<name tag: rook>

 

Sherry Knight had a problem. Her family had been renowned knights for six generations. Famous and proud warriors serving in the White Emperor’s illustrious Royal Guards for almost a hundred and forty years; stalwart, bulwarks of the realm, they had earned honor as pillars of strength, defending and fighting for the White Empire both at home and abroad so that by just a show of their heraldry and livery upon a battle field was enough to sow concern and discontent in the breasts of the suddenly uncertain enemy.

The line of Knights had been mostly male offspring each and every one of them a champion of proud strength and might, but a few daughters had been sired and they too had taken up the family business and with sword in hand had proven themselves upon the field of battle time and again. And so of course was it expected of Sherry Knight that she would upon her eighteenth birthday march to battle and prove herself with shield and sword. And so Sherry had labored and trained and learned the punishing arts of war; until she could outride on a horse she herself tacked and saddled, out shoot with arrow or bolt that she herself had crafted and fletched, out fight with sword, axe, mace, dagger, and shield that she herself had forged and smithed, all the boys her age and a few older than herself, much to her families pride.

But Sherry had a problem. It was a secret problem. You see, she was a witch. She had been born with an inclination and powerful skill for all forms of magic. However, the Knight family like most of the people in the White Empire distrusted magic, in fact, they despised and hated it. True, the White Emperor’s court had a mage, but he was held in contempt behind his back and often to his face, and his role as an advisor to the Emperor was belittled by all others of the court, especially the Knight family.

So despite Sherry’s continued martial prowess and skillful wielding of the habiliments of war and honing of its crafts and strategies, she spent every waking hour she could pry away from the somber sweating clanging courtyards and jousting lifts, in the quiet gleeful contemplation of magical study. This had to be done in secret of course and well out of the sight of any passerby. It meant hiding her books and tools and burying deep secrets in her bosom. It would have been entirely impossible if it had not been for her kooky grandmother’s sister. Her grandmother’s black sheep of the family sister who openly studied magic and collected magic books of shadows and spell books and had a small alchemists shop in town. People may have turned up their noses at magic but they were always quick to slip into her shop for a potion or a spell scroll or two. Her name was Isabella Forte and she was far from poor or ill-treated. Often she had been summoned in the middle of the night to the castle to an Emperor’s sick bed and left with a grateful thanks in the morning hours her skirt pockets filled with gold.

It was to old withered Isabella’s shop the girl would secretly creep and pour the knowledge of secrets into her soul. In time, Isabella recognizing the girl’s true gifts and passions approached Sherry’s family openly, publicly, about paying the girl to come help her at her shop and learn a bit about the alchemist’s trade. At first the family was reluctant but the world needed medicines and the old woman was rich and respected and their daughter was progressing so very, very well in her fighting craft. And after all, no mere woman could ever hope to hold a prestigious position at the emperor’s court. Sherry’s martial craft was simply to ensure an even better match for her to marry and produce an even more exceptional male warrior. Since that warrior would not be a direct descendent of the Knight name he would have no claim to the family’s extensive holdings or titles. But his association by blood would require him to do nothing to dishonor or shame his mother’s surname.

And so with some grumbling and sighs and shrugs and much public posturing the girl, Sherry Knight, was allowed to go and work in Isabella Forte’s alchemist shop. This made the girl happy for now she could study magic and potion making in much more open way with less sneaking around and it also meant for the first time in her life she had her very own room. For while she still returned to her family’s estate regularly and practiced often in the many small courtyards with the trainers, she still managed to stay over at her grandmother’s sisters house in the congested bustling merchant quarters of the great White City several nights a week.

Sherry’s room was little more than a small alcove in the attic of the shop. With the low ceiling of heavy exposed wooden beams and the room cluttered with a thousand trinkets and knickknacks of magical wonder and the small feather bed and plump patch work quilt in the corner by the small table and window it was a very congested affair. But it was hers, all hers and she beamed and revealed in it. It was here in front of a large mirror that Sherry practiced her magic. For there are many different types of magic in the world despite its scoffed at and ridiculed nature in the White Empire and each sorceress, witch, mage, conjurer, practitioner, had not only the grimiores of others to study and attempt to learn but their own inherent style and type of magic to find and master. In Sherry’s case she was a Bust Witch.

Bust Witches are rare. Their entire magic comes from the special milk their virgin breasts produce. This milk is consumed by the body internally as the spells are cast releasing potent magic just as consuming a potion would. The body of a Bust Witch then naturally replenishes the consumed milk, slowly and steadily, as it is used up by the spell caster. Understandably the larger the breasts the more milk is immediately at hand for the casting of more powerful spells as well as increasing the ability for casting many lower level spells in rapid succession without ‘draining the well dry’ so to speak. As such from a very early age as soon as Isabella recognized the girl’s type of Bust Magic she had daily fed the child special potions designed to increase her bust size and thus her potential for power. The result was that as she neared her Right of Assentation when she would have a chance to prove her martial prowess on the battle field she sported an awe inspiring double KK-cup set of firm full jutting breasts upon her skinny frame and a wide range of powerful Bust Magic spells she could cast with increasing success.

On her eighteenth birthday Sherry Knight joined her family along with hundreds of other lords and their retainers and knights and squires and sons and daughters of age and fought in one of the perpetual skirmish battles that took place upon the Plain of Battle where the Fourteen Empires fought formalized stylized combat. There were hundreds of other kingdoms and petty fifes and vassal states but only the Fourteen Empires fought upon the Plain of Battle four times a year. Sherry did well in her trail of combat and her family was very proud of her. If she had been a man she would have been allowed to be nominated into the White Empire’s army of knights and squires or if she had been of a lower rank into the ancillaries of the archers or skirmishers, but since she was a girl, she was simply smiled at patted upon the head and shuffled off into a corner to wait for a match of good breeding stock. Her days of swinging a sword were over and all that was expected of her was that she remained proper and quiet and squeeze out a lot of healthy honorable sons. Her Right of Accession simply meant she was now a woman rather than a girl and ready to be married off with some decent sized dowry to a family of equal standing.

Sherry was glad the whole business with the fighting was over with and now she found herself on a much longer leash; spending entire weeks at a time at Isabella’s shop. As long as she did nothing that caused a whisper of impropriety she was out of sight out of mind to her family. Only the women of the Knight household would accost her whenever she came home, to ramble insistently about this or that potential match. And she found herself gritting her teeth through more and more painful hours of sitting on a beautifully decorated ass squirming hard chair in a dress most tightly uncomfortable silently smiling and nodding as scores of women discussed marriage prospects in increasingly insane détentes of this or that wave of matrons. As such Sherry tried to come home less and less and spend more days upon end in the small shop brewing potions and painstakingly learning to make low level spell scrolls as well as practicing her special Bust Magic.

It was inevitable however that she would be married off soon and there were hints that, that would be an end of her days of liberty and of course magic and she dreaded that utterly. Still like most young people she just kept trying not to think about it and in that hoped by not thinking about it that it would simply never occur or that something would happen to rescue her from this unwanted fate. As it was something did occur and as is often the case when we ourselves do not step in on our own behalf and instead stand back to let fate step in on our behalf the result was somber and horrific. Isabella was murdered. The captain of the White Guard, the local police for the White City, investigated the crime personally due to the association of Isabella and the prominent Knight family but also as Isabella was a favorite of the royal family for her years of healing service both to them and the town at large. The captain made both privet reports to the Emperor and the Knight family as well as a public town crier posting as was required in a murder. He had found that all evidence pointed to a happenchance robbery by thugs who attacked the lady one night upon the dark streets probably not knowing who she was and in the process of the robbery killed the old lady. The robbers/murders were unknown and still at large but it seemed unlikely that any arrests would be pending.

Sherry mourned her beloved grandaunt and found it confusing that a cut purses blade had done away with her life considering how powerful of a witch she was no matter how old. But it was what happened next that changed everything and thus starts our story in motion. For in her will Isabella Forte left her shop and all her belongings and wealth to Sherry Knight, but only on condition that the girl never married. It was a scandal; groups of people gathered in the street and murmured like flocks of doves. The Knight family was outraged and pounded mailed fists upon table tops and bar counters all over town. They insisted that they get the shop, the contents thereof, Isabella’s nearby small but fine house and the chattels thereof, and all her piles of gold and silver coin which the bank said was considerable. The tax assessor was furious as he wanted to scoop up a third of the coin in estate transfer taxes into the ever munching mouth of the White Empires treasury and could not do so unless the matter was settled.

In the end the White Emperor himself stepped in and said the city needed an apothecary much more urgently than a family needed a marriageable daughter and after finding no one else in the capital city could fulfill said function appointed the will to be fulfilled. That was that. The treasury got its heaps of gold and the city got its potions for the common cold and the Knight family got public recognition of their daughter now being allowed to post the royal family coat of arms above the small shop as a form of royal endorsement and thus greatly increasing it and its owners prestige and the young nubile woman Sherry Knight got to stop being pestered about this or that courter and their ugly snobbish walls of family’s faces and found herself suddenly independent with a lovely shop and lovely home not more than a block away and a sizable wealth!

Everyone was happy! The end.

Well almost everyone. The White Empire was rather small compared to some of the others of the fourteen empires. In fact, there were several of the small kingdoms and expanses of wild lands home to tiny city-states or simply walled villages or towns that could boast more population or larger holdings of lands. The White Empire had its walled capital city, the White City, nestled up at the foot of a mountain called, The White Mountain. This mountain was rich in gold, silver, and precious gems. Not far from the capital city was a small port town of Ivory much fortified with another port town Pale much fortified just across the narrow strait. Most of the trade and shipping of seven Empires and dozens of kingdoms poured through this narrow waterway and the White Emperor demanded tariffs upon all who passed. In fact, the entire royal White Empire Navy was stationed here and all it did day and night was stop any ship passing through and tax it. The White Empire also held numerous islands and a few vassal city-states scattered around the globe. But that was it. If you could put all the land the White Empire held end to end you could walk across it in a few days’ time. It also was sparsely populated which meant it could field but a few thousand fulltime fighting men at any time, but it compensated for this by requiring all of its subjects to perform military service if called upon and to fight in a right of accession on their eighteenth birthday if born in the land to acquire their rank and position in said militia. This law pretty much assured that no one really wanted to live there and so it caused the scarceness of population to continue in exponential degrees  and showed what a hair brain policy it is to let muscle bound military men help run your government. This fiasco of the rule of law in face of a problem creating a continuation if not exacerbation of that problem rather than solving it was typical of the blood and thunder politics of the White Empire and it would have surely lead to its instant demise on the world stage except for its immense wealth. Money can get you out of many problems that rashness got you into even on the level of Empire. Almost all of the treaties, trade, and alliances that kept the belligerent bragging bravado White Empire tolerated amongst its peers were cemented with bags of gold .But so much wealth and so few fulltime soldiers and an army based upon forced conscription rather than the lure of good pay (for as wealthy as the White Empire was it believed first and foremost in the right of might and if it could force a result it, would miserly not pay to buy such a result) is a very enticing target. Throw in that no one likes a saber rattling blowhard for a neighbor and the White Empire had numerous enemies always prodding and prying into its lands to see what it might break off and plunder away.

And so it was that three months after Isabella had been murdered and the girl Sherry Knight had settled down into her blissful routine of running her shop, practicing her magic, and redecorating her new home; that she was suddenly awoken in the middle of the wee hours of the morning by the night watch and escorted to a small room in a stone tower where to her surprise she was introduced to the Captain of the White Guard as well as several prominent family lords and even her father?! Since she was wearing only her nighty this was a rather embarrassing situation for her but everyone seemed to ignore her naked state and the captain quickly informed her that she had been brought there by the White Emperor’s direct orders.

The captain then informed the still astonished girl that Isabella Forte had often helped the Emperor. To which the anxious girl blurted out that she was aware of the Emperor’s needs and had his ‘virility’ potion and ‘penis enlargement potion’ already made up and awaiting his special courier as usual. The captain had simply coughed into his fists as the men about her shuffled and he ignored her and continued explaining to her that Isabella had often used her magic in clandestine missions for the White Empire. And that further he was certain she had been murdered not by cut purses but by magic using assassins. This had been kept quiet from the public as the entire city lived in a somewhat uneasy fear of magic, relying as it did so openly only on force of arms while being surrounded by magic using nations.

The captain then told her that she was to return to her shop wake her assistant and tell her assistant to mind the store while she went abroad for some herbs and plants to replenish her stock as well as set up new trade agreements of such from distant suppliers. Then she would go down by carriage to the nearby port city of Ivory with its merchant and military docks where a waiting boat would ferry her across the channel to the far side port city of Pale and from there still using her excuse of venturing forth in search of rare plants for her salves, poultices, and potions, she would make her way to the border of the Gold Empire where she was to check into the Burning Moon Tavern in the border town of White Gold. There she would be met by an agent of the White Empire who would tell her the rest of her mission.

There was no asking questions, no further explaining, no apologies for inconveniences, no time for her consideration or input, such was the politics of the White Empire; she was being told what to do by someone who clearly outranked her and she was expected to obey blinding what she was thus ordered to do under penalty of instant death if she should so much as seem to hedge. And the White Empire could not understand why its lands lay so empty of citizens or why their allies always slept with one eye open and why all its cities had to be walled and watched both without and within as they scratched their heads and turned the screws tighter and tighter against all the broken pieces that kept cracking and falling away with each ratcheting crank of the handle.

And so it was, that upon the twelfth day of the twelfth moon in the year of the glass dragon, Sherry Knight found herself upon the threshold of adventure or at least the threshold of the Burning Moon Tavern.

NIGHTY NIGHT KNIGHT

Sherry hand never been outside of the lands of the White Empire before and she was rather astonished to exit her coach in a city that did not have walls nor prying guards searching everyone and every container. People in the border town of White Gold just seemed to wander around going wherever and doing whatever they wanted?! It was well after dark and yet no curfew seemed to be in effect and the few night watch men she had seen had only slapped a shield upon the backside of a belligerent rowdy drunk and sent him on his way but had not bothered to ask her or anyone else for her papers or reason for being here?! She even saw one professional full time city guard leaning on his spear and chatting to a man with a dog?! “Such a bizarre place! What have I gotten myself into?” Sherry thought to herself as she gathered up her small bag from the coachman and walked up to the Burning Moon Tavern. The coach house and stables were next door to the tavern and most of her fellow travelers that got out of the coach ventured inside where bright light and loud shouting and laughing erupted with each swing of the door.

Sherry turned a puzzled look at the lone guard who was now rubbing the dog’s head and the night watch of volunteers armed with torches and second hand mishmash of weapons who were ambling away down the street and the young woman couldn’t stop an open mouth look of surprise that spread across her beautiful face with the realization that none of them were apparently going to do anything about the loud boisterous commotion streaming out of the tavern’s doors and windows. “What a very strange place!” Sherry stiffened her shoulders and resolve and pushed through the swinging doors of the Burning Moon Tavern.

Inside Sherry was shocked. People were moving this way and that, singing in loud drunken revelry, and all shouting at once in open mouth smiles. This was nothing like what she was used to. In White City there were a few taverns, mostly for traveling merchants, but they were quiet somber affairs with guards on the doors and you had to sign in to enter and leave. The families had Halls in their homes were they would hold celebrations but they seldom got this rowdy and they often had very formal structured formats of ritual that were observed.

This looked like a village on fire the way everyone was just running around bumping into one another and all talking at once about apparently nothing at all. It was very crowded and everyone smelled bad and there did not seem to be any proper layout to the place with tables and chairs just dragged everywhere so that she had to constantly stop and turn this way and that and mumble apologies to deaf ears of people who ignored her. “There’s no rank and file here? No one seems to know their place!” Sherry was getting mad. She did not like having to apologize to people who were so obviously beneath her and who were at fault by being so obnoxiously obtuse as to leave no direct paths across the room and she did not like being ignored when she was being so polite as to apologize when she should be the one everyone should be apologizing to!

Suddenly a young woman wearing a low cut top with large breasts grabbed her elbow and then smiled and shouted something that might have been, “this way!” and gave her a smile as she threaded the pair of them through the shouting laughing throng.

‘This must be my contact,’ Sherry thought to herself and followed the young woman. She had expected the woman to lead her out of the large ear ringing room but instead she led her to a small table that had crudely made wooden chairs stacked upon it and took one off and sat it down on the floor and motioned for Sherry to sit. Sherry sat down upon the roughhewn chair as the girl took down another chair and sat it down.  Sherry leaned an elbow upon the table and leaned into the girl expecting her to sit down but the girl turned back around from placing the chair and nearly shoved her large over spilling bosom in Sherry’s surprised face. “Are you a Bust Mage?” Sherry asked the jiggling tits in front of her face but the tits simply retreated and the smiling young woman shouted something and then turned away. She had not gotten far when a man grabbed her and pulled her on his knee. She smiled and slapped him very hard and then got up giggling and on her way as the entire table broke out in thunderous laughs as the man shook his red face and then joined them in their laughing.

Sherry was very confused and sat at the small round table and waited. There was barely enough room for her elbow as the girl had left two other chairs which sat with their seats upon the table surface with their bark covered legs up in the air and their backs hanging off the edge of the table’s sides. Sherry was about to get up and head to the bar in the center of the room where several men and women pulled taps on large barrels and filled mugs and cut meat off a roasting boar which slowly turned upon a spit over a pit of coals directly behind them. The bar was circular and bristling with the backs of dozens of men. Sherry eyed the congested interval between her small table against a wall and the dozens of small round tables swarming with loud singing shouting drunken men and women and worked up her resolve to brave the chaos and reach the bar. ‘Surely her contact must be at the bar or maybe working there or if she could but find the owner perhaps?’ She reasoned to herself and was just about to get up when the young girl with the large jiggling mostly exposed breasts returned and splashed down a large wooden tankard of what smelled like cheap ale upon the table soaking Sherry’s arm.

Sherry blinked confused at the broadly smiling girl and then realized she must be waiting for payment and dug in her pouch producing a gold coin. She handed the gold coin to the girl starting to ask her questions about the bar and if she had seen any one waiting for her; but not a word left her lips for the young girl upon seeing the gold coin promptly latched on to it and it vanished somewhere upon her person. Then the girl all big smile and very happy and excited pulled down her tight skimpy top and shoved her naked tits in Sherry’s face. The girl firmly rubbed her tits in the shocked girls face for several seconds and then pulled them back and placing a cold hand on either side of her hot face planted a deep wet kiss on her lips. Then the girl stood up smiling and yanked up her top and disappeared into the crowd.

Sherry blinked around her stunned, embarrassed, and confused. But no one in the bar was looking at her and no one seemed to have noticed the strange event. Sherry had never been kissed before and her mind swam and she took up the mug of cheap ale and drained it in one go. Coughing with watering eyes as she stopped to breathe as the empty wooden tankard slammed upon the table top. The girl’s lips had been soft and warm and wet and her mouth had tasted of stale spirits sweetened with honey and her hair had smelled of oily smoke but also of strawberries. Sherry sat flummoxed and puzzled.

‘Maybe that is how they say hello here?’ Sherry mused. It never occurred to the girl that she had just paid a gold coin for a tankard of ale that normally sold for a single copper coin. It took a hundred coppers to make a single silver coin and fifty silvers to make a single gold coin so she had basically paid the girl a tip equivalent to a year’s salary for her.

Sherry couldn’t shake that kiss out of her mind and absently touched her wet lips. The cheap ale was hitting her now, a tin horn was playing in her ears and the world was a little blurry at the edges. “I wonder what she would do if I gave her two gold coins?” Sherry smiled at the thought and looked down at her empty mug.

A new mug full of the same cheap ale crashed down next to her empty one and Sherry looked up beaming but the beautiful young girl with the warm lips was not there. She looked across from her where a rather plain man had sat down at her table and was quaffing a mug of ale of his own while he looked at her with a steady eye.

Sherry’s first reaction was one of anger at the affront of the stranger and how this might mean the young girl with the wet warm kisses wouldn’t come back now for another coin. She looked around the room and saw a couple of other women pulling down their tops and rubbing their naked tits in laughing men’s faces and then pulling their tits away and tops up and smiling as they winked and shuffled through the crowd. ‘Where was she? Where had her girl gone?” She wondered and found herself drinking out of her fresh mug before she had even realized it.

The plain man sitting across from her was looking over the room and at her and sometimes leaned in and said something to her but she could not hear him in the buzzing din of all the shouting. ‘Maybe he is waiting for his coin and kiss?’ She thought to herself and then muttered in to her mug, “He’s not getting one.” And she laughed into her second empty mug. Her head was spinning now. She seldom drank and never such cheap strong spirits.

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Her head hurt and she sat up moaning but at least the spinning had stopped and the puking had passed, sherry held her head and pushed her long hair out of her face. She forced open a blurry eye and winced at the sunlight that came down through the trees. She was sitting upon a forest floor with leaves sticking to her hair. “Wha- Where am i?”

“You White City types are all the same. You get out from under those iron laws and ritualized lives of yours and you go nuts.” It was the plain man who had been sitting at her table. He stood half leaning backwards against a pile of fallen trees and brush that lay beside the road. ‘I’m lying on a road?!’ She suddenly realized. “You know it is a wonder you guys don’t go nuts there instead of saving it all when you leave your own boarders.” He had his arms folded across his chest and looked bored.

Suddenly images of last night flooded through her mind. She remembered more and more mugs of ale and lots of pretty girls and lots of kissing and sucking on blushing faced girls hard nipples and shoving her tongue into mouths and her hands and fingers wandering all over young bodies and coins… spending a lot of gold coins… shoving gold coins… into dripping hot young squirming pussies?! Sherry shook the images from her head which hurt so she stopped shaking her head and waited for the pain and spinning to subside but the pain had chased those images of the thing she had done out of her mind. She reached for her coin purse. It was still there but considerably lighter.

“Yep, you’re a big tipper. But there are some things one just doesn’t do to a bar maid no matter how much gold coin you may be shoving on her.” Sherry noticed the scratches on her knuckles which were cracked with dried blood and looked up to realize the plain man had bruises on his face and cuts on his own hands and forearms. “I suggest we don’t go back there for a while.” He looked back down the road along his right shoulder and took a drag off his seemingly perpetual cigarette that hung upon his lower lip.

Sherry staggered up onto her feet. The plain man made no attempt to help her so it took a few false starts before she was up on her wobbly legs. She wasn’t sure if she should be thanking the man or questioning him or just ignoring him or beating the snot out of him. He seemed to be watching her intently but without any sign of concern or interest in her wellbeing. Sherry staggered in place and eyed her immediate surroundings. They did not appear much different from a standing posture as they had from a reclining one. She was in the middle of a forested road covered in brown and orange leaves and twigs and a few fallen tree limbs. The road which had been made out of stone paving at one time was now mostly muddy ruts and stretches of bare dirt. Thankfully she had been lying upon one of the stone paving sections and so she was not entirely filthy.

Sherry started to speak but the man seemed to have been waiting for this and he cut her off. “Look I am already way past what I was paid to do here. So let’s get this over with. This is your pack. It has three days provisions in it and some headache powder which I thought you might need.” He half twisted, reached behind him, and took a leather pack off the pile of brush and tossed it at her feet. “Here’s a wine pouch full of water should last you a day or two.” He repeated the process and tossed that upon the crumpled pack. “That’s all freebees I was just supposed to tell you where you were to head. But you were in no condition to make any arrangements and we needed to quit town rather fast. That horse is mine.” He pointed to a horse tied up on the hill behind him. “You had a horse but you kept falling off and I guess the horse decided he had enough of that and he took off back to the town. So you don’t have a horse. You are going to have to walk.” He reached into his inside coat pocket; he wore his shirt and coat sleeves rolled up to his elbows and had a tattoo on his freshly scratched-up forearm but she could not make it out. “And this is where you will be walking to,” he pulled out a leather packet and tossed it on to the pile of knapsack, wine skin, and her unsteady feet. “Now we are square and I have about twenty miles of hard riding to try and get through before nightfall so if you will excuse me.” He touched his brow and walked around the brush pile and up the hill to his horse. “Oh,” he turned around and pointed behind her into the woods. “And it’s that way. In case you were wondering.”

Sherry painfully leaned down to retrieve the leather pouch the plain man had taken from inside his coat pocket and when she had stood back up he was already on his horse and riding away into the woods. She looked after him and then muttered, “Men! Humph!” And undid the leather thong that kept the rolled up leather packet sealed. Inside were simply a compass and a rolled up map which in turn was rolled up around another leather pouch which to her surprise contained a set of lock picking tools?! She looked up quickly and shouted, “Wait!” But both horse and rider were already gone.

“Now what?” Sherry looked around her and back down at the items in her hands. “I am standing on a muddy poorly kept road in the middle of some forest. With a map and a compass and some supplies and I have no idea where I am and what I am supposed to be doing?! UGH!” Sherry kicked at the pouch and muttered, “Stupid man. He was supposed to tell me my mission. Just one simple task and he messed it up. Typical! You just can’t trust a man to get anything right. Wait! Where are my own things?!” She looked around for the small leather bag she had brought with her containing her personal belongings and then sighed in relief when she had seen that they were lying upon the ground behind her. She had been apparently using the bag for a pillow. ‘Had she done that or had the man?’

Once Sherry had utterly convinced herself that all her problems were the plain man’s fault she felt much better and proceeded to rummage through her things making derogatory snide comments on the stupid fellows inclusions and omissions in the provisions before belting the back pack upon her and slinging the wine skin over her shoulder and with map and compass in one hand and her leather sack of belongings in the other ventured in the direction the man had pointed into the leaf strewn bare tree woods.

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Sherry had not gone far when she decided she needed to rest and more importantly make use of the headache powder. Unfortunately the only way to mix the drug was to pour it directly into her mouth and then take a swig of water from her wine skin. Considering one of the key ingredients in headache powder is dried dogs testicles the taste was far from pleasant and the fool who had made the drug had used far too much willow so she had to struggle against gagging but it finally set in her rumbling stomach and she lay against a boulder till the queasiness passed.

“I would have been better off finding the ingredients and making my own,” the girl muttered as she stripped her lower garments and took a much needed pee. “Ahhhhh, that’s better.” Her urine smelled utterly foul and she squinted against the stench. “I will never drink again.” She carefully moved away from the rancid pool and decided to strip entirely while the sun was still up and the air as warm as it would ever get despite the frosty chill on the light breeze and shake out all the dead leaves and twigs her clothes seemed prickly full of. She shook and brushed her garments clean as possible and then proceeded to put them back on.

Her outer garment, the white with gold trim hooded traveling robe of the White Empire’s upper class was utterly ruined. It was covered in mud and what looked like blood?! And so badly stained with ale and dirt and grass that it looked brown rather than white and it was stiff and smelled like smoke and spirits and vomit. She turned up her nose at it and rolled it up and fastened it to the back straps of the leather knapsack as one would a rolled up blanket.

Her next garment was the brown tunic of a White Empire alchemist/healer, but in truth it could have passed and been mistaken for a brown tunic worn by just about anybody. The White Empire did not rank alchemists very highly and their clothing was far from distinct or showy. This tunic had been modified by her. Most tunics were simple affairs of a pullover large shirt that had a slit at the neck opening’s hole to facilitate ease in putting them on or removing them. With sleeves that tended to stop at the bicep and a long waist that hung to the mid hips that one usually wore belted. Sherry had extended the slit at the front of the neck opening and added a simple leather eyelet and a leather thong with a knot to pull through the eyelet to keep the open front of the garment closed. Considering her ample bust this was quiet understandable to most people, but the true reason she had modified her garment lay in that to use her Bust Magic powers her breasts had to be exposed and naked.

Thus with just a simple tug her top could be jerked open and her mighty jugs exposed and ready for combat. As such she did not wear any kind of under shirt under the simple brown tunic. Her breasts were so large and full and firm and jutted out so that instead of the belt of the tunic being down upon her skinny waist it was directly under her boobs. The lower half of the tunic instead of riding at her mid-hip instead fell above her belly button leaving her entire lower waist exposed. As such the tunic was more of a halter top then tunic but it was what her status in the White Empire required her to wear and it was the best she could do with the state issued garment.

To this she was required to wear a simple white skirt that fell to her ankles and some brown slipper shoes. The skirt was blousy and cut on the sides with four simple long ties that were wrapped around the wearer’s waist and collected up at the front and fashioned into a simple knot. The shoes were of heavy leather and clomped and wanted to slip off the feet at every step.

The under garment for the skirt was a pair of brown hosiery that itched terribly and did not want to stay in place despite its pins and straps. All in all it was a hideous array of garments though much more comfortable than the padded tunics and mail she had worn for most of her life during her training for her Ascension Day trial of combat.

Sherry looked at the ugly garments now stained with mud and smelling foul and pursed her lips of her young beautiful face. She looked around her and then back at the garments she held up one at a time. “Well, I suppose I am now officially on my mission and I am no longer in the boundaries of the White Empire so I guess I don’t have to wear these garments anymore.” She noted the nearby brook and once again looking around her at the empty autumn woods she gathered up her belongings and made her way down to the brook for a quick wash-up.

The water was icy cold and her scented soap had gotten mangled into pieces in her bag and the wash rag was missing but thankfully the towel was still there. She spent the better part of an hour on her bathing and washing of her hair, but for her that was a very quick bath as she usually spent many hours in her copper tub at home soaking up the warmth of the water until it grew chill and there was no more water left in the whistling kettle to add to it.

Since she was not going to put on her garments she proceeded to wash them as well and set them out on bushes to dry and unrolled her outer White City traveling robe and washed it as best she could but many of the stains were already set and she realized it had been ruined. The city assessor would not like that as one was supposed to return the robes in as good a condition as they had been signed out to you when you left the city.

She felt much better and decided to build a small fire. She sat naked by the fire shivering in the cold air and nibbling on the questionable stores the plain man had gathered for her. When her clothes were dry she removed her second set of garments from her personal bag and placed her washed White City apothecary clothes in their place along with the ruined traveling robe. These new garments were of a very special type. And were ones she had been designing and fashioning herself over the past few months. She had always known she would never be able to openly ply her Bust Magic skills in the White Empire and she had been constructing garments that would conceal her identity if ever the time came when she would need to do so.

She felt giddy as she held the bundle of secret garments to her chest and looked around her carefully to make certain no one was about spying on her. The most important element of this wardrobe was of course her mask! She quickly put on her mask. It was a simple stiffened leather mask with seamed eye holes and a cut out to go over the bridge of her small nose and ties to hold it in place behind her head. Once she had the mask in place she smiled and put her hands on her hips. She wished she had her mirror but she had spent many hours admiring herself in her mask and costume in front of her mirror so she knew she looked beautiful and mysterious!

Next was her special Bust Witch top. It had a bustier design to it. So it supported and covered her lower half of her heavy massive breasts but left her upper breasts and more importantly her areolas and nipples fully exposed and ready for combat! The bustier was laced at the front and left her belly button and lower stomach exposed. Next she put on her gloves which were fingerless but pulled all the way up to her shoulders. Then went on her bottoms; a simple pair of lace panties with tiny straps and bows at the sides. Then went on her silken hose which rolled up to mid-thigh and were held in place by a garter belt around her narrow waist with its alligator snaps also in bow designs. Then went on her boots which rode all the way up to her knees. After this she put on her heavy cape that fastened its stiff collar around her neck with buttons. The cape also required her to put her arms through two openings which like straps helped hold the cape on her body. The cape could be pulled around her front covering her entirely so if she needed she could hide her exposed breasts if desired. And last she put on her large brimmed cone pointed witches hat. It was a very large hat and it helped shadow her face further obscuring her identity. Since her entire life she had been forced to wear the white garments of the Knight family it should be no surprise that her entire ensemble was coal black with bows and lace of dark purple.

Though her specialty was Bust Magic, no witch in her right mind would rely entirely upon one type of magic, nor fail to lean upon accessory spells or crutches of totem magic. So it was that Sherry the Bust Witch now began to place various rings of magical properties upon her fingers and fastened a broach upon her neck cape of powerful charm as well as hang various charm bracelets upon her wrists and the ankles of her boots.

This was a combat outfit after all and she was well tempered and trained in the seriousness of preparation of such. Still to see her thus; with her large wide brimmed hat so oversized, and the little almost small tiny buttoned shirt of her high collared cape that stopped just before the large swell and swoop of her upper exposed breasts, the mighty mountains of her chest puffy areoles and her always hard swollen nipples exposed to plain sight, the tight bustier that left her small soft stomach exposed and the tiny panties that did little to hide her thick wild bush, the dark mask with her large bright gray eyes, the constant smirk that played across her thick pillow lips, her long flowing hair through which she had now tangled sliver tiny bells, her long limbs encased in tight silks, her knee high boots with stiletto heels, all in all one must be confused and taken back between the conflicting swirl of beautiful cuteness and crotch grabbing sexuality! In short, her skimpy tight outfit gave her the momentary first sight edge over any opponent just as she knew it would! Any man who saw her in that first instant would be utterly stunned by her beauty and confused by her aggressive sexuality and in that instant she would strike and win the day just as she had during her trail by combat when she had yanked down her top while down on her knees and thus caused the boy fighting her to hesitate with his raised sword which let her burry her dagger into his crotch and live to fight the next round. It was a dog eat dog world and she was spitting bones!

Now that she was fully clad in her Bust Witch costume and ready for battle she finished packing up her things and piled them into heap and opened the small purple sparkling pouch that hung upon her garter belts waist band. She reached into the pouch and threw a hand full of purple dust upon the pile of bags and then reached up and twisted her nipples while chanting. Her clit swelled up as it always did and a small wet cum stain showed up on her panties as she gasped and smiled. Milk suddenly spurted from her tits and she roughly grabbed her mighty jugs and squeezed them hard spraying the thick white fluid over the pile of now purple glowing baggage. She then reached down and opened her purple sequined hip pouch and the bags turned into a purple smoke that raced into the pouch which she quickly shut with a yank of its draw string top. “Hmmm, think I might have got some leaves and twigs in there as well but all in all not bad for a spell I have only tired once before.” She smiled and whipped the orgasm drool off her chin and stuck both nipples in her mouth to suck up the extra delicious creamy milk drops before swallowing with eyes rolled back in her head and gasping as another little orgasm rippled through her body. She let her heavy orbs fall jiggling from her mouth humming, “OH MY, but I do so taste good this morning.”

But it was no longer morning. In fact it was late afternoon and she had scarcely started on her mission. She opened her purple hip pouch and tossed a small cloud of purple dust into the air, “map!” And the rolled up map from her belongings appeared and unrolled its self in the air and hovered there. “Hmmm, see if you can make sense out of this thing, Nevermore.” And she held out her right index finger where a ring unraveled its self and leapt up into the air taking the form of the skeleton of a raven. The skeleton bird flapped its clacking bone wings and eyed the map with its large empty eyeless sockets and then made a clattering snapping sound instead of a squawk and flew a few feet ahead of her. “Good then. I will leave the path finding to you.” She opened her purple hip pouch and snapped her fingers and the map turned back into a purple cloud and raced back into the pouch which she yanked shut. She calmly set out after the bird eyeing the darkening overcast sky through the gnarled bare tree limbs as the piles of orange and brown and yellow leaves crunched and swirled about her feet and cape and wondered what on Earth lay before her.

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Nevermore lead the girl not to a town or a city or even a house but a cave in the middle of the forest?! The Bust Witch eyed the gapping black maw of the cave which seemed to be little more than a tree covered hill that rose up and fell away for no other purpose than to provide an opening to the underground bowels of the Earth. “Are you sure about this?” Sherry muttered from the bushes surrounding the small clearing at the caves mouth. Nevermore made an agitated rattling of its bone wings and snapped its bleached beak repeatedly. “Alright, alright,” The Bust Witch held out her right index finger and the skeletal bird leapt off her hat brim to perch on her pointing finger where it instantly twined its self back into a bone ring with a single large black opal set in its surface.

Sherry stepped out from the almost leafless bushes and walked to stand directly in front of the semi-circle crescent maw of the cave. “My but it is a big one. At least I won’t have to crawl. Better get some light going for this.” And the Bust Witch abruptly tossed her arms up and out so that her cape which had been covering her body flew aside and revealed her naked breasts. The Bust Witch began her incantation while she twisted and pulled and tugged upon her nipples. Her eyes rolled back and her mouth gasped as her panties soaked in orgasm and then she let go of her nipples as streams of milk shot out of her breasts and she grabbed her breasts and squeezed them until the milk gushing out stopped and her nipples began to glow. She continued the chant of the spell until her nipples not only were brilliantly glowing but were casting such a strong beam of light in front of her that it showed how readily evening had come.

The Bust Witch entered the cave her nipples casting two spotlights of bright white light in front of her. Occasionally as she walked cautiously into the mouth of the cave and down along the irregular downward gradient of its back she felt the need to hide her light at this or that sound so she could listen in the dark for telltale footsteps of booted or padded feet less someone or thing was trying to get the drop on her. During such times as these she would pull her cape over her chest or clamp both her hands over each nipple smothering out the light. Other times she decided she needed more light and would place her forearms against each side of her breasts and squeeze them as she violently shook her tits back and forth until milk splattered out of the nipples and all over the cave walls and their glow increased immensely. When she had stopped this the glow would slowly ebbed down as did the blush to her orgasm face and the light headiness each orgasm caused her and she would then move on down the twisting turning uneven floor of the cave which was now more of a tunnel or series of cracks and crevices leading ever downward.

Eventually the descent stopped at a leveled out shore to an underground lake. The inky water sat motionless in a pool that stretched as far as nipple light could revel or eyes could see. The shore was a pile of broken slate rocks that served as little more than a mound at the upper caves end. She could walk no more than a few dozen steps in any direction before finding herself stopped by the dank water’s edge. The Bust Witch stared out over the water catching the sounds of the occasional splash of drips from the spiked stone ceiling somewhat lost in the inky blackness above. Sherry whistled and then smiled at the echo the place seemed huge. “My but you are a big one,” she muttered with her hands on her hips and her chest thrust out glowing in the damp air.

“You say your butt is big? Well, I won’t argue with you there, toots! Ha-ha-ha!” Sherry startled at the craggy old voice and turned this way and that but could not make out the speakers location or any sign of their being.

“Who is there? Who spoke?” Sherry spun this way and that then calmed her initial fear and grabbed either side of her breasts and crouched to defend herself.

“Ah, I see you are a Bust Mage. Few of those left these days. A lot of power if you got the rack for it! Ha-ha-ha!” The voice was coming from out over the water or perhaps from something surfaced in it and Sherry backed away from the water directing her nipple lights out over its surface where small ripples now eddied into the black rocky slate shore lapping at her boot toes.

“I’ll show you power if you don’t behave! Now show yourself!” There was no further backing up the slope was too steep and she would need to turn around to pick her way and that would be basically a climb back up into the throat of the cave tunnel proper. She was not sure she was ready to abandon the field of battle so easily without having even seen the enemy yet.

“You know why there aren’t any more Bust Mages, girl? Because for all their power all it takes to beat them is a little titty grab. Just a few tugs on those giant strawberry nipples of yours, just a few kneading squeezes and you’re on the ground overcome by orgasm reduced to just a thing of uncontrollable lust. Hell, just a firm slap across a boob will disrupt one of your spells. And what pray tell, is the first thing a man is going to go for if you yank your tits out in his face? Yep, that’s right he’s going for a fist full of chest meat! There’s the inherent dilemma for the Bust Mage; to have more power the breasts need to be bigger, but bigger breasts mean more lust in the opponent to seize hold of them and thereby rendering the Bust Mage whether knowingly or by accident into nothing more than a horny pile of lust begging for cock! Not a pretty picture is it? You on the ground moaning to be raped by your adversary. Ha-ha-ha!”

Sherry had her teeth clenched and began to shake and squeeze her busts to increase the nipple lights. “And I can taste you haven’t been popped yet. Ha! Just wait until you get your cherry plucked! You think you have to struggle with your sexual needs now. After a few ramming cock orgasms and you won’t be able to pass a vegetable stand without shoving all the cucumbers up your smoldering twat! Ha-ha-ha!”

‘Taste me?!’ Sherry thought and then looked down at where her shaking jugs were raining droplets of milk upon the inky surface of the lake. “This is no lake! That’s not water! You are some kind of living goo!”

“Well, took you long enough! But then again I have had men standing there day after day tossing rocks in me trying to figure out where I was out there in some kind of boat. That Hoffman dose that, the one who met you at White Gold. Jerk.”

“So you are some kind of jelly-thing?” Sherry rose up out of her combat stance and stopped shaking her tits, but she remained upon her preverbal toes. “And you know about my mission for the White Emperor? And by the way you are right that guy I met at the Burning Moon Tavern IS a jerk.”

“Yeah, Hoffman works for me and when the pay is right I work for the White Empire. Now, knowing Hoffman as I do I am certain he didn’t bother to fill you in on any of your missions particulars so here we go.” The black goo oozed around rippling up the shore line a bit and instinctually the Bust Witch tried to shuffle back but couldn’t and cringed instead.

“Wait a minute, how do you know about me and my mission and for that matter what could you possibly want with gold?” The girl had just blurted out whatever came to mind as she turned and scrambled her way back up the sheer black rocks so she was a few more feet away from the black gluttonous liquid which stopped its approach.

“I never said I get paid in gold,” suddenly bleached white bones of humane skeletons rose up all across the surface of the oily black jelly and then rapidly sank back down again. “But don’t worry you are not my payment this time. Your mission is to head to the port city of Kanda. People there live in houses built up on stilts and stone jetties in the marsh. They use canals for streets, made it very easy for me to gather information this time as I do hate the sewers. There you are to infiltrate or spy on the underground group called The Naked Blades. They are a radical group that goes around killing monsters and such. Bunch of do-gooder types who make a living answering job posts on the local merchant boards; Right, you are from White City, well then, in most cities throughout the lands except in the White Empire, there are job boards where people put up tasks they want done but for whatever reason can’t seem to find anyone willing to do it. Adventuring types take these jobs for pay. Sell-swords basically but hired out by the job by locals rather than by the government. These Naked Blades are a bunch of sell-swords who have gathered together to do bigger jobs than a loner or pair could attempt.”

“I don’t understand. Why would the White Emperor want someone to spy on these Naked Blades?”

“Well, actually he would prefer it if you just killed them outright, but I would like to know a bit about them myself before you do that. They have started charters in other cities almost like the guilds and I would like to know more about their various members and structure and who is actually running the show because no one messes with the guilds or forms a paramilitary organization that spans more than one empire without some very strong silent backers. I would like to know who those backers are and what their motives are, but the White Emperor just wants them dead.”

“But why would he want a bunch of monster hunters dead? I mean, isn’t that a good thing? Killing monsters, present company excluded of course.”

“You really don’t get around much do you? Well, let me knock some of that dust off your eyes, kid. First off people in power don’t give a rat’s ass about anyone but themselves. Keeping a lot of people helpless and poor is the easiest way to keep those few in power rich and powerful. Second, a bunch of monster hunters running around the countryside means an eventual threat to the people in power keeping themselves in power. Every poor person is going to like those heroes and those heroes are martially strong. And third, some one recently posted a job on the Kanda board for the White Emperor’s assassination. Now that is not the kind of job one posts on a public forum board but the Naked Blades took it before the local guards could yank it down and trace down who posted it. So I am guessing that, maybe the main reason why your White Emperor wants you to kill all the Kanda branch of the Naked Blades… just a hunch. By the way have you ever wondered why The White Empire that distrusts and publicly hates all forms of magic so very, very much, but uses nothing but magical types to do its espionage work? No? Something to think about perhaps.”

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Sherry the Bust Witch left the cave of the black slime creature and headed to Kanda as the dead raven flies. But she was puzzled by her recent audience with the black liquid creature and confused with her orders from the White Emperor. Could he really be so concerned about a bunch of ragtag sell-swords who crawled through ruins killing oversized lizards and snakes? And that bit about the black oil slick telling her that the White Empire had dozens of mages and sorceress wandering the lands hunting down threats to the throne and spying on them or killing them; that surely couldn’t be true? Could it!

She had laughed when the slime creature had said the White Emperor had sent a previous mage on the same exact mission who had thought the voice of the creature was someone calling out from the far unseen shore and had as he talked to what he believed was this distant person, dropped his pants and peed on her?! The creature (who spoke with a woman’s voice) had leapt up and ate the man for that indignity. For some reason Sherry had just found that in the telling very funny though of course it was upon reflection horrifying.

Kanda was a principality upon the coast of the Gold Empire. That meant it was an independent city-state and not subject to the laws of the Gold Empire. It was a good two days journey from the black slime creatures cave and though that seemed forever and a day to the young girl who had to walk it through the wooded hills of the Gold Empire lands to reach it; she could see how that might seem uncomfortably close to the White Emperor. A group of would be potential assassins just a three or four day ride by horse or carriage away would make any sane person wary.

She had wondered out loud who would have posted such a request to which the black slime creature had gurgled and said it would be easier to try and think of who wouldn’t have posted such a request. Sherry realized the slime creature did not have a very high opinion of the White Emperor or his lands and she found that very odd and it put her snoot up in the air a bit.

The Bust Witch had not gone too far from the cave when she found herself cursing herself through some brambles and wondering why Nevermore always seemed to choose the most inaccessible routes to lead her through when she stopped up short and found herself looking at the ominous ruins of what must have at one time been a rather magnificent stone keep. Shaking her breast lights up to a milk splattering full brightness she could just make out the faint flagstones of the paving that had laid before the structure now all buckled and over grown with roots and moss, but she could not fathom out any road leading into it so well had the forest reclaimed the surrounding lands.

The stone keep appeared to have been a single large square stone building with a lone squat stone tower built into its back so that any entrance to the stone tower had to be through the square building’s interior. There were the rotted piles of wooden structures lying about of what must have been at one time support buildings such as; stables, barn, silos, mill, storage buildings, and what seemed to have been a small smithy. Nothing but rotted timbers and a few crumbling mounds now. The main stone building and tower seemed to still be in good shape at least from the outside they appeared solid and not missing any of their stonework. But the large wooden front door of the building was missing and the high windows of the building were dark and open as were the windows upon the tower so one would assume that the normal wooden shutters and such had long ago fallen away.

Nevermore was of course trying to lead her away from the buildings single minded upon his task to reach Kanda but Sherry found the ruined structures interesting and she whistled the skeletal bird back to her finger where it turned back into a ring. She slapped up her tits into a bright nipple spotlights which sent her rich sweet creamy milk splattering and cautiously entered the building.

Her oversized hat had to be removed and replaced upon her head once inside in order to make it through the door for though it had been a double door one of the wooden panels was still half lurched into place and she had to half climb half step around it to enter the stone keep. She expected small forest creatures to be scurrying around in her nipple lights being as the building had so obviously been exposed to the elements for quite some time, but nothing leapt out and ran as her lights jiggled before her.

The place was more congested than she had thought it would be. It seemed as if at one time it had been used as some kind of storage building before being abandoned fully. There were piles of crates and barrels all about in various states of collapse and decay. Piles of leaves and dirt and the odd gathering of twigs hinted at nesting creatures at one time or another and also pointed her attention above her where she discovered the high one story ceiling of the stone keep had been made of wood which now seemed to lay about her in piles upon the stone floor; the open ceiling displaying the overcast night sky above. Chill winds howled and there was a crisp bite in the air but one of her rings carried a charm that kept her body at a comfortable temperature despite the cold or heat providing she did not plunge herself into a lake of ice or step into a fireplace of flame.

While the outside of the building had been a single almost perfect stone square with the attached tower at its back. The inside of the keep was a jumbled maze of stone walled small rooms. The twenty foot high stone walls and the collapsed timbers and sheeting of the roof made these smaller rooms difficult to climb around in and impossible to fully see beyond the piles of this or that debris. So much so that Sherry found herself quickly lost in the ruins despite the building being no more than a few hundred yards in overall size.

Her idea had been simply to scout out a few rooms and push on to the tower its self as she hoped she might find something interesting or at least get a nice view or safe place to sleep for the night at the top of the tower. But now somehow she had gotten turned around in the maze of small collapsed rooms and she could no longer tell which direction would lead to the back of the building and the connected tower. She was not alarmed by this as obviously no matter which direction she headed in she would quickly find herself either back at the front of the building or at its back where the tower rooted. But she was getting tired, and having spent much of the previous night drunk had not been nearly as restful an experience as one might think, and then walking most of the day, and she had been using her nipple lights all night now. Nipple lights was a very low level spell and her natural bodies ability to replenish the milk the spell consumed far out stripped its overall consumption but any magic maintained for several hours coupled with a previous lack of sleep and a lot of physical walking was a going to be a drain on any young girls energies. So she felt frustrated at the thought that she might have to wander back and forth through the maze of small dark rooms until she found the base of the tower its self. And there was always the possibility that it might be blocked by fallen timbers or such. So she was in a grumpy mood when she realized she was suddenly lost and crossed her arms under her mighty breasts and frowned.

A Bust Witch has many natural enemies. Her milk is unique and can be used by almost any alchemist or mage as a base catalyst for many potions. Hence her milk is very profitable to those who can acquire it and then sell it on the black market. The most popular and eagerly sought after potion that can ONLY be made from a Bust Witch’s milk is the potion of age retardation; literally a draft which can slow down aging. Emperors will empty their treasury and their subject’s bellies for a steady supply of such.

But there are also many creatures who prefer to feast upon the milk of a Bust Witch as an ultimate delicacy over any other form of food and their arched nostrils are always a quiver for a taint in the air of a those juicy white drops that will, upon scented, wipe all other thoughts from their now red fumed mind and send them pell-mell in pursuit of their quarry. Yes indeed there are many reasons why there are so few Bust Mages left in existence.

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“What are you going to do to me?!” Sherry realized her voice sounded freighted which may have been because her lips were trembling which in turn may have been because she was tied up and hanging upside down from her ankles and all the blood was rushing to her head, but she rather thought it was because of the woman who was waving a knife in front of her face had such spooky eyes and they terrified her so.

Sherry Knight the Bust Witch had found the base of the tower at the back of the stone keep, but it had taken another hour of back and forth wandering and she was exhausted and grumpy by the time she had discovered the back passage way. She had assumed that the entire back of the keep would be closed by stone walls with just a single door leading into the large round tower base, as that would have followed military conventional wisdom as befitting a strong hold. It made sense to her military trained mind that the opening between the keep and tower base would be a single approach limiting attackers and that the base of the tower would broken up into several long hallways and single rooms again to confuse and trap and ambush a hostile force that had broken into the keep and were now assaulting the tower the last defense of the tower its self.

This had not been the case. In fact the entire back of the keep had opened through a series of stone archways straight into a single wide open base of the tower granting an ease of access and movement for multiply parties working simultaneously as being more important than defensive security. For the keep had once been a large gathering store house for dozens of grain farmers and had bustled with day to day operations more as a mill and storage silo than a military strong hold. But the farms were long gone and the keep had been abandoned long, long ago. The number of monsters in the area had simply become too many for the guards to protect the farmers and the forest had reclaimed the lands.

Still all these archways had been blocked up by collapse and ruin. Stone and fallen timbers of the keeps roof had sealed up these passages. It was a single descending stair case that lead down not up that Sherry had eventually found. The door to this passage between keep and the base of the tower was of rusted metal bars with a very formable lock, utterly impassable, if it had not been left wide open. Sherry had moved past this open portal and down the wet miter treacherous steps with its dripping ceiling and mossy walls descending down cautiously into what quickly became a series of storage rooms and rusted iron bar cells. It was cramped down here, the ceiling of stone being low and the hallways narrow and somewhat irregular. Some rooms were half carved out of layers of solid rock and most held time and water worn crates and barrels or piles of moldering gunny sacks of rotted grain or anemic sprouted white rooted and vined potatoes that had seeded again and again from their rotted storage sacks.

Sherry had intended to search the stone keep and tower for any kind of treasure she might find but the keep above had been full of only trash and rubbish; broken pottery shards, rusted metal iron monger items such as door handles and nails and hinges and coupling bolts, cracked wooden plates, and questionable copper and tin knives and forks used once as eating utensils. It had been discouraging. Obviously the fort had been abandoned in stages with all valuables being systematically removed and dozens if not hundreds of passerby’s had scrounged around in it since then.

The downstairs section of the tower seemed a bit more promising at least from the scavenging of the offhand passerby’s as it had taken some doing to find the opening amongst the maze of the keeps stone and wood cluttered debris and its initial approach was hidden behind a large pile of stone of a fallen support pillar. To this there had been an icy knee deep pool of water that had to be traversed and that the room appeared at first glance to be devoid of any real interest. Its placement not being at the rear of the buildings back wall of rubble filled arches but a layer of rooms before this too added to its likelihood of being passed over by any but the most obstinate of explorers. That and it was utterly scary down there!

Here she found a small storage armory with some leather harness and trappings still in good shape as well as many that were now worthless with rot and decay. But they did not promise much money for their bulk and her magic storage purse was limited in weight of what it could carry. Dozens of daggers again of only the most trivial value she also passed over. A few good swords of iron and steel as well as a few old relics of bronze were interesting but not worth lugging about. After all she had a substantial inheritance back in the White City bank. Some spear heads of decent quality apparently never set upon shafts were a bit more worthwhile as they were of not only combat quality but had been crafted for ceremonial use and had gilt and etching along the blades of fine craftsmanship. She took a dozen of these of the less rust pitted and purple/pink powdered them and cast them into her hip purse/bag.

She found wooden boxes full of steel arrow heads. Now these were both small and very valuable as far as scavenging went. Smiths hated spending days forging arrow heads for which they were always being pestered with endless orders for them from the fletchers. It just did not pay enough to craft them considering the time spent and materials used. And yet in a single battle thousands could be shot and lost forever not to even begin to count the ones lost to the daily hunts and foraging of game for food. Arrow heads became the daily bane of the apprentice smiths along with hinges and door handles and nails. Here were hundreds and in fine shape too! Of course each would only be worth a copper or two as the smith would then sell them to the fletcher who would in turn sell them as arrows in a sheath to the archers and each needed to make his profit, but she was easily looking at a half dozen gold pieces if she took the whole lot! It would be quite a bit of weight, but if she found anything more valuable she could always re-summon the arrow heads and drop what she needed to make room. So in went the hundreds upon hundreds of arrow heads.

She left the most impressive item in the small room behind for what was likely the same reason the original soldiers had left it and any treasure seekers since, a large steel battle axe almost as large as she was, and which easily weighed almost as much she did. Her hip pouch was already bulging and starting to hang heavy against her thigh she would have to leave the beautiful axe with all its etchings and sublime blue glow. It would have fetched a dozen gold coins easily but the weight was simply too much. She made a mental note to stop by again if she had a pack mule or cart the next time she was in the area and mused that everyone who had looked upon that axe lying against the wall of the little room must have thought very similar thoughts and yet there it still rested.

A few more rooms held more urban items that held some passing value such as metal worked pitchers and plates, a rarity in White City were every ounce of metal tended to go to weapon and armor forging. Most of the non-lord families in White City ate off of stale day old sliced crusted bread as a plate. So such items were more valuable there then they would have been in slightly less military cities, but again she had to weigh the trade of weight for passing value in coin in her purse/bag as it was starting to get full. Still she took several nice serving trays of fine sliver with goblets of the same that had been locked in a trunk that had been locked in turn inside a holding cell. To open both cell and trunk she had to use a Bust Witch spell where she had to force her nipple into the lock and then squirt her milk into the lock while reciting the incantation while twisting her nipple this way and that. It only worked on simple locks and would never have opened the heavy lock on the iron bared door at the top of the stone stair case which had connected the keep to this warren of stone rooms under the tower base.

She had not found any treasure of any outstanding magnificence but she had found several gold coins worth of loot that would compensate her for the money she had spent on her mission; for the White Emperor might reward her for successfully completing her mission but he would never reimburse her for any expenses she incurred undertaking it! Still she kept an eye out for any rare or extraordinary prized item or as she dared hope, magical one! Thus she was not so frustrated or grumpy when she found the larger jailer room where the warden had a small side bed room and the four open tiered step floor rose up to a large stone staircase leading up to the open base courtyard of the tower, but she was much more tired as frustration has its own sort of angry energy and with its passing her exhaustion seemed magnified.

Before she explored the stone staircase and found it lead up to the open courtyard of the tower she made a quick rummage inspection of the jailer’s main room and his little bed room. In the main room she found little of interest but in the bed room behind the now collapsed rotted wooden framed bed she had noticed a discolored stone and with a few wiggling tugs had uncovered a small metal box. Inside the box she found ten gold pieces, twenty silver pieces, and silver ring, two gold rings, a dozen necklaces of various designs, some ear rings, none in matching pairs, some gold raw nuggets, a large uncut gem, two cut rubies, one cut emerald, and several soft bound books depicting women in various states of undress being raped by monsters?! She removed the silver tray and goblets from her purse and magically inserted the small metal box in there and then realized the tray and goblets would still fit and put those back as well but it left her small pouch very heavy on her hip and too full to accept any but a very small item or two.

She had heard about such books as these depicting young maidens and warrior women being sexually abused by monsters and men and she knew they were rare and would bring almost as much coin as the whole lot of gems if she could manage to find the right discreet buyer. With her haul now she had made a very good profit and was very pleased with her decision to search the keep and tower despite how much time it had taken her, but now as she ascended the steps up to the main floor of the keep she only wanted to find a secure and safe place to sleep. She had thought of the cells with their bars and blocking them with a crate or two but the place was so dank and musty that it would have been an unhealthy environment to make a camp in for even a few hours rest.

So it was an almost happy very tired young girl who walked up the open stairs that exited directly into the large open base of the tower. Sherry walked up the stair case only dimly noting the scattering of straw that lay all around the open pit of the stair well. She pushed past the few debris on the stairs which made noise despite her natural cautious tread and she had to step over the lip of the top step onto the matting of straw over a fallen timber that lay at the threshold. She had spent the better part of the night stepping over beams and piles of stone through her journey through the keep its self and thought nothing of it. Thought nothing at all as she looked around her and noticed for the first time that despite the huge expanse of the round open base floor of the tower being only partially obscured with piles here and there of rubble or refuse that immediately around the stair well was a clutter of wooden carts and piles of oak casks and crates and sections of planks. At first she wondered if there had been a wooden shed over the open pit of stairs leading down into the jailer’s compound but then she realized that everything in the piles was just stacked around the stair well in tall, tall, piles making almost… a wall on three sides forcing one to go only forward onto the straw.

As she hung there now a prisoner, upside down in the center of the tower’s first floor from a triangle of beams lashed together, she could not be sure if she really had suspected the trap, that snapping rope net that had sprung up under the straw at her booted stiletto heels and whisked her off her feet, or it was hindsight that caused her to imagine she had been more attuned to a subconscious growing awareness of the danger. Sherry guessed it didn’t matter. She was a prisoner to a rather scary woman and two hugely muscled men, and she was becoming increasingly concerned that they were utterly bonkers!

The woman before her now was waving a dagger in front of Sherry’s face, but she had spent too many years training as a solider to fear the razor edge of steel, it was the girl’s fierce eyes that unnerved her. Those eyes were both merciless and intelligent and that was a mix that was most dangerous indeed considering her current predicament. Sherry repeated herself, this time putting more courage and into her voice to drown out the fear but it only sounded like anger which is what fear sounds like when confused people speak, “What are you going to do to me! What do you want! Who are you? And where the hell are your clothes?!”

The naked woman laughed at this and sunk the dagger into the wooden beam next to her head, while her two naked male companions argued over the food they were cooking over a freshly kindled fire.

The woman sat down on a pile of stone of a fallen support column and started speaking. “We’re the Naked Blade. We have spent the past two weeks tracking a monster in these woods with a preference for farmer’s livestock and who recently developed a sweet tooth for raping young girls as well. We have yet to lay eyes on him. But we believe he has been using this keep and tower as a base because his areas of operations all seem to radiate out from it to all the neighboring farms. There used to be a garrison here a half century ago when the numbers of farms were much greater but now there are fewer if somewhat larger farms and the grain is hauled by the new cannel dug to the mills in Kanda instead of grilling it in to flour and corn mill out here. Besides too many monsters had moved in and made it too dangerous and too difficult for the garrison here to protect the smaller farms that use to dot the forests. There are just dozen or so big farms now and these have their own mercenaries and are fortified. But this new monster seems to be making fools out of these mercs and raiding the farms at leisure. That means higher prices back in Kanda and what with the new twist of all these farmer daughters getting their sweet asses nailed, well it wasn’t long before the locals put up a bounty on the notice board. Naturally the Naked Blades too the job; It’s what we do after all. Our raison d’agir.”

“So this trap I stepped in to was for this monster? Then why have you tied me up and hung me upside down?!” Sherry eyed the girl and then fumed as suddenly the woman seemed to have lost any desire to continue to speak to her, “And where the hell are your clothes!”

 “Heh, that was that idiotic Dermot’s idea. He’s the blonde haired one arguing with Taubate over what little remains of our rations. Those two argue all the time. I think they have some kind of kinky bromance thing going on. Whatever. Anyway Dermot decided the Naked Blade group Macy and I formed needed a gimmick to set it apart from all the other mercenary groups out there. He fixated on the ‘Naked’ part and decided that whenever we went out into the field on a mission we would strip naked. That’s sort of the limited way his brain thinks. Anyway Macy pointed out that Dermot was not only cute but hung like a brahma bull so I mean it’s not like there was a lot of difference between being naked and wearing a few pieces of silk for Macy and myself so we just made sure that everyone we hired or let join the Naked Blades from then on was a really hot guy with a nice build and a really big cock. You know it’s fun to watch that meat slap around, you know what I mean?” The girl winked and Sherry’s face got even redder.

“Besides only the guys get entirely naked. As you can see, I wear armor all over my limbs and I have a helmet and shield I just keep my nipples uncovered and my crotch. It is Dermot and Taubate that refuse to even wear helmets and gloves. Dermot just runs into battle swinging a bid sword he carries with no scabbard or harness and Taubate swings a huge maul hammer. But at least Taubate has the common sense to wear boots like me and some arm bands and a helmet. Dermot refuses to wear anything, and man all he does is complain about how much his feet hurt all the time. Geesh!”

“Macy used to wear a cape and bustier and boots and such. She kept her nipples and crotch exposed. But then whenever we fought even before Dermot joined us she would rip her top open. She was a Bust Mage just like you.” The girl leaned forward and twisted Sherry’s exposed nipple and then suckled a few milk drops and leaned back smiling. “Yummy, your milk is just as sweet as Macy’s was.”

“Was? Where is she?” Sherry was getting dizzy from hanging upside down so long and was surprised to hear of another Bust Witch as she knew how very rare such magic was.

“She was killed by a monster a year ago on a mission. She was like a sister to me. My best friend. It was Alto’s fault. He betrayed us. You see, Macy and I formed the Naked Blades as a way to raise money so we could buy this mansion north of the capital city of the Blue Empire. That is where we were both born, and grew up on the streets as orphans. But it is more than a mansion, it is an entire town set inside one giant house! It is a city-state, its own country. The smallest and freest and most beautiful nation in the entire world. And its ruler is an old man who is dying and he is selling the nation for fifteen million gold coins. But he told Macy and me he would sell it for ten million to us because he wants the new owner/ruler to be kind and wise to his people. That is how they do it there; when a ruler dies the nation goes up for sale. The money used to buy the country goes into the city treasury so that is how they can afford to maintain their public works and such with their otherwise merger income in trade and the new owner becomes the new ruler. It was our lifelong dream to buy the country and live there as joint Queens. We had taken many dangerous missions and had scrimped and saved and had almost a million gold coins saved up when Alto and his buddy Vance showed up. At first Macy and I just thought they were two more well-hung studs and were happy to have them join the party but Dermot had some kind of instinctual dislike of them right from the start. I just thought it was because they had bigger dicks than he did. This was before Taubate joined. In fact for a long time it had just been Macy, myself, and Dermot as the Naked Blade, so we thought that when Alto and Vance wanted to join, that Dermot was just jealous of them. You know because it had just been him as the sort of lone alpha male running around with a hard dick with two hot young naked girls. You know living out the ultimate perv fantasy. But he warned us and we wouldn’t listen, I mean those guys were so hot and hung down to the freaking knees! But all along it had been a plot by them. They did a few jobs with us and when we they had Macy and my trust utterly they created this fake job and lead us into this trap. They sent Dermot down a hole on a wild goose chase and sealed him in there. They drugged my water pouch so I was passed out. And then they left Macy tied-up alone in these horrible ruins. You see that is how we used to do it. No monster can resist a Bust Mage’s milk. It is like the ultimate lure. We would tie Macy up after she had squirted some of her milk about, you know get the scent on the wind and then we would wait in ambush. Between our swords and her Bust Magic no monster stood a chance. It was why we were so successful as monster bounty hunters. Anyway they left Macy there but they did not use our normal fake chains and locks which she could cast a spell and make vanish. No they had somehow exchanged them for real chains and locks. They did that so she couldn’t follow them back to our house. We had a nice house back then inside Kanda. As here in the Gold realm there are more monsters per square foot than in any realm within a few days travels of the Blue Empire and our dream goal. We wanted to stay near the Blue Empire in case the old man became seriously ill suddenly to see if we could beg him with our million gold coins into making some kind of deal. But Alto and Vance stole everything. Every last coin. And a real monster came while Macy was trapped and it devoured her! Alto and Vance fled to the distant Purple Empire where they started up their own Naked Blades with our stolen money. They hadn’t meant for any of us to get hurt, but they are still responsible for Macy’s death. Needless to say Dermot and I seethe for revenge against those two but with the Purple Emperors full no doubt purchased backing of their new Naked Blades guild and us being penniless we are not exactly in any position to do much about it. They have this lavish renovated guild hall and dozens of members and fame and gratitude from the people of the Purple Empire for destroying monsters in their realm and we now live in a tree outside of Kanda.”

“Hey, I thought you liked our new cool tree house?! I love it!” Dermot strode up with his huge erection and the cooked leg of some kind of animal that he was gnawing on. He seemed to always be shouting, “in fact once we raise enough money for Lucy here to buy her kingdom I am going to build a really cool tree house next to the lake so I can fish right out of the front door and take a leak at the same time! It will be so really, really cool!” He accidentally slapped Sherry across the face with his erection causing her to redden even further.

“Er, um, so I still do not understand why you have me all tied up here?” Sherry nervously whined as she kept an eye on the huge penis that kept slapping her across the face every time the seemingly oblivious Dermot moved as he ate or spoke.

“Yeah, I was kind of wondering that myself. What gives Lucy?” Taubate had come up next to Dermot and if anything his erection was even bigger than Dermot’s?! Sherry could start to see why Lucy and Macy had thought it would be a good idea to have their hired men go about naked but she was still unclear about why she was trussed up like a goose in a butchers shop.

“That’s simple Taubate, this girl here is a hired assassin sent by the White Emperor to kill us.” Lucy smiled at Sherry who in all the excitement and blood rushing to her head and now large penises inadvertently slapping her face had completely forgotten about her mission to kill the Naked Blades.

“What?! Is that true!” Dermot shouted and his excited movements nearly poked out Sherry’s eye with his monstrous erection.

“Oh, it’s true alright.” Lucy nodded. “Ever since you took that notice to assassinate the White Emperor off the board in Kanda every magic user we have met has been a secret agent sent to kill us.”

“Gosh. I am sorry Lucy I did not read the job request when I took it. I only saw the two million gold coins being offered and raced to show it to you and Taubate. “I am really sorry for all the trouble it has caused.”

“Yeah, Dermot you should really think things through a little bit. You are always running around halfcocked.” Taubate folded his massive arms across his muscular chest and glared at Dermot.

Dermot instantly launched into a loud shouting match and finger jabbing argument with Taubate who responded in the same, neither one apparently noticing that they were shoving, rubbing, and jabbing their cocks into Sherry’s face as they did so. After a while their argument’s physical momentum carried them away from the hanging girl and back to the campfire where they set about eating and arguing at the same time.

“You are the seventh magic user assassin the White Empire has sent against us since that moron Dermot took that notice off the jobs board. You can see why I can’t untie you and simply set you free.” Lucy had her arms crossed under her impressive young breasts and eyed the girl who had snail trails of pre-cum all over her dazed face and trickles of rivulets seeping out from underneath her suddenly soaked panties.

“Why did you take the job anyway?” Sherry asked the sexual juices from her aroused pussy dripping down her belly and splattering her pre-cum penis streaked breasts which hung half over and on either side of her pre-cum penis streaked face.

“We didn’t. it was just like Dermot said. He grabbed the job off the board and told the job master the Naked Blades were taking it without even looking at it. Believe it or not he really is that dumb at times. We only hunt monsters. We don’t do assassinations. That was something Macy and I decided on right from the beginning. We don’t kill people for money, no matter how evil they are. And that White Emperor of yours is about as evil as they come.”

“Why do you say that?! I bet you have never even been to the White Empire.” Sherry was having trouble even hearing now as the pressure in her ears was so great from hanging upside down so long.

“That’s true, but I wouldn’t want to go there not even for a million gold coins. All the people there live like slaves with only a few privileged feudal lords having all the wealth and power. The army is treated alright but they are for the most part the family members and retainers of the feudal lords. Even the merchant class is kept in check with heavy taxation and no rights to representation within the royal courts. All forms of music, plays, books, is banned unless you are one of the lord’s families. The mines are full of slaves and the people can be bought and sold by the lord families. Travel is forbidden without permission by the Emperor. And your kind, magic users are hunted down and tortured to death unless they become spies and assassins. And my kind, a free spirited woman would be branded and tossed into the mines. No one in their right mind would want to live there, if you can even call that living?”

Sherry was full of protest until the mention of the magic users as assassins and the bit about free spirited women being quickly subjected. She thought of how she had killed forty men in her day of trail on the battle plain. If she had been a male and killed half that many she would have been made a knight. Instead she had been given the honorary title of Shield Maiden. She also thought about the celebration afterwards. How all the other young girls who had competed alongside the men had announced their marriage engagements. That was how it was done. At the party for ascension the boys received their ranks in the army and the girls announced their wedding engagements. Yet despite her doing very well on the field of combat and her family’s high standing for generations there had been no wedding announcement at her party. She hadn’t thought about that. She had been so busy with her magical studies and helping her grandaunt in her alchemist’s shop that it had just slipped past her. Had they known, had everyone known even back then that she was a witch? Was that why her family couldn’t find a suitable young man for her? She couldn’t think straight hanging upside down like this.

“If you truly don’t mean the White Emperor any harm then release me and I will go back and tell him.” Sherry had to speak around her hanging boobs in her face the motion of this made them slap at her neck and chin and cheeks almost as fiercely as the boys cocks had.

“You really believe he would let you live if you simply returned and said we weren’t a threat? Or that he wouldn’t pull another magic user out of his dungeon to set upon our trail? No, I am sorry but there is only two ways this is going to work. One we leave you here in one of those cells down below where you slowly starve to death, or we kill you a bit more mercifully by taking you to the top of the tower and tossing you off it. But considering you’re a mage I think just piling some wood here and burning you would be the best safest bet. Or you could join the Naked Blades.”

“Join you?!” Sherry felt like she was going to black out from hanging here so long. Everything felt like she was sitting at the bottom of a very deep skinny dark well.

“That’s right. We need a good magic user. Just three melee fighter blades is too one sided against monsters. All the other magic assassins the White Emperor sent against us ambushed us and attacked us. We had no choice but to kill them as we defended ourselves. You’re the first one we have had a chance to talk to. And you’re a Bust Witch. You are made to be monster bait! The perfect monster hunter! I mean look at us, since we lost Macy we can barely scrounge by. We live in a leaky tree house in the marshes outside of Kanda. We spend weeks tracking monsters when in the old days we just tied up Macy and she and her spurting jugs had every monster around there in minutes! Every empire has standing bounties on monsters; they don’t pay as much as a specific job on a specific monster but a few extra monsters means more coin in the coffers! You help us, you join us, and we can earn enough to at least get our revenge on Alto and Vance. They are held up in the capital city of the Purple Empire. It is a city carved into the side of a mountain. With only a single winding staircase leading up it. No way to sneak in, but every four years they have a Dragon Hunt. Those mountains are full of Dragons! We could go there and join the hunt. But there is an entrance fee of five hundred gold coins, but with that in hand the Purple Emperor would have to let us in. The laws of his land say no dragon slayer can be turned away! To be a certified Dragon Slayer we would of course have to take a job request to kill a dragon and succeed. There just happens to be such a request in the kingdom of the Yellow King. Been there for months; No one wants to take it. Dragons are tough! And the Yellow King is poor so he isn’t offering much money. So what do you say? The Purple Empire is on the other side of the Great Sea; we need coin to cross that! You join us and help us to earn enough coin to cross to the Purple Empire and help us slay that dragon so we will have the dragon slayer certificate rank and after that you can go free. It would be nice to win the contest, that would be almost enough money to buy the city-state but I can’t expect you to share in that dream of ours, that is asking too much. But I am sure that your life for helping us to get enough coin to get to the Purple Empire and to help us slay the Yellow King’s dragon is a fair trade.”

“How do you know I will keep my word even if I agree and you set me free?” Sherry was almost unconscious now.

“You forget, Macy was a Bust Witch and my best friend. I know about the milk oath a Bust Witch can make and the magical binds it places on those that make it. Will you agree to make such an oath with me now? An oath to become a Naked Blade and to help us kill the dragon destroying the lands of the Yellow King and then to help us earn enough coin to travel to the Purple Empire? After those two things are accomplished you can go your own way if you so choose. Will you do it?”

“Ye-yes,” Sherry whispered her head felt like it would explode and she could now only see darkness and flashes of blinding brilliant slowly exploding lingering white sparks.

“Very well then, first we have to prime both our pumps so to speak.” And Lucy walked up to the upside down hanging girl and with one strong arm raised her up slightly and wither other she forced apart her knees and buried her face in Sherry’s snatch. Lucy nuzzled and licked and kissed and suckled tonguing the soaked panties until she pulled them aside with her strong white teeth and set to work on the clit and puffy thick pussy lips there centered in the hairy mound.

Sherry in turn rose up her head and set to work on Lucy’s exposed pussy until after several mutual orgasms Lucy dropped down and set to work on Sherry’s bust and nipples. When the milk flow was steady Sherry moaned out the incantation and the secret vow was whispered back and forth between both young women with deep wet kisses as they drank the milk mingled cum from each other’s mouth.

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“Agh! Where the hell is everybody?!” Sherry the Bust Witch hopped along the hayloft floor her hands tied behind her back and her lower legs and feet bound together. Huge thick droplets of milk splattered all about her as she pogo sticked across the barren floor boards of the barn’s loft. The monster that had just missed her and rammed its head into the wooden wall of the loft was now removing it from the hole it had caused and shaking it to clear it. It now saw her bouncing away milk splattering her face and with a howl of rage and lust and hunger raced after her with leaps and bounds.

Sherry just reached the open hayloft outer door and leapt. It was a good forty feet down to the stone pavement but she did not fall. Instead her wide brim witches hat began to flap its brim and she hovered there in the air. The monster leapt at her and missed. It crashed to the pavement where the great beast lay dead.

Lucy, Dermot, Taubate, and about a dozen armed male and female farmers and mercenary guards came rushing into the paved courtyard to marvel at the dead beast. Sherry slowly lowered down on her giant oversized flapping hat until her tiptoes touched ground and she sighed in relief. By the time she had touched down the monster had transformed into the corpse of a naked potbelly old man.

“It looks like you were right Bust Witch. The monster really was the farmer Chadwick. But how ever did you know?” Lucy was asking as Dermot and Taubate began dancing about high-fiving each other in unbridled joy their naked cocks swinging around as the female farmers blushed and stared.

“Well, after a week of setting Bust Witch milk traps in the forest and getting only random small monsters I started to realize that the monster could not be out in those woods. That it had to be somewhere else. The keep and tower showed no signs of it and the only other structures nearby where the fortified farms themselves. Once I started to think along the lines that the monster somehow was living in the very farms it was attacking I realized that it made sense that it could so easily avoid the hired mercs guarding them and could rape the young women without worry because it had intimate daily knowledge of everything going on in each fortified farmstead. At first I thought the monster was being kept, by one of the farmers or mercs, in a barn or building along one of the farm fields outside one of the stone walled compounds were the farmers built their houses and kept their harvests and livestock at night. I thought maybe someone was using it, controlling the monster, to get revenge or the mercs might be using it to scare the farmers into paying them more, but I couldn’t find any evidence of a creature being kept in outlying buildings. What’s more after every attack there was never any mention of seeing the creature ‘leave’ the stone walled compound only it’s fleeing into the shadows of this or that building. I searched and could not find a single sign of the creature climbing a wall or breaking a gate or any sign of its tracks or tuff of hair outside the walls. Despite several of the nightly attacks occurring during rain storms or right after them when there were plentiful tracks of the monster within the compounds muddy grounds but again none to be found anywhere outside the walls. So I began to search within the stone walled compounds for a place the monster could be hidden, but there was a problem with this in that there are fourteen such compounds scattered throughout the immediate area being attacked by this monster. How could a monster be transported from inside one compound to another so readily and easily? It couldn’t of course on its own. So these lead me back to the idea that someone within one of the compounds was transporting the monster. Perhaps it was small and kept in a jar and got big with a spell or it was a cursed object that transformed under certain conditions. Rather than searching for a monster now that could be any ring or jar or scroll being knowingly or unknowingly carried by a person or persons I instead started looking at who the person might be. It was now a simple matter of deducing who was inside every compound during an attack. There were only a few farmers or mercs who traveled to every such settlement and soon after talking to everyone a few times I realized there were only four who had been inside each settlement during an attack. From this point I now set to question these four and others who knew them to figure out who it might be due to motive or character. Only two had a motive to want to destroy these farms and thus drive up the price of grain of which they had considerable interests in grain shipments coming from other outer sources which would have made them very rich. But only one of them was an utterly disgusting dirty old pervert who would have raped poor innocent girls! And that was farmer Chadwick!”

“But how on earth did you know he was a dirty old pervert?” Lucy asked as the farmers and mercs now had increased in number and were smiling happy and pointing up at the hayloft open door where bales were winched through and relating the story to the recently arrived.

Sherry blushed deeply at Lucy’s question and changed the subject, “look are you going to untie me or what?! And where were all of you?! I am only supposed to be the bait not the dinner!”

“UGH!” Lucy rolled her eyes, “it is a simple bondage spell why do you always have so much trouble vanishing the ropes. You know you always get things wrong when you get scared or nervous which is like always. I mean, do you like being tied up? You know I think you do. I think you get off on being tied up and that is why you can’t cast the spell properly.”

“What are you insane?! Untie me already! I can’t believe you are trying to blame me for your obvious mistake. I mean you weren’t even staking out the right barn!” As Sherry blushed and fumed raining her delicious drops of milk all around.

Behind her Dermot and Taubate danced in gleeful joy as the farmers counted out silver coins into their outstretched hands. “We can eat again! We can eat again! No more acorns and berries!” They shouted as they danced about their huge erect cocks knocking against each other and getting caught in the dresses of the blushing young farm girls who had now gathered wide eyed around them.

In the shadow of the barn sat an old dry well and at the bottom of it a black pile of slime hummed deep in thought and chuckled evilly.

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