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Just because she was expecting to die didn’t mean she hadn’t come up with a backup plan to prevent it!

He bucked her off as she was leaping away, and her arms cartwheeled as she flew through the air. Her stomach impacted against a tree branch strong enough to hold her, and she grabbed ahold of it before climbing up onto it.

The Duskwalker turned one way and then the next, searching for her. He finally scratched off the scent-cloaking package she’d tied over his nose hole.

This is my chance.He didn’t know where she was right now, and she needed time to secure her end of the rope leading to him. She fisted it tightly, envisioning her plan.

He was going to have to unknowingly help her with some of it.

Dropping to the ground, she sprinted around the tree and noticed she’d caught his attention by the time she was coming back around. She secured the hook around the rope’s length after she looped it around the trunk and then ran in the opposite direction.

Please work.He chased after her, almost at her back, almost within swiping distance.Please work!

Ingram let out a choking noise before his heavy, massive body thudded against the ground. Underneath the animalistic, enraged roars, she heard shuffling like he was wriggling to get free. Leaves scattered, sticks snapped and sprung away, and dirt puffed around him.

She turned around swiftly.

Emerie panted until she thought she’d hack up a lung, barely able to feel the pain in her fractured rib. Right now, she just felt like she had a massive stitch, but that was sure to worsen over time.

Trapped on his side, with his wrists, feet, and the base of his tail bound behind his back, he thrashed.

The long piece of rope she’d threaded loosely all over his body had pulled all his limbs in tight when he’d reached the end of it in his pursuit of her. She’d turned him into a living parachute.

Probably the most ingenious idea she’d ever had, to be honest.

She did feel bad for him, though.

He’d just escaped being trapped, and now he was hog-tied in the forest. His body was unnaturally bowed, especially since his tail was so curled back it threatened to wrap around his own throat. That didn’t look comfortable at all, and she thought it would have slipped off by now, considering the appendage’s tapered length, but the rope was caught on his tail spikes and vertebrae.

Despite his aggression, Emerie approached him.

His head was free, so she steered clear of it and its pecking ability. She knelt beside him and patted his abdomen, hoping to calm him.

“Shh. Hey, it’s okay. I’ll let you go once you calm down and we have a chat.”

Of course, it was like talking to a brick wall, but she continued to do it, hoping it would help. She could be patient, they just needed to wait this out... she hoped.

The beastly, feral noises he made were unsettling.

Emerie sighed with relief when his orbs finally flickered white for a moment, guessing it was a better colour than red. He thrashed even harder for a few seconds before white came back to linger longer.

Continuing her soothing strokes of his abdomen and sternum, he finally settled enough that his sight remained that hollow colour.He must be so confused. Do Duskwalkers remember what’s happened when they turn mindless?

Ingram let out a whine.

“Hey, it’s okay,” she reassured again. “I’m right here. I’ll–”

“It stings,”he whimpered out. His scales stiffened and became even more jagged, as he let out a violent shudder.“It stings! Why does it sting?”

She gasped and retracted her hands, incidentally slapping herself on the cheek.

Shit. Did I hurt him?She turned from looking at his skull to lean over his side. She checked his hands and feet touching each other behind his back but nothing looked broken or injured.

Emerie let out a shriek when something wiggled in her peripheral vision.What the hell?!There was a freakydickat his groin!

She fell to her arse and crawled backwards like it was a terrifying spider hunting her. It wasn’t hard to mistake it for one when it had four tentacle limbs writhing in the air! However, the centre was unmistakably phallic shaped, with what she figured was his version of a nutsack embedded in the base of it.

Bright purple at the base, it darkened in colour until it was almost a purplish black at the very tip.