In her nervous hands, Melissa held a key unlike any she had seen before. It seemed alive, as if tiny cilia felt her palm, just as she felt the key with her fingers. There was no telling whether it was merely a living film that covered the object, or if it was, in a true sense, alive in and of itself. A gate stood in a shadowed alcove, fashioned from the same metal as the key. Melissa took a deep breath, and stepped towards it, her boots sinking into a soft carpet of moss.
Past its bars she could see a short path through a thicket, at the end of which shone a faint light. She fitted the key into the lock, which accepted it hungrily. Quickly, she stepped onward and towards the glow, her feet as light as she could muster. The gate came to a quiet close behind her.
In a creeping run, she reached a barrier of ferns growing on a mound of rock. Hidden in the lush, dew-laden growth, she observed the clearing that opened at the end of the tunnel. Light emanated from the space, bathed it in a glow that seemed at once to come from nowhere, and everywhere within. Its floor was of soft grass, rippling to an unfelt wind, and it was circled by a dense growth of trees, their canopies woven together to form a living roof over the forgotten glade.
To think that such a place existed beneath the city without anyone’s knowledge made her at once in awe of its primordial age, and the unwittingness of the city’s builders. There was life beneath the ground, life that would persist for long after the city, as it had persisted before. But, despite its inhuman nature, humans had doubtless visited the clearing. The remains of a fire lay at its center, and an axe had been struck to a treestump, cleft branches littering the grass around it.
Disappointing as it was that she had not been the first to discover the mystical place, her relief at seeing familiar signs of life was greater. She began to step through the ferns, but halted suddenly. Though it might have been another adventurer, it was possible, too, that it was a bandit, or worse, that had made themselves comfortable here.
Made careful by her realization, Melissa stalked through the thicket of ferns, an arrow held at ready. Droplets of dew rolled down her body, clad in a form-fitting suit of dragonhide, slick against her sweaty skin. Melissa’s scent was sharp and invigorating in her nose, and she took a deep breath heavy with musk as she entered the clearing with a steady, confident step.
As she looked around, Melissa wished to call out, to announce herself to anyone who might hear her, but, as she began to do so, fear stilled her voice. She was now out in the open, bathed fully in that strange light, faced with countless hollows and shadowed branches where any number of rogues might have hidden themselves in ambush. And yet, no ambush came.
After a breathless moment of standing still, her nocked bow aimed awkwardly at nothing in particular, she relaxed the half-drawn string. She felt stupid, humiliated, though none but herself had witnessed it, and wished to herself that the earth would crack open to swallow her.
Her sulking was interrupted by a wooden creak emanating from the thicket of trees around her. At once, she whirled towards the unexpected noise with her bow nocked, eyes darting from tree to tree, ears attempting to source the sound to any one direction. The rush of noise dissipated into the shadows between the trunks, and soon, it was quiet again, as if no noise had ever come.
Feeling suddenly sobered by the event, Melissa judged it the time to take her leave, and began taking careful, backward steps towards the passage, all the while aiming her bow at the trees, but, just as she began to turn to sprint into the wet passage which had admitted her into the glade, there came from behind her another deep, wooden groan.
She whirled around, and saw by the entrance a large, humanoid form nestled in the trees; a caryatid shaped of living wood, it was much like the moss giants she had stolen her strange key from, only strikingly female. It groaned again, and from the trees emerged a hand, then another, holding a great sword like a blade of grass. Melissa reeled in fright and tumbled backwards, falling on her behind on the soft, lapping grass.
With great effort, the moss giantess uprooted its feet from the earth, and planted them firmly between Melissa and her escape. She scrambled backwards in horror, drew her bow with trembling hands, and shot an arrow at the looming monster. It struck the giant’s shoulder, embedding in the deeply fissured bark without any notice from the giant. Desperation constricting her throat, Melissa kicked herself further away from her quarry, and shot again.
The arrow found its mark in the soft, dripping moss under her adversary’s arm, and while the giant stopped with a groan to extract the arrow from the wound, Melissa fought herself upright and sprinted away to the edge of the clearing. Lining a clean shot beneath its other arm, Melissa drew, released, and let out a disappointed hiss as the arrow broke with a snap as it glanced from the rugged bark.
Treacherously swift, the giant lumbered towards Melissa, a broken arrow still jutting from the soft moss. With but a gesture, it swung its blade once, twice, and once more, but each sweep was deftly evaded by Melissa’s light feet, and punished with a keen arrow aimed at gaps in its tough bark.
Confidence rushed through Melissa as she scored a second successful shot. She had, after all, defeated many of its kind, both by stealth and by violence. The giant groaned, halting its assault to remove the injurious arrow. There was a momentary stillness as they stood several spans apart, each observing the other in silent judgment.
While the giant’s expressionless eyes stared her down, Melissa saw that behind it, the passage was unbarred. Deciding that though it may hurt her pride, her best course of action was to escape while her legs still carried, and she steeled herself to sprint. Before she could take a step, the giant gestured, pointing its sword towards Melissa, and to its groan came another in response from the surrounding trees.
Melissa sprang for the exit, letting her trusted bow drop out of her hand, but to her horror, what called from the trees sprang to her much faster. In a moment, she was surrounded by clawing creatures woven of branches and brambles, and even as she tried to scramble up the slippery stones into the passage, she was drawn back by their thorny claws. She screamed, fell breathless onto the grass, and felt tears well up in her eyes.
Melissa kicked her feet as the creatures began to drag her along the grass, starting up as she felt free of their grasp. She yelped again as her feet were tugged from under her by scrabbling hands, toppling her body once more onto the soft ground. Though she could not see it, Melissa felt the giant’s gaze boring into her, and her tears turned to defeated sobs as the things began to drag her by the legs. Even the ground, with its soft blades of grass lapping at her body, seemed then to insult her.
Melissa felt useless having discarded her bow, though she knew it would not have been any help against things so tough and numerous had she had it still. It was then she remembered the axe; so temptingly presented with its blade embedded in a stump, scraps of wood littered around it as if to demonstrate how it would cleave through any offending branches.
She could almost feel its handle against her palm, and with that feeling came a rush of strength by which she sprang to her feet and tore free from the brambly grasp, unbothered that her escape nearly reduced her armor to shreds. She bounded over the growing band of creatures in a series of leaps and reached for the handle, turning to thrust the axe wildly towards her assailants.
Unimpressed, the pack of creatures closed on her, and though she hacked apart one, and another, there were more. Eventually, her tired arms struck the weapon false on a branch, embedding the blade into it and twisting the handle from her grasp. Dew burned in the cuts and lacerations that marred her legs as momentum tumbled her into the grass.
As a branch tried to reach for her foot, she grabbed it with her hand, screaming as thorns cut into her palm. More branches came, and though Melissa struggled, their grasp on her grew too tight and painful to resist. Her face was flush from anger and humiliation, and tears flowed freely down her hot cheeks as the last of her armor was turned to scraps.
She lay there on the leering grass, naked save for a sole remaining boot, wishing she hadn’t been so stupid as to come alone, or come at all, and her tears turned to resigned sobs as she accepted there was nothing she could do to save herself, that she had lost, now, likely for the last time.
The giant lumbered towards Melissa, stopped before her, and stared. Melissa lifted her gaze to meet its expressionless eyes, and humiliation and anger turned to fear. She shook her head weakly and began to whimper, crying out as the moss giantess bent down, and grasped her.
It lifted her up by the shoulders, holding her in the air before itself, examining the frail body carefully. She closed her eyes and braced for the giant to crush her, or however else she imagined it would bring about her end, bursting to tears as she felt the contents of her bladder run down her legs onto the thirsty grass below.
As her end did not come, Melissa opened her eyes to see the giant merely inspecting her. When she glanced downwards, her body went limp with horror and expelled what little urine still remained.
From the dripping bush of moss at the giant’s loins swelled a tapering, sap-slick root, venturing towards her exposed pussy as if invited by the shower of warm liquid. It slid between the urine-soaked lips without hesitation, while Melissa, barely conscious that it did, could only stare blankly at her assailant.
Though but as thick as a finger at its tip, the root increased steadily in girth down its length, and Melissa let out a tortured groan as it crept deeper into her unwilling pussy. The sweet-scented sap tingled against her sensitive skin, and as the root exuded more, a warmth began to grow deep in the pit of her stomach.
Her mind screamed at her to do something, pleading her not to submit, to keep fighting in spirit, even if her body failed. But, through the burning ache rose a new sensation, one which made Melissa gasp in surprise and to her horror, in pleasure.
Having reached the back of her pussy, the root writhed against Melissa’s cervix, soon eliciting confused, conflicted yelps from her lips as she fought against the novel sensation. Though experienced with men, there had been none quite large or otherwise bold enough to touch her where the moss giantess now prodded with its tendril.
As the prehensile root tickled the bottom of her pussy, Melissa found she began to glide down its length with greater ease, forcing it to coil and squirm inside her. Even as she grew closer to the base of the appendage, her body found the girth no longer unwelcome, and the touches deep inside her made her yearn for more.
With guilty tears in her eyes, she spread her legs meekly to allow the moss giantess to impale her pussy, watching in shame as thick drool ran down the remaining length of the root, dripping from her parted, swollen lips. Her puffy clit, too, proved that there was no longer anything she could do to deny her pleasure.
While Melissa moaned with reluctant enjoyment, the giant slid the remaining root into her pussy, nestling the crotch of the frail, human body against its own. Melissa gasped as she felt the soft bush of moss against her loins, dripping with cool, sticky dew which mixed with Melissa’s own.
She felt the gentle touch on her lips and clit pleasurable, twining together with a monster as if it were her lover strangely intimate. Through the torrent of sensations and feelings came a realization, that in a very real sense they were lovers, no matter Melissa’s nagging reluctance.
Melissa gripped the bark of the giant with her aching hands, bracing as the root packed itself at the back of her pussy. The giant eased its grip on her shoulders, sliding its rough hands to her back to hold her in a loose embrace.
While she gasped with her mouth agape, overwhelmed by what was happening to her, the tip of the root prodded Melissa’s cervix. Oozing, its tip found the little passage at the bottom of Melissa’s pussy and, in a swift, slippery movement, pierced into her uterus.
The sudden intrusion of her deepest place elicited an exhausted shriek from Melissa, who then lost what little composure she still clung to. Assaulted by sensations she had never imagined, and touched in places she had never thought reachable, she found pleasure and pain, revulsion and arousal all become one thing, a fluffy blanket of sensation, which she wished only to pull closer around her. She clutched tighter onto the giant’s bark, felt warmth rush throughout her body as her lover explored her womb, and the all-encompassing feeling came to a climax.
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To be continued...