Story by  Luircin

Howliana and it's characters copyright to  Asuraludu

Icon by  micki


Chapter 4
Stormy wasn’t sure whether she ought to be grateful for the private jet trip there or angry. On the one hand, it was comfortable.
On the other hand, she had to share that comfort with her parents.
Arceus, she wished that her father would just stand up to her mother for once in his miserable life. Did they both REALLY think that selling their daughter into slavery was a good idea?!
At least she had Ana to talk to, though Ana was kind of busy drooling over the pictures of the guards, and Stormy didn’t really want to think about that.
It was almost, almost a relief when they landed in Cinnabar City, from where they’d take a boat the rest of the way. The instant they hit the ground, Stormy had grabbed Ana’s arm and rushed off towards the city, though she wasn’t fast enough to avoid her mother ordering her chauffeur to take them in a limo instead.
“Aww! But I want-”
“You’re going to buy supplies for your time in Howliana,” Desmona said firmly. She fished out a wad of bills and pushed it into Stormy’s hands. “Use this, and remember that you’re preparing for a year there.”
“Hnnfff…” Stormy muttered, but took the funds. She hated accepting anything from her mother, but Ana didn’t have any money, and Stormy considered herself responsible for both of them.
Not to mention that now that she had money, there were a few other little purchases that she had in mind, which might make life a little bit easier.
***
Stormy stared at the little creature skittering around within the plastic container. “And how much care does it need?” she asked.
“Almost none,”the pet shop owner said. “To care for a Joltik, you need only make sure that you place its cage where it will get plenty of sun, and make sure that you always have a bit of fur or our special static-producing material within it. It will feed off the static electricity. And of course, make sure that you keep an Everstone nearby at all times, unless you want to suddenly be caring for a Galvantula.”
Stormy nodded, and then ventured forth with the important question. “I’ve heard that some electric-types can work as a power source. Is that true?”
“Yes, it is. You’d need to buy one of… ah…” He hunted the shelves behind him and then came up with a weird-looking metallic device. “One of these. Put this at the bottom of its cage, and then you can plug in anything that requires an outlet. Just keep in mind, however, that it won’t work for many of the larger electronic devices. It would probably only work to recharge MP3 players or cell phones or the like.
“That’s just what I was hoping for, in fact,” Stormy said. “I’ll take it. And that device. And a year’s supply of that food-static stuff. And an Everstone.”
It took a fair amount of the cash that she had on her. If she were back home, everything that she’d bought would have taken up about two weeks’ worth of her modeling paychecks. But in this case, she judged that she had enough to spare.
“You sure that’s a good idea?” Ana asked as they headed out the door. “Your mother said that the money she gave you was for necessities!”
“This is a necessity,” Stormy said. “We’ve gone through that booklet you’ve been pouring over like five times, and it never mentions whether they even have electricity. And I’m not sure I could survive if I didn’t have some way to contact Jude.” They’d already visited the local cell phone store and used another fair chunk of the money offered her to upgrade Stormy’s phone to receive signals world-wide. Paying for the whole bill a year in advance had taken up a huge chunk of the money she’d been given, but again, Stormy had judged the expense as ‘worth it.’
They delivered the package to her mother’s butler with instructions to care for the little Joltik until she was able to take care of it herself and slipped into the waiting limo.
“Where would you like to go now, Miss Softsong?” the driver asked.
“Some place where we can buy clothing, I suppose,” Stormy said. In case she had to make a run for it, the cynical part of her mind thought. But the more reasonable part of her mind added that if her mother had told her to buy clothing, then there had to be a reason. She doubted that—well, at least she hoped that she wouldn’t be forced to wear either gauzy, skimpy, revealing outfits or nothing at all for the entire time.
“Of course, ma’am,” he agreed.
Stormy sighed a bit. She liked the Raticate driver that her mother had brought along. But just the fact that he was employed by her mother tainted all her thoughts of him. She had to guard her words around him too, because she was sure that anything she said would eventually reach her mother’s ears.
***
“What do you think?” Ana said, flaunting the outfit as she strutted back and forth.
“It… it…” Stormy struggled to say something nice about the outfit that made the stereotypical harem garb look like a nun’s outfit, wincing a little as Ana shifted and it exposed herself. “I think… I think that it’ll do exactly what you want.”
Ana had specified that she wanted an outfit that ‘just SCREAMS ‘bang me NOW!’’ And Arceus, this one did that.
“Great!” Ana enthused, heading back into the care of the attendants in order to get more and possibly worse outfits.
Stormy shook her head and opted to settle for something a little tamer. A lot tamer. There were no restrictions that she was aware of on casual clothing, so she opted for something modest and Kanto-styled. Both clothing for winter and summer, because even though it was a desert nation, Stormy was aware of how cold deserts could get at night.
She just hoped that she didn’t have to end up depending on the Sultan’s filthy body for warmth most nights.
Sigh.
And if all else failed, these outfits would be wonderful back home. They’d keep for a year at least.
Unless her mother blackmailed her into staying part of the sex slave cohort longer, at least.
She turned away and tried to get herself to smile at Ana’s eagerness, but found herself unable to.
"What do you think of this, Miss Softsong?"
Stormy glanced over at the mirror. Her modeling instincts kicked in, and she turned around and examined herself all over. Despite the fact that she was trying not to think about the looks and only the functionality, she was pleased with what she saw. She had specified that she wanted something modest--but had stopped just shy of demanding that they put her in something frumpy.
And yes, what she was in was modest, but she found herself impressed by how good it looked on her. This was something that she'd be happy to wear to school. And it was nice and warm too, so she'd definitely be able to wear it during the cold desert nights.
"How durable is it?" she asked.
"We make our clothes out of only the best materials," the Clefairy attendant assured her. "We pride ourselves on the fact that our clothing will endure." "Could it endure a sandstorm?" she asked.
"Most definitely," the attendant answered, taking her question seriously. Perhaps she assumed that she had a Hippopotas friend or something. "Guaranteed."
"I'll take two more cold-weather outfits, and three warm-weather ones, then," Stormy said.
"Certainly. What fashions would you like?"
"I'll leave that to your expert eyes," Stormy said. She didn't want to think about fashion; she was too distracted in making emergency running-away plans.
***
“Glad to see you’re back,” Desmona said as Stormy and Ana returned and started unloading the spoils of their shopping trip.
“There’s no change,” Stormy said. She had made sure of that. All the way down to the stick of gum and the few cents remaining in the charity jar. Petty, she knew, but petty spite was the only thing she had left to use against Desmona.
“I didn’t expect so, though I was hoping you’d be a little wiser in your use of money,” Desmona sighed. She reached into a pocket and retrieved another two wrapped wads of bills. “Here,” she said, pushing them into Stormy’s hands. “For the time you spend there.”
“What, Howliana uses Kantonese money?” Stormy asked.
“No,” Desmona admitted. “But most merchants will still take payment in it. Or you can exchange it in the treasury. I expect this to last you the whole year while you’re there. If you need any more, you’ll have to earn it yourself.”
“What’s the catch?” Stormy asked, knowing her mother too well to know that she would give anything away for free.
“I’m hoping that being restricted in your funds will teach you at least a little about being responsible with your finances,” Desmona replied.
Stormy scowled at her, resisting the urge to tell her to her face that she was very good at managing her own money, and that her modeling career proved that. But she pocketed the funds offered and kept her mouth shut.
“And just maybe you’ll manage to learn enough to finally not be a disgrace to the family name,”Desmona continued.
"What do you mean by that!?" Stormy flared, finally sick of all her mother's sniping at her during the entire trip.
"Quite frankly, you are not upholding the family name." Desmona grimaced at Stormy. "Just imagine, a Softsong having to make ends meet by being a model."
"It's what I WANT to do!" Stormy snarled. "My life is MY LIFE! And besides, how is you forcing me to be a harem girl any different?"
"The difference is that being in the Sultan's harem is for a better purpose than just a pathetic paycheck," Desmona retorted. "Not to mention all your investments in failure."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Stormy demanded.
Desmona shot an extremely distasteful glance over at Ana, who was busy raiding the limo's food supplies in order to sate her boundless appetite.
"Ana? What about her?" Stormy said.
"It has not escaped me that you're giving her plenty of money that you could be using for far better purposes," Desmona said softly.
“Mother…” she said, forcing herself to keep from saying something she’d regret, “I’m sure that I’ve told you about Ana’s good-for-nothing parents. The only reason that she’s in school now is because of the scholarships she’s worked hard to earn. Her parents aren’t paying in a single cent for her, and I know I told you that. Ana is working around the clock, keeping her grades high and doing as many jobs as she can manage. I give her money because she’s also managed to find time to do work for me. And if she keeps working this hard after school, she’ll be independently wealthy within a year out of classes. And she will be a great asset if we continue to work together. She's WORTH investing in.”
Well, if Ana could manage to keep her focus on one thing for more than three minutes at a time, Stormy added mentally. Ana was a hard worker, but she was also a flighty one. Her eagerness to be part of the Howliana harem was perhaps the one thing in her life that had kept her attention for more than a few days.
“I’m sure,”Desmona said, the sarcasm in her voice a sharp blade.
"Hmf," Stormy growled at her, turning pointedly away.
"Whatever the case, we leave for Howliana tomorrow," Desmona said. "I expect you to get plenty of sleep and to put your best foot forward for this meeting."
The threat in her tone was obvious