Hiking Up

Kaya shouldered her backpack and led the five of them down the trail out of the resort. In addition to Chloe she'd managed to get Natalie, Laura, and Hanna to agree to come along.

There wasn't a trail to follow, since you couldn't really make one in the sand, but a series of flags stuck out several feet from the ground to mark the meandering path they were to follow. It wound back and forth between the dunes. The serpentine pattern added distance to the hike, but it was much better than trying to climb up and down the sand drifts.

Walking through sand wasn't easy, and before long the party were all breathing heavily. So far though nobody was complaining.

Chloe broke away from the pack behind to join Kaya at the front.

"How far have we gone?" Chloe asked.

"Probably about half a mile," Kaya told her.

Chloe groaned. They were less than a third of the way there.

"It'll be over before you know it," Kaya assured her.

Chloe adjusted the floppy hat she wore. "It's Hanna I'm worried about."

Kaya looked over her shoulder to see the poor girl hunched over and sweating miserably beneath the hot sun. Laura was giving her a dubious look, as if she was worried the younger girl would collapse at any moment. "She'll be fine."

"Thanks for putting this together by the way," Chloe said. "It's nice to get out."

"No problem," Kaya replied. "Thanks for coming out." Kaya had been going stir crazy back at the resort. It felt great to stretch her legs. She would have gone on her own of course, but it was much better to have some company.

Chloe cleared her throat. "So, um, can I ask you about something?"

Kaya turned her head. Whatever she wanted to bring up, Chloe seemed embarrassed about it. Curious, Kaya replied, "Sure. Shoot."

"Well, you and I, we're both in the negative for points. I was wondering, um...what's your plan?"

Kaya raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

Chloe sighed. "Because I don't know what to do."

"Ten points is a lot," Kaya noted.

"I know."

"You could just sleep with him. That would probably get it done."

"No," came Chloe's near instant response. Her voice was certain, but tinged with worry. "I'm not doing that."

Kaya wanted to push the issue, but Chloe seemed pretty set on it. She got the impression that all she'd succeed in doing was firming up the girl's resolve.

"Not a lot of other options then," Kaya told her. "Have you been to the bounty board?"

Chloe looked down at her feet. "Yeah. There's only one left."

Kaya was disappointed to hear that. She'd been planning on doing the gloryhole one. Not that she'd admit it, but it did sound like fun. When she gave that some thought she knew that the feeling was a foreign one, that it was the show's changes pushing her, but it was difficult to keep that in mind.

"Which one?" Kaya asked.

"The uh, the maid one."

So the gloryhole really was gone then. Kaya looked over at Chloe. The young girl seemed completely torn up. Damn. The maid thing would have been an easy way to get herself out of the hole, and she'd never worn costumes before. Looking at Chloe though, Kaya knew she'd need to find some other way to get the points. Chloe needed the bounty.

"You've got to take it," Kaya said.

Chloe looked sick. "Literally serving...that guy? I don't know if I can. It's exactly what he wants, and I don't want to play into his hand like that."

"Don't see that you have much choice," Kaya told her. "Sleep with him, be his maid, or forfeit. You've got to pick one."

"It's bullshit," Chloe spat, the swear word seeming out of place coming from her.

"Yeah. It's a raw deal. The maid thing won't be so bad though. Not really."

"The outfit alone is going to be awful," Chloe muttered.

Kaya laughed. "Oh yeah. It's going to be something, that's for sure. Suck up your pride though and you'll get through it."

"That's the entire point," Chloe said, raising her voice. "They're trying to wear down my pride, and taking that bounty feels like giving in."

"Maybe it's more like fighting back. Lose the battle, win the war."

"Maybe," Chloe mumbled, thoughtful.

"At the end of the day, I don't know what else you can do."

The two kept walking, the others following a short distance behind as they made their way through the desert. Chloe fell back a little, walking on her own. Kaya let her have her space. She needed to process, even if deep down Chloe knew that she was right. The maid bounty was the only real option.

Kaya's thoughts turned to her own problems. If the gloryhole bounty was claimed then that meant that someone had managed to get to at least third base with Trevor. Not great for her. She was falling even further behind in points. If she didn't start making moves then she'd never get the chance to travel the world. What she needed was an ace up her sleeve.

After a while Kaya stopped their progress and called a break. Several of the other girls gave her grateful smiles as they collapsed into the sand and pulled out their water bottles. Kaya went over and sat down next to Natalie.

"Glad you could make it," Kaya said.

"I said I'd be here," Natalie replied. "Did you ever manage to figure out what it is we're hiking to."

Kaya shook her head, smiling. "Nope. Complete mystery."

"Anybody ever tell you that you're a little bit crazy?"

"Once or twice."

Natalie smiled as she took a big pull from her water bottle.

"Hey, so," Kaya began. "Here's the thing. I'm spending the night up in the palace tomorrow. I've...heard some things. I'd like to know what I'm walking into."

"Heard some things?" Natalie raised an eyebrow. "What. From Anna?"

"Mostly, yeah."

Natalie scoffed. "Yeah. You can go ahead and ignore anything she says."

"You don't have to tell me," Kaya said, taking a drink from her own bottle. "Didn't take long to figure out what her whole deal is."

"What'd she tell you?" Natalie asked.

"That Trevor means well, but that he's controlling and...abusive. That she wasn't allowed to see friends, and that Trevor would never tell her why he was upset."

Natalie laughed. "Yeah. No. First off, not telling you why he's upset isn't Trevor's problem. He'll tell you _exactly _why he's upset and he'll sound convincing doing it. It's insufferable.

"Second, as to the friends thing, the reason she wasn't allowed to 'hang out with her friends' is because they'd go get drunk at some dive bar and then she'd go home with the first guy to buy her a drink."

"Oh."

"Yeah. So don't worry about it. Trevor's a good guy. He's not going to make you or expect you to do anything you don't want to."

Kaya fiddled with the lid on her water bottle. "What if, you know, there was stuff I did want to do though."

Natalie lowered her bottle mid sip and leveled Kaya with an assessing gaze. "Is there?"

"Yeah."

Natalie thought for a moment. Kaya had tried to be gentle broaching the topic. This was Trevor's sister. She probably wouldn't be too keen on the subject. More than that, she might view pushing Kaya off as a way to protect her brother from the show. But Kaya needed information. It was worth the risk that Natalie would react poorly.

"Well then," Natalie said. "The truth is that Trevor might not be very receptive. He spends a lot of time inside his own head. If he thinks you're just doing it for points he'll stonewall you." Natalie took a beat. "Are you?"

Kaya thought about just telling Natalie what she wanted to hear, although she wasn't sure what that was. The look Natalie was giving her though was so earnest, and so filled with real concern for her brother, that it didn't seem right to lie to her.

"Partly," Kaya said. "But to be honest it's not exactly a high price to pay. I'm not usually this easy, but, I don't know, seems like it could be fun."

Natalie nodded slowly. "Alright. Your best chance is if it feels organic." Her expression grew serious. "If he says no, don't pressure him."

"I won't," Kaya promised. But it wasn't that simple, of course. She needed points, and the bounties were all gone. Failure wasn't an option.

Kaya stood up on her feet. "Thanks, I appreciate it," she said to Natalie. Then, louder, "Alright everyone, time to move on. We're not that far now."

The sand dunes obstructed vision in every direction, so without having hiked the trail before it was difficult to get a sense of how far they had come. As the five of them pushed through the last leg of the journey Kaya was asked more than once how close they were, but she couldn't say.

The group rounded the base of a massive dune when the view ahead of them suddenly opened up. Kaya's breath caught in her throat.

Stretched out ahead was a valley probably two hundred yards long. Rock outcroppings along the top held the sand at bay while the ground in front of them slowly turned to dirt as it descended down to the valley's nadir.

The entire thing was an explosion of color. Grass, trees, flowers, and vines carpeted the valley floor. Down the middle a small brook ran the length of the valley, bubbling up from and disappearing into the rock walls on either end.

"Jesus," Natalie breathed.

"It's beautiful," Hanna agreed.

This was everything Kaya had been hoping for. She'd never even seen pictures of a place like this. She reveled in the wonder of the moment.

Slowly they began to pick their way down the slope to the valley floor below. There they found a small knoll beside the brook and sat down beneath the very welcome shade of a tree.

"This was worth it," Hanna said, kneeling beside the stream and cupping her hands to get a drink. As she bent over her microskirt pulled up revealing the thin string panties that passed for underwear in her new wardrobe.

"Yeah," Kaya agreed. "Quite a view." She cleared her throat and Laura, who had been clearly staring, blushed furiously and began to look literally anywhere else.

Natalie lay back, staring up at the tree as Kaya began to unpack their lunch. Chloe leaned back against the trunk of the tree and pulled out a pad of paper.

"What are you doing?" Natalie asked.

"I was uh...going to draw it, maybe," Chloe said.

"It is inspiring, isn't it," Hanna agreed, sitting with her back towards the stream as she gently swished her hand through the shallow water.

"You should write a song about it," Laura told her.

"I'm not much of a composer," Hanna said. "But it does remind me of Debussy."

"I'm sure you could put something together," Laura smiled.

Kaya handed out plates and everyone began to spoon out food from the containers she'd brought along. She took in the scenery and grinned. It was the perfect afternoon.