Laresa's World Ch. 23: Laresa

Laresa lay, languid in the moist grass. The summer sun beat down on her skin, to warm her contented flesh. Her hands shifted tenderly from the soft blades to the rounded form of her swollen belly. Every time she thought of the life growing within her, her heart raced! She thought back to the moment, seven months before, when it all happened.

For a seeming eternity the ring had floated on the wings of Rutila's final wish. Although she sometimes appeared instantly in a new location, there were times, like this when the ring seemed to float in the ether for long periods. These times were even more frightening and frustrating than the times when her home was lost in the mortal world. At least then there was the guarantee she would eventually be found. After all, mortals were always searching every little corner of the globe. With magic, Laresa was never positive she would come back.

Then, all at once, she felt the pull of the world on her home. The laws of physics once more asserted their custody over her. This time, she was fortunate. Within seconds she felt a presence hovering near. Then came the telltale jolt of someone putting on the ring and an almost instant pull of the summons.

As Laresa materialized she came to face two men. One, shorter than herself, with light skin, red hair and, light grey eyes. The other was almost too large to be real. He was over seven feet tall, the darkest of skin, with broad shoulders, and an amazingly muscled physique. The thin fuzz of hair, seemingly the only on his body, was pure black, and his eyes incredibly dark. He was irresistible.

There was a single incongruity to him. When her tribe committed themselves to the sacrifices, this man would have been a veritable giant, a god among men. There were no legends of one such as him. He could not have been made by the Djiin, but no other civilization had made their kind. This man was not only a genie, but the single most powerful she had ever met. It was as if his sheer power could barely be contained by his immense form.

"Laresa?" The smaller man drew her attention once more. "Good. We were hoping to find you. I am Patrick and this is Krell. We have searched for you." He moved up to her, her ring comfortable on his finger. He raised a hand to her cheek. "You are about to be freed."

It was all so confusing. Like a growing number of previous masters, Patrick knew who, and what, she was. Laresa could do not, but stare dumbly at the unusual pair. "I'm sorry, master?" So shocked was she that the title came out almost as an afterthought. "I do not understand."

Patrick's smile was warm and consoling. "We have a destiny to fulfill. I was once responsible for the eradication of a people. Who is not important. I was given a single chance to redeem myself." He paused and turned to the large man. "Krell's story is similar, but his crimes are even more heinous than mine. He volunteered for the rite, knowing that he could be condemned for eternity if it did not succeed." Krell simply nodded, his expression embarrassed and ashamed.

Patrick stepped back from Laresa and turned to his companion. The two raised their hands to meet and Patrick quickly slid the ring, her ring, onto Krell's hand. Laresa lurched forward in terror, but did not disappear back into the ring. Another contradiction; a genie who could empower other genies?

Patrick's light tenor voice brought her back from her confusion, in answer to her very thoughts. "He cannot summon your kind, which is why I did, but only he holds the power. He...we, were created, reborn, with the purpose of setting straight a great wrong."

"Laresa," Krell's powerful baritone seemed to echo throughout her body. The deepest recesses clenched in desperate response to that voice. Her body ached to feel him inside her. "You are free." Suddenly the world lurched. When Laresa regained her equilibrium an object dropped into her hand.

Laresa stared at the lump of amber and gold as she lay in the grass. The glorious yellow light glinted off of it. Such a simple thing for so many memories. As a shadow fell across her the ring still seemed to hold the light. She knew it was an illusion, a trick of the mind, but she imagined it held some power still. Perhaps it was just a reflection of another kind.

She looked up and smiled. He crouched down, above her head, and smiled. Laresa couldn't help but gaze down at the wonder that hung between his legs. It was this that had given her the great gift that swelled within her. His lips came forward to kiss her forehead before he flopped lazily down behind her.

As if on cue, over a dozen furry forms raced over and huddled among their alphas. Laresa nuzzled the pack's new pups and luxuriated in the feel of the warm fur. As a final gift, Krell and Patrick searched her mind for the ultimate time and place to live out her life. She smiled as she simply watched James. Her smile grew as he began to change form. He wanted to run with the pack, run with her.

It was a glorious feeling to run as a wolf, even more so now that her human form was so unbalanced and ungainly. Predators and prey alike knew how to run, were built to run, regardless of the circumstances. She began to roll to her side and begin the transformation James had wished for, so long ago, when a hand grasped her wrist. There was something wrong with the feel of the flesh that held her. It was cold, too cold to be healthy. Laresa looked down and screamed.

She tugged frantically at her arm as she tried to spin back to face James. He was gone. The pack was gone. The grass was gone. The sun was gone, replaced by a uniformly grey sky. This wasn't a normal overcast. It was as if the very world had begun to change around her.

Laresa coiled her legs beneath her, adding their strength to her fight, but the hand was implacable. The dead flesh refused to yield it's grip as it burst through the ground. It had the blue-grey pallor of decomposition but was as supple as if living. Worst of all, the longer it held her the more heat it seemed to draw away from her. Laresa feared this unknown abomination, but more, she feared for the unborn nestled deep within her. She threw herself backwards, but her feet only slipped beneath her, to send her sprawling to her butt.

The instant she hit the ground, a half-dozen more hands tore through the earth to grasp her other arm and legs. She fought the monstrosities, but every struggle cinched their grip and pulled her a little tighter. Slowly Laresa was dragged to her back where more hands broke through to hold her shoulders, her arms, her chest, her head, anything they could reach.

The world seemed to still a moment, as the dead flesh detained her. Then a single hand burst from the ground between her legs, held slightly apart by the grip. She screamed and shut her eyes to the cruel torment, as if blocking the sight could diminish their presence.. The hand came to rest on the silver/blond curls that so many masters lusted after and used with abandon. This hand was warm, but still, it seemed to drink her warmth to fuel itself as absolute cold began to spread across her skin.

The hands began to press, as if to pull her into the very ground by sheer force of power. Laresa panicked that they would bury her alive, but quickly realized they were pulling themselves free. One by one, the corpses dragged themselves free of their earthly prisons. All but the one who drank her very soul, all but the one between her legs.

Laresa's voice grew ragged with her screams. Their strength was undeniable. Her eyes snapped open as she felt pressure, at her inner thighs, pushing her legs wider. Though an eye dangled from a partially rotted socket and skin sloughed from his very bones, she couldn't help but recognize the man. She knew the sliced neck had occurred after his death. With up to his hips free of the ground , she screamed at the incongruous erection that pointed accusingly at her. Captain Trenchard and his men had come for their revenge.

Bones, sharpened like daggers, sprouted from the ends of his fingers and tickled lightly against her hips. Slowly, deliberately, those fingers began to trail upwards, to caress the life swelling within her. It was a promise to her. The slightest struggle and those razor sharp talons would pierce and shred her. She felt the cold, hard, and very dead, shaft press to her entrance.

"Stop!" The reaction to the command was instant. The pirate moved no further, but continued to part her terrified depths slightly. Laresa did not recognize the high alto voice. The source of the voice was blocked from her sight by the hulking body of the pirate captain. "Hold her, nothing more!" The captain stepped back and took his place by her left ankle. Revealed was a youth she had seen but briefly, and never alive. It was the bully, Wilhelm's terror, who had died by her magic, much as had the pirates.. Slowly he continued to advance until he had taken the captain's place, to kneel between her legs. But this child had no thoughts of violation.

Slowly his hands came to rest of the unborn. Young Aaron's cold, condemning eyes called to her. "How have you the right?" It was little more than a whisper in it's accusation. "How many children have you stolen?"

Laresa's heart seized in grief, unable to deny the truth. Through the years, through all of the masters, there had been many hundreds to die under the influence of her powers. With those she refused to save, those she let die, those who died at the hands of weapons she created or summoned for her masters, and those she tricked, the number multiplied by a factor for ten.

There was no pain as the youthful bully pressed against her. As if by magic, Aaron simply flattened her stomach. He kneaded her flesh until no signs of the precious unborn remained. Slowly, he shifted his hands down above her skin. When he found his chosen spots he pressed against her with fingers locked in position. They sank through her skin and muscle, as if she were made of liquid, and she felt him clutch her. His hands spasmed closed, crushing all hope of further conception, before retreating from her. Laresa's renewed screams had nothing to do with the pain of the flesh.

Tears fled down her cheeks. The world wavered through her watery gaze. The boy became inconsistent while she watched his hands move to the sensitive juncture where legs meet groin. She blinked furiously as confusion stayed her eyes. The hands that gripped her were far too large for a mere boy. The large palms helped to grip around much of the girth of her legs. Her sight cleared to witness the youthful bully transform into another of his namesake.

Kneeling between her legs was Aaron, harsh master and would-be god. She could never forget the powerful, athletic body she had given him, or how he chose to use the other generous endowments. His thumbs pressed at her tender flesh to open her depths before his aroused cock. Even with all of the cruelty of the sudden events, his touch sent anticipation through her. She was no proof from her own enhancements, and his body was perfect. Her body betrayed her by moistening for him.

He shifted forward slightly to wet himself with her juices. Her breath caught and his grin, the smile that pronounced his evil, spread across his face at her reaction. He pushed his head in to her clutching warmth and stopped. Her heart raced and she hated herself, hated her body for wanting him. His hand reached forward to grasp the ring,her ring, on the chain around her neck. With one fluid motion he threw himself backwards, to rip the chain from her neck, and thrust his hips forward. Without magic to protect her, he ripped a painful path into her tight form.

He pushed himself deeper and she screamed. He hit the back with an agony of fire and kept thrusting farther. He tried to pierce her very spine as he burrowed himself fully into her. She tried to struggle but the dead hands held her still, the pirates knelt and bowed as supplicants before their god. The moment her pain began to wane, he forced himself deeper or shifted within her to renew the effect.

He held himself there as his arms reached skyward. Slowly the ring slipped onto his finger. His grin returned to a disturbingly contented smile as he contemplated the fit. The pirates holding Laresa passed her arms effortlessly up her body until her wrists met above her head. Aaron cocked his head to curiously view the broken necklace, as if he had never noticed it dangling there, trapped between her ring and his flesh. He drew it free and then brought it to her crossed wrists. She followed his hands with her eyes. Instantly it bound her tighter than any wish she had ever granted.

As her gaze traveled back down the arms, she realized that the monster between her legs, and deep within her, had changed once more. As his ~for it was clearly still a man's arms~ hands came into sight holding, a cane, Laresa knew Daniel. Another master who had thought a perfect physical form would match his soul, another master who had been wrong. He had been evil and sadistic. She knew he had tried to wish for her to heal him, in his final moments, but no words had been able to pass his lips.

Her eyes barely met his when the bamboo cracked against her cheek. His eyes spoke of her betrayal. She had failed him, actively defied him with her strict adherence to rules that didn't, technically, exist. He pulsed with excitement as he watched her writhe in pain. The increase in arousal forced him deeper and pressed more firmly against her. She cried out. He knew, he felt her depths resist him, tear under the pressure. Her scream of pain turned to one of terror as she realized the danger. The added pain excited him more. He shifted only slightly and occasionally as he seemed to rip her apart from within. Finally his molten seed erupted within her.

She felt him pull free, aggravating every damaged nerve as he did, to spill himself across her naked form. She could barely see as he moved up her body. The cane was gone. Smooth hands cupped her chest, and once more she knew he had changed. She quaked in fear, helpless beneath the, now, unknown man. He clawed at her, perfectly manicured nails digging in to her supple breasts. With her jaw finally swelling from the cane, she could do little more than whimper. She heard the masculine laugh and knew the monster had transformed into Dolph; the man she had tricked into negating his time with her.

His flaccid form slapped her lips. Broken, she tried to open for him but could not. She heard his cruel laughter and a hand griped her shattered cheek. Where her own will failed, instinct succeeded. She tasted his ~Daniel's? A shapeshifter's~ seed and her blood as he stuffed himself into her mouth. Unable to move, she could do nothing, but he found ways to amuse himself. Dolph had never viewed her, or any woman, as more than meat anyway. He grew. His body forced her mouth wider, and all she could do was whimper. Soon he not only distended her jaw, but found himself choking her as he should never remember doing.

Her throat tingled suspiciously. Suddenly she felt wider, more able to accommodate the sheer mass within her. He pulled back slightly and a hand returned to cheek, gently this time. She felt her ring on his hand as he soothed her broken body. As her cheek healed, she found herself looking upon the dark, sculpted, body of Horace.

She lay stunned as he straddled her. Was all of this his doing? Was he responsible for the terrible chaos that had spilled into her world. Why would he attack her in so many forms? Nothing made sense. Why would he then heal her?

He slid backwards, his hand trailing across her soft skin. Slowly he leaned back forward. She opened her lips to accommodate him. He kept his rhythm languid, as if to make love with her mouth. As she felt his intensity increase, she felt the pressure, the passion building within her. She reacted as if he filled her, still wounded, depths rather than her mouth. She felt him building to climax, felt herself staying a moment ahead of him. Her back arched and her body froze. When time returned the tension in his body, straddling her neck, explode into her mouth. The lust a balm washing through her overtaxed body.

She collapsed, seemingly bonelessly, to the ground. Slowly she became aware of nothing but his weight holding her down. A quick check of her perfect memory proved the pirates had vanished when Horace appeared.

Horace leaned over. One hand help her wrists while the other clutched at her freshly healed lust. He gripped just enough for the slightest, sweet, pain. A single finger slipped tauntingly inside her. He leaned close to her head to whisper to Laresa's. The words caressed her ear but the tone was cold with hatred. "You are a slave. You will never be anything more than a tool, a device for the simple humans to use as they see fit."

~~~~ {* *}~~~~Laresa came awake with a start. The cushions had been thrown about her home during her fitful rest. She stood and methodically began to collect them all, using the action to calm her troubled brain. Everything, Patrick and Krell, her pregnancy by James, the brutality, had all been another nightmare. She held her face briefly and cried as her dream reminded her of the latest batch of victims, deserving or not, to encounters with her ring. She knew her ring still floated between the worlds on Rutila's wish. This was not the longest she had ever been forced to wait, but still, the tedium grew with each gap.

"The next time a master asks me what I'd wish for, I know what my answer will be." Talking to herself was the only break from the monotony, the only relief from the ever increasing nightmares. "An XBox, maybe a laptop." Laresa flopped down on her restored pile of cushions. "Hell, even a deck of CARDS!"

But the universe didn't seem to be listening.

~~~~ {* *}~~~~San Diego, California: Present Day

Stew ran from the pawn shop as fast as his legs could carry him. He clutched his prize as desperately as he could, never noticing the smoke that began to trail behind him. As he dodged around the corner, his feet tangled upon something and spilled him to the grimy pavement. As the medallion tumbled from his grasp, the smoke instantly disappeared. The faint echo growl could be heard echoing off of the alley walls.

Stew looked up to see the strange man pick up the treasure he had just stolen from the store. Something about this man just screamed Man In Black! This was no one to be trifled with, and no one to let catch you. Stew spun on all fours and bolted from the alley. The man ignored the child, his gaze intent on the medallion.

"Not this time Horace. You will not corrupt another young master's wishes." The man opened a small wooden case, filled with soft-cell foam, and slid the artifact within. Once closed, the box was proof against detection. He slid it beneath his arm and began to whistle as he headed for the airport.

Thank you for reading my latest chapter of Laresa's World. I have very much enjoyed writing and scheming with all of the other authors to create such an intricate and interesting world. Most of all I would like to thank Darkniciad for hours on IM scheming over the nature and direction of the Society of Djinn and, especially, RedHairedAndFriendly for dreaming up Laresa. I urge you to read all of the prior and forthcoming chapters of Laresa's World. In addition there are a number of offshoot stories of our favorite genie by some of the authors participating in the chain. Thank you again for reading and making Larea's World so memorable.

Copywrite February 2007, Deathlynx