Dragon of the Karst Ch. 01

The Karst was certainly beautiful from above. The park was well-maintained, with carefully marked paths taking visitors past sinkholes and cave openings and natural springs. Next to the parking lot were professionally-created explanation boards explaining how the karst had formed in geological terms and its importance to the local ecosystem. It was prepackaged wilderness at its finest, and any other day would have been crawling with people out to commune with nature in large groups.

But today it was overcast and cool, the late March day more like winter than the first day of spring. Hyori should have been studying for her final exams, working industriously as the rest of the city seemed to be doing today. She was a good student who had studied hard all year - she'd listened to her mother that far - and she knew she'd be fine on the next day's psychology exam. Psych was a soft science anyway. She could afford a bit of solitude.

The big cave mouths held no interest for her, somehow. They stank of too many visitors. It was the little ones, next to the spring that welled up unfrozen some two hundred metres from the path, that fascinated her. What mysteries lay beneath the rocks here? Of course she'd read the placards, and knew that the tunnels and caves of the karst had been well-explored, but she still preferred to consider the possibility that the explorers had missed something.

The mossy rocks were still icy from the dregs of winter that held on in the shadowed grove. Carefully she placed her booted foot, wincing a little as the boulder shifted beneath her. Catching her balance, she decided to risk taking her hand off the branch she was using for support, in order to check that her cell phone was still in her pocket. Hands free, perched on the unsteady rock, she reached for it.

And began to slide. Down the slippery lichen, past the edge of that boulder and onto another, sharply angled, she should have landed in the icy runoff from the spring; even at this time of year there was liquid there. Instead, she found herself wedged between that boulder and the next one, in a crack that may have been a cave opening. It widened, though she couldn't figure out why it should, and she slid down into it, the daylight disappearing above her with an almost audible pop.

She was falling, grasping at air, her eyes dilating as she searched for any light at all, her voice catching in her throat so she could not even scream. Seconds, minutes, hours - she lost all sense of time as she fell, until eventually the wind of her passage slowed and she felt herself come to rest on solid rock.

"And so the karst gives me the first taste of spring," said a voice from the darkness. It was a woman's voice, deep and melodic and raspy all at once, and it held notes of greed and amusement that made Hyori shiver. "Stand up, girl. I can't see you when you're crouched like that," the voice commanded.

Not knowing exactly what else to do, Hyori obeyed, still not trusting her voice to ask who the woman was. Once on her feet, she looked around, to be met with a pair of glowing amethyst eyes that might have been right next to her or a football field away; she had no frame of reference to help her decide which.

"Obedient, I see. What is your name, girl?" the voice asked.

"Hy- Hyori," she answered, and stopped in confusion. What form of address should she use for this person she could not see?

The voice hissed. "You will call me Mireu, girl, and you will not forget again," it said. There was a touch on Hyori's back and suddenly her skin burned as though she'd been hit with a flaming whip. She cried out and curled in on herself, waiting for the aftereffect of pain to set in so she could think again. In a moment it came, a flood of gentle warmth, and she straightened to look at the eyes. The voice chuckled. "Oh, you will be fun to play with, girl," it said.

The voice seemed to like manners. Very well then, thought Hyori. She folded her hands together in front of her and bowed, as she would to her Korean relatives. "If it please you, Mireu, why am I here?" she asked. Humility had never come easily to her, but she infused her words with all she could manage.

Mireu laughed, sending more shivers up her spine. "You are here, girl, to help me, and to be helped by me," she said. "Other girls have come, and have helped me, but I have never before offered the deal to them that I will offer to you. They were not worthy of it, but you - you have power singing in your veins. You can be so much more than a week of meals." There was a burst of light so bright as to blind her; as she covered her eyes and blinked in confusion, it settled into a dim bluish glow to which her eyes adjusted quickly. When she looked up again, the amethyst eyes were gone and in their place was a woman, sitting about ten feet away in a carved chair. The light was in the palm of her hand and cast a meagre glow over the two of them. Hyori had a sense that the walls and ceiling of the cave were so far away that even a much brighter light would have left them shrouded, but it didn't matter. She was too transfixed.

Skin glowed green-gold, and Hyori was uncertain whether or not that was a trick of the light. Long, straight limbs reposed on each other, gleaming and graceful, ending in gently-curved feet with carved toenails shaped more like talons. Her fingernails, tapping on the wood of the chair, were filed to points and painted turquoise. The curves of her naked body were displayed as Mireu leaned forward, her breasts nearly touching her crossed knees, her collarbones standing out in stark relief before rising to a shapely neck. But it was her face that captivated the girl. Oval-shaped, full-lipped, with round eyes that receded in a Western way she hadn't expected, though she couldn't say why, the brow lifted in amusement at being studied, Mireu was the most stunningly beautiful woman Hyori had ever seen.

"Do you like what you see, girl?" Mireu asked.

"Yes, Mireu," Hyori answered, not even considering that one would usually prevaricate at such a question.

"Stand straight, girl, so that I may return the perusal," the woman ordered. Hyori obeyed, mentally cataloguing her own body. Short, not at all lithe though not fat either; solid, really. Good hair that fell down her back in waves, currently fastened in a trim braid. A symmetrical face, neither ugly nor beautiful, the face of a girl boys didn't look at twice. As Mireu leisurely examined her, she felt a hot flush in her cheeks. "You'll do nicely, girl," Mireu finally decided.

Cursing herself for a weak fool, Hyori decided it was time for some of her usual directness. "You mentioned a deal, Mireu?" she asked in a businesslike tone.

There was another burst of pain on her back, and she cried out again. How had Mireu done that without moving? "I will present the deal in my time and you will await my pleasure," Mireu said in a conversational tone as Hyori panted in reaction. There was silence as the girl regained her composure, then Mireu remarked, "This is not the best place for a deal. You need a taste of what the deal entails before you are ready to accept or refuse. I think I shall play with you a little bit before making my offer. You'll be a diverting toy for as long as you last." Gracefully she uncrossed her legs and stood, moving toward the rock on which Hyori stood in a few long steps. Her fingers brushed Hyori's cheek, and the girl's knees started to melt despite her anger. Mireu laughed.

"You will be fun to play with, my little toy," she murmured. Her hands slid over Hyori's shoulders and the backpack slid off onto the rock with a soft thud. Why was she permitting this, Hyori wondered, but even as she tried to call upon her usual strength of will, the next touch drove it out of her. Mireu's hands moved under the girl's shirt and lifted it gently over her head. Hyori lifted her arms as it moved and the shirt followed the backpack, exposing her plain cotton bra. Mireu put her hands on the girl's shoulders and turned her to face the other way, and Hyori felt her bra being unhooked and slid down her arms. She shivered, but not from cold. Warm hands slid over her back, under her arms, and cupped her breasts from behind. She moaned. Warm breath on her neck made her flush as the hands became less gentle, kneading her flesh and rocking her body as she whimpered. Her eyes drifted closed under the influence of the tidal wave of arousal that rose up from deep within her, unfamiliar but welcome.

The hands moved and Hyori barely noticed as they travelled down her arms, caressing and exploring. Lost in a wave of sensation and confused at her lack of willpower, she was unprepared for the smooth leather that snapped itself around her wrists. By the time she had pulled herself out of her haze enough to notice what was happening to her, her wrists were pulled behind her and fastened there. The cuffs fit her perfectly, as though they were a part of her skin and she simply hadn't noticed them until now. Experimentally she tugged and reached, still fighting the haze; whatever connected her wrists together, she couldn't reach it or budge it. With the corner of her mind that sat back and watched what happened to her, she wondered why she wasn't panicked yet.

The hands returned to her breasts, and she lost her train of thought again as her knees buckled and she was held up only by their pressure. The gentleness was gone now; hard pressure made her gasp, and nails scratching her sensitive nipples made her writhe. She was aware now of Mireu's breasts against her back, her nipples erect, her skin warm. Distantly, as though down a long tunnel, she heard her captor remark, "So responsive, my little toy. We shall have to see what you think of the rest of my ministrations, if simply playing with your nipples can bring you to your knees."

With that the hands left her breasts, so abruptly that their absence caused an ache Hyori couldn't name. In moments, they returned to her body, this time placing another length of leather around her neck. Hyori arched, trying to give more access to the questing hands, wordlessly begging them to touch her. They didn't, instead fastening the collar quickly. Then the hands moved to her arms and she was turned around again to face Mireu.

A snap, and a leather leash was attached to the collar. Mireu smiled into Hyori's half-closed eyes. "You'll need to pay attention to where you step, girl. Your balance will be off. But it's not a long walk." With that she turned and tugged on the leash. Hyori stumbled behind her before catching her footing. Keeping her eyes on the floor in the dim light which seemed now to be floating over their heads, she managed not to fall as they moved away from the rock where she'd landed.

Thirty steps through the impenetrable darkness, encased in their pool of light, and they came to a tunnel. "I will leave you to make your way through this on your own, since I must take another route," Mireu told her, releasing her wrists and refastening them in front of her before the girl could offer the slightest token of resistance. "If you go on your knees, you should be able to get through with no problem, even with your wrists bound. I'll be waiting for you on the other side. Do not delay, girl. You would never get out of here without my help, so like it or not, your future is with me." She leaned closer and whispered in Hyori's ear, "I suspect you like it just fine, don't you?" Then she spun Hyori toward the low rock tunnel. The light went out, leaving the girl in total darkness and sensing that she was now alone.

She shivered with cold and loss, and considered with her suddenly-clear mind. She had an idea now of what Mireu meant by playing with her. She also knew Mireu was right: she would never get out of here on her own. It was a rational, scientific decision, then: the only way out was through.

As she sank to her knees and placed her bound hands on the rocks in front of her to find the passage, she pushed aside the knowledge that she was lying to herself. Mireu's touch was the only reason to continue.