Keyholder Demoness Bk. 03 Ch. 03

Charity was awoken in the middle of the night. When she opened her eyes, (tick) was standing over her with a finger over her lips, suggesting that she remain quiet. (tick) reached up, squeezed the handle to open the anchor ring and released Charity's leash.

When Charity stood up, (tick) looped the long leash chain over her shoulders - alternating from side to side until the leash was no longer dangling randomly. Charity followed (tick) through her cell door and to the menagerie's exit. She quickly looked over at the dark space where Hazel and Garnet were sleeping and felt a lump of sadness in her throat.

"Goodbye," she mouthed, soundlessly.

(tick) opened the external door and then stood, staring towards the trees on the opposite side of the pasture. A bright light flashed briefly, and she pointed towards it to make sure Charity saw it. Then she hugged Charity and gave her a particularly passionate kiss. Charity touched the side of (tick)'s face for a moment. Then (tick) pressed a leather pouch into Charity's hands.

They waited quietly in the darkness for a moment. The light flashed again, and (tick) pushed Charity into the night. Charity ran as fast as she could, holding the leash chains close around her chest so they would not rattle. She quickly made it to the tree line with her heart racing.

Hope! Hope was waiting for her! They embraced each other in a side hug - the needles protruding from Hope's areolas would draw blood very easily. The hug only lasted a second and Hope grabbed Charity's hand, pulling her further into the trees. Hope led Charity at a quick pace for ten minutes or more until they reached a wooden fence. A number of slats had been pulled out which allowed them to slip through. Hope spent a few minutes reseating the fence, then pulled Charity on through the forest.

Finally, after another ten minutes or so, they reached a clearing lit up by the glow of the moon.

"Hope!" Charity whispered and hugged her friend again. After a moment, Hope pushed Charity away and took the leather pouch that (tick) had given to Charity. She motioned for Charity to unwrap the chain leash from her shoulders.

Hope then began to rewrap the leash. The pouch had contained some metal 'S' rings which allowed Hope to secure the chain in a balanced fashion around Charity's torso. Charity simply held her arms out to her sides and let Hope work. Tears began to fall from Charity's eyes. Soon she was shaking from her quiet sobs.

Hope wrapped the chain over Charity's shoulder, around her neck and back down across her chest - using an 'S' link to keep the chain from sliding. She wrapped a few more turns over shoulders and loosely around Charity's waist, finally back up to the place where the leash was embedded in her chest, where she applied the final 'S' link. When she let go of the leash, it was still long enough to drop onto the ground.

"You... run?" Hope asked quietly.

Charity wiped the tears from her eyes. She leaned over and kissed Hope on her cheek. "I'm so happy to see you! Oh... Fuck yeah, I can run."

Hope bent down and grabbed the end of Charity's leash from the ground. "We run."

Charity felt a tug on her chest as Hope pulled on her leash. Then they were off - running through the forest with only the diffuse light of the moon to guide them. Regardless, Charity began to feel that particular sensation she got when she ran. She felt herself focus on her surroundings and quickly developed a confidence in every step she made - ducking under limbs, jumping over roots, reacting immediately to every subtle tug that Hope made on her leash.

They must have run through the forest for a couple hours. Charity felt strong. She could go for hours more. They had run away from the coastal cliffs, slowly climbing into forested hills. They came to a place where Charity could hear some kind of mountain river running down below. Hope stopped at the edge of a small cliff. She turned to Charity and pointed down over the edge. "We..."

Charity tried to look into the darkness. "We're climbing down?" she asked, squeezing her thumbless hands together nervously.

"We..." Hope repeated. Then she yanked hard on Charity's leash and jumped into the darkness, pulling Charity along with her.

Charity yelped and fell awkwardly over the edge of the cliff. She hit the cold water with a tremendous splash and sank into its dark depths. She could feel the current pushing her along. She quickly lost her sense of up and down. She felt slippery rocks with her feet and she tried to push herself away from them hoping to find the surface. She felt a tug on her chest for a moment. She pumped her arms through the water in the direction of the leash's pull.

Her chain leash was weighing her down. She felt rocks under her feet again, and she no longer could feel a tug.

"I'm going to drown," she thought to herself and began flailing her arms and legs desperate to find the surface. She bounced hard off a rock wall. The current was pushing her down the river at a rapid pace.

Suddenly, she felt a huge tug, and her face breached the surface for a moment. She gasped for air, but then slipped below the surface again. She banged her knees on some rocks and pushed up from them, finally finding the surface again. Hope was there, pulling on her leash, dragging her into more shallow water until Charity was able to grasp a rock and keep from drifting any further.

Hope held up her hand indicating for Charity to stay where she was. "Okay..." Charity sputtered, as she watched Hope clamor to the river's edge. After a moment, she returned with two wooden hoops. Some sort of bark was woven on the underside of the hoops. By the first light of dawn, Hope showed Charity how she should sit on the woven strips of bark inside the hoops. They were going to use the hoops like inner tubes. When Charity sat back she still sank into the water so that only her face was above the surface. Once again, she felt a tug on her chest and Hope was leading them down into the rapids.

The next few hours were spent painfully bouncing down the river. Charity often felt as though she would drown as the cold water splashed over her face.

Finally when they hit a flatter section, Charity tried to ask Hope how long they had to float down the river. Hope simply admonished Charity to be quiet and turned away with a small tug at Charity's leash.

The morning sun was rising in the sky and Charity could see Hope clearly for the first time in more than two months. Her long hair was wet and slick down her back and the grid of jewelry chains wrapped around her head. Sun shone through droplets of water that clung to the short, narrow sharp pins that surrounded Hope's lips and areolas.

Hope's body was covered in tattoos. Jewelry chains emerged from Hope's arms and seamless metal manacles gripped her wrists. Hope was lithe and her arms showed her musculature. She seemed to have been able to stay well-fed and healthy. Mostly, Charity noted how exotically beautiful she was.

Charity looked down at her own collection of chains which were much thicker and heavier than Hope's. What a pair they made now!

Eventually, they arrived at a boulder in the middle of the river. A rope had been set up, dangling down from thick tree limbs overhead. Hope scrambled up onto the boulder and helped pull Charity up by her leash. She pulled the wooden hoops from the water and then used a large rock to break the hoops into small pieces slowly tossing them into the current.

After making quick work of the floatation devices, Hope pointed at the rope, then at Charity and then up into the limbs overhead. "You... go!" she whispered.

Charity held up her thumbless hands for a moment and looked nervously at the rope. Hope nodded, but continued pointing up.

Charity grabbed the rope and jumped up, wrapping her legs around as best as she could. She started to pull herself up, but without thumbs, she had no grip strength. She slowly slid back down the rope.

"No!" Hope said. She stepped up to the rope and reached as high as she could with her hands. Then she raised her right knee. She gripped momentarily with her hands and used her left foot to loop the rope under and then over her right foot. She then pressed the rope down on top of her right foot so that the rope sandwiched between her feet. This allowed her to use her legs to advance up the rope, rather than depend on hand strength. With the rope locked between her feet, she was able to straighten her legs, reach higher and repeat the process again. She slid down the rope and pointed to Charity and then up into the canopy above.

Charity started climbing as Hope had shown. She was not graceful at all, but she was making progress slowly. Every time she gripped with her hands they would slide down the rope, but if she moved her legs up quickly she could usually end up a little higher than before.

She was getting higher, but her arms were burning and the palms of her hands were on fire. She imagined herself falling and breaking her body on the boulder below and whimpered, looking down at Hope.

Hope continued to encourage Charity to climb while also occasionally nervously looking up the river.

Finally, Charity made it up to a tree limb that was so thick, that she was able to let go of the rope and lie on her stomach hugging the limb, shaking in fatigue.

Hope nimbly scaled the rope and when she reached the limb, undid the knot that secured the rope to the tree, pulling the rope up and coiling it around her shoulder. Then she stepped over Charity who was still trembling with her arms and legs locked desperately around the limb.

"Come!" Hope then walked gracefully along the limb towards the trunk. Charity watched Hope step into some sort of hollow space in the tree. Charity tried to lift herself up from the limb, but she was too scared of falling into the river far below. She finally started to painfully inch her way along the limb scraping her flesh along the rough bark.

Charity eventually pulled herself into the hollow. The space inside the tree was surprisingly large. The first thing she noticed was that Hope was perched on her knees, bent over with her chest pressed to her thighs. Her arms were stretched out in front of her, palms facing up - her forehead pressed to the 'floor'. Charity turned her head and found herself looking up at a tall, thin, naked woman standing above her.

The woman said something to Hope in the native language. Hope remained motionless, but said "Up!" in a muffled voice. Slowly Charity stood up in the interior of the tree hollow. The woman was at least a head taller than Charity. She grabbed Charity's leash near the point where it exited her chest and pulled on it forcefully, then yanked it from side to side, apparently testing to see how secure it was. Charity stumbled back and forth, unable to resist the woman's superior strength.

"Hello..." Charity said, quietly.

The woman said something sharply that Charity decided must mean "Shut up!" And so she closed her mouth, cowering under the woman's examination.

The woman slid her hand down over the leash chains wrapped around Charity's waist, eventually bending over to look more closely at the faceplate of the chastity belt locked around Charity's loins. She slid a finger over the seal, with its upside-down 'Y'.

Charity then noticed something odd about the woman's hair. Or rather, in lieu of hair, the woman seemed to have metal chains growing from her scalp. The loops of chain jingled as they slipped around the woman's shoulders.

Hope spoke up from her position on the floor. "Illie airen ohdess (click) ah (teek) (tit) oo en emah (click) oo mayah... she say you fuh her."

"Huh?" Charity said.

"Fuh her!" Hope said louder. "Fuh Illie airen ohdess (click) ah (teek) (tit) oo en emah (click) oo mayah."

The woman grabbed Charity's face in a strong hand and squeezed her cheeks to force her mouth open. She reached into her mouth and securely grabbed the ring embedded in the end of Charity's tongue. She pulled Charity's tongue out and looked intently at it, slowly smiling.

"You fuh her," Hope said as the woman slowly forced Charity down onto her knees.

Charity found herself staring at the chain-haired woman's smoothly depilated crotch. After a moment, Charity felt a hand at the back of her head and then her face was forced forward. A thousand thoughts were spinning through Charity's head. Who was this woman? Why was Hope so subservient to her? Had she just traded one tyrant for another?

Charity had not even realized that her tongue and lips automatically went to work, teasing the chain-haired woman. When she DID realize what she was doing, she became angry. But rather than stop her actions, Charity decided to use all of her skills to bring this woman to her knees as quickly and effectively as possible. She raised her hands to grasp the woman's hips and ran through an exploration of stimulations, gauging the effectiveness of each by the woman's reactions. She developed a plan, not consciously, but using some instinctive sense, and she applied her technique with full passion.

In only a short time, the chain-haired woman stumbled backwards moaning, partially collapsing against the wall as her vagina pulsed with a series of strong contractions - a spray of fluid wetting Charity's face.

Charity turned to look at Hope, who was still crouched in supplication on the floor, although she had turned her head a little to watch. Charity flashed her a smug grin as the chain-haired woman expressed some litany of exaltations.

<>--+-

Charity and Hope were kneeling next to each other on the floor of the hollow in the giant tree. Hope had shown Charity how she must kneel with her hands crossed behind her back. The chain-haired woman was doling out moist green balls of something soft wrapped in grass. With a command, Charity was expected to open her mouth and stick out her tongue. Then the woman would place the ball far back in Charity's mouth. A second command indicated that Charity could chew and swallow the food. While Charity could never conceive of such a meal prior to her arrival in Hope's universe, she, none-the-less, found that she liked the taste and texture. Her palate was changing.

Hope addressed the chain-haired woman using the long, formal name "Illie airen ohdess (click) ah (teek) (tit) oo en emah (click) oo mayah". There was no way Charity could learn all that, much less make the sounds with her metal-laden tongue. Fortunately, the woman had no expectations for Charity to speak at all. She issued commands to Hope, who then communicated to Charity what was expected. So far the commands had been relatively benign, and Charity quickly complied, simply to ensure that Hope did not get in any trouble.

"Is Illie... a bad woman?" Charity asked Hope quietly. Charity decided that she would use the first part of the woman's name.

Hope quickly said, "Shh! No!"

Illie spoke with Hope for a while. It sounded like a conversation. Their emotions seemed to remain neutral. Finally Hope said, "She ta-e you me."

"She's going to take us... somewhere?" Charity asked.

"Shh! No! Yes! No! You, me - she..." Hope was struggling with her English. Finally, she briefly placed her hands around her neck, then placed her hands in a similar fashion around Charity's, then she pointed at Illie. "We are hers..." For emphasis, she gently tugged at Charity's leash, then pointed at Illie. "Hers..."

<>--+-

They rested in the hollow until the afternoon. Then Hope looked cautiously out the hole and listened for a while. She and Illie spoke at length and Illie grabbed Charity's right arm and examined her thumbless hand. She grabbed Charity's leash and shook it for a moment.

Illie left the hollow, walking out along the limb with no apparent regard that she was balancing over forty feet in the air. Hope pulled Charity out of the hollow and onto the limb. Charity immediately sat down and splayed her legs around the branch. Her heart was pounding. She looked up at Hope, who wore a clear look of disappointment.

"I'm sorry," she whispered as she looked nervously at the ground far below.

Hope simply held her finger up to her lips to shush her.

Hope began unwrapping the leash from around Charity's torso, removing all the 'S' links that she had used to contain the links. Next she fed the end of her rope through the furthest link, then walked far out on the limb - so far that Charity could see the wood bend under Hope's weight.

Hope had tied a large knot in the end of the rope. She tossed the heavy knot over a limb above and into the waiting hands of Illie who was perched two large trees away. Illie pulled the rope, and subsequently, Charity's leash until they were taut. Hope then beckoned Charity to walk along the limb towards her. Charity did not want to disappoint Hope, so she stood and started walking.

"They'll catch me, if I fall," Charity told herself over and over again.

Before she knew it she made it to where Hope was waiting. She reached out to grab Hope's hand. Hope knocked Charity's hand away and jumped up slightly, then pressed down, surprising Charity as the limb dropped away from under her feet. Hope pushed Charity off the limb. Illie was prepared and the leash was taut, so Charity swung out into the air, supported with her chest up. A moment later Illie grabbed Charity's arm and pulled her onto a new solid perch.

And so they made their way through the forest, away from the river, high above the ground.

The third time Hope pushed Charity to swing out between two trees, Illie did not catch Charity, and she swung back toward Hope with her arms and legs flailing around. She looked fearfully towards Hope, who had a very serious look on her face. She held her finger to her lips, imploring Charity to remain silent. She did not even try to catch Charity, who proceeded swinging, once again, in the other direction.

Then Charity heard a sound down below. She twisted her head back and forth trying to look down, but was unable to, held as she was. She kicked her legs up and looped them around her supporting leash, so that she was upside down and able to see the forest floor far below through the foliage.

She saw movement. It was one of Empusa's guards. She was following a collection of dog-like animals who were sniffing frantically along the banks of the river. Soon, Charity saw another guard, then another. More than twenty guards eventually passed below and four times that number of "dogs".

Charity hung from her chest for over a half hour waiting for the guards to pass. It was clear that Empusa was expending all resources to recover her stolen source witch.

It was well past sunset, when Charity's group descended from the trees. They had used the branches to traverse a ridge into an entirely different watershed and drop down into a large creek. Hope wrapped Charity's torso with her long chain leash - this time with a much shorter lead, which she handed to Illie.

"I don't want to... to go... too far from the... the... um... ocean," Charity whispered to Hope.

Hope frowned and shushed Charity, and with a stiff yank, Illie pulled Charity's chain and forced her to start stumbling her way up the creek.

Charity doubted that Hope had understood her request. Generally, their communication took much more gesturing. Hope had not learned too many English words. As they walked upstream, Charity pointed to herself, then back downstream. Then she pointed to her locked chastity belt and downstream again.

Charity felt like she needed to be near the ocean so she could watch for the next arrival of the airship from Paradise. Or maybe there was a seaworthy vessel that could sail there. She needed to find Faith and Blue and get Dammasch to remove the cursed chastity belt. Going inland felt like the wrong direction. It was leading her away from where she needed to go. Besides that, she wasn't sure whose best interests were currently being served.