CYOA - "Unpunished" Chapter 2 (Patreon)

(Sorry for the delay in continuing the Choose Your Own Adventure! I intend to update more than once a month in the future.)

I glanced back at the corner of the room one more time, at the small person lurking there in the shadows, and they hadn't moved one bit. I almost asked if they were going to follow, too, then decided that they probably knew what was going on better than me, so they didn't need me telling them what to do. I turned to follow Lady Puro out into the cave, trotting across the natural rock floor toward the uneven circle of sunlight outside.

I didn't know what to expect, so the normalcy of coming out into a forest clearing was almost disappointing. Typical green leaves on branches attached to tree trunks, grass and flowers, ferns and shrubs, and glimpses of a blue sky through the foliage. I'm no botanist, but it looked like it might have been a forest on any number of continents back on Earth.

Well, except for the company.

Just outside the cave I spotted Lady Puro, who was rushing out to talk to another fritz, who was a little smaller and darker. They were both naked aside from a belt with pouches on it. Seeing Puro rustle inside of one made me pat at my vest pocket by reflex, to see if I still had all my belongings. That's when I realized I no longer had my vest, or anything else.

I didn't really have time to worry about losing another SD card. I looked past the fritzes to see six more lions like Sir Slice were lined up just beyond, each with spears, shields, and white armor not quite as gleaming as their captain. They were mounted on big, white birds with black markings; they sort of looked like if you crossed an ostrich with a seagull, then made it even bigger. Another bird was standing nearby, its saddle empty.

The six knights were facing away from the cave, their spears held at the ready. On the ground in front of them was Sir Slice, with his sword in both hands. "Let them come," he said, with a disgusted chuckle. "They'll taste fine zaloph steel this day!"

Lady Puro shook her head, then when she spotted me she stepped closer and spoke in a low voice. "Our backs are against the wall here," she said, before rearing up onto her back legs to glance left and right. "I wish we had more time to speak, but we should flee while we have the chance."

I looked around, too, and I didn't see squat. I had about a zillion questions, but, "What exactly are we supposed to be fleeing from?" was the one that came out first.

That's about when I noticed the smell. I flared my nostrils and inhaled deeply, and my first thought was that someone was inflating party animals, because it smelled like balloons. It was faint at first, even with that big whiff, but instead of getting used to it, the scent seemed to be getting stronger.

"Those!" Puro whispered harshly, pointing her nose toward the knights.

A dark shape emerged from behind a tree on the far side of the clearing. At first I thought it was black, and then it stepped into the light, and a kaleidoscope of iridescent colors rippled across its glossy surface. The creature stood on two legs like the zalophs, though it was shorter, more lithe, and it had a long, poofy tail. I swallowed when I noticed that it didn't seem to have any eyes, and instead of a mouth there was a white, toothy grin drawn onto its snout.

I changed "it" in my mind to "she" when I noticed her breasts and the lips of her sex, which the shiny coating over her body did more to accentuate than to hide.

"Alpha Strike!" I nearly jumped at how loud Sir Slice had shouted those two words, moving in a blur as he crossed the entire distance between himself and his target in one leap. He brought his sword down in a sharp slash, diagonally across the creature's torso. A gash appeared on her chest from her left shoulder to her right hip, one breast hanging askew. A flood of multicolored liquid burbled out of her wound and onto the forest floor, forming a puddle that was all the colors of the rainbow.

The smell got much stronger. My first thought had been right: it was rubber.

She giggled, face unmoving. The cut across her body visibly started to shrink right before my eyes. As I watched I finally realized she wasn't coated in that slick, shiny rubber; she was rubber! She reached out for Sir Slice and walked closer, her arms held too wide to be seen as aggression. I was pretty sure that all she wanted to do was hug him.

Even a weird, alien dragon like me could tell that accepting that hug would be a mistake.

Sir Slice growled and broadened his stance before swinging his greatsword in two lightning fast strikes, once at her neck and then down across her right arm. I gasped as the creature's head rolled off her shoulders, it and her hand both falling to the forest floor. Gouts of colorful liquid shot out of both stumps.

"Mmm," she said, just loud enough for me to hear at my distance. The head and hand both melted away into puddles as her neck and wrist bulged, replacements already starting to regrow into place. She took another step closer.

My heart was racing. The entire exchange had taken only a few seconds, and it felt like it had been both an instant and an eternity at the same time. I'd been raised on Earth, after all, so I'd only ever seen "magic" used for fae illusions, minor human charms, and dragon flight, all powered by the ley lines. This was some real sword and sorcery shit, and I still had no idea why I was even there!

"Sir!" one of the zalophs shouted in concern. At first I assumed it was because of the other dark silhouettes that were clambering out of the forest around us, some taller and more muscular, two of them shorter and feral shaped.

I second-guessed that assumption when I saw Sir Slice take a staggering step backward, the puddle of rubber "blood" he'd chopped out of his opponent defying gravity as it flowed up his legs. "Foul spawn!" he cried out, then he gasped and shook his head. "Remove your filth from me!"

A paw on my leg made me jerk in place, and I looked down into Lady Puro's glowing yellow eyes. Electricity danced between her whiskers continuously. "Come, Niamathana, we must make haste!"

I...