by Van © 2024
		Chapter 3

Not unexpectedly the next day dawned with the girls feeling somewhat unsure of themselves (as well as apprehensive, nervous, and with a soupçon of low-grade panic.)   Not really, but what the hell had they gotten themselves into?

Fortunately, none of that lasted... not for very long, anyway.  They made their way down the hall in the bathroom, performed their usual morning rituals, returned to the bedroom and dressed for the day, then headed to the kitchen for breakfast.

Fiona was wearing hiking boots, wool socks, panties, bra, stone-washed jeans, a tank-top, and a powder-blue long-sleeve shirt (for sun protection).  Last night at the BBQ Lorelei had promised to take them riding and this was about as cowgirl as Fiona's wardrobe would allow her to get.

Sky was also wearing hiking-boots, socks, jeans, panties, bra, and a tank-top, but her sun protection was a long-sleeve, light-weight, burgundy, Henley-style t-shirt.

Both halves of Sky-Fi were looking forward to taking full advantage of the Aussie blonde's offer to fully introduce them to the horses.

Their nervousness reemerged (a little) when they reached the kitchen, but again, not for long.  Kelly and Lorelei put them at ease.  Also, there was coffee!  Coffee fixes almost any early morning problem.

Everybody, residents and guests alike, sat down to plates of eggs-to-order, pan-fried potatoes, toast, butter, jam, bacon, and little sausages.  As they ate Kelly adroitly dismissed any residual bondage-related anxiety that might still be plaguing her young guests (or tried anyway).

"I don't mind if you girls play your 'escape challenge' games in your room at night," Kelly announced, waving a sausage speared on her fork for emphasis, "as long as you don't get carried away."

"Hey, I wanna help!" Lorelei gushed enthusiastically.  "I like a good escape challenge as much as the next sheila."  She grinned at Sky-Fi.  "I know a lot of good rope tricks."

Masticating mouthfuls of eggs and bacon, the girls exchanged wide-eyed and slightly nervous stares, then swallowed and focused on the grinning blonde.

"Uh... thanks," Sky muttered, then gulped her coffee.

"Yeah, thanks," Fiona added.  Her eyes were on her plate and she was blushing.

Kelly and Lorelei exchanged smiles.  The girls were being very cute.  Also, neither of them had refused Lorelei's kind offer of "assistance."

"There is something else we need to discuss," Kelly said, then paused to sip her coffee.

Lorelei continued smiling.  The girls continued eating and listened attentively.
 
"I gave you a quick tour of my leather workshop yesterday," Kelly said, "but I didn't mention that I'd like you both to help me evaluate some of my latest designs.  I need you to act as models."

"I do my best to help her with stuff like that," Lorelei chuckled, "but there's a lot of work to do around here and I can waste only so much time swaning about in leather jackets and the like."  She indicated Kelly, using a piece of crispy bacon as a pointer.  "And she keeps harpin' that her testing program is way behind."

"M-models?" Lorelei inquired.

"Testing?" Sky also inquired.  "What needs testing?  Jackets need testing?"

"Actually," Kelly clarified (sort of), "it's various accessories that need testing."  She beamed at Sky.  "I'll show you this afternoon while Fiona helps Lorelei with her chores."

"Super!" Loreli beamed, winking at Fiona.  "And when we're done, I'll show ya the swimmin' hole."  She then launched into a detailed explanation of the daily routine required to care for even a modest herd like Kelly's, like stable sweeping, feeding, grooming, caring for bridles, saddles, and other tack, etc., etc.

It was only later—much later—that Sky-Fi realized they'd never formally agreed to help Kelly with her 'testing program,' nor had they established exactly what leather 'accessories' actually needed testing. 

Also, they hadn't formally accepted Lorelei's kind offer to help with with their escape challenges.  They hadn't said no!

According to Lorelei, while all three of Kelly's horses were "fair dinkim," the appaloosa could be "a bit of a larrikin."  Eventually, the BFFs established that she was trying to tell them all the horses were suitable for inexperienced riders (like Sky-Fi) but the one with all the spots did act up now and then.  They decided (meaning Lorelei decided) that Sky would ride Millie (a quarter horse), Fiona would ride Ronja (the other quarter horse), and Lorelei would ride Spooky, the very mildly rambunctious appaloosa in question.

Everybody had a blast... even the humans.  During her first visit to The Hermitage (when she was a just a little kid) Sky had gained a tad of experience on horseback, but Fiona was a total newbie.  Not to worry.  Ronja took care of her and Lorelei enforced a sedate pace.  Nobody even came close to falling off.

Lunch was another round of yummy sandwiches... then Lorelei led Fiona back to the stables (which needed cleaning) while Kelly led Sky to her workshop.

The BFFs exchanged farewell smiles (or possibly nervous grimaces).

Lorelei wasn't looking forward to sweeping and/or mucking out the stalls and distributing fresh straw, but Lorelei reminded her that they'd be going for a swim afterwards.

Meanwhile, Sky headed for her first testing session of one of Kelly's leather creations with her head held high.  She was the very picture of a stoic, courageous, and totally unafraid living manikin.  (That is, she didn't collapse, have a nervous breakdown, and need to be dragged to her fate.)

Upon entering the workshop the first thing Sky noticed was the pleasant aroma of expensively cured leather, just like yesterday what she'd stuck her head in the door during Kelly's whirlwind tour of The Hermitage.  The outbuilding wasn't exactly a huge structure, hut there was plenty of room for a layout table, work benches, tool cabinets, racks bearing rolls of leather in various colors, thicknesses, finishes, and textures, as well as shelves loaded with cardboard boxes and plastic tubs.  It was neat and clean (in an I'm-an-active-workshop sort of way).  Sky was impressed (but still nervous).

"Okay, put your clothes in there and we can get started," Kelly said, indicating an empty basket on one of the shelves with a casual wave of her right hand.

Sky blinked uncertainly.  "C-clothes?" she inquired.  "You want me to take off my clothes?"

"You're shy!" Kelly chuckled.  "How cute."

Sky blushed and affected what was an unarguably cute pout.  How dare Auntie Kelly call me cute!  "I'm not shy," she objected, "just... confused.  Why do I need to be naked?"  She swallowed nervously.  "You did mean 'naked,' didn't you?  No clothes?"

"Yes, Skylar," Kelly nodded (smiling broadly), "no clothes.  An important part of my tests is making sure my creations don't cause chaffing or irritation.  Any clothing you're wearing underneath might get bunched and creased, which could greatly complicate my evaluation.  Understand?"

Sky was still blushing, but she had her nervousness under control (for the moment).  "Uh... yeah... sure."  She sat on a nearby stool and removed her boots... followed by her socks.  She then stood, unzipped, and removed her jeans.  Next, she pulled her long-sleeved Henley over her head... followed by her tank-top.  Only Sky's panties and bra remained, but not for long.  She disrobed completely... folded everything, then padded over and deposited her clothes in the basket Auntie Kelly had indicated.

"Excellent," Kelly purred.  "Now, please raise your arms and do a complete turn, slowly."

Sky somehow managed to not place her left arm over her boobs or her right palm over her crotch.  "Why?" she demanded (but did not whine).

Kelly's smile never wavered.  "So I can make sure you don't already have clothing marks."

"Oh...  I guess that's reasonable," Sky conceded, then raised her arms and slowly shuffled in a full pirouette, as requested.  She could tell she was still blushing, but was reasonably sure she wasn't coming off as being excessively mortified.  That was something.  Tomboys always handle awkward situations without acting like wimps, even situations like being naked and on display in front of your favorite 40-something cousin, which was both awkward and something for which Sky was not even remotely prepared.

"Thank you," Kelly purred.  "I don't seem any serious marks.  We're starting with a blank canvas."  She then pointed to the stool Sky had used while removing her boots.  "Sit," she ordered, then spun on her booted heels and strolled to a nearby cabinet.

Sky settled her bare butt atop the stool, tried not to squirm, and watched as Auntie Kelly pulled a pair of what appeared to be brown leather gloves from a drawer... then deposited them on a nearby workbench.  Actually, upon further visual inspection, Sky decided the "gloves" were... complicated.  There was a lot of reinforced stitching, some sort of oddly shaped flap, and two rows of tiny steel grommets with gunmetal finishes.

Kelly picked up one of the glove-thingies.  "Right hand," she requested (ordered).

Sky presented the requested hand and watched as Kelly slid the gloves over her fingers and hand.  As it turned out, it was more of a mitten than a glove.  There were individual channels for each of her five digits, but except for her thumb the other four fingers were stitched together, side-to-side.  Sky had little difficulty sliding her fingers and hand into the butter-soft leather, but the result was a leather-clad flipper.  Also, it was a tight fit, but not excessively so.  Sky flexed and flapped her hand and the leather sheath flexed and flapped with it.

"Make a fist for me," Kelly requested (ordered).

Sky did so, and the glove-mitten tightened; however, it still wasn't excessively tight.  "I think you got the size just about perfect," she observed.  It really was impressive.  The "glove" had been an excellent fit before, but with her hand in a fist it was perfect.  There was no bunching and the pressure on her all parts of her fingers and hand was uniform.

Next, Kelly leaned close and started threading a length of dark brown, very thin, but obviously quite strong braided cord through the grommets.  With Sky's fist closed, the grommets had lined up from her fingertips to a row of grommets across the base of her palm and down to where the glove/mitten met her upper wrist.  Kelly made short work threading and tightening the cord... then tied a neat bow.

"There," Kelly smiled, then picked up the second glove-mitten-encasement.  "Left hand."

Sky presented her left hand and watched as the supple brown leather sheath slid in place and trapped her fingers.  She formed a fist without being ordered... then continued watching as Kelly used a second length of brown cord to lace the row of grommets snug and secure.

Next, Kelly picked up a T-shaped tool with a wooden handle and a blunt hook and used it to pull the lacing even tighter on both "fist-sheathes."  The grommets' alignments were now even more perfect and there was zero slack in the cords.  Then, rather than retying the bows, Kelly tied what Sky suspected were some kind of elaborate fisherman's knots.  Obviously they would eliminate all possibility of the lacing unraveling, no matter how Sky twisted, rolled, or flailed her clenched fists.

Remarkably, even though the thin leather was stretched and taut, the glove-mittens were still a perfect fit.  Neither her fingers nor any part of hands were tingling or growing numb... at least not yet.  The "gloves" really were a superb design.

Oh by the way, while Sky's thumbs were encased in tight leather like the rest of her fingers, they weren't part of the grommet-enforced fist arrangements.  Her thumbs were "free" and she was able to wiggle and flex them more-or-less as usual; however, a small steel D-ring dangled from each thumb-tip and they flopped back and forth as she tested the limits of the "fist-sheathes."

Sky was convinced there was absolutely no way she'd be able to extricate her hands from the sheaths, no matter what she tried.  It just wasn't going to happen.

Remarkably, Kelly wasn't finished.  Once she finished tying the complicated and well-compacted fishing knots, she used a small pair of sharp scissors to snip off the free ends of the cords!

"Hey!" Sky objected.  "How are you going to untie those things?" she inquired (demanded).

"I don't intend to untie them," Kelly explained.  "When the test is over I'll simply cut the laces.  They're expendable."  She nodded over her right shoulder.  "I've got a 250-foot spool of the stuff."

Sky looked in the direction indicated and quickly located the spool in question on a top shelf.  "Oh."

Meanwhile, Kelly had strolled to another shelf and returned with a plastic tub.  She removed its lid, then dumped the contents on the worktable.

Sky found herself staring at a pile of straps and cuffs or binders!  All the leather was the same brown color and unarguably attractive pebbled finish as her fist-sheathes, and the steel hardware all had the same gunmetal finish as well.

"All of that's for me?" Sky demanded.  Her voice had had a slightly more elevated pitched than usual, but she did not whine, nor did she complain and resist when Auntie Kelly selected an item from the pile and put it to its intended use.  Item followed item, and still Sky was silent and cooperative.  She stayed true to The Tomboy Code: Be brave!  Be stoic!  And above all...  Be cool!

When the proverbial dust settled, Sky's arms were folded behind her back with her forearms pressed together and her encased fists tight against their opposite elbows and a horizontal binder with three buckles was making sure they stayed that way.  In addition, wide cuffs with two buckles each were tightly strapped around her upper arms.  Finally, what Sky decided to think of as a combination open-cup push-up bra and upper-body harness yoked her shoulders, pressed the upper-arm-cuffs against her sides, and was doing its best to lift and accentuate her still 90% exposed boobs!  And just to be absolutely clear, the bra/harness was fully interconnected with both the cuffs and the forearms-binder!  Its straps passed through slots in the cuffs and through a pair of vertical loops stretching up from the binder.  Functionally, once all the buckles were secure, it was all one integrated system!

Kelly stepped away and (without prompting) Sky began testing her newly restrained condition.  She twisted at the waist, rocked back and forth, and tried to flex her arms.  It goes without saying that her encased hands were totally useless, and that would have been the case even without the fist-mittens.  None of the buckles were within reach.  Even if it was possible to flutter and grope with her fingers it wouldn't have made any difference.

"Hold on a second," Auntie Kelly purred, produced two more lengths of cord, then tied the fist-mitten thumb-tip-rings to D-rings solidly sewn into the base of the upper-arm-cuffs.  Sky couldn't follow everything she was doing as most of the action was behind her back, but she decided it was probable Kelly had drawn upon her repertoire of complicated and totally secure fisherman knots, like she'd done with the fist-mitten laces.  She'd also used the same small scissors to snip off the free ends.  The final result was Sky losing the "use" of her leather-encased but formerly "free" thumbs. 

"Okay, you can resume testing," Kelly said with a grin.

Sky suppressed the urge to say something rude to her elderly cousin and did, indeed, resume testing.  It was still a totally futile activity unlikely to yield any meaningful results,

Kelly watched her mostly naked young cousin struggle for something like half a minute... then strolled to one of the shelves and returned with a small plastic box.  She popped the lid, reached inside, and produced a small gunmetal steel disk about ¾" in diameter.  It was something like an unusually thick coin that was convex on one side, sort of like a bottle-cap without the crimping.  Also, there was a deep slot on the flat underside and two much smaller holes on the disk's slightly curved upper surface.

"Tiny little padlocks would work just as well," Kelly said, "but they'd jiggle around and make a racket."  She took hold of Sky's right upper-arm cuff, slid the disk over the tiny steel ring in the upper buckle's prong where protruded through the strap, pressed until there was an audible click, and the disk was there to stay.  "These 'button-locks' are totally silent," Kelly continued, "but are just as secure.  I have a specialized tool for when they need to come off."  She then set about producing more of the disks and snapping them in place over all of the remaining buckles, left, right, and back.

Sky heard a total of seven clicks and surmised that now all the buckles of her restraints were, indeed, locked, or clamped, or whatever.  She twisted at the waist, rolled her shoulders, and generally struggled... but as before she could hear no rattling or tinkling... just a little creaking as the leather flexed and defeated her efforts.  Now, obviously, not only was Sky unable to free herself, but any would-be rescuer that intended to come to her aid wouldn't be able to free her either—not without the "specialized tool" Auntie Kelly had just mentioned.

Wow!  Sky continued weakly struggling (for no good reason).  This is... interesting!

Meanwhile, Kelly had returned to the cabinet, pulled something from a drawer, returned to Sky and her stool, placed the new object on the workbench, then smiled at her test subject.

Sky was staring at the object in question.  It was the same brown, textured leather with gunmetal hardware as the rest of her restrictive ensemble, and without a doubt it was a gag!  And not only was it a gag, it was an obviously functional, well designed, and beautiful gag!  It had a complicated mouth-plug of black silicon-rubber attached to the inside of a padded panel, and the panel included a generous chin-cup!  It was a panel-muzzle-gag!  Also—Kelly had said something while Sky was busy staring at and being amazed by the gag-muzzle-thingie.

"Excuse me?" Sky said, shifting her worried focus to her smiling older cousin.

"I asked if you and Fiona are girlfriends," Kelly explained.

Sky blinked.  "Uh, yeah, sure."  She blinked again.  "No wait!  We're friends, and obviously we're girls, but we're not, uh..."

"Romantically involved?" Kelly suggested.

"Yeah!  I mean no!  I mean..."  She frowned at her Auntie Kelly (and blushed).  "It's none of your business."

"Just curious," Kelly purred.  "We'll talk about it later."  Then, still smiling, she picked up the gag, leaned close, and thrust the mouth-plug between Sky's lips and teeth and into her mouth!

"Mrrrf!"

Sky had opened her mouth to object to further discussion of the Sky-Fi relationship, but that had been a serious mistake.  The black plug had a channel that trapped her tongue, an integrated double bite-protector that trapped her jaws, and was large enough to fill her oral cavity more-or-less to capacity!  "Mrrrmpfhrmp!" she griped, but it didn't do her any good.  Kelly was expertly rocking the plug back and forth to achieved a perfect fit, and Sky found she was powerless to resist.

Next, Auntie Kelly made sure the padded panel of her designer pacifier was properly pressing against Sky's lips and lower face, that the muzzle properly cupped her chin, then buckled the strap tight at the nape of her young cousin's neck.  She then snapped a disk-lock over the buckle!  Click!

Sky tossed her now gagged head, shook her head from side to side, and tested the efficacy of the plug crammed in her mouth.  "Nrrrmf!  Mfff!  Mrrrrrrrnfh!"  Her tongue was trapped, her jaws locked, the padded panel was pressing firmly against her lower face, and the gag-system was muffling all of her attempted protests!

"One more thing," Kelly announced as she strolled to one of the shelves.  "Two things, actually."

Sky continued twisting squirming, and mewing, testing all of Kelly's leather creations, both the glove-mittens, the arm-sheath and arm-cuffs, the bra-harness system, and the panel-muzzle-gag.  "MRRRRRMF!"  Then, she gave it up as a lost cause (for now).

Kelly had returned, knelt in front of the stool, and was sliding Sky's right foot into... a sandal?  She gazed down at the foot in question and blinked.  Auntie Kelly was, indeed, fitting her with a sandal, an open-toed sandal.  It has an open lattice of thin leather straps that closely crisscrossed her formerly bare foot, the sole appeared to be cut from the tread of an old tire and, remarkably, it incorporated an ankle-cuff of thick but subtle leather.  Kelly secured the cuff's single buckle, then fit another of the disk-locks in place.  Click!  Sky continued watching as Kelly fit the companion sandal onto her left foot, then secured and disk-locked its buckle.  Click!

"Up you come," Kelly purred as she stood, lifting Sky from the stool and onto her new sandals.

Sky shuffled her feet and gazed down at her new footwear.  The leather and steel hardware matched the rest of her ensemble.  No real surprise there; however, she noticed an additional detail: the sandals' ankle cuffs incorporated sturdy steel D-rings on their insides.  Obviously, they were there so the ankle cuffs could be padlocked or clamped together.  Either that or to serve as anchor-points for a hobble-chain or rope.

"There," Kelly said with a wide smile.  "Everything that needs evaluation is in place."  She draped an arm over Sky's shoulders and led her to the workshop door.  "I have a few more things to take care of in here," she explained, "so why don't you wander around for a while and get a little exercise while we continue the test?"  She opened the door, then smiled down at her mostly naked, bound, and gagged test subject.

Sky gazed out at the other outbuildings of The Hermitage, then looked up at her cousin and blinked... twice.  "Mrrrf?"

Still smiling, Kelly leaned down and planted a warm, wet kiss on Sky's forehead—Smooch!—then gave her a firm but gentle push across the threshold.

Sky turned as the workshop door closed behind her—Thud!—and that was that.  She considered stomping to one of the windows and glowering inside at her infuriating captor/tormentor, but decided not to give Auntie Kelly the satisfaction.

Anyway, with her fists encased, her arms folded behind her back, her arms pinned against her torso, and her mouth solidly gagged, there was no way Sky would be able to turn the doorknob.  Also, she couldn't think of anything else she could try that would enable her to reenter the workshop and renegotiate the details of Auntie Kelly's testing protocol.  She supposed she could kick the door to request an audience... but that would be rude.  Even tomboys don't want to be considered rude.

Things were at an impasse.  Sky heaved a gagged sigh, silently glared at the closed door for several more disgruntled seconds... then shuffled 180° and looked around.

As expected, the day had remained clear and the afternoon temperature had risen past the "warm" region and well into "hot."  Sky decided maybe it was just as well she was about 90% naked.

Maybe I should get some exercise, Sky thought, like Auntie Tyrant suggested.  Specifically, she should find Fiona—who was her girlfriend but not that kind of girlfriend—and beg her BFF to rescue her.  Sky heaved another sigh.  Exactly how Fiona was going to beg Fiona to release her or how Fiona was going to do said rescuing Sky had no idea.  Every buckle of the stylish and unarguably pretty leather ensemble currently undergoing testing was locked by the insidious disk-locks.  Also... some sort of specialized tool was required to be remove said lock-buttons and Sky had no idea where it might be located (Auntie Kelly's workshop?), or even what it looked like (a pair of peculiar pliers?), nor would she be able to communicate any of vital information to her BFF, other than with well-muffled and totally inarticulate variations on the theme of "Mmmmpfh!"

Still, finding Fiona was a place to start.  The problem was, Sky's flaxen-haired BFF was nowhere to be seen... and the same went for the flaxen-haired Lorelei.

Sky started walking... looking around cautiously as she did so.  The sandals buckled on her feet and locked around her ankles seemed to be comfortable, at least for now.  And why cautiously?  Sky didn't want to blunder into either one of the blondes.  She wanted to initiate any encounters that happened on her terms... not that many meaningful options were available.  In either case, Sky was sure Fiona or Lorelei would probably laugh their heads off when presented with a 90% naked, leather bound, leather gagged, and pathetically helpless Skylar Dundee.  Better to creep around (while 90% naked, leather bound, and leather gagged), find one or both of the blondes, see what was happening, then decide what to do... like maybe not revealing herself and sneaking away and find someplace to hide until Auntie Kelly decided the testing session was over, released her, and gave her back her clothes.

So... Sky went skulking.  Gazing around carefully, she conducted a superficial search of the entire compound.  Why superficial?  All the doors of all the outbuildings were closed and possibly locked, or maybe not.  After all, The Hermitage was way out in the middle of nowhere.  Petty theft was probably not a problem.  Anyway, whether the doors were locked or unlocked was immaterial.  Sky still had her not-able-to-turn-doorknobs problem, so to Sky a closed door was the functional equivalent of a locked door.

Sky covertly crept from outbuilding to outbuilding, looking for any and all signs of life.  Nothing.  Fiona or Lorelei weren't present, and all the doors were, indeed, closed.

The exception was the stable.  The large, sliding, barn-style door at one end of Millie, Ronja, and Spooky's palatial abode was wide open.  Sky suspected it was probably only closed at night to keep out uninvited coyotes, foxes, pumas, bears, and other riffraff.  She carefully strolled to the door, peered around the edge, and looked and listened.  Not a creature was stirring... equine, human, or otherwise.

The Main House (aka The Giant Log Cabin) was next.  Sky assumed all its doors would be closed as well, to keep out the flies if for no other reason, but she could still sneak around and peer through the windows.  Maybe she'd get lucky and find one of the blondes.  Then she could decide if she wanted to tap her forehead against the glass to get their attention.

Halfway to the Main House Sky located the horses.  They were in down in the pasture, quite some distance away, and showing no sign of having noticed Sky.  So... no help there.  She heaved another gagged sigh and gazed out at the rest of the landscape... then her gagged head did a double-take, swiveled, locked, and her green eyes focused on a pair of distant figures.

Opposite the pasture, the missing blondes were trudging towards The Hermitage... unless some other random pair of blondes was approaching the compound.  They were still pretty far away.

The swimming hole! Sky remembered.  They said they might go swimming.  Sky stepped back and found as much cover as she could manage while still being able to observe the approaching blondes.  She was 99% sure they hadn't yet seen her.

As they got closer Sky could see that the blondes were, indeed, her blondes.  Loreli was wearing the same cowgirl boots, jeans, and Western work-shirt she'd been wearing all day.  On the other hand, Fiona was naked!  Except for her hiking boots and socks, Fiona was totally naked!

Time passed... the blondes drew even closer... and more details were revealed.

Lorelei was smiling and very pleased with herself.  But then... when was the Ozzie Gull ever not smiling and pleased with herself?  Also, her long blond hair was wet, additional evidence that they were returning from the pond.  A rolled bundle of clothes (probably Fiona's clothes) was tucked under her right arm.

Fiona's hair was also wet, but more importantly, her hands were behind her back, her shoulders rolled back (thrusting her boobs forward), and she was cleave-gagged with a blue bandana!  Finally, one end of a roughly 15' length of ¼" hemp rope was in Lorelei's right hand and the other tied around Fiona's neck like a collar!  And Fiona was naked!

Lorelei and her tethered captive drew even closer... and it became obvious (meaning probable) that they were headed for the stable.  Sky carefully backed away and was pretty sure her presence remained unsuspected.

As the blondes crossed the threshold and disappeared into the stable, Sky could now confirm what she's suspected before.  Her BFF's hands were palm-to-palm and her wrists tied with more of the same ¼" hemp rope as her leash.  Her elbows were tied together as well, which explained Fiona's rolled back shoulders and more-prominent-than-usual breasts.  Both sets of bindings were tight and well-cinched.  Fiona's elbows were nearly touching!

Sky heaved a deep sigh of profound frustration.   Granted, Fiona's near-naked bondage was... interesting, but it eliminated Sky's formerly most likely avenue of rescue.  Lorelei, Auntie Kelly's loyal roustabout (who obviously loved her employer like a big sister), was now Sky's only hope—and she was taking prisoners!

Well... there was nothing for it but for Sky to somehow find a way to rescue Fiona so Fiona could rescue her. 

Brave, stoic, resolute tomboy that she was, Sky crept from her hiding place and towards the still open stable door.

	◄		Chapter 2		Chapter 4		►