Chapter 57 part 1

Emily couldn't help but tremble with joy as she saw the entrance to the unicorn's forest in front of her. After over two months, she finally had reached the entrance.

There was a time when she thought they'd reach it before her estimation of two months, but then they'd reached a swamp. Which, while they would have had no real trouble if they were walking, was nearly impassable with the wagons.

Not only did the wheels keep getting stuck on the roots of the trees that were around them, but there were times when even the path they'd been following stopped completely and they'd either have to take time extending it themselves or find another way around.

During which, the times when the captain tried getting Emily to 'warm her bed' continued, and Emily was starting to wonder what kind of laws they had in regards to consent in their world. She'd even noticed that the captain even required some of the other guards to do that as well. Even some who Emily knew to be straight.

However, she hoped that sort of treatment would be over. They had reached their destination and while she didn't expect to stay behind when their business was concluded here, she hoped that the captain would remain here at least. If only so she didn't have to deal with the captain's wandering eye and sexual harassment.

"Why'd you stop, Pet?" the captain asked Emily.

Emily looked at the captain out of the corner of her eye. She wondered if she should pretend not to have gotten to their goal and just walk though it as if she hadn't seen it, letting the surprise do whatever it would to those with her, but quickly discarded the idea. She'd already taken too long to do something like that.

"We reached the entrance to the unicorn's forest," she merely answered. "We can set up a base camp here if you want or we can enter the forest and walk over to where the gate to where the person we came to talk with lives."

The captain scoffed at Emily's statement. Not that Emily found the dismissive attitude surprising. If anything, she was looking forward to having the captain taken down a notch or two by the arachnoids that she knew would be there. While the arachnoids seemed to have a matriarchal system, they weren't like these women, where the men were essentially the homemakers while the women were the breadwinners.

"Believe me or not, but we reached it," Emily replied calmly as she started to walk forward.

"Hold up, Pet," the captain said warningly. "We're not going to let you walk us into an ambush. We'll send someone else in and they'll determine if its safe for the rest of us."

Emily couldn't help but sigh as she shook her head in disbelief. She had made it clear what to expect when they'd gotten there, yet it seemed like the captain had somehow gotten in her mind that Emily was going to try and betray them or something. Regardless of what was behind that reasoning, Emily couldn't help but wonder if their roles were reversed, would the captain be contemplating betrayal herself? Or was she just reacting from previous experience with that sort of thing?

In Emily's opinion, whichever one it was would determine if Emily should be willing to really trust this woman or not. As she had at least thought at one point that she was loyal to the duchess, but if she would contemplate betrayal herself, then she couldn't say that this woman wouldn't do just that, regardless of any other circumstances.

The captain had motioned for one of the other soldiers forward, and Emily watched, with some amusement, the guard stumble around, clearly not recognizing where the entrance was. It almost felt like a comedy bit at times, while at other times it felt like a waste of Emily's time.

Especially since it was clear almost right away that the soldier didn't know where the entrance was. Not only was she to far to the right of the entrance, by at least ten feet, but she wasn't even going in that direction, nor did she seem like she was really even trying to find it in Emily's opinion.

After five minutes, the captain was glaring at Emily, but still wouldn't let her move forward. Which Emily considered rather unfair. If they wouldn't let her show the soldier where the entrance was, why would they then blame her for the soldier not being able to find it?

After almost ten minutes, the soldier started walking back, clearly having given up on finding it. "It's not there," she said. "I'm not sure what Pet is thinking, but there's clearly nothing there."

The captain picked Emily up, one hand cupping her breast and the other grabbing her thigh, holding her back against the captain, while the captain breathed in her face as Emily turned her face to look at the captain, the captain's glare mixed with a hungry look that Emily didn't like the look of. She was pretty sure that if she didn't find a quick way out of this, then she wasn't going to get out of 'warming the captain's bed' at this moment. That she the captain wouldn't care to wait until it was night before forcing her.

"What're you trying to pull, Pet?" the captain asked, her hands squeezing Emily's body where they touched her. "You realize that I know of many ways to punish those who step out of line, right?"

"If you can't remember, than I suggest we start heading back now," Emily replied, as defiantly as she could while she did her best to ignore the captain touching her body. As well as her body's reaction to the touches. "the entrance to a unicorn's forest isn't like a gate. For one thing, you have to be a little more precise to enter."

"And what exactly are you saying, Pet? That you need to show us how to enter this unicorn's forest?" the captain said, as she started to slide Emily's tunic up.

"What I'm saying is that I can show you, all of you, where the entrance is. Once you know that, it'll be easier to find and enter yourselves."

Emily knew that she was close to getting raped here. The captains hand was caressing her hip just above her leggings while her words played through the captain's mind. The feeling of the captain touching her skin was enough to make her want to vomit right then. Though, if that did happen and Emily wasn't able to escape before the captain completed the act, then she would enter the Unicorn's Forest and do her best to convince the arachnoids to help her out on capturing these people.

While she couldn't be sure that the arachnoids had yet learned English or not, she felt that it was at least an option. One where she wouldn't have to let the captain keep doing that sort of thing. Especially since the captain seemed to have a need to make everyone 'know' just who's in charge and why they needed to submit to her, regardless of how they've shown that they accept the captain's authority.

After a few minutes, when Emily was starting to think that the captain wasn't going to believe her, she let Emily go. Not only that, but she pushed Emily away, as if Emily needed any encouragement to put some distance between them.

"Go ahead and 'show' me, Pet," the captain said, sounding more like she was taunting Emily. "Show us what isn't there. Just don't walk through it yourself."

Emily merely turned away from the captain and rolled her eyes. It was clear that the captain really didn't believe her, despite the fact that there wasn't any reason to lie about this. Not only did she gain nothing by faking having reached the unicorn's forest, but that's where they were heading to begin with. Did the captain merely want the journey to continue longer for some reason?

Not wasting any time, Emily stepped forward and put her arm through the entrance without flinching. She looked back at the captain. "Are you sure nothing's here or does my arm naturally disappear like this from time to time?"

While she really didn't have to taunt the captain like that, she did so anyway to at least vent her feelings towards the captain a little. Though, she had a feeling that the captain was going to make her pay for that comment somewhere down the line. Not that Emily really felt scared f the captain.

The only time she really had felt any fear from the captain had been a moment ago when she couldn't be sure that the captain wasn't going to try and force herself on Emily. With how quickly things moved at that moment, she hadn't been sure if she'd be able to get the captain to fall asleep before she had accomplished what she'd been going for.

While the captain might try something later one, Emily was at least confident that she'd lost her excuse for this moment, which Emily hoped would be enough for the near future. Especially since they'd be starting negotiations soon enough.

Although, Emily suddenly realized that they'd need to avoid actually entering Earth, or at least she needed to avoid that. Otherwise the enchantment that Heathcliff had put on her, that fed off of her own magic, would expire, having completed its purpose. Which Emily couldn't be sure if she'd be able to avoid it or not, given the current circumstances.

When the soldier who couldn't find the entrance earlier approached Emily, she stepped out of the way so the soldier could step through the entrance. While she wasn't afraid of what was beyond that entrance, she was interested in learning what changes there were. Especially with what she knew about the arachnoids creating another place for them to live on Arachii's world.

Which was also where she hoped the negotiations would take place. She merely hoped for that because she wouldn't put it past the captain here to demand to conduct the negotiations on Earth. Although, Emily wouldn't consider it a deal-breaker, since she could always get a renewal on the enchantment. It would just be another headache that she'd have to deal with.

When the soldier entered the unicorn's forest, Emily turned to walk back to be near the captain again. While she'd rather take a bath using sandpaper instead of soap than doing that, she was confident that things would be worse for her if she didn't do that right then. Especially with how she knew the kind of grudges the captain could hold.

However, she'd barely taken three steps back when the soldier came back out and knocked Emily down before tripping over Emily herself. Maybe if she had expected this she'd have been able to catch herself better, but as it is, not only did the soldier's armor dig painfully into her back, but Emily wasn't sure if her head hit a rock on the ground or if it was just the collision that made her head hurt so much.

"What is it?" the captain demanded.

"Monsters," the soldier gasped as she scrambled to her feet, apparently not bothering to even think about helping Emily to her feet. "Several of them."

"What do they look like?" the captain asked, her gaze making Emily wonder if she was giving a silent warning to the soldier.

"Some have horns growing out of their heads, some have legs of spiders, and some look like they're part animals," the soldier gasped, looking back at the entrance to the forest. "None of them saw me or I'm sure they'd be attacking us."

The captain looked at Emily, her glare making Emily wonder if she was thinking that this was the ambush that they'd been so worried about Emily walking them into.

Then, before the captain could say anything, Emily defended herself. She was confident that it wouldn't be as bad as it seemed right then, but she also doubted that she'd be given much of a chance to do this if the captain spoke first.

"I don't know about those who look like they're part animals or the horns growing out of their heads, but the ones that have spider legs are friendly," Emily said as she slowly stood up, wondering if she should make a break for the forest rather than trust the captain's judgement to be fair and reasonable. "They're only hostile to those who are hostile to them. I assure you that they're not going to be a problem. I'm pretty sure that the duchess mentioned them to you because I know I mentioned them to her."

The captain looked at Emily for several minutes, like she was debating whether or not to trust what Emily said or not. Though, Emily couldn't be sure that the captain wasn't merely undressing her instead. With the captain's behavior, it was sometimes hard to tell.

The tension seemed to go up as Emily waited for the captain to make a decision, though she didn't make a move once she was fully back on her feet. Part of her was screaming to run through into the forest and try and seek safety there.

Yet, she couldn't be sure that the soldiers wouldn't be able to run faster than her and catch her before anyone could notice her. Nor could she be certain that if she was noticed, that anyone would help her. It would be a risky gamble and she wasn't sure it was worth it right then. Not with what she knew would be on the end if she didn't manage to get away.

"If these monsters didn't even notice you, then that means they weren't looking. Which would also mean it's not an ambush. Pet will accompany me in and will act as our translator as we planned," the captain said after being quiet for a minute.

Emily couldn't help but feel relief mixed with unease from what the captain said. Relief that the captain at least believed enough to what she had said that she hadn't led them into an ambush, and unease from the fact that the captain was wanting it to just be the two of them. While she was confident that she'd be able to find a way out of whatever the captain had in mind, assuming it involved the captain's bed, she couldn't be completely sure that something wouldn't go wrong.

Still, it wasn't like she was in a position to argue at this point. So, she merely nodded as if she didn't care.

"Want me to go first or do you want to?" she asked, hoping that she could enter the forest just to put a little distance between them. She doubted that the captain would actually do anything to her while they were walking, but she'd rather not get proven wrong.

"We'll go in together," the captain said starting to walk towards Emily. "I'm not going to let you get out of my sight. You did mention to the duchess that there were five entrances to the forest. So, I'm not going to let you disappear into one just so you don't have to return with us."

Emily couldn't help but wonder just how thick this woman was. Either that or she didn't believe that Emily was serious about helping those who had been with her when she had arrived at the world that they'd come from. With how thick the captain's head seemed to be, she couldn't really rule that possibility out. The captain did seem like she might have gotten her position from refusing to listen to the fact that she wasn't the captain in the first place.

Pushing those thoughts to the side, Emily fell in step beside the captain. She paused only long enough for the captain to go ahead of her into the forest, but quickly returned to the captain's side. She wasn't sure when the pathway in front of them was made, and completed, but it did feel like it was like a pathway back home.

Even with the imposing presence of the captain walking beside her down the pathway, Emily couldn't help but feel relaxed as they walked. Although, when she saw the arachnoids, she wasn't bothered by them. What stopped her was the people who had horns growing out of their head, horns that made her think of the pronghorn she'd seen, and hunted, in Colorado. They also had ears that looked just like those on a pronghorn. She wasn't sure what to make of them, but it was clear that they were people themselves.

"What are these creatures?" the captain asked as they neared the center of the forest. "They look mostly human, but they're not. They also seem to have the women caring for their children, completely opposite of the natural order of things."

Emily wasn't sure how to touch that statement. 'Natural order of things' wasn't something that Emily had ever thought about in regards to the cultural differences between their worlds. She hoped that it wouldn't create other problems that she'd have to deal with, but knowing the captain, she could believe that if she eventually spoke a common language with someone here that she'd find a way to be offensive somehow.

As they walked past the people with the pronged horns, Emily felt a little weird that no one seemed to take notice of them. She couldn't be sure if it was that they were used to seeing humans or if there was some other reason, but part of Emily felt like there should be some stares at least. Then there were people who looked like they had animal ears and other featured that made her think of bears. She wasn't sure shy, just that that's what came to mind.

Emily could feel big drops of sweat falling from her body as they continued towards Arachii's world. She'd forgotten about her unease with the captain and was starting to stress about who these people were that had the animal features and where they came from.

As she speculated about that, her mind kept going towards the only other entrance to the forest that she hadn't seen for herself where it led. Which meant that that Charlie and her friends likely had encountered them. She wasn't sure what the story about them were, but it did make sense why they might not feel other humans were a surprising sight. Though, she couldn't help but wonder if there were any people on the other side of that particular entrance at that moment.