Brave Encounters, Chapter 1

It ate the light. That was the only way to describe it - the little ball of black was perched on her bedside table, its round surface split by the glowing blue gap of its maw, angled upwards towards the glowing lamp, as if trying to drink the light in. And worse, it actually seemed to be working, the beams of light dimming the closer they got to the blue of the open mouth, as if the light itself was being absorbed.

The lightglobe buzzed, whined brighter, and went out with a 'bink.' The ball of fur half closed its mouth in a disappointed moan, overlayed with the vibrating warble that coloured all its sounds, as if she could only hear half the noise it made. Then, predictably, its maw turned to 'stare' expectantly at Alex. When she didn't move, it motioned slightly forwards, its mouth vibrating that strange, warbling shrill it made, as it sounded out those two familiar notes, low then high.

She sighed.

"Okay. But just one more."

She wheeled her deskchair forwards, one hand still wrapped in a dirty shirt, the other holding the last replacement bulb. She wasn't sure if the creature understood her - in fact she was certain it understood only one thing right now, as it excitedly bounced up and down on her bedside table, enthusiastically following every movement as her wrapped hand unscrewed the hot, burnt out bulb, and her other hand screwed in the fresh one. A second later the creature's open mouth was happily drinking in the light of the fresh bulb, as the burnt out one clinked into the trash against three more.

She was running out of lightbulbs. Lightbulbs! That was her concern right now, of all things?! Let’s see: in the last hour she'd gotten lost in the park, fallen down a hill, found a glowing blue space rock that exploded into oh yes - an alien creature! And her concern was her supply of lightbulbs!

The creature made a purring 'nyum, nyum, nyum,' noise as it drank in the light from the fresh bulb, the round body below the mouth contracting with each gulp of light. It was so, well, alien. It looked for all purposes like a ball, silky black, slightly depressed at the bottom where its fur met the bedside table. She'd been surprised back in the park, not being able to see its black shape in the darkness, expecting to touch a cold and slimy body when she gently urged it into her open backpack. Instead her fingertips had brushed soft fur, as fine as silk, and warmed as if by sunlight even then in the cold night.

And even now its fur remained utterly black, as if the light from her room and the bedside lamp just couldn't reach it. Its fur did shimmer slightly, but only from its only blue light that beamed out of its drinking mouth, and circled down the patterns on its back. Patterns, not spots as she had first thought, the fine blue markings were actually made of delicate blue swirls and circles that glowed in the lines of the fur, all connected in continuous lines of slowly pulsing light. Stranger still was the fact that the patterns always remained on its back, regardless of which way up it was facing, which changed regularly.

When she had first opened her bag in her room, it had spent a few minutes staring suspiciously at the floor, making sure it wasn't hiding something. Then all at once the creature was everywhere, scurrying back and forth around her room, appearing and disappearing between gaps, bouncing off objects and then scurrying straight up them, examining everything, especially everything that made light. And when it suddenly discovered another new lightsource that stopped its scurrying dead in its tracks, its patterns would slowly reappear on its back, no matter which way up it was facing and regardless of how many flips and bounces and rolls it had gone through to get there.

It was strange - beautiful, and strange. And that wasn't even considering the tentacles.

The lightbulb whined and binked out. Another disappointed moan, before it expectantly turned to her, and sounded out its two-tone question.

"I'm sorry," she tried to explain, "there aren't any more. You ate them all."

Its mouth drooped, as the ball of its head, or body, or both - as it angled itself down, depressed. And it understood her? She was still wondering about this as the creature looked around, and an idea literally brightened its smile. Suddenly its silhouette erupted outwards, its black fur parting as three black lines shot out then curled back in. The creatures round body lifted off the wood of the bedside table, pulled up under the three curled tentacles. Their smooth surfaces flexed, cords of muscle tightening, tensing as it lowered its body almost back onto the wood, then shot up into the air. She looked around, trying to find it again, until she heard and saw her room's lightshade shatter on the floor beside her. Her heart leapt with her body, and she looked straight up to see the creature hanging from her room's now bare lightbulb by only one tentacle. It quickly recovered, coiling its other two around the hot metal base and opening its mouth.

"No!" her startled lungs shot out the word with a depth and force she hadn't intended.

The creature flinched, its mouth frozen open, staring at her.

Her jaw set, "No!" she repeated, "No breaking things, and I need that light."

It stayed staring at her, open mouthed. Very, very slowly, as if hoping her vision was based on movement, it leaned its mouth towards the lightbulb.

"Aah!" she sounded, this time the force deliberate.

It flinched, and cowered, keeping a careful distance from the now forbidden light. She was concerned it must be burning itself on the metal light fitting, but it didn't seem to be. Still, just in case, "Now come down here please." She pointed at the ground for emphasis.

It hesitated, then, somehow, obeyed. Its grip on the light fitting lessened until it dropped free, its three tentacles landing on the seat of her chair and sagging to slow its body to a stop, then dropping it meekly onto the chair. Is gaze lowering, and turned shamefully away from her. The three tentacles slithered back inside the body, leaving a ball of fur looking forlornly at the back of her chair.

She moved to reassure it, stopped. No, no it needed to feel a little sad for a moment - it had nearly dropped a glass light-fitting on her head, and though it hadn't meant to, it needed to learn that wasn't okay. So she forced herself to leave it sulking as she went to get a dustpan and brush.

The house was dark and empty. She marveled that she used to keep all the lights on when she was home alone, just in case there were monsters that came only at night, and only when adults were out and children were alone and afraid. Now she didn't bother - other than the fact she already had a monster upstairs, sulking on her chair, she'd long gotten used to the large and empty house.

She had parents. Technically. Large houses don't come free, especially not nowadays, and nor did a private education.

She was grateful, and she knew that was why her parents worked so hard, went to so many conferences, seminars, getaways. She knew. She hoped. She wished... no, that wouldn't get her anywhere. So what if she was the only girl she knew who got her birthday cake mailed to her. At least she could have a birthday cake.

She returned with the dustpan and brush to find the creature watching the door. It immediately returned to its former position and sulked with renewed depression. It was even moaning a little now, the sound similar to that of a sad puppy but the vibrations overlaying it. She sadly smiled, and got to work brushing up the broken glass as the creature surreptitiously watched to see if she could see how sad it was. By the time she'd finished with the last specks of glass, the creature was positively whining.

"Okay," she insisted, "it’s okay." She gently put a hand on its back to reassure it.

Instantly it 'brred' in joy, its apparently all-consuming depression conveniently forgotten as the sound of its happiness vibrated through its warm fur, making the strands brush and tingle against her skin. She was so focused on the strangely nice feeling that she barely noticed the emergence of a tentacle until it lashed around her forearm. She jumped, but before she pulled away she stopped, making sure that all it wanted to do was hold onto her hand, as its warm body snuggled its tingling fur against her palm. It had even rolled over, at least according to its spots disappearing from its top and reemerging on its bottom.

She smiled, a little overwhelmed by the sensations rubbing against her palm. She scratched with her fingertips, feeling smooth skin under the fur. The creature purred loudly, the skin vibrating and sending waves of tingling warmth through its fur and up her arm. She breathed in, smiled broader - it really was a strange little thing. The black and glowing fur was weird enough, but the tentacles. The one lashed around her wrist was made of the same smooth skin her fingertips reached for under the fur, and like the fur the limb stayed blackly outside the light, dark but still so warm and so very smooth against her arm. Light swirled around its base, flowing and spiraling up the intricate blue patterns that spotted and waved up one side, the flows of light pulsing in time with her rising breaths. She could feel muscle too, taught under the smooth skin, long and corded, flexing and clenching rhythmically in time with her own muscles, her own barely conscious movement. In fact, given how tightly it held her arm she could even feel bone, a long spine of it felt clearly spiraled around her, very clearly, the next clench digging into her wrist.

She winced. The creature instantly released her. The tentacle hovered free of her skin, then whipped back inside the fur. The glowing line of its mouth turned to face her, the spots reappearing on its back as it looked up at her, no longer purring or at all happy but looking so utterly - concerned?

"I'm okay," she reassured, "really." She bent her wrist to show just how okay she OW - she held her wrist snakingly straight. The creature whimpered, one tentacle snaking out of its body, its mouth whimpering as its limb reached forward to try and touch her wrist without touching it. The creature whined, looking more hurt than she was.

"Really, I'm okay, I'll be okay," she reassured, taking great care not to show any pain in her wrist as she reassuringly patted its body. "You've just gotten a strong grip, okay. You need to be more careful."

The creature nodded, still wary and concerned as it insistently rubbed its warm body against her palm, taking great care to be gentle. Again, she got the distinct impression that it was somehow understanding her. Though whether her words, her tone, or something else she wasn't really sure. She patted the creature again as it questioningly purred, stopping regularly to check if that was okay. And standing there, with the creature occupying her chair, her other hand stifling a yawn, she began to realize just how very tired she was. But first....

* * *

The shower was indecently cool. The first few minutes weren't quite as relaxing as she might have hoped, what with digging twigs and dirt out of her long hair one wince at a time, and trying to somehow scrub dirt free without applying any pressure to her bruised body or using one hand that tingled madly from a sprain or broken nerve or who knew what. But after all that, especially after all that, then it was bliss. Just standing under the cool spray, the jets kneading her sore neck and back, unraveling pains real and potential all throughout her tired muscles. It felt really good - but strangely, she felt it clearest on her hand, of all places.

Blinking water from her eyes she raised the hand, not sure what she expected to see. She carefully watched the fingers curl and straighten. Nothing seemed out of place. Yet her fingers still tingled, nicely so, echoing with the remembered feeling of the creature's fur against her palm, its warmth beating against the coolness of the water. She'd avoided using the hand to wash herself, the loafer feeling too - just, too much against her hand, she assumed because of a sprain or something wrong. But now - testingly, she turned her wrist. It didn't hurt any more, at least not as much as it she'd expect. The shower must be doing wonders for her. Then, staring at her palm, she raised her other hand, and testingly pressed both her palms together, and breathed sharply in.

Her hands flinched apart. Okay - her own skin didn't feel that good. And now her other hand was tingling too. Okay what the hell? What was - she was distracted then by movement. She was still breathing a little harder than she'd realized, which had caused the movement that had caught her eye.

She'd never paid much attention to her own breasts, at least not as anything other than failures. Compared to the other girls in her class they were so unshapely - not perky and firm, but large, bulbous. She'd only ever paid attention to them to list their many faults - the way her left nipple was slightly higher than her right, the irregular oval shape of her areola, the way the skin under her left breast folded at a different curve to her right, every imperfection hopelessly clear to her, noted and remembered with terrible, shameful clarity. But now, now for just one moment, now she looked at them a little... differently, remembering how good it felt to touch the rough skin of her palms, staring now at the smooth and sensitive skin before her, thinking, wondering. Imagining. Her hands slowly moved inwards.

A few seconds later the creature burst into the bathroom, the echoes of her voice vanishing as the door slammed open against the wall and her flinch backwards crashed her skull against solid tiles. She staggered, slipped on the wet floor, danced on the edge of falling. Then, frozen awkwardly forward, arms out at odd angles, she saw the creature's face, only a few feet away, concern flooding its uplifted view.

Slowly, ready to catch herself at any moment, she eased her body upright. She took a deep breath to scold the creature for the door, then stopped. It must have thought she was in trouble, heard her voice and assumed it was a cry of pain, instead of... She flushed. Focusing her attention on the creature. After a moment's consideration, she leaned down and gently patted it reassuringly.

"Thank you?" she tried, "for trying to save me."

It purred, brushing against her hand, its happiness at her being okay and giving it attention flowing together into a vibrating purr of joy. Its pattern spots glowed brighter as the tingling warmth of its fur coursed into her palm, flowing up her arm. She took a shaky breath in, saw and felt the blue lights grow, and on the second attempt she forced her hand to pull away. Then she noticed the creature was staring forward with fascination.

She looked down, saw it as she felt it. She immediately stood upright, covering herself barely with her hands and fully with the colour crimson. The creature looked more confused and curious than anything else, embarrassment or shame not even occurring to it.

"Look away!" she blurted. The creature flinched back. She realized how utterly she was failing to conceal herself - a normal girl would have had a much easier time, but she had - this to conceal. She moved to hold it up against her stomach, and accidently used the hand that had just been petting the glowing creature. She fell backwards against the wall, gasping in air after all of it had left her at once.

The creature was half in the shower, desperate to help.

"Go!" she commanded, her tensing body forcing the word out forcefully, as her body blushed and twisted in both directions against the wall, as if it could hide by twisting itself inside out. "Shoo!"

The creature meeped, rolling back over itself in its haste to scurry out of the door. Her own breathing was sharp and hot in her ears, but in straining she could still hear the low, vibrating sound of the creature's breath just outside the door, and swore she could see the edge of its black silhouette peaking around the doorframe.

Awkwardly, she eventually made her way to the door, gently but steadily pushing on it, not surprised to feel a little more weight than she'd expected and a disappointed grumbling as the door latched shut.

She breathed out again. It must just be curious is all, that's all. Just curious. But still! There were boundaries, especially when, especially now that - she couldn't even say it in the privacy of her own head, in case someone heard.

She returned to stand before the mirror, and, reluctantly, uncovered herself. There she stood, her skin glistening wet, still glowing with the last of her flush. The bruises from her fall in the park coloured her arms, and her hair stuck to her face, shoulders and sides. She brushed a few dark, clingy strands out of her eyes, seeing them staring back at her, hazel amidst a lightly freckled face.

Part of her knew that the girl she was staring at was attractive. In a homely way. If you were into that sort of thing. Maybe.

She looked down, her gaze falling down her reflection, seeing her too large breasts, the too clear lines of her stomach muscles joining the too defined curves of her hips to all point directly down, directly in. Like her body itself was apologetically screaming - this way, here's what's different. Here's what's wrong.

Between her legs her male feature stood, currently standing as unashamedly proud as a serial killer, and just as incriminating, as if overjoyed at constantly ruining everything! She was - she bit her lip, forced herself to say it - she was hard. She hadn't meant to, but it happened so easily, without any warning. Just like in the changerooms today. And all at once she couldn't bear to look at herself. Her reflection shrank as her arms wrapped inwards, desperate to conceal her body from herself and from the watching guilt. From the memory of the changerooms, the changing girls, the things they were saying about boys, how all of it had been too much for her over eager imagination, her incriminating body.

Part of her knew that no-one had seen her sidle into a stall. No-one ever noticed her, and that made it almost believable that no-one had. But what if they had? What if they'd seen? She could still hear their imagined laughter, her whole body cringing as she shrank further inwards, no erection nor lust nor even the possibility of pride remaining in her horrid, shameful body. She hated it, all of it. It was, she was... she was wrong. She was all wrong.

She could hear a low whimpering, was surprised at herself but only just. Then she realized the sound was coming from under the closed door. She smiled despite herself. She wrapped a towel around her body, wiped her eyes, and opened the door to see the creature suddenly sitting upright, the picture of innocence, as if it had always been there. Its head cocked to one side, as with the effort of concern it sounded its two-note question.

"I'm okay," she smiled. It wasn't that it didn't seem to understand - it didn't seem to believe her. "Come on," she continued, "time for bed, little one." A sentiment she soon found the creature did not understand.

* * *

Sleep was... interesting. She thought the weirdest part would be falling asleep, and at first she was not disappointed.

No sooner had she turned out the light than the creature erupted with movement. Suddenly the change in lighting meant it was not in fact time to sleep, but time to explore ALL THE THINGS, as fast and as loudly as possible. Blue light appeared and disappeared, angled long shadows left then right across the room as the creature scurried and darted back and forth. She was constantly tensed, expecting any moment to hear a CRASH as it flew headfirst into something, like it had when the light was on but now at many times the speed. But to her surprise, and the denied release of her tensed nerves, the creature seemed to navigate far better in the dark - at least judging from the utterly uninterrupted speed of it's thundering from side to side, up and down, without seeming to knock over anything or break headfirst through any walls. She was going to tell it off, when it finally began to slow, as if running out of energy in the dark. Even its own light seemed to be fading.

By the time it limply pulled itself up onto her bed it seemed positively groggy. Its blue was vibrant in the dark, so she could see it fading with each slow plodding 'step' over the covers - until one step landed on her leg. She flinched, more in surprise than anything else. It flinched too, frozen, staring its beam of rebrightened blue down at her foot, carefully reaching out one tentacle to poke. Giggling, she deliberately flinched. The creature gasped backwards, tentacles over its mouth. Very, very carefully, constantly hesitating, preemptively flinching every other moment, it started to reach out again one - last - time. She flinched early. And that was it - the creature pounced.

A scream of surprise broke into frantic laughing. The writhing of her leg only made matters worse, the creature pouncing on each movement with wide-mouthed delight, constantly batting two-tentacles in unison at her leg's last position in an effort to catch its exciting prey. How utterly ridiculous it looked was only half of why she was laughing, the other reason was how intensely ticklish her feet were, causing a physical panic to radiating up her legs, making her body dart away from every touch with the speed of reflex, and making the creature's game all the more fun. She was holding herself on a knife's edge between joy and panic right up until a tentacle lashed around her leg through the covers. Her flinching to get free moved nothing but her foot, making its head swivel to the new movement, its beamed gaze focused on her moving toes.

"No," she half laughed, half cried, "no don't," in panic she flinched again, and it leapt at her foot.

Its mouth grabbed her through the blanket, the sensation exploding from her toes all the way to her mouth and from there shouted out to fill the room. But it wasn't the sensation she expected to feel, nor the sound she expected to make, the echoes of her voice returning a very unfamiliar, very adult moan to her.

She lay there frozen, eyes wide, back arched, breathing heavy. Her foot had completely frozen, tingling heat engulfing her skin through the covers, another wave of unbearable sensation threating to erupt at any moment. Testingly, she tried moving her foot free, and the playful creature clamped its mouth down on her again, the light almost audibly beaming against the covers. This time she was listening, so heard the adult breaking of her voice as her body contorted and forced another moan free, and another, another higher, faster, the cresting bursts of sensation shooting up her leg and deep into her abdomen. She could feel the pressure building there with each frantic moan, building up to something huge. Was she, was she about to...?

The moment it stopped her head flung down to see. Fighting the rising and falling of her shoulders and chest for view, she saw, very clearly, very prominently, a tenting in the covers right where her legs met. Why was she, why was she SO - just then the creature, satisfied that her foot was defeated, released its grip, turned, and stopped dead, staring at the new shape standing out of the covers. The shape twitched. The creature gasped in delight, having found something new to pounce on.

The light beaming from its mouth, It lowered itself, tentacles coiled, tensed, and - "NO!" she screamed just in time, the creature flinching back and cowering.

"Nn-no," she tried again, as gentle as she could manage with her entire body thundering a frantic mix of fear and... and something else she didn't want to think about right now. And she especially didn't want to think about how she'd hesitated, nearly hadn't stopped it in time, was nearly... disappointed now. No, she wouldn't think about that, so, gently, she commanded through forcibly steady breaths, "no - more." The creature sulkily moaned, its head drooping as it plodded its way to the edge of the bed.

"No - you don't - it's alright," she said, the creature turning to stare hopefully up at her, "just," she tried to roll onto her si-IDE - she moved her arms very, very carefully, lifting the covers so they weren't contacting her at all, especially not there. Then, even more carefully, she rolled onto her side away from the creature. It took her a long moment to recover, trying not to move the lower half of her body at all as she turned to look over her shoulder, seeing the creature still staring at her with a mix of apprehension, concern and hope. She took a deep breath, and continued, "Just - settle down, okay?"

The creature nodded and bounded forwards. "I said " - it stopped before her protectively raised arm, "I said," she took a few steadying breaths to recover from moving the covers, "I said, settle, okay?' It nodded again, and this time she registered the movement. She'd have thought more about it, but right now her mind was... elsewhere. A very, very specific elsewhere. The creature, still staring apprehensively and hopefully at her, circled around and around behind her thighs, constantly moving the blankets in little bursts over her hips as its tentacles circled around, to her wincing, rising torment. It finally settled on the perfect spot of bed, plonked down, and apparently went right to sleep, at least according to the shrill, warbling 'me-me-me-me-me' sound it immediately started making.

She tried to breathe again. She should have been suspicious, would have been. But right now she was more concerned with a simple fact, as undeniable as it was impossible.

If she moved, she was going to have an orgasm.

Wide-eyed, she very slowly, very carefully, placed her head down into the pillow. She lay there, and tried to make her brain reconcile what her entire body was most definitely feeling, and how on earth it could even be possible. She didn't have a foot fetish. And even if she did, how could that, how could it make her - how was she about to orgasm? The force of the thought moved her body slightly, moving her against the covers. It took a few more seconds of strained breaths before she could think clearly again. And think she did - think she must. It didn't matter how bone-tired she was, she must make sense of this, must find a reason, an excuse.

But laying in bed, trying to stay alert, is a guaranteed way to fall fast asleep.

The creature innocently snored its litany of 'me-me-me-me-me', checking occasionally if she was asleep yet When it was sure she was, and had made doubly certain with a few gentle pokes, it slowly raised itself up, and very gently turned around.

Without making a noise it steadied itself on two tentacles, brought the third before its view. It concentrated on the tip of the tentacle, the spot-patterns along it glowing brighter and faster until they reached the very tip. The creature blew on it, blue light beaming then spiraling round and into the tip, which it carefully, reverentially moved, touching the tip against Alex's sleeping form.

Blue lines spiraled out across the covers, growing like vines into swirling, intricate forms that encircled her sleeping form. She moaned forcefully, the lines fading and leaving her breathing hard, a disappointed moan escaping her sleeping lips.

The creature smiled, and, very gently, made its way towards her.

And it was as Alex slept, that the story truly began, with the most intense dream she was yet to have.

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