The creature tilted its head, its golden eyes shining as it regarded her. Then, in a swift motion, it leaped up and vanished into the distance.
Well, that was unexpected, to say the least. Min blinked, sniffled, and surveyed her surroundings once more. To her left, the crevice extended into darkness; to her right, she spotted sunlight streaming in, beckoning her forward. She was battered and bleeding from numerous small cuts, and her injured shoulder throbbed relentlessly. She took a moment to examine it, though she immediately regretted it—the sight of her torn skin only intensified the pain, causing her knees to weaken. She had to take a deep breath, close her eyes, and regain her composure, or she risked losing consciousness. Min needed to find her mother. Erden would be able to heal her. Erden would know what to do.
There was a rustling sound up ahead, muffled by the echoes of the ravine's earthen walls. Opening her eyes again, Min gazed towards the beckoning sunlight and the promise of freedom. A figure she didn't recognize stood in the opening—a looming and foreboding presence. It stood on two legs, possessed a broad chest, and had thick arms that extended into long, clawed fingers. Min had never encountered another person besides her mother, and the sight of this unfamiliar figure filled her with terror. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to run.
Without a moment's hesitation, Min turned on her heel and sprinted back into the darkness of the tunnel. She could hear her own panting, feel the waves of fear emanating from her like a foul odor, and the burning pain in her shoulder persisted, but she had to keep running. She had to escape, no matter what.
Within moments, the darkness enveloped her completely. The ground beneath her became looser, softer, but interspersed with loose stones that pricked her bare feet with each step, eliciting winces of discomfort. She hurried forward, hands outstretched on either side to maintain balance, but this meant she couldn't anticipate what lay ahead. Eventually, her luck ran out, and she collided with the end of the tunnel, crying out as dirt showered over her head, enveloping her in darkness once more.
Min lay in the darkness, dazed and disoriented. A red haze clouded her vision, obscuring everything except the abyss of blackness. She pushed herself up onto her knees, desperate to control her breathing and silence any sounds, just as her mother had taught her. But she knew it was futile.
When she glanced back, she locked eyes with a pair of dark, chestnut-golden orbs directly in front of her. A scream escaped her lips, only to be abruptly stifled as a large hand covered her mouth, muffling the sound. Another hand struck the side of her head, and Min's vision filled with red as she collapsed onto her side.
Pain seared through her entire head. It felt as if she were momentarily detached from herself, observing her own body from a distance. She was rolled onto her belly in the soft dirt, the weight pressing against her breasts. With a trembling, hissing breath, she blinked slowly, though it made no difference—whether her eyes were shut or open, darkness engulfed her completely.
The figure seized one of her wrists, then the other, binding them tightly at the small of her back. The side of her throbbing head was forced into the dirt beneath her. Meanwhile, the figure forcefully spread her legs, positioning themselves between them, kneeling down.
"Let me go!" she attempted to utter, but the words emerged as a garbled mix of syllables and pain. The taste of blood filled her mouth—the blow seemed to have reopened her split lip.
Then a feeling that was at once foreign and immediately recognizable brushed between her legs--at once like a probing finger, but...different. It was longer, thicker, tipped with a claw that could've ripped her belly open, but instead brushed so very delicately across the slit between her opened thighs. It was followed by a growl, wordless but all too understandable, a wordless demand for obedience. The sound was different from the bear's: it was higher-pitched, but somehow even more dangerous. Min shivered, sucked on her bloody lip, and held still like a good girl. She was in the stranger's clutches, completely at their mercy.
When she didn't struggle, the clawed finger retreated. What she felt next in the blackness was unlike anything she'd felt before: it was hot, thick but delicately smooth, with a tapered tip like a blade.
It wasn't like what she'd imagined, if only because Min had nothing to base her imagination on. She felt a prick, a burning sting that made her gasp and cry out, then the feeling of being so full that she kept gasping, over and over. She whined with every breath, not knowing what to feel, not hating it, but too afraid that the creature--whatever he was--would lose patience and use his claws on her.
The male, for by then he was undoubtedly male, began to move. He released her hands, but as she started to push up, he growled again--Min immediately relented, her breasts and sore shoulders resting on the floor, hands in place. He curled his clawed fingers around her hips and pulled her up, higher onto her knees as he started rutting with her, thrusting into her with a firm, deep rhythm. She gasped with surprise at the new sensations, marveling at the feeling of a true, genuine rock in her belly, rather than some imitation phallus or her own fingers.
"Ohhhhhh," she moaned, clenching her hands to fists. She wanted to push up, to feel him deeper, but she held as still as his hard, steady fucking allowed. "Who...who are you?" she said, her voice somewhere between a sob and a cry of pleasure. "Why are you...doing this...ngh, goddess!...to me?!"
He didn't answer. The thrusts only continued, going faster, harder. There was nothing in her fantasies about her first time with a man belonging to a stranger at the bottom of a deep hole, but the sounds of his flesh slapping against hers, his huge hands squeezing her, the way he didn't stop or slow down for even a second, even the way pain and discomfort melted and melded together with pleasure and the new delight of having a real rock inside of her--all of it made Min want more. She felt ashamed for enjoying it, angry at this brute of a male for taking her so roughly.