Luna watched silently as the apparition approached.
The snakekin slowly lowered herself until her bottom half was curled into a nest of sorts, which her upper body rested atop.
"You smell..." she began, then cut off. Luna waited with the same patient smile intact, desperate for a way to get away.
"Like Master Lukas," she concluded with a hiss of displeasure. The manifestation narrowed her eyes at Luna, then leaned forward slowly. Her lower body was strong enough to hold her up, so Luna was afraid that she would have to either lean back or let herself be touched-
Luna's head smashed into the black ground, which was somehow now crystalline and fragile, some of it shattering on impact.
Luna gasped for air, and before she could so much as breathe out, the Beastfolk snapped her fingers, and her clothes vanished.
Luna gaped at her.
She wasn't generally one to be attracted to other women, but it was somewhat hard not to be when confronted by a body like this. Although, truthfully, this manifestation was the only one she had ever met who could rival her own body...
Luna looked down, and nearly choked again.
She was also naked. Completely exposed before this being.
Oh, fuck.
The tail of the snake slowly slid up along the left side of her right leg, but when it reached her core, it diverted, to Luna's relief. Although she wasn't sure whether the snakekin wanting to touch her bare body like this was overall a good or bad sign for her survival, she was afraid of what would-
Luna's thoughts shorted out yet again as the smooth, cool, scaled muscles snapped tight around her legs.
From halfway up her shin all the way to the base of her waist, she was completely wrapped in snakeskin.
Then the tip came back. It slid in from the top, running down her crotch and sliding through her folds, skimming over the top of her entrance to rest atop it.
Luna couldn't hold in a small whimper. She was no longer at all in control of her expression.
The woman leaned closer, frowning. "He didn't breed you. Then why do you smell like him? I don't understand."
It seemed she was only curious, at least for now. That was good, because it delayed both Luna's near-inevitable death and her probable sexual experience.
Luna had never heard whether it was even possible for an artifact's manifestation to not be hostile. It seemed there was some resentment about being used as an item rather than being addressed as a even a creature.
Luna understood that feeling somewhat. She had never felt completely at ease with the way that gnomes and other non-sentient races were treated. They weren't capable of high-functioning thought, but that didn't mean they were animals. After all, they could still use logic and make moral decisions.
So did art really define sentience? And if so, why did a race as a whole get the same distinction? Was it because of their philosophers? Their scientists? Their refusal to obey others?
All of the justifications Luna had ever heard seemed flimsy, especially in this moment.
She could almost imagine being stuck as a thing that people used rather than a person. Almost.
And that scared her a lot more than the manifestation ever had.
If artifacts could become sentient enough to have thoughts, could people be reduced to something lower?
"I feel," Luna said softly.
There was nothing else to the statement. Because there didn't need to be.
Luna could almost feel something growing. Or rather, approaching. A heat that radiated from the apparition, a soft silver warmth that washed over her skin and calmed her nerves, whispering soft coos into her ear.
The Beastfolk manifestation pulled back quickly, startled. It unwrapped its tail from Luna as well.
But unlike before, she wasn't afraid. She wasn't embarrassed about being naked. She couldn't be.
Pity was the only thing in her heart.
No, not pity. Empathy.
Because she knew that pain.
The pain of knowing that there was a person who used you, who didn't care about you. A person whose presence forced your mind to a halt and whose eyes haunted your nightmares. A person who had power over you, but ignored your worth.
"I'm sorry," she said quietly.
The spirit's eyes widened in panic, and she recoiled, cringing back as if from a violent pain.
"Take it!" she cried. "Take the boon and leave me! Leave me, I say! Out!"
She thrust a warding arm forward, and Luna's perspective warped and bent, and then she landed back in the bed with a small huff of air.
Luna sat up and looked around, confused. She blinked a few times, but nothing changed.
Then she let out a sigh of relief and flopped back onto the bed.
What the fuck just happened?