I sigh again, for the umpteenth time, as I look around the workshop. In the opposite corner there is a forge that is burning low, an anvil is set up off to the side next to a large barrel that has a pipe running into it from the wall, and all along the walls there are multiple workbenches set up with a plethora of tools around them. Thankfully Leyla at least cleaned a spot for me to sit down.

Across the room Leyla is standing at one of the tables, with her back to me rummaging for something, she wasn’t very clear about what she wanted when she dragged me down here after we finished unloading the cart.

“I just want my food, and cake.”

“Don’t pout,” Shiva says laughing, as she has been since I was pulled away from the front door and a very confused Melodiana, “In a way this is your fault.”

“Is not my fault,” I tell her while I swing my foot through the air. “Is this actually necessary?” I ask Leyla as she turns towards me holding a ball of string in her hand triumphantly.

“Yes I told ya this morning that I needed ta get measurements for your armor,” she heads towards me, navigating around the things strewn across the floor, “And I need ta talk about the design with ya as well”

I sigh again looking down at the table beside me at the pile of neatly folded clothes, “And why does that require me to be naked?”

“You’re not naked,” Leyla immediately protests, blushing slightly, “I gave ya an apron to wear, and it is so that I can get accurate measurements.”

“But won’t I be wearing clothes normally?”

“You are certainly being vocal today,” Shiva says as I fidget on the table, “Especially since you have that bad habit of wandering around half-naked anyway.”

“It will be fine,” Leyla reassures me, and then whispers to herself, apparently not realizing that I can hear her, “and maybe this will teach ya some modesty.”

“Oh I think she knows very well that you can hear her,” Shiva laughs again.

“Just make this quick,” I sigh.

She nods and walks over towards me and pauses. "Are you going to put your tails down?" she raises an eyebrow at me.

I feel myself frown at the thought of showing off my back, even if for just a moment. "They naturally fan upwards," I lie and try to ease my own nerves, "You will just have to reach through them."

She watches me for a moment and narrows her eyes before she wraps the string around my waist. Her hands pass through my fur without any issue and she pinches where the string touches itself. Then she stretches the string along the side of the table that I notice that she has marked along. She quickly turns over towards a small binding of paper and begins to scrawl across the surface while silently muttering to herself.

“As I was saying about the design,” she says as she measures around my hips, “I have a few ideas, but I need your approval, and of course minor alterations may need ta be made after it is completed.”

“I see,” I sigh and nod my understanding as she runs the string down from my hip to my knee.

After she writes the next measurement down, she reaches around me in an almost hug, taking me slightly by surprise. As she leans back she drops a small blue book in my lap, “There are a few design ideas in that, near the end, that ya can look through.”

I pick the book up turn it over and run my finger along its spine before I notice a thin red ribbon between the pages apparently marking a spot around halfway through. I carefully inset my finger nail above the ribbon and open the book to sketches carefully done in charcoal. Leyla goes back to taking her measurements so I decide to do my best to ignore her.

“She is quite talented isn’t she,” Shiva whispers in my ear as I examine the suit of armor on the page.

“How does this fit the criteria at all?” I question the elaborate full-plate.

“Well you would certainly be protected in that,” She laughs in response.

“I wouldn’t even be able to move in that,” I grumble as I turn the page to an even more ludicrous set of robes. if you could even call them robes with the cloth that they are missing, “That is not even armor.”

“Hmm, I vaguely remember dancers wearing clothing similar to that in the past for worshiping the gods.”

I turn the page again with a silent sigh, and Shiva says, “She must have marked the wrong place, since that looks more like an actual design.”

“It isn’t platemail but it still seems like it might be difficult to move in, and does she really think it needs to have that much space,” I ponder looking at the breastplate that rounds out quite a bit in the front, “And I'll never be able to hide that underneath my clothes. Those pauldrons look heavy as well.”

“You’re just never happy,” Shiva snickers, “Might as well look on the next pages and see what else she thought of.”

“Is this one supposed to look like a ball gown?” I ask after I turn the page, “I mean I see a breastplate, that still has too much room, and there are some armor plates down the length of the skirt. How am I supposed to fight in that?”

“Maybe her goal is to actually just dress you up in different kinds of clothing and armor.”

I sigh and turn the page again and pause.

…

…

“What is this?” I ask examining the page. The dress is extremely low cut exposing a large amount of the wearer’s breasts, and it appears to be the same all the way around the back as well. The torso leads down into a staggered semi loose skirt that goes from thigh length on one side to below the knee on the other side, all topped off with thigh high stockings and short boots. The only armor part of it appears to be a singular gauntlet.

Shiva comments happily, “I like it; I think that is the one you should pick.”

“Of course you like it,” I sigh.

“You never buy or wear anything nice,” Shiva pouts.

“That’s not true, I have worn elegant clothing in the past, and you like the nightgown.”

“Those times don’t count because you were doing it to blend in for a hunt. You should buy and wear pretty things just because they are pretty, and you will look pretty in them,” She continues to whine, “And you have apparently been holding out on me with another nightgown.”

“None of that addresses the current issue at hand of not having a suitable suit of armor, and these designs are not very helpful,” I respond turning the page again, this time to a blank page. I turn another page and then another only to find more blank pages.

“Apparently it is one extreme or the other with her designs,” Shiva laughs.

“AppareKYAAH,” I start as Leyla grabs my breasts, and I feel her jump in shock as well. Only moments later I register the feeling of the string wrapped around my upper torso.

“That is the reaction you should have when someone sees your breasts as well,” Shiva mocks.

“Sorry,” Leyla says blushing slightly, “I didn’t mean ta startle ya, but I need ta get the measurement of your…,” she looks down at her hands underneath the apron, still on my breasts, and her speech drops off. She looks back up like she wants to say something but then pauses…

…

…

“I guess we should have bound them after all,” I tilt my head to the side, “It’s what I normally do.”

She bursts out in a fit of giggles, “That may have made them a bit easier ta control and measure.”

“If you need to we can go ahead and take care of it,” I tell her laughing slightly myself, and as I lean forward I can feel her hands slide around the side of my breasts.

“Nah it should be fine I think the string is just long enough if ya hold still for just a moment and stop laughing,” she says taking a deep breath while readjusting her hands her fingers brush along my side causing me to laugh and squirm, and she says in a joking tone, “Didn’t I just tell ya ta stop laughing and hold still?”

“It’s n- not my fault, it tickles,” I complain while trying to straighten up.

“What tickles?” Iris asks coming down to the bottom of the stairs, and turning towards the two of us. She pauses and looks over to my pile of clothes and then back towards us. Leyla turns her head slowly, and her face turns more pale the entire time. There is a moment of silence and Iris’s face gets overly happy, but at the same time she is visibly grinding her teeth, “Just what is going on down here hmm?”

“Someone is certainly upset,” Shiva laughs in my ear.

“Nah now this is,” Leyla begins to stammer out.

“After all of that lecturing this morning about how I have to be more careful with myself, and cautious of others. Even after I convinced you that the only thing that happened was I rubbed her back on a few occasions and got to pet her tails afterword,” She takes a deep breath still holding that smile on her face, “and then I find ya down here with her naked, rubbing her bare breasts, and flirting with her.”

“I’m not naked, I’m wearing an ap-,” I start to protest, and Iris shifts her gaze over to me and just glares, “-ron.”

“That is quite a scary face,” Shiva whispers.

“I’ll deal with ya in a minute,” She hisses under her breath, before turning back towards her sister, “and after all of that I was nearly late. So what do you have to say for yourself?”

“I can ex-” Leyla begins to say.

“If you were interested in her yourself, that’s all ya had to say,” Iris cuts her off again, the tip of her tail is now twitching back and forth angrily, “I wasn’t going to stand in your way if that’s what ya were worried about.”

“It appears that the angrier she becomes the more she begins to sound like her sister,” I comment and Shiva just laughs.

“And ya,” she says turning her gaze back to me while pointing, “I can’t believe that a dairy cow such as yaself could cause so many problems, and ya should definitely act more modestly and ladylike, and I guess when ya two lovers are finished up down here we can go eat with Melodiana, but only because I already told her that we would be happy to go with her.” She turns tail and leaves back up the ramp by the stairs.

…

…

…

Leyla and I look at each other in silence before I say, “Well that was certainly something else.”

“She’s going ta be impossible to live with now,” She sighs, “and it is just long enough.”

She pulls the string and lays it next to her marks on the table before sighing again, “What’s the problem now?”

“There aren’t enough marks on the table,” she says sighing again while looking at my chest, and mutters, “It’s amazing how big they are.”

“I’m not fat,” I immediately look away from her while crossing my arms in protest.

“You do realize that you don’t have to have the standard thin lithe figure, little princess?” Shiva asks while sighing, “I mean did you even look at the tailor girl, her chest is nice and large.”

“Hmm,” she hums looking confused, “I didn’t say that you were. In fact even though ya don’t seem ta have much muscle, ya are quite lean. I suppose it’s a blood thing for them ta get so big.”

…

…

In the silence that follows Leyla reaches up and begins to measure my around my arms, “What are with these designs anyway?” I ask, “They seem to be one extreme of heavy or not armor at all.”

“They heavy sets are for another project, and the other designs are armored,” She says writing more numbers on her pad, “They are based off of Brigandine armor. They would have a layer of scaled armor in between the fabric making it effectively unnoticeable, and I have discussed with Alice and she has shown me a few other techniques so it should have no problems against bladed weapons.”

She pauses while wrapping the string around my neck, “Blunt weapons should of course be avoided, and crossbows as well, arrows would be iffy. It will be easier ta enchant as well as instead of engraving sigils into metal, they can be sewn into the inner layer of fabric. They are both designed ta allow ya ta move around as much as you want to, or they should be but that is where minor modifications come in.”

“Hmm, seems like she really thought about everything doesn’t it?” Shiva giggles.

I purse my lips, and ask “But why are they designed like this?” I turn to the first one and point at the middle of the figure as she wraps the string around the top of my breasts, “There isn’t even any fabric here in this diamond, leaving most of everything from under my breasts to my hips exposed. There is a lot of important stuff in those areas.”

“I drew that one up with the idea of maximum movement in mind,” She shrugs her shoulders as she measures the bottom of my breasts, “I’ll need ya ta stand up ta get the last measurements.”

“In a moment,” I tell her turning to the other, “Isn’t that a bit too low cut to provide adequate protection, on top of showing quite a bit of skin? And why a skirt and stockings?”

She tilts her head and has a look like she can’t believe what she just heard, “A skirt and stockings would allow ya the most movement,” She pauses and rubs her temple, “And I find it quite entertaining that ya, who has the tendency ta walk around this house nearly naked, and has been seen bare breasted by the rest of us, would be concerned about showing a bit of cleavage off.”

“Those are two entirely different situations. This is my current home, and you are all women as well, and everywhere else is… well everywhere else.”

“That is…” she sighs, “It won’t be an issue ta extend it higher, as long as it is the set that ya want made.”

I sigh, “Not particularly. Could you just make the armor without any of the dress components? If it is a thin and flexible as you claim I would be able to wear it underneath my everyday clothes without a problem.”

“Think of it as less of a dress and more of a bodysuit,” She says, “it should be tight enough to fit under your clothes, or you could just wear it on its own as well.”

“Fine,” I sigh after a moment of silence. I am only buying it to get Marion off of my back anyay, “But that skirt is going to cause issues.”

“Really? I can't seem to think of a reason as to why. It will leave you with ample room to move and the stockings will protect your legs,” Leyla nods her head, ignoring the option of doing away with the skirt entirely.

“Fine,” I mumble conceding to her sense of ascetics.

“Yes,” Shiva cheers triumphantly.

“Good, now stand up and then we can go get some food,” Leyla says picking the string back up. I nod my head, carefully scoot off of the table and stand up straight. She runs the string from the inside of my knee to my ankle, checks it on her marks before jotting something down and turns back towards me. She places the string on my knee, runs the other end up to the top of my leg and says, “That’s surprising.”

“What’s surprising?” I ask looking down to her, and I notice that she is looking up the edge of the apron causing me to blush slightly.

She looks up farther noticing that I am watching her, and she starts to blush. “Nah nothing,” she mutters breaking eye contact and she stretches the string tight.

“That doesn’t seem like nothing.”

“It’s nothing,” She quickly says looking back up at me, but her eyes quickly look back under the edge of the apron again, before she looks back up at me again.

…

…

…

A few moments pass in silence with the two of us looking at each other before she says “It is just surprising that, after not finding any hair on your legs or under your arms, that ya would have hair… there... let alone a full-”

…

She starts blushing even harder, and I can feel my face heat up even more as well.

“You are just a big pervert aren’t you?”

She stands up and mumbles “Sorry.”

“Its fine,” I sigh taking a deep breath in attempt to calm down. After a moment I start to laugh, and she joins me. “Anyway can I get dressed now?”

“Yeah I have all the measurements that I need now,” She says flipping the book closed and sitting it on the desk, “So let’s go have dinner, and perhaps we can find a way ta get back on Iris’s good side.”

I nod my head, slide my panties back on, and as I turn for the rest of my clothes she says, “Oh hold on for just a second." She quickly wraps the string around the base of my tails, “Almost forgot about those, and right on the hips for convince.”