Kinky adventurers Ch. 02: Pt. 12

"Wait," Sebastian interjected, "where's Emma? Is she not coming today?"

Ingrid raised a finger to suggest she was just about to address this very point. "Emma is indeed coming, but she'll be making an entrance later."

"You sly dog, you," Silus chuckled. "Always mixing it up on us and keeping things fresh." Ingrid took a small, dramatic bow by way of accepting the compliment.

"And she's graciously accepting compliments now, too," Silus said to Reya in a fake whisper loud enough for everyone to hear. "That's real growth right there." Ingrid blushed and Yuna stifled a laugh.

Ingrid cleared her throat loudly to silence the chortles. "We begin today with Ashara."

"Oh, goody!" Yuna exclaimed.

"Indeed. So, Ashara..."

Ash sauntered back to the safe house in the late afternoon light. She felt light hearted and heavy at the same time. An odd juxtaposition, to be sure, but one that she was familiar with. The elder sisters and matriarchs of her village had taught her that life is made of good and evil, happy and sad, light and heavy, comfort and danger, and that to seek some while avoiding others is to ensure your own misery.

Ash had thought it just another silly platitude when she had first heard it as a little girl. Then again, she had been a ruffian then, running wild and free with the other village children without a care in the world but what game they would play next. It was only later, after her gifts had begun to manifest, that she began to suspect there was something to the wisdom of her elders after all. Ash smiled, warmly forgiving her younger self for being unable to grasp the importance of truths she was too inexperienced to understand.

Ashara had spent the day catching up with old friends, and reconnecting with them had warmed her heart. They were good people--strange as fuck, but Ash wouldn't have it any other way. She had gravitated to those who were brave enough to be different out loud since she was little. It probably came with the territory since she was an odd duck herself. While other girls her age were carefully cultivating their bodies and personalities to be attractive to the boys, Ashara was busily embracing the ancient magic that flowed through her veins.

It was a heritage, a gift from her ancestors. But it was also a responsibility, a stewardship. What she was supposed to do with it was still unclear to her. The matriarchs of the village, who while not possessing the power themselves, were steeped in its history and lore, had sent her off on her lutaychye without much specific instruction. "Be true to yourself," they had told her. "And remain open and pure to the flow of life through you." None of this had meant much at the time, but now, years later, she felt she was starting to understand what they meant.

"And remember, people matter most." This last piece of advice had been given to her personally, informally, as if it wasn't part of the official handbook of advice, but the matriarch had felt it important to slip it in anyway. Of all the training and advice she had been given, this had served her most of all. To Ash, friends were hard to come by but meant everything.

Which is why it was both bitter and sweet to see her Tristanfell gang again. Because while she found them all alive and doing well, the purpose of her visit was to help a new friend who most definitely was not doing well.

Holding these various feelings without prejudice as they flowed through her mind and body, Ash covered the last quarter mile to the safehouse.

Y: Knowing the syndicate is after them, Ash would be pretty wary heading back to the safehouse. As she gets close, she's gonna look around and make sure no one is watching the place and she's not walking into an ambush

I: Alright. Make perception check

Y: Ok, here goes nothing. [Rolls]. 21!

I: Wow. Nice roll.

Scanning the streets and nearby buildings, Ash didn't notice anything out of the ordinary or anyone acting suspicious. As she ducked into the alley and started to descend the stairs to the basement entrance of the safe house, however, Ash could sense something was off. Before she even got to the door, she could feel that someone had been down here since she left in the morning. Someone she didn't know.

This sixth sense was a rare gift--even for a servant of Loviatar--and Ash couldn't say she understood it at an intellectual level. All she knew was that, sometimes, she just knew. Often it manifested when something was off or wrong, but sometimes she got vibes about people or places that had very little if anything to do with her. It was as if the goddess were giving her a rare, seemingly arbitrary glimpse into the fabric of reality beyond what her five senses could discover. In this particular instance, she simply knew that someone she didn't know had been up and down these steps since she left Kit in the safe house this morning.

Someone had paid them a visit.

Of course, it could simply have been the safe house's owner, Sixto's friend, back early from a trip. But given Ilya's abduction that very morning, this seemed to Ash like a rather optimistic scenario.

I: Make a stealth check for me.

Y: [Rolls]. 11?

Assuming the worst, she crept quietly down the stairs, cringing with every creak from the old, warped boards. She paused to peer through the windows, but the glass was too opaque (and the interior too poorly lit) to make anything out.

I: What is Ash going to do, Yuna?

Y: Hmm. Well, she's pretty fearless, and her girlfriend, er, friend is in there, so she's just gonna bust in!

With no way of knowing what awaits her within, Ash carefully tried the door handle, finding it locked. Having expected this, Ash pulled the key Sixto had given her earlier and turned it in the lock as quietly as she could, but the old, rusty lock grated nonetheless. Once the key was fully turned, Ash set herself both physically and emotionally, then pushed the door open and burst into the room.

I: Make another perception check

Y: You've got it. [Rolls]. Oof! 7.

Her eyes accustomed to the sunny, summer afternoon, it took Ash a few seconds to adjust to the relative dark of the basement safe house. Despite her temporary blindness, however, no one attacked her on sight. Gradually, the furnishings of the space became clear: table and chairs, kitchen stove and table, the bed in the corner...

"Mrrmmmllng Hrrmmn Grrllnnnngg Fffrnnmmhrlngg."

Ash heard the sounds of a captive attempting to speak through an effective gag at the same moment that her eyes picked up a figure lying on their side on the bed. Instantly recognizing the captive's voice as Kit's--and clearly noting the urgent pleading to be released--Ash spun around expecting to see syndicate thugs spring at her from behind the door. Seeing no one, she strode quickly to the washroom and checked it for assailants-in-waiting. When that room proved empty, Ash returned to the living room, closed the apartment door behind her and, eyes now fully adjusted, carefully examined the room.

"Alright, everyone," Ingrid abruptly announced to the friends assembled in her small bedroom, "it's time to move to the living room. You all get to examine the room alongside Ashara. But to maintain the ambience of the scene as much as possible, please be silent."

Silus, Sebastian, Yuna, and Reya all exchanged questioning glances and smiles as they followed Ingrid down the short hallway into her modest, open-plan kitchen-living room. The space was currently awash in early evening sunlight pouring in through the bank of windows set in the exposed brick. The room was as they expected it, and empty. Except for a single, blindfolded form lying off to the right against the far wall.

Upon seeing Emma, Yuna's face lit up with glee. "Can I go over to her?" she mouthed to Ingrid, pointing. When Ingrid nodded, Yuna practically skipped the short distance to her girlfriend, kneeling down next to her.

Emma was lying on her side, bound in a tight hogtie. Ropes crossed her torso horizontally above and below her breasts, pinning her upper arms to her chest. A band of ropes just above her knee bound her thighs together, but the ropes binding her wrists to her ankles could not be seen from across the room. The hogtie could easily be deduced, however, from the arch of her back and lack of mobility.

Yuna looked like a child in a candy store as she knelt before her bound girlfriend. She held her hands in the air inches above Emma as if unable to decide which part of her body to touch first. Finally, she ran a single finger lightly across her belly, from the base of her ribs to the top of her hip.

"Mmmmrrnm!" Emma cried out in surprise, her body wiggling and writhing helplessly at the unexpected touch. The white cloth cleaving her lips--and, evidently, holding a wad of something in her mouth--warped the sound in a muffled garble, effectively gagging her. Another white cloth paralleled the cleave gag, wrapping across her eyes and keeping her in the dark as to Yuna's movements.

Yuna let out a wild, delighted cackle. "Ooh, this is fun! You're blindfolded, helpless, and at my mercy!"

"Mmrrrnngmmff!" Emma moaned pitifully and her body squirmed in anticipation of more delicious torture.

Indeed she was helpless. For Emma was not only trussed up, blindfolded, and gagged, but completely naked as well. A crotch rope, bound around her waist just below the belly button and nestle deep in her pussy, completed the tie and advertised her lack of any kind of clothing save the ropes holding her bound.

No one was there but herself and Kit--her colleague, traveling companion, friend, and maybe something more.

"Hrmm Hrmgnmgrmn Hllmphh hrmn grrngmm." Kit's words were, of course, utterly unintelligible. But her tone of voice did not indicate any danger.

Y: What did Kit's garbled tone of voice indicate?

I: Great question! Make an insight check

Y: Hehehe. [Rolls]. Oh, Ash is good at this. 23!

I: Emma?

E: [Muffled, gagged speech].

I: Looks like I'll be interpreting on Emma's behalf, then.

Instead, Emma's tone suggested exasperation, embarrassment, frustration, perhaps impatience. No longer on edge, Ash grabbed a chair from the table and pulled it over to the bed. Sitting down with a quiet sigh, Ash looked her friend over. Kit lay on her side, completely nude. Her wrists were bound to her ankles behind her back in a tight hogtie. A rope neatly looped around her thighs just above the knee bound her legs together, further restricting her ability to move. Completing the tie was a rope tied around Kit's waist, the leading end of which ran down to her crotch and disappeared between her thighs--carefully placed, Ash noticed, between her labia. Ash stood up and leaned over her friend's bare body to see that it was pulled tight along her ass, ran under the waist rope, then reversed tension back down to her bound wrists. Ash gathered that any struggling by her trussed up friend would invariably pull on the crotch rope, tightening and rubbing it along her ass, pussy, and clit.

Aside from ropes, a strip of white cloth between Kit's teeth held a wad of something or other in her mouth, effectively gagging her. Ash couldn't help but notice that the cloth's color contrasted nicely with her amber skin. Her arms and legs were pulled tight behind her back, presenting a long stretch of exposed, bare belly and thrusting her breasts forward. Across her torso, in a slightly upward bending arc above her belly button, was scrawled in black charcoal the word 'slave'; just below Kit's belly button, in a downward bending arc, was the word 'slut.'

Ash knelt by the bed so that her eyes were level with Kit's. Kit looked back, unreservedly pleading for release. Her eyes looked tired. Ash guessed she had struggled against her bonds for some time to no effect and that the crotch rope had finally punished her into submission. At the moment, she was perfectly still.

"You look like you've had an eventful day."

"Hrrmmarrnm Grrnngll Rrrmmaaarrng."

"Mmhmm. Sounds about right." Still looking into her eyes, Ash brought a hand up and gently caressed Kit's cheek. Kit moaned, softly and pitifully, at her touch. "I've gotta say, whoever did this to you sure knows their way around ropes." Ash rose to her feet and leaned over her captive friend once more, carefully inspecting the rope work. "I've rarely seen a hogtie executed this elegantly," she assessed, admiring the evenness of the tension, the uniformity of the wraps, and the cleanness of the knots.

"Rarrurmnpfff Prrrmnng Graammpfff Frnmnff," Kit protested, sounding exasperated.

I: Make a perception check for me as Ash inspects the rope work, Yuna.

Y: With pleasure! [Rolls, then frowns.] Only a 12!

I: It's enough for this little easter egg.

As Ash studied the ropes binding Kit's body, her eye caught a small, dull gleam of metal from between Kit's ass cheeks. Eyes suddenly widening in surprise, disbelief, then delight, Ash rolled her captive friend unceremoniously onto her belly. Kit groaned through her gag, humiliated at being thus handled. Her further protests were silenced by the mattress.

"What do we have here?!" Ash crowed with delight. Pushing Kit's bound wrists and ankles out of the way, Ash examined the object closely. A flat, polished metal disk sat just outside her anus, connected by a thin neck of metal to something else buried deep within her ass.

"What a naughty girl," Ash intoned reverently. Taking the disk in her fingers she tugged on it repeatedly. Kit moaned pitifully in response, her ass swaying from side to side in a vain attempt to shake Ashara off. "You know, just a few days ago I had you pegged as a straight-laced woman, as vanilla as they come." Now she began rotating the disk in wide circles, stirring whatever it was connected to within Kit's ass. Knowing she was powerless to stop any of this, Kit gave a long, soft, helpless moan, and surrendered to the mixture of humiliation and pleasure.

"But now," Ash continued, "I'm afraid I have to agree with your label." A swift strike to Kit's butt produced a satisfying crack, but rather than react in protest or surprise, Kit merely moaned louder. The sound and the emotional response it represented were almost too much for Ashara as an overwhelming urge to dominate this helpless treasure engulfed her. Here Kit was--naked, bound, and submissive. She stood still for a moment, taking a deep breath and exhaling, letting the feeling pass through her.

Once more in control, Ash rolled Kit onto her side again. As she admired Kit's trim, muscled abdomen, Ash traced her fingers over the words curving sloppily around the exposed belly button. "You certainly are sexy," Ash offered quietly, almost in a whisper, her fingers and eyes memorizing Kit's soft, bare body. Kit was silent.

"That's the word I would have written," she continued. "As for these two words..." Ash trailed off, fingers now wandering dangerously close to where the crotch rope passed between Kit's legs. "Well, I can only trust that the person who wrote them is right." Ash let the silence continue for several long seconds, during which Kit blushed helplessly and furiously. "But I'm starting to hope."

Ash risked a glance and found Kit looking back at her. Her eyes held a complex swirl of emotion and Ash wasn't immediately sure what it all meant. Ash knew from experience that it was one thing to dominate another person--to feel their helplessness, to do whatever you please with them. But it was another thing entirely to possess that person's trust. With Kit, Ash knew she wanted both. The longer Ash held Kit's gaze, she felt her own armor of sardonic humor melting. Kit's vulnerability was overwhelming--and contagious. She looked back at Ash unguarded for a long moment.

Waking as if from a trance, Ash started and stood. She knelt once more near Kit's face and ran her finger along the cloth knotted between her teeth. "Whoever did this to you left you for me to find, didn't they?"

"Rrmmpphh gllrrmng phrrrlnngh."

"Whoever it was, I have to say I'm grateful." Kit responded with more gagged pleading.

"Do you want me to untie you?"

Kit nodded vigorously.

Ash tugged at Kit's crotch rope while saying, "Does this have you all worn out?" Kit answered with pitiful moans and a pathetic attempt at struggle. Ash chuckled darkly.

"Alright," she concluded at last. "I'll untie you."

"Ffmmng Ffrrph!" Kit exclaimed in relief.

Ash rose and turned to the kitchen counter where, taking fresh vegetables from a canvas bag on the floor, she began preparing dinner.

"Hnnggg Rrllnngmmff!" Kit protested.

"Hey," Ash replied over her shoulder, the sarcastic humor back in her voice. "I didn't say when."

Kit gave a long, helpless moan.