I walk for miles along the highway

“Ha… haaaaa…” Morgana felt absolutely miserable. The hot sun beating down over her head was coaxing a massive amount of sweat out of her body, and she knew there was only so much of that she could lose before she up and died.

As if the heat and the sun weren’t bad enough, she was walking. Her body was actually in motion, which was absolute hell. Because of her large chest, she was accumulating large amounts of sweat across her body as her boobs bounced in her shirt. It didn’t help either that she was wearing black clothes; they were glued to her frame like a second skin, and only made her feel hotter and hotter.

And yet, in spite of the fact that she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball and roll herself back to the hotel where it was nice and cool and there weren’t any issues to worry about… she kept pressing on regardless. Step by step, up the hill, until she got to where she was going.

…

God, couldn’t she just be there already?!

“Yo, Morgana! Pick up the pace! We’re not just turning our wheels here!”

Morgana jumped as she was addressed, and her eyes shot up the mountain. She looked several yards ahead of her, where the others were.

In this case, the others were Carly and Marley, and the two women were peering down at her from a turn in the hillside winding up the mountain.

Morgana swallowed. They were standing in a shady clearing, cradled in some tree branches. The sort of place where she could relax and take a break. And at the moment, there was nothing else she’d rather be doing.

Now the problem was just getting there.

Summoning her courage, she pushed forward, ignoring the pounding ache in her shins as she **** herself up the hill step by step. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly and just kept pushing forward, forcing herself to go until she got there.

And after what felt like an eternity, the cool kiss of “slight-less-killer-heat-than-before” embraced her and her eyes snapped open. She saw the smiling faces of the twins, and a sigh of relief escaped her lips.

Then she pitched forward, collapsing.

Carly and Marley had to rush to grab her; the two of them caught her before she could hit the ground.

“Whoa there!” Carly said with a bit of a laugh to her voice. “You need to be more careful there, Morgana! Let’s sit you down, okay?”

With Marley’s help, she guided Morgana down to the ground, where the goth could catch her breath before continuing.

“Are you good?” Marley asked cautiously. “You know, if you’re not feeling up to this, you can always go back…”

“No…” Morgana panted for breath, trying to get her lungs to start working properly again. “No, no… this… this is fine… it’s fine… I… hah… haaaaah…”

She wiped her forehead and panted, filled with exhaustion. Honestly? She would have liked nothing more than to go back to the hotel. Her legs felt like they were on fire, and everywhere else felt it was being boiled from the inferno. Oh, what she wouldn’t have given for a nice, cool bath!

But she couldn’t do that. She needed to be strong and tough it out.

“You guys invited me…” She gasped, trying to smile. “I couldn’t just… say no…”

Marley didn’t look convinced. But she didn’t say anything, either. She just sighed and glanced at her sister.

Carly was still smiling.

“This is all your fault, you know?” Marley griped. “It’s not on me if she dies of heatstroke.”

“Oh, come on, don’t be such a worrywart,” Carly scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. “Morgana’s gonna be fine. You’re fine, right Morgana?”

Morgana answered that question with a tired wheeze. That was good enough for Carly, apparently. Marley just rolled her eyes.

“Besides, this is the sort of thing that we’re built for, wouldn’t you agree?” Carly shrugged. “After all, with a costume like this, it would be an absolute shame if we DIDN’T go exploring today, wouldn’t you agree?”

Marley glanced at her sister’s outfit and shook her head, sighing.

Carly was wearing a cut-off sleeveless gray top that left her midriff exposed, revealing a healthy amount of her massive cleavage. To go along with her small top, she had very short khaki shorts on, bearing her slender, athletic thighs. Her hair was long and brown and tied up in a braid, with her bangs parted to frame her head. Frankly, Carly raised a very valid point. If she was going to dress as Lara Croft, it made sense that she’d go exploring on some hike, wouldn’t it?

Even Morgana could understand that… not that she wanted to be a part of this.

She’d sort of just… gotten dragged along.

“Well?” Carly crouched down next to Morgana, flashing her a smile. She held a bottle of water out to the other girl, who accepted it gladly. “Feeling better about yesterday yet?”

Morgana let out another choked wheeze and accepted the bottle. She wasn’t quite sure what to say to that, honestly. So she just drank. The cool kiss of water down her parched throat revitalized her, and she managed to summon enough strength to sit up. Filled with gratitude, she handed the water back to Carly and waited for her heart to stop pounding in her chest.

“I… I guess…” She croaked out, looking down at the dirt.

Morgana had been absolutely mortified when she came to her senses last night, and realized what she’d done. Not only had she abused so many people thanks to the transformation from the mirror altering her mental state, but she had also subjected them to terrible treatment using her diary. That was the worst of it- her other self had given the other contestants horrible, terrible nightmares that she never should have, as a last “fuck you” to the chance at Morgana having a healthy, positive relationship with her friends.

She’d cried herself to sleep that night, dreading what she’d wake up to. And seeing how broken Dawn had been when she woke up in the morning hadn’t helped, either.

The old Morgana would have done the same thing as the cat girl, curl up into a ball in bed and never come out again, just lie there crying until someone else had made the first step and told her that they didn’t have a grudge against her. Because that’s what she always did when she was scared, hope for someone else to solve the problem.

But she couldn’t do that anymore. She couldn’t be that woman anymore.

She had to be strong; she had to be brave; she had to be confident.

So she ignored the part of her brain that told her this was a bad idea, and had gone down to get breakfast and face the music.

Everyone crowded around her immediately. She expected that.

But what she didn’t expect was that, instead of harsh chastisement and rebukes, she received sighs of relief and hugs and kind words from everyone letting her know that they were worried about her and glad to see she was okay.

Morgana had been completely caught off-guard.

After all… she’d tortured them, hadn’t she? That was definitely the case with Gina, anyway. And she’d subjected them to terrible dreams. But even Mary, who had more reason than most to despise her, and certainly looked haunted from her nightmare, was still showing concern for Morgana first and foremost, which was absurd.

It made the goth girl feel a strange warmth in her chest, to be valued so critically.

“Are you okay?” Mary had asked her gently. “That must have been incredibly difficult to go through, being transformed like that.”

They hadn’t hated her. They hadn’t condemned her.

They’d been worried about her.

And when Morgana realized that, she burst out crying, and threw herself into the nearest set of arms that could hold her. They were Dani’s

The rest of the morning passed by in a blur. A very awkward, uncomfortable blur as Morgana apologized over and over again for everything she did, and all the bad dreams her other self had given the girls, while the girls in question just looked at one another awkwardly and tried to explain that it was okay, which got harder and harder as they kept being **** to remember the bad things that had happened to them.

Morgana couldn’t quite get the hint that everyone wanted to put the previous day behind them and start over.

Fortunately, it was Carly who had suggested that they do something to “clear the slate” so to speak, and suggested that they go on a nature hike. Most of the girls had rejected the idea, even Dani, who had wanted to wait for Dawn.

But Morgana had pounced on it. After all, a hike sounded like the chance to really spend some time with the twins, where she could apologize directly, again, and make sure that everything was alright between them.

She really hadn’t been thinking very clearly about anything.

If she had, then she would have realized that this hike would be absolute hell. But no, she had been naïve, and now here she was, climbing a mountain like Sisyphus, only in this case she also felt like the boulder destined to roll back down the hill.

Morgana was not an athlete. Before her wave of transformations she’d been a scrawny brat with arms like noodles and legs so skinny they could barely support her non-existent weight. And while her transformation had added some more meat to her bones, it wasn’t like Dani’s where she’d gotten a buff to her strength.

She was a jelly blob of goth thiccness, but that wasn’t conducive to climbing a mountain. All she could do was drag herself up behind Carly and hope she got to the top in one piece.

“Are we… haah… there… yet…?” Morgana panted, her vision taking a while to adjust. She felt dizzy and tired, and knew that if she stood up in the next five minutes she was going to barf her breakfast all over the hillside.

Carly just laughed. “No idea!” She chortled. “That’s why this is called an expedition!”

Morgana winced. That was even worse.

It was one thing to climb a mountain. Morgana could put up with that, even though she really didn’t want to. But the issue was that they weren’t headed for the top of the mountain. At least that would have given them a destination, hellish as it might have been.

“You sure this place exists?” Marley sighed, glancing sympathetically at the dying goth at her feet. “We’re not going on a wild goose chase, are we?”

“Nope!” Carly shook her head. “No geese whatsoever! Sylvia told me all about this amazing cove on the mountain, where we can go swimming, enjoy the sight of the falls, all sorts of fun stuff! Come on, it’s going to be a blast! I even brought my camera!”

She patted her fanny pack.

Marley sighed and rolled her eyes. Searching for some hidden cove in the mountain sounded exactly like the kind of thing her sister would do. And on balance Marley didn’t have a problem with going on the little expedition. The issue was, she had to deal with the fact that Morgana was accompanying them. And Morgana… was Morgana.

“I… I’ll be ready… soon…” Morgana coughed, trying to prop herself up on her elbows. Soon enough she gave up, though, and flopped back down into the dirt of the trail.

Marley sighed and shook her head. “You know, you really didn’t have to come,” she said gently. “No one would have held it against you if you said you didn’t want to go for a hike with us.”

Morgana shook her head. “But… I did want to go,” she said quietly. “I just didn’t want to do the ‘hiking’ part.”

Marley was about to ask what Morgana meant by that, but she caught herself.

After all, it was obvious.

Morgana wanted to spend time with them. And if the only way she had to do that was by going on a nature hike to find a waterfall, well… that was what she’d do.

“Well, I’m glad you’re here, anyway,” Marley said, even though the other girl looked like **** warmed over. “It’s nice to hang out and do stuff together.”

Morgana replied with a big, dopey grin that warmed the other woman’s heart.

“Let’s just hope that Dakota didn’t remake the mountain to remove the rivers and waterfalls,” Carly chortled. “That would be a bit of an issue, don’t you guys think?”

Marley glanced up at her sister with a glare. “Please… don’t joke about something like that,” she pleaded in exhaustion. It wasn’t like she was exactly used to these nature walks either. But the last thing she wanted was to find out that Dakota had spitefully removed all of the flowing water from the island just because of her past trauma.

“That would suck alright,” Morgana said, trying to laugh a little. “I was counting on the waterfall to wash me back home; no way are my legs getting there like this!”

The other two joined in the laugh, which warmed the goth’s heart. She’d been keeping to herself most of the day, afraid that if she talked, she would arouse her friends and lead to even more awkwardness. That was the last thing she wanted, honestly.

But Carly and Marley were fine with it. Maybe it was because her throat was so raw from all the strenuous exercise and heavy breathing, so she didn’t have to deal with the problems inherent in Sotto Voce transformation? Maybe she was speaking at the wrong pitch.

Or maybe this was Carly, and Carly was just used to being aroused like hell while she was going on a hike.

Frankly, Morgana couldn’t really put it past the cosplayer.

“So, you feeling better yet?” Carly asked, holding out a hand. Morgana accepted it, and let the taller girl help her to her feet.

Her legs still felt like jell-o, but that was okay. She could still keep going.

“I’m fine,” Morgana said, wobbling a little as she took her first step. Marley looked concerned and Carly cautiously stared at the other girl. But Morgana took her second step forward with a lot more surety and control, relieving the girls.

“Okay then!” Carly grinned, clapping her hands together. “Let’s do this thing! All the way to the top! Err, I mean, to the cove! Yeah, that.”

Marley sighed and rolled her eyes. She wasn’t surprised in the slightest that no one else had wanted to come on the hike with them.

The trio continued their trudge up the mountain, following the dubious instructions that Sylvia had provided for them.

…

Morgana wasn’t quite sure what time it was. It felt like they’d been walking for hours. Or at least, her legs felt like they’d been undergoing incredible **** for the last few hours.

But she **** herself to push through that. After all, she wasn’t really in that much pain; she could keep going, right?

One more step, then I can take a break. That’s what she’d been telling herself for the last maybe-hour, and over a thousand steps later she was still thinking it. She’d work herself up, thinking that she just had to take one more step, then after she made that one last step, she considered to herself “well, why don’t I just take another one? I made it this far, didn’t I?”

And that was how Morgana kept going forward, even though she wanted to give up.

“Come on, Morgana!” Carly called over her shoulder. “We’re almost there! Can’t you hear the waterfall?”

The only thing Morgana could hear was the pounding of her heart and her strained breaths aching in her ears. She was drifting in and out of consciousness, so no wonder she felt like she could barely keep standing.

But she just needed to take one more step, right? And then she’d be there.

As she got closer to the twist in the road where Carly and Marley were standing, she felt more and more strength return to her legs. She pushed herself forward, pumping her shins until they felt like they were going to explode. Not long now; just a few more seconds…

Then she heard it. The sound of rushing water in the distance. Just hearing the reinvigorated her, and she picked up the pace, feeling the strength return to her body as she rushed towards the twins.

By the time she got to them, the sound was practically deafening.

Carly cracked a smile.

“Almost there!” She sang, nodding to the river flowing past them. “It should be just up tat path!”

She was covered in sweat; they all were. Morgana wanted nothing more than to throw herself into the lake and just let the cool water wash away all of her fatigue.

Carly and Marley were kind enough to adjust their pace to Morgana’s so that they could all walk together. They had been ahead of her for most of this hike, but on this final stretch it just felt right for all of them to get to the cove together.

And this gave them a chance to talk.

“Are you feeling better now?” Carly asked quietly.

“Hmm?” Morgana looked up at her and blinked.

“You know… after yesterday.”

Carly’s smile had faded, and her expression turned serious.

Morgana paled.

“I… I don’t want to talk about it,” she muttered, averting her eyes. “I just… I’m really sorry…”

“Hey, listen, no, you don’t need to apologize,” Carly said, patting her on the back. “It wasn’t you who chased us through the street.”

“Yeah,” Marley said. “Besides, if I was going to be mad at anyone, I’d be mad at the woman who shoved me over and used me as an oil slick!”

“Hey!” Carly frowned. “It was a survival move!”

Marley rolled her eyes.

Morgana chuckled, cracking a smile. That was a surprise! She hadn’t actually expected to laugh.

“Thank you,” she said softly. The two of them looked at her.

“Thanks for what?” Carly asked.

“Treating me like normal,” Morgana said, smiling gratefully at her. “I was really worried last night. But you guys treated me like normal. Thank you.”

Carly cracked a grin and shrugged. “Hey, we’re friends. I’m not going to sweat the small stuff.”

She reached out and ruffled Morgana’s hair, giggling.

“Hey!” Marley called. She’d walked ahead slightly, and was pointing down the path. “Guys! Take a look! We’re here!”

Carly and Morgana caught up, and the sight ahead of them took their breath away.

The cove was gorgeous. A massive waterfall cascaded down into a wide lake, containing the bluest water they’d ever seen (besides the beaches, of course) surrounded by lush greenery. The water seemed to sparkle in the sunlight, looking downright inviting.

Morgana smiled shakily.

“It’s beautiful…” She whispered.

“Damn right it is!” Carly grinned, slapping her on the back. “Let’s go! Swimming time!”

And before Morgana could say anything, Carly stripped her costume off and leapt into the water.