Starlet for the Taking

By StripedKittyScribe

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Chapter 2

Jewel sat across the tiny desk from 'Anna'. She just couldn't deal with thinking of her given name, "Shun Ai-Na". The mink was having trouble keeping the winning smile on her face, though. She was quickly getting exhausted dealing with this annoying little shit who didn't understand even the most basic of things. Who the fuck hadn't heard of any of the porn or sexual terminology. 'Anna' would have been the perfect straight-woman for a comedy duo about anything to do with any kind of bodily function. She'd dropped so many lines that Jewel was almost upset she hadn't recorded the conversation for script fodder, and was long past giggling at the unintentional innuendos.

"Look. This is getting nowhere fast," Miranda cut in. "You're overwhelming her, and you're using all kinds of industry terms that she's never heard of. Just... just give me a minute, Jewel." She turned to face Ai-Na. "Sweetie, I really hope you don't think that I'm talking down to you, but I have a feeling that you have no idea what half of what she just said means. Let's start here. I am a stripper and pole dancer at night. Does that mean anything to you?"

The tigress' ears flicked back and she blushed, but she nodded. "You," she started and then stopped, recognizing that she'd been about to say something that was rude, and was doubtlessly informed by her literally cultish upbringing. "You take your clothes off for men to look at. And you pole dance for the same reason." She tried to keep the judgment out of her voice, but 18 years of indoctrination was hard to just put aside. Even if she was starting to feel and recognize things about herself that made her uncomfortable.

Miranda did a good job of forcing herself to not be offended. She had obviously heard the tone, but she also didn't hold it against Ai-Na. Maybe they wouldn't be friends, truly, but she'd learned much about the tigress. Ai-Na seemed to be one of those 'good people brought up badly'. "And Jewel was a porn actress. Do you know what that means?"

Ai-Na swallowed before answering. "She... she had sex with many men while being filmed."

Jewel heard the repressed judgment, but she simply didn't care enough to answer. After all, she had a fortune to make. "I did," the mink admitted, leaning back into her chair and crossing one long leg over the other. "And I had a fantastic time doing it. And I got paid very well to do so."

Ai-Na clenched her fingers into the material of her pant leg. She looked down, and didn't say anything for a long time. "I don't know. I... I just don't know." She bowed her head forward slightly, and then said, "I will consider your offer. Thank you for your time." Standing smoothly, she left the office.

Neither of the other women said anything until they heard the door to the front of the studio close. At that point, Miranda turned on Jewel and reached a hand back as if to slap her, but held back. "Are you out of your mind," she hissed, pointing at the door that Ai-Na had just closed. "She's just now getting a chance to actually start her life free of control and lunacy, and you want to throw her into the fucking machine? I don't care what's going through your head right now, that's cruel."

Jewel snorted. "I want to give her the best chance she's ever going to get in order to make actual good money, on her own terms. Her skill sets are... what? I'll tell you what they are, the three C's: Cookin', Cleanin', Children. She doesn't have any kind of advanced degree. She doesn't have a fucking clue what to do about anything. She probably can't even do math beyond having to double a recipe, and I'll bet that she doesn't even know how to actually do that, it's just 'enough of this' or not." She held a hand up, "You know I'm not saying she's stupid. I'm saying she's under-educated."

Miranda threw her hands up. "Fine, let's pretend that you're being as charitable as all that. Let's pretend that you're doing this for her sake and not for your own. Do you have any idea the kind of sexual hangups that she's gotta have? Hell, she's probably literally never even kissed a guy, let alone sucked him off or anything else. I wouldn't be shocked if she hadn't even seen a picture of a dick in an anatomy textbook."

Jewel shrugged. "Just means that she gets to experience it all with a good dick the first time." She tapped her chin. "I hadn't even thought of if she'd be into women, I bet that's going to be a gold mine too."

Miranda actually punched the wall. She regretted it instantly, even if it wasn't a hard strike. But it did at least let her get some of her frustration out. "Damn it, Jewel, you're completely ignoring what this is going to do to her. She's a sweet girl. She's innocent, and I don't even mean that in the idiotic original sin way."

Jewel cut in, tapping her chin, "I don't think that her sect believed in original sin, at least not like we know it."

Miranda kicked Jewel's foot out of the way as she went back to her own seat, just hard enough to surprise. "You know what I mean. She's not been tainted by the shit that the world has yet. She's young, and she's even got a bit of actual hope in her, god help her."

Jewel rubbed her ankle, scowling at the gazelle. "Even ignoring your use of 'god' there, you're assuming that she's going to last. That she's going to actually make it. She came to Las Aguas, because it was the farthest that she could reasonably get from that psychopath, without getting lost in another culture that she'd be even more adrift in. You know that everything south of here is far more heavily Meso Mundo. Hell, I bet she doesn't even fully know why she stopped down here. She's probably not consciously aware of it."

Miranda threw herself down into her chair and started working one of the finger exercisers that kept her forearms and fingers strong. "You're ignoring the whole point. Either because you don't like what it addresses or because you can't stand against it, you're completely ignoring the point. She doesn't need you. She doesn't need to throw herself into porn. She's working. She's doing something that she loves, and she's making ends meet."

Jewel scowled, and stuck a finger out toward the gazelle that she'd worked with on stage far more than in front of a camera. "And you're ignoring my point. She's in fucking Las Aguas. She's in Las Aguas, single, young, and pretty. And she's running Tai Chi classes. Probably out of her little shithole apartment over some tiny little mom and pop restaurant in Han Town. You know as well as I do that she's going to get in over her head within a year. She doesn't have a car, she probably doesn't even have a real food budget. I bet she washes dishes for the restaurant downstairs in exchange for a bowl of fried rice or two every day." Jewel crossed her arms and leaned back into her chair. "This isn't a kind world to women, and you fucking know it."

Miranda almost threw her grip-trainer into the wall. "That just means that you shouldn't be preying on her!"

Jewel stood up at the same time, getting muzzle to muzzle with the gazelle. "And you shouldn't be treating her like some porcelain doll. She's tough enough to run away from some religious fuckwit, she's tough enough to spread her legs and get paid for it!"

*

Ai-Na walked down the street, considering her options and what had just been proposed. She had no idea what to think. And she had no idea even how to think about it. The idea that she'd have had sex with anyone but her husband was alien to her. The idea that it would be anything other than a duty was alien. The idea that it would be for any reason other than him getting children on her was alien.

She had no idea who to turn to, either. In the past, she'd turned to her mother, but that was a bad idea in general it turned out, and impossible now. She didn't really feel 'abused' as a child. But then again, if she had been abused, but hadn't ever known different, would she recognize it?

She wouldn't go to the church. Ever. For any reason. Even if they were mildly objective about this subject, she wouldn't go to them for guidance. It wasn't quite to the point that she ran screaming from anyone in an Aeternic collar, but she did rather pointedly make sure that they weren't going to get close enough to her to touch her.

She didn't know anyone else in the city, not really. Maybe Miranda and Jenny were on the verge of being friends with her, but Miranda was obviously opinionated on the subject. And Jenny was just the girl who lived next door. It wouldn't really make a lot of sense to talk to her about this. Jenny would probably push her out of the way to sign up herself.

Then again, would that be such a bad thing? Jenny was... .... Vapid. Sweet, kind, but otherwise just not very deep. Ai-Na wasn't even sure what Jenny 'did' during the day. Not even a clue. Jenny could be a secret agent, or a dancer, or an actress, or a banker, or a doctor. If Jenny wanted to get into acting with Ai-Na, would that be so bad?

It wasn't until she very nearly bumped into someone that she looked up and realized that she had no idea where she was. She'd just been walking and thinking, lost in her own little world. "And now I'm lost in the large outside world, as well," she sighed as she reached into her bag and pulled her phone out. Fumbling with it until she finally found the maps function, she typed her address in and sighed, finding that it was a 30 minute walk back to her home. She'd gone in the completely wrong direction.

She was, however, closer to the beach than she'd ever really been. The compound had never taken them to the ocean. Far too many heathens there being sinful and wicked. And she didn't really have anywhere else to be for the rest of the day. After a few more seconds of consideration, she decided to go. Not that she was 'dressed for the beach'. She still had on her 'Tai Chi outfit'. It wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it certainly wasn't 'appropriate'.

That thought made her smile. She'd apparently been doing a lot of inappropriate things lately. She turned toward the smell of the sea, and started walking that direction. She spent the rest of the day there. Another cup of coffee. Watching the people. She saw a couple who were obviously in love with each other. She saw many couples who were far more obviously in lust with each other. She saw far more exposed fur than she ever had, except for in communal baths. Some of those bikinis were downright scandalous!

And yet the women wearing them seemed to relish it. Not just the attention they were getting, but the very act of being so confident in their bodies. Then again, if Ai-Na had breasts that large, maybe she'd be so confident. The small tigress looked down at her small chest, and sighed. Even taking as deep a breath as possible, she was barely enough to fill her own hands, let alone some big strong man's.

And she saw more than a few men doing just that. Nothing quite to the point of groping or palming or even doing anything that didn't seem to be welcomed by the women. It seemed to just be accepted that women liked being touched, and if they were receptive, you could get a little handsy. That made her blush a bit. The only people who had ever looked at her anything like that were the elders, and they seemed to be far more interested in getting their hands on her for reasons besides her enjoyment.

A flash of light hit her eye and made her flinch, realizing that she'd been walking for nearly three hours, and that the sun was setting. And that she was even further from her apartment and Han Town. A ride back at this point would be extremely expensive, and she didn't want to spend any money that she didn't have to. Not after splurging on the coffee. Walking back would be too risky.

She looked at her contact list, and saw the only three names in there. Miss Xiulan, her landlady. Jenny, who had asked to swap spare keys and offered to 'go out and do something, some time'. Miranda, who was probably doing things tonight, either dancing at a club or doing more classes.

Picking a name, she instantly felt guilty and ashamed as she tapped the command to call Jenny.

"Ai-Na? Hey! What's up, girl?"

The tigress closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I," she started and trailed off. She didn't even know where to begin.

Jenny's voice got a bit of an edge to it as she asked, "Are you okay? Are you in trouble? Where are you?"

Ai-Na started fluttering her hand reflexively, "Oh! I... I'm not in trouble! At least, not like that! I'm in Long Shore, I think. If I say that I'm not really sure how I got here, that's kind of true but kind of not." She could hear the pause as Jenny, "Xi-Ning" in her more formal Hannic name, reset herself mentally.

"Ai-Na, are you sure you're okay? Do you need me to come get you?"

"Would you? Please? I... I don't really know what to say, other than it's been a very long, very strange day, and I don't have anyone else that I can talk to. Certainly not Miss Xiulan." Ai-Na could hear the rattle of keys being picked up off a counter.

"If I leave now, it'll take me an hour to get out there. Are you sure you're not in trouble?" Jenny was showing a level of concern that Ai-Na had never really expected out of her neighbor.

"I'm fine, I promise. I'm in my zhifu. I can text you an address of something that's near me, if I can figure out how to do that. I'll probably just be doing stuff out here," Ai-Na said as she looked for a building that she could walk in and get the address from. "There's a little shop that sells or rents surfboards near me. I'll give you that."

"What th.. you know, I don't really care why you're at the beach in Long Shore in your zhifu. It doesn't matter. I'll be there in an hour or so. Call you when I get close." Jenny shut the door to her apartment and then hung up.

Ai-Na felt strangely happy. She'd never imagined that Jenny would have responded quite that way. Sure, maybe a bit of 'you're Han like me I'll give you a bit more than I would anyone else' but not the level of 'I'll drop things and get moving' that had just been displayed. She walked over to the surf shop and asked for their address, then texted it to Jenny, then walked out of the shop and set her bag down in the sand. Taking her shoes off, she walked out a bit more to give herself some space, and for the second time that day, lost herself in the motions of her kung fu.

It was a thing that most people from the west didn't quite understand. Yes, 'kung fu' was commonly applied to any of the Hannic fighting arts. "Your kung fu is stronger," was a pretty valid translation, except that it meant 'technique' more than anything. A skill. A way of doing things. You could have strong kung fu for cooking, and it had nothing to do with your skills with the knife. You could have strong kung fu for banking, or business, or anything else. Ai-Na's kung fu just so happened to be, broadly, what a lot of people thought of as 'kung fu'.

Not that she could actually fight, not really. Not like a lot of people thought. She was a dancer. It was just a slightly more martial dance than ballet or the tango.

For the next bit of time, while the sun set over the waves, she let herself get carried away by the simple pleasure of controlled movement. Of coordinated steps and sweeps, of steps and poses. She had just finished an intricate set of circular arm motions meant to ward off attacks while stepping back to gain space from someone striking, when she heard a familiar voice calling her name.

Jenny was standing at the edge of the parking lot, her eyes focused and intent, her posture rigid and tense.

Ai-Na instantly felt another wave of guilt, seeing the expression on Jenny's face. She didn't even 'properly' finish. She just jogged over to scoop her bag and shoes out of the sand, and then toward Jenny. She was about to apologize when the larger tigress wrapped her in a fierce hug.

"If you ever do this to me again I'm going to shave your tail," Jenny rumbled. "I called you three times, but you never picked up. Miranda called and asked if you'd been home yet, and she told me that you'd had a bad day, and that some weird shit went down."

Ai-Na almost started to cry again. "I'm sorry," she said from within the embrace. "I didn't think."

Jenny just sighed, and squeezed one last time. "You're safe now. That's the most important thing. And before you ask, no, Miranda didn't say anything other than you'd had a bad day so whatever it is, I don't know. I do want to know, though, and I feel guilty that I haven't made more of an effort to get into your life. You seemed like you needed your space, so I gave that to you."

Ai-Na nodded, then stepped back. She started and stopped a few times, not really sure what to say for almost a minute. "I guess I was in shock, or something. Can we get something to eat? I just now realized how long it's been since I had something."

They got into the car, and Jenny drove to one of the local burger joints, refusing to let Ai-Na pay for anything. Ai-Na told Jenny basically everything. It seemed that Miss Xiulan had been gossiping a bit, and while Jenny knew more than Ai-Na had expected about her past, a lot of the fine details were wrong. Yes, she'd been part of a cult. No, there hadn't been blood sacrifices. Yes, they'd been raided. No, there hadn't been weapons ready to take on the government. At least not that Ai-Na knew of.

Once she started talking with Jenny, Ai-Na basically couldn't stop. Jenny knew exactly how to press, and exactly how hard, to get more information out of someone. It turned out that Jenny was in sales for some computer thing that Ai-Na didn't catch the significance of, but that wasn't important for the moment. At least, Jenny didn't seem to think it was. All of the focus was on Ai-Na.

"Well I'm glad that Miranda didn't just stick with this Jewel character and throw you in the deep end with no concern," Jenny said as she rattled the ice in her paper soda cup.

Ai-Na slumped forward, resting her head on her forearms. "I just don't know what to do. I don't even know where to start."

Jenny stood up and extended her hand for Ai-Na's cup. "Lemme get you a refill. While I'm gone, you think about whether you want ga-je Jenny to give you her take." She stood up and went to the soda fountain.

Ai-Na couldn't help but smile a bit, bitterly. She'd had many ga-je, 'big sisters', as part of COTE. It was part of their whole 'everyone within is family, everyone without is foe' mindset. She'd started to wonder if some of those may have actually been biological sisters, shaking her head free of that somewhat disturbing thought when Jenny sat back across from her.

"So, there's probably no real easy way to get into this," Jenny said, sliding Ai-Na's drink across the table. "You probably don't understand half of what you thought you did about the whole sex thing." She held her hand up. "Not your fault, and to be honest, most people probably aren't really much better off than you are, except that they've got a bit more visibility about their blind spots." Jenny tapped her finger against her cup, considering where to start. "I'm gonna start by stating my assumptions. No judgment here. I heard enough from Miranda that I know some of it but not all. I'm gonna guess that you," she started ticking them off on her fingers, "are still a virgin, that you think that sex is a really big deal and you were saving yourself for marriage, and that you've never even kissed a boy. And you've probably been so stressed out that even with all of your new freedom you haven't explored anything on your own, shall we say?"

Ai-Na flushed a bit as she wrapped her hands around her drink to pull it close. "Let's say you're right," she whispered. "Where would I even start?"

Jenny tapped her finger against the drink a little more and then said. "You could start anywhere, really, but..." she frowned at herself, and then took a deep breath. "No. That's not true. You couldn't start anywhere because you don't even know how to walk, so to speak." She tapped her finger against the cup a few times more. "Let's go ahead and get going back. Let me think. Let me figure out something that makes sense. Probably the best thing for you to do is to cover your basics. Do you have a CyBook? Or a laptop or anything?"

Ai-Na shook her head.

Jenny sighed. "I really don't want you doing this shit on your phone, it's a pain in the ass. And you're going to want to set it down and really be able to see it." She scrubbed her face, and grumbled something in Hanese about how her ancestors had better be satisfied with this because it was as close as she was ever going to get to having children of her own. "Let's go." She stood, and made her way over to her car with Ai-Na tailing behind.

"I don't want to be a burden," Ai-Na tried to sound somewhat defiant and confident.

Jenny closed her eyes, and thudded her head against the headrest of her car. "It's not that you're being a burden, saimui. It's that you should have gotten this from someone before now. Hell, you probably should have gotten a lot of this stuff from the social worker who got you out of that hellhole." She tapped her fingers against the steering wheel. "Alright. Alright, I think that I have an idea. We're going to DalMart and getting you a few things." She cut Ai-Na off, "You'll pay me back. But the last thing that I want to do is not think of something that you need and just hand you a list."

Ai-Na sank down into the chair, and while they drove toward the mega-mart, she answered questions from Jenny. She did want to get at least something of an education, though maybe not college. She did know that she at least needed to be on par with everyone else. She had done a very basic budget and found that if she could keep her Tai Chi classes going, and didn't lose anyone, she'd be able to keep up with all of her bills and save up enough money to buy a small car. In three years. On the one hand, she didn't have any debt. On the other hand, she didn't want to go into debt, at all. The idea terrified her, on an almost instinctual level. Too many of the older COTE members had told stories about how they'd gotten into debt for various reasons and lost everything. If Ai-Na couldn't 'pay cash', she wouldn't buy it. Period.

They spent nearly two hours at the store, and Jenny turned it into a trip for herself as well. She claimed that she needed to get things for herself, and when many of the items being added to the cart were dry goods, Ai-Na felt a little less apprehensive. They did go to the electronics section together, and Ai-Na picked out the cheapest CyBook they had in stock. It would run the little operating system, and had the integrated browser that Jenny said would do everything she needed. The older tigress did offer a couple of other options, with detachable screens that would turn it into a tablet, but Ai-Na steadfastly refused to spend a single penny she wouldn't have to.

By the time they got back to the apartments and unloaded everything, both of them were exhausted, and it was getting very late. Jenny promised that she hadn't had a 'hot date' and that it really hadn't been any trouble. The receipt with all of Ai-Na's purchases had been presented and Jenny had assured her that whatever she could do in terms of payment, that would be fine. Just a little bit each month would be alright. It was "only" $300 or so.

Ai-Na spent the rest of the night putting things away and setting the little computer up before she passed out. Jenny had said to give her until the morning, and then check her email. There would be some links to resources including some basic sex ed.

When Ai-Na left in the morning, she left the little computer behind, because she was going to be busy almost all day. The massive purchase last night had made her realize that she needed to start getting more students. She tried calling various community centers in the area, but found that they either already had someone who taught Tai Chi, or that they couldn't afford even her tiny prices.

When she got back to her apartment that night, there was a small red gift bag sitting on her bathroom sink, with a hand-written card in Hanese. "This is a gift. Consider it a 'getting yourself free' present. No young woman should be without these." The 'personal massager' was a welcome gift. It was small enough that she could focus it on the exact spots that were sore. The bottle of lotion was an odd choice, and was, for some reason, extremely slick.

It wasn't until she opened up her email and went through several of the classes from one of the community colleges about sexual health that she realized what the gift actually was, and she almost screamed in embarrassment.

The bottom of Jenny's email had a long section about how Jenny wasn't going to offer advice about what Ai-Na should do regarding Jewel's offer. She would say that the first step should be to figure out her own sexuality. It wasn't quite a call for Ai-Na to 'go out and get laid', but there was a link to a video at the bottom.

Jenny had written, "This is my personal favorite video to watch when I just need some self-care time. I'm not going to tell you to watch it. I'm not going to tell you to do anything. But I think that you'll find that your morning goes a lot better if you put the batteries in the toy, get a lot of lube on it, and then just watch the video, and put the tip between your legs and move it around until you find a spot you like."

For a little while, Ai-Na glowered at the thing that she had intended as nothing more than a muscle relaxing tool. "Oh, fine," she finally grumbled, and went over to pull the little device out of its box and get it ready. She had no idea how much lube to use, or even where to put it. The first attempt ended up with her squirting it out of her grip and into the sink when she turned the switch on, and the next three minutes were her squealing in frustration as she chased the damn thing around in the sink as it bounced and jittered around.

She finally got her hands on it, washed it, tried again, and this time she went back to her bed, with the video queued up. For the first time, she regretted such a small screen, but it did the job that she needed.

The opening shot was a single written character. "Peace".

A zither started up, gentle, wandering, and alone. Not even a percussion set to accompany it. The scene faded in, the camera floating through a foggy mountain bamboo glade, and the music drew her deeper into whatever this fantasy was. A hot spring materialized out of the fog, some fantastic illusion brought to life by whoever had put this film together.

The hot spring was manicured, and yet maintained the fiction that nature had left it this way. The rocks containing the steaming waters looked natural. 'Too' natural. A half dozen tigresses were bathing in the spring. Perhaps not 'bathing'. Lounging. Relaxing. No clothing was seen at all, not folded neatly up on the side of the pools, and none was on any of their figures.

There were more matronly curves, younger and slimmer forms, and several variations. It wasn't a family, Ai-Na could tell by the stripes that this wasn't some sort of 'mothers and daughters and aunts' situation. Which was good, because two of the tigresses were cuddling with each other. The one behind was slowly, easily, and delicately playing with her companions breasts. It wasn't really sexual. Or rather, it wasn't aggressively sexual. It was just a caress. Shared between... friends? Lovers?

The youngest of the group, somewhere in her early 20s, stood and declared that she was warm enough. The oldest smiled, and nodded her understanding. No other words were spoken as one by one, the beautiful women stood and left the pool, leaving in order of youngest to oldest. The tigress in the lead made her way to a stone table, spending a few moments trailing her fingers along the surface. One of the other women laid a thick blanket of some sort onto the table, and then the youngest laid down on her belly.

The massage that followed danced along the line between 'sensual' and 'sexual' with the deftness of a tightrope walker. The pleased sounds from the tigress who was the focus of the attention made it clear that she was quite happy with the dance, and while the camera never quite showed it, a simple knowledge of anatomy, and the huff of breath to make it clear that the tigress' folds were being stroked.

Ai-Na hadn't even realized that she'd slipped her own hand between her legs until she gave a moan into the quiet room, and she squirmed in embarrassment. And yet, who was she embarrassed to be seen by? The beauties on screen were far more focused on their own pleasures and ceremony to even notice Ai-Na, even if they could see her through the camera's one-way lens. No one else was here. She hadn't been loud enough to be heard by Jenny.

Heedless of their audience's emotional state, the five older tigresses gave their younger companion an intense massage. Arms, shoulders, legs, back, and of course, buttocks.

Ai-Na was about to stop the playback when the youngest rolled over onto her back, quickly squirming into a comfortable position, and the massage resumed; face, legs, shoulders, breasts. And this time, the camera made it quite clear that fingers were slipping between feminine petals.

Somehow, the oldest member of the group had made herself scarce during the intense massaging and caressing, only to return with a jade phallus on a small tray with a cloth covering. It steamed as if it were hot to the touch, but it had to be an effect of the cooler air because the youngest reached out to take it without a hint of pain. That must have been the signal for the women to leave her, because the oldest leaned down to place a soft, tender kiss on the youngest's forehead, and then left with the others, presumably back to the pool.

The lone female still on screen trailed the rounded tip of the jade piece along her figure. Across her clavicle, then back. Wandering. Exploring. Teasing herself. A brush across one breast, then circling around the other nipple.

Ai-Na practically jumped out of her own fur when she felt the tip of the toy that Jenny had given her mimicking the motion. When did that happen?

Lower and lower, over taut belly and even a quick play around the inset of the navel, then with a skill that Ai-Na didn't possess, the actress deftly worked the stone toy up into her own body with a dreamy sigh. Ai-Na's left ankle quivered, feeling the hard toy that she held pressing into her own folds at that same moment.

Her orgasm was terrifyingly fast. She didn't know what it was. She'd never felt anything like it in the world. It ripped through her, making her feet snap down against the sheets as she bucked her hips up against the buzzing toy, eyes wide in shock, pupils dilating as she arched her spine. She had no idea how long it lasted. She had very little idea where she was.

All she knew was that when her vision finally cleared, her legs were a tangled mess with the sheets. And that her toy had slipped free of her hands. And that the video was still playing. The zither was still singing its beautiful melody. The tigresses had returned, this time bearing brushes and paints. The tigress who had been playing with herself was basking in their attention, a coy smile on her muzzle declaring that even if Ai-Na had missed it for her own reasons, she had shared a release of that tension on her end of the camera.

It took several moments for Ai-Na to recognize what was being done with the paints. Characters were being drawn onto the youngest female's fur, integrating her stripes with the strokes of the pictograms. "Beauty." "Power." "Grace." "Peace." The scene faded to black.

Ai-Na had her head propped up by her pillow, and looked down at herself. After nearly two minutes of silence, she sat up and stripped herself fully. She re-applied the lube to the tip of her toy. Then she started the video again.

---

This story is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any characters, living, dead or imaginary is purely a coincidence. All characters are a product of the author's imagination and copyright to them, unless noted guest appearances of other copyrighted characters are listed in this notice. Comments may be left (and are encouraged!) on the author's FurAffinity and SoFurry page. If you liked this story, and wish to support the author, please visit their Patreon.

This story is a work of fiction. Any immoral acts included in this story are a fantasy and should not be taken as encouragement to perform or endorsement of these acts by the author. Specifically, because apparently it needs to be said; anything other than expressed consent for any sexual encounter by a legal unimpaired sentient adult is wrong, immoral, and evil. Unwilling subjugation of sentients who have committed no crime is wrong, immoral, and evil.