Secret Novel Chapter 37: Family (Patreon)

Madeline rested in her large bathtub, letting the water relax her. The scent of enderblooms filled the room as they floated on the water. Taking a bath had been the right decision, not only to get rid of the blood and scent, but also to help her calm down from the extremely emotional morning. She did admittedly cry another time in the bath, but it wasn’t sobbing or loud. This time it didn’t hurt to cry. It felt good to let it out. Afterwards, she washed her hair and face. Washing her hair was interesting with her ears. Getting water in them was not fun, at least to her, so no dunking her head under the water like she used to before. Now she had to be careful and use a jug to pour water over her head while keeping her ears down. Even if it was an annoyance, the soaps and potions she made for her hair were a dream to use and left her hair silky smooth in their curly mess. Her hair was also getting a little long. Maybe she could ask Victor to help with cutting it. Though his was short and cropped. Elliott seemed to have more going on with hair, so maybe ze would be better to ask for help.

Getting out of the bath, Madeline dried herself and her hair. Then she used magic and an enderbloom to create a warm stream of wind to make her hair dry in just minutes instead of the potential hours her curly mess would normally take. Once done, she looked at herself in the mirror and saw herself, not the man she had seen for years. She couldn’t help but smile. She was so happy with her body now. It felt right. Almost felt like a shame to cover it with clothes. Then again Eda’s clothes were practically works of art that Madeline adored. She had only made a dent in altering the insane amount of clothes to fit her body. That dent did still give her a large variety to choose from. So a nice long and flowy green dress, that made sure to hug her torso so show off the curves she now loved, was a pleasure to wear. The only problem she found recently was that her shoes didn’t fit right anymore but Eda’s were still too small. She wasn’t a cobbler so she didn’t entirely know what to do about it.

Dressed and feeling better, Madeline went to walk out of her bathroom only to stop in the doorway staring at her kitchen. A kitchen that was now incredibly empty considering that her massive table and benches were gone. Just gone. Nothing there.

“Victor!” She yelled out, knowing that this had to be him. Still feeling emotions to high ends, she could feel the anger building.

“I know what you’re goin—” The beyonder said, appearing from nowhere and getting cut off.

“Where is my table?” The anger in her voice was definitely noticeable.

“I need you to trust me,” Victor said, holding out all four of his hands as if to calm her. She only now noticed he was back in his more true form.

“Victor, where the hell is my table?” She heard nothing when in the bathroom so the only solution she could think of was that he took it to the Beyond.

“Please, just take a deep breath.” He really was doing his best to calm her down. She pursed her lips at him, but listened and took a deep breath. Maybe there really was a good reason her table was gone. “Now I need you to trust me alright?” She nodded, a little worried she would still sound angry. “Okay,” he said, guiding her to the front door. “Like I said, just trust me.” Then he opened the door and Madeline looked out into her Garden.

In the clear grassy area by the stone her table and benches had been set out with a dozen or so extra chairs and tables that didn’t come from Madeline’s home. On top of the table was a massive grand display of food, which all had to clearly come from the Beyond. Though one end was devoid of food and instead piled with random things. On her stone a large fire had been made that now had a spit roasting a creature the likes of which Madeline had never seen. That was shocking, but not nearly as shocking as the fact that there were around thirty beyonders in her garden. Most of them in groups chatting and eating. Others exploring and studying her Garden.

“Victor,” she said, still feeling the anger in her. “Why are there thirty beyonders in my Garden?”

“Actually twenty-nine including myself,” he corrected her without answering her question.

“Victor,” she said again with more heat in her voice. “Why are there twenty-eight other beyonders in my Garden?” She took her eyes off the large amount of unworldly beings and looked at him.

“Well,” he said, holding up a hand to calm her and let him explain. He didn’t need to do that because she expected a full explanation. “You said that a birthday for you is a time to celebrate with family, and you don’t have any family. But I do, so I brought them here to celebrate with you.”

The anger in her melted away like frost in the morning sun. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with adoration. She felt her bottom lip quiver as tears started to flow for the umpteenth time today. He had brought his family here for her because she was alone. He didn’t want her to be alone on her birthday. Not knowing what else to do, she wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tight. She could tell he wasn’t expecting that but she didn’t care. After a few seconds, she pulled away and wiped at her face. It wouldn’t be the best for all his family to see her cry.

“Thank you,” she choked out, still trying to rein in her emotions.

“No need to thank me,” he gave her a smirking smile. “Like I said, beyonder families will take any occasion they can to be together. And being able to do that here is quite a treat for them.”

“Still, thank you, Victor. You didn’t have to do this.”

“I didn’t, but I wanted to.”

She gave him a smile before an androgynous voice called out from behind her. “Don’t give him all the credit, little witch.” Madeline turned to find Elliott walking up the path to her home with a female beyonder in tow. “He might have been the one to gather all of us, and get things set up, but it was Mama who gave him the idea,” Elliott said, turning to his Mama. She was a tall beyonder, but then again beyonders were taller than humans. She shared facial features with both her children, but instead of a blue like Victor or gray like Elliott, she was a bright red. Her horns were also like that of a ram, unlike the horns on either of her children.

“Hello,” she said in a pleasant voice and a warm smile. Admittedly it was a toothy warm smile that showed off teeth meant to rip flesh apart. “It’s nice to meet the witch that has enraptured my son so.” She gave Madeline a bow like how both Victor and Elliott had introduced themselves.

“Hello,” Madeline said, bowing as well. She didn’t know how she felt about her describing Victor’s interest in her as being ‘enraptured’. “It’s nice to meet you as well. Victor and Elliott have talked about you a few times.”

“Nice things I hope,” she said, giving her children a look.

“I would never say anything unkind about you, Mama,” Victor said with a smile.

“Really, now? I might recall a few times in your youth when you said—”

Victor cut Elliott off. “Youth! The key word there is ‘youth’. I would never say such things now.”

Their Mama chuckled as the pair of siblings started having a back and forth. Playfully, of course. “You can call me Katherine,” she said to Madeline.

“Katherine,” Madeline repeated. “That’s good to know. Though I fear I might not be able to remember everyone's name.” There really was a good crowd and Madeline didn’t have the best track record with names.

“To be fair, a lot of us will probably forget what we asked you to call us as well. Having to remember all new names for everyone and ourselves can be a hassle.”

“I can imagine. I need to thank you for giving Victor this idea.”

“You don’t need to thank me. We all love getting together, and a chance to do it in the mortal world is a very pleasant surprise.” Katherine looked around with an expression of slight nostalgia.

“Still, it’s a nice birthday surprise to have people here to share it with.” She might cry again if she thought about it too much.

“Yes, Victor said birthdays are important for you humans. It’s interesting. Does that mean you know exactly how old you are?” Katherine’s curiosity was clearly genuine.

“Of course.” Madeline found it strange that beyonders just didn’t have much care for how old they were.

“How old are you then?” She asked.

“Oh, no. Don’t ask that,” Victor said, cutting back into the conversation.

“Why not? Is that offensive?” Elliott asked.

“No, it’s just—”

“I’m twenty-six,” Madeline said plainly, unsure as to why Victor didn’t want them to ask. Katherine and Elliott turned to her in shock. Their slitted eyes were all wide as they tried to comprehend what she said.

“You’re a child?!” Elliott asked in astoundment. It was also loud enough that some other beyonders turned to look.

“No, I'm an adult.”

“This is why I told you not to ask,” Victor said, but only Madeline paid attention to him.

“But you’re so young,” Katherine said, still shocked.

“Humans are considered adults at eighteen. Most people already have children when they get to my age.” Now a few more beyonders had wandered closer, also clearly interested in this revelation.

“Why would you be considered an adult and ready for children so young? You live for centuries,” Elliott was still confused.

“Witches live for centuries,” Madeline said. “Normal humans are lucky to make it to ninety, and I am still processing the fact that my life span has increased drastically by being a witch.” Victor was uncertain about exactly how long witches could live for and Madeline was still a little afraid to look it up herself in her studies.

“Ninety? That’s really all you get?” Katherine asked, also trying to process it all.

“Typically. I know a woman who is almost a century old, and she is the oldest person ever on record in the town I used to live in.”

“No wonder birthdays are important to you. You don’t have many of them,” Elliott said more to zimself than anyone else.

“It’s more about the time you spent with family than just how many you get,” Madeline said.

“And you don’t have any family, but you're so young,” a beyonder Madeline hadn’t met yet said, sounding almost heartbroken, as they joined the little crowd gathering.

Madeline opened her mouth to say something about Flora still being alive but hesitated. Part of her still wanted to think of Flora as her sister, but another wanted to accept that Flora wasn’t her Flora. Her hesitation clearly drew even more attention and though Victor looked ready to change the subject, Madeline decided to be open and honest. After all, from her experience with Victor and Elliott, Beyonders were a very open people and it wouldn’t hurt to be the same. “I do technically have a living sister, but she’s a mage.” There was a collective growl from what must have been every Beyonder in the Garden. Madeline felt the growl rumble in her chest, and instinctual fear crept up her spine. She managed to stop it though. At least before it showed on her face.

“That’s no real family,” another one of Victor’s family said angrily.

Madeline shook her head, fearing that if she tried to speak her emotions might get the best of her.

“Well then,” Katherine said, not making her voice louder but also making it clear she was speaking to everyone in the Garden. “Why don’t we show the little witch what true family is?”

From then Madeline went through a truly impressive amount of introductions to beyonders of every shape and color. Apparently Victor only had twenty three siblings, but four had mates with them. She found it strange that though these beings had such mailable forms it was still easy to tell who was Katherine’s children and who were mates. All of them had at least a question or two to ask her out of pure curiosity, and it was surprising that most asked different questions. She didn’t have to repeat herself more than once or twice. Sometimes the questions were a little personal, but the beyonder’s curiosity truly was pure. So maybe that was a trait of their kind. A curiosity for all things. Of course she was asked about her bloodmoon. Word had spread fast in the family that humans bleed for a week once a month. She asked if they really didn’t have anything similar and found that beyonders go into heat once or twice a year, and most were very open with her about how they spend that time. That was strange but she had found that sex for them was a pretty open topic.

At some point she and Victor, who had yet to leave her side, found themselves at the table. The smells wafting off of it were enough to make her mouth water. She thought Victor could make a great meal for them, but this was a feast like Madeline had never seen. There was cheese! Of course she had to try it, and was pleasantly surprised. It wasn’t quite like her cheese but she did like it enough that she hoped it would scratch the itch for cheese now and again. There were also a few things Victor advised her not to eat, saying that humans weren’t meant to eat it and that it would do her more harm than good.

“So what's with all the stuff?” Madeline asked, eating a bit of ‘cheese’ and pointing to the other end of the table where a pile of random things sat.

“Those are gifts,” Victor said plainly.

“What?” She looked up at him again in surprise.

“You said that it was custom to give gifts to whoever's birthday it is. So I informed everyone that a gift was required to come.” Madeline forced herself not to cry again. “Though I will admit what we consider gifts may differ, and they don’t know you so it was a gamble for all of them. Except Elliott and I, of course.”

“You really didn’t have to do that,” she said, trying not to sound like she might start crying all over again.

“No, but I did,” he said with a smile. “I think you will like what I gave you.”

“Which is it?” She walked over to the pile. There was of course jewelry, but she expected no less from beyonders. There were two beautifully carved wooden boxes, though the wood shifted in color depending on the angle with which you looked at it. A number of things Madeline wasn’t really sure what they were, but she was still thankful for even those.

“I think it’s at the bottom of the pile.”

Gently moving things aside, Madeline found a book at the bottom of the pile. It was a nice leather bound book, though the outside gave no indication as to what was inside. Picking it up she opened the cover and read the title, Braid of Gold. Her face shot up to look at Victor, tears in her eyes. “How?”

“Oh, he’s been looking for that for a good while now,” a sibling called Vivian said as she ate one of the things Madeline wasn’t allowed to. “Been pestering me about it, too. I have my ways with books, but a book from this world is quite hard to get a hold of.” She looked up at Madeline as saw her tears already flowing. “Oh brother,” she turned to Victor with a scowl. “I told you she would prefer something else.”

“No!” Madeline said far more forcefully than she meant, as she clutched the book to her chest. They both turned to her a little surprised. “I love it. It’s the book that I took my name from,” she admitted, though she knew Victor already knew.

“Then why are you crying?” Vivian asked, confused.

“You’ve never been so happy you cried?” Madeline asked, wiping them away.

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Is that a human thing?” She gave Victor a look.

“It is,” he replied. “Though she has been doing it a lot today,” he said quietly as if Madeline couldn’t hear with her large ears.

“Our bloodmoon can make us rather emotional,” Madeline said with a pout, still hugging the book to her chest. She had only mentioned it once. He had really been looking for it ever since she mentioned it?

“Our heats can make us quite irritable,” Vivian replied. “If we aren’t getting our way while we fuck, that is.”

“Okay,” Madeline said, not really wanting another very detailed story of beyonders having sex. “I guess I should look through the rest of this,” she said looking back at the pile of gifts. There actually was a lot to go through.

The celebration went on, and the food disappeared quickly. When Madeline’s gifts had been moved into her home, the table was finally empty. Which meant the family could start their games of Rinent. Madeline was a little surprised just how involved Victor’s family got with the game. All were gathered around either playing, or joking and chatting while watching. When Victor, Elliott, and her played it wasn’t quite this intense. She enjoyed it and was getting quite invested in watching. What she didn’t enjoy was being forced into the next game with every beyonder’s eyes watching her intently. All extremely curious to see how good she might be and if Victor really could teach even a human how to play.

“Well, little witch, you are doing far better than I think any of us expected,” Victor said from his side of the table. There was a murmur of agreement from the crowd. Madeline was still trying to wrap her head around what just happened. Somehow she had rolled a dice that led her cards to attack Elliott, but since she had somehow managed to deceive zim four turns ago about which cards she had, she beat Elliott, dethroning zim.

“Can’t believe I fell for that,” Elliott said, and though ze sounded upset, ze wore a big smile.

“I’ll be honest, I’m still not sure how I did that,” Madeline admitted to which a good number of beyonders laughed far too hard.

“Well, whether you understand it or not, it’s just you and I left, little witch.” Victor said far too happy. “And I have a wager for you.”

Madeline was wary to hear him out, but, from the amount of interest coming from everyone else, she felt she had to do at least that much. “And what is that, Victor?”

“If you win and take the throne as family champion I will make you dinner every night for two months and not make fun of your cooking.”

Madeline pursed her lips at his comment on her cooking. She was getting a lot better at it with the limited food she had available, but she still wasn’t up to par for a beyonder with over a millenia of cooking experience. But him making her food for two months sounded wonderful considering she still cooked most of the time. Not that he was forcing her to cook all the time. It was more that his cooking was a treat. She was also trying to get better at cooking and to do that she had to cook more.

“Okay,” Madeline said, nodding. “I will take that, but what do you get if you win?” The smile grew on his face, and Madeline already wasn’t happy about it.

“If I win, you have to get a tail.” Of course that would be where he would go.

“It would complete the look,” Katherine said.

“That’s what we said,” Victor and Elliott said in unison.

There was a general consensus that spread across all the family. Apparently everyone truly was in agreement that Madeline should have a tail. Madeline planted her face on the table. “Of course everyone would agree. You all have tails,” she mumbled, causing Victor to laugh. Madeline bit her lip while she thought. She did feel she was in a better position in the game than Victor, and if she did lose she could always get rid of the tai—

“And no getting rid of it,” Victor added. Nevermind. “Though alterations are accepted.”

“You know what,” Madeline said, sitting back up. “Fine, I accept, and I am going to win and happily accept my wonderfully cooked meals and my rear being tail free.”

“Oh!” Victor laughed. “Getting cocky, little witch. I like it.” The smile on his face was one of true enjoyment. “Now then, let's get back to—”

Victor was cut off by a cloth covered package dropping from the sky and landing in the middle of the table. Madeline jumped whilst everyone else looked up to see a large bird flying off overhead. Then everyone's eyes returned to the package.

“What?” Madeline muttered, staring at it.

“Smells like sylvins,” Victor said warily. He was right. Madeline could tell with her nose.

“Okay, why would sylvins deliver a package by bird? And I’m not entering any agreement by opening it, am I?” Victor shook his head. “Should I open it?” That was the better question to ask.

He shrugged. “It could be an offering to ask for permission to enter your Garden, but usually they would offer it in person.”

Cautiously Madeline reached out and grabbed the package. The cloth it was wrapped in was a beautiful green and red pattern that matched Victor’s and her eyes. She thought she could maybe do something nice with it. Slowly she opened it for her audience. Once unwrapped Madeline found a small collection of beautiful hand crafted glass bottles. The colors were outstanding and the shapes had to have taken the workers days to perfect. Alongside the bottles was a decent chunk of cheese, and a small letter. Gently Madeline opened the letter.

To the first witch to return to the Maze,

May you have a wonderful year ahead of you. May these bottles offer you great use, and the cheese fill your belly.

-Queen Kelsella Demanor the Third

“Did the sylvins just send me a birthday gift?” Madeline kept reading over the note, trying to see if there was any trick to it. Elliott looked over her shoulder and couldn’t find anything either.

“Maybe they realized that being your friend and ally is better than an enemy,” Victor said thoughtfully.

“But what changed? They weren’t very happy when they left last time.” Victor gave a slow glance to the crowd of beyonders around them. “I have twenty-nine beyonders in my Garden.”

“And not a single one of us chained. In fact we are all guests here to celebrate with you,” Katherine said with a large toothy smile. “I think the sylvins realized just how powerful of an enemy you could be, little witch.”

Madeline pursed her lips. She still wasn’t sure just how powerful and deadly beyonders were. Of course extremely, but she didn’t know just how extreme. One unchained beyonder had been enough to scare the five sylvins before, but the way the sylvins reacted told her that twenty-nine Beyonders was a big enough threat to actually scare them enough to look to her for friendship now. Madeline wondered how the mages would react to finding her surrounded by an entire family of beyonders.

“Well, I’m not going to turn down more bottles and cheese.” For some reason that made Victor’s family laugh. Maybe it was the extra emphasis she put on cheese rather than the bottles that could last her a lifetime.

“Now might we get back to giving you a tail?” Victor asked with a smoldering smile.

“No, because I’m winning this,” Madeline shot back, moving her new gifts aside. There was no way she was getting a tail.

“Well, I think I’ve already won,” Victor said, laying a card down on the table. “So yes, time for a tail, Madeline.”

Madeline stared at the card he just laid down. It was the regent card… He just gained control of a target’s played card, so since she was the only opponent and had only one card in play currently he took command of it, leaving her open to a ‘killing blow’ as it was called. She lost… With a death stare, Madeline raised her eyes slowly till they met Victor’s. “You knew you were going to win when you offered the wager,” she said dryly. There were a few snorts of laughter from the crowd.

“I wouldn’t have offered it if I thought I wouldn’t,” he gave a swoon worthy smile and Madeline felt nothing.

“I can’t believe I agreed to this…” She was getting a tail… She had made a wager with a beyonder and lost. Victor was the victor. “You are helping me alter all of my clothes, do you understand me?!” She pointed a finger at him and used a tone her mom would have been proud of. The entire crowd busted out in hearty laughter. Victor was the one laughing the hardest.

“Fine!” He had to take a solid few seconds to get his laughing under control. “Now, ready?”

Madeline groaned. “Fine. I’ll go see what I can find in my study to do it.” With that she stood up and turned away, determined not to look at Victor’s smiling face any longer. To her surprise he was now standing in front of her.

“Oh no, I’m going to have the pleasure of doing it,” he said.

“What do you me—” Before Madeline could finish, he reached out and placed a hand between her ears. She was about to pull away from him before she felt a pain at the base of her spine. She didn’t even scream out right away she was just shocked that it was happening. She felt the pain pulling and stretching out of her rear and reached back behind her to grab at it. “The fuck, Victor!” She screamed, though maybe still more in shock than pain. This was nothing compared to her head and skull changing to fit her ears, or his blood melting away her eye and replacing it with his own. The protrusion under her dress kept on growing no matter how tightly she held it. Her teeth gritted so hard it hurt as the bone and flesh stretched down to almost her ankles. Then the strangest feeling was the fur growing out of it in mass. After a few more seconds of grunting in pain, under Madeline’s dress sat a large very fluffy tail.

“You could have given me more warning!” Madeline yelled, rubbing the base of her tail still feeling the soreness. She was afraid to look behind her and see how big the thing looked under her dress.

The family laughed and Elliott added, “You really need to learn how to be more tactful, brother.”

“Well, I was the one to tell her she needed one first so I couldn’t not be the one to do it,” he said giving Madeline a playful smile. She pursed her lips still mad, but he did look really happy and she liked that at least a little.

Madeline went to say something snarky, but found that her teeth felt different on the tip of her tongue. Now confused she ran her tongue along her teeth and found that her canines were now noticeably larger. “Did you also give me fangs?” She looked up at Victor angrily, still running her tongue along her new fangs.

“Well, I felt like you still needed a little more than just the ears and tail. Something to give you a bit more bite and intimidation to cut the cute.” Madeline bared her new fangs at Victor, which only caused him to smile. “Exactly!”

Madeline just shook her head at him. At least it wasn’t something bad, or as big as a fucking tail sprouting out from her backside! Plus she could technically get rid of the fangs since they weren’t part of the wager. And hearing Victor say she looked cute with her features made her heart flutter a little.

“Well, we are all waiting, little witch,” Katherine said.

“Show us!” Vivian shouted and the family joined in.

Madeline groaned, but felt her tail wag ever so slightly which was a very strange and new feeling. “Fine!” Looking back behind her, she grabbed her dress and took a deep breath. She had a fucking tail. Pulling the dress up, the white tip of the extremely fluffy tail poked out. Then as she pulled her dress up more, the fur changed to black and became even more bushy. Victor had given her a large black and white fox tail. She also ignored how exposed her legs were, and was thankful no one screamed out to see more where her ass might be showing. The family did, however, cheer triumphantly at her new tail, and it wagged for them as she blushed. She wasn’t even trying to make it to do that.

[I can't resist giving characters tails. Tails are fucking awesome. I hoped you liked meeting more of Victor's family.]