Ninth Orb

by Kaitlyn O'Connor

  She sighed inwardly, looking from the bed of flowers where Yipp should have been gathering herbs, to the trees and bushes around her. Tanukis were mischievous and irresponsible at the best of times. At the worse ….

  ‘I'm right behind you.’ Yipp replied telepathically. Celeste turned around to find Yipp sitting on a tree limb with his hands clamped behind his back, looking a little too innocent for her Tanuki. Definitely wasn’t there the last time I looked! Which of course meant he had probably been hiding behind it at the time. Sometimes, she just wanted to wring his furry little neck.

  “Damn it Yipp.”

  She walked toward the large white birch he was sitting in with every intention of scolding him for not answering her call earlier, when she noticed a cloud of soft golden dust rise up from and around his back. She looked from the dust cloud to Yipp and back again. Her green eyes met large, round golden ones. Yipp's snout twitched a moment before breaking out in a big toothy grin.

  "Okay Yipp, hand over whatever you have behind your back." Celeste gave him the most rebuking look she could muster and held out her hand. Yipp looked from her face to her hand several times before finally holding her narrowed eyes again. He tilted his head to the side, studying her intently.

  ‘Aww, Celly, why do you always think I’m up to no good?’

  “Because I know you too well to think otherwise! Now, hand it over.”

  He relented with a sigh and removed his hand from behind his back, shoving it close under her nose and opening it slowly.

  Celeste gasped when she saw what he had caught. A tiny, silvery iridescent figure unfurled in the pudgy little palm of Yipp’s outstretched hand. Her long purple hair was wild and tangled and fell just below slender hips. It did nothing at all to cover her nudity or to hide her perfect form. As Celeste watched, the fairy got to her feet and stumbled a bit before she turned her attention to Yipp. She waived a tiny fist at him and stamped her foot. The tiny high pitched chirping sounds coming from it suggested just how annoyed the creature was with him.

  ‘It's a Flutter Fairy. Look Celly I can make its wings flap!‘

  Celeste watched in abject horror as Yipp closed his clawed fist around the poor little thing and began enthusiastically shaking it up and down. Fairy dust flew off the little wings in every direction as Yipp gleefully made them flap.

  “Yipp! Stop that!” Celeste grabbed his arm before he could pull out of her reach and gently took the little flutter fairy from his grasp.

  “I am so sorry about that …. ” She carefully took the fairy to the edge of the patch of flowers farthest from Yipp, kneeling to set her down on the ground. The tiny thing jumped to her feet and began shaking her fists and chirping insults at Celeste before she sprang up into the air and flew off into a tuft of high grass to hide.

  ‘Oh Celly why did you do that? Do you have any idea just how hard it is to catch one of those?’ Yipp’s annoyed voice rang through her mind Celeste stood up and turned around with her hands firmly planted on her curvy hips. She glared at Yipp, who looked at her as though he hadn’t the slightest clue as to why she should be angry with him.

  “You do realize that we still need to find the Dragon’s Bane before night fall.” She winced when her tone came out a bit more aggravated then she had intended. Yipp rolled his golden eyes and jumped down from the tree, landing on his hind legs, tail out for balance.

  ‘Yes, I know already. Geez, you’re such a slave driver sometimes. It wouldn’t kill you to have some fun once in a while, you know,’ he retorted, rolling his eyes at her again for effect. ‘I don’t understand why you heed that senile old wizard when you know he’s misplaced the herbs you picked yesterday, and the day before and the day before that. How many times are we going to come out here and pick them?’ Yipp complained as he trotted over to her and sat down at her feet. The white tuff of fur on his chest rose high as he arched his head back to look up at her. Celeste folded her arms underneath her ample bosom and gave him an arched glared.

  ‘He’s probably asleep right now. We can go home and just pretend we got them. He’d never know the difference!’

  “He’s been good to both of us Yipp. I serve him just as my mother has and just as her mother has before her. And stop calling him senile! He’s just, just … forgetful.”

  Yipp sat back on his hind legs and thought for a moment. ‘I see … I believe you are correct. I agree the old coot is forgetful.’ He looked up at her thoughtfully before he added, ‘Because he is senile!’

  Celeste grunted, exasperated with her opinionated companion. She bent down, picked up his basket and thrust it at him before standing up.

  “I don’t have time for this Yipp. We have to head back to Nariah before nightfall and I’d really like to get back soon enough to have something decent to eat this time instead of plain bread and cheese.”

  ‘I don’t know what you’re complaining about. I had a nice snack yesterday. You could have, too, if you weren’t so picky.’

  Celeste caught herself rolling her eyes, a habit she was constantly getting onto Yipp about, and sighed in exasperation. “Red Caps are poisonous to humans.”

  ‘Not my fault.’

  “Because of that little stunt, I had to spend three more hours trying to find more!”

  ‘Did it really take that long? I hadn’t noticed it taking that long. Are you sure?’

  Not surprising he didn’t notice. He slept the whole time.

  “Look, could you please try to stay focused? Please?” Celeste waited for Yipp’s next peevish complaint, but instead he got up and turned indignantly toward the flower bed with his long red and black stripped tail standing tall behind him. Celeste didn’t mistake the dismissal.

  “Fine! You want to give me the silent treatment! You go right ahead. Just be sure to pick the Fairy Wart and not the lilacs!”

  Yipp’s large ears perked and he looked over his shoulder at Celeste. With a haughty, dismissive humph, he turned around again and began picking through the pink and white flowers for the Fairy Wart.

  Celeste shook her head. They had been together for most of her life, so it was hard not to think of him as a younger brother instead of the familiar he was. Her Master got onto her for that fairly often. A familiar was supposed to obey it’s master, and she could force the point if she wanted to, but she had never been able to bring herself to magically force Yipp to do anything. She loved him and servitude didn’t fit into that equation.

  “I’ll be back soon.”

  Hiking up her long green skirt, she walked through the tall grass the Flutter Fairy had flown into, looking carefully before each step and hoping the little thing had enough sense to move out of her way. Just over a small embankment, where the stream flowed through, was an old hollow log. If she was going to find any Dragon’s Bane, it would be wise to start there. She climbed down and knelt, pushing aside dead leaves and digging her way down to the molded ones below. A flash of brilliant red caught her eye.

  Ah ha!

  Bending further, she spied several Red Caps growing inside a very large hollowed-out oak log. On her knees, she managed to wedge her arm and hand in just far enough to brush her fingers against the head of one shroom.

  Shit. Too far. She dropped onto her belly and tried again, this time grasping and pulling on the elusive root. The Red-cab dislodged easily and she was able to grab the four cloves her Master had wanted and placed them in her herb basket. She wrinkled her nose at their pungent odor and stood, brushing chunks of rotting wood from the front of her dress. She gave it up as a hopeless effort when she noticed the twin black streaks on her skirt where her knees had pressed it into the soggy ground.

  Lovely. Well, at least all I need now is the Dragon’s Bane. If Yipp’s done anything at all. Which he probably hasn’t. She sighed inwardly and walked back over the ridge, looking toward the bed of flowers where Yipp was supposed to be rummaging for Fairy Wart, not the least bit surprised by the sight that met her at the top. Yipp was gone.

  “Oh no yo
u don’t! I’m not doing all the work myself!” She stormed determinedly down the embankment.

  ‘Yipp!’ Her mental call went unanswered.

  “Yipp! Where are you?” She shouted this time but again there was no answer. The normal sounds of the forest amplified as she tried to clear her mind and link with Yipp. It was a little peculiar not to hear Yipp in her head. He rarely remained silent for long, which drove Celeste mad a times. However, this silence was unnatural somehow, not like earlier. Once again he didn’t respond to her mental calls as she repeatedly tried to connect with him. She shouted his name over and over again, but the shouts went unheeded. Uneasiness started to grow inside her and she knew immediately that something was terribly wrong when she realized she no longer felt him. The voice she was so accustomed to was gone. Her mind went completely silent. Celeste ran over to the flower bed hoping she could find some indication of where he might have gone. There was no sign of Yipp anywhere. Her heart sank to the pit of her stomach.

  “No, no … Yipp! Where are you?” Fear took a stranglehold on her and she found it hard to breathe. They couldn’t be separated for long. If someone took him …. If he were taken away from her, or even separated from her for too long, he would die and she would feel that loss the rest of her days, and not just because he was her familiar. He had never been just a familiar to her.

  “Yipp!” She screamed his name over and over as she ran further into the forest, hair flying as she swung her head in every direction, praying for even a glimpse of him. Her breasts heaved with each gasping breath she took.

  The forest paths all looked alike now. Celeste had no sense of direction, even though she had walked these very paths thousands of times before. Thoughts of never finding Yipp filled her mind with unimaginable scenarios. He could be hurt, laying on the cold ground somewhere. Someone might have mistaken him for a common animal and caught him for his fur. They might be stringing him up even now, getting ready to murder him for his beautiful coat! Oh Gods, no! Please, don’t let someone skin Yipp!

  She searched desperately for any sign of him. She ran into a clearing that led to another path and stopped dead, her blood swirling and pounding in her ears making her vision go black along the edges. In the center of the path was a small basket that appeared to have been trampled by hoofs. Fairy Wart was crushed in the mud around it.

  Celeste knew instantly whose basket it was. Yipp …. Around the crushed remains of Yipp’s basket was a set of hoof prints that led deeper into the forest. Her own basket fell from numb fingers and she hurried down the path, following the hoof prints to their destination. Tears streamed down her face as she ran. The sick, empty feeling in her stomach shot through her and settled in the center of her chest, piercing her heart with an ache so agonizing she could barely breathe.

  “Oh Yipp, please, please be safe … please don’t die. Gods, don’t let anyone hurt him. He never did anything to anyone … not to deserve that …. ”

  It felt like a lifetime to her, but the path finally ended at a small encampment. Celeste pulled up short, stopping just at the edge of the clearing and quickly ducking behind an old birch tree.

  By the Gods! Was there anyone there? Had they seen her? She took a few calming breaths and fell to her knees on the ground, braving a look at the site the tracks led to from between the low slung branches of the tree. At the far left of the camp, she spotted four large black oxen. They were all tethered close to each other, heads bowed, ignoring the hay in front of them to gorge on what grass the ropes allowed them access to. Several wagons took up most of the center of the clearing, all lined up in a circle. In the center of the circle was a large black tent with red trim in intricate patterns. There was a covered wagon behind the tent, which Celeste assumed held supplies, but it was the other wagons that gave her pause.

  She gasped in wonder. Seven wagons in all, and with the exception of the covered wagon, six of them were heavily crafted with rune wood and made specifically to carry large amounts of weight …. Each had iron bars imbedded in the wood and was large enough to carry a dragon if needed. Four of the wagons contained creatures that Celeste had never before seen and she was momentarily mesmerized by the sight of them.

  The wagon closest to her contained a Peryton, a winged beast with the upper body and antlers of a full grown stag and a tail end similar to that of a hawk, but far larger. Its vivid blue color shimmered with silver highlights in the light of the sun. It was breathtaking in its beauty, but Celeste knew that beauty was nothing more than a facade. She had heard many tales of the dangerous beast and was shocked anyone had been foolish enough to try to catch one, regardless of their obvious success. Perytons were renowned for their dreadful nature and their penchant for eating human flesh.

  She shivered inwardly and ducked behind the tree, coming back out on the other side for a look at the next wagon. Inside sat a very miserable-looking gold Shisa, a bizarre mixture reminiscent of both a lion and dog. Its dark gold mane encircled a broad dog-like face, which was currently resting on its forepaws. It’s deep gold eyes were shadowed by heavy, wrinkled brows and the poor thing looked for all the world to be worried to death about something.

  Is it smart enough to realize it’s in danger? She didn’t know much about the rare beast, but by its expression she guessed it was at least intelligent enough to be unhappy about being in a cage. The Shiza spotted Celeste and began wagging its tail, its tongue lolling out the side of its muzzle. Celeste sank further behind the tree and prayed that the damn creature would remain silent and not alert its captor.

  When several moments went by with no apparent alarm sounding, Celeste crawled through the underbrush for a look at the next wagon. She peeked through the bottom of an elder berry bush and saw that inside the cage stood a majestic and fearsome Oilin.

  By the Gods! How did anyone catch you? Its brilliant green scaled skin sparkled in the mid-day sun. The Oilin was an odd creature, with the head of a dragon and body of an ox, but it’s most discerning feature was the large rack of deer antlers atop its head, which it was currently scraping against the bars of its prison. Oilins were rare, but more than that, they were highly intelligent and had a strong magic of their own. It was unthinkable that someone had managed to not only find one and get the drop on it, but that they had managed to do so without being burned to a crisp in the process.

  Unthinkable, and yet there he sits. Why? Why would anyone cage them? To the best of her knowledge the Peryton was the only one that posed any sort of threat, since people were definitely on their menu, but the others …. She diverted her attention from the Oilin and moved in a bit closer through the bushes to see what was in the last wagon, closest to the tent. Her eyes immediately locked on the motionless heap of red and black stripped fur lying on the hard wooden floor of the cage. A gasp escaped her throat and she found herself on her feet and running toward the cage before she even had time to think of the dangers. By the Gods! Yipp! She stopped short of the bars, unsure what magic was in place that could possibly be keeping Yipp inside when he could clearly squeeze between the bars if he tried.

  ‘Yipp! Can you hear me? Yipp! Wake up!’

  She cast a leery look toward the tent, which appeared to be vacant.

  Oh Yipp …. If Yipp was harmed in any way he would need her. She tried to mentally call him. At first there was no movement and she tried again, this time focusing hard on their psychic link. His ears twitched and his head move slightly to the right.

  ‘C-Celly … is that you?’

  Celeste’s heart leapt with relief and she had to fight to hold back tears. Thank the Gods!

  ‘Yes Yippy, It’s me. I came. I’m here to take you home.’ Relief swelled through her body. Her Yipp was alive!

  ‘N-no, Celeste. You have to go … he’ll be back … he took me … and the others … leave Celeste! Leave. Before …. ‘ Yipp’s desperate plea made no sense to her.

  ‘I can’t leave without you! You would die if I did! You know that. Yipp, Yipp! Wake up! Who did this to
you?’ “Where is he?” she asked, not realizing that she was speaking out loud and not telepathically.

  ‘Shh! Celly, don’t speak! He’ll hear you. I can’t get out. The cage is magical. D-don’t touch …. ’ Yipp passed out again before he could finish his sentence. It was too much for Celeste to handle. She reached out and grabbed hold of the bars. The moment her hands closed around the cold, iron rods a violent bolt of energy jolted through her body and lifted her off the ground. The force threw her several feet through the air. Celeste was so stunned it took several moments for any rational thought to penetrate the pain still thrumming through her body. When thought did come, it was with the realization that it would be impossible to get Yipp out of the cage.

  What in the world do I do now? Getting to her feet she moved around the cage, finding a locked panel at the back. She tried jiggling the lock, but it was locked tight. Her heart sank to her knees and she backed away from the wagon. Just as she was about to turn around and try peeping inside the tent for the keys, two heavily muscled male arms grabbed her from behind.

  Celeste froze in shock as her body was firmly pressed against a very large, very aroused masculine body. One of the male’s arms came around and securely held her by the waste while the other squeezed one of her breasts in his large hand. Hot breath brushed the skin of her neck and ear.

  “My, what do we have here?” The voice, so close to her ear, was so deep and raw it sent shivers down her spine. To her dismay she could feel every contour and indentation of his muscular chest through the back of her dress. He held her so tightly against him that his swollen cock lay flat against the crease between her ass and lower back.

  Oh god, it’s so big. Wait, Celeste, what in the world are you going on about? She shook herself mentally, but her mind seemed to be in a fog. She felt a strange sensation swirling in her lower abdomen that, oddly enough, wasn’t fear but something much more disturbing. The heat of his body and the cinnamon scent of his skin made her pulse race and her sex flood. She shook her head to clear it from the direction her thoughts were taking her and, when she finally managed to get her wits back, started to struggle as hard as she could to get away. Unfortunately, the only thing she did was rub her backside against his enormous erection, which made him hold on even tighter and press her ass harder against him.