Chronicles of Eden - Act V (24 page)

*****

Riding through the forest along a worn trail atop their horse Triska and Tabitha made haste towards the village of Rackleholm located further away in a valley nestled in the surrounding wilderness. As they did Triska kept a sharp eye out around her, seeing trees and foliage passing by all while she had the constant feeling they were not alone out there.

“Okay, this is getting a little uncomfortable,” she commented while Tabitha kept her eyes straight ahead of them.

“We just started our ride,” Tabitha quipped with a smirk. “Are you really so inexperienced with riding a horse like this?”

“That’s not what I meant. Ever since we left I’ve gotten the feeling we’re being watched.”

Tabitha glanced around at the passing trees then shrugged as she resumed looking ahead.

“It doesn’t matter,” she casually said. “The local monsters shouldn’t disturb us while we’re close to the trail. Just focus on our task, I want to have this job done by nightfall if possible.”

Triska focused her sights ahead again as they made their way through the forest, the creeping sensation that they were being watched never ceasing. Lucky continued along at a brisk pace as the girls only heard his galloping and nothing else. Triska slowly glanced around again as she couldn’t shake the feeling she had which was causing her to feel uneasy.

‘This isn’t like how it was traveling through The Outerlands before. It’s almost like… the entire forest is staring at us.’

After a while they heard a girl’s cry in the woods to their side, with Triska searching the passing trees and shadows to seeing nothing.

“Did you hear that?”

“Yes, however it sounded like an older girl and not a young princess,” Tabitha reasoned. “Not our target. Keep moving.”

“Hold on, someone could be in trouble out there.”

“Oh god, no!” the girl’s cry sounded off again.

“You see?” Triska exclaimed before she pulled on Lucky’s reins, getting the horse to stop with a small whinny.

“It’s not the princess,” Tabitha scoffed as Triska hopped off the horse and yanked out her sword. “Let’s get going. We only have to save the young butterfly girl, not some lost traveler.”

“Someone needs our help, don’t you care at all?” Triska snapped at her. Tabitha merely stared at her with a dull expression for a while in response. “You would only save her if you’re paid to, wouldn’t you?”

“That would be a better incentive to save her than doing so for nothing,” Tabitha replied crossing her arms.

“I thought you were an adventurer. Well, here’s an adventure for you, saving a lost girl in there!” Triska yelled as she pointed her sword towards the forest behind her.

“I’m already on an adventure, one that will pay for my services nicely,” Tabitha quipped. “And that one takes precedence over any others, as is my job. Now enough of this nonsense, are you coming or not to do this? I’m alright going on alone if that’s what you wish.”

“Lucky, help her down,” Triska called out, with Lucky then neighing and bucking back, throwing Tabitha off him onto the ground with a yowl. “If you want to get there faster with
my
horse, then you will help me save that traveler right now. How’s that for payment for your services?”

Tabitha got back on her feet and hissed at the girl, holding the handles to her swords while Triska stared her down with a stern glare.

“Why do you care about some stranger anyway?” Tabitha snapped.

“Because I’m a nice person, that’s why!” Triska yelled out at her.

Tabitha growled then glanced to the woods as the other girl’s shriek was heard again from within the shadows and trees.

“This is such a waste of our time,” she grumbled walking over to Triska.

“That poor girl in there won’t think so. Now let’s move,” Triska ordered before they ran into the woods together. The two made their way around trees and through bushes as the forest around them grew darker and denser, with large flowers blooming all over and long vines strewn about in the branches above. As they heard the girl’s scream again which was getting closer Tabitha quickly grabbed Triska’s hand, stopping her instantly as the neko showed a disgusted face.

“What is that smell?” Tabitha complained while glancing around the area carefully, with Triska looking to her curiously then around as she didn’t smell anything strange. All she took notice of was the strong floral scent floating through the forest.

“What are you talking about? I don’t smell anything.”

“Something is most foul up ahead,” Tabitha warned as she let go of the girl’s hand.

Triska slowly made her way through the shrubbery along with Tabitha, the two girls coming into a darker part of the forest with rays of light coming through the branches above in small beams while specks of pollen drifted about. A few more feet further into the woods Triska then started to smell something in the air, a powerfully obscene odor that became stronger with each step they took.

“
Ugh
, you’re right,” she coughed before holding a hand over nose. “Wow, that smells really bad.”

“Perhaps this lost girl is merely screaming about something she stepped in,” Tabitha speculated before holding a hand over her nose as well.

“Oh god,” Triska groaned before she stopped and leaned against a tree. “The compost we used in our farms back home didn’t smell this bad.”

Tabitha coughed and hacked off to the side for a moment before looking around with a pale expression.

“I say we head back, we’re not getting paid enough for this.”

“We’re not getting paid to help this girl at all.”

“Exactly.”

Triska shook her head then walked ahead while trying to ignore how foul the air became around them. Tabitha growled then reluctantly followed after while keeping a hand over her nose, her tail behind twitching with annoyance as the smell was much more noticeable and disgusting to her senses. After walking along the forest Tabitha again quickly grabbed and stopped Triska, with the human seeing the neko staring at the ground with caution.

“Stop, right now,” Tabitha ordered.

Triska blinked then looked down, seeing a few slinking green tendrils waving about through the grass and flowers ahead of them. The ends of the slender limbs were wiggling at them as if beckoning the girls to come closer. Slowly the two girls looked up and traced the tendrils to where they saw a fluugher ahead of them near a tree. Its petals were black and purple while its skin was a light brown rather than a soft green like the one Triska had seen before. The monster was watching the two girls with a sly smile on her face with its two orange eyes while wavering around slightly in her blossoming flower bud. Around the base of the monster tall flowers and orchids were growing as well as a strange plant that seemed to come right from the fluugher’s own bud. It looked to be a thin brown and red fruit hanging off a stem that rose up into the air near the monster. Triska and Tabitha saw dozens of the fruits dangling around the fluugher as the plant monster kept watching the girls with a slick smile on its face.

“A fluugher,” Triska said in wonder. She then slowly looked around as Tabitha hissed as she too saw what was near them. They were able to make out several fluughers in the woods ahead of them, with shadowy movements seen further behind them showing there were even more that couldn’t be seen yet. All around the monsters were colorful flowers, small insects flying around, and the strange plants that seemed to grow from each of the fluughers’ bases, almost like they were a part of the monsters.

“Lots of them,” Tabitha added as she let go of Triska.

“What’s the big deal though?” Triska asked glancing to her. “They’re very gentle and tame monsters. Plus they’re not going to do anything to us; we’re not human men they can use.”

“Then why was a girl screaming out here earlier?” Tabitha questioned her.

“She probably got scared from these things, or maybe the stench was too strong for her,” Triska reasoned before she started thinking of something. She then looked around at all the monsters with a curious eye as they kept watching her with seductive smiles while their tendrils slithered about in the ground near them.

“Wait, are they making this smell?”

“No,” Tabitha said pointing off to the side. “That is.”

Triska looked over and saw a fluugher watching them with a coy leer while her tendrils were busy churning what looked to be manure into the ground around her flower bud. The brown compost appeared to be fresh and reeked very badly while insects were flying around the smelly mulch.

“Well, that’s disgusting,” Triska commented while holding her nose.

“I suppose that would be considered food for them,” Tabitha reasoned. “Still, I fear that smell is going to stay in my fur if we linger any longer. Can we go now?”

“But who screamed earlier?” Triska asked looking around again. “We should find who’s out here and make sure they’re alright.”

“Perhaps she fainted from the smell,” Tabitha dryly suggested. “And with any luck will not wake up again to suffer from it like we are now.”

Suddenly a tendril snapped around Triska’s leg and yanked her down onto the ground before reeling her in through the grass. The girl screamed as Tabitha watched with surprise, seeing Triska being dragged over to a fluugher before she was lifted into the air with green tendrils wrapping around her arms and legs each.

“What are you doing?” Triska shouted as she thrashed around in the grip of the monster’s limbs. “I’m not a guy, I’m a girl! Let me go!”

The fluugher showed a warm smile while she looked over Triska, not seeming to care that she captured a girl rather than a man. Tabitha eyed the monster carefully then glanced around to seeing the other fluugher watching her still, their eyes remaining locked on the neko intently.

“Let go!” Triska yelled out at the fluugher. “I know you can understand me! Look at me, I’m not a man! Why are you holding me like this?” She then gasped and looked down as she saw another green tendril sliding back and forth against her crotch, her eyes widening before looking back to the monster while shaking her head quickly.

“Oh hell no! You’re not thinking of… Tabitha, help!”

“I told you we shouldn’t have come here,” Tabitha dryly mocked while watching the girl with a dull stare.

“Just get me down, I
really
don’t like where this is going!” Triska called out to her while watching the fluugher with unease. She then felt the tendril sliding up her pant leg and rubbing against her panties, prompting her to scream in fright.

“Seriously, get me down from here, now!”

Tabitha growled and yanked out both her swords before rushing towards Triska. With a loud yowl she swung her blades and sliced apart the limbs that were holding the girl’s legs as well as the one that was going up her pants. As she got ready to swing again a tendril snapped around her leg and yanked her to the side with a yelp. Triska kicked around before watching as Tabitha was reeled in towards another fluugher that was watching her with a lecherous smile. The neko struck her swords into the ground and stopped herself, her leg still being yanked by the monster that then ensnared another tendril around the girl’s other leg.

“What the hell is going on?” Triska yelled out before the fluugher holding her brought her close, using its hands to start groping the girl’s chest and rear. “Knock it off! What’s wrong with you? I’m not a man! Don’t you get that?”

“I told you we shouldn’t have come here!” Tabitha yelled before yanking a sword out and swiping back behind her, slicing off the limbs holding her legs before she dropped to the ground then quickly stumbled back to her feet. She swung around behind her, slicing off more tendrils from the nearby plant monsters as they tried to grab her while hissing at them with anger.

The fluugher holding Triska then tried to kiss her, with Triska leaning back and moving her head around to avoid it while pressing her lips together firmly. She screamed in her mouth as the monster kept fondling and trying to kiss her while Tabitha darted back as the fluugher around started whipping their tendrils at her wildly to catch her. The neko sliced off the limbs one by one as she moved away and evaded their attacks, slowly making her way back towards Triska as the human was bashing her knee into the fluugher holding her in a vain attempt to free herself.

“We’re not making any more stops after this, you got that?” Tabitha demanded before spinning around and striking her sword through the fluugher’s side. The monster wailed and arched back, its limbs letting go of Triska who dropped to the ground with a soft thump.

“Goddammit, what the hell is wrong with you things?” Triska shouted before she grabbed her blade from the ground and jumped up to her feet with a swing at the fluugher, slicing off its head with a slick crunch. The monster’s body wavered then collapsed along with all its flailing limbs while Tabitha and Tabitha gazed around at seeing many more of the things nearby, all of them staring at the girls with cold smiles while their floral tendrils whipped about near them.

“Why are they after us?” Triska asked shaking her head. “We can’t get them pregnant, surely they know that.”

“They don’t care we’re female,” Tabitha replied while seeing all the monsters staring at them. “They wanted us just as much as they do a man.”

“But why? What good are we to them?” Triska asked before her eyes stopped on something, a look of horror coming across her face as Tabitha looked over then jumped in surprise.

Behind two of the fluughers that were watching the girls they saw another underneath a ray of sunlight from above, the monster not paying attention to them as it had someone else it was focused on. Tangled in its tendrils was a giant butterfly, the girl’s wings drooping low behind her while she was held up in the air by her arms with her legs spread out at her sides. She was being held close to the monster as it was gently rubbing the girl’s belly while a green tendril was sticking up into her ass and wiggling about. The butterfly was groaning as she rocked her head back, her eyes not focusing on anything as the fluugher then lifted her up and held the girl’s crotch to her face. Triska and Tabitha stared with wide eyes as the fluugher grabbed the butterfly girl’s rear and rubbed it around while eating the girl out, with the butterfly looking down to her with a glazed stare while drooling as she murmured something in a daze.