by Eric Vall
“D-D-Did I really sound like that?” Josephine gasped.
“Yes,” Daisy agreed.
“Y-You’re not going to Edony, are you?” the aristocrat grumbled. “I’ll be stripped of my wealth, my home, my titles, and… and… and then I can’t take care of my mother! Oh, my! What possessed me just now to say all those things? Stupid, stupid Josephine!”
“We won’t tell the Duchess,” Daisy assured her. “We only believe that you should be more careful… what if you’d said those things in front of Lilliana and Adelia? They’d tell Edony for sure, without question.”
“Oh, then there’s no need to worry,” Josephine giggled. “I never spend much time with those dingbats, I only was there when we met you because they saw me in the street and invited me over. Edony and Ortensia were right, though, they are busybodies, and they say such hurtful things to me about my money! Even after I loaned Adelia money to help remodel her manor! They turn around and backstab me! What horrible people! All these women… like vipers behind your back and like flowers to your face. I hate it.”
I helped Josephine into her room, laid her down onto the bed, covered her up with the blankets, and didn’t hear a peep from her after that. I moved away from the bed, glanced over my shoulder at her, but the blonde had already closed her eyes, and snuggled deep underneath the comforter.
“Let’s go,” I breathed. “I have important things to tell you.”
“Okay, Charles,” Daisy nodded. “Do you think Ms. Josephine will be alright? She was quite drunk…”
“She should be fine,” I promised. “I think she passed out the moment her head touched the pillow.”
I led Daisy out of the tent, glanced around the small outcropping of worker tents, and then headed toward the area where I’d last seen Valerie.
“Val?” I whispered into the darkness. “Are you there?”
“Over heeeeere!” the ash-blonde woman waved from atop a pile of barrels.
Valerie pressed her hands to the lid of the barrel, launched herself forward, rolled herself into a ball, hit the ground, and then bounced against the hard ground a few times before she came to a stop at our feet. The cat-girl unfurled herself, giggled softly, tucked her legs underneath her, and jumped to her feet.
“The news, Charles!” the feline-woman cheered. “Tell us the news!”
“Yes, Charles,” the brunette whispered. “Did you fix the elevator? Or at least find out what was causing it to malfunction?”
“Yes,” I grunted. “It’s not what I thought it was…”
“Is something wrong with the wiring?” Daisy asked. “Or the control panels Mr. Bronson told us about?”
“None of those things,” I chuckled. “There’s a creature living inside of the main mechanical core…”
“A creature?” Valerie tilted her head. “Like a squirrel or something? I know that those make nests in odd places, do you know how many squirrels I caught while they were building nests in chimneys? Five, at least! Oh, man, they were so tasty, I would die for some squirrel meat right now!”
“No, it’s definitely not a squirrel,” I uttered. “I think it’s a magical beast.”
“What did it look like?” Daisy grinned. “Can you describe it to me?”
“Small, like the size of an adolescent cat,” I explained. “Reddish skin, horns, a pair of tattered looking wings, and a long whip-like tail with a pointed tip.”
“Like an arrow?” the bear-girl urged.
“Yes!” I nodded. “It looked almost exactly like an arrow!”
“Well, I’ve practically memorized all of the books I found in your house,” Daisy smiled. “So, I know a lot of the creatures that roam around this area and beyond. That sounds a lot like an imp, especially since it’s a subterranean creature, and it made a nest within the core.”
“An imp?” Valerie wrinkled her nose. “What is that?”
“A small, mischievous devil that lives underground,” Daisy spouted off. “They generally only come out at night to wreak havoc, and then they return to their holes at night.”
“Going off the description alone,” I uttered. “It definitely sounds like an imp.”
“So, what do we do now?” Daisy asked.
“Well, I certainly couldn’t bring it back up here with me while all of the workers were bustling around,” I sighed. “Especially if Josephine was still awake, but since everyone is tucked away for the night, I should be able to go back down, trap it, and then stow it away in our wagon for the night. The elevator should be fairly easy to fix, I just have to replace some wires, gears, and mechanicals, but the biggest problem is getting the imp out of the main core.”
“Do you need us to help you?” Valerie offered. “I’m sure I could do it! I’m pretty slinky and sneaky! That imp won’t know what hit ‘em!”
“Yes,” I agreed. “I’d love to let you help me, but there’s barely enough room down there for me to work around the core… you could stay in the elevator and help me, but you can’t go down to the biggest machine, I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“What about me, Charles?” Daisy asked. “Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, I’ll only need Valerie’s help,” I instructed. “So, you could just stay by the entrance, and wait for us there.”
“Oh! Charles!” Valerie giggled. “Tell Daisy about the book we found!”
“Book?” the gorgeous brunette echoed. “What book?”
“While Josephine was touring you around the camp, Valerie found something,” I stated. “Here, Val, show her what you found.”
The beautiful cat-girl reached into her pack, grabbed the book she’d shown me, and then offered it to Daisy with a flourish. The brunette’s eyebrows knit together in confusion. She turned it over in her hands, flipped through the pages, and then flushed bright pink in the gloom surrounding us.
“What on earth is this?” the bear-girl gasped. “It’s downright pornographic! You said you found this in Josephine’s tent?”
“Yup!” Valerie purred. “It was locked away in a trunk with a whole bunch of other ones! Josephine must really like these naaaaughty books.”
“It makes sense, though,” Daisy muttered. “With all of the things she was just saying, Charles… do you think… could she be a male sympathizer? I was so surprised she said those things to you, no other aristocrat would let their tongue slip like that… let alone be attracted to a ‘brute’ so openly.”
“As much as I’d like to say yes,” I grunted. “We can never have a definite answer unless she gives it to us so freely. Yes, she sounded like a sympathizer, but who knows? She was drunk, and drunk aristocrats say a lot of things.”
“Drunk words are sober thoughts,” Valerie quipped. “That’s what A.B. told me, and I believe it.”
“I believe it, too,” the bear-girl confirmed. “In all of your life, Charles, with all of the aristocrats you’ve encountered, have you ever heard one spout things off as Josephine just did? I may not have been in this world for long, but from my experience with other aristocrats, they’d never say the things that Josephine just did…”
“I know, I know,” I conceded. “But we can’t go forward believing that she’s on our side, do you understand? We can’t make allies with someone who hasn’t shown us their stance. We have no other choice than wait it out, to interact with her more, and find out how she feels on the subject. I don’t want any of us to jump to conclusions just because she has a few tawdry romance books and sympathizer ideologies.”
“You’re right, Charles,” the stunning brunette insisted. “We can only wait, find out more about her, and then… see where it goes. But, I honestly believe that she would make a good candidate for our next monster-girl.”
“You’re right, you’re absolutely right,” I agreed. “But, she hasn’t done anything wrong. Josephine has been nothing but kind to us from the moment that we met her, and all three of us know that we don’t choose women on those criteria. We use women that are direct threats t
o us, just like with the prisoner I used and Delphine. I hate to sound like a broken record, but we can’t go around snatching innocent women off of the street.”
“We understand,” Daisy nodded, looped her arm into Valerie’s, and then stood firm. “It’s your decision who we choose and why, especially if our family is in danger.”
“Thank you,” I chuckled. “Now, I need to get back down into the elevator before the imp gets scared and moves its location. Valerie, do you still want to help me?”
“Yeah!” the feline-woman giggled. “That imp down there is going to be half of my new sister, of course I want to help!”
“I’ll stand by the entrance into the mine,” Daisy urged.
I couldn’t help but smile at the stunning brunette’s enthusiasm, and I was so happy that the two of them took pride in my work. I’d never felt this way before. In all of my life, no one had supported me the way the two of them did. Yes, I’d had Edony’s patronage, but the leader of Edenhart had never congratulated me or cheered me on, only chastised me, or threatened me into working harder.
“What are you going to trap it in, Charles?” Daisy asked. “We didn’t think we’d find a mystical creature here in the mines, so we didn’t bring anything along with us.”
“Oh! Oh! I know!” the feline-woman chirped. “I saw these small, metal boxes over there by the pile of barrels! I’m sure that Josephine and the workers wouldn’t notice if just one went missing! They’re all piled up haphazardly, so I’m sure they don’t have a ledger with their amounts anywhere.”
“Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea,” I grinned. “Can you show me where they are?”
The boxes that Valerie spoke about were right around the corner, I knelt down beside one, turned it over on its side, flipped it over, and then opened it up. The boxes were made from heavy iron with corrugated screws on the outside, but inside, it was lined with soft, smooth brown fabric.
“I think they’re used for transporting precious metals or diamonds,” I explained. “That’s why the insides are lined with the fabric, so that if they were transporting precious jewels, they wouldn’t bump against the solid metal.”
“There’s also a locking mechanism,” Valerie pointed out. “That could come in handy with the imp.”
“Yes, this will do nicely,” I grinned. “Here, Valerie, carry this down, and I’ll grab the toolbox. Once we get the imp inside, I’ll have to fix the core right after. I can’t just take the imp and not do what Josephine paid me to do.”
“What a happy accident,” the ash-blonde woman bubbled. “I’m so glad we came here. If we hadn’t, we wouldn’t have found the first half of our new sister! Oh, Daisy, I’m so excited! I was so happy when you were created, I can’t wait for you to experience that feeling, too!”
“I’m sure when we have all of the components ready for the next experiment,” Daisy whispered. “Our newest sister will be welcomed into our arms with love and acceptance. I will love her as I love you, Valerie, but not in the same way that we both love Charles, that is a different emotion entirely.”
“Oh, I wholeheartedly agree!” Valerie nodded. “I love you like a sister, but I love Charles in a totally different way. He gives me such good feelings in my heart, in my tummy, and in my womanh--”
“W-Well, that’s enough of that,” I stammered, felt heat blooming across my face, and glanced toward the mines nervously. “Why don’t we get st--”
“I’ve yet to experience that pleasure,” Daisy breathed. “Though, I’ve noticed a change within my body when Charles is close to me; a new need. It’s almost like hunger or thirst, but it starts in my lower abdomen, just below my belly-button, and works it way downward. I want to say it’s almost like a burning sensation, but not unpleasant, in fact, it’s quite pleasant, and I don’t mind it. Do you understand what I mean, Valerie?”
“Oh, yes!” the ash-blonde woman nodded. “That’s arousal, Daisy! This is so exciting! It’s finally happening! Just wait, Daisy, Charles will show you a new type of love! Not one of affectionate words, but of physical touches. Just thinking about it makes me all gooey inside!”
“L-Ladies,” I choked out. “This isn’t the best place to be discussing our… intimate times together.”
“You’re right, Charles,” Valerie giggled. “I’m just so excited for Daisy, I hope it happens soon.”
I snickered softly, grabbed the box, lifted it, and then offered it to Valerie. The blonde took it from my hands, held it tightly to her chest, grinned, and then gestured with her head toward the entrance to the mine.
“Shall we get going?” the feline-woman asked. “We’ve got an important mythical creature waiting for us.”
All three of us headed toward the mine, Daisy kept an eye out for any movement from the workers’ tents, and Valerie skipped alongside us. I felt giddy. We were on the cusp of a third experiment once we captured the imp, and then… a new monster-girl would be born into the world.
Once we reached the entrance to the mine, Daisy stepped surely to the wooden struts opening the shaft, leaned against it, and then gazed out over the encampment. The brunette grinned, nodded to Valerie and me, and then gestured with her right hand for us to enter. The cat-girl and I hurried in, glanced over our shoulders, and then raced toward the enormous elevator. I hastily snatched up the toolbox I’d set down, gripped it in my hand, and then grabbed Valerie’s in the other.
“Do you have to go all the way down to where it malfunctions, or can we grab it here?” the blonde asked. “If the core is underneath the elevator cage, then you should be able to just go under and grab it, right?”
“You’re right,” I smiled. “I’d hate to go all the way down there for no reason. The malfunction is… horrible, I don’t know how Josephine’s men worked in these conditions, I thought the whole elevator was going to break free from the wires, and plummet me down to the bottom to my death.”
I calmly walked into the elevator, glanced below my feet toward the silent core, knelt down, snapped open the toolbox, and grabbed a pair of thick work gloves. I hastily slipped them on, grabbed the rope I’d left tied to the wall, cinched it around my waist, and then glanced up at Valerie.
“Alright, I’m going to open the door, and then go down,” I explained. “I want you to stay at the edge with the box open, I’ll grab the imp in my right hand, climb up, and throw it into the box. When it’s inside, I want you to snap it shut immediately. We don’t want our little friend escaping right when we have it in our clutches. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Charles,” Valerie confirmed. “I’ll keep the box open and then slam it shut as soon as it’s inside! Soon I’ll have another sister!”
“Alright, fantastic,” I breathed. “I’m opening the door now, here I go.”
The trapdoor creaked open with the loud sound of unoiled hinges. I gritted my teeth, glanced down at the silent core, and waited for the imp to come screeching out. It didn’t happen, and I had to wonder if the beast had escaped already, but there was only one sure way to tell. I lowered myself down the ladder slowly, glanced up at Valerie once, turned myself around, reached out for the core with one hand, and then jumped off.
I swung completely weightless at the end of the rope for a second before my momentum caught up with me, and I gripped surely onto the mechanical core. I panted softly for a moment as I leaned my head back, glanced up at the open door into the elevator, and then gazed toward the empty space in the middle of the core.
The shaft was completely silent except for the pounding of my heart in my ears, and my spirits fell immediately… maybe the imp had had enough of workers probing their hands into its nest, and left after I’d reached in. I calmed my heart, sucked in a deep breath, clamped my mouth closed, and edged my way around the core toward the area I’d been in earlier.
“Is it in there?” Valerie whispered. “Or did it escape?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but a sound erupted up from the middle of the core that made relief rush through my entire
body. The telltale hissing and yowling was back, and we knew for sure that the imp hadn’t escaped.
“Thank science,” I grunted. “It’s still here. Get ready, Val, I’m going to grab it.”
“Ready!” the blonde chimed.
“Alright,” I exhaled. “Here goes nothing.”
I plunged my hand forward through the mass of tangled, burned wires, smudged gears, and reached directly into the middle of the core. The imp shrieked, scuttled away from my probing hand, and I pressed myself against the massive core as I reached in deeper.
Finally, my probing hand closed around what I assumed was the small creature’s middle. I clamped down on it, felt the tattered wings fold underneath my fingers, and pulled back slowly so as not to injure our precious new creature. The imp grabbed onto the wires and gears for purchase, but it was no use, I was too big and strong for it to resist. I felt its teeth bite into the fabric of my glove, but they weren’t strong enough to puncture through the thick cloth, and it seemed only to enrage the small beast even more.
I pulled my arm all the way back, and stared down at the small, hissing creature in my hand. It was just as Daisy had described. The skin was reddish, almost a deep scarlet with ashy gray hues to it, its bright orange eyes were like that of a cat’s, and its wings wiggled agitatedly in my grip as it attempted to break free. Its tiny clawed hands ripped at the fabric of my glove, it lunged forward, and sunk its teeth in again, and again, but it was no use.
I didn’t have much time to admire the little beast, I had to get back up to the elevator cage, and safely get it into the box we’d prepared which… looked much harder than it sounded. I needed to jump back to the ladder, climb up one-handed with the struggling creature, and throw it into the box before Valerie closed it.
“Charles?” Valerie called.
“I’m coming,” I mumbled.
In quick succession, I let go of the core, slammed my boots against the metal mechanisms, and flew forward on the rope with my left hand extended. My heart pounded in my chest, I gritted my teeth as I reached out, and then I closed my fingertips around one of the rungs of the ladder. A loud sigh escaped my lips, I hung my head back, breathed heavily, glanced down at the still struggling imp, and then back up toward the door above my head.