An unlikely rescue

Chloe panicked from behind her leaf and behind the glass. How could she had forgotten that nymphs didn't have pubes?! The visitors would find out she was a human, they'd remove the leaf, she'd be seen naked by Ronald, he'd spread the word around, and -

Suddenly, without warning, Chloe yelped as two strong hands reached out and grabbed her by the shoulders, spinning her around and removing the leaf as Chloe came face to face with Fyra. "Play along with this if you want out of this unrecognized!" She hissed under her breath.

"What are -"

*SPANK!*

Chloe yelped as she felt a warm hand print from where Fyra had just spanked her.

"Don't look back!" Fyra hissed quietly as she leaned in close to Chloe's left ear... And licked it.

"Uh... Well, I guess that settles it, Ladies and Gentlemen!" The Tour Guide exclaimed, turning back to the crowd. "It would appear that our Fire Nymph, Nympha Ignitus, has just claimed our recent Water Nymph as her lifepartner and mate!"

"'Mate'?!" Chloe whispered, still not turning around.

"You're not really my mate and lifepartner, dumbass!" Fyra replied with a whisper of her own. "It's common knowledge that nymphs would never consider humans as their equals in courtships."

"But aren't fire nymphs and water nymphs usually antagonistic to one another?" Ronald asked in confusion.

"Well, in some rare instances they do hybridize." The Tour Guide said, "That's how we get Steam Nymphs, after all. It would appear that our newest arrival is full of surprises!"

As the group moved on, Flora watched with a whimper as Fyra had marked Chloe, tears in her eyes as her lip trembled. The Earth Nymph grabbed a banana leaf and used it like a tissue as she sobbed.

"Something wrong, Flora?" Blizzy asked.

"I... I thought Fyra and I had something." Flora whimpered. "Why would she choose a human? What has she got that I don't got?!"

"Uh... I don't think that that was what you think it was." Blizzy commented as Fyra and Chloe came closer.

"Well, well, well!" One of the popular girls said as Ophelia and Lilith came up to the group. "Look who decided to try and wear adult clothes today."

"Sweetie, the look doesn't work if you still carry around your little dolly." Another mocked. "At that point, you're basically playing dress up!"

"... I knew this would backfire." Lilith muttered. "Stupid water nymph..."

"I... I..." Ophelia stammered as the young woman backed away nervously, the popular girls laughing at her.

Nearby, Umara slapped her forehead. "I would have had better luck teaching a goldfish to play the piano!" She groaned, looking back up at the young woman. Her eyes widened as she saw a muscular blonde man around Ophelia's age walk out of a doorway and head onto a collision course with the nervous Ophelia. "Uh oh..."

"... Please stop laugh-" Ophelia began, bumping into the young man as she yelped and fell to the ground, sending Lilith flying through the air as she looked up and gasped while blushing hard. "G-G-GREGORY?!"

"Oh, hey, uh..." Gregory greeted, donning a look of confusion as he tried to place the name.

"Hi, Greg!" The Leader of the popular girls chuckled as she stepped on Ophelia's mini skirt. "You remember Ophelia Blackthorne, right?"

"That's Ophelia?!" Greg asked in shock.

"Yes! I mean No! I mean..." Ophelia said as she got to her feet... Only realizing that her mini skirt was at her ankles when the girls laughed. Ophelia squealed as she threw her hands over her womanhood before going wide eyed at remembering that she was now mooning the captain of the Retwallerchum Team and her crush. Ophelia squealed as she pulled her skirt back up and raced towards the nearest ladies room.

"Oh, I got so much work to do..." Umara said in annoyance.

"I'll say you have, you stupid water nymph!" Lilith spat as she landed in a bush nearby. At Umara's surprised expression, she snapped, "Don't be so surprised! Familiars can tell the difference between real humans and those pretending to be one! More to the point, you were supposed to make Ophelia more liked. Not a bigger laughingstock!"

"Look, I'm trying, alright!" Umara snapped, bringing a hand to her chin in thought. "She seemed kinda flustered around that himbo."

"Of course she was!" Lilith snapped as she climbed out of the bush and dusted herself off. "That 'Himbo' was Gregory Wartsworth. He's Captain of the school's Retwallerchum Team, heir to The Wartsworth Wand Emporium, and living proof that bigger bodies don't equate to bigger brains. And he's surprisingly the nicest of the popular students here. Ophelia has been crushing on him for years!"

"So... She has a crush on him, and he's one of the most popular and well liked people here?" Umara asked slyly. "This gives me an idea..."

"Yeah, because your last idea worked so well..."

"C'mon, Rosaline, where are you?" Conrad muttered as he sat in the bushes, looking around nervously.

"Y'know, we still got some time until she shows up." Elizabeth purred as she rubbed her head against Conrad's. "Maybe we can have our own little fun..."

"Elizabeth, please! Chloe could be seen!" Conrad groaned, inching away from the former lioness. "Or worse!"

"... Oh." Elizabeth said sadly as she backed off, looking away. A second later, she brightened up as she said, "Well, maybe we can after we save Chloe. I mean, I know this nice place that Rosaline goes to for lunch that serves Familiars. Maybe we can get something to eat later and take a walk through the forest under the moonlight?"

"Elizabeth..."

"Hey, what is your opinion on the moon, anyway? I mean, I always liked the full moon because of it's more romantic nature. Don't you agree?"

"Elizabeth."

"Well, I mean, we don't have to like the same thing, of course. And I'm just spitballing ideas here and there, so -"

"ELIZABETH! PLEASE SHUT THE HELL UP!" Conrad snapped, causing the former lioness to flinch...

And getting the attention of The Trapper, who eyed the two in the bushes. Raising an eyebrow as the two cat eared people failed to notice her, The Trapper reached into her pocket and pulled out a field guide, flipping through the pages until she came across an entry...

Tabaxi (Homo Felidae)

Conservation Status: Extinct (last seen alive 21,000,000 years ago)

The Trapper's eyes became gold coins as she looked over to Conrad and Elizabeth, the former cat and former lioness matching the description from the field guide. "Foxmarry is going to have to sell his estate to have you two on display!" She whispered greedily as she pulled her wand out.

"Look! I don't have time for your games, okay!" Conrad said sternly, his ears flat against his head. His expression softened as he saw the heartbreak in Elizabeth's, causing the former cat to sigh and shake his head. "Elizabeth..."

"I don't get it." Elizabeth whispered as she looked away and hung her head, tears welling up in her eyes. "I just don't get it. What am I doing wrong? I've been nice to you. I've been friendly towards you. I've been protective of you. I've been affectionate and loving towards you. I did everything I thought would make you see me as the perfect mate, and I strike out every last time. Why don't you like me?"

"Elizabeth..." Conrad said with a sigh. "Elizabeth, it's not that -"

"Jaculum Tranquillus!"

Before either Conrad or Elizabeth could react, two magical darts shot out and tagged Conrad in the ass and Elizabeth in the thigh. Both hissing in pain, the former cat and lioness turned to see The Trapper standing over them with a wicked grin before they both passed out.

"A male and female Tabaxi?!" The Trapper asked as she looked the two over. "Never mind the estate! Foxmarry's gonna be a beggar when I sell him a breeding pair!"

"So, just out of curiosity, why did you save me back there?" Chloe asked Fyra as the human and three nymphs sat next to a campfire behind a wall made to look like a rock, taking advantage of the zoo's mealtime. "I thought you didn't like me."

"I don't, but not even you deserve the humiliation that bitch Umara is putting you through." Fyra said as she cooked the leg of mutton in her hands before taking a bite. Hearing a crunching noise, she turned to see Flora staring at Chloe with narrowed eyes as she bit into a coconut like an orange. "What the hell is your problem?"

"Nothing." Flora lied as didn't bother to look at Fyra.

"She's upset that you put the moves on our human roommate here." Blizzy replied as she bit down on a frozen carrot. "That's the reason she's been checking out your ass since we got here."

"Oh for the - It wasn't real! I have no intention of settling down with a human!"

"You don't?!" Flora asked, hope twinkling in her eyes.

"I don't have any intention of settling down at all!"

"... You don't?" Flora asked dejectedly.

"Well, what if you found a nymph you really wanted to settle down with?" Chloe asked.

"That ship has sailed, and I got badly burned on that one!" Fyra replied. "Pun not intended!"

Chloe brought a finger to her chin in thought before a thought crossed her mind. "It was Umara, wasn't it?"

Fyra spat her food out as both Blizzy and Flora looked between the two. The fire nymph narrowed her eyes at the woman. "What?"

"That's how she tricked you, isn't it?" Chloe asked. "She made you fall in love with her and then stabbed you in the back, and now you can't go back home to your fam-"

"I can't go back home to my family because I have no family to go back home to because of that water bitch!" Fyra snapped, reducing the mutton and bone to ash. At the stunned expressions of the others, the fire nymph sighed. "You're right. I met Umara while out on a hunt one day and... Well, for me it was love at first sight. But my tribe... My former tribe believed that water nymphs shouldn't be trusted. I challenged what I thought was this backward ideology, stating that I was madly in love with one and I trusted her. They all called me a blind fool, unfit for being next in line to the title of Flame Matriarch."

"Wait... You're a princess?!" Blizzy asked in disbelief, yelping in pain as Flora stomped on her foot and gave her a glare.

"Our Queen... My own mother disowned and banished me for my blasphemous words and embarrassing our family name, but I didn't care. I had Umara and that's all that mattered." Fyra closed her eyes and sighed. "We had it all planned out. We'd run off, I'd mark her as my lifepartner and mate, have a couple of steam nymphs, the usual deal. And then..."

"And then you got betrayed." Chloe finished.

"..." Fyra looked down into the fire pit. "I gave up everything for that bitch, and she played me like a harp just so she could save her hide. And the worst part was, as I was being carted off, I saw my mom and called out to her... And she... She..." The fire nymph got to her feet and looked away, "I don't wanna talk about this anymore."

Before any of the three could say anything else, Fyra sprinted off into a nearby cave that served as a shelter for the enclosure as Flora turned and gave Chloe a look, shaking her head.

"Okay, guys." Rosalina said as she carried a large stack of shirts, pants, boxers, and panties into the bushes with two hats on top. "Now, obviously, I have no idea what your new sizes are, so I had to guesstimate off appearance and -" the young woman looked up and paused as she looked around for the former cats, "Guys? Where'd you -"

"Yah!"

Hearing a loud whinny, Rosaline turned around to see The Trapper's cart speeding off towards the back entrance to the zoo... Rosaline's eyes going wide as she saw the two passed out, cat-eared, naked individuals in the cart.

"Conrad! Elizabeth! Oh no!" Rosaline exclaimed as she dropped the clothes.