Chapter 21: Love

We must have lain like that for ten minutes or more.

A rock digging into my back finally roused me. “Honey, we have to move,” I said to her.

She wiggled, and my cock must have still been plugging up her cunnie as I felt the flood of fluid run down onto my balls and then down my arse crack. I suddenly needed to pee as well.

She sat back and stretched and my discomfort was suddenly forgotten as I watched her tits lift and fall. Damn, they were lovely titties. Believe it or not, she did manage to bring me back to earth. When she sat back, she pressed my arse into a particularly sharp stick, and I even yelped.

She chuckled as she climbed off me. “If we change back to wolf I’ll take you to the stream so we can wash off,” she said.

I decided this was a fantastic idea. I changed and shook myself violently. I wanted to lick at the wetness, and I still needed to pee. I lifted my leg to a bush and let out a long satisfy stream.

The she-wolf circled around while I was busy and snapped at the lamb sending it back in the direction of the flock. Then she barked and wagged her tail and set off at a run. I was soon after her.

We raced through the forest, and I mapped it in my brain as went noting direction and turns as I pounded after her. I felt one of the thongs slip on my forelegs from the exertion and wanted to stop and pull it off, but we crashed through some bushes and into a clearing beside a wide flowing stream.

We started what looked like a rabbit to me, and without thought, I pounced on it and snapped its neck in my large jaws. I was going to rip it apart and devour it when I looked up to see the she-wolf. She changed, and the memory of what I was, had me dropping the rabbit and I changed too.

“Excellent, I could do with a hot supper,” she said. She went and untied a rope from a tree and lowered a pack to the ground. I shed the thongs off my arms, unknotted my clothes from my neck and shook them out.

“I planned to camp here tonight. I have to move the flock to a pasture at Old Man Riley’s place. He has purchased the yearlings. Dad said to take my time, as they don’t have to be there for another week. I’ll have them there in three days. Then I can take my time going home.”

She dropped the pack, and I placed the rabbit near it as she spoke. We waded into the stream, and I shivered at the chill in the water as we rinsed ourselves off. I smiled at her, “So what do I call you? My name is Mikal.”

She blushed, and I thought she looked cute. “Sorry, my name is Ryka. You’re not from around here, are you? Your accent and height suggest you come from the city to the east,” she asked as we got back to the shore.

I slipped my clothes back on my damp body as I watched her get dressed in a long-sleeved tunic and pants similar to what the other girl had worn. I answered, “No, I’m not from here at all. Do your people know what Transportation Rings are?”

She turned and looked in the direction of the mountain I had come down from. The peak was still visible from here. Fear suddenly filled her eyes, and she stepped back a couple of steps. “Are you a God?” she asked me.

“No, I’m a shifter just like you,” I said amused.

She squinted her eyes at me, and then stepped closer, “No, you are not like me. You are very different.” Then she looked at my hands, and she gasped and dropped to her knees. “I’m sorry my Lord Priest. I didn’t mean to give offence.”

“Okay, Ryka, I’m getting confused here. I’m no priest,” I said. I put out my hand to her and gently pulled her back to her feet.

“You know of the Mothers Portal and wear a magic ring,” she said accusingly.

I lifted my hand, “I have a ring because I’m a mage. I know of the portal as you call it because I accidently came through it from my world. I have to wait for it to recharge to so I can go home.”

“No one comes through the portal. The priests send people through the portal back to the Mother and the other Goddesses. They don’t come back unless reborn in a new body or a magical item,” Ryka said.

“Sorry Honey, but I don’t think anyone has been through that portal from this side for a very long time. The crystals main power source hasn’t worked properly for possibly a thousand or more years.”

“I had to fix one of the lava pits so I could charge the crystals up. As it is, it will probably take a week or more, as they were seriously depleted and some may not function at all.”

“Then what happened to my sister?” she accused me.

I looked at her clothes again. They were a lot like ones on the girl. In the darkness, I had assumed the girl’s hair was black. I knew Keltrian’s decayed very fast from my data files but the girl’s body was more like how a human decayed. “Was she a full sister?” I asked.

“No, she was my father’s daughter to his second wife. My mother died not long after I was born. My sister was supposed to be wed to Darin Dolton, but they say she had the madness. So they had to send her back the Mother,” Ryka said sadly.

“What is the madness?” I asked. I watched her as she squatted and started skinning the rabbit. I sat down beside her.

“Some young women when they reach a certain age start throwing fits and end up hurting others. Father wanted Darin to take me since I was the oldest. But he wanted my sister. It is strange, she was a very shy quiet girl, and I had detected no madness in her. I’m not sure that I believe them,” Ryka said quietly.

I closed my eyes as I searched my files. “Does your second mother have shapeshifting genes like you?”

“Genes?” she queried as she gutted the rabbit into the skin.

“Have shapeshifting relatives,” I tried.

She looked thoughtful. “Why the mother?” she asked.

“Only in very rare cases is a shifter born male capable of shifting or passing his genes on to his progeny. It is predominantly done through the mother,” I explained.

“My parents don’t like me shifting as you call it. My new mother in particular. She isn’t a changeling. That’s why father sends me out with the woollies. I think that is why Darin didn’t want me,” she said.

“Was your sister to be his first wife?” I asked.

“Yes but she wasn’t the first he has chosen, the previous girl went mad too. For some reason, he will only take a very young wife. He also insists they must live with him for a year and become pregnant before he will, marry them. His father is the Dom and old and lets Darin do as he pleases. I don’t like him, and he knows it,” she said as she stood.

She walked to the stream to wash the carcas, and I decided I had better help. I levitated a heap of dead branches to me, and piled then into a heap and set light to them. I’d gotten good at starting fires. It came in handy when I went camping.

I looked at her pack and decided I was going to need a sleeping mat and a cover. Being a cold region, the trees didn’t have large leaves even if they were tall. However, tall rushes grew near the water’s edge, and I used my magic to slice of several large piles.

I waved my hand over the pile, and it swirled around and reformed into a tightly woven sheet 3m by 5m. I made a second one 3m square and made it much thicker. It was my ground sheet. I placed the second not far from the fire and tented the longer one over it. “I need a blanket,” I muttered.

Ryka chuckled and said, “I think mine will cover us if you’re happy to share?”

I grinned at her. Oh yeah, I was more than happy to share. I felt myself twitch and firm at the thought and she chuckled softly again, making me blush. She had rearranged the fire and already had a pot on it.

She had split the rabbit into chunks and thrown them into the pot with some herbs. She was cutting up some sort of hard root vegetable and dropping the chunks into the stew. The smell was making my stomach rumble. She reached into her pack and tossed something at me.

I caught it and looked at it. I sniffed it and took a small bit. The explosion of sugar with tartness was lovely. She smiled at me, “Apple.”

I decided I liked apples. I teleported a log over to near the fire for us to sit on and sat down. “You are a powerful mage. I’ve never seen anyone do the magic you have just done,” she commented.

I shrugged. We happily talked, and I learnt more about her people. She left me for a little while and went to check on her flock. I hunted around and found some extra greens to toss in the stew. I harvested some more rushes, wove a satchel and made it waterproof.

I also made some little pouches, as I wanted to keep the apple seeds. I’d found some other plants I couldn’t identify and collected small cutting or seeds if I could that I preserved and placed in the pouches. I smiled as I happily collected them. Isa was going to be excited when I gave them to her.

For some reason, I was sure that I was going home after my little adventure. Ryka came back and pulled a bowl and a strange spoon that had little tines cut in the end. I examined it and decided that for travelling it was a handy tool. “I don’t have a bowl for you,” she suddenly said.

I smiled and scooped up some sandy earth and leaves between my cupped hands and transformed them into a bowl. I spied some dark metallic-looking rocks. I selected two and transformed one it into a spoon like hers and the second into a knife blade. I moulded and shaped a short length of Oak over the tang for a handle.

She looked at them with interest, and I handed them to her. She smiled. “Why did you leave the leaf pattern in the bowl?”

“Just because it needs to be functional doesn’t mean it can’t look nice,” I said.

She nodded in agreement, filled the bowl for me and handed it back. I sensed fascination and fear from her. For the moment, her fascination was winning. I wasn’t sure how to alleviate her fear. The magic I had done without thought seemed to be the basis of her fear.

I equalled her fascination. She was completely unknown to me. She was exotic and new and not one of my sisters. I was still surprised she had wanted me again, after what I had done to her. I wasn’t even sure the fact that she was in season was what had prompted her to ride me.

We ended up polishing off the stew. I cleaned up camp while she went and checked the animals and moved them a little closer. I placed her pack in the tent and put a small shield over it to keep the rain, and anything that wished to harm us out. I also added a spell to keep the area under the shield at a nice temperature, so we didn’t get cold.

It can be bloody handy being a mage, I decided. I added a strap to my satchel, so when I changed into wolf form, I could tie it to my chest and carry my clothes and thongs. They had chaffed when I ran.

I wasn’t worried about carrying the tent. It could stay here, as it was obvious this clearing had been used many times in the past. With the spells I’d placed on it, it should last many years and be a warm, dry place for Ryka to use.

The sun was nearly set by the time Ryka came back, and we dampened the fire and went to bed.

I learnt something new that night.

I thought that having six girlfriends had taught me as much about making love as I would ever learn. Ryka proved me wrong. Making love to Ryka was a whole new experience. Since we had gotten the hard and fast out of the way earlier in the day, we took it a bit slower.

This time Ryka wanted to find out what made me tick. I ticked and ticked until I exploded. I made damn sure she did too. I couldn’t seem to get enough of her, and we made love at least four times that my lust sated brain could remember.

She had gotten up at least once in the night to check on the flock. We made love again when she came back this time she wanted to fuck me, so I changed for her. That was the third explosion that I remembered.

A rowdy chorus of birds woke us at dawn, and I found myself climbing over Ryka again. When my cock sunk deep into her tight wetness, I sighed. She giggled and clamped her muscles around me and then flicked her hips making me gasp.

I retaliated by pulling her up into my lap and sucking one of her lovely breasts into my mouth. I flicked and licked her nipple without mercy. With her being a lot shorter, this was the best way for me to access her tits.

She bucked on me, and our hips clashed in our joining. I don’t really remember a lot after that, other than when I blew, I connected with her mind, and the stars and explosions in my head left me dazed. I claimed her as mine.

When I rolled off and hugged her to me, I knew I couldn’t go home without her. She had claimed my heart, and I had happily given it to her. I knew she had to deliver the woollies, but I planned to convince her to come with me.

For the next two days we travelled, slept ate and made love. I made a new tent at each camp site and learnt how to forage in her domain. We delivered the woollies early the fourth morning and collected the money owing to her father.

The old man gave me some odd looks. I was fascinated to meet someone who was that old. He was a bit cranky, but he seemed to like Ryka and treated her as a friend. He told her not to dally in town too long as a storm was coming.

Ryka then showed me around the nearest town. She took me to a store and purchased me some more suitable clothing. We had a bit of fun finding something close enough that I could alter to fit me better, but at least I didn’t stand out so much. Boots were not an option, but I was able to modify some thick strapped sandals that hugged my feet and gave me some protection.

She then took me to a place we could buy cooked food. I was fascinated with the whole barter and trading system. She explained the value of items and coins. We had not yet found a need for this system. We supplied food and material goods for everyone, as they needed them.

I learnt this town was also where Darin lived. She pointed him out to me when we were sitting outside the eatery. I bristled when I saw him. He turned and looked at us. The ways his greedy eyes raked Ryka had me take her hand.

The three men with him gave me the willies as well. It was an instant dislike felt by all of us. I had noticed that I was drawing attention. I stood head and shoulders above then all. Ryka stiffened as Darin sauntered over to us.

“Ryka, so lovely to see you again. You look more beautiful each time I get the pleasure of gazing at you,” Darin said.

The medallion on my chest was past warm and noticeably hot. My bling also didn’t like the man. When two of the men started moving to stand behind me, I pushed back my chair and stood. “Please stay where I can see you,” I told the men.

I then put out my hand to Darin, “Mage Mikal at your service, sir. Yes, my intended wife is a beautiful woman.”

I got the distinct impression he didn’t like looking up to me. He was barely taller than Ryka. He also hadn’t like me claiming Ryka as mine. He may have picked her sister first, but I got the impression that he would now take Ryka as his next choice.

It had been a year since he had seen her last and Ryka had mentioned she was slower to mature than her sister had. Back when Darin took her sister, she’d had been smaller and less developed than she was now and her breasts were still smaller than her sisters had been.

I’d learnt that Ryka had just turned eighteen of their years here. Sixteen years was a marriage age. She had three other half-siblings at home. Her parents hadn’t forced her to marry. She did most of the work looking after the woollies and spent a lot of time away from home.

Her step-mother, in particular, didn’t like people to know she was a changeling. She wasn’t allowed to change when her step-mother was around. I guessed that was why her father encouraged her to keep the sheep.

Darin squinted his eyes at me, “A mage you say? Have you registered with the priests?”

“I was unaware that this was a requirement since I am only visiting your town,” I replied mildly.

“So where do you come from?” he asked.

I smiled benignly, “A long way from here.” I could see my answers didn’t please him. He was used to people bending to his will. The fact I was looking down on him both literally and figurative didn’t please him either.

My data files suggested he suffered from the big fish in a little pond syndrome. “Your ring looks funny,” he said.

I looked at it. It appears as a simple band. I told it to appear with the gems in my palm. When I felt them, I turned the ring so he could see the stones. He took care to note the configuration. It seemed this didn’t please him either.

The ring had a Quaz, an emerald, a diamond and a topaz. This meant I was an Earth mage with Lore and Psychic abilities. Lore means you can retrieve and retain knowledge. It can also affect your creativity. Scholars, craftsmen and inventors do well to have this ability.

I think it was the topaz that worried him. Psychic ability can manifest in many forms. They can include the ability to control or read the thoughts of others, and allow you to bend then to your will or coerce them.

For healers, you can better read the body and mind of another to help heal them. It also helps with you controlling your own mind, increasing your other abilities. For some, they get flashes of future or even past events. I’d not had this happen before I had touched the body in the cave.

Rusty had told me that Law Officials and Guards of wealthy people have topazes or tangerines in their bling. You can also tell when people are lying to you and it increases your awareness to danger. These men were dangerous, and I decided that we wouldn’t stay in town.

To answer Darin, I said, “Sorry, I often wear it stones down, so it doesn’t catch on things.”

I now found after touching the ring, I could detect that all four men wore magical items. The three goons had a mixture of gems, but each only had one, and it was in a ring. They were novices at best. Their abilities read as very poor to me.

Darin wore a medallion and a ring. They had the same gems as my mine, but Psychic was the main element. I felt my combination, not including the diadem, was stronger than his were. They didn’t seem to be as well made. The spells were poorly applied and seemed to make the items weak.

I wonder if the magician who made them also had trouble with pronunciation as I had before Torus and Ed helped me. Ed, my wrist pad, in particular, had been a great help to me in this regard. If Darin weren’t such an arsehole, I’d offer to fix them.

On the other hand, if I did, the medallion may well desert him. It still could. One thing I did know, I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. I felt him relax a little. I guess he wrongly assumed I wasn’t as strong magically, as he was. He couldn’t be further from the truth. I suspected he couldn’t detect my medallion or my diadem. More fool him.

I gave a slight bow and said, “Well it has been a pleasure, Sir. Unfortunately, Ryka and I must be going if we are to secure lodging for the night and a bath. Her father is expecting us not to dally, and we must be away early in the morning.”

Reluctantly, he stepped aside as I moved to help Ryka from her seat. We nodded again and with a slight pull from Ryka, we headed down the street. “That man always makes me feel strange,” Ryka said.

“He is not a nice man. How long was your sister with him before she was accused of madness?” I asked.

“Six months. It is strange because she sent me a letter not long before. She had believed she was with child as she was suffering sickness every morning. She mentioned that she hoped it would mean they would soon marry. She had hoped that Darin would, at last, be happy with her,” Ryka said.

I didn’t tell her I had picked a stray thought from Darin that he wondered if Ryka was a better lay than her sister. I had a feeling that Darin had no intention of marrying her sister. I suspected that he only pretended to want to marry the girl so he could use her. Her sister getting pregnant would not have been his desire at all.

I’m not sure how he worked around the medallion, but he must have developed some method to ensure the girl was compliant to his needs. This worried me that the safeguards that should be inherent in the medallion were being subverted.

My data told me that novice and lower order magical items allowed a little more room for error. If Darin was doing as I suspected, even his items should be displeased with his actions.

We walked down the road, and Ryka directed me to turn a corner and pointed out the inn. I shook my head, “No, I don’t feel comfortable staying in town. How about we pick up some basic supplies and leave.”

She looked at me for a full minute, and the glanced past me. She frowned and then said, “I was going to argue, but then I saw Grunt looking down around the corner at us. He ducked back after seeing me look his way. I think we should leave as well.”

Grunt was the bigger, dumb looking one. I felt him behind me. Now that I knew what ring he wore, I could easily pick up that he was near me. I also detected the tiny guy. I believed he had Pix blood in his veins. My medallion had also spiked hot, and I had guessed they were the reason.

Aloud I said, “Ryka, why don’t we pick up our supplies before we get a room. Then we can leave early.”

Ryka smiled at me, “Yes, my Lord Father is expecting us to get back. He has a lot of work for us to do.”

I raised an eyebrow at the ‘Lord’ bit. I knew from our chats that a Lord was a high ranking title just under Dom in her society and I had read the truth in her statement that her father was considered a Lord. She winked at me and took my arm.

“I hope your Lord Father is pleased with this match, Mikal,” she said.

“Yes, he will be delighted to finally get me married off, to a woman of your standing, and may I say beauty, my love,” I said.

Ryka giggled, and then said, “I’m sorry you didn’t get to see me in my finery, but I’m glad you agreed to this trip with me, it was a much nicer way to find out if were compatible,” she replied.

Our conversation was for the convenience of the tiny Pix that was following us. I was also beginning to think I might not be able to spirit Ryka away with me if she was a high ranking man’s daughter.

We walked to the row of shops, and I noticed one that was selling jewellery. I pulled on Ryka’s arm and walked into the establishment. “Show me your best rings,” I said to the man.

Ryka looked at me curiously. “Honey, I can’t take you home pregnant without a ring on your finger, so your father knows my intentions are pure. I don’t think your father or mine would be pleased with us,” I said.

She gasped, and I beamed at her. She turned so the jeweller couldn’t see her and concentrated on her hand. She shook it several times, but it remained the same. She couldn’t shift form, as I knew she couldn’t. She placed her hand on her tummy and closed her eyes.

A slow smile came to her face, and her whole being glowed. I smiled at her. I was pleased that she wasn’t upset with me for getting her in her current state. When her eyes opened, and she looked at me, I saw the love she felt for me in her eyes, and I was amazed that she returned my feelings.

The jeweller had to clear his throat several times to get our attention. Finally, we turned and looked at his selection. None of the rings pleased me. They were not good workmanship. “A Lords daughter deserves better, would you like to try again?” I said to the man.

Admittedly, we were not well dressed as we were clothed for travelling in the woods. The man shrugged, “Sorry sir, this is the best I have. Other than that tray over there. Some are nice pieces, but they are not popular with the young ladies these days.”

I walked over to the tray, and the ring shone for me. I smiled, and I picked it out. With my back turned I added a few extra spells. The ring had a glamour over it, and I guessed to anyone not capable of seeing through it, it looked a very boring ring with three dull gems in it.

The Quaz crystal, in particular, looked quite dark and unappealing. Now that it was full of magic, it glowed with a pale green light. It was a Psychic’s ring with Nature as its second discipline, and the stones were a nice size.

“What do you wish in exchange for this one?” I asked. The Jeweller put a glass I assumed was a magnify glass to his eye and looked at. He dropped a bland expression over his face to hide his thoughts of my choice. I wanted to laugh. The man had no Earth talent at all.

It explained why the rest of the rings were of poor quality. I pulled the bowl I had made and the spoon-fork from my bag and handed them to him. The man’s eyes light up at seeing them both for some odd reason.

“Oh, very nice craftsmanship. Yes, I could easily sell these. If you want the ring, consider it a fair trade,” he said.

He seemed very eager to have the bowl and spoon. I looked at Ryka, and she tried to keep a straight face, but her eyes were sparkling in her merriment. I shrugged, “Done.”

I took her arm, and we walked out of the Jewellers. She waited until we had moved down two shops before she started giggling. “The greed in that man’s eyes was astounding,” she said between chuckles.

“It was an odd reaction to a simple bowl,” I said still perplexed.

“You have no idea do you?” she said. I shook my head. “Mikal there is not another bowl anywhere that would rival that one or even your spoon. You will have many people wondering how you managed to encase the leaves in the glass the way you did. I bet it won’t break if you drop it either, will it?”

“Of cause not, it wouldn’t travel very well if it did,” I replied.

“He will sell it to the Dom. Darin’s father is a collector of fine art. He will want that bowl simply because it is unique. The spoon too. It looks like it was carved out of rock but it’s finely wrought and light. That will have the priests wondering who has the skill to make it.”

I shrugged, “Well the main thing is I got your ring. Here give me your right hand.” She offered me her hand, and I placed the ring on her middle finger. She shuddered and looked at me in amazement.

She looked at the ring and blinked several times. “Oh dear, what have you done Mikal,” she said, and tears fell from her eyes.

“I’m sorry my love, I don’t understand. I wanted to protect you and the baby,” I said.

“Mikal, only a priest, is allowed to choose mages,” she said softly.

“Sorry, where I come from, I do the choosing, and I choose you. If you come back with me, it won’t matter,” I said.

She looked at me. “You truly wish to be my mate?” she asked in surprise.

I pulled her into my arms and kissed her deeply. When I released her, I could see all doubt that I wanted her was removed from her eyes. She shook her head and looked around. “We need to get what we require and go. We need to go now.”

I had no problem with that at all. We went into the store, and Ryka hurriedly collected what she needed and piled it on the front counter. She had selected a lot of dry goods, grains and root vegetables that we could rehydrate or boil.

I could easily catch game for us even though she can’t change anymore. She selected a larger pack for me, and we hurriedly packed it. We left and headed for the edge of town.

As we passed a barn, I asked her if she could ride a lanky. She rolled her eyes at me, and I grinned. I asked if we had enough money to purchase her one. She said she did, but her father wouldn’t be pleased if she spent all his money.

I spied an outcrop of quartz like rocks on the other side of the road. Pieces had been chipped off onto the ground. I picked up several of them and transformed then in my hand into pink or tangerine gems. I’d noted a lot of gems in the jewellery shop had been cut in a squarish shape and picked a cut I knew of as the diamond cut.

I looked at them critically. I held one of the pale pink ones up to the light and decided I was getting better at shaping gems. “I say, that’s a nice piece can I see it?” a man said.

I turned to see a man who was well dressed standing beside me. He was probably about average high for the people I’d seen here. To me, he looked quite short, but then I was taller than my sisters were too.

I handed him the gem I had been inspecting. He looked at the gem in the light and then very closely. “What do you want for it?” he asked me.

I looked at Ryka, and she put out her hand. I dropped the five gems I still had into her palm, and she picked one up and looked at. The man also looked at what was in her hand. They both swapped several to look at them.

Ryka pointed to the biggest one the man had first looked at and named a price. He looked at her shrewdly. “Shame you don’t want a lanky,” he said.

Ryka grinned, “Show me the animal and I’ll decide.”

We followed him into the barn, and Ryka looked over the animals he was willing to part with. I then got an amazing lesson in haggling. Ten minutes later the man walked away with all six gems, and we were saddling the lanky for Ryka and putting our packs in a harness on the second lanky.

We walked them into the forest, and I stripped off and changed to wolf. I was not much smaller than the lankys. Ryka kicked her animal, and I ran beside them. The lanky’s had been a little nervous at first, but I sent a calming thought to them, and they settled.