Chapter Seven
Three days after Flin had his first playdate with Laila, Basil finally got to spend some time with his little girl. He’d wrapped up his business two days earlier, but Flin had insisted on keeping close to Laila. It wasn’t for nothing. Yesterday, Laila had finally hit sub-drop. Basil had heard her alternately shouting at Flin and crying for him to never leave her. He felt for both of them; Laila’s first time submitting was a bad day for her to land into the most serious case of subspace he’d ever heard of; not that he knew much about that. There wasn’t a strong enough relationship between her and Flin yet, Basil could see, and the sub-drop had thrown that into sharp relief, making Laila vocally doubt herself, her place in their trio, and question Flin’s trustworthiness. Basil had wanted to get involved and help reassure her, but Flin had insisted he needed to pick up the pieces himself.
Still, Basil thought, it was a shiny new day, and the world was a freshly rolled pastry, ready to be molded however he saw fit. Flin was visiting a modern art gallery for the day, and the petting zoo was opening in a half hour. Snuggling the cute animals from around the galaxy was the perfect activity to gently ease Laila back into being Basil’s little girl without much scope for stress. He was vehemently opposed to anything that stressed Laila out.
He tapped on Laila’s door at ten a.m. She came to the door dressed in a fluffy hotel dressing gown. Her hair looked like a brown tangle of underwater reeds, and her eyes were puffy.
“Have you just woken up?” he asked. She nodded blearily.
“Time is it?” she asked.
“It’s just gone ten. The petting zoo opens in thirty minutes.”
“‘Kay. Imma go shower.” She released the door she’d been holding open, and Basil decided to follow her.
“Your room’s a state, young lady. You’re gonna tidy this up when we get back.” There were clothes everywhere. When did she get so many clothes? And shoes? Did all twenty-two-year-olds have this many pairs of shoes? As he moved around the room, he couldn’t help looking at the title of the book she’d left on the desk.
“Where’s Spot?” he read aloud. “Hey, I gave you that!” The sound of the water turning on in the shower proved she couldn’t hear him. He treasured this moment of finding out that Laila liked the book he’d given her—handed down to him from his parents—and that she was practicing her reading on her own. They had read Where’s Spot together so many times that she knew the story well enough to quote it by this point. She always giggled when they found the hippopotamus.
When his little girl emerged from the bathroom, ensconced in a soft towel, Basil’s heart skipped a beat. She was so adorably lost in the gigantic bath towels the hotel provided—after all, the towels had to fit people the size of Flin, too—and the look of her skin, fresh from the shower, was divine. He wanted to take her to the petting zoo in a fluffy towel so he could sit her on his knee just like that and snuggle her while she petted the animals. Minos Kerala’s population would probably not bat an eyelid at such behavior. In this hotel alone, Basil had seen at least three dom/sub couples, a humanoid puppy and his owner, two adult baby boys, and a tentacle monster with a fetish for women dressed in school uniforms. None of them had any cause to hide their personalities. However, he knew it wouldn’t be very practical to let Laila go out in just a towel. She needed to wear something she could run around in.
“What clothes do you want to wear today?” he asked her, handing her some underwear.
“Sailor dress!” She rummaged through her discarded clothes and pulled it out.
“How can you find anything in this mess?” Basil was surprised.
“Easy! It’s easier than when it’s all tidy, because when it’s tidy, I look on the floor for things but there’s nothing there,” Laila explained.
“You need to clean this up when we get back, don’t forget.” Basil didn’t like this line of reasoning; she needed to learn to be tidy. “I’d make you do it right now, but we’d miss the Arctic foxes. They only let people view them for an hour a day, and I know you’re gonna love them.”
“Are they the ones from Earth?” Laila asked, pulling the dress over her head.
“That’s right. They’d taken some of the animals to Minos Kerala for a conservation project right before Earth was destroyed, so there’s a handful of Earth animals in the petting zoo—and at the proper zoo. Here, let me get the ribbon.” Basil rearranged the dress at the back where it hadn’t quite sat properly, and tied the halter-neck ribbon into a bow. He stepped back and admired his little lady.
* * *
The petting zoo was just opening as they arrived, and Basil held Laila’s hand as she pulled toward the entrance.
“Hold your horses, little lady, we’ve gotta buy the tickets first!”
“But Daddy, I need to see the animals! What if a bird comes and they all run away and the petting zoo closes and we never get to see them?”
“That’s very unlikely, sweetheart.” He steered her toward the ticket booth. “Hi, one adult and one Laila… sorry, two adults please.”
“Sure.” The clerk was unfazed by Basil’s slip-up and he somehow managed to hold onto Laila while he paid. They went through the turnstile and Basil unfolded the map he’d been given at the ticket booth.
“We’re over here, and that’s where we’re headed. Would you like an ice cream before you see the Arctic foxes?” Basil folded the map away and put it in his pocket.
“What’s ice cream?”
“It’s a dessert that’s sort of like the frosting on the top of cupcakes… only colder,” Basil explained. “Want to try one?”
“Yes, please. That sounds tasty!”
Basil bought Laila an ice cream from a vendor and handed it to her. He watched her lick it, then her eyes lit up.
“This is tastylicious!” She licked it again, seemingly content with her new food.
“Make sure you look where you’re going so you don’t trip and drop it,” Basil warned, as he saw one of her shoes scrape the uneven edge of a paving slab.
“I will. C’mon, we have to see the foxes!” She ran ahead, and was still looking down at her ice cream when she tripped and fell. Basil sighed.
“Are you hurt?” he asked, and she shook her head then sat up. Then looked down.
Basil followed her gaze. The ice cream had splattered on the floor, the cone was cracked, and Basil was about to tell Laila he would buy her another one, but he never got a chance because she burst into tears.
“My ice cream!” she wailed, crying her little heart out. Basil tried to comfort her but she lashed out at him and kicked her feet against the floor.
“You made me drop it!” she accused, still crying and kicking.
“Laila, calm down, it’s only an ice cream,” Basil said, but she wasn’t listening.
“I want my ice cream!” she shouted, drawing the attention of several passersby. They didn’t look for long, though; this was not uncommon on Minos Kerala.
“That’s it, young lady, you’re coming with me.” In a swift motion, Basil lifted her over one shoulder and walked toward the sign for the public conveniences. In the block of unisex toilets, there was also a little door marked ‘discipline room,’ and the sign above the handle showed it was vacant.
He carried her inside and locked the door behind them. He sat down, threw her over his knee, and flipped back the hem of her skirt. He pulled her panties off and pocketed them. She reached back to snatch at them, so he pinned one of her wrists behind her back, then positioned her so her bottom was pushed upwards toward the ceiling, her spine arched where he held her wrist. He put one hand on her sit spot and paused. The skin felt warm and soft under his fingers.
“Do you know why you’re getting a spanking?” he asked.
“Because you’re mean!” Laila replied, her voice slightly muffled. “You’re the meanest mean of all the mean-means!”
Basil could only guess what conclusions Laila was jumping to, as she wriggled and kicked to try and get o
ff his knee.
“I’ll scream so loud they’ll break the door down and stop you!” she challenged, still upturned on his knee.
“I don’t think you understand where you are. Perhaps you didn’t try to read the sign on the door,” Basil paused to let that unnerve her slightly. “You’re in a discipline room. That’s a special room for dominants, daddies, or masters to be able to punish their submissives, littles, slaves, or whatnot.” He paused again. He wanted to be sure she fully knew what was happening. “You’ll notice the paddle and crop hanging on the wall next to that cane. Around here, disciplining a naughty bottom is viewed as just as necessary as going to the bathroom, or eating. Scream as much as you like. Nobody will intervene.”
“I hate you!” Laila snarled, trying to kick free.
“You don’t mean that.” Basil let it wash over him. As much as he disliked her behavior, he knew full well that this ongoing tantrum was actually a good (if unwanted) sign; Laila felt safe enough to test the boundaries. Now it was his job to enforce them, so she knew he would always catch her. “I am going to spank you now because your behavior today has been unacceptable. After I’ve decided you have learnt the lesson, you will be forgiven. I know you dropped your ice cream but you didn’t even give me a chance to make it better by buying you another, you just threw a tantrum.”
“I didn’t throw a tantrum! I was sad about my ice cream!” she shouted, still trying to wriggle free.
Basil ignored her, reflecting that this was his least favorite part of being a daddy, although he knew it was very important. He cupped his hand slightly as he brought it down for the first spank, making contact with Laila’s cheeks and noticing how the blow sent very faint ripples through her sit spot. The sound was quite loud, and she yelped, although he knew for a fact it hadn’t been a hard swat. He added another one, then kept going, making sure to use a steady pace so she didn’t have a chance to get a handle on the situation, watching her normally peachy skin turn pink around her bottom. Once she had settled down a little, she stopped struggling, and Basil got a chance to think about how they’d gotten to this point.
He preferred to use the least amount of spanking necessary, although now he reflected that he had been a bit lax since they arrived on Minos Kerala. The state of Laila’s room should have been his first clue, he thought. It wouldn’t surprise him if the Lost City of Atlantis—that was later found again, having relocated to a pseudo-planet in the Metafysikos system, shortly before it was lost forever during the un-terraforming wars—was hiding under a pile of her laundry.
He added a couple of sharp smacks to her sit spot, thinking that he should’ve spent more time with her after they arrived on the planet. Was it so much to expect Flin to help out with keeping Laila on the straight and narrow? Basil decided to talk to Flin as soon as he next saw him. Laila was turning into a handful, and she was going to need consistency. Basil kept spanking Laila’s bottom, as it went from pale pink to a deeper shade of rose, and she seemed to be just accepting that this was happening now. She was still kicking, of course, but he figured it was some sort of reflex rather than a desire to escape.
“Please, Daddy, I’m sorry,” she said at length, and Basil knew she’d held out as long as she could before she said it.
“Thank you for apologizing, Laila. I will accept your apology once the spanking is over,” he said, feeling resolute that he was going to make sure his little girl didn’t become a spoiled brat. His hand was starting to get warm, and Laila’s attitude seemed to have improved so he gave her a few more spanks then released her.
That would have been the end of it, had Laila not said, “I still think you’re being mean.”
“Okay, missy, over we go.” Basil took her hand—which she gave him this time, albeit with a resigned sigh—and pulled her back across his knee. This time he decided to use a flurry of sharp spanks in short succession, then some slower ones, which he punctuated with carefully chosen words.
“You-will-speak-to-me-politely-young-lady.” He was not surprised to hear her yelping as he spanked her. He gave her another rapid-fire round of swats on her sit spot then pulled her upright.
“If you throw a tantrum like that or speak to me like that again, I won’t look for the nearest discipline room, I’ll just pull your panties down and spank you in public. Go stand in that corner over there.” He pointed her in the right direction then watched her walk, wincing at every step, to the correct corner. She looked resigned, rather than indignant, and he took a minute to admire her curvy bottom. He was pleased that over the last two months, Laila had put on several pounds, making her look healthy rather than ill, and he knew her bottom was more spankable now, too. Less bony. He loved how it glowed, unprotected and vulnerable, precious in the light from the windows of the discipline room.
Her skin was a delicate lily and her rosy bottom was her feisty heart, worn on the outside only for those who could draw it out; it reminded him of how much she needed his guidance and protection…
He shook his head in horror at his thoughts. When had he become so poetic? It was the effect she was having on him, he decided. Still, to have someone like her in his life, he’d accept a lot in the way of side effects, even unexpected bad poetic tendencies.
Before she felt isolated or pushed away, he called her back to him.
“Come sit on my knee, now, Laila; we need to talk about what just happened.” As soon as she perched tenderly on his knee, he drew her into a big cuddle and held her, wrapped in his arms. Her own arms were pinned either side of her as he gently rocked her back and forth.
“I’m sorry, Daddy, I don’t know what came over me,” Laila said, looking up at him with her circular brown eyes. They were so soulful, so full of intrigue.
“It’s all right, Laila. I said I’d forgive you after your spanking, and I do. Everything’s all right. How do you feel?”
She looked thoughtful, and didn’t answer for several seconds.
“On the outside, I feel pretty owwie. On the inside, I feel better. I felt like I had all this icky stuff inside me, that was making me feel all scribbly—you know, like when someone’s got a crayon and just scribbled where you wanted to think—and now I feel like it’s gone away again. Except I know it’ll come back.”
“And when it does, we’ll make sure it goes away again, and again, until there’s none of it left.”
“How long will that be?”
“I don’t know, baby girl. It’s different for everyone. I suppose it depends how many crayons there are in your thoughts, getting in the way and scribbling over things.”
Laila nodded.
“I’m proud of you,” he said, his heart surging with affection for his little girl.
“Me? Why?”
“You took your spanking, and you calmed down, and now you’re trying to think about why you got upset in the first place and how we can manage that,” Basil explained. And she’s not panicking about doing something wrong for a change, he added to himself. Laila gave him her smallest, most precious smile. It was the one she always had whenever he showed her something new about something she thought she knew. He kissed her on the nose.
“Come on, I’ll get you a new ice cream. If we hurry, we should still be able to catch the Arctic foxes before they put the glass back up.”
A few minutes later, Laila was holding onto a fresh ice cream extra tightly to make sure she didn’t drop it.
“Why is this area all white?” she asked, as they approached the snowy environment that was carefully maintained by several different weather machines to ensure the foxes had the most natural habitat. They were probably the last Arctic foxes in the universe, Basil thought with a pang of sadness.
“It’s snow, baby doll.”
“What’s snow?” Laila stopped at the edge of it.
“You know how we talked the other day about the way rain gets made? With evaporation? Well, snow’s the same, only instead of coming back as a liquid, snow is colder, so it falls out of the clouds as flakes
of snow.”
She reached down and felt it with her hand, still gripping her ice cream in her other one. Basil saw rather than heard the gleeful giggle she made, as her whole body seemed to laugh.
“You mean, this stuff happens in nature, too?”
“You’d better believe it, sweetheart; there’s entire planets covered in snow.”
“That I don’t believe. There can’t be planets made of ice cream. It would be too perfect.”
“One day I’ll show you, when we’re near one.”
Easily distracted by the petting zoo’s many delights, her eyes were now on the animals in front of her. The Arctic foxes were a creamy white color, with long, very fluffy tails.
“Daddy, can I touch one?”
He nodded, and his heart overflowed as he watched her. Carefully holding her ice cream in one hand, she reached her other out toward the nearest Arctic fox. All around them, other people were petting the rest of the foxes—and there were a lot of foxes; the breeding program had been hugely successful. The fox in front of Laila stuck its nose toward her hand, and she lightly ran her fingers over its face. This time, she smiled her big grin, and Basil’s heart melted again.
“It’s so soft! Can we take one home with us, pleeease? I’ll feed it every day and take it for walks around the ship!”
“Honey, it’d be very sad on the ship because it’s not the right environment, just like you’d be sad if you had to live in all this snow,” he tried to explain.
Laila shook her head.
“Living in a land covered in ice cream, and full of fluffy soft cuddly foxes, would be the best thing ever.”
“Well, the foxes think so too. So they’d be sad to leave. If you’d lived your whole life in the land of ice cream, would you want to go someplace else?”
She shook her head again.
“Then there you have it. That’s why you couldn’t keep an Arctic fox on a spaceship.”
Laila stroked the Arctic fox from the end of its nose to the tip of its tail a few times. Basil loved seeing her so happy like this. She usually looked so thoughtful and tense, worried about so many little things, that getting her to let go of that was wonderful.
Her Daddy and Her Master Page 12
