Evergreen Forest Ch. 13

Or turned on.

She heard a shout from off the path. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Nipper. Yilra tried to shake herself free of the fey's stare, drawing in a breath to shout. "Ni—"

Instantly, Cernuum's hands shot up and wrapped around her throat. She was cut off, her cry reduced to choking.

"Yilra!" she heard Nipper cry. "I can't smell you—this stuff's all over me! Listen, it's not what we thought! They're dioecius!"

Yilra choked helplessly, staring up into Cernuum's amused eyes as he slowly dragged her off the path. "Sorry, love," he rasped. "I'm not giving up something this tasty. But at least you'll be spared the orchids' depravities."

She barely struggled as the eyes took over for her once again. She stared up into them, feeling her consciousness start to fray. It was so easy to just stare and wait.

She heard Callosum follow, slinking into the darkness.

A moment later, Cernuum's head turned sharply. For a moment—just a moment—Yilra was free of his control, and she followed his gaze.

Nipper was running down the path. She ran on all fours—for some reason, her robes had vanished. Her black hair was out of its ponytail and cascading down her shoulders in a wet, sticky mess. Her green eyes were wide with panic, her fuzzy ears flat against the sides of her head.

Strangely, the catgirl's pale skin was absolutely covered in a fine yellow powder.

Nipper froze, standing on her hind legs—er, her actual legs—like a meerkat and sniffing the air. She 'pawed' at her powder-tipped nose, giving a mewl of annoyance.

"Mm." Yilra felt Cernuum nuzzling her cheek. "So near...and yet so far."

"Hey?" Nipper's ears perked up. "Someone there?"

"You can't help her," Cernuum hissed in her ear. "You can't even help yourself. You just want to be our toy, and fuck, and fuck, and fuck."

Yilra felt herself sinking into his voice. She shook, trying to make herself speak up.

Nipper frowned. She batted at her ears, and Yilra saw little puffs of powder coming out, as though her hearing, too, was obstructed by the coating. "Ugh! I hate dioecius dryads! Hate-hate-hate-hate-hate!"

Yilra took a deep breath, ready to speak...and exhaled.

Something smelled like vanilla.

She found a small smile growing on her face. She inhaled again.

Mm. She exhaled. That smelled...nice.

"Yilra?" Nipper's voice was getting quiet now. "I'm...I'm scared, Yilra. I-I'm not..."

Yilra saw the catgirl's wide eyes, her shivering form, and hated herself for letting Nipper down like this. So she inhaled deeply, and her smile returned even wider. What had she been worrying about, again?

"Easier to give in," the fey whispered in her ear. She felt his hand reaching slowly under her shirt, up to fondle her left breast. She let out a faint moan of desire, eyes half-closing. "Easier to be ours. Free of worries. Free of guilt. Free of all those silly thoughts. Just give them all up for the dryads, little girl."

Yes...yes, it was easier like this.

Behind her, she felt Callosum undoing the strap on her belt, carefully taking away Yilra's array of potions and poisons—as well as her blowgun.

And just like that, Yilra was utterly helpless. She felt a warmth growing down below, and knew that that was exactly how she wanted it. She'd always been helpless against them, from the moment she'd looked into Cernuum's beautiful eyes and, she prayed, forevermore.

Nipper was looking unsure. "A-are you there, Yilra? I don't know what's going on. These dryads play tricks."

Yilra sank back into the brush, allowing Callosum to put a hand over her mouth, muffling her soft moans as Cernuum began undoing the straps of her shirt, stroking and rubbing all over her body. She stared up at Callosum's deep green eyes, full of lust and hunger.

"They need us to carry their...their pollen, Yilra. The girls give us the pollen, and the guys use it...use us..."

Yilra kept her cries as quiet as possible as Cernuum began rubbing her naked breasts, but it wouldn't have mattered—Callosum's big, strong hands kept her almost totally silent.

"They're essence eaters, Yilra. They're l-like carrionbirds. They use us to mate, and then use our essence to...Yilra?" Yilra heard something break in Nipper's voice, then. "Yilra, is that you?"

Yilra giggled happily—and silently—as Cernuum leaned in to kiss her pert nipples, flicking them with his tongue.

It wasn't her.

She heard Nipper give a scream. Heard Nipper start running.

Knew, in her heart, that Nipper had not started soon enough. Because of her.

The hand was lifted from her mouth, and Callosum leaned down to kiss her.

She breathed in deep and returned the kiss with a lusty growl.

~~~~~~~~

Goblin's Note: Oh my goodness I am SO sorry it's been this long.

The next chapter will be up soon! Stay tuned for Chapter 14, in which Alrek encounters a male dryad and Nipper struggles against some voices in her head. Meanwhile, a greater danger looms over the Forest. Kaytei was not the first and will not be the last.

As a sidenote on something I don't think I explained very well, Cernuum and Callosum are only loosely associated with the other orchid dryads. One of them is, in fact, an onion flower dryad. Insert Shrek joke here. These two have a whole story that I will probably never bother to explore in-depth, but suffice to say there's a reason they're going for leftovers. I am explaining this because it is not going to come up in the story itself but damn if it won't bug me forever if nobody knows.