Chapter 2: A Hero’s Welcome

Seraya ran for her life, but no matter how fast her long legs carried her, she couldn't shake the horned python bent on tearing her to pieces.

With every jarring stride, her body bounced. Her heavy bust, held only by a thin, tight shirt without a bra, heaved up and down. Each time her feet struck the hard roots, her breasts strained against the fabric, their weight sending a hot, electric jolt across her chest and nipples. To make matters worse, the thick bulge in her soaked underwear rubbed raw against her crotch, turning every step into a mix of panic and humiliating heat.

She hadn't made it fifty yards before that same rotten, fishy stench filled her nostrils.

An icy chill washed over her, raising goosebumps across her sweat-slicked arms and stomach.

Seraya glanced sideways and nearly choked on fear.

The horned python was barely six feet behind her. For a beast that size, that was a single lunge.

Whoosh!

Air hissed as the python coiled its massive bulk, snapping its jaws wide for the kill.

Survival instinct took over as Seraya dove sideways, curling into a ball. The beast’s hooked fangs snagged the strap of the pack still clinging to her shoulders. The canvas ripped with a loud tear, scattering its contents across the damp forest floor.

Feeling suddenly lighter, Seraya paused for a split second, scrambled to her feet, and bolted into another sprint.

This time, her luck ran out.

As fate would have it - God knew who left a thick, mossy log right in her path - the toe of her shoe caught the wood and she pitched forward. The impact knocked the wind from her lungs, flattening her chest against the mulch with a jolt of sharp pain.

Scrambling onto her back, she met a nightmare: the horned python was already diving straight at her, its maw dripping slime. It looked ready to swallow her whole, head first.

Certain her young life was over, she thrust her clenched hands out in terror and squeezed her eyes shut.

Snarl! Crunch!

A muffled roar shook the air, but the agony of tearing flesh never came.

Seraya cracked her eyelids open. What she saw pulled a ragged breath of relief from her chest.

In her outstretched hands, she was still clutching the heavy leg bone she had grabbed back in the swamp. When the beast snapped its jaws shut, the thick femur had wedged vertically between them like a strut. Worse for the python, the momentum of its charge drove the jagged, broken tip straight through the roof of its mouth, piercing the brain and bursting out through the right eye socket with a sickening crunch.

Dark blood dripped from the protruding bone, and the python's massive frame convulsed, its tail whipping aimlessly against the brush.

Seraya pulled her shaking hands back, her heart hammering against her ribs. She crept up onto her knees and nudged the scaly flank with the toe of her shoe.

The reptile lay in a pool of blood, too weak to react. Even the flicker of its scarlet tongue slowed to faint, dying twitches.

Seraya hesitated. Instinct urged her to run as far and fast as she could, but seeing the monster still breathing, a grim thought took hold.

She rose slowly, smoothing down her shirt, which clung to her body from the fight, tracing the curve of her breasts and taut nipples. She stepped aside and picked up the branch she had just tripped over.

Only now did she notice that one end was carved to a sharp point. She frowned - this piece of wood was definitely no accident of nature.

After a couple seconds, she shook the thought off.

Gripping the sharpened stake with both hands, she stood over the dying snake. Aiming straight into the bleeding gullet, she took a breath, set her shoulders and core, and ground out:

"Wanted to eat me, you overgrown worm? Don't blame me for what comes next!"

With a wild shout, she drove the stake deep into the creature's maw.

She stabbed, drove, and twisted the wood for minutes on end, reducing the head to a mangled pulp. Blood splattered wide, staining her clothes and bare skin.

Only when the thick coils stopped twitching and went limp did Seraya finally wet her parched lips.

Sweat coated her skin, trickling down her neck and pooling between her heavy breasts, while her groin throbbed with strange heat under the damp cotton. She sank to the dirt, drained, her chest heaving for air.

Staring at the carcass, she let out a dry, raspy chuckle:

"If I hauled this thing back to campus, the professors would drop dead of a heart attack and the whole scientific community would lose its mind. Shame the bastard had to die."

A crooked smile touched her lips:

"Then again... if it lived, I'd just be snake shit right now."

The more she thought about it, the more pride and relief settled in. She had killed a prehistoric monster.

A sudden rustle came from the nearby brush. It sounded like another heavy body gliding through the grass.

Seraya scrambled up, the hair on the back of her neck standing on end.

Don't tell me these things mate for life?! Did I kill the wife, and now the husband is back from hunting?!

The thought only cemented her dread. She was screwed.

Panic took hold. She reached to wrench the bloody stake from the dead reptile's throat, but her arms were so spent she couldn't budge the wood an inch.

This is it... I jumped out of the frying pan straight into the fire! she groaned inwardly.

Rustle!

The bushes parted, and humanoid figures emerged from the thicket one after another.

Seraya stared in shock.

These were no ordinary humans. Each carried a sharpened staff or crude club, with hides and broad leaves covering their hips and chests, and matted hair framing weathered faces. Strangest of all were their beast-like traits: fox ears, feline tails, horns, and prominent fangs. Every one of them was a muscular futa standing well over six feet tall, bearing red marks along their right cheeks.

Guttural chants spilled from their throats: "Wa! Wa!"

At the rear of the procession marched two broad-shouldered futa warriors carrying a long pole across their shoulders. Tied to the wood like hunted game was a slender, frail girl.

Is this... a primitive tribe?! What is going on?! Seraya’s mind spun.

Did I actually transmigrate to some prehistoric world?! Dammit, that has to be it! How else do you explain extinct beasts and giant women with animal ears?!

For the first time in her life, her academic knowledge failed her.

The forest dwellers encircled the clearing. Weapons ready, they appraised Seraya where she stood, taking in her tall frame bereft of animal traits, the crimson mark on her temple, and her full chest. Then their gazes dropped to the ground, muttering in a guttural, foreign tongue.

A few stepped toward the python's carcass, prodding it with sticks. Convinced the terror of the woods was dead, they erupted into wild celebration, tossing their weapons aside, jumping, waving their arms, and howling at the canopy.

"Are they... celebrating?" Seraya mumbled, watching the display.

Suddenly, the celebration cut out. As one, they turned back toward Seraya.

They pointed at the mangled serpent head, then at Seraya's bloodstained hands. One mimed lolling her tongue out and dropping dead.

Seraya blinked, the gears turning in her head.

They were asking if she had killed the beast herself!

Reading the awe in their faces, she figured it out: the snake had likely terrorized the region, and she had accidentally become a hero who rid them of it.

A surge of pride warmed her chest. Straightening up, she offered a modest wave of her hand:

"Oh, come on, it was nothing! Just taking out the trash for the community. Don't mention it!"

When she finished, blank stares met her words. Total incomprehension lingered in their eyes.

Right... they don't speak my language, she realized.

She tried a few simple English phrases, but earned only more confused looks.

"Hu! Hu!" barked a tall futa with wolf ears.

Seraya decided to take charge. Planting her feet, she broke into animated charades. She pointed to the dead python, opened her mouth wide to mime snapping jaws, pointed at herself, mimed running for her life, and finally swung an imaginary bone, landing a strike on an unseen snout with a loud gurgle to act out the reptile's death.

The wild women studied the performance in silence.

Seraya scratched her head. Was that too complicated?

She repeated the stabbing motion three more times, emphasizing how she had cracked the monster's skull.

This time, they caught on.

Several muscular women stepped forward, bowing low with outstretched arms as if honoring a deity.

Seeing this, Seraya laughed in satisfaction and waved them off:

"All right, no need to overdo it! I know I'm great, but you don't have to bow before a legend... Wait, what are you doing?!"

Before she could finish, three heavily built warriors lunged and tackled her to the ground.

Heavy hands pinned her flat before she could scream. From the brush came thick, coarse vines, quickly lashing her wrists and ankles tight.

"Fuck! I killed your monster! I saved you, you savages! Is this how you treat a hero?!" Seraya yelled, thrashing in their grip, her chest grinding against the dirt and the knees pinning her down.

One warrior jabbed a sharpened pole into her thigh as a warning. The sharp pain made Seraya hiss and go still, terrified they might spear right through her.

Moments later, she was bundled on her back like an overturned turtle - wrists and ankles bound together in the air, completely immobilized. Two tall women slid a thick wooden pole beneath her bindings, hoisted her up like a prize pig for the slaughter, and set off into the forest.

"Have you lost your damn minds?! Sisters, let's talk this out like civilized women! Don't be like this!" Seraya yelled, dangling helplessly from the pole. Each stride jostled her frame, setting her chest swaying before the entire procession.

The others gathered her scattered belongings from the shredded pack, slinging them over their shoulders. One scooped up a bag of modern snacks, turning it over in her hands with reverent curiosity.

"Hey, hands off, that's my food! Kidnap me if you want, but leave my chips alone!" Seraya shouted, before catching a steady gaze fixed on her.

Straining to turn her head as she swung, she met a pair of deep, calm eyes.

Less than a yard away, bound in the exact same manner from another pole, hung the girl the warriors had been carrying earlier.

Seraya fell silent.

Though thin, dirt-streaked, and wild-haired, her fellow captive had breathtaking features. Clean her up, dress her in a gown, and drop her in the modern world, and she would outshine top models and movie stars without trying. Dainty animal ears twitched atop her head, and a slender tail poked from her ragged loincloth.

Their eyes locked. Faced with such striking, wild beauty, Seraya forgot to yell for a moment, forgetting even the humiliation of her predicament.

The group pushed on through the dense brush. But as they ventured deeper into a gloomy, rocky mountain forest, the warriors froze in their tracks.

A shiver of fear rippled through them.

Darting nervous glances up into the canopy and across the dark fissures in the rock, they panicked, dropping the poles with Seraya and the maiden straight onto the moss. Before Seraya could fathom what had frightened them, the natives bolted, vanishing into the jungle like spooked hares.

Seraya hit the dirt on her side, hissing in pain. Straining her neck up, she yelled after the retreating figures:

"Hey! Sisters! Wait, damn it! If you're running, at least untie my fucking hands and feet! You're just leaving us here to get eaten?! Hey! Get back here!"

The forest answered only with a heavy, ominous silence.