FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ruby and the sphinx

By Strega

Later Ruby the halfling would admit, over a stiff drink, that it was a cleverly designed trap. At the time she could only curse, but at least she survived in the end. That was more than could be said for Kursh.

She and the Hestan cat-man had worked together on many jobs, and if there wasn't exactly trust between them there was as close to friendship as two thieves were likely to share. His brown-red fur was the same shade as her own curly hair, and his height of twice her own three feet sparked many jokes about her mouth being at just the right level.

She would even admit that she found him handsome in a bestial way, but there were never lovers. Hestans were typically standoffish when it came to sex with other species. That didn't mean it never happened, though, and with the numbers of drinks they'd shared they surely would have ended up in bed by now save that Kursh preferred other males as lovers. Rumor had it that his family's disapproval of this was why he'd become an outcast, and eventually a member of the thief's guild.

All she could say for sure was that he was a good thief and had never betrayed her, so when she heard that a rival had been seen selling high quality gemstones, and further that said gemstones were gotten in the deadly ruins of Castle Greyhawk, Kursh was the one she asked to accompany her on the job. Camille had found a safe way in and out of the place, and it was just a matter of following her tracks. Kursh had his people's knack of tracking by scent, and the evening after she'd heard of the gem sale the two found themselves entering the ruins through what looked like just another gap between two tumbled stone blocks.

An hour later they had avoided two swinging blades, two pit traps, some suspiciously dust-free statues (golems?) and an area of Reverse Gravity. The spikes on the ceiling gave the last away. So far there was no sign of treasure, just wall carvings and some rotted clothing on the bones of other tomb robbers. That was when they found the clever trap.

There was a choice of two corridors. One was entirely clean of dust and debris, the other had an already open trapdoor a little ways in. Camille's scent trail led to the latter, which was Ruby's first choice anyway. The dustless one smacked of either magic or something she couldn't see, perhaps a Gelatinous Cube that'd sucked the dust off the floor. Such a Cube would as readily dissolve the flesh from her bones, so when Kursh suggested they jump over the pit and explore beyond she nodded.

When she whispered "Hey, long legs. Give a lady a lift?" He smiled a fanged grin and knelt down so she could climb on his back. It wasn't the first time he'd leapt over a chasm with her on his shoulders. He backed off for a running start, reached up to touch her hand to make sure she had a good grip, and sprinted for the pit.

It was an easy jump for the strong, nimble cat-man. Too easy, she would realize too late. He cleared the wide trapdoor with little effort only to have the floor give way. It wasn't one trapdoor but two, placed edge to edge with one left open to tempt thieves into just such a leap as they'd taken. The floor pivoted at what turned out to be the far edge of the second pit, flipping a section of the floor beyond it up into a vertical wall. Kursh just had time for one grab at the sudden wall, but his sharp claws slid along the smooth stone without catching. Ruby made her own leap for safety off his shoulders, but the new wall went all the way to the ceiling and leaping the other way would send her into the first pit. She missed the top of the wall between the two pits -- jumping backward from a moving platform is much harder than forward -- and that just meant she had farther to fall into the now-revealed pit.

The good news was the pit was a smooth chute, with no blades or spikes. It even sloped gradually, rather than being a single fatal drop. That didn't mean it was a safe fall. The two thieves tumbled down the slope to minimize the impact, but just the same Ruby hit the bottom hard enough that everything went black.

A startled feline yowl brought her back around. Ruby blinked and rolled to her feet to see Kursh's legs kicking from the jaws of an absolutely enormous lion. It was at least six feet at the shoulder, with each of its paws bulking as large as her torso. She grabbed for her dagger and leapt backward out of reach of those great paws, but the lion ignored her. It gave her a disinterested glance then tossed its muzzle upward, and just that fast half Kursh's legs were bolted out of sight. Only his furry knees, calves and sandaled paws were left. Another bob of that great muzzle and it was just paws and a frizzed-out tailtip hanging from the corners of its mouth.

It was swallowing Kursh whole! Lions didn't do that! Before she could nerve herself to try to help, the lion's muzzle bobbed a final time. With a wet gulp it finished its meal, and horrified she watched a bulge move through the shaggy mane as her fellow thief disappeared down a feline gullet. As that bulge vanished the huge cat's belly sagged. It had, indeed, swallowed Kursh whole...and alive. A muffled screech emerged from the drooping belly.

"Very nice," the lion growled, and licked his chops. "It has been many years since I ate one of the maneless cat-people. The flavor has not changed." It blinked, matching for a moment her own surprised expression. "Hm, your friend is using his claws. They are sharp, but they will not save him."

It craned its head to the side to eye the wriggling bulge in its middle, and only then did she notice the cat's great, feathered wings. It wasn't a lion, but a sphinx: specifically an androsphinx, the most powerful, and always male, variant of that species. No wonder it talked; sphinxes were long lived, if not immortal magical creatures.

A belch bubbled out the cheeks of the lion and the bulge in its gut gave a last twitch and stilled. Kursh, her friend for three years, was dead. He was just food now for the larger cat. Now she saw the scraps of his harness, his short sword and his gray loincloth on the floor between the cat's paws. It had stripped her fellow thief before gulping him down. Now it lifted its head, the long hair of its mane rustling as it looked her over. Ruby took another step back and belatedly looked for an escape route.

She was in a long, high ceilinged room lit by a diffuse magical glow. Statues of winged lions interspersed with animal-headed humans with ran down each wall, each slightly different, and elaborate carvings were cut into the walls. It should be easy to climb but there were no obvious exits and if it stood up against the wall the huge cat could reach her even up near the ceiling.

"Take your time," the sphinx growled, and licked its chops again. "There are many ways into this room, but few ways out."

With the cat sat back on its haunches watching her lazily Ruby retreated amongst the statues and looked for exits. It was as the sphinx said; the only obvious exits were a heavy iron portcullis, the openings of which she couldn't get her head through much less her entire body, and a stained iron grill in the floor which seemed to serve the cat as a toilet. The chute she had slid down must have a door on this side that closed after someone entered.

The sphinx shifted a wing with a rustle of feathers as it watched her search. Emboldened by the cat's lack of aggression -- maybe a full belly quieted its mood? -- she crept past it behind the statues to get a closer look at the portcullis. The bars were as thick as her wrist, tightly interlaced, and there was no sign of a mechanism to lift the massive thing.

It was then she felt the lion's gaze on her back. No, not her back. She looked back over her shoulder to find the great cat enjoying the view of tight leather stretched over her ass as she bent over to examine the portcullis.

A laugh rumbled up out of the sphinx as it was caught ogling her. "Are you done, thief? You would be dead, or in my stomach, or both by now if the ones who bound me here had not left a loophole in my Geas. I am required to punish those who enter here, as I did your companion. It did not occur to the mages that I might interpret that command...creatively."

The enormous lion was looking her over with frank interest, now. His features were enough like khardaki lion-men that she knew a leer when she saw it.

"You should have spared my friend," Ruby said. "He liked men."

"But I do not," the sphinx said reasonably. "Strip, and come to me, and when my passion is spent I will let you leave."

Ruby backed away, only to find the portcullis close behind. "You are joking, surely. You must be a hundred times my weight."

Great muscles flexed beneath the tawny pelt as the cat stood. Russet-feathered wings rustled as they spread from wall to wall, and cruel black claws the size of daggers slid out of their sheaths. Ruby had fought monsters this size before, but always in a group. The little dagger in her hand would only irritate the beast, which could crush her with one swat of a paw.

"I am not," the cat rumbled. "Trapped in my little room I have become broad-minded when it comes to lovers. Had I the choice of only your cat-man friend, I might have made him the same offer. But I prefer females, and I have always liked the curves of a well-toned human woman...or close enough in your case. I could force myself on you, but if I crushed you in my eagerness then my fun would be spoilt and I must simply eat you. It is better for everyone concerned if you are willing."

Ruby's back was against the portcullis. She might dodge a paw and slip past the cat, but there was no quick way out of the room and eventually it would have her.

"You are not the first I have made this offer to over the centuries." the cat growled. "Some have accepted, and some enjoyed themselves...or acted that they did at least. Spend the evening with me, and when I am sated I give my word I will lift the gate so you may depart. If not, then your red hair will join your fellow thief's fur in my belly."

Slowly Ruby reached for the buckles of her leather armor. She'd been optimistic when she thought Kursh had filled the cat's gut. A hundred and fifty pounds of hestan didn't make much of a bulge at all. The great lion could probably eat another four or five meals Kursh's size, and a snack-sized Ruby could be snapped up and swallowed with one toss of the sphinx's head.

It wasn't the first time she'd stripped in front of a captor. Nor was he the only animal-like male to watch her do it; she'd had a praka lover of the so-called "feral" sort. But he was certainly the biggest, strangest, and most intimidating male ever to ogle her. Soon enough she stood naked amongst a pile of soft leather armor and thief's tools.

"Come to me," rumbled the lion, and she did. A massive, soft-padded paw hooked her up against the dusty-smelling mane, and the huge cat sniffed her all over. A poke of its nose and she opened the one hand she'd kept in a fist. He even nuzzled into her curly hair and bit down, pulling out the lockpick she kept there as a hairpin. Only when he was she was unarmed did a push of his broad muzzle force her onto her back.

A wash of hot tongue rough as a rasp and wide as her face scraped her sex, and Ruby yelped. A moment before she'd felt the cold stone floor against her back, but all she felt now was tongue. His forepaws lay to either side of her, each nearly as large as her entire body. The lion lapped her sex again, wetting it with a great wash of saliva, then turned its attention to her breasts. Ruby was well equipped in that regard, but they still seemed tiny compared to that massive muzzle.

"You may be the smallest woman I have bedded," the great cat rumbled. "But I am sure we will manage."

Many men she'd slept with had been twice her size or more, as there weren't many halflings in the city. There were even a few who were just as predatory as the sphinx, if less likely to swallow her whole. Despite the threat of sudden death if the sphinx broke his word, she actually began to enjoy herself. The raspy tongue was an exciting novelty and she told herself that if she made it out of this alive she would make it a point to determine if hestans or khardaki lion-people were similarly equipped.

Now the die was cast. The sphinx stood and stepped over her, the four massive columns of his legs connecting the floor to the shaggy roof of mane and drooping belly that loomed over her now. The bulge that used to be a somewhat-friend pressed down on her as the huge cat crouched to mount her. Ruby spread her legs and with the accuracy of someone who has managed awkward couplings on many an occasion the lion dropped his tip into her.

It was then that Ruby learned several things about lions. First, and luckily given the size mismatch, they aren't especially well hung for their size. Helped by the fact that she was somewhat aroused, and though it was a fearsomely tight fit the sphinx managed to jam as much of his shaft as would fit into into her. The second thing was that lions are not gentle or patient lovers, for the moment his tip slipped in the big cat arched his back and began to thrust quickly and enthusiastically. He rammed himself in until he hit bottom and pulled halfway out, repeating the cycle in a rapid pumping motion a couple of times a second. He didn't last more than a minute, either.

Which was just as well, because just then she also learned why she-cats yowl in alleys at nights. The cone-shaped tip of his cock was covered with horny barbs that scraped the sides of her sex with each withdrawal. His humping drove a series of pained squeaks out of her that did not stop until he arched, snarled, and ejaculated.

When he withdrew he lay down once more with her between his forepaws. Ruby reached down and touched the sticky fluid leaking from her slit, half surprised to find no blood there. Maybe she didn't want to learn everything there was to know about hestans and khardaki after all.

"Very nice," the sphinx repeated, and Ruby just groaned.

"Easy for you to say," she said as she rolled over to reach for Kursh's loincloth to wipe herself off. She didn't consider that he might think she was trying for the hestan's sword, but it did not matter. Before her fingers could touch the cloth the lion was on his feet and straddling her again. Her upraised buttocks were an invitation a feral male could not resist.

"Wait!" she cried, but again he crouched. The bulge that was Kursh pinned her to the stones once more, the lion's thighs brushed her rump from either side, and again that barbed tip dropped between her legs. Ruby became quite an expert on lion matings that night. They might not last long, but they made up for it by coupling over and over at rapid intervals. And though the big cat once again managed to mount her, his aim was not as good as she first thought. Either that or he intentionally rammed that thorny shaft up her ass.

This time she let out a shriek, but a massive forepaw held her to the floor as his hips once more began to pump. Rather more of him fit into her ass than had fit into her sex, and the lion went about his business with growling vigor. Once more he came in less than a minute, snarling and arching so his ivory fangs just grazed her nape.

With a rumbling sigh of contentment the huge lion pulled out and lay once more with her between his paws. It took Ruby a full minute to catch her breath, at which point she gifted the lion with every curse word she had in her extensive vocabulary. He just grinned a toothy grin and licked her belly with a raspy tongue until she ran out of expletives.

"What did you think would happen, little woman? If you wanted to go slowly you should have offered your mouth, like the last one did. She did not take me into herself until the fifth mating, and it was not until the last time that she trusted me to mount her. Which, admittedly, went very much as this last one did."

"Fuck you," Ruby spat, but before he could say he just did -- and she could see the words forming on his lips -- she blinked and said "What 'last one'?"

"It has been a very pleasant week," the sphinx mused. "A decade since my last visitor down here -- I don't need to eat often at all, obviously -- and then two nubile women in such a short time. And yes, I did let the other one go when I was sated."

"Now hold on," Ruby said as her mind began to work. "Was this other woman a human with brown hair?"

"I suppose," the lion rumbled, and gave her left breast a lick. "It is not the hair I pay attention to, you know. I like a certain curve here and there, a certain amount of muscle. I like a strong woman, like a she-lioness. Sadly, no cat-folk female has tried to rob the tombs above in a very long time. And it goes without saying that no actual lioness--"

"The other woman." Ruby prodded a finger into the wiry fur of his mane. "Tell me about her." A suspicion had sprung full-formed into her mind.

"I really couldn't say," the sphinx growled with a dismissive flick of an ear. "It was a woman, I made her the same offer, she accepted, we mated all night, I lifted the grate and let her go. You do all rather look alike to me."

"That is all you remember? What about what she was wearing?"

"Hrrrm." The great lion assumed a calculating look. "I might be induced to remember more, if properly motivated." Though his chest was against the stone his lower body lay on its side, and he lifted his leg to reveal the balls and sheath that up until now she had only felt. Already he had recovered enough for a liver-dark tip to expose itself. She could see the barbs, lighter colored than the surrounding flesh.

"How do you know I won't bite it off, you great shaggy pervert? After ramming it up my tailpipe it would serve you right."

He didn't flinch, and his growing erection did not wither. "I know because you want to live, and I do not have to swallow my prey whole. No, I can eat very slowly and very bloodily if I so choose." The great pink wash of his tongue made a circuit of his chops. "And the rasp you enjoyed earlier can take the hide right off a thin-skinned sort like you, if I apply it with enough force."

"All right, then." She had already crawled within reach of his sheath, and a firm grip with both hands on its fur brought his whole length out. She had underestimated his endowment; in thickness he wasn't much greater than a big man, but if he had thrust up her ass to his full length she would have had his barbed tip in her throat from the back end.

"I will lie with you tonight, O lion, and do all I can to make it pleasant. And then you will tell me what I want to know."

"You have a deal," the sphinx growled, and rumbled deep in his chest as her lips encompassed his tip.

Two minutes later she knew the taste of feline semen, but that was not the end of it. Through the rest of the night they lay together, his tongue tasting her flesh from time to time to let her know he was interested again. She no longer trusted him on top, but in her mouth, between her breasts and in her hands he came repeatedly. When she decided she could live with his sharp-barbed cock again she crouched atop him and impaled herself. That, at least, she did four times; she lost track of the total number of times they mated.

By the end of the night she had a new appreciation for her painfully endowed lover. When sated (at least temporarily) and in a mellow mood, he licked her all over until she screamed her own pleasure, and she renewed her vow to learn new things about cat-people. If nothing else khardaki males were notoriously prone to think with their dicks, and it'd be a great way to pick a pocket or three.

But each time he snarled and came she pressed him for information, and bit by bit she winkled it out of him. He really didn't know much more about his last unwilling lover, but he had kept her spoils from the looting she did before she ended up in his room. The loot was back where it came from -- he would not say how -- but the pouches and backpack were still here, and Ruby recognized them at once.

It was Camille, of course. Camille who had hunted here alone and ended up pinned beneath the great cat just as she had. (He might not remember what she looked like, but he remembered buggering her. Typical male.)

Camille, who not only hadn't turned over the guild-tithe of the loot, but hadn't told anyone about the great beast waiting in the ruins to devour and ravish thieves. Arguably she didn't need to do either, since the keep was not within the city boundaries.

But a number of thieves had gone missing lately, and the sphinx casually mentioned that Kursh was not his only recent meal. He'd only had two females to rape (again, arguably) but four other thieves had followed Camille's trail, disappeared down that gullet and left the prison via the stained grating. If Ruby informed the Guild, or even the more violent members of it, Camille would find life very unpleasant and very short, whether she'd broken the rules or not.

By the time the lumpy bulge of Kursh was a smooth digested droop in the cat's belly and morning dawned (the sphinx knew somehow), the edge was finally off his lust. After a last halfhearted effort to pull her down and mount her, which she evaded only because he put no real effort into it, he nodded to her oft-repeated request and hooked his claws into the portcullis. Though it must weigh a ton he lifted it easily. Ruby limped out, back in her leather armor, exhausted, sore in every hole, but very much alive.

"Come back anytime," the lion chuckled, and let the portcullis slam down. Minutes later, having carefully checked the corridor for traps, Ruby saw sunlight once again.

She was thinking as she walked. Kursh had mentioned in passing that Camille's scent trail was quite fresh. They'd chalked it down to a further trip into the ruins, perfectly reasonable given that Camille found gems there once. Ruby had another thought, now. The thieves who had disappeared were all ones Camille disliked. She was sure now that Camille not only had left the trail on purpose, but had intentionally sold gems to a fence likely to run his mouth.

Camille had been subtle, selling gems and letting it be known from whence they came, thus getting her rivals to take what would be a one-way trip into the ruins. Two could play at that game. Ruby, too, had rivals, and she was certain the sphinx would be happy to give them the same tour of his digestive system Kursh was enjoying. Between the two of them they could cull the thieves they didn't like and keep the sphinx well fed.

But that left the question of Camille. Ruby winced as she walked. The later matings hadn't been so bad, but the two times she let the lion have his way from above he'd assaulted her orifices painfully with his barbed cock. She was one of Camille's rivals, and so was Kursh, and that meant they too had been allowed to hear about the gems and had followed the trail of breadcrumbs Camille left. In Kursh's case that trail led down the lion's throat, but she had survived.

Now she knew what Camille had done, but Camille didn't know that she knew, or even that she was still alive. It should be possible to take her enemy by surprise.

And if she had her way, the sphinx would see Camille again. See her tied up, belly down on a board slid into his den, and with large arrows painted on her pointed toward the holes that would hurt the most. She was confident the bored and randy cat would not refuse such an offer.

Ruby smiled. Now, the question was, how could she safely be there to see what happened next....