Alexandra screamed in terror as the wolf things came out of the castle walls
wherever she went. What were they!? They seemed to be created using the
castle's magic, it was like the castle's magic itself had gone out of control!
She had run into one of the maids, her name was Laura, the wolf things had
come out of the walls and gone into her from behind. Laura had transformed
into a muscular she wolf with a look of pure savagery in her eyes.
Alexandra screamed again and ran as fast as her digigraded feet could carry
her. Where was the master? Why was the master letting this happen? Didn't
he care? -Of course he cared.- -He was master!-
Alexandra knew this castle inside and out, she could actually -feel- the castle
shifting shape around her, but into what?!
Alexandra started to go down one way, felt it alter into a loop to where she
had been before and quickly went down another way, to where she felt,
where she -needed- her master to be. And all the time, those wolf things
made out of sand kept coming from the walls. Thankfully they were fast, but
not -that- fast, and proved rather clumsy. But they would just sink into the floor,
as they, or new ones, (she couldn't tell, they all looked exactly the same)
appeared in walls near her.
Two leapt at her from opposite sides at the same time, Alexandra slide down
past them, and they smashed into each other scatting into bits of sand.
Alexandra didn't miss a beat and almost running on all fours ran like lightning
praying that master was all right. The wolf things were in hot pursuit.
She turned a sharp corner at the baths which they couldn't match and they
flew into the water turning into sandy muck. Alexandra wasn't thinking about
them anymore, because she saw him. She saw him! She saw master! She
bolted pouring all her strength into her legs before she forced herself to come
to a stop least she skid into Master Karther, which was unacceptable.
But... who was... this vixen with him? She gave off an aura of power that made
Alexandra feel utterly small, and her figure was the like to put even a greek
sculpture to shape, and she had, -six- tails! That last fact more than anything
made Alexandra feel inadequate around her.
But Master, yes master! Tend to master now!
No one is perfect, as much as Karther hated to admit it, this included himself.
So when he had separated a piece of himself to make the castle literally an
extension of himself, he had chosen the parts of himself he wished to do
without. This included his base phobia of wolves, and the more uncontrollable
side of his Id. Given how Karther acted regardless this said something about
what his more savage side would be like. Thus now the castle was
manifesting Karther's fears, and his most base desire, to make everything like
him to serve him. Though this was utterly perverted by the fact the castle
wasn't meant to act on it's own.
Who knew what these wolves would do once they had converted everything
in the castle, or even beyond that... still... they were still animations of the
castle, which meant they couldn't go beyond the castle walls...
While Tammia had placed huge emotionally controls, and emotional
modification on Karther, on top draining him of pretty much all his magic and
absorbed it into herself to fight the Angel Fox who was Tabra and Janice, he
was still sentient and himself. So he saw that one of His Queen's fox ears
morph into a wolf one. Seeing his Dear Loving Queen change in such an
obvious way the emotional changes compelled him to act, much like the
changes he had made to Alexandra. Gathering up enough wits to actually
speak, he said,
"M-my Dearest Loving Queen." He croaked.
"Yes my love?" She turned and looked at him.
"Y-your ear, your left ear! It's become like a wolf's!"
Tammia blinked and felt her left ear, it was shaped like a wolf. She giggled,
had it always been shaped like a wolf's? No, of course no, she was vixen, so
why would it be shaped like a wolf's? Must have been a slight side effect of
that cute little wolf who had tried to play with her.
She remolded her ear into a fox one, this seemed to pacify Karther somewhat.
Of course Tammia was only treating the symptoms of her infection, not the
disease.
"Master Karther!" Said a vixen out of the blue who almost ran right into
Karther.
Karther dully looked at her, after all, all he needed was his queen, she was
the only one for him, he was the only one for her. What was her name again?
Oh yes, Alexandra.
"Who are you?" Alexandra blinked at the superior vixen.
"I am Queen Tammia." She said proudly.
"Tammia.... Tammy... so you've become queen! I'm so happy for you!" Though
Alexandra felt a pang of jealously. She knew better than to question her
master's choice for his other half, he was master, he couldn't make that kind of
mistake. "Where is your friend Janice?"
"Have we met?" Tammia thought, struggling to remember before she was
queen, which was rather like seeking knowledge before the dawn of time, but
she managed to draw it out somehow, must have been her magic. "Ah yes... I
remember you... the chef for my prince."
"But since he has a queen, doesn't that mean that our master is king now?"
"We have yet to consummate our union ... as for my other body, she has...
gone astray... she is clearly in need of great help..."
'Other body?' Alexandra tried to figure out what that meant. But it sounded like
the Queen's best friend had suffered somehow and was in need of help.
"You... you can count on my help my queen!" Alexandra nodded loyally. While
she had wished for the master to chose her, she wasn't about to betray her
duty to him by sulking her responsibilities to his queen.
That was Alexandra finally noticed something. "What... what is wrong with
master? His magic is ... gone..."
Tammia just smiled. All the time blasting the wolves to sand before they got
close. "It is not gone. It is right here." She patted herself.
"You... you -stole- the master's power?" Alexandra was mortified.
"I did no such thing!" The queen boomed and Alexandra was on her knees
and hands in an instant.
"I was given his power for the moment so that I might better retrieve my
second body."
'Second body' again, Alexandra wondered what that meant, but if she needed
to know she was sure she would be told. "Is this true my master?" She asked
Karther.
"You doubt the word of my Dearest Loving Queen?" Karther asked.
Alexadra realized the betrayal of her words. "No! No! Of course not! Never! I
wouldn't ever! I merely wished to hear it from you my master!"
"You are forgiven this time." Tammia said calmly.
"My queen... " Alexandra said. "What are these monsters that have infected
the castle? I saw them turn Laura into a beast! What is happening?"
"Obviously they are the work of the invader who had intruded on the castle not
only to steal my prince's harem, but to steal my other body as well." Said
Tammia perhaps believing what she had just said.
Alexandra gasped that someone could invade the castle, it was unthinkable
to her mind, but it was true all the same.
"I may be of little importance to the castle as a whole but," Alexandra grew
firm. "Command me master! I shall do all I can to aid you in repairing this
damage done to your queen and your kingdom!" She said boldly to Karther.
"Excellent." Said Tammia smiling.
+++++++++
Summoning up a chain whip, Janice and Tabra had torn the sand wolves to
pieces, rendering them inanimate sand in a matter of seconds after they
emerged, and the castle quick began to lose mass and took for it was a
moment to breath. Janice and Tabra did the same.
Janice asked. "So... when you fight... is it always this intense?"
"Little girl-"
"I'm not a girl!"
"-Look in a mirror! As I was saying, you don't know what intense is. I gave you
a taste of my memories, but I've been carried away on a stretcher from battles
that give you nightmares."
"I think I'm already going to have nightmares when this is all over."
"'When' this is over, I knew there an optimist in you."
"I'd rather not consider the other possibility."
"Consider it, then have a stronger motivation not to lose." Tabra and Janice
put both hands against the sand wall, it glowed white hot and it spread to the
ceiling, wall, and floor of the immidate area. Super heating it until it turned to
glass.
"Shouldn't we have just burned ourselves?" Janice asked.
"It was our power, so no. The castle shouldn't be able to animate glass so we
should have a moment for you, for -us- to catch our breath."
Janice looked back the way they came confused. "Where's Tammy? Wasn't
she just behind us?"
"I think those wolves things slowed her down, I can sense her a while back
but she's stopped, she still with Karther and another presence has joined up
with her, I can't tell who though, but it's someone whose programming is still
intact."
"So there's someone else whose free around here?"
"I de-brainwashed the rest of the harem after you two ran for it. I gave one of
them my cross so they should be safe at least from getting their brains
rewritten again."
"What will a lower case 't' shaped piece of metal do?" Janice asked.
"It's not the symbol! It's the power that it's represents!"
"Are you ever going to stop trying to convert me?"
"Janice, you're bunking bodies with an angel, if this doesn't convince you then
I'm not even going to try. I'm just stating a fact."
Janice was eager to end this discussion. "So do we keep with our original
plan? Draw Tammia out of the castle so she can't keep changing the sand on
us?"
"That might be best... But we're sharing this body, so we need a minute to
catch our breath and recharge, I've used up a bit of power when I opened my
real wings for a split second."
"Can we at least generate some clothes?" Janice moaned folding her wings
around herself.
"I have some battle armor, but it's not made for this shape."
"You just want to ogle this body don't you? I know you can change the shape
of things you have!"
"WE have. Remember that. But the armor I have that could actually block
magic that Tammia now has would take too long for me to customize into
something we can wear. Once we smash our way out of here and Tammia
won't be able to use the castle to pin point on us anymore, I have about a
million safe places we can go to get better prepared. There's an oasis several
miles north, we can go there."
"I'm not leaving Tammy! She's my best friend!"
"Starting worry about Tammia turning us back into her clone. If we can lure
her into a fight outside, all the better for us, we might be able to disable her
enough to begin the slow process of repairing her."
"It took you a couple seconds with her before!"
"She didn't have two magical forces running through her and hadn't gone
through at least two transformations. It'll take a while to dig out her real self out
of the MESS that her mind is now."
"So we can save her still?"
"I wouldn't be mentioning it if it wasn't possible."
"Hmm, I hear something." Janice flicked an ear to in the direction of the sound
she heard. "Do you hear it?"
"We have the same ears, guess. And I think I recognize who it is."
+++++++
The shiva wolf that used to be Robert chased after the grand total of nine
vixens and one Shiva vixen who was once named Gene whose base magical
instructions were coming under some serious confusion.
Luna had bought them some time by grabbing Robert on those two spots on
the chest all women hurt. Seriously, what was Karther THINKING by leaving
THOSE exposed? For all his power and cunning, the guy seriously lacked
common sense sometimes.
A sand wolf come out of one of the walls and made a leaping up at Keiko.
Keiko saw it coming and remember what she herself had said, 'no one cares
enough ABOUT us to care what happens TO us.'
Vicki saw it too and made a choice.
Vicki pushed Keiko out of the way just in time for the wolf to jump in and
possess her. Or that's what should of happened. Instead of merging with her,
the wolf's impact merely knocked Vicki off her feet and onto the sand stone
floor. Vicki felt the crucifix around her neck heat slightly. Vicki almost laughed,
it seemed that T's gift meant to protect her from re-brainwashing kept her from
picking up hitch hikers.
However, Vicki found out, just because she couldn't be possessed, don't she
couldn't feel pain as the angry wolf raked it's claws against her back sliced at
the hole in the armor. While Karther had made the armor they were wearing to
be sturdy, being the pervert he was, made made the upper arms, upper legs,
and waist visible. Any armor designer would have rejected the design at the
bat of an eyelash, but Karther was a mage and a ruler, not an armorer.
Vicki cried in pain and felt the blood move down her back. She turned in one
motion and sliced the wolf's head off with her scimitar and it fell over, back into
sand.
The Shiva vixen made a half-hearted attempt to attack Vicki but she just
kicked her away.
"Dammit Gene! We're not your enemy! Can't you see these wolf things are?!"
She hoped she had phrased it in such a way that it could get through to Gene.
Vicki wondered if she could de-brainwash Gene the way she had all of her
sisters. But she was doing this blindly and she had no doubt that Gene's
brainwashing would protect itself if push came to shove.
Four wolves came at Gene at once and the Shiva vixen switched targets and
attacked all four wolves at once with all four of her arms. Vicki wasn't sure to
be grateful to Gene for blocking off the wolves, or the wolves for keeping
Gene's target sight off of Vicki and her sisters.
Keiko did her best to avoid being on the front line, offer what support she
could. Luna and Barbara were fighting back to back. Anna, Charlene, Lisa,
and Erica formed a circle covering each other's flanks holding off Robert.
Lucy... made foolish mistake of leaping right into the den of wolves... she cut
them restlessly to pieces... The other called her to come back, but she had
made her choice... Louis... her real name was Louis, she remembered just
before the wolf dodged her halberd, and dove into her. A moment later, a
humanoid she wolf was in her place, fighting along side Robert. Anna cried
out in dismay and horror.
"She's just the first, soon all of us-" Keiko started.
"SHUT UP!" Luna snarled and jump kicked Lucy up the jaw and send her
flying into the sand wolves, smashing them under her muscular weight. "Shut
up! Shut up! We're not dead yet! That means there's a chance of getting out of
this alive! I don't ****ing buy the whole 'no win' scenario! You shouldn't either!
So let's go!" Thankfully Luna didn't follow Lucy's mistake and didn't kamakazi
herself against an enemy that was able to constantly it seemed resupply it's
numbers. The enemy had cut off both routs... they were being forced into a
smaller and smaller space until...
A blast of white light smashed through one wall and then another, knocking
out Lucy and Robert and burning some of her fur, the sand wolves were all
turned into hot glass. Out of the smoke and rubble came out an odd figure.
"Do NOT ask me to do that again.... EVER!" The vixen with angel wings and a
single tail said intensely.
The winged vixen turned to Vicki. "Hello Vicki, glade to see you held onto my
gift... "
Gene made a leaping slash at the angel fox, she dropped both legs from
under her so Gene went right over her, the winged vixen then gave a powerful
upper punch to Gene's gut, causing the shiva vixen to gasp and her eyes
rolled into the back of her head, dropping all of her sword. The vixen caught
her, and looked at the sisters.
"Hello." The vixen she happily.
"You another of Karther's pet?!" Luna snapped.
"If I was, would shiva here of attacked me, and would I have just saved you
from those wolves when you were about to lose? What point would there be?"
"One of Karther's games!" Luna replied.
"Karther might have left his battle scars on me, but I can promise you he's very
busy himself right now."
"Are you?" Vicki gasped.
"Yep, it's me. Sorry you lot had to be dragged into this."
"What happened to you?" Vicki asked.
"Like I said, had trouble with Karther, right now we need to get OUT of this
castle . . . ." She looked at Lucy and Robert. "And bring them along, they
should stop being zombified once we're out of the castle. Zombified?" The
Vixen seemed to be asking herself. "Look at their auras, don't look at them,
look at their auras, their spirits are tainted by an outside force, this castle to be
precise."
"Why are you talking to yourself?" Luna raised an eye brow.
"A long long LONG story! And we don't have time for right now!" The angel fox
said.
"Why?" Barbara asked.
"Because the castle -still- can't extend itself beyond it's own boundaries.
Which means it can't get up on legs and chase after you once you're out of
here... And the main wall that separate the castle from the outside is round
about two and a half room that way." The angel fox pointed east.