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    "Trap?" Shtorrr asked.


    "Yes, a net trap. Looks like garbage rope, though. Can''t be very old." Target said.


    Bean approached, on guard for attack. "What is it? What are you looking at?"


    "Trap." Shtorrr said, pointing up. Bean followed the troll''s finger and saw part of the net. Her eyebrows raised.


    Punch walked up next. "Stay on guard!" He hissed furiously. "Why are you all standing around staring at the sky?" Bean and Target belatedly raised shield and sling and turned to watch the area around them.


    Shtorrr, still pointing up, said, "Trap."


    Punch glanced up in surprise. He looked down at the ground and saw the damage to the moss. He stepped directly under the net and looked up at it. "Looks like an amateur attempt and a rope net trap. Can''t be very old, it would have rotted away." He looked at his scout team. "Someone is in here."


    "Could it be the dungeon? I heard dungeons can make traps." Bean asked.


    Punch considered the question. "It would be odd for someone to make traps for the monsters we''ve seen in this dungeon, but, if the dungeon made this trap, why hasn''t it made any on the other dungeon floors? No, I think this is a person and I think they are still here." Punch pointed his spear forward. "Resume scouting."


    The scouts resumed walking but were brought up short almost immediately as a sharpened stake swung out of the foliage and Target''s foot. The stake failed to penetrate Target''s boot and he kicked it aside. He looked back at Punch to make sure the spearman had seen. Punch nodded and gestured Target to continue.


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    Bean''s arm was a bit tired from holding her sling at the ready for so long. She sometimes regretted not picking a different ranged weapon or even a melee weapon, but sling''s were simple and she could easily carry ten times as many shots in a pouch as an archer could carry arrows in a quiver. Bean''s mind wandered as she thought about the interesting "crossbows" the Queen had acquired a while back.


    Something grabbed her foot and yanked her to the ground. The breath was knocked out of her before she could cry out, and she was dragged into the shadows under a patch of regular vines. Bean''s mind screamed ''Trap!'' for a moment, but the dragging went on too long and her mind switched to ''Monster!''. She managed to take a breath and scream.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    Bean''s free foot caught between a vine and a boulder, yanking her around painfully. The grip on her foot released and a heavy body with too many feet landed on her chest, knocking the breath out of her again. Bean got her sling around in time to glance a blow off the black shape above her. Sharp teeth sank into her arm as claws raked down her leathers. Bean screamed again.


    A crashing roar got the black monster''s attention and it released Bean''s arm. The monster pushed hard off Bean''s torso and leapt away. The breath was forced from Bean''s lungs a third time. She tried to cover her head as Shtorrr stampeded through the vines, nearly catching her shoulder. Punch arrived next and knelt to guard Bean with his spear. Target arrived next and guarded her other side with his shield. Shtorrr''s charge slowed and it soon returned to the group. "Gone." It said.


    "Bean, what was it?" Punch asked.


    Bean sat up, clutching her bitten arm to her chest. "I don''t know, it was just a black shape." She examined her condition. "It bit my arm, but mostly just ruined my clothes." She frowned at her slashed leathers and the bite marks on her boot.


    "Take a heal candy." Punch ordered. Bean nodded and reached for the small bag she carried. She patted her side, then looked around.


    Bean swore loudly. "The bag''s gone!" She looked at the flattened vines she had been dragged through. "It took the bag!" She shouted.


    Punch and Target looked around at the ground near the slingwoman, confused. "Why would a monster take a bag?" Target asked.


    The scouts searched around for a minute just to confirm the bag wasn''t lost among the vines or back where Bean had been walking. Bean felt miserable as she wrapped her bleeding arm in shreds of her clothing. The fangs hadn''t pierced very deep, but it was painful. Bean decided that injury wasn''t enough to force her to reveal all the heal candies she had pilfered from the bag and stuck in her inside pockets.


    Punch ordered a change in their formation. Target and Punch would walk side by side, followed by Bean and Shtorrr, also side by side.


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    Chaney looked through the small bag he had snatched from the woman with the sling, but it was only food and a bunch of little yellow things. The moon cat''s emotions only indicated that the bag held food. Chaney tied the bag to his belt and considered the situation. The hut was overgrown with vines and the fairy had probably left. The bandits would not fail to notice the hut, however. They had spotted a few of his disabled traps and their spiral path was thoroughly covering the entire worldlet. The bandit woman didn''t seem very injured from the moon cat''s attack, and both Chaney and the cat were intimidated by the crashing charge of the large rough skinned bandit. It clearly wasn''t human, but Chaney didn''t know what to call it.


    Chaney reached out and scratched the side of the moon cat''s neck. "Cat, there isn''t more we can do here. Let''s go." Through their bond, Chaney felt that the cat didn''t want to give up its territory to invaders. Chaney understood, but they couldn''t fight all four bandits. If they couldn''t fight and kill them all, the cat wanted to hunt the small weak one instead. They could try and separate it from the group.


    Chaney took a minute to craft an emotive "argument" that the cat could accept. Aloud, and through their bond, he said, "Let''s go hunting in the dark tunnels." The cat reluctantly accepted leaving its too-bright territory for the pitch-black hunting ground it had sampled a few weeks ago.