Stuck in a maze, everything's okay but it's not really okay

“Interesting decision…” Mr. S stroked his chin thoughtfully, looking at Dakota with those unreadable eyes of his. “So you decided to split up the whole group, then. Send everyone in different directions? That’s certainly a choice.”

“Actually, after your tricks, it wasn’t much of a choice at all,” Dakota calmly replied. She didn’t want to lose her temper because she knew what would happen if she did. And making Mr. S upset was definitely not something she wanted to risk. “I needed to do something to refresh the situation. And this proved to be the perfect method.”

Mr. S nodded again. “I can see that. Well… here’s hoping things work out for you. And the girls as well, of course.”

It wasn’t clear which one of those was a bigger priority for him. Dakota grimaced, but managed to maintain her composure all the same.

“What do you think, Nick?” Mr. S asked suddenly, turning to Nick. He jumped in surprise, not sure how to respond.

“Wh-what?” He asked, looking warily at the producer.

“Dakota’s decision here,” Mr. S clarified, looking at Nick with a stare that seemed to drill right through his chest. “Do you trust her instincts? Her judgment? As the master of the harem, what is your opinion on the competence of your host?”

Nick honestly had no idea how to respond to that. He stared at the producer like a deer caught in the headlights, and tried very hard not to feel the pressure from Dakota’s gaze bearing down on him.

How had he ended up in this situation?

“Man…” Kim let out a long sigh as she looked up at the massive tree standing up in the center of the chamber, and the wall of roots formed around it. It looked completely impenetrable. “I guess we’re split up from the rest of them, huh?”

She turned to the person she was talking to, who unfortunately was not able to respond back. Not with words, anyway.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin batted her eyelashes and flashed a wide smile. She sauntered over to Kim and hugged her tightly, determined to comfort the other girl.

“Thanks,” Kim said, allowing the hug. It was the least she could do. “If it wasn’t for you pushing me over here, who knows what might have happened?”

While Kim knew that it was unlikely her life would be in danger, she still appreciated the gesture from the other woman. If Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin hadn’t grabbed her like that, she might have ended up all on her own, and that certainly wouldn’t have been good.

So for right now, she needed to focus on getting through the maze. Only one problem with that, though- the last time Kim had tried to navigate through this place, she had gotten lost, and wound up in a box. And that hadn’t been a fun time.

No, they needed a map if they wanted to get out of here. Which of course only meant one thing…

Kim turned to Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin. “We need to find our way out of this room,” she said, bluntly stating the obvious.

Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin nodded cheerfully. It looked like they were both on the same page as to what needed to be done.

Kim smiled. Good. That would make things easy.

Who will orgasm to get a look at the map?

https://strawpoll.com/poy9kLGDPgJ

Dawn had made a pretty good go of it alone. But she had to acknowledge that it was slow work.

Particularly due to the fact that after the last massive shift, she needed to refresh her insight into the maze. And to do that, she had to play with herself.

That part wasn’t so bad, even if it was annoying. But it took longer than she would have liked, even with her tail- that helped, but it embarrassed her.

And there was something else nagging away in the back of her mind as well. Something she wasn’t thrilled about.

Those transformations I have stored up… Dakota clearly expects me to use them at some point, she thought, biting her lip. Dawn was a very fastidious person at heart. She didn’t waste her money on extravagances, she meticulously saved it up, because that’s what you were supposed to do! She focused on doing her best and putting in the effort. When she got something valuable, she saved it. She probably still even had some of her childhood birthday money kicking around in her bank account- that was just the kind of person she was. It had allowed her to live quite a comfortable life up until this point on her veterinarian salary.

So she was saving the transformations for a rainy day. Just in case. Even though today would be the last day she would have the chance to use them.

If Dakota had wanted to see someone blow through the transformations, she should have given them to someone else. That just wasn’t Dawn’s style.

But there was also that nagging feeling that if she didn’t use them, then Dakota might just keep yanking her around on a chain.

Dawn turned a corner, following the path she’d traced out from the last time she’d checked her map. No telling if it was still accurate or not, but until she saw something that contradicted it, she would assume that everything was still the same.

She paused when she found herself at a wide chamber. This wasn’t where she was supposed to end up. Dakota was likely playing around with her again…

From the look of the chamber it was somewhat rounded, almost circular. But it was hard to tell with how rough the walls were. More noticeably, the bottom of the chamber was covered in water. Dawn squinted and crouched down, trying to get a closer look. To her relief, she saw that it wasn’t a pool or anything like that- the water was shallow, basically a puddle. It would be easier to refer to it as simply wet ground.

But she knew that nothing was ever that simple. There didn’t “just so happen” to be a chamber with a pool of water in it. No, if there was a room like this it was because Dakota had put it here, which meant it was a puzzle.

Well, Dawn was good with puzzles, so she could handle it. She hadn’t had the opportunity to flex those muscles much in this challenge yet, but she was confident.

Now she just had to figure out what was going on here.

The first thing Dawn suspected was that the water itself was an aphrodisiac. It wouldn’t be the first time Dakota pulled a trick like that. But how to tell? Well- there was a simple method of doing so, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to just stick her hand in there quite yet.

Her next thought was that there was some creature lurking beneath the water that would try to **** her. That would likely go over well with the audience, but Dawn doubted Dakota would be that aggressive, given how Nick might respond.

So, aphrodisiac? Well, it was worth a shot. If she was right, and it was, then all that would happen would be that she got a little horny. Which was, frankly, fine. The hornier she got, the easier it would be to call up the map.

Dawn reached down to touch the water, but stopped just short of doing so.

Wait… no. This is too easy. After all, the water is shallow. I can walk through it without even touching with my bare skin.

Something wasn’t right here. If Dakota had intended to implement aphrodisiacs in the water, then she would want them delivered in a way that couldn’t be avoided. So something else had to be going on here.

…Either way, though, touching the water shouldn’t cause any issues.

Dawn placed her hand in the water, and the second she did, she pulled it back with a squeal of utter surprise.

The water had changed color! Before, it had just been regular clear water as far as she could tell, but upon touching it, the surface had shifted and now the water was bright pink.

Hesitating, she decided to experiment, and touched the water again. It changed color once more, turning from pink to yellow.

Gross.

Swallowing down her feeling of revulsion, Dawn touched the water again, and this time it became a bright green. She paused, and decided that was probably good enough. Standing up, taking stock of how she felt and coming to the conclusion that she wasn’t impaired, as far as she could see, Dawn set forth, stepping into the water.

As soon as her foot made contact, it changed color again. It was red this time.

Okay. Dawn probably should have predicted that. But what was she supposed to do now?

As Dawn kept walking, she noted that the water wasn’t changing colors. It remained red. Probably because she kept making contact with it. Which triggered another thought in her head. Deciding to test again, she hopped up into the air, taking both feet out of the water this time.

When she touched back down with a splash, the puddle turned bright blue. Not the blue of regular water, but pastel blue.

Weird.

“Why does it matter that the water changes color?” Dawn wondered aloud. “What does that even mean?”

Before she could figure out the answer to that question, something shot up out of the puddle and wrapped around her ankle. She seized up with terror and let out a shriek, turning stiff as a board. She nearly fell over then and there.

Her eyes shot down to the water, which again, she thought had just been a puddle. And then she saw Serenity’s head slowly rise up from beneath the surface, the water clinging to her glowing skin like blue slime.

Her lips pressed into a gleeful smile, and Dawn felt her ears and tail stand on end.

“So it looks like I’m stuck with you, huh?” Holly scratched her cheek and played with her ponytail awkwardly. It was kind of a strange situation for her. “I guess that can work?”

She trailed behind Gina, not sure what she was supposed to be doing. Ever since the incident with Lynette had been resolved, Holly’s presence in the maze had felt superfluous. But the fact was, she was here now, and what she did from here on out would definitely have lasting ramifications on everybody present.

Or in this case, on Gina.

“I think it’s great!” Gina chirped. “You and I don’t get to hang out all that much one on one, you know?” She patted the ponytailed girl on the back.

“Yeah, I guess not,” Holly mumbled, shaking her head. There wasn’t really a reason for it. It wasn’t like Holly felt intimidated by the other girl or anything.

…Well, maybe a little.

“I’m here to support you,” Holly pointed out. “So… I’ll do that the best I can, I guess.”

“Oh, don’t feel like you have to do anything!” Gina assured her, shaking her head. “After all, you’re not my **** or anything. I wouldn’t even know what to do with one of those!” She giggled.

Holly almost laughed. “I’m sure you could think of something,” she joked, knowing how dirty Gina’s mind was, especially when it came to stuff like that. Even if the other girl was also a sub.

More importantly…

“I think you and I do have some issues that need resolving, though,” Gina said, causing Holly to perk up in surprise.

“You… you do?” She asked timidly. The way Gina was looking at her, it was rather serious.

A tingle went down her spine.

Should Holly be submissive to Gina?

https://strawpoll.com/PbZqb80xWyN

“Hey, it’s not anything serious, don’t worry!” Gina assured the other girl with a quick shake of her head. “I just… wanted to talk to you about something, now that we have the chance.”

Holly bit her lip. Uncertainty gnawed hard at her breast and she waited apprehensively for the other girl to share her feelings.

“Okay… what is it?” She asked timidly.

Gina looked at Holly with a somber expression. “Holly… how are you able to do it?”

…

“…Huh?” Holly blinked, confused by the question.

“You know…” Gina gestured at her. “How are you able to balance things? I mean… you’re so focused and all-in on being Nick’s sex ****, and that’s honestly pretty hot, and respectable, but… I mean…”

Gina just didn’t know how to balance that herself.

“…You also want more than that, right?” She asked quietly. “Because you really love him… so how are you able to measure that balance?”

Holly stared at Gina in shock. She honestly had no idea how to answer that question.

Rose and Amelia were doing a pretty good job of navigating the maze. At least, that’s what Rose felt, anyway.

It would have been easier if she had a map, though.

“I-I’m sorry,” Rose said bashfully, unusually timid around the older woman. “This is all my fault…”

“What is?” Amelia turned to look at her with a curious expression on her face.

Rose’s blush deepened.

“W-well… everything!” She said. “The-the fact that I… the fact that I can’t help you the way I should be, that… that’s-!”

That was what had Rose the most frustrated and embarrassed, for the other woman’s sake. She should have been taking the lead and guiding them, but for obvious reasons, that simply wasn’t possible for her.

“Are you talking about the map?” Amelia adjusted her glasses. Her own complexion was rather flushed as well. “That… is not something you need to concern yourself with,” she told the other woman, shaking her head crisply. “It is an inconvenience, yes… but beyond that, nothing further needs to be said.”

Because Rose was still under the effect of Serenity’s scales, she wasn’t able to orgasm. So for the purpose of navigation, that put everything squarely on Amelia’s shoulders to handle.

The teacher wasn’t thrilled about it, for obvious reasons. But as the older of the two, it was her responsibility to set a good example for Rose, so that was precisely what she set out to do.

She just hoped that it wouldn’t prove too embarrassing for her. She found that she had far more shame than she imagined, especially due to her state of dress and her enhanced assets.

The fact that Rose was profusely apologizing all the time didn’t help matters either. Amelia wished there was something she could say to set the other woman’s mind at ease, but she found that it was a futile endeavor.

“Rose.”

Amelia looked directly into the flustered woman’s eyes and extended her hand, taking Rose’s hand in hers. She looked deeply into the other woman’s eyes.

“You have nothing to be concerned about,” she said, putting as much sincerity into her words as she could. “I understand your concern for my sake. I appreciate it deeply. But you should save that concern for yourself, alright?”

She embraced Rose in a tight hug that made the other blonde turn bright red.

“I-uh-o-okay,” Rose stammered out, nodding rapidly. She was stiff as a board.

“Now then, we must go,” Amelia said, letting Rose go. “We have a significant amount of maze left to traverse.”

Amelia wanted to cover as much ground as she could before the layout of the labyrinth changed once again. That was one of the more aggravating aspects of this whole charade, the fact that she could not adequately prepare for the way that the maze seemed to turn things around all the time.

But as the two of them proceeded down the corridor, Amelia found herself coming to a halt.

She frowned, and furrowed her brow with uncertainty.

Rose almost bumped into her protruding ass.

“Ah! A-Amelia, is everything alright?” She asked hesitantly, looking at the other woman with doubt in her eyes.

Amelia’s frown deepened. “…I am not certain,” she answered honestly. “According to the map, the correct path is to continue down this corridor,” she said, gesturing to the long hallway stretching out ahead of them. “However…”

Amelia turned her gaze to the stone wall. There stood a door, carefully carved and sculpted in such a way as to be easily missed, but if one took stock of their surroundings the way Amelia so diligently did, they would be able to see it.

She was not sure what to make of that. It wasn’t on the map. Which meant that the layout of the maze had changed again.

“Perhaps we should… take another look,” Amelia said warily, reaching down towards her torn skirt again. She didn’t take pleasure in doing this (well, she did, but…) but if it was necessary…

“Wait, hold on a sec,” Rose interjected, stopping Amelia before she did anything drastic. “Let’s take a moment and think, okay?”

Amelia looked curiously at the other woman.

“It won’t hurt if we just take a peek, right?” Rose pointed out. She just didn’t want Amelia to **** herself to do something she didn’t want to. If Rose could be of ANY help, then she wanted to! That was the kind of woman she was, after all.

Amelia paused and considered this, before nodding. “Yes… perhaps you are correct,” she conceded. There was no telling what could be past that door. “But we should be vigilant.”

Rose pushed the door open and the two women stepped inside.

What they saw was certainly not what they were expecting.

“Welcome!” The pink-haired girl standing in the center of the room squealed, a cheerful expression flushing across her face. She was dressed up in sexy garments, with goods lined up all around her. “Welcome to Little Miss’s Secret Bazaar!”

Rose and Amelia glanced at each other. Neither woman knew how to respond to that. But then Rose realized that she recognized that name.

“Wait, Little Miss…” Rose’s eyes widened. “Then, does that mean that you’re Jess’s…?”

“Her mistress?” Little Miss’s eyes twinkled with a glint of something that suddenly made Rose no longer feel safe. “Why yes I am,” she chirped. “And I really must thank you for taking such great care of her the way you did.”

Rose gulped.