The Binding and the Bond - Part 1

Part 1

Debby fiddled with the stem of her wine glass as Pax smiled at her. They sat on her beat-up couch, in her downtown apartment. The stubble on his chin caught the moon light as it filtered in through the window blinds. His eyes were dark, like coals waiting for the fire.

"I had a good time tonight," he said in his deep reverberant voice, like stone against stone.

"So," said Debby, mouth dry, "so did I."

He set his empty wine glass on the coffee table with a ringing chime. Debby started, heart beating fast. Her eyes flicked about the room, as if searching for a way out. There was no way out.

He leaned forward, the weight of his presence pressing against her. His breath was hot and spiced. His eyes caught and held her.

The world froze. In that timeless moment, he reached forward and plucked the glass from her trembling hand. The lingering remains of the fizzy white swished and bubbled. Her fingers tingled where the stem no longer was.

He kissed her, commanding lips pushing into hers. She yielded back, surrendering. The plundering kiss took all she could give and then took more. Sickly excitement boiled in her stomach. Her flesh burned. She wanted his touch. She wanted to push him away.

His hands found hers and their fingers laced. He bore down, the full weight of his powerful body against her. She felt the throbbing hardness of his penis against her stomach. He wanted her. He needed her. He would take her. He would-

Red.

She screamed and shoved him away but they were tangled tight. Together they crashed from the sofa and slammed against the ground. Debby hit the floor back first and cracked her head against the hardwood boards. Pax fared better, coming down on his side.

For a long moment Debby lay paralyzed, emotional and physical pain somehow balancing out to leave her num. Then she caught Pax's eyes, so full of concern, and the former swept to dominance. She started to cry, hard racking sobs which shook her body.

Pax leapt to action. He untangled their bodies and guided Debby back to the sofa. There he held her tight, powerful arms trying to comfort her.

"Shu," he said, "it's alright. Here, let me see. You're not hurt are you?"

Debby shook her head, the motion rapid and violent as tears stung her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said. "I just couldn't. Couldn't."

Pax didn't miss a beat. "We don't have to do anything you don't want to," he said and placed his large hard hands over hers.

"But I do want to!" said Debby and collapsed into a renewed weeping fit. "I do. I do. The Goddess says we should relish the pleasure of our bodies and the bodies of others. I want to share. I want to be good. But I can't. I just panic!"

Pax kept his firm grip on Debby's hands until her tears dried up. She sent him a smile and pulled her hands free.

"You should go," she said.

"I don't have too," he said. "I can stay. We can talk."

Debby shook her head, eyes puffy and red. "No. Please. I can't face this now."

He smiled, patted the back of her hands and stood. Tall, dark and handsome, he towered high and Debby felt the same queasy mix of red panic and excitement stir within her. It made her want to cry all over again.

He left through the door. It sounded like a closing portcullis as it shut behind him.

---

Debby spent the remainder of the evening huddled on her couch, guzzling ice-cream and watching a Best Of The Bachelor marathon. Currently on was episode seven of season four. The seven remaining contestants were dashing about a muddy field, trying to throw silver bridles over a proud male unicorn. The winner would get a one-on-one carriage ride date with the devilishly hansom Aaron Firestone, so they were trying hard. Unfortunately the unicorn was having none of it. Whenever a contestant came close, he would dash or prance away.

As she watched, ex-model Bitterwind and girl-next-door Jessica joined forces to force the unicorn back into a corner of the corral. It lowered and flashed its long horn. At the last moment Bitterwind kicked the back of Jessica's knee and sent her sprawling to the ground, where stirred up earth ruined her cowgirl costume and covered her face with sticky mud. Bitterwind then leapt forward, bridle ready to slip home.

Debby missed the conclusion when the door of the apartment opened and her flatmate, Ryn, arrived home.

She took one look at Debby and knew at once what had happened.

"Oh Debby," she said. "Come here." She let go her Green Leaf original handbag, kicked off her black high heels and dropped onto the sofa next to her friend. She pulled Debby tight into her shoulder and Debby started sobbing anew.

"I thought I could do it this time," she said.

"I know, I know," said Ryn.

"I thought if I really wanted it. I thought if it was him."

"Shush," said Ryn. "You don't need to do anything."

There were those words again.

Debby shook off her friend's grip and pulled back, kindling anger burning away some of the sorrow. "That's easy for you to say. You don't have a problem accepting the Goddess's gift." She stabbed a finger at Ryn's exposed wrist, where sat two knotted rings of achievement tattoos.

Each link was unique and each represented a festival held in the Goddess's honour. Debby had tried to attend such events, of course she had, but the sex there was as impossible as sex anywhere else.

"The Goddess calls us all in our own ways," said Ryn.

"But I don't want to be called in this way. I want to be called like everyone else!" She shouted the last word and it left her throat hollow.

Ryn leaned forward and stroked a stray lock of hair out of Debby's face. It had fallen loose in her anger. Debby sniffed and flicked her button nose.

"If you feel that strongly, there are ways," she Ryn. "You've heard of the Binding?"

Debby's heart made a sudden panicked beat. Everyone had heard of the Binding, but it was the stuff of romantic TV and romance novels. The unenlightened virginal princess from the barbarian hinterlands who finds herself in the realm of civilisation and her dark, dangerous lover who breaks her false morality.

She licked her lips, tasting salt. "That happens?" she said. "Really happens?"

Ryn nodded. "Not often but, yes. I saw it once." She pulled her sleeve back from her wrist and pointed at a link – a complex knot reminiscent of braided plants. "This was the third commemorative garden festival, in New Tree. She was there with her bond holder, naked on her knees, sucking off anyone who approached her." Ryn smiled and rolled her hips. "The look on her face – the mix of lust and hopelessness. Man after man. Woman after woman. They came to her and she took each in turn."

"I," said Debby but her voice failed her.

"Is that what you want?" said Ryn and leaned forward, a raven glaring down at a strange fluffy creature.

Debby couldn't say a word. Ryn captured her chin with a manicured finger and turned her face so their eyes met. "Do you want this. Really?"

"Yes," Debby breathed.

Ryn's eyes blazed.

---

Debby slept fitfully that night – her mind full of red dreams. She saw the Binding and what it would mean. Could she accept such a thing? Of course she couldn't. Of course she could.

Morning light banished the fleeting erotic phantasms but not the result. Her sex blazed with barely restrained need. She reached down, hands gliding across her soft skin. Her fingers slipped under her panties and to her hot, wet folds. It felt like touching a live wire.

"Goddess," she whispered and bucked her hips. She toyed with her folds, fingers dancing in a pattern refined by years of practice. The ministrations created a buzzing pressure in her soul. With a slick thumb she brushed her clit. A bolt of frozen lightning shot through her, so intense it hurt. The pressure ruptured and maelstrom of sensation boiled through her.

It was pain. It was pleasure. It was both together and neither apart. Tears stung her eyes even as she wanted to touched herself again, to prolong or renew what she had just felt. She didn't, though. She just rode the monsters, the frightful red beast.

After long seconds she collapsed back onto her bed, boneless against the matrass and soft pillows.

She raised her hands. The morning light glittered golden off her womanly juices. Heart racing with forbidden thrill, she sucked on her index finger. It tasted tart and taboo.

---

They left the apartment and took the lift down to the ground floor. The metal box rumbled and Debby fidgeted next to Ryn. Ryn appeared completely unfazed, a raven queen surveying her kingdom.

The doorman nodded to them as they walked out the apartment block's main doors.

"Morning, Ladies," he said and tipped his tricorn cap.

"Morning, Frank," said Ryn. Debby didn't reply, her mind too focused on other things.

The street was busy with people – men in suits and women in dresses hurrying in all directions. Yellow taxi cabs filled the road, a constant stream of pickups, putdowns and travel.

The Goddess's Temple was located in the old city heart, a few miles away from the current city centre and Debby's apartment. Debby and Ryn walked the short distance to the monorail station. Debby's hands shook as she tried to find the coins but Ryn brushed her aside and paid.

The sleek modern train whooshed as it ran between towering modern sky scrapers of glass and older wizard towers of stone. Both flashed passed the window, gone as soon as they came.

"Now approaching the Goddess's Grove," said the artificial voice of the announcer. Debby's heart started to race. The train slowed and came to a complete halt. She stumbled and half fell against the man in front of her. He sent her an annoyed look and she muttered an apology though even only a moment later she couldn't have said precisely what words she had used.

The Goddess's Grove held the Goddess's temple. All cities had one, as did most towns. They were oases of green in the glass, steel and stone of a modern city.

Debby and Ryn exited the train and climbed down the carved stone station steps to the grove proper. Both wore sensible flats but Debby took the steps slowly, as if walking on the highest of formal heels. Stone lions guarded the exit and Debby touched the nose of the one closeted to her. The stone was cold and warn smooth by thousands of commuters doing the exact same thing.

The outskirts of the Grove were managed as a city park – landscaped green grass, sculpted trees, towering hyper-ferns, benches for picnics and the like. Two teenage girls played Frisbee in a large open space. An elderly couple walked their equally ancient emerald fire drake, the bright green of its scales now dull brown in places. Under the leafy bows of a tree, a university student bobbed up and down on her boyfriend's cock, the stiff organ disappearing into her mouth ever few seconds.

The core was different. The trees grew older, darker, denser and wilder. A bird screamed from the forbidding depths.

Ryn took Debby's hand and squeezed. "Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked, Debby's flatmate and friend through and though. "Really sure?"

Did Debby? Of course she did. Of course she didn't. She walked forward.

The winding path led through the core. The trees cast long shadows and the thick canopy kept back even the bright light of midday.

The Temple stood at the heart of the wild green place. It was built into an old earthy hill and the entrance way was made from great grey slaps of stone, propped so they leant against each other and created a rude but almost otherworldly passage. Moss clung to the slaps on the windward side and thorn covered creepers hugged to it all over.

Two monstrous statues guarded the Temple – Gog and Magog, the husband-sons of the Goddess. Curved oversized cocks erupted from their crotches, topped with bulbous stone heads. The members seemed too big for any woman but the Goddess's Priestesses were no ordinary women. Naked Priestesses slowly lowered themselves down onto each cock, up and down, up and down, their cunts accepting the gifts even as their faces showed mixtures of pleasure and pain. Sweat glistened on their toned bodies and ran down large perfectly formed breasts.

"Oh Goddess!" cried Gog's rider, her body shaking and twitching as an orgasm swept through her.

"Think that will be you?" whispered Ryn into Debby's ear and giggled. Debby shivered.

The High Priestess met them at the threshold of the temple. She was a regal woman of middle age but refined beauty. Hair the colour of beaten copper fell down her back in a wave and her skin was smooth like cream silk, save around her eyes. She wore a strange garment made from a single length of green cloth, wrapped around her body such that her nude sex and left breast were bare.

"Greeting, Sisters," she said. "How can the Goddess help you?"

"I," said Debby and stalled. The red dreams of the night welled up, as terrifying as sex ever had been. Her heart hammered. Pax stood over her like a giant of old, his penis out and so very, very hard. Thick veins lined its length. A drop of clear liquid hung from the tip. He-

Rye stepped up behind Debby and placed her hands on her friend's shoulders. The touch sunk like anaesthetic into Debby's flesh and she took a gasping breath. "The Binding," she said, fast, before she could think better of it. "I want the Binding so I can better serve the Goddess."

"It is a large thing to ask, Sister," said the High Priestess in a low tranquil voice. "We must all serve the Goddess in our own ways."

"But you can do it?" said Debby.

"The Binding is performed." The High Priestess nodded slowly. "But only if we truly believe it will help."

"Please." The longing was clear in her voice. "I want this. I need this. I just want to be like everyone else, to be happy and serve the Goddess."

The High Priestess stood still and silent for several long seconds. At last she nodded. "We will consider you for the Binding. Come into the temple. We will ensure you understand what you ask and the consequences to you. You must come alone."

Debby followed the High Priestess into the dark temple. At the last moment she looked over her shoulder a Ryn. Ryn smiled and motioned her forward. Debby went inside.

---

The Temple was warm inside and smelt of thick oils, sweat and herds. Sexual moans and rhythmic beats echoed from deep corridors. Light came from flickering braziers.

"You will be tested in the inner sanctum," said the High Priestess, "before the sight of the Goddess herself."

"Test?" said Debby and bit her lip. She hadn't prepared or revised. She didn't even know what the test would cover.

"Fear not," said the High Priestess. "This is not a test of knowledge but of heart."

They walked deeper into the Temple, the walls dark and tight like a stone womb. Finally they came to a wide open place. A giant statue of the Goddess dominated, carved by skilled masons from white stone. She stood naked and regal, her great breasts bared, her pregnant stomach on display, the lips of her sex carved in perfect detail. Even in stone, her eyes showed the great compassion for which she was famed.

Before the statue sat an altar and from above that descended a shaft of light. It caught every spinning dust mote, making the very air seem alive.

"Stand before the Goddess, Sister," said the High Priestess.

Debby swallowed but walked forward, her knees unsteady and legs weak. This was a high holy site, a place where the Goddess's grace touched the world. She hadn't been somewhere as hallowed since her school days.

She reached the altar, stood in the light and looked up at the Goddess's face. Despite the covering of stone, she knew the Goddess looked back at her.

"What do you seek?" said the High Priestess from behind Debby. Her bare feet padded against the earthy floor.

"The Binding," said Debby. It was hard but she kept her attention on the Goddess; She was the judge here, as in all things.

"And you understand what you seek?"

That question was worse. Far, far worse. Her mouth was dry but she forced herself to answer. "Yes," she said. The Goddess gazed down, face petrified in judgment.

"What do you seek?" The words echoed around the room, no longer just from the High Priestess but from everywhere.

"You will take and own me," said Debby in a whisper. "You will command me until I learn to serve the Goddess better."

"And do you surrender to this fate, fully, voluntarily and with knowledge of what your sacrifice will entail?" The words came from the Goddess. Her lips didn't move, her stone skin didn't fall away but she spoke all the same.

Debby heard a second sentence too, one heard with her soul rather than her ears. 'Do you commit yourself to better serving Me?'

"Yes," she said and the word left her lips like a falling red weight.

'Then let it be so, Daughter.'

The High Priestess slipped a strange collar of braided leather thongs around Debby's neck and clicked the lock shut. It felt tight, a constant reminder of terrifying things.

"It is done, Sister. Turn and kneel."

The collar chilled and Debby found herself turning. She hadn't meant to. The words hadn't even fully registered. But she did so all the same. She completed her rotation and dropped to her knees, jeans tight against her legs. From the ground she looked up into the now stern face of the High Priestess.

"I am your Bond holder," she said. "While I hold your Bond, the Binding and your collar will force you to obey me. When I give it to others, you shall obey them too."

Debby's heart beat hard and her chest tightened. The High Priestess could order her to do anything, even have sex right there on the temple floor and she'd have no choice. The red wouldn't stop her. A cock could plunge straight into her cunt and she'd finally be free. Free or destroyed.

The High Priestess didn't give the command, however. Instead she continued speaking. "I shall undertake the spiritual aspects of your training, but I am not best set to teach the physical. To that I will give you to another. Bice, come meet your charge."

A man stepped into Debby's line of vision. He was tall and wide shouldered. His broad chest was bare and shaved, showing only powerful muscles, oiled bronze skin and twisting red tattoos, so dark they were almost black. His only clothes were leather trousers, which clung to his legs and hinted at his crotch. Would this be the man to finally take her?

The High Priestess touched Bice's shoulder and Debby felt her collar stir.

"I have given him your Bond," said the high priestess. "Tonight he will instruct you. Tomorrow we will speak again, after I have communed with the Goddess on your path."

The High Priestess retreated and Bice advanced. His looked down at her with dark amber eyes, somehow at once judging and indifferent.

Debby shifted how she knelt, raising her chest and straightening her back. Blood pounded in her veins. Was this it?

"Strip," said Brice, the word oddly high and melodious for such a large imposing man.

The collar grew cold. Debby stripped. She didn't even need to think.

Off went the wool sweater and her pink t-shirt. She slipped off her flats, socks and then struggled out of her tight jeans. The clothes went in an untidy pile beside her, for all that they represented a small fortune. That left her in her underwear, just bra and panties. Fingers buzzing as if filled with static electricity, she reached back and unclipped her bra. The cups fell away, revealing her breasts to the warm air.

Bice barely glanced. He just met her eyes with his cold amber gaze and Debby blushed anew. She knew her breasts weren't as shapely as a glamor models or TV-stars but they were large and firm. Men often seemed interested, even if she always spoiled everything before the main event.

Feeling almost sick, she tucked her thumbs into the waistband of her panties and drew them down. The cotton swished as it moved down her thin, shaved legs and she set them aside. Completely naked, she looked to Bice for approval.

"Present yourself," he said. "Kneel upright. Hands joined behind your head."

Part of Debby wanted to object, but she had no choice. Her tongue froze in her mouth and she moved on her own.

She knelt as Bice instructed, straight and formal, chest bared and vulnerable for all to see. Bice reached forward and ran the back of his hand across her left breast. The skin tingled and puckered, as if chilled by a sudden wind.

"This is called attention position. Remember this."

Debby nodded.

"You will follow," he said and turned. "Crawl."

Crawl? Like a dog? Debby blushed, blood rushing to her cheeks, ears and neck.

Bice walked away, ass tight in his leather trousers, and Debby had no choice but to follow. Collar cold around her neck, she scampered after on knees and hands. The earthy floor was hard but not enough to graze her skin.

Bice led her through the crude stone corridor of the temple. Occasionally she'd catch site of a priest or priestess and their eyes would run along her naked body. Her nipples tightened each time and she shivered as a raven haired temptress stared at her like a hunting bird looking at a particularly small and fuzzy prey animal.

Finally he walked into a small room. Debby followed.

There was no door in the wall, just a frame made from three stones propped against each other. A fire burnt in a pit at the centre of the room, like the Winter Bonfires used to keep the Goddess warm during her annual slumber. Thick black smoke gathered at the ceiling, where it slowly exited through a small hole. A small swatch of blue sky glimmered there.

"We will practice positions," said Bice. "I will explain each, name it and you shall perform it when instructed."

And practice they did. Bice instructed Debby in Bow, which left her chest pressed against the ground, her ass in the air; Spread, which had her sit with her legs stretched wide, her sex pulled open so any invading eye could see her most intimate fold; Standing, which had her standing as tall and straight as she could; and many others. He made her practice each in turn, and then in combinations.

As the light disappeared from the small smoke hole, he moved onto different pursuits. He produced a leash, like what one might use to lead a dog or a shadow cat, and clipped it to her collar. Her face burned anew at what it represented.

"Follow," he said. "Crawl."

Debby followed Bice on her lead around and around the bonfire in a tight circle. The heat from the fire scolded the right-hand side of her body while the night cold of the walls chilled the left. The walls must have been near the edge of the mound for they had grown cold quickly as the sun vanished. She kept going, on and on, knee after knee, hand after hand. The ground tore at her knees and they were soon scuffed and red. Her hands, unused to much more than clerical work, grew sore and stiff. Grime gathered on her normally clean and smooth skin – sweat, mud and smoke from the fire.

Bice seemed immune to her ills. He walked forward, step after step, ignoring the fact that he led a naked woman by a leash. The smoke added the to the oily bronze of his skin, but while it made her looked scraggy and ill-kempt, it made him look like a hero of old.

Finally he stopped and turned. The light of the fire made his tattoos dance. "Attention position."

Debby blanked for a moment but the collar chilled and her body knew what to do even if her mind did not. She drew herself up on her knees, back straight, breasts out and hands behind her head. Exhausted, she swayed as she tried to hold the pose, and her grubby breasts wobbled.

"You may rest here tonight," he said and pointed to the back of the room. "Someone will be with you in the morning."

"Yes sir," said Debby, her throat hoarse.

He unclipped the leash from her collar and turned to leave.

"Sir?" said Debby, heart thumping.

He paused but didn't turn.

"Sir," she said again. "When? I mean when will we, you know?"

He still didn't turn but he did speak. "When I think you are ready." With those words he left the small, doorless room. Debby huddled next to the fire and got what sleep she could.

Continued in Part 2

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