoying his new perspective. He dangled from his ankles fifty feet up in a tree, his feet bound securely to a sturdy oak bough. Soft, playful tickles, scritches and scratches teased his bare skin from every conceivable angle, as three tiny, smiling, bat winged damsels snuffled, nuzzled and nibbled every inch of his body with their leaf shaped noses and sly, tickling whiskers.

  Aster climbed up, or perhaps down, his helpless form, to kiss and nuzzle at his throat; her high pitched and whispery voice barely audible, even in the silence of the deep woods.

  “Sing us a song of your people, before we grow bored and devour you alive, pathetic human morsel…”

  Her sharp teeth scraped the sensitive skin of his throat, just a soft graze, a threat of more to come. He gasped in pleasure and wonder, before she could request any specific song.

  Giggles rose from Cosmos and Amaryllis, who were busily ‘consuming’ their ‘human morsel’ already… and were enjoying themselves immensely.

  The yummy, wet and sloppy sounds of the two amorous bat girls going to town on him; without the third member of the coven, brought a mildly outraged chirp to Aster’s lips, interrupting the throat nibbling for a moment too long.

  Star stretched out and bit Aster’s long, furry bat ear in a gentle grip, clenching it between his even, white teeth. He tugged the sensitive tissue insistently, until her velvet furred lips rose to take the place of her poor abused ear. They kissed furiously, devouring each other, fully engrossed in the ‘vampire girls and the captured human’ game the bat ladies were enjoying with their helpless, very cooperative prey.

  Aster’s breath was sweet, fragrant and tasted of the fruits and nectar that exclusively made up her diet… kinky roleplay and sexy, funtime games notwithstanding.

  In a surprising but not entirely unwelcome move, Aster’s long, rough and prehensile tongue slipped into Star’s mouth and slowly began to slide down his throat, in gentle teasing surges, touching him in ways new and oddly exciting.

  She thrust her appendage in and out of his throat with slow, gentle and caressing movements, teasing and tasting him in some very unusual ways that sent ripples of pleasure, mild discomfort and a vaguely wicked sense of being entirely at the mercy of these vivacious and willful girls.

  Aster’s distracting and slightly alarming tongue antics were the only thing keeping him from passing out from the bliss the other two members of the coven were unloading on him from two angles at once.

  Amaryllis’ long, flower-invading tongue was doing a number on him, from root to tip and tickling around, seeking entrance where none had gone before. He writhed and moaned, letting her know what a good job she was doing, without interrupting the crazy stuff Aster was doing.

  Cosmos attacked from another angle. She was busily nibbling at his backside and flicking her own long tongue up from behind. She invaded slyly, snaking between his thighs to lick his bag of tricks and playfully compete with her coven-mate for control of the Frontman.

  He moaned around Aster’s tongue and shuddered with bliss, while Amaryllis and Cosmos gleefully collected the ‘nectar’ from the flower they had been so diligently cultivating.

  In a trice, Aster’s invading tongue escaped, as her coven-mates climbed down the prisoner and joined her near his face. All together, they shared a very intimate, messy and erotic make out session, once the girls finished sharing the sticky, tangible results of the evening’s harvesting activities among themselves…

  “Mmm…” Amaryllis cooed, as she curled up against his bare torso and wrapped her warm, soft wings around him. “We’ll even have leftovers for the morning…” She purred in his ear. “I bet you have more for us, human prey…” Her sharp teeth found his throat, as she settled in to rest and cuddle.

  A moment later Cosmos enfolded him from behind, her wings embracing his legs, while her warm, clawed and furred hands clasped around the Star’s frontman protectively. “We’ll be enjoying what remains of you…” She cooed, her breath warm against his butt, her teeth pricking his left cheek, where she was gently biting him.

  “Yes… I wonder how long you can keep us fed…?” Aster murmured, her face pressed into his tummy and her tongue probing his navel in some weirdly delightful ways.

  “Oh no! Help, help…” Star murmured softly into the warm, peaceful night, with three tiny, sexy and amorous bat girls clinging to him as he swayed upside down in their warm and cozy embrace. “I’m too sexy to die here!”

  “Oh, shush!” Amaryllis whispered, as she pressed his face between her small, soft furred breasts to silence his pitiful cries for aid. “Your fate is sealed, human.”

  Ward sighed and smiled as he slipped away into the darkness, imperceptible to even the keen senses of the batfolk, when he wished to remain unnoticed. Star would be fine with those girls until the morning… Maybe till lunchtime.

  /

  King Ghnash carried his bride upstairs to the master suite and closed the door; after tying one of Wilf’s socks around the handle. Gently, he laid her on Wilf’s bed and slipped in beside her, cozying up for a long, much needed snuggle.

  Sabrina stirred in her sleep and mumbled something incoherent in Marsh Gobbo… The poor dear had slipped away into exhausted slumber before he’d even gotten her upstairs. He slipped into her arms, after which she wrapped her legs around him; as always, even in her deepest dreams.

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  Those long, slim legs pulled him close, pressing the royal scepter and orbs against her baby-place delightfully, nestling in and getting cozy. He fluffed the blankets, savoring the warm draft, rich with the sweet and earthy scent of a goblin lass, freshly stuffed babyfull.

  When the king’s scepter stirred, as it inevitably did, Sabrina cooed in her sleep and squished herself closer with a soft and heartfelt gasp of joy. The drowsy goblin lady wriggled and jiggled until the king was firmly clamped between her thighs, where he couldn’t get up to much trouble.

  “Mine-mine.” She whispered in Marsh Gobbo, her native dialect.

  “That’s my girl.” Ghnash whispered into her long, sharply pointed ear, before joining her in slumber, with a kiss and a nibble of her lobe.

  /

  Hermit tried to ignore the whispered intimacies and soft sounds of the two lovers embracing, as he settled into a cozy hammock among the rafters. His preternaturally keen senses made sharing living spaces a challenge, especially with profoundly sexual beings like the Star, Wheel, and of course, Ghnash.

  He gained control over his frayed nerves and relaxed into sleep, hoping to awake and face a less stressful tomorrow.

  That was not to be… his mind slid into restful slumber, as an awe inspiring, vast and otherworldly deity from a nearby realm slipped into his dreams to disrupt the whole situation.

  “Lord Aclintherios…” Hermit sighed, as he found himself once more in human form, standing before the nebulous and beautifully terrifying form of that misty, mountain-sized divine being. “I didn’t expect to see you again so soon… and so unexpectedly.”

  “Are you taking a tone with me?” The deity asked gently. “How delightfully Gary of you!” A wave of subtle mirth and amusement swept over the misty and hazy realm Hermit found himself standing on, dwarfed and awestruck, beneath the spreading grandeur of the spider deity.

  “I am here, in this unreal place because now is the time for you to make a decision; are you a human, or are you one of my children… or perhaps, something else entirely?”

  “So I have choices?” Hermit asked carefully. “I don’t understand.”

  A soft chuckle of delight and joy rolled across the unseen landscape. “The choice is yours, as a mortal soul, you alone can decide which path to take… And decide you must, though the circumstances that have aligned to create this inflection point in fate, magic and reality are too complex and improbable for you to fully comprehend.”

  “That sounds shady… Do you seriously expect me to just start jumping through hoops because you say so? Am I supposed to become a pawn in your games, just because I happen to be a little more spidery than I used to?” Hermit demanded, becoming steadily more irate at the divine interference and mystical nonsense. “If you want something from me, spill it.”

  “I want nothing from you… What I desire is hope for my children, a hope that you alone offer.” He purred, sounding excited and eager. I cannot approach any closer, yet I must, in order to explain the situation we face. We have the chance to create something new and extraordinary… together, you and I. Something that will improve the lives of all of my children, those here in this realm and others, on a few other worlds.”

  “I’m listening… Since I seem to have few other options at the moment.” The mortal grumbled at the celestial arachnid looming across the sky above him.

  “I cannot force my presence on you… If you truly wished, it, I would be forced to withdraw my touch. Even now, you are calling to me, drawing me closer… You sense the truth and great value of what I offer, even if you cannot grasp the faintest outline of what lies before you.” The vast being whispered softly, eagerly.

  “Well?” Hermit asked sharply, through steadily growing frustration.

  “What I offer is a whole new experience, a destiny greater than a furtive life among these fractional demiplanes… Yes, I have seen your struggles, I have been watching you since your bodiless soul first streaked past my realm, on your way to your intended destination.” The spider whispered.

  “I was once a denizen of the world your physical body sleeps in… The glorious and magical realm of fairy, the lands of the fae…” He whispered softly, his words and intent becoming more distant and less intrusive. Now his voice was a summer breeze, drifting over fields of sun warmed wildflowers, pleasant, warm and gentle.

  “I saw you pass, as so many souls have over the eons… And I watched your soul as it was taken, snatched from its destined course by malign and unclean acts. That brief interaction drew my gaze to your soul, creating a bond that has lingered, even after so very long.”

  “You have been watching me for all this time? For three hundred years and more? Why contact me now?” Hermit demanded, as stress, exhaustion and frustration came boiling up from his insides in a rush of hot and cold sensations. “And what do you mean by ‘taken’? Are you saying someone put the snatch on me and made me like this?”

  “Oh, yes… I thought you knew that much… Did the Fool not explain matters?” The being asked, a note of frustration and weariness entering his tranquil, quiet voice.

  “Scold him for me, when next you see the Fool… I am unable to reveal the secrets he holds.” Slowly, the presence of Aclintherios, Spinner of Fates, began fading away, becoming less and less present by the moment.

  “Wait… I have questions!” Hermit called into the vast and terrible sky. The deity was gone, only the strange array of ribbons, bubbles and the odd constellations they formed remained… Beyond that inexplicable vista, just outside that flimsy veil, the unbridled ether boiled, churned and dreamed, endless and chaotic.

  “Ask the Fool, my child. He holds many answers, some wisdom and more than a little madness.” The spider god chuckled merrily as he faded away. “Oddly, the madness turns out to be the key, in the end.”

  With that deeply suspicious sentiment, the deity vanished from his dream, leaving Hermit alone on a misty, foggy meadow that seemed to stretch on forever. The only point of interest was a dim, hazy outline, perhaps a steep, solitary mountain in the hazy distance at the horizon.

  Under his bare feet, soft grasses, delicate wildflowers and cool mosses grew. They felt comforting and soft on the tender soles of his human extremities, so he wandered in the mists for a while, aimlessly drifting along.

  In the distance, no matter which way he turned or how he wandered, that faint, shadowy outline loomed on the horizon. It was vaguely familiar, but no matter how he walked, it never grew closer or became clear to his sight.

  Eventually, the thought struck him; it reminded Hermit of king Ghnash’s home, high on that lonely pinnacle above the forest with goblin town spread out below.

  As if that were the key, the place began drawing nearer with every step. As the mist began to part, he strode past a distant ring of standing stones; still wreathed in deep mists and surrounded by a starkly forbidding aura that kept him far away.

  Colorful little equines romped and gamboled across the plains and flew in the sky on feathered wings, playing pretty pretty pony games, heedless of the wandering, naked man. Likewise, jewel toned bugs and birds flew all around, darting among the misty trees and visiting the flowers all around, unmindful of his passage.

  The cartoonish and childish fancy of the place, along with the presence of the colorful cartoon ponies told Hermit that he was dreaming, in no uncertain terms.

  It wasn’t Ghnash’s house at all, Hermit realized as he drew nearer. It was the inn by the lake, standing high above a rolling sea on a sheer, barren escarpment. A thick, thorny hedge surrounded the place, offering no easy entrance or approach, save one stout and heavily barred wooden gate, set in a stone portico.

  Lonely, remote and dark, the inn seemed forbidding and unwholesome; yet it drew him closer with faint snatches of barely audible, unintelligible voices and snippets of half heard songs he almost remembered.

  He circled the forbidding hedges, until he found himself once more at the sealed gateway. With a shrug, he stepped up and raised a hand to knock, just as the dream shattered into a slow and drifting cloud of consciousness.

  “Wake up, Hermit! Star needs your help…” Ace reached up and poked the enormous peacock jumping spider with a long broom… Which was pretty insensitive and maybe a little racist too.

  “Come on, Jumpy! You don’t wanna miss this!”

  “What?” Hermit asked groggily, he was feeling pretty full and uncomfortable, after molting twice in rapid succession and then a huge meal of freshly strangled mongoat last night… “Maybe that’s why I’m having weird dreams.” He wondered idly, as his brother prodded him again.

  “Ponder your dreams later, I gotta wake Ghnash, he won’t want to miss this!” Ace insisted. “Come on, we need you and your crazy spider abilities.”

  /

  ‘Sleeping’ with the three sexy, warm and snuggly bat girls had been even better than he’d hoped, except for one glaring problem… They were nocturnal.

  Star groaned weakly, his head throbbing with the pressure of hanging upside down all night, combined with the other activities he’d gotten up to with the coven of lithe, adventurous, experimental and sensuous ladies, all night.

  Everything hurt, just a little, in all the very best ways. He was covered in tiny scratches, bites and hickeys; accidental damage, inflicted on his fragile, human skin in their vigorous and free spirited play.

  “Cosmos, baby…” He whispered to the cuddly little ball of fur, skin and affection that was curled up around his face.

  “Could you let me down? I kinda need to pee.”

  “Hmmm?” She purred sweetly. “Aster… He wants to pee.” Cosmos piped, in her sweet, whistling language.

  The blanket of wings rustled and shifted slightly, as small, gentle, clawed hands grasped the Frontman and dangled him out of the snug cocoon of wings.

  “Let loose, Star…” Amaryllis giggled sweetly, from behind his ear. “Go on, don’t be shy, it’s good for our sacred tree.”

  “I may have told a small fib…” He mumbled.

  “Oh? Well that’s fine too…” Aster murmured warmly from behind him, as she stirred to rearrange the dangling cluster of warm bodies. “Wait, don’t humans usually have to wipe themselves after a stinky? That sounds pretty… weird.”

  “All right, girls.” Star sighed softly. “We’re bumping into a few of my boundaries here, I don’t wanna use my safeword, but…”

  A soft furred finger pressed to his lips; whose was anyone’s guess, the girls’ long arms and slim fingers had been everywhere, all the time, all night. “No safewords, Star… just you and us.” Cosmos murmured warmly. “But if you need to poop, you’re on your own.”

  With that, all three took flight, leaving him naked, dangling by his bound ankles high up in an oak tree in the forest. “Wait! You gotta let me down!”

  Only high pitched, musical laughter emerged from the snug bower the three had darted into, as dawn’s first rays began to spread across the mountain peaks.

  “Aster, darling? Amaryllis…?” He called into the quiet morning mist. “A little help here?”

  “Their god, Camazotz, the Bloody Handed, Taker of Lives, Lord of Sacrifice, commands them to leave you here… For me.” A quiet voice said from the upper boughs.

  “Now you are mine, Gary Ward, mortal man who styles himself ‘The Star’ in a terrible display of hubris!”

  “Wait, what?” He demanded, his voice strained by his writhing and struggling, in frantic attempts to reach the bindings around his ankles.

  “Yes… This will do nicely…” That strange voice whispered again, still unseen among the boughs above him.

  With an arachnid giggle of pure mirth, Hermit descended on a dropline to free his brother from his humiliating position.

  “Hermit! You suck!” Star complained sourly.

  The colossal spider lowered the fuming, furious man to the earth below in a few seconds and released him from his webs.

  Hermit dangled for a moment to watch; silently laughing in the spider way, waving his pedipalps to and fro. Hermit’s freshly rescued ‘fair damsel’ dashed off into the bushes on some urgent matter or another, casting angry glares at the others, hiding in the bushes all around, enjoying the moment.

  When the Star emerged from the bushes, his nudity concealed in a loose, flowing robe of crimson silk; he shot a furious glare at the three bright eyed, small, furry faces, peering down at him from their wicker bower in the upper branches.

  “Don’t be too upset with them. Their god commanded them to abandon you that way, they did not wish to obey.” A tall, black clad man said firmly, as he stepped out of the shadows to confront the angry musician in red.

  “And what would cause a god to take part in such a humiliating prank?” The Star demanded sharply.

  “Because I asked him to.” Ward replied mildly, while offering his hand for a shake. “Professional courtesy and such. I’m Ward, your brother… and also the local god of Dark Secrets, Death, Vengeance and Golden Figs.” He smiled, displaying large, white teeth that looked entirely too sharp to be human.

  “The girls refused to play along, until Cam promised you wouldn’t be harmed or left hanging long.” Ward sighed long and low, glancing back at the tall oak tree fondly. “They really are sweethearts.”

  “We’re really sorry, Star…” Comos whistled as the group of Garies walked off into the woods. “We won’t do it again… Come visit us again, please?”

  “Bloody handed god of sacrifice?” Star asked mildly, once they were out of even the keen eared bat girls’ hearing. “Really?”

  “Really!” Ward agreed. “It’s all a huge misunderstanding that dates back so far into prehistory that even the gods and dryads barely remember…” He murmured, lecturing the crowd of himself that he was leading through the cool, misty woods, slightly after dawn.

  “Camazotz is a fae being of the night, a semi divine resident of this world. He slipped into human dreams by accident, like so many of the fae have. We humans just kinda made him a god… and got all the details screwed up, as we usually do.” Ward paused and scratched his head. “I think I’m starting in the wrong place…”

  “Entirely the wrong place, silly monkey. Shut your noise hole and wait until we have all of them together…” A short, pretty, topless woman barked at him from the undergrowth beneath a nearby fig tree.

  She stepped out into the path, her small bare breasts and shapely torso swelling into a set of naked hips and a booty that defied logic, gravity and probably violated a few zoning ordinances as well. Even the Commodores can’t be allowed to build a ‘brick house’ just anywhere. She was mighty-mighty though, lettin’ it all hang out.

  “Fig, darling! I was just…” The tall man in black began.

  Small, firm hands reached up and seized the supposed ‘Death God’ by the ear, as the tiny, nude woman dragged Ward down the path, back to the inn by the lake.

  “Come along, all of you…” The tiny woman scolded the group, pausing just long enough to glare at each of them in turn, ending on the embarrassed and angry man in red. “Star, my sister, Oak was very amused by your performance last night.” She gave him a salty wink and a nod that was filled with poorly concealed lascivious intent. “Perhaps we should sacrifice Ward on their altar for a night…”

  “Oh?” The man asked, from his stooped position, with his ear still gripped by the tiny, formidable woman. “I think that idea has merit…” He got cut off by a sudden twist of her fingers, drawing a yelp from the prisoner.

  When the inn came into sight, Fig pointed to the tall, red roofed home and made a shooing motion with her free hand. “Off you Garies go… You have important things to discuss.”

  She tightened her grip on Ward’s ear, when he tried to follow them. “Come along Ward… Sequoia is upset that you left her all alone last night.” Fig grumbled. “I know you have a lot going on, but the fact remains… She’s too sweet to punish you, so I volunteered to drag you home for her.”

  The small group of men, a spider and a goblin watched in silence, as a tiny woman with a bodacious bottom frogmarched Ward into the deep woods. “Is it the sailor suit?” Ward asked as they vanished among the verdure. “I’m kinda starting to like that one.”

  “You know Sequoia likes to play dirty lumberjack and the helpless dryad…” Fig replied haughtily. “She has always been so submissive, perhaps that’s why she lets you treat her so shabbily…” Their voices faded and silence fell a moment later, as though a door had swung shut behind the mismatched, yet well matched pair.

  “Bat girls?” Ghnash asked mildly, after he made double certain Sabrina was not around to hear. “How was that?”

  “I am but a transient blossom in this garden of delights, brother… Lingering for my brief season and passing on, I only hope to be remembered fondly.” Star sighed wistfully, gazing up at the pink morning sky. “Just between us… Daaaaamn!”