A Different Kind of Bargain

Penny was having fun, despite herself.

She’d started off the day by chasing down a few rumors about the locations of some of the class trainers, after a tip from the bard’s guild hall the day before allowed her to realize that the classes which Lily had offered them weren’t the only ones to be found in Adventuria.

That had led to lunch back at the Long Rest while she hoped that Kevin would return so she could nudge the man for some helpful advice and tips, but the only one she’d encountered had been Stheno.

Until she’d been brought to Harem Hotel by Lily, Penny would’ve described herself as straight. It made the fact that she had enjoyed kissing the slender snake-woman all the more confusing, until she had realized that it was less the act of tasting the woman’s tongue itself which had excited her, and more the thrill of knowing that the entire common room of the tavern had stopped to watch the two women lose themselves in the other’s embrace.

Sadly, Stheno hadn’t had any information on Kevin’s location, so after pointing the gorgon towards one of Penny’s favorite foods as a lunch suggestion, the siren had taken off towards her next performance.

She had returned to the RoundHard headquarters for yet another recording session, after she’d discovered that they intended to pay her a full 100 GP for each of the previous two. They would’ve paid more, but thus far the bard hadn’t been willing to commit to more than a single recording session a day, as the other half was reserved for her continued exploration of the city.

But, in the meantime, she had combat dialog to record, a new tavern to check out, a rumor of an illusionist to track down.

And at some point she needed to find Kevin and let him know what Hazel was doing with those elves.

When Kevin and Elsie made their way back into the common room, he was fully prepared to face some recrimination and acrimony from Hwa. As much as it had been his intent to make sure that the Korean woman was taken care of after what must have been a mortifying ordeal for her, he had basically dumped her on Stheno and ducked off for a quick assignation with his eager little Fae companion at the first opportunity. She’d offered more, but in the end the knowledge that the kumiho was waiting on them weighed heavily enough on his mind that he had turned her down.

As the freshly washed pair made their way back through the portal, Kevin had his head held high and an apology ready on the tip of his slightly tired tongue. He was even prepared for the possibility that Hwa might have simply left—there were several hours left in the day before Lily’s curfew would **** the kumiho to join him in the master’s suite.

What Kevin was not prepared for was the sight of Hwa seated across from Stheno with a rack of barbecue ribs half-demolished on her plate and a small pile of bones beside it. The gorgon’s own pile had grown further in the hour of his absence, to the point where even when he accounted for the extra room she retained thanks to her presently serpentine form he wondered where she was keeping all the food she had eaten.

“Uhh… hi?”

Stheno managed to swallow her mouthful of food first. There was something serpentine in the motion she used to do so—something about the way her head tossed back a little as the morsel moved down her gullet—which threw Kevin’s already off-balance mindset further afield. Nevertheless, when the gorgon gestured at two of the available chairs at the table and invited, “Join us, my lord?,” he accepted.

“You know, it’s weird that no matter how crowded this place gets, there’s always at least one table big enough for all of us,” Kevin mused out loud without any real expectation of an answer.

Elsie showed no hesitation as she hopped up onto a seat and flagged down a barmaid. Sensate helped her adjust to circumstances far more quickly than normal, and the brownie had clearly wholly embraced the fantasy setting. The moment one of the staff—a dark-skinned halfling woman who more than filled out her uniform’s blouse—stopped to attend her, she rattled off, “Two dragonsdown ales, two plates of whatever these ladies are having, and a cherry sundae.”

She then turned to Kevin and commented, “I figure it’s like the background music. Us standing around waiting for a table to clear up doesn’t make for good entertainment. It’s just—a thing that Lily did to make sure we aren’t bogged down with the details. Same reason we aren’t paying for food, probably—it’s one thing to give us the occasional quest that forces us out into the world, but it’s not like she wants us to hold down a job as a day laborer. What’s sexy about that?”

By the time she finished, though, Hwa had set down her now empty rib, swallowed, and cleared her throat. “Kevin.”

The sound of his name on the kumiho’s lips caught Kevin off guard, and he turned towards her with a shocked look on his face. “I think that may be the first time you’ve called me by name.”

To Hwa’s credit, her expression remained remarkably placid, and she gave him a simple nod in response. “I have spoken with Stheno, and have come to a realization. I believe I owe you an—an apology.”

As Kevin did his best to keep his mouth closed, the Korean woman continued, “I should begin by thanking you. Despite my having remained distant for the last several days, you recognized not only that I was in danger, but did so in time to prevent me from coming to any lasting harm beyond what was done to my dignity.”

“I–”

Even as Kevin attempted to respond, Hwa spoke right over him, “Further, I have continued to regard you as a tool of my captor. Make no mistake, you are, but that is no more your fault than it was the fault of the pillory which held me. Instead–”

Hwa gestured with one hand—that Kevin couldn’t help but notice was still smeared with more than a little grease and barbecue sauce—towards Stheno, and continued, “–your devoted follower proposed that I recognize that who put you here is far less important to me than what you can do. As such, I would like to propose a new bargain. A better one.”

Kevin hesitated for a moment in case the fox spirit wasn’t finished. When no further words emerged, he nodded hesitantly. “I am not opposed to that. What did you have in mind?”

It isn’t fair.

The thought echoed through Tess’ head no matter how hard she tried to quash it. It had taken her a full day to adapt to her new senses, and they still drove her crazy sometimes.

Abby—dressed in a set of tight leather pants which hugged her slim figure and an long sleeved peasant blouse which exposed both her shoulders—was all but skipping down the street ahead of her without an apparent care in the world.

It’s like she was born for this world instead of ours.

Tess’ younger sister had always taken to their mother’s selkie ways more easily. She didn’t get along as well with the humans in the village, but apparently whatever reticence she had for socializing had vanished once she realized that the vast majority of people in Adventuria weren’t human.

The pair were on their way back from the fair grounds, having trekked there on the off-chance that there were still events available in which Tess could compete for a first prize win. Unfortunately, while the grounds themselves were still packed and offered a number of carnival games, the sporting competitions in which she’d dominated were done for the week. There was apparently going to be a new set of contests next week, but that wouldn’t help Tess win her 100 GP now.

That was disappointing, but not unexpected—Tess had known that money was probably out of reach even before they set off. What was maddening was how- how-

How easily Abby was taking the change. It was like she’d been waiting her whole life for the fantasy adventure to begin, and now that it finally had, the shackles had been cast off. Her younger sister’s face was alight with excitement as she peered through the window of a store which sold bolts of exotic cloth, and only the fact that they’d already spent most of their available time checking out the foods in the market a few streets back prevented her from ducking inside.

Instead, Abby danced back, a bright smile on her face as she looked up at her older sister. “Can we come back here tomorrow? I know you said you’re worried about getting the GP to pay for stuff, but I bet if we look around we can find some quests or jobs or something to pay for it. Right?”

“Yeah—we can figure something out. Unless I get another one of those random quests, I only got the one early on, so I’m probably due.”

“What happened then?” Abby sounded so eager, so thrilled. Granted, it was certainly easier for the younger selkie than it was for Tess—as far as either of them knew, the eighteen year old wasn’t expected to sleep with Kevin—but it still chafed at her older sibling how little concern her sister was showing for their situation.

“It was—what, day before yesterday? Stheno and I–”

“I still can’t believe that’s Stheno! In the flesh!”

“–Stheno and I were going to get new outfits. My old one didn’t exactly fit with my bigger form–”

“Do you think I’m going to learn to do that too? I’ve always wished I could change to more than one thing.”

_This is going to take forever.

_

“This is not how I expected this evening to go.”

“You seem to have many expectations, Mister Burgmeyer. Perhaps it is time for you to release them and focus instead on the reality with which you are faced.”

Kevin was naked. This, all by itself, would not have been enough to surprise him. Given what he understood about Harem Hotel’s history, he was going to be spending a lot of time naked—most of it in the presence of one or more beautiful women.

He was presently on his back, in the center of his bed. This, too would not have been much of a surprise—even when considered in the context of his aforementioned nudity. He had spent what must have been an hour naked on his back when Stheno had spent the night in his company. If he had died the following day, the memory of the Greek girl’s firm tits bouncing as she rode his dick would have been among the happiest in his life.

He had spent quite a bit of that hour with his hands on either Stheno’s breasts or her hips. He would not have been able to repeat that feat even were the gorgon present and inclined to take him for a ride, because his arms were affixed to a set of sturdy silver cuffs which held them above his head.

At that point in assessing his circumstances, surprise had begun to set in. For all that he knew several of his friends were into BDSM—the overlap between the kink community and the tabletop gaming community being as strong as it was—he had never really given it a try for himself. Part of that was due to a lack of willing partners, but much would have been more accurately ascribed to Kevin’s sexual horizons never having been particularly broad.

As far as first times to be chained to a bed by a woman went, this was promising to be a memorable occasion.

“I am going to begin the timer, Mister Burgmeyer. Do you remember your word of safety?”

Hwa had once more donned her corset and had—thanks to some swift running on Elsie’s part—sourced a clean pair of panties, but had foregone her skirt. The kumiho’s tails were on full display, nine white and fluffy clouds which waved lazily in the air behind her as she stood on her knees near the center of the master’s suite’s massive bed. The lights of the room had been dimmed, and the moonlight which poured through the windows illuminated the Korean woman’s pale skin in an unearthly glow that caused Kevin’s mouth to suddenly dry.

She was beautiful. Fiery and acerbic as Hwa could be, Kevin would never have dared deny her beauty. Her substantial breasts nearly spilled out of the corset, and the underwear the ever-helpful brownie had provided was a thin scrap of black silk which did nothing to conceal full pale thighs and only just covered her sex.

He had to swallow twice to muster up enough moisture to speak. “Tarrasque.”

“Very good, Mister Burgmeyer. Now, lift your head.”

Kevin hesitated for only a moment before he complied. He was almost entirely certain that Hwa wasn’t capable of actually physically harming him, but knowing that on a conscious level was one thing, believing it on a subconscious level was a different one entirely.

She had assured him that hurting him was not her intention, though, and Lily’s magic ensured that he could sense the truth of her words.

Darkness enveloped him as the surprisingly soft silk of a blindfold slipped over his head. Hwa’s touch was surprisingly delicate and deft as she settled it against his ears, though Kevin couldn’t be certain that the care was out of concern for him or due to a desire to ensure that the blindfold didn’t slip.

With the lights dimmed, he could sense only scraps of light which leaked beneath the edge of the cloth. Kevin could feel Hwa’s motion on the bed more than he could see it, and his tone was nervous as he asked, “Can you—tell me what you intend to do?”

There was a sufficiently long pause as Hwa considered the answer that Kevin wondered whether she intended to do so at all. Just as he was about to give up, the woman’s voice brushed against his ears, soft and controlled.

“I believe that I made myself clear earlier in the evening. You had me at your mercy, for an hour. In that time, you saw fit to explore and touch my body as you saw fit. I intend this to be a balancing of the scales. In the stocks, I could not see you—you are now blindfolded. My hands were bound, as yours are now. I was as naked before you as you are before me. My arousal was magically enforced by my restraints, but judging by the way your surprisingly well-developed erection is waving in the air between your legs, you require no such stimulation.”

“No, no, I get that, but—specifically, what are you going to do? I get–” Kevin swallowed. He wasn’t certain whether he should be afraid or aroused, and the lack of information and knowledge was driving him crazy before the kumiho so much as touched him. He could feel every eddy of wind that her motion stirred against his skin, and as time stretched on without her acting the anticipation only grew worse. “–I get your idea, I meant specifically, are you going to–”

“Mister Burgmeyer, what I do or do not do is not an item we discussed. We agreed that there would be no blood drawn, no physical harm done, and that neither of us would be **** to eat, drink, or breathe anything we did not desire. Beyond that, for the next hour, you are as much at my mercy as I was at yours.”

Something soft suddenly brushed against the underside of Kevin’s dick and it lurched in response. It was gone as swiftly as it had appeared, however, as Hwa added, “Perhaps I will do nothing. Perhaps I will ride you to my satisfaction. You would not object to that, would you?”

“To which?”

“Either.”

“I–” Kevin paused, then shook his head. “No.”

The thought of Hwa’s elegant and mature form atop his as she rode him caused Kevin’s cock to twitch once more, and the kumiho snorted softly. “No, of course you would not. My body is an object of desire to all who admire the female form, as it should be. Men have killed to lie between my thighs. Of course you desire to do the same.”

Once more, Kevin felt a soft brush along his cock. This one was slower, the contact longer, as something soft and fluffy dragged all too briefly across his incredibly sensitive skin.

“As I spoke with your pet serpent earlier, I came to a realization. By allowing Lily to **** me to care about her opinion of my actions, I had given the nightmare witch more power than she deserves. Succubi are insidious—their influence creeps in and expands to take all the space in your mind that it can, until you are little more than a living husk which pumps out or takes in seed. I have no intention of allowing myself to come to that end, so instead I have decided to take matters into my own hands.”

As she spoke the words, Kevin felt strong fingers wrap themselves around the length of his cock. Hwa’s touch was light, her fingers barely skimming along his skin as she began to stroke up and down his length. Then they were gone, and a groan escaped his lips. As swiftly as they were gone, though, his cock was enveloped in soft, fluffy, undulating fur that could only have been the kumiho’s tails.

The pressure they provided was enough to stimulate, to tease, but no more. “I think I will meditate for a time. Be a good boy and remain there. If I decide that I want more from you—well, you’ll find out, won’t you?”