Chapter 25

Edited by: Old Fart

Ikuno, Perra, and a slightly pregnant looking Aradelle all stared off to the west expectantly, each one almost vibrating with excitement. Kal smiled at the women, hardly able to blame them. It had been only a couple of days ago that he had made a mad dash, with Gerda’s help, to the northern side of the mountain range then ran full tilt off to the east, towards Bea’s nest. Arriving a short while later at what looked like a gigantic off-white cocoon laid over on its side and stretched between two large oak trees.

Kal had assumed at first that she had an arachne construct it for her and was surprised to find that the silk the butterfly’s home was built with had come from Bea. While showing him the tiny spot just below her tailbone where her silk was produced, she explained that butterfly girls were backwards from their smaller cousins and were unable to make silk until just before they became an adult. Kal reasoned that giving the ability to an adult butterfly girl, rather than a human-like baby who is unable to take care of itself, must have made more sense to the monster girl’s creator when he was designing them.

Seeing the yellowish-white silk cocoon outside, Kal hadn’t expected the inside to have smooth clay walls and floor. Upon closer inspection Kal noticed that the clay was pressed into the silk of the cocoon, holding it in place along with giving her a means of displaying the variety of trinkets Bea had collected over the years. The clay only went partway up the sides of the cocoon, leaving bare silk for the ceiling. When the sun shone down through the trees and struck the top of her home it made the gossamer material glow on the inside, giving Bea a light source besides that filtering in from the entrance.

Bea’s nest was sparse aside from her knick-knacks in the walls. Since she went out and collected her food daily and didn’t wear clothing, she had no need for storage or a place to prepare meals. This left her only requiring a bed which was placed at the very back of her home. Kal quickly discovered that a bed made entirely of silk was extraordinarily comfortable.

He also learned during one of his visits that there was a magical component to Bea’s dust. After a vigorous bout of lovemaking, they both dozed off only for Kal to be awakened by getting smacked in the face with one of Bea’s wings. Sitting bolt upright, and covered in the dust from her wings, he waited for the telltale erection and swelling in his scrotum. When the expected reaction never came he excitedly collected some of the dust directly from a very satisfied Bea into a vial. He then dipped a finger in and touched it to his tongue, no reaction. Kal then pushed some magic into the dust, much as he would one of Ikuno’s potions, and tested the dust once again. Luckily for him, Bea was more than willing to help him with the discomforts of her natural aphrodisiac for the next half hour.

After the end of his rush to her house a few days ago Kal had found Bea on her knees in front of her egg as it rocked back and forth, held in place by Bea’s silk, as she encouragingly called out to her daughter. Kal was honestly alarmed. He had helped with a couple of deliveries back in Telsin by this point and knew that a newborn should not have the kind of strength needed to rock the egg in such a manner. Once it finally split along one of the eight ridges, Bea pounced on it like a cat on a mouse, frantically stripping away the rest of the shell before gently lifting her daughter to her breast for her first meal. Kal was shocked by the size of his newest little girl. Despite only two months inside Bea and a month in her egg, the young butterfly girl was closer in size to a human eight-month-old.

Now it was time for his newest daughter to meet the rest of the family, except Gerda and Bas. Bas lived too far away to make it in time and Gerda couldn’t be convinced to be away from the safety of solid stone for their little get-together. However, she was as close as she could comfortably get, even if it was nearly a hundred paces straight down.

There was a collective gasp from the girls as Bea came flitting over the treetops holding a small bundle wrapped in a blanket of gold-tinted white silk. She landed in front of Kal and after a quick kiss handed their daughter to him. “She just ate so she might be a little sleepy,” said Bea.

Turning around, he smiled at the women. “I’d like to introduce you to mine and Bea’s daughter, Adalena.”

“Named by her father,” interrupted Bea with a huge grin.

Kal smiled at her before turning back to the others, “Since Aradelle told me that Bea and her smaller cousins are often the first ones she sees after winter I did some studying and came up with Adalena. Ada – first. Lena – butterfly.”

“Good job, Kal,” Perra deadpanned, “now gimmie,” she said holding out her hands and largely ignoring Kal.

Kal shook his head and clicked his tongue at the girl, “Aradelle first, she has something for Bea,” he said nodding at the alarune’s slightly swollen belly.

“Sorry Perra,” said Bea, “butterfly girls don’t leave their eggs once laid. I haven’t eaten for a month except for what Kal has given me.” Kal blushed bright red as he handed the little bundle over to Aradelle. ‘Dell only held her for a few seconds before a couple of her vines came up and made a cradle beneath Adalena then carried her over the side of her bulb so all of the girls could gush over the baby. Kal noted that Ikuno magically dulled her claws before touching the tiny butterfly girl.

True to Bea’s description Adalena looked very much like a human baby that had a slight tint to her skin that made it look like she was constantly in shadow. Two light orange streaks started at the top of her head and ran down her back though at the moment they could just barely be seen through her sparse hair. Bea had also been correct about Adalena being sleepy after having her belly filled, even with all the commotion she didn’t open her eyes until Perra ran her finger across the little girl’s cheek.

Perra gasped, “Kal! She has your eyes!”

Bea had come up beside Kal and was resting her head on his shoulder radiating pride as the girls fawned over her daughter. At Perra’s comment, she lifted her head and smiled. “She won’t get these until she spins her cocoon and comes out as a butterfly,” she said tapping her face beside her eye.

After a couple of minutes, Aradelle passed off Adalena to Perra and beckoned the new mother over.

“Oh, thank goodness,” he heard the butterfly girl whisper as she kissed Kal on the cheek and walked over to the alarune’s side. Kal was well aware of how Bea usually got nectar and was mildly thankful when instead of presenting her sex to the butterfly, Aradelle leaned over and kissed her. Such activities would have seemed hardly appropriate with Perra and Ikuno making a fuss over Adalena right next to them. A few seconds later, as the kiss went on, Kal noticed Bea’s throat moving as though she was drinking. A quick flash of disgust ran through his head as he thought of a baby bird being fed but he quickly pushed it away with the knowledge that the body of ‘Dell’s avatar didn’t work like that. It also helped that he had been the one to ask Aradelle to store up some nectar at Bea’s request. This saved her from visiting other alarunes to replenish herself now that Adalena was born.

Bea’s bodice clicked and moved to the side as her stomach expanded from what Aradelle was feeding her. A few seconds later they broke the kiss and Bea leaned her forehead against ‘Dell’s. “Thank you so much,” she said, then looked down at her body. “Dammit, I just got my boobs small enough to close that last time she ate.”

There was a general chuckle of amusement until a sound like grinding rocks came from behind Kal.

“Can ... I ... hold ... her?” came Gerda’s voice in the halting monotone of the translation spell.

“Gah!” cried out Perra her hand diving for the belt pouch that held her earpiece. Kal’s hand did the same but instead of putting it on he went over to where Bea was cringing from the sound of the golem’s voice.

Once the initial shock of Gerda’s appearance had worn off Perra quickly ran over and wrapped the golem in a hug. “Gerda! I’m so happy you came up!” Kal followed with his own hug and kiss for the golem for which he got a new earpiece in return, she had made a couple of extras for Bea and Aradelle when she decided to show herself.

A moment later Bea walked over and put her arms around the golem, “I’m so happy to finally meet you. Of course, you can hold Adalena. Though you might have to wrestle Ikuno for the privilege.”

“Hey now! I’m not that bad!” said the oni indignantly. “No wrestling while holding the baby but it will cost you a hug,” she said shifting Adalena to one side and holding out the other arm.

Gerda held up a finger asking the Oni to wait while she went over and presented the other earpiece to Aradelle.

The alarune smiled, “Thank you, Gerda, but I don’t need that. I hear through vibrations in my vines and I’m guessing that since some of my vines are underground it’s acting like one of those earpieces.” She glided forward and wrapped her arms around the golem, “Like Bea, I’m very happy to finally meet you and I want you to know that there are few places safer for you on the surface than right here. Feel free to relax a little.”

Gerda took a deep breath, which seemed odd to Kal since she didn’t need to breathe, and nodded in understanding. Smiling, and looking about as relaxed as Kal had ever seen her on the surface, she made her way over to Ikuno, “A hug for a baby? Seems kind of unfair.”

Ikuno raised an eyebrow, “A hug and a kiss?”

“Do I get to choose where you kiss me?” the golem said with a smirk.

Perra gasped at Gerda’s comment while Kal covered his mouth in an attempt to keep from laughing at the look on the oni’s face. This was surely a sign of Bas’s influence on the younger golem.

Unfortunately for Gerda, she was still new at this kind of banter and quickly realized it when Ikuno’s face went from shocked to predatory. “Anywhere you want, and I won’t stop until you tell me to,” said Ikuno, eyeing up the rock girl like a fresh piece of meat. “Hell, if I like it enough I might not stop even if you do.”

Kal figured it was time for a rescue as Gerda blushed furiously and her mouth worked to form a response, but no sound came out. “Let’s stick with a hug and a kiss on the cheek for now,” he said. “You two can figure out any other kissing games when there aren’t any children around.”

Gerda looked over at Kal and blushed again, fully realizing that he was saving her. Nodding at Kal she gave the oni a hug and a chaste kiss on the cheek before Ikuno handed over Adalena with a warning to be careful of her strength, the predatory look from moments ago was nowhere to be seen.

Sadly, Adalena was not a fan of the golem’s voice and immediately began fussing even though Gerda hadn’t said anything since taking her. Bea approached with the intention of rescuing the golem for a second time but Gerda held up a finger, “Wait, Bas showed me something,” she tried to whisper but to no avail, the little butterfly girl just became more agitated.

Gerda closed her eyes for a moment and two rows of extremely thin plates grew out of her back, the largest about the size of Kal’s head and getting smaller as they went along. A strange hum began coming from the thin sheets of rock before some of them died away while others started to vibrate in sequence. The tones quickly found a rhythm and soon a calming melody was coming from the plates.

There was something frustratingly familiar about the tune but Kal wasn’t able to place it, from the look on Perra’s face she was having the same issue.

“It’s a lullaby, you two,” said Ikuno, reading the looks on their faces. “Popular probably a hundred and fift...”

“Shhh...” shushed Aradelle as she laid on one of her petals. “If this is how she sings, it’s beautiful. The history lesson can wait.”

The most important member of Gerda’s audience seemed to approve as she looked up in wonder at the golem. Gradually, Adalena’s eyelids started to droop and drifted closed over the next few minutes.

As the music came to an end and the plates sunk into Gerda’s back, Bea stepped up and took her sleeping daughter from the golem, “Aradelle was right, that was beautiful Gerda. Thank you.”

Gerda just nodded instead of speaking, tears running down her face from the intense happiness she was feeling at that moment.

While things are on a high note,” Ikuno said quietly, snickering at her own pun and giving meaningful looks to Kal and Perra. “There’s another reason we are all here.”

Perra took a couple of deep breaths to steady her nerves before looking at Kal.

“Are you sure you want this?” asked Kal. “It’s your last chance to back out.”

She knew he was trying to be gallant, but he couldn’t have picked a worse thing to say as images of Ikuno nearly in tears on the front steps of the farmhouse flashed through her head. Steadying herself she nodded.

Standing in front of Aradelle, Kal and Perra faced each other and held hands. Gerda and Bea, with Adalena, stood just behind Kal while Ikuno got to her feet and took up a similar position behind Perra. The young woman was trying valiantly to control her breathing, somehow this seemed far scarier than the thought of losing her virginity had been. Then again, she and Kal hadn’t had an audience either.

“Remember what I told you?” Ikuno asked her. Perra nodded, not trusting her voice at that moment.

Perra collected all of her thoughts about Kal, from the annoying yet endearing things he did to all of the ways he seemed to prove over and over that he was just trying to be a good person. On top of all this was her desire to be his, fully understanding that he would likely never be hers alone. Doing as Ikuno had instructed she imagined herself pulling energy out of the small crystal in the pendant and mixing it with those feelings. Her body and mind both seemed to tingle as she truly touched magic for the first time. After wearing the jewel for so long, the sensation felt curiously familiar.

A look of shock appeared on Kal’s face as she pushed her magically infused thoughts and desires into the air between them. Perra smiled and nearly lost her concentration, a part of her was just as surprised. Ikuno had talked her through how this could possibly work, but even the oni was unsure of success since she was using the power of her necklace instead of her own.

Kal looked into her eyes, “I accept.”

Perra wasn’t sure exactly how to explain the difference between now and a few minutes ago aside from their connection felt far deeper than it had with just the pendant. Any doubts about how Kal felt about her vanished as she saw herself for the first time through his eyes. As she adjusted to hearing someone else in her mind, she began to feel the thoughts of the other girls filtering through, something that had never happened before with the necklace alone. Taking a moment to focus on each of the women she was able to see how much Kal cared for them.

“Nosey, aren’t you?” he asked, smiling.

Perra’s head snapped up from where she had been looking at the ground in concentration.

Behind her, Ikuno frowned, “She shouldn’t be able to dig very deep through the bond like that.”

“I don’t think it’s through the bond. I think it’s through this,” said Kal, releasing her hand and running a finger over the pendant. “They feel different, I think the bond is giving her the map and she’s using the moonstone to follow it.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean...” Perra stammered.

Kal smiled, “Don’t worry about it. We weren’t expecting this to work the first time, yet here we are. Let’s just be happy about that, shall we?”

Perra finally looked around and saw Gerda and Bea grinning from ear to ear while Aradelle bounced around happily within her flower acting like she was clapping while her hands never actually touched. The alarune’s antics confused her for a moment until she remembered that Adalena was still sleeping.

Large blue arms wrapped around her from behind, “Welcome.”

After some time sitting around and chatting Bea announced that it was about time for Adalena’s next meal and made her way home after dragging a promise of coming to see her soon out of Kal. Perra blushed bright red as she caught an image of Adalena sleeping followed by touching Kal’s tongue with a tiny bit of dust, then Bea looking pregnant, licking her lips, and feeling satisfied. Checking on the other girls she could tell that they were all feeling rather amorous. The young woman wondered for a moment how on earth Kal didn’t walk around hard all the time with the constant thoughts of sex running through the girl’s minds. A very strong thought suddenly came from Ikuno of having her tongue buried firmly in a woman’s orgasming sex then looking up to see Perra’s face in the throes of ecstasy.

The girl quickly pulled her thoughts back.

“You’re going too deep, dear,” Ikuno’s tone wasn’t chastising despite that being exactly what Perra had expected. “Kal can go as deep as you just did, even deeper with Bea and I, to my knowledge he never has, out of respect for our privacy.”

“Sorry, it’s just so easy to get lost in everyone else’s feelings. However, in my defense, Bea was broadcasting pretty strongly.”

“Fair enough. To be honest, I felt that one a little bit too,” said the oni rubbing a hand over her stomach.

Gerda was the next to leave. After taking a moment to find a spot without many of Aradelle’s roots or underground vines she peeled back a bit of the topsoil and stepped into the hole she had made waving goodbye as she slowly sank into the earth. When she had disappeared, two of Aradelle’s vines emerged and put the chunk of soil back, patting it into place before vanishing beneath the ground again.

The day was getting late when Kal and Perra finally left. Ikuno stayed behind saying she wanted to spend some alone time with Aradelle but to leave out her bedroll when they got back to the shack.

Kal called Ria and had her retrieve everyone’s sleeping mats, then promptly got attacked by Perra as soon as they had something besides dirt to put their backs on. The monster girls’ almost constant thoughts of sex had the young human in a state that bordered on desperation.

Since no one had remembered to dismiss her, Ria made her body fade as much as possible and enjoyed the show the young lovers were putting on with a hand buried between her legs.

“You’d better watch yourself Lady Perra, a few more performances like that and Tanner will be calling on you to take Kal’s spot on the council,” said Lady Nina as they left the blacksmith’s shop. Since there was no town hall, each of the council members hosted meetings in their house or had the option of renting a room at the inn, out of their own pocket of course. This time it had been the blacksmith’s turn to host and Perra felt like she was covered in a layer of sweat, soot, and steel. She briefly wondered if Bonn would be up for a ride out to Ikuno’s to use her fancy bathhouse.

“It’s not like I suggested anything amazing. With harvest time on the horizon, it just seemed to make sense to take the crops from a few fields and set them aside, instead of having everyone weigh their crops then take out the King’s portion.”

“You’d be correct, it’s not amazing. In fact, it has been suggested many times before. What’s amazing is that you managed to convince the rest of the council to go along with it. Too many of them still see this town as little more than a trading post. That’s one of the first times I’ve seen them acting in the interests of the town as a whole,” said the older woman.

“I still wish Kal hadn’t run off just before this meeting, this is the second in a row,” grumbled Perra.

“I’ve already apologized for that, Perra. In truth, I can’t thank Kal, Ikuno and Ghoss enough for going with Jurien this time. Until now, he’s had to hire mercenaries to guard him when he goes to that blasted swamp.”

“What exactly are they going for? Kal mentioned that it was some kind of mushroom, but he couldn’t remember what you told him.”

“Queen’s Crown tree fungus and Ghost Fern fiddleheads are the big things Jurien is looking for. The fungus is what makes my salves keep for so long without going bad and boiled Ghost Fern fiddleheads make the base for some of our higher end poultices. However, there’s a mess of potion ingredients to be found out there as well as some spell components, which is why Kal and Ikuno went if I’m not mistaken,” explained Nina as they arrived at her and Jurien’s shop. “Ugh, I hate going to the Smith’s for these meetings, I’m going to start heating up some water for a bath.”

Perra stopped Nina from closing the door to the shop behind her, getting a raised eyebrow from the apothecary’s wife. She then had a quick conversation with Kal and Ikuno, which was difficult with how far away they were. After getting their approval she smiled up at Lady Nina “How would you like to enjoy one of the benefits of having a mage as a friend? I know the perfect place we can go to get cleaned up.”

As Kal and Ikuno were sorting and cataloging their bounty from their trip with Jurien, Ria decided to tell him of a special ink that could tie her to him in a way she could never be lost.

“If you will be traveling to larger cities then there will be pickpockets and cutpurses to think about. If you make this ink then all you need to do is put your mark on me,” the sprite explained. “Once I have your mark the only way I can become someone else’s property is if you were to die. More importantly, if I am stolen or lost I will try to return to you twice a day. However, each attempt takes a lot out of me and though I will be able to return to you, I won’t be able to take out or accept anything for the next few hours.”

Kal nodded in understanding, “What if a second person were to also put their mark on you? If I were to die, would you end up going back to the other person?” he asked.

Ria seemed momentarily confused, “Honestly, Kal, I don’t know the answer to that. Most of my previous masters have been so hung up on protecting their property that I don’t think it occurred to them to designate an heir. All we can do is try once you have made the ink.”

Kal and Ikuno took down her list of ingredients and immediately began planning a trip to get those that could only be found far away.

“I had the strangest meeting with the Master Tanner today,” said Kal as he hung his travel cloak next to the door.

“Hm?” Perra was engrossed in the book she was reading. Kal’s mother had been insistent she learn, and lately the young woman had started to get the feeling that reading well was about to become a very important part of her life. As such, she was trying to brush up on her reading skills from Ikuno’s more mundane selection of books.

“He asked me if I had any trips coming up that I would be out of town. I told him when I planned to go hunting for the ingredients Ria needs for her ink and I’ll be damned if he didn’t schedule the meeting for the day after I was going to leave. You wouldn’t know anything about that. Would you?”

Perra groaned and leaned back in the chair, covering her face with the book. Apparently, Nina had been correct.

Once Ria’s ingredients were gathered and Kal had made the ink, they tested it by putting Kal’s mark, then Perra’s on the sprite’s bag. A tiny speck of light floated back to Kal’s hand and turned into Ria’s leather pouch a few minutes after Ikuno ‘stole’ Ria. They now knew that Perra’s mark had not overridden Kal’s and had to just hope that the second mark worked the way Kal was assuming. Unfortunately, the only way for them to truly test Kal’s idea was for him to die and nobody was willing to go that far.

The summer months passed and dipped into fall. Kal continued to learn spells as quickly as possible. Although most of them weren’t very powerful, many of them were useful in some way. Ikuno recommended things like a spell that opened locks which Kal, at first, dismissed as something only a thief would need until she reminded him that magic users weren’t very popular in some cities where the church held a great deal of sway. The idea of being locked up in manacles convinced him the oni might have a point.

His leather mask received an upgrade in the form of the water breathing rune from the book. This was quickly followed by a darkvision rune when he discovered he could barely see underwater. Unfortunately, darkvision only helped with the light level and not the distortion or the fact that he had to keep his eyes open underwater for long periods of time. This led him to develop a rune that created a clear shield over his eyes that filled with air and allowed him to see fairly well as long as the water wasn’t overly murky.

This small adaptation to his mask led to another revelation about the flight rune. The new addition created similar shield but over his entire face that deflected wind and allowed him to see without squinting against the oncoming air. Ikuno was hardly surprised when Kal insisted upon going to see Felli in order to test it.

With more time available to him, Kal’s combat skills increased right along with the number of broken bones inflicted by Ikuno. The oni was holding back less and less as his skills improved and there was still the occasional mistake that led to him waking up with his head on her lap. Thankfully, he was fairly protected against serious injury by his runes and most of the time got away with mild fractures and bruises.

As the weather turned colder and the leaves began to change it was once again time to say goodbye for the winter, not just for Aradelle this time but for Bea and Adalena as well. Bea explained that she and her daughter would hibernate over winter together in a chrysalis she would construct after sealing her home. Both of them had put on significant weight over the last month since they wouldn’t be eating again until spring. The butterfly girl was decidedly unhappy. Not with how her body looked since it was necessary, but because the extra weight was making it very hard to fly. Adalena had grown significantly in size during the summer months but slowed down as things got cooler, trading growing up for growing out. As they prepared for hibernation the normally happy little girl seemed to be having a hard time staying awake for more than a few minutes.

Kal said goodbye to Aradelle, Perra and Ikuno, then walked back to Bea’s house with her, carrying a sleeping Adalena most of the way. Bea struggled to get up into her house, cursing the necessity for her extra heft. Once there, she and Kal shared a short tearful goodbye before his handing over their daughter and leaving her to begin making their winter cocoon.

Afterward, he returned to the other three women back in the clearing. Aradelle was in her flame-sprite fall colors once again as teary hugs were passed around for the second time that day. A few minutes later the alarune waved goodbye before curling up into a ball and descending into her bulb as she shed her petals and the hard outer leaves folded up for the last time until spring. Kal was more than a little disconcerted by how Aradelle’s mind became completely still over the bond after months of her constant presence. Two days later Bea’s thoughts also went quiet as she completed her chrysalis and went to sleep for the winter.

Kal sat back in his chair and rubbed his eyes, the day was growing late and he still hadn’t come to a decision on which rune should go in the free space next to the shield rune. He looked over at the vambrace laying off to one side of the table in Ikuno’s library. Kal had been so excited to learn and use it for the first time after seeing Sir Balthus save his hot-headed friend. The mage’s brow furrowed as he remembered the intricate tattooed runes that had covered nearly all of the knight’s forearm arm and wondered how he had not noticed that they were really nothing at all like what was on his bracer.