Unnoticed by any of the three, a rock beside the path acquired an inscription as they ran past it. It now bore the number "281000," signifying that the BE AddVenture had passed another thousand episode milestone. But I'm used to that now, nobody pays any attention to thousand episode milestones, just ten thousand episode milestones. So let's see now, where were we?
The sounds of battle behind them between Jennifer and Mary were horrendous, and made them run all the faster. Then, suddenly, they burst from the eaves of the forest.
"Did Jennifer say we would be safe outside the forest?" Heather gasped, her mostly-bare breasts heaving.
"I don't think so," panted Alice, baring her fangs. "Just that the spell might wear off here. We could still be followed."
"Getting better," Sharon confirmed, looking at them. And it was true. The long hair and sharp, pointed teeth on each of them were shrinking back to something close to ordinary. Heather laughed in relief.
Behind them, the terrible sounds of struggle in the forest died away.
"Do you think Jennifer won?" asked Alice anxiously.
Sharon sniffed the air and perked up her ears. Her animal senses were still strong enough for that. "Snake smell," she reported. "Lots blood. Scaly belly moving."
The others screamed and took off in a mad dash, Sharon following.
Fri Jul 25 13:13:24 2003