//This is my first story, and it shows. Please withhold judgement till you have seen some of my later stories.
 
//Tags: happy ending, werewolf, zombie, arachne, magic, complex, lewd, mindbreak, torture, glass cannon main character, longer story, adventure, high fantasy setting
 
Geomancer
 
 
 
Magic is integral to this story, and I gotta explain this shit. Here is how it works. It has 4 parts:
 
>Short Version
Charge – Battery
Verbal – Magic Words
Somatic – Body Movements
Focus – Wand or Staff
 
>Long Version
Charge – Mages pull mana into themselves from the surrounding elements. It takes a few seconds under normal conditions. The more powerful the mage the more charge they can store. The more powerful the spell the more charge it drains. Think of this like the battery. Mages pull in mana from their respective medium (earth for a Geomancer), but can still pull mana in slowly even from nothing. Moving mana around like this is tiring; the more you move the sooner a mage needs to rest.
 
Verbal – A spells incantation. A precise arrangement of spoken syllables that shape a spell. They must be spoken out loud, but they dont necessarily have to be heard. This defines the main attributes of a spell and is generally fairly static other than the occasional attribute like range, size or power, which can be dynamic. Magic has its own unique language, separate from the common tongue.
 
Somatic – Hand, wrist and body movements that shape a spell. This is where most of the fine tuning and flexibility of a spell comes in. This controls things like aiming, shape, or direction.
 
Focus – A wand or staff. Any object magically conductive enough to project a spell into the real world without burning up or melting, and generally (but not always) physically straight enough to fire the spell out in a tight beam. Think of this like an antenna. Spells cannot be cast without a focus. If a spells power is greater than what a focuses conductivity can tolerate, some of the excess spellpower is converted to heat. Too much heat will burn a casters hands, and eventually completely incinerate or melt the focus. More resistance = more heat. Mana can be passed into a focus from any part of a mages body, but requires direct physical contact. Focuses are generally made out of wood or metal, but can technically be made of anything. Mana can be projected from a focus even without a spell being cast, but the mana will do nothing unless it strikes an object inscribed with glyphs. This story concept is based on real world electrical resistance, or Ohms.
 
 
 
>You had finally graduated from the academy, a full fledged Geomancer (3rd class)
 
>Mastery of the earth and stone were at your command after many years of schooling.
 
>Years of schooling unfortunately paid for by a Stribek Mining Consortium
 
>Once you graduated they owned your ass, and they sent you on a mission no sane person would willingly accept: Set up a Nickel mine in the Shadelands and start sending shipments back home every month on the dot.
 
>The Shadelands are aptly named; a cursed land damned by the sun, abandoned by men, and the realm of all manner of terrible creatures, particularly the undead. The deeper areas near the center of the Shadelands literally have no sunlight; the best it gets is a murky twilight at high noon.
 
>Stribek sent out several survey teams into the region, and the few that returned said the area was rich in several ores, particularly nickel.
 
>They dont even have to pay for the land because the Shadelands fall outside of the jurisdiction of any recognized government. No taxes either.
 
>So the cheap bastards send people like you in; economic shock troops to line their pockets. Desperate students willing to do anything to escape poverty. You signed on the dotted line, and now its the mines or debtor's prison for you.
 
>The road you are on is a winding dirt path about ten feet across. It seems to follow a nearby stream, a natural way to cut through the mountainous terrain.
 
>You have to make it to the mining site before the end of the first month or you will miss your resupply window via the Harpy Express. Fortunately its only a week or so's walk away, so you should make this easy.
 
>You wish the Harpy Express could drop you off, but they stopped accepting male passengers after an incident where the delivery harpies abducted their clients. Something about a ring and Mount Doom; you aren’t familiar with the details. They are strictly cargo only now.
 
>As you move deeper into the Shadelands you notice the land itself seems to be half dead. Trees don’t look as healthy, the grass doesn’t grow as full, there is a slight sickly sweet smell of decay on the air.
 
>The first few days pass largely uneventfully. You are somewhat worried by the sounds of howls in the distance, but they always seem far off.
 
>The vegetation is a smattering of sickly looking deciduous trees and the occasional shrub. Vines and ivy seem to be common here.
 
>Every night a thick fog rolls in, cutting visibility to maybe 30 feet and chilling you to your bones.
 
>You can see why people dont come here unless they have too.
 
>You havent seen another person in days, not since the Brightwall.
 
>Every night the howls seem to be getting closer to your campsite.
 
>It could be your imagination, but they sound vaguely feminine to your ears. Werewolves? This is certainly the country for them.
 
>The 5th night is the night of the full moon: monster go-time. You made god damn certain to bring a lunar calender on this trip. You plant your feet by the side of the road, raise your Wizard Staff in the air (basically a nice, straight stick) and utter the incantations necessary to dig yourself a fox-hole.
 
>Hopefully the walls of your makeshift shelter will hide the light from your campfire from prying eyes, not that it would matter much with all this fog.
 
>You fall asleep decked out in full battle-rattle, clutching your staff to your chest.
 
>Howls wake you up in the middle of the night. Loud howls, very close to you. Less than a hundred feet away you would guess.
 
>With shaking hands you quickly douse the campfire with your canteen and peer over the walls of your fox-hole. You quickly plant the tip of your staff into the soil, drawing geologic energy into yourself.
 
>A howl comes again, this time much closer still. You cant see anything with all the fog in the way.
 
>Other howls sound out all around you in response, you are surrounded.
 
>Are they toying with you? Trying to get you to run?
 
>You have a pretty good magic charge going now, it feels like mud is flying through your veins with each beat of your racing heart. You arent going to run. You have the strength of the land itself on your side.
 
>You think you can start to see something through the swirling mists around you. Small glowing specks reflecting moonlight back at you. Oh god, you are looking at eyes. Lots and lots of eyes.
 
>They are definitely werewolves, you can make out their outlines as they saunter closer to you.
 
>They dont appear to be in a hurry. Judging from their grins and leering expressions they seem to be enjoying the hunt.
 
>Every direction you look you see more of them. There has to be at least 12 wolves out there.
 
>Fucking werewolves, 12 on 1 odds is bullshit, you think to yourself.
 
>”You are pretty brave to come this far out all by yourself, human.”
>One of the wolves is addressing you. She seems to be a little bigger than the rest, certainly a lot closer.
Maybe she is the alpha wolf? She is platinum blond with her hair pulled behind her in a thick braid. Her body is very fit, lean and muscular. No real breasts to speak of, an A-cup at best. You would estimate her to be around 6 feet tall. Like all monsters, she is supernaturally beautiful. Silvery fur covers her wrists and lower legs. Her hands are shaped like a humans, but are furry and end in wicked looking claws. A fluffy, silvery tail juts out where the tailbone would be in a human. She is completely naked, and looks flushed with controlled excitement.
 
>”I-Im just passing through, I don’t want no trouble.” You say with a voice that sounded a lot less brave than you intended it to.
 
>She continues sauntering around your foxhole slowly in a circle, you keep turning to face her as she keeps passing out of your field of view. It occurs to you that this foxhole is highly inadequate defense against a melee opponent.
 
>”Did you know wolves can smell fear, human?” The alpha says as she paces the edge of your foxhole, eying you suggestively.
 
>The rest of the pack snickers to themselves, implying that you reek of terror.
 
>”There is no need to be afraid, we will make sure you are well taken care of” The alpha says with a lecherous grin.
 
>It occurs to you that if you don’t wish to be gang-raped and most likely enslaved, you should probably start throwing some mana around before they get too frisky. If one of them tackles you before you get a spell off you wont be able to complete the somatics (body movements) necessary for casting.
 
>You hold your staff parallel with the horizon with your right hand and begin muttering the incantation for Stone Fist under your breath.
 
>The alpha looks slightly perplexed at your actions; it occurs to you she probably hasn’t realized you are a caster yet.
 
>Big mistake on her part, you think as you set the range for the mathimagical equivalent of 7 feet. The instant the verbal component is done you thrust your left hand up under your staff with your hand open. At the same time a gigantic stone hand slams out of the earth behind the wolf, mimicking your movements. You quickly grab the alpha with your pseudo-fist and close your fingers tight. She lets out a yelp as she is hauled into the air by the gigantic rocky fist.
 
>The other wolves, farther back, quickly dart backwards at this unexpected turn of events. You guess they weren’t expecting much of a fight.
 
>You break the spell by rotating your staff back into a normal position, de-animating the stone fist and freeing you left hand for other tasks. The alpha remains trapped in its frozen, rocky grasp.
 
>Full on shouting now, you quickly bellow out the incantation for Stone Spikes, slamming your staff's tip down on the ground and capping the other end with your left hand to project the spell out as a torus instead of a beam.
 
>The ground erupts everywhere with lances of jagged earth, some needle sharp, others more like thick spears. You hear pained yelps and chaos as the wolves shout at each other attempting to coordinate.
 
>You quickly snatch up a handful of gravel with your left hand as you smoothly transition to casting Pebble to Bolder. You hurl the gravel out in a spray at the first girl you see just as you finish the cast, the stones enlarging in mid-flight.
 
>A little before the stones strike your target some other wolf has lept from the edge of your foxhole into your back, knocking you off balance and disrupting your staffs point of aim. The spell ends up more like Pebble to Bowling Ball, but the effect is still devastating as the giant high speed rocks slam your target backwards into one of the stone spears jutting out everywhere.
 
>The girl who jumped in behind you has ahold of the end of your staff now, the expression on her face  grim and fearful. She probably thinks you are going to turn her into a newt or something. Silly bitch, im a Geomancer, not a Trasmogrifer.
 
>The staff is useless if you cant move it freely, so you immediately let go and reach for the trench-wand strapped upside down in your shoulder holster.
 
>You reach your fingers of your right hand through the brass-knuckles style grip and pull it free, feeling like the worlds biggest badass.
 
>You immediately punch the wolf girl square in her jaw using the knuckles, but the blow has almost no effect on her sturdy frame. She grabs your right arm and is trying to wrestle you to the ground now. You feel significantly less badass now. You don’t know why you thought you could out-strength a monster, that was a dumb idea.
 
>You shove her off as best you can while casting Quagmire with your left hand, then begin violently shaking your wand back and fourth in your right hand to try and spread out the effect. It hits maybe a 240 degree arc between your arm movements and wrist flicking.
 
>The ground begins to turn into quicksand in front of you, and you leap forward shouldering the girl into the engulfing brew. She is now full on panicking as she begins to face the very real threat of being buried alive. This has the unintended effect of her grabbing your right arm even harder, pulling you into the quicksand yourself.
 
>You take a deep breath as you begin to slip under the mud and cast the somatics for Earth Wave with your still free left hand, your wand of course still aiming point blank into the girls chest with your right hand.
 
>Casting underwater (or under quicksand in this case) works pretty much the same way as dry land; it doesn’t matter if the sound can't transmit worth a damn as long as the sound is uttered.
 
>A huge wave of force slams into her as you get the spell off, hitting her hard enough to break bones. She very nearly tears your right arm out of its socket as she is torn free of you. Earth Wave was designed to collapse buildings above ground, buildings that weren’t even fully submerged in earth like she was. You might feel more sorry for her, but you are about to drown to death in your own quicksand.
 
>You quickly point your trench-wand right in front of you and cast Wall of Stone with the last of your breath, molding it into a bubble around yourself. The bubble of solid rock forms an air pocket as it expands around you, leaving you in a little dry coffin-like space who knows how far underground.
 
>God damn, that shit was nuts. You had never been in a wizard duel before today; you aren’t a warmage after all. I bet those wolves never expected that shit to happen. You wonder if you killed any of them. That werewolf you shouldered into the quicksand and then blasted almost certainly died. This seems like something that should bother you more than it does. You rationalize that if they hadn’t got all rapey you would have never even seen them, let alone attacked them. You actually feel like gods gift to battle: like some kind of ass kicking paladin of justice straight out of the stories. Fuck those fucking werewolves.
 
>Being buried alive is a lot less dangerous to a well equipped Geomancer than a normal person. You actually find it kind of comfortable down here. You decide to wait underground until morning, and create a small air shaft to the surface so you can breathe down here. You lay back on the stone and drift off, humming an old battle hymn you heard once.
 
---- Day 6 ----
 
>You wake up after a fitful night of shivering. Its god damn cold underground and your bedroll is still up on the surface. You have no idea what time it is, but almost certainly daylight hours judging from your circadian rhythm. You wave your trench-wand about and widen your breathing hole out to something big enough to crawl through, then wiggle your way back to the surface.
 
>Up on the surface it is indeed morning. The fog has receded and you can now see your battlefield clearly. It looks like the end of the world. Broken spears of jagged rock are everywhere. Trees are toppled from losing their grounding during your quicksand. Part of the roiling earth spilled down into your foxhole. And of course your monolithic stone fist is still jutting out from the ground. And the alpha wolf is still stuck in its fingers suspended about 10 feet in the air, you notice with a grin.
 
>You mosey back over to your foxhole and begin digging around looking for your pack and staff. The wolf  girl trapped in the fingers of the stone hand has noticed and is watching you while struggling to get free. You glance up at her, and you make eye contact. “Good morning.” She says curtly, looking away with a blush and an awkward expression, ceasing her struggling.
 
>You stare at her a moment, giving her the smuggest smirk a human face can form and go back to digging for your stuff. Your bedroll was only half buried, so you know the rest can't have gone too far.
 
>”I’m really sorry about last night” She says looking down at you. You don’t say anything back to your attempted rapist and keep digging. “You know how our kind gets on those full moons; it's especially bad for us werewolves.”
 
>You find the shoulder strap of your pack and haul it out. It doesn’t look damaged, just a little sandy is all. “It just gets so lonely out here, you know?” She says. You look up at her again. It looks like her night was even more uncomfortable than yours. She looks cold and miserable, shivering in the crisp morning air. It doesn’t look like a blanket of chilly stone worked any better for her than for you. Not so tough now without your pack, or, you know, freedom of movement, you think. She actually looks like she would be pretty cuddly, your feeling pretty cold yourself. The morning sun makes her look a lot less menacing now that she isn’t trying to gang-rape you. You are starting to get a bit of a stiffy just looking at her, and you blush and look away. “You don’t say much, do you.” She says. No, you generally do not, you think to yourself.
 
>You get sick of digging with your hands, pull out your trench-wand and begin muttering incantations. The ground begins sifting up and into the air to form a growing pile up just outside your foxhole. While you cant move your staff in this way, you can slowly uncover it as the dirt burying it moves out of the way.
 
>”That’s a pretty neat trick you’ve got there.” She says as this is the first time she has seen you do magic outside of combat. You lift your staff up out of its grave, brushing off dirt and sand. “I have to admit, I really didn’t see that one coming. I thought you were going to be ours for sure.”
 
>Re-holstering your trench-wand, you raise up your staff and begin undoing some of the damage you did to the landscape last night. It's considered “bad form” in the wizarding community to leave an area looking like the blasted lands. The stone spears recede back into the earth. The sandy areas from the quagmire become more dirtlike. You fill your worthless foxhole back in; fat lot of good that did you. There isn’t much you can do about the trees; you aren’t a botanomancer, or arbolomancer or whatever. Deal with it. They'll grow back eventually. Finally all that's left is the stone fist that houses your prisoner.
 
>You walk back around to the front of the fist, where your foxhole was last night and look up at the werewolf in its clutches. “I could be your guide, you know. Take you where you want to go. I know this place pretty well.” She says. You drop your pack on the ground and pull out some beef jerky, and begin gnawing on it while staring at her silently.
 
>”There are much worse things in the Shadelands than me.” She says. She looks at you with a kind of desperation. Like there is a longing in her eyes. You do not doubt her words, but that fact still doesn’t make her good. “I could spread my scent on you, so other monsters will leave you alone” Images of her rubbing that fluffy silver tail all over you spring to mind, and you feel a stirring in your pants.  Her tail has begun to wag, poking out from between two of the stone fingers. Can she sense your reaction? You aren’t sure and her face isn’t giving anything away. “We don’t even have to make love if you don’t want to, just take me with you.” She has a fierceness in her voice that’s hard to ignore.
 
>Finishing your stick of jerky, you realize that you still haven’t taken your morning piss. You unzip and being urinating on the ground right in front of her, still staring her straight in the eye. Looking away, she pulls the strangest, most awkward face you think you’ve ever seen on someone in your life. You are trying hard not to laugh. Even you think this is weird, but seriously, fuck werewolves.
 
>You zip back up, shoulder your pack, and start off back down the road again. She sees you leaving, and tries to turn her head to face you, but of course she is stuck fast. “You can't just leave me here! Ill die!” She yells. You're not sure what kind of shit-tier pack mates don’t come back with pickaxes and free their friend, but you guess the company she keeps is her business.
 
>You could free her, but then you would have a cold, hungry werewolf on your hands that you would have to deal with. You could leave her there, but then she could die of exposure or thirst. You considered carving some kind of time delay release into the wrist of the stone hand, but that's a lot of trouble to go to for a monster. Especially a monster who just tried to enslave you not 6 hours ago.
 
>You feel bad about leaving her there as you slowly trudge away from her, but you are pretty sure her friends will come back and rescue her. And if they don’t, she is still only a monster, after all.
 
>You begin to walk around a corner in the road. She is pretty far from you now, several hundred feet. ”PLEASE! I DON'T WANT NO TROUBLE!” You hear her scream, mimicking the only words you have said to her. Your heart breaks. God dammit. You stop walking, and slowly turn around, looking back at her in the distance. Still trapped in the monolith you created. She cannot see you as you are too far behind her now, and she can't turn around. She is openly sobbing now, great big heaves wracking her chest as she bawls her heart out into the stone. She struggles violently to get free again, kicking her legs and squirming her torso around but its no use. She continues sobbing into the giant stone thumb near her head.
 
>You begin walking back to her. She continues to cry until your footsteps start to come back within earshot, and she quickly tries to wipe her tears on the stone and attempts to act tough. She still can't turn around to see you, but she tries her very hardest.
 
>Finally you come back around in front of her, back where your foxhole used to be. “No trouble?” You say up at her. Her voice breaks with joy in a tear wracked laugh as she says “No trouble.” back down to you. Tears are still running down her face, but you are pretty sure they are tears of happiness. Her tail is wagging violently, wapping against the stone.
 
>You again raise your staff so that its parallel with the horizon, uttering the incantation to re-animate the stone. This time your left hand is already past the staff and approximating the position of the giant stone hand. As the spell completes the stone moves again, seeming to come to life, and perfectly mimicking the movements of your actual left hand. You gently lower the hand back to the ground, still clutching her. As her feet touch the earth you loosen your fingers, freeing her from her prison.  Your  hand slips back under the staff, and the stone hand slips under the earth, entirely dispelled.
 
>Now the two of you are just standing in an empty clearing by the side of a road, a couple of felled trees nearby the only sign anything interesting had ever happened here.
 
>You walk up to her and pull her into a big hug. She really looks like she needs one. She just sobs into your shoulder quietly for a minute. Her tail is very still.
 
>”I thought you were going to leave me.” She says. “That makes two of us.” You say back. Several seconds go by in silence. “So now what?” She says, looking up at you for the first time. “Now you guide me.” You say back to her. She brightens up considerably at this, and her tail begins wagging again.
 
>”I'm Anon.” you say. She tells you her name is Kate. Kate doesn’t sound like a very lupine name, but whatever. At least its easy to pronounce.
>You explain your purpose here, pulling out some charts. “A miner, huh?” She says, and reaches out and squeezes your left bicep. She looks mildly disappointed at the lack of bulging muscle. Did she think you swing a pickaxe all day? That sort of mining has been obsolete for decades. She saw you tear the earth asunder last night; you guess she hasn’t fully internalized what you are yet.
 
>You explain where you want to go, pointing to a circled area on the map, as well as pointing to where you are now. “That’s not where we are.” She says to you, respectfully attempting to conceal a knowing smile. She instead points further away, on an entirely different road. Now that you look at it, the twists in that other river on the map do seem awfully familiar. You are beginning to think taking her along is going to work out just fine.
 
>So you set off down the road again. You hand her a piece of beef jerky, realizing she hasn’t had breakfast yet. She wolfs it down in seconds, licking her chops with an inhumanly long tongue and looking at you expectantly for more. Fucking werewolves. Whats cute on a dog is decidedly less cute on a person. Actually, its still kind of cute. You hand her another stick of jerky. The thought crosses your mind that you are really going to have to ration your food if you want to make it a month with the two of you.
 
>As the road happens to wind near the stream you have been following, you stop to refill your canteen from the river. Kate gets down on all fours and begins lapping up stream water with her tongue. You get a pretty good look at her nether regions from this position; a firm reminder that she is still stark naked. You blush and look away. You aren’t sure if she is doing this on purpose or not. You fish around in your pack and pull out your winter parka, holding it out to her. She gives you a look like you just did something strange. Apparently she doesn’t wear clothes.
 
 >You continue down the road in silence for a while. Eventually you ask “So why didn’t your pack come back to free you?” She looks away, with a mildly hurt look on her face. “Ribby.” She says, like this one word answers all your questions. Seeing the look on your face, she continues with “Power struggles. I was the alpha wolf, our leader. Ribby has been trying to take over for a while now.” You assume Ribby is some other wolf. “This must have been a dream come true for her.” She says with a sigh. “Fucking werewolves.” This outburst surprises you. Do werewolves know what a shitty species they are? You presume its possible that even werewolves might not like other werewolves.
 
>”You don’t want to go back to your pack and put her in her place?” You ask. She thinks for a minute with a distant look in her eye. “Not really. Running with a pack is more like a matter of convenience than a family. There is a lot of infighting, a lot of drama. They help with hunts, and to defend against other monsters. A pack can cover a lot more ground and signal when they find prey.” She eyeballs you at the word prey, a faint smile on her face. You shift your pack uncomfortably. “Besides, a lot of game is too large for one wolf to eat anyway. A deer will start to go bad long before you can finish it.” “Economies of scale.” You say back to her. She gives you a curious look. You guess they don’t teach that kind of thing in wolf school. You start to explain the principles of mass production. She listens intently, but she isn’t saying much and you aren’t sure how much is getting through to her. You get the feeling she is mostly just humoring you, but you appreciate it anyway.
 
>The conversation starts to die off and you walk in silence together for a long time. Its about noon now. You have been pretty quiet most of this journey, partly because of the oppressive atmosphere and partly because you didn’t want to draw any monstrous attention down on you. Your companions presence has put you in high spirits though and your feeling boisterous. You soundly defeated your first group of enemies (you even captured their leader,) gained a companion, and you know exactly where you are going. Things are really looking up for you. You start to hum that old battle hymn once again. To your surprise, she joins in humming it right along with you. You wouldn’t think Kate would know a song like this. She starts to sing the words as you both get more into it. You start to sing along too. You are both grinning like idiots. You start to clap along to the beat to help maintain cadence. On the duet parts she starts to correct you, telling you to take the lower lyrics while she does the high ones. This is more advanced singing than you usually do, which is actually more like no singing at all. You are enjoying it immensely though. As the song reaches higher octaves she actually starts howling a little bit, and you start to crack up laughing. She does too and you guys end up finishing the song literally holding each other up you are laughing so hard.
 
>Once the song ends she still doesn’t let go of you. You are both walking down the road with your arms around each others torso, like a couple. You thought this would be awkward but its actually really nice. Very comforting somehow. It puts you at ease. She seems to be sniffing you occasionally. She has her head resting on your shoulder and every so often she rotates her head over and takes a big whiff of your chest. You guess its a wolf thing. She seems to like what she smells, at any rate. Her tail is slapping against your back something fierce.
 
>You walk this way for a long time. Its early in the evening now. That fog is just barely beginning to roll in again. You are going to have to think about setting up camp soon. Part of you doesn’t want this to end though. All of a sudden Kate's ears perk up and rotate off to right of the path. Her head follows a second later, like its trying to catch up to her ears. You look out there but don’t see anything unusual. Just more unhealthy looking trees and fallen autumn leaves. You think you can spot the river way off in the distance. Her entire body goes tense, and she lets go of your side.
 
>”What is it?” You ask. “Stay here.” She replies. You hate it when people clam up like that. It occurs to you that you yourself tend to clam up like that. She goes sprinting off into the woods. A few minutes go by. It's getting pretty dark now. The last rays of sunlight are just cresting the horizon. Then you hear a guttural screaming sound, like a dying animal. Was that Kate?! God fucking damn what the shit was that? Is Kate ok? You slam your staff into the path and begin drawing in power. You briefly consider going in after her. Another part of your mind tells you that anything that can defeat her is probably something you don’t want to face off against. A third part of your mind reminds you that you defeated her and you are hardly a warrior.
 
>You decide to remain where she left you. Your not brave enough for this bullshit. You think you can hear something coming towards you off in the darkness. The mist is getting heavier now, you cant see anything out there. You can hear the crunching of dried leaves as the sound gets closer. You are trying really hard not to panic. Your mind races trying to imagine what kind of nightmarish abomination you are about to do battle with. The sound stops for a few seconds, then all of a sudden its racing toward you much faster than before. Your eyes are bugging out of your head as you level your staff and prepare your mightiest destructive spell. All of a sudden Kate comes exploding out of the bushes landing right on top of you, knocking the staff from your hand as she pins you to the ground. She howls right in your face as loud as she can before the howl trails off into raucous laughter and she collapses on top of you. “You smell pretty scared there Anon. Did you think something was gonna get you?”
 
>Fucking werewolves. You just about shit your pants. “W-what was that all about?!” You exclaim. She gives you a quick kiss on the cheek. “Oh hey, I got us a deer” She says, pointing a clawed finger back where she came from. She rolls off of you and steps off the path for a second, coming back with a smallish deer carcass slung over her shoulders. It looks like its had its throat ripped out. I guess that explains that terrible screaming noise. It solves the rationing problem too. You feel kind of guilty about skipping lunch now.
 
>Still trying to get your heartbeat back to normal, you retrieve your staff and start to set up camp. You use your sorcery to etch a simple but geometrically perfect firepit into the landscape. Remembering the slain deer you add a large stovetop above it: parallel rods of stone turning it into a grill.
 
>Kate goes to work chopping up the deer. She just hooks her claws into one of its joints, and then rips that limb clean off. God damn. She looks over at you and notices your blanched expression. She frowns and turns her body away from you, her back blocking off the view of her grisly work as she continues to dismember the corpse. You fetch some salt from your pack and rub it into the meat. Kate says she hasn’t had salt like this in years. You guess civilization has its perks.
 
>You both sit around the fire watching the deer cook. Kate has a pensive look on her face. You notice her eyes are doing that reflective thing again with the firelight, its actually kind of creepy. Neither of you are saying anything. You rotate the deer parts every so often, trying not to burn them. Kate finally grabs a piece of meat, and juggling it between her mitts so she doesn't burn herself begins to chow down on it. She likes her meat rare, not really a surprise. She has a shocked expression on her face as she bites into it. “Thish ish reary goo!” She says from from her stuffed mouth. You knew she would like that salt. Salt is damn near magical. It makes every dish better, especially meat. She continues to chow down with alarming speed while you allow your portion to cook a while longer. This must be where the phrase “wolfing down food” comes from. There is enough deer to last several days; you aren’t that worried about not getting your share.
 
>Finally you tuck into your portion. It really is good; fresh venison is the best. People don’t realize how much their food has spoiled by the time they eat it in the cities.
 
>With a full belly and chilled night air sweeping over you, you feel yourself growing drowsy. You pull out your bedroll, pop off your shoes and crawl in. Laying back and looking up at the stars you suddenly  realize your companion has no bedroll of her own. The only item in her possession at all is a simple leather strip she uses to keep her braid from unraveling. You look over at her, and she is curled up on the ground watching you intently. Her fully erect ears betray her otherwise sleepy visage. Her fluffy tail covers most of her exposed human sections like a blanket.
 
>”Remember what I said about covering you with my scent?” She says, breaking the silence. “We can still do that.” She does look awfully cuddly over there. You don’t suppose any harm could come of this. Without the rest of her wolf pack she doesn’t pose much of a threat. Not that she couldn’t rape you, because she definitely could. She just wouldn’t be able to enslave you for any length of time. Sooner or later you are going to get your hands on a stick or branch, and then its lights out for her. Its hard to disarm you long term; magic is cool like that. Besides, you are starting to trust her.
 
>”Sure, why not.” you reply. Not wasting a second, she slinks over to you on all fours. She looks down at you for a moment, then dives into the sleeping bag with you. Its a bit of a tight squeeze in there with the two of you, but not too bad. She snuggles up tight against you, her tail stretching down your leg. She is every bit as cuddly as she looks. You run your fingers through the warm fur on her wrists and she lets out a contented sigh. She nuzzles her face into your neck, inhaling your scent again.
 
>She whispers to you as she drags her claws through your hair, the tips gently scratching your scalp. “You know, as alpha I got first pick of any men we happen to catch. We only share the men on the very first night. After that the alpha wolf can take you as her husband, or if she refuses the next wolf down in the pecking order, and so on until you are claimed.” She gently increases the pressure of her nails, swirling them around in a pair of circles through your hair. It feels so good your eyes glaze over. “I took over the pack not too long before we found you. You were the first man we caught under my watch.” She is now scratching vigorously up and down on your scalp, and you moan at the increase in  pleasurable sensations. She isn’t grinding her hips against you or anything lewd like that, she is simply being intensely affectionate. “I guess what I’m trying to say is: you were always going to become my husband. I knew it from the moment I first laid eyes on you. I love you Anon.” She sweetly kisses you on the cheek. Your last thought as you lose consciousness is that it would be very easy to fall in love with her too.
 
---- Day 7 ----
 
>You awaken to weak morning sunlight from a gray, cloudy sky. Kate is still fast asleep snuggled up on top of you. She looks like she is on cloud nine. You don’t think you have ever seen such a contented face on a person before. Looking down on her angelic perfection, you cant quite bear to wake her up just yet. You lean back and think about things as you gently run your fingers through her fur.
 
>Husband huh. Doing some quick mental math, you realize that from that first full moon attack on you, you have known her for a grand total of about 30 hours now. Monsters certainly don’t waste any time. It's not that you dislike her or anything, she is actually pretty great. Its just that 30 hours is not nearly enough time to make this kind of lifelong decision. Some small part of your mind reminds you she might just have fantastic front game, and this is all a very charming act. You have been tricked before.
 
>Speaking of charm, how did she know you like your head scratched? Are monsters just naturally intuitive like that? It kind of blew your mind when she did that. Thinking about it you feel an intense surge of warmth toward her. The Monster-Lord sure can build 'em. You can see why the human race is slowly dying out. So far she is blowing the human girls you've known completely out of the water. No contest, not even close. You idly wonder if this thought makes you some sort of traitor to your own kind.
 
>You start to feel her tail wagging against your legs. Looking down, you see Kate looking up at you with a big smile on her face. “Morning.” You say. She just gives you a quick kiss on the cheek again in response, beaming the whole time. You briskly run your hand back and fourth through her hair a few times, tussling her ears around a bit. She gives a bit of a gasp and her eyes go half lidded. You guess her ears are some kind of weak spot for her.
 
>You sort of want to stay and cuddle with her come more, but you are hungry and you’ve got miles ahead of you still. You climb out of your bedroll, making no effort to conceal your morning wood. You get breakfast going: some oats and dried fruit with more of that venison from last night. Kate wolfs hers down quickly, licking her chops with that long tongue again. That tongue is starting to look strangely alluring to you.
 
>As you pack up camp the final thing you do is pull your fancy firepit back into the earth, obliterating it. “Why don’t you just leave it there?” Kate asks. “I’m sure people would find it useful if they were traveling through here.” You think about this for a bit. “It's not my land.” You respond. “It's generally frowned upon to mess up stuff that doesn’t belong to you.” Kate doesn’t seem to agree with this, but goes along with it anyway.
 
>You two set out down the road again, holding hands this time. The fog hasn’t receded very much today. Looks like it might rain later too. You notice once again the entire Shadelands seems to be eerily quiet. Very little birdsong or animal noises. Kate smiles over at you periodically, seemingly unaffected by the gloomy environment. You guess she just considers this sort of landscape normal.
 
>Several hours pass in silence like this. You hit a few forks in the road, consulting maps as needed. Kate once again points you in the right direction. You dont even stop walking for lunch. You just pull out some more of that cooked deer and a little trail mix from your pack and hand her some. If she is so strong why are you hauling everything around? Even if she is a nudist she could at least wear a pack or something.
 
>Your question is answered almost instantly when a rabbit darts across the road. Without saying a word Kate is after it, sprinting into the fog at a hell of a clip. God dammit, She is like a poorly trained dog sometimes. At least this time you know why she left so suddenly. If she was carrying all your stuff you would be totally screwed right now. With this realization your pack doesn’t seem quite so heavy.
 
>You decide to keep walking. If Kate wants to go play grab ass with that rabbit then she can play catch up when she is done fucking around. You can always stop if you hit a crossroads and cant figure out where to go, and she knows where you are headed anyway. You also have a strong suspicion she can track you down by smell. This thought is both reassuring and unsettling at the same time.
 
>You have been walking by your lonesome for maybe 40 minutes now. Its around 3pm by your estimation. The road has started to run through a canyon, where the river is on your right and a fairly sheer cliff wall is on your left. Suddenly you think you can see someone walking down the road in the opposite direction as you. Their form is obstructed by the swirling fog. You immediately slam your staff into the dirt and begin drawing in power. You will be damned if this critter thinks it can punch your ticket for the rape train. Its getting closer now. Between the cliff and the river there isn’t much place to hide. It's moving pretty slowly. You guess you could run back the way you came, but you are still feeling pretty mighty after that encounter with the werewolf pack. You decide to stand your ground. As it gets closer, you see its not walking all that well. Shambling, more like. The hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. Yep, it's a zombie.
 
>She has white hair and gray skin. Like all monsters she is hauntingly beautiful. Tattered clothing covers a pair of good size tits. It looks like she has been out here a while. You level your staff at her and prepare to bring the cliff down on her. Then it occurs to you she actually might not want to harm you. She could already have a husband somewhere, or be non-aggressive or whatever. Plus you also have Kate's scent all over you (in theory) thus marking you as claimed. On top of all this you are actually in an undead land. This is her home. After all you wouldn’t like it if some stranger marched into your homeland and obliterated you just for having the audacity to walk near them.
 
>You decide to hold off her execution. You press yourself up against the cliff and let her walk on by. She almost does, but at the last second, when she is out in front of you, she slowly turns to face you. She doesn’t say anything, her mouth slightly agape as she stares at you. You notice she doesn’t smell like rotting meat. Perhaps unlife prevents decay somehow? “H-hello there.” You say to the reanimated corpse of a dead woman. “Mmmaaaaaannnn...” She moans, eying you blankly. You are beginning to think you have made a terrible error in judgment. She reaches out slowly and grabs your shoulders, not all that hard though. You stammer out  your catchphrase: “I-i'm just passing through, I don’t want no trouble.” This phrase has zero effect on the zombie. She still hasn’t really attacked you though. She is just standing there holding your shoulders. You stammer out “I-im here to set up a mining site about 25 miles from here.”  “Miii-nerrr...?” She says, sliding her right arm down to your left bicep and squeezing the muscles a little. She frowns with a disappointed look on her face. Are fucking kidding me right now?
 
>”Well, I must be going.” You say to her, and attempt to move past her. She does not let go. Whelp, time for violence. You attempt to point your staff, still in your right hand at her. She finally starts moving, and starts pulling you down to the roadway. You are trying to get a spell off but she keeps messing up your somatics with all her grabbing. “KATE?” You finally shout back the way you came, your voice echoing off the canyon wall out into the fog. I'ts worth a shot. You try kicking her off, but she is strong. REALLY strong, she is barely even budging. She has a death grip on your wrists now, and firmly pins you to the dirt road. You cant aim your staff worth a damn using hand movements alone considering the road is in the way. “KATE?!” Your voice comes out more like a hysterical shriek this time, but you are beyond caring. You can't get to your trench-wand as long as shes got your wrists, and without an aimed focus available you can't cast spells. This is the downside of being a glass cannon, you suppose. You wonder why Kate’s scent isn’t doing anything to protect you. Maybe it doesn’t work on all monsters?
 
>She is straddling your waist now, lewdly grinding her crotch into yours even though you are both fully clothed. You have no boner going at all; corpses really don’t do much for you. She doesn’t seem to care though. She bends down and plants a messy kiss on your lips. You don’t respond and she increases the force, sliding her tongue past your lips and against your clenched teeth. Its actually a lot less gross than you expected. Her mouth is cold, but cold in the way that chewing on a sprig of spearmint is cold. It's sort of... refreshing and exhilarating? It's hard to explain. Not too bad though. You stop struggling quite so hard. You involuntarily start to get a bit of a chub going in your pants, and you mentally chastise your cock for being such a traitor. She is still grinding away on your groin.
 
>She lets go of your left wrist and reaches down for your pants, hooking her fingers into your waistline and clumsily attempting to grope your pants off. You immediately grab your trench-wand from its holster, but you cant perform the verbal component with her trying to ram her tongue down your throat. On top of that you suck at performing somatics with your right hand; you would have trouble even if you weren’t actively being raped. You reach across your own torso with your left hand, trying to pass the wand to your still-pinned right hand, and you accidentally brush against the zombies tits. She moans lewdly into your mouth as you successfully make the handoff, finally dropping your staff. You are flying your flag at full mast now despite your best intentions. The zombie has given up on pulling your pants down and is now jerking your shaft up and down from inside your underwear. It actually feels pretty good. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all? She will probably stop anyway once she has gotten what she wants, you rationalize. You stop struggling completely, and just lay back and accept it.
 
>All of a sudden a foot slams into the zombies ribcage from out of nowhere. The zombie goes flying off you and rolls over several times on the path, not making a sound. You take the opportunity to get back on your feet and look over at your cock-bloc I mean rescuer. It's Kate! She is giving you a very stern look. “What the hell Anon? I leave for 5 seconds and you run off with some dead floozy?”
 
>You don’t even know what to say. What the hell? “Wh... that is NOT the case! That is not what happened here! My guide ditched me on some road, I carried on to my destination, and I got attacked along the way!” She isn’t buying it. “Oh, you couldn’t defeat a single zombie? They practically kill themselves. Here, watch.” She walks over to the zombie, now crawling towards you on the ground. The zombie appears completely oblivious to Kate's presence. Kate hooks a claw into the zombies belt, lifts the zombie into the air, and then spins in a quick circle before hammer-throwing the zombie about ten feet into the river. The current quickly carries her downstream. (The direction you came from) “Was that so fucking hard that you couldn’t do it? The great and powerful Anon cant blast one zombie?” You are trying to think of how to articulate your situation in a way that doesn’t make you look retarded. Its not going so well. “B-but this is her home, and your scent is on me, and I thought that I should wait for her to make the first move.” “Oh she made the first move all right. More than one. Looks like you were having a pretty good time there Anon. You weren’t even struggling.” Kate accuses. “I tried struggling! She was just too strong!” You reply. Your argument sounds weak even to your ears. “Then why didn’t you use some magic? You didn’t hesitate to use it on me.” She says with venom in her voice, gesturing at the trench-wand still gripped in your right hand. You look down at the wand, trying to think of how to explain the demanding nature of casting in a way that makes it look like you aren't trying to weasel your way out of something. Finally you say that she had you locked in a kiss so you couldn’t say the incantations. Kate doesn’t look like she is believes this, but she also doesn’t say anything more. She still looks pretty mad.
 
>You sigh, sheath your wand, pick up your staff and continue on down the road. You need to think about adding a knife to your rig in addition to your wand. You aren’t always going to be able to use both hands. Also some kind of focus that you don’t have to aim would be nice, or a focus you cant drop. Like a glove maybe? You are trying to think of how to design a wand-glove, or a wand necklace or bracelet or something. WAND BOOTS. YES. You need to write this one down.
>This stuff still isn’t going to help with the verbal part of casting. You aren’t always going to be able to use your mouth either, you realize with a bit of shame in your heart. What you really need is someone else to go distract the monsters long enough for you to get your spells off. You glance over at Kate, realizing that you already have that. You have had that this entire time. Kate notices that you are suddenly looking at her like she is the Chosen One, and she smiles sheepishly as she rolls her shoulders uncomfortably. “What?” She asks.
 
>You think for a second, then change your mental subject completely. “Why didn’t your scent work? Why didn’t the zombie ignore me?” She brightens up noticeably, most likely because you are depending on her again. “It takes a few days to soak in. Hang in there.” She reaches a hand around your waist. “And stay close.” She adds as an afterthought, pulling you in tight. “No more running off.” You state matter-of-factly. She nods, but you are suddenly unsure whether she thinks those words apply to you or her.
 
>You walk together like this for a while. The road widens back out into more open mountainous terrain. You keep going over potential battles in your head, trying to figure out how you can do better next time. Shoot first, is the most obvious answer. Whoever gets the first attack in seems to win. This is all stuff that never even occurred to you back in the academy. You were supposed to be a miner. Work in an industrial setting. Not fending off monster-dames with pointy rocks.
 
>The sun begins to set, and the two of you set up camp. The sky is still gray and brooding. You were going to create the usual fireplace right by the road, but Kate spots something off near the river. She smiles, backhandedly swats your shoulder and says “C'mon.” You follow her out there, and find pumpkins. A naturally occurring pumpkin patch. Lots of them, too. Right by the river. You guess pumpkins like it wet?
 
>You create the usual campfire with stove. Suddenly struck by inspiration, you walk over to the river bank. The water looks pretty cold, and there is that usual chilly mist rolling in off it. You plant your feet, raise your staff and cast Shape Stone, followed quickly by Move Earth. You create a stone bathtub out of river rock. The stones fuse together as it coalesces. As it rises up from the river it is already filled to the brim with river water. You pull it inland, the tub's feet slicing through the surface of the earth like a sharks fin slices through the surface of the ocean, knocking aside the occasional pumpkin. A bit of water slops out of the sides after a careless movement of your left hand, but it's not too bad of a cast. You slide it over next to your stove, and then elongate the campfire underneath it.
 
>Kate claps at your display of power. She seems to really like that stuff. Not everyone does; some people feel threatened by it. She piles some extra sticks under the tub to heat the water.
 
>You set about cooking up some pumpkins. You have never done this before, so you just grab a few up, smash 'em, and pop the flesh up on the grill. You fish some cinnamon out of your pack and sprinkle it on the pumpkin flesh. Kate's eyes light up at the smell. You guess cinnamon smells even better to a wolf's nose. You throw on some of that venison as well to reheat it; Kate never did catch that rabbit.
 
>The two of you sit on opposite sides of the fire, near the stove end. Kate's eyes keep drifting over to you, then at the tub, then back to you. She is wearing a very suggestive smile. She seems excited, but she is showing that tight control again. Every so often her tail jumps for a second before going still. She knows the lewd is coming. You do too, and you are ok with it. You really like Kate. She has been good to you, the night of the full moon notwithstanding. She certainly seems to like you for reasons you aren’t sure of.
 
>Dinner is about ready, and you spear a bit of pumpkin off the grill with your pocket knife. You bite into it and god damn is it good. Its juicy and delicious. Its tastes a lot like pumpkin pie, only less sweet and kind of pulpy. A bit more of a nutty flavor. The outer portion of the rind has a kind of crunch to it. Kate seems to be enjoying hers too. A bit of pumpkin juice runs down her chin, and her tongue snakes all the way down her chin and over her neck before curling around to lap it back up. She is looking straight at you the entire time. You gulp noticeably, feeling a stirring in your pants. You alternate between small bites of venison and pumpkin, not wanting to eat too much because of the coming sex rampage.
 
>You finish the meal and glance over at the tub. Steam is now rising off the water in the cold night air. Kate is glancing at it too, but neither of you wants to make the first move. Suddenly the heavens open up, and rain begins to pour down on you. You both stand up, spurred into action. You are looking around, trying to figure out the best way to make some kind of shelter when Kate grabs your arm. “C'mon” She says as she hops into the tub. The steam rises up past her as rain runs down her face. Her eyes are doing that reflection thing again, but it actually looks pretty cool.
 
>You quickly strip off your clothing and jump into the tub with her. Some of the water in the tub gets displaced by your body mass as the two of you settle in, splashing down into the campfire and weakening it significantly. Its probably for the best; you didn’t want to accidentally boil in here. The two of you sit in the water on opposite ends of the tub with your legs intermingled. Rain runs down your head and into the steamy water. The smell of roasting pumpkin and cinnamon wafts up from the stove on the side of the tub. You are in the middle of a pumpkin patch, in a bathtub, during a rainstorm, with a naked werewolf. Life is a trip sometimes.
 
>You are both watching each other. The soft patter of the rain on the water is creating a pleasant white noise. Kate is wearing what can only be described as a wolfish grin. She reaches out and runs her hands up and down your lower leg, lightly trailing her claws across your skin. The soft fur on her hands drags against your skin, sending shivers down your spine. After a a dozen strokes or so she leans forward and begins to run her hands all the way up your your leg and across your torso, eventually circling around and meeting behind your neck. Her claws leave faint red marks on your skin as they scratch at you. After swishing her hands back and fourth across your torso a few times they trail down to your manhood. Her eyes become lidded as she finds you are fully erect, shooting you a smouldering look of pure sex. She begins lightly stroking you up and down as she leans in toward you. She gives you a kiss, starting off fairly vanilla before quickly escalating into frenching. She is darting her long tongue all around your mouth, curling it around the back of your wisdom teeth. Your eyes glaze over at the intense stimulation and you reach out to run your fingers across her breasts. There isnt much flesh there, but you run your hands back and fourth and circle her nipples with your fingers. She moans with pleasure directly into your mouth, not breaking the kiss for a second.
 
>You’ve had about as much of her furry hand job as you can take. You need more. You grab her by the rump and pull her onto you. You clumsily rub yourself against her entrance a few times before finding purchase, spearing into her hot depths. Her tight folds squeeze against you as you thrust into her, both of you groaning with pleasure. Her tail is swishing back and forth against your legs as you dive into her again and again, slowly increasing your tempo. She is holding the back of your head with her paws now, looking right into your eyes as she rides atop you. Finally she grabs you by the shoulders and starts aggressively hammering her hips into you, hilting herself again and again with incredible speed. You feel your vision start to go white as you get closer to release. She finally reaches her limit, her back arching and her head thrown to the pouring heavens as she climaxes, howling at the top of her lungs. Her hot walls clamp down on you, increasing the incredible feeling even further. This pushes you over the limit, and you thrust up deep inside her as you fire off rope after creamy rope of hot cum into her depths. Your vision whites out, the orgasm seeming to go on and on.
 
>She collapses on top of you, nuzzling into your neck as you try to catch your breath. She is running her hands through your hair again, scratching your scalp gently. Neither of you say anything coherent, instead just making soft, contented animal noises. Your body twitches every so often, completely blown away by the force of your orgasm. You reach your arms around her back and pull her in tight against you.
 
---- Day 8 ----
 
>You awaken the next morning to find yourself still in the tub. The water is still lukewarm; it looks like the fire kept things hot enough before dying down to just coals. The rain has stopped. Kate is wide awake and drawing lazy circles on your chest with her claws. Judging from the number of red marks, you would guess she has been at it for quite a while. She is beaming up at you with a look of pure adoration. It feels good. The look does anyway; the claws are starting to hurt a little. It feels good knowing someone out there cares so much for you. The thought fills you with warmth. You pull her close and give her a quick kiss before briskly rubbing her ears and then jumping out of the tub. Kate's nice and all, but you didn’t eat much last night and now you are starving. You dry yourself off as quick as you can before the chill morning air can rob you of your body heat. You get dressed and then start stuffing your face with more of the venison and pumpkin from last night, offering some to Kate. She comes over to the stove-adjacent side of the tub and eats directly from your hand, licking your fingers clean in a not entirely innocent way. She wraps her tongue around and around your fingers all the way back to your third knuckle before slurping it all back in. You blush a little, but she already sucked you dry last night. You have been immunized against her charms, at least for a little while. It must be cool to have a tongue like that though.
 
>“C'mon slowpoke, I want to make the mining site today.” you say to her. She gives you a playful pouty look and doesn’t move from the tub. She holds her arms out to you, beckoning you to come back in with her. Not one to be stonewalled, you pick up your staff and slowly lower the stone bathtub back into the earth, water spilling everywhere as it sinks into the dirt. Finally Kate is left sitting in a mud puddle. She gives you a bit of an exasperated look followed very quickly by a mischievous smile. She does that thing dogs do when they are wet: raises up onto all fours and then shakes her entire body very briskly from stem to stern, drops of water and mud flying all over you. You cant do anything about the water, but a quick wave of your staff with few words and the mud is back on the ground. You knock the mud off Kate at the same time. She gives you an impressed look, like you won that game of brinksmanship. Finally she offers her arm out to you, and you are walking down the road again hand in hand. You pocket a few pumpkin seeds before you go; maybe you can set up a garden later.
 
>According to your maps, the area where the survey team found the densest concentrations of nickel is pretty close. You should be able to make it by mid day. Get these bastards their metal, get out from under your debt, and move on with your life. You wonder how Kate will fit in with all that. Werewolves are generally not welcome in cities. They have a bad habit of biting women and raping men. Fucking werewolves. Whatever, you wont have to worry about that for at least a year. Who knows if you will even still be an item by then. Not that you don’t like Kate, you do, but the world is an unpredictable place.
 
>Checking your maps, you realize you have finally arrived. Not that its any particularly precise spot of course, the area in question is a literal mountain. You walk down the road a bit further, looking for a good spot to set up. You want to be away from the roadway, with enough flat room to set up a landing strip for the harpies. It also must tunnel into the deeper parts of the mountain without hitting too much of the shallow stuff. Also near the river would be nice, for fresh water and cooking. You finally leave the road, half of you expecting to be swept away by a horde of ravenous monsters the moment your foot steps of the path. Kate gives your hand a reassuring squeeze.
 
>After wandering around for an hour or two you find an area that looks ok. Its flat enough and has some tree cover, and is a good ways back from the road. You aren’t totally sold on it until you stumble across a leyline that runs straight into the mountain. A leyline is a sort of magical fault line. Magic emanates up through the line and can be harnessed by anyone standing on it, significantly boosting their spellpower. Generally they don’t matter much unless they are very large, or even better a convergence point of 2 or more leylines. They cant be seen without special equipment, but any mage can certainly feel one if they walk through it.
 
>This one is not particularly big, only about 12 feet across, but it certainly beats nothing. Leylines are not really all that rare, you have walked across dozens of them on your way here, most of them small ones like this lil' fella. Kate is giving you a strange look as you pace about with your arms held out, trying to figure out exactly where the boundary is. Finally you get sick of trying to keep track of it all in your head and start making alterations to the landscape. You create a pair of stone lines in the dirt, poking and testing the air with your finger and making minute adjustments to your markers until you get them exactly parallel. Finally you stand in the middle of your markers and give Kate a very smug look. Bringing your staff up, you cast Wall of Stone, fully harnessing the power of the line. A smooth stone path explodes outward under your feet and slams into the mountainside hundreds of feet away. The ground shakes and roars with your rapid alterations. A cloud of dust forms in the aftermath. Your staff warms up slightly in your hand from such power flowing through it. Kate takes a startled step away from you and asks “W-what the hell was that?” “Power, baby, and lots of it.” You don’t even feel tired. This is going to work out just fine. As you walk down your nice new path you explain to her about leylines. She reaches out a hand tentatively and pokes at the air over the line, but of course doesn’t feel anything. She finally just jumps onto the path with you, bunching up her shoulders and scrunching up her face in worried expectation. Her ears are pressed flat against her head and her tail is tucked between her legs. Nothing happens. You can't help but smile. She straightens up and gives you questioning look. “I don’t feel anything.” You really need to teach her how to sense mana. Anyone can do it, its just very subtle. A leyline is a good place for that actually, the gradient is much stronger here.
 
>You walk down the path until it runs into the mountainside. This is the exact spot you have been trying to reach for the last 8 days. You reach out and place your hand on the dirt and rock in front of you, savoring the moment. Right here. You tell Kate to back up; you're gonna throw some serious mana around. You dig in your heels and rip into the mountainside with mystic intensity. The ground creates a deafening roars as the stone cracks and splits in front of you. Once the stone has been shattered into roughly fist size chunks, you draw your arms back, and a huge column of rocks and debris comes shooting out of the mountain in front of you. You float it through the air and pile it up off the side of the path you made. You are very careful to float it around you and not over you; if you fuck up your somatics you don’t want tons and tons of rocks to come crashing down on your head.
 
>Letting the spell end, you probably moved 50 tons of earth in about 40 seconds flat. This right here is why nobody swings a pickaxe any more. You pick up one of the stones from the top of the pile and examine it. Its limonite, sure enough. That survey team was spot on. Looks like good quality stuff too. You give it an experimental lick. Tastes like its got plenty of nickel. Iron, zinc, a bit of copper, a touch of gold, and... you give it another lick... just a hint of cobalt. There are also the usual suspects such as silicon and calcium. Its surprisingly poor in aluminum. Kate is looking at you like you've lost your mind as you stand around licking rocks. You give her another smug, condescending look. Bitch please, men at work here.
 
>You walk back down your path about 100 feet or so. You create a large stone circle in the ground centered on the leyline, but much larger than the leyline itself. The ground rises up a bit and flattens out, the smaller rocks on the surface merging into a gigantic solid stone disk. This will be your refining area. Without magic this would requires a very large smelter as well as coal to fuel it, and still not yield as nice of a result. Another reason nobody swings a pickaxe.
 
>You pull out a tome on Geomancy from your pack and begin referencing it for the glyphs needed for elemental separation. This is a delicate bit of sorcery; it would be very difficult and time consuming to do without a magic circle. You use the tip of your staff like a large stylus as you slowly carve glyphs into the outer edge of the circle, softening the stone as you go. You break the circle into about 30 sections, each section represents an element or sometimes a chemical. Stuff like potassium is highly reactive and its best just to leave it alone. Two thirds of the circle is dedicated as the discard pile, useless slag you cant use will go here. You explain your work to Kate as you go along in an absentminded way. She doesn’t say much, just “Yes.” and “I see.” every so often.  As the last step you carve the splitter section in the center, the part that actually breaks apart the ore into its various components. This entire process takes several hours. Finally you are ready.
 
>You retrieve a rock by hand and toss it into the center, clattering to a halt within the splitter. You level your staff at the circle and dump some energy into it. You don’t have to cast anything; the glyphs in the circle will take it from here. The rock vibrates and shakes horribly as it slowly disintegrates, creating a dull, unpleasant whining noise. Dust from the rock spreads out into the circle and rests in its appropriate section. With separation complete you walk around the circle again, inspecting the result and making small corrections to the glyphs as needed here and there. You run a finger through the nickel dust. It leaves a dull metallic shine on the end of your digit. That’s money right there. You hold up your finger to Kate with a big grin on your face. She smiles back in an uncertain way.
 
>You begin floating large quantities of rocks into the center of the circle and then shaking them apart. This is what you can look forward to for the next year of your life. You sigh audibly. Looking over at Kate you take some solace in the fact you at least have some companionship. You break apart rocks this way for the rest of the day until the sun starts to go down. You broke apart most of your original pile by now, and the dust has compressed into several bars of nickel. This is good, it looks like you should have no trouble making your monthly quota.
 
>On a whim you walk over to the gold section. There isn’t much there, but you squeeze the dust together until it forms a smallish coin. Your contract stipulated nickel; you can keep everything else. You toss the coin to Kate, but she just shrugs at you. She seemed more excited about those pumpkins than she is about solid gold. You guess money isnt so useful without civilization.
 
>Time to pack it up for the night. You wonder if you should create some kind of defenses or something to guard your circle, but it seems pretty desolate here. Maybe tomorrow. You suspect most monsters would prize you far more than they would a few bars of various metals. Thinking about it you should probably get some kind of shelter going that can stop a monster. You don’t want to repeat that foxhole fiasco.
 
>You walk over to your mineshaft and look it over. You reinforce the stone walls, turning the cracked stone into one solid piece. That should prevent cave-ins. You draw the stone out in front of the shaft, creating a heavy set of double doors on thick hinges. Kate watches you, and says you should add some spikes to prevent someone shouldering their way in. That’s not a bad idea at all, you think. You float all of your iron bars over and clad them onto the superstructure, forming a set of wicked looking spikes of various lengths all across the outside. Kate twangs one with her finger, listening to the metallic sound it makes before making an impressed throat noise. This gives you the idea to clad some copper onto the back as well, creating a heatsink in case something tries to melt its way through; there’s dragons up in the mountains sometimes.
 
>You are exhausted. Even with the leyline all that activity today drained a lot of mana. You set up an alchemical light from your pack and hang it on the wall before you flop down on the stone. Kate gets a small fire going off to the side of the mine and reheats leftover pumpkin and venison. You want to eat up the fresh stuff before it spoils; your dried rations will keep until judgment day. Its nice watching her handle cooking after a long day of work, it feels very domestic. She watches you eat, her tail wagging happily.
 
>Finally you climb into your bedroll and lay back, holding your arms out for her to join you. You were expecting her to just snuggle up to you and fall asleep, but Kate surprises you by aggressively pulling open the bedroll and undoing your pants. You are about to protest when she begins firmly stroking your rapidly hardening cock up and down with her hands. Your will melts away and you decide to just go with it. She is giving you a very commanding sort of smile while her left hand firmly pins your torso to the floor. Her right hand is jacking you furiously up and down, the warm fur of her palms dragging against your sensitive skin. You let out an involuntarily moan at her powerful assault.
 
>Finally she slides her torso down until her head is just above your cock. She licks her chops again very suggestively before quickly gulping you into her mouth. She runs her mouth up and down along your shaft slowly, but her long tongue quickly curls around and around your shaft, tugging you up and down as it slides around in her mouth. Both of her hands now pin your torso to the floor, and you place your hands atop hers. Her eyes look at you with a playful, predatory gaze. You are continuously letting out groans and pants as she slurps you closer and closer to your release. Finally she begins bobbing her head up and down at incredible speed while her tongue uncoils from your dick and shoots out of her mouth. It reaches down and begins lapping at your balls while she blows you at high speed. Overwhelmed by this sensory assault you fire off thick streams of jizz directly into her waiting mouth. She hums happily as she guzzles down each pulse of your seed.
 
>The force of your orgasm almost knocks you unconscious. You go completely limp and lay back as Kate laps up the remaining dribbles of cum off your cock. Finally satisfied she slowly slides back up your torso, paws sliding across your chest in front of her until she rests her head on your pecs. You pull your arms around her back, sliding under her silvery braid and pull her in close as you drift off to sleep.
 
---- Day 9 ----
 
>You wake up to Kate's fluffy claws pawing through your hair. She circles her fingers around your ears, gently scratching your skin. This is the third day in a row you have woken up with her on top of you. Your wife. According to her, at any rate. Actually now that you think about it she was sort of unclear. You wouldn’t mind though. You could really get used to this. You are already starting to think of her as your wife, and that’s what seems to matter most to monsters. They are very informal like that. You nuzzle your face up against hers and run your hands up and down her back. This feels like a good day for a late morning cuddle: you have finally arrived and are already ahead of schedule. If the rest of the ore is as rich as what you already extracted you will have lots of free time.
 
>Kate seems to have the same idea. Actually you have never known her to not want to cuddle, come to think of it. “Hey, I want to try something.” Kate says to you. She reaches over to your pack and pulls out your canteen and a clean dish from your mess kit. She splashes a bit of water into the bowl and dips her furry mitts in, then rubs them back and fourth briskly to warm them up. She then starts rubbing her wet paws into your stubble. “I’m gonna shave you.” You have neglected your hygiene a bit way out here in the wilderness, and you have the beginnings of a beard going. Kate seemed so feral and untamed you didn’t think she would mind.
 
>You expected her to pull out your pocket knife as well, but Kate seems to have other plans. Leaning back and sitting on your chest, she grabs your chin very firmly with her left had. You can feel her monstrous strength squeezing down on you; your chin may as well be in a vice. “Dont move.” she commands, like you had much of a choice. Her tongue is pushed to the corner of her mouth as she stares at your beard with a look of utmost concentration. She brings her right hand up and begins dragging her nails across your skin very delicately but with a lot of force. You gulp. “I really hope you know what you are doing.” You say. Kate says nothing, completely ignoring you. The scraping sound of nails on flesh sounds reassuring, and you don’t feel any pain. Maybe you will be alright. She drags her claws across your face over and over, pausing every so often to dip her claws in the water. Her left hand pushes and tugs and stretches your face as needed, readjusting your head as she goes along. At one point she just pokes a furry finger into your mouth and then presses against your cheek from the inside to give herself a better shaving angle. She seems to find this hilarious. She lifts your face upward as she starts to do your neck, her deadly claws tracing right across your jugular vein. You are trying hard not to think about that deer she caught. Moving on to your mustache, she pulls your upper lip taught as she drags her nails across it. Finally she tries to shave your nose hair. You try protesting but she isn’t having any of it. She forcibly tilts your head back and drags her index nail around the inside of your nostrils. You make what could best be described as a squawking sound. You keep sneezing, which she finds funny. You get the feeling she is enjoying this a lot more than you are.
 
>“There we go, now isn’t that better? You look very handsome.” You reach up and tentatively feel your face. It feels pretty smooth, you have to admit. “Maybe next time we can try soap!” You say with a wry tone in your voice. She just smiles and pats you on the cheek, not entirely gently.
 
>You pull her into an embrace and pin her to the bedroll, then start rubbing your freshly shorn cheeks all over her face. She giggles and you play around with her for a while. You are interrupted by a loud banging on the armored door of your mineshaft.
 
>BANG. BANG. BANG. Both of you look at each other, your eyes wide. “W-what do you think is out there?” You whisper to Kate. “I dunno!” Kate whispers back. “What do they smell like?” You ask her. She creeps up to the door and sniffs around at the frame a little while you quickly get dressed. BANG. BANG. BANG. Kate darts away from the door and back to you, cowering behind your back. Her tail is tucked between her legs. “Well?” you ask her. “I dunno... kind of spidery?” Kate says back to you. “Spidery? Like an ushi-oni?” Your mind immediately jumps to the most deadly spider imaginable. You are in the mountains, after all. This is where you would find one. Kate just shrugs at you.
 
>Ushis never give up once they have caught your scent. Their victims tend to die from crushed pelvises. They are practically invincible, heal quickly, are super fast and strong. But you will be god damned if your going to get pinned by some pale green rape machine. This time your gonna shoot first.
 
>You kick off your boots and plant your feet on the cold stone floor of the mine, increasing your surface area with the ground. You check your wand is firmly in its holster. You pick up your staff and begin casting all manner of self-fortifying spells. Stone Skin turns your skin to granite, making you difficult to destroy. Gravel Wind causes small shards of razor sharp rock to break off from the mine wall and start hurtling around your body at incredible speed. The rocks whistle through the air as they move in an eccentric, counter clockwise orbit around you. Earthen Stilts cause spires of earth to lift up under your feet, raising you up to over 8 feet all. You animate more of the mine wall towards yourself and clad it onto your rocky flesh, giving you wicked stone spikes jutting out from strategic locations  all over your body. Sand Shield causes tiny particles of sand to rise up all around you, forming a gritty floating barrier against projectiles. You glance over at Kate and she is visibly shaken at your transformation. Some kind of arcane nightmare made of living stone. She is shielding her face with her hands like you are going to attack her. “A-anon?” She stammers. BANG. BANG. BANG. You are ready.
 
>You take a few experimental steps forward. You lurch a little too close to the edge of the mine and Gravel Wind immediately disintegrates a chunk of the wall. Oops. Its hard to walk in these stilts. Feeling the power of the leyline at your feet, you cast Earth Wave and blow the metal clad doors completely off their hinges, rocketing outwards for hundreds of feet before slamming into the terrain and taking a sizable chunk of your mineshaft entrance with them. You feel your staff heat up a little from the force of the spell. You've got the power. You feel like you could murder gods right now. Sunlight comes streaming in towards you. This sudden change in brightness might be more of a problem for those who's pupils are not currently made of the blackest obsidian. You quickly stride forth from the opening. The ground continues to rise up to meet your bare feet every time you take a step, making you significantly taller. There is indeed some kind of spider woman out there. Doesn’t look very green though. More brownish black. She seems to be holding some kind of circular web thing. A net? You can't see it too well with all this gravel and sand flying around. She backs up real quick, stumbling and falling back onto her abdomen. You didn’t even know Arachne could trip like that, what with all those redundant legs. She looks incredibly scared. She is doing that same thing Kate did, where she is shielding her face with her human arms like you are going to attack her. At least this time it makes sense.
 
>This isn’t turning into the glorious battle of the century you thought it was going to be. Ushi-oni have no fear. You are pretty sure this is just a regular arachne. Not wanting to lose your good head of steam though, you raise both of your arms out wide in the air and bellow out at the top of your lungs “EXPLAIN THIS BULLSHIT!” like some kind of maniacal archmage. The sand particles vibrate ever so precisely so as to magnify your voice tremendously.
 
>“H-h-house w-w-warming p-pr-present?” She barely manages to stammer out. You don’t think you have ever seen anyone so scared before. You suppose those bangs on the door could have just been regular knocking, and then amplified by all the metal stuck onto them. You look down at that webbed thing she was holding. You twitch your staff this way and that to create an opening in your orbiting defenses that you can see through. It appears to be a plate of cookies covered in a very thin layer of spider silk to keep them protected. “Oh. I sort of thought you were here to rape me to death.” You state bluntly, not even feeling all that awkward. You do feel like a bit of an asshole though. “Sorry about all the magic.” You say as you start to dispel some of this stuff. The hurtling stones move slower and slower as they drift toward the ground. The pillars you are standing on recede back into the earth. Your skin returns to normal.
 
>The arachne in front of you is a little taller than you, but thats mostly due to her long legs. Like all monsters, she is ensnaringly beautiful. She is thin and graceful looking, but not as lean and lanky as Kate. A conservative, dark colored dress covers a pair of very large breasts. Straight raven black hair flows over her shoulders. She looks very intelligent, in a bookish kind of way.
 
>Looking back into the ruined entrance of the mine you see Kate barely poking her head out. “It's ok, its not an ushi.” You call out to her. She tentatively creeps out toward you and the spider. “I'm Anon, this is Kate.” The spider stands up again, trying to calm herself. She still appears mighty shaken and is looking at you like you might explode at any moment. “I'm Verena.” She says with a stammering voice, but not as bad as before. You extend your hand out to shake hers. It looks like it takes a lot of bravery on her part to return the gesture. Kate does not offer her hand. There is a long moment of awkward silence. You are all just staring at each other. “So, you brought us cookies?” You say, trying to remind her why she came her.
 
>“Uhhh, yes. I came by to welcome you to the neighborhood.” She gestures at empty wilderness. You pick up the plate off the ground. Its made of heavy stoneware and did not break when dropped. You peel back the webbing and take a cookie, handing the plate to Kate. She takes one as well and begins absentmindedly eating it, never taking her eyes off the spider. Taking a bite of the cookie (vanilla and some kind of nut) you ask if a lot of people live around here. “Oh, not too many. We don’t get a lot of newcomers this far out.” She looks like she is starting to calm down. A shared meal is good for that kind of thing. “So you and her are...?” Verena trails off. “I'm his guide” Kate says at the exact same moment you say “She's my wife.” Kate tries to conceal a bit of a shocked gasp but is shooting you a huge smile. Her tail looks like its about to wag itself clean off it's going so fast. Verena seems to notice the incongruity between responses but doesn’t say anything. “I guess you heard the construction noise yesterday?” Verena nods. “Yep. This here is a nickel mine. Property of Stribek Mining Consortium. I'm the foreman. “Oooh, a miner huh?” She reaches out and squeezes your left bicep, and almost manages to hide the look of disappointment on her face. God damnit.
 
>You decide to give her the tour. You show her the refining circle, and what little there is of the mine so far. You explain a little about how mining via magic works, and show her the metal bars you’ve got so far. Maybe all that battlecasting earlier really took it out of you, because you are starting to feel very drowsy.
 
>You decide to give her a demonstration. You levitate some of your slag pile and turn it into a table and two simple chairs for you and Kate. You look over at that leg situation on Verena as you try to decide what arachnes like to sit on. She seems to notice and describes an arachne chair. You eventually just raise up a solid rectangle of glassy slag, and she plops her abdomen down on it unceremoniously.
 
>You pop the plate of cookies up on the table and nibble at them as you talk about things. You figure as long as you are going to be neighbors you should try to be friendly. You yawn loudly, covering your hand with your mouth. Kate is yawning too. Funny how yawns are contagious like that. Kate isn’t saying much. Verena is though, going on at length about everything from cooking to politics to gardening. You are beginning to nod off, but Verena is being a good sport about it and holding up your share of the conversation. You don’t even realize when you finally fall asleep.
 
---- Day 10 (?) ----
 
>Mmmm.... You are somewhere warm and soft. Your body weight feels pleasantly supported evenly along your mass. You don’t remember your bedroll being this comfy, even with Kate snuggled up next to you. You also don’t generally sleep face down. You open your eyes, suddenly concerned. Wh-what the shit? Where are you? How did you get here?
 
>You appear to be suspended from the ceiling of someones living room via whitish gossamer webbing. That fucking spider. God dammit. What was her name? Veruka or something? God fucking dammit. You should have blasted her when you first laid eyes on her.
 
>You can't move. Your arms are bound fast to your side, your legs are bound together, and your entire body is bound to the ceiling. You are bound with a double dose of bondage. Also you have some kind of ball gag in your mouth. You try to spit it out but can't; it appears to be webbed in there pretty good.
 
>How did you even get here? Even if you fell asleep there is no way Kate would let some stranger wander off with you. Oh shit those cookies. She drugged those god damn cookies. You remember Kate eating one too. You look around for Kate, but you don’t see her anywhere. You figured she might have her own cocoon or something. Its beginning to dawn on you that she was never after Kate to begin with, and the rape train is leaving the station. Choo choo.
 
>You start to struggle harder. The webs are slightly elastic and you just sort of bounce back and fourth. You try chewing on your ball gag. The flexible webbing stuff stretches in your mouth, but just bounces back into its original form. Chewing doesn’t seem to be doing much other than causing you to drool a little on the floor. You are pretty sure you are naked under these webs; you don’t feel your clothing at any rate.
 
>So you cant move because of the webs, ruling out somatics. You cant talk because of the gag, ruling out verbal. You have no focus because she took your staff and wand. You aren’t even touching the ground, so charging will be difficult. You have 0/4 requirements for magic. You do a quick test of the webs for magical resistance. It's not straight enough to direct anything, but that wouldn’t matter for an area spell. You place two fingers against the strands and run a little energy through them. Very high resistance, no way you can cast anything with this. You start charging up anyway as best you can.
 
>“Ooohh look who's awake.” Your blood runs cold. You look around for your captor. She paces in from some room connected to the living room. You try to talk through the gag, but that's going nowhere fast. Finally you just attempt to say one word: Werewolf. It comes out more like “Weehwof.” “That furry friend of yours? All tied up at the moment I’m afraid. Don’t worry, no harm came to her.” She says standing under you. “I wouldn’t want any hard feelings to come between me and my new husband, after all.” She says as she reaches up and gently runs a clawed hand across your cheek. Choo choo.
 
>You struggle violently, pulling your head away from her hands. You don’t get very far of course. She rears back on her hind legs and sticks her forelegs on your torso before using her forelegs to pull her entire body up onto you. She then wraps all eight of her legs around your lower body and pulls you in tight. You struggle with all your might attempting to knock her loose but its no use. She finally reaches her human arms around the back of your neck and pulls herself eye to eye with you. “Please don’t be like that dear. I'll make you forget all about that awful wolf.” Kate's scent is doing nothing once again, you notice.
 
>She reaches one taloned hand down and slices open the webbing right over your cock. Your manhood flops out of its prison, already half erect. “Ara ara Anon, looks like you are enjoying this.” She gives you a few strokes, firming it up as if she has greater control of your dick than you do. Finally she lines it up with her sex and impales herself in one swift stroke. Your eyes roll back into your head as you groan from the sudden sensation. She hooks her pedipalps over your hips and grinds back and fourth a few times, thrusting you back and fourth through her depths.
 
>She suddenly stops moving with your dick still buried inside her. Staring right into your eyes, she commands “Fuck me.” You do not comply, shaking your head back and fourth. She reaches out a human hand and grabs your shoulder and begins to squeeze it very hard. “Fuck me.” She commands again, increasing the pressure to painful levels. You still aren’t moving. Her grip on your shoulder increases until it feels like its about to break bones. You can hear the bones creak and groan under the pressure. “Fuck. Me.” She commands in a very controlled way, still staring straight into your eyes. Finally you relent, and begin moving your hips up and down. She eases up some of the pressure off your shoulder. “Ahh yesss, good boy.” She hisses into your ear. You keep pounding away inside her, fearful of what she will do if you stop. You feel a strong sense of shame and guilt wash over you.
 
>It continues this way for a while. Finally the pleasure starts to get to you, and you start fucking her really hard on your own. “Yesss, tear me up. Destroy my cunt! Do it!” She hisses into your ear. Her human arms are holding you a tight embrace, smashing her tits into your webbed chest. Slamming into the deepest parts of her over and over, you finally hit your limit. Frothy ropes of seed come spilling out of you, spurt after spurt of your submission flying into her womb. “AHHH YESSSS, FUCK ME PREGNANT!” She screams, the feeling of being inseminated driving her over the edge. She thrusts her cunt down onto you as deep as she can as she forces your back to arch into her with her many legs. The contractions in her cunt squeeze and pull at you, trying to wring out every drop.
 
>Finally spent, she crawls around the side of you with more grace than you would think possible from her large body. She comes to rest lying on your back, dangling her legs limply over your sides and towards the floor. “You did very well, husband.” She coos into your ear as she traces idle fingers over your webbed body. “I’ve always wanted daughters, and now I’ve got you to give them to me.” You can feel her hand rub against her own belly, the back of her hand pressing into the small of your back from the weight of her lying on top of you. “I can tell you are going to make an excellent father. Would you like that, raising a bunch of kids with me?” You wouldn’t like that. Not one bit. The last thing you want is more copies of her in the world. You don’t say anything though, not that you could with the gag still in your mouth. You just hang there limply and stare at the floor with unfocused eyes.
 
>“My husband, a powerful wizard. Who would have thought?” She coos again. She is massaging at your earlobes affectionately. “Do you have any idea how rare unclaimed men are this far into the Shadelands? I’ve been waiting years for someone like you to come along. And a mighty mage too. Some girls just have all the luck.” She sweetly sings her own praises as she tenderly gropes at you. You wonder why she is calling you unclaimed when you openly told her you have a wife yesterday.
 
>“You scared me half to death when you blew those doors off, you know. I thought you were going to kill me. It seems almost funny, now. It will make a great story when we tell our kids about how we first met.” She idly points her clawed hand at the floor out in front of you and makes fake magicky sounding incantations followed by little explosion noises as she pretends to blow apart her own living room.  “We’ve got to keep that gag on you for a little while longer, just until you’ve gotten used to your new life here. I wouldn’t want you uttering some silly spell and ruining everything. I know how excitable you men can be. My dear old dad wasn’t allowed to roam free until I was 8 years old. And I wasn’t even his first born! A real fighter, that one. But like my mom always said: They all break eventually.” She says these last words with icy venom in her voice, practically dripping supremacy.
 
>She feels your body go tense as she reveals her horrifying upbringing. “Ohhhhh, don’t worrrrrrry about that dear. I’ve got a feeling it wont take nearly that long with you.” She gives your head a reassuring pat. “See, I’ve got this theory that rapid consecutive orgasms have a greater effect on the mind than individual ones. Not as much time to recover, to adjust. Each one engenders more of a feeling of connectedness than the last one, and it just keeps adding up.” She seems awfully proud of this theory. You wonder if she has practiced this speech.
 
>She reaches a hand around your waist and begins stroking your limp cock. “You're probably wondering how I’m going to accomplish this.” You immediately feel a stinging pain in your shoulder. Her face slowly slides around into your field of view with blood dripping from her fangs. She just stares at you, grinning madly. You shift uncomfortably under her gaze, but then you start to feel warm. Really warm. Sweat beads out on your forehead. You dick rapidly begins hardening. You can feel your balls churning in your scrotum, kicked into overdrive making fresh jizz. You look up at her with panicked eyes. “Yessss, that’s right. Let the venom do its work.” She watches you for several more seconds before crawling around your torso again until she is under you. With her human arms wrapped around your neck, she looks straight into your eyes. “Just remember: the faster you accept me the sooner we can get you out of those webs.”
 
>She impales herself again on your cock. This time she begins furiously bouncing away on your cock, not caring if you thrust back into her or not. She mechanically humps you up and down, working your length through her folds. You groan and squirm with pleasure, far more than the first time. Maybe the poison did something to your nerves? Finally you are brought to another mind blowing orgasm, thick frothy ropes of pearly cum rocketing into her depths. The orgasm goes on and on, your eyes roll back in your head as her cunt milks you for all you are worth. She never stops grinding against you for even one second. Even once your orgasm subsides she continues to pound away at you. You wonder what she is about, until it starts to feel good again. Oh no. No no no. That venom has eliminated your refractory period. She just keeps slapping her hips into yours with a lewd smile on her face. Your cock feels more sensitive from your previous orgasm, and she is taking full advantage. She pulls you in and out through her hot depths, squeezing and milking at you continuously. You are brought to a head again, roaring with pleasure through your gag as you fire off another load of jizz inside her.
 
>She continues to thrust against you, her pedipalps hooked over your hips. There are no brakes on the rape train. You feel one of her legs slice open the webbing just over your ass. She is staring straight into your eyes, her face stretched into a wicked smile. You shake your head “no” at her, a pleading look in your eye. She nods her head “yes” every time you shake yours. You feel a piercing as one of her feet shoves its way deep into your ass. Your eyes start to tear up in pain, but then she presses down on some part deep inside of you. All of a sudden you are groaning with pleasure as she fucks you from both the back and the front. A few quick thrusts from the front while she stomps down on that spot and your are screaming out another orgasm, only minutes from your last one. More of your cream rockets into her womb. The spider laughs delightedly.
 
---- Day 10.5 ----
 
>It has been hours now. You don’t even know how many. And she is still going. Still thrusting away against you. You just want to sleep. Why won't she let you sleep? You have lost count of how many times you have cum. You barely even know whats going on any more. AAAAAAAANNNNNNNNNUuuuunnnnnnggggghhhhhhhh. You thoughts are interrupted by another pounding orgasm. Wave after wave of pleasure washes over you, your eyes completely closed. Finally it subsides again, and she continues to fuck you relentlessly.
 
>You tried thinking about Kate at first. Tried to block out this terrible spider. Imagined yourself in Kate's loving embrace as she took you to the hilt. The spider made this very difficult, as she is being very rough with you. She held your eyelids open with her fingers so you were forced to look at her. Made sure you knew it was her. Plus its pretty hard to imagine being with Kate when she's got half her leg up your ass.
 
>After that you got angry. Tried to shake the spider off. Headbutted her pretty good, too. Right in the forehead. Thrust into her as hard as you could, trying to hurt her. You tried spitting on her, but the gag messed that up. The spider just seemed to feed off your anger, only fucking you harder. HHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRRNNNNNNNNggggggghhhhhhhhhh. Another climax rips through you, whiting out your vision and granting you momentary release.
 
>After that you got kind of reflective. Thought about when you were younger. Thought about church. Your preacher used to warn you about monsters like this, but you never really believed. If only you had listened to him. If only you had put more in the collection plate. The church sponsored crusades, you know. Giant armies of humans that would go out and burn entire demon realms to ashes. Killed monsters like this one by the thousands. If only you had joined one of those armies. You would have made a good warmage. You bet those guys always shoot first. They are always looking for more wizards too; you would have fit right in. The church would have sponsored your schooling instead of this dodgy mining outfit. You would be in the company of friends right now instead of this monster's clutches. If you ever get out of here you are signing up with the first warband that comes along. The 501st Blood Ravens were active near your home, you remember watching them march past during the parades. They'd do just fine. You pray silently: “God, please get me out of here so I can help your cause.”
 
>AAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNggggggggggg. You fire off a few more blasts into her eager depths. Why won't she stop? Her womb is already overflowing with your seed and she just. Won't. Stop. You just want to sleep. Is that too much to ask? Who are you kidding, you are never going to be a Blood Raven. You are never getting out of here.
 
>The only way you are getting free is if she frees you. Once your mind is broken. You can feel it starting to happen, just a little bit. Little cracks forming at the edges of your consciousness. Spreading slowly with each new release. They whisper little phrases to you, things you know aren’t true. Things like “She is only doing this because she loves you.” and “This life probably won't even be that bad.” and “You can raise your daughters to be better than their mom.” You wonder how much longer you can last.
 
>You think about Kate again. Your wife. Your ex-wife, you correct yourself. No wait, that’s another lie. Is it? Its getting hard to tell. You know that you care about her. That you hope the spider wasn’t lying. You hope Kate really is OK out there somewhere. You hope she finds someone else, and forgets all about you, and has a good life.
 
>Finally you begin to cry. Just a few silent tears at first, squeezed out from closed eyes. Then great big sobbing heaves as you consider the ruins of your life. Everything you have lost. Everything you will never have. All the mistakes you have made. Your body is wracked with sorrow as hot tears pour out of your eyes. “Awwwww, there there.” The spider pauses her thrusting and reaches up to rub your back. “It's ok, let it all out.” She just hugs you like that for a while, rubbing her arms over your back as you cry into her shoulder. Why is she being so nice to you? You don’t deserve this kind of treatment.
 
>“This is a good thing, really.” She says. “I’ve been watching you. Paying attention. I read this book once, about the 5 stages of loss. You’ve lost your...” She waves her hand in the air, searching for the words. “...bachelorhood, and now you are grieving. Its only natural. The first stage is denial, then anger.” She says, rubbing her forehead where you headbutted her. “After that comes bargaining, and then sadness.” She says as she wipes a few tears from your face. “And do you know what the final stage is, husband?” Her tone seems to cheer up at this last sentence. “Acceptance. We are almost there, honey. Just a little further.” She begins thrusting against you again. If you ever find the sick fuck that penned that torture manual, you are going to skin him alive.
 
>All of a sudden there is a huge crash. The sound of breaking wood. You look over and see the front door has been blown down. Kate is standing in the doorway, huffing and puffing. It looks like she ran a marathon to get here. Parts of her fur is missing here and there, revealing bare skin underneath. It looks like an amateur wax job gone horribly wrong. Little bits of spider webbing still cling to her in other places. “UNHAND. MY. HUSBAND!” She shouts in a booming voice.
 
>Hope explodes inside of you. You never thought you would see her again. You can't believe she came back for you. Your wife. You have no idea how you ever doubted this. She IS your wife. An intense surge of love wells up within you. Your mind begins to pull itself back together.
 
>The spider is not even phased at this turn of events. She just slowly clambers off of you back to the floor. “Well, it looks like you managed to struggle your way out of my webs. How did you find me?” The spiders voice seems impassive, distantly interested. No hint of fear whatsoever. “Smell.” Is all Kate says back, icy hatred in her voice. The spider retorts: “Speaking of which, your scent had not fully saturated him. He was still fair game.” Kate seems to seethe with anger at this. Kate takes a deep breath through her nose and says “That knife cuts both ways.” while extending her hands into a slashing shape.
 
>The talking appears to be over. Kate's back is hunched forward slightly, her claws drawn into a furry scythe. Knees bent and ready to spring into action. Battle mode. The spider is doing the same, squaring off with her taloned hands out in front of her, ready to slash. They both sidestep back and fourth slightly, minutely adjusting their footing. All of a sudden Kate explodes forward, slashing at the spiders throat. The spider dodges back and slashes at Kate's arm. The spider scores a hit, and a few small drops of blood splash on the floor. Kate isn’t discouraged by this in the slightest, and continues aggressive slashes toward the spider's human areas. The spider takes a more defensive tactic, blocking with her legs and slashing with her hands whenever Kate overextends. There isn’t much you can do other than watch silently from your webbed prison on the ceiling.
 
>Finally the spider scores a wicked punch to Kate's ribcage. You are pretty sure you heard a bone crack. Kate falls on the floor and the spider doesn't waste any time pinning her down. The spider has one of her legs pinning down each one of Kate’s limbs with the remaining 4 used to keep herself upright. Kate is struggling furiously, but its no use. Kate is simply outlimbed and outreached. The spider reaches back with one of her non-pinning feet slowly, and then brings it crashing down onto Kate's ribcage. Kate’s eyes glaze over with pain as her broken rib is hit again. The spider has a wicked gleam in her eye.
 
>Again and again the spider brings her foot up slowly before slamming it back down into Kate. Kate yelps and jerks as she is being beaten to death. The spider is taking her time, and appears to be enjoying herself tremendously. You struggle furiously at your webbing, but you just bounce around uselessly. If only you were free, you could end this in one hit. You just need some kind of focus, something that wouldn’t burn up immediately. A shard of that splintered door would...
 
>An idea slams into you with the force of a sledgehammer. Its pretty ugly, but it should work. This is really going to hurt. But looking down at Kate, you know you’ve got to do it.
 
>You discharge all of your stored mana into the webbing. The webbing is a shitty conductor, but that’s what you are counting on. It heats up quickly as far too much energy flows through it. It begins to burn. Your entire body bursts into flame as the webbing ignites all over you. You are trying not to scream as you are burning alive. The spider hasn’t realized what is happening on the ceiling yet, too fixated on her torturous execution on the floor. You strain your arms and legs with all of your might, and are finally able to stretch them out as the burning webbing flexes then snaps. Finally the webbing gives as the restraining bands burn away, and you fall to the floor.
 
>Wasting no time you immediately drawn in more power from the earth, replacing what you just used. You snatch at the gag on your head with burning hands, tearing it off and leaving bits of flaming organic napalm sticking to your face. You dart over to the door and snatch up a piece of the splintered door. The conductivity isn’t great, but it should be good enough for one spell. And you know exactly which one you are going to use. You've had a lot of time to think about this up on the ceiling.
 
>You cast Obsidian Lance. You aim your your makeshift wand at the spiders bulbous abdomen. Your left hand thrusts forward with your hand held palm down in a flat shape. The spider notices you only too late as a jagged spear of black glassy rock nearly 4 inches wide explodes out of the floor and slams through her chitinous body. The lance slams into the wall behind her after traveling through her body, pinning her upright like a piece in some child’s macabre bug collection. Not finished yet, you pull your left hand back and curl your fingers back until just your index finger is pointing at her. You begin thrusting your left hand back and forth as fast as you can, each time another thin lance exploding out of the ground and striking at your wand's point of aim. These new lances are much smaller, only about an inch wide; you don’t want your shitty makeshift wand to burn up before it has done its job. You sweep the wand along her body, stabbing her abdomen over and over as you slowly maneuver down to her legs. You miss a few times as her legs twitch and skitter around beneath her, the lances just thudding into the wall harmlessly. You hit the tip of one leg and it's sliced clean off, falling on the floor with a dull clack. You decide this is a happy accident as you start to sweep the wand over towards her human belly. You get a few more lances in before the pain of burning alive finally overwhelms you.
 
>You drop on the ground and roll around screaming, remembering how school always told you to stop, drop and roll. Its not working as well as you might like; the burning webs create sticky flaming puddles on the ground with parts of your charred skin going with them. Finally you get the last of the flames out, your skin a sizzling mess of 3rd degree burns.
 
>You just writhe on the ground in agony. Kate is going to have to take it from here. You look over at her. She has lifted herself up off the floor and pulls herself away from the spider. Kate keeps a hand clamped on her ribcage. Kate glances you over very briefly before turning her attention back to the spider.
 
>The spider has about 30 spears impaling her body in various places. Unspun webbing leaks from wounds in the back of her abdomen, dripping onto the floor. More lances pierce her human section, holding her upright and sideways against the wall. All but two of her legs have been pierced and pinned, the remaining two twitching and jerking randomly. The spider seems to be trying to speak, but no words are coming out of her mouth. She has a pained, scared look on her face. The way she is looking at you makes you think not all of her pain is physical.
 
>Kate's face is a deadly mask of pure murder. Kate limps over to the spider and places a hand softly against the spiders throat. She looks right into the spiders eyes. She squeezes down ever so slowly until you can hear the flesh ripping as Kate's claws dig in. She slowly draws her claws through the spiders throat, and the spider makes a gurgling noise as her throat is severed from ear to ear. The spider goes limp as she departs this mortal coil.
 
>Kate limps back over to you. You are still lying on the ground and trying not to moan too loud. You are going to die. You know that. Your body is very badly burned, its just a matter of time now. Kate is giving you a sad look. “I love you Kate.” You say up at her, in between jolts of agony. “I love you too.” Kate says, choking up at the last part. Hot tears fall from her face and land on yours. “Its ok Kate. If I could do things over again I wouldn’t change a thing.” You are starting to cry a little too. “I know.” Is all she says, starting to sob.
 
>Kate begins to lick you. Big sloppy wet licks all over your burned areas. You know that wolves lick their wounds. You let her be; it doesn’t hurt much. If this makes her feel any better then why not. You wonder how much longer until you die. You hope its sooner rather than later; you are in a lot of pain. Actually its not as bad now as it was earlier, now that you think about it. You look down at Kate, licking your abdomen. She smiles up at you, a few tears still drying on her face. “Wh... what is this?” You ask. “Wolves' tongues can heal wounds.” She explains. “You're going to be fine in a week or two. Didn’t you ever wonder where the term “licking your wounds” came from?”
 
>You just lay your head back on the floor and laugh. You laugh and laugh, big hearty peals that go on and on. You did not see this one coming. Kate gives one of your few unburned areas a reassuring pat and goes back to her work.
 
---- Months Later ----
 
>Kate was right about that tongue of hers. She spent the next two weeks licking you all over, never leaving your side. You made a full recovery. You don’t even have any scars; that tongue of hers really is something else. Your penis was the first part of you to become fully healed, you noticed with wry humor. Kate just shrugged and gave you a guilty smile.
 
>You got back to work. You were a bit light on that first months metal shipment with the injury and all, but you made up for it the next month. The harpies really strained in their harnesses as they pulled away from your airstrip with their overloaded cargo. They use a kind of glider thing: Its sort of like a big hang glider on top with a small wagon on the bottom. They just tow it behind them as they fly through the air. Sort of like aerial sled dogs, or Santa's reindeer. You like to imagine it's Christmas as they come in for a landing, bringing you presents of fresh supplies. It's the highlight of your month. That and the full moon, of course. Kate is still a werewolf after all.
 
>Kate is pregnant now. She is just barely beginning to show. You are going to be a father soon. A whole litter of little werewolf puppies to call your own, according to Kate. You can hardly wait. You cut a huge house into the mountainside: a real fortress of a building. This time you recessed the door and put a view-hole in it, so you can drop the ceiling down on anyone trying to break in.
 
>You have gotten a lot more paranoid. Some kind of sheep girl tried to introduce herself to you last week. You were tending to your new pumpkin patch down by the river when she walked up behind you. “Hi there! I heard we had a new neighbor move in, and I’ve been meaning to c-” She didn’t even finish the sentence before you completed Pebble to Boulder, knocking her ass-over-teakettle as the gigantic rock slammed into her, squashing a few of your pumpkins in the process. She took off running for her life as soon as she stopped rolling, which is just as well because you were warming up something extra deadly.
 
>Kate keeps telling you that her scent is fully on you now and you don’t need to worry, but you don’t believe her. You always shoot first now, no exceptions. Kate says that a light has gone out in your eyes ever since the arachne incident. You reckon that’s probably true. You like to imagine that a man is like a lighthouse, and that light in his eyes is like a beacon that guides a monster to him. Without it they cant hurt you anymore. Kate said that analogy seems really sad, but then again Kate wasn’t raped to the edge of her sanity by a ferocious spider.
 
>You gave up your plan to join the military almost immediately after the escape. You love Kate, and you don’t think the military would take too kindly to having a werewolf around. You still plan on donating every scrap of gold you pull out of the ground to the church though, minus a little for living expenses. Kate seems fine with it; she still has no real use for money.
 
>You originally planned to buy some land in the country with that gold to raise your family on, but then you realized you already have that here. Nobody cares about werewolves here. The land is free. Its a little lonely, but you’ve got Kate to keep you company.
 
>You'll always have Kate.
 
//rate this story
http://strawpoll.me/3092679