PRECIOUS CARGO

@Copyright 1999, Maureen. All rights reserved.


Part 22

   "Where to?" the lemur asked, with a smile, eyes bright.
   "Bessie's!" Fodessa answered.
   The lemur's grin grew broader. He turned back to his wolf-
ponies, and then his arm snapped, sending that thin lash across 
the backside of each wolf in turn as he jerked the reins, urging 
them on. The cart lurched into motion again.
   As the wolf-ponies trotted along Devnun Avenue, the driver 
cracking his whip almost constantly, Fodessa savored the sight 
and smell of them.
   Their doggy-musk lupine scents were a mixture of exertion and 
sexfear and arousal - Fodessa could smell that they hadn't come 
in a good long time, because the arousal was tinged with intense 
frustration.
   They'd clearly been selected not only for their magnificent 
night-black coats and muscles but also for well-endowed 
backsides. They didn't jiggle much; there was too much well-
trained muscle in those furless buttocks. She could see that they 
bore a multitude of darker lash marks. There was no blood, of 
course, but they had to be sore.
   If she'd owned them, she'd have had a thousand ideas of how to 
exploit that soreness. She felt her vulva getting damp under her 
silk trousers.
   They wore anal dildos, all right, and the reins controlled not 
only their dildo-gags but those dildos as well. She savored the 
thought of their discomfort.
   The jingling bells at their nipple clamps made sweet music to 
her ears as they made their way through the traffic, maneuvering 
around other ponyslave carts with their own distinctive teams.
   The lemur flicked his whip with more force, cracking it across 
the buttocks of the lead two males. They didn't even wince or 
groan behind their gags; their buttocks tensed briefly, but then 
they speeded up.
   "Move it along, Dinai, or that big cock of yours'll itch all 
night when we get back!" he called.
   Fodessa's ears perked at a faint sound behind her, and she 
turned to see Windrunner clamping his legs together, eyes as big 
as Katie's had ever been.
   A surge of playful cruelty rose in her. She suppressed her 
smirk, looking as stern as possible as she told him, "Get those 
thighs apart and keep them there."
   He clamped his jaw, swallowed and obeyed, which was too bad 
for Katie, since now she was crowded to the edge of the seat, 
against the sidewall.
   Behind them, Dosh stolidly watched the road. The only sign he 
had noticed was one large black ear flicking. 
   Fodessa allowed herself an inward chuckle and turned back.
   Devnun Avenue came alive at night. Now it swarmed with furries 
as tourists and locals alike flocked to the attractions of 
SouthGate -- restaurants, brothels where slaves were offered for 
various uses, sex-toy shops (she spotted the famous LeRoy's, 
where she could barely glimpse the slaves squatting outside to 
display the dildos, because there was a knot of ogling and 
groping customers around them), theaters for movies and 
performances, and many more pleasures -- as many as the lustful 
imaginations of a million furries from ten thousand planets could 
devise.
   The driver's whip flicked over the buttocks of his charges, 
leaving more long red lines on their naked shuddering buttocks. 
At last, the cart turned onto Sadean Avenue, and the distinctive 
golden sign of Bessie's came into view.
   There was no crowd in front of the doors waiting to get in, 
but that was because Bessie's had long ago become so popular that 
it had switched to reservations-only, and there were no windows 
to allow passersby to see in. The restaurant took up an entire 
city block, a great faux-wood-paneled building with a beautiful 
white facade done in ornate Art Noveau-style (a style from 
Terra's ancient history, before the days of space travel).
   The name "Bessie's" perched on the building's roof in great 
golden letters lit by subtly-placed footlights. No neon lights or 
holograms for this place.
   Two security guards stood side by side in front of the 
elaborate brass-and-glass double doors -- a hulking lion and an 
even more hulking grizzly bear. Both wore sturdy gold-colored 
boots, gold girdles and chestpieces and gold helmets like 
barbaric soldiers from one of the Historic Reconstruction 
planets. Both clutched tall metal spears in their thick paws, 
resting the butts on the ground.
   The lemur pulled back on the reins and the wolves slowed to a 
halt at the curb in front of the building.
   Fodessa gave him a five-credit note with a substantial tip. 
Grinning, he helped Fodessa's party down from the cart, one by 
one, Fodessa first.
   As the others climbed down, Fodessa walked around to get a 
closer view of the wolf-slaves. They were every bit as 
magnificent from the side and front as they'd been from the rear, 
and now she could admire their swollen erections bound with 
thongs. 
   She reached out to one, running a paw down his ebon-furred 
flank, dusty from the road but still soft under her fingers.
   He turned his head to look at her. The bit distorted his 
expression, but even so his yellow eyes showed his apprehension 
at what she might do to him. Drivers not only permitted passersby 
to fondle their "ponies", they encouraged it. It reminded the 
slaves of their place as public property.
   Fodessa didn't disappoint him. She weighed his swollen balls 
in one paw, then hefted his red cock, feeling its heat, its 
weight. It gave a little jump in her grip.
   She stroked it until she got a moan of exasperated desire and 
his head went back, eyes half-closing. He thrust his hips 
forward, tensing, and clear precum fluid appeared at the tip of 
his cock, dripping down onto the street, the street lamps 
catching gleaming highlights on it to turn it into liquid jewels.
   "Handsome slut," she said, smiling.
   He shivered, caught in that agonizing, beautiful place between 
desire and fulfillment.
   The lemur was just helping down the last rider, Quong, when 
she looked around. The genet shrugged off his paw and skipped 
lightly to the street. Fodessa regretfully abandoned her toy of 
the moment to join them.
   The lion and bear guards walked up to block their passage. 
"Reservation, please?" the lion asked.
   Fodessa stepped forward and handed the lion her little 
electronic com-check -- it was almost lost in his dinner-plate-
sized paw. 
   He looked down at it, pressed a few buttons, nodded and handed 
it back to her. "Fodessa Ruggae, party of six. Go in."
   The grizzly held the double-doors for them as they entered, 
Fodessa in the lead. 
   Inside was a small entrance chamber with white walls, ceiling 
and carpet. A very svelte, very feminine female otter faced them 
with a cheerful smile on her dainty features, dressed in a scanty 
outfit of vest and shorts, both of white satin with gold piping. 
Fodessa wondered if she was a slave or just an employee. She wore 
no collar.
   "Welcome to Bessie's, Mistress Fodessa!" she greeted her. "If 
you and your group will follow me, I'll take you to the main 
dining room."
   "Glad to," Fodessa purred, and she followed the otter through 
a labyrinthine hallway, its walls painted white with huge, 
elaborate brass candle sconces providing the only illumination, 
into the bowels of the restaurant.  
   Beside her, she could smell Windrunner's salty anxiety - and 
Katie's vulpine musk, made sharper by sex fear. The rich tones of 
amazement and delight tinged Caitlin's panther smell.
   Yet another turn led into yet another corridor, with another 
set of double doors at the end. These ones were brass and glass 
also, but she couldn't see clearly what was beyond, because the 
glass was frosted.
   The otter opened the doors, still smiling cheerfully. "Go 
right on in!"
   Inside was a great room that could have held hundreds of 
furries easily. A huge, massive dinner table covered with white 
cloth and set with napkins occupied its center. There were no 
chairs, but long white-leatherette-padded benches along each side 
of the table provided seating.
   The hall was lit by more artificial torches, which cast a 
romantic golden glow over the room - bright enough, to Fodessa's 
feline eyes, but she guessed other species would consider it 
subdued.
   Furries already occupied the benches -- not the fifty or so 
they could have held, but at least twenty furs, chatting or 
looking up to see the new arrivals. The otter strode briskly 
forward to one bench that had only two occupants as yet: a brown-
furred wolf and another clouded leopard, both males. They looked 
up from their conversation.
   "Here, seat yourselves, gentlefurs," the otter proclaimed, 
smiling.
   Then she departed.
   Fodessa eyed the other clouded leopard, then recognized him. 
Her face lit up in a broad grin.
   She put one leg, then the other over the bench and sat down, 
one space away from the other clouded leopard, and the diminutive 
Quong quickly slipped into the gap. She was small enough that she 
wouldn't inconvenience any conversation that began.
   Windrunner climbed over the bench to seat himself at her right 
paw, between her and Caitlin, Dosh and Katie.
   "Fodessa! Fancy meeting you here!" the male exclaimed, a smile 
of his own breaking out on his thick muzzle.
   He was dressed in the short robe-top and trousers of the 
planet Buddhatha, but both were solid black -- a color that went 
beautifully with his russet fur. Several strings of gold and 
dumis-hair jewelry glittered around his neck, echoed by his gold 
earrings and several finger-rings. The male wolf behind him, who 
offered her a wave and pleasant smile, was dressed similarly.
   "It's good to see you again, Panchiti," she replied. "We do 
meet at the nicest places, don't we? And how's business been for 
you?"
   "Superb, as it appears to have been for you," Panchiti 
replied, eyeing Windrunner with curiosity. "I see you're still 
dealing in quality, as always."
   Fodessa smiled as she skritched Windrunner's ruff under the 
nylon collar. "You're kind, as always," she replied.


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