The Fortress (M)

[Parkway]

It was warm inside and as the heat from the room and Sabre infiltrated her she shivered delicately.

"You have become my everything.  I do not know why.  What manner of demon you are, the Corruptor? No!"  She shook her head.  "No, you saved me Sabre.  You saved me."

She kissed him back.  Her small hands held him tightly.

"I never want to be parted from you.  Never!"  She rested in his arms. "I will do all I can to tame you.  Make you mine.  Teach you to be mine and love me."  Her words were said between kisses.  "You are not the Corruptor!  No!"

As he dropped to his knees she held him to her.  She rubbed his head, almost petting him.  "I will Sabre!"  I will!"

Her thoughts came to tonight.  "Sabre can Jelenis hurt you though?  Can he banish you?"  Her voice was tight with fear and concern.  He may be able to read her thoughts but she cannot read his so her fear makes her hold him tighter as she sinks down kissing his hair, his eyes, his face.  The kisses are more of comfort and loving.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Sabre accepted her kisses, wanting her comfort, he was a bad Demon and Flori would make him better.

"No his ability to do this dissipated when the Protectorate did." He said reassuringly.

Outside the door Jelenis stopped as he had heard Sabre's passioned plea to be tamed and he stood and listened.  It was what the Demon needed, he was powerful very powerful but he was spoiled and in need of a firm hand. He did what he wanted when he wanted.

He heard Flori's reply and he smiled.

"A firm hand my lady!" He said softly.

When Flori had ridden the black stallion, the gently implanted command to give the feisty horse a few good whacks with the crop had set something into motion. Sabre was rarely punished for playing up and Flori had done that.....perhaps his equine form was the answer for taming him in part.  Flori said she had schooled some powerful horses.

Perhaps she should school him by day and love him by night.

Sabre looked at Flori and nodded.

"Then we start to night......I was bad at dinner......did I displease you love?" He asked earnestly.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Before their conversation could go any further there was a soft knock at the door and Jelenis stepped within.

"Sabre found you My Lady." He said softly.

"I am glad you are well....but I would speak with you both, I could not help but overhear  the conversation from outside and I think I might have a way to help you Flori with what Sabre needs."

He paused a moment and the voiced his plan.

"When I was altered to the pony, I understood and heard everything and I understand Miss Flori that you have experience of schooling wild horses?"

He glanced to Sabre and hoped the Demon would not become angry with what he was going to propose.

"Sabre's other form is a Night Stallion, a Demon Horse, you tried to ride him today but found him rather large and rather powerful and unpredictable, they are feisty, wild and apparently untamable....but I think if you try to school and tame the Night Stallion it will also tame this incarnation of Sabre."

He looked to them both.

"Perhaps if Sabre is agreeable we could both try to work with the Night Stallion by day and you can work with him in this form of an evening more privately." He flushed at the latter half of that suggestion.

"The stables contain many training tools, we could try to work with him, calm him, make him gentler and that may allow you to work with him much easier later."

He looked at both of them most levelly.

"I am not suggesting this might do the trick but it might be worth a try and it might allow you and I to get to know each other a little better Flori."

He turned his gaze to Sabre.

"I am not trying to take her from you Sabre....rather look on it as a way to make you closer in more ways than one."

[Parkway]

Flori could not believe this was the same person, no demon!  She admonished herself trying to ingrain that she would do well to remember what he truly was.  Her mind swirled with questions.  Was she now corrupted?   Did she want to be?  Did it matter?  How did she feel about the young man who had accidently brought them together?    It was Jelenis' refusal for Sabre that even made the demon look at her in such a way. 

She was about to say no.  That it would be very wrong of her to tame such a powerful demon.  He was perfect in every way.  To tame him would be no different than trying to stop a flower from blooming.  No this would not do at all. 

But before she could answer him and explain she loved him just as he was.  Jelenis knocked and entered. 

"Yes, I do apologize Jenelis."

Then he began to tell them of his idea.  Flori listened but again her mind screamed no.  Sabre was not to be tamed.  But she could not say this.  Could he read her thoughts like Sabre?  She silently asked Sabre to help her.  She was begging him to block her thoughts in case the young man could. 

To Jelenis she smiled and nodded.  Pretending all the while to agree. 

"Jelenis I think that is a brilliant idea.  I would think this place could be a prosperous village of sorts.  Think of it.  A little village, here in the cold.  Where people like you and me Jelenis can make something of ourselves.  We could have a proper smithy, an alchemist shop.  And...and... Sabre its Lord.  With the hopes of you in his court."

As she spoke of her idea she paced back and forth.  Sabre would not be tamed if she had her way.  It was the very thing that made him.  But, if truth be told she did enjoy whipping him.  It brought out a side of her she never knew existed.  If she was honest the thought of having them both is what she wanted.  Jelenis was young and innocent.  But she was sure over time he would open up to all the possibilities one could experience.  Why limit himself?  Why limit Sabre?

She knew by know Sabre could see her plan, her vision.  She knew he also understood nobody came before him.  Sabre was her lord and master even if he refused to have her call him as such.  She had given him her soul, heart, and mind.  Jelenis would be theirs.  She just needed to play her cards right.

She stopped pacing and looked at both men.  Hers!   They were hers and she there's.  "What do you think?  I tame our Sabre.  Our true love.  We get to know one another better Jelenis.  And in the process make a haven for those who need protection only a demon can give from the masters who abuse and take?"

[Jelenis Tythe]

Sabre saw her ideas, her desires and he glanced to Jelenis, knowing not being a full Demon he could not read her like he could.

"Flori Darling....Jelenis' idea has merit....I am not adverse to it and it might be a chance for you to get to know him." He said softly.

"The Night Stallion is me...I am it....I would learn in all the ways I can possibly...I think it would make me a better Lord of your little Haven."

He rose from his kneeling position and looked to the pair of young people, his dark eyes taking in the possibilities.  He knew Flori wanted them both, to experience his power and Jelenis' innocence, perhaps she might be the one to take such innocence and make a man of him. In the same way he desired her to be his mistress in so many ways in the bedroom and out of it.

He grinned.

"Let me see if you two little Humans can school a Night Stallion....or will it be the other way round."  He kissed Flori on the cheek and held a hand out to Jelenis.

He looked down into Flori's sweet face. and whispered in her ear.

"You can bring your riding crop if you like." Was the saucy words.

[Parkway]

She blushed as he whispered.  He knew.  That was all she needed.

"I will do my best by you Sabre." 

She was feeling much better now.  Maybe it was the knowledge that Sabre understood her wants and desires.  Maybe it was this young man's innocence that beckoned her.  All she knew was that they would be together in this journey.

It was then she realized they did not finish their dining.  "Jelenis we hardly ate.  Did you still care for some?  I know you have not had much nutriment these last few days."

She felt a bit silly now for her outburst. 

[Jelenis Tythe]

Jelenis smiled at her.

"I have taken some food to my room, I think you and Sabre need some time together." He said softly.

He turned and headed for the door and looked back briefly to her.

"He needs a firm hand my Lady."

With that he was gone and the door was closed.

Sabre looked to Flori and for once his face was a little flushed and his dark eyes full of need.

"We can go and dine Flori....or you can fufil some of your more darker desires." He whispered.

He slowly removed his shirt to reveal his muscled chest and his moonlight hair hung down his back enticingly.

"I am aching for you to do so!"

[Parkway]

He need not have provoked her further.  She too was aching for him.  Without another word she erased the space between them.  Her lips finding his.  As she whispered for him to remove her dress.

"You need not ache further my King."  Her hands touched his chest, his shoulders, and his abdomen.  Followed by her lips.

She whispered words of love and adoration for him.  Her heart pounding with every caress.  Her need for him was as great.  She held nothing back.

[Jelenis Tythe]

They made love more than once and Sabre used no guile or charm on her. He wanted her to want him, the real him...without magic...without feeling like she was not herself.

After a while he rose and disappeared and came back and crawled up the bed with Flori's riding crop between his teeth. He dropped it at her side and gave her a small grin.

"Indulge yourself mistress...please!" He almost begged her.

His silvery white hair fell across his face and his dark eyes teased her playfully.

"Show me what a wicked demon I have been!"

[Parkway]

Flori waited after he disappeared she wondered where he had gone off too?  But within moments he returned.  His suggestiveness made her want him all over again.  She took the riding crop and softly tapped his face.  "Yes, I do need to show you how wicked you are.  Don't I?"  She softly caresses his face, neck, and shoulders with the supple leather.

Sitting up she trailed the crop down his side across his perfectly shaped bottom and down his legs.  "Yes Sabre.  Wicked demons need to be shown how bad they have been."  The crop touched his backside with a sting, then another that was soft like feathers touching his flesh, then another biting one.  Flori continued on and off some harsher then another.  Some gentle like silk.  As she did this he could hear her whispering to him...  "You are such a wicked demon.  You still wish to hurt him don't you?  I know you want it.  You crave it even, don't you Sabre?"  Another lash.  "Your mind is picturing me whipping him as I whip you, does it not?" 

She was restless with him.  Her eyes sparkled!  Then he felt her hands touch him.  "I need you Sabre.  Once again, you must take me..."  It was a demand, an order...her desire for him consuming her.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Sabre had been thinking it, thinking about her whipping Jelenis whilst he watched. How could she see it...how could she know? Every stinging bite of the riding crop told him how bad he was, Flori knew how to punish him.

He moved like a lion pinning her to the bed, he kissed her and stroked her side.

"Am I wicked for thinking it my queen?"

He stared down into her eyes.

"Part of you would love to do it to him too......you want him." He purred softly.

"You want to be the one to take his innocence.....his virginity."

Flori could deny it all she liked she felt some attraction to Jelenis, he was not jealous because she loved him too.

He smiled teasingly at her.

[Jelenis Tythe]

Jelenis sat in the room at a table finishing his food, it tasted very good and he was hungry indeed.  The soft bed looked very inviting, he had not slept in a proper bed for some time now. He undressed and slipped on a shirt that he found and got under the feather comforter and felt warm.  He pondered the suggestion that Flori had made, about him making a life here and he wanted that.

The only thing that worried him was Sabre.

The Demon was unpredictable, prone to bouts of spiteful behaviour and that is what he was hoping that Flori might be able to train out of him.  He knew the Night Stallion was the answer....he did not know how he knew....he just did. It was evident that Flori loved Sabre and he loved her, but Jelen did worry about his situation....could he trust them?

Only hours ago he had been in a stable in the form of a pony becuase of Sabre's spite...one that Flori had indulged by going along with it.  He had to be careful...very careful indeed.  He had no true power over Sabre now and he no longer had Bel and Trayder, somehow though he could not believe that the pair had just deserted him.  Bel had been one of his father's Generals...he had sworn to protect Jelenis even without the Protectorate.

He started to feel sleepy, his eyes growing heavy, he had a full belly and the room was toasty warm.  He felt safe for now...the door was locked and undoubtedly Flori was teaching Sabre his place for the evening in their bedchamber anyway.

[Parkway]

"You are wicked for thinking it!  But I cannot blame you for I yearn for it too."  It was odd to think she could blush after what she had just done to Sabre.  Odder still that he knew her better then she knew herself. 

Flori loved the feel of his weight on her.  She let her nails run up and down his back softly.  She cooed under his masterful touch.

"Sabre.  I wish to!  And that makes me wicked.  No?  Maybe I need some whipping after all?"  She said seductively to him as she wrapped her leg around him.  "Tell me how wicked I am for wanting you both.  Only wicked women do that!  Tell me Sabre."

[Jelenis Tythe]

He smiled as he slowly kissed her throat and then looked back into her eyes.

"You are a wicked wanton slut my queen!" He said in a low husky voice.

He felt her shiver at his words, not through upset but through sheer need and desire as she heard them said out loud.

"You want us both for different things.....you revel in my darkness and need for this.!" He gestured to the discarded riding crop at her side.

"But you want to slowly break his innocence by making him want it too......you want to have him beg you in his yet undiscovered confused need....you want to hear his sweet soft cries as you show him the way to his new found lust...each delicious blow against his skin as you whip him...the moment he finally surrenders himself to you.....and you see in his eyes that you are totally his mistress as well!"

His words were slowly said as he traced lazy patterns across her belly and he watched her shameful confession of wanting Jelenis.

"I would watch that moment if I could....the surrendering of his innocence to you......you will make him so needful.....so confused......he will kneel and ask you.....beg you!" He purred.

"Now my Darling.....time for you to sleep....as I wager the second object of your wanton lust does along the hall! I need to roam the night a while!"

[Parkway]

As he traced his fingers over her flesh she was beginning to drift.  Her eyes fluttering closed.  "I love you."  She murmured as she drifted.  "Nobody will ever be loved more then I love you."  She heard him saying he needed to roam the night and had she not been so exhausted she would have questioned this.

She wanted to know what he looked like in demon form.  Did he roam in that mist he made?  Would she be able to get Jelenis to fall for her?  Could she?  Then she thought of his black hair and silvery eyes.  The image of him in the ally.  Sabre caught her when she became startled by him rolling out from under the cart.  His concern for her.  She turned over eyes still closed thoughts milling in her mind.  Why had he not tried to protect her further?  If he thought Sabre so wicked?  Nevertheless she was pleased with how things went.  Sabre understood her.  He taught her so much in the short time they have been one.

She finally drifted off to sleep.  It was a deep one.  If she dreamt this time she had no memory.   Her mind and body exhausted from the last few days.

[Jelenis Tythe]

She would be woken the next morning by the clatter of hooves and the shrill neighing of a horse in the courtyard. Then there was a soft knock at her door and it opened, Jelenis stepped in and as he saw her nakedness on the coverlet he averted his eyes.

"My Lady....I am sorry....I did not realise.....I mean....." He hastily shut the door again and spoke from the other side.

"It seems Sabre is up and about early, the Night Stallion awaits us in the yard. You can join us once you are bathed and dressed for the cold."

Jelenis had never laid eyes on a naked woman before and he was somewhat embarrassed and awkward at seeing Flori so.  Obviously he knew what she and Sabre had been doing the night before, he had heard their moans before he fell asleep, and what he thought was the sound of something hitting flesh.

He went down towards the Great Hall and stepped out into the brisk cold morning air, there was a slight fog in the yard and through it he saw the powerful figure of the Night Stallion, its eyes blazing like fire, its fine black mane rippling like silken strands in the wind.  He was an impressive creature, twice the size of a normal horse and more feisty and ill tempered to boot.  The stallion reared and neighed in challenge and stomped his hooves against the cobbles.

"Ho there Sabre!" He called as he walked towards the stable to decide what Flori and he might use to school the massive equine.

[Parkway]

She stretched on the soft bed.  Sabre was waiting for her...err...them.  Yes, Jelenis and herself.  Almost as if thinking of the young man he materialized.  The door opened but once he glanced upon her he quickly shut it.  Letting her know that Sabre was ready.  Flori was most apological as she said "Excuse me Jelenis."  She pulled the sheet up but the boy already closed the door to finish speaking.

"Thank you, I shall dress and be down right away."

She jumped from the bed and pulled her robe on.  She took a quick glace onto the courtyard and smiled at him for a moment.  Touching the cold pane of glass with her palm she was amazed at his beauty in all forms.  Blowing him a kiss she turned to get dresses.

She washed up quickly.  Looking at the selection Sabre had left she notice a black and red riding outfit and smiled.  She pulled the scarlet red and black one.  It seemed to match the saddle and riding crop.  Even the boots had etchings of fine thin lines of red.  The material of thick soft velvet the boots supple leather.  She tied her hair back and placed the hat and gloves on.  She hurried down the steps through the foyer, and out the door.

She ran and her eyes sparkled like before the last five years.  When she played carefree games with friends on the traveling road.  Her expression was joyous.  The cold just adding to her over all appearance.

"Jelenis!  Jenelis..."  She stopped as she approached Sabre.  "You are most handsome Sabre.  What a beautiful stallion you are."  She spoke to him softly.  Love in every word.  Giving his beast form reassurance.  "Let me find our young friend. "  She went to go towards the barn and looked back at him, "I cannot wait to ride you again."  She winked and entered the building.

[Jelenis Tythe]

She would find the young man looking through the various riding equipment, currently bent over to rummage down in a chest. He looked quite fine in the brown leather breeches and cream shirt with a thick velvet brown overcoat.  He came up with a long set of reins and set them next to a fine scarlet halter.

He turned and caught sight of Flori and smiled shyly, his black hair flopping into his eyes slightly.

"Good morning Miss." He said softly.

"Sabre is impressive in that form isn't he? Though he is quite feisty this morning."

He took in her fine riding clothes, the splendid black and red colours and her scarlet riding crop, he had some vague memory of it and he reddened slightly.

"You look very fine Miss Flori.....you'll look good atop Sabre if you can mount him."

[Parkway]

She reached over instinctively and brushed the flock of hair that had fallen into his eye.  She tucked it back and flushed slightly.  "Good morning Sir."  Came her own breathless whisper.

Looking back at the exit at his mention of Sabre her eyes light up and she smiled.  "He does!"  Nodding.  "Yes when I passed him he bucked a few times.  But, if I must confess I trust him.  I know he will not hurt us.  Something just tells me this."

She turned back and walked over to the items he pulled out as she did her eyes were taking in his own attire.  He was looking handsome himself.  She missed nothing.  Her eyes caught everything.  Sabre must have left him the clothing for it fit Jelenis perfectly and it suited his coloring.

"Ohhh, thank you..."  She blushed at his compliment.

As she stood next to him she wanted to ask a few questions but was a little afraid to linger too long less Sabre got anxious.  "Jelenis, later if we get a moment alone may I ask you some questions?  About the forms...about what Sabre...you see..."  She shook her head and laughed at herself a little.  "I guess I know nothing of demons really.  Only what was told in fairytales to scare youngsters into behaving.  Maybe if you feel comfortable enough you would help enlighten me on them?"  As she spoke her gloved hand touched his softly for the briefest of moments.

[Jelenis Tythe]

As her gloved hand gently touched his the young man's cheeks flushed red and his eyes met hers with embarrassment, he pulled back in the pretence of reaching for the scarlet saddle.

"If you want to Miss. I can share what I know about Sabre." He said quietly not quite meeting her gaze.

Jelenis felt a funny odd tingling sensation inside, he had not felt anything like it before, Flori's touch had been light, barely anything at all.

"Shall we go outside and try and work with him he said heaving the saddle onto his arm and gesturing for her to bring the halter, long reins and the saddle's matching bridle.

As he walked towards the door he had a flashback of that night in the horrible Lord Hernon's store, what had happened and his face flushed even redder.  He had been bent over the table, his buttocks bared by that evil man....Flori had whipped him. He wondered whether she remembered it....he felt hotly embarrassed she had seen him that way.

Outside Sabre pranced testily, his hooves ringing on the stone.  The Night Stallion was a wild beast and when he had changed before he had made himself smaller to let Flori ride, now he was twice  that size, powerful and in a mood to challenge. He eyes the boy with the saddle and the girl with the bridle and riding crop.  He reared, his hooves flailing and his nostrils flared, his coat was lathered with sweat.

Jelenis dragged his thoughts back to the present and took the demon horse in.

"Are you sure you can mount him Miss....he is bigger....and ill tempered to boot!"