Two Thieves in the Forest

Alix and Wendy carefully and quietly crept through the forest. They hid carefully near bushes, behind tree trunks, and made not a sound. They communicated with each other only with hand gestures.

Alix was medium-height, with red hair cropped close and fierce brown eyes. Wendy was smaller, and wore her hair in brown dreadlocks tied neatly behind her head so they wouldn't get in the way. Both girls were young, muscular, and clad in tight-fitting simple brown leather outfits, the better to blend into the woods. Wendy carried a dagger and short sword at the ready, while Alix had her bow drawn and an arrow notched. This was the best way to get in and out of the wood alive, with what they were seeking in tow.

Although they were silent, the wood hummed with life - birds, squirrels, and lizards scampered in and out of the sunlight and leaves. A coyote howled somewhere in the distance, and a lamia sang from atop a mountain ridge.

The women paused beneath the cover of a great wide bush to quickly whisper in conversation.

Alix hissed into Wendy's ear, "The grove of red fungus is supposed to be through this glen. Then we cross a creek, and we're there".

"Good!" replied Wendy, "You stay as you are, behind me and ready to loose an arrow. I'll move ahead and spot our course!"

The two sly thieves nodded in agreement and set off with purpose. Red fungus was much sought-after in the spice markets of the city. It was said to possess amazing powers of vitality to those who imbibed it, but only when prepared a special way by a special cult of monks. The rare substance was doubly valuable, and thus these two talented thieves had decided to procure some to sell.

One problem was that the forest where it grew was no ordinary woodland. It was called Din Zan-ul, and was guarded by countless spirits and strange creatures that only existed within the woods of Din Zan-ul. The place was very special and filled with magic. It was said that the trees themselves had somehow enlisted other species in the forest to help them protect it.

These thoughts and more, were put out of Alix and Wendy's minds as they carefully crept through the underbrush. They were focused and disciplined, and saw only shadows and branches, heard only birdsong and the rustle of leaves, so intent were they on their goal. They hoped to quickly and quietly enter the wood and leave with enough of the rare red fungus to make themselves a good-sized bag of silver when they returned to the city.

They came to a wide swath of grass that dropped slowly between trees to a larger clearing, where they could see a mass of reddish fungus growing! They paused in the cover of brush and looked at each other. Should they try it? They nodded to each other, and then carefully made their way toward the end of the clearing and the treasure of rare fungus.

A pair of shining yellow eyes watched them from the trees above, as they crept towards the fungus patch. As the two thieves filled their sacks with the rare material, the creature quietly unfurled a net that he had rolled up and tied to his belt.

Alix's senses were tuned, alert, and watchful as she pulled the last clump of spongy red fungus and stuffed it into her sack. She sensed something was not right…but what?

The two thieves crept away from the glade with their sacks full, ready to hurry out of the wood. Then they heard a low whirring sound, and faster than either of them could see it, a heavy net spun down from the branches above and covered Wendy. Lead weights on the edge of the netting wrapped the net around her arms, causing her to drop her sword and fall to the ground.

Alix jumped back immediately, and aimed an arrow in the direction where the net had been thrown, in the overhead trees. She saw a dark figure move quickly across the branches, and she loosed the arrow at it. She was an excellent archer, but whatever it was had moved too fast and the arrow caught only air.

She notched another shaft and tried to follow the assailant in its path through the foliage, at the same time walking backwards and trying to keep moving.

Meanwhile, Wendy found herself with a strangely moving net wrapped around her. It seemed to be contracting as she struggled against it, pulling itself tighter around her arms as she tried to free herself. It seemed to wrap itself around her torso, tightly pinning her arms to her sides as she flailed with her legs and tried to right herself onto her knees.

Alix knelt, carefully surveying the foliage above, waiting for a glimpse of the creature. She saw something rustle and fired another arrow.

Suddenly, Alix felt something grip her ankles and pull backwards, very hard. She was thrown onto her stomach and briefly dragged back across the grass, so quickly that she dropped her bow to the ground. She was pulled up by her legs until she was swinging upside-down in the air, ten feet above the forest floor! She realized that she had been caught in some sort of animal snare, as she fumbled for her daggers.

Wendy saw Alix get snagged, but could do nothing. By this point the net was so tightly around her she couldn't move her arms. As she tried to struggle to her knees, she felt something like vines or roots wrap around her ankles and pull her legs apart, making it impossible to rise. She lay on her stomach, wrapped in the net, her legs pulled apart by the roots that had somehow appeared out of the ground.

And there the two thieves remained. Alix flailed about in a rope snare, hanging in the air. And Wendy was bound to the forest floor by a net and roots.

The unseen assailant decided to make itself visible. From the branches above, a figure dropped to the ground. It was a large humanoid, with the body of a large human man and the head of a goat, with curled horns on either side of his head. He wore only a leather loincloth with a small pouch attached to a belt made of string. His body was covered in fur, and leaves hung from the shaggy locks of hair around his goat-head. In his hand was a long and heavy spear. He immediately leapt across the grass towards the struggling Alix, hanging in the air.

She had drawn her dagger and was trying to cut the rope that held her ankles, but as she twisted around and upwards she saw that it was not rope but tree branches that held her! Tree branches from a tree above had somehow reached down and pulled her up like a rope snare. She continued trying to cut the branches with her knife when the goat-man sprang upon her.

As he approached, the tree slowly lowered Alix closer to the ground. With one swift blow from his spear, the goat-man knocked the dagger from her hand. The blade fell to the grass and Alix reached for another knife that was concealed in her boot.

The goat-man grabbed her wrist, dropped his spear and grabbed her other wrist, and pulled them behind her back with great strength. She writhed upside down, still held by the tree-trap. He pulled a leather cord from his pouch and bound her wrists tightly behind her back. Then, as if the tree-trap holding her legs were not enough, he bound her ankles the same way.

Alix was still upside-down, with her head roughly at the level of the goat-man's chest. She lurched towards him and tried to bite him, but he dodged and quickly moved around her writhing body. He searched her all over for more weapons. He pulled out several daggers and knives, and tossed them into a bush.

He moved his strong leathery hands across her breasts as he searched, prompting her to protest. As if in response, the goat-man pulled a wad of cloth from his pouch, and forcing her jaw open, stuffed it into her mouth. Then he tied it tightly in place with a leather strap, knotting the strap at the nape of her neck, gagging her completely.

"Nnnnggggghhhh!!!" Alix's muffled shouts of protest mumbled through the gag.

The goat-man left her and moved toward Wendy, who was pinned to the ground by the net and the roots that held her legs spread. He checked her for weapons as well, sending his hands up the inside of her thighs and over her ass. He removed hidden daggers, pouches, and anything else that he found in her pockets. Then he pulled a strip of cloth out of his own pouch.

How could he fit so many things inside that? Alix thought as she twisted in the air upside-down. She watched the goat-man wrap the cloth around Wendy's eyes and tied it off, blindfolding her.

Then the goat-man stepped back and picked up his spear. He stood there motionless a minute, as if to survey his work. He watched the two thieves with his large yellow goat eyes. One thief was bound on the ground and the other hanging in the air, both completely helpless. A smile crossed his lips and then he spoke. But the words thundered in the girls' heads as well as their ears, as if he was placing his speech in their minds.

"So you thought you could walk into this forest and not make proper sacrifices and offerings, and then make off with all you wanted?"

Alix was hanging upside-down and gagged, and could say nothing except to let loose another muffled protest. She struggled against her bonds.

Wendy seemed to have accepted that they were caught. "We meant no harm or disrespect, forest keeper! We knew of no offerings to be made!"

His voice still boomed inside their heads. "You knew this was the forest of Din Zan-ul. Home to the most magic of all herbs, roots, waters, and fungus. Indeed, you were busy taking the most potent red fungi in the wood. No doubt you hoped to sell it."

"No, forest keeper! We are merely students! We seek only knowledge. We sought to make no material gain!" Wendy gasped desperately, moving her blindfolded face back and forth, and lying through her teeth.

The goat-man threw back his head and laughed. "You will pay a price for your insolence, my little thieves. But you will not be harmed. We of the Din Zan-ul wood are not cruel. Not like you of the cities."

He reached into the pouch at his side and withdrew a handful of powder. He sprinkled this onto the back of Wendy's head and down her spine. Then he approached Alix, who squirmed and writhed and tried to somehow pull away from him, to no avail.

"Goodnight." His voice echoed in her head as he blew the powder over her.

Both women felt a wave of sleep wash over them, and they tried their best to fight against it. But the magic dust was more powerful than they were, and each was soon deep in a magic-induced slumber.

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Alix awoke from the spell-sleep some time later. How much time had gone by? She had no idea. Her thief wits immediately perked up and she took account of her surroundings.

She was lying on her stomach, atop a straw mat, inside some sort of cave. To her right was a craggy rock wall, which had various rings and bolts hammered into the stone, along with flaming torches mounted in iron clasps to light the place. In front of her, the cave ended in another wall, where barrels, benches and other supplies were stacked. To her left, the cave opened with the torchlight. There she saw Wendy just a few feet away, lying on another straw mat, still asleep.

Her friend and fellow thief had been stripped of most of her clothing and now wore only the leather halter and loincloth that had been under her leathers. The net that had bound her arms in the forest, had been removed and instead she was tied with simple cord, hand and foot. With her knees bent, the rope tied her ankles and wrists together behind her: Around her eyes the blindfold was still knotted.

Alix gave a pull at her own wrists and ankles, and realized that she too was bound. In her mouth, instead of the wad of cloth, was now a hard object. It was a leather ball-gag, secured with a leather strap and buckled tightly behind her head. Alix wondered for a moment why Wendy was not gagged, but blindfolded.

Looking over her shoulder, Alix realized that she too had been both stripped and hog-tied. She wore only the simple halter and loincloth underclothes, and her wrists and ankles were tied together behind her. There was also a cord tying her elbows, pulling them almost together, making movement even more difficult. Alix sighed through the ball-gag in her mouth. They were both caught, and helpless.

But, that didn't mean there wasn't hope of escape. She craned her neck and looked in the direction behind her. The cave stretched into a tunnel lit with torches and curving back into the distance. Alix couldn't help but notice how warm the whole place was. It was not cold like other subterranean spaces she had visited.

Seeing no sign of their captor, Alix began squirming towards Wendy, hoping to wake her and then try and untie her. As she painstakingly wormed herself across the dirt floor, she heard footsteps approaching.

Are we awake now, little thieves? His voice magically echoed in Alix's head.

Soon the goat-man was standing above, looking down at her, his spear in one hand. His hairy body was slick with sweat that glistened in the torchlight. He knelt before Alix and looked into her eyes.

She glared back at him and tried to read his gaze. What was he going to do to us?

He slowly ran a finger along her shoulder where a bead of sweat had formed, then licked his finger, as if tasting her. Then, as if making up his mind, he reached into the pouch that hung at his side and withdrew a thin leather collar hung with several brass rings.

Alix gave a muffled protest through the ball-gag, "Nnnnngggg!!"

He swiftly buckled the new collar around her neck, and fastened a chain to a ring at the back. Standing again, he pulled the chain, forcing Alix to her knees. As she struggled to balance herself, with her ankles and wrists bound, he drew a dagger and cut the rope between her bound wrists and ankles, allowing her to more easily kneel. Then he locked the chain to a metal ring that was bolted into the rock wall. The chain was short, forcing Alix into an upright position, sitting on her knees, with very little room to move.

He stepped back, looking at Alix as if she were a project uncompleted, or perhaps a meal to be consumed.

She sat on her knees, wrists and ankles still bound, gagged, and chained to the wall. He crouched in front of her, his yellow eyes staring into hers. Her skin glistened with sweat, and her short red hair seemed to dimly glow in the torchlight. The cord tied her elbows together behind her, and forced her breasts out. As if he was just taking notice, the goat-man reached up and gave one of her breasts a hard squeeze.

Alix gave gagged protest as the goat-man rubbed one of her nipples through her halter, and Alix felt her nipple grow hard despite herself. She began to get an idea of what this monster would want as a payment for their transgression. She also felt that she was being slowly aroused by some magic, as if an erotic spell had been cast.

It was just at that moment that Wendy began to make noises as she came awake.

The goat-man turned, and both he and the trussed and chained Alix watched the second thief awaken.

"Uuuhhh," Wendy moaned. "Where am i? Alix? Are you here too?" she turned her blindfolded head as if she was looking at her surroundings, even though she couldn't see anything.

"Mmmggghhh!!" answered Alix.

"Is…he here? Are we alone? Can we escape... Why are all my clothes gone?" She pulled at the cords that hog-tied her, trying to loose herself.

The goat-man snorted and laughed.

As she heard him, Wendy froze. "Please, Sir." she begged again, "Please forest guardian…We will do anything you wish! Do not harm us! Please let us go!"

The goat-man casually moved to Wendy's other side, holding his spear aloft, so that he could see both of his captives at the same time. He continued to look into Alix's eyes as he knelt by Wendy's blindfolded head. Only now did Alix notice that underneath his loincloth the creature had a stiff erection. She was sure of what he was going to extract from them in the way of punishment, and her eyes fell to the floor.

He spoke again with his magical voice, "As i said, we of the forest are forgiving. You will not be harmed. And you will be let free. But first you must pay a toll."

He reached out with his spear, and used the sharp tip to tap underneath Alix's chin, urging her to look up. She raised her chin and met his yellow eyes. His gaze bored into her and a message came into her brain, "You are next."

Then, still kneeling next to Wendy, he placed his spear on the ground and pushed aside his loin cloth. He revealed his hard cock, and Alix knew why he had not gagged her friend. The goat-man put his hand on Wendy's head and turned her face towards his crotch. He forced her mouth open with his other hand on her jaw.

Alix found she could not turn away. Was it the magic, or was it arousal? And she knew that her turn was next.

The End

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