What’s In a Game?
Day 5
The congratulatory message flashed for several minutes while both Hunni and Jess slept deeply, each within a world of their own minds. Jess lay naked, alone and unmoving, the dark visor still over her closed eyes, hearing nothing as she slept in the room empty of everything except the game. Hunni slept at her Mistress’s feet, her ears twitching as the nights sounds mingled with unearthly cries and the clash of metal from the citadel filled the air. Then the laptop flickered and the foreboding visage of the citadel appeared on the screen.
Jess’s eyes flicked open behind the visor as Hunni woke, the night had passed and she felt as though she had slept for hours. She looked about the camp site and couldn’t help a slight smile, on the other side of the nearly dead fire was her Mistress, relaxed and meditating as if doing little more than enjoying the days sun in her garden. Hunni stretched as she climbed to her feet and, without needing to be told, began to break camp, as she worked she had a feeling of being watched, she turned slowly to find her Mistress’s eyes upon her.
She still didn’t understand how the smile that curved her Mistress’s lips could make her flush with such heat, nor could she explain what it was that had so quickly made her love the tall drow so much she would give her life for her. She paused in the last of her work as her Mistress strode toward her, the smile lighting her face as she reached out to stroke Hunni’s cheek and run her fingers through her hair.
The drow’s voice was soft, tender and loving as she spoke, “today will see the end of our journey kitten,” she smiled and leant forward, lightly kissing Hunni’s cheek. “I will not lie to you pet, within those walls we will find the most fearsome of foes and they will grow stronger the deeper we go.” Hunni purred and nuzzled into the drow’s caress as she listened, “your skill is unmatched little kitten and I know, you will not fail me today.” Her Mistress smiled and kissed her once more then stroked her cheek, “now, release the horse and leave everything but your weapons pet, it is time to go.”
After freeing the horse and hiding everything else amid a pile of rocks at the edge of their camp, Hunni, armed with her dagger and bow, followed her Mistress toward the foul fortress. She shuddered, her skin crawling with the sense of evil that seemed to seep from every dark stone ahead of them. The closer they got to the citadel the stronger her desire to turn away became, only the almost overwhelming need not to fail her Mistress stopped her.
The tall, dark haired, impeccably dressed drow mage and the short haired murrii hunter at her side paused, they looked across the bridge, the only way into the most foul place in all the islands.
Hunni tested her bow again and nocked an arrow as she took a deep breath and let it out slowly to help focus her, her skin tingled as her Mistress stood muttering in her ancient language. A calm settled over the two, each prepared, in their own way, for what was to come as they started forward.
Hunni felt the warm, soothing touch of her Mistress’s power in the wards that surrounded her, she licked her lips in anticipation of the hunt as her predatory instincts rose within her, her sharp eyes flicked from target to target rapidly as she strode forward beside her Mistress and waited. The sign came as the seemingly nerveless drow lifted her hands and her power flared, the thunderous crash of magic began the tumultuous and chaotic rhapsody of death.
As if following some unseen map within her mind, the drow led the way through dark, flame lit corridors that seemed to teem with vicious trolls, orcs and skittering hybrid arach that climbed the walls to attack from above. As black brick halls and stairways gave way to dank caverns carved into the depths beneath the citadel, both knew that luck, as much as their skill and determination, had so far saved them from worse than scrapes, scratches and torn clothing.
Just as surely, it was luck that gave them the occasional break in the fighting and, as they moved into the caverns, one of those occasions arose and they paused to rest. While the sharp eyed huntress watched the darkness, her Mistress reinforced the protective wards, despite the danger all around them, Hunni found herself purring with pleasure as a she felt the magical touch of the drow. Unseen by her pet, the drow mage simply smiled to herself knowingly as the purring reached her ears.
With the wards strengthened and their tiredness eased, they moved on. At first it seemed strange, the attacking groups were all foul and corrupted hybrid arach. These were unlike the others in the halls above, they looked like an eight legged freakish cross breed with scorpion like tails and claws, they were faster, stronger and more ferocious, at first they thought it was luck that the groups they fought were small, until they started seeing far more carapaces than bones littering the cavern floor.
These were the deadliest of the nest, survivors among vicious cannibals and yet, none of this filled Hunni’s thoughts. She had grown used to feeling her skin tingle and the heat of arousal burn through her, she had become used to it growing deep inside with each successful battle, to her Mistress’s touch filling her with a needful ache, making her sex drip and throb as furiously and intensely as the battle. All of this filled her mind because, unusually, none of it was happening.
She felt her Mistress’s touch in the wards that surrounded her but, there was no heat burning through her, no wet, throbbing sex achingly clenching with each kill and she couldn’t help wondering why, or rather, she couldn’t help fearing the reason. It was this fear that grew as the fighting eased, the already small groups becoming fewer until, as the caverns widened, there were no more attacks.
As they stepped into the largest of caves, they found out why. The remains of arach exoskeletons, all different sizes, many bigger than any they had fought, littered the floor, all torn apart by something far more deadly. Hunni felt a chill run down her spine as her sharp ears caught the slightest sound of movement from a darkened, web shrouded tunnel at the far side of the cave, she signalled caution to her Mistress.
Her eyes widened as the web was shredded by the most monstrous of arach that moved with a speed that belied it’s size, elongated fangs dripped with what she guessed was venom, it’s claws gouged the rock where it stood, twin spiked tails lashed back and forth as it paused to watch them through eight fury filled eyes. Not that she would have, but it was too late to get out of there so Hunni chose not to wait for an invitation.
They leapt in opposite directions, Hunni firing arrows as fast as she could, before she landed the beast had two arrows in one eye and a third in it’s body, it hissed in pain and fury as it turned toward her and gave her Mistress a chance to hit it hard with flames of magic. Without pause they kept moving, Hunni rapidly firing her arrows in a blur as she attempted to keep the beasts attention, her Mistress releasing thunderous bursts of power that burned into the monstrous arach. The creature screamed and hissed, it’s tails lashing at it’s assailants, it’s claws scything the air and slamming into rock, both Mistress and pet somehow narrowly avoiding worse than small cuts.
The fight was hard and Hunni was starting to tire, as she once again leapt away from the monsters swinging tail and released more arrows into the beast, she winced and gasped, stumbling as she felt a sharp burn across her thigh. She turned in time to see her Mistress hit the huge arach with a thunderous blend of fire and lightening, she sighed with relief as the foul creature seemed to suddenly just stop, she watched as its thick shell of an exoskeleton cracked and shattered, her Mistress smiled with grim satisfaction as they saw it collapse in death at last.
Hunni felt the poison burning as it radiated out from the gouge in her thigh, her vision began to blur as the tall drow stepped closer to the dead creature and, with an exclamation of success, tore her prize from its shattered back. Strange images of impossible things filtered into Hunni’s mind as she staggered slightly, her speech slurred as, fearing for her Mistress’s safety, she tried to hurry the drow.
“Sweet kitten, more concerned for me than yourself despite your wound.” The drow smiled as she took a moment to stroke her pets cheek. She nodded and turned to mark a magical symbol on the rough ground, she muttered softly under her breath as she did so. They could hear distant skittering in the caverns as the drow stood, impressed to see the obviously distressed hunter determined to stand guard over her, she gripped her pets arm and led her into the magical symbol.
As the two stepped into the symbol, Hunni lost consciousness, a strange image floated behind her closed eyes, some strange kind of machine that bore the legend “CONGRATULATIONS LEVEL 50!”, it lasted only moments before an odd, twisting music accompanied by other images and memories flowed into her head, as each strand of music started to twist itself about her mind, the images and memories began to mingle with her own.
Despite the game shutting down, Jess had not moved, her eyes flickered behind the visor as she heard the strange, twisting music once again, but like Hunni, she had slipped into unconsciousness.
As the music swept in twisting waves through her mind, the memories of Hunni’s adventures, everything the hunter had felt and known, everything the murrii had been, slithered into Jess’s mind to mingle with her own memories as though it had been more than a game. Time passed, hours flowing by as the music warped and twisted the two minds together, reorganising and recreating them until only one remained and she started to wake.
Epilogue..
She licked her lips as she finished the bowl of special food Mistress fed her, drank some milk, stretched contentedly, then padded from the kitchen into the lounge where Mistress was resting on the sofa, she padded over and nuzzled at her beloved owners hand. Not that she had counted but, it had been several months since she had awoken naked and confused in that strange, empty house and turned, immediately recognising Mistress Angelica Cavendish sitting on an ornately decorated box behind her, she smiled as she remembered.
“Welcome back my pretty little kitten,” Mistress had said with a gentle smile as Hunni had crawled across the floor to her. She had nuzzled at Mistress’s hand and enjoyed the light caress of her stroking then too, and many times since. Though Hunni’s thoughts and memories had still been jumbled and confused, she had known without doubt that she loved and adored the tall, dark haired woman she knew to be her Mistress. She remembered how Mistress’s voice had cut into pleasure that had been warming her body.
“Come now kitten, take your place before me,” she had commanded, pointing to a spot in front of her. Puzzled, Hunni had taken her place on her knees, her naked body on full display and Mistress had surprised her, she had smiled as she lifted a small box from beside her, holding the box out to Hunni with one hand she had told her to open it. As Hunni had reached out to do so she had stopped and looked at herself in shock, that was the first time she had noticed her paws were actual hands, at the same time she realised she had lost her lovely, soft fur, she had looked up at her Mistress in confusion.
Mistress had smiled reassuringly and told her not to worry, that everything would eventually become clear to her and, trusting in her Mistress, Hunni had hoped she was right and calmed herself. With her Mistress’s encouragement Hunni had reached out again and opened the small box, she was both stunned and puzzled by what she saw inside. Her Mistress had chuckled at the look on her face.
“Yes little kitten, it is the prize we took from the arach,” she had told Hunni as she lifted the platinum collar like chain from the box and held it for her pet to see, she had smiled as Hunni had read her own name on the plate at it’s centre and seen the realisation in her eyes. As her Mistress had reached out and locked the collar about her neck, every question that had flooded into Hunni’s mind disappeared, she had suddenly stiffened and mewed loudly as several massive climactic waves rushed through her.
It was her favourite memory, apart from being the time her Mistress had collared her, it was also the first memory she knew for certain was actually real. Since then things had become at least a little clearer to her, Mistress had said something about her and another girl being sort of blended together to become one, Hunni would never say so but she never really believed that, but then, there were the fading memories.
She arched her back and a shiver ran through her as Mistress’s fingers stroked the soft, fine coat of honey blonde fur that had grown back over her body, thanks to Mistress’s special food, which looked and tasted much better since Mistress had changed it slightly. Even though her throat had hurt at first, she had been determined to relearn how to purr and, although it was only soft, her purr was starting to sound more natural, and she knew Mistress loved to hear it.
“Mm.. We’ll go play a game for a couple of hours in a bit kitten, then early to bed,” Mistress told her pet, who’s purring increased at the idea of two of her favourite activities, the third being to accompany her Mistress when she took Suzy the ponygirl out for a run.