The First Harlot

Quote :

"They only are resolute they shall eat
that they and their mates may thrive
And they know that the dead are safer meat
than the weakest thing alive"

- "The Hyena"

Rudyard Kipling

The former onitoshi achieved an even greater state of chaos and confusion than previously, thanks to the Dawn. The event, which Iskra only knew as that happy time that the Great Hyena had expelled the world and everything in it whole from her glorious clitoris, had completely upset all the hierachys of hell. Nobody knew their place any more. Nobody knew the tools of organization that they'd learned from Terra's men. Not a one of them. All of them were bloodthirsty, murderous, and self-focused who didn't have their own indiscernible agendas.

It would logically follow that the women folk of the vast caverns were lost in the churning madness that consumed the realm as thoroughly as the very hellfire did. They adapted in various ways. Some of them had formed militant Amazon clans not unlike old world feminists. Some had simply become incredibly butch and hardly discernible from the male demons. Some of them became seductresses, either luring men to their deaths or using their gender to harness the loyalties of and limited protection from the feral others who would otherwise use them and leave them for dead. Such behaviors were necessary, an issue of survival. Women were a rare commodity in the underworld, as many of the weaker ones had been used to the point of a lonely, helpless death.

Iskra knew little of these things, as she knew little of the true nature of demons. A life on Terra had insulated her from some of these harsher realities. Prostitution was a foreign concept to hyenas. Their biology shielded them from all manner of sexual exploitation, and their habits shielded them from much interaction from other species past eating. The Storyteller of her clan related an interesting tale to explain why the hyenas were different as she had a story for everything else.

The Great Hyena blessed the creatures made in her image above all the others and made them the rulers of the three planes. After she died and became the sun, however, her wicked mate, the male hyena of the pair and a figure that could readily be compared to Satan, came and spread weakness and disease in the animals, and further twisted them by giving the males who, in the natural order of things were weaker and less tolerant of pain for a reason, dominion in all the species of the world, plunging the world further into fault. He sought to destroy the world because he had a sinful desire to rule over the Great Hyena instead of being ruled as was proper. However, he could not touch the hyenas, for they were sacred and made in the Great One's image.

[ EXP: 593 ]

All the hyenas saw how the Mad God twisted all of creation and inflicted it with disease and decay, and they took it upon themselves as guardians of the realm to simply eat rot and death wherever they can find it and so stem its flow to healthy animals. They kept the world alive and as strong as they could by purging the weak. It was not a hopeless mission. Should they continue purging disease for long enough, the Great One would return and repair nature for her cubs, that is, all living things on the world, for she could never truly be killed. Her blood became the sun and stars that bring life and warmth to the world. The Mad One became the wind that destroys and the clouds that drive the cold over Terra. As the two gods fought, so those made in their image are destined to fight.

This story played over in Iskra's head as she compared it to the sick image before her. There was a large demon, twisted in body and clearly mad, a skull adorning his head and hiding his face as he stood, naked, before a young succubus. Ostensibly, one might be able to say she was "asking for it" by simply being a succubus, but the girl seemed genuinely confused and not wanting whatever this feral man-thing was offering. Indeed, this skull-faced man was being quite the pushy soliciter, waving his wares in her face with his hand clutching her hair as a child might clutch the hair of a doll.

The little woman (and she looked no older than her late teens) cried out, resisting in every way she could over the growling demands of the man before her and pushing his pitch-colored thighs away.


[ EXP: 357 ]

"Weird..." Iskra murmured, a bit confused at the sight. Should she save this girl, it would be the first in her collection of twenty-seven, however, so she grumbled and looked in the beast's direction, concentrating on and discerning the monster's soul. He was in particularly close contact with his more wild emotions, and they were close to the surface... easy to bring forth, amplify, and use against him. "Well, now..." the demon chanted in a low murmur. "I'll be needing that creature unharmed. Would you nicely back off?"

The demon suddenly came under some sort of assault, clawing at imaginary attackers as an incredible pain, a ripping, tearing pain consumed his entire body and he curled up on the lava. He was already quite out of his mind, and this further provocation only made him throw himself into a nearby lava pit.

Iskra rolled her eyes. "Males..." Those eyes then settled on the frightened female. "...are you okay? I'll be needing you to come with me."

The succubus, somehow not yet plunged into senselessness or hatred by her tenure here, at least as far as Iskra could tell, looked upon her savior with eyes full of unadulterated gratefulness. "Yes, anywhere. Thank you so much..."

[ EXP: 286 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

The hyena woman lifted a bone-colored brow. Honestly, she didn't feel that she had done anything "special" or otherwise noble. She cast a simple spell, and the obviously weak creature threw its deranged self into the lava and thus rid the world of another manifestation of evil. It was simply her job as a hyena.

But this succubus creature, as young as she was, acted as though she'd undergone some sort of cloister of trials to rescue her from some sort of strong, wicked monster.

"Don't mention it," she murmured, finding something a little unusual about this particular seductive spirit. For one, she was very modestly dressed. Her hair was fair like straw freshly laid out on a field. Her eyes were blue like the sky, and the thermal winds blew her white cloak so that it billowed gently like a cloud in the breeze. It failed to remove the dirt where she'd been pushed down to the ground, however.

Those big eyes were so full of gratitude, Iskra once again observed, that she thought they might burst like an overripe fruit.

The demon frowned at her analogy. "What exactly are you? Not much of a lust spirit if you don't want to... uhh..." her eyes drifted off to the magma. It had been a base assumption, but Iskra got the same feeling off of her that she got off of the few lust demons she'd encountered in this realm, so it had to be true in some respects, even if she was an under-aged one.

[ EXP: 328 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]

The small woman smiled and put a hand against her heart with a bit of showmanship. "How rude of me! Here you go saving my life and I don't even introduce myself. My name is Karen. I'm a..." She paused, looking left and right before leaning in and whispering as though conveying some great scandal. "...kami. My sister is down here looking for Artifacts from the Old World... if you believe in such a thing. We do." Karen grinned, a certain light about her mannerisms revealing that she spoke the truth about her species. "We're very close. She used to send correspondence daily by way of her pet dove, but she knew this was a dangerous place. I haven't heard from her in months. I'm sure she's okay, but I just wanted to come down here and see if I could find any clues as to why she hasn't written."

Now the singular thought going through Iskra's head was that this woman before her was very niave, first of all, and the second thought was that this sister kami must be deader than a... very dead thing if fate was kind to her.

[ EXP: 243 ]

Of course, most decent, civilized sentient creatures would find it rude to tell such a thing to such wide and enthusiastic young eyes.

"Your sister is probably dead," Iskra began. "But what makes you think that she might be alive?"

The kami appeared nonplussed, accustomed to such behavior from demons even though she inexplicably trusted this one because her good nature dictated that she repay lifesaving deeds with loyalty. "Oh, I just know it!" she said, all but jumping up in her excitement. "We have... a bond. I just know that she's here somewhere just waiting for word from home."

Iskra furrowed her brows. "Well, does this feeling tell you where she might be at?" Of course, this idea of "home" meant nothing to the hyena demon, but another easily captured, probably virginal girl to sacrifice to the dragon sounded like a good deal... a 2-for-1.

[ EXP: 212 ]

The kami enthusiastically nodded. "Why yes, gentle demon. It isn't far, in fact. Perhaps a few miles through these woods and we'll find her, likely sleeping somewhere in preparation for another day's journey."

The demon scratched the back of her spotty mane. "My name is Iskra, by the way. How sure are you?" Something told her this was going to be a wild goose chase, but she still had plenty of time before her employer was consumed by worms and rot. A single sidetrip wouldn't change much.

"I'm absolutely positive, Iskra." Her smile radiated warmth and innocence.

Iskra folded her arms. "Okay, then. I guess I can escort you to your sister, but you have to do me a favor afterwards, okay?"

Trusting, Karen simply nodded. "Oh, I could never repay you enough! Saving my life AND helping me find my sister! Are you sure you really belong here?"

The demon snorted once, then cackled. "I don't. I'm like you. I've lost something. I'm just down here... searching."

[ EXP: 241 || +1 TEXP (5th post) ]