Stained with Saliva
Athena's bare body was stained crimson from shoulder to toe in red wine.
I could only stare, dazed, at the lewd sight of her.
"What are you doing, Hera?"
Athena looked down at me with her arms crossed, her expression regal and commanding.
Her order was clear — lick every last drop of wine from her body.
Ordinarily I would have hesitated. Not now.
As if I had been hypnotized, the same words circled endlessly through my mind.
I don't want to be thrown away. I don't want to be thrown away. I don't want to be thrown away. I don't want to be thrown away.
The shock of hearing her say she would find a new slave left me with only one thought — I had to please her, as quickly as I could.
I slipped down from the bed where Athena sat perched and took hold of her pale, delicate bare legs.
Her feet were slick with wine.
Without a moment's hesitation I stuck out my tongue and licked the sole of her foot.
"Nnh?"
A startled little sound escaped her, as if my boldness had caught her off guard — but I paid it no mind and went on licking every inch of her foot.
It was a humiliating act, without question. Right now, that meant nothing to me.
If it made Athena happy in this moment, I would do anything.
Slurp—
With every stroke of my tongue, the sweet-bitter taste of wine spread across it.
Slowly—
From the sole of her foot up to the heel. Then I took hold of her ankle.
"Hyaah."
I took Athena's toes into my mouth.
Suck—slurp—
From her big toe to her little one, I sucked each of them with careful devotion.
"Haa... Hera..."
Athena looked down at me beneath her with flushed cheeks and a rapturous expression, as if my obedience pleased her deeply.
Once I had licked every trace of wine from her feet, my tongue began to climb her legs.
Past the ankle, over the calf to the knee.
I did not stop there. Slowly, I rose all the way to her thighs.
For some reason, the higher I climbed along her lower body, the more fluid met my tongue — something hot and sticky, faintly different from wine. I swallowed every drop without a second thought.
"Nnhh... Good girl, Hera. Eat it all up."
Her legs kept twitching as if she were holding something back.
Her praise filled my chest with a warm, soothing comfort.
I wanted her to like me more. I wanted her to be even happier.
So she wouldn't cast me aside.
I steadied Athena's faintly trembling legs with both hands and licked the rest of them clean.
Her lower body was no longer slick with wine, but with my saliva.
Even then I did not stop. I buried my face against her upper body at once.
Her faintly defined abs.
My tongue traced every valley between them, climbing slowly up her stomach.
As I rose, it was no longer the taste of her skin that met my tongue, but the bland texture of fabric.
Her breasts filled my vision — and over them, a red lace undergarment.
Thanks to the lingerie, her chest did not look as if any wine had touched it.
I climbed up onto the bed, straddled her lap so that we faced each other, and wrapped my arms around her in an embrace.
With the arm I had looped around Athena, I lifted one of hers overhead.
Her clean, smooth underarm came into view — not a single hair upon it.
Where an ordinary person might have carried a sour scent, only a sweet, fruity fragrance drifted from her skin.
"Beh— slurp—"
"Nnh..."
As I licked that intimate place she so rarely exposed, a shallow moan slipped from Athena's lips.
Following the length of her arm, I soon reached the end.
I took Athena's hand with care and, just as before, began to suck her fingers one by one.
But something must have felt incomplete.
I had passed her thumb and index finger and was carefully cleaning her longest finger — the middle one — when—
"....."
Athena, her eyes hazy and her expression greedy,
"Mmph?!!"
—suddenly shoved her hand deep into my mouth.
Her middle finger pressed hard against the back of my throat as if it belonged there.
"Ghhk!? Ghh... kkh... oohk."
"Haa.... Good girl... good girl..."
With one hand she patted my back; with the other, still buried in my throat, she thrust her fingers in and out again and again.
Tears sprang to my eyes from the sudden pain.
For an instant my instincts nearly made me push her away.
— I really don't like it when you defy me, either.
Athena's words rose in my mind.
I did not want to disobey her. So I swallowed down the rising nausea and accepted the hand ravaging my throat.
"...Uwek... ghk... gehhk... kkuh..."
Forcing the retching back only made the sounds leaving my mouth less like moans and more like the screams of some animal.
Squish— squish—
Every time her hand violated my throat, the edges of my vision darkened a little more.
In my heart I had accepted her hand — but my body rejected it violently, the nausea climbing higher and higher.
Tears welled until my lashes were wet, and my body began to shake with revulsion.
"Kkh... ock... ghek... guehk..."
My eyes rolled back. My vision went black. I was on the verge of losing consciousness when—
"Ah. Sorry, Hera. I almost lost control again."
With that brief apology, Athena slowly withdrew the hand that had been ravaging my mouth.
An enormous strand of saliva stretched thickly between her hand and my lips, as if trying to hold her back from leaving.
"Ukh... uukh.... uweehk..."
I tried to bring something up from deep inside, but all that came were dry heaves.
She gave me a few minutes to collect myself.
Then Athena held out her other hand.
"This hand still has some on it too, Hera."
My vision was hazy.
Whether from the way her hand had just violated my throat, or from the wine that had trickled down it little by little, my mind was growing foggier by the second.
In a daze, I began to lick her other arm.
"Hyaah... heup... beh—"
Perhaps from using my tongue for so long,
it had gone so numb that even licking the wine brought no taste at all.
Athena's arm, her collarbone, her shoulder.
At last I succeeded in replacing every red droplet that had covered her body with my own saliva.
"Haah... hehk..."
"Heh heh... Well done, Hera. Looks like I won't be needing another slave."
Athena stroked my hair as she praised me.
At her words — that she would not bring in another slave — tears sprang to my eyes.
The heart that had been pounding wildly with the fear of being abandoned by Athena settled at once with that single sentence.
"Hic... hhk..."
Tears of relief began to fall.
Athena wiped every one of them away with her fingers.
"Good girl... All right, Hera. One last thing."
Athena stuck out her tongue and crooked a finger, beckoning me closer.
"Everything you swallowed. Let me taste it too."
And so I spent the entire night tangled with Athena's tongue — until I lost consciousness in her bed.
"Mmnh... Mama..."
She groped around for her mother, but all her hands found was the soft bedding.
When she forced her heavy eyelids open, a vast bed with no one else in it filled her sight.
"...Mama?"
For a moment she wondered if she had fallen off the bed, and looked around — but she was alone in the room.
"Mama... bathroom?"
She had no idea how long her mother had been gone, but if she had only gone to the bathroom, she would be back soon.
So she waited, eyes open and staring blankly.
Minutes passed, and the room remained silent.
A strange unease settled over her, and she resolved to go looking herself.
Dragons were said to be masters of magic, so intimately attuned to mana that they could command it with ease.
And she was no different.
She could use mana like this to seek out her mother.
Right now she was following the scent of her mother's mana, tracking her down.
That clean, pure mana she had breathed in so many times from within her mother's arms.
Even though a portion of that violent woman's mana was mixed into it, her mother's mana still shone beautifully, its light undimmed.
Sniffing lightly as she walked, she followed the fragrance of her mother's mana — and thought of their first meeting.
She had felt it from the very first moment their eyes met.
This was fate.
She had been captivated by her mother's ruby eyes, more beautiful than any jewel, and enchanted by a soul so pure it was like a blank page.
And the warmth in those eyes when they looked at her — she had been caught by it, and could no longer escape.
The more time she spent with her mother, the more her gentle kindness filled her chest with a swelling emotion she had never known since the day she was born.
This, she supposed, was what people called happiness.
"Mama..."
She wanted to spend her whole life nestled in those arms.
She wanted to fall asleep every night to the sound of that voice, and share meals while looking into each other's eyes.
She still could not handle human speech skillfully enough to pour out everything in her heart —
but that would come soon enough.
In about a week, she would have perfect command of the language-speech magic.
Before she knew it, she had followed her mother's mana to a door.
From within, the mana of the mother she loved so much poured out in abundance.
"Hehe... I love you, Mama."
I'm so happy I get to be your daughter.
.
.
.
"Hyaah... slurp... beh..."
Smack—suck
...
"Haah... mmnh... Athena..."
Slurp—suck—
...
"...Uwek... ghk... gehhk... kkuh..."
Squish—squish—
...
"Athena... Athena..."
Suck— smack—smack—
....
...
..
"...Ma...ma...?"