Characters: Joan, Raven, Vic, Cain, Eric, ???
Location: Somewhere in the Enchanted Forest
Day 4 - 2:51 PM
Meanwhile, while the Tournament of Champions went on miles away, misfortune had stumbled upon our other heroes. Joan and Raven were gagged, their hands bound together by ropes, and they were dragged through the Enchanted Forest like mules. They weren’t sure who their captors were—just that they had been jumped earlier this morning. There were six of them, all girls, dressed in sleeveless black robes with hoods to cover their faces. One of the captors—the leader, most likely—was dressed in a blue robe with sleeves halfway to her elbows, to distinguish her from the others, and she was the only one who did the talking. But her words were so foreign to Joan and Raven that they couldn’t understand what she was saying, which is probably why they had been captured.
The Men were captured too. The captors had found them first and Vic, Cain, and Eric were stuffed into a bottle that the blue-robbed ninja wore around her waist. They bounced as she walked. Now, having been tossed about for five hours straight, they were beginning to feel sick.
They had long since passed the comfort zone of the forest. It was dark here—forsaken land, perhaps, with trees that never slept and a sky that couldn’t be seen. That’s when the ninja girls stopped. They were in a small clearing and the ninja holding the girls’ leash dragged them over to a rock and forced them to their knees. Then another ninja came up from behind. She pulled out a long blade and cut the gags from their mouths without so much as a nick on their skin.
“Why are you doing this to us!?” were the first words out of Joan’s mouth. She was answered by the ninja behind her, who slapped her hand against Joan’s forehead and held the blade to her throat. Joan swallowed hard.
“Relax…” Raven said as calmly as she could. “We don’t want any trouble.”
The ninja looked into Joan’s wild eyes and then withdrew the sword without so much as a sound. She turned away. Sweat running damp down her cheeks, Joan suddenly remembered to breathe again and began gasping for air.
“…What are we going to do?” she whispered when the oxygen returned to her lungs. “What do they want with us? I’ve never seen ninjas in Neverquest before. I didn’t think they fit in with the time period.”
Raven watched the ninja girls with a close eye, but they paid her no mind as they talked amongst themselves. “In fantasy, time has no relevance. But we’ll get out of this, don’t worry.”
“Aren’t you supposed to be the pessimistic one?”
“Not if you’re going to be it.”
Joan sagged her shoulders and tried to wriggle her hands through the ropes that bound her wrists together. There was nothing keeping the two of them from running away, but they didn’t know where to go. They didn’t even know where they were anymore. A sort of eeriness surrounded them. The trunks of the trees were black and they hadn’t heard the welcome call of a bird in hours. In fact, they couldn’t remember the last time they heard any creature in the forest other than the echo of their own footsteps and the stifled breathing of the unknown, always watching their backs.
The ninja girls glanced over at them and then returned to their private conversation. The Men remained in the bottle at the blue ninja’s waist, pounding on the glass. But their voices couldn’t be heard.
“What do you suppose they’re saying?” Joan asked.
“You don’t want to know what I think they’re saying.”
“Maybe they’re contemplating letting us go.”
“Sure, they kidnapped us, tied us up, and dragged us to the darkest reaches of the forest so that we could have a picnic and then go home.”
“I could sure go for a picnic…”
“Joan?”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
Joan frowned. “Come on, I’m hungry. We haven’t eaten in hours. A growing girl can’t survive on a diet like this.”
“Look, Joan… Don’t tell them anything.”
“How can I? They don’t understand us!”
“Just shut up, Joan. Don’t say another word. Promise me.”
“What?”
“Promise me that you won’t say anything to them.”
“But they don’t und—”
“Joan! Not a word. Please, if you value your life, don’t tell them anything.”
“But why? What can they do?”
Nodding to the others, the blue ninja suddenly began to walk towards the girls. They watched her come closer and closer and Joan swallowed hard again, feeling the dryness in her own mouth.
When she was upon them, the ninja stopped and peeled away her hood. She let down her long hair, which, much like her outfit, had the shade, color, and magnificent flow of seawater. She had bangs, too, that hung over her eyes and a face that pointed straight down to her chin. Her features were solid, crafted by precious hands, and there was no questioning the seriousness that she carried with her.
She looked first at Joan, then at Raven, and then spoke. “What were you two doing in the forest with these Men?”
Joan’s mouth dropped. “You…can speak our language?”
“Of course I can. I’m fluent in over a hundred tongues—some that have died before the birth of this magical forest.”
“Then why didn’t you answer us before!?”
“You were lying. You know perfectly well how you got here and where those Men came from.”
“We told you. We found them washed up from the river.”
The blue ninja kept a straight face, unsheathing her sword. Her belt shook and the Men tumbled to the bottom of the bottle.
“I’m telling the truth,” Joan pleaded. “Raven, tell her.”
But Raven said nothing. She just kept staring forward.
The blue ninja narrowed her eyes at Joan. “Where were you taking the Men?”
“T-to Felwinter.”
“Why?” Her voice was getting cross.
“I…” Joan swallowed hard. She couldn’t tell the truth. Who could believe her? Nobody believed this was a game. Even she was beginning to forget. It was all so real. The pain in her wrists, the ropes cutting into her soft skin—that was real. She could feel the bleeding running down her palms. How could that be fake? She winced and looked down at her hands as they shook.
“Raven, tell her… We…we were bringing them back to their owner.”
“Who is their owner?”
“…The queen. They belong to Queen Isabella.”
There was a shift in the blue ninja’s face. She scowled and put her boot on Joan’s hands, pressing down with her toes on the burning wounds. Joan screamed. She clawed at own thighs, but the boot only came down harder and twisted into the cuts.
“Lying was the first language I learned,” the blue ninja said. “It’s also the one I speak the best, so don’t try to fool me with it.”
“I-I-I’m not!” Joan cried. “Please… Stop… Oh, God… God…”
The boot lifted. Joan collapsed into the dirt, panting, her wrists burning as the fire in her skin worked its way up her arm.
“Why…?” she moaned.
The blue ninja looked down at her and then tucked away her sword. Again, her belt shook and the Men rolled around in the bottle like loose jellybeans.
“You shouldn’t lie to me,” she said down to Joan.
“I’m not… I’m not, I swear… Raven, tell her… Tell her it’s all true… Tell her… This is real…”
But Raven held her tongue. She lowered her eyes to Joan and then slowly raised them to the blue ninja, who turned away. The Men pressed their faces to the side of the glass bottle and watched Joan, her face in the dirt, as the tears rained down her cheeks.
“Kill her,” the blue ninja said to the others and then, realizing her mistake, spoke the same command in the other language. “Tilla sai.” One of the ninjas nodded and drew her blade.
Joan didn’t see her coming. She could only see the soil, wet through her tears and blood, as the shadow crept closer. How could this be real? Why didn’t they understand? Why didn’t she understand? What was all this? She stared at her hands again and they trembled under her gaze. The blood now—it was so real. It made her fingerprints clear and twisted and ugly and crimson. The pain was impossible. She had to make a fist just to remember that was still alive. How could this happen?
The ninja moved silently. With open eyes on her target, she held the blade high and straight and swung without mercy. The metal made with contact with skin and cut the girl’s head clean off, spilling it across the ground. Like a fallen tree, Raven’s body slumped over and landed next to Joan, who only continued to cry.
Giantess World
