“Okay, you’re going to have to do the talking Barnaby. Try not to get us run out of town.” Cinder said, pulling up the hood of her cloak.
“You say that as if spreading the word of K’arl and his justice is offensive to country folk.” Barnaby harrumphed.
“Maybe wait for someone to ask you to talk about your god first this time? It doesn’t look like they adhere to your faith.” Cinder pointed at a steeple with the sharp crescent symbol adorning its bell tower. “Harvestia reigns here. We just need to get some food and our horses.” Cinder glanced at the sun, late afternoon but still plenty of daylight left. “We could get halfway to Hearthold tonight if we push.”
“We will see what K’arl’s scales hold for us,” Barnaby said. “I believe a bath would serve Justice’s servants better in the long run.”
But we need to hurry. Cinder thought but stopped herself from voicing Illiana’s nonsensical plan. The fur growing on her hand and arm itched from the dirt of the road. She’d caught herself licking it several times over the last hour. A bath sounded really nice. Maybe a quick one could be drawn, so they didn’t have to stay the night. The pair approached the stout and sturdy building that housed the village’s tavern and inn, The Blind Pig. The village clustered around a T-junction in the imperial roadway. The Archmagus’s tomb lay in the one direction the road did not go.
The Blind Pig served as a way station between Hearthold and the far larger settlements to the north and south. Around harvest and planting seasons Cinder imagined they didn’t have enough rooms for all the traveler but mid summer was a calmer time. She counted only two horses tied up outside at a public trough. She kept her head down and followed Barnaby through the large oaken door.
A swept earthen floor set with long tables greeted them. Smaller booths lined the far wall. One of which was occupied by two men playing cards. The bar was livelier. A cluster of townsfolk bantered with a large man sporting one tusk. They wore outfits identical to the one Sal had worn, black pants, whitish shirt. Except for the nun, who wore a habit embroidered with a fan of golden wheat. She laughed with an easy grace that echoed around the room.
Cinder prayed that Barnaby would stay on target. Only for the nun to turn around and fix the knight with a bright smile.
“Sir Barnaby! You’ve returned! How wonderful! Victorious on your errand?” She asked without a trace of mockery in her voice.
“Uh… yes!” Barnaby answered after a moment of what Cinder took to be shock. Knights of K’arl were often welcomed, but rarely enthusiastically. “We have delivered justice upon the foul creatures that gathered in that unholy place.”
Cinder let out a held breath, at least the knight hadn’t announced he was carrying a powerful and valuable artifact back to Hearthold. The nun slipped off her seat, a heavyset woman with hips that her dowdy habit could not conceal. The forest-green lipstick was an unusual touch but suited the woman.
“Oh that sounds so dangerous! I do wish Harvetia’s blessings had a bit more smite to them. Some in this community could use a little smiting from time to time. Particularly Harold.” She said as one of the men behind her looked up in alarm.
“Mi’lady, is there an injustice that I and K’arl can assist you with?” Barnaby reached for his hammer.
“Oh I don’t think there is any need for that. I’m sure Harold is only experiencing a momentary lapse in judgment, which he will be correcting today. So there will be no need for any Justice to be metted out.” The nun smiled sweetly at Barnaby as the man behind her grew pale.
“Ummm, yes, Mother Lorn.” he stammered. “I’ll have everything owed at the chapel this afternoon. Best get going!” He hurried around the nun and Barnaby.
“Uuh, see that you do.” Barnaby called after him as the door swung shut behind him.
“Thank you so much sir Knight. I’ve been reminding him to pay his tithe for months but deploying Harvestia’s teeth is a slow process. Please call me Lornita. Let me treat you to a beer.”
“Certianly! K’arl’s faithful are always happy to fill the world with justice, big or small.” Barnaby practically glowed under the praise as she took his elbow to guide him toward the bar. “Perhaps there are other ways we can assist justice before we move on.”
Cinder rolled her eyes as she followed the pair. The last thing they needed right now were side quests. The Innkeep eyed her with concern, meeting her eyes.
“We stabled three horses here bout three days ago. Could you have them saddled and ready?” Cinder said.
His heavy caterpillar brows did a little dance as his face flowed through confusion, recognition, concern and confusion again as he studied Cinder’s face.
“Weren’t there uh three of you? And uuuh you were less red.” He asked.
“Stuff happened.” Cinder said, her tone flat and brimming with none of your damn business.
“C-course mi’lady. I have them brought up. Soon as they get back.” He swallowed and glanced at the door to the kitchen.
“Get back From where? We paid you for a full week of stabling.” Cinder felt a growl rise in the back of her throat but swallowed it back down. “They should be right here. That’s what we paid you for.”
“Aye aye.” He scratched his head. “After a couple of days they were getting right grumpy, especially that big ol’charger. So I had a few lads take em out and give them a good exercising. They’re good lads, I promise they’ll be back before sundown. My apologies, but I thought you'd be longer on your errand. Heh. Only about half even come back when they head toward the forest.”
So not only were the horses not here, but when they did return, they’d be dead tired. Livid red filled Cinder’s vision, her tail lashed beneath the skirt of her dress. Without horses, it would take days to Hearthold.
“Look, you can have dinner and a couple of beers on the house, and I’ll halve the rate for a room.” He grinned nervously, showing a mix of human and sharper orcish teeth. Cinder glanced at Barnaby but his eyes hadn’t left his new nun friend. She gave a small hoof stamp of frustration before sighing.
“Have a hot bath drawn for me and I will take it. And I like it extra hot.” Cinder said.
“Right away mi’lady.” He nodded and clapped his hands. “Hettie! Take our guest up to a room while I set some water to boil.”
“Down in a jiffy Pa! Let me get the room ready.” A voice called from upstairs. After the scraping sound of moving furniture, a stocky young woman appeared to lead Cinder upstairs. She wore her raven-black hair in two long pigtails. In one of the rooms, a large wooden tub had been placed, and a surprisingly high-quality changing screen, decorated with colorful ghost-like cats, had been setup. Cinder wondered just how often the inn obtained high-quality horses from adventurers who hadn’t come back.
“You can use the screen if yous titties ain’t for my common eyes. Take me a few trips to fetch the water. Afterward, I can leave ya to your lonesome or assist. I do pretty good braid work and you’ve got some fetching locks. I do it for a half a penny but as you like mi’lady.” Hettie said with an eager grin, showing a single, very prominent canine.
“If you see me naked, I might have to ask you to return the favor.” Cinder said and then immediate blushed as girl’s eye lit with eagerness. “Sorry, I’m joking,” she quickly added and watch the disappointment fall across Hettie’s face. Cinder continued, “I will bathe alone, but I may take you up on the braiding afterward.”
“As you like.” Hettie curtsied, her smile returning before leaving the room. Cinder stared after her, smile bending into a wince before reaching down to adjust her stiffening cock.
“We are not fucking every peasant who eyes us up from here to Hearthold.” She told her cock and herself sternly.
The image of those dark pigtails between her legs, and a strong curiosity about what it would feel like inside someone’s mouth rose in her mind, causing her cock to stiffen further. It strained against the fabric of her underwear.
Hissing between her teeth Cinder went behind the screen and took off her clothing. Folding the dress and hanging the cloak on a provided hook. She looked down at her huge bosom and gave it an experimental heave. Her nipples felt strained against her skin. She let her thumbs pass over them, and pleasure rippled through her body. The thing with Sal had been… transactional. She hadn’t really let herself explore her own changes. Finally alone she could…
A knock sounded at the door, and Cinder jerked her hands away from her breasts.
“First load.” Hettie announced. “Two more, then the really hot stuff.”
“Thank you.” Cinder called out, feeling the flush of embarrassment. Yet even before Hettie left, one of hands drifted down to squeeze her own cock. It didn’t feel like any man’s dick she’d held. The skin had a slickness to it, the tip was tapered to point and… Cinder gasped when she found a particularly sensitive nub. A ring of them about an inch from the tip. Felt good to…
Knock-knock.
“Mrew!” Cinder wrenched her hand away from temptation.
“Everything alright?” Hettie asked.
“Yes.” Cinder said with a heavy breath. “Just… impatient.”
“I can bring you a blanket if you’d like to warm yourself while you wait.” Hettie said she dumped water into the tub.
“I’m plenty warm, thank you.” Cinder said, folding her hands together, fingers covered in red flesh interlocking with those coated in orange red fur, like a horizon at sunrise. If I grow a second pair of arms, this is going to get even more difficult. She thought and immediate felt a twinge on either side of her rib cage below her arm pits.
“Dammit Illiana.” She whispered once Hettie had departed and squeezed her fingers tightly. If she gave in, she was going to make it worse. The thing with Sal had only grown her cock, but now, closer to the evening, her body felt primed, itching for more. She had to save her strength for Illiana. Had to make her create her Den here. Otherwise… Otherwise… Cinder had no idea. It would be bad somehow. Besides this village seemed nice enough, Hettie was certainly a pussy kisser.
The fur on her right hand sparkled. They were sparse twinkles, nothing even approaching Illiana’s dense coat of galaxies. Still, Cinder couldn’t resist peering closer. Where were the stars coming from? They weren’t there this morning were they? Would there be enough for her to pull the same tricks as Illiana? Where was Illiana? An ache grew, a familiar, deep one centered in her hips rather than outside them. She remembered the sensation of Illiana’s tentacles squirming inside her.
Her nose touched the fur of her fingers, soft and velvety but covered in road dust. It be better clean, clean for Illiana. A broad tongue stole from her mouth and swept across her fingers, both furry and not. The dirt was scraped away. Better but not done, far from done. She disentangled her hands and spread her fingers, allowing her tongue to curl around each. The fingers swelled, as the claws thickened to true flesh ripping weapons. The sunrise fur thickened with every lap, stars appearing among the hairs as a slow sunset. The dainty pads grew wide and long on the now stout digits. As her tongue finished with the fingers and moved downwards, leaving a broad, more paw than hand its wake.
Each rasp of the tongue made a soft, wet sound. Hettie paused briefly to listen when she returned to it but didn’t question it.
Cinder continued cleaning, her other hand sported a light dusting of hairs across its knuckles when it probed into the pussy behind Cinder’s rigid cock. The muscles of her arm bulged beneath the spreading fur coat.
“Hot water’s here!” Hettie announced on her fourth entry to the room.
“Uh!” Cinder gave a little start and opened her eyes. Blinked once, and when what she saw didn’t disappear, she gave a small mew-growl of distress. Her entire arm had outgrown her body. Thick and muscular, It belonged on a feline creature twice her size. She flexed her fingers and claws longer than some of her knives slid out.
“Shiiiiite,” She concluded.
“Is something wrong mi’lady?” Hettie asked.
“No!” Cinder answered, her voice high with panic. “Just fine. Dump all the hot water in and leave.”
“Mi’lady that would be very hot. Are you sur-”
“Just do it! I’m a devil born, I like it hot. Or I’ll add it myself. Yes, just leave. I’ll handle it. Fine. I’ll handle all of this fine!” Cinder stared at the limb, her voice cracking.
“Uuh. As you wish.” Hettie said and after mumbling something, loudly exited.
Cinder rushed from behind the screen. There were two steaming buckets next to the tub. Her big arm snatched one up and dumped it in, then the second one. Only after she plunged herself into the near-scalding water did she pause to take a breath.
“How the hell I’m I going to hide this?” She asked the empty air after a moment of just breathing. “Do I even try?”
Still, that spring inside her, that urge for change, had relaxed. Whatever energy the magic in her had, it was spent for now. She had a chance to think and plan.
“Think Cinder,” She said, taking the soap and sinking herself deep into the water. “Illiana said, I have to force her to make her den here. Something about taking away her hands. So maybe…” She looked at her huge paw hand and the glimmer of an idea started to form.
Behind her and unnoticed, a river of stars flowed around the edges of the closed and curtained window.