Bring them with him on his journey to the Queen

Twenty-four hours later, Tally and his new harem had made good progress towards their objective of the queen’s castle. They were now hacking their way through some dense woods, in order to avoid the risk of running into anyone on the open roads. The town where Tally picked up Mi Iau, Ance, and Prennel was far behind them now, but this came with its own problem: Heading towards the castle necessitated going deeper and deeper into the wrong side of the monsters’ frontier. This land was completely under enemy control, and Tally would only be in greater danger from here.

“Let’s take a rest break,” Tally leaned against a tree to catch his breath. “We’ve covered good ground today, and we have a few hours left before sundown.” The others all came to a halt around him.

“Really? I don’t feel tired at all,” Prennel said. “What about you guys?” Both Mi and Ance agreed, they were hardly breaking a sweat. “Tally, I don’t think we need a break yet, we can keep going,” Prennel suggested.

“Let me rephrase,” Tally panted, bending over with hands on thighs, “Let me take a rest break.”

Prennel looked worried. “Why are you getting tired so soon? Are you sick?” She felt his forehead- through his metal helmet. The longer Tally spent with this woman, the less impressed he was by her intellect.

“It’s because he’s a human,” Ance sneered, “a weakling.”

“Ance!” Mi snapped at her. “Sorry Mistress,” Ance immediately apologized and averted her gaze.

“Tally, do you think it’s about time we fully converted her to obey you?” Mi suggested, still giving Ance the evils. “I’m doing my best to keep her under control, but I honestly don’t think she likes you.”

“I got that impression too,” Prennel added helpfully. Ance glowered angstily, but didn’t say anything.

“There isn’t much I can do,” Tally said. “The brainwashing magic is all down to Brim, so Ance will stay the way she is until Brim feels like changing her.”

“Good,” Ance pouted. “I don’t want to obey one of your kind.”

“You’ll feel differently soon enough,” Mi assured her.

“I have an idea, Tally,” Prennel came up to him. “Since none of the rest of us are tired, how about we try carrying you? That way, we can keep covering more ground.”

“Uh… sure, why not?” Tally agreed. Prennel held her hands down for him to step on, then she lifted him over her shoulders and held him by the ankles. “Just don’t drop me,” Tally wobbled worryingly. Prennel started carrying Tally forward, side-by-side with Ance, but Ance tugged on Prennel’s arm to get her to stop. “Mistress, aren’t you coming?” Ance called back. Prennel turned around and allowed Tally to see Mi, staring at the trunk of a tree nearby.

“Yeah…” Mi muttered absently. “Tally, there’s something here…”

“What is it?”

“Someone’s jammed a hook into this tree…” she said, reaching up. “It looks like it’s holding a wire…?” Mi plucked at the string experimentally. It instantly snapped, startling her backwards. Suddenly, out of the ferns, a twelve-foot-square net that they had all been standing on was winched into the air by its corners. Ance, Prennel, and therefore Tally too, all crumpled into a pile as counterweights dragged concealed ropes between the high branches. They had triggered a very large and very well-engineered trap. In jumping backward, Mi was the only one to get off of the net in time.

“Gaaah!” screamed the mass of flesh and limbs comprising Tally, Prennel and Ance, all suspended several feet off the ground.

“Nobody panic!” Mi yelled over all the panicking. “I must have just triggered someone’s hunting snare. I’ll cut you all out, just keep still.” Mi took out one of her two swords and advanced towards her captive comrades. But before she could reach them, Mi felt a sharp pain in her neck, and pulled out some kind of homemade dart that had buried itself in her skin. She blinked at it. “Uh oh…” Mi mumbled, before her eyes rolled back and she fell limply onto the ground.

“Mistress!” Ance cried out in despair. From his vantage point, Tally was just able to see in his peripheral vision some rustling in the foliage from the direction the dart had come from. Into the clearing emerged… someone. It took a moment for Tally to register what exactly he was seeing. It was some kind of reptilian: a lizard-person in the same sense that one might call a human being a monkey-person. The sort of creature one might expect to find secretly controlling the government disguised as a politician. Whoever they were, they must be one of the monsters escaped through the portal. Until she spoke, Tally had a hard time identifying a gender.

“Score!” The lizard-woman pumped her fist. Tally saw she was carrying a tube, out of which she had blown the dart. She was also equipped with a bow and quiver of arrows on her back, and a belt laden with more hunting gear. She wore simple leather garb, also homemade by the looks of it. The pants had a hole cut in them to make room for her tail.

She stepped over Mi’s prone body and stood before the net trap with her hands on her hips to admire her handiwork. “I was only hoping to catch animals with this. Either it's better-hidden than I thought, or you’re just a bunch of idiots for not noticing it.”

“Yes, well, we’re not animals,” Tally replied to her, “so if you’d just be kind enough to let us down, we can help re-set your trap for you.”

“Oh, I’m not complaining,” the lizard-woman shook her head. “I’ve never met a meat I didn’t enjoy. Except for liver, I hate liver. Still, even excluding your livers, you four will last me a good few meals, I bet.”

“What have you done to Mistress?!” Ance screamed hysterically. The lizard-woman looked down. “This goon here? Oh, don’t worry, nothing she won’t sleep off. Not like it’s going to matter, anyway.” She reached down to the ground and picked up Mi’s sword out of her limp hand. She weighed it experimentally.

“You leave her things alone!” Ance protested.

The lizard-woman ignored her, leapt up and grabbed onto the bundled net, making it swing sickeningly with the added weight. Tally tried stuffing his hand through the holes to use his hypnotic touch on her, but there was no exposed skin within reach. She used Mi’s sword to slash the ropes holding everyone up, then the whole mass fell to the ground. Tally had the wind knocked out of his lungs as Prennel landed right on top of him. Meanwhile, their captor was standing on top of the pile, tying the severed ends of rope together to make sure they couldn’t escape. Her tail waved back and forth in the air as she balanced atop the squirming mass, and it was this tail which provided Tally with the skin contact he needed.

He grabbed hold, and instantly felt the now-familiar tingling sensation in his hand that told him it was working. The lizard-woman gasped and yanked her tail away. “Cut that out!” she scolded indignantly. “You know what, that does it…” Tally watched, helpless, as she produced another one of the sleep-darts she had used on Mi, and jabbed it through the net into his arm.