Intrepid Pawns Ch. 05

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"Guys!" Ia shrieked, as loudly as she could without entering another coughing fit. She tugged on Brist's arm again, but her strength was still recovering, and his bloody hands—probably full of some sort of toxin—were wrapped resolutely around the stem of the plant. That pollen had done a fucking number on her. "Fucking goddammit!"

Her heart was pounding. Everything had gone so, so wrong so fast. One moment she'd been teasing Brist—flirting with him, really—and the next...

She felt tears springing to her eyes at last as she saw Yathi finally give in and start to finger herself. Yathi couldn't take this right now. Why did bad things always have to happen to that, beautiful, sexy—

Ia cut the thought off and averted her gaze from the now half-naked scout, trying to ignore the squishes and moans that came from behind her. She would wait, she told herself. Wait until her strength returned, then pull Brist away. He could help with Yathi, and together, they could probably drag the statuesque Trys away.

Still carefully keeping the flowers out of her range of vision with a hand, Ia stepped back.

She heard a rustling in the bushes behind her.

Turning, Ia saw a small humanoid shape: a young redheaded woman with pointy cat ears. The woman was giggling silently at their situation.

Their eyes met. The catgirl's eyes widened.

She turned and ran off into the bushes.

Ia was still groggy, and she was also still angry. More importantly, though, that had to be a scout or something. No way was she going to let her report this to anyone. Ia's eyes narrowed. Without hesitation, she whipped out her sling and took off after. She spared one last glance at Brist, seeing him rubbing his long shaft, a dreamy look in his eyes. "I'll be right back!" she called, in case any part of her teammates' subconsciouses could process that. And she bolted into the forest.

The catgirl was a surprisingly bad runner. At first, Ia assumed that this was because the vines were slowing her down. The Evergreen Forest undergrowth was thick when one left the path, and even Ia, a very spry young woman, was having some trouble keeping from tripping.

But that was strange, wasn't it? Ia frowned, ducking under a low-hanging tree branch she'd nearly concussed herself on. Catgirls were forest fey. Everybody knew that. Surely a catgirl would be better at running in the forest than a city girl.

Ia stopped short, catching her momentum on a nearby trunk. "Oh, fuck!" she cried, and turned to run back.

Still regaining her balance, her foot stepped back just a few inches to arrest her run.

She felt something snap.

Without any other warning, Ia was jerked into the air in a mass of string netting. She squealed with surprise and tried to scramble out, but too late: The net was already closing around the top. A basic net trap. She lunged for the top, but only succeeded in becoming more badly entangled.

"Shit!" she spat.

Yathi would know how to get out of this in a second, she thought peevishly.

Maybe the others would hear her scream, and it would snap them out of it, she thought hopefully. But that small hope was quickly dashed. Even if they did, it would be for the worse—they would be easily ambushed in their state. This had all been set up in advance to splinter her off.

Why her, though? Ia's mind raced. Maybe they'd just wanted the group scattered. Maybe they didn't want a girl immune to mind control to get in the way. Maybe they had special plans for her.

Or maybe they hadn't planned much of any of this, she thought darkly. And her team really had just fucked up that badly. She really had fucked up that badly.

It was a sobering thought, to say the least.