The look Maria gave me was one that could scald the bark off a willow tree, the moment I stepped through the portal and back into my room. "Where have you been? Why has your walkie-talkie been turned off. Why's Vicky in shackles? Where'd they come from? Who's this girl? Why's she naked? What took so long? Are you okay? Why aren't you answering me?"
It was one endless question after another! Finally, I had to reach and put my hands over her mouth and audibly "HUSH" her, before Maria called down enough so I could get a word in edgewise. Closing the portal behind us, I handed her the key for Vicky's shackles, as I sat down in the closet and began to strip out of my clothes. Wide-eyed at her new surroundings, Snow eased herself back into one of the corners of the room and squatted down nervously.
"I'm fine. We're fine," I assured Maria once we were all naked. "This is Snow, and she's going to be staying with us now."
"Snow?" Maria asked, cocking an eyebrow questioningly at me.
"It's a long story for a short trip," I sighed, utterly exhausted. Honestly, I didn't realize how exhausted I was, until I got back home safe and sound. Between the heat, the humidity, the uncertainty of being in an Otherworld, and the foreignness of all the races, slaves, and shinta bullshit, I was literally wiped out. "Vicky, go fix us all a nice bath if you will."
"Certainly, Master!" Just as chipper as always, it didn't seem like strutting around a foreign land like a death-row inmate all chained up bothered Vicky in the slightest.
"Let's see… Where should I start?" I asked Maria, as soon as Vicky was gone from the room.
"From the beginning of course," Maria snorted impatiently.
"Snow, come," I ordered her, moving out of Maria's closet just far enough to flop on her bed. After a brief pause, Maria and Snow both followed, with Maria flopping down in the chair in her desk and Snow gingerly crawling across my fat body to squirm uncomfortably in the bed beside me. "You okay?" I asked her gently.
"Horny," she whispered back softly. "Great-father dosed me heavily back in his shop. It's going to be hard for me to adjust," she whined lightly.
"What language is that? I don't recognize it at all," Maria asked, frowning heavily.
"No idea," I told her, shrugging lightly. "If you'll grab my pack out of the closet, there's a set of earrings in the side pocket that's been magicked to allow the wearer to understand any language."
"Really?" Bouncing up, Maria quickly rushed back into the closet and dragged our travel pack back out.
"Supposedly," I answered. "If I didn't get scammed. For whatever reason – probably something to do with the wish I made – I can both speak and understand the language perfectly. Hell, it even sounds like respectable American English to me!"
"Have her say something," Maria chuckled excitedly, dangling both earrings from her ears.
"Keep in mind," I warned Maria, "she won't be able to understand you. You'll just be able to understand her."
"Got it," Maria confirmed excitedly.
"Snow," I asked gently, "why'd your great-father, as you called him, trade you and dose you as heavily as he did?"
"Oh! It's not because I did anything wrong," Snow explained worriedly, apparently concerned that I was doubting her worth. "He sold me to stop me from learning," she explained angrily, "and he dosed me to make it hard for me to concentrate to use what I've learned already."
"I'm a woman," she explained calmly, seeing my face wrinkle in confusion. "Great-father was waiting to marry me off to someone to form a strong business connection, but then he got wrapped up in his research and forgot. I passed the age of most contracts and came home thinking I was free of such worries, and I devoted myself in studying the family business, hoping I could help with it in a few years."
"When great-father found out," Snow explained sadly, "he blew his top and had me locked in my room. That was two moonings ago, and now he's sold me to a farwalker so that even if I do learn to concentrate enough to use alchemy, it won't be in a land where I'll be competing with his male heirs for business."
"NUHHHNNN…" Groaning heavily, Snow squirmed hard back and forth. Bringing her knees up towards her chin, she slowly reached down and began to softly rub between her legs in an attempt to ease the painful throbbing that was assailing her virgin neither-regions.
"I understood her," Maria breathlessly whispered, completely awestruck. "And that's damn awful! Sold by her family just so she can't compete with them for business? And what's she mean about being dosed?"
"Umm… Lifetime dose of super Viagra," I explained, thumbing a finger towards Snow, who was vigorously playing with herself now. "Apparently the Other World thinks the difference between man and beast is as simple as the ability to control one's sexual urges, though I don't know why," I admitted lamely.
"But, since they don't view slaves as people anymore," I could only shrug at my ignorance on the subject, "they do something to them to basically keep them eternally horny and ready for bouncing. And, apparently, Snow got a double-dose."
"A jar full," Snow corrected, groaning piteously. "It's normally enough for at least a dozen slaves," she gasped breathlessly.
"Holy shit, that sounds bad," Maria muttered, staring at Snow wide-eyed. "We've got to get her an antidote for that shit soon!" It's rare for Maria to cuss often, but I agree completely with her sentiment!
"No… No… OHHHHH… There's nooo antidote," Snow moaned, having trouble getting the words out.
That dirty old bastard old man!! He cheated the hell out of me! Traded me a problem he was having, and he made certain it couldn't do anything but moan continuously, worthlessly! I wanted a slave I could question and learn about the world from – not some mindlessly horny bimbo beauty!
How the hell am I supposed to learn anything decent out of her when she's like this?!
"Snow, go back in the closet," I commanded, utterly disgusted. "Me and my Nister have a lot of things to discuss, and it's going to be hard to talk over your moaning and groaning."
"Sorry, Master." Forcing herself to stop masterbating, Snow squirmed her way back across my body. Crawling down into the floor, she somehow managed to clench her legs together long enough to make it into the closet before she started back up heavily on herself once again.
Easing up, I shut the door behind her, leaving her alone and undisturbed in the dark. Out of sight and out of mind. Sometimes a soundproof house is useful for a few things.
"Bath's ready!" Bouncing brightly into the room, Vicky interrupted whatever Maria was going to say, before she could say it.
"Then let's go," I told them both, leading the way out of the room and down into the luxury of a nice bath.
*************************************************************
"Well, I guess I can somewhat see the connection between sex and humanity," Maria sighed deeply, after listening to me talk about the other world for a good half hour in the bath. "After all," she reasoned, "what's the difference between the races you saw in the city, and the races that are considered monsters outside?"
"I dunno," I shrugged, honestly not caring as I soaked in the cool water and embraced Vicky's soft body in my arms.
"Sex is a big part of it," Maria chuckled lightly. "Think about it. What are orcs, goblins, and such beasts infamous for?"
"Murderizing people?" I haphazard to guess.
"Raping and pillaging," Maria snorted. "Don't you ever read *anything*?" She asked me sarcastically. "Besides porn," she added, before I could speak up.
"From all the fantasy stories I've ever read," Maria explained patiently, "orcs and goblins and other such foul creatures rape and breed with all the other races, in an attempt to either grow stronger, or just to slate their insatiable lust. Compare that to the beast-men and other races which live alongside people, and you can see an obvious difference between them."
"I just can't figure why they'd sexualize slaves so much though," Maria sighed exasperated. "It doesn't make sense to me at all."
"They dehumanize them to control them," Vicky answered her, surprisingly. "You'd have to walk the city and see the sheer number of slaves for it to make sense. Even a lot of the free people are roaming around naked and starving," Vicky told her sadly. "If the slaves were to rise up in revolt, I doubt the normal people could do much to stop them -- so the slaves are pushed down heavily to keep them in line and to let the free people have someone they can feel superior over."
"And what's the deal with the ones like they thought Vicky was?" Maria asked, heavily in thought. "The sinta, I think you called it?"
"Shinta," I corrected chuckling, it isn't that often when Maria is wrong about anything, so I have to savor the moments when I can."
"From what I've sorted out," I shrugged uncertainly, "using all my game logic from years of nerdingness, the best I can come up with seems to be a wizards verses priests theme. Priests get magic from divine miracles gifted by the gods, while wizards seem to work the natural magic in the world. Since nobody is actually controlling those wizards, they're all *shinta* – corrupted priests."
"They're massively shackled and treated ever lower than slaves or beasts in town," I told Maria, "but you can undo them in the wilds and in dungeons. Apparently, they're just much too useful and too powerful to just dispose of. So they're beat down, turned into less than slaves, and ultimately dominated until they can prove useful."
"Don't worry," Vicky giggled lightly, taunting Maria teasingly. "You'll get to experience a lot of it on your own, no matter what. At best," she snickered, "you'll end up a slave there. It's only the slaves that have their hair removed to make them stand out," Vicky pointed out taunting Maria. "And apparently, if you want to learn magic – which you've already said you do repeatedly – then you're going to end up a *shinta* instead."
"Then I guess I'll just end up a shinta," Maria snorted, completely dismissing any doubt on the subject.
"You'd end up even less than the beasts in the city," I warned her, completely not being able to see Maria in that light.
"You might end up having to sprawl out and even pleasure some stray mutt," Vicky taunted, making me wonder where the hell she got that idea from. Did she see something in some alleyway or somewhere that I overlooked?
"Not a big deal," Maria shrugged it off completely. "I'll just close my eyes and the problem will go away," Maria snorted arrogantly. "It's not like I'd notice anyway. I'd just look up every so often to see if it's left yet. The real question is, what are *you* going to do when that happens?" Laughing lightly, Maria smirked back over at Vicky evilly, reminding her she was in the same boat.
"I'd enjoy myself," Vicky giggled shamelessly. "The only way I'd end up like that is if my Master desired it, and I'd be happy to put on the best show I could for him!"
"Slut," Maria snorted derisively.
All I could do is sigh sadly. All the women around me are broken badly. Good luck fucking them up, Other World! They're already fucked up beyond repair!
"And just what are we going to do with Miss Super-Sexed who's currently moaning up a storm in the closet?" I asked, trying to draw everyone's attention back to her and away from arguing with each other.
"Sell her before she humps herself to death," Maria advised, obviously not caring about the girl. "If we could fix her, I'd love to pick her brain on alchemy and other subjects, but she's been Alcheagraed to the point of stupidity."
"Alche-what-ed?" I had no idea what the hell she was talking about.
"Alchemy plus Viagra," Maria chuckled. "Alche-agra! She's been Alche-agraed to the point of stupidity."
"Life Lusted," Maria giggled. "It just sounds better. Or, in her case, Ultra Life Lusted!"
"Life Lusted… I like that term," Maria agreed amiably. "Let's use it. Snow has been Ultra Life Lusted to the point of stupidity. You should sell, or trade, her before she humps herself to death."
"Or pay a Priest or a Shinta to fix her," Vicky suggested. "We can go back into the city tomorrow and trade some stuff for money, and then find one of those people with magic and have them fix her. Tell them she was accidentally overdosed or something, and let them wiggle their fingers to make her like all the other slaves. They might stay horny, but at least the others seem to stay functional for more than just mindless moaning."
"That sounds good," Maria agreed readily. Only change is, I want to go tomorrow, instead of Vicky. You can have me appraised like you did her, so I'll know if I can learn magic, or not."
"No! I'm going with Master," Vicky instantly denied the idea.
"Maria can come with me tomorrow," I told them both decisively, before they could start fighting. "She'll play the role of a slave, and we'll skip the appraisal for now."
"But…" Maria interrupted.
"No buts." I cut her off strongly before she could finish her objection. "It's going to be a hard enough pain-in-my-ass to have to drag moaning Miss moan-face around the forest and city. Do you think I could manage her alone, with your arms shackled behind your back and your feet cuffed?"
"The reason I'm taking *you*," I pointed out to the both, "is because you can help me and Vicky can't, due to the extreme measures taken to limit the shinta in town."
"Besides," I sighed slightly, reminding Maria, "just cause you've been appraised as having an ability to use magic, that doesn't mean squat until we actually uncover a means to actually learn it as well. It's like saying as humans we have the potential to be able to walk on the moon, yet only a handful of humanity has ever actually did it!"
"Fine." Maria finally agreed though she didn't like it, while Vicky simply pouted silently. WHY the hell Vicky would ever want to go back after spending a whole day with her arms chained behind her back and her whole body in chains and shackles is completely beyond me, but, sure enough, she was pouting over having to stay home.
Which leads me to reaffirm a conclusion which I've came to multiple times in my life -- **WOMEN ARE FUCKING WEIRD!!**
Finally getting out of the bath, we enjoyed a nice meal and then I went on to bed to rest up. The girls might have limitless energy, but I sure as hell don't. The heat and pressure and nerves all kicked my ass today. It's absolutely astonishing to think that *only* a single daylight period – not even a single real day yet!! – has passed with everything that's happened since this morning!
Sleeping soundly, I left it to the girls to deal with Moaning McMoanface, and to sort out whatever they thought we might be able to sell and trade for a profit tomorrow.