War of the Races

Chapter 01- The Artifact

In the near future-

The world is no longer the simple human world we once had. Of course, in reality the world was never simple, but now, it is infinitely more complicated. How is it more complicated? Well to explain the future I have to tell you about the past…

Have you ever heard of the ‘Flood’?

You know the biblical catastrophe…

Yeah, that happened, but there is so much more to that story, which coincidentally was mostly wiped out except for one source. So, how is this relevant?

Just this, all the races of mankind share a common ancestor, but anyone that has gone to Sunday School knows this. What most people don’t know is that there used to be so much more diversity to humankind than there is now. For instance the Alfari, known by most as elves. The Dvergr, the surly Dwarves of fantasy. The Jotunn, the enigmatic giants, and even the Asgardians and Vanir, they all really existed and many more.

In that first Age of Mankind they were known as the Patriarchs, but after the Fallen’s arrival they began separating their families by tribe. Once segregated they established small kingdoms, and to organize their efforts and to try and prevent skirmishes a Council of the Races was created. However, the Fallen from heaven quickly corrupted the Council with promises of forbidden magics, knowledge of science, and in the span of two-hundred years humanity lept from the Stone Age to a Golden Age.

Some rejected the Fallen and the temptation of their magic and science, but not enough.

It was truly an Age of Wonders, but also, it became an Age of Violence.

By the time the Fallen began openly manipulating the Races, they were too blinded by their own greed to see that they were being manipulated against each other into waging wars on a scale never before seen. Those who weren’t killed by the wars soon succumbed to the rampant lawlessness while millions more died by famine or pestilence. Amid the turmoil, the Fallen began bio-engineering new hybrid-Races able to reproduce at astonishing rates, based on human and animal mixtures combined with their own supernatural genetics, and forced together by magic and science with one goal in mind. Fight their way into the Garden and seize the fruit from the Tree of Life. In the end, war consumed everything and everyone, until a Great Cataclysm was prophesied to come and wipe away everything.

The Council of the Races then switched gears and threw all of their newly acquired knowledge of science and magic into creating a way to escape. No one knew if they ever achieved their goal. Then a little over a hundred years ago a discovery was made under the Sphinx in Egypt. A hidden room, and very soon after the authorities were called. An investigation was done, and coincidentally the archaeology team was assassinated soon after. The room was once again hidden, and ever since only one government agency has ever seen or had access to the room and the ‘Artifact’ inside. That is, until someone somehow leaked the ‘Artifact’s’ blueprints to several newspapers, science magazines, and conspiracy newsletters.

The blueprints of a science-fiction ‘Gateway’ combined with a D&D fantasy ‘Portal’ possibly built by aliens with many panels covered in complex hieroglyphics, while others seemed to be runes, and then there was a strange sanskrit that matched no known language on earth, and yet, seemed eerily familiar. Pandora’s box was open, and the Agency disappeared into the ether while subtly insinuating that the ‘Artifact’ was nothing but a hoax, urban myth, and conspiracy. However, to some scientists the ‘Artifact’ became an intriguing topic of what if, and brought together mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, linguists, archeologists, and even other scientists of less repute. When no one could figure out how to make it work, it quickly lost its popularity and became a topic of scorn as an impossible puzzle and a waste of time.

It wasn’t until years later when a D&D game master researching for a campaign for his club came across his fathers notes and schematics of the ‘Artifact’ that he decided to create a new computer based D&D RPG centered around the ‘Artifact’ as the portal to another realm, and then something for the first time in more than four thousand years…happened!

The game was called ‘Dimension’, or so it was when I was alpha testing it…

——(!)——

More than 30 years previous –

December 12, 1989-

I still remember that fateful day so many years ago, waiting for my IBM 80/486 to load and the DOS prompt to appear. I sat there in eager anticipation and soon was typing ‘Dimension.exe’ in the command line. While the game was loading I went and poured myself some coffee and ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut. When I returned to my computer, there it was, the login screen!

A magical rune inscribed gateway to another world on a simple black background…

Mousing over, I double clicked the ‘Gate’ and was presented with my first major decisions. My new character creation…

With great diligence I made my selections…

What Dimension would you like to visit? There were seven options available, all of which were question marks, and the eighth option was (Random). Since I had no idea what the question marked locations were I chose (Random).

What Sex would you like to be? There were only two options; (Male) or (Female), and I, of course, chose (Male).

Your Race will depend on your Dimension. Would you like to choose your Race? Oddly there were over a thousand question marks for this answer, but only two choices were highlighted that I could choose from, (Human) or (Random), and so, I chose (Random).

From this point on you may choose a Class and Profession. However upon choosing the (Random) option, there is a slight chance that a Class can be upgraded to an elite class or have an added Sub-class. The same is true for Professions. Would you like to choose your Class and Professions. Given the opportunity to possibly be upgraded, I went with (Random).

What would you like to name your Avatar? This one took me a little while to think about, but in the end I chose (Viridian).

Once my character choices were made, it was with great expectation that I hit the (Launch) button. The computer CPU fan revved up, the runes and hieroglyphs began to glow and dance across the surface of the Gate, and when the runes stopped moving a swirling rainbow of color filled the space inside the Gate…then, everything went black… *fn-A1

——(!)——

Bauda bum…

Bauda bum…

It felt like I didn’t have eyes to open anymore, but at the same time I was aware that wherever I was, it was completely dark. I felt warm too, not too hot and not too cold. The most uncomfortable thing was even though I couldn’t see anyone, I felt pressed in on from all sides.

Bauda bum…

Bauda bum…

I could hear, almost feel a constant low drum beat. It never stopped. It was always present. Sometimes it would race really fast, but most of the time it was steady. It sounded so familiar, and I knew I should know it, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember.

Bauda bum..Bauda bum..Bauda bum…, The drum beat was racing so hard! I was starting to feel a little worried that it was going to break.

All of a sudden I was being propelled forward. I didn’t know where, everything was still completely pitchblack, but I was definitely moving forward even with the incredible press of other bodies all around me. I was moving at a crazy speed, flying somewhere so fast I was beginning to panic about the impact when I finally arrived wherever I was going. Suddenly, the press of bodies all around me was gone. I was flying free. The black void that all I was able to see lightened to a dark burgundy and then everything was black again.

I flew for what seemed like hours with nothing to see but darkness.

I felt like I was on the plane ride from hell, there was nothing to do, nothing to see, just darkness. I had long ago lost track of time, wherever this was it had no meaning here.

The first change in my surroundings was smell. I didn’t notice it at first, but when I did I recognized it immediately. It smelled like fresh snow on a cold winter day, it smelled like freshly baked sugar cookies, licorice and lavender, and it smelled like spring rain.

Instinctively I turned toward the smell.

How long I flew, I had no idea, it could have been forever or seconds, but I had nowhere else to go so I might as well keep going toward whatever smelled so good. At some point the next change was that I started hearing music. A wonderful almost celestial sound that invitgerated and rejuvenated me. In a surge of energy I flew faster than ever. Wherever I was going, whatever smelled and sounded so good, I was headed towards it as fast as I could fly.

The darkness spread out before me in an unending vastness, and then at some point there was a tiny pinprick of light. As time passed the pinprick steadily grew and I sighed in relief. Finally, I was finding my way out!

The pinprick grew into a small glowing ball of light, and as I got closer the smell that I had smelled, and the music I had been hearing for so long were getting stronger and louder. I was in a frenzied panic to have finally arrived at this new…something…and as I got closer it was a giant blue planet!

Excited to have arrived I didn’t slow down, I was a hurtling meteor flying at supersonic speeds when I hit the atmosphere!

I was burning up…

I could feel my body burning away…

There was so much resistance, whatever I was in, it was flying apart…

As I broke through the atmosphere I was ejected from the vehicle and continued plummeting…

There was a vast glowing blue sky. I had no idea where I was going, but wherever it was it was very very fast. I was sure this was a planet.

This was a classic ‘Gamer summoned to Another World’ story, and now here I was hurtling towards my new planet filled with big breasted neko and fantasy elf and dwarf girls, and scantily clad and very horny priestesses. This was where I would start my new harem.

However, as I flew through the endless blue sky I hadn’t seen the ground yet. Then, a giant purple sphere appeared in front of me. It was a big deal at first but as I got closer I could tell it wasn’t a planet. I didn’t know what it was but at the speed I was traveling at, when I hit it, I was going to go ‘Splat’! If I had a voice I would have been screaming in terror when I hit, but instead of slattering across the surface I punched into it like it was jello…

I had time to laugh that I was alive and then everything exploded…

Nine months later, I was born…again.

I had no idea that what I experienced was conception, but not only do I remember that but I also remember my entire previous life. All twenty-three years of it. My childhood, school, being a nondescript teenager in middle-school, and a D&D nerd in high-school. Actually now that I think about it, I died a virgin.

I died right?

I must have, because now I am here…being born. When my eyes cleared…the first thing I saw was a humongous glowing white breast. I was suckling the softest, the warmest, the tastiest breast ever!

Cutting my eyes to look up, I broke away from suckling to look up in awe at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her skin glowed faintly white like the moon. She had a sharp jaw, a plump bee-stung mouth, a small turned up nose, long pointed ears, and eyes that were black orbs as vast and unending as the universe and filled with tiny filaments of light like stars and galaxies.

“Hello my wonderful little boy,” She purred in a soft musical voice, “Welcome to the world my son, you are a child of love and commitment. The son of Summerset Vale, and I am your mother, Glenna Moonlilly, a priestess of the Moon Goddess Seline. And you my beautiful boy, with such beautiful vibrant green eyes, I name you Viridian… Viridian Vale.” *fn-A2

I understood every word she said, but when I tried to answer her all that happened was; I turned back to her lovely soft breast and suckled until I fell to sleep… *fn- A3

——(!)——

18 months later-

“Look Mama,” Silvain cried out to our mother as I took my first steps. *fn-A4

I was so determined to grow up. I was a child once before. I didn’t want to be an infant, or child, or teenager ever again, and yet here I was. It wasn’t all bad though, I was constantly being bathed by or bathing with my sister and mother, and oh my god, Mama was so beautiful.

Glenna Moonlilly was tall for an Alf, even among the Nottalfar, standing 5 feet 10 inches. Her skin was as white as the moon and glowed more brilliantly or more dimly according to the phase of the moon. Her hair was night sky black, and poofed out around her head before floating up to move to and fro like a flame. Amid her black hair hovered silver dots of light like the stars that filled the night sky. She had a long elegant neck, and slim shoulders. Her chest was not very thick but her breasts were very large which were always out on display as part of her priestly garb. She was long waisted and her hips, buttocks and thighs seemed too broad, thick, and muscular.

My older sister Silvain Moonlilly, took after our mother. In looks, with moonlight white skin and black orbs for eyes and black hair that hovered above her head. She already reflected our mother’s bubbly personality. In spiritual aptitude, although Silvain was only eleven, mother already had plans to send her off to Olympia to become a moon priestess once she was old enough. That was not something I was looking forward to because I loved Silvain so much. In my previous life I was an only child, and I had always wondered what it would be like to have siblings. However, what I really had wanted was sisters.

In my previous life, I was an avid manga reader, and not only manga but hentai as well. My particular favorite was monster hentai, but I also loved incest hentai, and now I had a beautiful mother and sister. If I was going to start my harem in this new world, I was going to start right here with them…just as soon as I grow up all over again!

“Oh goodness,” Glenna purred as she trotted over and stooped over, holding her hands out to me as I waddled from Silvain to her, “My goodness my little man is already trying to walk!”

She picked me up as soon as I made it to her and as my reward, though I doubt she saw it as such, was that she crushed me into her impeccable breasts as she hugged me. When she set me back down, she pointed me toward Silvain as she purred, “Okay, now walk back to Silvy!” and I waddled off, happy and giggling, back to my beautiful sister.

“Oh your father will be so sad that he missed your first steps,” Glenna sighed as she straightened back up and brushed off the simple white silk and silver ribbed corset that girded her waist from just under her breasts all the way to her lower belly. Below the corset she wore a long frontal loincloth edged with silver that fell to her knees. She wore no socks or boots, for an Apostle of Seline was supposed to always remain connected to the earth while reaching for the heavens.

She was a Nottalfar, a Night Alf or more often referred to as a Moon Alf, and a Moon Priestess. She was of noble birth of the House Moonlilly. However, even if she wasn’t, being a priestess was the highest and most notable position in all Prime Race societies.

The Priestly class had six tiers of devotion; Initiate, Disciple, Priestess, Apostle, Grand Priestess, and the High Priestess, and mama was an Apostle. As an Apostle she was commissioned with traveling through the countryside declaring the glory of her Goddess, listening to confessions, redeeming the sinners, and most of all accepting tithes for blessings of the Goddess. The blessing was inside her breasts and womb, and whether it be man or woman, if they wanted a blessing they must pay the tithe then they must lay with her. Only once they partook of her flesh while she accepted their…contributions…would they receive Seline’s blessing. *fn-A6

I was ten when my mother explained this to me while sitting beside me on the lawn, her belly big and round with what I hoped would be my sister. If I were an actual ten year old I think I wouldn’t have understood the implications of what she was saying. However, I was a twenty-three year old stuck in a child’s body, so I asked, “Does that mean Silvy’s daddy, and her daddy,” I said as I pointed at her belly, “are not the same as my daddy?”

“Oh what a bright boy,” She cooed as she tousled my hair, “Yes. I made sure that when I wanted to have you, your father’s heir, that only he impregnated me, but I am a priestess and my job is to give blessings, and sometimes that results in pregnancy. That’s why Silvain’s matriname is Moonlilly, because she is my daughter and I don’t know who the father is.”

“Mommy, doesn’t that hurt daddy’s feelings that Silvain and you new baby aren’t his,” I asked my childish voice full of concern.

“No honey, it doesn’t hurt his feelings,” She answered with a husky laugh as she shook her head, “We married because I was a Nottalfar noble, and I fell in love with his kindly spirit, but he also knew I was a priestess of Seline. He knew from the very beginning the statutes and covenants I live by, and he is happy when I give him his heirs. Besides he has many other women he has relations with as well.”

A couple of months later, she gave birth to my half-sister, Shadolynn Moonlilly.

——(!)——

As a priestess, Glenna is also an educator and historian, and so she, along with our governess Frieda and our tutor Hailyn, began teaching me how to read, write, arithmetic, and history when I was five years old just as she had Silvain. Remembering math was easy since it transcends time, space, and language. However, reading and writing were completely different, I learned how to speak the native language as all babies do. From listening to my sister, mother, and father. However, learning to read and write was truly like learning a second language, and then there was history.

I soaked up the stories. I read every book Mama put in front of me, from ‘Sonnets to Freya’, ‘Adventures of Thor’, ‘Age of the Patriarchs’, ‘From Exodus to Paradise’, ‘War of the Races’, ‘Love and Devotion to Seline’, ‘The Black Matriarchs of Svartalfheim’, to the ‘Founding of the Five Kingdoms’, and I learned was that thousands of years ago all the Races of Man came to this new world via doors, or pathways. Some scripts even called them roadways or bridges paved in the colors of dispersed light.

Science was never my strong suit, and I couldn’t for the life of me remember what dispersed light was, so I asked and Glenna answered by telling me to wait until the next time it rained. When the day came, she took me out to walk in the rain with her and she pointed up at the sky to a rainbow, “That my son, is dispersed light.” She said.

“Oh! A rainbow,” I mused out loud.

“A rainbow?” Glenna said, the rolling of her tongue like it was unfamiliar, as if she had never heard it before, then she asked, “Yes that name is very fitting, but where did you hear this word ‘rainbow’ from, Virdy? I have never heard it before?”

“Oh,” I himhawed as I tried to come up with a fitting excuse, and then smiled and shrugged, “I can’t remember,” I lied.

“Well if you remember, please tell me,” She said as we walked back inside.

As I continued my research, I discovered that there were apparently three of these ‘Rainbow Bridges’ at one time, all created on earth prime. Once the doors closed there was no returning which was fine since the Races were fleeing a great cataclysm. However, they were only able to round up supplies and limited numbers of animal species before they fled.

With a shortage of manpower and resources,

It was decided by the Council of Five that they would once again use magic and science, wielded together to make hybrid races. They would once again splice the genetics of the Races with the animals they brought with them even though they knew that the cataclysm they fled from had been brought upon them in part because of hybridization.

Despite the warnings of the past and from fellow council members, they created a new animal species. One that was humanoid and intelligent. Able to speak and communicate, create bonds, and reproduce. The Prime genetics gave them long life-spans, but the animal in them made them age twice as fast. Only after they started breeding was it discovered that their animal DNA also as long shortened their gestation times and increased their fertility, and very quickly the animal’s population rivaled the Prime Races. So, with a perceived threat of the animal population explosion, and the Prime Races becoming minorities the Council of Five created new laws; *fn-A5

First, Animals are animals and thereby have no rights.

Second, Animals are property whether domestic or wild.

Third, Animals are to be destroyed immediately should they cause harm or death to a Prime.

Fourth, Domestic animal’s reproduction is to be carefully governed by the owner. Wild animal’s reproduction will be curbed by the government.

Fifth, Animals are not to speak as if they are an intelligent Race.

Sixth, Animals do not wear clothes.

Seventh, Animals are animals and must walk on all fours just as animals do, except when in the commission of employment to a master.

With those seven laws, the newly established kingdoms of Alfheim, Vanaheim, Svartalfheim, Nidavellir, and Asgard seized many of the Animals, and took them forcibly from their homes, and established stockyards where they domesticated them while the others escaped into the wilds. The domesticated animal’s populations were then…reduced, and population control laws were passed. Then domestic livestock was sold to merchants and breeders which my great ancestors are one of having bought the land and the rights to breed any and all feline type Animals. As for the wild Animals; hunting permits and licenses were issued, and have continued to be issued for thousands of years to curb wildlife populations.

——(!)——

“Don’t walk too far away from the house Virdy,” Glenna called to me while holding Shadolynn in her arms, breastfeeding her again, as I trotted off into the forest surrounding the house headed for the back gate that would lead me out of the Valeheim.

“Okay,” I answered as I waved back with my wooden sword.

I had my sword and my bow, I didn’t need anything but that. It didn’t matter that I was ten or the fact that both my sword and bow were wooden toys with wooden arrows. I was a knight of the realm in my imagination and today I was hunting an illusive fox.

It would be a hike out to the Valeland wood. Our house as mama called it, was actually a farm as my father called it. It was passed down to him as the Lord’s heir for hundreds of generations. On this farm we raise cats, but not normal cats.

I didn’t hear Bastet when she came prowling up behind me on all fours, and I sighed in frustration. She always seemed to find me. *fn-A7

“Where are you going today Virdy?” She asked in a true cat purr as she slowed to a walk and stood up on her back legs.

As soon as she did I looked around to make sure no other Alfari were nearby, then hissed, “Bast! You’re going to get yourself into trouble!”

“Give me your bow and arrows and I won’t be in trouble,” She retorted and flashed me a smile that showed her white teeth and her longer feline canines, “Then I will be in the commission of a job by my master.”

“Yeah yeah,” I growled as I passed her my bow, but then stopped and looked at her. She had been my cat since the day she was born, which was the same day I was. However I was ten while she was already twenty, fully grown at four feet tall and already had a small, sleek chest with taut B-cup sized breasts hidden beneath her black fur. Her waist was tiny, her hips were broad, her buttocks and legs were thickly muscled, and like all animals she was clothed only in her fur.

She paused in whatever she was saying and searched my eyes before asking, “What?”

Realizing I was staring, I coughed and blushed as I mumbled, “N-nothing Bast…,” and then strapped my belt around her waist as her long, fluffy black tail tried to whip me in the face.

“So are you going to answer me or what,” She asked again.

“What,” I asked, then remembered her question, “Oh! I am going to hunt for that ghost fox in the woods.”

“Oh,” She retorted in disappointment, “Well if it’s her you hunt for, then I will go back home.”

Stepping back I looked at her in confusion as she passed my bow back to me and took off my belt, then turned and walked away heading back home as she swished her tail in agitation before bending over and running on all fours. I felt very confused by her behavior, but then, I hadn’t invited her on my hunt in the first place.

With a shake of my head I buckled my quiver back on my waist and continued out into the forest. I employed every trick to hunting I was taught, and yet, I never saw even a fleeting glance of the white fox that haunted the forests of the Valelands.

I searched for hours. Zigzagging all over the north forests. I came upon a mountain stream on the far north eastern edge of the Valeland, and started back tracking it to it’s source when I came upon a small pool of water. Sneaking up to the edge of the rocky shore I looked around a large cedar tree to see a beautiful, snow white, woman even more voluptuous than my mother bathing in the pool. At least, I thought it was a woman!

She turned around and I could tell right away that she had a thick white fur that covered her breasts, belly, and back. Really her whole body was covered in fur, but it was her breasts and belly that were out of the water and clearly viewable in that moment. Her hair was a wild mane of curly white hair that she shook and brushed her fingers through before she stood up.

I was surprised at how tall she was, at how broad and thick her hips and ass were, and how long and fluffy her tail was. I shifted positions to see more, and a twig snapped under my foot!

A long triangular fox ear twitched in my direction as she turned suddenly in surprise and fear. In one inhuman leap, she landed on the side of the bank and shook the water off herself before she looked over her shoulder at me. My mouth fell open in fear and amazement as she in a second leap transformed into a fox as I knew them from my previous life, and disappeared into the forest.

From that day on for many months I would sneak up to that pool and watch that fox woman bathe before she would slowly make her way out, shake off the water in her fur, and then disappear. Then one day she laid down for a nap, and I too fell asleep in my hiding spot. When I woke up, there were intense glacial blue eyes staring down at me.

“Why are you hunting me,” She hissed in a harsh whisper.

“I-I’m not,” I answered, denying the wooden sword and bow by my side.

“Then why do you arm yourself,” She hissed, fooled not for a moment by my lie.

“F-for protection,” I tried to explain, “For whatever may be in the woods.”

“Well,” She purred with a bitter smile, “I am the only thing in this part of the woods. So, are you afraid of me…boy?”

“A…little, yes,” I answered honestly this time.

She laughed at that and took a step back and sat down and crossed her legs, before purring, “As you should boy…as you should, even female Animals such as myself don’t take kindly to being spied on while we are bathing.”

“Ah…you knew I was here,” I asked in disbelief.

“The whole time,” She answered, “I could hear your breathing most of the time, and I could smell you even if I hadn’t heard you.”

“Oh,” I answered, my disappointment in my hunting prowess audible.

The fox lady chuckled and shook her head as she said, “Don’t be too upset, my kind have sharp eyes, and noses, and ears.”

Looking up, suddenly struck with a question, I asked, “D-do you have a name I can call you?”

“Huxian,” She answered, “Daughter of Delpher.” *fn-A8

“Well, Huxian,” I answered in greeting, “I am Viridian, Viridian Vale, and I sure am happy to finally meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you as well, young Viridian,” Huxian purred and then winked at him before continuing, “Or should I call you Virdy, like that young little cat you own calls you?”

My mouth dropped open in astonishment, “H-how do you know about her?”

Huxian chuckled huskily and prowled across the grass on all fours until my legs were pinned under her hugely fat breasts, “I make my home up here, but, I get around. I’ve seen her with you. You treat her well despite her being an Animal and you being a Prime, and even if I hadn’t seen you two together, you reek of her scent.”

“Her scent,” I asked.

“Yes, her scent,” Huxian answered in a hiss, her mouth only inches from mine as she whispered, “Haven’t you bedded her yet? I hear it is a favorite pastime of the Primes?”

“I-I’m ten,” I answered truthfully, “It’s true she sleeps in bed with me almost every night. She always has, she’s my cat, but even if I wanted to have sex with her, my body just wouldn’t.”

“So, am I to take that as you would bed your cat if you were able too,” Huxian asked in a near feral growl.

“I-I don’t know. Maybe. If she wanted to,” I answered.

Huxian blinked and her demeanor changed from furious to curious. She cocked her head and asked, “If she wanted to? You would really give her a choice? Even though she’s an Animal? Your animal?”

“Yes, of course,” I answered, then asked, “Why wouldn’t I?’

“Because,” Huxian whispered as she pushed herself off of me and sat back as I sat up and crossed my legs, “That is not how most Primes behave. That is not how the world has worked…ever. We’re animals, we’re property, so Primes think they can do whatever they want to us.”

“Well, that is not me,” I answered with a shake of my head.

“You are indeed a very strange boy, Viridian Vale,” Huxian agreed with a nod, “Come back tomorrow and we can talk and play some more.”

Standing up, she pulled me to my feet, and with a smile and a long inhalation, she laughed at me.

“What,” I asked defensively.

“Nothing young Virdy,” She answered as she turned away and strolled off into the woods while I watched her wide, thick ass and her big, fluffy tail swaying back and forth. She stopped and looked over her shoulder at me as she asked, “It’s just; Do you find that other female cats avoid you, or, pay very little attention to you?”

“Um, I don’t know, why?” I asked with a shrug of my shoulders.

“Just wondering,” She answered with another laugh, “See you tomorrow Virdy.” Then, she was gone, disappearing into the forest like a ghost.

——(!)——

The following morning I woke up in my bed to a soft furry body curled up against my back as Bastet purred softly in her sleep. I was completely naked as was common for me, and really all Alfari. Usually I sleep spooning her, but this morning I was turned away from her and I had my arms around another slim waist while two very plump glowing white breasts were smashed into my face. It took me a while to realize that it was Silvain who had come into my room and spent the night with me and not mama.

“Good morning little brother,” She purred as she played with my hair and tilted my head up so that I looked up at her.

“Good morning Silvy,” I answered with a yawn before tilting my head back down and hugging her tighter.

She was an Initiate Priestess now, and an apprentice to our mother. She had already taken the first Vows of Covenants and gained the ability to lactate manna spontaneously. It was a special ability, and her manna had special properties. The Manna of Seline was said to enhance fertility, and in special cases bring out hidden abilities or talents, but the first thing mama did was turn her into a nursemaid for Shadowlynn and me. *fn-A9

We cuddled for a half-hour as she combed her fingers through my long golden hair before she finally sighed and whispered, “Virdy, I am leaving today.”

“What? Why?” I asked in a sudden panic.

She smiled at me adoringly and purred, “Because I am twenty today, and it is time for me to go to the Temple of the Moon in Olympia and finish my education.”

“No,” I begged, “Stay here with me…and with mama! She can teach you everything you need to know, and you can become an Apostle like her!”

“I’m sorry Virdy,” She apologized as she shook her head, “But, that just isn’t how it’s done. Don’t worry though, I will only be gone for ten years, and then I will return, then you and I will have the rest of our lives to be together.”

“But,” I objected as Silvain pushed away from me and rolled off the bed. I sat up, but she was already lifting her white silk and silver ribbed corset off the floor and buttoning it behind her back. When she went as far as she could she turned her back to me in a silent request that I finish her buttons, “Is there anything I can say to make you stay,” I asked.

“No little brother, there isn’t,” She answered as she shook her head which made her two feet long black flame of hair floating above her head wax and wain to and fro, “I want to go… I need to go… I must represent our mother’s family. I will be the only Moonlilly in forty years to go to the Temple for training. I must make Mama proud…for the Moonlilly’s…and the Vale’s.”

I finished Silvain’s buttons and then I quickly wrapped my hands around her waist from behind and whispered, “Then, I will miss you every minute of every day until you return.”

She patted my hands and twisted in my arms, and I buried my head in her breasts as tears came to my eyes unbidden and I hugged her tighter. When I was finished crying, she clipped a silver gorget around her neck that had a diaphanous white silk sewn into it. The bottom edge of the silk was trimmed in silver with small hoops, finding each hoop, she let me clip the hoops to matching hooks in her corset that spread the sheer material over her breasts in a rather flimsy covering. Stooping over I quickly retrieved a full skirt that also was trimmed in silver, with hoops that would clip to hooks on the bottom of her corset.

As an Initiate to the Moon Goddess Seline, she was not allowed to wear undergarments just as the Priestesses were not allowed to. However, she was not allowed to bare her breasts or her sex in public as the Priestesses must. By this Initiate’s conveyed to all those they met that they were still virgins, and that they had not taken their final Vows of Covenants.

Once she was dressed, she found several pieces of jewelry, all of which were given to her by our mother, all of which were heirlooms. However, she took one earring out of her long pointed ear, a silver hoop with a sapphire dangling from it; she took also a silver bracelet from her left wrist; she took a silver necklace with a sapphire medallion from around her neck; and she placed them on me, one by one. The earring in my left ear, the bracelet on my left wrist, the necklace around my neck, and then she brought out two rings each with a claw and a sapphire and she put her ring on her left index finger and my ring she put on my left pointer finger.

“We are always connected now,” She whispered, “We are betrothed.”

“Betrothed,” I asked.

“Yes, wedded…married…unofficially,” She whispered and giggled, “You are still too young to have been taught this yet, but we live so long that we are not considered adults until we are one hundred and seventy years old. And we are not allowed to marry formally until we are adults. The old folks think we can’t know our own minds until we have lived a century or two. Anyway, I know that there is no other for me but you, so now we are betrothed.” *fn-A10

I was excited, but also scared that this was a huge taboo that would ostracize Silvain, me, and the family from society, and asked, “I-Is this really okay?”

“Why wouldn’t it be,” She asked, obviously bewildered by my concern.

“Because we are siblings,” I responded, my concern now thick in my voice.

Silvain just laughed and shook her head as she hugged me, “You say such silly things sometimes. Why would that matter at all? There is no law prohibiting me from marrying my brother, or my half-brother.” *fn-A11

“Really,” I asked in a guffaw.

“Yes, really,” She retorted before leaning down and giving me a light peck on my lips.

Hugging her more tightly than ever before, it was to me sniffling and wiping tears from my cheeks that Silvain finally left my room and returned to hers to finish her packing. When the shuttle finally arrived, I was only a little distracted from my anguish at watching my beloved sister getting into the shuttle as the chauffeur held the door for her. The shuttle was a flying car of sorts with four glowing blue spheres where tires should have been. There was a pilot’s seat, and a steering wheel that pulled back like an airplane yoke. There was no engine, just the body of the shuttle securely fitted to the spheres which hummed with energy, and I stared at the flying car as Andra, our Animal butler, loaded Silvain’s luggage into the trunk of the shuttle and then she was gone from my life.

Mama looked down at me, she was holding Shadolynn on her hip, but she still had a hand to offer me before she led me back inside the house as she said, “I miss her already too.”

——(!)——

Appendix 1-

Daniel Reas (Viridian Vale)

Age: 23-1989 (10-2000 18-2008)

Height: 5′ 11″

Weight: 198

Race: Human

Skin: white

Hair: dark-blonde

Eyes: blue

Rolled Race: Alfar (Elf); Villr (Wild)

Rolled Sex: Male

Appendix 2-

Glenna Moonlilly (mother)

41(34G)- 28- 40

Age: (180-1990) 198-2008

Height: 5′ 10″

Weight: 140

Race: Alfar (Elf); Nott (Night)

Skin: moonlight white

Hair: black star filled

Eyes: black star filled orbs

Appendix 3-

Daniel Reas spirit is transported through the magic gate on his computer game to a new world or dimension. He has full awareness of his past and perceives the world with the mind of a 23 year old through the eyes of an infant, and later as an 18 month old and 10 year old. How he thinks and how he act are somewhat different since biologically speaking he has no sex drive, and thus, although he has 23 year old wants and desires he expresses them in a childish, possessive, and selfish way.

Appendix 4-

Silvain Moonlilly

37(32E)- 26- 36

Age: (10-1990) 20-2000 (28-2008)

Height: 5′ 8″

Weight: 135

Race: Alfar (Elf); Nott (Night)

Skin: moonlight white

Hair: black star filled

Eyes: black star filled orbs

Appendix 5-

The Prime Races and Animals all have life-spans over 500 to 900+ years. However, Animals age twice as fast as the Prime Races. This had a two fold effect; First, it shortens the Animal’s life-span by half. Second, Even though a Prime and an Animal could be born at the same time, the Animal will reach maturity twice as fast. For example; Viridian and Bastet, a 10 year old Prime and Animal, but because of Animal’s double time age progression Bastet is 20 and fully mature.

This is the underlying joke Huxian is laughing about, insinuating Bastet’s scenting Viridian as hers. Huxian refers to this, but he doesn’t understand.

Appendix 6-

The Alfar, Dvargr, Dragon, Succubi, Asgard, Vanir, and thousands of Animal and Hybrid subcultures all have pagan religious cultures. Their pagan religions are fraught with temple prostitution, Animal and Prime Race sacrifices, child sacrifices, and hundreds of traditions that are sensual, sexual, murderous, and altogether more often than not horrifying.

Growing up in this culture where sex and nudity are common place, the main character find it new and foreign and strange, and has made several comments on his surprise at how it becomes normal to him.

Appendix 7-

Bastet

28(26B)- 20- 34

Age: 10-2000 18-2008 (Animal age: 20-2000 36-2008)

Height: 4′

Weight: 50

Race: Panther

Skin: Furry/black