Summoned by Monster Girls

It only took a couple of minutes for Rieka and I to take turns rotating back to the tent to get changed into actual clothes. We made sure to keep watch over the body, just in case the mountain lynx was playing possum and might make a break for it. Honestly, by the time that Rieka came back to relieve me, I was positive that it was dead. Animals aren’t clever enough to try and hold their breath that long.

Kassandra was a bit grumpy with me for not immediately coming back to bed. There was an adorable petulance about her demands that I couldn’t help but tease her with. She responded by making a half-hearted lunge at me to try to catch me and forcibly return me to my ‘proper place’. Even half-hearted, her strike was quick. But, I dexterously dodged the attempted assault and made my way out of the tent quite nimbly.

Once I’d picked myself up after falling backwards out of the tent in surprise, and Rieka had stopped laughing at the sight, we got a start on processing the hide.

For someone of noble birth, Rieka had no hesitation to get dirty in something like this and she did a good job. She didn’t wince at the blood or gore of skinning the animal and didn’t hesitate at the gross peeling noise the hide made as we removed it.

“Do you think we should take the meat back too?” I asked as Rieka carefully rolled up the hide after we’d used the stream to wash it.

“Not really. There isn’t a big call for it and we don’t have a way to transport the meat without making a mess. If we were staying longer in this area I’d say we use it to supplement our rations. But, since we are heading back today, we should just bury the rest.”

“Nothing else of use on the body?” I asked the wolf-eared woman.

“Not really. Some collectors might like the teeth or claws, but they don’t have any special effects. I’ll check for a mana core now that the hide is secured though. Can you dig a hole further into the trees?” Rieka asked as we carried the hide back and spread it out to dry in the slowly rising sunlight.

I could hear Kassandra stirring from inside the tent and some sulky noises coming from within the canvas as we passed.

Going to have to make it up to her later. Or wait until she’s more awake and reason works again. I thought before responding to Rieka’s request.

“Sure. Makes me wonder if this was what was keeping the animals quiet yesterday. Or how it found us. The odds of the creature that we are here to hunt finding us first instead, but being distracted like that are slim after all.”

Rieka grinned up at me, a small smear of blood on her cheek adding a level of savage allure to the expression. Despite the blood, she still looked beautiful with mussed hair and all.

“Not really. It likely found where we threw the viscera and whatnot from the babbit and followed the scent back to camp to get the rest. It probably didn’t even think about us; it was after the meat. Speaking of, I’ll start preparing breakfast when I’m done looking for a core. It didn’t actually get to eat any of the babbit we had stored and I think some seared meat and potatoes will help calm the savage beast that is Kassandra when her sleep is disturbed.”

“Glad you have a plan.” I laughed quietly and Rieka smirked.

“I should. I’ve known her long enough. Anyway, go get to digging, Liam! I’ll do the dirty work of poking through the remains and then you can bury it. That way we share the messy part. Just don’t go too far into the trees, okay? There’s enough blood here that it might attract something else.”

“I will. I also need to keep watch on you two.” I agreed and went to get the folding shovel out of the tent.

Kassandra managed to snag me that time. She’d shifted close enough that she could get hold of whoever stuck their head into the tent first. Thankfully, I was able to kiss my way free of her attack before she could get a coil wrapped around me and pin me down.

“Come on, Nugget. I know you don’t like it but we are going to have to make it an early day. The fire is built up and you can make tea if you want while Rieka gets breakfast going.” I said gently while she sulked some more. Eventually Kassandra nodded and let me go. A devious smile was the only warning I got as I worked to extract myself after being half-drug into the tent.

“Oh Liaaaam?” Kassandra’s words drew my attention back to her just as she tugged her sleeping shirt over her head. The glorious view of pale, freckled flesh was nearly enough to draw me back into the tent against my will, like a cartoon character smelling a pie, but I shook it off to a cavalcade of giggles from my temptress.

“Minx.”

“You love me.”

“I do. Now get some clothes on before your bits get too cold and fall off.”

<><><>

Rieka managed to locate a small mana core in the creature’s chest and extracted it too while I dug a shallow hole to bury the remains in.

The ground was too hard under the trees to get more than half a foot down and I started encountering tree roots almost immediately. It was about that point that I realized I was being an idiot, again.

Using Elemental Manipulation and the bit of training I’d been giving myself, I caused a hole to open up that was about three feet deep and large enough for the rest of the carcass. Dragging it over and dumping it in was only the work of a moment and then I used Elemental Manipulation again to seal the hole back up once more.

“Handy. Now I need to start thinking about doing it that way more often.” I mumbled while carrying the shovel back to the tent.

Kassandra had emerged while I’d been digging and was now curled up in a ball by the fire. I’d filled the little kettle she used to make tea while we’d been at the stream earlier and she was sipping carefully on a steaming mug. Rieka had already rinsed and was heating a pan by the fire for breakfast while I washed up. The savory smells quickly called me back to the campfire.

Rieka’s idea of breakfast didn’t sound like much at first, but cubed and seared babbit meat with pan-roasted potatoes definitely hit the spot. She had seasoned them with just salt and a bit of aromatic herbs that I didn’t recognize but lent a lot of flavor. Again, Kassandra ate more than both Rieka and me and I had to ask her about it.

“It’s a size thing.” Kassandra answered with a demure smile in between bites. “You didn’t think that all of this awesomeness was free did you?” She gestured down at her figure and included her serpentine lower half in the gesture.

“I figured you’d found some way to turn being a pain in the butt into a source of power.” The quip got Rieka an amused glare from Kassandra.

“I had figured it was something like that.” I said, trying to draw the conversation back onto track. “You have a lot of snake traits. But laying in wait for your prey seems to be limited to just when you ambush me.”

“I ambush other people! Just ask Rieka.” Kassandra protested before she blushed furiously. Thankfully for her, Rieka didn’t feel like teasing her friend.

“She does ambush other people, but not in the same fashion she ambushes you, Liam. Mostly, she just likes to pull the ‘I was here the entire time while you talked trash’ sort of surprise. You and I are the only ones who get her snuggly, affectionate ambush and you get it more often than I do nowadays.”

“I figured.” I leaned over to kiss Kassandra on the forehead, getting a quiet ‘eep’ of surprise and a happy coo from the redhead. “So what is the plan then?”

“We head back to town.” Rieka shrugged while digging into her food. “I had thought we’d be hunting this thing exclusively for the larger score, so I didn’t grab any other general contracts for things like herbs or mushrooms. The only other contract in this direction was for a pack of wild wolves that have been harassing the lumber camps. But, it was only worth as much as the lynx contract and more dangerous, so I avoided it.”

“Okay, so we can head back to campus early and do some practice then?” I suggested. Kassandra looked disappointed at first but perked up when I mentioned practice.

She must have been worried I’d ask to be sent home early since we finished the job. Silly noodle. Like I’d want to return to the boring, normal life I have any sooner than I must.

“Probably good. We might be able to make a run through the market to get other needed supplies too. With the mountain lynx pelt, that should put us over the line to get that dimensional sack that we were talking about. We’ve actually got an easy week coming up too. Several of the instructors will be gone for a religious observance and have canceled their classes. If we get approval, we could take that week off and make a run at that ruin we found as early as next weekend? That’s infinitely easier than trying to duck out on a regular week and it would give us plenty of time to study it. Here’s hoping it has something valuable inside. Even without that though…the opportunity to study it will be immense.” Rieka suggested while huffing on a steaming bite of meat before she popped it into her mouth with a happy noise.

“Ooh! Yes! I’ve been studying the copies of the runes I took from the door and I think I know how to get it open. Not confirming I can, but I think I can!” Kassandra hummed happily and leaned in on my left.

After she’d forgiven me for the audacity of getting up early to take care of the task they’d given me when being summoned, Kassandra had gone back into full limpet-mode while we waited. She was in her familiar spot, tucked into my side with her coils wrapped around as much of me as she could.

Rieka had shifted her rock over to sit nearer, rather than on the ground, and was on Kassandra’s other side, watching her friend in amusement.

“Good. Liam? Do you think you’ll be free? I know it’s kind of quick, but the next opportunity for an extended stay won’t be for a few more weeks and it won’t be as long.” Rieka turned her icy-blue eyes to me and I gave it some thought.

“Normally? It’d be too short of a notice. Work always wants at least two weeks' notice on any time off requests.” I said as I thought it over. “I have a fair amount of vacation time saved up though, I’m sure I could spin it as an emergency leave request to be sure they don’t decline it.”

It was true, I had over a month of paid time off stocked up that I hadn’t used yet. Mostly because Dutcher always pissed and moaned if anyone took time off because of how slim he ran the schedule on the loading dock. He had decided to make that everyone’s problem.

A month of paid time off…that’s enough time to find a new job. The thought crossed my mind and I shook it off. There’s no guarantee I’ll be able to get a new job in that time. The economy is such garbage after all.

Pushing the thought to the back of my mind, I turned my attention back to the girls as they were patiently waiting for my answer.

“Sure, I can do next week. What day did you want to head out?”

<><><>

We had the tent broken down and packed up in short order once the food was finished.

Kassandra was quite happy with the idea that we would have a far easier time transporting things in the future. She rambled on about the dimensional bag quite a bit and what she looked forward to most about having it for a while. Everything from being able to transport more supplies, to the idea of having another pot to do warm washes with while out.

“I have a hard enough time walking straight with these things, I don’t need a heavy backpack making it worse.” She’d complained, cupping her generous breasts with a wink aimed at me that got both Rieka and I laughing.

Threading back through the foothills was a bit more difficult than it had been coming up the mountain. We ended up taking a wrong turn on the game trail and emerged a fair ways from the forester’s road that we’d walked up. The road was still in sight when we emerged from the trees, but was about a mile distant across the field of scattered stumps that we’d seen them working in the previous day.

“Come on. Let's get moving. I want to get the pelt confirmed and coin in hand.” Kassandra urged and we all ducked out of the tree cover and into the open field.

The ground was torn up where the woodsmen had been cutting trees or pulling stumps. I wasn’t sure if they were clearing the land for a farm or not, but they were at least being diligent about it. The combination of the early morning dew and the churned earth left it a bit muddy, but not so much so that it made travel difficult. Kassandra grumbled about getting mud on her scales but perked up when I offered to help her wash them when we got back.

We’d made it roughly halfway across the field of stumps when movement by the road caught my attention.

Kassandra and Rieka were right behind me, discussing what they would need to do to ensure they could take the week off as well. The event being observed by the religious had something to do with a celestial alignment in the stars that occurred every year, but shifted through the year when it happened, and was related to a legend about when Mother Earth was able to finally meet and spend time with her husband, Father Sky. As the girls weren’t openly religious, they would have to work ahead in the classes that weren’t canceled for the event and they were conspiring on a study schedule.

The rapid movement by the road was the first warning I got and so I sharpened my eyesight with Shape-Shifting to figure out what was happening.

The forester’s wagons were right there along the road, just moved slightly from where they’d been the previous day. Using the eagle’s telescopic vision, I scanned the wagons for what flash of movement had caught my eyes. I spotted a large man with the traits of a bear kin dash around the corner of one of the sturdy things. He quickly climbed up into the wagon and vanished out of sight in the deep bed.

Glancing around, I checked the area. The woodsmen were nowhere to be seen at the moment. Their wagons were there, but none of the laborers. I cursed myself for not making the connection before we moved out into the open area of cleared stumps.

Distant shouts finally made it to my ears but I wasn’t able to understand what was being said, just the raised voices. The girls quieted when they saw me stop and Rieka growled deep in her throat. Her naturally sharper hearing finally picked them up without the distraction of conversation.

“Shit. Wolves.” Was what she said before she quickly shifted her cloak around to give her easier access to the quiver that hung under her pack. She already had her bow strung and in hand.

I was about to question her more, but the distant noises finally clicked for me. While I couldn’t understand the words, they were shouts for help and the snarls of animals. The distance and the tree-studded field had scattered the noise enough that I hadn’t heard it well enough to figure it out.

“Well…at least it’s not bandits this time.” I sighed and tugged my mace loose of the ring on my belt that it hung on. “Do we help them or just make for the road?”

Both girls glared at me; Rieka in surprise and Kassandra with a hint of disappointment. “Don’t give me that look! My job is to protect you two first and foremost! Of course I want to help. That’s not my choice to make though. You summoned me. Not the other way around.” I barked. Both girls grimaced and Rieka nodded.

“Sorry, Liam. You don’t act like a normal summoned creature, so it’s easy to forget.”

“I’m glad he doesn’t act like one, personally.” Kassandra snarked, attempting to inject some levity into the situation. “Wouldn’t be as much fun to cuddle.”

“We help them. People's lives are at stake. Liam, keep us safe. However, I want you to do what you can to help them as well.” Rieka said decisively and we increased speed.

The edges of my vision flashed a bright purple and text scrolled into view as we jogged.

Assist your contracted companions, Rieka Coldeye and Kassandra Silverscale, in defense of the logging camp.

Reward - 450 SP

“Shit. That’s not good. The System just gave me a mission to protect the logging camp. It’s paying nearly as well as the entire weekend.” I called to them.

“Why not?” Kassandra asked, clearly confused as to why it wasn’t a good thing I was getting bonus pay.

“I was told the compensation tends to scale depending on several factors, but a major one is difficulty.” I responded and both girls swore since that made the connection for them. We increased our pace and both girls had their weapons ready.

I didn’t verbalize it because I didn’t want Rieka to blame herself, but I couldn’t help but think she had jinxed us by mentioning the other contract about the wolves earlier too. I tried hard not to think about what else might go wrong to avoid jinxing it worse.

The trip across the last half-mile of the field was tense and agonizing. The closer we got, the louder the shouts, growls, and screams became.

I saw several other men leap up into wagons like the first, some hiding and others throwing things down onto the ground. Focusing my eagle eyes, I realized that they were throwing the woodcutting axes down either to someone just the other side of the wagon or at something on the ground. The growling of animals fighting and men screaming in pain or anger was occasionally broken by other noises that had me worried.

Noises that reminded me of when the girls used magic.

“Swing to the right. We need to get a view of what is going on.” Rieka ordered and we did so, moving out beyond the last wagon in the line and giving it a wide berth to get a view of the fight.

The picket of oxen was nearby and untouched at the moment. Many of them were tossing their heads and lowing in concern, but we didn’t have time to calm them. Coming around the edge of the wagon line revealed the battle that was going on.

The logging teams must have been having an early lunch. The evidence of this was the large fire with a cauldron next to it. A table that had contained round loaves of bread was tipped over beside it, scattering the bread around on the ground. Men stood in small groups with their backs to the wagons, trying to fend off large wolves with a variety of improvised weapons.

I’d researched wolves some to get ideas for my Shape-Shifting and I learned some interesting facts. Gray wolves, for example, were on average about six feet long and stood two and a half feet high at the shoulder. They could weigh between seventy and one hundred pounds depending on the gender and age of the wolf and were considered quite dangerous at that size.

These were not at that size.

The wolves that we saw snapping at the men trying to fend them off with bush-hooks and axes were easily twice that size or more. They were higher at the shoulder than Kassandra was off the ground, though not quite as long as my dwarf lamia.

As I watched, one of the wolves got hold of a man's arm and yanked him away from the defensive line at the wagons. The man screamed in pain and fear before going silent when two other wolves got hold of him and the three tore him to pieces.

There were easily two dozen of the wolves and the only reason they hadn’t overwhelmed the foresters was because the men outnumbered them by nearly three to one, but had no weapons long enough to safely drive them off.

“Okay…this is not good.” Rieka muttered and I glanced over to find the wolf-eared woman was white with fear but she stood resolutely with her bow drawn. “We need to get up onto one of the wagons. If we hit them from a flank, they’ll turn and engulf us. Go!”

Thankfully, we were only about ten feet from the front of the lead wagon and we raced over to the heavy, wooden thing with me in the lead while Rieka called to the woodsmen that we were here to help when a few turned weapons towards us.

Rieka squeaked in surprise when I turned and grabbed her by the waist before throwing her up to land on her feet on the driver's seat. Turning back to Kassandra, my smirking lover just rolled her eyes and rapidly slithered up, using me as a convenient post to climb high enough to just stretch herself out and land next to Rieka.

“Get up here, Liam!” Rieka ordered and I shook my head.

“Nope. Do your thing, girls. I’ll keep them off you.” I shot back and rolled my shoulders to loosen the muscles there while I turned to check on the fight.

Mace in right hand, not the best for dealing with wolves but it’ll do. I don’t need claws there and I have better armor. So I need to make the left more dangerous. I thought quickly and pushed on my Shape-Shifting.

My left arm bulged slightly, putting me off balance for half a moment before I adjusted my stance. The muscles in my left arm grew and restructured a moment later to give that arm more power if I needed to use the long claws that sprouted at the same time. Armored scales rippled up my arm to protect it where the leather armor wasn’t. My next step was to shake off the improved eyesight so I only had one animal shift in force, to give me a bit of flexibility if I had to adjust on the fly.

The girls opened up with their spells a moment later. A crackling chain of lightning flicked through the air and slammed into the skull of one of the wolves just as it lunged for an off-balance woodsman.

The bolt hit with such force that it drove the animal face first into the dirt and set its fur on fire. Moments later, an icy lance crashed into the hindquarters of another wolf next to the first one and tore open the creature's belly in a spray of blood and viscera.

The woodsmen gave a ragged cheer as the wolf pack came to a halt to stare at the injured members of their group.

I expected the wolves to turn and run. The knowledge I had of wolves told me that they would retreat if some of their number were injured, but they didn’t. Instead, they seemed to get angrier and attacked again.

With the girls’ spells going over my head, I was forcibly reminded that I also had magic for the second time that day.

Once I was in position next to one burly man with red-furred fox ears, I stomped my foot and focused on the idea of spires of hardened earth shooting up to stop the charge of the four wolves angling for the flank I was on.

One wolf balked and slid to a stop as the spikes of hard earth angled up at its throat. Another didn’t stop and slid right onto the rocky defenses, impaling itself. The other two leapt right over my barricade and lunged forward with mouths snapping.

“Liam!” Kassandra’s scream of warning was unnecessary as I stepped forward to meet the charge.

After the encounter with the crag hunter, I’d worked with Cerebaton during weapons training to work on deflecting charges from creatures larger than me. It had come up during our conversations around fighting enemies that didn’t necessarily wield weapons.

Thankfully, the two wolves that made it past my earth spikes split up. One moved to come at me and the other headed for the man at my side. I stepped to the outside of the charge and swung cross-body with the mace, turning with it to put the torque of my shoulder and hips into the blow as the wolf sailed past me.

The strike landed just behind the wolf’s ear with a satisfying crunch of breaking bone. A second crash of impact heralded the body slamming head first into the wagon before it fell limp to the ground.

I finished my spin to see the second wolf had the fox-eared man by the arm and was thrashing its head back and forth as it tried to rip his arm off.

I had a split-second to decide what to do and lashed out with my left hand. The long claws there raked over its face and slashed out an eye, which made the beast yelp in pain and drop its victim.

Another crack of lightning heralded a second spell from my wolf-eared companion and I was surprised to hear a crackling of fire over the din of combat while I slammed my mace down on the blinded wolf’s head to kill it.

Turning to see what was happening, I only saw a rolling ball of fire headed directly at us. I reacted on instinct and yanked at the ground under my feet with Elemental Manipulation.

An angled sheet of packed dirt and stones surged into the air in front of me. Abruptly, I felt the lightheaded rush of tapping my mana out in one burst and I swayed.

I’d found that if I did it slowly, with smaller spells one at a time, the effect wasn’t as bad but doing it at once left me dizzy as all get out for several seconds. A weakness that I could hardly afford in a fight like this.

The ball of fire impacted the dirt and was deflected upwards and away, sending a corona of flames up into the air overhead and just missing the girls.

“Liam! That came from one of the wolves!” Rieka called from above before launching another spell.

A moment later, another ball of flames landed further down the line of defenders and sent screaming woodsmen flying in all directions. The third wolf, the one who had scrambled to a stop rather than run into my spikes earlier, leapt around the barrier and lunged at me. I was off balance from the mana drain so I couldn’t dodge or swing my mace.

Shit, this is gonna suck. I had time to think before jamming my scaled left arm into the creature’s maw as it snapped. Its nose hit me in the chest as it slammed into me. Thankfully, I was able to get my arm deep enough into its mouth that only its back row of teeth slammed down on my arm and its jaw was locked partially open, minimizing injury and keeping it from being able to apply the full strength of its bite.

I heard the girls screaming above me as the wolf bore me to the ground but I was too focused on what was happening to hear them. The wolf was too close to use the mace, so I dropped it.

A weakness of wielded weapons; the mace needs space to swing. Dagger could stab right now but it lacks range for normal use. The thought raced through my mind as the fetid breath of the wolf washed over me and its clawed paws scrambled at my armor, tearing at the leather but not at my flesh…yet.

“You need to be flexible in your thinking.” The words echoed in my mind from memories of discussing the skill Shape-Shifting with Cerebaton. The daemon was the only other person I knew that had access to the skill and he used it to supplement his swordsmanship. He’d shown me how he used it to reverse his joints without losing strength as an example once.

“He’s not limited to animal’s from his homeworld.” Rieka’s comment from just last night echoed a moment later in my mind as the wolf shifted and its mouth opened further in an attempt to adjust its bite. I clawed the roof of its mouth with my injured left arm as it shifted, but didn’t have time to do much more.

I need to be flexible, but I don’t have to obey normal body laws.

My right hand was already free, having dropped my mace, so there was nothing impeding it when my hand melted and began to change. My right arm extended slightly and several additional joints formed along the entire limb while the internals of my arm adjusted and focused to one purpose.

The blow that ended the wolf’s life came in a flash of ivory and red chitin.

A sharp talon -- as long as my hand and roughly triangular in shape with hard edges -- was buried in the wolf’s side up to my new ‘wrist’, driving right between its ribs.

The articulating limb that had replaced my right arm yanked the spike free of the dead animal’s side a moment later, leaving a gaping wound and the shredded remains of its heart behind.

I shoved it bodily off my chest and to one side. Rising, I examined the limb while the girls shouted, but I was lost in my own little world as I tried to understand what I’d done.

My arm had gained four new joints for a total of six, including wrist and elbow, and it now stretched a good four feet in length plus the long talon. Sheathed in articulating chitin the same brick-red of Kassandra’s scales, it reminded me of a scorpion’s tail, only much much larger. The spike at the end did not have the bulbous base of a scorpion’s tail though. Instead it came to an angular tip like a much larger version of the claws I sported on my left arm and it was dripping gore from where it had pierced the wolf’s heart due to the amount of force the tail/arm had put behind the blow.

“Crikey…” I muttered, before a giggle bubbled up as a line from the old Crocodile Hunter show ran through my mind.

“Liam!” Kassandra’s voice pierced my disoriented mind and I whirled to look at my lover.

Kassandra was still standing on the wagon, though her spell rod was in its holster by her side now and she held something small and metallic in her left hand. Rieka was finishing another of her ‘Bolt Chain’ spells with a flourish before firing an arrow, a grim look on her face. Kassandra pointed at something behind me and I spun to see what it was.

Just as earlier, when the spin had aided my instinctive attack with the mace I carried, the spin to look saved my life as it added force to the instinctive strike I gave to defend myself.

A wolf with red-tinted fur burst through my earthen wall with its mouth wide open to snap at me. Fire gushed from between its jaws in a gout of crackling crimson that I couldn’t dodge. It was barreling right at me and even if I wanted to dodge, I couldn’t because the girls were right behind me. So I stood my ground and let instincts take over even as the spin continued.

My right arm/tail snapped out to full extension before curving inwards. The clawed tip whistled through the air as the pseudo-scorpion arm contracted a moment later with immense force to bring the spike into position. Fire from the wolf’s maw engulfed me and I barely had time to shield my eyes with my scaled left hand before our mutual blows landed. I had to pray that my blow would be accurate as I blocked my vision with my free hand to try and save them from the fire.

I felt the lurch of impact when my right hand/claw impacted with something and drove right through it before impacting something else much harder. That gave better resistance, but still cracked after a bare moment of impact. Muscles in my shoulder tore in protest to the hit and I felt my shoulder pop out of joint at the torque just as the fire seared me.

My hair crisped and skin cooked moments before the fire cut off. But it wasn’t a mercy yet, as something immense slammed into me and carried me backwards to impact the side of the wagon with a teeth-rattling force. The blow knocked me onto my ass. Again.

The world spun and I fought to breathe while my skin screamed in agony from the burn. Whatever had slammed me into the wagon thrashed once before going limp on top of me, pinning me down. The fire burned me worse than the last time I’d ‘face-tanked’ a creature’s fire breath, with the flame serpents only weeks before.

After what felt like a month of agony as I scrabbled for purchase both with my body and mind, I felt a wash of chill liquid splash down over my face. I screamed quite manfully in surprise at the sensation. The pain of the burns abated abruptly in the wake of the chill liquid.

“Liam! Oh gods, tell me he’s not dead!” Kassandra’s begging voice came from above me and I bit off my squeal of surprise and fought to breathe. My face was full of red fur and my right arm still hurt like it had been torn off.

“Nugget?” I managed to squeak out in half a breath.

“Yes! Rieka, he’s alive. Help me!”

“Kass, there are still wolves—”

“I don’t care about the wolves! Help me get this flea-bitten excuse for a pocket-warmer off Liam!” Kassandra demanded furiously and a moment later I felt the weight shift slightly as both girls helped.

It took a few seconds because the angle was bad for me to put my strength into it, but we managed to roll the dead monster off me and I saw the results of my attack.

The hand/talon had taken it through the eye and then traveled further to cave in its skull. The entire left side of the wolf’s head was a ruined mess of gore and bone. Its chest was what had hit me and carried me backwards to impact the wagon. The creature was quite obviously dead.

“Liam, you are still bleeding!” Kassandra swore and I felt another wash of cool liquid over my body as she sent another healing spell into me using the coin in her hand.

The spots where the third wolf’s teeth had pierced my left arm sealed up and my shoulder ached fiercely until I turned and pressed it back into the socket using the wagon to apply the pressure. As soon as the joint was properly aligned, the pain vanished as the spell did its work.

“Thanks, Nugget.” I panted, blinking furiously to clear the spots from my vision. My skin felt tender and overdone, like a bad sunburn, but no longer blistered at least.

“Liam…” Kassandra whimpered and I was promptly wrapped up in my dwarf lamia as she did her best to coil around all of me. Both her and Rieka had descended from the wagon to help roll the dead wolf off of me and Rieka lingered nearby, worry obvious in her face as she stood watch with her bow drawn. I wondered for a moment if they’d both burned through all the coins in their rods already, a thought that worried me.

A quick glance told me that the wolves had either been killed or broke and run when I killed the fire-breathing one. So, while Kassandra did her best to cover me with herself, I beckoned to Rieka with my clawed left hand.

The wolf-eared woman bit her lip for a moment and glanced around one last time to ensure that nothing was about to jump us before she took three steps and buried her face in my chest.

It took a moment to reverse the bizarre shift that I’d done to my right arm. It seriously looked like a mixture between a scorpion's tail and something out of a science-fiction movie and was hard to consciously control. I really wanted to look closer at it when I had a chance, but I needed to reassure the girls first.

“There there, it’s okay. I’m fine. Did either of you two get hurt?”

“No.” Sniffed Kassandra. Rieka didn’t say anything, but pushed her face harder into my neck and clung tighter to me.

“Then all is well. I’m fine now.” I comforted them while looking across the field of the battle.

There were half a dozen dead woodsmen, or at least the pieces of them, that I could see scattered around the line of the fight. Twice that many wolves lay dead, most with evidence of spell damage or the white-fletched arrows Rieka used.

I spotted another of the red-furred wolves with a pillar of ice like a small tree protruding from its side on the other end of the battle line. I had to wonder if it was the mate of the one I killed.

The woodsmen were picking themselves up and starting to work on bandaging the injured while some worked to ensure all of the downed wolves were dead.

“You three okay?” The gruff voice came from the fox-eared kin that had been standing closest to me. Blood still ran from his arm while he tried to put pressure on the bite wounds. Despite the obvious injury, his voice was filled with concern and I turned to talk to him while holding the girls close.

“Yea, we are fine now. I got burnt pretty bad there at the end, but my girl patched me up. Kass, can you help him too?” Kassandra nodded from her spot against my side, I felt the movement of her head, and she turned just enough to cast the same healing spell on the man she’d used on me. She still refused to let me go though and went back to clinging to me as soon as the spell was done.

“Thanks, you three. I’m pretty sure they’d have gotten us all if you hadn’t shown up.” The man said with a sigh of relief as the pain ended and his wounds closed. “And you didn’t get away entirely unscathed, friend. With the healing I mean.”

“What?” I glanced down quickly and, other than my brand new armor being already damaged --which irritated me to no end--, I was fine as far as I could tell. I wasn’t about to peel the girls off of me to check the rest, but I figured Kassandra’s spells would have fixed anything minor and if it was major, I’d be feeling it.

“Your hair. It's all burnt off now. Even your eyebrows.” The fox-eared man said with a quiet chuckle.

“Not his eyebrows! Now no one is going to trust him!” Kassandra giggled weakly from my chest, calling back to the complaints I’d made last time this happened. I snorted derisively and crushed her closer to me.

I was about to say something when my vision flashed again, this time first purple and then again gold when before messages in the same colors scrolled into view.

Assist your contracted companions, Rieka Coldeye and Kassandra Silverscale, in defense of the logging camp.

Reward - 450 SP

COMPLETE

Power Shape-Shifting (Lesser) has achieved Mastery 1000/1000.

New Powers available in the System interface.

Congratulations, Traveler.

“Huh…that might just be worth losing my eyebrows…”