THE SHADOW-BEAST BREEDS

Naza landed at the bottom of the shaft, hard, knocking the wind from her lungs. She coughed in the dust of the ruin as she reflexively curled into the fetal position, feeling nothing but pain and the desperate need for air. At least the ground here was dirt and sand- had she landed on bare stone, it might have left her shattered, or worse.

As the demi-human recovered, something in the ruin watched from the darkness. The girl was a half-demon, marked by her purplish skin and the pair of stubby horns growing from her forehead. Her body was slender and lithe, with small handfuls of breast and a pleasant, girlish curve to her silhouette.

She worse a pair of leather shorts and a top that barely covered her chest, and shod in knee-high boots, wearing little in order to account for the heat of the jungle ruin. Her hair, a pale pink only a shade off from pure silver, was in a short bob, and her eyes, if she hadn’t had them shut tight against the dust and pain, were a deep crimson. She was an archer, but temporarily disarmed, as her bow had shattered beneath her after she had fallen.

The half-demon finally regained her senses after a few gasping, desperate breaths. She pushed herself up onto her knees, first reaching for her bow, and cursing under her breath when she found it was a wreck. Her arrows, too, were scattered all about her. Reaching to her belt, Naza found she had one blessing- her short sword was still securely belted in place. Drawing a half-foot of steel was enough to make her feel better, and more prepared to deal with this place. She then eased the blade back into it’s sheath.

Looking around, she began to take the measure of her surroundings. She had been exploring the ruins with her party, doing her job as a ranger as best she could, exploring ahead of them all, seeking the best path forward. That was, until a hidden pitfall sent her tumbling into the dark, falling down one of the many natural caves that delved beneath the ruin. Why anyone would erect a temple on such an uncertain foundation, Naza had no idea- the whole place was built on soft stone, and rainwater had bored down through the earth with more persistence than an entire nation of ants.

The girl didn’t hear her companions shouting down after her. She shouldn’t have been completely out of sight, so it must be the sheer length of the fall that kept her from hearing them.

“Hello? Eodore? Taeler? Zandra?” she called up the shaft, but only the echoes answered her.

Cursing again, Naza looked to the cave she was in. It smelled of moist earth, and all around her she could hear the faint dripping of water. Among the gifts she had received from her infernal heritage was the ability to see clearly even in complete darkness, and this gift now let her see the outlines of the cave system, drawn in black and grey. The ground here was holed through like a sponge, and she had no lack of options for carrying on her explorations.

Her first priority was finding some way up, to escape this place, she decided. Once she was back on the surface, it should be relatively easy to locate her party, but she had to tread carefully lest she fall further. None of her footing in this place could be trusted.

Picking up half of her shattered bow, she picked a tunnel at random and started down it, carefully feeling out the way, prodding the ground as she went. Her whole body ached, still, from the fall, but she was forced to grit her teeth and make her way onward.

The tunnels seemed to go on forever, and the echoes of falling water were disorienting. Twice, she found soft spots in the ground, that crumbled away beneath her makeshift walking stick, and had to change direction. Increasingly, she felt hopeless, unsure if she’d ever find a way up.

That was when she noticed the light.

Ahead of her, down a side tunnel, was the unmistakable glow of a cool white light. Not as good, perhaps, as the yellow of sunlight, but more than welcome given her situation. She headed towards the soft glow, carefully testing the ground in front of her, to make sure she didn’t miss what in the dark was an obvious hazard, but the way was safe.

Soon, she emerged into a winding gallery, one wall of which was coated in some kind of crystal that was the source of the light. The crystal hung in great sheets down the walls, as if they were cascades of water from above, frozen solid and given their unearthly glow. The rest of the cavern was a winding cylinder, the ground mostly free of stalagmites except for very near the walls, making a natural pathway.

Naza cautiously began walking down through the gallery, trying not to let the luxury of light and the easy trek put her off her guard. She eyed the crystal suspiciously, and continued to test the floor in front of her. She wouldn’t be the kind of fool that would allow herself to fall victim to some natural hazard just because her current surroundings seemed to be an improvement.

Movement, a shadow, and Naza turned away from the crystal wall, eyeing the gallery suspiciously, her hand on the grip of her sword and her heart hammering in her chest. But there was only her silhouette on the pale stone of the cavern wall. She took a deep breath, and, trembling with adrenaline, took her hand off her weapon.

“Scared by my own shadow,” she said, shaking her head, and internally castigating herself for jumping at beezles and grimples and closet-monsters, like a child.

But something about her shadow puzzled her. She lifted a hand experimentally, and obediently her shadow mirrored her actions, but there was something about the black smudge on the gallery wall that was… odd. Naza puzzled over it, even going as far as tossing a loose stone at the shadow experimentally, but she didn’t understand what seemed to odd and out of place. It was almost as if the shadow was smaller, thicker, and more substantial than it should have been, given the diffuse nature of the light coming from behind her, but she couldn’t figure out why.

Naza turned, and continue down the gallery. She was approaching the halfway point now, and while she couldn’t see well into the next stretch of cave from where she was standing because of all the light, the glow had lifted her spirits. She began to think that the gallery might even have a slight incline upwards, and her heart soared, realizing this could be the beginning of a path up to the surface. All she had to do was travel it.

That was when she felt it- a gush of air, frigid cold, blowing on the back of her neck. Her hair standing on end, Naza whirled around, drawing steel this time, ignoring the protests of her aching body as she settled into a combat stance and-

There was nothing there.

Naza stared around the empty gallery, confused. She could have swore that she had felt something, but if she had it had no source that she could see. She began to relax, once again cursing her overactive imagination, when she noticed it.

A shadow peeled away from the entrance to the gallery, the one she had come from, and started extending into the gallery. It grew it size as it crawled across the wall, revealing the form of some great, multi-limbed beast larger than a horse.

Naza felt the thrill of fear, her pulse quickening, as she prepared for the beast to make an appearance, but it never did. Only it’s shadow advanced on her, clawed legs advancing down the cavern, carrying the bulk of it. It was fully detached from the gloom of the previous caves- there was no way that a physical creature would be able to hide in the broad, well-lit space, but nonetheless only the shadow advanced upon her.

She turn and ran, panic seizing her mind. Without her bow, without her party, there was little she could do to a magical creature with a blade of mere mortal steel. A kitten would have better luck against a wolf, for at least the wolf would be a physical creature that could be cut by a cat’s claw. Flailing at… whatever this shadow creature was would likely be the same as cutting the air, and as pointless.

One step, two, Naza desperately threw herself at the far end of the gallery. With every gasp of air and pounding heartbeat the dark tunnel at the far end of the well-lit corridor came closer. Would it even be an escape? It was easy to imagine that the light was essential to the shadow creature, that it needed something bright to be able to manifest in the first place, but she had no guarantee the darkness would bring safety. Only the frantic hope of a fleeing, frightened girl in an unknown place.

The talons that clamped down on Naza’s arm were hard, sharp and cold as ice. A harsh scream tore itself from her lungs, searing her throat, as the shadow-beast wrenched her body backwards, her legs swept out from under her as the momentum carried the rest of her body forward.

Pain blossomed in her shoulder at the sheer force of the creature’s pull, but the poor adventurer was already too winded from her first scream to do more than moan in protest. Naza’s feet scraped against the ground as she desperate kicked in search of some kind of purchase to stop from being dragged towards whatever awful creature cast that shadow, but it was for naught.

That’s when the cold second talon wrapped around her free arm, and Naza was lifted wholly off the floor, dangling awkwardly from her shoulders. She had shut her eyes tight when the creature yanked her off of her feet, and now she forced them open, straining against her fear to find any opportunity for escape.

Looking around with wide, fearful eyes, she shuddered as she realized the creature, whatever it was, remained invisible. The scratches it had gouged in her arms wept blood, not being held back at all by whatever unknown force was lifting her up in the air. She now dangled what might have been ten feet above the ground, apparently unsupported. But when she looked up at the shadow she cast on the wall, and she saw the beast with all it’s limbs fully extended, she unleashed another pained moan of terror.

It was impossible to determine what each dark shape extending from the bulk of the beast was. Segmented, insectile legs? Muscle and fur like a beast? Scales like a dragon? Whatever it was, it’s bulk was massive, and it manipulated her body as easily as a child with a toy. Another clawed limb extended from the shadowy projection of it’s body, reaching for her, raking down … and she felt briefest cold sharp kiss of a claw on her back, before it caught on her belt. With a flick of the beast’s paw, her belt audibly snapped, and fabric tore, and Naza shivered in fear as she heard her swordbelt and shorts thump onto the cavern floor.

Shivering, cold both from her sudden exposure as well as the beast’s icy grip, Naza then saw something projected onto the wall that made her squirm and squeal in fear. Some long, thick … tentacle? Extended from the beast’s shuddering mass, reaching forward, seeking for her. She tried to shut out her thoughts about what part of the creature’s anatomy that was, tried to kick it away, but her feet connected with nothing but air. Her worst suspicions where confirmed when she felt the claw wrap around her ankle, pulling her legs apart, followed by the cold invasion of her sex.

Naza was no virgin, but the limb that pushed it’s way into her pussy came with a jolt of pain that reminded her of her first encounter. She moaned- the intruder was cold, and while it was tapered and narrow at the top, what she reluctantly thought of it’s “Shaft” was thicker than any man or device the demihuman had ever known. The creature had penetrated her deeply, in one solid push, and she imagined she could feel it’s tapered head strike at the opening to her womb.

And then, to her horror, it started pumping, thrusting into her like a wild, unrestrained lover. She moaned again, trying to fight the perverse physical pleasure she felt from it. In short order, her body betrayed her, as she could feel her pussy moistening to accept her invisible intruder, and soon the cavern was filled with the wet sounds of her violation, the noise echoing lewdly throughout the cavern.

The perverse pleasure of it, of her sex being stretched wide by it’s thickness, greater than any man or toy she had ever known, of her womb being battered by the softly pointed tip of the intruder, of the firm but yielding quality of it, so different from a man’s cock, all of it suffused her mind. She thought she could feel sanity dribbling from her mind like water from a leaky bucket.

Naza moaned out loud, feeling a deep, penetrating shame for being at all aroused by this creature rutting into her. Every time she opened her eyes, her vision was dominated by the silhouettes on the wall, of the massive creature and herself, dangling helplessly before it. She shut her eyes tight again, praying to whatever gods that were listening that she might fall unconscious before the monster finally reached it’s peak.

The gods were not kind. Instead, Naza felt a flush rise in her cheeks, felt her already pounding heart begin to reach a new crescendo.

“No,” she moaned in denial, “No, no, no….”

Squirming helplessly, ignoring how her arms and ankles were bleeding even more freely than before, she tried in vain to fight what was coming. With a sound that was somewhere between a scream of terror and a moan of pleasure, she climaxed, her pussy shuddering and convulsing around it’s intruder, her mind being carried off on the wave of sweet pleasure. Naza hated it, hated herself, for succumbing to this, but that was little more than a vague feeling as her conscious thought faded, and she surrendered to the sensation.

Time and understanding because elusive to poor Naza. A second orgasm came swiftly on the heels of the first, the pleasure tearing it’s way through her body like a lightning bolt, leaving her flexing and struggling helplessly against the creature’s grip. Then, sometime later, a third climax was upon her, but by that time all ability to think and concentrate had fled. The part of her that was Naza fled to the darkest, safest corners of her mind. The poor creature left in her place was reduced to a mere animal, shuddering in pleasure and moaning to the empty cavern.

Finally, it happened. A cold, wet feeling in her depths snapped the adventurer back to reality her eyes widening as she realized was was happening.

“No!” she screamed again, helplessly, as the shadow-beast pumped her womb full of cold, inhuman seed, filling her body until Naza could feel it oozing from her pussy, cascading down her thighs.

She could only imagine how it was corrupting her, forcing her demihuman body to bear it’s blasphemous spawn. To her shame, the thought of being so thoroughly, unspeakably violated by this creature triggered yet another climax, her body submitting to the beast in a way that her mind would not.

When the wretched orgasm subsided, Naza groaned as she felt the creature’s member slide out of her thoroughly abused pussy, letting another cascade of cold, inhuman cum splatter onto the cavern floor below. The creature lowered her to the ground with surprising gentleness, and when Naza collapsed to her knees in a puddle of the creature’s seed, she was not suprised to find it was dark as molasses and just as thick, cold and reeking of the creature’s musk. Naza barely had time to register it before finally, blessedly, the gift of unconsciousness came over her, and she passed out.

That was how Naza’s party found her, bleeding unconscious on the cavern floor. At some point, the creature’s ichor had vanished, sublimating away as Naza slept, leaving only a fine black dust. She could not bring herself to recount the experience to her allies, with no evidence to show for it. Naza could scarcely believe it happened at all, with only the wounds on her limbs and her tattered clothing to show for it.

That, and the squirming she felt in her depths, as the shadow-beast’s spawn writhed within her womb.