Monster Mansion - Book cover

Monster Mansion

WritersBlocked

Chapter 3: Master of the House

IRO

Iro shifted uncomfortably as Cerys circled him, inspecting the maid’s dress that was now snugly fitted around him.

He had to admit, he felt kind of cute in it, despite the embarrassment of being in a dress that was clearly meant for a woman. It even had a keyhole cutout for cleavage he didn’t have!

The uniform didn’t come with shoes, instead, it had socks with a single band that ran under the arch of his paw.

Cerys gave a nod of approval after her inspection. “This will do. I think the master will find you quite attractive. The fit isn’t as tight as the master usually likes, but we can’t fix that today.

“When the master comes back, our seamstress will be with them. You can get a proper fitting then. Mika?”

Mika, who was half-drunk, sat up on her bench, a smirk on her face as she watched Iro try to control his wagging tail at Cerys’s compliment. “Yes, Cerys?”

Cerys gave Mika a stern look and motioned towards the door. “Go sober up a bit, then help Iro set the table. I expect Zel to be back in time for dinner, and Holly and Aranya are with them. So, set seven places, please.”

Mika counted on her fingers then scratched her ears. “What about Skalla? Isn’t she around tonight?”

Cerys shook her head, her blonde ponytail swaying behind her. “Skalla is on leave. She’ll be back at the start of next week. If you were sober, you’d remember that.”

Mika stuck her tongue out but got off the bench, stretching and smoothing out her uniform. Iro found himself admiring her for a moment. They had similar builds, but he was a bit taller.

He imagined he looked quite like her in their uniforms, except for his white-and-gray fur, dog ears, and bushy tail compared to her tan-and-white fur, cat ears, and slender tail.

“Come on, puppy, I need some water. I’ll show you where the place settings are.” Mika sauntered past Iro and Cerys, beckoning him to follow.

Iro looked at Cerys, who gestured towards Mika. “She’s competent enough, though I suspect the master keeps her around for her looks and her ability to hold her liquor. They get along quite well after a few drinks.

“She’ll show you what you need to know. I’ll see you at dinner. I need to make sure Airy did her job right now.” Cerys ended with a scowl and left the room, leaving Iro alone.

Well, this isn’t what you expected, Iro, but you’ve been in worse situations before, and they don’t seem ~too ~bad.”

He caught his reflection in a mirror as he left the dressing room. “And you look pretty damn cute, anyway…I might get used to this…”

He walked back into the kitchen to find Mika drinking directly from a running tap, her body bent over the wide countertop and her tail lifting her skirt up enough to show off her underwear.

Iro felt a smirk spread across his face, but decided against pushing her into the sink or messing with Mika. It was his first day after all.

He just waited for her to finish and made sure his own tail was through the tail hole in his dress, something Mika seemed to have forgotten about.

Mika pulled away from the sink and wiped her lips, then walked towards another door, stopping next to a cabinet and opening it.

“Here’s the dishware and stuff. Very important. Cerys said seven sets, so why don’t you grab a stack of those big plates and small ones? I’ll grab the silverware.”

Mika reached in and grabbed a tray of cutlery and walked through the swinging doors next to the cabinet, leaving Iro to do his task.

He pulled seven large plates near the edge of the shelf, stacked seven small ones on top of those, and carried the stack with some difficulty through the door.

He found Mika standing next to a large dining table surrounded by a dozen chairs.

Mika pointed to the far end of the table and vaguely waved her hand to the nearest seven seats. “Zel sits at the head of the table. The rest of us pick seats as we arrive. Go ahead and get started. I’ll follow with the rest.”

Iro nodded and carried the stack to the far end of the table and began setting out a large and small plate at each of the indicated seats.

“So, doggy, what’s your story? What brings you here?” Mika asked as she set a fork, knife, and two sizes of spoon at each place setting behind Iro.

Iro’s ears twitched in annoyance at being called “doggy” so casually, but he’d been called worse before.

“I finished school in the human world, decided to come home to pursue a career. This job came with a room, and I thought I’d be able to look around while doing it, but…”

He looked pointedly down at his maid uniform. “I guess not everything goes according to plan.”

Mika snorted and finished setting out the cutlery. “You can say that again. All right, cups and saucers next. Tea cups and wine glasses.”

Iro gave Mika a side glance and smirked. “Your favorite kind of glass, I assume.”

Mika turned and squinted at him before grinning. “Oh, we’re going to get along just fine. Will you be needing a dog bowl for your meals?”

Iro let out a short laugh and shook his head as he and Mika went back to the kitchen.

***

Mika slumped in her chosen dining chair on the left side of the table, furthest from the head. “Where’s Skalla? She’s the best cook.”

Cerys scoffed as she walked out of the kitchen with a third tray of food.

“You’re just upset because I’m not letting you steal the extra fried scraps or making you your favorite fish. Zel has been gone for almost a week. I know they haven’t been eating well while they were away.”

Mika let out a sigh. “So, we’re really having salad for all three courses?”

Cerys looked taken aback. “Absolutely not. We’ll start with salad, then I’ve got lasagna baking, and a healthy fruit pudding for dessert.

“If you ever showed some initiative in the kitchen, you could take over cooking duty too.”

“I’m interested in wine…does that count?” Mika muttered.

Cerys rolled her eyes and turned to Iro. “Iro, sweetheart? Could you go get Airy? I’m sure she’s forgotten about dinner, and the master should be back any minute now.

“She’s probably in her room. Just make sure she’s dressed when she comes down.”

Iro nodded and glanced towards the end of the dining room that led back to the foyer and the stairs to the second floor, where he had last seen Airy.

He crossed the dining hall and the foyer, his flat maid shoes making a soft clicking sound on the tiled floor.

He didn’t really mind the dress, all things considered, but the skirt made navigating stairs a bit more challenging than he was used to.

Iro strolled through the grand and stylish halls of the second floor, using his senses to help him locate Airy, the red-feathered harpy.

The clattering and mumbling sounds coming from a door along the hall seemed like a good place to start.

Approaching the door, Iro knocked a few times and called out, “Airy? Is that you? Cerys says it’s time for dinner.”

The only response was more clattering and a distinct thud. Sighing and preparing himself for the worst, Iro unlatched the door and peeked inside.

Sure enough, there was Airy, the red-feathered harpy. Her situation was a bit more complicated than he had anticipated.

Trapped under a portable clothes rack was the harpy herself, her head poking out from one end and her wing-like arms spread out above her. “O-oh, h-hi, n-new friend. Can you help Airy? She’s stuck.”

Iro sighed and glanced behind him to make sure no one else would see him and Airy in what he was fairly certain would be an awkward situation. “Yeah, let me help.”

He stepped in and assessed Airy’s tangled predicament, helping her free her clawed feet from the rack and then lifting it.

Once it was off her, he realized she was completely naked. “Gah! A-Airy! W-why are you naked?”

Iro yelped, quickly looking away in an attempt to be respectful. He finished standing up the rack and kept his eyes shut, leaning on the metal frame.

Airy sat up and looked down at her nude body and hummed.

Her body was mostly human-like, with her shoulders and arms covered in feathers and shaped like wings, while her legs morphed at the knee into bird-like talons.

She had red plumage right above her butt and a head of spiky red hair. “Airy was too hot? Maybe?”

Iro opened one eye to look for a suitable outfit on the clothes rack he had just untangled her from, only to find her standing between him and it, her feathered butt wiggling absentmindedly as if she was dancing to a song.

“Airy likes this one. And this one! Ooh! And this one—”

Iro reached out and grabbed the first one she had picked and handed it to her. “Let’s just…pick any one of them. Come on, let’s get downstairs.”

Airy blushed and shrank back slightly, holding the maid outfit in front of her chest. “Airy can’t put on this one…alone…” She held up the garment to Iro. “Can dog help Airy?”

Iro sighed. “My name is Iro, and yeah, I guess. Come here.”

Cerys is going to kill me if she sees me with Airy like this.

Iro helped Airy slide her feathered arms through the large arm holes and pulled the one-piece mini dress over her head, the skirt barely covering a quarter of her thighs.

She wiggled excitedly as he tried to help her dress, but she paused once the dress was on.

“Oh…Airy forgot her…p-panties…” She pointed timidly to an open drawer in a nearby dresser and hid behind her hands. “C-can Iro help? Airy can’t really bend in this dress.”

Iro sighed and blushed. What a job.

He walked over to the drawer and picked out a pair of white and pink striped underwear, and Airy called out, “Socks too! T-the next drawer down.”

Iro looked into the next drawer and found a white pair of socks and brought all three items to Airy. She lifted one taloned foot for Iro. “P-panties first. N-no peeking!”

Iro blushed a little harder and got to work, helping Airy slip one and then her other foot through the holes of the delicate garment and slowly pull it up her smooth thighs.

Iro pulled until she shivered and squeezed her legs together. “N-not too far up…” She whimpered.

Iro quickly let go of the garment and blushed. “Sorry. Socks?”

He held up one of the white sleeves and helped Airy step into it. The bottom of the sock was open to let her talons peek through while covering the rest of her bird-like lower legs.

She hopped in place once both were on and hugged Iro as soon as he stood. “Thank you, doggy! Come on, dinner is starting!”

She dashed out of the room and left Iro to follow, shutting her bedroom door behind him and walking to the stairs.

As he started down, he heard more lively conversation, and upon entering the dining hall saw two people he didn’t recognize.

One was a creature similar in size to Cerys, but she had a spider-like lower body with a human torso where the spider’s head should be.

The other was a fairly normal-looking human girl, but something about her smell was off.

Iro felt a tug on the back of his collar and was quickly spun around and thrown into the nearest wall and pinned against the cool surface with an arm planted on the wall beside his head.

In front of him, pinning him in place with her sharply-dressed body, was a tall, red-skinned, horned, grinning woman.

Her chest, just a touch smaller than Cerys’s, was right there in his face. Her suit top was unbuttoned, revealing a generous amount of cleavage. Given their height difference, Iro found himself with a clear view down the valley of her chest.

He forced his gaze upward, his face flushed with embarrassment. She looked down at him, her eyes predatory, and licked her lips. Her forked tongue flicked out from between her full lips, framed by her smooth red skin.

In a voice that was as smooth as it was seductive, she said, “So. This is my new maid?”

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