The Last Flowers Ch. 04

"You could have gone by yourself."

She looked sad. "I was too scared."

Sarielle wished she'd known. Maybe she would have done something sooner. She met everyone's eyes one by one. "Anyone else?"

Aster stepped forward. "I'd like to go."

"Great."

She waited for someone else to join them, but the other girls were all pointedly looking away or at each other like someone else should volunteer. Sarielle tried not to be disappointed. "Well, you're all welcome to join us if you change your mind. Just, for everyone's safety, please don't tell anyone we met here today or about the nymphs."

The women began to disperse, Nessa, Arletta, and Evadne being the first to vacate the area. Abelia hurried after them, while Hevani stood still, shoulders hunched, staring at the ground.

"Hevani?" Sarielle took a few steps towards her, catching her arm before she could leave.

Hevani chewed on her lip, but didn't say anything.

Sarielle took her hands. "Come with us?"

She shook her head.

"Is that because you don't want to, or because you're scared of him?"

"It doesn't matter," she cried.

"Yes it does." Sarielle hugged her cousin. "It doesn't have to be forever. It's just somewhere to stay for a while. I'll help you get to the city or anywhere else you want to go. You'd be safe there. You don't have to go near the tree and you don't have to have sex with anyone. Ever. Just, please let me get you out of here." She pulled back to look at her, showing Hevani the tears in her eyes. "I promised myself I'd get you away from him."

Her cousin sobbed. "I can't."

"Forget about him!" She held her jaw. "Hevani, look at me. Do YOU want to go?"

Her yellow eyes searched Sae's, her pained expression relaxing. "Yes."

"Okay." Sarielle gave her a squeeze, but Hevani didn't let go. She realised her cousin was bawling, yet she made hardly any sound. That broke her heart because she knew it must have been something she'd learned to do.

"It's okay, sweetie." Sarielle patted Hevani's back. "Come on, let's go." She kept one hand on her and walked her over to the others.

"What about Elestern and Mirabelle?" Kerensa asked.

"They're too young to get involved in something like this. We can come back for them later." She didn't want the younger teens to be exposed to anything graphic.

"Their mother's kind and strongly opposes locks, so they should be safe for now," Aster told her.

"Did you get the wire cutters?" Sarielle asked Kerensa.

She pointed to the bag on her back. "In the bag. I got you another skirt too."

Sarielle nodded. "All right, let's do this. Do not let go of my hands. I'll try to give the tree a wide birth, but its pollen will make you want to go towards it so it can attack you."

Hevani had a concerned look. "Attack us?"

"If it catches you, it'll try to implant its fruit in you. It doesn't hurt. In fact it feels really good." She could see the girl panicking. "But I am not going to let that happen to you, okay?" She linked hands with Kerensa on her left and Hevani on her right. Aster was also on her right, holding Hevani's other hand. "Everyone hold tight to each other."

They started cautiously into the forest, Sarielle leading them deeper, trying to keep them to the west. It seemed to be going well at first, but then she noticed a wetness against her thigh.

"Oh, I think I can smell that pollen," Kerensa said.

"Just think about something else. Talk about your cat or something," Sarielle told her.

"Pabo? He's just a cat. He doesn't do anything but catch mice and sit in front of the gate."

Sarielle gripped her friend's sweaty hand tighter. Her irritability wasn't a good sign.

There was a whimper from her right. Aster looked a bit stiff. Feeling the tingle between her legs, Sarielle tried to hurry the girls, but they only got twenty metres before she felt resistance in their grip. Kerensa was unknowingly trying to pull them to the east and Aster was forcing Hevani to walk sideways doing the same thing.

"Aster, walk straight!"

"Sorry." She returned to her former place, but her free hand dove between her legs.

"Keep talking about stuff," Sarielle said, fighting off the urge to do the same.

"But all I can think about is big, thick—" Kerensa whined.

"Don't say it!" Aster hissed.

Hevani whimpered in distress.

By now their pace was tediously slow. Sarielle was starting to lose control of them as they lost control of themselves. Kerensa was fiddling under her skirt as she walked. Her hand no longer gripped Sarielle's in return and she was constantly tugging to the left. Hevani was sandwiched in the middle, pale and sweaty. Aster had her bloomers around her ankles and was plunging her fingers into her unobstructed cunt.

"Shit."

She didn't have a lock.

Hevani lost the will to hold on to the older girl, who only cared that she had a second hand to pleasure herself with.

"Aster!" Sarielle let go of Kerensa and spun around to grab the redhead. "Oh no." She released Hevani to snatch Kerensa before she wandered out of reach. But that left her cousin alone. "Hevani, come on!" she yelled, but the girl only managed a single step, one that was diagonally to the left. Sarielle squeezed Aster's fingers into her right hand with Kerensa's and reached out for Hevani, but she couldn't hold them both and they broke free. Sarielle seized Aster's wrist before she could flee. "Kerensa! Oh, gods."

There was no way to hold all three of them. But she couldn't let her poor cousin be ravaged by the tree and she had to hold on to Aster too. Without a lock the tree could kill her.

"Kerensa, come back," she shouted, fighting the desire to follow her.

"I just need..." Kerensa gestured vaguely and stumbled through the woods towards the tree.

Swallowing her guilt, Sarielle dug her fingers into her friends' wrists tightly and yanked them onwards.