"A Kingdom Of Love" - читать интересную книгу автора (Richards Charles)

Chapter 5

It was several weeks later in the course of the summer that Joan nearly lost her life. She was feeding two of the lions, Andy and Mae, when she did a very foolish thing.

The two lions were the most tame of the big cats. And because Myrna was a very careful taskmaster she had insisted that Joan learn every aspect of circus life slowly and surely. She taught Joan to feed the lions with a watchful respect; for the first four days she instructed Joan to use a long pole with a hook on the end to shove the slabs of beef between the bars of the cage towards the two hungry lions.

Gradually, as Myrna recognized that the lions were coming to respect Joan themselves and that Joan in her turn was gaining confidence in handling them, she allowed Joan to dispense with the long pole. For a week, she carefully taught the young girl how to use the short training whip, making it snap directions at the lions but at the same time never touching them with its painful sting. During this time, Myrna showed Joan how to keep the lions at a distance while she placed the raw meat before them and allowed them to eat only on her command.

Myrna's patient teaching and at the same time grueling insistence on maintaining the same, careful procedures for dealing with the lions had enabled Joan to become a great help to Myrna in the circus ring.

Myrna's lion taming act was simplicity itself. A pasteboard library front stood at the back of the large, barred performing cage in the middle of the main ring. Andy and Mae, the two biggest of the cats, would come snarling into the cage and Joan would use Myrna's whip to direct them up onto the stands at the sides of the library doors. The two lions then sat still as the bronze statues they were supposed to represent until Myrna entered the cage in a silver flash of her metal studded leather costume. As the lions yawned in trained boredom Myrna stuck her head into their mouths and, with the care of a dentist, inspected their gums and teeth. This oral daring was the signal for the library doors to open and allow six more large cats of various exotic species to come roaring into the performance.

Myrna then jumped them all through hoops and over jungle gyms while Joan learned to hold the hoops and arrange the stands and, perhaps most important, to keep a firm eye on the cats that were not going through their paces with Myrna in the center of the cage. In this way, Myrna was able to add more animals to her act and to include a daring leap of three tigers through a burning hoop.

Joan was well aware of Myrna's gratitude for the expansion of her act in the ring (as well as out of the ring with Clyde!); and therefore, she resented the older woman's continued insistence on mundane details and what Joan now considered menial tasks in her training.

This insistence truly rankled the impatient girl's pride, and by the start of the second week when there still seemed to be no change, Joan had decided to take matters into her own hands.

Instead of feeding the lions in their respective lairs, she would let them both loose into the smaller performing cage that was used for training. She would feed them a trick of her own. She resolved to surprise Myrna into complete respect for her. And since Andy and Mae were the mainstays of Myrna's act, they were therefore the most dependable; Joan simply allowed her eagerness to overcome her good judgment. She was sure she could handle any situation that might arise.

So, with an excited, almost childish, word of caution to herself she set out eagerly this afternoon from her rooming compartment for her usual chore of feeding Andy and Mae.

The walk across the circus grounds usually took her about ten minutes, and she smiled confidently to herself as she decided to go over in her mind the personalities of the two lions and how she would handle them.

She thought first of the older lion, Mae.

'Mae' was Myrna's solution to the problem of naming an old trouper that had formerly been called 'Mack'-until another lion had ripped out his intestines in a fight. After saving his life the vet had assured Myrna she could still use him in the act, if he were neutered. They were sure that by neutering the beast they would keep him from nurturing any grievances against the young lion who had beaten him. So, Mack became Mae.

Second, there was Andy. He was a young male in his prime with a full pride of mane that surrounded his handsome face arrogantly. Andy was a friendly rogue who, unlike Mae, genuinely liked people. Joan had fallen in love with him immediately. Now, she told herself that he would probably give her less trouble, if she watched out for this massive playful paws, than Mae. She would just have to make sure that the older lion had enough raw meat to make him agreeable to learning a new trick.

It was really too bad that one had to be an amateur psychologist on top of being a true animal lover in order to teach a lion a simple trick.

Joan's mind wandered over the problem as she pictured Andy's sweet noble face. The lion held a curiously sensual resemblance to Justice and Joan felt the comparison enriched them both.

The thought of Justice brought a tingle to her loins and she remembered that night when she had been with Justice and Myrna and the pony, to say nothing of Oliver and the ewe. That had not been the only time of blissfully frenzied sex. There had been many more wonderfully full nights of Justice as they filled her tiny compartment with him on his back and Joan's cock-loving mouth sucking him off. Or times with the pony-without Myrna-when just she and the steel grey horse had fucked for hours.

The summer had been like a roman holiday so far for Joan; everything had been so good so far. Except for the fact that her room had no key, and she had to go in and out of the minuscule train window. That was a bore.

When she bad found Justice the morning after her first wild night, she had asked him if he still had her key. However, he could not remember picking it up. Something in his face made Joan doubt that he was really telling her the truth, but she accepted his words as part of her fate and climbed in and out of the train window without another word.

The only visitor she would entertain was Justice and she kept even Myrna from knowing of the missing key and the foolish consequences of its loss. When Justice asked her why she did not question more people about the key, she said she would rather not discuss it and that she wished to keep the missing key a secret-just because she wanted it that way.

Joan was becoming a trifle bored having to enter and leave her tiny compartment through the even tinier window. Fortunately however for her, the elephants were washed nearby, and after making a friend with their keeper and with several of the elephants, she took a chance on bucking circus protocol. With a careful dispensation of peanuts, she trained a young female elephant to place a long and heavy ladder near the cat window. Joan had explained to Myrna that sometimes claustrophobia due to the compartment got to her and she needed to get out of it the fastest possible way. Myrna did not question the motives of the ladder any further.

Neither did Joan's neighbors in that section of the circus grounds that Joan and the crew came to call 'Amateurs Ark.' On one side of her was Lawrence, the apprentice sword swallower. He could manipulate the cords of his neck in such a way as to strut like a turkey within a circling crowd and lower a double-edged sword down his throat at the same time.

On the other side of her compartment was Gloria, a blind girl who was training for one of the side shows. She was a genuine seer or psychic prophet, if you will, who still spent all her time with a crystal ball.

She claimed she did not need it but the customers always seemed to demand a prop. Rather than exploit the world with her talent, she had chosen to just get along. So, she had joined the exciting but quite anonymous life of the circus.

Joan mused what a truly amazing person Gloria was to know. She did not really have enough time to spend with the blind girl and she regretted it, since Gloria was as beautiful in the flesh as she was spiritually.

And besides, Joan thought ironically, I'd like to fuck her.

As she reached the tent Joan heard a lion cough and moan, and she knew Andy had sensed that she was coming.

The sides of the tent had been raised and the late afternoon sun had slanted corridors of light rays filtering through the dusty air. As always the mixed smell of the animals overcame her as she entered the tent. Joan had fallen into a regretful mood as she passed through the square of cages toward the training ring. She did not really have enough time for many things. The other animals, for instance. They passed her by without notice and she felt it was because Myrna would not let up on the dull routine of only allowing her a few responsibilities.

But, Joan knew it was important to form good work habits around something so dangerous as lions-so Myrna was probably right. Joan would just have to cut down on her sex life a little. After all, every night was a bit much.

Andy coughed again, and this time Mae joined in with him. Joan heard the crack of impatience creep into the beasts' moans as she drew near their dens. She had nearly an hour before Myrna would arrive to feed the other cats, so there was plenty of time.

Andy was already on his feet and stretching himself with anticipation when Joan arrived. Mae on the other hand lay diffidently with his face pressed against the cage bars, regarding her with a resigned face. She raised his cage door first on an impulse and while waiting for him to act she talked to Andy.

"How ya doing, guy? Bet the big fella's hungry. But first the trick…

That is, if Mae would just once act like Mack again."

The older lion still had not moved and Joan knew with exasperation that she would have to use the whip. She let Andy out then and to her surprise Mae followed. Will I never learn? Joan thought. Mae no longer cares and just does what Andy's doing, stupid girl.

Joan went to the huge refrigerated trailer that served as one wall of the tent. She slipped an apron over her head and hefted two hind quarters of beef off the hooks and onto a cart, then wheeled the meat back to the ring.

"You guys are hungry, aren't you?" she said when the lions growled their approval at the scent of the meat.

She took the training whip from where it hung near the cage door and entered assertively. Back Mae! Andy back! Her mind chanted while the whip sang out the confidence of her orders.

It was so simple. If you wanted to voice a command you called the beast's attention to you with the pop of the whiptip near his ear.

Otherwise, you just randomly let him know it was there. Whipspeak, Myrna called it.

The handle of the whip felt big in Joan's hand. She glanced at the carved penis tip of the upside-down ivory dildo. Myrna had frigged herself with this the first night with Clyde. Joan smiled at the remembrance; then, out of the corner of her eye she saw Andy approaching fast.

Pop, crack! "Andy back!" Joan regained control of the situation.

Concentrate girl, she told herself. These animals are lions.

As if to reinforce the thought Andy roared his majesty and Mae chimed in. God, what an awful sound their voices made: like a waterfall of bloody roars.

Joan cracked the whip to wipe the snarls off their faces and commanded them to their stands. She wanted to teach Mae to heel, after she had taught Andy to bring her a leash and collar. She was not having much success. Perhaps, her conception of the trick was somehow flawed.

She had tried for nearly a week to get Andy to come to her on call. He would approach her, all right, just out of his good nature and curiosity-but not when she called. If she let it happen, just relaxed the whipped reminders a little and held Mae off, Andy would stroll coolly right up to her.

Once, she had even let Andy rub himself against her while Mae roared his displeasure at the affront. That could be it. For the trick she could let Andy come up to her… and what? Wrestle with him? Well, then how could she use the whip to control Mae? Couldn't be done.

Suddenly Joan had an inspiration. What if she let Mae eat while she played with Andy? How about that? What would she use in an act to distract Mae, though? Well, that could be worked out later. But first she would have to try it. And there was no time like the present.

With several emphatic cracks of the whip, Joan commanded the animals to remain still. Then she hurriedly brought one beef leg into the cage and placed it on the steps between the pair.

While she backed off, she considered what this placement would arouse in the beasts. She knew she could keep Andy from taking the meat simply by popping the whip in his face. She had tried it once. But right after she had tried it, she had fed him. What she hoped would happen this time, however, was that Andy would approach her while Mae ate. And she hoped he would also remember his affection for people.

She held Andy off with the whip snaps while Mae took the hindquarter of meat and sulked off to one side of the cage. Then, instead of feeding Andy as she normally would have, she stopped the whip pops and watched him very carefully.

When she did not move, Andy eyed her with curiosity and roared a question to the air.

Joan answered with a whip pop beside his ear and said commandingly,

"Andy, come." One hand gestured stiffly before her pointing at the spot.

The lion grew restless on the stand and dismounted with a cat-quick spring. He prowled once back and forth before his place and then eyed Joan when a whip snap did not come.

"Andy, come!"

The big cat roared and flexed his tawny muscles beneath his golden coat. Like a St. Bernard, Joan thought and wondered why she always compared cats with dogs.

"Andy, come!" She snapped the whip at his hindquarters to let him know which way not to go. He roared his displeasure again and resumed his prowl in a circle to her left. Away from Mae, Joan thought, that's good. She let him amble, then saw that his path would take him to the meat where it lay just outside the cage.

Stupid girl! He can reach it with his paws and then if he drags it in and eats it before the door-why, you're caught between with no where to go. Suddenly she wished Myrna were there.

She cracked the whip tip just above his nose. He stopped and roared.

She popped it again, this time thinking only to get him moving the other way so that she could get out. Again she cracked the whip. Then Andy did a curious thing. He quieted suddenly and eyed her slowly as he turned her way. My God! Joan thought, is he going to eat me? And terrified, she froze.

The big cat sensed her fear and roared mightily to imbed the terror within her. Take command! Take command! Joan's mind screamed frantically inside her prison. But her body did not heed. She attempted to instruct her frozen nerves to obey by concentrating and commanding her hand to move. She was successful; but as she breathed the first relief from the stricken moment, her hand relaxed completely and she dropped the whip!.

Andy saw and roared again, then started to move in her direction. There was no time to stoop and retrieve the weapon so the foolish girl was defenseless before the beast. What could she do?

As if mesmerized with fear Joan started toward the lion.

"Good boy, Andy. Easy does it, big fella. Easy. Easy," she cooed.

Andy's ferocious growling changed timbre at the sound of her voice and he paused and moaned his indecision. Joan was moving toward him instead of away. If she was game to be brought down with a charge, she would run. But instead she had approached him with an outstretched hand. His curiosity was piqued.

Joan watched his switching tail closely. She knew that if it went rigid the lion would charge. It was moving in a lazy whip behind him: its bushy top kicking little dirt puffs up as he swished it to-and-fro.

But what would she do when she reached him? She was nearly there so she had better make up her mind.

The huge golden cat moaned as Joan drew near but made no move toward her. His tail frothed the dirt and Joan audibly breathed a sigh of relief when she was sure that he was going to remain friendly.

"Oh Andy, you're such a good cat," she said affectionately and knelt before the big creature to embrace his proud neck. Myrna has certainly taught him well, she thought, as she buried her face in his bushy mane.

Behind her she could hear Mae tearing great chunks from the beef hindquarter as his huge fangs rent the bloody meat into shreds. Andy growled and she heard the sound rumble up out of his mighty chest like the first of an earthquake's roar. God, but the depth of it is enormous, she thought and smelled the primitive nature of his being. It was as if she were inhaling centuries of the lion's heritage, so strong was the beast's smell as she embraced him. But the odor was like perfume to the girl.

Her mind reeled in its fantasy. Before she was fully aware of how it had occurred, her thoughts turned to sex. Could she get the lion to fuck her? The thought sent chills goosepimpling up her spine. Fuck a lion? That would be some act!

The beast roared again and the immensity of the noise deafened the girl. He was restless in her grasp and moved suddenly, surprising Joan off balance so that she fell onto her back. Playfully Andy batted her with his paw on her shoulder and sent her rolling over onto her face.

Thank God his claws weren't extended, Joan thought as she lay still, wondering what to do. Her shoulder began to throb and cautiously she moved her head to see if there was any blood. No damage-but what was Andy doing now? She had to risk a look. With the same fearful caution, she turned her head back toward him. He was staring at Mae. The food.

Would he forget her? She lay completely still and held her breath.

Where was Myrna anyway? Why couldn't she be early for once? Joan wished frantically as her mind cast about for some escape from the dilemma in which the sound herself. Myrna, help! She called silently as she watched the beast gaze across the ring at Mae. He roared again, this time with challenge in his voice and the girl trembled at the sound.

The lion saw her motion and returned his gaze to Joan. Almost as if urging her to move again the lion slapped his huge paw across the girl's buttocks and Joan heard the leather pants rip. Cool air suddenly surrounded her ass. She rolled away from the lion just as he swiped again. This time his claws glazed her hip with thin lines of blood while the front of her pants were ripped away to the knees.

Suddenly Joan was naked from the knees up and her eyes watched fascinated as three pencil lines of blood welled out of the scratches on her white flesh. The shreds of her leather pants wound round her lower legs and now held her as if she were bound by them to the lion.

But to Joan there was something magnificently sensual in spite of the danger. And absurdly her mind wished through the fear for the cat to scent her sex instead of her blood. Andy paused in his playful swipes-it was as if somehow the big cat sensed the thought. Joan watched his eyes change from playful to lusty. She hoped it was not a blood lust as he roared once more with a sound that was even more savage than before.

Joan was chilled to her bone marrow as the lion looked down on her.

When he lowered his head toward her naked abdomen, she was caught in indecision between terror and a fantastical lust.

His large rough tongue came out and licked from the top of her crotch up her belly. Then his wet nose prodded her thighs apart, and his hot wet tongue licked the lips of her pungent box.

Joan's terror gave way finally and supremely to passion. She was experiencing the intimate in a bestial act that was completely beyond her control except for the power of giving herself up to lust. She no longer feared any motion Andy might make, but rather, welcomed it.

As a lion's purr of pleasure rattled in Andy's throat, he settled down on his haunches with his magnificent head between Joan's legs.

Unmindfully, she extracted her legs from beneath his forepaws and threw them around the beast's neck. She could feel the huge, awful muscles rippling beneath the soft long fur of his neck. She tensed her thighs as the rippling sent tingles of lustful joy charging up her body.

They were met at the tip of her clit as it pulsed beneath the rough cat tongue. One of Andy's licks took care of her whole snatch-from the slurping roughness on the taut skin of her asshole, up the tender sponginess of her aching vagina, wagging wet and strong on the soft, tingling lips of her vulva, and finally flicking her helpless cut again with a rough erotic strength that Joan had never before experienced with any other creature: neither human, nor reptile, nor beast.

She moaned in ecstasy and reached down to stroke Andy's cold nose. The lion continued his velvet purring and licking, only closing his eyes as her impassioned hands mindlessly caressed his huge soft face.

The thought flitted across her mind that she wished she could stroke the lion's balls and suck the spear point of his savage cock. She saw in her mind the cock of an alley cat: the tiny pink prick had always reminded her of her own clitoris and the connection kept her in a constant state of erotic excitation whenever she wore her leopard leotards.

Now, she smiled blissfully as she thought of Andy's prick and how the licking, slurping, sucking he was giving her had made her vibrating clit feel as though it must be just as big as a lion's cock.

Still frustrated by her wishes, but yet almost frenzied by sexual surfeit, she wailed softly in gasping, heated whimpers as her hands left Andy's face and brushed over her hips and belly. Her fingernails glazed the drying blood of the lion's scratches and the slight pain sent new chills coursing through her loins and brain at the same time.

Her hands caught at her breasts and began pinching and palming the pouting swollen nipples. As she mauled her own breasts, her head lolled from side to side and beads of salty perspiration ran down her forehead and temples, dripping into her eyes and catching on her gasping, parched tongue. Her hair massed in sweaty curls around her face as her whimpering breath became yet more frenetic. And still, the rough softness of the lion's tonguing kept up in a steady driving rhythm. He maintained the rhythmic licks, forcing the girl beyond the possibility of climax.

Her erotic capacity was so filled past overflowing that her body had no outlet but to go numb. Wailing with the unrelenting orgasms, she spasmed and her body shivered and trembled into an unconscious catastrophic climax. She fainted suddenly, although her body took a long time after that to relax. And Andy kept up his slow contented licking, tasting the musky sweetness of her cum as it spilled over his soft muzzle.

It was nearly dark and the dusk light, full of tension when Joan woke.

The changes in the light told her immediately that some time had gone by without her knowledge.

She heard a tense heave by her side and looked up at the shadowed form of the giant lion as he prepared to charge. But he was not paying the girl the slightest mind.

He stood facing where she surmised Mae had to be; his tail swished more slowly with the passage of time. She could feel him ready himself-it was as if she were part of him somehow. The dynamic energy that flowed from the savage beast infected Joan with something primitive and demanding which beat in her heart. Then she felt the air chill on something wet at her crotch and she started to move her hand to feel what it might be.

"Don't move, Joan!" The voice was a whispered hiss and instinctively the girl obeyed.

"There's going to be a fight. Come to the door as soon as Andy charges." Joan recognized Myrna's voice and her eyes strained to see the woman.

"Freeze," hissed Myrna.

And at that moment Andy's tail stiffened. Joan heard a gurgling roar deep in his throat just as he charged.

"Move!!" Myrna screamed at Joan.

But the girl's muscles were frozen. "Move!" screamed Myrna again at the top of her lungs but the sound was nearly drowned out by the impact of the lions' meeting. There had been something terribly human in Andy's roar but now the sounds from the fighting cats were horribly bestial.

"For God's sake get up, Joan!" Myrna's voice was terror stricken just as the girl finally began to move.

In Myrna's eyes, the youngster seemed to be caught moving in slow motion. Myrna had seen big cats fight before and had experienced then the same perception. It was as if the animals fought with such energy that everything about them slowed down to compensate.

Joan was nearly to her feet now arid the snarling massive cats were locked together in the center ring. But, should any of the titanic blows that were being thrown in the fight connect and should that blow be pointed in the girl's direction, the fight would suddenly center around her too rapidly to describe. It was the essence of power that was being so rawly exposed. Nothing else alive could match that demonstration in its ferocity. Myrna could hear from a far distance through her mind the shouts of other hearing the battle, but their tiny voices were far, far away.

The girl was on her feet now and moving toward the door. "Thank God," breathed Myrna and then held her breath.

She found it impossible to distinguish which lion was which in the furious fight. Swift as whips, cat paws clawed in and out of the wheeling golden ball and snapped audibly through the air on furred skin. The force of the blows seemed volcanic. The mad power erupting from the whirling ball of lion fury was like a cyclone happening in the space of a moment and just about to catch up everyone and everything around.

Joan reached the door and was through it just as the complexion of the fight changed. One of the beasts came wheeling out of the ball like a floating paper sack and there was a horrid scream.

Myrna saw that it was Mae as the big cat landed crouched on his feet just at the very instant that the charging Andy arrived in his face.

The younger lion reared and cuffed the other's head with a series of blows: any one of which would have torn a human head completely from the shoulder. But somehow Mae took them and fell backwards on his curled spine, attempting to claw Andy's gut open with his rear paws. In the space of a second Andy leaped high above Mae and came down with stiffened legs and vicious claws extended and a horrible scream. But Mae, too, was just that quick.

He was out from under the attack and striking back with stiff powerful jabs. The lions grappled almost like wrestlers, and in that hold, Myrna saw with sorrowful terror that Mae was getting tired. She knew Andy would win unless Mae struck some lucky blow.

Half a moment passed and there was no longer even a chance of that; for Andy spun Mae with a tremendous blow and before the older lion could recover snapped his back with an effortless jab of his paw.

There was a loud pop and Mae just stopped moving in mid-air. He was dead before he hit the floor. And then both Joan and Myrna saw Andy place one huge forepaw on the dead lion's ragdoll form and roar his might. It was a moment of savagery so terrible and yet so strangely beautiful at the same time.

Suddenly both women wept. The loss of a creature's life; the conquering rightness of strength; the fear of what might have happened to Joan: all these thoughts crowded into the women, wracking their bodies with painful sob. Myrna had lost years of patient training and her two most spectacular cats. Joan was not as conscious of what she had lost-the terror of what she had caused was already dissipating the forbidden bliss of her erotic encounter with Andy Had it been a fantasy or as real as the horrible fight she had just witnessed?

The tension in both women still held them riveted to the ground before the cage door, so that they were not aware of the human commotion now surrounding them.

Without needing to be told what to do, someone grabbed a hose and turned it on full blast, sending the jet of water at the screaming cat.

Reluctantly the beast backed off his prize, swatting the spout of water and roaring his rage. With the high pressure hose as a prod Andy was herded back into his cage. But the damage was done; Andy was a killer now and would have to be shot.