Chapter 55: Afternoon

“Alright, personally!” said Fiona as she led the way through the double sets of automatic doors that separated the mall from the outside world “With a project like this I think it’s best to start with the first layer first.”

“First layer?” asked Anton.

“Mm hm, first layer, the one right against the skin.” explained Fiona as she looked back at Mica and grinned “The fun layer that’s full of tiny little tight things!”

Blinking, Mica’s expression became wrathful as her cheeks began to redden.

“So a lingerie shop should definitely be our first stop.” continued Fiona as she nodded to herself “It’ll probably take the longest to get through too, what with all the things we’ll need Mica to model for us. So we really should hit it first.”

“Bitch! I am not your damn dress up doll!” muttered Mica “And I’m not modeling shit for you!”

“Heh, silly little Mica.” mocked Fiona “As if it’s up to you.”

“Fuck you!” growled the kiochi.

“A lingerie shop isn’t a bad idea, actually...” mused Kianna.

“Seriously, you too!?” exclaimed Mica.

“I didn’t mean it for you.” grinned Kianna as she absently bumped into Anton and leaned against him as they walked.

Chuckling, Anton wrapped an arm around her waist as he shook his head.

“As much as I’d like that, I think we need to heed the doctor’s advice and take it easy on you for today.” he said as they came up to a directory that featured a large map of the multi-story mall “So let’s also spare Mica for now, and save that particular shop for our next trip.”

Letting his eyes rove over the categories of listed shops, Anton grinned playfully as he ignored the groans form the pouting dark elves that were glaring at him.

“ ... So do you have a preference for any of these specific stores, Mica?” he asked as he turned to her “Or will any of them do?”

Stepping up to look over her options, Mica ran her eyes down the list of stores before glancing up at the map above.

“I like Route 9, Dream Like and sometimes Trails has good stuff.” said Mica “They’re all to the left from here.”

“Okay...” nodded Anton as he continued to look over the map “We’ll need to stop at the Vantage store as well. That way I can get you a new phone and put you on my plan...”

“Oh, really?” said Mica as she looked up at him “You’re seriously going to let me have a phone?”

“Well yeah. You’re going to need a phone.” chuckled Anton “One that I can set parental locks on, of course. Since we don’t need you to be calling anybody that currently wants to kill you...”

Mica grimaced as the dark elves both began to softly laugh.

“Like I’m really gonna do that...” she grumbled as she followed along behind Anton.

Making their way to the closest store, Dream Like, the two dark elves immediately caught the attention of the staff as they entered the store and began to peruse the racks of chic clothing. And it wasn’t long before said staff members all disappeared into the backroom and abandoned their clearly uneasy looking manager to man the checkout desk alone.

Following them at a more subdued pace, Mica’s tail coiled aimlessly about behind her as she looked out across the expanse of the store.

“For now.” said Anton as he came up beside her “Let’s just get you enough clothes to last the next few weeks. I know you’ll need a full wardrobe eventually, but if we play our cards right, in the near future, we may have the opportunity to get a hold of all your belongings.”

“Oh, really?” questioned Mica.

“Mm hm. It’s nothing to bank on just yet. But hopefully your parents won’t mind negotiating a price for all your things.” said Anton “We’ll have to wait and see how well things go with the next meeting I have with them though. Whenever that’ll be...”

“Oh, okay...” nodded Mica.

“Mica! C’mere!” called Kianna as she held up a bright pink blouse “What do you think of this?”

Grimacing, the kiochi began to shake her head as she and Anton made their way over to the dark elf.

“That’s a little bright for my tastes...” mumbled Mica as Kianna held the blouse up to her.

“Yeah...” drawled Kianna “This color doesn’t really go with your eyes either...”

“Okay! I’ve got the first few things you’ll need to try on!” cried Fiona as she suddenly bounded up behind the kiochi.

Turning to her, Mica was caught off guard as Fiona abruptly passed her a plethora of differently styled panties. With her hands now full of the incredibly skimpy underwear, Mica’s tail froze in place as her face instantly reddened in embarrassment.

“I figured dark colors would probably be the way to go, considering how pale you are...” mused Fiona as she plucked a pair of barely there purple lace panties from the stack and held them up in front of Mica’s face “Oh yeah, that’ll be a sweet contrast. Can’t wait to see how well these babies will look wrapped around your ass...”

“ ... You! Bitch! Dammit!” grumbled Mica as angry tears of embarrassment formed in the corners of her eyes.

“Okay, that’s enough.” said Anton as he shook his head and reached back for his wallet “C’mon, Fiona, we’re going to go wait outside...”

“What, why!?” cried Fiona as her ears pointed themselves straight upwards.

“Because, Mica has already had a hard enough time lately.” said Anton as he handed Kianna a credit card “And the last thing she needs right now is us ogling her underwear. So c’mon, let’s give her some peace and privacy.”

Kianna made a small happy sound as she smiled at the credit card.

“Try to keep it reasonable, please...” sighed Anton as he stared at the credit card “C’mon, Fiona. Let’s go.”

Grumbling under her breath, Fiona balled her hands into fists and pointed her ears straight back as she reluctantly followed Anton out of the store.

“ ... Well that was nice of him.” said Mica as she watched them leave.

“Yeah, he usually is pretty nice. Well, most of the time ... Anyways.” said Kianna as she looked over the pile of panties filling Mica’s arms “Guess we might as well get these out of the way first. Since we already have them.”

Sighing in defeat, Mica nodded as she too began to look over the items Fiona had picked out for her.

Finding a bench just outside and a little down from the store, Anton took a seat and pulled out his phone to check his messages.

He had been hoping to hear back from an associate of his, the same individual he had messaged about Leopold’s sword, who was avid collector of bladed weapons named Alan Mokai.

Having spoken with him when he had first acquired the sword, Mokai had been very interested in seeing the Infernal weapon for himself, but unfortunately he wouldn’t be available right away. Instead he had assured Anton that he would let him know as soon as it would be possible for them to meet.

“So is this you punishing me for something?” muttered Fiona as she plopped down next to him.

Grinning as he read through a new message stating that Mokai would be available that following morning, Anton absently shook his head.

“No, it isn’t.” he said as slipped his phone back into his pocket “This is really just to show Mica a little mercy.”

“Mercy from what?” questioned Fiona “You’re acting like I was about to torture her, when all I was gonna do was play a little dress up with her. That’s all.”

“Believe it or not, Fiona.” said Anton around a chuckle “But being stripped nearly naked and then forcefully put on display for the amusement of others is actually considered torture to some people.”

“ ... Yeah, I guess. I mean it might be at first, but she’ll get used to it.” said Fiona in a dismissive tone “I mean, Mica is a slave after all. She needs to get used to having to do things she doesn’t want to do. And entertaining us is gonna be a part of that.”

“No, it isn’t.” said Anton “Mica isn’t your slave, Fiona. And she’s not here to entertain you anymore than you’re here to entertain her.”

“ ... I mean, yeah, that’s right. But she still needs to get used to doing things she doesn’t want to do though.” stated Fiona as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“That may be true, but how that’s gone about is not for you to decide.” said Anton “Again, she’s not your slave, Fiona. And you need to stop thinking of her in that way.”

Fiona went to speak again but stopped short as she seemed to think better of it. Glancing off to the side, she sighed softly and crossed her legs at the knees as she settled in and began to people watch.

She wasn’t exactly sure what time it was in the area they were in but judging from the brightness coming through the skylights overhead and the lack of foot traffic in the sparsely populated mall, she guessed it was likely just past midday.

Bobbing her foot up and down, she let her eyes absently roam from one random person to the next until suddenly her attention was draw to a rather peculiar sight.

A full grown female lamia had slithered into view and was making her way past the bench that she and Anton currently sat on.

Human-like in shape from the waist upwards but possessing a long serpentine form from the hips down, the lamia appeared as a mermaid-like blend of a humanoid and a snake.

Smooth, tightly packed but only faintly overlapping scales encased the entirety of her lower half and these spread upwards past her waist to cover her back, shoulders, arms and clawed hands before growing smaller in size and then tapering off all together as they crept up her neck to her ears and spread out along the rim of her jawline.

The majority of her scales were colored a deep black, but those along her belly paled down to a dark gray. Bright, golden-yellow bands broke up the solid blackness of her body scales as they haphazardly crisscrossed her back. These bands started out as broad blotches at her shoulders and became thinner and thinner as they moved steadily down the long length of her being.

Her skin, in the areas where it was free of scales, such as on her face, torso and palms, was a light gray color that had a slight purplish cast to it.

Her large, inhuman eyes were quite the mesmerizing sight, as they were made up of a pair of black slitted pupils that stood out clearly as they seemed to divide her eyes down the middle, and were surrounded on either side by a gleaming sea of steel green sclera.

Though primarily reptilian in nature, the lamia still possessed enough mammalian traits to make her mixed heritage clear. These included a full head of blonde colored human-like hair, a set of external ears that were sharply pointed and covered in scales, and a pair of ample, well formed breasts.

All these traits came together to form a creature that, although seemingly alien in nature, was still stunningly beautiful to behold.

Wearing a light, white colored sundress and raising her upper half into the air in a manner that was reminiscent of a standing cobra, the lamia gave the impression that she stood as tall as and was no bigger than an average humanoid. This was quite misleading though, as she was in fact exceptionally larger than the average person was, and should she choose to she was fully capable of lifting herself up much, much higher than this.

She would be able to accomplish this feat with the aid of the hundreds upon hundreds of banded muscles that were wrapped around her lower half and ran down the length of her body. These muscles were so tightly packed together that she was still left with a seemingly smooth appearance despite their presence just beneath her skin. This musculature not only assured her a shockingly high level of strength, but also gave her enough power that she could easily oscillate her long body from side to side and use her own coiled sections to push against the ground and sling herself along at a surprisingly fast rate of speed. Moving in this way allowed her to effortlessly glide forward in a graceful and silent manner.

Although the lamia was certainly eye catching in of herself, what made this particular one even more interesting was that she was being accompanied by what appeared to be her children.

Nestled in the lamia’s arms was a tiny sleeping baby that was wrapped up in a bright, pink blanket. While cruising along on either side of her were two older lamia girls that were both very similar in appearance to their mother, save for the fact that they were only a fraction of her size and both possessed black-colored hair. A third, much smaller little lamia girl with blonde hair was coiled up and riding on her mother’s back as she moved along. Sitting next to this girl, and riding along with her, was a young hobgoblin boy.

Making their way past the bench, the group continued on for a ways before veering off of the main pathway and slithering up to a sweet shack being manned by a male hobgoblin.

Standing at roughly three and a half feet tall, a hobgoblin was essentially the goblinoid equivalent of a halfling in size and shape. Green skinned with sharp features, large dark eyes set in yellow sclera and big, broad, pointed ears, they had the general appearance of a traditional goblinoid. And what set them apart, aside from their size, was that they were on average far more adept at the use of magic than most of their brethren kin.

Unlike true goblins, which preferred to live underground almost exclusively, hobgoblins were more human-like in that they could be found living in a wide range of locales. Intelligent, fairly friendly and outgoing, they were a rather common sight not only throughout the cavern lands below, which was their original home, but also across the surface of Terra as well.

The gentleman hobgoblin at the kiosk had a beaming smile across his face as he watched the approach of what was obviously his family.

Stopping just in front of him, the snake-like portion of the mother lamia remained in motion for a bit as she gathered herself out of the walkway by coiling her lower half up into a large circle. Leaning over the kiosk’s counter-top, she and her husband shared a quick kiss before he gleefully lifted a corner of the pink blanket and peeked in on the tiny baby hobgoblin girl who was sleeping soundly in her mother’s arms.

Bemused by her parents antics, one of the older lamia girls turned away from them and let her eyes wander aimlessly across the open expanse of the mall. As she looked about, a long, thin, black-colored tongue suddenly slipped out from between her parted lips and hung down past her chin as its forked tip began to flick up and down. Seemingly satisfied with the taste of the air around her, she slipped her tongue back into her mouth and turned to begin chatting with her siblings who were still seated on their mother’s coiled back.

Watching all of this, Fiona couldn’t help but to take note of how, despite the fact that one of them was an entirely different species, the four children that she could see were all strikingly similar to each other in appearance as they were all sporting a clear blend of their parents features.

Though she was no expert on the subject, she understood that from a purely biological stance, these children would naturally be impossible, as the genetics of a hobgoblin and a lamia would of course be far too different from each other to ever allow a baby to be conceived between them. At least through any normal means.

For couples such as this to have children they would have had to have formed what is known as a “Soul-Link” between them. Which, despite its name, was technically not a link made between their souls, but instead between their mana pools. This link was essentially a magical bridge that was gradually formed by the bond that flowed back and forth between two people. And with its aid a couple comprised of two completely different and normally incompatible species would become capable of producing children together.

How this worked was at the point of conception this link would magically filter, alter and merge their genetic material together in such a way that a baby would form. This process would also ensure that the mother would be capable of carrying the child to term, or in the case of egg layers, successfully hatching them. This often meant that the babies produced via this link would develop as the same species that the mother was and would have a much higher likelihood of also sharing her sex, as said baby would essentially be more of a clone of her than not. This was not always the case of course, and children that were the same sex and or species as the father, although a rarer occurrence, would be possible as well, so long as the mother could successfully care for them during development.

As this link was formed through magical means, it could only develop between sapient beings.

Fiona had learned of all this while in school, and so was not at all confused by the sight of a real world example of it. As she watched, the family mingled for bit longer before the mother and children moved off and continued on their way. As she went to turn away from them, Fiona found that Anton was also absently looking over in the same direction.

“ ... Is he selling churros over there?” he mumbled as he craned his neck to get a better look “ ... He is selling churros over there. Oh, I am going to get me a churro!”

“What’s a churro?” asked Fiona.

“Um, well, imagine a long, thin doughnut that’s been deep fried until it’s crispy and then covered in cinnamon and sugar. That’s basically what a churro is.” explained Anton as he stood up “Would you like to try one?”

“Uh ... No, I don’t think so.” said Fiona.

“You sure?” said Anton as he went to move away “They’re really good.”

“Nah, I’m good.” said Fiona as she shook her head “Thanks anyway.”

Nodding, Anton stepped away and headed towards the sweet shack. As he made his way along a trio of young children quickly past him up as they gleefully raced to the kiosk.

The children appeared to be some type of feline folk as they were human-like in general form but each sported cat-like ears on their heads, had vertically slitted pupils amid golden-colored eyes and had long, furred tails curling along behind them. They seemed to be siblings as they all had both black-colored hair and similar facial features. The two older looking individuals were a boy and girl, while the smallest among them was another girl. In order to help her keep pace with her larger siblings, the littlest girl was holding on to her brother’s tail as they sped along.

As they came up to the counter, the older girl produced a handful of wrinkled dollars and random collected change which she carefully laid out while her siblings excitedly pointed at what items they wanted from the menu that was painted across the front of the shack, just below the counter-top.

Fiona couldn’t help but to grin as she watched Anton take his place in line behind the children that had so easily beaten him.

Going over the trio’s available money, the hobgoblin’s warm smile shifted to a sorrowful grimaced as he began to shake his head and the three children’s ears and tails all began to droop as if the metaphorical wind had been stolen from their sails.

Having apparently noticed their plight, Anton took his wallet from his pocket and as both Fiona and the hobgoblin watched, he let a 5 dollar bill flutter away and land off to the side.

Though he was too far away for her to hear him, Fiona could tell that Anton had said something to get the children’s attention and as they turned to look at him he pointed down at the money. As soon as she caught sight of what he was indicating, the smaller cat girl’s eyes lit up and she immediately pounced forward onto all fours and grabbed up the money. Clearly excited by the sudden windfall, she quickly offered the money to the hobgoblin who then happily produced the cupped sundaes they had originally wanted. With frozen treats now in hand, the three children shouted thank you’s to both the hobgoblin and Anton as they sped away.