Minx Ep. 01: Interstellar Bounty Hunter

She took his paw in her hand and led him down to the kitchen, carrying his clothes against her chest. Once in the kitchen, Minx pulled up a single stool and motioned for him to sit on it. She then leapt up to sit in his lap. Uncovering the plate of food, she picked out a morsel and offered it to him, allowing him to nibble it from her fingers. She then leaned against his chest as his arms went around her. One paw gently caressed her bottom and legs, every once in awhile giving a playful tug on her tail. His other paw lay on one of her breasts. They ate in silence, with her picking up the food with her fingers and placing it in whoever's mouth was ready. Sometimes Rudy gently sucked her fingers before she could pull them away.

Once they were finished with their slow meal, Minx slipped off his lap and took a look in the tavern and bar to make sure no-one was there. By the time she returned Rudy had dressed and her heart sank a little to realize her time with the tiger-man was ending. They silently walked into the bar and then passed outside, through the swinging saloon doors.

Rudy peered cautiously both up and down the street and then relaxed a little. The moon and stars illuminated just enough to see the shapes of buildings all around them.

"Is it really so dangerous for someone like you to be out alone at night?"

"Don't be naive, Minx. I was dealing with Horn the minotaur and he may decide to double-cross me at some point. Besides, there are those who realize that kidnapping a cat-girl, for whatever end, would have few repercussions."

"I wouldn't scream or fight if you kidnapped me, no matter for what end you intended." She melted into his chest. He lifted her chin and they kissed again.

"I have to go. My friends will be waiting for me." He grabbed her shoulders and looked into her eyes. "I will be back for you, count on it. And I'll bring enough to buy you twice over. But for now, do your job as you're supposed to. I won't be jealous. Now, get back inside so I know you're safe."

Minx backed through the saloon doors and watched from the darkness of the bar as he walked out into the street. Tears ran down her cheeks. "Damn," she swore, "this hunt is so screwed up!" She went up to her room and cried herself to sleep.

XII

Rarvey was given 100 silver coins by one of Rudy's friends the next morning. He treated Minx with kid gloves for the rest of the day. She still waited tables and went to bed exhausted though, for if she had slacked off she would have felt bad for the other cat-girls working in the bar. At the end of the night the rat-man had stared at her curiously.

The following day, Rarvey called Minx into his office well before her shift began. Fran, Nip and Dot looked fearful, but Minx had no opportunity to discuss Rarvey's summons before she answered it.

Once in his dingy office, Minx stood before his desk looking down on her owner. "Yes, Rarvey?"

"Have I been good to you? Don't I treat my cat-girls well?"

"Uhm, yes?"

"Then why must you be so cruel to me?" Rarvey rose to his feet. He was leaning forward with his fists on his desk. Minx could not deduce what the rat-man was upset about. Seeing her confusion he decided to elaborate. "You stupid, slutty cat-girl! What did you do to Rudy?"

"Rudy? We went up to my room and we made lo...we had sex. We...he had a good time. Later he left. He sent one of his friends over with payment. What's wrong? Has something happened to him?"

"What's wrong with him is that he only wanted to spend one night with you before he headed back home. Are you a lousy fuck? Why didn't he want you for two or three nights in a row before he left town?"

Ah, now things began to make some sense, she thought. Rudy had to return home to get his business arrangements with Horn the minotaur sorted out. She knew that Rarvey had seen Rudy besotted with her and couldn't figure out why he only wanted to spend one night with a cat-girl he was obviously lusting after. "Rarvey, he will come back. Rudy told me he'd just completed a business agreement and he probably needed to get home to sort it all out. He will be back to see me."

Rarvey became furious. He walked around his desk and Minx took a couple of steps away from him. "He'll be back to see some stupid cat-girl, who wasn't good enough the first time to be worth a second ride?" He rushed at her with his arms out and she backed up against the wall.

"Rarvey calm down! Please!"

Rarvey slapped her hard across the face. "That's for being so stupid." He slapped her again on the other cheek. "That's for thinking men want anything from you except a good fuck." He slapped her again on the first cheek. "That's for thinking anyone wants you to enjoy the fuck."

He backed away from her, still furious. Minx sobbed quietly. "I don't know what's wrong with you. Look at how mad you've made me. Did I waste those 500 silver coins when I bought you? Rudy's probably telling everyone he knows that Rarvey's cat-girls are lousy fucks. I'll be ruined!" He threw his hands into the air in dismay.

"Rarvey..."

The rat-man whirled on her. "I know, I'll test you out myself. See how bad you are. Maybe you just need some additional training with one of the other cat-girls. If you're too bad, then I can sell you off to a breeder or slave farm and cut my losses."

"Rarvey!" There was venom in Minx's voice. "You are not going to rape me."

"Rape you?" He slapped her again, but with such strength that Minx collapsed to the floor. "There's no such thing as rape when it's a cat-girl. Every cat-girl wants it practically all the time. Everyone knows that. Is that the problem? You're a cat-girl who...doesn't want to fuck? Oh, Morovan! If that's the case then it's straight off to the slave farm for you."

Ship said, "Say the magic word and I swoop in, extricate you and kill 'em all."

"No." Minx slowly stood. "There is nothing wrong with me, Rarvey. Rudy is coming back for me. And you are not going to rape me!"

Rarvey grabbed Minx by the waist and turned her away from him. He brought her over to the desk and roughly pushed her down onto it. He kicked her legs apart. Minx started silently crying and grabbed either end of the desk and held on tightly, readying herself to fight back against the rat-man any way she could.

There was a thump in the kitchen and the sound of glass smashing.

Rarvey swore and then his shoulders drooped in resignation.

"I'm too easy on you stupid cat-girls. Go into the kitchen and get something cold on your face so it doesn't bruise. Take a couple of hours off to think about what you've done and then come down to work the bar. I'll explain everything to Fran, Dot and Nip. Send them in to my office."

Minx left quickly and, once in the kitchen, she told the three cat-girls to report to Rarvey. Fran looked at her sympathetically.

"Was he mad about your problem?"

It took Minx a couple of seconds to remember what Fran was talking about. "You mean that I'm not horny all the time?"

All of the other cat-girls gasped. "Yes, dear. He found out and was mad wasn't he?" Minx nodded. Fran, Dot and Nip left. The other cat-girls, still eating, avoided making eye contact with Minx. She found some freezing water, put it into a glass bottle and then fled upstairs to her room, where she lay on her bed and cried.

This mission had gone from complicated to potentially very dangerous.

XIII

Fran petted Minx's back as the bounty hunter sobbed into her pillow. "There, there. I understand. He hit you didn't he?"

"Several times and then he was going to rape me!" sobbed Minx.

"What does that mean?" asked Fran, perplexed.

Minx pushed herself up, kneeled on her bed and stared at Fran. "You really don't know, do you?" Fran shook her head. "Oh, you're all so innocent! You fuck anything male, but you're all so innocent!"

Fran tried to change the conversation to something she understood. "Minx, I brought some cream that will cover the redness on your face. You kept the cold water on your cheeks to keep down the swelling, but I don't know if there will be any bruising. You have so little fur covering you..." She began rubbing the ointment on to Minx's cheeks. She tried to be as gentle as she could, but any touch made Minx wince.

"Fran, what do you call it when a male forces himself on you?" Minx asked delicately.

"Why would a male have to force himself on me, honey?"

Ship said, "They were made to be sexual playthings, Minx. She'll never understand what you're trying to explain to her. Morovan programmed them well."

Minx thought for a few seconds. "Fran, have you ever been interested in one male but you were pushed into having sex with a different one?"

Fran suddenly dropped both of her hands from Minx's face. "Yes," she said in a quiet voice.

"Wouldn't you rather have the male that you chose?"

"I'm a cat-girl. Rarvey owns me. He makes the decisions." Fran looked at the picture of the skunk-man on the wall.

Minx thought she heard a trace of bitterness in Fran's voice. "I want to make my own decisions, Fran."

She turned back to Minx in shock. "You're a cat-girl! Whoever heard of such nonsense?"

"There are places where a female...any female can say no to a man."

Fran dropped the cream and covered her face in embarrassment. "No cat-girl could live in such a place!" But the look on Fran's face was one of curiosity, not shock.

"I didn't want to have sex with Rarvey, but he was going to take me anyway. That's rape. Even for a cat-girl." Minx took a deep breath and then stood up. She balled her fists and silently swore that if Rarvey tried to force himself on her, or any of the cat-girls, then Minx would break every bone in his body. She had held back earlier, but she wouldn't again. "You came up here to retrieve me and it's not fair to Dot and Nip that they work the bar alone for this long."

Fran stood up as well and then seemingly on impulse reached out and grabbed Minx's hand. She caressed it with her own hands for a few seconds while staring into Minx's eyes. "You have such strange ideas, Minx. I've never met another cat-girl like you before. I hope you and Rudy will be happy together." Fran's eyes teared up.

A sudden thought occurred to Minx. "Oh. He's the man you wanted."

The striped cat-girl nodded. "But, he never wanted me. He always saw me as just another cat-girl, pretty much as useful or useless as any other. You stood out and caught his attention because you're so different."

"I'm so sorry, Fran." Minx threw her arms around the cat-girl and they hugged each other tightly. Minx felt tears falling onto her shoulder. "Maybe Rudy has a twin brother?"

They separated, giggling.

Fran stopped giggling and became very serious. "Minx, I'm very fond of you." She stepped close to Minx and kissed her tenderly on the mouth. Wrapping her arms around the bounty hunter, she slipped one hand down to Minx's butt, where it gently felt over the contours. Minx could feel Fran's nipples getting hard and broke the kiss as gently as she could.

"Fran, you're bisexual."

"What's that?"

"It means you like to have sex with both males or females."

"Hm. I definitely prefer males. You're the first female I've met that I'd like to cuddle up in bed with. How do you know all these strange words, Minx? Next you'll tell me that you can read or something."

Minx put her arm around Fran's shoulder and the two began to head back to the bar. "Actually, Fran, I've read many books." Fran's look of astonishment hurt Minx a little, but the thoughtful look on Fran's face just before they went in to the bar warmed her heart.

Ship said, "If she is innocent of good and evil and you've just tempted her with the fruit of the tree of knowledge, then that makes you the serpent in the garden, does it not?" Minx didn't think that was necessarily a bad thing, at least not this time.

Once in the bar they got back to work. Rarvey gave both of them a dirty look, apparently resenting how long it took Fran to bring Minx down from her room. The night progressed with the usual fondling by the customers, but Minx noticed that her friend was not quite as enthusiastic about the handling as she usually was.

Shortly before midnight the bar went silent. Minx looked around and saw that a group had come through the saloon doors. They were a tough looking group and their leader was a minotaur! Rudy had been correct, she thought, the massive minotaur was easily at least seven feet tall.

Minx was at the far end of the room and was able to watch as the minotaur walked up to a table full of patrons and ordered them to leave. The two horse-men and the porcupine man did so quickly and silently. The minotaur gave Rarvey a dirty look.

"Nip! Dot! Get over there and clean that table right away!" called out Rarvey. The minotaur nodded and sat down at the table.

As the two cat-girls cleaned the table of mugs and wiped it down, the minotaur's companions felt them up as much as they could. Minx's skin crawled. It wasn't the playful pawing or fondling that most of the patrons did, it was a bold 'where can we stick our fingers' and 'how will she react to this' type handling.

She knew she had to get over there to see if this minotaur was really Frag Thorn. As the minotaur was even larger than Rudy, Minx also realized that she had to be very careful. She would be helpless in his grasp should he decide to hurt her.

Fran rushed over to take orders, standing a little distance from the table. Minx glanced at Fran curiously and realized she had never seen Fran stay out of arm's reach before. Minx also noticed it was Dot and Nip who took the orders over and again the two cat-girls were handled invasively, although both appeared to enjoy the rough handling.

Suddenly, there was a thunderous roar outside that seemed to pass from one side of the sky to the other. Everyone in the bar went quiet. Minx watched the minotaur and, sure enough, he walked to the saloon doors and looked into the black sky. Minx knew that the minotaur had recognized the sound as a flying vessel of some type, just as she had. He had to be Frag Thorn! The minotaur returned to his table and looked nervous.

Minx continued working but had two serious concerns, now. The first was how to get the minotaur alone and render him helpless so she could get him aboard Ship, take him back to civilization and claim the bounty. The second was who had been in that spaceship that flew by so low? If it was another bounty hunter then he or she would be starting from square one, so Minx had a big advantage. If it wasn't a bounty hunter then who else would come to this backwater planet forgotten by all the civilized worlds?

Minx was able to slowly work her way around the room until she was only a table away from the minotaur and his gang. Fran suddenly stepped in her way. "Stay away from them, they're vicious," she whispered protectively to Minx.

Minx ignored Fran's warning. She had an extra drink left on her tray. She walked over beside the minotaur. She leaned over his arm, brushing it with her swaying breasts and put the mug in front of him.

The minotaur started and then took a look at Minx and began laughing. Once he started laughing, so did his friends. "I didn't order this drink, slut."

"I always make sure big men like you get what they need," Minx purred.

The minotaur reached out and grabbed one of her breasts. He squeezed hard, causing her to cry out in pain. His men laughed as he continued squeezing.

"Look at this! No milk at all. Can you believe that her tits are this big and she's got no milk at all? And it feels both soft and firm." He released her breast and grabbed her by the throat. "Slut, I am having a party in a couple of days and Rarvey's going to send you. I'll fill your womb and your stomach with cum and when I'm done each of my men will get a turn on you. You'd like that wouldn't you?"

Minx struggled to breathe. The minotaur loosened his grip a little and she gulped in air. "Yes, sir. I'd like that a lot." Her skin crawled. "You could test me out tonight in my room."

"I'll do that, slut. Come and get me when the bar closes." He let go of her throat. Minx grabbed her neck and began massaging it. She turned to walk away and felt the minotaur's large hand slap her across her bottom. She yelped in pain and ran a few steps. The minotaur and his cronies were laughing again.

Fran came over to Minx and grabbed her by the arms. "What on Anima were you thinking? You'll be lucky to get away from that one with just a broken arm. He likes to hurt cat-girls when he takes them!"

"Fran, I'm not what you think I am. Don't tell Rarvey, but I'll be leaving soon. I wanted to say thank you for being a good friend. And although I only like men, I regret not getting the chance to cuddle you."

"You're running away?" asked the cat-girl in a whisper. "When they catch you you'll be punished! Just put up with everything and in a few years you'll be able to buy your freedom, Minx. Or maybe a nice guy will like you enough to purchase you from Rarvey."

"Girls! Back to work!" shouted Rarvey, from across the room.

"Trust me, Fran. I'm really not what I appear to be," explained the bounty hunter.

Fran gave her a look of disbelief. "I hope you know what you're doing, Minx." Then Fran walked away while shaking her head. Minx now knew exactly what she was doing. Her skin was still buzzing from the inside out. The subcutaneous sensor had worked.

The bounty hunter refrained from smiling as she avoided the minotaur's table for the rest of the night. Dot and Nip seemed only too happy with the attention of the minotaur's men. Shortly before closing, Minx convinced Rarvey that she had to get something from the kitchen for one of the patrons. He gave her permission to leave temporarily. She went into the kitchen and grabbed some dinner rolls and a heavy iron skillet. She snuck upstairs and dropped the skillet off in her room under the sheets and then she returned to the bar. She went over to one of the regular patrons, an elderly dog-man, and set the dinner rolls in front of him.

"Here," she whispered. "You've been a very patient and polite customer and this is just my way of saying thank you. Please don't tell Rarvey: I'll get in trouble if he finds out I took them from the kitchen."

The dog-man blinked at Minx and then reached out and patted one of her hands. "Don't worry, dear. I'll tell Rarvey I asked you to bring them, if he asks. You know, if I were a few years younger I'd ask you upstairs after the bar closes."

Minx winked at him and moved on to the next customer. She had located her target, had a plan to incapacitate him, and because of this she now had a bounce in her step.

She was busy taking an order when everyone at the bar went silent again. What now, Minx thought? She turned around and looked towards the saloon doors.

Surveying everyone inside the bar was a very handsome human, wearing a black uniform that covered him from his throat to his boots. He was tall, clean shaven and had deep, penetrating eyes. He shifted slightly and Minx saw his outfit was form-fitting, showing off his broad shoulders and athletic build. She found the silver trim and medals eye-catching against the absolute blackness of the cloth. There was a holstered laser pistol at his belt.

His mouth smiled at everyone in the bar, while the rest of his face seemed inhumanly cold. Minx thought that he was one of the most attractive men she had ever laid her eyes upon; it was the first time she had ever met someone of such charisma or presence. She licked her lips as she gazed at him. Shaking her head, she wondered why she had just licked her lips.

The man raised both his arms in salutation. He spoke in a clear and masculine voice that was used to commanding others. "Attention! Attention! I mean no harm to anyone here. I'm looking for the off-worlder hiding among you. I found his ship just west of town and as soon as I find him I'll be on my way."