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  Frost Queen Tomiko

  by D. H. Huck

  Copyright D. H. Huck

  Published by Huckster Industries 2017

  http://dhhuck.blogspot.com/

  Chapter 1

  The Flower of Umai

  Ikumi gazed into the cave's gloomy entrance. She wasn't a fan of dark places, but it was the only location she knew of to collect the ingredients she needed. She checked to make sure her yukata was secure, the humidity making the deep red garment hug her body. Her soft brown hair was already rolled up and knotted at the top of her head, except for a few strands that fell down the side.

  She held her hand out in front of her and blew warm air into it. A white flame sprang to life, dancing an inch above her palm. Ikumi pushed it forward and it drifted into the hollow. The one looming darkness was shattered, replaced with a thousand shadows cast by the brightening fire.

  With a satchel slung over her shoulder she followed her spell, her sandals carefully finding a path along the damp floor of the cavern. She kept her ears perked, expecting any moment to hear from the dainezumi that made their home there. Her light moved forward as she did, and soon she was facing a line of stalagmites which blocked the entrance to the next chamber. Behind her the sound of nails on stone signaled the presence of the creatures she had been waiting for.

  She turned around, seeing their furry bodies at the edges of the illumination. There were a half dozen of them, plus a half dozen pairs of glowing eyes from deeper in, where the light held no sway.

  "Hello," said Ikumi, her voice gentle and sweet. "I'm just here for some songshrooms. I hope you don't mind."

  She gave them her warmest smile. The dainezumi were about two feet long each, not counting their tails. They were baring their teeth and growling. Each growl was low and soft, but combined they made an imposing show. Ikumi understood their anger. She was an invader in their home, and didn't want to hurt them.

  Ikumi put her fingers to her lips and kissed them, then blew the kiss toward the menacing creatures. With it went a pulse of magic. One by one the growls stopped, and in a few moments the dainezumi were coming fully into the light. She knelt down to pet them as they gathered around her, squeaking softly and nuzzling her legs.

  "Aww," said Ikumi, "See? We can be friends."

  She gave them a bit more attention before sending them back along, ready to resume her mission. Squeezing through the stalagmites was a challenge. Ikumi was not as athletic as some of her friends, and her breasts, which were very generously sized, gave her some trouble. She also had to admit that her yukata wasn't the best outfit for exploring a cave, restricting her legs too much to make climbing practical.

  She found her way through regardless, and was rewarded by the sight of a still, silent lake that peeked into the chamber before disappearing under the wall. The shore of the lake was lined with glowing blue shapes, and now that all was quiet she heard their humming. Somber tones rose and fell, slowly changing in timber and volume. She got on her knees before them, putting her hands together for a quick prayer. She apologized to the cave spirits for taking their bounty, and promising to leave with no more than she needed. Once she was finished, she opened her satchel and, delicately, picked twenty of the songshrooms and sealed them inside. She said another prayer of thanks, urging them to grow back as quickly as they could.

  Ikumi stood, and immediately noticed that something was wrong. The dainezumi were growling again. Her spell couldn't have worn off that quickly. They were also too far away, and a couple of pained squeals echoed throughout the cave. Before Ikumi could make sense of it they were quiet again. Something else was in the cave.

  A shadow appeared on the ground in front of her, large and distorted. She spun around, but before she could see what was casting it her flame was squelched, leaving only the songshrooms' glow to light the room. It wasn't enough to tell her more than that a roughly man-shaped being stood a dozen feet in front of her.

  "Who are you?" she asked, reaching into her belt to grab a small bundle of hairs.

  A deep, rumbling voice, not of a human throat, responded to her.

  "You're a nice little treat. Down here all alone, so young and soft-looking."

  Ikumi read the threat in his voice. She brought the bundle of hairs in front of her mouth and let out a gust of air. The light grey strands took to the wind, swirling and multiplying until the coalesced into the shape of a monstrous wolf, his shoulder standing almost as tall as Ikumi's waist.

  "Tsuki Okami!" she called out, and with her words the beast solidified and came to life. He glowed as brightly as her flame had, and over his back she caught her first real look at what was coming for her.

  He was tall, almost seven feet, and would have passed for a well-built human in silhouette. In the light his skin was a dusky grey and his ears were long and pointed. So were his nails. His eyes were like that of a cat's, and when he smiled she saw his subtly extended canines. Slick, straight black hair streamed from his scalp down the back of his head. He was covered in furs, a mix of crude, simply made pieces and fine embellishments.

  Ikumi had never heard of anything like him. He hadn't taken his eyes off her, and in his stare was a cruelty unmatched by any beast or spirit she'd known.

  Her protector snarled and lunged at him, but when he made contact the creature melted, losing his form long enough to allow the wolf to pass through. Tsuki Okami yelped and whined, and Ikumi soon saw why- he was covered in a black, sticky tar that was quickly solidifying. He fell to the ground and became stuck there, despite his ferocious struggling. The creature regained his previous shape and stalked toward her.

  Ikumi wasn't good at any directly offensive magic, but she didn't have anything else to protect herself with. She inhaled, preparing to blow a sharp gust of air at the creature that would hit him with the force of a stone. Before she could he closed the distance with a blur of motion. His hand wrapped around her face, long fingers locking it in his grip. She tried to pull it free, but even with both of her hands on his arm she couldn't do anything. He pushed forward, walking her back until she was pressed against the cavern wall.

  "That mouth of yours is trouble. Let's do something about it."

  At first she thought he was loosening his fingers. Instead, to her horror, she saw that his hand was melting. The inky tar was covering her mouth now, and she could feel it taking hold against her skin. Not thinking, she reached to pull it free, but the creature grabbed her wrists before she could.

  He effortlessly lifted her off her feet, pressing her hands against the rock. This time one hand kept them in place while the other partially dissolved. The tar covering her mouth was like tough rubber now, glued fast to her lips and skin. She tried to open her mouth to scream, but the black substance was bonded too well, and she could only whine pitifully.

  The creature let go of her hands, and now the same tar was holding her wrists to the wall, easily supporting her weight as her feet dangled a few inches from the ground. Ikumi turned her face away from him and shut her eyes, knowing she was doomed to suffer whatever fate he intended for her. It didn't take long for his hands to appear on her body, starting at her sides and following her waist down to her ass.

  Ikumi didn't understand. She knew of dozens of dangerous creatures in the world. She'd dealt with yokai of all kinds. But nothing she'd ever seen or heard of would... would touch her like this. Somewhere, in the back of her head, an idea was screaming to come forward. Some part of her, buried in her mind where she never went, knew what was about to happen to her. Ikumi didn't know if she should fight to bring it out or keep it down, but terror was creeping through her on a level that she would never have though possible.

  Ikumi lifted her legs to kick at him, but he was too close and all he had to do
was to lean forward to pin her legs to the wall. He continued to take her flesh into his hands, squeezing and pinching her in strange and uncomfortable ways. The worst was when grabbed her breasts and worked his fingers all over them. What he was doing didn't hurt- not really- but it was worse. Worse than any bruise or cut she'd ever suffered. She could feel his hot, wet breath on her neck. She felt his drool drip onto her chest. She felt his tongue drag across her throat. Was he going to eat her? No, that wasn't it.

  He stepped back, and after a few moments went where she was left to hang unmolested, she risked opening her eyes and looking forward. It was dark again. Tsuki Okami had disappeared. Her bag with the songshrooms had fallen open at her feet, and the glow made the creature look even more terrifying with the way it lit him from below.

  He reached out and touched his long, sharp fingernail- no, his claw- to brush against her neck. With a flash of movement he swiped down. There was no pain. He hadn't cut her. Then her clothes opened up, sliced apart from her chest to her feet. Her belt dropped to the ground. The creature closed in on her again, squashing the songshrooms under his feet and killing her already meager light. His hands slipped into the opening. Once again he took enjoyment from touching her body, except this time it was bare skin in his hands.

  Ikumi screamed. She struggled. She did everything she could. He didn't stop.

  Taiko grabbed the trunk of the tampopo tree to steady herself. It wasn't a steep hill, but the ground underneath her was soft and spongy. The tree shook, and some its seedpods broke off and started drifting through the air. The wind picked up as they did, scattering them away across the forest. Soon all of the tampopo trees would be ready to lose their seeds, and on a windy day the entire forest would be stripped and blown in a great cloud as far as the eye could see.

  "How much farther do we have to go?" asked Miyoshi, huffing.

  Taiko looked behind her. Miyoshi was a good thirty feet back, trudging up the slope. Chiyo was right behind Miyoshi, reading a book as she followed along, her short staff tucked under one arm. Only Yumi was keeping up with Taiko, using her spear as a walking stick.

  "Until we find them, of course!" said Taiko.

  Earlier that morning, one of the villagers had spotted a fuumog behaving strangely, wandering near the village and calling out in a sad, mournful tone. Taiko had gathered her friends to see what was wrong, and after Miyoshi's singing had calmed it down enough Taiko was able to talk to it. It could only respond with coos and gestures, but she was able to work out that it was a mother- and that her cubs had gone missing.

  An hour later, she and her friends were in the Tampopo Forest, looking for clues to where they could have gone. So far, they had nothing to show for it.

  "We can't just wander around the whole forest," said Miyoshi. "That'll take forever. We didn't even pack a lunch or any snacks."

  "Hey, Chiyo," said Yumi, "Found anything useful in that book? Chiyo? Hey!"

  "Huh?" she asked, finally looking up. "Did you find something?"

  "Yeah," said Yumi, "Trees. I'm asking about you. Did you read anything useful or not?"

  "Oh, uh, I don't think so. It says a lot here about the games that mother fuumogs and their cubs play together. There are over fifty observed dances and eight variations of fuu-rolling, and some special seasonal components to six of them- but nothing that would account for the cubs running away. They're supposed to be completely inseparable."

  "That settles it," said Yumi. "They must have been cubnapped. At least that makes it interesting, finally. Once we find the culprits I'll be able to give them a good, solid beating."

  "Who would do something like that?" asked Taiko, "You're just getting carried away."

  "Miyoshi's right, though. This is boring."

  "Yumi, don't say that. This is important. Besides, we should be close enough to where she lost them now."

  Taiko turned to face forward again. She found more stable footing and exhaled, clapping her hands together before making a wide circle with her arms, then bringing them in again and crossing them against her chest.

  "Fuumog's nose!" she said, and with a pulse of magic another world appeared before her, this one rendered by her newly enhanced sense of smell rather than her vision. It grew in vibrancy and detail as she inhaled, adding in more colors as she took in new scents.

  "Come on," she said, continuing forward. She scanned the ground for any lingering sign of the cubs. It wasn't long before she found their nest, but even after a half hour of searching she couldn't find a trail leading away from it, other than the mother's. She didn't smell any of Yumi's hoped-for cubnappers, either.

  "Nothing," she said, stopping to sigh. "I don't get it. It's like they just vanished."

  "You shouldn't be surprised," said Chiyo. "If it was that easy, the mother would have tracked them down right off. She's got more experience than you with that nose."

  "Hey," said Miyoshi, kneeling next to a bush. "Look at these berries. I've never seen this kind before- do you think they're good to eat?"

  "Are you really worried about that right now?" asked Taiko.

  Miyoshi never did have much of a taste for adventures. She preferred her singing, her sweets, and her crafts. Taiko couldn't get too annoyed at her- she had come along, after all, because she was a loyal friend who was willing to help, even if she complained about it.

  "Those are murasakino berries," said Chiyo, squatting next to Miyoshi. "Funny, they usually don't come in this early in the year. They're okay to eat, I guess. Not poisonous, but they're supposed to be kind of bitter. They're mostly used by alchemists to- hey, wait!"

  "Taiko," said Chiyo, standing up. "Do you smell any more of these berries anywhere? Anywhere where it looks like they've been eaten?"

  Taiko scanned the area again.

  "Over there," she said. "I don't see them anymore, but the smell is still there. And all of the cubs were gathered by them too."

  "Hm?" said Yumi, whose attention had drifted off a while ago, "Did you guys find something?"

  "Murasakino berries are used to make a brew that's used to cover up bad smells. You just need to mix them with- here we go!- dried nensho leaves. Fuumogs eat both, but usually the nensho leaves are gone before the murasakino berries start sprouting."

  "That's it!" yelled Taiko, "The cubs must have lost their scents! They wandered away and then couldn't follow their own trails back to the nest. And the mother couldn't either."

  She rushed over to the berries, gathering them and taking them to the leaves that Chiyo was holding. She smashed them together in her hands until a new color emerged. Or, rather than a new one, one that she hadn't taken notice of before. Now that she was looking for it she could see where it was all over the nest. And where it lead away.

  Taiko took off running.

  "Come on!" she shouted. The trail was easy to follow now, and she felt giddy and excited. Her skirt flapped against her legs as her knees beat up and down, and she felt the bouncing of her long, wavy hair on her back. The wind blew a few of its pink strands into her eyes, and she almost tripped clearing them away.

  She stopped at a small ravine. The scent was all over the place here, trails crisscrossing each other and converging to a center. Yumi was right on her heels, while Chiyo and Miyoshi were still catching up.

  Taiko hopped down into the ravine, and behind a fallen tree she saw four huddled balls of fur.

  "Hello," she said, holding out her hand. When they saw that their hiding place was compromised they uncurled, backing away from her. One of them reared up on his hind legs and tried to roar at her. The sound made Taiko giggle, which startled him. He fell over backwards and rolled around to get back on his feet.

  "Okay," said Yumi as she joined her in the ravine. "You found them. Grab 'em and let's go."

  "Not like this," said Taiko. "They're too scared. I wish I still had some of those berries to offer them..."

  "Where's Ikumi right now? Shouldn't this be her specialty in the first place?"

  "She w
ent to go find some songshrooms," said Miyoshi, leaning over the top of the ravine. "Aww, is that them? They're so cute!"

  The brave one was awkwardly swiping its paw in Taiko's general direction.

  "Come down," said Taiko. "Come sing for them. It worked for their mother, remember?"

  "It's dirty down there," grumbled Miyoshi.

  Yumi walked up and seized her, pulling her down and pushing her in front of the cubs.

  "Alright, alright," she said. She knelt down, getting as close to eye level with the little fuumogs as she could.

  "My name is Miyoshi," she said. "You must be tired after being lost all day. Do you want to hear a lullaby?"

  The cub roared again in response. Miyoshi started singing.

  It was a sweet, gentle melody that Miyoshi's voice suited beautifully. Taiko loved watching her sing. Of all her friends Miyoshi was the prettiest. Everything about her was warm, soft, and gentle, from her autumn brown curls tied up in colorful ribbons to her red and white flower printed dress. Even her figure was soft. While Chiyo was more slender under the loose robes she usually wore and Yumi was firm and toned, Miyoshi had gently flowing curves that Taiko admired.

  The cubs were now enthralled enough to let Miyoshi reach forward and rub their little heads. They sniffed tentatively at her, and Taiko could see where they were focusing on- the spot where their mother's scent was on Miyoshi's clothes.

  "Miyoshi," she said. "Can you weave a basket for us? To carry them in?"

  "I could," she said, "But don't you want to just hold them yourself? They're so fuzzy!"

  "Where's Chiyo?" asked Yumi. "Wasn't she behind you?"

  "Um..." said Miyoshi.

  "Hey!" yelled out Yumi, climbing up the ravine, "Chiyo! Where did you go? What the- Taikio! Quick!"

  Taiko scrambled up the ravine, the urgency in Yumi's voice speaking for itself. She gasped when she saw what was happening.

  A few dozen yards away was Taiko's friend, on her knees with her head bowed. Behind her was a tsurujin- a tangle of animated vines clinging and snaking its way around the nearby trees. It was also snaking its way around Chiyo.