NOVEL NEXT Ch 2.30: Concealed
Elaina shot up from her blanket, surprised both that she’d slept so well and that nothing had interrupted her. She’d expected something to go wrong, another attack, an attempted escape, a tree to fall on them. But that hadn’t happened. Their nameless prisoner was still tied to the tree, Tira was still sound asleep, and Carline and Flora were a few feet away, talking in whispers to avoid making too much noise.
Flora was still naked. Elaina wasn’t really sure if that was an “of course” fact or a “for some reason” fact, but it was a fact nonetheless, one that Elaina couldn’t ignore. She stood up and stretched as she admired Flora’s backside, herself still wearing her uniform from the day before. She had her spare with her, but figured it’d be best to change into that once they were back in town.
After putting her shoes on Elaina started walking over to the other two awake girls, crunching on the ground with her boots. The two turned, to her, Flora flashing a warm smile and Carline looking like a scared puppy.
“Everything okay, Carline?”
“Huh? Oh, yes, just nervous about…”
“Everything, she’s always nervous about everything,” Flora said, walking over and giving Elaina a big hug, and gods was that distracting. Elaina’s head rested into Flora’s chest as she returned the gesture, her hands wrapping around the woman’s bare waist. She really needed to get some alone time with at least one of these girls. Or possibly… more than one of them?
Maybe that was getting ahead of things, though Elaina couldn’t help but feel a little resentment towards their prisoner. Would things have been different if it was actually just the four of them out there, unburdened by thoughts of ambush? Hopefully I’ll get to find out one day.
“Flora, are you really still naked?” Tira said from behind them, standing up herself as Elaina pulled away from the embrace. Elaina hadn’t seen what she’d gone to sleep in, but seeing her now in just a tan shirt and a thin pink triangle of underwear was almost as distracting as Flora, maybe even more.
“I’m not naked, I’m wearing my flower crown, remember?” Flora said with a wink. She was obviously teasing Tira, but it was actually an important distinction. Flora could only sense danger when she was wearing that, so she didn’t really have much choice, not that Elaina thought she minded at all.
“Well get dressed,” Tira said, pulling bending over and grabbing a fresh pair of pants from her bag. If Elaina didn’t know better she’d think Tira was teasing too with the way she presented her ass to the other girls as she slipped them on, but Elaina was pretty sure that one actually was unintentional.
“Roger, Captain Tira!” Flora said. “I’m gonna step behind the three though, for privacy of course.”
The rest of the team packed up their stuff and untied their hostage while Flora disappeared, coming back wearing both her crown still and what Elaina was pretty sure was her actual dress, not an illusion. She tried to wrangle out how that could be, but Flora must’ve done some sort of outfit swapping around to make it happen, cause this dress was actually obeying the laws of physics, unlike the one from the previous night.
Once the group started moving, they actually made good time. Starting in the early morning they managed to break out of the forest by noon, leaving just the actual road in between them and town. “We’re probably safe at this point,” Tira said, “but we have to stay serious.”
“I’m never not,” Flora said, doing a twirl and letting the hem of her skirt fly upwards.
“I mean it. We’re not done until—”
“Yeah yeah, not done till we drop this girl off with the town guards.”
“No, we’re not done until we’re back at school, safe.”
“Safe?” the prisoner said with a laugh, still being led by Elaina. “From what I hear, it’s more dangerous there nowadays than in that cave.”
Tira froze, the procession behind her stopping as well. “Why do you think it’s more dangerous at the school.”
“Fuck,” the woman muttered, biting her lip as the group turned back to her.
“Go on, tell me.” Tira said, stomping towards the woman. “After all, nothing dangerous has happened at school lately, as far as the general public knows. So why do you
seem to have extra information?”“I— I don’t…”
Tira’s fist was clenched, shaking, her face turning red as her nostrils flared, looking more angry even than when she’d found out about what Waine had done to Elaina. “What do you know?”
“Nothing!”
“You realize we can’t even leave you with the town guard anymore, right? This is way beyond regular jurisdiction at this point.” Tira raised her hand, almost looked like she was going to strike the woman but then threw her arms in the air and started to walk away. “Fuck’s sake! Why do poachers know about that?”
She turned on her heel, pressing a finger into the woman’s chest. “Did your people have anything to do with it?”
“No, we just—” The woman closed her mouth, shaking her head. “I swear I didn’t do anything like that; I would never.”
“Just like you’d never try and gut a defenseless girl while no one could see you, huh?”
“Tira, it’s okay,” Flora said, placing a hand on Tira’s shoulder. Her voice was soothing, a pleasant break from the rage and fear that was dominating the air. “We’re not interrogators. When we get to town some of us can keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t spill any information, and then someone can go to the school and see what Alonse or Calivahn says about it.”
Tira stood for a moment, glaring at Flora as if she was somehow an enemy too, but her breathing began to slow, face began to calm as she closed her eyes. “Sorry, you’re right. It’s just that—” A strange cry erupted from the woods behind them, almost like a giant duck letting out a deep, lengthy bellow.
All five girls turned to the tree line as the sound trailed off. The trees stood still for only a moment before branches started to rustle, one entire tree beginning to shake and then fall over towards the group.
Elaina ran to the side, pulling on her captive with both her physical strength and her aspect to try and avoid either of them getting crushed by the tree. The strange animal cry returned sounded off again, and this time the source was clear: a giant creature, twice the size of a bear, with the body of a beaver, but the beak of a duck.
Once the creature finished its cry time seemed to stop as it stared them down, silence finally breaking as Tira was the first to speak up.
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”