Tally Road (intro)
Dawn broke gradually over the city of Verss- washed vivid orange by smog, filtering grudgingly around tens of thousands of tall buildings woven around each other, stacked into a single mountainous structure alive with its wolfish inhabitants. Some levels, some depths of urban crush, never saw daylight at all.
Some depths of urban crush were literally that- subway caves that had once been upper levels in the forgotten past, that were now not merely abandoned hellscapes of acrid air and failed lighting, not merely home to the most desperate failures the city held, but were tombs to those ragged wanderers when the weight of Verss produced another subsidence- when the world groaned, sagged, and made those forgotten ones a part of itself.
Nobody of importance would be found near enough to those dangerous areas to hear any screams- one would literally rise in Verss, spending one's time nearer the top of the city, if one could afford to do that. One would try not to think about the levels one came from- one would try to forget that in Verss, fate literally stretched vertically from the abodes of the impossibly wealthy down to corpses without even the rank, stale air left around them anymore, bodies that had been shunned while life remained and were now the tortured soil Verss rested on.
But then, this city forgot everybody eventually.
Dawn broke over a spot which wasn't exactly at the peak of the city, but was very much on the outside layer. A small cafe basked in the lurid, smog-painted glow, a cafe with a wide, sandy patio and green trees in terracotta planters. The color alone told a story of wealth and privilege- to the wise, it told a story of teams of gardeners switching out weary, pollution-worn trees for fresh ones, and whisking the sick ones off to special nursery bubbles with clinically purified air and fresh water, to recover and then serve another tour of duty outside at the cafe.
Dawn broke over one of the first arrivals to the cafe, and her guest. Jennis didn't think of it in this way, but in the ecosystem of the cafe she rated as less important than the trees- certainly, they were given lives in the nursery where they were cared for and given the strength to go to the cafe and do their jobs. In turn, she returned to the cafe not to give strength but to gain it- and, replenished, return to her job. Today, she was bringing Allie, who was new to this job.
Jennis felt a bit envious, though her spirit was well enough to appreciate it vicariously- Allie had been increasingly awestruck as she ascended to the level of the cafe, and stepped out onto the patio as if she was a princess arriving at the ball. It was understandable, thought Jennis- though the cafe couldn't claim the staggering view as its own creation, it certainly made the most of it- and paid for it in property taxes. Jennis knew that for the same reason she knew she was welcome...
Jennis paid for this welcomeness with barter, with hedonism, above all with discretion. The manager was a driven, gaunt wolf who was constantly getting in fights with his wife, and his fanaticism for maintaining his exquisite cafe and his pose as a debonair maitre d' was matched only by his fanaticism for blowing off steam in bed and perversity when in it.
And Jennis was not merely a whore- she was the straw-boss at the notorious "Mistress Elistary". She was more than able to handle the manager's desperate needs, she was big and rangy enough to cope when he got crazy, and she was more than street-savvy enough to turn a few minor injuries into a free subscription for entrance to the cafe- for life. The small electronic card which opened the gates was one of Jennis's prize possessions. It still cost a great deal even to have breakfast there, but without a little careful blackmail she'd not have been allowed near the place.
Now, she watched her new employee look around in awe, and played it cool. There were many things this Allie didn't know- Jennis felt quite concerned for her, while at the same time fighting off the enviousness. Allie seemed so vulnerable and was clearly on the run from some terrible abusive situation- earlier conversations had made that abundantly clear. Allie was on the young side, had nowhere to go, and wished nothing more than to escape to Verss, and- what? Jennis doubted that Allie's plans had read 'get fucked for money', but the young wolfess was so unprepared for the biggest of the big cities, and her options were frankly terrible.
Allie had light brown fur with a white blaze running from breasts to belly to right under her tail- she sported a 'two-tone' pattern that Jennis knew was money in the bank. Allie seemed totally unfazed by the idea of selling her pussy for money, which again said 'fleeing abusive life that makes being a whore seem relatively cozy'. Allie had no ID, no licenses for any form of work, no connnections for getting on the waiting list for an apartment, nobody she knew in the city at all. Allie had no idea how to get any of these things, no clue that if she turned up at a shelter she would end up fought over and claimed as a prize, which was to say slave, or even a corpse if the fighting became too intense. Allie, in fact, acted like a rich kid who was sheltered from the real world- or more accurately, kept from the real world by some family member who wanted the stunning two-tone wolf girl all for himself.
Jennis knew that some of those never made it out. Some committed suicide. And some fled- often to Verss, in the belief they wouldn't be found easily. All too often, they were found by the dregs, and the city gradually crushed them without a second thought.
This one had turned up in a room at Mistress Elistary, and Jennis was expected to make a working girl out of her. It seemed like Mistress Elistary had some way of finding these girls- they would turn up, often emotionally shattered, and go to work like whipped dogs, terribly obedient and fearful. Allie had turned up shattered and fearful, but without that obedience- again, like a rich kid on the run and out of options. She wasn't going to find another place to live that was remotely acceptable, and Jennis was going to have to train her or see her turned out on the street.
As she watched Allie gawk at the view, Jennis felt both envy and anxiety. This girl was going to make a bundle, hopefully without being hurt too badly, and she seemed to be aware of neither her beauty, nor the unfairness of her situation. Jennis was going to have to be her boss and teach her all the things school had never hinted at.
As they accepted cups of coffee from the cafe's morning staff- who treated Jennis with great but mocking deference- Jennis thought that was going to be a real bitch, and hoped desperately that the lovely wolf girl would be impressed by her street-savvy and den-mother loyalty. She had to gain that upper hand, for if Allie copped an attitude or acted entitled like a rich girl, she'd be thrown out by Mistress Elistary in no time at all. Jennis knew she had to get Allie up to speed or see her sucked into the maelstrom of Verss and lost forever.
The cafe staff had given Allie a menu for breakfast, and did not give Jennis one- they gave her, instead, the faintest possible smirk, but she dared not rebuke them. She quickly told them, "Yeah, the usual" and hoped like mad that Allie'd take it as a symbol of special favor.
As she watched the younger, prettier wolf who was to be her subordinate poring over the menu, Jennis glowered briefly, then fought back her rage at the cafe staff. She'd tell the manager, when she got a chance, of what they had done.
They knew Jennis could not read.