I stood perfectly still, as a good slave should.I stood perfectly still, as a good slave should. Even though my training was well and truly in the past, it wasn't something I was ever likely to forget, and Borodir and I both knew that, even if I was never going to be as heavily 'in the life' as I had in the past, he knew he could count on me to behave properly whenever we entered into this magickal relationship that had long existed between us. He had me lift my feet, and with just as much care, allowing me to hold onto him when I needed to, but only for so long as I needed to, he fitted the knee-high boots to my calves. "One last thing, Ken," he said. "Lean forward a little." I leaned forward, and I heard him grunt oddly. "Little more." I leaned more forward, and suddenly I felt a great weight hit my shoulders. The harness slowly took up most of it, the 'leather' becoming rigid as necessary to transfer much of the weight downwards, off my back and onto my hips. "It's almost a forty-kilo rig," he said as I shifted, feeling the weight and becoming accustomed to the balance. "Power on," he said. The weight shifted again as my Internal State Perception circuits received the information that my center of mass had moved back a few centimeters. I staggered to keep my balance. Oddly, though, I felt much lighter, as if the weight on my back had become if not negligible then certainly acceptable. And I became aware of what was attached to my back as well, feeling them as if they were a part of me, something of my anatomy. I concentrated, and they quivered uselessly. "Easy, Ken, take it easy." Borodir stood in front of me, stroking my chin. "We've got all day. Now, you want to make them move out, move wide. Close you eyes and think about what commands will make them move." I thought, feeling the muscles in my newly acquired appendages slide and shake with demand. After a few seconds I felt them contract and expand, over and under, and suddenly I had full extension. |