Hell's Bailiff - Chapter 3 Part 2
Hell's Bailiff - Chapter 3 Part 2
My mentor had meanwhile picked out a few prospects. I immediately dismissed all the male choices.
"Do think higher up than between your thighs," he groaned.
That my weakness was lust was no secret.
"I did. Kana's wiles will eat them for breakfast. She keeps me busy enough trying to figure out what she's up to. I don't need to second guess half my team."
"Hmm, you may be right."
"What do you make of the doppelganger?"
"Oh, wasn't a succubus then? Why? What's wrong with her?"
"They won't tell me. Anyone you can ask?"
"Let me work on that. There's someone I've been meaning to look up anyway."
"They're desperate to get rid of her. We can bargain them down, but I want to know what I'm getting into first."
"Yes, good to know."
He drifted toward the special auctions and I looked over the remaining choices. It didn't take long before I was feeling overwhelmed and confused by how to evaluate the slaves and which ones to buy. I had of course ruled out anything that would attract undue attention, like orcs, ogres, any strange beasts, and magical monsters like the pair of harpies, muzzled and looking miserable.
I drifted out to the common market to take a mental break and also check out the local wildlife. My mentor had already arranged a room and I knew how to get to it to rendezvous later. For now, I thought some schmoozing might do me good and a change of pace. A food stand offering some mystery meat and strange drinks seemed like a good place to start.
A battle-scarred goliath woman well over a foot and a half taller than myself was there. She grinned when she saw my brow furrow at the choices then turned her attention to a fat drumstick of... something... that she bought and hungrily tore into it.
"Is that any good?" I asked, pulling her eyes away from idly scanning the market.
"It's cheap and filling. First time here?" she smirked.
"That obvious, huh? I'm Simon."
I held out my hand in friendship. We clasped forearms -- hers as thick as my shoulders.
"Ursa," she introduced herself. "I've only been here a few times myself."
"What brings you here?"
"Slaves. Hobgoblins raid us, we raid them back. Found out they had sold some of our people here, so why not do it back to them?"
"You ever run into them here? Raiders, I mean."
"Yeah. Not often, but it's always ironic when it happens. We usually end up settling things outside later on. And permanently. What about you? What are you here for?"
"Slaves, actually."
"Oh? For what?"
"It's complicated. Let's just say I need to put together a fighting team. Um, look, could you, er, recommend something here to eat?"
"Ha ha! Alright... let's see... The mushrooms are pretty tame. They taste like mushrooms, just with slightly different flavour. If you want meat, you either have to be careful or you have to not care. They don't waste much down here and you could be eating anything."
"What do you have there?"
"Probably someone's leg, I'm sure. But I need meat to stay strong. I'm not going to just have vegetables."
"'Someone's leg'?"
"Yeah. Some of this comes from the mind flayers. They eat the brains of intelligent humanoids. The rest of the body they don't care for. Some of it ends up in a meatshop because not everyone down here has qualms about eating certain things. Some even look for it. And once it's all chopped up, sometimes it's hard to tell what it really is. This may very well be the roasted leg of some human. Might be elf. I'm not sure. Like I said, it's cheap and filling. Try some?"
I was pretty sure that at some level she was sizing up my manhood, whether I was going to be bold or not. If I wanted to impress her type, I'd need to be bold. If I became curious about bedding her, it'd help if I impressed her. So I pinched off a good chunk. It came free easily. I showed her no hesitation and popped it into my mouth. The meat was red in that semi-rare kind of way, very juicy, and a bit gamey. Very well roasted and not overdone.
"What do you think it tastes like?" asked Ursa.
"Not chicken. Honestly, I don't know. Defintely never had elf before."
She laughed and bit into her roasted leg.
"Buy you a drink?"
"Why not?"
"Know a good place?"
"You bet."
On the way, I saw what looked like a falafel stand. After some tricky communications as neither I nor the vendor spoke any languages in common, I think I got one with some kind of marinated cow meat that tasted like mushroom.
"Probably rothe. A type of Underdark ox."
"Hmm..."
Tasty enough. We got to a brewery and she pointed out various beers. I got a glass and ordered her a full pitcher.
After that, we wandered the market a bit and she showed me the chain of hobgoblin slaves she and her tribe-mates had sold to a dealer on this trip.
She agreed to give me her opinion on the auction slaves and we were heading over to that cave when a tiefling streetwalker caught my eye. She saw she had my lingering attention and sauntered over.
My lusty nature had seen me bed just about every type of woman I found attractive, and yes, half-infernal tieflings were not exotic to me. What had had me mesmerized were the clash of her very revealing outfit with her dauntingly impressive muscles.
"Looking for company, surfacer?" she beckoned.
"Not on the wrestling mat, no."
Ursa, who had been a bit annoyed by my roving eye, burst out laughing.
The tiefling was just a bit shorter than myself, but stocky for her muscles, yet still feminine in the way that excessively muscled women have trouble maintaining.
"Are you sure about that?" asked the tiefling. "Wouldn't you like to know how it feels to be crushed beneath these? That's exactly what my clients like."
She flexed her muscles, and gave Ursa a glance as well. "Your friend there is big, but she lacks... definition."
Ursa harrumphed and tried to look bored, but I think she was impressed as well. In any case, I gave the tiefling an appreciative look over.
"What else do your clients like?"
"They're mostly drow, scholars, and merchants. Almost never warriors. They just want to know what a strong woman feels like. Either on the bottom or on the top. Usually from behind, either way." wink.
"Maybe. Do you do the 'tail thing'?"
Her eyes widened and her maw dropped. She looked to my new companion who was similarly surprised. They burst out laughing.
"Woo! Kinky! That'll cost you extra, honey!" she laughed.
She brought her prehensile tail up to stroke my behind brazenly. I caressed and lightly massaged it.
Tieflings were a very varied bunch, with different styles of horns and tails. Hers was snaky, and smooth of any scales. Very likely she was of only weak tiefling blood. Normally their tales are not prehensile, so she was showing remarkable control and skill.
"Ooh... Keep that up and I might just give you a discount," she sighed.
"To be honest, I don't even know what the 'tail thing' is," I confessed.
"Oh! Well, where'd you hear about it?"
"From someone who said she wasn't very good in bed and didn't do it."
"I see..." She wriggled her tail over to Ursa and boldly rubbed it just under her breasts, inching up slowly to the marvelous cleavage between the firm mounds pressed together by her patchwork armor of stiff hides. "Are you into the tail thing?"
"Oh, gods, no. And if anyone tried it on me, I'd tear their tail off."
The tail flicked away immediately.
"Look, can one of you please tell me what this 'tail thing' is?"
"I'd prefer to show you, darling," she cooed. "But it might take a while to show you all the possibilities..."
"And how long is 'a while'?"
"A couple of hours at least. Normally 20 gold, but 18 just for you. Only ten extra if she wants to join us."
"What's your name, beautiful?"
"My name is anything you need it to be. But you can call me Ornella for now."
"She's your type?" asked Ursa with one brow raised.
"What do you mean? Her sexy tail or her hard body?"
I ran my eyes up and down Ursa appreciatively and gave her a sly smile.
She didn't punch me in the face. This was good. She cracked just a tiny smile. That was even better.
"Thirty seems a bit steep if I could get three slaves in the market for the same price," I pointed out.
Ornella stiffened. "How dare you compare me to-- to-- meat!"
"'Meat'? Look, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you. This is my first time here."
Ornella looked at me askance, but softened her angry eyes.
"Actually Ursa, that was something I had wanted to ask you," I said. "How does a person end up her in the common market, instead of the slave auction or the special market?"
"The slave auction's mostly pit fighters or someone with a special skill, like magic. The common market... they're commoners. Or they're broken. Defeated. Their wills are gone. Even if they were warriors before, they'd never make it in the arena now. Look at them -- They're like sheep. There's no more fight in them. They're just good for cheap labour. Pit fighters are in demand because they can make you money in the arena, if you run a stable of fighters."
Ornella nodded. "Darling, if you bought one of them to share your bed, she'd have no more imagination than the basic in-and-out. With me, you get a special experience. The royal treatment -- I guarantee."
I looked over to the nearest slave dealer and scanned the faces and eyes of the slaves there. They were right. These were broken men and women waiting for death.
"I've seen that look before," Ornella sidled up behind me. "Don't think about them. You can't save them all."
I looked over at Ursa. She had a pensive, almost pained look. "Whenever we come, my tribe-mates and I buy every one of our people who has been taken slave. Only the gladiators beyond our ability to buy, but at least they have the glory of battle. And we bet on them to honor that. The slaves we sell buys the freedom of our people. In that I make my peace with what I do."
"And what of you?" asked Ornella softly.
"He's not slaver," Ursa reminded.
"Oh, right."
But how wrong they were.
The flirtatious mood had been most definitely ruined and the three of us parted ways for now. Ursa remembered an appointment at the arena, and we agreed to meet up again "tomorrow" at the slave auctions. In exchange for a dinner date, I got Ornella to finally brief me on the 'tail thing'.
In the caves, there was no day or night to mark today or tomorrow, but time and whether it was sunup or sundown in the surface world was kept for various purposes. For example, many of the Underdark denizens were not light-adapted so those who had business on the surface had some interest in whether it would be blinding day or comfortable night. For myself, the excitement of being in a new and wondrous and alien place kept fatigue away and I would have lost all sense of time and pressed on seeing more wonders and exploring the market if not for the clocks.
My next stop was back to the special auctions and the doppelganger's cage. She was napping again. While I waited for the auctioneer to finish speaking with another customer, I strode up to the Blue dragon.
"Guess what? I found out what the 'tail thing' is all about."
"Well?"
"Curious, are you?"
"Mildly..."
"I had to buy dinner for someone to find out. What are you offering?"
"You dare bargain with me?!" Blue rumbled.
The entire cave turned to see what the commotion was about.
"Maybe not..."
"That's much better."
I looked to my left then my right, then motioned him closer with my finger conspiratorially.
He leaned forward and I whispered it into his ear.
"Gods, that's disgusting! You humans..."
"Actually, a tiefling told it to me."
"Shameless strumpet! Well, of course it'd be a tiefling who'd be into it."
"Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it. At least that's what she said."
"Humph. If anyone did try it, I'd bite their tail off first."
"Funny, that's more or less what Ursa said..."
:Ah, you have returned,: the illithid auctioneer greeted.
:She's used goods. And broken. You can't possibly ask the reserve price.: I told him bluntly and crossed off my bid. :In fact, I'd be willing to bet that this... Bargle fellow who's put down the highest bid might not be too pleased to find out what I know.:
The illithid waved his tentacles furiously in obvious displeasure.
:But I will give you the reserve price IF...:
:If?:
:That mental thing you did to find out her name... What else can you do?:
:Many things. Speak plainly and I can offer you a more useful answer.:
:Can you heal her mind?:
The illithid seemed to be taken aback by such an odd notion.
:I have never considered that. Her mind is not damaged per se. It is her thoughts. What she dwells on, and allows to paralyze her. Your kind frequently lack even the simplest discipline to ignore what is of no use. I think what you are asking is whether she can be made to stop feeling the pain of past traumas. Maybe even have them erased. That is not our specialty, but let me make an inquiry.:
He must have flashed some sort of question to his fellows because they all briefly paused, perhaps to consider his question. Maybe every illithid in the market heard it. Maybe every illithid everywhere, even. I was still absorbing the implications of such a network of swift and accurate mental communication, networking, and knowledge-sharing when he came back with the answer.
:I can arrange some psychic surgery. But as there is risk to the merchandise, I must ask for payment for her up front. At the reserve price. And no refunds. If she is damaged by the procedure, it is your loss.:
:And I pay nothing for this 'surgery' if it won't make her any better?:
:Agreed.:
:Done. What's the reserve price, then? And how much for the psychic surgery?:
*
It was now early evening. I swung by to invite Ornella to the inn where my mentor had arranged separate rooms for us. We had a delightful dinner where she ordered and gave me a proper introduction to the various foods of the Underdark. Then it was time to go upstairs and fool around with the tail thing. But more than that, I hoped.
"Thank you for dinner, love," Ornella hugged me warmly from behind. "Now can we play?"
"You bet."
Her eyes tinkled and she led me to sit beside her on the bed. She held my hands and her tail embraced me around the waist. She had a bouncy, girlish manner about her just now which was entirely unlike her wrestler's build.
"I'm so excited!" she gushed. "You're very different from my usual clientele. You've bought sex before, I can tell, but you're nice and charming. And that's a welcome change. Mostly I see timid guys with a fetish. Or drow males making up for an inferiority complex with drow women."
"Well, I'm excited to be with you too. And I must say your dexterity with your tail is impressive."
"Thank you, baby!"
She kissed me appreciatively on the cheek.
"I love being with someone enthusiastic. I hope we'll have a mutually satisfying time...?"
"Of course we will! But first things first. Let's get the business bit out of the way. Ten for an unhurried hour, eight for the 'extra'." She wiggled her eyebrows meaningfully and tickled me with the tip of her tail. "I'm also available for a dusk till dawn of bliss for a hundred. But that's only for connoisseurs, you know."
I brought a cold platinum bar to her cleavage and gently tucked it in.
"Oh my. You're making me fall in love with you," she smiled.
"I bet you say that to everyone."
"Not true! On my honour! You're not all business and I love that in a client. There are just far too few of you. I'm going to take such wonderful care of you."
I don't imagine that many of you will have been with, shall we say, "companions" before so allow me to point out a few things.
Firstly, laying with any companion comes with a certain amount of risk. She could have a murderous partner and is simply lowering the guard of her mark, for example. For that reason I commonly do not buy street-walkers but go through madams and establishments. The higher up in class and quality you go, the less risk there is of this, simply because those well-to-do courtesans have chosen their profession and most really have no more need of the money. Some other reason drives them. For instance, I've met those who do it for the thrill of being with movers and shakers, to have influence with them and, of course, to tap that influence once they've gotten such persons wrapped around their little finger.
I'm only 5'10". I'm more poet than scholar, and only of average build. She was shorter than me by a couple of inches, which made her quite tall by tiefling standards, but her build was impressive as I've mentioned, and quite possibly she was heavier than me. In any case, if she wanted to squash me like a bug, she could do it easily. And sad to say, for all her pleasant charm, she's merely a street-walker. This was uncommon risk for me, and I was relying on my judge of character.
"You seem to have dropped something... down there... Why don't you be a darling and take it out for me, hmm?" she grinned.
I slowly slid one hand between her warm, firm, cleavage, and probed unhurriedly for the cool bar of platinum. She purred and writhed as I explored here and there, and paused when I found one nipple to tease it.
Tieflings for the most part have large horns that made them look like gazelles or rams. And fat, scaly tails that were lizardlike. Ornella had a smooth, slendar tail and quite small horns, and from a distance might have passed for a human. If I recollection of tiefling lore was correct, this implied that her family tree had frequently intermingled with those untainted by fiendish blood. The more dilute the fiendish element, the kinder the features.
Finally I teased the platinum bar out. She took it from me and kissed me firmly on the lips in the same motion. After tucking it in her purse, she undressed slowly and pushed me onto my back to do the same. While she slowly relieved me of my clothes, I felt her firm curves and caressed her arms, her hips, and her back. The roughness of which took me aback.
"Hmm?" she prompted, sensing something had changed.
"Your back."
"My scars? Do you want to see?"
"Yes. I will anyway before our time together is over."
She grinned and turned around. I sat up to inspect them more closely, to run my fingers down them here and there with teasing touches or firmer massages.
"Do they turn you off?" she asked.
"No."
"... Do they turn you on?"
I didn't really want to answer that.
"Where did you get them? Were you a slave?" I asked.
"Once. A long time ago. But I escaped. I had nothing except myself, and that's how I got into this line of work."
"Some of these are newer."
"Yes... As I mentioned before, I usually have only special clients. The drow, in particular like me. The men imagine me to be one of their powerful matrons. The women are turned on by power and domination, but there's little excitement for them to use the males of their kind that way. You may know that their society despises men and keeps them weak and unworthy of respect. So women are more exciting sexual conquests."
"And the scars?"
"Pain turns them on. Both the men and the women. ...Does it turn you on?"
When I didn't immediately answer, she turned around to look at me with amusement. "You can tell me. I'm here to please you in any way. And I can handle anything you want."
I raked my fingers down her back, though not so hard to be too painful. "I like some play to go with it."
We kissed. And kissed and kissed. Meanwhile, her practiced hands swiftly undressed me while mine explored every firm, exciting, part of her. Her athletic body and the lines and curves that came with well-defined muscles was rare and beautiful.
She took me all the way inside her hot mouth with its playful tongue, but only just long enough for me to be hard and ready for her. It was as if she couldn't wait for me to be inside her. Ornella got on all four and wiggled her ass and tail seductively. I obliged and teased her by very slowly entering her. The fit was heavenly in its heat and tightness and slippery wetness. She met my thrusts by ramming herself backward, as if wanting me ever deeper.
"Do it! Hurt me! Burn me with your hot seed!"
*
We lay quietly together a while, her head affectionately on my chest, and recovered our strength after that rigourous start to take the edge off our lusts.
"Are you ready for the 'tail thing'?" She grinned.
I kissed her, and nodded.
"Where do you like it?"
"Anywhere you want, honey," she winked.
I slid out from under her, and positioned her face down. I rummaged around for our belts, and stretched her arms out to a bedpost.
"Do you trust me?" I asked her.
She tensed but didn't panic yet.
"Once I start, I don't want to stop," I explained. "Does that frighten you?"
She looked me in the eyes for a long time, then shook her head.
"Does it excite you?"
"... A little. But only because it's you."
"I bet you say that to everyone."
"No, I don't. I don't let anyone tie me up."
I kissed her tenderly on the lips. "I'll have to make this extra-special then."
Using the belts I bound her wrists very securely to the bedposts. Then I kissed her again, and kissed my way slowly down that deliciously tanned and firm body to her hips. I propped two pillows under her, then teased her anus.
"Oh!" she started and twisted to look back.
I rubbed some lubricant on my fingers. She smacked her lips and closed her eyes to enjoy the ride.
(to be continued...)
My mentor had meanwhile picked out a few prospects. I immediately dismissed all the male choices.
"Do think higher up than between your thighs," he groaned.
That my weakness was lust was no secret.
"I did. Kana's wiles will eat them for breakfast. She keeps me busy enough trying to figure out what she's up to. I don't need to second guess half my team."
"Hmm, you may be right."
"What do you make of the doppelganger?"
"Oh, wasn't a succubus then? Why? What's wrong with her?"
"They won't tell me. Anyone you can ask?"
"Let me work on that. There's someone I've been meaning to look up anyway."
"They're desperate to get rid of her. We can bargain them down, but I want to know what I'm getting into first."
"Yes, good to know."
He drifted toward the special auctions and I looked over the remaining choices. It didn't take long before I was feeling overwhelmed and confused by how to evaluate the slaves and which ones to buy. I had of course ruled out anything that would attract undue attention, like orcs, ogres, any strange beasts, and magical monsters like the pair of harpies, muzzled and looking miserable.
I drifted out to the common market to take a mental break and also check out the local wildlife. My mentor had already arranged a room and I knew how to get to it to rendezvous later. For now, I thought some schmoozing might do me good and a change of pace. A food stand offering some mystery meat and strange drinks seemed like a good place to start.
A battle-scarred goliath woman well over a foot and a half taller than myself was there. She grinned when she saw my brow furrow at the choices then turned her attention to a fat drumstick of... something... that she bought and hungrily tore into it.
"Is that any good?" I asked, pulling her eyes away from idly scanning the market.
"It's cheap and filling. First time here?" she smirked.
"That obvious, huh? I'm Simon."
I held out my hand in friendship. We clasped forearms -- hers as thick as my shoulders.
"Ursa," she introduced herself. "I've only been here a few times myself."
"What brings you here?"
"Slaves. Hobgoblins raid us, we raid them back. Found out they had sold some of our people here, so why not do it back to them?"
"You ever run into them here? Raiders, I mean."
"Yeah. Not often, but it's always ironic when it happens. We usually end up settling things outside later on. And permanently. What about you? What are you here for?"
"Slaves, actually."
"Oh? For what?"
"It's complicated. Let's just say I need to put together a fighting team. Um, look, could you, er, recommend something here to eat?"
"Ha ha! Alright... let's see... The mushrooms are pretty tame. They taste like mushrooms, just with slightly different flavour. If you want meat, you either have to be careful or you have to not care. They don't waste much down here and you could be eating anything."
"What do you have there?"
"Probably someone's leg, I'm sure. But I need meat to stay strong. I'm not going to just have vegetables."
"'Someone's leg'?"
"Yeah. Some of this comes from the mind flayers. They eat the brains of intelligent humanoids. The rest of the body they don't care for. Some of it ends up in a meatshop because not everyone down here has qualms about eating certain things. Some even look for it. And once it's all chopped up, sometimes it's hard to tell what it really is. This may very well be the roasted leg of some human. Might be elf. I'm not sure. Like I said, it's cheap and filling. Try some?"
I was pretty sure that at some level she was sizing up my manhood, whether I was going to be bold or not. If I wanted to impress her type, I'd need to be bold. If I became curious about bedding her, it'd help if I impressed her. So I pinched off a good chunk. It came free easily. I showed her no hesitation and popped it into my mouth. The meat was red in that semi-rare kind of way, very juicy, and a bit gamey. Very well roasted and not overdone.
"What do you think it tastes like?" asked Ursa.
"Not chicken. Honestly, I don't know. Defintely never had elf before."
She laughed and bit into her roasted leg.
"Buy you a drink?"
"Why not?"
"Know a good place?"
"You bet."
On the way, I saw what looked like a falafel stand. After some tricky communications as neither I nor the vendor spoke any languages in common, I think I got one with some kind of marinated cow meat that tasted like mushroom.
"Probably rothe. A type of Underdark ox."
"Hmm..."
Tasty enough. We got to a brewery and she pointed out various beers. I got a glass and ordered her a full pitcher.
After that, we wandered the market a bit and she showed me the chain of hobgoblin slaves she and her tribe-mates had sold to a dealer on this trip.
She agreed to give me her opinion on the auction slaves and we were heading over to that cave when a tiefling streetwalker caught my eye. She saw she had my lingering attention and sauntered over.
My lusty nature had seen me bed just about every type of woman I found attractive, and yes, half-infernal tieflings were not exotic to me. What had had me mesmerized were the clash of her very revealing outfit with her dauntingly impressive muscles.
"Looking for company, surfacer?" she beckoned.
"Not on the wrestling mat, no."
Ursa, who had been a bit annoyed by my roving eye, burst out laughing.
The tiefling was just a bit shorter than myself, but stocky for her muscles, yet still feminine in the way that excessively muscled women have trouble maintaining.
"Are you sure about that?" asked the tiefling. "Wouldn't you like to know how it feels to be crushed beneath these? That's exactly what my clients like."
She flexed her muscles, and gave Ursa a glance as well. "Your friend there is big, but she lacks... definition."
Ursa harrumphed and tried to look bored, but I think she was impressed as well. In any case, I gave the tiefling an appreciative look over.
"What else do your clients like?"
"They're mostly drow, scholars, and merchants. Almost never warriors. They just want to know what a strong woman feels like. Either on the bottom or on the top. Usually from behind, either way." wink.
"Maybe. Do you do the 'tail thing'?"
Her eyes widened and her maw dropped. She looked to my new companion who was similarly surprised. They burst out laughing.
"Woo! Kinky! That'll cost you extra, honey!" she laughed.
She brought her prehensile tail up to stroke my behind brazenly. I caressed and lightly massaged it.
Tieflings were a very varied bunch, with different styles of horns and tails. Hers was snaky, and smooth of any scales. Very likely she was of only weak tiefling blood. Normally their tales are not prehensile, so she was showing remarkable control and skill.
"Ooh... Keep that up and I might just give you a discount," she sighed.
"To be honest, I don't even know what the 'tail thing' is," I confessed.
"Oh! Well, where'd you hear about it?"
"From someone who said she wasn't very good in bed and didn't do it."
"I see..." She wriggled her tail over to Ursa and boldly rubbed it just under her breasts, inching up slowly to the marvelous cleavage between the firm mounds pressed together by her patchwork armor of stiff hides. "Are you into the tail thing?"
"Oh, gods, no. And if anyone tried it on me, I'd tear their tail off."
The tail flicked away immediately.
"Look, can one of you please tell me what this 'tail thing' is?"
"I'd prefer to show you, darling," she cooed. "But it might take a while to show you all the possibilities..."
"And how long is 'a while'?"
"A couple of hours at least. Normally 20 gold, but 18 just for you. Only ten extra if she wants to join us."
"What's your name, beautiful?"
"My name is anything you need it to be. But you can call me Ornella for now."
"She's your type?" asked Ursa with one brow raised.
"What do you mean? Her sexy tail or her hard body?"
I ran my eyes up and down Ursa appreciatively and gave her a sly smile.
She didn't punch me in the face. This was good. She cracked just a tiny smile. That was even better.
"Thirty seems a bit steep if I could get three slaves in the market for the same price," I pointed out.
Ornella stiffened. "How dare you compare me to-- to-- meat!"
"'Meat'? Look, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to offend you. This is my first time here."
Ornella looked at me askance, but softened her angry eyes.
"Actually Ursa, that was something I had wanted to ask you," I said. "How does a person end up her in the common market, instead of the slave auction or the special market?"
"The slave auction's mostly pit fighters or someone with a special skill, like magic. The common market... they're commoners. Or they're broken. Defeated. Their wills are gone. Even if they were warriors before, they'd never make it in the arena now. Look at them -- They're like sheep. There's no more fight in them. They're just good for cheap labour. Pit fighters are in demand because they can make you money in the arena, if you run a stable of fighters."
Ornella nodded. "Darling, if you bought one of them to share your bed, she'd have no more imagination than the basic in-and-out. With me, you get a special experience. The royal treatment -- I guarantee."
I looked over to the nearest slave dealer and scanned the faces and eyes of the slaves there. They were right. These were broken men and women waiting for death.
"I've seen that look before," Ornella sidled up behind me. "Don't think about them. You can't save them all."
I looked over at Ursa. She had a pensive, almost pained look. "Whenever we come, my tribe-mates and I buy every one of our people who has been taken slave. Only the gladiators beyond our ability to buy, but at least they have the glory of battle. And we bet on them to honor that. The slaves we sell buys the freedom of our people. In that I make my peace with what I do."
"And what of you?" asked Ornella softly.
"He's not slaver," Ursa reminded.
"Oh, right."
But how wrong they were.
The flirtatious mood had been most definitely ruined and the three of us parted ways for now. Ursa remembered an appointment at the arena, and we agreed to meet up again "tomorrow" at the slave auctions. In exchange for a dinner date, I got Ornella to finally brief me on the 'tail thing'.
In the caves, there was no day or night to mark today or tomorrow, but time and whether it was sunup or sundown in the surface world was kept for various purposes. For example, many of the Underdark denizens were not light-adapted so those who had business on the surface had some interest in whether it would be blinding day or comfortable night. For myself, the excitement of being in a new and wondrous and alien place kept fatigue away and I would have lost all sense of time and pressed on seeing more wonders and exploring the market if not for the clocks.
My next stop was back to the special auctions and the doppelganger's cage. She was napping again. While I waited for the auctioneer to finish speaking with another customer, I strode up to the Blue dragon.
"Guess what? I found out what the 'tail thing' is all about."
"Well?"
"Curious, are you?"
"Mildly..."
"I had to buy dinner for someone to find out. What are you offering?"
"You dare bargain with me?!" Blue rumbled.
The entire cave turned to see what the commotion was about.
"Maybe not..."
"That's much better."
I looked to my left then my right, then motioned him closer with my finger conspiratorially.
He leaned forward and I whispered it into his ear.
"Gods, that's disgusting! You humans..."
"Actually, a tiefling told it to me."
"Shameless strumpet! Well, of course it'd be a tiefling who'd be into it."
"Hey, don't knock it till you've tried it. At least that's what she said."
"Humph. If anyone did try it, I'd bite their tail off first."
"Funny, that's more or less what Ursa said..."
:Ah, you have returned,: the illithid auctioneer greeted.
:She's used goods. And broken. You can't possibly ask the reserve price.: I told him bluntly and crossed off my bid. :In fact, I'd be willing to bet that this... Bargle fellow who's put down the highest bid might not be too pleased to find out what I know.:
The illithid waved his tentacles furiously in obvious displeasure.
:But I will give you the reserve price IF...:
:If?:
:That mental thing you did to find out her name... What else can you do?:
:Many things. Speak plainly and I can offer you a more useful answer.:
:Can you heal her mind?:
The illithid seemed to be taken aback by such an odd notion.
:I have never considered that. Her mind is not damaged per se. It is her thoughts. What she dwells on, and allows to paralyze her. Your kind frequently lack even the simplest discipline to ignore what is of no use. I think what you are asking is whether she can be made to stop feeling the pain of past traumas. Maybe even have them erased. That is not our specialty, but let me make an inquiry.:
He must have flashed some sort of question to his fellows because they all briefly paused, perhaps to consider his question. Maybe every illithid in the market heard it. Maybe every illithid everywhere, even. I was still absorbing the implications of such a network of swift and accurate mental communication, networking, and knowledge-sharing when he came back with the answer.
:I can arrange some psychic surgery. But as there is risk to the merchandise, I must ask for payment for her up front. At the reserve price. And no refunds. If she is damaged by the procedure, it is your loss.:
:And I pay nothing for this 'surgery' if it won't make her any better?:
:Agreed.:
:Done. What's the reserve price, then? And how much for the psychic surgery?:
*
It was now early evening. I swung by to invite Ornella to the inn where my mentor had arranged separate rooms for us. We had a delightful dinner where she ordered and gave me a proper introduction to the various foods of the Underdark. Then it was time to go upstairs and fool around with the tail thing. But more than that, I hoped.
"Thank you for dinner, love," Ornella hugged me warmly from behind. "Now can we play?"
"You bet."
Her eyes tinkled and she led me to sit beside her on the bed. She held my hands and her tail embraced me around the waist. She had a bouncy, girlish manner about her just now which was entirely unlike her wrestler's build.
"I'm so excited!" she gushed. "You're very different from my usual clientele. You've bought sex before, I can tell, but you're nice and charming. And that's a welcome change. Mostly I see timid guys with a fetish. Or drow males making up for an inferiority complex with drow women."
"Well, I'm excited to be with you too. And I must say your dexterity with your tail is impressive."
"Thank you, baby!"
She kissed me appreciatively on the cheek.
"I love being with someone enthusiastic. I hope we'll have a mutually satisfying time...?"
"Of course we will! But first things first. Let's get the business bit out of the way. Ten for an unhurried hour, eight for the 'extra'." She wiggled her eyebrows meaningfully and tickled me with the tip of her tail. "I'm also available for a dusk till dawn of bliss for a hundred. But that's only for connoisseurs, you know."
I brought a cold platinum bar to her cleavage and gently tucked it in.
"Oh my. You're making me fall in love with you," she smiled.
"I bet you say that to everyone."
"Not true! On my honour! You're not all business and I love that in a client. There are just far too few of you. I'm going to take such wonderful care of you."
I don't imagine that many of you will have been with, shall we say, "companions" before so allow me to point out a few things.
Firstly, laying with any companion comes with a certain amount of risk. She could have a murderous partner and is simply lowering the guard of her mark, for example. For that reason I commonly do not buy street-walkers but go through madams and establishments. The higher up in class and quality you go, the less risk there is of this, simply because those well-to-do courtesans have chosen their profession and most really have no more need of the money. Some other reason drives them. For instance, I've met those who do it for the thrill of being with movers and shakers, to have influence with them and, of course, to tap that influence once they've gotten such persons wrapped around their little finger.
I'm only 5'10". I'm more poet than scholar, and only of average build. She was shorter than me by a couple of inches, which made her quite tall by tiefling standards, but her build was impressive as I've mentioned, and quite possibly she was heavier than me. In any case, if she wanted to squash me like a bug, she could do it easily. And sad to say, for all her pleasant charm, she's merely a street-walker. This was uncommon risk for me, and I was relying on my judge of character.
"You seem to have dropped something... down there... Why don't you be a darling and take it out for me, hmm?" she grinned.
I slowly slid one hand between her warm, firm, cleavage, and probed unhurriedly for the cool bar of platinum. She purred and writhed as I explored here and there, and paused when I found one nipple to tease it.
Tieflings for the most part have large horns that made them look like gazelles or rams. And fat, scaly tails that were lizardlike. Ornella had a smooth, slendar tail and quite small horns, and from a distance might have passed for a human. If I recollection of tiefling lore was correct, this implied that her family tree had frequently intermingled with those untainted by fiendish blood. The more dilute the fiendish element, the kinder the features.
Finally I teased the platinum bar out. She took it from me and kissed me firmly on the lips in the same motion. After tucking it in her purse, she undressed slowly and pushed me onto my back to do the same. While she slowly relieved me of my clothes, I felt her firm curves and caressed her arms, her hips, and her back. The roughness of which took me aback.
"Hmm?" she prompted, sensing something had changed.
"Your back."
"My scars? Do you want to see?"
"Yes. I will anyway before our time together is over."
She grinned and turned around. I sat up to inspect them more closely, to run my fingers down them here and there with teasing touches or firmer massages.
"Do they turn you off?" she asked.
"No."
"... Do they turn you on?"
I didn't really want to answer that.
"Where did you get them? Were you a slave?" I asked.
"Once. A long time ago. But I escaped. I had nothing except myself, and that's how I got into this line of work."
"Some of these are newer."
"Yes... As I mentioned before, I usually have only special clients. The drow, in particular like me. The men imagine me to be one of their powerful matrons. The women are turned on by power and domination, but there's little excitement for them to use the males of their kind that way. You may know that their society despises men and keeps them weak and unworthy of respect. So women are more exciting sexual conquests."
"And the scars?"
"Pain turns them on. Both the men and the women. ...Does it turn you on?"
When I didn't immediately answer, she turned around to look at me with amusement. "You can tell me. I'm here to please you in any way. And I can handle anything you want."
I raked my fingers down her back, though not so hard to be too painful. "I like some play to go with it."
We kissed. And kissed and kissed. Meanwhile, her practiced hands swiftly undressed me while mine explored every firm, exciting, part of her. Her athletic body and the lines and curves that came with well-defined muscles was rare and beautiful.
She took me all the way inside her hot mouth with its playful tongue, but only just long enough for me to be hard and ready for her. It was as if she couldn't wait for me to be inside her. Ornella got on all four and wiggled her ass and tail seductively. I obliged and teased her by very slowly entering her. The fit was heavenly in its heat and tightness and slippery wetness. She met my thrusts by ramming herself backward, as if wanting me ever deeper.
"Do it! Hurt me! Burn me with your hot seed!"
*
We lay quietly together a while, her head affectionately on my chest, and recovered our strength after that rigourous start to take the edge off our lusts.
"Are you ready for the 'tail thing'?" She grinned.
I kissed her, and nodded.
"Where do you like it?"
"Anywhere you want, honey," she winked.
I slid out from under her, and positioned her face down. I rummaged around for our belts, and stretched her arms out to a bedpost.
"Do you trust me?" I asked her.
She tensed but didn't panic yet.
"Once I start, I don't want to stop," I explained. "Does that frighten you?"
She looked me in the eyes for a long time, then shook her head.
"Does it excite you?"
"... A little. But only because it's you."
"I bet you say that to everyone."
"No, I don't. I don't let anyone tie me up."
I kissed her tenderly on the lips. "I'll have to make this extra-special then."
Using the belts I bound her wrists very securely to the bedposts. Then I kissed her again, and kissed my way slowly down that deliciously tanned and firm body to her hips. I propped two pillows under her, then teased her anus.
"Oh!" she started and twisted to look back.
I rubbed some lubricant on my fingers. She smacked her lips and closed her eyes to enjoy the ride.
(to be continued...)
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