Alice In Chains (21 page)

In a frantic last minute flurry, which involved several girlings’ bottoms being tanned to encourage them to work faster, the preparations were completed in time. As the tired workers, who would also perform in the great event, snatched a few hours’ sleep, Alice was bathed and groomed for her role. Seeing herself in a mirror for the first time in weeks she had to admit she looked striking.

Golden feathers had entirely replaced her hair now, even down to her eyebrows. A crest swept back from her forehead in a smooth graduation from the smallest and finest to the largest and thickest, which hung down over her shoulders. Her pubic feathers had also thickened into a fluffy delta, and a line of them was growing up towards her navel. In addition a small triangle of feathers had appeared on her sternum just above the divide of her cleavage. Slowly but surely, superficially at least, her bird transformation was re-establishing itself.

It was not uncomfortable, but it did not feel right to her, even in Underland where it was merely a curiosity.
She
had feathers while she flew as a bird, which had seemed perfectly natural to her adjusted instincts, and it was almost trivial in comparison to what Ruddle had done, but she was a girl now and wanted to stay that way. However, for the time being she would have to accept her hybrid form. And it was true that it had tempered Topper and Lepus’s revenge, which she supposed was something to be grateful for.

As the morning of the great fight dawned, Alice was locked into a new collar, ball gag and cuffs all made of gold, or at least some golden-seeming metal. Then she was loaded into a cart and taken off to the Central Hall.

Though she had been there for three days, it was her first chance to see Brillig properly. As the cart trundled along wide streets flanked by three- and four-storey buildings with tall roofs, some half-timbered and others of brick, she realised it was more like a small city and by far the largest settlement she had yet seen in Underland. There was a sense of energy about the place and it bustled with life. No wonder Topper and Lepus had come here. Where there were people there was money to be made.

The Central Hall was a grand affair with a fine portico entrance guarded by tall columns. There were people already queuing to get in, but the cart went round the back and Alice was led in through a rear door. Inside the main hall was bustling, and Alice could see how all the signs, banners, screens and display podia made in the workshop had been put to use. Mingling with the crowd were girlings from the workshop now prettily chained and handing out leaflets, or else decoratively on display mounted on the walls between the hanging banners.

Topper and Lepus, both now wearing top hats and dressed in smart suits, took turns leading Alice round to greet people and show her off. As many eyes looked her
over
with varying degrees of approval and desire she felt her nipples pricking up in excitement and helpless anticipation, though of what she had no idea.

‘Yes, she is unusual, isn’t she?’ her masters said in response to several enquiries. ‘But then originality is the hallmark of all Popert and Pelus promotions. I do hope you enjoy yourself …’

There were many stalls ranged about the sides of the hall, whose products all in some way related to girlings.

Alice was led past an apothecary selling what he called ‘Girling love philtres’, which he demonstrated on his captive girls. Within a minute of being made to swallow the drug, one girling was squirming with lust, which she only relieved by masturbating herself frantically on a large floor-mounted dildo, much to the onlookers’ amusement. A second girl, strapped spreadeagled to a frame and unable to touch herself, got so aroused and frustrated that she began pleading with the crowd to put her out of her misery. All it took was a few strokes from her master for her to orgasm, producing a remarkable quantity of lubrication, which almost sprayed out of her.

The love philtres reminded Alice of the special cakes Topper and Lepus had used on their girls, except these seemed much more potent. She examined the stall hopefully for any sign that the apothecary dabbled in metamorphic potions, but saw none. If any existed this would be the place to find them. It looked as though the Red Queen’s offer was still the best she had, but how was she to rendezvous with her or Sir Rubin now?

There was a harness shop stall, exhibiting numerous ingenious means of restraining and controlling girlings. Half a dozen female bodies stood, lay or hung within tight webs of leather, chain and rope. Next to it was a furniture maker of corrective devices such as stocks and racks. An unfortunate girling was strapped to a chair supposedly designed to ‘stretch her orifices for deeper
penetration’
. The seat was cut away under her crotch, and through this gap large wooden screw plugs could be inserted. Her gag-muffled cries were already quite loud and the plugs were not yet halfway in. A whip maker had racks of different implements designed to inflict various degrees of pain close to or from a distance. A girling had been strung out on a frame for demonstration purposes. A liberal number of blushing stripes and blotches already patterned her body and her eyes were moist with tears. What would she be like by the end of the day, Alice wondered? Then came an agricultural equipment manufacturer selling girling ploughs, yokes and other devices. There was a carriage maker displaying a beautiful team of six girlings in full harness with plumes on the headbands. A pet shop was selling girling-sized baskets and bowls. For a consideration an artist could paint a portrait of your favourite pet. Training courses were available to teach discipline and unusual tricks. The more wealthy owners could purchase girling body jewellery from a specialist supplier. A very beautiful olive-skinned girl with the most soulful eyes Alice had seen was on display within a slowly rotating cage. She had been pierced through her ears, nose, lips, nipples, navel and labia with jewelled rings, which then supported hanging baubles or fine chains linking them together. Some owners were having pets they had brought with them fitted on the spot, and their brief shrieks and whimpers of pain rose above the background hubbub.

After a while Alice noticed the smell of warm flesh and female arousal seemed to permeate the hall. How could all this be for girlings, supposedly the lowest creatures in Underland? Was it an inversion of values according to the crazy logic of the place, or was there actually a rational explanation? Perhaps humans here were inhibited from keeping non-sentient animals as pets while rubbing shoulders with their larger talking
and
thinking cousins, so girlings were a logical substitute. And sentient animals kept girlings because, as she had discovered during her first adventure, for some mysterious reason there were no female animals so naturally the males wanted some release for their sexual urges. But underlying all that, there was always the desire to control and dominate others, common to a greater or lesser degree in most beings. Girlings, specially selected for their submissiveness, were admirably suited to fill such positions.

The centre of the hall was given over to something resembling a large stepped trading pit, on the floor of which a raised platform very much like a conventional boxing ring had been erected. In the middle of the ring was a large colourfully painted wooden disc, mounted on a frame that was in turn suspended by chains from one of the heavy ceiling beams. The face of the disc had straps and buckles bolted to it laid out in a large ‘X’.

Although it was still some hours until the fight, the lion and unicorn were already in the ring to promote the bout. They were limbering up, shadow boxing, talking to admirers and even signing autographs. Half expecting something close to the illustrations in the book, Alice found them instead very impressive. They were both big, powerful animals, as large as the local adult humans. Both walked on their hind legs, of course, and had human-shaped hands. They wore loose silk gowns and boxing shorts, the lion in red and the unicorn in blue, which might have made them seem ridiculous but somehow did not. In fact they looked like serious fighters. Nobody would dare drum them out of town, as in the rhyme.

Topper and Lepus led Alice up a flight of wooden steps and into the ring. The lion and unicorn broke off from their glad-handing to take up positions on either side of the promoters. Somebody rang a bell until silence descended on the hall and all eyes turned to Topper.

Raising his hat, Topper bowed to the assembly. ‘Ladies and gentlemen, Popert and Pelus Promotions welcomes you to the Fight of the Century!’

There was an enthusiastic cheer. Topper continued, his powerful voice filling the hall. ‘May I present to you, the champion of West Boardland, Panthera “Leo” Leonus!’

The lion stepped forward and raised his huge arms above his head to tumultuous applause.

‘And the champion of East Boardland, Equus “Spike” Monoclonius!’

The unicorn received his accolade in turn.

‘Remember,’ Topper said as the noise died down, ‘the fight is due to start at five o’clock, ticket holders only. Novelty events begin one hour earlier. But in the meantime we thought we would show you, and our contestants, the prize purse.’ He drew out a heavy leather pouch from his pocket and shook it so that everybody could hear it clink. ‘One hundred sovereigns!’ he boomed. ‘And in addition, the winner will receive this rare golden birdgirling slave!’ He pulled on Alice’s leash, jerking her forward so everybody could see her. ‘But where should we put the money and the girling for safekeeping?’ he asked rhetorically. ‘Gold with gold, perhaps?’

As he spoke, helpers freed Alice’s hands only to push her back against the wooden disc and strap her to it, arms and legs spread wide, with thicker bands going round her neck, waist and knees, so she was firmly secured. With a smile Topper turned to her.

‘Will you hold this for us, girl?’ he asked, but of course Alice could only grunt helplessly from behind her gag.

‘Oh dear,’ he said, winking at the audience, ‘she doesn’t seem to have any pockets. Perhaps if we look at the problem from another angle …’

Grasping the wheel, he gave it a heave, sending it spinning round and round. Alice groaned as the world
tumbled
dizzily about her. Suddenly the wheel stopped with Alice hanging upside-down, her breasts bouncing and swaying to rest almost brushing her chin. Topper poked an exploratory finger between Alice’s widespread legs.

‘Ah, now here’s a little pink purse we can use, hiding amongst these feathers. But I think its mouth is a little narrow. Mr Pelus, if you please …’

Lepus had a large glass funnel ready. As Topper pried Alice’s vagina open, he thrust the spout into her, a ring on its upper rim hanging over a small hook screwed into the disc between her thighs to hold it in place. Alice shivered as her inner sheath was exposed to the open air. No, surely they weren’t going to …

But Topper was already tipping the golden shower of coins into the funnel, through which the watching crowd could see them pouring into Alice’s gaping passage, now serving yet another function it had never been intended for. As the onlookers loudly applauded, Alice gasped and bit on her gag as the rich cold metal filled her, its weight making her passage bulge unnaturally and press on her inner organs. There was no room for the last few coins inside her, which clogged the funnel spout. But apparently they had anticipated this problem and Lepus handed Topper a small ramrod, the clothball end of which he pushed down into the funnel, forcing Alice’s sheath to stretch wider so as to accommodate the remaining coins. Alice shrieked and slobbered round her gag, tears pricking her eyes as the mass of tight-packed coins expanded within her under Topper’s ramming.

At last all one hundred coins had been forced inside their hot wet living pouch and the funnel was withdrawn, now filmed with her juices. Her pudendum was swollen with riches and the wet pink cleft between her feathers literally brimmed with gold.

‘Now our little cuntpurse is full we must make sure it doesn’t spill open,’ Topper said, pinching together her
elastic
inner labia to seal in the treasure. In his other hand he held up a solid-looking padlock. ‘Our thanks to Messrs Corvus and Pica for kindly donating this patent self-piercing fleshlock.’

Alice’s eyes widened in horror.

There came the snap of a released spring and Alice felt a hot–cold stabbing sensation as the sharply pointed tip of the curving bolt passed through her tender sex lips and clicked home. Her wail of pain was stifled by her gag as a few drops of blood welled up from between her stapled flesh leaves.

They spun the disc, turning Alice right way up again, bringing forth a renewed mew of pain as the weight of coins within her stretched her cruelly sealed lovemouth. Topper was holding up a small key. ‘The winner shall receive this key, to unlock all that is within and without!’ he announced.

Chains rattled and the disc was hauled up into the air until Alice dangled high over the ring, her pain and humiliation displayed for all to see. And there she would remain until the winner of the great fight claimed her as his own.

Nine

THE DISC HUNG
tipped forward slightly, so Alice could gaze down on the people in the hall as she rotated slowly in the air. In turn of course they could stare up at her and her bulging pubes and the dangling padlock that locked her up tight as a chastity belt would. Look, up in the sky – a bird stuffed with gold!

As always, pain and humiliation was now giving way to excitement. The weight of the coins was pressing on her clitoris from the inside, and she hoped her pubic feathers concealed its erection. It did mean that the few drops of blood her piercing had spilt were now mingling with the juices of her arousal. With a shameful blush she actually saw a couple of them fall to the ring and just hoped nobody else noticed.

Below her the pre-fight showmanship continued. She watched the contestants taking turns sparring lightly with a few amateur hopefuls. Only in Underland could a fight between two great heraldic beasts be reduced to a contest between ‘Leo’ and ‘Spike’, she thought. And by the end of the day she would belong to one or the other of them. Alice shuddered in her tight straps at the thought of those powerful beasts mounting her. Maybe it was good that her vagina was being pre-stretched.