Sara had no idea how long she had been underneath the carriage; it could have only been a few minutes or it could have been a few hours. When you were in the throes of complete and utter terror, time largely became irrelevant.

 

All she knew is that everything had gone horribly, horribly wrong.

 

One minute she and the carriage (along with its cargo) were being escorted by a group of armed guards through the wilderness and the next there had been screaming and yelling followed by that horrible, horrible cackle. That horrible kind of forced laughter was like someone laughing at a joke they didn’t find particularly funny but still felt the need to laugh at it anyway.

 

It had been a gnoll. A big one. And it had torn through the guards like they were nothing more than wet parchment. The horses had then panicked and bolted, sending the carriage jolting wildly down the road and then upturning entirely as the stupid animals sent the carriage careening off the road and into a nearby ditch.

 

And now she was barely conscious, surrounded by the overwhelming chemical smell of the cargo and the pain of a twisted ankle (She was lucky. She could have easily snapped her neck or been crushed by the carriage) and trembling in fear hoping she wasn’t found by the gnoll she knew was following her scent. 

 

“Shit.” Sara cursed as she squeezed herself further into the ditch. She should have known this job was too good to be true. Escort a carriage of suspicious goods across the supposedly safe countryside to the newly crowned leader of the thieves guild in Deepwood which would not only pay well but would open the door for the rookie smuggler to get into the big leagues. No more smuggling counterfeit goods for barely any pay. She’d be smuggling the actually valuable goods like fine silks and alcohol, maybe even magical goods!

 

Now looking at the broken bottles and the pools of liquid soaking into the mud and knew that dream was dead and buried. Even if she did make it out of this alive Hecatix was rumored to be much more unforgiving than the last thieves guild master and people that failed him tended to go missing. 

 

“Heh heh heh! Smell you!” The words were barely even understandable. It was the sound of an animal that could just barely communicate in the common tongue and was more of a growl than anything else. But the giggling was unmistakable.

 

Sara’s blood ran cold. It was the gnoll! She scrambled looking for a weapon or really just anything to defend herself with. Whatever punishment Hecatix had for failure surely couldn’t be worse than getting eaten alive by a gnoll.

 

She saw a flask filled with a pink liquid and reached for it. She had no idea what kind of potion it was and didn’t really care. What was more important to her was the glass. If she got lucky maybe the flask would break over its head and the pain of having a few shards of glass embedded in its face would distract it long enough for her to escape.

 

The odds were low she knew that. Even distracted she had to contend with the fact she could barely walk and that the moment the shock wore off the gnoll would run her down in an instant. …But it was better than nothing.  

 

“Heh heh heh!” She could see the gnoll moving around now and not just hear it as she saw its filthy feet move right past her hiding place. “Gonna… heh heh heh gonna find you!” The gnoll cackled as it sniffed the air. “Find you! Find you! Find you!” it repeated the words in an endless mantra of bloodlust as it banged against the carriage wildly trying to force her out of hiding

 

Sara was starting to hyperventilate as she clutched the flask tightly. The gnolls growling, barely coherent words were terrifying to hear. The world was spinning and growing dark. She was on the verge of passing out…

 

There was a loud thud as the gnoll dropped on all fours and Sara was greeted with the horrifying sight of the gnoll’s snout pushing its way under the carriage right in front of her. It snorted one final time. Then laughed hoarsely.

 

“Found you!”

 

It shoved its snout underneath the carriage growling and slobbering as it tried to shove itself underneath the carriage to get to her. Sara screamed, kicking at it wildly and her only reward was another round of those depraved giggles as the mass of fur, drool, and teeth snapped at her and came closer. It was going to upend the entire carriage just to get at her!

 

This was it. She was out of options now. It was fight or die! She clenched her hands around the flask took several shaky breaths and prepared herself. Then she screamed loudly hoping it made her sound brave instead of cowardly as she slammed the flask as hard as she could against the gnoll’s face and this time she was rewarded with a howl of pain and the gnoll backing away.

 

Now was her chance! She scurried out from underneath the carriage by slowly moving her body backwards and tried to stand up and make a run for the road. She finally got on her feet and moved, putting weight on her bad ankle…

 

The world went white and she screamed in pain falling right back over. Her twisted ankle pulsing in pain as she fell face first into the mud and grime of the ditch. Shit! Shit! Shit!

 

She could hear the gnoll yowling not far away as she desperately scrambled up the ditch using her arms and hands for leverage. Oh gods she was so dead. She couldn’t even walk! How was she going to be able to outrun this thing? Her heart was beating so fast she was actually hoping she’d die from fright now. Better to die from a heart attack than getting alive!

 

She crawled out of the ditch at long last and gripped onto one of the carriage wheels for support as she propped herself up against it as he reached down and undid the laces of her boots and rolled her pants legging up to get a good look at her ankle. It was purple and swollen… not good. 

 

Meanwhile, the gnoll was still shrieking. The gnoll had never stopped shrieking. For the entirety of her agonizingly slow journey out from underneath the carriage it had been screaming nonstop. Its cries rising higher and higher in pitch to the point it now sounded almost perverse. 

 

She peered her head around the corner to look and saw the gnoll thrashing wildly on the ground. The twitching mound of fur screaming as its body convulsed and twitched and… changed?

 

No it had to be an illusion, some trick of the light or result of her near delirium. It wasn’t changing. It was dying! It had to be dying! Maybe the potion had been some kind of deadly poison. Some kind of deal with the Night Vipers that Hecatix was running, maybe? Yes… that made sense.

 

Sara’s thoughts were interrupted by a loud pop as the gnoll’s spine audibly popped and the gnoll thrashed harder, whimpering and whining in an almost pitiful way that almost made Sara feel bad for it. Still leaning against the carriage she bent down and picked up a rock.

 

The keyword was almost.

 

Laughing she threw the rock at the mound of fur and was awarded with a pained yelp as the gnoll ceased thrashing for a brief moment to whimper as Sara threw another rock at it followed by another and then another each strike accompanied by a whimper from the gnoll as the rocks bounced off its body. “Fuck you!” she screamed. “Fuck you!” She fell on her ass and kept laughing hysterically. “Fuck you! Fuck you! Fuck yooooou!”

 

She didn’t notice the gnoll's eyes perking up, standing up straight as she screamed at it. She was too giddy and relieved to be alive to notice anything else as she leaned against the carriage and laughed and laughed tears of relief streaming down her face as she felt on the verge of passing out completely all the adrenaline in her body fading away as her laughter faded and she closed her eyes.

 

“Oh thank the gods!” she sighed. Not caring that the gnolls whimpering and whining had died down. Her eyelids were getting heavy. She was starting to doze off when she heard something approaching her. She opened her eyes with a struggle and gasped in shock at what was standing in front of her.

 

It was… it looked like… a gnoll?

 

It was standing upright, back straight with no slouch as it looked down at her. Its red eyes burning with a mixture of hunger and lust. Its snout was shorter, more round and much more friendly looking… almost domesticated, even. Its tan and black fur was clean. The grime, mud and blood fading away in real time from its body. The hair on its head had styled itself into a very fashionable brown mohawk that stood proudly on its head.

 

Its body was sculpted with muscle and curves. A flat, fit tummy. Wide hips. Narrow waist…

 

But what was really distracting Sara were the massive fur colored breasts bulging out from its chest with erect black nipples proudly poking out of the fur.

 

Its large thighs and hips stretched its tattered loin cloth out as it bent down to look at her with a confused look on its face. 

 

“Fuck… you?” it asked. Its voice was as blank as its eyes. Confused as it kept looking at her for guidance. 

 

Sara could only yelp and back away from the changed gnoll. What the hell! What kind of perverted potion did something like this! Who was this for? This… was obscene!

 

The gnoll shuffled forward and pressed its face into her neck and licked her. “Fuck… you?” It asked again, repeating itself as it looked at her ankle and cocked its head in curiosity. It dropped down on its knees, the leather of its loin cloth creaking and tearing as it sniffed her ankle and began to lick it. 

 

“What are you–Oh!” she could feel the feel in her ankle fading away as the gnoll gave it long, sensual licks stopping every so often to let out a tiny purr of delight as it made love to her ankle with its tongue and mouth. It was practically worshipping her!

 

She could smell something coming off the gnoll’s fur now that it was close, the potion mayhap, it was a sickly sweet smell that was almost like bad perfume and it was getting overwhelming! She was breathing it in. She was panting harder than the gnoll. 

 

Oh gods she was getting wet

 

Her rational mind was shutting off as she moaned and pressed her foot into the eager gnoll’s drooling mouth. It let out an excited giggle purr and licked her toes. Sucked on them. Oh god…

 

“K—keep doing that you stupid beast!” She ordered, her inhibitions were leaving her and all she wanted to do now was order this creature around like the animal it was. “Don’t stop!” 

 

“Don’t… hehehe… stop!” The gnoll growled as it ripped her legging off with one strong yank and resumed licking up and down her leg with its long, wet tongue. This was heavenly. Its tongue was divine. Whatever that potion had done had made it an excellent lover as it licked up to her inner thigh and teased her by slipping it inside the other half of her pants… right to her panties and dangerously close to—

 

Wait. She was letting a gnoll fuck her!

 

Sara backed away again, shaking her head in shock as the gnoll looked at her with mild confusion. She… she couldn’t be doing this with a gnoll! Not only was this the height of depravity but she wasn’t even gay! She was–

 

The gnoll was on top of her now and grinning down at her mindlessly. Once again the smell of the potion filled her nostrils and moaned and writhed underneath it as it placed both hands beside her head and bent down, grinning. A small amount of drool hung out of its mouth and dripped onto her face as it growled… then giggled brainlessly.

 

“Fuck. You.”