Through it, he was bound to find a way out.
He paused cautiously in the doorway, peering into the darkness beyond.Fists balled up, muscles tensed, jaw set, he prepared himself to confront whoever—orwhatever—might be lurking, waiting for him.
But there was no one.
The room was quiet and empty, and as Clove’s eyes adjusted to the dim light, he saw it was so vastly different from the bedroom that it felt as though he’d been transported to another place entirely.
Unlike in the bedroom, it boasted no source of natural light.The windowless walls were cave-like and irregular, and while the floor was smooth enough by the entryway, it quickly gave way to striations and other dimensional irregularities, including outcrops of rock that jutted straight out of the ground and formed a ring around the middle of the room.The effect was disorienting.
Clove had been sure that he was on an upper floor, perhaps even at the top of a tower, but this place seemed like it came from the earth itself.
Curious, he unclenched his fists and approached the circle of rock, climbing each exposed striation like the steps of a staircase.At the top, he was able to see over the rock outcrop into the hidden center of the room.
The rocks were hiding a natural pool.
The water was dark and in a perpetual state of gentle movement, its crests and ripples sparkling from the small amount of light that streamed in from the next room.Clove climbed atop the nearest rock and dipped his fingers beneath the surface.
The water was warm, maybe heated by a volcanic vent or some other natural feature, a gentle, alluring steam rising from its surface.Across the pool, upon a natural stone shelf, sat several bars and bottles of soap, and next to them, scrubbing stones.
For a street urchin who had always had to settle for an icy stream or suspicious bucket of water to bathe, the setup was too tempting to resist.
Still, he eyed the dark corners of the room as he advanced, suspicious.Anticipating someone there, watching him… but there was no one.Reassured for the time being, he shed his robe and slipped into the pool.
He nearly moaned at the welcome warmth of it.
The cleansing effect was immediate—not for his body, but for his muscles, his bones, and his brain.The night’s disturbing, baffling memories washed away as he submerged himself, leaving him feeling ‘clean’ even before he had the chance to scrub.
He swam to the shelf of soaps and washing-stones, taking his time in making a selection.He had not had the luxury of truly, properly bathinghimselfin years, and the choice mattered.When he finally had a fine, coarse purple stone in hand and a jarful of peachy-smelling soap-stuff to dip it into, he found another shelf to sit upon, this one half-descended in the water.
It was only when he began to bathe, to touch his naked body, that a violent shock came upon him.
Clove froze in the middle of washing.
His hand hesitated under the water, inches from his cock, hovering above it.
Slowly he brought his hand down and touched himself very lightly.
He dropped the washing-stone.
It drifted to the bottom of the pool, falling into the shadows, and Clove forgot it, forgot the soap-stuff and his desire to wash away memories of thatbeast’sviolation.
Horror grabbed him.
There had been no sigil visible on his belly, no sensation of ass gaped into a pit, no evidence that his dream had been anything but that?—
Until now.
His cock was gone.
Well, not gone—it waschanged.
Everythingwas changed.
ChapterSix
What had been a normal man’s cock had shrunken in size and retreated, meekly, into an alien little chamber, like an eel lurking in a cave of flesh.When he rested his hand upon the ‘chamber,’ he could feel the small lump of his cock underneath.The resultant mound was not like that of a woman, but it was nothing like the proud, bare cock of aman!
Clove’s chief emotion was rage.
