Somebody else stumbled into Christina's lair

Elizabeth slowly woke up, feeling dizzy and disoriented. The first thing she noticed was that she was sitting on a cold hard floor. The room she was in was completely dark, with no visible light source. She wanted to rub her eyes, and only then she realized that her hands were restrained by something. The binding tightly coiled around her wrists, strapping her to the wall she was leaning on, stopping her movement. At least her legs were not bound, so she changed her sitting posture into something more comfortable.

As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she discerned that she was inside a stone room, likely a basement judging from the lack of light. It would make perfect sense, since the last thing she remembered was finding a weird trapdoor in the forest. Inside, she found a staircase leading underground, and followed it in hopes of finding and arrest the wanted bandit Erik Rondel. But not long after she began descending those stairs, she somehow lost consciousness in the middle of the way.

Elizabeth was one of the capital knights who were tasked to bring the bandit Erik Rondel to justice. His criminal activities had terrorized several towns and villages uncontested around the border of human territory, and it was finally time to put a stop to his menace. They set a trap for the bandit, which initially succeeded, however Erik somehow managed to slip away despite them surrounding the area. And now she was the one who seemingly fell into a trap. Elizabeth wondered if Erik had partners in crime, despite there being no records of such. Creating such a place underground would surely needed a lot of man power, otherwise it would be very difficult to pull just by his lonesome.

Elizabeth wished she could say that her fellow knights would notice her missing and would immediately look for her, but she was here by disobeying a direct order. After the trap had failed and Erik escaped, she was ordered to return to the inn that they were staying and take a break. However, she refused to stay at the inn and she secretly followed them to chase the fleeing Erik after donning her armor. None of her fellow knights knew she was here in the forest. Elizabeth didn't know how long she had passed out, but her fellow knight would only realize that she was missing by late evening at the fastest, and there was no way they would look for her in the dark. "Tomorrow" would be the earliest time they would find her here, unless fate would play a miracle on her.

"Where am I...?" she thought, trying to adjust her eyes again to look further into the room. But no matter how she tried, human eyes could not see in near complete darkness. She tried to break free from her restraints, grunting as she used all of her strength to pull, but the binding seemed to be made from something really sturdy, but it didn't feel like metal on her skin.

"Hnngh! Rrrrghh! What is this thing made of?" Elizabeth groaned.

"Don't bother, you can't break it. Believe me, I tried with my sword before"

A sudden voice came from somewhere nearby. Elizabeth reckoned it sounded like a male voice, and it's coming from her right. Was she not alone in here?

"Who's there?" she demanded, a little spooked.

"A victim of the witch," came the reply, "just like you"

"Witch?" Elizabeth muttered, "what witch?"

"The one who captured you, of course," came an annoyed response.

Elizabeth did not see any witches when she entered the underground room so she was quite confused, "but if this really is a witch's house, then it might explain how I suddenly lost consciousness," she thought to herself.

Elizabeth had seen plenty of mages before, people that dabbled on magic such as witches. Some were good people, some were bad. She hoped this witch was not a bad one, and her being locked up was just a misunderstanding because... well, she did break into her home. She went quiet for a few moments, processing the information.

"So you know what's going on then? After I went down the stairs that led to the underground, I just lost consciousness midway," she then said.

"Hah, then you're lucky. I got strangled by tree roots till I almost died! And now I'm locked in this god damn cell"

"Tree roots?" she muttered to herself, "what are you... nevermind that. How long have you been here?"

"I dunno, I was out cold too, remember? I woke up when the witch had just brought you here due to the noise, but she already left before I could say anything"

"I see... Can you tell me-"

Before Elizabeth could ask more questions, she heard the sound of a door opening. Faint light entered the room through the door, highlighting the bars on the cell that prevented the prisoners from escaping. A lone figure entered the room, a woman clad in dark blue robe. Elizabeth was unable to see her face as it was covered in shadow. She glanced to the side, towards her fellow prisoner and saw a silhouette of a man sitting on the floor. The two of them were separated by similar bars that looked like...

"Tree roots..." Elizabeth said inwardly, "could it be that the one binding my wrist are roots as well?"

"Hey bitch! Get me out of here! I'll fucking kill you!"

The man quickly stood up and ran towards the witch while shouting with such an angry voice. He was unfortunately blocked by the roots and could not reach her. The witch giggled as he did the futile attempt to hurt her.

"Why the rush? Didn't you come here to hide in the first place? You said you were being chased, didn't you?"

The man let out an angry growl and some more profanities towards the witch. Meanwhile, Elizabeth, who was listening to the conversation, arrived to a conclusion.

"You... You're Erik!"

She gasped quite loudly. This attracted the attention of the two of them, with the witch now looking at her with what Elizabeth assumed as a huge grin.

"Oh, you've woken up," the witch said rather excitedly, "sorry for knocking you out dear, but I just couldn't take any chances today. Not after my first guest threatened me even though I've been nothing but hospitable to him"

The witch looked at Erik to make a point, before looking back at Elizabeth, "judging by your reaction, you were the one who had been chasing Erik, correct? Erik said he was being chased by 'bad people', but it is clear to me now that he's the bad one"

"Damn it, so she's part of those knights? Just my luck..."

Erik muttered, feeling defeated and regretting his actions towards the witch. On the other hand, Elizabeth was feeling hopeful. It seemed it was just a misunderstanding after all. She might be able to plead to this woman to release her and let her finish her duty.

"Miss, I apologize for breaking into your place without permission. But you must understand that Erik is a dangerous man. He has a bounty on his head and a warrant for his arrest by the law, and I was looking for him and I thought he might be hiding in here," Elizabeth said.

"And you thought correctly. He really was hiding in here," the witch replied.

"Yes, and so... Can you please release me? I need to bring Erik to justice, and I'm sure my superior will compensate you for helping us capture this criminal"

"Wait, you can't do that!" Erik interjected with a loud shout, "I can't be-"

Eric's voice was cut out and became muffled after the witch waved her hand towards him. Elizabeth wasn't sure what she did to Erik, but that sure shut him up.

"Be quiet Eric, I'm talking to her at the moment," the witch said then, "well dear, under normal circumstances, I'd have no qualms helping you arrest this criminal, just like how my friend sometimes helps you people. However, unfortunately for you, Erik has already become a test subject in my experiment. I can't just hand him over to you for him to be locked up in a dark dungeon or executed. I won't be able to observe my experiment if that's the case"

"Experiment? What are you talking about?" Elizabeth asked in frustration.

"Let's just say that I've successfully created something wonderful which I had also fused with Erik," the witch replied with a gleeful smile, "and he'll soon become the leader of loyal servants!"

Elizabeth's jaw hung open while listening to the crazy explanation. She thought this witch would be reasonable, but it turned out that the witch was quite unhinged. Erik also made a lot of angry grunts and huffs, clearly had not been informed of this arrangement just yet. The witch seemed to notice this error quickly, though.

"Oh right! I haven't explained anything to you, Erik. Hmm... On a second thought, maybe that's better? I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised by the result. If it's a success anyway," the witch said before removing his gag with a wave of her hand.

"What did you do to me, you crazy bitch?!" Erik did not waste any time to shout at his captor.

"I'll tell you if you cooperate and the experiment is proven to be a success. But don't worry, I can assure you it's nothing bad. Despite your wrongdoings towards me, I'm not the type to harbour any ill feelings. I'll ignore and forget your rude behaviour, so please just go along with it okay? Or do you want me to hand you over to her?"

Erik went silent for a few moments, weighing his options. Elizabeth wanted to say something, but now it's her turn to be gagged by something thick and hard that went around her lips. She could only let out muffled voices as Erik voiced his decision.

"Fine... What do you want me to do?"

"Easy," the witch replied, pointing at Elizabeth, "I want you to fuck her"

"...excuse me?"

Both Erik and Elizabeth were understandably flabbergasted. They had not expected such a request.

"You heard me. Go on, give her your seed. Actually any of your bodily fluids will do, but I think you'll prefer to fuck her than make her drink your blood, right Erik?"

Before Erik could replied, the tree root bars that separated Erik and Elizabeth retracted to the ground and ceiling, and now there was nothing blocking them from reaching each other. However, Erik was free while Elizabeth was still bound and gagged.

"What's the matter?" the witch asked when Erik made no move to get closer to Elizabeth, "do you need a light?"

The witch then flicked her hand and lit up the oil lamps that was hanging on the ceiling. Elizabeth could see the witch's face now, and she noticed that she was actually a beautiful woman despite her slightly messy appearance. But she didn't have much time to pay attention to her as Erik had walked closer, looking down on her.

"You were that bitch that baited me in that ambush," Erik growled.

The knights couldn't afford to use a civilian to honey trap a dangerous criminal such as Erik. So, they decided to put one of their own as the bait. Elizabeth was picked because she was basically the only beautiful women among female knights in her platoon. She accepted the task with a heavy heart, felling repulsed when she had to seduce Erik and bring him to the ambush site. However, she was happy knowing this would put an end to his evil deeds. When Erik managed to escape, she felt partly responsible and that was why she disobeyed her leader's order to stay put.

And now, look where that led her, right back onto Erik's filthy hands. Elizabeth gritted her teeth, knowing how this would end. During the ambush, Erik didn't have any chance to **** or **** her, but she was certain that he would do it now, especially since she was helpless like this.

"Well, this is a nice development. I get to teach a lesson to a cocky bitch that tricked me, and at the same time I can score some pussy," Erik chuckled, "but this bitch is wearing full plate armor, I can't even see much of her skin. I like it more when you wore that crop top and short skirt"

"Don't worry, I can help with that"

Smaller tree roots sprouted from the ground and the wall according to the witch's will, moving forward and tearing the joints and clasps that hold the parts of Elizabeth's armor together. The heavy metal armor pieces fell down one by one, revealing her body underneath. Erik whistled, staring lustfully at her newly uncovered flesh. Elizabeth could only let out a muffled shout while glaring at both of her captors.

"Hey! What do you know, you ARE still wearing that same sexy clothing underneath!"

Elizabeth thought she didn't have any time to change her clothes, so she just donned her armor that she left in her room before running back towards the forest. It's not like changing into anything else would help her current situation, but Elizabeth regretted making Erik just a tad happier with her clothing choice. Erik was now licking his lips, kneeling down to run his hands over her exposed body. Her crop top shirt hid nothing but her breasts, her taut belly and muscular arms were open to the air. With her arms bound over her head, Erik's fingers travelled down from the back of her elbow, slowly tracing her triceps and brushed her armpits. They were smooth without any hair and slick from sweat, and Elizabeth visibly flinched from the ticklish sensation. He parked his fingers there, enjoying her reaction by rubbing her armpits for a few more moments before trailing his fingers down to her stomach, skipping her breasts altogether. He did the same down there, feeling her hard abs under his fingertips.

"I prefer my woman to be a little more plump and soft. But still, you have a great body," he remarked.

The witch watched as Erik touched the knight's body with interest. She was feeling a little impatient inside, but she didn't want to rush Erik. She knew that she chose him because of his personality in the first place, and this was a show of that. The witch continued to watch with anticipation as Erik lowered Elizabeth's skirt down to her knees with a strong yank, tearing it a little. There was nothing covering her lower body now apart from her panties, and Elizabeth could feel Erik's eyes practically glued onto her crotch. Erik had already undone his own pants, pulling out his erect penis and stroked it a couple of times in front of her.