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A Study of Connections

Part 3

For a-lycotonum

By Draconicon

Hazel didn't quite have a walk of shame back to the temple the next day, but she did have a feeling of embarrassed 'guilt' to her steps as she made her way through the forest back to the settlement and the forest proper. The hobgoblins were a bit annoyed to see her go, she felt, but she knew better than to stick around right now. With the 'monsters' that close to the town, she knew that the people in the settlement would be questioning the church, wondering if some corruption had struck them already. Staying away and 'bonding' with the hobgoblins would only feed that rumor further.

Vakrozad said that he would meet her again at the dances and parties in the settlement, and she...well, she had to hope that it would go better than she feared. For the moment, all that Hazel could imagine was rough men trying to have their ways with the women of the settlement and the church, and that would not go over well. She just hoped that she was seeing the worst possible outcome and not the real one.

As she stepped under the leaf ceilings of the temple again, one of the lower-ranking initiates approached her. The young elf bowed at the waist, then stood up straight again.

"Sister Aster Oakhoof wishes to see you today, Sister Hazel."

"Oh? That...is unexpected."

An understatement, to say the least. Aster Oakhoof was one of the more conservative sisters of the religion of Erastil, and one of the higher-ranking ones, as well. She had heard of her, seen the good things that the woman had done for the settlement, and she knew that Aster had been one of those that had been sent on various missions for the church to root out evil in the past. A summons to see her did not bode well.

"Did she say where she was?"

"Yes, ma'am. She is in the baths."

"...The baths?"

"Yes, ma'am. Do you remember the way?"

"I do. You may go."

The elf bowed again, hustling away, his robes flicking behind him as he moved swiftly to his tasks. She shook her head, leaning against the wooden wall behind her as she considered her options.

None of them were good. If Oakhoof knew that she was back - and if the other member of the order was sending runners to find her, that meant that she knew, alright - then there was no way for her to pretend that she had never got the message. Maybe if it was someone on her level, or someone that was lower-ranking, but...

No, Oakhoof would know. And that meant that an appearance was necessary.

The half-elf sighed, rubbing her face as she already imagined how this would go. Aster was not...unkind, but she was definitely one of those sticklers that tended to go with the letter of the law rather than the spirit. If she had been present during the incident down at the Arcanamirium, then there would doubtlessly have been a different result. Probably one that ended up with Vitus imprisoned and the professor dead, with no danger to the collapse of the school at all through the entire thing.

That wouldn't have been better, but it doubtlessly would have been more effective.

And the fact that the other woman wanted to meet her in the baths...

Wonderful. Can I just get through one day without being embarrassed enough to fry eggs on my face?

Probably not. That didn't seem to be what her lot in life was of late. She'd just have to deal with it and hope for the best, she supposed. Sighing under her breath, she gathered the edges of her clothes and walked down the hallways, hoping that the baths were not so occupied as they sometimes were in the morning.

They were left on the northwest side of the temple, facing towards the distant trees and the mountains that loomed just barely in view. The different baths were formed out of the cupping branches of the higher trees that the temple was molded out of, which meant that she had to climb a number of stairs to get to them.

When she reached the top, another lay person of the church met her there. The young woman smiled as Hazel stepped off of the stairs, bowing her head to the half-elf.

"Welcome, Sister Hazel. It's good to have you back at the temple again."

"Yes, um...it's good to be back."

"Sister Oakhoof left a message that you would be meeting her. Do you need towels? Oils? Anything?"

"Just which bath she's in, thank you."

"Ah, yes, just down this way," the short, cheery human gestured, pointing to her right down one of the slenderer branch paths. "First chamber on the left."

"Thank you," Hazel said, bobbing her head politely and making her way along.

I wish they weren't all so happy so early. It never feels right.

Nevertheless, the half-elf followed the branch down the pathway between the greater branches. She could feel the tree's life all around her, a gentle, warming feeling that she had been lacking in the forest at large. Not because the other trees were dead, but rather because they didn't have the warmth of Erastil infused in them the way that the temple did. Despite her many nerves for the meeting ahead, she slowly started to calm down, feeling a bit more herself as she approached the doors ahead.

She rested her fingers on the doorway that led to the appropriate bath. Dragging them to the knob, she took one deep breath, then opened it.

As expected, the other sister was reclined against the smoothed-down wood against the far end of the bath. The bath itself was formed out of two huge branches that had been woven together by druids and priests far, far back in the beginning of time for the temple, and the branches themselves had been slowly split again to form the space for the bathtub itself. It was huge, nearly twenty feet across, and normally, it would have hosted up to a dozen different men or women as they cleansed themselves for the day ahead.

Today, it held one woman, an elf that had been with the church for longer than Hazel had been alive. The half-elf bowed to the antler-blessed woman, keeping her head down.

"Sister Oakhoof."

"Sister Akiras, Sister Hazel, welcome."

It was a gentle voice, yes, but she knew that it could get firm and harsh in short order. Hazel lifted her head, looking at the elf woman again.

Aster Oakhoof wasn't quite a legend among the church, but that was only because the other woman practiced a sort of humility that drained the ego from the legendary things that she had done over the course of her life. And certainly, she was marked for it. The middle-aged elf had antlers that popped out of the top of her head, strung with different holy symbols of Erastil and the many different spirits that were part of their worship. She had arms that were slight and slender, but which were marked with the green letters and signs of the religion, tattooed to her flesh like holy scripture.

And she was naked, which meant that her breasts, still quite firm at her age, were on the verge of floating free of the water. There was no shame, but also no exhibitionism to her state of undress, merely a sort of comfort that she seemed willing to share.

Hazel blushed ever so slightly, remembering the power that had come from a naked woman the last time that she had been around one. That professor, Orlov, had been quite...intense.

"Please, join me," Aster Oakhoof said.

"I would prefer to remain outside the water, ma'am."

"I must insist."

"...Why?"

"Because you must remove your shame, Sister Hazel. Please. Join me."

The half-elf bit her lip, wishing that the other woman hadn't been quite so aware of what was going on. She could already feel the slight twitch of arousal that came from shame down there, particularly knowing that she didn't have a way out of it.

This stupid hierarchy of family...

She took a deep breath, slowly undoing the buttons on her robe. She could feel the eyes of the high-ranking priestess fixed on her face, and dared not look up. This was humiliating enough not seeing what sort of reaction this was going to cause.

Humiliating, and arousing, much to her shame.

Hazel knew that she had changed a great deal between her initial departure from the church and her return, but she hadn't realized that it had gone to this degree. The feeling of those eyes on her, the intense sensation of...that...meant that she was constantly feeling as if she was showing off, feeling the temptation to thrust out her chest, or...or do other, more extreme things.

I've changed. I've come something...

She wanted to say shameful, but there was not enough shame in those feelings to drown out the excitement. There was a part of her that wished that she had the confidence to fling off her robe, to walk into that bath with all the confidence of a streetwalker going to bed with a new client. That struck her harder than she wanted to admit, her nipples stiffening beneath her robe and her sex clenching.

You stop it, she told her body, but she doubted that it was willing to listen.

Grumbling under her breath, she finally managed to get her robe off. Her underthings - a small bra and panties that were rapidly getting soaked - stayed for the moment as she folded her robe and set it aside. She could feel Sister Oakhoof looking at her from behind.

"I'm sorry for my...presentation," Hazel said.

"It's the way of the world."

"You still shouldn't have to see it."

"I have seen far worse, my dear. Come. Join me," the other woman repeated.

"Mmmph..."

She slowly took off her sandals, feeling the other woman's eyes on her feet, too. Were they dirty, she wondered? Or was there something else wrong? She shook her head, pulling off her bra. The feeling of the cool air on her nipples only made them harder, more obvious, and it took everything that she had not to cover herself up right then and there.

Then...her panties.

She blushed worse than ever as she pulled them down, trying to keep her legs together so that she could keep that covered, but canine anatomy didn't work the same way as human anatomy. The squish feeling of her thighs pressing against it only made it swell more, making it all the more obvious.

Sister Oakhoof chuckled.

"Allow it freedom, Sister Hazel. You know it will do what it wills."

"I know, but it shouldn't be allowed that."

"I know, and you know, but it doesn't. Allow it freedom, for now."

It wasn't what Hazel wanted to do, but as far as she understood, she didn't have a lot of choice in the matter. Her sex had become particularly obstinate of late, and she didn't know how she was going to deal with it going forward. All she could do was do her best, and if that meant picking her battles...

She slowly spread her legs as she stood up, allowing the dark flesh down there to be shown off. She turned slowly, allowing herself to face the older sister, and the elf looked down as Hazel had known she would. Her muscles tensed as she braced herself for the gasp, for the shock, for the judgment.

None came.

"Well? How many times do I have to invite you to join me in the bath?" Sister Oakhoof asked.

"You're not..."

"So you have changed. It is a thing that happens."

"...A thing that happens?"

"I was not born with these, was I?" she asked, pointing to her head and the antlers upon it.

"No, but...that was godly. This is..."

"It is what it is. Now."

The elf gestured, and Hazel felt the slight surge of power that meant that the other woman was embracing the deific energy that all clerics could channel. She knew that it was a reminder that she had been resisting the invitation for a number of minutes now, and she needed to either get dressed and leave, or finally take it up.

Not wanting to cause any further offense, she did the latter.

She had to spread her legs further than she liked to reach over the tub and slide in, and she felt entirely too self-conscious of her dog sex between her legs. The feeling of it was so different, even now. There were more curves, folds, and shapes down there than the simple slit that rested between her legs back then, and she blushed every time that she felt it clench at the thought of something naughty. It was so...active.

Dunking herself in the water as soon as she could manage, she wiggled her hips back and forth to get a little more comfortable. The older elf smiled.

"It seems that you have been marked with more than mere magic."

"You mean the...the shame."

"Yes, I do. Do you think you'll be holding onto that for long?"

"I thought...I thought that I should. I failed, if I still have this."

"Perhaps. But it need not be a shameful reminder. It merely needs to be a reminder."

"It...affects me," she muttered, looking down. "I still feel certain...urges, I suppose, that I shouldn't."

"Our faith will keep you on the right path, eventually. In the meantime, I brought something that you might find useful."

"Oh? That...that is very unexpected."

"Heh. Because I believe in the traditions?" Sister Oakhoof asked.

Hazel blushed, but nodded.

"One of our traditions is kindness and aid towards those that are of the faith. I believe that I can offer that while still maintaining my own beliefs."

"Well...I must thank you. Thank you very much. Where is it?"

The other woman lifted her leg, and Hazel was treated to a reminder as to the reason for Aster's surname. The elf's leg ended in a hoof rather than a foot, tiny and pointed, and she gestured with it to a pouch that rested against the edge of the bath.

"There is a pendant in there," she said, keeping her leg aloft for a moment longer before slowly lowering the narrow limb back into the water. "Please, take it."

Hazel nodded, trying to shake the image of that strange limb out of her mind. Considering that all the different members of the church either wore robes or rather flowing garments, she had never realized that Aster's legs ended that way. She had thought that her name was merely a reference to being fleetfooted or something along those lines, but seeing the difference...

I'd almost think that the changes of Melchiresa are more appealing to look at...

She caught herself imagining the legs and paws of hellhounds and had to stop herself right then and there. She did not need to start getting wet between her legs, even here where it might be a little less noticeable. Pushing the thought out of her head, she scooted along the edge of the bath, keeping herself submerged up to the neck.

As she reached into the pouch, she found an odd sort of pendant inside. It had a simple chain for it, but it ended in a series of little rings. Connected symbols were an old-style representation for the church of Erastil, seldom used, but still recognizable. She pulled them free, cocking her head to the side at the sight of two rings in the very center, bound together quite tightly compared to the other, more loosely-connected rings.

"This isn't a style that I've seen before."

"You wouldn't have. It's more of an elvish thing."

"I'm half-elven."

"And the other half?"

"...Human."

"Precisely."

"What does it do?"

"It links you to the faith. Please, put it on."

Shrugging, Hazel did as she was asked with only a mild amount of mistrust. For all that she still felt some concern about her situation, she knew that it wasn't as deadly as she had initially imagined. Sister Oakhoof could have done a number of things to her already, sentenced her to time in prison, or worse. Instead, she seemed willing to try and make things work, something that she had never expected from a stickler like this.

Maybe there are more rules that you learn at the top that I don't know about just yet, she thought.

Pulling the pendant on, she felt a strange thrum that ran through her body. It was like the warmth all around her had been energized, pulled into her heart, and...

And there was something else. Something that made her feel...content. Content, warm, and...

She gasped, her eyes going wide.

"It feels better, doesn't it?"

"It's...it's so much...less..."

The hunger that had been burning between her legs, so constant and so wearing that she had almost forgotten how painful it really was, finally lessened. It wasn't gone, and she doubted that it would ever be gone, but it had been reduced to merely a tenth of what it had been. Her legs buckled, and she almost wanted to cry.

Oh my...oh gods...thank you...thank you...thank you...

It was akin to finally losing pain, to having relief after weeks and weeks of dealing with that. The sudden release, the focus that it gave her again, left her shaking, hugging herself as she felt the tears welling up in the back of her eyes.

"I can't...you...I can't..."

"You can thank me another time," Sister Oakhoof said, leaning her head back.

"No, you...you don't know what you've done...you don't know what you've given me."

"I think you're showing me exactly what I've given you."

"I...I owe you so much. Thank you."

"If you owe me so much, you can do me one small favor."

"Anything."

"Move a little closer."

The half-elf did that with ease, sitting down almost directly beside the other woman. She smiled, and Hazel blushed as she felt the hoof against her ankle.

"Put that on my lap."

"Sister?"

"You need to relax. Allow me."

There were tenets of service throughout the rules of the church, so it wasn't wrong to have that offered, but it was still strange. She brought her leg up slowly, only to groan as the older woman push against her heel, and then against the arch of her foot. Somehow, Sister Oakhoof knew exactly where to touch to make the priestess utterly melt. The antlered woman chuckled.

"Good to know that I still know the pressure points."

"Mmmph...is that...is that what this is?"

"That, and a little something special."

Hazel groaned as the other woman's thumbs gently worked her up and down, rubbing in little circles up from her heel to the arch of her foot, then along the middle before going up to her toes. Every little touch felt oddly...oddly erotic, and she blushed a bit as she felt her sex throb just a little in the water.

She didn't dare move, didn't dare say anything in case it broke this strange spell that was finally giving her this odd sense of relief. It wasn't purely sexual, either, but rather something erotic, something...something fascinating.

It was almost like there was a sense of control and power that Sister Oakhoof put off, and Hazel was almost helpless against it, feeling like it was holding her down, keeping her in place. The touch to her feet was different, too, almost like the other woman was...fascinated, for lack of a better word, with her soles. Perhaps, having hooves for so long made one interested in what other people had again?

She didn't know, and she couldn't think straight enough to care. The more pressure points that the older elf touched, the more she started fading into a happy, almost blissful state, her toes curling, her pussy clenching under the water as certain nerve points kept getting hit, kept getting pressed.

Ah...ah...ah...

The warmth between her legs was getting all the more intense as the massage reached up to her toes, rubbing between them. Hazel forced one eye open again, looking up at Sister Oakhoof. There was that gentle smile, still, but there was something else. Something...something a little more...intense...something...

Then there was pressure right into a nerve under the ball of her foot, and she groaned, rolling her head back.

"Mmmph..."

"You obviously need more attention. I would like to talk with you more in the future about your experiences with the demon, and with your...changed body," Sister Oakhoof said. "We have much to talk about. Perhaps you can meet me for this every morning, before the...hobgoblins...require your services."

Even in her blissed-out state, Hazel could hear that tone in the other woman's voice. Yes. There was definitely a dislike there, the conservatism coming back out. She wanted to judge the other woman for that, on some level, wanted to remind her of what they were meant to do for all, not merely humanoids.

But she felt too good to argue, and she wanted someone that would not judge her...changes...So, she nodded.

"Wonderful. I will see you tomorrow, then. You may leave now."

"Mmmph..."

"Well, you may leave when you can walk."

"Thank...you..."

It took her nearly an hour to be able to leave the baths, and by that time, she was nearly late to return to the hobgoblin encampment. She had planned to get some food, some new clothes, but the most that she had been able to do was get a bath with the priestess. She pressed the pendant tight to her chest under her robes, hurrying down the steps of the temple and back to the forest.

Knowing them, they're not going to care about some sweaty robes, but...we'll see.

Even now, nearly an hour and a half after the massage, she was feeling the tingles running up and down her legs, making her pussy twitch ever so slightly from the weird, erotic pressure that kept affecting her. She didn't know what had been done to her down there, but it had obviously been powerful enough to leave something behind.

She hopped over a stump, shaking her head as she finally found the smell of the smoke coming off the hobgoblin encampment. It wasn't up in the air, no longer giving her a landmark to find, but it was easy to smell out. She followed it, her head tilting back every so often to track it.

Eventually, she found their encampment. The various members of the hobgoblin tribe were just starting to get settled in around the campfires in the middle of the encampment, and she could see Vakrozad already pulling himself together, getting his gear and -

She paused at the entrance to the camp as she saw that some of the other members of the clan were oiling him up. The sight of the hobgoblin dressed in nothing but a loincloth and having his body getting oiled up to the point of shining in the flames was...well, it didn't exactly have a negative effect. She clenched up a bit down there, her thighs rubbing together as she looked him over.

Okay, you should not look appealing. Why do you look appealing?

She blamed the curse, but at the same time, she knew that she couldn't just lean on that every time. If there was something going on, she needed to deal with it, even if the curse was diminished by the pendant against her skin.

And the pendant...

Hazel pressed her hand to that, shaking her head a few times. It wasn't just the curse if she felt something while she was wearing that. She looked up at him again.

Oh...god...

Her eyes went wide as she watched them lift his loincloth, whipping her head up before she could see anything more than testicles that were hanging down far lower than she was used to seeing. Hazel knew that it was time to announce herself and hope for the best. Tapping her hand against one of the tents to make a rattling sound, she called out.

"Um, just wanting to let you know I'm here," she called.

"...Well? Does that need to be announced?" Vakrozad said.

"Well, you did have your loincloth up in the air."

"Not like that bothers me."

"Yes, but...it wasn't expected."

"Oh, hell, you can look if you want. No shame on my end."

"I'll wait until you're done."

"Fine, fine. Mol! Hey, old Mol!"

"Oh, call me old one more time, and see what happens," a new voice said, growling, grunting...snuffling?

Hazel brought her head back down, well away from looking at Vakrozad, and she immediately had a preference for looking back at him, naked man or no.

'Mol', it seemed, was a cursed member of the hobgoblin group. She - at least, Hazel assumed it was a she - walked forward from one of the tents with a growl and a snort, the latter coming from a wide set of nostrils that looked like they could have been put on a pig with ease. She blushed a bit as she looked down, seeing a long, throbbing thing that pushed the female's clothes forward down at the groin, and wondered just what she was looking at.

Mol joined them, looking down at her with a snort.

"What's this, then? Our guard dog?" Mol asked.

"Yeah, that's about the shape of it. You mind keeping an eye on her while I finish getting ready?"

"Hmmph. Stealing my eye-candy, are you?" Mol asked Hazel, shaking her head. "And here I was set to enjoy myself."

"...I can just...wait outside..."

"And go back to what you were doing last night?" Mol snorted as Hazel blushed. "Come on, girl. We'll talk."

Feeling that she had little choice in the matter, she followed the hobgoblin back to one of the tents at the far end of the camp. She didn't know what she was doing, but she hoped that this was for the best. She had certain duties that needed to be done, and...

Well, at least this would be a distraction from the naked chief.

Even if he looks...pretty sexy...

The half-elf would have slapped herself for that if it wouldn't have raised odd questions. As it was, she tried to force herself to think of Vitus, remembering how they had been together, and how...how that had felt...

That did something else, something that she hadn't expected. Rather than just the lustful feelings that had been suppressed by the pendant, it started pushing at other buttons, reminding her of how nice it had been to have someone that was so willing to try and help her. Someone that could both stand at her side and...stand over her...and be beneath her...

She remembered her hunger for him, and that...that was something different. Just remembering that she had hungered for someone else as much as they had hungered for her made all the difference for her right then and there.

As they entered Mol's tent, the air thickened with the smell of...satisfaction. She rubbed her nose, ignoring it for the most part. It was nothing compared to a hellhound den, she supposed, and she was surprised that had been something useful. Not much in the way of musk would affect her after that.

"Sorry about the stink," Mol said, pushing various vials, potions, scrolls, and more off the floor. "Last night was new."

"The ritual magic, yes?"

"Yeah, haven't felt like that for a long time."

"Well, it is potent magic of the gods."

"Yeah? Well, it's not that different from ol' Melchi's magic."

"...I'm sorry, did you mean...Melchiresa?"

"We've got a relationship. I call her Melchi, she fucks me up the ass. It works."

"..."

"What, you never get intimate with your god?"

"Not...usually."

"Your loss."

The hobgoblin shrugged, her fingers clicking a bit as she did, and it took Hazel a moment to realize that Mol had something more like trotters than proper fingers. A glance down showed that the other woman had something like hooves, too, not fully, but closer to it than they should have been.

She's changed, Aster's changed...I've changed...

She was starting to wonder if there was a way to be close to anything divine or hellish without eventually having something change. They were so powerful, so different to mortals, that it seemed like long-term contact made transformation inevitable.

Would I have started to change into a deer, if I stayed...

As she ran her hand over her forehead and further back, imagining the antlers sprouting over her head, Mol grunted and shoved enough stuff out of the way to clear a space on the ground. The hobgoblin sat down, gesturing for Hazel to do the same. She did, crossing her legs carefully.

"So, what're we doing tonight?" Mol asked.

"I...you want to know?"

"I'm the seer. I wanna see if I got it right."

"Well, um...there's a festival tonight, as you probably know." Mol nodded. "And we are going to be approaching the town, circling around to the south to make a procession towards the temple."

"There's an ass in the smith-shop that's gonna throw a brick at us."

"What? How do you -"

"Seer, girl. Next."

The End

Summary: Hazel continues going back and forth between the church and the hobgoblins, and receives a bit of help with her heat from a surprising source.

Tags: F/F, F/solo, M/solo, exhibitionism, elf, half-elf, hobgoblin, were, fantasy, series, foot focus, massage, foot fetish, bath, animal anatomy, curse, heat, magic, embarrassed,