Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2007 22:03:45 -0500
From: Cobalt Blue <elfcat@gmail.com> 
Subject: Cattin' Around Chapter 3: Doin' A Mall (Bi, SF)

Authors Note:  This story is going to include action as much as it
includes sex.  In this issue, you get a good dose of both.   Hope you
enjoy and if you have any feed back please email me at Elfcat@gmail.com

Cobalt Blue

          The summer after my sixteenth birthday things got really
interesting not only around the house, but for me as well.  My
grandparents, my uncle, his wife, and four of my cousins were visiting.
About the same time, we had a visitor from England named Emory that
rocked my world in several ways.  After that summer, nothing for me would
ever be the same.  She opened my eyes to so much, and stripped away the
last of my innocence.

          I'll never forget exactly how it started.  Like I said, I had
four cousin's visiting.   The two youngest were my visiting aunt and
uncle's four year old twins, Sigridth, and Leif.  They were actually kind
of cute, and I enjoyed having them around for the most part.  Then there
was my other Uncle's oldest daughter Ingrid who was getting married in a
few months.  Lastly was Sven.  He was two years younger than I was, and
was going to be apprenticed to my grandfather when they returned to
Alfhiem.

I think grandmother brought Ingrid on this trip to get her out of her
mother's hair for a while.  All she could talk about were the wedding
plans, and how she was actually going to be a housefrau.  Oddly enough, I
was happy for her.  It was clear she was deeply in love with her
betrothed and there was something about the domestic bliss she was
imagining that was actually appealing to me.  Sven on the other hand was
being an ass. For some reason he had a bug up his butt about me and I
couldn't figure out why.  He'd gotten the idea that I was getting off
easy about something.  Getting of easy from what, I don't know, but he
was convinced that I didn't have as many responsibilities as he did.

We were coming down the stairs, and were of course arguing.  He was
saying, "Doesn't look like you're hiding too much now."

"I'm home. There's nobody here but family, so I can relax.  But I do
spend eight hours a day at school, and that means holding a more
normal..."  I looked around the corner just in time to see the most
beautiful set of blue eyes I'd ever seen staring directly at my tail.
For a moment, I just stood there looking at her.  She was about five
seven, with white blonde hair pulled back in a braid that reached to
below her waist, and the cutest little button nose I'd ever seen.  Then I
realized what she was looking at and high-tailed it back upstairs.

"What?" Sven asked and then saw her.  "Oh."

Reaching the top of the stairs it took me a second to regain enough
composure to shift back into a more human form.  Then, trying to look
nonchalant, I headed back down and looked around.  "I'm sorry, I didn't
know that we had company."

She gave me a strange look and said in that most perfect of upper-class
English accents, "I've only just arrived from England.  My uncle said
that I should stop in and visit his friends, the Greenboughs.  I hope I
didn't come at an inopportune time."  She looked around at the gathering.

"Not at all, my dear," Mom told her, and I got the feeling she was not
just being polite.  "Your Uncle Evan and I have already discussed things,
and you'll be staying with us for a while."

The surprise must have shown on my face because she looked at me and
said, "Trey, why don't you take Emory's bags up to the bedroom across
from Ingrid's."  Then as if remembering that she hadn't introduced us,
she added, "Oh, I'm sorry.  Emory Northmore, this is my son, Hunter, or
as we call him, Trey.  Trey, this is Emory.  She's the niece of a friend
of your father's and mine from England.  She'll be staying with us a
while."

My mother's tone was very clear and I understood that I should be on my
best behavior.  So I turned on the charm, and to Emory I offered my hand,
"It's a pleasure to meet you.  If you'll follow me, I'll show you where
you're staying."

She just grinned back and gave me one of those dainty little lady's
handshakes. I couldn't help notice how soft her hand felt, yet there was
strength there too.    She grinned as if she could read my mind and
replied, "The pleasure is all mine, Trey.  I'm looking forward to your
company."

For some reason that surprised me and I did a quick double take before
reaching down and picking up her suitcase and overnight bag.  I looked
over at Sven and said, "You grab that one, and I'll get the rest."

"That's okay," she reached for the bag quickly and said, "I can get this
one."

I shrugged and told her, "Okay by me."  I gave Sven a hard look and then
headed up the stairs.  The room Mom had indicated was at the far end of
the hall, and oddly enough right next to mine.  Our house was actually,
an old ante-bellum plantation house.  My grandfather had bought it back
at the turn of the century and made all the necessary repairs.  It was a
big ol' sprawling place, originally built to house a family and staff of
around twenty or so, but was now simply our home with no staff, so we had
plenty of room.

As I put her stuff down in the room, she looked at me and said, "Far be
it for me to make a personal comment, but did you know your cousins are
elves?"

I gave her a startled look and then decided that if Mom and Dad were
going to have her stay here, she probably knew more about what was going
on than I thought.  "Actually, they're Alfs, distantly related to elves
but not quite the same.  Elves are Celtic in origin, Alfs are Nordic."

She smiled at me and said, "Relax Trey.  I'm not going to bite you, and
yes I know about you and your family."

I shrugged, "I figured as much. Otherwise Mom wouldn't have invited you
to stay while we had relatives from Alfheim staying."

"She didn't invite me to stay, she insisted I stay.  I think she and
Uncle Evan have been conspiring to keep me out of trouble."

I raised an eyebrow at that.  "They want to keep you out of trouble and
they put you in the same state with me?   Somehow that doesn't make any
sense."

"What do you mean?  Are you some kind of trouble magnet?" she asked.

I chuckled and replied as I leaned against the door frame.  "Let's just
say I've a certain reputation around here.  Mom and Dad just laugh it off
and tell me I'm a weirdness magnet, but there are a lot of parents who
aren't happy when they see me coming."

"Oh?" She asked raising an eyebrow.  "Have you caused that much damage?"

I shook my head, "The only thing I can think of that I've broken is a
lamp at a friend's house a few years ago.   It has more to do with how
the lamp got broken than the fact that it got broken."

"Really?" she asked.

I nodded.  "I'll tell you about it sometimes.  You said to keep you out
of trouble; what kind of trouble?"

She laughed darkly, "They're worried that I'm going to track down and do
some harm to the woman who was responsible for murdering my parents."

"Are you?"

"That's the plan.  Of course Uncle tells me that I should wait and let
him take care of it, but then he goes out of his way to make sure that I
can help him with the job."

"So, he sends you to stay in a house full of magecats and alfar.  Makes
sense to me," I told her.

"That and he thinks that your mother will be able to help me better
understand how to use certain abilities of mine as well as get a better
understanding on the runes," she told me.

I laughed about that one. "Well, he's definitely sent you to the right
place for that.  But for the runes, you might be better off talking to
Dad or me.  Galdr is usually considered man's magic.  Mom understands it,
but to be honest, Dad and I are better at it.  Mom's specialty is seidr."

It was her turn to laugh.  "Don't worry. I think I can come up with
requisite talents to make galdr work for me."

I just shrugged and said, "I didn't mean anything by that.  Just that
it's traditionally a man's magic.  I'll be glad to teach you what I
know."  Actually, the more I talked to her, I realized I'd be glad to do
anything she asked me to do.  My heart was actually beating faster, the
longer I talked with her.  And I'd be damned if my palms weren't
sweating.

She gave me a cute little flirty smile and said, "Do you think I'll be
safe around such a notorious womanizer?"

I smiled nervously and went toward the door.  I wasn't used to not being
in control of a situation, and was honestly afraid I was going to sprout
ears and tail if I wasn't careful.  Not being able to resist a parting
comment, I stopped at the door, turned back to her and said, "Somehow
Miss Northmore, I get the feeling that you are more than capable of
taking care of yourself.  But right now, you've probably a lot of
unpacking to do, and don't need me around for that.  When you're
finished, come down and we can talk about exactly what you want to
learn.  Who knows, maybe I can learn a few things from you."  Somehow it
didn't come out as sophisticated as I wanted it to.  Maybe it was my
Southern accent contrasted against hers, but it sounded stupid to me.

~*~

A few days later, I got a very good lesson on exactly what she meant
about Mom being able to help her, and exactly what she could teach me.
Sven and Ingrid had gone with my Dad and Uncle to the Southern States
Store to pick up some things for the farm.  I think my uncle was
comparing his farming methods with Dad's.   Grandmother, my aunt and the
twins were having a nice visit out at the pool, and Mom and Emory were in
the study when I came down stairs.

  I overheard Mom say, "Okay, I want you to imagine exactly what you want
to look like.  Think about the form, think about the muscles, the fat,
the coloring, all of it...," she looked up and saw me standing at the
door.  "Oh good.  Trey, why don't you come in and join us.  I was just
working on something with Emory that I think you can help me with."

I shrugged wondering why she thought I could help, and came in.  Hey, I
was sixteen and like I said, Emory was had more than caught my eye.
"Sure Mom.  How can I help?"

She smiled at me and said, "Sit down right there, and help me show Emory
how to do this."   She then looked back at Emory and said, "Look at the
shape of his nose, his hair, his eyes.  Concentrate on what he looks
like."

Emory nodded and I suddenly felt like a rabbit under a hawk's gaze as she
stared intently at my face.  "I think I have it," she said.

"Good now, get that image fixed in your mind, and project yourself into
it."

I watched in amazement as her face slowly shifted.  I saw the space
between her eyes widen slightly, her nose altered shape, and her hair
shortened.  Over the next several seconds, her face became a perfect copy
of mine, which was kind of weird being as it was sitting on the knock-out
body of a teenage girl.  "How's this?"

"Very good." Mom handed her a mirror and then looked over at me and said,
"Now you try it."

"What?" I asked.

"I want you try it," she told me.  "I want you to look closely at Emory,
memorize her features, her nose, her eyes, her hair, her skin, get them
set in your head and then project yourself into it."

"Yes, ma'am." When my Mom tells me to do something, I learned a long time
ago, to do it, and not to ask questions.  It wasn't like I hadn't been
memorizing Emory's features ever since she came to visit. I stared at
Emory, looking at how her eyes were shaped, how blue they were.  I noted
how peachy and clear her skin was, and how the sun reflected off her
almost-white hair.  I took it all in, even the scent of her perfume that
drifted across the room.

"Good," Mom said.

"It worked!" Emory said in awe looking into the mirror.

"Yes it did," Mom replied.  Then turning to me, she said, "Now I want you
to think about the other day when you two shook hands.  Do you remember
that feeling?"

I nodded and replied, "Yes ma'am."

"Okay, I want you to remember that feeling and put it with what you've
got fixed in your mind about Emory.  Then I want you to project yourself
into that, while letting your true-form take over."

"It's a lot to concentrate on all at once, Mom," I complained.

"You can do it," she said.  "You're a bright boy."

"Yes ma'am." I said as I let my body start to change into my normal form,
and then project it into the form in my mind and memory.  Suddenly, my
skin felt like it was trying to crawl off my bones.  Like I've said
before, my natural form consists of ears, a tail, and retractable claws,
where I look like something of a Japanese anime cartoon, and usually when
I let myself relax back into that form, there's a certain feeling of
relief.  You know the feeling when you've been having to hold a
particular stance or pose for a long time and then are able to move?
Well that's the feeling I normally get when I transform.

But this was different.  I won't say it felt wrong, because that's not
really it.  It was more like straining a muscle that you didn't know you
have.  There was also a rush to it.  Suddenly my clothes didn't fit
right.  Not the normal didn't fit right and get ripped off when I take my
14 foot battle form, but like they were cut wrong.  My tee-shirt felt
funny, and my jeans were suddenly too tight through the butt.  I looked
over and the copper hair that usually hung down to my shoulders had
lengthened and was now blonde.  I looked down and suddenly I had tits!

I looked over to where Mom was standing next to the bookshelf with her
arms crossed and was smiling.   She chuckled and said, "I thought so."

"Thought what?" I asked.

"You've been fairly bursting with it lately."  She turned to Emory who
was still sitting there with my head on top of that knock-out body and
said.  "When your Uncle called me and asked me to help you with your
burgeoning powers, I figured I might as well kill two birds with one
stone."

"Mom!" I complained in a voice too high for my own taste.  "This is
embarrassing!"

She gave me a smile and dismissing wave, "Oh pfoo.  Did you think you
only inherited things from your father?  Did you think that being a
mage-cat was your only birthright?  How can you spend so much time in
Alfheim and not realize that you're part of the place; that my blood too
runs in your veins?  You are as much alf as you are mage-cat.  This is my
blood's gift to you."

"But Mom, I've got breasts!"

"Based upon how complete your change seems to be, that's probably not the
only thing you have," Emory chuckled in her so correct British accent.
"Or more appropriately, what you don't have."

Okay, there are some things you don't threaten a sixteen year old boy
with.  The loss of his dick and balls is somewhere near the top of the
list.  Without thinking or even caring about who was in the room I stood
up, opened the front of my jeans and pulled out my underwear.  They were
gone!

Don't get me wrong. Normally looking at a blond bush like that would have
given me a boner in a minute, but for some reason, MY MISSING DICK AND
BALLS MADE THAT KIND OF DIFFICULT!  "What the...?"

"You'll be fine, Trey.  It's just shape shifting.  You've been doing it
since you were born," she said.

"Not like this I haven't."

She chuckled and came over and hugged me, "No, not like this.  But I
suspected that you could.  If it bothers you so much go back to your
normal form."

"How?" I asked.

"Just relax.  Stop projecting."

Then I realized that I'd become so accustomed to holding a human shape,
that even while shocked at what I'd done, I had managed to keep the force
of will in place to not shift to my mage cat form.  I relaxed my will and
watched as my body slowly flowed back into its normal shape.  The
tingling that the change set off in my groin gave me an instant hard on.

"Impressive," I heard Emory say from across the room as her own head
slowly shifted to its normal form.

I blushed and closed my jeans and said, "Thanks, I think."

Mom just chuckled again before sitting down and saying, "Okay, now that
we've established some parameters, I think you may have some questions."

"You think?" I said sarcastically.

Mom gave a long look and said, "You will keep a civil tongue in your
head."

"Yes ma'am."

"Why was Trey's transformation more complete than mine?" Emory asked.

Mom smiled at her and said, "I would say for two reasons.  The first is
that Trey's been shapeshifting since he was a baby.  He was born in his
mage-cat form so shifting comes to him like a second nature.  The second
is the hverfr kenna that comes from his alfar heritage."

"What's hverfr kenna," she asked.

"It means change feel," I told her.

"I know what it means," Emory told me.  "I can speak Old Norse.  I wanted
know how it's being used."

"You can?" I asked.

"Of course.  How do you think I knew your relatives were alfar?"

"I don't know I didn't think about it."

"You should think some times," she told me.  "My uncle tells me that it
can keep you alive.  Besides which my mother insisted that I learn her
native tongue."

"Children," Mom interrupted in that tone that told us both that the
argument was over.  "Many of the alfar who have the gift of shapeshifting
have the hverfr kenna.  It's the ability to touch someone and know their
form instinctively.  That's probably the reason that he was able to take
your form completely.   You two shook hands, and whether his mind
realized it, his body reacted to you in more than just the normal way.
You weren't able to take his complete form because you hadn't seen him
without his clothes."  She gave me sudden look.  "She hasn't seen you
without your clothes, has she?"

"Mom!"

She shook her head and smiled, "I was just teasing.  You do a certain
reputation you know."

"And I have a reputation to maintain too, Mrs.  Greenbough," Emory
reminded her.

"I understand, Emory.  I was just teasing my son.  Sometimes he gets too
prudish about these things."

"May I try something then?" Emory asked.

"Of course, that's why we're here; to learn," Mom answered.

Emory walked over to me and reached out gently and touched my face.  The
soft feel of her skin against mine sent shivers down my spine.  I could
now smell not only her perfume but her underlying scent below that.  Of
course it helped that I was in my mage-cat form so my senses were already
heightened.

Then she stepped back and closed her eyes.  I watched as her face slowly
shifted.  Her ears moved to the top of her head and slowly morphed into
those of and orange and yellow striped cat.  Her skirt rustled slightly
as a similarly striped tail emerged from under it.  Her face began to
shift as her hair shortened and turned a deep copper.  Her breasts
disappeared and her shoulders widened and she gained several inches in
height.  Finally, a perfect duplicate of me was standing there in a skirt
and blouse.

She opened her eyes and looked down.  "Oooh, that's different."  With as
little regard for her environment as I, she opened the top of her skirt
and looked down at the bulge I could see in her clean white panties.
"That IS impressive."

"How?" Mom asked.

"I told you my mother insisted that I learn her native language.  My
mother was alfar.  My father was half human and half fey.  I think that's
why my Uncle sent me to you.  He knew what you are, and how you could
help me," she told Mom.  Then looking over at me she added, "And your Mom
is right.  You should be proud of your alfar heritage.  At least you got
to know that portion of your family."

"I am!" I protested.  "I just hadn't thought about it."

"Like I said, you should think more often.  It's good for you."

"I do think!" I told her.

"I wouldn't tease him too much, Emory."  Mom told her.  "Remember, he's
the one who's going to be teaching you the runes."

"He is?"

"I am?"

Mom nodded.  "For her to learn them correctly and traditionally, your
Uncle, myself, and Trey's father all think it would be more appropriate
for you to learn them from him."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously.

"If you think about the traditional way you learned them and from whom,
you'd know."

It hit me.  Traditionally, if you learn magic, from another vitki not
related to you, it required a trade of knowledge for a sexual
relationship.  Of course I didn't sleep with my parents when they both
taught me the arts, but that was because the tradition is suspended in
those cases.  But when Ridvin began teaching me, we were already lovers
so it didn't really matter.

Knowledge of the magical arts comes at a price and traditionally, that
price included sexual favors.  That was why Sleipner's Mom was able to
getting away with insulting the All Father by accusing him of womanly
ways in the Flyting of Loki.  For the Hanged God to learn the secrets of
magic, he would have had to have someone else teach him and that
traditionally required sexual favors to the person teaching you.

I blushed.  "Mom, I'll be glad to teach her, but I would never hold that
over her head for me to do it."

"I know the cost of learning, Trey."  She gave me an appraising look both
up and down my body and then down it's copy that she was wearing.  "I'm
more than willing to pay it.  If I didn't then I could never bind you to
teaching me everything I need to know.  This way we both get something
out of it."

I looked over at Mom and then over at Emory and sighed.  It's one thing
to work to get into her pants, but it's another to do it with the full
knowledge of my parents, and under their roof. That takes half the fun
out of it.  Remember, this was 1980.  Things were a little different in
the South back then.  "We'll talk about payment later."

"And bindings," she said.

"And bindings," I told her resignedly.

"I wonder," Emory looked at me and said.  Then she began to shift her
features back to her own form, but kept the ears, tail and coloration.  I
have to say, she made a fetching mage-cat.

"I wondered about that too," Mom told her.  "I suspect that you could
even copy a smaller version of his battle form, just without all the
strength and rage."

"We could try," she told me.  "You could show me the form."

I shook my head quickly and both Mom and I said in unison. "No."

"Why?" she asked.

"There's a certain amount of rage that comes with that form," Mom told
her.  "And personally, I don't feel like having to knock my son upside
the head to get him to calm down."

"Besides, the ceiling in here is too low."

"Well, if you want to try it later, I can suppress the rage," Emory told
her.

I shrugged, "Maybe."

"Do you have any questions about what happened here today?" Mom asked me.

"Let me see.  Our friend here from England is what Dr. Green from
Pacifica is calling a metamorph.  Evidently so am and I and it's because
we both are part alfar.  I'm supposed to teach her the runes...," I paused
and looked at both her and Mom and said, "... with all that entails.  And,
of course the usual, don't scare the normals.  Don't talk about it when
someone else might over hear.  And as of course your usual admonition:
You're not rocking."

"Yet," she told me.

"Yet," I repeated.

"And you?" she asked Emory.

"Don't talk about it where the so-called normals can hear us. Trey is
going to teach me everything I should know about the runes, and probably
a few things I shouldn't, but with any luck he'll teach me anyway.  Most
of what he said a minute ago, although the not rocking thing is not much
of an issue.  My uncle insists that I keep a specific spell going."

Mom nodded and said, "Well, considering what you've learned here today, I
know you two aren't stupid, neither are you unimaginative.  Just make
sure that you teach him that spell as well."

"Not a problem.  I figure I can teach him my type of magic so he can
adapt it to his, and he can teach me his kind and I can adapt it to
mine."

"That's the idea."

"Oh, by the way, when is the next werewolf gathering on the property?"

I gave Mom a startled look and immediately said, "I didn't tell her."

"I told her, Trey. She's going to be here all summer, so she needs to
know about these things.  Be sure to tell JD that she's off limits."

"Yes ma'am."

"Speaking of JD, aren't you supposed to meet him this afternoon Trey?"

I nodded.  "Yeah, we were going into the Birmingham to the Lion and the
Unicorn, but he had to cancel."

"Oh I was going to ask if I could tag along, unless it was going to be a
gentlemen's only day out."

"You're more than welcome to come with me.  It's a comic book and gaming
shop.  But after we're finished there we could go to one of the malls and
do some shopping and hang out.  Get to know each other a little better,
if you don't mind."

She slowly let the ears and tail fade and said.  "I don't mind.  I think
that would be quite an exciting afternoon and evening. "    Boy was she
right about that, but just not the way she meant it.

~*~

Several hours later we were walking around the mall together.  The gaming
shop had been a bust.  The latest supplement for Call of C'Thulu from
Chaosium wasn't out yet, and there was some strange old guy there who
kept giving me a weird look.  In the end, we just left and went shopping
at the mall.

There was a strange easiness between us.  It was like we both knew that
we would end up in bed together, and with that out of the way, we could
talk about just about anything.  She told me of growing up in England; of
being sent to boarding school and of the things her uncle taught her.
Everything she was telling me about him and his activities, simply
reinforced the idea that my father was some kind of spy.

I told her about being a mage-cat, about growing up in the Deep South,
and about my trips to Alfheim.  We talked about Mom and Dad, and even a
little bit about Ridvin.  I didn't tell her everything about him, but I'm
sure she understood that he was a very special friend.

We'd stopped and had dinner at the little restaurant in mall, and then
wandered around the shops.  I discovered that she hadn't brought nearly
enough clothing for an extended stay, so as a good host, I went with her
to J. C. Penny's to get a few things.  Even back then, women's ability to
shop was awe inspiring.

It was strange though.  I may complain about it, but looking back over
all these years, I have to admit I was enjoying myself.  There was
something easy about being able to talk to her that was surprising.  We
laughed, we talked, and for the most part we were teenagers who were
bonding.  Now, I understand that her own telepathic powers gave her
enough insight to be able to put me at ease.  She told me a few years
ago, that my own mixed emotions about what I knew was supposed to happen
between us had been charming, and had made a big difference in how she
saw me.  I wasn't ready just to jump her bones because our relationship
that was to be gave me some right to her body, but wanted to get to know
her, and that made me go up in her estimation.

All in all up to the end, it had been a great day, and toward seven
o'clock we decided it was about time to head back home.  We were coming
out of Spencer's when the first attack hit.  I suddenly felt the air
pressure in the main concourse change, and saw a flash out of the corner
of my eye.  Without thinking I shoved Emory to the side as something hit
me square in the right shoulder.  I looked down to see about three foot
of steel shaft sticking out my body.  I tried to move my arm and felt the
metal grind against the bone.

Suddenly a woman was flying down the concourse on a piece of metal like
some kind of surfer.  Her whole body seemed to be covered in some kind of
gun-metal-blue scaled armor, and she had four arms.  The metallic scales
on her face made her look like someone had beaten her with an ugly
stick.  "Stay down, and you will not get hurt.  I'm here for the girl!"
she yelled in a heavy French accent.

Emory rolled across the floor and came up with a spell.  Lightning
crackled from her hands and hurled across the concourse into the woman.
I stood watching the lightning dance around her.  "The problem with metal
armor Fer Forge` is that it's susceptible to electricity!  Or didn't your
master in Algiers teach you that?"

The metal under the woman collapsed from under her as the lightning
crackled and dissipated.  I reached up and yanked hard on the spear in my
shoulder and it pulled free, dragging tissue with its bared shaft.  The
pain was intense, and I felt myself begin to shift in response to it.

"Ah, my little witchling, you've decided to fight back.  Bon, that is
more than your parents did," Fer Forge` replied with an evil grin.  She
landed with a thud onto the side of the fountain.

I watched Emory as her clothing shifted into a bright metallic silver
stylized body stocking and a gold hooded cloak with a silver tree
embroidered on the back.   She growled over at the armored form of the
woman and said, "Don't call me witchling.  The name is Avalon!"  She
lashed out with a second lightning bolt.  The energy arced out, Fer
Forge` tried to back-flip off the fountain, but the bolt changed
direction in mid-course to slam into her back  into a pile of display
books at Waldenbooks.

As I felt myself grow and the beast inside me began to take over, I felt
the natural call of the great cat defending its territory.  My vision
sharpened, my hearing became more acute, and I could smell the fear of
the normals around me.  My father's training and Freyja's commission
kicked in as well.  This woman was a threat to the humans of Midgarth and
had to be neutralized.  I willed the change that normally I controlled
very carefully.  My mass increased as the world around me shrank.  My
skin prickled as a tough coat of fur emerged from beneath it.  And of
course, my clothes began to rip and tear leaving standing only in the
loin cloth that my mother insisted I wear under my clothes when out in
public.

As Fer Forge` pulled herself out of the pile of books, slinging them left
and right, I saw the customers and the clerk cowering behind the counter
and the shelves.  Still holding the spear I'd ripped from my shoulder, I
leapt at her.   She looked up and I could see the fear in her face as
over half a ton of raging cat came flying toward her.

          With a gesture from her, I suddenly felt the spear in my hand
yank backward, slinging me toward the fountain.  I crashed backwards
through the steel reinforced concrete structure and rolled out of the
way.  I looked behind me to see several kids peeking out of the arcade
with a look of awe on their faces.   Off to the side, Emory, uh sorry,
Avalon was chanting something in what sounded like Gaelic.

          Turning back toward our armored foe, I saw where she was
dodging a flurry of books flying off the shelves and attacking her.
"That's the way to throw the book at her!"  I joked.

          Avalon gave me a hard look and I shrugged, "Sorry, couldn't
help it."  I guess my remark upset Fer Forge` too, because she suddenly
gestured toward me and every metal shelf in the store was suddenly
hurtling toward me.  I knew I could probably dodge them all, but the kids
behind me were in their direct path.  I had to do something.  I could
take a hit from one or two of them, but those kids couldn't.

          Back-flipping to the arcade, I reached out and grabbed the
metal gate that dropped from the ceiling and yanked down hard while
growling, "Get down guys!"

          Suddenly, I was hit with several hundred pounds of metal
shelving.  A rack came smashing through the grating and pierced the
Defender machine next to my head.   I was pissed.  This woman was not
only trying to kill Emory, but had stabbed me with a metal spear and now
almost killed a bunch of kids.  If she wanted to play with metal, I had a
piece of metal for her. I flicked my wrist and said, "Vaxa!"

          The tiny little sword charm on my bracelet suddenly grew in my
hand to become the sword Gradfather had given me.  Leaping back toward
her, sword high over my head, I yelled, "Let's see you try to manipulate
this one!"

          She grinned at me and gestured toward the sword.  Nothing
happened, I kept coming.   I swung down hard, and she dove to one side.
"Impossible!"  No steel is beyond my control!"

          I swung a long two-handed blow at her mid-drift.  I felt the
blade scrape across her scales as Isstonn bit deeply.  I could see ice
forming along the wound it opened.  "Isstonn isn't made of steel.  It's a
Jotun's blade, made of the very stuff of the elements.  It was forged in
the land of my ancestors.  It is beyond your control!"  I lunged at her,
as she dodged backwards.

          She was on the defensive.  I spun past her and came around with
a hard swing at her mid-section.  Suddenly, she put her hands together
and pulled them apart, generating what looked like another spear between
them.  I felt my blade bite deeply into the metal bar, but not sever
it.   Ice began to form on the bar where Isstonn struck it.

          In the meantime, Avalon had been closing with her from behind.
Suddenly she gestured toward Fer Forge`, and I watched as the villainess
stumbled toward me as if she'd been shoved hard.   Taking advantage of
her momentary shock, I side-stepped her, pivoted on my right foot and
spin kicked her in the small of the back.  It was like kicking a steel
wall.  She wasn't wearing armor, those gun metal scales were part of her
skin!

          The force of the blow picked her up and slammed her out of the
bookstore and back into the main concourse of the mall.  With a feral
scream, Avalon leaped out of the store to land on her back.   Her hands
suddenly melded with our attacker's skin and she pulled out great clumps
of the hardened metal scales.

          Fer Forge` screamed and blood began to run in rivulets down her
back as Avalon tore into her.  With a great heave, the villainess stood
up and hurled Emory backwards.   But my young English friend wasn't ready
to give up just yet.  Rolling to her feet, she once again gestured toward
Forge`and the scales on the villainess literally flexed outward toward
Avalon.  Suddenly like the flurry in a snow globe, the scales pulled
themselves away from Fer Forge` and flashed toward Avalon in a wall of
gun metal blue before falling harmlessly to the ground.

          Fer Forge` screamed in pain and teleported away in a flash of
energy, leaving a pool of blood on the concourse floor.   I saw Avalon
snarl over to where the woman had disappeared and say, "Run bitch.  One
of these days I'll find you, and finish this."

          "We'd better get out of here," I told her.  "The police will be
arriving soon, and personally, I don't want to have to deal with them."
Then remembering who's stomping ground, Birmingham was I added, "Or worse
yet, Night Angel.   I really don't want to try to explain this mess to
him."  Night Angel was Birmingham's premier parahumans defender.  He was
one the greatest martial artists in the world, and had gone toe to toe
with the likes of Dusk, and Red October.  He was not someone I wanted to
tangle with.

          She simply nodded to me and offered her hand.  Without
thinking, I took it as she made a gesture with her other hand.  Suddenly
the world seemed to shift sideways and we were back at the farm with all
our packages.  "That's a neat spell," I told her.

          "I'll try to teach it to you," was her reply as she collapsed
against me, trembling from both mental and physical exhaustion.

          I carried her into the house and spent the next three hours
explaining to my Mom and Dad about the attack.  Dad called England and
talked to Emory's Uncle Evan and then told me that Fer Forge` was an
international assassin working out of Algiers.  She was responsible for
murdering Emory's parents.

~*~

          Later that night, as I lay in bed while my brain refused to
shut down, and the adrenaline from the day kept me hyper alert, I
realized just how close a call that fight really was.  People could have
been killed, and it was only Emory and myself who stood between them.
The news media had already released security footage from the bookstore,
and luckily that clearly showed us trying to protect those kids, but
there was still a lot of fall-out over the property damage.  It was a
good thing the mall had para-human insurance to cover just such a
contingency.

          Ironically enough, Sven couldn't understand what the big deal
about the fight was.  To him, it was simply me and Emory doing our jobs
by keeping a raider from killing a bunch of folks and making off with
booty.  He couldn't really understand just how different American society
was from the agrarian Nordic culture he lived in.  To him, fighting,
death, and destruction were simply a part of life.  He couldn't
understand how much society here on Midgarth had changed over the past
thousand years or so.

          As I lay there, thinking about the fight, I heard a slight
knock at the door.  I looked over at the clock beside the bed.  3:32
flashed at me in red digital letters.  My door creaked open slightly and
in the darkness I could see Emory slip into the room.  "Trey?" she
whispered.

          "I'm awake," I told her sitting up in bed.

          "Good," she whispered as she padded across the room, threw back
the covers and crawled in next to me.

          "Emory?" I asked confused.

          "Just shut up and hold me," she said, pulling me to her with
surprising strength.  I could feel her trembling against my body.  I
wrapped my arms around her and pulled her in close.  I could smell her
shampoo and the perfume she was wearing.  Beneath that, I could detect
the scent that was all her, under that her desire.  She looked up from
where she was snuggled against me and pulled my face down to hers.  Her
lips were soft, but the kiss was filled with need and passion.  She
ground her body against me as her hands began to roam down mine.

          Not one to be out done, I reached behind her and grabbed a
double handful of her ass and kneaded those firm globes.  "Yes," she
whispered into my mouth.   Her hands began to roam across my body.  I was
immediately hard as a rock as she closed her small hand around the length
of my cock through my sleep shorts.  "Like I said, impressive," she
whispered.

          I slipped my hand under her nightgown and began to stroke her
breasts gently, feeling her nipples harden under my touch.  Again, she
groaned against me and squeezed my dick as I kissed her neck, my fangs
nipping gently against her soft skin.

          For long moments we simply lay there feeling each other's body
as our passions rose.  I could feel the heat rising from her sex as my
hand passed into her nether regions.  Slipping my hand  under the
waistband of her panties, I stroked past the soft curls there to find her
slit.

          I'll be the first to admit that weeks of playing around with
Ljufa taught me a little more than most sixteen year old boys knew about
sex back then- not the least of which was self-control.  I held my own
need in check as I let my fingers slip between her outer lips to rub
gentle circles around the nub at the top of her inner folds.  She groaned
lightly in the darkness, as my finger dipped into those folds to find the
entrance to her body.  She pressed herself hard against my hand, and my
finger plunged deeper.

          I slipped a second finger in, and felt her hot wet tightness as
my palm rested against the top of her sex, her clit trapped between my
fingers.  She rocked herself back and forth against my hand as she
reached under my sleep shorts and began to stroke my raging cock.

          Finally, she looked up at me, her blue eyes twinkling in the
moonlight and said, "Enough playing around.  I'm ready for you."

          I didn't have to be told twice.  I nodded as she sat up and
pulled her nightgown over her head, revealing her breast, nipples
standing out hard and proud.  I reached for her and began to roll her
panties down her sides, smelling her sex.  As she kicked them off and
opened her legs, I couldn't resist.  The scent of her desire emanating
from that most secret of woman places hit me like a Buick.  I buried my
face in the bush of white curls, and licked that long slit, tasting her
juices as they poured forth.  The heady scent and taste combined sent a
low growl through me that started somewhere in my balls and worked its
way up through my stomach, to my chest and finally escaping from my
throat.  It was the most fantastic thing I'd ever tasted, and I dined
like a starving man, licking each and every drop from outside her slit,
to deep inside the inner folds.  I felt a shudder run through her body as
she grabbed me by the ears and pulled my face deeper into her.

          As her shudders subsided, she reached down and pulled me up
along her body.  As she kissed me soundly she said, "I said, I was
ready."

          I kissed her back and ran my hands down her body to gently pull
her thighs up higher.  Positioning my dick at her entrance, I pushed
forward.  As the head and then shaft slipped into the hot, wet, velvety
folds of her sex, she locked her legs around the small of my back,
grabbed my butt cheeks in both hands and pulled me deep inside her.

          I slowly began to rock back and forth, each stroke in pushing
deep inside of her, sliding my foreskin back and exposing the head of my
cock and sending a shiver of hot, wet, pleasure through my spine.  Then
each backstroke would pull the foreskin back to cover the head as I left
only the last bit inside her before plunging back in.

          For long moments we rocked back and forth as the pressure in my
balls built.  I could feel my tail curling over my back, and the fur
along my body became thicker with each stroke.  Emory pulled and kneaded
my ass cheeks and her finger brushed against the opening of my asshole.
The stimulation sent a shiver up my spine.

          She must have sensed the effect that had on me as she repeated
the action. After a couple of moments of this I was ready to burst inside
her.  Suddenly she plunged her finger inside the tight ring of my ass and
that sent me over the edge.  My cock blasted deep inside her, as I buried
my face in her hair next to her head and growled into the pillow.

          I could feel ropes of thick cum blow out the head of my dick
and fill her depths.  Each spasm sent more and more boy cum deep inside
her, and set off another round of trembling from her as her legs locked
across my hips threatening to cut me in two.  Finally, I lay atop her
exhausted, my dick still hard and still buried in her depths.