Alice In Chains (22 page)

Lifting her eyes she determinedly went back to watching the crowd, hoping Martes might have brought Suzanne along to see her. But in the crush she might easily miss them …

She blinked, seeing a familiar face, but not the one she sought.

The White Queen was staring up at her with a mixture of bafflement and anger. Alice could not see Juliet anywhere. Could she have escaped somehow, or was she merely being kept secure out of sight? But Albinous very visibly loomed by the Queen’s side, also scowling.

The humour of the situation suddenly struck Alice. She could not tell on them and they could do nothing to her on public show as she was. In mutual frustration they were reduced to staring mutely at each other. If only she had been ungagged she would have stuck her tongue out. As it was she tried to convey the impression she was smirking. Perhaps she succeeded, for after a few moments more the Queen turned her back on Alice and melted away into the crowd.

But why was the Queen still in Brillig? She had arrived three days ago. Surely that was ample time to make any preparations she needed before continuing on to the crown square, and she would certainly not delay without good reason. It could only mean she was waiting for somebody else to join her party. How many other pieces did she still have on the board? Alice wondered. And what did she expect to face in the final square that required more than her own power and Albinous’s brawn to handle?

By mid afternoon, as the traders’ business slackened off and seats about the ring began to fill, the novelty girling contests began. Under Alice’s dangling body naked girls battled each other in boxing matches with overstuffed gloves, or else wrestled singly or in teams. Blindfold girls were sent out against each other with their hands tied behind their backs and rubber phalluses strapped to their waists, the idea being to get under their opponent’s phallus and penetrate her first. Girls of slighter build
rode
piggyback on more muscular girlings and fought against each other in mock jousts with short padded lances. Hits were recorded by ink soaked into the lance tips which left highly coloured stains on their opponent’s body. A pursuit race was staged around the outside of the large ring with girlings hobbled and chained so that they could only move on their hands and knees. Each had a rod strapped to her head on the end of which was a phallus, and the idea was to chase round the ring until one girl got close enough to push it up the other’s bottom. Bets were made on all these contests, of course, and the crowd vigorously booed or cheered the girlings along according to preference.

When the novelty fights were over there was an intermission while the exhibitors closed up their stalls and the audience changed over. As the light filtering through the tall windows began to dim lamps were lit. Alice was briefly let down, given a drink of water and allowed to pee into a bucket, which she needed to do badly. The sensation of her water having to force its way through her urethra squeezed by her gold-packed vagina, and thereby further stimulating her clitoris, did nothing to reduce her state of simmering arousal. As the serious fans and aficionados began taking their seats, she was hoisted aloft once more. The moment to decide who was champion of all Boardland had finally come.

Spike and Leonus (Alice could not think of such a magnificent beast as ‘Leo’) entered the ring, both looking sober and thoughtful, raising their arms to acknowledge the applause, but no longer playing up to it as they had earlier in the day. Alice could feel the tension building. This was going to be a genuine fight, she thought.

Topper himself was the referee and announced the rules.

‘This shall be a contest of unlimited rounds each of five minutes’ duration,’ he said. ‘The winner shall be
determined
either by a knockout, or by one of the contestants yielding to the other and withdrawing. A knockout shall be declared if one contestant remains down for a count of ten while the other is standing within the marked area.’ He indicated a circle painted in the middle of the ring. He turned to the contestants. ‘I want a clean fight, break when you’re told. Back to your corners and wait for the bell, then come out fighting.’

The two animals touched gloves, then stepped back. A hush fell over the hall. Suddenly it felt to Alice that, though she was suspended above them naked and in full view, her hair turned to feathers and cunt stuffed with gold, she had become invisible. The attention of everybody in the hall was fixed on the two fighters. Then a fleeting eye contact with a tall man in one of the back rows spoiled her grand generalisation. Why was he alone looking at her so intently? And then the bell rang and she lost sight of him behind waving arms.

For a minute the pair circled round sizing each other up. Then Alice winced as the first punches were thrown, driven piston-like by rippling biceps to the accompaniment of cheers and shouts from the audience. Half a dozen rapid blows were traded and blocked, then the two seemed to dance apart with remarkable agility for such large beasts. She would have thought Spike’s equine jaw would have made an easy target, but his long neck held it up and back. To strike it Leonus would have to get dangerously close.

A medley of grunts and thuds reverberated round the hall as they closed in again and got down to the serious business of the contest. Their great bodies trembled with the impacts. Alice doubted an ordinary human boxer would have lasted two minutes in the ring with either of them. But somehow they absorbed that ferocious energy and gave as good as they got.

The first round ended with neither looking as though they had yet inflicted any serious injury on the other. A
minute’s
rest in the corner, a wipe with a sponge, a drink of water and then they came out again to resume their brutal business.

As the clamour of the audience grew louder a voice inside Alice’s head was reminding her that she did not approve of boxing. But she hardly heard it. She could not tear her eyes away from the two figures circling below her trading pile-driver punches. Was she learning to appreciate the elegance of ringcraft? Possibly the raw primal energy of it had touched her. Or perhaps her new-found fascination stemmed from the fact that she was part of the prize they were fighting for.

By the sixth round both contestants were bleeding from minor cuts and were clearly beginning to tire. But neither looked as though he wanted to give up. Why were they doing this to each other? Alice wondered. For the applause, the celebrity, to own Alice or even more likely the gold stuffed inside her, or simply the desire to prove he was the best? She might never know.

By round fifteen Spike and Leonus were clearly exhausted and their fancy footwork had given way to the shuffling of leaden limbs. They were being sustained by will-power alone now, locked into a grinding exchange of ever-wilder punches to see who would last the longest. The crowd had shouted themselves into a ragged chorus that echoed the fighters’ weariness, and yet like them would not cease until it was over.

Alice alone, from her unique vantagepoint, saw exactly how it ended. But she never told anybody.

There was a small circle of wet splash marks about the centre of the ring that had dribbled over the hours from her excited and tormented cleft. As Spike lunged forward trying to land a haymaker punch his foot skidded slightly on her spilt juices, throwing him off balance for a split second. By pure reflex Leonus’s left arm jabbed out and caught Spike on his exposed jaw. The strength seemed to go from Spike’s neck, he took
one
half step backwards and then toppled like a felled tree, hitting the canvas with a booming thump that shook the hall.

The crowd sprang to their feet as one, roaring in excitement.

Leonus was swaying dangerously, looking as though he might join his opponent at any moment. But somehow he kept upright and tottered into the marked circle and stayed there until Spike was counted out.

The ring dissolved into a tumult as aids and supporters of both sides swarmed over it. Leonus’s gloves were removed, he was towelled down, had his back slapped and hands shaken and a laurel wreath was thrown over his shoulders. Spike was revived and sportingly congratulated Leonus, who in turn held his opponent’s arm aloft as the crowd cheered again.

Only when a space was finally cleared was Alice lowered from the ceiling. As she was released from the disc a leash was clipped to her collar and her hands cuffed behind her back. Feeling as rubber-legged as the boxers after her long suspension and weighed down by the gold crammed inside her, she was led over to Leonus and made to kneel before him. Topper handed the boxer the key to her fleshlock.

‘It gives me great pleasure to declare you, Panthera “Leo” Leonus, the Heavyweight Boxing Champion of all Boardland!’ he announced. ‘Please accept this girling and all she holds!’

Then Leonus was swept away to the celebrations and Alice as his prize was carried along in his wake.

As they passed through a narrow gap in the cheering crowd, Alice caught another fleeting glimpse of the only man in the room with eyes for her alone, who held himself aloof and apart from all the wild excitement about him.

Who was he?

* * *

It was much later that Alice knelt in the best suite Brillig’s finest hotel could provide. For the first time in hours she and her new master, with whom she had yet to exchange a single word, were alone.

Leonus, washed and bathed and now relaxing in a chair, delicately held a glass of wine in one large hand. Somehow she had expected a boxer should only drink beer or lager, but he seemed content with his choice.

He surveyed her through tired, half-closed eyes. ‘So, bird-girl. What a day, eh? How does it feel to belong to the Champion of all Boardland?’ He sipped some more wine. Even in low tones his voice held a deep resonance, though he was better spoken than she had expected. ‘Do you have a name? They never told me.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Come here.’

Alice obeyed as quickly and gracefully as her inner burden permitted and knelt at his feet, gazing transfixed into his slightly anthropomorphised leonine visage. She could read the play of subtle expressions into it, but there was still enough of a wild animal there to make her shiver. Even freshly bathed there was an exciting muskiness about him, and she had witnessed ample demonstration of his brute strength in the ring. In addition when he yawned it revealed the glint of huge canines. Leonus was naked, or at least as naked as a furred animal could ever be, and Alice’s eyes flickered down to the thick tangle of long ruddy hair between his thighs and what it only partly concealed. Yes, it was right that she should kneel small and low before such intense male power. No wonder a warm wetness was flowing about her plug of coins and leaving its incriminating mark on the thick rug.

He reached out and pulled the gag from her mouth. Gratefully Alice licked her stretched lips. ‘Thank you, Master,’ she said.

‘So, what’s your name, girling?’

‘Alice Brown, Master.’

He raised a large brow. ‘An “Alice”, eh? I have heard interesting tales of girlings going by that name … most interesting.’ His eyelids drooped for a moment, then he shook himself and took another sip of wine. ‘And what did you think of my fight, Alice?’

Entirely truthfully Alice said, ‘It was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen, Master.’

Leonus chuckled heartily. ‘It was good, wasn’t it? A few times I thought Spike had me. Fine fellow, Spike, and a good sportsman, but I had the beating of him – in the end.’ His head nodded slowly forward.

Fearful he should fall asleep, Alice said, ‘Master, please can you take your prize money out of me?’

‘What? Oh, the purse in your cunny. Uncomfortable, is it? Suppose it must be … where’s that damned key? I put it down here somewhere … ahh. Come closer …’

Alice stood with her legs spread wide before him. Leonus clasped the padlock that hung from her inner labia.

‘A clever little bauble,’ he observed. ‘Perhaps I’ll clip your leash to it in future.’

Alice gulped. ‘Whatever you wish, Master.’

He turned the key and Alice winced as the curved bolt slid out through her tender newly pierced flesh. Her lovemouth bowed wide as her stretched lips drew back and then seemed to vomit forth a shower of coins. Alice shuddered with relief as the golden waterfall poured out, clinking and jangling onto the floor between her feet.

‘Now there’s a rare sight,’ Leonus said admiringly, as the fall became a dribble of slippery golden discs. ‘Is that all of them?’

Alice sighed. ‘I think there are a few more, Master.’

Leonus slipped a large finger into the dark hole of her loosely gaping vagina and hooked the last of his prize money out of its living purse. Alice trembled, literally feeling lighter now she had been emptied out, yet also aware of the void the coins had left within her.

Her lion master sniffed his finger which was wet from her secretions. ‘You’ve a pleasant scent, Alice.’ He reached out and his big hand with its claw-tipped fingers stroked her face, running down to envelop and squeeze her breast. ‘I think I’m going to enjoy having you.’

Alice could see his penis stirring and rising from his pubic mane. His genitals were more manlike than leonine, and were proportionate with the rest of his physique. And in turn she was responding to him. She had been in a state of arousal all day and had not come since her night spent impaled on the pogo-pricker. For a healthy girling that was an age of deprivation.

‘May I go to the bathroom to prepare myself, Master?’ she asked with anxious eagerness. ‘I won’t be long.’

He unfastened her cuffs and patted her bottom to send her on her way.

The bathroom was a grand affair; all marble tiles and polished pipework. Apparently Boardland rewarded its sporting heroes very well. Alice quickly used the toilet, ran a basin of hot water, found soap and a flannel and wiped herself down. She would have liked the luxury of a proper bath, but she did not want to keep her new master waiting. Or herself, for that matter. On the shelf above the basin, amid an array of oils and bath salts provided by the hotel, was a pot labelled ‘Girling Grease’ with a self-explanatory illustration. Alice gratefully applied some to her anus. If Leonus chose to use her that way she would need all the lubrication she could get to accommodate him.