Monstrous Ranch Ch. 26

To the eyes only of His Excellency, the Sovereign Guardian of the Free Peoples of Nyaska and the Nyaskan Mountain Range, Duke Horatio II,

I'm writing simply to apologize for the delay in my return. My allotted time away from my duties has expired by at least a week, I think, and I'm aware that my services are no doubt sorely missed, as I am still your only teleporter. I am writing that particular phrase in the hopes that it will dissuade you from firing me when I tell you that I am currently something of a political prisoner. In the Wild East.

Don't worry, Your Excellency. They'll be letting me go soon. I expect to be back within a fortnight, and I'll be bringing some very attractive cargo along. What I expected to be a family visit escalated into my getting basically woven into a fight between a group of foreign ley peddlers and local mortal and fey groups. I'm happy to report that it has all been basically taken care of now, and you should know that my involvement here, while completely illegal, did help block a potential Thriae hive incursion.

I will give a full report on my return, of course, and I'll be traveling with a Second-Class Bard of the Bardic Orders who can corroborate my story. We will also stop by the Kingdom on the way back, as you requested at the start of all this, and try to do some basic reconnaissance. I can't make any promises, though. I've had enough close calls lately to last me a while.

All regards,

Lady Anya Wetherdean

Teleporter for the Nyaskan Courts

~ ~ ~ ~

"Breakfast, Senya!"

Senya made his way out of bed with a groan. Glancing out the window confirmed his suspicions: It was early morning. He could even see one of the newly-arrived cock harpies on the roof of the henhouse, a big, dumb grin plastered on his distant, handsome face.

They were not letting him sleep in, it seemed.

His cock was stiff from endless unsatisfied dreams, so it took him a minute or two to get his trousers on. He resisted the urge to stroke himself only by reminding himself that his sister was literally right outside his door.

It still felt easy to forget things like that. But it was getting easier. He was clearer now. Brighter.

He donned a simple poet shirt and made his way to the door. As he drew near, it swung open, and Anya poked her head in. "You decent? Good! C'mon, I'm frickin' starved, Senya!"

Senya nodded sleepily as she led him out of his room. He heard muffled moans from behind one of the other doors on the landing, and bit his lip (the cupid's company was highly sought-after by just about every visitor to this place), but just as soon Anya was helping him make his way down the stairs.

"I can do it," he muttered, gripping the banister and rolling his eyes. "I'm tired, not injured, Anya."

"Uh-uh, yeah, sure." The mage snorted, and vanished with a little pop, reappearing at the base of the stairs. She folded her arms, baggy sleeves dipping down over her hands. "Let me witness this grace. You couldn't climb a friggin' brick ruin, Senya."

"The handholds broke!" he protested, stumbling down after her. "And I thought you weren't able to do that anymore."

"What? This?" She popped back up to the top, then back down beside him. She shrugged, and he noted the glint of brassy metal around her neck. "It just keeps me on the Ranch. I can teleport anywhere as long as I don't try to leave. They better take this sucker off eventually, Senya."

"I'm sure they will. They just don't want us exploring where we don't belong." He gave a weak smile. "They let you send that letter, didn't they?"

"Yeah, a week ago." She grimaced. "Horatio is gonna be pissed that I'm this late. Nasty bastard treats me like a soldier but puts me to work as a chauffeur for rich fucks. That swishy fox better keep her..." She looked up from her feet and blinked. "Oh, hi, Suisshu!"

He turned. Swish and Mier sat at the dining room table, each with a small helping of fried potato strips and sausage on their plate. The food had been a bit wanting since Bobbin's relocation and the cupid's near-constant occupation, though it was getting better.

"Morning, Anya." Mier waved with a smile. "By the way, do you really have to swear so much? It is the last day, after all."

"Oh, no kidding!" Anya gave her brother a wide grin. "If it's not, I'll set the building on fire!"

"I keep telling you," Suisshu said, tails swishing behind her, "you can't. The wards—"

"Uuuuugh." Anya practically oozed into a chair and rapped her knuckles on the table. "Food! I demand it!"

Senya gave a weak smile at Mier and Swish. "Morning, you two."

"Morning, Mr. Wetherdean." Swish raised a cup of bitterbrew and smiled back. "I hope you slept well."

~ ~ ~ ~

To my dear Larya,

I wasn't sure who to write to—I still have few friends in the Lacratian Continent—but when you have access to bard-spelled birds, it seems wasteful not to write someone.

Mier sends all her love, and so does little Alder! It has been difficult. A month ago, I learned that my sister has been home helping to fight against a group of foreign slavers. We had to become involved, so here I am in the Wild East, and Alder has been staying with a friend for these last few weeks.

It is all past now, though. Our business with the Crows (that's the local group my sister joined) is almost done, but we need to make sure they keep their word. Vengeance is a heady drink, but bitterer than the jungle brews by far. The poor boy the traffickers had roped into everything really didn't know any better. Some would very much like to see his head on a pike anyways.

I have not heard from you in some months. How are you and Snatch? How did that mermaid expedition go? I hope all is well. You really must be more careful around the druids of the Standing Stones. I think they have their eye on you, and that is a wild eye.

Please be safe, and keep Snatch safe, too! It is a deadly world.

Love,

Suisshu

And Mier! Stay frosty, you!

~ ~ ~ ~

"I slept okay." Senya gave a weak giggle. "I'm... well, I think I'm just always tired now. But the sprite fleece blankets do help."

"Angora never lies!" chirped the cook, as she strolled in with a bowl of more potatoes, eggs and meat. The cook was a human woman—one of the Crows who had been trying to kill him a few weeks ago, as a matter of fact, a woman with very short black hair and a bright pink lacy eyepatch named Joshu. She set the bowl down in front of Anya, who exhaled in delight. "Well, save when she does. But the fleece sprite provides, Warden."

"R-right." Senya nodded up at her. Many of the locals who had come to help with reconstruction kept calling him that. Apparently, there was still some confusion on that point.

~ ~ ~ ~

To Matriarch Zhau,

We have finished examining the wards, as you asked, and I believe we can salvage what is necessary to reestablish the Verdant Ward. The Mountain Folk charms are intact, and the Star's holding cell is mostly undamaged. Aside from some whorelip some idiot planted a few generations ago, there are no major breaches. We have released those prisoners whose rosters show they didn't deserve to be here, and even brought in a couple new tenants—a couple cock harpies you may remember from last spring.

The trouble is, most of the Crows have already gone to resume efforts at the other two "ranches", and those that remain don't have the magical know-how to purge the ivy and restore the old spells. The recent masters really did a number on this place—it's hard to know where the old magic ends and the new begins.

We will need you to come up and help us. With your help, I think we can finally get one of the Wards back up and running again.

I will say that the Warden's sister, Anya, has been very helpful for a trespassing foreigner. She does not have the magic to fix the old spells, but seems to understand most of the recent alterations, and might be able to help you when you get here. It also gives us a nice excuse to keep the more, um, uncivilly-minded fey from just killing or enslaving her. Some of them really want to.

With all respect,

Joshu Zensai

~ ~ ~ ~

"Ah." The basement door creaked open, and the wrinkled old village matriarch, Zhau, stepped into the dining room. She said something brief to Joshu, who laughed and nodded, gesturing to him.

Senya bit his lip, feeling too awkward to sit but extremely uncomfortable standing.

The matriarch walked over, performed some sort of traditiomal greeting to Suisshu—which Swish, as always, returned—and promptly stole Mier's plate of food.

"Hey!" the doppelganger protested, shifting into the form of an even more ancient-looking woman. "Respect your elders, kid!"

The matriarch grinned and ignored her as she sat down and started eating.

"How is it going?" Anya asked.

Joshu translated for the matriarch, received a grumbled reply, and turned back to Anya. "She says it's almost done. You and Nun were right about the swallowtails."

"So that, uh, Verdant Star... it won't act up anymore?" Mier was still scowling at the elder, but she also sounded a little concerned.

Probably because the Star was located roughly right beneath her feet.

"Star is quiet," said the matriarch matter-of-factly, bypassing her translator. "Warden made it quiet. Made it happy. Full. Easy to bind."

She then said something else in her tongue, which the cook translated: "But whether or not it will hold prisoners forever is another matter."

Suisshu suddenly seemed very interested in the grain of the table wood.

"Well, I certainly hope it does," chirped a smooth, sly voice that made Senya's cock twitch, even staring across the table at two ancient old women messily fighting over a strip of bacon. Nun sauntered in from the basement and sat down, clutching a large mug of warm milk in both hands.

As she walked, Senya noticed a curious jingling—like that of Valina's collar, almost, but muffled—from one of her pockets. He thought about asking about that, but someone else spoke up first.

"Oh, great," Mier said, rolling her eyes as she released the bacon strip to its new owner, who messily devoured it, "let's all just gather around here while the cook is in here. Gosh, let's call Valina and that bard and those slime girls in here, too, have a real party of it."

Nun ignored her, sitting down next to Anya—much to Anya's clear discomfort, and probably not just because the room was getting a bit cramped now. "Because, first, it is far too crowded in this house, and the sooner there aren't three mages that squabble over runes like chickens over corn, the better." She took a long sip. "And second, Sylvia's leg is healed."

They were all quiet at this. Mier shifted, almost unconsciously, back into that batfolk form she kept slipping into, and both she and Suisshu were blushing—and so was Anya.

"What happens if they get out?" Senya asked, Sylvia's sweet whispers ringing in his ears. "Could we even stop them?"

"The second they get out," Nun said, smirking ruefully, "they will call the hive, and it will be an incursion. You have no idea how close it came, sweet boy."

"And you have no idea what they're in here for," said a voice from the doorway. They all turned to see Valina, leaning against the frame, fiddling with what looked like a glass flute. "Those three will not call the hive first. They will start a new one, slowly picking us off one-by-one, playing with our memories. For all we know, they are already free and scheming." Her eyes glimmered. "For all we know, some of us are already compromi—"

"Okay, I was joking with the whole 'bring everyone in here' thing," Mier said testily. "For real, this table has six seats. Someone has to go. Or bring me more food."

"Mm-hm!" Anya greed, nodding vigorously with a mouth full of eggs.

Joshu rolled her eyes and went back into the kitchen as Valina came strutting in. "Senya," she said, smiling at him.

"Valina," he replied, smiling back. He felt heat rushing to his cheeks.

"Are you going to sit down?" She gestured to the second-to-last chair with a slight smirk.

"No, I like him looming," Mier said cheerfully. "He's like a weird fleshy gargoyle. Don't sit down, Wetherdean." Her face morphed into that of exactly what one would envision from the description fo 'big fleshy gargoyle', only with brown hair and brown eyes to match Senya's. "The creepy looming look is really enhancing my dining experience."

"Don't be mean, Mier," Suisshu said quietly, continuing to peaceably dine on her breakfast.

"I will never do that. Never, Suisshu. I will never not be mean."

"Mier."

Senya sat down. Valina walked around the table to sit down across from him.

She was doing that a lot lately.

~ ~ ~ ~

After breakfast, Senya helped Anya pack. It didn't take too long. She hadn't brought anything, so all she had to do was collect all the stolen possessions Bobbin had collected from their continent, as well as some small goods for the road that the Crows had no interest in.

Senya mostly just tried to help catalog what they'd found.

Bobbin's Room:

Several books of mind control theory, including one titled To Serve Man: Brainwashing Through Obedience ("Yeah, red flag much?" Anya had remarked at the time).

Three thick boxes of Ranch records and diaries (they were not allowed to take these).

A clockwork songbird (it would not sing, no matter how hard Anya tried to get it to work).

A colorful scale the size of Anya's palm ("Holy shit. Is this what I think it is?").

A poster bearing the entire family tree on Yvun's side ("I'm just gonna burn this if no one else wants it.")

Jerrod's Room:

A lockbox full of coins and 'valuable substances'.

A collection of knives.

A bottle of very fine wine.

A deck of playing cards—very well-used.

A book of different one-player card games.

A locket with a woman's face inside.

Senya paused over the last item.

"What does she look like?" he asked Anya.

Anya paused, glancing back at the item she'd carelessly tossed into the bag.

"Brown skin. Eyepatch. Frizzy black hair." She frowned, peering at the picture closely. "Kinda tired-looking. Or maybe sad?"

"Huh. I wonder why he had that?"

"He didn't have any diaries or journals."

Senya bit his lip. "... maybe I should get that back to him. I mean, assuming you don't want it."

"Seriously?" Anya stared at him like he'd just announced his plan to go tongue-kiss a pelican. "Didn't that fucker try to bash your head in?"

Senya stared at the locket, then slowly took it from Anya. He frowned, watching it spin from the fine silver chain.

Who was the woman?

Who was Jerrod, for that matter?

Senya supposed he could ask. Jerrod might even answer. He'd never seemed the type to hold a grudge.

"He is a fucker, he acknowledged, tucking the locket into his pants pocket. "Like, horrible. A murderer, a rapist, a pirate..."

"But you're gonna give it to him."

"Assuming it doesn't have a poison needle or something hidden in it. Yeah." He took a deep breath. "I don't know what made him decide to become a pirate, or what happened to him after he got the Everyflag. It doesn't matter, right? Everyone's got something. And everyone makes choices. And maybe he was just a monster, or maybe... I dunno. But he might as well get his locket back."

Anya blinked.

"He probably just stole it," she groused.

But she said nothing more.

~ ~ ~ ~

To the councils of the Gokuri Forests,

Writing to inform you that prisoner "Jerrod", who rejected the mercy shown him by the Black Boats in order to work with slavers and colonizers in sovereign territory, who assisted in the continued perversion of the Verdant Ward, and who brutally attacked a member of the Bardic Orders, today sought to run while being transported to the City of Flowers to be dealt out justice via the gibbet. It is suspected that he sought fey asylum with a rose dryad who dwelt nearby.

Writing to inform you that in his attempt to escape, he was shot in the leg, and was thus inclined to slip and fall into a steep ditch, where his neck was broken upon impact.

Writing to inform you that prisoner "Jerrod", who withheld his surname under questioning, was killed not in accordance with the sentence laid out by your councils. The magistrate begs your pardon in this misstep. Please inform the fey of this unfortunate incident, and beg their pardon upon our behalf.

~~~~

"You mind carrying this down?" Anya asked, gesturing to a wooden briefcase full of jars. Senya knew better than to ask what was in them. She was currently looking over the spare clothes she'd taken from Bobbin's wardrobe, clearly trying to choose something that came close to fitting without baring essentially everything to the world. "I'll be a few minutes still."

"Sure," Senya said, leaning down and hefting the briefcase. He carried it out to the landing and made his way to the stairs.

Still distracted by his thoughts, he paid no heed to the almost imperceptible creaking of the floorboards behind him.

He'd made it three steps when he felt a smooth, nimble hand slip easily down the front of his trousers, as another ran possessively under his shirt and over his chest. "Keep walking," whispered a sweet little voice in his ear. "There's a good boy."

Senya's breath caught in his throat as he slowly descended. With each step, the hand rewarded him with a little squeeze to his already-hard cock, and he was lost in little whimpers by the time he reached the bottom. His captor was purring loudly as he led him toward a nearby closet. "Set the case down, silly," teased the voice in his ear.

Senya set the case down. "Yes, Kitten," he whispered.

He turned to see Valina beaming at him, her dark tail flicking behind her as she shoved him into the closet. The door clicked shut behind her, but he could still see her glowing green eyes, still see her sly smirk. "Good boy," she said sweetly. "Good boy needs me?"

Senya bit his lip and nodded.

"Senya needs me," purred the catgirl, dropping to her knees.

"Wait," he gasped, as she leaned in, "p-please, not in my pants... they'll see, Kitten... they'll—oh..."

Kitten had already started to delicately suck his cock through his trousers, soaking the fabric in her saliva. She looked up at him, and he heard a little, "Mreow?" as her tail twitched curiously.

Her bright eyes were all it took to melt him.

"P-please," he whimpered, hips bucking as she sucked harder, "oh, please, oh, please... please..."

Her eyes glowed with triumph as she pulled off—just as he was about to cum.

She licked her lips. "Silly Senya," she cooed, giggling. "I'm not going to make you cum in your pants. You aren't cumming at all, remember?" She gave his bulge one tiny lick, causing him to moan. "I was just tasting to make sure!"

"Y-yes, Kitten." He shivered. "Thank you, Kitten."

It was taking all his concentration to hold it in.

Valina gave him another tiny lick, giggling. "We're gonna miss the girls. They were fun. Seems everyone's leaving today. Soon it'll be just us, huh?" She winked.

"Um... g-gods..." He was trembling, clutching the sides of the closet for support.

"But you don't wanna leave me, right?" She batted her eyelashes up at him. "You don't wanna leave Kitten, do you?" She extended her tongue, waiting for an answer.

"No, Kitten," Senya whimpered, as he had done so many times before. He stared deep into her beautiful green. "I d-don't. I could never."

"I love you," the catgirl said happily, giving him another lick.

Senya gasped slightly. "L-love you too," he managed.

"I'll almost miss having to sneak around," the catgirl said, giggling. "It's so much fun seeing you so embarrassed when I 'catch' you." She licked him again.