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Description

Foxtraps.

By FOXCARROTS

Chapter Five:

“The Impossible Jelly.”

    Another fox was stuck, a friend and companion stuck impossibly in a trap that would not let them go no matter how much they tried. No one seemed able to shake the idea of the fox mother Rina clamped in tight clamps and unable to move from their heads. However, as it had become obvious from Alani and the foxes on the way in the only way to help them seemed to be continuing on.

    After the last free fox was through the door it slid shut behind them. Backtracking was not an option inside the labyrinth as it was outside. There was always something to stop them or hold their feet, it was forward or nothing.

    The next room was completely unlike the others. It had clean white walls and a high ceiling that lit up the room well. There was a stone platform before them with enough room for all of the foxes and beyond was a massive pool of transparent red liquid. Shina carefully approached the edge and looked down. “I can’t see the bottom.”

    “So that means we have no idea what’s down there.” Leeka added. “I would stay away from the edge until we get an idea of what’s going on.”

    Drell was the last inside and the door slid shut and locked behind them. “Well were all in, so lets just hope this room is not like the last.”

    “Stop joking around!’ Mango shouted. “Our friends are still back there and they are still stuck!”

    Chex walked up and put a hand on Mango’s shoulder. “It’s ok kid, we are going to be super careful…no one else is getting stuck.”

    Lian knelt by the edge of the water, examining it with her magic. “I don’t sense anything down there.”

    “That’s good right?” Alexandra offered. “No creatures or unexpected nasties?”

    “I suppose.” Lian replied. “Though when I say I sense nothing I mean it. There literally is nothing down there that I can detect.”

    Titanya knelt down and reached a hand out to the strange red liquid. “Let’s see what this stuff is.”

    Rikki ran forward and grabbed the large fox girl’s hand. “We shouldn’t touch it! This could be glue like Alani stepped in.”

    “We are going to assume this stuff is dangerous until we learn otherwise.” Shina ordered. “Glue, acid, anything we need to try and keep it off of us.”

    “There seems to be something over here.” Riffen explained as she gestured to a plank that lead along the wall that lead across the room. “Though I could swear it wasn’t here a moment ago.”

    Leeka walked over to the plank and tested it with one of her feet. It was metal and cold but seemed quite solid. It was wide enough to be walked over single file. She looked around, seeing nothing else that might be used to cross the strange liquid pool. “I am going to try and cross. Everyone stay back.” Leeka set both feet on it and after she was sure nothing else was happening, she started to walk. However just after she took her first step the plank began to slowly move into the wall.

    “Everyone on the plank now!” Shina commanded and began to usher everyone onto the plank. Chex took up the rear making sure everyone was on before stepping onto the plank herself. The group moved as fast as they could along the plank but soon it was hard for them to walk and they had to turn and shuffle sideways. Leeka and a couple others easily made it to the other ide and made room for the others. However, as the plank was only a few inches from the wall something had to be done.

    “Jump!” Leeka shouted. “Jump for all your worth!”

    The others didn’t have much room to wind up but one by one made the jump, landing hard on the ledge. A couple almost didn’t make it but had to be pulled and Riffen lost her balance and didn’t make a big enough jump. Chex leaped out, caught her by the waist and heaved her forward, tossing her to the others on the ledge. As the plank finished retreating into the wall Chex splashed into the water. She managed to keep her head above the surface but was very much in the red liquid.

    “Chex!” Riffen said as she turned to see her savior. “Are you all right?”

    “Yeah actually.” Chex said as she treaded water. “Good news this stuff isn’t acid or glue.”

    “That’s a relief.” Leeka commented. “But come one…get out of it.”

    “Sure thing.” Chex said as she began to swim toward the edge but rapidly her limbs began to grow sluggish. “I am having problems moving in this shit. Its getting thicker."

    Before any of the group could do anything, the red liquid tuned a lighter shade of red and became solid, setting around Chex’s body.

    “Chex!” Riffen called out. “Can you move?”

    Chex struggled, desperate to move any part of her body but found the stuff almost completely unyielding. She flexed her muscles in her legs but could not love them. She tried pulling her arms out but they were both locked at the shoulder where the water had solidified around the, she tried to move her fingers or wiggle her toes but could not move. She felt the slightest amount of movement in her body as she strained but it was not much at all and any movement she got just went back to where it started.

    “Not so much.” Chex sighed. She could move her head and shrug her shoulders but everything under the surface wouldn’t budge, stuck and frozen. “I can kind of wiggle, this stuff is like jelly.”

    “I’m going to help her.” Riffen said as she went to step out onto the red jelly but Leeka grabbed her. “You have no way of knowing what will happen if you set foot on it.”

    “It’s solidified!” Riffen insisted. “We should be able to walk on it.”

    “It’s too much of a risk.” Leeka retorted. “There’s no way of telling what it might do to your bare soles.”

    “I’m going to risk it!” Riffen replied. “I refuse to leave her in that stuff without at least trying to get her out of it.”

    “I’ll go too.” Rikki volunteered. “We will try and cut and dissolve the stuff.”

    Leeka looked to Lian. “Can you do anything from here?”

    “This stuff seemed magically inert.” Lian commented. “My magic will just bounce off of it.”

    Leeka looked to Shina for confirmation before nodding. “Only Riffen and Rikki set foot on this stuff. Drell start working on the door and the rest stay away from this crap.”

    Riffen nodded and set a foot onto the surface of the red jelly. At first, she feared it would still be wet or somehow sticky. However, as she took another step, she found that she neither sank in or stuck. “I can walk on it!”

    Rikki joined her and the pair went over to where Chex was held in the jelly. Riffen took out her gear and started to test the stuff to find some way to dissolve it. Rikki began to hack at the jelly but her blade mostly just bounced off. Riffen poured solvent after solvent on the stuff and at first was encouraged that it was damaging the upper layer she was disheartened how little the solvent damaged it before being absorbed by it. Rikki hacked and hacked, leaving nothing more than small pockmarks in the rubber like goop for her efforts.

    “Are you having any luck?” Shina asked. “Either of you.”

    “Please give me some good news.” Chex replied. “This is kind of agony to be in not going to lie.”

    “Well I am using my mist powerful solvents and they are slowly eating away at it.” Riffen commented. “That is the good news.”

    “And I can damage the stuff.” Rikki added. “With my sharpest daggers.”

    “Well, that is encouraging.” Chex commented. “Though I imagine I’m not going to like the bad news.”

    “It would take gallons of this solvent to make any significant headway against this stuff.” Riffen commented. “It would take weeks to dissolve it all and even if we had the time, I don’t have the materials.”

    Chex turned her head to look at Rikki. “It’s all on you babe.”

    “I’m sorry.” Rikki commented. “Even if we all came out onto this stuff and used our weapons it would take a very long time to cut you free and wed likely break or dull all of our weapons before we even got to your waist.”

    Chex nodded. “I was right…I did not like the bad news.”

    “Can we use some of those bombs maybe?” Shina suggested. “Maybe this stuff can be blown up.”

    “Unlikely.” Drell commented. “This is a rubbery substance that seems to reflect magic and impact. It would take hours to sink a bomb into this stuff and its just as likely to send the blast back at us than free her.”

    “Is there anything we can do?” Leeka asked. “Maybe we can pull her out?”

    “There’s nowhere to get a hold of her.” Titanya commented. “We cant pull by her neck. “Maybe if we removed some of it by her shoulders, we can get a good grip on her armpits.”

    Chex growled. “This is so frustrating. As much as it sucks you have to go.”

    “We can figure this out.” Riffen insisted. “We can work on the plan to get a hold of you. With the solvent, the weapons and some pulling maybe we can slide you out.”

    “Slight problem.” Chex said as she struggled with her shoulders, the point where the jelly met her skin causing her skin to stretch. “This stuff is stuck to my skin. I can’t slide out. I’m stuck tight in this shit and it would take this group MONTHS to even free one of my hands.”

    “We have left too many people behind already.” Rikki insisted. “We can’t leave you!”

    “I’m really fucking stuck.” Chex insisted. “We don’t have the supplies to have the group stay here and work to free me. Besides who knows if this rubbery crap will even come off of me.”

    “Can we leave someone here to keep trying to free her?” Mango suggested.

    “Anyone you leave here is as good as stuck as well.” Drell commented. “We can’t go back and the doors once locked stay locked.”

    “Besides.” Chex added with a despondent look on her face. “One person would take years to free me. Like the others my only chance is for you to get to the center of this place and make it release me.”

    “Understood.” Leeka said, finding it no easier even after so many stuck. “We keep moving. Drell, get that door open. Rikki and Riffen get back on the platform.”

    “I’ll get you out of this somehow.” Riffen said before she headed back to the platform. “I promise.”

    “I believe you.” Chex commented. “I have no desire to die in this jelly.”

    Rikki and Riffen returned to the platform as Drell worked away at the door. Within a couple minutes the door was open and the next room was ready for the group. One by one the foxes started to walk through but as Rikki went to step forward, she nearly tripped. She felt a stinging pull on the sole of her foot. For a second she feared she was stuck just like Alani but her foot popped free with a sickening sticky snap. She regained her balance. Tugging at the other foot, she could feel something tug back but it again snapped. She went back to the first foot and exactly like the first time it stretched some sort of sticky substance before snapping fee of the floor. “Ummm…Leeka…I have a problem?”

    “What is it?” Leek asked turning to the young fox.

    “My feet…are sticky.” Rikki admitted. “There seemed to be something wrong.”

    Riffen looked down at her own feet and when she tried to stake a step found them similarly sticky. She was able to move but not without fighting to separate from the floor on each step.

    Lian moved in as if anticipating being asked about it, knelt by Rikki and Riffen’s feet and watched them lift and snap the stuff free. She looked up at Leeka. “They both have a really thin residue from the jelly from this room on the soles of their feet. It isn’t locking them in place but it sticks with each step and doesn’t seem to leave anything on the floor.”

    “Can we remove it?” Leeka asked.

Riffen and Rikki worked with some water and some solvent, desperately scrubbing at their soles. The stuff seemed to repel their efforts and not even leave a trace of the stuff on the cloths they scrubbed with.

    “I think the answer of if this stuff comes off is answered.” Chex admitted. “Even if I get busted out of this stuff my skin is gonna stay sticky.”

    “Any luck?” Leeka asked. “What are your odds of getting it off?”

    “Not a chance.” Riffen sighed said as she poked at the stuff with an implement. “Its locked to our soles permanently. The fact its not sticky enough to trap us is lucky but every step is going to be a chore from here on in as it appears dirt doesn’t stick. It’s clearly enchanted and wont bond to anything we try and put under our feet.”

    Leeka lifted her foot and looked at her smooth sole, seemingly relieved to discover her feet were not sticky. “Everyone check your feet. I don’t think anyone else got this stuff on them but you should check as this room seems to have had some side effects.”

    “We should be good.” Mango commented. “Only Rikki and Riffen set foot on the stuff.”

    “This is so frustrating.” Riffen aid as she went to take step, struggled and forcefully snapped a foot free. “I’m an alchemist and I can’t take some sticky residue off of my soles!”

    “I don’t regret it.” Rikki added. “It was worth it for even trying to free Chex.”

    “Well it appears we re stuck like this!” Riffen said as she tested a few steps, fighting to lift with each.

    Lian casted some magic at Riffen’s soles but the residue just rebounded it. “They’re right, It wont come off!”

    Riffen got down on her knees and started to crawl but within seconds she felt a powerful burning sensation. “Dammit its rigged to not let us crawl it feels like it’s burning my feet!”

    “This stuff is almost as diabolical as the main trap itself!” Shina commented. “Either get stuck in the jelly or get locked up with sticky soles.”

    “To be honest I’d take the sticky soles.” Chex replied form her jelly prison.

    “Please don’t leave us behind!” Rikki commented. “We will do our best to keep up.”

    “We are not leaving you behind.” Leeka promised.

    “Can we carry them?” Mango asked. “Rikki, get on my back.”

    Rikki nodded and climbed onto Mangos back. Mango grinned and moved around. “See, no problem.” Mango took a couple of steps but her feet began to get sticky. “Ummm, I swear I feel my feet getting sticky.”

    “Put her down quick!” Shira commanded. Mango dropped Rikki but found her feet now just as sticky as hers. She struggled and pulled a foot up to reveal a thin coat of the red residue on the soles of her feet and bottoms of her toes.

    “Nobody is to pick up or help the three with sticky feet.” Leeka commented. It appears to be some kind of magic goo and is contagious.”

    “Well, what the hell do we do now?” Riffen said as she scrubbed at her soles with a cloth. “There’s not exactly an antidote to this crap.”

    “Your going to have to stay sticky.” Leeka explained. “You can move, that is more than the others can say.”

    Riffen nodded and the tree affected foxes strained to move, fighting against the residue with each step. Eventually they went through the door and it shut behind them leaving Chex stuck and immobile in her pool of solidified Jelly.

-

Description

Foxtraps.

By FOXCARROTS

Chapter Five:

“The Impossible Jelly.”

    Another fox was stuck, a friend and companion stuck impossibly in a trap that would not let them go no matter how much they tried. No one seemed able to shake the idea of the fox mother Rina clamped in tight clamps and unable to move from their heads. However, as it had become obvious from Alani and the foxes on the way in the only way to help them seemed to be continuing on.

    After the last free fox was through the door it slid shut behind them. Backtracking was not an option inside the labyrinth as it was outside. There was always something to stop them or hold their feet, it was forward or nothing.

    The next room was completely unlike the others. It had clean white walls and a high ceiling that lit up the room well. There was a stone platform before them with enough room for all of the foxes and beyond was a massive pool of transparent red liquid. Shina carefully approached the edge and looked down. “I can’t see the bottom.”

    “So that means we have no idea what’s down there.” Leeka added. “I would stay away from the edge until we get an idea of what’s going on.”

    Drell was the last inside and the door slid shut and locked behind them. “Well were all in, so lets just hope this room is not like the last.”

    “Stop joking around!’ Mango shouted. “Our friends are still back there and they are still stuck!”

    Chex walked up and put a hand on Mango’s shoulder. “It’s ok kid, we are going to be super careful…no one else is getting stuck.”

    Lian knelt by the edge of the water, examining it with her magic. “I don’t sense anything down there.”

    “That’s good right?” Alexandra offered. “No creatures or unexpected nasties?”

    “I suppose.” Lian replied. “Though when I say I sense nothing I mean it. There literally is nothing down there that I can detect.”

    Titanya knelt down and reached a hand out to the strange red liquid. “Let’s see what this stuff is.”

    Rikki ran forward and grabbed the large fox girl’s hand. “We shouldn’t touch it! This could be glue like Alani stepped in.”

    “We are going to assume this stuff is dangerous until we learn otherwise.” Shina ordered. “Glue, acid, anything we need to try and keep it off of us.”

    “There seems to be something over here.” Riffen explained as she gestured to a plank that lead along the wall that lead across the room. “Though I could swear it wasn’t here a moment ago.”

    Leeka walked over to the plank and tested it with one of her feet. It was metal and cold but seemed quite solid. It was wide enough to be walked over single file. She looked around, seeing nothing else that might be used to cross the strange liquid pool. “I am going to try and cross. Everyone stay back.” Leeka set both feet on it and after she was sure nothing else was happening, she started to walk. However just after she took her first step the plank began to slowly move into the wall.

    “Everyone on the plank now!” Shina commanded and began to usher everyone onto the plank. Chex took up the rear making sure everyone was on before stepping onto the plank herself. The group moved as fast as they could along the plank but soon it was hard for them to walk and they had to turn and shuffle sideways. Leeka and a couple others easily made it to the other ide and made room for the others. However, as the plank was only a few inches from the wall something had to be done.

    “Jump!” Leeka shouted. “Jump for all your worth!”

    The others didn’t have much room to wind up but one by one made the jump, landing hard on the ledge. A couple almost didn’t make it but had to be pulled and Riffen lost her balance and didn’t make a big enough jump. Chex leaped out, caught her by the waist and heaved her forward, tossing her to the others on the ledge. As the plank finished retreating into the wall Chex splashed into the water. She managed to keep her head above the surface but was very much in the red liquid.

    “Chex!” Riffen said as she turned to see her savior. “Are you all right?”

    “Yeah actually.” Chex said as she treaded water. “Good news this stuff isn’t acid or glue.”

    “That’s a relief.” Leeka commented. “But come one…get out of it.”

    “Sure thing.” Chex said as she began to swim toward the edge but rapidly her limbs began to grow sluggish. “I am having problems moving in this shit. Its getting thicker."

    Before any of the group could do anything, the red liquid tuned a lighter shade of red and became solid, setting around Chex’s body.

    “Chex!” Riffen called out. “Can you move?”

    Chex struggled, desperate to move any part of her body but found the stuff almost completely unyielding. She flexed her muscles in her legs but could not love them. She tried pulling her arms out but they were both locked at the shoulder where the water had solidified around the, she tried to move her fingers or wiggle her toes but could not move. She felt the slightest amount of movement in her body as she strained but it was not much at all and any movement she got just went back to where it started.

    “Not so much.” Chex sighed. She could move her head and shrug her shoulders but everything under the surface wouldn’t budge, stuck and frozen. “I can kind of wiggle, this stuff is like jelly.”

    “I’m going to help her.” Riffen said as she went to step out onto the red jelly but Leeka grabbed her. “You have no way of knowing what will happen if you set foot on it.”

    “It’s solidified!” Riffen insisted. “We should be able to walk on it.”

    “It’s too much of a risk.” Leeka retorted. “There’s no way of telling what it might do to your bare soles.”

    “I’m going to risk it!” Riffen replied. “I refuse to leave her in that stuff without at least trying to get her out of it.”

    “I’ll go too.” Rikki volunteered. “We will try and cut and dissolve the stuff.”

    Leeka looked to Lian. “Can you do anything from here?”

    “This stuff seemed magically inert.” Lian commented. “My magic will just bounce off of it.”

    Leeka looked to Shina for confirmation before nodding. “Only Riffen and Rikki set foot on this stuff. Drell start working on the door and the rest stay away from this crap.”

    Riffen nodded and set a foot onto the surface of the red jelly. At first, she feared it would still be wet or somehow sticky. However, as she took another step, she found that she neither sank in or stuck. “I can walk on it!”

    Rikki joined her and the pair went over to where Chex was held in the jelly. Riffen took out her gear and started to test the stuff to find some way to dissolve it. Rikki began to hack at the jelly but her blade mostly just bounced off. Riffen poured solvent after solvent on the stuff and at first was encouraged that it was damaging the upper layer she was disheartened how little the solvent damaged it before being absorbed by it. Rikki hacked and hacked, leaving nothing more than small pockmarks in the rubber like goop for her efforts.

    “Are you having any luck?” Shina asked. “Either of you.”

    “Please give me some good news.” Chex replied. “This is kind of agony to be in not going to lie.”

    “Well I am using my mist powerful solvents and they are slowly eating away at it.” Riffen commented. “That is the good news.”

    “And I can damage the stuff.” Rikki added. “With my sharpest daggers.”

    “Well, that is encouraging.” Chex commented. “Though I imagine I’m not going to like the bad news.”

    “It would take gallons of this solvent to make any significant headway against this stuff.” Riffen commented. “It would take weeks to dissolve it all and even if we had the time, I don’t have the materials.”

    Chex turned her head to look at Rikki. “It’s all on you babe.”

    “I’m sorry.” Rikki commented. “Even if we all came out onto this stuff and used our weapons it would take a very long time to cut you free and wed likely break or dull all of our weapons before we even got to your waist.”

    Chex nodded. “I was right…I did not like the bad news.”

    “Can we use some of those bombs maybe?” Shina suggested. “Maybe this stuff can be blown up.”

    “Unlikely.” Drell commented. “This is a rubbery substance that seems to reflect magic and impact. It would take hours to sink a bomb into this stuff and its just as likely to send the blast back at us than free her.”

    “Is there anything we can do?” Leeka asked. “Maybe we can pull her out?”

    “There’s nowhere to get a hold of her.” Titanya commented. “We cant pull by her neck. “Maybe if we removed some of it by her shoulders, we can get a good grip on her armpits.”

    Chex growled. “This is so frustrating. As much as it sucks you have to go.”

    “We can figure this out.” Riffen insisted. “We can work on the plan to get a hold of you. With the solvent, the weapons and some pulling maybe we can slide you out.”

    “Slight problem.” Chex said as she struggled with her shoulders, the point where the jelly met her skin causing her skin to stretch. “This stuff is stuck to my skin. I can’t slide out. I’m stuck tight in this shit and it would take this group MONTHS to even free one of my hands.”

    “We have left too many people behind already.” Rikki insisted. “We can’t leave you!”

    “I’m really fucking stuck.” Chex insisted. “We don’t have the supplies to have the group stay here and work to free me. Besides who knows if this rubbery crap will even come off of me.”

    “Can we leave someone here to keep trying to free her?” Mango suggested.

    “Anyone you leave here is as good as stuck as well.” Drell commented. “We can’t go back and the doors once locked stay locked.”

    “Besides.” Chex added with a despondent look on her face. “One person would take years to free me. Like the others my only chance is for you to get to the center of this place and make it release me.”

    “Understood.” Leeka said, finding it no easier even after so many stuck. “We keep moving. Drell, get that door open. Rikki and Riffen get back on the platform.”

    “I’ll get you out of this somehow.” Riffen said before she headed back to the platform. “I promise.”

    “I believe you.” Chex commented. “I have no desire to die in this jelly.”

    Rikki and Riffen returned to the platform as Drell worked away at the door. Within a couple minutes the door was open and the next room was ready for the group. One by one the foxes started to walk through but as Rikki went to step forward, she nearly tripped. She felt a stinging pull on the sole of her foot. For a second she feared she was stuck just like Alani but her foot popped free with a sickening sticky snap. She regained her balance. Tugging at the other foot, she could feel something tug back but it again snapped. She went back to the first foot and exactly like the first time it stretched some sort of sticky substance before snapping fee of the floor. “Ummm…Leeka…I have a problem?”

    “What is it?” Leek asked turning to the young fox.

    “My feet…are sticky.” Rikki admitted. “There seemed to be something wrong.”

    Riffen looked down at her own feet and when she tried to stake a step found them similarly sticky. She was able to move but not without fighting to separate from the floor on each step.

    Lian moved in as if anticipating being asked about it, knelt by Rikki and Riffen’s feet and watched them lift and snap the stuff free. She looked up at Leeka. “They both have a really thin residue from the jelly from this room on the soles of their feet. It isn’t locking them in place but it sticks with each step and doesn’t seem to leave anything on the floor.”

    “Can we remove it?” Leeka asked.

Riffen and Rikki worked with some water and some solvent, desperately scrubbing at their soles. The stuff seemed to repel their efforts and not even leave a trace of the stuff on the cloths they scrubbed with.

    “I think the answer of if this stuff comes off is answered.” Chex admitted. “Even if I get busted out of this stuff my skin is gonna stay sticky.”

    “Any luck?” Leeka asked. “What are your odds of getting it off?”

    “Not a chance.” Riffen sighed said as she poked at the stuff with an implement. “Its locked to our soles permanently. The fact its not sticky enough to trap us is lucky but every step is going to be a chore from here on in as it appears dirt doesn’t stick. It’s clearly enchanted and wont bond to anything we try and put under our feet.”

    Leeka lifted her foot and looked at her smooth sole, seemingly relieved to discover her feet were not sticky. “Everyone check your feet. I don’t think anyone else got this stuff on them but you should check as this room seems to have had some side effects.”

    “We should be good.” Mango commented. “Only Rikki and Riffen set foot on the stuff.”

    “This is so frustrating.” Riffen aid as she went to take step, struggled and forcefully snapped a foot free. “I’m an alchemist and I can’t take some sticky residue off of my soles!”

    “I don’t regret it.” Rikki added. “It was worth it for even trying to free Chex.”

    “Well it appears we re stuck like this!” Riffen said as she tested a few steps, fighting to lift with each.

    Lian casted some magic at Riffen’s soles but the residue just rebounded it. “They’re right, It wont come off!”

    Riffen got down on her knees and started to crawl but within seconds she felt a powerful burning sensation. “Dammit its rigged to not let us crawl it feels like it’s burning my feet!”

    “This stuff is almost as diabolical as the main trap itself!” Shina commented. “Either get stuck in the jelly or get locked up with sticky soles.”

    “To be honest I’d take the sticky soles.” Chex replied form her jelly prison.

    “Please don’t leave us behind!” Rikki commented. “We will do our best to keep up.”

    “We are not leaving you behind.” Leeka promised.

    “Can we carry them?” Mango asked. “Rikki, get on my back.”

    Rikki nodded and climbed onto Mangos back. Mango grinned and moved around. “See, no problem.” Mango took a couple of steps but her feet began to get sticky. “Ummm, I swear I feel my feet getting sticky.”

    “Put her down quick!” Shira commanded. Mango dropped Rikki but found her feet now just as sticky as hers. She struggled and pulled a foot up to reveal a thin coat of the red residue on the soles of her feet and bottoms of her toes.

    “Nobody is to pick up or help the three with sticky feet.” Leeka commented. It appears to be some kind of magic goo and is contagious.”

    “Well, what the hell do we do now?” Riffen said as she scrubbed at her soles with a cloth. “There’s not exactly an antidote to this crap.”

    “Your going to have to stay sticky.” Leeka explained. “You can move, that is more than the others can say.”

    Riffen nodded and the tree affected foxes strained to move, fighting against the residue with each step. Eventually they went through the door and it shut behind them leaving Chex stuck and immobile in her pool of solidified Jelly.

-