Homelands: Autumn
Part One
Chapter Nine
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You might want to read Chapters One through Eight first.
There isn't much sex in this chapter. It is, however, important to the plot. Those of you who are interested in the overall story might not want to skip this one. Besides, it's short. :)
This is primarily an incest story, but it is also sci-fi/fantasy. Supernatural forces play a prominent role throughout the novel.
All characters are over eighteen. All acts are consensual.
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Now that more, perhaps most, of my memories had returned, I had an idea. With great effort, and several failed attempts, I transported myself to the Homelands. But not to the court. To a clearing in the middle of the woods, where a humble stone cottage with a thatched roof sat tucked far away from everything.
After a few minutes of gasping for air, I slouched up the slate walkway to the front door. With the back of my fist, I rapped against the door.
"Who is it?" a voice called.
"It's me, Grandma," I replied, raising my voice.
A minute later, the door opened. A woman stood in the doorway, wearing a simple sundress that fell halfway down her thighs.
She didn't look like any grandmother I'd ever known. Nor like most of our kind. Unlike the sexy versions of my mother and my aunts, this woman looked so little like the elderly woman I thought we'd buried recently that I wouldn't even have suspected they were supposed to be one and the same had I not known. Her hair, blonde with dark roots just like her daughter's, fell to her waist in a thick braid. There were a few hints of gray, but otherwise her hair was every bit as gorgeous as that of every other woman in the family. She had full-fledged crow's feet and laugh lines, but by and large her skin was as tight as that of a woman in her early twenties. In fact, if you didn't look closely enough, you might actually think she was younger than Cindy. There was a youthful air about her, a spry energy. And, most distinctively, a playful look on her face, a certain set to her thin red lips, like she was never more than a moment away from snickering at some private joke.
Her figure was lithe, her curves relatively modest. Though, given her frame, she was quite busty. On a taller or thicker woman, her endowment would not necessarily impress. But on her, they were ample enough for anyone who wasn't obsessed with huge tits.
Which, admittedly, I was. But even I found them fairly appealing. Certainly better than my cousin's modest endowment.
And the curves of her legs were subtle, but definitely nice. Her legs begged to be caressed.
Still, while she was definitely very attractive, I was a bit surprised that this was our former queen. I expected more from someone of that stature.
Grandma Kaitlin looked me up and down. Her hazel eyes hardly blinked. "Come in," she said at last, leading the way out to her back yard. "I should probably say something like, 'To what do I owe the pleasure?' But, honestly, I expected you'd show up sooner or later. I sort of hoped it would be later, for your sake, but no sense sending you away now."
I cleared my throat. "Nice to see you too."
She glanced at me, flashed a quick grin, then settled into a cushioned lawn chair. "Sorry. But you'll forgive me for assuming you're not here because of how badly you missed me."
I took the lounge chair beside her. "Well, let me ask you something. Are you satisfied with the job Brianna is doing? Does it bother you that you were succeeded by an Orwin?"
Another quick, bemused grin. Almost a sneer. "Right to business." Then, tone flat, she observed, "You're an Orwin yourself, last I checked."
Perhaps I should apologize. But she seemed more amused than offended anyway. "No more than I'm a Farrier," I said. "But that's not what I asked anyway."
Grandma looked me in the eye for several long seconds before shaking her head. "Best you don't worry about that. At least not yet."
"I almost bested her," I said, though I knew that wasn't quite true. Still, I felt that the fact that there had even been a glimmer of hope for me said a lot, since I'd only discovered who I was very recently, and Brianna must have been initiated nearly five years ago, when she'd first turned eighteen. "If she's stronger than me, the gap is only going to grow with time, now that she has the full resources of the throne at her disposal."
"True enough," Grandma said. "At least for now. But soon, she'll have picked all the low-hanging fruit, and her power will grow much more slowly. And you, my dear boy, are a rank novice. Which is not an insult. You've got serious raw power, and real potential, once you learn to use it. My point is just that you're at the part of your learning curve where progress will come very quickly, almost daily. What's the rush?"
"She's vulnerable now," I said.
"Maybe. None of you were very seasoned when I stepped down, including your cousin. I probably should have waited, for that reason, if I'd had the liberty to worry about such things. But, at any rate, you'd be surprised how powerful others have grown even when they more or less were exiled from the court."
I didn't reply.
Her face softened, the perma-sneer fading for a moment. "You've already come a ways, for someone so new to our ways. And, for the record, I'm impressed that you've returned here and searched me out so soon after her highness sent you back, no doubt under one helluva veil. That can't have been easy, and it shows how determined you are as well. I mean, I trust you know that you're already guilty of treason, just on the basis of this conversation?"
Again, I had nothing to say to that.
Grandma sighed. "Tell me, sweetie, how many have you Devoured?"
"Devoured?"
"That's what I thought," she said. "And have you had sex with a being, or while in the guise of a being, that was fundamentally non-human?"
