Now that I didn’t have to worry about the raptor, I hoped they’d just move on and leave me there. I could get myself down. It would’ve been bad enough to be seen naked in the woods by strangers, but my current situation was infinitely more embarrassing.

As recent events suggested, I wasn’t that lucky. The man looked up from the raptor and burst into a fit of laughter.

“What ya laughin’ at boss?” a blonde asked, as she came near the man and looked up.

Our eyes met. She stared at me with a stupified gaze. I cupped my hands over my cock, but I wasn’t sure it made much difference.

The man stopped laughing, regained his composure, looked at me again, then it started all over. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” he began while still cackling. “I’ve just never caught a person before. Definitely wasn’t expecting to nab a nudist.”

“I’m not a nudist!” I shouted.

The man raised his eyebrows, then started laughing again.

“Cut ‘im down!” The blonde commanded.

Someone, I couldn’t see through branches thick with leaves, sliced the rope. I hoped to land on my stomach, but the rope snagged, I twisted several times in the air, then I was lying on my back with both arms out to my sides.

Hitting the ground hurt, but the blow to my pride was worse, especially when I realized I’d landed,exposed, in front of four young women and the man, who couldn’t keep his composure. He wasn’t laughing anymore, but was doing a very poor job at hiding his smile.

The women were horrified at the sight of me.

“Ew gross!”

“Are you a perv?”

“Explain yourself! An’ don’t give us no lies ‘bout gettin’ jumped while takin’ a bath in the woods.”

‘But that’s exactly what happened!’ I wanted to say, instead I bit my lip in frustration.

The woman who ordered that I be cut down, stepped over, offering me a hand up and some words she meant as encouragement. “A man that can survive the wilds in his birthday suit is pretty rare. It takes some serious bal— um…” her eyes veered away from mine and her face went red.

“It takes BALLS ladies! And look at the size of ‘em. We was huntin’ raptors, but you honies just caught a stallion.” The man announced boisterously.

If I knew how, I’d have teleported away to some distant island and lived the rest of my days without ever seeing another person again. Shame couldn’t even begin to describe the way I felt as I tried to explain that I really was just relaxing in the lake when the raptor surprised me.

In a shift of temperament, the leader offered me an extra pair of trousers he had at their camp; I insisted on going to get the clothes that I had left, neatly folded, near the lake. I thought, maybe they’d believe me, if they saw the scene—also the man looked a few sizes larger than me and I didn’t think I’d fit his clothes.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the rock where I’d left my things, all that remained of my sky haven uniform was a charred heap of fabric.

The girls finally believed me about taking a dip after seeing my little hut and burned clothes, but I wound up spending half an hour nude in their presence before we made it back to their campsite. I’d fashioned some coverings from leaves, but still felt exposed until I was finally in a pair of pants again.

Greyson was notably larger than me, so his clothes fit me about the same as an oversized sack. The shirt hung loosely down to my knees and I had to tie a rope around my waist and roll the pants legs up.

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Once I was dressed, I rejoined the group of adventurers around a fire. They were grilling up strips of raptor meat and laughing about something, hopefully not the embarrassing state they’d found me in.

I sat near Greyson and asked, “mind if I have a bite? I haven’t eaten in over a day.” As if to lend validity to my statement, my stomach gurgled quite loudly.

With an amused grin Greyson answered, “O’course Fey, we might never have caught that raptor without your um…” he smiled, struggling to restrain a laugh, “assistance.”

One of the girls laughed, two others grimaced, and the blonde shot him a sharp glare.

I buried my face in my knees while I waited for the next round of meat to finish.

Greyson cleared his throat, then he slapped me on the back saying, “hey, don’t be like that. We really do appreciate your help. Those raptors been plaguing these parts for the better part of a year an’ it’s extremely difficult to catch ‘em. We’ve been chasing that one for ‘bout a week, but thanks to you we caught it completely off guard.”

“Yup, you saved us a month at least. Now we jus’ need to find its den before the eggs hatch.” Elmyra, who was like Greysons right hand, added.

“Eggs?” I muttered. “Why do you think there’s eggs?”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“Because the raptor we killed was a female and she had mating scars.” Aleena answered bluntly. “To be specific, she had bite marks on her neck from a male holdin’ her down, and her—”

“Spare ‘im the details.” Maylene cut in.

Aleena shrugged and stopped speaking. My curiosity was piqued, but I didn’t ask her to go on.

“Perhaps you’d like to help us track down the male?” Mina asked.

Immediately I shook my head. After finishing this meal I planned to leave their group and find the mantis. According to them, there was a city not too far away.

I figured I ought to be able to make it there alone. That and I wasn’t sure my pride could handle traveling with a group of mostly girls, who had all seen me bare.

“Don’t worry Fey, we aren’t asking you to play the part of live bait this time.”Greyson began, sounding pretty sincere, “It’ll be my turn to show the girls what kind o’ man I am.” He said, earning him disapproving looks from all of them. “Relax, it was jus’ a joke.”

The way he said it, I wasn’t so sure.

‘Never again will I take a bath in a lake’ I vowed, silently wishing I had listened to X.

“Don’t mind ‘im,” Elmyra sighed. “Greyson’s still learnin’ to get along with strangers.”

By the way she looked at Greyson, I knew there was some unspoken communication between them. Things got tense and awkward fast, then Greyson rolled his eyes and rubbed his temples. “I was jus’ startin’ to forget about that annoyin’ brat, why’d you have to remind me?”

“Because you’re supposed to be our leader, but when them kids from the SAFE zone showed up, you stopped actin’ like it.”

The two of them were locked in a battle of wills, then Elmyra broke eye contact, stood and marched into one of the mechanical tents.

The rest of us sat silently around the fire until I couldn’t hold my curiosity. “You guys met someone from the SAFE zone?”

Maylene nodded. “We did. One of ‘em was a real prick. Acted all depressed and moody then he started prancin’ round jus’ like those heroes.”

“That must’ve been Fin.”

Greyson jolted. “You know ‘im?”

With a nod, I said, “yeah. I don’t get along with him either.”

“So you’re one of ‘em.” He shook his head. “I figured you weren’t from around here. There are a few things you should know then.” Greyson began. “All that SAFE shit is lies and garbage. The city of Aurora ain’t never been safe. We pay the taxes but enforcers don’t come save us when we need it. The heroes don’t even visit.”

“Yes they do!” Aleena asserted. The other girls met her eyes with desperate, almost pleading, frowns.

Maylene shook her head and arms frantically.

Aleena didn’t stop. “Quan came six months ago with a band of enforcers. They demanded to know why we stopped paying the tax. When Greyson’s father told ‘em it was cause we needed the money to pay adventurers—”

“Stop!” Greyson demanded.

The other girls dropped their heads into their hands.

Aleena still didn’t stop. “—Quan, murdered Greyson’s father. He killed ‘im in front of everyone!”

The camp fire roared into a blaze that consumed what remained of the raptor. The heat of the flame intensified, but it remained contained, unlike the rage that fueled it.

Greyson was trembling. Maylene and Mina tried to comfort him, but it was clear he couldn’t be consoled.

Mina glared at Aleena then grumbled, “you know the rule.”

I didn’t know if I should believe the story, but I regretted asking who they met. If I’d known where the conversation would end up, I’d have kept my mouth closed.

“I’m sorry…” I mumbled, then crept away from the group. It didn’t really matter if they heard me or not. I was pretty sure my apology wasn’t going to change anything.

Aurora, the city they’d mentioned was somewhere north of where we were.

It was the opposite direction, but I had enough light to make it back to my hut by the lake. There, I looked but gave up before finding my CAD. When the sun set, I curled up inside the hut and went to sleep.

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The next morning, I found my CAD near the lake.

Then a pained reptilian shriek cut through the air. It wasn’t the same, but it sounded extremely similar to the female raptor. The noise repeated a few times then came to a stop.

Looking around, I didn’t see the beast. The forest was full of green and leafy things, providing a number of places a raptor could hide, but I wasn’t going to be caught off guard again.

With my CAD active, I headed south, around the lake where the sound came from.

A path of crushed bushes and broken sticks told me I was probably heading the right way. I didn’t get far before Mina tackled me.

“Wha—” I started, but stopped when she put her finger to my lips.

She tilted her head left, gesturing toward the mountain.

At first I didn’t understand, then a wall crumbled, revealing a large cavity in the side of the mountain. However instead of the raptor walking out from the cavity there were four enforcers. One of which was guiding a medical hover table with the body of a spine tailed raptor laying atop it. Mina and I laid still as they came down from the mountain.

The men didn’t seem to notice us lying under the foliage. When they passed by us, one of them stopped.

“Hey, did somebody drop this?” He said, picking up a CAD.

It was mine. I’d dropped it when Mina tackled me.

“Probably one of the rookies. Just bring it back to the facility.” Another enforcer said.

They kept walking, but we didn’t move for another ten minutes, just to be sure they were far enough away not to notice us.

I wanted to leave the area, and go to Aurora, but Mina insisted on following them. She said we had to know what they were up to and she demanded that I come with her since it was now the second time she’d saved me.

Following the enforcers wasn’t hard. Their levitating platform was loud and emitted light from two places on the bottom. All we had to do was stay low and quiet.

Eventually they reached a checkpoint that we couldn’t enter.

A line of metal poles, connected by panels of blue light, created an impenetrable barrier. An enforcer, inside the energy fence, touched something on one of the poles and the fence deactivated long enough for the others to pass through.

I couldn’t confirm my suspicions, but I was willing to guess that beyond that gate, there was another research facility like the one I’d stumbled on before.