I did not remember much of the trip on The Hoary Griffin. I had fallen asleep by the window not long after taking a few sips from one of the drinks Elaine bought for us. I remember her calling it The Three Legged Monkey, but this time a different warmth, one that went to my cheeks and head, dulled my vigilance and, realizing how tired I actually was from all the excitement, I finally napped.
I woke up with a shake of the bridge car. Nobody else was there with us, though it must have made a few different stops along the way. Elaine looked like she was still on her first drink, but Dr. Ryebald was midway through another beer bottle he was about to add to a large collection of them he must have built up only while we'd been here.
Flashing letters advertising KISS KISS HOTEL appeared above the door we had entered the bridge car from. Without much prompting we all packed our belongings and headed inward.
Like the hospital that was definitely more than just a hospital, this was clearly more than just a hotel. It was like something out of the Vegas strip. Lights, flashing colors, noise, and talking were all around. I saw animals shaped like humans again, and men and women dressed in fanciful yet provocative and showy outfits, exotic jewelry, and the most up to date hairstyles.
"Our base of operations is the penthouse suite at the top," Elaine said.
She led us to an elevator. Dr. Ryebald had some trouble getting in.
On our way up, listening to the soft jazz of elevator music, I chuckled to myself.
"So, teleportation magic not a thing yet?"
"Not that we know about," Elaine said. "But we don't have a monopoly on Mana."
The elevator dinged to signal a stop. The number of the floor was -17.
"I thought you said we were going to the top? This looks like we're in the basement."
"We are seventeen floors from the top. That's what the minus means."
But why word it like that?
"And," Elaine continued, "this is where you are stopping for your Shower. You are an intake, so there are a few more things you've got to do before we're ready to have you join us."
"Is Dr. Ryebald coming with me?"
Dr. Ryebald shook his head. "No, the Sisters will be taking care of you."
"The Sisters?" It sounded like I was going to a nunnery, but thankfully that didn't seem likely.
"You will have a good time," Elaine said. "Goodbye, Teddy."
As soon as the elevator door opened I was pushed out into a warmly lit, rugged hall with a single door at the end. I was alone. There was only one direction to go, but nobody to prompt me forward. I was in a strange, magical place. I had no friends nor family with me, for all the good they could do in this situation, but just myself and a door keeping me from the Sisters.
Elaine did say I was going to have a good time.
Her word mattered the most at the moment. I had little other choice.
I opened the door, and stepped out onto a grand balcony of grey rock and steam. Beyond the edge was the starry night sky and a sea of dark clouds. In the center of the rocky, Icelandic landscape were hot springs and three women with all but their heads in the water. One brunette, one blonde, and one redhead.
They all looked at me for a few moments, then looked at each other in turn. The one on the left, my left, with medium length brunette hair that stopped above her shoulders, stood up and stretched. She was covered in tribal looking tattoos, including over a perky set of tits. Her belly button was pierced with a golden ring and ruby.
"This will not do," she said.
The blonde followed, as petite and perky as the brunette, but with her hair tied in a braid behind her back.
"Not at all."
The redhead, whose own hair flowed freely in layered waves and slight curls, followed her Sisters as they began to step out of the spring and walk toward me.
"This is really a shame."
They circled me, and I had never felt so naked, and I wasn't even naked yet.
"Quite ugly."
"Has he showered at all this week?"
"Looking at this ass makes me hungry for pancakes," the brunette said when she pinched me.
All of this was very unhealthy for my self-esteem. I was sure now that there was more than just a good shower between me and being good at whatever Elaine wanted me to be good at. At the same time, I had a hard time complaining. The Sisters were beautiful, their skin soft as they rubbed against me, shining and still slick from the water. Beads still dripped down onto soft ripples of muscle.
"This is your first time," the blonde said. "Are you excited?"
"Will you be giving me the Shower?"
They all smiled, some giggled.
"Of course, you can always say no."
"But I wouldn't recommend it," the redhead said suddenly from behind me, softly into my ear.
"We could feel the sugar from you from a mile away," the blonde said. "There's so much we have to work with."
"Oh, can you imagine him with a cleft jaw?"
"Dimples?"
"A fuller ass is definitely in order."
I raised up my hands in disbelief.
"Wait, what is going to happen to me? What are you going to do? What is this?"
The blonde hushed me with a finger to my lips.
"If you behave nicely, there may be a bonus in store."
"Sold," I said. They giggled.
They led me past the springs and between a section of rock that from where I had been standing earlier didn't look like it opened into anything. But only a few steps inward I began to hear the splash of water and then ultimately found its origin in a small, bare, and open space with a waterfall.
I looked at the blonde, who was standing to my right, holding onto me like arm candy.
"Oh, um," I started, "I should undress somewhere, shouldn't I?"
She shook her head. "It would be a waste of time."
"Oh," I said.
She let go of me, and then pressed my back forward, and I began my approach to the waterfall. I had never liked the feeling of wet clothing and was not looking forward to this. However, I knew that I was also dealing with magic. Either magic, or I was currently in a coma and I'm suffering the most vivid hallucination I have ever had in my life, but either way, normal rules didn't apply anymore.
When I stepped into the waterfall, I didn't feel any discomfort. It felt warm, sometimes cool, like it was responding to how I was feeling about the temperature at the time. My muscles relaxed. My clothes, which I expected to be uncomfortable, seemed to just slough off of me.
I closed my eyes and just let myself feel the warm water. I was not sure how long I had been doing that when I felt the hands of one of the sisters rub my chest. It was the redhead, and she was carrying a loofah in her right hand. She began scrubbing me, my chest, my back. At one point she thoroughly scrubbed my cock and balls, adding a few additional rub and tugs that I'm pretty sure weren't strictly necessary.
When she was done scrubbing me she let the water wash off the rest of the soap and then grabbed my hand.
"It's time for the hot springs, now."
I let her take me back to the springs, and was about to step into them when I leaned over and stopped in horror.
My face was gone.
Completely gone.
There were no eyes. No ears. No nose, no hair, no lips or mouth, or anything at all but a blank slate. I was about to scream, but the Sisters pushed me headfirst down into the hot springs until I was all the way in.
I did not fight to get out. I was in a state of blessed contentment and relaxation. Any will to be aggressive, to fight the Sisters off, evaporated instantaneously. It was not as if I couldn't breathe, either. I could breathe freely. I am not sure how, without having lungs, but I was also able to see around me, and I didn't have eyes, so I figure rules just don't apply here.
The Sisters were swimming around me. They had tails as if they were mermaids. Of course, that was a silly thought. Not as if they were mermaids. They had been mermaids all along. But it was pleasant. It felt nice to feel their pushing and pulling me, their soft rubs, their kisses.
"He has an incredible amount of Sugar to work with."
"I'm not sure we'll be able to even make use of all of it."
"We'll have to be creative."
"We can only make his cock so big."
"Well, that's not exactly creative, is it?"
"I've got it!"
...
At some point I had fallen asleep. When I woke up, I was laying down on a comfortable bed in what looked like a pretty standard Western hotel room. I felt well enough rested, so I sat up. Nobody was in the room with me, so I didn't bother looking for any clothes to put on. I apparently didn't put on anything after the Shower.
I found the bathroom, walked in, and turned the lights on.
The face in the mirror was a complete stranger.