Dragon of the Karst Ch. 04

Blindly she stumbled through the snow, her house slippers soaking wet, the legs of her pyjamas soaked through and muddy. She barely saw the branches that slapped against her face as she raced to answer the call that was tearing her apart. Finally she flung herself at the hole in the ground where the cave had opened up the day before.

It remained closed, and she banged her fists bloody against the rocks, screaming in desperation, too far gone even to realize that if anyone saw her, they'd probably call the police. After a few minutes, her energy from the day already low, she lay down and wept. Gently she caressed the rock, her eyes screwed shut, willing the cave to draw her down as it had before.

"I thought you might figure it out if you tried hard enough," a dry voice said above her. Startled, she opened her eyes.

The hard, slightly-frozen ground of late winter was gone. In its place was the room she'd been in the night before, now only dimly lit from a source she couldn't pinpoint. Mireu lounged on the bed just in front of and above her. She wore nothing but her turquoise scales that passed for skin, and Hyori caught her breath at the glistening sight.

"So I have only to will myself here, and I will be here?" she hazarded. Her voice sounded strange in her own ears, probably from all the screaming.

"Indeed. You have magic, girl. It is tethered to mine, but you have it nonetheless and you can use it to get to me. In fact you must, or you will kill yourself trying." She smiled lazily. "Now kneel before me like a good slave. No, not like that. You will wear no clothing in my presence." Hastily Hyori complied, piling her soiled pyjamas nearby and returning to kneel in front of Mireu. Inwardly she seethed a bit; was she to take a full year of being ordered about every night? Would she ever again stand up for herself?

"If you survive this, you will have the option to stand up for yourself eventually. Just now, you must serve. That was our bargain, and you found out just now what happens if you try to resist my call." Mireu's taloned fingers traced the outline of each of her nipples, and she shivered and gasped at the pain from the bruises the night before.

"Now, my toy, I want to see what happened in your day to make you resist my call." Her mistress put two fingers on Hyori's left temple, and the strange room disappeared, replaced with the events of the day.

***

She awoke to the feel of snow under her cheek. She was dressed in the clothes she'd been wearing when she fell into the Mireu's cave, now torn and soiled. She rolled over and cried out in pain as her many bruises came into contact with the rocks on the ground.

She gingerly got to her feet, discovering her hiking boots next to her feet. Looking around, she realized it was about noon, and she had been lying near the path by which she'd come to the karst. Slowly, on feet still bruised from their adventures in the cage, she made her way back to her car in the parking lot.

She drove home in a daze. Had it really happened? The bruises said it had, but the reality of Mireu was already starting to fade. As she unlocked the side door, scraping her feet carefully on the mat and then removing her boots, she was halfway to concluding that it really had been a dream.

Her mother's screams brought her sharply out of her reverie. Over the course of hours, Hyori explained that she was fine (a lie) and that nothing bad had happened to her (also a lie.) Her mother cried, and phoned everyone they knew to say she was home and all right, and only then took a good look at her. Her eyes widened and she backed away from her daughter, now lying on the couch.

"You're marked," she said simply, making a sign of protection against her. Hyori felt the sign land on her skin and burn there for a moment before she brushed it away absently.

"What do you mean, marked? Mom, you're being crazy. Can I go take a shower now?"

"It won't help, child. You're marked by magic." The older woman began to pace, thinking. "I don't expect you to tell me what really happened. I doubt you can. But let me protect you. I - I know a little bit of magic. Please?"

Intrigued, Hyori consented, and her mother spent the next hour rigging charms around her, saying incantations in Korean, and generally behaving very strangely. Hyori was too tired to care. She let her mother do what she wanted, and in truth slept through most of it.

When her mother was done, she left Hyori sleeping on the couch. At dinnertime, she awoke to the smell of rice and a touch on her shoulder. Hyori came to the table and ate and ate. Then she went and slept again, making an excuse about studying for her exams to get out from her parents' prying questions.

It was much, much later when she felt the pull.

At first it was just a dream. She was walking through the woods of the karst, thinking about how lovely it would be to see Mireu again and serve her. Gradually it grew more insistent. The charm her mother had hung around her neck began to burn in earnest. The sigils drawn on her skin itched, and she got up to take a shower and get rid of them. It didn't work, and by the time she was dry, she was grabbing the nearest clothing - her discarded pyjamas - to leave the house.

She made it to the side door - and found her mother waiting for her.

"You are not leaving," she said simply.

Hyori didn't argue. She simply grabbed her father's cane by the door and hit her mother over the head. Then she stepped over her mother's prone body and left the house, not even stopping to lock the door.

***

She awoke from her daze to Mireu's triumphant laughter. "So your mother knows a bit of magic after all, does she? I doubt she'll interfere with you again."

Hyori gasped. "Did I kill her, Mireu?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"Oh, I doubt it very much," her captor said. "No, you'll go back there in the morning and sleep the day away, and other than to feed you, your mother will never acknowledge you. You bested her magically as well as physically by breaking her charms. She may try to make you leave her house, but she will not attempt to keep you from coming to me again." Mireu gracefully unfolded herself from her bed. She brushed her hands around Hyori's neck and a collar appeared there. She snapped a leash onto it and led Hyori crawling toward the furniture at the other end of the room.

"I won't be using you tonight - much," Mireu told her. "I have plenty of energy from yesterday and you are nearly spent still. Squat on your heels and raise your hands." Hyori complied, and felt a heavy object settle on her shoulders. A heavy wooden yoke such as those used for oxen was being settled on her shoulders, and even as she figured out what was happening, pieces closed around her neck and wrists to hold it there. The wood was a solid three inches thick, keeping her head up and preventing her from turning from side to side more than a tiny bit. It was attached to the ceiling somehow, but she couldn't see the mechanism without turning her head. She pushed up on the yoke, and succeeded in moving it a few inches before stopping and trying to rest in her crouch again.

The yoke did not move, and she hung there, her knees half-bent, neither kneeling nor standing. She let her chin rest against the wood in despair, only to realize that the edge closest to her chin and the heels of her hands was sharp. She pushed herself to her toes so her chin would not rest on the edge, and considered her predicament.

"Every time you push up on the yoke, it will come to rest in a new position and you will not be able to lower it again," Mireu told her. "I suggest you think carefully before you relieve the strain on your back and legs by pushing upwards. Obviously, you'll also have to consider how much strain your chin and hands can take if you allow the yoke to take your weight." She moved to a table nearby and turned the hourglass over. "One hour to feed me, my toy," she purred as Hyori's thighs began to burn.

The girl's world narrowed. She withstood the pain in her thighs as long as she could. Then she allowed her chin to rest on the yoke for a moment. Yelping in pain, her head shot up straight again, and she pushed with her thighs to move the yoke a bit higher.

This improved her situation for a few moments, but it was not long before her thighs renewed their protest. She was settling in to endure this new ache for as long as she could when Mireu reappeared between her and the hourglass.

"Time to add to your torment, I think, pet," was all she said as she clipped nipple clamps onto Hyori's breasts. The captive yelped, then quieted as the numbness began to set in. Mireu drank it all up before attaching the chains on the clamps - to a ring on the floor in front of her. They weren't tight enough to pull yet, but the very first time she pushed up on the yoke, they'd begin to tug.

Hyori whimpered. She concentrated on flexing the muscles in her legs, first one, then the other, relieving the strain briefly on each. As even that became unbearable, she slowly began to push up again.

Even though she was prepared for it, the pull at her breasts made her scream. Mireu laughed, and it seemed to Hyori that she shimmered with the power she was drinking in. When Hyori's screams had quieted to whimpers, Mireu approached her again. The girl braced for the new pain, but it did not come.

Instead, Mireu began to caress her labia. Silky fingers rubbed and separated the folds, finding the sensitive bud of her clitoris. As her legs began to wobble from the strain and she realized she'd have to push up again soon, Mireu's fingers entered her and she moaned with need. Without thinking, she began to move, only to be reminded forcefully that she could move up, but not down.

Now nearly upright, she willed herself still as Mireu caressed her, driving her slowly toward orgasm while her thighs and breasts screamed at her to release them. It was no use. As the wave hit her, she rose off Mireu's fingers and found herself on tiptoe, spasming uncontrollably on the most powerful orgasm she'd ever had.

Mireu laughed as she panted. "You've done well, toy," she remarked. "I'll grant you a boon, of my choosing. You shall spend the rest of the night on the bed instead of in the cage." With a clink of metal on metal, the yoke opened. Hyori was so startled that if Mireu hadn't caught her, she would have face-planted on the floor; as it was, with Mireu catching her by the chains at her breasts, she somehow found the strength to stand and relieve that pressure.

With her last ounce of energy, Hyori followed as Mireu led her by her breasts to the bed. Once settled, Mireu removed the nipple clamps and drank in her pain when she yelled again. Then her captor attached a chain to her collar and another to some cuffs that went around her ankles. With an almost gentle pat on her aching breasts, Mireu stood and left. The lights dimmed, and Hyori slipped into sleep, dreaming of iron chains and iridescent scales.