____________________________                    |                            |                  /)|     KRISTEN'S BOOKSHELF    |(\                 / )|         DIRECTORIES        |( \              __(  (|____________________________|)  )__             ((( \  \ >  /_)              ( \  < /  / )))             (\\\ \  \_/  /                \  \_/  / ///)              \          /                  \          /               \      _/                     \_       /                /    /                         \     \o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o oo  	This part of my collection offers a very wide variety of stories. oo  They have been submitted by people from all over the world.  Also from oo  alt.sex.stories (Newsgroups). There is no particular order to this     oo  section of my collection,  other than offering them to you in  alpha-  oo  betical directories.                                                   oo  	I don't believe in categorizing things. "I don't want to be typed oo  therefore I don't type things myself." I think it's a lot more fun to  oo  browse around and find 'little' surprises,  and topics that you might  oo  not have even thought of looking for. I hope you enjoy your time among oo  Kristen's book shelf directories.                                      oo   	Lest we forget!!!  This story was produced as adult entertainment oo  and should not be read by minors.  Thank you, Kristen Becker           oo o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o oMy Alien Lover (MF, fantasy)By KCI first saw the alien when I dropped in at the Gay Nineties clubafter a hard day at the Minneapolis Grain Exchange.  It was nottoo unusual to see aliens on T.V.  these days:  Earth had beendiscovered by the expanding interstellar civilization three yearsearlier, in 1993, but Minneapolis was still far enough off themain commercial routes to make an alien appearance in person arare event. Oh, I knew about the alien trade delegation in town, of course-how could I have missed it with all the publicity?  Minnesota hadbeen suffering chronically depressed conditions in its agricul-tural and mining industries for decades-the governor and themayors of the state's two largest cities, along with leadingmembers of the local business establishments were giving theforthcoming conference all the hoopla they could muster.  It hadeven been a hot topic of conversation in my own grain futuresfirm, where I had worked since graduating from college four yearsago.  Still, I had hardly expected to get off work at ten in theevening and find one of the aliens in a gay bar! I had long been interested in this particular species of alienbecause of its resemblance to a certain domestic animal I had athing about.  Unfortunately, the domestic animal was too small todo much with without doing it serious injury and its largerrelatives were much too dangerous to fool around with. The remote ancestors of the Ailourians had been an animal thatalmost exactly resembled the Earthly domestic cat in externalappearance.  The species had taken to the trees and become arbo-real hunters, developing digited hands, opposable thumbs and aprehensile tail to aid their pursuit of prey from branch tobranch.  Later, when a drying of the climate caused their foresthabitat to shrink, they came down from the trees, increased insize and evolved in intelligence just as we Earth humans had. Thus, what I saw on entering the bar was essentially a six-foot-six cat standing at the main bar, taking a swallow of his drink.There were some differences, of course.  The forehead had movedforward as it had in humans to accommodate the larger brain andthe paws had become hands with five fingers and a thumb.  Butthere were few other changes, since the teeth and jaws had notshrunk as they have with humans.  I could tell he was male fromhis body size and his age must have been equivalent to the lateteens in humans, judging from the sleekness of his short blackfur and the tautness of his powerful muscles.  The jeweled medal-lion about his neck proclaimed him a member of the other world'snoble class.  I could not place the meaning of the gem-studdedgolden tiara encircling his brow, however.  He was liberallyadorned with numerous other expensive jewels, but the only itemof clothing he wore was a gem studded cloth-of-gold loin clothabout his midsection.  A jeweled cloth-of-gold cape lay on thebar stool next to him.  He took another swallow of his drink as Imoved towards him as if hypnotized.  He drew in on a cigarette,expelling the smoke in an easy, relaxed stream through his nos-trils. My cock had sprung to attention as soon as I saw him, thrustingurgently against the imprisoning fabric of my suit trousers, butI realized I had to feel him out carefully.  I knew nothing abouthow his culture felt about gays and, while those claws on hishands and feet might look like human toenails and fingernails, Iknew that they could extend out into three-inch long scimitarsthat could disembowel a man in less than a second.  Those power-ful feline muscles alone could literally tear a human in two.And those long canine teeth in his mouth could sever my head frommy body in a matter of seconds. He would have to be equipped with such an array of natural arma-ment, I reflected, to dare go alone into the central city of oneof Earth's urban areas wearing enough precious gems to equal thegross national product of many third-world countries!  The restof the sparse week-night crowd in the bar apparently sensed thepotential danger too as they kept well away from him. His tail stirred and his long white whiskers twitched as I cameup to the bar beside him.  His ears flattened back against hishead.  I lit a cigarette to cover my nervousness as I sat down onthe next stool.  Now that I was up close, I could see the answerto a question that had long bothered me and which I had neverbeen able to make out from the brief T.V.  appearances of membersof this species.  Humans have the largest genitalia in proportionto their body size of any animals on Earth and, from the long,columnar enormity that strained against his loin cloth, I had afeeling that whatever evolutionary forces had impelled thisspecies on its road to intelligence had apparently produced thesame result, crotchwise. I took a final admiring sideglance at the contrast between mywavy blond hair and his black silky fur before I made my move.  Ihad to look up as I spoke since he had six inches in height onme.  "Did you pick this bar for any special reason?" I asked,trying to make my voice sound casual. Two enormous, glowing green eyes speared me as he turned his headand I was momentarily lost in the twin pools of luminescent fire.I recovered my awareness in time to see his eyes flick downwardto the bulge in my crotch.  He leaned over towards me in a fluid,feline motion.  "The same reason you're here," he purred in myear, with an unusual accent. His long, raspy tongue flicked out then to lick my ear and I felta shock of icy coldness run through my entire body, as if I hadsuddenly been flung into a bath of cold water.  I went wild.  Myhands reached up to pull him against me and I lost myself in thefeel of his fur and the musky odor of male cat scent.  He re-sponded, continuing to lick my ears and face before his tongueflicked into my open mouth. We rose and moved towards the bar entrance together by commonunspoken consent.  He was slightly drunk and I became stronglyaware of the odor of alcohol on him mixed in with the male catscent and the tobacco aroma on his fur.  With the edges of mymind I was aware of the shocked glances from the other patrons inthe place.  "I hope I know what I've gotten myself into!" Ithought.  "I won't be able to stop him if he decides to spray thewhole house, and I don't know how he'll get along with Alexanderand Hephaestion." We didn't go to my place, however, heading instead for the gleam-ing metallic saucer-shaped antigravity vehicle that he had parkedin the lot next to the bar.  A drunk staggered towards us, rais-ing a broken bottle in his hand threateningly.  My new friendhissed and arched his back.  I stepped forward intending to kickthe drunk in the balls and disable him before my friend got usboth involved in the first interplanetary murder case.  The sightof the aliens unsheathed claws and gleaming white fangs penetrat-ed even the drunks alcohol-fogged brain, and before I could reachhim, he staggered away in terror. My new friend drew me into the circle of his arm as he operatedthe vehicle's controls with one hand.  "What's your name?" Iasked as we ascended swiftly into the air. "Kontar," he answered, "Kontar isem Taurid." "Mine's Brad Carson," I replied. The antigravity vehicle continued rising, soaring in one smoothmotion from the parking lot of the bar to the roof of the AmfacHotel, less than four blocks away.  Within a minute of leavingthe parking lot, we were setting down in the heliport on thehotel's roof.  We took the elevator down to one of the penthousesuites. Our hands were all over each other as soon as we had entered theluxurious suite.  He removed my suit coat and tie and undid thebuttons of my shirt while I merely had to unfasten the clasp ofhis golden cape.  He removed my shoes and undid my pants while Islid his loin cloth down over his legs.  Our cocks sprang free topoint at each other.  It is a standard joke about porn writingthat everyone has a twelve-inch cock, something very rare amonghumans.  But here at last was the reality:  his twelve incherdwarfed my own thick nine inches. I shivered as his tongue licked my ear.  We half-fell, half-pulled each other down on the wide expanse of the enormous water-bed.  Then his rough cat tongue was flicking over my cock andballs.  I twisted and cried out in my attempt to get away from apleasure too intense to stand.  He held me down while he rotatedinto a sixty-nine position over me, thrusting his own throbbingenormity down my throat while exquisite knives shot through mycock as he began tonguing it again, more gently this time. I sucked on that cat cock for dear life while the ecstatic tor-ment shot through me from my crotch.  Several times he stoppedtonguing to lightly nick my meat with his teeth-not hard enoughto cut the skin but strong enough to prick it-driving me evenwilder. I wanted to hold back, but the pleasure was too intense.  I shotmy ball load deep inside him at about the same time his owntorrents of cat cum geysered forth into my throat.  I lapped upevery drop of his subtly-accented ball juice before I came up forair. We clung together for several minutes and then he turned me overand without a word slid into me with that enormous cock.  I beganto get hard again as his feline hugeness penetrated every recessof my bowels.  I soon felt his vigorous maleness spurting forthinto me yet again. I must admit I couldn't keep up with him.  Some members of theEarthly cat family, lions for example have been known to mateevery fifteen minutes for twenty-four hours when a sexual partneris available and Kontar was one of those members-and I was cer-tainly available.  I must have come about six times before theevening was over- he came at least twice as often. Dawn was breaking when we lay against each other, our passionspent.  Every last drop of tension from my previous hectic day atthe Grain Exchange had been drained out of me from our marathonsexual orgy of the night before.  I lay on my stomach, warm andhappy while Kontar licked me from head to toe with his tongue."Will I see you again?" I asked my lover. "Of course," Kontar answered.  "It should be obvious from lastnight that I like you." "Why don't you come to my place tonight?" I asked.  "The accommo-dations aren't quite as luxurious as they are here but I have agood job and you might find them adequate." "I can make it about six," he replied.  "I have an importantconference today but should be free by then." He rolled over and lit one of the unusual-appearing cigarettes Ihad noticed earlier on the end table by his bed.  He exhaled thesmoke smoothly as he offered me one.  "It's been tested and shownto be compatible with your metabolism.  At least it's no moreharmful than the native narcotic you Earthlings smoke." I inhaled cautiously at first and tasted the unfamiliar spicytanginess as it rolled over my palate.  "You seem very young tobe entrusted with the responsibility of a major tradeconference," I remarked as I exhaled the smoke. "Actually all the sons of the noble houses are expected to begintaking on such responsibilities around my age," he replied.  "Asa scion of the royal house this conference would normally besomething I would have learned to handle several of your yearsago.  Arranging a trade deal for your state's meat and grain forour mining colony on Antares IV isn't that complicated.  What Iam really here for is to set up a trade in some of your nativenarcotics.  Your tobacco, for instance," he said pointing to thepack of cigarettes lying next to my discarded clothing, "shouldprove to be quite in demand among our people.  It's been shown tobe no more harmful to us than it is to you and our medical tech-nology can forestall any damage it might do.  Your marijuana andsome of your stronger drugs should turn out to be the basis of alucrative trade also.  I'm afraid we'll have to ban the catnipyou sometimes give your domestic cats among our people, however.It's been shown to set off a murderous killing frenzy in ourspecies and would do even more damage than it does if the userweren't so uncoordinated and disoriented by its effects." "A son of the royal house!" I exclaimed.  "I realized you must bea member of your nobility from the medallion around your neck butI didn't dream you would turn out to be a prince!" "You can tell by the tiara around my head," Kontar replied.  "Itis an insignia that only members of the ruling family are allowedto wear." Since it was getting late, I showered, shaved, and had breakfastin Kontar's suite before going directly to my job.  We nuzzledeach other affectionately before we parted. I had worried about how my two cats, Alexander and Hephaestion,would react when Kontar appeared, and when he arrived, it seemedfor a while that my fears were justified.  They arched theirbacks and hissed as soon as they laid eyes on him and then tookrefuge under the couch.  But he held several tempting morsels foreach of them just beyond their hiding place and meowed softly.They poked their heads out cautiously and began to nibble.Within ten minutes they were purring softly on his lap. "I see now, Brad, that we were attracted to each other for simi-lar reasons:  there is a small species much like your nativemonkeys that we keep for domestic pets on my home world.  I'vealways liked them but they're too small to do anything withwithout hurting them.  I didn't have a chance to do anythingabout my fantasies until I came to your world." "How would your own people feel about your proclivities?" Iasked.  "I didn't know how your culture might feel about gayswhen I approached you last night." "Our culture has no problem with it," he answered.  "Of course,as a prince of the royal house, I am expected to produce sons ofmy own to carry on the royal line.  But there is a lesbian prin-cess I know, a second cousin.  We have agreed that we will marrywhen the time comes and that she will receive my sperm by artifi-cial insemination.  No one will care what we do outside ourmarriage as long as the next generation of Taurids comes along." Another fear was allayed after I had put dinner on the table.With those powerful teeth and jaws, he would have been able togobble his food directly from the plate.  But whatever culturalforces had operated during his people's long climb to civiliza-tion had apparently produced the custom of eating with utensils,or else he had been carefully trained in their use before beingsent to negotiate with Earthlings.  He manipulated the knives andforks and used his napkin as correctly as any member of Earth'ssocial upper crust could have.  "I wasn't sure your people woulduse knives and forks, since your jaws and teeth haven't shrunklike ours," I finally ventured. "The custom of eating with utensils has been long established onAilouros," he replied with a smile, "although our own eatingutensils are somewhat different from yours.  I was trained in thecorrect use of your own implements before I came here, ofcourse." After dinner, we took our liqueurs into the living room.  Kontarlit a cigar as he sat down on the couch and handed one to me."I'll stick to cigarettes," I said, motioning it away.  "I triedone of those once during my early teens and was sick as a dog fora whole day." "That's probably because you inhaled," he replied.  "Also, yourbody wasn't used to tobacco then.  I brought these becausethey're just right for a beginner.  Don't inhale; just take itinto your throat and taste the flavor." I inhaled cautiously.  "The flavor does have something to recom-mend it," I thought.  I inhaled again when I felt no rumblesportending an impending volcanic explosion from my stomach andleaned back against Kontar's muscular arm.  I took a sip of mycordial.  I was conscious of the softly silken feeling of the furon his arm against my neck and of the powerful feline musclesrippling beneath. We told each other something more about ourselves while we re-laxed with our drinks and cigars.  I told him about my strugglesgrowing up in a poor family in Northeast Minneapolis and my fightto acquire an education.  He told me more about his life as aroyal prince.  It seemed that he was not some distant collateralrelative of the king but was actually fourth in line to thethrone. He leaned over and licked my ear as we crushed out the remains ofour cigars.  I shivered and jerked as the cold fire shot throughme once again.  Kontar's licking my ear was turning out to be asure way of driving me wild.  I had once had a domestic cat lickmy ear and it had sent the same electric shiver through me, butnot as strongly as this!  Kontar continued licking my ear while Iwrithed in his unbreakable grip.  "Your dinner was wonderful," hepurred in my ear as he unbuttoned my shirt.  "But now the realfun begins.  I don't think we'll have any problem entertaining eachother for the rest of the evening, do you?" My cock was twitching uncontrollably by the time he got my pantsoff.  I shot into him as soon as his tongue rasped over it.  Heheld me down while I struggled vainly to get away from a pleasureso powerful I couldn't stand it.  I was weak and trembling by thetime the final delicious spasm shot out of my balls.  We contin-ued to make love through the night.  Fortunately, my inability tocome as often as he did did not matter since he loved to fuck andcould go on for long periods of time before cumming.  Eventually,he even let me take him in his tight, feline ass.  The feel ofhis furry asshole around my cock was sublime. Our affair was bound to attract notice, of course.  The first tocomment was the gay community- and there were people who disap-proved, even though Kontar and I were not hurting anyone, andthose others took it upon themselves to express their disapprov-al.  These were the same people who always dump on the sexualminorities within our community-people into S&M, drag queens,handballers, transsexuals, anyone who isn't as "respectable" inthe eyes of straights as possible-and the only reason they don'tmake themselves really respectable to the straights and denouncejust being gay is that they can't stop being gay themselves.  Thefirst phone call came one night during the second week of ourrelationship. "Is this Brad Carson?" The voice asked. "Yes," I replied. "I've been watching how you're into alien bestiality with thatcat and YOU'RE SICK!" he said, hanging up. I blew up.  What the snippy little queen didn't realize was thatI made enough money to afford one of those phone attachments thatdisplay the number of whomever is calling you.  I dialed himright back. "Listen you gutless faggot," I said when he answered, "why don'tyou take your anger out on whoever made you so hostile instead ofdumping on other gay people?  Go home and beat up the bullies inyour school yard or your parents if they abused you.  Take upmartial arts training if you aren't able to do it now." "Fuck you," a snippy-sounding voice replied. "You can say 'fuck you' for the rest of the evening," I snappedback, "and it won't change the fact that you're no better than astraight bigot who makes obscene phone calls to gays.  If youever wonder what motivates them to go out of their way to hurtsomeone who hasn't done anything to them, you only have to lookat yourself.  Well, if it takes fear of the straights to keepsome of you faggot snips civil, I'm letting you know that I'mjust as capable as a straight guy of giving you a busted lip ifyou mouth off to me."  I hung up with a bang. Of course the snip had to get revenge.  With that kind of angerbuilt up over years of being told by the society that he wasn'tworth shit because he was gay, his only other choice was todirect it onto the straights but he didn't have the guts to dothat.  He contacted a straight reporter he knew on the localpaper and the word also got back to a reporter for our local T.V.station, one who had already managed to get a gay judge thrownoff the bench for a consensual relationship with a male hustlerwho was a bit less than two months short of being 18-even thoughsixteen is the age of consent in Minnesota. Kontar and I were having dinner in a restaurant when the snippybitch queen showed up with the T.V.  reporter, a cameraman andthe newspaper reporter in tow.  Kontar knocked the reporter andthe cameraman clear across the restaurant with one blow of hispowerful hand pads.  I was glad to see that he controlled himselfthat much.  If he had used much more force, we would have had twodead men on our hands.  I left the snippy queen writhing on thefloor after I knocked the wind out of him and left the reporterwith a broken jaw.  I'd been waiting for the chance to do thatfor years. For a while, it looked like the trade negotiations were going tobe sunk by a major media blowup.  Word reached the rest of thealien delegation and got back to Ailouros.  I was present in hissuite when his triple-great grandfather, the sovereign of allAilouros and Emperor of the Ailourian Hegemony called.  Thehyperspatial waves carried Kontar and his grandfather's imagesacross the light years, while the two hissed and yowled at eachother in their harsh, meowing native language as I stood in fullview of the holovisor camera.  If Kontar was willing to stand upfor me to his progenitor and sovereign, I sure as hell wasn'tgoing to slink away, even if I couldn't understand a word of whatthey were saying. At length, the dual cacophony of hisses, yowls and arched backswound down and they concluded their conversation on a normallevel.  After switching off the apparatus, Kontar belted down atriple screwdriver before he pulled me down on the bed besidehim.  "Thontaur said everything would be all right if I couldstill pull off this trade deal," he told me.  "I told him I couldhandle it." He was right, the commercial establishment in this state reallywanted that trade agreement and what the establishment in thisstate wants, it gets.  The reporters were quashed and theirstories killed.  Oh, I know that the powers that be have a liber-al image in Minnesota but there is an iron hand beneath thosevelvet gloves. With the impending successful conclusion of the negotiations andKontar's departure, the moment that both of us had avoided talk-ing about was fast approaching.  Kontar was the first to bring itup, about a week before his departure, one night when he was atmy house. "Have you ever thought about coming back to Ailouros with me,Brad?" he asked. I lit a cigar before I answered.  "It just wouldn't work," Isaid.  "I know we like each other."  I hesitated before going on."Maybe I should even say I love you.  But I couldn't go to Ailou-ros as your pet human.  I had to fight like hell to get off thestreets of Northeast Minneapolis and get where I am now.  I'msupporting myself and doing a damn good job of it.  I won'tchange that-even for you." Kontar drew me into the curve of his arm before he answered."And I love you, human.  You misunderstand my proposal.  We wantto employ you as our liaison with Earth in carrying out the tradeagreement.  You'll be well paid-extremely well paid since youwill need to be very wealthy indeed to live in a manner befittingyour position as the true beloved of the fourth in line to thethrone of Ailouros!" I shook my head, "It still won't work.  I'll give up everything Ihave here, I'll be left with nothing if we should ever fall out.I still can't do it." Kontar nibbled on my ear.  I was acutely aware of his musky,male cat odor, mixed with the smell of cigar on his pelt.  "Youstill misunderstand.  You'll be working for a joint Ailourian-Earth consortium and your company has agreed as part of the tradedeal to take you back if you ever want to return to Earth.You'll have to come back frequently in any event to properlyoversee the expanding trade between our people.  I regret that,but I knew you'd never consent to be a kept boy." Kontar's tongue flicking down my throat cut off my joyful assent. The following week was hectic, as I had to arrange for a caretak-er for my house and wind up my other affairs in that time.  Therewas an expensive formal dinner to celebrate the agreement thenight before we left.  I caught a glimpse of the figure I cut inmy tight-fitting dinner jacket in one of the mirrors as I circu-lated around the ballroom exchanging pleasantries with theguests.  All the leading big-monied families were there, thegovernor, along with the mayors of Minneapolis and St.  Paul.  Ihad to bite my tongue when talking to some of them who had pre-sided over a six-year wave of arrests of gays in adult bookstoresand parks, and who had done nothing about police brutalityagainst gays. My former boss was there too, of course, congratulating me on mysuccess-quite a change for a man who had had to struggle to keepfrom denouncing me for being openly gay.  The only reason hestruggled was because he realized my value to the company. The extravagant doings finally came to an end in the early morn-ing hours and Kontar and I wound up in his suite.  We were sit-ting on the edge of the enormous bed when Kontar asked, "Have yougot all your things packed for tomorrow?" "Yes," I replied.  "Everything that hasn't already been shippedup to the starship is right there in those bags over in thecorner." Kontar crushed out the last of his joint before he began to undothe button of my dinner jacket and I began to remove the ceremo-nial bronze armor he had worn to the party.  "Good," he said ashe licked my ear.  "We won't have anything to distract us for therest of the night." Well, that all happened a hundred years ago.  So you may ask howcan I still appear to be a man of twenty-five?  Simple.  Youshould have figured it out when I mentioned the argument betweenKontar and his triple great grandfather.  The Ailourian anti-aging treatments were easily adapted to human physiology and Iwas the first to benefit. Kontar is now the sovereign of all Ailouros and Emperor of theAilourian Hegemony.  The relatives who were ahead of him in lineall died in the Saurian and Avoide wars.  But Kontar proved to bea consummate military genius upon his ascent to the throne andthose former enemy empires are now in their proper places.  Idon't have to worry about losing him to a similar death in bat-tle.  Yes, we're still together.  Oh, we've both had many othersover the years, of course, Ailourian, human, and many otherspecies.  But we both agree that we are each the one being whowill always be special to the other. With the anti-aging treatments, I figure we've both got at leastanother two centuries of virile young studhood ahead of us!        I awoke and prepared myself, my assigned valet dressing mein the ceremonial armor for the High Mass that I was to attend.It was heavy, gleaming, powerful, expensive.  I would not own anylike it until after my first sacks as a Templar, and even then Iwould wear it rarely.  I was girt with a weapon that favored me;clean of line, yet not bright of blade.  A bright blade is soonto rust, and then must be cleaned; this scouring often harmingthe blade's integrity.      It was no ordinary High Mass, for this was the day that Ibecame ordained as a Knight Templar.  It was a full ceremony, anda long one; thankfully in the shade of a elaborate church withcool, vaulted ceilings.  My thoughts ran back to my vigil thenight before, lasting many hours, and what I felt as I stoodguard over the seals of the nine grandmaster's of the Order.      My father was a mercenary, but became a Landed Knightthrough service.  I, his third son, could inherit nothing but hiswisdom and skill, both of which he imparted to me in all theirworth.  He was determined that I join the Knights Templar, forall the right reasons.  They were powerful within the Church;they were rich, rich, rich; and they were perhaps the most eliteforce to exist.  I trained pretty much for all my life to beworthy of them, and I was accepted as an Initiate, to serve for aminimum of three years to prove my worth, and in that time, I wassquire to several knights.      My father had hinted at it, and so did those I serve.  Therewas something especial about the Templars, something beyondesprit de corps, personal skill, and perfected field technique.I heard many stories of the power of God rushing through theKnights as a group, the stories of the feats of the grandmastersof the order and what they were capable of, but I only saw itonce.      My master at that time, Andre Glaucon, had been a Knight forseveral years; he came into the order rich, and was known to relyon his armor more than truly necessary.  He was masterful withthe lance and the spear (he learned the spear coming from theoutland regions) but poor with the sword, at which I was betterthan many Knights.  I battered him about the field with thepractice-sword, until it became obvious that I was training him,and not the other way around.  Gradually, he built up a rage, arage that intensified his skill instead of degrading it.  Then,he exploded, and threw a blow so fast I blocked only by instinct,and still it clove my shield in twain.  With a wooden sword, hedid this!      My return blow knocked him a dozen feet, but just made himeven more angry.  He charged me, and I stepped aside, slamminghim on the back, but he was without feeling.  He spun, and hisblow shattered my practice sword into flinders in my grasp.  Ithrew him to the ground, pinning him, but his strength was demon-ic, and I could not hold him despite his poor leverage.      But just as I lost my grip, he calmed, and regained himself.The next day, I was assigned to another knight.  Perhaps I hadseen something of what makes the Templars the holy warriors ofGod.  I would have to be careful not to fly into such a ragemyself, lest the circumstances truly warrant the use of suchpower.      My mind flicked back to the ceremony.  Strangely, I did notfeel empowered by the High Mass.  As I drank the wine and ate thewafer, rather, all power seemed drained from me, and I feltlight, empty and powerless.  I managed to walk to the Master forthe rest of the ceremony, receiving my blow and my knighthood.  Imust have blacked out somewhere in the run to leap upon my steed,and I do not remember making the strike, but I did, and I rodeforth from the town, clinging to my steed like a babe.      Once away from the Church's grounds, I felt centered upon myhorse.  It was a Liath Mactha, a grey of battle, and power flowedup through its beating hooves to me from the earth.  I felt wellagain, and I rode to the castle of the Templars where I was firstassigned, there being no immediate fighting.  I arrived justafter dinner to much cheering and fanfare, received a repast, andjoyously took another heated bath.  My last conscious thought, asI luxuriated in the huge bed and clean sheets that were now myright, was a delirious joy at the quality of the plumbing systemof the castle.     I awoke when I realized that I was lying on stone, and notsheets.  Sensing motion about me, I leapt up into a cloud ofincense, and weaved about an empty-handed blow at me.  Unbidden,my motions were swept into a rhythm of chantings and beatings ofdrums, and I hop-scotched over intricate chalk lines in the dimlylit, smoke-filled room.  Lashing out with a foot I caught myassailant in the side, crashing him to the ground.  He was up inan instant, and rushed me.  I took a stance, and felt the powerflow up from the earth into me, filling me strangely, rushinginto every hollow drained by the High Mass.  The fight became adance, and my opponent could not touch me; every time I struckhim, his power exploded out as if he were a powder puff, enteringme.  His steps grew weaker, and I drained him dry, leaving himlifeless upon the floor.      I felt an exaltation.  I had, through skill, taken another'spower, strength, and life for my own.  I was the conqueror.  Istepped into a larger circle, delirious with my new power, andconfronted another man, wearing no clothes as I did but his facecovered by a monkey's mask.  His fighting was clever and power-ful, canny, but mine was tactical and graceful, control andskill.  I left him unconscious and made his power my own as well.Next, I fought a man with the horns of a stag, in a larger cir-cle.  He bounded and leapt, and attempted to take the fight tome, but I made myself the Hunter, and he, too fell before myonslaught, and I added his power to mine.     I grew aware of the hugeness of the chamber, and many menchanting outside in a language I did not know.  Some wore robes,most wore only paint.  I felt larger, larger than life, full ofpower, and stepped into the fourth circle.  I saw that I washeading towards a huge dais, and the pentacles into which Istepped became more and more intricately detailed.  Perhaps somepart of me might have wanted to flee, but it was long subsumed bythe huge power residing within me.      The fourth circle held the Giant, who looked down at me andgrinned evilly.  He threw a boulder at me, which I shattered witha slap, and then I raised him off the ground as Heracles did toAntaeus, and crushed the life out of him, redoubling my strength.In the fifth circle, I slew the Minotaur by taking each of hishorns in a hand, and breaking open his skull.  I was imbued withthe powers of a demigod at least by this time, walking into thesixth circle, the one holding the dragon.  The fight was hard,the flames of the dragon almost enough to make me falter, butthen I realized that they were power too, and took them for myown, absorbing it into my shield while I made my heart's thrustwith my blade.  The dragon's blood fountained out, covering me,and by its power my skin was made invulnerable like that unto theskin of Achilleus.      I stepped triumphant into the final circle, the most intri-cately drawn.  The chanting and drumming reached their peak andstayed, and the fog of incense cleared, allowing me to see whosat upon the dais, who sat upon the throne, who presided over theproceedings.      The ancient texts named him Baphomet; Satan Mekratrig'swarrior-duke.  My sword and shield were limp in my grasp as Ilooked up, as he was many hundreds of feet tall.  His head wasthe head of an ibex, with the outward-spiralling horns, gazinginscrutably down upon me with the eyes of a beast.  His shaggychest was traced with scars delineating his prowess in battle,inflicted perhaps by a flaming sword.  He stood, rising from histhrone, on the legs of a goat, stepping into the seventh pentacleon cloven hooves.  In his right hand he held a sword cold as ice,and his left stroked his impossibly huge phallus.  As the warri-or-magus, he wielded the primal Wand, and his scent struck me anigh-physical blow with the power of his maleness.  I staggered,and could not bear the weight of my shield, letting it drop intothe abysmal pit below my feet, lost.      His sword came down in a strike of stunning complexity.Each swath of ice threatening to leach my power I blocked, untilfinally the blades struck, and mine was shattered through nofault of mine own; the block was perfect but the sword insuffi-cient.      Baphomet's grin was terrible to behold.      He held out his hands, inviting the challenge.  The powerrushed back through me, and I accepted, locking my fingers withhis, using all my strength in the age-old game.  He towered aboveme, pushing down, but still I held, and pushed back.  Hisstrength doubled, and doubled again; still I held, and forcedback.  I became a statue, exerting all my strength while hisdoubled and pressed ever down against me.  Then, his heightbecame in relation to mine, and his cock curved up from hisbestial crotch, engorged with blood, to my mouth.  To break mystance would be to be crushed.  The head of his phallus pressedhugely against my lips, rubbing and wettening them.  With hisstrength ever doubling, I could not help but open my mouth tobreath, allowing the cock entry.  Shifts of his body and torso inattempts to dislodge my stance rubbed the head against my help-less, panting, licking tongue, overwhelming me with the power ofhis scent and taste.      His strength redoubled again, and I began to bend, my mouthnow filled with his Wand.  Still his strength increased, and Ihad to move.  I twisted his arms in my grip unexpectedly, steppedin, felt his weight shift as I pulled him to throw over my hip,his right hoof scraping, unsteady,      And he pushed me laughably to the hard floor, spinning andpinning me on my back.  Reorienting around the tip of his cock inmy mouth, he thrust it home to the back of my throat and beyond.It slid, oiled, for an eternity until my face was embedded be-tween his hairy thighs and held tight there, only able to breathethe aroma of his heavy, full sacks.  Though I could not see it,his tongue serpent-like struck between my legs and slid up be-tween my cheeks, forcing me open and greasing me with its slime.      Finally he released my throat, allowing me to breathe.  Myrespite was only momentary, as he forced me to my hands and kneesand mounted me like a beast.  Time lost meaning as I became hisconcubine, his tongue wrapping about my neck as a collar, invad-ing my helpless mouth and throat, and reaching down to where hishands brutally held my cock and balls by virtue of which to pullme back and forth on his rod in a piston-like action.  I washelpless as the object of his demonic lust, lost in sensation,able only to serve as I was subjugated by his true power.      I began to explode, unable to contain him as his powerspurted forth into me, coating me for faster, more powerfulthrusts and explosions.  My every cell was inundated with hislust, heated to white-hot, until I could take it no more and lostconsciousness.      I awoke the next day, and knew that now, I was truly aTemplar.  I felt the power of the demonseed filling me, and knewthat I could release it at will, that I had the true power withinme, and I was Baphomet's, now and forever.