The Fall of House Faline, pt 2

Beinbalkr watched Aldrnari and Deild lead their small group in the direction of the private chambers of Matron Forelain. As soon as they were out of sight she walked into her office and returned with the largest meat tenderizer any of her maids had ever seen. It was a gift to her from a young gentleman caller a few hundred years ago when she had been a young maiden much like these girls standing before her now.

——(!)——

She had saved the young officer's life during a skirmish on the surface with wild Animals made of a sleuth of bears, packs of wolves, leashes of foxes, droves of pigs, and several coveys of avian. They had taken to living in northern Annwyn in a makeshift Animal town, called a Kykvendiborg. As if Animals could understand the concepts of civilization. They were made to be owned, and ruled. There was just no way they could or should live without the firm hand of a Prime telling them what they should do and how they should live. Only with a strong fist could the Animals be drug out of the mud and made to have some semblance of sophistication. At least, that is how she used to think, how she had been taught to think before the raid.

Before the battle commenced, she saw Animals of many different species coexisting. Females that were clothed in dresses, aprons, and blouses with sarong skirts. Males that wore their various clothing according to their trade crafts. All of the fabrics were made with plant fibers like cotton, or fur like wool. Scattered in the streets of the markets were plates and silverware, blacksmith shops offered farm equipment and larger knives, swords, axes, halberds, and other martial weapons of war. There were glass blowers, silver and goldsmiths and every type of crafts she had seen in her own city of Idavollr. It was evident to anyone that wished to accept the truth, that Animals were just as sophisticated and cultured as any Prime race. And yet, as she stood there in horror at the massacre that was happening before her, she watched male and female Animals die side-by-side protecting their city and their families.

It was during that conflict that she had her eyes opened. She watched shops and markets burn. The town hall doors blocked and locked closed with the elected Council still inside before the building was set on fire. Males were slaughtered in the street while the females were drug out of their homes, shops, or businesses by their hair or dresses. They were thrown into the street alongside their dead husbands and sons and then they were stripped and raped in front of their children. The scene was horrifying and grisly, and yet, it didn't keep her from using her wooden meat tenderizer on a wayward pig that charged in and almost gutted the young officer nearby.

On instinct and in fear for her life and of the beasts killing rage, she swung her mallet, in defense of the soldier so hard that it broke on the pig's head. As it danced away, dazed from the impact, she tossed the broken handle away and jumped on it's back and bashed it's brains in with her skillet. The officer was so impressed and thankful he commissioned a dvergr blacksmith to make an enchanted mithril maul, fashioned into the likeness of a meat tenderizer. When the weapon was completed, he gifted it to her along with a proposal to court and marry her. Both young and stupid, she thought him not her type because he wasn't as pretty as she wanted her eventual husband to be, so she turned him down but happily kept the hammer as repayment for the tenderizer she'd lost.

——(!)——

"By the goddess!" Istas, a tall, heavily muscled she-wolf growled at the sight of Beinbalkr's hammer, "I didn't know you served in the militia!"

"I didn't," Beinbalkr answered defensively at the accusation, but then purred proudly as she hefted the maul, "I was only ever a maid that worked my way up to Cook, and then became our Lady's Pantler. This was a gift for saving a soldier's life once upon a time when I was young like you all. I call it the 'Tenderizer'..."

"Yeah, I bet anyone hit by that thing is tenderized alright, if not completely pulverized," Svartsilki giggled as her two larger humanoid eyes blinked a split second before her other six smaller eyes did.

Beinbalkr smiled as she scanned her troop starting with Istas. The she-wolf was tall with short white fur on her belly and breasts that hid her nudity well unless she was in heat. Down her legs, arms, and back her fur was much longer and thicker. She had a long white mane of wild hair that fell to her buttocks, and no matter how the household staff attacked it, it was never tamed. As a matter of fact, they had stopped trying to groom Istas when it seemed to become increasingly frizzy and uncontrollable the more they brushed it. Her eyes were different colors, her right being a dark silvery blue while her left was a bright glacier blue/green. Her face was the only part of her that was denuded of fur revealing skin that was black with a silvery undertone while her eyebrows and eyelashes were long, thick, and white. Her triangular ears were long and pointed, and hung out over her shoulders very much like Alfar ears, however they were covered in short white fur while long hairs covered her ear canal to help keep dirt and grime out of them. Lastly, she also had a long, white, fluffy tail that grew out from between her buttocks and wagged gently back and forth helping her keep her balance as she walked on Animal hybrid hind legs with five toes and claws on each pawed foot.

No one gave Istas a weapon, she didn't need one, her brute strength and her claws were deadly enough. Standing over six feet tall, she was head and shoulders taller than almost every woman in the room except of Svartsilki and Gloa, the only two Sven'dahl scullery maids standing just to Istas right and left.

——(!)——

The Sven'dahl, the goddess Arachne's final and most special creation. They were meant to be reflections of her, of her terrifying beauty, and her will. However, in the end they were still only Animals, and insects at that, which the prejudiced Svartalf just couldn't accept. Soon after the Sven'dahl's creation, the goddess Arachne disappeared from the mortal plane.

Later when the Church was asked where their goddess had gone, High Priestess Serephvahl I announced that their goddess Arachne had left the mortal realm to return to the low depths of the Abyss to prepare a place for her people, the Svartalf. Since then, the authority of the Sven'dahl within the Temple of Arachne was marginalized, and finally, in the year 2345, less than a thousand years after their creation, High Priestess Serephvahl II banished the Sven'dahl from the church while Queen-Matron Lucustihl Nigrumarce exiled them to the lowest depths of Svartalfheim.

House Faline, like many others, purchase Sven'dahl as fodder for the House Militia's. However, upon seeing Svartsilki and Gloa's astonishing beauty Matron Faline had them assigned to Beinbalkr as maids. They were both still very young, each less than forty Animal years old, which meant that chronologically they weren't quite twenty yet. They weren't sister's, but they looked as if they could be. They were both very beautiful, a necessity for their kind. Bought from the lowest and therefore the most impoverished depths of Idavollr, they were sold into slavery by mothers looking to make money off the fact that Sven'dahl females birth fifteen to thirty offspring per pregnancy. It was rather mercenary, but then, it gave their children a chance for a better life than the ones they would find in the debauched slums of the lower precincts. Unfortunately the number of Sven'dahl eggs or children populating the slave markets was so numerous that it pushed their value down to nearly nothing. However, exceptionally beautiful females could still demand a hefty price depending on their subspecies.

——(!)——

Svartsilki and Gloa both had black skin as dark as onyx. They both had white hair on their heads that was pulled back into a single thick braid that fell down their completely humanoid backs. Otherwise their bodies were completely hairless and smooth. Svartsilki's eight eyes were glossy black orbs while Gloa's were crimson. Their faces were small and feminine, with sharp jawlines and pouty plump mouths. Long Svartalf ears stuck out over their shoulders and twitched and moved to track any sound they heard. Svartsilki's shoulders were narrow while Gloa's were broad, and were Svartsilki's breasts were small and easily cupped by her own hands Gloa's were very large and hung down like wine kegs a little more than halfway to her navel. Though some Sven'dahl have four arms and hands, both Svartsilki and Gloa only had two.

Both their rib-cages, just below their breasts, swept down to slim waists that then swept out to exotically broad hips and overly thick rear ends before curving down to what appeared to be thick thighs and abnormally long shapely legs nearly twice as long as their torsos. If it weren't for their hips and legs they would have looked exactly like Svartalf, and the fact that just below their navels their soft skin became the glossy hardened exoskeleton of a spider. Then there was the way their legs moved as they walked. Though their eight legs fit together so that they would appear humanoid, their individual legs moved weirdly as they tried to simulate natural musculature movement, and their crotches where their sexes were exposed was too wide leading to the gate of their walk being unnaturally sensual as the appeared to roll their hips exaggeratedly.

The final evidence of their species wagged up and down and to-and-fro behind them, almost like tails, but much stiffer. Connected to the base of their spines growing out from between their glossy black shell cheeks of their buttocks, adding to reason their hips were about four inches too wide to be natural, were small spider's abdomens that were glossy black with red hourglasses on the underbellies that could be seen through their thighs as they walked on two amalgamated legs. Because both girls were virgins, their abdomens were small, no longer than two feet long and no thicker than two feet in diameter at their thickest points. Of course that would change once they mated.

Svartsilki and Gloa's eyelids with fine white eyelashes blinked rapidly as they stared back at Beinbalkr. Realizing she was lost in thought she smiled and scanned over to look at the classically beautiful Kvedja before moving on to Raudr-daga and Byggja-byrr. The last three of her party were Svartalf slaves sold to their Matron to settle debts. They stood between five feet tall to five and a half feet, and each was slim of breast, waist and hips appearing more-or-less like the stereotypical Svartalf female. Unlike the Animals they were permitted clothing, maids attire, which was scanty ever since the young Lords Faline took over the House.

Trying to seem reassuring, Beinbalkr finally returned to Istas, "When we leave this kitchen we will be deemed patriots or traitors depending on who gains control of this House tonight. Let us pray it is our Matron Forelain. From here Istas and Gloa lead the way to the barracks. We must find Trina. Svartsilki you bring up the rear…"

Everyone nodded, then Beinbalkr commanded, "Okay then, let us begin then!"

Istas led the way through the door, pushing it open softly and silently she immediately went down on all fours and shapeshifted into a white dire-wolf large enough that Beinbalkr could have ridden her if Istas let her. Dark and light blue eyes looked back at her before Istas was trotting off ahead of them down the hallway.

Gloa followed right behind Istas on two, long humanoid appearing legs while her broad oval abdomen bounced from side-to-side behind her like a tail. As soon as she was through the door there was an audible "snick-snickity-snick-snick" as her two humanoid legs broke apart into their eight individual legs. She widened her stance and went from being head and shoulders taller than Beinbalkr to being possibly a few inches shorter. She took a few seconds and stretched each leg and then in absolute silence she bolted off, running ahead of them down the hallway after Istas as she climbed the walls and became a dark silhouette running along the ceiling.

Beinbalkr took a deep breath and then she followed her girls out into the hallway. Kvedja, Raudr-daga, and Byggja-byrr were next, each in a half crouch with knives and rolling pins out in front of them nervously. They were pastry maids while Istas, Svartsilki, and Gloa were from the buttery. The Animals had instincts that made them natural killers, however, these three girls visibly shook from fear as they shuffled down the hallway back to back so that nothing could come up behind them. Beinbalkr grinned and shook her head, but kept silent as she followed Istas and Gloa. If the girls didn't become complacent and relax, they just might make it through the night with their lives.

Svartsilki was the last out of the kitchen. She had long knives in each hand, and as she stepped into the hallway, like Gloa, there was an audible "snick-snickity-snick-snick" as her exotically long legs separated into eight thinner spider legs. She stretched, and then she moved more slowly behind the group spinning a small almost invisible line of spider thread a few inches above the floor, across the hallway, and then up the wall as she slowly climbed the ceiling.

Istas set a quick pace, running ahead sniffing out possible enemies, prowling in close so that she could ascertain whether the House Guard or staff were loyalists or traitors loyal to the Faline brothers. Once she knew, she retreated and led Beinbalkr and the rest down different paths and hallways. While Istas prowled below, Gloa was a darkness moving above, shadowing the she-wolf so as to give aid should the woman need it. Down one labyrinthine hallway after another they slowly made their way around the bulk of Hayden, Gunngrul, and Rweble's forces until they came to the barracks and training grounds.

Beinbalkr came trotting up behind Istas who had shapeshifted back into her humanoid form and was crouched low against the wall as she watched the entrance of the barracks while Gloa had her eight legs fully extended as she lay across the ceiling like it were the floor.

"What have we here," Beinbalkr whispered as she let her eyes shift into the infrared spectrum and immediately saw a large group of undefinable heat signatures.

"I smell many males and females within the barracks," Istas answered, then she pointed to two lookout points carved into the wall several feet above the floor, "There are two watchmen. One male, the other female, and she is...bleeding. There's also no way to tell if they are friend or foe."

"So," Beinbalkr mused as she leaned back behind the rockface wall of the hallway, "We have two snipers and no way to know if they're friendly…"

"Pantler Beinbalkr," Svartsilki whispered as she came scuttling up behind them with a single fiber of silk webbing still attached to the end of her spider abdomen.

"Yes, Silki," Beinbalkr answered as she looked up and struggled to see the heat of the spider before her.

"Madam, Gloa and I can ambush the watchmen," Svartsilki continued once given permission, "We hold our heat deeper inside our bodies than most, and since most things in the Svartjord see in infrared, we can also lower our exterior body temperature so that we disappear into the surrounding rock."

"Yes, do that," Beinbalkr agreed with a confident nod, but then warned, "Just, don't kill the watchmen, we don't know if they are friends or not, and besides after tonight we still have to live with them and their families. Best not do something we will regret later if possible."

"Understood," Svartsilki agreed with a nod, "We will put them to sleep with a mild poison." and then she scrambled away and up the wall to join Gloa. There was a brief exchange as she explained the plan, and then they disappeared from everyone's infrared vision as they lowered their body temperature to match the surrounding rock.

Istas was crouched low so that Beinbalkr could lean over her and peer around the corner to see what was happening. As she watched, two Svartalf forms suddenly came into view as their cloaks of invisibility fell down their backs behind them. They were lifted straight up into the air, as if they were being snatched up by nooses around their necks as their hands clawed at their throats and their legs kicked wildly. They partially disappeared behind the cool silhouettes of Gloa and Svartsilki as each Sven'dahl overpowered their prey and spun webbing around them, cocooning them within seconds leaving only wide-eyed faces uncovered so they could breathe.

Beinbalkr gasped as Svartsilki and Gloa used their front inner thigh/front leg pincers that were pedipalps, their hands, and arms to hold the watchmen close to their bodies. She was on the verge of calling out, but her voice was stuck in her throat as the small chelicerae, maxilla, and labium between their legs spread open revealing their virgin sexes. She had seen the girl's naked hybrid bodies all their lives. Hell, they were Animals and never allowed to wear clothes, so she knew every intimate detail of their bodies, and yet, never had she seen them expose themselves like they were now.

When securely in place and closed, their chelicerae looked very much like a woman's external labia starting at what would have been a normal woman's pubic mound and curving between the inner thighs of their merged legs. At the tips of each chelicerae were fangs that curled over their labium to end where their anus' should have been but instead was where their humanoid pelvis joined their spider's abdomen. Once their chelicerae wiggled and rose up away from their bodies like a fifth set of small hand-length legs, then two smaller glossy black maxilla positioned at the bottom and to each side of their vaginas spread open like inner labia. All that was left was the labium, a final sexual mandible at the base of their vaginas where a normal woman's perineum would have been. It opened downward towards the lower cheeks of their amalgamated buttocks made up of the joints of their eight legs and the joining of their spider's abdomens.

At the distance Beinbalkr was from Svartsilki and Gloa, all she could tell was that there was an incredible amount of heat emanating from their wombs as the watchmen's struggling immediately abated once Gloa and Svartsilki sunk their fangs into their lower bellies. Once the watchmen hung limp and unmoving, they lowered them back down on the lookout hideaways carved into the rockface.

"Okay, time to move. Let's bypass the barracks and head to the stables, and then the Marshal's office," Beinbalkr whispered to Istas.

"Yes Madam," Istas answered as she immediately led the way on all fours though she didn't shapeshift again.

Beinbalkr pointed the way down the hallway as she followed Istas while Kvedja, Raudr-daga, and Byggja-byrr stayed right on her heels. Svartsilki and Gloa scrambled back up the wall and ran across the ceiling as naturally as they would have the ground.

The trek down the hallway was quick and soon they were looking out across the vast cavern. Svartsilki and Gloa dropped to the floor as Istas and Beinbalkr scanned the area.

"We need to reach the other side of the training grounds," Beinbalkr whispered as she pointed to the gaping maw of another hallway on the opposite side of the cavern, "But, we will be out in the open and defenseless…"

As she explained their circumstances Svartsilki suddenly jumped and looked back from where they had come with an expression of shock and fear, "Madam Pantler, there is movement behind us…"

Beinbalkr turned to look at Svartsilki and then back the way they had come, "How?"

"I've been leaving trip lines behind us," The demure Sven'dahl girl answered, "Along the floor, walls, and ceiling. Whoever it is, they are tripping all of the lines. Which means…"

"Whoever's behind us has activated the Sven'dahl soldiers," Beinbalkr finished, the taking Svartsilki's chin in her hand she turned the girl's face to look at her, "How soon will they be upon us?"

"Soon Madam, if we don't move now," She answered.

"Okay then, time to run," Beinbalkr growled. Turning towards the training ground Beinbalkr led the charge as she shot out of the hallway into the vast open chamber. She was quickly outpaced by Istas, Svartsilki, and Gloa while Kvedja, Raudr-daga, and Byggja-byrr were just in front of her. It was times like this that she wished she was two-hundred years old again.

They were halfway across the training yard when Svartalf House Guard started pouring out of the hallway in front of them. They slid to a halt as two-hundred men spread out before them to each side of the hallway while Jafningi Erfior followed them. He walked in at an arrogantly slow saunter with Gunngrul Faline at his side.

"Who are these mice that have fallen into our trap," Jafningi yelled across the stadium while simultaneously signaling his lieutenant to intercept them.

"Run!" Beinbalkr screamed before turning on her heels and running back the way they came.

Again Istas, Svartsilki, and Gloa quickly caught up and out paced her while the other girls hissed and wheezed as they ran as hard as they could to catch up. They were still a hundred feet from the hallway when fifty men and a hundred female Svartalf warriors poured out of the hallway. Istas, Svartsilki, and Gloa slid to a halt as the Svartalf lined up quickly as another hundred and fifty Animals of various species along with a hundred Sven'dahl poured out and lined up in front of them.

"What do we do," Istas asked in a low panicked whisper, "We're surrounded!"

"I don't know," Beinbalkr answered in a desperate whisper.

"Oh goddess, we're all going to die," Kvedja wailed while Raudr-daga and Byggja-byrr turned and hugged each other fiercely.

"Bein? Beinbalkr? Is that you?" Came a voice from in front of them. As the question was asked a robust, glossy black hair Svartalf woman pushed through the Sven'dahl and Animals in front of her and stood in front of her troops.

"Trina!" Beinbalkr cried in relief and motioned for her maids to follow her as she trotted up to Trina and Urthrina, who was just pushing her way out from between a silver she-wolf and a smaller male fox with many scars across his back and shoulders.

"Bein! What are you doing out and about in all of this...mess," Trina asked once she was close enough.

"Taking a stand for my Matron Forelain," She answered, "I have already sent half my staff to aid our Lady while I and my maids have been looking for you!"

"Well!" Trina gasped in surprise, "Much to my surprise you have found me…"

"Marshal Trina," Beinbalkr interrupted, "One of my girls witnessed a confession from Lord Hayden to Lord Gunngrul of our Matron and her Heir still being alive, but also in jeopardy. The same witness also overheard orders given to kill them tonight…"

"Yes, thank you Pantler Beinbalkr," Trina answered with a smile and a wave of her hands, "I also have image recorded evidence of our Matron and her Heir being alive. Now we are here to confront and bring to justice the traitors in our House!" She finished her last statement with a yell loud enough for the opposing force to hear before she continued, "If you can hear me, I have evidence that Matron Forelain and her heir Lady Sulubha are alive. This proves that Lords Hayden, Gunngrul, and Rweble are usurpers and traitors to our House and our Matron, their mother. If you wish to stand with Matron Forelain then leave and secure yourselves in your rooms."

As she spoke Beinbalkr started tearing off strips of red cloth and motioned for her girls to start passing them out to the forces with Trina and Urthrina.

"Do not believe a word this traitor says," Gunngrul shrieked aggressively as he shook his fist at Trina, "Every word she speaks is a lie! This is a conspiracy devised by disgruntled subordinates! The people that are running around our House with my late mother and sister's faces are imposters and impersonators hired by Trina Armiano, Urthrina Svartjarn, and Beinbalkr Maertungl!"

"The only lier's in this House are the treasonous sons of our Matron, and those who stand with them," Urthrina shot back immediately.

"It matters not what you think," Gunngrul growled, "My brother Hayden and I will rebuild this house upon your ashes! It is high time this House was cleansed of or the chaff that has stagnated our power and blood for centuries. Jafningi, men of the House Guard, kill these rebel trash! Don't let a single one live to see tomorrow!"

"Marshal Trina," Beinbalkr sighed as she shook her head at Gunngrul and then men with him, "You've done your best Deary. Here, take this," She handed Trina a strip of red cloth, "It is the sign of our allegiance to our Matron. Wear it with pride for the House we once were…"

"And will be again," Trina vowed as she clinched the strip of red cloth in her hand like it were a totem, "You're a good woman Beinbalkr, and an even better cook, may the goddess's grace protect you tonight and if you should fall, may her bosoms embrace greet you in the next life!"

"You as well Trina Armiano," Beinbalkr returned.

"Well, my friend," Urthrina said from Trina's other side, "Come back with your shield, or on it!"

"The same to you my friend," Trina answered as she raised her sword above her head and all her men and women stomped as they executed a rigid solute and bashed their weapons against weapons or shield according to their preferences.

"CHARGE!" Rang out across the training ground and was quickly deafened by the boots, paws, claws, or appendages that thundered across the dark lightless stone as more than six hundred brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, husbands, and wives...

Family...

Engaged in battle...