An Enchanting Encounter

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Beep.

Techno noise. The mossy hardwood floor shook with it.

The hyena demon, attempting peaceful slumber, found her humble bed of goat skins shaking violently. Seeming hundreds of little rat demons that shared this vast home with her were out on the floor on the opposite side of her flimsy, goatskin privacy curtain having what may have in an earlier age been referred to as a "rave" but that they seemed to think of as some mandatory religious right to be performed every week... or half a week... or day. Really, she'd lost track of how often it transpired. They jumped and sparked off their little cheeks with various colors of lightning. Somehow they'd gotten the ancient, metal abominations to sing for them by coursing electricity through them. The sunglassed little beast at the turntable had twenty years to perfect the art of ruining her current-day sleep.

One of the rat clan approached her bed and shook her. "Goddess! Goddess! Wake up! I think there's something outside."

The hyena's teeth were together in a flash, centimeters from the rodent's face. The little creature stumbled back with a shriek of surprise. Iskra shook herself up and, becoming humanoid for the moment, looked down on the startled creature. "Are you going to come bother me every time a bird shits on the porch?" The rat simply shivered, her eyes wide. "Whatever. I'll go take a look."

[ EXP: 290 ]

The woman made her way grouchily through the crowd of entranced little woodland spirits until she stood before the door of her current domain, a scowl across her visage until she squinted off in the distance. What was that? Yes, just past the crudely tethered goats, the awkward rocks of asphalt, the bushes, and the winding roots of the trees she saw him standing there: a white-haired guy that she'd never seen before, staring in the general direction of her building.

Of course, hyenas are territorial by nature, but she suppressed that when she remembered her chosen vocation. One farmer had inquired after her services and, pleased with them, recommended her to his strangely-haired neighbor. Perhaps this person standing a distance off was another potential client... not that she was particularly hurting for sustenance at the moment. She had nine goats. That was at least nine days of food.

But it couldn't hurt to treat the person with less suspicion. Building her wealth was always good, and he might even be willing to bear her children eventually. Who could know?

"Hey, you lost?" she shouted over the blast of noise behind her. "Or have you heard of the Witch?"

[ EXP: 238 ]

Iskra grinned. So it was a lost traveler of some description. His odd physical features and the fact that he was alone in the woods said that there was probably something spiritual about him to her, but she couldn't be completely sure. Either way, he didn't seem like much of a threat or otherwise hostile.

Casually, the demon strolled across the way, making her way across the tree roots and the upended stones until she stood a few yards off from the man. He definitely gave her a "spirit" vibe just from the way he carried himself, but once again, it was uncertain.

"This is my domain. The humans call me a witch because I know certain... types of magic, I suppose. They pay me to fulfill their darker fantasies and their baser instincts. It works out well."

She tilted her head to the side. "But this is my home. It's not much. I share it with many lesser spirits."

Perhaps she talked to the man out of her inherit loneliness since her clan died. Maybe she just wanted some conversation outside of the booming building behind her. Either way, she was more talkative than she might usually be with someone who didn't seem to have much going on for him.

[ EXP: 238 ]

The demon didn't resist the other's approach. Personal space wasn't something she necessarily put any value into. "I guess you could call them dark." Dark like the grin she smiled at the other as he drew closer.

However, she didn't necessarily want him in their home. There was entirely too much noise and action, though she supposed that since there weren't any beds proper outdoors that it might work better to move back inside. Honestly, she figured that if he wanted to be one of her clients at some point, then it'd be his decision what kind of experience he wanted.

"You like it?" she said, very proud that she was able to acquire such a nice building, even if she seemingly needed another spirit's help to do it. It was a very, very large place... something she could brag about, even if she had to share it with a giant clan of noisy rodents. "Ah, yes. I keep all my stuff in there and I keep it well guarded. How about you? What do you got? Maybe we could do some trade right here?"

[ EXP: 201 ]

"Well," the woman said, cursed with the bluntness of a wild beast, yet gifted with the ability to talk. "You seem like a pretty lonely guy. I can trade you some company for the night depending on the goods. Well, I mean," she patted him on the back with a gregarious grin, carnivorous in its implications. "How about you just pick a spot for us and I'll charge you afterwards?"

There wasn't much feminine about her mannerisms, though she was certainly very friendly and warm to this person who looked all the world like her next client as she guided him forwards. "Don't be shy, now. If you've got a place in mind... or we could use my place. I wouldn't recommend it, though. My neighbors get pretty loud."

[ EXP: 143 ]

Well, if that's what he was comfortable with, or so Iskra thought. No reason to delay this thing. With a rather sudden gesture, she'd bring her hand from his shoulder to the back of his head and attempt to pull him into a rather sudden kiss. The woman did get a glimpse of his rather large teeth, and from that sight she gleaned that he was likely either an oni like she was or somehow affiliated with one. It didn't matter much. She had a single purpose in mind with this and she pursued it with a clear-headed focus easily mistaken for passion.

Practice.

She would growl into the meeting of their mouths with a slight crooning note, pushing him up against a nearby fragment of wall rather roughly with her abnormal strength, pressing their bodies together in a manner that might be forward if one didn't stop to consider her current occupation.

[ EXP: 174 ]

Got him...

For some reason, she expected the demon or whatever he was to be more suspicious and alert. Maybe that was the truest sign that he wasn't completely spirit. Demons, her and those she'd met, never allowed themselves to get caught off guard, especially out in the open. Like a human, like even the human she valued so much, Lethe, this one threw caution to the wind in a rather dramatic way, and that made it simple to catch him in close range with the spell she was growling into the kiss.

Not that it was a malevolent spell. She bore this particular human no ill will.

Instead, her magical influence, should it strike him, would bring an odd change about in her victim. He would fail to remain a he and his body would gradually shift until he was the female of whatever he was, human or spirit. Of course, she wouldn't just leave him figuratively up the creek in such a manner. During the process she'd shift herself into her dramatically different male form. The spots would disappear from her hair as it grew longer and blue-black as the midnight sky, her skin lightening to match the pale shade of a full moon. Her eyes, likewise, became sky blue instead of their normal, icy color, and her shoulders would broaden to assist him in keeping his newly-polymorphed woman up against the stone behind her.

But during the entire process, the kiss would remain unbroken.

[ EXP: 281 ]

The man's kiss broke for the moment, though his hands remained against the wall on either side of the smaller woman. He looked down on her with warmth, feeling her begin to channel power for some purpose of resistance. A few murmurs later, he emitted a spell of his own to bind her ability to use magic. It was a step short of turning her into a goat. Indeed, he wanted her to keep this form for the procedure, though he had no real respect of her person at this point. Indeed, he left his hips against hers in obvious disregard for her feelings about the stiff member that accompanied the gesture. It was natural. She'd get used to it... not that he cared at this point.

There weren't many places for her to struggle off to, so he would motion to cup his fingers beneath her chin to lift her eyes up to meet his. "What's wrong, Beautiful?" There was a crooning purr in his voice and a desire to enforce his will over this person who'd fallen into this trap. He wouldn't tarry long. The stranger's answer didn't change Iskra's needs at that moment, so fulfill them he would.

[ EXP: 218 ]

Iskra smirked when Yuki moved to get her chain. Of course she was still armed... how annoying. Easily fixed, though. His victim wasn't necessarily dressed in armor. In fact, he wore some kind of loose, flowing robe that looked rather easy to undo... that and she wasn't dressed to deal with the additional baggage on her chest.

The demon murmured a short spell, and a coldness gripped the air. A cackling that was anything but human sounded faintly above the beat of the bass behind them, and the faint silhouettes of glowing eyes and wispy white bodies, like exhaled air on a cold day, formed and unformed behind them, circling and snarling hungrily. "I can't let you do that, my dear..." With a gentle motion, he pressed the arm with the chain on it up against the wall as his other hand wandered over her form, squeezing and rubbing and searching for the way to unfasten the kimono. "I'd hate to ruin such a lovely little butterfly, but if you go escaping I might not have a lot of choice."

His hand stopped suddenly over a sash. His gaze darkened. "You know a hyena can bite through a building stone? I've done it myself once or twice."

The man laughed. There was a mockery in it, and a sort of malevolence, but no mirth.

[ EXP: 248 ]

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"That one's on me," he grinned, realizing that if the other didn't leave soon, then the guilt would set in. He certainly didn't want that, and he ached a bit from the forcible nature of the entry.

So Iskra returned to a woman in short order and walked away without another word. Her back was turned, but the ice hyenas threateningly paced the path between their summoner and the violated woman, now free of the spell that had bound her to a female form. Rather, she was free to transform back into a man whenever she desired.

[ EXP: 314 ]

Spoiler:

Iskra reached the door to her home. The music had stopped. The little rats had been going all morning and had probably tired themselves out and fallen out on the floor in that sudden way that they tended to.

The human part of her, the bit that wasn't beast, begged her for empathy. The familiar feeling of guilt rose up like a mist and for a minute she wanted to look back... to help the traveler... to apologize for what she'd done to him. She'd become crueler in that moment than was her natural right to be. The helpless whimpers echoed in her head like the death cries of her clan.

Yet, she didn't. She talked herself out of it. He was weak. He deserved that. He was lucky she didn't turn him into a goat and eat him. Trespasser. Idiot.

And the remainder of the guilty thoughts she drowned out with a loud cackle, a giggle resounding as it cracked off of the rocks, echoing and building upon itself until it seemed that the one woman was an entire pack of laughing hyenas, because if there was one thing her kind knew how to do, it was laugh without cause...

...followed shortly by the slamming of the door as the demon resolved to sleep off any residual guilt. He'd lived. He would be fine. He'd learn from this.

[ EXP: 248 ]

Iskra had just shifted into her hyena form and settled down into the comfortable goat skins when a sudden blast rocked the building.

The recently peaceful pile of sleeping rats likewise exploded into a frenzy. Of course, a single lance of that caliber wasn't enough to permanently hurt the building for now, a building that had once been the Geisha House and Club Hype and survived all of the chaos both pre and post dawn, but it was plenty enough to drive the thunder clan into a noisy panic as they begged for her help, depriving her of valuable sleep.

Her blue eyes rimmed with red, and she stood snarling. "That annoying little..."

In an instant she was out of the door, charging across the landscape in a mad fury.

The suddenness and outright brashness of the charge might have caught the half-demon off guard. She didn't care. She wanted his blood for this encroachment upon her territory and insistence on keeping her awake when she was very tired from her previous activities.

[ EXP: 202 ]

> Actions: Used Nip + 1 (Momentum)
:: > Abnormal (3) + 1 (DMG) + 1 (Momentum) = 5 (Destructive)
:: > -10 HP (ABS effect)

Iskra's mood descended far past the realm of "sour" at the sudden pain of the magic. While it was true that the pain slackened her jaws, she simply used her unusual strength to attempt to flip the man on his front.

In the scuffle and the savage pulling with her teeth, his kimono, which apparently had never been resealed quite the same, simply pulled up over his form, came loose.

Now the man might find he was in a considerably worse position.

While naturally a female hyena might not have any cause to employ her genitalia anything at all like a penis, her ideas on what constituted "proper" for her had been tainted by mankind. As a result, she had absolutely no qualms about ramming said appendage right up his seat, and would do so provided the flip went as planned. Perhaps she was attempting to display dominance over the human. Perhaps she just wanted to remind him of what had happened only moments ago. Either way, provided it worked she wouldn't let up.

[ EXP: 208 ]

> Used Momentum (1) to Ram

Whatever that mist had been hurt. This she knew and grew all the more annoyed at when she found the pain was reoccurring. The audacity of him! To attack her, despite her obvious display of power over him. Her hair rose in ridges along her neck as she continued to attempt to flip him over and continue her ravaging of his body. In a dim way, she was grateful for the thick mat of spotted fur that protected her jugular by confounding the fangs of any would-be assailants, though she didn't truly feel endangered. This entity was weak, a thing to be preyed upon.

And while she wanted him to be awake to experience the pain she was about to inflict, his constant use of magic and her lack of a desire to stun him again, combined with her profoundly sour mood, drove her to return his bites in kind. Rather, she would bite down at his neck with a savage fury. The attempts to invade her mind hardly registered, so weak were they compared to her relatively strong will. She planned to kill him, and when she did, her rage would drive her to evil.

[ EXP: 210 ]

> Actions: Used Nip
:: > Abnormal (3) + 1 (DMG) = 4 (Fierce)
:: > -10 HP (ABS effect)

After the relatively successful bite in the general direction of the barrier, the woman would instantly follow with a quick cast of frost magic to seal the deal, much in the same manner that Yuki was channeling two spells at once with each try.

[ EXP: 50 ]

> Actions: Used Frostbite (Perfected)
:: > Strong Int + 0

So the male had finally fallen unconscious. There wasn't much else to do. The hyena was still quite tired from never getting any sleep, it seemed, and she certainly didn't want to be dealing with this entity any more in the future.

Of course, she could have skinned him and used the resultant hide to patch the nasty hole in her roof, but now that the man was unconscious and still, she found hse had time to pity him a little bit. After all, the only thing he had done wrong was ostensibly want the services of a paramour. It was sort of odd. She was so accustomed to simply forcing her product on people in male form that being fought back against truly angered her. Perhaps He didn't deserve to die.

Mercy might have been a weakness in any other spirit of non-kami descent, but it was a portion of the glue that held a clan together. As such, it was present in her when it could surface from beneath all of the anger. Indeed, it was difficult to be angry at a corpse, and she wasn't hungry enough to eat him when she had nine goats at her back.

So instead, she shifted up to her humanoid, female form, poking the bleeding form of Yuki to ensure that he was, in fact, unconscious.

He wasn't responsive, but he was still warm. No matter. She'd let fate decide if he lived. If the wild beasts came to consume him, then he was weak and deserved to become deceased. If he wasn't, then he was lucky and thus strong and could open his eyes to Paike's light once more.

So she dragged him a long distance, a mile or two, just far enough to make finding his way back to her extremely unlikely, and then she left and went back home. She had a nap to get to.

[ EXP: 336 || +1 TEXP (first post) ]