The moment Jenny opened her eyes, she felt something sticky across her body. She tried to move, but the stickiness kept her limbs in one place. The air reeked of wet dirt, the same scent Huntar mentioned. Tiny green glowing mushrooms glimmered in the cavern, revealing pillars and stalactites on the ceiling.

She must be inside the bat creatures’ cave, but how far from the camp? She has to escape before her captor returns to eat her.

The dark brown, sticky muck on her body looked like a cluster of plastic string, keeping her on a stone wall. At least she wasn’t too high from the ground.

“Hello!” a voice shouted in front of her.

Jenny glanced forward and spotted a white monkey man clued to a stone pillar close to her. He was short with a pink naked face and long arms that reached his hand-feet. His tail rose behind him while the muck coated most of his body.

“Are you a human?” The monkey asked through his high-pitched chuckling voice. “Or maybe I might be seeing things in here. HAHAHAHAHAHA!”

Jenny used to hate monkeys. When she was little, her mother brought her to a zoo and visited the monkey shelter. One monkey, a white one, escaped from his inhabitant and grabbed her balloon. Before the zookeepers caught it, the monkey released her balloon from a tree. She cried as her balloon ascended to the heavens, and she never wanted to see a monkey again. Of course, Jenny grew up and allowed her bigotry against those animals to fade away. Not all monkeys were bad. They were only wild, playful creatures who belonged in the jungle.

Jenny narrowed her eyes at the Beastman. “Who are you?”

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“The name’s Basju. Basju the Trickster!” The monkey padded the wall, applauding for himself. “And who do I greet to?”

“My name is Jenny, and yes, I am a human.”

Basju whistled. “Damn, I have never seen a human before. Heeheeheehee! Are you single?”

Jenny’s stomach turned. “Sorry, but you’re not my type. Where are we?”

The monkey sighed in disappointment. “Uhhhhhhhhhh-we’re in a Wyrboo hive.”

“A Wyrboo?”

“Yup, it’s what we called those blood-sucking critters here. I met a few hunters who knew about them. Wyrboos hunt in packs at night. They send little ones to scout out for prey. When they find unlucky travelers, they sting them and bring them here. This is their nest. A hive in correction. Some of them feed, but they save their best catches for their queen.”

Jenny widened her eyes. “They have a queen here?”

“The mother of all Wyrboos,” Basju explained. “She breeds them all and sends them out to fetch her food. Kind of like bees, except they don’t make honey.” He sniffed the muck on his chest. “They make shit. Peeeeeee-uuuuuuuu!”

With the muck on her, it smelled like feces covered in hay. She could definitely use a bath after she escapes.

“How long have you been here?” Jenny asked.

Basju tilted his head from side to side. “One, two days? I’m not sure. Those pesky rodents grabbed me from a traveling merchant camp. Luckily, I was the only one who survived….. For now.”

Jenny shook her shoulders, trying to make the webbed shell break off her body. But the organic muck was solid as a rock. Dying while covered in turds wasn’t on Jenny’s bucket list. “There must be a way out of here!”

Basju chuckled. “Without a blade or a torch, we are pretty screwed here.”

Jenny clenched her teeth. “When do they feed on their prey?”

While Basju bit his lower lip, a loud roar echoed from a nearby tunnel. The monkey dropped his mouth. “Uh-oh! Looks like the queen is hungry!”

Jenny’s heart raced as she watched the dark tunnel.