Monstrous Lovers Ch. 02

My eyes about bugged out of my head. "What are you doing?" I whisper hissed at the holstaur woman as she held a small glass against her nipple.

"Fixing a mistake," she said, her voice tinged with a fair amount of sadness.

"I'm not going to stand here and watch you poison her, clearing up witnesses," I said with confidence I did not feel, fully prepared to get my ass kicked.

She looked at me like I was crazy, her tail swishing lazily behind her before she barked a single laugh. "Silly boy. I meant that when she got the drop on me I hit her in the head a good deal harder than I intended. Girly's fast when she wants to be. I am making sure that she won't have any lingering effects by helping her heal. That's what I mean by fixing my mistake." She sighed and looked weary. "Look. We didn't get off on the right foot either. It has been a hell of a month. I don't mean you any harm."

I snorted. "Sure didn't seem like that when you had me dangling from my neck in the supply closet."

She frowned at my interjection and continued. "I recently had a talk with my patron and she dressed me down for my recent actions. Which I'll admit were deserved. I'm removing my portion of the punishment from the quest. It's not right me threatening you the way I did." While she talked she massaged the full span of her bountiful breasts, slowly working her way down to the tip, drops of a milky green liquid spilling in a spattering of droplets into the cup. "I would love if you could help me get my wings back, but I refuse to be the type of person that works in that sort of way. Intimidation and coercion. It reminds me of Rinlith." She shuddered at the name. Working her nipple, she drew forth the mystery liquid and filled the glass half full before sheathing her weapon of mass seduction. "On top of the potential head injury, I fear she has some lingering memory loss from the forget-me-not potion I plied her with after I struck her."

I slowly relaxed at her seeming sincerity. "She does," I admitted. "She can't remember the details quest she was sent on, which I think you were the target. It's caused her some serious turmoil."

"Just another thing I'll have to atone for I guess." She knelt once more, and tilted Gwen's head back so she could pour the potion in.

What do you think Eve? Should we trust her?

"I say we let bygones be bygones. She seems to be operating on the level now and she's much less tense than she was. I bet she got some sweet tongue nooky from her goddess and that calmed her right down."

It was my turn to shiver at the recollection of the shared memory I'd seen in our soul gaze.

Once she got a taste, Gwen sat up and reached for the glass, gulping down the fluid as rapidly as she could get it down her throat.

"Hi?" Gwen said with a mix of wariness and confusion upon seeing me and Roslyte staring at her so intently. She yawned a feline yawn, fangs exposed and tongue curling out of her mouth before she smacked her lips.

"How do you feel?" I asked, cautiously examining her for anything out of the ordinary.

She flexed her muscles, rolling her shoulders around before suddenly doing a kick up, throwing her feet up and flexing her back to pop herself off the ground directly onto her feet. "Great. Why do you ask?"

"Roslyte gave you a healing potion, hoping to help with you with your memory problem. It's possible she might be able to help you find your missing alchemist. She seems quite proficient with mind altering drugs," I said, giving Roslyte a significant look. She had the grace to look sheepish.

"That would be amazing, but what are..." Whatever question Roslyte and I observed the moment that the potion completed its job, the pieces falling into place as understanding clicked in her brain. "You. I need your help." Gwen rushed Roslyte while pleading, grabbing her hands and holding them in the space between them. Roslyte was unsettled by the manticore's earnestness and invasion of private space, her tail whipping the air regularly. "Please come with me to Chesterfield and help save the qu-... my friends mother.

"I don't know if that's the best idea," Roslyte said, gently peeling her hands free.

Gwen wilted. "Why not?"

The succubus holstaur seemed unusually timid and awkward for a demigoddess. "I've... There's... A figure from my past has been chasing after me rather relentlessly and I hate it when innocents get caught in the crossfire. That's actually who I thought you were the day you first found me. I'm sorry for hitting you the way I did."

"That's no matter. If you come with me I could protect you from your stalker," Gwen said with resolute determination.

Roslyte laughed, a sad little sound. "I don't think so. She'd be a little out of your price range, honey."

Gwen bristled, her pride rearing up, making its presence known. "I'm a knight of the White Lotus, thank you very much. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself." They stared at each other for a long stretch of awkward silence, apparently at an impasse.

I decided to try my hand at the role of mediator. "Is there any way you can both get what you want?"

Two sets of eyes, both hot with different emotions turned on me.

Yikes.

"All I'm saying is that I don't think that Roslytes skill is exactly that of a standard alchemist. If you know what's poisoning the queen, do you think you could synthesize an antidote?" I asked Roslyte.

"The queen is poisoned?" Roslyte said at the same time that Gwen hissed an angry, "That was confidential!"

Roslyte then processed the rest of my words, blinking at me slowly. "Probably," she admitted, shaking her head with a rueful smile. "From the mouths of babes," she muttered.

"Wait... What?" Gwen asked, her admonishment of me derailed by Roslytes response, brilliant pools of hopeful sunshine filling her eyes.

"Yes, all I need to know is the race, age range, and poison used on my vict-... patients. Oh. And the method of poisoning." She paused and read my confusion. "Airborne, drink, food."

I nodded in understanding.

"Really?" Gwen's excitement overwhelmed her body, making her bounce on the pads of her feet. "She's a phoenix mage. Age one hundred and forty three years, seven months and three days. She was poisoned with extract of cockatrice applied to a dagger that cut her arm."

Roslyte nodded as she took in the data. "And how far has the petrification progressed?"

"Almost her entire upper arm, from shoulder to elbow, as of two weeks ago."

The holstaur scratched her arm, deep in thought as she crunched the formulae calculations. She bobbed her head twice. "Seem easy," she said, coming to a favorable conclusion. "With that antidote I don't even need to be careful about doses as its benign."

Gwen whooped for joy and swept the hostaur up into a hug before releasing her and doing the same to me. "I knew you were good luck," she crowed joyfully.

Roslyte had an amused smile on her face as she unholstered her breast, it's plump weight sagging firmly into her palm. I was grateful when Gwen released me, an erection beginning press against my clothing. With nearly identical motions as before, Roslyte massaged her breast, convincing her body to lactate the antidote into a glass vial she produced from some unknown pocket dimension. Deftly stoppering the first, she began filling up a second with a pinkish lavender colored fluid.

Gwen accepted them both reverently. "Two?"

Roslyte nodded. "I've always found it's best in cases like this to have a spare at hand in the event that something unfortunate happens."

"Thank you so much for this. The both of you. I'll return with mine and the queen's gratitude I'm sure," she shouted back over her shoulder as she sprinted away. Bemused, we watched her eat up the distance back towards town, her red arms pumping as her tail counterbalanced the rapid pace of her legs.

"She's certainly something," Roslyte said, unfortunately pulling her straps back over her shoulders, covering her bared flesh.

"That she is," I agreed, sad to see the last bits of her bared nipples were covered. We started walking and I looked her from the corner of my eye. I debated whether or not to say it but decided to throw caution to the wind. "That was a nice thing you did for her."

"It was the right thing to do," she stated, like that explained everything.

"I like this version of you much better than the wrathful demigoddess version."

She snorted. "Me too. It wears on you after awhile, being chased that is, slowly chipping away at your sanity until you're nothing but a frayed thread of paranoia."

"Want to talk about it?" I offered without any pressure.

"Not right now. It's a strange feeling traveling with someone who knows what I am," she said ruefully.

"Good or bad?" I asked with a faint note of teasing.

"Jury is still out on that." She chuckled, and the tension between us eased.

"Something you said to Gwen struck me a little funny," I said, pausing as I formulated the words.

"What?"

"Just let me get this straight, you don't feel right traveling with her to the capital for fear of her safety?"

"Ahhhh..." she said, beginning to understand where I was going with this.

"But it's okay to travel with me? I mean..." I bared my teeth and flexed my muscles dramatically. "I know I'm a rippling specimen, with tremendous thews, yet I don't think I rank up there with a knight of the realm... yet."

"You are correct that you do not possess the combat prowess of the exuberant manticore, but you are forgetting one small fact. You offered me a quest and I accepted."

"Under duress," I argued.

"Semantics. Have a little faith in yourself, you seem to be a resourceful sort of guy. Besides, my goddess has assured me that you actually do have a chance of giving me back my wings."

My eyes widened in surprise at this nugget. "Why can't Sayrinsen get you some new wings? She seemed fairly proficient with transformations in that vision."

"The gods of this realm are... limited in the amount and types of control they can exert on this realm. While my lady is quite talented, she dare not push the boundaries overmuch."

"Ask her if she got some goddess booty when she disappeared?" Eve butted in unhelpfully.

"That's why they tend to work through intermediaries and followers. It allows them to be more... liberal in their influence, skirting Ilum's and Elum's laws as long as they are discrete."

"And she told you this while you were... doing what?" I asked as innocently as I could, my curiosity equal to Eve's concerning Roslytes rendezvous with her goddess.

"Oh, she was performing anilingus on me. It was much needed stress relief."

"What?" I asked, surprised by her forthrightness. I was unfamiliar with the term but able to suss out the meaning by breaking down the word.

"Anilingus. She sexually stimulated my anus using her tongue and lips. Do you not know what that is? I could show you if you like. It's part of my duties to Sayrinsen to enlighten those who've been sexually neglected."

"She's a demigoddess under the purview of a goddess of sex. Did you think she'd be shy about regaling you with her sexual adventures?" Eve laughed at me.

"No thank you. I've just never heard it called anilingus before, I've previously only heard it referred to as a rimjob." I blushed scarlet at the ease with which Roslyte was able to talk about such private taboo topics.

"Are you sure? I've been told my tongue is quite talented," she said letting her tongue dangle from her mouth and tickle the valley between her breasts.

Staring and mentally salivating, I'm sure I looked like an idiot before I shook myself free from the arousal. "No thank you," I said dryly, my throat suddenly parched.

She shrugged her shoulders. "Your loss."

Walking on the path to the cemetery, I felt oddly comfortable with the succubus holstaur woman considering our unfortunate meeting. She paused, much in the same way Gwenylin had right before the Jinko attack. Instantly on high alert, my eyes darted around, searching for any threat.

"If you are feeling particularly adventurous there is a chaos portal fifty feet in that direction," she said, pointing toward a meadow off the side of the path.

"Chaos portal?"

"Just take a look if your interested."

I approached the portal with a fair amount of trepidation, its pulsating irregular shape somehow both pleasing a repulsive. The idea made my brain want to walk out of my head and go take a vacation. Eyeing it speculatively I asked Roslyte, "So I... What? Just stick my arm in there?" Somehow the rift looked hungry. And that didn't sit well we me.

"If you like. No one is making you do this," she stated simply.

"Why don't you want to do this?" I questioned suspiciously.

"The portal scales dynamically based on the class of the person attempting to use it. So while the potential rewards are greater for me, so is the danger and I don't feel like taking the risk. You, however, should be fine," she said with an unconcerned tone.

Too unconcerned. It feels like she's mentally breaking out the popcorn and just waiting for the show to begin.

"It's not gonna like... eat my arm or something?" Was that I tongue I just saw in the depths. There. I'm sure that was an eyeball.

"I've never seen that happen before. But it's not outside the realm of possibility. Nothing is outside the realm of possibility with a chaos portal. It's sort of in the name, it's chaotic."

"Nut up and stick your hand into the interplanar throat. We both know that's what's going to happen so hurry up and get on with the show," Eve said with entirely too much enthusiasm. She placed the cherry on the sunday as she played an audio bite of popcorn crunching.

Rolling my eyes, I squared my shoulders to face the interdimensional alien maw. Turning my head away I shoved my closed fist through the portal, mentally screaming the entire time.

Huh? It feels like warm jello mixed with tapioca pudding. Located in the middle of a venn diagram of solid and liquid materials. Curiosity forced me to pop open an eyelid as I glanced at it with apprehension. The portal had formed into a solid green color like that of the inside of a kiwi.

Wait a second?... Did it just wriggle?

The sensation happened again and I couldn't withdraw my hand fast enough. The portal collapsed with an amplified pop of a bubble bursting and vanished. My arm was fortunate enough to be still attached to my body but was unfortunately covered with a goopy viscous liquid a consistency that I imagined to be similar to that of a colony of snails.

"A protozoan familiar, not bad. It's no crown of dragons but still not a bad haul."

"Crown of what now? Does it let you control dragons? Because that would be awesome," grateful for the distraction from what was currently covering my arm. I tried in vain to shake the material free.

"No. That would be less powerful than the actual artifact. The crown is literally composed of tiny mechanical dragons that come together on a silver circlet to form the crown. While wearing the circlet the user can control the tiny little fire breathing pests to do whatever he or she wants. You however, should pay more attention to what's happening to your familiar there, because rumor has it what's next is... unpleasant."

While I was distracted, the goo had coalesced into a single sphere about the size of a baseball and was chilling there on my arm, bobbing up and down. It quivered faster and faster while I reached for it, attempting to pry it from my flesh.

Zoom.

The damn thing took off like a snail under the effect of the speed force, zipping around my body. Somehow it slid across my flesh like my clothing wasn't there, evading all my attempts to capture it.

Doesn't sound too bad, right?

Wrong.

The damn thing tickled worse than anything I'd ever felt in my life, the laughter forced from my quickly aching gut like terrible wracking sobs, impeding breathing and hindering my feeble efforts to contain the damn thing. In short order, I ran out of oxygen and fell to the ground the annoying little thing kept zooming around. Eventually the thing wore itself out or completed it's mapping of my body, slowing its movement speed before eventually stopping on my chest. Glaring at the green globule, I tried to slap at it, my body not cooperating, my arms flopped weakly. The small alien creature then began approaching my face.

"Open wide for the choo choo, Boss."

I tried, unsuccessfully, to turn my head away. The blob tumbled into my mouth like a jello shot and I had cause to be grateful of my liquid breathing as it tumbled into my throat. It was similar to the consumption of a thin long oyster that wriggled down my throat.

I gagged.

Safe to say that's an experience I do not want to try again.

My insided felt a little funny, the blob exploring my insides in a similar manner as my outsides, this time without the tickling. After a short period of time, my skin began to vibrate and I began to uncontrollably sweat.

"What's happening?" I asked worriedly.

"It is my understanding that after the protozoa has bonded it will then produce its first incarnation by modifying the bodies sweat glands. See," she said, pointing at a slight green discoloration that was covering my arms. "There it is." After a moment of extreme discomfort that made me wish for a nearby shower or bath, the orb coalesced into a single blob again that bobbed happily on my shoulder. This time when I reached for it, it let me pick it up. It wobbled in my hand like a water balloon filled with jello, deforming when I squeezed it. Releasing all of my frustration in a single roar, I heaved the thing as far from me as I could.

"You know it can't really think or feel right? The possibility of punishing or hurting it is quite impossible Boss."

It made me feel better okay, I thought at Eve sullenly. And it did, with a final parting sigh, my anger and discomfort faded, no longer feeling like I was covered in a thin layer of detritus.

Roslyte gestured to me and we continued walking in the direction of the cemetery, leaving my 'familiar' behind. After maybe a minute, my skin shivered and the small creature reformed, with a lot less unpleasantness, bouncing as happy as could be on my shoulder. Picking it up again, I looked at it more closely this time.

Protozoan Familiar - Class: Lesser - Status: Bonded

"What else do you know about protozoan familiars?" I asked Roslyte, plopping the green ball of orb on the top of my head.

"They have the ability to evolve and grow if you feed them the essence of different beings."

Taking it off my head and gripping it in both hands, I stretched it into a wobbly transparent green plane. "Essence?"

"Sexual fluids, cum, lubrication, things of that nature."

"Huh. That might be a little weird mopping up the aftermath of an encounter." I assumed a falsetto voice, "Don't worry honey, just give me as second, I need to shove this gooey creature into your snatch. What do you mean is it safe? Of course it's safe. Just look at it." I wobbled the creature in my palm suggestively, making Roslyte snort.

"I've seen and heard of much stranger affairs and predilections," she said as I attached the sticky orb to the center of my chest.

"Look. I'm captain blob. Here to... I don't actually know. What good is this thing anyway?"

"It can be used as a trap to immobilize an opponent. Just throw it at the ground and I'll show you."

Following her direction I flung the orb at the gravel road. It hit the ground and immediately flattened into a two foot diameter pool of goo. Roslyte placed her hoof onto the goo and it closed on her limb like a bear trap.