Amity Series: #4 - Herders
Kris Me
Amity Series:
#4 - Herders
By: Kris Me
Introduction:
Bron had major issues with his grandfather, Bull Warh Horn. After being raped by Warh at the age of fifteen and later having his child given away, Bron planned to get even.
Bron wasn't happy with how the current ten Bulls that owned and controlled his home, called Green Island, operated. He planned to change the laws that turned his people into nothing but glorified slaves, even if they were called spouses.
When he was ready, he was going to challenge his grandfather, as was his right, and take over control of the Horn Herd.
This is part of Bron's story.
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Copyright:
Copyright © 2017 Kris Me - All rights are reserved
This story is the work of Kris Me. Before you copy more than one page or ten percent of the content, you must contact me as per the Copyright Act 1968, Australia.
First Published by Storiesonline World Literature Company: 13/05/2017 as the first half of the story Amity: 4. The Herds.
Last updated: 31/08/2021.
The book cover was designed in Microsoft Paint 3D using art that is my own, copyright-free or covered by creative commons license for commercial use from https://pixabay.com/
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Declaration:
~~ Adult Themes ~~
This book is part of an erotica science fiction series. It is NOT recommended for people under the legal age to access such stories, depending on the reader's country of origin.
The books may contain what some people consider vulgar language, references to religious icons, violence, coercion, murder, and-or rape scenes.
Some scenes may describe intimate heterosexual, bisexual, gay and-or group sexual activities. If you are homophobic, you may find some scenes in this series of books distasteful. In most cases, these scenes are integral parts of the story.
This book includes imaginary races capable of changing their gender and/or form into other animals. Copulation, while the characters are in their alternate animal forms, may be described.
This book doesn't contain descriptions of bestiality. It DOES refer to coitus between Keltrian shapeshifters, who are partly related by blood.
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Editing:
If you find any of my assumptions fabricated, I would like to remind you this is a fictional story, and I have probably taken liberties with reality, as you know it. The humanoids in this story are not based on anyone I know or have read about.
Australian based dictionaries were used for reference, and Grammarly was used as part of the editing suite. The story was written in Microsoft Word.
If you find grammatical or spelling errors, they are not the fault of my editor or proofreaders who did try to fix my work. However, I do tend to fiddle around after the fact, so all errors are my own.
If my Australian colloquialisms or terms need clarification, or you just wish to correspond, I'm more than happy to answer your emails. You can send them to:
kris.me2@inorbit.com
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The Wiki:
https://keltria.fandom.com/wiki/
The Wiki contains information about the Keltrian people, wizards, magical items, colloquialisms and adapted words that have been created for this universe. Maps, character lists and other information that may relate to this book could be found.
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This is the Fourth book:
This book was the first 20 chapters of the original book - Amity: 4. The Herds.
It is best to read the books in sequence, as some references to events or information about a character, place or event may not be explained in full if they were mentioned or introduced in a previous book.
This story starts about thirty-six years before the time of Storm Green coming to Amity.
It can be considered a standalone story. However, a reference to characters created in this work will be made in the Amity books created after the posting of this story on Sol - https://storiesonline.net/home.php
Bron's people were the progeny of shapeshifters that had left their previous home in the Keltrian universe to flee persecution due to the way they wanted to live their lives. They were predominantly a herd form of the Shifter race. Bighorn being their dominant form, and the nature of the herd dictated their lifestyle.
The ancestors had been in hibernation in a section of a Keltrian wheelship called Torus. She had been forced to break into her sixteen sections, and their section had been transported to the planet Amity with several others. Their section had crashed on Green Island some two thousand years before.
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The Amity Series is linked to the Keltrian Universe. Chronologically, this story starts before the Delta Series but finishes around the same time. It can be read as a separate entity to the Delta series since it centres around a different planet and solar system.
However, there are links to events and characters who first appear in Delta. If you have read those nine books and the previous three Amity books, you will have better foreknowledge if some information isn't repeated in this book.
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Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to Anna Dapter, PapaKilo14, Town Car and Johnny Sinclair, who did try to decipher my dyslexic scribbles in the original posting.
Thanks to all of the readers who have pointed out I do make mistakes and have helped me fix them. And extra thanks go to Lazeez for his support.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Kris Me
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List of books:
Amity: #1 - Storm
Amity: #2 - Coercion
Amity: #3 - Tempest
Amity: #4 - Herders
Amity: #5 - The Herd
Amity: #6 - Calamity
Amity: #7 - Cataclysm
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Chapter 1
~Bron's birth on Amity ~ Earth year: 2066 approx.~
My earlier years had been a living hell.
I knew that my grandfather hated me because my mother had gone outside the family. Only a Bull can do this, not a spouse or a dependent relative. She had defied him and gotten pregnant to a sailor. A foreigner who had been delivering new stock purchased from the continent call Federation.
My grandfather, Bull Warh Horn, had tried to beat me from her womb when he found out she was pregnant. He had not yet claimed her as a spouse even though she was his daughter. However, I was a tenacious little bastard, and I hung on until my mother birthed me.
While born female as most Shifters (my race) are, I didn't like being in female form, and I changed to male as soon as I could, at a very young age. I have spent most of my life as either a man or in one of my other animal forms.
I have only given birth once; this was due to Warh raping me in my first season.
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The bastard tied me down and fucked me for three days to make sure I fell pregnant.
It pissed him off that he couldn't fuck me in my bighorn form. You see, I'm one of the rare Shifters that can only take the male gender when I change to my animal forms.
I had one other advantage over my grandfather. The man who sired me had actually been a Shifter too, and he had two alternate forms. He could change to wolf and merman.
My mother believed that I took my father's disposition to appear as a male as being the reason why I only took the male gender when in my animal forms. Personally, I think it's just genetics.
It is more common for my relatives to change to a cow than a bull. Even my grandfather can't stay in bull form for extended periods like I can. I don't believe Warh's influence encouraged the others in our herd to change to a male form either.
Each Herd is supposed to have only one Bull (Leader). Warh was a man who liked his own way and no one else's. The Bulls of the ten Herds tended to take male form when in public.
As far as genetics are concerned, Shifters that have a herd animal as their dominant alternate form, behave a little differently to those who have a predator as theirs. In the wild, a bull will mate with daughters but rarely with the daughters of his daughters. The closeness of the genes can create mutations and birthing difficulties.
While the Bull rules over the herd, it's the head cow or Dame who is responsible for ensuring that closely related people don't mate. For example, parents who share more than half of the same genetics are not encouraged to produce calves.
When a property changes hands and the new Bull is closely related to the old Bull's spouses or progeny, then he has a choice to make. One of the options was that he could keep them as workers since they are family. They are also classed as dependants if they stay.
Thus, they can't have calves. If they do, the calf becomes the property of the Bull, and the birth parent must leave the property. I've been told that in the past, these people were also flogged for their indiscretions.
If the Bull decides not to keep the relatives as workers, he may sell or trade them, or allow them to move to one of the smaller support towns if they are over twenty-five.
The towns called Central, Barton, Midton, Southport and Trail Town all sit on the borders of two or more adjoining properties and were created to house the disowned.
(See map at the end of this book)
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Many of the Bulls ran side industries from the towns like their dairies and mills.
They would often put their unwanted family members in these positions. Else, the people could move to Horn City or leave the island. Essentially, they were given their freedom and could marry and calve, with the Bulls permission, of course.
My people tend to have their first season between the ages of fifteen and seventeen. We are often sold when we are fifteen if we are too closely related to the Bull of our herd. Mostly the granddaughters, but some daughters are also sold.
Twice a year we have a festival. The girls that have turned fifteen in that half-year or any person from the herd, whom a Bull wishes to sell, are paraded before the ten Herd Bulls. They inspect our pedigrees, good health and negotiate our purchase.
To them, it's no different from a person selling off their other livestock. We do raise bighorns that are not Shifters for a living, and they are sold in the same fashion. It is how it's been for thousands of years, or so I believed. To the Bulls, everyone in their Herd is simply a commodity.
The Bulls are not allowed to touch heifers until after they have their first season. My kind can come into season two to three times a year. Once they calve, it is less often. We should reach at least seventeen before our first calf. To calve too soon can damage us and reduce our ability to be bred.
In my case, because my mother went outside the herd to be mated, my grandfather didn't have to sell me. As long as his genes were less than half of the other persons, he could mate with them. My genes were only a quarter of his, so I was fair game.
My mother's mother was from a southern herd, and any relationship to Warh was at least four generations back. He also didn't send my mother away and found other ways to punish her. Her next three daughters were all sired by him.
She died in childbirth with her fourth calf when I was ten. This, too, was common if the woman was bred too quickly between calves. Our race tends to not calf any closer than three years apart. Even two years was considered too soon.
Herd Shifters didn't live as long as other Shifters. Giving birth to too many calves too close together will shorten our lifespan further. Most of us can produce upwards of twelve calves in our average hundred-year life span. Five to six is more common.
After we turn twenty-five, we don't physically age a lot until very late in life, unlike some races. Hence, we are very active for at least the first eighty to ninety years of our lives.
When we do start hitting old age, our decline is rapid.
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Warh got into a bit of trouble over raping me when I was fifteen.
While I was his property, it was not the done thing. It was as much for him damaging me as any other reason. While we may be a Bull's property, they were not supposed to force us unduly.
By accepting a marriage contract, we were expected to behave as a spouse. I hadn't accepted a marriage contract, I had refused vehemently, and everyone knew it.
A dependant who refuses the contract is supposed to be sold. In this way, our choices are very limited. If we are sold, we lose the right to refuse anyone else. Some choice, huh!
Several of the other Bulls had hoped to at least purchase sire rights of me since I represented new blood into the herds. Some of the other Bulls weren't as rigid about the inclusion of other forms in our genes or breeding outside the Herd as long as the progeny could change to bighorn.
By the way, sire rights meant they could pay to mount me when in season and any calf I produced was given to them after birth. I found the whole procedure distasteful. We were told to submit, and I'd heard some Bulls used drugs to keep heifers subdued during the mating.
To be honest, I didn't consider the practice any better than being raped by Warh. The fact that I hated being in female form and most certainly didn't enjoy Warh's forced use of my body didn't encourage me to want to be fucked by the other Bulls or anyone else.
I had decided at a young age that I would be the one doing the fucking.
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Despite Warh's abuse of me, I was a valuable asset to him in other ways.
I had 'the touch'. I could calm any beast; any animal I ministered regained its health or healed fast. It was rare that a calf I delivered died, be it bighorn or Shifter. Their mothers regained their health more swiftly, and our milking herd produced the finest milk on the island.
Our small flock of woollies produced the most beautiful fleece. The meat from our bighorns was always the most tender and succulent that you could buy. I could also tell if the animal was good breeding stock or not. As much as he hated to rely on me, even my grandfather understood my worth.
When I went into labour, it took two days for me to deliver the calf that Warh had forced on me. The calf was big, and my hips small. While we can manipulate our shape to a certain extent, this ability is reduced when we are with calf. We can't change to our other forms or gender when pregnant.
The fact I was still growing physically was also an issue. I was a slow developer. At fifteen, I was still small in stature and build. I couldn't even produce decent tits when in female form. I still looked like a boy, and only my genitals really changed.
If I hadn't pissed Warh off, I might have lasted to my second season before he tried to breed with me. He had wanted me to go to town with him to look at some woollies he was planning on buying.
I, however, had been out in the barn administering to a sick calf and didn't go to him when he called. The unusually cold winter was affecting many of our calves and even their mothers.
When I got back to the house late that evening, he was madder than a stung bull. He hauled me over his knees, ripped my pants off and went to beat me. Unfortunately for me, I had come into season, and the smell hit him.
Bulls find it hard to resist a heifer in heat.
He forced me to change to female form by striking me so hard that I lost consciousness. Like all my kind, I switch back to female when asleep or, in my case, unconscious.
I came to when he rammed his cock into my dry cunnie. My screams of agony could be heard all over the house. My grandmother tried to stop him, but he backhanded her and told her to get out.
It was three days of the most hideous torture that any person could conceive.
I know not how many times he used me, as it is a memory I block from my conscious thoughts. I do remember the pain and that he used me in any way that he could imagine. If he aimed to break me, he didn't succeed. If anything, my hatred only grew with each thrust of his hated cock into me.
Late on the third day, when he approached me once again, I promised him that I would kill him someday. For that little tirade, he tried to fuck my arse. He only stopped fucking me because I bled so much after his first penetration that he had to get the vet to stop the bleeding.
I was in and out of consciousness for a week (10 days) with a fever and due to the trauma of my body and blood loss. It took a further week before the vet would allow me to leave my bed.
I couldn't sit properly for two more weeks as I healed.
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Then the sickness of pregnancy started.
In my weakened state, I suffered severely. The next four and half months of my pregnancy were hell. I was sick the entire time. I often spent many days in bed with fevers from the vomiting. Inflamed bowels from dysentery and his use of me were other complications.
I worried the other woman as the child grew large in my small frame. They and the vet told Warh that he couldn't use me sexually in my state. The one time that he cornered me and tried, I threw-up on him. He left me alone after that.
Warh paid for his use of me in another more devastating way. The calf I had been administering before the rape had also developed a fever and dysentery. I was worried at the time that it was more serious.
I didn't get to tell my grandfather of the sickness since he felt it was more important to punish me than to find out why I had disobeyed him in the first place. We lost thirty calves, twelve cows and his prize bull to the disease that winter.
The cost of the vet always being at our property was also high. It served him bloody right, as far as I was concerned. While Warh was considered the richest man on the island, even he found such losses hard to counter.
The quality of his herd also dropped over the next three years. The fact I wasn't putting the same effort into looking after the herds was noted by all. Even the homestead had an unhappy atmosphere. For the first half-year, while I was pregnant, I was just too sick to care.
I got to upset my grandfather again. I gave birth to a boy the day before my sixteenth birthday. I was born on the first day of the New Year, which for us was mid-summer. Shifters bemoaned the birth of a boy. It is exceedingly rare that they can shift form to female or to another animal.
More often than not, they sire more useless boys than girls. Having a boy was a bad omen. Warh had never sired one before, and he took it badly. I was a curse to him. It got so he couldn't even stand the sight of me, and I was evicted from the house to the bunkhouse. I was not upset by the change of status.
Warh had planned to sire me out to help recoup some of his losses after I had his calf. By having a boy, I thwarted him again. I had significantly reduced my desirableness and value as breeding stock. It had to be my bad genes from my father that had to be at fault.
He was a strong, healthy boy and the image of his mother, not his sire. When I saw him, I laughed so hard I peed. I didn't produce milk to feed him, and Warh couldn't stand the sight of him or me. He sent my son was sent away.
As soon as I healed enough to change, I changed to my male form and stayed in it for every waking moment. I also took to roaming the countryside and neglecting my duties at the homestead. I was sullen when with the family, and they started avoiding me as much as my grandfather did.
I would snap at them all to leave me alone and then disappear for days. The vet said I was depressed, and he was anxious about my mental state. I think it surprised them all that I was grieving over the loss of my son.
Losing a calf in its early years, during birth or not long afterwards, is common here. Having your calf taken away and not being told where it was, is a different story.
It took me many months to regain any semblance of my previous health.
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I went back to herding and took off for weeks and even months at a time.
I'd pack my backpack with every book I could find, round up the weaners or sale longhorns and go. I'd only come back to stay at the homestead long enough to change herds and books, and then I took off again.
I knew it pissed my grandfather off. At the time, I didn't really care. I couldn't tend to the rest of the herds if I weren't around. We had a huge property, and it was easy to get lost with a herd in the high country. I'd live off the land and use my other forms to hunt and eat.
I don't think Warh was game to confront me. The herding had helped me regain my strength, and I had started to grow at last. I also grew fast. When he was near me, the looks of hatred I gave him could have killed if I knew how to kill with a look alone. We only communicated via other people.
Initially, I did try to keep his other stock healthy during the winters, but Warh refused to do as I asked. I just gave up caring after a while. After he bitched and cussed when the sickness came back, I told him I had lost the touch.
Only the animals I personally herded during the warmer months stayed free of disease. At least we did have some saleable stock. The next two winters after he raped me were bad ones for the Horn herds.
Then my luck changed.
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Chapter 2
Warh sold me at the spring festive before I turned eighteen.
I had lost my worth to him, and he could no longer tolerate me being around or control me. I think even the sight of me angered him so much that selling me was his last effort at punishing me. I was taller and stronger but still under-age. He knew I'd have to submit to the person who purchased me if I was sold.
One of the Bulls who lived to the north-east of us purchased me. Our island is quite large. Many say that from the sky, our island looked a lot like a roosting rohan with its beak pointing east. Green Island is located in the southern hemisphere of a planet called Amity.
The tip of the island is about seventeen degrees south of the equator. Four continents surround us but no closer than 1800km of sea. To the north-west is Saran, and to the north-east is Orient. To the west is Palatine and to the east is Federation. A fifth large content called Galina lies between Orient and Saran in the north.
Bull Cavil Hind owned most of the land that took up the top half of the head of the rohan. Bull Robert Black owned the southern half, and Lord Phil Bay was to the east of Cavil's property.
Hind was a lush property. While Cavil had many meadows and a large herd, he also had large tracks of forests on the hills on his seaward sides. It was a very hilly and mountainous island. Cavil hired commoners and his descendants to cut and replant his forests.
He grew a lot of fast-growing softwood trees specifically for the paper mill in Horn City. He mined copper and tin and had one smelter that I knew of. I learnt this because I liked to read our histories and any other book I could find on the long nights when I was out herding.
It kept me sane.
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One in three of the people who lived on the island were classed as commoners.
This meant they couldn't shapeshift. We are taught that when our people came here two thousand or more years before, they had been escaping a dying world. Their spaceship was damaged, and the piece that landed here held our people in a special type of sleep.
After the ship had crashed, the people were released and had to make new lives on the island. They couldn't leave the planet or the island at the time as they had no other transport.
It is said that one hundred and fifty of the people were Shifters, and the other sixty were mostly from the races called Burgis, Pix and Prols. There were two other significant Keltrian races, the Grandteli and the Genteli, but they weren't on our ship.
We are not tall people due to breeding across the races over the intervening years. As long as a Shifter has or sires a female calf when she mates to a commoner, then the Shifter genes are passed on. We had also bred with the few inhabitants that survived a world war before we came here. They tended to be taller like the Grandteli, our tallest race.
The majority of the Shifters from the spaceship were from ten clans or herds, as we called them. Their dominant form to change to was bighorn. It is said that they were being persecuted due to this difference and their desire to stay together in their family herds.
The ancestors had paid a large sum of money to be put on a spaceship that eventually brought them here. We still use the same currency. They learnt after they became marooned that the island was large and mostly uninhabited, so they were happy. Some of the other races with them, not so much.
The Bulls had maps and used them to help investigate the island and determined the borders for the ten properties. They then ran challenges to determine the order that the Bulls could choose the properties.
Each district had roughly the same area in land, but some were in better locations and had better resources than other properties. It became the luck of the draw or rather the winner of the challenges that took place.
The histories I've read say that the ship was able to give birth to the animals that they needed, and once the people of the herds had collected a small herd of bighorns, they drove them to their Bull's district. One account I read said that they did find other wild herds of bighorns and other useful animals here like the woollies.
During the surveying of the island, the Bulls had discovered a city located in a large bay between the two northern arms of the island. It had been built by the previous inhabitants of this planet. It was empty of people when it was found, or so they say.
The histories said that the few locals that were found here lived inland in tiny villages. They were not really happy with my ancestors taking over, and I had read minor skirmishes had taken place, and many of them were taken as slaves.
Many of the commoners and those few Shifters that were not able to shift to bighorn moved to Horn City. Else, they formed small support towns that were commonly located where interconnecting roads joined on the property lines of several properties that were owned by the different Bulls.
Warh's ancestors had claimed the ancient city and the land inland of it. Many of the commoners set up shop in the city since many of its buildings were still usable. They took over a lot of the jobs of producing goods and providing services for the Bulls and their herds.
They also fished and developed speciality market gardens, made tools, clothes and shoes and other necessary items. Many of the systems in the city still worked at the time, and our ancestors knew how to use them.
They also learned how to fix them and keep them working for a long time. Eventually, many systems and machines broke down to the point the people couldn't make the parts to fix them. The city didn't have the industries required to produce them and the people the knowledge to create the industries.
While the prominent desire of the Bulls was to herd their bighorns and manage their land, most were smart enough to realise other endeavours were required for a normal society to operate. Most like Cavil ran mines, harvested the forests, grew orchids and made wines or grew grains.
The Horn Herd being close to Horn City, set up butcheries and tanneries. They also found a local variety of bighorns that made good milking herds and branched into this market. By owning the city, the Horn Herd had always been the biggest and most profitable of the Herds.
Cavil's herd was known as the Hind Herd. They had elected to claim the land where the old ship had landed. At the time, his ancestor had been the leader of the second biggest herd. They still were.
I learnt from the woman who acted as his agent that Cavil had heard of my abilities to nurture and heal the animals. He didn't need any more spouses, as he had plenty. He also hated Warh, so we had that in common.
I wasn't unhappy to move to his property upon gaining this information.
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My primary job was looking after the herds.
Upon my arrival, I was given to his Herd Manager to be looked after and settled in. She was one of his lower spouses. Yantel ran a loose operation and didn't impress me much. So, she and I took an immediate dislike to each other.
They had recently split the half-yearlings from their mothers, and my job was to take them to the high pastures to fatten them up over the last of spring and summer. Typically, we were teamed with at least two others to ride over the herd.
I'd been riding a lanky since before I could walk and the herds since I was nine or ten. Yantel gave me the two sorriest looking beasts in the stable. She pointed to fifty head of bighorn calves in a corral and then the high pastures. She told me not to come back until summer and stormed off.
I spent the day finding all that I needed for an extended stay in the wilds and getting prepared. Warh, the bastard, had sold me with the clothes I stood up in and not a thing more.
I missed my pack and hoped I could find another similar to it.
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First, I went to groom my lankys and to get to know them.
Both had been neglected. It seemed they were considered problem animals. I, however, still saw that they both had potential. One of the hands said as they passed me that both of them were stupid, and neither knew their left flank from their right.
After I had touched my forehead to the roan mare, I had to smile. "You're a crafty little bugger, aren't you?" I said to the lanky. "Don't worry, Red, I'll not mistreat you."
She didn't have a lot wrong with her that a good feed or two wouldn't fix. I groomed her gently, cleaned up her hoofs and then re-shod her. She appreciated the attention.
I then approached the stallion. I was surprised that he hadn't been gelded. He was very skittish, and I could see whip scars on his flank. He was tall for a lanky, at least 1.2m at the shoulder. He also had long legs and patches of white and roan dappled with cream spots over his hide.
He was scruffy and skinny. I guessed he hadn't been fed as often as he should have been, and he hadn't been groomed too often. I also don't think he had been let loose into a paddock for some time as he lacked muscle tone.
I looked him over. "Hi, Spot," I said.
He snorted at me, bared his teeth and flicked a back hoof. I watched as the muscles in his flank quivered and noted he wasn't putting a lot of weight on that hoof. I locked my eyes with his and approached him.
I gently grasped his head and placed my forehead on his. He was in a lot of pain, and I soothed him as I directed healing thoughts his way. I didn't really understand how I healed. I just thought about where the animal was hurting and removing the pain so that they could heal.
It was said that my ancestors all had magical potential, and some of us could use our gifts to a degree without a magical item to assist us. The lanky and I stood that way for nearly twenty minutes. When I pulled my head back, I was feeling quite woozy.
I was rewarded for my efforts when he licked my face and blew through his nostrils into my nose. This was a sign that he liked me, and that boded well for me. He happily ate the hay I had offered as I groomed him. I could feel his happiness.
While I was re-shoeing him, the woman who had spoken to me early startled me when she said, "Bloody hell, King must like you."
King bared his teeth at the woman. I put my head down as I cleaned his hoof to hide my smile. King sure didn't like her. I didn't bother to acknowledge her and had no idea when she left.
If she was responsible for looking after him, she had done a shitty job.
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Chapter 3
My next problem was tack.
Herders generally pick two lankys that were close in size and body shape, so they could swap tack and saddles from one to the other. With King being a good 15cm taller and a lot broader than Red, they'd not be able to share most saddles.
I was wandered around the tack room after I found it. It was easy to pick out the tack that belonged to specific riders. It was clean and well cared for. I looked at the older stuff in the back storeroom that was covered in dust. Some items were more thickly coated than others were.
I decided the room was long overdue, a darn good clean-out. I found, slung over a beam, a strange-looking lanky blanket. Upon investigation, I noticed that it was padded towards the front to form a soft saddle shape that would protect my arse from the lanky's spine. It had a wide girth strap and a chest strap.
The square rings for the stirrups were sewn onto the blanket under the flaps of the soft leather upper that covered and moulded over the padding. It would go over the back of any lanky. I surmised it was used for putting calves on the back of a lanky when they were learning to ride.
Having a skinny arse, the padded area was more than wide enough for me. The stirrup's straps would extend far enough for me without changing them. It didn't look like it had been used for a while, so I claimed it. I hadn't noticed a lot of younger calves on the property, which I did think odd.
While the soft saddle was a little long for Red and a little short for King, I could make it work. It wouldn't be as good as a cutting saddle, but then I'd never had to work my lankys or my livestock real hard.
Hanging over another beam were two soft-bit bridles. They needed a bit of TLC, but they would do what I wanted. I'd seen the scarring on Red's mouth, and I knew that she would much prefer this alternative. They were usually used on well-trained mounts that were older and docile.
In another corner, under a poorly folded tarp, I found an old backpack. It was worn, but not worn out. The dust on the tarp suggested it hadn't been disturbed for years. When I opened the pack, I was delighted to find it contained most of what I needed as camping gear.
The contents were all in excellent repair and obviously packed in such a way to make everything easy to get at. I wondered what has happened to the previous owner. I tried it on for size. With some minor adjustments to the straps, it fitted me comfortably and well.
In the last year alone, I'd grown 14cm and now topped 162cm. I think I still have some more growing to do, but at least I was around or even above average in height for a male on this island. My shoulders had also filled out, as had my thighs.
My mother had told me that I took after my father and that he had been a very handsome man. I don't know about me being handsome, but at least I now looked more like a man and not a boy. The extra height sure helped, even if I still had a skinny arse.
I had the warm beige skin common to my herd and long sable coloured hair that reached my armpits. It kinked and curled on the ends in moist air. I kept it plaited and tied it back with a leather thong most of the time. I should get it cut shorter, but not many of my kind wear short hair even if they prefer male form.
My eyes were larger and a lighter brown than my mother's, with purple and gold flecks. My face and brow weren't as broad as my grandfathers were, and my nose was slimmer and face longer, but I had the stubborn Horn chin. I got enough second looks when we were in town for the auction to guess that I can't be that bad looking.
I checked with the Stable Master if I could have the gear I had selected. She eyed the gear, grunted and shooed me away. I spent most of the early afternoon repairing and cleaning the equipment to my satisfaction. The tack needed the most attention.
The last of the afternoon was spent in the corral with the bighorns I was to look after. I made sure I touched each one and checked on their health. I also reassured them that I was their protector.
As long as they obeyed me, they would be fine.
------
When I heard the chow bell ring for the second time, I headed in.
After cleaning up enough to eat, I got in the short line, being the last to turn up to be fed. I noticed the odd looks that the others gave me, and they didn't get really close to me for some reason.
Other than the favourite spouses and their smallest calves, the rest of the herd lived in the bunkhouses just like at home. We had our own kitchen and dining room to serve us. Cavil had six main bunkhouses. Four were close to the main house.
The wings of the bunkhouses were paired, so the doors to the rooms faced a common, wide covered courtyard. The middle two were separated by a wide covered walkway that seemed to be used to store junk.
Built across the front was the large central kitchen. It had dining rooms on either side with a sitting room on each end of each of the dining rooms. A long veranda joined this section to the bunkhouse courtyards. This section had an even wider verandah out the front that many of the inhabitants liked to sit on.
Three ablution blocks were built across the back of the courtyards. Half of the building had a big bathing room with eight tubs and six separate stalls with flushers in the other half. They were accessed from the two courtyards and separated by a cross-walkway.
Several big barns and workshops were also behind the ablution buildings. The walkways between them made the other buildings easier to access from that direction. The cross walkway led to the main house.
Each wing of the bunkhouses had one long room with three sets of double bunks in it. Five of the other eight rooms were smaller with a double bed, and the other three had two double bunks that seemed to be used for the spouses' older calves.
The other two bunkrooms that I determined were older were across the main access road and beside the lanky's barn I had been in. The barn had the tack room and a smithy on one side. This pair of bunkrooms were along the same design as the other four.
The commoners' Cavil hired seemed to live in them. They didn't have a kitchen, but they did have an ablutions block. Most of his extra spouses and older calves lived in the closest bunkhouse to the main house.
I learnt that Cavil didn't have any grandchildren yet. The other bunkhouses boarded his aunts and sisters that still lived on the property and worked as his hands and servants. He had quite a few of them. Cavil turned a blind eye to them shacking up together as long as they didn't have calves.
Behind the lanky barn was an even older and smaller bunkhouse. It was in disrepair and probably should be pulled down. It had two simple rooms that could fit four double bunk beds each in a row. One room was full of junk between and on the bunks.
The other room had a big bed put in it but had the other bunks pushed against one wall. It looked like it hadn't been used in a while. It made me chuckle as to why the big bed was in there. But I had decided it would do me for the night, and I had dropped off my backpack in there before I went to see the bighorns.
As I waited to get my dinner, I noticed only five of Cavil's herd and four commoners were in male form. The Herd didn't sit with the crew of six that were his tree cullers. I did notice that this crew all seemed to be related.
Most Prol males were brown-skinned, short-legged, barrel-chested and had big heads compared to the length of their limbs. The men were inclined to be gruff and didn't tend like the other races. They tend to form clans similar to our herds with a dominant male and his family.
Prol women were not encouraged to mate with other races, and were never, left unclaimed if the clan leader died. I assumed one of the women was the older man's spouse and the other his daughter.
I noticed that the females served the men before sitting and eating themselves. I took a guess that the other males would be his sons. Prols lived even shorter lives than us Shifters. They rarely made it to sixty years, and they had lots of calves. Twins were common.
I shrugged it off, and taking the meal I was offered, I found a seat and settled in to eat. I was surprised at how hungry I was and even went for second helpings. I also enquired about getting staples from one of the servers. She told me to see the Stable Master.
I didn't hang around after I ate, and no one seemed inclined to speak with me. I used the ablution block behind the older bunkhouse and made my way to the one I had claimed. The big bed was comfortable, and I settled in for the night.
My next night would be under the stars.
------
I was up at the crack of dawn.
The kitchen was already hopping, and I was able to get fresh tea and a hot meal into me. I then went and checked with the Stable Master and asked where I could get travel rations. She directed me to a storage shed that was used by the kitchen staff.
I filled the spare saddlebags I had found and the extra space I had in the backpack with enough supplies to last a couple of weeks until I had worked out what was available in the high country to forage on. I didn't think I'd have a problem feeding myself.
I took two extra water bottles out of the box of a dozen and even borrowed the flint I saw on a top-shelf. Most people use phosphor sticks these days, but a flint still worked even if wet. You just had to have the knack, and I did.
It could be cool in the high country even here. I also liked having a fire so that I could read. Happy I had most of what I needed, I made one more stop. Yantel looked at me strangely when I made my request.
"Books? You want some books?" she said with disbelief.
All calves were supposed to do book learning from the age of six to fourteen, but many never touched a book again. Bull Cavil had walked in and heard her exclamations. He gave me a strange look.
"Come with me," he said, and I followed him to the big house. He led me to a room at the back.
I had never seen so many books in all my life. I'm sure I drooled. Warh wasn't a big reader, and I'd had fun scrounging for books at home until I'd found the old library. I'd been working my way through all the old books in it ever since.
Cavil had shelves that went to the high ceiling on three of the walls, and they were all full of books. I looked at the titles and noticed they had been set up in a sort of order.
I stopped when I found a book titled Animal Husbandry and Health. I flicked the pages and determined that while some of the words were unknown to me, I taught myself enough that I thought I could work them out.
I found one called the Law of the Herds and another called Hind History that was old and handwritten like a diary. It would take me a while to read the thick books. I was pleased with my finds. Cavil also looked at the books I had selected.
"That should keep you entertained for a while," he commented with a grin.
"That's the idea, Sir," I replied.
I thanked him and happily went to saddle my lankys and headed out.
------
I had little trouble rounding up my charges, and we ambled off to the high pastures.
I had to smile when several people noticed that Red wasn't trailing me. She was on the other side of the small herd. She didn't need a rider to tell her what to do. She only wore a simple halter with no bit that I could attach a rope to if I need to.
I had to chuckle as I watched her nudge the yearlings to keep up. She was one smart lanky. King was also behaving. He was happy with the new bridle and the blanket saddle and pranced like the King he was. I think he was just pleased to get out of the stable.
We spent the remaining five weeks of the glorious spring in the high country. I'd never felt so at peace. Red and King had no trouble with me changing to my wolf form so I could hunt. It was far more efficient and more rewarding to hunt in this fashion. It also kept me fit and toned.
I located a big lake that was full of fish, so I was more than happy to change to merman to hunt this way too. I did love to swim. I'd switch to my bull form to graze, so my diet was balanced.
Otherwise, I hunted for root vegetables or climbed trees to gather fruit and nuts that were already ripening. Due to our warm climate, many trees fruited all year round, but their big harvests were in autumn.
I'd begun to notice as the spring wore on that when I changed to human and dressed, my pants had climbed up above my ankles. I was going to have to get some new clothes when I went back. The fact that I rarely wore them during the day unless I decided to ride meant that I didn't wear them out so quickly.
Red and King were the perfect outriders, and I often changed to bull when moving the herd as they just followed along behind me. I'd noticed that King and Red had both put on weight and were looking as healthy as I felt.
The bighorns all considered me the dominant male, so we had few problems. We camped away from streams when it rained. We had few predators to worry about. We mostly had wolves on the island. Most of the minor problems we had were scrapes from downed trees and the animals stepping into holes.
Since I could heal them, they weren't big problems.
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Chapter 4
I'd been out in the wilds for two weeks and had moved my herd to the east when I found the spaceship.
Somehow, it had managed to wedge itself into a wide cleft between two steep hillsides. I could see where it had smashed into the ground. I guess the hillsides had collapsed over time, and at least two-thirds of its 60m height had become part of the landscape.
It was shaped more like an annulus than a rectangle as it angled evenly into the top. The top metal section was about 60m square, but it curved with the peeks parallel to the hills. The top was interesting. It was like two wave crests. The trough had a very thick and wide metallic section, and the crests were some sort of transparent material.
I guessed as I moved around the outside of the ship that the base was probably closer to 120m square. The outer board curve was barely discernible since it was buried and wedged into the cleft. One hillside had collapsed to bury one side and front corner more thoroughly than the other did.
The trees had grown up around the ship in the landslides, and their dense foliage hid most of the top of the ship from view. If the sun hadn't glinted off it from my vantage point, I would have passed it by.
I climbed up the hillside a fair way to get to craft. It had buried the bottom half of the ships western side and half of the face on that side. A mound of rubble made the rest of the lower section of the face inaccessible.
I stopped when I encountered the strange metal of the craft. I ran my hands across the metal in wonder and nearly died of fright when a section of it slid back. I grabbed a big rock and planted it in the doorway so I wouldn't be locked in. I entered the small room and approached the second set of doors.
When I pushed on it, it slid back into the wall. I dropped another rock in the hatch to keep this door open, too. The doors being open provided me with a little light so I could see down the long hallway. As I moved further down the hall, the ceiling started to light up.
It didn't get really bright, and many panels didn't work, but it was enough that I could see as my eyes adjusted. Some of the businesses and older buildings in Horn City still had these types of lights, but no one knew how to make the parts to fix them anymore.
It didn't take long for me to learn that the ship had been pretty much gutted. I could see where many of the wall panels had been removed and taken away. Warh had several walls in the older part of the house made from those panels, so I knew where some had gone.
I remembered some of the walls in Cavil's house were also like these panels. I thought it odd that both libraries, in particular, had these panels and wondered why. The books were well preserved in both of them, that was for sure.
Even gutted, the ship was an exciting find. I don't think anyone had been near the ship for hundreds of years. The trees and the hills had done an excellent job of hiding it. I was surprised that some of the lights worked, as did several doors. Those doors that didn't, I could pull open with little resistance.
I did find out why it had the waves on top. They were the tops of two greenhouses. They had been emptied a long time ago. The floor below was probably one that was still the most intact. It had some interesting rooms, and a lot of what I thought was the control room had been left alone.
I was on one of the lower levels when I noticed something odd about one of the walls. I could swear a section in it flickered. I stood right up near it and watched it carefully. When I saw it flicker again, I stepped forward. Don't ask me why; I just did.
The small square room I entered was empty, but I noticed two areas in the back two corners of the two side walls that shimmered. I went to the left one and waited. When it flicked, I stepped through. I gasped as I looked around the 4m square room. I wondered how it had stayed hidden.
The room was lined with rectangular slots. Only eleven of the hundreds of slots had a box in it. I pulled one of the boxes from the hole in the wall and placed it on the cube that sat in the middle of the room.
I couldn't find a way to open it. I removed another box and had no luck with it either. I had removed all ten of the lower boxes, and they were all the same. I pulled the last one down and placed it on top of the others.
It was sealed like the others with no visible joins. I noticed it was slightly bigger in each dimension. I'd left it until last because it gave me a creepy feeling. Discouraged, I placed both hands on the box and sighed in frustration. I damn near shat myself when the box moved.
Once I got my heart back in my chest, I examined it and realised that it had opened. I looked at how the lid worked and pushed it back, and looked inside with great curiosity. To my surprise, there were three items.
One was a thick banded, gold ring studded with gems. Attached to a gold chain was a flat, gold, octagonal medallion that had two sides longer than the rest was. The third item was a thin gem-studded gold band about 2cm wide that looked like what my sisters wore to hold their hair back.
They were floating in the air as far as I could tell. The space under them was a deep, fathomless black. When I got up the courage to pluck out the ring, I couldn't feel any type of material under it. It was bloody creepy; I can assure you.
The ring and the headband had five gems on them. They were the same gems on each but in different sizes. The largest central gem on both was a strange greenish-yellow colour, and I swore they had tiny lights swirling in them. A bigger square-cut gem of the same type was in the centre of the medallion.
I later learned that the other four gems were an aquamarine, an agate, a rose quartz crystal and a moonstone. They all had dominant red streaks or speckles in their patterns. At the time, I simply thought they were a strange collection of gems to put on jewellery.
I felt compelled to put the items on, so I did so. Strange sensations come over me, and I received a feeling of pleasure from the jewellery. I then noted a sense of hesitancy and something else I couldn't place.
I got the feeling that something was a little wrong, but neither the entity in the items nor I knew what was causing the wrongness. It was odd to feel as if someone else was in my head. Yet, the entity didn't really do anything, and while I felt its presence, it was vague. I couldn't communicate with it, not with words anyway.
I didn't realise that two of the original items were missing from the box: the spellbook and the wand. However, I did get lucky. I had noticed that two of the lower shelves each had a small, slim book on them.
On another shelf was a tube about 25cm long and 2.5cm round at its widest end. It had another one of the strange greenish-yellow gems in that end. When I picked it up, the gem flashed. I felt as if the other items and the entity had accepted this item as part of the ensemble.
I had no idea what it did at that time, so I dropped it into the magical box. The entity also seemed to accept the magic books in a similar manner when I added them later.
When I had a quick look at the books, I'd found them fascinating as I could read them even though part of my mind said they weren't in my language. Some of the pages on the left side had a list of ingredients on them. The right-hand page had instructions on them like a cooking recipe.
Other pages towards the back read more like a diary. I noticed that there seemed to be a lot of previous owners and a lot more pages than the thickness of the book could possibly contain. The pages also felt a little odd with their shiny surfaces.
I decided I'd have a better look at them later.
------
I moved my box to one side as I looked at the other boxes and wondered how I was going to carry them all.
I hadn't piled them on the table really well, and when I went to straighten them, one slipped and speared into my open but otherwise empty box. As I went to remove it, I observed something weird. The end of the box that had fallen to mine shouldn't have been able to fit into it as deep as it did.
I lifted it out and looked at the offending end. I turned the box and then lowered it into my box. This time, because of the angle I used, it dropped into the box, so only the end I held in my hand was out of it.
I may not have had a lot of higher education as far as the sciences went; however, even I knew what I was seeing wasn't normal. I grinned as my mind finally caught up with what my eyes were telling me.
I looked down and noticed the medallion had disappeared. The ring looked like a plain band on the middle finger of my right hand, and I was sure the headband wasn't visible any longer, either.
We had all heard a lot about magicians and even what magical items they wore. I'd once met a man who said he was a mage. We didn't have a lot of them on the island, but we had a few. I'd never heard of anyone having all the items that I was wearing.
I shivered as I also remembered that the number of gems I had on my items, the more powerful I was. I looked down and let go of the box I was holding. I looked into my box and could see it lying at the bottom, but the bottom was a long way down.
I put my hand in and thought of the other box, and instantly, the box was in my hand. I let it go again and then happily dropped the other boxes into my new magical box, as well as one of the spellbooks. I tucked the other book into my shirt pocket for later. I scanned the shelves, but nothing else was left, so I closed my box.
When I lifted my box, it didn't feel any heavier than when I had first picked it up, something else to ponder. I tucked it under my arm and left. I had little trouble walking through the mirage again. As I stepped into the small room, I decided to look in the other hidden room.
This room had several shelves lining the walls and two large sea chests on the floor. One shelf had six small chests on it. They were about 40cm high and wide and 50cm long. I suspected that there had been a lot more items in this room, but the person who had left these must not have been able to come back for them.
I opened the first one. While I didn't know a lot about jewellery, I was of the opinion that they were not very good pieces. It mostly contained headbands made of different metals. Many of them were incomplete.
Some of them had gems, but they also had spaces for other stones that were empty. I wondered if they were supposed to be new magical items, but the person making them couldn't find the jewels they needed.
The next box also contained half made items. Most of them were rings, and a couple of small bags contained different sorts of gems, some cut and some not. The third box held medallions that had no inscriptions on them or the strange gem in the middle like mine.
I noted that this strange crystal was missing from all of the items. I now suspected that it was very important for making magical items as all four of mine had one.
I hit pay dirt with the last three boxes. One was full of small bags of coins. They didn't look any different to the coins we currently used. The disappointment was that they were mostly low value. Even so, they were coins that I could easily spend.
The next held some better-quality female type jewellery. Ten slim bars of what I believed were silver, lined the base. The last held several bags of larger denomination coins, and the base held gold bars.
I pulled my magical box back out of my pack and opened it. I grabbed one of the chests, but apparently, it was just too big. My box was closer to 34cm long and 24cm wide inside the opening. It was also only 15cm deep on the outside, and the material it was made of was about a centimetre thick.
I'd just learnt that the items I could put in the box needed to be smaller than the opening. I dropped in the items that were in the bags and the bars of gold and silver. Looking in, it seemed that I still had plenty of room. It also appeared the items organised themselves neatly.
However, I didn't wish to drop the other items in as loose items. Looking around the room, I noticed the two big chests. Rummaging through them, I found they were both filled with stylish clothing and good linens. One even had a very nice, thick woollen blanket, so I rolled it up so I could fit it into my box.
One pile of linens looked a lot like what we used for hankies. They were about 30cm square. I grinned, as they would be perfect, they were even different colours. I tipped the loose items from a chest into the squares and tied them up, then dropped them into my box. I opened one hanky and tied a handful of extra ones in it. I was sure they wouldn't go astray.
The one item of clothing I took from the box was a very lovely, long black coat. It was designed to be worn as a riding coat in wet weather. It even split in the back, so it covered your legs. I didn't have one, so this one would do nicely since it fit me as if made for me.
I left the empty chests on the shelves and continued my investigation of the ship. I found some other interesting items I would like to keep in another room with a shimmering door, but they were too big or hard to explain why I had them. One day I'd come back for them.
Happy with my finds, I decided that I needed food.
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Chapter 5
Grazing and hunting can be time-consuming.
That night I set my snares and ate the items from the storage bags that I had collected in my travels. I had some root vegetables and some leftover dried meat, so I dropped the lot into a pot to cook. I sat and read while the stew cooked.
King neighed at me and reminded me of my herd. I stripped, changed to a wolf and sniffed around them. I checked they were all settled for the night and then checked on my snares from a distance, so I didn't scare the game. Happy, I went back to my stew and my book.
The next three weeks passed by very fast for me. I soon realised that I had so much to learn as I played with my magic. My healing skills had increased tremendously, but that wasn't all I could do. I had learnt how to start fires with a click of my fingers and to know if a plant was toxic to the herd or me without even touching it.
The coolest thing I learnt was how to create an invisibility shield that I could place over the animals and me at night. Oops! I also discovered that the shield could get me into trouble. It wasn't until I removed it one morning that I found I had guests.
I had been working my way back to the homestead over the last week. An outrider must have seen me and reported my whereabouts. Apparently, Cavil had expected me back long before now to get camp food and other supplies.
One of the riders had fresh tea leaves, and I was more than happy to accept a cup when I invited them to my campfire. It was one of the few things which I had missed since I had been gone. My tea had run out weeks ago.
I fielded their questions, as they couldn't believe they had camped so close to me and not seen the bighorns. It was obvious we had been in the same spot all night. I just shrugged it off and enjoyed the tea.
We were less than a day from home, so we decided the push the herd a little and get moving. I loaded my stuff up onto Red and King. I told them what we were doing and changed into my bull form. I bellowed at my herd, and we took off at a slow jog.
The three outriders trailed behind and watched as we trotted off home. I put the yearlings in the same paddock they had been in when I first collected them. I changed back to human form and retrieved my clothes from my pack.
I redressed, shouldered the pack and mounted King to ride the last hundred metres back to the homestead. He didn't mind if I left the saddle on him most of the day. One of the outriders rode back to me and told me to report to Bull Cavil.
She gave me a funny look, and I knew she had watched me change and dress.
------
"So how many did you lose?" was Cavil's first question.
I had started out with fifty weaners, but I'd corralled eighty-six bighorns. I explained I had found a few as I travelled and still had the original fifty.
"So, how many of them are now pregnant?" he then asked me with a grin.
"Don's fifteen older cows are. I told him not to touch the others. It wasn't easy for him as several of them came into season, but he survived the ordeal," I told Cavil with a big grin.
"They aren't yours?" he asked me in surprise.
I chuckled. It is a fact that when I turn bull, I can indeed impregnate a cow. I have enough genetic material to form perfectly healthy calves. Warh did it all the time. I often thought that he preferred fucking the heifers to his spouses.
"Not I, Sir. Don accepted with a little intimidation that I was the head bull. He knew not to touch my girls. It probably helped that I let him keep his little herd. So even the other heifers are in the pristine state I found them. I've never been in the habit of fucking the stock," I told him.
"Tray said he's not a bad looking bull," Cavil stated.
"I agree. Don's progeny is strong, and they fattened up as nice as the other girls did. He only had the two steers in his herd when I found him. They didn't appreciate me gelding them, but they are prime on the hoof, all the same."
"Tray mentioned the two steers. I assumed most of the heifers would be pregnant. We often have at least half of them coming back in such a state," he informed me.
I just shrugged. If the other outriders liked to ride the herd in more ways than one, that was their business, but I didn't do it. We talked a little longer about the conditions in the high country and the quality of the feed I had found.
Then he sent me to find some supper.
------
I headed to the barn to put my lankys to bed.
I heard some cussing and then a whip crack. I heard Red scream, and I bolted. When I saw that the woman was about to strike again, I reefed the whip out of her hand. As I stepped back, I drew the whip back, and then I cracked the tails across her arse. She screamed and backed away from me.
"You ever touch my lankys again with a whip, and you will suffer for every stroke they did," I told her in a controlled, angry voice.
I watched as the manager, Yantel, ran from the shed. I dropped the whip, approached Red and soothed her with my voice and hand.
I gently healed the welt on her flank and then started rubbing her down, telling her how sorry I was she had been hurt. King neighed at her and gave her a sloppy kiss on the nose. He considered that Red was his filly. I soon had my lankys bedded down and went to find food for me.
Cavil found me in the dining room a little later. "Bron, tell me your side of the story," he said.
Yantel started speaking, but Cavil held his hand up for silence. All thirty people in the room were silent. I sighed. I hadn't even been back one night, and already I was in deep shit. I stood and faced Cavil and Yantel.
"I was heading back to the barn to bed my lankys when I heard Red scream in pain. When I raced in, I saw that she was about to whip Red again. I removed the whip from her grasp and gave her a taste of her own medicine," I said, not removing my eyes from Cavil's the whole time.
"That beast of a lanky deserved it," Yantel spat out in a fury.
I turned my cold glare onto her, "What could Red have possibly done to deserve to be whipped?"
"She bit me. See," Yantel spat and held up her arm. If she was going to bruise, it hadn't formed, and the skin wasn't broken. It was a nip at best and not a bite.
"What did you do to her that caused her to bite you?" I asked in a softer voice. My anger, however, was still evident in my tone.
"I did nothing to her, I was trying to get that brute of yours into his stall, but he wouldn't leave the water trough," she said crankily.
I frowned at her. "King still had all his gear on. Why were you trying to put a hot, thirsty lanky into a stall? Surely you're not that stupid?"
Cavil looked at her in consternation, "What were you thinking, woman? You darn well should know better than that."
Yantel gaped, and it came to me. "You lie. You wanted to go through my saddlebags. You wouldn't have found too much. Unless you were planning on doing my washing for me."
She shook her head in denial, but it wasn't very convincing.
"So, did you find any gold?" one of the other women asked.
I noticed the Prol workers looking at me hard. I shook my head in disgust. "What gold? I wasn't prospecting; I was riding herd. I was doing what I was told to do."
Cavil chuckled. "You'd be one of the first. Didn't you hear the rumours before you left? Why else did you take a flat pan, a shovel and a pick?"
I had to stop and think. The items he mentioned had been in the pack I had picked up to use. I hadn't tossed them as I could think of uses for all the items. I shook my head and sighed.
"I used the pan to pour water into for the lankys at night. The pick also has an axe head for wood. The shovel was used to make sure the ground where I slept was softer and to bury my night soil. I can assure you I didn't pan or dig for one ounce of gold. I didn't even know you had any in this area."
While I did find treasure, I'd not had to dig for it, and I wasn't telling them that.
I went on to say, "I had only been here for less than a day before I was sent to ride herd. I had spoken to four people that whole time. Yantel, the Stable Master, a servant to ask about food and you Lord Cavil."
"I ate late and didn't sleep in the main bunkhouse. So, tell me, how was I to even learn about there being any gold? I only picked the pack I used because it didn't seem to belong to anyone else. I still don't even know who it had once belonged to."
"So why were you gone for so long? Reliefs are sent out every two weeks for herders," one of the other women accused me.
"Ask her," I said in exasperation.
They all looked at Yantel.
Cavil then asked her, "For that matter, why did the outriders find him alone and with the two of the most mismatched lankys you could have put together?"
Yantel open and closed her mouth a couple of times and then firmed her resolve and spat, "Who wanted to work with him anyway? He has sons."
Fuck me! I couldn't believe the shit that came out of her mouth. Now I was really riled up.
"I was raped by my grandfather at fifteen and damn near died having that child. My child, that he callously gave away," I spat at her. "Personally, I thought it was very fitting to have a son in the circumstances."
There was a collective gasp, and Cavil looked at me in shock.
"So that's why he wanted to get rid of you! He told me that you had behaved like your mother and gotten yourself pregnant to someone outside the family and then lost the boy child. He had assured me that your healing skills were still good."
I laughed without mirth. "Yes, they are, but he didn't know that. Our herds haven't been well since he raped me. He thought I was cursed. I was so sick during and after the pregnancy that I had to stop healing the animals."
Cavil grinned at me, "Going by the state of the animals you brought back, you're feeling a lot better. By the way, I've decided to keep Don, your bull."
I nodded, "A smart move. His progeny may be a little smaller, but they are prime beef animals. If you put his calves back to your other bull, you will get a lot more good quality bighorns."
Cavil nodded in agreement with me, "I might even let him keep some of the other girls rather than sell them."
"If you like, I'll cut out the twenty I think are the best and shift them to the other paddock. I notice some of the other weaners in need of some TLC. I'll take them for the rest of the summer."
"Do that. We often go back out for the summer too. Who do want to ride with you?"
I shook my head, "I've got Red and King. I don't need anyone else." I was still pissed at these people and didn't want or need their company.
Greta, one of the herders who had come to find me, piped up, "You should have seen them. It was the most uncanny thing I ever saw. He changes into a bull and leads the herd. Those lankys of his, acted as the outriders totally on their own. I've never seen the like. Not one of them bighorns even looked like misbehaving."
"They are damn good lankys, and they work well together. It's been a pleasure working with them," I said. I was pleased that she at least thought I was worth something.
"Well, it looks like they won't be going to the knackers anytime soon. I thought they had already been sent when I realised that they weren't in the stable," Cavil told me.
"They just needed a gentle hand and no bit. They both have soft mouths. I didn't even need a proper saddle; they were so gentle with me," I told them.
Cavil shook his head. "Rest up for a few days. If you like, you can pick the herd you wish to take. This time, however, come back in a month. We'll decide if they need to go out again or if you can take another herd."
I was happy with this decision and more than happy to get back to eating.
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Chapter 6
I'd spent three days at the homestead, and I did get to meet a few people.
The one person who had caught my eye was Greta. She had a very strange effect on me whenever she came near. I'd only been wearing the magical items for a few weeks. However, I had noticed a change in my libido as well as my body.
Since my rape, the thought of sex made me feel cold, and my stomach would cramp up. I'd not even masturbated in either gender. It was as if my mind had blanked out what sex was. But Greta was messing with my mind and my body.
She seemed to go out of her way to be near me if I was up at the homestead. The first time she brushed her arse against my crotch, the shock of my cock starting to stiffen left me damn near paralysed. I was glad I could turn my back to the rest of the diners and that the tray I collected hid my obvious reaction.
When she looked back at me and asked me if I was all right, I could only nod dumbly at her. Her soft sexy laugh as she moved further down the diner line had me so fucking hard it was painful.
I'd forgotten my cock could even get that hard or make the impression in my pants that I was demonstrating. When I got back to my bunkroom that night, I stripped off and looked at my cock. I was surprised that it seemed thicker and longer than I remembered.
It's not like I spent a lot of time really looking at it. I knew I'd been growing a bit since I was here, but I hadn't thought of my cock growing. For most of my life, when I voided my bladder, my cock had been the instrument that I preferred to use. It's a lot less messy when out herding than squatting.
I hefted my sack and noticed that my balls were a lot heavier than I remembered, too. The image of Greta brushing her sexy arse against me had my cock rising. I grinned and for once actually thought about what it would be like to stick it into her cunnie.
Now I was rock hard. Since I'd been raped in my female form at a young age, I'd never actually fucked someone with my cock. I found my hand sliding up and down my cock as I thought of Greta and imagined what it would be like.
I got lost in my daydream of Greta. I was snapped back to reality when my guts and balls tightened up, and I was spitting my seed over the bed as my hips stiffened and jerked as I spat out the next load. I happily finished jerking myself to fulfilment.
I'd also noticed a strange sensation as I orgasmed. It was as if I'd recharged some of my magical energy. It often took several hours and food or sunlight to recharge after I've used magic. I chuckled to myself.
'This was new,' I thought. 'So, a quick wank would recharge me a bit quicker.'
I then wondered what it would have felt like if I'd made Greta orgasm with me. My body shuddered softly in delight, and I got the impression from my magical items that they and I would both benefit from the exercise.
With that thought, I went to bed.
------
The next day, I think I creeped a couple of people out.
I looked at different people while I was re-shoeing my lanky's. I tried to think of what it would be like to fuck them. Oddly, I just didn't feel anything. My cock didn't even twitch. It wasn't as if there was a lack of pretty women to choose from either.
Cavil seemed to manage to produce very pretty daughters, and even his wives from other herds were not hard on the eyes. Then Greta walked past and smiled her sexy little smile at me, and my cock responded instantly.
I looked back down and banged in the next nail. I knew that being in male form as often as I was, I should respond to anyone in female form that I found interesting. I'd never responded to a male while in the masculine form myself. So, I guessed my preferred partner for sex was female if I was in male form.
Then again, I'd never particularly reacted to a male, even when I was in female form. I could only guess something was wired a bit different in my brain. Most Shifters tend to respond to other people depending on the gender they were in at the time. I didn't seem to have a good connection to my feminine side.
I suspected it had as much to do with my experiences to date as any other reason. I felt safer as a male these days. I change so fast upon awakening that I'm not even conscious of waking in female form anymore.
As I glanced back up at Greta's swaying hips, I had to stifle a groan. Great! Just fucking great! I was in lust with Cavil's oldest daughter. I decided it was way past the time I went bush again. I finished shoeing my lankys and got myself ready to move out.
I made sure I packed extra tea this time. I also managed to get some new books from Cavil. I'd noticed some interesting ones about magic. When Cavil left me to select a couple, I made sure they found their way into the special satchel that I'd acquired for my magic box to live in.
I'd found the spell that turned the satchel into a deep bottomed bag like my magical box. It was great, as that was where my extra supply of tea went, too. One of the cooks had baked that morning, and a lot of those bickies were now happily sitting in a box at the bottom of my magical satchel.
I collected my new charges and headed east.
------
My summer run went a lot like the spring one did.
I got plenty of time to read and play with my magic. The exceptions were my dreams of Greta and the occasional morning masturbation session. I didn't dream of her every night, but she did invade my thoughts when I least expected her to.
The other notable thing about my dreams was that I couldn't contemplate doing to her what was done to me. I desired to please her in any way that I could. I was surprised by some of the things I did dream of doing with her.
The damn dreams were so vivid I often felt that I was fucking her. It was nearly always after these dreams that I became conscious of my hand jerking on my cock, and I had to complete the act of masturbation.
When I got back to the homestead, it only got worse when Greta was in sight. She was screwing with my head something terrible, and I had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do about it.
I guessed I'd be going bush again and real soon.
------
I was awoken during the third night back by a soft hand.
The warm body attached to the hand then slid under my light blanket with me, and then she plastered her naked flesh to mine. When her soft lips pressed against mine, I didn't push her away. I had changed to male as soon as I was conscious.