It felt like they’d been on the road for days—although it was probably more like an hour. The dark green cobble stones of the road were extremely painful, Harper had found. They seemed intended to bruise her arches and stub her toes. The little black ballet flats she was wearing were definitely not made for walking on uneven surfaces.
For a while she tried to engage Shad in conversation—asking him questions about the future and the world he lived in. But the big Kindred was obstinately silent, marching stolidly along the road on his big boots and giving only monosyllabic answers until Harper finally just gave up and let herself fall behind him. Clearly, he didn’t want to talk to her.
Why is he even bothering with me in the first place since he so clearly doesn’t like me? she wondered sullenly. Oh, right—because the only way to save his entire race is to save me. Also, apparently the Kindred Goddess told him I’m his job.
She still felt kind of weirded out by that idea. She’d been raised in the church—raised to have faith—by her mom. But she didn’t know if she believed in the Goddess the Kindred worshiped or not. She—
Suddenly her train of thought was broken by a whispering sound overhead. The whispering became a flapping and Harper looked up, shading her eyes to see what it was.
Great, dark shadows fell across her face, blotting out Juno’s bluish-yellow sunlight.
“Wow,” Harper murmured to herself. “Those are some big birds!”
But were they birds? As they got closer, she thought they looked more like some kind of snakes that had somehow sprouted wings. They had long, lithe, slender bodies with no arms or legs—at least, none that she could see—and curling, whip-like tails. They ranged in color from deep maroon to indigo blue to emerald green. In a way, she thought, they were actually quite beautiful.
Then one of them began diving straight at her. Nothing beautiful about that.
“Oh!” Harper gasped as the slender, reptilian head plunged, coming nearer and nearer. It occurred to her that the animal had probably just seen a mouse or whatever passed for a mouse here on Juno and she was in the way of its prey. Yes, that must be it.
Or what if it thinks you’re the prey? whispered a little voice in her head. It’s plenty big enough to eat you, Harper—it’s freaking anaconda-sized!
It was true, flying high in the sky overhead, the flying-snakes had appeared delicate—almost fragile. Now that one was getting closer, however, she could see their true size. The one diving at her head had to be at least fifteen feet long from nose to tail and its wingspan was that of a small airplane.
Fear stroked over her spine with an icy hand. She’d been frozen to the spot, watching the flying snake thing dive right at her but now she began to move. If she could just catch up with Shad she should be okay, she reasoned to herself. The snake-things might be big but the Kindred was huge. There was no way any of them would consider him prey.
But when she looked ahead, she saw that she’d allowed herself to fall further behind the big Kindred than she’d realized. He was about half a football field’s length ahead of her now—much too far away to get to him before the flying snake got to her.
Still, Harper tried.
“Shad!” she gasped, pumping her legs, not caring anymore that the dark green cobblestones bruised and hurt her feet. “Shad, help!”
He turned, plainly startled, and his white eyes widened. The snake things were so silent, with only the flap of their vast wings to announce them, that he’d clearly been caught off guard, just as Harper had.
“Harper!” He began to run to her but just then Harper felt something thin and horribly strong curling around her waist. Looking down, she saw it was the flying snake’s long, whip-like tail. It was wrapping around her midsection with frightening speed. Harper tried to raise her hands to push the thing away—off of her—but it looped her four more times, the last loop curling around her upper arms and pinning them to her sides.
There was a jerk and she was rising off the ground, almost as fast as she’d risen when they’d been riding on the V-copter. She shrieked but it came out as a breathless gasp—the snake’s tail was too tight around her for her to get much air.
Shad was below her now, shouting and trying to reach her. With an immense vertical leap, he managed to catch at her foot and for a moment Harper thought he might yank her free. Then her shoe came off in his hand and the flying snake soared upwards, taking her with it.
“Shad!” she managed to gasp. She got one last glimpse of his opalescent eyes—blazing with anger and fear for her—and then they went even higher and he was gone.
This thing is going to strangle me and swallow me whole in mid-air, Harper thought dismally. It’s just like Shad said—the past resists being changed. I wonder if I’ve had a worse death than this in the other time paths we went on?
If there was one, she couldn’t imagine what it could be. What could be worse than being eaten alive by a flying-snake?
But the snake made no move to eat her. Instead, it joined the formation of its fellow flying-snakes, its vast wings beating steadily as they flew on and on. Its tail around her didn’t get any tighter so, while breathing was distinctly uncomfortable and Harper felt like she might black-out at any minute, she somehow retained consciousness.
After some time, she realized they were generally following the green stone road below. Was that on purpose? Where were the flying-snakes taking her? Did they have a lair or a nest somewhere up ahead? Was the snake waiting until it got her to its own place to eat her? Or maybe feed her to its young?
Below, she saw the road was no longer deserted. There were scattered people walking to and fro, most of them headed up the road in the direction she and Shad had been walking before she was captured. Harper’s heart began to pound. Maybe she could get some help!
“Help! Hey, up here!” she wheezed, feeling like an old woman because she couldn’t get enough breath to cry out as loud as she wanted to.
A few of the people looked up but none of them seemed surprised or upset to see a flock of flying-snakes, one of them with a kidnapped woman wrapped in its coils. She saw one little boy tug at his mother’s sleeve and point upward. The mother looked up, right at Harper, then shrugged and looked away again.
Harper’s heart sank. Was this not an uncommon sight? Were these snakes all over the place and people just expected to get captured and eaten sometimes? She wondered wildly what she was going to do—no one even cared that she’d been taken but Shad and he was miles behind on the long green road.
As she thought this, new things came into view below. A few colorful tents were set up by the side of the road. Flags and pennants waved in the wind and there were merchants outside beating drums and shaking tambourine-like instruments to get the attention of customers.
As the flying-snake carried her further, Harper saw more and more tents appear. Soon their numbers swelled into the hundreds and the few road-side pavilions became a vast city of colorful canvas, flags and banners. A sudden thought occurred to her—this must be the Thieves' Market!
How ironic—the flying-snakes were taking her right over the place she and Shad had been trying to get to in the first place. Harper struggled, wondering if she could get free and land on one of the tents. It might break her fall and she could wait for Shad until he could come and find her.
But the grip of the snake’s tail got tighter—so much that gray spots started dancing in front of her eyes.
Can’t breathe…going to die…she thought dizzily and then everything went black for a moment.
When she came to, she found her feet were skimming the ground. The snake’s tail was still wrapped around her waist but it had dropped down into a clear space around one of the tents in the middle of the market. At least, Harper assumed it was the middle of the market. It was impossible to say since she’d lost consciousness for a time.
Sellers and buyers were hurrying all around the cleared area, which was marked off by a long piece of blue tape like a bizarre police line. But no one crossed it and no one seemed to notice a flying-snake was coming in for a landing, dangling a girl from its tail.
“Here now, here now—what have you brought me, Schmendrick?”
The high, flute-like voice belonged to a tiny little woman who would hardly come up to Harper’s shoulder. She emerged from the flap of a nearby blue and yellow striped tent, holding something in her hands.
The snake, which had been perfectly silent until now, hissed and continued to hover, its vast wings beating the air as it kept a tight hold on Harper with its tail.
“Here now,” the little woman exclaimed. She had an incredibly wrinkled face with blue-gray skin.
Like a blue prune, Harper thought faintly.
The woman held up the thing in her hands to the snake and she saw it was raw meat—a huge, bloody chunk of it which oozed and dripped greenish-blue blood down the little woman’s arms.
The snake ducked its head and struck, swallowing the raw chunk so fast the motion was almost invisible. Then it uncurled its tail from around Harper’s waist and let her drop to the dusty ground below.
“Oof!” Harper landed hard, skinning the palms of her hands and her knees. For a moment she just stayed there, head hanging, trying to get her breath back. It seemed like hours since she’d been able to take a deep enough breath and truly fill her lungs, although it was probably more like ten minutes.
“Now then, dearie. How are you?” The little woman came towards Harper briskly, wiping her hands on a length of stained yellow toweling. “How did you find the ride? I hope my Schmendie wasn’t too rough with you?”
“Rough with me?” Harper looked at her in disbelief. “He snatched me right off the road and dragged me up into the sky with no warning! I thought he was going to…going to kill me and eat me.”
Her last words came out choked and she had to swallow back a sob. She didn’t usually cry easily but she’d been genuinely certain she was going to die. Just being alive was such a huge relief that she found she was a mess of mixed emotions inside.
“Oh dear! He didn’t!” The little woman’s bright little raisin eyes widened in apparent horror. “You mean you’re not the girl he was meant to bring? You’re not Hoolah from Earls-da-much?” As she spoke, someone else emerged from the tent—a tall, thin male with green skin, only not quite as wrinkled.
“What’s all this?” he asked in a reedy baritone. “What’s wrong, Mother?”
“Schmendrick took the wrong girl,” the old lady explained to her companion. “He snatched this poor girl right off the road.”
“Well, she doesn’t look like she’s from Earls-da-much,” the male said. “Look at the size of her. And that skin—such a creamy brown. You don’t often see that shade. It’s rare, that is—exotic.”
“Yes, it is,” the old woman agreed. “She really doesn’t look a bit like the people of Earls-da-much.”
“That’s because I’m not from Earls-da-whatever. My name is Harper and I’m from Earth,” Harper choked out. “Your pet snake freaking kidnapped me!”
“Oh me! Oh dear!” The woman shook her head and clucked her tongue. “And I gave him an extra large chunk of tennick flesh too, because you looked so big and heavy and I thought your weight must make his tail weary!"
“You’re right, Mother.” The male beside her nodded and frowned at Harper. “I don’t know how he even lifted you off the ground. You’re a hefty one, you are girlie.”
“What?” Harper didn’t know if she ought to be relieved or insulted. So she was alive and the snake grabbing her had been an accident. But to her mind, the little old lady who owned it—or had at least apparently trained it—was still at fault. Also, there was no need to call her “hefty”—it was definitely adding insult to injury.
Too fat for flying- snake-travel? the marketing part of her mind gabbled glibly. Maybe it’s time to try Insta-lose and melt the pounds away. Never make your snake’s tail tired again when you fly!
A hysterical bubble of laughter rose in her throat and she swallowed it down with some difficulty. Was she going crazy? Had it only been a few hours ago she was sitting on the beach and making a New Year’s resolution to lose weight? And now look at her. Stuck on an alien planet with no idea of where she was or how to get away.
Yes, you do know where you are and how to get away, a little voice in her head insisted. You’re in the Thieves' Market—you must be. And the way to get out is to get on the road and start working your way back to Shad. Maybe if you go now you can meet him halfway.
With some difficulty, she rose from the ground and dusted herself off. The flock of flying-snakes were nothing more than wavering black shapes in the sky above and the business of the bustling market continued around her unabated.
She was headed for the blue tape which encircled the cleared area around the blue and yellow striped tent when the little old lady touched her elbow.
“Here now, dearie—where do you think you’re going?”
“Away,” Harper said shortly. “Your pet snake-thing snatched me from my companion and he’s probably frantic about me by now. I have to get back to him.”
“Oh but just look at you. You can’t go like that. Why, you’ve only got one foot-cover on. The road will be the death of your poor feet,” the old lady objected and the tall green man who had called her “Mother” nodded in agreement.
“You’d much better come inside our dwelling tent and have a sit-down and some refreshments with the other girls,” he remarked. “They’d welcome you, I’m sure. And we could find you some proper foot-covers.”
“I don’t think so,” said Harper sharply. “I’m not inclined to trust any offers from people who own kidnapping snakes.”
“My Schmendrick, a kidnapper?” The old lady burst into cawing laughter. “Bless you, dearie! He’s nothing of the kind. He’s a transporter only he transported the wrong girl. He’s getting a bit old, is my poor Schmendie.” She sighed in a melancholy way. “Almost as old as I am—I trained him right out of the egg and he hatched when I wasn’t but ten cycles old myself. Ah, me…how the time does fly…”
“It doesn’t matter why he grabbed me, the fact is that I have to get back,” Harper said. “So if you’ll just excuse me…”
“But we have to make this wrong up to you,” the green-skinned male exclaimed. “Aren’t you thirsty? Come have a cool drink with the other girls before you leave, at least.”
This was the second time he’d mentioned other girls, which made Harper frown.
“What other girls? What are you talking about?”
“Oh, we’re a way-side transport station for nurses here, so we are,” the old lady explained. “Our slidies bring them in from all over so they can meet prospective employers and help males in need, here at the market.”
“Slidies?” Harper frowned. “You mean the flying-snakes?”
“Bless you, dearie—you really must be from someplace else. Don’t know what ‘snakes’ are, but wouldn’t you like a nice drink to cool you down before you go?”
Harper wavered. Could it be that she really had just been taken by mistake? The old lady and her son seemed sincerely regretful about it and appeared to want to make it up to her. Plus, her throat was awfully dry after flying so far while barely able to breathe.
“Well…” she said uncertainly.
Suddenly a young, pretty face with pale purple skin and enormous green eyes poked out from the tent flap.
“Auntie Bru-bru,” the girl chirped. “Come in and tell us who sings more sweetly—me or Titi. We’re having a contest!”
“In a minute, Nandi.” the old lady made a shooing gesture. “Pie-lo and me, we’re trying to fix a kafuffle out here. It seems my naughty Schmendie has brought the wrong girl.”
“Has he?” The girl giggled. “Oh my—what a mix up!” She looked at Harper. “So you don’t want to be a nurse?”
“Well, no. I’m a…a marketing executive.” It sounded odd to speak of her job out here in the middle of an alien world. Would the other girl even know what a marketer was?
“If you like marketing then at least he brought you to the Thieves' Market where you’ll feel right at home,” Nandi remarked. “Still, you must have been scared to death when he grabbed you!”
“Yes, I was,” Harper said shortly. “I thought he was going to kill me and eat me.”
“What? Really?” The girl called Nandi let out a bubbling laugh. “Oh my, how awful. Come in the nursing tent—you need a drink to cool you down and calm your nerves.”
Her easy tone and manner finally convinced Harper. She nodded stiffly.
“Well…all right. But I can only stay a minute.”
“Of course, of course…” Nandi came out of the tent to take her hand and drag her inside. “Now do come on—you’re missing all the fun!”
Harper allowed herself to be pulled towards the tent but she couldn’t help being startled by the other girl’s appearance. Nandi was nearly as tiny as the diminutive Auntie Bru-bru but she had enormous breasts—almost as big as watermelons. A small, pink lace top was stretched tightly over the giant mammaries and she wore loose-fitting, matching pink trousers which gathered at the ankles to go with it.
“Come on now,” she said, tugging at Harper’s hand and leading her into the tent.
Harper let herself be led, trying not to look at the way the huge breasts bounced and jiggled with each step the tiny Nandi took.
She looks like a live-action anime girl, she couldn’t help thinking. That’s the way they draw them—with those big eyes and enormous boobs! How weird. Then again, maybe she looked weird to Nandi too. This was an alien culture and she shouldn’t rush to judgment, Harper told herself.
Inside the tent, several other girls were sitting around on a wide, circular couch sipping cups of pale purple drink and playing some kind of game which apparently involved singing or dancing. They were an interesting bunch with skin colors ranging from pale, daisy yellow to baby blue to mint green to Nandi’s own lilac shade but they all had one thing in common—they all had abnormally large breasts.
Well, I guess I know what men on this planet look for in a woman, Harper thought dryly. And it’s sure not a good personality.
But if they were all nurses, their breast size shouldn’t matter, should it? Auntie Bru-bru had said they “helped males in need.” Did they all stay here until someone came looking for first aid? Maybe the men of this planet only wanted to be tended by medical professionals with big breasts? But all the women appeared to be of different races—at least, if their differing skin tones was any indication. So how was it that they all had the same huge, watermelon-sized breasts?
It was very confusing but Harper didn’t have time to ponder her questions for long because Nandi was already tugging at her arm again.
“Come over here.” The other girl took her to a small table which held a tall silver fountain—a little like the chocolate fountains you sometimes saw at weddings or on buffet lines, Harper thought. It had four silver tiers and spouted high into the air.
But instead of chocolate, this fountain was spouting the pale purple liquid all the other girls were drinking. A row of gorgeously etched silver goblets stood in a semi-circle around the silver rim. Nandi took one and held it under the flow, filling it to the top, before handing it to Harper.
Harper took it and looked at it doubtfully. It smelled delicious—sweet and light and fruity—and she was really thirsty. But she was still reluctant to drink something that had been given to her by a stranger.
“Um, is this alcoholic?” she asked Nandi. “Will it make me drunk?”
“What? Don’t be silly!” Nandi filled a goblet for herself and took a gulp of it. “Mmm, good! See—it’s not poisoned or anything. Auntie Bru-bru and Pie-lo wouldn’t do that to us. They love us. In fact, everybody loves everybody here.”
“Well…” Harper took another sniff of the goblet and then brought it to her lips. She meant to take just a small swallow but the moment the liquid hit her tongue, her thirst seemed to intensify tenfold and she found herself taking long, refreshing swallows of the pale purple stuff.
Nandi nodded approvingly.
“See? It’s good, right?”
“Really good,” Harper admitted. “I’ve never tasted anything like it. Can…can I have some more?”
“Have as much as you like, silly. That’s what it’s there for.” Nandi trilled laughter again and drank another cup herself.
Harper drank three more goblets of the purple drink, which tasted like a mixture of fresh squeezed peach juice, ripe strawberries, and mangos, before Nandi started tugging her over to the couch.
“Come on—you’ll miss the contest.”
“No, I should really leave now,” Harper protested.
“Of course you shouldn’t—you have to get some new foot coverings, don’t you?” Nandi pointed at her one bare foot. “You can’t go out on the high road like that. Come sit down just for a minute while Auntie Bru-bru gets you new ones.”
Harper started to protest again that she really needed to leave but the big, circular couch looked amazingly soft and comfortable. Despite the fact that ten or fifteen girls were sprawled around it, there was still plenty of room for herself and Nandi. Maybe she could just sit and take a load off for a few minutes before she got back on that awful road and started trudging her way back to Shad.
It seemed like a reasonable idea so Harper allowed herself to sink down onto the couch with a sigh of relief. After all the crazy things that had happened to her that day, it was nice just to sit still for a while and sip the delicious purple punch and relax.
At the other end of the couch, the game or contest or whatever it was, was continuing.
“My turn, my turn,” a girl with mint-green skin was exclaiming. She stood up, her massive breasts wobbling under a tight white top which clearly showed the points of her dark green nipples, and began to recite a kind of poem.
“There once was a girl from kan-fine, who liked to be took from behind,” she began. “When her male pulled it out, she started to shout—”
Before she could finish, some of the other girls started pointing at her.
“Hendie! Hendie, your nectar,” Nandi exclaimed. “You’re leaking, my dear. Better pump!”
“Oh my!” The girl named Hendie looked down at herself in apparent consternation. Sure enough, Harper saw, big wet patches were appearing on her tight, white top.
“Get her the pump,” someone said.
“Here you go, Hendie.” Nandi got up and handed a contraption with two suction cups attached to long black tubing. The tubes, in turn, were attached to a clear, plastic looking bladder which was apparently for storing whatever came out.
Harper assumed the girl named Hendie would go someplace private and pump her breasts. (Was she breastfeeding a baby? If so, where was it?) Instead, Hendie pulled up her top with a giggle, allowing her massive mammaries to tumble free. She fumbled with the suction cups until she got them secured over her saucer-sized nipples, and then flipped a switch on the tubing which appeared to start a kind of motor.
There was a mechanical humming sound and the two cups began to suck and pull vigorously. Squirting sounds came from them as liquid was drawn from Hendie’s breasts and drained into the large plastic holding bladder below.
Harper felt extremely uncomfortable watching this procedure. She had no problem with breastfeeding in public—she thought it was a beautiful thing. (Although, to be honest she was a private person and would never consider doing it herself.) But this wasn’t breastfeeding—this was pumping—extremely public pumping.
The black suction cups looked somehow obscene as they slurped and sucked at Hendie’s huge nipples—almost like mouths which had latched onto her and were intent on draining her dry. Also, it seemed to be…doing things to Hendie to have her breasts emptied.
“Oh…mmm,” she moaned, undulating her hips sensuously as the suction cups pulled at her nipples. “Oh, yes…”
Harper wanted to look away from the strange scene but somehow her eyes seemed glued to the action in the center of the tent. She felt hot and uncomfortable and the red silky gown, which she was still wearing under Shad’s black t-shirt, was suddenly rubbing against her breasts, making them feel sensitive in a way they hadn’t before. But she scarcely noticed because her attention was fixed on the girl getting her breasts pumped.
The situation was made even stranger by the fact that the other girls on the couch didn’t seem a bit fazed by Hendie’s behavior. In fact, they laughed and cheered her on.
“Look at Hendie go! She’s forgotten all about winning the contest now,” one of them giggled.
“I bet she couldn’t finish that poem now if her life depended on it,” said another.
“Look at that naughty Hendie,” said a voice in Harper’s ear and she realized that Nandi had come back to sit with her.
“Um…is this, uh, part of the contest or something?” Harper asked uncertainly. She supposed it might be. Or it might be an alien custom. She tried to remind herself again not to be judgmental of other cultures but really, this was so weird…
“Part of the contest? Oh my no! Hendie’s just getting off on getting pumped.” Nandi giggled again. “She always comes at least twice—once she even had multiples. Watch!”
But Harper didn’t want to watch. Now that she knew for sure this was some kind of a sex thing, she felt even more uncomfortable. Wanting an excuse to look away, she drained her cup of punch and got up to fill it at the fountain again. Behind her, she could hear Hendie coming to an unmistakable climax with a lot of panting and groaning involved.
Ugh—what the hell is wrong with these people? Harper wondered. And to hell with not being judgmental. If it was judgmental to not like being subjected to a public sex show well, then, she guessed she was guilty as charged.
When her cup was full, she went reluctantly back to the couch where Nandi and the other girls were clapping and cheering.
“She’s so funny,” Nandi said to Harper, speaking as though she’d never left. “Most girls can’t come unless they have a customer draining their titties but Hendie says the pump is as good as a male in need any day.”
“A customer draining her…uh…draining her?” Harper frowned. “What are you talking about? I thought the girls here were all nurses.”
“Well we are, silly! We nurse the males who come to us in need of refreshment and release,” Nandi explained. “But when there aren’t any customers, we use the pump. It’s either that or let the nectar go to waste and we can’t have that—it’s much too valuable.”
“It…it is?” Harper asked faintly. She was beginning to understand what went on in this tent and it sure as hell wasn’t first aid.
Just then, Hendie finished pumping and turned off the motor which caused the suction cups to release her nipples. They popped free, leaving her long, dark green nubs looking swollen and full, and the black tubing dangled down to her waist.
“Excuse me.” Not bothering to pull down her top, Hendie pushed past Harper and Nandi, still holding the pumping device in one hand. “Oh Pie-lo—I’ve got some fresh nectar for you…” she trilled sweetly.
Pie-lo came into the tent, grinning expectantly. “Do you now? How sweet of you, Hendie.”
He took the plastic collection bladder from her, which was now filled with pale purple liquid, and drained it in a few long, thirsty gulps.
“Ahh…delicious!” he proclaimed, handing the bladder back. Hendie accepted it with a giggle and replaced the collection device before dropping the suction cups and tubing negligently on an empty section of the large circular couch.
Harper felt sick. She knew breast milk was natural and full of nutrients and she’d even heard of some cancer treatment programs who asked breastfeeding mothers with extra milk to donate it because it was super good for patients doing chemo. But none of that knowledge could make her feel better about the fact that she’d just seen a grown man chug about a quart of the stuff in public right in front of her.
“Pie-lo always makes certain none of our nectar goes to waste,” Nandi whispered confidentially as the green-skinned male left the tent again. “He used to suck it out like the customers do when our titties got too full but Auntie Bru-bru caught him at it and she got so mad!” Her eyes widened expressively. “So now if she’s anywhere around the tent, he just drinks it from the collection bladder.” She lowered her voice even more. “So be sure if your tits fill up and there aren’t any customers to drain you, you use the tubing, okay?”
“What are you talking about?” Harper demanded. “Why would my tit—uh, breasts fill up like that?” She almost said “like yours” but it seemed rude somehow, although it was clear that Nandi had the same “issues” as the other girls in the tent.
“Well because you drank the sex-milk of course.” Nandi looked at her as though she was simple. “I mean, it takes a little while to take effect and there is a short period where you can only let a male nurse but not fuck you at the same time or it negates the effects. But after that passes…” She pointed at her own huge mammaries and giggled. “Well, it’s all fun and games!”
“Fun and games?” Harper looked wildly from her half full cup to the tall silver fountain. “So that’s…that’s sex-milk? And it makes your breasts, uh, fill up?”
“Of course, silly!” Nandi exclaimed. “That’s what it’s for—to fill our titties with nectar so we can nurse males in need.”
Head spinning, Harper tried to calculate. How many glasses had she had of the stuff anyway?
Something like five or six, whispered a little voice in her head. You just couldn’t chug it fast enough.
Harper’s stomach rolled at the implications. She felt a mixture of disgust and panic.
Have to get rid of this stuff before it affects me like it has all the other girls here!
“Excuse me!” She scrambled off the couch, dropping her half-full goblet on the carpeted floor, and ran for the flap of the tent. She had to get out of here! She had to be sick and she didn’t want to puke in public.
She made it out into the dusty landing area where the flying snake had first dropped her off before sticking her finger down her throat. Harper had always hated throwing up—it was her least favorite thing in the world and she dreaded getting a stomach flu. But right now she didn’t hesitate—she had to get rid of the sex-milk she’d drunk before it changed her into an empty-headed idiot with breasts full of strange liquid who would happily let a stranger suck her nipples.
Her stomach heaved and a rush of pale purple liquid came up. It tasted just as delicious coming up as it had going down…which only made her feel sicker.
“Oh…” Harper moaned and then she puked again…and again.
“Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Suddenly Auntie Bru-bru was by her side. “Whatever is the matter, my dear? What has made you sick?”
“What has made me sick?” Harper used the hem of her t-shirt to wipe at her mouth and then swiped at her streaming eyes. “That…that stuff I drank. Apparently it fills your breasts while it empties your head. Oh God…” Just the thought made her stick her finger down her throat once more and be sick again.
Had she gotten it all? What if there was still some of the weird sex-milk in her system? What if it was too late? She shivered, feeling ill and horrified at the thought. But her aching stomach also felt empty. She’d thrown up so much—it must be all out of her. Right?
“Oh, God…” Harper moaned, straightening up again and putting a hand to her midsection. “Oh, God…”
“Oh, Auntie Bru-bru! What’s the matter?” Nandi suddenly came running up. “What happened?”
“I don’t know, Nandi my dear. The new girl seems to have had a bad reaction to the sex-milk,” the older woman exclaimed.
“Of course I had a bad reaction to it,” Harper gasped, wiping her mouth for a second time. “It makes you freaking crazy. And I’m not the new girl. In fact, I’m leaving right now.”
She still felt shaky on her feet but she threw back her shoulders and headed for the blue tape which surrounded the open area around the yellow and blue striped tent.
“Oh no,” she heard Nandi gasp. “Auntie Bru-bru—stop her!”
The older woman sighed regretfully. “I’m afraid I can’t, dearie. She’ll have to find out the hard way, just like the rest of you did.”
Harper paid no attention to their chatter. She meant to lift the blue tape and step under it to get to the green, cobblestone road which she could see just a few feet ahead.
But the moment her fingertips touched the tape, an electric jolt went through her and suddenly, it was as though a thousand prying fingertips were digging into her ribs and sides and armpits…the sides of her knees…the tops of her thighs—all the places she was most ticklish.
Harper fell to the ground, bizarrely convulsed with laughter. It felt like she was being tickled mercilessly by invisible beings and for a long time all she could do was roll in the dust and laugh helplessly though the situation was in no way funny.
At last her laughter trickled off to giggles and then to panting silence as she tried to fill her lungs with air. After a moment, she became aware that Auntie Bru-bru’s blue prune face and Nandi’s more youthful one were both leaning over her, peering at her anxiously.
“What…what the hell?” Harper asked weakly. She couldn’t frame the question any better than that. Her head felt woozy from laughing so hard and she was still trying to catch her breath. She’d always hated being tickled.
“You touched our tickle-fence,” Auntie Bru-bru said apologetically. “Some nursing tents use a pain-fence to keep their girls in. But, well, Pie-lo and I don’t like that. We run a happy tent here—like to keep the girls cheerful.”
“Well, I’m not one of your girls. I was brought here by mistake, remember?” Harper demanded. She stood on shaky legs and brushed the dust off herself as well as she could.
God, she was really a mess with her hair all tangled and her clothes all dusty and sticky from the spilled sex-milk. Her mouth was filled with cloying sweetness which made her want to be sick again.
“I’m afraid you are one of our girls, dearie,” Auntie Bru-bru said, matter-of-factly. “See, tennick flesh is expensive—it cost me plenty to bring you here and I can’t lose my investment. Besides…” She cocked her head to one side. “You might be hefty but your skin is a pretty color—so creamy and brown. I’m sure lots of males in need will want to nurse from you once your breasts start to fill.”
“That’s not going to happen!” Harper exclaimed. “You can’t just keep me here!”
“Oh, but I’m afraid we can, girlie.” Pie-lo suddenly came out of the tent and grabbed her by the arm. “No fussing, now. Just remember you’ll feel better once your breasts begin to fill.”
“They’re right,” Nandi assured her anxiously. “I was upset to be here at first too, you know. I was on my way to visit my cousin on the other side of the market and I had no notion of going to live at the nursing tent. But after I drank the sex-milk and my breasts started to fill, I saw how nice it was here.” She grinned. “Now I never want to leave.”
Harper stared from the grinning girl to the old woman in dawning horror and understanding.
“That story you told about your pet snake bringing me here by accident—that was all a load of bullshit, wasn’t it?” she demanded, glaring at Auntie Bru-bru’s wrinkled prune face. “You have that damn snake steal girls all the time! Probably every single one of the girls in that tent had other lives and you kidnapped them and turned them into some kind of weird milk-whores! Well, you’re not doing it to me!”
She twisted away from Pie-lo and rushed for the blue tickle-tape again. This time she intended to slide under it without touching it at all. But the moment she got near it, it was as though a thousand tiny fingers reached out and found her vulnerable spots again.
Not fair, Harper thought hazily, as she fell down laughing helplessly for the second time. Not fair—I didn’t even touch it this time.
“The field gets more sensitive every time you try to escape, girlie,” Pie-lo explained, hauling her to her feet. “We have some girls here can’t even come out of the tent for fear of getting zapped. Come on now—we’ve got some customers to service. You come with me and I’ll show you how things are done.”
“No!” Harper moaned, pulling against his grip. But she was too weak to break free a second time. She could only drag her feet as he pulled her back into the blue and yellow striped tent.
Suddenly homesickness overwhelmed Harper, forming a lump in her throat that was impossible to swallow. What a mess she was in! She wanted to be back home—in her own time and her own place. She wanted to brush her teeth and take a hot shower and wash her hair. She wanted to wake up and realize this whole adventure had been one long bizarre dream and she was going to be late for work if she didn’t hurry up and get going.
But it seemed there was no waking up. Instead, she was dragged back into the tent with Nandi leading, promising Harper would see how exciting things were in the nursing tent.
Inside, it was a different scene from before. The girls were up off the couch, standing in a row. They were nudging each other and giggling a little, but for the most part they were silent.
As they neared the front of the tent, Harper could see the reason for the change. Standing near the front flap of the tent were two alien males, one with green skin and one with a pale purple epidermis. They were eyeing the assembled girls speculatively, like men at a butcher’s shop looking to pick out the best cut of meat.
“That one,” the male with pale green skin pointed at a girl with a pale pink complexion, like cotton candy. “She looks ripe and juicy.”
“A wise choice, my lord,” Pie-lo said, stepping forward and dragging Harper with him as he went. “Bianetta is one of our best nurses with the sweetest nectar. Would you like only to nurse at her ripe tits or do you also wish to fill her with your shaft?”
“How much?” the male wanted to know.
“Just to suck, thirty credits,” Pie-lo said in a businesslike way. “Suck and fuck together, seventy-five credits.”
“Seventy-five?” The male frowned and the cotton-candy pink girl, Bianetta, giggled and gave him a coquettish little wave with her fingers.
“I tell you what,” Pie-lo said. “Since you seem like such a fine male and I can tell Bianetta is longing to get her pussy filled, I’ll knock ten credits off the price. Only sixty-five to drink her nectar and give her your own in return, deep in her pussy.”
“Done!” the male exclaimed. He looked at Bianetta lustfully. “Can’t wait to drain my balls in her.”
“This way, sweetie…”
Bianetta held out a hand to her customer and led him to the far end of the couch. She sat him down and unfastened his trousers so that his cock, long and dark green and throbbing, stuck out. It looked like an especially large cucumber to Harper and she shivered as Bianetta straddled the strange alien male and matter-of-factly took his green shaft deep in her pink pussy. Then she raised her stretchy top, freeing her massive breasts, and pressed them into his face.
“Go on honey,” she cooed. “You must be thirsty—why don’t you have a drink?”
The alien male began to suck, taking her rosy nipples deep in his mouth and pulling hard, clearly drinking her nectar as he filled her pussy with his cock. Soon both of them were moaning and neither seemed to care that they were doing something extremely private right out in front of everyone else in the tent.
They probably wouldn’t care if they were right in the middle of the road, Harper thought dismally. That sex-milk stuff is some kind of mind-altering aphrodisiac. It makes these girls want to have sex with complete strangers and keeps them so happy and horny they never want to leave.
Thank God she had thrown up all the sex-milk she herself had drunk…hadn’t she?
Harper told herself uneasily she was certain she had. She’d puked so many times there was no way there was even a drop of the awful stuff left in her system. But if that was so, why were her nipples getting so tender? And why did watching Bianetta and her customer writhe and thrust and suck on the couch cause a strange throbbing between her thighs?
“Oh!” the cotton-candy pink girl was moaning as she writhed all over the male’s lap. “Oh yes, fill me, you stud! Fill me and suck me! I’m going to come—you’re going to make me come all over your big…fat…cock!”
“That one. I’ll take that one.”
It took Harper a moment to drag her eyes away from the sight of Bianetta and the alien male and back to the other male with purple skin standing there, examining the waiting girls.
“I want that one for a fuck and suck,” he said again.
And he was pointing right at Harper.