Curiosity of the Demon King Pt. 11

"Suck it!" Trakkur roared and took hold of Fosi's head, making her arch her back to take in the boar man's fetid cock to the base, his pendulous nuts, heavy with hot cum, slapped her in the face.

Fosi had to go limp, suspended facing the ceiling between him and Ovel, who had taken her waist in hand to slam his own cock deep within her cunt, slicking her with thick precum that squished loudly with each thrust. There was no rhythm between them, only the frantic search for pleasure from each man and Fosi between them, forced to suck and lick up Trakkur's unholy musk with her lolling tongue even as Ovel shouted for her to tighten her cunt around him. She could hardly focus for all the sensation forced upon her.

Faraway, she felt her breasts jiggling wildly back and forth along with her dangling arms and legs. The taste of Trakkur's bitter filth invaded her mouth and was pumped down her throat along with his thick, salty precum. It gathered as sickening heat in her guts, swallowed it down as it came so that she could at least breathe through her nose on the down-thrust.

Ovel's fat balls slammed against her ass and bounced off with each thrust. Fosi tried not to think of anything, least of all the churning, roiling seed within, the tapered tip of Ovel's long cock pressing against her womb, ready to fill her up once more. The sounds of flesh slapping on flesh filled her mind alongside the grunts of the two men taking pleasure in her holes. Most of all, she tried not to think about the sphere of glowing pleasure that was growing within her breast, sending out tingling sensations and warmth that dulled her pain. If she allowed herself to start enjoying it, where would there be left to go?

"Fucking slut!" Ovel growled, his claws digging into the soft meat of her waist, slamming her more roughly into his groin as if he intended to pierce her womb itself. "Jus' came to us yerself, didn'cha? Stupid slut! Like beastman cock that much, 'nuff ta betray yer pa!? Thought yer a princess, now lookit! Fuckin' whore like the res' of 'em!"

All she could do was gag on Trakkur's cock; they weren't looking for an answer, but a squeaking toy. She was slammed onto his throbbing shaft, felt the heat of it on her tongue as it pierced her throat over and over and over... His thick, milky precum was so hard to swallow, already puffing her cheeks and flowing past her lips to drain down her face, over her eyes. There was nothing but Trakkur's tarry black nuts to see anyway.

Ovel's cock kept stabbing at her womb, his own precum mixing with her juices and dripping off her ass, onto her tail. She couldn't help but moan pathetically around Trakkur's hot, red shaft, and even she couldn't tell if it was more agony or ecstasy.

She lifted her arms and grasped Trakkur's coarse fur, pulling herself deeply into his crotch, choking herself on the bitter, salty flavor of his flesh to suck harder, gain herself a moment of rest even though the tip of his dick was firmly down her throat.

Then, with a mighty thrust, Ovel bottomed out within her cunt and began his long orgasm. Extremely thick, hot cum flooded her and immediately she wasn't able to hold all of it. Still, his kind could go on for literal hours; he planted himself within her and his load only slowed down, near jelly-thick semen pumping out of her like a fountain of fat, snotty globs that splattered on the floor.

Trakkur grew tired of waiting, his cock pulsated against Fosi's tongue. She knew that he was close to orgasm himself. He pulled back and she was able to take only one shallow breath before he slammed his cock back into her throat and began pounding her again. It felt like a fever, the thoughts filling her mind of what it would taste like, of what it would feel like once it had filled up her belly. Would she have an aching bulge again?

Cold fear washed over her. She didn't know if this body could become pregnant, couldn't bear the thought of bearing one of these disgusting men's child. But somehow the possibility took hold on her soul and she could feel herself coming to the edge, being pulled kicking and screaming to an orgasm that she didn't want, that she didn't want one of these men to give her.

She didn't want to have any orgasm...

But... she felt her own treasonous pussy gripping Ovel's cock, her slick folds milking him into her as if her cunt had desires of its own to be filled with as much cum as possible. She felt the twisting fur between her fingers as she pulled herself up and steadied herself against Trakkur's frantic, slapping thrusts. And her legs... she'd lifted them and encircled Ovel's thick body as well as she could, clinging to him even as his seed oozed from her cum-soaked hole.

The stench, the bitter flavor of accumulated filth swamped her mind. Trakkur's cock pulsed inside her throat once more and he pulled her head tightly against his crotch, forcing her to swallow every drop of his initial spurt. Fosi could nearly feel her belly expand as warmth flooded her body, a reward for her as she gulped his hot, thick load, tasting nothing but his dirty meat until he finally pulled back.

And she was dropped unceremoniously on the floor, into the damp hay. Both of their cocks slipped out and the boar men stood over her, cum still spurting from their long, thin cocks all over her naked body. She lay there panting, choking on the urge to throw up, quaking in the afterglow of a lingering orgasm. She ran her fingertips over her belly... there was a bulge after all. A few hours of respite, she'd have until they were done cumming all over her and were ready to have her body again; Fosi closed her eyes and tried her hardest to ignore the spurts of hot, creamy cum falling onto her skin from above, staining her skin and matting her hair, to have as much rest as she could eke out.

This was enough, she thought. So long as these men were distracted by her body until the morning, Suvir would be...

Suvir would be...

Fosi opened her eyes against her better judgement.

Suvir was watching from a crack in the door...

The hinges squeaked as the boar princess leaned against the door, beholding Fosi's disgrace with a sort of horrible fascination.

Ovel's ear perked up and he began turning. Fosi mustered her strength to shoot up to her knees and grasp his massive testicles in her hands, planted her face between them, tongue lolled out. She had to keep him from noticing the princess; if that meant disgracing herself even more, she failed to see how that could be done.

"Hungry fer more, slut?" Ovel's thick, black fingers held her in place. His cock lay over her head, dripping a steady flow of cum down her back.

Fosi lapped at his hairy, greasy, wrinkled skin, swallowing his flavor while moaning like a dirty whore. "It's sho good~" she moaned, turning her face up to his, punctuated with a tender kiss to one hot testicle. "I want you every night, every night, please?" To please him, to make sure that his attention belonged to her and only her, she ran the tip of her tongue through the folds of his scrotum, gathering his filth on her tongue as his beady eyes watched from on high and gulping it down, wiping the look of disgust from her face as fast as it came: a little defiance that would rile up his demonic blood.

"Oy, Trakkur, lookit this slut alright." Ovel snorted laughter.

His subordinate didn't seem interested in watching someone else being pleasured, contented himself as well as he could by leaning against the opposite wall and slowly jerking his softening cock off, semen pooling on the floor at his feet. Trakkur didn't bother to hid his own disgust, a curled lip showing more tusk than normal.

It was more humiliating than anything Fosi had ever experienced, being watched in this state, giving herself to these brutes. But... her thighs felt warm once again and her heart was beating out of her breast. She reached down with one hand and pushed two fingers easily into her sodden, stretched-out cunt and she couldn't tell how much that action had been an act to sell herself as a worthless, gluttonous slut... and how much was for herself...

It was so slippery against her fingers, so filled up with Ovel's semen that the sound of squishing had to reach the door. Suvir had to hear the sound of her servant's cum within Fosi as her fingers churned her pussy. How did the princess' pretty face look, knowing that? Fosi imagined Suvir kneeling on the floor in the hallway, touching herself with her skin blazing with embarrassment. The mental image drove Fosi to continue, kissing and licking Ovel's sack, nibbling once or twice as if she were so lusty that she couldn't help herself.

Ovel pulled her away from his balls and she licked along the shaft of his cock until she came to the thin tip, still dribbling hot, fresh cum. Without instruction, she began licking and kissing, put her hand around his shaft to slowly stroke up and down from the tip to the root, milking cum between her lips in squirts.

"Stop that..." said a quiet voice by the open door.

Suvir stepped inside on bare feet, still in her sleep clothes, clutching a dagger to her chest, and trembling.

Fosi tried to bolt around Ovel, but her legs gave out underneath her and she landed in a heap at his feet. "You moron!" she shouted. "All you had to do was stay put!"

"Huh?" Ovel grabbed one of Fosi's horns, preferring to have control of the scene while his pea-sized brain took a moment to process everything and how he should react. "Guess we should kill'er after all. Works out alright, we'll jus' put the knife in yer hand, ye?"

Suvir stepped forward, keeping the dagger, one shaking hand atop the other, between herself and her supposed servants, her assassins. She said shakily, "I gave you t-two an order, didn't I!? Put her down!"

"Fine," Ovel said with a huff. He threw Fosi to the side where she crumpled against a wall, then approached the boar princess and grabbed her throat. The princess tried to stab him, but his thick fur turned the weak strike and he easily knocked it out of her hand. "Trakkur, want some fun, first? Got hours 'fore all them wake up."

Suvir's eyes widened with terror. She kicked and struggled, beating her fists on his arm, but Ovel was far too strong for a lightweight like her to budge his grip. Acrid wetness ran down her thighs and dripped onto the floor as Ovel's thick, black fingers pressed bruises into her pale, delicate skin. "S-stop!" she managed to make out through choked gasps.

On the ground, Fosi was barely able to crawl, grabbed Suvir's dropped dagger and palmed it beside her wrist. She said, "Are both of you already bored of me? Come on, you know that I'm better than this scrap of a woman; I'll be yours as long as it takes to satisfy you, just set her down."

Trakkur left his place by the wall and dragged Fosi by her hair to the doorway. "Can always find a bitch on the way home."

"Then at least let me be the one to kill her!" Fosi cried. "That's what you all wanted in the first place, wasn't it? Let me do it, and I'll leave with you... There wouldn't be a place for me in my father's court after betraying him like that..."

She was surprised that Trakkur was smart enough to support her on her feet and bring her within striking distance of Suvir, still choking within Ovel's grasp.

"That's right, you two could have me as much as you want. I'll even," she gulped, "bear your children... You could become known as the conquerors of the demon king's daughter... Just let me be the one who has the honor of taking this sheltered bitch's life."

She had to muster all of her strength just to stand as Ovel shoved Trakkur away. Ovel held Suvir at arm's length and grunted his belabored acceptance, showing Suvir's back to Fosi to rob her of even the shred of honor that would come of striking one's prey through the breast. Struggling still, Suvir looked a piteous sight, tears forming in her eyes as the dull-cast steel of her own dagger yet flashed in Fosi's hand. And the princess went limp.

Fosi breathed, worked her hand onto the dagger's hilt and tightened her fingers. "Princess, I wish I could say it had been pleasant knowing you thus far. I've known from the minute we met what you were. It's not an uncommon thing at all, and the other kings wouldn't care how obvious it was." Fosi brought the pommel of the dagger to her opposite shoulder, dipped one hip. She would need strength that she didn't know existed in this body. "Before what comes, I want you to know that your life belongs to me, and me alone. I will decide when you die." She laughed sadly, once, despite the way her body ached, at the fact she was likely throwing her own life away within the following seconds. "After all, who can forbid me from picking up what someone else has thrown away? One man's trash... And for future reference, this is how you hold a dagger!"

She twisted, swung her tail along the ground, built up angular momentum through her whole body, from her hips and up through her shoulders, flowing out and down her arm. Fosi's aim was true, the point had enough energy behind it that she pierced the Ovel's coarse fur, his flesh, and pinned the blade through the twinned bones of his forearm.

He squealed in pain and dropped Suvir, Fosi twisting the blade to inflict as much pain as she could while trying to clip his nerve and the fat vein on the other side. Suvir crumpled, frozen with fear and confusion, but Fosi slammed her foot into the princess' chest and sent her falling out the open doorway.

"Run, you retard!" Fosi shouted.

-o-

Suvir felt like her bare feet were hanging on by a thread as they pounded against the stone in her desperate retreat. She could feel the wetness of Ovel's blood on her clothing, the bruises that were still forming on her neck in the shape of his fat fingers. Just breathing hurt her chest, and pain radiated from her veins into every inch of her flesh, but she bore it since rational thought was only filtering back into her as she emerged from the noble wing.

There hadn't been any servants on her path, not even those imps that she now saw replacing candles. Of course not, the nobility preferred to be left alone. But Suvir didn't bother turning on her heel to pound on doors until she found an ally. No matter what the old veterans she'd met earlier that day thought of Avlakoi himself, she was far from certain to find one immediately who would stand with the man's daughter... And to show that sight, her body as it was, to one of Fosi's enemies would be...

It was unthinkable. Suvir didn't grab the first imp she passed for much the same reasons, and the fact that none of them would have the strength of arms to be of any use in the first place, much like herself. She could still feel the echoes of the compression in her wrist from trying to stab Ovel, and without a single drop of blood drawn to show for it. But again, Fosi couldn't be seen like that, not by anyone she didn't trust to keep a secret.

How many enemies did the woman have in her own home, and she'd stuck her neck out for Suvir's sake!? Moron!

So... allies. Suvir wracked her brains as she ran aimlessly, trying to dredge up what verified allies Fosi had, that Suvir had noticed while she was preoccupied with her own incipient death.

Peris... was right out... He'd more likely kill Suvir on the spot than hear her out. He was the more practical of the two, who would have executed Suvir on the spot days before, when she'd insulted his master directly. Even then, Fosi had interceded. Was she, even then, doing what she could to save Suvir's life?

But maybe that would be for the best. Suvir hated herself. Right then, someone was fighting for her, to save her life, had been for days, and she had the gall to avoid the obvious solution because she valued her own neck? Since when had she valued her own life!?

She kept running, disgusted with herself and justifying her behavior with the excuse that it's what Fosi herself would have wanted. The garrison. Fosi had seemed so friendly with those men in the morning; they'd extended a hand to her and let her train alongside them. Suvir bore down on the sounds of mugs clashing and drunken song.

The garrison quarters were right there in her sight. She turned a corner and slammed into something large and hairy. There, she balled up her fists and battered the man's chest.

"You, please, come with me! Lady Fosi is in danger!" Suvir cried through streaming tears.

The man didn't say a thing. He was as a gust of wind and Suvir was left alone. She collapsed against the nearest wall and buried her face in her arms, tongue on fire and chest pounding.

"I'm sorry," she said softly to no-one. "This is all I could do..."

-o-

Fosi bounced, limply slung over Ovel's shoulder like a sack of grain, the fingers of his good hand hooked into the nape of her neck with the promise of violence if she made so much as a peep. She had no more strength to struggle in any case, the last drop of it in her body had been used to ensure the princess' safety. All Suvir had to do was run, run anywhere; Ovel and Trakkur didn't even bother chasing after her in the aftermath of Fosi's attack, they'd beaten Fosi down where she stood and fled themselves, job abandoned.

What would come next? Days or years hiding from Vormise' wrath, with Fosi as a put-upon wife in the frontier? It's what she promised them in any case, but whether they had the patience to make her their brood mother or they just killed her remained to be seen. Fosi thought without emotion, too tired for disgust to accrete in her belly at the thought of being used day in and day out until there was no more mind behind her eyes.

Then, what of the prophecy? Avlakoi had never seriously thought he would be the one to fulfill it in the first place, but how would the next great war start without him in his ordained place? Maybe Fosi could delude herself that the next war simply wouldn't happen so long as she lived.

She could hold onto that ember of hope for some time.

Ovel came out into the courtyard and his heavy footfalls thudded toward the gate. The night watch wouldn't be facing inward, and they weren't about to stop a man from taking a succubus out for some fun in the woods, not even if she was screaming, that's what succubi were for... The boar men passed the two lanterns and went out into the darkness of the night without being stopped, as Fosi thought.

They went into the brush, thorns passing over the thick fur of Fosi's captors as they raked across her skin, leaving dotted trails of cool blood.

Suvir hadn't raised an alarm, good girl. It would all be for nothing if this all flowed down the line to war. If Fosi simply vanished into the night with these men... Suvir could make good on her bluster and claim that Fosi had been taken in with them as their lover... There was enough evidence on the floor of Methystus' former room to convince a normal man of that story. Then level heads could prevail in her absence. After all, Fosi was the woman who dragged off a lanky wolf man to her bed, since she was nothing but a dirty slut...

Funny, that man had seemed so confused by her that he hadn't been acting like a demon by the end...

She heard a howl.

Ovel trailed behind Trakkur, the latter forced to bear the brunt of the thorns and stomp a path for his superior. But how long would that last?

Trakkur burst out into a dusty clearing and stopped in his tracks, turned his back to the moon and held out his hand. "Give to me."

"Keep walking!" Ovel roared. He wanted to clench his fist but his fingers wouldn't close at his order, never would again. Fosi felt his other hand tighten around her neck as he thought about it. "Want to die!?"

"You're weak. She's mine. Shut up, move to front."

Demons were demons after all. What chance was there, really, that their bonds of brotherhood would bear the weight of one single weakness? The knife was still embedded in Ovel's forearm, kept there to staunch the bleeding until they were safe enough to dress the wound. He was seemingly skilled enough in combat to understand that.

But Ovel proved his superiority again. He stepped forward and brought up his bad hand. A sharp point was a sharp point in the hand or through the arm. With a heavy motion, he brought the pierced portion of his forearm across Trakkur's face, raked the tip of Suvir's dagger across one beady, black eye.

Trakkur only squealed in pain for a moment, then caught Ovel's foot in his chest, bowling the inferior male backward onto the ground where he grasped his ruined eye and, shaking, showed his belly in submission.

A symbolic gesture, as in the way one bows their head, offering it to their superior, showing the belly was an invitation to disembowelment. One wasn't supposed to kick the downed man like Ovel did next. Fosi head a distinct pop in Trakkur's ribcage and gurgling breath.

"Stupid. Leave you here," Ovel spat over the crumpled body of his former subordinate. So, Fosi thought, she'd belong only to this one man... Was that better or worse?

The brush rustled and a dark figure rushed out into the clear open space, its lank form brushed with silver moonlight across the edges of its fur. It regarded Ovel with gleaming, yellow eyes from across the way, then raised its muzzle toward the night sky and burst with a ear-ringing howl. Caelobranc was revealed as the clouds parted, wreathed in silvery light as though he were ablaze, lips pulled back to show his long, feral fangs.

Ovel huffed, kicked the squirming figure of Trakkur over as if that would buy him a second to think as Caelobranc finished the man off, and he stepped back, keeping the shoulder Fosi was slung over in the direction of the threat.

"Set. Her. Down," Caelobranc managed between snarls. He dug his claws into the dirt, curled his legs beneath him.

It wouldn't work out, even now, Fosi thought. Avlakoi had seen the wolf clan fight before, many times, often enough that he knew the valley that had to exist between Caelobranc natural power and the brute strength of the boar clan. The wolf clan fought in the way that all wolves fought, together, confusing their opponent with numbers, circling around to nip at the flank and the heels, bleeding their prey until they either fell down dead or slowed enough to allow a killing strike to the neck. Fosi wanted to call out to him, tell him to run, but she couldn't so much as take in the breath she would need to reach his ears with Ovel's shoulder planted in her belly.

Ovel said, "I know you. Plaything, aren't'cha? Don't want yer missus goin' 'way. Fine. Come with, Let you have yer turn sometimes." He stomped on Trakkur's chest again for a chorus of pops like the sound of felled trees; the former subordinate wasn't struggling against the pain anymore, his belly didn't rise or fall with breath. "Or, else."

Caelobranc launched himself at the boar man in the elliptical path that would have given him an opening if he were paired with another warrior, but Ovel wisely kept Fosi in the way of his neck and stepped around such that there was no open path to the backs of his legs. So Caelobranc was forced to continue around, circling more slowly once he knew that he wouldn't be getting anywhere with those tactics. But Ovel was looking back toward the castle, he hadn't gone far enough to be comfortable stopping for a fight.

His plan had been to march through the night, vanishing without a trace. Neither could he simply stall out the fight by being the bigger man. Ovel also had to fight, and snarled at the body of Trakkur with disgust for having left him alone. If the bastard had held out on his betrayal for just a minute longer, Ovel would have been able to feed him to the wolf and make his escape.

Breaking away from the standoff, Ovel turned and lumbered across the clearing, jostling Fosi all the way on his shoulder. And he turned again, brought his heavy fist around to his rear like a hammer to catch Caelobranc in mid-lunge. Meat smacked against meat and Caelobranc flew to the side, but recovered before Ovel was able to put him down for good.

"Not enough." Caelobranc spat blood onto the ground and his snarling maw was missing a few gleaming points. "You'll have to kill me first, or I'll chase you to the end of the world. Try sleeping, knowing that I'll be at your throat. Run as far as you want, but you'll not outrun my nose, not now that I've memorized your stench. Do you think you can beat me with one hand, or that I'll approach ever again so long as you're holding a hostage?"

"Mutt." Ovel shrugged Fosi off his shoulder to land as a heap at his feet, and he stepped over her to prevent Caelobranc from running in and stealing her away. "Come."

The comparatively weak and lanky demon began circling Ovel, planning, waiting for his moment to strike. Ovel knew not to turn his back, so stepped over Fosi again and again to ensure that Caelobranc wouldn't be allowed his opportunity. But waiting wouldn't be an option forever and Ovel knew it; there was no telling how many soldiers were looking for him at that very moment. Though if Suvir was smart, she wouldn't have told the entire garrison.

Stalling was viable only on one side. Ovel kicked Fosi in the stomach to move her closer to the brush on the closer side of the clearing and she choked on the pain as he took his position between her and Caelobranc. Not bad, she would have thought, essentially putting his back against a wall, difficult terrain that Caelobranc couldn't easily attack through.

He'd apparently decided to march away despite the threat to fight another day when he could pick the setting. Ovel took hold of Fosi's arm and forced her onto her feet, started to trudge through the prickly brush.

And Caelobranc lunged through the air. While Ovel's heavy arm hit him once more, he clamped his maw onto the blood-soaked fur of Ovel's arm and the boar man cried out in pain even as Caelobranc was forced away.

Ovel dropped Fosi again, and again Caelobranc launched himself into the fray, dodging around Ovel's good arm and landing a swipe of his claws across the now ragged wound on the favored arm, blood spilling freely into the dirt. From there, Ovel's faculties diminished to the fine point of a needle in his beady eyes as his bloodline took hold of his mind.

He lashed out at Caelobranc's darting form, slamming his fists onto the ground where the wolf man had been a moment before with a force that strained the very bones in his arms. He'd completely forgotten about Fosi behind him, seeing nothing but Caelobranc and the bright redness of the boiling blood in his eyes as his soul compensated for the perceived weakness of his body.

It hardly mattered that he wasn't protecting his prize anymore; she was in no condition to even crawl away and Caelobranc was preoccupied in the moment to moment challenge of avoiding strikes that would cripple or kill him immediately. Time was anyone's ally now. Should the blood of the boar clan find victory, it would do so in the next few tens of seconds or not at all.

"Fuck all you!" Ovel roared. "Never wanted job, take it or die he says! Rather be back home!" He ran after Caelobranc as the wolf demon retreated, as liable to impale him on his tusks as trample him. "Don't want the bitch! I'll take what I can!"

And Caelobranc, though he was being kept on his back foot, moved lightly, springing from one safe point to the next. His breath felt so loud, he was fading himself, more than likely concussed.

But he found his mark.

Ovel slammed his good hand into the ground and Caelobranc shot around, dove low and snapped his teeth at the exposed tendon above Ovel's heel.

It was all over, just like that. Ovel toppled heavily onto the ground and Caelobranc's fangs were already closing in on his neck. All it would take was a twist and a pull, the boar demon would be left without a throat and either exsanguinate or drown in his own blood.

Fosi filled her lungs with air and screamed, "Stop!"

The scene froze a moment away from death.

"Don't kill him..." she managed to whimper. Caelobranc's ears pipped up with understanding and it was the last thing she'd see for hours. Her head rested in the grass, usually too sharp to be a proper resting place, but she was tired enough that she might accept a literal bed of spikes.

As she floated underneath her own perception, she felt herself being picked up and carried in strong arms with her head laid against soft fur. There was rustling in the brush as more people arrived, only two or three by the sound of it. So, Suvir had been able to find those couple men who would save Fosi rather than let her be taken... But there would still be aftereffects to be taken care of; the princess wasn't out of the woods in the way Fosi now was, thanks to her.

Though, Fosi thought treacherously, her own life wouldn't have been in danger if the princess had simply gone by the unspoken plan and kept her nose out of events.

In Caelobranc's arms, it nearly felt like she was being rocked with each step... Avlakoi hadn't been coddled in such a way, not before or after he'd grown enough to make it impossible.

So this is what he'd been missing out on...

She absentmindedly nuzzled her head against Caelobranc's fur and mumbled, "Thank you."

-o-

"She should be fine, these wounds are all superficial. I've applied salve to her cuts and administered birth control via injection, assuming she wasn't already taking the potion like most succubi do. I don't believe there will be so much as a scar." Was that... Pach's voice? The weedy demon placed his hand on her forehead. "Luckily, her scales are so small and fine that they might as well be skin. You'd know that thick scale scars with incredible ease. I don't feel a fever, but we should still be on the lookout for the beginning stages of disease, and the bramble's poison is already in her bloodstream, so she'll certainly be itchy once she regains consciousness. Do. Not. Let her scratch herself raw. That's what the slime is for, it should draw out the toxins and numb the area, be done within, say, half a day."

Another presence in the room loomed over her. Where was she? Somewhere soft at least, but a little too breezy. Fosi could feel the slime creature mentioned as it made its way across her skin, settling squat on her belly, and the chill sensation of medical salve made tiger lines all across her body.

"Sir?" Pach said.

The other man sat on Fosi's bed. "She's awake now. Leave us."

Ah, Peris...

Peris!

She snapped to awareness and popped off the surface of the bed. She threw her arms around herself, but someone had been kind enough to make sure she wasn't totally naked, had given her a simple dress. "Where is Suvir!?" she asked with her heart in her scratchy throat.

Peris sighed, there was a kind of darkness in his expression she hadn't seen before. He waited for Pach to vacate the room, placed his hand on Fosi's cheek. "She's waiting in the dungeon, with the other one. I wanted you to have the chance to watch the executions."

"Execution? She just saved my life, you have to let her out!"

"My lady," he said, glowering down at her. "She's as guilty for your kidnapping as the two she came with. You should know this... The entire reason she came here was to provoke a war."

"I did know that," she said quietly.

Peris smacked her face. "Idiot! then why are you protecting her!?"

She ignored the stinging, the tear forming in the corner of her eye. "Do you think she had a choice?" I never did. "I wanted to protect her until my father came back. He'd know what to do..."

"Then you should have come to me!" Peris shouted. He came up to his feet, his sword was already drawn and had been lying on his lap; he'd been keeping watch over her as she slept. "Whatever your plan was, I would have kept you safe. We could have killed those men any time you chose. Hell, you yourself could have killed them in the open and that would have saved the princess' life! Do you think that little of me, that you'd rely on a damn wolf-man in your time of need, every time!? Am I that untrustworthy!?"

"No..." she said. She couldn't meet his gaze for the shame.

"Then why?"

Fosi choked on an incipient sob to stall it, sure that she wouldn't be able to stop once it began. Her vision blurred nonetheless. "You would have killed them."

"Of course I would have killed them for you!"

"That would have started a war..." Her chest felt numb, through even the itching poison Pach had said should be coursing through her.

Peris lifted his blade and swept it through the air. "A war that we would win handily as soon as your father returned to the field."

She cried, "How many people have to die before you all are happy!?"

There was a flash of shame across Peris' face. He slowly sheathed his sword and sat back down at her side, then pushed her back into the bedding. He was silent for a long time, peering down into her face, and it nearly felt like he could see the shade of Avlakoi hiding within her. "I'll give you this: wherever you really come from, that is the kind of attitude I'd expect from a demon who'd been raised among humans... For a second there, you sounded like my mother. If you're going to live among us, you'll have to learn how we live. We winnow down the weak by gnashing our teeth, we practice war religiously, and we absolutely do not injure ourselves for our enemies' sakes!"

Don't tell me he's forgotten.

"My father said once that he first met you on the battlefield..." Fosi said. Sorry, my friend, that I have to lie to you like this.

"Your father is special... He's strong enough to dole out mercy, but what would he say about you endangering yourself for that girl?"

I would say that I was proud of my daughter, in private... No, I wouldn't, but I would like to think so. "I was stalling, until he came back. You're right, he is strong enough to be merciful. I was counting on that."

Peris shook his head. "In any case, the boar clan has tried to kidnap the demon king's daughter, and I won't speak on... what else happened between you and them. I'll rally the men later today and we'll begin marching."

"You can't do that!" Fosi shouted, and devolved into a coughing fit until Peris cradled her head in his arm and let her sip from a nearby glass of water.

"Even if you were content to defile yourself beneath them as you have, we can't ignore what they've done."

Fosi stared up into his eyes and saw a kind of anger swimming deeply within for anyone who would dare harm her. If I were really my daughter, would I have lasted this long against my friend's charms? "You said that you want me to be your bride..." she said quietly, and the silence that followed let her hear the flicker of the candle flame beside her.

"I do," he said. "And not just because you're my friend's daughter, that I want to protect you for his sake. I swear to you that I want you to be by my side, to hold and to protect. When I heard that you were being stolen away, I wanted to murder your captor... When I saw that someone else had been the one to save you, I wanted nothing more than to murder him. But I had to bow my head and thank him instead."

She closed her eyes and nodded, sinking deeply into herself. He wouldn't be a bad husband, she thought, but for someone else. It couldn't be her, because she wasn't herself; the whole person that was Fosi was a fabrication, a mirage. Still, to avoid bloodshed... she could play a nasty trick. Her soul was always going to be black, in the end.

Fosi said, eyes yet closed as she couldn't risk meeting Peris' steady gaze, "Do me one favor. Wait for my father to come back before you speak about making war again. Tell him what you've just told me and, should he agree to give me over, I will swear to be your obedient wife for the rest of my days, even a loving one. I swear that he will hear you out properly. I will advocate for you."

Peris laid her head gently on the pillow and stood as there was a knock on the door. Merrili's head popped in. Peris said, "We will wait, then. I'm sure your father will stand for your treatment far less than I have already."

"And I want Suvir freed," Fosi said.

"You can't possibly think I'll accept that."

Fosi stared him down... from below. "Should I crawl out of bed and down to the dungeon to do it myself? I will, and you know I will."

His knuckles popped in a tight fist and he addressed Merrili. "See to her comfort, girl, I have matters to settle."

The maid kept her composure until the moment the door clicked back into place, then dove onto the bed and enveloped Fosi in her arms, sobbing.

How often have I really had the chance to soothe another? "There there, I'm fine now." Fosi stroked Merrili's back while the woman cried into her breast. "Really, I am okay. I just need some sleep and I'll be good as new, just you wait and see."

"I was *hic* so worried! I shouldn't have left your side, I'm so sorry that I let something so horrible happen! There's no way I'll ever be able to make this up to you... Please, whatever punishment I have to take for you to be satisfied, I'll take it."

Fosi could almost smile. "You've did nothing but what I've asked of you, there's nothing to forgive. There was nothing that you could have done to help, I think."

"I could have been the one to go with them..." Merrili said when her sobs had petered out. "There's no reason someone like you should have had to go through what you did... I'm used to it at least..."

"There was a reason. It was my sacrifice to make. Please, you don't have to feel responsible for anything."

Some time later, when Merrili had been petted enough to regain her composure, the next one came.

Her nightclothes were torn and she stepped shortly, hobbled with a chain between her ankles and another connecting her wrists behind her back. Suvir entered at the urging of a guard and Fosi shot up to sit straight on the bed and glare viciously at the guard.

"You unchain her right this second!" Fosi commanded before collapsing back down in a coughing fit.

He wasn't about to question her at this point; the princess was hardly a threat even to a temporary invalid, twiggy and half-dead with exhaustion as she was. The princess' chains hit the floor and the guard was smart enough to leave before Fosi could muster up the will to mete out punishment. And Suvir remained where she stood in the middle of the room, staring at her feet as if carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, too confused to make a start on conversation herself.

"Come here, princess. No... Suvir, please," Fosi said. She waited for Suvir to step quietly to her bedside and raised a hand to grasp one of the princess' own.

Suvir said nothing, trembling in Fosi's grasp. Her skin felt cold.

"Thank you."

"I wasn't able to do anything..." Suvir whispered.

"You were the one who went for help, were you not? it's the only reason I wasn't taken away never to be seen again as an assassin's wife. I have to thank you for that."

Suvir shook her head.

"Yes, truly. But now, there's still the matter of what will happen with you."

"I know." Suvir bowed her head and closed her eyes. "My life belongs to you, and I offer it to you. I would swear before impartial witnesses my father's plot against yours and go to the block with a clear mind."

Fosi laid her head roughly back into her pillow. "Will the lot of you stop going to execution as the first step!? I don't intend to make you pay for that man's sins... Just tell me, would you like to go home?"

The princess was hit by the realization, or rather the creeping thought had finally become complete, that there wouldn't be a home for a failure like herself to return to. She remained with her head low as her whole body shook and she squeaked, "No."

"Then you will not," Fosi said. "Details will have to come later, but you said it yourself, your life is mine to command."

Suvir's eyes widened.

"At my side, I think, while I am here in my father's stead." Wonderful, yet another person to keep this secret from... "I'd like to hear acceptance from your lips, your choice."

When Suvir faltered, Merrili was there behind her to keep from falling to her knees. That seemed more than enough for one day, relief was in abundance and Fosi's body didn't have enough tension left behind to maintain wakefulness. She nodded off as Suvir accepted her place in Fosi's service with teary eyes and, for the first time in days, she dreamed.

-o-

It was surprising, then, to wake up in the bath. Fosi recalled the previous minutes slowly as she sank to her shoulders in the steaming hot water. Suvir herself had been the one to wake her, as such, in the morning and lead her there, balanced on the princess' shoulder. Fosi's muscles ached and she wasn't yet sure on her feet, felt odd to be weak enough to be ushered about like this.

Suvir was there with her, the only one there with her. In the hours of darkness, the princess had shortened her hair as if with the very axe and chopping block she'd dreaded, lopped off near the shoulder. It wasn't a bad look, but Fosi felt the girl had been more beautiful when it had hung down her back as a river of soft brown. She waded to Fosi's side and hugged Fosi's arm to her naked chest, nuzzled her head against Fosi's shoulder. And she startled when Fosi reached over to pet her hair.

"Mistress!?" Suvir blushed, but pointedly did not pull away. "Are you really awake now? The cow maid... she said that I should wash off your sweat."

Fosi smiled. Is this the level of understanding that my new servant is starting with? No harm done, I haven't drowned and it feels nice. "Usually, one washes a sick person with a wetted cloth," she said. "But, thank you." Where did I even learn that?

"Y-you don't have to keep thanking me for everything..." The redness on Suvir's face deepened and spread down to her shoulders. At least she could blame it on the heat of the bath. "T-there was another reason that I wanted to take you here..."

"Mm?" Fosi relaxed; aside from exercise with the boys, sitting there in the water was the most pleasant she'd felt in days.

Suvir moved slowly in the water around Fosi's knee, putting herself between Fosi's legs, and she hugged Fosi's waist. "I... I needed to..."

"Take your time."

Rather than continue stuttering, Suvir reached around Fosi's thighs and lifted her, not wholly without help, up onto the edge of the bath. There Suvir remained, rested her cheek against Fosi's wet thigh with her eyes tightly closed. "The, the cow maid said that you would be okay, and they'd given you medicine so it wouldn't be a problem... I've heard that... I've heard that my people's c... cum is really, really thick, and it sticks deep inside..."

"... Yes?" Fosi's hand unconsciously went to her navel, her sodden womb beneath. The faster I can bury this memory, the better.

Suvir leaned in and pressed her lips to Fosi's labia, the tip of her tongue flitted hesitantly between. And Fosi laid weak hands on the princess' head.

"You don't have to do that. I'm sure I can take care of it myself in due time," Fosi whispered.

But Suvir pushed forward, latching one arm around Fosi's leg for support as she prodded her tongue in deeper, finally meeting the taste with an obviously suppressed grimace. Her tongue slid up Fosi's slit, encouraged on the way by Fosi's moans from above, and the gasp when the princess had made her way to Fosi's clit and kissed it.

"Ah!" Fosi braced herself back on her arms; her legs shivered as Suvir concentrated her licking on Fosi's clit alone, assaulting her with sensation. "Please..." Fosi panted without knowing what she was pleading for.

Suvir's bright eyes looked up into a pleasure-suffused face as she swirled her tongue relentlessly against Fosi's throbbing nub. The princess came off with a little pop and a string of, mostly, saliva, rubbed her cheek against the inside of Fosi's thigh. "Am I doing it right?... This felt good when you did it to me..." she said with virginal innocence. Right, it had only been days since her first time in that very bath, and Fosi hadn't exactly been gentle back then.

"Not... not right there, not so fast," Fosi caught her breath, and she could feel the princess' leering as her chest rose and fell. She petted Suvir's hair and sighed, resigning herself to what would come next. "You have to start slowly, princess... If you go right for the end like that, it's almost painful, don't you think?" Fosi felt her nipples tighten under Suvir's concentrated gaze and her clit thrummed with the desire to continue where they'd left off moments before.

"Okay," Suvir said, and leaned in once more to press her lips to Fosi's skin. Fosi felt the soft warmth of Suvir's breath and the gentle touch of her lips as the princess trailed kisses down her thigh, up and up toward Fosi's aching center, seeming too slow now for the heat of arousal that had been started within Fosi, but she could hardly admit such a thing. Deliberately, Suvir kissed and suckled Fosi's tender mound, letting her tongue out to tease along her skin, flitting between her lips. "Like this?" she said, her voice muffled between Fosi's legs with gleaming, innocent eyes seeking approval.

Fosi bit her lip and nodded. The princess was inexperienced in giving pleasure, but Fosi herself was as inexperienced in receiving it. Self pleasure had nothing on the touch of another, no matter how inept, and Suvir was making up the gap with just how adorably enthusiastic she was. The slow burn was almost worse; she could feel herself dripping, semen slowly dribbling onto her skin from within, beading on her bare ass.

Encouraged, Suvir brought her hand up and spread Fosi's lips with her fingers, exposing sweet, aching pinkness that she spared no time licking. Fosi trembled at the princess' gentle touch, Suvir's tongue exploring her every fold, drawing out the thick cum within and lapping it up, by then aroused enough herself that she was able to swallow it down without a grimace. Not a drop was left to dirty the water in the bath. Suvir's rear bobbed in the air above the surface of the water, engrossed in pleasuring her lady and mistress such that she couldn't spare a thought toward self restraint.

The princess pressed a finger past Fosi's lips and hooked its tip against her inner walls, and Fosi couldn't hold herself up anymore. She flopped back onto the tile with her legs left behind in the water with Suvir, hips bucking as Suvir slowly pushed only that single finger in and out. It seemed that, after taking so many larger things inside herself, Fosi shouldn't have been able to so much as feel a touch this sweet and soft, but she tightened around one thin finger all the same. She moaned where she lay, staring up into the reflected shadows of rippling water on the ceiling as Suvir had the run of her body.

Suvir seized on Fosi as her body loosened, pushing in a second finger and plunging both in to her knuckle before dragging her fingertips along the ceiling of Fosi's pussy. She pulled out glob after glob of cum, thick as jelly, and sucked them down then and there from Fosi's lips. Fosi's toes curled and splashed at the surface of the water as Suvir's clumsy ministrations dredged pleasure up from her core.

"Fuck..." Fosi breathed as Suvir's tongue flicked across her throbbing clit.

The princess sank her fingers deep within Fosi's warm cunt and stayed there, stirring her like a pot of sticky, glistening honey as she planted her cute lips onto Fosi's clit and began slowly swirling the tip of her tongue around the cherry-red nub. Fosi tensed on the floor, her back arched as Suvir's persistence drove her further toward orgasm. She could feel her breath in her belly, her skin like fire as she lay back and allowed the princess to do as she pleased; she had felt this sort of helplessness, impotence, but had it always felt this amazing? It had never before been a gift...

She tried to break away, crawl back on the floor, but Suvir locked her arm around Fosi's thigh and kept her right where she was, nearly out of instinct, intent on finishing what she'd started. There were only moments between Fosi and orgasm, it came over her like a rushing wave that would have swept her off her feet no matter how well planted she thought she'd been.

"Hnnnggh!" Fosi's hips bucked off the floor, bouncing herself on Suvir's fingers as the princess continued driving her crazy, wildly thrusting against Fosi's insides to keep the rolling waves of orgasm coming so long as they held out. Delight fuzzed Fosi's head as she shuddered on the floor, lavished with attention that she barely felt for how entirely saturated she was with it. She hardly noticed her juices spattering Suvir's face as the princess greedily licked it up.

Some time later, she came to her senses out of the afterglow and wiped sweat from her brow, too weak to sit up off the floor. And the slender, naked form of princess Suvir lay within the crook of her other arm. The princess' breath smelled like cum. Regardless, Fosi leaned down to plant a kiss on the girl's pert lips as a reward for her hard work.

Suvir said drowsily, "I got all of it out, I think..."

"I told you that you didn't have to." Fosi petted her shortened silky brown hair and idly wondered how long it would take to regrow. "But... if you want to practice, I wouldn't exactly be opposed to that..."

Suvir nuzzled herself closer to her lady's side.

"But don't think I wanted you for myself, just to be a plaything." Whether or not they were kind words by themselves, they were the ones that Fosi thought the princess would need to move forward. "You'll have to be more useful than a hostage, princess, because I don't intend on letting you leave for a king's ransom, or anything else." That kind of promise, was Fosi allowed to make one of such scope, when she was still so weak?

"I promise." Suvir pulled herself up and mounted Fosi to stare down into her eyes, wet hair plastered to her cheeks, trying not to cry within the safe darkness of her own shadow. "I belong to you, and I'll be useful to you if it kills me."

Fosi found the strength to sit up for the purpose of hugging the princess to her chest, placed her chin atop Suvir's head with no chance of seeing her face. "At least until you stop thinking your life is worth so little."

Above them both, having been there quietly for some time, Merrili had come with fresh clothes. She smiled while she and Fosi waited for the quiet little sobs to peter out.