It was Michael’s empty stomach twisting and grumbling in his gut which awoke him the next time. Famished, his body still ached slightly all over, as it felt as if his stomach was trying to claw its way outside his chest, looking for food. Glancing over, Crystal was still sitting leaned over, head resting on his bed and holding his right hand, sleeping. Hoping to not disturb her, he wiggled his fingers a few times and gently tried to extract them from hers.

“Are you all right?!” Jerking suddenly upright, Crystal half yelped, sleep heavily crusting the corners of her eyes, and immediately bent forward to check on him.

Grinning lightly, Michael slowly lifted his hand, cupped it around her bare breast, and squeezed it gently. “I’m doing better now,” he whispered, his voice still weak and cracking.

“I’ll let the lady know!” Spinning excitedly, she turned and suddenly ran from the room.

Looking around, Michael tried to piece together what happened to him. He remembered being at the cavern. He remembered the burning torment as his flesh bubbled and melt away to nothingness. Then there was nothing, until he woke up on the island. Lifting the cover slightly, he glanced down at his own naked midsection and sighed lightly in relief.

Somehow, impossibly, Le’Nara was there, and she’d had her way with him. Then Crystal had her way. Then Le’Nara. Then a string of girls he didn’t know, followed again by Le’Nara. If he wasn’t dreaming, he wouldn’t have been surprised to wake up and find his little meat worn down to nothing more than a nub. Blinking groggily, he rubbed his eyes and stared down at himself under the covers.

Perhaps it wasn’t all a dream. He must be pretty badly swelled, because somehow it seemed he was a lot larger than before.

Trying not to think about it for now, Michael tried to sort out what had happened to him after that. Something awful, which his mind was blocking the memory of, but which left him in a cold sweat and chills when he tried to remember. Something terrible had happened, but he had no idea what it was now, and every instinct in his body was screaming at him that it was something he didn’t want to remember.

A grumbling thunder leaked out of his stomach as it twisted and violently reminded him that he was hungry, pushing all ruminations out of him thoughts. Struggling to sit up – his body still seemed sluggish and unresponsive – Michael forced himself to turn in the bed and work one leg over the side and then the other. With another herculean effort of will which left him covered in sweat and trembling from the effort, he forced himself to sit upright.

“Jackass!” Le’Nara’s voice cut through the fog in his head, making him jerk upright and glance over towards her, as she came marching through the doorway wearing nothing more than a pair of sandals which laced up to her knees. “You shouldn’t be pushing yourself! Lay back down, right this instant,” she demanded.

“Help me up,” Michael asked, stubbornly shaking his head from side to side, then regretting it as it made his vision spin and his eyes blur. “I want to get something to eat.”

“We can bring you something to eat,” Le’Nara told him as she moved around the side of the bed. Sitting down beside him, she wrapped an arm around his shoulders and tugged him over against her so she could help support him while he was sitting up.

“What happened?” Laying his head over on her shoulder, Michael breathed deeply, indulging in the smell of sweet cheer blossoms from her hair. “I missed this,” he whispered softly, closing his eyes to let the smell sooth his troubled thoughts.

“Well, where do I start?” Laughing lightly looking at his contented expression, Le’Nara climbed up fully onto the bed and sat with her back against the headboard. Spreading her knees wide, she trickled a small wave of magic over to Michael and lifted him, floating him back across the bed until his back was firmly pressed up against her chest. “Here, you can rest up here in my arms,” she told him gently, wrapping her legs around his body, “and I don’t have to worry about you toppling over out of bed.”

Using her hands, she gently worked her hair out from where it was pinned against the headboard, behind her back, and then she draped it gently around Michael like a small blanket. A slight touch of life magic, and it grew longer and thicker, until it hung over his front and pooled in his lap. “If you like to smell my hair, or play with it, there it is. Indulge yourself while resting against me all you want.”

“But I still can’t eat it,” Michael pouted slightly, rubbing his hands through it and enjoying the fresh scent of cherry blossoms all around. “Though with it this long, I could probably use it for a distraction somewhere else,” he tried to tease, gently stroking the long hair bunched between his legs.

“That’s fine too,” Le’Nara laughed. “It’s not like a little man juice will make it fall out or anything. Even if it did,” she shrugged, wrapping her arms around him, “I’d just grow it back with magic. If that’s what you want to do when I’m right here, willing to let you do anything else you might want, that’s fine with me.”

“Well I’d like something to eat,” Michael insisted, leaning back and resting himself against her. “And I’d like to know what happened. Why do I feel so much like a burnt up old cow patty?”

Laughing lightly, Le’Nara wrapped her arms around his shoulders and slowly traced small circles on his chest with her fingertips. “Food will have to wait,” she told him. “At least until your mother has examined you and decided what you can have. You’ve been just having my milk for the last few days.”

“Milk? Yours?” Bewildered, Michael struggled to turn so he could face her.

“Would you like some now?” Giggling to herself, Le’Nara pushed him forward about a hand’s span and then wiggled herself so she was now sitting on his left, with him still firmly supported between her knees. “You can get it straight from the spigot, if you want.” Smirking at him, she lifted one teardrop bosom and pressed it forward towards his lips.

“Since when did you make milk? Are you with child? Already had one?” Staring at her suspiciously, Michael reached over and gently squeezed her breast, watching a small stream of milk spray out and onto him.

“No child, and you should know I’ve never had one! That was sis who was trying for that!” Looking at his dumbfounded expression, Le’Nara giggled lightly while explaining. “You can thank your mother for this. She said that the flows of life energy were strong in me, and that my milk would be strong and nutritious. Life magic is one of the things which I specialize in, so she zapped me so I could make milk. She said it was the best thing we could get down you while you were unconscious and healing.”

“Don’t worry,” Le’Nara laughed, “you can have all you want of it. She enchanted them, and they won’t run out as long as my magic doesn’t run out, and the drain they put on it is almost nothing. I could fill you up a whole tub and let you take a milk bath if you want.”

Shocked at what she was saying, Michael blurted out the first thought that crossed his mind. “Who the hell would want to bathe in your milk?”

“It’s good for the skin,” Le’Nara told him defensively. “It just takes a while to fill a tub, and feels odd as all get-out doing it.”

“So you’ve did it?” Michael chuckled a few times, trying to imagine her sitting on the edge of a tub, squeezing and endless stream of warm milk from each breast, waiting for a tub to fill.

“Anyway,” Le’Nara said, letting go of her breast and wrapping her arms back around him, “let’s see what blanks I can fill in for you before Crystal gets back with Lady Morningstar.” Wanting to hear what she had to say, Michael ignored both the grumbling complaint from his stomach and the fact that she’d blatantly changed the subject.

“Your friends came to me back in Gondor, at a small little house which I’d set up to do business out of,” Le’Nara started explaining, wiggling herself back behind Michael again and pulling him back into her arms once more. “Told me an interesting tale of how you knighted a young man, had disappeared, and showed me your companions who they couldn’t wake.”

Seeing that it looked like Michael was going to interrupt to ask questions, Le’Nara gently placed her hand around his mouth and trickled a small dose of life magic into it, making his tongue, teeth, and gums go completely numb. “Now, now dear. Let a lady finish before you start asking questions.” Giggling slightly, she flipped him gently on the nose before wrapping her arms back around him.

“I’ll never get to tell you anything,” she explained, “I you interrupt me every two sentences and ask questions.”

“Flibne,” Michael agreed, drooling slightly from the corner of his lip.

“I checked into things and the young lord and his wife were sent off to Andor to present themselves to sis. Mongo and Tiffany, I believe their names were,” Le’Nara continued, taking a few strands of her long white hair to dab at the corner of his mouth with. “The little bitch healer – I don’t remember her name off the top of my head – I sent her to Pussy. She’s probably naked and chained in the alchemy labs now, a slave for whatever they can find suitable to breed her with once she pops out her first abomination.”

“Pubby? Spabe?” Michael tried to ask something, causing Le’Nara to giggle lightly and wipe at the spittle at the corner of his face again.

“With those three out of the way, that only left Crystal and Ghost to deal with,” Le’Nara continued, pulling his head so it’d rest back between her breasts gently. Stroking his forehead lightly, she explained. “Magic is a force of balances, and a good wizard strives to find that balance in themselves and their mana. Since I focus heavily on life, the balance to that is death, so I also studied it extensively.”

“I debber blubbied boupt babbabeces,” Michael tried to tell her.

“I know.” Laughing slightly, Le’Nara stroked his head gently. “Why do you think I run around naked all the time? Along with life and death, I also push myself just as hard to learn the ways of air. I want to feel it. Immerse myself in it. I try to surround myself in it as much as possible.”

“And I’ll never learn or use earth for as long as I live,” Le’Nara declared stubbornly. “If the choice was to use earth magics or perish, I’d seriously consider perishing first. I need no earth in my life to balance me magics. I have you.” Leaning forward, Le’Nara gently rested the front of her head against the back of his. “My air is the balance to your earth. Your earth is the balance to my air. We complement and fulfill each other.

“That’s why you don’t have to worry about being balanced,” she whispered softly into his ear. “I made certain to grow and focus my magics so I could be your balance for you.”

A sudden burst of hearty feminine laughter echoed in from the door. “My, oh my! Aren’t you a cunning little minx, finding a way to wiggle yourself into the life of an ageless man. I’ll have to remember this trick for the future.” Standing at the door, beaming a wide smile, was Lady Morningstar.

“It won’t work for you, old hag.” Looking up, Le’Nara stuck her tongue out at Michael’s mother. “You’re already too old, too powerful, and too skilled in all the arts. You can’t turn your back on one sphere of influence to focus on another to offset your life partner.”

Grinning wildly, Le’Nara couldn’t help but tease her. “Who’s the amateur now, old bitty?”