Chapter 1
"What...the hell is going on?" I muse out loud looking around at what looks like a cart or wagon that...broke my fall?
I remember and the thought brings a fresh dose of melancholic hatred. I jumped off a bridge, tired of living. Oh, it was my own fault really. I made the mistake of trusting someone else with my happiness-my future. I didn't think I'd ever have to worry about having another such lapse in judgement, hoping the fatal drop from my leap would see to any future endeavors.
I had been drinking...and that I can't remember how much seems to suggest that it was rather heavily. Did I hallucinate the entire episode in which I attempted to hurl myself into an abyss? Beyond that...even assuming this is a "second chance" is it even worth taking?
"No," I tell myself as I pull myself from the wrecked contents of the wooden wagon and onto the moss-carpeted floor of the forest. Not sure how I got into a forest in the first place, I looked about for some familiar landmarks as I brushed pieces of broken glass and...other things off of me. "Trees, a rock, and a cosplayer." I say out loud with a dull glance at a rather angry looking girl that was looking between me and the wreckage in the wagon.
Getting a good look at her, she's wearing vaguely Asian attire in a red, loose-fitting, flowy sort of thing, but she also seems to be almost naked from the waist down except for what looks suspiciously like very fuzzy pants that do nothing to hide her slender thighs. She is also sporting a pair of fuzzy ears and a large fluffy-looking striped tail. Her short red hair frames the very slightly tanned complexion in which a set of very strikingly fierce bright green eyes are set. Those eyes seemed to be attempting to will me to death as she seemed to be on the verge of exploding.
I think if this had been any other day, I'd have been trying and failing to start up a conversation with such an adorable girl. Even with her brow furrowed in anger she couldn't make herself unattractive to me.
As it was, however, I was not in the mood to deal with any of this, and realizing that whatever I landed on was as black as ink and had soaked through my pants completely. "Look, I don't know how I fell into your cart but here…" I gathered some of the thick black liquid on my hands and wrote my phone number on the side of the cart saying, "...This is my number, call me with the damages or whatever. Good luck getting blood from this stone, by the way."
I turned to walk away before I heard her speak up, "Do you have ANY idea what you've-"
"Nope, and I don't care to." I quickly interrupted her adding, "And even if I did, I have nothing...absolutely NOTHING to my name to compensate you." I shouted, startling the both of us with the volume that actually escaped. So take my life if you want-I'm not planning on being around much longer anyway."
"You really don't care if you die? Are you infirm?" she asked, not sure if she should be sympathetic to the waste of flesh before her.
"Oh, I care...that's how I ended up in this fantasy land." Looking around at the forest I then asked, "Which way back to civilization?"
"Back to civilization? I don't know what witch poured iron into your spine to give you that kind of nerve you miserable piece of…" She paused and looked away for a moment and then looked back somehow wearing what looked like a genuine smile saying, "You know...it's just been a really long week. If you head straight that way…" she indicated a direction with her outstretched finger, "...you'll stumble onto a graveyard. There should be someone there willing to take care of you. Don't worry about the mess, I'll figure out a way to set this all to rights."
I wasn't sure I liked how she used the phrase "take care" but at least it was something. "Sorry about the cart, but you're really cute so I'm sure someone at whatever convention or costume party you're going to will help you out."
"Easy come, easy go, right?" she said to my back as I walked off, "Try not to die on the way!" I heard her say sounding almost cheerful.
On some level, it really did occur to me that it might have been wise to question her complete one-eighty, but I didn't want to care. I should have stopped and helped her clean up the mess, but I just wasn't myself.
I didn't even have the energy to respond to her so I simply kept walking. Normally forests are supposed to be peaceful or soothing but all it did was remind me that I didn't have it in me to hope for anything but oblivion. Every time I tried to think of a way out I simply felt more hollow like even the warmth of my body was a withheld insult.
The world around me seemed almost greyscale as I wandered through the forest at least trying to head in the rough direction the girl had indicated. The woman that started all this, the one that left me with nothing...I was afraid of her, her parents, her friends. Blaming her for everything made me angry, but the realization that this was all my own fault set my rage at a boil. I always think too much, and I didn't want to think anymore.
I had been wandering for several hours without even noticing until I saw the sun starting to set. I saw the edge of the forest and a tiny stylized building in the distance that had to be a fancy crypt of some sort. "Damn, finally." I said out loud to myself as I pointed myself in that direction. I only made it a few more steps before my foot got caught on something. Pulling with everything I had, I only succeeded in pulling my foot out of my shoe and then falling forward as I tried to steady myself.
Bracing for the inevitable impact of my face on the ground, my fall was instead broken by an almost invisible sticky filament. It was so sticky, in fact, that I was having extreme difficulty pulling myself free. This had to be a spider's web of some kind but I'd never seen one this strong before.
"And what sweet thing has stumbled into my web?" I heard a powerful feminine voice ask from somewhere above me.
"Hey pal, little help here…?" I said before adding, "I just really hate spiders."
"That is not uncommon among humans, and might make things...interesting." I heard the voice answer, now seeming to be just inches from my ear.
Starting to get angry I loudly intoned "So you going to help or just be a worthless pain in my ass?"
"Ooooh, so you want to do this the hard way." I heard the voice respond with a sort of quivering hunger to it.
"Look, you..." I began before the shape of a massive spider sprung directly in front of me...or so I thought before I realized that this seemed to be at least partly human.
Before I could say anything else, she skittered up to me almost putting us nose to nose and smiled. Under normal circumstances I would have been utterly horrified but this seemed to confirm that I had actually died from that jump and this was some twisted afterlife. Staring into a series of dark red eyes set upon an otherwise gorgeous face, I got very uncomfortable very quickly.
"You seem to be struggling a bit there," she said as she raised one of her human-looking hands to her mouth and seemed to be biting on one of the nails.
"Yeah, sorry...horrifyingly repulsive isn't my type," I responded trying to sound unimpressed.
"Oh sure, you're saying that now but just you wait until…" she began in a seductive tone of voice.
"Until what? You stop being a disgusting insect?" I quickly said interrupting her. "Why don't you go try this comedy act on a fly or something."
My goal had been to piss her off but this actually made her recoil as if I'd struck her physically. She hid her face from me for a moment and she seemed to be shaking slightly. "Damn it, why can't I just not care?" I thought to myself as she seemed to be crying. A moment later she turned back towards me with a completely different look in her eye.
"So you DO like it rough!" she said as she moved slowly towards me wearing a very dangerous smile that showed a set of sharp fangs.
"I said…" I began in an attempt to lay some other insult on her when she suddenly dashed forward and slammed into me, knocking the wind from me completely.
"What was that?" she asked innocently as I coughed, trying desperately to breathe, "You're done talking now? Good. I know you were just trying to turn me on, but that mouth of yours is getting tiresome"
She then stretched her arms upwards dramatically, either to show off her impressive breasts or just to give me time to catch my breath. After a moment of fitful coughing I had managed to recover enough to speak again, saying, "Just kill me, you foul bitch...your stench is…" was all I was able to get out before I was hit again, much harder this time, directly in the chest.
We were even for the insults now, right?
The impact was great enough to tear me free of the web, but not without tearing my clothes to shreds. I tumbled through the air in delayed shock as at least a few of my ribs had cracked or splintered with that blow. I hit the ground with my left arm under me and felt it crack as the broken bone shard tore through the surface of my skin.
"We'll get to that, dear," I heard her say through a ringing in my ears as adrenaline poured through my veins. "I love a man with some fight in him so I think I'll keep you as my husband," she stated, not giving me a choice in the matter. "We just need to lay down some ground rules like any normal family," she continued speaking as slowly made her way towards me.
Struggling to get up, the pain on my left side almost caused me to black out and I managed to push myself up onto my hands and knees. My brief sense of accomplishment at that was quickly shattered as she placed one of her legs on my back and pushed me right back down.
"The first rule is that you will not open your mouth unless I tell you to do so, you lost those privileges," she began, twisting her leg into my back to emphasize the point. "You'll learn to love this just like any other man," she said quickly flipping me over onto my back. "Ah, see? Your body is already asking for me."
The fear, adrenaline, and possibly even the pain had indeed caused an erection. I was far more concerned with getting away from this creature but there was little to no chance of that happening with her strength and speed being far beyond that of even an athletic human. This was going to happen and there was nothing I could do to stop it.
Moving to put her face near mine again she whispered venomously "You don't need to fight any more, dear. Your body is proof enough that you want this," she said as she moved herself over me and showed me what had to be her vaginal opening. A horrifying hybrid of spider and human, it seemed to be weeping with a thick, vile liquid.
And then, just like that, she lowered herself down, taking me inside her. Despite myself, I knew this felt good. The sensations from such an unfamiliar shape and texture assaulted me and I knew I wouldn't last long in this embrace.
As a last act of defiance, I managed to groan out through the potent mix of pain and physical joy, "Any cheap prostitute can do this to a man...you'll never make me want this."
Where was this shit even coming from? The most mean-spirited thing I'd ever called a girl to this point was in the 6th grade when I called my jump rope partner a moron. To be fair, she was a moron-swinging a rope like that...
Without even stopping her forceful up and down movements she simply blinked each of her eyes in turn and then I was wracked with horrific pain and she brought down two of her legs through my broken arm and my right leg just below the knee. With the quick splash of blood the pain hit me so hard that my ears were ringing, but my body was not merciful enough to let me pass out from the pain.
"It's sad, really," she whispered to me as she leaned in close to me, still not even slowing her pounding sexual movements, "Here I am on my wedding night and I'm about to be a widow. At least you'll get to perform your marital duties once," she said as she picked up speed.
It was exactly as she said, after only about 2 minutes, my body finally relented to the unwanted pleasure as she raped me. My back arched for just a moment, sending a fresh dose of pain throughout my entire body as my penis kicked and jerked inside her with its release.
"Oooooh. So delicious, darling. With any luck our daughter will get the chance to grow up never having to meet such a horrible father," she said with a strange tone in her voice. Was she...crying?
What the fuck is wrong with me? I'm probably bleeding to death, everything hurts, and I've just been raped. Why exactly do I feel bad for this girl crying? Worse than that...I started thinking that if I could move a bit better, I'd go over and apologize.
I had to wonder why I was even thinking about it as I lay dying on the forest floor. Isn't death exactly what I wanted? Having it confront me with this much pain was giving me second thoughts. I started to move slightly when a large stick landed next to me. "There's a graveyard just ahead," I heard her say from somewhere in the trees before I heard sounds of her moving away from me.
"Get up," I heard myself say. Despite the agony that seemed to suffuse every fiber of my being, that same agony had cut through the empty grey perception of the world. As I forced myself up onto my one good leg, using the stick for support, I had a sudden realization. I did not want to die. With that I began the excruciating, hobbling walk towards the graveyard.
As I left this small clearing I saw a set of impossibly fine clothes hung from a branch nearby. Being almost completely naked now, I considered taking them. If the spider had left them for me…"No," I told myself out loud and simply continued on. I thought I heard a sound behind me as I passed by the branch but I didn't turn to investigate. Putting one foot in front of...well, a stick and the same foot, I slowly limped my way to the graveyard.
If I somehow survived this, I'd have to find out why the spider let me go...and apologize.
"Yeah Joe, apologize to her for letting her rape you," I said out loud.
"Well, Joe...I was sort of asking for it," I said in response.
"I can't believe you just said that. We're done." I heard my voice stomp off in a huff.
"He'll be back…"
After nearly an hour I made my way to the edge of the graveyard where I saw an ethereal female figure clad in a shimmering diaphanous gown seemingly beckoning to me.
Having almost lost my mind to the pain and blood loss, I said to myself, "Hey Joe, you think she's going to rape me too?"
"I'm not speaking with you."
"Fine, go. See if I care. A dead guy doesn't need friends like you anyway."
That was it for me. Nearly the moment I crossed into the clearing and passed the first broken headstone, I felt an overpowering weariness pilfer what had been left of my strength.
Unable to classify the next moment with an emotion, I saw the mysterious shining female rush towards me with outstretched arms.
"Damn, he should have been here by now," the gyoubu danuki said out loud as she checked over her illusion. "It'll be worth it to see how he likes the 'help' I've got ready for him," she continued with a small smile to herself. "I'll help him out of those strange clothes and then I'll help myself to him whether he likes it or not. Oooh, I hope he tries to run."
Using the unsurpassed anthropomorphosis skill common to her race, she had changed her form to that of a beautiful glowing human woman with flowing fiery red hair, fierce green eyes (she couldn't resist the temptation to make the shape at least somewhat similar to her own), and a buxom hourglass figure draped in a glittering gown. "He already offered his life, so if he falls for my seduction he'll be...Ah!"
Finally seeing the shape of a man at the edge of the graveyard she suppressed a cheer of glee and started to move towards him before quickly realizing something was very wrong. The man was leaning heavily on a large stick and seemed to be completely missing part of an arm and a leg.
"He's fucking with me. He has to be," the girl thinks to herself as she moves a bit closer and sees him begin to waver on his feet.
"Oh no...no no no." she exclaims as she sprints towards him. Moving as fast as her legs will carry her she sees him throw the stick to the side and begin falling forward. With a few more quick steps and a diving leap she barely catches him before he hits the ground. Seeing his blood on her hands, she drops the illusion.
"Oh hey…" the man says weakly, "cute raccoon girl…"
"Don't try to talk," she says, picking him up in her arms and dashing to where she had hidden her cart. "This is all my fault…" she says, trying to hold back tears.
"I should just let him die," she thinks to herself. "If he hadn't been so...I wouldn't have sent him into…Gah!" she shouts in exasperation, feeling entirely responsible for the man's condition and determined to do whatever she could to keep him alive.
She pulls a soft blanket from the cart and lays the man down gently and brings a lantern over to get a better look at him and the damage is far worse than she thought. The right side of his chest is almost caved in, the slow trickle of blood from the stumps of his arm and leg continue to pour his life out onto the blanket.
"Please no…not again," she says out loud closing her eyes for a moment and then leaping up to grab a tiny vial labeled "CPUH" from within a hidden compartment in the cart.
"I'm sorry," the man says, the words escaping as barely a rasp, "...wanted to die..changed m...mind," he manages before he can no longer force sounds from his mouth but he continues trying to simply mouth the words for a moment before even that slows and stops.
Rushing over to the man she upends the bottle of powder into his mouth followed by some water from a small canteen, but the man makes no effort to swallow. She props his head up slightly and massages his throat gently to force the powder into his system and waits. After 3 seconds there is no reaction, the same after 10 seconds, after 20 seconds she lays his head back down and tries to listen for a heartbeat and hears only silence.
"Oh...please...please don't die. Don't leave this on me!" she screams as she tries forcing her breath into his lungs and massaging his chest but neither seems to be having any effect.
Watching from a small nearby crypt and holding the battered remains of an arm and leg, another person is extremely interested in this man. Calling upon extremely powerful magics, she places the body in a state of suspended animation and walks over to the raccoon girl, now sobbing uncontrollably.
The tear-stricken girl sees the watcher come into view. The girl from the crypt is barely taller than a child but almost impossibly endowed with ample, perfectly formed breasts and wide hips. A crown of long silver hair the color of moonlight cascades to the middle of her naked back. Her ashen violet eyes shine with necromantic magic in the darkness as she steps closer to the pair of visitors. The raccoon girl identifies the girl as a lich.
"He is very close to death." she says calmly.
"Wait! You can save him then, right?" the raccoon girl quickly responds, her ears perking up slightly at the thought.
"Possibly."
"What does that mean?"
"It means possibly." came the emotionless response.
Quickly drying her tears on her sleeve and standing up, the raccoon girl asks in a serious tone "What is your price?"
"Half," comes the quick reply.
"Are you insane?! Do you know…" she began before being cut off.
"I'm only making this offer once and only because I know that was unicorn horn you fed him."
"Fine!" came the raccoon girl's angry response,"It's my fault he's like this so...just save him."
Staring down at the man for a moment the short pale girl looks back to the taller gyoubu danuki, "He wanted to die. He will likely wish to again as I repair this damage. Are you certain you wish to put him through that?"
"I already agreed to the deal, didn't I? If you can save him then do it…" the raccoon girl shouts getting impatient.
With a surge of necromantic power to move the blood within the man, she uses the power to force the healing agent through his body while forcing back the tiny grips of necrosis that were attempting to set in. The act draws a tremendous amount of power from the lich and as the coruscating aura of necromantic energy pours from her into the fallen man, she suddenly screams out in pain, dropping to a knee.
"Are you okay?" the raccoon girl quickly shouts but is completely ignored.
Forcing herself back to her feet she then lays the remains of the mangled arm and leg in their proper places and returns her focus to the ritual. A low hum has begun to fill the air nearby as the clashing magics of the unicorn horn and pure necromantic energy collide within the body of the wounded man. Each time the opposed auras touch there is a sharp electric crack and the man's body jumps.
After the third such crack of electricity, the man's eyes bolt open as he takes a desperate ragged breath even through the pain of several broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Each tiny breath was like being stabbed in the chest. The man cried out in agony, and then the real pain began.
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"You need to stay awake for this," I heard a voice say to me. Opening my eyes through the blanket of pain I saw an unfamiliar face looking down at me. Her eyes nearly devoid of expression, there was still a small glimmer of sorrow or pity in her gaze. I could see her working a needle and a glowing violet thread through the skin near my severed arm and leg. More than the skin itself, she seemed to be passing the needle through the bones as well.
Each moment became a seeming eternity of agonizing misery as I felt the bones of my arm and leg continually break and re-mend. My mind sought to insulate me from the pain by letting me pass out but the calm, piercing violet stare from the unfamiliar face wouldn't allow my mind to escape. All I could do was scream obscenities in the hope that I could keep myself from losing my sanity through this pain.
In the calm moments before another torrent of pain began, I saw the girl from earlier pacing just behind this small clearing. "Shouldn't the powder take care of his limbs?" I heard her ask in a tearfully pained voice. The girl in front of me simply grabbed my chin and forced my gaze back on her saying, "Look only at me for now. This is almost finished."
I saw her make one final pass with the thread, carrying a rippling agony through every one of my nerves again before she seemed to be tying a small knot. "Finished," I heard her say before I was finally released from her gaze long enough for my body to finally pass out.
When I regained consciousness I realized that both girls were pressed up against me. The raccoon girl from earlier and the girl that I had watched sewing me back together each held me in a tight grip. Despite the darkness, I could see the violet eyes of the short, pale girl staring directly into mine. She had her ear to my chest, apparently listening for a heartbeat.
"Heterochromia," I heard her soft voice say, breaking me from my reverie.
"Sectoral," I manage to add, blinking my right eye with a large brown spot that looked almost like blood in the otherwise blue iris but shot through with yellow that seemed almost like a faint sunburst from the pupil.
Pausing for a moment, I open my mouth to speak again when she places a small finger to my lips, saying "Rest now, talk later." After which she used her fingers to gently close my eyelids.
"But I need to kno-" I began before feeling a small poke at my ribs which would have normally been a tickling annoyance but felt like a dagger in my wounded state, confirming that the spider and everything that followed was not a dream.
Wincing at the pain, I heard her voice again "See?" I simply kept my eyes closed and nodded.
Failing to suppress a shiver from the cold air, I felt both female bodies pull in more tightly against me. The sensations from the two forms couldn't have been more different with the slender girl from earlier seeming to radiate heat on my right side, and the girl on my left with the impossibly pale and smooth skin almost feeling cool to the touch.
As I tried to figure out how exactly I got into this situation-this world in the first place, I felt another sharp poke at my ribs. Shocked again by the pain my eyes shot open only to be greeted by the violet stare once more. "You will receive an explanation once you awaken, sleep now," she said again in an even tone.
I tried to convey a pleading sense of confusion to her through my gaze. There was no chance that I would be able to sleep with all of these things running through my…
My thought process derailed immediately as she pressed her soft full lips to mine and I felt her seem to breathe into me for a moment. She then pulled back and allowed the barest hint of a smile to grace those lips, saying only "Interesting," as I instantly felt my consciousness fade and passed into a deep sleep.