Sally woke to the sweetish smell of rot and decay. The air was clammy, and she was sitting against cold stone, her hands bound behind the hard surface.
“Oi, she’s awake”, a high-pitched male voice dug into Sally’s pounding head. There was a single source of light, coming from a corridor ahead. Not enough for a human to make out more than silhouettes and several pairs of dim-glowing eyes.
“Finally,” a lean figure answered, walking towards her. “Can’t see much with those useless eyes, can you? I honestly don’t get how a weakling like you made it through the trial. No claws, soft skin, weak flesh. Must have been that sword, right?” He was almost upon her now, one hand holding a thin rod or maybe a knife.
Sally’s breath came quicker, her heart racing as cold sweat started to form on her head. She flinched as the cold, sharp item touched her neck, slowly tracing down to her collarbone.
“Tell me about that sword,” he whispered into her ear. “Tell me everything about your companions, their powers, their weaknesses,” he rasped, gradually putting pressure on the blade until it cut skin, making Sally wince. “Tell me, and we don’t have to drag this out for too long my dear.”
She could hear the smile in those words. This was a man who enjoyed inflicting pain on others. A short flicker of the sparse light caught their attention and he turned around right when the whole room was plunged into darkness.
“Damn cord must’ve gotten loose, open the curtains, I need light!” he shouted to his underlings. Sally could only see a small band of white at the bottom of the corridor. Apparently not enough for her torturer to see as his yellow eyes reflected almost no light.
A startled cry rang out when two bright, vertically slitted orbs appeared in front of the high-pitched guy appeared. A true cat’s eyes. And then, they moved.
At least six different voices shouted over each other, the sound of wide swings displacing empty air reached Sally’s ears. The eyes had vanished, and utter chaos unfolded.
Sally almost shrieked when a wet gurgle filled the air in front of her, followed by a body dropping on hard stone.
“Don’t move,” Haylee whispered, and tears of relief sprang from Sally’s eyes at the sound of this voice. A second later, she felt the tension of the ropes slacken and her arms were free again. “No light will leave the room”.
It took a moment for Sally to register the words. Her hands found the knife near the corpse on the ground, and she’d never been as grateful as today to feel the warmth of Akali’s power within her body. A brief mental pull coaxed it to the surface, bathing everything in red light.
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One was in the corridor, already close to the curtain. An ugly, rat-like snout turned her way, surprise written on their face.
The next moment, Sally stood in the corridor, and darkness claimed its territory once more as a lifeless body hit the cold floor.
Only having vision right before her attack was jarring, but Sally was trained for this situation. Her captors were not. She pulled on the energy again, assessing the state of her enemies for a moment. And then the screaming started.
The stone knife was a brittle weapon, but Sally was an experienced enforcer. Be it a cut on the forearm, a stab in another's kidney or a clean slice of the throat, a spray of blood followed after every red blaze in the dark.
Only one managed to thwart her at the end. Hiding their piggish visage behind a broad arm, the beastly hybrid lunged in random directions. Layers of fat beneath a black-brown mottled skin shielded their vitals — too thick for a primitive tool of stone.
Sally kept her distance and waited in the darkness for an opportunity. When a nasal shriek split the air, she charged Akali’s might.
The Hybrid’s left leg buckled, arms trying to grab behind him as Sally sped forward. She stopped face-to-face with her foe and rammed the knife into their eye.
Her last enemy dopped with a heavy thump. A thump that reverberated in her body when the tension of battle left her limbs.
Sally kicked the corpse with a cry of outrage. She let herself fall to her knees, and a single, ashamed sob wrenched itself free from her chest. Soft, furred arms embraced her, pulling her head against Haylee’s bosom.
“Shh, it’s okay. You’re safe.”
Safe. Sally tried and failed to contain the emotions bubbling up like a geyser, stopping in her throat, ready to break out. They broke loose with a final hitching breath, and she cried into Haylee’s chest. She was so relieved, so ashamed, so grateful.
“Thank you. For coming for me.”
“Of course, I came for you,” Haylee said, gently stroking through Sally’s hair. “The others are also on their way, but we need to get out quickly now.” The catgirl stood up, pulling Sally with her. “We can’t leave the way I came in — too high up.”
Right, to safety first. Sally took a few deep breaths to steady herself. Haylee led her by the hand until they reached the sturdy leather curtain and a dimly lit room behind it. The circular chamber sported a single long stone table with various maps of the area draped over it. The illumination came from several small shafts in the high ceiling.
“That’s how I came in,” Haylee pointed at the shafts. She stopped briefly, ears and nose twitching. “Still can’t hear anyone, which is odd after all the noise we made. Let’s be quick, but watch out for an ambush.”
As silent as she could manage, Sally followed behind her much stealthier companion. They passed several storage rooms, a kitchen that smelled of recently butchered meat and sleeping quarters that held far too many beds for her liking. There seemed to be a single hallway leading out, and she could see from afar that it was blocked by a massive stonewall with a solid-looking wooden contraption to leverage it up.
“I hope we can even move —”
“Stop,” Haylee shut Sally down silently. “I can hear voices from there. It’s muffled, but there are a lot of them.” The catgirl closed her eyes, focusing on her other senses. “They are waiting for something or someone. And it sounds like most of their men are out there.” Her eyes opened wide as she looked at Sally, the soft fur going rigid.
“We are trapped”.