Blessed Be
By Chained Knee
As always, the author invites comment at chained.knee@yahoo.com
Jenny’s hands were clamped tensely on the car steering wheel while Liz wrestled with a map.
“I’ve seen that tree before.” Jenny grumbled. “We’re driving in circles.”
“How can you tell?” Liz protested. “Tree’s all look the same.”
“You see the same tree over and over, you know.” Jenny growled. “We’re lost. I told you we should have sprung for GPS.”
Liz tossed the map into the back seat. “It’s not like they come with a best escape route feature.” She said.
“We better find out where we are. The whole plan was to get away from Vinnie asap. It was your bright idea to take back roads.”
“He’ll have people driving the highways looking for us.” Liz observed.
“We’re not making any distance between us and him any more. He has got to be so pissed we stole a half a million dollars from him.” Jenny said.
“Actually we stole it from the mob since he was using his club to launder it for them.” Liz said.
“Yeah, that makes me feel so much better.” Jenny replied sarcastically.
“You worry too much. Would you rather be a waitress forever?’ Liz asked.
Jenny thought about it. “I’m beginning to think that is better than being on the run. Plus, $500,000 doesn’t buy what it used too.” She said.
Liz rolled her eyes. “It will buy enough. Look, my big plan was to get married and have kids. I was never going to meet the right guy in that damn town and you didn’t have such great options either. Now at least we have options. We can go anywhere. Maybe Mexico.”
“Right now we better just find out where we are. We have to stop somewhere and ask for directions.” Jenny said.
“I hate the idea of showing ourselves but you’re right.” Liz said, scanning the road. “Let’s stop at the first place we find.”
“Look here’s a farm.” Jenny pulled up to a sign by a drive and read its text, “Sera Sey Organic Farms. Vegan Community Supported Agriculture.” She turned to Liz. “Sounds really weird. Let’s try somewhere else.”
Liz nodded. “Stop worrying. Let’s take a look.”
They drove past acres of cultivated land to a group of farm buildings where they stopped the car and got out.
“Look. There is some guy over there.” Jenny observed.
Liz looked in the direction Jenny pointed. There was a man in the distance who was packing boxes with produce. He had his back to them and was visible from the waist up. They slowly walked over,inspecting him to make sure he wasn’t a threat.
“Is he wearing a sweater?” Jenny whispered.
“Yeah. In this heat and doing work? These organic food hippie types sure are weird.” Liz told Jenny and then shouted to the man to get his attention. “Hey mister!”
The man turned around and Liz and Jenny both screamed.
Though he looked like a man, that was not all he was. His deeply lined face was strong with a a pronounced ridge-like brow from which curved the short sharp horns of an ox. The thick mien of hair that fell down his shoulders and his long matted beard gave him a wild look that was offset by wide set eyes that communicated an inner gentleness. He was not wearing anything above the waist and he showed a broad iron, firm tanned chest. His arms and legs were knotted in muscles. Most conspicuously, beneath his waist and denim shorts, the only clothing he wore, he had the hind legs of a hoofed animal and a long tail that swept the ground. Neither Liz nor Jenny knew much about classical myths but they knew enough to call this half man a minotaur. He looked them blankly as they screamed, shrugged and went back to work.
Finally, Liz and Jenny regained their composure.
“Let’s get out of here!” Jenny whispered.
Liz nodded, they turned and found two creatures coming up on them. On top, they had the torsos of well built and attractive men and women. Below they had the bodies of strong shaggy haired horses, perhaps Clydesdales. The two women froze. The centaurs ignored them and hailed the minotaur.
“Blessed be the Goddess.” They said.
“Blessed be the Goddess.” The minotaur replied.
“We have plowed the south field. Shall we do the east, Ivan?” The female centaur asked.
“Not yet.” The minotaur answered. “We need to irrigate it and I have to fix the water pump. You have worked hard and need rest. You cannot properly serve the Goddess if you are worked to death”
“Blessed be the Goddess!” The centaurs said in unison.
“Blessed be the Goddess!” Agreed the minotaur.
The two centaurs turned toward a barn from which came a young man on goat legs and a chubby woman with a piggy face and three bikini tops to cover three rows of breasts. These newcomers began to wash and brush the centaurs down. None of these strange creatures paid any attention to Jenny or Liz.
“Lets get out of here!” Jenny hissed in a whisper.
“Wait!” Liz shot back and then she addressed the minotaur.
“Excuse me, um, Ivan, what is this place?
“This is the Goddess’ domain and we are her faithful servants.” The bull man answered without looking up from his work.
“What the hell is this!? Some mutant cult?” Jenny wondered.
Liz ignored her and asked the minotaur, “Where is your Goddess?”
“Away.” He answered. “She comes and goes as she pleases. Sometimes she is away for days. Sometimes for months. Her ways are not for us to understand. We exist only to serve her by running her farm.”
“Liz, let’s get out of here. I don’t want to be here if this goddess person comes back.” Jenny whined.
“No, we should stay.” Liz replied.
“That’s crazy!” Jenny protested.
“No, think about it.” Liz said. “Have you ever heard of a minotaur outside of the movies or stories?”
“Of course not.” Jenny shot back.
“So nobody knows about this place. If they did, every tabloid in creation would have a story on it. It would at least be on the Internet. The only way you can have creatures like this is on some place that is totally off the radar. Vinnie’s men will never find us here. It will be a good place to hide out for a while and the minotaur and the centaurs and all the others seem harmless.”
“And what if this Goddess shows up?” Jenny asked skeptically.
“Don’t worry so much. We’ll deal with her if she ever shows. She doesn’t seem to be around much. If she does come back and she’s not nice...well...normally I am not for using our guns because gunshots and wounds attract too much attention. Given how weird this place is, I don’t think anyone is going to call the police or anyone else if they force us to pull our MAC-10s.”
“I don’t know.” Jenny grumbled.
“It’ll be fine.” Liz laughed. “Trust me. Lets go check out the farmhouse and get some rest.”
Though the farmhouse was something out of “American Gothic”, the interior was tastefully decorated in a modern style with the occasional displays of classical antiquity. Liz picked up a Grecian vase and mused, “Why am I not surprised?”
The two made themselves at home, waiting to see if the “Goddess” would show up. When it got late, they took turns on watch just in case she came back at night or her workers got suddenly restless. They were undisturbed that night and for many nights thereafter. The farm ran itself as its human-animal workers dedicated themselves to their tasks without acknowledging the trespasser’s presence at all. There was plenty of food, albeit all vegetables, and an internet connection and satellite TV for entertainment. After a few weeks, Liz and Jenny thought the Goddess would never be coming back if she existed at all. They decided to hold up at the form until the end of the month and then strike out for some place closer to civilization.
Jenny was up early one morning and went out on the farmhouse porch with a cup of coffee. She sipped it, looked down the empty drive, turned to watch the centaurs in a field pulling plows, returned to look at the drive and found a silver Jaguar sports car parked in front of the house. She dropped her coffee cup. The car must have appeared out of thin air. She would have seen or heard it if it had driven up.
The door opened and out stepped a tall thin woman with curly blonde hair. She was fashionably dressed in a leather jacket, lace blouse on top, leather shorts, tights and short boots below. The large black sunglasses on her pretty aristocratic face made her appear just a little menacing. An expensive hand bag dangled at her side.
“Uh...hi!” Jenny stammered not sure whether she should stay or run.
The woman whipped of her glasses to reveal eyes of pale blue which she laid upon Jenny with a firm stare. Without even blinking, the woman put her sunglasses in her handbag and took out a bottle of perfume and sprayed a couple of dabs on her neck. Jenny inhaled the scent of lilacs. It was quite pleasant, so pleasant that she forgot her apprehension about this strange woman and how she had appeared.
“Who are you?” The woman demanded. “Why are you here?”
The scent of the perfume seemed to have permeated Jenny’s mind and lifted answers from it and brought them to her lips so that she spoke without hesitation.
“I’m Jenny Martin.” She answered. “Me and my friend Liz are on the run. We worked at a club the mob uses for money laundering. We stole half a mill from them. We needed a place to hide out.”
“Stealing money from the mob.” The woman said thoughtfully. “That is pretty dangerous. You must be quite brave.”
“Actually, I’m not.” Jenny found herself speaking openly and frankly, as if she was talking to the best of friends. “Liz is the brave one. I am scared to death we’re gonna get caught.” As she spoke, the fear over what she had done and its possible repercussions became unwound and paralyzed her in its ghostly icy grip.
“You must have been pretty smart to pull it off, though.” The woman told her.
“No, Liz is the smart one too.” Jenny said unable to contain her honesty. “She planned the whole thing. I just helped. I thought the money would make everything o.k. but it just put me in danger.”
“What did you expect to do with the money?” The woman asked curiously.
“Nothing really.” Jenny laughed. “Just settle down some place and not worry anything and not think about anything. Now I just want to be safe. If I could give the money back I would. I’d do anything to be safe!
“Anything?” The woman asked with a mysterious smile.
“Anything!” Jenny said firmly.
The woman’s face broke into a smile, but it was not a pleasant one, which unnerved Jenny. She finally asked herself why was she speaking so freely to this woman she didn’t even know?
“Well then. My name is Sera Sey. Welcome to my farm. Since you are in danger, you must definitely stay with me where you will be safe.”
“Great!” Jenny exclaimed excitedly.
And work for me...” The woman continued.
“Uh oh.” Jenny thought not liking the direction she was going.
“As one of my happy, productive worshipers.” She said gleefully.
“No way!” Jenny cried, backing up as if the woman had pulled a knife on her.
Sera reached into her hand bag and pulled out a silver shaped rod. “It is the best way. You get what you want, safety, and I get what I want, a productive worker to help run my farm.”
“There is no way I’ll work for you, you dumb-ass!’ Jenny shouted back.
Sera smiled. “An ass. What a wonderful idea.” She raised and waved her wand. A streams of sparkles shot out and showered on Liz. Liz screamed and started to run but found herself moving in slow motion. Her body went numb as she staggered forward and her vision was lost in a daze. Her body’s touch may have been dulled but she could sense herself expanding as if her flesh had become plastic and was being stretched apart. Below the waist she began to feel heavier but also stronger to lift the increased heft. She also felt herself being propelled forward as if the top part of her body was moving in one direction and leaving the rest of her body behind. She tried to shake off the disorientation and focus as if that could restore her solidity. After a few moments she was successful but she found herself feeling incredibly different than from before she had been touched by Sera’s wand sparkles.
“Oh no!” Jenny whined.
She stared down her chest to find she was naked above the waist and while she had had a nice rack to begin with, she was really well endowed now with thick, strong breasts with wide, dark nipples. Her skin was now deeply tanned as if she had been sunning herself on a Mediterranean beach all summer. Below her humanity, her chest flowed into the shoulders of small gray-furred horse and below that, instead of her own legs, were gray-furred hoofed horse-legs, but not as thick as the Clydesdale couple she had seen before. Turning around, she saw the barreled ribs of a gray-haired horse’s body and a pair of hoofed hind legs. Behind that a long tail of black hair swished absently.
Jenny breathed in to scream in protest and then held her breath as she felt her equine lungs expand. She cantered slowly on her new equine legs finding she could use them almost instinctively. She felt stronger than ever before in her human body, as if she could lift many many times what her old form was capable of. Even stronger was the new mass of the horse part of her body.
As she inspected herself, she felt a strange feeling about the ears as if they were moving. She reached up and found her lobes were now like long stalks perched on her head that twitched and turned to her touch. That was not all that was different. Her tongue was thicker, long and flat, and her teeth were wider too. Worst of all, her two front teeth were more pronounced and dipped slightly out her mouth.
“Turn me back!” Jenny cried. “Turn meehaw back!’ She put her hand over her buck-toothed mouth. She thought she had been turned into a centaur, part woman and horse. But she guessed from her voice that what she had really become was part girl and part donkey—part ass!
“Pleehaw. Please don’t leehaw...leave meehaw...leave me like this!” Jenny brayed.
Sera stepped forward to pat Liz on the cheek. “Oh dear, do not worry. You need not worry about anything anymore.”
Jenny tried to yell something back but Sera’s touch was doing something to her. She felt as if she were being pulled into those pools of blue.
“You need not worry about anything anymore.” Sera repeated.
Jenny struggled to fight but the ease with through which her anxiety subsided left her with no tools to fight for her mind. She found it hard to worry about what Sera was doing to her and was going to do to her and that made it impossible to resist her power.
“You need not think so hard about anything anymore.” Sera told her.
“Got to think...got to think...” Jenny tried to tell herself but she was floating dreamily in the cool pale blue of Sera’s eyes. It was so comfortable, so easy, that Jenny let her power slip from her without even realizing it was gone. She stood on her new donkey legs, her bucked toothed lips smiling pleasantly, her eyes closed as if she were dreaming of something nice.
“So much better to let someone think for you. Someone nice,someone you can trust.”
Jenny nodded dreamily. Her dulled mind was unable to contest the logic. It was as blank as a chalkboard and accepted what was written upon it and her owned mind joined in by adding to the instructions. Jenny believed it was better to let someone think for her, make all her decisions for her, take care of her. How wonderful that would be.
“You trust me, don’t you, Jenny.” Sera asked.
“Oh yes.” Jenny sighed and she knew that she wanted Sera to think for her and take care of her.
“You want to serve me, don’t you.” Sera asked.
Jenny nodded her head. She not only wanted serve Sera, she needed to serve Sera, desperately. “Pleehaw...please meehaw, please let me serve you! Tell meehaw...tell me how I can serve you!” Liz brayed.
“I can do that, Jenny but you have to do something for me.” Sera told her.
“Aneehaw...anything.” Jenny moaned.
“You must not only obey me but worship me.”
Sera seemed to come ablaze with an awe-inspiring beauty and incredible power before Jenny. The ass-centaur felt dwarfed by her, weak and insignificant, pointless before her visage. The way she could attach meaning to her existence at all was through subservience to Sera. She lowered herself to kneel on her forelegs and bowed her head. “You are my Goddess. Blessed beehaw...blessed be the Goddess!” Jenny said, basking in the presence of her new deity.
“Excellent Jenny.” Sera told her. “Let us put you to work so you may serve me better.”
Jenny wanted nothing else.
Unaware of what had happened to her friend, Liz woke up in an upstairs bedroom in the farm house. She showered, got dressed and went down for the vegan breakfast she had become accustomed to. She did not think anything of not seeing Jenny around as she usually was. Perhaps she had taken a morning walk around the farm.
Liz heard a bray out in the farmyard.
“Huh.” Liz said aloud. “I didn’t know we had any donkeys here.”
After breakfast, Liz walked out on the porch where she gasped at seeing the Sera’s sports car.
“Uh oh!” Liz cried. She ran into the house and got to the packs where she kept two guns. She yanked one out and tucked it in the waist of her pants behind her back
“Jenny! Jenny we got a problem!” She yelled, running out of the house. There was no answer. Liz ran around the farm house but Jenny was nowhere to be seen. Maybe one of the farm workers knew where she was. She saw a centaur walking in a circle around the well pushing a rod which connected to pump shaft drawing out water to irrigate the fields. Liz ran up to the creature and nearly fainted when she got a close up look at her. It was Jenny.
“Oh my god!” Liz gasped. “Jenny! Who did this to you!’
Despite strenuously exerting herself at pumping the water and being covered in sweat, Jenny smiled as if she were in a state of complete bliss. “I serve the Goddess now. “Blessed beehaw...blessed be the Goddess.”
“Snap out if it!” Liz cried and tried to pull Jenny to a stop, but the ass-centaur refused to be taken away from her work. She was much too strong in her new form and Liz ended up getting knocked on her butt. “Must serve the Goddess.” Jenny said. “Blessed beehaw...blessed be the Goddess.”
Liz ran back to the farmhouse to grab her bags determined to leave. When she got inside, she heard someone typing on the keys on the computer in a room that looked like it was used for an office. Liz pulled out her gun and went to the doorway. Sera was sitting at the monitor, looking over a spreadsheet. “Ivan is the worst record keeper alive!” She grumbled to herself. “He has no capacity for numbers. But I guess I made him that way.”
Liz leveled her gun at Sera. “What did you do to Jenny!?” She growled.
“I should think that is patently obvious.” Sera replied without turning around.
“Change her back!” Liz yelled.
“She seems perfectly content as she is.” Sera said matter-of-factly, still working at the computer.
Liz cocked her pistol.
“That’s because you warped her mind along with her body!” She accused.
Finally, Sera turned to face Liz.
“I made her safe and without care, which is what she really wanted. It is what all those who find their way to my farm want. Ivan, my minotaur, was a truck driver on the verge of bankruptcy. He doesn’t have to worry about money anymore. My two centaurs? They were a couple whose parents who would do anything to stop them from getting married. Now they are together forever. Mary, my pig-girl was sent to a fat farm against her will to lose weight. She doesn’t have to endure that torture anymore. Jenny was terrified the mob would eventually get her no matter how much of a brave face she put on to say otherwise. Now she never needn’t worry about that at all. People don’t find this place unless they have some need I can fulfill
“She’s a slave! An animal slave!” Liz protested.
Sera stood up, not even wincing as Liz fingered her gun’s trigger.
“She gets what she wants, security, and I get what I want which is a happy, productive, hard worker.”
“Who are you?” Liz demanded.
Sera picked up her handbag, which was lying on the desk. “I go by Sera Say in the mortal world, but my real name is Circe.”
Sera expected some recognition by Liz. “Circe, you know, in the Odyssey...Odysseus...turned men into pigs?” Sera prodded, hoping to clue Liz in. When Liz shook her head, Sera threw her head back and rolled her eyes. “By Zeus, does no one read the classics anymore? Long story short, I am a goddess. Well, demigoddess anyway. It just so happens that it costs a lot more these days to maintain the lifestyle to which I am accustomed. So I’ve gone into organic farming using my magics to make happy, productive workers. So far my enterprise has been extremely profitable.”
“I don’t believe you!” Liz shot back.
Sera pulled her perfume out of her bag. “Yes, I suppose the modern world makes it so hard to believe in anything mythical. It is such a shame in a way.” She sprayed two dabs on her neck.
“I think you’re crazy. I’m leaving. Don’t try to stop me!’ Liz said starting to back away as she inhaled hints of Sera’s lilac perfume.
“Is that so wise? You might get caught.” Sera noted.
Liz started to sneer but found herself suddenly drained of the adrenaline rush she had been running on. Her heart rate slowed as she became more calm. “Sure.” She said as if she were admitting the truth to herself as much as Sera. Liz realized something was wrong. “You’re doing something to me!” Liz cried, but she found lacked the ability to care much at all about what Sera might be doing to her. The arm holding her gun fell to her side and the weapon slid out of her fingers. She drank in another whiff of the perfume.
“You told Jenny you would keep her safe.” Sera observed. “The fact is that you can’t even keep yourself safe.”
Liz had always had some doubt that her plan was foolhardy and that the mob would eventually get her for stealing their money but she had told herself that the reward was worth the risks. Now that doubt was yawning before her like a chasm and she was standing on its edge. “No this is wrong.” She said, staggering backwards. Sera was dulling her mind like she had done to Jenny and everyone else her who had once human. She knew what she was feeling now was a predicate to the transformation Sera wanted to impose upon her.
“Your great plan was a recipe for disaster wasn’t it. The mob would have caught you and killed you or worse.” Sera chided.
Liz felt a deep sadness as a sense of failure welled up inside her. Her great plan was a stupid one after all. Sera was right. How could she have ever expected it to succeed? Tears filled her eyes.
Sera reached into her bag and pulled out her wand. “The fact is all your supposed smarts got you into trouble. Deep trouble. Trouble that would have caught up with you had you not made it to my farm.”
Liz’s lips trembled, her knees knocked, she felt her stomach sink and choked backed sobs. She could not refute any of Sera’s condemnations and that left her feeling weak and worthless.
“Now that your here. I can save you.” Sera observed. “And you can help me.”
“How can I help you?” Liz asked, desperate for something to give her self worth.
Sera smiled. “By becoming something different than what you are.” She waved her wand and a shower of sparkles fell on Liz. The surprise jolted out her out of her stupor and she turned and run out of her house for her car. With each step her body felt as though it was swelling, expanding in upwards in height and bulking out in weight. Her long shirt started to show her mid-rift and her pants became short capris as her body stretched inch by inch from just over five feet to just under seven. Then her clothes were ripped to rags as her soft flesh began to ripple with muscled mass, her narrow shoulders becoming wide, her chest becoming full, her weak thighs and calves becoming robust and defined. Now naked, she still ran, finding her feet becoming heavier as if loaded down with weights. She had left her shoes in tatters behind her and her feet had balled into masses that solidified into solid cloven hooves. Finally at the car, she saw her reflection in the window. Short horns curved out from her forehead but her face retained her familiar delicate features which contrasted dramatically with how large and powerful her body became. Her flesh darkened and hardened like hide and a rough hair oozed from every pour until she had a full coat colored in a black and white spotted pattern. Feeling something behind her she found a long tail with a tuft of hair that matched that on her head. Liz realized that she was now a female minotaur. As if to emphasize the transformation, Liz mooed when she opened her mouth to protest what she had become.
Sera was not far from her and was obviously happy with her work.
“Don’t worry.” She called out. “You won’t be entirely a beast of burden. You have some smarts that the others lack. You will make an excellent manager.”
“No, I won’t serve moo...you!” Liz bellowed in defiance but she was suddenly distracted from the horror of her transformation and Sera’s words. She picked up an odor, thick and deep. It affected her deeply, making her tummy clench and pulse, its tremors stirring her bovine chest and pussy. The sent was overwhelmingly intoxicating, dispelling her ability to think of anything else. She followed its trail as it brought her to the barn door. There she found Ivan, who had halted his task of bailing hay and was now sniffing the air. He spun around to face her. His gentle look was gone now, replaced by a hungry beastial look. She could almost feel him inhaling her as if he were drinking her in. His desire for her was real as if it were an thick aura that surrounded him.
Ivan stamped his hoof and charged at Liz. She knew what he was going to do. She did not move in the slightest as he descended upon her. She felt no fear or apprehension. A sense of complete inertia had descended upon her and she awaited his approach with complete docility. With each step he took, she inhaled him deeper and became more and more bonded to him and more and more willing to do whatever he might want of her.
In moments, Liz was enveloped in Ivan’s hands, turned and pressed against the wall. He pressed deeply into her and she was ready to accept him. It was a deeply primal moment. Devoid of any human rationality, their merging was the essence of passion. They matched each other’s rhythm and moved as one. Their essences became inextricably intertwined. Without any conscious words or thoughts, Ivan claimed Liz as his life mate and she surrendered to him completely. She would serve his need and bear his calves. She would be his for the rest of her life. As they soared toward, the raised their voices his guttural bovine bellows. If they had any desire to return to their full human selves they surrendered it now.
“Blessed be the Goddess.” Ivan finally gasped, his panting chest rising and falling against her back.
“Blessed be the Goddess.” Liz sighed but that seemed not enough to explain the bonding that had just occurred. “Blessed be you, my...my husband...my lord.”
Ivan kissed her neck gently for a few moments. They released, clasped hands for just a moment before Ivan returned to his work.
Liz walked slowly back toward the farmhouse, with a swing in her cloven step. She was now eager to know what her goddess, Sera Sey or Circe, wanted of her and was excited to do whatever she commanded. Sera had remade her in body and mind to give her what she wanted—a man and children. To Liz, as a cow girl, total devotion and abject worship was the commensurate price for those gifts. On the way to the house Liz passed Jenny still joyfully toiling away at the pump.
“Blessed beeehaw, blessed be the goddess!’ Jenny saluted.
Liz smiled. “Yes, blessed be....”