Page 51 of Infala: The Bonding Games
Regardless, without another word Dorrin carefully walked ahead, Ziana in tow, their makeshift foot spikes affording them excellent purchase on the icy ground. He led the way, looping to the right, then climbing over a chest-high hunk of ice and rock, the cuff linking them going tight a few times as Ziana struggled to keep up. He reached up and helped her down to the small patch of safe ground at the rock’s base.
“Okay, that’s clearly the checkpoint,” she said, staring at the just barely glowing orb hovering at waist height.
“Come. They do not booby-trap these,” Dorrin said, stepping forward and placing his hand on the device. It didn’t even hum or flash, it just slid out a small oval of polished green metal. He pulled it free and tucked it securely in his pocket.
“That’s it?” she asked.
“That’s it. Let’s go. There are still two more to retrieve. Then comes the worst part.”
“Worse than avoiding traps and animals?”
He chuckled. “Sometimes, waiting actually can be.” He stood tall, scanning the cavern all around them, looking confused before finally shrugging and pointing. Pointing in the direction they already knew they would be going.
They moved fast, following the only relatively clear path toward the slope leading up to the warmer area where the eliteshad gone. They’d made their decision seem random. Organic. But they had a clear route in their minds. Unfortunately, they had to veer slightly off from the one the elites had taken. There were coincidences, but then there were instances that were just a littletooconvenient.
The transition from icy to grassy was quick, and unlike the ice, the spikes didn’t do too much to help when the soil decided to give way. It was steep, and it was going to be a relatively miserable climb. Dorrin stopped periodically, his strong hands on Ziana’s waist as he hoisted her up over obstacles with ease. His grip was firm but not painful, and the way he moved her body wherever he thought she needed to go with such effortless grace was starting to distract her in an annoying sort of way.
No, do not think that,she chided herself as she felt her body reacting of its own accord to the man’s touch.That is not cool.
The warm glow low in her belly said otherwise. More than just that, it was distracting her from the one thing she had to do. Namely, keep her footing and climb.
“Shit!” she blurted, slipping just after he’d put her down on the slope in front and above him.
His hands shot up fast, cupping her ass and cradling her as she fell, but it was more than just her ass he’d gotten a handful of.
Ziana’s pussy thrummed with instant heat and a tingling buzz when his fingers slid a little too far between her legs and pressed her clit with a delightful firmness of touch before sliding back, almost teasing her pulsing hole as he adjusted his grip.
As quickly as it had started it ended, his hands a flash of motion, stabilizing her and making sure she was solidly on her feet.
“Your cheeks are flushed. Are you okay?” he asked, oblivious to what he’d just inadvertently done.
Ziana stammered. “Uh, yeah, I’m fine.”
She wasnotfine. In fact, her nipples were pressing so hard against her top she thought they’d cut right through it. And her clit? She just hoped the rapidly swelling nub would calm the fuck down and let her continue as before. If not it was going to be a very long, and very distracting climb.
CHAPTER TWENTY
There were several teams wandering around the surprisingly lush area Ziana and Dorrin found at the top of their climb. The ground abruptly went from annoyingly steep and treacherous to level and quite passable. There was tall, burgundy grass, ample bushes and trees, and even a few clear streams trickling out of the many small caverns connected to the area, dotting the walls.
There were hills and rocky outcroppings, as well as what looked like a ravine or two from their vantage point. Of course, there would be traps sprinkled across the area, hidden in the tall grass at the very least, as well as who knew what sort of other perilous obstacles that were simply part of the environment.
Then there were the people. Lots of them.
It seemed that while a few had braved the lower region at the beginning, most of the contestants, regardless of where they’d been deposited at the start, had decided to begin their search in the easiest of the several regions of the caverns. While it was scalding with lava up above, and freezing with ice down below, this one area was in the Goldilocks zone. Not too hot, not too cold, but just right, and a huge percentage of the competitors were now milling about, searching for the checkpoint.
Unfortunately, that pleasant and lush environment also meant this was prime territory for the beasts lurking just out of sight. But as of yet, no one had stumbled upon any of them.
“Later,” Dorrin noted when Ziana asked about that. “Predators hunt when it is advantageous. You will see.”
It made sense. With the artificial light throughout the cavern providing them with a rough approximation of day and night, they all still had several hours before it would become dark and more dangerous to move around. As a result, everyone was moving fast. Everyone but Dorrin and his partner.
“Do you see the elite teams?” he asked, though he’d already spotted two of them on his own.
“Yeah. Over to our right,” she replied, not pointing, not looking, but rather intentionally gesturing theotherway, hoping to throw off any who might be watching them in hopes of either following them to the goal, or stealing their key once they retrieved it.
Dorrin wasn’t about to have any of that.
“We will loop left, passing that small stream. The crossing is only narrow enough to traverse in a few points.”
