+Notable Author: [circes_cup] The LaPorte Caves

[Female Bodybuilding]

The LaPorte Caves

Submitted by circes_cup on June 23, 2015 - 12:10am

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CHAPTER 1
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SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out into a foreign world. Starving and delirious, they are rescued, but by whom?

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

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Julia awoke to the feel of a bed beneath her. She forced open her eyes and looked around the room. The fluorescent lights of a hospital ceiling glared back at her.

Relief flooded her nerves: the were saved. She found herself weeping a bit. They were going to be OK. The anxiety of the last few days came crashing down upon her. First there was the catastrophic stumble in the caves, during which she and her boyfriend careened clear down a steep mountain slope. Then there was waking up, stranded, in a strange wilderness. Then the hours and hours of walking to find civilization, with nothing to show for it but worsening physical condition for both of them. Then the growing sense of vertigo in Julia's head due to all the strange fruit she was eating. And through it all, there was that strange sense that the wilderness seemed just a little bit off -- colors and sounds and sights that were somehow familiar, but somehow alien to Julia as well.

Ha, Julia laughed to herself, looking back on it! She had almost convinced herself that they had landed in a parallel dimension or something. That what your mind will do to you in the wilderness, I suppose, she chuckled to herself. But now, thank heavens, she was in a hospital room that was, by all appearances, normal. She was out of the woods-- literally, and in a larger sense as well.

Howard was not in the room. Instead, a hospital employee stood next to her, in hospital scrubs.

Julia tried to sit up, but the grogginess prevailed. "Doctor, where's my boyfriend? Is he OK?"

"He'll be fine," the man replied. "And I'm not the doctor. I'll get her for you now." He leaned his head out of an opening and announced that the patient had come to.

The curtain was momentarily darkened by a large shadow before it separated to reveal the most enormous woman Julia had ever seen. From her reclining position, Julia found that she had to crane her neck backward in order to meet the woman's eyes. She was perhaps seven-and-a-half feet tall, and proportionately as broad. She wore a full length white lab coat. Given her size, the coat made her look like a refrigerator, with arms and a head attached. Julia felt sorry for the woman. What female would want to be built so large?

"How are you feeling?" The doctor asked. She cradled a clipboard and jotted a few notes.

"Fine, I guess. I don't remember much after passing out next to my boyfriend."

"You overdosed on fruit from the Diana tree," the doctor explained. "It contains toxins that overwhelm your system and force it into a coma. You were out for a week."

"How's my boyfriend? Is he ok?"

"Yes, I'm in charge of his care, too. He's been admitted into the Men's Wing. He was near starvation when they found you. He tried desperately to wake you, but no success. The fruit has that effect when consumed in large quantities."

The mention of the fruit sent a pleasant shiver through Julia. "What was that stuff, anyway? When I was surviving off of that fruit, I felt... fantastic. I had more energy, was dropping weight, felt whole and content."

The doctor laughed. "Of course you did. That's why it's sold in concentrate."

"You mean, I can buy it in stores?"

The doctor laughed again. "Of course you can. It's called Nourishment, honey. It's only most popular packaged food of all time, the staple of every woman's diet."

Julia had never heard of this before, and her face must have shown it.

The doctor studied her for a moment. "You came from the caves, didn't you?"

Julia nodded. "We fell and tumbled out."

The doctor reached into the cabinet, extracted a white can, and popped the lid. The familiar, aroma of the fruit filled the room -- much more intense than she had experienced in the forest.

The aroma sent another pleasant shiver through Julia. "So, would drinking the concentrate allow me to feel the way I did in the forest -- more energy, more vitality?"

"That, and a lot more. To make the concentrate, the toxins are filtered out. Then fruit juice gets boiled away to produce a syrup-like liquid. It contains the equivalent of about 20 pieces of Diana fruit per one cup serving."

"That must be pretty potent."

The doctor let out a light chuckle. "Without Nourishment, I'd be weak and frail as a man."

"I never thought of men as weak," Julia mumbled.

"Have you ever lifted weights before? What's the most that you can bench press? 200 pounds? 300 pounds?"

"It's been a while," Julia replied. "Maybe 75?"

The doctor laughed. But Julia must have expressed hurt on her face, because the woman's tone instantly softened. "Nourishment will make you look something like this." The woman held the panels of her coat apart for Julia's inspection.

Underneath the coat, the women was wearing only cotton lace panties and a camisole that stopped just below the bust. But if the skimpiness of her attire was a surprise, that was nothing compared to the rest of the view. The woman's body was unreal. As the doctor had suggested, not a scrap of flab was to be found. In its place was a stack of hard-edged, voluminous muscle. Calves as wide as grapefruits lead up to thighs resembling stone columns. Her abdominals were the size of apples, and Julia couldn't even think of a piece of fruit to compare to the woman's mammoth, firm breasts.

"I usually keep the coat on to avoid distracting the nurses, but since it's just us ladies..." The doctor slid the jacket off her shoulders. Her biceps were so large that, even in their current resting position, Julia would just barely be able to get two hands around them. Her shoulders were generous layer cakes of muscle, topped by trapezius that sloped like the side of a mountain. Back home, if a college football player saw a body like this on the other side of the line of scrimmage, he could have been forgiven for pissing in his pants. And if it wasn't for the sympathetic expression on the woman's flawless, beautiful face, Julia too would have feared for her safety.

The sight was grotesque.

Something isn't right here, Julia thought. Julia began to wonder exactly what sort of hospital she had landed in. With cans of this "Nourishment" around, it seemed more like a lab for a dietary supplement company than a true hospital.

"Nourishment is about more than just size," the doctor continued, oblivious to her patient's concern. She draped her coat over the chair and resumed her professional duties without seeming to care about her state of undress. "Without Nourishment, you'll be susceptible to diseases carried by germs and viruses. You will get tired when you haven't had enough sleep. Your skin will wrinkle with age."

I feel like I'm in the middle of an infomercial, Julia thought.

"Sure you don't want to try some?" the doctor asked, holding up a can.

Every cell in her body screamed YES. The fruit had made her feel so good! But Julia shook her head vigorously. "No, I want normal medical care, like I could get in any other normal hospital, not some sort of freakish supplement. And I want to go home."

The doctor seemed hurt. "That may not be possible. I have a police officer that needs to speak with you."

The curtain separated again, and another enormous woman entered through it. If the Doctor had been concerned that a show of skin would distract the men, this woman seemed to share no such compunction: a short-sleeved lycra top clung tight to everything they covered, and they left the abdomen bare. Hip-hugging "boy short" bottoms, also some some of lycra, seemed more suited for a trip to a beach than police work.

The body filling this undersized outfit was every bit the equal of the doctor's: carved calves, expansive thighs, powerfully rounded abdominals, voluminous busts and generous, muscle-laden arms. Disgusting, Julia thought.

The officer was wearing a belt full of equipment, as police always seemed to do. And upon further examination, Julia saw that her taut garments were colored imperial blue and black -- police colors -- with a silver badge pinned to her top. Julia began to wonder if she had indeed been taken in by a cult.

The officer eyed her with concern. "Who did this to you?" she asked.

Julia glanced at her skin. The bruises were back. She had slept for a week, the doctor had said, which meant she hadn't eaten the fruit for a week, too. "Nobody did it to me. I fell in the caves."

"I'm not talking about the bumps and the bruises. I'm talking about this," the officer waved her hand dismissively at the length of Julia's body. "How you became so stunted?"

"She's says she's never heard of Nourishment," the Doctor offered.

The officer didn't believe it. "Where did they keep you your whole life, a dungeon?"

"She said she came from the caves," the doctor offered.

I came from St. Louis, Julia thought. And I'm going back there as soon as I get out of the stupid hospital, out of this stupid room with the stupid doctor that doles out body building supplements like they are medication.

"Strange things happen in those caves," the officer said. "Sometimes, people go into them and never return. Other times, people arrive, from.... other places. Where were you born?"

"St. Louis, Missouri."

The officer was taking notes now. "Can you spell that? L-O-U-I-S-E?"

"No, it's Louis. It's a man's name." Julia felt a growing sense of unease.

"A city named after a man?" The officer seemed baffled. "And you said that was where? Can you spell the state?"

"M-I-S-S-O-U-R-I" Something really, really wasn't right here.

"And what country is that in?" the officer asked kindly.

Julia assessed the officer's arms, packed with more muscle than most bodybuilders dared dream about. The rest of the officer's body, Julia knew, had similar proportions, as did the other woman visiting her. It didn't make sense. As she looked into the sympathetic eyes of the officer, a renewed terror began to gnaw at her gut. She finally responded, "Missouri -- it's in the United States of America."

"And how is that spelled?"

Julia screamed.

"We may need to keep you in custody for a while," the cop said. "You seem to be in a state of crisis."

That was when Julia stopped screaming, and started running.

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And after she screamed, she ran. Julia ran right past the confused cop, down the serpentine hospital corridors, through the first door she found, and out into the open air.

The city streets were full of people: men only the size of her boyfriend, but women as big as the doctor. Huge, frightening piles of muscle, the women turned toward Julia with quizzical expressions on their faces, as if they were viewing a circus sideshow oddity. The men were equally confused, but handled it differently. They looked up to the women and drew closer to them, as if seeking protection or guidance.

The attention made Julia want to scream all over again. I have to find Howard, she exhorted herself. He will know what to do. She bolted down the block.

The street signs were in a foreign language. More confused stares turned her direction. Two hulking women pointed at her and began speaking in elevated voices. She had to get out of here.

Julia ran again, harder. She didn't know where she was going. She didn't even keep track.

Another block went by, and another. There was shouting behind her. She looked. It was the cop, three hundred yards away, asking bystanders where Julia had gone.

Julia bolted down an alleyway. The sound of her panting filled the space. After only fifteen or twenty paces, she saw a darkening of the alley behind her. The cop had run three hundred yards in only a few seconds!

Julia came across a tiny, intersecting alley and darted down it. The alley was too narrow for the cop. Maybe it would buy her a few seconds. I have to do something, she urged herself. I have to get away!

Julia's whole body ached from the exertion. A week without fruit had diminished her: she was just as overweight and easily winded as always. Julia burst out of the narrow alleyway onto the open street again. Without breaking her stride, she turned to see whether her pursuers had emerged. They hadn't. She ran.

Then, WHAM. Julia collided with something hard, like a rock wall. Her entire body contorted with agony as flesh and bone crushed themselves against the unyielding mass. She collapsed to the ground.

Panting, she opened her eyes. High heels -- those were the only things in her field of view. A woman, Julia realized. I slammed into a woman. And she had felt like rock.

Julia felt herself being hoisted by her armpits. It was indeed a woman, perhaps 27 years old, the usual enormous build. Her face was striking: high cheek bones, dirty blond hair, well tanned skin. Her eyes were sage in both senses: green, and wise.

Fear gripped Julia. She kicked her feet for purchase, but found them suspended in mid air. The woman was holding her up for examination, arms fully extended. The muscles of the woman's arms were large as loaves of bread. What's more, they were fully relaxed. That sent a new wave of fear over Julia. Even a strong person would need to show some exertion at holding a 160-pound object at arm's length, wouldn't they? Were these women human beings, or monsters?

"Are you OK?" the woman asked, gently.

"Pl... please. I need help. I'm not from here. I'm from Earth."

The woman looked confused. "Where's that?"

"It home," Julia sobbed. "And that's all I want -- to go home, to find my boyfriend and go home."

"You poor thing. You look terrified."

"I'm so scared. The police want to arrest me."

"Not arrest," a voice behind her said. It was the cop, who apparently had caught up. "We just want her in custody of an adult woman, someone who can protect her while her situation is... resolved."

Julia felt her legs swing below her as the woman turned to face the cop. The woman continued to hold Julia aloft without a scrap of effort, it appeared.

The pause in the conversation gave Julia a chance to assess the woman who held her. She wore an ivory linen top with suit-like lapels and buttons down the middle, as well as matching ivory linen pants. The outfit would have been appropriate for any office, had it not been for hem of the top, which stopped just below the breasts. It left the entirety of her midriff on display. The expanse of skin in the middle was a hilly terrain of baseball-sized abdominal muscles.

The contrast to Julia's own body couldn't have been greater. Having been off the fruit during the week of her slumber, her body's shape and condition had deteriorated to their previous rotund state. She was terribly winded from the short run. Her feet and legs and other parts besides all ached with exhaustion.

The woman appeared to consider the police officer's statement. "I can take her in. And her boyfriend, too."

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From there, things took a slight turn for the better. The woman, who's name turned out to be Ruth, accompanied Julia and the police officer back to the hospital. Julia would be discharged the proper way this time -- not by running down the corridor screaming, but by filling out paperwork.

Julia followed the doctor back into the examination room. She signed a form titled "Consent for Release Into Care of Adult Woman."

As she did so, Julia found herself eying the white can of Nourishment sitting on the countertop. I just found out that I am marooned in some weird alternate world, Julia thought. How can I possibly be thinking about the fruit?

And yet, the inviting aroma of the yellow fruit wrapped itself around her. Her body yearned for it. "Do all your patients take Nourishment?"

"All the women do," the doctor replied. "The men are not compatible with it." The doctor turned to jot some notes, still clothed only in panties and camisole. She seemed oblivious to the impropriety of it.

Julia looked over doctor's otherworldly backside-- glutes shaped like volleyballs, thighs as thick as telephone poles. All those muscles -- they were so manly, so distasteful. To think a woman would look like that -- it made her cringe.

"I would recommend about twenty five gallons as an initial dose. That's the equivalent of about 8,000 pieces of the raw fruit."

"But I don't want to be that big. And those muscles -- no, I would never want to look like that," Julia blurted.

The doctor turned. She had a look of surprise on her face.

"I'm sorry," Julia offered. "I just want to feel like I did in the woods-- a little thinner, a little more energetic. Maybe I'll just go back to eating the whole fruit."

"No you won't. The whole fruit contains toxins that cause vertigo, and eventually, a coma. That's what happened to you in the woods. And now that you've experienced that condition, it will be quicker to return. You need to stick to the concentrate, which has the toxins filtered out."

"But if I drink the concentrate in the quantities that you do, I'll get huge. Maybe I'll sip just a little bit."

The doctor shook her head. "No one just sips it. The fruit is highly addictive-- about sixteen times the addictiveness of heroin. You've probably already felt the cravings."

Julia's every muscle, every bone, shuddered in agreement.

"Take a few sips now and you'll soon find yourself finishing the can. And then asking for another. And another after that. You won't stop until you're fully Nourished. That's the beauty of it: once you start, you develop natural cravings to ensure that you finish your transformation -- to this." The doctor waved a hand over the frightening expanse of her body.

Julia grimaced. "So, it's all or nothing. Either I abstain entirely, and look like this..." she grabbed a roll of fat in her hand "... or wind up guzzling the concentrate and wind up looking like that." She eyed the doctor's massiveness.

The doctor nodded her head, inch-thick cords of neck muscle writhing across her shoulders. The sight made Julia queasy. "It's your choice, but as a medical professional, I'd recommend you consider it taking the Nourishment. More than 99.99 percent of the women here do."

"Well, I'm not in the 99. I'm going to abstain."

"I see," the doctor replied. "It's available over-the-counter, so you can always change or mind."

"I won't," Julia steeled her will. "I just want to find a way home."

"Well, then I have some good news for you." The doctor parted the curtains. In walked the police officer and Ruth, the woman who volunteered to take her in.

The police officer spoke first. "Please don't ever, ever wander out into the streets un-Nourished and unsupervised. There are very few laws protecting women from abduction or abuse: most women simply don't need them. That was the reason we considered enforcing a custodial detainer on you. But since Ruth here is willing to take responsibility for you, my sergeant is ok letting you go. Just be sure to stay close to Ruth and any other women in her household, while you are here."

"Speaking of which," Ruth interjected, "You can leave for your home as soon as you are ready. There's an entrance to the caves in a state park, just a few hundred yards up from the parking lot. My daughter can drive you there tomorrow, if like. And in the meantime, I had my personal assistant cancel a vacation day to take your gear to an outfitter. We should have it all repaired by tomorrow."

A deep wave of relief washed over Julia. She found herself crying -- tears of blissful relief -- even as she tried to speak. "Th... thank you, Ruth. I hate to cause you all this trouble. Your personal assistant -- please extend her my apologies for ruining her vacation day."

Ruth laughed. "He won't mind. He's just thankful to have a job."

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The remainder of the discharge went by in a happy blur. Julia had to sign a Nourishment Non-Consumption Consent Form, in triplicate. The doctor announced that she was also in charge of Howard's care, and she volunteered to take Julia to him. Her heart leapt at the knowledge that she would be reunited with him in only minutes, and leapt further at the knowledge that they would soon be going home.

As the doctor led Julia to the Men's Wing, they passed other patients in the hospital. The women and teenaged girls -- every single one of them -- were enormous, simply rippling with muscle. The men, sized normally, seemed likes dwarfs next to them. It was like a sideshow at the circus.

Julia also found herself looking at photos on the walls -- the employee holiday party, the recent Patient Appreciation Night. There was a picture of a doctor, standing all of seven feet tall, hugging two of her male nurses, one in each arm. Her arms were wider than the men's thighs. And, Julia noticed belatedly, the men's feet were not on the ground. In her double bear hug, she was holding them aloft with no visible strain on her face.

The men had wide, silly expressions on their faces. Being overpowered like this wasn't frightening for these these men, Julia realized. This absurd mis-match of power -- here, it was normal.

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As luck would have it, the doctor had several priority patients to address before she could see Howard. That gave Julia a chance to visit him first, alone.

The visit was not a jubilant as Julia had hoped. Since he had awoken, only male nurses had visited, and Howard seemed still under the impression that they were back on earth.

"Are you making some kind of joke?" Howard asked, as Julia finished her explanation.

"No, I'm serious. It's a different world. But there's some good news, too. A family has offered to take us in. They are going to get our gear repaired. And they know an entrance to the caves, easy to access. We can get driven there tomorrow. They'll even give us food for our journey back to our home world."

Howard chuckled. "Did you hit your head in the fall?"

"Nope. Clean bill of health. They had to flush the toxins from the fruit out of my system, but no other injuries. I've been discharged already."

"I see," he replied. But his tone told her he didn't.

Julia pursed her lips as Howard's eyes wandered the empty hospital room. Didn't he notice that things seemed a little bit different here, that the language on the signs and the labels was entirely foreign? "Howard, there's something else." Julia hesitated, reluctant. "The women here -- they are all seven or eight feet tall. And covered in huge muscles."

The smile disappeared from Howard's face. "It's no longer a question in my mind. You really did hit your head in the fall."

"Howard, the doctor said I was fine -- the 300-pound, female doctor, who was built like an ox."

He looked at her head. "They must have missed something. You mentioned the toxins in the fruit. Do they have a hallucinatory effect?" He paused, concerned. "I knew I never should have let you eat it."

"Honey, my head is totally fine. I know what I saw out there in the hallways. I'm just trying to prepare you so that you don't make a scene when one of these women walks into the room. They're huge and scary and gross. Just be ready for that."

But Howard wasn't listening. He had hoisted himself out of bed and was in the middle of another objection when the door swung open.

On the other side stood the doctor -- seven-and-a-half feet of large, densely packed muscle lurked between the open panels of a white doctor's jacket. Howard gasped and took a step back in shock. The doctor didn't seem to notice.

"Well, aren't YOU feeling a little bit better, young man!" The doctor smiled, grabbing him by the armpits and depositing him on the hospital bed. The bed was a massive, sturdy contraption, with motors for raising and lowering the head and feet. A half-dozen large pieces of equipment were attached to the bed, some as large as a picnic cooler. "Let's get you into the light where I can see you a little bit better."

The doctor grabbed two handholds on the bed and hoisted it -- occupant, equipment and all -- in a smooth bicep curl. She walked it toward the window.

Julia watched her with wide eyes. Like every woman in this world, this one's size was grotesque and frightening. But at the same time, she was very sweet: a pleasant disposition and that easy confidence that must only come with .... power. I don't want to look like that, Julia promised herself. I would never want to look like that. But there was something about the way this doctor carried herself --- so self-assured....

Howard was reeling. "How.... how much weight is that, Doctor?"

The doctor stopped in mid-stride and gave him a thoughtful glance. "I don't know. It's hard to tell with the lighter weights." She raised the bed, with its large stack of equipment, up and down several times. Her biceps expanded only slightly with the effort, their motion slow and controlled. "Six hundred, maybe eight hundred pounds?"

Howard's voice was almost a stutter. "N... n... no....no...."

"Is he ok?" the doctor asked, bed and man still suspended in front of her.

"Honey, don't be intimidated by her. She's really nice."

The doctor finished placing the bed by the window. "That's right. I'm not even that strong anymore," she laughed. Slipping out of one of her sleeves, the doctor flexed a bicep. The lines of her upper arm hardened and widened, its muscle ballooning into the size of a small watermelon. The doctor ran her free hand over its massiveness. "Only twenty inches around," she explained. "You should have seen what it looked like when I used to work out."

A soft THUD emanated from the bed. "Oh no," the doctor said, perplexed. "Your boyfriend seems to have passed out."

---------

"I'm so glad you're ok," Ruth said. She had been waiting in the reception area. "And you must be Howard," Ruth said.

"Howard's a little catatonic right now. They pumped him with anti-anxiety medication after a fainting spell."

"As they always say, it's the weakness that makes men so adorable. And this is my daughter, Mindy."

Julia turned to find a six-foot-tall, bored-looking teenager sitting in a reception room chair. She sported a plaid, flannel shirt that had been tied in a simple knot. Panels of cloth that would normally have covered the entirety of a man's chest seemed challenged to cover just the girl's enormous breasts. A dark chasm of cleavage plunged downward toward the knot, and below it, intimidating balls of abdominal muscle were on full display. Voluminous thigh muscles exploded out of a small pair of jean shorts.

"Come over and say hello to our house guests," Ruth instructed.

"OK, mom," the kid groaned.

Mom, Julia thought. The daughter appeared to be eighteen years old, and Ruth appeared to be all of twenty-six. However, upon further examination, Julia was reminded of the sageness and maturity in the woman's eyes. Maybe Ruth really is the girl's mom, Julia thought. Maybe the Nourishment slows aging.

The girl had taken several of the hard candies from the reception desk and had balanced them on her own well defined abdominals. The girl stood up gingerly, her eyes on her midriff the entire time. She flexed her abdominals, further defining the muscles, turning them into little shelves that held the candies steady until she was nearly vertical.

"Knock it off, Mindy," the mother scolded.

"Fine," the girl groaned, relaxing her stomach in and allowing the candies to tumble away, into her hands. Mindy offered one of the treats to Julia. "You want one?"

Julia accepted the gift and rolled it over her hand. The candy was silvery and shiny.

"She can't eat those, Mindy," the mother chided, taking the candy away from Julia and putting it back in the bowl. "They're cherries," Ruth explained to Julia. "Dipped in stainless steel. Helps preserve the freshness."

"So? She can just spit the steel part out. She doesn't have to SWALLOW it." The girl popped one more in her mouth and closed her jaws with a CRUNCH. The steel seemed to be giving her no more trouble than bubble gum. It must be a very thin coat of metal, Julia concluded.

The doctor pulled the hood of a windbreaker over Julia's head and cinched it tight. "You and your boyfriend are free to go. Good luck to you. I hope you find your way."

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Julia thought about loosing her windbreaker hood, but decided against it. The doctor must have cinched it for a reason.

As they left the building, true to her word, Mindy pursed her lips and blew the steel out. It made a POW sound as it left her mouth. Thirty yards away, the bark on a tree splintered.

"Mindy, how many times have I told you not to do that?" her mother scolded. It's terrible for the trees."

"You never let me do ANYTHING," the girl retorted.

I didn't see that correctly, Julia promised herself as she followed the two enormous women to the parking lot. Nobody can eject something from their mouth with that much force, in any world.

Having been off the fruit for a week now, Julia's old aches and pains had resurfaced. Her ankle still hurt like hell, and she found herself limping even as she forced herself to keep up.

They passed other families who were on their way into the building. Julia began to feel eyes on her, and realized belatedly that she was the subject of confused stares. The stares weren't coming from one person. They were coming from everyone.

"Mom," she heard a teenaged girl ask. "Why is that woman so small? Did somebody do something to her?"

Julia turned in time to see the enormous mother slap a hand over her daughter's mouth. "This is a hospital, young lady. There are lots of sick people in there. It's not polite to stare."

"But why is she walking funny?" the girl asked.

"She could be injured," the mother whispered.

"What's an INJURY, Mom?"

"Quiet, honey," her mother responded. "It's something that happens to men sometimes."

"But why did it happen to HER?" she demanded.

"I don't know, honey." The mother shrugged in resignation. "I don't know."

Julia averted her eyes from the pair and limped on, ignoring the pain in her ankle. Bright afternoon light beat down on her black windbreaker, still cinched at the hood.

Julia suddenly figured out the purpose of the windbreaker. It's not the weather that this thing is protecting me from. It's the embarrassment.

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The LaPorte Caves - Chapter 02

Submitted by circes_cup on June 23, 2015 - 12:15am


CHAPTER 2

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SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out into a world of amazon women. The family that found them has volunteered to take them in: Ruth, the mother; Mindy, her daughter; a husband; and a son.

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

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The mother of the family cut into her 36-ounce steak as she spoke. "I hear that the caves are like that," Ruth said. "They're famous for blind passages, circular routes, steep drop-offs, and worse."

Ruth was still in her office attire, Julia observed: the ivory linen bolero jacket paired with a matching pants and top. The top was midriff-baring: hemmed just below the breasts, it left her baseball-sized abdominals on full display. The top also featured a v-shaped neckline-, providing a very small window in the majesty of the woman's enormous bust. To Julia, the outfit bared so much skin that it seemed more a parody of formal attire than formality itself.

"You're staring," Ruth pointed out, her voice gentle.

"Sorry," Julia replied. "Where Howard and I come from, office attire is much more... conservative. Almost everything is covered."

Ruth considered that. "I can't see why. Respectable office attire should always put some part of our body on display. Some of my outfits show off the abdominals, as this suit does. But I have other suits that bare my arms or my legs. I also have a few that are skintight in certain areas."

"But if you don't mind my asking, why?"

"I've never really thought about it," Ruth admitted. "But without something revealing, I'd feel that I was somehow diminishing myself, undercutting my authority. The more muscle I show off, the more men tend to be..... agreeable."

"You use the threat of physical force to make men more agreeable around the office?"

The husband of the family made an inquiring glance at Ruth. She nodded approval. He spoke up for the first time. "No, it's not like that. It's more a matter of symbolism. When I see my boss wear something like Ruth is wearing now, it's a reminder. Each of Ruth's abs is stronger than every muscle in my body -- combined. Seeing all six of them on display like that is a reminder of her overall superiority -- her superior memory, her superior sensory awareness, superior stamina, superior leadership abilities, and most of all, superior intelligence."

"Women are viewed as more intelligent than men?" Howard asked.

"Duh!", a10-year-old girl at the replied, disgusted at the ignorance of their adult guests. "Boys have to go to school like five days a WEEK, and they STILL don't learn anything."

"We do too!" her brother objected.

"You spend five days a week in school but you only learned, like, a TENTH of what I learned this year! And I'm younger!"

"How many days a week to girls go to school?" Julia asked.

"One. We have fun activities the other days."

Julia discreetly put her utensils down. She was starting to feel full, or overwhelmed. She wasn't quite sure. Mindy, meanwhile, served herself a second massive steak -- a large as a hubcap -- and heaped a commensurate mountain of mashed potatoes alongside. She dove into the gluttonous portions easily, consuming in a few moments what any woman back home would consider several meals -- any fatty ones at that.

"Mindy, why don't you get some more Nourishment from the fridge and offer it to our guest? And please get some PN for Becky, too."

Mindy stood, bringing the sculpted steel expanse of her abdomen to the level of Julia's eye. Where does all that fatty food go, Julia lamented to herself?

The room darkened slightly as the teenaged girl, all seven feet of her, passed the picture window on the way to the kitchen. Julia observed the dimensions of the girl as she walked away. Her shoulders were massive, perhaps twice the width of Julia's. Her neck was a pyramid of muscle, its powerful base extending across her shoulder blades. Her upper arms must have been twenty inches around. Her thighs were absurdly thick -- perhaps the width of Howard's torso -- and all muscle. Even minor muscles -- ones that Julia never knew existed -- were immensely developed. That's disgusting, Julia told herself. She's built like some kind of wild animal. But Julia found that she couldn't stop staring.

The kitchen contained two refrigerators. Julia had seen food emerge from one. Mindy opened the other.

When she returned to the dining room, the teenager had two bottles in her hands. One was about a foot long, pink with unicorns and teddy bears on it. That bottle was labeled "Pre-Nourishment (PN)" and its contents were being poured into the little sister's glass.

"Before they're eighteen," Ruth explained, "girls drink Pre-Nourishment only. At that age, they're not mature enough to handle the amount of raw power that comes with adult Nourishment. PN offers a reduced potency. It gives them a chance to practice. They can practice being stronger than men, practice having greater speed, practice tasks that require greater balance. It's like training wheels."

"I hate being on baby food," Becky objected, taking the glass in both hands. "When can I drink grown-up stuff?"

"You have to wait another eight whole years," Mindy taunted.

"That's FOREVER. Mom, it's not FAIR. I can lift only baby weights."

Ruth put her fork down. "Honey, two hundred pounds is not baby weights. It's a lot more than some men can do."

"I put ALL the discs on my barbell downstairs and it feels light. I want to lift REAL weights, Mom!"

"Not until you're older. I'll get some extra fifty pound discs this weekend. Conversation over."

"But--"

"I said, conversation over."

Becky crossed her arms and glowered at her food. Meanwhile, Mindy's considerable mass circled the dining room table, the four-foot-long adult Nourishment bottle in her hands. She held it over Julia's glass.

"No... no thanks."

Mindy looked confused. "Why?"

"Because on my home world... women don't look like.... I'd be a freak."

"Well then your home world is fucked up."

"MINDY!" Ruth slammed her palm down on the table -- a sound like a gunshot. "Becky is only ten years old and doesn't need to hear those words. And our guests have had a long day. I told you to offer it to her, not harass her."

"Sorry," the girl mumbled, refilling her tankard-sized glass and placing the massive bottle on the floor.

As Mindy poured, the aroma of the fruit drink tickled Julia's nose and sent a deep shudder of need through her. The doctor said it was addictive, didn't she?

"We're very pleased to have you two stay with us and I hope you'll forgive some of our rough edges." Ruth glared at Mindy.

Howard cleared his throat. "And we're very thankful for your taking us in. But tomorrow, we need to go back to the caves, we need to find a way home."

Ruth gave Howard a perplexed look, and then turned to Julia. "Men in your world always speak out of turn, don't they?"

That made Julia giggle. It was a new experience to be regarded as the head of a household. "We do our best to teach them. But Howard is right. We need to get back home." Away, Julia thought -- away from these monstrous women with their monstrous strength.

Ruth's massive shoulders slumped slightly in resignation. "I wish we could have hosted you a little bit longer. But you want to leave, of course you can."

-----------

The summer sun lingered long in the sky that evening, and the family soon found itself outside enjoying daylight's last rays. Julia sat with Howard on the grass of the back yard, letting the green blades curl between her fingers. The back yard, like the rest of the house, was palatial in scale -- perhaps fifty yards from the residence to the back fence-line.

They watched Mindy toss a frisbee back and forth with her father. Although she was far younger than him, she loomed larger than him in both height and breadth. The girl's form, moreover, wasn't just size for the sake of itself. She was pure power.

"These women are scary to me," Julia whispered to her boyfriend. "All those muscles make her look frightening, don't they?"

Howard nodded in agreement. "The girl frankly scares the crap out of me."

Julia watched the father toss the frisbee back to his daughter. He had a pretty good throwing arm, Julia realized. But the game, although not competitive, was lopsided. A strong toss from him might send her running, but she was very fast and a strong jumper. She was always able to haul the disc in after a few strides. But on the return throw, if she put even the least bit of wrist into it, the disc would sail far over the man's head, and he wasn't fast enough to compensate. The girl clearly grew bored.

"Come on you, let's play another game!" she laughed, charging him. Before he could get a away, she had closed the distance and hoisted him off his feet. "Mom, catch!" Mindy's massive arm muscles flexed and shot the man into the air. He chuckled with mock surprise as he rose ten, fifteen feet into the air, tumbling head over heels. Ruth put her glass of lemonade down gingerly and was under him in a flash, arresting his fall.

Ruth tossed her husband a few feet into the air and extended her arms in front of her. The man landed with one foot in each palm. Even with forearms horizontal to the ground, the full weight of his body on her palms seemed to create no strain for her. "Back at you!" Ruth shouted, tossing him back into the air.

"Totally bizarre," Julia whispered. "Look at him. His wife and his daughter are playing with him like a toy, and there is nothing he can do about it. What man would want to live that way?"

"I don't know," Howard agreed.

"And besides," Julia found herself saying, "those muscles. What man would want to be married to a woman that looked so manly?"

"Maybe men here find it attractive because they grew up around it," Howard replied. "But one thing I can say for these women: they don't have veins and leathery skin like bodybuilders back home. In fact, their skin looks really good. And their faces are actually pretty. Apart from all the bulges, they look very feminine. And even their bulges have an elegance to them that makes them... I don't know.... easy on the eye."

She crossed her arms defensively. Julia remembered the night they spent deep in the woods, when the fruit had enhanced her figure somewhat and allowed her to attract his attention to a degree she never had before. And now, his attention was drifting somewhere else. "Are you saying you think Ruth and Mindy are beautiful?"

"Well, their faces certainly are. Their bodies are just... intimidating."

"And what about those tits?" Julia laughed, fixing her gaze on the buoyant massiveness of Ruth's chest. "Do you fantasize about me being stacked like that?"

Howard didn't reply.

"Hey Mindy!" Julia shouted. "I think Howard here needs a toss."

------------------

The evening air filled with the sound of crickets. Two moons slowly crossed the heavens: one pale and large, the other smaller and redder. The family's younger daughter, Becky, had already been sent to bed. The father busied himself tidying up the patio for the night.

"I'm going to take a bath before going to bed," Mindy announced. "I feel gross."

Ruth nodded, and turned to her guests. "Have you two had a bath at all since you arrived here?"

"Not a proper one," Julia admitted. "Just streams and ponds in the wilderness."

"How rude of us," Ruth replied. "If I was a better host, I would have already offered. Mindy, please take them along with you."

The bath turned out to be an outdoor spa -- about twelve feet across, lined with sandstone and limestone. It was canopied by leafy trellises, and small fountains on each end spilled hot and cold water into the pool. It could easily have been mistaken for something that belonged in a Roman villa.

The pool itself was circular. It was capped by two slabs, each covering half the pool. Hot vapor billowed out of the junction between the two slaps. "We cover it to conserve energy," Mindy explained.

Each slab had a large iron handle on it, and each handle was marked by a plaque: "WARNING. 800 lbs. Not intended to be lifted by men."

Mindy bent at the waist and grabbed the handle with both hands. Julia had expected her to take a deep breath, count to three, maybe spread or bend her legs. Instead, she hoisted the slab up in a single disinterested motion, as if it were a tarpaulin rather than a six-inch-thick layer of rock.

Underneath, the pool was already full, steam billowing off its surface. This doesn't seem very private, Julia thought as she glanced around. The trellises provided some privacy from the houses, but there was only one pool...

Without warning, Mindy unbuttoned her beige cargo shorts and guided them over her generous hips. Her legs and thighs were magnificent: sculpted ridges, deep clefts between the muscles. And that ass -- its roundedness exuded more than just sexuality. It was firm as a rock, Julia could tell. It exuded power.

Howard shuffled his feet. "We're taking a bath .... together?"

"They do it differently in your world?" Without ceremony, she began to untie the knot holding her flannel shirt together. The floodlights of the pool accentuated the fullness of her chest. The panels of the shirt separated to reveal a deep chasm of cleavage-- so pronounced that only shadows graced its inner depths. Oblivious to Julia's stare, Mindy released the know in the shirt. Her breasts sprang out and up, separating the shirt's panels wide. The girl's breasts were astonishing -- unreal in their firmness, and made even more pronounced by the large slabs of pectoral muscle that undergirded them.

"How..." Julia blushed. Despite the size Mindy's bust, it showed not the least bit of sagging. "What size bra do you wear?"

Confusion riddled Mindy''s perfect face. "What's a bra?" Her confused state made her look all the .... hotter.

Mindy thoughtlessly shrugged out of the sleeves of the flannel, spilling it to the ground. Julia's eyes roamed the expanse of exposed skin. Creamy, smooth, free of veins and scars -- it was the way bodies looked in paintings, not in real life. And there was not an ounce of fat to be found, anywhere.

Even though Julia was still fully clothed, she crossed her arms defensively over herself. Next to her, Julia realized, I am deeply inadequate.

"Aren't you going to take your clothes off?" the amazon asked with innocence.

"That's not how women bathe in my world. We like to get our clothes wet," Julia lied.

Howard shot her a confused expression.

Mindy descended into the warm water, her powerful curves slowly spreading its surface apart. "Come here, I need you to suds up my backside."

With soapy hands, Julia explored the writhing musculature of the girl's back. Mindy casually raised her arms above her head, causing her lats to explode outward. Julia explored their contours with increasing fascination.

Then, her hands crept lower on the girl's body. Her midsection was like a tree trunk made of steel. Lower still her hands scrubbed, until she found herself tracing the curvature of the girl's fantastic glutes.

"Do you like those?" Mindy asked.

Julia tried to think of an answer, but nothing came out.

"Well, your boyfriend does," Mindy observed.

Howard's boxer shorts had tented into a raging erection. Julia felt her face redden with anger. How dare he react to her in this way, Julia fumed to herself!

"Come here, Howard. I need your help as well."

Howard limped toward her. He couldn't even walk normally, Julia realized, so hard was his erection! Julia realized that his reaction to Mindy was something more than Julia had ever been able to solicit from him. Even in the woods, when Julia looked her best, she had never done this to him.

"I remember the thrill I got when I first Nourished. I had been pretty as a teenager, but I had never been this." Mindy raised her thick, lean arms over her head, forcing her mammoth breasts forward and up. Each was easily larger than Howard's head. His eyes went wide. "Now, men get hard as steel just at the sight of me."

"This isn't appropri-" Julia couldn't even finish her sentence.

"Howard, I have a task you'll enjoy" Mindy pulled him closer to her. "While Julia finishes up my back, you need to help with my front. Specifically, these," she said, cupping her massive mammaries. "I can't see under them."

"We all have our problems," Julia agreed. When she first saw these women, Julia had critiqued them as looking manly. But maybe they were the opposite. Mindy's tits were huge and exuberant, her hourglass figure elegant and sumptuous. She had the femininity of ten women put together.

His eyes wide, Howard lifted her left breast with one hand and scrubbed with the other. Howard's arm actually shook a bit. "How... how much do they weigh?" he asked.

"About twenty pounds a piece."

Julia tried to imagine holding a twenty-pound dumbbell over her head for more than a minute or two, and she could understand why Howard was struggling.

Howard eyes grew vacant, mesmerized. His soapy hands coursed over her bust with reverence.

Mindy laughed. "That's totally awesome. I'm used to men being turned on. But your boy toy is, like, stunned. Like he's never seen a proper pair of tits before."

Jealousy raged inside Julia. Only the blind could have believed that Julia's looks could hold a candle to Mindy's.

"You boyfriend is so entranced," Mindy rasped, "it's actually turning me on." And indeed, her nipples -- already larger than Julia had ever seen -- stiffened and thickened further.

"Howard, are you in there?" Julia asked.

He didn't seem to hear her. His eyes had glazed over. He seemed overpowered by her presence.

Julia looked at the confident smile on the amazon's face. Her body screamed abundance and vitality. Every single one of her muscles was larger, sleeker, more powerful in its appearance than anything she had ever seen on a man. Her curves were so pronounced as to be self-indulgent. Even her nipples were huge -- larger, easily, than the head of Howard's cock. Julia shuddered at the thought. Even his most manly body part, Julia realized, had been outmatched by this girl. Everything about this girl was that way -- larger, stronger, greater.

The un-Nourished woman felt herself backing away from the radiance of the Nourished one, even as Howard was increasingly transfixed.

"You can suck them if you want, Howard." Mindy placed an inviting hand on the back of his head and drew him toward her.

"This is not... " Julia's words failed her. "Howard, no...."

Howard braced an arm against the girl's ribcage and pushed away. But Mindy had already closed her eyes, and seemed oblivious. Her powerful arms continued to draw him toward her. The resistance in his arms disappeared, and he collapsed into her.

"Howard?" Julia pleaded.

The amazon girl slid back into the water and rested her back against the lip. Mindy closed her eyes and tilted her shoulders back, causing her mammaries to breach the surface of the water and point skyward. Howard stood there momentarily, gazing at the display in front of him. His manhood had found the fly of his boxers and was now straining, flagpole-straight, into the open air. Then, he was on her, caressing, sucking, those extraordinary monuments to her femininity.

"HOWARD!" Julia finally yelled. She dipped a foot in the water and splashed him. "That's enough, you jerk. I'm standing right here!" She watched him tear his eyes away from Mindy and turn to her, confused. I'm his girlfriend of three years, Julia lamented, and he looks at me as if I'm a stranger. Julia took him by the hand and pulled.

"Oh," Mindy said, now with open eyes and sincere concern in her voice. "Julia, you're unhappy with me?"

"You're damn right, you bitch," Julia spat. With Howard in tow, she lurched, humiliated, away from the pool.

-------------

When she woke the next morning, Julia's eyes were still red from sobbing. She and Howard had returned to the guest room that night in silence, and Julia had maintained the silence even after they were behind closed doors. She had been afraid that she would say something that she would later regret. Mad -- yes, she was mad. But she didn't want to lose him either.

With the morning now upon them, she could hold her tongue no longer. She turned her head on the pillow and appraised him. "Did you even try to stop her?"

"Julia, you saw me try to push away from her. But she's so strong. She picked up an 800 pound slab like it was a book bag!"

"Did you tell her that you were in a committed relationship?"

"No, not really."

"So then, you think it's OK, when your in a committed relationship, to go around sucking other girls' tits?"

"No, it wasn't like that. I didn't want to be untrue to you. But she was.... persuasive."

"What do you mean, persuasive?"

"There was something about her -- not just her dimensions, but some other type of allure, almost magical... I'm sorry Julia."

"There's no magic to thinking with your dick. You should be ashamed!"

Howard was silent. She felt his hand on her shoulder. "I'm sorry, honey. There was nothing I could do."

That only made her sob harder. "I hate myself. And I hate this awful place. I didn't like it even BEFORE that nineteen-year-old slut pulled you into her epic cleavage. Now I hate it even more. I can't wait to get out of here. Tomorrow can't come soon enough."

-------------

Julia hauled herself up the rock face at an unrelenting pace, her eyes squarely on the cave entrance. Her arms shook and ached, but the pain was welcome. It was better than turning back --- back to that awful land with the oversized women and their undersized respect for her relationship with Howard.

Julia could see that Mindy was watching them from below. The amazon girl had given them a ride in that ridiculous borrowed orange car.

"Can I follow you?" Mindy shouted. "Mom made me promise to get you home safely."

"No, you can't!" Julia shouted back. "I'd rather die than see you again."

"Can I pretend to stay here, and then follow you at a distance without you knowing?"

"No. That's not funny."

The shelves that were Mindy's shoulders slumped in resignation. "I don't know what I did wrong. All I did was let him pleasure me."

"That's all, huh? And you have no idea why I hate you?" Julia shouted down. "That fact that you don't know is exactly what's wrong..." She watched Mindy's features twist in confusion. Stew on that for a while, bitch.

"But..."

"No," Julia retorted. "Don't you dare say another word to me."

The girl didn't.

Once inside the cave, Julia's eyes took forever to adjust to the darkness. Her mind, too, struggled to adjust. Was she really again returning to these cold, claustrophobic passages -- and their dangers? But when she pictured Mindy in her mind, the reluctance disappeared. That girl's immense tits had been on full display today, sheathed only in a high-necked, stretchy maroon top that did little to hide the shape of her assets. If the male libido found sustenance in female breast flesh, then that girl was more than sustenance. She was the whole fucking buffet.

Howard, always the fearless athlete, led the way into the cave's darkness. After about one hundred yards, Julia turned to see the last of the foreign world's daylight. But silhouetted in the remaining clump of light was Mindy's immense form, watching them. She had climbed as far as the cave entrance, apparently. What the fuck was the girl up to?

The cave was cold. Julia's skin broke out into goosebumps. The chill began to penetrate deeper into her flesh as well. Sweat, soon clammy and chilling, clung to her arms and sapped her warmth. The salt of her perspiration gnawed painfully at her scrapes and cuts.

The sounds of their feet produced lonesome echoes in the passageways. The air became heavy. Darkness seems to be more than just black. It had a smothering quality.

"Are you sure we're going to be ok?" Julia asked as the passages took them down, and down further. "When we came the opposite direction, I don't remember the passages looking like this."

THUD. It was distant, but very distinct. Almost like a footfall.

THUD. There was the sound again. Definitely a footfall.

The two exchanged glances. "Is that something we should be concerned about?" she asked.

Howard didn't answer. That was a bad sign. That meant yes.

The couple moved faster now, jogging where they could, stepping briskly where they could not. The sounds behind them grew slightly louder, and began coming more frequently. Whoever it was, they were gaining.

The passageway dipped sharply downward now, but Howard barely slowed his pace. Pebbles and sand littered the surface. Julia slipped, recovered, slipped again. Further down the passage, Howard was doing the same thing.

Julia extended her hands to both walls, to feel the reassurance of their solidity. Howard, with his better motor skills, kept his hands at his sides.

The wall to Julia's right disappeared, leaving Julia's hand to grasp only at open space. She turned her headlamp into the blackness, but it remained only blackness. "Howard, be caref----"

"Aiiieee!" Howard screamed as his feet went out from under him. She saw him slam down on the floor of the passageway, before slipping away to the right -- into the void.

OOF - BOOM - THUNK - OOF - THUNK. Julia could only listen to the tumbling of his body as he went over a lip and out of view.

"Howard!" Julia screamed. "Honey!"

RUMBLE. Howard's tumble down the passages dislodged something, or rather, many somethings. Rocks the size of beach balls went rolling after Howard, dipping out of sight as they went over the lip and then send up a BOOM when they hit the cavern floor. After the rockslide, there was only silence.

The silence was worse than the calamity. "Howard!"

Nothing.

"Howard?"

"I'm here," came a distant groan. "But these rocks -- they fell -- I'm pinned."

"Are you OK? I can't see you."

"I think my headlamp cracked. I can't reach my backup."

"Wait down there. I'll come and help you get free." She started down.

"Julia..."

"What?"

"It's not like that. These rocks -- you won't be able to move them."

Julia scrambled down to him. It was a torturously slow process. So steep was the slope, she had to set up a rope belay in order to get down there. When she got there, he was barely visible under the pile of rubble.

"Are you ok? Is anything crushed?"

"Nothing is crushed," the pile of rubble replied. "But I'm trapped. I can't move at all."

"I'll get you out of there, baby."

But Howard was right about the rocks. She braced herself against the smallest of the boulders -- the size of a basketball -- and shoved. The rough surface of the rock dug into her palms as she exerted. It budged by a millimeter. She tried harder. It settled back into place. She tried again, harder still. The rock dug further into her palms, and she could feel them beginning to bleed. But it went nowhere.

Julia reached through a gap in the boulders and ran an affectionate hand over her boyfriend's cheek. She had to curl her fingers to keep the blood off of him. She wanted to remember his face like this, perfect and serene, not smeared with the crimson of her failure.

In the distance, the THUD THUD of footsteps sounded again.

Julia scrambled up the slope again, using her rope belay for purchase. At the top, she slipped and felt a searing pain as her head crashed into the rock. Her light -- the last one in the chamber -- made a clattering noise when it hit the floor.

It was pitch black now. The air suddenly felt stale and suffocating. Julia groped with her hands where the head lamp had fallen. Lamp, three batteries, compartment cover -- she recovered them all. Her fingers were numbed with cold and slick with blood. She tried in vain to re-assemble the lamp by feel alone.

The THUDs continued.

Julia faced down the passage to the direction of the THUD's and cupped one hand over her mouth. "Mindy, is that you? We need help!"

There was no reply.

"Mindy! I know we had our differences. But Howard-- he's stuck under a ton of rocks."

No response.

Please let that be Mindy, Julia whispered to herself. Or Ruth or a Kentucky Park Ranger or anyone who would help us and not hurt us, not leave us here to die.

The blackness interrupted by a faint, soft blue from down the tunnel. The THUDing grew louder. Julia squinted.

Something was there, in the tunnel, with her.

[Female Bodybuilding]

The LaPorte Caves - Chapter 03

Submitted by circes_cup on June 23, 2015 - 12:19am


CHAPTER 3

-----------

SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out of the caves into world of amazon women. And it wasn't a good visit. Powerless next to these women, Julia watched powerless one of the amazons slept with her boyfriend. They attempted to leave, which meant a trip back through the caves. But Howard fell and was buried in a landslide of boulders. Now, it's a fight to survive the caves. And the couple just realized they aren't alone,

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

------------

As it approached, the blue light separated into two different points about a yard apart. The THUDing -- Julia could now tell that this was heavy footsteps. Whoever, whatever it was, it stopped only a few feet from Julia. She could feel its warmth on her face.

"Who's there?"

The large presence did not reply. Howard's life is on the line, Julia reminded herself. I need to be brave.

Julia groped in front of her. Her hands landed on a stomach. Abdominal muscles the size of small baseballs filled her palms. Julia's hands sought the outer edge of the body. Her fingers found forearms and spread wide to cover their girth. The blue light seemed to be coming from phosphorescent objects on the person's arms.

"Why won't you speak?" Julia asked.

"You told me not to ever speak to you again." Mindy's voice was sullen. "I don't know why you're mad at me."

Relief -- it hit Julia like a wave. Julia's hands wandered upward to Mindy's upper arms, thick as bread loaves and packed with solid muscle. These were the muscles that lifted that 800-lb stone lid like it was nothing more than a frisbee. To these muscles, a few rocks would be nothing.

Julia took a deep breath. Her lungs filled with new air -- no longer suffocating, but seeming more fresh. They were going to be OK.

--------

With Mindy on hand, things got better -- and fast. She hopped gingerly down a slope that Julia had found to be a technical challenge. Rocks begin to fly over Mindy's shoulders. In only a minute, the girl had excavated the man from underneath the pile, safe and sound.

"I'm still mad at you, you know," Julia declared.

Mindy paused. Her shoulders slumped. "I know. I can leave if you want."

"No, no, I didn't mean it like that! Being down here scares the crap out of me." Julia mounted her reassembled headlamp on her brow. When trained on Mindy, the lamp's single beam accentuated the ridiculous definition of the girl's musculature. "I still don't know how you do that."

Mindy hauled the last boulder, the size of a pilates ball, off the pile. Howard was finally able to slink out from under the pile, scraped but otherwise unharmed. "Do what?"

"Hold a boulder like that."

Mindy considered the beach ball-sized sphere of rock that was still balanced in a single palm. "It's really just medium weight." She furrowed her brow in momentary concentration. "Maybe 1,000 pounds?"

Julia felt her breath catch in her throat. At home, she seen some guys that were almost as big as Mindy. But they couldn't hold thousand pounds in one hand. They couldn't hold a hundred pounds in one hand. Julia stared at the amazon's muscles. What made them so much stronger than they looked?

"They're denser," Mindy explained, as if on cue. "You want to feel?"

"I don't want to be... weird."

"But you're curious, aren't you? I can see the look in your eyes."

Julia found herself scampering towards the girl. She had felt these amazon muscles before, but never with the intention of understanding them. She ran her hands over Mindy's biceps, and then her triceps and her forearms. They were like living marble -- smooth and hard to the touch, yet warm and alive. She tried to dent the flesh, but her thumb simply whitened with pressure.

Howard was standing now, brushing himself off. "Be careful around that boulder," Howard cautioned. "What if she drops it?"

But Howard's voice was just a background whisper in Julia thoughts, drowned out by the soft breathing of the nineteen-year-old girl who had the strength of hundreds. Julia glanced at the terrifying stone mass that was suspended above them both. She ran her open palms over the girl's shoulders, which had widened with exertion. They didn't quiver.

Mindy giggled and languidly curled her her arm, flexing the bicep. Julia's fingers splayed wide to cover the thickening muscle. The girl's voice was only a whisper. "You could have those, you know, if you wanted..."

Julia tried again to squeeze the marble writhing beneath her fingers. "They're incredible..."

She heard a CRASH. Mindy had tossed away the boulder she was holding, with a flick of the wrist, to better concentrate on the arm Julia was exploring.

Julia looked at the boulder the girl had absentmindedly tossed away. It was sitting on the cavern floor, shattered. Such unreal power, this girl had!

Mindy flexed her bicep further. Julia felt her fingers spread even wider as the mass between her fingers swelled with power. Howard said something, but she was too transfixed to care. "When I saw that you had come, I wasn't scared anymore," Julia said.

"What's it like -- to be scared?"

My lord, Julia thought. This teenager has never known fear. "I'll explain it to you once we're out, Mindy. Do you know the way out?"

"Sure. We can just retrace our steps."

"But do you think we'll be able get home?"

Mindy considered. "Back to my home, yes. But for you, that's not back. That's forward."

---------

The climb up and out was far more fatiguing than the descent in.

After a few minutes of walking, Julia heard the POP of a beverage can behind her. The familiar fruity aroma of Nourishment filled the tunnel.

"I like a little boost in the middle of the day. Want some?" Mindy asked, motioning with the open can.

Julia tried to form a "no", but the words didn't come out. Euphoric memories of the fruit flooded over her-- the delicious taste, the vigor that it brought her body, the vigor that it brought Howard when he looked upon her. She wanted to feel the fruit on her lips again, so badly.

"She's decided to abstain," Howard interjected. "The doctor told her that there's no way to have 'some'. If she drinks even a little bit, she'll keep drinking until she looks like you."

Julia shivered at the idea that a simple beverage could addict her so deeply -- and make her so huge.

"You make it sound like I'm abnormal," Mindy chuckled. "But have it your way." She upended the can and guzzled its entire contents in a single motion.

As she did so, Julia grabbed Howard's forearm. "Thank you," she whispered. "From the bottom of my heart."

Mindy crushed the can and let it clatter to the tunnel floor. "Come on, let's get out of here." She barged ahead.

Julia looked at the discarded can. We shouldn't litter, she remembered. This is, after all, one of their state parks. She tucked the can into her fanny pack and jogged to catch up.

The incline of the tunnel continued to get steeper. Julia found herself winded. She was falling behind. Periodically, she had to rest bent over, hands on knees, panting. Finally, when they hit a particularly steady uphill, she stopped entirely. "I can't go any further."

"But we're almost out," Howard complained.

"I can carry her," Mindy offered.

Before Julia knew it, she was scampering onto Mindy's back, sticking her legs through the crooks of the girl's arms. The smaller woman wrapped her arms around the larger one's shoulders, and hugged tightly. Mindy's back and neck were a steel column. In the tight embrace, Julia felt her soft body mold itself accommodate the contours of the hard one.

Julia delighted at the ease with which her mount handled the incline. It was like the trip to the treehouse all over again. Ascents that would have left Julia breathless went by with even a pause. Slopes that would have taken Julia ten minutes to scale went by in only seconds.

They were soon ahead of Howard. He was huffing and puffing to stay up with them. Julia giggled. It was fun to have power on her side for a change -- fun to watch him struggle.

When Mindy occasionally reached above her head for a handhold, Julia could feel the muscles of the girl's torso twist and flex. Their movement was steady and supple. I used to think this kind of muscularity was gross, Julia admitted to herself. But this body saved our asses down there, and for some reason, it doesn't seem to gross anymore. Keeping one arm hooked around the girl's neck, Julia freed the other one and ran her palm across the girl's shoulders. No, definitely not gross.

Light filled the passageway as they approached the surface. Once one the surface, it was a steep-- perhaps a 45 degree angle -- downward slope to the parking lot. When Julia had gone up this, she had done it on all fours. But now, her mount was skipping down it on two feet. Julia wondered what would happen to her if the girl slipped, if this immense body came down on top of Julia's relatively tiny one. Julia wrapped both arms around Mindy's neck, her palms slick with nervous sweat.

But to the extent the descent should have been fear-inducing, Mindy didn't seem to know it. She skipped lightly down the first twenty yards of the slope before realizing that Howard wasn't keeping up.

"Men," she whispered to her passenger. "Their balance isn't as good as ours."

"Really?" Julia asked.

"Really. My mom once strung a 600-pound fishing line between the main house and the carriage house. It helps us get from one to the other without getting our feet dirty. But the men never used it. They always fell off."

"You can balance on fishing line?"

Mindy smiled. "You could too."

Above, Howard was still failing his arms for balance, struggling to descend the steep incline safely.

Julia laughed. He was struggling, but she had Mindy -- and Mindy had skill. That felt nice. "He looks pathetic. Should we help him out?"

"Sure." Mindy retraced her steps toward Howard. She balled her hand into a fist and slammed it into the rock face, shattering the stone to dust. "Step there, young man," she suggested to the guy you was twice her age.

He did. She continued down the slope, slamming a fist or a heel into the rock at regular intervals. SMASH, SMASH, SMASH. A plume of rock debris rose from each impact, air smelled of rock dust. After several dozen such blows, a trail of footholds had formed, giving Howard easy purchase.

That's strange, Julia thought. No matter how strong her muscles, acting as a human jackhammer should have ruined the bones of her hand. But the girl seemed unharmed. Never felt fear -- those were the words Mindy used back in the cave. These women -- they aren't just strong, Julia realized. They are, for all intents and purposes, indestructible.

"That doesn't hurt you, does it?" Julia asked. "You bones are stronger than rock, aren't they?"

Mindy only grinned. "You could have that."

----------

On the ride home, Julia and Howard sat in the back seat -- the part of the car that was specifically designed for men and children. Nourished women, on the other hand, sat in front, where the seats were deeper and the distance to the floor greater.

Normally, being relegated to the back would have annoyed the couple. But now, Julia was relieved to have a little privacy.

"So, we're stuck here, at least for now," she whispered to Howard.

He nodded. "I'll get your through this, somehow."

"Howard, I want you to promise me that you will keep your zipper up, now matter who is trying to pull it down. These women are strong, but they don't seem to be predatory. You can still tell them no. If I ever, ever find you screwing around on my again, I swear I'll find a way to make your life miserable."

A pang of guilt crossed Howard's eyes.

Good, she thought. He should indeed feel guilty.

"I'll happily promise you that," he said. "All I want is for this this -- this trip, all of this weirdness -- to be over. But one good promise deserves another. I see how you've been reacting to the smell of that fruit drink. And you know what will happen if you take even a sip."

"I won't be able to stop."

"That's right. So, you need to promise me that you will stay away from that stuff. Abstinence is the only way back home, the only way back to your normal life. When you get home, you can join a gym, get healthier, be more athletic, whatever you want. Back home, being addicted to something that is unavailable is not happiness, it's misery. And having 300 pounds of muscle is not attractive, it's freakish."

The word 'freak' was jarring to Julia. All the women here were so nice, they didn't deserve that. And yet, she understood his point. "OK, we can make each other solemn promise. You will stay away from the girls; I will stay away from the juice. And we will get through this, together."

"Together," he agreed.

As they exited the car, Julia saw a trash bin. She reached into her fanny pack to discard the crumpled can Mindy had left on the floor of the tunnel. But when she opened the fanny pack, the familiar, pleasant aroma wafted out. She paused. Without thinking, she brought the crumpled metal to her nose and breathed deeply. A happy, lightheaded rush came over her. Dribbles of the juice spilled onto her fingers, and she licked them, delighting in the taste. It makes me feel so... Good, Julia realized. And it reminds me of the time in the woods, when Howard found me so attractive that he couldn't control himself. The smell brings such happy feelings, perhaps I'll keep it just a little bit longer. Tomorrow, I'll throw it out, Julia promised herself. She zipped the crumpled metal back into her pack.

-------

"Howard, where the heck did you get that?" Julia sat cross-legged on the living room carpet of the host family's home, surrounded by their caving gear.

"I always bring the gun with us when we go into the backcountry. We could have run into anyone in those caves, and not all of them are good. And frankly, I'm glad that I have it now. The women here might be enormous, but they're still human. And I'm sure not all of them are good, either."

"Sorry." He was right, she knew. "These women do scare me. You always such a good job of protecting me. And I'm glad you're here to look out for me now --- to look out for both of us."

"I'm still looking out for you. I'll keep this close." He unbuttoned his shirt to reveal a holster, and slid the weapon in. "And as long as I have anything to do with it, no one will mistreat us, no matter how big they are."

"Always my hero," Julia smiled, pecking him on the cheek. She had called him that so many times before. But this time, it felt strangely hollow.

As he was re-buttoning his shirt, Julia tried on her climbing harness. After usage, all equipment had to be checked for tears and broken parts -- anything that could be an hazard as they attempted to find their way back home through the caves.

"I think their muscles look silly," Julia announced as she ran her hands over the reinforced nylon straps. "Girls aren't supposed to look that strong."

Howard nodded as he pulled his own climbing harness down over his shoulders. "I think this Nourishment they are talking about is just some type of steroid. And if so, then their bodies are a lot less impressive than they appear. People on steroids have no flexibility, no range of motion, ligaments that are undeveloped relative to the muscle, no endurance, health issues. The list goes on."

"I hadn't realized that," Julia admitted. "I suppose every benefit comes at a price, doesn't it?" Howard was so smart, Julia thought to herself as she watched him don his own harness. And yet, whatever the consequences, she did miss the taste of the fruit. With every passing hour, the ache grew....

Julia was still running her hands over the reinforced nylon straps when Mindy's voice rang out from hallway.

"Hey, there you guys are!" Mindy strode into the room, attired in the same outfit she had worn into the caves: a high-necked, sleeveless maroon top had the miserable task of containing her prodigious bust, and a pair of jean shorts suffered similar challenges with her thighs and the hard globes of her ass. The outfit ceded her mid-section to open display. Julia found it hard not to gawk at the magnificence of the girl's rounded, perfectly defined abdominal muscles. "What's that thing you're wearing?" the amazon asked.

"It's a climbing harness, for the caves. I can attach a rope to this carabiner here," Julia pointed, "and the harness is strong enough to support my weight from that single connection point."

Mindy quizzically hooked a finger through the carabiner and tugged upward. Julia felt her feet leave the ground. Looking down, Julia realized her entire weight was supported only but the girl's extended index finger.

"That's super cool!" Mindy proclaimed. "Why didn't they invent one of these in this world?"

Mindy raised Julia further, and Julia found herself staring at the finger that held her aloft. It was extended horizontally -- the worst possible leverage -- and didn't quiver in the least. All of Julia's 150 pounds -- suspended on a single finger, and it was effortless for this girl. Julia had seen what their larger muscles could do, but she hadn't realized that their superhuman nature extended right down to their tiniest of muscles. "Wow," Julia whispered to herself.

"No kidding! These harness things are brilliant!" Mindy exclaimed, misunderstanding. The behemoth of a girl hooked her other index finger through the appropriate place on Howard's harness. He too, was soon aloft.

As the couple dangled in the air, Julia felt a new presence in the room. She craned her neck to see Mindy's little sister standing in the corner. By her face and build, Julia guessed she was perhaps 10 years old. But she was taller, and sturdier, than any 10-year-old back home -- nothing near the musculature of Mindy or the other women, but certainly sturdy enough to make any high school boy think twice about pushing her around.

"Hi," the little girl offered, looking at her shoelaces.

"I don't think we were ever introduced last night," Julia said, trying to sound adult even as she dangled like a little toy. "Your name is Becky?"

She nodded with vigor at her shoes. "Wanna see my tree house?"

"She always wants to show people her tree house," Mindy explained. "Doesn't matter if you're the mail man, the gardener or some chick that just crawled out of a cave from another planet. It's always the tree house. I'll take you up if you want to go. The harness things would make it easy."

"So, do you wanna see?" Becky prodded.

"Sure." What other answer is possible when you are being held aloft like a doll?

"I don't think that's a good idea," Howard replied, feet kicking.

"Doesn't matter!" Mindy chirped, setting them down. "Lady always wins. Come on!"

Before Julia knew what was happening, they were out the door and in the backyard of the house, Becky skipping jubilantly ahead.

Julia craned her neck backward, following the trunks of the trees up -- and up, and up, and up. These were no normal Kentucky trees, but something far more magnificent. They must have been two hundred feet tall.

Leading them to the base of the tallest, Becky grabbed a metal rung that had been nailed into it. The rung was the lowest of a series that ran up the length of the trunk. The child began scrambling up the rungs at a lightening pace, without hesitation or a pause for rest.

Mindy clipped the harnesses into the chain links of her belt. She put her hands on the first rung. "Ready?"

As it turned out, she didn't wait for an answer, but instead heaved herself upward.

"It's not safe for the un-Nourished," Mindy said, craning her neck upward. "But I think we can fix that little problem using your caving harnesses. Mindy produced a rope from a pile of supplies at the base of the tree. She tied it around her waist, then ran it through Julia's harness, then Howard's. She left only a few inches of rope between her and Julia, and then about six feet between Julia and Howard.

Mindy began climbing the tree.

"Mindy, are you sure is safe?" Howard asked. "These trees look very tall. Are you sur... OOOFF!" Howard had the air knocked out of him as he was suddenly hoisted skyward, dangling about six feet below the other ladies. Mindy's sizable body rocked back and forth with the rapid climb. Julia looked down to see Howard swinging wildly, like a pendulum as Mindy sprang upward from rung to rung.

Julia, for her part, had a different problem. There was only about six inches of rope between Mindy's waist and Julia's harness, meaning that Julia was more-or-less clinging to the larger woman's back like a marsupial. More than once, Julia's body slammed into Mindy's more substantial one.

After several uncomfortable collisions, Julia learned to stabilize herself, looping one arm around the girl's abdomen, the other around the girl's thigh, which was nearly as wide as Julia's entire torso. Holding the girl in this way was like hugging a warm stone column. She is so incredibly solid, Julia remarked to herself!

The ground was quickly receding, and was now perhaps eighty feet below her. Julia gulped.

Branches passed by at a steady pace, as if she were attached to an elevator rather than a person. Some of the iron ladder rungs had fallen away. When Mindy encountered this, the girl simply grasped branches and notches in the trunk, without slowing her juggernaut ascent. Forcing herself to look down again, Julia noticed not only that the ground had receded further -- perhaps one hundred feet now -- but also that Mindy's feet dangled free. Looking back up at the girl's arms, she could see the muscles writhe with steady exertion.

My lord, Julia thought to herself. She is hauling my mass and Howard's and her own absurd weight up on only the strength of her arms. And she's doing it at a ridiculous pace, without stopping to rest or even wavering! It reminded her of the ridiculous feat of strength she saw in the caves -- one thousand pounds, that rock weighted! What muscles are capable of this kind of power, Julia wondered to herself?

The handholds were further apart in the upper reaches of the tree, and Mindy began to swing more wildly as she shifted from one to the other. Julia squeezed the girl's abdomen a bit harder, hoping for more stability. But the muscles there offered no give: they were constructed of flesh harder than Julia's world had ever known. Julia found herself running her hand over the writhing mass, observing how it stretched and shifted and bulged with every exertion. The experience of touching Mindy in this way was somehow... invigorating.

The branches thinned considerably now. She tried not to look at the ground, now a deadly distance below her. A platform came into view. Although Mindy had called it a tree house, it was more of a lean-to: floor, walls on two sides, open on two other sides, and a roof. Becky was already up there, her feet dangling over the edge. Mindy powered her way toward the structure. Only a minute later, they, too, had arrived.

"I used to love it up here." Mindy was unclipping Julia and Howard, placing them on the surface of the platform. "I always came up here when I got sick of my mom and my brother. Be careful, though. We didn't put any railings on. Men never come up here."

Julia backed herself cautiously against one of the walls and looked toward the horizon. The landscape of this new world spread out before them. "What about Becky? Do you worry about her falling off?"

"That little twerp falls off all the time."

"I do NOT." The little girl's face compressed into a scowl.

"You fell off yesterday. There's a dent in the backyard two feet deep."

"I did that on PURPOSE. I was just playing."

Julia peered toward the ground, two hundred sickening feet below. The house, big as it was, appeared no larger than the width of her hand. They let this little girl tumble off the edge like that -- regularly?

"The caves you came from are over there," Mindy pointed. "And that's the beach. We have a house there. And over behind the clouds, those are the mountains where we go skiing."

Julia looked the mountain range, but not much was visible. The tops had been blanketed by dark clouds.

"Looks like crummy weather on the ski slopes today," Howard observed.

"No, it's clear. Look." Mindy's arm extended up.

Julia's eyes followed the arm skyward. There, at the upper edge of the cloud bank, the peaks broke through, jutting into the openness above. Covered in snow, their whiteness seemed nearly to blend with the haze of the atmosphere. Their ridge-line was a jagged knife, and their slopes a jumble of cliffs and gorges.

"Those are huge mountains," Julia observed. "They must be 12,000 feet tall."

"Closer to 20." Mindy's tone was nonchalant.

Julia heard someone call Mindy's name. "Whatcha doing?" the voice below asked. It was a female voice -- perhaps someone about Mindy's age -- eighteen or nineteen.

Mindy sidled up to the edge and waved back. "I've got visitors!"

"Who?"

"They're like, from another world!" Mindy replied.

"No way!"

"And one of them is an un-Nourished woman!"

"You're shitting me!"

Mindy turned to her guests and motioned them to the edge. "Come on, I want to show you to my friend Amanda."

Julia crept closer to the edge, but stopped several feet away. There were no railings, and the open void hollowed out a pit in her stomach. She approached edge inches at a time on shuddering hands and knees. Her palms became slick with sweat, and she stopped.

As always, Howard was more sure-footed, and athletic. He went right to the edge, braced his sneakers against the outer lip of the platform, and offered a hand to Julia. "I'll hold you if you're scared."

Julia stared with unease at the tops of the smaller trees, far below. Wind whipped across her face.

She looked at Howard's extended hand. She had always sought the protection of his strength in the past, but now her elbows quivered with unease. This world was so different, and this tree was so tall!

Mindy was on the edge, too. Julia found herself looking at Mindy's upper arm: it was nearly the size of Julia's thigh. It had carried three people up a two-hundred-foot tree with ease.

Mindy raised the elbow towards Julia, inviting her to grab on.

Julia found herself looping a trembling arm around the girl's magnificent bicep. It was hard as granite and unyielding as a mountain. Although the girl was only nineteen, holding her arm washed an immense tide of relief over Julia.

Julia sidled up to the very edge of the platform, the gaping expanse below no longer seeming to be such a threat. Turning to Howard, she looked instead at his extended hand and shook her head. "I'm good now, thanks."

-------------

"She's so tiny," the voice from the ground observed. Julia twisted in her climbing harness to get a better view of this friend that had been exchanging friendly shouts with Mindy during the entire trip down.

The ground was only about twenty feet below them at this point. Julia released a sigh of relief and relaxed her grip on Mindy's torso. She had been clawing at the girl's flesh without realizing it, trying to better her grip. Her hands were now cramped with fatigue. It had been like trying to squeeze granite for five minutes straight.

Mindy's friend turned out to be built like Mindy herself--- perhaps two inches taller and identically proportioned. Her blue-green eyes and freckles suggested a childish innocence, but there was nothing innocent about the girl's body: Muscles layered themselves atop other muscles, their curvatures somehow feminine and awesome at the same time.

Her hair was golden blond, cut short in a bob. She was attired in a leotard, as if she had just returned from gymnastics. Julia shuddered to think what a gymnastics session with this girl might look like. The parallel bars would need to be six inches thick to absorb the punishment of her momentum.

As soon as Julia was out of the harness, she felt the coolness of Amanda's shadow cover her. Amanda's voice was booming and sonorous. "She's so tiny. Is she OK?"

"The hospital said she was about as healthy as a man. She's soft, too, like a man."

Julia felt Amanda's fingers squeeze her bicep with all the gentleness a steel vice. She tried to withdraw her arm, but it was trapped.

"Nourishment doesn't work on you?" Amanda asked, speaking directly to Julia for the first time.

"It's more complicated than that." Julia lowered her eyes.

Amanda released the woman's arm, and turned to her friend. "Hey, can I borrow your car?"

"Sure. Which one?"

"I dunno. The orange Danica? Something with some speed. I'm in the mood for a joy ride."

Becky, apparently bored with the conversation, hopped and skipped back to the house. The remaining foursome made their way to the garage. Julia and Howard found themselves hopping and skipping, as well, to keep up with their behemoth companions.

Like everything else about the residence, the garage was palatial, two stories tall. Even before the garage door rose, Julia knew it was easily large enough to hold four or five cars. And glancing down the street, this seemed typical for the neighborhood. This was a wealthy neighborhood, no doubt.

But the surprising size of the garage was nothing compared the interior of it. As the door went up, she could see that the structure contained not five cars, but at least ten. The cars were hanging vertically from the I-beam rafters, like carcasses of cattle in a slaughterhouse. Stepping into the garage, the two large girls wandered the aisles between the hanging vehicles. As they chatted about the attributes of the various cars, Julia and her boyfriend followed behind in stunned silence.

"I think I still want the Danica," Amanda concluded, walking up to an orange sports car hanging nose-down in the corner. The machine looked like it belonged in Beverly Hills, or perhaps a racetrack. Its tires were as wide as Julia's shoulders.

"The orange one it is." Mindy crossed her arms. "Just be sure to bring it back in one piece."

"Dude, you are so unfair! That accident happened, like, two years ago! I was only sixteen then." Amanda reached under the front bumper and grabbed a steel handle. With her free hand, she grabbed a second handle that protruded through the hood.

Then, she lifted. The car came off its hook.

Julia followed sheepishly behind as the phenomenally powerful girl walked the car out of the garage. Her muscles -- they bulged slightly to accommodate the weight. But if bearing the burden was the least bit uncomfortable, her face didn't show it.

Once clear of the garage, Amanda turned to face the visitors. Rather than put the car down, she simply cocked her hip to one side and rested an elbow on it. Releasing her hold on the hood handle, she balanced the car vertically using only her grip on the bumper handle.

"How long are you guys staying?" Amanda asked.

"We... we..." Howard struggled to form words, Julia noticed.

"That is SO cute," Amanda giggled, turning to Julia. "Your guy is, like wigging out."

"It must be very different where you guys come from," Mindy offered.

"Totally!" Amanda agreed, without waiting for a response. "I bet your cars have like five wheels or rocket boosters or something."

Howard's jaw continued to quiver. "They uh, they..."

"Oh my gosh," Amanda squealed. "I've never seen a guy do that before. It's totally adorable and I don't even know why. Can I borrow him too?"

Julia realized that the question was directed at her. "Borrow him?"

"Hmm hmmm." Amanda slowly flexed the her arm up and down, performing a steady, one-armed curl with the car. Her bicep expanded and contracted in a steady rhythm, swelling to something twice the size of a football when it fully contracted. The repetitions were smooth and apparently effortless.

The girl yawned.

She isn't showing off, Julia realized. She's bored. She doing bicep curls with a car because she's bored. It's as difficult as twirling her hair or biting her fingernails.

"It's rude to say no," Mindy whispered. "Amanda would lend you someone to if you asked."

Julia watched the car slowly rise and fall with the girl's movement. I don't even know what "borrowing" means, she thought to herself. But then again, this girl could tear me to pieces with less effort than it takes me to remove a candy wrapper. Either of these girls could. So far, they've been very gracious to us -- putting us up at their house, taking us back to the caves, and then rescuing us when things went awry. But what happens if their patience runs out? What happens if we do something that is incredibly offensive to them, without our even knowing it? They could throw us throw us out of the house tonight, or even worse, decide to keep us for a while. We have to follow local custom, at least until we can leave. There is no other choice. "Uh, sure, you can borrow him. When?"

"I'll come pick him up in like, an hour, after dinner. I can have him back first thing tomorrow."

Julia turned to Mindy for guidance. The girl shrugged her shoulders and nodded. I'm "lending" my boyfriend on the advice of a teenager, Julia lamented. "OK," she agreed. "But like Mindy said with the car, bring him back in one piece."

That got a laugh out of both the giant girls. Julia was relieved: the locals were happy. But as she accompanied a shocked Howard back into the house, she pulled him aside. "You made me a promise in the back of that car, remember?"

Howard nodded.

"I'm assuming her request is entirely innocent. Maybe she needs someone to do some handyman work, or help babysit a little sibling. But if it's less innocent than that, no matter what she threatens or what wiles she works, your damn zipper stays up. You understand?"

He nodded.

Julia took a deep breath and followed him into the house, unable to shake the feeling that she had just agreed to something horrible.

-----------------

Amanda came later that evening to pick up Howard for the mysterious "Borrowing." After the two departed, Julia's anxiety must have been palpable. Everyone in the house noticed it. Finally, Ruth asked her directly.

"I just want to know that he's OK," Julia admitted. "He's everything to me. And I am a complete foreigner here. I have no idea what might be happening right now."

Ruth put a sympathetic hand on Julia's knee. "I'm sure nothing bad. It's just a Borrowing. But if you're uneasy, then that's not good." She turned to Mindy, who was doing her homework at the table. "Where do you think Amanda and Howard are right now?"

"Probably the bluffs."

"Can you take her, so that she doesn't feel so anxious? Maybe bring the male vision extenders. Her eyes are probably about a man's level."

They're worse, actually, Julia thought.

Male vision extenders turned out to be binoculars. Julia almost dropped them as she watched Mindy take a two-door coupe down from its rack in the garage. She had seen the feat performed once only an hour before, but it was still mind-boggling. Mindy walked the car out to the driveway, balancing it vertically by the handle on the front bumper. Julia must have been staring slack-jawed, because Mindy noticed.

"You think this is weird, don't you?"

"I... I don't think 'weird' even comes close."

"How much can the strongest man in your world lift? Two thousand pounds? A thousand?"

"I don't know. Maybe a few hundred? I've never really thought about it."

Mindy laughed. She raised and lowered her forearm in a smooth motion, just as Amanda had earlier. Her bicep swelled to something larger than a football with each contraction. The was no shaking in her arm, not even a quiver. "Do you want to feel?"

"Feel what?"

"What a real muscle feels like."

"I already did, in the caves, remember?"

"But you're fascinated, I can tell."

Julia's mind didn't know how to answer, but her feet did. She found herself walking, with some trepidation, under the car. It loomed black against the indigo of the night sky. She found her hand on Mindy's bicep, squeezing it gently at first, and then less so. It was like warm, living stone. The girl did another bicep curl with the car. Julia felt the muscle spread her fingers wide as it swelled in the contraction.

The girl's skin was supple, flawless. There were no veins, none of the leathery look she had associated with body builders. She smelled like flowers. "Wow," Julia whispered.

"You could have those," Mindy suggested.

"No.... no," Julia retorted, recoiling. The girls muscles, were impressive -- incredibly impressive -- but no. "That kind of bulk -- it wouldn't look good on me."

Mindy shrugged her shoulders, lowered the car onto its tires, and climbed in. "Well, are you coming?"

The drive to the bluffs was brief. The the sun had long since set, but the two moons illuminated the landscape in a bright pale light. They parked at the top of the bluffs. Far below, the ocean surf rumbled. The air was fresh, but in constant movement -- unsettled.

"There they are," Mindy pointed.

Julia followed Mindy's hand but saw nothing. She put the binoculars to her eye, and eventually was able to pick them out. They were on a bluff, far below, relaxing in the grass. A bottle of wine was lying on its side, apparently already empty.

Her heart sank. She had held out hope that Amanda's "Borrowing" of Howard was to help with a chore around the house, maybe some handyman-type thing at which men were particularly good. But, no, this was a date.

Julia pressed her eyes to the binoculars. They had been talking when she first spied them, but by now the talking had ceased. Amanda had stood up and turned to him. The two moons in the sky lit her body clearly. It was covered only in that tightly stretched leotard. The moonlight traced the hard lines of her body in a stark silhouette, showing the girl to be a paragon of muscular perfection.

Suddenly, Amanda slipped her arms through the shoulders of her leotard. She hooked two thumbs into the top of it and stretched it over her immense bust. The movement was slow.

"Amanda has to be careful," Mindy explained. "She has ripped lots of leotards like that. She's 56 inches in the bust. I'm only 52."

Julia braced her forearms against her 30-inch bust in order to stop them from shaking.

"How old is she?" Julia asked, her voice quivering as she peered into the binoculars with accumulating dread.

"Eighteen."

Eighteen, Julia thought, and spectacular. Her breasts -- all 56 inches of them -- were titanic. They were also ridiculously firm. With every movement, they bounced and swayed a bit, inviting Julia's gaze to follow, to linger. The girl's nipples were thicker than Julia's thumbs, so large that they were visible even through the binoculars. And her physique -- she was a female version of Adonis, every scrap of her body smooth, and carved by the moonlight into sleek, hard curves. Her arms -- the ones arms that previously held a car aloft without effort -- now dangled limp at her sides, swollen with unspent power. The girl's simple, short-cropped hair, cut in a simple bob, should have been her weak point. But its shortness served only to clear the view of her shoulders, muscles piled on top of more muscles piled on top of still more. The brawn of her upper torso was beast-like and yet blessed with a frightening beauty. I don't like the way she looks, Julia reminded herself. I'm not supposed to.

Seeing Amanda naked was.... humbling. The girl in the binoculars was in nothing but her birthday suit, on a promontory that could be seen from any number of bluff-top points, and yet she had not a scrap of concern or shyness on her face. And why would she? The girl had nothing-- not a single thing-- that could be considered a flaw. Julia could only imagine the shame she herself would feel if she were buck naked in the moonlight, for anyone in the parking lot above to see. She clung to the windbreaker she wore, drawing it tight around her torso and taking some scant assurance in the coverage it offered.

Julia watched Amanda saunter towards him. He put up a hand-- perhaps a protest of sorts. She giggled, making immense breasts wobble slightly. She placed his palms on them. And when her hands came off, his stayed.

A finger on the man's sternum lowered him to his knees. Before Julia knew it, he was naked, leaning back into the dune grass. She mounted him in a quick, fluid motion. She was a tiger with its prey -- except that they prey didn't die. It howled in unexpected ecstasy.

"See?" Mindy said as she returned to the car. "Nothing to worry about. Just a normal Borrowing."

-----------

Julia eyes were bloodshot from all the crying, her voice hoarse from all the screaming, when Howard finally slunk into the room, close to dawn.

He looked at her tear-streaked face, and also at the crumpled pillow she had used to muffle her cries from the ears of her hosts.

"Julia, before you say anything, I just want you to know that I did everything I could --"

"Shut up!" Julia snapped. "Shut up! I don't want to hear your pathetic excuses. The only thing I want is to get out of this hell."

Howard regarded her soberly.

"Did you..." Julia started

"Did I what?"

"Did you like it?"

"Julia...."

"I need to know, Howard. The truth."

He paused. "Do you really want that -- the truth?"

Julia felt her face turn to stone. Howard would know that meant "yes."

"I don't know how to say this. She was... incredible. Her body did things that I didn't know were poss--"

"She was only eighteen!" Julia spat, fresh sobs welling up inside of her. "She doesn't know the first thing about you! She's HALF your age! How could you tell me you enjoyed it? We've been dating for three years and I've been bested by a girl with no sexual experience!" Julia buried her face in the pillow.

"From the way she moved, I wouldn't say she was inexp--"

"Screw off!" She buried her face further. "Howard, I swear, I am going to do everything -- everything in my power -- to make sure you never do this to me again."

(TO BE CONTINUED)

[Female Bodybuilding]

The LaPorte Caves - Chapter 04

Submitted by circes_cup on July 1, 2015 - 8:25pm


CHAPTER 4

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SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out into world of amazon women. They tried to return home -- and failed. Now, they have realized that the only way to get back is to secure the help of the very women they are trying to leave behind.

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

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"Not today, and not tomorrow either," Ruth replied as her husband served her another six-egg omelette. "I promised the family I would take them to the beach for the long weekend."

"A beach trip?" Julia pressed. "That takes precedence over getting us home?"

"Julia!" Howard put a cautionary hand on his shoulder. "It's not as if we'd be ready, anyway. We need time to study the maps, figure out an entrance with a better chance of getting us back where we started."

Julia silently fumed. A silence settled on the table. Her attention became lost in the billows of hot steam that rose off the hash browns.

Eventually, Ruth spoke. "Perhaps you'd like to come to the beach with us for the long weekend? Relax a little bit before crawling through those dirty caves again?"

"The beach is fun!" Becky, announced, before inserting her nose into her glass of Pre-Nourishment.

"You're very kind." Julia's diction was slow as she forced the courtesy back into her voice. "And you've been very generous with us. But I believe you can understand how critical it is that we discover the route home-- how distressing it is to be trapped in a foreign world."

Ruth's eyes were sympathetic. "I can certainly understand how strange it must be for you in particular, to grow up in an environment where men are stronger than women -- and then to come here. The best I can do is make you comfortable for whatever time you are with us." Ruth turned to Howard. "Our beach house has plenty of room. And it has internet access: perhaps you can study up on the caves -- whatever information has been published in our society -- to find a better route home."

Howard nodded. "That sounds like a good plan to me."

"Who cares what YOU think?" It was their little girl, Becky. "You're a GUY."

"That's enough, Becky," Ruth chided. "But Becky is right. As the woman in the couple, it's her decision."

All eyes turned to Julia. "The beach does sound like fun... But all the women there -- will they all look like you?"

"Well, some might have blond hair. Or black. Or maybe a different skin color. Some might be a little bit taller, or a little bit shorter."

"How short?"

"I don't know. Six-four, maybe?" Ruth replied.

"And not an inch of flab to be found anywhere?"

"What's FLAB, Mom?" Becky interjected.

"It's something that men have, honey."

Julia's heart sank downward toward her flabby thighs. How could she don a bathing suit and walk around half naked next to these models of physical perfection?

Her gaze wandered the table. Becky was absently twirling a butter knife around her pinky finger, warping the stainless steel with remorseless power.

Ruth sighed. "Becky, do not play with your utensils. They're for eating, not for fiddling. And I'm tired of straightening them out."

Steel is nothing to the girl, Julia realized. So damn powerful. She watched Ruth's powerful arms scoop another pound of hash browns out of the serving bowl. What would it be like to walk down a dark alley and never fear for my safety? What would it be like to eat a huge fatty breakfast with abandon -- as Ruth and her daughters were apparently doing now -- and know that the extra pounds would be pure muscle? They get all that not from a costly medical procedure, and not from endless hours of training, but from something they can buy in the grocery store. Her eyes found their way to the refrigerator in the kitchen.

"I'm not going to the beach," Julia announced, sullen. "It would be humiliating. But Howard, you should go. It will be easier to do the cave research there, since you'll need help translating whatever you find on the internet." The written language of this foreign land had proved indecipherable to both of them.

"That sounds fine to me," Ruth agreed. "Mindy will be around the house for a few hours this morning practicing for her recital next month. Just let her know if you need anything. I hope you find the downtime.... rejuvenating."

Rejuvenating. That was an interesting word choice, Julia thought.

Ruth appraised Julia with a glint in her eye. "And of course, our house is your house, Julia. Feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge."

-------------

The sound of bright, elegant music tumbled down the stairs and filled bedroom where Julia lay. Whatever instrument Mindy was playing, its sound was unfamiliar. Individual notes sounded like a flute or a clarinet, but Mindy was somehow producing entire chords, a three or more notes at once, at dizzying speed. The sound was simply beautiful, even when heard through the pillow that Julia had stuffed over her unhappy head.

"How could he be attracted to them?" Julia growled into the bedding. "They're huge. Sure they've got curves. But those arms, those legs! And they're taller than he is. What man could like that?"

The music continued to torture her with its excruciating beauty.

"It doesn't matter," Julia screamed. "I'm happy the way I am. I'm happy with who I am. I don't need to be someone else!" As if to punctuate the point, she hurled the pillow across the room.

But that only opened her ears all the more to the intricate music that flooded the house. Fifteen years of playing the violin, and Julia had never produced a sound so elegant.

"Maybe I could drink just a little. It would help me slim down and tone up a bit, like I did in the woods."

The music climbed the scale in an optimistic arpeggio.

"But, no, I can't. Sixteen times the addictiveness of heroin, the warning label says. I wouldn't stop drinking until I was huge and totally hooked on the stuff."

The music answered with carefree notes.

"And once I'm hooked on the stuff, I could never go home, ever. I wouldn't be able to fit in a car or sit in a normal chair. I'd be a freak. My family would see me and start sobbing. And there's no supply of Nourishment at home; I would wind up in withdrawal, and rehab, or worse... No, I could never allow that to happen."

The music danced with blithe indifference through its upper octaves.

"I need to get out of bed. I need to get up and face this world. Face the world as myself, Julia, a normal, un-Nourished woman."

Get up Julia did. Donning the same shirt and jeans she had worn when she tumbled into this world, Julia jerked open the bedroom door and strode out.

The house was expansive, which made it all the more remarkable that one set of lungs was able to fill it with music. Traversing the living room took longer than a walk through Julia's entire house.

With Mindy occupied, Julia had the enormous residence to herself. She found herself wandering aimlessly, taking in the strangeness and wealth of this family's alien existence. The living room was perhaps one thousand square feet in size. The furniture was elegant, and yet ribbed with steel supports, as if it were designed to withstand immense abuse. The fireplace was imposing. It featured a mysterious rack over the logs that seemed to contain drinking cups. Photographs of the family adorned the walls -- Ruth and Mindy towering over the father and brothers, young Becky standing shoulder-to-shoulder with her father.

The entertainment room was huge, almost like a tiny movie theater. The garage she had seen before: cars hanging vertically on racks like carcasses of meat. There were some motorcycles too, which she had not noticed before.

Following the music upstairs, Julia found the kids' rooms, as well as no fewer than three guest bedrooms, and the master bedroom. The doors to the kids' rooms were closed, but the master bedroom was ajar. Julia poked her head in.

The bed was littered with scraps of cloth, which Julia found curious. She picked up one of the scraps and found it to be in the shape of small triangles. A bikini top, she muttered. The triangles were not even large enough to be drink coasters! She found some matching string, in the shape of a "Y". That must be the bottom, she realized -- a thong. Julia quickly grabbed at the other scraps of cloth on the bed and realized that they, too, were swimsuits. Sewing them all together wouldn't produce even half the covering Julia needed at the beach. She threw the cloth onto the bed in frustration. Wearing this stuff was tantamount to nudity! Who could get away with it?

If Julia wasn't willing to provide the answer, the family photos on the dresser were. There was Ruth, clad the same raspberry-colored bikini that was sitting on the bed. The woman was in her mid-40's, but sported a body that 22-year-old college students could only dream about. In fact, they couldn't even dream about it: a body like Ruth's would hardly have been imaginable to Julia before she saw it with her own eyes. Titanic tits of unreal firmness shaped the triangles of her top into raspberry-colored pyramids. Thighs like cannons, biceps like cannonballs -- every inch of her was carved muscle. To top it off, she beamed smile that could win her a Homecoming Queen crown three times over.

She can wear next to nothing and never give it a second thought, Julia realized with disgust.

Her husband was in the picture, too, sitting on top of her bicep as she flexed it, feet dangling like a kid's from a playground swing. The swelling of the her watermelon-shaped arm muscle must have thrown him off balance: he was yelling with playful alarm as he groped for her more stable forearm in order to keep himself from going over.

So fucking powerful, Julia thought. She's being gentle, but really, he's nothing more than a toy to her.

To call her beautiful was missing the point. Her strength, her confidence, her indomitable body -- she radiated physical and sexual power. She was more than Julia had ever thought a woman could ever be.

Julia picked up the raspberry-colored bikini from the bed and turned it over in her hands. These little strips of cloth once encased a living goddess. She's off at the beach showing off her perfect body, letting her husband use it for a jungle gym, and I'm here in the house, hiding. A rotten ache of jealousy developed in her gut.

She let the suit tumble out of her fingers in disgust.

Without remembering how she got there, Julia soon found herself in the kitchen. Like everything else, it was enormous, well-equipped, spotless. Eating would make me feel better, she thought. That must be why I'm here, she reassured herself. She opened the refrigerator door. Cheeses, fruit, yogurt and other items were inside. The food looked fresh enough, but for some reason it wasn't appetizing. No, that's not why I'm here.

Closing the door of the first fridge, Julia turned her attention to the second one -- the one which contained the Nourishment. Her mind wandered back to her journey through the wilderness with Howard -- the anxiety and the fear of being in a foreign place, but then also the deep satisfaction that came from eating that fruit for the first time. It satiated her body in way that no other food had ever done. What's more, it made her look good -- not just healthy, but a little bit slimmer, a little bit more athletic. It had done more for her in a day that countless diet regimens had done in years. The result had not been lost on Howard, and that -- the way she aroused him that night -- had been the best part of all.

How much harm could come from sipping just a little bit of the fruit concentrate, having its wonderful taste back on her lips, feeling the joys of looking just a little bit trimmer? That seems harmless enough to me, Julia assured herself.

With her mind thus at ease, she grasped the handle of the fridge, and she tugged.

Nothing happened. She yanked harder -- still nothing. She looked for a lock or some other type of closure mechanism, but saw none. Jamming her foot into the crack between the door and the body of the fridge, she placed both hands on the handle and leaned back. Nothing. It was like trying to pull a handle that had been screwed into solid rock. So hungry was she for the Diana fruit that she could almost taste it in her mouth, feel its raw energy coursing through her blood.

Julia scanned the fridge for buttons to push, levers to trip. There was nothing. Damn it. She fastened both hands over the panel and yanked --hard.

"WARNING." It was a pre-recorded message, being emitted from some speaker on the refrigerator itself. "Appliance Intended for Nourishment Only. Nourishment is Toxic to Males. Multiple Unsuccessful Attempts To Open Door Have Been Detected..."

Julia swore to herself. She searched desperately for the speaker on the refrigerator, hoping to muffle it with a dishrag or a sponge.

But the appliance droned on with its pre-recorded speech. "WARNING. Possible Attempt at Male Access Detected. Refrigerated Compartment is Negatively Pressurized to Prevent Unauthorized Access. Nourishment is Toxic to Males. WARNING mpfhh mfpfh mpfhf mpffhf mppfh......"

Julia had finally found the speaker and covered it with a dish towel. So caught up was she with the yammering appliance that she hadn't noticed the silence from upstairs. The music had stopped.

"Can I help you with something?" It was Mindy, standing at the foot of the stairs.

"No," Julia replied, reddening. "I was just poking around, just... curious."

Mindy strode into the kitchen, her heavy legs THUD-THUD-THUDing in the house's silence. She wore a stretchy white miniskirt that hugged every sinful curve of the girl's bottom. Her top was a lavender sleeveless collared blouse that would have been normal if not for the fact that fully half the buttons were unfastened. That left a deep valley of cleavage on open display. Is there any outfit in her collection, Julia wondered, that doesn't constitute a form of bragging?

"I was just looking for some yogurt or cheese or something," Julia lied, slipping the dish towel discreetly back onto the counter.

"Wrong fridge. The one on the right's for Nourishment. Strange that you managed to set the alarm off -- that usually only happens when someone really yanks on it."

"I guess I was hungry," Julia muttered. "Hope I didn't break anything. Back home, we never put locks on our refrigerators."

"It's not a lock. They designed the fridge to suck all the air out of itself. That makes it a little bit harder to open the door. You need like 300 pounds of force to get in. Keeps people like my brother out." Mindy hooked two fingers around the handle and swung the door open.

I feel so silly, Julia thought to herself as she backed away from the appliance. Nonetheless, as Mindy reached in, Julia stole a glance over her shoulder. The jugs were bigger than one would normally find in a house -- varying between two feet tall and four feet tall. So much.... so much wonderful juice.

Mindy grabbed one of the larger bottles and kicked the door closed. "There's a strange look in your eyes, you know."

I need to change the topic, Julia realized -- now. "What kind of instrument were you playing?"

"You want to watch me play it?"

Julia only nodded in reply, anything to get away from the mockery of a juice-filled fridge that she couldn't access. Julia found herself following the girl's expansive, carved thighs up the stairs. The girl flopped herself down on a huge bean bag and patted the seat next to her. Julia sat.

The instrument reminded Julia of an oversized, distorted harmonica: a rounded mass with a dozen of apertures across which one could blow air. There were perhaps eight finger valves for each aperture. "Your airflow has to be precise," Mindy explained, as she took swig from the bottle. "You have to hit all twelve holes at once with the same air pressure. Men can't do it."

"That seems to be a theme around here."

"Men aren't that good at music generally. Some of them try to compete -- spend their whole lives practicing this thing. But I was better than the best male player by the time I was in high school. People watch male performers only for their entertainment value."

"Entertainment value?"

"Sure. Like watching a ferret ride a tiny unicycle. Weird, kind of funny. By not exactly serious art."

Mindy placed her fingers on the valves, pursed her lips, and blew. An enchanting sound filled the room -- a chord, or several, in a warm and earthy tone.

She took a swig from bottle, "It helps to whet your mouth first with a little liquid," Mindy elaborated. She returned her attention to the instrument. The song undulated into greater complexity.

Julia watched the young girl's fingers race across the valves at a virtuoso's speed. As Julia listened, she noticed that something else filled the room as well. It was that sweet, fruity scent --- demanding Julia's attention. She felt her limbs quiver slightly with need. At the next break in the music, Julia found herself whispering, "That smell.... the fruit.... it was so nice."

"What, this?" Mindy blew a gentle breeze across her companion.

Julia felt woozy when the sweetness hit her.

Mindy took another swig of the Nourishment--- a big, sloppy gulp that left left a trail of stickiness running down her cheek. It reminded Julia of that night in the wilderness, how the fruit had dribbled over her chin and down her neck, how she was still sticky with it when Howard had cleaned it off using only passionate kisses. "Why were you poking around the kitchen earlier?" Mindy shifted her position to look Julia straight in the eye. "Staring at the fridge for no reason?"

Julia's knees nearly went out from under her at the inviting aroma. "I... I don't know. I guess I was curious."

"Curious about what?" Mindy watched as Julia's eyes roam the girl's massive biceps. She flexed and observed, nonplussed, as the her arm ballooned with power. "Curious about that?"

"No, no," Julia objected, as a soft moan escaped her lips. "I already know that you're strong. I've seen it."

"But then what are you curious about? What it feels like to have muscles like these?" Mindy took another swig from the bottle, delectable drops of beige liquid tumbled off her lips.

Julia breathed deeply the inviting scent, and her mind swooned with need.

"Why did you arrange to have the house to ourselves this morning?" Mindy asked.

"I didn't arrange..."

Mindy only grinned.

"I needed some time to myself, I guess."

"To think?" Mindy shifted her position on the bean bag and was suddenly much closer to Julia's lips. "Or to explore?"

"I feel so inferior to all the women here." Her voice was meek. "It's hard for me to even set foot outside the house. You girls command everything that's around you."

"Not everything. Sometimes, the sensations we experience overwhelm us."

"What do you mean?"

"They've done studies." Mindy extended herself in a languid motion across the bean bag. "A woman goes off Nourishment for a few months and returns to her un-Nourished body. And then she goes back on Nourishment and notes on the differences. When they were un-Nourished, women didn't say they felt bad, per se. But when they went back on Nourishment, they were shocked at how much better everything felt. They had more energy. Colors seemed brighter. Smells were more appealing. And of course they were stronger and all that stuff too. But the best difference that all the women noticed was sex."

"The sex?" Julia remembered back to the night in the woods, in Howard's arms-- it had been unforgettable. And it felt that way after she had consumed all that fruit.

"Yes, the studies showed that the sex was, like, a hundred times better. Just getting your nipple sucked in a Nourished body was like having a three or four orgasms in an un-Nourished one."

Julia's eyes found their way to the girls chest. Her nipple, thicker than a broom handle and probably harder as well, protruded triumphantly through the thin material of the girl's top. Julia tried to remember the last time, apart from that night in the woods, that she had had an orgasm. Had it been months, or longer? And when was the last time she had experienced two in the same session? Her hands trembled at the thought. She found her gaze back on the girl's erect nipple.

"You're staring," Mindy noticed. "And it's turning me on."

At that moment, a musk of some sort flooded Julia's nostrils, and brought with it a heavy wave of heated sensations. Julia stumbled, trying to clear her head. "What's happening to me?"

"It's my pheromones, silly."

Julia gazed with longing at the luxurious brown of the girl's eyes. "I don't.... I don't understand."

"Whenever we're turned on, we release pheromones that turn the wills of weaker beings to jelly." Mindy spread her legs slightly, the fabric of her miniskirt stretching to accommodate the expansion. "See?"

The delicate wisps of musk that had reached Julia's nose earlier were now replaced by a thick cloud. Julia's heart raced. Her breathing shallowed. And her thoughts scattered like bowling pins tumbling away from a well-aimed ball. I've got to have her, Julia's mind screamed. I've GOT to. Her hands flailed about seeking the floor anything that could hold her.

"That's what happened to Howard in the bath. He tried to resist touching me. I don't know why, but he really tried. It was so cute. But the more he tried to deny his desire, the more it turned me on, so there was no hope for him. I completely crushed his will. Having that kind of power over men -- it's is my favorite part of being Nourished."

Julia felt another wave of desire hit her. I can't let myself do this, Julia objected to herself! Howard did this and I hate him for it. Now, I'm fantasizing about committing the same sort of betrayal myself! But her will felt no sturdier than a drinking straw tasked with propping up a brick.

Before she realized it, her lips were on Mindy's. The dribbles of Nourishment that she found there tasted every bit as delectable as they had smelled. Julia felt the posture of the girl's powerful body rise into her. Julia's hand slid up the warm steel of the girl's midriff. Julia forced herself to stop and take a deep breath. "I'm sorry, Mindy. I'm... I'm not a lesbian."

"What's a leb-sian?" The girl replied. Her eyes were like warm, delicious chocolate. Her face was the epitome of womanly perfection -- a slightly olive skin, high cheekbones, wide and full lips, a perfectly symmetrical nose aligned with perfectly symmetrical teeth. Mindy's expression was innocent and yet hungry at the same time, and so... damn... sexy.

"A lesbian..." Julia wondered if her mind could even function with this marvelous girl in her hands. "A lesbian is a woman who desires women rather than men."

Mindy's features screwed up into a confusion so alluring it made Julia's heart ache. "You guys have.... categories?"

"I guess. I'm not sure," Julia conceded. She didn't know which reality to cling to. But her lips seemed to have more certainty. After the girl finished another swig of Nourishment, Julia found her lips back on Mindy's, hungrily lapping up the lingering drops. The liquid traced a path of delight down Julia's throat, even as the sensation of kissing Mindy triggered new delights in the rest of Julia's body.

"You like my body, don't you?" Mindy challenged.

"Women in my world... we're not supposed to be that big.... those muscles..." Julia's hands left her companion's midriff and made their way back down Mindy's frightening large biceps. "Nobody is shaped like that..." Her eyes found their way to Mindy's massive bust. "And those tits... so firm and so huge... on our world those could never exist."

"You want to touch them, don't you, to see if they are for real?"

She found herself grasping the volume of Mindy's breast in both hands. She stared into the girl's eyes, her will evaporating.

Before she knew what was happening, Julia's hands had unbuttoned the girl's blouse, and her lips had fixed themselves on the girl's large nipple, sucking for dear life. Her tongue raked across the rough, distended surface of Mindy's protruding arousal. The girl arched her back powerfully, piling a firm breast into Julia's face, forcing her head back violently. Julia hung on, wrapping two hands firmly around the girl's volleyball-sized breast as she were holding a saddle in a rodeo. Hungry, Julia's mouth again descended on the hardened nub. She sucked with renewed force, raking her teeth as well across the quivering flesh.

The moan that escaped Mindy's lips shook with its power, like a roll of thunder. For Julia, arousal was now mixed with jealousy. "You weren't kidding... about the orgasms... you feel them more powerfully than I ever would."

Mindy nodded. "You want to feel the same thing, don't you?"

Julia was torn. "But ... "

"And you want to know what it's like to be hundreds of times stronger than you are now -- to never fear for your safety again?"

"But ..."

"And you want to know what it's like to have all your blemishes removed -- to be the same beautiful woman outside that you already are inside? To turn drive Howard mad with desire whenever you feel like it?"

"But ..."

"But what?" Mindy asked.

"I promised Howard I wouldn't"

"It's your body, Julia."

"But if I drink it, I never be able to return home. I'll be stuck here, addicted."

"So?"

"And that would mean that I lose Howard. Either he returns home without me, or he stays here and becomes the sex toy of whichever woman takes an interest in him. You already had your way with him, and so did Amanda. It will never stop, will it? I would lose him into this world of promiscuity."

"Lose him? Just because he slept with Amanda doesn't mean he's forgotten who you are." The girl's insouciance was stunning.

"I don't want him sleeping with whichever woman happens to take an interest in him. Howard and I are in a committed relationship!"

Mindy's face screwed up in sweet confusion. "What's a 'committed relationship'?"

"Like your mom and your dad. She doesn't do this with strangers, does she?"

"Not now." Mindy shook her head, looking at her watch. "Not before lunch."

Julia needed a moment to take in the implications. "She sees other guys? Openly?"

Mindy bit her lip and nodded. "All women have multiple partners."

"And the men?"

"Not if they can help it. The lucky ones get Claimed by a woman. That makes the man one of her favored partners and puts him off limits to other women. The unlucky ones never get Claimed: they bounce from woman to woman, getting thrown out of each girl's life whenever she gets bored of him. For those guys, there's usually with a long hiatus between women. Or they never find anyone at all."

"So, your dad, as a Claimed man, is exclusive to your mom, but not the other way around? How the hell does your dad feel about that?"

"He feels great about it. Women need more than a single man can offer -- far more. He would never want the pressure of meeting all of her needs. But at the same time, she's more than capable of meeting all his needs. So, being Claimed is the best of both worlds: affection, without the pressure of monogamy. All men understand this."

"I'm not sure Howard would! And besides, he and I are equal partners. If he's not going to touch other women, then I' m not going to touch other men."

"I'm tired of talking," Mindy moaned, raising her hands above her head in a stretch. The large swells of the girl's breasts rose like waves on the ocean. "When are you going to go ahead and fuck me?"

Julia shivered. She was oh.... so... sexy. Suddenly, it was Julia's hands that were providing the answers, cupping the girl's breasts-- her voluminous, teardrop-shaped, firm, perfect breasts. The girl seemed to have no objection: Mindy's back arched sharply, jutting the masses further into Julia's greedy hands. Julia found again the girl's nipples once again. The size of strawberries, they blossomed excitedly at the touch of her fingers, as the panels of the girl's top fell away.

Mindy took a swig of Nourishment and offered the bottle to Julia. "Last time I ask."

"No..."

"But you want to, don't you?"

"I promised Howard..."

"Howard's not the only one you can make promises to." The girl propped herself up on one elbow, a precocious smile on her face. "I want you to make me a promise, too -- just a tiny one."

"OK." She liked it when Mindy smiled.

"I'm going to do an stupid stunt with my belly button, and then you have to kiss it. And not just a peck, but a real kiss, like you mean it. You have to kiss it for like, a whole minute. And I'll be timing it. Promise?"

"Fine, I promise!" Julia smiled. It was hardly a chore. There was not a scrap of the girl that wasn't perfect.

"OK, but first the stupid stunt." Mindy grabbed the Nourishment bottle and lay herself back on the floor. She focused her eyes on her abdomen and flexed the muscles there.

Julia's breath caught in her throat. She had always known Mindy had great abs, but she had never seen the girl flex hard before. The result was remarkable, as if two mountain ranges had suddenly risen up out of the foothills of her midriff.

Mindy grabbed the bottle of Nourishment and then carefully poured it on her belly. So defined was her musculature that the liquid became a lake between those mountains. GLUG-GLUG-GLUG went the bottle. Julia could hear Mindy's labored breathing as she tried to keep her diaphragm steady, so avoid upsetting the pool she had created.

"I can't kiss your belly button now!" Julia giggled. "It's under a fucking lake!"

"But you promised me a kiss down there!" Mindy wined, her sultry innocence tugging at Julia's insides.

Before she could think better of it, Julia brought her face close the girl's midriff. Her astonished fingers ran over peaks of Mindy's abdomen. Soft peach fuzz skin adorned the surface. But underneath, Julia could tell that these mountains were made of marble.

The Nourishment was sweet and inviting as ever. I'll drink just this little bit, she thought, just enough to get to her belly button and end this stupid game. But when Julia's lips touched the surface of the pond, her senses exploded. Before she knew it, she was inhaling the liquid in deep gulps. Her mouth, her throat burned with joy. She lapped up every bit of what remained, running her eager tongue over the hard, hilly terrain of the girl's midriff before exploring the tiny folds of the girl's navel, her lips gladly delivering the promised affection.

When Julia looked up at the girl, Julia's expression must have been pure, unabated thirst, because Mindy reacted wordlessly. Before Julia's conscious mind could catch up, it was Julia, and not Mindy, who was reclining against the beanbag. The powerful girl straddled her now, holding the massive bottle to Julia's lips.

I'll try drinking this, just for a few days, Julia reassured herself. It will scratch the itch, get the temptation out of my system. And it can't be as addictive as they say, can it?

But there was no time for her mind to continue the debate. Mindy tipped the bottle back with expert precision, and Julia found herself consuming the liquid with a hunger she had never previously known.

[Female Bodybuilding]

The LaPorte Caves - Chapter 05

Submitted by circes_cup on July 1, 2015 - 8:38pm


CHAPTER 5

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SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out into world of amazon women. At first, Julia was disgusted by the size and strength of the amazons. But curiosity got the better of her, and she soon found herself drinking the transformative elixir.

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

----------

Julia awoke to the heat of Mindy's breath against her neck, and the warmth of Mindy's naked body against her own. Comforters were piled high on top of the pair. The pink of dawn was gone from the windows: it was already mid-morning. Julia felt a happy glow between her legs. What in the world did I just do, she wondered to herself? Did I just fuck a girl -- and one half my age? Am I a lesbian now? A lecherous woman who cavorts with ninteen-year-olds?

"Hey lover girl," Mindy whispered, squeezing her tightly.

Something about Julia's body felt different. The taste of Nourishment was still on her lips. Oh no, she thought. "Did I.....?"

"Ssssshhh," Mindy chided. "It's ok that you don't remember. That happens when you Nourish for the first time."

"How much did I drink?"

"Seventeen, eighteen gallons," she grinned. "I finally just relocated you to the bathtub so that you could piss as fast as you drank."

"Am I going to be OK?"

A devilish smile crossed Mindy's lips. "What was your least favorite part of your body?"

"My thighs," Julia complained. "My huge and flabby thighs."

Mindy grabbed the woman's hands. Julia felt her hands being guided down to her thighs. What she encountered there was hard and smooth. Julia's fingers spread wide over the ellipsoid curves. Oh my gosh, Julia thought. This Nourishment -- it did something...

"And my ass," Julia offered. "I've always hated my ass."

She felt one of her hands guided, sliding between the sheets, to her ass cheek. No longer droopy, it was a firm globe.

"And my tummy." Julia was breathless. "It's always been round and flabby."

Mindy's fingers steered Julia's palms to the woman's tummy. The round shape and flabby flesh had been replaced by six hard bumps. They rose and fell with every breath: they were a part of her!

"Holy shit," Julia whispered. "And...."

"Yes?" Mindy's breath was sweet and inviting.

"My tits. So small. And always so droop--"

Julia couldn't finish her sentence. Mindy's hands had guided Julia's upwards. The mounds they had encountered there were firm ... and immense. Julia was moving her own fingers now, trying to circumscribe to entirety of her swollen bust. She was huge! She had never thought about what it would be like to live in a body so exaggerated, so extreme. The thought was jarring.

"Anything else you didn't like about your old body?"

"I can't even think right now."

"How about your lack of erogenous sensitivity?"

"My what?"

Mindy's head disappeared beneath the covers. Julia felt a pair of lips on her nipple -- gentle, at first, then more insistent. She felt Mindy's tongue rake across the flesh. Julia released an involuntary groan. Then the suction of the girl's lips returned with exuberant force.

"Fuuuuuuuuck," Julia moaned. Her body exploded into orgasm -- or maybe it was multiple orgasms. It was more powerful than anything she had ever experienced with Howard. She bit her lip to restrain the pleasure. I shouldn't be doing this, Julia thought. I love my boyfriend.

Mercifully, Mindy's ministrations ended as fast as they began. "That was just a taste."

"I'm not going to be huge, am I? I don't want to be a giant, to tower over Howard."

"Blissfully, beautifully huge."

Oh no, Julia thought. She bolted off the bed and found herself naked in front of a full length mirror. Or better said, she found a phenomenally muscular body at the height of athletic perfection standing in the full length mirror. But it was her face, her shocked expression on the top. Her neck, formerly skinny, had thickened with sleek cords. The dramatic slopes of her trapezius muscles lead her eye down to powerful shoulders that must have been three feet wide. Biceps that had been small balls of dough before Nourishment were now the size of footballs, with the rest of her arm growing in proportion. Her thighs reminded her of steel beams. Even her calves were carved with an intimidating mass of muscle. Her midriff was everything her fingers had detected, an expanse of six chiseled balls of power.

Last of all, she took in sight of her breasts. They had gone from unremarkable and demure to something beyond magnificent. Formerly a B-cup, they were now bigger than volleyballs. Free of encumbrances,her "girls" pointed their nipples slightly skyward in blithe unawareness of their former sagginess. They were so full and firm, Julia couldn't imagine she would ever need the support of a bra again.

Mindy was in the mirror now, too. She had wrapped her arms around the Julia and seemed to be estimating her dimensions.

"Nice, girl!" Mindy extolled. "You're probably 22 inches on the arms, 29 or so on the thighs, and 54 around the tits. Sometimes the Nourishment takes a whole week to get women to this point. Looks like it took you about a day."

"Uh thanks." Being assessed like this was new for Julia and it made her uncomfortable. She found herself pulling a terry bathrobe off a hook and wrapping it around herself.

"Let's get going to the beach. Speaking of Howard, he's probably dying with curiosity about what's going on with you."

Fuck, Julia thought. Howard is going to kill me. "I should call him now. I should break the news to him about this before he sees me like this."

"Whateva," Mindy shrugged, pulling the phone receiver off the wall. She punched in a number, told the person on the other end to get Howard, and then handed the receiver to Julia.

"What the FUCK?" Howard's voice barged through the telephone line.

"I'm sorry honey, I really am." She motioned Mindy to leave the room. The girl responded only with a smirk. She thinks this is funny, Julia realized. Julia gave her a kick in the rear and then swung the door closed behind her. "I don't know how it happened, Howard. I haven't been able to stop thinking about the fruit since I was eating it in the wood. It had sort of effect on me."

"The effect is called addiction, Julia. And if the fruit was a little bit addictive, the shit you just drank is a lot more. Sixteen times the addictiveness of heroin."

"I know that's what they say, but I can stop any time."

"All addicts talk like that."

Julia was hurt. She had never been labeled that way before. "Trust me, please. I don't want to end up like the women here. Being that huge -- that's no way to spend your life." But then Julia looked again at the mirror. Her sloppy knot in her bathrobe was already coming undone. Her surface covering of plush terry separated to reveal the stoney bedrock of her body beneath it. Her tits, too, were coming into view -- twin volcanoes of feminine sexuality slowly separating the clouds of white cloth that had tried to obscure them.

"Julia? Did you hear me?"

"I'm sorry, Howard. What did you say?"

"What you did was incredibly reckless. You have no idea what sore of physiological differences may exist between you and them. It's safe for them, but is it going to make you sick? It is going to kill you?"

Julia cupped a hand under one of her breasts. The voluminous felt firm to her hands, and yet soft and natural as well. "Maybe it will make me sick, Howard. I don't know. I sure don't feel sick." She gave her breast a gentle squeeze. A thrilling sensation coursed through her body. "In fact, I feel good." That was an understatement she realized. Just the gentle squeeze of her breast -- it had felt GREAT.

"Julia, I can't tell you how disappointed..."

There was a knock on the door. It was Mindy, still naked. Julia temporarily lost track of Howard's recitation of his dissappointment. Mindy was pouting, and it was.... damn sexy.

"I'm bored," Mindy announced. "Half the morning's already over. Let's go to the the beach."

"Howard, I have to go. I'm coming over to the beach house now. I'm really sorry about everything. I wish I could make it up to you. We can talk about it when I get there -- long as you want. OK?" Julia hung up the phone without waiting for an answer.

Mindy was already stomping her way down the hallway, and Julia went after her.

"We need find ourselves some bathing suits," Mindy declared over her shoulder. "I've got tons of them you can borrow."

Julia followed the girl to her bedroom. Mindy yanked open a small drawer, packed with brightly colored strips of cloth. She slowly thumbed through the options. Julia watched her bare breasts rise and fall with each calm breath. She isn't bashful about her nudity at all, Julia realized as she pulled the terry robe back togther.

As long last, Mindy extracted an imperial blue-colored scrap of cloth. She stepped into it. The bathing suit -- to the extent that this garment was anything at all -- consisted of tiny bikini bottom with string ties connecting the front and back panels and an equally revealing top. The top formed an x-shape in the front: from the neck, a think strip of cloth crossed over the nape of her neck, over one breast, straight across the back, and then over the other breast before circling the neck again. It seemed to offer little coverage -- and even less support.

"Take anything you like out my drawer. Most of it should fit you fine."

Julia thumbed through the drawer. Her thumbs came across traditional bikinis with triangles smaller than her palm, a bandeau top no wider than four fingers, a one piece arrangement that featured more string than cloth. "Don't you have anything else?" Julia asked.

"Else?" Mindy was offended. "I've got like, fifty, suits in there."

Julia stared down into the drawer. It was perhaps two feet wide and six inches deep -- the size of two shoeboxes. And it contained fifty bathing suits. That's how tiny everything was. "I'd... I'd just feel comfortable in something with more coverage."

"You don't need it. Only men need bulky clothes."

Julia crossed her arms instinctively. "I'd just feel better that way. Maybe I can just wear my old clothes for now."

And so she did. Slipping on her old panties was no problem. Getting the bra around her new bust was pointless: that was instantly discarded. Jeans -- they came on only with the utmost care, with both girls tugging gently upward until the pants were around Julia's generous hips and backside. They resembled not a garment but a thick layer of blue paint. Her t-shirt stretched over her breasts, barely. But on her new body, it had become a crop top. Its hem, which had been intended for her waist, had now ridden up to the underside of her breasts and was straining against the breadth of the mass it contained.

"You look totally ridiculous. And that outfit is never going to last. But have it your way. Ready for fun in the sun?" It didn't appear to be a question: Mindy was already halfway down the stairs.

Before opening the front door, Mindy extracted a metal armlets from a hook on the wall and fastened it over her bicep. The armlet consisted of several parallel metal bars connected periodically by crossbars, like a fence with its posts. On the bars were fastened beads, some brass in color, others various colors such as gold and turquoise and celadon. Julia had seen other adult women wearing these as well, but had never figured out their purpose.

Once outside, Julia had expected the girl to step toward the cars in the driveway. But Mindy was walking the other direction, toward the bike path out back.

"We're not driving?"

"Too many stoplights," Mindy explained. "Faster if we go on foot," she said, pointing to a dirt trail that lead into the woods. "It will be nice to get some exercise today."

"But how far is it?"

"Thirty miles."

More than a marathon, Julia thought to herself. I've never run more than two miles in my life, and those were at a miserable 10-minute pace. It will take us hours -- and painful ones at that.

But Mindy seemed not to notice her acquaintance's concern. She stepped briskly into the bike path and started a slow jog. Julia followed. The path was much like the ones at home, but was divided into a number of different lanes. Mindy selected the path marked "Female Pedestrian" and kicked up her pace a bit.

Before two or three strides, however, one of the metal armlets on Mindy's arm began to vibrate and buzz. Mindy removed a metal kernel and stuck it in her ear. "Hey Mom," Mindy said.

Julia suddenly realized that these particular beads comprised a cell phone of sorts. She listened to Mindy's side of the conversation.

"Howard told you? .... Yea, she did.... no, she looks good... yea, everything normal..."

As the conversation proceeded, Mindy picked up from a jog to a run, and then from a run to a sprint. Men who were running in the adjacent "Male Pedestrian" lane were huffing and puffing, sweating as they ran as fast as they could. But the girls were passing them effortlessly, with Mindy on the phone the whole time.

Mindy wasn't wearing any shoes, and Julia wondered whether the slapping of her feet on the pavement would be painful. But, belatedly, Julia realized that she herself wasn't wearing any, either. The impacts were painless.

As the pair increased their pace steadily, Mindy continued to talk on the phone. Before long, the wind on Julia's face was so intense, it felt as though she had stuck her head out of a car window. Her surroundings were zipping by.

My joints should hurt, Julia thought. They always do when I run. But now they don't. And my tits -- even my old B-cups would have hurt without a sports bra, right? But Julia detected no pain. And I shouldn't be breathing heavy, like I always do? But she wasn't.

"OK, we should be there before lunch," Mindy's conversation continued. "OK, see ya in a bit." Mindy turned reached back to the armlet-phone-whatever and turned it off.

"How fast are we going, anyway?" Julia shouted over the wind.

"About 30."

"30..." Julia gasped. "30 miles per hour?"

"I know, lame, right? But your crappy ass clothes are going to explode if go any faster."

"I happen to like my crappy ass clothes. What do you mean, 'explode'?"

RRRRIIIP. Julia felt air on thighs that should have been covered. She looked down to see that her bulging quads had split the denim, opening it wide from the hip to the knee. Julia slowed to a halt. Those were my favorite jeans, she silently lamented! She bent over examine the damage, running her fingers over the tear.

RRRRIIIP. This time it was the back of her t-shirt, splitting wide as she bent over. It tore from the shoulder blades to the bottom hem.

"You're a disaster," Mindy declared as Julia scrambled to hold her ensemble together. "There's a beach shop a mile or two down. Come on, I'll buy you some real clothes."

Embarrassment consumed Julia as she traveled the bike path in shreds. The chime on the door of the beach shop, signaling that she had finally made it to the privacy of the store, was the best sound she had heard all morning.

But the relief of being inside the store was short lived. Whereas the men's side of the store had the usual array of swim trunks -- heavy swaths of loose material that would cover everything from the waist to the kneecaps -- the women's side of the store was something different entirely. That side was like Mindy's drawer writ large: rack after rack of tiny cloth strips. Julia extracted a few plastic hangers and examined the garments that hung from them: in all cases, the largest element of the ensemble was the hangar itself.

"Maybe.... maybe this one?" Julia suggested, selecting the largest garment she could find. It was olive, with a silvery sheen.

"That's a great suit," the man behind the counter agreed. "It's a popular style. Heat treatable. And it's got a great Martindale rating as well. You could probably go ten thousand miles in that thing and not wear it out."

Julia looked to Mindy for an opinion and got a nod in reply.

"Feel free to try it on," the attendant offered.

Julia did, stepping into a changing room and discarding her tattered garments. The suit was slingshot style: just two strips of cloth that rose vertically from the crotch to cover the nipples, then darted down her backside to her rear. There were some small connecting straps, not thicker than strings. As she snaked her arms and legs into it, she wondered how it could possibly stay on.

"It seems loose," Julia admitted as she pulled the dressing room curtain aside.

"We can fix that. It's supposed to be loose until we treat it. Do you like it otherwise?" He motioned Julia to a full length mirror.

Julia looked at herself. Her physique was a study in sculpted lines. Her hips and her breasts her overall hourglass shape had been enhanced to a degree that earth girls could only dream about. They were an unapologetic advertisement of femininity. Moreover, the iron-hard curves of her muscles did not seem not so grotesque to her anymore. They were generous and exuberant, somehow complementing her feminine curves.

"Yes," Julia said, feeling her grin widen. "I do like it."

"OK, then let's treat it so that we can get the fit right."

The shop attendant led the two ladies to a corner of the store that was separate from the rest. Cinderblocks lined the floor and the the walls. A smoke hood -- something one would normally find in an industrial kitchen -- was installed above. The attendant donned a welding mask and a jacket that would have been suitable for a firefighter. He picked up a contraption that resembled a leaf blower, but was metal and blackened with burn marks. He flipped a switch. The contraption roared to life, spewing a yard-long column of flame. The heat turned the air wavy, and Julia could feel its burning power against her face. The attendant adjusted a knob, causing the yellow column to shorten and turn blue.

"Mindy, what the fuck is he ---" Before she could finish her sentence, the contraption was pointed at her, and she was covered in the inferno.

Mindy misinterpreted her concern. "He's wearing all the shit because fire can really hurt men," Mindy laughed. "Do I have to explain everything to you?"

The flame crossed her chest, and a metallic smell tickled her nose. The metal of my necklace is softening under the intense heat, she realized. This flame was super hot -- every bit as hot as a blowtorch back home. It should be hurting me, she thought. It should be killing me. She watched as the torch followed the cloth of her suit down over her collarbone and then onto her breast. Her nipple stiffened happily at the incinerating heat, oblivious to the pain and blistering and death it should have caused. Her suit made a crackling sound as it tightened around her. This is like heat-sealing something in plastic, Julia realized. It's being molded to fit my body.

The realization sent another happy thrill through her. All her life, she had been trying to get her body down to the right size. She had been trying to fit into clothes that would make her feel sexy. But this was the opposite. In this new world, she was sexy-- period. She wasn't molding herself to fit the clothes. The clothes were being molded to fit her!

The flame wandered across the other collarbone. The necklace lost more of its shape. Howard bought me that necklace, she reminded herself. It had meant the world to me at the time: not just the fact that it was a gift, what he said when he draped it around my neck. "This is a symbol of what you mean to me. As long as we're together, I'll make sure that you are provided for. I will protect you, and keep you safe." He certainly did that, too -- found me a job, bought me a car. But the car is sitting in a parking lot in Kentucky. And until we get back to it, he won't be able to protect me. That's not how it works here.

I used to enjoy being knowing that he was looking after me. But now, I've become something .... she watched the searing heat blast harmlessly off her enormous muscles .... something greater.

At long last, the heat was too much for the necklace to take, and the chain melted entirely. Julia watched with fascination as superheated blobs that should have left blisters instead left rivers of satisfying warmth as they rolled harmlessly over the large swells of her bust. The red-hot beads of molten metal then disappeared, harmless, into the depth of her cleavage.

"Sorry bout your necklace," the attendant offered.

"It's ok," Julia replied. "It didn't mean much to me anymore."

-------------

"Can we run 30 miles per hour again?" Julia asked as the shop door closed behind them.

"No, we most certainly cannot," Mindy replied. "If you make me run at that pace again, I am going to fall asleep. Now that you're wearing a real suit, we can run a real pace."

"You mean, we can run faster?"

Mindy rolled her eyes. Her legs kicked up, and she took off like a shot.

"Wait up!" Julia shouted, not wanting to be left behind in this unknown land. She concentrated on pumping her newly massive legs, and she felt herself accelerate dramatically. Soon, she was alongside Mindy again, their legs a blur beneath them.

Their surroundings shot by. The girls passed male runners like the men were standing still. The long tresses of Mindy's hair were blown so hard, they flapped nearly horizontal in the rush of air. She knew that their speed must be phenomenal -- perhaps faster than anything she had ever experienced in a car.

A group of male cyclists appeared ahead, muscles straining as they urged their bikes forward. When Julia first saw them, they were several hundred yards ahead. Seconds later, they were several hundred yards behind. The girls were clearly moving at a ridiculous speed. And she didn't feel tired or winded at all. I could run like this forever, Julia reveled. These bodies-- they are simply incredible!

After only a few more minutes of running, the exercise trail came to an end. Mindy slowed to about a quarter of her previous speed, zipping through a parking lot at stopping them at the foot of a sand dune.

Julia was thrilled that her bare feet didn't ache in the least. "How fast did we go?"

Mindy screwed up her teenage eyebrows in concentration. "About 100."

100 miles per hour for three minutes and nineteen seconds, Julia thought. "That's five-and-a-half miles. In my old body, that would have taken an hour!"

They climbed a short trail to the top of the sand dune. The beach spread out before them, miles upon miles of sand. It was crowded, mostly with men.

"This is the Men's Beach. It's a public service, since single men can't afford their own beach houses," Mindy shrugged. "It's kind of lame."

"But your family can afford a beach house?"

"Of course we can," Mindy shrugged her massive shoulders. "We've got much more money. After all, we have me and my mom on the family."

"Women make a lot more than men?"

Mindy laughed, the imperial blue of her top straining to constrain the heaving of breasts. "Yes, dummy. I just got hired for a summer internship, and I'll be making five times more per month than my dad ever made. Although we told him it's only three times, to protect his feelings. We let him have a career only because he'd feel worthless otherwise."

"Why do women earn so much more than them?" Julia asked, looking over the sea of men.

"Because we're not just strong and fast. We're better than them at EVERYTHING."

"I can see how we would be better at construction and stuff. But writing and financial analysis?"

"Sure. Men can't even do long division."

"Neither can I," Julia admitted.

"How far did you say we just ran?"

"Five and a half miles."

"How do you figure?"

"Well three-minutes-nineteen-seconds is 3.316 minutes. So, 100 miles per hour times 3.316 divided by 60 is five-and-a-half."

Mindy returned a knowing smile, the ocean breeze causing her perfect hair to billow in the wind. "Carry it to four decimal places."

"5.5278," Julia replied, her eyes widening. "Wait a minute. How can I do that?"

"Because girls are smart!" Mindy chirped. "You have the processing power of several dozen men. A man can only read one book at a time."

"How many can I read at one time?"

"Thirty."

"Oh." Julia surveyed the expanse of men enjoying the men's beach. There must have been thousands. Not a single one of them is smarter than me, she realized. A volleyball game was in progress, and Julia gazed at that, too. Nine men on each side of the net, she counted. I can read books faster than all them -- combined.

"And how do you know we ran for exactly three minutes and nineteen seconds?"

"I guess.... I guess I just do. Was I right?"

"Yup! Your internal clock is more accurate that those wristwatches the guys wear."

"This... this isn't possible."

"Sure it is. Brain cells need oxygen to grow. Our lungs are better, so they deliver more oxygen to our blood. And our hearts are stronger, so they deliver more blood to our brain. So, yeah, our brains can grow more brain cells -- lots more." Mindy began to tick items off on her fingers. "Better depth perception. Better pattern recognition. Better fact retention. Better processing speed. Greater analytical power. Better hand-eye coordination. Faster typing, and with greater accuracy. More creativity. Better vocabulary. And not just a little bit better. You're, like, way, way better. Superior by a long shot."

The realization was almost too much to take. Julia watched the waves crash on the shore, upending everything in their path, turning it upside down, rearranging it. "That's pretty fucking cool," she finally whispered.

Mindy pointed across the bay to some minuscule dots on the far side. "Our house is the third one from the left. It's only about six miles as the bird flies."

Julia stared across the water at the distant squares.

"We could run around the bay. That would be about ten miles. But the Men's Beach looks pretty crowded today. Running through a crowd of men is a real drag: you can really hurt them if you collide with them, and zig-zagging really slows you down. It would be better if we swam."

"Across? Across the bay? Six miles?"

Mindy shrugged her shoulders. She skipped and hopped across the sand until they arrived at a rock jetty. The jetty protruded straight into the water, a length of about one hundred yards. Mindy began to pick her way over the rocks. At the far end, waves broke across it in violent somersaults, creating menacing swirls at its base.

"I'm not that strong a swimmer." Julia smoothed her hands over the swell of her thighs. "Or, I wasn't."

Mindy seemed confused. "Back in your old body, did swimming six miles take ... effort? Was that like ... exercise?"

Julia only looked at the churning water. She didn't like being all the way out at the end of these rocks. The water seemed powerful and angry.

"Be sure to watch for jet skis out there," Mindy advised. "The guys don't always look where they are going."

"Jet skis? Is it dangerous?"

"You bet. One of them collided with me at full speed once." Mindy crouched for her dive. "He was in the hospital for three days. Come on, I'll race you to the house!"

Julia wanted to ask more, but her companion had already sprung out over the water. Her massive body crashed through the surface like a bomb, spraying water across Julia's face. She watched as Mindy carved up the water with powerful strokes, leaving the jetty quickly behind. If I don't follow her, Julia realized, I'll be stuck on this beach alone.

So follow her she did. Julia scrambled down to the water, took a deep breath, dipped her body in, and pushed off. For Julia, swimming had never been a pleasant experience. She was accustomed to being thrown about by the waves. She was accustomed to gulping water where there should have been air. She was accustomed to a burning feeling on the surface of her eyes as she peered underwater into impenetrable blue gloom.

But now it was different. Her sturdy arms and legs clawed through the water with unflagging power. When she opened her eyes below the waves, it did not hurt. The underwater realm opened itself up for her with stunning clarity. Other swimmers, jet skis, fish and rocks below -- she could see it all. Nothing here could hurt her, she realized, nor even make her uncomfortable. She felt just as much a sense of belonging here, in the open ocean, as she had felt in her walled garden back home. Julia came up for a slow, deep breath, then submerged. She adopted a crawl stroke. Her limbs rejoiced as they filled once again with their inhuman power. She began to tear through the ocean waves as though they were nothing more than ripples in a bath tub.

Howard would be so proud of me, Julia thought to herself! But then she realized that wasn't the case. He was disappointed in her, concerned for her, and upset about her breaking of the promise between them.

That's ironic, Julia realized as she powered ahead. I used to get a nervous flutter in my stomach when I faced ocean waves. Now, I've got the same nervous flutter, and it's not because I have to confront the waves. It's because I have to face what -- or more specifically, who -- is on the other side.

[Female Bodybuilding]

The LaPorte Caves - Chapter 06

Submitted by circes_cup on November 5, 2015 - 2:17pm


CHAPTER 6

SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out into world of amazon women. Julia promised Howard that she would never drink the elixir that would transforms normal women into an amazons. But then she succumbed to temptation, and soon found the elixir on her lips. The physical changes seem to have gone well, but Howard is furious that she has broken her promise. Now, she must face him in person, their first meeting since the deed.

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

---------

Howard flipped another pail of sand into the desultory pile and stared off into the distant waves. Where the hell was she? From the moment he learned about Julia taking the Nourishment, he had been sick with worry. Who knew whether an Earth woman had the same physiology as the locals? Who knew what harmful effects the drink might have? And how was his poor girlfriend going to break the drink's famous addiction, sixteen times greater than that of heroine?

He glanced at the driveway, looking for an arriving car. Nothing.

In fact, Howard admitted to himself, he had begun the worrying long before he got the phone call. Julia and Mindy had originally been expected at the beach house yesterday morning. When they didn't show, Howard had suspected that something was up. He had tried to distract himself by doing all the internet research that he could on the caves. But the written language of this foreign land was indecipherable to him, and the ever-distractible Becky had shown little patience for reading aloud whatever he found.

Then came the phone call from Julia, and his suspicions were confirmed. Despite his best efforts to remain composed, he had found himself yelling into the phone. Since that point, he had tried swimming, taking a jog -- none of it took his mind off the mess the couple was in. So, he had resigned himself to helping Becky and her brother make sand castles.

Howard glanced at the driveway again. Still nothing.

On the phone, Julia had said that she and Mindy were leaving for the beach straightaway. That meant that they would not be here for another thirty minutes. But he couldn't resist craning his head and looking for their arriving car. Was she ok? Flipping out? Experiencing side effects? It the moments when his anger subsided, it was only replaced with concern.

"Hi sis!" The boy next to him squealed.

Howard turned and saw the massive Mindy standing at the water's edge, wringing out her shoulder-length chestnut hair. How the hell had she snuck in here? Why hadn't he heard the car?

"Hey Mindy, wasn't Julia coming with you?"

"She'll be here in a sec," Mindy replied, jutting a thumb toward the water.

Howard glanced over the surf, not comprehending. No car in the parking lot, no boat at the mooring -- how the heck did they ---

But Howard did not have the opportunity to finish the thought. A head had emerged from the water: Julia's. Or at least, the head was a version of Julia's. Her cheekbones seemed a little bit more pronounced, her eyes a little bigger, her lips a little fuller. Her facial skin, which had always light in tone, no longer appeared pale but instead had the richness of cream. Her hair, which and always been a dull brown, now shined like copper. She was still Julia, but... perhaps.... prettier?

Howard tried to ignore the observation. He was under stress, after all. And very glad to see her, or at least, the top six inches of her. These factors might explain why her face looked a little bit different to him.

He waded toward her bobbing head. But the surf was rough, and he found that going in above his waist made standing up difficult. So he stopped ten feet away from her. She blew a spray of water away from her mouth to clear room to speak.

"Hey," she said, her hair matted over her face like a sheet of copper. Her eyes were cast down to the surface of the water, which was still just below her chin.

Howard knew this look. It was when she was at her most vulnerable, when she needed a shoulder to cry on. A sympathetic ache formed in his chest.

"I know you're mad at me," she continued.

"Not mad. Upset. Someone I love just ingested a drink sixteen times as addictive as heroin. And it's something that appears to re-write genetic code. And who knows whether it's safe, particularly for someone who is not from this land?"

Julia frowned. "I guess I wasn't thinking about all that stuff at the time."

"Don't despair. We have to keep a positive attitude. If you ingested the drug only a short while ago, there may be a way to prevent the worst effects."

She drowned her gaze if the surface of the water, just below her chin. "I don't know, honey. I think it's gone beyond that."

"No, there has to be something we can do. Come on, let's go and talk to Ruth. She can take us back to the hosp--"

But Howard couldn't finish the thought. Julia had begun to climb out of the water. The waves separated as a wedge-shaped neck parted them.

Oh no, Howard thought. This is something more than early stages. This is---

But the ascent continued faster than his thoughts. The water retreated further for her shoulders, rounded piles of muscle that no male body builder could hope to achieve. Upper arms nearly as thick as his thighs now had water sheeting off of them. He gawked at the exaggerated swell of the enhanced muscle with a growing sense of dread. My little Julia could tear me in half, if she felt like it. The realization made Howard's insides feel hollow.

Calm down, he told himself. You're a modern man. Mature, evolved. You can handle this. Your relationship was always built on mutual respect, even when you were stronger than her. There's no reason it can't still.... oh my god.

Emerging now were a pair of titanic breasts, covered only by the vertical olive-colored strips of her bathing suit. The sight only deepened Howard's unease. Those breasts were bigger than his head. They seemed to announce of some horrific evolution, as if to say: I am not just stronger. I have become a greater being -- more sexual, more fertile, more woman than you can handle. Howard shuddered and found himself taking a step back.

But she continued to advance. The water was not done spilling off her bust before a parade of apple-sized abdominal muscles began, marching out of the water in pairs of two. The sea sloshed inward now, around her newly tight waist, and then spread away from her again as newly generous hips parted the surface.

Her thighs were the most intimidating of all. Each nearly the size of his torso, they suggested unspeakable strength.

She was tall. Howard had to crane his neck to see her eyes. He took another step back, until he was entirely out of the water.

She, too, finished stepping out of the water, rising to her full height before his eyes -- seven-and-a-half statuesque feet of woman. Her shadow nearly covered him. Her body was carved as if from stone -- not a scrap of fat anywhere. Her muscles were swollen with new power. He found himself at eye-level with biceps bigger than anything he had seen on earth.

For the first time in their relationship, he felt.... cornered. Despite his best intentions, he lashed out. "Julia! What the hell have you done! You've ruined your life! You've ruined us!"

"Please don't be angry with me." She was pleading with her eyes. But that voice! It was so deep, it resonated like a war drum. And it was coming from above him. It served only to deepen his sense of intimidation.

"Julia, this stuff is sixteen times more addictive than heroin!" he shouted. "You've hooked yourself on a drug worse than anything we have back on Earth!"

She pouted. "In a way, I was already hooked. I missed the taste of the raw fruit." she said to her own feet. "I REALLY missed it."

"That's fabulous." He found himself shouting again. "You couldn't resist going back to the raw fruit. How in the hell are you ever going to resist going back to the concentrate? And what are you going to do when you get back to earth and you're as tall as a basketball center, thick as two of them? Shop in the 'Plus' section? Or the 'Plus Plus' section? You'll be a freak!"

"I know. I'll quit somehow, I promise." Shoulders of immense girth slumped in resignation.

"Is that so? You didn't have the discipline to put the raw fruit out of your mind. How could you possibly. have the discipline to resist something sixteen times as potent?" Howard craned his neck so search the rich brown depths of her eyes. Behind those eyes, he saw a mind that was still, in many ways, meek and frail. But it was at the controls of a tank with immense firepower. Despite their love for each other, he found himself choosing his words carefully. "So is that why you did it-- the addiction?"

"Not entirely." Her complexion seemed to lose some of its color. "I guess I also wanted to know what it would feel like -- just once -- to be as capable as you."

"Julia, your DNA could be very different than theirs. What's healthy for them could be harmful to you. It could even kill you!"

"I feel fine, Howard. In fact, I feel better than fine."

"You have no idea what you have done!"

"Howard, please don't shout. They're staring at us."

The family was. Sand-castle-making, everything, had stopped.

Howard felt ashamed at his outburst. He loved Julia -- even here, even like this. But why had she done this to herself? To them both?

"I feel awful that I've upset you so much." Julia took his hand. "Come on, let's go back out so we can get some privacy and talk." She lead him out into the water. She was being gentle with him, he knew, but his hand felt like cable strapped to a winch.

When the water was up to her collarbone, the ground beneath his feet fell away. He had to tread water. She stood next to him, her torso steady. Her feet were still on the ground, he realized.

Worse, the surf was rough, and Howard struggled to keep his head above water. He panted with the exertion.

"Are you struggling with the surf?" Her brown eyes were warm and uncomprehending.

She's as naive as she is tall, Howard thought. A wave slapped Howard and he partially went under. He inhaled a gulp of salt water. He kicked the water forcefully and rose back out, coughing sea water.

"Here." She took Howard's hands in her immense grip and united them behind her neck. "You can hang onto me for support."

Her body felt like a stone column-- a column that was warm, and one that expanded and contracted slightly with each gentle breath. Howard was breathing, too -- panting, actually -- as he recovered. A large wave sloshed across the couple, slamming Howard into her torso. He winced in pain.

"Sorry," Howard said, still smarting.

"For what?"

"Slamming into you like that. It was the wave. It just threw me."

"I barely felt it."

Another wave thrust Howard into her with even greater force. Colliding with her breasts was like being shoved into a pair of rocks. It took the wind out of him.

"Did that just hurt you?" she asked.

He could only nod.

"You poor thing." He felt a large arm wrap around him and draw him into her cavernous bosom. "Is that better?"

"Yes, thanks," he replied, slightly embarrassed. However, feeling his torso surrounded by the firm immensity of her bosom was somehow... Reassuring.

"It's strange. You seem so delicate to me now."

The observation made Howard feel smaller than he ever had. He felt his temper flaring again. "I'm not the one that's changed. I'm not the one who broke her promise."

"I know, and I feel awful." She fidgeted with her coopper hair just like the smaller, meeker Julia used to do with strands that were much less lustrous.

"How are you going to break the addiction to this stuff, when it's far more potent than the raw fruit that also had you in its clutches?"

"I suppose there's only one way: going home. Once I'm back, there's no Nourishment to be found, so I will break the habit out of necessity. The doctor says its incredibly painful, but not physically harmful. Before long, I'll be the same old Julia you remember."

Howard liked the thought of that. Less sexy -- by a mile -- but less intimidating too.

The chocolate depths of Julia's eyes momentarily darkened before brightening again. "You know, maybe there IS a silver lining. In this new body, I can move through the caves much faster than in the old one."

He looked into the warm brown of her eyes. She was trying-- trying to make this right. What she had done was rash and dangerous and it made their situation a whole lot more complicated. But underneath it all, there was still Julia -- goofy and innocent and still in love with him.

"In fact... " Her eyes darted back and forth in thought. "I've got an idea: let's divide the task! Over the next few days, you stay focused on mapping a way back, like you have been. Meanwhile, I use my enhanced body to explore the caves. The more I think about it, the more we're the perfect combination: you're the brains, and I'm the brawn."

Me the brains and her the brawn, Howard thought. He stared at the droplets of water on her shoulder. They looked like trekkers on a pale stone peak, their stature made minuscule by the immensity of the mountain they descended.

Me the brains and her the brawn. There is some sense to that. I am more experienced with expeditions. And she's always said that I am more analytical than her, that my mind works faster. The plan had some merit. "What do you mean by 'explore the caves'? The caves are dangerous."

"Not to a Nourished woman."

The chocolate syrup of her irises was so pure, so innocent. And now, Howard was learning, so careless. "Don't overestimate what this Nourishment can do, Julia. You might be strong now, but caving takes experience and skill. You could still get hurt if you are not careful."

"I'm not so sure. I feel... different."

"Different how?"

"Uh... pretty much... invincible." Another wave caught Howard just then, and it hurled him again against her curves of granite.

He winced as the breath was knocked out of him.

"I also feel like I'm better," Julia said factually.

"Better at what?"

"Everything."

Howard felt a lump forming in his throat. "Julia, I know that your muscles have gotten bigger. And that must be a giddy moment for you. But that doesn't mean you're 'better at everything', as you put it. The women here are pretty arrogant, I've noticed. Be careful it doesn't rub off on you."

Julia glanced toward the shore. The men and boys seemed to have turned their attention elsewhere, but Mindy and Ruth continued to glance out toward the couple. "They can still hear us -- the women, that is."

"Nonesense. They must be 50 yards--"

Julia silenced him with finger over his lips. "I want to tell you something really private. Come on." Without releasing Howard, she dropped backwards into the water, until she was floating on her back. "Grab my bathing suit."

She was never this assertive with me before, Howard realized. But he grabbed onto her bathing suit nonetheless, wrapping his arms around the two strips of material that ran between her breasts and her junction of her legs. He had expected it to be flimsy, but it felt much more substantial in his hands.

Julia's arms began to windmill, launching the woman into a backstroke. He heard the slap of her arms against the water several times per second -- a furious pace. Howard felt the current intensify around his thighs.

Her pace quickened further. Her head and shoulders dug deep into water like a plow into soil.
Howard gripped her bathing suit, hard. The strips of cloth running from her crotch to her breasts were taut as steel cables, and they dug pain into his white-knuckled hands. He began to grunt with the effort.

Howard had swum competitively in college. Every pace he had ever swum, every pace his competitors had ever swum, was nothing compared to this. They were traveling faster than any Olympian had ever swum -- by his estimate, four or five times faster.

"Too bad all those muscles didn't make you a faster swimmer," Howard joked. Sarcasm might be the only way I am going to survive this, he thought.

But the joke was lost on his ever-so-innocent girlfriend. She responded, "Sorry, I wasn't really trying yet."

Without any warning, she simply doubled her pace. Rapidly spinning arms became blurry ones as she accelerated nearly to the speed of a powerboat. The muscles of his arms screamed in pain. Every passing wave was like taking a punch to the gut. Howard groaned. He struggled to breathe. He felt like he was about to black out.

"Do you want me to slow down?"

Howard's abused body couldn't produce speech. He could only nod his head in reply.

Mercifully, Julia seemed to acknowledge this, slowing to a halt. He found himself panting forcibly, resting his head against her thigh.

"Oh no, I wore you out. I'm sorry honey! I just thought with me doing all the swimming and you just hanging on, it wouldn't have been that hard for you."

His chest heaved for air. He considered telling her to fuck off.

She must have seen that sentiment written on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I'm still learning how to function in this body."

He still couldn't find enough air for words.

"Seeing you struggle makes my heart want to burst. Here, I'm going to help." Still floating on her back, she grabbed him by the armpits and hauled him on top of her. Soon, he was sitting upright, legs straddling her floating abdomen. Such was the firmness of her mid-section, it felt like straddling an oak tree. Her massive breasts easily breached the surface of the water and filled the space in front of Howard. It was a challenge to find a handhold that wasn't overtly erotic.

His ribcage still heaving, Howard felt his senses begin to recover. He swiveled his head around. The beach houses were small dots from here, and little more. He saw a fishing boat in the distance, but no other swimmer, not jet skis, nothing. "How...." his breath came only slowly. "How far out did you take us?"

She looked around. "I guess I hadn't been keeping track. But let's see. I swam about 10 miles per hour for four minutes and then 20 miles per hour for seven minutes and fifteen seconds. That puts us three-point-oh-eight miles out from shore."

Howard had swum competitively in college, so he knew something about distances. Under his own power, it would take him perhaps an hour of hard swimming to get back to safety. People had died trying to cover lesser distances. The situation made him nervous.

"You're nervous," she observed.

Howard didn't answer. Being this weak relative to her was too embarrassing.

"I'm sorry honey. I guess I lost track of how far we were going. It was just so... easy... for me. That must sound horrible."

Howard looked with longing at the distant shore, and then down at the powerful woman he was straddling.

"You're still nervous. It's so cute," she laughed. "TRUST me!"

"I trusted you before you broke your promise."

She closed her eyes and shuddered slightly. When those warm pools of chocolate disappeared behind their lids, Howard's world felt a little bit colder. I hurt her feelings, he realized.

He surveyed ripe fullness of her lips, the rich cream of her skin. Her face was no longer rounded by baby fat but now taut and structured. He watched her arms, nearly as thick as oars, slowly tread the water. I cannot hurt her feelings. She is the woman I love. And more selfishly, she is my ticket back to shore. "OK, so what did you want to tell me that was so private?"

"There is another reason I Nourished, actually." She bit her lip, and cast her grey eyes away from him. "Just once, I wanted to feel what it was like to not have to compete for you."

"Compete for me? Is this about the thing with Amanda?"

"No, it has nothing to do with the women here. I'm talking about how I've always had to compete for you back on earth, and once I return, how I always will."

"Howard recoiled at the notion. He loved her. What had he ever done to make Julia feel that she had to compete for him? "Julia, what in the world are you--"

"I know how much you liked outdoorsy girls back home. I've seen it in your eyes. Now, I'm in better shape than all of them--- fitter, stronger, faster, you name it." The sun glistened off her mountainous shoulders. "Now, I'm stronger than all your ex-girlfriends -- combined."

An unease settled into his gut.

She breathed deeply, as if to control the emotion. As she breathed, her breasts rose out of the water like a pair of submarines coming to the surface. A full pint of water drained out of the space between them, such was the cavernous extent of her cleavage. She could envelop my head completely between those, Howard realized.

"You're staring, Howard."

"I.... sorry."

"No." Her newly plush lips curled into a smile. "I like it. I know you're a boob man Howard. You must be in hog heaven right now." She placed her hands on either side of her breasts and brought them together, a riveting collision of feminine flesh. "They're far firmer than anything your ex-girlfriends had. And I'm sure that they're bigger than all of your ex-girlfriend's tits -- combined."

Howard struggled to ignore the arousal triggered by his girlfriend's new dimensions. Focus, Howard, he urged himself. If you let on how arousing you find her, she mind decide to stay here. You have to hold her to the plan. Her job is to help us get home. "I'm glad you're enjoying the effects of this drug. But when our old lives resume, you'll need to find a way to be happy in the body you were born with. And I'll still love you. You realize that, don't you? All this -- the muscles, the power -- it's just temporary."

"Yes, but temporary is important. We might find our way home tomorrow, but it could take us weeks, months, who knows how long? Until then, we're stuck with the customs of this land. And in this land, you are single and available to any woman that wants to Borrow you. The only way to get us back to our normal relationship -- you and me, faithful to each other -- is for me to Claim you. It's a specific tradition of theirs. Once you've been Claimed, anyone who wants to touch you first has to mess with me."

"Stake a claim on me? Like a silver deposit? What the fuck?" This chill of the water was creeping up his legs.

"I know, it's pretty warped. Men who have been Claimed are monogamous to the woman that staked the Claim, but there's no requirement for it to go vice versa. All the women have multiple partners."

Julia must have seen the dismay on Howard's face, because she grabbed his shoulder quickly, digging into it with her undisciplined power.

"But it's not going to be like that with us, Howard. I'm going to Claim you, and I'm also going to remain exclusive to you, just like we were on earth. We'll be equal partners, just like we were on Earth. I need you to trust me on this."

When 375 pounds of enhanced muscle tells you to trust it -- twice --what else does one do? "OK, if you say so."

He slipped off of her and into the water, bobbing next to her. She righted herself and treaded water in front of him.

"Thank you, Howard. My body might be different now, but I'm still the same old Julia." Her completely new, enormous arms encircled him in a hug.

Howard tried to reposition his own arms but found them pinned to his sides with crushing force. She pulled him into her, affectionate and yet oblivious to the force she was exerting. Her breasts, about as soft and pillowy as battering rams, bore into his ribcage with unrelenting force.

Julia's voice was carefree. "You may not agree with what I did, but at least you understand it, don't you?"

He tried to breathe, tried to push her away, but couldn't. She hummed a happy tune, as she did whenever she hugged him. Howard felt his ribs beginning to bend inward. He was wondering whether he would survive his first ten minutes with the 'same old Julia', when the constriction mercifully disappeared. Once free, his chest heaved for breath.

"I knew you'd understand," she declared, oblivious to his condition. She nuzzled her cheek alongside his.

Did she really think this conversation had two sides? Howard tried to say something, but he was still recovering from the 'hug', gasping for breath. She was so, so, powerful. And yet so oblivious. He found himself again picking his words with care. "I'm just glad we're going home soon," he finally offered.

"Speaking of which," she chirped, "wanna head back to the beach?"

"Yes!" Howard noticed an anxious and desperate urgency in his voice.

"Give me a sec to get the kinks out." Julia's immense arms erupted out of the water like ballistic missles. She was stretching, like Howard had taught her to. But never had a stretch on earth displayed such formidable power. "Are you still mad at me?"

As she waited for a reply, Julia maintained the stretch. She tensed and relaxed her arms, just like he had taught her two, a distant smile on her face. Trapezius muscles exploded into a frightening "V". Biceps and triceps swelled together into thick trunks of strength. By all appearances, her body was genetically engineered to be the consummate predator. If a heavyweight boxer from Earth were foolish enough to take her on in the ring, would he last even a round? Would he survive?

"No," Howard decided. "I'm not mad at you." I don't have the luxury of my emotion, he thought-- not until I get home. I need to keep her happy with me. "For this trip back to the beach, do I get another free ride on the human motorboat?"

Julia laughed. "Always." She flipped over and guided his hands back to her suit.

"Always, at least, while we're here." Howard corrected.

"Yes, that."

"I have to admit, it's strange to rely upon you for this swim, since I have so much more experience with it than you."

"It IS strange," she agreed. "But I could almost get used to it."

------------

When Julia emerged from the water this time, she walked straight into a hug from Ruth. "I'm so happy for you. Let's see how the Nourishment did." Ruth loosened her embrace and stepped back to appraise the woman.

Julia felt the heat of embarrassment reddening her face. Her slingshot suit left her nearly naked. She was not accustomed to having her body scrutinized in this way. On instinct, she fiddled with her hair, dropping the copper tresses down in front of her eyes like a protective curtain.

"Your body reacted very quickly, Julia. You look fantastic."

"Thank you," Julia mumbled.

"I'm frankly surprised that my daughter was able to talk you into it. She's not the most subtle of girls."

"No, she's not." Inviting one's houseguest to lap liquid right off one's bare stomach was indeed not the height of subtlety, Julia thought to herself. And yet, I gave into it. Even worse, Julia thought, I woke up in bed with your daughter the next morning, naked. I owe you such a huge apology, Ruth! But Julia held her tongue. She needed Ruth's cooperation in order to get herself and Howard home, and being too forthcoming with her could have disastrous consequences.

Ruth motioned toward the house. The two women began walking, their heavy feet crunching through the sand. "How did the conversation go with Howard?" she asked in hushed tones. "Is he adjusting well?"

"It's not like that. There's nothing to adjust to. That's what he and I realized after talking about it. As a Nourished woman, I can help us get home all the faster."

"Are you sure you want to leave so quickly?"

"Yes." Julia tried to sound convincing.

Ruth seemed dubious. "So, Howard isn't upset?"

"And he understood. Which is really a huge relief to me -- to know that he's not angry or scared. He really is a very sweet man."

"He certainly seems so. I imagine you're going to keep him a while?"

The callousness of the question brought Julia to a halt. "A while? How could you... yes, he and I are.... it's not like he's a library book that gets returned after three weeks... yes, I'm going to stay with him just as long as he keeps me..."

"I'm sorry, Julia." Ruth embraced the woman forcefully. "I meant no offense. You have to admit that your Earth customs, when it comes to mating, are a little bit strange."

"I'm crazy about Howard. He's the only love I could ever need."

"Really?" Ruth turned to Julia, confused.

The deep emerald of Ruth's inquiring eyes tugged Julia's attention away from whatever had upset her. Ruth's face was stunning: high cheekbones, plush lips, taut and vibrant peach-colored skin the equal of any professional model Julia could imagine. Like many middle-aged mothers, Ruth kept her hair cut short -- barely longer than a man's. Julia suspected that this was for convenience-- the simpler to maintain it -- but the style had the additional benefit of placing on full display the formidable pyramid of muscle that united her neck and shoulders. Below her collarbone, additional muscles of absurd volume and definition adorned her torso and limbs.

"Lunch is almost ready," Ruth continued, "You hungry?"

Yes, Julia thought. Hungry. The woman's pectorals -- worthy of any Chippendales dancer -- created shelves that only accentuated her already jaw-dropping bust. It slowly rose and fell with each of the woman's calm breaths. Julia had never been attracted to women before, but the robustness of Ruth's sexuality was... mesmerizing. Without realizing it, Julia found herself tracing an appreciative finger down the generous slope of Ruth's trapezius. A pleasant shiver coursed through Julia's body.

"It was a pretty simple question," Ruth persisted.

"Sorry, yes, lunch would be great," Julia replied, embarrassed.

They both stepped up to the house, which was situated in the middle of the sand, far forward of the tree line.

"Kids," Ruth announced. "The men could use some help getting lunch on the table. Michael, why don't you make up a little bit more lemonade?"

"Yes, Mom," Michael groaned, scampering back into the house.

"Becky, why don't you help your father get the burgers off the grill?"

"Yes, Mom," Becky groaned, throwing a final wad of sand at her brother before getting up.

"Mindy, the sun out here is a little bit much. Perhaps you and Julia could move the house back, so that the front patio can be in the shade?"

"Fine," Mindy groaned, turning to Julia. "Come on."

I heard that wrong, Julia decided. But when she followed Mindy, the girl pointed to a large steel handle attached to the base of the house. She glanced at the bottom of the building. It met the ground only in the corners, where it rested on four concrete "feet", like a piece of furniture. The height of the feet created a two-foot crawl space between the bottom of the structure and the sand. When Julia peered into the gap, she saw that the building was undergirded by steel framing. Next to the handgrip were mounted several carpenter's levels: thin tubes of liquid with a bubble balanced in the center.

"I'll get the handle on the other side," Mindy explained. "Don't rock it too much or my brother will get lemonade all over the kitchen floor. Or actually, DO rock it too much. It's fun to mess with him."

The absurdity of the situation was matched only by the pressure. They were treating this like it was so normal, so natural. What could she say, "I can't"? She looked around for Howard and was relived to see that he was back at the water's edge, preoccupied with collecting the pails and other scattered belongings. Good, she thought, the humiliation of trying this with him watching would have been simply too much.

"One, two, three!" Mindy shouted.

Julia heaved with all her might. Unlike her recent swim, this time, her muscles actually did feel the strain. In fact, her thighs, arms, and countless muscles besides exploded with effort.

The house jerked upward, faster on Julia's side than on Mindy's. She heard a boy scream inside the house, followed by a THUD and the sound of a lemonade pitcher rolling across the floor.

"Ha ha!" Mindy shouted through the floor toward the kitchen. "Serves you right for stealing my towel!"

"Sorry!" Julia added. She watched the bubbles in the tubes carefully, and lowered her side of the house until it was level side-to-side, as well as front-to-back.

"You got it?" Mindy shouted.

"Yup," Julia grunted. Her muscles were working hard, there was no question. But it didn't hurt. And it wasn't hard to keep the structure level, now that she was accustomed to the feeling. In fact, she felt like she could hold the house like this for hours.

Mindy rotated her body so that she was carrying her side of the building one-handed, like a pall bearer with his coffin. Julia followed suit, and together they walked the house back to a clearing in the shade. Given the indentations in the ground, the structure had clearly been back there before.

When Julia lowered the house to the ground, her muscles were clearly working hard, but the motion was smooth, just like her personal trainer had tried to get her to do on the weight equipment. If only her personal trainer could see her now...

"How much weight was that?" Julia asked Ruth after the three women had reassembled on the front porch. They relaxed at the table, while Ruth's husband scurried about with serving dishes.

"About 80,000 pounds," the mother replied factually, sipping iced tea in place of the recently ruined lemonade. "Did it feel OK?"

Eighty thousand pounds, Julia thought -- forty thousand for her and another forty for Mindy. What a strange memory this would be when she was safely back home, in only a few days time, the Nourished life over forever. Julia looked at Ruth's husband, tilting his torso backward against the weight of the serving dish. It would take 400 of those men to bear what she had just borne one-handed. Two weeks ago, if someone had suggested she would be stronger than a man, she would have laughed. Now, she was stronger than hundreds of them.

Ruth smiled. "Hey spacey, you didn't answer my question. Did it feel OK?"

No, Julia thought, it didn't feel OK... not at all.

It felt awesome.

[Female Bodybuilding]

The LaPorte Caves - Chapter 07

Submitted by circes_cup on November 12, 2015 - 3:14pm


CHAPTER 07

DISCLAIMER
This story contains adult sexual content. If you are not of age to read this stuff, don't. No resemblance between these characters and real people on Earth is implied or intended.

SYNOPSIS UP TO THIS POINT
Julia and Howard took a wrong turn in a Kentucky cave and tumbled out into world of amazon women. Julia promised Howard that she would never drink the elixir that would transforms normal women into an amazons. But then she succumbed to temptation, consumed the elixir, and received the mind-boggling power that all other females in this world enjoy. Although Howard continues to love her, he finds her new level of power to be frightening, and is concerned that the couple's return to Kentucky will now be all the more difficult. Julia promises him that they will indeed return as soon as possible, and that her now powers will actually ease the difficult journey. But Julia is also experiencing the joys of being in a new body -- joys so great they are hard to ignore.

---------

Morning came to the beach house with no sense of urgency. At least, that was how it felt to Julia. She had been anxious all night. Taking up more of the bed than Howard only served to remind Julia of her broken promise to him. Ultimately, Julia had abandoned her efforts to sleep. She had wrapped herself in a terry cloth robe and had wandered into the kitchen to watch the surf roll in. The blacks of night were turning into pre-dawn grays.

The knowledge that she had betrayed him was bad enough. But it was made worse by her memories of the previous day, the joy of running faster than a gazelle, swimming faster than a dolphin, lifting more than any earth creature could. Julia closed her eyes. Let it go, she told herself, taking a deep breath. In the distance a cresting wave buckled in on itself with a WHOOSH.

Forget about this place, she told herself. WHOOSH.

Go back to Earth with him. WHOOSH.

Make him happy again. WHOOSH.

Julia repeated this mantras several dozen times before she was interrupted by heavy footsteps.

"I was thinking of a morning swim -- to get a little exercise before the kids wake up." It was Ruth, also garbed in a terrycloth robe. "You interested in joining me?"

"No, thank you. I promised Howard I would explore the caves today -- chart a route home." Julia said this without taking her eyes off the whooshing waves. They came at regular intervals, like the ticking of a clock. Time was slipping away so quickly for her. She had been Nourished for only a day, and she was already looking for the way home. But I made Howard a promise, she reminded herself.

Ruth joined Julia at the window and turned the green jewels of her eyes to the ocean waves. As her host stared into the distance, Julia examined the woman's features. Well into her forties, Julia observed, and she doesn't have crow's feet, or for that matter, any other signs of age. The formation of wrinkles along the throat, the thinning of hair, the moles and other imperfections that mar skin over time -- none of these were present.

Instead, the only outward sign of Ruth's true age was the color of her hair: silver hues had begun to mix with the woman's golden blond. But rather than diminish her attractiveness, the silver did the opposite: it leant her a aura of sophistication and elegance, much the same that greying hair did with men back on earth. Everything about the woman was naturally beautiful. Her cosmetic cabinet probably contains no makeup, no creams, nothing more than a toothbrush. These women are blessed, Julia thought.

And yet, Ruth wasn't acting blessed today. Her emerald eyes were sad and distant. Against the grey sky, they had darkened to an olive drab. She closed them, and as if suffering from an inner pain, inhaled deeply. The "V" between her robe's panels erupted wide to reveal the marvelous depth of the woman's cleavage. Unexpectedly, Julia found herself wanting to stare.

"Is something wrong, Ruth?"

She let out a long, defeated sigh. The "V" collapsed to a vertical slit, robbing Julia of the that stunning view. "These morning swims used to be the highlight of my day here. Mindy, or her older sister, would come along. We would explore together, frolic in the waves and the depths, share adventures that only Nourished women could share. But my eldest daughter moved out, and these days, Mindy has lost interest. And so I go alone, get my exercise in, and then come back to take care of the men and the boys."

There was a weariness in her voice, Julia noticed.

"I'm lucky to be a woman, I know that," she continued. "And I'm proud to be the head of a household and the owner of a successful company as well. But sometimes it gets lonely at the top, and never am I more aware of it than when I have to swim alone."

Julia felt a pang in her gut. This was the woman that had taken her and Howard in from the hospital. Julia owed her far more than a swim. "How long do you think it would take, if we went together?"

The emeralds of Ruth's eyes recovered their lustre. "You'd be interested? Really? We'd be back by breakfast, so you'd still have the rest of your day for your caves."

Faced with the glow of Ruth's gemstones, Julia found her resistance to be made of softer stuff. "Sure," she said.

Now, those emeralds positively sparkled.

"I'll go get my suit," Julia smiled.

"Not for this kind of swimming." the woman replied. "We'll be using tails, and those things can get you going really fast. All that speed would just create unnecessary wear and tear on the suit." In only a moment, she had shrugged out of her terrycloth robe and let it pile on the ground. Ruth was wearing nothing underneath. It was the first time Ruth dad been naked in front of Julia. Her dimensions were positively herculean: thick slabs and dense balls of muscle everywhere the eye could roam, breasts that defied gravity and probably several other natural laws as well.

"You're... " Julia took in the woman's logic-defying dimensions. "You're magnificent."

Ruth let out a yelp of surprise. "Wow, thank you." She looked over her naked, herculean form, as if for the first time. "It's been so many years since I first Nourished, I suppose my body had become commonplace to me. Hearing an outsider describe me in that way.... magnificent... wow. It makes my toes tingle!"

"To think having a body like that would be commonplace-- that's pretty cool," Julia whispered. You are a visitor here -- only a visitor -- she reminded herself.

The older woman began to untie the knot of Julia's robe. "Let's see what the Nourishment did for you overnight," Julia felt the older woman's fingers sliding the robe off her shoulders, the cool tickle of air against her skin. "Nice. Your abs are showing about two inches of relief. I'd say you are twenty-two inches on the arms, twenty-nine on the thighs. And a great pair of breasts, to boot. You're a natural for this."

Unashamed by her nakedness, Ruth crossed the room and picked up a small, dumbell-shaped vial, perhaps an inch long and thick as a pencil. It had elegant silver ornamentation and contained a red liquid. Ruth unscrewed on of the wide ends, slipped the narrow bar through a piercing in her nipple, and then re-attached it. On any Earth flesh, jewelry of this size would have seemed too big. But Ruth's nipple was thick as a strawberry: the vail was smothered by the sheer size of her feminine nub.

"What is it?" Julia asked.

"My husband's blood. It's a tradition here. I wear it whenever I am away from him. It's a reminder that, no matter how far I go, and how many men I enjoy, half of me still belongs to him, my Claimed."

Julia wondered how a woman could so naturally accept infidelity like this. This was a warped society, to be sure, she thought. But she also rubbed her own strawberry sized nipple, wondering what it would feel like to be pierced by something so thick, to wear something that so dramatically testified for her love for Howard. Her nipple stiffened and ached, feeling somehow hollow and lacking.

Without shame for her nakedness, Ruth strode confidently outside, her robe wadded up in her fist.

Julia followed more sheepishly, her panties still on, using her folded-up robe to screen her bust.

When Ruth saw this, she giggled. She slid Julia's panties down to her ankles and took her robe away. "Is everyone this bashful where you come from?"

"Yes." She reddened as the sweet salt air tickled her nakedness. "We on Earth don't have perfect bodies, like you do."

"THEY don't have perfect bodies, like WE do" Ruth corrected.

Julia felt an involuntary thrill at those words -- the suggestion that she was now a permanent member of this supercharged society. Don't listen to her, Julia prodded herself. You're not one of them. Julia crossed her superhuman arms over her superhuman breasts and closed her eyes for a moment, letting the distant WHOOSH of the waves bring back her mantras of self-restraint. "You said we were using something called a 'tail' for this swim?"

"Uh huh." Ruth pointed at two large objects, perhaps, each 20 feet in length, resembling the tail of a fish. "To get some exercise in the water, us ladies need some extra equipment. Simply thrashing our arms and legs at full speed makes our bodies act more like blenders than like powerboats. So, when we work out in the water, we use these." The tails ended with broad fins about 10 feet wide. It was as if an enormous sea serpent had been severed in the middle, with the back half deposited on the ground.

"They look big," Julia said on instinct.

"They're only about five hundred pounds a piece," Ruth said, picking up one. "This one is mine. The other one is Mindy's but you can borrow it."

Five hundred pounds-- Julia reminded herself not to be intimidated after her feats yesterday. She hoisted the 20-foot-long mass onto her shoulder with reassuring ease. It glistened with iridescent beads, hundreds of them, the size of cherries. The material seemed somehow organic. She squeezed it a bit. It felt like flesh.

Once on the water, Ruth slid her legs into her tail and pulled it up to her waist. She looks like a mermaid, Julia thought, but a perverted version of one, with a tail twice as long.

Julia followed suit, slipping her legs in. The tail closed around her legs and hips on its own volition, squeezing the bottom half of her body like a giant hand. "Is this thing... Alive?"

"Not really. It's living tissue that's been grown in a lab. The part where it attaches to your torso is derived from clams, who are very good at attaching to other objects. The rest if it is mostly stiff organic fiber-- good for transferring the energy of your leg motion across a wider area."

"I don't know, Ruth. It's really strange to be in the water with my legs confined, and something this large attached to me." Julia tried to get her body vertical and tread water, but the massive tail scraped along the bottom and disrupted her balance. She was beginning to panic when she felt strong hands grip her torso. Julia felt herself being hoisted into a vertical position, eye-to-eye with Ruth.

"I've got you, honey," said the older woman.

Julia recovered her senses. She found herself staring into the sparkling emeralds of Ruth's eyes, her perfectly formed lips, the high cheekbones awash in the rose-colored light of dawn. Lordy she is beautiful, Julia sighed.

And not just beautiful, but built for sex. Although their faces were nearly two feet apart, Julia could feel her nipples graze Ruth's under the water. That's how stacked she is, Julia thought, how we both are. She found herself wondering what it would be like to explore Ruth's body, to run her hands along its incredible curves, feel her lips.... oh, damn. Julia felt her nipples hardening against the gentle pressure of Ruth's embrace. "Sorry," Julia whispered, her face reddening.

"My daughter told me that you have insecurities about being attracted to other women. She says that most women on Earth have intercourse only with men."

Julia's face reddened. "Are you saying it's different here?"

"The Nourishment makes it different. Sometimes you might want one thing, sometimes you might want something else. That's natural. You can be in the mood for strawberry ice cream one day, vanilla ice cream the next. Some days you might even want both. We don't put our hankerings into categories. Every experience fulfills a different need.

Julia felt a hand grip one of her breasts and give it a delightful squeeze.

"And sometimes, we need something that only a woman can provide." Julia felt Ruth thumb and forefinger clasp her nipple. "This, for example, is about a thousand pounds of force."

Julia felt Ruth's digits squeeze her with the kind of pressure that would shatter concrete. Her chest filled with searing desire, her nipple engorging itself against the crushing force of Ruth's digits.

"I'm devoted to Howard." Julia forced herself to say the words out loud. That helped them be true.

"Good." Ruth released the pressure. Her lips separated into the beginning of a smile, the perfect alabaster white of her perfect teeth showing through in a thin line. "The more difficult the quarry, the more exciting the hunt."

"Do you always think of your houseguests as wild game?"

"No!" Ruth laughed. "That's what makes having you around so exciting. You're taking everything that's old, and making it new again. Ready to swim?"

Julia nodded vigorously. Anything to escape the fog of desire and emotion that surrounded her.

"Do it like this," Ruth released Julia's arms and slid away from her. Then, she gave her tail a kick.

Julia tried it, a single swift kick up and down with the legs. Attached as she was to a 500-pound object, this effort would have produced nothing but embarrassment in her old body. But in her new one, her abdominal and thigh muscles caused an undulation to travel down her 20-foot tail.

"There's a rhythm to it," Ruth said. "Your Nourished body learns new physical skills about one thousand times faster an un-Nourished one. What would normally take you 20 hours to learn should take you --"

"-- one minute and twelve seconds," Julia concluded, her elevated math functions kicking in without invitation.

"Exactly. Experiment with your tail a bit and you'll find the rhythm."

Julia kicked her legs up and down again at regular intervals, sending undulations one after the other down the length of the tail. After several tries, she quickly settled into a pattern of movement, that, once established, sent her rocketing through the water.

"You're a natural!" Ruth shouted catching up to her.

"This is SO cool! How fast can we go with these tails on?"

"I'm not telling. Why don't you find out!" Ruth giggled.

Julia smirked, ducked below the water, and was off. Every one of her leg and abdominal muscles pounded away with delightful fury, causing her enormous fish tail to swish back and forth once a second. She felt herself picking up tremendous speed. Underwater, fish and kelp shot by in a blur. When she came up for air, her face smashed through waves like the prow of a motorboat.

Ruth pulled up alongside, breaching the surface for air. Julia watched as her companion's head smashed into wave after wave like a cannonball in flight, sending spray twenty feet into the air.

A sleek powerboat appeared ahead, traveling at full speed out into the open ocean-- probably a group leaving first thing in the morning for a day of fishing, Julia figured. Such was the boat's speed that it produced white plumes of spray in front of it. Julia slowed to a halt and righted herself, tail swishing gently beneath her for stability. Ruth followed suit.

"Think we can catch up to it?" Julia asked.

"It's so refreshing to be around you Julia. The innocence, the wonder --- you're taking me back to the days I first Nourished, nearly thirty years ago. You don't even understand your own power." Ruth nodded at the vessel in the distance. "It's just a motorboat. Of course we can catch it. Want to go say 'hi' to them?"

"I don't know," Julia hesitated, covering her breasts with her hands. "I'm half naked, after all."

"You're half naked and hot. There it is again: you don't understand your own power." Ruth didn't remain for more conversation. She shot off toward the boat, her 20-foot fish-like tail swishing with practiced efficiency behind her.

"Hey, wait up, girl!" Julia shouted diving after her.

Julia's torso and leg muscles experienced a delightful burn as she poured everything she had into the pursuit. THUMP-THUMP-THUMP-THUMP went the waves as she smashed through them in rapid sequence like the prow of the powerboat they were chasing. She was moving with frightening speed, Julia knew. Her body was taking a level of abuse that would have killed her before the Nourishment.

At the speed the women traveled, the boat went from a speck to something much larger in only a minute. A thick white froth emanated from its two large outboard engines: the craft was moving at full throttle, away from them. Julia kicked a bit harder and tried to imagine the immense power the her legs and abdomen were exerting. She laughed to herself. Although Julia did have to put some effort into it, closing the distance with the weaker machine was not hard.

The two women were soon alongside the boat. They were cruising like dolphins, dipping below the surface for speed and then coming back up again for air and orientation.

The arrival of the women had not gone unnoticed on the boat: the passengers had assembled on the deck and were pointing.

"Men!" Ruth announced to her friend. "A gift from the ocean gods. It's been forever since I've enjoyed the attentions of a new batch."

"Your husband doesn't mind you ... Spending time with them?"

"Are you kidding? He's been BEGGING me to find some new boyfriends, so that he can actually get some sleep more."

A Nourished woman's libido is as excessive as the rest of her body, Julia realized. I've been feeling it too.

Ruth was waiting around for any more conversation. She waved at the boat. "Hi boys!"

They smiled and waved back, enthusiastic. Julia was sure they'd seen Nourished women before, but apparently it did nothing to dampen their enthusiasm.

"How fast are you going?"

There was a brief pause as someone checked the gauge. "About 40 miles an hour," came the shout back.

"How fast do you think it will go?"

The boat responded by accelerating.

"That's it?" Ruth teased.

Julia watched the woman set her jaw in concentration and then rocket forward through the water, easily doubling whatever pitiful speed the boat had achieved. Julia followed her friend as they left the boat behind them by several hundred yards, then crossed its path, turned back towards it, and then crossed behind its stern.

The two outboard motors were huge, perhaps four feet across.

"How many horses do you boys have in those things?" Ruth shouted.

"350 a piece," the skipper shouted back.

Julia was stunned. This powerboat had 700 horsepower on it, and she was doing laps around it using only her muscles!

"For having 700 horses on the back, you guys can't seem to go very fast!" Ruth taunted.

"Hey," one of the guys laughed, "we were going 55 miles an hour!"

"I know. That's nothing! Watch this!" Ruth dove straight down into the water, disappearing.

Ruth was being more flirtatious than Julia would have expected from a corporate executive and mother of three.

Suddenly, the woman burst out of the water vertically, like a ballistic missle. She must have picked up intense speed while under water. Her body and its enormous tail arced clear over the boat and splashed down on the other side.

The men went wild with applause. The reception she and Ruth were getting from these men was exhilarating. It was hard not to get caught up in the excitement. The boat slowed to a no-wake speed-- all the better to flirt with us, Julia realized.

"Those guys are head over heels for you," Julia observed.

A perfectly white smile spread across Ruth's face, and her eyes sparkled. She gestured at the fishing poles that were still in their mountings. "See anything interesting out here yet?" she shouted.

Several of the men shook their heads.

She flipped over on her back. Ruth's magnificent breasts broke the surface of the water and pointed jubilantly skyward. "How about now?"

Wild hoots and hollers followed.

Julia found herself approaching the woman from behind and wrapping a possessive arm around her waist. "Sorry boys," she found herself shouting. "She's mine this morning!"

What the hell am I doing, Julia wondered to herself? I'm being possessive, and about a woman, no less! I love Howard. And I'm not bisexual, her mind announced to itself! But despite reminders, she found a wetness forming down in the depths of her tail, and it wasn't from the ocean water. Julia allowed herself to tighten her embrace, delighting in the feeling of her breasts pressing into the other woman's back with hundreds of pounds of force. "All mine!" Julia emphasized.

"No fair!" countered the guys. Some of the laughter had gone out of them, however. The teasing was deepening their needs.

"Yup," Julia shouted. "You'll have to find your own lady. Hope there are other fish in the sea!"

The guys laughed. One of them reached into a cooler and threw a handful of ice cubes at her.

"Oh, is that how it is?" Julia asked. She flicked her massive tail at the boat, sending about 100 gallons crashing across the deck, drenching all of them.

Guys slipped and fell. Beers and baseball caps and sunglasses spilled into the ocean. The water drained out of the scuppers like it was coming out of a firehose. The engines sputtered to a halt in a cloud of white smoke.

"So much fucking power," Julia whispered to herself, stunned. "I was just playing around." She looked at the mess on the deck and suddenly felt terrible. "Sorry!" she shouted.

The men returned only wounded looks, casting disconsolate stares at the floating baseball caps and half-finished cans of beer.

"Why aren't they saying anything?" Julia whispered to herself. Back home, a group of guys like that would have all sorts of nasty things to say right now.

"You could tear their boat to shreds if you felt like it." Ruth answered. "They know the danger of making you upset."

"That's pretty sick," Julia voiced with care. But at the same time, she thought, it's pretty fucking cool. The realization sent a tingle through Julia that was.... electric. She had to forced herself to remember how this all must feel from the soggy perspective of the guys. "I think I've made those guys really unhappy," she confessed to Ruth.

"So? You can change that. You're a woman. They're men. You have power over them." Ruth directed her voice toward the boat. "My friend says that your mad at her!"

There was no response from the defeated men. That meant "yes", Julia knew.

Ruth gave a quick flick to her tail and dove underwater. The surface was calm for a moment until she shot back up, vertically, alongside the boat. She grabbed the outer railing of the vessel and hoisted herself up on it, arms straight down, railing even with her upper thighs. Julia followed suit, hoisting herself up until her arms, too, were extended straight below her. They looked like gymnasts beginning a routine on the uneven bars, but with enormous fish-like tails extending below them into the water.

"It's ok," Ruth offered to the men. "You can say what's on your mind."

From this position, the woman's naked breasts were eye-level for her audience. Each was half again as large as the men's heads. Ruth sighed, causing her massive mounds to ballon into the space in front of her. Their presence was overwhelming.

The men were transfixed. The anger that previously burned inside the men seemed suddenly to dissipate. Their limbs went a little bit slack. The tension in their faces eased. Their acuity, too, must have slackened, because none of them was able to produce a response. The deck was silent apart from the noise of the outboard engines trying, and failing, to restart.

"Or is nothing on your mind at all?" Ruth taunted. "Or maybe, your minds have emptied to clear space for these?" She removed one hand from the railing and cupped her breast, its heavy flesh spilling over and between her fingers. "They are huge, I know. Much bigger than your brains."

The men returned only blank stares.

Julia giggled. Did they even realize that Ruth was making fun of them? You have power over them, Ruth had said. She wasn't talking about solely physical power, Julia now realized, but something more .... absolute. "These guys are acting as though they've never seen a woman!" Julia whispered in her friend's ear.

"The ratio of men to women here is ten-to-one. For many of these guys, a glossing magazine is probably as close as they have gotten to a live woman for many years." Ruth raised her voice for the benefit of the men. "Maybe we could help get your day back on track. Permission to come aboard?"

One of the guys nodded with enthusiasm.

With deft motion, Ruth slipped out of her mermaid's tail and clipped it to one of the boat's dock lines. She threw her legs over the railing and soon stood among them, fully naked. If this was embarrassing for her, there was no redness on her cheeks to show it.

Ruth handed Julia another spare dock line, and Julia slipped out of her tail as well. She had never been topless -- set aside fully naked -- in front of strangers before. She should have been shame-faced, she knew. But as she watched the guys go slack-jawed with admiration, she was reminded of how phenomenal her body must appear. Her tits, her ass, her figure -- all of these aspects of her appearance were beyond stunning.

Ruth pointed to six of the guys. "Why don't you boys get the engine restarted, while the rest of you tell me about your fishing plans for the day?"

With the women in their midst, the activity on the deck appeared to shift to a new, happier tone. The energy seemed to come back into the men's limbs. When they slipped on the still wet deck, they just chuckled, shook their head, and got back to their feet. We have that effect on them, Julia realized. And it wasn't from magic or body chemistry or some other form of trickery, but instead from pure, radiant beauty.

Since a flurry of guys had formed around Ruth, Julia was, for a moment, forgotten. She turned her attention to the activity around the outboard motors. They were huge, 350 horsepower a piece. Six guys were struggling to hoist one of them. They grunted with effort, and their muscles were visibly strained. Julia could see that the sheen of seawater had burned off their foreheads and had been replaced with the finer droplets that came from perspiration.

"Whatchya doin?" Julia asked.

The men ceased their struggles. She felt their eyes course over the nakedness of her jaw dropping figure and sculpted musculature. Julia had to resist the instinct to cover herself. They can stare all they want, she reminded herself. There's nothing I'm showing them that isn't perfect.

"The outboard engines are waterlogged," one of the men finally answered. "They need to be pulled out of the water to drain."

Julia approached one of the outboards. The small crowd of men cleared for her. She had to ask for help reading the language on the casing.

"800 pounds," explained one of the guys.

"That's pretty light," she remarked, before realizing the absurdity of it. Only a few days ago, weight like that was unimaginable to me.

She grabbed the engine with one hand and unfastened it from the boat with the other. Her upper arm, thick with enhanced female muscle fiber, barely swelled as she hoisted the huge object clear of its mountings. She considered the mass suspended in midair-- ten feet long, four feet across, heavier than all four of the men combined and enough to crush any of them to death. But to her, it was no heavier than a toaster. Her arm didn't quiver, didn't tire. It could, she knew, do so much more.

She felt the rapt stares of the men on her body, her naked perfection. Their breathing had deepened and become more labored, she noticed. I'm turning them on -- just by standing here. She winked at one of them and watched his shorts distend with uncomfortable firmness. I can affect these guys so easily! Her nipples stiffened slightly at the more she thought about it. She liked their attention. She liked their their appearance. She found herself wondering what it would feel like to...

No! He mind rebelled at the suggestion. What the heck was I just thinking? I have devoted myself to Howard and to him I will remain steadfast. When we're back at the house, the introduction of some clothing into my morning will be a welcome change.

She twisted her wrist, rotating the entire 800-pound engine on its axis. A thin stream of water spilled out.

"We never could have fixed that -- not if we have twice as many guys and all day to do it," one of the guys whispered to another.

She twisted her wrist again, flipping it 180 degrees. This drained the rest.

What's impossible for them is effortless for me, Julia realized. They are not upset anymore because they know what's good for them: just as easily as I can ruin their day, I can save it, with nothing more than a flock of my wrist. She returned the engine to its mountings, sliding the inch-thick pins into their collars with a heavy CLICK.

Satisfied that the first engine was drained, she performed the same tasks with the other one. Once back on their mountings, the engines started easily. Returning to the foredeck, Julia found Ruth reclining on some deck cushions, reviewing a map of the ocean with some of the guys. Her tone of voice with the men was a little bit too appreciative. She's flirting, Julia realized.

"They've been trying to catch giant hunter eel," Ruth announced to her friend.

"What the hell is a 'giant hunter eel'? It sounds like something a bush league science fiction writer would invent."

"They're very real to us. And hard critters to catch," offered one of the guys. "They're predators, so they range over a wide area and are constantly on the move. Strong, too -- teeth four inches long. The kind of fish that is more than happy to eat your lure and your line, and your arm, too, if you're not careful."

"Aren't there any easier fish out there?" Julia asked.

"Sure, but the licenses to fish these are pretty cheap: they're an invasive species. Been chomping their way through native fauna for a few years now. So the government sees us as performing a service."

There again was that relationship between men and money. The men didn't have it. Julia was reminded of Mindy's comments about the Men's Beach, how the bathers there could't afford beach houses like the women. Out here, Julia could imagine women with their large, expensive yachts doing whatever sport fishing they liked, no matter how expensive the license.

"Is the meat any good?"

"Meat's great if you can catch it. Problem is, they're so strong, they just tear the lures right off the lines. We went out yesterday and came back empty-handed. We're hoping for better luck today. It's our last vacation day for the month."

"Oh, I'm sorry guys. I hope it goes better."

"It will." Ruth sat up. "I'm sure of it."

-----------

Their tail fins back on, the women treaded water as they watched the boat speed away.

"How did I do up there?" Julia asked. "Do you think they're still mad at me?"

"No, honey, you did great-- far, far better than Mindy would have."

"Really?"

"If I had boarded that boat with Mindy, I would have spent the entire time trying to keep her from hurting the men's feelings; she has no idea how hard it is to be male."

Ruth sighed before continuing. "I'm always playing the authority figure around here -- trying to get Mindy to be respectful, trying to teach Becky how to grow into her body, keeping my husband's self-esteem up, supporting my family financially, running my company. The list of responsibilities seems endless. And it's turned me into a person that I find sometimes... dull. That's that great thing about having you here, Julia. It's given me a chance to be someone else for a change."

"Well, at a minimum, it's brought the flirt out in you."

The green of Ruth's eyes seemed to grow. "The flirting's not over yet. Did you hear that I invited them over to party with us?"

Julia shook her head.

"But I told them the could come on only one condition: They have to catch a boatload of eels."

"Ruth, you're messing with their heads!" Julia laughed, giving her friend a playful shove through the water. "You know they're never going to catch anything!"

Ruth winked. "Maybe they won't, maybe they will. It is we who decide. You wanted to make amends for getting them soggy, right?"

"I don't get it."

Ruth raised her hand out of the water and then pointed an index finger down into it. "Down there. Twelve feet long. Lots of teeth. Thick as a 30-gallon trash can and all muscle. Looks like something from your childhood nightmares. Maybe we go rough them up a bit, make them easier to catch."

"No," Julia responded. "I'm scared."

But only the ocean waves heard her. Ruth had already dipped below the surface. The hunt was on.

"Fuck me," the woman whispered, before diving below the waves herself.

--------------

It took forever to find Ruth. That was because Julia had been looking close to the surface, where human beings are supposed to swim, not straight down. When Julia finally did look down past her own fin, she saw only Ruth's tail in the distance.

Julia felt a nervous clench in her gut as she followed her friend down. Normally, the pressure at the bottom of a swimming pool was enough hurt her ears. But she descended now without pain-twenty-five feet, and then fifty. When will the pain come, she wondered? The descent continued-- one hundred feet, two hundred? There was no way to tell for sure. Aren't my lungs supposed to collapse at some point? But it felt easy, natural.

Finally, Ruth stopped and motioned Julia close. Pointing, Ruth's arm traced a line to a writhing grey mass about a fifty feet wide, huddled a crevasse on the sea floor. It was a school of the nasty sea creatures those guys were trying to fish.

Ruth then pointed up, indicating that she wanted Julia to surface with her. Once they had done so, Ruth's hand disappeared beneath the waves, and came back with several iridescent beads the size of cherries. "These are stitched into the side of our tails. They aren't just decorative. They're full of solid oxygen -- not the gas, but the solid."

She handed one to Julia. "Bite the casing to release the oxygen. Keep your lips closed for that part: it will feel like a grenade going off in your mouth. That's the oxygen expanding from a solid state to a gaseous one. Once it's released, your lungs will absorb it within seconds. Spit the casing out and you should have about a twenty-minute supply of air in your bloodstream."

"Will it hurt me?"

"No, silly. Just don't swallow them by mistake, or you'll fart like a rhinoceros."

That made Julia giggle. She considered the bead in her hand. "There must be two hundred of these on my tail."

"Closer to two thousand. And each one is packed with solid oxygen." Ruth motioned to the seemingly endless depths below, still gray with the muted light of dawn. "You could spend a month down there if you needed to."

Julia tried to imagine the implications. No SCUBA equipment, no need to surface every twenty minutes-- she could spend all week exploring down there if she felt like it. Her enhanced body offered more than the ability simply to do old things better. It opened entirely new experiences that had never been imaginable to her before. "That's pretty cool," Julia concluded.

"I know. Maybe next week I take you on a tour of a tropical reef!" Ruth was clearly excited.

Next week, I'll be gone Julia thought, eyes cast downward, sad.

Ruth didn't notice. "So, here's the plan. It'll be fun. We go down there and roughhouse with the fish a little bit -- get them good and upset." She stopped speaking.

"That constitutes a plan?"

Ruth only shrugged her thick shoulders. "You ready? Don't forget to take your oxygen."

Julia hesitated, rolling the bead between her thumb and forefinger. "I'm supposed to bite through this? The casing looks pretty tough."

"No, it's not tough at all," Ruth explained. "It's just steel."

--------

They were big, just as Ruth had promised. And, by all appearances, mean: 20-foot long cylinders of muscle, thick as garbage cans, and capped by rows of sharp teeth with sinister yellow eyes. And they were numerous: a school of thirty writhed together in a giant knot.

The undersea realm had been denuded of all life here. Whereas Julia had seen fauna of many colors and stripes in other areas, here the water was grey and empty. These eels, she realized -- they had destroyed everything.

This is not a school of fish, Julia realized, or a school of anything. Schools are for prey. This is a pack, like a pack of wolves. These are predators.

Roughhouse a little bit, Ruth had said. What the hell was she thinking? Each of these creatures was bigger than Julia's living room couch, and their mouths contained more blades than her whole kitchen. And the women we warmed with, what, their bare hands?

Julia felt defenseless, exposed. Instinctively, she covered her topless torso with her arms. As she did so, she looked with longing at the surface of the water, twenty stories above. From here, the light of the sky was only faint, and it made her feel alone. What happens if one of them bites us, Julia wondered? Will a rescue ever come? How would they even find us? Will Howard get a phone call only after our bodies wash up on the beach?

She turned to Ruth, who was floating vertically, her tail swishing just enough to keep her upper body immobile against the current. See seemed to be sizing up the gaggle of death that swarmed in front of them. Julia wished that she could talk to Ruth right now, ask why exactly a little morning exercise had turned into a trip to the ocean floor, to confront something that surely eats swimmers for breakfast.

But there would be no conversation. Ruth was swimming toward the writhing mass already.

With a reluctant flick of her tail, Julia followed.

When it finally happened, it happened fast. The knot of eels unwound itself. Three of the creatures unleashed an underwater scream and launched themselves at Julia. Her mind unleashed a scream of its own as she darted away, her tail jerking back and forth in panic. She lost track of Ruth as she barreled toward the safety of the sea floor. On it were hulks of sunken driftwood -- some of it quite large -- grey limbs reaching upward into the water like the arms of drowning men.

Julia darted behind a large branch, maybe two feet thick. One of the eels opened its mouth wide and then brought it down with a CRUNCH: the creature's jaw cut easily through the trunk. With a twist of its head, the creature tossed away the severed section and refocused its sinister yellow glow on her.

I don't want to die down here, Julia's mind screamed!

Moving as deftly as she could given the size of her tail, Julia darted behind an even larger submerged tree.

But the eels did not relent. A second one came after her. It spread its jaws wide and closed its mouth on the thick driftwood trunk. An eruption of splinters filled the water.

There's no hiding from these monsters, Julia thought. My only chance is to outrun them. Julia shot out of the driftwood forest with a sudden burst of speed, surprising her assailants and leaving them, momentarily, behind.

She jerked her head in all directions, searching for Ruth, and found her close to he surface. The purple/green of her tail was surrounded by the writhing grey of the eel pack. She was alone. Ruth had drawn the bulk of the pack away from Julia, she realized. And they were pissed, screaming with blood lust at their only remaining target.

No, Julia thought. Not Ruth! She was so magnificent in her beauty, so serene in her kindness. Hurt someone else, maybe, but not Ruth!

The eels surrounding Ruth didn't seem to agree. They chortled out an underwater scream and lunged at the woman, their mouths wide open and showing their full array of vicious teeth. The water around the woman became a ball of grey eel flesh as they attacked. A feeling of dread overcame Julia: they were going to tear the woman apart.

"NOOOO!" Julia screamed into the water. She had known Ruth for only a few days, but being near her made Julia feel so... happy. And the monsters were killing her!

Julia felt an unexpected rage overcoming her. With a swift flap of her tail, she darted up to the ball of sea life that surrounded Ruth on the surface. She swung a wild, inexperienced punch at one of the huge creatures, hoping to create a distraction.

Her fist connected with the beast's head, and she felt something collapse under the blow. She piled more punches into the animal and watched its head begin to deform. I destroyed the thing's skull, Julia finally realized, as it floated away, unmoving.

She did not take time to celebrate. More of the disgusting creatures had circled her and were now attacking with a predator's fury. Julia swung her tail in a wild arc, hoping to catch one of them in the midsection. She heard a CRUNCH as her target's ribcage collapsed.

The water around Julia became a cloud of angry grey flesh. The creatures were everywhere, circling her, probing the perimeter defined by her swinging fists, lunging and receding. Julia twisted her head back and forth, swung her fists with abandon. But the swarm around her only tightend. Her eyes could not be everywhere at once. And so she didn't see the eel that had circled behind her-- until she felt its terrible jaw close around her torso.

Hundreds of teeth -- the length of kitchen paring knives and every bit as sharp -- slammed down on her abdomen and breasts and neck and arm. A loud CRUNCH filled Julia's ears. Julia screamed in desperation. Her head broke the surface of the water. The air was full of ...

... laughter. It was Ruth's voice, sultry and powerful at the same time. "Did you really think they could hurt you, silly?"

"I... never thought...."

Another eel closed in for the attack, jaw opened wide. Julia raised an arm in defense, but too late. The creature's jaw snapped shut over her forearm and bicep. Julia felt no pain.

The giant eel, confused, locked its jaw, mandible muscles flaring as it bore it teeth into her. Julia felt nothing. She rotated her arm, a quizzical expression on her face. The five-hundred-pound beast rotated with her.

Another eel approached from behind Julia, and she reacted. With the eel still on her forearm, she swung her arm hard into the new attacker, bringing the creatures together with a loud CRACK. It was the sound of their bodies breaking. Water sprayed twenty feet in the air from the collision.

Julia watched with fascination as the eel's jaw slackened and slipped off her forearm. There was not even a scratch. And she had swung its five hundred pound body around as if it were no heavier than a whiffle bat! What unreal strength I have, Julia thought. And my skin -- even their sharpest teeth didn't scratch it! Her body was imbued with not only the strength of hundreds, but also an invulnerability she had not even explored -- twin absurdities that she struggled to believe were real.

The water around Julia was still writhing with the creatures, their anger only amplified. Julia unfurled her arms skyward, causing her other twin absurdities to jut straight out from her chest. They used to be so small and tender, Julia remembered. When I played soccer, getting hit there by the soccer ball was painful. But now -- she watched the waves bend around their curvature -- they ARE soccer balls. And now, nothing is painful.

When the next creature lunged at her, she only smiled. It was the largest attacker yet. It's jaws slammed shut over her torso like a steel trap. Julia watched with fascination. Teeth sharp enough to splinter wood could only dimple the flesh of her breasts. She flexed her abdominals, instantly turning her midriff into a column of granite, and watched rows of teeth shatter against the extreme hardness of those muscles. One of the animal's incisors landed on her nipple: she wiggled back and forth with delight as it hardened and drove the tooth backward into its socket cracking the monster's jaw. Julia found the center of the creature's skull and slammed her fist downward, almost as an experiment, to watch more closely what would happen. The skull shattered like an oyster cracker under the force of her enhanced muscles. She wound up her fist for another punch, but it wasn't needed: the creature stopped writhing and spilled into the deep. These monsters had destroyed everything they encountered, she thought, but against me they are little more than toys. My power is that awesome.

"You finally letting yourself have fun yet, girl?" Ruth's sonorous voice asked.

"I'm learning." Julia popped an oxygen bead in her mouth and dipped back below the waves. Curiosity replaced fear as Julia examined the predators that encircled her.

Upon seeing the deaths of their pack-mates, the beasts had backed away a few yards, giving Julia a greater berth. The eels snarled snarled at her and spun in angry circles with unspent pathos. Julia feinted a swing of her fists, and the creatures instantly recoiled. They were scared, Julia realized!

An opening formed in the wall of swarm. Into it swam the largest eel she had yet seen: thirty feet long and perhaps six feet across. This is the leader of the hunting pack, Julia realized. It snarled at her, too.

Julia looked around. Carcasses of her former opponents floated away in thick maroon clouds of their own blood. She had never been a combative person, but when she saw the fear and destruction she had wrought, her confidence swelled.

The leader of the pack, the largest of the giant eels, snarled again. Julia snarled back. The creature lunged, its jaws wide. With lightening speed, Julia grabbed its top and bottom jaws, one in each hand, and held them open. The giant eel's body thrashed wildly in protest, throwing its weight around with enough force to capsize a small boat. And yet, its weight and momentum were nothing compare to Julia's enhanced muscle. For the thousand pounds of muscle the creature possessed, it may as well have been a minnow.

She shoved the creature away from her and hit the side of its head with an open-handed blow. A loud SMACK resonated through the water. The creature reeled backwards, dazed and uncertain. I am greater than you, Julia thought -- greater than any adversary you can imagine. She raised her arm and considered her bicep, filled with muscle fiber hundreds of times more efficient than anything on earth. Julia slowly brought her fist to her chin and watched with delight as her bicep expanded from the size of a football to something even greater. The uncertainty in the creature's eyes seemed to grow. Julia raised her other arm and balled that muscle into its full 27-inch greatness as well. She poured all her strength into the pose, feeling her forearms and lats and deltoids explode outward -- a coordinated display of supercharged brawn. The creature seemed to shudder as Julia swelled large before it, the yellow in its eyes appearing no longer sinister, but pale with uncertainty. Julia let out a underwater roar -- a torrent of air bubbles and sound that seemed to shake the ocean it self. The giant eel, the leader of them all, recoiled from her, collapsing its body like an accordion.

And then it bolted. In fact, the whole pack bolted, following their leader.

Julia reveled in the moment. The most vicious pack of wildlife she had ever encountered had succumbed to her overwhelming power and was fleeing in fear. She was the alpha creature-- in the water, on the boat, on the land. She was the predator, and they were the prey. She was the commander, and they were her subjects.

"They messed with the wrong bitch, didn't they?" Ruth laughed as Julia surfaced again.

"Yes, they did. I thought they were going to hurt you," Julia explained, wrapping her arms around Ruth. "And I couldn't stand to see you hurt." Their naked torsos came together with bone-crushing force -- far more force than the eel had been able to exert with its bite.

"Hurt me? Julia, you are as endearing as you are naive," Ruth replied. Her two-inch-long nubs poked playfully into Julia's flesh. Julia could feel the thickness of Ruth's nipple vial pressing against her. I'm jealous of that, she realized. I want one, with Howard's blood in it, one that testifies to my love for Howard.

And I want her, too, Julia's mind reeled. But I can't want both Howard and her. I'm not like that. Or at least, I wasn't. And I belong to Howard. She closed her eyes, as if to erase from her mind the full lips of the woman who embraced her, glistening from the wet kiss of the sea -- to erase, too, the emerald of her eyes and the swell of her powerful body that even now pressed into Julia with unfathomable, delightful force.

Stop it, Julia, her mind insisted. You can't do this. "What now?" Julia asked.

"Well, it's just like you wanted: we make amends to the men on the boat."

Julia forced her mind to shift. Her thoughts slowly left the world of the powerful, the fearless and the feminine. They returned, with reluctance, to the world of the weak, the fearful, and the masculine. "And how do we help those poor men?"

"We herd the eels straight under their fishing poles."

"Herd them?"

Ruth's perfect lips parted to reveal perfect teeth. "Yup, like cowgirls herding cattle."

Julia smiled at the analogy. To the rest of the world, these creatures are scary. To us girls, they are pitifully weak, pitifully slow. They are only livestock. They are ours to slaughter.

In a flash, the women were off. Julia's legs and torso moved with strength an order of magnitude greater than anything existing in un-Nourished nature. Her tail beat the water with an indulgent fury. She shot forward into the depths at a speed that was an easy multiple of whatever the weaker, giant eels could do. Even though their quarry had a head start, Julia had no reservations about her ability to catch it.

The pack of eels was following a course parallel to the shore, with the open ocean to their left. Ruth rocketed to their right. They spun out to sea.

Julia, surfaced long enough to get her bearings on the fishing boat, and then descended again pointing. She rocketed to the left of the herd, refining their course.

Ruth took up a position on the right flank of the herd, Julia on the left. When one of the creatures strayed, the women moved at blinding speed, corralling it with ease. Soon, the hull of a boat darkened the surface above: they had found the men's fishing vessel. Thick fishing line hung from the boat down into the depths, creating streamers of reflected light. At the end of the lines were hooks worthy of a 500 pound animal. Apart from the bait, the hooks were empty.

But when the eels saw the bait, their gluttonous nature took over, and they pounced. Lines that had been slack with inactivity quickly straightened. A hum pervaded the water: Julia learned later that this was the sound of the winches on the reels, designed to haul in beasts too large for men to haul in on their own. Some of the eels struggled, causing the winches to groan and slow, but Ruth simply slapped them, on the side of the head, dazing them and robbing the, of their strength. The giant sea creatures never had a chance-- not against the Nourished.

It was about fifteen minutes later that the women surfaced, at a distance beyond the notice of the boat. Hooting and hollering could be heard echoing across the water. Julia felt Ruth's arms encircle her from behind, loosely. Grasping Ruth's elbows, Julia guided them together, tightening the embrace. Ruth did not resist. Nothing more -- Julia promised herself. It's nothing more than a hug between two grown women -- two grown women that were half naked, wearing only fish tails. Nothing more than that.

"How far is it back to shore?" Julia asked.

"Maybe fifty miles."

To anyone back on earth, a swim of that distance was a death sentence. To her enhanced body, it would be a relaxing a warm-down from her morning workout. Julia motioned toward the boat. "I guess we'll be seeing those guys later tonight, won't we?"

"Yup."

"Are we going to tell them that all those eels wound up on their hooks because of us?"

"Nope."

Julia turned her head over her shoulder. "Why not?"

"Because you need to give men the illusion of being capable, of having accomplishments. Without that they become depressed. And when they get depressed, they are truly useless."

"That's how it is with your men, isn't it? With your Husband and the others you spend time with? You provide everything for them."

"Yes." Ruth tightened her embrace. "We provide everything for them, protect them, make life easy for them. That's my responsibility as a woman-- and Mindy's, too, whenever I can get her to act like an adult."

Julia thought about Howard. He had always been the capable one, always the one providing for her. Never had it been the other way around. And Julia had never imagined it could be any different -- until yesterday.

"And the men?" Julia asked, watching six of them struggle to budge and eel that she could have hoisted with one arm. "You're their world. You take care of everything they need. What do they do in return?"

"They make me happy, of course."

Julia wondered how Howard would react to that statement. He is too much the leader, too much the man in charge. That sort of dependency would drive Howard nuts. He was the love of her life, no doubt. But his need to be the capable one, his need to be in charge -- perhaps those tendencies were, in their own way, weaknesses. Perhaps those weaknesses needed correction.

The women swam back to shore, their enhanced muscles driving their large tails back and forth several times per second. Julia thrilled at the acceleration. She rocketed over the ocean bottom. She surfaced, and felt the THWAP-THWAP-THWAP of the waves as she slammed through them, far faster than any powerboat could. The shore appeared first as a thin, distant line, but quickly grew. Before long, the women were emerging from the water, their five-hundred-pound tails slung easily over their shoulders.

"Thanks for taking me out on the water this morning," Julia said.

"Are you kidding? It was my pleasure. I feel twenty years younger. I feel like I am seeing the world once again through newly-Nourished eyes. What a thrill! What did you think of swimming with the tails?"

Julia beamed. "Terrific. I feel like the whole vast ocean is mine to explore and frolic in -- as far as I want to go, as deep as I want to go, as long as I want to go. And whatever I encounter, no matter how large or frightening, it will be weaker than me. The power I possess, that all of us possess, is astounding." Voicing the words sent a giddy rush through Julia's body.

"You sound like a woman that plans to stay, not one that's about to leave."

Ugh, Julia thought. That's right: we're leaving. "I'd do anything to stay, but I made Howard a promise," Julia groaned. "I wish that I could go back and forth. Frolic here, keep Howard comfortable there. I wish the boundaries between our worlds were more permeable."

"What makes you think they're not?" She gave her tail a shake to get the water off. "School history books speak of a time when the Nourished would visit other worlds through the caves. But the details have been lost to the passage of time."

Julia considered this. It was yet another strange absurdity in a world full of them. Julia imitated Ruth, shaking the water off her tail. "Well, I'll tell you one thing. If anyone managed to visit this place from earth, they'd think these tails were pretty silly. They make us look like mermaids!"

"Mermaids?"

"On Earth, way back when, sailors used to report seeing women who were half human, half fish swimming in the open ocean. They were half naked, too!" Julia laughed, causing the breasts of her naked torso to bounce. "The sailors called these creatures 'mermaids'. But they weren't real, of course. Those sailors were so dehydrated and horny, who can blame them for creating a little myth to tickle their fantasies?"

Ruth giggled like a teenage girl. "What makes you think it was a myth?"