Thank you to everyone who has commented and who have been reading. Another shout out to Sensara for her assistance.
Also, the Red Queen is sick and twisted, her efforts still have not stopped. Do not read if it makes you uncomfortable. Thank you.
T'Lara tilted her head as the dark, looming castle came closer.
"The screaming has stopped," Larkin remarked, listening hard. But the last of the man's screams had echoed and died a few minutes ago, and the medical officer didn't like what that might imply.
T'Lara motioned to Varel that the screaming had stopped, but held him back from breaking into a run. They continued their way forward, cautiously.
Eventually when they rounded a corner, they saw colored smoke coming from a giant mushroom where there was a caterpillar perched atop, smoking what looked to be a hooka. The two stood staring at him a moment and Larkin was adjusting his uniform.
Varel gave a small cough because of the smoke, "Sir...Could you possibly...assist us?"
The caterpillar looked smugly down on them, "Possibly. With what do you require assistance?" He asked, his voice deep and scratchy.
"Who is talking?" Larkin asked, "It sounds as if they have been living in a wood burning stove."
Varel ignored the doctor, "We are lost as well as smaller then we should be normally."
"And what size should you be normally?" The Caterpillar asked.
"Between five and seven feet." Varel answered.
"Oh? Is that all? What is wrong with the size you are now?" The caterpillar cooed, taking another puff on his pipe.
"It is rather difficult to do much of anything at this height." answered the security chief.
"Non-sense. I can do many things being the height I am. You must simply be stupid simpletons." responded the caterpillar.
Varel looked at Larkin and T'Lara, and Larkin gave a small huff, "Do not listen to him Varel. He is simply covering up the fact that he is too ignorant and does not know how to return to normal."
"Now see here young man, I know of such things, however I am a little confused as to why I should tell you. Now if you are going to be rude..." The caterpillar chimed in, taking another puff of his pipe.
"You were rude first. We are not stupid simpletons. We are simply not from this place. There is much that is new to us and we have gotten ourselves lost and shrank to smaller size. We are looking for a way to return to our normal heights so that it may be easier to find a way out of this maze. Where as being the size you are works well for you as you are used to it, the same can not be said for us." Larkin snapped off in response, his patience beginning to wear thin with this place.
The caterpillar sat a moment, puffing thoughtfully on his pipe, "Logical. I will assist you, if for no other reason then for you to shut up. The mushroom in which I sit on will provide the means to return you to your loftiness. One side will allow you to grow, but the other side will cause you to shrink. I will not tell you what side is which. Now...if you will excuse me, I have a chess game with the flowers." And in one big puff of smoke, he had sprouted colorful wings and a smaller body, allowing him to take off into the sky.
The three Vulcans walked toward the mushroom and stared at it, T'Lara leaning in closer grabbing two handfuls of the top and looking at them closely, then held them out to Larkin and Varel. Varel shook his head, "I refuse to be your lab rat."
"What?" Larkin asked, confused.
"She wishes for one of us to try the mushrooms." Varel responded.
Larkin gave a small slump of his shoulders, "I think at this point, if it kills me, I shall be fortunate." He reached out and grabbed a piece from their female companion and took a small bite. After chewing a moment his eyes widened as he could feel himself changing some how.
Varel took a step back as he watched Larkin shrink, "Great. Now mark that piece to signify that it shrinks, T'Lara then give him a piece of the other."
Larkin gave a sigh, having heard Varel say he shrunk but felt a gentle nudge of T'Lara handing out a small piece prodding him in the stomach with it. He ripped off another piece and shoved it into his mouth, moments later feeling a change again, but a tightening. He was growing, "Well?" He asked.
Varel cupped his mouth to shout, "Did you have to take such a big bite? I think you may be too tall now! Do not do anything further just yet!" He called out to the doctor, who could barely hear him due to the size difference.
T'Lara measured out a small portion for herself and one for Varel, both slipping it into their mouths. Shortly after they had grown to what they hoped were their original heights, "Larkin, T'Lara is measuring you what is hopefully the proper portion. Lower your hand carefully!" He yelled again.
Larkin gave a sigh and lowered his hand for T'Lara to put the correct dosage of mushroom into it. He gently stuck it in his mouth, hoping for the love of all logic she got the correct mushroom. Moments latter he felt a small pat on his head of a woman's touch, "Back to normal I hope?" Larkin asked.
"As far as we can tell anyway. Let us continue. Unfortunate you could not see or else you could have plotted a way out of here from the view you had." Varel said, walking toward another opening.
O_O_O_O_O_O_O_O
Samok gasped as arousal pushed through the pain, and he moaned against his will.
"And what would you have me do, my lady?"
She leaned back to look at him, a smile appeared, and she trailed her nail up his stomach to his chest. Pleased in that she had his blood pumping, yet content to see just how high she could get it to go.
She walked around him and tightened the chains, "Such a proud man, but it seems you do have a weakness. This pleases me greatly. I wish to indulge you...only barely."
She unclasped a few clasps of her corset and took her nail, cutting into a breast as she trailed her riding crop up his leg, to his groin, and anywhere else she could reach, giving a harsh little whip here and there.
Samok moaned in combined pain and pleasure as she whipped the inside of his thighs. If she called this indulgence...it was pain, yet his beast was hungry for more, hungry for something more than a simple whipping, more than her teasing.
"What would you have me do, my lady?" he asked again, barely holding on to his wits.
She leaned in and bit his lower lip and whispered, "To break..." And she reached a hand down to grip him firmly and smiled.
Samok hung his head and tried to ignore the mixture of pleasure and pain. His only hope now was for his companions to find him and save him from this hell. He knew she would not stop until he was broken, turned completely to her will, and now it was a battle of wills. He wasn't sure if he could win...
O_O_O_O_O_O
The closer they got to the castle and labyrinth, the more worried her expression became, "I feel I should warn you now, Solok, that you may see things you should not. You are to do as I tell you. Do not disobey me. No matter what happens and what you may want to do...I want your promise."
Solok nodded in obedience. "Whatever you say, T'Sai."
T'Pel cocked a brow, not fully believing the boy Solok, and realized that they had entered the Labyrinth, and she could sense Larkin, T'Lara, and Varel surrounded in a mass of confusion.
T'Pel assisted Solok with the general direction they were, but he had to find the proper route through. Solok backtracked once again to the main path they were following, using every bit of logic he had at his disposal. They were headed in a northeasterly direction, but they had already met dead ends three times.
Patience, he recalled his father saying to him at one point in the past. He repeated the word to himself over and over, trying to be patient, to live up to the precepts handed down for generations, to truly be a man of logic. His T'Sai would want him to be patient as well, and whatever she wanted, he would do.
T'Pel felt the others growing closer, and could at this point sense the man in the Castle, "Larkin!" She called out, hoping he might hear her. Perhaps they could all meet half way, or the sound may give them a better idea of where to go.
"T'Lara? Varel?" She continued.
"Here!" Larkin called, relieved to hear T'Pel's voice. "Are you disabled as well?"
"I cannot see, but I have Solok here with me and he has use of all his senses...however..."
Larkin frowned at her hesitation and guessed the captain was disabled in some other way. Perhaps he was still intoxicated, as many of the crew members had been on the ship.
"Can he lead you to us?" he called.
"He is attempting to. We will find you, simply stay put! I can sense you now...give us a few minutes and we will be there."
O_O_O_O_O_O
There were tears rolling down his face now, her teasing having not stopped, and she had not begun to satisfy him in anyway. Instead it was growing more painful by the moment.
Samok moaned, not sure how long he could stand this torture. She had instructed him not to come to completion, and yet her teasing were becoming more intolerable by the second. Please, he begged her in his mind, please stop.
O_O_O_O_O_O
Moments later, T'Pel and Solok rounded a corner and Solok stopped, "We found them."
Larkin's eyes fell to the boy, "Where is Solok?" He asked.
"I am Solok." He responded, a little annoyed at Larkins tone.
"It would seem that Q saw fit to render the captain as a child, for what ever reason." T'Pel answered.
T'Lara nearly beamed, having not seen his child like features for quite some time, but motioned that they needed to get moving.
T'Pel cocked a brow, "Are you unable to speak?" T'Lara gave a nod.
"And Varel is deft." Larkin replied. Suddenly realizing just how laughable this situation had to be.
Solok narrowed his eyes at the elder Vulcan, then chided himself. It was proper to respect one's elders, and T'Pel trusted the one named Larkin, and apparently the other two as well, and since she trusted them, it would be best for him to trust them as well. Friends of his T'Sai were friends of his.
He looked at the other female, T'Lara, the mute one, and frowned in confusion at her beaming. She was obviously quite pleased to see him, and he wondered why that was.
"Do you have any female friends named, T'Lara, Solok?" T'Pel asked, picking up on his unasked question.
He gave a nod, "One. Why?"
"Because the woman you see now, is she. Only not as you know her in this form." T'Pel said, sitting a moment as she tried to get a feel for what was happening in the castle.
Solok's eyes widened as he contemplated the lady before him. "T'Lara?" he whispered, then pushed down his shock. "It is agreeable to see you, T'Sai."
T'Lara nodded to him and raised the ta'al, and Solok returned the gesture. But then he turned to T'Pel when she turned to the castle, and he could almost feel her anxiety.
"Samok," she whispered, and he took her wrist gently and pulled her toward the castle, and T'Lara followed with the others.
O_O_O_O_O_O_O
The Queen cocked a brow, and removed her boots and her corset to show a bit more skin, "Would you like a little taste?" She cooed, letting his trembling lips near the soft skin of her collar bone.
"I will not break," Samok wheezed, but the beast was dying to sink its teeth into the Queen's flesh, out of a strange mix of anger and desire. His lips touched her cool flesh and he pressed them to her collarbone, but he could not summon the strength to bite.
She laughed derisively. "You may be nearer to breaking then you think."
She moved a finger to raise his chin, seeing the tears that had been streaming down his face, but still a shred of defiance in his emerald iris's. She let her lips ever so tenderly touch his, as they toyed with his dry skin, her tongue adding moisture as she went. A knowing smile ever present.
Samok could not help but lean into her kiss, needing the moisture desperately, needing someone to save him so much more. She chuckled against his lips, and he felt a sting across his abdomen as she whipped him with the riding crop once more.
O_O_O_O_O_O_O
"We need to formulate a plan. There is..."She found it difficult to think of a proper word, "...evil intent here. From what I can tell a woman. She has Samok, who is losing whatever battle she has him fighting." She swallowed, knowing full well what the Queen was doing to him and it made her sick to her stomach.
She shouldn't be able to feel his arousal and pain like this. She didn't want to. It was so intrusive to her she felt the knot tighten painfully in her stomach.
"Well...Varel can see, so should be able to handle any guards. I will do my best as well. You and T'Lara and...little Solok, should try to get to him as quickly as possible. I trust you ladies are capable of taking on a human woman?" He gave a smirk, amused with himself, and mainly trying to ignore the dire situation they were in.
The guards fell easily, sinking slowly to the floor as their nerve impulses were momentarily blocked, and Veral stepped over them. The ladies and Solok ran on ahead toward the door.
T'Pel had a firm hand on Soloks shoulder as they rushed up the stairs, and nearly tripped when there was another loud howl of pain. She could swear she heard whimpering, "We need to hurry. He can not take much more of this."
O_O_O_O_O_O_O