---Haorken's perspective---
I stride along Khawekh's central thoroughfare, down from the palace to the market square through the fresh, bright, frigid morning air.
Despite the low temperature, my spirits are high!
With my world now within our [ansible]'s communication enabling [field], I've been able to talk to my sister several times over the past few [weeks] which has both soothed my apprehensions as to all the things that might have gone wrong (by showing me that she is alive and well on the unbelievable cityworld) and alleviated some of the awkward administrative burdens that were incumbent on me for being a regent, serving in place of an [empress], for so long!
I'm finally able to take a day off for the first time in several Moons!
I'm in a very good mood right now!
Just at this moment, the Weaver seems to wish to enhance my fine temper, placing in my way one whom I've previously found myself to quite enjoy the company of!
He stands at a boutique tent, examining a fine blue shortcape which matches the colour of his uniform quite well.
He hasn't noticed me as I approach him from behind and watch him throw on the cape that falls to the backs of his two knee joints.
I read the price tag and surreptitiously dig a handful of iron coins from my purse before starting to count them out.
"It's really nice…" Mbatha admires the cloak before holding up an absolutely flawless iron ingot in his right hand "…how many of these does this cos-"
*Kiiiish* is the sound made by my right hand reaching around him to tip eleven coins onto the counter.
The adorable Terran whips his pair of golden eyes up to meet mine, rewarding my stealthy approach with a startle.
"It's on me." I smirk from him to Kerghow, behind the counter.
"Oh! Your Excellency… That's not necessary! I have iron to pay with! It's-" he panics delightfully, turning to face me, his yellow eyes looking up from the level of my elbows.
"Nonsense, Mbatha!" I interrupt with uncharacteristic brazenness brought on by my good mood "I would be remiss if I let such a charming boy pay for his own vestments while I stand here with a full purse at my belt(!) I simply won't allow it(!) Let me treat you…"
He hesitates another moment before, with delicious embarrassment, conceding "As you wish, Madam Regent… Thank you very much."
At that acceptance, Kerghow begins collecting the coins from the counter to drop into the moneybox.
"I must say…" I look around the other cloaks displayed "…I don't believe I could have chosen you a prettier cloak myself… You have excellent taste, Mbatha!"
A very slight pink blush touches the light brown skin of his prominent cheeks, shrouded in shadow beneath his hood, and a light smile graces his lips as he looks away and says "That's… a very flattering thing to hear, Your Excellency."
"I'm glad you think so… Might I be so bold as to ask for the pleasure of your company for a little while, Mbatha?" I ask, extending my left arm to him in the space above the gap between my left pedipalp and front left leg with its bionic foot.
"Well… I couldn't very well refuse after such a gracious gift, now could I, Madam Regent(?)" the charming boy answers, stepping close and reaching up to wrap his palm over my forearm, just far enough from my elbow joint that there's no danger of his fingers being pinched by my armour if I flex it.
This configuration would be possible if he were a Vrakhand boy… but would require him to be walking with his hindbody beneath the skirts of my caparison (which would be somewhat inappropriate for public, even for a married pair!)
Somehow, however, it feels very natural to walk arm-in-arm with the little Terran man like this.
"So tell me, Mbatha… what brings you to Khawekh today?" I ask, pleasantly.
"I… was signed up for the guided Winter walk, Madam Regent."
"Was?" I probe.
"Yes, Your Excellency… It was cancelled on account of the guide receiving a leg injury and requiring treatment at the embassy. The others who were signed up all opted to take their shoreleave in Wokhash instead… I imagine they'll be doing their best to find ways to enjoy a beach day when it's too cold to swim, around now(!)… I opted to still spend my leave in the capital, sightseeing and shopping."
My mind races for a few moments, evaluating the information he's just given me.
I know the route selected for the walk… It's several hours long but there's still time to complete it before nightfall… it would just mean being happy to commit to doing nothing else while the Sun is up today…
I look down at the portion of the Terran's face I can see past the hood of the cape I just bought him and make my decision.
"Would you still like to do the walk, Mbatha?" I pose.
"Well certainly, Your Excellency, but I wouldn't be foolhardy enough to attempt it alone, even if that weren't against shoreleave regulations…"
"Ah… but what if you weren't alone? What if another guide could be found to substitute for Gharhat's injury?"
"Oh… I wouldn't like to make such a last minute imposition on any of your subject's time, Your Excellency." he states with adorable consideration.
"You wouldn't be, Mbatha… The one I'm proposing to have guide you is none other than myself!" I smirk.
"Oh, Madam Regent, I couldn't possibly ask-"
"And you haven't asked, have you?… I've freely offered! I would be delighted to guide you, Mbatha! All you need do is refuse or agree." I state firmly.
Looking up at me from my left side, the small man nervously flutters his bright yellow eyes before saying "In that case, Madam Regent, I would be delighted to be guided by you."
"Then it's settled!" I state with satisfaction before frowning as a thought occurs to me "Actually… I do have one condition…" raising a single finger from my right hand.
"A condition, Your Excellency?" he queries, an eyebrow cocked beneath an eyeless forehead.
"Yes. For the rest of the day, I want you to call me 'Haorken' as opposed to 'Madam Regent' or 'Your Excellency'… and I'd like you to tell me your full name too…"
The moment of stunned silence briefly scares me into thinking I might have crossed a line into impropriety, but then he finally answers "Of… of course, Your Ex-… Haorken… My name is Thamsanqa 'Soft' Mbatha." popping his tongue against the roof of his mouth for the final consonant of his first name, then adding "…you can call me 'Thami' for short if you wish." with a smile.
"'Thami' it is then." I beam "Now, I'll just need to stop by the palace to let it be known where I'm going but, after that, we can be off!"
---Thamsanqa's perspective---
This scene is utterly magical!
All it's missing is some bouncy clarinet music with orchestral accompaniment to really tie the whole 'Winter Wonderland' vibe together!
Thick snow glitters on the ground and trees as it catches the bright sunlight.
Every step gives a satisfying *crunch* and every breath steams up as it hits the fresh air!
The cold on my face is perfectly countered by the warmth of the gorgeous, padded silk cloak the regent spoiled me with earlier.
Oh and let's not forget my guide herself!
Being given a personal tour of these forested hills by a woman acting as the viceroy of her entire species!?
A woman tall enough to make me feel like a 7 year old with legs for days and a hindbody that, mantled in its skirt like that, gives the impression of being the galaxy's most enormous bustle!? Even if she weren't flirting with me, I'd very much be appreciating this woman's company!
As it stands, the only problem is that… well… she's a little… too exciting(!)
I keep needing to strategically angle my body away from her to hide the evidence of how exciting she is(!)
Of course, the thrill in imagining her noticing and imagining the embarrassment of having to explain myself to her is only making me harder!
She may be flirting but that doesn't mean I can allow myself to get carried away!
She's an aristocrat from a species with an extremely conservative temperament! A species that, until a year and a half ago, were forced to take the whole 'till death do us part' part of marriage extremely literally and for whom the idea of pre or extramarital sex would have been utterly unthinkable!
She's flirting with me because she enjoys flirting with me and I cannot allow myself to read any further into it!
Of course, even if she did go as far as propositioning me, she'd probably be so mortified by my explaining all the things I'd like her to do to me that I'd end up in the brig while the diplomats smoothed things over… in the best case scenario!
And, of course, with my proclivities known, I'd be taken off Vrakhand facing duties!
At this moment we come up to a more than 4m tall cliff blocking our forward path.
I'm just searching to see if there's a way around the obstruction when a firm palm is clamped either side of my hips.
My breaths hitch as I turn my head to look over my shoulder into the smirking, fanged, eight eyed face of the giant woman behind me.
I'm hoisted from the ground, rapidly gaining altitude as her strong arms extend to lift me over her head and her upper body is reared up to give her the necessary height to boost me to the top of the bluff.
I scramble up and away from the edge, my heart pounding and my breathing rapid as adrenaline electrifies my blood.
I look behind me to see her easily scaling the cliffface after me, using her seven sharp thanatite and one sharp metal feet as pitons to do so!
She turns her gleaming iridescent face to me and smiles "Are you alright, Thami?"
Getting up and trying my best to disguise how breathless the experience of being lifted like a babe in her arms has left me, I answer "Quite alright, Haorken. That was just a little unexpected was all!"
She laughs a wonderfully patronising laugh, only increasing the doomed ache of desire for her that I'm nursing in my gut, before asking "Would you like a warning next time, Thami?"
I smile back "No need, Haorken… You may consider yourself at liberty to pick me up any time you wish(!)"
"A trust I shall endeavour not to abuse(!)" she answers with effortless dominance.
She extends her arm ahead of her, gesturing me to take the lead along the path too narrow for both of us to walk abreast, a steep slope to our left.
I follow her unspoken order and walk ahead, listening as her feet *clink* against the rocky path behind me.
We walk like that for several minutes.
It's become a little overcast now and, just as I notice that, snow begins to fall.
It occurs to me that the path we're walking has gained rather a horizontal tilt to it, angled down towards what has become a quite precipitous drop on the left.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
I look behind me to see my guide having no problem at all navigating the 45° angled path, her left legs stretched down and her right bunched up in a way that allows her to keep her torso perfectly level.
Does she realise this terrain is somewhat treacherous for a Human?
I'm just pulling out my holo to check the weather forecast and advisories when, speaking for the first time in a few minutes, Haorken flirts "So… Thami… is there a Mrs Mbatha?"
"Well…" I smirk ahead of me, trying to formulate an equally flirtatious response.
I don't get to, however, because my sole meets an icy rock that seems to have negative purchase!
My foot is propelled down the slope and drags the rest of me along behind it.
I briefly hear a scream of "MBATHA!!!" before my body is ejected into the free space over a 10m drop onto what looks like solid ground blanketed in snow, beneath me.
Time slows down and gives me an agonisingly long while to contemplate the, at best, severe injury and, at worst, death I'm about to sustain from this fall and all the nothing I can do about it!
The ground flies up to meet me.
My body hits it.
It *crack*s beneath me from the impact.
I have the briefest fraction of a second to be relieved that I've fallen onto a surface with so much give when the water penetrates my clothes and submerges my head.
My entire body spasms and convulses from the sheer shock of the searing cold!
I scream… but all that escapes my mouth is a stream of bubbles.
---Haorken's perspective---
I step out of the rapidly formed snowstorm I've been walking through for the past [45mins], into the dry, sheltered cave, the soaking wet, freezing cold, shivering Terran boy clutched to my chest, my cloak wrapped around him and partially wetted from his drenched clothing.
Though still only midafternoon, it's become quite dark outside from the cloud cover.
It took us nearly [4hrs] to reach the point on the walk where Mbatha fell into the river. Far too far to risk trying to venture all the way back to Khawekh for help!
After I pulled him out, it also became apparent that his holo had been lost when he fell, meaning he couldn't simply call a navy shuttle to our location to evacuate us.
Getting him here was the best chance for his survival.
I curse my stupidity for failing to see the challenge that path would pose a Terran until it was too late and I doubly curse my having distracted him with my inappropriate question, at a crucial moment, to make him lose his footing!
This is all my fault!
I lay him down by the firepit and, seeing he won't be able to do it himself with the extent to which he's shivering, begin undressing him, apologising "I'm sorry for the impropriety, [Lieutenant Commander], but needs must!"
He does not answer, just meeting my eyes as I take his clothing away.
That done, my next port of call is the stack of emergency firewood that's likely been in here drying since it was replenished back in Spring, before any in the world knew what a Terran was, as unbelievable as it is now that that was so recent.
I lift a log in each hand and place them into the pit, then reach for another two.
The makings of a large fire now built, I reach for a pocket and pull out an iron fire striker, a piece of flint and a wad of wet tinder.
Stowing the useless fire medium, I bring a claw to the edge of one of the logs and scratch into it, creating a cluster of wood shavings attached to their parent log at the end.
Satisfied, I pick the striker up and aim it at the improvised bundle of kindling.
I strike the flint and create a shower of sparks that fall over the patch I just scratched up.
I strike again… and again… and again until, finally, one spark catches.
Hastily, I bring my head to a hands breadth from the ember and blow.
Smoke pours off of the spark I'm feeding as I desperately will it to take!
I laugh as a tiny flame flickers to life.
Not allowing myself to become complacent, I adjust my stack so that the top of the fire is licking the underside of the log above it.
I sigh in relief as the fire finally roars to life.
I look over to the shivering man I just shamelessly denuded and beckon him closer, into the warmth.
He shuffles forward into the light, splaying out his five fingered palms to the flames.
Trying not to stare at his fascinating fleshy body, I pick up the pile of soaking clothes from the cave floor and bring them to the rock beside the fire pit, spreading them out to allow them to dry more effectively.
That done and with no space left on the rock, I hang up my partially sodden cloak at the far wall.
I turn back around and am glad to see my companion's shivering greatly reduced.
I approach him.
Hesitating, I ask "W-would it be alright if I… touched you, Mbatha?… I know I'm not as hot as a Terran but my bodyheat's probably better than nothing, right?"
"Th-th-th-th-that's f-f-f-f-fine!" he stammers "B-b-but it's 'T-T-T-T-Thami'!… N-n-not 'M-M-Mbatha'… R-R-R-Remember?"
I chuckle "Alright then, Thami… I'm going to embrace you now."
I sit down behind him, bringing the front of my pelvis to the back of his, wrapping my pedipalps across his stomach and touching the flesh of my palms to his freezing chest.
I pull his naked back to rest against my clothed front and just hold him against me like that for a while, feeling the bitter mixture of guilt pangs.
I was so stupid!
I let my imagination run away with me when, almost certainly, this boy was only being so pleasant to me because it was his job to be!
I brought him out here, hours from help, and risked his life an limb because I have an idiotic crush on the alien boy who didn't seem to care that I'm mutilated!
I was so busy thinking about him that I didn't spare the slightest thought to his safety and now he's paying for it!
Even if he doesn't hate me, he's probably still going to request a transf-
"The answer's 'no' by the way, Haorken…" he speaks, cured of his shivers now.
"I'm sorry?" I frown, looking down at him from over his head and suppressing the forbidden exhilaration I feel at seeing past his face to between his legs.
"There is no 'Mrs Mbatha'… nor 'Mr Mbatha'… nor anyone in the pipeline to become such, Haorken… I'm not married and I don't have a partner."
"Oh, that… I shouldn't have asked you that, Thami… I apologise. It was inappropriate of me and I distracted you into losing your footing."
"I wasn't offended at all, Haorken. It was quite flattering." he says, tipping his head back to lean it against my chest "And, as for me losing my footing, I think that had as much to do with me stupidly deciding to check my holo at that moment as it did your question… Might I suggest in future, however, that that particular section of path be circumnavigated? I think it's somewhat unsafe for my species, as I've just unwillingly demonstrated(!)"
"Noted(!)" I chuckle "I'll be certain to bring it up with Gharhat when we get back to Khawekh and instruct her to find an alternative route!"
"Good to hear." he answers.
The pretty Terran boy I'm holding to my front and I return to silence as we watch the fire roar and crackle in front of us.
Eventually, I hazard "What… what did you… mean by it being 'flattering' for me to ask about your relationship status?" my heart pounding against my breastplate.
"Exactly what I said." he shrugs his endoskeletal shoulders "You're an extremely attractive woman and the idea that you might have any interest in someone like me was very flattering."
"Whuh-Uh-Yuh… You… You find me attractive?" I ask, stupidly.
"Rock. solid. 10/10, Haorken!… Far and away the sexiest woman I've ever met!"
I give a disbelieving chuckling exhale as I ask "You don't… you don't find me repulsive?"
The naked man sitting in my lap brings a finger to his chin in mock thoughtfulness and ponders "Hmmm… Let me seeeee(!) Do I find the 2.7m tall, cool, confident, Dommy-mommy Spiderwoman, with legs for days, who could snap me like a twig and tie me up in her own silk to do whatever she wanted to me, 'repulsive'(?)… Hmmmm… Nope!… Gonna stick with 'hot as fuck'!"
"Well that's very… flattering…"
The boy turns his head to look up at me and wryly echoes "What do you mean by it being 'flattering', Haorken(?)"
"Well… since we've met… I've found myself finding you… your sweetness, your deference, your embarrassment… and, eventually, your looks, quite… appealing… I'm glad that those feelings were apparently mutual and you weren't simply humouring me out of professional courtesy…"
He smiles "I'm happy that you eventually came around on my looks, Haorken(!)"
Frowning, I laugh "Look, you may have had an entire lifetime to get used to the notion that there are thousands of species of people, all variously able to both attract and be attracted by you but I only found out my planet wasn't alone in the cosmos this Summer! Frankly, I'm shocked I've come around on bipedal vertebrates with no hindbody as quickly as I have and don't think it would have happened for any less adorable and quite so easy to bully as you, Thami!"
"So…" says the naked man who, not an hour ago, was shivering to death, rising to his feet and turning to face me "…you… like to bully me then, Haorken?"
My stomach swoops and my paranoia briefly screams that 'this is some kind of trap!' before I'm able to wrestle it into submission.
"I do, Thami." I answer, simply.
The man, scarcely a head taller than me despite being fully standing with me fully sitting, leans his naked body against me and asks "Aaaaand… would you like to do more than just bullying me?"
"Yes…" I choke.
With a flutter of his yellow eyes, the Terran invites "Tell me what you want to do to me, Haorken…"
---Thamsanqa's perspective---
I kneel by the cave wall, my mouth open as half a tonne of hindbody is backed up towards my face.
I make sure I keep my mouth aligned with the hole that's about to fill it as my skull is gently squashed against the rock behind it.
I hold my breath and close the back of my nose.
Suddenly, my mouth is packed tight with warm, waxy, fresh silk.
I tap twice on the back of her abdomen (the signal for 'that's enough' rather than the safeword for 'Stop and ungag me! I'm choking!')
She pulls her spinneret from between my teeth but keeps producing silk as her back legs come to the sides of my neck and rotate my head around her silk producing orifice several times to wrap my mouth wadding in place around the back of my head.
With me gagged to both of our satisfaction, the naked Spider Goddess turns in place to imperiously look down on me, backlit by the fire lighting the cave.
"Adopt the position you wish to be bound in, Human." she sneers.
Looking up at her, I mumble "Hhk, Mhhkhh." spread my knees apart and bring my wrists to my shoulders.
My pathetic little cock is as hard as it ever has been as the giant woman reaches down and picks me up by the hips for the second time today.
I do my best to keep the rest of me stiff as well, attempting to maintain the position I've not been able to stop imagining her tying me up in since the day I met her!
She stilts her legs and flexes her scarred abdomen forward, reaching her pedipalps back to start drawing out more of her webbing.
Holding me in place with her arms, her ballet point stiletto sabaton palps come forward and deftly begin mummifying my body in silk.
In short order, the powerful woman has rendered me entirely helpless to resist her!
I'm now able to put up about as much of a fight as a stuffed toy would be!
She repositions her grip to under the armpits of my bound arms and holds me up to her face, forcing me to meet her eyes.
"There now, Human… you make quite the pretty present!… And… whose present are you?" she frowns as if she genuinely needs reminding.
"Ghhks, Mhhkhh." I moan through my gag.
"That's right… mine… You belong to me now, Human… mine to do with as I please! Mine to use! Mine to abuse! Mine to own! Mine to dispose of how I see fit!"
I don't answer, just widening my eyes at her to simulate fear (as opposed to the raging arousal I actually feel!)
She slams me against the cave wall again and brings her front to pin me there.
Her large face just centimetres from mine, she parts her lips in a grin, draws back her axeblade toothplates and brings her glossy red shark teeth to my chin to groan "And… what I want to do first… is plaaay with this new toy of mine(!)"
She brings the sharp edges of her toothplates down on the top an up on the bottom of my chin and applies enough pressure to pleasantly drag them over my skin.
Her claws come to my stomach and, likewise, trace along my skin hard enough to scratch but not hard enough to cut.
All at once, I find myself back on the ground.
Her stiletto heeled palp is extended to my undercarriage.
My eyes widen as the tip of the narrower prong (the bootheel instead of the toe) is pressed against my arsehole.
My Dominatrix slips inside of me and I pant as she begins pumping my boy-pussy with her fetish heel.
My stiff cock flaps against her thicker toe prong as I helplessly roll from side to side while she footfucks my arsehole!
I moan through my raw silk gag as I ejaculate onto my own bare stomach.
"Ooooh!… It's white! How strange!" says my Mistress, withdrawing her palp from my arsehole and bending down to drag a finger through my shameful orgasm and collect it to bring to her mouth.
Tasting it, she observes "Surprisingly salty… Interesting!" before, seeming to remember that I'm here, looking at me and saying "Still…" pushing the same stiletto she just fucked me with into my chest and pressing down "…as interesting as that was, my toy just came without asking permission… which it knows is not allowed!"
"Uhm hrrhy, Mhhkhh." I apologise.
"'Sorry' isn't good enough, toy! Punishment is in order for an infraction of that magnitude!" she says, appraising me a few moments before "I'd say you've lost your vision privileges for that!" seizing my neck by the sides, pulling me back to my knees, curling her spinneret towards me and pulling out more silk which she begins wrapping around my eyes.
---Haorken's perspective---
I pull back to admire my handywork.
The adorable boy is knelt on the floor before me, bound ankle to thigh and wrist to shoulder, his own salty white seed smeared across his stomach, mouth stuffed and eyes blinded with my silk.
The only parts of his face that are visible are his nose, his pronged chin and his rosy, prominent cheeks.
I flex my palp and bring it to his shoulder before extending it to push him over.
He hits the cave floor with a *thud* and a grunt.
Caging him within my legs, I bring my crotch to over his face, looking down on him between my palps.
I'm no longer able to override the will of the armour plates that protect my sex.
They slide aside, filling the air with the tang of my arousal.
I collapse my legs to bring my womanhood to a fingerwidth from his nose.
Bringing my thumb and foreclaw between his teeth, I pinch and pull, removing the wadding which comes away as a perfect mould of the inside of his mouth.
"You've come… toy… What say you return the favour(!)" I taunt.
"Yes, Mistress." answers the squeal inducingly adorable Human, sticking his tongue out for me like a good little pet.
"Good boy!" I praise before grasping the back of his head and squashing his entire lower face into my pussy.
I hold him in there for [30 seconds] before pulling him out, for the briefest moment, to let him take a breath. Then I force him back in.
His smooth, fleshy lips and tongue feel utterly sublime against my sex and it's all I can do to keep myself from crushing his skull between my palps' femurs!
Building and building, my pleasure threatens to swallow me whole as my imprisoned lover works his mouth against me between the gasping breaths I allow him to take.
Finally, the wave breaks as I scream out in ecstasy.
Careful not to bring my bone breaking weight down on him, I collapse off of him to the side, satisfied for now.
---Thamsanqa's perspective---
"You think you've got it bad(?)" I grin at the incredible woman whose city we're heading back towards while wearing the clothes that spent all night drying by the firepit "I'm going to have to be debriefed(!) There's going to be paperwork involved in explaining how I ended up spending a night out in the Graom-Wakhkortan wilderness(!)"
The Goddess frowns "I'm afraid I lack the proper context to understand what exactly is so bad about that?"
"Terran military paperwork is designed to punish you for whatever you did to make filling out paperwork necessary(!)" I quip.
"I see(!)" she chuckles "So, they won't consider falling into freezing cold water and almost dying of hypothermia as its own punishment(?)"
"They won't, no…" I smile before changing the subject "…Hey. Are the protein rations I gave you earlier agreeing with you?"
She frowns "Well… they certainly weren't the most flavourful breakfast I've ever eaten… but they don't seem to have caused me any indigestion at this point?"
"They're not designed for flavour. They're designed to keep you alive when your trapped in places without a mess hall the way we were last night… How about next time I bring us some more appetising fare? Say… pancake mix for me and some rashers of bacon for you?"
"Oooh(!) 'Next time'(?) Awfully presumptuous, aren't you boy(!)" she bullies.
"OK, fine(!) I'll just keep all the pancakes and bacon for myself then(!)" I grin back.
"No, no…" she says, feigning consideration "…I think, if only for the sake of the promised breakfast, I could be persuaded to see you this way again…(!)"
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