Trapped

Jenjen stuck her arm out and caught me across the stomach as we both came to an abrupt stop. “Shhhh!” she hissed. “I smell something.”

I stopped and listened but had a hard time over the sound of my own heavy breathing. This baby felt like she could come any day now and moving at all was hard let alone sprinting. I could hear the normal noises of wind and the grunt of the large beasts of this area… but… as I listened closer I could also hear the tinkling sound of someone in chain mail armor moving about. I could even possibly make out the sound of more than one person not far outside of the cave we were about to dart from. We needed to get a better idea of what was going on.

“A lot of someones are out there and I think they want to fight.” She whispered wide eyed.

“I don’t want to fight today.” I whimpered as I supported my belly in my hands.

As Jenjen reached for her cesti I put my hand over her arm. “There must be a better way. Let me go peek and see what exactly we are dealing with.”

“I have to protect you. My brother will never forgive me if you get hurt because I let you go alone.” She whined.

I flashed her my most charmingly confident smile. “I’m still a thief, remember? I can handle this. They’ll never know I am near.”

Jenjen held her lip in her teeth as she nodded with wide concerned eyes. Hiding myself I crept to the end of the cave and peeked around the corner cautiously. I almost gasped too loudly when I realized what was happening. My heart raced as I backed slowly away and turned to creep back to Jenjen.

“It would appear the whole of the Temple Knights are here to welcome us and they brought a few goblins and…” I paused a bit taken back by my heartbreaking disappointment. “Kallo is with them and he doesn’t look like a prisoner.”

My mithra friend hissed in anger as her face tightened. “I’m going to trap that rat and make him suffer as I kill him slowly. How dare he!”

“Not too loud! We need to think of some way around them. There is no way we can handle them all even if we waited for Gurok and Kjarbo and I wont be responsible for my friends getting killed or imprisoned.”

Her face lit up. “Cakes!” She squeaked in delight as she dug through her bag.

“I do love cake but I just can’t eat when things are this dire.”

Jenjen giggled and held out Mithra rice cakes. I smiled back at her. “Purrrfect.” I giggled and took one. The Rhinostery in Windurst developed these magical little delights and used them as a novelty treats during special holidays and events. I eagerly popped one into my mouth and hummed in delight at its sweet smooth taste.



As soon as I swallowed the fast acting magic made my whole body tickle and caused me to giggle and squirm uncontrollably as I shrank into the size and image of a mithran child complete with short ears and long tail that waved with a mind of its own. Jenjen bounced and clapped her hands together in delight. Her cake had already shrank her down too and we looked like twin sisters.

“Who’s in here?” A gruff voice called into the cave.

Jen and I giggled in response and purred as we skipped innocently in circles arms locked loosely with one another. “No one but us.”

“Children shouldn’t be in here alone.” The red haired elvaan said as he put his hands on his hips and tried to look stern through a smile. “What are you two up to?”

Holding hands and stopping to look up at the man we smiled warmly as I explained to him. “We want to see Tavnazian Safehold like we heard about in school. The mean taru in our class said we were not brave enough but we are plenty brave.”

“Way more than them.” Jenjen chimed in.

“We don’t care if it’s haunted. We’re not afraid of any silly ghosts.” Jenjen and I let out a unified rawr and ran past the elvaan. We had to make sure to get by them all before our magical cakes wore off.

The elvaan caught us both by the back of our shirts as we ran by and carried is out. We yowled and struggled but it was no use in this little form. “These two say they are little adventures out to see the Safehold. What should we do with them?” he asked his superior officer.

Kallo laughed and took us one in each arm. “Well aren’t they just the cutest little girls you have ever seen? Like little matching dolls aren’t they? I suspect they will grow up quicker than you think. You girls down mind keeping us company while we have a little bit of a lunch do you?” He looked at the knights. “They must be hungry right?” He grinned evilly. He knew.

I began to tickle and I knew we didn’t have long. “We don’t want to stay with you!” Jenjen protested as she squirmed. Taking a cake from her bag she tried to stuff it in my mouth but Kallo reached around her and took it. “That is our lunch! She hollered.

I reached for it but it was no use. Kallo held us tighter. “I’m sorry dolls.” He said almost sincerely as he handed the cake to a knight. “Eat this.” He commanded.

The elvaan raised an eyebrow and ate it. “It’s quite good.” He barely got out before he became our triplet.

“I was raised in Windurst too.” Kallo said as he held us tighter. To our horror we transformed back into ourselves in his arms. He kissed our noses. “Aren’t they just too cute for words now?” he chuckled back to the others.

Jenjen bit him hard and he pushed her away into the waiting arms of two of the knights who she preceded to pummel with her fists and feet as they tried to get a grip on her.

I head butted Kallo causing his nose to bleed and pulled lose reaching for my daggers as I lunged forward. Kallo grabbed me again and I spun around and stabbed his arm. “Run back Jen!” I cried.

Our bodies locked as we became trapped in a cocoon of magic. Someone had cast a bind spell on us. “Never send a thief to do a black mage’s job.” Someone chuckled as another used his healing magic on Kallo.

“You’re a little out numbered for running.” One of the knights said. “Tie them up and let us get back quickly. The wife says if I am late for dinner one more time this week she’s going to stop feeding me all together.” He chuckled and seemed very pleased with himself. I couldn’t wait for the bind spell to wear off so I could kill his ugly face.

I couldn’t help but let hormonal prego tears roll down my face. “Why?” I cried as I looked at Kallo.

“Thief, please check it.” He said as he patted the heavy looking gil purse on his belt. It amazed and hurt me to see how simple minded and evil a person he really was. I really wanted to hope that there was more to his betrayal than met the eye but I feared that it was nothing but self-centered greed. He turned his back on us and walked away.