Wicked Amusement Ch. 10

"You got a mad look on your pretty face, y'know." She giggled, wiggling the dildo almost playfully. "Hey, where is my darling? How'd the rescue mission go?"

"Not well." He crossed his arms. Despite the large part of him that just wanted to turn and walk away, he found that he needed to vent, and Lim made a good target for the venting. "The sidhe... finished. She and Mist are off now, off making great works or whatever while Mist slowly dies. It's not my call anymore. Not hers, either. 'Parently that's how it works."

"Aw." Lim pouted. "I had a feeling that was how it was g-gonna go." She wriggled a little, letting out a purr. "There's... no cheating fey fates. Larya must be real torn up about it, though."

Snatch decided he didn't really like this response. It almost made it sound like Lim had already expected this to happen. Like she'd led Larya on.

But he didn't really care. Larya could go to hell.

"Did you lead Larya on?" he snapped.

"Aw, nah." The catgirl's eyes screwed shut with bliss as she came to a very quiet, gasping orgasm. "N-no, nah, tha's not it. I just... I had a hunch. Call it woman's intuition, love."

"I'm not gonna call it that."

After a long moment, the catgirl's eyes cleared a little. "So where is Larya, anyways?" The catgirl slowly pulled the sex toy out of herself. She batted her eyelashes at Snatch, sitting up to face him properly. "How'd she take it?"

He snorted. "Not so great. We aren't working together anymore. Our whole fucking mission failed. Waste of time. Waste of life."

"Aw. Well, at least—"

"No!" he snarled. He was himself caught-off-guard by the strength of emotion, and his feeling was mirrored in her expression. "No, not 'at least', you fucking—Sixe is dead, and good fucking riddance, but both her heirs are gone, too. Cellemin ran off during the night! Now Illetrys is taking over, so not only do we have a goddamn elven crime family that hates us now, they sure as hell aren't giving us the antivenom!"

Lim blinked. She set the sex toy down. "Antivenom?"

Snatch shut his mouth. That was more talking than he preferred to do over the course of a whole month. He really missed the dungeons. "Neogi bile. We know someone who got pricked with it. Sixe had the cure—a kitten cherry blossom, apparently hard to come by—but... well, no-go."

Lim frowned. She was quiet for a moment.

Snatch waited for her to respond, then abruptly wondered why he was waiting at all. He turned and started walking away.

"Wait!" Lim called. Snatch turned. Lim was running after him, hands clasped behind her back. She reached forward to grab his hand, and he darted away, glaring. "Oh, sorry. I forgot." She gave a bashful smile. "I don't have a good memory. Catgirl, okay? Our Primal Code literally forces us to keep our thoughts... fluid."

Snatch gave a grudging nod. "Fine. I know people like that."

"You do?" She blinked.

"Yeah." Snatch shrugged. "Just... well, I knew someone like that. Not a catgirl. It ain't relevant." He started to turn away again, but Lim waved her hand to stall him.

"Take me to Larya," she said. Her tone was imploring, her eyes wide and sincere.

"She's going back to deliver bad news," Snatch snapped. "I don't really wanna be there when it gets there."

"I know! I mean, I guessed." Lim grimaced. Her ears were slightly flattened. "Look, I know you don't trust me. But I can help. I'm a druid!"

"Yeah? Why didn't you mention this before? Why didn't the fairies?"

"Because—" Lim gave an uncomfortable shrug of her own. "Because fairies are weird, and I didn't know there was a poison problem, and... it's not easy." She looked at him very seriously. "I'm not saying I can make everything better. And I can't tell you exactly what it is, not just yet." She clasped her hands. "But there's something I need to give Larya, and it can't wait."

"Why don't you track her yourself? Aren't you a druid, too?"

"Well, yeah." Lim scowled. "But there's a limit to—look, nature is bad at remembering things. I can ask the bushes if someone's touching them, but not if someone touched them an hour ago. Does that make sense?"

"As much sense as any sentence about asking bushes about things."

"Also, I'm... kinda bad at tracking." Lim bit her lip. "Look, I'm new to druid stuff, to be honest. Not super new, but..."

She trailed off, looking uneasy.

Snatch really wished he was better at reading people. He wondered if she was lying. Maybe she couldn't really help. Maybe she just wanted to meet Larya so they could fuck like bunnies some more.

But a persistent little voice told him that it didn't really matter. He had unfinished business.

Plus, he was worried Lim would decide to follow him otherwise.

"Fine," he snapped. He turned around. "But it's a good walk from here. And we might get attacked by killer elves."

"Aw. That sounds kinda fun."

"And you aren't allowed to talk to me."

"Fine by me. You're a bit of a drag anyway."

~~~~ ~~~~~

Larya stood in the entranceway of Suisshu's cave, wringing her hands together.

So this was it. A week's journey to Celestia, a week's journey back, and for this. To be the one to deliver the bad news.

She hated Snatch for making her do this.

She hated Snatch for being right.

She hated Snatch for being wrong.

She wished Snatch was here. He seemed a lot better at bringing bad news than she was.

She raised her staff and tapped the edge of the cave. The sound echoed down the passage.

After a moment, a small red fox poked its head around the corner. It saw her and immediately trotted up, shapeshifting as it went to a naked woman of Eastern descent. Three bushy fox tails swayed behind her, and a pair of foxlike ears that reminded Larya of Lim peeked from above very short red hair.

"Larya!" Swish exclaimed grabbing Larya in a hug. Larya returned it without thinking. "It is a pleasure to see you! We missed you, Mier and I!"

"You cut your hair," Larya mumbled. She couldn't think of anything else to say.

Suishu pulled back from the hug and grinned. "I did! It was always such a... a hassle, and, well..." She laughed. "Mier likes it this way. She... she deserves some things that make her smile right now."

Larya gave a weak smile back.

Swish looked at her critically, appearing to recognize her expression. Her own smile faltered slightly. "Did you..."

"Is that Larya?" called a familiar voice from deeper in the cave. The voice had a hoarseness to it Larya didn't remember. "Are they finally here?"

Larya started walking into the cave. Suisshu walked beside her, her expression turning into one of fear. Larya beat her staff on the ground with each step, trying to use the pounding rhythm to give herself a bit of strength. She had a message to deliver. She couldn't cry. She'd cried enough already over the last week.

Mier sat at the back of the cave. The doppelganger currently wore the form of a young man with dusky skin and a slightly beaklike nose. He grinned up at Larya, though as he was half-naked, the smile was somewhat undercut by the hideous rainbow-blooded wound in his gut. "Boy, you're a sight for sore eyes. And where's the grump?"

"That's a new form," Larya said. She looked around. "Where's, um..."

Mier raised his hand, showing a large ant with rainbow-colored eyes resting in the palm. "It's practicing shapeshifting. They start early, doppelganger babes."

Larya blinked. For a moment, the enormity of her message fell apart with the simple strangeness of everything associated with Mier. Mier's baby was a currently genderless creature that could as easily take the form of a giant ant as it could a human. Mier himself was currently in the form of a man, and that was easily the least strange thing about it all.

"Snatch didn't follow, huh?" Mier rolled his eyes. "Typical. Well, he helped. That's enough. I appreciated even that much from the cranky jerk."

"M-Mier." Larya swallowed. "I—"

"You didn't get it."

Larya stared at Mier.

Mefore her eyes, Mier's form slowly shifted into a colorless shape that almost blended into the stone. This was, as best as Larya understood it, the doppelganger's native form. "I figured," they said. "I'm really good at reading people, remember?"

Larya glanced to her left. Suisshu was covering her eyes, clearly trying to hold back sobs.

She looked back at Mier. Mier's smile was brittle and weak. "It's okay. We... we knew it was a longshot. There really aren't that many antidotes, and the elves were always just a guess."

"I'm so sorry," Larya whispered. "Mier, I'm—"

Suishu suddenly went stiff. Without a word, the kitsune turned, shifted again to fox form, and scurried off. Mier frowned. "Uh-oh. Girl hears something. Wonder what that's about?"

Larya looked between the direction of the cave entrance, just out of sight, and the ailing shapeshifter. She bit her lip and tried again. "Mier, I'm so, so..."

"Look, don't worry about it." Mier rubbed their eyes. "We knew it might not happen. We made plans. Chanj will be alright without me."

"But—"

Larya heard voices from outside the cave. She turned in amazement, peering down the passage. Who was that Swish was talking to? It couldn't be—Holy shit, it is.

"Lim?"

The catgirl pranced into the cave, ran to Larya, and grabbed her in a hug. "Larya!" she squealed with delight.

"Um, hello, Lim." Larya frowned. "Look, this isn't really—" She saw Snatch trailing after, looking rather like a cat in a dog kennel. "What... what are you doing here?"

Lim pulled back, her expression turning serious. "Larya, we can make it right."

Larya stared blankly at her. Snatch looked equally unsure, though he didn't look quite as surprised as Larya felt. The fox glanced between the three of them, looking about as perplexed as a fox could manage.

"You can?" Larya said at last.

"Sure!" Lim beamed. "You just need to Initiate."

Suisshu's fur went on end. In seconds, she had returned to human form and was glaring at Lim. "What? You're not qualified for that!"

Larya saw Lim's eyes widen, just a fraction of a millimeter for a fraction of an instant. Then they narrowed as she turned to Swish. "Huh? Uh, do so, sexy fox lady."

"I can smell the low circle on you, you know," Swish snapped. "You're, what, Fourth? Probably barely Initiated yourself."

Larya's mind slowed. She frowned. Hadn't Lim said she was Seventh?

"What the hell are you two talking about?" Snatch asked.

"You mean you don't know?" Larya asked. "You've been traveling with her, haven't you?"

Snatch shrugged. "We haven't talked much."

Swish sighed. She grabbed Lim by the hand. "Okay, look. This catgirl and I need to have a little, um, what's the phrase? Heart-to-heart. Excuse us." The kitsune stalked out of the cave, Lim looking startled and a little unrealistically hopeful.

This left Snatch, Mier, and Larya alone in the cave.

There was a long, uneasy silence.

Mier cleared her throat, assuming the form of a copper-haired human woman. "So... you two got some problems."

"He went along with a plan to mind control me into luring an innocent fey to her death and ended up killing our employer," Larya said.

"She picked a fight with our employers, didn't kill that not innocent fey when she had the chance, and also, I didn't know about the goddamn mind control," Snatch said.

Mier sat up a little straighter. Her eyes darted from Snatch to Larya, then back to Snatch, then closed, so Larya couldn't tell who she was looking at. "You're pretty angry about it, huh?"

Snatch and Larya avoided eye contact.

"It's been seven days," Snatch said, his voice low. "Kinda long to stay pissed about it."

"So is this why you weren't able to get the cure? Couldn't work together?" Mier didn't sound so much angry or judgmental as clinical.

Neither of them answered.

"Thought that might happen. You're pretty different people."

"Never working with another druid in my life," Snatch muttered.

Larya clenched her fists and whirled on him. "Okay, you know what? That is it! Could you just... just for one second pretend to be a decent person? Just—say something pleasant without getting stoned first!" No tears sprang to her eyes this time. She'd already cried enough. Seven days was a long time. "I know I—"

"Okay, okay!" Snatch's hands flew into the air. "Fine! I screwed up! We both screwed up!" His eyes were wild, and Larya was stared to see wetness there. "I'm fucking—I'msorry I keep putting the blame everywhere else. I know I'm doing it. I just—I went ten fucking years without having to deal with people!" He kicked the wall with the back of his boot. "Hell, I practically forgot how to talk sometimes. You spend long enough in caves, talking to frogs and bats instead of dopterines, and... and I was never much of a talker anyways."

Larya blinked. She had no idea what to say.

"Do you have to swear so much?" Mier mumbled from behind her.

"Yes." Snatch scowled. "'Cause... well, it helps."

Larya waited for him to say more. He didn't. Larya was getting the feeling Snatch was the sort of person who could go years without confiding a word if someone else didn't give first. Ordinarily, she would want to punish that—to force the stubborn bastard out of his shell without tearing herself down first.

But in this case, she knew she had something to say.

"Snatch, we both screwed up pretty badly. But... you were right." She gave a weak little roll of her shoulders. "If we'd just gone along with Cellesixe, we'd have the cure, and Miste... Miste would still be alive."

Snatch's jaw muscles visibly clenched at Miste's name. "Well, we... I should've worked with you more on it. We shouldn't have split up to begin with. I should've told you what I knew, when I knew it. That wasn't... wasn't very partnerish of me, I guess. And I never should've let 'em plot behind your back."

"This was such a mess," Larya said. The words echoed in the cave chamber for a good few seconds, lonely and grim. Snatch nodded. It didn't seem like anything else needed to be said.

"You're telling me." Mier gave a low laugh. It sounded unpleasantly wispy. "Look, Larya, Snatch—"

Padding footsteps heralded Lim's and Suisshu's return to the cave. Suisshu looked very irritated. Lim looked smug.

"We agreed," the catgirl announced. "Beastfey to beastfey."

"Catgirls aren't beastfey," Swish snapped.

"Close enough. "Lim giggled. "Larya, I'm gonna Initiate you. That'll give you the power to fix this, uh, poison thingy."

Larya stared at her. "What? You mean we could've done that all along?"

"Nah." Lim rolled her eyes. "I wasn't here yet, silly. Plus, it's... er, it's—"

"It's complicated," Swish interrupted, her arms crossed. "Look, Larya, this isn't my choice to make. It's yours. I don't..." She wiped her eyes. "I don't want Mier to d-die, but... being Initiated by a Fourth Circle druid isn't safe. It might have long-term impacts."

Larya swallowed. "Like what?"

"Well... you might not be able to shut off the sensations anymore."

Larya looked at Lim, who gave a little nod. "Yeah. It's... look, right now, you're like a practicing druid. Third Circle, at best. Usually, druids earn their initiation after years of training, but you're really good at this. I think, if I Initiated you, you'd have the power to do the poison thing right away. Not even I have that kinda power." Her eyes darted to Swish, whose arms had folded over her chest. "And... I'd say we should find another druid to do it, but I don't think Mier is gonna last that long."

"Which is why I didn't cut her down for suggesting it," Swish snapped. "The only reason. Larya, I am not joking. You might never be able to not think about sex again. I mean, you will still be you, but... even properly-Initiated druids have trouble with it. You could be broken completely."

Larya swallowed. She looked at Snatch, who looked wary. "Why's it always sex," she mumbled. "Hasn't anyone ever wondered why so much in this world seems to revolve around—"

"I don't think you should do it," Snatch said. She looked up at him in surprise, but he avoided her gaze. "Look, this whole shit... Mier's not wrong. As much other people's fault as yours. You shouldn't have to risk making yourself a vegetable—"

"A sex vegetable," Lim interrupted.

"—a cucumber or whatever to make up for it. No offense, Mier, but your life ain't worth more than hers."

"None taken," Mier said coolly. "I know that this is just sort of how you talk, Snatch."

"Ever the pragmatist," Larya said, but there was no more bite in it. "I appreciate your concern, Snatch. but I have to do this."

"You don't. You don't have to be a fucking hero, Larya."

Words echoed in Larya's mind. Be something more than someone's pet, girl, and you might just be a hero.

"You really don't," Lim said. "But I promise I won't vegetize you if you do."

Larya swallowed, screwed up her courage, and reached out her hand. "I'm gonna do it. Just... anoint me, or whatever it is."

Lim looked at the hand, but did not take it. She slowly smiled, sinking to her knees. "Well... it's not quite that kind of anointment."

~~~~

Larya couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. She just stared across as Lim slowly crawled towards her, the catgirl's ears tall and perky. "U-um," she managed.

Lim beamed up at her. The smile on the catgirl's face was so eager, so... longing, Larya could feel her pussy getting wet just looking at her. She remembered Lim's rough tongue, and her knees quaked.

Dimly, she was aware of the others leaving. Mier transformed into a small armadillo, and Swish carried her and her strange child out with her. They were left alone.

"Ask me to be your pet pussy," Lim whispered. "Beg me."

Larya licked her lips. She swallowed.

"Am I?" Lim cooed, her tail twitching behind her. "Am I your sweet little kitten?" Her tongue darted forward and flicked over Larya's clit. Larya gasped just from this short little contact.

"Yes," Larya heard herself whimper. "Please, be my pet pussy. B-be my sweet little kitten. Kitten, oh, kitten—" Her words dissolved into babbled moans as Lim's flushed face descended between her legs.

Lim was not playing, Larya realized, as her knees buckled. The bliss soaked through her instantly. Larya didn't even remember her skirt coming off, but it was off, and so were her panties.

Lim allowed her to slide back against the cave wall, but spread her legs even wider as Larya's butt touched the ground. Larya watched the top of Lim's head shifting, listened to the rapid lappings of Lim's heavenly rough tongue.

Lim wanted her to come fast. Her tongue ran lovingly over Larya's folds, flicked over Larya's clit, teased her, drank her. Lim wanted her to come now.

Larya wanted that, too. She pinched her own nipples, crying out as Lim's tongue tore into her mental defenses. In mere seconds, she had been reduced to a horny, whimpering mess. "Oh, yes! Yes! My pet pussy! Pet pussy pet pussy pet—" She felt Lim purring against her thighs, and knew that this was turning Lim on immensely. That turned Larya on even more. The tongue sped up, faster and faster and—

And as the orgasm surged into her, Larya's mind went emerald.

~~~~

Larya soared through the air, pleasure running through her whole body. She could still feel Lim's tongue, though Lim herself was nowhere to be found.

Follow the lights, whispered the catgirl's voice. Follow them to the—mm—to the stones.

Larya looked around. She didn't see any stones, but she saw a strange glow from far down, and so, still shaking with pleasure, she found herself flying down.