Silver 2:Raven's Journey
by SupMario

Chapter Three

I was running through the firest making good time, when I heard a strange
sound.  I stopped and listened, and found myself face to face with three
centaurs.  I quickly turned back into my human, um, tigriss form and tried
to explain that I wasn't a real tiger.  They stared at my nude body lustily.
I blushed when I realized that I was still naked and tried to cover myself
up, failing miserably.  I danced around a bit, showing off my long legs then
turned back into my tiger form and ran like hell!  I could run pretty fast
in this form, and I did.  Those centaurs may be fast, but they can't keep
up with me!!  Ha!  Eat my dust, fellas.

I ran like the wind and soon came upon the base of the mountain range that I
was going to have to get past in order to get where I was going, so I started
climbing, heading northwest along the shallow pass that I hoped would go all
the way through, though I had my doubts.  I ran for several hours getting
further along until night fell and I was forced to find shelter for the
night.  Not an easy task when your touring a mountain range, let me tell you.

I did find a cave, conveniently.  A little too conveniently it seemed.  I
cautiously entered the dark, musty cave and found a group of bandits huddled
over a fire, while they took turns raping a poor girl.  She didn't look a
day over thirteen and it got my blood boiling.  Before I'd scarcely thought
about it, I was a tiger again and ... well, I still have nightmares about
what I did in that cave that day.  All you need to know is that one minute I
was looking at the bandits feeling really mad and the next minute I was just
past the mountain range in the edge of the forest covered from head to toe in
blood, waking up against a tree.

I didn't remember what had happened during my 'blackout' until several weeks
later, and it's better left unsaid here, believe me.  So here I was, in the
edge of the great forest covered with blood, naked as the day I was born.  I
could go from my tigriss form (which I suppose was my natural form now) into
the tiger easily but I still wondered if my human form was now beyond me.  It
sure would be easier when I was travelling in cities and such with lots of
people.  I concentrated and tried to be human again.

Nothing happened, not at first anyway.  I headed west and eventually found
the river that I knew had to be here somewhere.  I jumped in and scrubbed
all of the dried dirt and blood off and felt human again, almost.  I walked
out of the river and sat down on a large rock and preened myself for awhile.
I was feeling very relaxed and decided to try to turn human again.  This time
I didn't try so hard, and just sort of willed it to happen, ya know?  Well
it worked!  I looked down at myself and sure enough, I was back to my old
self again!

Of course, I had to concentrate to do it though, and as soon as my
concentration slipped, I was a tigriss once more.  Maybe I just needed
practice.  So naked but clean, but I headed west into the forest and again
reverted to the tiger for faster travel and soon found myself nearing the
mage's tower once again.  I ignored it for now and headed into town, hoping
the witch still had my belongings.  If nothing else, she'd better still have
my daggers.

I crept into town and stayed in the shadows as much as possible and found a
small house with an open window.  I climbed in and quickly searched for
something to wear.  I found a plain pink dress and slipped it on and left
the house the way I'd entered.  I concentrated and assumed human form while
I walked to the witch's shop.  I went around to the back of the place and
entered through a back window as quietly as possible.

I sneaked around and found the witch in the back room where she'd transformed
me all those weeks ago.  I was the tiger again and I leaped out at her,
suprising her.  I ripped out her throat before she could utter a word and
turned humanoid again, looking around.  What do you know! My clothes and
belongings were lying discared in a corner.  I quickly got dressed and made
sure everything was there.  My tools, my daggers!  The only thing missing
was my money pouch, which I found easily enough once I'd found where the
witch hid her money.  She had quite a fortune saved away.  It was almost
enough money to be worth having myself transformed... almost.

I left the witch's shop feeling pretty good about myself and looked around
for my horse.  Of course, after having been tethered up on the side of the
street for over 3 weeks, it was no wonder that he was gone.  Ah well, I guess
I didn't need a horse now that I could be my own transportation anytime just
be becoming the tiger.  The neat thing was, when I became the tiger, all of
my clothing, weapons, and tools went along with me somehow.  That was useful.

I left town and made my way back to the mage's tower.  I really didn't know
what I'd say to him, but maybe my condition would give me something to talk
to him about.  I couldn't just waltz up to him and say "hi, I like you,
let's fuck."  Well okay, a month ago I might have actually done that, but so
much had happened since then.  I wasn't the happy go lucky assassin that I
had been, despite what wearing my familiar black leather did for me.  That
mage had made me think, about the value of life, about my lifestyle.

I walked up to the front door and knocked.  After several minutes, the door
opened and there Silver was, standing in the doorway.

"May I help you?"  He acted like we'd never met.

"Um, Silver can we talk?  It's kind of important."  More than 'kind of' but
I wasn't going to beg.

"Well alright, come on in."  I walked in and followed him as he went back to
his den.  He sat down on the couch and I sat down next to him.  

All this time since he'd opened the front door I'd been concentrating,
keeping my human form.  I sighed and sunk back in the couch, glad to get off
my feet.  After a few minutes of relaxing, I opened my now slitted cat's eyes
and looked at him.  He was shocked, I could see that much.  But I thought I
saw something else there, too.  Lust?  Hey, maybe cats turned him on, you
never know these days.  

"I, ah, have a slight problem that I thought maybe you could fix.  I told
Silver everything.  My previous lifestyle, my being hired by the witch,
coming to the tower and everything, the whole bit.  I was a bit embaressed
about telling him how I felt about him, but I felt like I had to be open and
honest with him if I expected him to help me.  After hearing my tale, he sat
back and laughed.  I hadn't expected THAT.

"What's so funny?"  I asked dubiously.

After a minute, he controlled himself and answered me.  "It's just so ironic.
The old hag has been trying to drive me and Grevlok out of the area for years
now because we don't charge for our services, while she charged people
through the teeth, and then sometimes took more than they were willing to
pay, even their lives sometimes.  She was an evil old bag and I'm glad she
finally got what she deserved.  About you, well, it doesn't suprise me a bit
that she would hire an assassin to come and kill me.  And the irony of the
situation is, I knew you'd be coming, just not what your job was."  He
smiled and placed a hand on my knee.

"You see, I had a vision that my life mate would visit me that day, and
although my sister Ariana came to visit, no one came.  I thought perhaps the
vision was false, except that night you came to the tower and watched me
while I read in the library.  Yes, I knew you were there.  We have strong
magic surrounding the place letting us know about visiters when they get
close enough to the tower.  I knew you'd come, and I just had to wait for
the right oppurtunity to arise.  Little did I know you were coming to kill
me.  Great gods above!  It's all so ironic! And your, um, condition.  Well.
I'll have to show you to Grevlok, he's better at those types of things than
I am.  Transformations aren't my strong suit."

He led me down the steps to the main hall than into a small, cozy den.
Grevlok was sitting by the fireplace smoking his pipe while reading from a
large tome.  "Ah, Silver and Raven.  Come in, come in.  Yes my dear, I've
seen cases like yours before.  Not as advanced though.  That witch must have
spent an aweful lot of time and energy into trasforming you."

They both led me into a big laboratory and had my lie down on top of a large
table after undressing.  I doubted they really needed me naked.  I suspected
it was mostly for the old man's benefit, but I didn't mind showing myself
off to Silver, not one bit.  They began casting spells and dropping little
powders on me and weird liquids and all sorts of odd things.  I didn't pay
to much attention.  I was mostly watching Silver's reaction to my nude body
under his nose.

I got the impression that these guys didn't get out much.

I was wrong of course, but I didn't know it at the time.  Silver kept giving
me this 'hungry' look as he gazed at my swollen breasts (did I mention that
I was getting aroused by all this?) and my wet cunt.  After an hour or so,
they stopped their work and stepped aside to talk in private.  Grevlok left
the room and Silver came up beside me and grinned down at me.

I couldn't stand it any longer.  "Are you as horny as I am?"

He looked down at me and grinned impishly.  "Probably more so."  He agreed,
honestly.  He took me up in his arms and carried me up the big stairway until
we reached his living room, where he continued on until we reached his
bedroom.  I was nearly swooning in his arms, he was so handsome, so strong.
He gently put me down on the bed and began swiftly removing his won garments.

Once he was as naked as me, he laid down next to me and took me in his arms,
pulling me into a lover's embrace as he kissed me.  His tongue atempted entry
into my mouth and I let it in.  We kissed for ages until he suddenly got on
top of me and began madly kissing my chest and neck while he gently entered
me, sighing as we became one, joined together in deed and form.

And that's pretty much how I came into Silver's life.  I moved into the tower
and led a simple life as Silver's lover.  The weeks went by and I learned what
price these people have to pay for the power they possess.  Silver and
Grevlock spent 90% of the day studying, reading.  Silver would frequently
have me fetch him meals, drinks, and even myself when he was horny or needed
a break.  I didn't mind.  I had a terrific man that loved me.

It was great for the first month or so, but then something happened that made
me reconsider my happy existance with Silver.  His sister Ariana visited us.
It seemed that she was interested in becoming a wizard like her older brother
and wanted to become a pupil of Grevlock's.  Silver didn't have a problem
with this, and Grevlock immediately accepted her.  No, the problem arose
between her and I.

Ariana is a full-blooded elf, unlike her brother who is only half-elven.
Apparently, they share the same mother, an elvan woman, but have different
fathers.  Silver's (who is long since dead I take it) was human while
Arianna's father is elven.  Ariana is a short blonde woman who is used to
getting what she wants.  Not that she's exactly stuck-up, but obviously comes
from a rich family.  She's one of those girls that you KNOW has never had
to work at anything in her life.  At least she had a sweet personality,
except when she was around me anyway.

When she finally came to stay at the tower, she took the rooms on the third
level, above Silver's.  Once she found out about me, she became very
defensive around me, always suspicious of my every move.  She didn't like me,
I could tell that, but why was a different matter, and I didn't find that
out, until a few months afterward, when I caught the two of them in bed
together.  It happened like this.

It seems that every year there is a wizard's convention that Grevlock attends
religiously.  Silver was in the middle of researching some spell or other
and didn't want to go that year, so Grevlock asked me to come along and keep
him company.  I agreed, not having a reason to refuse, and went with him.  It
was a spectacular event, but I won't talk about that for now.  All that
matters is that Grevlock and I were gone for a month and a half and when we
got back to the tower, I found Silver and Arianna making love in Silver's
bed.

I was of two minds about this.  On one hand, I didn't mind Silver getting it
on with his sister, after having been an assassin for so many years, the
thought of incest didn't weigh very heavily in the cosmic sin department as
far as I was concerned, but on the other hand, I was insanely jealous of her.
She was trying to steal my man!!

So did I march in there and give them a piece of my mind?

Nope.  I waited until they were finished and Arianna made her way back to her
own rooms and crawled into bed with Silver, who was drifting off to sleep.
In the morning, when he awoke, I was laying there beside him, watching him.

"Good morning, honey.  When did you and Grev get back?"  He asked sleepily.

"Late last evening.  The convention was wild, I never knew wizards could
party like that." I replied, grinning from ear to ear.

I could tell he was trying to get the courage up to talk about his fling
with his sister, but he didn't seem to know how to broach the subject.  So,
I did it for him.

"So tell me about you and your sister.  Did you enjoy yourselves while we
were gone?"  I asked, smiling innocently.

He hesitated then, nervous.  My tail twitched angrily as I got up on top of
him like I was going to kiss him, then pinned both of his arms and bared my
fangs, letting him know I was a tad ticked off.

"I saw the whole thing.  Your sister is trying to steal you away from me.
Well, the next time I catch her doing such a thing with you, I'll carve her
eyes out!"  I admit I was mad as hell about it, and Silver did eventually
calm me down and tell me what happened, but that episode made me realize a
few things.  First off, he and Arianna were obvioiusly meant for each other.

I could see that with my own two eyes, and after talking with Grevlock and
learning of the incestuous affair that he and Arianna had had before his
leaving home, well I knew right then that some day they'd be together and
I'd be elsewhere.  But I was content to let things stay as they were, for
the time being.  The other thing I learned, a few weeks later, were the
dozens of other women that Silver had sex with on a regular, if speratic,
basis.  He was a very sexual beast, and he enjoyed the fruits of his labor,
taking to visiting these brothels on increasing occasion.

I took it upon myself to long walks in the forest as the tiger, feeling free
and wonderul as I roamed the forest in my (now) natural form, hunting small
animals and helping the wood elves patrol the forest for bandits and rogues.
I continued coming back to the tower every month or so for the sex that I
needed from Silver to keep my animalistic side from becoming too
bloodthirsty.  That witch must have really known what she was doing, because
Grevlock and Silver never were able to counter-act the effects of the curse
that she has placed upon me.  So, like I said, every month or so I would
make the trip back to the tower and Silver would take a few days off from
his work and we would spend them in bed with each other.

We did eventually get married, about a year after Arianna came into the
tower.  Looking back now, I see that it was mostly a cover for him and
Arianna to keep their love hidden while he was 'publicly' married to me.  I
still loved him, and I think he loved me as well, just not like he loved her.
I was happy though.  I had the forest to roam through, to hunt in, and I had
my elven friends who I was spending more and more time with.  The elven
patrols quickly welcomed me in their ranks and were happy to have my help
with keeping the forest safe.

During this period in my life, I also practiced staying in my human form for
extended periods.  Every month when I would go back to Silver's tower, I
would spend all of my time there in human giuse, making myself stretch the
time in which I could hold it, and after a few months of this, I could hold
my human form pretty much indefinately.  Of course, I still couldn't hold it
in my sleep, I still reverted to my normal tigriss form when I got drowsy,
but that didn't really bother me anymore.  The only one that this bothered
was Arianna, and she didn't sleep with me anyway.

So came an early day in spring when I made the trek back to Silver's tower
and found him gone.  He had gone on a mission to find and kill a medusa
(whatever that was) and would be gone for a few months, Grevlock told me.
I took this the best that I could, and left the tower, telling myself it was
time that I moved on.  I was starting to feel more at peace in my tiger form
than any other, and so I resumed my travels through the forest, eating the
occasional rogue or criminal here and there, just to help out the patrols.
Even though my mind, in those months, was increasingly beastly and
blood-driven, I still wouldn't kill innocents, keeping myself to the evil
ones that invaded my realm.

Then one day, I was circling a small lake when I heard a familiar cry for
help.  I ran up to a small pit and found Silver there, clutching his leg and
howling in pain.  I was in my natural form at the time, and it must have
startled him, for he blacked out when I jumped down into the pit with him.

He had obviously injured his leg, but I didn't understand why he didn't
simply heal himself?  He had healed me magically several times in the past
when I'd gotten injured one way or another.  Perhaps he was testing me,
seeing how much of the healing arts I'd learned from him.  Yes that was
probably it, I told myself.  I reached into my belt pouch and took out the
small vial of healing elixir and had him drink it.

He started mumbling something, but I cut him off by leaning forward and
kissing him savagely.  It had been several months and I needed it badly.  I
didn't like being stuck in my tiger form indefinately, so i did what I had
to do.  I kissed him and he started kissing me back, and we kissed for ages,
just happy to be in each other's embrace.  (Or so I thought at the time.)

I had taken him out of the pit and leaned him up against a tree while he was
unconscious, and so I put my head down on his chest and he held me for a
while, and I just purred happily, having my man back.  For a little while,
he just held me and I just enjoyed being in his embrace, but then something
happened with him and his mood changed abruptly.  I looked up at him
questioningly.

He spoke for the first time, or at least the first time I'd really listened
so far.

"Uh, Hi um, My name is Silver, Paul Silver.  Thanks for helping me and
everything, but... do I know you?"

I looked up deeply into his eyes, seeing for the first time, that this
WASN'T Silver!!  I pulled away from him, my eyes widening, my tail twitching
nervously.  "Silver?  You're not he... and yet you are!  How can that be?"
I looked him over head to toe once again and then got up and began pacing
before him, thinking.

This is too much for me to figure out.  Who can I get... Arianna!!  She'd
know what to do!  I reached into my other belt pouch and pulled out the tiny
scroll that Silver had given me long ago, before he had taught me any of his
arts, that would make you turn invisible, and gave it to the man and told
him to use it as soon as I left, and for him to wait there.  He took it from
me and I swiftly turned into the tiger and ran south as fast as I could,
toward the tower.  Once I got there, to my relief Arianna was outside,
playing with her pet pseudodragon.

Once she saw me, she came over to me and I turned human.

"Raven, how are you?  We haven't seen you in over a month.  What've you..."
I cut her off and told her to get on my back and hold on, that I'd explain
once we got there.  She started to refuse, but I told her it was important.
I became the tiger again and she hopped on my back, holding on for dear life
as I ran back northward, toward the strange man that looked and sounded,
heck, even KISSED just like Silver.  I ran for several minutes non-stop until
we got to the clearing.  Arianna's pet was sitting on a low branch of a
nearby tree staring intently at the middle of the clearing where I knew the
man was.

"Thanks for coming Arianna.  I found something you need to see.  I can't
figure it out.  I was hoping you'd be able to help."  I went over to the man
and whispered the incantation that would reverse the invisibility spell.  As
soon as I did, Arianna ran over and hugged him, crying in his arms.  The man
looked slightly embaressed as he studied the elf crying hysterically in his
arms.  I went over and tapped her on her shoulder.

She looked back at me and then up at him.  She recoiled in shock.  "You're
not Silver!"  She looked back at me with wide eyes and said "What's going
on, Raven?"

I walked over to the man and showed Arianna something I had noticed earlier.
He had the same birthmark on his left hand that Silver had.  Arianna studied
it then looked up at him and silently cast a time-stop spell on him.  She
seemed to be staring into his soul for a few minutes then she had me lean
him against a tree and she undid her spell and cast a sleeping spell on him.
We went over to the other side of the clearing and talked.