‘I’m going to give the girls a quick tour before it gets dark,’ Jesse said, grinning. ‘It’s okay if we dump our bags here for a little while?’
‘You’ve not much there,’ Bethany said. ‘I’m sure we’ll manage. Don’t be too long. Dinner is at seven and you’ll want to wash up before then.’
‘It’s going to be dark soon. We won’t be too long.’
There were still dragons out working on the farm and, unusually for her, Jesse seemed to know all of them and be comfortable in their presence. Presumably, most of the labourers on the farm had been working there for years, which suggested that the conditions on the farm were good since there were plenty of other places to work in the area.
‘That building at the back is housing for the people who work here,’ Jesse said, pointing at a two-storey, barn-like structure behind the main house and the majority of the other barns. ‘Not everyone lives there, but the unmarried ones find it easier. We own a couple of cottages that we rent out to married couples too.’
‘Your family must be fairly well-off,’ Trudy said.
Jesse gave a shrug. ‘Um, yeah, kind of. I mean, whenever I really need something, we can usually afford it, but Pops doesn’t just hand us everything we want like he’s made of money.’
Krystal was fascinated by the kilns in the seasoning shed. There were, in fact, two seasoning sheds: one with a pair of large kilns inside as well as storage space, and the other for air-drying. Jesse explained that the kilns produced faster results with less effort and a more certain outcome, but that the older air-drying process could produce very good-quality wood over a far longer period. The details of exactly how it was all done were not something she had ever studied, however. ‘If you really want to know the details,’ Jesse said, ‘you’ll have to ask Pops. He built the place. Before that, we only did air-dried wood or green wood for someone else to season. We still ship out green wood, but we do more processing ourselves now.’
They walked around barns filled with green wood waiting to be processed or shipped, barns filled with seasoned wood waiting to be sent to wholesalers, and barns with animals in. Most of the latter were devoted to cart-bulls, which were not all bulls.
‘Everyone calls them cart-bulls,’ Jesse explained, ‘but you don’t usually use a bull, like Old Horny there, to haul carts.’ She indicated a massive animal in a pen at the end of the barn they were in. Old Horny’s hide was black and, like most cattle, his head was crowned by a thick, bony plate which, in the cart-bulls, extended back to cover his neck. He did not have horns.
‘He doesn’t have horns,’ Trudy said, glancing at Felicia when she giggled. ‘Why is he “Old Horny?”’
‘Because he’s getting on a bit,’ Jesse replied, ‘and he’s fathered more children than any other bull on the farm.’
‘I asked the same thing,’ Felicia said, explaining her giggling.
‘We’re lucky it’s not the right season,’ Jesse said. ‘He can get a bit frisky around anything that smells female when the cows are ready for it. When he was younger, he bust right through the fence between his field and the one the cows were in. I mean, the cows weren’t exactly unhappy, but Pops was really annoyed about the fence. Since then, we keep him well away from the cows until we’re ready to introduce them.’
The tour continued with a tool shed, and a barn for storing root vegetables, and some barns for hay… There were a lot of barns.
‘I am not going to remember this layout,’ Trudy said. ‘All the barns are running together in my head. I’ll just stay out of all of them unless you’re with me, Jesse.’
‘I’ll remember them,’ Krystal said.
‘You would.’ Trudy looked up at the sky. There was still light, but it was dimming noticeably. ‘It’s getting dark.’
‘Yeah,’ Jesse said. ‘We’ll head back and get our rooms sorted out. Mom’s going to ask if you two are okay with sharing, even if I told her you just needed one room.’
‘Of course we’re–’
‘With a double bed.’
Trudy narrowed her eyes at Jesse and also blushed. ‘So, your mother thinks we’re going to be bumping away like Old Horny?’
Jesse gave a shrug. ‘She’s under no illusions about me and Flis either. She doesn’t care. She had a girlfriend until she was a hundred and three. Granny Jo said it kept her out of all sorts of trouble.’
‘That’s funny,’ Krystal said. ‘Trudy just gets me into trouble.’
‘What?!’ Trudy squeaked. ‘When have I ever got you into–’ She stopped as she noticed Krystal’s smirk. ‘Oh, ha ha, very funny. I am so going to get you back for that one.’
Jesse set off back toward the house. ‘I’ll make sure there’s some rope in your room before bedtime.’
~~~
‘We’re all very glad that Jesse has managed to make so many friends,’ Renwick Forestall said as the pots of vegetables were handed around. Each plate at the table already had a large portion of stew. The Oakleafs ate heartily, it seemed. ‘You may not have noticed, but she’s a little shy.’
Krystal and Trudy giggled. Felicia patted Jesse on the shoulder while the latter cringed. ‘Uh, we noticed,’ Krystal said. ‘The first couple of times I saw Jesse, all I saw was an eye and a nose. No one was sure there was anyone in the room until I knocked and introduced myself. She came around fairly quickly.’
‘They didn’t give me a lot of choice,’ Jesse mumbled. Louder she added, ‘Charley doesn’t take no when it comes to going out on Silverday evenings, and we all meet up on Yellowday to work on our homework and, um, it’s nicer when I’ve got friends in the same boat around me.’
‘Friends help,’ Renwick said. Apparently, the Forestall genes tended to come out on the male side. Renwick was a tall man, heavily built, with a thick mat of dark-green hair set over a face which was not exactly handsome, but was fairly well put together. He had the green eyes typical of green dragons, but with just a hint of yellow flecking them, perhaps indicating some yellow ancestry.
Beside him sat his son, Oren, who looked a lot like his father but for longer hair, tied back into a ponytail, and solidly green eyes. Oren had inherited a little of his mother’s smaller features which managed to make him look a little better than his father. He could have been a hit with the girls, but he had some of Jesse’s timidity and tended to blush whenever one of the visitors spoke to him. He was only two years older than Jesse, so there was some hope he would grow out of it.
The last dragon at the table was Ilana, Jesse and Oren’s older sister, but definitely her mother’s daughter, though she had her father’s green hair which fell in a curtain around her shoulders. Elegant and very attractive, Ilana had her mother’s figure and none of the shyness which afflicted her siblings. At forty-nine, with perhaps a century before she could marry, Ilana was not short on potential suitors, especially since, at some point in the far-off future, she would inherit the farm.
‘Do you spend a lot of time in scales?’ Krystal asked as she was passed the potatoes.
‘How did you guess?’ Josephine said, grinning.
‘Well, Charley spends a lot of her time in the air, and she tends to put away food like a famine is coming.’
‘Green dragons only have their empathy for plants in dracoform,’ Renwick said. ‘So, we do tend to work in scales a lot. This time of year, it stops you getting sunburn too.’
‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ Krystal said, frowning.
‘I think I’ve got some sunblock left over from when Jesse was younger,’ Bethany said. ‘I’ll dig it out for you. Especially if you’re going out with Jesse tomorrow.’
‘Chores,’ Jesse said. It was sort of a grumble, though she did not really seem to be grumbling.
‘We can help,’ Trudy said. ‘Get them done a little faster. I’m sure you must have things you need moved from one place to another, and if we’re going to be eating like this, I don’t mind spending time in scales.’ She glanced at Bethany. ‘In case you hadn’t guessed, I’m a
grey. Lifting things is what we do.’
‘A grey who works magic,’ Ilana said. ‘Quite the rarity.’
‘A grey who works magic and has quite a strong talent for it,’ Krystal said. ‘But she’s also pretty good at lifting things. She carried Flis across half the school one afternoon.’
‘Oh, don’t remind me, darling,’ Felicia said. She glanced around the family to include them and then explained. ‘I tried to perform a ritual to create a charm which, as Krys had told me, was beyond my capabilities. Luckily, I exhausted myself before I managed to create an effect which could do me much harm. So, there I was, slung over Trudy’s shoulder like a sack of potatoes. And you’ve all seen the uniform, I’d imagine. Not at all decorous. I’m ashamed to say I was not exactly civil when I came to outside Nightsky Hall.’
‘And at that point you didn’t even know you’d been carried back over my shoulder,’ Trudy added.
‘Uh, no. That came out when Charley was giving an extremely detailed and… hilarious description of the entire event to Mona last month. Thankfully, we’d become friends by then and I could laugh it off. Oh, how we laughed.’ There was laughter from around the table at that point, mostly at Felicia’s comment. Oren was busy blushing beetroot red, probably because he was imagining Felicia in a short skirt being carried by Trudy.
‘We’ve a few greys who work on the farm,’ Renwick said. ‘Good, strong lads the lot of them.’
‘That’s greys for you,’ Trudy agreed. ‘Dependable and strong.’
‘That makes you sound like a cart-bull, darling,’ Felicia said. ‘I see you more as a thoroughbred racing animal.’
‘Thanks, I think.’
‘Of course, indigos are mostly known for being snooty, selfish dragons who’ll sell you a cart-bull while telling you it’s a thoroughbred, so I’ve little to talk about.’ She shrugged. ‘It’s not an inaccurate description of many.’
‘Greens are only interested in plants,’ Jesse said.
‘You are only interested in plants,’ Ilana said.
‘No, I have other interests too.’ Jesse flashed a lopsided grin at Felicia. ‘Now Krys, Krys is going to pester Pops the rest of the evening until he’s spilled all his secrets of kiln-drying wood. Once she’s decided something is interesting, nothing stops her.’
‘Not all evening,’ Krystal said. ‘I’d just like to know how it works. I’ve an enquiring mind. I can’t help it!’
~~~
‘I can’t actually believe that Jesse put some rope in the room,’ Krystal said as Trudy finished tying her wrists to the headboard.
‘That one has a perverse streak,’ Trudy replied. ‘If half the things Flis says are true, Jesse has a very perverse streak.’
‘Says the girl who is actually tying me to the bed with the rope Jesse provided.’
‘Well, it’s only ten p.m. Do you really expect me to get to sleep this early?’
Krystal shook her head while Trudy, equipped with a second length of rope, set to stretching Krystal’s right leg out. ‘Not tonight, no. Tomorrow night will probably be a different story, but tonight I’ll let you have your way.’ She was not, in fact, attempting to resist her bondage: if Trudy shifted into scales, there would be no contest and even in her normal form, Trudy was significantly stronger than Krystal. Besides which, the last time Trudy had tied her to a bed, just her wrists that time, it had been a very enjoyable experience. This time felt more dangerous; Krystal was going to be fixed to the bed in a manner which stopped her resisting anything Trudy wanted to do to her, and that was exciting, and scary, and erotic, and a little worrying…
‘What are you going to do to me?’ Krystal asked in a subdued whisper once Trudy had finished fixing Krystal’s left ankle in place, spreading her legs wide apart.
Trudy did not reply immediately. Instead, she climbed up onto the bed and straddled Krystal’s waist. Leaning forward, she reached up, clawed her fingers, and began to drag her nails down the inside of Krystal’s forearms. It was shocking and painful, and intimate and arousing. Krystal knew she was already wet, but Trudy’s blunt nails dragging over her sensitive skin had her twisting her hips and biting her lips in an effort to stop herself crying out. As Trudy began to draw her nails down Krystal’s sides, past her breasts, Trudy leaned forward to bring her mouth close to Krystal’s ear. ‘I’m going to do anything I want to you,’ Trudy whispered, ‘and not even the ancestors are going to be able to stop me. I’m going to make you come so hard you snap the ropes, and I’m going to take my own sweet time about it. I’m going to make you beg for me to stop.’
‘Oh ancestors,’ Krystal moaned.
‘I told you,’ Trudy said as she brought her hands back up to dig her nails into Krystal’s chest just under her collarbones, ‘they’re not going to help you tonight.’
2nd Day of Highsummer.
Krystal opened her eyes and looked at the bedroom door just in time for a second set of knocking to confirm that she had been woken by the first. ‘You two decent?’ Jesse said through the door before opening it without really waiting for an answer. ‘Come on, sun’s up and breakfast’s on. Time to get your city behinds up and face the day.’
Trudy groaned. ‘I didn’t think you were a sadist, Jesse.’
‘I had suspicions,’ Krystal said. ‘I was also fairly sure it’d be an early start.’
‘Then why didn’t you say something?’
‘I said you’d be sleeping well tonight. That was a subtle hint.’
‘Be less subtle in future. What time is it anyway?’
‘Just after seven,’ Jesse replied. ‘Mom and Pops have been up for an hour. Even Oren’s been out of bed for thirty minutes. We all got a lie-in on account of being soft, city dragons.’
‘A lie-in is eleven o’clock,’ Trudy grumbled. ‘Okay, I’m getting up. You can stop standing there like we’ll go back to sleep if you move.’
Jesse giggled. ‘I was enjoying the view. You look really sexy with your butt half-covered by a sheet and your hair all tousled.’
Krystal was hunting for her glasses on the nightstand. ‘Keep off. That’s my sexy girlfriend. You’ve got your own.’
‘Aww. I’d share. I’m nice like that.’ Jesse flashed a grin. ‘See you in the kitchen.’ Then she pulled the door closed and left them to get up.
Krystal found her glasses and the world around her became clearer. ‘I’m pretty sure she was joking.’
Trudy gave a grunt and turned over. ‘Probably. Have you noticed she’s almost a different girl now she’s back home?’
‘She’s home. There’s no one here she doesn’t know. No one to be shy in front of.’
‘Yeah…’ Trudy watched as Krystal pulled on her bra. ‘You, uh, might want to wear something with long sleeves.’
‘Huh?’
‘Your wrists…’
Krystal looked at her wrists and saw the red marks around them. There had been no sting of abraded skin, but you could tell where the rope had been. She lifted a leg to check her ankle and, sure enough, found similar marks there. There were also a few visible scrape marks from Trudy’s nails. She giggled. ‘I didn’t snap the ropes, but it looks like I tried hard.’ As she spoke, she began to focus her will on one of the spell patterns they had taught in the lab right at the start of the first term.
‘You did. Uh, you did enjoy that, didn’t you?’
Krystal glanced over at Trudy as she released the spell she had been shaping. ‘Of course. It was… intense. And no harm done, see?’ She lifted her arms to show the unmarked skin. ‘I’ll wear long sleeves anyway because I tan about the same way a steak does on a grill.’
‘Beth said she had sunblock.’
‘She did. Okay, T-shirt it is. Come on, get your butt out of bed. We’ve got chores to help with.’
~~~
‘All right,’ Jesse said, ‘this is going a lot faster with four pairs of hands. Especially when one pair belongs to Trudy.’
‘I can be useful at times,’ Trudy replied. She was lugging
two bales of hay to one of the cattle sheds, while everyone else was carrying one. ‘What do we have after this?’
‘I left the next one for last because it takes us out to the edge of Tangleroots. It’s a bit of a hike, but there’s a copse out there that Pops wants me to check. It shouldn’t take long, so long as there’s nothing wrong. If there’s nothing wrong, there’s a small lake out there and I figured we could spend the afternoon lying around out there and enjoying the sun.’
‘After this, I believe some relaxation would be most acceptable,’ Felicia said.
‘Then that’s what we’ll do. It is a bit of a walk, but you’ll be able to see what Tangleroots is like. The outer edge of it anyway. If you’re still determined to go in there, Krys, this is your chance to see some of what you’ll be in for.’
‘That sounds wonderful,’ Krystal said through gritted teeth. ‘How many more of these?’
‘One more run should do it. You really aren’t used to lifting weights, are you?’
‘Not a lot of hay bales to move in a nunnery. I hope there’s some shade by this lake of yours.’
‘Oh yeah. Plenty of shade. I like it down there. It’s kind of in the forest without being in the forest. I used to spend a lot of time around that lake when I was younger. Then I started going further into Tangleroots, but I still like the lake. You’ll see. It’s beautiful down there.’
~~~
The copse Jesse was to check was a noticeably cultivated field of trees sitting just outside of what was undeniably thicker forest. There was a fence marking the boundary, but that was overgrown with some form of bramble. Beyond the fence, the ground was thick with bushes and there were a few large trees. Getting into that expanse of tangled undergrowth would be hard work, but as the trees thickened further in, the ground clutter seemed to thin out, which gave Krystal some hope that the forest was passable.
‘This end of the forest isn’t too bad,’ Jesse said as they looked over the fence. ‘There are ways in and the undergrowth is kept down by the canopy. Not enough light gets down to the ground so the bushes don’t grow as thick.’
Misfit Witchcraft (Misfits Book 2) Page 11
