Chapter 9

Darcy held a meeting that night and produced his finds.

He was not surprised when Boner and Speeder ended up with four gemmed Shield vambraces. They were similar to his new Shield Mage item but the gems were slightly smaller for some reason. Goldie was a Nature Mage with Lore and Psychic. As Darcy understood it, this meant she would probably have strong healing abilities.

Romp was an Earth Mage with Energy and Physics. Twitch was a

Physics Mage with both Nature and Lore. Huntress also received a four gemmed vambrace but hers indicated that she was primarily a Lore Mage with Energy, Physics and Nature. To her surprise, her entity from her medallion left and she received the new entity.

The vambrace said that the new entity was happy to accept the power of the medallion under its control after Darcy removed the nasty spell off it. Intrigued Darcy touched the medallion. He scolded and removed the spell. “The medallion belonged to Neil. He was the one who cast the original spell to keep the women he had captured here.”

“The idiot attached the spell to the shield and the medallion. When Nat gave it to his daughter and it then got passed down through the generations the spell stayed active. It wouldn’t have mattered where you were. As long as someone was wearing the medallion, the spell persisted. No wonder Nat couldn’t break the spell. We will have to go for a walk and see if I have removed it or not.”

Huntress’s vambrace replied, “Thank you, Paladin Darcy. You have done your Queen here, a great service even though she is not a Queen Wizard. You may wish to strengthen the spells on that medallion, as it needs some work. The other entity was not doing her job, which is why mine has taken over.”

Darcy agreed and added some of the spells Lee had told him should be on an item to the medallion. The vambrace was most happy to also receive these spells and commented they were most suitable for her owner’s position and any servant of her people’s wellbeing.”

The others all grinned and put out their arms so Darcy had to update their spells as well. They all chuckled when the vambraces thanked Darcy. They were all delighted that he had done as he had promised and provided them with magical items.

Blaze was shocked when Darcy handed her a box as well. “It wants to go to you, my love,” Darcy explained.

“Darcy, won’t another item make me even more powerful?” she asked.

“Yes, but you are the heir in this case so it is fitting. I probably should have given your box to your mother but it was not her, whom I love, and Lee said I was to give your items to my love. I think if your mother decides to abdicate, she can simply hand over to you and keep her items,” Darcy said.

“I like that idea. I don’t have a problem with Blaze being more powerful than I am. I have a feeling you both have other adventures ahead of you before you are ready to take this mantle from me if you ever do. Darcy, I suspect that we are just the beginning of your adventures here,” Huntress said.

Darcy found that assessment a little disquieting. He wanted to settle down, raise his pups and make love to Blaze. “But, I still have a lot I need to teach you, people,” he said a little desperately.

Blaze kissed his cheek, “I think we have a bit of time before we need to go settle the woes of the rest of the world. I agree that we haven’t quite finished here. We still need to get the rest of the community on-board and I’m not going anywhere until the girls don’t need to suckle anymore and we know if they change or not.”

Darcy beamed at Blaze, “Did I tell you that I loved you?”

The next month (thirty days or five weeks) drifted past.

They had all agreed on a training schedule and made sure they had an equal share of the chores. Huntress may be the Grand Dame but she had no problem stepping back a bit. She had already worked out that as long as Darcy was here, the others would automatically turn to him first.

She would resume her rightful place once they had control of the community again. For now, it was time for her to learn to be a better leader, as she knew she had made mistakes. She took note of why the others followed Darcy without question.

For one, while he had fulfilled their dreams, he didn’t lord it over them. Darcy also led by example. He did as many of the chores as the others did and didn’t grumble about them. He was still their master chef. He taught with patience. He praised and didn’t ridicule failure.

Huntress also determined that he didn’t do this to impress them or win them. It was simply who he was. They had all worked out that Darcy needed a bit of alone time now and then, and they all respected his need. He was not comfortable constantly having people in his face.

She realised that he had learnt to tolerate people and often preferred to be on the periphery of the group. She had noticed how he watched them all and analysed them. Darcy always knew who was near him even if they were not in his line of sight. He was protective of them all, as if that was supposed to be his job.

Blaze was the only one whom he had let get very close to him. Huntress did worry that if anything happened to her, Darcy wouldn’t take it well. No one could deny he loved her very much. She suspected he would be the same with the pups once they were born. Blaze was over eight weeks now and it showed.

Blaze had told her that Darcy had never expected to become a father. His comments after they first met reminded her that he fully expected to help raise his children and his actions gave credence to his desire to fulfil this role. He loved touching Blaze’s growing tummy.

Male Dogs often didn’t have a lot to do with the pups until they were old enough to teach to hunt or guard when they were about seven. She suspected that this would change too. She had already noticed that the boys seemed far more protective of them, yet also more attentive to her and the girls than in the past. They were just as eager as Darcy was to see their pups born.

Romp, in particular, had taken to babysitting his three pups. In fact, all of the males spent a lot of time with them. Romp had even asked Darcy to infect them. Darcy had asked Twitch and then the group. Since Twitch and the others were happy for him to do it, he did.

They were nearly two years old, so they all wondered if Darcy would reset the clock for these pups and they would be able to spend time as human children. They all hoped it worked as it increased the possibilities that the pups they carried would do it, too.

She had noticed that the men now spent more time in their human form than in their Dog form during the day if they weren’t hunting. The girls didn’t have much choice since they were pregnant. Blaze and Twitch didn’t seem to mind so much, as they found plenty of things to do where having hands was an asset.

The only time Huntress had seen Darcy take his Dog form was if he was going hunting with the boys. Boner had told her that Darcy was still a bit squeamish about killing while in Dog form unless he was protecting them.

He was happy to run the beast down but more often than not, he either, waited until they caught up to him or he turned the beast back towards them so they took it down. He was happy to transport it back to the kill room and cut it up for them.

Huntress decided she was learning a lot from the males since they had been altered.

Towards the end of their eighth week in the house, they got company.

Flopear had been on guard duties for the transporter cavern. She didn’t know why they still had to do this if the so-called saviour had turned up. She also couldn’t enter the room anymore since Darcy had spelled the tunnel to it.

She was not a lover of Rollover’s rule. The woman really annoyed her. Each week that Huntress was gone got more intolerable. She had never been gone for this long before. At every opportunity, Rollover countermanded Chaser’s commands and had gotten to the stage she flat out ignored her.

She had changed work schedules and removed herself, Grunt and their two sons from them. She insisted she was the co-ruler. One of her sons, Scratch had been behaving like a real arrogant shit. He and his brother, Slash, had started insisting the female Dogs and the younger guardians who had not selected a male Dog would be under their command.

Flopear would rather live in the wild than submit to their idea of being under their control. They and the idiots that hung around with them were talking about going hunting for more female dogs to increase their packs.

In the beginning, most of the guardians refused to submit to them and there was little that they could do about it since it would require a change of laws that Rollover had so far not tried. The males were being encouraged to form new packs under Grunt and his sons. It wasn’t unusual for family groups to form smaller packs.

As far as she was concerned, Grunt and Rollover were splitting the community. They had then tried to tell the guardians to only take human form while working on tasks that required them. Any who opposed received the worst jobs and the threat of exclusion.

She and Sniff had been on guard duty for four weeks straight because they refused to be mates to Scratch and Slash, and abide by the being in Dog form rule. Grunt had also taken their sons to start their training and told them that they didn’t need their mothers any more.

She and Sniff had been disappointed when their first-borns were sons and they each only had the one pup. They were both first-borns of female dogs, the last two to be so born in their community that they knew of. They had both had Dog lovers in the years since but neither of them had conceived with them.

Their seven-year-old sons had been quite happy to be moved to the den the males used for training. It had an exit to the north-east, and many of them didn’t use the community kitchen unless the hunting was bad. They did have domesticated lankys and camla but many of the younger males preferred to hunt smaller game. The older males did most of the guard duties for the herds.

While the Dogs were the dominant predator on the mountain, they did have some prides of Cuttail and packs of wild Canine that would kill them on sight. They even had a beast they called a Berserker. They were huge hairy creatures with long claws. They could stand on their hind legs and despite their bulk, they moved fast.

Berserkers have red and white marking on their snouts, feet and chests with pelts of dark brown or black. They mostly ate plants and fish, but they were aggressive if challenged or if they have young. A smart Dog didn’t anger one.

Flopear and Sniff had decided they’d had enough and had secreted some food and personal possessions to the kitchen that was attached to the transporter guard cavern. They plan to go out the back way. Sniff believed that the pack that lived in that direction just on the edge of the shielded area was whom the males planned to harass. They intended to warn them.

Flopear and Sniff were both skilled archers and they hoped that the pack would accept them.

Boner and Romp were washing off in the pool when a cool voice had them freeze.

“How did two humans get in under the shield?” they were asked.

Boner turned slowly. He looked at the two women who had arrows notched in their bows and pointing at them. “Hi, Flopear,” he said and gave her a big grin. He looked her up and down and decided she was still a very sexy woman. He had hoped to make her his mate at one time but they had never produced any pups and she had pushed him away.

Romp had a similar history with Sniff. When he got Twitch pregnant, things between them had cooled even further and they had barely conversed in the last couple of years. He was surprised when he started reacting to her. He then sniffed. “Oh, shit! Boner, one or even both of them are in season,” he said.

Boner looked down at his stiff cock and then at Romp. “Yeah, I think I got that message, thanks, Romp,” he said sarcastically.

Flopear looked at the two men, “You have the mark like us. So the Mage did make it work,” she said as she checked out the two men. She decided that Boner was a hunk, in his male form and was surprised when she felt herself get wet and excited. “Oh damn, I think I’m the one in season.”

“Nope, I think we both are,” Sniff said. Her eyes had not left Romp’s body. He was a little shorter and broader than Boner and she really liked what she saw.

“Um, ladies, we have a problem here. Twitch and Huntress are pregnant to us,” Romp said nervously.

“So, you can do us too, I bet we will fall if the Mage changed you,” Flopear said excitedly.

“I’m not sure our ladies will be really happy about that,” Boner replied. In a panic, he called Blaze. ‘Blaze we have a problem. Flopear and Sniff found Romp and me at the pool and they are ripe.’

‘Hang on,’ she replied.

To distract the ladies, Boner said, “What are you doing out here and loaded down, anyway?”

“Things have gone to shit. The males are talking about raiding a den south-west of here in a week or so. We decided they needed to be warned and we didn’t wish to become Slash’s and Scratch’s bitches,” Flopear’s said as she lowered her bow.

‘Boner, Huntress and Twitch said to take them to the cabin. Darcy has restocked it. The results will answer one of our questions. We will see you when you bring them home. Have fun,’ Blaze sent back.

“Oh, crap! Romp we have been thrown to the Dogs,” Boner told his friend and then grinned.

“Seriously?” Romp gaped back at Boner.

“It’s all part of the experiment,” Boner said as he stepped out of the water to gather his things. Romp followed.

“What experiment?” Sniff asked as she accepted Romp’s hand and went where he led.

Boner took Flopear’s hand and said as they walked, “We volunteered for Darcy to change us. So far, our every wish has been answered. I know you two are first-born but your mothers were Dogs. Neither of you conceived to us in the past when we were in Dog form. If our changes mean that you can conceive to us now, this will mean that Darcy’s fix will work on any of the females who can shift.”

“Even though we are born as Dogs, if we have the Shifter’s genetic factor, we will have the choice of how we live our lives and we will be a true race of our own. Darcy thinks that if most of the others accept the change he offers, then we will have a great base for our race to move forward.”