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On the Starter's Block... — Description
TK awakened to a dull, throbbing ache, which seemed to begin at the back of her skull and pulse downward throughout her whole body, with every beat of her heart. This unpleasant lifeline led her back to full awareness, a little at a time...and then she could feel the webwork of ropes which held her folded and pressed back on herself so tightly that her arms and legs tingled. And the wad of thick cloth filling her mouth...and the tape clinging to the fur of her muzzle...and the hard wooden prop beneath her chin. By the time the full picture of her predicament had become clear to her, TK - as so often happened after these bouts with unwelcome unconsciousness - almost wished she'd had the sense to stay that way...

But then a rasping, all-too familiar voice sounded, a clearing of the throat obviously intended to draw attention - and succeeding admirably in that function. The still-dazed heroine craned her eyes over and saw Sonya crouching nearby, face twisted into one of the most malignant grins TK had ever had the displeasure of witnessing. That alone would have been enough to get the hot-tempered tigress' blood boiling again...but there were so many other reasons to hate the cruel white tigress that her mere facial expression barely added a candle's worth to the fire of TK's rage...

TK fought to still her anger and take in the situation as fully as she could, to figure out what options she might have and what opportunities might avail themselves to her. There seemed precious few of those, the ropes hugging her mercilessly, her like the web of some sadistic spider. The worst part, though not actively dangerous at the moment, were the loops coiled tightly around her throat. Even with the prop under her chin, TK found herself unconsciously tilting her head back as if to take the pressure off that noose. But the other bonds were equally as terrible, and it was hard for her to focus on one area of discomfort for too long, with so very many such places to account for...

The same, unfortunately, could not be said for TK's captor. For all the beating she had given Sonya, the malicious monster showed little enough sign of it. This, if nothing else, left TK wondering just how long she'd been unconscious. She felt a lot hungrier than she had before being knocked-out...or at least it seemed that way. At the time, she'd been far too pre-occupied with everything else to pay that little detail much mind. And there wasn't much to be done for it at the moment either, so she just endured it and hoped that her stomach wouldn't rumble and give Sonya one more thing to gloat about.

"Welcome back!" Sonya chirped, her husking voice sounding almost cheery as she surveyed her helpless, tormented prisoner. "I was startin' to get scared...thought maybe you got clobbered a lil' too hard. Should'a known a skull as thick as yours could take it..."

"Rlmmph nngh..." TK grumbled behind the tape and cloth, her still-groggy brow furrowing in anger. "Lmmngh grrgh, ynngh crrngphy bmmmrph!" She hadn't the slightest expectation that the madwoman would release her, but the mere act of defiance felt like an accomplishment to the much-beset young heroine, and her eyes filled with her characteristic fire. If Sonya had been susceptible to such things, the look TK shot her would have knocked the psychotic she-predator dead on the spot. TK was battered, she was exhausted...but she was not yet beaten.

"Ooh! Sounds like your feeling better. Good!" Sonya giggled, face twisting with an expression too awful to name. Then her hand moved slowly toward the prop beneath TK's chin, the psychotic tigress' eyes overflowing with malicious anticipation. And TK's own eyes filled with something other than fiery defiance...

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Continued in "Enough Rope To..." (part 1 of "Mercy")

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And that brings us to the end of this part of TK and Sonya's little tale. The third and final Act, over-titled as "Mercy", will begin as soon as I'm done the second part of Cody and Bryn's story...which should be underway near the very beginning of next week. For the next couple days I'm going to focus on doing some stand-alone pieces (including a few characters I've been neglecting of late... ), my 20k-hit celebratory pic, trades, and work on various peoples' OC's; they've been waiting more than long enough. Just hope I can come through for at least a few of them before the end of the weekend. This "break" is, as always, to give me a chance to re-energize and switch gears before I launch into the twins' tale once again. With that said, I can't wait to get back to this TK adventure...have some stuff in the works for Act III that I'm really excited about.

So, as always, thank you very much for stopping by, taking a look, and following along. All the encouragement and kind words really made it all worthwhile. Hope you enjoyed the story, and that the "chase" wasn't too drawn-out or predictably-paced. This one was something of an experiment for me; trying to tell a more action-focused story, with more numerous and more-detailed snippets of that action, along with quicker, more dynamic blurbs. By the response from you folks, it looks like it worked out fairly well...and so I'll probably do something like it again in the future. Just not for a while...that was a h**l of a lot of work, and while I had an absolute blast doing it, four to eight pieces a day is a bit more of a workload than I can maintain for long...

So, hope you're looking as forward to the rest of this story as I am. Promise that before all is said and done answers will be given, spirits will be tested, and justice will be served...though perhaps not in the way many would expect. If all goes well, we should begin seeing all of that two Mondays from now...and then perhaps we'll get to that Temberlyn story I've been dying to unfurl...