One Trader to Another (TDS Side #3)

Story by Isiat Squire Carcer on SoFurry

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#15 of The Dancing Slave

An awesome and fun little commission for allgrinz, set some time before the events of 'The Dancing Slave', featuring a Lapine trader, and her attempts to get ahead in the world. A Hare, to be specific, and to get ahead of a certain trader anyone who has read the series so far should be familiar with...

Commissions like this run 20$ a pop for in universe settings, and I'm taking them on a strictly 'as I've got time' basis. Have an idea or would like to see your own character in the setting? Message me!

This story was available early to my Patreons! Want to see stuff early as well? https://www.patreon.com/Isiats_Writing

You can also get some early peaks or just pick my brain on my Discord server here! https://discordapp.com/invite/423xBFE


He'd kept her waiting almost an hour now.

Over an hour in fact. The small, delicate watch upon the lady hare's wrist put it at an hour and some past midday, and her business appointment had been for noon. It was a deliberate delaying tactic, and she knew it. Her own trading reputation had long since been eclipsed by the might of the High Fortune and that many tailed vulpine behind it, along with his dragon clan sponsored crony.

Her foot thumped on the hardwood deck of the reception area, an irritable tick of hers that was rooted back to her very genetics themselves. Prey creatures seldom made a big splash when it came to interspecies politics, and she had fought and clawed and kicked for every ounce of her own reputation. In some cases, more literally than metaphorically. Predator species tended to use their place in the supposed 'natural order' of things to enforce their wills, as the canines were with their most recent attempt at expansion.

As for her though? The thickset hare woman didn't care about territory, or conquest, or where her supposed place was. She'd made her pillar on the backs of gold coins, and everyone could see her worth as an ally as soon as they saw her trade ledgers. That in itself was enough to silence even the canine's brainless blather about their superiority. When she had something they wanted, it was just a matter of dangling it like bait before them until they were willing to negotiate.

And then this fucker, had the audacity to make her wait over an hour just for a damned audience! Who did he think he was?!

"Are you quite done? Your incessant thumping makes it difficult to work." The red-scaled dragon behind a fine oak desk on the other end of the room tutted at her, like a teacher admonishing a student for speaking out of turn.

"Is your master quite done delaying our meeting?" She snapped back at him with a blunt stare that spoke volumes of her annoyance. He shrugged the comment off as if it were no more bothersome than a light breeze.

"Dragon's do not have masters, rabbit, and you would do well to remember it should you ever warrant the attention of the clans. He will see you when he's ready to see you. I gave you a time to make yourself present. You are speaking to him at his leisure, not yours." The dragon stopped what he was doing, his quill pausing mid-stroke as he met her with a steely, golden stare. She met it right back, brightly intense green eyes clashing. She wasn't intimidated by him in the slightest. Hell, she had stared down dire wolfs in negotiations. As far as she was concerned, he was just another person between her and a highly lucrative deal that the vulpine was wasting her time with.

After a few moments, Scion grunted and returned to filling out the ledgers. She let out the breath she didn't realise she had been holding. The white and brown hare knew she was swinging well above her league with some of her recent deals, but there was no faster way to get ahead in the game than by taking chances. From what she understood of it, the vulpine who owned the High Fortune had won it in a game of drunken chance, and gone from nothing to a venerable juggernaut within the trading circles overnight.

Her own rise hadn't followed quite as sharp or dramatic a curve, but none the less, what she herself had accomplished in a relatively short time was no less impressive, perhaps even more so as almost none of it had relied upon pure chance.

"So what exactly then, is he doing that is keeping him so preoccupied?" She huffed, trying to keep her tone even and level, and failing on both counts, her irritation bleeding through into her voice.

"He is doing whatever he damned well pleases, as it happens. You were fortunate to have your invitation to treat even opened, and if you're going to start your offer by insulting Scion, this is going to be a very short invitation indeed." The finely dressed vulpine addressing her from the set of double doors spoke with a crisp, clipped accent, each word carefully pronounced and precise, just like the damned dragons.

His fur was an inky black, with a paint of white that was separated by a rich burgundy red divide. His ears twitched as he seemed to study her for a few moments, glacial blue eyes looking her over once with a cursory glance.

"You're the trader Thadeus?" He seemed taken off guard by her appearance. Or her gender. Or her species. Possibly, a combination of all three.

"That is my surname, yes." The brown and white-furred hard responded, standing from her seat.

"Clever of you. People are more likely to grant you an audience if you lead with that rather than Robyn, aren't they?" His gaze had taken on a mischievous, if slightly amused expression, softening the hard edges to his face.

"That's been my experience, yes." She nodded. The male turned away from her, his tails giving a slow, rolling flicker that bid her follow, padding past the dragon who she gave a smug grin at before the doors closed behind them, cutting them off from the rest of the massive airship.

Once they were alone, she set into her well-rehearsed spiel. How she'd found a buyer for certain kinds of metal only forged by the dragon clans, and secured a deal to supply it to him. How she'd scouted the route, made the agreements, trade alliances, and bribes as needed to ensure that the path was never closed or interrupted.

She went on at length, however, lamenting that the hardened steel was dense and heavy, difficult to move in any large quantity, especially for her own meagre fleet of three airships. Such a long journey was vastly profitable but tedious, and long, more frequent, shorter trips could be made if a supplier who could bring the starting posts closer, thus increasing the overall profits.

"And let me guess then. You're wanting me to use my connections and the High Fortune to act as those starting posts by collecting the material and..." Isiat paused midway through raising his glass and let the amber liquid roll about in it, his paw making a 'go on' gesture.

"Meet us halfway, so to speak. Yes, that was the idea. Even doing a 70/30 split, the amount they will pay will more than make the venture worth it." The hare nodded firmly, pointing out the profit margins and charts she had prepared previously, as well as her estimates which she had triple checked.

"Your numbers are low. 60/40." Came his flat response, and he went back to sipping his liquor, all but dismissing her offer out of hand. It took her by surprise, and judging by the way he was watching her so closely from the corner of his eye, he knew it as well.

Ten percent though! While the numbers were large, yes, ten percent was like cutting her foot off!

"Impossible. Ten percent is the difference between profit and breaking even!"

"For you, perhaps. Your ten percent, however, is fuel and food load for the High Fortune halfway across the continent and back. Your ambitions are big, but your practical application to reach them needs some work. And all this is assuming that your supply lines stay open, a war doesn't break out, weather is favourable, and you prove to be able to deliver my cut in a timely fashion."

"Bullshit. You're just a greedy bastard. A typical predator."

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders, his arms stretched wide.

"Guilty as charged. I didn't get here by being generous, little rabbit."

"That's not what I heard." She bit her tongue. Was it worth it? She might not get another chance to find out, and she had paid a pretty sum for the information after she had her invitation accepted. It was now or never.

"How is your old master doing, anyway?" Her next word was a sharp, barbed word in the desert tongue, but her pronunciation was perfect.

Pleasure Slave.

The vulpine dropped his glass, and stood instantly, his face shifting from complete confidence and control to an absolute lack of it in the span of a heartbeat.

"How do you- Impossi-" He snapped, but now it was her turn to give him a dose of his own arrogance.

"Sit down, predator, before this little rabbit gets any other bad ideas." She snapped, thumping her foot loudly on the floor, her long ears flicking above her head. He growled, but relented, and sat back down, still huffing.

"Don't worry, your secret is safe... For now. Don't piss me off, or that might change. But for now, it's safe."

"I don't know how you found out, but-" He started, his lip curling in a slight growl as he started, but she quickly cut him off again. She had to keep control of the situation now. The more he spoke, the more likely he was to bolster his own confidence and try and slip it from her grasp again.

"Well, truthfully, I wasn't sure until you leapt from your seat. There's still quite a bounty for you, you know... Well, maybe not you specifically, but the wording is vague enough that it was easy to connect the dots once I had a few important pieces of information.... So, pleasure slave to a famous trader. The stories about your dumb luck are true, aren't they? Go on, stand up. Strip, I want to see it." She gave a tutting gesture like a classroom Procter and tapped her foot on the floor again impatiently. This was blackmail, absolutely, but not the sort where a weapon in either of their paws would have changed the situation drastically in either's favor.

He grumbled, and begrudgingly pushed his chair back, walking around to the side of his desk. He glared at her all the while.

"Cute, but unnecessary. Lose the pants, pred." She chuckled inwardly, perhaps enjoying the control over the situation just a little too much. Oh well. It was important to enjoy the little things, after all.

He rolled his eyes, and unfastened his belt, letting his trousers pool around his ankles, leaving him bare from the waist down. Cute. His fur was white down there she noted with a playful smirk.

Hmmm. Not half bad looking either...

Of course though, that wasn't why she'd wanted him to ditch the fabric covering. Just as she'd been told, the slave brand was as obvious as a tar stain on clean linen, the flowing rune twisted and scarred from where his fur had been singed off entirely, never to regrow.

"Hmm... I'm surprised you wouldn't have tried to hide it with something else."

"That's what I had been doing, and quite successfully, mind you, before you asked me to take them off."

She couldn't resist her little victorious grin, a quiet giggle escaping her. Oh, this was just too good to pass up.

"Oh, asked? Was that what I did? No, me asking is 70/30. Please." She offered him a sweet smile.

"No." Came his blunt response, the pantless male staring her down even now. "That's me telling you. Now was there-"

"Ah-ah-ah! No no, I wasn't done yet. See, your secret staying our secret relies on my business opportunity becoming our business opportunity. You've already seen the profits, and you haven't denied those. We've established that there's a deal to be made. This is just... Haggling on price." She grinned and made a little gesture for him to turn around.

With a reluctant sigh, he did so, stretching his arms out to the sides as he made what must have been the lowest effort turn the male could have managed, his face drawn in an unimpressed frown.

"Satisfied? There's nothing else, just the brand." He quipped with an air of needless irritation, his tail tips flickering all out of synch. Good. Let him be off-balance. That would make all of this easier for her.

"Oh please. We've hardly even started on my satisfaction here. I'm surprised that some harlot hasn't figured it out. Do you keep your pants on for all of your encounters? That must be awkward." She mused aloud, resting her paw on her chin thoughtfully.

"It's almost as if they invented buttons for that very reason. Now, what exactly are you hoping to get out of this little show of yours?" He snapped back, his patience for this charade wearing thin.

"Oh, just the usual. Recognition, a little respect, money, maybe some gratification, money... All of these things, but mostly money, I won't lie. I'll do 68/32. Not a draskar less, or your secret finds its way to a bounty guild in Tras'Vahnaar. I've heard they're the best." Perhaps a little more forceful persuasion would do the trick...

"Unless they can fly, them being the best won't help them. I have a dragon for that. 65/35." Isiat countered his features hard, tails flicking irritably. Even pantless, he was no less the barterer it seemed, nor was he even slightly concerned by her threat.

She laughed at that, long and hard, the rabbit tossing her head back and letting her shoulder-length hair flick about with her merriment.

"Ha! Just so. But regardless, it would make your business very difficult in the deserts indeed, and I'm sure you don't want that." Robyn sighed wistfully, looking the male over once more. He stood there with the rigid discipline of someone who had been trained that way, that much was for sure.

"Very well then. 67/33, and I'll cover a month of food supplies for your ship."

"65/35." He countered, fixing her with a stare.

"Cute, but no. Those eyes might be able to push over some other lady, but it won't work here... You sure are one cocky male, aren't you?"

He huffed, an amused grunt escaping him.

"You were the one who told me to lose the pants. I thought you'd be able to see that much now that they're off."

"Asked! I asked you, remember? Your words." Robyn taunted him with a raised finger as if she were lecturing a student, leaning back in her seat. Her paw thumped lazily to a rhythm on the floor.

"You wanted gratification. Your words." He quickly retorted, grinning.

"I don't need your cocky attitude for that, pleasure slave, but-" Well... It had been a while since she was last with a predator species, and canines were so awfully rough with her... Perhaps, just a little gratification to sweeten the deal. Hell, a good lay might even put him in a better mood to barter afterwards, now that she was the one holding the upper hand.

'But?" He interrupted her little daydream fantasy, one eyebrow arched quizically. His nose twitched as if he could scent even just the faintest tinglings of arousal she felt in the air. He really wasn't at all bad-looking, certainly nowhere near the worst she'd had to fuck to make a good deal...

He took a step towards her, leaving his pants in a pile on the floor behind him.

"Ah-." She reprimanded his advance sharply, sitting up, before, with a deft flick of her arm, the belt around her waist was flung aside, her own linen leggings sliding downwards after it.

"I'm not the one who wore a collar. Why don't you use that tongue of yours for something other than trying to rip me off, and get me off instead? Perhaps we can... Work some better arrangement out." She did her best bedroom eyes, tantalisingly spreading her legs for him just a bit, but the show was hardly necessary. He was male, once you gave them an inch-

"Ohh~ Eager mutt, arent you?"

Well, at least he didn't waste time. There was hardly a complaint as he knelt before her seat, his broad paws grabbing her thick rabbit thighs in a rough grip so he could drive his muzzle between her legs and up against the soft flesh of her petals, quickly flushing pink with arousal. She stopped him short with a single paw around his muzzle, trapping his tongue as he tried to poke it out.

"Easy there pleasure slave. My deal, my rules." She teased him, his cool, dark, leathery nose barely an inch from her snatch.

She grabbed his pointy, red-rimmed ears in her paws, and spread her legs for the over-eager vulpine whose tails were moving a mile a minute now, betraying his enthusiasm. She guided his muzzle's motions with gentle twists and tugs on the male's fuzzy ears as he went to town on her cunt, enthusiastically devouring her like a good predator's instincts should have guided him to when presented with a prey creature like herself. Of course, she doubted this sort of union was what nature had intended, but oh! What a joy it was to be able to put those feral desires to a far, far more practical and enjoyable use!

His tongue was broad and forceful like a canine's should have been, but nimble and sinfully skilled as she might have expected for a fox-kin. She groaned to the ceiling his he delved into her with unbridled enthusiasm, and she quickly found that holding his ears was just holding him back! Instead, she dug her fingers into the armrests of the chair, tossing her legs up onto his shoulders so that the male could feast more readily on the juicy rabbit hole he was burrowing his tongue into.

He gave a growl of approval, or was it lust? Both? She didn't care. Her moans hit a high note as he shoved his nose against her clitoris, his lips all but sealed in a messy kiss against her own lower lips, tongue thrashing like a trapped serpent within his tight honey-pot. Honey-pot. Oh, what an accurate description it was.

Her juices all but gushed around his muzzle as she came her, his fingers turning white as she clenched them against the seat. She tried to pin his head between her thighs as sweet, blissful orgasm racked over her faster than ever, but his paws on her thick hamstrings kept her legs spread for him, liberally tongue-fucking the rabbit into a second follow up orgasm before her screams of carnal pleasure from the first had even started fading. He ate that up just as enthusiastically, snarling into her cunt like a good predator ought with captured prey.

It was a force of effort for her to try and extract the male's tongue from between her legs, but in the end between writing and moaning, she managed to force one of her knees back, and placed her foot flat against his collarbone, giving a powerful shove the knocked the vulpine onto his tails and his arse, still grinning from ear to ear.

"Down, mutt!" She panted breathlessly, the soft chocolatey fur surrounding her mound soaked through with lust and saliva. Before he could recover his wits too much from the force of the kick, she was atop of him, straddling his waist and pinning him to the ground, his forearms shoved down beside his head.

"68/32, and I let you go hunting down this rabbit-hole to the knot." She rolled her hips, letting her slick mound tease against the males achingly stiff shaft, grinding against the lobes of his swelling knot. He groaned beneath her, his dappled red and grey prick throbbing and squirting a line of clear precum against the belly as she tossed her shirt aside. Her soft, pillowy breasts jiggled before his eyes, distracting him for a moment as his brain caught up to the words she'd said. Surprise and indignation crossed his face.

"What? That's worse than your last deal! 64-36 is the best I'll do." He countered swiftly, regaining some of his composure until she lifted her hips, letting his tip kiss between her folds, barely millimetres from pushing into her mot passageway.

She teased him without mercy, rubbing her sex along the entire length of his shaft, yet keeping his hips firmly pinned between his strong knees. People underestimated rabbits far too easily. All that 'hopping about' gave her the gracious gift of some wonderfully thick and powerful thighs. The slender, handsome vulpine wasn't moving an inch without her letting him first. His hips wriggled fruitlessly as he tried to gain some sort of leverage.

"Well, that's entirely up to you. Take it or leave it."

"And after all I did for you-" He looked offended. Good.

"Voluntarily, mind you. I wasn't even holding you when you did all that fine work with your face." She tutted, letting the tip of his prick slide inside the velvety confines of her muff. It drew a soft hiss of pleasure from both of them, and she has to steady herself before she simply fell onto him before she'd gotten a deal from him first.

He was biting his lip, hard as well. She could see the frustration creasing his forehead, and feel his rising blood pressure in the twitches of his cock.

" 67/33"

"You're not tying me for that. 68/32. Final offer."

He snarled. She'd pissed him off, and he was already at the edge of his patience with her before they started fucking. He clenched his teeth and finally relented.

"Fuck it, and fuck you. Fine, I accept-" Whatever snarky remark he'd been about to voice was lost behind the groan of pleasure as she relaxed her grip on his waist, and gloriously, wonderfully sank down until his tip was kissing the deepest parts of her moist and heated warren, and his knot was spreading her entrance out around its girthy bulbs.

"Better make the most of those extra few percent, rabbit. You'll have to drag yourself out of here afterwards." He snarled, his paws released from her grip. They found her hips and forcibly yanked her down into his upwards thrusts, fucking the squealing lapine like she were a cheap whore. At this point, it didn't matter. She'd already got what she came for. Any spectacular fucking he did was just the icing on the cake now.

She cried out to the ceiling in pleasure as he hammered into her, wet slaps rapidly filling the male's office as he fucked like a stag in rut, driving deep and hard until she was sure her thighs would be bruised from both the force of his hips and how tightly he was gripping her fluffy legs. She lost track of just how quick he drove her to her peak, but it must have been a new record for her, quickly followed by a second-thir-fifth! The male was relentless!

She regretted nothing. It was all just good-nay, great business at this point. He'd fucked himself in this deal, both metaphorically and quite literally. It wasn't like he wouldn't profit after all. He was certainly getting a hell of a lot of something out of their arrangement!

His shaft stretched and filled her in such wonderful ways. At some point, he'd flipped her over, and was busy nailing her to the hardwood floor, his knot stretching her filled rabbit hole to her limits as it finally sank home. With a grunt and a snarl, and a gasp from her as his teeth closed quite suddenly and alarmingly around her throat, he erupted inside of her, flooding her body like a dam breaking. The utter torrent squirted back out around the firm seal of his knot when it had no more room to spread, leaving white streaks across the floor and the insides of her thighs.

He collapsed atop of her, heaving and panting, her own trembling figure shaking with exertion and the quaking aftershocks of what... fourteenth? Fifteenth? She had no idea. She was panting just as hard as the canine above her, his head resting between the mounds of her breasts.

"Ahhh~ That's a good mutt." She sighed blissfully, her head along with her ears flopping back against the floor.

"As soon as we're un-stuck... I want you the fuck off my ship." He growled in response. She nodded, too fucked silly to do much else right then.

"Of course... A pleasure... doing business with you."