Chapter Six The Vines
Chapter Six
The Vines
Selena
The air inside was cool and calm, so unlike the humid warmth of the forest outside. Far from being pitch black though, the walls themselves were coated in what looked so be some sort of lichen or other growth that glowed with a bluish hue characteristic of bioluminescence.
The phenomenon was well known in some lifeforms on Terra as well, but this was Selena’s first up close and personal experience with it in what appeared to be plant life.
Considering the alternative of an inky-black oubliette, she was quite grateful for the faint light.
As the matrons led her silently through a dark, twisting labyrinth of passages, her toes digging into the loose, sandy ground inside the cave, she couldn’t help but remember the imagery so clearly picked up by the IFR before they’d had to bug out.
Had it really been what it appeared to be?
The scale had been impossible to tell, but it had seemed to be a large humanoid shape—easily taller than the average man, and powerfully built.
It had been the quite visible outline of the humanoid’s arousal that had piqued her attention, though she’d never have admitted such a thing to her crewmates.
Now, she was in the very cave they’d picked up that reading from.
But no huge humanoid was to be found.
It was a relief, of course. But was that a tiny bit of disappointment she felt too?
You’re just wanting answers. Scientific curiosity, that’s all.
“Keep telling yourself that,” she whispered.
The knowledge that the females taken into the cave all returned unharmed helped, if only a little. She would have to hold onto that if she was going to have any hope of getting herself out of this.
She’d long ceased trying to ask the matrons about it. They remained silent no matter what she said. They wouldn’t have known her language, of course, but still, their utter indifference to her entreaties unnerved her.
“Bitches.”
The sound of her voice might have echoed slightly, but it was difficult to tell over the sounds of their feet trudging through the sand. There was no response to her words from either of them, the matrons continuing to drag her along, further into the unknown.
It was childish, but Selena smiled ever so slightly at their utter lack of reaction to the insult.
The light brightened up ahead, growing to an almost neon green-blue, then a brilliance that approximated outdoor light itself. The sound of flowing water was clearly audible.
Then the passage opened out into an immense cavern.
“Oh… my God.”
The ceiling of the cavern must have been at least a hundred meters high, perhaps more.
All about, clusters of rocky outcroppings glowed with a brilliancy that seemed to pulse slightly, their radiance rhythmically waxing and waning.
It was warmer in this cave, the illumination seeming to brighten even her spirits now that she could see she wasn’t in fact entombed in darkness, somewhere deep underground.
“Lindemann would shit his pants if he saw this,” she murmured, craning her head up at the amazing sight.
A low rumble could be heard, but the sound was almost…
comforting. There was an underground river somewhere above, the water cascading down from high rocks along one wall of the cave, a fine white mist obscuring the bottom of the falls.
A deep, clear pool of water formed below it, gentle ripples continually coursing across its surface.
From there, a slow-flowing but broad river continued, bisecting the vast chamber, the water meandering into another large—and quite dark—opening in the opposite wall, exiting the cave.
The matrons released their grips on her arms, both turning to face her.
One of them pointed to the pool.
In the center of the water was a broad, flat rock face, perhaps three meters across. It formed a tiny island, the surface of the stone covered in a thick growth of blue-green moss that itself glowed faintly.
Strangely, it looked almost…inviting.
The other matron made a gesture with her arms, indicating she was to wade out to the rock.
“Oh… okay…”
The second matron made a fist up in the air, her fingers then extending from it, and held up a single finger.
“Day… one. Um, tomorrow?”
Then she recalled the footage. The ‘offerings,’ as she’d come to regard them, were always returned to the pixies within the next day.
She nodded vigorously, hoping the matrons thought she understood. They would be back tomorrow. Whenever that was.
One of the matrons cut the bonds holding her wrists together behind her, and Selena sighed, the relief at being able to move her arms again unexpectedly powerful. She rubbed her wrists, shaking her hands to try to get the circulation going fully again.
If I thought I could get away with it, I’d punch both of you cunts right in the mouth.
But discretion was the better part of valor. She’d bide her time, figure out where she was—and then make her move.
If it meant getting away from the twin Sisters of Silence, she was all for perching herself out there on that rock. Now that she was freed, she would be in a much better position to come up with a way to get out of there.
Not wasting a moment in distancing herself from her erstwhile captors, Selena trotted across the sandy soil, then waded into the pool.
She gasped softly at the feel of the water lapping at her naked thighs.
Though quite cool, it was by no means frigid, and once her body acclimated to the temperature, she found it surprisingly refreshing.
The depth quickly increased though, and in no time she had to begin swimming. Mercifully, it wasn’t a long distance though, and she was soon clambering onto the rock, her flower garment miraculously staying in one piece, though the soaked petals stuck in clumps to her skin.
The moss was a pleasant surprise, deep and soft, more resembling a blanket of fur than coarse vegetation. It gave off an unexpectedly strong scent, somewhat resembling lilac, but the smell of it was not at all off-putting.
As she watched the matrons back slowly away, then disappear one by one into the tiny entrance from which they’d come, Selena breathed deeply.
“Good riddance, you crazy bitches.”
She sat back, bracing her arms behind her, and tried to relax a moment. Of all the places to be intentionally stranded, it could have been much, much worse.
Scanning the cave around her, it was obvious the only place she could really explore was the huge maw of an opening that swallowed up the flowing river. Where a river flowed, it eventually had to meet an ocean—or lake—at some point. And it was almost certainly not in another underground cave.
Great plan, Selena. What if the river flows into a cistern and drops a hundred meters straight down a pitch-black hole? There goes your plan—and your fucking life.
She’d need to think on that one some more. Going back out the way they’d come was an option too, but it was a virtual guarantee the pixies would be just outside the entrance. She’d be brought right back, with the addition of a few more stripes across her bare ass courtesy of that asshole Mr. Ghost.
“I should’ve asked for a goddamned raise before going on this mission.”
There was a tickle across the top of her left hand, and she looked back.
“Oh…”
At first glance, she thought it was a tiny serpent that was trying to climb up her wrist. She pulled back instinctively, but what she thought was a serpent was instead a vine… that moved on its own.
And it held her hand fast to the moss.
Then the tickling sensation erupted across her body.
“What… the fuck!”
As if coming alive, the garment she wore sprang dozens of the same tiny vines, several of them snaking down both of her arms with frightening quickness.
Others coursed along her torso, crossing either hip and burying themselves in the thick, fragrant moss.
She pushed up with her legs, trying to flip her body over in an effort to escape the living vines.
It was futile, more of them stretching down her thighs from the flowers garlanding her hips, securing her kicking legs within moments.
More vines pulled at her arms, spreading them until she fell back against the moss. She cried out then as her bonds tightened, immobilizing her completely to the rock face, her arms extended to either side as far they could go. Only then did the strange vines still.
She shook her head from side to side—the only part of her body she could move anymore—and yelled again, angry now, even as real terror clutched her vitals.
“Let me go! God… damn you!”
No wonder those fucking bitches left in such a hurry.
But even that movement was short-lived, the sensation of her hair moving on its own heralding the securing of her head against the moss as well, tendrils entwining with her locks and pulling tight, until she stared straight up at the rocky, glowing ceiling.
Her heart was beating so fast she feared she was going to go into cardiac arrest. She willed her breathing to stabilize, trying to calm herself even a little.
Nothing hurt. The bonds weren’t tightening beyond securing her firmly to the rock. Whatever was happening, it didn’t seem to be endangering her life.
Not yet anyway.
As if the vines were telling her “Don’t be so sure, foolish girl” they began moving once again, but this time they seemed focused on only two places.
The garland across her breasts stirred, coming alive with vines.
Some stronger, thicker ones passed around and around each of her breasts, squeezing them tighter and tighter in their grip, until they both bulged upon her chest, slight dusky pink.
It didn’t hurt… quite. But it was definitely uncomfortable.
They weren’t done though, a long, prehensile vine slithering up the side of one breast, then across to the other before anchoring into the moss on her other side.
It tightened steadily, and laid as it was directly across her bare nipples, it galled them, indenting them cruelly into the soft flesh of her captive breasts.
She grimaced at the discomfort, but again it stopped just short of causing true pain.
What was worse was the way the abrasive surfaces of the vines had her nipples hard and throbbing, making the strictures crossing the middle of both breasts even more difficult to bear.
When it had finally stilled, the vine had tightened down onto her defenseless breasts in such a way as to almost bisect them, her vulnerable flesh bulging obscenely above and below it.
Her head was immobilized such that the vine had pressed her nipples down entirely out of her field of view.
“Fuck… what are you… doing!”
The vines at her hips drew her down still more against the rock, truly holding her fast as another thicker, rougher vine extended down between her naked—and now widespread—thighs.
“Oh… no! Not… don’t do that!”
But it was useless, the vine cinching down over her naked mons and forming itself to her cleft.
It continued tightening until it had insinuated itself between the lips of her sex, the rough surface worrying her clit where it pinned it down harshly.
It too throbbed under the bindings, her lips feeling as if fingers were drawing them further apart by the second.
The vine even pressed down upon her perineum, only stilling once it had tightened firmly against her anus too..
Her breathing was coming in frantic, staccato pants then, so frightened—and something else entirely—she’d become.
“Oh, fuck, I’m in trouble. What’s… what’s happening here?”
Calm down. Calm. You can do anything. Anything, remember? You’re not going to be killed. Just like the training. Get through this, and live. Breathe, Selena.
Perhaps a function of having her head lying so near to the moss, the fragrance of it grew increasingly intense, until her head began to swim a little bit.
The urge to rest, maybe even take a short nap was upon her then.
It had been many hours of stress and fear, and grappling with both the unknown and having to face it completely alone.
A little rest—even for just a few minutes—might be the thing that could help her piece together what was happening. And what she could really do about it.
“Guess you’re about to get some kind of answer to your… questions, Officer Marksss.” Her speech was audibly slurred, markedly slowed. Forming the words was a true effort. “You… idiot…”
That was the last thought in her mind as her eyes closed, sleep overtaking her, her consciousness diving into blissful oblivion.