New Entry For The Poll Driven Story “The Great Corrupted Forest”

You can find the new entry for this poll driven story below the break or read it in its current entirety HERE.

Content Warnings/Kink Spoilers: This a good sized entry at about 6,500 words long. It leans heavy into non-con with some light mind breaking and features woman on woman sex that centers on a living strap-on.

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Disappearing hope was replaced by despair. Not wanting to drown in a rising tide of despair led Toria to allow the forced pleasure to once more overtake her. She grunted and moaned, writhing lewdly as her mind went numb and her body indulged in the indecent things the tentacle monster was doing to it.

She wasn’t sure how long it was before something changed. It was something subtle at first, a change in the feel of the forest around her. Scents grew stronger. The foliage and underbrush began to vibrate as if excited by something drawing near. It was only when the tentacle monster began to quiver in excitement that Toria consciously felt the change.

Something was coming. No, not something, someone. Someone strong. Someone evil. Someone so steeped in The Corruption Toria could taste its taint in the air, like a cloud of vile perversion that flowed out of whoever was coming. It was earthy, like damp fertile dirt after heavy rain or the ripe smell of a woman’s sex after it had been stewing in arousal while being teased for hours.

The tentacle monster kept fucking Toria, but it slowed its pace to allow her to focus better on whoever was approaching. It shifted, pointing her in the direction of the arriving power, a clear sign the monster acted on the new arrival’s whims.

Trees and underbrush shivered then pulled apart like a crowd splitting to reveal an approaching monarch. It was a woman, a Human woman with lightly shaded copper skin. Naked, her body covered in faintly glowing red tribal tattoos. She had thick wild brown hair that flowed down her back. Tangled in the mass of untamed hair were twigs and leaves, the occasional bead or charm braided into the wild mess.

Toria had the impression that the chaos in the woman’s hair was neither accidental nor intentional. She was a force of nature, her hair something below her notice. As that thought ran through her head she readjusted her appraisal of the woman’s race. Perhaps this menacing figure HAD been Human once, but she wasn’t anymore. The Corruption soaked into her had twisted her into something more.

The woman was naked but wore many accessories that did nothing to cover her nudity. She wore many bracelets and had strings of vine and leather cord wrapped around her upper arms, ankles, and waist. She wore numerous necklaces and had a wreath of greenery with glowing charms woven into it perched atop her head like a crown.

Every accessory, every cord wrapped around her, every dangling charm and leaf, somehow it all accented her thick curves. She had wide hips and a full, round ass. Her breasts were large for a Human woman, heavy and dense with a slight natural sag to them that radiated a sense of ripe, mature fertility.

Her body had a sense of agile, fit muscularity to it, yet the thick curves suggested sensual softness. Her skin glowed with youthful vitality, matching her smooth energetic cat-like movements that clashed with the mature fertility the shape of her body suggested. She somehow carried both the fertile promise of untouched virginal innocence along with experienced plumpness shown after birthing a child.

Toria was perplexed as she stared at the strange, menacing woman casually strutting towards her. She looked both young and mature at the same time, the two impressions of age mixing in the kind of unplaceable agelessness found normally only in the Elven races. Perhaps it was the power that radiated from her. As The Corruption had made this woman more than Human it had left her ageless, the otherworldliness leaving her even more menacing.

The forest and the tentacle monster responded to the woman’s presence. Every living thing except Toria seemed to grow more vibrant and lush the nearer the woman got to it. Trees and underbrush shivered and sprouted new growths as though time was advancing, but the new growths were always twisted in some way. The blooming of flowers and sprouting of fungus left behind every time her feet rose were always red and sending off sparking red wisps that revealed they were endowed with The Corruption.

It was only when Toria saw the way things growing as the woman passed by them were taking on lewd shapes that Toria realized her party had been fooled. They’d thought they were only nearing the Great Corrupted Forest, but they were already deep inside its expanding boundaries.

She’s what we’ve come to discover, Toria realized as the powerful, menacing woman neared. She’s the one behind the spreading of this corrupted perversion of nature. She’s the one behind everything!

The woman stopped just out of arm’s reach. “Such a pretty little treat the Sisterhood has delivered up to me,” she said, smiling in a way that unsettled Toria far more than the tentacles still fucking her. “A treat my creature has gotten enough time to indulge in. I’m ready to take MY turn now.” She raised her hand, commanding the monster with a simple gesture.

The tentacle monster replied at once. It pulled the tentacles thrusting into Toria out of her and dropped her onto the forest floor. The moment Toria landed roots pushed up from the ground to wrap around her ankles. At the same time, as the tentacle monster pulled back, vines lowered from the canopy overhead, moving like snakes to wrap and coil tightly around Toria’s wrists and mid-section.

By the time Toria’s mind was able to process what was happening she’d been hefted back into the air, bound securely by vines and roots. As the tentacle monster disappeared into the forest she was raised to her feet, the roots wrapped tightly to keep her legs spread apart and feet locked in place. The vines pulled her hands up and out while the vines wrapped around her midsection kept that part of her body in place.

“I am the Gardner,” the woman declared. “I have tended to the Great Corrupted Forest since it was a single corrupted sapling I planted. I continue to tend it as it grows, expanding its tendrils out in every direction. I pervert and twist. I help create and perfect monstrosities like the one that so easily defeated and captured you. All for a great purpose.”

Toria was still flush and panting after her ravishing. She was struggling to focus fully on the woman’s words. Her nudity was distracting. Toria found the woman was as sexually arousing as she found her to be menacing. There was also a powerful, overwhelming sensual musk that hung about the woman that left Toria’s womanhood gushing and filled her mind with indecent desires that shamed her deeply to her core.

Her presence, helped along by her earthy womanly scent, was something so domineering Toria felt the overwhelming desire to submit to the woman. She was left wiggling and whimpering, trying to fight the impulse to tell the woman she wished to submit to her. To vow herself to the woman’s evil power, to disavow the Sisterhood and all it stood for.

Toria fought against the urge. Her soft whimpers turned to grunts of defiance. Her wiggling turned to violent, although weak, jerks as she tried to pull free of the vines and roots.

“Yes, little Human Battlemage, fight it,” the Gardner cooed happily as she drew closer to Toria. “This would be so much less fun if you broke simply at the sight of me.”

The vines and roots constricted tighter around Toria, tight enough to prevent her from making any meaningful movements. The Garnder loomed over Toria as she stepped up to the helpless girl. “Such a pretty little treat,” the Gardner whispered as she stroked Toria’s freckled cheek with the back of a finger.

Toria gritted her teeth, wanting to pull away from the woman’s touch but was too overwhelmed by the woman’s sensual presence. She ended up shuddering then moaning at the Gardner’s touch, disoriented by the wave of arousal it sent through her already overstimulated body.

“D-don’t touch me,” Toria told her, her voice shaking.

The Gardner only smiled and moved closer, leaning down to put her face close to Toria’s. “Only I can give commands here in the Great Corrupted Forest. I command every perverted tree, bush, and fungus. I direct every twisted monster. And every man and woman stupid or unlucky enough to stumble into my domain is my plaything. The men, well, let’s say that even if I have uses for them on occasion I never spend much time playing with them. But the women?”

She moved in closer, running her fingers into Toria’s thick, messy hair. She pulled some out of the way to reveal her ear as she leaned in closer. Toria shivered as she felt the woman’s heavy breath on her ear. She moaned softly when the woman spoke again, her voice low, breathy, and hot as she whispered into Toria’s ear.

“I’m going to play with you, pretty little treat,” the Gardner whispered before moving closer to brush her full lips against Toria’s ear. “But not just to have a little fun. I’ve got a use for you. The least of your little scouting party, their weakest link. Young. Inexperienced. Your sexual desires lush and overflowing, a perfect vessel for The Corruption.”

At the mention of the Sisterhood of Righteousness’ greatest enemy Toria, who had been moaning and shaking with arousal, grunted and yanked her head away from the woman’s lips. “No,” she tried to snarl, but the word came out as an unconvincing gasp.

The Gardener grabbed a handful of Toria’s hair and jerked the girl’s head back towards her. “YES,” she growled into the helpless Battlemage’s ear. She pulled away, releasing her grip on Toria’s hair. The Gardner smiled at the girl then placed a finger gently on the place where Toria’s neck became her upper chest. “And you can’t stop me,” the Gardner told Toria in a calm, conversational tone.”

The woman began slowly walking around Toria, moving her finger as she went to gently caress flesh that the tentacle monster had exposed when it had mostly ripped her clothing off her. As the woman moved to Toria’s backside she went on. “You and your entire party were doomed the moment you set out on your little scouting mission. Every woman in Almerry Keep and the entire army of the Sisterhood camped outside its walls is doomed. It’s just a matter of when and how.”

She stopped directly behind Toria, placing her hands on the girl’s hips. “But this, this happening right now? It’s not your doom. That will come later. Before then you’ll provide entertainment and help doom the others in your party.”

“Never,” Toria said, hating how her voice sounded. She told herself it was fear that made it so faint and breathy. It was terror that was making her shake at the evil woman’s touch. It HAD to be. It couldn’t be because the woman’s touch excited her so much it was leaving her shaking with anticipation. She was Toria Underbrand, a powerful Battlemage of the Sisterhood of Righteousness. She wasn’t some sopping wet slut, excited to be bound and helpless and eager for whatever this fiend intended to do to her.

The Gardner laughed prettily in dismissal of Toria’s unconvincing defiance. “This is what’s going to happen,” she declared confidently as she ran her hands sensually first up then down Toria’s sides. “I’m going to fuck The Corruption into you. I’ll break you with pleasure then use that pleasure to twist and corrupt you. Then, once I’ve had my fun and you’ve been reborn as a servant of The Corruption you’ll be freed and sent back to your party to pretend none of this has happened.

“Soon after that you’ll betray them. I don’t NEED that to take care of them, but it will be more enjoyable. It will please both me AND the power whose will I work to make reality. Understand, pretty little treat?”

Toria WANTED to tell the woman she’d never submit to her. That she’d never break, no matter how intense or long the pleasure was. She wanted to vow to never betray the other members of her party.

But she couldn’t. Toria was shaking and panting at the woman’s touch. She’d started to wiggle and press her backend into the woman’s body. Toria realized then that she wasn’t as strong as she’d always thought. Neither was she as brave nor did she truly wish to fight against The Corruption. She’d only gone to the Sisterhood for safety and to stroke her ego while hoping to become more powerful.

No, she thought, realizing even this more honest assessment of her life was a lie as well. I went to the Sisterhood to be away from men and be surrounded by women. I knew I could indulge in my sexual desire for women fully and safely there.

The Gardner gave Toria’s perky young ass an almost loving slap. “The Corruption barely had to work to press its tendrils into you, pretty little treat,” she told Toria. When the woman then pulled away Toria whimpered, longing for the woman’s hands to return to her body. “Patience,” the Gardner told her soothingly as she walked back around the girl to stand in front of her. “Before we begin there is something I must do in preparation.”

She took a few steps back from Toria and planted her feet firmly on the ground, her legs spread slightly apart. “Even though you’ve yet to say the words we both know you’ve already submitted to me,” she declared. “But you still need to submit to The Corruption. I still need to FUCK it into you. And although I COULD do that with my fingers,” she said, holding three fingers up in a suggestive thrusting gesture, “that’s not depraved enough. You are a member of the Sisterhood, The Corruption requires your submission be in some way you’ll despise as you’re reborn in its image.”

As she spoke vines pressed out of the dirt by her feet and started to work their way up her body. They twisted and grew, fusing together as more pushed up to join the others, making it look for a time like armor made of plants was being formed on the lower half of her body.

Then the twisting greenery reached her crotch. It gathered there, not moving any further up her body. Toria watched as the vines fused further together. Moments later most of them pulled away and returned into the dirt leaving behind a writhing mass of greenery that looked a bit like panties. Then the mass began to grow at the Gardner’s crotch, the fused-together greenery swelling into an almost-male-like shape that grew more rigid the longer it grew.

When the twisted, writhing vines fused together enough to look as though they were one smooth surface Toria understood. She gasped in horror, unable to look away from the disturbingly male shape they’d taken on.

The Garnder placed a hand at the base of the phallic thing attached to her. By that point it looked almost as though it was part of her, appearing as fleshy as it did plant-like. “What’s wrong, pretty little treat? You were so eager to have The Corruption fucked into you a moment ago. Now you look as though you’ve changed your mind.”

She stepped closer, stroking the plant strap-on as it continued to mutate till it looked like a greenish cock, complete with throbbing purple veins. “The tentacles were one thing, but this?” she asked, glancing down approvingly at the thing she was stroking. “Far too male for you,” she added, looking up to grin evilly at Toria. “And that’s why it will please The Corruption so much.”

Toria grunted and pulled uselessly at the vines and roots holding her in place. The revulsion at the sight of something so male had pulled her out of the sexual haze that had left her eager to submit to the evil woman. The desire to submit was still there, but she didn’t want it to happen like this. “Please,” she whimpered when she accepted there was no chance she’d be able to break free. “Not like this. Take me in some other way.”

The Gardner laughed cruelly as she took up a place directly behind Toria. “I do enjoy when they beg and tell you exactly the thing they fear the most. You only ensure it will happen this way,” she said, giving Toria’s ass a light pat.

“It’s time,” the Gardner declared as the roots wrapped around Toria’s ankles pulled her legs further apart. At the same time the vines holding the rest of her body in place shifted, bending the girl forward slightly so her backend was better positioned to allow the Gardner easier access to Toria’s womanhood.

“Please,” Toria whimpered pathetically. “Not like this. Take me some other way!”

The Gardner only laughed cruelly as she grabbed hold of Toria’s midsection with one hand. For a moment Toria wondered why the woman hadn’t grabbed hold of her with both hands, then the villainess moved closer and she understood. She had hold of the disgusting plant-phallus with her other and was using it to line the offensive member up with Toria’s womanhood.

She shuddered at the feel of the thing pressing into her moistest of places. She’d expected The Gardner to shove it in her, taking her by force in the way she’d heard men who took women by force often did. The woman surprised Toria, not shoving it right in and instead rubbing the swollen head up and down her slit.

Toria shuddered in revulsion. She’d expected the member to feel like the parts of the tentacle monster that had fucked her. Fleshy, but not. Or perhaps like the vines holding her in place. Green yet with only a hint of fleshiness. This thing, though, felt all too flesh-like. As she shuddered and wiggled in vain to try and escape the thing’s touch she was forced to imagine that the thing couldn’t feel all that different from a Human man’s member.

The Gardner dragged the cockhead of the plant phallus up and down the girl’s slit, teasing her and working her into an unwanted panting of arousal. Before long Toria was moaning, struggling with instincts she wished her body didn’t have. The member felt good rubbing up and down the valley of her womanhood, especially when its firm but spongy mass was dragged over her sopping wet hole. Each time that happened she shuddered, having to fight the impulse to press her body back to try and force the thing into her opening.

“What are you waiting for?” Toria asked, not understanding why the woman was dragging this out. “Just do it. Fuck The Corruption into me. I’m helpless, I can’t stop you.”

“I want to hear you beg me to do it,” the Gardner said in a low, menacing voice as she continued to tease Toria’s pussy. “Not to have me fuck The Corruption in you. No, pretty little treat, I want to hear you beg for my cock. Beg for me to shove it in you. I know that is anathema to everything you think you are, so you must beg for THAT or we will stay like this forever.”

She paused, holding her cockhead at the girl’s opening. “It’s far from a hardship for me,” she said, working the cockhead in little circles around Toria’s opening then starting to press into her. At the last moment she pulled her cock up, dragging it away from her opening and leaving Toria whimpering like a frustrated puppy.

Toria wanted to refuse. She wanted to resist. She TRIED to refuse and resist. But her body had already fully betrayed her. Even though to beg to be penetrated by something so male was literally a recurring nightmare of hers Toria found the words coming from her mouth, her voice shaking with desperate need. “Put it in me,” she begged. “I need to feel it in me. I need you to penetrate me.”

“There’s a good girl,” the Gardner cooed, happily pressing the head of her faux member into the girl’s sopping wet hole. It slid in easily, the tight wetness making the Gardner moan lightly in appreciation.

Her moan was eclipsed by the long, low, indecent moan that ripped forth from Toria. “Gods,” she groaned, her whole body shuddering as the Gardner slowly pressed deeper into her. “I don’t want it to feel so good. But it does! I didn’t know… My body… it NEEDS this,” she said, the final words coming out as a half sob of despair that her body would want and enjoy something she found so repulsive.

When the Gardner was as deep inside the girl as she could get she stopped, pressing her naked body into Toria’s as she wrapped her arms around the girl to grab her small, firm breasts. As she began to play with them she rocked her hips, sliding herself in and out only slightly to make Toria’s moans of despair-filled delight shift in tone.

“Cock feels good in you, doesn’t it? Cock feels RIGHT in you?”

“Yes,” Toria moaned, struggling to keep from sobbing. She started to say something else but the words never came out. The Gardner had started to pull out, the thick plant phallus leaving an emptiness inside her that left Toria wanting to sob with a new kind of despair.

Just as the woman was about to pull all the way out of the girl she reversed course, slowly pressing back into her. That sent Toria into a fresh fit of moans, causing her muscles to quake and shudder as she lost herself in the pleasure of being filled.

“It feels almost as good for me,” the Gardner told Toria as she continued to play with the girl’s tits while slowly working her cock in and out of her sopping wet cunt. “I created this thing. Bred it. Mutated and perfected it. When it connects to a wearer it connects fully to them, allowing the wearer to feel it as though it were part of their body. I feel your insides the same way a man would.”

Toria had already been on the edge, her mind and body already struggling to deal with everything happening to her. “I feel your insides the same way a man would.” The words shook Toria to the core, disgusting and horrifying her in just the right way to make her feel a rush of depraved arousal and forced pleasure that pushed her into climax.

Her whole body tensed then began to convulse as she came. Her vaginal muscles clenched and spasmed, forcing the Gardner to thrust harder as she pressed into the girl. That broke the calm she’d been struggling to maintain as she slowly worked the member in and out of the girl’s wonderful feeling cunt. As soon as she thrust in hard she felt unable to hold back anymore. While Toria was still cumming she started pounding the girl, gripping her little titties while fucking her as hard and fast as she could.

The slamming of the plant-cock deep into her increased Toria’s pleasure. The pleasure was so overwhelming she had no idea if her first orgasm had been intensified or if she’d cum a second time.

What she was certain of was how the forced climax opened her to The Corruption. The moment she’d begun cumming its perverse, mutating power flowed into her. It soaked into her body and soul, twisting and changing her as it bent her to its will.

Toria gasped, trying to close herself off to it. She managed, but only for a short time. The Gardner was unleashed now, griping Toria’s tits with gleeful greed that showed no care for if she was hurting the girl. She kept pounding her, hard and fast. Each slam into Toria’s backside seemed to press her member deeper into her. Before long Toria was cumming again, the orgasm allowing The Corruption to once more flow freely into her.

The world became a blur of intense forced sexual pleasure as the Gardner fucked orgasm after orgasm from the helpless Battlemage. Each time she came more of The Corruption flowed into her. Tainting her. Changing her. Making her both less than she had been but so much more.

By the time the Gardner was grunting in a way that suggested she was nearing the height of her pleasure Toria wore a mad grin as frothy slobber flew from her mouth. Her mind had been melted by the pleasure and what The Corruption was doing to her, leaving her, for the moment, unable to understand anything but pleasure as The Corruption rewrote who and what she was.

Toria experienced one final mind-breaking orgasm when the plant phallus convulsed and sent a flood of semen-like goo exploding into her. The pressure was intense, her insides filled then flooded till the cum came squelching messily out around the Gardner’s member. As she held herself deep in the girl, cock still convulsing as she continued to climax, more of the cum oozed its way out of her making a mess between their bodies.

The world had gone black with pleasure for Toria. When the blackness began to peel away she was aware she must have been released and dropped to the forest floor. She whined, missing the feel of the Gardner’s plant phallus in her. Yet as the world began to make sense to her once more was consoled by the feeling of SOMETHING plunging slowly in and out of her cunt.

Messy squelching sounds came with each slow thrust in and out, a wonderfully depraved sound Toria knew would always hold a special place for her. It was the first thing she’d heard as she’d been reborn a servant of The Corruption. But what was it? Her broken mind was still restitching itself together, she needed time to process what she was hearing and feeling.

It was the Gardner’s fingers. Toria slowly understood the woman was laying on the forest floor beside her, a hand on her cunt as two of her fingers slowly plunged in and out of her cum-oozing hole. The woman was leaning over her, her tits resting on Toria’s chest as she licked and kissed Toria’s neck.

“Yes,” Toria moaned happily. “Yes, more. Why did I dedicate myself to fighting The Corruption? I didn’t understand that THIS was what it was.”

The Gardner licked up the girl’s neck till she reached her ear. She nipped Toria’s earlobe, delighting in the girl’s gasp of pleasure. “Your submission to The Corruption is not complete,” she told her. “Your submission to ME is not complete,” she added, leaning further in to kiss the girl.

Toria closed her eyes and opened her mouth and let the woman take her. She wiggled and thrust her hips, helping work the Garnder’s fingers deeper into her messy hole. Her tongue danced with the woman’s, trying to show her she was willing to do and be whatever the woman wanted.

When the Gardner pulled away from the kiss she curled her fingers, raking Toria’s insides as she pulled her fingers out of her. Toria shuddered and moaned, cumming slightly and thinking the woman only meant to stimulate the special place inside her.

“Open your mouth, Toria, servant of The Corruption,” the Gardner commanded.

Toria opened her eyes to see the Gardner holding the fingers she’d just pulled out of her pussy near her face. They were full of a messy mixture of cum and vaginal juices that had just begun to drip from her fingers.

“There’s a good girl,” the Gardner cooed as Toria opened her mouth to allow the mess to drip into her mouth. “There’s a VERY good girl,” she added when Toria wrapped her lips around the woman’s fingers when she put them into her mouth. “Suck them clean,” she told Toria. “Swallow down every drop. You need as much of my filthy fluids in you to ensure the forest no longer recognizes you as a threat and instead sees you as an ally.”

Toria continued to suck on the Gardner’s fingers, bobbing her head as though she were fellating a man.

“Yes,” the Gardner cooed happily. “Let The Corruption lead you. It will show you how to do so many depraved, indecent things… It will give you everything you need to carry out its will. But before then you need more of my fluids in you. The forest, and the creatures in it, MUST recognize you for what you’ve become.”

She sat up, scooping up Toria in her arms to rest the girl’s head in her lap like she was a child about to be breastfed. She then lifted a large, heavy breast and pressed it into Toria’s face.

The girl, letting The Corruption lead her, opened her mouth. Once the Gardner’s nipple was in her mouth she began sucking. There was no surprise when milk started to flow into her mouth. She’d been shown it would happen, she’d been made to NEED it. She drank hungrily, shifting and sliding a hand between her thighs to finger the still cum-oozing mess that was her sex.

“I am not just a gardener of the Great Corrupted Forest,” the Gardner told Toria as the girl sensually breastfed from her. “I am its mother. I’ve not just tended to the plants here, but birthed many of the perverse monsters that fill it and even some of the more monstrous plant life. Many have suckled at my tits as you do now. They have grown strong on my milk, milk that has allowed The Corruption to further twist and mutate them just as it is now doing to you.”

Toria showed little sign she was listening to the woman. She was lost in the carnal delight of sucking on her tits, greedily gulping down mouthfuls of her milk. She switched from tit to tit, pausing her hungry feasting only to take a few moments to sexily lick and nip at each nipple as she moved to it. The girl moaned indecently, her fingers thrusting wetly into the mess between her legs as she furiously masturbated.

“When it began I did not understand or care what power I served,” the Gardner went on, lovingly stroking Toria’s head as the girl sensually feasted on her milk. “But much has changed in a short time. I understand now. I care now. And I hunger to become an even greater champion of The Corruption, one whose service shall last far longer than a mere mortal lifetime.

“But to grow more powerful than I am now will require sacrifice. That is why Almerry Keep has been prepared. Why the Sisterhood was secretly manipulated into building the keep where it was built, with such a vast lush forest ready to be so deeply corrupted nearby. All has happened as The Corruption has wanted it to.

“Even the luring of the Army of the Sisterhood to the keep has been part of The Corruption’s plan. That army and all the women cowering in the keep shall be a sacrifice to The Corruption the likes of which Alaria has not seen since before the Great Collapse. Such power will be drawn from so many perverse dooms upon so many powerful women…”

The Gardner shuddered in joy at the thought. “And when it’s done reborn, just as you were reborn, Toria Servant of the Corruption.”

For a time they continued as they were, Toria feasting on the Gardner’s milk as she played with herself while the Gardner explained things. She told Toria what would happen next, how once she’d drunk enough she’d use her powers to put Toria and her clothing to rights, making it look as though she’d only been in a small scuffle she’d escaped victorious from.

She’d then be sent back to the scouting party where she’d keep hidden what had happened to her. She’d return to them and pretend to be who and what she HAD been, all while waiting for just the right moment to betray them. Not because the Gardner needed her to, but because doing so amused her and pleased The Corruption.

Toria understood. It would please her too, for now that she was a servant of The Corruption she understood the grand design that drove the perverse force. She understood she and her party were doomed, and she was overjoyed that she’d get to help them suffer through their doom till it was time for her to meet hers.

* * *

“Finish the slaughter, girls,” a heavily armored bunny-eared warrior roared as she drove her sword through one of the perverse, mutated beasts that had attacked the scouting party. “There are not many of these nasty beasties left,” she called out, turning with stunning grace and speed to leap past one enemy and lob another’s head off.

“We’ll follow you anywhere, Hrinrav,” a pristinely clean purple-haired Elven Sorceress said as she followed the fierce Bunordaen Fighter in the battle against their foes. An open spell book floated before that she was drawing energy from. The arcane power flowed around her, floating her effortlessly through the air while creating a bubble around the Elve that kept her attackers at bay.

A couple of the monsters tried to fight their way past the protective spell, lunging at the bubble of magical energy. Both were repelled, one knocked to the forest floor unnoticed by the Elven Sorceress who turned her attention to the one she did notice. Her long purple hair flowed behind her, blown by winds of arcane magic only affecting her. Her eyes glowed as she chanted and pulled arcs of lightning-like purple magical power from her spell book. Once she’d gathered a ball of the crackling energy in her hand she lobbed it at the beast, reducing it to smoldering cyders on the forest floor.

“Good one, Ta’lina,” a soft, playful voice called from above. “But that’s a lot of work for just one kill.”

“We can do so much more with so much less effort,” an almost identical voice called out before a shower of glowing, magic-infused arrows began raining down from the forest canopy to slaughter most of the remaining foes.

Two scantily clad, dainty girls with fluttering dragonfly-like wings lowered into sight from their hiding place in the trees above. Both were armed with elegant enchanted bows they were using to send arrow after arrow flying at the remaining foes. The two Fey girls, one blond and one brunet, had small, fragile-looking bodies that made the prissy purple-haired Elven Sorceress look tough, yet from their position above they were racking up far more kills than even the heavily armored Bunordaen woman leading the scouting party of Sisterhood warriors.

“Tell me again, Kylee, why we bothered bringing the others along?” the brown-haired Fey asked her partner as she shot another arrow. “Seems barely worth the struggle of waiting for them when we’re doing most of the killing.”

The blond Fey girl giggled as she loosed another arrow. “Because they look beautiful killing, Alsea,” she told her partner as the two hovered close together. “Almost as beautiful as we do.”

A blur of misty shadow shot through what remained of the combat. As it passed the few remaining foes remaining tendrils of shadow shot out, slicing and impaling monsters. When the last of the monsters fell dead the misty blur stopped, gathering in a cloud of black soot that blew away to reveal a small, petite black-haired Vulpenite girl dressed in the garb of a sorceress from the distant Eastern Islands.

“Done,” the girl said with a cute smile and bow as her bushy fox tail and furry fox-like ears twitched in excitement.

“You know, I think that’s only the third word I’ve heard her say,” Kylee the Fey Ranger said with a giggle as she fluttered down to join the party gathering around the tiny Vulpenite Shadow Mage.

“You know these strange women from those distant Eastern Islands aren’t much for talking,” Alsea teased her Fey companion. “But our Yazuki kills as good as the rest of us even if we don’t understand her strange Shadow Magic. Isn’t that right, you adorable little furball?” she asked, rubbing the Vulpenite’s head as though she was more pet than woman.

Yazuki grinned, leaning into the Fey’s touch as her tail lashed in excitement.

Hrinrav, the scouting party’s leader, strode up and used a gauntleted hand to lightly bat the Fey’s hand away from Yazuki. “There will be time for heavy petting later,” she said in a firm tone. “Perhaps after we get back from our mission. Till then we must all stay focused. We have to get our bearings after that attack,” she added, looking around. “I wonder if we’re closer to the Great Corrupted Forest than we thought we were. None of us expected to be waylaid by so many monsters twisted so heavily by The Corruption so soon.”

“They were nothing for ones as skilled as us,” Ta’lina, the Elven Sorceress said haughtily. Her spell book remained open and floating in front of her so she could continue to draw power from it which kept her floating off the ground.

“Must you?” Hrinrav asked when she noticed how the Sorceress was floating as though unwilling to let the forest floor sully her pristinely clean bare feet.

“I must,” the Elve replied haughtily, turning her nose up and levitating herself a few inches higher off the ground. “The forest here is filthy and will grow more so as we press closer to this Corruption-tainted dark place we’ve been sent to scout out. You all might have to sully your feet by walking upon its soiled soil but I—”

“We don’t have to do that,” the two Fey Rangers said in near-perfect unison then broke into a fit of girlish giggles.

Hrinrav rolled her eyes but gave in and joined the laughter. “I suppose our years of victories within the Sisterhood has earned us all the liberties to have our idiosyncrasies. Even young Toria—” The Bunordaen paused, looking around at her party. “I don’t see Toria,” she said, voice growing serious. “When do you all remember seeing her last?”

“Just before the monsters attacked,” the two Fey Rangers said as the group grew tense.

“There,” Yazuki said, pointing into the forest.

They all turned to see Toria emerging from the trees looking as though she’d fought and won a battle of her own. “Sorry, ladies,” she called out, slightly out of breath. “The nasty beasts tried to peel me off from the rest of you when they attacked. But I’m Toria Underband,” the young Human Battlemage declared arrogantly. “It took some time, but I showed them the mistake they made attacking me.”

“More pity those fool monsters that were dumb enough to attack us,” Hrinrav declared. “But knowing they tried to peel you away from the rest of us suggests there’s some evil intelligence controlling them. We best all stick closer together as we move on, you all know how The Corruption likes to pick parties like ours apart one by one. Once we’re within the Great Corrupted Forest we’ll need to ensure none of us are out of sight of the others for long to safeguard from the kind of tricks The Corruption favors when it comes to turning Sisterhood members against each other.”

The others nodded and agreed, Toria included. None noticed the slight change to her cocky grin, nor did they notice the momentary flick of red that appeared in her irises every time Hrinrav mentioned The Corruption. They pressed on, none suspecting young Toria was no longer the woman they’d left Almerry Keep with. 

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The story will now go back to Almerry Keep for a few scenes. My plan is to keep two main plot threads going there: Dunla and everything else. Before we pick things up with Dunla we’ll be dealing with the “everything else” plot thread first.

What will happen at Almerry Keep next? (Choose up to 9 options from this poll)