Sailing Ether Tides

Book 2: Dirt Diver’s Dance

It Is It Is, A Glorious Thing Ch: 14

The wargs and Daisybelle carried the overwhelmed and confounded young dwarf through the forest, across a river on a bridge formed of living willow trees, to the solitary hill and the palisade town surrounding it.

They passed the gates with barely a nod from the four green girls watching the entrance. The massive, dusty brown beast of the goblin king loped along ahead of them a short way, with the three new warrior girls trailing after on their own enormous wolfhounds.

The town was just waking for the night, as nocturnal beings stretched, yawned and began to greet the ‘day’ There were far more than just goblins in the town at the foot of the hill; Batfolk roost trees grew in scattered open spaces around the town. They were tall oaks made obvious by their cultivated, wide spaced branches and the small bowers and woven huts dangling from the limbs.

There were serpent and rodent folk burrows, other arboreal dwellings and a number of water folk homes on the outskirts, with even more varied kith and kin moving about in the waking town.

Day walking folk were just closing shop, or trading shifts with their nocturnal co-workers as the cat kin and opossum folk took over for dog kin and reptile people.

Mostly it was goblins, a cheerful smiling swarm of them, pouring out of their communal dwellings to greet the night. There were a few scattered humans moving about as well, towering over the usually much shorter otherkin.

Gandree drank it all in as they walked through the streets with the wargs, behind the goblin king and Daisybell, who were greeted by the populace with loud cheers and cries of welcome.

Everyone seemed excited to greet Diasybelle and her pack; they all surged around the tiny warrior girl, her sisters to a lesser extent and even the wargs, with great delight and obvious joy…

Though, Gandree noticed, only the goblin girls were as enthusiastic for their king, who seemed to be a figure of awe and some fear, to most of the non goblins. The furred, scaled and otherwise non gobbs kept a careful and very obvious distance from him and his pool of smiling, giggling, chattering goblins; maintaining a wide band of open space all around the king and his adoring subjects.

The few humans seemed to ignore the subtle aura of ‘other’ and ‘alien’ that drove away the beastfolk, just as they kept a similar distance from Gandree himself.

That sudden revelation shook the already shaken dwarf more than a little. That jarred with a subtle sense of familiarity, almost… kinship he felt for the odd, strangely serene goblin man surrounded by his diminutive admirers. The young dwarf felt a little nauseous and lightheaded, clutching nightshade’s harness to stay upright.

The smiling, beautiful green girl swooped back down on him from her own crowd of admirers, taking his hand and hauling him up onto Nightshade with surprising strength. “Come, Gandree boy. Papa will be kinging for a while. We go to the castle and get you foods and rest… you look like a stepped on dog shit.” Daisybelle whispered, as she swept him up and carried him away in a cloud of fur.

#

The goblin king’s castle was a weirdly familiar and surreal place… it was the stately home he’d been dreaming of since he was a tiny foundling, save that it was built of hewn beams and rough sawn lumber, unworked river stones and well fitted bamboo frames of stretched rawhide, scraped thin enough to let in light, rather than glazed windows. It was primitive, simple and… perfect.

He stopped at the entrance, where Daisybelle insisted he remove his boots and put on a pair of silly, fluffy slippers that looked like he’d shoved his feet up a sheep’s butt.

“See? Much like Gandree boy’s castle… though less stoney, more homey.” Dasiybelle giggled and kissed him on his open, wondering mouth. When her tongue flicked into his mouth and teased his own, he nearly fell down in surprise.

“Oh, That was fun!” She giggled. “Kissing Gandree boy is super fun!” She chirped as he was dragged into the depths of the castle.

In a deeply confusing sequence of events he found himself floating alone in a beautiful garden bath; a swirling hotspring like his own, but so much larger and deeper. He marveled at the flourishing flowers and bamboo all around and the steamy, comfortable seclusion at last.

He began picking apart the last few confusing, hectic days in his mind, with his eyes closed as he floated aimlessly.

In his whole life, up to the last week, he’d met exactly one hundred and twelve people; all dwarves and all quite aware that he was a clanless foundling, and as such, was of no worth.

The reptile man smith he’d ‘met’ while hiding in his forge had shown only keen interest in the young dwarf and deep respect for Daisybelle and the goblin king… That had been a very novel experience, like being kissed by a girl, who’d done it twice! With tongue!

He submerged for a moment to clear his head of that distraction.

When he popped to the surface and cleared his eyes, the goblin king was just slipping into the bath, right beside the young dwarf lad, who found himself eye to eye with… the scepter of the goblin king.

There had been way too many dicks in his life lately; but the poor lad was no longer in the dwarfhold… Maybe greeting people dong forward was the fashion…

The lad’s musings and confused ruminations on cock culture dropped off a cliff and fell away when the king spoke.

“Oh, sorry…” The creature mumbled, drawing fresh, red blood from his lip with his fangs. The king flushed a rich coppery hue under his green skin, looking like a weathered bronze statue of some ancient goblin lord of legend.

“I didn’t check to see if anyone was… who are you?”

“He’s Gandree, dwarf boy, thief and musician… He has a castle up his butt and is a shy pooper!” Daisybelle offered as she slipped into the bath with them. “Ooh! He talks funny and is a beast talker too. I kissed him, he’s mine!”

“Slow down Daze…” The king murmured gently, petting his excited daughter’s head with his taloned hand.

“Dwarf? No, no dwarf at all…” He murmured eagerly, as he leaned closer over the lad.

Gandree tried to back away a little, and was immediately tangled up in the slippery, warm, very naked form of Daisybelle, who wrapped herself around him and hugged close in some very intimate ways.

“I told you… He’s mine.” She insisted.

“Don’t worry, baby… I won’t take him away.” The king soothed his daughter gently, speaking slowly and clearly.

“Remember, we can have feelings, but we need to express them in ways that are appropriate for the situation.” He sighed and shook his head.

“I’m not going to beat him up or try to make babies with him.”

“Really?” She asked nervously. “Cause I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t like that! Neither one!” She gave her father one more glare, before releasing the shattered boy. “Member, he’s mine.”

“Yes dear…” The king sighed with a long suffering note in his voice. A moment later those oddly huge eyes turned on the struggling, mostly submerged dwarf.

His claw reached out and grasped his shoulder gently, as the king slowly eased Gandree onto a submerged boulder that formed a surprisingly comfy seat, under the hot swirling water.

“Don’t worry… you’re safe in our home, as her guest and mine, brother.” His ragged and awful smile cut his lips in a few places, but was genuine and warm, nonetheless.

“Brother?” Gandree stammered, as a warm, affirmative sensation exploded inside him at the goblin man’s touch. “I don’t have…”

“Never mind that, you’re home now. I’ve met a few of us, from the other side of the void… We can’t cross into a world where one of us is already. Never mind that.” The strange being stopped and wiped the blood from his mouth and smiled sadly and carefully.

“I get excited… it’s goblin nature.” He did a slow breathing exercise that seemed to be a long practiced art, before he tried to speak again.

“You, my new friend, are not really a dwarf; in the same way that I am not really a goblin. We are, in fact, two people who fell to this world from another.” He delivered another of those careful smiles, while Daisybell sulked nearby and listened attentively.

“I arrived as a fully grown goblin male, because of the short lifespans and extreme growth rate of the typical goblin man.” He sighed and held up his hands, asking for silence. “Because of that, I remember a good bit of my life, our life on those other worlds. Not a lot… but enough to piece together some things…”

The king told a strange tale in loose rhyme and constant digressions, dragging the poor boy into deeper and deeper metaphysical waters.

“...Souls are eternal, and infinite, there are also an infinite number of mortal souls, circulating in the universal… everything. Mortal souls are like the blood in a body so impossibly vast, that it is everything, everywhere and everywhen. They are, we are the source of all energy and activity in the universe, the blood in everything’s veins, as we live, die and reincarnate anew.”

“Uh… Wow?” Gandree answered, when the king paused and looked at him expectantly.

“Brother, you can’t hide it, not from me. I see your shadow.” The king said with a sigh. “You saw what I did, and you felt it moving in your own gifts; because they are my gifts as well… that’s why we’re so ominous and disturbing to the beast kin and most other sentients.”

“Is that why the other dwarves were so…” Gandree halted, when he got a case of the feels and choked up a little.

“I’d like to say yes. But really, that whole clan sucks. Dwarves and humans don’t generally notice anything odd about any of us, until they step on our shadows or touch us.” He answered gently, as Daisibelle hugged back up on the poor boy.

“We’re strangers in a strange land and there are no gods here to help us control what we do, simply by existing.”

“Nuh-uh!” Dasiybelle insisted from her perch. The girl was clinging to his back, with her bubbly and nubbly front pressed against him and her chin on his shoulder. “Gandree has a goddess in his pocket and a few gods in his dreams! I saw them!” She grinned her bright smile at her papa. “Kissed a couple of them too!”

“Waghht?” He stammered, ejecting a small spray of blood from his mouth. “Who? How, where?”

“Goddess SmileyFace kissed me back under a rock, when I first kissed the boy…” She mumbled, suddenly shy and embarrassed. “SmartyPants god was hiding in his bath… when we bathed together first!”

She gave a wiggle and giggle that did all sorts of things behind the poor boy, while he was confronting her father in the bath.

“Uh, it wasn’t like that, your majesty…” Gandree explained, while Daisybell wriggled under his arm and curled up in his lap.

“Today was not the first time my sweet Daisybelle has killed a thinking being, young man.” The king said very slowly and carefully.

“She is her own person, as well as my beloved daughter. Whatever is between you is between you…”

He stopped suddenly and glared at the grinning, gleefully wriggling girl whose perky, bare bottom was nestled in the ashen faced, dwarf lad’s lap.

“Daisybelle… stop torturing the poor boy. He’s new to the wider worlds, I think.”

“Nuh-uh.” She answered smugly. “Mine.”

“You’re on your own boy.” The king sighed as he climbed out of the bath and pulled a robe from his shadow. “I’m out, good luck.”

The strange being vanished, leaving way too many unanswered questions and a very huggable and wriggly goblin lass who seemed determined to distract him from those imponderable ponderings.

She squirmed closer, somehow, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pushing her very soft and pert front against his muscular torso. She nibbled on his ear with those sharp little teeth and bit his shoulder gently, as she pressed her curves against him.

“King papa agrees… you are mine.” She whispered, when she released his shoulder from her teeth, leaving a few drops of blood on his skin.

“Daisybelle…” He managed to stammer with a barely functioning mouth and brain. “I’ve never… Um… I’m not… Ready?” He squeaked that last word when she stood up on his lap, bringing her bouncy boobs and flat green tummy even with his face.

“Hmm, maybe you’ve never…” She murmured happily, still standing on his lap, not quite waist deep in the green tinted water, her wide hips just breaking the surface. A sneaky thatch of sparse green hair appeared among the rippling waves when she shifted her balance.

“Yes, you’ve never… I taste that on your lips. But not ready?”

She leaned forward, pressing her voluptuous body onto him. “This thing I’m standing on says you are ready ready… Gandree boy.” She cooed, as her breasts engulfed his face in a smothering hug that almost slew him outright with pleasure and embarrassment.

#

“Goblin girls know the value of consent… Gandree boy.” She murmured a few minutes later, as they floated chastely, hand in hand among the water plants, hidden in the steam.

“To be fair… I’ve only kissed a boy or two…” She sighed. “A cute kitty man who was stuck in a tree by a wandering growlybear and a shy human boy, who I frightened nearly to death, when I stumbled on him, spanking himself alone in the woods one day.”

She giggled at those memories and pulled him closer so they bumped shoulders and hips, their eyes closed in peaceful relaxation. “He blushed so hard he fell asleep right there, with his hand all sticky.”

After a long, too short, silent soak, Gandree spoke up.

“Should we vacate the bath, I don’t want to occupy…”

“Shush, boy. This is family bath. Only the king and princesses bathe here… and special friends. King papa is in the big pool…” She sat up and pulled him up with her. Finding a cozy seat for two on the edge. “King papa is busy with all the town girls who didn’t cast their tummy-time charms, this season.”

“Tummy-time charms?” He asked cluelessly.

“Four times in the turning of the year, all goblin girls must cast the charms, or find a witch to cast them. Elswise, tummy time comes and we must find a goblin man… The town girls who choose, come to king papa and get good stuffin, ‘til they are babyful.” She smiled winningly.

“Daisybelle is among the first daughters, among the strongest too!” She said with a grin that made him wonder what kissing her would feel like.

“Princesses can’t stay in town if we get tummy-time, not with king papa around. Princesses have to find goblin boys to get babyful…” She shook her head sadly. “No thanks. Goblin boys, violent, stupid and wicked.”

“So there aren’t any other goblin boys in town?” He asked quietly.

“No no! Forbidden. Beasty men, human men… now dwarf… no gobb men allowed, they must fight king papa if they come. Always lose, sometimes die, they never get any booty.” She giggled and squirmed into his lap again.

“So there aren’t any goblin princes?” He asked nervously, while she got comfy in his arms.

“King papa hardly gets girls babyful… though he likes trying. When he does, only princesses, never any goblin boys from king papa.” She wriggled into an almost perfect spot and thought for a moment. “He says it’s evolutionary interference and gets big mad at the Light preachers. Those guys suck.” She shifted around just a little more in ways that made the dwarf boy both more, and less comfortable by the moment.

Without warning she reached down under the water, grabbed him and shoved the very rigid appendage behind her shapely knee.

She followed that with a friendly and welcoming pat on the fine fellow, as if to praise a disobedient pet that finally learnt the trick, and a kiss on his lips that tasted of sweet summer berries and warm pine needles.

“No poking, til we both are agreed.” She whispered in his ear, followed by a nibble on the tender lobe.

#

Ghnash floated among his sweet, exhausted ladies and sighed. In the twenty years he’d been walking the world, he’d only had a dozen daughters; despite so many joyful and vigorous attempts with so many wiggly, giggly, enthusiastic ladies. “It’s good to be the king…” He sighed sleepily.

He was happy, and deeply sad that none of the children of his seed had yet gone off to get babyful in the wilds… from some skeezy, murderous wretch.

A few had forged lasting pair bonds with men of other kith, and one who was deeply bonded with one of the very few goblin girls who lived under his castle, but never did come up the hill seeking his royal seed.

The king did long for a grandchild… or a son… If he didn’t turn out to be a murderous little idiot with more balls than brains and no understanding of restraint or morals.

He’d tried educating and training baby male gobbs from the litters of girls that arrived babyful, with uniformly dismal results. The girls were sharp, social and generally clever and friendly, when allowed to live in peace. They learned the charms that staved off their mating seasons and lived as civilized and intelligent beings.

The men of the goblin race were hopeless and despicable to a degree that had sent him searching for the answers to the mystery. He’d found it, with the help of a near neighbor, the curse hidden in the goblin’s very blood and bones. Someone had used blood magic, wicked sorceries and unclean arts to reduce the goblins to this state; tainting the male reproductive system with chaos and madness from outside their world.

He was untouched by those curses, but the wild goblin girls bore the traces of them. Only his daughters were free of the spells and workings of demon witchcraft and spiritual vandalism that made the males of the species so intolerably awful and deeply unwelcome in polite company. His clever, beautiful, sweet girls were even less willing to seek out goblin men than their mothers and aunties, and that left the race with little hope.

“Heavy are the balls that bear the crown…” He mumbled, as he slowly escaped the clinging hands that tried feebly to restrain him. Just as he turned a deaf ear to the few still conscious damsels and the warm moist, kissable lips that sighed for more of his attention, while being too worn out to actually press the issue.

He had almost escaped the baths, when Sabrina, Mabeline’s mother, grabbed him by the royal scepter with renewed vigor, as he passed by her apparently exhausted, floating form. Her full breasts and wide hips were stunning, even if her once flat and smooth, green tummy now bore the faint marks of bearing one of his beloved daughters.

She remained among his most favored mates and was the only girl who actually wanted to and did move into the castle with him permanently.

She even gave herself to him at his slightest sign of interest, or launched herself at him, on her own whims. Even when it wasn’t her tummy time!

More delightfully, she would often offer herself up in exciting, wickedly fun ways that wouldn’t even have a chance of getting her babyful… like now.

“Mmm, mmm. Gimme that, my husband. You’ll not escape with a stiff babystick… not when I’m awake…” She growled possessively. “I gotta share you… but I get the most, and the last.”

“I dunno, love. You look pretty tired… and sore.” He gently cupped his palm to her battered tenders and grinned as she winced just a little and bit his arm just enough to draw blood.

“Mmm, mmm… Husband looks frowny and unhappy. Not getting away like that.” She repeated, smiling wide with her mouth open and her long pink tongue lolling out seductively, stained with a hint of his blood, twitching just a little as if to lure her prey into a trap.

“Gimme.” She growled softly.

“It truly is good to be your king, my dear.” He whispered joyously.

#

“So it’s possible that the person you met was at least partially a fragment of pops, walking around in new flesh, living his life.” Rio said calmly. “The spirits and ghosts whisper that there are unquiet souls trapped where they don’t belong…”

“That describes our dad, and the kind of trouble he’s always drawn to.” Amy agreed eagerly. “So, tell me about this green girl… a female goblin?”

It got pretty embarrassing from there, so Barry escaped out the back door, headed for a quiet, peaceful place.

#

Lindsey found Barry out in the stable behind Wilf’s house, preparing a bed in Flash’s stall. He looked a little embarrassed when she stepped around the corner in her pajamas and confronted him.

“That’s my horse you’re getting so cozy with.” She scolded him gently.

“Um…” He explained. “Er…” He went on to illuminate.

“That little green girl sounded pretty sexy.” Lindsey murmured quietly in the dim, silent barn.

“Larry kept saying ‘shortstack’... He said it a lot. Your uncle drew a picture to explain what that meant…” She grinned, her eyes shining like a predator’s in the shadows. “Is that what boys like, short girls with tiny waists, thick thighs, wide bottoms and big, bouncy boobs?”

“Well… you see…” Barry spluttered helplessly, as she cornered him in the stall, against the bulk of her helpful horsie friend.

She leaned in and stole a kiss, before slipping out of the stall with a happy giggle of mischievous glee.

She pulled a few stable blankets from the tack room and returned, just when Barry breathed a sigh of relief and lay down, leaning against Flash. Lindsey made herself cozy on the other side of her big, silly animal. She curled up against Barry, smushing him against Flash mercilessly.

“Noice, boss.” The horse whispered, with a wave of his ears and a twitch of his haunch.

“I thought we were friends, Flash.” Barry muttered piteously, while the girl of his dreams made herself comfortable in his arms, sheltering under his wide, boyish smile that almost glowed in the dark.

#

Becky, Amy and Maya watched their project from the balcony, as Lindsey slipped into the barn and never emerged.

“Do ya think?” Maya wondered aloud.

“Nah, no chance. He’s too shy, she’s too unsure, they’re both all confused and caught up…” Amy said with certainty. “Get another Contract in those two, and maybe. I’m betting Joy or Thirp will show up in this mess soon.”

She sighed sadly. “I wanna get all this sorted out soon. I’ve been needing to Contract with Thirp for a while now. I feel all itchy under my skin.”

“Yeah… I get it.” Becky sighed. “Don’t push those two, what they have is special and beautiful. It would be awful to damage it.” She didn’t look right at Maya when she said that, but the implication was pretty strong anyway.

“Understood, high priestess…” Both girls intoned quietly.

“Now off to bed. Barry was kind enough to surrender his room to me and my silly husband.” Becky whispered with a wink. “I plan to get some rest… as well.”

“Eew, gross.” Both girls sang, in the time honored tradition, before collecting good night kisses from the high priestess.

#

Ward was sprawled out on the side of the pool, with Fig draped over him like a warm, soft blanket of delicious, sweet dryad. Her small, plump breasts rubbed against his side while his palm rested on the soft, wonderfully round bottom he so adored.

“I should plant a tree on that solitary hill there… right on top.” He muttered quietly in her pink, perfect little ear, as he gazed down the slope.

“Perhaps… I seldom act to foster saplings here or there, rarely do I even consider it.” She murmured happily. “Humans plant my trees and cultivate them for me… I have no wish to look out on lonely, empty hills.” She made her point more clearly, by wiggling her bottom against his palm and giggling. “Company is so much more… fulfilling.”

“Oh…?” Citron demanded tartly. The pale, slim, golden blonde girl wriggled into his arms on the other side, with a zesty little sigh.

“It’s my turn, greedy Figgy!” There was a little acid in her tone, but she was as sweet as she was fragrant, once he scratched her smooth skin with his blunt fingernails and gave her a nibble.

“Our hardwood friend is evergreen, my tangy darling.” Ward whispered as he pulled both girls closer on the soft, grassy lawn. “I think I can solve this rivalry… I call this one, Napoleon’s hat! You dear Citron, get the…”

“We can figure it out, darling.” Fig whispered, as she lowered herself onto the noisy end of the demigod with a smile of delight. “So… Will the other citrus sisters be riding this pony tonight? Or shall we enjoy him all to ourselves?” Fig asked, shooting a wicked glance at Orange, Lemon, Lime and Tangerine.

“I vote for fruit salad, Figgy…” Someone foolish called out, sounding strangely muffled.

“It’s rude to talk with your mouth full…” She scolded the silly boy.

#

“Darling Cowl…” Marduk scolded the tall, green robed figure who was gazing into the still waters, longingly.

“Your gaze will influence them in ways they will perhaps not appreciate, in the sober light of morning. Come, we will peek in on others, perhaps later, you can influence your new followers to create another graven image of your divine countenance.”

The disappointment behind the smiling mask of ivory was potent and deeply upsetting. “I’m sorry, dear, but these mortals are unwilling to suffer divine influence… Best we leave them to their own devices.” Marduk insisted, taking her hand and leading her away from the reflecting pool.

#