The cramped, damp tunnel pressed in on all sides while Nekari squirmed deeper. She ignored the grit and cool mud seeping through her light clothing, her sharp senses straining ahead, the rope a faint tug around her waist.
The thrill of easy victories earlier had ignited something within her – a burning greed, a longing for wealth beyond their meager adventurer's bounty. Images of glittering coins and sparkling jewels danced in her mind, pushing out reason and caution.
"Just one decent score," she whispered to herself, the sound swallowed by the heavy silence.
"Something worth all this crawling… enough to never have to risk my neck in a damp hole again."
Minutes felt like hours in the suffocating dark. She inched forward, navigating by touch as much as sight, her sensitive whiskers twitching at the stale, mineral-scented air. Then, the confined walls widened. The tunnel spat her out into a small, roughly hewn chamber. Nekari stumbled to her feet, stretching with relief as the claustrophobic pressure eased.
"Huff!" she panted, brushing grime from her face and tail. "Made it! Not too bad."
Dust motes danced in the thin beam of light streamed in through the hole behind her, illuminating the chamber dimly. It wasn't large, maybe ten meter across. Cobwebs thick like curtains draped the corners. Sitting against one wall was an open, empty wooden chest.
"…Hah! Of course," Nekari hissed in disdain. She stalked over, kicking aside loose stones and rat bones, her initial hope withering when she saw the dust and spiderwebs inside the chest, clinging to the empty interior like a shroud.
She slammed the lid shut with a disgusted sneeze.
"Nothing! Not a copper piece! I came all this way for an empty box! This whole damn place has been picked clean!" Frustration and disappointment warred in her chest, making her fur stand on end. She paced the small room, her claws clicking on the stone floor, her cat ears twitching downwards.
"Let's see what lies deeper," Nekari muttered, the lure of potential riches overriding her initial disappointment. She padded softly across the dusty floor towards the only exit from the chamber – a broad, arching corridor sloped downwards. The air grew colder and staler as she descended, the rough walls unadorned by markings or traps as far as her sharp eyes could discern.
After several meters, the passageway abruptly ended. Before her rose a pair of colossal double doors, carved from a single slab of obsidian-black stone, veined with gold that gleamed faintly even in the near-darkness. Towering upwards, they dwarfed the lithe catgirl, radiating an ancient power and oppressive weight.
No scuff marks, no scratches, no disturbed dust lined their seam or base. They appeared utterly pristine.
"Unopened," Nekari breathed, a gleam sparking in her eyes, a wide smile spread across her feline features, her earlier frustration vanishing like mist.
"A secret room! Untouched! That means… treasures!" Her heart thumped faster. But the momentary euphoria faded quickly as the obvious problem hit her: "But how to open it?"
She traced a hand over the cool, smooth surface, finding no visible handle or keyhole. The seam between the doors was razor-thin, unyielding when she tried to pry.
Frustration building, she stepped back, scanning the area around the door frame. On the right side of the door, pressed flush against the wall, stood a life-sized statue carved from the same obsidian stone. It depicted a nude human woman with perfect, unnervingly realistic detail, down to the individual strands of hair flowing over her shoulders and the subtle curves of her form.
The statue stood slightly leaning against the wall, her legs parted suggestively, both hands pressed firmly against the stone behind her. Her expression was serene, eyes closed, but the posture radiated a sense of… waiting tension.
Nekari's gaze swept across the chamber again, ignoring the statue's unsettling allure. Directly opposite the statue, she noticed faint impressions on the dusty floor – two circular depressions, perfectly spaced to match human feet. Looking upwards from those marks, another two hand-shaped indentations carved into the stone wall at shoulder height.
Her tail twitched thoughtfully. "A mechanism?" stepping over to examine the floor marks more closely.
"Someone has to stand here… like this?" She gingerly placed one boot on the first circle, then the other. It fit perfectly.
She turned to face the wall behind the statue, raising her arms until her palms aligned with the carved hand-prints. The stone felt oddly warm against her skin. She leaned in slightly, mimicking the statue's stance against the wall across the chamber.
Nothing happened.
The obsidian doors remained stubbornly shut. Nekari sighed, shoulders sagging. "Maybe Rolfe could muscle his way through, but not me…"
A devious spark flared in her mind. "Or…" she whispered, a sly smile curling her lips, her eyes turned to the nude statue once more.
"The statue's naked… maybe…?" Excitement battled with hesitation, her ears perking up attentively. Nekari scanned the empty chamber again, no sounds nor movement save for her own heartbeat.
She was deep underground, miles from the surface, alone with this ancient puzzle.
"All or nothing," she decided, the prospect of untold wealth overwhelming her caution. "I'm alone here and the others won't know."
With practiced ease, she shed her clothes, untied her top, letting it drop to the dusty floor. Her chest binder came next, revealing small, firm breasts tipped with dark, puckered nipples that tightened instantly in the cool air. She kicked off her soft leather boots, then shimmied out of her pants and loincloth in one fluid motion.
Standing bare, Nekari stretched, unselfconscious in the absolute solitude. She was a vision of sleek, predatory grace. Slender yet toned, her lithe muscles rippled under short, soft fur the color of burnished bronze, subtly patterned with slightly darker stripes that flowed down her limbs and back, blending into the shadows.
Her thighs were firm, leading down to sleek legs ending in delicate paws. Between them, the fur was shorter, darker, barely concealing her puffy vagina.
Stepping forward, she positioned herself carefully on the two foot marks once more, feeling the cool stone against the pads of her bare feet then raised her arms, pressing the palms flush into the hand-prints on the wall.
The obsidian felt even warmer now, almost humming against her skin.
She pushed back slightly, mirroring the statue's stance across the way – legs parted shoulder-width, body inclined forward, back nearly touching the wall, hips arched provocatively backwards.
"Please work, please work…," she murmured fervently. Her breathing hitched as she waited, the silence oppressive, her body hyper-aware of the cold air prickling her sensitive fur, her nipples tight and erect.
The vulnerability was thrilling and terrifying. Had she gotten it wrong? Or was there another trick?
Nekari's ears drooped, her hope deflating because the doors remained stubbornly closed.
"Wrong guess? Or did I just look like an idiot standing naked for no reason?" she muttered bitterly, starting to pull her palms away from the hand prints.
Then she froze. The stone beneath her hands felt… different. Slick. Pliable and …Alive?
With a wet, squelching sound, two thick, red, organic-looking tendrils shot from the wall like striking serpents, coiling around her wrists and anchoring them firmly in place. Before she could even react, two more erupted from the floor near the footprints, winding around her ankles and pulling her legs into a wider, more vulnerable stance.
"What the–?! No!" she cried, yanking at her bindings. But they were strong, rubbery, and held fast. Panic spiked through her. Was this a trap? Had she been colossally stupid?
Nekari could feel it, something hard and insistent pressing firmly against the cleft of her bare buttocks from behind, nestled directly against her vulnerable opening. It pushed insistently, hot and surprisingly thick, causing her tail to fluff up in alarm.
"Something… something's pressing against my butt!" she yelped, craning her neck frantically to look behind.
Her eyes widened in horror when she saw a similar appendage jutting obscenely from the wall behind the stone statue opposite her, thrusting insistently against the space between its spreading thighs.
It was unmistakably shaped like an enormous, rigid penis, easily over 40 cm long and thicker than her wrist at the base. Its reddish, fleshy head pressed against the statue's perfectly carved posterior.
"What? Does that mean…?" Nekari gasped, realization crashing over her like ice water. She looked down between her own splayed legs, past her furry mound and belly.