And to follow up on one story...
This is another of the rare attempts at penning a story myself. This started quite some time ago and languished while I tried to come up with a suitable way of finishing it. I had wanted to write something genuinely funny and light hearted for all to enjoy. Yes, I know it isn't sexually deviant, I hope it may still be enjoyed by everyone.
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The sounds of work filled the air as Thetral strode through the lower levels of her mountain domain. She liked those sounds, the sounds of business, of people talking, moving, of people living. Living was something Thetral fully appreciated as well as enjoyed, after all part of what started her enterprise so many hundreds of years ago was a rather selfish desire to advance civilization purely so she could “Enjoy” it all the much more. These days of course she was far more practical.

Turning a corner she began down another flight of stairs. Entering now into the lower areas of her domain where work often continued at all hours, the smells of cooking and baking mixed with the smells of soap and laundry. She took pride that the corridors she passed by where not simple passages hewn out of the mountains rock but polished smooth and well lit, their size obviously made tall enough for Thetrals great height.
She noted with some satisfaction that here and there were incandescent bulbs being installed by newly trained members of the ‘Electricians Guild’ that had been studying so dutifully under her oldest pet, Ruco.

“As I was saying Mistress… Crop yields overall have been up consistently between 20 and 25% over that last four years. And about 40% from where we started when we began implementing the agricultural reforms twenty years ago.”

The voice belong to Ruco who followed along behind her. The only other being in her domain that matched her in age and power, and knew how everything worked. Of course, she reminded herself humbly, he really knew a great deal MORE than her about how things work. Behind him bustled along were two of her pets, a Cat boy and a Wolf boy, each carrying handfuls of scrolls and various reports that Ruco would occasionally beckon from them.

“Twenty years for such gains, I know you are introducing such reforms slowly, change is hard to hurry as you always tell me dear Ruco, but there is a famine in the deserts near the Hub. I had hoped we could help, mitigate such things.” Thetral said as she continued on in her stroll. The stroll itself was something she had started almost a Hundred years back and had seemed to help immensely.

It started when she had been reading a book of “Nobility” written a few hundred years ago prior, that seemed to be a rule book of sorts of how Nobles were ‘supposed’ to act. Of how kings and queens were apparently supposed to carry themselves and interact with ‘The lower classes’. She found the whole thing rather disgusting to tell the truth, mostly the idea that Royalty were apparently supposed to live most of their lives shut off from the people that served them. It didn’t make much sense to Thetral and as if to prove the point, started weekly ‘Inspections’ where she walked from the top of her domain to the bottom, just to be seen by the people that worked for her.

Within a few years, people she encountered had stopped the somewhat tiresome practice of prostrating themselves before her with a “Blessings upon you Mighty Lady!” And had often eased into a relaxed bob of the head and a pleasant “Afternoon M’Lady” Thetral enjoyed being serviced of course, but there were limits. As if to prove the point, she paused as a bevy of washing woman went by with baskets laden with steaming clothes, each one giving a short nod of the head as they passed.

“Yes Mistress, but introducing new farming practices will only go so far. In the meantime, we are making arrangements with the new Dovona Republic for purchasing several hundred tons of grain through our agents to try and alleviate the situation.” Ruco said as the group waited for the line of laundry baskets to pass by before continuing onwards.

“That I am very pleased with, I appreciate as always your gift for anticipating such things. And a Republic? The last report I heard had mentioned the revolt against the tyrant of that province, I was rather hoping for a new Queendom.” She said with a bit of joviality in her voice.

“Yes, you always do don’t you.” Ruco responded, a well worn joke passing between the two as the Pets scampered back to catch up with the pair as Ruco continued onwards.
“Of course along those lines, it may please you to know that the rather inflammatory book penned by your Guard Verna is in it’s second publication. Almost five thousand copies have now been sold and are in circulation.” Ruco said as Thetral turned and smiled.

“Oh? You mean “The Pleasures of Domination” ? A rather eye catching name for a book espousing the power of females to aspire to equality and much more. Rather nice to hear that her ideas are spreading amongst the population.” Thetral said with a rather private and satisfied inward smile. Considering she had rather co wrote the book along side Verna and knew quite well some of what was in it. Two whole chapters on the Art of Male Bondage were after all heavily influenced by first hand experiences…

“That brings up of course another point, the amount of income we have been collecting from our publishers as well as other industries has been growing considerably, and while this is of course a wonderful thing, bartering in Gold coins seems so, heavy. I know I was bit reluctant to go over such an idea when you approached me before. But I think I am starting to see the value in—“



And Thetral was gone…
The space where she once stood now devoid and empty. Ruco stopped, the two pets behind him almost running into him as he stared at the space. Using eyes that could see in ways most of those on the planet could not imagine, he scanned the place where Thetral had been. The very fantasist hints of a summoning circle faded as he did so.

“Magic… I told her this could happen….”




“—-reforming the Banking system.” she said mid sentence before abruptly halting. The glance of an instant was enough to tell her she was no longer in her Domain, and senses that lived every day in the world of magical energies told her exactly what just happened, as impossible as it was.

Yet more instincts boiled up in side her, prepared to bellow in rage at such audacity, how DARE someone summon her! Of course it was only through hundreds of years of practicing the Art of self control, that she was able to quell such foolish bravado. The more important question was—

“OH GREAT DENIZEN OF THE NETHER HELLS! I DO ADJURE YOU TO HEAD MY COMMAND!” The voice, for what it was worth, was a rather quavering thing that Thetral could immediately tell was desperately trying to sound far more intimidating than it actually was. Looking down, and further down, Thetral found the source of it to be what at first glanced, seemed a short and elderly Wizard.

“I beg your pardon?” Was all she could muster.

“RETROSRUM FOUL BEAST! DO NOT SEEK TO TRICK ME FOR THY WILL IS BOUND TO ME!” Thetral looked around and sighed. Yes there it was, a somewhat crude but apparently functional demonic summoning circle. Thetrals mind was full of questions, she was ‘part’ demon, but a summoner had to KNOW what they were summoning and Thetral was rather certain she was one of a kind.

“AVORT! AGAIN I SAY YOU ARE BOUND YES BOUND BY THE GREAT BINDING OF! … Of….” There was a moment of uncertain pause, The would be wizard she noticed had pulled out a book and thumbed through it feverishly, a muttering of:

“Caw I had it book marked here I swears it…” faintly heard before the visage looked up once more.
“THE GREAT BINDING OF THE SIX FOLDED SYMBOL OF ETOCH THE GATEKEEPER!” Thetral looked rather confused. She knew a demon by the name of Etoch, and was surprised it was being invoked, as far as she knew, Etoch was a small rather dim witted demon that drew pleasure in stealing peoples socks… Thetral had heard, and seen enough to decide to put an end to this charade.

“If I may speak for a moment, I do not know how you may have summoned me, but I have far more important things to do than to be ordered by a young child pretending to be a wizard.” There, she had said it. Of course within her first few seconds she had been able to smell enough of her captor to realize both his sex, age and species. Naturally this sudden revelation did not sit well with her host.

“W-What? But I am a wizard honest! I, I mean um.. CEASE YOUR ATTEMPTS AT FOUL DECEPTION OH DARK ONE!” And then, as if he couldn’t help himself, continued on… “And how would you know I am not a wizard? I have a pointy hat, with stars on it! AND A great white beard!” He said, thrusting his chin out proudly.

“Satyrs and humans get beards, occasionally the tribes of Bull people… but not the wolf breeds, and certainly not a breed such as yourself young Fox Boy. Yes you are technically covered in “Hair” but that does not mean you get a beard”

The “Wizard” was looking less and less sure of himself… The immense towering beast did LOOK rather like what he had thought he was summoning, but it sure didn’t act like it.. Demons when summoned he was told were supposed to be foul snarling things, angry and indignant at being summoned. It said so in the book after all, you were supposed to command them to obey you, lest they deceive you! The book was rather vague on just how that was supposed to happen… But he was certain it wasn’t supposed to be happening like this.

“Ah, well, I mean I AM a wizard! Well, learning to be one!”
He swore immediately, why did he say that? It was the beast! It must be influencing him in some way! He rubbed his eyes a bit, there WAS something in the air after all, his sinuses had started acting up the moment the Demon arrived.. But he wasn’t worried, he had the Sacred amulet of Ahnk-Ra-Ura-Rube to protect him! And that had cost him a full four dollars! It had to work! He decided to move things along…

“Well be that as it may, I HAVE summoned you, OH FOUL BEAST OF THE NETHER REALM!” He said again in a deeper voice, though his heart wasn’t really in it now… He paused as if waiting for something…
“Um, aren’t you going to ask me why I summoned you?” The boy offered, and Thetral smiled.

She was enjoying this, the brief flaring of rage and indignation had long since melted away into delightful curiosity . She was fairly certain the circle she stood in was particularly useless in actually holding her, and to be on the safe side, she had “Switched on” her more gentle pheromones she used when wishing others to be a bit more level headed.
“Oh? Well I was curious, but I figured you would tell me at some point young one.” She said, now she was trying to sound stern and serious, yet hiding a chuckle.

“What? That isn’t right, I mean, your supposed to say something like, WHY HAVE YOU SUMMONED ME FOOLISH MORTAL! And then I tell you that you can’t know it until you swear your devotion to me!”

“Is it now? I didn’t know I had to swear devotion to anyone, you DO know a Demon never devotes themselves to a summoner, it is a contract. A summoner makes a bargain with the demon, and the demon agrees to it. THAT Is when you have power over the demon. How else do you expect them to agree to your demands unless you tell them?” Thetral said in a voice that was perhaps a bit too authoritative for the would be wizard. But she needed it to sound good, since what she was saying wasn’t strictly true, and that of course was the silly thing about magic and books and “rules”. When it came to Demons, there were very few rules. Oh they did HAVE rules, and the ones they had were Iron clad and as old as time itself. But often the way you bargained with a demon was a very opened ended affair. After all even Ruco in his time had studied it enough to practice—

“Oh, he is probably wondering where I went to!” Thetral said to no one in particular. The boy looked up from his book.
“What was that?” Thetral decided she had to do this sooner rather than later, but it was for the best.

“Pardon me, oh Wizard, but I need to, well, I need to commune with my dark demonic brethren a moment!” She said as one of her lower hands slipped into a pocket of her expansive dress. The boy looked worried.
“Commune? Your not going to, tell on me? I don’t want any other demons showing up!” The fox boy said looking apprehensive.

“Do not worry young one, it, it is simply a magic talisman I use for contacting other demons. Nothing more”
Thetral told herself this was more or less true. To almost anyone on her world it would indeed seem “Magic” although what she held was a rather simple, if efficient electronic communicator. Thetral remembered there was a time when she would have used some sort of “magic talisman” for doing this. But magic so often has a way of causing problems when needed most…

She sighed as her fingers hovered over the button marked “CALL”

“At least Ruco isn’t the type to act smug” she whispered to herself as she pressed it.
A moment passed,
Another moment..

“Ruco? Yes I am ok, don’t worry. (Sighs) Yes you are correct it was a summoning and yes I have a fair idea where I am from the magic around me.” Here she paused as the voice on the other end seemed to raise it’s tone.
“No no, look, I am fine, I will deal with this myself. Just, oh just tell them I had an urgent matter to attend to, it is relatively true after all.” Another pause and then the voice sounded as if it were scolding her.
“RUCO! No I’d never…” here she turned to look at the boy and turned back and added in a quiet tone.
“Were you just teasing me? That's unlike you, No I will NOT eat him! And I certainly don’t plan on doing any of the REST of that to him!” She paused once again looking the Fox boy up and down.
“Well, at least not currently… Look just hold things together until I get back!” Thetral snapped the device back and slide it into a pocket with another heavy sigh.

“There young wizard, See, nothing harmful I just needed to talk to a friend is all. She said, crossing her upper arms, the lower pair remaining firmly on her hips.

“Huh, I didn’t think demons had friends, I thought, well they were all mean” The boy said, only slightly dismissive now in his tone. Thetral was unimpressed.

“For a wizard, you know very little about Demons.” Thetral said dismissively, Although as she did, it raised of course a rather obvious question. This, boy, seemed a joke of a wizard at best and yet… Yet she had still been ‘summoned’ by him. “You know, you still have not told me why you summoned me, regardless of method, typically a summoner DOES want something?” She said, again trying to move things along without being too cruel to the boy.
As if suddenly remembering himself, the boy perked up.


“Oh caw right!” He said, and then added a bit softer, “I don’t suppose you could snarl at me a little, or swear eternal torment on my soul if you escape?” He said to Thetrals amazement.
“I am sorry boy, but it is simply not my style.” She said, all four of her arms crossed.
“Oh ok, I guess it isn’t needed” he said a bit let down in the state of affairs, but continued. “Very Well!
OH DEMON OF THE NETHER REALMS! I HAVE SUMMONED YOU TO DO MY BIDDEN! LO! AND BEHOLD! I HAVE CONJURED YOU FORTH TO GRANT UNTO ME THE POWER TO SMITE MY ENEMIES! DRIVE THEM OUT OF MY LANDS AND RESTORE WHAT THEY HAVE TAKEN!” The boy said, having to catch his breath once or twice to maintain his booming performance. Thetral listened intently, one word catching in particular.

“Enemies?” She said, her voice soft once again, and in saying it, she noticed a pained look in the Fox Boy’s face, one he tried not to show for too long.

“Eh, Raiders, bunch of bandits and thieves, it wasn’t so bad before, but now they come in almost every few days. With the drought and all, well there isn’t that much food to go around.” Thetral looked down at the boy, his words, and several things suddenly clicked into place as Thetral had a rather painful moment of realization. Her heart sank as she asked her next question.

“These, enemies, I take it they are a part of the Qxtolaclian Hoard? The bandits that have been attacking many of the smaller desert towns which have been affected by the hub wards Famine?” Thetral said, only the smallest hint of doubt in her voice as the FoxBoy looked shocked.

“Caw! You are good! How did you work all that all so fast?” The boy said as Thetral sighed.

“Oh, let us say I thought they would be a problem. Unfortunately I did not expect them to cause so much trouble so soon. It seems I will have to deal with them sooner than later.” She said as she looked back to the Fox Boy, her next question one she now realized she already knew the answer to.
“When did they kill your Parents?“ And this time as the Fox boy looked up, the face that had up until now been so stoic, so serious, so determined to summon a beast to do its bidding, had melted within an instant.

“It was about a month ago.” He said sniffing. “They had already taken all the food in the store house, my Pa went out, he said he wasn’t going to stand for it any more. He said someone needed to stand up to them. Mom tried to stop him, she went out too and… And..” And now was when Thetral wished she wasn’t all so right about things.
“And they never came back!” The boy said as he went into full bore wracking sobs. His face becoming a mess of tears and sniffles. Thetral sighed and leaned down more towards his eye level. The boy continued sobbing for a good while, at one point grabbing his would be Wizards robs to blow his nose, leaving a smear of sequins and glitter across his face.

“What is your name boy”
“Its Timothy Miss” said Timothy.
“My name is Thetral, buy ‘Miss’ will do for now” she said as she reached out with a hand and dried his tears as best she could. She barely noticed the slight tingling the summoning circle caused as it feebly tried to hold her in.
“Thank you Miss” Timothy said rubbing his eyes a bit. As his more high powered sobs slacked off,. Thetral went back in her mind over what she had noticed in the small room she was in, that she had now realized was most likely much of the boys home. The room was a mess, she had initially chalked this up to being the boys room and boys were of course naturally messy. But she had realized the a normal boys room didn’t have a cooking pot in one end and a hearth. She had also noticed the “mess” wasn’t the fresh mess of a child who expected things to be picked up by parents, by the long term, dusty mess of someone who was simply too busy with other things to bother picking up. Thetral had realized here was a boy with nothing else to lose, why else would he risk summoning a Demon…

“Listen to me Timothy, the bandits who have done this will pay, I can promise you they will not bother this town, or any others ever again.” Thetral said, trying not to sound too stern, though there was a hint of anger in her voice for just a moment.

“Then you will do… I MEAN YOU WILL DO MY BIDDING?” Timothy said, his voice quivering a bit less though still sniffling from tears.
“Oh yes, and you do not have to do your Wizard Voice any more young Timothy.” She said with a soft smile, “Now then, would it be ok if I communed with my friend again? I must make preparations for, ‘dealing with’ your problem.” She said as she reached into a pocket and pulled out her communicator once again. A moment later it began to buzz.

“Ah yes Ruco, I hope you have things well in hand in my absence. (A slight pause) Oh? So they say I can teleport myself now? Well that will be useful for people to believe in I suppose. Listen, do you remember how you said you estimated that the Hubward Raiders would not be a problem due to the threat of our Treaty with the Sky Pirates? Well I think their leader may be rather more stupid then we both anticipated… (A raised tone) Ruco, my dear Pet, I know all too well the importance of making changes slowly, and not being hasty as you put it. But I think we have both put certain things off long enough. Now then here is what I want to happen…”

A few moments later the conversation ended, the jointed communication device snapping shut with a CLICK of finality that could hint at the instructions of doom that had just been dealt out. Thetral breathed out slowly, it was rare, very rare that she ever spoke so sternly these days, let alone to a friend as old as Ruco. But, there were times she still became quite passionate about situations, and a boy robbed of his parents by bandits that she was well within her ability to stop, was something she did indeed feel passionate about. With things set in motion to deal with the immediate problems, Thetral turned her attention back to the boy, an expression on his face that seemed a fair bit wiser than when she had first arrived.

“Your not really a Demon aint ya?” Timothy said, his voice loosing now all pretense the ‘exalted wizard’ he had been pretending to be.
“Not a proper one by any means, which is perhaps fortunate for you considering your lack of experience in such matters” She said as she strode across the feeble summoning circle, it’s energies barely tingling across her skin. “Of course, not being a proper Demon to begin with, it does make me rather curious how you did summon me.” Thetral said, now looming over the boy who was starting to feel a bit hot under his fur.

“I ah well, I found this book you see” Timothy said as he shyly brought forth a battered Tome. Thetral reached out with her lower hands as the book was offered, the title of the book was written in a language no being on the world should have known. It made the book look dark and menacing and Eldritch, the inside was similarly adorned with deliberately vague incantations and “Orrible” scenes of demonic depravity. To any would be neophyte necromancer, this book would have seemed too good to pass up. And sure enough it was.

Thetral went back to the title, marked in words the Author must have been convinced no one would ever understand.
“How to Get Mortals To Summon Demons, Inked By Etoch The All Powerful!”
Thetral sighed… It seemed there were other certain individuals she would need to deal with as once she returned home.

A few days after Thetral had departed, an Envoy from the newly formed Dovona Republic arrived with soldiers and a great deal of food, announcing that the town and it’s countryside would now be under permanent protection of the Republic. Over the next two weeks, much of the town was rebuilt, and it’s food stocks replenished as the towns folks could have only dreamed of. Construction was also started of a barracks to house a garrison that would permanently guard the town from any would be bandits.

For Timothy Travelteen, would be Demon Summoner, his life as well as what was left of his town, improved dramatically. While his town was rebuilt and replenished, young Timothy found himself offered a fully paid scholarship to the largest Wizarding school on the world. For the young parentless foxboy, it was a dream come true. The Scholarship was fully funded by the Lady Thetrallia Ebonsight, and was quite liberal about what studies Timothy could pursue. It did however have one ironclad provision, his scholarship and all funds would be terminated immediately if the boy ever attempted another Demon summoning for the rest of his life.

A month went by...

For Adada Alasalala, self proclaimed “Lord Of Bandits” the last few months had been very good to him indeed. He was an imposing figure of the Wolf People, his body criss crossed with scars and a haggard look about him that showed the harsh life of a desert thief. Part of what had made it such hard work in the dry desert areas near the Hub was mostly because of so much competition from other bandits. But a few months ago that had mostly stopped. Some foolhardy new comer to the game had somehow organized many of the bandit groups to be less bloodthirsty in exchange for not picking on the other bandit groups. Adada couldn’t have believe his luck.

What sort of person would actually abide by such rules? For Adada it was the chance to double up on his raiding if it meant not worrying about attacks from the other bandits in the area. In the last three months, he had raided ten different towns at least a dozen times. Of course one or two of those towns didn’t really warrant being called a ‘town anymore, but from Adada’s point of view, it was hardly his concern.
Of course that was what he thought, up until the morning that a shadow fell upon his band of outlaws. Somewhat literally in the form of large, magically floating rocks carrying a rival band of cut-throats.

The “Sky Pirates” as they were known, typically kept far away from the heat of the deserts. The ‘Levistone’ ships they used to raid after all only worked in cold climates. The colder the stone, the better the lift. And the heat of the desert would surely render them useless, or at least that was what Adada had always thought.

Now as he looked up to see a half dozen house sized rocks hovering over head, he swore at whatever gods would listen at their presence. Squinting his eyes, he saw bands of metal around the rocks, and even in the heat of the day, somehow frost seemed to pour out from them keeping the stone icy cold. The strange magic was something he was offered little time to ponder however as someone began to descend from the largest floating rock.

Lowered down on a rope far enough to shout, but not quite far enough to be in range of archers, the garishly clad captain of their forces called out. He was also of the Wolf people, although from his size and colors, one would call him more “Fox” like in his own appearance He brandished an elaborately adorned schimater, far more decorative than practical. .

“Ah, Adada Alasalala... Lady Ebonsight is very upset with you…” Adada snorted.
“I follow no Lady, and what are you doing here? Had you not all agreed to leave us alone? No bandit to thieve another bandit?” Adada said, full of a bravado that was rapidly leaving him.

“Hmmm yes well that is how it was supposed to go is it not? There were rules, and you broke them. Which puts me in a rather unfortunate position.” The Sky Captain spoke as he gestured to the crew above. Wordlessly, hatches began to open on the structures built onto the Levistone floating ships. “You see I like to think of myself, as an easy going scoundrel Adada, but one thing I have never liked are thugs. No style, no flare and no restraint.”

“Wait! Don’t I share our riches! I pay you!” Ada said as he saw the arrows from above about to rain down.
“I am sorry, but riches are worthless when coming from a Dead Man…”