Traps and Tricks

Hey, everyone! This is the start of what I hope to be a fun series of magical hypnotic traps, tricks, and seductions set against the backdrop of a temple raid. Please let me know what you think!

The Twisted Tail earned its reputation for being the only good tavern at the end of civilization. There were two others in the small village, and Kalya hated them both in equal measure. Maybe that was because of their biases, or because they never seemed to have the drinks she liked, or maybe it was because there was never anything to do in them. But the Twisted Tail--now there was a place to begin an adventure. Always someone hawking the latest weapons or spinning a yarn from the deep undergrowth of the forests and mountains stretching from the back door to beyond and further still. Kalya's ears twitched about as she saddled up to the bar and met the barkeep's eyes.

Jorin grunted at her, rolling those eyes and moving over to where she sat.

"What?" Kalya asked.

"Tab's due soon," he said. "You gonna be good for it?"

"Have I ever missed a payment?" Kalya smirked. "I got a good one this time. Promise."

"Really?" Jorin sighed. "What's it this time?"

Kalya's slitted pupils grew smaller still. "Where's the fun if I tell you?"

"The fun is you get to keep drinking." Jorin lowered the glass he'd been polishing and leaned forward to rest his elbows on the dark wood. "Last time you went off on a mission, I hear right, a couple of them sirens had you all bound tight in seaweed and moaning all kinds of--"

"Not going to happen this time!" Kalya said, almost hissing. Her tail twitched. "It's a sure thing. Promise."

"Uh-huh." Jorin pinched the bridge of his nose. "Where?"

"There's a secret chamber in the heart of the Temple of Slerica," Kalya said. "Heard it from one of your patrons last night. No one's broken in, no one knows what's in it. But leave it to your favorite local cat burglar to find out what's what and, better yet, get paid for what's what."

"Slerica?" Jorin asked though hearty laughter. "Girl, I'd pour you three out now if I ever thought you'd come back from there."

Kalya's ears twitched. Jorin underestimated her. He always did. She couldn't really blame him. Even by the metrics of her kind, she was small. Five foot even, if she stretched. But she was well-toned from her adventuring days, the sense of muscle there under her black fur and compliment her natural curves well. Kalya was nimble enough in a scrap even if she wasn't exactly the most proficient brawler. Rowdy nights at the Twisted Tail had taught her enough to keep her alive, though. What she lacked in strict weight class, Kalya felt she at least made up for in cleverness. Her gold eyes sparkled with brimming intelligence, and her tongue was as quick as anything.

But, Jorin had a point. Kalya's eyes tended to get fairly useless if they met something spiraling and by then her tongue became better suited to... other things. It wasn't necessarily a weakness, but it might hinder her quest on Slerica.

Jorin waved a hand. "You're better off doing what you always do and finding some wealthy sprite who'll not ask questions when you slink off in the morning."

Now, Kalya hissed.

"I'm ready for this one!" she said. "Just you wait. No stupidness, no--no moaning." Her ears lay flat against her head and she rolled her eyes. "I can't believe you got me to say that out loud."

Jorin chuckled. "One for the road, then? You come back with the treasure, I'll wipe your tab clean for just being impressed."

He reached out his hand.

Kalya snatched it, fighting to keep her claws in check.

"Deal."

"Deal." Jorin almost threw her hand aside. "You're not leaving tonight, are you?"

"'Course. Think I can't rough it on my own out there?"

"No it's not that," Jorin said. "Just... you do hear things about the woods at night. Maybe best to grab a bed now and head off later."

"No can do," Kalya said. "Sooner I get on this, sooner I get paid and drunk. Nothing out there's going to scare me."

"Not being afraid I'm afraid of," Jorin said. "Too many people come out of them woods happy and forgetful as can be. Trekking all the way to Slerica? You're bound to get someone, or something's, attention. I'm serious, Kay."

"I'm serious, Jay," Kalya said. She grabbed up her pack and stretched out a kink in her neck. Her leg twitched from the feeling, and she shot Jorin a dirty look when he snorted. "I'll make it back and then some. I've learned a thing or two about all those magic folk out there. They've got rules same as the rest of them. Long as I keep my head about me, I'll be fine." She smirked again. "But one drink for courage will sure help."

"Of course..." Jorin reached for a bottle.

"Not that strong!"

"You do like it sweet." He poured her a cup of mead. "To your health."

"To the gold!" Kalya downed the drink in one long swallow. She shook herself, wiped her mouth, and lifted off from the bar. "Still, if I'm not back in a week..."

"Ain't no one fool enough to come looking for you."

"Great!" Kalya threw her head back, laughing as she turned to go. "All the more reason not to get lost."

***

Kalya wasn't lost, she knew that. The trail she followed was clear enough. She knew this, too, even as she squinted against the growing dark. The Slerian woods were famous for their canopy for a reason--and as the sun set above her, Kalya found it was a lesson she did not enjoy relearning. Even without her bragging to Jorin, this was supposed to be at least a somewhat easy job. But no map and few supplies made it harder than it needed to be. Eventually, when she saw the first stars, Kalya found the base of a large tree to set up camp.

She shrugged off her pack and fiddled with the straps, pulling out a large, comfortable sleeping sack she'd paid for with the few gold coins she'd managed to convince the sirens to give her after they'd had their fun. Her cheeks flushed with the memory, but she couldn't help but smile at it. Easy enough, just like this would be once she found the damn place. After rolling it out, Kalya set about finding her fire crystals. A little whisper of magic and the marble-size gemstone glowed with preternatural heat and light. Not all the comfort of a campfire, but close enough, and easier than trapsing about with flint and steel.

Kalya gripped her stomach. If only she'd thought to pack something more than a bottle of mead and some crusty bread. Breakfast would have to wait until morning. Rationing was another unfortunate side-effect of an adventurer between jobs. But the darkness grew, and Kalya knew sleep would come soon. She settled down on top of her sleeping sack, it was too warm to think about crawling in, and gave a mighty yawn.

Hiking always did tire her out, but it was a pleasant weariness. At almost thirty, Kalya was finding the adventurer lifestyle a little wearier by the year. Catgirls lived longer than humans, but it wasn't like she was getting any younger. Ideally, a job like this would give her some money to live comfortably and settle somewhere better than a nameless town on the edge of the Slerian woods. But ideals were hardly reality.

Kalya's eyes drooped. The stars above her swirled and twinkled. The tree's branches swayed in a gentle breeze above her. There was something so relaxing about it all. The blossoms higher up shined nearly as bright as the stars themselves. Kalya had never seen flowers like those before. She craned her neck a little to get a better look. They were so large, and had so many different colored petals. No, not different colors. Changing colors! That was it. She settled further down with that mystery solved, but couldn't help herself to look closer. Their beauty was... unparalleled.

The petals shifted colors in a steady rhythm--from red to green to blue to black and white and over and over again. Two of the blossoms hung down low from thick green vines, swaying gently in the breeze along with the leaves further up. Each one spun about in a different pattern, the colors moving as one, but not quite. Kalya's eyes bounced between them, unsure of which to follow exactly. They really were very, very pretty. Like gemstones or rippling water. Like rippling water, too, the sight was so relaxing that Kalya didn't mind eventually giving up and letting her eyes go a little unfocused. The better to watch them both, to absorb the lights and the pattern and melt further into the soft, comforting embrace of her sleeping sack.

That she had not actually climbed into the sack hardly seemed to register with her. Kalya's ears twitched, and then her tail. Her tail was free but her arms felt... heavy. Like something was around them. Her legs, too. Something was wrapping around them, wrapping her up. Soft and comfortable as her sack and oh so relaxing when it, or they, tightened and started rubbing up and down her tired legs and arms. Whatever it or they was or were felt warm and comforting, only increasing the overwhelming sense of relaxation flowing from the spiraling, intoxicating, blossoms above her.

Kalya's body was at once massaged and bound, the loops of comforting, blissful something sliding around and around, fixing her in place and keeping her looking up at the pretty, pretty flowers. Then came the most surreal feeling of all--that of at once being weightless and heavy. Her arms and legs felt like weights, limp and loose and the thought of moving them seemed distant and nowhere near the effort. But there was that inkling, a sense of not being on the ground anymore. The flowers grew closer, or else Kalya moved towards them. It would make sense if she was moving towards them, she really did want to get a better look, but then it didn't make sense at once because Kalya knew she wasn't moving.

She furrowed her brow at this contradiction, surprised at the sluggishness of her own mind. Her thoughts flowed as molasses, ideas coming slowly and realizations barely registering. How could she think about trying to look around her when the petals flicked from green to blue to yellow to red to... too... And her arms? Did it matter if they were bound beside her when her shoulders, her neck, were being slowly rubbed into limp, delicious bliss? The same for her legs, her feet. She hadn't even remembered taking off her boots, but now there was something running gentle circles over her soles and flexing her toes and it felt so... so good. Everything about this seemed so good. There was even, her breath hitched, now a kind of rubbing between her thighs. She couldn't move away from it, couldn't even move to welcome it. She did want to welcome it though, this gentle, endless rubbing that flowed warmth out from it and loosened her body and her mind further. The steadiness matched the way the somethings held her and the way the petals now nearly at her face flickered and shimmered that made the moment perfectly complete. The goodness of it all, the welcoming relaxation and bliss and sudden, intoxicating warmth. Kalya sighed and found herself beaming into the nearest flower as it slipped closer and closer still to her face. She detected then the faintest sweet, vaguely musky aroma coming from it. Nothing had ever smelled so good, had ever made to want her breathe so deep.

Disappointment bubbled quickly in her throat as the flowers snapped shut and left her for a moment in dazed, confused dark. Then, out of the corner of her vision, Kalya spotted a pair of glowing golden eyes among the stars. They blinked, flashing in and out of existence, and inched nearer. As Kalya's night vision kicked in, she noticed they belonged to the face of a woman, of a creature, of a someone too near her idea of perfect beauty to be believed.

The someone was a little shorter than Kalya, a little smaller overall. She landed on the tree branch before Kalya on dainty, silky-looking bare feet complete with perfectly pedicured toes, painted red. The way she settled implied she weighed nearly nothing, and that landing had merely been for Kalya's sake. Her smooth, bare legs worked up to curvaceous, swaying hips just covered by a short, a very short, skirt made out of swaying willow branches that flowed with the rest of the greenery around her in the ever-present, gentle breeze. Her midriff was bare, revealing a smooth stomach and cute, pierced belly-button. Kalya's eyes drifted higher, to her breasts, bare except for nipples hiding behind tiny green leaves. Kalya swallowed. Okay, so not everything about the newcomer was smaller. Certainly not those breasts... nor those eyes. Kalya's own snapped to them. They still glowed gold from within a round, coquettish face smirking widely at Kalya. It was a gorgeous face--painted red lips and a small, perky nose framed so well by short, black-green hair just reaching pointed ears.

Somewhere in the dim sluggishness of Kalya's still dazzled mind, it registered. Fae. Judging by the green tint to her skin and hair, the casual use of flowers and leaves for clothing... plant fae at that.

All the warnings and all the worry and all the anxiety of what to do in a situation like this roared to the front of Kalya's mind, snapping her almost fully out of whatever spell she'd been under. But when she went to climb to her feet, give a bow or some other greeting beings were due, she found she couldn't. Kalya couldn't move at all. Her entire body, from her ankles up to her waist and arms and shoulders was bound in thick, soft, intoxicatingly fragrant vines. More than that, there were vines running between her thighs, pulsing every now and then in ways that kept her breath caught in her throat and a hum building deep inside her. Others looped about her feet and shoulders, rubbing them gently and soothingly--keeping them limp and keeping Kalya from wanting to move them in the slightest.

It would be, it was, an almost helpless situation, Kalya bound and unable and almost unwilling to resist. But something, the sweetness of the blooming flowers about her, the soft, steady pressure on her body, the coy smile on the fae's face, kept her from thinking of it as dangerous.

It couldn't be... right?

The fae giggled.

"Well," she said, "that's quite a predicament you're in, isn't it?"

"Hu-what?" Kalya tried to parse her thoughts, to clear the fog further from her mind. Then a vine thrummed between her legs and her eyes closed of their own accord. She wanted to writhe, to pull out and away, but she found herself unconsciously tightening and squeezing, pulling more of the pleasure building up inside her from the feeling.

The fae gave her an almost teasing tsk. "Oh you're not that bothered by this, are you?"

"N-no," Kalya managed. "I just... oh... am a little surprised."

"I'm surprised, too! Not often I get company all the way out here. You wandered some from the path, didn't you?"

"Did I?"

"Oh yes... But that's okay. I'm more than happy to keep you company through the night. You do seem to be enjoying yourself." The fae got nearer, her feet barely making a sound on the branch as she stepped up and stood over Kalya. "I'm Lareni. Can I have your name?"

Kalya's mind worked furiously. Even with the tightness, the thrumming, something about that question felt... off. She closed her eyes to think, to ward off another rush of vibrations melting her entire body down, and threatening to drag her mind with it.

"No..." she said. "You cannot have my name. But I will tell you what it... what it is."

"Oh darn," Lareni said, folding her arms over her chest in just a way to lift her breasts and strain the leaves covering her nipples. "You've met us before, haven't you?"

"Once or twice," Kalya gasped.

"Pity, pity. Well, fine. Tell me anyway."

"Kalya."

"Oh that's a pretty name! Kalya, my little kitty." Lareni brushed a strand of hair sticking to a particularly sweaty patch of Kalya's face aside with her foot. Her sole was impossibly smooth, her toes delicate. There came a smell like rosehip, hibiscus, sweet and floral and heady. Lareni seemed born of flowers. "What's got you out here?"

"Sssslerica," Kalya slurred out.

Lareni's brows raised. "Really? But no one ever... ever, comes back from Slerica. Haven't you heard what happens to wayward little kittens who wander into those ruins?"

"N-no."

"Oh, they'd eat you up, and I'd bet you'd like it too. Almost as much as you like this..."

The vines binding Kalya squeezed all at once, seeming to pay extra attention to her breasts and hips. The one sliding between her legs pulsed thicker. When they loosened, Kalya could only moan and whimper.

"I-I don't really... oh... like this," she said.

"No? Strong one, are you?"

"Uh-huh."

"Mhm..." Lareni grinned wider. She floated up and over Kalya, turning slowly upside down and putting on a face of thinking hard. Kalya's eyes followed her, growing heavy with the headiness of her perfume and the warmth building through her body.

Lareni giggled, and Kalya felt helpless but to copy her.

"Tell you what," the fae said, "I kinda like you. You seem fun and if you're strong as you say you may just get out of Slerica alive! But you have to do better than this if you're gonna make it. Trust me."

A vine wriggled behind one of Kalya's ears and gave it such a satisfying scritch. Her left leg tried to wiggle, but the vines prevented it. Kalya giggled harder.

Lareni placed a soft, perfumed hand on her cheek. "Better than this show, for sure. I'll help you! Should be an easy test, right?"

"Uh... uh-huh?" Kalya wasn't quite sure what she was agreeing too, but couldn't see the trap in the question. There wasn't one, at least not one like that. Like fae traps.

Then, suddenly, all the vines binding her slipped away. She fell back onto the branch, gently landing beside Lareni while the latter took a seat in front her, straddling the branch with her legs and feet dangling free beneath. Kalya slowly got up, copied her pose, and looked around them. The night sky above the branches remained clear, the breeze warm and filled with so many sweet, enchanting smells. No less sweet and enchanting was the sight of Lareni, head tilted a little in curious examination of Kalya, eyes shining with mischief. Kalya avoided the look, found herself staring at Lareni's leaf-covered nipples instead and, deciding that was little better, looked back at Lareni.

"So, you're helping me?" Kalya tried.

"Oh, yes!" Lareni giggled and clapped her hands together before her. She was so... bouncy, Kalya thought. Light and seemingly carefree. In her increasingly dazed state, Kalya found herself barely thinking of how suspicious the whole thing was. Something about all those intoxicating scents and sights pushed worry away from her mind, let her settle into a soft, comfortable, near constant smile. The memory of the vines around her, between her... She shuddered a little.

"How?" she asked.

"Well, see... Slerica was built for the Serpent Queen! The most powerful lamia in the lands. You've met lamia, haven't you?"

Kalya blushed.

"O-once or twice," she said.

Twice, as it happened. Her memory of those encounters was... foggy.

Lareni giggled, and tsk'd again.

"I see..." she stretched the word out into a long, sensuous hiss too reminiscent of a lamia for Kalya to feel anything but uncomfortably tempted. "Well legends say there are still some of her followers living there, and they've got ways from keeping their treasure safe. You gotta learn how to fight against them, or at least resist them long enough to get away. That's where I can help! You remember those flowers from earlier?"

"Yes," Kalya said, twitching her tail unconsciously. Her ears flicked, too, sensing something moving nearby.

Lareni's eyes narrowed.

"We're gonna practice with those! Simple, harmless flowers. Shouldn't be too hard. Now, listen closely..."