A large wrinkly snout sniffed at me and released an angry bellow. The ground shook and trees fell crashing. In the distance, I heard howls of pain. There was a screech of pain from the water that hurt not just my ears but my mind as well. As if a rusty iron lance had been thrust into my head.
Through swollen eyes, I saw that Shigure, Apricorn, Director Worth and Assistant Ena Leavenworth had arrived, jumping to shore from the boats. I was covered, wrapped in a blanket and carried to one of the boats. I could hear them talking to me but couldn't quite understand what they were saying. My mind was still immersed in an isolating watery prison. My whole body ached, my face was swollen and I could barely move.
The Forest Mother walked behind the fishman up to me, as if escorting a wayward child. The fishman's head was down in a dejected manner and he was still dripping water. With a sulky hand gesture, he released my mind from the silent prison, making me gasp at the sudden clarity of everything coming into focus at once and almost overloading me with information. Then a reluctant sweep of a glowing ball of water that was dragged across my body and all my injured areas, healed my bruises and all the swelling I had suffered from the beatings. He hissed at me with a smirking sneer, as if sharing a nasty joke, which I didn't comprehend. Baring his teeth at the humans around me in anger, as if insulted and affronted, he stalked back outside and we heard him return to the lake with a splash.
Shigure's voice in my mind sounded and he sighed with relief when I responded. Although my response was slow, muddled and muggy, it was still better than the silence he had received earlier.
"What happened?" Director Worth asked me.
I recounted my story for them in a slow, halting manner, still feeling and feeling dazed from all that I had gone through while I was cleaned up in the tent and put on some dry clothes. That had all happened today, right? It was still the same day? I couldn't tell.
"The Tangled Ranges are truly dangerous," Apricorn noted when I was done. They hadn't seen the apes, but they had sounded worried when what I described was almost gorilla sized. They had also been concerned by what the fishman had done to me.His abilities were beyond what anyone but Shigure would likely know how to deal with.
"We all know that you need a certain amount of strength and shrewdness to survive in these mountains," Assistant Ena agreed. "We may not have been able to enter this deep if it weren't for the dinosaurs. I'm a bit worried about the journey home."
"It's possible that we may lose people," Director Worth sighed. "Look how many dangers the desert dinosaur helped us resolve. Homeward, Shigure, do you think we could ask for an escort out of the mountains later? As soon as Kim is ready, we should consider leaving."
"Whisper, you should eat something," Apricorn brought me a sandwich and some water to which I was immensely grateful. I was so hungry that it felt like my stomach was collapsing in on itself. Had it really only been a day since I had last seen them? Why did it feel more like two or three?
While I ate, I felt my energy levels slowly draining away. The hot and cold sensations with the crawling ants were making themselves felt far more strongly now. I kept wanting to hug people or have people hug me. Shigure ended up wrapping me tightly in a blanket with an air filled pillow to hug and then stuffing me in my sleeping bag with Apricorn's help. A doctor came to take a blood sample.
I spent the night in extreme discomfort, tossing and turning, wriggling and worming across the tent floor. I wondered what the fishman's venom was trying to do to me. Apricorn only fell asleep in the early hours of the morning because of me keeping her awake. I slipped out of the tent to splash cold water on my face and skin in the hopes of getting rid of the crawling sensation that had taken hold of me all over.
A hand over my mouth and a strong arm around my waist yanked me into the dark, shadowy trees.
"Little Bluebird," said a hateful voice, "it's time for us to make our move and disappear to our new home."
I smelled his chlorine and water cave scent, striking back at him and making use of all the self defence moves that Shigure and Apricorn had taught me. All to no avail. He, less kindly than Shigure had ever done, showed me just how much more powerful he was than me with just a few moves.
"Come on, Little Bluebird," he whispered in my ear, holding my wrists tight and using my hand to cover my mouth, "there's no point fighting me. You know that. There's nobody here that is my match. Not even Red Eye. If I want to take you away, nobody can stop me."
At this, I gradually deflated, sagged in defeat, remembering how fast and strong he had been, even against Tirion Wolf whom Shigure would have needed to fight for a while before defeating. I restrained myself from remembering what he had done to me. Now wasn't the time to remember. Now was the time to think of how to escape.
"Good girl. Don't wake anyone up. Don't make a fuss and no harm will be done. You don't want me to kill any of those innocent young agents if they come to see what the noise we're making is, would you?"
Something was pressed against my temple, clicking into place with a sharp pain and I felt my mind buzz, filled with the electronic humming like a hive of bees. It made me flinch back and my muscles to inexplicably lose all their strength. It settled down into a softer pitch, but hampered my ability to use any mental abilities. Or think and process things. It was like and yet unlike the fishman's attempts to capture and isolate my mind, only now instead of murky water, I was drowning in the electronic buzzing of a myriad of not-wasps. By the time I had thought all of this, I discovered that I was being carried on Chad's back, finding it difficult to move or even make a sound. The buzzing interrupted anything I wanted to do. If I wanted to do anything, I had to concentrate and focus my mind into laser beam intensity.
I was angry. Angry with myself. Angry that I couldn't and still had no way of protecting myself against those stronger than me. Was I doomed to always be a victim?
"Awake?" Chad panted. "That's good."
"Shouldn't you have waited before kidnapping me and going AWOL?" I asked in a slow, slurred manner, striving to maintain my concentration and think. "The dinosaurs seem to think that I'm their child. What if they look for me?"
"Those two are too busy mating to think of you," Chad said with a laugh. "I had a remote controlled camera follow them. They're having a good old time and may not be back for a long time. Might even take days. You should have seen how slowly they moved. We can try it later. I think you'd love it slow. The fishman did me a favour and injected you with his love potion. He's going to be so miffed to find that I got to you first. Sooner or later, you'll succumb to it and be begging me for help. I've heard you tossing and turning all night already. Don't you want me to help you get rid of his poison?"
"Not particularly," I mumbled, burying my face in his sweaty neck and feeling both nauseous and uncomfortable. As I could no longer move, the hot and cold flashes were happening faster. The ants under my skin and crawling feeling were also intensifying to the point I was almost ready to do anything to alleviate the discomfort.
"Don't worry. Once we're far away enough and have made it to my secret base, nobody will be able to find us. Not even Red Eye or his annoying friend, Homeward."
"I thought you used to be best friends," I said, struggling to keep a hold of my rationality.
"Used to," said Chad, "being the key word."
"Aren't you old enough to be my father?" I muttered.
In a flash, I had been whirled around to be carried over his hip. He spanked me while he cursed and strode angrily on. His hand was harder than that alpha ape's had been and his ability had been turned on in full force, causing the love potion venom from the fish man in my blood to break out of my strained control. My body reacted in a miserably humiliating manner, temperature rising as it did so. Only Chad and the noisy night creatures of the Tangled Ranges knew what I did and what noises I made then.
"Still think I may be too old and not vigorous enough for you?" Chad ranted under his breath, while I slowly woke to find myself being carried on his back again.
Somewhere, I had lost my trousers and underwear. From the swollen feeling down there, I knew what had been done. I couldn't - couldn't - couldn't... couldn't think about it for now. I couldn't afford to go into a panic attack and be like a stuck record. I had to keep moving forward and bide my time, planning a way to escape.
It was just that while supporting me in a piggy back, ugly Chad also had a finger partially inside, so that every footstep jogged me on him, stimulating me enough that I knew I was dripping fluids all over his hand. The venom hadn't completely gone yet and my body reacted strongly irregardless of my emotions. I felt sore and lethargic. The buzzing and fatigue were getting to me, making me forget what was going on and where I had been going, thinking, doing...
Something had obviously happened and been done to me, but right now, I couldn't think clearly. Between the buzzing in my brain and the repeated stimulation down there that was giving rise to frequent orgasms, it was really hard to figure out what was going on. Trying to force my brain to work only intensified the buzzing and made me pass out. It seemed that my mind had reached it's limits for the time being.
I'd been wrapped in a blanket and lay at the bottom of a row boat. I could smell wet wood. Wet rope. The slightly fishy and muddy scent of freshwater. Water sluiced by in a steady rhythm and the stars twinkled overhead, fading into a distant glow where the clouds were turning purple and orange. Why was I so tired? What was this constant droning in my head? It was irritating and made my head hurt. Attempting to raise my hands to touch my head, I found that my wrists had been bound to my ankles. I couldn't move hem far.
Too tiring. Too troublesome. Dropping my hands, I fell back asleep.
It came like a bolt out of the blue.
Two angry roars tore through the buzzing in my head to find me. It was almost like I had been lit up with a homing beacon so that I could be found by anyone with mind related abilities. It also felt like twin missiles had torn a hole through my brain. Once my location had been pinpointed, two angry presences searched my surroundings with their mental energy and found the man rowing the boat. Without hesitation, like twin cannons, they struck. There was a cry of pain. The boat rocked violently and there was a big splash.
There was a mumbled grumble, groans of pain and it felt like someone or something was trying to climb back into the boat but failing.
"Crap," a male voice swore, using stronger words than I wanted to recount. "Who was that? They nearly killed me. If I hadn't stolen that gadget to protect my mind, I'd be dead. How'd they find me so quickly? Those ancient fossils finished humping so quickly? I thought they'd be going 'til the end of the week. Man, that hurts. Next time, I have to plan further ahead and be faster. I have to find a way to extend the mental shield. Can't believe I failed again."
The boat rocked and vibrated with the movements of anoger heavier person. A dripping form loomed over me and kissed me wetly.
"You'd better miss me, Little Bluebird. I'll have to leave you here now that you've been found. I'll come back for you once I've smoothed out a few more wrinkles and found a better way to hide us in plain sight. It'd be great if you could get pregnant, but no fuss if you can't. My swimmers may not be the best anymore, but I have plenty of them."
There was a hissing sound of something being inflated with air and the sounds of lots of fiddling. Then the boat rocked some more as a few heavy items were tossed overboard. There was the splashing dip of oars and sound of moving water. It faded away into the distance.
And then I was left floating on a boat, bobbing on still waters. Drifting with the wind and current.