Pandora's Box 15: Heart of Gold
As I got changed for dinner, with Innu helping me into something casual, I kept thinking about Sarah's words. Innu had said Sarah used drugs. . . that wasn't a very nice thing, but she had also said Sarah seduced her slaves, and respected the ones who said no. "Innu, about Mistress Sarah?"
"Yes," Innu said, helping me into a rose dress with a zipper at the back, the last piece of my outfit for tonight. "What about her?"
"She can't. . . Take me from Mistress Pandora, can she?"
"No poaching," Innu said, turning me around so I could see the mirror, and my reflection. I gasped at how much like a girl going on a date I looked. Innu continued. "The Commission is very firm on it. Slaves can only exchange hands with the consent of both owners, or in cases of abandonment, abuse, or other. . . Extreme circumstances."
I swallowed as I tried to think about what that might mean. Of course, it was obviously not a slave's place to consent to such an exchange, but what about choice? "Sarah approached me earlier and said she was planning to take me before Pandora did."
"Then her hands are tied now," Innu said. She bit her lip and looked at me. "Mistress Sarah is one of the therapists in Pandora's Box. She pays part of her share by actually doing couples' therapy upstairs too, but when she isn't working with her own slaves or paying clients upstairs, she's a very good therapist. She's helping me with some of my. . . issues. You actually have an appointment with her. . . The morning after tomorrow."
"She mentioned our appointment," I said, blushing. "Er, do you need any help with your outfit?"
"I'd love some help," Innu said. She began to strip out of her uniform. "Could you get the black lace panties and bra from my closet? I've got a new dress in the bag on the table, and those will go well with it."
I went into her room and found the hanger with the lacy black underwear, which included elastic straps to hold the bra and panties together. My only thought was that it would almost look like she wasn't wearing underwear when put against her fur, but then I realized that was probably the idea. If she had chosen my outfit to look like a date dress, as she clearly had, she probably wanted her own to look like she was on a date too.
I stepped outside and saw her standing before the mirror, proudly nude, and fondling her own breasts. I want to say I was surprised or shocked, but I honestly wasn't. It just seemed like exactly how Innu would behave. "These ones, right?"
I helped her dress and (at her urging) even took a moment to indulge in petting her breasts and tummy. She was a mixture of soft and firm, and her fur accentuated the softness with a silky covering. The underwear was more visible than I had expected, but it still made a striking image, and I admired her as she walked over to the table with her bag, and pulled out a black dress with bright pink accents along the side seams, and a skirt length that probably wasn't going to cover anything when she was sitting down.
My jaw all but hit the floor as she held it up to herself and I realized that it didn't stop there: it had a tummy hole cut out as well, and as she moved back towards me, I saw the light catching the dress: it was finished with a polish or shine that made it looks like the whole dress was plastic, at least if the light caught it just right.
"I'm hoping Goldie likes it as much as you," Innu said, winking as she unzipped it. She stepped into the skirt, pulling it up and into position, slipping her arms through the miniature sleeves, and then turning her back to me. "Zip me?"
"Yes, of course," I said, stepping closer and tugging on the zipper. This was a new dress, and as the zipper slid up, I could tell it was custom fitted to Innu. "Who made this?"
"Mistress has secret friends who love making us clothes," she said. "I wish I could tell you more, but this is. . . so perfect! Oh, Mistress will love it. And so would. . ." She swallowed and shook her head, but I heard how her voice caught and saw the hint of a tear in her eyes. "She would have adored this dress," she finished, her voice dropping down into a lower register.
Goldpenny came to our suite wearing a gold-colored dress that had only one shoulder strap on her right and fit her like a mitten. I was so captivated by the dress that I didn't notice at first the biggest change in her appearance: instead of the yellow-gold I had seen earlier, she was a paler dun coated horse with lean but firm muscles even sharper than they had looked in our lesson. Her face was long and noble, and her mane and tail were both the same stunning blonde I had seen earlier. She was, as I had guessed, a partial-change furre, and though toned like a cross-country runner, her body below the neck was human.
On her fingernails and toenails she wore copper-gold nail polish, and she wore a gold collar and earrings. For the first time, I got to hear her speak, though the excited squealing whinny she started off with made me jump. "Oh god, Innu, you look so amazing," She said, a deep and husky voice coming from her. "Is that a new gift from Mistress? Doesn't she just know the best outfits for us?"
Innu barked playfully and ran over to hug Goldpenny. "I know, these designs are just so perfect. How does she pay for these?"
Goldpenny hugged Innu and briefly stroked her mane, then looked to me. "Oh, you look amazing, Hannah. Did Innu pick this dress out for you? You know, I appreciate, so much, what you said this morning."
I smiled, and probably was blushing. "I, well, I really think you are."
"And that means a lot because so many people don't," she said. "You know how kids can be, right? I never got to date in school because everybody hated my face."
I nodded. Maybe it had just been my luck to be a cute mouse-girl and to have a full transformation. Goldpenny had a face like a sculpture, but sculpture or not, it was the face of a horse. Boys would have been cruel, and so many of the girls would have been even worse.
"I'd like to introduce myself properly. My name is Gilda Riese, and I'm pleased to be your friend, Hannah. I asked Mistress to call me Goldpenny, but my friends all call me Goldie."
"Thank you," I said. "I, well, I guess I'm glad to call you my friend, Goldie. But if it's all the same, could we go to eat now?"
Dinner was pleasant, and it turned out that almost everybody who ate in the food court dressed nicely for it. We still stood out, but not as much as I had thought. I had a sweet pepper and chicken curry, Goldie ate a spicy vegetarian dish, and Innu had a spicy pork dish. The cook did a great job, and we all sampled each others' dishes a bit.
I was surprised to find such good food here, but when I talked about it, both of them explained how everybody has their own passions, and the Commission encourages owners to let their slaves have some free expression in leisure time. I understand that not every owner has the same policies about leisure time, but as I watched, I saw that even the Doctor's dolls and Yuki's drones were helping in the food court or the other community stores.
We also talked about ourselves. Innu mostly talked about how excited she was to see me settling in, and how Goldie should help me with my homework. Goldie was more than eager to volunteer, but I also learned more about Goldie. She had turned to fetish clubs where she could hide her face behind a mask. She had trained herself to wear super-high heels that helped her look more like a fully transformed horse furre, and basically tried everything she could to get people to stop passing her over because of her face.
In the end, she had met Pandora while they were both slaves. I held up my hand to my mouth, not wanting to spit out the juice I had just sipped. After swallowing, I asked if Goldie could tell me more.
Apparently, Pandora was a slave, and I never would have guessed that. She got pissed at her Master (for reasons Goldie was vague about) and revolted. She "broke" (Goldie's word) Ulfang, got the Commission to recognize her as an Owner and Ulfang as her slave, and then had all of Ulfang's slaves evaluated for loyalty to her. The Commission also made her prove her dominance with a strong-willed slave who had no owner. I think Innu and Goldie both know who that was, but they didn't name the slave for me.
Since then, Ulfang was left in Berlin with a sadist called Carmelita as his Owner, a lot of his former slaves have been allowed to find Owners who suit them, and only a couple dozen came to Pandora's Box with Pandora. Innu and Goldie are her two favorites, and they each have a room in her apartment along with their own single bedroom houses down here.
I mentioned that Innu had told me about a kidnapper, and while they both confirmed it, Goldie said that was something else, and she didn't want to talk about it.
Things got quiet after that. I felt like I had just read one of those study guides for a book, but not the book it was about. I still feel like I'm missing a lot about Ulfang and Pandora, and Goldie and Innu too, but I'm in no position to press right now.