Monster U.
Introduction:
Chapter 1
Author’s Note:
This story is, for the most part, written in the first person from the perspective of the main character, Jeff. However when the need arises to tell a part of the story, in which Jeff isn’t present, I will switch to third person, the narrator’s view. The narrator is still Jeff relating a part of the story that was relayed to him at a later time. Also there is no sex in this one but will be in following chapters.
Words between ‘ ‘ are thoughts. Ex.= ‘I want pizza!’
Monster U.
Hi people my name is Jeff, well actually it is Jeffrey Blackwell but we’ll just go with Jeff, and I am here to tell you monsters exist. Everything you’ve ever heard about things slithering in the dark from the Boogeyman to the Japanese Kitsune. Now I know you’re wondering if the monsters exist do the good guy angels, etc. They do, however they are not friendly nor are they all good but they are intensely beautiful. They are still monsters and like most of the hidden world they despise humanity. My advice, if you’re human and you meet any creature or being that you think shouldn’t exist and it doesn’t kill you outright, turn around and run away as fast as you can and forget you saw anything. The unseen world has been hidden for a long time and if you start blabbing about whatever it was that you saw ‘they’ will pay you a visit and you might just forget what you saw or you could vanish never to be seen again. The unseen world has its own governing body which is split into four parts. Every continent and the oceans have been split into ‘Sectors’ presiding over each of these areas is a lord. The lord is almost always the most powerful monster in the area due to the fact that you can take the job by killing the previous lord. These lords answer to a Regent who is responsible for maintaining the peace in a large chunk of sectors, all of North America for example. In turn these Regents answer to The Council, aka. The Council of Sin due to the fact that each is given the title of one of the seven deadly sins to replace their names. The seven council members rule the unseen world with an iron fist and are answerable to only one being in all of existence. The Demon King, he is the only being able to order the council to his will. The last Demon King, Zakir, died nearly a hundred years ago and the Council rules until another rises to the throne. There aren’t tons of requirements to be the Demon King but failure to succeed means death, even so many try every year. Alright now that you’ve got a little back story let’s get this story rolling.
It all started with an argument with my mother…
“You’re going,” my mother, Mercy, stated with determination. The witch, I’m not insulting her she really is a witch honest to god witch flying broom and everything, put her hands on her hips and glared at me. She thought that the pose was intimidating and I had never had the heart to tell her with her diminutive body, four foot eleven, it just made her look adorable.
“I am not,” I shot back with just as much determination and crossed my arms over my chest. She didn’t bat an eyelash but I am sure my pose with my much larger size, six feet even, was much more intimidating.
“As long as you live under my roof,” she began with that tired old line.
“Fine,” I said and she smiled misunderstanding me.
“I’ll move out by the end of the week,” I said and the smiled dropped off her face and was replaced with alarm instead.
“Sweetie, you have to go! Our family has been going for nearly a hundred generations, since the place was founded. You’re the descendent of the founder,” she changed her tone to pleading once she realized that threats wouldn’t work. The place she is talking about is Blackwell University, aka. Monster U., and is the place all good little monsters go after high school just before their powers jump to full power around nineteen years old.
“I am not going I don’t belong there! I am human,” I said holding my arms out as if to give her a better view of my humanity. My mother had married a human, a highly unusual choice, and been exiled from her clan when she refused to break it off with my father. There are five major witch clans, each founded way back when, but we’ll get into that later.
“Even if you are,” she said in a way making it sound like I was claiming I was master of the world,” you have to go.”
“Look even if I went, the main reason to go is to learn to control your abilities after they mature to full power. I don’t have any powers so going there is a waste of my time so I am not going,” I said with finality. She opened her mouth you argue further but a knock on the front door sounded and I took the chance to escape. Brandon stood on the other side of the door with a huge grin on his face when I opened the door. Brandon is a werewolf and my best friend, he and my mom make up the entirety of my family, or at least those I consider family.
“Hey what’s-,” I began before pain lanced up my spine and all of my muscles clenched in protest. The sensation wasn’t something new, I suffered from these painful seizures from time to time, but it seemed to be worse than the last time.
“Jeff,” Brandon shouted in alarm and leapt forward to keep me from face planting on the floor. My mother hearing the distress in his voice hurried into the room and her gaze locked on me as I twitched in Brandon’s grip. He was much stronger than me, much stronger than any human for that matter, and easily kept me upright. As a child I was injured somehow, my mother would just change the subject when I asked how so I eventually stopped trying, and these flashes of agony were a reminder of that injury. There were no marks on my back but the pain came regardless, and I just clenched my teeth and bore it. Except for the last year it had just become something I had to deal with, it had intensified and almost always when it came it crippled me temporarily.
They laid me on the couch and my mother brushed her hand through my hair, tears in her pretty green eyes, and I writhed in pain for several minutes before it abated. When it was gone as just lay there panting and trying to recover from the episode.
“So you all packed and ready to head out for Monster U.,” Brandon asked as a way to fill the silence.
“I’m not going,” I replied my voiced strained and then sat up with a pained groan. My whole body ached as it usually did after one of my attacks. Brandon opened his mouth to say something, a surprised look on his face and he glance from my mother to me and decided to just stay quite. My mother didn’t say anything this time but she wore the same determined look she had on earlier and her silence worried me. She was a powerful witch and I was pretty much powerless against her if she decided to force me I wouldn’t be able to resist. I pushed the thought out of my mind preferring to believe that she would never do something like that; I should have listened to my instincts and made a run for as soon as she turned her back on me.
“Honey, I’m making your favorite, Pizza, tonight so if you’re going out be back tonight,” Mom said and I nodded. I rose unsteadily to my feet and once I was composed I motioned to Brandon and we headed out of the house, leaving my mother to her cooking. We hopped in his beat-up piece of crap of a car and we drove the 10 minute drive to the mall in silence. When we got there we got out and the mood lightened enough for Brandon to start talking again, he wisely didn’t ask about my mother or the monster school. We just walked aimlessly around the mall talking or Brandon flirting with every female we passed. He was a hopeless flirt, he wasn’t serious most of the time he just liked the women’s reactions to him. Age didn’t matter, from girls just old enough to talk and their mothers to toothless old grannies, he’d stop and flirt and I would either stand there and listen, amused as he spoke, or browse the shops on either side of the corridor. He had come close to getting into many fights when he flirted with some pricks wife or girlfriend, but he could exude and air of menace when he desired and they quickly backed down and fled with said female in tow.
We walked around the mall of several hours, Brandon flirting and actually receiving several girls’ numbers to which I just shook my head. One of them was even a hot mother with a daughter on her hip after that I decided it was time to head back. We walked out to his car and climbed back in, him talking animatedly about the MILF who just given him her number, and we pulled away. The ride home passed by in a flash, as he went on about everything he wanted to do to for, and with the hot mother and her large breasts. I just laughed at his outrageous claims, both of us knowing he would almost certainly never take her up on her offer. His parents would flip out and probably try to eat him, as his mother often threatened; if she found out he was actually involved in any way with a normal human. They only tolerated his friendship with me because my mother had threatened to turn them into rabbits and leave them that way when they began to give him grief for it.
Upon entering the house the mouthwatering smell of pizza hit us, and we stopped and inhaled deeply.
“Mom, we’re back,” I called.
“Go wash up dinner is ready,” she called back from the kitchen and we did as commanded quickly.
“It smells delicious Mom,” I said when I answered the kitchen and she handed me a plate to two slice of mushroom pizza that no pizzeria in the world could match. I was pretty certain she used some kind of magic to make it taste so much better than normal but I had once watched her make it and never saw a hint of her using her power. I took a big bite and the gooey extra cheese stretched between my mouth and the pizza in a strand as thick around as my pinky before I severed it with my teeth.
“So good,” Brandon moaned, after taking a seat beside the one I now occupied. Mom smiled at us before she turned to the sink and began cleaning the dishes occasionally looking over her shoulder at us. I finished my first slice and I was halfway through the second before dizziness washed over me, followed swiftly by tiredness. I set the pizza down in confusion and Brandon looked over in surprise, once I picked up a slice of my Mom’s pizza it never got put back down. That last thing I remembered was his lips moving but I didn’t hear whatever he said because I slipped into a deep sleep.
That brings us to the present and I am currently groggy and pissed off but I know exactly what happened to me. I already know what I’ll see before I open my eyes and I squeeze them shut hoping that if I don’t look it will all go away. That maybe I fell and hit my head and that my mother didn’t just fucking drugged me and put me on a bus to my idea of a living hell. That hope is shattered however when the bus hits a pot hole and my head bounces off the window pane it is resting on. I groan but the dizziness and lethargy are rapidly fading and my anger and the feeling of betrayal is growing to replace it. I open my eyes and look around, and the bus is pretty nice with plush seats and a bathroom at the back. The bus is packed with teens headed for the school and is quite noisy as they try to speak over each other. Outside the window it is pitch black as the bus travels through dimensional walls to reach the school, which only reachable by this bus. With a sigh I lean my head back against the window and resign myself to the fact that until the holiday trip home I will be stuck at the school, doesn’t mean I have to go along with it like a good little peon though. Brandon is in the seat next to me snoring away and I decide to let him sleep, and it is only then that I notice the foil wrapped plate in my lap. I lift the foil off and the smell of freshly baked peanut butter cookies wafts out from inside. The smell is mouthwatering but I haven’t forgotten what happened that last time I ate my mother’s cooking, and I am just about to close it when a pretty face pokes up above the seat in front of me.
“Are those peanut butter,” she asked hopefully and gives me puppy dog eyes. I smile and nod at her before handing her the entire plate of cookies.
“Here you go just share with anyone else who wants one,” I tell her and she grins at me before sitting back down. I am pretty sure these aren’t drugged since there would be no purpose since I am already on the bus and I watch as everyone around who heard me say share holds out a hand for the cookies. Pretty soon they are gone and the girl’s head pops back above the seat.
“Here this was on the bottom of the plate, under the cookies,” she says and hands me an envelope with my name scrawled across the front in my mother’s neat handwriting. Seeing it makes me both sad and furious at the same time and I crumple the note into a ball and jam it into my pocket. The girl watches in silence before offering me another smile and then sits back down and I settle in to fume in silence for the rest of the ride. As the bus trundles on the hum of engine and sway eventually lulls me into a half-sleep but I wake the instant the bus stops and look out the windows. We are park in front of a building with white marble Greek columns like you could find on most colleges and everything looks pretty normal. Everyone stands and begins gathering their stuff and trying to get off the bus. I wake Brandon and then lean back waiting for the majority of the others to exit not wanting to get caught in the crush of bodies. When the bus is mostly empty Brandon and I stand and he grabs two bags from the overhead luggage rack and hands me one and I follow him off the bus.
“Your other luggage will be taken to your rooms,” the bus driver says to us as we step off the bus then he re boarders and drives around the side of the building down a small road barely big enough to accommodate the bus. The building is so wide from our position we can’t see anything passed it and behind us is only the road we drove in on and forest for as far as I can see.
“Did you eat all of those cookies already,” Brandon asked with a whine.
“No,” I reply shortly. He must still be half asleep because he misses the obvious clue to drop the subject in my tone.
“I bet you did,” he says.
“Actually I didn’t eat any of them, I gave the entire plate away,” I replied. His brain must have finally clicked on because the teasing tone drops from his voice but he still doesn’t let it drop.
“Did you get the letter,” he asks and I nod.
“Well what did it say,” he asks irritating me. I pulled the crumpled note from my pocket and thrust it at him, and he takes it his eyes widening in surprise.
“Why didn’t you read it,” he asks.
“Because I don’t care what it says,” I reply through gritted teeth.
“You know she loves you right,” he asks softly staring down at the balled letter with a sad look.
“She has a funny way of showing it,” I shoot back and begin following the others as they head inside but he grabs my arm and pulls me to a stop. I stare at his hand gripping my arm until he lets it fall back to his side, because there is no way I can escape by brute force, before I look up at him.
“She must have had a good reason,” Brandon begins but I cut him off before he can go any further.
“Stop! DO NOT defend her, there is no reason good enough for drugging me,” I say hissing out the last two words. He doesn’t have a reply and I turn and head inside and he follows, silently, behind me. The room we enter is decorated in plush furniture with the focus being a large wooden desk in the middle of the room. Sitting behind the desk is a brunette who, even sitting, is tall and intimidating. She is dressed in a very business-like suit and her massive chest strains against the fabric of the coat. After an initial glance I find myself uninterested though, it is probably the air of menace that surrounds her. Several of the others either don’t sense what I do or they simply don’t care and are staring in wonder and lust at her tits. She had a pretty face with brown eyes but her looks were completely negated by the severe frown pulling down the corners of her mouth.
“I am Ms. Scorn, form a line in front of the desk. When you reach the front give me your name and I will give you your class schedules and room assignments,” Ms. Scorn ordered and everyone quickly steps into line. I am last with Brandon just in front of me and the girl on the bus, who I had given the cookies, in front of him. The line moved along at a steady pace with a small pause, which became shorter as the stack of papers got smaller, each time Ms. Scorn had to look through her stack of papers for the current person’s information.
“Whitney ______,” the girl from the bus says. She says an actual last name but I can’t even pronounce it let alone spell it. Brandon steps forward and received his info which happens to be the last paper Ms. Scorn is holding.
Confused, I still step forward and do as ordered.
“Jeffrey Blackwell,” I say and she nods.
“I don’t have a schedule for you Mr. Blackwell the Dean would like to see you. I assume he will be the one giving it to you,” she informs me and I nod. I wait for her to tell me how to get to the Dean’s office but she is silent so I just stand there in the awkward silence as the group of people who already received their info stands off to the side watching. After several moments when it becomes apparent that I am not going to speak her frown deepens.
“Is there something else you need Mr. Blackwell,” she demands, snottily.
“Directions to the Dean’s Office would be helpful, unless you would like me to just wander around aimlessly until I find it? I’m sure I will in a day or two when I’ve got the free time,” I respond answering her attitude with one of my own. She maybe a supernatural being that could break me like a tooth pick but that didn’t mean I was going to take shit from her. Her cheeks tinged pink with either embarrassment or anger at the comment, or at the snickers from the watching teens.
“Go through the door on the left side of the room and you’ll find his office at the end of the hall,” she said her voice clipped and hostile.
“Thanks,” I say and head for the left side of the room, away from where the others are congregated. On the other side of the door is a hallway lined with several doors, all closed, with a set of wooden double doors at the end of the hall. I head for the double doors, walking past gold gilded picture frames holding portraits of people I don’t know. When I reach to door I knock and wait for an answer but instead it swings open to reveal the room beyond. The room is decorated in matching furniture to the waiting room except in front of the desk in this room there are two comfy looking chairs. Behind this desk sits an old man, who bears a striking resemblance to Mr. Miagi and I have to restrain myself from bowing and saying ‘Good afternoon sensei’.
“Come in Mr. Blackwell I’ve been expecting you,” the Dean says and gestures me forward with the wave of a hand, he even sounds like Mr. Miagi.
“Your mother has spoken to me of your… difficulties,” the dean began as soon as I took a seat in one of the chairs in front of his desk.
“You mean the where I am entirely a normal human other than the fact that my mother is a witch,” I clarify not positive what he was talking about.
“Hold out your hand,” he ordered instead of replying. I hesitate for a moment but do as I am told and extend my hand, palm upwards, to him. He places his hand below mine, the palm of his hand barely contacting the back of my hand, and stares at my palm. At first nothing happens then I feel heat begin to spread through my hand and suddenly and orb of fire is floating an inch above my palm. I stare amaze that it isn’t burning me with how close it is to my skin, I open my mouth to speak but before I can it hits me. Like a bolt of lightning pain pierced my spine and my hand was ripped away from the old man’s grasp. The ball of fire drops into my palm and sears the skin before I managed to drop it, still writhing in agony. The dean leaps around the desk and with a wave of his hand the fire goes out; he stands there watching as the pain shoots through me.
“That pain your feeling isn’t from and old injury. That is a binding spell on your powers and every time you try to use them either consciously or sub-consciously you are warned to stop by the pain. Through training you will be able to overcome this block and break the spell. You will be training with me until the block is destroyed,” he says as the pain begins to subside.
“I will let you rest for today but tomorrow we begin trying to remove your block,” the dean said and easily lifted me by my shoulder to my feet. My legs are unsteady and it feels as if I am going to topple in a moment but I manage to keep my feet under me. He dismisses me and gives me a map of the campus with my room clearly marked out.
“Jeff,” he calls and I turn back.
“Don’t try to leave the campus, nobody can get on or off without my permission.”
My body aches from the residual pain and I shamble along, not bothering to look at the campus around me, headed for my bed. I finally reach my room and find that even though there are two beds in the room my things are the only belongs here. I sigh in gratefulness, and examine the burned palm of my hand, that I get the room to myself and walk over and fall onto one of the beds. Within moments I am asleep and I sleep peacefully until nightfall. The last dying rays of the sun shining in my eyes is what wakes me and I rise out of bed groggily and use the bathroom across the hall. After I am finished I go back to my room and begin unpacking my things and discover my camping pack is here. I spent a year as a boy scout and found a love of camping, after that Brandon and I spent weeks camping out in different forests living off the land. Mom must have just grabbed whatever and thrown it into the bus before loading me on. As I unpack my clothes my thoughts turn back to yesterday and I shudder at the prospect of ever even seeing the Dean again. To have the pain come occasionally is one think but to force it to manifest is torturous and cruel. I sit there trying to think of a way out of this, anyway out of this, and my gaze falls back to the camping pack and an idea forms. With a grin a gather five sets of clothes, underwear, and ten pairs of socks and stuff them into my already packed camping bag. I actually have several camping bags for different occasions and this one is what I like to call the ‘Luxury Bag’ do to it containing many items not necessary to survival in the wild but enhance the comfort of doing so. This bag is actually heavier than the others but I can and have hiked miles through thick woods with it on my back.
There is no one in the hall when I open the door and I hurry down the hall and out into the descending night. Darkness is rapidly taking control of the sky and there is not a single person outside as I walk quickly towards the tree line. Once I get under cover they won’t be able to track me, at least not for three days or so. They can’t scry me, scrying is a type of magical viewing of something, because my mother has spelled all of my camping gear against such magical tracking as a protection measure. My mother could track me off the signature of her own spells but she isn’t here. My boots are spelled to mask my scent so no dangerous wild animal will come across my trail and begin hunting me. A werewolf in full wolf form could overcome the minor enchantment in the boots and follow me but the first day of the full moon aren’t for three days. Werewolves follow a three day cycle with the moon, the day before the full moon, the day of the full moon, and the day after the full moon. During the day before and the day after the full moon any Were animal can freely shift back and forth between human, the night of the full moon every shifter is forced to change into, and stay, in their animal forms until dawn of the following day. I had three days until the first day of the full moon began and I was going to put as much space between me and the school as possible.
***********************************Narrator’s View************************************
“How the hell could you lose him? He’s been there for less than a full day,” Mercy demanded, her voice easily carrying her displeasure through the phone line.
“I have all available staff out searching for him. We believe he slipped into the forest shortly after nightfall. We weren’t aware he was missing until he didn’t show up for training this morning,” the Dean informed her. Mercy sighed in disbelief and rested her forehead against the wall while gathering her thoughts.
“Why did he head off into the forest? He obviously wouldn’t have been happy to be there, considering everything I had to do to get him there. That doesn’t explain why he would head off into the wilderness the higher probability is he’d just lock himself into his room and refuse to leave,” Mercy asked thinking out loud. The absolute silence on the other end of the phone is what drew her out of her own thoughts and back into the conversation.
“Well,” she demanded when the Dean didn’t speak.
“I informed him of his curse as we agreed and informed him he would be receiving training to break that block,” the Dean finally said. Mercy could tell he was withholding information and her irritation was beginning to become anger.
“Please put Savana on the phone, since she was the one to be teaching him,” Melody asked and there was another silence.
“Savana isn’t his instructor, I am,” the Dean said. Mercy stood up straight her back stiff as a board and her breath whistled in with a hiss.
“That is not what we agreed,” Mercy growled.
“We decided that his best chance at success would be under my supervision,” the Dean replied frostily.
“We decided? Who is we,” she demanded, her voice deceptively calm while her kitchen light flashed on and off rapidly as her temper rose and her power began to fill the room. The Dean did not answer and Mercy spoke a single word of power filled with all of her anger. The spell winged across the distance and the dimensions that separated them in an instant and slammed like a semi into the Dean. He opened his mouth to scream in terror as the minor compulsion charm took root in his body and her will slowly superimposed itself over his. He was unable to move or scream or drop the phone, he could only stand and silently scream inside his own skull while she took him over.
“Now who is we,” Mercy asked her voice velvety and filled with the promise of pain if she was crossed.
“The Blackwell family,” he said unable to control his tongue.
“What did you do to my son,” the icy threat in her tone made him shiver and he fought against the compulsion. He choked as he fought not to answer but he gave in after a several minute of struggle when his vision began to dim from the lack of oxygen.
“I used my abilities to guide his into manifesting a small fireball,” the Dean croaked and gasped in air, the choking sensation vanishing as soon as he answered. He was on his knees, although he couldn’t remember falling, and he picked himself back up. The phone was lying at his feet and the silence he heard from it was terrifying then if Mercy had started screaming. Then he felt it, someone was trying to open a dimensional gate way into the school grounds. He grinned and will the barriers into place cutting off the teleport spell and bent and picked up the phone.
“Mercy you know better, no one can break into this school,” he gloated.
“Fucking son of a bit…*crack*,” with a sound like lightning crashing resounding over the phone and the call cut off. He grinned as he replaced the receiver in the cradle and took a seat behind his desk. His grinned abruptly vanished when another teleport spell tried to get into the school, however this time it wasn’t dispelled. The spell couldn’t get through but it applied steady pressure to the barriers, it wasn’t nearly enough to bring the barriers down though. He leaned back dismissing the feeling until he felt a second teleport spell, identical to the first, begin pressing against the barrier. Worry filled the dean as more and more of the spells appeared and sweat was beading on his forehead. He sent out a summons to the Blackwell clan asking for aid and sat concentrating on holding the barriers in place.
“Well Mercy, if you break in before your kin arrive I lose and I win if you fail,” the Dean muttered and sat back and concentrated.
*******************************Blackwell Compound************************************
“Martin, he is calling for aid,” Paul Sander, the Blackwell family butler, said as he hurried into the room and paused at the sight that greeted him. Martin Blackwell pulled his headed from between the girl’s thighs when she squeal in alarm and pulled a sheet over herself. Martin looked up at the girl in question but when he found her looking passed him he turned and scowled when he saw Paul.
“What is it now,” he demanded.
“The Dean of Blackwell University has called for aid. Apparently Mercy has found out about the Dean’s deception and is sieging the school. Also he seems to have misplaced your cousin,” Paul explained.
“What the hell does he expect us to do about it? We are not his body guards and, even if Mercy’s power is diminished at the moment, she could crush us unless the majority of the clan mobilized. You know they won’t all do it many of them were unhappy with her expulsion from the clan. Furthermore I don’t see what possible use the Dean can be to us when he couldn’t even keep track of a powerless boy. Let Mercy have him if she can breach the school’s wards, the plan to have that fool draw out the boy’s power was my father’s not mine,” Martin ordered and began to turn back to the girl hiding beneath his bed sheets.
“Your father will not be pleased with this,” Paul warned.
“Well that is too bad, isn’t it? I told the old man that his plan was doomed to failure by relying on that weakling. If he wants it to succeed then he can go fix it himself I am not his lackey,” Martin snarled and stared at Paul until he bowed and left the room. Martin turned back to the bed and ripped the sheet from her grasp and grinned down at her when she squealed playfully.
**************************************Jeff********************************************
The forest around the campus was pretty much what you see in every forest. Trees of every kind and some I didn’t recognize stretched on into the distance, and it was nearly pitch black. During the day due the thick foliage overhead I figure it will probably be dim in the cover of the trees but at night I couldn’t see a foot in front of my face after leaving the light of the campus behind. I took my pack off and unzipped a small side pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. Yes, I said sunglasses. You’ve probably seen those sunglasses where the tinting darkens and lessens depending on the light; well these do that plus some. They have been spell to recognize the darkness levels and magically allow the wearer to see regardless of day or night. I slipped them on and the forest around me came into view as if it was high noon and the leaves were no barrier to the light. After settling the glasses on my face I picked up my pack and set off into the trees away from the school at a brisk walk. As I walked I caught glimpses of movement but did not get a good view of whatever was out in the dark foliage, it left me in peace and I returned the favor. I walked all through the night and stopped by a small stream for a breakfast of beef jerky and stream water. After I finished the small meal I sat just enjoying cooling breeze along the stream for a while before grabbing my pack and heading upstream, which slowly angled away from the direction I’d come. Midafternoon I came to beautiful lake formed by a spring, the water was so clear you could see the bottom even at its deepest. There were tons of fish darting beneath the surface and I decided this would be my campsite. I set up my tent and gathered some wood for a small fire, there was plenty lying around, that I started with a lighter from my pack. Then I pulled a small collapsible fishing rob for the pack and assembled it and sat on a rock ledge protruding over the water and waited. While the heat was oppressive, a cooling breeze constantly rose off the water keeping me relatively comfortable but soon I stripped of my shirt to let the wind caress my skin directly. I sighed in contentment and relaxed until a vicious tug on the line nearly jerked the pole from my grip. I pulled back and stood and began fighting with my dinner and sweat began to bead my skin. Twenty minute later I stood triumphantly over my prize, a trout long enough to reach from my finger tips to my elbow, and panted at the exertion. The fish had been a tough catch and had nearly cost me my pole twice more after the initial surprise. I pulled out my knife and beheaded, gutted, and filleted the fish there on the mostly flat rock. I tossed the remains of the fish towards the trees for the animals and was surprised when a fox ran out and snatched up the offering and darted back into the trees.
“You’re welcome,” I called into the trees with a chuckle and taking the fillets, four altogether since I cut the two large ones in half, back to my camp. My fire was low and close to dying but a few sticks and it was crackling happily once more. As I was settling into to begin cooking the fire light reflected back from the edge of the wood and I looked over. The fox from earlier was watching and it wasn’t alone two small kits sat beside the larger staring hungrily at the fish he was preparing. With a sigh I looked down at my fish then with a shrug I stood, the foxes darted back into the cover of the tress. I left the one fillet I was slow cooking in my small frying pan and took the three raw fillets and set them on a rock, less than a foot from where the foxes had been standing watching him. I washed my hands in the lake and returned back to my fire with no sign of my furry visitors. However once my fish was finished and I began eating a noise drew my gaze to the rock with the fish and I gaped. The larger fox sat watching me while seven smaller foxes ranging from tiny enough to fit into my palm to nearly the size of the bigger fox ripped into the fish.
“That is quite a few mouths to feed,” I said to it, I decided it was their mother. She looked back at her litter then lay down and put her head on her paws, as if say ‘You have no idea.’. After her kits had licked the rock clean of any trace of fish they melted back into the trees. When I finished my meal I sat sharpening the of a sturdy four foot stick so I could try spear fishing in the morning. When I finished I packed all of my supplies in my tent and put out my fire before going inside. I slept soundly that night warm in my comfortable, padded, sleeping bag and rose the next morning refreshed. Today the sky was over cast and I was just pulling my fishing gear and handmade spear from my tent when I heard thrashing in the underbrush and squeals that sounded like a pig. Curious and wary about predator this close to my camp I hurried towards the noise and found the source as soon as I enter the trees. I was wrong it was a boar not a pig and it was fighting with the larger fox from yesterday. Neither seemed to notice my presence as the fox nimbly avoided the boar’s charges and being impaled on the larger creature’s tusks. It was then that I noticed one of the tiny foxes whimpering on the ground, with a gash down its side near its flank. I hefted my spear and waited until the boar was facing off to my right and I leapt forward thrusting the spear at its eye. It jerked its head back in alarm at my sudden appearance which made me miss the eye. The spear however nailed it in the throat and with my body weight behind it punched through the other side and pinned it to the ground. It struggled mightily but the stick was solid and pinned on its side as it was it had no leverage to bring more of its strength to bear. After a few minutes its struggles slowed and finally ceased and I fell to my knees in the growing pool of blood. After a moment to collect myself I moved toward the larger fox that was inspecting her little one. She made a growling sort of yip at me as I approached and I stopped but was close enough to see the wound now that she had licked the blood away. I wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, and I sighed glad the little fox would make it. I looked back at the boar before a bent and sliced its stomach open so the foxes had been access and walked away. I grabbed it fishing gear and decided that I’d try spear fishing some other time with a different stick. That day I didn’t see the foxes at all and I explored the surrounding area while avoiding going near the carcass of the boar.
“Time to head back,” I said absently to myself looking up into the twilight sky. I walked back to my tent and just as I closed the zipper the pain struck and I cried out. I writhed on the floor of my tent as fire ran up my spine and my head felt like it would explode. When the pain abated, I lay there panting in pain and fell into sleep, not even making it to my sleeping bag. The next morning I was sore everywhere and I took a bath in the lake while the family of foxes watched me curiously.
“You bunch of peeping toms,” I called to them and the big one just cocked her head to the side and stared at me. I explored some more before I caught three fish for lunch/dinner and left the two biggest, nearly as long as my arm but didn’t put up as much fight as that first trout, on the foxes’ table, as I had taken to calling the rock where it left their food. After I was done eating I began packing up my things and by the time night fell I was on my way following a stream on the other side of the lake. I waved at the fox even though I couldn’t see her and hurried off away from the sound of wolves howling. I didn’t run at first I just walked fast saving my energy for when it was needed to escape if I could. A few hours of this rapid march had my calves screaming but the baying of the wolves was growing closer. Another hour later I could hear the echoes of their movements behind me as they entered a small valley I had just cleared; now I began to run. I am not the fastest runner out there but I can run for a while and whoever was tailing the wolves was slowing their progress and I built a sizable lead before a slowed once again to a brisk walk to rest my legs. My muscles were becoming rubbery from over exertion and I knew I could out run them much longer. I turned up an animal path into the rocks as it ascended a stony hillock upon which a gigantic rock sat, from the top I could see the university. Somehow during my flight they’d herded me toward the school without my noticing. With a grunt of self-deprecation I took a step toward the other side of the hill to descend and a familiar growling yip grabbed my attention. I spun and stared in confusion at a cave door that led into the big rock that hadn’t been there before and standing in front of it yipping at me was the mother fox I had never expected to see again. When she saw me watching her she turned and vanished into the cavern without a backwards glance and after a moment of hesitation I followed her inside. The cave was like the inside of a tower with roughhewn stairs following the curve of the wall all the way down to the floor a hundred feet below.
“Following a fox into a hole in the ground where you will be cornered when they come isn’t a good idea,” I muttered to myself under my breath but didn’t turn back. There was no way I could out run them and this cavern might give me a chance at escape, though I didn’t see how. The cave was pitch black and I would have been stumbling around or fallen on my face due to the uneven ground if not for my glasses. The fox maintained a several foot lead, always out of arms reach, and I silently prayed she was leading me towards an exit. After ten minutes of trekking through the dark underground the cavern widened out into a large chamber. The chamber was lit by a massive bonfire in the center of the room that was burning without any fuel to keep it going. I immediately tense and prepared to dodge if an attack came and them I waited. Other than the magical fire there was a table, chair, and a square block that could have been a table. All of the furniture was carved from the rock of the room and didn’t look very comfortable.
“Be at ease mortal I will not harm you,” a throaty female voice proclaimed. My head jerked back to stare at the beautiful woman who was now occupying the chair that had been empty a moment ago. Although woman wasn’t exactly correct, she was a kitsune. The female fox yipped at her then left the room through on of the various tunnel entrances that dotted the walls. The kitsune had red gold hair as long as she was tall and fox ears that poked through on top of her head that twitched with every sound. She also had a mass of tails behind her that were bushy, the same color as her hair, and soft looking, I tried to count them but because of their almost constant movement it was difficult but I think there were six. The rest of her was the most captivating woman he’d ever seen and openly gawked at her, she simply gave him a soft smile as he studied her. Her chest was large but not comically so, her waist small, and her hips flaring out from her waist into legs that looked smooth and supple. She was wrapped in some kind of rode like dress that I for the life of me couldn’t remember the name of.
“The garment is a kimono,” she said her voice soft and throaty.
“Did you just read my mind,” I asked and she nodded.
‘Don’t think pervert thoughts,’ I commanded myself in my head. But of course as soon as I thought of it erotic scenarios began running around in my skull of the beautiful fox, demon? Spirit? naked and on her hands and knees. I pushed the image out of my head only to have it replaced by the kitsune straddling my hip, impaled on my cock, as the girl from the bus who I had given the cookies to, sat on my face. I closed my eyes and began doing as complicated math problems in my head and the images were pushed out. The kitsune was laughing delicately as I struggled with my own subconscious.
“Do not worry mortal many who have been in my presence have desired me, both male and female. I do not find their attraction offensive,” the kitsune stood. She was tall, taller than my six feet and that wasn’t even counting the ears. I didn’t respond but I stop the math problem and just let the fantasies run their course.
“My cousin says you helped you and her little ones out,” the kitsune said nodding toward the tunnel where fox had vanished.
“I barely did anything,” I replied and shrugged.
“You fed them when they were hungry and you saved at least some of them from death. I will offer you two things anything within my power,” the kitsune said. I thought for a moment before opening my mouth to speak but she interrupted me before I could say anything.
“You’re already guaranteed a way out to where depends on what else you ask for,” the kitsune said.
“Can you get rid of a binding spell? If not do you know someone who could? Without killing me or torturous pain,” I asked her hopefully.
“Let me see it,” she said tapping a curious finger against her lush lips.
“See what,” I asked ignoring the obvious fantasy of dropping my pants for her to see ‘it’ and she smirked having picked up the thought.
“The spell obviously,” she shot back. I looked at her confused and she sighed in exasperation.
“Where does it hurt when your power tries to manifest,” she asked.
“My back,” I replied.
“Lose the shirt and let me see,” she said and ran her tongue over lips, moistening them. I know she did it on purposed from her satisfied smile when my or sexed imagination kicked into over drive at the sight of her little pink tongue. I hesitated for a moment but shrugged off my pack and pulled my shirt over my head and turned around so she could see. Her breath hissed out in what I took to be appreciation at the something but I looked over my shoulder with a mirror from my pack but couldn’t see a thing.
“What is it,” I asked curiously. She looked into my eyes for a moment then reached out and ran a finger down my back. I shivered and goose bumps ran across my skin but down my spine ran a long string of black characters that shimmered and twisted so that my eyes couldn’t focus on them. As soon as she pulled her hand back they vanished from sight once more.
“I cannot remove that it is too strong and my specialty is not witch magic. However I can insulate you from its effects, a little, so the pain you feel will no longer be crippling and I can tell you what can help you. But I warn you that if you manage to remove that binding power is almost never the answer to happiness,” she said. I nodded my understanding of the warning and she sighed and turned back to the table were an ornate knife and goblet now sat glinting in the fire light.
“Come, drink,” she commanded and grabbed the knife and cut a small cut in her palm and blood pooled into the goblet. My stomach flipped in protest at the thought but I did as she commanded and lifted the goblet to my lips. I was surprised when the blood touched my tongue because is tasted like the best cup of hot chocolate I’d ever had and I greedily drained the glass and licked my lips. I saw her looking at me amused and I flushed my face feeling like it was on fire, so I knew I was really red.
“I am glad you like how I taste, what is your second request,” she asked.
“Um… I don’t really know what to ask for,” I said.
“May I decide what you boon shall be then,” she asked mischievously I nodded my agreement. She grinned at me and her teeth were pointed but they made her look cute instead of scary and she snapped her fingers. Suddenly then was another kitsune in the room they looked identical to me except this new kitsune had seven tails and was shackled, and naked. I wondered if all kitsune were identical or if these two were just related somehow.
“I have decided on your sentence traitor. You who have been selling the lesser of our kind to demons as slaves in return for power are to be bonded into slavery for eternity or until your death as well. You are bound to serve him anyway he commands are the bound to protect him no matter the cost to yourself unless such action goes against one of his commands. Upon his death if you’ve survive you will be compelled to seek out his oldest child or closest living relative,” the kitsune declared and the shackles shimmered and sank into the naked kitsune’s flesh. She winced as the shackles vanished and tattoos appeared in their place around wrist but she didn’t cry out or protest. She sat silently glaring at the other kitsune with hatred.
“What will you call her,” the first kitsune asked.
‘Call her? I don’t even know what to call you and I’ve known you longer,’ I thought but wisely kept my smart-ass mouth shut, not that it helped any.
“You may call my Nalya,” the first kitsune said.
“I don’t know about this, I don’t approve of slavery,” I said staring down at the naked kitsune before raising my eyes to Nalya’s.
“In general we do not either and even if we did we would normally never let a mortal hold one of us so. However we cannot imprison her and we cannot kill her, it is against our laws even one like her, and the longer she remains with us the greater her chances of escape or release become,” Nalya explained studying the other kitsune with disgust in her eyes.
“I guess I’ll call her Fay but how the hell am I supposed to explain a naked kitsune following me around,” I asked after several minutes of thoughts and sighed.
“You can order her to change into a fox and have her walk beside you like a pet,” Nalya said with a vicious grin on her face.
“Um okay, change into a fox you’re very distracting like that,” I told Fay. She looked up at me with an expression that I didn’t really understand and then she was a fox, sitting there and looking up at me. The fur around her around paws where the tattoos’ were was a brilliant red but other than that her fur was the same color as her hair was when she was human.
“If you go down that tunnel you’ll come to a large cavern. In the cavern you’ll find a woman who can remove that spell the only question is whether she will or not. You had better hurry if you want to make it there in time,” she said, pointing at one of the tunnels before she vanished. She was gone before I could ask her what would happen if I didn’t make it in time, so I looked down at the sitting fox and shrugged.
“Well I guess we had better hurry,” I said and hurried to the tunnel and began jogging after I had my pack securely in place again. Fay ran at my side although I am sure she could have out distanced me easily. After nearly an hour I was once again beginning to feel the exhaustion from the chase through the woods which only piled on top of my jogged and me moving slowly. We rounded a bend in the tunnel and suddenly we were standing on a shelf along the side of a small cave, maybe fifteen feet up. At the center of the small cave just beneath the ledge were three men surrounding a woman and they lunged forward and grabbed her arms securing her. The third man rammed his fist into her gut and she cried out in pain then laughed at him, for which he backhanded her. He was talking to her but I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but when he pulled out a long wicked looking knife I decided I had to act. Nalya said ‘she’ would be able to remove the spell and that was the only woman I could see. I dropped my heavy bag over the knife wielding man and leapt down so my feet hit the shoulders of the other at the same time. The weight of my pack drove the knife wielder to his knees and the knife flew from his grasp to clatter along the floor. The one I landed on crumpled beneath my weight and there was a loud thwack when his skull hit the floor, and then there was another crack when I tried to roll with the fall and my shoulder hit a protruding rock causing a bone to break. I’m not really sure which one it was that broke since my mind went numb with the pain. I still managed to complete the roll though I staggered and nearly fell again but I managed not to fall over. I gritted my teeth against the pain and slowly turned my head just into to see the girl dispatch her would be assailant by snapping his neck. She looked around and saw me on my feet and raised an eyebrow in question as Fay nimbly hopped from the ledge above and sat beside me.
“We should probably go before they get back up,” the girl stated her tone saying she was going whether I went with her or not.
“My pack and I don’t think the one you dealt with is going anywhere,” I replied. She reached down and grabbed my pack with one arm easily slinging it over her shoulder.
“Their vampires,” she said as she passed and to punctuate her words the guy with the broken neck moaned in pain the other two were still motionless.
“Well then what are we still doing here,” I asked and hurried after her as she led the way out of the cave. I studied her as we walked; she was average height maybe 5’5″ and had medium length brown hair that hung straight down her back. My arm throbbed with every step and I tried to keep it as immobile as possible but I was able to endure it as he moved down the tunnel. I could see light a head and we picked up the pace to almost a job when it came into view. I was panting by the time we reached the entrance to the tunnel and stepped through into what looked like a basement. The girl dropped my pack and pulled a metal door that looked like a giant sever lid over the tunnel and it locked into place with a lock that fit into the center of the circle and released three bars into bracket in the ceiling, floor, and walls sealing it into place. I sat down on an old dusty love seat and pant while she worked and when she was finished she turned to me.
“Who are you,” she asked bluntly.
“Who are you and what are you? That doors got to weigh at least a ton and you moved it without a problem,” I shot back.
“I am Savana and I am a vampire, and you are,” she pressed. Fay moved close to my side when she stated her undead status as if to protect me if she made the wrong move.
“I am Jeff. What were you doing in that cave with those guys,” I asked.
“They were challenging me,” she said and studied my with knowing eyes.
“For what,” I demanded just grinned in response.
“Your Jeffrey Blackwell, you know the Dean is looking for you,” she said. I tried not to react but I must have reacted somehow because she smiled a knowing smirk and I said nothing.
“Maybe I’ll turn you in, I am sure the Dean would reward me well for finding you,” she said and took a step forward. I couldn’t tell if she was joking or not but I’d see how fast she was and couldn’t risk her getting any closer.
“Fay,” I said and without further need for command Fay was once again in her mostly human form and standing between Savana and I. Flames danced along Fay’s finger tips as she stood ready for my command to attack. Savana leapt back in surprise at Fay’s sudden appearance and watched her cautiously for several moments. My shoulder throbbed got stronger and I grunted in pain but managed to stay focus on the two females before me.
“Fay how good of a healer are you,” I asked breathlessly as I struggled not to pass out now that the adrenaline wasn’t helping me cope with the agony. She reached back without taking her eyes from Savana laid a flaming hand on her shoulder. The pain spiked and the world went red, then white, and finally returned to normal focus and the pain drained away as if some had pulled the plug. I sighed in relief as the world came back into focus and I experimentally rotated my arm and grinned when I felt not even a twinge.
“Thanks,” I said to Fay but she didn’t reply and I let it drop. I looked around the room and aside from assorted boxes, covered and uncovered furniture, and the round door the only thing in the room was a stair case leading up. A thunderous boom shook the building and the ground and I stumbled forward pressing into Fay’s naked back as she remained upright, unmoving, and eyes locked on Savana who only seem slightly unbalance. I looked up to make sure the ceiling wasn’t going to cave in or anything but it seemed sound enough.
“I think we should go from this place,” Fay said. It was the first time I had heard her speak and her words came out soft and drawn out as if she had to work to form them correctly.
“The hunter will be drawn here by the commotion,” she continued and I nodded and grabbed my pack from the floor where Savana had dropped it.
“Where will you go? You can’t hide in the forest forever,” Savana asked.
“If you wish I can take you back to the mortal realm,” Fay said, answering Savana’s question but talking to me. For the first time the indolent, uncaring expression dropped from Savana’s face and was replaced with alarm, maybe even fear.
“You can’t! The binding spell isn’t strong enough to contain your powers any longer it will kill you soon,” she blurted out and my attention went from the ceiling above us to lock onto her face. I stared at her, she had known all along who I was and why I had come here. If what she said was true, I did need the spell gone but what was her game?
“What do you know about it,” I asked.
“Not much,” she replied tried to compose herself. I walked backward toward the stairs, away from her, and Fay followed my every step with a matching one.
“I can remove it, but there will be a price,” she said and I stopped moving. I considered her offer, I needed it gone and it was fair to ask for something in return for services rendered.
“What is the price,” I asked warily.
“You may not return to the mortal realm without my or the Dean’s permission,” she said.
“The dean will never give me permission,” I replied just before another boom rocked the world around me.
“I don’t think it will be the same Dean,” Savana said looking up at the ceiling.
“Fine,” I said and Fay stepped out from between us. Savana was behind me in a flash and I felt her fangs sink deep into my neck. I tried to jerk my head forward but she wrapped an arm around my face to halt me. Her superhuman strength held me immobilized so I did the only thing I could think of to fight back. The arm that was securing my head was directly in front of my mouth, since she bit me I returned the favor sinking my teeth in until I could taste her blood.
********************************Narrator View********************************
The Dean’s face was pouring sweat and he was silently cursing the all of the Blackwell family as he maintained the schools defenses. He was awed and terrified by the relentless display of power Mercy wielded and she was only at half power. Thousands of teleport spells drilled at the schools overlaying shield and he knew that if she had been at full power he wouldn’t have lasted through the first day. Three days of relentless pressure and the shield was at the breaking point, he could feel it. The schools defenses were constructed by a Blackwell and were never meant to keep one out, let alone with stand the attack of one without another inside to bolster the defenses. What cost him everything was something small a simple slip in attention.
There was a knock on his office door and his focus wavered slightly with his surprise, but it was enough. One of the spells punched through with a boom the shook the entire school on its foundations a hole ripped open in the fabric of reality inside the Dean’s office. He started into the black holes as if was the gaping maw of some monstrous beast and vainly fought to close it. Sweat poured down his face and through the portal stepped Mercy and she stood regarding him for a minute. She took a step forward and the portal slammed shut with another world rattling boom, the air from the implosion bled her long crimson hair forward.
“Where. Is. My. Son,” she asked in a soft silken voice that carried so much menace the windows frosted over.
****************************************Jeff******************************************
I sat on the couch woozy from the blood loss and leaned against the shoulder on the vampire who just bitten me, and I could still taste her blood in my mouth.
“You taste good,” she said to me.
“Yeah well you taste awful, like pennies, kitsunes taste much better,” I shot back drunkenly.
“I have something to tell you, I promise your mother I would if she wasn’t here to do it,” Savana said. I didn’t respond I just lay against her tiredly and she ran a soft hand into my hair and gently pulled my head back so I was looking into her face.
“When you were born your power was out of control. Even at a child’s power level you far outstripped most of you clan only the very strongest of them barely reaching beyond your new born strength with two exceptions. Your mother, who after you is the strongest witch your clan has produced in centuries, and your great uncle Gregory were both stronger than you. Your power began to run wild and nearly killed you but you mother managed to seal your power using a large portion of her own power to seal it inside you and keep it there. She sent you here to have the spell removed since with half her power sealed off she is unable to remove it herself and the spell will kill you before it lets your power run rampant.
“So no more seizures,” I asked groggily.
“No more seizures, I drained the spell,” she replied.
“How,” I asked numbly as I felt the darkness begin to creep up on me.
“Vampire, the old ones anyway, can drain magic as well as blood. It is simply another source of food if you know what you’re doing,” she explained right before everything faded away.
