Summoned by Monster Girls

“Shape-shifting…what the hell.” I muttered to myself while hefting the bright blue tote overhead and tossing it up onto the stack. Getting the thirty pound tote up over my head was just another motion at this point. When I’d started this job loading trucks for Rykol Food, I’d only planned on it being part-time until I could find something better. That had been almost two years ago and now I was just too tired to try finding a new job. “Shoulda taken the payoff.” I grumbled to myself, hefting another tote up and getting it on top of the other one. The stack was probably about eight or nine feet tall at this point and was as high as I could safely stack them while full. But there were hundreds more to load into this truck alone. Loading semi trailers was as mind numbing and backbreaking as it sounds, trust me.

The grumbling was just that. Grumbling. I didn’t actually mean it, even though I was still irritated about what had happened the previous night.

Cariad had stuck around for another half an hour, answering questions and helping me figure out the interface for the System.

Whenever I closed my eyes now, a sort of ‘heads up’ display flickered into view. It would only hang around for about ten seconds. All I had to do was ignore it for that long and it would vanish once more. I could summon it back by thinking ‘System interface’ and it would pop back in for another ten seconds or so.

My case-worker had also walked me through how to open the different layers of the interface. There were several headings along the top of it that would work like drop-down menus. They were ‘Contracts’, ‘Assignments’, ‘Powers’, ‘Stats’, and ‘Messaging’. Also, in the upper right corner, was a counter for my System Points, which were currently set for 0. The menu for Assignments was dark at the moment, and the only one that didn’t react when I interacted with it. Cariad had advised that was normal, as it would only have information once I had completed an assignment or had one active that I was working on.

The ‘Contracts’ tab had two entries under it:

Kassandra Silverscale (Guardian Contract level 1)

Rieka Coldeye (Guardian Contract level 1)

While I didn’t know the specifics of what a ‘guardian contract’ was or what being ‘level 1’ meant, it did at least ensure I wouldn’t forget the girls' names. Wonder when they are going to try and call me back. Maybe later tonight since they did it late yesterday. Whatever, at least it’s Friday.

I dragged another stack of totes down off of the wheeled trolley that they’d been delivered on, where they were only stacked 3 high for balance. They could be stacked as high as five or six in the truck though. The first three in a stack could just be yanked down and slid into place, the others had to be stacked manually. I did that while flicking through the interface on autopilot.

‘Powers’ had only one entry in it at the moment and I did my best to keep the grumbling to a minimum as I read it once more.

Shape-Shifting (Minor) - Allows the user to draft minor changes to the body based on animals he knows of. Changes are such as: thickened skin and fur, advanced hearing, improved night sight, claws, increased muscle mass. Cannot assume full animal form or even a half form yet. Unable to mix more than two animal's features at a time. No more than a total of five pounds of additional mass may be added, removed, or modified.

Mastery - 0/1000

The idea of being able to make modifications to my body was intriguing and sounded useful, but I hadn’t the foggiest idea of how to actually use it. It wasn’t as if the ability came with a user manual either.

“Just experiment. The powers that the System grants sometimes take time to master, but it wouldn’t have given it to you if there wasn’t some reason for it. Some bit of history or genetic note that would somehow rationalize it. Just gotta figure out how to tap into that power now.” Cariad had advised me, and while I understood it was meant as an encouragement, it was still a little frustrating that the supposedly simple effect was escaping me.

Focusing again, I stared down at my hands where they gripped the sides of the tote. Focusing on them entirely, I willed them to grow claws, change colors, sprout fur. Anything besides just being their normal pink color.

Nothing happened.

Well, nothing with my hands happened at least.

“Cosgrave!” The harsh, nasally tone of Aaron Dutcher, my supervisor, echoed inside the back of the semi-trailer I was loading.

I nearly dropped the heavy tote on my foot. Bobbling it slightly, I had to shift my grip to pin it against my legs. Glancing over my shoulder, I saw Dutcher standing near the entrance to the truck.

Aaron Dutcher looked an awful lot like a basket-ball with arms and legs. Skinny ones at that. His fat gut always protruded over his belt to hang barely in view at the bottom of the work polo’s he wore. I had to wonder how he was able to walk around at times with how skinny his legs were, they gave the constant impression of twigs ready to break at any moment.

I knew why they didn’t just snap, and why they remained skinny despite his large weight. Dutcher didn’t think that he should have to walk back and forth on the loading dock while he ‘supervised’ us loaders. So he’d bought and brought in a Segway and rode the damn thing around like a bored mall-cop, minus the badge and with double the entitled attitude.

“What’s up, Dutcher?”

“That’s Mr. Dutcher to you, Cosgrave! Stop slacking around and get back to work.” Squealed the fat man before doing a rather practiced three point turn on his little electric conveyance and rolling out of sight to go harass another loader.

“Jackass.” I muttered, heaving the tote up and into its spot. Dutcher liked to come by and bug me if he thought I wasn’t ‘contributing’ enough to the workload. I easily loaded at least one to two more trucks each day than any of the other guys on the dock. But I also wasn’t taking a dozen smoke breaks or hiding in the truck to play on my phone.

But you were playing with yourself. No, not like that! The thought that crossed my mind was both annoying and disgusting and I furiously shook my head to try and dislodge it. Not that I couldn’t imagine one of the guys deciding to get some ‘happy time’ in while hiding behind some totes, they’d do just about anything besides work if given the chance, but I just didn’t want to think about it.

Squeezing my eyes shut to try and force the thought out, the glowing script of the System interface glittered in front of me, still open to the ‘Powers’ tab. There were other entries there, but none of them were visible. They were only noticeable due to the fogged over outlines of text. Cariad had explained those to me as well, saying that they would likely open up more as I mastered the power already given to me. Shape-Shifting had so much potential and I wanted to start experimenting with it, but I still had to figure out what the heck to do to get it to work!

The interface text flashed abruptly and dumped me back to the ‘main screen’ of the heads-up display. A moment later familiar words in that dark-light purple flashed into place.

Kassandra Silverscale and Rieka Coldeye have sent a non-urgent request for your presence regarding your Guardian contract.

Transit? View summoning?

The two options, ‘Transit?’ and ‘View Summoning?’ pulsed slowly and flared brighter when I focused my attention on them. I must have stared at the ‘Transit’ option too long, as it flashed twice in confirmation before the message faded and a new message flared into place.

Brace for transit, Traveler.

“Shit!” I swore, glancing around quickly to make sure no one was watching before ducking down into a squat behind the stack of totes I’d been pulling off the cart. I hadn’t meant to accept it yet, but there wasn’t a cancel button I could find. Less than a second later, I felt that tugging sensation about my body, like a giant crane arm had fastened around me and lifted me into the air. Seconds later I was in motion and colors bloomed all around me.

This time, the travel was a little less jarring and the colors that bloomed all around me were muted. I felt less like I’d been strapped to the hood of a speeding race-car and more like I was riding a roller-coaster.

After what only felt like three or four seconds of subjective time, the world stopped spinning and I could see again.

The room that I’d first appeared in was gone, and replaced by the packed earth of what looked like a wrestling ring. Grass stretched out from there, dotted with small trees and enclosed gardens. A few hundred feet away, I saw buildings surging up into the sky with distinctly gothic and classical architecture to them. Part animal people wandered the grass or walked on paths nearby, talking in quiet voices in small groups. The air itself felt fresh and clean after being inside the musty truck for so long and I couldn’t help taking a deep breath.

“Well, so the stories weren’t mistaken.” A woman’s voice said in a severe tone from behind me and I turned quickly to see who it was.

Two familiar faces and one unfamiliar one stood on the edge of the clear circle of bare earth. Kassandra was grinning triumphantly, her angular face bright with pride and she bounced slightly with excitement on her coiled snake tail. Rieka was on the other side of the new person, her smile was more subdued but no less proud and I could see that fluffy tail of hers starting to wave slowly behind her. The girls were dressed in similar outfits to what they’d worn the previous night, though both carried short batons and wore belts with several pouches on them over their nicer clothes.

“Hello, good to see you ladies again.” I said with a smile to both of them. And it was good to see them. While I’d not been able to really convince myself it was all a hallucination the night before due to Cariad’s presence and the continuing existence of the System interface, seeing them again hammered it home.

“Hello Liam!” Chirped Kassandra happily, slithering forward on her tail with a deft wiggle of her hips. “Lady Maia heard about what happened and wanted to confirm that everything was okay. So she requested that we summon you so she could confirm you weren’t dangerous.”

“He’s definitely dangerous, but not to you two, I think.” The third woman said in a reserved tone that drew my attention to her immediately. This was the one who had spoken when I first arrived.

She was tall and elegant, wearing an elaborately folded skirt and close fitted jacket that made me think of a classical pianist. She had long, straight, black hair shot through with streaks of gray that was tucked neatly behind a pair of pointed ears. Thick, almost coke-bottle glasses sat on a slim nose inside of wrought iron rims while she peered at me through them. Every inch of her was neat and orderly and I felt even more grubby just being near her.

“I would be a horrible protector if I was a threat to those I’m supposed to be protecting.” I straightened and nodded to her politely. “Lady Maia, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“I’m sure.” The woman said in a neutral tone, giving me a once over again before she sniffed. I glanced down at my work-stained clothing before looking back up at her and shrugging.

“Sorry, was in the middle of my regular job. I’m normally a bit better put together.” I offered, hoping to placate the fastidious woman.

“You are put together just fine.”

Kassandra’s words drew Lady Maia’s attention right off of me and on to her. The miniature, half-serpent woman shrugged, entirely unabashed by the older woman's pointed stare.

“What? He is! Besides, it isn’t as if we gave him any warning. He likely wasn’t expecting to be called back until later tonight since that was when we called him last.” The fact she was repeating my thoughts from only minutes ago made me stifle a laugh.

“Likely.” Lady Maia said shortly, switching back to stare at me for a long moment. “Either way, he appears polite and I do not get a sinister sense from him. I trust that you two will do your best to help develop him into something that will make Rue House shine in the coming competitions.”

“Yes, Lady Maia.” Rieka said demurely, dipping her head respectfully to the older elf woman.

“Oh I know Liam will do great!” Kassandra waved the hand holding her odd baton like she was wafting off a fly.

“I’ll do my best?” I added in, not entirely sure what they were talking about.

“Good. Excuse me, I have other things to tend to today.” Lady Maia nodded to the girls before giving me another searching look and then striding away across the grass.

“Old bat.” Kassandra muttered under her breath as soon as the elf was far enough away.

“Kass! Lady Maia deserves our respect.” Chastised Rieka, scowling rather cutely at Kassandra with her canine ears pinned back.

“Psh, she all but insulted Liam. Which means that she insulted us too, since he’s our guardian.” Kassandra stuck her nose up and crossed her arms over her full bust in a full on pout that looked entirely too adorable on her.

“We need to remain professional in front of Liam though. You wouldn’t want him to think you uncultured, would you?” Rieka asked pointedly. Apparently, her barb worked as Kassandra’s pout dissolved and she turned a worried look my way.

“Liam! You don’t think less of me, do you?” She all but demanded.

“Uh, no?” Her concerned look morphed back into a pout and I scrambled for a better answer. “I’d never think less of you for defending me, Kass.” Her frown immediately brightened and she pumped a fist happily. With sinuous grace, she undulated across the dirt to wind in a wide circle around me. The sun sparkled on her brick red and earth brown scales in such a charming way that I honestly didn’t find the action threatening at all. Which was odd in and of itself. Her tail was easily ten feet long and just as thick as her waist.

“Liam, it is good to see you again.” Rieka interjected as Kassandra began to hum happily while circling me. She looked a bit like a little girl skipping around her favorite adult, but that mental image was ruined by the heavy curves of her mature body. The small stature was throwing mixed signals to me that were confusing, so I had pushed it aside to focus on the wolf girl in front of me.

“Rieka. Glad to see you as well. I have to say, I was questioning reality a bit myself last night when I got home. Being summoned by you two was not exactly what I had expected.”

“Yea, I’m not surprised there.” Kassandra interjected, her torso coming to a stop on my right while her tail coiled around until it was bunched behind her neatly. “We looked over the circle after you left and someone had peeled up that edge and damaged the runes there. It could have gone horribly wrong, but we ended up lucking out!” Her smile was so unabashedly happy that I couldn’t help but return it.

“Yea, that’s what I was told as well. That it could have gone wrong, not that someone damaged the circle.” I said quickly, thinking about what Cariad had told me the previous night.

“Yes, thank you again Liam. If something else had responded rather than you, it is likely it would have just attacked us outright.” Rieka walked over to stand next to Kassandra, her tail still swaying slowly behind her despite her attempt to act demure. “The damaged section was a portion of the array to secure the circle and prevent the summoned creature from exiting it. Something you showed that you could have done when you walked to the edge of it.”

“No worries. I’m glad that nothing went wrong and you two are okay.” My simple statement got a giggle out of Kassandra and a shy smile from Rieka. “Anyway, you two might not wanna stand so close. I was working pretty hard and I’m sure I smell gross.”

“I think you smell fine.” Insisted Kassandra, though Rieka rolled her eyes at her friend. “Does it bother you, Liam?”

“No, not at all. My world doesn’t have anything like you two, or really any of the people here. So it’s all really new to me.”

“Well feel free to ask any questions you might have. I hope to have a long and happy partnership with you, Liam.” Rieka said before Kassandra could speak and the snake-tailed woman shot her a searching and suspicious look before turning back to me.

“Anyway! Liam, we had something else we wanted to talk to you about. Gotta make the most of the mana used to summon you after all.”

“Of course, what did you need?” I had kind of hoped that they might have a request. Cariad had explained to me the previous night that while I might get a small ‘response fee’ in SP for crossing over, if I was given a task and fulfilled it, I got an exponentially larger payout that I could use for powers and upgrades. She’d also explained that some of the other powers might resolve and become available once I got more SP. She’d said something about it helping the System get a read on other potential powers it could unlock.

“Well, we needed to talk with you about what sort of abilities and powers you might have so we can figure out how to go about training you.” Kassandra said brightly while Rieka nodded.

“Training me?” I said incredulously. The way they had said it made me think of training a dog, which reminded me of this ‘competition’ that Lady Maia had mentioned.

Assist your contracted companions, Kassandra Silverscale and Rieka Coldeye, in ascertaining how best to train you.

Reward - 100 SP

The words flared into my vision like a neon light clicking to life before vanishing once more.

“Damn it.”

<><><>

“So you have the ability to shift your body and modify it, but you can’t figure out how to do it?” Kassandra asked from her position on my right. She’d coiled around me so that she was leaning on one hip with her tail wrapped around behind me, almost but not quite touching me.

I’d filled both of them in on the situation while we sat in the grass next to the practice ring. Which they had explained was for sparring or training. There were others nearby and only a handful of them were in use at the moment. While I watched, a young man waved one of the thick batons in the air and it glowed brightly before a dog with shimmering, blue-white fur popped into existence in front of him and began to lick his face.

“Basically yea…” I drawled, watching as the young man played with the obviously magical canine for a bit before he started calling out orders, which the dog responded to immediately. “Man I hope that you two were not hoping to be doing that with me.”

“I mean, I wouldn’t be against it.” Kassandra laughed for a moment but shook her head. “But no, we figured that it’d be more like…figuring out how to work best with your power set and what special skills you have.”

“Or teaching you how to fight if you didn’t know how to.”

“Okay, I probably should have asked before, but I have some…blunt questions I need answered if you two are okay with it?”

“Sure, I don’t think you’d ask anything needlessly rude. Rieka?” Kassandra just blinked at me, her smile not failing one iota.

“Go for it, Liam. We need to be honest with each other if we are going to make this work.” The wolf-eared girl said from my other side and I glanced back at her for a moment before sighing.

“I have so many questions that I’m not sure where to start…”

“At the beginning is usually a good spot.” Kassandra said cheekily and I shot her a mock frown, getting a stuck out tongue in return.

“Fine, where the hell am I anyway? I know I’m not anywhere on my home planet, or plane for that matter.”

“Generally? You are in the Coldeye Queendom. Specifically, you are at Juneau Academy.” Kassandra answered helpfully. “And yes, just like Rieka’s last name. You have the honor of being the bonded companion of the fourth princess of the Queendom.”

“Not that it matters!” Rieka rushed to interject. “Like Kass said, I’m fourth in the line of succession, I might as well just be a regular girl with overbearing parents. Please don’t treat me differently?” The last part was said with such a begging undertone that it honestly tore at my heart. The added effect of her expressive, fuzzy ears wilting made it even worse.

“I won’t, Rieka. I promise.” The words were out of my mouth before I even considered them, but the way her fluffy tail began to whip behind her in happiness reassured me that I’d said the right thing. Which put me onto my next question.

“So…I don’t know if this is rude or not, but I have to ask. I haven’t seen any other humans this entire time, all of you are very…different from me and while I recognize a few species, most I don’t.”

“I’m one of the wolf-kin, though many just refer to those of us who have partial animal traits as the ‘Kin’. Kassandra is a lamia, a dwarf lamia specifically.” Rieka answered with a happy grin.

“It means I’m a miniature version, not that I’m half dwarf!” Kassandra insisted immediately, and I turned to see her shooting a pout at Rieka. “I’m not half dwarf and I am fully grown! So no short jokes! Judge me based on my actions, not my size!” She turned that pout onto me and I had to fight the urge to laugh again.

“Got it, not a half-dwarf. You are just a smaller lamia, but are all woman. No worries about me forgetting that, Kass.” I said quickly, hoping to defuse her anger. The surprised look in her eyes and the blush that popped across her cheeks was unexpected and she bit her lip with a little grin. I had the sinking sensation that she’d apparently read more into my assurance than I’d meant initially.

“You aren’t bothered by us being different, are you? You said that they don’t have any Kin or lamia where you are from?” Kassandra said after a moment though her eyes twinkled with mischief.

“Honestly? My ‘things are weird’ meter is so overwhelmed at this point that I don’t even know what to do anymore.” I sighed, rubbing at my face.

“Don’t worry, Liam. We’ll make sure to take good care of you!” Chirped Kassandra happily and I felt a gentle weight wrap around my hips and squeeze slightly. Glancing down, I realized that it was part of her snake body. She’d edged close enough to wrap it partially around my back in sort of a hug. The pressure felt odd, but not unwelcome and I patted the scaled length idly, stroking her soft scales curiously. Kassandra let out a quiet ‘eep’ and blushed harder when I looked up at her.

“Sorry about that. I…uh…”

“No! Don’t worry about it, Liam. You can touch my scales if you want. The last thing we need is for you to feel awkward around us, we need to be comfortable working with each other after all.” Kassandra said quickly, snatching my hand and pressing it back to her cool scales. She didn’t stop blushing the entire time so I just nodded and began to rub them lightly. The muscles playing underneath my fingers felt strange as they flexed, but not in a bad way.

“That actually brings us to an important point.” Rieka stepped in to direct the conversation back onto a safer topic. “Since you are still trying to figure out your power, we should probably focus on getting you some gear to protect yourself and use until you get a better feel for it.”

“Gear, yea that would be nice. I can’t exactly bring anything with me after all.” I sighed, glancing down at my pants. It had been one of the things that Cariad had filled me in on when looking over the power options the previous night. Apparently, the System restricted what a Traveler was able to carry with them. Something about energy costs and efficiency. Basically, it held whatever I was carrying when I was transported, and would return it when I came back unless I got an associated power to create a dimensional storage space. Cariad had advised me that it wasn’t rare, but it also wasn’t a cheap power. It was considered a standard choice though for its utility.

“Yea, that is normal. At least for other summons. I’ll have to research Travelers more. That’s not one I am familiar with, but Juneau has a great library so there should be something.” Kassandra gave me a shy smile and let go of my hand. I left it on top of her coil and her smile widened further.

“I wanted to ask about that. Lady Maia mentioned something about ‘Rue House’ and you just mentioned an academy? Is this some kind of magical academy?”

“Not exactly.” Rieka answered quickly. “While Juneau does teach magic as part of its core curriculum, it is far more than just a magical academy. It’s considered one of the premier finishing schools on the continent. The next generation of nobles and youth of the well off all vie for positions here. But Juneau trains them in more than just magic, it also teaches economics, history, music, the arts, literature, and a lot of other stuff.”

“So…this is a college then? Somewhere that people go to be trained for future work or careers?”

“Basically yeah.” Kassandra shrugged with a small smile. “I’m studying magic, summoning, and history. Rieka?” The dwarf lamia easily tossed the conversation to his other side where the wolf-eared woman picked it up.

“I’m studying summoning, magic, economics, music, and some combat. I’m not entirely sure where I’m going to end up, given my situation with my family. So I want to have a broad range of abilities to draw on.” Rieka’s light-blue eyes sparkled brightly, like morning sun on ice, and when combined with her platinum blonde hair, gave her an earnest look of excitement.

“Fair enough. And Rue House?” I asked, resisting the urge to reach up and stroke one of Rieka’s soft looking ears. Kassandra might be okay with me touching her tail, but Rieka was a princess after all. There had to be a level of decorum after all and I didn’t want to offend her. No matter how soft they looked.

“Rue House is sort of…a community that we are part of? Most of the students sign up to join one of the different dormitory houses based on their primary focus of study. For example, since I was studying magic, summoning, and history, I could have joined Oak House, but they are more about combat magic and the military. My history focus also opened up Rosemary House as an option, but I don’t want to spent all my time with books. I wanted to study history and go to see it in the world. Explore ancient ruins and see historical places! And to do that, I need a balance of power and knowledge. Which I was hoping summoning would give me.” Kassandra was quick to answer the question for me and I thought for a minute.

“So, Rue House is focused on summoning then?”

“Yup! That big circle that you were summoned in initially is actually owned by Rue House as a whole and Lady Maia maintains it. She was not happy to hear about the damage that had been done to the ring. She’s probably been working on repairing it all day today. The others will be summoning their own partners tonight if all is well, but we got a leap ahead of all the other girls!” Kassandra’s tail squeezed my hips again and she bounced in excitement right next to me, which sent an interesting ripple through her anatomy.

The fact that the bouncy, half-snake woman had confirmed she was of age was extremely helpful in assuaging any guilt I might have had with such assets so close to my face. I hadn’t asked her exact age, but from looking around at the others and her relative build, she had to be nearly twenty. Which meant that she was just a short, very attractive woman. Remember that, dude. She’s not a kid. Do not piss off the snake lady, you don’t wanna find out she’s venomous or something. I reminded myself firmly.

That was about when my brain made the connection that had been scratching at the interior of my skull for the last few minutes.

“Wait, you said all the other girls, does that mean Rue House only has women in it?”

“Yea, Rue House is an all female dorm house. Any of the guys who want to study summoning end up in Oak House, they accept both genders and they have access to most of the same summoning resources, but Rue House is the best for Kass and I.” Rieka chipped in, toying with the edge of her shirt with one hand, stealing glances at me and Kassandra every so often.

“And are all the girls here... well... like you two? Folks with animal features?”

"Oh no!" Kassandra chipped in with a grin. "While the majority of races in the Coldeye Kingdom are kin like Rieka, Juneau has representation from basically all the different species in the world, at least those that will coexist peacefully. There are ogres, harpies, centaur, elves, and all sorts here."

But no humans. I thought to myself. I've been summoned by monster girls and now I'm basically going to be their bodyguard...