I awaken to multiple little body things that call for my attention.

Firstly, I have to pee.

Secondly, My mouth and eyes and everything feel very very dry.

Thirdly, I am wrapped in way too many blankets and am overheating.

I sit up, rub my eyes, and open my mouth to sing a greeting to my tree and all the plants and bugs and little critters whom–

“Stop.” A voice purrs, jarring my everything to a sudden halt and nearly causing my first problem to become a fourth.

Pain, sharp and hard prickles against my core, but stops just before stabbing into my Amwella.

I open my eyes in a sudden panic.

I lay atop a pile of cushions on a soft bed, wrapped in vast colorful quilts that smell of spiced… somethings… and my own sweat. The room I’m in is really really big, bigger than my entire hut. Various furnishings of a variety of colors blur into focus.

But off to one side is a huge, beautiful, dark skinned woman dressed in a simple blue tunic and shawl hunched over a desk stacked with books and scrolls. Jade eyes meet mine, and everything from the previous day comes crashing down at once.

I’m so devoid of liquids that all that comes out is a quiet croak as I stare at her.

She nods to the side of the bed, to a nightstand with a waterskin resting atop it.

I have to crawl a few feet to be able to reach out and take it. I drink greedily to try and wash down some of my panic.

Once I'm done I cork it and cradle it to my chest.

Thendra still watches me, quirks an eyebrow in question.

“I… I need to pee.” I murmur.

She nods, then points a thumb to a doorway.

I set the waterskin aside and begin to push the blankets off and–

I just pause, staring down at my soft bare skin and subtle feminine curves.

“Why am I naked?” I whisper.

Thendra just chuckles and looks back down to… whatever it was she was working on.

I don’t see my clothes nearby. So I just sigh and wriggle free, cross the room and enter the bathroom. It’s… simple, but big. I spot a bath and find the thing I need. I try to not consider the events of the day as I relieve myself.

After a few moments I’m back in the main room. Quickly, but without making it obvious I’m rushing, I scurry back to the bed and cover myself in the large blankets.

Then I just sit there amidst the warmth, trying to not think too hard about how… well… how much I’m trapped. I want to sing. Want to hum little melodies and stories and feel my magic stir the air and life around me.

But even opening my mouth and urging my Amwella to gather causes the curse to prick at me.

I huff out a little annoyed sob as my Amwella falls back around my core. Wince as it sits like hot bile in my stomach and sours. I curl my knees up to my chest and pull the blankets tighter.

I don’t know how long she waits, but Thendra seems content to do… whatever it is she is doing. Doesn’t try to stop me from stewing at my situation.

The final events of… was that yesterday? Or longer?

“How long was I sleeping?” I break the silence.

She glances up, takes a second to study me, then replies. “Twelve hours or so.”

I nod, unsurprised. I’d done the same back when my mother cast me out. And even back when the humans who called themselves my parents had–

I shake the old memories away, Time to focus on the now.

I look back up to her. She’s moved without my noticing. Just like in my forest. Is now in front of that desk, leaning against it while staring at me.

“Do you need to sing?” She purrs.

Oh Dreamer’s Tits, yes. I want to. But… would that help? The thought of the sting at the end, of the pain of losing my songs to its bite…

I squeeze my eyes shut and shake my head, trying to stifle the panic that’s rising.

You can’t go back. This is your life now! You should just skip the panic and crying and sadness and jump right to the–

My thoughts stutter to a halt as I feel the bed shift under a new weight. I jerk my head and can’t help but fall back a little into the cushions as she looms over me.

Her… well everything washes over me. I realize the spicy smell of the bed is all her, that I am in her bed.

Oh.

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She doesn’t say anything at first, just pierces me with those Jade eyes.

My mouth moves before my mind can approve the question. “You… This is your bed. Where did you sleep last night?”

A tilt of her head, “You don’t recall?”

A short lived panic that has nothing to do with magical songs flashes in my mind. But Thendra shifts into a silent answer. She doesn’t pull the blankets aside, just moves to lay beside me. Curls her huge frame to cradle my tiny form. One hand moves around my head while the other wraps over me. Pulls me close. This bed is more than big enough for the both of us.

“Oh.”

A low Rumbling purr is her only reply.

Her warmth is… well combined with the quilts I can understand how I got so overheated. I'm starting to get a little hot now. But to fix that would either involve asking Thendra to leave, or kicking the blankets off and laying with her naked. I can’t help but squirm a little as I debate the two horrible choices.

Then her hand moves into my hair and… fuck. It’s a tangled mess but her giant hand is super gentle and she begins to run her fingers through it and along my scalp and…

The last time someone touched my hair like this was my Fae mother. She used to comb and brush my hair. Even before my change. It helped calm me, smooth out the wrinkles of my anxiety when I got the songs wrong. And during my change… as the twistings wracked my body and left me a blubbering mess of pain on her floor, she would hold me. Sing words of comfort while her hands ran through my hair.

I feel water gather, and I squeeze my eyes shut.

“Sing.” Thendra demands.

My mouth opens, and I obey. The song is a low hum. A simple morning’s greeting to all the life around me. I weave titters and melodies for birds and plants and trees and–

There is no answer here, no harmony sung back by a forest in reply. I choke out a sob, and mangle it into the tune. Let the song turn into one that bares my grief like a leaf holding rainwater. After a few moments the weight is too much. The song tilts and the burden is allowed to fall away. All that remains is the soft echoing fear of the unknown. Of being in the grasp of a monster who holds the magic of my soul in her hands.

As the song begins to fade from my lips I do look at her through blurry eyes, a question.

Stop?

In reply she moves one giant hand to my cheek, leans down, and…

I freeze in surprise and terror as she… she sort of wraps my mouth in hers and inhales the final notes of my song. Seems to consume the little dribbles of Amwella I laced it with. Then my song is gone, but her command still stands. I feel the curse begin to press into me, start to–

“Stop.” She murmurs into me.

The sting halts just before pain, and I gasp out in relief.

A pause, enough for me to suck in a few more gasping breaths. She doesn’t pull away, only moves to press her lips to mine. Begins to–

Oh… so I guess this is my first kiss?

The hand in my hair tightens and curls to grip it hard, while the other moves a thumb over my throat. Her warm breath fills me, and I can feel my heart speed up and a deep warmth roll down my spine like warm syrup. My body begs for me to just… melt into this. And the thoughts I’d usually rely on shutting that part of me down are very worryingly absent.

After a moment I manage to place a hand to her chest, push.

She pauses, but doesn’t pull away, just… shifts her mouth more to my jaw. I try to turn my head, try to get more space, but her hand in my hair holds me still.

“Space.” I whisper, “Personal space. Please.”

She purrs a… well It must have a question in there somewhere! Right? But it’s so much more. It’s also… a warning? A… Dreamer’s tits. This is harder to understand than that beautiful language she speaks!

“I… I need room to… to think. To–”

She adjusts, and I feel those teeth graze the skin of my neck. “You made a bargain, little Fae.”

That stops me short. “I… what? I don’t–”

I feel something warm and rough and a little damp begin to dance across my jawline. “Said you’d suffer whatever we willed, said you’d not resist me.”

Oh. A not very small part of me screams to just… stop pretending. Stop acting like you weren’t really really hoping Thendra would… well… want you. Like this.

I let out a frustrated huff, all horny energy and embarrassment and panic. “I was expecting death or torture! Not… not this!”

A low rumble. Probably meaning something like; If you didn’t want this you should have stayed hidden in your tree.

I pull my hands up to cover my eyes. It’s all too much. I’m too fucking emotionally ravaged and raw to be… like… actually getting ravaged by a giant monster lady.

But it’s too late for that now, isn’t it?

Then she’s back over my face. I peek at her between my hands.

I… I’m not sure what she means to say in that stare. But what I hear growling down through it is; Stop pretending you have a choice in these things.

I let my hands fall away to the pillows and cushions. And after a deep breath I let myself accept that. Begin to embrace it even.

“Okay.” I breathe up to her.

A quirk at her lips, then she’s farther down… teeth press just a little too hard into my collarbone where the curse sits. It won’t affect it, but her teeth are sharp and I’m almost certain she’s going to draw blood.

I twitch, let out a little yelp ,and can’t stop myself from pressing my legs together against the growing warmth.

Then she’s pushing the quilts away, and her free hand moves to the soft skin of my hip. Teeth are at my breasts and–

There is a call, quick and beautiful and loud.

Thendra growls. All annoyance and anger. So clear in her unhappiness that I can’t help but twitch in fear at it.

Then I realize we’re not alone. Someone stands in the doorway, I am just able to peek around Thendra’s mass to see one of the women from her group. She was the one with the big bow, although she isn’t carrying it now.

Thendra doesn’t turn, only pulls away from me by a few inches. Growls a reply.

There is an exchange. So fluid and soft and absolutely dripping with anger from Thendra that I can’t help but wince a few times. Then she huffs out a sigh, and turns to glare at the women. Bow woman quirks a knowing smile, and begins to turn. Thendra calls to her again, murmurs something. The woman’s eyes flit to me, and her smile sours. A short reply, then she is gone.

Thendra turns back to me, anger melted into a cold focus. Eyes move up and down my naked upper body. Considering something...

“Get dressed.” Then she is off me, off the bed, moving toward the doorway. “Then come with me.”

“Wha… what?” I blubber, still trying to catch up with this sudden change.

She barely pauses, looks back at me, then motions to one corner of the bed.

I try to keep the quilts to my chest as I crawl over to the spot.

Sitting there is a single very thin black underthing, and a blue shawl. I slip them on under the quilts and glance about for… well more clothes. shorts or… something. This shawl reveals all of my stomach and with one wrong turn anyone could get a great view of my breasts. And the underthing… well… it covers the basics, but not much else.

“Um…” I look up to her. “Is there more?”

I was used to sparse clothing, both before and after my exile. Fae clothing was all personal expression tempered by utility. But this… just these… I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it could be–

Thendra raises an eyebrow. A silent; Would you rather be naked again?

I huff, “No. Of course not.”

And I slide out from the quilts and down onto the warm tiled floor. Thendra is already out the door and I nearly stumble trying to catch up with her long strides.

We’re moving down a long hallway. Walls of jade and more of that black brimstone tower on both sides.

“Where are we going?”

She… well her face is the most unreadable as I’ve ever seen. Jade eyes focused and calculating.

“Do not speak unless directly asked something.” She commands, “And even then, look to me before you reply.”

Her eyes only dart to me for the second it takes me to nod.

“Will–”

“Start now.” She snaps.

I almost trip, but manage to recover and catch back up to her. After descending down a set of stairs that hold an open window to the city beyond, we turn a corner and enter a… Well, I think it’s some kind of special big room.

There are large fluffy chair things with little tables between them that seem to hold drinks and other small food trays. That… makes me realize I have not eaten in like… probably almost fifteen hours. I’m about to forget Thendra’s command and ask if I can have some when I notice that the rest of her women seem to be gathered here. But none of them are sitting. They are staring across the room at a second, smaller pair.

Two women, both taller than me but not at Thendra’s height stand waiting patiently before a set of large wooden doors. The smaller has pale green skin with warping and winding dark black tattoos curling all across her body that hurt my eyes to stare at too long, and her eyes are twin black orbs that seem to take in everything and nothing. She’s wearing a gown of deep purple that pulls tightly against her while also having a slit to one side to allow a long thin leg to escape.

The taller one stands just under Thendra’s height. She has completely unblemished deep red skin and wears close fitting black chitin armor with a single thin blade holstered at one hip. Her eyes actually have pupils, and glistening blue iris that glow with–

Her dark lips part into a grin with perfect white teeth as Thendra enters the room.

Then I notice that they have no hair as two manes of… well at first I think they are snakes as they curl up and around to observe Thendra’s entrance. But each is tipped with one single eye that matches the pair on their women’s faces.

“Thendra!” The tallest coos out, “I heard words of your return and wanted to come congratulate you! Maybe share drinks and–”

Thendra growls. “Deliver your Matron's message and leave.”