§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ §§ §§ §§ SOLDIER-IN-TRAINING §§ §§ By Kjorteo §§ §§ Cowritten by Seraph Pearlfeather §§ §§ © 2001 §§ §§ §§ §§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ ·-÷÷-· "The ruined castle by the edge of Sechalar?" "Yes." answered the commander. "You know that legend about the guardian or something still being bound there...." "Legends...." "Yes, I know, but the people seem to really believe this one. Ever since that prankster returned from the ruins, claiming to have heard...voices in his head, the people demand the guardian be found and destroyed before it brings harm to our kingdom. The more compassionate people want us to do something to help, because the guardian has been alone with nothing to do for so long. Either way, our new king is trying to listen to everyone, even the weird ones. And since you're just a trainee and really have nothing better to do...." The soldier-in-training, Baru, snorted in annoyance. He joined the Sechalar soldier force so that he could make a name for himself, not so he could move up from an unimportant villager to an unimportant soldier. However, orders were orders.... Baru was always treated badly by his superiors and even by his fellow soldiers. Simply because he was a new recruit, he was viewed as unimportant, a worthless extra to conveniently be sent on the dangerous missions and the boring grunt work jobs that the other soldiers didn't want to do. Most of the recruits were treated like this, but Baru received more cruelty than the rest. Even the other recruits in his same unit were treated a lot better than he was. He could never fully understand what made him so much more appealing as a target, though. He was a lizardman of medium build and about 5'9" tall, and very average as far as physical appearance when compared to the rest of the lizardmen of Sechalar. He had green scales that covered almost all of his body, with the exception of sturdier yellow plates which ran from the tip of his tail, along its underside and his stomach, up to the base of the neck. Again, this was a very common and average trait among Sechalar lizardmen. He tried not to ever offend anyone, and he was always very polite...he guessed that the reason he was treated so harshly was because the other soldiers saw him as weak because of his temperament. "Fine. I suppose you want me to leave as soon as I can?" Baru asked. The commander nodded dryly, and Baru left before his worsening mood became obvious to his superior. The commander wasn't exactly known for his lenience toward disobedience or disrespect, and Baru would rather have been an unimportant soldier than a discharged, or dead one. -÷÷- The ruined castle stood on a lonely hill surrounded by forests, although it was certainly not a gloomy setting. The sun shone brighty, the sky was clear, and the castle still looked majestic in the places it wasn't crumbling. Were it not in disrepair, its beauty and craftsmanship would rival even the castle in Sechalar's current capital. No one was quite sure of the now-abandoned castle's origin, but the legend stated that it was used by an ancestor race that inhabited the region centuries ago, before the lizardmen of Sechalar came to be. The legend also stated that a wizard of the ancestor race captured a gargoyle and bound it to the castle to guard over it. Suddenly, a war broke out, and the castle was abandoned. The members of the ancestor race were either killed or used as slaves, where continued cross-breeding with the captor race eventually resulted in the current lizard form of Sechalar inhabitants. The final part of the legend is that the gargoyle was still bound to the castle even though it was abandoned, and silently watched over it even into present day. This part of the legend was why the people grew concerned and Baru was sent to explore the ruins. There was a brief period when the new king of Sechalar considered having the abandoned castle fixed up and used again, since it still looked magnificent for the most part. However, the idea was dropped for various reasons. The Sechalar masons had too much trouble matching the craftsmanship the ancestor race had used to build the castle in the first place, the castle was feared to be unstable and thus the masons wouldn't dare set foot inside for fear of its collapse, and the castle stood at the very edge of the kingdom and would therefore serve no practical purpose. Thus, the king decided to simply let it stand as a monument to the past days of the forgotten race. Baru stood before the entrance to the remains of this long- abandoned, yet never really forgotten castle. He guessed that the reason he was the one who was sent rather than someone else was that the other soldiers considered him the unimportant trainee and thus he would be the most expendable, should the castle actually collapse. He snorted in annoyance again. They had at least had the courtesy to warn him not to enter anywhere where he didn't immediately see a door, window, or something he could dive through quickly, just in case. However, he was still frustrated by their looking down on him in general. He sighed, and then entered. -÷÷- One thing Baru noticed rather quickly upon entering, was the lack of debris on the floor. There was enough of the castle in pieces on the ground outside to give the impression of disrepair, but inside there were only a few small pieces of the ceiling here and there. For the most part, the structure was intact. Baru wasn't naive, though, and thus he decided not to trust that and still adhered to the rule about entering rooms only after spotting another exit. Baru was ready to leave and report not being able to find anything in the rooms that he was able to check. However, a feeling he couldn't quite explain beckoned him to keep searching. He didn't know what it was, but he did know that it was too strong and sudden to have come from him. He remembered his rudimentary classes on telepathy and weak magic in his training, and shut his eyes and tried to focus on the feeling, hoping that it would make the message more obvious and let him know specifically what it was guiding him to. He was soon able to distinguish directions, as if this feeling was telling him exactly where to go and how to get there. He opened his eyes again and started following the directions until he came to the entrance to a certain room. He would have searched it earlier, but did not enter because it had no easy escape, and even with the directions guiding him he had second thoughts about going inside. He briefly considered shutting out the feeling and leaving, but as he looked into the room, the feeling he was getting seemed stronger. Now he was able to pick up faint traces of emotion. He sensed warmth and compassion, and suddenly felt that whatever was guiding him was also protecting him, and thus wouldn't lead him into danger. He dropped all pretenses and was filled with trust for this mysterious guide. He also sensed pity, as if he was being begged to go and save this being from its sorrows. Between all of these emotions, Baru's mind was made up. "What the hell...." he thought to himself as he stepped inside the room. Suddenly, the strength of the feeling he was getting became overpowering. He shut his eyes again and started walking. He was so filled with trust that he never once worried about walking into a collapsing room, or even walking into a wall or tripping over something. He knew that this guide was looking after him. He didn't know where he was being led, but he didn't really mind. He somehow knew that he was in capable hands. He continued walking, and the feeling became stronger and stronger...until it abruptly stopped. In confusion, Baru opened his eyes and looked around. The room he was now in was one he hadn't seen before, although it looked the same as the others for the most part. However, there was an overly large block of stone placed against one of the walls that caught his eye. He went to examine it. It was bigger than he was, and he guessed it must have weighed several tons. It had two iron loops anchored to it at the top, and each had a chain going through them that ran up to a pully and then back down to a spool on the ground. The whole mechanism, including both chains, was connected to a large wheel. By the wheel lay a stone peg that was just the right size and shape to insert into a special part of the wheel, which would lock it and prevent it from turning. He guessed that there was actually another room hidden behind the stone slab, and the idea was to turn the wheel, which would wind the spools, which would raise the chains and then the slab, and then lock the wheel so the slab wouldn't fall again, allowing him to go through. "You are correct...very good." Baru was now close enough to the source of his guide's telepathic influence that he could hear his voice. The guide must have read his thoughts telepathically in order to affirm his mental notes. "The room behind this slab is where the old court wizard, Tilarun, used to work. He didn't want to be disturbed, so he made this system so no one could enter or leave. He himself got in and out by having his aide move the slab and hold it up while he walked under it." Baru assumed that Tilarun's aide must have been a being of great strength to be able to hold up a slab of that size, even with the help of two pulleys and a turning wheel. A gargoyle, perhaps? Could the legend really be true? "Correct again..." the guide responded in Baru's mind after reading his thoughts, "and that aide, the gargoyle, is me." Baru sensed even more pity in the gargoyle's mind-voice. "That bastard summoned me and bound me here against my will, forcing me to work for him for countless years...." Baru now felt a need to speak, instead of thinking about his response and waiting for the gargoyle to read it. "You must have hated him...why didn't you...I mean, when he was walking under a however-many-ton stone slab that you were holding up, couldn't you have...?" "'Accidentally' let it drop?" Baru nodded, then thought he heard the gargoyle sigh in his mind before answering his question. "There wasn't a day that went by where I wasn't tempted to, believe me. However he and I both knew that the spell was set so that if I killed him, my spirit would be bound under his for eternity in the next life. I would much rather serve him for a short while...or even a long one...on this plane, than forever on the next." "Why are you still here now, though? Even the most talented wizards can't make themselves immortal in this life...Tilarun has to have been dead for centuries. If you didn't kill him yourself, why weren't you set free when he died?" "You are wiser in the ways of magic than your unkind superiors would have you think, Baru." The mind-voice paused to give time for Baru to absorb the fact that he knew all about him through reading his mind, and then continued. "Normally, I would have been, but Tilarun had one last trick up his sleeve for me. Come inside and you'll see. I'll lend you my strength so that you may turn the wheel and move the slab." In that instant, Baru suddenly felt stronger than he had ever felt before in his whole life. The task of moving a slab of solid stone that was bigger than he was seemed like child's play, especially with the help of a pulley. He stepped over to the wheel and turned it until the slab was suspended high above the door. He set the stone peg in place in the wheel, and then took a few steps inside Tilarun's chamber. -÷÷- There were several items in the room that fit the setting of a typical wizard's chamber. There was a shelf that had all sorts of miscellaneous potion ingredients, another that had spellbooks, and a table on one side of the room that had on it a larger spellbook and a crystal ball. The only unusual item in the room was a large statue of a gargoyle in the center. "That statue of the gargoyle there...that's me, Shirian" the mind-voice of the gargoyle said, sadly. "It happened about a week after war broke out here. Tilarun told me that he knew that the castle would soon be overtaken, and thus wanted to free me because he would soon be dead anyway. And the liar actually made me fall for it...." He sighed again, and continued. "He told me that he needed me to step into his room so that he could do the counterspell to my binding. I stepped inside...and he turned me to stone and left me here." Baru could tell that Shirian would be choking back tears now if he were in physical form and actually had tears to be choking back. Finding nothing adequate to say, he sighed and responded with a lame "I'm so sorry...." Shirian continued. "Thank you...it gets worse, though. Tilarun then took an object in this room and bound his own spirit to that. It was a wicked gamble on his part. He knew that I would be left alone here and eventually the castle would crumble and then collapse, so he decided to have his own spirit stay here as well. He knew that I have enough magic ability even in this stone form to hold the castle up, so if I willfully let it collapse, that would destroy the object his spirit is in as well, which would count as killing him. I've been holding this castle up and waiting for a rescuer ever since...I don't care how long it takes me to find a way out. Hundreds of thousands of years, maybe, or even perhaps millions, but any period of time with a definite end, no matter how long, is far better than serving him for an uninterrupted eternity in the next life." Baru paused, and thought. "Which object did he bind his spirit to? I could break it myself...." "Thank you, but he was a powerful wizard, and was able to set the spell so that even my very slightest involvement in his death would count as killing him. If I say which object he's bound to, and you break it, I would be involved in the object's destruction. Even if you went on a blind rage now and destroyed everything in this room without my saying what to look for, you wouldn't have done so if I hadn't told you about the wizard, and thus I'm still involved." Baru sighed and looked at the gargoyle statue. "Is there anything I can do, then? I want to help...I want to set you free." "Yes. As a matter of fact, there is. Look on the table. Somewhere in that spellbook is the counterspell that will set me free of this statue. If you could cast it and restore me to my physical form, I would be eternally grateful." "Would that also free you from having to worry about the death of the Tilarun?" "No. However, that's not a severe problem. Once I'm free, I'll leave the castle and take the object his spirit is in with me. I can let the castle fall then, and he will still be bound in the object as long as it's kept safe. As soon as I can find a safe spot to store it, he will lose his gamble and pay dearly for it, because I will be free, and he will spend the rest of eternity in the object." "I'd be honored to keep it as a decoration in my home." said Baru, smiling. Shiran gave a vengeful laugh. "Perfect. However, let us worry about this later. Meanwhile...." A loud cracking noise suddenly came from the next room, followed by a shattering. Shirian's voice flooded Baru's mind with a loud and direct "BARU!! LOOK OUT!!" -÷÷- Baru tried to get out of the way, but it was too late. The stone peg that locked the wheel shattered, from being ancient and having to support such a tremendous weight, and the wheel span freely as the stone slab came crashing down...right on Baru's tail. Baru screamed in pain at the top of his lungs and sank to his knees. The weight of the slab and the speed at which it had dropped had managed to not just break, but completely shatter every bone in the part of the tail that it hit. Dizzy from the pain, Baru weakly tried to pull his tail out from under the slab, but it was pinned there, and the attempt made it hurt even more. Baru was on the verge of collapsing, when suddenly he felt Shirian's strength fill him again. Thinking quickly, he lifted the slab into the air with one hand, and pulled his tail out from under it with the other. He then felt the strength starting to fade. He let go of the slab, and watched it crash to the ground. He then sank to his knees, and then to the floor, clutching his tail and whimpering. "Oh, no...." Shirian's voice registered in Baru's mind with concern and outright worry. "If I was in my physical form, I could heal you, but..." his voice trailed off, then suddenly came back as an idea came to him. "Here! I'm going to ease the pain." With that, the pain that was severe enough to make Baru almost pass out gradually lessened, and then disappeared completely. "Your tail is still broken. All I've done is make it so the pain doesn't register in your mind. Once I'm free, I can actually heal you, but this will have to do for now. If it wears off before then and you need me to kill the pain again, I will." Baru nodded, and looked at his tail. It was crushed completely and simply looking at it made him want to cringe. He felt very odd from the thought of having something like that and not even being able to feel it, but he definitely wasn't complaining about having the pain taken away. He walked over to the spellbook, being careful not to break any objects in the room. The book was ancient and very worn. It was opened to a certain page, and Baru got the impression from looking at it that even touching it, let alone trying to turn the page, would do irreparable damage. "How can I look through this book when it's in this state?" he asked softly. "Tear out that page, and then the next few as well. The counterspell is in that section, and you can just look through the pages without worrying about the rest of the book." Shirian responded. Baru was ready to tear out the first page, then froze. He turned to the gargoyle statue. "You're sure about this?" "Yes. Don't worry, Tilarun isn't bound in the book. He's a different object...or at least, so I think...." "Don't you know which object Tilarun is bound to?" Baru asked, somewhat scolding. "It can be either the crystal ball, or the book. Both of them were very important to him. Thus, they were the only objects that he could bind his soul to." Shirian tried to calm Baru but wasn't very calm himself, which Baru quickly noticed. "Just tear out the first page and we'll see what happens." "But...." "Just do it." Baru carefully tore out the first page of the old tome. When nothing happened--nothing at all--he tore out some more pages and examined them. He recognized the language they were written in. The same class that taught him how to be open to telepathy had also gone over the basics of that language, and he suddenly became very grateful for having taken it. He didn't know what most of the words meant, but he did know the correct pronunciation of the symbols and therefore could perfectly read any spell from a written copy, even if he didn't know the meaning of the words he was saying. He walked over to the gargoyle statue and fanned out the pages. "Is this it?" he asked. "You forget that I'm inside a statue, and I'm only with you telepathically. Do you honestly expect stone eyes to be able to see pages? You yourself need to examine them, so I can pick up what they say from reading your mind afterwards." Baru turned the pages around and looked at them, feeling rather sheepish. He tried to focus on the exact shape of every symbol, so that Shirian would be able to understand them perfectly after reading his mind. "Much better. Yes, that's the one." Shirian said, trying to remain calm but inadvertenly giving away a sense of excitement over the concept of being freed. Baru started reading the spell. It was a long one, and not being able to understand what he was saying made him more than a little nervous, even if he was still able to read it perfectly. He finished reading the first page and was about to start on the second, when he saw a crack suddenly form by the statue's head. A small trace of light came out from it. Baru yelped. "What'd I do!?" "Nothing, don't worry! This is supposed to happen! Don't stop now...I can almost feel the outside world...." Baru did as he was told and continued reading. As he went, more and more cracks formed in the statue, and more and more light poured out from beneath them. When he finished the last word of the last page, the statue shattered. Brilliant light emitted from where the statue used to be, and it was so bright that Baru had to shut his eyes and turn away. Eventually it faded, and he turned around and looked at what had happened. -÷÷- Shirian stood there, completely restored to his physical form. He was a slender, green gargoyle with two long horns protruding from behind his ears, which were also long and pointy--and, of course, green. Shirian was wearing a large waistcloth that ran almost all the way down to his feet. His eyes were a deep blue that matched his skin perfectly. His fingers were all equipped with sharp, slightly curved claws the same gray color as his horns. Baru openly gawked as he stared at him. He thought Shirian was absolutely beautiful. Same-gender relations were permitted in Sechalar, but Baru's orientation was part of the reason he was looked down on by his fellow soldiers. Baru decided not to concern himself with that for the time being, he just continued staring at Shirian and obsessing over his physical form, until he spoke. "This is...I'm...free?" Shirian said, almost unsure at first because he had been used to being imprisoned in the statue for so long. He noticed his sensations returning to him. He was actually talking instead of communicating telepathically. He could actually see the room. He could move. These affirmed his suspicion, and he shouted with pure joy. "I'M FREE!!" Shirian jumped and flailed happily, then calmed down again. "Thank you, Baru! I am forever in your debt." Baru was completely speechless upon seeing Shirian, and was having a hard time formulating a reply. "You're...it was...no problem...! You're...uh...I mean, you...you look great!" "I FEEL great, my friend! Come, let us leave this awful, depressing castle. Not having to focus energy on keeping this place standing will free my mind as much as you have freed my body...." He closed his eyes and sighed, smiling warmly. "I'm free! After all these years...." he continued quietly. "Baru, my friend, you have done more for me than either of us can even comprehend right now...." Baru simply nodded, and Shirian looked toward the table and spoke again. "Get that crystal ball, and then I'll teleport us both out of here." Shirian paused, smiling. "Out of here! I'm actually leaving the castle! I can't believe it...." "The crystal ball? Why?" "That's the object. That's where Tilarun is trapped. Do you remember what I told you?" Shirian replied, then snorted as he looked at it. "Yeah, that's right. Either the book, or the crystal ball." Baru carefully picked up the crystal ball, and moved closer to Shirian. In a flash, both were gone. -÷÷- They reappeared on the top of a nearby hill which had a perfect view of the castle. Shirian freed his mind from the task of keeping the castle standing, and both watched silently as some small pieces slowly started falling, leading to bigger pieces falling more quickly, until the whole castle was a pile of rubble. Shirian bowed his head and shut his eyes, sighing and smiling warmly. "You have NO idea how much of a strain that was...." "I can imagine...." "I feel like sleeping...yes, a deep, peaceful sleep to undo centuries of constant strain and imprisonment. In fact, I think I shall...good night, my friend." And with that, Shirian sank to the ground, and was asleep before Baru could even reply. Baru looked at the sky. The sun was setting. Perhaps he should go back to the other soldiers...or perhaps not. He was tired of their discrimination, and he wanted to spend time with his newfound friend. "To hell with them." he thought to himself. "The castle collapsed and I haven't come back. They'll think I'm dead. So be it. They never cared anyway. I'll just stay with Shirian...." He smiled every time he thought about the beautiful gargoyle that now lay asleep before him. He quietly spoke. "Yes, Shirian. Good night...." He then walked toward the base of the hill and set the crystal ball down carefully, and then returned to the top and settled down, falling asleep next to his friend. Baru soon snapped awake with a feeling of sharp, unbearable pain. He had completely forgotten about his tail after first seeing Shirian's physical form, and Shirian had forgotten due to the excitement of his newfound freedom. However, Baru was quickly and painfully reminded as the spell to stop the pain wore off. "SHIRIAN! HELP!!" Baru shrieked, shaking Shirian until he awoke. Shirian woke up and looked at Baru, eyes widening as he was brought back into consciousness. "Baru? What's wrong!?" Baru could barely manage a weak "T...tail...." and then was overwhelmed by the pain again, almost passing out. Shirian's eyes widened in shock. "No! I completely forgot...I'm so sorry! Here...!" He rushed for Baru's tail and grabbed it, holding it securely in his hands. "Let me heal you now...." Once again, Baru was on the verge of passing out from the pain before it suddenly started to subside. He looked over, and saw Shirian holding his tail with one hand and rubbing it gently with the other. The places he rubbed retained a soft blue glow, and then the glow faded, leaving a perfectly reconstructed section of tail. This time, Shirian was actually healing his tail, instead of merely preventing him from feeling the pain. The healing magic felt wonderful. Baru loved the sensation it created. He also loved having Shirian touch him, even if it was just his tail.... Baru longed for Shirian. His touch, his body, his everything. Shirian stopped to cock his head and look at Baru. "I'm not THAT desirable, friend..." he said, chuckling. Baru remembered that Shirian could read his mind, and gulped. Shirian finished healing Baru's tail, and started slowly stroking the back of Baru's head and neck. "Relax..." he said softly. Baru closed his eyes and sighed softly from the wonderful feeling he was getting from this. "You know, I haven't had any...release...since I was imprisoned in that stone cage. Also, I think you're pretty cute yourself...." Baru opened his eyes and looked at Shirian, not daring to believe what he was hearing. Shirian smiled. "This should be fun...come here." Shirian released Baru's tail and laid down on the ground, resting his head on his shoulder, smiling. Baru turned over and laid next to the gargoyle, putting an arm around him. Carefully, not all sure about whether Shirian was actually serious about this, Baru moved his head towards Shirian's, pouting his lips slightly. Shirian promptly grabbed Baru's head, pushing it down to his, kissing the pleasantly surprised lizardman. Baru smiled, using his tongue to tease Shirian's. While Shirian's tongue was slightly thicker than Baru's, Baru's was thinner, more mobile and slitted at the tip. He took advantage of this by gently wrapping his tongue around Shirian's, squeezing it slightly. Shirian enjoyed this and intensified their kissing. Shirian suddenly rolled around in the grass, positioning him on top of Baru. He started to rub his groin against Baru's, murring slightly. The lizardman could feel, through two layers of leather, something stiffen. It didn't take long before his own maleness grew hard. Shirian felt this, and began thrusting downwards onto Baru's flesh. Baru moaned and started untying the gargoyle's waistcloth. Shirian rolled over and laid down next to Baru, who swiftly undid the knot that held together the gargoyle's single piece of clothing, revealing the gargoyle's stiff malehood. It was a dark pink, with a blunt head and a small mass of scaled flesh at the bottom, which Baru assumed was the sheath. Baru smiled and cupped Shirian's ballsac, which was covered with the same small scales as his sheath. Baru squeezed it lightly, a murred moan escaping from Shirian's lips. Baru took Shirian's soft sheath in his hands and started rubbing his cock slowly, up and down. Shirian laid down in the grass, enjoying the attention more and more. Baru kneeled before the gargoyle and bent over, taking the tip of Shirian's cock into his mouth, still rubbing its length with the sheath. Shirian gasped, thrusting eagerly into the warm depths of Baru's mouth. Baru flicked his tongue rapidly over the head, teasing the quivering rod of flesh. When he noticed that Shirian was coming close to orgasm, he ceased using his hands and started working on Shirian's cock more vigorously with his mouth. He started bobbing his head up and down, meeting Shirian's thrusts. He wrapped his long, flexible tongue around Shirian's cock, squeezing it slightly with every thrust he made. Soon, Shirian was groaning loudly, thrusting faster and faster into Baru's mouth. Then, with a squeal and a series of moans, Shirian came. The speed of first shots surprised Baru, almost making him gag, but he soon managed to keep up. Shirian's seed had a distinctly sweet and slightly spicy flavor, which Baru savored as he swallowed the load. "Ohh...ahh...I needed that..." Shirian said, panting. He then smiled and looked softly at Baru. Baru smiled in return and wiped off some semen that had stuck to his lips. "You missed a spot...." Shirian sat up slowly and grasped Baru's shoulders, gently pulling him down on top, initiating a deep kiss. As their tongues wrestled playfully, Shirian let his hands roam over Baru's back. Baru felt his sensitive flesh rubbing against both their scaly bodies, shuddering slightly. Shirian smiled. "But what about you...?" His hands slipped down to Baru's buttocks, rocking his body slightly. Baru just murred silently, smiling. Shirian turned underneath him, using his hands to position Baru's cock so that his head touched Shirian's anus. "Are you sure..?" Baru whispered. Shirian answered by rising to his hands and knees, grunting as he felt Baru's cock being forced inside him. Baru gasped and just sat there for a moment, then started rocking his hips, slowly moving his cock in and out of Shirian. The gargoyle murred, clenching his teeth. Each time Baru thrust into him, he rippled his muscles, forcing a moan out of the lizardman's mouth. He went a little faster, feeling some kind of pressure buiding inside of him. Baru leaned forward slightly, moving one of his hands underneath Shirian, grabbing his once again stiff cock. He started rubbing the gargoyle's manhood in time with his thrusts, noticing a slight increase in moans coming from his lover. Baru gritted his teeth, thrusting faster into the moaning gargoyle, still working his throbbing cock. The pressure in the lizardman's body was almost unbearable, and he cried out as he made one final thrust into Shirian, at the same time pulling the gargoyle backwards over him. As Shirian milked Baru with a vengeance, he was struck by another blinding orgasm by the lizardman's pumping hand, and spilled his warm seed over the two. Shirian simply stood there, consumed by the sensations, until he eventually turned around and looked at Baru. Baru looked back at him, gazing deeply into his eyes. "I love you...." he whispered. "I love you too." Shirian replied softly. Baru's heart flew upon hearing that, and after pulling out of Shirian, he settled to the ground in a deep, peaceful, and very content sleep. -÷÷- They slept until late in the morning. The sun had already risen, and its pouring of light managed to awaken Baru. He looked around groggily. He noticed that he and Shirian were both still completely undressed, with dried patches of their seed on each other and the ground. He took this as proof that the events of the previous night had really happened and were not merely a dream of his, and this caused his heart to soar all over again. The feeling didn't last long, though, as he saw in the distance that someone was approaching. He quickly brought himself back to reality to act on that. "Shirian!" Baru shouted, while shaking him gently. Shirian slowly forced himself out of sleep and looked at Baru quizzically. "Shirian, there's someone coming...I think you should get dressed." "Oh...right...." Shirian said, and started to dress himself while Baru did the same. The person that approached them looked like a Sechalar lizardman, only his scales were a dull faded brown, almost tan, as opposed to the usual green. In Baru's many years of living in Sechalar's capital and serving in the soldier force, he had never once seen scales with a color quite like that. The stranger introduced himself as a wandering freelance wizard. "I sensed that the gargoyle had been freed..." he began, "so I tried to sense his location and seek him out. You see, I am Rilthien, a distant descendant of the old wizard Tilarun...." He saw Shirian's look of curiosity quickly turn to one of contempt, so he quickly continued, now talking directly to Shirian. "I remember the legend that Tilarun unfairly bound you to the castle and bound himself to an object within it, so I made a vow that should anyone ever free you, I would seek you out and try to help you further. You see, I just mastered a counterspell that would harmlessly remove Tilarun's curse, which would free you from worrying about killing him and being bound to him in the next life." Shirian replied as soon as he could get over the shock of what he had just heard. "Y...you mean that you could undo his spell, and I could do whatever I wanted to him and the object he's in without anything happening to me?" "Yes...oh, I can sense that you're skeptical. You think that this is a trick, that Tilarun is so determined to get you yet that he'd even guide his descendants into getting you to break the object. An understandable feeling, but I can prove that it's untrue. Look." Rilthien handed Shirian a scroll with the counterspell on it. "Look this over. You're an expert of this language and how these spells work, so you can look at this and know exactly what it will do and if it will work. Go on, look at it." Shirian examined the scroll first and determined it to be genuine, and then silently read the spell to himself and thought long and hard about every single word. In the end, he found that it was not only an authentic counterspell, but the most powerful counterspell he had ever seen. He handed the scroll back to Rilthien, then turned and looked at Baru. "He's telling the truth...he's really going to undo Tilarun's spell!! I can hardly believe it...but it's true! Baru, please...get the crystal ball...." "Of course." Baru replied sincerely, and ran to the base of the hill, where he picked up the ball and carefully brought it back up to the top. Rilthien examined the ball. "So herein lies the soul of a distant ancestor...." he mused. "I suppose I should be sympathetic, Tilarun, but you really were a bastard in life. Look what you did to this poor creature alone...and you were just as cruel to anyone else with whom you had the chance to be, as well." He sighed. "Even though your life ended centuries before mine began, your infamy has still acted as a blight on me and on my family name. I imagine that the gargoyle will love to kill you once your curse is lifted, and that makes me even more eager to get it done." He stopped, and looked up at Baru and Shirian. "Ah...so sorry! Here I am rambling to myself when I should be helping to lift this spell...you, the lizard. Hold this, please." Baru took the ball again, and held it perfectly still, as Rilthien began the counterspell. He pointed at the ball with one hand, and held the scroll with the other. As he read the scroll, Baru could sense something stirring within the ball. Before Rilthien started the counterspell, the ball had enough magic in it that simply holding it almost overwhelmed Baru's magical sense. Now, he felt the power of the ball slowly fading...until it was gone. Rilthien finished chanting, and Baru felt that were it not for the fact that Tilarun's spirit was still bound to the ball, he would be holding nothing more than an ordinary crystal ball, one that a child could get at a novelty shop and have make-believe adventures with. He smiled, and handed the ball to Shirian. "It's done...." Baru said. "The curse is gone. I felt it leave even as the spell was being said." Shirian took the ball and looked at vengefully. "Looks like I won after all." he said vengefully, as he threw the ball to the ground, watching it shatter. He sensed a spirit rise from it, groan in defeat, and then disappear. After that...nothing. Nothing at all happened to Shirian or to the ball. Rilthien was right, the curse was gone, Tilarun was gone, and nothing was left but the shattered remains of an ordinary crystal ball and a truly free gargoyle. Shirian was overwhelmed with emotion once more. He couldn't bring himself to speak, so Baru stepped in for him. "You have done for us something which mere words cannot capture, Rilthien...you have...you have finished the last of the actions which have truly set my friend free. How can we...." "Worry not." Rilthien cut him off. "If you really want to thank me, think of me when you think of my family's legacy and look on us with favor, instead of thinking of Tilarun and looking on us with disgust. I merely wanted to help and to undo his blight on our legacy. And now, I will be going. Farewell." With that, he turned around and walked away in the same direction he had come. Two figures still watched him as he left...two newfound soulmates and lovers, who had each in their own way finally found freedom and happiness.