My life's a race, I'm numbing my pain with codeine rain

Rose was absolutely petrified by the tone of the pink-haired woman’s voice. Even though she was smiling. It was the kind of smile that said “I’m not really happy right now. But my job is to be polite to you. So I’m going to smile.”

Those were the kinds of smiles that Rose perfected. So she had a good idea of what might be lying under the surface…

“Um… l-listen, miss…”

“It’s ‘Little’ Miss,” Little Miss corrected her pleasantly. “Please do refer to me properly, if you would? I would very much appreciate it.”

Rose swallowed. “…R-right. Little Miss. Um… s-so, you’re Jess’s mistress, isn’t that right?”

“Yes indeed,” Little Miss chirped, nodding. “She is my adorable little fox.”

Rose hoped that this was an “in” she could use, even though she was well aware of how dangerous it was to dance with the topic of Jess given what had happened.

“Yes, she… she really is quite adorable, isn’t she?” Rose agreed, trying to smile. “I only got to spend a little time with her, but it was obvious how much she cared about you, and respected you, she’s such a sweet girl.”

“She certainly is,” Little Miss agreed with a nod. “Which makes me wonder, why oh why would you subject such a sweet girl to such a dangerous risk? Using her as a shield like that… how cruel of you.” Her tone turned sharp.

It sent a chill down Rose’s spine. The blonde swallowed, trying to come up with some explanation, anything to defend herself… but found that she was woefully incapable of doing so.

“That… it was… a **** situation,” Rose said, hanging her head. “I was trying to help my friends, so… …And, and I knew she wouldn’t get hurt-! So…”

It just felt like she was digging her hole deeper. No matter what Rose tried to come up with, nothing sounded like an adequate defense.

Amelia bit her lip. She’d thought at first when she saw the display of items presented by this strange young woman that they had stumbled upon some special bonus room, a reward of some kind, that would benefit them.

But now she was far less certain of that.

Normally she would be leaping to Rose’s defense, but she found it hard to speak. Knowing her own shortcomings in terms of communication, she feared that anything she said in Rose’s defense would be twisted against the poor girl.

Which was a painful truth to accept, because Rose had indeed saved them with her heroic actions. Even if this strange woman didn’t see it that way.

Rose opened her mouth, trying to defend herself once more, but she could hardly push the words past her lips.

“Miiiiisssstreeeeeeeessssssss!”

Then a wail from the depths of the cavern behind Little Miss drowned out anything Rose might have possibly said.

Amelia snapped her head towards the shadows and Rose stiffened up immediately. Only Little Miss herself responded coolly, turning with a smile as a familiar fox girl dashed out of the darkness and buried her face in the slender woman’s lap.

“Mistress, why did you abandon me all of a sudden?!” Jess wailed. “I just came back, and you had to leave!”

“Oh, don’t worry my love,” Little Miss cooed, stroking the girl’s blonde hair. “I didn’t abandon you. I just had to take care of some business first, that’s all.”

Jess raised her head and nodded, wiping her teary eyes.

Then she gasped.

“AH!” Her eyes fell on Rose, and panic immediately seized her breast. “What?! What- what is SHE doing here?!” Jess cried in disbelief. “Rose!”

“Um… h-hey?” Rose raised a shaky hand and waved at the stunned fox girl. “Long time, no, uh, no see, huh?”

Little Miss was less than amused. She puffed up her cheeks in agitation and leered at the other woman warily. She scurried behind her mistress for protection, and Little Miss turned back to Rose with a cold look in her eye.

“I think that just about sums it up, don’t you?” Little Miss said calmly, looking at Rose with a heated gaze. “My dear Jess is scared out of her wits.”

“Huh? N-no, I’m not, mistress!” Jess shook her head frantically. “Don’t worry! I am certainly not scared at all!” She assured the other woman.

Little Miss did not look convinced in the slightest. If anything, she looked frustrated.

Jess took a deep breath and raised her head. She looked up into her mistress’s eyes. “Rose was… very mean to me,” she conceded. “But… I’m not really mad at her… mostly… …She was just trying to help her friends…”

Little Miss sighed and scratched her head. “Ah, my dear, sweet fox,” she murmured. “You’re far too kind for your own good, aren’t you?”

She reached down and rubbed her fingers through Jess’s hair, playing with her ears. Jess looked hopefully up at her.

Then, finally, before Rose’s heart exploded from doubt and anticipation, Little Miss turned to her and looked her directly in the eyes.

“Rose, I was originally going to give you a bit of a punishment, for treating my love so harshly,” Little Miss said. “But… because she has told me to be nice to you, I’ve chosen to oblige her. …I can’t say no to my love’s heartfelt plea, after all!” She giggled, and Jess turned bright red. The fox girl couldn’t stop the smile spreading across her lips.

Rose still found herself loaded with doubt. But as she looked at Little Miss, she found herself hoping that maybe… maybe she didn’t have to be as worried as she feared?

“…So with that in mind, I think I will reward you instead!” Little Miss decided, clapping her hands together. “After all, that is part of my job, when you girls come to pay me a visit in the bazaar,” she pointed out.

Jess nodded gratefully. “Oh, mistress!” She cooed. “You are so generous!”

Little Miss puffed out her chest with pride.

“So with that said… normally, I might have let you peruse my wares. But you strike me as the kind of woman who would choose what you want, over what you need,” Little Miss accurately guessed at Rose’s personality.

“Hey!” Rose snapped, scowling in irritation.

“While your words are quite rude, your assessment is not lacking in accuracy,” Amelia noted, pushing her glasses up her nose.

Rose winced, stung by the harsh words of the woman she respected. But again- she couldn’t deny them.

She sighed.

Giggling, Little Miss turned back to Rose. “So with that said, I shall present to you a simple gift- but one you will find quite helpful!” She reached behind her back and held out to Rose… a wrapped handkerchief.

Rose stared blankly at the bundle extended towards her.

“…Huh?”

“Please do accept it,” Little Miss requested, batting her eyelashes at the other woman. “With my compliments.”

Rose took the bundle from the other woman and unwrapped it. Nestled inside was… a bottle of water, and a wrapped light pink pastry?

“Huh?!” Rose was even more confused.

“Fresh spring water and a peach mochi,” Little Miss elaborated. “For best effect, please drink the water first, and then eat the mochi.”

Rose hadn’t really had the opportunity to try mochi before. But as an appraiser of sweets, she figured it was worthwhile to give it a try, at least. But first, the water. She unscrewed the cap, and held the bottle up to her lips. She paused for a moment, wary- the last thing she wanted to do was drink something the other woman had laced!

But figuring that she was already getting off lightly as it was, she decided that she might as well take the chance, and took a sip.

It was the best water Rose had ever tasted.

“Oh my gosh!” Her eyes lit up in amazement. “This is… OH! It’s so… aaahnn!”

As the water rolled down her throat, her body began to tremble. She clutched her gifts tightly so as not to drop them, but it was hard going.

Once, Rose had asked Dawn why she liked tea so much. It tasted awful to Rose’s palate, she preferred her drinks fruity and sweet. Dawn had gone into detail about the health benefits of tea, which Rose had then proceeded to tune out.

The one thing she remembered though, was Dawn talking about how tea can help flush out the body’s toxins and leave you feeling cleansed.

Well, that was exactly the sort of feeling running through Rose’s body right now. She had no idea if this was what Dawn had meant, but it certainly felt like something was cleansing her from the inside out, pushing through her veins like molten lead and burning away any impurities contaminating her.

It hurt… except when it didn’t. Instead if felt… pleasurable.

“My love told me about how you were having difficulty facing the maze, due to an early penalty the audience gave you,” Little Miss explained, enjoying herself quite a bit as she watched Rose writhe in near-orgasm on the cavern floor. “So here is my gift to you! That water is specially blessed to purge your body of any lingering traces of the siren’s scales. You’ll be able to orgasm normally from here on out! Isn’t that just wonderful?”

“Um, mistress?” Jess asked hesitantly. “Why is… she acting like that?”

Jess bit her lip, looking at Rose and almost feeling pity for her. Or was that envy? Maybe a bit of both. The other girl looked like she was experiencing utter bliss, but she didn’t seem all that happy about it.

“Ah, it’s a side-effect of the water,” Little Miss explained. “The water’s blessing is driving away the siren’s curse that’s kept her from orgasm all this time. So of course that would mean all the orgasms that have been suppressed would come flooding back into her like a tidal wave, don’t you see?” She giggled.

“Oh!” Jess’s face lit up. “Of course! You’re so clever, mistress!” She said, believing every word her beloved mistress said on face value.

Amelia was less convinced that this strange, powerful being couldn’t have purified Rose’s affliction without the humiliating orgasms. It seemed far more likely that the shopkeeper was getting a little bit of playful **** on the other girl.

…Well, no matter. So long as the end result benefitted Rose, that was fine in Amelia’s eyes.

“Haah… haa… that… that was…” Rose rose to her feet, shaking a little. Her eyes were glassy and her lips quivered. She was having a hard time focusing on the woman in front of her, as Little Miss looked back at her with an even stare.

“Are you feeling better now?” Little Miss asked, batting her eyelashes. “I’ve purged Serenity’s scales from your body.”

“I… I am… uh… am…” Rose looked down. The front of her leggings were completely soaked through from her multiple orgasms. She’d seen the map so many times it was practically emblazoned on her forehead! Everything had been purged from her body… from between her legs.

Yeah, that definitely wasn’t what Dawn meant when she was talking about her tea. No way.

“…Th-thank you,” Rose finally spat out, wiping her forehead with one of the few parts of her outfit that was still dry, her sleeve. She looked gratefully up at Little Miss. “I haven’t been able to do the challenge properly with that… so… th-thank you…”

She bit her lip. “Um… but do you think it would be possible that… I could have a change of clothes?” She asked hopefully.

Because of the enhancement to Rose’s figure from copying Dani’s Soft as Silk transformation earlier, her body now didn’t fit properly in her outfit. Her breasts were a little bigger, her butt was a little rounder, and her arms, legs, and waist were all a little thicker. If it wasn’t for the enhanced softness of her physique that accompanied the size change, her tight clothes would be constricting her airways right about now.

But getting soaked tipped the scales from “tolerable” to “uncomfortable” and she really didn’t like how she was feeling at the moment.

“Certainly, we can talk about that later,” Little Miss said, waving her hand. “Aren’t you going to finish your dessert? It’s impolite to discard a gift that’s been given out of friendship, you know. Then we can discuss your wardrobe.”

Rose glanced at the mochi she’d nearly crushed in her hand. She’d almost forgotten it in the haze of her orgasm.

“Yeah… r-right, sorry, I guess it slipped my mind,” she apologized, unwrapping the clear plastic. “Thank you.”

“Not at all, don’t mention it,” Little Miss chirped as Rose popped the mochi into her mouth and chewed slowly. The texture was unusual to her, but that was the last thing she noticed.

It was delicious! Just like the water, the mochi may have been the most delicious sweet Rose had ever eaten, she couldn’t believe it!

“W-wow!” Rose finished it off, practically licking her fingers clean. “That… that was-!”

“Rrriiiiiiiippp!”

With a gasp, Rose stiffened up straight. A loud ripping sound came from behind her and she turned around, trying to see what was going on, but couldn’t, of course. All she could feel was immense pressure bearing down on her backside, and a strange sense of freedom coming from the area near her butt.

And a breeze, almost like…

“My-my leggings!” Rose gasped as her expanded rear end tore her clothes apart like tissue paper. “You-! That… that mochi-!”

“It’s a peach mochi,” Little Miss said innocently. “Certainly there is no harm in eating a delicious peach mochi that would expand your backside, is there?”

“Mistress!” Jess blushed. Such a raunchy thing-!

“How… how is this a reward!?” Rose wailed, trying in vain to cover her rear end. Her face was hot with embarrassment. “I-! I’m-!”

Little Miss’s smiling face turned somber. “…I must apologize,” she said quietly, looking at Rose. “To tell you the truth… it was not my idea to feed that to you.”

Rose’s fury dissipated slightly. She was still annoyed, but now she looked at the other woman with an expression of curious understanding on her face.

“What… what do you mean?” Rose asked hesitantly.

Little Miss sighed. “To tell you the truth… I did not set out to fool you, Rose. Normally, I do not trick my customers. I give them precisely what they need, and what they ask for. However, the audience voted for you to receive a transformation, one that would enhance your rear end to match that of your companion over there.” She gestured over to Amelia.

Amelia’s face turned a light shade of pink even as her expression remained neutral.

Rose winced. “I… th-that…”

“Mistress…” Jess wasn’t sure how she should feel about this. While she was relieved that her mistress wasn’t doing such a wicked thing intentionally, she also felt uneasy and anxious that she was being pressured by the audience to betray one of the founding principles of her shop.

“Please forgive me,” Little Miss said, clasping her hands together. She looked sincere in her guilt, which tempered Rose’s heart even more. “I truly wish to make amends with you, Rose. So- with that in mind, I shall make you an offer.”

She stood up straight and held out her arms, gesturing across the bazaar.

“We have quite a selection of clothes for you to pick from,” she declared. “Please, choose whichever outfit you like! And of course, the same applies to you, as well,” Little Miss added, turning to Amelia. “Your clothes are in quite haggard condition as well, are they not?”

Amelia glanced down at her outfit and nodded. To call her current state of dress “haggard” would be putting it lightly.

“Indeed,” she said, pressing her lips together crisply.

Little Miss smiled, grateful that neither woman chose to hold a grudge. “Then consider this my gift to you both,” she said. “Whatever outfits you would like, they are yours!”

Rose and Amelia looked at each other. Rose wasn’t sure that would make up for her present condition… but it was a start, at least.

What kind of clothes will Rose get?

https://strawpoll.com/PbZqb8weGyN

What kind of clothes will Amelia get?

https://strawpoll.com/2ayLQeV7zn4

While Rose was being given her choice of clothes to choose from, and had received the good fortune of getting the aphrodisiacs purged from her system, there was someone who wasn’t as lucky.

“Hey!” Dani tried to shake Morgana awake. Pink steam was slowly filling the room, causing her body to heat up. “Morgana, hey! Wake up already!”

“Mmm… huh?” Morgana opened her eyes, looking warily up at Dani. “…D-Dani? What are you doing in my dream?” She mumbled.

“This isn’t a dream,” Dani said, helping Morgana to her feet. “Come on, we need to find our way out of here! The room is filling with aphrodisiac steam!”

Morgana still looked a little hazy. Her pale cheeks were flushed, though it was hard to make it out through the red light pervading the whole chamber.

“It… it is? Huh…” Morgana rubbed her eyes. “Is that why I feel so hot right now?” She asked.

Dani rolled her eyes. “Probably, yeah.” She was trying to be considerate of the other girl, she really was. Especially since Morgana had just passed out. But the only reason Dani was still here was because she was trying to help Morgana, so the least the other girl could do was listen!

“We need to get out of here,” Dani said, grabbing Morgana by the wrist and dragging her towards the exit. “Come on, let’s just hope there’s a way out of this room!”

The last thing Dani needed was to find herself trapped in the sauna with no means of escape. This was certainly the definition of a “hotbox” to say the least!

And needless to say, she wasn’t exactly appreciative of that sort of humor right now.

So as the room filled with thicker and thicker steam and Dani felt her body heat up, she maneuvered her way towards the door with Morgana in tow, hoping that she’d be able to get them free before the two girls were reduced to a state of orgasm that might just keep them incapacitated for the remainder of the challenge!

As appealing as that might have sounded, Dani actually wanted to win. So she grabbed the doorknob, and pulled with all her might.