Black Pearls - Aurum

Aurum watched the sailing ship intently, waiting for her chance to dash aboard. The old, grey ship had been resting at the end of the stone pier for a few hours by now. Its lone occupant had been waiting for somebody, but they were clearly getting irritated from the absence. Aurum could see the bronze-skinned woman who roamed the decks shrug, yell something to someone she could not see, and wander back to the cabin in the back of the ship all from her hiding spot behind a large square stone placed on the pier. Her dark cloak hid her well in the dark and at night, but with the sun high as it was, the bronzed woman could see her the moment she stepped off her ship. Aurum just wanted to sneak aboard before the woman noticed and stow away.

The door to the woman's cabin shut behind her, and Aurum had her chance. She stood up behind the stone block, then rushed towards the ship and leaped on to the side, where her hands and feet hung to rugged hand-holds made by the ship's poor quality. There was a gangplank, but the deck had been emptied and there wouldn't be anything to hide behind once she got on board. There, however, was a door towards the bow that presumably led to unused space. Aurum hadn't seen anyone but the bronze-skinned woman on-board, and she didn't make motions to wake anybody up. The ship was probably more magical than she was, and was likely autonomous.

Aurum clambered across the side of the ship until she got to the promenade deck. She should be doing this at night! But she had no time! The huntress was right behind her, she just knew it. That woman was probably going through the ruined town Aurum had blazed through this morning, and that was just an hour's walk from this pier!

In her dark cloak, she leapt over the railing, confident that that bronzed woman wouldn't come looking. Even if she found out, it'd be when they were out to sea, and Aurum could offer various services for passage.

Aurum nearly stubbed her toe on a protruding floorboard, but rebalanced on her other foot in time. Then, she felt an iron grip encase the foot she was balancing upon, and Aurum crashed to the deck's surface with a yelp.

What was gripping her? Aurum twisted about to see her attacker. A thin, pale hand sticking out of the floor was wrapped around her almost-black ankle-skin. Aurum suppressed a shriek and tried to kick her way out of the grip, but the hand was immobile, and she was just jerking her leg about.

The hand raised higher out of the floor, lifting up like a victorious pearl diver, revealing a thin pale arm to match it. Soon, another hand and an almost-white-haired head dragged themselves from the surface of the ship, followed by a thin woman's body wearing a pale dress, slitted on each side for her legs. The ghastly woman let her clutching hand drop, still hoisting Aurum's leg in the air, as she ascended fully onto the deck of the ship, revealing finely-made knee-high boots.

The woman was young, though her odd hair covered half her face and clung to her as if she was drenched. Her eyes were large and pale, her lips small, yet full, and her nose straight. She was small of breast and of bottom, and her dress clung to her as if she was soaking wet. She lifted the foot higher to get a good look at it, and her eyes locked on to the two rows of gold studs on the top of Aurum's feet. Then, her eyes twitched to the two rows of gold studs going down Aurum's calves. She didn't really seem to take note of much else of Aurum besides her golden piercings.

There was a dull bam from the cabin section of the ship, and Aurum's neck whirled to take a look. There was a double set of doors that had been flung open, showing the startled bronze-skinned woman. She twisted around, and began to run towards Aurum and the pale woman, yelling "What the hell!?"

When the bronze woman got to Aurum, she looked at Aurum and told the pale woman, "I thought we weren't gettin' any passengers! Where'd she come from?"

The pale woman pointed off the ship. Correct, but unhelpful, Aurum mused.

The bronze woman was taller than the pale woman, perhaps taller than some men, and much more shapely. Her bountiful breasts strained against a heavily torn shirt with a single button remaining. Her hips and buttocks were hugged by a set of creme-colored pants torn below the knee. Her thin waist was accompanied by a black flag tied around it, one ghoulishly decorated with a skull and crossbones.

Yet the woman was inhuman! Aurum was close enough to see her large finned feet bare on the floorboards, and could see gill-slits on the sides of her chest and neck. Her eyes were green and lantern-like, and her ears fins. Her hair was green and wavy, looking much like sea-weed, and was kept back by a faded red bandanna.

The woman sighed, and said to her compatriot, "Don't hold the poor sod like that. You'll form a bad opinion!"

Obligingly, the woman set Aurum's foot down and let her free. She even bent down to offer her hand!

Aurum took it, and she could feel the bronze woman gawk as she looked at the golden piercings on the back of Aurum's hand. It was almost identical to the piercings on her feet; two rows of small dots that shone out brilliantly.

Standing up, Aurum brushed herself off and turned to face the two women. They immediately gawked at her. She was shorter than they were, and Aurum's skin was entirely a near-black gold-brown. The cloak, the only thing she wore, was almost lighter toned than she was!

Aurum's hair was a messy collection of disorganized black lengths. Not quite curls, but not straight either. The rest of her body was clean of hair, as she had been made that way. Her face was pleasing, with her small, dainty nose and noir-black full lips. Her eyes were gold, just one sign of many of her nature. Another was her ears. They were incredibly thin, long and pointed, a good hand's length from base to tip, and could swivel to follow sounds and match her mood. Yet another tell was her tail. It was long, thin, dexterous, covered in near-black skin and split in two at the end. She was reasonably thin, though her buttocks felt a little bit big. However, her breasts were heavy, firm, and soft, their nipples pitch-black and protruding. No human she had seen had breasts quite like them. They were a special matter of pride from her creation.

The awkward silence was palpable. Desperate, Aurum pushed out her breasts and split her stance slightly, her cloak barely held on by a dark metal clasp. "Do you like my body?" she asked, hopefully innocently.

"That's some interestin' gold," the bronze woman said after closing her mouth.

Ah, that'd be the reason they gawked. Yes, the piercings didn't end at her hands and feet. Aurum had had them for ten years of her life. Ten happy years. Such good times....

Each set of piercings were in two columns, each row of the column formed by the two bead-like endpoints of curved golden bars inserted through her skin. They were on the undersides of her wrists, going to her elbow. They were on her nose, with a bonus pair below her lower lip. They were on her tongue, red as it was. They went down her throat, from jaw line to collarbone. They went down her spine, on top of every single bone, and further down her tail until it split. They went from her bellybutton to her sex. And they went from under her nipples to the very bottom of her breasts. Aurum was decorated in golden-strewn roads. The only piercing that wasn't part of a row was the vertical piercing slid through the hood of her bean.

"Uh, er, sorry. Din't mean ta gawk. I've seen lotsa women naked before, and a lot of them jest don't have clothes, but this is the first time I've ever seen a woman with gold comin' outa her body," the bronze woman said to cover up her looking. "M'name's Shella, and m'girl over here is Lily. What's yours?"

"I am Aurum. I would like it if we could leave soon, please," Aurum said.

"I ain't gonna complain, but why so?" Shella asked.

"There is a hunter on my trail," Aurum said, glancing towards the land.

"Heh, I'd be too, with that body and that much gold on ye," Shella joked to herself.

There was a small white dot on the road leading the stone pier. It paused, then immediately began rushing towards the ship. Aurum's heart sank. She was here.

Aurum turned to Shella. "Please, let us leave now! Or, if not, hide me! I will do anything you want me to do! I'll owe you my life!"

Shella noted the white dot, which was growing and more resembling a humanoid figure in white, and looked at Aurum out of the corner of her eye. "Lily, take her below decks," she commanded.

The deck surrounding Aurum creaked tortuously, then cracked and splintered. With a scream, she fell through the broken floor and landed, chest first, on something soft. Sawdust and splinters showered the area around her, and she heard the cracking of wood as the light of day above was cut off.

Aurum groaned and looked at what she landed on. She looked directly into Lily's eyes. She had landed on top of Lily, who was lying amidst a massive folded pile of ship's cloth.

"Wha? How'd you get down here so fast?" Aurum whispered to Lily.

Lily smiled playfully and shrugged, then patted Aurum on the shoulder for comfort.

A series of boot-steps on stone started growing louder and louder outside, then abruptly changed to the echoing noise of boots-on-wood, and they tromped right over where Aurum lay on Lily. The sound of fluid pulsing through her body filled Aurum's ears, and her body was breaking out in a nervous sweat.

From above, a rather courteous young woman's voice asked,"Pardon me, ma'am, but have you seen a darkly-skinned homunculus hiding around here?"

"A wha now? Never heard of such a thing" Shella replied.

There was more creaking as the woman above paced around the ship, presumably looking at it. "She would come to perhaps your shoulder in height. She would only be wearing a dark blue-grey cloak. She would be pierced by many studs of gold. Have you not seen her?"

Shella replied, "Nope. Ain't seen her."

"Then, are you blind, ma'am?" the woman asked.

The ceiling creaked as Shella rebalanced to a strong stance. "No, I'm not. Yer insinuatin' somethin' here?"

"Yes. I saw that woman, or a shape much like her, on this ship, and she has now disappeared. If it is because she has offered you gold, I can give you more for her. And, if she gave you the promise of elixirs, then I, as promise as an enforcer of the Alchemist's Guild, can guarantee you more satisfactory and safer elixirs than she ever could."

The creaks came around to stand over Aurum. Her breathing was uncontrollably heavy. It felt like that her hunter could come crashing down on top of them at any moment. Under her, Lily just smiled and put a finger to her lips.

"...Okay, why do you want this woman," Shella asked.

Aurum nearly choked on her heart. "Please, please!" she whispered urgently to Lily.

Lily put the finger to Aurum's mouth this time, and mouthed the words -just wait-. Was she mute?

"She is a dangerous and rogue homunculus. Something has to be done! Are you so ineducated to not know what one is?" The woman above accused.

"Nah. Should I know?" Shella brushed her off.

"They are toxic creatures of artificial make. Their bodies develop chemicals of various sorts so that alchemists may bleed the chemicals out for their elixirs. That woman produces an unknown compound. To harbor her is to invite destruction to your ship."

"I'm pretty sure the Sea Lillith here is good," Shella said.

"I'm growing tired of your antics, ma'am," the woman said. There was the rattling of steel as she drew a sword.

"Please, call me Shella," Shella said.

The woman paused, and said "Argentia."

"Anyways," the woman continued, "I have tracked the rogue homunculus for miles, to this ...port. She was not clever in disguising her path. I know she's here. I've even seen her. Stop denying it."

It was Shella's time to pause. "All right then. We'll talk it over in me cabin. I wanna know what exactly is goin' on."

Oh, shit.

Two sets of creaking trailed off to the ship's stern. There was the sound of a door being closed, and then Aurum couldn't hear anything more.

She pushed herself off of Lily and rolled onto the floor, then stood up. Around her were boxes and disused nautical tools spread lazily about. Her stomach was full of rocks. Shella had betrayed her. It should've been expected.

Aurum looked for an exit. There were two massive, thick wooden columns in the room that were attached to the floor and ceiling, twisted and around and around to look like twisters formed of broken trees. To the front of the room, there was a set of stairs that led upwards.

She set off for that. If she lept ship, she could probably outrun Argentia. She had always been able to outrun Argentia, but Argentia had a chance to grow up and get better.

Lily stepped in front of Aurum. Aurum brushed past her, but that same iron grip caught her shoulder. Aurum turned to Lily. Her lips moved, saying -i want to hear this story too-.

"Please, let me go. I'll repay you, in some way! But I want to live!" Aurum pleaded.

-it is safer for you here- Lily mouthed, -she cannot find what i don't want her to-.

Who? Argentia or Shella? Both? Aurum toyed with ducking past Lily and making a run for it, but Lily had beaten her to the lower deck when she fell through it! "Look, I don't want to tell you about it. Why don't you listen in on Argentia and Shella and let me leave?" she whispered angrily.

-we can see if there is not a better solution- Lily mouthed.

Lily turned, looking at something through the wall. There was a splash outside, and the ship suddenly lurched, nearly knocked Aurum into Lily.

"What's going on?" Aurum hissed at Lily.

-i am making a possibility for a better solution- Lily lip-spoke.

"You're abducting me! You're abducting Her! Me with Her! You've killed me!" Aurum said, her voice almost breaking into shouting.

-i am not having violence within me- Lily said with her lips.

There was crashing above deck, and boots slammed across the wood, stopping close to the wall. "Well, that tears it," Argentia said.

Footsteps padded after her. "Hey, ain't me. The ship's alive, and she do what she want," Shella said.

The boots walked past where the footsteps had ended. "Do you know what her demands will be for my safe return, or am I a plaything or prey?"

The floorboards creaked from Shella whirling around. "Hey, neither I nor Lily eat people! Well, not in the literal sense."

"Meh. Ship's whore," Argentia crassly said. The bootsteps wandered around deck in set rectangular pattern, as if Argentia was looking for some way off the ship.

After a pregnant pause, Shella admitted, "Yeah, we got Aurum here, if'n that's who yer lookin' for,"

"How do you know her name!?" Argentia exclaimed.

"She told us. You don't question me looks, you don't question me ship, but ye question common courtesy?"

"I have seen plenty of chaotic magic and inhuman peoples," Argentia's stern voice called out.

"Eh, whatever. Still haven't told me the full story between you two," Shella said, brushing off Argentia's biases.

At this point, Lily took Aurum's hand and pulled her gently towards the back of the ship. They wandered past the two twisted columns to a section of the back wall. Lily's hand sunk into a plank and pulled, swinging out not only the plank, but an additional series of planks that had formed a secret door. She shook her hand free of the secret door, and guided Aurum in. Apparently, Lily would hear the story on her own terms.

After Lily shut the door behind them, Aurum got a good look at the room. It reminded her of an exhibit on the Inventor's Faire. It, quite deliberately, showed off. There was a fancy, if old, carved wooden deck, where mermaids played amongst plant-like swirls in the legs. A chair was similarly designed, with lion's paw feet and an old cushion. A journal of some kind was located neatly on the desk, but there was a clutter of letters surrounding it.

Aurum moved her foot, and her toe made something slide aside with a clink. Curious, she bent down and picked it up. It was a gold coin, with a figure's head on one side and a trident and obscure motto on the other. She looked beyond the desk, and saw a treasure chest so full that the golden coins in it were spilling out of it. Residing amongst the coins were a silver mirror, a shell comb, and other items of fantastic luxury.

There was a door beyond that, but it was locked with some deadbolts. A necklace made from crab legs hung next to it. Right next to it, on a shelf, resided a tiny ship inside a fat clear bottle. The ship was rugged and malformed, and looked just like the Sea Lilith from the outside.

Finally, there was the bed. Or rather, beds. One was a simple cotton mattress and blanket on a shelf protruding from the wall, with equally simple pillow, while the other was a hammock hung from the ceiling, stretching into the corner where Lily had put her secret door. The hammock was layered with blankets and pillows, and looked surprisingly comfortable.

How was this all being lit up? Aurum looked at the ceiling. Two lanterns hung from hooks screwed in there, and a golden glow spilled from them. It wasn't fire, it was more akin to bioluminescence. Maybe they had some kind of servant creatures? She was familiar with those.

Lily tapped Aurum on the shoulder, and Aurum turned to face her. She mouthed, -personal sanctuary-.

Aurum breathed a sigh of relief and let her shoulders droop. Thank the maker for that. At first it trickled on her, but then it came crashing in; weariness filled her body, and Aurum leaned against a wall. She wouldn't mind resting in that hammock for a while. The ruined town earlier had held no comfort for her body.

"Do you mind if I, ah," Aurum nervously asked, keeping her voice quiet, and motioned at the hammock.

Lily smiled and shook her head. It was okay, then.

Aurum struggled to climb into the hammock, but once she was? Oh, it was heaven. The cloths and pillows were incredibly soft and forgiving on her body. They didn't catch on her piercings as she pressed breast and belly to the surface. Yes, a hand and a foot dangled off, but it was far better fare than anything she slept on before!

She rested, keeping an eye on Lily. Lily was smiling softly, then turned her head upwards and to the back, as if looking into the cabin. Then, Lily walked through the door, completely ignoring it and traversing through as if it were air. Now, Aurum was left alone comfortably, and she dozed off.

* * *

*gloing! gloing! gloing!*

The bouncing ball threw itself across Aurum's path, making her hide behind her new alchemist's back, and a young girl wearing boy's clothes chased after it.

"It's all right, dear. She is my daughter, Argentia," said the alchemist. She wasn't holding the leash around Aurum's neck. In fact, she had given Aurum her dark grey cloak. Aurum had not been pierced yet, not at this moment of time.

Little Argentia caught up to the ball, turned around, and waved excitedly at her mother. She ran up eagerly, and looked at awe at Aurum. "Mommy, you've got a naked woman behind you!" she exclaimed with innocence.

Aurum looked down at the child. She was small, yet exuberant and filled with energy. Her eyes were incredibly bright, and attuned with the positives of the world. It would've been nice if Aurum could've been like that.

"Ah, yes I do. Some people were not being nice with her, so I took it upon myself to free her."

"What's her name?" Argentia asked.

"The bad people never gave her one, dear."

"Well, that's mean! How's about Daisy?"

"Mhm, no dear."

"Tulip?"

"No."

"Rose? Chrysanthemum?" Each name Argentia put forth was met with a 'No' from her mother. Dropping the ball, Argentia crossed her arms and pouted. "Why can't I name her?" she asked.