08-04-2008, 11:59 PM
(part 3) Jes Fer Kicks written by Jeri
Paul said, "OK, line up. Jim, you come up here in front."
After they formed a rough line, Jim approached her. When he was close she said in a calm voice, "You tickle me and you die." Both of them knew she would not actually kill him, but both of them knew what she would do to him. But except for a slight look of surprise, her statement of fact had no effect on him. He probably hadn't planned on that particular form of torture any way.
Jim pulled back his fist and pumped a hard right directly into the middle of Robyn's stomach. All of Paul's punches had not been barely able to penetrate her stomach. But this one punch from Jim penetrated deep into her stomach, almost to the backbone. She had been expecting the stab of pain that accompanied that punch, but had told herself that she wasn't going to show it, no matter what. So though her body and mind screamed out their pain, she showed only a little reaction to the punch.
Her lack of outward reaction caused that slight look of surprise to return to Jim's face. This was just what Robyn needed at that point. That slight change of his expression buoyed her spirits. He had expected her to cave in from that one punch, and she hadn't. But she knew she couldn't take more than one or two more like that before her facade broke down.
Jim punched her again in the same spot. Again came that wave of shooting pain, but again she was able to hide its effects, but just barely. But she knew that would be the last time. She tightened her stomach muscles as hard as she could make them, continuing to ignore the pain that caused, ready to take the next punch.
Jim's next punch was to her upper stomach, well above the navel but just below the solar plexus. She almost sighed with relief, since this was the strongest part of her stomach. And the punch proved it as, while it hurt a lot, it didn't have the searing pain the first two punches had. Now those punches she could take for a lot longer without caving in.
Jim aimed another punch high in her stomach. Robyn was sure she could take a couple more punches there, but she hardened her muscles there anyway. Jim's next punch was the strongest one so far. It was only a little higher than his previous one, but landed squarely in her solar plexus. This time, she couldn't shrug it off. It penetrated deep inside her. Her whole body spasmed at the jolt of electricity that radiated out from the impact point. She gasped only slightly, as the punch immediately froze her breathing in mid-gasp. The pain was more than her body could stand, but her paralyzed body couldn't react to show the pain it was feeling, except for little twitchings of her body as she tried to draw in a breath. And the rope bonds stretching her body out tight didn't even allow her to curl up around the source of the pain to try to relieve it. Instead, she just hung there on the gate, her body shaking and quivering from the punch, her mind completely focused on her pain and her attempts to breathe.
She hung there a while, she didn't know how long. Slowly, the pain died down, and she recovered in a burst, as she inhaled deeply to replace the air that had been forced from her lungs by that punch. Immediately after that, her vision cleared. The first thing she saw was Jim's face with a slight smile on it. From the look on his face, she knew he had gotten his revenge for the previous day, and he knew it too. In fact, he stood there only a couple seconds more before turning and walking away back to the others. The next boy in the line came forward.
Over the next few minutes, her friends in the line came up to her one at a time and punched her. It seemed that Jim had set the standard, as each tried to get her to react to their punches to her stomach. And this time, it was easier. Jim's punches had weakened her stomach muscles, and the pain of them was still lingering. So every punch they threw was a strong reminder of the torture her stomach had just gone through. And every punch now hurt enough that she could no longer hide the pain she was going through.
Over those few minutes, she developed a strong respect for the punching abilities of a couple of the boys and one of the girls. Most of the punches were mild to strong, all of her friends being from farm families, but a few were exceptional. And as is often the case, the strongest punches were from the quietest of her friends. Those who were the most skilled didn't have to show it, she thought.
The punches ranged from the center of her stomach to her solar plexus. Fortunately, those to her solar plexus didn't do anywhere near the damage that Jim's had. But those to the center of her stomach made up for it. By the time the line had dwindled, Robyn's middle was sore with a pulsating pain from all the punching it had taken. With each punch now, she was letting out a gasp, groan or whimper as the punch sank deep into her trembling, weak stomach muscles. Eventually, the line was down to just one, Nancy of course.
Nancy came up to her and with only a moment's hesitation, threw a strong punch directly to Robyn's navel. With all the softening up her stomach had been taking there, Nancy's fast, strong punch sank deep into her, crushing what remaining muscles she had and compressing them against her backbone, the solid gate she was tied to not allowing her body to give in any way. Nancy brought back her fist and threw the identical punch, this time twisting her upper body to put all the mass of her torso into the punch. Tears welled up in Robyn's eyes from the pain of the new blow. A third blow to the same spot just increased the pain, with Robyn now whimpering not only at the punch, but between punches as well.
One of the boys watching this from the group yelled, "Hit her in the solar plexus! She's most sensitive there!"
Nancy looked at Robyn and said to her in a low voice that only she could hear, "Boys! They wouldn't know female anatomy if it bit them!"
Robyn replied, a little out of breath, "Yeah, and I have." Both of them got a little chuckle out of that.
Nancy continued in the same low voice, "Well, where do you want it, high or low?"
Robyn replied, "Either," then after a moment's hesitation, "Umm, make it low." She had been punched in the breasts before a few times, and didn't like it. The punches had left big, purple bruises that took a week to go away, and they had continued to be sore and sensitive for almost as long. She preferred a punch anywhere else to there.
"Are you ready?" said Nancy.
"Yeah, go for it," she responded.
And Nancy complied. She threw a low punch to Robyn's stomach just barely above her crotch. Nancy's small, fist hit hard, penetrating deep into Robyn's naked lower belly, pushing aside all of her trained muscles with ease. Robyn lurched from the shock of the pain of the low blow, her eyes snapping wide open. She had been punched in the lower belly before, but never this hard, and never with her back against an unyielding surface. She had thought she could take just about any pain, but this was way beyond anything she had ever experienced. And it wasn't like a punch to her solar plexus. It was a different kind of pain. It was not the sudden, stabbing, mind numbing pain that radiated to all parts of her body. It was, a white hot, searing pain that was not going away anytime soon, but that left her mind crystal clear to enjoy all of its effects. She started whimpering, as this was all she could do to alleviate the pain. She couldn't curl up into a ball with her arms around her stomach. Her wrist and ankle ropes saw to that. She had to remain stretched out tight while thinking about nothing but the pain in her lower stomach.
Her reveries were interrupted by another jolt. Nancy had punched her again in the same place, maybe a little higher this time. She didn't see it coming, as she was so absorbed by the thoughts of the previous punch. Fortunately, her stomach was already at its peak of pain, so the newest punch didn't add that much to it. She had never cried in her life, but she came as close to bursting out in tears as she had ever done. But she was not going to let her friends who were still watching her see her cry. So she just hung there, trying with all her might to keep from crying from the pain pulsating in her lower belly.
That was the last punch Nancy gave her. But just before she returned to the rest of the gang, she bent close to Robyn and whispered, "Hang in there."
In the midst of her pain, Robyn found this ridiculously funny, with her hanging on the back gate like that. She would have broken out laughing if she didn't hurt so much.
Nancy rejoined the group. Through her slowly receding pain, Robyn heard Paul say, "Go get Jessie."
Jessie was an old mule they still kept around the farm. Back when Robyn was young, they had ridden Jessie a lot, as she was their size then and was gentle and tame. But as Jessie grew older, she developed a temper. This was OK, since she and her brothers had grown too big for Jessie, and had graduated on to full-sized horses.
The pain in her lower stomach was slowly becoming only a dull, general ache, so she could devote some of her mind to the outside world again. She wondered what they had in mind for Old Jess, but she knew it had something to do with her, and probably with their revenge.
One of her friends led Old Jess from her stall toward the group. Paul took Old Jess' reins, and backed her into the stall, backward toward Robyn. He then closed the front gates around her neck, which held her head forward so she couldn't twist her head around to see behind her.
The restraining pen was designed to hold an animal immobile. On their farm, it was usually used to prevent the animal from moving around and injuring itself or others during any medical treatment needed. But it allowed the veterinarian access to the animal through the widely spaced bars. Several times, Robyn had been at the front gates, comforting the animal while it was being worked on from the side.
Now, Old Jess was being held tightly, her tail still a few feet from Robyn at the back of the pen. The front gates holding her upper neck prevented her from looking behind her, but Paul was comforting her, so she seemed calm.
Robyn had no idea what they had in store for her, with Old Jess in that position. But as soon as she saw the long willow switch in Paul's hand, she knew. And, she was right.
Robyn had been kicked by a horse before, and she didn't like it. When she had gotten up, she had been sore for a day afterward. She had seen Old Jess take on a pack of dogs with her strong kicks, and drive them all away. In fact that was the main reason they kept her around. When they let her graze with the other animals, he acted as a natural bodyguard for them. So she wasn't excited about what she was almost certain would be happening next.
Robyn watched as Paul moved down the restraining pen to Old Jess' hind quarter. Reaching between the bars of the pen, he lightly tapped the switch on her left rear haunches. She swished her tail to swat it, and raised her hoof a little. He tapped harder, causing her to jump a little and bring her hoof up higher.
Robyn could see she was nervous from the way she was prancing around in the pen a little. With her neck locked in the front gates of the pen, Old Jess couldn't see behind her to see what that irritation was. And that made her nervous. On the next, harder tap from Paul, she kicked backward with her left hind leg.
Robyn knew what was coming, so she tensed her stomach tight. Jess' kick landed in her lower stomach, fortunately higher than Nancy's punches, but it still hurt. Jess' unshod hoof landed flat against her stomach, penetrating only a little. But with the weight of her leg and hoof behind the kick, Robyn's taut stomach muscles were only able to slow down its penetration, not stop it. And now Jess knew there was something back behind her she could kick into, maybe the cause of the irritation. "This is going to be interesting," Robyn thought, "and not in a good way!"
Paul brought back the switch and struck it hard against Jess' upper leg. Jess immediately reacted to this by kicking backward with her left leg.
Jess' kick landed in the middle of Robyn's stomach, flat again. This one penetrated through Robyn's hardened muscles, compressing them between her hoof and the back gate. It wasn't as fast as Nancy's martial arts punches, but with Jess' strong hind leg muscles and heavy hooves behind it, the kick didn't slow down at all until her hoof had just about reached Robyn's backbone. Robyn grunted at this new, sudden jolt of pain. It was similar to all the other ones she had endured this day, but worse. She whimpered, wanting to curl up into a ball. But of course she couldn't move. She ended up just hanging there, panting to try to get her breath back, wanting the pain to stop. She had just about resumed her normal breathing, when Paul struck Jess again.
Jess kicked in the same area on Robyn's stomach but to one side, this time kicking upward. The front edge of her hoof penetrated inward into Robyn's middle, then pushed upward to push her muscles upward too. It was fortunate for Robyn that her kick was off to one side, as the hard front edge of her hoof penetrated almost all the way to the gate behind her, pinching the side of her stomach like a giant claw and ripping her muscles upward. But "fortunate" wasn't the word Robyn would have used at that point. She of course grunted, but was not able to make a sound beyond that. She just hung there with her eyes wide open, not moving.
The kick to the side of her stomach had penetrated well into her side stomach muscles then ripped up, seemingly tearing them to shreds. At least that's what it felt like to what few nerve endings she still had active in that area of her stomach. In fact, most of that side of her stomach was now numb. But that didn't stop it from hurting. Her eyes started to water from the pain, and soon twin streams of tears ran down her cheeks. Her stomach muscles were twitching involuntarily, and with every twitch, the throbbing spiked anew. Too slowly, the pain receded. But the numbness receded just as fast, allowing her to experience the torture at the site of the kick all that much more. So overall, her stomach kept screaming its pain out at her. Only slowly did it lower its voice to a manageable level. But then Paul hit Jess again, this time full across her rump.
By now, Jess was getting irritable. She could not see behind her due to the gates, but something back there had been snapping at her hind leg. When it attacked her hind quarters in a stinging attack, she lost her temper completely. Whatever it was, it was going to feel her hooves in its head. She jerked her hind quarters up and kicked back with both hooves, snapping them back to the floor before she fell. She was satisfied when she kicked into something squishy and soft. So, she kicked at the same place again, and then a third time, each time feeling that same soft impact. But when she jumped up to kick, her sides rubbed painfully against the sides of the pen she was in. So she decided she had done enough damage to her target for now, and would wait to see if it attacked her again before continuing her own attack.
Jess' new kicks landed in Robyn's upper stomach, in the strongest and most muscled part of it. But these were full kicks from both hooves of a strong mule, so the strength of her muscles didn't really matter. Jess' hooves entered this part of her stomach as easily as they would have in her weakest, least muscled part.
Jess' hooves both hit Robyn's stomach at the same time, in her upper stomach but close together, landing on either side. Robyn only had a fraction of a second to be grateful she had a long, slender stomach, since if they had landed a few inches higher, they would probably have broken a rib or two. But as it was, they landed each in the middle of her slightly pronounced abs, which ran in two parallel rows down the sides of her stomach.
The first kick penetrated to the gate, crushing her stomach muscles under Jess' hooves. The kick had been well below Robyn's solar plexus, but that didn't matter. The concussion and strength of the kick pushed her internal organs out of the way, driving a lot of them up into her diaphragm. This had the same effect as a shot to the solar plexus. Her breath burst out of her wide open mouth, as she lost her breath and even her ability to breathe. She just hung there, trying to draw a breath, a little rivulet of spittle slowly working its way down her cheek toward her chin. That was when the second kick struck.
The second kick was a little lower but just as hard. It again drove her internal organs out of its way, creating a much smaller but just as powerful burst of air from Robyn. The third kick landed in the same spot. But this time, there was absolutely no air left in Robyn's lungs. She just hung there with her mouth open, and her eyes wide and bugging out.
When the first kick hit her stomach, Robyn was stunned from the force of the blow. Never before had she felt such a powerful blow to her body. Never before had she felt such a burst of pain. She went immediately numb, her mind thinking only about the sparkling pain pulsating in her stomach. Her whole stomach started to spasm strongly, uncontrollably. Her whole body started to tremble from the strong muscle contractions in her stomach. The second kick had almost the opposite effect. The force of it and the accompanying jolt of pain caused her stomach muscles to lock up in a single rock hard contraction. She was barely able to detect this, as her whole body, down to even her hair it seemed, was on fire from the intense pain her stomach was sharing with the rest of her body. Her mind was fuzzy and her vision was blurry, so she didn't see the third kick coming. Even with her stomach muscles contracted steel hard, harder than she ever could have tightened them consciously, the third kick penetrated just as easily as the last two. She felt only a little part of the kick before she passed out.
Robyn awoke slowly, the pain in her stomach immediately making itself known to her numb but slowly clearing mind. She must have been out a long time, as the pain in her stomach only hurt like it was being run over by a freight train, the pistons pumping hard in and out of her stomach in time with her twitching muscles. She was actually able to think after only a minute or so. And the first thing she did was to put her hand to her stomach. It was a little later that she realized that the hand she had put to her stomach was untied. She saw that her other wrist and both her legs were still tied. She almost chuckled a little, as the image formed in her mind of Paul cautiously untying her one wrist, trying to keep out of range of her fist if she woke up before he was finished, but leaving her other wrist and ankles tied so he would have plenty of time to escape before she got free. And he was right. If she had been free, she would have beaten him to a pulp for what he had done to her.
Once she got her hands and legs free, she took a step toward the door, and immediately collapsed to the straw strewn floor. Her body told her she was not ready to walk yet, or even to stand up. And trying to sit up caused her stomach to spasm again, sending new jolts of throbbing pain into her body. Her whole body thrashed around on the floor, caused by the strong contractions of her stomach and the fiery sparks of pain the contractions caused. She just laid there, letting the stomach muscle spasms subside. But when she tried to flex them, they started to spasm again. Finally after several minutes, she was actually able to sit up, with only an occasional twitch of her stomach. Standing up and walking around came soon after that, though she was only able to walk bent over with her hand around her stomach to relieve the pulsing and throbbing still there.
She looked around, and as she figured, she was alone. Jess was back in her stall and seemed content. The barn door was closed, but she could see that Paul's pickup was gone through the cracks. She suddenly wondered where the others had parked, because she hadn't seen their cars when they entered the barn. How many hours ago had that been, anyway? She looked around, and saw her clothes just where she had put them when she had taken them off earlier. She slowly went to get dressed and saw by her watch it had been over three hours since they had entered the barn. Doing some quick calculations, she realized that she must have been out over two hours before awakening.
Much more rapidly now, Robyn got dressed and started to the door. But passing a mirror she stopped, looking at the mud caking her face. Her tears from the pain (not, she proudly realized, from her crying) had mixed with the dust and dirt in the barn, giving her a natural mudpack facial. But she didn't mind, and went toward the door with much like her usual walk. It would not be the first time she had gotten her face this dirty.
As she walked out from the barn, a sudden thought came to her. It was exactly like Paul's sense of humor. In fact, knowing him, he may have set up this whole thing just to use this as a punch line. He had said they were going into the barn "Jes fer kicks," and knowing him, he probably meant the kicks from Jess.
Yes, that was just like him. "But of course, you realize," Robyn said in a low voice to herself as she walked briskly back to the farmhouse. "This means war..."
Paul said, "OK, line up. Jim, you come up here in front."
After they formed a rough line, Jim approached her. When he was close she said in a calm voice, "You tickle me and you die." Both of them knew she would not actually kill him, but both of them knew what she would do to him. But except for a slight look of surprise, her statement of fact had no effect on him. He probably hadn't planned on that particular form of torture any way.
Jim pulled back his fist and pumped a hard right directly into the middle of Robyn's stomach. All of Paul's punches had not been barely able to penetrate her stomach. But this one punch from Jim penetrated deep into her stomach, almost to the backbone. She had been expecting the stab of pain that accompanied that punch, but had told herself that she wasn't going to show it, no matter what. So though her body and mind screamed out their pain, she showed only a little reaction to the punch.
Her lack of outward reaction caused that slight look of surprise to return to Jim's face. This was just what Robyn needed at that point. That slight change of his expression buoyed her spirits. He had expected her to cave in from that one punch, and she hadn't. But she knew she couldn't take more than one or two more like that before her facade broke down.
Jim punched her again in the same spot. Again came that wave of shooting pain, but again she was able to hide its effects, but just barely. But she knew that would be the last time. She tightened her stomach muscles as hard as she could make them, continuing to ignore the pain that caused, ready to take the next punch.
Jim's next punch was to her upper stomach, well above the navel but just below the solar plexus. She almost sighed with relief, since this was the strongest part of her stomach. And the punch proved it as, while it hurt a lot, it didn't have the searing pain the first two punches had. Now those punches she could take for a lot longer without caving in.
Jim aimed another punch high in her stomach. Robyn was sure she could take a couple more punches there, but she hardened her muscles there anyway. Jim's next punch was the strongest one so far. It was only a little higher than his previous one, but landed squarely in her solar plexus. This time, she couldn't shrug it off. It penetrated deep inside her. Her whole body spasmed at the jolt of electricity that radiated out from the impact point. She gasped only slightly, as the punch immediately froze her breathing in mid-gasp. The pain was more than her body could stand, but her paralyzed body couldn't react to show the pain it was feeling, except for little twitchings of her body as she tried to draw in a breath. And the rope bonds stretching her body out tight didn't even allow her to curl up around the source of the pain to try to relieve it. Instead, she just hung there on the gate, her body shaking and quivering from the punch, her mind completely focused on her pain and her attempts to breathe.
She hung there a while, she didn't know how long. Slowly, the pain died down, and she recovered in a burst, as she inhaled deeply to replace the air that had been forced from her lungs by that punch. Immediately after that, her vision cleared. The first thing she saw was Jim's face with a slight smile on it. From the look on his face, she knew he had gotten his revenge for the previous day, and he knew it too. In fact, he stood there only a couple seconds more before turning and walking away back to the others. The next boy in the line came forward.
Over the next few minutes, her friends in the line came up to her one at a time and punched her. It seemed that Jim had set the standard, as each tried to get her to react to their punches to her stomach. And this time, it was easier. Jim's punches had weakened her stomach muscles, and the pain of them was still lingering. So every punch they threw was a strong reminder of the torture her stomach had just gone through. And every punch now hurt enough that she could no longer hide the pain she was going through.
Over those few minutes, she developed a strong respect for the punching abilities of a couple of the boys and one of the girls. Most of the punches were mild to strong, all of her friends being from farm families, but a few were exceptional. And as is often the case, the strongest punches were from the quietest of her friends. Those who were the most skilled didn't have to show it, she thought.
The punches ranged from the center of her stomach to her solar plexus. Fortunately, those to her solar plexus didn't do anywhere near the damage that Jim's had. But those to the center of her stomach made up for it. By the time the line had dwindled, Robyn's middle was sore with a pulsating pain from all the punching it had taken. With each punch now, she was letting out a gasp, groan or whimper as the punch sank deep into her trembling, weak stomach muscles. Eventually, the line was down to just one, Nancy of course.
Nancy came up to her and with only a moment's hesitation, threw a strong punch directly to Robyn's navel. With all the softening up her stomach had been taking there, Nancy's fast, strong punch sank deep into her, crushing what remaining muscles she had and compressing them against her backbone, the solid gate she was tied to not allowing her body to give in any way. Nancy brought back her fist and threw the identical punch, this time twisting her upper body to put all the mass of her torso into the punch. Tears welled up in Robyn's eyes from the pain of the new blow. A third blow to the same spot just increased the pain, with Robyn now whimpering not only at the punch, but between punches as well.
One of the boys watching this from the group yelled, "Hit her in the solar plexus! She's most sensitive there!"
Nancy looked at Robyn and said to her in a low voice that only she could hear, "Boys! They wouldn't know female anatomy if it bit them!"
Robyn replied, a little out of breath, "Yeah, and I have." Both of them got a little chuckle out of that.
Nancy continued in the same low voice, "Well, where do you want it, high or low?"
Robyn replied, "Either," then after a moment's hesitation, "Umm, make it low." She had been punched in the breasts before a few times, and didn't like it. The punches had left big, purple bruises that took a week to go away, and they had continued to be sore and sensitive for almost as long. She preferred a punch anywhere else to there.
"Are you ready?" said Nancy.
"Yeah, go for it," she responded.
And Nancy complied. She threw a low punch to Robyn's stomach just barely above her crotch. Nancy's small, fist hit hard, penetrating deep into Robyn's naked lower belly, pushing aside all of her trained muscles with ease. Robyn lurched from the shock of the pain of the low blow, her eyes snapping wide open. She had been punched in the lower belly before, but never this hard, and never with her back against an unyielding surface. She had thought she could take just about any pain, but this was way beyond anything she had ever experienced. And it wasn't like a punch to her solar plexus. It was a different kind of pain. It was not the sudden, stabbing, mind numbing pain that radiated to all parts of her body. It was, a white hot, searing pain that was not going away anytime soon, but that left her mind crystal clear to enjoy all of its effects. She started whimpering, as this was all she could do to alleviate the pain. She couldn't curl up into a ball with her arms around her stomach. Her wrist and ankle ropes saw to that. She had to remain stretched out tight while thinking about nothing but the pain in her lower stomach.
Her reveries were interrupted by another jolt. Nancy had punched her again in the same place, maybe a little higher this time. She didn't see it coming, as she was so absorbed by the thoughts of the previous punch. Fortunately, her stomach was already at its peak of pain, so the newest punch didn't add that much to it. She had never cried in her life, but she came as close to bursting out in tears as she had ever done. But she was not going to let her friends who were still watching her see her cry. So she just hung there, trying with all her might to keep from crying from the pain pulsating in her lower belly.
That was the last punch Nancy gave her. But just before she returned to the rest of the gang, she bent close to Robyn and whispered, "Hang in there."
In the midst of her pain, Robyn found this ridiculously funny, with her hanging on the back gate like that. She would have broken out laughing if she didn't hurt so much.
Nancy rejoined the group. Through her slowly receding pain, Robyn heard Paul say, "Go get Jessie."
Jessie was an old mule they still kept around the farm. Back when Robyn was young, they had ridden Jessie a lot, as she was their size then and was gentle and tame. But as Jessie grew older, she developed a temper. This was OK, since she and her brothers had grown too big for Jessie, and had graduated on to full-sized horses.
The pain in her lower stomach was slowly becoming only a dull, general ache, so she could devote some of her mind to the outside world again. She wondered what they had in mind for Old Jess, but she knew it had something to do with her, and probably with their revenge.
One of her friends led Old Jess from her stall toward the group. Paul took Old Jess' reins, and backed her into the stall, backward toward Robyn. He then closed the front gates around her neck, which held her head forward so she couldn't twist her head around to see behind her.
The restraining pen was designed to hold an animal immobile. On their farm, it was usually used to prevent the animal from moving around and injuring itself or others during any medical treatment needed. But it allowed the veterinarian access to the animal through the widely spaced bars. Several times, Robyn had been at the front gates, comforting the animal while it was being worked on from the side.
Now, Old Jess was being held tightly, her tail still a few feet from Robyn at the back of the pen. The front gates holding her upper neck prevented her from looking behind her, but Paul was comforting her, so she seemed calm.
Robyn had no idea what they had in store for her, with Old Jess in that position. But as soon as she saw the long willow switch in Paul's hand, she knew. And, she was right.
Robyn had been kicked by a horse before, and she didn't like it. When she had gotten up, she had been sore for a day afterward. She had seen Old Jess take on a pack of dogs with her strong kicks, and drive them all away. In fact that was the main reason they kept her around. When they let her graze with the other animals, he acted as a natural bodyguard for them. So she wasn't excited about what she was almost certain would be happening next.
Robyn watched as Paul moved down the restraining pen to Old Jess' hind quarter. Reaching between the bars of the pen, he lightly tapped the switch on her left rear haunches. She swished her tail to swat it, and raised her hoof a little. He tapped harder, causing her to jump a little and bring her hoof up higher.
Robyn could see she was nervous from the way she was prancing around in the pen a little. With her neck locked in the front gates of the pen, Old Jess couldn't see behind her to see what that irritation was. And that made her nervous. On the next, harder tap from Paul, she kicked backward with her left hind leg.
Robyn knew what was coming, so she tensed her stomach tight. Jess' kick landed in her lower stomach, fortunately higher than Nancy's punches, but it still hurt. Jess' unshod hoof landed flat against her stomach, penetrating only a little. But with the weight of her leg and hoof behind the kick, Robyn's taut stomach muscles were only able to slow down its penetration, not stop it. And now Jess knew there was something back behind her she could kick into, maybe the cause of the irritation. "This is going to be interesting," Robyn thought, "and not in a good way!"
Paul brought back the switch and struck it hard against Jess' upper leg. Jess immediately reacted to this by kicking backward with her left leg.
Jess' kick landed in the middle of Robyn's stomach, flat again. This one penetrated through Robyn's hardened muscles, compressing them between her hoof and the back gate. It wasn't as fast as Nancy's martial arts punches, but with Jess' strong hind leg muscles and heavy hooves behind it, the kick didn't slow down at all until her hoof had just about reached Robyn's backbone. Robyn grunted at this new, sudden jolt of pain. It was similar to all the other ones she had endured this day, but worse. She whimpered, wanting to curl up into a ball. But of course she couldn't move. She ended up just hanging there, panting to try to get her breath back, wanting the pain to stop. She had just about resumed her normal breathing, when Paul struck Jess again.
Jess kicked in the same area on Robyn's stomach but to one side, this time kicking upward. The front edge of her hoof penetrated inward into Robyn's middle, then pushed upward to push her muscles upward too. It was fortunate for Robyn that her kick was off to one side, as the hard front edge of her hoof penetrated almost all the way to the gate behind her, pinching the side of her stomach like a giant claw and ripping her muscles upward. But "fortunate" wasn't the word Robyn would have used at that point. She of course grunted, but was not able to make a sound beyond that. She just hung there with her eyes wide open, not moving.
The kick to the side of her stomach had penetrated well into her side stomach muscles then ripped up, seemingly tearing them to shreds. At least that's what it felt like to what few nerve endings she still had active in that area of her stomach. In fact, most of that side of her stomach was now numb. But that didn't stop it from hurting. Her eyes started to water from the pain, and soon twin streams of tears ran down her cheeks. Her stomach muscles were twitching involuntarily, and with every twitch, the throbbing spiked anew. Too slowly, the pain receded. But the numbness receded just as fast, allowing her to experience the torture at the site of the kick all that much more. So overall, her stomach kept screaming its pain out at her. Only slowly did it lower its voice to a manageable level. But then Paul hit Jess again, this time full across her rump.
By now, Jess was getting irritable. She could not see behind her due to the gates, but something back there had been snapping at her hind leg. When it attacked her hind quarters in a stinging attack, she lost her temper completely. Whatever it was, it was going to feel her hooves in its head. She jerked her hind quarters up and kicked back with both hooves, snapping them back to the floor before she fell. She was satisfied when she kicked into something squishy and soft. So, she kicked at the same place again, and then a third time, each time feeling that same soft impact. But when she jumped up to kick, her sides rubbed painfully against the sides of the pen she was in. So she decided she had done enough damage to her target for now, and would wait to see if it attacked her again before continuing her own attack.
Jess' new kicks landed in Robyn's upper stomach, in the strongest and most muscled part of it. But these were full kicks from both hooves of a strong mule, so the strength of her muscles didn't really matter. Jess' hooves entered this part of her stomach as easily as they would have in her weakest, least muscled part.
Jess' hooves both hit Robyn's stomach at the same time, in her upper stomach but close together, landing on either side. Robyn only had a fraction of a second to be grateful she had a long, slender stomach, since if they had landed a few inches higher, they would probably have broken a rib or two. But as it was, they landed each in the middle of her slightly pronounced abs, which ran in two parallel rows down the sides of her stomach.
The first kick penetrated to the gate, crushing her stomach muscles under Jess' hooves. The kick had been well below Robyn's solar plexus, but that didn't matter. The concussion and strength of the kick pushed her internal organs out of the way, driving a lot of them up into her diaphragm. This had the same effect as a shot to the solar plexus. Her breath burst out of her wide open mouth, as she lost her breath and even her ability to breathe. She just hung there, trying to draw a breath, a little rivulet of spittle slowly working its way down her cheek toward her chin. That was when the second kick struck.
The second kick was a little lower but just as hard. It again drove her internal organs out of its way, creating a much smaller but just as powerful burst of air from Robyn. The third kick landed in the same spot. But this time, there was absolutely no air left in Robyn's lungs. She just hung there with her mouth open, and her eyes wide and bugging out.
When the first kick hit her stomach, Robyn was stunned from the force of the blow. Never before had she felt such a powerful blow to her body. Never before had she felt such a burst of pain. She went immediately numb, her mind thinking only about the sparkling pain pulsating in her stomach. Her whole stomach started to spasm strongly, uncontrollably. Her whole body started to tremble from the strong muscle contractions in her stomach. The second kick had almost the opposite effect. The force of it and the accompanying jolt of pain caused her stomach muscles to lock up in a single rock hard contraction. She was barely able to detect this, as her whole body, down to even her hair it seemed, was on fire from the intense pain her stomach was sharing with the rest of her body. Her mind was fuzzy and her vision was blurry, so she didn't see the third kick coming. Even with her stomach muscles contracted steel hard, harder than she ever could have tightened them consciously, the third kick penetrated just as easily as the last two. She felt only a little part of the kick before she passed out.
Robyn awoke slowly, the pain in her stomach immediately making itself known to her numb but slowly clearing mind. She must have been out a long time, as the pain in her stomach only hurt like it was being run over by a freight train, the pistons pumping hard in and out of her stomach in time with her twitching muscles. She was actually able to think after only a minute or so. And the first thing she did was to put her hand to her stomach. It was a little later that she realized that the hand she had put to her stomach was untied. She saw that her other wrist and both her legs were still tied. She almost chuckled a little, as the image formed in her mind of Paul cautiously untying her one wrist, trying to keep out of range of her fist if she woke up before he was finished, but leaving her other wrist and ankles tied so he would have plenty of time to escape before she got free. And he was right. If she had been free, she would have beaten him to a pulp for what he had done to her.
Once she got her hands and legs free, she took a step toward the door, and immediately collapsed to the straw strewn floor. Her body told her she was not ready to walk yet, or even to stand up. And trying to sit up caused her stomach to spasm again, sending new jolts of throbbing pain into her body. Her whole body thrashed around on the floor, caused by the strong contractions of her stomach and the fiery sparks of pain the contractions caused. She just laid there, letting the stomach muscle spasms subside. But when she tried to flex them, they started to spasm again. Finally after several minutes, she was actually able to sit up, with only an occasional twitch of her stomach. Standing up and walking around came soon after that, though she was only able to walk bent over with her hand around her stomach to relieve the pulsing and throbbing still there.
She looked around, and as she figured, she was alone. Jess was back in her stall and seemed content. The barn door was closed, but she could see that Paul's pickup was gone through the cracks. She suddenly wondered where the others had parked, because she hadn't seen their cars when they entered the barn. How many hours ago had that been, anyway? She looked around, and saw her clothes just where she had put them when she had taken them off earlier. She slowly went to get dressed and saw by her watch it had been over three hours since they had entered the barn. Doing some quick calculations, she realized that she must have been out over two hours before awakening.
Much more rapidly now, Robyn got dressed and started to the door. But passing a mirror she stopped, looking at the mud caking her face. Her tears from the pain (not, she proudly realized, from her crying) had mixed with the dust and dirt in the barn, giving her a natural mudpack facial. But she didn't mind, and went toward the door with much like her usual walk. It would not be the first time she had gotten her face this dirty.
As she walked out from the barn, a sudden thought came to her. It was exactly like Paul's sense of humor. In fact, knowing him, he may have set up this whole thing just to use this as a punch line. He had said they were going into the barn "Jes fer kicks," and knowing him, he probably meant the kicks from Jess.
Yes, that was just like him. "But of course, you realize," Robyn said in a low voice to herself as she walked briskly back to the farmhouse. "This means war..."