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<body lang="en-US" dir="ltr"><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The continuation of Kuthalti's
story from the point of view of his wife, Alice, a feline member of a
forest people's tribe.</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">This is a romantic tragedy
with heavy sexual elements and some extreme violence, you are warned.</font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><i>Tags: Romance, Love,
Insanity, Violence, Heterosexual, Rape, Pregnancy, Death, Tragedy,
Sad, Dragon, Catgirl, Centaur, Human, Necrophilia, Necromancy, Urine</i></font></p>
<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><b>Alice&rsquo;s
Sacrifice</b></font></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br/>

</p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><b>1
&ndash; Nocturnal Emissions</b></font></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br/>

</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Misery was too simplistic a
word for the depths of emotions in her beloved Monster&rsquo;s heart.
Two moons had come and gone since that moonless night. In the dark,
under a milky sky of night, she could feel him tremble through dreams
of torment. In that time since, she had come to know him, come to
understand him. The torments were not only memories, but something
else, something deeper and beyond understanding. Alice had born
witness to flashes of something else behind silver eyes, something
that saw her without recognition.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">With a sense of resignation,
she set to her duty. He slept sound even as he endured his dreams, a
large body upon it&rsquo;s side. She pressed at his upper thigh ever
so gently. She was careful, patient, and insistent. Eventually his
thighs opened as he rolled onto his back. The stench of his lust was
released as his legs opened, a stench that overwhelmed her senses and
sensibilities.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She was his willing sacrifice,
since that day, since he had told her with a child&rsquo;s naivete,
&ldquo;you&rsquo;re my wife now.&rdquo; He had no reference to
describe what a wife was, or what her duty entailed, but he was a
Monster, her Monster, and he had very very specific needs. It was
only self preservation that saw her awake well before dawn, an
instinct she had learned within days. She sacrificed sleep, so that
she could endure, so that she could survive his ever increasing
needs.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His under-tail was a sticky,
slippery mess; thighs drenched and fur matted. His slit protruded,
plump and eager, inner flesh well exposed and engorged, but his
member still yet sheathed. The stench, a mixture of pheromones,
mucous, waste, and both old and fresh semen, as well as her own
fluids that stained him. Her own sex was a gaped, pain filled hole,
still caked in last night&rsquo;s releases, should she let his need
grow, by morning he would be upon her with the violence of a summer
storm.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She lowered her face into his
passage and began to lick. Her disgust, her discomfort, her sense of
decency&hellip; those were childish fantasies from a life she rarely
thought about. This was her duty as wife to her Monster, this was her
sacrifice. Her tongue delved into his cloaca with little chance of
cleaning the ever growing male. Cleanliness was not however her duty.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His <i>sword</i> unsheathed
against her lips quick enough to bruise. Spines rose and fell with
every beat of his rapid desperate heart against her cheek. They were
stiffer now, not the soft rasping things of when they first met, but
sharp and occasionally painful. His feline heritage she supposed. His
girth wasn&rsquo;t so terrifying, not as she had once thought, though
his length was enough to make sex quite uncomfortable if he was not
careful.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She did not even tempt his
shaft, but instead enveloped his soft, rubbery head between her lips
and pressed fingers into his messy slit. The barbs continued to rise
and fall below her as she pleased her Monster in his dreams, and the
pace increased. His hips clenched and rolled under her. His tail
curled up to meet her paunch and wedge between her thighs. His breath
came in short, desperate pulls.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">It took only a few, gentle
suckles upon his sensitive spire and a pleasing caress of her tongue.
It was all her duty required, a few seconds of foul tastes and scents
that left her desperate and aroused, a quick little suckle. He
exploded in her mouth with incredible force. She was prepared, as
always, but it did not help. Pale blue semen shot from her nose as it
filled her sinuses with writhing life, gushed down her open gullet to
awaiting her belly, and even leak around the seal of her lungs. She
could feel it move, so alive with fertile potential, the sperm
instinctively crawled into her, down her throat, or into any open
passage. Soon her sinuses were empty but for a stain of his stench
and smear of mucous.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His release was intense and
violent. Not only the pressure and volume of his ejaculation, but the
thrust of his hips and twitch of his tail sent her sprawling into the
flame baked dirt. A rain of ejaculate splattered upon her and the
ground around them as he fountained into the air for a minute
straight. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">When it was over, when her
Monster&rsquo;s dreams were again at peace and his terrible arousal
had spent itself, she curled into his fore legs and nestled close to
his furred side. They were both sticky, but they were both always
sticky, it was nothing new. Dirt clung to her skin along with caked
ejaculate. They would bathe again soon, she would insist upon it, but
her insistence waned with every passing week. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Into his unconscious embrace
she drifted, one hand upon her swollen stomach, another upon his
steadily breathing chest and the thud of his heart. She was so
exhausted, so terribly tired, so sore, and so desperate with lust.
She cared about almost nothing anymore but the desire induced within
her, children in her womb, and the Monster who created both. As she
drifted off, a frail smile touched her lips. She was tired, but she
was truly happy.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><b>2
&ndash; The Penetrating Truth</b></font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice woke again as the sun
crested a near by hill and splashed upon her face. The sky she
witnessed was a brilliant blue with little streaks of pale clouds. It
would be cold up there, she knew, but she was used to the cold now.
She laid there, quiet, without much in the way of thought, simply
existing. There was no other duty before her, not water to be
gathered, no rice to be planted, no fruits to be picked or children
to be scolded. Soon, yes, but not now.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Her empty musings were
interrupted as her Monster shifted and his large head rose, elegant
and handsome before her. Dark nostrils flared as he inhaled, his wide
jaws parted to expose translucent blue, glass like teeth in a
ferocious yawn. Then his head turned down to stare with clear-silver
eyes into her. &ldquo;I spent myself in the night again it seems.
Such a waste, such a dear waste, every drop belongs in you my
beloved!&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She shivered, arousal sparked
in her belly at his words, but also fear in her heart. She batted his
proclamation aside with a joke, &ldquo;I would be five times my side,
should you keep every drop within me!&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He smiled a beautiful smile,
one full of adoration and eagerness, somewhere between puppy-dog eyes
and a handsome man attempting to woo. It made her stomach flutter,
every time he looked at her thus, no matter how much time she spent
with him, when their eyes met she melted anew. All fears forgotten,
all thoughts were gone for a moment. Her thighs parted of their own
volition, her mouth opened, her body arched, and she moaned. It was
something she should have been used to, something she should expect,
but it always came as a surprise when it happened. She was his
puppet, a lusty little plaything that could never say no, never even
think no.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Eager are you?&rdquo;
He teased as he rolled over onto all fours above her. He didn&rsquo;t
simply drop her into the dirt, but cradled her under his wings. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">They were warm and silky, they
pulsed with his heart, full of life. She spread upon them, fingers
clutched in fur, toes curled, open and&mdash;yes, eager, oh so eager!
&ldquo;Yes! Always Monster, always-always-always!&rdquo; It felt like
her thoughts were hitched to a post, running around and around over
the same word until the tether wound too tight and she couldn&rsquo;t
move or think. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Her hips rose and fell with
the beat of his heart, with the pulse of his organ not yet exposed.
She had been here before, but it was becoming more frequent now. In
the first few weeks, she&rsquo;d only lost control to him once, but
now, it was every day or two. But these were not her thoughts at the
moment, those thoughts would come later, her thoughts now continued
as her lips muttered, &ldquo;always...&rdquo; into infinity.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She didn&rsquo;t notice a
thing, didn&rsquo;t feel it, until it was over. It ended with a
mental snap as the tether broke, as he sank into her and tossed his
head back. It was jarring, one moment she had been staring into a
blue sky, the next she was staring into her Monster&rsquo;s filthy
underbelly and bulged cloaca as it thrust down into her vaginal
passage. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His barbs laid flat, carefully
restrained, and his thrusts were shallow and controlled. Her duty had
been successful, he was in control this morning. He felt guilty when
he hurt her, but that didn&rsquo;t prevent it, didn&rsquo;t stop him.
That was her job, her duty, her sacrifice. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">As his thrusts continued&mdash;slow,
careful, and measured&mdash;she tried to recover the time she had
just lost. Blue sky, pale clouds, he had moved just slightly, she had
seen him yawn and&hellip; That was all, nothing existed past that
brief moment, nothing remained between yawn and penetration. There
was an emptiness in her thoughts, a torn and ragged hole that hurt to
think about. It wasn&rsquo;t the only one either, they were becoming
more and more frequent.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">On the sixth thrust, his barbs
flexed and scraped her raw passage on their way out. She whimpered in
pain, lip caught between teeth, and tried not to cry. His seventh
thrust struck her depths like a hammer and made her cry out. As he
withdrew again, blood smeared his penis and flicked off each barb as
it exited her brutalized entrance. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Eight sank in like a spear and
forced the wind from her lungs. His barbs flexed, flexed again, his
swollen head throbbed, his urethra gaped from base to tip, and his
flow hit her insides. He was the mouth of a hot river, an unending
font of ejaculate aimed into her battered body. Below her in the
valley of his wings, the lake grew and grew. Their first meeting, he
hadn&rsquo;t produced nearly this much, but now after two moons, he
could have filled a cook pot without trouble.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She endured until he was
spent. His member relaxed, his barbs laid flat, he withdrew but did
not retract. Once, he would have. Once, not long ago, a single mating
was enough to get through a day or two. Her eyes fixated upon his
penis, black as night but smeared with blood and blue semen. It
shimmered iridescent like as the sperm moved toward her. Below her,
the puddle shifted and writhed like some monstrous ooze.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A-are you satisfied?&rdquo;
She asked, but the truth was apparent.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Of course not!&rdquo;
he snapped, voice edged like brittle glass. &ldquo;I wish you were
deeper, I need&hellip; I need...&rdquo; his voice softened as he
looked at her, &ldquo;Forgive me, I do not know what I need, but I
need you. I dreamed of you last night Alice, you were an angel with
silver wings, you came from above to draw the pain from my heart and
bring me peace.&rdquo; His head lowered, his lips, wide and soft,
kissed her cheek, lowered to her throat, kissed, lowered again to her
breast. A raspy forked tongue found a nipple and gave it a slow
caress before he spoke again, &ldquo;I need you. I love you.&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">As he spoke, his arousal had
returned. Barely more than a minute had passed, barely enough time
for her to catch her breath. His hips sank down, her sloppy passage
stretched, his eager lust found it&rsquo;s home within her aching
body again. She sobbed, torn between love, agony, and despair, and
told him, &ldquo;I love you too Monster, I love you too.&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He spent himself twice more
that morning before at last his member retracted. She laid for the
longest time in his wings, her recovery much slower than his. When
she had gained her breath again, she crawled from the slippery puddle
and knelt in the mud with hands between her legs. Her fingers came
away stained red and blue.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She hurt so bad, even worse
than the morning before. She had done everything right, she had
satisfied him in the night and he had woken up with full control. It
hadn&rsquo;t been enough. Her gut ached with powerful bruises from
when he bottomed out, her vulva stung from numerous shallow cuts, and
her vaginal passage itself felt scraped raw. Even without his cruel
barbs, no woman could endure his need for long. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Are you alright
Beloved?&rdquo; He asked from behind, &ldquo;Are you hungry?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Suddenly, Alice felt trapped.
She realized at last, that there was no future for her, and no escape
from her fate. It was a slow realization, a slow coming to grips with
her inevitable fate. He was growing in all ways, size, power, lust,
cruelty, and violence. Some day he would go too far, some day he
would&hellip; She shook her head violently and only belatedly
realized there was a question in his words, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m fine,&rdquo;
she answered as calmly as she could, &ldquo;Just&hellip; just a
little sore, you know?&rdquo; She was not hungry, her bowels still
churned from the midnight meal she had drank from his loins, but the
babies would need more than their father&rsquo;s lust to sate them,
and so would she, &ldquo;Yes, see if you can find some fruit as well?
I&rsquo;d like something sweet. Your babies are hungry Monster!&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She looked back at him, and
smiled as best she could, then gave her a nod with a pride filled
grin. It took him a moment to wipe his wings clean on the ground and
burnt bushes, but eventually he took off into the sky to find them
breakfast. He could have been a wonderful father, an amazing husband,
and perfect lover&hellip; She shook her head, he was a monster, a
kind monster, a gentle monster, but a Monster none the less. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She could have made him
understand, his intelligence surprised her at times. He understood
things within moments that might take her all day. Understanding was
not enough for her, for within the Monster along side his cognizance
was an instinct that drove him beyond any ability to master. She
loved the man, but feared the beast, two that could never be
separated. In the end, the beast would destroy her, and in turn her
death would destroy the man. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice sank to her knees and
wept for all she was worth. She saw no hope, no future, and no
solution. She was not wise enough, not smart enough, not strong
enough. Her sacrifices would be for nothing, everything she could
possibly do. Fingers laced over her navel, over her unborn. How long?
Would they grow up in a world without their mother? Would they be
born at all? </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She saw again Alia&rsquo;s
broken body, but it would be her. Kuthalti&rsquo;s heart had broken
that day and she had tried so hard to mend it, so hard to bring peace
to his troubled brow. But she knew, when her time came, when it was
her life blood spilled carelessly upon the soil, her killer would be
her lover and there would be no one and nothing to save his broken
soul.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The scream that tore from her
throat was barely muffled by her claw like hands. It was a scream of
the damned, a haunting thing that shivered her bones and left her
sober and afraid. She realized, she wasn&rsquo;t afraid of dying, or
even for her unborn children, she was terrified of what would become
of her Monster. He was everything to her. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Is this how demons were
born into the world? Not from a mother and a father, not through
supernatural craft, but from a broken heart?&rdquo; The flames came
to her again, from that night, everyone she had ever known turned to
ash in blue-white searing light. He had wanted to find more to
satisfy his agony in pointless revenge, but justice had been met, and
she convinced him of that. Where would he find justice after she was
gone, who would he blame? In mind&rsquo;s eye, she saw a world of ash
with her Monster weeping.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><b>3
&ndash; Sins of the Father</b></font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A voice spoke to her, a voice
she did not know. &ldquo;This is as it should be. This is fate. And
oh what a fate is in store!&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She scrambled to her feet and
spun to witness Kuthalti&hellip; no, not her Monster, but another.
&ldquo;Who&hellip; who are you?!&rdquo; He was ten times Kuthalti&rsquo;s
size with brilliant crimson eyes, but even his patterning was
similar.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He strode forward, each step
producing a small quake under her feet. His muzzle lowered, large
enough to swallow her whole, as well as a horse, and possibly a cow
all at once. &ldquo;I had a name once, a pathetic thing of draconic
origin, I gave it up long long ago. Your people, they called me the
Sky Terror. Which, if you think about it, is pretty inane as well,
hmm? Most of the terror I inflicted was while I was on the ground
after all.&rdquo; He grinned, glassy teeth glinted in the sun, a
smear of blood upon his lips. Unlike Kuthalti, he was immaculate,
perfectly groomed.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">You are...&rdquo; She
stopped short, as vivid memories returned, of her childhood, of the
horrors she had witnessed under his careless shadow and her own fear
that had choked the joy from her life. Now she did not feel fear, no,
she was beyond fear, she was drained of all possible emotions. &ldquo;You
have come to consume me too? Or perhaps rape a child into me as you
did Alia?&rdquo; She grimaced and quickly added, &ldquo;You are too
late for that, my womb has been claimed!&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He laughed, a deep thunderous
sound that shook ash from the trees and tossed pebbles on the ground.
His muzzle descended further to her middle, then nudged her off her
feet, into the charred dirt, &ldquo;Oh no, nothing of the sort. I am
dying you see and I come to have a little chat with my legacy.&rdquo;
He laughed again, then sat heavily upon the earth and proceeded to
cough. Blood splattered the ground.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She couldn&rsquo;t decide
whether she was exalted or&hellip; no there were no words for the
emotions that churned in her heart. Her terror, dying. &ldquo;What
happened?&rdquo; she finally asked as she sat up and hugged knees to
her chest.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Once he had fully recovered
from his spell, he answered her question with another, &ldquo;What do
you know of magic?&rdquo; She shook her head, she knew nothing.
&ldquo;Neither did she, what was her name? Ayla?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alia,&rdquo; she
corrected.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Ah.&rdquo; He seemed to
take some meaning from it, but what, Alice could never have guessed.
&ldquo;I felt her die, you know. I felt her live, too, felt her for
every day of her life after&hellip; after I left.&rdquo; He laughed
again, though she saw no amusement. &ldquo;She had the gift,
repressed, suppressed, but it was there. She cursed me. Oh it was a
subtle curse, she did not even know what she had done or it might
never have succeeded. I myself, am some what familiar with the
interworkings of magic, of element and spell, but I had never studied
the art of the curse. I was raised by the silvers, specifically a
priestess of the silvers. Curses were not to be uttered or even
thought in her presence, and she would know, oh how she would know.&rdquo;
</font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He seemed almost cowed by the
thought of his mother. It amused Alice to think of the Sky Terror,
afraid of some priest, &ldquo;What are the silvers?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Silver dragons you daft
kitten. The golds get all the glory, brutal and strong as they are,
but it&rsquo;s the silvers who hold the power you know. I returned
home, fled the curse, fled the valley and the results, but&hellip;
You can&rsquo;t escape magic simply by distance, you can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
</font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He stretched and laid himself
upon the ash covered ground, so much like Kuthalti, only an order of
magnitude larger. &ldquo;She, cursed you...&rdquo; Alice echoed as
she stared, &ldquo;Like, boils or for your toes to fall off?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Nothing so mundane. No.
It was subtle and strange. The curse was three fold, I remember it so
clearly too though I had thought nothing of it at the time. First,
she bid me to trip on a cloud and crash into the sun. Do you know,
kitten, what a cloud is?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice snapped back, &ldquo;Of
course I do, a water mist in the sky. I&rsquo;ve flown through enough
of them. Fog.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Ah yes, you would
wouldn&rsquo;t you. Can you imagine what it is like to trip, on a
cloud?&rdquo; That stopped her, she tried to imagine a dragon flying
and tripping. It wasn&rsquo;t like he was running after all. &ldquo;I
felt it first, only a week after I left, as I flew into a high cloud.
A thin thing like you see today. Like spiderwebs it clung to me,
tangled me, until I could no longer fly. But did I fall? No, no she
bid me to trip into the sun. I rose, I rose at an ever increasing
rate while bound in ephemeral whips of air and water. Above the
clouds where a dragon never flies, above the very atmosphere itself,
until the last shred of cloud had loosed itself from my bound form
and I began to fall again.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His words stopped, his crimson
eyes found hers. It felt the same as when Kuthalti looked overwhelmed
her, but her thoughts did not tangle, time did not skip. She felt him
inside of her, more intimate and penetrating than sex, more of a
violation than rape. Their eyes met and she could not look away,
could not escape as he sank into her skull, but he did not take, he
gave.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice struggled for breath,
her eyes caked in ice that boiled away in trails of mist. Her tongue
felt dry and saliva glands burst with cold steam. The void that
surrounded her was an airless death as the scalding sun seared her
scales like the light of god. Her wings burst free at last, and the
final tatters of misty cobweb like magic fell free and evaporated.
The whole time she was in free fall, her stomach clenched with nausea
and her inner ear fought with the spin of the world below.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She was falling, she first
fell up, slowed, then felt the shift as she began to fall down. Below
her sphere of the world felt so far away, and though she gasped for
breath, nothing reached her lungs but the pressure of her internal
organs against void. Some how, she understood, understood that this
was a place that lacked air, that pressure differences would kill her
long before she starved for oxygen&hellip; she even knew what oxygen
was.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The wind began, faint at
first, a tiny ruffle of fur, then a slight drag on wing, then&hellip;
she was burning. Her speed was too great and even the thin atmosphere
was enough to strike spark from scale! Desperate, she brought magic
to bare, spells she did not know until that moment, spells weak but&hellip;
but enough. Levitation spells, snare spells, buoyancy and momentum
spells. She avoided the clouds as she fell, avoided the traps she
knew now lay within their velvet embrace. She survived.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The traumatic vision faded as
he looked away. Alice stared at him with confused understanding. For
a moment, she had been him, existed in his memories. He spoke again,
&ldquo;It happened many times over the next few years. Even a dense
fog could kill me if I was not careful. A storm cloud would have been
enough to crush me alive before throwing me skyward.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice caught her breath and
settled her racing heart. The experience had been thrilling and
exhilarating, as well as abjectly terrifying. She eventually asked,
timid, afraid of being subjected to worse, &ldquo;You said three
curses. What were the other two?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Hmmm, I should have
lived life differently, your people as foolish as they are, possess a
boldness that belies your place in the food chain. You would have
made wonderful slaves, bred into an army. My son himself is perfect
example of what could have been...&rdquo; He shook his head of the
vile suggestion and continued, &ldquo;I will not subject you to the
second or third curse, the shame of the second is too great and
personal. It is not fit for public knowledge. The third however is
what ails me now, she bid me to die. She did not say when, or how,
but the moment her life was extinguished, my end was assured. You
see, her curse bound our souls, fused our existences, and sapped the
life from my bones year after year. In essence, she made me mortal.
But once she died&hellip;&rdquo; he shrugged and tried to laugh but
fell to a new coughing fit.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">You do not seem to care
that you are dying,&rdquo; Alice observed.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He licked blood from his lips,
spat into the ash, then continued, &ldquo;I was cursed from the day I
was born, to a mother who would never love me, to a world that never
wanted me, with a soul as tainted as sewage.&rdquo; He grinned, a
frightening thing what with the blood stained teeth so like
Kuthalti&rsquo;s. &ldquo;I long ago concluded that my life held no
value, and if mine did not, neither did another&rsquo;s. Oh do not
pity me, you frail creature. I see it in your eyes, and it disgusts
me. I raped your people for fun, I fed upon their entrails, I left
them to die, slowly and in agony. I have had a wonderful life, and
have no regrets.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His head turned towards her
again, those glowing crimson eyes threatening to overwhelm once
again. She looked away quickly, but it was no use, her mind opened
before his gaze like a flower to the sun. She had assumed it was eye
contact, she had assumed wrong. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Below her was a screaming
woman, or half woman half beast. Her poor body was raped half to
death. Half&hellip; she started to laugh at the amusing thought,
aloud she mocked, &ldquo;Are you half dead yet, centaur? Are you half
raped?&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The woman looked back up at
her as she thrust her hips and felt the orgasmic bliss of the
centaur&rsquo;s ribs crack and lungs crush aside. She had already
spent herself a dozen times over in the past few hours, she had
nothing left to give, but her erection persisted so she persisted to
defile the herd. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The woman of course, saw no
humor in the questions, nor even seemed to understand them. Alice
gave a great shrug, then sighed pleasantly as she let her bladder go.
The centaur screamed once last time as her lower half ballooned
outward. There was a loud gurgling, followed by a sudden splash as
her belly gave out and torn viscera spilled in a deluge of scalding
hot piss. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice drained herself
completely before tossing the fouled corpse aside. Between her hind
legs, her cloaca closed up around her retracted member. Pleasure
spent, joyful, and oh so very satisfied, she took off toward the
north, away from the plains. Behind her lie ruin, where once tens of
thousands of centaurs amongst fifty tribes, was now only silence and
death. It&rsquo;s what they got for threatening her and trying to
drive her from their land! Oh what a fun sport!</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice jerked suddenly and fell
back into the ash, shocked into reality once more. Her hips ached
from clenching, and a puddle lay on the ground below her where she
had pissed herself as the dream drained into the centaur. She felt no
shame however, only terrified awe and disgust for what he had done.
The stench of carnage, sex, and charred flesh still filled her nose
from the dream. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">W-why?&rdquo; She asked
desperately.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A curse is only viable
for seven generations. When I die, it will pass on to him, weaker.
When he dies, it will pass onto his offspring, and so forth.&rdquo; A
single paw lowered to touch her stomach, pointedly. &ldquo;That is of
course, if something is not done first to prevent it&rsquo;s passage.
The curse of death, I do not know what it will do to him with no
other to latch onto. Perhaps you, baring his spawn, will be tied to
him in mortality? That would be fitting I think, but no good for my
grandchildren. The solution however, you see, is as simple as it is
beautiful.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">...what?&rdquo; she
asked, hesitant.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The moment your husband
returns, he will spot me looming over you like a predator about to
pounce. He will be enraged, he cannot be anything but, his instincts
are irresistible! I will fight back of course, but I am ill, I am
sapped of life and strength, I am dying slowly as a candle burning
from both ends. In the end he will slay me with little trouble.
Perhaps you will die in the resulting battle, perhaps not, but he
will escape the curse of death if the death inflicted is not of the
curse&rsquo;s making.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice shivered at the thought
of the violence he spoke of, she could see the blue white brilliance
of Kuthalti&rsquo;s fire against the crimson sear she had seen so
often atop the bluff as a child. Yes, she could very easily die.
&ldquo;What of the clouds and, the secret second?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">I disarmed the first
already, with my mother&rsquo;s help. It was tricky, but it was naive
and contained many loose ends. He will yet suffer the second, but I&rsquo;m
sure he will cope with a weakened form, as I have with the full force
of it now.&rdquo; He looked away as he spoke, shame burned in his
voice and expression. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She asked him then, the fate
which was troubling her, &ldquo;What can I do? When he kills me, it
will destroy him. I am afraid our children will never be born. And if
they are&hellip;&rdquo; Her voice trembled as she trailed off.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He turned his gaze upon her
again, but there was no mental violation, now overwriting of her
existence, just old eyes that had seen far too much. &ldquo;I do not
care. He will find another cow to sire upon, his instincts will
insist upon it. He will not be destroyed, he is far too strong for
sappy emotions to hurt him, he is stronger than I ever could have
been&hellip;&rdquo; he chuckled again as mirth returned to his eyes,
&ldquo;we hybrids are far superior to the pure-bloods, but we have
our own&mdash;issues. If you should survive, you will show him what I
showed you.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He paused, and into his
silence she coldly told him, &ldquo;you were a terrible father.&rdquo;
It was a dig, justified, but also cruel. The huge dragon flinched,
visibly wounded by the remark.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">I am the best father I
could ever be. I stayed away, that was the best for him.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His mother and sister
died, their unborn children died, you could have saved them!&rdquo;
Alice stabbed again, the memory of their corpses behind her eyes,
&ldquo;Look at me, look into my memories, see what you did.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He looked at her, he thrust
behind her eyes and pried the offered memories from her grasp. His
theft wasn&rsquo;t simply observing, they were gone, within her mind
was another chasm where she knew something should have been. &ldquo;I
see, a sister. She was beautiful even in death. Their mother&hellip;&rdquo;
he started to laugh, a full bodied laugh that chilled her heart. She
did not understand, the memories gone, but she knew whatever they had
been, had been a great cruelty, a trauma. How could he simply laugh
at it?</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">What&hellip;?&rdquo;
She began to say, but before her was a brilliant stark outline of her
own form, a shadow cast by an intense light. Then there was a
thunderous crash and roar as four feet slammed into the earth and the
light brightened further. The old dragon&rsquo;s pupils shrank, the
crimson faded to pale silver, colorless. Behind her the thunder
crested, into a screeching cacophony that she recognized.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Oh,&rdquo; was all he
said as he stared into the light of his son&rsquo;s fury.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice fled then, fled with
every mote of strength she possessed. She was strong, fast, and
limber, but even still&hellip; She cleared a scorched tree just in
time for the thunderous crash. Kuthalti exhaled. Day was as if night
in the shimmering light of that moment. Trees around her burst into
flames from the illumination alone. The shadow in which she huddled,
shrank. It dissolved as the tree behind her sublimated into ash. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">As quick as the light came, it
faded to pale blue, then yellow. The heat crashed on her, then a
sudden intense wind battered her face as the air rushed into the
seared clearing and fanned the flames with&hellip; oxygen, yes, that
was the word she remembered from the dream. The forest around her
smoldered for a moment before the inferno began to swell from the
stands. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice stood and ran again,
this time into the clearing, away from the impending forest fire. She
had witnessed her Monster clear a nesting ground on numerous
occasions, but nothing she had witnessed before prepared her for
this&hellip; On all sides of the clearing, the forest blazed, where
the old dragon had reclined, was now a cluster of glowing bones. The
rocks that had strewn about, were molten puddles, the ash had turned
white for a dozen meters in all directions.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Her own feet, she realized,
were blistered and fur burning where she stood, but there was no
where to go, no safety to be found. Her vision was filled with
blue-black streaks, the outline of trees where shadow and light had
touched as sharp as a knife. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Ku-Kuth!&rdquo; she
cried, with a gasp of super heated air, her lungs scalded.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Through slatted vision she saw
him turn, saw his recognition and terror, then relief. She felt her
mind cave, felt reality give way before his. His brilliant eyes were
the last thing she saw as he closed on her.</font></p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><b>4
- Sacrifice</b></font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Shouting, why were they
shouting? What had she done this time? Alice struggled to extract
herself from her confused thoughts, of strangling clouds and forests
on fire. She managed to open an eye and recognized a hand crafted
wall, mud plaster, and a woven blanket. She was in a bed, in a house,
people were shouting. Where was she?</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Ku-Kuth?&rdquo; she
rasped from her dry throat through cracked lips. The shouting
stopped. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A door opened and an
unfamiliar voice asked in a very broken language, &ldquo;Yah sef.
Nosh muh chiddin?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She shifted, or tried to, but
her body didn&rsquo;t entirely obey. A leg twitched, an arm moved,
but only then did the true weight of the agony hit her. She had been
burning, burning alive! Her voice cracked as she wailed out her agony
and sorrow. Where was her Monster? The curse, what about the curse?
But the words failed to pass her lips, and in moments blackness crept
in and claimed her once more.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">When Alice next awoke, it was
night. Someone was sitting at her side, singing quietly. This time
she felt more aware, though no less confused. She managed, with care,
to turn her head and look. An older woman sat in a rocking chair,
knitting. It was a woman, but not of her people, or even a distant
kin. She had no fur upon her cheeks, only long strands that dangled
in matted ropes around her head. Her ears too, were strange, rounded
instead of pointed, and tucked down near her neck instead of atop
where they should have been. It reminded her of the upper half of the
centaur from Sky Terror&rsquo;s memories, but without the rest of the
body.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She tried again to speak, to
ask about Kuthalti, but only a croak emerged. The woman looked up,
smiled a gap toothed smile, and plucked an earthen jug from the floor
and poured something into an uneven cup. Alice drank, it burned her
lips, mouth, and throat; not water, but something alcoholic. She
tried to resist, but the woman shushed her and kept the cup at her
lips until it was empty.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">It took a few minutes, but the
alcohol entered her blood and dulled her senses enough to relax. It
wasn&rsquo;t strong, not like some of the fermented juices she
remembered from back home, but burned in her wounds. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Where is Kuthalti?&rdquo;
she rasped, voice barely functional. Her throat hurt something
fierce, then remembered inhaling and screaming, and how the air had
burned like molten fire.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Cue Halt thee?&rdquo;
The elder asked, then spoke in something very close to familiar
words, &ldquo;Not words known of I.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice swallowed, then very
gently asked, &ldquo;Where?&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Cinstressa,
big-large-grand chief house. You safe.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">It took a lot of back and
forth, but eventually Alice managed to understand. She had been
rescued by these people, found in a field of cinders after a horrible
monster had left. None could believe that she had survived the
ordeal, insisting she must be a spell weaver. However, they
discovered she was pregnant, no man could slay a pregnant woman, even
a spell weaver, they rescued her. Only later had it come to light
that she wasn&rsquo;t one of them at all, but one of the forest
people. The why was obvious when she looked at her seared arms, not a
strand of fur left.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">No one knew what had happened
to Kuthalti however, he had left her there, that much was obvious,
and though they had watched the field for weeks, he had not returned.
Why? Why had he abandoned her? She felt both relief, and sorrow, for
she might yet birth her children and see them grow, but she longed
for her beloved Monster&rsquo;s embrace, or at least, to see him
smile.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The agony of recovery was
unrelenting. Day by day, she grew stronger, but she was disfigured
beyond belief, and endlessly on fire. Her hands and feet were numb,
fingers barely able to grasp a spoon or cup, but though she felt
nothing through them, they burned and burned. The rest of her body
was only a slight improvement. Her belly grew gravid and round
however as her pregnancy continued. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice lived in primarily
isolation, in a small home at the outskirts of a village that she
couldn&rsquo;t entirely comprehend. Cinstressa had been described as
&ldquo;big-large-grand chief house&rdquo; but that had been the
language barrier for the most part, Cinstressa was the village that
surrounded a stone building taller than two trees in which the chief
lived. She had never seen a castle before, nor even imagined more
than a hundred people in one place at any moment. Cinstressa had a
hundred hundreds, more. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Worse for her, was that she
was not welcome. The Cinstressa people did not like the forest
people, but were themselves kindly, as one might be to a wounded
animal. It was expected that once she recovered, she was to run off
back home and never return. The old woman, she thought it was just
nonsense, but shrugged it off. How she learned as much of the forest
people&rsquo;s language as she had, was anyone&rsquo;s guess, for she
was not telling.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Weeks became months, Alice&rsquo;s
welcome wore thin, but the old woman deemed her not fit to travel and
that was that. Fur grew back, in patches, and her strength returned,
but she would never fully recover. Her voice could not rise above a
whisper, her hands and feet remained numb and nearly useless, and she
would never again be beautiful. The sight of herself in a puddle was
enough to make her weep. Bobbed ears, scar gnarled face, fur-less and
terrifying. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Would her children even love
her, when they were born? Yes, yes probably, her children would. That
would have to be enough. She had heard many tales of Alia from
Kuthalti. To her people, Alia would have been a foul, ruined woman,
but to her children she was a wonder, the most incredible person in
their lives. That, that had to be enough for her, to be a hero for
her children.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Bit by bit, Alice&rsquo;s
thoughts shifted, from her dependance upon Kuthalti, to the future
survival of herself, and her children. He had left her, perhaps that
had been the kindest thing he could have done. She remembered Sky
Terror&rsquo;s words and for the first time, began to agree. He
wasn&rsquo;t Kuthalti, but what would he have turned the child into?
What would the children become, raised by her Monster? Yes, it was
best. This was right.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice&rsquo;s musings came to
an abrupt end as someone screamed, then more people, and more. She
hobbled to the door of her room, then the door of the house and into
the yard. She clung to her crutches as she bore witness, as something
brilliant white landed in the street at the edge of the village.
Trees swayed in his passing, cobblestones shattered under his feet.
He had grown another head of height since she had last seen him. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Below him, the populous
scattered with screams, a woman dropped her basket of fruit, and fled
but he took a step, and stopped her short with a curl of his fore
paw. He spoke, in their language, very firmly, but he didn&rsquo;t
seem angry. The woman shook like a leaf before his fierce face and
pointed toward the house, and Alice herself. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Instead of letting him thrash
the village with his approach, she hobbled forward on her crutches as
fast as she could, to meet him in the street. She had just decided,
only moments before, that she and her children were better off
without him, but now that thought was forgotten. She wanted nothing
more than to curl into his embrace and never let go. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He let the terrified woman go,
who instead of escaping, sank to her knees and wept with face in
hands. He however had forgotten the scared girl and held his gaze
upon Alice with such fixed intensity, that it seemed he might invade
her mind like his father had, but no&hellip; he just waited, patient
as possible, with every muscle a-quiver. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Monster,&rdquo; She
rasped, at last close enough that he might hear her. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice...&rdquo; he
rejoined, voice timid, &ldquo;Forgive me, forgive me for everything.
I understand now, what I was doing to you, what I did to you&hellip;&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">She approached and laid a hand
upon his muzzle, between his nostrils. How had he gotten so big?
Once, she could have looked him in the eyes, but now he might have
been able to swallow her whole. The thought made her slightly uneasy,
not for herself, but what others in the village were thinking.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">I forgive you,
Kuthalti. I always forgave you. You should not have come here, they
will get over their fear and turn on you, you know this.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">I know, and they will
fall by the thousand should they need to! I could not stay away, I
could not continue without seeing you again!&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice felt tears well in her
eyes as he spoke, the passion in his heart overflowed through his
gaze, she could feel his loneliness and need behind her eyes. &ldquo;Kuth,
stop it. You say you know, do you know what you are doing to me right
now? I had just finally decided to forge ahead without you and now&hellip;
and now&hellip;&rdquo; She felt the future closing in around her
again, saw herself a blood stain, a splatter of viscera across the
ground as he took desperate pleasure from her broken body. Only after
word would he realize what he had done. She saw it all in a flash,
and he saw it in her mind, flinched back as if struck.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">No! Never! I would
never!&rdquo; he declared, insistent.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice shook her head, then
took his muzzle into her arms and pressed her cheek to his brow, &ldquo;You
wouldn&rsquo;t, no, but you will. I know you have before, with
animals, I&rsquo;ve tasted your lust upon the meat and eaten it
willingly. Some day, some day you will be unable to help yourself. I
would gladly sacrifice myself to give you the satisfaction you crave,
in a heart beat. I don&rsquo;t care if you hurt me, but&hellip; I
also know what it would do to you, I know what it would do to our
children.&rdquo; She smiled then, laughed even, she remembered Sky
Terror, laughing at his own fate and felt she understood a little.
&ldquo;Some day, maybe five years, maybe ten, after our children are
grown.&rdquo; She kissed his brow, &ldquo;Come back to me then, come
back to me and let me satisfy you.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">N-No!&rdquo; he balked,
the very thought in her mind&rsquo;s eye enough to send tears raining
down his face. &ldquo;I would never! I will never! I just need you, I
can&rsquo;t&hellip; I can&rsquo;t&hellip; I need you! I won&rsquo;t
ever hurt you!&rdquo; But he knew the truth even in his vocal
rejection.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">You will, some day, and
I&rsquo;ll welcome you. Come back to me when you are strong enough,
my love.&rdquo; She was crying too, she knew full well, he would
never return, never have the desire to kill her. Perhaps he might
return for his children, or to impregnate her again, but she didn&rsquo;t
voice those thoughts, he would have to think of them on her own. &ldquo;Go
my Monster, go. Before these foolish people get themselves killed and
I have to leave before I am ready. Should you ever wish to see me
again, we shall meet atop your bluff. I am going home.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He backed away, stone ground
under foot, slate cracked. Next time, if there was a next time, that
she saw him, she knew he would be too large to satisfy himself
without mortal harm. For all she knew, he might already have been. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He hesitated, eyes fixed on
her, &ldquo;Father was wrong, he should have been there...&rdquo; His
words proved that he had drawn the entire thing from her mind, but
she had expected that. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Go, go Kuthalti! Get
out of here!&rdquo; she shooed him away, limp hands in the air,
pleading.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He whimpered, backed another
step, then turned. &ldquo;As you wish&hellip;&rdquo; He wanted to say
more, she could see that, but the words were tangled up inside, too
confused and painful to be confronted. Another step, and he leaped
into the air.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Behind her, there was a
galloping of horse hooves as soldiers came down from the castle.
Someone else screamed at her, a word she had come to recognize as a
negative, &ldquo;Witch!&rdquo; Others yelled, people were coming out
of their houses as they recovered their courage.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice looked up to see the old
woman on the stoop, face drawn and full of sorrow. That expression
made no sense, nor did it as the woman turned away and shuffled back
inside. Alice looked up the road toward the galloping horse men. They
slowed as the closed, listened to the screams. Eyes turned toward
her.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Suddenly, she began to
understand, began to realize. They feared magic, worse, they thought
she had used magic to send Kuthalti away. &ldquo;No!&rdquo; she
cried, barely a whisper above the roar of the growing crowd. She
looked back toward the shape of her Beloved, he was still close, but
not enough to hear her. She reached, reached as hard as she could,
from that place behind her eyes where he had touched so often, where
his father had sank his mental talons. She reached, both arms
outstretched, and felt&hellip; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A sword sank through her ribs
from behind and emerged from her breast. Her sense of connection
vanished as fog before the sun. Her eyes lowered to the blood
streaked steel, notched and poorly kept she realized, spotted with
rust even. For some reason, she fixated on this fact, that he didn&rsquo;t
maintain his tools well, even as she fell to her knees.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Pain was there, but pain was
always there, what was a little more in a new place? She raised her
hand to the sword blade, as if she could just make it vanish. It did,
it retreated back through her body and sliced to the side. It came
out under her arm. Air hissed and bubbled from her lung as it
collapsed. &ldquo;Kuth,&rdquo; she mouthed and looked up again to see
him descend.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The shadow of his approach
blotted out the sun. From within, she witnessed a new sun being born,
blue-white. His mouth was open, lightning coursed from tooth to
tooth, a cascade of energy too intense to look at, but she couldn&rsquo;t
look away. His eyes found hers, briefly, full of light as well. She
felt him in her thoughts, felt his burning anger, felt is terror,
felt his thoughts begin to fragment. There was nothing she could do
now.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He looked away from her, the
connected faded. He exhaled. The lightning fragmented the air, broke
it into concepts she only had even more confusing concepts to
comprehend it with. That air, a blue-white plume of light, it
crackled with electricity, burned the very air as it touched it, and
billowed down into the street behind her. Screams were cut short,
flesh sublimated, houses powdered, stone melted, trees ashed. The
wall of the castle sagged, then flowed into the village below like
water. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">There was a quartet of
earthquakes as the dragon landed atop of her. Everything was black,
the light of his fury had left her blind, but she knew he was there,
felt him behind her eyes, smelled his fur and the ozone that
accompanied it. She tried to tell him, &ldquo;I&rsquo;m sorry, don&rsquo;t&hellip;
don&rsquo;t hurt.&rdquo; but she knew the gesture was futile. At
least, she realized, he wasn&rsquo;t the one to kill her, he couldn&rsquo;t
blame himself for that. &ldquo;The eggs, save the eggs!&rdquo; she
pleaded, but there was no voice to accompany the thought, and no
sentient mind beyond the beast within her Monster.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Alice died, her duty ended.
Around her, a city burned like the sun for it&rsquo;s transgression.
It was not the first city to burn under dragon fire, nor was it was
the first for Kuthalti. It would not be the last. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The death of his wife burned a
scar in Kuthalti&rsquo;s mind over the same scar of his lost mother
and sister, but the blame&hellip; the blame he laid upon the feet of
mortals. Not only the humans, not the forest people, everyone. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">That night, the Monster came
to rest upon the molten ruins of Cinstressa and laid the broken body
of Alice to rest. He wept over her, mournful and lost without her,
but did his duty as a husband. There, he reflected upon her memories,
memories he had rescued from her mind. &ldquo;What did you see
father? Was this fate?&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A voice came to him,
indistinct and distorted, &ldquo;We make our own fates.&rdquo; This
voice felt welcome, comfortable, familiar. He did not even question
it&rsquo;s presence, or who it belonged to. For the voice was his,
his from as early as he could remember. Not that it had ever spoken
to him before, not so clearly. He nodded his head and smiled, &ldquo;Yes,
we do, do we not?&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He leaned in and pressed his
lips to the gravid and cold belly of his wife. That which would never
be. He felt hot inside, too hot, but his hide was icy cold. Something
burned within that he had avoided, rejected, tried to extinguish. No
longer. He fed that flame, fed it until it scoured the pain from his
heart and left his thoughts empty. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">His arousal grew as the flames
burned hotter. Between his hind legs, his erection emerged and he
nestled down over Alice. She was so cold against his heated spire, so
stiff and empty, but it felt right, it had been her duty in life, one
last time&hellip; one last claiming was her duty in death.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">The voice inside agreed, or
was it that he agreed with the voice? He could not tell for sure, but
did not dwell on hit long. He sank to the hilt in his wife, tore
through that which he had held sacred, felt her pelvis crack around
him. She had been right of course, he would come to satisfy himself
with her. Neither of them would have imagined that it would be that
very same day, but that was alright. &ldquo;You were right, Alice,
you were always right.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Her silent voice was an
emptiness in his heart, but the flame seared across it and the pain
faded. Her limp body split from vulva to ribs as he ravished her.
There was something in his act, something powerful in his commitment
to her. He felt as if he could move heaven and earth if he only came
hard enough. Tears were in his eyes, ignored, even as he climaxed for
her over and over and over again. Semen poured down the steps of the
dais upon which he had lain her. The place had been the seat of power
for tens of thousands of people, now it was a mausoleum, a testament
to his love for her.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">With the tenth climax, he
pulled free and looked upon her face&hellip; only to discover there
was little more than a bloody smear of bones and flesh, no sign of
her at all. Inside, the voice told her, &ldquo;She has ascended
beyond, to be an angel. Remember the angel? Some day, she will save
you.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Save me?&rdquo; He
asked himself. &ldquo;From what?&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
&ldquo;<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Me,&rdquo; He replied
with a cold smile, then began to laugh as he emptied his bladder over
the blood stain. &ldquo;She will save you from me!&rdquo; </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">A torrent of energy swirled in
the air instinctively drawn to the coupling of dragon and corpse.
Kuthalti felt it like the cloudy cobwebs his father had experienced.
But instead of binding him, he bound them. He dragged the very life
from the land as the last dregs of his urine tainted the stone below,
and befouled the resting place of his wife. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">He barely knew what he was
doing but he knew the magic he wrought. He was a child playing with
forces of nature like clay. Clumsy and crude as it was, his will was
iron and the world bowed to it. The memory of Alice rose in his mind,
her potent spirit, her will as strong as his own, gone. His grief
mixed with his hatred, his hatred mixed with his lust, the lines had
blurred. &ldquo;Return to me,&rdquo; he commanded.</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Heaven and earth moved. He did
not want her back, her frail flesh would never hold now, her spirit
had fled. But he commanded her to return, his angel. Maybe not now,
maybe not soon, but she would return! He commanded it, and his
command snuffed the last flutter of life from the kingdom. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Wheat crumbled to dust in the
field. Grass fell to ash. The very stone of the castle that had flown
like water, now flowed away from him as little more than fine sand.
Only the dais remained, and it reeked of death, corruption, and
magic. </font>
</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">Before the dragon departed, he
told her one final thing, &ldquo;Your sacrifice will not be in vain,
Beloved. We shall cleanse the world.&rdquo;</font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt"><b>Epilogue</b></font></p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<br/>

</p>
<p style="text-indent: 0.58in; margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
<font size="4" style="font-size: 14pt">In the depths of the darkness,
far above the plane of ecliptic, a woman floated with a pair of
draconic wings stretched out behind her. Dust passed through her
without interaction, light was only partially refracted. In the
depths of the darkness, she wept, three serpentine forms clung to her
arms as she hugged them to her breast. In the darkness, she fell, and
fell. No breath passed her lips, no tears escaped her empty eyes. In
the darkness, she watched a world burning, felt every death, every
sorrow, every hopeless mortal soul extinguished. In the darkness, a
woman wept with joy. In the darkness, a trio of sightless infants
wailed silently for nourishment from an empty bosom, so she fed them
the damned instead.</font></p>
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