Lina hunched forward to get back to work. But first she took some time to appreciate the gorgeous backside wiggling in front of her face by tracing Arabel’s curves, making each design first with finger, then her tongue, and then finally blowing it dry and following up with the ink-dipped bamboo.
Arabel managed to hold herself amazingly still throughout, but Lina could smell her releasing scent, and see her glistening sex, firsthand.
Lina smiled and lost herself in a hazy fog of lust as she continued her designs.
Satisfied that her work was nearing completion, Lina clamped the dull end of the bamboo in her teeth and motioned for Arabel to turn around. Arabel spun her lithe body to turn a complete circle, paused, and then did another circle. The resulting display caused Lina to lean back, stretch her arms behind her head, and just enjoy.
The parade of Arabel’s minute curves, which Lina was already madly in love with, combined with the tracers of glowing designs whirling in the air, were enhanced further by the effects of their recently consumed tree flower, so that they appeared to be dancing in the air of their own accord. It was enough to make Lina forget about the length of bamboo clenched in her teeth. It clattered down the length of Lina’s torso to land sideways on her thigh.
Lina barely felt it. She was still focused on watching the twirling display and flaring her nostrils for the sparse remains of Arabel’s scent hanging in the air of the tiny apartment. The sights and smells were causing a strong stirring between Lina’s thighs.
Arabel stopped twirling to meet Lina’s gaze. “How do I look?” She batted her eyes twice. “Or do I even need to ask?”
“Beautiful.” Lina reached out to grasp Arabel.
Arabel slipped to one side. “Great, let’s switch spots and I’ll paint you.”
* * * *
Neither woman wore much in the way of clothing as they left Arabel’s apartment. Arabel had applied her caution tape and Lina had put on what amounted to a few cloth dinner napkins strategically tied together. With the bio-luminescent designs on their skin still fresh, the couple lit their own way through the damp and narrow lower tunnels until they emerged up into the larger, brighter passageways above.
They paused only once on their journey, due to an area being cordoned off with yellow tape. It was so much like what Arabel wore as her rave costume, that the two women stopped for a time while Arabel gleefully posed for passersby.
“It’s living art,” Lina explained to anyone who slowed to take a look. This got several good laughs, all except from the large diploid security officer who finally showed up to hasten them on.
They ran off, hand in hand, down the wide tunnels, until they were breathless.
“Oh, that was fun,” Lina heaved, bent forward with her hands on her knees and sucking great gasps of air.
“You alright, baby?” Arabel said. “You probably get too much fresh air working up in Cave of the Winds. You don’t know what it’s like for the rest of us down here.”
“I’ll be fine.” Lina straightened up.
“Good. I’m not going raving by myself.”
Lina watched as Arabel reached under the piece of yellow tape that constituted the waistband of her minuscule costume. From there she produced a rolled-up leaf. Inside the leaf were two more petals of tree flower.
“How did you keep that in there?”
“Never mind that,” Arabel said. “Come this way.”
Lina followed as Arabel ducked into a smaller, side corridor that was so rife with moisture, it clung to the walls in condensed droplets. “What are you doing?”
“This.” Arabel pointed to a small outcropping of pinkish crystals. She scraped some away from the wall with the tip of her fingernail to deposit on the unrolled leaf next to one of the petals of tree flower. She then rubbed the piece of flower petal until it was all but melted away, and then lifted her finger to the scent gland behind her right ear.
“Why?” Lina whispered urgently.
“Try it.” Arabel rubbed her finger again on the leaf and this time deposited the pasty mixture behind her left ear.
“I’m not putting…I don’t even know what that is.”
“It’s tree flower. Same as we had earlier.”
“No, the crystals.”
“Oh. Pink salt. Makes the tree flower more soluble, so you can absorb it through the membranes of your scent gland faster.”
“I take back what I said about you earlier,” Lina hissed.
“What?”
“That you should be a botanist.” Lina stared into Arabel’s eyes. Neither said anything for a moment until Lina declared, “Clearly, you should be a chemist.”
Arabel smiled, dreamily. “Scrape some salt under your nails, then we’ll do you.”
Lina leaned over and scraped. Arabel cupped Lina’s hand as she helped her combine just enough of the salt to dissolve the tree flower petal. Lina paused a moment, enjoying the warm feeling of her lover’s touch.
A short distance away, a diploid couple was beginning to take an interest in what they were up to. As a ruse, Lina leaned in to kiss Arabel, even going so far as to release a little scent, all to put up the pretense of it being just a little misguided public display of affection.
Arabel, in the meantime, was busy slowly and covertly dragging her finger over the leaf where the tree flower-salt mixture lay, and bringing it up to smear along the tight, moist slit of Lina’s scent glands. Lina began to quiver as the tree flower kicked in hard—harder than she had ever felt.
Lina heard a snort of disgust from the direction of the diploid couple as they turned and walked on. She let out a snort of her own in an attempt to contain her laughter.
“Wow. Slow down with that stuff, Arabel.” Lina faltered, and caught herself with a hand stretched out against the tunnel wall. Her head was spinning.
“That’s all of it, baby.”
“Ungh.” Lina tensed her jaw.
“Here.” Arabel picked up the child’s teething toy and
