Tea, Timegates, and Recapping Tales.... Part II

And with that dream, things got rolling. With that dream came soon the realization of the possibility that their shared dream and the marks on their foreheads were connected. That there was the possibility that at least ONE of them had been originally human (much as the idea failed to appeal to the prideful giantesses).

No, it became even MORE imperative for the giantesses to find some form of income. Now not only to make their clan-less way in the world but earn even MORE funds for the trip they’d have to make down into the warmer climates where the Great Kingdom and Aqualaria lay to find answers. Either through clues they can garner from mundane sources down their or the more mystical kind used by magic users for hire.

Either way, they needed a job that paid well! So they went down to the nearest trade outpost in search of that kind of job!

. . .

Well, they could have turned highway men and stole the funds for their mission but the echo of their old selves morality kind of got in the way of that. Made it unappealing.

Anyway, they went looking and found a job. Not that there were a lot of people offering Frost Giants jobs, being that they were reputed for being violent tempered and all that. Take it out on a person’s life and all that. Might as well hire Ogres and expect it to end well, that is.

Who hired them? Well, it was a rich seeming merchant named Barnabus who turned out to be something of a shady character: a black market type. Had been hired by a person who wished to get some kind of mystery package from a mage from up in the Northern Lands and deliver it to her ASAP. The mage in question got greedy after taking the merchant’s money, demanded more before turning it over to him. Instead of going off somewhere to get an emergency loan the merchant instead went out to hire muscle to TAKE it from the mage. Told the female Frost Giants a tale of woe and being in need of funds (and not too familiar with human society to realize the dark nature of dealings the merchant was into) agreed.

Worked rather well up until the point where the mage cast a sleep spell upon them, stopping Gilda and Hilda cold. The females awoke to find magical collars around their necks which the mage was able to control them with. And that pretty much could have been the end of the story for our Frost Giantesses here but the mage makes a bad mistake. He discounts the Marks on their foreheads, figuring that they were just some kind of tribal markings which only LOOKED like the Mark of Excommunication of the Fey. He wanted to replace his dearly departed familiar with something not only exotic but in duet. He planned on transforming the spell bound Frost Giantesses into female (talking) gryphons. Slavishly loyal ones at that, what with them becoming familiars and such, by the way!

And while the giantesses were under for the last part of the spell, it bounced back upon the mage (much to his horror). Transformed HIM into a young male (talking) gryphon who was slavishly loyal to Gilda and Hilda because he had become the familiar. No longer aware (or having any desire) at having ever been anything else, he gladly took up the name bestowed upon him by his mistresses: Braveheart. A noble and brave male gryphon indeed, if a bit limited and on the small side.

Oh, and let’s not forget that odd Mark jumped upon Braveheart’s hairy forehead as well, but one can’t see it unless they move the hair a bit to look for it. That or unless one has sharp eyes....

Well, not wishing to push their luck after awakening untransformed the Frost Giantesses (with Braveheart in tow . . .the familiar thing meant that they ‘d fallen in love with their new “pet” btw) go off to warn their employer of what they’d encountered before running for the hills. Figuring that they’d been hired for something they’d not been prepared for (rightly), they were going to quiet and call it a day. But in the hopes of not wanting to poison any future chance at employment they’d warn their principal. Small hope that no ill will would come of them quitting without getting the artifact, but at least they’d do him the courtesy of telling him about what they’d faced. Warn him just so he’d know that a vengeful mage might be heading his way and all that.

But things won’t go easy for anyone here.

As it turns out the one who’d hired the merchant for the pickup wasn’t pleased with him having hired Frost Giants of all things to retrieve the artifact, fearing they’d bungle the retrieval or run off with it. Being a powerful user of magic herself, the mysterious customer was a dragoness and used her Arte to make her displeasure known to the merchant by slowly transforming him into a satyre. If the giantesses failed to return with the item Barnabas (or what was left of his original self after the spell ran it’s course) was going to be doomed to a simple minded life of chasing nymphs, wine and pan pipes.

Barnabas is rather dismayed at the giantesses news of their failure but manages to convince the draoness (who’s watching by magic) to give him a chance to redeem himself.

He manages to convince the giantesses that unless they wish to also have their form transformed as his was being slowly done (even as they watched) then they’d better reconsider quitting! Either they chance the mage they’d run away from returning and getting transformed or the (apparently) more real chance of getting transformed by the merchant’s employer!!

That almost didn’t work (nearly got him killed by irate giant females). But when the desperate merchant lucked out and noticed (and yelled) about the mark of the Fey on Braveheart meant that HE was the mage, transformed. Transformed and now totally under the Frost Giantess’ thrall.

This was all true and circumstances will prove it to them all, but the merchant was grasping at straws.

Slippery son of a gun, eh?

Well, that swayed the giantesses to not only spare the merchant a messy death (though he probably deserved one for the lies he spun) but to reluctantly return to the mage’s house and find this blasted artifact and be done with it! Better to risk whatever traps still active there than the merchant employer’s wrath, you know!

Besides, with Braveheart being the transformed mage he was able to get them through without setting the wards and such off. Even get them back out once they found where the artifact was stashed.

And once they get out again they got magically teleported (unexpectedly) by the dragoness, who’d hired Barnabas and this is where the one who’d eventually be known as Nightfall gets involved in this already involved story!

Nightfall had been a human woman named Belinda, the sister of one Astra Thessamer of Aqualaria and in line to the throne . . .yada yada. She had married a chap called Jarlath D’Honaire (brother to this world’s Lord Fred) and had three beautiful infant girls before getting captured (she and the infants) by a very vengeful Dragoness. Jarlath was killed in the altercation. Captured, all humans were wisked away into the secret lair of the dragoness for a bit more than the usual dragon/damsel rot.

See, the female dragon’s mate got killed by Belinda through a stroke of luck (bad for her and her mate . . .good for Belinda). More serious than just a lust for vengeance, Belinda overlooked killing the dragoness (who’d been stunned by the psychic shock of her mate being killed)! Without somehow bringing her mate back from the dead the dragoness would soon follow. As it was, the blow was slowly driving her around the bend so her vengeance was going to be more vindictive than normal, you dig?

See, in addition to having killed Jarlath after the man proved not to be up to her standards in magical dueling the vengeful female had already transformed/youthened Belinda’s children into unhatched dragonlets. In such the dragon lings would fixate upon her once they hatch and she would raise them, along with her revived mate, as her own flesh and blood. Indeed., she planned on taking away Belinda’s own children and turn them not only against those who’d survive after the dragoness got done with her . . .but every human being as well.

And then let’s look at what the dragoness had planned for Belinda! Using her still living body, the female dragon planned on using the blood and flesh of the very one who’d murdered her mate to bring him back! All that was needed was the ashes of her dead mate and she could finish this business and now that she had the ashes that was exactly what she did!!

But this was not to be Belinda’s (soon to be Nightfall’s) fate.

It is just that something that the Dragoness had hoped not to have happened had happened. Belinda’s body warped and twisted into new and interesting shapes, growing and changing into the Dragoness’ long lost mate. However, instead of Belinda’s soul being cast out into the afterlife it stuck around in a blob of magical, pulsating proto-flesh and that left the Dragoness with the task of just WHAT to do with it now.

See, now she wasn’t so desperate and vengeance driven with the return of her mate to the land of the living and those female gaints had intrigued her some ways. Earned her respect for acting . . .rather not like the clods she’d come to associate with the norm for giant kind. She still had an ax to grind with Barnabas for having almost wrecked her plans too so decided to kill several birds with one stone, as it were.

She’d let the giantesses decide the fates of Barnabas and Belinda. They’d already expressed concern for Belinda during the brief glimpse they’d been allowed of the woman before the Dragoness had whisked her out of their sight (and put all of her arrivals to sleep to sort things out without interruption). They’d also expressed some concern for their merchant employer, risking staying around to warn him of the mage who’d they’d escaped from instead of just running for the hills.

Having taken Barnabas now prisoner to await his fate she awoke the giantesses to make a choice. One of the captives would be allowed to leave with them. The other would be the dragoness’ playtoy. If they chose Belinda (her name wasn’t mentioned to the giantesses) then they’d get her and Barnabas would become a simple minded satyre, to live forevermore to frollick and harass nymphs in a far off and undisclosed forest glen. Oh, and Belinda would be an elfin woman when they got her. Belinda wasn’t going to get the chance of going back home to her human- centric kingdom and plan vengeance after this, thank YOU! If Barnabas was chosen, then Belinda would be transformed into a mindless nymph and teleported to dwell forevermore in some nameless forest glen.

Oh, and the dragoness made sure to include the fact that the merchant had lied to the female giants about them being in danger of being transformed by her. No need to let the giantess’ decision be swayed by a falsely earned sense of obligation to the vile merchant, eh?

IF the dragoness had known just what Belinda/Nightfall was/would become for the Frost Giantesses, she’d not have made this offer. She’d have killed Belinda and been done with it then and there.

But she hadn’t and the female Frost Giants chose Belinda (now Nightfall as what her new elfin nature chooses to rename her as). After initial shock of finding herself transformed and distrust of the Frost Giantesses, her new Wood Elf nature kind of kicks in here as she was handed over.

The elfin woman before them had been dressed in a most primitive fashion (leathern outfit of fur and feather laden fetishes, shamantic in design) and had a wild air to her. The long, flowing mane of hair the elf had given off a air of savagery that had been . . . appealing in one way but also off putting in another.

As for the mind inside the sleeping body? Well, the human psyche within had waged a losing battle with the elfin urges of this body. More and more of her mind and soul had been transformed into something . . .other than human. Something elfin. Wild. Struggled though Belinda does, she had been losing. Indeed, her very self image shifted and changed as the giantesses watched, unaware.

Belinda's image of self shifted and changed, becoming more and more alien as she struggled against it. Fine Aqualarian silks and weapons befitting her station changed. Shifted and shrunk her mental image of herself did. Her human ears grew sharp pointed. Finely forged steel weapons were replaced with hand carved stone knives and spear. Silk became leather.

You get the idea. She'd become not only an elf, but an elfin savage! A Wood Elf to be exact. Transformed, the woman knew a new name must be given her because she was . . . no longer human (and had no desire to be such). But . . . something in her elfin heart said something was wrong. Her mind was somewhat cloudy from her ordeals but . . .she did realize something had happened to her. Something terrible.

‘Where is her mate?’ she’d asked herself. ’Where are her cubs?!’

And when she had finally realized what had befallen her and her loved ones? She’d given into a wild impulse, she suddenly standing and staring at the full moon above her (despite the intervening layers and layers of soil and rock). She saw a moon that only her new elfin senses could see, what with everyone still being in the dragon's cavern and all that.

Ignoring the goggled eyed surprise of her hosts, she lifted her head back and gave off a mournful wolf howl of despair.

Now, Nightfall as a Wood Elf in this world is a bit different than what it could have been if she’d been merely and elf. Back in the misty past the elfin people who’d become known as Wood Elves attempted an ill advised magic to become even closer to nature, they instead got cursed with what some call the Spirit of the Wolf. Becoming more wolflike in soul and mind, Wood Elves live a very isolated life in the forests far away from mankind. Unable to really able to grasp some of the more “civilized” and organized ways of other non-elves (and even some of their more civilized elfin kin), they’re considered accursed by their fellow elfin brethren. Barbaric they were considered and very abrasive as well with anyone not of their tribe and such...hard to work with.

And by the way that was the reason why the Dragoness did what she’d done with Nightfall in her transformation. Even though she’d given custody over to the giantesses, it was doubtful that the grief stricken elf woman would tary for any longer than they could keep her!

Oh, it wasn’t like the Dragoness was trying to cheat the female gaints here. In fact, she’d been very please at their performance (getting the ashes of her mate and all that). Had even rewarded the now goaty merchant’s share of the contract to theem and all that.

She just didn’t want Nightfall to have any extra help adjusting and setting up her new elfin life, you see. Her new nature would prevent it.

But alas for the Dragoness, while she’d known that Nightfall would have been difficult (nearly impossible) to befriend or sway, she hadn’t known that Belinda and one of the Frost Giants were sisters.

And soon after being whisked back to the front of the mage’s house, Nightfall’s elfin heart looked into Gilda’s (and Hilda’s) heart and things got interesting.

1. Right after beeing nearly moonstruck (and brainwashed) by a certain mystical entity/god who’d wanted to claim Nightfall for her own, that is...

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree