Chapter 107 Lactating.
Ava was surprised to find such a quiet corner of the dockyards.
Past the forest of masts that were the piers, beyond the busy wharves where burly stevedores hauled crates, away from the sailors and fishmongers.
Beyond even the huge warehouses and merchant guilds where companies waged wars with coin and ink, sat a secluded mass of jetties and spindly, rotting piers.
In fact, this part of the docks was practically deserted, the building around her decaying, slumped in upon themselves, may boarded up. It felt more like a dark corner of East Under than the thriving dockyards.
Yet, there was no mistaking the temple. It had once, long ago, been a shrine to some god, but those days were long past.
It sat among the crumbling wooden houses of the wharves, white paint peeling and faded to grey.
The skeleton of a whale had been employed in decorating it, ribs arching over the sides, the wide mouth of the skull projecting from the front. Every window was boarded up, the wood rotting in the sea air.
Ava approached curiously, the steps up to the old temple creaking under her feet. She knocked, the sound echoing hollowly in the building. She waited.
As she stood there in the glaring sunlight, her ears flicked. She could faintly hear the sounds of movement, but muffled. In fact, it sounded like it was coming from under the temple...
Before she could muse on this some more, the door opened to reveal a curious little creature.
About as tall as a goblin, but considerably wider, he resembled a pale bellied frog crossed with a fish.
Huge, bulbous eyes looked at her, a wide mouth across his face. Webbed fingers held open the door, and a curious kilt with a gutting knife and some seashells was tied around his waist.
Ava beamed at the wug. "Hello," she said. "My name is Ava Copperman. I was hoping to talk to your chief."
The wug blinked his large eyes, which wandered slowly from her face and to her chest. Recalling Ireen’s claims about wugs and big tits, Ava crossed her arms under her chest, squeezing her breasts until her upper buttons threatened to pop. "Pleeeeease?"
The wug croaked. A low, deep sound that rose from a suddenly pinker belly. He stepped back, opening the door wider.
"Thanks!" Ava chirped, slipping inside, the wug peering outside a moment, then slamming the door shut behind her.
After the brightness of outside, it took Ava a moment for her eyes to adjust to the gloom within.
The only light peeked through gaps in the slats, revealing a ruined inner chamber.
Pews had been hauled out of the middle of the room, where a massive hole had been made in the floor, leading into steps carved in the very bedrock beneath.
Nets and a number of clay jars were scattered about the room. The scent of fish and slime was overwhelming, and seaweed had been hung from the ceiling like shredded banners.
More wugs were within, their eyes faintly luminous as they stared at Ava and the one with her. She recognized a few from the food stalls, but they showed no outward signs of interest as she was walked towards the hole in the floor, and began to descend.
The stairs were slick, forcing her to take care. The walls shone faintly with a strange, luminous slime.
As they descended, she heard the soft sounds of lapping waves, and something else. Subtle, almost inaudible. The faint sound of moaning.
"Um, how deep does this thing go?" asked Ava.
The wug guiding her stopped and looked back up at her, blinked its huge eyes, and then continued on its way.
"Alright then, keep your secrets," Ava muttered as the creature resumed its descent into the cool darkness of the earth. She followed carefully behind; one hand braced on the smooth wall to help with her balance.
The deeper they went, the more she could make out croaking sounds, feminine moans, and a distant thumping like drums. The smell of the sea mingled with another slightly sour aroma that was vaguely familiar.
At last, they entered a vast underground grotto, lit from within its sloshing pool of glowing blue algae. The water level rose and fell with the lapping of waves, suggesting some distant tunnel entrance to the sea.
What Ava took to be a single massive chamber was soon revealed to be a series of smaller rooms clustered around the large central lagoon.
The wug with her led her past these chambers and she saw strange visions of wug domesticity. The slimy amphibians were making their nests in alcoves, lighting fires to cook fish, and conversing in croaks and murmurs.
"Wow, there sure are a lot of you guys," Ava said as they passed the twentieth or so little wug nest. "Do elves or humans come down here much?"
The wug leading her croaked and waved to a large door just ahead. This one was guarded by wugs who exchanged several croaks with her guide. This new wug stepped forward and looked Ava over. She distinctly heard it says something like, "Rorrupa."
"Hey! I know what that means!" Ava said. "That’s my nickname. It means ’she of fertile milk bags,’ right?"
Ava looked down at her breasts in her lowcut blouse. She hung their weight against her palms, lifting them and holding them forward for the wug to inspect.
"See? They’re big!"
"Rrrraaaoooarrk?" The wug’s throat inflated and its abdomen turned pink. Her guide looked at her and did the same.
Ava beamed and moved her hands. "Anyway, I was really hoping to get some answers about..."
But the wugs weren’t listening. They both turned to the big door and worked together to swing open its creaking weight. The sour aroma became much stronger, and so did the sounds of moaning. The beat of drums grew with them, thumping from the dark beyond.
"What’s in here?" she asked. Receiving only wide-eyed blinks for an answer, she stepped forward and her guide hopped past her, leading the way into a corridor lit by more pools of algae.
The smooth walls here were also decorated with several crude but very elaborate reliefs. These seemed to depict wug rituals.
Most of them seemed to be worship of a voluptuous human female, but some clearly depicted wugs mating with her, and unless Ava was mistaken, some even showed the human seeming to lay eggs.
"Um, that’s what’s happening in here?" Ava asked, running her fingers over the artwork to feel its ridges.
The wug croaked again and motioned for her to follow. He seemed to be growing excited and Ava soon saw why.
They entered a chamber where several human women were relaxing on plush bedding of woven seaweed.
Ava counted seven at a glance, all of whom wore loincloths of clean white cloth that left their breasts bare. The women seemed at ease; smiling, talking or, even dozing.
Their breasts were enormously engorged with milk. Nipples thick and erect. Some seemed slightly raw. Two of the women were obviously pregnant, but all seemed to be lactating.
"Oh... oh my," Ava breathed. She took a stumbling step, amazed at the sight and seeming calmness of the women.