Otherworldly Discipline: A Witch's Lesson (39 page)

             
Peirce grinned, unable to hide his fascination over seeing the legged-folk discipline each other. It
was quite a spectacle. Especially because of all the clothing they wore—Hoel had to pull up the skirts of his wife a layer at a time, and it was like he was plucking the leafs off a flower. Another thing that was certainly amusing was how his wife struggled and kicked and made whimpering sounds, even though Peirce was quite certain she wasn’t in any pain yet. 

             
“I’ve never known such a lazy wife in all my days! You haven’t done even half of your chores, Anwen! And if you thin
k that bitter tongue you talk tae
me with is goin
’
t
ae
make up for it, then you’ve completely lost your wits!” he grumbled at her, and then, once the white skin of her bottom was in view, he brought his large hand down sharply upon it.

             
“Ooh!” she squeaked promptly, her eyes looking like saucers. Before he could bring down his hand again, her struggles doubled. “Hoel! Hoel! Please!”

             
He pinned her legs down and captured her arms easily. Hoel towered over his wife by quite a far stretch when they were standing
, and the contrast of their sizes didn’t change much when he was seated. “Cry if you want. You’re goin’ tae be gettin’ quite the heatin’!”

             
Peirce grinned slyly, feeling like he somehow got a ticket to a private show. He had a good vantage point, and he had very good eyes, good enough to see Hoel’s wife’s bottom pinken from the water… And then, as the SMACK, SMACK, SMACK of Hoel’s hand provided further assault, it turned into a cherry-like red. The woman was full of apologies, full of excuses, but Hoel didn’t seem to hear any of it. He continued to work with a firm look of resolve on his face, his mouth lined deeply into a frown.

             
“Are ye comin’ tae yer senses?” Hoel asked pedantically.

             
“Yes! Yes, Sir! I won’t talk to you like that again! I promise! I’m so sorry I didn’t do as I was told, I swear it! I am very sorry!” she blubbered sorrowfully.

             
Hoel sighed and yanked her off of his lap. She tried to grip her heated bottom with her hands, but he spun her body around by her arm and have her a very firm spank that caused her to obediently scurry into the house, saying, “Ye ken better than tae rub yer bottom, Wife. You ken what to do now! Get intae the house, an’ I want ye in the corner, skirt up, bottom out, or I will give ye another go!”

             
She gave a cry in response, but quickly fluttered her face inside to obey, wiping the tears from her face on her arm.

             
Peirce looked backwards when he heard his own little rescue shutter. He frowned and then loudly cleared his throat. “Uh… Hoel? Hoel! Please help!” he asked pleadingly.

             
Hoel’s yellow eyes quickly focused on him and, sighing visibly, he stomped over to the water. “An’ what are ye doin’ out here this time ‘a year? Spyin’?” he asked him as he approached.

             
Peirce shook his head, feeling a little nervous although he had never seen Hoel treat a selkie poorly. He was a gruff man, but not a violent one. “No, not at all! I didn’t want to interrupt a family issue, but I found this girl about sixteen leagues Eastward! Round by the Hatchet Cliffs! I was out crab hunting, and I come by
the surface
and hit my head on her, who was floating by the surface.”

             
“Is she dead?” Hoel asked, his brow furrowed with confusion.

             
“I wouldn’t have swam the length if she was,” Peirce assured with a laugh. “But she’s quite broken up. Never spoke a word the whole time, but I made sure she got plenty of air. She draws breath somewhat…”

             
Hoel came into the water towards where he was, saturating his pantlegs up to his knee. He took the girl, who hung limp, into his arms and set her up on a flat rock before coming up next to her and looking at her head, which looked quite crushed to one side. “She doesn’t have too much longer. How long ago did ye come upon her?”

             
“Maybe three hours. It was quite a swim,” admitted Peirce, but he straightened his shoulders proudly. “It wouldn’t have been if she wasn’t getting hauled down by all those clothes. And the sea was wild up East today. But not helping seemed too wrong. If it was me, I’d want help, you know?”

             
“Aye,” he agreed. “You’re a good lad.” He opened her eyes and looked into her mouth and hummed. “Ye say you found her up by the Hatchet Cliffs?”

             
Peirce nodded. “Around about there, yeah. But she was quite out to sea.
She floated quite well at the surface, sort of like the water didn’t want to take her down.”

             
“Well, she’s been struck by more than one spell today, so I’m guessin’ she was put to death. Imagine puttin’ tae death a wee thing like this.” He shook his head. “Wizards have hearts of stone, the lot of them. Curse their souls!”

             
“She might be a witch, though, right? If she was there
… Her ears don’t look like fae or elf kin.
”

             
“Maybe. We’ll have tae see. Although,” Hoel pet his clawed thumb across the girl’s forehead. When he did, words and symbols were visible as if drawn underneath the skin, and then faded. “This lass’s mind’s been tampered with—seems quite empty. Doesn’t seem tae ken her own name.” He grumbled but then grinned. “That might work fer our favour enough. If she did anythin’ to deserve her fate, she wouldn’t ken what that’d be
… But if her slate’s fresh like this, I don’t want a wizard to recognize her an’ bring her back after all my trouble—and they would. Stubborn
, hateful
race.”

             
“So what are you going to do?” Peirce asked, worrying his brow with confusion as he pulled himself up on the rock by his elbows.

             
“Change her appearance and then fix her right up, good as new,” Hoel replied, and then glanced up towards his house. “I ken my wife could use a proper servant girl to help her around the place. How she despises getting’ her hands dirty, and how her bottom’s been payin’ for it. I s’pose this girl will have tae do—she’s free, anyway.”

             
“You… You can do that?” Peirce asked, amazed. “Ch-Change the way she looks?”

             
“Yes, but if I were ye, I’d keep my yap shut about me doin’ it. She don’ need to ken, nor do any of your flippery friends, nor nobody else. An’ if word gets out about her, I’ll come blamin’ ye!” he threatened firmly. “And I don’ need no line of selkies tryin’ tae swim up and makin’ me use up all me magic on a change of hair colorin’, either! Ye jus’ keep tae yerself.”

             
Peirce nodded and watched intently.

             
At first, Hoel enchanted the water below, making it shimmer with what looked like liquid gold and dipped her in it. He was uttering some words that Hoel didn’t know, but he did recognize that he was rhyming his words together. It seems like a poem, or incantation, and when he Hoel pulled her out of the water, the broken body looked different, indeed.

             
Instead of a clay-like hair color,
streaked
with red and brown, her hair was
now
completely black
, thick and curly
. Her skin was pale,
her nose more button-like, but her eyes were similar; round, though appearing large compared to the rest of her face. Her lips and cheeks were the color of a pink rose, and her cheeks were covered with very light freckles that sprinkled even along her nose. Her mouth was shaped differently, her lips were fuller, more demure.

             
Peirce could see similarities to the girl that had been dipped in the water, but very barely, and hardly at all.  But still, she was broken. Her head was still bleeding, her arms and legs still hung at odd angles…

             
But Hoel didn’t need to be told to fix her; as soon as her looks changed, he set to work on her healing.

             
For someone who hated sorcerer kin so much, he certainly knew how to use serious of magic with a shocking ease. He had heard of some selkies, attacked by a large shark or sea monster,  coming to Hoel to be rescued, even as they had already nearly bled to death, and Hoel had brought them back from the brink. But Peirce had never seen this with his own eyes.

             
It was unnatural. The way Hoel worked her body, it seemed like someone working with dry, cracked clay. Some parts of her molded, and some snapped together.

             
Once again, Hoel enchanted the water and, picking her fully up into his arms, got into the water with her. He held her entire body under the water and waited until bubbles ceased to rise from her mouth. The water
sparkled
around them, shimmered…

             
And the girl’s eyes fluttered open, wide, and gasped in air before Hoel could carry her body past the surface again. Her arms flailed, and he laid her out on the rock, letting her cough and gag the sea water from her lungs.

             
“Wow!” Peirce couldn’t help but say. He looked up at Hoel. “You did it so quickly, too!”

             
The girl looked up directly at Peirce, then at Peirce’s back flipper, which he flopped proudly. Her eyes widened and her body went rigid. She blinked several times in succession, and then slowly turned her head towards Hoel, her eyes resting on the long, dark horns protruding from his temples.

             
And then she screamed—loudly, shrilly, and desperately, clambering backwards until she fell off the rock and back into the water.

             
Hoel frowned. “Well, a blank slate isn’t all what it’s said tae be, I suppose. But it canna be helped.” He trudged through the water, perusing the girl that came up and was clambering as quickly as she could to the beach. When he caught up to her, he had to tackle her to the sand to keep her from running. She screamed shrilly enough that Mrs. Hoel even heard and came running out of the house, her mouth wide open.

             
Hoel turned and hugged the girl onto his lap, rocking her like a small child. The girl tried to struggle against the hold, crying
incoherently
, “Let me go! Let me go! Don’t eat me! Dear Jesus! Jesus!”
But she stopped struggling as soon as she realized there was no hope. She couldn’t even bite him.

             
“Shush now, Lass,” Hoel told her. “Ye had a bad time of it, now, but ken I’m not meanin’ tae hurt ye. Just be a good lass and we’ll be gettin’ along very well.” He pet her wet black hair like she was a frightened animal. “There, there. Do you be knowin’ yer name?”

             
She shook her head, looking quite shocked about it. “N-no…”

             
“What’s going on here?” Anwen demanded, startled as she ran down to the beach where he husband was holding the girl tightly.

             
“The young seal-lad has brought us a family member,” he informed his wife patiently. “Add some more meat tae the stew an’ set her up a cot. She’ll be stayin’ with us for a long while.”

Don’t worry, readers—all is not lost for Charlotte just yet!

This story has an upcoming sequel!

Korey Mae Johnson is currently working on

Otherworldly Discipline, Book Two: The True Master

Tentatively scheduled to be released in Fall, 2012

Blushing Publications thanks you whole-heartedly for your purchase with us!

There are plenty more stories such as the one you’ve purchased from Blushing Books!  Visit our online store to view our might selection!

http://www.blushingbooks.com

This book is intended for adults only.  Spanking and other sexual activities represented in this book are fantasies only, intended for adults.  Nothing in this book should be interpreted as advocating any non-consensual spanking activity or the spanking of minors.