Little Shop of Curiosities (Closed to Drobabes)

[Drobabes]

The creatures laughter and playfulness was contagious, and Natalie found herself scooting a bit closer just to bask in the warmth that was...well, it. It was beautiful, really.

"That thing mentioned that we would have a guide."

She could barely pull her smiling gaze away long enough to meet Zander's eyes, though when she took in what he was saying, the smile faded slightly. She hadn't wanted to think about what that creature had said and done, but if they were going to face this, then they had to understand.

The creatures reaction to his words had Natalie's eyes widening in surprise, and her torso leaning back just the slightest amount as they were sniffed. It's presence was still comforting to her, but suddenly she felt a lump in her throat.

"Oh no! You’ve already got smudges!"

"Smudges?!" she asked, her voice tightening as her now wide eyes looked at Zander, trying to see what the creature was talking about.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Zander had never seen a snake making puppy-dog eyes, but he imagined it wouldn’t be as cute as the sad look the odd creature gave them. It’s voice still had the high timbre of a child, now tinged with sympathy.

“Oh, one of them, uh, made you do things, didn’t it?”

Zander wondered if he should feel self-conscious, talking about sex in front of the creature, but he didn’t. He did feel a little worried about the smudges, though, whatever those were.

He nodded solemnly at the flying hodgepodge of animal parts, who seemed on the verge of tears.

“Oh, you poor things! I wish I had had a chance to help you, to prepare!” The thing flew over to Zander, and he felt the sensation of small fingers wrapping around his wrist, pulling him after the creature as it flew/floated toward Natalie. Zander looked down to see that the creature’s feathered wing was resting on top of his arm. There was no part of it that explained the velvet fingers he felt wrapped around his wrist. The pull was insistent, though, and Zander let himself be pulled along until he was shoulder to shoulder with Natalie. He flashed her a smile that was confused, concerned, and flirty all at once.

The creature wrapped its wings over their shoulders, pulling all three of their heads together. “I’m so sorry. That must’ve been so scary.”

Zander wasn’t sure what to say. He didn’t expect this strange one-animal menagerie to be so…sweet. He let the hug happen, enjoying the closeness and comfort, and when the thing pulled away, he asked the question that was on his mind.

“What are these smudges?”

The creature’s collage of a face scrunched up in a serious expression that looked out of place on the cute, strange, translucent animal. “They’re bits of corruption on your spirit. It happens when the daeva make you do something that you don’t want to do. It gets worse if you enjoy it.”

Zander didn’t like the sound of that. He blushed at the memory that he did in fact enjoy some things about what happened. Corruption sounded bad, though. “How do we get rid of them?”

The thing’s face brightened. “They’ll go away on their own! It just takes time!” Back to a serious frown under its hedgehog snout. “But while you have them they make it easier to get more; harder to resist the daeva.” Now pleading, wide-eyed and hopeful. “You have to be careful! Don’t let them smudge you anymore, okay?!” The poor thing looked almost broken-hearted. “I can’t lose my only diakha…”

 

[Drobabes]

Natalie was very surprised by the creatures actions, and yet, just as when it had laughed, she felt the warmth and love simply pouring from it. Even as it's little snout and snake like eyes seemed to twist in despair, she still felt warm within it's presence. Though a new kind of warmth twisted somewhere deep within her when Zander flashed her that smile, and she didn't know if her heart was beating faster from affection or attraction. Perhaps both.

"I’m so sorry. That must’ve been so scary."

She felt her throat tightening a bit, despite the warmth of the creature keeping the brunt of her fear at bay. It had been scary. It had been goddamn terrifying, despite how good it had felt. To lose control of one's mind like that... Well, she just really never wanted to experience it again.

"They’ll go away on their own! It just takes time!”

She breathed a sigh of relief, her body slumping over slightly to lean on Zander's arm for a moment.

"How long do we have to-"
"But while you have them they make it easier to get more; harder to resist the daeva.”

Natalie's eyes widened and she sat up a bit, looking at Zander with worry before they were drawn back to the creature.

"You have to be careful! Don’t let them smudge you anymore, okay?! I can’t lose my only diakha…"

"Well..." she said, reaching a hand over to run it against the skin on her thigh.

"How do we keep that from happening? How do we keep ourselves safe?"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

There was a faint look of stern hope on the thing’s chimeric face as it looked at them with conviction. “Get stronger.” It nodded encouragingly. “Use your artifacts. Practice your disciplines.” It’s eyes were wide and watery. “I’ll help.”

The thing flew back a foot or so and hovered in front of them. “Why don’t we start with you telling me how you got those smudges?”

Zander was embarrassed about that, but after a look in Natalie’s eyes, he told the thing about their visit to the shop, their run-in with the Bat-monster, the ward they set up, and their…encounter with the hot, terrifying, tentacle-woman. He did gloss over the actual sex part. It just didn’t seem proper to talk about sex in front of such a wholesome creature.

“So...she got you so turned on that you fucked each other in front of her? With some kind of aura?”

Perhaps he’d been overly worried about being too explicit.

“Um, yeah.” He looked at Natalie with a shy smile, remembering the event, as well as what the creature had said about enjoying what the shadow-demons made them do. “It felt good at the time. Really good.” He reached out to take Natalie’s hand.

The look on the thing’s face made Zander’s smile disappear. “That was Akamanah,” it said with awe and sadness. “She’s the worst of them. She could’ve gobbled you up then and there, and we wouldn’t even have met.” A single tear fell down it’s fuzzy cheek.

The strange animal used its feathery wing to wipe the salty drop from its cheek, sniffling. “Sorry...okay, so...what other artifacts do you have?”

Zander pulled out his sword and showed the thing its energy shield power, and then they both looked to Natalie

 

[Drobabes]

Natalie met Alexanders gaze with a tender, but vulnerable look. She didn't want to be reminded of the evening, but if this creature was going to help them, then they needed to give it the information that it requested of them.

"So...she got you so turned on that you fucked each other in front of her?"

She blinked, her eyes widening a bit in shock as her head quickly jerked up to meet their guides own. Of course the creature would know about what sort of peril they might fall in to, but to hear it spoken in such an...almost point blank, no sugar coating, language was a bit of a shock. Later, it would make her laugh, but for now, she almost felt a bit uncomfortable with the disdain that she thought she heard in it's voice.

Zander's hand taking her own made her look over to meet his gaze, and while the encounter may have been forced, she wouldn't lie and say that it hadn't felt amazing. She had rode his big cock like it would lead her to the path of salvation.

After Zander had shown his own weapons, Natalie stood and walked over towards them. She was a little anxious, not quite understanding how the powers or artifacts worked, but despite that, she bravely held her hands up in a fighting stance and stared at the bracelets. For a moment, nothing happened, but the second she began to remember how she had felt while she was trying to protect Zander, the bracelets warmed against her skin and took on a golden glow.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The strange creature nodded happily. “Wonderful! Two great choices! What else?”

“Well,” Zander said, nodding toward the book, with the necklace still attached. “Umm, and we got…” He walked over to their bag, and pulled out the rolled-up tapestry, with its texture like thick parchment, or even a blanket. The creature sighed in relief and flew over to touch the tapestry. “Oh good, a portal!”

Zander looked at him in confusion and excitement. ”Portal?” The creature nodded, or maybe it just bobbed its whole body up and down in the air. It was hard to tell. “To the Shop, of course! This will be very helpful in case there’s anything else we need.”

Zander looked at Natalie in shock. His head was swimming. This all seemed so complicated and magical, and he wasn’t someone who had believed in magic before last night.

“What else!?” the creature asked in its bubbly, childlike voice.

Zander looked in the bag and was reminded about the plushies. He reached in and pulled out the vulva plush, jumping when Natalie squealed behind him.

He froze, and looked at her. She had a look of confusion and fear on her face, and Zander dropped the plush and ran over to her. The instant he let go of the plush, Natalie let out a sigh of relief.

Apparently she’d felt someone, or something, touch her in her most intimate place, but the sensation was gone after a few seconds. She told him it had felt like fingers, keeping her voice low, even though they had no reason to think anything ill of the creature.

“Do you...want me to look?” Zander asked, unsure what else to do.

 

[Drobabes]

"Um..." Natalie said, swallowing hard and blushing.

"No, not..."

She looked over at the creature before turning her body away slightly, using Zander's chest to block the creatures view of what she was doing. With shock and embarrassment still on her face, she pulled her jeans out away from her stomach and looked inside. After a second, she then reached in with her own hand and scoped things out, finding with relief that there was nothing there.

"I'm fine, I think" she said, letting out a breath. Her brows then furrowed as she looked towards the bag.

"What were you pulling out?" she asked, looking back up into Zander's face.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The look of concern didn’t leave Zander’s face, but he took a deep breath when she said she was fine, even if it didn’t fully alleviate his fears. “Are you sure?” He looked down at her crotch, wishing, for once with fully innocent intentions, that he could see through the material. “If one of those things did something…”

Zander looked over at the creature, hovering in the air next to them. “Can they...do things? That stay inside us like that?”

“Like what?” the creature asked, still confused about what had just happened.

Zander looked at Natalie’s face, seeing the embarrassment in her expression. He didn’t want to be more explicit about what he was, at best, pretty sure had happened, not if it would embarrass her. He tried to give her a look that asked “Do you want me to try to explain that?” but what he actually said was, “Are you sure you’re okay?”

 

[Drobabes]

Between Zander's concern, and the creature hovering near, Natalie let out a forced breath and chewed on the inside of her cheek. The creature already knew more about all this then either of them likely ever would, and it wasn't exactly innocent, even if it felt so genuinely soft and kind. Then again...sex wasn't supposed to be a bad thing, now was it?

Running her hands through her hair, she gave Zander a nod.

"Go ahead and explain, we need all the help we can get."

Her gold flecked hazel eyes then turned to the creature, a bit of heat coming to her cheeks.

"Something...touched me. Down here," she said, waving her hand in a loose circle over her crotch area.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The creature’s snake eyes went wide, its head flashing back and forth. “Just now? In here?”

Zander looked at the creature, concerned. “Could they have left something…on us? Or…in us?”

The creature huffed, and floated through the air to hover directly in front of Natalie’s crotch, staring intently between her legs. “No,” it said absentmindedly. “Nothing that I can think of that would’ve done that. What did it feel like?”

 

[Drobabes]

The heat in her cheeks burned just a bit more as the young women steeled herself to answer, coming to the conclusion that this would be much more simple and less embarrassing if she considered the creature to be somewhat like a doctor or professional. In that context, it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable to explain what was going on.

"It felt like there were fingers touching my vagina...but there was nothing there, and my hands were obviously not in my pants..."

Her eyes looked between the both of them, fear and confusion written all over her face.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Zander blushed, remembering his own hands, and other things, touching her in the same spot. He had enjoyed that quite a lot, but this wasn’t the time.

With a look of concern, the creature flies to Natalie, hovering inches in front of her crotch, staring intently at the place she said she was touched. After a beat, it looks up into Natalie’s eyes with its own snake-like orbs. Its expression is open and innocent, but gravely serious.

“May I see?” it asks.

 

[Drobabes]

“Um…well…”

Natalie looked back and forth between the two of them, a bit of apprehension showing with the pinch of her brows.

“Yes, I suppose that would be best…”

She reached down to her hips, hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her pants. Just before she pulled them down, her eyes went warily up to the door, and then quickly around the room, as if she were still slightly nervous of something creeping up on them while she was vulnerable. Letting the clothing drop down to her ankles, she kicked them to the side slightly and then laid down on the floor, spreading her legs for the creature just as she did while in the doctors office. Perhaps because it was was a similar situation, she felt a similar kind of calm. This was just an examination. A very weird examination, but an examination nonetheless.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

That thing floated right in front of Natalie’s crotch, inches away from actually touching her. It’s demeanor seemed more clinical than anything, but Zander could tell Natalie was anxious about it. He stepped next to her and reached for her hand, squeezing it gently.

“Do you see anything?”

He noticed its eyes changing, rapidly and drastically. One moment they had vertical, cat-like pupils, and the next they were solid orbs of glowing purple. Then they looked like mammalian eyes but in negative, with browns instead of white and solid white irises. Transparent, scale-covered, flaming, a dozen or more fantastical variations that the thing shifted between instantly.

“Not yet”

After a few more seconds and several more transitions, it squeeked. “There!” It’s eyes flashed to the bag they’d gotten from the little shop. “A sympathetic tether!” It looked up at them. “You have a magical link to something in that bag, but it doesn’t appear to be harmful in any way.”

Zander wasn’t putting together what it was saying. “Sympathetic tether?”
It looked at him, and jerked back in surprise. “You have one, too!”

“Huh?” exclaimed Zander eloquently.

 

[Drobabes]

The squeeze to her hand was appreciated, Natalie finding herself being able to take a longer, more stabilizing breath as the 'exam' began. From there, she found herself peeking up at the creature curiously and as it's eyes began to rapidly morph and switch, she found her curiosity over taking her discomfort as she watched.

"There!"

She flinched slightly, half expecting something to come bursting out of her in retaliation for having been caught. When the Guide then looked over towards the bag, her own eyes followed, not quite understanding it yet.

“You have a magical link to something in that bag, but it doesn’t appear to be harmful in any way.”

“Sympathetic tether?”

“You have one, too!”

“Huh?”

“Pfft!” Natalie giggled, not being able to help herself as her slender fingers went to cover her lips before she pulled her other hand free of Zander’s and used it to sit up, closing her legs now that they had found the source of things. Once she was sitting up, she brushed her long hair behind her shoulder, it’s sun kissed gold streaks cascading through the layers of rusty red as she did so.

“So what is it?” she asked, wanting to get down to business and understand why it had felt so intruding.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Despite all their stress, Zander couldn’t help but smile at Natalie’s giggle. She was adorable, in the sexiest way possible. And she was handling how scary this all was like a champ, too. He didn’t know if he’d be keeping it together as well as he was if he didn’t have her to go through it with.

He shook his head, remembering the urgency of the moment, and walked over to the bag. He picked it up and dumped the contents onto the floor. One of them must’ve brushed against his pants on the way down; he didn’t see it but he felt a soft impact against his crotch.
“Do you see which, uh…thing it is?” he asked the creature.

It immediately flew over and hovered distressingly close to his crotch. It followed a line that only it could see straight to the penis plushie that Natalie had gotten from the shop. Zander’s eyebrow raised.

Then, the creature did the same thing with Natalie, zeroing in on the pussy plushie he’d bought. Zander walked over and picked it up. “So this is what she’s connected to? What does that mean?”

 

[Drobabes]

She had reached over and grabbed her pants, and was just getting them on her feet and pulling them over her ankles when she felt something touch her pussy again. Letting out a yelp, she dropped the fabric in her fingers and quickly reached up to her crotch. Her fingers started probing for something that wasn't there before she realized the two of them were watching her, and then she simply covered her small bush.

"I can feel it again! Right now!" Natalie hissed, her voice panicked.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Zander’s head snapped back, the wheels turning. He looked at the plushie in his hand, then at Natalie, then back to the plushie, then another three full cycles of that same. It would’ve been a bit much for a gag in a sitcom, but he was putting together what was happening.

“This link,” he started, turning to the creature. “Is it dangerous?”

The thing floated between Natalie and Zander, pausing before answering. “Not by itself.” Another pause. “I would have to look at it more closely to tell if one with ill intent could use it against you.”

Zander nodded solemnly, then turned to Natalie with a smirk. “Let’s test it out. Let me know if you feel this.”

With that, he lifted the stuffed vulva to his lips and stuck out his tongue, slathering the muscle up and down the middle of the plushie. If it had actually been Natalie’s pussy, his tongue would’ve wetly slapped against her entrance and then writhed between her lips while he watched her for a reaction.

 

[Drobabes]

As Zander pondered what was happening, and because Natalie was starting to get anxious again, she quickly reached down and finished getting her pants on. Slipping her feet into them, she quickly yanked them up onto her slender hips and then stood with her arms crossed nervously, trying to figure out what it was that Zander was thinking, and all the while trying not to squirm.

"Let's test it out. Let me know if you feel this."

"Ah!" Natalie suddenly gasped, her hands flying back to grip at her crotch as her cheeks suddenly flushed.

"Z-zander! I, ah! Yes I can feel it...okay, you can stop" she said, biting back a nervous laugh. She was mixed with emotions, the nervousness having been closely chased by desire, physical pleasure, and slight embarrassment at doing such lewd acts in front of their guide.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

The creature's bright, ethereal body floated awkwardly close to Natalie's crotch, and its head looked back and forth as if following a string that floated between the two young humans.

“Hmm, I don’t see any potential for real abuse here. It transmits only surface sensations.”

It thought for another moment until Zander stopped and dropped the pussy plushie onto the couch, forgetting that it would probably make Natalie feel like she got lightly slapped in the cooch with a cushion.

“You should keep these safe,” the creature advised. “If someone else got them, they could cause you a little pain, or distract you with sensations, but no real harm.” A smile spread across its strange, chimeric face. “I think the Keeper just wanted you to have something fun.”

Zander sat down next to the plushie, a bit of tension leaving his shoulders. “Okay.”

A pause, and then the creature kept them on track. “Was there anything else?”

Zander had to think. “The bracelets, the sword, the plushies, the book and the necklace…oh! And the stamps! She stamped these eyes on our forehead that faded right away.”

“The eyes,” the creature repeated with a sage nod. “Marking you as diakha and allowing you to see the daeva and other things of the shadow realm.” Then the thing straightened up in the air. “Oh, and me, of course!”

Zander suppressed a laugh at how…cute...this thing was. “Speaking of, what should we call you?”

“Fye will do nicely.”

 

[Drobabes]

She watched as their guide approached, but felt no shame or embarrassment. She felt completely safe within it's presence, made only more trusting by the knowledge that it had of their situation.

Natalie indeed did feel the light little smack to her pussy, but decided to ignore it. When Zander went to sit she went with him.

"The eyes, marking you as diakha and allowing you to see the daeva and other things of the shadow realm...Oh, and me, of course!"

Natalie smiled as well, taking a deeper breath and letting it out now that she knew it was nothing too dangerous. And, finally, feeling safe.

"Fye..." she spoke, testing the word upon her tongue and lips. It would likely take her a bit to remember the unique name, but she hoped they would have plenty of time to do so.

"You said we need to use our artifacts to get stronger. How do we do that? Is there like...a place to train, or something?"

Pausing, she brought a folded hand up to her teeth and gently bit on the knuckle.

"Would it be safe?"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Zander reached over and slid his hand into Natalie’s, taking a deep breath. A place to train was a good idea.

Fye floated over in front of them. “There is a place. The diakha have cultivated such a realm, safe from the things of shadow. The Radiant Grotto.”

Zander nodded, suppressing a giggle that this was the world they lived in now, apparently, that they needed to go somewhere called the Radiant Grotto. “Where is this, this Radiant Grotto?”

“Just put up the portal tapestry and step in!” Fye said cheerily.

Zander looked through the things they’d gotten, and pulled out the tapestry they’d gotten with the door to the Shop on it.

“Not that one. That one for the Grotto!”

Zander’s face fell. “Uh, Fye, that’s the only one we’ve got.”