Even Ponygirls Sometimes Get The Blues

The story so far:
(Ch. 1) Jessica’s and Kate’s escape, punishment and return.
(Ch. 2) A week of devious torments. Jessica has to make a decision.
(Ch. 3) Jessica is trained, and graduates as a ponygirl.

AN UNWELCOME VISITOR

It felt great to be out in the fresh morning air and bright sunshine!

Jessica had always been a good runner. Sometimes it seemed like she was born to run; born to pound the gravel tracks extending over the hills and valleys of the island. Running alongside her, matching stride for stride was Debbie, her pony partner. Both women puffed hard as they pushed onwards, up a long gradual incline leading to the round summit of a hill.

Within the space of their last few strides up the hill, the spectacular view of a turquoise sea and deep blue cloudless sky came suddenly into their view. From that point, the path became almost level as it followed the summit ridge allowing Jessica and Debbie to partially recover their breath as they ran ever onwards. Thanks to the the intensive training over the last few months Jessica had developed into a stronger and faster runner, and Debbie was pleased to have finally met her match.

After that long downhill stretch the trail starts winding a little as it drops down towards a beach. Jessica and Debbie managed to check back their runaway stride in plenty of time to safely negotiate the twisting turns that lay ahead of them. Once they hit the first bend after the straight they both felt a repeated tugging on their lower-reins. Evidently their driver still thought they were going too fast! They reluctantly slowed down until they acquired a steady controlled trotting more befitting to well-trained ponygirls. The small bells on their pony-boots rung out softly and rhythmically - a useful cue for their synchronized strides and a satisfying sound to ponygirls and drivers alike.

They had descended to sea level and were following the trail to the beach. A single tug on their lower-reins and a commanding shout of “slow” came from the driver. The ponygirls shifted from trotting into a brisk walking stride until they reached their destination. They halted at the very end of the trail where it abruptly met the sandy beach. Ray, their driver, jumped down from his lightweight single-axle trap ponygirls Jessica and Debbie had been pulling then looped their leather reins onto the adjacent hitching post.

A few yards along the beach was a wooden cabin where Jessica had once lived.

Ray lifted out two insulated steel pots from under the trap’s bench seat. He carried them around the other side of the cabin where eight naked females were eagerly awaiting their breakfast. The so-called ‘bunnies’ lived permanently in handcuffs but otherwise free and unsupervised at their beach cabin.

Jessica and Debbie stood side by side quietly staring out to sea, patiently awaiting Ray’s return, harnessed and hitched, they could do little else. The bridle and bit assemblies that both wore prevented any meaningful conversation between them. Likewise, the blinkers fitted to the bridle straps and the short chain linked between chin and chest straps prevented the ponygirl pairing from even catching sight of each other. Yet it didn't bother them; they each knew instinctively how the other was feeling just from the way she ran. Though a ponygirl never spoke when in harness they would talk freely once they were released into their quarters that evening.

Each ponygirl had her arms strapped and padlocked firmly to the back of the harness in a ‘hammerlock’ style. Furthermore her hands were held closed in a fist by a suede bag that contained wayward unsightly fingers. So firmly were the arms strapped within the body harness, that if it wasn’t for the dull aching of the shoulders, ponygirl debbie wouldn’t even think about her restrained arms. Ponygirl Jessica, still only a few months into her pony life, had a tendency to pull and twist against the harness straps that tightly encircled her torso. In a few more months her arms would become accustomed to the embrace of the harness and her futile little struggles would become rare..

While Jessica fidgeted within her harness she heard the splashing of water beside her. Debbie was peeing as she often did at that point of the journey. Her water puddled around their boots for a few seconds before being absorbed by the gravel, leaving only a damp patch on the ground. There was no shame in a ponygirl urinating in this manner. In fact, it was considered befitting behaviour for such animals. Even Jessica did it - provided nobody was watching. Ponygirl debbie was something of an exhibitionist and took a perverse pride in urinating in public. She always remembered to drink lots of water the morning of a ‘show day’ and looked forward to shocking unsuspecting visitors by releasing a stream of urine at the most inappropriate moment. If she got lucky she might manage to splash onto a lady visitor’s expensive shoes!

While the ponygirls waited for Ray’s return, one of the bunnies appeared from behind the cabin. It was Kate, the blonde English girl, and Jessica’s best buddy during her time living in the cabin. Kate walked up to the ponygirls, awed by their imposing stature. A pair of ponygirls is an impressive site: With the thick running soles of the pony boots and the way the boot elevated her heels, Jessica stood well over six feet tall. Add the ornate ostrich plume fitted to her brow-strap and she topped out at an impressive seven foot.

Kate saw a very different Jessica than the one she knew in her days at the cabin. Besides being physically stronger and imposing there was a serenity, and obedience, and a purposefulness that Kate hardly recognized. Kate had made a bet with one of the other bunnies that the men at The Lodge would never be able to tame Jessica. She was obviously wrong and losing her bet meant she had licked a lot of pussies in the previous month.

Mindful of their blinkered vision Kate stood in the direct line of sight of the two ponygirls. “Hi Jessica, hi Debbie. How are you doing?”

The ponygirls made an 'ahhh' sound and nodded.

“Have you seen what they’ve done to us now?” Kate asked them, intent on showing off the latest indignity inflicted on the bunnies.

She spun once around, kicking up the sand, to display the chastity belt she wore. Neat webbing straps around her waist and buttocks held a large moulded plastic shell tightly over her mound. Ponygirl Jessica studied it with great interest, thinking it looked like a slim-line version of a jockstrap her sporty older brother used to wear.

“Ray says it only gets removed when we are taken up to The Lodge. It’s just not fair, how are we supposed to enjoy ourselves in the evening? I thought they wanted us to be happy!” Kate complained to her passive audience of ponygirls.

Jessica thought Kate looked pretty cute in her little jockstrap, pouting and stamping her feet in frustration. She couldn’t fail to notice that Kate’s slim frame had also been augmented by her recent conversion into a milkmaid. Her hitherto ‘little handfuls’ had been transformed into a shapely size double D thanks to a treatment of hormones. Like the other milkmaids, her nipples and areole sported little steel covers (like tiny hats) to prevent unauthorized access between her milkings. A thin wire passed through the sides of the nipple and holes in the base of the nipple hat, then it was twisted and clamped like the seal on an electricity meter.

Kate had an impressive ability to change her mood in a split-second. “Do you think my breasts are growing?” she asked Jessica, sticking out her chest proudly. “They milk me every day now. It feels quite nice, but when I first saw my milk going through the tubes, it was really kinda weird. I just wish I could touch them occasionally. It was a worthwhile trade-off though, I’m finally rid of those leg-irons after two months of hell. Look, you can still see the white bands where they stopped the skin from tanning!” She subconsciously tugged on the cuffs that kept her hands behind her back while looking down at her swollen teats white banded ankles.

The loquacious bunny Kate continued to relate her milking experiences to her captive audience of ponygirls until she was interrupted by Ray.

“Kate, I told you to kneel by the whipping post, not stand around talking to the ponies!” He shouted at her. She turned quickly on her heels and walked the few yards to the whipping post. Evidently not quick enough, as Ray’s riding crop connecting sharply on her buttocks as she breezed past.

Ray’s interest in Kate was well known and long standing. When a bunny was continually singled out for punishment by a pony driver it could only mean one thing! Kate’s supposed misdemeanour today was complaining while Ray was ladling breakfast into the bunnies’ eating trough.

While Kate sulked next to the whipping post, Ray stowed away the empty breakfast containers beneath the seat of the trap, also stowing three small clear plastic pouches of milk extracted from Kate and the other two milkmaids in the camp. The pouches were carefully placed in a chilled bag that would keep them fresh until his next destination.

Ray was Australian, lean and muscular, with short blonde hair and a heavy tan. Good-looking too in Kate’s opinion. He was the nearest thing Kate had to a regular lover, even if most of their sexual activities took place while she was tied to the whipping post.

Kate knelt with her side against the wooden post, gazing up at pony driver as he clipped a short chain from the post to her collar. Without prompting she opened her mouth wide as the leather covered ring-gag approached her face. Ray seated the ring firmly behind her front teeth, she looked down towards the sand to allow him to buckle the strap. He did so, not without a little tenderness. His soft stroking of her hair caused Kate to involuntarily lean her cheek into the palm of his hand, his thumb brushed her eyelashes, ostensibly to remove a grain of sand.

It was exasperating for Kate that after nearly a year he still didn’t trust her with his cock. She concluded that he must prefer her with the ring-gag. It wasn’t exactly an honor but it felt good to know she was somebody’s favorite. Not every bunny could say that! She would have been devastated if Ray used another bunny for his morning blow job. With new bunnies arriving on the island all the time, it was Kate’s constant worry.

Ray enjoyed those quiet moments when Kate could not answer back, although the ring-gag rendered her incomprehensible rather than silent. She knew Ray’s large uncut cock intimately. As soon as he lowered his shorts, her mouth was onto it, like welcoming an old friend. Today she was even more attentive to his cock than usual. Perhaps her jockstrap chastity belt, in curtailing her regular nocturnal activities, was having the right effect! Nothing subtle or lingering was required of her, just a good honest passionate sucking.

Within five minutes Kate had dealt with his cock and Ray was attending to his restless ponies. The sight of Ray and Kate’s encounter had caused them some agitation, as if often did. He wiped the moisture from between their legs with a clean towel. Then he checked the reins that ran from their nipple rings through a D ring on the belt then through a series of rings in their labia. It was vital that these areas were well-oiled - friction from the reins could have a detrimental effect on a pony’s concentration and performance. With his ponies freshly lubricated and watered they were ready hit the trail once more.

Only at the last moment before he and his ponies were about to depart, did Ray bother to remove Kate’s ring-gag. Without a word, they were off and running to the next beach camp where more bunnies were awaiting their breakfast.

“Thanks Kate, for the excellent blow-job”, she called out sarcastically as the ponies and their driver disappeared up the track. “A little word of gratitude once in a while wouldn’t kill him,” she muttered to herself.

As was his habit Ray left Kate attached by the short chain to the whipping post. She could easily have called out for one of the bunnies to unclip the chain from her collar. Instead she stayed kneeling in the sand, licking her lips, enjoying the feel of the sand between her toes, and looking out at the sea gently lapping at the shore just a few yards away.

She noticed a stray splatter of Ray’s cum on her breast. A regular badge of honor. Like a good bunny she always swallowed but the ring-gag didn’t make that easy, and a little spillage was unavoidable. The small dab of semen made her reminisce about ponygirl Jessica. When she was also a bunny in the camp Jessica was the only one that ever accepted Kate’s dare to lick Ray’s cum from her breast. It sealed their friendship!

Kate was contentedly leaning against the whipping post. This spot felt like a second home, a place where she could quietly sit and think. But this ‘home’ was becoming too familiar. Since Jessica’s and her failed escape attempt several months previously (ch. 1) she hadn’t even thought of escape. She had accepted her fate as slaves often do.

It was, Kate conceded, an easy life being a bunny. You just lounged around on the beach all day until someone came to take you up to The Lodge for a few days. Providing you didn’t mind living in handcuffs and eating with your face in a trough it was really quite okay. But the chastity belt and the nipple hats represented the last straw. How could she live without a little sexy playtime with the other bunnies? With the chastity belt curtailing her fun and without Jessica to mess around with, life just wasn’t so tolerable any more. It was time to get away. Time to leave the beach cabin behind... but how?

Running away was not an option. She was on an island. Stowing away on a boat wouldn’t be so easy next time. Since their last attempt boat security had been tightened.

Kate weighed up her options. At five foot six inches, she was simply too small to join Jessica in the pony stables, and besides, it looked damned hard work running ten miles each day. ‘Perhaps The Lodge have a vacancy for a pussy-girl?’ she pondered. The pussy-girls at The Lodge often helped with the ponies’ grooming and other services, so that might be a way to spend time around Jessica. Beside being a good friend, Kate maintained her belief that Jessica represented her ticket off the island.

She mentally ran through the ‘qualifications’ of pussy-girls and evaluated how she measured up to them.

- Pretty? Yes, cute as a kitten. Everyone says so.
- Slim figure? Yes, except for her recently enhanced, milk-laden breasts.
- Blonde? Yes...well, kind of mousy blonde. But then some of the pussy-girls were only bottle-blondes, so that wouldn’t matter.
- Nice smile? Absolutely.
- Happy disposition? Annoyingly so, except for very occasional hissy fits.
- Obedient and trustworthy? Well.... that could be the problem. They were not the two words that most people would readily associate with her. Except maybe for the two years she worked as a nurse. That was what landed her into this situation in the first place - taking a job in a Kuwait hospital.

There was one thing that troubled Kate most about becoming a pussy-girl: She would be jumping over the fence, so to speak, and that was a treacherous act in the minds of the bunnies. It meant ‘sleeping with the enemy’ in every sense, acknowledging that you consented to the cruel activities of The Lodge.

Having weighed up the pros and cons, her mind was made up. It was time to be pragmatic. She would swallow her pride and attempt to become a pussy-girl. It might not be easy, but how else was she ever to get away from this place?

“You look deep in thought.” A voice said behind her.

Kate jolted in shock, not realising that Nancy, one of the other bunnies, had quietly walked over to the whipping post to unclip her collar.

It was several days before she thought about her plan again, little realizing that events were about to conspire to make it happen.

PONY NIGHTLIFE

If there was one thing that made the lives of ponygirls tolerable it was the regularity of their routine. They had a job to do, providing nearly all of the island’s transportation when coupled to a two-person trap and often a trailer too.

The ponygirls worked a week of late shifts alternating with a week of early shifts. Each shift had its advantage: The early shift enjoyed a relaxed and sociable evening in the pony quarters. The off-duty ponygirls could soak in the jacuzzi, enjoy a meal and chat endlessly, as ponygirls were inclined to do after a day in harness and bridle. The late shift provided the benefit of a morning lay-in. This was also appreciated by the staff of the Lodge. The late shift ponygirls were likely to find themselves being used and abused in somebody’s bedroom know that they weren’t required for morning duties.

Ponygirl Jessica seemed to have become a fixture in Master Alex’s night-time routine. Although their encounters were no more than once a week, she vainly sensed that he had an attraction to her, almost a fascination towards her. Both hailing from New York and being avid baseball fans surely couldn’t have been the whole story! Sometimes he was cruel to her, and sometimes he was kind. It couldn’t be called love, but it certainly wasn’t hate or indifference!

After their lovemaking, Jessica usually spent a relatively comfortable night tied to Alex’s bed. In the morning it was time for the soft white ropes. It was Alex’s regular habit to place her in an elaborately knotted hogtie. Jessica no longer worried as Alex spent half an hour binding up her limbs with infinite precision and care. They often talked and sometimes joked while he worked on her.

Once she had been transformed into the neat, naked hogtied bundle that Alex desired, he gagged her with a ring-gag. Then he propped himself up in bed with Jessica as a neat bundle of warm femal flesh helplessly trapped between his outstretched legs. He tied a leather cord around the base of his cock, inserted it fully into Jessica’s wide open mouth then tied the ends of the cord tightly to her ring-gag.

Jessica had been gagged in more ways than she could count since she arrived on Rabbit Island, but this was altogether the most interesting. Once they were intimately conjoined Master Alex read the newspapers to her as was his habit, occasionally petting Jessica’s hair as if she were his favorite labrador. The baseball season was over, so the ritual of his reciting the results of their shared sporting passion had ceased. Instead he read out random snippets of news that he thought might interest her. Jessica was reassured yet also saddened that the rest of the world continued to exist perfectly well without her.

One story caught Alex’s attention, and as he read it Jessica noticed a distinct swelling of the cock within her mouth... not unlike when he announced that the Yankees had won! He read it to her:

MYSTERY OF ARMLESS AMERICAN. An American woman was last week found walking naked on a remote beach near Koh Samui in Thailand. Both her arms had been amputated at the shoulder, although she is unable to explain when or how this happened. She appears to be suffering from severe amnesia. The unfortunate woman remains in the care of the American Consulate at Phuket while they try to ascertain her identity... AFP

Although the news appeared to have no connection to Rabbit Island the story played on Alex’s mind for the remainder of the day.

AN UNUSUAL SIGHTING

That same evening Jessica and Debbie were running their usual route, taking food to the bunny camps and collecting produce from the orchard. After delivering the evening meal to the bunny camp Ray returned to the where the ponygirls always waited. He was escorting two of the bunnies, and neither he nor the bunnies were happy. One of his hands gripped the upper arm of each naked female as he escorted his reluctant companions to the whipping post. The two bunnies looked pretty upset. One of them was Jessica’s old friend Nancy, a very slim woman with straight dark hair and fierce intelligent eyes. She struggled every inch of the way, never being one to accept her fate without a fight.

“Ray. It’s not fair. We were merely stating that these new jockstrap-things are uncomfortable,” she explained. “I’ve got a terrible itching. It’s a simple statement of fact!”

Ray was not convinced. “Sorry, bunny nancy. That sounds like a complaint to me, and you know the punishment for complaining,” he said impassively.

He secured Nancy in position to await her lashes. Like the other bunnies she already had her hands locked in cuffs behind her, Ray forced her to bend over, then lifted her arms, attaching them by a short chain to the post at head height. Alongside Nancy, with the post separating them, was Mandy. She was quiet as usual, and almost in tears before the punishment had even started. The bunnies were all-too-familiar with the strappado position - standing bent forward with arms behind them and held high. Within minutes their shoulder and arms ached terribly, although its main purpose was to present their asses for punishment.

Much to the watching ponygirls’ approval Ray took off his polo shirt before he commenced the bunnies’ paddling. He was naturally lean, though with nice muscle definition, and looked quite the athlete when he was wielding a paddle. The two bent-over bunnies twitched their buttocks nervously as they waited for the first blow, not knowing on which one of them it would land.

It was Nancy’s neat, almost boyish rump that felt the first stinging hit. She grunted in response the pain, stoical as ever, although she would have gladly accepted a gag to help stifle her cries. If she wasn’t so proud she would have howled.

Mandy, bent over next to Nancy, yelped at the first stroke on her behind and was soon in a blur of tears and sobbing as the rest of her strokes were diligently applied by the pony driver.

Ray then gave Nancy five extra strokes for resisting him. Having created two pairs of delightful red buttocks he felt his work was done in this particular camp.

He immediately released the chains and sent the chastened bunnies and their stinging red butts scurrying back to their cabin. He could distinctly hear Nancy muttering obscenities at him under her breath, he’d be disappointed if she weren’t. Ray diligently recorded the details of the punishment in his small notebook.

It may seem perverse, but ponygirls Jessica and Debbie enjoyed watching the bunnies get a paddling; and the harder the better. Perhaps it was because the bunnies had such an easy life, compared to the full working day of the ponygirls. Ray was a good-looking guy and watching him in action, wielding a whip or paddle on someone, was a pleasurable interlude in the working day of a ponygirl. Ray had long realized his ponygirls’ interest in the punishments. After all, he had to attend to their reins passing by their intimate areas. He always made sure his ponies were dried off and that ‘proper’ lubricant was reapplied to the relevant area.

They were making good speed back along the winding route when Ray tugged hard on their reins, and Jessica’s ringed nipples were pulled down to the full extent that her reins allowed. The ponygirls halted immediately, confused and curious.

Ray dismounted from the trap, and without a word to his ponygirls he started scrambling down the steep rocky ravine at the side of their gravel track. He had spotted something laying a few yards down in the distance, something unusual in the litter-free, unspoilt, unpolluted scenery of Rabbit Island. He edged his way down towards the bright object that had caught his eye.

Perhaps the excitement at his imminent discovery had distracted him. He lost his footing on loose bolder, tumbled head over heels. He broke a wrist in the attempt to arrest his fall, but not even that could prevent his head cracking against a protuding boulder.

It went silent. Even the birds on the trees seemed to become silent. The ponygirls became aware that something was amiss. They had heard the sound of Ray’s fall and then... nothing. Unable to see beyond their blinkers or to communicate adequately through their bitted mouths, they stood quietly listening for a couple of minutes, hoping to hear a sound from down the slope. Jessica could wait no longer, she moved over to the edge of the track to look for Ray. Joined together in harness, Debbie came too.

The ponygirls stood peering over the edge and saw Ray laying motionless, and alongside him a scrap of white fabric shone luminously in the gloom of twilight.

“Hway?” Jessica called out to him, having discarded her role as a ponygirl but unable to divest herself of the harness and other trappings that rendered her helpless to assist her injured driver.

“Hway!” Debbie shouted, but there was still no movement from Ray’s body a few yards beneath them.

“Veegh!” Jessica said to Debbie - they had to get back to the beach.

The distressed and driverless ponies started running back to the beach cabin adjusting to how unbearably light the trap was behind them. Jessica would almost have welcomed the sting of the whipper and the familiar feel of Ray’s sensitive tugging on her reins.

The bunnies, having heard the sound of sleigh-bells that accompanied the ponygirls’ arrival, were already waiting for them as Jessica and Debbie pulled up at the end of the trail.

“What’s happened to Ray?” Kate asked the breathless ponies, immediately sensing the distress in their agitated behavior.

“Hway hurh!” Jessica announced as clearly as she could.

Kate understood. “Where? Where is he? What’s happened?”

Jessica’s garbled explanation, due to that rubber-covered steel bit in her mouth, was useless. All of a pony’s harnesses and bridles were locked on, so there was not a chance that the bunnies could release the ponygirls.

“Take me to him!” Kate said, deciding to take charge of the situation. She walked behind the ponygirls and stepped up onto the bench seat of the trap. Nancy did likewise, but her reason for going to Ray’s aid was very different to Kate’s.

Hauling two bunnies was much more difficult than an experienced pony driver. With their hands cuffed behind them, all Kate and Nancy could do was grip the backrest of the bench in a bid to stay on board as the ponygirls puffed and panted up the steep slope from the beach.

Kate saw some controls just in front of her: Three colored push buttons. Curious to find out what they were for she succeed in pressing one of them with her toe. She thought nothing happened, yet something must have happened because the ponygirls picked up their pace slightly. Her toe managed to press the second button. This time there was no mistaking the action of the whipper. The ponygirls yelped in pain and quickened their pace once again. Kate shouted out an apology, while Nancy shook her head in disbelief. Two naked handcuffed females were driving and whipping a pair of ponygirls!

In her eagerness to come to Ray’s aid Kate didn’t hesitate to press the whipper button several more times. It seemed to help them maintain a good speed. The ponygirls slowed as they neared the point where Ray fell, then stopped and slowly turned to look over the end of the ravine. Kate and Nancy jumped down from the trap and joined the ponygirls in peering over the edge.

“I can see him,” Kate said, and immediately stepped cautiously down into the ravine. It wasn't easy with her hands chained behind her, the jagged rocks hurt her bare feet much more than the sand she usually walked on. She reached Ray’s body and took a pulse from his wrist.

“He’s alive!” Kate shouted upwards.

Nancy had also scrambled down and positioned herself on Ray’s other side. “His keys. We need to get out of these cuffs if we’re to help him.” She located them in one of his pockets and after several minutes of desperate fumbling Kate and Nancy were free of their handcuffs, though they still hung down their backs, connected to the chain attached to their collars.

Kate retrieved the scrap of material that Ray had been investigating and used it to make a sling for his broken arm. Nancy returned to the ponygirls to raid the trap’s toolbox for some rope. It felt wonderful to have her hands free for the first time in weeks, even if it did take a while to regain her coordination. Nancy led the ponygirls into a position facing away from the ravine, then tied the end of the rope to the rear of the pony trap. She descended down the ravine again.

While Kate and Nancy roped up Ray’s unconscious body, the ponygirls stood and stared into the rapidly encrouching darkness. Jessica tensed her muscles against the tight bands of leather encircling her torso, furious at being so useless at a time like this.

Outside of Jessica’s blinkered vision someone stood in the shadows watching her; a woman in khaki shorts and shirt, with a rucksack on her back. As she approached the ponygirls her footsteps sounded softly on the gravel track alerting Jessica of her presence. She took a flash photograph of ponygirls from behind then moved to take another from the front.

She moved to comfort Jessica, stroking her hand over the harness straps, studying the complex arrangement of straps and reins that restrained the ponygirl. She sensed fear in Jessica’s eyes, together with a degree of shame at being discovered in a state more fitting to a beast of burden than a young woman.

“Hush. It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m Karen Galtz from the Global News Corp. I’ve been investigating Rabbit Island for a long time. I can’t help you to escape until my investigation is complete. They must not know that I’m here.” Jessica nodded to indicate she understood.

“Jesus, they sure know how to truss up a gal!” Karen exclaimed with evident admiration as her fingers ran over Jessica’s harness straps. “I simply have to take some more pictures!”

The reporter clicked and flashed her camera several more times, ensuring there were some good close-ups. “Excellent!” She said, apparently more pleased than disturbed by the discovery of the ponygirls.

“Okay ponies, pull now!” Kate shouted from the ravine below. Slowly, inch by inch, Ray’s still unconscious body was hauled back up to the track. Karen Galtz lent a hand. Kate and Nancy’s naked bodies emerged from the ravine with Ray held up between them. Exhausted from the strain on their weak arms they laid Ray on the ground.

Kate dusted down her body, then stared in disbelief at the woman. “Who the hell are you?”

“Karen Galtz, Investigative Journalist.” The stranger announced, holding out her accreditation card at arm’s length.

Kate gave a cursory glance toward the small laminated card. Despite Ms Galtz’s sympathetic expression Kate eyed her with suspicion. She already sensed that Ray’s injuries were somehow related to this woman’s arrival on the island.

“Are you going to rescue us?” Nancy asked, unable to contain her joy.

“I guess so,” said Karen Galtz, although the ambiguity of her response wasn’t lost on the others, “but first I have to investigate this place and file a report with my employer. It could take several weeks.”

Nancy waved her newly liberated hands around as if they were new toys. “Look, I’m already free, and I’ve got a set of keys to release the others. Kate would rather take her lover-boy back to the lodge, but I want off this island. Do you have a spare set of clothes I can have?”

“Sure Honey, they’re in my backpack!” Galtz gestured to the pack on the ground at the side of the trail. She exchanged a conspiratorial glance with Kate.

Nancy unclipped the backpack, rummaging within it for something to wear. Meanwhile the reporter was preparing to ensure her venture would not be derailed by a loose bunny. She raised her hand over Nancy’s unsuspecting head. In that hand she held a small rock. The thud of the well-aimed blow on the side of the head knocked Nancy to the ground, leaving her out cold on top of the backpack. Galtz quickly moved to replace Nancy’s convenient cuffs back on her wrists.

The reporter tossed the bunch of keys over to the stunned Kate. “You’d better take these with you to the lodge. I’ll see to it that Nancy gets back to her beach cabin. Let me help you lift that guy up on to the seat.”

Kate breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that Nancy was regaining consciousness. It took Nancy a minute before she realized what had happened and managed to stand up. She tugged angrily at her cuffs, unable to believe how brief had been her freedom from bondage.

The woman that Nancy had earlier thought was her savior stood watching the ponygirls depart. Nancy, wearing nothing but her chains and hi-tech chastity belt gazed at the woman with hatred, but Karen Galtz just smiled back at her as if everything was perfectly normal.

Karen Galtz’s apology to Nancy was perfunctory, and came with a promise that she would explain her presence on Rabbit Island as they walked back to the beach. Nancy had no choice but to grumpily escort her unwelcome companion back to the cabin.

In the other direction the subdued ponygirls were making cautious pace in the darkness. They’d tried to tell Kate to switch on the flashlights fitted to their brow bands, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying. Kate held Ray’s unconscious body tightly in her arms, comforting him as best she could. Soon they would be at The Lodge, and Ray would get the medical attention he needed. Kate hadn’t even thought about what would happen to her.

There’s an old saying: out of misfortune comes opportunity, as Kate would soon discover for herself.

End of Chapter 4

(The author welcomes reader comments and ideas)