NOTE: Another chapter, another session of secrets getting spilled. Who knew Shadow Garden was this good at torture?
Enjoy and Review!
Chapter 9: Doggy Tag
This time, instead of the walls of her cell, the Princess and her holy weapon had been taken outside of the base. They stood in the training field where Alpha stood across from them with her arms crossed underneath her chest. "Princess, 'tis time for torture."
Arms lazily held behind her head; Princess swayed slightly on her bare feet. "What are we doing outside today, Miss Alpha? Are we gonna grill something outside?!"
"No."
Princess fell to her knees, despair hanging over her head like a dark cloud. Her holy weapon gasped at her with worry. "Princess! Get a hold of yourself!"
"R-right…sorry, Ex. I just remembered a torture session in my dreams where I submitted for the chance to eat a grilled hamburger steak."
"So, even in your dreams you'll submit…"
"If you two are done, I'd like to begin explaining the torture today." Alpha's commanding tone grabbed their attention. Seeing that they were back to paying attention to her, the co-leader continued on. "Originally, I was going to have someone else host this session, but she had an important conference to attend today. So, I had to adjust things at a short notice." Alpha clapped her hands loudly. "Come out, Delta!"
"Delta? That sounds familiar." Princess thought.
"WHOOO!" A loud howl surprised the prisoners. They turned around to see a shadowed figure perched on top of the Shadow statue, howling up at the night skies. She leaped down from the statue and landed next to Alpha, perched like a dog would be. She purred softly as Alpha's hand rubbed the top of her head with loving care.
Delta is a young female dog therianthrope with large canine ears and a fluffy tail. She sports purple eyes with vertical slit pupils that become circular when happy. She retains an athletic yet curvaceous build, Delta's body possesses chiseled muscles and well-defined contours. She wears the customary slime bodysuit with black and gold decorations, but with the individualized accessories of fur adornments at the collar, wrists, and ankles. Delta's top has the basic dark attire with twin vertical gold lines running up the central third of her torso before joining two violet gems accents. The gems fall in line where another gold lining traverses her upper pectoral outline above her bust, with gold shoulder pads connected to the gems. Her shoulders have a slight bagginess before connecting to two gold rings where her deltoids meet her arms in regular black sleeve, connecting to standard cestus around both of her forearms and black gloves. Her top is wrapped around the diaphragm by a slight belt where the seam splits underneath to reveal her abdomen.
"Delta is ready, Lady Alpha!" The dog beast-kin yelled.
Princess narrowed her eyes as she tried to remember the last time she had seen Delta, finding her appearance familiar. All she could remember were blanks in her memory of a monstrous beast attacking her as several other women screamed in fear. Luckily, Ex was able to recall who this doggy was quickly.
"Delta? As in the Delta that restrained the Princess when your medical team attempted to give her a shot?!" Ex exclaimed.
"Yes, the very same." Alpha answered.
Delta's eyes scanned the two before realizing who the blonde was. "Princess! Fight Delta!"
"F-fight you?" Princess flinched back. "Why would I do that?"
"Our last fight ended in a lame way, because you weren't feeling good! You hit Delta hard enough that she could feel it! So, Delta wants a rematch!" Her bushy tail waved enthusiastically, and her shiny grin conveyed just how overjoyed she was. The Princess felt her heart flutter and brain melt just from the adorable sight. A stupid smile crept along her face as she swayed side-to-side softly.
"Tch! As if the Princess has time for such barbaric nonsense! She is the Captain of the Legion's Third Imperial Army! The Princess has only engaged in battle for the sake of protecting all of those she holds dear and self-defense! For her, a battle is nothing more than a means to an end, an ugly mark on her skin! There is no way she'd ever agree to something like this!"
"Sure!" Princess agreed.
"Princess?"
"I-I can't help it, Ex! I just love dogs, you know?! She looks so cute!" Princess pointed at the beast-kin with a blush. Delta was currently scratching the back of her ear as she waited next to Alpha for whatever is going to happen next. "Besides, I never had a pet before! I've seen commoners walking along the streets and parks with their pets, the smiles and laughs whenever their pets accomplish something! Just once I want to know what it's like to play with a dog!" Princess declared with tears in her eyes.
"Princess…"
Alpha, having been listening to them entire time, sighed softly. "Then you're in luck, Princess."
"Eh?"
"Today our leader, Lord Shadow, was supposed to take Delta out hunting. However, something important came up and he had to cancel their outing." The reminder of the canceled hunt caused Delta's ears to flop down. "And due to the last-minute changes of the torture, I decided to use this a chance for Delta to get her energy out and gain a secret."
"So, Delta and the Princess will be hunting?"
"No, they'll be playing tag."
…
…
"Tag?/Tag?"
"Yes."
"A little immature, don't you think?" Ex mentions.
"If you believe it to be childish, then the Princess should have no issue with surviving the next several minutes without getting tagged." Alpha began laying out the rules. "You two must stay within the grounds the entire time. Delta will be coming at you relentlessly to tag you with her hands, if her palms touch you once then you lose and must give a secret. If you survive the next three minutes without getting tagged, then you win. Princess, you are not allowed to hit back, but you may deflect if necessary. Am I clear?"
"Yes, Miss Alpha!" Princess reached up and undid her ball and chain from around her neck. "Keep watch over this, Ex." She attached it to the sword's hilt.
"Wait, you could've taken that off the entire time?" Ex's question went ignored as Princess stepped into the open field with Delta running along an all fours.
"Delta!" Alpha called out to her fellow Shadow. When Delta looked back, she squeaked in fear at Alpha's stern expression. "Do not go overboard or there will be consequences, understood?"
"Y-yes, Lady Alpha!" Delta nodded her head quickly. The beast-kin scampered to her side of the field as Alpha pulled out a small timer.
"Are you both ready?" She called out, standing next to Ex. She received nods from the two. "Then, begin."
Princess was confused as to why Delta was starting from so far back. A wave of confidence filled her, since she figured that with this much space, she'd have enough time to think of a counter against Delta's pursuit. However, she did not expect Delta to flash in front of her within the millisecond of the game starting. It was only thanks to the Princess' honed reflexes that she managed to dodge the palm strike. Gusts of air exploded just from the outward push of Delta's attack. "Woah! She's so fast!"
A feral grin spread across Delta's face, clearly pleased that Princess had dodged that strike. She spun on her heel and started throwing out repeated palm strikes at her target. Princess luckily managed to barely avoid each one, still surprised by Delta's speed. Realizing that this wasn't going to be as easy as she assumed, Princess focused her senses just as she would in a real battle.
Princess avoided a left-handed strike and pushed herself away from Delta. She then jumped over the beast-kin, however a tendril of slime extended out of the bushy tail to wrap around her ankles. Delta brought the Princess in for a strike that would've slammed into the blonde's stomach had she not stabbed her free foot into the ground. The sudden stop set Delta off balance, causing her attack to miss its target. Princess felt the slime loosen and broke free to jump far away from Delta.
The beast-kin wasn't deterred at all, her grin ever-so present. "Delta won't lose this, nuh uh!" She jumped after the Princess, much faster than the blonde had expected and flipped to deliver a powerful axe-kick that kicked up a shit ton of dirt. Princess managed to block the attack with her crossed arms, but that left her open for Delta's tail to slam into her ribs and send her skidding across the dirt.
Princess kick flipped herself off the ground quickly enough to avoid Delta's downward palm slam. She spun in the air for a moment before clapping her hands together, creating an explosion of air that blew her far enough into the air. Delta gave chase by easily jumping after the Princess to continue their game of tag. The two engaged one another in a melee clash, the Princess fought hard to deflect or avoid the onslaught, while Delta continued to laugh joyously. "Come on, Princess! Show Delta more!" Delta backhanded the Princess across the face, then landed a devastating sledgehammer that blasted her back into the ground.
Alpha looked down at her timer. "10 seconds left!"
Delta kicked against the air with her palms outstretched towards the Princess, who was still recovering from the impact. The blonde gasped loudly as she saw the Delta missile coming down on her. Sucking in her breath, she tightened her body just as Delta smashed into the ground, kicking up enough dirt and dust to block them out from the audience.
"Princess!" Ex cried.
"Times up." Alpha said. She walked towards the dust cloud to see if Princess had lost or not and found herself staring wide-eyed at the outcome of the game.
Delta had the Princess wrapped up in a bear hug, the blonde was giggling happily as her hands gently rubbed the beast-kin's back. The usual battle-hungry Shadow looked pleased with herself.
Alpha found the scene adorable…not that she would ever tell anyone that.
The Princess talked.
"I see. The king has secret tunnels kept in these areas of the kingdom." Alpha looked pleased with the notes given. She looked back to see Princess patting Delta's head with affection, that dumb grin of hers present as ever.
"Delta is a good girl~!"
"Uh huh! Boss-man tells Delta she's a good girl all the time too! Except when that stupid cat is involved, but nobody cares about her!" Delta quickly added that last part. "Delta had a lot of fun, Princess!"
"I had fun too, Delta." Princess smiled happily.
"Well, at least you got to play with a dog." Ex sighed as he watched the two hug each other once more.
Chapter End
NOTE: Delta has asserted her dominance over another opponent. But she likes this one, so she'll treat her nicely. The Princess finally got to play with a cute dog, so she still won today.
Honestly, the only one who lost is Ex when you think about it...
Have a great day!