The amber lion
The lion figurine was a thing from another world, a magical creature now I world without magic. Still, it found a way to sustain itself.
The amber lion
By Strega
It was little more than three inches tall, smooth, and translucent, a glass or crystal sculpture of a seated lion. The honey-yellow of its structure had occasional air bubbles and there was a dark imperfection in its center. The estate sale wanted fifty dollars for it, and under any other circumstance Randy would have tried to talk them down.
But he recognized, or thought he recognized amber when he saw it. He didn't dare wait to be sure and if he even took the time to look up amber prices on his phone it might be snapped up by someone else. He just grabbed it and took it to the little table with the cash box.
"Oh, that thing," the man running the sale said. "My uncle traveled a lot, he could have got that anywhere. I hate to sell it, but when he leaves without telling anyone and doesn't even call for a year, well, someone has to pay his back rent. He'll be pissed if he ever shows up...What do you suppose it's made of?"
Randy shrugged and passed over the fifty bucks. There were two types of yard sales: the ones where people were trying to get rid of stuff and the prices were good, and the ones where people were trying to make money. This was one of the latter. He paused only to buy a soda from the little girl selling them out of a cooler and got back into his car hiding a smile. If he was right about the lion he'd just made at least a couple of hundred bucks.
But back at his apartment, with the lion sitting in the sun on the windowsill and pictures of it already taken to post on Ebay, he found himself fascinated by the thing. The smoothness of it, the cunningly stylized mane, the tail wrapped around the four noble paws. In very short order he determined the amber lion was worth at least hundreds and maybe thousands of dollars, despite the blurry, cloudy inclusion at its center.
If that inclusion were an insect the thing would be even more valuable, but he couldn't make out what it might be. Perhaps a clot of brown-red dirt? There was no real shape to it as seen from any angle.
As he turned the lion in the sun to get different angles on the inclusion he noticed that even the underside was carved. The four paws had graven-in pads and the sculptor had even taken the time to shape balls and a short feline sheath. He had to smile as he put it back on the windowsill.
He decided to keep it until he found out more about it. He was sure it was real amber and searches for "amber lion figurine" and such got quite a few hits but only on "amber colored crystal" lions or sculptures that included a little chunk of real amber. There was nothing quite like his amber lion.
So he put it back on the windowsill and went to work and when he came back he admired it again and over the days and weeks he kept it painstakingly dusted.
A week after he got the statue, while handling it as he often did, he frowned. He would swear the inclusion in the amber was smaller. The pictures on his cell phone seemed to confirm it. It wasn't much smaller, though. Maybe he was imagining things.
Barry loved his lion figurine and he handled it every day and it wasn't until a month later, while looking once more at the photos he'd taken the day he got it that he became sure the inclusion was getting smaller. It was happening so slowly he didn't notice, just as the face in the mirror was imperceptible older each time you looked at it yet high school friends were dramatically aged when you ran into them years later. Only when he looked at the weeks-old pictures did he notice the difference.
Maybe there was some sort of slow chemical process still going on inside the lion. Maybe it wasn't amber after all. Randy shrugged and put it back on the windowsill. He'd long since decided not to sell it.
Then one day a year later, when the inclusion was just a blurry flyspeck in the amber, Randy came out of his bedroom and tripped over the full-sized lion sprawled out in a pool of sunlight on the carpet.
Randy let out a yelp of surprise as he hit the carpet and a broad padded paw pinned his calf to the floor. His eyes went wide as he saw the amber lion, still clear and honey-yellow and cunningly formed but three feet tall at the shoulder now. It loomed over him, darker streaks highlighting its translucent mane and muzzle shaped of frozen gold. Somehow it was flexible now and it stepped forward, one padded forepaw with carven amber claws pinning him to the floor.
Reflexively he kicked out and his foot bounced off a haunch strong and solid and yet yielding, as though the lion was clear solid rubber. It glanced back over its shoulder at the impact, not hurt, merely curious. With a low rumble not at all like a purr it pressed the paw harder against his chest and looked him over with golden eyes cut into a perfectly formed amber face.
Amber or not its fang-tips hung down below its chops and it was too big and strong to fight. Randy tried to calm himself and made soothing sounds as he rubbed its belly with his stockinged feet. His foot slipped lower and bumped against something and the lion let out a pleased growl. Randy's foot had slipped low enough to rub against its rubbery-amber sheath and balls.
With no better idea for keeping it from hurting him Randy put the ball of his foot against the rubbery hardness of its sheath and rubbed, and was rewarded by an immediate stiffening. The strange amber lion could get hard! It didn't take its paw off his chest but its eyes narrowed as he rubbed, and an amber tongue-tip protruded from its mouth. With eyes half-lidded it ground its swollen sheath against his foot and then with a sudden snarl it arched. Something like warm honey sprayed over his calf and suddenly the amber lion was gone.
Randy blinked and sat up, glancing around, but there was no sign of the thing. Wait, there it was! The little amber lion statue was back, sitting in the shadow his foot made in the puddle of sunlight. There was no trace of wetness on his leg or floor. Whatever spurted out of the lion had been re-absorbed when it changed back.
That couldn't really have happened, could it? Randy turned the little figurine in his hands and could barely make out the flyspeck-inclusion.
It all must have been a dream. He'd sleepwalked before and this time he'd tripped and fallen. It wasn't the first time he'd dreamed about the lion figurine but he'd sure never thought about fucking it before. Randy shook his head and set it back on the windowsill. Maybe he should sell it after all.
Vivid though the whole experience had been he was sure it'd been a dream and he put it from his mind. He was nearly late for work and didn't even have time for a shower. Throwing on his clothes he left the lion on the windowsill and there it still sat in the evening. Tomorrow was his day off and he'd put a posting online tomorrow to sell it or at least try to get a better idea what it was worth.
But the next morning he woke as something heavy leapt up onto his bed and his eyes snapped open to find the amber face and magnificent mane of the lion inches from his nose.
"Shit!" Randy rarely swore but he couldn't help it. A shaft of sunlight shone through a crack in the curtains and lit the lion, which was clear as honey and free of any inclusions at all. It was a great gold-yellow crystal thing and a warm glow spread as the sunlight diffused through it. Tangled in the covers Randy was even less able to fight it than before but once more it let out a low, pleased growl as he lifted the coverlet up with his toes and began to rub its sheath.
It could not purr but it made its pleasure felt by wrapping a paw behing his shoulder and forcing him to sit up. As it dragged him from beneath the covers it sprawled out atop his legs and pinned beneath its weight and all Randy could do was reach out and take the clear amber sheath in his hands. The lion immediately thrust itself against his grip and a pointed tip with golden barbs emerged from the sheath to rub against his wrist. The lion was complete in every detail, warm and rubbery and golden and horny.
With still no better way to pacify the beast Randy gripped the sheath and met its thrust by pumping his hands up and down. He'd heard that men with foreskins could jack off just with that and their hand and that's what he was doing to the lion. Low growls bubbled up out of its amber jaws as it thrust and a translucent paw wrapped around him to let him know the lion wanted him to keep at it.
It wasn't long before the tufted tail thump-thumped against the bed and honey-like goo spurted against Randy's wrist and chest. The lion let out a long chuff of pleasure as it came and the sticky amber cum adhered to Randy's chest, but this time the lion didn't turn back into a figurine. The great-maned head turned once more to regard him and Randy stared the amber lion square in the face.
"What are you? What are you really?" Maybe it could talk. Maybe this was all still a dream, but if it was real, what was the lion?
It was an amber lion, rubbery-flexible and strong, complete in every detail. It could growl and it could fuck and it turned out it could even eat.
The amber muzzle in front of him suddenly yawned wide and a paw pulled him in with irresistable force. Randy let out a startled cry muffled to nothing by the rubbery amber jaws that closed over his head.
The lion's forepaws hugged him close, far too strong to fight, and the lion thrust its head down over Randy's neck. He stared out through clear flesh as it swallowed him, kicking against its belly as smooth rubbery throat stretched easily to engulf his face. It worked its elastic jaws over his shoulders with little effort, rubbery fangs dimpling his skin without scratching.
It wasn't slippery inside. There was no saliva to lubricate his trip down the lion's throat, just smooth warm amber-rubber that stretched around him as he was swallowed. He couldn't hurt the lion, couldn't stop it, could barely even slow it down. It hooked a forepaw under his butt and stuffed him in to the hips with one long pull.
The amber lion was hungry and though he kicked and squirmed there was no way to deny it a meal. It had its jaws around his hips now and the amber muscles in its throat rippled as it swallowed. A great contraction in the clear muscles gripped him and pulled him in and bit by bit, still able to see his bedroom through an amber haze Randy was swallowed whole. His head arrived in a looser space that must serve the lion as a stomach and rubber fangs scraped over his knees as it tossed its head to gather in his legs.
The white coverlet pressed against Randy's cheek through inches of amber flesh and the sunlight from the window gave everything a warm honey glow as his feet were taken into the lion's jaws. The lion lifted its muzzle, jaws finally shut, and with two powerful gulps it finished its meal.
The warm glow was everywhere now, amber-gold and soaking into him. There was no gurgle of organs inside the lion, no thump of a heart, just the grip of the amber goo that encased him. the lion was rubbery-solid outside and gelatinous inside and as the warm amber soaked into his skin Randy could feel himself softening. He remembered the inclusion and how it had slowly disappeared, and one last time he tried to struggle free. The lion let out a long belch as he kicked, and Randy finally figured it out.
"I know what you are," he mumbled, his lips feeling somehow blurry already. "I know what you do."
The lion burped again, ridding itself of another air-bubble inclusion, and for Randy there was just the warmth and the amber glow as he was slowly absorbed.
*****
For sale: Amber (?) Lion figurine. Found in abandoned apartment. Large blurry inclusion shaped sort of like a man, occupies about 1/4 of volume. Call attached number for pictures. $300 or best offer.