Keyholder Demoness Bk. 03 Ch. 07

Charity was boarded up inside the cramped hollow of a living tree. She had pounded on the slats that Illie had affixed over the opening. She had kicked at them with her feet. No matter what she did, she was still stuck.

When the morning sun rose, Charity noticed that there were some cracks between the slats. At the very bottom there was an opening tall enough for a small tray to be pushed into her space with some food.

"I need to pee!" she screamed after eating and pushing the tray back out the slot. Illie's answer was simply to push the empty tray back into the tree and shush Charity.

Charity screamed to be released for a while. She tried to look out through the cracks. She didn't see anyone around. She assumed that Hope and Illie had gone off to the villages to perform whatever services that they provided there. So, eventually she gave up yelling and resigned herself to the idea that she was going to be trapped in the tree all day long.

It became a bit stuffy inside. She was able to twist around and lay on her back with her face near the slot at the bottom. This allowed her to stretch her legs straight up and rest her heels against the walls of her prison. When that position became painful, she started to sit up, but yelped when the chain dangling from her left ear piercing seemed to become snagged. She realized that she had inadvertently pressed the end of the chain into a sticky pool of tree sap.

There was sap everywhere. It coated the walls and pooled on the bottom of the hollow. Soon Charity was covered in a sticky mess. Her hair was tangled and stuck together in clumps. Every once in a while she even felt some sap drip down from above.

In the evening another tray of food was shoved into her space.

"Illie! You can't leave me in here!" Charity screamed. "Let me out!"

Illie shushed Charity.

"Where's Hope? Where's Fedea? Let me out!"

Charity endured another long night. And the next day passed the same way. Charity was exhausted and her joints hurt from being in the cramped space for so long. Time passed in a dreamlike fashion - a restless nightmare.

"Illie! Open the... the... open the... let me out!" Charity screamed in the evening when Illie pushed the tray of food into the hollow.

In the middle of the night, Charity was awoken by a voice. "Charity? Charity?" It was Fedea.

"Make that... bitch... let me out!" Charity screamed.

"Shhh! Charity! There are several stone golems surveying this area right now. A collection of Empusa's guards are headed this way too. We need to keep you hidden for a few more days," Fedea said.

"Days?! Let... let me out!"

"You need to be quiet, Charity!" Fedea said.

Three more days and nights passed. Charity could feel a new ring beginning to emerge on her left wrist. She already had two rings on that wrist. Her tongue felt funny. There was a hard lump that stretched laterally across it. She had never had a ring emerge from her tongue before.

Charity was certain that this situation was bad for her quest to avoid losing her humanity. Or her sanity, for that matter. She considered that she should talk or sing to herself so she wouldn't lose any more words, but she was afraid that she might be discovered if she did that. So, she lay quietly in the cramped, sappy tree trying to find ways to occupy her mind.

She thought about Hope. She envisioned the way she looked, the way she smelled, the way her skin felt. Charity was surprised to see a dim blue glow emanate from her belt. "How can I be horny at a time like this?" she wondered.

Regardless, she challenged herself to remember every detail of all her jewelry and piercings. She envisioned every bit of her tattooed skin. She imagined her lips in such exquisite detail that she felt she could count the number of needles extruding from them.

Every once in a while, Charity would notice the blue glow and realize how horny she was. She would squeeze a sap covered breast with her sticky hands. "What else is there to do?" She would slip back into a half dream of her and Hope making love. Real love - where they could kiss and taste and share their private spaces.

"Charity!" It was nighttime and Fedea was whispering outside the tree.

"Huh?" Charity responded dreamily.

"Are you ok?" Fedea asked.

"Uh huh," Charity responded.

"I wanted to let you know that Empusa's guards will be arriving here in the late morning. You need to stay quiet, OK?"

"Mmm hmm."

"We'll try to get them to leave as quickly as possible. Illie has snuck off to attack another Stone Golem two watersheds away. She is hoping to..." Fedea continued to talk. "...if they can identify her, but I don't..." Charity couldn't remember what Fedea was saying. "... Empusa was seen..."

"Ho-e buh," Charity whispered. She was trying to say Hope but her mouth wasn't working properly. "Ho-e... Ho-e Buh!"

"Shh!" Fedea whispered. "I'll be back again tomorrow night."

A tray of food was pushed in through the slot at the bottom. Charity was really hungry. Had they missed some meals? She might have peed on herself, but all she could smell was sap, so maybe that was just a dream.

There were people walking around outside! She could see movement if she looked through the cracks. Lots of people! She covered her hand over her chastity belt to try to keep the glow from being too strong.

It was night time. Charity was having trouble opening one of her eyes. The sap had sealed her eyelashes together.

It was day time. "Hun... gry..." Shh! Those voices do not sound like Illie.

It was night time again. "Twith-ting and turning... your feelingth are... burning... Your brea-hing the gir..." When she licked at the sap on the walls, her tongue made a scraping sound.

<>--+-

There was a loud crash on Charity's tree. She jumped back from the wall as best as she could. Another crash and a new crack formed. Some kind of metal hook was shoved through the crack. It twisted and then pulled away. Wood was cracking and daylight was beginning to spill into Charity's tree.

A pair of eyes looked through the crack for a moment. A voice shouted something in the native language.

The hook reappeared and more of the slats concealing Charity's hiding spot fell away. Two pairs of eyes were looking in now. A hand covered in a thick leather glove reached in and grabbed at the leash that was wrapped around her body. She was quickly yanked from the hollow in the tree and unceremoniously dumped on the ground in the dirt.

"Ohhh!" Charity started to move, but her arms and legs wouldn't straighten out without a lot of pain. The sun was shining and it was far too bright to see. She tried to lift her face out of the dirt. Bits of leaves and twigs stuck to her face. She was covered in sap.

Someone was laughing. Someone was laughing at her!

"Oh, Charity! I should be angry at you, but look at you! You disgusting little pathetic thing!"

Empusa...

Charity looked up. There were about twenty women looking down at her. All looked physically quite formidable. Guards. And Queen Empusa standing at the front.

"Puhhh!"

Empusa spoke to the guards. Some jumped into action, grabbing Charity by the arms and legs and gently beginning to straighten them out.

"Oooh! Owwww!" Charity screamed.

"You're green!" Empusa laughed. "The villagers said that the local witch had a pet who was covered in rings. I was worried that it was not you, but look at you!" She bent over and wiggled Charity's nose ring, then ran a fingernail, clicking over her five neck rings. After she drew her finger away she looked at it in disgust, then wiped it on her thigh.

"Can you stand?" Empusa asked.

Charity groaned.

"Even more importantly, can you speak? Someone bring the poor animal some water!"

A guard pulled Charity's head back by grabbing a handful of hair. She poured some water in Charity's mouth, which for a moment, was like heaven. When the guard tried to let go of Charity's head, she pulled Charity's hair painfully as it had stuck to her hand.

"Owww!"

"I'm so offended that you would run away from me," Empusa said, although she was smiling. "I certainly would never seal MY pets inside trees. But... I guess love makes us do strange things... Maybe you are angry that your lover would stick you in a tree? Maybe you have some choice words to say to her? She's sitting right over there. Ready to listen!"

"Ho-e?" Charity mumbled. She struggled to get her feet underneath her. She struggled to stand and look.

The crowd of guards parted.

Illie was kneeling on the ground. Her head chain had been unraveled from around her head, leaving a bald pate with a single thick chain emerging from her crown. Illie's head chain was pulled up towards the tree limbs above. Her arms were bound behind her. There was a cut on her cheek and some bruising on her ribs.

"She refused to talk to my guards, so I decided that she didn't need to talk anymore at all," Empusa said. "You remember how I silenced your little trap? I did the same thing to your pretty lover. I figured that she probably enjoyed your nubby little tongue. I gave her one just like it. If she's flexible enough maybe she can lick herself in the future. She certainly won't have access to yours anymore."

Illie continued to kneel, stoically staring at the ground.

"My guards also hunted down that oversized cat that was lurking around here. One guard shot it with an arrow and it vanished into thin air. No doubt, it was sent by one of my rivals. It left behind this fancy collar though."

Empusa raised her hand revealing a gold collar with Fedea dangling from it. Empusa wrapped her hand around Fedea's body and began to squeeze.

"Oooeee!" Charity screamed in horror.

There was a snapping sound, like twigs breaking. Empusa opened her hand and pieces of Fedea fell to the ground. There was no blood. Her little body was simply thin pieces of hollow metal. Metal? Was that Fedea?

"Hm. That got a reaction," Empusa smiled. "Can you still speak?"

Charity frowned and scowled at Empusa, pressing her lips together tightly in defiance. Empusa nodded at a guard who walked up to Charity and began unwrapping the leash from her torso as she stood with her arms pulled wide by two other guards. As the leash came loose, the guard laid it out in the dirt around Charity.

Three more women approached Charity. Each was carrying something that looked like an oversized fly swatter - a flexible pole with a flat, rubber square at the end.

Once her leash was completely unraveled, the guards holding her let go and stepped away. Charity could run. She eyed the crowd of women around her. Empusa remained standing relaxed, with a smirk on her face. Charity took a step backwards. There was a swishing sound followed by a distinct splat sound. Charity's right butt cheek was stinging badly.

She twisted around. There were three more women with their fly swatter weapons raised.

"Even though I am in such a good mood, bad deeds must not go unpunished," Empusa said.

Once again, a swishing sound from behind Charity, forewarned the inevitable sting of a strategically applied swatter. Immediately, Charity's senses sharpened. Her fight or flight instincts focused her ears and eyes on every movement around her. She was surrounded by six women who were prepared to hurt her. She could hear another swishing sound behind her. She turned quickly and blocked the brunt of the attack with her arm. Already two more swats were being applied to her thighs from the women behind her. Charity squeaked in pain.

Charity brought her right arm around, circling up from underneath, wrapping the chain of her leash around her forearm and gripping it as tightly as she could with her thumbless hand. She whipped her hand around, slicing horizontally through the air in front of her body. Unfortunately, the chain was too long and too heavy for her arm, weakened from being cramped in the tree for days and days. The chain dragged uselessly through the dirt as three more swats landed on her skin.

"Arghhh!"

Her attackers had over committed. They had moved too close. Charity faked a move in one direction, then moved through a space between two of her attackers. Even after all the time in the tree, Charity knew that her legs were strong. She was a faster runner than any of these guards. She broke through the circle of her attackers and started to plan a path to take her into the forest.

She made it three steps before the chain that was embedded between her breasts, which was trailing behind her, grew taut and her momentum forced her to suddenly spin around and then stumble, collapsing on the ground with a grunt.

Two of the attackers paid the price of grabbing on to Charity's leash as they also tumbled to the ground. The other four, however, advanced on Charity's vulnerable position with their swatters held high.

The swatters rained down upon Charity fast and hard. She rolled over and curled up. Her long and tangled hair provided some protection for her back. The weapons were splatting all over her exposed flesh and each stung painfully. A guard grabbed her hair and pulled it forward, exposing Charity's back to the fury of the attackers circling around her.

"Thop!" Charity screamed in pain. "Pweeze thop!"

After an eternal moment of hellish stinging hits, Empusa must have made some sort of signal. The guards suspended their attack, leaving Charity shaking in a heap on the ground. Footsteps approached. Empusa bent down and grabbed Charity's leash, yanking it up until she was kneeling before the queen.

"So, you can still speak..." Empusa said. "Somewhat, at least. Open your mouth. Stick out your tongue."

Reluctantly, tears running down her face, Charity did as the queen instructed. Empusa immediately grabbed the ring pierced through the end of Charity's tongue and pulled.

"Hmm..." Empusa said. "You have two rings wrapped around your tongue. The rings seem to be tangled in the metal nubs that I gave you. No wonder your diction is failing you. How have you gotten all your jewelry?"

Charity slowly held up her right arm. She pointed to her wrist where a fifth emerging ring was still embedded just her skin. "Growth fwom... inthide me..." she whispered.

Empusa grabbed at one of the rings on Charity's wrist and tried to jerk it over the swell of her hand. It was far too tight to allow the passage however. Empusa reached down and slipped a finger between Charity's abdomen and one of her waist rings. She attempted to move it - felt its weight and density. Slowly Empusa started laughing.

"You are the most exotic pet I have ever seen," Empusa said. She then turned to the guards and issued some commands. Charity provided no resistance as her arms were pulled behind her and locked together with a pair of metal cuffs. A guard pulled Charity's leash chain to its fullest extent, then yelled at her, yanking the leash in an upward manner.

Charity slowly stood up.

Two chains had been attached to her wrists and each was held by a guard. With tension from the three chains, the guards were able to maneuver Charity in any direction they chose. Soon she was forced around to look at Illie who was still kneeling stoically, held in place by the chain embedded in the crown of her head - her arms tied behind her back.

Empusa said something and guards began to pull a rope that wound over a high tree branch and back down to the far end of Illie's head chain. Illie's eyes grew wide as she was forced to stand up. Her neck was pulled up straight as her toes were lifted from the ground. She jerked around a little as though trying to find the ground with her feet.

The guards continued to pull Illie higher into the air. Her ankles had been bound together with a rope that was also attached to a large leather bag. When the leather bag left the ground, it was clear that it contained a considerable weight. Illie was obviously uncomfortable, her body twitching under the tension, held immobile between her ankles and the top of her head.

Empusa gave a signal when she determined that Illie had been suspended high enough. She pushed the leather bag hanging below as hard as she could, causing Illie, the arm of a pendulum, to swing.

Empusa walked to Charity. "Don't worry about your lover, pet," she said. "The villagers will need her services and come and cut her down... Eventually..."

Empusa shouted a command. Charity's leash was pulled and the entire regiment of guards set out into the forest with Charity in tow - away from the home tree and Illie. Away from Hope.

After being marched through the woods for two hours, they came upon a small village of women. This village was obviously one that benefitted from whatever services Illie and Hope provided. The inhabitants would know right away that Charity was not Illie's short pierced and painted pet that the villagers knew.

Charity prayed that Hope was somewhere far away. She was horrified thinking about what Empusa would do to Hope if she knew she existed.

She watched carefully as Empusa greeted some of the women of the village. They all turned to look at Charity as they were talking. She was relieved about five minutes later when Empusa seemed to conclude their conversation, apparently still satisfied.

The guards controlling Charity directed her towards the nearby river. Four naked women with fetters on their wrists and ankles were waiting for Charity there. Charity was pulled by her chains into the shallows of a pool and held while the four women began to bathe her.

At first their touch was painful on her skin, still tender from the repeated swatting. After they had scraped more of the dried sap off, however, their caresses began to feel more pleasant. It took nearly an hour of washing and tugging combs through Charity's hair before it was actually clean again.

The women wove her hair into a long braid that descended down to the top of her butt. When a clean Charity was presented to Empusa, however, she apparently told them to undo the braid. They then spent some time teasing Charity's hair working to make it as wild and disheveled as possible.

Charity decided that Empusa must be planning to use her as some sort of prop - to create a particular narrative. Her suspicions were confirmed shortly when a cart rolled into the village pulled by eight harnessed ponygirls. The cart allowed for a single driver and behind was a large heavy metal structure. It was a sturdy, well constructed, cubical cage, about ten feet on each side. Held suspended inside, was a second cage with much smaller dimensions.

Charity's leash was fed into the back of the larger cage, though the smaller cage and back out the front of the larger cage. Soon, of course, Charity had no option but to follow. After she stepped into the larger cage, guards unlocked her wrist cuffs. A pair of painfully applied swats directed Charity to climb up into the smaller interior cage. It was only about three feet on a side, so she was forced to crawl in on her hands and knees. Behind her, the cage door was loudly slammed shut. Heavy bolts were set and then large padlocks were applied.

After the guards stepped out of the outer cage, its door too was closed and locked. Finally, heavy wooden posts were slid into place to further barricade the door's access. Charity was displayed locked in a cage within a cage.

When Charity turned to look forward, Empusa had climbed up into the driver's seat. She had Charity's leash in her hand - the Queen leading the conquered wild animal.

"You look marvelous, love," Empusa said. "Green and all your new metal jewelry. I'm beginning to suspect that your little holiday abroad was just the perfect thing to truly perfect your evolution to becoming MY womanimal. The Goddess works in mysterious ways, doesn't she?"

Charity stared at Empusa with anger.