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A Treasure of Time

Part 7

For Nataraj

By Draconicon

The sprawling forest turned out to be almost a living entity in and of itself, the sort of forest that was so filled with animals, so filled with dangers, that there was no way that the average person could have made it through on their own. Nataraj and Olag burned through two more campsites just going through - though partially from the lizard's insistence for the checkpoints after particularly hard challenges - and they eventually reached the base of the ruined temple.

Falling over the steps, panting to catch their breath, the lizard and the polar bear glared back at the jungle. A pair of earthen elementals glared up at them from a clearing about two hundred feet down, growling and huge. Nataraj knew that they could have thrown massive boulders twice Olag's size after them, but either they were tired, or the elementals had run them out of their territory. In either case, the two of them soon departed, leaving the lizard and the bear alone.

"Ugh...Next time...I want an adventure...I'm pushing for better equipment," Nat said, laying his head down on the steps. "What kind...what kind of asshole...sends a level one bard...on an adventure like this..."

The kind of asshole that knows you're at least level 12, and knows that you are just on an adventure that's a bit less suited to you.

"Says...says the big guy...who can fudge his rolls..."

Nataraj groaned, glancing at Olag. The bear hadn't taken any new injuries over the last few hours, but he had definitely been in a number of scrapes. The bear's white fur had been stained brown from the knockdowns that he'd suffered jumping in front of the lizard, and there had been more than one occasion where Olag had beaten a beast off of him at the last second to keep the lizard alive.

The bear grunted as he sat up, slapping the butt of his axe on the stone stairs. The section just under the bear turned to ice, and he groaned as he seemed to get more comfortable from the cold.

"Better?" Nat muttered.

"Better. Fuck..." The bear chuckled. "Those were some good fights."

"...You're nuts."

"Yep."

"Do all of you say that?" he asked, rolling onto his side, groaning a bit as he shuffled himself into a vaguely sitting, vaguely reclining position. "Salla was saying that, too, when I called him a bastard."

"Eh, people say what they want. They wanna call me crazy? Let 'em think that. Means I can surprise 'em."

"It doesn't bother you?"

"Nah."

The bear stretched his arms over his head, laying his axe down as he looked up at the sky. Nataraj did the same, unable to help himself.

Unlike when they were on the volcano island, there was nothing to see up there. No time rips, no sudden explosions in the sky, nothing that implied that there was a ship out there that was keeping an eye on them and wanting them to make it through this. Here, they felt more alone. Despite the occasional voice in his head, he could easily forget that Salla existed out here. He wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

"Think that the next hole is in the temple?" he asked.

"Boss said so."

"You think he's right?"

"Eh, usually is. When he's wrong, that's his problem."

"...Yeah, but we're the ones that he'd be wrong about."

"Heh. Don't worry, Nat. Ya got me here to handle those kinds of problems."

The lizard smiled slightly at that. After the last few hours, he'd gotten a great deal of appreciation for the bear's sheer strength. Olag wasn't a great brain by any stretch of the imagination, but he was definitely the sort of guy that you wanted in your corner when the world turned against you. There wasn't much that could really compete with the big, brawny polar bear, and now that they were friends...

Well, he felt safer than he had in a long time.

With his legs working again, the lizard turned to look at the temple behind them. It loomed over the forest like a great gray sore thumb, and the rock bricks looked like they had held together pretty well over time. He ran his fingers over the steps, feeling that there were fewer cracks than he expected, and he cocked his head to the side.

"Do you think that this place was ruined recently?" he asked.

"Eh, talk to the boss about that one. I'm taking a nap."

"Just when we get here?"

"I didn't see you fucking up monster shit while we were running. I'm tired."

The bear closed his eyes without another word, and Nataraj shook his head. That was the downside to Olag, he supposed. Once the polar bear decided that he needed food, sleep, or sex, there was very little that could persuade him otherwise. He supposed that Salla had a way of doing it, but he had yet to figure out a way to do it himself.

Still, he had a few things that he could do.

Rooting around in the bear's pack, he pulled out another campsite and tossed it at the bottom of the steps. They'd gone through four of them here in this world, but in his opinion, it was worth it. The orc island had been easy in comparison, and he didn't want to lose his body weight in sweat by running away from the elementals again. Olag might have liked the fighting, but Nataraj preferred flirting, or sneaking, or chatting. He was good at those, less good at punching things.

You'd think that you could have given me something to fight with, just in case of an emergency, he thought at the mouse.

And you could have used the toe-rings.

And why would I use those?

They ARE somewhat hypnotic, you know. They give you heat, and they can spread it to others by showing off your bare feet.

That was something that the lizard hadn't known before, but it was also less useful than the mouse might have thought at that point in time. After all, he was dealing with beasts and elementals at the moment, and while he might have been willing to fuck some of the latter - provided that they had the right body types - he wasn't so into being fucked by direwolves and things like that. He would take a pass on that.

As he got the campsite set up, the scanning beginning already, he looked up at the temple. The mouse was already chatting in his head.

This island seems to be a break-off from a more theological timeline from Atlantis, where they had various gods and the gods walked among them.

"Anything that sets this temple apart?"

Nothing that I'm going to say for you to hear.

"..." Nataraj slowly grinned. "It's a sex temple, isn't it?"

Oh, what gave you THAT idea, my perverted employee?

"You don't want to tell me. That means that you don't want me running in there without back-up. That means that it's got something in there that would draw me in if I knew what it was, and that means that it's either music or sex."

And what keeps it from being music?

"I'd be more interested in listening to music out here instead of running in to find it. So, sex god, or sex goddess?"

...I keep forgetting that you're not part of my crew, officially, so you're not as stupid as most of them. There was a pause on the other end, followed by a sign. I said most, Tatyana. You're not included in that list.

"Heh, boss got in a bit of trouble? Sounds like she's got a case for HR," the lizard said as he started climbing the steps.

One, we don't have one of those. Two, what are you doing?

"Olag will be fine. He said he needs a nap, anyway, and I gotta do something, or I'm going to get bored. You don't want a bored lizard. Trust me, nobody wants a bored lizard."

The mouse was oddly quiet as he climbed the steps, though. Nataraj had expected that there would be plenty of objections, lots of lectures, and other various speeches that would try and convince him to go back to the campsite. Instead, the mouse seemed to go completely silent, almost like he had been gagged. The lizard paused halfway up the moss-covered steps, poking the side of his head.

"Uh...hello? Is this thing on?"

Yes, it is.

"And you're hearing me, right?"

Of course.

"Then why aren't you telling me to stop?"

Would it really matter at this point?

"Not really, but - oh, are you making more popcorn?"

Not this time. Beat. Tatyana's doing it.

Nataraj snorted. Voyeurs, the lot of them, he would just imagine. They must have had a really boring life before he came around, but at least he could liven this stuff up. He was happy enough about that, and he planned on giving them the best show that he could.

He walked up the steps a bit faster, eventually reaching the top. He looked back down and whistled; the forest sprawled out even further from this height, and he could barely see the cliffs that they had climbed when they first entered the world. Olag was all the way down at the bottom of the steps, almost a half-mile down, and he whistled again as he imagined how the polar bear would have hated these steps if he was still his slightly pudgy self. His trimmer, fitter self had handled the forest better than his rounder self, and the stairs would probably be no exception.

He's still gonna hate them, though. They were long and narrow, and there weren't any railings to hold. Even the lizard's feet hadn't really fitted with them, and he doubted that the bear's would do much better. Hell, Olag might have to climb up on all fours just to keep from falling backwards.

But that wasn't his problem right now. The temple was, and he was more eager than ever to see what lay within its walls.

Nataraj dragged himself up from the last step, turning towards the entrance of the ruin. However, now that he had a chance to look at it up close, he supposed that 'ruin' wasn't quite the right word. It was abandoned, for sure, but there was something different to it. It didn't look like it had been left alone for that long, certainly not for the hundreds of years that most ruins had to get to their state. This looked almost as good as it must have looked in its prime, without the sort of fallen-in ceilings that he was used to seeing in adventure movies, or with more than vines and moss on the walls.

In fact, he would have been surprised if this place had been left for more than a few years, now that he thought about it.

The naked lizard walked up to the large stone arch. It was more of a three-sided square than a rounded arch, he had to admit, but it was not a bad look. He ran his hands along the stone, finding little carvings in the rock. Nat leaned in, tracing them with his fingers, but rather than letters, or pictures, they were more like shapes. Shapes that curled in a rounded circle up along the rocks.

"Hmm, that's weird."

How so? Salla asked.

"It just feels like they'd have something different than a rounded line for the patterns out here. Something more like the god, or, well, goddess. Just feels like something's off."

Good instincts.

"Oh? What do you - OW!"

Nataraj groaned as he bounced off an invisible barrier between the stones, rubbing his nose. It was like walking into a wall, except only slightly more gentle because he didn't break his snout. He groaned, rubbing his face.

"Ow, ow, ow, why didn't you tell me about that?"

I was curious if you'd check."

"Diiiiiick. And don't say yep."

Guilty.

"Ugh."

Shaking his head, Nataraj ran his hand along the barrier. It was definitely there, and it had a definite give to it that the rest of the air didn't have. Air shouldn't have give at all, though. He ran his fingers back to the stones, and then traced the rounded line again, following the bend up to the top of the arch. The lizard climbed up the rock to the top, and then pressed his hand over the edge of it.

"Huh. Nothing up here."

Nothing at all. Most curious.

"Are you going to be like this the whole time?"

Well, you ARE diverging from the mission.

"Call it recon," he muttered, hopping over the rocks. This time, there was no barrier to block him. Nat was about to take his first step into the temple proper, only to stop in his tracks. "Waaaaait a second."

Hmmmm?

"Can I get back out, or is the barrier two-way?"

I don't know. I can't scan that from here.

"Is that the truth, or a teasing lie?"

What do you think?

"I think you're having way too much fun with this."

I don't know if I'd call it way too much, but certainly having fun.

Nataraj rolled his eyes. He should have expected that from the mouse, he supposed. Or should he? Salla was being a bit strange compared to how he had usually acted. There was pettiness in the mouse, but this felt...different. Almost like he'd been surprised and was just letting something happen.

Shaking his head, the lizard reached back, pushing his arm through the air between the archway. It didn't stop him, and he kept pushing until he was halfway through.

"Well, that's convenient. One way, all to keep people out," Nataraj said, shaking his head. "Usually they seal temples to keep stuff in; wonder why they wanted to keep people out, instead?"

Hmmm, hmmm...

"Okay, be that way."

He pulled back, only to feel the barrier suddenly clamp down on him. The lizard groaned under his breath, growing between clenched teeth. So, anything that tried to come into the temple, even if it was attached to something on the inside, couldn't get through the barrier. It could only go out, not in.

Well, that was actually fairly useful if he got caught by something while running away. It would mean that if he could get even a finger out the other side, he'd have a much harder time being dragged back into the temple.

Result.

Still, it was annoying to climb out and then back in. He hopped back over the arch, then stepped into the darkness that was the temple. There were no holes in the wall to give light, and that meant that he had to step very lightly as he walked down the steps. That was fine; he knew how that was supposed to work.

Every step was light and slow, exploratory and gentle. He would stretch his leg forward, tapping his toes against each little cobblestone, and he would wait to feel if it depressed even slightly. The most minute of movements meant that he would pick a different place to rest his foot, and while that probably was a little overreactive, he knew better than to take a risk. He had seen too many Indiana Jones movies for that.

He had made some pretty good progress down the halls when he rounded a corner and found something new. It jingle-jangled as he touched it, and he froze, not daring to move just in case it triggered something else.

When nothing happened, Nat reached forward and felt at the metallic, jingling thing. It felt almost like a set of chains, dangling from something further up along the wall. However, as he felt around it, he found something far more useful.

A torch.

Smiling, the lizard pulled it free, dragging it up against the stone wall nearby. He rested his claws against it, braced himself, and then -

SHIIIIIINK!

"Ffffffff..."

Nat clenched his teeth at the sudden rough 'manicure' that he had given himself, but the results spoke for themselves. The sparks of his claws off the wall had lit the old torch, and that meant that he finally had light. He turned -

"Oh...fuck..."

I'm not sure how you managed to do this, Nataraj, but...I'm honestly impressed.

The lizard stood right in front of an altar, one that was a standing stone slab rather than one that was laid out horizontally. Hanging from it were bondage chains, ones that were set up for the neck, the wrists, and the ankles. There were shadows on the stone where people had laid in the past, stains, and he could see many darker ones down where the legs would have split. He stared at it, shaking his head, but that was hardly the worst part.

Behind him, somehow, was a minefield of different trapped tiles. He couldn't even see where he'd stepped on the way through, considering the fact that the shadows danced too much for him to see his own tracks. There were dart holes in the wall, slices of stone where blades could come rushing out, launchers that might have ropes, or bolts, or even other things that might trap him down here.

You walked through a minefield and set off nothing, and now, you are surrounded on all sides by traps. Congratulations. I have never seen someone so good at fucking themselves, the mouse said.

"I got in here. I can get out."

Really? I would like to hear what path you have in mind.

"Um..."

Nat looked left, right, left again. He honestly could not remember what path he had used to get here in the first place, and now that he had light, everything looked like a trap. The lizard tried to figure out something that would save him, but then gave up, turning back to the altar.

"I'll figure it out later."

Sure you will.

"Oh, shut up."

The altar was, at least, interesting. The more that he looked at it, the more that he swore that there was something to it that was magical. He had been around enough mages and magical artifacts to have some idea of what magic felt like, and he was wearing two on his toes right then, so he knew what it was.

He ran his fingers along the stone. There was a definite tingle there, something that sent a bit of lust right down to his dick, but there was something else, too. Something...deep. Something loving. Something...

Something very, very smart. And something very, very commanding.

He pulled his finger back, rubbing it against his side. There was something deep in that rock, something that wanted to take control of others and push them down. It would give something, he was sure, but whether it was something good, he didn't know.

Maybe it's time for me to get out of here.

Maybe so, the mouse said. Do you want to?

Yeah, if you don't mind giving me a -

"HOLY FUCK!"

Too late, he realized that the bondage chains had been swaying, but without wind. There was nothing to make them move, and yet...yet, they were moving on their own. One lashed out, grabbing the hand that held the torch, and the lizard was yanked towards the altar. He gasped at the sudden pull, and the chains on the floor grabbed for his ankles, pulling them apart, leaving him all but spread-eagle against the rock altar.

"Nnngh..."

One of the chains wrapped around his neck, pulling him up. He wasn't hanging from it, not like from a noose, but it pulled his head back so that he couldn't escape from the altar itself. Even as Nat swung his one free hand around, trying to dodge the last of the chains, he was lifted up by his other arm, pulled up, up, up, until his feet were off the ground. Gritting his teeth, the lizard threw himself from side to side, trying to get free -

My, my, my...a new worshiper...a new servant...

The words in his head were soft, sultry, and very, very feminine. He gasped as he felt something like a pair of gentle fingers running along the back of his neck, knowing that it had to be the goddess that ruled the temple.

Yes, my little lizard. Right in one.

"What...what do you want?" Nat asked, panting. "If it's sex, I can give you that. You don't even have to tie me up for it."

Oh, I know you would, hehe... The fingers along the back of his neck, ghostly and gentle, stroked down his back as he was pressed firmly to the altar. He felt 'her' touching his ass cheeks, rubbing them, spreading them slightly. You already practice the teachings of pleasure all too well. You know what it means to surrender to them, to enjoy the body...but there is much to be said for the pleasures of the mind...

Snap. The shackle wrapped around his wrist, pulling his arm down against the altar. There was no free limbs any longer. He was trapped.

Let me in, little lizard. Let me teach you...

There was a pressure at the back of his head, and Nat gasped as he felt something invading his mind. It was different, far different the usual pressure of someone trying to play with his thoughts. There was something to this one that made him gasp and shake, something that made him want to scream.

"Nnngh...gah...ah..."

Nataraj gritted his teeth even as the goddess's touch started to slide through his mind. It came with tingles of pleasure, even bliss, the sensation running up from the top of his spine into his mind, and then down through the rest of his body. His cock started twitching, and his chest felt...oddly sensitive. Almost like the hardness in his nipples was akin to the hardness in his crotch. He didn't know how to feel about that. He didn't know what was going on with him, but it was...it was weird.

For the first time in a very long time, he blushed in actual embarrassment. Confusion, rippling uncertainty was pushing through him. What...what was going on? He would normally be flirting with the goddess, teasing her, pushing her to do different things to him, but this time, he could barely keep his head on straight enough to try and keep quiet.

She was pushing things into his head, he realized, little things, little bits of knowledge. She was teasing, stroking him with invisible hands.

Did you know that there are so many sensitive spots on the body, little lizard? she whispered, her hands running down along his sides, along his hips. That ghostly touch sent tingles through him, delayed bits of pleasure that sparked and then echoed through him.

"Mmmph...y-yes, of course...I know...how bodies work...I've teased -"

Yes, teased, but satisfied? She chuckled again. Listen to me, little lizard...I know everything...everything...

He gasped as she suddenly tweaked his chest, her ghostly fingers pulling gently at his nipples. It was so different, so strange, and so intense in a way that it shouldn't have been. His own body was doing things that it had never done before. He didn't understand, and it scared and aroused him at the same time.

The goddess's touch brought pleasure and confusion, bliss and ignorance. He shivered, panting softly as she worked her fingers up and down his body, seeming to grow more hands in her spectral form. Each touch sent echoes of the same pleasure through him, lingering long after her touch faded. His cock throbbed, pulled down, teased, stroked, and his feet were stroked, ghostly digits sliding between his toes.

And through it all, there was pressure on his brain, whispers sliding into his mind. Whispers of knowledge, told teasingly and tauntingly, draining away the confidence and willpower that he had by reminding him how little he knew, and promising to give him everything that he didn't have.

Nat gritted his teeth, hissing, biting his lip as he felt the pressure growing stronger and stronger on the back of his mind. That cockiness, that urge to tease and challenge, was being drained from him, leaving him only with the gasping the pleasure, the urge to obey, the embarrassment of being caught off-guard. Feeling so unprepared was almost nightmarish, in some ways, and yet, at the same time, kept him attentive, obedient, unable to turn away no matter how humiliating it was.

Listen to me and obey...Obey the pleasure...learn the pleasure...learn from me...

And he did learn. He did learn all too well, feeling her touch on his body and in his mind. Her teachings were sliding into his brain, worming through his skull, filling him to the brim with the different ways to bring pleasure to men and women alike. Even the latter was something that was being forced in there, giving him a reminder that there was a massive gap in his theoretically knowledge, breaking down his cockiness further, further, further...

Nat...Nataraj!

The mouse. The mouse's voice was coming from further and further away as those ghostly fingers kept pulling him down, dragging him away from any and all support. He was an obedient follower...a...a...

Okay, this has gone far enough. Respawn.

Nat felt the sudden explosion of energy within him, a calling to the core of himself. He screamed as the goddess started sinking her claws into him, her fingers digging into his body, but he was already fading. The goddess's voice turned from sultry to shrieking, trying to hang onto him.

No, you don't, the mouse muttered in his head, and he could almost see Salla hitting various buttons on his consoles. You might want a new follower, but this one is under contract. You want him, we'll negotiate later, but for right now, he's MINE.

Nat gritted his teeth, feeling something shifting, something sliding. He was slowly coming loose, and then -

Poof.

Nataraj fell through time, space, and who knew what else on his return to the campsite, and he could feel the averaging out, this time. He could feel the pleasure dissipating, could feel everything else slipping away. Yet, at the same time, the whole...the way that it had gone...

His head was still spinning as he fell and flew at the same time, regenerating bit by bit, The body came first, with very little changes, but the mind...

Salla had said that the mind did not average out in the same way, that it usually, perhaps almost always, came back with the same state that it had been in during the last moments before the respawn. Nat could feel the warring bits in his mind, the shakiness that had been left from the goddess showing him how little he knew in comparison to her, how much more she had, and how much she could give him if he just...obeyed...

There was a muttering in the background, almost like there was someone pulling at him, still. Two someones, he realized, two different things. One from outside...and one from...inside?

How?

He didn't know, but he knew that there was something different, now, something that would be making things much more complicated.

Finally, it ended with a WHOOSH.

Nat gasped as he sat up on the steps of the temple, his eyes wide and his head feeling like it was stuffed full of...something. The lizard gripped the sides of his head, shaking and trembling from the overwhelming sensation of everything that had just happened, struggling to recollect what he could, trying to pull himself back together.

I'm good. I'm good. I'm not stupid. I'm not incompetent. I'm good. She's a goddess, I'm mortal, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.

Hold together, Nat. Hold together, Salla said through their mental link. Just...hang on a second...

The mouse was doing something in the background, but the lizard was focused more on what was happening in the foreground. He'd been knocked down, and hard, and he couldn't think. He was shaky, almost shattered, and if it wasn't for the fact that he was away from the goddess, he would have been in trouble.

Even as he tried to keep coming up with reasons why he was still himself, he could feel Olag shuffling closer, the big bear still asleep. Yet, somehow, the polar bear seemed to know what he needed. Big arms pulled him close, dragging him in against thick white fur, and suddenly, he was enveloped in pure warmth. No pressure, no demands, just the closeness of another person.

Something else was going on in the back of his head, knowledge leaking out from what the goddess had put into him. Knowledge of how to please bodies, knowledge of how to be even better than he was.

It should have felt good, but something had happened to him. Something had drained a large chunk of his flirtatiousness, his arrogance, even some of his confidence. It left him feeling vulnerable, like someone could take advantage of him at any time.

What happened...what was she...

There's always a price for interacting with a god, Salla said, the mouse sounding almost regretful. No matter how minor, they have more knowledge than nearly any mortal, and more power than any conscious, sentient being should have. Merely by touching on that mind, you end up being aware of a greater whole than any mortal should know, and the tininess that you feel afterwards makes it very, very hard to feel like you can ever measure up again.

But...it's possible?

Heh...sometimes. How you rebuild it, however, is up to you.

That didn't help as much as he wished it did, and he nuzzled up more to the bear to try and comfort himself. It worked, at least a little.

The End

Summary: Nataraj and Olag make their way through the forest to the temple. While the bear takes a nap, Nataraj sneaks in and looks around the temple, only to awaken something much deeper and darker than he expected.

Tags: M/solo, M/F, mortal/goddess, bondage, masturbation, teasing, ghost hands, foot fetish, nudity, exploration, series, temple, mind control, corruption,