Love as a Form of Binding Ch. 13

"Very funny," Sharon said, laughing a second later.

"Oh," Lily said, "I ought to tell you more about Zele. She can take any of three forms in an instant because she really is three beings -- and she weighs that much too. If she's feeling playful, she'll look like a bipedal doggish-looking girl. If she really likes and trusts you, you should feel a little privileged, and it likely won't happen on a first meeting, but she'll look like a demon, though very dark and with pure black eyes. If she doesn't like you, or if she's feeling defensive, she'll be a hellhound.

Pet her if you like, though she likely won't feel anything, but whatever you do, don't try to ruffle her fur or stroke it backwards. The ends of her fur are quite sharp and you'll bleed for it. She's working on it, but often, her speech patterns sound a little childlike, but she's very sharp and intuitive. Just don't try to seem patronizing. She won't like it."

Lily looked out at the countryside rolling by for a moment, "Having said that and likely put you off altogether, I think you'll find her very hard not to like all the same.

And a word about the smaller ones, a male kobold, who is huge for one of his kind, and a female imp. They may look like children to you, but they're both quite a bit older than you and they're very much in love. They're very sweet together. Seeing them makes one tend to believe in love as a rather pure thing," she said.

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They were far from the main hall when they heard it, a grunt, a roar and then a crash, followed by screams and shrieks. The sounds continued and Toby changed to the lizard shape that he'd learned from Racephet as they continued on at a trot.

When they came to a passageway that lay littered with goblin bodies and parts thereof, they slowed and stared at each other. The way opened up into a dead-end chamber after that and they saw someone murdering goblins to get at a trio of ogres who now pushed every goblin that remained into her path. She swung a great axe sideways to clear them out of her way.

One tried to get past her, but she took his head in her left hand and crushed it. Two of the large ogres charged her.

She turned her axe to them edge-on and her underhand stroke stopped one of them instantly. She tugged once at the haft of the axe and that was all that she had time for. She let go and turned her head as she swung her fist.

Connecting solidly, she brought her left fist up from below and the ogre stood still looking at nothing. She reached for her axe, tore it out of the dead ogre and swung it once around her head, cleaving the stunned one completely through from shoulder to hip in one stroke.

She brought the axe around and cradled it in her hands.

She looked at the last ogre and nodded.

"Come."

The one left there was larger than the others and he lunged for her throat. The stranger grunted as she swung, and his head left his shoulders. The body slumped and fell over, spraying gouts of black blood onto Zele's legs.

Other than the quiet sounds of her breathing and the sounds made by some of the bodies relaxing in death, the room was silent.

The horned one looked behind her for a moment and then she inspected the blade of her axe for damage.

She looked at them again after a moment. "I am heavier," she said with a half-smirk, "Zele has a fourth shape. She hopes that Maezou is happy now."

None of the three cared what it was that they stepped in, on, or over to get to her. They all just hugged her.

Illa cried again.

They turned to leave, but Zele stepped closer to one wall and looked down. "This shape was given to Zele," she said, looking at the random and obviously much disturbed bones there. "It was this one's, she thinks." She bent down to carefully lift a bony hand from a cloth pouch.

She looked at it closely, wondering why the material was still even there and not rotted away. She tried to lift it very carefully and it came away in her hand in one piece. Zele lifted the pack by the strap.

"What are you looking at?" Toby asked.

"She still speaks to me, this one," Zele remarked in a bit of wonder, "She says this is mine, and I am to take it. I cannot even think of why it is not rotted, but it isn't. It should be dust now."

Maezou looked up, "I feel it. This place has wards. It explains why the goblins thought to come here, hoping that the wards which must have driven them half mad might keep us out." She looked over at the skull there in the dust, "She came here to die and protected the place. She was wounded and dying."

Zele looked at the bones and an empty helmet, missing its fittings and not much more than a metal bowl now. It lay beside a hacked and broken skull. "My thanks," she nodded reverently, "and my wish for a more peaceful sleep for you now."

There was a pause during which Toby, Zele and Maezou listened for a moment to the whispers that came to their ears. Illa looked around impatiently.

"It will be done," Zele said quietly, "Fare you well."

Out in the passageway out to the main one, she found a torch and held up the helm. She shook it and blew out the dust before she set it on Illa's head, a little too far back because of her horns. Illa didn't care, she grinned and thanked Zele.

As they walked back, they learned that Zele had run, not trusting herself to be near to anyone. She eventually led them to the hot spring where she'd been with Illa before. She slipped in to wash the gore from her and all three of them stared.

Zele's tallest shape had been the same as her sister's before. What they stared at now stood almost as tall as Toby, not including her horns. His were still a little taller. She looked something like the girl that had graced the display of Toby's cell phone, though she had no chainmail bikini or any other form of clothing.

She was a shapely, though powerfully-built female with a pair of bull's horns at the corners of her skull, the single one in the middle of her head was still small, just as it had been before. Her skin was as dark as it had always been in any of the other forms, and her long hair was still black -- as were her eyes and her tail.

She sensed her sister's wonder and shrugged as she smiled a little nervously. "There is not enough light here for me to see myself by my reflection in the pool, and anyway, it moves too much from the spring."

She turned to look at them, "I don't know what I look like, and I keep hearing old speech in my head. She is telling me who she was, I think. I feel different in this form, but I don't know what I am like this,"

She looked at herself, her arms and her legs, larger, longer, and more muscular. "I feel like I am some, human in this body, this, this, ...

"You look like a barbarian girl," Toby smiled.

Her expression became uncertain. "Does Toby still, ... Am I still, ..."

Toby nodded slowly with a smile, "I don't think it would make any difference how you looked to me, Zele, but yes, you are."

Zele found Maezou in the pool as well as she splashed up, "What do you think?" she asked, "Eight thousand years we've been friends and sisters. Don't even say it."

"Well I'm nae jumpin' in there wi' all of ye," Illa smiled, "I'll find that deep spot again and drown fer sure, but I am happy te have ye back, and I'm so sorry for what I done te ye, Miss Zele. Where did ye get the axe?"

Zele shrugged and walked over, "Don't be sorry, Illa. I was sick, and wanted to hide. What I felt was awful and, ... I just gave the way that I felt a place to go. Now I have this shape too. I, ... I don't know who that dead one was, but she must have been some sort of magical fighter. She was a very strong spirit. I felt her rage at being killed long ago and at being disturbed by goblins. I was beginning to feel a little better and the goblins found me. The axe belonged to her once, I could tell because the she told me to take what was mine. I could feel her urging me to use it. As soon as I held it, I knew how to use it well. The balance and the heft of it just came to me like it was an old friend somehow.

There were four ogres at first. I pulled her axe out of the hands of one and speared him with the haft. Then I just began to kill them. Then -- "

She looked at them as they stared again. "Am I changing more?"

"No," Maezou said, "You're speaking differently."

The 'warrior girl' thought about it for a second, "Zele should go back?"

"No, speak any way that you want," her sister said, hugging her again, "but I'm getting a little jealous of these," she reached and squeezed one of Zele's new and larger breasts affectionately.

Zele felt something from her sister then and she was surprised at it. "All of our lives, Maezou, I have always wanted to be like you. I made myself like you at first. You have always guided me - you still do. Nothing has changed."

Maezou looked up and smiled, "Something has, Zele. You have gained a lot from that dead spirit, you just can't see it, but I can." She looked a little lower at her sister's breast. Her smile became mischievous and she blew a raspberry against it as she slipped away, "At least I can still do that," she laughed as Zele's hand went to rub the tickle out of her skin.

Zele carefully opened the pack that she'd brought and removed some clothing that made all of them stare.

"This is nothing like what would be worn by humans then," Maezou said, "unless, .... unless it was made to be worn underneath for some reason. She held up the pieces of perfectly supple leather bound together in places by metal rings.

Zele picked up another piece and tilted her head, "There is something here, like a ward, right in the garment." She got out of the water and slipped her long legs through the openings. She left her tail to find its own way out, and it slipped to one side.

Toby began to chuckle and the three of them looked at him.

He stood shaking his head, "I feel what's in that, and I agree, though I don't really know the purpose." He nodded, "I think you're likely right that this was to be worn under something else, but please, oh please don't. It's not exactly a chainmail bikini, but damn, it's close enough,"

Maezou and Zele smirked at him. "You mean what is worn sometimes when human females swim?"

Maezou laughed, "That's exactly what he means, sister. A pleasant little fantasy of Toby's. He has us, almost whenever he wants, and he thinks of this. Next, he will ask me to wear one as well."

She spun and glared at him, "And it won't happen. I won't wear anything like that, black leather and rings, Toby. It suits Zele very well, but -"

"I was thinking of you in a yellow one, actually," he grinned.

"Fine," Maezou said dryly, "I may have something like that one day on a beach for you. In the meantime, I'll wear a long sack."

Toby's eyes went wide, pleading as he shook his head. His consorts grinned.

Illa reached into the pack and she tried with difficulty to pull other articles out, "What is this stuff?"

Zele pulled out a spiked shoulder guard and tried it on her shoulder. Maezou helped with the ties. Illa struggled as she handed her a sleeve made of mail.

Zele nodded, "I feel that this is called the manica. It is to go here," She slipped her right arm inside and flexed the fingers of the attached glove experimentally. "It fits," she smiled.

There were what looked like metallic paddles which Illa pulled out next. Zele held one of them up and held it against her shin. Before she could react, it became leather covered and ran from her mid-thigh as leather down to her feet as a sort of sandal. Zele smiled and repeated the process with the other one. She tried to remove one and it came off with no trouble, remaining the way that it was, a leather covered shin guard.

"Ocrea," she said, as though the word surprised her.

"I'm nae done yet," Illa's voice came from where she knelt with her head almost inside the pack, "There's a bit more here."

She pulled out leather bracers, a matching left glove, a more substantial plated manica for the left arm in two pieces and spiked elbow pieces to go over the arm guards. Zele put them all on with her sister's help. She noticed something along the outside of the pack and lifted a flap to reveal a short sword with four spikes, one at each corner of the handguard. "Gladius," she nodded.

At last, Illa sat back in a lump under a large cloth and trying to find her way out of it. Maezou helped her and held up a long cloak. She tied it around her sister's neck, and they all stood back.

"Well?" Zele asked, "Do I look foolish enough for you?"

"Ye're nae lookin' foolish," Illa said.

"Toby," Maezou pointed at the large axe lying on the floor. He stepped to it and tossed it toward his consort. Zele caught it as though it had been hers forever.

"How was it that ye stopped that big one with yer fists?" Illa asked, remembering, "He looked like he ran inte a wall."

"My sister has four shapes now," Maezou said, "she is heavier as she said."

"It's something called physics, Illa," Toby smiled, "Zele weighs over five hundred pounds now, I'm sure. If something that heavy hits you, ..."

"What am I now?" she asked them all.

"Something that doesn't make sense," Toby said, "historically for the place, but to me, you look like one hell of a Roman gladiator, and not a five hundred pound one either."

"She said that she was a witch, the one in the cave," Zele remarked, "She said to me that she had protected these things for one who never came, so she used them in her time, like her mother before her, and so on. She said that these were mine and that she had fulfilled her oath."

Zele looked down, remembering. She looked up again, "There is something about these things that none of them could ever use, beyond as heavy weapons to them." She looked at one rock face, and held out the axe tentatively.

Nothing happened and Zele shrugged with a smile, "More mystery. I should take these things off. They will not fit me if I change to any other shape."

She looked at them all and they all shook their heads. "Leave it on," Maezou said, "It becomes you, sister. Take it off later. I like to see you like this."

They walked out into the passageway. Zele looked at the opposite wall some yards away and leveled the head of the axe in that direction in one smooth motion. The resultant blast knocked all of them onto their asses and left a large hole in the wall.

Zele stared wide-eyed, and Toby chuckled, "I uh, I think you're getting the hang of it. Is there a safety on that thing? Someplace that you can shut it off?"

Zele carefully looked at the end of the axe head and saw no mark or feature on it.

"That will only work in Zele's hand," Maezou said, "I think that was what was meant."

Zele slipped the sword into a metal loop at her waist and carried the axe over one shoulder. She reached down and picked Illa up easily, holding her on her hip as they went. Illa straightened her helmet and grinned.

"So ye're no mad at me?" Illa asked.

"Pft," Zele blew through her pursed lips, "Never. Neither of us thought about what could happen. I think I owe you very much now - and the old spirit in that cave for this. I'm still the same inside, though it feels different to talk like this finally."

She smirked as she strode along and looked at her sister, "I'm even heavier, I will always have to be on the bottom."

They laughed a little until Zele noticed Illa staring at her. "What is it?"

"Nae much," the imp grinned as she adjusted her helmet again, "I was just thinkin' that there's more of ye fer me te steal glances at now, and these," she laughed, rolling her eyes as she pushed Zele's hair aside to touch one of her leather-covered breasts for a moment, "Very nice, Miss Zele, that's all I'm sayin'."

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"So from what you say, you've put doors on the hall?" Sharon was alarmed as they left her car to begin to walk to the castle, "Lily, I can't see anything like that. I'd need to report it, and anyway-"

"Then you don't need to see them," her companion shrugged, "I can make them transparent and I can put a ward on them so that no living thing will be able to stand the feeling of being there in front of them. It's only for another day anyway. Then I'll remove them."

They walked together across the green until Sharon pulled back, "Lily, I, ..."

"Sorry," She waved her hand. "Now?"

"Better," Sharon smiled, "I see what you meant."

There was a slight grinding noise as the doors opened and the pair stepped inside and down the stairs. Sharon hadn't seen the doors at all. Lily took them over to a spot on the wall and smiled, "Racephet's got them hung again," she smiled as the doors to the lower part opened. Sharon stood in amazement as Lily turned, "The lower hall." Sharon's question about the name only earned her a smile that so much as said, "You'll see."

They stooped a little and walked inside. Sharon wondered about the noises that she heard coming to her, crashes and booms as she was guided around the hole in the floor cautiously. She looked over at Lily with raised eyebrows.

The tall one grinned with a shrug, "Target practice, likely."

When they got to the ledge overlooking the hall below, Sharon stared at two vaguely masculine forms who seemed to be engaged in some form of sport which involved the destruction of one of them at the hands of the other. After a minute, she felt Lily's hand on her arm.

"Come on," she said, "you'll be safer down below. They might miss and then, ..."

"What were those?"

"Two demonlords," Lily said, as though seeing even one was an everyday sort of thing for her. Sharon supposed that it likely was, perhaps, "one helping the other to learn. The one wreathed in flame and smoke was Racephet, an old lord, and the other was Tobias. You'll like them, you just have to remember to -- "

She felt her arm being held back. She looked and Sharon was a little wide-eyed, "You're taking me to meet them?"

"Of course, Sharon," Lily replied, "Why not? You're perfectly safe. I keep them well-fed," she joked, "the only thing that you need to remember is that their females are around here somewhere, though you're safe with me. If you find that you fancy either or both of them, just don't be blatant about it -- until at least all of them here have gotten to meet and know you a little. You're human, after all. They have nothing to fear from you and vice versa, just don't go pissing anybody off really soon."

The passageway leveled out and they approached a doorway, but as they got near it, something flamed past the opening with a roar to crash somewhere out of their sight and Sharon was almost certain that she saw lightning flicker past right afterward in the other direction.

Lily shook her head, "I'd make a remark about males here, but my daughters can get worse than this."

She glared into space out past the doorway and in a few seconds, everything fell still.

"What did you do?" Sharon asked, amazed that everything seemed to have stopped.

Lily smiled warmly and held out her hand, "Come and see."

As they walked out onto the main floor, Sharon looked around. The two antagonists had stopped and now strode toward them from either end of the large and open space that they were walking in. One by one, others walked or landed near to them.

Sharon stared around her at the individuals and the place.

In the goblin hall below the old landmark, in a main chamber over sixty feet high and perhaps two hundred feet across, Sharon had no words as she saw them come to her, each one in a bit of wonder. She saw what had brought the sparring to a halt and what was causing the others to walk to them. She didn't know how it was possible, but she knew it was something that Lily had done.

She knew because it was snowing.