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phormthevixdjinnExhausted.
She was exhausted. Utterly.
What's more, she was in unspeakable pain. Her left eye constantly throbbed with dull, aching waves of discomfort. Her ribcage radiated with repeated, sharp stabs of agony that struck with every breath she took.
It made for a shitty combination, in her opinion.
It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since Vect had been beaten to a bloody pulp by Remmington, and she wasn't having much fun. She needed rest - she knew this. But how was she supposed to rest when her brain recoiled instinctually every other moment, responding to the deep distress, over and over again? The screeching din of agony made it hard to focus, never mind the idea of letting go enough to sleep.
But she was exhausted. The adrenaline had long since worn off, and somewhere beneath all that pain was a deeper layer of tired that penetrated her to the core. She had fought, she had lost, and then she had dragged her carcass back home. She had walked, injured and alone, for hours to do it.
Here, now, she sank into the plush cushions of the sofa in her office. The fluffy blanket that Kayte had wrapped her in was still soft and warm, despite her sweating and shivering. She'd been laying there in the dark for a long while now, unable to sleep. The pain was distracting, of course - It was monumentally distracting - But on top of that, she couldn't stop seeing his face.
The flashes of bone and teeth. The pouring, oozing slick dark that her brain struggled to grasp, only to slip right off. The hidden, yet obvious, malice. The spray of gore and violence that was undone in seconds, both of which had been returned to her with interest. Andrew was a nightmare made manifest, and a part of Vect feared closing her eyes lest she encounter him again.
Yet she needed sleep. She was never going to heal if she didn't get sleep. Her eye jolted with a flash of pointed, sudden pain as she twisted and writhed to find anything resembling comfort. Anything even remotely like relief.
Maybe, she told herself, maybe she could just... Just focus on her own breathing. Just close her eyes and navigate the pain. Maybe she could focus on the exhaustion, focus on the need. Maybe she could follow where her mind forged ahead, rather than trying to force her thoughts down a rigid path. Maybe she could sink into the couch just a little more. Subsume into the cushions bit by bit. Down. Further.
Down.
Down.
D o w n.
The fall. It felt so familiar, and still somehow different.
It wasn't a halting, shocking, sickening drop. She was used to those. No, this was a smoother, kinder acceleration that cradled her downward, a soft current that swept her deeper as she pulled away from the couch.
Vect felt herself plummeting through the floor, pulled by a force that wasn't quite gravity. A strange, otherworldly sensation that was still somehow nostalgic. Her whole body tumbled beneath her as she embraced the descent, falling along an axis of reality she had never quite been fully aware of, never truly realized existed. Something about the acceleration felt so gentle to her despite the rate at which she streamed downward. Even as she built up speed, even as she turned in mid flight with eyes closed, she could feel the rush of movement past her nose. Feel the current washing over her face. She could feel the pain peel away from her cheeks, peel away from her chest, peel away from her ribs. The agony left her gradually, tenderly plucked off of her body as she left some portion of herself behind. Then, into the void of that vacated pain, a hushed sense of relief flowed directly into her. She felt the sensation of still calm flood in, even as she traveled further and further down.
Soft. Tender. Deliberate.
It was as if each layer of her body was stripped away, one after the other. It was as if her corporeal existence was shed in stages, leaving behind only what was central, true, and pure. Leaving only her. And yet she still was. She could still feel. She could still move. It was as if every moment she fell deeper, feelings became more tangible than flesh.
She spun as she continued to fall, arms at her sides as she began to decelerate gently. She wondered what it was she was falling through. Pure darkness? Liquid? Some manner of jelly? Or something that she couldn't comprehend even if she desired to?
It didn't matter. She continued to move nose-first, downward. She fell quickly, but carefully, guided along a path through space that she could understand instinctually, needing absolutely no explanation. It was as if someone were calling her name. Her name, secret and hidden - obscured even from her. And even though her ears could not hear it, that call nevertheless resonated deeply within the core of her being. How could her deepest self resist such a summons? How could she turn away from a call that spoke to the truth of who she was?
It was odd. It was strange. It ought to have been jarring. Terrifying.
Yet it was a comfort. She comprehended without understanding.
Slowly - very slowly - her descent crawled to a halt. Her outstretched body, dropping face-first into the void, found no hard stop at the end. Instead, she pulled her knees to her chest, floating for a long, slow, quiet moment.
She didn't want that moment to end. It was a moment of tranquility and peace. She felt liberated from her pain, removed from existence, detached from the physical, and yet simultaneously safe. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was falling apart. Nothing hurt.
Eventually, the mink opened her eyes. Both of them.
Blue. Azure expanse rolling toward the horizon. A dim shade that played at the edges of darkness, rolling toward light. At first she wondered if her vision hadn't finally deteriorated. But as she stretched her feet down to gently stand up, it was clear that her eyes were fine. She could see. She could see a paw in front of her face, see her legs and feet beneath her. It was just that there was barely anything to see. A delicate series of overlapping gradients, all spanning into the distance with a flat, limitless reach. Around her in every direction, shades of blue extending toward infinity.
Instinctually Vect felt as if this wasn't the truth - or at least, not the totality of it. It was as if what she saw was more than an endless expanse of color, but her own limitations meant that she couldn't see it as anything else. She didn't know how she knew this. She just knew.
"Hello?"
It was so full. Even though it looked like an empty, barren, desolate place... It was brimming, swirling, thrivingly full. It was rich and overflowing with... with emotion. Sumptuous emotion. Stark emotion. Wellsprings of feeling were present in every direction, regardless of which way she looked. Each emotion was one she experienced in totality as she drew near their source. Her body sang with the resonant sensations of feeling, with each and every one echoing through her inner being like ripples in the surface of placid water. Spreading wider, drawing outward, leaving intricate details in the wake of each breaking, cresting wave.
The experience was potent. In fact, it was nearly overwhelming.
Vect took a tentative step into the distance. The azure flickered around her, and she could sense the horizon go dim, and darken. The hue of her surroundings turned swiftly to an empty, heavy color - one she could not name, and that her eyes could not process. And then: A flash of herself. The sensation of her being, her shape, the totality of her emotion. She recognized herself there before her, even as rage crackled through the air. Anger swept away the peace and tranquility that lay behind her, an overwhelming wave of mounting, focused ire. As tension suffocated the air, she felt an invisible pull forward. A taught thread connected her rage to a dense, buried pillar of loss. A pillar that stood tall in the dark, and thrust deep into the ground.
A pillar surrounded by clouds of choking, eye-watering regret.
She wept silently, eyes blurred with tears as she watched herself walk the blighted path ahead into the abyss. She watched herself from afar, flanked on all sides by judgement, each step forward weighted with shame. Thirteen corpses, each familiar, emerging at the sides of the trail - and each glimmering with a slick, sick hue upon their obvious, glowing mortal wounds. As she moved past each, she could feel the reverberations of their longing and innocence - She could feel it as their loss clung deeply to her body. Every scrap of what had been cut short was hers to carry. Vect felt the heaviness smother her, pull her down - an inevitable, irreversible burden that was hers and hers alone. A weight she had earned, tethered to her core - an ugly, tangled knot of halted, spoiled dreams, panic, and regret.
All those emotions. All those dreams. The desperate, resonant cries of thirteen lives severed from all. Their screams vibrating her to the depths of her very soul.
It was too much. She couldn't face it. She had to...
In a snap turn, she averted her gaze from the ichor on the horizon, and ran. A full-tilt scramble, heart in her throat and tears in her eyes, chest desperately gasping for air that didn't exist. She felt only fear and desperation, wellsprings of ice cold emotion that poured thickly into her heart.
Distance. She needed distance.
Gradually, she obtained it.
Before she could fully grasp what she had left behind her, she instead found her way once more to that plane of tranquil calm. Yet despite this, her tears still came, rolling along her cheeks and down her chin. Each one fell to her feet with as slow and gentle a descent as that with which she had arrived. She could feel each slowly sinking droplet as it melted against the azure below, her fear and guilt melting along with them as they spread against the surface under her. So, her desperation dissolved and diluted into calm, blue softness.
And then,
Crimson.
Strands of long, draping crimson.
She gazed on intently as individual tendrils of color unfurled from the horizon, rolling toward her tenderly. Each strip a delicate, silken ribbon of unlimited length, stretching from their terminus at her feet and toward some promised nexus. There were but a few overlapping strip of fabric and color at her feet to begin with, but as she followed their promised path, they grew more numerous and interconnected. Rolling mounds of gentle, shimmering, sensual material. The crimson lay atop itself, askew in places, bunched together in others. She thought them beautiful for their inconsistencies and differences, for their uniqueness.
The landscape was satin and silk, red and impossibly deep. Each step was delight beneath her feet, coaxing her further to experience sensation and celebration of her own existence. Vect stopped briefly to crouch down and run the most careful of fingertips along the somehow familiar ground. It felt so cool to the touch, and yet warm against her skin. The world around her sang with promise of a velvet embrace, sang with the elation of union and support. The strands were wonderfully soft, yielding. She reflected that a strand could certainly not hold her weight on its own.
But it was not alone.
Silk intertwined, layered, and weaved within itself. The path held her with little difficulty. She followed tentatively, yet with barely hidden elation.
Somewhere along the way she realized she was naked. Vect could not remember if her clothing had simply dissolved from her body, or if she hadn't arrived with any, but such details felt irrelevant. This was better anyhow, she noted to herself. There was nothing like shame here - Not even for her body, which she was so used to drawing judgement for. There was no discomfort from others here. Not even for her bared breasts, her deeply scarred body and ears, freshly wounded eye, and exposed penis. No, there was no hot sting, nor any ice cold realization. There was only welcoming invitation. It was at once strange and wonderful to her. She was hiding no part of herself. She was being seen - but she was not drawing revulsion.
She was being seen with celebration.
The crimson path at last bent and curved to an end, leading Vect to a mound of rolling silk that pooled in the center of existence. It was as tall as she was, with each glimmgering, pooling strand a part of a greater whole. And yet, even as she reached out to touch the soft, gentle surface, Vect knew that there was yet more still. She felt wonder and delight in her heart as the mound began to stir. Ribbons slid to the side, tumbling ever so delicately downward as two gigantic, onyx ears pierced through the crimson surface and rose upward from below.
Slowly, gently, delicately, at last, she emerged from within.
Ribbons caressed her every curve, cascading over her body as she revealed herself. The displaced silk flowed softly against her immense stature as she stood tall, massive and enormous, quickly dwarfing the mink before her. Seven, eight... nine feet tall, a towering creature that radiated not only power - but immaculate grace and tenderness. Vect struggled with awe as she beheld her immeasurable beauty. Was she feline? Lupine? Her shape seemed to shift and waver with every blink. A massive wolf? A tremendous tigress? An enormous bear? She was all, and none. She encompassed every shape, and yet, these were details superfluous to her presence. The feeling of her being did not shift, even if her visage was in flux. Slowly, gradually, Vect's perception settled inward - And the outline of the creature before her stabilized to that of an incredibly tall and massive jackal. A being of curves and softness atop undeniable, potent, obvious power.
The being stepped forward from the pile of silk from which she had emerged. A smooth, bared foot landed silently in front of Vect as the mink gawked upward at this sublime display. Her legs were shaped like tapered pillars, curved and flawless, each tremendous enough to support her enormity. Her flared hips curved impossibly - and yet naturally - into her absurd waist. Above this, a set of breasts that defied any expectation, and existed without regard for gravity. Her arms outstretched above her as she seemed to recover from a long, lingering slumber. They too, bristled with potency and spoke with delicacy. Her torso was defiance of biology and physics, perfection in absurdity. Beneath her naval, following down to her hips again, rested an incredibly, unthinkably large and massive shaft, one that rested against her inner thigh without reservation or shame.
Her shifting, slowly stabilizing muzzle regarded Vect with glimmering silver eyes amid the dark features she possessed. Indeed, the entirety of her body was inky black shadow - a lie that hid more beneath, a lie of convenience and brevity. Vect could sense that the truth was more than she saw - not due to deception, but rather, due to her inability to fully perceive. This obsidian titan glistened in the crimson expanse with dark, gleaming promise. She stood tall, without threat or malice.
Vect was scarcely religious. But in this moment she could not help but regard this as a goddess before her.
She was a creature of sensuality and overwhelming bliss, and yet so much more. From within her heart, within the depths of her soul, she radiated emotions outward. Her mere presence exuded an aura that Vect could never hope to contain or resist - Feelings of sensuality, eroticism, joy, delight, togetherness, friendship, love, security, contentment, tranquility, and still more. The rushing echos of sensation washed over the mink, leaving her shuddering with sudden, unspoken understanding.
It was as if a yawning chasm within her deepest being, one she could never articulate but had always suspected, had been immediately filled.
Tears streamed down the mink's cheeks unbidden, unrelenting. She struggled to speak at all, jaw wide as she stammered half-words and incoherent noises. She was inwardly surprised when her vision was no less clear despite the unrelenting sobbing that choked her throat and overwhelmed her brain. She couldn't speak, and she couldn't move. But she could feel.
Very gently and very quietly, the goddess knelt down before Vect, her enormous head slowly dropping to the mink's eye level without a sound. In a tender second, her enormous paws cradled Vect's chin from either side, and held her head in place with such delicate compassion. To Vect, the touch of her fingers was akin to the finest satin carefully rubbing her very soul.
Those massive, glimmering silver eyes looked deeply at the mink. Not just at, but in. Though. Piercing through fear and hesitation to gaze gently upon the barest, most naked, most vulnerable layer of her deepest existence. Eyes that saw the most fundamental elements, the most immutable truths, of her.
Eyes that shimmered with appreciation, affection, and compassion.
Vect couldn't stop crying. She was paralyzed with emotion, tears unrelenting as she felt herself seen.
As she felt herself loved.
The goddess leaned inward toward the mink, all while keeping Vect's face carefully within her oversized, loving grasp. Vect could scarcely move. She could hardly think. All she could do, was feel.
She felt the goddess leaning forward so tenderly. She felt the touch of the goddess' forehead against her own. She felt the rush of calming peace, the sensation of safety, the warmth of her tremendous presence. She felt the comforting embrace of those hands upon her chin. She felt it as, extremely gently, the titanic creature withdrew just enough - just barely enough to break that contact. And then, she felt it as very, very tenderly, the goddess kissed her upon her left eye.
The warm, radiating emotion encompassed her entire being - A flowing sensation of sudden, very deep relief. Of joy. Of tranquility. In that singular moment, more than anything else, Vect knew that she would be safe. That she was protected. That she was right, and justified, in being herself. She knew that everything was fine. That the world was wondrous and wonderful.
She bawled. She cried. She utterly sobbed with joy to know it. At once every emotion in her soul crystalized at the same moment, becoming unified in deep, synchronized understanding. She wept loudly, blubbering as she struggled to contain the feelings flooding her being from every direction.
She was going to be okay.
Eventually, Vect collected herself. Not with a halting, forced stop to her feelings, but instead with a simmering, gradual understanding and acknowledgement. She still had her emotions, and they sang within her heart without need to be silenced or muted. They were still within her, and they were hers to experience and explore, hers to enjoy, rather than being a storm to navigate desperately. She raised her paws to wipe her eyes dry.
And in so doing, found the goddess had tied a loose piece of silken ribbon around her left wrist. The length of crimson felt wonderful against her fur, and she smiled when she saw it had been tied off with a gigantic, large, red bow.
The goddess returned a warm, lovely smile to Vect. Beaming silver eyes offered wordless understanding and comfort, even as she gradually stood to her full height once more. The comfort this brought Vect was interrupted only when she realized that their eyes remained level with one another, despite the monumental jackal rising tall. The mink looked downward with a jolt, and found the crimson plane beneath her was slowly pulling away. The gradual, gentle force of not-gravity had seized her once again.
She was rising upward.
Vect began to panic again, arms flailing as she struggled to right herself in the air, even as she lifted above the goddess' head.
"No! NO! Please! Please!"
The goddess held the other end of that ribbon between her fingertips. The red strand tied around Vect's wrist dangled through the air as she continued to ascend. The goddess let the slack length pull through her gigantic, delicate grasp as the mink rose above the crimson land upon which she stood.
"Please, let me stay! I don't want to leave! PLEASE!"
Through tear-blurred eyes now, she saw the goddess' smile grow smaller and smaller. The towering jackal faded into the depths of distance and darkness that yawned beneath Vect, widening as she rose. The acceleration was gentle, yet unkind, ushering Vect away at the speed of thought.
"Never doubt that you are worthy of kindness and comfort. Never doubt that you deserve love."
"PLEASE!" Vect jolted awake on the sofa with a panicked cry. A yelp of agony followed immediately afterward, as the shocking pain in her ribcage announced her arrival back in reality.
"Aw... fuck," her voice rumbled, even as her brain raced to parse the situation. Was that all...? Vect threw the blanket off of her body, her vision darting across the room from where she lay upon the sofa.
The clock on her desk read 11:26 PM. She'd been out for over 12 hours. If nothing else, she actually felt rested.
Vect heaved a careful sigh, sitting upright on the sofa as she put her face in her hands. It had all felt s-
Vect pulled back from her hands slightly, blinking multiple times in the process. Her eye. She could see out of her eye again. And there was no pain. At all. Her body still ached and her ribcage still hurt like hell, so it wasn't as if she had completely healed. But her eye felt... fine.
"What the hell...?" She muttered softly to herself as she leaned back against the sofa, perplexed and amazed.
It would take her another twenty minutes to notice the red silk ribbon on her wrist, tied in a gigantic bow.
She was exhausted. Utterly.
What's more, she was in unspeakable pain. Her left eye constantly throbbed with dull, aching waves of discomfort. Her ribcage radiated with repeated, sharp stabs of agony that struck with every breath she took.
It made for a shitty combination, in her opinion.
It hadn't even been twenty-four hours since Vect had been beaten to a bloody pulp by Remmington, and she wasn't having much fun. She needed rest - she knew this. But how was she supposed to rest when her brain recoiled instinctually every other moment, responding to the deep distress, over and over again? The screeching din of agony made it hard to focus, never mind the idea of letting go enough to sleep.
But she was exhausted. The adrenaline had long since worn off, and somewhere beneath all that pain was a deeper layer of tired that penetrated her to the core. She had fought, she had lost, and then she had dragged her carcass back home. She had walked, injured and alone, for hours to do it.
Here, now, she sank into the plush cushions of the sofa in her office. The fluffy blanket that Kayte had wrapped her in was still soft and warm, despite her sweating and shivering. She'd been laying there in the dark for a long while now, unable to sleep. The pain was distracting, of course - It was monumentally distracting - But on top of that, she couldn't stop seeing his face.
The flashes of bone and teeth. The pouring, oozing slick dark that her brain struggled to grasp, only to slip right off. The hidden, yet obvious, malice. The spray of gore and violence that was undone in seconds, both of which had been returned to her with interest. Andrew was a nightmare made manifest, and a part of Vect feared closing her eyes lest she encounter him again.
Yet she needed sleep. She was never going to heal if she didn't get sleep. Her eye jolted with a flash of pointed, sudden pain as she twisted and writhed to find anything resembling comfort. Anything even remotely like relief.
Maybe, she told herself, maybe she could just... Just focus on her own breathing. Just close her eyes and navigate the pain. Maybe she could focus on the exhaustion, focus on the need. Maybe she could follow where her mind forged ahead, rather than trying to force her thoughts down a rigid path. Maybe she could sink into the couch just a little more. Subsume into the cushions bit by bit. Down. Further.
Down.
Down.
D o w n.
The fall. It felt so familiar, and still somehow different.
It wasn't a halting, shocking, sickening drop. She was used to those. No, this was a smoother, kinder acceleration that cradled her downward, a soft current that swept her deeper as she pulled away from the couch.
Vect felt herself plummeting through the floor, pulled by a force that wasn't quite gravity. A strange, otherworldly sensation that was still somehow nostalgic. Her whole body tumbled beneath her as she embraced the descent, falling along an axis of reality she had never quite been fully aware of, never truly realized existed. Something about the acceleration felt so gentle to her despite the rate at which she streamed downward. Even as she built up speed, even as she turned in mid flight with eyes closed, she could feel the rush of movement past her nose. Feel the current washing over her face. She could feel the pain peel away from her cheeks, peel away from her chest, peel away from her ribs. The agony left her gradually, tenderly plucked off of her body as she left some portion of herself behind. Then, into the void of that vacated pain, a hushed sense of relief flowed directly into her. She felt the sensation of still calm flood in, even as she traveled further and further down.
Soft. Tender. Deliberate.
It was as if each layer of her body was stripped away, one after the other. It was as if her corporeal existence was shed in stages, leaving behind only what was central, true, and pure. Leaving only her. And yet she still was. She could still feel. She could still move. It was as if every moment she fell deeper, feelings became more tangible than flesh.
She spun as she continued to fall, arms at her sides as she began to decelerate gently. She wondered what it was she was falling through. Pure darkness? Liquid? Some manner of jelly? Or something that she couldn't comprehend even if she desired to?
It didn't matter. She continued to move nose-first, downward. She fell quickly, but carefully, guided along a path through space that she could understand instinctually, needing absolutely no explanation. It was as if someone were calling her name. Her name, secret and hidden - obscured even from her. And even though her ears could not hear it, that call nevertheless resonated deeply within the core of her being. How could her deepest self resist such a summons? How could she turn away from a call that spoke to the truth of who she was?
It was odd. It was strange. It ought to have been jarring. Terrifying.
Yet it was a comfort. She comprehended without understanding.
Slowly - very slowly - her descent crawled to a halt. Her outstretched body, dropping face-first into the void, found no hard stop at the end. Instead, she pulled her knees to her chest, floating for a long, slow, quiet moment.
She didn't want that moment to end. It was a moment of tranquility and peace. She felt liberated from her pain, removed from existence, detached from the physical, and yet simultaneously safe. Nothing was wrong. Nothing was falling apart. Nothing hurt.
Eventually, the mink opened her eyes. Both of them.
Blue. Azure expanse rolling toward the horizon. A dim shade that played at the edges of darkness, rolling toward light. At first she wondered if her vision hadn't finally deteriorated. But as she stretched her feet down to gently stand up, it was clear that her eyes were fine. She could see. She could see a paw in front of her face, see her legs and feet beneath her. It was just that there was barely anything to see. A delicate series of overlapping gradients, all spanning into the distance with a flat, limitless reach. Around her in every direction, shades of blue extending toward infinity.
Instinctually Vect felt as if this wasn't the truth - or at least, not the totality of it. It was as if what she saw was more than an endless expanse of color, but her own limitations meant that she couldn't see it as anything else. She didn't know how she knew this. She just knew.
"Hello?"
It was so full. Even though it looked like an empty, barren, desolate place... It was brimming, swirling, thrivingly full. It was rich and overflowing with... with emotion. Sumptuous emotion. Stark emotion. Wellsprings of feeling were present in every direction, regardless of which way she looked. Each emotion was one she experienced in totality as she drew near their source. Her body sang with the resonant sensations of feeling, with each and every one echoing through her inner being like ripples in the surface of placid water. Spreading wider, drawing outward, leaving intricate details in the wake of each breaking, cresting wave.
The experience was potent. In fact, it was nearly overwhelming.
Vect took a tentative step into the distance. The azure flickered around her, and she could sense the horizon go dim, and darken. The hue of her surroundings turned swiftly to an empty, heavy color - one she could not name, and that her eyes could not process. And then: A flash of herself. The sensation of her being, her shape, the totality of her emotion. She recognized herself there before her, even as rage crackled through the air. Anger swept away the peace and tranquility that lay behind her, an overwhelming wave of mounting, focused ire. As tension suffocated the air, she felt an invisible pull forward. A taught thread connected her rage to a dense, buried pillar of loss. A pillar that stood tall in the dark, and thrust deep into the ground.
A pillar surrounded by clouds of choking, eye-watering regret.
She wept silently, eyes blurred with tears as she watched herself walk the blighted path ahead into the abyss. She watched herself from afar, flanked on all sides by judgement, each step forward weighted with shame. Thirteen corpses, each familiar, emerging at the sides of the trail - and each glimmering with a slick, sick hue upon their obvious, glowing mortal wounds. As she moved past each, she could feel the reverberations of their longing and innocence - She could feel it as their loss clung deeply to her body. Every scrap of what had been cut short was hers to carry. Vect felt the heaviness smother her, pull her down - an inevitable, irreversible burden that was hers and hers alone. A weight she had earned, tethered to her core - an ugly, tangled knot of halted, spoiled dreams, panic, and regret.
All those emotions. All those dreams. The desperate, resonant cries of thirteen lives severed from all. Their screams vibrating her to the depths of her very soul.
It was too much. She couldn't face it. She had to...
In a snap turn, she averted her gaze from the ichor on the horizon, and ran. A full-tilt scramble, heart in her throat and tears in her eyes, chest desperately gasping for air that didn't exist. She felt only fear and desperation, wellsprings of ice cold emotion that poured thickly into her heart.
Distance. She needed distance.
Gradually, she obtained it.
Before she could fully grasp what she had left behind her, she instead found her way once more to that plane of tranquil calm. Yet despite this, her tears still came, rolling along her cheeks and down her chin. Each one fell to her feet with as slow and gentle a descent as that with which she had arrived. She could feel each slowly sinking droplet as it melted against the azure below, her fear and guilt melting along with them as they spread against the surface under her. So, her desperation dissolved and diluted into calm, blue softness.
And then,
Crimson.
Strands of long, draping crimson.
She gazed on intently as individual tendrils of color unfurled from the horizon, rolling toward her tenderly. Each strip a delicate, silken ribbon of unlimited length, stretching from their terminus at her feet and toward some promised nexus. There were but a few overlapping strip of fabric and color at her feet to begin with, but as she followed their promised path, they grew more numerous and interconnected. Rolling mounds of gentle, shimmering, sensual material. The crimson lay atop itself, askew in places, bunched together in others. She thought them beautiful for their inconsistencies and differences, for their uniqueness.
The landscape was satin and silk, red and impossibly deep. Each step was delight beneath her feet, coaxing her further to experience sensation and celebration of her own existence. Vect stopped briefly to crouch down and run the most careful of fingertips along the somehow familiar ground. It felt so cool to the touch, and yet warm against her skin. The world around her sang with promise of a velvet embrace, sang with the elation of union and support. The strands were wonderfully soft, yielding. She reflected that a strand could certainly not hold her weight on its own.
But it was not alone.
Silk intertwined, layered, and weaved within itself. The path held her with little difficulty. She followed tentatively, yet with barely hidden elation.
Somewhere along the way she realized she was naked. Vect could not remember if her clothing had simply dissolved from her body, or if she hadn't arrived with any, but such details felt irrelevant. This was better anyhow, she noted to herself. There was nothing like shame here - Not even for her body, which she was so used to drawing judgement for. There was no discomfort from others here. Not even for her bared breasts, her deeply scarred body and ears, freshly wounded eye, and exposed penis. No, there was no hot sting, nor any ice cold realization. There was only welcoming invitation. It was at once strange and wonderful to her. She was hiding no part of herself. She was being seen - but she was not drawing revulsion.
She was being seen with celebration.
The crimson path at last bent and curved to an end, leading Vect to a mound of rolling silk that pooled in the center of existence. It was as tall as she was, with each glimmgering, pooling strand a part of a greater whole. And yet, even as she reached out to touch the soft, gentle surface, Vect knew that there was yet more still. She felt wonder and delight in her heart as the mound began to stir. Ribbons slid to the side, tumbling ever so delicately downward as two gigantic, onyx ears pierced through the crimson surface and rose upward from below.
Slowly, gently, delicately, at last, she emerged from within.
Ribbons caressed her every curve, cascading over her body as she revealed herself. The displaced silk flowed softly against her immense stature as she stood tall, massive and enormous, quickly dwarfing the mink before her. Seven, eight... nine feet tall, a towering creature that radiated not only power - but immaculate grace and tenderness. Vect struggled with awe as she beheld her immeasurable beauty. Was she feline? Lupine? Her shape seemed to shift and waver with every blink. A massive wolf? A tremendous tigress? An enormous bear? She was all, and none. She encompassed every shape, and yet, these were details superfluous to her presence. The feeling of her being did not shift, even if her visage was in flux. Slowly, gradually, Vect's perception settled inward - And the outline of the creature before her stabilized to that of an incredibly tall and massive jackal. A being of curves and softness atop undeniable, potent, obvious power.
The being stepped forward from the pile of silk from which she had emerged. A smooth, bared foot landed silently in front of Vect as the mink gawked upward at this sublime display. Her legs were shaped like tapered pillars, curved and flawless, each tremendous enough to support her enormity. Her flared hips curved impossibly - and yet naturally - into her absurd waist. Above this, a set of breasts that defied any expectation, and existed without regard for gravity. Her arms outstretched above her as she seemed to recover from a long, lingering slumber. They too, bristled with potency and spoke with delicacy. Her torso was defiance of biology and physics, perfection in absurdity. Beneath her naval, following down to her hips again, rested an incredibly, unthinkably large and massive shaft, one that rested against her inner thigh without reservation or shame.
Her shifting, slowly stabilizing muzzle regarded Vect with glimmering silver eyes amid the dark features she possessed. Indeed, the entirety of her body was inky black shadow - a lie that hid more beneath, a lie of convenience and brevity. Vect could sense that the truth was more than she saw - not due to deception, but rather, due to her inability to fully perceive. This obsidian titan glistened in the crimson expanse with dark, gleaming promise. She stood tall, without threat or malice.
Vect was scarcely religious. But in this moment she could not help but regard this as a goddess before her.
She was a creature of sensuality and overwhelming bliss, and yet so much more. From within her heart, within the depths of her soul, she radiated emotions outward. Her mere presence exuded an aura that Vect could never hope to contain or resist - Feelings of sensuality, eroticism, joy, delight, togetherness, friendship, love, security, contentment, tranquility, and still more. The rushing echos of sensation washed over the mink, leaving her shuddering with sudden, unspoken understanding.
It was as if a yawning chasm within her deepest being, one she could never articulate but had always suspected, had been immediately filled.
Tears streamed down the mink's cheeks unbidden, unrelenting. She struggled to speak at all, jaw wide as she stammered half-words and incoherent noises. She was inwardly surprised when her vision was no less clear despite the unrelenting sobbing that choked her throat and overwhelmed her brain. She couldn't speak, and she couldn't move. But she could feel.
Very gently and very quietly, the goddess knelt down before Vect, her enormous head slowly dropping to the mink's eye level without a sound. In a tender second, her enormous paws cradled Vect's chin from either side, and held her head in place with such delicate compassion. To Vect, the touch of her fingers was akin to the finest satin carefully rubbing her very soul.
Those massive, glimmering silver eyes looked deeply at the mink. Not just at, but in. Though. Piercing through fear and hesitation to gaze gently upon the barest, most naked, most vulnerable layer of her deepest existence. Eyes that saw the most fundamental elements, the most immutable truths, of her.
Eyes that shimmered with appreciation, affection, and compassion.
Vect couldn't stop crying. She was paralyzed with emotion, tears unrelenting as she felt herself seen.
As she felt herself loved.
The goddess leaned inward toward the mink, all while keeping Vect's face carefully within her oversized, loving grasp. Vect could scarcely move. She could hardly think. All she could do, was feel.
She felt the goddess leaning forward so tenderly. She felt the touch of the goddess' forehead against her own. She felt the rush of calming peace, the sensation of safety, the warmth of her tremendous presence. She felt the comforting embrace of those hands upon her chin. She felt it as, extremely gently, the titanic creature withdrew just enough - just barely enough to break that contact. And then, she felt it as very, very tenderly, the goddess kissed her upon her left eye.
The warm, radiating emotion encompassed her entire being - A flowing sensation of sudden, very deep relief. Of joy. Of tranquility. In that singular moment, more than anything else, Vect knew that she would be safe. That she was protected. That she was right, and justified, in being herself. She knew that everything was fine. That the world was wondrous and wonderful.
She bawled. She cried. She utterly sobbed with joy to know it. At once every emotion in her soul crystalized at the same moment, becoming unified in deep, synchronized understanding. She wept loudly, blubbering as she struggled to contain the feelings flooding her being from every direction.
She was going to be okay.
Eventually, Vect collected herself. Not with a halting, forced stop to her feelings, but instead with a simmering, gradual understanding and acknowledgement. She still had her emotions, and they sang within her heart without need to be silenced or muted. They were still within her, and they were hers to experience and explore, hers to enjoy, rather than being a storm to navigate desperately. She raised her paws to wipe her eyes dry.
And in so doing, found the goddess had tied a loose piece of silken ribbon around her left wrist. The length of crimson felt wonderful against her fur, and she smiled when she saw it had been tied off with a gigantic, large, red bow.
The goddess returned a warm, lovely smile to Vect. Beaming silver eyes offered wordless understanding and comfort, even as she gradually stood to her full height once more. The comfort this brought Vect was interrupted only when she realized that their eyes remained level with one another, despite the monumental jackal rising tall. The mink looked downward with a jolt, and found the crimson plane beneath her was slowly pulling away. The gradual, gentle force of not-gravity had seized her once again.
She was rising upward.
Vect began to panic again, arms flailing as she struggled to right herself in the air, even as she lifted above the goddess' head.
"No! NO! Please! Please!"
The goddess held the other end of that ribbon between her fingertips. The red strand tied around Vect's wrist dangled through the air as she continued to ascend. The goddess let the slack length pull through her gigantic, delicate grasp as the mink rose above the crimson land upon which she stood.
"Please, let me stay! I don't want to leave! PLEASE!"
Through tear-blurred eyes now, she saw the goddess' smile grow smaller and smaller. The towering jackal faded into the depths of distance and darkness that yawned beneath Vect, widening as she rose. The acceleration was gentle, yet unkind, ushering Vect away at the speed of thought.
"Never doubt that you are worthy of kindness and comfort. Never doubt that you deserve love."
"PLEASE!" Vect jolted awake on the sofa with a panicked cry. A yelp of agony followed immediately afterward, as the shocking pain in her ribcage announced her arrival back in reality.
"Aw... fuck," her voice rumbled, even as her brain raced to parse the situation. Was that all...? Vect threw the blanket off of her body, her vision darting across the room from where she lay upon the sofa.
The clock on her desk read 11:26 PM. She'd been out for over 12 hours. If nothing else, she actually felt rested.
Vect heaved a careful sigh, sitting upright on the sofa as she put her face in her hands. It had all felt s-
Vect pulled back from her hands slightly, blinking multiple times in the process. Her eye. She could see out of her eye again. And there was no pain. At all. Her body still ached and her ribcage still hurt like hell, so it wasn't as if she had completely healed. But her eye felt... fine.
"What the hell...?" She muttered softly to herself as she leaned back against the sofa, perplexed and amazed.
It would take her another twenty minutes to notice the red silk ribbon on her wrist, tied in a gigantic bow.