Rayas Quest

Raya's ship was taking off from port a mere hour after she stepped off. She watched it go with a sigh from a nearby stall, sipping at the last of her fish stew. She didn't blame the ship, of course. No one liked to stay in Eneros long. She just wished she could be going with it, instead of facing a long trek into the dense jungle she knew lurked beyond the small town she sat in now.

As far as anyone could tell, Eneros was an old language word meaning "condemned". For one hundred years, The Great Purge had driven every drop of magic to this land - just a bit too big to be considered an island. Here were all the dragons, fairies, lamia, nymphs, elves, witches and wizards, and every other abomination that had once been scattered across the globe. It had been a long war, but she knew it was all for the best. The magic creatures and peoples had made their homes here, and the rest of the world was much better off without magic. Well, for the most part.

Raya had been sent on a quest - travel to the heart of the island, retrieve a black opal, and the king would finally recognize her as a knight, despite her apparently debilitating lack of penis. She'd get to be the first vagina having knight in her country since the Great Purge, when all hands were needed. She set the bowl on the counter, idly thanking the owner for the meal.

The owner pointed to her sword. "Are you here for some kind of quest? Going deeper inland?"

"Yeah," she agreed, swinging her pack up onto her back. "I'm not looking for extra requests. I've got enough money to get me through."

"No, no." He shook his head and gestured vaguely to the small seaside town. "Just...you need to make sure you bring a wizard or a witch. There's plenty around."

She frowned. "Why? I'm not here to be tainted by magic."

"You won't last a day without a wizard to protect you." He argued, "The creatures here can get into your head - make you do things, feel things. Without someone magic with you won't stand a chance."

"I don't have money to pay anyone." She shook her head vigorously, her ponytail slapping her in the face. She was going to need more string to tie it up soon. "I'll just have to deal with it on my own."

"Then find a weak one, promise your physical defense for their mental." The man leaned forward. "A lot of young things don't come back when they leave on their own."

"I'll consider it," she lied. She saluted to him briefly, because he was clearly trying to be kind, and continued towards the wild, dark jungle ahead. There were plenty of houses and stores to walk by first, but only for barely a mile. It was hard enough to keep the jungle even that far away. The magic tainting it made it grow fast and wild.

She drew eyes as she walked. She hoped it was just because newcomers were rare here. Raya has always drawn attention - she was tall with wide hips and a heavy chest. Her eyes were gray like stormclouds with dark brown hair to make them pop. But she had made sure her armor concealed her body, and she didn't consider her face so beautiful as to make people watch her. She hoped it was just because she was new.

As she reached the end of town, at her first step into the privacy of the dark jungle leaves overhead, a girl from the town stumbled out to her - loose fitting pants and shirt, scruffy blonde hair, and green eyes. Although she guessed the girl was around twenty like Raya herself, she carried an air of nervousness that made her seem younger, like a girl just out of school. She was out of breath, apparently having raced out to catch her. "M-miss! May I speak to you?"

"You already are," she pointed out, not pausing for a second in her stride.

She laughed, brushing her loose hair back behind her ears. It didn't stick. It was too thick and wavy to stay in place. "Oh! Right. I'm Livvy. Um, are you going inland? On your own, Miss?"

"Raya," she corrected, and took her hand to shake it. "And I was planning on it. Can't afford to take anyone along. I'm not looking for companionship, either. Not of any kind."

"R-right! That wasn't my offer. I'm not a prostitute. Um, not for sex, at least," she blurted. Her cheeks were starting to flush. "But, um, you won't be able to fight off any hypnosis on your own. You'll be caught by the first magic creature you come across, and then where would you be? Some cat girl's slave or something."

Raya rolled her eyes. "Again, I have nothing to pay you with. I'll just have to use my willpower and avoid hypnotists. If I was spineless, I wouldn't be here. Have a good day."

"Wait!" Livvy grabbed her wrist, eyes wide. "I know I'm not much to look at. I'm barely a witch and not especially skilled besides that. So...so if I can hypnotize you, that means anything in the woods can, right?"

She frowned. "I suppose."

"Let me try! If I succeed, I can come along. We'll guard each other. You're strong. You've got a sword. I'm not strong physically and, um, even magically I'm not exactly the best." The girl laughed awkwardly and looked down, as if a lack of magic was something to be ashamed of here. "But some magic is better than no magic, and I can at least help you out until the next town. There's mostly just half-domesticated animal girls around here."

Raya put her hand on the hilt of her sword. "And if not, you'll leave me be? I don't want to get physical with you."

"Oh, yikes." The blonde cringed and stepped back. "Yeah. Promise."

She sighed, allowing her hand to slide from her weapon. "Fine, but be quick. I'd like to make some progress today."

Livvy pulled out a beautiful stone, flecked with red and black, sparkling like fire under a full moon. The light and shadow slipping through the leaves above just made it more interesting to look at, seeming to catch the light as random as it twisted in the air. She spoke softly, her voice suddenly confident and smooth. "Then just look at my pendant for a moment. It draws your eyes, doesn't it? At first because of the glimmer, but then because of the complexity. Reds, blacks, yellows and oranges. All different shades tangling together. Beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yes," Raya agreed reluctantly. She looked closer. It wasn't the black opal she was looking for, but it was clearly some kind of magic stone. She couldn't see anything strange about it, some dangerous aura, but as she leaned in she wondered if the air around the stone was just a little bit hotter.

"The deeper you look, the more you'll find you can't look away. Try it now. Your eyes will be drawn back."

Raya did as she said, looking down for a moment, but her eyes slowly slid back up to the stone between them. Feeling her nerves start to rise, she tried to look away again, forcing her eyes to some dull looking tree just behind Livvy. She chewed on the inside of her cheek. This was just some trick. Trying hard not to think of something made it impossible to think of anything else, was all. She wasn't captured by the stone. She wasn't truly unable to look away.

"The curiosity won't let your eyes stray for long," Livvy said.

Raya's eyes were tugging, slowly looking back, even as she tried to force her head to stay still. She finally caught the stone in the corner of her eye, as beautiful as ever as it twirled. "There you go. You can feel it. Your eyes need to look. You need to satisfy your curiosity. You need to know how many colors are in the stone. It would be nice to answer that, wouldn't it?" Livvy's voice purred, so warm and soft it made Raya shiver.

"Yes," she agreed again, grateful for a reason to look back at the dancing light. She tried to count the colors, tried to see where the colors even began, but they all seemed to swirl together, to melt into each other. She was leaning in so close, and the storm was definitely warmer than the rest of the air. She was sure of it now. Maybe that's what the pretty colors were, fire trapped within a rock.

"Just keep looking deeper, then. It's alright. You can let the world melt away." Her voice was soothing. Warm. How had she ever thought this woman seemed like a child? She was anything but. Soothing, sweet. Raya wanted to hear her voice more, to stare at the stone and listen to those sweet words for as long as she would talk. "It's so nice to let the world fade, isn't it?"

"Yes," she murmured. Was that her voice? It sounded so-

"Your worries are all fading away. Your fear. You can lose every terrible thing in this stone. You can feel it sucking all of that away, can't you?"

"Yes." So dreamy. So sleepy. She had a mission to do. Something that was worrying her. But why be worried when she could feel so warm and cozy? Livvy had said she could let the world melt away. Her head was so full of warmth, every thought turning liquid and slippery, sliding right out of her grasp. She felt her muscles relaxing, her eyes drooping as the stone took away all the cold logic and reason.

"It's taking your mind deeper and deeper, so there's just your body here. You mind can rest for a while. Your body will be mine."

"No, I-"

Livvy's finger tapped the stone, set it spinning faster. The words melted right out of her head, the colors sparkling faster in the stone, making everything hotter. Instead, all that came from her lips was a weak whimper as protest, though she couldn't remember what she was protesting in the first place.

"All empty, all melty," Livvy sighed, stepping closer. "But it's okay. Because you're resting. Your mind is far away. Deep. Relaxed. Peaceful. That's what you want, isn't it? No more struggles."

Raya whimpered again.

Livvy giggled. "Oh, silly me. You need some help, don't you? All those cold thoughts in your head melted away. Here's a nice, hot word. Yes. Say yes, pretty girl."

"Yes." Like sliding into a bath or a hot spring, liquid warmth poured through her muscles, melting her brain away into a wonderful puddle. She felt like she was nearly there, so close to something wonderful.

"Good girl." Raya felt a hand on the back of her head, pressing it down. "Sleep."

Everything was calm and dark and so very, very warm. The gem sparkled it's fiery light in the darkness. Her eyes were closed. She was resting. Her body moved without her, guided by the soft whisper of the voice in her ear. "You can still see the pendant. It's keeping you so hot, melty girl. It's okay, I'll give you hot things so you can be full again. Do you want that?"

She only had one word. "Yes." Her mouth moved without her. How wonderful. She could just stare at the gem with her eyes closed, not worrying. Not thinking.

"You're hot all over. It must be so terrible in that armor." Livvy's voice was soft, sympathetic. "You poor thing. You should take it all off. Maybe that'll help you get some of your old thoughts back. But probably not."

Her hands tugged her armor to the ground, lazy and slow. There went her pack. Her weapon. Soon her shirt and pants, her underwear and bra all fell to the grass. She was naked in front of Livvy, and for a moment she almost found something wrong with that. But then Livvy's hand, hot and gentle, kneaded at Raya's breast and everything melted out of her head again.

"Good girl. It doesn't look like stripping worked at all. You're hotter now." Something hot and wet ran slowly over Raya's nipple, making her whimper. Livvy hissed. "I think you burned my tongue. Can you feel it? You're getting hotter every second. I think it's coming from inside you."

"I-inside," Raya managed with a gasp. That was a hot word. It didn't melt away, just burned hotter with every passing moment. She could feel her pussy get hotter and hotter, starting to burn with need. She whimpered. "Yes, inside."

Livvy's fingers slid up her thigh, drawing whimpers and cries as she traced the strong muscle. When her fingers finally slid over her sex, Raya bucked eagerly against them. "Yes! Inside!"

"Oh, I can't do that. It's too hot for me." Livvy's hot tongue flicked over the shell of her ear this time. "But it's nice for you. So nice you can't help but make it better. Put your hand between your legs and rub yourself. Get even hotter. The hotter you get, the harder it will be for those cold thoughts to ever come back again."

"Yes." Raya smiled. She bit her lip as her fingers quickly found their way to her clit, stroking in hot little circles. She tugged more moans from herself, pushing herself closer to cumming with every moment.

"You're so deep, aren't you?" she purred. "Very suggestible, right? And you know with every stroke you get hotter, go deeper. By the time you came you'd follow any order. Your mind would be so warm and sleepy by the fire you'd be my plaything forever."

"Yes," she agreed, rubbing faster. She could feel her pussy squeezing, aching and dripping. She usually didn't get turned on so quickly, get so close to cumming so fast, but it felt like all the warmth was pooling inside her, filling her sex with endless, blissful heat. Nothing sounded better than being this way forever, than being Livvy's hot plaything.

"Good. Make yourself cum, then wake, knowing deeply and truly that you were hypnotized, and it was easy even for me." There was a giggle in her voice, but also an eager little shake.

It only took a minute of rubbing before she came, shouting as heat enveloped her, leaving her fully focused on the wonderful, aching twist between her legs. She barely had a minute to enjoy her orgasm before she was on her hands and knees, snatching up her clothes from the ground with an embarrassed flush spreading over her cheeks. "You're a witch!"

"I told you!" she said, holding up her hands and stepping back. "But that's what it's like! Worse! At least I was nice. Do you know how many creatures her would keep your edged for days, just for fun? Or make you cum until you pass out from it? They'll do all sort of pleasure conditioning to erase your mind and enslave you. It's mostly all wolves and cats around here, but even they can get you if they have enough time."

"And how do I stop it?" Raya growled, half dressed already.

"I can protect you! Really, I swear! I can make simple shields and feel magic okay." She shook her head hard. "You can't do it on your own. You don't have a drop of magic in you. Maybe with practice you could hold some off for a while, but it could take months - years if you want to go up against the tougher creatures."

Raya clutched her sword. "I don't have that kind of time."

"Then bring me!" she said, nearly pleading now. "Just tell the people in the next town I did a good job so I can get paying work. We can watch each other's backs. I won't hypnotize you again."

She was dressed by then and turned to glare. "You can have enslaved me a minute ago."

"Started to," she admitting, looking guilty. "It'd take a few sessions. But I didn't put anything in I shouldn't have. I promise. Another witch could have. Post-hypnotic triggers are easy when you're that deep."

"And you didn't touch me." She sighed and ran a finger across her still damp ear. "Well, mostly. Alright. You made your point. You can come. But no more witchcraft from here on out - not on me. Deal?"

She beamed. "Thank you, miss! Thank you so much! It's a deal."

"Now, tell me more about whatever you called them. The animal girls around here. Are there no animal boys?" She slung her pack up on her back and expected Livvy to follow. She did.

"Well, some. But men with magic are pretty rare, regardless of their genital situation. And penis-havers are pretty rare too. Maybe one in every ten?" She giggled. "Women in general are just more magic inclined, and there's more females in any given magic species than males. Animal girls mostly give birth to litters of more girls, with a few boys and maybe one male, so they usually stay at home in the den and the girls keep them hypnotized and happy."

"And how do they do that? Same as you?" she asked.

Livvy shook her head. "No, Miss. My magic comes from fire, so everything I do uses that element to make it work. Magic creatures have a number of different ways they do things. Cat girls have this purr - if they can get you pinned down somehow and purr in your ear it just rattles out all the other thoughts. Wolf girls have their tongues, but they need time to make you cum a few times before they can put any suggestions in."

She looked around the trees and the thick place around the path they walked on. "What else is around here?"

"Um..." Livvy cocked her head. "There's a few fox girls. Their tails work about the same way as my stone, but they're nocturnal, so it's hard for them to even use it much. You need a light source for it to really get eye catching. They're pretty harmless for people, but sometimes they can enchant people away if they catch it in firelight."

Raya shook her head. "And how many species are there around here? Rabbit girls? Deer girls? Snake girls?"

"Oh! No. Some animal girls are especially powerful and, um, have special names." Livvy fidgeted. "We shouldn't see a snake girl, a lamia, anywhere around here. They're a lot stronger and a lot deeper in. It's mostly cats, wolves and foxes around here. Promise, Miss."

"Call me Raya," she groaned. "I'm not going to have you following me like I've hired on a maid. We're both benefiting from this, right? It's a friendship. I'll call you Livvy, you call me Raya, and try your best to stop looking like a beaten puppy."

She brightened, standing a little straighter. "Yes, mi-Raya. Okay, Raya. Do you want to tell me what you're doing here?"

"I have something I need to do, and it's a lot further in than the next town over. So don't worry about it."

"You're real chatty, huh?" Livvy said, looking up at her. "Did someone kill your family or something? I've heard dragons leave the island sometimes and go raise down cities across the island - revenge for raiding their nests and stuff like that. Is it that?"

"No. It's nothing personal." Raya hesitated, then gently patted the girl on the head the way she would a hunting dog. "All's well. Let's just try to make good time today."