“Ahh, my head! It’s killing me! What the fuck happened?”

Eric tried using his arm to support his weight while attempting to stand up, but it didn’t work.

“What the fuck? Why aren’t…”

Looking at his arms, he realized those were completely immobilized. The same kind of vines he found in the forested clearing were wrapped around his torso tightly, making it impossible for him to move. His legs were still free though, so he tried using those instead.

“Man, I really wish I did some stretching exercises back home. Getting up without using your hands is a real pain in the ass.”

“Speaking of which … how the fuck … why am I tied up in the first place? And why is my head killing me so much?”

“… tied … up …”

“… I couldn’t have tied up myself, couldn’t I?”

Approaching footsteps interrupted his thinking. Turning around, he saw a familiar sight. A naked woman approached him with irritation and annoyance plastered all over her face.

She yelled at him in a language he didn’t understand.

“… oh, fuck …”

His mind managed to remember what happened the last time it was active, just before it got disconnected with the club once again.

-----

Eric woke up to an intense headache once again, but this time he knew he should keep quiet on a subconscious level. He did let out a few groans while making all kinds of painful grimaces, but he managed to keep his voice down long enough to realize that something was terribly wrong.

The vines clinging tightly to his body only accentuated that further.

Mustering all willpower to ignore the pain in his head as much as possible, he started looking around. He quickly realized that he was in yet another clearing, very similar to the one he used as his base, but much bigger. It wasn’t huge, he could see each and every single corner of it, but it was noticeably bigger than his. His eyes were instinctively drawn to a large campfire in one corner. However, after taking a good look at it, he realized that campfire wasn’t the proper word for it. A cooking fire would be much more fitting because a medium-sized cauldron stood on top of it. Its top was painted grey, but its lower part was scorched completely, revealing its long years of service.

And next to it stood his assailant. She paced back and forth, thinking deeply about something while the fingers of her hand were too busy stroking her chin vigorously. She was as naked as before, but this time Eric got to take a better look at her.

She looked like a healthy human female in her early adult years. Her size and stature were identical to human females. Everything from her head below looked exactly like what he was used to, although he never saw such a well-built woman naked and in person. That was something he saw in porn only.

But her head had a few oddities. The most glaring one was the horns on her head. Her horns weren’t that big, maybe about half the length of her head, but even that was strange enough for Eric, who had never seen a horned person in his life. He tried to compare those horns with something he had seen before, like the horns of some animal he knew, but nothing came to mind. The only thing he could compare them to were the so-called devilish horns that are mentioned in human mythology.

Another strange thing was her hair, which looked alien to a human like Eric. Its shape and volume looked passable enough: straight, long hair going all the way to her waist. But it had a bright white color, so white it looked shiny. It wasn’t like the white hair that humans get when they grow old. This one looked pure white, like the feathers of a white dove.

And another very strange thing about her that Eric had missed before was the big, very big scar that went along the entire front half of her neck. Eric couldn’t help but think how such a big scar on a neck shouldn’t be survivable. Looking at it, he realized that she wore a necklace, which was the only garment she had on her body, but the scar was so big it looked like a choker of its own.

At one point, Eric’s assailant stirred the cauldron with a big stick, prompting him to look around it. There, he found what looked like ingredients from plants and animals. Although, it didn’t look familiar to any cuisine he knew. For example, he had never seen an eyeball in a kitchen before.

For a moment, he pondered if he’d also end up in the cauldron, but then he realized he’d already be dead if that was the intention.

Looking around the clearing, he saw it was cluttered with all kinds of things. Nothing seemed particularly useful though, the sight looked more like the result of obsessive hoarding rather than careful planning. A few places here and there clearly had their purpose, like a makeshift bed or a clumsy-looking stool, but nothing looked purposely organized or arranged.

Strangely enough, the last thing he noticed turned out to be the most interesting of all. It was another cauldron, much larger than the one his assailant used for cooking, big enough to fit several people inside. However, while the cauldron was impressive in itself, what hung above it was far more … thought-provoking.

A row of animals stood nailed to the wall, right above the cauldron, with their carcasses hanging upside-down. Most of them were those rat-like creatures he had received as a gift from Lumpy, but there were also a few animals he had never seen before. It was obvious that they were all dead, even though their carcasses looked intact, but he couldn’t take a good look at them from so far away to say if the animals were properly slaughtered or not.

All of that made him wonder what the motives of his captor were: “Her violent tendencies clearly show that she isn’t right in the head. Sure, the first time she struck me could’ve been out of fear. Few young women would feel safe being all alone with a complete stranger in a cave, with no clothes no less. But I was no threat to her the second time. I’m unable to move, my hands are tied, but not only that. I swear I saw some twisted pleasure on her face before she hit me. And these animals nailed to the wall like that? Is she some kind of extreme sadist? I’d like to try and talk to her, but she’ll club me again as soon as I say anything. Maybe I can wiggle my way out of here? But what if some animal finds me in the tunnel, and I’m completely defenseless? Or if she catches me trying to run? She didn’t drag me all the way here just to let me go. She has plans for me, that’s for sure.”

As if on cue, his assailant grabbed her club once again and started walking towards him.

“Oh, come on! That’s just not fair! I didn’t even move this time! Come on, please? I promise I’ll be good.”

-----

The third time, Eric woke up suddenly. The first thing he realized was that he was completely wet for some reason.

“What the …”

SPLASH!!!

“What the fuck!”

He heard a feminine voice saying something in a foreign language. And while he couldn’t understand the words, he understood the commanding tone of it.

Looking up, he saw his horned acquaintance standing right before him, holding an empty bucket. Then, she kneeled, grabbing his jaw firmly with her hand. She started turning his head left and right, examining his face for some reason.

“Look, I’m not an animal, ok! I can be reasoned with.”

Paying no attention to his words, she stood up, walking back towards the smaller cauldron. Putting the bucket on the ground, she picked up a large bowl and poured the cauldron’s contents into it. Eric only now realized that the cauldron was on a larger stand, which made it possible to tilt the cauldron to the side, making it much easier to empty its contents. Then again, it’s not like such details mattered to him in this situation.

She walked back towards him, holding the large bowl with both hands.

“Is that for me? Is that some kind of dinner?”

She tilted her head to the side in a confused manner, finally showing some reaction.

“I mean, thank you very much, but this position makes it impossible for me to eat properly. I know you don’t understand me, just like I have no idea what you’re saying … even though I can say it’s nothing nice … but could you untie these vines at least until I’m done eating? These, right here, see where I’m pointing with my head? These make it impossible for me to eat. And if you’re that scared of me, you can tie me up after I’m done. I promise I won’t resist nor try to attack you. I promise I’ll be a good boy. Pretty please?”

She smiled mischievously in response. Then, she started moving her mouth with her lips closed.

“I … don’t understand that kind of voiceless language either.”

He did understand it once she opened her mouth to pour her saliva into the bowl. She wasn’t spitting in it, she was trying to create a constant stream and pour as much of her saliva into the bowl as possible.

“You gotta be fucking kidding me!”

It took her a while. Once she was finally done, she extended her hands while still holding the bowl towards him, a self-satisfied smile plastered all over her face.”

“No fucking way.”

“Mm-hmm,” she nodded her head slowly with a wide, twisted smile.

“No fucking way.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“That’s just disgusting! There’s no way I’m eating that!”

Unexpectedly, she sat on his lap quickly, straddling him and making it impossible for him to move.”

“There’s no way that’s getting anywhere near my mouth!”

But of course, she didn’t listen. Juggling the bowl in one hand, she grabbed his jaw with the other, trying to open his mouth wide.

“Get off of me, you damn psycho!”

She proved to be much stronger than he expected. Back home, he was used to females being noticeably weaker than his sex, but this female’s hand proved to be so strong he couldn’t even turn his head away. He tried swinging his shoulders, hoping that would somehow knock the bowl out of her hand, but that didn’t work either.

She eventually found a way to open his mouth wide for a moment and used the opportunity to shove a few of her fingers in between his teeth, arranging them vertically to open his mouth as much as possible. He bit down on them hard, but that didn’t bother her in the slightest. Then, she literally rammed the bowl between his lips, trying to pour as much of its contents as possible. Most of it ended outside, soaking his chest and pants, but a decent amount did find purchase in his mouth. Knowing very well he would try to spit it out right away, she dropped the bowl on the ground to free her hand, using it to release the other hand from the grip of his teeth. Then she used both of her hands to shut his mouth tight and lift his head up, forcing him to swallow some of it.

She waited like that for a while, releasing him only when she was absolutely certain that he did swallow the filthy liquid. As soon as she noticed that he had started recovering from the ordeal, she slapped him hard in the face, saying:

“Know your fucking place, trash!”