ULTIMA VI: The Slippery Key (MMMF, computer game, heroic fantasy, oral,
spank, rough)

by Christine Indigo (christineindigo@juno.com)


DISCLAIMERS AND DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS:  Ultima and all of the characters in
this story belong to Origin Systems and Richard "Lord British" Garriott
(and I hope both of  them take this in the affectionate spirit in which
it was intended), but the story itself belongs to me.  You may add this
to any noncommercial electronic archive and/or repost this to any free
newsgroup/forum/BBS/whatever, as long as my name and this disclaimer are
not removed.  This story has adult sexual situations, so if you are under
18, go away.


A few more feet, and she'd be at the top.  With the aid of a rope that
Iolo had tied to a column, Tansfora pulled herself out of the dungeon
crevice.  She looked down at the man who had been following her up the
rope.

"Dupre, I saw you looking up my gown."

"Did you?"  He crawled up the last few feet of the crevice, armor
clattering, and sat down on the dusty floor with his legs dangling over
the edge.  "And why, pray, should I have ignored the rare opportunity to
see an Avatar's drawers?"

"Because the Avatar that you're referring to isn't wearing any," said
Tansfora.  "Now get your mind out of the brothel, and help me pull
Shamino up."

"This reminds me of a story.  A woman was in bed with her lover while her
husband was away at his shop...."

"No, don't hide under there, that's where everyone looks."  Shamino
emerged from the crevice and sat down on the ledge.  "Why don't you get
some new jokes, Iolo?  Some jokes from the current century, perhaps?"

"Maybe he'll get some jokes that aren't as naughty, slimy, and all out
icky as that one," Tansfora said.  She took a rubber duck out of her pack
and threw it at Iolo.

***

They sat on the edge for a while, tired and panting from the exertion and
talking.  Tansfora looked over the area that they had climbed into.  It
had looked like a simple narrow ledge from the bottom of the crevice,
but, instead of stopping at the wall, it led into a cave that was
separated from the ledge by a crack the width of a human hand.  She stood
up.

"I don't remember this part of the sewer dungeon.  Are you sure we're
going the right way, Shamino?"

"This way doesn't seem to have any headless in it, unlike the other way
we were going.  However, I don't remember ever being here, either.  Can
you find it on your map?"

"No.  I suggest we set up camp for a while, so that we can regroup, heal,
and figure out where we are."  She turned again to Shamino, who had been
picking up the duck and putting it back into her pack.  "Do you hear any
monsters in that cave?"

"None that I can hear."

"If that's so, we should go inside and out of sight," said Dupre, who had
been inspecting some wounds that the headless had inflicted on him a few
hours earlier.

"I agree. I feel exposed on this ledge.  We could be picked off by any
passing archer," said Tansfora.  "Let's go."

***

They drew their weapons and walked slowly into the cave entrance.
After waiting for a while to see if any creatures were going to jump out
at them, they moved into the cave itself.  Iolo raised his torch high to
light up the entire area. 

It was a small cave, about the length and breadth of six large feather
beds arranged in a grid.  Light from the torch glittered off of crystal
formations on the ceiling.  The far side of the cave was obscured by a
grey mist that drifted and fluttered as if it was being blown about by a
wind.  However, there was no wind in the cave.

"Oh, no, not another magical...."

Just then, the cave started to shake and rumble.  Dust rose from the
floor and fell from the ceiling.  The entire party dropped to the floor
and held their shields over their heads, to protect against falling
rocks.  After a while, the shaking stopped.

"Is everyone all right?"  Tansfora rose from the floor and pushed her red
hair out of her face.  Iolo had dropped his torch right after the quake
had started, and it had gone out.  The cave was in near darkness, broken
only by the faint phosphorescent glow of her magic shield.

"I'm all right."

"Me too."

"So am I."

"Good. Any...."  She stopped.  She'd been close to the opening of the
cave, near the ledge.  There was no opening or ledge there any more,
though.  How, she thought, had she been moved over to one of the walls
without noticing it?  The quake hadn't been quite strong enough to bounce
her that far.  She took off her shield. Using it, dim as it was, as a
light, she rummaged through her pack for a torch.

The cave lit up.  Startled, she looked up and saw Shamino in the center
of the cave, holding a torch. He was staring past her with a stunned
expression on his face.  Turning back to the wall, she saw that it wasn't
one of the walls that had existed before the quake, but a new wall that
seamlessly sealed the cave opening. She looked for the crack that she'd
noticed before, but it was gone, with only a line of disturbed dust to
indicate that it had been there.

"We're entombed," Shamino said.  Iolo and Dupre, who had been shaking the
dust and crystals off of their armor, went over and looked.  Dupre kicked
the wall.  "Ouch!"  He grimaced and grabbed the toe of his boot.  "It
must be at least five feet thick!"

"Looks like we won't be able to get out that way."

"Why don't we try the door?"

"The door?"

"Turn around and look, milady."

Tansfora turned around and faced the far side of the cave.  The mist was
gone, and the wall was now visible.  In the center of the wall was a
wooden door, painted blue.  The door had an ornate silver mortice lock
that gleamed in the torchlight.  To the right of the door was a
triangle-shaped sheet of clear crystal the size of a dinner plate,
fastened to the wall by three strips of colored metal.  Surrounding the
door and crystal were hand-sized patches of black moss.  Suspended behind
the crystal, like an insect in petrified amber, was a key.  Dupre reached
out and tried the door handle.  It was locked, and locked tight.

"Let me pry that crystal loose."  Iolo pulled a thin strip of metal out
of his pack and wedged it between the crystal and the wall.  The metal
was sucked out of his hand and into the center of the crystal, where it
vanished.  The crystal emitted a puff of smoke.

"Well, that didn't work." Shamino took a couple of spare throwing axes
out of his pack.  He threw one at the crystal.  The axe hit it and turned
into more smoke, which blew into his face.  Angrily, he threw the other
axe at the door.  The axe got halfway to the door before turning into
smoke. 

"Let me try now."  Turning his face away, Dupre rammed his body hard
against the door.  The door didn't budge.

"We may not need the key," said Tansfora.  She got a small wooden box out
of her pocket, opened it, took out a tarnished brass stick with a keylike
handle, and slipped it into the keyhole.  It was yanked out of her hand
and disappeared completely into the lock.

"That was our last lock pick."  Turning around, she took a smooth black
stone out of her pocket, measured out a one foot space in front of her
with her hands, and put it down on the ground.  It vanished, and a red
moongate appeared in its place.  "We'll tell our lord about this when we
get to the castle."  She walked into the moongate, followed by her
companions.  Moments later, they reemerged.  "Hail, Lord Br...."  She
stopped.  They were still in the cave.  She sank down onto a stump-sized
rock that was near the door and sulked.  Iolo went over to her and put
his hand on her shoulder.  "What about the spell we used to get away from
the gargoyles at the Shrine of Honor?"

"You mean Help?"  She shuddered.  "It hurts so much to cast it.  However,
it looks like there's no other choice.  Join hands, everyone."  She took
her spellbook out of her pack.
 
They formed a circle in the middle of the cave.  Tansfora concentrated on
the words of the spell she was about to cast.  She felt Shamino's and
Iolo's palms sweat as she held on to their hands.  Death, she thought,
even a quick painless death followed by a resurrection, was never easy to
get used to.  The mana rose in her, and she knew she was ready.

"Kal Lor!"  Her senses went out, one by one, as her consciousness faded
away.  The last thing she perceived was a clear quiet whooshing coming
from the direction of the door.

***

A while later, she returned to life.  She was lying faceup on the floor. 
"My lord, we...." She opened her eyes.  Castle British was always at
least partially lit, yet they were in the dark.  Had the gargoyles put
the castle under siege?  Shaking off her resurrection fog, she lit a
torch and looked around.  She saw the same walls, dust and door that she
had seen before she'd cast Help; they had come back to life, but they
hadn't gone anywhere.

"That spell never fails."

"It didn't fail, Tansfora.  Only part of it failed.  Think of how tragic
it would be for all of us if it had completely failed." Iolo got up,
slowly and stiffly, from the ground a few feet to the right of her.  Her
other two companions were still on the ground, unconscious.  Remembering
that fire required oxygen, which was in short supply, Tansfora took her
reagent pouch, cast Light, and doused the torch.  The ball of light hung
in the cool air, casting random shadows over the cave walls.  

"No, if we'd been transported dead to the castle, Tiberius could have
raised....  Does that door look different to you?"

"Different?"  Iolo turned to the door.  It was now covered with glowing
silver runes.  They read:

  1: I am a lock.  Sometimes I only need one key to unlock me,
     sometimes I need two, and sometimes I need many.  The
     bearer of the key and the bearer of the lock must work
     together to prepare me.  What am I?

  2: If you do not have a bearer of the lock, you have no chance
     of getting through this door.
 
  3: Use three different keys on your lock, and you will get the
     key to this lock.
 
The door's lock gleamed for a moment as they read the last few words.

"It's obviously not referring to the kind of lock used to keep people out
of houses and chests."  Shamino, who had been lying face down on the
floor, sat up.  "But, what kind of lock needs to be readied before it's
used?  And, do we have one with us?"  He glanced up at the patches of
moss.  "Wait a minute. I think we might have a clue here.  That moss
looks just like...."  He got up and touched the patch nearest the lock. 
"It feels like it too.  Don't you agree?"

Iolo took one finger and stroked another patch of the moss.  He lifted an
eyebrow.  Taking Tansfora, who had been shaking Dupre awake, by the
wrist, he walked her over to the door and pressed her hand against one of
the patches.  It was wiry, bushy, and coarse; and it didn't feel like any
moss she'd ever been around. It felt, in fact, more like the hair that
she'd felt between hers' and other womens' legs.  Mine's much softer than
this, she thought.

"It fits.  Sometimes a woman only needs one man, and sometimes she needs
many before she's satisfied.  And if he goes in when she's dry, it
hurts," said Tansfora.  "It hurts a lot, in fact."

"Then we'll have to make sure that the lock is well lubricated before we
put our keys in," Shamino said.  He touched her upper arm with his
fingers.

"You mean, all three of you, me, right here, right now...."

"It looks like it, Tans."

"Hogwash," said Dupre.

"You didn't believe Iolo about the talking horse, either.  You also
didn't believe me about...."

Iolo broke in.  "If it works, it works.  If it doesn't work, you will, at
the least, have spent your last hour or so in the arms of a beautiful and
voluptuous woman."

There was a pregnant pause.  "Oh, all right."

Iolo winked at Tansfora.  "I knew that would work," he whispered. 
Addressing the rest of the group, he said, "Also, if this isn't the right
answer to the riddle, it might give future adventurers a few moments of
amusement to see our bones tangled up together."

"Iolo?  I just thought of something."

"What is it, Tans?"

"What if Gwenno is one of those adventurers?  Wouldn't it be painful for
her to find her husband not only dead, but unfaithful as well?"

He turned to her.  "I'm not about to let my friends die just so that I
can stay true to my wedding vows."  
 
"However," Dupre said, "There's one thing that none of us have
considered.  This could be a trap, designed to get us weaponless,
armorless, and distracted."

"One of us could stand guard while the other two, er, work on Tans's
lock.  After one of the two are finished, the one on guard could join in,
and one of the other two could take over.  I volunteer to be the first
guard," said Iolo.

"So, that's settled, then.  One more thing we've overlooked, however,"
Shamino turned to Tansfora.  "We haven't heard from the lock bearer yet.
What does she think?"

Tansfora stepped back.  She'd known her three companions since the
beginning of the Age of Enlightenment.  Sex with them had been a
daydream, an occasional longing, but never a reality.  It took a few
seconds to decide.  "Okay.  Shamino, how much time do you think we have
in here before the air runs out?"

"Allowing for heavy breathing?  About an hour and a half."

Tansfora's heart began to pound even faster than it had pounded after
Iolo had suggested casting Help.  It's amazing how quickly fear can turn
into sexual desire, she thought as she felt the first warm trickle of
lubrication between her legs.  "Dupre, take the bedding out of the packs
and throw it in the middle of the floor.  If we're going to do this,
we'll need to start now."

***

"Tans, could you help me with my armor?"

"Of course."  As she undid the straps of Dupre's plate harness, he put
one arm around her and whispered in her ear.  "Sweet lady, my balls are
full to bursting.  If I don't have you first and soon, I may not be able
to have you at all, if you know what I mean."

"What about all of those grateful damsels in distress that you told me
about?" she whispered back.

"It's been a while.  But don't tell any of the others."

Tansfora looked past him and saw Iolo carrying the rock to a point
directly opposite the door.  He sat down on it and cocked his crossbow,
pointing it at the door, patiently watching for intruders.  She finished
helping Dupre remove his armor, turned around, and started to strip off
hers.  After she had finished, she turned to face him again and started
to undo the laces on her gown.  Dupre was completely naked, and already
fully erect.

"It comes up quite easily around you, milady.  I often find it difficult
to keep my hands off of you."

"And why, dear Dupre, have you been keeping your hands off of me?" she
said, noticing, to her delight, that he was as handsome with his clothes
off as he was with his clothes on.

He looked bewildered.  "I don't know."

"It's a shame to let a beautiful woman go around unlaid," said Shamino. 
He was standing near a shadow unbuttoning his pants and watching Tansfora
undress.  His eyes were shining.

Finally, she was finished unlacing her gown.  After she had pulled the
bodice of her gown down to her waist, she laid down on the softest part
of the bedding, draped her red cape over the top of her shoulders to ward
off the cold, and hitched up her skirts.

"Dupre, I belive you wanted to see this."  She opened her legs to him.
"I'm ready."

"This soon?"

"If I don't have someone in me right now, I'm going to go insane."

Dupre knelt before her and put his hand on her pussy.  "You're soaking
wet."  After sucking her lubrication off of the tips of his fingers, he
put a pillow underneath her hips.  Then, he penetrated her.  After
pausing for a second with his eyes closed, he started thrusting, with a
force that threatened to push her off of the pillow completely.  Every
thrust sent pleasurable shock waves through her insides.  She felt
someone stroking her hair back, and she looked up and saw Shamino sitting
next to her with his cock in his hand.  He began to fondle and caress
every part of her body that he could reach. Tansfora closed her eyes and
felt the combination of Dupre's vigorousness and Shamino's gentleness
bringing her closer and closer to orgasm.  She arched her neck and
started to moan quietly.

Suddenly, Dupre leaned in closer to her and began to quake.  "Oh, no," he
said.  Tansfora held him against her chest as he came, wrapping her legs
around his rump.  Then, he rolled off of her, sweaty and panting, and lay
on his back next to her.  Shamino moved his hand between her legs.

Dupre got up, shaky and on all fours, and crawled back over to Tansfora. 
He removed Shamino's hand from her pussy and clamped it over her mouth. 
Then, he put his head between her legs.  She held his head hard to her
pussy, as if she was afraid that he might pull away.  His expert licking
soon brought her back to the brink.  She came, her cries muzzled by the
hand that Shamino was still holding over her mouth.

"You didn't have to do that," Shamino said as Dupre collapsed onto the
bedding.  "I could have brought her off quite easily by myself."

"It's a point of Honor with me.  I won't leave a woman in distress, any
type of distress, especially if I've put her in distress myself."

***

They lay back, with Tansfora stretched out between Dupre and Shamino. 
"I'm sorry, milady.  That doesn't happen very often.  Really."

"Don't worry about it."  She sat up and brushed some brown dirt out of
her hair with her hand; Dupre had, in his ardor, managed to push her
partially off of the bedding and on to the floor.  She snuggled in closer
to him.

Dupre wiped his moustache off with a corner of blanket, pulled a flask of
something out of his pack, and took a swig of it.  "That's the one thing
I enjoy the most, hearing a woman moan in pleasure.  I just lost all
control."

"Moaning like this?  Ohh...."

"Stop that."  He grinned.

"Or this?  Ahh...."

"Didn't you once say that you figured that she'd be a screamer?" Iolo
shifted in his seat on the rock.  The crossbow that he'd been holding had
been put down and forgotten a while back.

"I was just joking!"

They were interrupted by a loud snap coming from the direction of the
door.  One of the bands that was holding the triangle in place had broken
in two.

"I was right," said Shamino.

Tansfora beamed at Shamino and Iolo.  "Two more to go."

***

A few minutes later, she turned over on her stomach.  Shamino ran his
hands over her left shoulder, down her back, and over her rear end.  "May
I be next?"  Tansfora turned over to her side and smiled at him.  She
rolled over onto her back and pulled him down on top of her.  They
started to kiss and fondle each other.  Dupre sat up and said, "How much
time do we have?"

"More than an hour."

"Thank the stars."  He wiped the rapidly cooling sweat off of his body
with his tunic. 

A shadow passed over Tansfora's left arm.  She looked up and saw Iolo
standing just beyond the edge of the bedding.  Dupre started to get up,
but Iolo stopped him.  "I don't think we need guarding any more.  If
anything was going to ambush us, they would have arrived before now."  He
took off his leather breastplate.

"They might be waiting for us to let our guard down."  Tansfora wriggled
out from underneath Shamino and sat up.

"I don't think it's that kind of trap."  Iolo took off his swamp boots. 
"While you were busy playing, I checked all of the walls, the ground, and
the door.  Luckily, I had finished before things here got too interesting
to ignore.  There's no way that anyone could see in, even through the
keyhole, except by using a white potion."  He unbuckled his belt.  "And I
don't think that there's anything intelligent enough in this dungeon to
use such a thing."

"Phoenix, maybe?  No, wait."  She thought for a second.  "All of her
traps were based on brute force and ignorance.  This one isn't."

"Like I said, there's nothing very intelligent in this dungeon.  Present
company excepted, of course."  Iolo stepped out of his pants and lay down
next to Tansfora.  He was a bit heavier underneath his clothing than she
had figured, and somewhat heavier than he had been several decades ago,
when she had first met him in Britain.  Still, it didn't matter.  She
moved in to meet his kiss.

Shamino interrupted them by pressing his half-hard cock against
Tansfora's thigh.  Turning her attentions back toward him, she sat up
again and pushed him onto his back.  Her dress slipped down below her
hips and entangled her legs in a mesh of green linen.  She kicked it off
and straddled his slender body, restraining his wrists against the
bedding.  Dupre had burned off the outer husk of her arousal, leaving an
inner seed of passion that was starting to sprout.  After she had let go
of his wrists, he took her breasts in his hands and started to lick and
fondle them.  She rubbed herself on his cock and felt it grow and harden
against her belly.  When it had become hard enough, she lifted herself up
and held herself over its tip, ready to have it enter her.

He locked eyes with her.  "Please let me go in slowly.  I like this part
the best."

Obeying his instructions, she gradually lowered herself onto his cock,
taking several seconds to reach its root.  He never broke eye contact
with her during the entire time.  "Mmm," he said.

"Tight, isn't she?" said Dupre.  

Shamino nodded, but kept staring into Tansfora's eyes.  She felt as if he
was watching, and enjoying, every visible sign of arousal that appeared
on her face; that, in short, he was being a voyeur and a participant at
the same time.  This excited her.  She began to ride him, moving slowly
at first, and then speeding up as their passion began to increase in
sync.  It wasn't until after they came--together, with Tansfora starting
a split second after he did--that she realized that she had completely
forgotten that they were stuck in a sealed cave beneath Britain, fucking
for their lives.  She had been imagining that she was floating around in
space, near Trammel and Felucca.

***

The second band snapped a few minutes later, while Tansfora was still
lying in Shamino's arms.  She got up and took her canteen out of her
pack.  After drinking some water, she offered it to Shamino.

"The air's starting to get stale.  We might not have as much time as I
thought."  He accepted the canteen.

"Then we had better get on to things, hadn't we, Tans?"  Iolo was sitting
cross legged a few feet away.  He smiled and beckoned her over.

"Problem is, I don't think I'll be able to look Gwenno in the eye again
after this."

"You couldn't look her in the eye in the first place.  She's six inches
shorter than you, remember."

"Still, it feels a bit strange to be making love to the husband of a
friend."

"She'll understand, once we explain the circumstances to her.  Just to
make sure, I'll disarm her before we tell her about it."  A mischievous
look appeared on his face.  "I could have her punish me.  Better yet, I
could have her punish me while you watch."  He got up.  "We'll get your
punishment over with in advance.  Dupre, carry her over to that rock."

"What kind of....Oh."  Dupre's eyes lit up.  "May I punish her too?"

"No, I don't think we'll have the time." Dupre looked disappointed.  Iolo
took a pillow, put it on top of the rock that he'd been on while he was
guarding the door, and sat on it.

Tansfora giggled as Dupre picked her up.  "Should I pretend to be
horrified?" she said as he laid her, face down, over Iolo's lap.

"Only if it pleases you, Tans."  His voice deepened and took on a mock
serious tone.  "Avatar, you have been very unvirtuous lately."  Lifting
his hand high, he brought it down on her rear end with a loud slap. 
Tansfora let out a small shriek.

"You have driven your three closest friends mad with lust."  He brought
his hand down again, slightly harder than he had the first time. 
Tansfora could feel his cock stiffening underneath her hips.

He raised his hand again.  "And you have....you have....um...."  He
thought for a second.  "And one to grow on!"  He spanked her a third
time, hard enough to produce an aftershock in her body a moment later. 
Then, he started to lightly stroke her rear end with his fingers.

"No, no, let it burn, let it burn."  After he stopped, Tansfora lay still
and felt the burning sensation on her rear end soak through into her
pussy.  Her breath quickened, and she felt faint.

"I'm afraid I don't make a very good disciplinarian, milady."  He let her
off of his lap.

"Oh, I think you did quite well.  At least, I enjoyed it as much as you
did."

"And how do you know?"  He was beaming.

"That."  Tansfora pointed at his cock.

He jerked his lower arms upward and looked down comically at his lap. 
"Yes, that does tend to give the game away, doesn't it?  However, there
might be something else you may be able to do to it, and I might be able
to find something that I can do better than spanking."

"You're on."

They went back over to the bedding.  Dupre followed them, stumbling
slightly on his way.  Iolo lay down, and Tansfora put her mouth around
his cock.  He grasped her head.

"It would be quicker and more enjoyable if we did this in opposite-number
fashion."

She got up and lay back down on her side.  Iolo lay next to her, with his
head at her hips and his cock to her head, and put his head between her
legs.  Tansfora felt his beard scratching her inner thighs.  She tucked
her knees in and started going down on him again.

"No, no, over a bit.  There, there, that's the place," he said, his voice
slightly muffled by her flesh.  She followed his advice and was rewarded
with the feel of his cock expanding in her mouth.  Her orgasm came as a
complete surprise; Iolo's tongue and lips had stimulated her to the point
where she had felt her rising tension as one long peak.  As he detached
himself from her, she thought about how strange it was that Gwenno so
rarely lived with her husband.  If I was able to have something like what
he's just done whenever I wanted, she thought, I would never let him or
her leave the house.

"Mmm, I felt that."  Iolo turned her over on her back, opened up her
legs, and entered her.  After having had both Dupre and Shamino in her,
she was so sore that Iolo's cock felt like it was covered with a network
of fine wires.  However, she was still so horny, and so intent on living
past the next ten minutes, that she put up with the pain.  Her lungs
started to hurt.

"I feel lightheaded."  Shamino, who had been kneeling next to her
stroking his cock, lurched forward.  He caught himself before he fell
over.  "Two or three more minutes until we run out of air."

"I knew this wouldn't work.  You two never listen to me."

"Quiet, Dupre.  Be quiet and save the air for breathing."

They had failed.  Soon, they would be dead.  And, without them, the
gargoyles would take over Britannia.  Tansfora felt oddly calm as the
still, cool, nearly airless air settled over her body.  So, this is how
it ends, she thought.  Not in the stomach of a troll or at the center of
an evil mage's fireball, but at the tip of Iolo's cock.

Then, she was hit by a wave of sexual arousal that rolled through her
body like a cloud of black smoke.  She looked at her companions and knew,
somehow, that they felt it too.  After a second of unbearable stillness, 
Iolo started thrusting again.  He thrust into her like he was trying to
reach some center of unbearable pleasure that was located up in her
throat.  Dupre arched his body over her head and shoved his cock into her
mouth.  He pushed it in deep, as if he was trying to get to the same
center of pleasure that Iolo was reaching for.  Tansfora's throat opened
up, and she took him all of the way down to the root of his cock.  He
came within seconds, pawing at the bedding and falling down on top of
her.  Shamino pushed him off of her, lifted her head up, and impaled it
on his cock.  She licked, sucked, and nipped at it as if it was a source
of the oxygen her body craved.  After a few seconds, he too came, yanking
at her hair.  "Less than a minute left," he murmured as he rolled over
onto the bedding.  Tansfora was next, screaming as if she was being
ripped apart by her orgasm.  Finally, Iolo came with a yell.  He
collapsed onto Tansfora and closed his eyes.

They lay there for a few tense seconds as Tansfora began to black out. 
Shamino took her hand in his and held it.  Then, the final band broke,
causing the sheet of crystal to fall onto the floor and smash into
pieces.  Dupre jumped up, grabbed the key out of the pile of crystal
fragments, unlocked the door, and pulled it open.  He turned around,
wobbled back to the bedding, and collapsed.

***

It took a while for the fresh air to revive them.  Tansfora lay in a
daze, hoping that no hostile creatures were around to attack them while
they were helpless.  When she was able to sit up, she sat up, pulling a
blanket around herself while she did so.

"Now I know what it's like to go into heat."  Shamino crawled a few feet
closer to her.  "I didn't hurt you, did I?"

"Other than feeling skinned inside, I'm all right.  And that will go away
quickly."

"I hope so.  I don't think it'll be very long before you have an
opportunity to use it again."  He put his hand on her thigh.

"What...was...that?"  Dupre was coming to.  He sat up, blinking.

"You, of all people, should be used to waking up in strange places with a
headache."  Iolo rose and picked his pants up off of the floor.

"Very funny.  I meant, where did that...frenzy...at the end come from?"

"I don't know," Tansfora said.  Fear turning into arousal, she thought,
like it had right before they had started?  An adrenalin surge?  Or, an
act of mercy from whatever malevolent creature had created that trap in
the first place?  She stood and started to gather up her armor and
clothing.  "What I'd really like to know is where that trap came from,
how it works, and what it's for.  Iolo, when you can, remove that lock
from the door.  We'll take it to the Council and see if they can figure
it out."

"Good idea."

The party dressed and repacked the bedding.  Iolo put the lock into his
pack.  Right before they were ready to move on, Dupre put his hand on
Tansfora's shoulder.  "So, which of us did you enjoy the most?"

"I don't know.  Maybe, after we get back to the surface, I can try each
of you again and see."  Iolo gave her a reproaching glance.  "Well, two
of you anyway."

***
Any comments?  Send them to me at the address below.

--
Christine Indigo, Internet Pornographer
christineindigo@juno.com
Censorship is unVirtuous.