Adventure 2 - A Son For Yhrbold (2)

The couple watched Valon standing in quiet contemplation for a while. Yhrbold shifted his arm, subconsciously reaching out for Yanna. Her hand reached out to take his as they watched Valon's lips mumbling noiselessly. After a while of this, Yhrbold finally asked, "Well, what is it? Can you do anything to help or not?"

Valon's brow unfurrowed. "Sorry, I was just thinking of how to go about solving this. There's a curse on your line. The good news is that it hasn't harmed either of you physically, and Yanna seems to be perfectly fine magically too. It's lucky you came to me and not a doctor, or you'd have been told you were both healthy and probably just gone through thinking it was fate."

Yhrbold looked completely taken aback at the news. "A curse?! Who would... how... why..." After some continued stammering, he asked. "Can you get rid of it?"

If Yhrbold was surprised, Valon was dumbfounded. This curse was particularly clever: in most species, he had been taught, it was the seed of the male that determined the sex of the offspring. Whoever had laid the curse knew this; and gone through a lot of effort to make it subtle. Too much effort, Valon thought, to target an ordinary innkeeper in an ordinary village. Someone must really hate Yhrbold, even more so than just wanting to see him dead; either that, or someone just wanted to show off. The idea of another strong wizard or witch involving themselves in Ganic's Stand didn't sit well with Valon at all. They would probably be watching, too; just in case they tried finding a cure.

Valon had been watching Yanna very closely; she'd squeezed and patted Yhrbold's arm. If it was Yanna, he thought, she was not just a clever witch, but an excellent actress. He mulled things over, wondering how best to go about solving the problem of getting information from Yhrbold without tipping off Yanna or anyone else. "Possibly. You'll need to give me some time to do some research, and get my hands on a powerful source of magic. Leave it with me. For now, the best thing the two of you should just go about your normal lives." Valon didn't want to tip anyone off as to his real talents that wasn't in his pocket. He'd have to figure out who laid the curse in the first place before removing it; then reverse the curse so Yhrbold was guaranteed to produce as many sons as he wanted.

"Thank you, wizard," Yanna answered, standing up. "We'd better get back to the girls, then. Who knows what trouble they'll be getting up to." Yhrbold might be keen on pairing Oulders to one of his girls, Valon observed, but either Yanna wasn't in agreement or perhaps she wasn't so much worried about Oulders as for Oulders.

"Yes," Yhrbold agreed. "Thanks, wizard."

Seeing Yhrbold going to his coin purse, Valon held up his hand. "I'll take payment upon completion. I'll come with you; there are some things I need to do in the village, and I'll need Oulders's help for some of it."

Valon accompanied them through the portal, listening to Yhrbold and Yanna discussing the curse, answering any questions they had in a distracted manner as he worried about what he would need to do to solve this issue. Leaving them to go on ahead, Valon locked the door behind him; a seed of paranoia had been planted in his mind, and it left him feeling unsettled. Had someone else seen the potential in Ganic's Stand before him? It was a concern, especially with how liberally he'd been flinging about magic since he arrived.

Yhrbold held open the inn's door for Valon, who entered to an interesting tableau. Oulders was shirtless again, his upper body glistening with illusory sweat as his muscles strained, carrying a large ale barrel behind the bar. The innkeepers' daughters had all stopped working, standing in a group looking at him with chests heaving and lips savouring at the 'meat' on display. Yanna's eyes wandered, to Oulders then to her daughters, her own interest fading into annoyance and motherly protection. Upon noticing her parents, Ingrid exclaimed, "Ma! Pa! Look at this! He's as strong as an ox!"

The word choice set off warning bells in Valon's head. His own dick had twitched at the display of raw physicality, but it now withered as worry caused his balls to tighten against him. "Oulders!" It came out as a squeak, so he coughed to get his voice to return to normal. "Oulders! Once you've finished with that, I'll need you to come with me. We've got some work to do."

Oulders grunted in acknowledgement, straining to lower the barrel carefully into position as Yhrbold moved to help. Valon felt stares of icy disappointment and fiery anger focus on him as the daughters' attention turned on him. He sighed: he had enough to worry about at the moment to add on the complication of a bunch of horny young ladies coming after Oulders while he was Valon's familiar.

He approached the daughters smiling genially; Valon usually reserved his charm for men, but knew how to talk to women. "I don't think I've introduced myself properly to all of you lovely ladies. Valon, the hedge wizard, at your service." He glanced over his shoulder at Yanna, then looked to Oulders and smiled. "I'm sorry for having to take him away. He's a very helpful young man, isn't he? A wizard like me needs someone strong, honest and reliable by his side, and Oulders is making a fine assistant. I'm sure if he's interested, he'd make some young woman a very good husband, but I wouldn't want him to put his recovery or anyone else in danger..."

"Danger?" one of the daughters asked.

"Oh yes," Valon added. "Oulders was enfeebled for quite a while, and it took strong magic to cure him. Right now it's just pulsing through him, which is how he's able to perform these remarkable feats of strength. Carrying a heavy barrel is one thing: all it takes is brute strength. But he would have a lot of trouble with things requiring... some measure of restraint. Besides, your mother seems to need some time to get used to the idea, and of course he needs to recover his ability to speak, so you'll know which one of you he's most attracted to."

Valon left the young women abruptly, gesturing to Oulders to follow him outside. He waved farewell to Yhrbold on his way out, grinning wickedly at Oulders's blushing face. "I hope you enjoyed that," Valon replied, "because unfortunately we've got a lot of work to do. Someone - maybe in the village, maybe not - has put a fairly insidious curse on Yhrbold. We need to figure out who; Yhrbold has a very dangerous enemy, and I don't want to go into a fight with someone who'd make that kind of curse unprepared. I'm going to need a lot of magic, and sadly 'milking' you isn't going to cut it."

While Oulders blushed again, Valon asked, "Yes or no: do people looking for dangerous come through Ganic's Stand often?" Oulders shook his head. "I didn't think so. Is there anyone here, do you think, that would be willing to do something dangerous for a lot of money." Oulders shrugged. "That's getting somewhere. I assume you'd know anyone who might be likely to leave to nearby towns that can spread a message?" Oulders nodded. "I see. I think I have a plan." Valon handed Oulders the keys. "Go through and wait for me."

Valon quickly dashed back to the Two-Headed Pig. "Yhrbold," he called into the tavern after making a rather theatrical entrance, "ask anyone who comes in if they are interested in a high-risk, high-reward adventure. If anyone is, tell them to come over to the town hall to meet with me. This is to help remove the curse on you."

Valon didn't stop to wait for a reply, turning around and heading back for the town hall. Locking the door behind him, he walked through to his tower, calling out for Oulders. "Good!" Grabbing a quill and a piece of parchment, he barked, "You know how to write; write down the names of everyone in the village who is going to leave at any point for the next fortnight." He waited, watching Oulders scrawl clumsily a list of several names. "That's good enough. Get undressed and head outside."

Not allowing himself to be distracted by Oulders's nakedness, Valon occupied his time by writing out several copies of a message; one for each of the names on Oulders's list, and a couple more. By the time he was done, Oulders had been outside for some time.

"I'm sorry, Oulders," Valon exclaimed, "but I'm going to need to remove the glamour now." Reaching up, he twisted the charm on the collar around Oulders's neck. Oulders's human form disappeared in a blink; his bovine one dropped to its hooves on the ground. Valon gave him a quick look-over, frowning. "I don't see much reversion," he noted, petting Oulders's heavy head. "If this plan works, though, we might not need to do this much."

Valon worked with Yhrbold to figure out the names on Oulders's list, and went to visit them, paying them to pass on his message to anyone who might be able to spread the word. With careful timing, he went through the portal he had to the wizard's college, skulking through the familiar passages to post more messages at various guildhalls that the wizards wouldn't pay too much attention to.

The following days passed slowly, with Valon waiting anxiously. He did some of the odd jobs on his list: curing blights from crops and plagues on livestock, healing wounds and sores on the villagers as they accrued them. In his downtime, he researched telepathy and looked into unusual methods for removing curses. Oulders left each night, with his glamour on; Valon went with him the first night to have the first proper conversation with Alb, Oulders's father, about selling his wheeled chairs in the capital. He returned in the morning, to be transformed back into a bull.

Valon's earlier nervousness dissipated as he noticed Oulders's humanity returning. It wasn't as fast as he was expecting, but every day he found himself noticing more details: the tail or horns would be shorter by maybe as much as an inch, or his hooves would appear as if they were splitting. The bullish stockiness slowly became leaner as Oulders's real body began to align more with the one he had as a glamour.

The gradual reversion made Oulders's nude moments all the more alluring to Valon. It didn't help that neither he nor Oulders could afford to indulge; Valon needed Oulders to remain chaste in case he needed more magic later, while Valon didn't want to force himself on Oulders and Olgate was obstinately avoiding him. Instead, he drank, growing more dour every night Yhrbold confirmed that no, nobody willing to risk life and limb for money had called into the inn that day. Occasionally, he thought about nipping through the portal to visit one of his favourite spots, but he was already risking his luck as it was putting in the groundwork for Alb and checking up on his messages.

After a couple of weeks of forced celibacy, Valon was feeling backed up. He wasn't the only one; he'd wandered out to check up on Oulders, finding him in the half-torn-down old barn, half-fingered, half-hoofed hands gliding along his slick, pink pole. He watched for a couple of seconds, guiltily enjoying himself, until Oulders finally noticed him. "Morree," Oulders rumbled, his hands darting to the sides.

Valon patted him on the head. "I know the feeling. Trust me." He closed his head, his weakening resolve fighting off the want to sit in Oulders lap and press his face into the half-human chest, feeling that huge hot cock pressing against him. "I think I'm getting close to figuring the telepathy out." It was the only thing he could say. "Come on, why don't you and I go for a drink, hmm? Trade one vice for another."

With Oulders's glamour restored and his human body dressed, the two of them headed over to the Two-Headed Pig. By now, Valon felt like a regular patron; he smiled at the villagers he'd helped, slinking over to his usual table. "Yhrbold! A couple of your strongest-"

For a man of his stature, Yhrbold zipped over to them at a startling speed; Valon would have been shocked if he'd not been facing Oulders and trying not to jump across the table. "Wizard! Someone wants to talk to you!"

"Tell them I'll deal with them in the morning," Valon mumbled, "we want a couple of-" He stopped, eyes widening, and turning abruptly. "This isn't just another village issue, is it?"

"I'll get you those drinks you're wanting," Yhrbold stated, grinning like a madman, "but you might be wanting three."

"Well, well!" Valon stated, reflecting Yhrbold's smile towards Oulders, who smiled slightly himself. "Things finally progress! Where are they?"

"Just getting settled in, I suspect," Yhrbold shrugged; "either that or they've gone out back to piss. I'll point him in your direction when he returns. I told him you'd probably be over tonight. I see you almost as much as Ed these days..."

"Let's just stop the comparison there, shall we?" Valon said curtly. He chucked some coins in Yhrbold's direction. "I'll be in a much better mood with a drink in me."

"Coming right up!" Yhrbold agreed, his pudgy fingers grinding the coins together as he returned to the tavern.

Turning back to Oulders, Valon grinned. "Looking out for Ingrid, or are you partial to one of the others?" He watched, enjoying Oulders blush strongly at the suggestion. "Of course," he added quietly, "if you find that that's not quite as enjoyable, you're always welcome in my..."

"Over there!" Yhrbold called out. Valon turned, looking at the sound of the man coming towards them.