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In the Realm of the Snake King For JCFoxman By Draconicon

Slamming the door announced her anger to the entire lodge, but Lorelei was past caring what other people thought. The vixen-feline hybrid kicked the door for good measure before turning to her bed and falling into it.

The sheets were immediately soaked with angry tears as she ground her face into them, a rage that she'd suppressed the whole way home. It ached, her tears almost feeling like they were burning their way down her cheeks from how hot it surged through her.

How could he...how...how could he...

Lorelei reached for one of her pillows, slapping her bed no less than four times before finally grabbing it. She rolled onto her back, holding it to her chest as she squeezed it tight, constricting it the way that she'd wanted to wring that wolf's neck when he not only turned her down, but...

The hybrid clenched her eyes shut, the little weeping threatening to turn into a full-on sob if she didn't get control of herself. She needed to get a distraction. Something. Anything. And punching and squeezing her pillow wasn't nearly good enough for that.

She huffed and puffed as she threw herself out of bed, falling on her knees with a wince and a whimper. Her white and grey fur glimmered in the moonlight, making her look almost like different shades of silver as she stumbled over to the window that overlooked the forest outside.

As well as the other girls from college, she was here to get away from the stress of testing and work. They were supposed to be getting themselves ready for their finals, getting rid of all the pent-up anxiousness and everything else that the school year had already given them so that they had a good chance of passing. And that wasn't working for her, despite the beauty of the night outside.

The moon shone down on a grand, sweeping forest, a wood that had been planted by the royal gardeners two hundred years ago. It was known as the Everdawn Glade, off-limits to everyone without a special pass. The thick greenery hid much from the naked eye, but not the beauty of nature.

Lorelei looked at it, her grief and anger and everything else swirling together into a single, probably stupid decision.

She was going into the forest. If she was going to be kicked to the side, she might as well go all the way.

Little more than a silhouette in the night, Lorelei darted from the lodge. She hadn't bothered to gather her clothes. With how she felt, she'd barely bothered to leave her finery behind, changing into a thin gown before she was overtaken with her need to be anywhere, anywhere but there right then.

So she ran. She ran on bare feet across the grass of the grounds, across the lodge's well-kept hedges and over the small bushes. There were rocks and brambles aplenty the further that she got from the front door, but the hybrid was used to the feeling of dirt and discomfort beneath her feet. More than anybody else in the lodge, she was used to it.

Scholarship. She had gotten in on a scholarship while the rest of them had afforded it with ease on their parents' money.

She came up from the libraries and the accountants, they came up from the manors and the cultured hedges.

She came up looking for friends. They came up with them.

Lorelei lowered her head, picking up her speed as she ran faster and faster for the border between the lodge and the woods. The rangers were long gone for the night, she knew. There'd be no one to push her back from the shadowed woods.

The hybrid crossed the borders between the woods and lodge, disappearing beneath the boughs of the trees, running as fast as she could be carried. The grey and white of her fur disappeared in the shadows, leaving her looking like a shade darting from place to place beneath the moonlight.

Feeling as thin as a ghost, she ran, and ran, and ran from the people that had hurt her so badly, her eyes still watering with tears and pain.

Over rocks and roots she jumped, under branches and leaves she ducked. She felt them grasping for her dress, let them rip through it in places rather than try and pull them free. Anything to get the distance she craved.

She bruised herself, she fell, she cracked her arms against things that she didn't even see, but still she ran...

It was only when she reached an empty glade, a small clearing among the trees, that she finally came to a stop. The panting female paused, looking at where she'd come to, and then looked down at herself.

The nearly-transparent dressing gown that was all she'd managed to put on before her run had been ripped apart, nearly shredded from the various trees and rocks that she'd bumped into. The hem at the bottom was ripped and ragged, and there were tears all across her clothes. Her panties and bra were nearly completely exposed, too, not that there was that much to show. She was a size or two over a flat-chest, to the point where some girls teased her about needing a bra at all, and while she had a bit more to her butt...Well, it wasn't enough to balance everything else out, not even to people that liked 'bottom-heavy' girls.

She sighed as reason and rational thought slowly came back to her.

I...panicked.

Lorelei sighed, slowly bringing herself down to a squat on the rock beneath her. It was cold against her bottom, but it was at least a support for her tired legs. She sighed, lowering her head to her knees as she shook her head.

It was stupid. It was so very, very stupid. One person dumping her, even if it was for the girl that had tormented her for the last year in college, was not worth running off for. She...

Groaning, she couldn't tell herself that she wasn't better off somewhere else. She couldn't make herself believe it. Not now. Not when everyone back at school had basically proved that she didn't belong there, no matter how hard she tried to make herself worth it.

Hybrid...

Her common blood, the fact that she was a hybrid, the fact that she was so different from all of them and had to earn her place anywhere she went meant that there had always been a barrier between her and the other girls at the college. No matter what she did, there was always that holding back, that element of a wall between her and them.

She wasn't rich.

She wasn't noble.

She wasn't pure.

She was nothing compared to them.

No wonder he decided that she was better than me, she thought, remembering the wolf and the vixen. She could see them in her mind's eye, see the way that they were holding each other, kissing each other...looking at her the whole time...

Lorelei stifled a wail, grinding her forehead against her knees, slamming one fist against the ground.

"It's not fair!"

"Indeed not."

The voice came from behind her, but surely there was no one from the lodge that could have kept up with her mad rush from reality. Lorelei turned, looking back and forth for anyone else that might have hidden in the darkness.

Nobody stood behind her or at her sides, but the voice spoke again anyway.

"Do you wisssh to flee from the world sssso badly?" it whispered to her. "There are wayssss for thossssse willing."

"...Who are you? Where are you?"

"At your left, madam."

Lorelei turned her head, looking down.

There, coiled up in a small circle, was a snake. Not a gigantic boa of a snake, but rather a smaller one, little more than a viper in size, its head flattened as it lifted up, showing an imitation of a cobra's hood.

"..." She stared at it as it opened its mouth...and spoke.

"I offer an essscape, if you sssstill wissssh."

"...You can talk. I'm dreaming."

"Not at all. But I can take you to a place of dreamsssss. All you need do...issss follow me."

The snake uncoiled, slowly slithering across the glade. As it did, she swore that there was some sort of glow along the ground, its slithering motions leaving a trail for her to follow. That was impossible...

But then, so were talking snakes.

The hybrid hesitated for a moment or two, but she was still so angry, so hurt, that she had little reason to turn around. What waited for her back at the lodge, anyway? Other students angry at her for interrupting her sleep? Her rival? Everyone that saw her as below them despite everything that she did to uplift herself?

No. Better to give them what they wanted and take back a life of her own.

Shaking her head, Lorelei lifted herself to her feet and followed the snake.

They journeyed through the woods, where lights unnatural guided their way. The snake's glow continued to lead her when he was out of sight, almost as if he traded his substance for a guiding light for her. All around her, spread through the branches, were similar glows that moved on either side of her.

When she looked at them directly, she saw nothing, but when she looked at them from the corner of her eye, she could see other silhouettes, other snakes that slithered from branch to branch.

Why are they leading me along? Where are they taking me?

It was a mystery, and one that, surprisingly, intrigued her rather than frightened her.

Shaking her head, she pushed herself to keep walking.

Gradually, they left the forest behind. They reached a cliff, one marked with a stone statue of a snake woman. She paused, looking it over. There were many stories of snake tribes that lived on the other side of the world, but she had never seen one quite like this.

This woman posed with confidence and deference at the same time, as if she was willing to take a secondary place out of choice rather than out of force. She had the confident smile that told of one that knew what they could do, what they needed to do, rather than what they were told to do.

Her body was posed strangely, her arms over her head and her eyes tilted towards the heavens, almost as though she was looking towards some unseen god. Her tail was coiled about her legs and her chest thrust forward, a look of ecstasy underlining her confidence and submission in her face.

Despite the nude nature of the statue, the way that it seemed to celebrate and draw the eye to the hourglass figure of the snake-woman, there was something reverent about it. She had sucked her belly in slightly, as if she was about to start singing, or calling out in worship. It was...strange, but magnificent at the same time.

"What is this?" she asked.

"One of ourssss...from a long time ago..." her guide whispered from the shadows. "Come, do not delay."

The shadow of the snake coiled up the statue's leg, almost as if it might touch the slit between the legs. It didn't, but there was a spark between the snake's head and that spot, and the statue shimmered, one arm falling and gesturing to stairs appearing out of the cliff face. She gasped at the illusion, shaking her head in awe.

Nobody has that power, anymore...

Lorelei's parents had told her about the days of twinkling magic and powerful casters, but her childhood had been filled with the power of steam and the building of technology. There were still old magicians in the world, she knew, but the world had told her that they had been superseded, cast to the fringes as nothing more than relics of history.

Well, this was more than a relic. She knew enough to recognize active magic, a spell cast by another rather than an old, lingering bit of power. Her guide had requested entrance with the touch, and the caster on the other side had granted it.

The snake slithered forward along the ramp and steps, and she followed, keeping one hand to the side of the cliff.

No more than a dozen feet down, she noticed the glow spreading along the wall. Slithering letters and serpentine shapes covered the rock, illuminating at the touch of her hand. It was a language unlike anything that she had ever seen, and she had no idea what it was meant to say. Nevertheless, it was beautiful, and she admired it.

They criss-crossed the stone face, moving further and further down before coming to a cave mouth. The snake guide before her looked back, his glow fading. For the first time, she noticed the purple mark on the back of his 'hood', one that seemed to glow even when the rest of him faded to darkness.

"Before me, madam," he hissed to her. "It issss dark, but the road issss sssstraight," he explained.

She looked at him, and then into the cave. It was dark, indeed, but at the very end of the tunnel, she could see light. If this was the place of dreams...perhaps she might find some answers at the other end.

The ground was hard and the walls smooth as she walked down the tunnel, her bare feet growing ever more chilled on the ground. There were moments when the chill seemed to sink into her heart, like she was being pushed back from her destination, and it took everything that she had to keep moving. Little by little, she advanced, even as she felt the fear mounting in her, nearly overwhelming her curiosity and her anger.

But she kept moving. She had made her choice, so she kept moving.

Eventually, the tunnel came to an end, and what greeted her was beyond surprising.

It was like entering the ruins of a castle, one that had been buried beneath the earth. Through the air and along the walls were more of the slithering lights that had guided her through the forest, but here, she could see that they were the ghosts of snakes, the shades of serpents that had found new purpose in lighting the world for others. They cast their light on statues of snake-men and snake-women, slithered beneath banners formed of light and color rather than solid matter.

And as she stared, she heard a voice, a different, new voice.

"You stand in the realm of a king, young one. Look upon my...wonder...with a forgiving eye. It was once much greater than what you see here," the deep, almost amused-sounding voice said. "Step forward. I wish to see you."

"Where are you?" she asked, turning this way and that.

"Further on and further in. Continue your journey, and you will see me soon."

The masculine voice faded away, leaving her alone in the strange room of darkness and light. Shaking her head, Lorelei stepped forward, following the sole pathway forward.

She could tell that the ruin had once been far greater. There were doors that were blocked with rubble, and others that were sealed off with masses of snakes that had slithered together to form living doors. Beneath her feet were dozens, if not hundreds, of serpents, many of them moving over her feet every time she paused to allow them right of way.

Her guide followed at her side, distinguished by the purple mark on the back of his head. He would occasionally look at her, smile a snake smile, and then keep moving.

Little by little, they advanced, climbing stairs and following hallways. She saw portraits that had faded to little more than lines, statues of men and women of reptilian persuasion. Some of them had tails, some of them did not. Some were more like lizards, others like serpents, and still others like other things entirely, impossible things for her world.

And yet, they must have existed at some point.

Finally, they came to a throne room, an obvious one. Snake statues suddenly burst into light, illuminating their fangs and eyes and casting a glow on the room of many colors. Everything was seen through a wash of rainbows and more, as if the old colors were trying to bring life back to a long-vanished realm.

She was nudged forward by the small head against the back of her ankle, and she kept moving, blushing as she felt like the eyes of the statues were looking down on her, measuring her in a way that she had never been measured before. The tatters of her dress didn't seem to cover as much as she wanted, and she fought the urge to pull the dress down a bit further, dragging it past her bottom.

In the distance, the light finally reached a silhouette on a throne. She couldn't make out who or what it was, but it was taller than her by at least a small bit, and it lounged in a way that came only from confidence or arrogance.

As she reached a point perhaps a dozen feet from the raised throne, the light finally illuminated the area, and she gasped.

Sitting on the throne was a snake-man, one that looked almost like a cobra given legs. His scales were purple, glimmering under the light, and under his well-muscled body was a long tail that sprawled between his legs, running out and past his ankles. A loincloth covered his crotch, one that was just a shade short of sheer and ran down past his knees, hanging from a gold chain around rounded hips.

She looked up at his face, unable to help her blush as she realized how much of her body she was showing off. Never mind the fact that there wasn't as much to show off as some girls had, she was still nearly naked. Her hands moved to cover herself even as she took in the glimmer in his eyes and the soft smile on his scaly face.

"Your Majesty, Lord of the Serpents, King Eronaeus."

Lorelei almost jumped out of her skin at the sudden voice at her side. It was her guide, except that there was no more hissing from it...him.

Her cheeks burned as she realized that he had gone from a shadowy silhouette of a viper to a two-legged version of one, complete with a hood along the back of his head that was made of some sort of scale-cloth rather than normal materials. He wore a loincloth of the same 'fabric,' though his hung from a silver chain rather than a gold one, suspended on equally ample hips as his monarch.

There was something to the both of them that was almost supernatural, as if someone had taken the most attractive masculine features in creation and blended them into the pair of snakes. She almost wondered if there was a spell on them, something to make them...different. Better. Stronger.

Her snake gestured at her without looking up from the ground.

"I present the Fleeing Beauty."

"That's what you're calling me?" Lorelei asked. She glanced up at the throne, then back at her guide. "And what happened to your voice? You were all...hissy before."

"The mouths of normal serpents are not sufficient for normal speech, madam," her guide said. "When we transform, we may speak normally."

"And speak regularly and freely, my servant," the king said.

"My apologies, my liege. By your leave?"

The king nodded, and her guide departed, pulling back into the shadows. Lorelei was almost wishing that he had stuck around. The fact that the king was before her and she was nearly naked was intimidating enough. The fact that they apparently wanted her here, that this wasn't just an offer of an escape, was something all the more worrying.

Still, when she looked back up at this King Eronaeus, she had to admit, there was something...comforting about his smile. While there was arrogance and cockiness there, there was also something...different. Like there was a kindness behind the mask, something that was still caring for those that entered his domain.

So, when the purple snake gestured for her to approach, she did as she was asked, trying not to blush as her dress kept reminding her of how little she wore and how little it covered. Every time she took a step, she felt it brushing against her thighs, and every time that she made a move to cover herself, she felt the gaps and rips and tears all up and down the garment.

If she wasn't naked, she was the next thing to it, and it utterly humiliated her.

By the time she stood by the throne, she realized that there was far more to the room than she had initially expected. It spread out in all directions around her, more like the size of a hotel lobby - and one of the big fancy ones, at that - rather than the size of a single hallway. There were pillars as far as the eye could see, and the light ended before the room did, the rest of the great chamber cast into shadow.

She looked behind the king, and was shocked to see that the shadows behind the throne weren't due to a wall, but rather to holes that let the light out. They opened onto a vast underground lake, and in the distance, she could see the trail lights of other snakes on the water.

"What the..."

"You gaze upon the remnants of my kingdom, young one," King Eronaeus said, standing behind her and looking over her shoulder. "The great lands that were once my dominion, the land of the snake people. Long since sunk beneath the earth, but not yet erased."

He chuckled as she turned, and she did her best to meet his eyes rather than go along with the temptation to look down. She had to be focused now.

"Why did you invite me here?"

"There were several reasons, of course. But perhaps you might enlighten me, young maiden."

He gestured for her to follow him along the wall, and she did, trying not to look down too often. The sheer distance from the lake was a little terrifying now that she wasn't as distracted by wonder and anger.

The king was surprisingly tall now that he was on his feet, positively looming over her. Despite his surprisingly feminine hips, he had a powerful set of muscles to him, as far as she could tell. They seemed corded and powerful, looking more like a warrior's body than a monarch's.

His confidence in his body was not mirrored in her, though. She blushed as she was led along, more conscious than ever of the ill-fit of her underwear. Her bra was pressed tight to her chest, and she swore that the cold in the room was making her nipples harden through it. It was just enough to have her teeth chattering a bit, too.

And it was even worse when she thought about how many people could be staring at her butt. She hadn't been able to afford any decent panties, so it was smaller than it could be, and ill-fitted to boot, more likely to slide between the cheeks than cover them. It left her blushing and embarrassed all the way to the little corner he was taking her to.

He led her to the edge of light and shadow, pulling out chairs that she hadn't seen. He gestured for her to take one, and she did, trying to keep her legs together rather than show off more than she already had done.

"It is rare for anyone to enter the forest, particularly as far as you did. I can almost smell the rage that burned through you. What happened, pray tell?"

"There was...an incident today," she said, looking down at the ground. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Ah, would this incident, perchance, have involved a young wolf? One that garbed himself in blue cloth and silver trim?"

She whipped her head back up, blinking twice. Those had been the colors of her...well, her intended lover before he stabbed her in the back. He had been flaunting his latest clothes, showing off the richness of his family. The king chuckled, leaning on one hand.

"I thought as much. The scent of you was upon him, though not so thickly as the scent of vixen."

"You - what happened to him?"

"I will tell you...if you tell me what happened between the pair of you."

The vixen-cat hybrid shook her head, looking down at her lap again. It had been so...hard. Did she...

"If he insulted your honor, it might please you to know that he will never do so again."

"It was...less my honor, and more my..."

She shook her head.

"Take your time," the king said.

She nodded her thanks. Taking her time to collect her thoughts, Lorelei took a deep breath, forced herself to hold it, then let it out as a long, shaky sigh that didn't entirely come out clean. She coughed, forcing herself through it again before continuing.

"I...spent the day with him. We walked through town, and he spent a great deal of time asking me whether this thing or that thing was something that women would like. He flirted with me, joking - well, mocking me, I guess - about how different earrings or other things would look on me."

She remembered how they had been in the market for hours, how she had tried on various different clothes. She'd modelled underwear for the man, showing him what it looked like on her.

"He bought many gifts...and then..."

"Then?"

"He gave them to...to her..."

Lorelei covered her face, a few tears already rolling down her cheeks. The hybrid whimpered, trying to pull herself together, but it was hard. So, so hard.

Just thinking of the pair of them together, how he had handed that bitch all of those earrings, those necklaces, those bracelets...how he had revealed that he'd sized up the bras and other sexy things that he'd bought, never intending for her to wear them, just getting a free show out of the whole day. And then...

Itty bitty titties.

She's like a stick in those things.

Heh, good thing that you're getting them, darling. She disgraced those clothes by wearing them.

They'd shared pictures. Pictures of her humiliation. Lorelei remembered them, remembered running as they kept talking about her, laughing at her as she retreated. They'd made her feel like trash, used her, kicked her to the curb. She had thought...she'd felt...

"They were...horrible. They used me. And then they left me."

"I see. I can safely say, young one, that they certainly insulted your honor. One of them, at least, will never do so again."

"How can you be sure of that?" she asked, shaking her head. "He's rich."

"Oh, he was."

"...Was?"

"Quite." The king leaned back, looking back at his fingernails. "He's dead now. Struck many times in the venom pits."

She must have looked quite the sight as the king looked up at her, because he chuckled as soon as he saw her face. When he reached up and patted her cheek, drying her tears away in the same motion, she managed to snap herself out of it.

"How...why? Why would you..."

"Because he was threatening those under my protection."

Eronaeus shook his head, standing up and starting to circle her. His tail was long enough that it provided her with a full circle of coverage as he walked laps around her, each one making her wonder if he would bump into her.

"I am a most relaxed monarch, young one. I have spent many years underground, and I have done much to make sure that my people are comfortable and safe. I will not have that threatened, not by anyone, not down here, and not on the surface. When he began his drilling, when he ordered the extermination of an entire nest of our more feral relatives, then he made his choice."

"I...I see..."

"If you feel badly for him, I would not. He was a crueller man than he ever showed you."

"..."

"And he did not suffer, if you feel a worry for that."

She did not, though it was a good thing to know. It was more...

More that she was surprised that there was someone that would take this so far. She had thought that people like this were long gone. Men that would stand up for those that they cared for were rare these days, particularly ones that would go so far as that.

It made her feel rather special, being invited into a place like this, by a person like this.

Before she could say anything, the snake-man turned to her, his eyes glittering just like his scales.

"For now, allow me to send you to a room. I will call for a bath for you; I imagine that you would enjoy that after running through the wilds for hours."

"I...would like that, yes."

Her room was spartan compared to the rooms of the university, but she had to admit that it was at least well-appointed for someone like her. There was a brass bedframe as well as a soft, fur-covered mattress, and there were several different blankets of different sorts. One of leather that was lined with some sort of fleece, one of simple down, and one that was of fur and leather that looked very comfortable indeed.

The barefoot hybrid pulled it around her, sitting down on the edge of the bed as she tried to take stock of her current situation.

She was in the middle of an alien, magical kingdom, something that a number of her professors would kill to experience. Lorelei didn't know what the king wanted with her just yet, but she was sure that he would want something. Nobody, least of all monarchs, gave away something for free.

And he wanted me to be here...They already knew about me, they invited me. Why?

That was the biggest question, at least for her. Knowing that they wanted her here for some reason or other was interesting enough, but it didn't tell her what she needed to know in order to plan. And that...that irritated her.

Even so...

She remembered the way that the king had looked at her. While there had been the normal male appreciation for her body, there had been something else in his gaze. Almost...welcoming. Not quite possessive, but obviously inviting her to be there, like he wanted to take care of her.

It was...comforting.

She pulled the blanket a bit tighter around her shoulders, blushing as she thought of his loincloth again. She knew that it was wrong to be thinking of another man so soon after she had been abused by someone else. It was probably nothing but a rebound, but still...

There was a part of her that wondered just what he was hiding down there.

Lorelei blushed as her mind started to peel away the loincloth from her mental image of him, and the vixen-cat pushed the thought down and away. She didn't need to think of that. She wasn't her for...for that.

At least, not intentionally here for that.

Just as she started to get to her feet, the sheet of snakeskin over her doorway rattled. She looked over at it as her guide from before poked his head in.

"King Eronaeus had sent me to guide you to the bath."

"Alright."

She walked towards him, blushing a bit as her eyes fell over his rather lovely body as well. Shaking her head, she fell in step behind him.

"Do, um, all of your people have such...perfection to their bodies?" she asked, unable to help herself.

"It is a blessing from the king," he said. "We are graced with his magic, giving us what others would strive for years to attain."

"He's a magician, then?"

"He is more than that, oh Fleeing Beauty. He is a god."

A god. She wondered if that was more of the primitive way of looking at things, or if there was more to it. If there was...

Well, there was something to be discovered, she supposed. And if there wasn't, then it meant that this man would still be able to keep her safe.

The more she'd thought about it, the more the thoughts of safety appealed. The rest of the world was a dangerous place. There were people that would take advantage of her, people that would use her, people that looked down on her for just being who she was. A hybrid, a low-born, a person of no real physical interest...

The king, at least, had looked at her like someone that could be wanted. She...

She liked that.

She wanted that.

Her guide took her through several old hallways, all of them lit with the light of the snakes around her. She didn't know what to think about their ghostly images. She didn't know if they were living or dead, if they were even real and not some magical illusion that Eronaeus was casting about the palace. Whatever they were, she hoped that they would continue to burn for as long as they were needed.

The only thing about the ruins of the castle that were both strange and a little discomfiting were the sexual marks along the walls. At first, she'd though that they were just other letters and runes, but the more she saw, the more she realized that there were a great many illustrations of males and females in various poses. The mildest ones had an individual showing off, while the more extreme...

She blushed, deciding to keep her eyes on the floor rather than the walls as she was led through the various stone corridors.

Eventually, she felt something different underfoot. It was so strange that she almost didn't recognize it, but when she saw the door ahead with steam coming out from under it, she understood.

Warmth. She was feeling the warmth of hot water under the floor. Lorelei groaned so deeply that it almost sounded like a sexual moan, and she was so relieved for the feeling that she didn't care who heard it.

Only good manners kept her from charging through the snakeskin cover that kept the steam inside, allowing her guide to hold it up for her. She plunged into the steam, breathing it in and suffering a coughing fit almost immediately. She didn't care. For the first time since she ran out of the lodge, she was warm.

Lorelei wiggled happily, hugging herself as the warmth and the steam saturated her fur, soaking in and seeping through her bones, banishing the lingering ache of the cold. Her feet no longer felt like they were going to freeze off if they didn't get some attention, and she smiled as the steam parted and she could see its source.

It was a hot spring, one that bubbled mildly in the stone floor. She hurried to it, sitting down at the edge and touching a finger to it.

"Oooooh," she moaned as she felt the heat surrounding her finger. Like a hot bath and a jacuzzi mixed together, and completely natural. Oh, it was perfect. Just perfect. Absolutely, one-hundred-percent, perfect.

"Please, please tell me that this is my bath..."

"This is yours, madam," the snake said. "Please, enjoy yourself. There are soaps and cleaning syrups along the wall."

Cleaning syrups. She imagined those were lotions or body washes. Maybe she'd touch on those later, but for now...

She waited for her guide to leave, then stripped as fast as she possibly could. She considered asking for a towel, but even now, with the heat banishing the worst of the cold, she couldn't wait for that. She needed it. Now.

Her dressing gown came off, followed by her bra. Her breasts, barely into a low B at that point, didn't even jiggle as it came free. They barely had the presence to bounce when she jumped; there was little that removing a bra could do.

Her panties fell to the floor, her rump doing a bit more, but not much. It was mostly muscle back there, built up through hard work running from one desk to another, fetching books for one parent and ink for another. She was used to working out, used to running around, and her legs and butt showed it.

Even with that, it felt good to be out of her panties. So tight, so uncomfortable. Even with the possibility that someone might come in and see her naked, it just felt better to be out of them. She reached back, rubbing her rump a few times to soothe the tight muscles back there, going so far as to spread the cheeks for a moment before letting them clap back together.

That was all her clothes, and now, there was nothing between her and the water. Lorelei didn't step in. She jumped.

As the water covered her from head to toe, she let out a long, slow moan beneath the surface, her bubbles joining the rising heat from far below...

The grey-and-black-furred hybrid stopped swimming through the water after a few minutes, leaning back against the rock and savoring the heat rising around her. It was just what she needed, and for the first time all day, she felt relaxed.

That relaxation continued even as she heard the sound of claws tapping on the floor. She opened one eye, then blushed slightly as she saw the king standing at the edge of the hot spring.

Despite her embarrassment being seen naked, she didn't jump for her clothes, nor did she try and cover herself. Maybe she was too relaxed, or maybe she just knew that there was very little that could be seen through the bubbling waters.

Or maybe...just maybe...she wanted to see if he'd look at her the same way when he realized how little she had to offer.

"Your Majesty," she said, bowing her head.

"Fleeing Beauty," he said in a voice both formal and amused. "Though certainly not fleeing any longer. We must see about giving you a proper name."

"I have one. Lorelei."

"Ah. My magics could not divine it from afar."

She stored that information away as he reached down for his loincloth. Her cheeks burned a little hotter as she belatedly realized that she might not be the only one bathing that night.

Before she could say anything, he removed the golden chain, and with it, the cloth that covered his groin. If she had been red before, she was positively crimson seeing what he had kept hidden.

Lying over a pair of taut, tight testicles was a shaft of positively regal size. She blushed as she mentally measured it to be about nine inches long, the shaft itself a darker purple than the rest of the snake's body. It seemed to be completely relaxed, and she wasn't sure if she should take that as an insult or not.

The king did not jump into the water, but rather used his tail to lower himself in, showing the musculature of it by lifting himself into the air with little more than the tip, and then slowly lowering himself into the bubbling surface. It left his shaft completely visible for far too long, and by the time that it had settled below the waves, she was more than red, and more than wet from the water, as well.

I didn't know that there were males that were that...large...

She looked away slightly, only for the king to reach out and gently nudge her by the chin. She looked back.

"What?"

"You seem shy. Have I offended you? Or merely blinded you with my perfection?" he asked.

She laughed despite herself. It was more true than she wanted to admit, yet he said it with just the right amount of ruefulness to not sound like a complete ass.

"I admit, I didn't expect to see...that."

"Ah, the shaft of kings?"

"I'm guessing it's not entirely hereditary."

"I have not had children, so I wouldn't know. But I wouldn't mind finding out. One day."

"..."

"That is not an offer, by the way."

"Whew!" She rubbed her forehead in a mock-relieved way.

"Unless there is interest, of course. After all, you are a most lovely-looking woman, young one."

The king smiled at her with that same gentle arrogance that he'd shown on the throne, the same soft protectiveness that she'd seen when he described when he told her that the wolf was dead...the same want that she had enjoyed before. She rubbed the back of her neck, looking down at the water.

"I doubt that you'd want me for long. I don't have that much to offer, compared to my classmates."

"Ah, but do they have the potential to be more than they are?"

"Heh...not if you go by their grades."

"And you?"

"Maybe up here..." She tapped the side of her head, then cupped one of her breasts beneath the water. "Down here...I don't know. I think I've peaked."

"Ah, but there you are most mistaken."

Suddenly, Eronaeus was right in front of her, his body nearly pressed to hers. How he'd moved so quickly, she didn't know. It was as if he had teleported. She yelped, but before she could move back, he'd pinned her to the rock behind her. Not forcefully, but playfully, just enough to let her feel trapped without actually doing it.

She let him, though...just as she let him run his hand down to her chest, gently squeezing the same breast she'd cupped.

"A woman may become ever more lovely as the years go by. Their fairness does not fade, but merely matures, blossoming into an ever deeper beauty," the king said, lifting her up just enough for her breasts to clear the water. "You have lived the life of a girl. You have yet to live the life of a woman. Speak not of your best days being behind you; they have yet to begin."

"Well, um, I think...I probably have become as, uh, 'womanly' as I can..."

"Ah, did you not hear me say you were mistaken?"

He squeezed her breast again, just enough to draw a gasp from her lips. There was none of the hesitation that she'd seen from other men that had gotten her shirt off, none of the annoyance and the look up at her as if to say 'that's all there is?' It was just the simple appreciation of her body, just as it was.

And yet...

Eronaeus leaned in, kissing her as she opened her mouth. It was a soft peck, a quick one, but enough to pull the breath from her lungs. His other hand had found her other breast, and they were being teased extensively, lifted and lowered, squeezed and fondled. Somehow, he had the perfect angle to nudge her nipples through the fur, stimulating them until they were hard and pointed, and she gasped as he kept nudging them, rubbing them, bringing her pleasure ever higher.

"Ah - your - your - mmmph!"

He kissed her again, silencing her question before it could leave her mouth. His body was so close to hers, so temptingly close. She could feel him between her legs, his shaft rising up slowly through the water, rubbing against her thigh as he kept feeling her up. Her breath was speeding up, panting into the kiss as his tongue teased hers.

She was shaking when he pulled his head back, her eyes glazed over as he smiled at her. Lorelei desperately clung to the side of the hot spring, not daring to let go lest she sink into the depths.

"You...you..."

"You are a magnificent female. You have potential, and more than that, you are willing to chase that potential," he said, stroking her cheek. "When you want something, you reach for it. You chase it.

"As you chased my subordinate, as you chased your escape from the world that hurt you, there are other things you can pursue. Such as a way to gain what you think you lack. "

"What I...you mean..."

She looked down at her chest, and he supported her, lifting her breasts with his hands, cupping them from beneath to give them the illusion of being bigger. The hybrid shivered, her cheeks burning.

"No...that's...that's impossible..."

"Young one, you have no idea what that word means anymore."

He smiled, letting go of her. As if time reversed, he lifted himself out of the hot spring with his tail, his hips swaying slowly and swinging his erection with it. Her eyes were drawn to its perfection as much as its size. The shaft was huge, more than a foot long, perhaps as long as fifteen inches, but it was the smoothness to it, the soft curve in the middle and the bulge of size there that left her blushing. It almost didn't look real, but she had felt it against her leg.

It was real. Real enough to open her up. Real enough to make her feel like...like one of those types of women. If she wanted to.

He swayed, his hands running down his hips, and as he did, she felt almost like a hypnotized victim of one of the cobras that wandered the surface. His every movement caught the eye, and it was impossible to look away as he danced for her.

Every purple scale he touched seemed to shimmer, turning to the light of the rainbow for a moment or two before fading away again. She watched, at first, for the rather magnificent sight of him swaying around, to showing off his assets, but the more that he moved, the more that he seemed to shimmer, and the more he seemed to shimmer, the more interested she was in following the rainbow he drew across his body with his delicate fingers.

He traced them across his hips, along his waist, and then down his crotch. She watched the rainbow lines run from the base of his cock to the tip, and then back down the underside. It was a sensual, shiver-inducing display, and it left her all too aware of his body, more aware of it than she had ever been of her own.

It wasn't hypnosis. It was...more than that. Almost like he had such confidence in his body that he could share it with her by his movements, as if by dancing and swaying himself, he could give her confidence enough to look at him, and confidence enough in herself.

Despite her best intentions, Lorelei felt a finger slipping between her legs, rubbing down between them and against her clit. She shivered, biting her lips as she felt her finger dipping inside of herself, rubbing at her depths and digging into her sensitive slit. Her cheeks burned from the water below, the show above, and her own actions.

As she was sliding a second finger inside, she could feel her own slight figure in comparison to the generous attributes of the king. He had hips bigger than hers, a butt more muscular and soft-looking than hers. Her chest barely outsized his, and it should have been much larger with her vixen heritage.

It wasn't fair...and he...

He was offering her more.

She looked up again, seeing him swaying over her, swaying and dancing and touching himself in an erotic display just over the surface of the water. His tail supported him as ever, and his scaly soles seemed to slide along an invisible floor a few inches above her.

She looked up past his feet, past his swollen testes and that throbbing shaft, staring him in the eye as he lowered himself in front of her. Panting, she reached up with her free hand, grabbing his rod in hand and pulling him further into the water.

Eronaeus smiled at her as he pushed himself ever closer, opening his mouth just enough to show his fangs. They dripped with a sparkling fluid, and she wondered if it was venom or something else.

She wasn't sure that she cared. She was so lost in the moment, barely thinking of anything besides the heat between her legs and the throbbing shaft between her fingers.

"I can give you the form of a woman...the form you imagine every night when you dream of yourself with another man...the shape you crave every time you see other females walking by..." He stroked her cheek, pushing himself closer, the heat of his member between her legs greater than the water around her. "I can give you ecstasy unending...If you will give yourself to me."

He kissed her, soft but growing increasingly firm, and she kissed him back, feeling the edges of his fangs against her lips. He pulled back just before she was completely breathless.

"Pleasure." Kiss. "Protection." Kiss. "Perfection." Kiss. "All of these will be yours, if you are willing to be mine. Lorelei..."

He leaned in, his forehead pressed against hers, his hands at her hips, his shaft a scant millimeter from filling her.

"Will you be mine?"

"...Yes," she breathed.

The End