Artemis was a sorceress who ran her own store in which she offered magical services, from potions and tonics to enchantments and spells. Her fur was tan and white, and her eyes were green. She had a tuft of fluff atop her head that was almost like hair, the same color as her fur. Behind her right ear was a small pink flower with five petals. She was only three feet tall—an appropriate size for a corgi.

Though she wasn’t necessarily famous, she was certainly well-regarded. She was wise and patient, always eager to help others and share understanding as best she could. It was impossible to tell how long she had been around for: she had the appearance of a young adult but her store had been around for at least a few generations. Her age may have been a source of speculation but one thing everyone definitely agreed on was that they were better off with her around.

Today seemed like a day just like any other. Artemis was in her store, of which the shelves and walls were a simple stained wood. She wore her standard attire for tending the store: a shimmering purple robe held together with a violet ribbon around her waist. She also wore an anklet on each leg, thin golden bands with small amethysts covering the clasps. Business was slow today but considering that this was more of a helpful hobby than a livelihood, Artemis wasn’t bothered. She was seated on a wooden chair behind a table at the opposite end of the store from the door, facing the front entrance and looking over a journal that was scribbled with symbols and incantations.

Ting-a-ling.

The corgi’s ears perked up as she heard the shop bell ring from the door opening. A brown otter walked in through the door, who was the same height as Artemis but as wide as he was tall. His eyes were blue, as were his pawpads and tongue. He wore a pair of stretchy dark blue gym shorts—the only clothing he could find in his size. He closed the solid wooden door behind himself and it clicked back into the latch.

“Ah! Good morning!” Artemis slipped a bookmark into her journal and closed it, hopping off of her chair and walking towards the otter with a smile, stopping in front of him and bowing politely. “I’m Artemis. How may I help you today?”

“I-I’m Cooper,” said the otter, his cheeks blushing blue. He was a visitor to this town and had heard about the magic shop, expecting to see a wizened old gray-furred dog with visible age to match her experience. He had not been expecting a pretty corgi lady with soft, inviting curves visible through her robes. He tried to get as good a look at her as she could without being too obvious, his eyes quickly going from her head down to her feetpaws before making eye contact again.

“Nice to meet you Cooper!” said Artemis with a smile. Her robe fluttered behind herself as her nub-tail wagged. “Are you familiar with the services I offer?”

Her voice was smooth like velvet and made Cooper’s ears feel pleasantly tingly as she spoke. “Y-yes, I was actually hoping you could teach me a little, if that’s okay,” he said.

The corgi tilted her head and furrowed her brows slightly. “You mean like an apprentice?”

Cooper nodded. “As you can imagine it can be hard for me to get around sometimes, and while I like being this weight, it would be nice to struggle less with doorways and not get so winded all the time.” Artemis just continued to look at him with those emerald eyes and the otter felt self-conscious. “I’m sorry, this was a silly thing to ask, wasn’t it?”

The corgi shook her head and smiled. “Not at all! I’m only now realizing how odd it is that after all this time, you’re the first one to request a way to do it yourself instead of having me do it for you.” She walked up to Cooper and started sniffing at him, leaving him slightly confused and that much more flustered. “I smell no magic on you,” she said. “How much experience do you have with spellcasting?”

Cooper hesitated a little before speaking. “None,” he said sheepishly. “Is that a problem?”

“Not for long,” giggled Artemis. “I may be powerful now, but I once had to start from scratch long, long ago.” Cooper was about to ask how long ago, but thought better of it. Artemis reached out and placed a palm on the otter’s chest. He shivered a little bit at her touch, her fur like silk and the pawpads on her fingers gently squishing into his skin. “Close your eyes and focus where I’m touching, please.”

The otter closed his eyes and focused on the feel of her handpaw against himself. In his mind’s eye he saw five dots of light form in the shape of where her finger-pads touched. Lines of light reached out from them and connected to each other, and though his eyes were closed a burst of light flashed before him. He felt a warm sensation spreading through his entire body, and then it faded away. Cooper then felt the corgi’s handpaw lift from his chest and he opened his eyes to see her smiling face.

“I won’t try to explain exactly what I just did,” said the corgi, “but suffice to say you can cast some simple spells now.”

It was then that something occurred to Cooper. “I don’t mean to be rude but how much is this going to cost?”

Artemis thought about it for a moment. “Honestly, I’ve never had an apprentice before so I have no baseline. Why don’t we not worry about payment for this one and just say you get a discount for being cute?” she said with a wink.

Cooper blushed deeply. Artemis was just being playful but her words hit him harder than she realized. “Sounds good to me!” he squeaked.

The corgi turned away from the otter and made her way to a doorway behind the desk. She stopped with one of her legs still lifted as she touched the knob, turning her head to look at Cooper. “Follow me, if you would.”

Cooper was very fond of paws and couldn’t help but stare for a few seconds at the sole presented before him. The corgi’s thick, pink pawpads were perfectly smooth and lacked the leathery cracks of age. Tufts of soft fluff peeked between her toes, and poked up around her middlemost pad and heelpad. They were as close to perfect as the otter could imagine and he thought to how much he wanted a chance to feel them, even if only for a second.

“Is there something on my paw?” asked Artemis with some slight confusion in her voice.

“Huh?” Cooper snapped back to attention. “Oh no, I was just—” he stopped himself and blushed, clearing his throat. “Nevermind.” He pulled his pants up a bit, smushing his stomach upwards slightly, and then waddled towards Artemis.

The back room looked like a lounge, with intricately designed rugs covering the wooden floor and plush armchairs seated around a small round table. Artemis sat down in one of them with one leg crossed over the other. “Take a seat,” she said, gesturing towards a chair next to her.

That seat happened to be facing Artemis’s sole propped up on her leg, and Cooper did his best to avoid staring as he sat down next to the corgi. Every so often though, his eyes would flick downwards, trying to get quick mental snapshots before looking back at Artemis.

“It’s alright to be nervous,” said the corgi, noticing his eyes darting around. “Just take a few deep breaths and try to calm down.”

Cooper immediately thought to how he wanted to take a breath of those paws, which manifested as a blush as he breathed in and out slowly.

“Good, good,” said Artemis. “We’ll start with something incredibly simple. Now, watch my handpaw.” She lifted up an arm with her palm facing the ceiling. Cooper did as he was told, glad to have been instructed to focus somewhere specific (as it helped prevent his eyes from wandering). A pinpoint of light appeared above the corgi’s palm, as if pricked into existence by an invisible needle. The dot blossomed into a flower much like the one behind the corgi’s ear, though it was an ethereal and ghostly white instead of pink with a yellow center. It hovered in place, slowly rotating clockwise.

“This is the tricky bit because I can’t explain it beyond this,” the corgi continued, “but you have to see it in your mind. Focus on it, your desire for it to manifest, and reality will follow.”

Cooper nodded and closed his eyes, holding a palm up as Artemis did. He couldn’t help but think about her paws, how dainty they looked and how soft the fluff appeared to be. A pinpoint of light appeared above his palm and he opened his eyes to observe, his eyes widening as it distinctly formed an ethereal replica of Artemis’s paw.

“Ack!” Cooper blushed deeply and started to flick his wrist, as if attempting to shake off what had been there. “I didn’t mean to… weh!”

Artemis giggled softly. “No, it’s perfectly understandable. As I said, it’s tricky: there’s a distinction between seeing with your eyes and seeing with your mind.” She gestured at her paw, curling and uncurling her toes a few times. “In fact, I think we could take full advantage of this. Keep looking at it and try to memorize it looks so you can fully visualize it.”

Cooper took full advantage of the invitation to look directly at the paw, admiring the way her pawpads squished slightly when her toes were curled. They looked so pillowy and inviting, each toe-curl feeling like a direct invitation that the otter had to resist. He lost track of how long he had been staring at them and wishing he could just bury his face in them.

Artemis eventually lowered her footpaw against the floor and leaned forward a bit. “Now close your eyes, and try again,” she said.

Cooper closed his eyes with his palm facing upwards and had no problem focusing on the corgi’s paw. He could see it all clear as day, down to the placement of the tufts of fur. The dot of light appeared, and when the otter opened his eyes it blossomed like a flower into the shape of the paw. There was no ghostly translucence to it—the paw was perfectly opaque as if a direct copy, only the ankle tapering off into invisibility.

Artemis stood up and applauded him. “Fantastic!” She walked over and examined the hovering image of the paw carefully from various angles. A gentle fragrance of vanilla wafted off of her and made its way into Cooper’s nose. “It looks so real I feel like I could touch it,” she said, before backing away and sitting back down. “Well done, Cooper!”

Cooper smiled at the praise, his tail shifting behind his body as it attempted to wag. “Thank you!” he said happily.

“That’s exactly what I meant by seeing it in your mind,” said Artemis. “Now, let’s try something a bit more difficult.” She pointed at the flower atop her head. “Fill in the blanks in your vision to complete the image from where you sit,” said the corgi.

Cooper looked at the flower for a few seconds to try to remember its details and then closed his eyes and had his handpaw take its proper position. When the pinpoint of light appeared, the image that followed was hazy and nebulous, shifting between flower-like petals and a vague resemblance of a paw before evaporating like fog under the sun. The otter tried again but it was the same amorphous result.

“Hmm, interesting,” Artemis mumbled quietly. “Okay,” she said more audibly, “now try to make the first thing that comes to mind. Don’t think about thinking about it. Go!”

Cooper did as he was told and it was no surprise what came to mind. Above his upward-facing palm came a replica of Artemis’s footpaw, the implications making Cooper blush deeply.

Fortunately for him, the corgi wasn’t reading much into it. “You’ve got a knack for detail but it seems like you sometimes don’t have full control over what you focus on.”

You have no idea, Cooper thought to himself.

“That sounds about right,” he said.

“Let’s try something different,” said Artemis. “Incantations are straightforward. This one will help give you an ear for the more complex ones. Repeat after me.” She spoke a few words in an ancient long-dead tongue. To Cooper, they might as well have been random syllables. He tried to repeat as best he could but he was nervous and stumbled over a few of the words. When he finished, he felt a tingling over his body and while he knew something had happened, he was fairly certain it wasn’t what Artemis had intended.

“What did I do to myself?” Cooper wondered out loud. “I really hope I didn’t screw this up. She’s so pretty and I don’t want to let her down.” He blushed and covered his mouth. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to say that out loud. Dammit Cooper, you’re making a complete fool of yourself. Ack! Why do I keep saying my thoughts?”

Artemis giggled. “Well, you stumbled over some words so the effects likely got a bit warped.” Her cheeks glowed pink a little bit. “You really think I’m pretty?”

“Oh yes,” said Cooper. “Especially your paws. They’re gorgeous and I want to spend my life underneath them.” He whined with embarrassment as he couldn’t stop speaking his thoughts about them. “I love them so much, I can’t stop looking at them and it’s hard to stop thinking about them. I think I have a crush on you because of them.” The poor flustered otter was left hiding his face behind his handpaws. He peeked through them after a few seconds, saw that Artemis was still staring at him, and he whined as he closed his paw-fingers again. “This is so wrong. She’s been so nice to me and I’m being weird about her paws. Her wonderful, wonderful paws. They look so soft and I just wish I could—augh, don’t! It’s rude!” Cooper was left holding his own mouth closed with his paw-fingers and clenching his eyes tight as he mumbled into his palms.

Artemis quietly walked up to Cooper and placed a handpaw on his forehead. He felt a pinch in the front of his mind and was able to hear his own thoughts again—in his mind where they belonged. The corgi pulled her handpaw away and crouched down to his eye-level.

“That was clearly causing you some distress, so take some time to calm down,” she said soothingly. “I would like to discuss what just happened but please keep in mind,” she smiled, “I’m not offended by what you told me.”

Cooper took some deep breaths to calm himself. She wasn’t upset about it and that was the main thing he was worried about. About a minute later he was calm, breathing more regularly but still reluctant to look at Artemis again out of embarrassment. Cooper continued to hide behind his handpaws.

“That was my fault,” said Artemis. “I take it for granted how precise incantations have to be, and I can’t fault you for thinking your thoughts.” The corgi gently grasped the otter’s wrists and urged him to stop hiding. “If you like them that much, I’d be happy to let you indulge but… well, they can get pretty smelly and sweaty. Magic can only go so far to cover up what’s there, you know?”

Cooper squirmed a little in his seat at the thought of it. “I’d… actually prefer it if you didn’t cover any of it up.” He looked up at her with pleading eyes. “I-is that okay?”

Artemis stood up straight and smiled. “I’m going to go close up the shop so we can have a bit of privacy, then” she said, taking a few steps back from Cooper.

Cooper gulped audibly. “P-privacy?” he asked, his mind racing at the possibilities.

“Trust me, you’re not going to want that much sweat staining your clothes,” said Artemis, turning away from Cooper just in time to miss just how aroused that statement made him. When she walked through the doorway, Cooper got to removing his pants. He struggled to pull the waistband of his shorts past his shaft, blue and tapered and completely erect. It sprung into place as his pants fell around his ankles and he stepped out of them.

Artemis returned and closed the door behind herself, facing away from Cooper while pulling on the ribbon around her waist with a flourish, and letting it flutter to the side. She shrugged the robe off of her shoulders and then crouched down, unclasping her anklets. When the jewelry fell to the floor, plumes of steam rose from the corgi’s paws, and she sighed happily. Cooper’s eyes opened wide as he could see sweat start to pool out around the corgi’s soles.

“I’ve been wearing those for so long, I forgot how restrictive they feel,” said Artemis. She began to walk towards Cooper, and left heat-steaming pawprints in her wake, the shapes of her pads filled in with small puddles of sweat. As she stopped in front of the otter, the smell of her paws hit his nose for the first time. It was powerful yet alluring, like vanilla-drenched corn chips fresh from the oven. The salty smell of sweat was interlaced with their natural essence and made Cooper’s mouth water as he breathed it in. He took a longer second inhale through his nose and exhaled with a shuddering sigh. “I really like how they smell, Mistress” he said. He blushed deeply at his own words but he couldn’t help himself: she had him in quite a submissive state of mind with how much he wanted to worship those paws.

Artemis was honestly flattered that he enjoyed her scent so much that he would refer to her with such a title; it was a smell that she saw as simple body odor but it clearly made him very happy. She gestured with her head over to where she had been seated before. “If you would be so kind as to lay perpendicular to my armchair, I would appreciate it.”

“Yes Mistress!” said the otter excitedly as he waddled his way over. He lay down as instructed and his fat spilled out slightly. Artemis walked over and Cooper could feel the heat from her paws as she stepped around him. She sat down and held both feetpaws over the otter’s face.

Droplets of smelly sweat splashed onto the otter’s face, staining it with their powerful stench. Cooper couldn’t hold himself back any longer and reached up, pulling the corgi’s paws onto his face. The point-blank sniff was like pure ambrosia filling his lungs, and when he opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue to taste it was equally divine to his senses.

Cooper found himself slurping hungrily on those pawpads, dragging his tongue around them and lapping up every drop of sweat he could reach. He was never lacking for the salty liquid, as sweat constantly oozed out of her pawpads and kept her soles drenched no matter how much Cooper tried to lick off. He eventually took a set of toes into his mouth and started suckling on them, feeling the sweat leak out of the pads like water out of a sponge. All the while, his face was glowing bright blue in a happy blush. As he sank into relaxation, his arms fell to his sides.

Artemis thought this was all too precious, the happy little noises he made as he chugged down her sweat, and the way he was trying to bury himself in them deeper than he actually could. She played with his nose using her toes, enjoying the desperate inhales he took of her scent and the moans he made as he exhaled. His hips were twitching and the corgi’s eyes went to his throbbing blue member.

The corgi took a few moments to consider and decided it would be fun to indulge him on a deeper level, and lifted up the paw from his nose. When Cooper felt those steaming toes against his sensitive shaft he let out a squeak of surprise and held Artemis’s other paw to himself tightly. The tapered tip slipped between toes and the otter bucked his hips, moaning muffledly around her toes. His saliva mixed with the sweat and leaked out the sides of his mouth, starting to form a small pool on the floor around him.

Artemis gripped the otter’s erect member with her toes, stroking up and down while he continued to suckle on the toes of the other paw. Cooper let out soft whines with each thrust, feeling a tingling pressure build up between his legs, and before he could stop himself he launched thick spurts of seed upwards, which splatted down atop himself and coated the corgi’s paw. He panted heavily around Artemis’s other paw, his eyes half-closed as he basked in the afterglow of a powerful orgasm.

As he recovered, Artemis gently withdrew her toes from his mouth and pet over his head with that paw, which still dripping with saliva and sweat. “You’re such a good boy,” purred the corgi. She moved the other paw over and wiggled her cum-covered toes above his face.

“Be a dear and clean these off for me, would you?” asked Artemis in a sweet voice like honeyed syrup. Cooper opened his lips with his tongue hanging out, still panting and recovering but more than anything determined to be a good pet for this generous corgi, who was so kindly letting him worship her paws. “Such a very, very good boy!” said Artemis with genuine praise. She lowered those toes into the otter’s mouth and felt his eager tongue dipping and diving into and between her toes.

Even when Cooper could tell from the texture that the slimy seed had been completely cleaned off, he didn’t stop lapping hungrily at the corgi’s toes. He continued to suckle and lick until those toes were gingerly removed from his lips, connected to them by a strand of saliva that broke with enough distance. Artemis set one paw on the floor near Cooper’s head, and the other one on his chest. The otter’s body-fat embraced the sole, molding around it slightly.

“How are you holding up?” asked Artemis. “Do you need a break?”

“No breaks please, Mistress,” said Cooper in a slightly slurred voice. His mind was still addled with musk and he was craving more, a stream of drool trickling down the side of his face.

“I think you might need a little break,” said Artemis with a giggle.

“Maybe, but I don’t want one,” said Cooper. “Paws please, Mistress.”

“As you wish, cutie,” said Artemis. She lifted both her feetpaws up and wiggled her toes teasingly as she lowered them down towards Cooper’s face, with one middlemost pad over his nose and the other playfully pinning his mouth shut.

Cooper took deep, long sniffs of the corgi’s humid paws, rivulets of sweat trickling down his face. The toes were closed tightly over his nose and while he could breathe, every sniff was completely filtered with the corgi’s paw musk, lulling Cooper into a trance-like state. Her paws were leaving prints on his mind, staining his thoughts as well as his nasal passages with its powerful odor. He was in paradise underpaw and a large part of him never wanted to leave.

Artemis felt the otter’s lips twitching against her pawpad and she lifted it up slightly. That tiny bit of room was enough for Cooper to kiss the same spot over and over again, showing his appreciation for those wondrously fragrant feetpaws. She was happy to keep him like this for a while, and enjoy the sensations of her paws being worshiped.

“I’ll be honest with you,” said Artemis after a few hours had passed. “My original goal was to get this out of your system but I’m getting the sense that simply won’t happen.” She wiggled her toes a little bit against Cooper’s face, kneading at it gently and letting a little more sweat squish out from her toepads. “I don’t mind of course, but I’m considering what you said about wanting to spend your life underneath them. Is that really what you want?” She lifted her paws up just enough for Cooper to be able to speak.

“I don’t need anything else if I have your paws, Mistress,” answered the otter truthfully. They were better than his wildest dreams: so mind-numbingly smelly, endlessly sweaty, and soft as liquid velvet—everything he wanted out of a pair of paws. “May I spend my life under them, Mistress?” he asked, prepared to beg if necessary.

Artemis lowered her paws back over Cooper’s eyes and mouth, making him breathe in their scent. He did so eagerly, letting their stench sink in further. “In the interest of fairness,” she began, “you should know that my sweat contains my magical essence. Your life won’t be a little less than a century, you’ll live as long as I do and…” she paused and giggled. “Well, it’s improper for a lady to reveal her age, but we’re talking lifetimes that are millennia long.”

“Mmph!?” If Cooper’s eyes weren’t covered they would have shot open wide.

“Yeah,” said Artemis. “Furthermore, you’ve already quite spent a bit of time breathing in pure magical essence. If we keep at this for much longer, it will make some irreversible changes to what you can actually breathe.”

“Hmmph hmmph hmhm?” mumbled Cooper, meaning to ask what she meant but his words being lost in her sole.

Artemis, however, was able to decipher him. “It means that we’ll soon reach a point where you won’t be able to breathe anything other than the smell of my paws. You would spend thousands of years as a living pawrest.”

Cooper let out a muffled squeak in response, feeling his face heating up and his loins stirring at the idea. Artemis couldn’t really feel the blush since her paws were already warm enough to continue to produce steam, which flowed upwards in waving tendrils between her toes and around the sides.

The corgi was about to lift her paws to give Cooper a chance to answer if he was certain, but she found her paws held tightly against the otter’s face by his arms. He was being offered the opportunity to spend absurd amounts of time needing to worship those paws and there was no question in his mind. He whined a little as she tried to pull them away, which made her giggle with delight.

“That is adorable,” said Artemis. “If that’s your answer, could you let me have my paws back for just a few minutes? I’ll arrange a more permanent set-up that will be far more comfortable.” Cooper was clearly reluctant and tried to nuzzle his way deeper into her paws, causing her to giggle again. “This is very flattering but I do need to do this now while I still can.”

Cooper finally let go of her feetpaws, his face completely drenched in paw-sweat. “Sorry Mistress. It’s just… your paws…” he said dreamily.

Artemis grinned at him. “Well, follow me then and feel free to worship my pawprints along the way.”

* * *

Artemis sat behind the table in her storefront. The table was covered by a blue cloth, hiding its underside from view. There was an open journal next to her but she was leaning forward with her chin resting on her palms, a contented smile on her face.

Ting-a-ling.

The shop bell jingled and in walked a jaguar in casual clothes.

Artemis pressed her palms against the table and pushed herself to sit up. “Ah, good morning Ted!” she said with a smile.

“Good morning Artemis,” said Ted. “You’re in a good mood this morning.”

“That I am!” said the corgi. “The usual, I take it?” The jaguar nodded and Artemis reached her handpaw out towards a shelf. There was a small vial of blue liquid and it was surrounded by a faint purple glow. It lifted off of the shelf and floated towards Artemis, who examined it before holding it out towards Ted and letting it hover over. The jaguar reached into his pocket and pulled out a few gold coins, which Artemis grasped towards with fingertips and they floated over.

Ted was puzzled, his head cocked to the side slightly. “That’s… new,” he said. “Any reason you’re not getting up from your desk.

“Mmm, I’ve got someone giving me a rather in-depth pedicure at the moment,” said Artemis. “He’s quite dedicated and it would be rude to interrupt.”

“I see!” said Ted, putting the vial into his pocket. “Well, have a nice day and enjoy your pedicure!” He turned and walked out of the shop, closing the door behind himself.

Artemis lifted up the cloth to look at Cooper underneath herself. He was laying on a cushion, with a golden band around his neck held together with an amethyst clasp. It was similar to the anklets Artemis had worn in that it contained her paw scents, but it created a sort of atmospheric bubble around himself, keeping any fumes from escaping under the table. He was difficult to see through the clouds of steam constantly swirling in his little bubble. The corgi’s paws were on his face, like a breathing mask filtering his every breath.

“How’s my little cutie doing down there?” asked Artemis.

Cooper mumbled into her soles and tried to kiss them as best he could. He was in heaven, her words the only thing able to pierce the dense musk fogging his brain. The corgi could tell how well he was doing from how eagerly he was trying to worship despite clearly being drunk on her musk.

“Aww, I think someone’s earned a reward!” Cooper’s body jolted as he felt her toes press against his throbbing member, doing his best to open his mouth to take her toes in once again. “You are being such a good boy for me!” purred the corgi, causing the otter to wiggle happily at the praise. He melted into a puddle of happiness and as he let his thoughts drift away in the throes of bliss, he thought to how lucky he was to have encountered Artemis and her wonderful paws.