Home for Horny Monsters Ch. 021

The first thing that he realized was that the vines had restrained Sofia in such a way that her arms had been pulled up behind her. Her breasts had pushed hard enough against the fabric of her blouse that, in conjunction with the tightness of the vines, the fabric had split, revealing an enormous amount of cleavage.

The second was how pissed at her he was.

"I haven't decided yet," he told her. "You lied to me."

Sofia rolled her eye. "Of course I lied to you. You were only going to get in the way if you came with us."

"And yet, here you are. I don't know if Abella or Tink are even alive, and I believe the blame lies solely on your shoulders." Mike walked closer to her, contemplating the thick foliage that had pinned her in place. "As for getting in the way, it looks like I made it this far without your help. I'm busy trying to save your ass so that we can get out of here and stop a coven of assholes from breaking through the Geas."

"The house is under attack?" Sofia asked.

"Yes. Yes it is. I left the others up there to deal with it so that I could come down here and find Tink so that she can show me how to turn on the house's defenses."

"Which is something she needs her goggles to do. Or rather, you will need her goggles." Sofia frowned. "Years ago, Emily tried to make amends with Tink by giving her those goggles. It was after an incident involving some guy who broke in, I don't know the full details. Those goggles, when worn by the Caretaker, can be used to activate the house's defenses once every twenty four hours. I thought it was a terrible idea at the time, but Emily and I weren't exactly on speaking terms at that point."

"I'm hardly on speaking terms with you right now!" Mike was near enough now that he could see how she had been tied up. So many vines currently held her in place that he wasn't sure which one to cut first. He didn't need her face planting on the stone beneath. "It occurred to me, on my very long walk into the forest and back, that you have been particularly nasty to me." Identifying a vine, he grabbed it with one hand only to cry out when the vine tried to curl around him. Drawing his dagger, he sliced cleanly through it. "Shit, that startled me!"

"Now you know why I'm stuck." Sofia cast her gaze toward the floor. Mike saw the hilt of her collapsible sword. "I tried to cut myself free, but there were too many of them. My sword is sharp, but not sharp enough, apparently. The few that grabbed me lifted me up into a whole tangle of these things."

"Right." Mike contemplated the structure of the vines again. If he wasn't careful, he could end up getting grabbed. He would have to cut selectively.

"I wish our positions were switched," Sofia grumbled.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Would you like someone smarter to come along? Seriously, what's your problem with me?" Mike selected another vine, slicing cleanly through. This vine retracted into the darkness like an elastic band, the other half dangling pitifully off of Sofia.

"I wasn't being rude," Sofia muttered. "It's my gift. If our positions were switched, I could have you out in a couple of minutes."

"Your gift?"

"Do you know why a cyclops only has one eye? We gave up the other for the ability to see the future. We were tricked, and the only future we got to see was our own deaths." Sofia let out a sigh. "However, after centuries of living with this curse, the magic has evolved some. Some interesting variations sprung up. Being able to see the death's of others was highly uncommon, but was a great moneymaker. My variation is one of the closest to what should have happened?"

"You can see the future?" Mike asked.

"Only about thirty seconds in, but not always. Something has to trigger it. My death, for one. I have seen myself die hundreds of times. Extreme emotional or physical sensations, like a bucket of ice water being dumped on me, or pain. All those things."

"All the traps that were set off." Mike looked back at the door to the Labyrinth. You set them all off, didn't you?"

"I was running from the minotaur. Tink got caught in a cage, and when he got near, I tried to lure him away."

"How did Tink get caught in a cage?"

Sofia shook her head. "It was such a simple trap. A stone pedestal in the middle of the room had her goggles on it. She got excited and ran up, only for the goggles to vanish and a cage to drop down and trap her. I haven't heard so many swear words before."

"And you didn't see it coming?"

"It wasn't my own death or pain. That is part of my issue with you."

"What did I do?"

"Not just you. Humans. You are obsessed with future sight, magical items, and the like. The main reason I am even in that library is that your kind wiped out my tribe so many years ago. I thought that I could get past it, but every new Caretaker eventually comes to me wanting to advance themselves, to become stronger. Emily certainly did it toward the end, and I knew you would be no different."

"Why, because I wanted to help Tink get her goggles back?"

"I caught you fucking in my library. Not the best first impression."

"So you're mad at me and not Tink?" Mike cut another vine.

"Tink is a goblin. That's different."

"So you're a racist then. Racist against humans."

"Like your kind has any room to talk. You've wiped out so many different creatures, magical or otherwise, and you can't even look past the color of your own skin...hey, why did you stop cutting?" Mike had stepped back, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Honestly? Because you're being a bitch." Mike stared away from her, trying to ignore the rising heat in his face. "I'm sorry about what happened in the Library. If I had known someone lived there, it wouldn't have happened. The only reason we were there was because I was trying to help someone else, and I'm not sorry for that.

"And you are right. Humans, as a whole, are giant pieces of shit. We do horrible things, and we probably always will. But you know what? Not everybody is a piece of shit. If I wanted to, I could sell this place, move far, far away and never have to deal with its problems. But I won't. Why? Because I actually fucking care." Sighing, Mike sliced another vine away. "I even care about you, despite your shitty fucking attitude."

Sofia had gone quiet, her own face turning red. Mike could hear her breathing change, a subtle shift that made him think that the vines might be squeezing her too hard. He reached behind her, carefully sliding the dagger beneath a pair of vines that were squeezing her ribs. The moment he sliced them, Sofia's whole body swung forward, pushing up against Mike.

"Mmm, gah!" Mike's face was not only buried between Sofia's breasts, but now the vines clutching her reached for him, pulling him tightly against her. He fought back, shoving hard against Sofia in an attempt to get himself free. He managed to push himself free, but the only part of Sofia he was able to push against that was vine free was her ample chest. The vines tried to pull him off his feet, but he cut himself free, stepping several feet back from Sofia. The vines settled, wrapping once more against her.

Sofia was breathing even harder now, her mouth open. Worried, Mike moved closer, but he could tell the vines weren't restricting her breathing. Puzzled, he noticed that her cheeks had gone very red.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked. Sofia remained silent, so he repeated himself.

"It's my breasts," she said.

"What about them?" They were threatening to break free, her flesh overflowing through the split in her shirt.

"They're really sensitive right now."

Uh oh. Mike scanned the sky, half expecting a mandragora pod, or something similar. He wasn't in the mood to fuck himself silly for the next several hours. "Is the plant doing something to you?"

Sofia didn't say, but she was squirming now.

"Hey! Is the plant doing something to you?" Seeing that she wasn't paying attention, he grabbed Sofia by the chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. "Tell me what's wrong!"

"Fucking human," she muttered.

"One eyed bitch." He looked for another vine to cut, but saw that Sofia was rocking herself in a specific pattern. Circling behind her, he saw that when her body had swung forward, the only vines keeping her from hanging completely vertical had wrapped themselves between her legs, spreading out over her hips. Every time Sofia swung forward even slightly, most of her weight was concentrated on the thick leafy vegetation that had wedged itself between her legs.

He saw the problem now. Looking at where she was suspended, it occurred to him that he could try and cut that part of her free first. At the same time, she didn't seem to be complaining, and it would be safer to cut some of the other vines first.

"Hey." Mike looked at Green, who was gently circling overhead. This may take a bit. Can you go watch the halls and warn us if the minotaur is coming?"

Green hovered in place, transforming into a fairy long enough to give him a salute, then flew away. Mike watched the fairy go, then let out a sigh. If she had been bigger, he would have put her in charge of cutting the cyclops free so he could watch the hall.[a]

Mike sliced one of the other vines, moving away when it reached for him. Sofia's body shifted her weight even harder onto the offending vine, and she let out a moan.

"Ok, let me take care of this one," he told her. He touched the edge of the blade to the vine.

"Wait."

"Excuse me?" Mike asked. He moved to where he could see her better. Her eye was closed, and she was breathing shallowly through her mouth.

"Don't. Not yet." Sofia opened her eye, and he saw that it was shimmering with an inner light. Was she seeing her future? "That one needs to come later."

"Oh boy," Blue whispered in his ear. Mike startled - he had forgotten the fairy was still on his shoulder. "Can you smell that?"

Mike sniffed the air. It still smelled of smoke and stone. "Nope."

"Cut them in a certain order," Sofia told him. "I'll tell you which."

"How can you... oh, right. Future sight." He got ready to cut one of the other vines.

"Not that one."

Mike moved to a different one. Sofia didn't say anything, so he pushed the knife against it.

"Nope."

Mike finally understood. He couldn't wait for her to have a vision. He had to commit to an action for her to see it. He moved to the next one, and started cutting. The vine parted, and Sofia's body shifted to the left. He repeated the process, slicing through a few more vines. The process was slow - every time he cut one vine, it seemed to reveal a couple more beneath it. They were so tangled together, that it was hard to tell which ones were which.

"Yes, that one," Sofia told him, and he was about to cut the vine when he realized it was the dead piece of a vine he had already cut.

"What the fuck?" he muttered, pulling on the vine and then unwrapping Sofia. Holding the spare vegetation, he saw that Sofia's weight was somehow further concentrated on her crotch, and his effort at cutting the last vine had simply rocked her back and forth. "What are you trying to get at?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Blue hopped off his shoulder, standing on top of Sofia's buttocks.

"Shut up, little bug," Sofia hissed.

"She's trying to get off." Blue made a show of sniffing the air. "Her arousal. It's like a perfume to fairies."

"She's trying to get off? What the fuck?" He pushed Sofia, swinging her around to face him once more. "We don't have time for this shit!"

"Oh!" Blue cried out, sniffing the air again. "Oh, I get it!"

"Shut up!" Sofia wriggled, trying to dislodge the fairy, but Blue held on to the fabric of her pants. "Shut the fuck up!"

What's going on?" Mike stepped back, refusing to cut another thread. "Tell me."

Sofia looked away, but Blue just laughed. "She is so turned on right now!"

"By the vines? Because she's tied up?"

"That's only half of it!" Blue hopped onto Sofia's head. "She likes it when you're rough with her!"

"Seriously?" Mike squatted so that he was eye level with the cyclops. "I thought you hated me."

"I do!" Sofia spat, scowling at him. "Ever since I saw you fucking that dirty little goblin!"

"You bitch!" Mike shouted, his whole face burning. He didn't care if Sofia hated him, but he refused to let anyone talk that way about Tink. He was about to launch a verbal assault when he saw Sofia's cheeks flush, and the cyclops let out a small moan.

"Told ya!" Blue hovered above Sofia when she shook her head. "She's trying to get a rise out of you!"

"That doesn't make a whole lot of sense." Seeing an opportunity, Mike grabbed Sofia's chin again. This time, he pinched her chin when he swung her toward him, watching her reaction closely. "Tell me the truth, Sofia."

Sofia looked past him, defiance on her face.

"Now!" He shook her. Sofia gasped, her eyelid fluttering.

"The vines," she whispered. "I feel so powerless when they're on me."

"And?" Mike shook her again.

"I was trying to get myself off." Sofia slumped. "I didn't want you to know."

"It's not really that big a deal," he told her. "All you did was waste my time."

I know, but..." Sofia fixed him with a hard stare. "I liked it. When you got mad at me. It made me feel even more powerless. A cyclops can see the means of their death from the day they are born, but I'm different. I can see the future constantly, and I can change it. My whole life, I've been changing my fate, thirty seconds at a time. When I see the future, I actually live it, it actually happens for me. I have died so many times, just running through this cave, I have experienced pain nobody should live through, and each time I change my future, it's like remembering a faded dream."

"I'm not following."

"When I came in here, I leaned against one of the columns, and the vines grabbed me. I tried to fight back and got caught. They weren't trying to harm me, or kill me, and as a result, I didn't see it coming. The longer I sat here, the longer I felt what it meant to be powerless, to be like everybody else. And when you came in, a mere human, and you suddenly had all this power over me, I was suddenly so turned on." Sofia shivered. "The thought of someone like you being able to do whatever you want to someone like me..."

Mike finally got it. "You think humans are beneath you, don't you?"

Sofia nodded.

"And the thought that someone like me," he began, stroking her cheek with his finger. "Could do whatever I wanted to you..." His finger moved down her collar, skirting a vine and settling on the thick flesh of her breast.

"Don't touch me!" She shouted. Mike removed his finger, and Sofia's mouth opened wide. "No, please, don't stop!"

"Which is it?" Mike crossed his arms. "Do you want me to touch you or not?"

"I..." Sofia's lips trembled. He could see a thousand decisions cross her face all at once, and her eye flickered with its own inner light as her futures unfolded before her. "I... I want you to do it, but I want to tell you to stop. But I don't want you to stop."

Wow. Staring at the pretty cyclops hanging before him, he couldn't help but shake his head. Kneeling so that he was eye level again, he grabbed her chin, holding her steady before him. There was somehow anger and anticipation, her cheeks flushed with the rush of emotions running through her body.

"You want me to be rough, don't you?" He asked. He had never done anything remotely like what he was about to do, but he could feel it now, that tiny piece of Naia deep inside his soul, holding his hand and guiding him forward through the unknown. "You want me to be rough, and tell you what a bitch you are for making me come all this way to save your ass. You want me to push you around, to make you feel helpless, to take control of your fate, all so that you can talk back to me and tell me what a piece of shit I am?"

The light inside of Sofia's eye was flickering wildly, and she was panting heavily. Through gritted teeth she answered him, her voice a sinister hiss.

"Yes."

"Well then." Mike knelt down and grabbed some of the severed vines. "I guess maybe we can make a little time to get carried away." Looping the vines through his hand, he now held a small collection of them, each about a foot long. Giving a casual swing through the air, he smiled at the way the air rushed through them. Moving close to her ear, he whispered.

"When you've had enough, the safe word is red."

"Ugh. Even your ideas are boring," Sofia muttered, but Mike gave her face a push, sending her whole body back. She snarled at him when she swung back, but Mike stepped aside, letting her pass. Her backside swung back toward him, and that's when he cracked her across her ass with his makeshift cat o-nine tails. Sofia let out a shriek, followed by a stream of expletives. Mike let her swing again, then smacked her in the same spot.

"Look at how high and mighty you are," he told her, dragging the vines across her back. The vines holding her ignored their touch, but occasionally reached for Mike's hand. "You can see the future, yet you fell into a trap designed for idiots."

"Fuck you," Sofia hissed.

"Maybe. I haven't decided yet." He playfully smacked her butt, then dragged the whip around her thighs to where he could see her breasts. "I suppose I might if you beg for it."

"Filthy fucking human," she said, gasping when he dragged the vines across her breasts. "Can't even fucking function without a bunch of girls to take care of you."

"Ooh, I'm hurt." Mike pinched one end of the whip and stretched it before releasing it. It snapped up against Sofia's breasts, leaving little red lines on her pale skin. Sofia gasped, then moaned. "You can do better than that."

"Dumb luck. That's the only thing going for you." Sofia's eye lit up and she gasped. Mike realized that he had been about to smack her again, but she was now living the experience. Instead, he ignored her, giving her another push. When Sofia realized that her vision didn't come to pass, she muttered at him in another language, one he didn't recognize.

Thirty seconds. She could see roughly thirty seconds into the future. He set the timetable in his mind, wondering just how much he could do in thirty seconds. On her next pass, he hooked his fingers in the back of her pants, sliding them down to her upper thighs where the vines had her tied. She wasn't wearing underwear, her bare cheeks presented before them in all their glory. Red lines stood up on her flesh, and he grabbed her ass with his hand, squeezing it. Sofia moaned, and he lifted the whip to smack her again, aiming for the left cheek.

Sofia let out a shriek, and Mike quickly changed trajectory, hitting her right butt cheek instead. Sofia screamed, her whole body spasming in the ropes. Mike rubbed her ass on both sides, and she went back to moaning.

"Wow," Blue said, alighting on his shoulder. "She is so damp!"

"F-f-fuck you," Sofia sputtered. "Stop touching me!" Mike swatted her ass with his hand, then tried to smack her again. She hollered before he hit her, so he gave her a squeeze instead, confusing the nerves in her body. If his theory was true, she was now feeling both experiences at once. Kneeling down, he made a slit at the top of Sofia's shirt where the tear had formed. Her breasts pushed their way free, and he marveled at how pillowy they were. Grinning sadistically, he swung the whip.

Sofia's eye lit up, and she screamed again, but Mike changed the direction of his swing, stepping forward to suck one of her large nipples into his mouth. Sofia hollered, so he gave her breast a squeeze, sliding his fingers together to pinch her nipple, stretching it out.

"FUCK!" Sofia shuddered.

"Look at how slutty you are," Mike told her, pinching both of her nipples now. He gave them a little tug, pulling hard enough for her body to swing. "Turned on by a worthless human."