Pairs of Pumpkins #11: The Teleporting Tours of a Top-Heavy Teenager (08/13)

It wasn't long before the others emerged from the lab. At least it seemed that way for the time Anastasia passed masturbating.  

Eva was talking with her brothers, complaining to them about the organization and handwriting of his Zarron's notes. He was disorganized but only other wizards had any chance to make any sense of them anyway.

One of the Duos was brazenly staring at her behind as she walked. Were they all so horny? How long would it be before that boiled over? Was it a risk to her plan? What could she do about it if it was?

Ana counted them off: Eva. Duayne at her side, like always. Nine Duos. She only recognized the one she'd talked to by his newfound swagger. They passed through the room. That was all of them.

The lab was empty.  

Anastasia waited until all of their voices had faded away into the second floor and another long moment to be sure. She pushed through the door and hurried back towards the basement. Along the way she eyed the large planter nearest the teleportation seal, behind which her sack of stolen magic and components was still stashed.

As fast as she safely could, she descended the stairs again, through the doorway and straight for the jar preserving her mother's unfertilized eggs. If the Duos failed, Zarron would resume production of more children and likely, Zentalia could too. The jar would also be the easiest thing to carry.

The lab itself was well-warded like the library but he had not gone back to exclude her from the exceptions. To be doubly-sure, she hunched forward and scanned for any new magical protections. There were none though it had Zarron's residual trace on it, presumably from their work earlier in the day.

She reached out for the jar and eased her fingers around it. No traps. No wards. She picked it up.

Holding it aloft, she paused and allowed herself a heavy sigh, then inspected it. Was it that simple to put a stop to all of this? It was noticably less full than it was a year ago, odd for how few eggs were incubating. Perhaps in his rage or lack of focus over her departure, he had spilled some.

It didn't matter now. She had it! A thousand or more remaining, potential siblings, spared from whatever fate Zarron's buyers would decide.

She turned and walked to the incubator and the eleven, full-sized, rune-painted eggs in it.  

She rubbed her cheek and considered the options. The eggs in the pool needed the nutrient fluid to survive. Once in the incubator, they relied on the uninterrupted heat at least until they were nearly ready. Some of them might be mature enough to save but there was no way to tell from the outside, without knowing when they were made. The newer ledger pages confirmed that three of them were older than the other eight and nearly ready to hatch but there was no way to see from the outside which was which.  

Seeing through the shells however, would tell her.

Anastasia set down the jar on the edge of the incubator and took several steps away for safety. Teenage years spent in Zarron's lab made her very aware how easily she knocked things off of countertops.

With a broad gesture of both hands that ended in her covering her eyes with her palms, she muttered ancient Words of Power to cast the spell "Sight Beyond." It was one she learned while she was younger but hadn't had much practical use for until she was helping her mother surveil locations before they would sneak in together.

"Sight Beyond" saw past the outer layers of things to reveal what was behind. It wasn't effective past thick stone and couldn't see beyond ferrous metals at all. For egg shells it was overkill but because it was a spell that manipulated light instead of actively projecting, it was a passive magic effect that would not endanger the fetuses.  

She pulled her palms away and her eyes glowed with a golden yellow. It would work until she blinked again. Within the eggs as expected were eleven developing fetuses, eight of them the same, immature age of just over six months. The remaining three were also the same size as each other and  from a different visit eight months ago, as they were almost fully mature

She stepped into the heat of the incubator and paced among the eggs, considering her options. The teleportation runes could be broken with a scratch of her fingernail. The paint on them was still fresh enough to smell. That would stop their delivery, at least until Zarron's next visit, which should be his final one.  

Scanning over them she found the shortest path between them then moved from egg to egg, scratching a line in the paint of each to break the magic. A fizzle of ozone confirming each rune rendered inert. It was likely that an angry customer with a missed delivery might return before Zarron. Eva could handle that if it happened and if not, the Duos would. She finished the job.

It was hard to imagine any of them would allow more of their sisters and brothers to be sold off but she concluded it would be best to take the three mature ones with her for their safety. If only she could carry them. She still had an overstuffed bag to deal with.

With a heavy head, she looked down at her chest and sighed. It would be easier for anyone else to do what needed to be done.  

With a scan of the room, she considered any kind of makeshift sack or sling but there were limited used for such things in a laboratory. Upstairs, there were linens she could fashion something out of but that would run the risk of crossing Eva and the Duos again. She had to work fast and get straight to the teleportation seal.

There were spells that might help her, to fortify the egg shells to be more resistant to dropping but fetuses were incredibly sensitive to magic. She might do permanent harm by trying. Levitating them was safe enough but only for one egg at a time and she'd need a hand free to guide the spell.

She'd have to do her best and carry one under each arm, though she hadn't so much as picked one up since the accident. That left one more. For that, she turned to the Egg Moving Automaton.

"EMA, wake up."

EMA rose from its seated squat to stand. Zarron hadn't thought to remove her permissions for that either.

There were no other hints to the change in its status. No whirling gears of mechanical hum. It was perfectly silent and still, an uncanny facsimile of life.

Ana stepped over the youngest of the three, almost mature eggs.  

"EMA, come to me."

It wouldn't listen to Eva, Duayne or any of the Duos: only Zarron and her, as long as it didn't contradict him or his directives. Those weren't weren't very sophisticated. It was an armature animated by magic, the same as she might use to animate a broom to clean. And so, with the quiet, musical whirl of precision, clockwork gears, it walked to her.

"Hello EMA. Nice to see you again," she patted its head and set a hand on top of the egg. "EMA, please pick up this egg."

The tolerances of the automaton were so precise that its egg-shaped body looked solid and seamless but when called upon to open, several hairline cracks appeared with hard edges and right angles, reminding of its mechanical original.

Its top flipped back like a lid revealing its hollow, thickly padded interior. Next, its midsection opened as front, double doors that combined to make up most of its circumference. Open, it exposed metal forks upholstered in leather and standing upright, almost to the inside of where the lid had been. They lowered and locked into position, parallel with the ground.  

EMA squared up to Anastasia's unborn sibling and squatted, before rolling forward on tiny wheels until the forks were fully beneath the bowl it was tailor-fit to carry.  

It tilted back, easing the egg and it's base to rest in its cushioned cradle before its front doors closed again, then its top hatch. The seams disappeared again, the organic egg enveloped and protected within the mechanical one.

Under her thick fur, Ana was starting to sweat in the heated space and would need to hurry before her hands got slippery. She went to the second egg and scooped it up in her arms, securing it against the bottoms of her breasts. Carefully, she waddled it over to the third and set it down.  

Another sigh and she looked back to the jar of her mother's eggs, still sitting on the edge of the pool. Did they even matter, other than depriving Zarron of them? Hard to say. She could shatter the jar and it'd be one less thing to carry.  

That seemed wrong. They weren't technically alive but each was a potential future sister or brother. She walked over and grabbed it, then went back to stand between the eggs With a deep sigh, she twisted herself one way to looked down at one egg by her feet, then the other way, locating them mentally.

"Okay..." she mused aloud, her eyes darting over all the things she had to carry, feeling the sweat on her forehead and scalp accumulating.

First, she jammed the jar into the top of her cleavage to the lid where the sheer size of her breasts and the tension between them could support it. Next, she stepped between the eggs and squatted.  

With her rump nearly on the ground, her spine upright and her knees trembling, she wrapped an arm around each one. She pulled them until they were nestled against the massive but mercifully pliant breast meat, pushing them up towards her muzzle and out over her arms, squeezing the jar tighter.  

With a soft grunt, she stood back up. They were heavy but as secure as she could get them. It was time to go.

"EMA, follow me."

Anastasia walked as fast as she safely could, turning sideways through the low gate into the incubator then straight for the exit. EMA wasn't noisy as it moved, it's whirling gears a soothing song but it weighed over two hundred pounds and its hard-soled footsteps were louder than the barefoot vixen. It kept up with her attempt to hurry pausing only when she reached the stairs and scooted up them with her back to the wall again.  

The automaton followed, one step at a time.  

At the top, she paused to listen. Silence. The library was upstairs. Her shoulders started to burn, each egg laden with a fetus and a few gallons of amniotic fluid.

She hurried straight for the house's main Teleportation Seal, a twenty foot circle, big enough to safely receive a small group. In the center, she squated to the ground to release the eggs. With a deep sigh she stood and removed the jar from between her breasts then set it down in front of her, forming a triangle.

"EMA, wait here."

This was an dangerous state to leave the seal in, the automaton several feet behind her inside it. Any incoming teleportations risked being merged with anything occupying the seal in a way that would be irreversible, disfiguring and very likely lethal to all involved lifeforms, hatched or otherwise. To leave it like this for even a moment was a violation of every safety protocol for an already, incredibly risky magic.

She hurried to the stashed sack of stolen books and materials, concealed near the seal It was bigger than her torso and she had to squat to lift it over her shoulder.  

Wide eyes darted around the mezzanine level again. Still empty. She rushed to the circle with a less delicate waddle before setting it down between and slightly behind the eggs. The jar was next and she picked it up and pushed it back down into her cleavage then sat down on the bag.

In position, she placed a hand on each egg.

"EMA, step closer to me."

It took one step, still a few feet from her.

"EMA, take two steps."

It did, stopping shy of running into her breasts.

"EMA, take one more small step."

It did not move. Of course it didn't: colliding into anyone was forbidden by EMA's instructions.

With a quick sigh, Anastasia leaned forward to close the gap, pushing the soft flesh of her bosom against the steel curve of the automaton's body, the permanent enchantment keeping its shell pleasantly warm. Teleportation required contact, not any specific touching. This would count.

She closed her eyes and focused on the teleport Sigil of her bedroom in The Pale Lands, far away from here.  

The world turned white. Then black. A crack of reality bending that the Duos and Eva might hear. It didn't matter now. There was silence. The air was different. Dry. Cold. The ozone taste filled her mouth and nose with uncomfortable dryness. She tasted iron and licked over her teeth. It was a lot of magic in a short amount of time and teleportation was especially tolling on the body.

That didn't matter now. She opened her eyes with a sign of relief: she was back home, safe in The Pale Lands.  

The bag, EMA, the jar and both eggs had all made the jump with her. She'd need to get them to a heat source soon. The fireplace downstairs would work but first, she would need clothes.  

After all, there were children present.