LIGHTNOVELONLINE 017
The first time one of my owners died, they sent me to the Kennels.
I remember it as an overcrowded and unpleasant place, filled with abandoned pets, filthy cells, and disorienting uncertainty.
Tower Anchorage is famous for its extensive slave markets, and animal markets are a specialty outlet for clientele primarily interested in pet play, kemonomimi1Kemonomimi (獣耳 animal ears) is an anime and manga term that describes humanoid characters that possess animal like features, mainly a pair of ears and a tail., beastkin, mounts, and other forms of shapeshifters. If there is a particular animal you want to buy, it is very easy to purchase one. Slave merchants go through extensive efforts to keep at least one of every species in stock, and hunting for exotic animals can be an especially lucrative business.
Cats are one of the most common species in the kennels.
In order to save on food costs and space, those of us with smaller animal forms are forced to transform and shoved into cramped uncomfortable cages. We are locked inside almost 24/7 until a prospective buyer takes interest, by which point most of us are desperate to be released for even a short period of time. After months of imprisonment, almost anything seems better than a tiny claustrophobic cage in the wall.
Most of us learn very quickly that pleasing a buyer is our only ticket to freedom.
By corollary, it is a very miserable feeling to be ignored by customers time and time again. Female cats are usually more popular than male animals, and shifters with impressive abilities are also sold relatively quickly. If you don't have any good qualities, or if you are permanently damaged in some way, you might not find a buyer for years.
On Earth, a vast majority of abandoned pets in shelters ultimately end up euthanized.
In Vetita's slave markets, the unsellable slaves receive worse fates, whether they are sold wholesale as cheap expendable materials for necromancers, hooked up as living mana batteries to power the guzzling energy demand of cities, or other unthinkable bad endings that only the most twisted and depraved individuals would think of.
Fortunately, my fire magic is considered relatively desirable.
My abilities are unusual, because my mana pool is not fixed or linear. Depending on my affinity with my owner, it can grow and shrink across a wide range of sizes. Most strangers who decide to try me out for the first time often find that my abilities are utterly unsatisfactory, but my abilities can slowly improve over time.
My base stats are honestly disappointing.
But given the right environment, I can burn extraordinarily bright.
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It was completely dark.
I was freezing.
It felt like a candle inside of my heart had been snuffed out, and every single droplet of liquid warmth inside of my body had vanished. It was unbelievably cold, numbingly to the point where I couldn't feel a single one of my limbs. The freezing temperatures penetrated to the core of my body, and it felt like I was trapped within a metaphorical ice glacier.
I couldn't see anything.
I struggled to summon the slightest trickle of mana to heat myself up, but the sparse traces of energy slipped away from my body before I could ignite it into warmth. In fact, it felt like the magic was being sucked out of me by an external force. A powerful entity was literally swathing me with me with an overwhelming flood of cold, drowning me with suppressive magic that was far stronger than my own.
A caressing hand brushed through my frosty ice-caked hair.
"You're safe now," said a feminine voice.
A hand stroked my ears, but my tender sensory organs were literally frozen stiff like a brittle sculpture.
"Nobody's going to hurt you. We saved you from the slavers. You're not a servant anymore. You'll be free now."
I tried to open my mouth to say something, but then I realized that my lips and eyelids were also frozen shut with frost.
In fact, there was ice around my limbs too.
My arms and legs were trapped in a translucent solid.
It was some kind of ice prison.
Parts of the frozen structure had already started to melt, and I could feel faint drafts of air on parts of my midsection. My exposed torso was arched backwards in an uncomfortable inverted bow position, yet my shoulders and other other extremities were still encased in thick ice. It was impossible for me to move a single muscle.
The mysterious individual ran her freezing hand down my naked spine, and then I realized I wasn't wearing clothes either. Her finger slowly slid down each bony vertebrae to my tailbone, and she absentmindedly traced a leisurely circle around the root of my sensitive tail.
Obviously, I was instantly mortified.
Who the fuck was this creepy ice witch, and why was she touching me?
What kind of frozen hell did I wake up to? I had no memory of anything like this.
"Oh you poor thing. You must be terribly confused."
Her fingers strayed around my butt, probing at the exposed entrance of my chrysanthemum2In Chinese (and BL), "Chrysanthemum Gate" (jú huā mén 菊花门), often abbreviated as Chrysanthemum (菊花), is taboo slang meaning "anus" (with sexual connotations)..
Her index finger was so cold, it felt like she was pressing an icicle against my butt.
She hugged me all of a sudden.
"There's no need to be afraid! I'm your friend!"
The ice witch's voice was disturbingly cheerful.
"I'll be responsible for taking care of you while you're here! My job is to cool you down, so don't get all fiery on me, okay? If you start burning up, I'll have to freeze you inside an ice cube again, and then we'll have to wait until you melt all over again. It's sooooo boring to watch ice melt, and I'd much rather have some fun!"
I struggled to process this new information while this mentally deranged woman invaded my intimate places.
"Oh, but you caused a big trouble, you know? I heard you almost killed a couple girls. It's a good thing Duke Adrian is so good with ice magic, because it would have been a huge problem if you set poor Nellie on fire. Nellie the flying whale? She's a sweet cake. Animal cruelty is bad, so please don't set whales on fire next time."
My memory was foggy... I had no clue what this crazy witch was talking about.
But then I had a moment of clarity.
@Jasper! Ovum was going to take him away!
Panic suddenly gripped my heart, and my emotions suddenly flared up like a swelling geyser.
"No, no. Bad kitty! Fire magic is bad!"
The witch sounded irate, and I gasped and shuddered as a new surge of relentless cold flooded my bones. It overwhelmed every last bit of warmth that was collecting inside my body like a smothering avalanche of snow, and I quickly turned into a shivering hypothermic mess.
When my body went limp, she resumed her bodily explorations and started humming quietly to herself.
I felt so helpless I wanted to cry.
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
There was the sound of a door opening, accompanied with a gush of warm air.
Someone walked in, and their footsteps abruptly stopped.
"What the hell are you doing, @Yuki?"
It was a vaguely familiar-sounding voice.
"Oh! My apologies! This kitten is just so adorable... and warm! I couldn't help myself Miss Priscilla!"
"Could you please not finger fuck the prisoner?"
"Eh? Prisoner? What prisoner?"
"...Guest..." @Priscilla slowly corrected herself.
"Ah yes! Of course! Oopsie! Silly me. Bad habit."
@Priscilla sighed, as if she really didn't want to be dealing with this right now.
"So what did you learn about the cat?"
"Ah yes! @Trisha told me to become good friends with kitty! So I made sure to learn lots and lots!"
The ice witch repositioned herself so that my slightly spread legs were visible to the girl who walked in through the door.
"You wouldn't believe this! He has two of them! Two!!!"
She tugged on my dick and pointed at my foreslit.
@Priscilla sounded strained.
"...Him...?" She voiced skeptically.
"Oh yes, he is very definitely male! Male kitty! Super adorable!"
"But futanari3Futanari is the Japanese word for hermaphroditism, which is also used in a broader sense for androgyny. are...."
"—Male! He's unquestionably male!"
"..."
@Priscilla sounded like she was about to say something, she but changed her mind at the last moment.
"Did you learn anything... useful?" She emphasized her last word in exasperated frustration.
"Hm?"
"His level. His abilities. How strong is he actually? Can we use him?"
"Oh!! That." @Yuki lit up like a lightbulb.
"Humu... maybe three or four years on the server? Honestly, it's hard to believe he cast such a big spell."
"That little?"
"Oh! But he has a big hole! Very big hole! Can fit lots inside!"
"Hole?"
"Look!" @Yuki spoke excitedly.
Excruciating ear-splitting pain suddenly burst from inside my body.
Something was being forced into me, and it hurt like someone was tearing my soul apart with a giant wrecking ball.
"See? Can put magic inside!"
"...Huh. So he's the charging type."
"Yes!! I like him a lot. Can I keep him? Please? The last one broke so I've been lonely..."
"Let's talk about it with @Trisha later. Maybe she can find you a better replacement."
"Okay! That makes me happy!"
"Can I borrow the cat for now?"
"Huh? Why?"
"@Trisha needs to see him. It's very important."
"Aww... but if it's for @Trisha, okay! I understand! I love @Trisha!"
"Yeah..."
"But make sure to bring him back! I want to play with him more!"
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
"Crazy woman." @Priscilla muttered to herself after shutting the heavy freezer door. "I really hate going into the basement."
She turned and stared at the ice prison that kept me trapped in a partially frozen and contorted state. A little while ago, she had managed to move the entire statue-like pedestal onto a rolling cart.
"It's a fucking block of ice... and so vulgar too..."
She seemed a little bit skeptical of this strange and bizarre method of keeping a prisoner secure.
"So you really were a man..." @Priscilla sounded like she was in disbelief.
"Unless you're trans?"
She shook her head slowly.
"Maybe I'm overthinking it. @Yuki isn't right about everything. I can ask about pronouns later."
She started pushing the cart.
"Gotta find a damn heater......."
⚘ ⚘ ⚘
