A Step Out of Time

   SiFic, pedo, Mg, ff, MF, beast, BDSM, rape, slavery ,daemons, violent
death.  Time walkers in another world face evil incarnate.  A young girl
losses her mother and is threatened by dark daemonic forces.  The world is
plunged into war.  Beth and Sally are trapped at the center of the conflict
bound by an off world stone "She'hats eye".  This is the first part of the
story.....  This is a work of fiction.  The law frowns on most of the
sexual acts in this story.  Do not indulge in such pastimes in real life.
If you will come and take a step out of time.

   The icy wind moved the dead leaves of the bush as the border man wiped
his eyes.  The cold northern air was filled with water from the Gulf and he
knew that soon the icy rains would come.  If they came before the targets
approached them down the little used game trail it would be harder for his
men to take them and claim their dark gold.  The creatures of the wetlands
were skittering into their hide holes and his old sword wound was telling
him that this would be a "big blow".  " Shit, Silter we gon'a be ass deep
in muddy icy water if that white time witch one don't show soon." Borg'dal
hissed from behind the border man.

   "I know, what ye want me to do?  Witch them here all by my lonesome? 
Just keep ye mouth shut and ye eyes open and cover our backside." The tall
outlander spat as he wished that he could just witch the Highlander and his
girl in range of their weapons.

   " What's with ye Borg'dal?  A wee bit o' cold water going to wash out
what little brains ye got?  Silter will get us are four and twenty dark
gold marks as he always has so shut ye trap and keep ye match lit ye twit."
The thick skinned rock dwarf taunted as he peered down the game trail in
the gathering darkness.

   "Quiet both of ye!  If ye keep making all this racket we'll nay see a
copper hay' penny of our pay."

   The three hard men checked their long guns again and waited watching for
the Northerners to come to them.  They where set up in a standard ambush
with a shooter on each side of the path and a back man.  Their cover was
good and the path made a sharp bend as it started to wind down to the coast
some five leagues away.

   The Dar'Gin's Seer had told them that this would be the path the two
Northerners and the wolf that ran with him would take, and that they would
have left their guards at the last Mrittren outpost not wanting to violate
the neutral zone.  The King of Mrittren would not lightly break the pact
between his land and the Dar'Gin of the Southern holdings.  Many lives had
been taken on each side of that long ago war and there were few in the
north that would see the battle banners fly again.

   No, they would come alone and into the waiting sights of the border men.
Their orders were simple.  Kill the man and the wolf.  Take the child and
bring that which the Dar'Gin and his dark master must have.  The girl would
have the blue-black stone set in white silver on a gold chain clasp tight
around her tinder soft neck.  There was off-world power in that stone.  One
could feel it course through the black vanes that danced like a drunken
sailor across the faceted stone.

   The three should have wondered why the Northerners would come so bold
and unguarded into the borderlands that were dangerous in the best of
times. These were not the best of times, not by a long shot.  They were
three of the best roughs dark gold could buy.  Many bodies had found their
way into the bog pits by their hands never again to see the light of day.
There was nothing to fear from a lone Highlander and his wee daughter of
only sixteen summers.  They had quick lead well wrought and bound up with
witch force that made each thumb sized round seek out its target without
fail.  Quick lead was the one thing that could find and kill a time witch
even when they were deep in red time.  It took a very powerful time-witch
to mold the time force into lead and bind it to the now until it was sent
on its deadly flight.

   Wicked long black iron razor sharp blades sat nestled in leather wrapped
wooden scabbards belted to their left sides.  Black witched iron
interlocked links clung to their bodies as the chainmail flowed like liquid
midnight around them.  Evil runes of sinister power were woven into the
living iron.

   The wind was to their faces, so it should keep any scent away from the
Highlander or his wolf.  The fading light further hid the three assassins
in the thick underbrush.  Easy money was coming their way.  Soon they would
be buying ale for whores and more than a bit of their asses.  Easy money is
sometimes the hardest to collect.



   "Da, there be three ahead with long guns.  I don't think they wish us
well." She sent to her father as they walked down the path together.  She
held her white iron tipped silver oak rod length staff at the ready in her
left hand.

   " Ay lass I know.  I want ye to stay here while I go attend to them." He
sent back with the other voice.

   " But Da, there ARE three of them and I do feel quick lead near by. 
Even if ye step out of time one of them may get lucky and where would that
leave me?  Just a lass of sixteen and all on my lonesome with naught but my
goode silver oak staff and of course Bell." She argued.

   " Beth, don't `But Da' me ye know good and well that I can handle the
likes of those three.  Stay.  I won't but be a minute." Eoan commanded.

   " Ay, father as ye will so shall it be done." Beth sent with a sigh as
she let her father's hand slip from hers.

   Eoan gave his daughter a pat on her head and then pushed his mind into
realm of red time where either he speed up or the world slowed down
depending on one's point of view.  He called it red time because when he
was out of real time the world looked red as the speed of light slowed down
changing its wave length.  Depending on how deep he went into red time he
could walk between rain drops or push through a waterfall as if it were a
curtain of quick silver.  It was a silent world for sound waves move much
slower than light waves.  If he just went into `pink time' he could hear
sound as if it were coming through molasses and everyone had a deep frog
base voice.

   He was a time witch, one of the few that could with the power and
training of their minds move in and out of time.  No one could move forward
or back in time as time is a moving point in eternity that leaves no real
past, with the future yet to be determined by free will and chance.  There
was just the now.  He did not even want to contemplate complex paradoxes
that going into the past would rend.  Only a God could fathom the infinite
changes such a trip would cause.  It would not be like some had imagined,
casting a pebble into a still pond but rather like heaving a bolder through
an fine stained glass window as any action in the past would change the
future in unknowable ways.

   There were limits to how deep he could go into red time.  The further he
went into time the colder it got.  It was not just a coldness of the body
but also of the mind.  Time walking used up vast amounts of energy, so
therefore you never saw a fat time walker.  They were known to eat three
times the food a dirt farmer could down and that was a lot of food.  If a
walker's blood sugar was low he would have a debilitating head ache, if it
got too low he would blackout and perhaps die.

   Eoan wrapped red time around him and drew his long sword from the red
dragon hide scabbard.  The white iron blade glowed in the dimming twilight.
The lines of scarlet magic pulsed down its double edged blade.  The
cruciform guard had smooth clean lines as the ends swept downward like the
wings of a falcon just before it struck its pray.  The hilt was silver wire
wrapped soft red dragon hide from under the jaw of an ancient male.  The
word TIMPUS was inlayed with fire rubies on each side of the hilt .The
pommel was a gold casting of a two headed falcon with four blood red rubies
set in their eyes.

   He pushed back his crimson traveling cloak from his arms and let it fall
to the ground.  Beth became a living statue as he moved from her.  Her
red-gold hair stood out like fine wire as the wind played with her locks in
real time.  She had an impish smile on her angelic face.  But then she
often looked like an imp save for the times she looked and acted like a
daemon.  She got that from her mother's side of the family he had no doubt.

   Why had he brought her so far from their Highland keep?  Why had he
placed her in harms way from the darkness that relentlessly hunted them? 
Why had he taken her from hearth and home?  Why?  Because she was safer
with him than with anyone else, and he was safer with her by his side. 
Though she was but sixteen her abilities were as strong as his and in many
ways even stronger.  True she was yet untrained and untested but he knew
that she soon would be.  For the seers saw many paths that lead to tomorrow
and most of them were clouded with the winds of war and stained red with
blood.

   "Did ya hear that?  Sounded like cloth sliding to the ground." Borg'dal
hissed as he strained his weak eyes to see in the cold gathering gloom.

   "What?  I aint heard nothing but the critters skittering into their high
water holes.  Now keep your mouth shut and your eyes open." Silter snapped
as he gripped his long black matchlock musket.  The slow match glowed dull
red and gave off just a whiff gunpowder as the spark ate away the twisted
waxed linen cord.

   " Just like a flat lander to hear noises in the dark." The rock dwarf
grumbled.  The short powerful hill dwellers had a low opinion of those not
of their ilk.  " Do ya want me to come and hold ye hand?"

   Fair fights are for fools and high churchmen.  Eoan walked through the
brush along side the path pushing the branches back.  They felt as if they
were made of copper rather than wood which was an effect of being in red
time.  He saw the three men hidden in the brush with their long dark
spawned matchlock muskets.  They could see or hear nothing from him.  He
came around behind the rock dwarf who had propped his weapon in a forked
branch of a black elm tree.

   The white iron of TIMPUS sung as it arced down across the back of the
short man's neck.  The black iron of his ineffective armor hissed and gave
off blue sparks as the time warped white blade sliced through iron, skin
and bone.  The head stayed in place as the Highlander walked the second
would be assassin.  He was fixed as if in stone, a lifelike statue of
himself.  Eoan thrust his blade down through the nap of his neck severing
the spinal column.  Death came and went with the drawing of the blade.  The
last to die was Borg'dal.  It looked as if he were turning his head to see
what might have just registered in his brain before TIMPUS came shearing
through it.  A few crimson drops of blood hung like a tail behind the blade
as it arched out to its back swing.  Eoan did not feel remorse nor guilt
for the death of these three foot pads, assassins, and thugs.  They would
have done the same to him and worse to Beth, yes much worse to such a sweet
tinder bit of girl flesh.  He checked the surrounding vicinity and found
that there were no others with a league of them.

   He stepped out of red time to the sound of three bodies slumping to the
ground and three long guns falling from dead hands to crash into the wild
land scrub.  The Highlander used the cloak of one of the fallen killers to
wipe clean TIMPUS .  Then he covered their bodies with their cloaks.

   "Beth, ye can come in now darling t'is all over." He called to his
daughter as he collected the long guns from the slain men.

   "Da, can I call Bell in now?  She has been watching our backside and I
feel she would rather be here close in." The red haired lass called in
return as she moved the few rods distance down the game trail.

   " Ye might as well for if I know her she will not wait much longer
anyhow."

   " Right Da." Beth answered as she sent out the call that would bring the
large red wolf to her side.

   "One smells man-death.  The Alpha hunts well ...for a man." Bell sent as
she bound noiselessly from the darkness.  "Rain and wind come, we must to
shelter be err our coats shall be wet and not warm.

   " Aha, my ever practical fore legged friend, but what ye say t'is true,
so let us go unto the Alpha and see what evil was afoot.  " Beth sent back
as she tussled the rough neck fir of the wolf.

   "Black spawn evil from the south gates of hell." Came Eoan's answer as
he dispelled the quick lead in it and then swung one of the dark-spawned
weapons against a silver oak.  He was sorry for the injury to the tree as
the gun split and the black iron barrel bent never to launch quick lead
again.  He did the same to the other two long guns and then tossed the
broken arms far off the trail.  The Highlander quickly searched the bodies
removing what he found important or usable.  The rest he left on the
bodies. The black iron blades he stacked in a pile and then drove TIMPUS
down through all three blades letting power flow from the blade into the
dark iron.  Red sparks hissed up from the night blades and then they flared
red-orange and melted in to amorphous blob and then vanished back to where
they had been forged.  TIMPUS made a groan as the ruined blades pulled
free. Eoan carefully opened a time warped leather pouch that held six
deadly quick lead projectiles.  The human skin pouch had come from the
taller one that Eoan guessed was the leader of the assassins.  Using the
tip of TIMPUS he sent a surge of its force into the quick lead.  There was
a black void that opened in an instant and with a crack snapped shut as the
quick lead ceased to be.

   Bell trotted to the first southern body and took a deep sniff of the
still warm corps.  She snorted as if in discuss with the ill smelling
human. The wolf then explored the roe skin pack that had odd bumps to its
shape.  Bell used her sharp fangs to rip open the soft deer skin pack, then
growled at the bloody balls of hair that rolled out.

   " By the pack!  These be human pelts.  Pups at that.  What manner of ilk
were these humans?" Making the word human sound derogatory.

   "Two were lowlander border men, the third was a rock dwarf.  T'is the
custom of some of their clans to take trophies of the ones they have slain
by removing the scalp.  Some of them hang dried scalps from the ridge spar
of their dwellings.  They count it a grate honor to take them from a still
living foe.  But these can but be the wee scalps of children.  I had no
remorse in there killing and now even less.  Stand back while I send this
corps back to the Dark Keeper that sent it."

   Eoan thrust his sword into the chest of the fallen Southerner and drew
forth the power from the white iron.  White-blue sparks spread out over the
body and in an instant the from was consumed by the power leaving only gray
ash and a bit of melted metal.  Wolf demonstrated her feelings by urinating
on the pile of ash.

   " T'is a fitting and the only marker he shall have." Beth commented as
she watched her father deal with the other two bodies.  The scalps were
tossed on the last one and consumed by the white magic.

   " I found letters of mark from the Dar'Gin of Darken giving let and
leeway for these three to `take whatever actions necessary to affect the
return of She'hats eye`.  It is as the council has feared the Southern
lands are rising up against the Northern Alliance.  For too long have we
turned a blind eye to happenings across the black sands and Aidrain's wall,
and I fear that there will be Hell to pay.  Let us make for Tirst before
the storm reaches us here in the wilds." Eoan said as he put the few gold
and silver marks from the three dead assassins into his belt pouch.

   " Aye let us away from the fell spot.  But mark ye man One dislikes the
scent of that thing ye call a letter for it is not the skin of a sheep but
that of a human child's skin scraped thin and written on with poison ink.
Better that thee consume it with white witch fire and be done with it."
wolf added .

   "Aye, t'is some poor child ill used.  We can but cleanse it and send it
on to the after life with the Goddess' blessings.  I need not more evidence
of the Dark Lord's work here.' The Highlander stated as he dropped the vile
scroll and once again used the touch of TIMPUS turn the sheet of skin to
ash.

   The three Highlanders set their feet to the path in haste.  The storm
that had been gathering fell upon them in earnest with a cold, bitter and
stinging rain and a wind that roared out its displeasure at the land below
that impeded its movement to the Western Sea.  The trail soon became an icy
path that then joined a two track lane which lead them down a sandy hill to
a sheltered bay.

   The border village of Tirst lay dark and shut up as the winds tossed sea
foam and land weeds alike down the now icy muddy streets of the hamlet. 
They could see stout oak fishing boats pull well out of bay and on wooden
racks holding them upside down.  There sails and nets were furled to
removable masts and booms now stacked like cordwood against the furry of
the storm.  The smell of fish and tar was heavy in the air as the three
made their way to the only two story building in the village.  A battered
carved wooden sign in the shape of a cock and bull swung wildly in the wind
threatening to become one with the wind and fine a new spot to hang around.

   Eoan lifted the latch on the oak door but it had been bared on the other
side against the winter storm outside.  The Highlander saw blue glazed
tiles had been set into the threshold of the door.  He quickly read the
power glyphs of protection inscribe on them.  His old shield mate was not
taking any chances this close to the wall.  He banged his gloved fist
against the timbers.  A moment later the door was thrown open and the three
stumbled into a well lit but smoky room.  There were few patrons using the
inn this night.  The rain ran off their Highland cloaks and the wolf's fir
and made small puddles on the rush strewn floor.

   A mountain of a man stood before them.  He had a jolly red face and a
not so clean once white apron belted across his generous belly.  The inn
keeper held a haunch of some beast over his left shoulder.

   " So Eoan of the Highlands, it takes God's own storm and fifteen winters
to drive ye to my humble digs.  Auch!  This can nay be little Bethey?  For
I swear she was no more than a wee bairn when last I did see her in her
mother's arms....  Work'n a teat at that she was.  And where is the Goode
Lady Bellona?  Come and get ye wet things off and sit ye ass by the fire."
He bellowed as he tossed the leg of lamb to a stunted lad not much taller
than Beth as he came out of the kitchen.

   " Rohan, ye old sot.  It has not been fifteen winters since we last were
here.  No, it can't be but fourteen and a half." The Highlander laughed
back as he threw his arms around his old friend and onetime shield mate.  "
As to Bellona that is a long and sad story.  Beth, dear I would like for
you to meet your Dutch uncle Rohan the bear, sometimes call much worst, but
not to his face normally."

   " Uncle Rohan, I be please to make ye face known to me.  T'is a nice
little place you have here.  Ieeeee.." She said as his large arms as big as
Beth's legs swept out around her and hulled her up to his chest.

   " Aha!  Just as sweet as ye ma my lass, now give us a kiss." He grinned
as she leaned and gave him a warm kiss on the lips.  He gave her butt a
squeeze and she giggled.

   Wolf shook off most of the water from her coat and then chuckled ."
Humans.  Now One wonders where that lad went off with that little bit of
lamb ."

   "Oh nay ya don't girl that is to be supper for us all on the morrow."
Eoan sent heading off a theft by the crafty bitch.

   " Well One can hope that there will be at least a bit of bone and
gristle about for One?" Bell sent affecting her wrongly injured voice as
she headed in the direction of the kitchen and some oh so wonderful smells.

   " By the prophets!  That is the largest wolf that I have ever seen. 
Where did you come to run with such as she?  And what is sad story thing
all about?" Rohan asked as he watched the large lupus head to the kitchen.
The few customers that were there decided that now would be a goode time to
make for their homes for few were willing to share a room with a wolf such
as she.  They downed their ail and made their goodbyes to Rohan.

   After the others had left Eoan said." Aha, well Rohan that is a tale
that will take a pint of ale or more to tell.  So have ye daughter fix us
up a room so that Beth can get some dry clothing on take a rest.

   Then I shall tell you how Bell has come to be with us." The Highlander
said with a wink to the red wolf as she looked back at the mention of her
name.

   " Ay, Eoan so it shall be.  Sally girl take young Beth here to number
three and see that a good warm fire is laid on and that her wet things are
dried out.  Then see that Tom tends to Bell that she might not devour all
the good meat we have in larder." The inn keeper said in a jolly voice.

   " But father will that wild one not eat ME?" The ashen faced young lass
said in a trembling voice.

   "Hum, Do tell the golden haired one that One does not eat silly country
girls, well unless there is naught else to dine upon." Bell sent as she
pushed her way through the bottom half of a split door into the small but
well laid out kitchen.

   " Ho there big lass thee art a fine wolf.  One has just the thing for
thee.  Here is the leg bone of an ox we stewed up last tenday." The voice
of the scullery lad came from the kitchen.

   "This shall do rather well, give the lad my thanks." Bell sent as she
took the offered bone and found a warm spot near the cooking pit to enjoy
her evening feast.

   " Bell sends her gratitude to ye lad just don't try and remove it from
her." Then chuckling the Highlander reassured the young woman that Bell,
despite her menacing appearance would not harm her, so long as she did not
hold on too tight to a meaty bone or other foodstuff when feeing the wolf.
Sally did not look to certain but then if Beth was unperturbed with the
outsized wolf then she figured she could manage, and led Beth upstairs to
room number three.

   " It will be good to get out of these cold wet traveling clothes.  Oh, I
am Beth by the way, and ye are Sally Rohan`s daughter?" She asked as they
made their way up the dark oak staircase to the top of the stairs.

   Turning down a short plastered hallway to the first door on the left,
Sally opened a plank door to the small room.  There to were blue tiles set
into the doorway.  Beth felt the power of time witched clay.  The walls
were plastered and then had been painted in a light shade of russet with
the oak trim darkened by age and a deep chocolate stain.  There was a black
oak wardrobe standing open next to a small fireplace set into the wall.  A
small high leaded glass window had its shutter closed and barded against
the furious storm that was beating at the robust walls of the inn.  There
was a small chamber pot and a diminutive table by the single large rope
bed. There was a fluffy feather stuffed mattress on the roped frame covered
with a thick quilt.

   Sally set about lighting a fire while Beth set her pack on the bed and
then emptied it.  She took her small under things and placed them in a draw
in the bottom of the wardrobe.  She had but two dress besides the one she
had on, a blue one and her formal court dress all done in soft tones of
cherry.  Her travel dress was a dark sea green with leather breaches and
knee high soft goat skin boots.  She had a good sharp dagger in a silver
scabbard.  It had belonged to her mother.  It was a miniature of her
fathers sword TIMPUS.  The red stones glowed in soft yellow light given off
by the tallow candles set on sconces on each side of the bed.  She stood
her silver oak staff in a corner near the bed.

   There was a small coin purse sewn into the lining of her wide belt.  She
felt the lumps of gold and silver that lay within.  It was a small fortune
her farther had told her, so she was mindful to keep it safe.

   The room was cool as the fire was just starting to take and Beth
shivered as she striped off her wet dress and under clothes.  Sally took
the wet things and hung them near the fire to dry.

   " Here lass you are near blue, come and let me rub some warmth into ye."
The older girl said as she took out a fluffy towel from a shelf in the
wardrobe and began to enfold Beth's juvenile body.

   " Oh, that feels so wonderful, my mother used to dry me like this after
I had been out in the Highlands wintry hills.  I miss her so, it seems like
ages since she was lost." Beth sighed as a tear came to her eye.

   " Faith now lass, how was she lost and how long ago was it?" Sally asked
as she rapped the young girl in the large warm towel and sat down on the
bed pulling Beth onto her lap.

   It felt so warm and right to be held in kindhearted arms, and her sorrow
was still overwhelming at times.  Beth snuggled into the older girl's arms
and laid her head on Sally's burgeoning breast.  Sally stroked her damp
hair and listened as the youth poured out her heart.

   Beth had been only five when the dark riders had come thundering out of
time down the wooded valley to their keep.  Her mother and her had been out
gathering berries in the late spring when there was a great cry from the
guard in the lofty tower.

   The men where hideous with blue-black vanes bulging from distended
muscles.  Black slime slid from them and hissed and turned the spring green
grass black and dead.  Their eyes were fiery crimson holes in their faces
that were more skull than face.  The stench of death emanated from them and
their mounts.  Giant black horse-like beast thundered toward mother and
daughter ripping the sweet spring sod in great clods.  Their nostrils sent
out fêted blasts of green-black steam that hung in the air like a cloud
marsh gas from some rotting dead pool.  As they got closer Beth could see
that the beast's skin where a rolling mass of decomposing flesh.  Long
white grubs dribbled out and fell squirming to the ground only to split and
hiss as they touched the living world.

   Undead!  Rotting vermin called from the vale of death to serve the Dark
Lord.  The tack of the beast was moldy mottled with age and decay.  The
garb of the riders hung in tatters of putrid cloth.  Bits of their bodies
fell off as they came rumbling on leaving oozing wounds that seeped a
green-black blood.

   " Run!  Beth run to the Keep!" Her mother had screamed as she shoved her
little girl toward the waiting safety of the strong stone walls and good
men at arms with white iron and courage to face the daemon spawned riders.

   Terror griped the child and she could not draw a breath.  Her mind could
not reconcile the evil that was upon them.  She stumbled and fell flat out
on her face just as one of the damned riders reached out a fitted rusty
gauntleted hand to grab her.  She heard the sith of a white feathered long
arrow streak and strike true into the chest of the brute above her.  Steam
and gore hissed out of its chest but it did not fall.  It snarled out a
curse and ripped the long barbed arrow from its chest, and hurled the arrow
back at the archer high in the tower of the Keep.  The archer cried and
fell as his arrow pierced his breast plate.

   More of the Keep's defenders were rallying to drive off the invaders,
and came running with pike and sword.  Other archers took to the walls and
were sending a deadly rain of yard long white-iron shafts into the daemons.
War cries filled the air as the Highlanders vented their rage at the foul
beasts that dared to trespass on the peace of the Keep.  They ran the few
rods distance from the Keep to where the attack was taking place, but it
seemed as if they were leagues away and the demons so close.  She could
hear Thunder the long war horn being sounded to call back her father who
was in the lofty hills tending the spring birthing of their sheep.

   Beth turned her head and saw one of the monsters sprouting at least five
arrows from the archers on the wall swing a wicked jagged rusty sword at
her mother.  She screamed as the dreadful blade arched down.  Her mother
swung up her berry bucket and blocked the strike but the bucket exploded in
shards of purple stained oak.  Her mother stumble back as the creature
pressed his attack.  He raised his awful weapon for a killing blow, but
before he could strike her mother had drawn her dagger and tossed it into
the eye slot of the daemons corroded helm.  He dropped his evil weapon to
the ground.  Raging he jerked the blade from his head spewing gore as he
whipped his head back.  The fiend leapt from his hell mount and crashed
into her mother.  With a scream they fell to the earth in a sickening thud.

   Beth felt a rage take hold of and, her she saw red.  The world froze. 
She could see arrows in flight from the tower hung in the air suspended
like some deadly birds of prey.  Her heart pounded and her breath came in
ragged gulps.  She shook as she wildly looked at the carnage around her. 
The demon knight that had been reaching for her stood still as if he was
carved from brimstone by some insane sculptor let loose from Hell.

   She ran to her mother and tried to drag the undead monster off of her.
He was too heavy for the little girl to move.  She kicked and hit the beast
but her small hands just rebounded off of its slimly armor.  Tears welled
up in her blue eyes and she could see nothing now.  She fell to her
mother's side and felt something sharp cut her hand.  It was her mother's
dagger stuck hilt first into the ground.  Beth dug it out and began
stabbing the evil thing that was on top of her mother.  White sparks slowly
sprung out from each wound she put into the demon's back.

   Her head ached and she threw up and fell sobbing to the earth, and the
red left her as quickly as it had came.  The arrows fell and sound returned
to her ears.  She felt rough iron hands grab her around the waist and she
fell into blackness as her small mind had taken all the socks that it could
endure.

   She felt agony between her legs as she clawed her way out of the
blackness.  A scream fill her as she felt her naked body being rubbed over
a rough stone alter.  One of the undead beast was over her and he had pried
her small legs apart and was pushing his rotted foul thing deep into her
wounded body.  It hurt each time he rammed it deeper into her soft torn
flesh.  The stench of his putrid breath was in her face.  He saw that she
was now aware of the things he was doing to her and he laughed its pleasure
at her agony.  His bony fingers dug into the small bumps of her breast as
the filthy nails dug into her body.  The demon roared as he began to pump
slime into her body.  Her stomach swelled and the burning yellow-green
pestilence leaked out between her legs.  The burning gore began to spill
out of her mouth as she choked on the vile bile that rose from the inside
of her ravaged body.  She screamed again and again trying to push the fell
beast out of her injured and defiled body.

   A cool hand touched her forehead and her father's voice called out to
her.  She thrashed about trying to get the damned demon off of her but she
was too weak.  Then strong arms held her and she awoke.

   " Beth dear it is alright, you are safe.  It was naught but a nightmare
a thing of your mind.  I am here by you my dear." Her father comforted her
as he held the crying lass.

   " But, they...  they did things to me.  They hurt me so bad deep inside
and mommy they wounded her so.  Where is mommy?  Oh by the Gods they hurt
me so bad.  Why?  Why did the bad men come?  I want my mommy...." She
cried.

   " Oh my child, my dear sweet child.  Ye mother my wife is lost taken off
by the last of the damned demons.  Though I have ridden from the Highlands
to Adrins wall and from the shores of Westfailya to the eastern Clo Sea
there is not a trace of her to be found.  The Seekers have cast both bones
and stones and tell me that she is not on this earth.  The demons dear have
taken her away from us." Eoan cried hugging his little one to him.

   "She is gone?  NO NO it can not be!  How could ye let them take her? 
Why were ye not here to keep me safe?" She wailed in pain and agony of a
mother taken too soon from one that needed her still.

   Eoan stiffened as his daughters words rang true.  He had failed to keep
either his wife or his daughter safe.  Each of her sobs cut him deeper than
any demon damned blade could.  His head hung down and a darkness of sprit
flowed around him colder than any Frostland winds.  The Highlander's hands
fell to his side and bitter tears filled his eyes as his little girl shook
in anguish.

   "Kill me father, kill me now and I will go to the gates of hell and
bring my mommy back." Beth shrieked her petite body racked by fury.

   "Beth...if it would work I would already be in the crypt and Bellona
would be here by your side, but alas my love t'is not possible.  We must go
on.  Those that send demon spawn out to spoil little girls must be stopped.
I swear by all the Gods that I shall do all that is in my power to keep ye
safe and to hunt down your mothers killers." Eoan said, yet the words
seemed hollow and false for he had not on that sorrowful day been able to
keep either one of them safe.

   "Auch!  By the Goddess, that is dreadful Beth.  Oh ye poor dear.  To
have such a thing happen to ye when ye were but a wee one." Sally whispered
as she rocked the young girl in her arms.

   Beth was shaking again not now from the cold rain but from the old pain
of loss and grief.  Sally's hands somehow found there way under the soft
towel and to Beth's trembling flesh.  Her fingers stroked the girls chest
and then touched her now erect nipples.  A low moan came from Beth as she
rubbed her body against the older girl.  She turned her face to look up in
to the deep brown eyes so full of tenderness and love.  Beth's lips parted
and her sweet breath washed out over Sally's reddened face.  She moved her
mouth closer and with a shock of electricity they met.  Her entire body
arched as feeling rushed over her.  Sally's tangy breath mixed as the two
girls kissed.  Hungrily and naturally her tongue sought out Sally's.  The
kiss seemed to last forever and they only broke it when nether one of them
could breathe.

   Uncertainly Sally's hand moved down Beth's diminutive tummy.  Beth
opened her legs inviting the older girl to explore deeper.  Trembling
Sally's fingers brushed the top of her petite mound.  A moan escaped her
lips as she felt the moist slit of the trembling girl in her arms.  She
began to stroke her down there and slowly open the soft sensitive lips of
her woman passage.  Sally felt Beth's body stiffen and then spasm as a
wetness flooded out over her now stick fingers.  She pulled her hand up to
her mouth and tasted the coppery tangy stickiness.  She hungered for more.

   " OH God, Beth ye taste so good.  Can I have more?" She groaned in a
suddenly husky voice.

   " Yes, yes oh god yes...." She quivered not knowing what she was feeling
but she knew that it felt oh so damned good.

   Sally lay her down on the soft bed and then knelt on the floor between
the girl's legs.  She looked at the youth all warm with a glow of love and
slowly bent to press her mouth to the waiting pleasures below.  If the
fingers had been good the tongue was ecstasy.  Beth's body rocked again and
again with waves of bliss as she trashed against Sally's working mouth. 
All good things must come to and end and in the end she had cum all she
could.

   " Oh Sally, oh my dear, I can not take any more." She cooed and weren't
you to see that Bell got something to eat?"

   " I had forgotten, someone must have distracted me." She smiled as she
used the towel to wipe her face.  " I must go and see to simple Tom and the
night kitchen fires but I will be back to check on ye."

   " Hum, I will be here dear." Beth said as she wiped herself off and then
put on some clean small clothes and then climbed into bed.

   Sally made her way down to the common room and walked past her father
and Eoan.  She had a smile on her face.

   " Sally lass what took ye so long in lighting that fire?" Her father
asked.

   "Oh it did not take that long to get it started." She said with a
quizzical smile on her face.

   "Sally girl, ye look like the cat the ate the canary." Eoan said as they
sat before a roaring fire.

   " Well ye might say that I did.  I do seem to have feathers in my hair."
She giggled as she brushed an errant plume from the feather bed to the
floor.

   " Auch daughters, how can a mere man hope to understand them Eoan?" The
jovial inn keeper asked as his daughter rather floated into the warmth of
the kitchen.

   " Daughters?  How can a mere man hope to understand any female?" The
time witch guffawed.

   "T'is true, in fact no truer words have been spoken, not by the Seekers
themselves.  Now shield mate ye have had ye ale and I have yet to hear the
tale of how a red, green eyed, rod long wolf keeps ye company.  So man get
to the telling a'for my beard turns snow white."

   "Pass me another pint of ye'r exceptional ale for a dry mouth makes for
an even dryer tale." The Highlander quoted an old northland proverb as his
mind took him back to those black days once again.

   "We were in the far high meadows tending to the spring birthing of the
flocks not to many leagues from the border of Aaron.  I had three and ten
yeomen with me as we drove the flocks up into the spring green hills.  Ye
remember the way camp we built more than twenty summers ago?  Well it was
there that we were encamped.  The flocks had wintered well and there were
many lambs to tend to what with the ear notching and bobbing of tails.

   It was near noon when a sudden coldness gripped me.  I felt as if death
itself had reached out and grabbed my heart.  I knew that it could only be
trouble at the Keep so I mounted Racer and called the yeomen to arms.  We
had not ridden more than half a league when we heard Thunder's grave call.
I threw myself and half the men into red time for that was as many as I
could manage.  We rode hell bent for leather.  The rest followed as best
they could.

   I was nearly done in with the strain of bringing so many souls with me
the two and sixty leagues to the Keep.  We dropped out of red to find three
demon knights assaulting the Keep.  They were hell-born evil things
dripping of death and putrefaction .  Surely they were sending of the Dark
Lord of Darken.  Someone or something must have broken the bindings that
had for so long kept him imprisoned in the depths of Hell.

   He was seeking the one thing that could truly bring him back to the land
of the living, She'hats eye.  That damned stone that the Seekers brought to
Beth on the day she was born.  The gray ones placed it around her tiny neck
and there it has been never once taken off.  It seems to grow with Beth
becoming larger and more powerful as she ages.  There is deep primordial
magic in those stones.  Magic that none of the time witches nor the Seekers
fully understand.  Some say that it is a piece of eternity itself, an eye
of God.

   I ran drawing TIMPUS and joined battle with the first demon knight that
I came to.  I could see that Bellona was down with one of the abominable
creatures on top of her.  My way was blocked by the thing that faced me.  I
was too spent to go into red time and I could not see Beth, I thought that
she was safe in the Keep.  I fell upon the demon in a battle rage.  The
Hell spawn gave as good as I gave.  His dark iron blade had been time
witched and was the match for TIMPUS.  Red sparks mingled with white one
from TIMPUS as our swords clashed.  The undead fiend had at least a score
of white iron arrows in him and yet he still fought on with the strength of
ten men.  I could see that he was slowing with each attack and he began to
give ground.  I started to parry his counter thrust when my sword was
impeded by the shaft of one of my men's spears.  The demon's blade bit deep
into my side and I felt the fires of hell erupt in my ribs.  Erick one of
my yeomen thrust his spear deep into the monster's chest, a blow that would
had kill any mortal man.  Quick as red time the demon swung his vile blade
and severed both Erick's arm and the shaft of his spear.  That gave me the
opening I needed and I thrust TIMPUS through its chest.

   With a screech that shattered windows in the Keep magic life left the
abomination and his corps fell turning into a obnoxious pool of decomposing
bits of black flesh and moldy bone.  His armor dissertated into a pile of
rusty black iron that turned the green grass black.  The nightmare beast
that he had been riding rose up and clawed the air with black iron shod
hooves.  It struck Eric on the skull, crushing his head like an over ripe
melon.  He fell dead at my feet.  Five more men at arms pressed the attack
at the demon creature.  With pike and spear they were able to fell the
beast.

   I turned to aid Bellona and I saw Beth come out of red time beside the
brute that was on top of my wife.  Beth was kneeling next to the demon with
Bellona's dagger in her hand.  Black gore clung to the blade as she had
stabbed the thing over and over.  Red sparks of evil magic spewed out from
the wounds.  The being rose up and snatched at Beth with an iron fist.  He
touched Beth's neck and She'hats Eye and was ripped apart as if he had been
take in the jaws of some horrendous beast.  I thought that I saw the form
of a giant red wolf but there was much magic and force in the air and I was
loosing a lot of blood.

   Beth fell as if she had been slain.  I ran to check her and found that
she had been knocked unconscious.  My first thought was for her safety and
for that which she bore round her neck.  I did not know how many more death
knights may appear so I clutched her to my breast and made for the walls of
the Keep.  I knew that my men would come to the aid of their mistress,
Bellona.  As I ran a great cry went up from the battle field and I turned
to see the third and largest of the death knights snatch up the comatose
body of my wife and then disappear into red time.

   I screamed and tried to follow the wicked beast into red time but I had
use the last of my strength and reserves of power and I to fell
unconscious. I had fragments of memories of being carried to the Keep and
being taken to my bedchambers.

   When I awoke I was in my bed with a hand of healers round me chanting
and burning sticks of willow wood and jasmine.  There was a thick bandage
wound around my side and a stinking pollutes was drawing green-black blood
from my wound.  My head ached as if I had a team of draft mules trying to
pull my head apart.  They were for the most part succeeding.  The world
turned gray and I leaned over the bed and got very ill.

   I asked as soon as the world stopped whirling what had happened to Beth
and Bellona.  I was told that Beth lay in a deep coma, she was unhurt
physically but her mind had just shut down.  The healers reassured me that
in time she would come back to this world as did the Seekers whom had
gather at the Keep from their far off mountain abode.

   As to Bellona, they had no answers.  Her body was gone and when they
cast the bones or the stones it was if a veil had been drawn over their
all-seeing eyes.  With those words striking me like the creator's hammer I
fell again into a trouble and restless state of unconsciousness.  A ten day
later I fought my way out of the madding sadness and despair and found that
my body had healed itself well enough for me to travel in to the cold of
red time.  After I had wolfed down as much rich food as I could stomach I
armed myself with TIMPUS and strapped on my refurbished armor and set out
to find my lost love.

   The healers being true to their kind wanted me to rest for a ten day or
more before I attempted to walk in red time, however I would not hear of
further delay and so set off that night.  Within the familiar confines of
red time I cast about trying to find a hint of Bellona's trail.  A time
witch can sometimes see or sense the disturbance that another time witch
causes when they use red time.  It is like there are lines or paths of
differing colors that each individual leaves behind them that slowly fade.
The longer or deeper one goes into red time the stronger the disturbance is
and thus the longer the trail lasts.

   I had been bedfast for just over two ten-days so any trail would have to
have been left by a very powerful witch.  I could sense a vague line of
dusty black heading straight for Adrins' Wall and in to the lands of
Darken. There was not a trace of Bellona's rose trail.  I was in no shape
to tackle the Dark Lord nor the Dar'Gin's minions especially in their own
realm.  Therefore set about checking the whole of the Northlands to see if
I could find her.  I spent as long a time as I could in red time searching
until weariness forced me to drop back into real time.

   I found myself in the high reaches of the Rendall mountains just above
the tree line.  Snow still clung to eastern ridges and in the shadowed
valleys among the tall lodge poll pines and short twisted rock pinions with
their evergreen needles sharp enough to pierce heavy leather.  A few rods
down hill I found the beginnings of a small mountain stream.  There was a
rocky clearing mostly free of ice and snow so it was there that I pitched
my travel camp.  Soon I had a small fire going and some of cook's goode
wandering stew bubbling in my leather pot.

   I heard the rustling of some underbrush and the snapping of a twig
behind me.  I drew TIMPUS and leapt into red time.  I circled my camp
looking for signs of my would be attackers, but found none.  I was about to
drop back into real time when I saw a huge red wolf sitting by my bedroll
looking at me with a quizzical grin.  I was even more shocked when the wolf
trotted over to me in red time and pushed her muzzle into my free hand.

   I dropped out of red time and sat rather heavily next to my camp fire. I
looked at the wolf and she looked at me.  She had emerald eyes greener than
the finest jade from the top of the world.  Those eyes were colder than
hoarfrost in the frozen depths of Hell.  I felt as if she were judging me
and I was sure that I would come up short.  She, for somehow with out
looking at her sex I knew that she was a she and not a he, broke eye
contact and using her left hind paw scratched at her neck as any dog or
wolf would.  That action gave me courage to breathe and sheath my sword,
for I knew that I had no use for it here in this place at this time.

   " My I have never seen a wolf as ye before." I said out loud not
expecting a reply.

   "Of course not, man One is the only one that there is.  One would hope
that man might have a bit of food for a poor old wolf?" She said in voice
of time witches, that voice that only other time witches can hear.

   As if that explained it all she set about rummaging through my pack with
her long pointed nose and quickly devouring most all of the eatable items
and some that were not.

   "Hay, those are my things and my food!" I cried out as she sat down to
devour a ten days worth of iron rations.

   " Man can get more.  One is hungry after her long trip." She offered as
if that were all the explanation that was needed.

   " Well, wolf would ye leave me a bit to eat?  Where did ye come from? 
Why are ye here?" Asked I, as a thousand more questions churned in my mind.

   "Yes One shall leave a bit for man to eat, One came from across that
ridge, and as to why One is here, well that is One's own affair." The wolf
answered.

   "A mysterious one are ye not Wolf?  What shall I call you for wolf does
not seem appropriate." I said.

   "Well, if One must know, One is called The Bellicose Bitch, that of
course is One's official title, man can call One Bell.  That should be easy
enough for man to retain." She said as she finished off the last of the
iron rations and then circled her tail twice and lay down and promptly went
to sleep on my sleeping furs.

   I did not like iron rations that well anyhow, but I was not to pleased
about having to spend a cold night on rocky ground with naught but my
traveling cloak for a bed and cover.  I thought of reclaiming my sleeping
furs but as I moved toward the sleeping wolf one green eye opened a crack
and a low growl issued from that two hands span jaw filled with very long
ivory fangs that I was none to quick to make the acquaintance of. 
Therefore I cut some more dead wood for the fire and set out a few snares
in hopes of catching an unwary mountain hair or two for our morning meal.

   A wet warm tongue raised me out of slumber.  Bell's face hung down from
the early morning darkness.  It may have been a trick of the light or the
fact that my mind was still half in slumber, but I though that I saw more
than the face of a wolf before me.  There was something vaguely familiar
there, but as I blinked my eyes to rid them of the last dregs of sleep the
image shifted and all that remained was the large red furred head of the
wolf.  An impulse came over me and I threw my arms around her neck and
hugged her fiercely.  She did not pull away but rather leaned into me and
seemed to enfold me with her long body.  I did not know why, but the loss
of Bellona did not seem so painful now.  It was rather a dull ache that I
could stand.

   Bell coughed and seeming to remember herself as the detached Bellicose
Bitch pulled back and said.  " One can hear the struggling of a hare caught
in thine snare, mayhaps man would go fetch our daybreak meal."

   I arose and went to look after the snares I had set the night before. 
It was as the wolf had said there was a fat mountain hare just dying from
the wire noose around its neck.  I quickly dispatched it with my dagger and
checked the other locations netting us two does and an emaciated buck. 
Feeling rather proud of myself I returned to camp with my brace of game.  I
started to gut the thin buck when Bell ambled over and took the rabbit from
my hand.

   " No sense in wasting goode guts and fir, just because men are overly
picky about what they eat." The wolf sent as she took the hare and settled
down to gnaw on its small head.

   The sound of cracking bone and tarring flesh accompanied my cleaning of
the two does.  I saved the entrails and hide as a second course for Bell.
She seemed to appreciate the gesture.  I fixed a spit over the fire and
roasted the does, as I preferred my meat other than raw.  I wondered as I
ate why it was that this magnificent beast had come to me.  The only stupid
question is the one not asked is what my granddame had instructed me, so I
asked.

   "Why?  To hunt and to protect." Came her short and inadequate answer.

   " To hunt what?  To protect what?" I asked.

   "Man knows but will not see, if One must guide then so be it.  Look into
One's eyes and see what man will see." The wolf sent as she came and stood
facing me as I sat.

   I gazed in to the unfathomable sea green eyes and the world shrunk as I
was drawn in to their depths.  I saw a mist lift over a bleak desolate land
of smoking ruins and destruction.  There were immense towers rising behind
a wall of skulls.  Men toiled in agony as demons lashed out with whips of
fire driving the unfortunate souls to labor faster.  Lines of undead things
were swarming from fissures split deep into the earth.  Flocks of vile
reptilian monsters were circling the black citadel emitting gouts of
black-green flame that blackened the sky.

   A horrendous cry came from the multitudes of the undead and the gates of
the fortress were thrown open and an army of thousands of black Death
Knights surged out across the ruined land.  They spread like a wave of
demon locust devastating all that lay in their path.  Adrian's great wall
fell before their assault, and they swarmed out over all the Northern lands
leaving naught but death.

   Behind the throngs of evil undead and their minions stood the Dark Lord
and around his hideous bulging neck sat She'Hat's Eye.  The evil spirit's
fire red eyes looked across the void and into my soul.  He laughed and
flung down the ruined abused broken body of a child.  That child was Beth.
His minions fell upon her raping the small body in every possible way and
some that where not.

   I pulled out from the terrible vision and nearly lost my morning meal.
Shaken I took a drink from my water skin and unsteadily wiped my mouth.  I
wanted those awful revelations to leave my mind.  I wanted Bellona back.  I
wanted Beth to have no part in the evil that was stalking the world.  I
wanted to be just a minor lord in my keep tending our sheep.  I knew that
world did not give a damn about what I wanted.

   "One hunts, and keeps the dark ones at bay until we are ready to defeat
them." The powerful wolf that was not a wolf but so much more said.

   " When will ye and I ever be strong enough to deal with the power I saw
there?" I asked knowing that I could never defeat such evil alone.

   " No man, not thee and One, it shall be when she has come into her power
that we and the world may have the chance to deal with the evil that lays
far to the south."

   Not wanting to believe what my mind told me I asked, "Who is she?"

   "Thee knowest in thy heart, t'is thy daughter Beth.  Thee shall watch
and ward her well until she comes into the fullness of her time, then shall
we move if the world is to be free of that awful evil yet to come.  Until
such time has come One will hunt the border lands while thee see to her
training."

   With that she turned and left me alone to head home.  I walked in real
time as there was time enough until Beth would come out of the trauma of
the loss of her mother and time enough to train her in the arts of war that
I was loathe to force upon her. .

   By the time Eoan finished his tale the fire had burned low in the hearth
and all of the paying customers had long left the inn for their homes as
the storm had moved on.  Sally sat next to Rohan as she had joined the men
after she had prepared the evening meal.  Bell was curled up by the young
girl's feet asleep.  It seemed that the wolf had no problems sleeping
wherever she found herself.

   " By the Gods, I am sorry for ye loss.  Bellona was a true and goode
woman if ever there were one.  What thee have told me explains many a
happing around here.  Just two days ago we had two border men and a rock
dwarf sneaking around the village asking unusual questions and spreading
dark Southern gold around as if they had plenty to spend." The inn keeper
related.

   " I had the pleasure to make their acquaintance earlier today.  I sent
them back to their master short of their heads." The Highlander stated.

   " And goode riddance to the lot of them.  But now ya say the little Beth
is the key to defeating the whole of the Dark Lord and his minions?  It
does not seem likely nor fair to me." Rohan mused as he put a protective
arm around his daughter's shoulders.

   " T'is a hard thing to get ye mind around that such a wee one as Beth
could be the one, however she does have tremendous power.  If ye remember
she walked in red time when she was only five.  No one has ever done such a
thing.  I was near 11 before I took my first steps and I was one of the
youngest to have done it then." Eoan said as he suppressed a yawn.

   "True enough, well my shield-mate there will be time a'morrow to talk
more of these things.  Sally lass go and bank the fires and I will see to
baring the doors for t'is time we are all away to beds."

   " Ay, father I shall...  oh father I thought that I might let Beth share
my room as number three has only one bed and I er...  well she might sleep
better with me rather than her Da." The young girl fumbled with her words.

   " One thinks that One will bed down with the two little ones as they
have need of a bit of motherly advice that is not for the ears of mere
men." Bell declared settling the sleeping arrangements for the night.

   "Rohan we have been trumped in spades so let us be away to our rooms for
the night.  Sleep well Bell." The Highlander sent as he rose and stretched
cramped muscles.

   Sally and Rohan made the inn safe for the night and then escorted their
guest to the waiting rooms above.

   Sally knocked on the door to number three and entered.  Beth was laying
awake with a smile on her face to see her new friend and lover again.

   "Beth, if ye want ye can share my room for the night so that thy father
may sleep by himself." The young blond said coyly.

   In answer Beth threw herself out of the bed and grabbed her things and
said in a low voice.  " Lead on my love."

   Sally's heart fluttered at the sound of her voice and got that thrilled
feeling of excitement that had filled her earlier in the day.  Sally lead
Beth and Bell to her room.  It was a smaller version of number three.  She
had her few belongings tucked into shelves that were built into the walls
of the inn.  There were dried flowers hanging from the low rafters.  A few
bits of colorful ribbons had been formed to a bouquet that sat on the crown
of the oak headboard of the bed.  A woven rag rug with its multitude of
faded colors lay on the polished hickory floor.  There was a small oak
chest bound with iron at the end of the bed.  It held Sally's few bits of
jewelry mostly polished fragments of sea shells from the near by bay. 
There was no wardrobe but rather a rod had been set across a corner of the
room and her clothing hung there.  A nightstand held a chipped water
pitcher and washbasin that had been made by the local potter.  The covered
chamber pot sat under the nightstand.  The walls had been whitewashed
recently and the smell of lime was in the air.

   "Here is my humble abode, and ye are welcome here." The young blond said
with a slight bow.

   "Auch, t'is a fine room Sally, all comfy and snug.  Oh and such a wee
bed, I am sure the we will be toasty warm and close together." Beth winked
as she reached out and stroked Sally's reddening cheek.

   Bell pushed between the two girls and jumped up on the bed, which
groaned with her substantial weight.  See looked the twosome over and then
seemed to chuckle.

   "Bell that is our bed..."Sally began to say when the wolf interrupted
her.

   " Yes dear, One knows, but before ye two love birds nestle down for a
bit of girl play, One thinks that we shall have to have a tad bit of a
talk." The sensible wolf said.

   "Oh by the Gods!!  A talking wolf!" Sally called out in fear as she
pushed herself against Beth's side trying to get to the door.

   "Bell ye, spoke in common tongue!  I did not know thee could do such."
Beth stated in a perplexed voice.

   "Ye never asked One if she could, and just because One does not go
around blabbering like the village idiot does not indicate that One does
not have the ability to do so when One finds it necessary.  Now compose
yeself Sally for One is more that a wild beast that will rip out ye throat
just for the fun of it.  Humph, this bed doth seem to be a bit too wobbly
for my girth let us change places." The wolf said as she hopped off of the
bed and landed between the two shocked youths.

   Settling herself on the floor she looked at the girls now sitting side
by side on the bed.  Sally had a death grip on Beth's hand for she was
still not sure of the huge wolf's intentions.

   " Now Beth dear, One is sure that in ye time training thee father has
told thee of the special powers thee have.  Along with those abilities come
a world of feelings and needs.  Most girls like to do the things ye two did
this day with a boy.  Ye do know of how pups are summoned don't thee?" The
motherly wolf asked.

   Red faced Sally sputtered out.  "Oh, yes.  I mean, well that is what a
man's thing is for.  He puts it in ye down there and the gooey stuff mixes
with ye eggs and a baby grows in ye tummy."

   "Beth dear, is she right?" The wolf asked hoping that she had a somewhat
better idea of the mating process.

   Shocked by the revelations Beth mumbled.  "So babies don't come from the
angles that leave them under a cabbage plant?"

   Bell smiled, that is if a wolf pulling back her lips to expose rows of
razor sharp fangs and teeth can be called a smile.  " One sees dear, now
has thee Da been giving you time walking lessons and instruction in sword
work and unarmed combat?

   "Well he kind of explained how he goes into red time but he told me that
I was not old enough to try it except in an emergency.  But other than a
bit of running and work with the staff I would not say that he has trained
me like he does his yeomen and men at arms." Beth answered wondering why
her father should have been turning her into a warrior.

   "Gerrrrr.  One will be back directly girls.  Do not do anything.  Do not
go outside of this room, and try not to get ye faces all gooey with girl
juice.  In fact just sit there on the bed and do nothing but breathe." The
wolf commanded as she vanished into red time.

   "Eoan Michale Mc Donaldson !  What by the five Hells have thee been
doing for the last eleven summers?  Do ye not know that Beth will have her
first moon time in a ten day?  For the love of Geris why have ye not given
her training in red time?  Do ye think that the Dark Lord will sit back in
his citadel and wait till ye think that she is old enough?" Bell barked as
she landed on Eoan's chest.  She had flung the door open and bound into the
room.

   " Bell?  Ye are talking common." He sputtered finding it hard to draw a
breath with the substantial wolf setting on his chest.

   "No shit.  Why have ye not done what ye should have?  Do ye know that
she thinks babies come from angles and are found under tomato plants?" She
snarled as she thrust her muzzle against his nose.

   " Aha, that's cabbage plants not tomato plants." Lamely corrected her.

   "One is waiting for an answer and it had better be a good one." She said
as she continued to growl deep in her throat.

   " Well, she is so young and I ...  well er I she is just a girl and sex
...well she is so small and her mother being gone and all...  danger in red
time...  cold and she well can not be ready to face such horror.  I have
trained her with the silver oak staff...  and running yes I have had her
run quite a lot..." He stuttered.

   "And do ye think that by leaving her untrained and unaware of the deadly
evil that waits across the black sands will keep her safe or out of the
clutches of the Dar'Gin's rapists?  Ye know what he will do to her to
foster a bastard child that can take the She'Hats Eye off her neck.  Ye
know the vile things they will ram inside of her until she is full with a
demon childling.  Then they will keep her alive to feed the beast with her
own flesh and blood.  Then until the demon childling comes of age she will
be a sex toy for all the depraved vermin that can get a hard on." The wolf
was snarling now snapping her jaws a mere thumbs length from his face.

   "Eleven winters has One watched and hunted in the cold.  Slept in mud
and ice...eaten raw dead things...  fleas One has gotten fleas...  and my
nails and my hair...  and ye sit safe and warm in the Keep and do ye do
what is right?  Nay!  Of all the imbecilic stupid...  Oh ye...Oh ye MAN!!"
Bell raged as she bound off the time witch and started pacing back and
forth in the small room which was not good for the furniture as things
crashed to the floor.

   " What is all that racket coming from ye'r Da's room?  It sounds like
some demon is tearing the place apart." Sally asked as she moved closer to
Beth.

   "I'm not sure, but if I had to guess it would be Bell having a word with
my Da." Beth answered wondering what would be left of the room or the
things in it.  She was relatively sure the wolf would not permanently
injure her father, at least she hoped.

   The door to their room opened and the wolf came in.  Her fur was just
now laying down and there was a bit of foam around her lips, but thankfully
no blood.  The wolf shook herself and padded over to the frightened couple.
She took a deep breath and the rubbed her nose against the girl's hands.

   " It seems that ye education has been shall we say lacking, therefore it
has been left to me to correct this matter.  After all why should One
expect that a mere MAN could be trusted to handle the simple job of raising
a girl time witch.  Oh where to begin, well for tonight One thinks we shall
start with sex.

   Both of ye girls need a far better understanding than ye have now or
thee will be popping pups with every season ye come into and with humans
that is all the time.  Now to the basics, a man's thing is called a penis,
or commonly a cock, below hang two testicle in a scrotum, commonly called
balls or nuts in a sack.  The balls hold the sperm that mix with semen that
comes out of an erect cock when a man ejaculates.  This is by the way the
most important thing on most men's minds, having an ejaculation or as they
say getting ye rocks off.  A man or boy has been know to do most anything
to get a girl to cause him to cum.  Sorry One digresses.

   Now ye must know by now that there is another hole in ye body just below
where ye urine comes out.  That girls is the opening to ye vagina or
frequently call a pussy, past which is ye uterus, which is where once a
month an egg travels down from ye ovaries and attaches itself to the lining
waiting for some of the man's semen to fertilize it.  Once that is done a
baby starts to grow.  It takes about a season for the baby to come to full
term and then be born.  An that is when the fun starts, as ya see the baby
comes head first out where the man's cock went in.  Now ye all know that a
baby is much larger than a man's cock, no matter what they tell ya when
they are into their ale.  So ye vagina stretches to let the baby out." Bell
explained.

   The girls looked down at their small vaginas trying to imagine a baby
coming out of that tiny slit.  Their faces turned ashen and they both
decided that a man's cock would never get inside of them.  They had seen
other women large with child their bellies swollen so that some could not
walk very well.  No, sex with men did not appear like anything they wanted
to do.

   " Now t'is not every time a man puts his cock into ye that a child doth
come, sometimes the man doth not have healthy sperm or strong drink has
made his cock lay down and can nay get stiff to fit in ya.  And sometimes
ye do not have an egg ready to be made into a baby.  There are some women
that do not have eggs or have some trouble with their other female parts so
that a baby can not grow.

   After about two ten-days the egg that is stuck on ye uterus if it is not
fertilized becomes stale and the body rejects it and the lining of ye
uterus and flushes the entire mess out ye vagina.  With most women this
cycle matches the faces of the moon so it is called moon-time when the body
expels the lining of the uterus with some blood.  This last usually not a
full ten-day.  This happens about every month until a woman becomes too old
to have children and the bleeding stops coming.  But at first ye moon-time
may not come each month.  Ye may skip a moon or two.  It often depends on
many other things so don't worry if ye are not regular unless that is ya
have been taken cock in ya then one of the first signs that ye are with
child is ye moon-time stops coming."

   " But why would any woman let a man have sex with her if she knew that a
big baby would come out of her later?  It would hurt so bad!" Beth cried.

   " Ah, that is a good question lass.  Ya see there is more to it than
just a bit of pain.  Now if no woman had babies how long would people be on
the earth?  Now when a man is good with his cock he can make you feel oh so
good, like Sally did to ye Beth, and when a woman has a baby she needs to
be protected and have a safe home for her and her child.  It is the man the
gets the food and makes a strong home for his wife and child.  He must hunt
or work to make goods to trade for food or make gold to buy it from someone
that has more than they need.

   And there are things that a woman can do with herbs and other magic
potions to keep from having a baby, however some of the them are deadly if
used incorrectly and some come at a terrible cost.  Ye must never try and
mix these herbs by yeself, if ye have need see a goode midwife or healer
they will know what is needed and can teach ye what to do.  As for the
magic potions, t'is best to leave them alone.

   Beth ye have special powers that have changed ye.  What do ye know of
the stone that lay on thy neck?" Bell asked.

   "Only that it was a gift from the Seekers when I was born, it has always
been around my neck and most of the time I give it no though.  It is just
there." Beth said as she touched the cool surface of the blue-black stone.
She felt a stirring of power and a longing deep in her loins grow.

   "It starts now.  The power ye feel and the need in thy loins is the
stone calling out for its heir to be born.  Only the chosen can endure its
touch.  The last woman that held the stone died before she had an heir and
that cost the world dearly.  Because there was no successor the Dark Lord
was able to partly brake his bonds and escape Hell while the stone did not
have a host.  Beth ye be the only one that the Seekers found that could
take up the stone.  For only ye can send that damned demon back to the
depths of Hell.

   If ye were to have a child now before ye have mastered the power, all
would be lost and the Dark side would win.  However the stone commands ye
body to have sex.  There is a way to fool the stone, as when ye have that
wonderful feeling Sally gave ye today it makes an drug that quiets the
stone.  That is why the last woman did not have an heir, she came to hate
men and would have no truck with them.  It is a fine line that thee must
walk dear, for if ye give in to the lust all ye will want to do is rut and
cum.

   Sally my dear one, ye have been chosen to be Beth's soul mate.  Ye must
stand by her and give her love and if needs be ye'r life.  Not only that
but ye must be ready to give her over to another when the time comes.  But
until that time there will be such joy in the union of thy bodies, more so
than any ordinary woman lovers, for the both of thee will give out a
special fluid from ye bodies that the drug lords of Ti'Chi would sell their
sons and daughters for.

   There is much more and One wishes that there was time to take it slow
and let ye adjust to it all but thy father, in hoping to spare ye pain, has
naught but given thee more.  He shall teach ye in the ways of time witching
and so shall One as One is not without some knowledge in this matter.  But
that can wait until the morrow.

   If thee two chouse each other, then what ye do can not be wrong and can
in the end only make ye both stronger and better women for the acts.  One
gives her blessing to thee, may the spirit of the Goddess look down upon
thee in peace, may in the circle of life thee be bound one to the other,
may ye stay forever young.  As ye join with each other let no man pull ye
asunder.  One wishes ye love.  Now take ye clothing off and have fun, One
needs to have a bit of a talk with thine fathers." The time witch wolf said
with a wink as she left the room to the two young lovers.

   Being goode girls the did as they were bade and got naked with each
others help.

   Sally was a good head taller than Beth.  Beth looked at the budding
light skinned breast which had pastel pink nipples.  She reached out and
touched the supple silky nipple with her hand.  The nipple became erect as
she stroked it.  Her own dark chocolate nipples were also becoming hard. 
She slipped her other hand down to massage her own girl slit.

   Sally reached out and fondled the elfin brown tits.  She looked down at
Beth and their heads came together as their mouths hungrily sought each
other out.  Power flowed through them and waves of passion and ecstasy
swept through them.  Sally let her hand go around behind Beth and found her
velvety ass.  He fingers worked the bottom and their kissing became
frantic.

   They broke their kiss to suck in a lungful of air.  Trembling they sat
on the bed.  Sally forced her hand between her lover's legs and demanded
entrance to the warm wet wonderful girl passage within.  She used her
longest finger to penetrate the tiny red slit.  Her finger found a tough
filmy membrane blocking further entrance.  With a stabbing motion she was
in the clinging welcoming wetness of Beth's pussy.

   Beth's body went ridged as she was thrown into a body wide orgasm.  A
thick white fluid began to gush from her body.  The aroma of the thick love
honey made the girls heads swim.  The sat heavily on the bed.  Sally
noticed that her body was pumping out the same wondrous ambrosia.  Driven
by lust and desire Sally pushed Beth down on the bed and then pried her
little legs wide open.

   Beth's pussy was gaping open inviting a willing mouth to clean it.  The
white mung was seeping out of the tiny lips and forming long sticky ropes
as it dripped from her hot body.  Sally could not resist the inviting girl
slit below.  She bent down and began to clean and suck the teeny slit.  As
the first of the mung touched her tongue the power raged through her body.
Her own pussy was pumping out the hot mung.

   Beth moaned and demanded that she to have some of the love mung so the
girls found their head buried in each other legs.  The more that they drank
the more their bodies produced as their minds whirled in an ecstasy unknown
to either of them before.  By experimenting with different positions they
found that they could get the best flow if one of them lay on her back with
her head on the side of the bed so the other one could sit over the sucking
licking tongue and let gravity help drain their pussies into each other.

   Finally long before the morning sun sent pink rays into the sky the
girls fell into an exhausted sleep tangled in each others arms and very
sticky.  The covers were oh so messy.  Bell after having spent most of the
early night giving Eoan a thorough chewing out came back to the girls room
to check on them.  The scent of sex was heavy in the air.

   The girls lay nude in each others arms.  Beth's legs were open as Sally
was holding on to her left side and had her legs wrapped around Beth's left
leg.  The wolf came closer and the aroma was too much for her not to take
just a little sniff.  She worked her long snout between the girl's legs and
inhaled.  Oh that was powerful stuff.

   She decided that they both needed a good cleaning.  Her long warm tongue
slid over the tinder slits and soon more of the power mung was flowing. 
The girls orgasmed in their sleep.  Bell had a lot of girl parts to clean
as they had gotten mung over most of their bodies especially around their
mouths.

   Sally awoke and thought that Beth was eating her out again but when her
eyes focused she saw the head of the large red wolf between her legs.  She
reached down and grabbed the long ears and started to grind and hump that
wonderfully oh so long wolf tongue.  She began to moan which woke up Beth
who quickly put something over Sally's mouth so that she would not wake the
others just quite yet.  As she rode Sally's face she watched the wolf work
the blonde's crotch, and wondered when it would be her turn to have that
soft red fur between her legs and that marvelous tongue sliding in and out
of her.  She did not have long to wait as Sally trembled and begged that
she could take no more for the moment.  Beth lay down and welcomed the red
fur between her legs and held on for the ride.  Sally helped her out by
rubbing her hot sticky slit in her face.

   " And to think when I first saw ye Bell, I hoped that ye would NOT eat
me." Sally laughed as she rubbed the soft fur on the wolf's head.

   Well so much for staying the cold and detached observer.  After a bit
more play the three gave way to sleep.  The girls in the bed and Bell
laying in front of the door.





   The slave ran with his head down.  It would not do for a mire salve to
look upon his betters.  The young man was dressed, if one could call it
that, with a wide black leather belt around his emaciated waist.  Black
iron slave shackles bound his wrist and a dark iron round collar encircled
his bony neck.  His shriveled manhood swung uselessly as his scrotum had
been bitten off the day he was made a slave, for slaves had no time for sex
unless they were being used for the pleasure of their betters.  Thin black
leather sandals were strapped to his feet and his hair was held back by a
simple bit of black rawhide tied around his head.  It was hard to tell what
color his skin had been before he was a slave for now it was a grimy sooty
black.

   He kept to the side of the wide polished black marble hallways so as not
to bump in to one of the noblemen or their guards the plied corridors of
the Dark Lord's citadel, like whores in bazaar on Demonsday night.  His
master Lord Lufiss Longianus had given number seven, as he was now called,
a black message tube to be taken to the Chamberlains office near the top of
the soaring pentacle.

   No one paid the slave any mind for there were hundreds of them scurrying
like the ants they were on as many tasks as there were slaves.  To be a
slave was to be a non-human, a tool to be used and only kept for as long as
it was useful.  Once it became no longer useful it was discarded along with
the other garbage of the Empire.  Some masters took better care of their
tools, some were lazy or cruel, it was very common for slaves to drop dead
from hunger or exhaustion while the worked.  When they did other slaves
would come and fetch the body and toss it into the breading pit where once
living things were turned into death knights or worse.

   Number seven came to the end of the main hall and then started climbing
the endless stairs cut from black basalt.  The rough surface of the stone
had been worn smooth by the passage of thousands of leather sandaled feet.
He had passed four and twenty landings then at last he had reached the
summit.  Here a gigantic guard stood barring passage.  He had a wicked
curved black-iron sword clutched in both hands.

   The sentry looked down at the salve.  The slave held out the black iron
tube with his master's seal on it.  The guard read the magic there and
stood aside to let the unimportant slave enter.  The slave said nothing as
it was death to speak if not spoken to for a salve.  The corridor lead to
another iron door with yet another immense guard barring the way.  He
repeated the process and was admitted though the entry.

   The walls of the room were made of ebony polished so that the salve
could see his pitiful reflection on their surfaces.  Thick back wool rugs
were scattered about the floor.  There was only one window and it had a
dark hanging covering the opening as if sunlight would have been an
unwelcome visitor to the interior of the chamberlains office.  An enormous
block of basalt had been carved into a desk.  The chamberlain sat in a high
backed chair carved of the same dark wood as the walls.

   Behind the officer stood two giant Death Knights.  Their bodies where
well preserved for their ilk.  There was hardly any sign of decay on them,
except that their eyes tended to seep yellow runny fluid.  They held long
black-iron spears and fixed their weak eyes upon the slave as a hawk
watches its prey.

   The slave approached the desk and then kneeled before the officer.  He
raised the message tube and waited until he was ordered to speak or to
leave.  He could hear the scratching of a quill over skin vellum.  Then the
sound of dry sand being sprinkled over the ink to hasten its drying.  The
message tube was taken from his hand and he remained kneeling with his head
looking a the floor.

   The chamberlain spoke a word of magic and there was a slight crack of
force as the seal was broken.  Had the slave been foolish enough to tamper
with that seal he would have been burnt to a crisp in a flash of witch
fire. The Dark Lord's officer read the enclosed message.

   " Number seven is it?  Rise." He ordered.

   The salve rose quickly to his feet keeping his head down.  He waited.

   " This information was needed here long ago.  I read here by the seal
that ye were sent out three hands of time ago.  T's a pity that ye could
not have gotten here straight away.  Well, no matter.  Oh my pets need
feeding would ye be so good as to see to it on ye way out?" The thin time
witch said indicating a side passage that the salve was to take.

   The salve only nodded and walked toward the passage.  It did not matter
the his master had fretted for days on what to tell his superiors nor that
he thought that if he delayed the bad news something might change.  No the
slave would pay for his master's folly.

   There was a dark shadow in front of the passage.  The slave looking down
thought that the floor looked different there.  He took another step onto
nothingness and fell headlong down a shaft that lead to the lowest level of
the stronghold.  Hard black rock broke his fall.  The sound of bones
crunching and flesh being ripped from a body could faintly be heard in the
chamber far above.

   " Ah, so good of number seven to feed the boys." The chamberlain
chuckled as he tossed the message tube into the recycle chute.

   The two death knights thunderous laughter echoed throughout the
stronghold, for that is what the chamberlain wanted to hear.

   The chamberlain took the message and rose crossing to the passage the
unfortunate slave had taken.  He walked across the void to enter his
masters chambers.  His long red lined black cape bellowed out behind him.

   "Greetings Master, I have news of the three sending that were to return
that which ye most desirer." Jobdal said with a low bow to the shimmering
void of blackness that hung in a whirling column.

   Two crimson eyes looked out of the void.  "By the sound of thee pets
feeding t'is not goode news ye have for me?"

   " Ay, my lord t'is not.  There has been no word from the three we sent
and the scyhers can not find their life force any more, and black-iron has
been returned to the void from which it was formed.  Which can only mean
that the long guns and witched iron has been nulled." The underling
replied.

   "The Highlander comes for me.  He is not alone I feel the power of two
others.  yHad but those damned death knights eleven summers ago fetched the
right bitch the stone would have been mine." The demon raged at his
underlings failings.

   "Ay, my lord.  That is the problem with using undead, they are non too
bright what with decaying brains.  What with that damned red wolf running
the boarder land these last eleven seasons it was hard enough to get these
humans across the black sands.  We have lost ten score of sendings and
twice that in Death Knights going against her.  The Chi'Tee will for a
price invade the lands of Rorhor and Godor from the Clo sea mayhaps that
will draw the Highlander to protect the Highlands." Jobdal stated.

   "What is the price that the damned Chi'Tee demand?"

   "Three gold marks a man and half the lands they over run.  Cheep at
twice the cost for of course all the gold and land given to them can easily
be taken when ye have the stone and have no use for the yellow skinned
bastards."

   " How many of the yellow buggers can they field ?"

   " Three hundred thousands.  Lord."

   "And how many gold marks do ye have hidden away in the vaults?

   " Five hundred thousands, Lord"

   " That leaves us four hundred thousands short does it not?  Though I am
sure that if I were to grab thee by the neck I could shake at least twice
that amount out of ye ass."

   "We can give them most or all of it in witch's gold sire."

   " Now do ye think the Qui Geen is a total yellow assed fool?  The
emperor of the Chi'Tee is no brain-dead sending.  He has witches clever
enough to see through witch's gold.  I do not think that it will matter if
the Highlander crosses the black sands, but it may draw off the rest of the
humans there.  Offer them the five hundred thousands we have and all the
land that they take and see what they will do.  If it is to make a
difference it must done soon.  How long will it take the Chi'Tee to war on
the Highlands?

   "The little yellow bastards are born fighting.  Their war junks can be
in the Bay of Godor in less than a ten-day.  Timmerill will fall with in a
hand of days lord.  However I fear that ye are right my lord, in the end if
the Highlander is not stopped it will matter not if the whole of the
Northern lands are laid waist.  I do have another plan that I think will
give us some aid Lord."

   "Just what is it Jobdal?  And what will it cost me?"

   "Lord, I shall go to Mortd'daina on her isle of the dead and convince
her to come with me and attack them while they are still in the
Northlands."

   "That would be a good trick if ye could get the cold spider away from
her silver mirror.  Just what would ye use to entice her out of her lair ?"

   "Two young time witches, and the unborn child of the chosen one."

   "And just what would keep her from binding me with such a child"?

   "Lord I never said that she would coming back from the Northlands."

   " And what do thee get from this lord Jobdal?"

   " Why to serve ye my Lord."

   " Good answer, I see why ye have lasted so long around here.  Make it
so. I tire and must rest be gone." The Dark Lord ordered as his black flame
dimmed and the crimson eyes darkened.

   " As ye command Lord so shall it be done.

   The tall thing raptor like Jobdal left his masters chamber's and went to
his black stone desk.  The Death Knights took up their positions behind him
and to each side.  He pulled out a royal missive tube and then rolled up
the special skin velum with the proposal the he had prepared before his
visit with the Dark Lord.  He scratched the date on the top of the
communiqué and summoned a young time witch messenger.

   "Take this missive Tack La to Qui Geen at his winter palace in the south
of Arkinia.  I need his answer in a hand of time.  Therefore ye shall run
the entire journey in red time.  Impress upon our most noble ally the
urgency of swift and decisive action on his part, in other words get his
fat ass in gear and attack Timmerill.

   " It shall be done master." Tack La said as he took the scroll and
vanished into red time.  He ran down the spiraling staircase to the lower
level past the frozen minions of the Dark Lord.  He saw a few others moving
in red time as they to hurried to complete their tasks.  He entered the
stables of the Hell steeds.  The daemon beasts were spellbound half dead
transformed creatures that were animated by the will of the Dark Lord. 
They could run in red time without tiring.  They ate naught but the souls
of the unfortunate mortals that they slew or were slain for them to feed
upon.  Like their dark master they had an unslakable appetite.

   Daock Throwl the daemon keeper of the hellborn beast felt the presents
of a time walker.  He stepped into red time and saw one of the chamberlains
lackeys approaching Torlock the horned daemon mount of the Dark Lord.  The
mammoth fire red beast though bound in a blazing pen still entered red time
matching the phase of his keeper and tormenter.  It tore at the basalt
bedrock and bellowed its rage at its confinement.  The daemonic monster was
part bull, part stallion, part saber-toothed tiger and all malevolent.

   "Thee are tired of this existence?  For if thee try and ride this one it
shall surly consume thy stained soul." The keeper warned the underling, not
so much that he had compassion for the lad.  That was an emotion foreign to
his mind, but rather he did not what to have to track down Torlock.  Then
restrain the terrifying daemon once he had feasted on the wretch and ran
wild spreading havoc in the Dark Realm.

   "The Dark Lord commands flow through my soul.  His beast dare not defy
his wishes, nor should thee Daock Throwl.  Step aside then less he feed on
thy tasty essence." The young time-witch said as he reached out with his
mind and lowered the fiery gate restraining the Hell born mount.

   "See that thee keep a tight rein on the beast for he hungers for one
thing only.  Freedom, and if thee are distracted and Torlock wins free of
thee there shall be Hell to pay.  Ye know the only coin that shall pay that
debt." Daock Throwl said in a low growl as he stood back from the beast.

   "Aye eternal damnation in the belly of the beast.  One has no more time
to chat with thee.  We ride!" The lad called out as he threw his body on
top of the blazing beast and sped out of the catacombs and into the dark
redness of time.

   They raced through the dark land past foundries where slaves toiled
without end shaping red hot black iron into the weapons and armor for the
army of the undead that the Dark Lord was soon to unleash upon the world.
Black soot spewed from the short smokestacks of the forges that covered the
land like boils.  Acid from the slag heaps leached into the ground water
and turned the streams a rusty blood red.  Dead fish and other aquatic life
floated rotting in the stinking water.

   He came upon open pit mines where gigantic daemon beast dragged black
iron scrappers that tore the topsoil from the earth.  Retched slaves toiled
with pick and shovel to pry the red iron ore from the rich vanes.  Endless
lines of humans shuffled from the lower level of the pit with wicker
baskets strapped to their backs.  The black baskets bulged with the heavy
iron ore.  Any that stumbled and did not rise quickly enough under the lash
of the overseers were tossed into the jaws of the Hell born beasts that
pulled the scrappers through the muddy earth.

   Huge smelters belched sulfurous smoke as coal was fed into the gaping
stone maws.  The hellfire that burned within melted the iron ore.  It was
tempered with the souls of the unfortunates

   Mortd'daina sat in front of a rod long full length polished silver
mirror set in a frame of black eboka wood from the depths of the Southern
tropical rain forest.  Power runes had been carved in its twisted framework
that seemed to be alive with arachnids who's legs interlocked to hold the
shimmering silver plate.

   Her ebony skin showed glossy in the surface of the charmed mirror.  She
was nude.  Her wasps waist was too thin to hold a mortal woman upright. 
Her coal black hair had a streak of crimson down the center.  Her eyes were
red coals in a sea of inky blackness.  Her too white teeth where long and
pointed almost as a vampires.  The time witch's fingers wove a spell in the
air and her body transformed in a twist of blackness.

   Before the mirror stood a creature half a rod tall and sporting eight
long spindly shiny black claw tipped legs.  The beings head had jaws that
were hinged on the side and held hollow long needle sharp fangs which now
dripped a green odious venom.  Down the rock hard obsidian black back was
an hourglass shaped red mark.

   The bound girl screamed as she saw the evil witch change before her
eyes. The lass was nude and held by strong silk like bindings only at her
wrist which were held high above her head to a black oak post.  She
struggled in vain to free herself from the sticky bindings.

   Her cries seemed to draw attention to her by the beast that now spun and
looked at her victim with eight red eyes.  One of the front legs sprang out
and sliced the bindings holding the girl up.  The speed of the movement
caught the girl off guard and she fell hard to the floor.  The monster
tapped the girl and helped her to her feet.  The child screamed again and
started to run in the chamber.

   There were a maze of side passages and soon the young girl was
helplessly lost.  She ran on blindly as the skittering of the spider was
always just behind her.  As she ran her body pumped out adrenalin filling
her sweet blood with the natural drug epinephrine that the best so desired.


   She was being herded to a cul-de-sac that was covered with sticky webs
the clung from floor to ceiling.  The floor of the rock cave became glassy
slick and smooth.  The young child fell sliding down the funnel to the mass
of webbing below.  She was quickly bound by her struggling.  Scarlet eyes
beheld the hapless lass as she cried and panted.

   Fire burned in her small breast as the beast thrust her fangs deep into
the girl's chest pumping stunning venom throughout her body.  Her own heart
spread the poison as it tried to pump life giving blood to her dying
organs. She shuddered and a white foam spilled from her mouth, her lips
turned black and her racing heart stilled its lost race for life as her
head slumped to her chest.

   Mortd'daina fed on the child as she drew all of the fluid from her body
leaving just a desiccated shell of what had once been a living child.  The
mummified corps fell to the floor littered with the remains of countless
hundreds of others that had come before her.  Gold light coursed over her
obsidian skin as she absorbed the essence of the girl.  Power glowed from
within the black heart.  It was good to feed.

   She felt someone or something invade her isle of death.  She went into
red time and made her way to the panicle of her tower.  She felt his
vibrations across the web covered land.  She flung herself down from the
heights to land behind the trespasser.

   It was a creature of blackness like unto her.  It was tall raptor like
with bat-like wings folded around its shoulders like a cape.  The head was
hawk-like with a black long curved beak that had a ripping point.  There
were long thin fingers tipped with razor sharp claws.  The body had what
looked like fine feathers or fur close to the wide powerful chest.  Crimson
eyes burned as fiercely as the spiders.

   " T'is goode to see thee Mortd'daina." The other time witch sent.

   "T'is foolishness for thee appear here in MY domain Jobdal less thee
wind up littering the floor of my feeding lair." She sent to raptor time
witch.

   "T'would be foolishness for thee to act before thee knew the reason of
my trespass on thine domain."

   " It had better be a goode reason shapshifter." She hissed as she
clicked her deadly fangs.  The acid poison of her venom ate at the pitted
black basalt rock of the volcanic island as it dripped to the ground.

   " How would thee like to feed on the child of the Highlander and her
girl lover?  How would thee like to plant one of thee black widow eggs in
that tiny cunt?  What power could thee draw from She'hats eye?" He offered
in answer.

   " What of TIMPUS?  Have thee found a way to counter that white iron
blade and the one that wealds it?  What of the bitch wolf?  She demanded as
she twisted time and space and her "human" form appeared nude in the
perpetual gloom that hid the sun from the lands of the spider queen.

   "There is a window of opportunity for the Highlander has not trained the
child and she has but once walked in red time.  If we strike now we can
have her and the stone that all covet." Jobdal informed the time witch as
he also reverted to his nominal form.  He was nude also, his manhood was
long and snake like twisting with a mind of its own.  It was turning toward
the inky black pit that sat like an entrance to hell between her legs.

   " I see that he is interested in mating hum?  But then he is always
interested in mating.  How does it feel to carry the man part of the Dark
Lord instead of what thee mother did gift thee with at thine birth?  But
then it was such a SMALL thing to sacrifice to the living Lord." She bated
the chamberlain as she moved her devil cunt near the now thrashing
cock-snake.

   "I think that I shall not be mating with thee, as thine kind are apt to
slay thy mate as he doth come.  This talk is not productive and though thee
might like to bait me, I shall not rise to thee taunts.  Do thee think that
thee can pry thyself from this isle of doom long enough to seize the
ultimate power?" He asked as he sought to control the thing between his
legs that gave him no pleasure whether it entered some tight clinging cunt
nor when he would stroke it until red thick blood cum shot out to burn what
ever it touched.

   " Ye still have not told me how thee shall deal with the Highlander and
the red wolf bitch.  True the young one and her lover could be taken if
they could be lured away from the protection of those two."

   "The Dark Lord has set the Chi'Tee to invade the north lands with their
hoards of yellow skinned bastards falling on shores of Timmerill.  They
shall be landing within a tenday.  This will draw the Highlander and the
wolf bitch to defend their homeland.  We can fall on the girl when they are
occupied with the Yellow Hoard."

   "Thy plan has no small danger.  Why should One just keep to One's isle
and let the Dark Lord minions deal with the Northerners?" She asked as she
wondered if it would be wise to let the Dark Lord's cock-snake into her
body without taking the life of its host.  The pain would be wonderful.

   "The Highlander and the Bitch are crossing the black sands now and may
make it to the citadel and beyond.  If the Dark Lord falls do ye think that
the Highlander will not take the time to squash a black bug?  We must
strike now while they do not expect it if we are to have any chance.  Think
of the joy ye could extract from that tiny body, the hours of pain ye could
inflict on her swollen body as ye eggs feed on her from the inside.  Think
of the fun you could have torturing her lover as she is forced to watch."
He dangled a sweet vision in front of the cold hearted arachnid.

   " What thee say doth have merit.  Come, in red time we have time to
consummate this devils bargain.  One will bed the Dark Lord's snake and One
shall refrain this time from the post sex meal.  Now the need is upon One
come let him have his head." She said as she embraced the raptor and let
the twisting thing enter her body.

   The pain was exquisite.  She took the red poison into her womb and mixed
it with the yellow green venom of her glands and both she and the Dark Lord
were bound by the mixing of the powers there.  Both now would be vulnerable
to each other.

   In his sinister tower the Dark Lord awakened with the thrill of pain and
passion as his member slammed deeper into the willing flesh.  His red eyes
flared and his lust thundered out across the black wastelands.  He called
for living children to be thrown into his void that he might feed on their
souls.  The piteous cries of the girls soon died with in whimpers.  His
laughter rang through the shadows of his fortress.  His minions rushed to
finish their tasks as they did not want to taken before that awful unliving
thing .

   Beth awoke in Sally's arms.  Bell was laying in front of the door
blocking entrance or egress.  The young time witch had the desire to play
with her new lover, but her bladder told her that she needd to use the lew.
The thought of having to use the small chamber pot tipped the scales in
favor of a trip to the outhouse.  She kissed the blond girl on the cheek
and pulled on her under tunic and strapped her traveling belt around her
waist for the trip down the hallway and out back to the lew.

   "Goode morrow , Dame wolf." She said to Bell as she stepped over her to
get to the door.

   "Goode morrow thyself dear one.  Oh by the way maybe it would be a goode
idea NOT to tell thy father or Roland all of what we girls were up to last
night, they being mere MIGHT not understand."

   "Dear Bell One is not a ten turnings babe, One knows that there are
things One tells their Da and there are things that One does NOT tell." She
said with a smile and a chuckle in her voice.

   " One is glad that thee are so wise in the ways of the world.  One needs
to empty her bladder also.  She shall accompany thee." Bell had the habit
of sometimes referring to herself in the second person.

   They made their way down the stairs and through the common room where
new rushes were being strewn about by the kitchen lad.  The dark haired
youth gave Beth a wide toothy grin.  He wished them both goode morrow and
went on about his duties.  The two entered the warm kitchen.

   The two found that it was early morning still an hour before sunrise. 
The rest of the inn was quiet save for the kitchen where Margaret the day
cook was busy fixing the day-break meal and getting a head start on the
noon feast.

   The older woman lived across the square from the inn.  Her house was
just a small hut as she had lost her husband in the last boarder war.  Her
only child a son had moved out going down the coast to work with a larger
fishing fleet.

   The smell of rising bread and sizzling meat filled the air making the
pair long for the breaking of their fast.  A fat young goat hung on a hook
near the fire pit.  It was curing in the hickory smoke and its flesh was a
golden brown.  Onions had been woven to from a long braid that hung next to
a smaller bunch of garlic bulbs above the mantle of the fireplace.  Dried
red peppers of several types and sizes were strung near the low ceiling
within easy reach to spice up a stew.  Growing in a bay window garden. 
brown clay pots held live herbs.

   The floor tile was of local clay made into squares and then finished
with a deep blue salt glaze.  White designs had been painted on them and
they made an interesting pattern.  If one knew the glyphs and power signs
of time witches then one would have known that they were glyphs of warding
and for the preserving of fresh foodstuffs.  Bell could feel the ancient
powers flow through the intricate arrangements.  The short hairs on Beth's
neck stood on end as she also felt the unexpected flow of the old powers.

   They exchanged pleasantries, well that is Beth did for Bell did not want
to frighten the old cook by having to confront a talking wolf.  They made
their way through the small winter killed vegetable garden.  The soil had
been turned over so that the plants could return their nutrients to the
black loam.  The rich black earth looked as if it would yield a bountiful
crop.

   The entire plot of land that the inn stood on was surrounded by a low
fieldstone wall.  Down a flagstone path lay the lew.  The outhouse was made
of the same stone as the wall.  It was well constructed and had a white
oaken door.  White iron hinges held the door in place.  A strong iron latch
secured the door.  Beth opened the door and saw that there were more of the
same blue tiles that were in the kitchen.  They had glyphs etched on the
sea blue glaze.  They must have been to prevent the lew from having the
same odor of other unprotected crappers, for this one did not have the
normal stench to it.

   The dawning of the day was not far away as the stars were giving way to
the greater light of Sol.  There was a skylight made of clear glass held in
its dome shape by lead strips.  It allowed the faint star light to give the
small stone building a dim blue cast.

   She shut the door and closed the latch.  She had just pulled down her
short pants and began to let nature take her course when she heard Bell's
sending to her.

   " Beth!  Lock the door and do not come out until One tells thee.  One
feels a disturbance in time and One does not trust it.  Eoan come to me! 
There is danger to thy daughter!" the wolf sent as she leapt into red time.

   "Bell what is the matter?" Beth cried.  She got no answer as the wolf
was out of phase with the girl.  She gripped her dagger that was always at
here side.  The stones of the hilt gave off a crimson light that warned of
danger and bathed the outhouse in a blood red light.  A fear of long ago
gripped her and she remembered the horrific day that she had lost her
mother.  A rage came over her and she flung herself into dark red time.

   She ripped the latch back and hurled the door open.  It rebounded off
the stone wall in slow motion and came unhinged hanging askew.  The world
outside the lew was frozen in a dark red light.  She felt the power of
She'hats eye surge thru her young body.  The normally cool stone felt hot
to her throat.  Rage pumped through each atom of her being.  She felt her
tunic rip from her body and the leather travel belt split and fall away.

   She noticed that she could trace the faint scents that the wolf had left
behind with her passing.  There was the strong odor of her urine by the
wall where she had let down her night water.  She could read the rage and
fear that the wolf sent out from her various glands.  Smells hung in the
air like signposts for her to read.

   She noticed that her sight was much better in the dark red light for she
could easily see each detail in the rocks of an old well that sat high on a
hill across the valley a league or more away.  It seemed that her
perspective was higher than before.  She moved with an easy grace and her
strides seemed to eat up yards at a bound.  She looked down at her hands
and saw that they were covered with a fine red-gold fur.  Her nails were
long and sharp.

   The sounds of the world were muted in red time but she could hear the
blood rushing through her veins, and the air being sucked in through her
nose.  She felt danger nearby.  She saw Bell motionless in midair as she
leapt at the vile reptilian sending that had to have come from the depths
of hell.

   The evil creature was lithe with long arms, arms that were too long for
its body.  The hands of the beast ended in elongated claws jet black and
wicked.  Its head was snake like with a wide jaw that had three sets of
fangs each a glowing blue-blackness of an malevolent void.  The fiend had
its long arms outstretched in an effort to encircle Bell.

   Behind the wolf-time-which was a toad like demon.  It had a thick green
hide covered with boils that oozed lime bile.  The black beast had long
wicked spikes down the center of its back.  Its jaw was enormous with
finger long black fangs.  A fat green tongue was snaking out to wrap around
the wolf's hind leg.  It was reaching out trying to rip at the wolf's back
with its powerful arms.

   Beth tore into the back of the daemon toad with her hands.  Gore and
black blood hung in the air as she shredded its body.  With a quick snap of
her jaws she bit through the thick green tongue and spat out the disgusting
flesh.  She left the daemon hanging in death as she leaped over the wolf
and landed on the tall lizard sending.

   He had not moved a finger towards the wolf and Bell hand not moved any
closer to her attacker in the non-time that it took Beth to dispatch the
toad thing.  All of the hate and anger she had felt for the death and loss
of her mother inundated her.  She swung over and over at the from in front
of her.  When there was no more form to attack she looked around to see if
there were any more foes near.

   She instinctively knew that she could look out over time and distance.
She saw the Dark Lord bound in his black lair between two pillars of hell
born rock.  She felt his fear and hate for her.  She saw a sleek black
spider skittering to her hidey hole.  She was sickened by another dark
bat-like raptor emanating his loathing for the thing that looked into his
soul and found it lacking and beneath her contempt.  Suddenly she felt very
ill and faint.  It was if she had run half way across the Fin Woods.  She
began to pant and she fell out of red time.

   Eoan jumped into red time and hurled from the inn.  He had TIMPUS drawn
as he ran down the path to the rear of the inn.  He saw Bell standing
between two dead demons, more of her handy work no doubt.  There was a
enormous red-gold cave lion standing panting in front of the wolf.  He
dropped out of red time sensing that the danger had pasted.

   " Bell are thee alright?  Where is Beth?  What or who is that creature?"
He said as he walked to the fallen daemons and checked them.  They were
dead, quite dead of that there could be no mistaking.

   "One is fine, as to thee daughter, if thee had eyes thee could see that
she tis standing a'for thee.  It seems as if the attack has let loose her
rage and quickened her moon time.  She is of age.  T'was not I that
dispatched these two demons.  T'was Beth.  One was in red time to counter
the time attack, and then the foes were down and Beth was as she is now
before me.  Doth thee know what that means?  She went into red time so far
that she froze the phase that I was in." The wolf sent in wonder of the raw
power that Beth did control.

   " I know thee!  MOTHER!  Beth sent to her mother and threw her
arms/forelegs around the wolf picking her up as if she were a pup.

   "Aye, my dear love tis me.  Ye must not let the others know!  They can
not hear our bond-talk.  T'is a long story as to why I had to play dead and
keep myself from that which I miss so much, so, so much.  The Dark Lord
must not know that he has not slain me.  Now put one down less thy scare
the shit out of the norms who shall be coming soon." She sent to her child.

   Eoan wondered what the two great beasts were doing.  He used TIMPUS to
burn the sending's mortal remains leaving nothing but a black stain on the
winter cold ground.  Beth still retained her new shape.  She was so excited
that she did not realize that she was still in her warebeast from.

   "Eoan is all well?" Rohan yelled as he came running out of the inn with
a long pike in his hands.  He was still dressed in his nightshirt but it
was covered with a chainmail jerkin.

   " Beth!  Where is Beth?" Sally cried, then she yelled.  " Oh Gods a cave
lion!  Look out Bell for it will eat thee!"

   " Put down thy pike Rohan, all is well.  There were two daemon sendings.
They got sent back to the depths of hell.  Sally Beth is fine, in fact that
large red-gold beast IS Beth.

   " That is Beth?  But she...she is a...  how?  My she has such a long
tongue.  Beth love is that truly thee?" Sally asked as she slowly
approached the huge cave lioness.

   The lioness turned her massive head and looked at the young woman that
approached her.  She trotted over to her side and then leaned against her
nearly knocking the lass down.  Sally threw her arms around the great
lion's neck and hugged her fiercely.

   " Are you alright my love?" Sally whispered into her ear as she saw some
of the green-black blood of the damned ones still clinging to her soft fur.

   " Aye sweet one.  I am fine.  Finer that I have been in eleven years. 
However I do feel as if this transformation has taken a lot out of me.  I
think that I had better lay down for a..." Beth said as she slowly fell
over taking poor Sally with her.

   One moment Sally had her arms around the soft red-gold fur of the
lioness and then the next she was on the ground tangled up with a very nude
Beth.  Beth was snoring and Sally was trying without much success to cover
the nude girls body with her own.

   "Sally is Beth all right?" Eoan called out as he and Rowan moved to
untangle the girls and check on his daughter..

   " I think that she is fine she just fell asleep and turned back to being
Beth." She answered as she removed her cape and draped it over the sleeping
girl.

   Eoan turned to Rowan and they both started laughing.  " By the Gods She
be a time witch and a shape-shifter!" Eoan said shaking his head.

   "Shape-shifting.  That runs in families does it not?  I do not recall
any shape-shifters in ye bloodline Eoan.  One guess that Beth will have to
be mind full of her clothing a'for she changes eir she will spend a lot of
time nude.  End of part one 
    Let me know what you think of this story at arlinwordsmith@yahoo.com


  
A Step Out Of Time