Traps and Tricks Pt. 03

Hey, life got weird there for a bit! Glad to be back in the game, all the same! I am hoping to open commission soon, if anyone would like to discuss having stories or scripts written for them, I am happy to talk about it! For now, our intrepid catgirl thief's adventures continue...

Kalya woke with a snoring start to see the sky barely turning pink with morning light. She yawned and stretched where she lay, momentarily reveling in the gentle tickle of grass against her bare skin.

Her eyes snapped open.

Bare skin?

"What?!" Kalya sprang to her feet, ears twitching this way and that in alarm.

She was naked. Completely. She was naked in the middle of the woods reeking of flowers and sex with only hazy memories of the night prior. She clutched her head at the vague images swirling through her dizzy, dreamy brain. Flowers, and perfume, both pretty and intoxicating. A giggling voice promising her endless, eternal bliss. Her tail twitched as she remembered how it sounded, and at the things it told her.

It had been such a pretty voice.

She smiled, eyes slowly drifting shut.

Such a wonderful...

"No!" Kalya shook her head.

Of course. Plant fae. She had been doing so well!

Kalya huffed and looked around, covering her chest with her arms. To her chagrin, her clothes lay neatly folded on a patch of pristine moss near the edge of the clearing. She marched over to them and began furiously redressing, mumbling a wealth of ancient curses her mother would hang her for even thinking. By the time she had relaced her boots and righted her pack on her back, the catgirl had gotten herself worked into a proper temper. Not even the sweet-smelling flower tucked into her chest pocket calmed her.

"Get outta here!" She threw it aside and eyed the clearing. "I hope you're happy! I'm already behind." Kalya's ears twitched again, searching for any response. "Fae..."

She left the clearing and continued down the path through the woods.

It was easier trekking than she expected. What was supposed to be a two-day trip was already shaping up to be quicker. The Temple wasn't that far away from town--it was only that no one ever really came this way because of all the whispering legends surrounding it. Whispers about things like plant fae who would absolutely not get the better of Kalya again.

It had been a fluke. She had been tired! Who would blame her for that?

Besides, something about the fae lingered in Kalya's mind. What was her name? What had she said? Something about helping. Kalya slowed to get her bearings, eyes flitting about the woods and ears pricking up. Maybe the fae had helped, because when Kalya reached for her map and tried to figure where she was--at the moment, paused before a pristine trickling brook--she realized she was farther along than even she thought. The fae must have carried her while she slept--slept, not drifting, lost in a sexy, comforting, endless trance--at least halfway. That meant she would near the Temple by nightfall, if not sooner! They were a tricky lot, the fae, but they were mostly harmless fun. And, more often than not, they repaid you for the fun they had. If a night of barely-remembered bliss was the price of being taken this far, so be it. Kalya stowed the map and pressed on.

The trees grew older the farther she walked. Giant trunks covered in dark bark obscured the sun. Here and there, their roots tangled with the ancient paving stones that were Kalya's guides. She followed them dutifully, taking springing steps over the threatening roots and ducking through heady leaves and flowers. She rolled her eyes at them. They didn't seem dangerous, but she still would not trust them.

Her eyes narrowed, pupils widening, as light appeared through the trees. The forest came to a sudden end, taken over by tall, tickling grasses and a small, chipper-sounding brook. It was a massive clearing, a perfect circle, and it held in its center the Temple of Slerica. The Lamia Queen. It was an icon of a different age in these lands, although there were more reasons than the passage of time for why few remembered them.

The Temple itself was as gorgeous as it was grandiose. One grand pyramid rested in the center of five twisting spires. From a distance, in the sunset, they shone gold and opaline. Gemstones encrusted the tips of the spires, catching the light and reminding Kalya far too much of a lamia's eyes. She leaned forward unconsciously, blinked, and shook herself. In doing so, she noticed the next most impressive thing about the Temple: the wall.

It was nearly five times her height, made of imposing grey stone, and set with a magnificent wrought iron gate that, even from a distance, was thoroughly and clearly locked and rusted shut. Kalya sprinted the final meters from her vantage point to the gate, sloughed off her bag, and kicked it to release some of her temper. The only thing she received was a sudden, overwhelming pang in her toe and an echoing ring of a defensive enhancement that set her fur and tail stiffly on edge. The sound was like nails on a chalkboard--instantly repulsive and all-consuming.

She moved away from the gate, examined the wall, and screamed. "Gods damn it!"

The wall stayed firm, not that Kalya had expected anything else to come of her cursing. But she was not the kind to let something like this go so easily. She had come this far, and endured so much. A wall was nothing, and an enchantment barely nothing. Kalya shoved off her shoes, flexed the claws from her fingers, and took a running leap to the wall.

The wall, as it turned out, was completely smooth. She could find no purchase. Her toes scraped helplessly as her claws tried and failed to dig in. Soon, Kalya was flat on her back on the ground before the wall, panting and staring at the sky.

"That was fun to watch."

Kalya's eyes slid to her side. She scrambled to her feet and almost made for her bag knife, but stopped when she got the measure of the stranger. She had almost expected to run into a lamia already, but no. Before her, clad in a simple red tunic, strappy sandals, and carrying a gemstone-tipped staff, was a kitsune. She was around Kalya's age, a little taller than her, with soft autumnal fur that turned black at her paws and the tips of her ears. Her grin was playful and disarming even as her eyes sparkled with all the joy of opening a new present.

"H-Hello," Kalya said. "I uh... yeah. Not my most graceful moment."

"I should say," said the kitsune. "What, exactly, do we have here?"

"I would say that I'm an adventurer."

"Oh! I'm so sorry."

"Why does everyone say that?"

"Well, adventurers tend to be running from this."

"I'm actually running--"

"--into the wall?" The kitsune's eyes narrowed. "You're a thief."

Kalya blinked, then gave a nervous laugh. "Is it really stealing if the place is abandoned?"

"I honestly didn't think you'd cop to it that quickly." The kitsune looked up at the wall, smirking. "What's your name?"

"Kalya."

"I'm Mia. My den's not too far from here, and I spend a lot of time looking at this wall." Mia looked sideways at Kalya. "Perhaps I've found a way in."

Foxes. Tricky little--

"Is that so?" Kalya asked.

"Of course! Where do you think I found this wonderful thing?" Mia swung her staff before Kalya's eyes. "Not everyday you see a gemstone like this, do you?"

"N-no..." Kalya leaned in, the temptation of treasure too much for her, and her better judgement. "What is it?"

"I don't know. I hoped a thief like you might be able to tell me. I spend... hours?... staring at it and trying to figure out how much it's worth. See how it catches the light just... so?" Mia lifted the staff a little higher, drawing Kalya's eyes up with it. In doing so, she brought it into a shaft of setting sunlight in a way that sent scattering rays of light all about them. The sparkling immensity of the gem hit Kalya full in the face, almost blinding her. But there was so much she could admire about it, and the light it cast, and the warm, dazzling way her brain--

"No! No, no..." Kalya blinked and wrenched her eyes away. "I'm not falling for that again."

"Again!" Mia giggled, lowering the staff. "My, my, you're a clever one. I always thought catgirls like you couldn't possibly help but follow shiny things. Maybe that's why you're a thief."

"I'm an adventurer because it makes money," Kalya said. She shook her head and scratched behind her ear. As an extra precaution, she gave Mia her shoulder to put her and her stone out of her line of sight entirely. "You don't get as far as I do falling for little tricks like that."

"I hadn't meant it to be a trick."

"Sure, sure. You know exactly what that stone does to people."

"Do I?" Mia giggled again, this time from far nearer. "What does it to, little kitty?"

"It's... distracting!" Kalya slammed her eyes shut. "And only 'cause it's pretty."

"It is pretty! You got a pretty good look at it, too. I imagine you had to feel something of its power. There are so many of these in there, you know."

"That's kind of why I'm here." Kalya huffed. "You know a way in?"

"I do... but it's a little bit dangerous. I would hate to think what would happy to such a pretty kitty all by herself in there. I would feel terrible if something bad happened to you."

"Sure..."

"Why don't you trust me?"

"Maybe because you just tried to hypnotize me!"

"Hypnosis! Is that what that was? I just thought it was pretty and sparkly and that you'd want to see it."

Kalya ground her teeth. "Not... working..."

Mia sighed. "Oh, alright. But there really is no point in us trying to get in there with the sun setting. Best wait 'till morning."

"Why?"

"It'll be dark enough already--kind of an unground way in, you see. You'd want to rest up before a trip like that, right?"

Kalya's ears twitched. "Right..."

"But, you know, if you want me to show you the way in, it would help if you trusted me a little bit."

"Would it? Why?"

"Well there's not so many friendly creatures in the forest, as I'm sure you've found out by now. Did you have some trouble getting here that's got you so on edge?"

"Fae."

"Oh! And they call my people tricky..."

Kalya heard Mia shift and sit on the ground behind her. She risked a peek, saw that the kitsune had set the gemstone staff aside, then opened both her eyes. Mia raised her hands in an attempt to prove herself harmless, then waved one for Kalya to sit before her. Kalya begrudgingly sat, folded her bare feet under her, wrapped her tail about her waist, and glared a little at the kitsune.

Mia's ears twitched, and her smile returned. Her long, soft, bushy tail wagged behind her as she looked Kalya over, keeping a kind of gentle rhythm. Kalya, a new wave of suspicion welling in her gut, kept glaring fixedly at Mia's eyes.

"It's a special kind of magic they have, I know," Mia said. "Intoxicating, and far too powerful for creatures like you and me--ones with hedonistic tendencies. It's difficult for us to resist things that feel good, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." Kalya said. "I know a thing or two about that."

"Is that so?"

"Occupational hazard."

"Then you're taking quite the risk breaking into the old Lamia Queen's Temple given your... susceptibility."

"I'm not susceptible!"

"But we're all susceptible in our own way. I've met the kind of fae you're talking about. Tricky, yes, but they can get away with it because it feels so, so good to listen to what they have to say. Especially when they distract you with all their pretty, pretty things. It's so simple, when you get down to it. It feels good and you get lulled into this..." Mia gave a long, dramatic, seductive sigh... "State. You may not even notice it's happening before it's too late because you're just drifting, relaxing, and listening to something sweet, and soft, and they've got your attention focused on something too beautiful to look away from. A trick, you know?"

"Yeah..." Kalya whispered, her eyes boring into Mia's deep, golden ones. Her ears prickled. Something about her tone of voice seemed off, but it was nice for Kalya to have someone who understood. "It's... I don't know. You're right about a lot of that."

"Of course I'm right. I've experienced it, too. It's so... so easy to lose oneself in something you don't even know that's coming. All of the sudden you're looking into a pair of pretty eyes or following a soft, gentle motion and your brain gets all fuzzy and soft itself. It's a good feeling, intoxicating almost, and your defenses go down... down... DOWN with the rest of you." Mia giggled. "Too good to resist, even if you knew it was happening."

Kalya yawned. "Doesn't mean I have to like it..."

"But you do like it! At least a little." Mia's tail twitched suddenly, catching Kalya's eyes. "Kitties like shiny things, but they like moving things, too. Your brain tricks you that way because you're supposed to be the hunter. You are a hunter! You're a thief--a clever thief. You notice when something's moving that shouldn't and you just..." Swish. "...lock..." Swish. "...on."

Kalya nodded and leaned forward. She had to be careful--fae were one thing, but it wasn't as though she trusted this fox any more than she could throw her. Better to stay focused, careful. Fortunately, she had predator instincts. She was a catgirl, after all. Her eyes could stay on the gentle motion of Mia's tail and she could listen to her at the same time without letting her guard down. Not that she needed her guard up--not when...

"...I'm not doing anything to hurt you. I'm just talking, like a friend who understands, and I understand you so well, little kitty. It helps to have someone like me around in such a dangerous world. I know you didn't trust me at first but look! Here I am. Here we are. You can just watch my tail and rest a little before going into that big, bad Temple back there. Just relax... and drift... and let your mind go with the gentle swaying of my tail. Back... and forth... and back... and forth... Let your worries go. Let your mind go black and let the exhaustion of all that travel hit you. It was a long walk over here, wasn't it?"

"Mhm..." Kalya yawned again. "L-looonng...." She shook herself a little, and widened her eyes. "I, um..."

Mia giggled and turned where she sat. Her ridiculously soft tail brushed against Kalya's face, tickling her and distracting her as the kitsune got to her feet.

"Following the tail..." Mia cooed. "Come on now. I want to show you where you're going once you get some rest... That way you know that you can trust me. Understand?"

"Oh! Uh... uh-huh!" Kalya rose, surprised at how unsteady she felt. "W-where?"

"There's a secret tunnel no one but me knows about, and I'm showing it to you." Mia's tail wiggled, ensnaring Kalya's eyes and almost beckoning her like a finger. "I'm showing you because I trust you. Isn't it great when friends trust each other like this?"

Kalya's mind spun. It was nice of Mia to be this helpful, of course, but she couldn't quite place the misty, hazy feeling taking over her mind. Her body didn't seem to want to do anything other than follow the kitsune's waving, soft tail. It was like a wonderful dream--something she could enjoy without worrying about what was happening. The night air was cool against her skin, the ground was soft under her bare feet, Mia's voice was pleasant in her ears and the tail before her eyes dipped and curled in ever-more fascinating patterns. Easier to go along. Easier to follow. Easier to... to...

"Trust?" Kalya managed.

"Oh! You do trust me. I'm so happy to hear it."

Mia's pace slowed and Kalya walked right into her tail. The catgirl lost herself for a moment in the soft, surprisingly sweet-smelling fur before stumbling a little and letting Mia catch her. She blinked blearily, dimly aware of how Mia's tail had curled around her and now that the kitsune stood behind her. Mia gently began massaging just behind Kalya's ears, bringing a gentle purr to the catgirl's lips and helping her to listen... drift... and...

"...trust in me..." Mia patted the top of Kalya's head. "See that tunnel right ahead?"

Kalya nodded helplessly, the rubbing of her ears only helping the motion.

"That's the way in. So easy, isn't it? It's like a slide! At the bottom you come out in the Temple dungeon and from there, well, the place is your oyster! You just gotta find the pearl." Mia kissed Kalya's cheek from behind. "Not that you're not already a pretty gem yourself, little kitty."

"Pretty... kitty..." Kalya giggled. "I... Uh-huh!"

"I'll be along in a little bit to help you out." Mia nuzzled Kalya. "Stay safe until then, you poor, sweet, helpless thing."

"Weren't..." Kalya closed her eyes, struggling through the haze. "Weren't we waiting for sunrise?"

"Oh..." Mia's tail unwound from Kalya as she pulled the dazed catgirl nearer to the tunnel's entrance. "I think you're going to get plenty of rest soon enough..."

A dreamy smile slid over Kalya's face. "Rest..."

"Buh-bye!" Mia sang as she pushed Kalya into the tunnel. Kalya's eyes snapped open and she tried, briefly, to resist the fall. But it was too much too quickly, and she slipped down... down... down... into the darkness.

The last thing she heard before the tunnel consumed her entirely was the saccharine laugh of the kitsune, followed by the teasing sing-song of: "Haavee funnn..."