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A Note From The Author...

This is my first story that I'll publish on SoFurry. I've written this with the expectation that it will become a saga. The stories will be centered around various fetishes in the form of granted wishes so for the most part it will just be smut. But I thought giving it a nice story would flesh it out a bit and make it all the more entertaining for those porn hunters that do enjoy a bit of meat with their sauce. It's also an opportunity for me to develop my own character, Sable. You'll all get to see what happens to this personage as the story progresses. There might be a role for the antagonist in the future as well. I definitely want constructive criticism. I know that some of my tenses are not congruent and I'm unsure if I should change them. I wrote the tenses the way they are for a reason, but if anything is distracting, sounds terrible, or is hard to read please comment below. I'd really appreciate it.

Edit: I just heavily edited the exposition, tags, pools, and a few tidbits of foreshadowing and story arc consistency. I made the characters more detailed, emotional, and believable. I've progressed a lot in my outline and so I made sure things were consistent in that regard. I hope that I did the tags and pools properly. I tried to stay true to the guidelines for tags and the descriptions for each pool but if I messed up, please don't hit me! In any case it's all very different. So enjoy! ^^

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Section 1 : Warning: Consequences Of Spells Are Larger Than They Appear

I'd always wanted to be able to do something for the world, but I never felt like I could. Many times did I feel silly as I sifted through website after scroll after tome, searching for a way to bring magic back to the world. "Magic." I would scoff. "There's no such thing as magic." But for some reason I persisted. I persevered in my quest to relight the fires of magic once again. Wow. Those words sound so noble and quest like. Maybe that's why I continued. I'd convinced myself I was doing something for the greater good and that I was on some sort of kingly quest.

Kingly. Sure. Like my delusional wild goose chase deserved the word "kingly" to describe it. I was sure my behavior was going to get me thrown into a loony bin. I even found a cave and filled it with a few cheap wood tables and many texts to do my research in private. Holy shit...I turned into a hermit. I_am_fucking crazy. Yet I continued. I felt like I was on cruise control, or maybe like I was acting out a play I'd rehearsed hundreds of times before and now I was just replaying it all from muscle memory.

I was an unnecessarily tall and lanky early twenty-something fighting for something I knew I'd never succeed at. I wasn't too proud of myself back then. I didn't really have anything to be proud of. I scratched my irritatingly rough but short beard as I scratched notes on a musty sheet of paper with my irritatingly rough and short pencil. I cringed as I felt the graphite haphazardly slide along the paper, feeling like chalk on a chalkboard. I hated chalkboards. The feeling of using one bit into my whole body as I would run the dusty lump of chalk on the painfully rough, green board. Dealing with other people was an equally rough and painful ordeal. Sure, there were some nice people out there, but the more I got to know people the more I found things I didn't like. It didn't help that I lived in a part of the country that was known for it's intolerant, vapid population.

Despite my trepidation, I didn't hate everyone. I wanted more than anything else to help people. The darkness in people is only there because it was put there. Give someone a little light and they can change. It can be hard sometimes. Squinting our eyes as we get used to the light is part of the process. I speak from experience when I say the world doesn't have to be a dark place. Even now people seek out the light that they can find to fend off the darkness, and I wanted so much to be a candle in the sea of black.

The drip-drip-drip of the cool quiet cave provided some peace in my whirling mind as I combed over page after page of information on mythology, spirituality, philosophy, and religion. The stalagmites reaching for the ceiling off in the distance protected my cherished haven from the sun so that there was only a diffuse light permeating the dark wet gnarled rock walls. The small amount of sun reflected off of parts of the walls craggy surface and seemed to provide a mystical atmosphere for which I could work. It made me feel safe. Especially from the terrible people I'd encountered that prompted this research. The cave seemed to provide an air of calm along with it's physical air of cool. The two helped me think and focus. It felt rather liberating honestly. The cave did indeed feel like it was the right place to find my place in the universe.

Despite my insanity I did seem to make some sort of progress. I found a few spirits and deities that I admired the qualities of and jotted their names down. I found Dionysus to be the one whom I wished to speak with the most, but for some reason the only words that came to mind when I thought of him was "One thing at a time." It made me shift my focus to my second choice: Pan. He was a shepherd, healer, and partyer. All his kind seemed to share features that I wished the world had more of. Pan would be an excellent advocate for the development of happiness the world so desperately needed.

The revelation of a well meaning benevolent spirit kindled my excitement and encouraged me to learn as much as I could about him and his fellow satyrs. I learned about their good nature, their propensity for good will, and their tendency for altruism. It lead me to believe that I had to do everything I could to bring this spirit to life. He was the perfect kind of candidate and I was the perfect kind of crazy.

So I delved into the complex nonsense that magic was sure to be. I was still skeptical of what I was doing. The viability of conjuring a spirit with magic wasn't exactly the most sensible thing I'd ever thought of. But I still persevered...for some odd reason. I stumbled upon several methods and types of invoking magic that lead to my discovering three properties that I was sure to use. I discovered the properties of preservation, invocation, and supplication.

I certainly wanted to preserve a once prevalent way of life, at least in part. There was a bit of happiness that I found in the stories behind Pan and his kind. It was like a far away memory of a birthday party or vacation that was the best one I ever had. It definitely encouraged me to use the property in the spell that I was constructing.

The property of invocation would most likely be the most important part of the spell. I felt like, despite the inclusion of the other two properties, nothing was going to happen if I didn't add a property of invocation. This made complete sense to me as I scribbled notes on my spell. The sudden conviction I had confused me as I had no real reason to be choosing any of the properties. I didn't even remember scrawling all those notes on the sheet of plain white paper sitting on the rickety wooden table before me. It was like my ideas were...already there. Already fixed in time and I was just following through to the inevitable conclusion. Fate seemed to have gripped my future and was directing it by it's own volition.

I shivered as I began to read about the third and final property. How I knew it was the final one I had no idea, but I was sure about it. As my eyes strode over the words in my book I became even more sure of my decision to include supplication. It made complete sense. The spirits wouldn't be able to hold their existence for long without followers and believers. But...how did I know that? Maybe I read it somewhere and just forgot that I did. That's probably what happened. I had read so much in such a short span of time that it certainly seemed like a reasonable conclusion.

My senses flickered as I found myself placing six candles in a wide circle on the damp silty earth of the cave. I realized that I'd placed them in the shape of a hexagram (because fuck tradition). As I lit the candles and watched the red glow of light licking the sides of the cave, I felt like I was on the right track. I placed bits of sage in a slightly smaller circle around the center of the hexagram and lit them too before walking to the center wondering aloud, "What the hell am I doing?" The echo of my voice sounded unsure but as I sat down and crossed my legs the echo seemed to fade away. I knew exactly what I was doing. I'd written it all down on the dirty bent piece of paper that I still held between my fingers.

I closed my eyes and forgot about the hesitant voice that echoed within the cave and began to pray. I prayed to Pan. I prayed for his well being and for a good future. I prayed for the once merry times in which Pan inhabited. I prayed that my internal dialogue would reach far and wide so that it may reach those that would hear it. And I prayed for an opportunity to exchange the happiness I so desired with the one whom I prayed for. But most of all I prayed for the ability to do well for others: to ensure a future for contentment and geniality that I wanted to give so much of.

I breathed in the scent of burning sage and stood with my eyes still softly closed. Taking another slow breath I inhaled the sweet aroma noticing a slight change in the scent. I took a third calm breath of the smoke and found that it smelled completely different and as I exhaled I fell.

Section 2 : I'm not insane, I'm not insane, I'm not insane...Yeah, keep tellin' yerself that buddy. WHO SAID THAT?

It was an odd sensation. One moment gravity was exerting it's hold on my body and the next it was gone. The sensation of floating was accompanied by a warmth and tingling on my skin. It was like when the hair on your arm is pulled up by static from a well rubbed balloon: that and goosebumps. I clenched my eyes even more than they already were and felt light headed. I thought I was dead. Or maybe dying and I was just hallucinating. Fear gripped my chest and the accompanying tightness grew as I began to hyperventilate. My ears popped as I reluctantly opened my eyes, momentarily blinded by a seemingly endless bright white space. The vast emptiness went on forever in every direction and reminded me of the boundless inky black expanse of outer space but white and without the celestial bodies. It was as if I'd been transported into a loading program in the matrix but without the floor. Wait, was I...?

A sudden tug on my entire body interrupted my thoughts and jerked me forward and downward. That's what it felt like anyway. I didn't really know which way was up or down. My sudden trajectory brought a sense of cool and calm followed by a breeze. The feeling was both comforting and unsettling. My momentary lucidity was again interrupted, but this time by dirt, grass, and moss. I found myself face down, shaken, and confused; certainly a change of pace from the completely normal occurrence of being pulled into nothingness and subsequently spit out again.

It was an odd comfort feeling the familiar pleasantly cool air. At least it wasn't mud that I was so harshly planted in. The sun provided a warm comfort that felt out of place considering my circumstances. I groaned, debating whether I should lift my head or stay hidden from whatever bizarre place I'd been transported to. I jumped, startled by a soft tap on my shoulder. A gruff but jovial voice stated sarcastically, "Forgive me boy, it's been quite a while since I've been among your kind, but I'm fairly sure you aren't supposed to be eating that dirt." A bit of soft soil forced its way into my mouth as I groaned again, this time more out of derision than pain. Another gruff but somewhat lighter voice cackled at my predicament as I tried to spit out the dirt without having to lift my head and face whoever it was that was troubling me.

I pressed my hands into what I now felt to be rather dark, fertile soil and lifted myself away from a somewhat face shaped hole in the ground. It isn't fun falling from a spatial vortex but at least it was on soft soil. I grunted as I stood and brushed the dirt from my eyes, shirt, and really everything. to finally face the two gruff jiving voices, only to freeze and stare at the creature standing before me.

"It worked," I said quietly, eyes wide. The creature raised an eyebrow at me as if to examine a piece of rotting food that had been given to him in jest. He waved his hand over my face slowly as if to see if I was awake or sane but I felt a tingling on my face and realized that he was most likely healing the small wounds on my face. I simply stared harder with even wider eyes now. "IT WORKED!" I shouted, elated. He then smiled at me a wide smile and shouted, "IT WORKED!" right back at me. I laughed, shouting of my success and the creature hugged me as we jumped in circles shouting together in jubilation. After a moment or two of spinning, shouting, and half frolicking we stopped, slightly out of breath, and the creature questioned, "What worked now?"

I heard the cackling laughter again and saw that another creature of the same kind was sitting on a log in front of a large marble table that was right next to a big camp fire, all just a few feet behind the creature in front of me. We were surrounded by various extravagant marble tables, statues, columns and pedestals clearly of Greek design and all worn, broken and covered in vines. The large fire place in the center of it all was bordered by what looked like pieces of the fragmented columns. The higher marble tables around the logs and benches surrounding the fire and marble table were covered in a cornucopia of food and drink. Various silver bowls plates and platters were covered with roasts of several animals, grapes, steamed vegetables, and fruits everywhere of all kinds. Several decanters and carafes held wine that were a variety of colors, some of which I'd never seen before. The sight was wonderful and full of so many different shapes, colors and textures. I felt like I'd slipped into a dream where I was feasting in the great hall of Hogwarts. The occasional pipe and other smoking paraphernalia were scattered around laying on marble tables and chipped pedestals. Some of them were adjacent to ornate wooden bowls carved with intricate designs and half filled with a diverse collection of dried plants that were clumped together in tightly packed lumps.

I looked up at the massive tree that covered a large space in the middle of the small glade. Its bark was dark, rough, and ridged with several meters of trunk without branches. The trees gnarled roots were covered in vivid green moss and surrounded in beautiful grass and furn.The trees around the outskirts of the glade were spread out between a floor of moss, grass, furn, and vines. The foliage covered the ground and made it look like a soft bed of green. A stag and deer off in the distance walked casually through it, some of them with their heads hidden from view as they nibbled on clovers, alfalfa, and wild flowers.

"Well hello there my dirty friend!" the creature said sincerely, brushing off more of the dirt that I had missed in my hysterics. I looked at the creature and was amazed at the exotic person that stood before me. He was clearly a satyr. His thick brown furred legs resembled a goats, his fur fading as it traveled up his pelvis. He, for he was definitely male, had a very large pair of... "Are you alright there boy? You looked like you just fell from the sky." Again the other satyr laughed his ass off at the others sarcasm. "Either that or you saw something you liked," he finished through a grin. The satyr on the log bellowed obnoxiously, "Ooooooooooh" as if he were about to say our names followed by "sittin' in a tree" in a sing-song voice. I had to admit, while intimidating, the size of his tackle was indeed fun to look at. Each of his balls were almost as big as my fist. And he had a plump sheathe to match. Blushing and thoroughly embarrassed I looked at the satyrs face and saw his features for the first time. Beside the lewd grin, he had what appeared to be a luxurious fur-like beard that seemed to be the same consistency of the slightly long fur on his head and legs. His nose was a little flat and his ears were hidden behind his beard-mane thing and atop his head rose two thick horns curling backward like a goats.

"Looks like he found my other horns Pan!" he chuckled. "Ask him to touch'm! Don't say which one!" shouted the other satyr, whom I now knew to be called Pan. The thin but muscular creature before me rolled his brilliant hazel eyes and smiled at me kindly as he spoke over his shoulder, "Now now, don't scare the poor boy, he had quite a fall. Show some manners!" Pan huffed, "Bahh!" but seemed to relent.

The satyr stood by my side and put his arm over my shoulder walking us toward a large comfortable looking wood bench opposite from Pan. "My name is Aristaeus. It's good to meet you," Aristaeus said in a good natured tone as we sat down. Pan drank a deep red wine from his glass and set it on the large, square, low white marble table between them, some small distance from the fire place. Aristaeus picked up his pipe lying on the table, lit it, and puffed on it a few times. "Now then, what's your name boy?"

"My name is Sable Oximasoth, Mr. Aristaeus" I said as polite as I could. I felt like I should afford the spirits I admired most a good deal of respect. Aristaeus smiled big and the two looked at each other like they were about to pop with uncontainable laughter. "Well look at that Pan, I'm a mister now!" The two chuckled and smiled at me. Pan looked at me with a kind face and said from across the table, "Calm down kid, there ain't no 'sirs,' 'lords,' or 'misters' 'round here. Jus' call us by our names. No pretenchus titles for us. We're jus' yer average day ta day satyrs havin' a bittuh fun."

"Tell us how you got here friend. How did you make your way between worlds? I'm not sure a human has ever set foot on the fertile soil of Eram." Aristaeus said a bit eagerly as he set the hand with the pipe in it down on his crossed, furred legs.

"I wove a spell," I said with apprehension. I wasn't exactly sure why I was so nervous. These two boisterous satyrs had been quite kind to me so far. Suddenly my propensity for avoiding social engagement weighed down on me, making me wish I had the social finesse to join the two in their seemingly endless delight. I felt a lump in my throat as Pan drawled, "Well go'n boy. What kind of spell was it?" I tried to break the feeling of being gripped by the throat and succeeded well enough to say quietly. "It was a summoning spell. I compiled a blend of preservation, invocation, and supplication properties and drew a hexagram on the floor of my cave to..." "Wait a moment: cave?" Aristaeus said with a mixture of concern and curiosity. "Y-yes," I stammered, embarrassed with my demeanor, the isolation it lead me to, and the fact that I had to explain my social inadequacy to other people. "I - I don't really talk to a lot of people. I'm...not very good at socializing. And the people that are there to talk to aren't good conversation anyway." Aristaeus smiled at me warmly, "Well I can guarantee that in Eram there will always be good conversation under Eizan." I gave him a bit of a confused look and asked, "Eizan?"

"Eizan is the warden of the forest here in Eram." Aristaeus pointed up at the branches curving softly in the breeze. I looked up at them and the rays of sunlight beaming down on us through the leaves. I listened to them rustle softly as the tree gracefully let the wind flow between its branches. "It protects this realm and holds all the life, rock, and air together in one big cohesive bubble." I looked back down at Aristaeus again and asked, "You mean none of this is real?" Pan flicked a grape across the marble table and pegged me on the side of my head with it. "Oh it's real alright. Ye ain't dreamin' boy I can tell ye that." I gained a bit more courage as we spoke together and asked, "So where is...Eram?" The two satyrs looked at me a little confused and Aristaeus said, "What do you mean?" I thought for a moment trying to find a different way of asking. "What's outside of Eram?" Pan waved his had in dismissal and said, "Eram is here. There is no outside of Eram. Anything that ain't here is somewhere else completely. Ya follow?" I gave him a bewildered look as if someone had just told me that the sky wasn't blue, it was bronze, and I was insane to think it was blue. "Uhhh..."

"Tell us why you came here Sable." Aristaeus interrupted. "Why exactly would you wish to meet a satyr?" I tried to gather my thoughts again, still a bit nervous. My hesitance broke as I blurted, "I wanted to mean something" My face softened at the realization of what I'd said. The truth seemed to permeate my skin as I once again felt a sense of purpose through all the despondent thoughts and feelings that I had. "I wanted to do something important." All of the tense feelings I had underneath the insanity in the cave and my dismal social condition everywhere came flowing out all at once as I blathered, "I just wanted to do something right. I'm not very good at social situations, I know, but the people where I'm from don't exactly make it easy on me either. Everyone is always playing little games, saying things that are meant to provoke people to behave in a defensive way. Everyone wants to validate their worldview by unconsciously pushing it on other people and it comes out in just normal conversation." I took a deep breath and tried to let go of some of my tension and continued, "People like me get pushed around and kicked down. People take out all their insecurities on others and so they act tough or confident or angry just to convince themselves that everything is okay. All the while unknowingly hurting people around them."

"I cast the summoning spell because I wanted to find a way to give people what they deserve: happiness. Because I don't think anyone deserves to feel insecure, or inadequate or dumb or any of that stuff. I cast the spell to bring you back, Pan. If anyone can bring a little joy to the world it's a spirit of joy." Pan raised his eye brows in astonishment at my babbling and I carried on, "I spent months searching for something that I was sure didn't exist and along the way I discovered magic. I cobbled together a spell that would release the seal on magic and send me to wherever you were." Despite the fact that I was pouring my guts out I felt like I was missing something: something I forgot. Before I could give it more thought Pan stood and exclaimed in wonderment, "You released the seal on magic!?" "I wondered what that rush of energy was before you fell from the sky," Aristaeus stated calmly. "What possible manner of sorcery could you have conjured that could break the seal on magic!? On _ magic _!" He yelled in a passionate mix of curiosity, elation, and astonishment.

"I - I don't know." I furrowed my brow feeling like I was supposed to know. Or maybe I do know and I just can't remember. Aristaeus mistook my uneasiness about my cloudy memory for anxiety due to Pans deluge of excitement, "Calm down Pan, you're scaring the poor boy." Pan sat down after a moment and leaned forward and in a tone of seriousness that seemed unlike him said, "If what you say is true then I hope you'll let me join yeh." "Me too," Aristaeus added.

"What? I was going to say that. I was going to join you." I said emphatically, lost as to why I'd be spoken to like I was some kind of leader. I'm definitely no leader. Pan raised an eyebrow and shrugged a little like he knew what I was thinking and said, "This is yer party, Sable. I'm not qualified to tell the guy that resurrected magic what t'do." Aristaeus brought the tip of his pipe to his mouth and thought for a moment, "You did something that was thought impossible, Sable. Around 2000 years ago people started noticing that magic seemed to be slowly fading away. No one could do anything about it. What's worse is that whatever made magic fade away also made everyone's memories of it fade away too. Magic and all the things it brought were suffocated out of existence. People forgot about we who walk beside time. Some of us scrambled to organize as many magic users as we could to mount a recovery. It failed." He said dryly. "When we realized there was no healing the wound that had been inflicted upon the world we sort of lost hope. A small group of us that were the cleverest devised a way to separate from the earth and create a pocket in nothing to preserve what little magic that could be gathered. Magic feeds off of life and in turn gives it. It's a symbiotic relationship. So we used magic to grow life inside the pocket and tethered it to Eizan." Aristaeus gestured upward at the swaying tree with an open palm. "Eizan preserves all you see here, magic and all. Even us. The only reason we still exist is because Eizan allows it."

In a reprieve from Pans obnoxious demeanor, he said, "Na' hold on here. Lets try diggin' up some happiness for a few folks before we go fixin' the universe. Besides, doing so will be the first step to handlin' all that." Aristaeus blinked and said, "Alright, lets talk about how we're going to carry out Sables plan then." I was feeling overwhelmed with responsibility. It was like some god had walked over to me on the street and said 'here, hold this' and dropped an anvil on my head before walking away without a word. How the fuck did I get caught in a plan to save the universe!? Who the fuck even says shit like that?

Aristaeus bit his pipe and puffed a couple times, oblivious of the hurricane whirling in my head, and said, "You said your real name didn't you? I sensed a bit of truth in your name that I never have in any other human. You've_named_ yourself haven't you?" For a moment the hurricane died down as I thought about my answer. "I have. Sable isn't my given name. I had to figure it out on my own." "And you saw fit to give it freely to us?" Pan inquired. "Well, I did say that part of the spell was a supplication. I feel like if I were to really mean it I would have to trust you. After all the work I did learning about you and magic, I feel like I can trust you with it. I...have a good feeling about it. I'm not sure how to explain it." Trusting them was becoming a lot easier. And it brought with it a cool wind that seemed to gradually blow away my trepidation.

Pan got up and gave me a dark foreboding look. "You don't know. We could be demons out to steal your soul and bend you to our will!" He lifted his hands next to his face making the iconic spooky gesture at me. Waggling his fingers he said in a low voice, "We could have already tricked you and now we're molding your mind to be our obedient slave boy!" Aristaeus bopped him on the head with his pipe and chastised, "Quit scaring the poor boy you crazy coot."

Pan sat back down rubbing his head and in a surge of courage that was quite unlike me I said, "From what I've seen so far I'm not sure I'd mind." And in truth I probably wouldn't. Pan had an even bigger package than Aristaeus did. He was more muscular too. I couldn't help but feel a little hot under the collar looking at him."Woohooooo! He called your bluff there didn't he?" Aristaeus laughed heartily, slapping his brown furred leg. "Don't start something you aren't gonna finish, babe," Pan said grinning at me from ear to ear as I turned away, blushing but smiling nonetheless, despite my proclivity for shyness. "Alright, alright. You two can get a room later. For now, finish your story, Sable," Aristaeus interrupted gesturing to me with his pipe.

My smile lingered for a moment until I remembered what happened before this whole cave-seclusion-magic-sex-spirit-summoning thing. I remembered the bastard that thought he knew everything. I remembered the yelling for anything and everything, the unjust punishment from failing to live up to ridiculous and unspoken expectations, the pain of being alone and feeling lied to about everything that society seemed to expect of me. I felt the hole in my heart that had formed as a result of red hot rebar being shoved in. It still burned around the edges and turned a tiny bit more into ash. "There's one man that really focused my drive to help people. He's the one that brought me to my insane efforts to resurrect a spirit." I half chuckled a bit, still a little bit skeptical that any of this was even happening and amused that it was him that gave me the desire to do something altruistic with my life. "Hayden Vemence is a terrible person. Never in my life have I ever encountered a more puritanical, vindictive, and pernicious bastard. He's hurt people. A lot of people." I held back tears as memories of austerity and malice flooded my thoughts drowning any control I had over my own thoughts. There would be no resolution. No relief. And as I regained my composure I realized the expression of anger on my face hadn't changed through my rush of terrible memories. I was ashamed. I couldn't even cry a_little_ bit. The sensation I had of holding back tears was just my blood boiling into my face as I resurrected the past. I'd even forgotten what it was like to cry. What happened to me?

I took a deep breath again, trying to calm myself down for the second time. "If I had to guess he's probably arrogantly projecting his misguided beliefs through prayer right now." Pan got up from his log and walked to the fire raging on, bordered by what I now knew to be the broken pieces left behind by the slow and silent death of magic. I stared at the broken lumps of rock. What could have done this? Pan looked into the fire as if he were searching for something and said passively, "Hmm, I wonder if I've got enough juice to see."

"See?" I asked.

"Oh yes, we nature spirits can see and hear the world through the very thing that we are. Nature's a powerful thing ya'know." Pan gazed into the fire and finally waved his hand as if to invoke some kind of magic. Nothing happened. "Well it was worth a shot. Scrying is a two way spell after all." "Could I help?" I asked hopeful. "Hmm, well considerin' the circumstances I think it's worth another try." He smiled and reached out his hand to me. "Give me your hand, Sable." I walked a few steps around the fire and put my hand in his. He gently closed his hand around mine and waved his other over the fire. The flames shifted slightly and we all heard the seedy, high, crackling angry voice of a man who sounded like he'd been punched in the throat too many times to have kept his original voice.

"Disgusting filth! I pray that you would end these degenerates and rid the world of them! The world would be a better place if only we could burn them like my grandfather once did! They don't deserve your gift. They don't deserve to live."

"Friendly fellow isn't he," Aristaeus stated flatly. Pan and I grunted lightly, raising an eyebrow and nodding a bit in agreement.

"That boy most of all! SICK! He_must_ know that he's in error. How could he not? His hate for you must blot out any sense he might have had! He'll pay. Him_and_ his ilk. He'll burn for his transgressions. He'll pay for not fearing you and those deviant friends of his will too!"

"Looks like you've got yourself an admirer, Sable," Aristaeus stated sarcastically. The screeching irritating voice continued, "I only wish he wasn't my..." Pan waved his hand at the fire as if to erase a word on a chalk board while saying in a revolted tone, "Ugh, I've had enough. I'm gonna getta ulcer just listening to this wretched venom. Is everyone like this now?" Pan asked me still grimacing. "No. There are a lot but not as many anymore. Things have been changing slowly over the last few decades. But there are still enough to frighten many people. Enough to make many feel like they need to hide themselves from the world." I said with displeasure.

We walked back to our places around the big marble table and Aristaeus offered me the delight of anything that sat upon the tables around us. "Uhm..." was all I could say, still unsure of my place here in Eram. Still, my eyes swiveled, searching for something that might interest me, if only to display my appreciation for his offering. I was ready to just politely decline but something caught my eye. It was a very dark purplish-brown wooden pipe polished smooth with a matte finish. I got up from the bench and walked over to it brushing aside the vines that covered the pedestal it lay on. I picked it up and examined it closely. Immediately I noticed a strong pine smell, which was odd because it looked like Briar wood. It had an author shape: the bowl was ball shaped and the stem was thick and round. There were highly detailed carvings wrapped around the stummel. They were so well done that they seemed to move as my eyes watched the ridges around the bowl of the pipe. The carvings were probably etched and maintained by magic. Nothing else could possibly be that detailed. The carvings depicted the bust of a fox looking out into the distance which appeared to be a forest landscape not unlike Eram. I looked closer at the fox and realized that it was a man with fur and a fox head. Or was it a wolf? The features of both seemed to blend together on the mans face. The forest wrapped around the pipe and ended on the other side with a waterfall along the edge. The details were so well done. The water was beautiful and conveyed a sense of its animation. The silver band between the stummel and stem was way to bright to be silver. It had to be platinum or something. Or maybe it was just magic? As I held it in my hands I realized that it was emanating a faint tingling sensation into my hands: probably latent magic or something. "What about this?"

Aristaeus looked at the beautifully crafted pipe and scratched his head. "Huh, I hadn't seen that one. Good eye, Sable..." He looked at the pipe for a little longer and said, "Let me see that for a moment." I handed it to him a little curious as to why he looked the same. It was just a pipe after all. Or maybe not, it did seem to have magical properties. "This pipe is made of the same material that Eizan is. I didn't know anything like this had been made." Aristaeus shrugged, handed it back to me, and said, "Get something nice and fuzzy from that bowl over there before you come back to the table." He said, pleased that I had appreciated the offering. I walked along the edge of the adjacent high table that looked somewhat like a bar covered in various bright foods and even a few trinkets. I reached one of the ornate wooden bowls I had seen when I got here and looked into it at the assorted dried clumps of plant matter. There was some kind of dried violet leaves with a bright green covering of fine fuzz, some kind of electric blue moss that seemed to faintly point its tiny sproutings toward me like a plant would the sun, a block of tightly packed maroon...something, and what was most likely marijuana. Knowing what kind of people Aristaeus and Pan were I'd guess that all of this is going to be really strong. I played it safe and just went with the stuff I actually knew the name for. I picked up a few small lumps of the almost frosty looking purple tinged weed and made my way back to the table.

I sat down while I packed the sweet smelling pipe and set the rest on the table in a small glass cylinder among many. I watched as Aristaeus lit his pipe again with nothing but a small wave of his hand over his pipe. Can I do that? How far did my abilities extend? And did I have to do the whole cliche hand waving crap to make it work? He looked at me and I realized I was just sitting there looking at him with a packed pipe and no fire to light it. He wore a slightly amused expression and looked like he knew what I was thinking. "Just think it. You've accomplished more powerful magic than this. I'm still not really sure how you got here. I'm sure you'll catch on pretty quickly." I nodded and stared at the Eizan Wood pipe in my hand, wholly unconvinced. I gave it a try though and thought about what the smooshed nug would look like if I had lit the edge. The edge suddenly burned a bright red and I smiled a bit as I put the bit to my lips and took a deep breath, held it for a few seconds and exhaled. A moment later I felt the mixed but indica favored body high that I loved. It was enough to relax my mind and let the last few nails that pinned my chest into a tight knot fall away. I wasn't even close to anything that might be considered 'adventurous' when it came to drugs but I did enjoy the occasional toke. I hadn't even had a pipe half as fancy as the one I held now. I put my hand over the bowl and let it go out, too afraid to continue for fear of getting loopy as a result of the purple fuzzy lump of unknown potency. As much as that would be entertaining.

Pan rubbed his chin, leaning forward and looking off into the distance while Aristaeus puffed on his pipe and proceeded to blow smoke rings that changed into leaping deer, howling wolves, and various other enchanting renditions of animals. Despite the previous encounter with Hayden, I couldn't help but smile and laugh a little at the show. There was a silence for a time while they thought about the situation. I watched the smoke rise from Aristaeus's pipe and finally caught a whiff of it when the wind changed. It's sweet earthy aroma filled my senses and left me a little light headed. Whatever he was smoking was very pleasant.

Pan contorted his face into a wicked grin and said, "We should bright'n up the world a bit just for him ye' know? You wanted my help to bring a little magic back to the world, I'm a sexy beast..." Pan placed the tips of his fingers on hist chest as if to say 'who, moi?' in mock arrogance. "I say we spread a little fun around. Maybe make a few fantasies come true? I_am_ a spirit of good fun and pleasure after all. I'm certainly sure Dionysus wouldn't mind." Pan poorly feigned disinterest as he sipped at his wine before swirling it a little.

"That sounds like a fine idea my three horned friend. What do you have in mind?" Aristaeus asked with a chuckle. I was a little confused because it was pretty clear Pan only had two horns but I contributed anyway. "I might know a few people that could deserve it. We could start with them." Pan smiled, looked at Aristaeus, and thumbed in my direction, "I like the way he thinks."

Pan leaned toward me with his hands clasped together speaking in that rare serious tone again, "There's a catch, Sable. You wanted to bring me back to bring more happiness into the world. It's a bold and honorable plan, but if you continue on this path, you're going to change. Aristaeus here wasn't always a satyr spirit."

I looked to Aristaeus for clarification and asked, "What does he mean?"

He thumbed his cheek for a moment before explaining, "I was once a man like any other. I loved to help those who were in need. I brought water for people when they had none. I treated wounds when people had no healer. I taught people to hunt, grow crops, and raise livestock. I even founded a city once."Aristaeus smiled a little as he remembered some of his past exploits. "The gods saw fit that I gain power to continue doing my work for the people. I was granted the honor of being a spirit and continuing my legacy of good will and merriment. It changed me. I became a satyr because it was the creature I most identified with. And so here I am now." He finished with his hands outstretched a bit, palms out with his pipe in one hand.

Pan added, "Because yer among those who'r already spirits, and because yer here in Eram, you may change even faster than Aristaeus did. It's possible that you've already changed a little bit in your short time here. I'll not go on a bold quest of sexual heroism without knowing that you understand what you're getting into." He finished with a grin, unable to maintain any semblance of seriousness for any prolonged period of time.

I smiled a bit at his obnoxious sexual innuendo as I looked off into the distance at the vibrant green foliage, the tall trees, and the furn scattered around on the ground. I did seem to be a little more bold than normal. Jeez, little? What the hell came over me earlier? I don't express sexual interest to people I don't know! Or anyone for that matter! I thought about what Pan andAristaeus said and what it might mean for me. What manner of creature would I become? Would I like it? Would I be able to handle being so different? What would come of all this?

Aristaeus interrupted my contemplation with a comforting hand on my shoulder, "If it's any consolation, If your transformation is anything like mine it will be a transformation that better reflects who you are. My abilities changed very little. I simply gained the power to do with magic what I accomplished before with my hands, albeit with a lot more ease and efficiency."

His warm hand against my shoulder and equally warm words allowed me to calm my tumultuous mind. It allowed me to really see what I was about to do. I thought about my weird sexually charged outburst and admitted to myself that the experience wasn't at all unpleasant.If the changes I would undergo simply accentuated the features I already have, what then do I have to worry about? I would only be better at what I already was. Apparently I'd be more confident too.The best part was that I could fulfill my desire to add more happiness to the world. At that moment I made my decision.

"I'll do it." I said with a level of confidence that I hadn't felt since arriving in Eram. I didn't know whether it was the contents of my pipe or just being here in Eram but it brought a smile to my two new friends and it prompted me to appreciate what I had just gained. Even if I failed miserably, I had two new friends. In a way, I already succeeded.

Aristaeus announced, "A toast then!" He gestured at a wine glass on the marble table that wasn't there before. I picked it up, swirled, and sniffed. It had a beautiful fruity aroma so I went with it. "to Dionysus! To the restoration of the earth! And to magic!"

"To magic!" we all cheered and downed the contents of our glasses.