by Eric Vall
“You’re right.” I grinned. “There’s nothing we can do about it right now… if we sit around and mope, then the situation will only get darker. I think I have a bit of money left over from the Duchess’ last check, so I’ll ride into town and look at some spare parts for my machine.”
“Daisy will have to come with you since she’s your Mistress,” Valerie nodded. “And while you’re gone, I’ll clean up this mess, we can’t have dead bodies lying around, baking in the sun, and stinking up the place.”
“We should get cleaned up first,” the bear-girl stated. “You’re covered in blood, Charles, and I didn’t want to mention it, but I do believe you have some brain matter stuck in your hair.”
“Gross,” I gasped. “You went a little crazy there, Daisy. I almost couldn’t believe my eyes.”
“Yeah!” Valerie giggled. “I watched you from the window and was absolutely shocked! You seemed like a completely different person out there!”
“When they started threatening Charles… I couldn’t stand it,” the brunette admitted. “My heart started pounding, a red veil fell over my eyes, and it felt as if I weren’t the one in control of my body anymore.”
“You’re wicked strong,” I chuckled. “Stronger than I thought. I landed two punches on that last guy, and he barely reacted… then you came over and squashed his whole head in like a rotten tomato.”
“I did what I had to do to protect the love of my life,” Daisy answered. “I couldn’t stand there and allow them to threaten or hurt you, I had to do something to stop them.”
“Well, I’m very grateful,” I exhaled. “If it weren’t for you, we’d be kicked out of the manor with no place to go. At least we have two days to figure something out.”
“See?” Valerie cried. “That’s the spirit! We can make a plan and not let that mean Duchess get the best of us! Maybe we could even find another loophole and trick her into giving us the manor!”
“Maybe,” I tittered. “Doubtful, but maybe. Alright, I’m going to go clean myself up a bit. You should, too, Daisy, you’re slathered in more blood than I probably am.”
Daisy glanced down at herself, swiped at the wet, scarlet fabric of her front, shrugged, reached around her back, and began to work at the buttons at the back of her dress.
“Whoa, whoa,” I cried. “D-Don’t do that out here!”
“Why not?” Both Daisy and Valerie asked.
“There’s no one out here for miles,” the brunette breathed.
“Also,” Valerie simpered. “I’m sure you’d love to see Daisy naaaaked, Charles.”
“I-I… well, y-yes,” I stammered. “But not out here, ladies shouldn’t undress outside of their rooms, especially outside!”
“Hmmmm,” Daisy hummed, glanced down at her bloody dress, shrugged, and then climbed the stairs toward the front door. “As you wish, Charles. I’ll clean myself up, put on a clean dress, and then be down.”
“A-Alright,” I stuttered, waited until the brunette was inside, and then turned toward the cat-girl. “You can’t just go around saying things like that, Valerie!”
“Why not?” the ash-blonde woman pouted. “You know it’s truuuue. Also, I know that Daisy wants you to see her naked, and to see you naked, toooo.”
“I know she does,” I breathed. “I know she says she loves me, and I love her, but these things will happen on their own, so you don't need to force it.”
“I knoooow,” Valerie grumbled. “I just want her to know what it’s like to be touched and loooooved by you, Charles. I’m so happy that I get to love you. I want her to have that happiness, too.”
“And she will,” I chuckled. “In due time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go inside and get cleaned up before we go. Don’t stay outside for too long, and if anyone comes up the drive, go into the house or laboratory immediately.”
“I know, I know,” the cat-girl giggled. “Have fun, okay?”
I nodded, smiled softly, reached out, ruffled her hair, and then climbed up the steps toward the house.
“I will,” I smiled. “Now, hurry along.”
Once inside, I paced up the steps to my room, closed the door, and slipped out of my stained white shirt. I wasn’t sure if the article was savagable or not, and I’d have to scrub it rigoriously to get the stains out. I sighed softly at the loss of one of my favorite shirts, I didn’t have a lot of money to buy more, and I had to wear them sparingly.
I held the ruined fabric by my fingertips, dropped it into the laundry basket, poured water from a pitcher into the basin, glanced into the mirror, and hastily cleaned myself of the scarlet liquid.
“Alright, almost finished,” I sighed, grabbed a comb, dipped it into the water, ran it through my hair a few times, checked the mirror, and then slipped into a different pressed shirt.
“Not so bad,” I breathed. “No more blood, and no brain chunks in my hair.”
I tucked the shirt into my trousers, pulled on my suspenders, and then hurried out of the room. I could hear the distant sound of running water as it came from the master bath, and right as I passed the door, it swung open.
Daisy stepped out. Her pale flesh shone with a slight hint of pink from scrubbing, and I gawked at the beautiful dress she wore. It reminded me of the dresses that Edony often wore, but the bear-girl had a frame better suited for them. The gown was short, just like the yellow one she always wore, and when she stepped forward, I had a full view of her shapely legs underneath the bell of the skirt. The silk fabric was a light azure with goldenrod yellow embroidered details. Her waist was slim without the need for a corset, and her large, milky breasts peeked out of the top.
Daisy donned a different bonnet, similar in style to the one she wore before, but this one had a blue ribbon across the top that matched the dress perfectly. The bear-girl stepped out, tugged up a pair of white, thigh-high stockings, smoothed out their surfaces, and then smiled at me sweetly.
“Do you like it?” She asked. “Valerie and I found a whole trunk of old dresses in the attic. She said they weren’t her style, but that I should wear them because I’d look prettier in them. What do you think, Charles?”
I felt almost lost for words, the brunette looked absolutely gorgeous in the new dress, and I felt my member harden against the fabric of my trousers at the sight of her rising and falling breasts.
“You look stunning,” I breathed. “Sometimes, I wonder if I really created you or if you were given to me by the heavens.”
“No,” Daisy shook her head. “You definitely created me, I remember it perfectly. But not only that, if I were from the heavens, I wouldn’t remember the taste of honey, the sting of bees, or… how to properly write up a consort contract.”
“That’s very true,” I chuckled, offered her my arm, and then led her down the stairs. “If you were from the heavens, you’d probably remember a lot more about fluffy clouds, playing the harp, and singing angelically.”
“I don’t think I ever sang in my past life,” the brunette giggled. “Unless you count grunting at other bears, or roaring at poachers in the distance.”
“Did you encounter poachers often?” I asked. “I know they’re out there, that’s why the Warden was stationed at the Duchess’, but I’ve never personally come across them.”
“They were few and far between,” the brunette explained. “But they usually came in the middle of the night… or in the dead of winter when I was trying to nap my hardest. They never got me, though, thankfully, or I wouldn’t be here telling you this story.”
“Were they men?” I questioned. “I’ve always wondered who is out there doing the poaching. If it were a male, they’d be jailed, and then executed immediately afterwards. I know they’re out there primarily for the furs, sometimes the meat of the animal, but the city’s never specified who was out there killing the animals.”
“Sometimes, it was men,” Daisy murmured. “Scruffy with unkempt beards, thin and malnourished. They looked very desperate, I would assume, as you sa
id, that they were looking for a meal but… other times, they were women.”
“Women?” I echoed. “What do you mean? The aristocrats are sworn to protect the animals outside of their manors.”
“They’d come on horses,” Daisy stated. “In fancy clothes, not dresses but outfits like you wear. Trousers, buttoned shirts, and jackets, some of them wore hats, too, but all of them carried long-barreled guns. When shot, they echoed around the forest like thunder, it always frightened away a lot of the sleeping birds, but the slower ground animals couldn’t escape as fast as our feathered brethren.”
“So… the aristocrats are the ones killing the animals?” I grunted. “For sport? Or at least, that’s what it sounds like.”
“I don’t know what that means,” the bear-girl replied. “But they’d kill an animal and then take it with them. The larger animals, like the wildcats, other bears, coyotes, were left there for hours until they came back with wagons to haul them away.”
“Why?” I questioned. “Why would they do this? It makes no sense.”
“Does anything that the aristocrats do make sense, Charles?” Daisy mused. “I know that you know about the consort trading ring, men are bought and sold like heads of cattle. Could it be that shocking that they’re the ones out there killing animals?”
“No…” I shook my head. “It’s not surprising to me at all.”
I opened the front door for Daisy, stepped out with her, hurried down the stairs, and then glanced out over the property in search of Valerie. The feline-woman should have been on the stairs where I left her, but the obliterated bodies of the five guards were missing. I glanced once more down the hill of tall grass, bobbing flowers, and the drive in the distance, but she was nowhere in sight.
Daisy and I came around the corner of the house toward the carriage house, stopped at the sight of our wagon and hitched horses, and then smiled at each other.
“Hiiiii!” Valerie’s voice called. “Down here!”
The bear-girl and I stepped toward the carriage house, stared down the steep gully, and finally caught sight of the cat-girl. Valerie had piled all the remaining bodies and limbs at the bottom, bent her knees, rolled the first one down toward the ravine, and the tree line beyond.
“What are you doing?” Daisy called down to her sister.
“Getting rid of the bodies, like I said I would.” The ash-blonde woman giggled. “I figured if I rolled them down there, they’d be far away enough from the house that the smell wouldn’t bother us, and the forest animals can have some delicious snacks.”
My stomach roiled uncomfortably at that thought, but I quickly pushed it away as Valerie bounded up the hill. The feline-woman launched herself forward, flipped once, landed on her hands and knees, whipped her tail out behind her, and bounded up the hill effortlessly.
“Wow, Daisy!” the ash-blonde woman gushed. “You look so pretty in that dress! I knew you would! You always look the best in pastels!”
“Thank you.” The brunette blushed, lowered her head, and shied away. “I’m glad you like it.”
“Charles, I hitched the horses for you!” Valerie cooed. “I’m just so glad that you’re in a better mood and not wallowing over what the Duchess said.”
“Well, I’m trying not to,” I chuckled, grabbed the side of the driver’s seat, and hauled myself up. “Hopefully, we’ll figure something out… if we don’t, I’m not sure what we’ll do… We’ll have to find somewhere else to live, and since you’re not actually part of the Browning family, your credibility will be ruined once they find out.”
“They won’t,” the brunette stated. “We won’t let them.”
“The Duchess mentioned she sent a letter to the Browning family…” I sighed, helped Daisy up onto the set beside me, and then settled back. “If she finds out that we’re lying, we’re all doomed. It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman, she’ll kill both of us.”
“She won’t find out, Charles.” The bear-girl assured me. “We’ll figure out a way to straighten all of this out before the letter gets to her.”
“Stop thinking about it!” Valerie cried. “Just enjoy your day with your Mistress, come back home, tinker on your machine, and then all three of us will eat a nice, warm dinner, maybe have some wine, and relax for a while. Just… forget about the Duchess for now, okay?”
“Easier said than done,” I chuckled. “But alright, Edony is out of my brain for the rest of the day, I’m not sure how long it will last, but we’ll see.”
I gripped the reins in my hands, slapped them against the backs of the horses, turned the wagon in the drive, and then waved over my shoulder to Valerie. The feline-woman hopped up and down with both arms raised over her head.
“Bye!” the ash-blonde woman shouted. “See you later! Have a good time!”
Despite their advice, I couldn’t get the Duchess and our current problems out of my head. I had no idea how we would survive if we were kicked out of the manor, no woman would hire me after what I’d done to Edony, but not only that, I had been suspected of murder. I’d been cleared of it, yes, but that didn’t wash away the suspicion that the other wealthy women in Edenhart had for me.
What was I going to do? It wasn’t just my life in peril anymore, Valerie and Daisy depended on me as their provider. Maybe I shouldn’t have turned my back on Edony, or at least strived to make changes to my machine so it would eventually work. No…I didn’t want to do that anymore, I already knew that what the Duchess wanted, the super-soldiers. The experiments I’d done before never worked, not once, not even with a glimmer of hope after months of improvements, and the only time they had was when I used a female patient. I knew I could figure it out eventually and give the Duchess the warriors she wanted.
But I didn’t want to. I’d moved on from that goal, I only wanted to create monster-girls from now on, and take care of them for the rest of my life.
“You’re thinking about it again, aren’t you?” Daisy murmured. “Your face is tense, and you only press your lips together in a hard line when you’re concentrating or stressed.”
“Do I really?” I snorted. “That’s kind of funny… Delphine once pointed that out to me in her mercantile. Do you happen to remember that?”
“No, I don’t remember a lot of Delphine’s memories,” the brunette admitted. “Only a few things here and there. Mainly about the life of an aristocrat, and honestly, I don’t think I want to remember much of her life anyway. She sounded like a terrible person, and I don’t want to think for a moment that she’s part of me or something like that.”
“I like to think of you and Valerie as two new people,” I told her. “You may have come from two entirely different beings, one from another species, but you are your own person. You may have the memories from Delphine, and the bear, but that doesn’t mean that you are either of those beings. I don’t exactly know how you are born within the machine, but you are a separate person from those two. Don’t ever think that in some way, you are part of Delphine just because you hold some of her memories.”
“Thank you, Charles,” Daisy exhaled. “That makes me feel a bit better. I know Valerie doesn’t struggle with these types of emotions, she doesn’t remember much from the human patient’s life, mainly just her feline-memories. If she does, the memories don’t seem to bother her, but… as thankful as I am to be alive, I almost wish I’d been created with an anonymous prisoner, too. Delphine was just so horrible, and I hate to think that I’m anything like her.”
“You’re not, Daisy,” I assured her. “You’re kind, sweet, gentle, soft-spoken, and, most of all, loving. You and Valerie care about me in ways that no other woman has in my entire life, and I treasure that feeling every day. I would be nothing without the two of you…”
“I love you, Charles,” the bear-girl stated. “I may not say it as often or as enthusiastically as Valerie does, but it’s true. Every time your eyes meet mine, something within me blossoms like a scarlet rosebud, begging to unfurl its petals and bloom. I don’
t think… that either of the beings I came from ever felt anything like that, Delphine certainly didn’t and… bears don’t feel emotions anyway.”
The brunette giggled at that last bit, scooted closer, pressed a tender kiss to my cheek, brushed her fingertips against mine, and then moved away. My heart swelled in my chest, a wide grin spread over my face, and I ducked my head as my face warmed with embarrassment.
“Alright, we’re entering the city,” I cleared my throat. “You know what to do.”
“Act as the dutiful Mistress, I understand perfectly, Charles,” Daisy stated. “Guide me where you’d like to go, I’m unfamiliar with the city.”
The brunette reached across me, grabbed the reins from my hands, rolled her shoulders, sat up straighter, adjusted her bonnet, and glared straight forward as we rolled out onto the brick pavers.
It was late afternoon by now, and the sidewalks were bustling with regal aristocrats and their trailing, moonfaced consorts. As soon as we came into view, heads snapped in our direction, and a few of the women leaned in close to each other with raised hands. It was clear to me that the moment that the Duchess entered back into the city proper, she’d shrieked the news from the tops of her lungs, but to my surprise, I didn’t receive glares of disdain or suspicion, most of them looked…. Intrigued.
“Chaaaaarles Raaaayburn,” a woman leaning against the outer wall of a business shouted. “You’re looking mighty handsome today, why don’t you come inside my shop, I have a few things I’d like to discuss with you… if it’s alright with your Mistress.”
I was so taken aback by her words and their meaning that I barely managed a reply, I simply plastered on a smile and waved to her over my shoulder.
“Alchemist,” an older woman barked. “I’ve heard of the contract you held with the Duchess, why don’t you come over to my manor later today? I have a few things I need help with around the property, maybe you could be of service.”
What in the name of science was going on? Why were they speaking to me? Not only that, but why were they talking to me in such a way? Hadn’t the Duchess dragged my name through the dirt when she returned this morning? Was I dreaming? Had I finally gone mad after all of this time?
