Chapter 20 : Early Afternoon
Kianna's eyes went wide as she realized what she felt was Anton's fingers holding her ear in place.
"W-wait!" she whimpered as she confirmed she couldn't simply flick her ear out of his grasp "I-i-its!"
"Ssh..." hushed Anton as he put his hand on her shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze "It's okay, Kianna. I'm not going to hurt you..."
The dark elf whimpered though her nose as she clamped her eyes shut.
"Just relax Kianna..." breathed Anton as he gave her ear a tiny tug "I promise you're going to be okay"
Kianna whimpered again and swallowing the lump in her throat she gently nodded her head.
"Good girl!" whispered Anton as he gave her shoulder another squeeze "Such a very good girl!"
Keeping her eyes shut tightly, Kianna began to breathe slowly through her nose in an effort to calm herself down.
Anton's grip was firm but gentle as he held onto the tip of Kianna's ear and kept her in place whilst at the same time making every effort not to pinch her. Staying relaxed himself, he waited for her to calm down enough to go still, before raising his other hand and slowly running his fingertip down along the helix, or top edge, of her long and sensitive ear.
Kianna groaned softly in her throat and began to quiver from the sensation. Every instinct in her being was screaming at her to pull away and escape but her logical mind squashed these feelings and forced them back down as she became determined to trust her Master.
Though he could only see a portion of Kianna's face from his vantage behind her, Anton still watched her intently and smiled as he recognized the resolve take shape in her determined expression. Moving slowly and deliberately, he ran his fingertip back up along the edge of her ear before going back down again. He did this several times over the course of the next few minutes and each time he could feel her tremble less and less.
Superficially, the outer ears of the elves were very similar in design to a humans, with the major differences being their elongated shape, their heightened sensitivity to touch and the fact that unlike in humans, the intrinsic and extrinsic musculature along their base was fully functional and allowed their ears to move. Unbeknownst to most elves, these same muscles that gave them the ability to move their ears were also responsible for supplying the dreaded hypersensitivity to the skin that surrounded them.
Beyond these key features though, there was very little difference between the ears of an elf and those of a human. Like humans, the elves ears were made of a pliable elastic-like cartilage that gave them their shape, and was covered in a thin layer of skin. This cartilaginous frame had an overall shape that was similar to humans in that it had a lobe at the base, though in elves this lube was more rounded and not as bulbous as it was in humans, a pointed tragus that protected the opening to the ear canal, a thin helix that ran along the top edge of the ear and gave it a rim-like overhang as well as it's sharp point and an elongated, bowl-like concha that worked to collect sound waves and funnel them down into the inner ear.
Anton paid close attention to each of the nervous murmurs that Kianna made as he both examined and "played" with the different parts of her ear. He would move on to a new target only after she seemed to get accustomed to his touch in that area and began to go quiet.
From tugging on her lobe, to rolling his fingertip in her concha, to pressing down on her tragus, to moving her whole ear up and down on it's axis and to even folding it in over on itself. He worked gently but thoroughly to at least partially desensitize her ear to his touch.
The poor dark elf did her best to remain as stoic as she could, but her discomfort was more than obvious. And several times it became clear that she was fighting the urge to pull away from his grip. At these times Anton would stop what he was doing and speak soft encouragements to her as she whimpered in response and made the effort to calm herself down.
Once Anton was satisfied with the progress he had made and was able to run his fingertips across the majority of Kianna's ear without triggering any response from her, he let her go completely and chuckled as she immediately began to twitch her newly freed ear wildly up and down.
"You are so mean!" whined Kianna in embarrassment as she hid her face with her hands and flattened both of her ears down submissively behind her head "That was really, really intense!"
"I know, and I'm sorry..." said Anton as he wrapped his arms around her and gave her a comforting squeeze "But we're almost done, just one more to go..."
Kianna stiffened in his arms before hunching in on herself and groaning in misery. Although she was clearly unhappy, she offered no resistance as Anton gently twisted her head to the side and began the same process with her other ear.
This instance went by much quicker as Kianna was already familiar with what was going to be done to her and knew that Anton wasn't going to cause her any pain either deliberately or accidentally. And as such she wasn't nearly as nervous this time around.
When he was finished, Anton released his hold and chuckled again as she immediately twitched her ear wildly before flattening it down along side her other one.
With an annoyed pout on her face, Kianna turned back to him and narrowed her eyes in irritation.
"I hope you enjoyed that because I didn't!" she declared as she folded her arms over her chest in protest "That was not a fair trade at all!"
"No, no it wasn't, and I'm sorry about that." sighed Anton as his face softened "But it was very important Kianna. Because it's going to make this next part a lot easier..."
The dark elf stared at him for a moment before blinking in confusion.
"Wha, what do you mean?" she asked as her eyes became laced with a thread of nervousness "What are you talking about!? What next part!?"
"The part where I take care of you..." said Anton as he turned away from her "You're probably going to hate this..."
Twisting at the waist, Anton reached back behind himself to his deck chair and unzipped the top compartment of the travel bag that was sitting in it.
Kianna's eyes went wide as she watched him rummage around a bit and pull out a bag of cotton balls.
"Wait, what are you doing!?" she whimpered as she eased herself away from him.
"Kianna, I don't want to have to put you into "golem mode" like your sister." said Anton as he set the cotton balls down on the edge of the tub and reached back into the bag "That's why I messed with your ears the way I did. So that you could get used to what it feels like when I touch them."
Kianna was silent as she stared at the bag of cotton balls. After a short moment, a look of understanding took form on her face and this was quickly followed by an expression of nervous acceptance.
Anton set a small bottle of alcohol down on the edge of the tub next to the cotton balls and turned back to Kianna with the thin metal rod in his hand. As his eyes landed on the dark elf he couldn't help but to chuckle at the sight of her.
Kianna had wrapped her arms tightly around her torso and hunkered herself down in a subconscious effort to look as small as possible. With her ears laid flat behind her head and her large eyes moist with early tears she looked for all the world like a terrified puppy that was cowering during a thunderstorm.
