Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 063

"Thank you." Beth leaned her head over so that it was on top of Naia's. "This gift you've given me is...I mean...thank you."

"You're very welcome, lover." Naia helped Beth out of the tub. "I'm afraid we made a bit of a mess, so be really careful—"

Beth felt an icy pain stab her through the stomach. The sensation distracted her, causing her to slip on a wet patch. Her legs shot out from under her, but there was nothing to grab onto and she fell. Instead of hitting her head on the floor, the water on the floor rushed together beneath her, creating a thick bubble of fluid that acted as an airbag. It sprayed outward in every direction on impact, turning a nasty fall into a soft bump.

"Oh, shit, that was scary." Beth sat up, now covered in water. "I'm okay though, thanks for the save."

Naia said nothing. Instead, she stared at Beth from her place inside the bathtub, a look of shock on her face.

"That...that wasn't me," she said in a hushed tone, breaking the silence. "I tried to manipulate the water, but it was already being moved with magic. Your magic."

"You gave me water magic?" Beth looked around the bathroom. It was a wet disaster, and even the towels were soaked. She reached out mentally, wondering if she could make it move. All it did was drip off the walls.

Naia shook her head. "That's just it. That's not even something I can do." She bit her lip nervously. "We need to talk to Ratu, right away."

The cold air of Oregon bit at Mike through his jacket. The snow on the ground was only a couple of inches thick but crunched loudly when they walked.

Dana and Quetzalli were in the lead while Yuki brought up the rear. Mike saw that she was swishing her tail over the snow where they walked, and their footprints were vanishing as if wiped from a dry erase board.

Up ahead, the trees parted. There was a hanging fog in the air that shifted away from them as they approached. When they stepped through it, a tingle ran through his whole body.

"We're inside," he said. The magic felt similar to the geas, but not quite the same.

"How do you feel?" asked Dana.

"Kinda hungry," he answered, then pulled a granola bar out of his pocket. When he went to open it, he noticed that the wrapper had been opened already. Curious, he pulled the bar out and laughed. A third of it was gone, and he knew it had to have been Tink.

"May I have some of that?" Quetzalli asked, clutching her stomach. They had been walking for over an hour now, and she was probably just as hungry.

"Here, you can have your own. This one has goblin cooties." He pulled a couple more out of his backpack, then handed over his water bottle. They took turns drinking out of it while Abella and Dana kept watch.

"Is this like being at the house?" he asked Abella. "It's not the geas, but it feels familiar to me."

She nodded, then looked up. "It's been so long since I've seen the forest. Ever since Europe, actually."

"Were you brought over through a portal?" he asked.

"Freighter," she responded. "Was a long journey. I had to sit inside of a box."

"Kind of like Eulalie did." The mention of the Arachne's name caused Abella to scowl. "You don't like her, do you?"

Abella's cheeks darkened. "No, I do not."

"She seems nice."

"That doesn't impress me. Don't think I didn't notice how she suddenly couldn't bring us on this trip. There's one in the house and one waiting for us at our destination. Nobody builds a trap as the Arachne do."

"My magic tells me that she is safe." He patted his gut. "Besides, why go through all this trouble to get me if they could just leave the cabin and snack on some hikers?"

"I haven't figured that part out yet," she admitted.

"They're different." This came from Dana, who slowed down to walk with them. "The Arachne are killers, but their mother wasn't. Every time she laid eggs, she crushed them all because she could tell they would never be able to coexist with humans. Velvet and Eulalie were the only two out of hundreds of eggs that she allowed to hatch because she could tell they were different."

Abella snorted, then walked away from them to join Yuki.

"She really doesn't like them," Dana observed.

"There's always more to the story than we think," Mike said. "I'll admit, the whole spider thing freaks me out. I had a bad experience with them as a kid, and they are kind of being shoved in my face right now."

"I thought you'd enjoy it," she said.

"How do you figure?"

"Always took you for a leg man." She winked at him.

When he laughed, it was almost like a bark. "Okay, you've got me there," he admitted. "Though it's more the whole package, I guess." He thought about the different women in the house. There really wasn't a pattern among them other than not being human.

"For me, it is the hips. Sounds strange, right? But there's something to it. A girl with hips has got some curves to begin with. And don't even get me started on leggings."

"Oh?" Mike snuck a glance over at Quetzalli. The dragon's human form had very voluptuous curves. For the first month she was a human, it had been almost comical to hear her bitch about how parts of her anatomy would keep moving even after she had stopped. "I feel like leggings are one of God's final gifts to mankind," he continued. "A proper pair of leggings can make a housewife look like a goddess."

Dana smirked. "Maybe we could have Tink make us a pair of leggings with eight legs. It would be like immersion therapy or something."

"That would be—" A cold feeling filled his gut and he paused.

"What's up?" Dana asked him.

"Something bad is about to happen." His eyes were drawn up into the trees where he saw movement. He had barely raised his hand to point it out when Abella wrapped her wings around him, blotting out the light.

Someone yelled, and he heard multiple projectiles shatter against Abella's body. When she unwrapped her wings, the tree had been engulfed by a mass of ice. Three squat figures fell out of the tree and landed in the packed snow beneath.

"What was that?" he asked. When he looked over at Dana, he saw that she had arrows sticking out of her chest and shoulders.

"Arrows, apparently. Bad ones." Dana pulled one out and sniffed it, then made a face. "They've been dipped in something nasty."

"Was it just these three?" he asked.

"If so, they were firing them pretty fast," Quetzalli said as she came over. "I would surmise that—"

The cold feeling hit him again and he tackled Quetzalli to the ground as another volley launched over them. A barrier of ice formed in front of them and Yuki shouted in anger.

Through the clear ice of the barrier, he watched Dana pull a dagger from her pants and flick her wrist. The blade extended to reveal a sword that looked almost like a katana and was very similar to the one that Sofia carried. The zombie charged into the fray, the sword hissing through the air as she swung it.

"Where the hell did she get that?" he asked, then looked down at Quetzalli. "Are you okay? You didn't get hit, did you?"

The dragon grinned, her cheeks crimson from the cold. He was on top of her and suddenly aware that his hands had been planted along her ribs. Her breasts were large enough that when they had flattened, they now pressed against his wrists.

"I'm okay," she told him, then gave him a little kiss on the nose. The resulting shock made him bite the tip of his tongue. "My hero."

All around them, the forest came to life with the sounds of chirps and hooting, as if a thousand horny owls were vying for his attention. He moved off of Quetzalli and chanced a glance over the top of the barrier. Yuki was summoning four-foot long spears of frost that flew up into the trees once formed. Dana and Abella were protecting the kitsune from projectiles. With every passing moment, Dana looked more like a porcupine than a woman.

The cold feeling returned and he looked back in the direction that they had come. A group of the stout little men emerged from the forest, their teeth bared.

"Abella," he called out as he covered Quetzalli's ears with his hands. "Ears!"

The gargoyle shoved her fingers in her ears as he took a deep breath and then let out a piercing cry. It was the banshee magic he let loose from within, a hair-raising sound that he had practiced for hours with Cecilia's tutelage. What had once been a loud shriek now sounded like a dissonant blast of more than one voice. Not only was it painful for others to hear, but it was also downright terrifying.

The little men panicked and turned to run. A couple of them hesitated, the scream not enough to frighten them off.

Quezalli raised her hands and summoned lightning from her fingertips. When it struck the pair, they let out a howl of agony and fell to the ground, their bodies twitching even after she stopped.

In a moment of respite, Mike reached into his pockets and pulled out a small baggie of earplugs.

"Time to kick some ass," he told Quetzalli as he handed her a pair. "It's gonna get loud, so put them in."

She grinned, then stuffed the plugs in her ears.

"You may be making a lot of noise," she shouted with an arched eyebrow. Electricity crackled all along the length of her horn as the air around her crackled with energy. "But I want you to remember that lightning does all the work."

Above them, thunder rumbled in the clouds. Laughing, they both ran to join the others.

Velvet yawned, her jaw clicking as she did so. The front door of the house had been barred, and the windows shuttered. Between some of the fierce winter storms and the goblin attacks so long ago, the cabin was perfectly capable of being turned into a defensive fortress for a little bit.

Unfortunately, it wasn't meant to be manned by only one person. Emery helped out where he could, flying around the house and constantly checking windows for movement.

Bigfoot was out cold on the couch. She had feared that the poison was lethal, but Bigfoot wasn't most creatures. He had started rambling around midnight in an ancient language that made the air feel thick and heavy. Around two in the morning, he had gotten into an imaginary argument with her father about cheating at poker. Mostly, what he said was nonsense.

At five in the morning, Bigfoot had ripped a gnarly fart that made her eyes water, but had finally settled. Other than the occasional groan, it seemed like the worst had passed.

During this period of time, Velvet had watched as the little people had come out of the woods to inspect her home. They were aware that she was in the cabin and stayed back, but had ransacked the barn. She watched in dismay as they lost a large chunk of their supplies to the invaders, and had actually cracked the door to take a couple of shots when the opportunity arose.

It was strange that the little people weren't trying to break in. If they knew she was there, why not press the attack while Bigfoot was down?

Something wasn't right, and she thought back to her argument with Eulalie. Her sister had been convinced that some intelligent force was conspiring against them, but Velvet had refused to see it. These people outside her home seemed smart enough to survive, but based on their behavior, they weren't the ones in charge.

So, who could it be?

"Velvet?" Emery landed on the frame of the door, his tiny limbs clinging to the wood. "You need to eat something. It's almost dinnertime."

"I suppose." She peered through the window once more. There wasn't any sign of the little people now. Still, she hated to look away.

"I'll keep watch. Take five minutes, go eat and drink. It'll be okay." He shooed her off and she walked into the kitchen to see what he had brought her. It was a raccoon that Eulalie had trapped a couple of weeks ago, tidily wrapped in a web. She opened her mouth wide for her fangs to descend and sank them into the tenderized flesh and drank.

The cocoon in her hands shriveled up like a giant Capri Sun as she drank the meal inside. When she was done, she got herself a glass of water from the sink and was grateful when liquid flowed from the faucet. Now that the cabin itself was under attack, Eulalie's concerns seemed well-founded. Hopefully, the little people wouldn't find out how to ruin their water supply.

"Something is happening out there." Emery frowned, which was almost comical. His long-pointed nose hung down over his lips, making him look like a sad little troll.

"What?" she asked.

He didn't have to answer because she heard it. It was faint at first, but someone was tapping on the walls of the cabin. The sound amplified as others joined in. She peered through the shutters to see that one of the little men was using his spear to poke at the siding.

"Can they get in?" she asked.

"I don't know," Emery answered. "But we need to get them to stop."

"Damn." She looked over at Bigfoot, who was still asleep. Even if she wanted to run, where could she go? Her uncle still needed time to recover, which was a scary thought as well. Whatever poison was in his system must be potent indeed to have dropped him as fast as it did, which meant it would probably kill her outright.

She went into the kitchen and picked out an old cleaver from the knife drawer. Grabbing the broom from next to the fridge, she met Emery at the front door. "I'm going to need you to make a little noise while I go out through the roof."

Emery made a face like he was going to argue, but the tapping intensified. One of the creatures was now trying to wedge his spear into one of the shutters. She threw the imp a knowing glance, then reached down toward her spinnerets to withdraw some webbing. Unable to create the intricate webs that her sister could make, it was still strong enough to cocoon a creature.

She used it to attach the cleaver to the broom handle, then gave it a practice swing.

The imp nodded. "How long should I wait?" he asked.

"Count to thirty." Velvet flexed her legs and leapt up into the loft. From here, she was able to let herself into the attic of the cabin. It was mostly full of boxes from their childhood, things that her parents couldn't bear to part with. There were also several boxes of canned soup for her father in case of emergencies.

She stopped to touch the corner of one of the boxes. It suddenly occurred to her that the last time the box was opened, her father had been alive. Tears forced their way into her eyes as she tried to sniff them back.

"I am not crying over fucking soup," she muttered, then moved to the hatch that had been bolted shut from the inside. Her father had installed it for their mother and them when they were little so that they wouldn't wake him up if they went out at night. She put her hand fondly on the bolted passage, took a deep breath, then slid the bolt out of the way and pushed it open.

It moved with nary a sound, and she was out on the roof. The afternoon air was chilled, and her breath was coming in tiny clouds that vanished on the breeze. Down below, she heard Emery let out a shriek of alarm and start banging on one of the windows.

Her sense picked up one of the little men directly beneath her. Near the back of the cabin, she cast a wary gaze toward the tree line. Seeing that there was nobody coming, she chanced a look over the edge. The cannibal carrying the spear was moving toward the corner of the house. His back was to her.

She dropped down from above, then swung her makeshift halberd in a wide arc. When she struck the creature in the head, the blade stuck in its thick skull. It fell with a grunt.

"Plus two to damage, bitch." She yanked the cleaver out of its skull and used the reflective blade to peek around the corner. Two of them were moving toward the racket that Emery was making, but a third was using its spear to try and force open the shutter that went to her father's room.

Seeing red, she charged around the corner and sprinted toward the nirumbi forcing open the window. It let out a screech of rage when it saw her, but she sank her fangs into its neck before it could do anything else.

The nirumbi farthest from her cried out and threw its spear. She used the nirumbi she held as a shield to block it, then drew the Sig and fired. Her shot hit the nirumbi that had thrown the spear in the chest, and it went down. The third raised its own spear, but Velvet swung her makeshift weapon hard enough that it cleaved through the little man's arm.

The broom handle broke. She pulled the spear out of the nirumbi in her mouth and threw him at his friend. They both fell down, and Velvet used the spear to pin them together at the belly.

"Nirumbi-kabob," she muttered with a grin, then leapt onto the roof. A second later, three nirumbi came around the corner to investigate, but Velvet was on her way to the other side of the house. She found two more nirumbi nervously circling around the house.

She dropped down from above and fired the Sig. It took four shots this time, but she killed them both and took their spears before fleeing to the roof. By now, the air was filled with hooting as they tried to track her down. A group of them had emerged from the barn, but Velvet kept to the back of the cabin. She snuck back inside and latched the hatch shut.

Down below, Emery was shrieking his little head off, but the tapping had already stopped.

"I bought us some time," she told him, then picked up her father's rifle from the dining room table. "I'm thinking we can pick a few more off from the roof."

Emery nodded, then pressed his face to the gap in the window. "Should I make another distraction?"

"Nope." She moved past him and pulled open the front door. The nirumbi were so busy scanning the roof that she was able to squeeze off two shots before they fled. Her aim with the rifle was far better, and she slammed the door shut and bolted it.

"Disgusting," Emery remarked as he watched through the window gap.

"Death is never pretty, but sometimes necessary," she told him.

That was a fact that her father had drilled into her since she was little, ever since she could hunt. She had cried the first time she had caught a rabbit on her own. The poor thing had looked terrified when she snapped its neck as her mother had taught her.

"They're eating their own dead." Emery moved away from the window so that Velvet could look. Sure enough, the two she had shot were getting carved up by their brethren as if they were worried the meat would suddenly go bad.

She debated taking another shot at them, but a small group had formed a semi-circle around the front door. They were holding bows, and she knew better than to mess with poisonous arrows. Maybe if she went up top, she could snipe a couple? Over near the barn, a group of them appeared from out of the forest.

"Shit," she muttered, then moved over to Bigfoot. "Uncle Foot? Hey!" She tried slapping him into consciousness. "I really need you to wake up right now!"

"Velvet!" Emery's wings flapped frantically as he backed away from the door. "They're lighting torches!"

She moved to the window and yanked it open. The nearest nirumbi let out a squawk of alarm as she looked down her sights at a trio of nirumbi who were trying to build a fire out of hay from the loft. Smoke was already climbing from the stack when she fired, taking out one of them before slamming the window shut.

"Uncle Foot!" She screamed as she ran to the kitchen window. When she opened it, she could sense the arrow coming at her and dodged. It passed harmlessly through her hair and stuck in the fridge. Ducking down, she pulled the window shut as two more arrows came in.

"What do we do?" Emery's eyes were wide as he hovered before her. "Velvet, we need to run!"

"I'm not leaving without him," she said, looking over at Bigfoot.

"But you can't leave with him." The imp screwed up his features. "Maybe if you open a window, I can lead them away?"