The Guardian

I moped around for the rest of the week, wishing Silvain would hate school so much that she would come running back home to me. I never stopped missing her, but as the days progressed steadily, other things began taking more and more of my attention away from focusing on my loss. One such thing was my father, Summerset Vale, who began by getting me up early one morning, "Come on son, it's time for you to learn your place as the Lord's heir to this farm."

Though mother and father had the habit of calling the Valeland the farm, in reality father owned several million acres, or a county in the northwest of whatever continent we were on in this new world. There were about fifty thousand Alfar and two hundred and fifty thousand Animal families, and the Valeland was considered a small Lordship. There was only one city, Valeheim, and it was centrally located in the county. It is also where all the Alfar lived while the Animals lived throughout the countryside in small villages called Kottrheims.

As soon as Summerset closed the door I rolled out of bed with Bastet right behind me. She was, of course, eager to accompany me as my shadow while I in turn shadowed my father all day as he went about the business of running the Valeland. As part of my schooling he taught me economics, management and politics while mama taught literature, history, and theology. Once I turned twelve, she also started testing me for any aptitude for magic. Then when I turned fifteen mother and father handed me over to Andra and Leandra for self-defense and weapons training.

It was strange at first because I had only ever seen Andra as the household butler, but the reality was that he was the Master-at-Arms among the Animals while Leandra, Andra's daughter, was fathers Magistrate.

Leading me through the training yard, he led me to the armory and once inside, he took me to a room where there was every conceivable weapon stored in boxes or in wracks, "Master Viridian," He said in a commanding voice, "From this day forward I will be training you harder than I would any of my enlisted men. I will train you so hard that if and when the day should arrive that you need to utilize my training, you will defeat your enemies and most importantly survive."

"Yes sir," I answered.

"Good," He said with a nod, "Then today I want you to pull out every weapon in this room. Swing it around. Test them out on a few of the dummies. I want you to find the weapons that feel right in your hands, and here's a safety tip; keep the sharp pointy end pointed away from your body. I'd hate to come back and find that you've killed yourself in some ridiculous manner."

"Yes sir," I answered again.

He gave me a curt nod and then he left to attend to other business. Walking around the room I started with the long knives. I remembered reading so many fantasy books about heavy armored knights with swords and shields, knife wielding rogues and damsels, and dual-wielding rangers, and as I put myself in my imaginary heroes' shoes I tried a variety of different weapons, but nothing felt right. I even picked out two scimitars and pretended I was my favorite goodly Drow for about thirty minutes, but even those didn't feel right.

Turning in a full circle, scanning the entire room again for something that would resonate with my spirit. In a far corner, on top of a box near the armor, I spied a pair of gauntlets. Walking over, I looked at them closer. They were steel coated with silver and decorated with gold filigree, very much in the Alfar style. These gauntlets weren't the standard armor, no, these were reinforced and padded down the forearms to the elbows. The was a plate to protect the back of the hand with serrated knuckles like claws for breaking bone, and ripping and tearing.

With shaking hands I started buckling them on. I was having a difficult time when Leandra suddenly appeared at my shoulder, "Would you like me to help?" She purred in a husky voice.

I jumped nearly out of my skin from fright, then as my heart slowed to a more normal pace, I answered, "Yes please."

Leandra smirked as I turned to her, and as I held out my arms with my palms turned up it was interesting to watch her much bigger hands deftly work the belts and buckles, and tighten the gauntlets until they felt like they were a part of my arm.

"You want to make sure you get them good and tight before you use them," Leandra said in almost a whisper, "Otherwise they will shift and expose you to attacks, you could bruise or break your arms, or worse."

"Um...thank you," I answered.

"These gauntlets are not the weapon," She continued as she cinched the final buckle and then turned my hands over so that she ran her fingers across my armored forearms. Then she pointed her finger and poked me in the chest, "You are the weapon. To use these properly you will have to train your entire body in the martial fighting techniques. Hone your skills until you are the blade that cuts down your enemies. Otherwise you will most likely only get yourself killed."

"I...understand," I answered, accepting that I was going to need to learn martial arts. I had always wanted to learn Karate, Kung fu, or Judo in my previous life, but never got around to it, and then eventually lost interest.

"You will have to train hard," Leandra reiterated.

"I will, I promise," I answered.

"Okay," She purred with an almost sinister smile, "It turns out my father will not be training you now…"

Turning away from me she walked across the room and took off a wide belt she'd been wearing as part of the tack of her station, and then she found a pair of gauntlets and began strapping them on. It was while she was putting on a leather Gi that she looked towards the door and yelled, "If you are going to hide and watch Bastet; you might as well come in and learn how to protect your Lord."

My eyes opened wider in surprise, though I shouldn't have been, she was always shadowing me. I turned to look at the door, and sure enough, a second later Bastet stepped into the room. She came over to me and dug around in the box my gauntlets had been lying on. When she found a pair, Leandra helped her put them on before she found two more Gi and told us to put them on. Once we were ready she lined us up behind her and began slowly teaching us the first forms of her martial arts.

"All cats excel in the Tiger's Claw Art," She explained, "It centers us and allows us to make quick short jabs, kicks, and the use of our claws while never losing our balance. As an Alfar you will be able to master all the martial arts, and as your father's son, you will need them."

"What do you mean by that," I asked.

"You will find out soon enough young Master," Leandra purred as she shifted to another stance, and then continued, "Once you have mastered my training I will bring in different masters to train you in the other styles."

"How will you know when I've mastered your training," I asked as I watched her shift into yet another stance.

"You will have mastered my training when you fight me to either a draw or defeat me," She answered firmly.

I was stunned, Leandra towered over me, and she outweighed me by at least two hundred pounds. How was I ever going to be a match for her?

Still, I could feel the ball of magic in my stomach uncoiling. It stretched out inside me like a cat stretching after a long nap, and then I could feel it moving inside. My arms felt lighter and my legs stronger, and the gauntlets felt like they were a part of me. I was a cat, I was a lion, and my gauntlets were my claws!

Every day I trained with Bastet and Leandra in the mornings and then in the afternoons I either studied with my father or mother. I found it fascinating to see how father used Andra and Leandra as liaisons with the Pridelords of each village surrounding Valeheim. It was amazing to watch the honor he commanded even though he was relatively short by comparison to them even though he was of an average height for a Villralfar, standing 5 feet tall, while Andra and Leandra stood head and shoulders taller than him. They seemed to smile easily and spoke respectfully despite both of them being so thickly muscled that they each seemed capable of breaking my father like a twig if they wanted to.

I pondered this for a long time as I went through the rigmarole of schooling and training for the next eight years.

——(!)——

8 years later - Elul 27, 6767

Bastet purred softly against me, rousing me from sleep. Rolling over toward her, I slid my hand over her back and ran my fingers through her fur, from her shoulders, down to the small of her back, and over the large rounded rise of her thickly muscled buttocks. Then raising my hand back to her shoulder, I repeated my petting. A steady purring began emanating from her chest as I ran my hand over her buttock and pushed my fingers between her cheeks so that I could wrap my fingers around her long...thick...tail. The purring stopped, and the end of Bastet's tail began swishing back and forth as I ran my hand down to the fluffy tip. Turning on her side, her slitted, vibrant hazel-green cat eyes opened and she looked up at me and purred, "Good morning."

"Yes...it is," I answered as I brought my hand up and let it rest on her hip.

We had both grown in the last eight years, me taller to reach five feet three inches tall, and broader across the shoulders. I was well muscled and pleasantly cut from all my training with Leandra and Bastet. Bastet however, never grew taller than four feet, and the soft padding of her breasts only grew marginally fatter while her hips and thighs thickened and widened.

Rolling her on to her back, I rolled on top of her and gave her a quick peck on the lips, and she giggled and spread her thighs open and wrapped her legs around my waist.

This was how it had been for us for the last six years. Ever since I woke up one morning with my dick flagstaff straight and engorged with arousal.

"Finally," She purred happily, as she had said all those years ago too, and then she reached down between us and guided me to the soft pink folds of her sex.

I slipped inside her, and she felt warm and wet. Beneath me, I could feel her taut muscles moving as she breathed with expectation, and the soft spongy fat of her breasts as she pressed her chest into mine. Across her face, down her neck to her chest, and running down her belly all the way to her sex, her soft black fur was so soft and very short. It was enough that I was able to see the finer features of her face, of her broad nose, of the deep philtrum of her bee-stung top lip, and the delicate curves as her equally plump bottom lip curved down to her sharply pointed chin.

As I began slowly thrusting inside her, she began to purr as I brushed locks of her long curly black hair out of her face so I could rub her long pointed cat ears. They were positioned on the sides of her head where all normal human ears should be, and I smiled at the memory of reading so many neko-girl manga's, and how the artists got so much of the anatomy of what a real cat-girl would look like so colossally wrong.

Laying down fully on her, Bastet put her hands on my shoulders while I put my elbows down to support myself just under her armpits and worked my forearms under her shoulders so that I could rub her ears. Once we were settled I began rubbing in time with thrusting and withdrawing. Her purring got louder and louder, and as I felt my orgasm building, her back began to steadily arch as her eyes rolled up and her eyelids fluttered. As my climax peaked so did Bastet's, and as my seed blasted into her womb, her claws extended and dug into my back, and as she meowed loudly in orgasm, she cut eight deep gashes across my shoulder blades.

As I came inside her, for the first time in six years, the magic lying asleep in the pit of my belly roared to life like never before. Consumed by its fury burning through my soul, my canine teeth grew longer, and releasing Bastet's ears I grabbed her shoulders and I tried to thrust deeper inside her as I belted out an almost Lion'esk roar! She opened her eyes and looked up at me startled, and as soon as our gazes locked, I roared in her face again as my short cut hair poofed out into a long golden mane as my eyes became emerald coals burning in my sockets.

Bastet's eyes opened wide in fear, her lips pulled back baring her teeth as she hissed, and she immediately turned her head away from me in a show of submission. With every blast of sperm I growled more and more ferally, until I felt the wild, animalistic, magic in my belly jump from me into Bastet and attack a small ball of yellow energy lying quietly inside her lower belly. It bashed and clawed and raked at the sphere, and then like a key unlocking a vault, her magic opened up and laid out along her spine like a cat showing its belly in submission. My magic pounced immediately, and mercilessly, winding around Bastet's small amount of magic and intertwining with it to such an extent to which her magic and mine were indistinguishable from each other. Having feasted, and now sated, it rebounded back inside me, pulling along with it all the magic that was inside Bastet, and with a final thrust I blasted the last of my orgasm inside her and collapsed…

——(!)——

I slept for the rest of that day, and the following day. When I awoke it was to my mother sitting on the side of my bed, her naked white breasts rising and falling with her calm even breathing, and I found it amazing that with as beautiful she was, and with how flawless and overly plump her breasts were, and how they were always on full display, that somehow...somewhere over the last eighteen years of living in this fantasy world...it became normal to me...to see and appreciate, and even desire her and her breasts!

Shaking the cobwebs out of my head I looked past my mother and saw that Leandra and Bastet stood a few feet away in the middle of my room, "W-what happened," I asked in a hoarse whisper.

"Your magic awakened with a mighty roar while you were being...intimate...with Bastet," Glenna answered as she brushed some of my long golden hair out of my face.

"Did...I hurt her?" I interrupted from concern for Bastet, and looked over to her and asked again, "Did I hurt you?"

She smiled and bit her bottom lip and shook her head no, "Nearly crushed me when you collapsed, but that was all. Thankfully Leandra came in moments later and was able to lift you off of me before I suffocated."

Glenna looked over at Bastet and shook her head as she laughed, and when she looked back to me, she continued, "As you can see, she is fine. Completely devoid of magic now, but that is fine for her kind."

"Really, is it fine for her to have no magic at all," I asked while looking from Bastet to Mama, "I remember my magic leaping into her and attacking, then feeling her magic submitting to mine, and then our magics seemed to interweave and when it returned to me it pulled hers with it."

"Mmm yes, that is called Purification," She answered with a reassuring smile, "It is a rare ability only known to exist in the Vale family line. You, like your father, and his father before him are Druids."

"Druids," I gasped in surprise, "I'm a Druid?"

"Yes," She answered, "And a very rare type of Druid at that. I will have all the books I have on the subject brought to your room. You should read them all, but until you do, let me give a brief synopsis. Druids are considered balancers among the Races because they are generally very attuned to nature, but not all Druids are alike. There are some that are very attuned to the movements of the celestials."

"Celestials?" I interrupted again.

"Yes, the sun, moon, and stars," Glenna answered matter-of-factly and continued, "And then there are the Guardians."

"Guardians," I whispered, not wanting to interrupt again.

"Yes," She purred, "The Guardians are attuned to beasts that are especially attuned to nature or the celestials, and Animals like Bastet and Leandra are such kinds of beasts. And so, as a Druid Guardian you purified Bastet."

"But didn't that hurt her," I asked, not understanding how my taking her magic power didn't hurt her.

"No," Mama answered with a shake of her head, "You didn't hurt her at all, as a matter of fact, she is better than ever. She may not feel it now, but over the next few weeks she will begin to. It goes back to the fact that Animals were created by Alfar combining our genetics with those of the animal species using magic and bio-engineering similar to how the Fallen spliced their genetics into human/animal amalgams and hybrids. As a result all Animals have residual magic within them, and with the exception of a few Animal kinds, none of them can use it. Animals do have special skills and power, but it comes from Chi. Another source of internal energy they seem to be uniquely capable of tapping into. However, because most of them have absolutely zero aptitude for magic, the residue inside them taints their Chi limiting their cultivation of their Martial skills. Now that you have purified Bastet, she will be able to achieve levels in her cultivation that far exceed her previous ability."

"Oh, well, I guess it was a good thing then," I mused.

"Yes it is a good thing," Mama agreed with a nod, then added, "But Bastet isn't the only one that will feel changes happening over the coming weeks. So will you my boy. By taking Bastet's magic you will take on some of her qualities; such as her dexterity, agility, and constitution. You will find that your balance is better, your eyes and ears are sharper, and you will move with a feline grace."

"Really," I guffawed in awe and excitement.

Mama looked down at me and smiled as she patted my shoulder, then she turned and looked over to Leandra and asked, "Do you not want to bond with your Lord as well Leandra? Did not your father promise to give you to Summerset's first born son as well?"

"Wait? What?!" I gasped in surprise.

"Er," Leandra him-hawed as her large golden eyes met mine, and then she looked away, "I have given myself over to keeping my Lord safe. It was never stipulated that I must let him bed me."

"So," Glenna whispered frostily, "You are refusing your fathers command, and breaking his solemn promise?"

"I," Leandra answered fearfully now as Mama stood up and began slowly walking towards her, "I never wanted a little boy as my...Owner. I want a man that can...tame me…or at least hold his own against me. I have been training Master Viridian...trying to shape him into the man I want bedding me at night, but he isn't that man yet."

"So," Mama hissed as she reached Leandra and grabbed a hold of the top of her wide belt and pulled down so that Leandra knelt in front of her. With a white glowing finger, Mama tilted Leandra's head up so that she was looking up into her black orbs, "You want a duel? A contest of strength and skill?"

Leandra nodded yes.

"And then once Virdy beats you, you will submit to being his...Pet?" Glenna asked quietly.

"Yes," Leandra answered, "I will...happily become his Pet, but if he can not beat me, then I will not...at least, not until the day that he can."

"Fair enough," Mama answered, "Then a month from today. We will have the duel in the training yard, it will be witnessed by me, Bastet, her mother, your mother, and all of the Pridelord's wives. And when Viridian humbles you, you will also breed with my son before us all right there on the floor of the arena as we witness it."

"Yes my Lady," Leandra answered.

"Good," Mama chirped cheerily, "With that settled I want you three to go to Mwanje Kottrheim, and Leandra I want you to introduce Viridian to the Pridelord."