Minx Ep. 02: Return to Anima

Minx leapt nimbly to a table top. "Attention everyone! My name is Minx. This is Fran," and she pointed to the cat-girl with her sword. "Things have changed around here. Rarvey! Get the Hell out of here! You're not welcome here any more."

The rat-man looked around the crowd for possible allies, and seeing none, skulked out. More of the animen from the tavern entered the bar room to see this new entertainment.

"Cat-girls are no longer slaves, and can no longer be owned, purchased, or sold! Anyone who does so will answer to me. This property now belongs to Fran the cat-girl! Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me. The cat-girls will no longer be forced to fuck each and every man who comes into the bar! They can negotiate what they want with whoever they like, and cat-girls who misbehave can be thrown out of here."

"And what of us?" called out a dog-woman who had come from the tavern. "You set the cat-girls loose and our husbands will never spend time with us again!"

"Where's your husband?"

The dog-woman pointed to the dog-man beside her.

"Girls, have any of you taken him upstairs?"

Nip and Fran both answered, "Yes". The dog-man looked to the ground as his wife cuffed him.

"I'm sure if you come in and tell the girls not to — favour your husband then they will oblige you. They don't want to stir up trouble with the married women of this town. And I think you'll find that the cat-girls will now choose a partner for the night based more on performance than money. And I think there are enough single men in and around town to keep them busy."

"Now, this place is closed for the rest of the night. Everybody out! Cat-girls, employees, and the lawmen will stay for a short while. Thank you." She waited a few seconds, and then saw everyone milling about and discussing the changes.

"I SAID GET OUT RIGHT NOW!"

Now they began moving.

Once the patrons had finally departed, many grumbling, and the employees had all gathered in the bar room, Minx repeated what she had said earlier. "Also, I can read and write so I'll be going over Rarvey's books to check everyone's wages, and make sure everyone gets paid." Minx looked over the group, and pointed out two strong young animen. "You all may leave for the night, but make sure that you're all on time tomorrow. You two stay here." Many of the employees began to shuffle out. "I have an extra job for you. I want you two to tear down Rarvey's name off the tavern, and replace it with Fran's. Get it done tonight, and you'll each get a gold coin bonus."

The two looked at each other and smiled. "Rarvey never gave us a bonus," one of them said to the other.

Dot, one of the cat-girl servers, waved for Minx's attention. "Uh, Minx. Nip and I were supposed to have guests tonight, but you sent everyone away. Maybe when these two are done working they can come upstairs with us?" The sly look on their faces informed Minx that the two cat-girls knew there had been no such arrangement.

The coyote-man looked at the horse-man. Then they looked at Minx and one of them asked, "Do we have to pay them the gold coins?"

"Nope. They're looking for company, not money." The two animen let out a little cheer and then headed back in to the kitchen area, presumably to find supplies to finish their task.

The cat-girls began to follow them when Fran called them over to her. "Where do you think you're going?" They suddenly did not want to meet anyone's gaze. "You were going to see if you could have a little fun before they get their job done, weren't you? Well, I've got a job for you two. You see all these dirty tables, and the floor where half-full mugs were dropped? Clean it all up before you go upstairs." Nip and Dot frowned, and looked pleadingly at Minx, who wisely just stared them down. "Those two guys are going to want to finish fast and get some free cat-girl pussy. If you girls don't finish before them, they might wander upstairs and find their way into some of the other girl's rooms."

Nip and Dot's mouths dropped. They began to rush around cleaning. Minx smiled, as she knew Fran was going to be okay once a routine was established. Fran watched the two cat-girls, and then shooed the remaining ones upstairs with promises that they could have company the next night.

The bounty hunter walked over to the lawmen. "Are you going to cause any trouble for me or Fran?"

She could see the three lesser lawmen look over to the two rhino-people for guidance. The rhino-man and rhino-woman stared at Minx with contempt.

"I see. This is going to be a problem. Do I really need to kill you two? I hope not. I need the two of you to stabilize the town, and to prevent lawlessness. These cat-girls need protection from men and women who might wish them harm." The rhino-woman laughed. Minx turned to the rhino-man. "Of course, you do realize that a protective male dressed in a uniform might be considered of great sexual interest to a cat-girl. Power is a great aphrodisiac. Why don't you and the other three men think about that on your way home tonight?"

She turned to the rhino-woman. "And as for you, I can tell it's going to take much more to convince you that this change is permanent, and for the better. Please consider this: a hyperman came to town looking for me a short while ago. I fled, but he did catch up to me, and he caught me." Minx looked her in the eye before going on. "I'm still alive. I returned to Anima with this hyperman. We're working together. Are you prepared to work against us?" The woman's face grew thoughtful.

"One other thing, rhino-woman." Her eyes returned to Minx. "Who runs the lawmen here, you or that rhino-man? How many women are in a position of power in this town? I know that you're smarter then he is. This planet is about to have a sexual revolution and women are going to end up on top. Wouldn't you like to take advantage of that?"

Minx stared at the rhino-woman, and could see she was no longer openly hostile to her or the strange concepts she had introduced. Something of what Minx had said to her was making her think about how things had been, and how they could be.

"Now we're closing up, so everybody out please. Take your weapons with you. If you have any questions for me then come back during business hours tomorrow."

Once the lawmen left, there were just the four cat-girls left in the bar. Fran stared at Minx with a nervous smile, and they both glanced at Nip and Dot, who were cleaning up faster than they'd ever cleaned before.

"Well, I've got a lot of paperwork to look through, and since we closed early I might as well get started tonight," said Minx.

"Paperwork?" asked Fran, perplexed.

The brunette stared at her friend, suddenly remembering exactly how uneducated the blonde was. "Look, why don't you go relax, or clean up. I'll take a look at the books, and then show you what you have to do to run this place."

"But — you're going to stay here, aren't you? With me?" Fran suddenly looked so vulnerable.

Minx took Fran's hands in hers. "I'll stay as long as I can, but I have a job to do here on Anima." She brushed a strand of blonde hair out of Fran's face. "Don't worry. I'll make sure everything is all right, Fran." Fran gave her a smile, and then a hug.

"If you need me, I'll be in Rarvey's office — or, I should say, your office." Minx left her friend in the bar, supervising the clean-up, and headed down the hall. She pushed open the door to what had been Rarvey's office. The place had the stink of him, and no window to provide an easy remedy. The bounty hunter sighed.

She sat at the desk and began rummaging through the drawers, looking for financial records and anything else of use. Forgotten skills came back to Minx, and with a start she recollected working as an accountant at some time in the past. She shook her head, and then continued her work.

"It's been three hours, Minx."

The bounty hunter blinked her eyes, and looked up to see Fran leaning on the doorframe with one hand on her hip. The candlelight played upon the cat-girl's blonde fur, highlighting her stripes. She held a bottle of wine and two glasses. Minx had been so absorbed in her work that she had forgotten about Fran, the bar, everything. She rubbed her eyes as Fran slowly walked to the desk, eyeing the papers strewn about.

"Nip and Dot finished cleaning, and Gerrad and Stephon finished putting up the sign, so I let them all go upstairs." Fran raised an eyebrow and hesitated, as if expecting Minx to tell her she'd done something wrong. After her friend had simply stared at her for a few seconds, she continued. "Have you figured everything out?"

Minx rubbed her eyes. Fran sat on the edge of the desk near her and leaned over the paperwork, staring at it as if she could actually read it.

"Pretty much. Supplying this place will be easy enough. Shipments come in on a schedule, and payments go out as inventory comes in. I've straightened out the pay, so you'll be able to keep all the employees happy." Minx leaned back and stretched. "Rarvey was stowing away a lot of money."

"Sometimes, when he'd been drinking, he'd tell some of us that he planned to buy up a property, and take a few of us with him to keep him entertained." Fran shivered and crossed her legs.

"Well, his retirement fund is large enough to keep this place running for quite a long while. I'll show you where he's hidden the money." Minx stretched, and let out a long sigh.

Fran poured out the wine, and then handed Minx a glass.

"Thank you, my dear."

"Do they have alcohol where you're from, Minx?" Fran licked her lips, nervously.

The brunette sipped the wine, and found it pleasant enough. "Yes. Rarvey let you have some?"

The cat-girl looked down. "Only when we were entertaining him." Fran held up the bottle so Minx could see the label. "This was something he whipped me for once. He sent me down for wine, and I saw these bottles in a box, and brought one up. Some of the customers saw the bottle, and got very angry at Rarvey. After everyone left he whipped me. He told me never to touch his best stuff ever again."

"I'm sorry."

"Why? It was a few years ago, and you had nothing to do with it."

"I'm just sorry that such things could happen to someone like you, Fran. That they could happen to anyone," Minx added quickly.

Fran gave her an odd look. "You care about...everyone, don't you?"

Minx felt uncomfortable. Her eyes drifted down from Fran's face, and an image of a sadistic rat-man gleefully whipping poor Fran came to her mind.

"You're such a loving person, Minx," Fran continued. "Can cat-girls love on the world that you come from?"

"Anyone can love, Fran. It doesn't matter what world you're from." Minx looked up at the cat-girl's face, and their eyes met for a few moments.

They both took another drink of the wine, and then Fran refilled the glasses.

"Look," began Minx, suddenly eager to get back to work, "let me show you some of this stuff. Can you count?"

"I'm not ignorant."

"Sorry. Can you read numbers?"

"I think so. They're on all the coins. And I can add and subtract in my head. Rarvey always trusted me to do my own bills for customers. The other cat-girls had to get their totals from him," she finished proudly.

"And you've never been to school. You are a marvel, Fran."

They spent some time going over some of the basics necessary to run the bar and tavern, and then Minx pointed out the various hiding spots in the office where Rarvey had secreted his stash. Minx was impressed at the cat-girl's memory and basic math skills, while Fran seemed in awe of everything that Minx could do.

"Here, Fran, look at this table of numbers. You see how the subtotals are always equal to the ones above or just a little higher?"

Fran, standing behind Minx, put a hand on her right shoulder and then leaned over her left to take a closer look at the ledger on the desk. Minx could feel her friend's breasts push into the back of her shoulder, and she could smell Fran's sweet natural fragrance. She felt her heart beat speed up, and then she wondered if Morovan had designed the cat-girls with extra-potent pheromones.

She turned her face, and studied Fran's smooth chin and soft throat. Strands of Fran's blonde hair tumbled down onto Minx's shoulder.

"Maybe you should sit, and I'll stand behind you, and explain," suggested the bounty hunter. They traded places.

"So where should I be looking, Minx?"

She pointed to a line in the ledger. "Right here, honey. Do you see these numbers are larger than these values above?"

Fran's hand darted to the page. "And here! And here, too!" she exclaimed. Their hands brushed against each other, and the bounty hunter hurriedly pulled hers away. Fran glanced briefly at Minx, then pulled her own hands away and placed them in her lap.

"Uhm, yes. That's right. Those values are sums, which means they're the result of adding two or more numbers. So Rarvey's written them in instead of doing all the math in his head."

"But what's that?" asked the blonde.

"What's what, honey?"

"There," said Fran, timidly pointing at the ledger.

Minx peered and saw some obscure scrawl. She leaned closer, drawing her head beside the cat-girl's. "I can't make it out." She put her hand on Fran's shoulder, and then lifted it from her. Convincing herself the contact was innocent, she gently placed her hand back on Fran.

The cat-girl turned to her friend. "You're so smart, Minx. I love how you can do all these wonderful things!" Fran suddenly looked away. "I wish I was more like you."

The bounty hunter put her hand under Fran's chin and tried to turn her head back to her. The cat-girl resisted her. So Minx kneeled on the floor, and turned Fran's chair until the two were face to face again.

"Don't talk like that, honey! You're wonderful just the way you are. You've had none of the advantages that I've had, and yet here you are learning new things that the other cat-girls couldn't figure out in a million years. You're very special."

"I wish I was special to you," pouted Fran. "You're so smart and beautiful. I feel like you're better than me." Minx started to argue. "No, I know you don't think you're better than me, but it's like you are. And I really care about you, Minx. I really do. And soon you'll leave me all alone."

"I love you, too. And you're very beautiful, Fran. And I don't want to go, but I'll have to." Minx thought over her feelings about the cat-girl. "And I was serious when I said that you're the only woman I'd ever want to cuddle up with."

Fran's eyes went wide. She leaned forward and pulled Minx to her in a tight hug. "I was so afraid that you didn't feel the same way any more."

Minx relaxed and enjoyed the feel of Fran against her. Their breathing slowly synchronized, but her heart thundered in her chest. The bounty hunter closed her eyes, and rested her head upon her friend's shoulder.

A small time passed, and then Minx felt Fran's soft lips kiss the side of her neck. Then there was another kiss, again very slow and very gentle. Minx took a deep, contented breath. One of Fran's hands slowly slid up her back, and then into the brunette's thick hair. Fran's kisses quickened, as did Minx's breathing.

The bounty hunter could feel her soul crying out for more, more kisses, more touching, more contact. She did love Fran, and she wanted to make sure that she did nothing to hurt the cat-girl. She knew that her friend dearly wanted to make love to her.

Minx couldn't remember ever having taken a female lover before, and she had never thought of herself as a lesbian or bisexual, but Fran's touch fulfilled something within her.

Fran's kisses passed over the delicate curve of Minx's jaw, drawing closer and closer to the bounty hunter's opening mouth. Minx swallowed in anticipation of where this was going, and then remembered she was on this planet for a purpose.

"Fran," she said gently.

"Hmm?"

Minx licked her lips. "We have work to do, honey."

The cat-girl's lips left her skin. Fran sat back, loosening her hug. She let out a great, and disappointed, breath. "I understand — and you're right."

Minx stood while Fran turned back to the desk and the paperwork upon it. Why was she feeling the way she was about this ignorant cat-girl on this backwater world? The bounty hunter shook her head at the thought. Who was she to think herself better than Fran? Her friend was a wonderful person, full of compassion and love. Minx reached out for her glass, and then drank the contents.

"Look, Fran." The cat-girl turned abruptly, and perhaps eagerly, at hearing her name. "Perhaps you should work on one side of the desk, and I'll work on the other."

Before Minx could say anything, Fran rose from the chair and walked to the opposite side of the desk. She gave her friend a nervous smile, and then concentrated on the papers before her.

The bounty hunter stared at her for a few seconds then sat in the vacant chair and began checking totals. She forced herself to sink into the world of numbers and calculations. Fran was all but forgotten until something brushed Minx's arm. She sat upright in surprise.

"I'm just refilling your glass, Minx. You'd emptied it."

Fran stood there with Minx's arm against her hip, filling her friend's glass. Then she stood there for few extra seconds after she was finished. Minx took a deep breath, and felt her whole being go warm. Fran was so near. Not for the first time, she wondered if the cat-girls had potent pheromones just as she did.

Without conscious thought Minx put an arm around Fran's waist and pulled her onto her lap. Fran did not resist, and merely put an arm around Minx's shoulder. "Remember when I told you that when I did decide to make love to a female that it would be you?" Fran nodded silently, and then placed the wine bottle on the desk. "Let's go to your room. I've missed you dearly." Minx prayed that Fran wouldn't say no.

"Can we use your room, Minx?"

"Okay," came the rapid response.

Minx helped Fran stand, and then rose from the chair. The two walked arm in arm, smiling, across the bar room and then to the stairs. Minx stopped, and Fran turned to her in surprise. The brunette leaned forward, and gave Fran a quick kiss on the lips. She put one arm around Fran's shoulders, and then reached down under Fran's knees and lifted her off the floor.

"What are you doing, Minx? You're not strong enough..."

"Hush, Fran, I'm strong enough." She had seemed to grow stronger while spending time with Dragon. He had hypothesized that the psychological barriers that prevented her from using her full abilities had now been overcome. According to the hyperman, she would now find herself a little stronger, faster, hardier, and smarter.

Fran laid her head on Minx's shoulder, and idly fingered the scant fur on Minx's chest. The bounty hunter carried the cat-girl up the stairs slowly, and then through a curtain that led into her room. There were fresh flowers in two vases, and the room had been cleaned. She laid Fran gently on the bed. Then Minx took off her belt, reached up into her hair and removed her hidden laser gun, and set it aside with the other weapons. Fran seemed to pay no attention to the weapons.

She then climbed up onto the bed with Fran. She lay down beside her, and began kissing her throat while massaging her breasts and nipples with her hand. Fran moaned, and then turned her face so the two were kissing again. They played with each other's breasts until Minx felt herself eager for some attention below the waist.

"Perhaps it's time we focussed some attention down below?"

"I'm new to this Minx. I've only had men before," she added shyly. "If you had a cock I'd know exactly what to do."

"I'm the same way. I guess we're going to be a little clumsy. Let's make sure it's still fun!"