[b][u][center]The Contesting Powers of Desire
Part 2
By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]








After meeting Segun, Shadolm knew the next summoning would come soon. The wolf would not sit idle; the challenge of leaving Mount Cubicle would not sustain him for long. He would need something else, something that promised reprisal and response. The stallion’s warning would have done nothing more than entice him. 

He did not think that it would come the next morning, but it did. As the shimmering pool opened before him, he sighed. 

“Go on,” he told his herd, and stepped through. 

The passage from Desiderium to the mortal world was quicker this time, for he forced himself along rather than riding the current of the spell. He lunged through it, already calling his spear again. Alicja’s urgency called to him through the spell, and he knew that there was precious little time to waste. 

He emerged on the other side already fully formed, and the screams of his mortal herd called to him. The hunter was here. 

Alicja stepped out of his way as he pushed past, lunging from the greenhouse to the green at the center of the commune. His herd ran this way and that, running from the smell of blood, meat, and predator. 

[i]Wolf,[/i] he thought as he smelled the air. [i]Wolf, female…fast.[/i]

The last was obvious as he saw the black blur darting about. Flashes of fang and claw broke up the dark shape of the black wolf as she darted here, there, everywhere, moving to appear in front of her prey. His herd ran one way, then retreated to another as she kept darting about, barking, snarling, growling as she kept herding them into a tighter and tighter circle. 

Two had already fallen. They were on the ground, bleeding, but not dead. They were marked with bites across their arms, and one across the neck. Shadolm shook his head and stepped forward. 

“Stop.” 

It was a single word, spoken with all the force of a thunderclap across the plains. The grass parted before his voice, and the stalks of half-grown vegetables fell over. The world stilled for but a moment, and even the wolf froze, looking back at him. 

He lifted his arm, the point of the spear aimed right for her. He loomed over the wolf by a number of feet, nearly double her height, but she was built strong for her small size. Thick across the shoulders with the power of the Body and whatever she was pulling through her pact with Segun, she clearly had strength enough to fight. Her fingers were bloodied, her jaw stained, and there was no fear in her eyes as she turned to him. 

“Stop now, and you will be spared,” he said. 

“I take all challenges,” she said, shaking her head. “If you want me to stop, stop me.”

Shadolm shrugged. He took a step – 

Flicker. 

And threw his arm out. The darting wolf slammed right into the shaft of his spear, gasping as she nearly broke her own neck from the impact. She spun, flying head over heels around the spear before slamming face-first into the ground. The great demon stallion turned, pressing the butt of the spear into the back of her neck. 

“You are but mortal,” he said, kneeling down so that his knee pressed into the base of her tail. “You do not know what a challenge is.”

“Nnngh…”

“Were you the one that came before?”

“I came…I hunted…”

“Did he tell you to come again?”

“He gave…permission…”

Shadolm shook his head. He had warned Segun. Even if the wolf hadn’t condoned the hunt directly, he had allowed it. In that way, it was no different to giving the order. 

“Gather the wounded, and restrain this one.”

The herd responded, and Alicja joined him with rope. The older mare set to her task with alacrity, tying up the wolf woman without any fear. She had the stability of old mares, those that knew that threats came and went. For all that she was still scared, she had that mare-sense, and that was needed. He rested his free hand on her shoulder, squeezing it, and she nodded her thanks in turn. 

Once the black wolf was tied up, he touched the rope. His flames ran through it, marking it with symbols and sigils that no mortal could read. Even as the wolf strained against her bindings, pulling on the pact she had with Segun to the point where her eyes glowed with fire, she could not break them. He stood up, taking pressure off her. 

“Take her somewhere. Secure her.”

“Yes…Father.”

“I will see to the wounded.”

#

Even for him, the wounds were deep. He pulled his herd members back from their pain, taking it into himself the way that he always did. A mother soothed the pain of her children; a father carried it where it must go. There were times when he wished that there was a demon that could do the same for him. 

He shook his head as he laid the last mare down. The bites across her neck were sealed once more, no longer oozing life’s blood, but the scar remained. Segun was powerful enough that he could challenge the horse demon to some degree. He could not completely undo what was done by the wolf demon.  

Alicja sat at his side, kneeling with her hands on her thighs and her eyes nearly ablaze with her own anger. The fear was gone; only fury remained. 

“Twice. Twice,” she muttered. “Tell me. Tell me that this time we will teach him a lesson,” she said. 

“He will be taught,” Shadolm said, nodding. “Whether he will learn is another question.”

“Please…we will not be hunted again.”

It was not a question. They had faith in him, but they were still horses. They would not allow themselves to be fed on, preyed on, without fighting back. Those hunters that saw them as nothing but food, nothing but meat and sport to chase, would have found themselves very wrong. Shadolm smiled as he saw the resolution in the gray mare’s eyes. There, right there, was the reason that he allowed her to stay as High Mare. She might be foolish with the younger men, and she might not always take things as seriously as she might, but there was love there, a deep, protective love that would see the herd through the hard times. 

He stood up slowly, resting his spear against the ground. He could already feel the tug of Desiderium at his back. As a Collector, he was bound to the plane below, and only summoning magic could pull him to the mortal plane. Once his purpose was fulfilled, the tug of his home and the power of it would grow stronger and stronger, and eventually, he would have no choice but to return. 

But he had time, yet. Not much, but some, enough to talk to the captive. 

“I will see to it that it never happens again, my mare,” he said, stroking her cheek. “And I will make sure that you never have to fear the wolves again.”

“You will…punish her?”

“I will [i]question[/i] her. We need to know where they come from.”

Segun would not tell him. The wolf demon, as eager as he was for a fight, would not throw his pack forward. He had allowed this hunt for just one of them, not the full cult. That meant something: the wolf protected his own, but allowed his pack their own choices. 

He stepped away, moving from pain to anger. The sick yard was gone, and the wall and the wolf leaned against it appeared. 

She looked up at him with blazing eyes, deep in her connection with her patron demon. She growled, her teeth growing longer and longer still, until her fangs were like those of a sabertooth tiger. They flashed as she writhed in her ropes, glaring up at him with all the fury of a caged beast. 

“You will tell me where the rest of your pack is,” Shadolm said, walking up to her and stopping less than a pace away. “And you will tell me now.”

“You think I’m just going to tell you where my family is?!” The black wolf shook her head. “You can’t get that out of me. Go ahead. I can take pain. Or are you one of those demons that throws pleasure around like a weapon? I can take that, too. I won’t betray the pack!”

“You are dedicated, I cannot deny that. But I do not deal in pain, and pleasure is for those that want it, not those that fight with it. But you will tell me.”

She tried to lunge for him, and he caught her with the end of the spear again, sliding it between her flashing fangs like a dog forced to fetch a stick. As she blinked, staring at it and chewing on it seemingly by instinct, he leaned down and pressed his hand to her forehead. 

“Nnngh?!”

“I am the demon of Protection, of Exploration, and of Fatherhood.”

“Mmmph…MMPH?!”

“Become my daughter.”

The fires of Segun fought against his, the fires twisting like snakes between the wolf’s fur and his fingers. Yet his were the stronger, and he was there and Segun was not. Gradually, the wolf-tailed flames were pushed back, and the sinuous power that poured from his palm seeped into the wolf’s scalp. Her dark fur, rough and shaggy, began to sink in across her body. It dwindled, shrinking away into a softer, thinner coat, more elegant and less suitable for the cold times. 

“Nnngh…mmmph…”

As she twisted her head, trying to flee, he pushed back. The spear and the rope bindings were sufficient to hold her as he poured his power into her. With each pulse of his flames, she changed, her back arching as her spine started to pop, her very skeleton altering at his command as she [i]stretched.[/i]

After all, someone barely four-foot-eight was far too small for a proper horse. 

Pop, pop, pop went her bones as she was pulled taller, longer, greater. Five feet, five-foot-four, five-foot-eight. She was stretched out, further, further, her face warping and losing the wolf muzzle, becoming longer and more rounded at the end. The long fangs pulled back, sinking into her muzzle once more as her teeth flattened into something less threatening. 

Her eyes, deep and gold, rolled more to the sides of her face, staring out of deep, brown sockets. Her ears flicked back, becoming less pointed, more…soft, gentle, even fearful as they flicked around one way and then another. 

He let her fall as her legs twitched, shifting, her toes fusing and becoming more hoof-like. He let the bindings fade, and she moaned as her arms were let loose. 

Now six feet tall, the black mare-to-be moaned as the last of the shaggy fur disappeared, leaving her in nothing more than an elegant black coat. She had been taken, he realized, using her fur as a garment, and now, her meager endowments were exposed. Small, too small for a mare, so she grew heavier in the chest. Thicker, rounder, fuller, drooping down as a proper mother’s tits should be, and wider in the hips, more suited for long days of running and making sure that she could bear her children the way she wanted. 

Thick, full, heavy in the rump, and with a tail that pushed out in a different way to the fluffed wolf tail. Long, luscious hairs hung down, perfectly groomed, draped over holes that displayed her lusts and needs better than anything that she had had before. She huffed, lowering her head to the ground as her new teardrop-shaped sex started to wink, as all mares did before the herd-master. 

He stood there, holding his spear as the transformation continued to wash over her, each pulse of his fires inside of her changing her, warping her from wolf hunter to mare. Her fingers thickened, claws disappearing and turning into blunted, dark nails at the end of white fingers. The rest of her coat remained dark, black as the night in which she had once hunted. 

“My…my…”

“Look at me.”

Shadolm forced the power through his voice again, and she had no choice. He was the herd-master. All horses were compelled to obey him. 

She turned slowly, fighting it as hard as she could, but it was no more than a few seconds’ delay. The once-wolf looked up at him, and her eyes widened. The subtle obedience that he commanded from all equines shined in her eyes. 

“What is your name, daughter?” he asked. 

“I…Mmmph…My name…is…is Katsuko.”

“You were a powerful hunter. Why did you hunt my people?”

“…Purpose…”

“There is no purpose in slaughter without reason.”

“They were…strong. They…gave me…something I could…something I could do. Prove myself…better. Prove myself…strong enough…for the…pack,” she said, fighting against the compulsion, but every time it grew stronger. 

He understood, despite himself. The pull of family was strong, and the desire to be good enough, strong enough, fast enough, smart enough to be worthy of pack or herd was powerful, indeed. He did not know if she had been pushed by the rest of her pack, but they had not stopped her. 

“Where are they hiding?” he asked. 

“We…do not hide. We test…we push…”

“…You make your Den in the Green.”

She grinned, and it was a wolf’s grin on a horse’s face. He did not know how to feel about that. 

“Which one?”

She fought, then. She fought hard, and he gave her the credit that she was due, for there were few mortals that could resist the compulsion to obey a master such as he. She was silent for one minute, then two, but he waited, and waited, as sweat beaded across her face. Her hands clenched, her jaw strained, and he could hear the grinding of teeth in the silence between them. 

But for all that she resisted, she could not break the compulsion. Katsuko lowered her head. 

“We live…we [i]live[/i]…in the forest of the Spring Tree.”

“I know it. You have done well, daughter.”

“Nnngh…”

“But you will not stay.” He knelt down, resting his hand under her chin and looking her in the eye. “For you are no horse at heart. You are a wolf, a hunter. And one day, you will know your purpose. One day, you will know your strength without having to prove it. One day, perhaps, you will even outgrow Segun.”

“…”

“But that day is not today. Until sundown, when your true shape asserts itself, you will remain here. My word binds you until you return to the form of a hunter. Stay here, in silence, and let nothing pass your lips to warn your pack.”

She stared at him, anger and awe in the same expression, before he turned away. He had little time; the world was already blurring around him, spinning about in places, and details were fading as the call of Desiderium pulled at his heart. 

“Alicja!”

#

The spell came again, and he jumped through. There was no goodbye, no smiles, no tears. There was only the face of purpose. 

He leaped through, formed and armed, in the forest of the Spring Tree. It was awash with the power of the Green, with flora and fauna alike twisting reality at his feet and all around him. The earth split, trying to trap him, but he stomped his heel into the crack and forced it together again. 

“Do not try me,” he warned. “For I am as old as you, and older still. I am here for an hour, and then I shall depart, but if you toy with me, I will see to it that you burn with more than life.”

The forest did not push at him again. The Green was powerful, but it was also awake, and aware, and could feel pain at what was done to it. It would know better than to take sides in the coming fight. 

It made sense that Segun’s pack had made their home among one of the Green places, though. If they sought challenge, then living here meant living under constant pressure. The magic that filled the world around them would push them, nudge them, making every task that little bit more difficult as it sought the best in life. Be stronger, be faster, be more than you are, lest the rest of the world develop to the point where you were left behind. It was a perfect place for a pack devoted to finding the impossible and beating it. 

And more than that, it would be harder for others to dig them out of this place. The Green was protected by treaties in places where it stood proud. Though it was always digging in and trying to root itself in other parts of the city, it was never entirely successful. The places where it stood openly, however, were places that it protected to the death. If one of Docetri were to challenge it, they would disappear. 

Demonkind, however, were a different matter. 

He walked through the forest. Alicja had been able to summon him past the boundaries, likely past any little watchers that the cult had, but she had not been able to cast him far into the forest. He would have to find them on his own. 

And that…turned out to be easier than anticipated. 

A fire burned merely a few hundred feet in, the heat and smoke trapped by the trees. He imagined that they burned their campfire in defiance of the world around them, showing that they had the strength to do something that the Green may dislike without suffering any reprisals. It was courageous, he would give them that. 

But it also drew him to them like a moth to their flame. 

He stopped at the edge of the treeline, looking down at them in the clearing that they had made for themselves. A small camp had sprung up around the fire-pit that had clearly been the first thing they’d made, and they had small dwells that were like dens that were dug into the ground and covered with logs. Some four wolves were outside, talking, whispering to each other, including a red wolf that was nearly as small as Katsuko had been, while the others looked to be sleeping, or at the very least, resting. 

It was the red wolf that held his attention, however. He had a different sense to him than the others, more touched by the power of Segun. As Alicja was Shadolm’s High Mare, he imagined that this red wolf was the one in charge of the cult-pack. 

The black stallion’s mane flared, and his fire burned through it and his tail as he stepped forward. All eyes turned to him and all lips were silent. 

“You know who I am,” Shadolm said, looking around the clearing. “I told your master that if my people were attacked, I would deliver the same pain that they suffered to you. I told him that this would happen, and he allowed it anyway.”

“Katsuko?” the red wolf said. 

“Yes.”

“…I thought she would do better,” the cult leader said, shaking his head. “[i]I[/i] gave her permission. If you want to fight someone, fight me.”

“I will. But there was more than one of mine injured,” Shadolm said, casting his eyes around the pack. “First, there was Jowan and Samantha. Then, there was Garth, Samuel, and Rhonda. And there is still Athol. One of mine that was stolen from me. Hidden from me.”

Shadolm raised his spear, slowly swinging it around the pack. Other eyes were poking out from the burrows and dens, looking at him, staring at him. They were afraid, now, but none had the sense to run. Others had their muscles tense and tight, ready to fight, and some few fools were grinning, their teeth exposed and their tongues lolling out to the sides. They thought themselves ready for a challenge, and believed that was all he was. 

He swiped his spear across the ground, and fire erupted, an inferno that put their campfire to shame. It cut the earth, turning the ground to glass where it flared, and took over a minute to die despite the lack of fuel. 

“I am here…to even the scales,” he said, taking a step forward as the earth crunched beneath his sole. “But I will give you a choice. You may fight…or you may pick six of your number.”

“There’s only been five injured,” the red wolf said.

“Naram-Sin –”

“There’s only been five,” Naram-Sin said, shaking his head. “Even if we were to agree, that’s more than we hurt.”

“You hurt five, and stole one. Six.”

“…”

“I will give you a minute to think,” Shadolm said, resting the length of his spear across his shoulders. “Choose wisely.”

The wolves gathered together, rising from the burrows and looking at him while whispering to each other. He measured them as they came up, counting them. No more than twenty, it seemed, and ranging from barely adult to two that were in the depths of the gray. They would not be here for more than a few more seasons, but they ran with the rest of the pack, he could tell. They ran hard. 

He waited, letting nothing but emptiness show on his face. The urge to return the pain to them was strong, but that urge was mixed with the drive of fatherhood. He understood the desires of children to please those that were above them, to imitate, to rise to their level. This was not entirely their fault. 

He could give them a moment. 

He could give them several moments. 

Naram-Sin, the red wolf that seemed to be their leader, was clearly arguing some point or other with them. He kept shaking his fist and his head, whispering something, while the others were arguing against it. Shadolm could have heard, but he gave them the privacy to handle it themselves. They were mortals; he was something else. 

And so he waited…until the portal formed. 

Shadolm lifted his spear again as the great red-white circle took shape between him and the pack. Great claws grabbed hold of the edge of it, and the red-eyed wolf from the cave dragged himself free. He supposed he should have expected something like this. 

Segun was taller than any other member of his pack, and if his shoulders could ever lose their hunch, he would be taller still. Nonetheless, he stood just under eight feet in height, broad and thick enough to ram through doorways and take the frames off, with arms that were long and fingers that were tipped with claws curled and sharp enough to cut limbs with ease. As he pulled himself free of the portal, he growled, showing teeth stained and nicked alike, the damages of war and many fights lingering on the great gray wolf. 

“I warned you,” Shadolm said, pointing his spear right at the wolf demon. “I told you, as herd-master to pack-master, that if it started again, I would come.”

“You come, yes, but they are mine.”

“Did you order Katsuko to do this?”

“Yes!”

“I asked her. I compelled her. You are lying to me.”

“…”

Shadolm flicked his spear toward the red wolf. 

“He said the same. He took responsibility for her. Do you take responsibility for him?”

“For Ned? Always.”

“…Ned?” 

One of the other wolves sputtered, and the red wolf whipped his head around. 

“Why do you think I picked the new one? It –”

“I refuse to accept an easier name,” Segun said, turning and looking down at his wolf. “And you should not shy from the challenge. Naram-Sin may be feared by many, and with ease. To make them fear the name of Ned…is a most difficult challenge.”

“Yes…yes, I know.”

“We are getting off the topic,” Shadolm said, shaking his head as he lowered the butt of the spear to the ground once more. “And we are at an impasse. Your people have harmed – nearly killed – five of mine. And you have yet to return my missing herd-member.”

“You should have protected them better,” Naram-Sin said. “Aren’t you –”

The great gray wolf swatted his follower, sending the red wolf spinning backward. He nearly tumbled into the fire, and the wolf demon chuckled, shaking his head. Shadolm sighed. 

“Mortals.”

“We are too pure for them,” Segun said. 

“Or they are too complicated for us.”

“A challenge worthy of me.”

“And children worthy of me.” 

The two demons shared the tiniest of smiles as the red wolf got back to his feet, but the moment did not last long. A second later, they were back to staring each other down, one armed with nothing but claws and fangs, the other armed with an obsidian-tipped spear. They did not move, but the forest cracked around them, trees losing bark and branches, and the earth rolling beneath their feet. Such was the power of the greater demons called to the world of mortals, and why they never stayed long. 

“Something must be done,” Shadolm said. “You have hurt my herd not once, but twice.”

“A challenge, indeed,” Segun said. “For you cannot hurt my pack so deep without killing them, and that would be further pain to be paid.”

“Indeed.”

“Set me to the challenge, then, Shadolm. I hoard them. Grant me this challenge.”

“…Take it, then.”

The wolf chuffed, and set to pacing about the campsite. His eyes gleamed as he picked up speed, loping about, growling and snarling as he did. Faster and faster, he ran about the clearing, swifter and swifter until the air spun with him. Logs and branches, grasses and leaves flew about them as the beginnings of a tornado formed around them – 

“AWOOOO!”

And then Segun stopped in his tracks, howling with his arms out to the sides in triumph. He laughed, lunging across the campsite before stopping before the stallion with a mad grin on his face. 

“Ah ha, I have it!”

“Then share it.”

“Me. The answer is me. I will take their pain.”

“…You will take their punishment?”

“What greater challenge? To hold myself back, to do nothing as someone stronger strikes me down? To get up again, to take it once more? Oh, I will take that, for my pack. I will take what they have earned, Shadolm.”

“…You will take what [i]five[/i] of them have earned,” he said. “You have harmed five, taken one. I will take them back, and you will give me one in turn.”

“Done.”

“So easily?”

“I know just the one. Pack is pack, but what is not pack is not-pack. There is one that must go, for his own and ours.”

“…Done.”

“But –”

Once more, the two demons turned to Naram-Sin. He froze, his mouth hanging open, and Segun chuckled. 

“Speak not. This challenge [i]will[/i] kill you. It is mine to take. I will give you one later, one that you will grow from.”

“You care more than you seem,” Shadolm said, lifting his spear. “Are you prepared?”

“No, but that is the way of challenges, is it not? Let us begin.”

#

It is only possible for demons to die in the mortal realm, and it is for that reason that many demons do not fight once summoned. Shadolm did not hold back with his strikes, and the great gray wolf refused to allow any to be given to his pack. 

In the end, Segun survived, but only by the slimmest of margins. The wolf laughed as he fell through his portal again, the fifth blow sending him back to Desiderium in the process. Shadolm shook his head, hardly believing that the demon had managed to take all five thrusts through his body, nor that someone like that would have stood for his pack in such a way. 

Then again, he knew that he would have done the same. If someone higher than him had demanded payment from his herd, he would have stood for them, and taken whatever he could for them. 

He let his spear fade, turning to Naram-Sin. The small red wolf had fallen to his knees, and his eyes were wet with tears. The stallion sighed. 

“His part is done. Who is the one I will take?”

“…Raphael?” Naram-Sin muttered. 

One of the wolves, older but not so old as to be lost to the depths of the gray, stepped forward. Silver-furred and vaguely wrinkled along his face, he was not the one that Shadolm had expected. Perhaps in his forties, mid-forties at most, he looked as if he would have fit in just fine. 

Yet, on second glance, he could see that Raphael stood apart from the others, not quite meshing with them, nor fitting with them. The pack stood apart from him, and none seemed to grieve that his name was called. 

[i]One that joined, but not completely, then,[/i] Shadolm thought. [i]Clever. You give up one without the same value as the others, and you make the others closer. Perhaps one day you will rise, Segun.[/i]

“And Athol?”

“Here!” 

The familiar voice came from one of the burrows. Shadolm reached out, twisted his fingers in a summoning motion, and a Clydesdale stallion appeared at his side. The black and white stallion grunted as he shook his hands out, rope-burns along his wrists and ankles as he shook his limbs back to life. 

Shadolm smiled at the irritable stallion. One of the more interesting members of the herd, Athol was the one charged with seeing to the gardens. The Clydesdale had once been a vixen, but had transitioned – to an extent – once he had been transformed. He gained a cock but kept the breasts, and they hung on thick enough pecs that some people forgot that they were even there. 

Clapping the stallion on the back, he turned to Raphael once more. The wolf, dressed in nothing more than a loincloth, crossed his arms in resignation. 

“I’m coming with you, then?” he asked. 

“That was the bargain.”

“Fine. Let me get my things.”

As the wolf walked over to one of his burrows, the rest of the pack closed ranks. Naram-Sin – Ned, rather – stood up slowly, standing in front of them as if Shadolm might break the bargain. It was admirable, Shadolm supposed; the pack did seem to care for its own. He started to turn – 

“And Katsuko?” Ned asked. 

“She will be back at the end of the day.”

“Did you hurt her, too?”

He looked back at them. Shadolm smiled. 

“Worse. I treated her like my daughter. And she will never forget it.”










[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: Shadolm returns to defend his herd, and takes the fight to the pack. 

Tags: F/solo, Transformation, Wolf to Mare, Mare, Wolf, Stallion, Demon, Fighting, Fantasy, Modern Fantasy, Magic, Negotiation, Overpowered, Docetri, Shadolm,