by J. Stone
Chapter 6. Clouded Judgment
Ruby awoke in her bed in that drafty old castle that she’d lived in for her whole life. The familiar silk violet sheets laid on top her, the arched cream ceiling with a crack stretching across the width of the room was far overhead, and the rich purple drapes her mother had picked out to match her sheets covered the windows. The room was exactly as she remembered it, and the sun was just coming up, piercing where the drapes separated. She lay on her side and was curled into a ball, enjoying the warmth afforded to her by the covers and sheets.
The princess remembered the dream she had been having. A foul demon had corrupted her sister. A spell had driven all the toxins in her body out of her mouth and all the dark thoughts to the forefront of her mind. She had been magically banished to the noxious land called the Abyss, where she had found a serpent too old to possibly be real. The ancient beast had swallowed her whole, at which point she’d woken there in the warm, comforting bed. The dream had been madness. How she could have ever come up with something so absurd was beyond her.
At that point, Ruby realized that she was completely naked. She never slept like that. She always wore some layer, and the princess knew that this couldn’t possibly be real. The dream had been the truth, and this was the dream. As much as she wanted to say that this was real, she knew that she couldn’t whitewash everything that had happened to her away as if it were a fiction. Turning over to lay on her back, Ruby discovered that she was not alone in this dream.
The horned woman, Scarlett, was lying next to her, and when the princess moved to her back, she pressed firmly up against her. She was just as beautiful as the last time they’d met. Her orange hair fluttered down to her shoulders, ending in copper ringlets, and her eyes glinted with that same red glow, accentuated by the distinct orange eye shadow. The princess could feel the temptress’ body was quite naked as well. Ruby blushed, as Scarlett placed both hands, one on top of the other, on the princess’ chest and then rested her chin on her hands, looking straight into her eyes.
“Hello, my princess,” the horned woman said with a smile.
“You again?” Ruby asked, her toes fidgeting uncomfortably at the other end of the bed.
Scarlett’s eyes examined what she could see of the princess. “It looks like I don't have to work as hard this time. Your impressively active imagination has already done the heavy lifting for me. You dressed for the occasion.”
“I'm naked,” Ruby pointed out, flustered and blushing.
“I know.” Scarlett smiled, lifting the sheets and playfully peeking underneath.
Embarrassed, Ruby pressed them down, covering herself back up. “It's not like I did it on purpose. This is a dream. I can't control it.”
“Of course you can. You picked this place, you decided on your very apparent lack of clothes, and then you invited me to join you in big, bold letters. I’m obliging.” She winked one of her red eyes.
“I did no such thing.”
Scarlett ignored Ruby’s denial. “I must have made quite the impression on you, my princess. Want me to do it again?”
The princess shook her head in protest. She was going to resist Scarlett this time, or at least that's what she told herself. “This isn't real. You're not real.”
“This may be just a dream, but that doesn't stop any of this from being real.” Scarlett slid her hand under the covers and let it drift down to the princess’ stomach, where her finger circled Ruby’s bellybutton. “Do you not feel pleasure at my touch? Do you not quiver with ecstasy? Do you not yearn for more? I am as real as you let me be. Allow me to show you just how real I can be to you, my sweet princess.”
Ruby scooted away, to the very farthest edge of the bed. The bedframe creaked and moaned as she inched away. “No. This isn’t right.”
“That doesn’t matter.” Scarlett wore her seductive smile and moved closer to the princess. The bed’s creaking sound echoed, as the horned demon crawled closer. She wrapped one leg over Ruby’s midsection, one arm over the princess’ far shoulder, and placed her chest up against Ruby’s.
Ruby struggled to breathe calmly with the woman’s strawberry aroma filling her nose. She switched to breathing in and out through her mouth, hoping that might help relieve her desires. “What do you want from me?”
Scarlett nuzzled her nose against the princess’ cheek. “That doesn't matter. What matters is what I can give you.” Her hand slowly drifted down Ruby’s body, rubbing tenderly against the princess’ skin along the way. Raw pleasure radiated in tiny explosions from the horned woman’s fingertips.
Ruby tried to move, but her body rebelled. “Why can't I resist you?”
Scarlett’s hand didn’t stop. “You don't want to.”
“But… I… do…” Ruby grabbed the horned woman’s hand by the wrist and prevented it from traveling any further. She regained some composure. “You're a demon as well, aren't you? Just like the one corrupting my sister.”
Scarlett’s eyes wandered down, and she had a pouting expression on her face. The woman looked ashamed. “Not completely the same, no, but is it so bad that I’m from the nether realm? Is what I desire so awful? I don't seek to corrupt you as he has done to your sister.”
“But you do want the same thing that the craggy hand demon wants?”
“I simply want form in your world. Our relationship would not change. I would remain yours, my sweet princess, to do with however you desired.”
Ruby puffed out a breath through her mouth, clearing the intoxicating and distracting smell that came with the horned woman’s words. “Why me? Why did you come to me?”
“You are special, my poison princess.”
“Poison princess?” Ruby repeated.
“It’s who you are, and I chose you to help me escape.”
The princess released Scarlett’s wrist. “Escape?”
“The nether realm.”
“Why would you want to escape it? Isn’t it your home?”
Scarlett backed away from Ruby, moving to lay on her back. “Because it is torture, my princess. There is no form there. No taste. No touch. No sound. No smell. Nothing whatsoever to see. Everything exists only in your mind, and nothing feels real. I want what you have. I want to be free. I want to be allowed to experience my senses.”
Ruby had never given much thought to the nether realm before. She had no idea what it was really like. Everyone was quick to point out that the creatures originating from there were evil, wanting nothing but to invade Nabiria. For the first time, the princess considered that this might not be the entire truth. “If, and I stress if, I were to help you escape, what would I need to do?”
The horned woman turned back to face Ruby. Her eyes were wide and hopeful. “You would do that?”
Sternly shaking her head, Ruby replied, “I’m only saying that I would consider it. What would you need me to do?”
“I need you to want me.”
Ruby didn’t think that would be any great challenge. The princess was having incredible difficulty in resisting the demon’s advances. “I think you’ve proven you can get me to do that all on your own. I can hardly help myself around you.”
Scarlett grinned. “No, I need you to want me in the real world. Did you notice your desire for me faded, when we last separated?”
“I did. Why was that?”
“I have more power, the closer I am to you. We are bonded together now. Inseparable if you so choose, Ruby.”
Yet again, hearing her name roll off of Scarlett’s tongue melted a part of her brain. After clearing her mind, Ruby asked, “What would you do if I were to release you?”
The horned woman moved closer once again, snuggling up beside the princess. “I would be your loyal servant. I would do whatever you desired.”
“Wouldn’t that just be exchanging one prison for another?”
Scarlett rested her head on Ruby’s shoulder. “I wouldn’t mind if it meant that you were my warden.”
The princess started to won
der if she was growing attached to this beautiful horned demon. She was obviously attracted to her physically, but Ruby thought there might be more to it. More than just her apparent lust. The princess wrapped her arm around Scarlett’s shoulder consolingly, and the horned woman wrapped her leg over Ruby again.
“How could you help me?” the princess asked. She decided to be practical.
“I would do anything for you.”
“I understand that, but what specifically can you offer me?”
“You mean aside from the greatest physical sensation you have ever experienced?”
Ruby noticeably gulped and then breathed in and out through her mouth again. “Yes, aside from that.”
“Well,” Scarlett said, one of her fingers barely caressing the princess’ skin. “As a nether demon, I do suppose I have access to certain information. I’ve seen things you might find interesting.”
“Like what?”
Scarlett lightly giggled. “Tit for tat, my dear sweet princess. I need your help before I can say anything.”
“Very well. What about my… current condition? Could you help me with that?”
“You mean the poison?”
“No, I was referring to the serpent slowly digesting me.”
“Oh. Actually, those two problems overlap in this instance. You won’t need my help for that.”
“But the creature seems immune to poison.”
“Not entirely. He’s immune to some poison. Have you already forgotten how you managed to hurt his tongue?”
“Oh, yeah. How did I do that?”
“Mmm. I forget how new you are to this. Inexperienced. Naive. Innocent… Arousing.” Scarlett pounced and climbed atop the princess, straddling her and tossing the sheets behind her. Ruby immediately covered her chest with her hands, but the demon seductress felt no such modesty, letting herself lay bare.
“What are you doing?” the princess demanded.
Scarlett leaned down on top of Ruby, caressing her skin with her lips. “You are going to learn to control it. To control the poison. You don’t need me yet, but you will. And then, I will gladly come and fulfill your every desire.”
The princess clenched her eyes shut, trying to fight her attraction toward Scarlett, and she forced the dream to slowly fade away.
Chapter 7. The Concoction
Her mind returned to her body, constricted inside the enormous serpent but somehow protected by the various poisons in his system. She could see nothing but complete and utter blackness. She could hear liquids moving, muscles pushing and pulling, forcing her body to slide through him, and still the drip of her own sludge from her mouth. Though the venoms inside him had healed her, Ruby was barely able to move a finger because of the tight quarters. His body continued to push her through his gullet, but it was slow going. The princess feared that by the time he finished digesting her, she would have succumbed to her surroundings. She couldn’t imagine the poisons would keep her alive forever. How she was even managing to breathe was a complete mystery to her. If she wanted to survive the ordeal, she would have to do something.
Inside her dream, Scarlett had told her that she needed to control her poison. Though Ruby didn’t know exactly what that meant, she did know that the blue-hued venom she’d created had hurt Sythys once before. With that in mind, she focused on recreating that specific strain. Without her sight, she couldn’t tell what type of liquid was coming out from her mouth, so she had no way of knowing for certain whether it was the same. She continued in this vein for some time, not having any way to measure its passage, but there seemed to be no effect from the serpent despite the incredible amounts of poison she had pumped into his system.
Ruby thought back to when she’d created the dark blue poison. He’d called her a slave. It had made her angry, so very angry. She belonged to no one. No one would tell her what to do. Everything had happened so quickly. Ruby hadn’t even known what she was doing. Her mind simply knew what it needed to do, and the poison reacted based on her needs. Why then couldn’t it react now? What was she missing? The questions rolled through her head, before the princess finally realized what the missing component was. Emotion.
Her anger had helped shaped that blue poison, and it forced the strange magic that caused the sludge to leak from her to change in its very nature. With that in mind, Ruby tried to make herself angry once again -- angry like she had been before. She thought about being called a slave. Focused on it. She struggled to move inside the serpent’s body, frustrating herself. The princess thought about her sister. She thought about what would happen to the young girl in her absence, what that craggy hand demon was using her for, what he would make her do, and what he would ultimately make her into. Ruby would not allow that to happen. No more, she told herself.
Though she couldn’t see a change, the princess knew that what was spilling forth from her stained lips was now different. She had succeeded in creating something new. She continued to focus on her anger and on her needs of killing the foul serpent that had swallowed her whole. Her attempts at a new poison were met with the beast slowly beginning to shake with little tremors.
Ruby could feel the giant snake writhe in discomfort. It was working, but she needed more. Her mouth opened wider, releasing more of the toxic substance, as she tried to fill every inch of the serpent’s body with her noxious ooze. Sythys’ body constricted and coiled in response to the spreading poison. He tried to fight against the venom growing inside him, but she did not offer him any respite. The serpent wildly banged himself against the rocks of the cave, trying anything to stop the poison from within, but Ruby held strong. Despite being smashed against the hard, jagged surfaces, she focused on her anger. She would win this fight.
The conflict went on for some time, but there was no end to Ruby’s rage or the poison she held within her. Eventually, the serpent collapsed and fought back no more. The walls of her living prison seemed to sigh, and went loose. The princess was still quite confined inside, but she at least had a bit of room to move now. She assumed that with the change, the serpent had finally been killed, and so she tried to let go of her anger. It was not a task that she found to be simple. She wanted more. She needed to escape, so that she could find the craggy hand demon and do the same to him. She wanted to slash and break and kill. She lost herself in her infinite rage, and it felt so good. Struggling to free herself only made matters worse, fueling her anger and frustration at imprisonment. Ruby screamed and howled in vain.
Then, there was a distracting thump at the side of her fleshy cell. The confusion washed away much of her anger, and the thump repeated from the other side of the serpent a little bit closer. Ruby twisted her body to face where she believed the sound was emanating from, and she wormed her hand free. She mimicked the thumping sound as best she could from the beast’s interior, and it echoed again from the outside. Someone or something was out there. Maybe they would help free her, though she couldn’t imagine anything else being alive in that pit.
Sythys had mentioned that all of her people were his slaves. Was it possible another person had wandered this far down? She didn’t have any answers, but she would need their help to escape the serpent’s insides. The thought occurred to her that it might be something worse than the giant serpent. Whatever or whoever it was, she would face that challenge when she was out. She had proven that nothing would stop her, that she could overcome anything placed in her path.
Ruby thumped again at the inside of the serpent, and she waited for the echoing response. There was none. She began to panic. Had they left her? Why had they even made the noise if they weren’t going to help her? Was it even real? Had she imagined the whole thing? Was she so desperate to escape that she had invented her own way out? She struggled once more to free herself, but the quarters were too tight and far too dark.
A new sound then interrupted her panic. This one was not a thumping noise, but rather it was quiet, hard for her to hear. She stopped moving, trying to focus on the sound and determine
what it was. There was a soft noise, like something scraping against another, but that wasn’t quite it. No, rather Ruby realized that it was the sound of cutting, tearing. Whoever was outside the serpent was cutting it open in an attempt to free her.
The princess tried to wait patiently, but she needed to be free. After several minutes of the sound, Ruby reached out toward where she thought it was coming from. Using her fingers as her eyes, she felt around for any openings. Piercing her nails through some thin layer of the serpent’s insides, Ruby ripped open a section big enough for her hands to fit through. She kept pushing until she found what she thought was the final layer of the serpent. On the other side of it was freedom.
Ruby felt around for the opening that was being carved into Sythys. When her fingers met with an uneven surface, she knew she had found it. She pried her fingers through the small gash, and a tiny bit of light came through. On the outside, Ruby heard some of the poison plop through and land on the rocky ground below. The princess ripped and tore at the opening, fitting her hands through and pulling it open with all her strength. Everything was so wet and slippery, and she couldn’t get a tight grip on anything. More of the toxins oozed out of the hole that was increasing in size. She kept struggling and eventually managed to squeeze her arms out of the gash. Ruby received no more help from the person who’d cut the snake open. This was up to her. One of her elbows made it to the other side, so she twisted her arm, locking it against the serpent’s scales. Using it as leverage, she pulled herself through. Her other arm was completely out now, and her head was soon to follow. There was too much sludge and toxins in her eyes to see anything clearly, but she continued pulling herself out. She plopped to the hard ground in a puddle of the serpent’s innards, gasping for air. Ruby twisted her body around, so she was lying on her back, and lastly, she pulled her foot out from the slit, which had been caught inside. The shoe was no longer there, having been lost somewhere inside the beast.
The princess lay there, trying to recover her senses. Her breathing slowly returned to normal, and she started to feel better. Slop from inside the snake covered her entire body. The dress was beyond ruined, being covered in blood, varying colors of her poison, the swamp water of the Abyss, and now all the disgusting viscera of the serpent. Ruby sat upright and wiped the muck from her face, so that she could see properly.