Cephalon's Champion Ch. 02

"I'm sorry for invading your home like this. We'll get outta your hair in a moment. I need to go talk with a mountain about an invasion... Wow. My life has gotten really weird." I gave her a wry smile at the thought.

"You don't have to- ... Okay. Can we talk when you get back to town? Just you and me?"

"Fine with me," I said, hoisting Jennifer up into my arms. She feigned sleep still but I could feel her smile as her head rested on my arm. I stuck my tongue out at the two small boys as they peeked around the door. They scattered at the look Selena shot them, and the sounds of their feet disappeared into the back of the house. As I walked out her front door I could feel Selena's eyes on my back, but I didn't look; one of my tails, however, decided to give a little wave.

While I wove through the forest in a smooth loping jog, once more marveling at the strength and skill this body, my body, possessed, Jennifer started to lick my arm. Dainty touches of her warm tongue brought me out of my musings.

"I like this one. She has her priorities straight unlike that twisted up gem mage."

Selena?

"That's the one. She's so mixed up and guilty about being attracted to you she's gonna give herself a complex. You should just bang her. That'll straighten her out real quick."

I arched an eyebrow.

"Not straight straight. Her curves were just fine, if my eyes didn't deceive me, well, your eyes, but at the moment it's essentially the same thing. We'll talk about her in depth later, right now you're veering off a little, swing more the left." Under Ata's directions I made it back to the cave we'd spent last night in, Jennifer's little affections tiny but constant, as she licked, touched and teased the entire time. As we entered the sponge dirt of the cavern, the ground peeled back from an open grave, the bottom rising, bearing Ata gently to the surface. She was arranged like sleeping beauty, her crystals dark and still as she began to wake from stasis. Jennifer clutched at me as I set her down on the dirt, her touches adorable as she mewed slightly. I booped her nose and she scrunched her face as she retreated, pouting playfully as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'll be right back, Jennifer. I need to give Ata a hand with something." She winced at her name, pain filling her eyes. I gave her a questioning look but she waved me off, turning away to hide her face but the smell of her shame wafted from her like an unpleasant cologne. I prowled over to Ata, Jennifer's smell wriggling under my skin and prickling my instincts, setting me on edge. As I leaned over Ata, her eyes opened but she remained still, playing games with me. Anger filled me. I snarled at her, the sound ripping through the air like a bolt of lightning or the roar of a gun. She burst into action, springing from the ground like a frog, crashing into stomach and forcing me onto my back. She wrapped her one and a half arms under mine and her legs encircled mine, locking them straight with her ankles. I'd just started to strain when a burst of blue green light washed over me, taking away the anger.

"Jennifer's caught you in an emotional projection that's trapped you in a feedback loop that triggered your guardian instincts" Ata provided, preempting my question. "Remind me to teach her how to shield later. Feeling better?" I nodded, a little ashamed at my emotional outburst that'd necessitated such extreme measures. "At least you now know what it feels like when I alter your emotions."

Her mentioning it brought it to my attention. Her light felt like a fuzzy insulating blanket, separating me from the powerful emotions produced my instincts. I could also sense the strain Ata was under as her core quivered a little, her body tense with the effort. I directed the strands of my hair to reach out and trace the gentle contours of both our lips and I focused on the gratitude I felt at Ata's assistance and guidance whilst simultaneously relaxing my body into her grasp. We helped each other melt into a boneless tangle of limbs instead of something that wouldn't look out of place in a mexican wrestling ring. She gave me a flash of her usual citrine color, and I felt her burst of happiness like a ripe strawberry bursting on my tongue in the heat of summer. My tails goosed the sides of her stomach with a little charge of electricity, making her jump and giggle while I looked at my mischievous appendages, wondering just how many secret uses they held.

Truly the swiss army knife of appendages. It slices. It dices. You see this normal, ordinary woman in just thirty minutes and... Voila! Your very own sex kitten! Remember no refunds or returns. Walking over to my sex kitten and... priestess, was it?... I lay down next to her, turning to stare at her like teenagers on the hood of a car underneath the stars. She laced her fingers in my now gauntlet-less hand, and looked at me hopefully but fear lurked in the shadows of her face.

"I have a request that may seem strange..."

I waited patiently for her to work through whatever thought was working its way through her brain.

"My name!" she blurted out. I arched an eyebrow at her and remained silent. "I hate it. I keep thinking about all the wonderful things you've given me, this body, these feelings, the sex. Oh my god the sex! A second chance at life, really, and something I've wished for from the depths of my psyche, when the loneliness and self-loathing drove me to drink until the blackness claimed me. My name... It's the only thread connecting me to that terrible nightmare and I want you to sever it. Please give me a new one to go with my new life."

I was a little taken aback at this girl who'd survived challenges I'd never truly believed existed in my old life, turning to me for this. She looked to me for guidance and leadership and that wasn't something I was used to or even comfortable accepting. But... She needed me. It was plain to see. So I steeled myself, determined to be the reflection of myself I saw in her eyes. I opened my mouth to ask her if she was sure and then closed it with a sharp clack of my fangs.

That would be very disrespectful. Of course she's sure, she's given this a lot of thought and came to this conclusion, and I'm not about to denigrate her like that.

This led to the next problem. What the hell am I supposed to name her? I probably felt much like that of an an animal shelter employee dealing with a new stray. Only I'm not allowed to call her something cliche like Spot or Spike.

After a few moments I came up with something. "Freya. How does Freya sound to you? It is your name after all. You should have the final say."

"Freya." She spent a moment rolling the word around her mouth, tasting each syllable carefully. "Why'd you chose that one?"

"In my world, she was a mythological lady of renowned beauty and grace with a sassy demeanor. You remind me of the stories told about her."

"Your world? Are you going to leave? Will you take me with you?" She pulled her knees to her chest and curled into a ball, her voice barely above a whisper for the last question.

"I can safely promise that I will not choose to leave you. If you want the specifics about the whole 'other world' business you'll have to talk to Ata or Deku about that, they know more about it than I do." She relaxed at my promise, but I could tell she was getting overwhelmed with the new knowledge.

"Deku?"

A hand molded itself out of the ground and gave a small wave as a voice echoed in the cave. "Nice to meet you." The hand stretched out for a handshake which Jenn- Freya, took in a shell shocked grasp. Deku pumped the dirt formed appendage once before it sank back into the ground. She looked on the verge of a mental shutdown when I turned to Ata who'd already begun to leak a pale teal light.

"Already on it." She looked back after a couple steps. "Your familiar's about ready to hatch, why don't you take it around the corner. It can be a pretty exciting event and I think our girl here's had more than enough excitement for today." She sank into the ground up to her waist as she walked effortlessly over towards us, pulling Freya into a custom basin that formed around them both. Ata shooed me away behind Freya's back, as the green-blue light poured into Freya, her skin drinking it like a sponge absorbing water. I strolled to another chamber of the system of caverns, pulling out and examining the feverishly hot egg that'd remained tied to my arm throughout my adventures of the past day. As if noticing my eyes on it, the egg shuddered in my hand. At every angle I looked at it seemed to be an ordinary looking chicken egg, only bigger, its jiggling like a vibrator the only indication of its strange origins. As it wiggled in my hand something stranger happened, the egg began to grow. Larger and larger with every shudder the egg swelled until it was the size of an oblong basketball. As I hefted the increased weight of the thing I watched as a pattern of twin wavy lines of emerald curled around the orb in two directions, crafting a spiraling helical pattern that ascended from the bottom of the orb to the top. The egg jerked violently, and the patterned lines thickened removing most of the white from between them. A bulging ripple traveled the opposite direction the pattern took, instigating a color shift as the green seemed to bleed from the lines onto the white surface, leaving the egg a pale green similar to that of an granny smith apple. White lines, barely visible to the naked eye, were inscribing themselves in a micro pattern on the shell. I sank onto the floor with easy grace as I crossed my legs beneath me, cradling the obnoxiously large egg in both hands. A subaudible vibration made my hairs stand up on end as the topography of the egg slowly began to morph, the lines began to sink into the surface growing fainter as a protrusion began to emerge from the top of the egg in the shape of a snake's head. This continued until I no longer held an egg in my hand but a statue of a coiled up serpent, its eyes glassy and lifeless as it rested still in my palms.

No. Not a serpent. A... lizard? The reptile statue had little arms, tiny in comparison with its long sinuous body. The detail was amazing and I bent my head next to its to examine it closely. A jolt of static electricity jumped from my nose to the lizard's, the sharp crack accompanied the smell of ozone that wafted through the cavern. We blinked at each other, both surprised by the suddenly living creature sitting in my hands. Smiling warmly, I loosened my grip as its coils settled deeper into my hands, the tip of its nose poking out of the shadowed bowl of its own flesh. A wet pink tongue flickered out of its mouth as it tasted the air. It crawled up my arm, its tiny claws pricking my skin slightly as its patterned scale's smooth texture conjured up another smile. Once its entire three foot length encircled my arm, its tongue flicked out lightly tasting my skin. It wiggled its nose and sneezed, a bright plumage of feathers sprouting on the edge of its face in a riot of yellow red and orange colors. It shook its head like a dog shaking of water before rubbing its head across my arm to smooth out its plumage. I had a split second of surprise after I noticed a smirk on its face before it sunk its fangs into my skin. The needle like points barely hurt, but I was outraged at the audaciousness of the act. Slippery like an olive oiled noodle, the little terror shot off my arm avoiding my grabs as it flew to the opposite wall of the cavern. I paused for a second as I contemplated what had just happened. With no visible means of propulsion the creature had wiggled through the air, careless as could be, matching feathers on the tip of its tail waved a sunset colored challenge at me as it turned to look back at me, somehow making its playful exuberance obvious on its face. A predatory grin pulled back my lips, exposing my fangs. Flexing my paws I rolled my shoulders, muscles loosening in preparation to show this cheeky reptile to just who was boss. My claws dug into the soft dirt kicking up a wet clod the flew through the air, smacking the wall behind me wetly as I launched myself towards the newborn creature whose eyes widened at my speed. It darted upward, just barely avoiding my outstretched fingertips as it followed the curve of the wall as it turned into the ceiling. I flipped around before I collided with the wall, a feral growl rumbling out of my chest as I wasted no time leaping upward, my tails wagging happily behind me, displaying my unvoiced enjoyment of the activity. The lizard looked over its shoulder as it wiggled through the air, seeing me closing the distance. It redoubled its movement and accelerated slightly widening the gap between us. I licked my lips as I sank my hands into the ceiling and used my shoulders like a slingshot, quickly closed the distance. Tickling the back of its tail feathers, I began to consider what I should do in retribution.

Tie it in a knot and wear it like a hat. String it up and hang my clothes from on it to dry. Wait... don't have any clothes... Note to self, grab some clothes so I can humiliate a reptile. What?!?

As I was considering my incipient victory, the weasley creature darted up into a previously unseen crevice, and fortunately for it, outside of my reach. It flicked its tongue at me mockingly as I floated by and I flipped it the bird with a hand. Once more, I sunk my fingers into the ceiling trying to stop as quickly as possibly. Momentum spun me around my fingers, turning my forward rush into a twisting somersault through the air. A frustrated screech wove through my bared teeth, echoing dully in the cavern as I slammed into the wall, cushioning my stop with all four of my limbs as I hung upside down on the wall like spiderman. The lizard peeked its nose out the crevice, concern evident on its features, although whether for me or its own fate I wasn't sure. Learning from my previous mistake, I kept alternated finger and toes in contact with the ceiling as I scampered after my prey with a strange inverted loping gait. It squeaked as it shot towards the ground, assisting gravity, turning into a streak of green that took a ninety degree turn as it hit the ground, heading towards the exit. I was following in close pursuit, my fingers nearly grasping its body when two hands shot out the earth. I thrashed as the hand closed around my neck, picking me up like kitten as I struggled, inches from my objective. The reptile curled around the stone fingers in a placid curl, its movements calm and docile. The hand gave me a shake, and I ripped off one of its fingers before I realized how ridiculous I was being and settled down.

"Put me down. I'm not a child," I growled coldly.

"You are. Both in my eyes and in your actions. Now... will you behave?" Deku intoned.

"Fiiiiine," I replied much like a petulant teenager.

"Good. We have company and, while amusing to both Zeus and his wife Triadniste, you were derailing a very important discussion. Please constrain yourself for the next thirty minutes, and then you can roughhouse to your hearts content."

"Are you watching us all the time?" I asked, eyeing the walls speculatively.

"Only when you release a banshee roar that rumbles my chambers and shakes our wine glasses."

I blushed at his accurate assessment.

"Nice to meet you little one, but you may have bitten off more than you can safely chew with that one," he said pointing at me. "She's very dear to me and my instincts are telling me she'll need more than a father's love before she'll settle into her role. A little prickly on the outside, but she has a true heart and won't let you down. Honor and trust her and she'll return it two-fold," he whispered just outside my enhanced hearing. "Don't waste this second chance like you did with your first one." The snake nodded and his hand nudged its chin while a second hand materialized and gave it a stroke.

"It's nice to see you making friends. Some of the other vessels had a hard time transitioning, choosing instead to isolate themselves. Unhealthy and self indulgent. Have fun, but again, please keep it down."

"Yes, father. Sorry, father," I said calmly, my emotions having stabilized. "What were you talking to that thing about."

He chuckled. "That's between me and the young couatl." Ruffling my hair, the hand fingered my locks for a moment before sinking into the floor, Deku's presence leaving the cavern a moment later.

I eyed the reptile speculatively, arching my brow as I flexed my claws, my tails whipping behind me, betraying my eagerness once more. Like a downtrodden kitten the reptile curled up into a mound, its head retreating into the shadowy bowl in the center. Something about the its demeanor struck a chord inside me, making me want to shelter and protect this tiny creature. Curling my legs beneath me, I set my chin on my fists as I watched the hole. After a bit, its nose poked out, familiar lavender eyes shining in the darkness, twins of my own. It approached me slowly, delicately, like a mouse poking its head out a hole, wary for a cat. I stopped moving. Stopped breathing. Perfectly still but for my eyes, which followed it as it approached closer and closer. It hovered, the tip of its nose a millimeter from my own. Surprising me, its pink tongue flicked out, tickling my nose and inciting an unstoppable giggle that bubbled out of my mouth. My giggles continued, and it kept licking my face as its body began to float. It's ministrations went unstopped and I closed my eyes until I felt a weight settle onto my head. My eyes snapped open and it stopped licking, its face incredibly close to mine as its neck arched up and over as it looked at me. It blinked once, growing worried. Snapping my head back, I gave the topside of its head a long wet lick. Smiling, the green reptile went back to licking my cheekbones.

Ata and Jen- Freya, walked in with it wound through one of my horn gap as it teased my earlobe with its tongue, the tiny appendage mercilessly laving my sensitive flesh as I writhed on the floor. Like a child caught with their pants down I froze, only to realize how ridiculous that was. I fought the urge to continue laughing as I gave the reptile a pat on its head, bringing Ata and Freya to its attention. I felt a strange throb of guilt as it looked at Freya and Ata gave it a sharp look of interest. Shaking it off, Ata bounded over to me, wrapping her hands over my shoulders and giving me a kiss on my cheek. My already red skin blushed a little bit and I turned, locking lips as I pulled her into a deeper kiss. I felt a throb of arousal from that special place in my soul where Ata and Freya's essence resided and I turned to Freya. She cradled her naked pussy as her skin around it flushed with a milky whiteness, the color bleeding out of the flesh that would've been red on a normal person.

"That's so fucking hot. No, don't mind me, please continue what you were doing. I'll just masturbate in the corner until you're ready for me to tag in."

"I don't think so, Freya. I've had a long day today and I think I'm done for the night." I stifled a yawn, accidentally pricking myself on my fangs. "Get over her, were gonna take a nice, long, na-a-a-p," I said, covering up another yawn. I pulled Ata against my front, my body conforming to her contours as one of my tails lassoed itself around her stomach. Releasing a purr of contentment, I patted the ground behind me.

"Hey. Could you ask Deku to make the ground a little softer," I whispered in Ata's ear. A moment was all it took for the ground to squish lower, giving us a sunken bed to lay on. I sighed in satisfaction as I snuggled deeper into both the comforter and Ata. Covering my tail with her hand, she gave it a caress that sent a tremor running up my spine. Shooting a glance over my shoulder, I noticed that Freya hadn't budged from where she stood. Snapping my fingers caused her head to shoot up and I caught her uniformly blue eyes with my violet ones. Smiling at her, I patted the ground behind me again. This time she scrambled over and tucked herself in behind me, her hands held carefully between her legs, not quite touching me. Rolling my eyes, I blindly reached back and entwined my fingers with hers, her palms sweaty and hot. Unseen by her, I gave her a sympathetic smile and pulled our hands over my heart. This hauled her against me, eliminating the space between our bodies, leaving my sandwiched pleasantly in the goldilocks zone between the feverish Freya and cool Ata. I settled in deeper, giving the back of Freya's hand a kiss as the couatl crawled off my head, moving to my stomach. It snuffled around a bit before crawling up between my breasts, settling down underneath the nape of my neck. The feeling of home washed over me and carried me into a restful sleep.