Guilty x Creatures Ch. 24

"The task is now complete." said Earlivi as he closed the portal and turned back to face Anton "And all the prisoners have been returned to the shelf."

"Thank you Earlivi." said Anton as he gave the homunculus a nod of approval "I appreciate that. Now, if you'd follow me, I've got one other task for you and then you can return home."

"Very well..." said Earlivi as he made to follow Anton.

The dark elves both stepped to the side and gave the homunculus a wide berth as he fell into step behind Anton. As they followed a few paces behind, they each noticed that the clothing the homunculus wore was actually connected directly to his skin and appeared to be a part of his body rather than merely covering it.

As he moved, Earlivi's joints made very faint almost inaudible hissing sounds that were reminiscent of those made by hydraulic presses. This gave him an almost mechanical aspect and left one with the impression that he was in all actuality, a living machine.

"Hey! Did he just say those batteries were prisoners!?" whispered Kianna as she ducked in close to her sister.

"Just! Don't, Kianna!" muttered Fiona as she stared straight ahead and shook her head "Just let it go!"

Anton smiled as he came up to the backdoor and listened to the sounds of excited barking that could be heard clearly as they came from just the other side. The very second he opened the door Molly came bouncing out to greet him, however the moment the little dog registered the homunculus she froze completely before turning around and silently running back into the depths of the house.

"Aw! Earlivi! I think you scared her!" laughed Anton as gazed in the direction the little dog had disappeared in "The poor little thing!"

"My apologies..." mumbled Earlivi as he ducked his head down enough to step through the doorway and into the kitchen.

Anton led the group through the house and down into the dungeon before turning back to face Earlivi.

"Okay, what I'd like to do first is drop the floor about 4 feet. That way we'll have a 14 foot ceiling in here." he said as he indicated the large room "And I'd like to have everything moved off to the side that way the center here is nice and open."

"Simple enough..." mumbled Earlivi as his eyes seemed to scan the dungeon "Would you like me to expand the room as well, or are you satisfied with it's current size..."

"No, I think it's big enough already." mused Anton as he continued to gaze about the room "...Though I would like it if you'd fix the hole next to the door, and then put a few stout beams across the ceiling here. Going down in this direction preferably. And then if you would, I'd appreciate it if you'd bring the hoist and a ten foot bar from the house and install them here in the middle."

"Very well... Would you prefer the bar to pivots in the center..." asked Earlivi as he turned to face Anton "Or would you like it to remain stationary..."

"Hm, I think if it could pivot that would be better..." answered Anton as he gazed up at the ceiling "Yeah, go ahead and let it pivot."

"Very well. It shall be done..." mumbled Earlivi as his eyes traveled down the length of the ceiling in the direction that the beams were meant to go "I should have your requests completed fairly quickly. If anything else comes to mind, simply let me know..."

"Will do." nodded Anton as he stepped away from the homunculus.

Without another word, Earlivi walked to the very center of the dungeon and began to lift the closest pieces of furniture with his coattail tentacles. As he brought several pieces in close to himself he opened another portal, this one much larger than the one he had made earlier, and began to move the furniture into the portal and out of the room.

Walking backwards, Anton moved towards the entrance to the dungeon and stood with the dark elves as they all silently watched the homunculus go about his task.

Feeling a faint tug, Anton glanced to his side and found that Kianna had not only moved in close to him but had taken hold of the hem of his shirt. The dark elf was standing at his side but was still far enough behind him that she had to lean around him to clearly see the homunculus. Her large eyes darted to his for a single second before shifting back to Earlivi. Though her glance had been very quick, she still flattened her ears when her eyes met his and lifted them back up to a mere lowered state when facing the homunculus. Intrigued, Anton turned to his other side and found that Fiona had moved closer to him as well. Just like her sister, she too flattened her ears when her eyes met his but raised them back up to a pointed straight back stance when facing Earlivi.

Anton couldn't help but to find this little scenario fascinating. It was quite obvious by the quickness of their acts that both Kianna and Fiona were preforming their little submission displays subconsciously.

Earlivi clearly had them both in a state of unease, and this high level of nervousness seemed to be enough to instinctively trigger these responses in them. Interestingly though, despite the homunculus being the cause of their fearful state, the dark elves did not seem to consider it necessary to "hide" their ears from him. They were afraid of him, and that fact was undeniably clear. But fear alone did not seem to be enough to initiate a submissive response in them. And thinking back on it, raw fear hadn't actually played the primary role in either one of the dark elves original displays of submission as much as desperation had.

When they had first preformed this gesture for Anton, both Kianna and Fiona had each done so as a conscious decision. They had both been fully aware of what they were doing when they had chosen to submit, and Anton had known right away that this decision had been a very significant one for them. And he was now beginning to understand why this was the case, as this action seemed to have had a much deeper mental effect on them than he had first realized.

It appeared that in their minds, the dark elves had either applied a sort of mental tag to Anton, or had placed him in a type of category, one that he obviously did not share with Earlivi, and now without them having to even think about it consciously, it was seemingly recognized that under certain stressful or threatening conditions their message of submission should be reaffirmed. And whether or not Anton himself was the cause of these conditions seemed to be completely irrelevant to them, as they would still submit to him, and possibly anyone else they had preformed this gesture to, regardless of where the threat to them actually came from.

This behavior was apparently a form of dark elf etiquette. And considering both Kianna and Fiona have had such little interaction with their own kind throughout their lives, and have never been influenced by, or even experienced their species culture, it was safe to assume that no one had ever actually taught them to behave this way. As such, it stood to reason that this behavior was purely instinctual, and this seemed especially likely as the two dark elves in question did not seem to be consciously aware of the fact that they were even behaving in this way at all.

It was of course possible for Anton to simply ask them why they were doing what they were doing, but he was hesitant to bring it up to them as doing so would make the dark elves aware of the fact that he was observing them, and that awareness might effect this behavior.

As it was now, the dark elves were behaving naturally. And this meant that he was able to intimately observe candid, purely natural dark elf behavior in a way that he would have never been able to before.

Due to their naturally ingrained immunity to enslavement, no known example of a dark elf had ever officially been kept as a captive slave before. And as such no full scale study of their behavior had ever been done, or at least not from a source outside of their own species. So as the first of their kind to live as captives, these twin sisters offered an excellent opportunity for observation. And this was an opportunity that Anton did intend to take full advantage of.

"Interesting little dark elves..." whispered Anton to himself as he looked from one dark elf to the other and smiled "I just might write a book about you!"