ã€ŠThe Only Good Orc is a Half-Orcã€‹


 Chapter 1

    Prologue

    Deep in the great forest of Gradia, which epasses arge area of Khasia, many animals and monsters roam. From the simple rat to gargantuan ogres. The food chain in the forest sprawls across many species, branching off in multiple directions. Everything is food for something else. Even the apex predators are a scrumptious meal for humans, elves, and other sapient species, which in turn could be the predator¡¯s meal, should something go wrong for them. One species of mention in the food chain is the Orcs and the other is Goblins. The Goblins have skin tones ranging from green to brown, are short in stature, frail, and known for being hideous. They formrge groups, trying to hunt anything they find,rge or small, wild or sapient. They also reproduce like bunnies, being able to do so with any species they can get their hands on. They hunt and kidnap the female of any sapient species they find and use them to breed. This urge to do so is built into their DNA, apulsion they are not in control of.

    Orcs are simr to Goblins, feeling the same urges, the only salient differences are their appearance and physic. Orcs are known to have skin tones of various greens and opposite to Goblins, are massive in height, with bulging muscles, and have two tusk-like teeth that extend out of their mouths. Their faces are not as disfigured as Goblins, making them the better looking of the two. Some even have hair, like that of other sapient races.

    Both are considered to be semi-sapient, but this is solely due to the superiority the other sapient races feel they have over them, ssing them as monsters and just mindless creatures. While they have thepulsion to follow in their urges and need to hunt and kill, they can form groups, and have a hierarchy, a leader. They know when to fight and when to run. They are able toplete simr feats to that of other sapient races.

    Withing both races, there are males and females. The differences between the genders are generally just the reproductive equipment. The split in the poption is somewhere close to 70% males to 30% females, one of the reasons why the males Orcs and Goblins look to other races to breed with, as there are just not enough females.

    Not long ago in Khasia, arge event took ce in one of thergest human cities. This even required the Nobles from all around the world, from many of the races to travel to the city. The event was a massive alliance between the races, in order to stop wars before they start. It also meant that should one be attacked, the others would need toe to their aid, and that should they wish to attack another race, they could all join in the fight as one.

    A few days before the event, many nobles set about in their carriages to travel to the city. One such noble was the young elven princess of one of thergest kingdoms, who in her journey was attacked by assassins. Who had sent them was not known, and to this day it is still a mystery. Whether it was one of the other races, or from within the Eleven race itself is unknown.

    The attack happened on the outskirts of the human city they were travelling to, likely less than a day left to reach it. During the attack, the knights guarding her fought bravely, fending off the attackers. They sent a runner to the capital to send for help, who thankfully managed to make it out of the ambush. The battle was fierce with many deaths, assassins and knights alike, which ended with only a few assassins alive. As they went toplete their job and kill the princess, they were ironically attacked themselves.

    Goblins and Orcs left the tree line and went for the group. They were by no means working together to attack them. It was put coincidence that both races were at this location.

    .....

    In this new battle, being highly skilled the assassins killed many foes, Goblins and Orcs alike. But the urge driven races had the numbers and they were eventually overwhelmed.

    The two groups then searched through the battle, grabbing knights and assassins to take them away, likely to use as food. After a while, they reached the carriage.

    Opening the door they found the prize, the elven princess, in all her glory. This though sparked a bit of conflict between the Goblins and Orcs over who would take her. This though ended as quickly as it started, with the Orcs winning sending the goblins fleeing, having made use of their stature and strength, who quickly hauled the princess away.

    While this was going on, the runner made it to the city and exined the situation. While it was an elven noble being attacked, and not a human one, the human king had to act. With this even being used to form an alliance between several races, it would not end well if the human king just left the elven princess to die.

    He put together dozens of knights and sent them to find the princess. Travelling fast and hard with their horses, they managed the carriage in a few hours. On the battlefield, they found the knights, assassins, Goblins and Orcs, and pieced together what had happened. Two blood trails were nearby, so splitting up, both were quickly followed.

    After some more travelling, both groups reached their respective foe¡¯s camp and ughtered all that they could find. Within the Orc camp, they were able to rescue the princess, who thankfully had not been there long enough to be hurt.

    The elven king and queen, who were dyed in their travel, having sent their daughter ahead, reached the human city a dayter. After hearing the story, they were deeply overjoyed for their daughter¡¯s safe return. They thanked the human king profusely, vowing that they were in his debt. But while it was all joyful now that the situation had been resolved, the culprits behind the initial attack were quickly forgotten, in favour of the monsters that had done the kidnapping and ended the fight. It also sparked a change in atmosphere, once the remaining Nobles arrived, leading to the alliance turning in a different direction.

    While talks of non-aggression packs and defensive treaties were made, a new topic was brought up. The attack was detailed to all that attended, leading to a new agreement being made. The eradiation of Goblins and Orcs.

    All of the kingdoms pulled together a vast sum of money, and it was put into removing the scourge that was these two races. Some went to the soldiers in their own kingdoms to bring about hunting parties to deal with the threat, but most went to set up posting in all of the adventurer guilds.

    When it was all finalized, and the funding and posting had been made, adventures, hunters and soldiers got to work. Over time, all across the world, they focused on hunting down goblins and orcs, ughtering them to near extinction. Many of the goblins and orcs that were not found, ended up being killed by animals and monsters that had managed to increase in numbers due to hunters and adventures focus shifting.

    The goblins and orc numbers dwindled, and the only ones to survive were the ones that won the lottery with natural selection. Some of these beings were smarter than the usual goblin and orc, learning how to survive in the forest and evade humans. Others were more physically able, using their skill and body to survive. Many of them were also able to fight against their urges, the main thing that is their downfall.

    They hid from humans and the like, fighting, surviving and grouping in areas different to their norm, venturing deep into the forests, some even using caves and treetops where able.

    They bred in secret, hidden from the rest of the world, building up their numbers again. In these groups, leaders were formed, and while some just wanted to survive, others had revenge on their minds.

    While she did not know it, this was the world that Olivia would soon find herself in. What she did in this new world, and how she did it would all be up to her¡­

 Chapter 2

    The Forest

    ¡°Uhhh, my head.¡±

    Deep in the middle of a forest, a girly on the ground, rubbing her head. Blood trickled out of a wound at the back, seeping into the grass and dirt. That girl¡¯s name was Olivia.

    ¡°What happened?¡±

    She ran her hand over the back of her head, wincing as she did, feeling some liquid but quite a lot of dried crusty skin. Bringing it to her face she saw a small amount of blood on her hand, along with some scab where the wound was healing. While she was concerned about the blood and the wound, another revtion shocked her more.

    ¡°Ehh?¡±

    The hand holding the blood, strangely enough, was dark brown in colour. Looking at her other hand, she found the same thing. Her hands and her arms all showed the same dark brown skin tone.

    ¡°Why is my skin a different colour?!¡±

    Thinking back, she tried to figure out how she got here, how she got this head wound and why she had this new skin tone.

    .....

    But she came up nk.

    It would appear the head wound had possibly given her short term amnesia. What she did remember though, was that ever since she was born, she had never had this skin tone.

    Back on to the head wound, she looked around to try and figure out what may have caused it. As she did, she managed to find a rock near where her head was with blood on its surface.

    ¡°I guess that clears up that issue.¡±

    Whether she fell onto the rock or was hit with it, she did not know. This was another question she wanted answers to.

    Deciding to stand up, she wobbled all over the ce as she moved. She almost fell over a couple of times, but she was able to persevere and stabilised herself.

    Looking forward she was met with trees as far as the eye could see. Flora was present in abundance, adding some much-needed colour to the constant green and brown from the trees. Flowers of various colours, dotted the area around her, showing various shades of blues, whites and yellows.

    Looking down slightly, she also found that the floor felt further away from her than it used to be, which gave her a little dizzy spell. This then led her to look down at the rest of her body, trying to figure out why she was so tall. It could be she was standing on a hill or rock or something.

    This though led to an even more startling discovery.

    ¡°What? Why is that there?!¡±

    Down at her private area, what should have only been her female genitals, now included the male version as well.

    ¡°How?!¡±

    Seeing a penis was very new to her, aside from the obvious of her suddenly having one, as she hadn¡¯t had any sort of experience with men before given that she had always preferred the fairer sex. But she had done some ¡®research¡¯ before by watching some videos, all of which was before she realised her sexuality. Inspecting it she could see that it was the same skin tone as the rest of her body, and from her ¡®research¡¯, it looked to be quite a bit bigger than average, as far as she could tell from her limited knowledge.

    She then looked at the rest of her body to see if there were any other changes. Her body shape was simr to how she looked before, and her breast appeared to still be the same C-cup she had previously. What was different though, was the muscles that now bulged across her body. She had missed this before, beingpletely shocked by the skin tone when she was checking her arms.

    She ran her hands along the muscles on her arms and legs, finding them to be incredibly firm. This was also true for the six-pack that she now had.

    ¡°I feel like the only way I could have gotten like this is if I went to the gym constantly for years. I know for sure that I didn¡¯t do that.¡±

    She also found that she was correct about her height, as she could not recall her legs being as long as they were now.

    Having finished inspecting her body, thoughts started to run through her head, trying to figure out everything that had cropped up in the few minutes since she had awoken. How did she get wounded? Why was she taller? Why was her skin tone dark brown? How is she more muscr? Why does she also have a penis? Many questions gued her, but she had no answers.

    At this point, instead of driving herself crazy by continuing to question everything that she had no way to answer, she decided to figure out what she hoped was an easy one. Where she was.

    As she looked at the many, many trees, nts and flowers, there was nothing of significance she should see. Her easy question may be harder than she thought.

    But as she did, she realised that she could hear what sounded like rushing water nearby.

    ¡°Ok. I don¡¯t know what happened to me or where I am.¡± She mused to herself, trying to look at the situation a bit more calmly. ¡°What I need to do is find somece to rest and think this through. I need some shelter, food, water and hopefully, I can find someone to help me make sense of all of this.¡±

    Wanting to get one of the three sorted, she headed towards the rushing water.

    ¡­

    After a minute of walking, she made it to a river. Not massively wide, but it wasrge enough that she would have to wade into it to reach the other side. Looking down at the stream she quickly took a few gulps of water.

    ¡°Ahhh, very refreshing. Much better than tap water.¡±

    As the ripples dispersed, she was finally able to see her face. It was hard to see using a river as a mirror, but the face reflected was quite simr to the one she always had, aside from a few differences.

    The main one was again the new skin tone, but she also saw her ears pointing out at the side of her head, the shape of which reminded her of elves or goblins from fantasy novels. These were definitely different before.

    She still had the same shapely nose and green eyes as before, but it was her mouth that also showed some differences. Her lips had the same plumpness, but she now had two of her teeth, simr in shape to tucks, extend out of her mouth, pointing upwards. Opening her mouth, the rest of her teeth looked normal, it was just the two teeth in her bottom row that were drastically different. Thankfully, thest thing that remained the same was her hair, where atop her head, it was still long, red and flowed in waves ending below the small of her back.

    Only one thing came to her mind after seeing her reflection. ¡®I look good.¡¯

    It also may have been her own personal bias, but even with all of the changes to her face, she thought they all worked well, making her look quite beautiful. Aside from the tusks, she wasn¡¯t quite sure about them yet.

    ¡°Well, some good some bad.¡± Olivia flippantly brushed off the changes to her body. While they were shocking to her at first, Olivia was the type of person to not worry about the things she knows she cannot control or change. Having a dark brown skin tone, having a penis, and other various changes, while rming, are things she has no control over. Why waste time worrying about them.

    That¡¯s not to say she doesn¡¯t care or disregards other things. If there is a situation where she can do something about it, she will try her hardest to do just that, especially when ites to helping people.

    ¡­

    Her thirst was now satiated, she decided that she had to move on.

    ¡°Now I just need food, shelter, and someone to tell me where and possibly what I am.¡±

    Common knowledge dictates that civilizations are generally found near rivers and other sources of water. This meant that continuing down the river was a good way to start. This gave her continuous ess to water, and there was likely food and hopefully shelter along the way.

    As she travelled, she realised being in this forest, she mighte across wild animals. While she hoped they would be passive and just avoid her, the likely hood was that she may encounter a bear or wolf. Even though she was now quite muscr and fit, shecked any sort ofbat experience, meaning defending against either of these animals, especially barehanded, would just end up badly for her.

    Needing a weapon of some sort, after some searching and scavenging, she was able to find arge, strong and durable stick. Not much to look at, but a massive upgrade from her fists. She also found some sharp rocks, one of which she used to sharpen the end of the stick, giving her a very rudimentary spear to fend off animals with.

    ¡°Now I have a weapon.¡± She said to herself. ¡± I just need something for storage.¡±

    With no way to store anything, that too had to be fixed. Along the river,rge-leafed nts upied both sides. These were the perfect things to use to make a makeshift backpack. Taking a few andyering them, she stabbed various holes across the edges of the leaves. All she needed now was some sort of binding, which she found further down the river.

    The binding she found was that of vines hanging from a few tall trees. The branches protruded out over the river and the vines dangled just above the water. If anything, these looked to be perfect in order to jump across the river with. Whether it would hold her weight, she did not know and didn¡¯t want to try and find out. Not yet anyway.

    Resting her spear, leaves and rocks against the tree, she proceeded to climb up it while holding one sharp rock in her teeth.

    This was another new experience for her, never having needed to climb a tree before. It would seem that her improved physic allowed her to make short work of the tree and reach the branches, which she then shimmied along. The branch was somehow able to hold her weight, but it did strain as she moved along. She tried to spread her weight out as best as she could and reach out to the tops of the vines. A few swings of the sharp rockter, and she had her vines, which she threw down to the floor.

    ¡°That wasn¡¯t so hard. Now I just need to get back down.¡±

    While up in the tree she did look around, to see if there was any sign of a town or vige. Although she could not see any actual structures, she did see smoke rising out above the treetops, in the direction she was travelling. Whether it was a town or just someone camping she did not know.

    She then proceeded to shimmy back to reach the trunk of the tree. As she did though, she heard more straining, and then a loud crack.

    ¡°Oh no.¡±

    The branch snappedpletely at its joint to the rest of the tree. Still holding on, the branch fell andnded straight into the river below.

    Olivia struggled and she ended up under the water, which quickly filled her lungs. This just seemed to get worse as she iled about, and it all looked like it was over.

    That is until she realised that she could feel the bottom of the river and that she hadn¡¯t actually sunk very far. Calming herself down, she then went to stand up, which very quickly got her above the waterline. Looking down, the water was only up to her waist.

    ¡°I feel very stupid for panicking now. d no one saw that.¡± She said embarrassed, as her cheeks grew red.

    She then started to wade out of the river, hoping nothing else embarrassing would happen. As she did, she missed the animal dashing through the tree line, which watched her as she stepped out of the river.

 Chapter 3

    The Wildlife

    Back on drynd after her mishap in the river, Olivia got to work on making her bag.

    It took a good amount of time, but she was able to cobble together a makeshift bag. While not exactly what she had in mind, she created what was more like a drawstring bag, rather than a backpack. She was able to thread the vines through all the holes, attaching the leaves together, and some binding was passed through holes on the edge, alternating as she did, which she then tied off making an opening in the bag. A few more vines gave her arm straps which she had to cut to size to make them fit. While not perfect, it was better than nothing and it easily held the sharp rocks and the rest of the vines, both of which may be useful in the future.

    She did think about using the vines to attach one of the sharp rocks to the end of her spear, but no matter what she did, she could not get it right. She figured a hole would need to be created in the rock, allowing it to be slotted over the stick, and then bound. She must be doing something wrong, as every time she attached it against the stick, it just fell off. She tried various knots and ways of wrapping, but all seemed to have problems. She couldn¡¯t see how it would be possible to make a better spear with what she had, so the wooden one would have to remain her main defensive weapon.

    ¡­

    Continuing down the river she was getting closer and closer to the smoke. This time she had taken travelling though brought a rumble in her stomach, signalling the need to eat, of which she had no food to fix.

    Still trekking by the river, there were fish of some sort present, but a few quick jabs with the spear only led to a soggy wood. Still searching for some sort of food source, not long after the failed attempt at fishing, she did see some sort of fruit on the ground. Looking up, they also dangled from the tree by short vines hanging off the branches. While some would see this as a very lucky urrence, Olivia had no idea if the fruit was poisonous or not, so until she knew which it was, her hunger could not be satiated.

    Thankfully, it was at this point that some type of deer or elk like animal dashed out of the trees and proceeded to eat one of the fruits. It munched on the fruit as if its life depended on it, and Olivia waited to see if it caused the animal any harm, letting her know whether it is safe for consumption.

    What she didn¡¯t expect was for the deer to spot her. As it still munched on the fruit, it just froze on the spot and proceed to stare at Olivia, but as soon as it stopped chewing, it proceeded to turn towards her and charge. As it did so, spikes appeared to grow outwards from various locations on its antlers, forming what she could only describe as a natural made barbed wire.

    .....

    ¡°Wha-?¡±

    It barrelled along the river in her direction and Olivia just couldn¡¯t move, not knowing what to do. The fight, flight and freeze response had chosen to use freeze in this particr situation. But that would not help Olivia, who would soon be tenderized meat on the end of those antlers.

    Still hit with confusion at the strange sight she had seen, as it neared her, Olivia was able to break out of her stupor and assess the situation. Dropping her bag, to stop it from getting in the way, she readied her spear, waiting for it to get near her.

    When it was close to reaching her, it dropped its head down, pointing its antlers forward. Olivia seeing this took this as her opportunity to try and hurt it, quickly jumping and rolling to the side as it closed in on her. The deer unable to change its course as it had not seen her move, continued on its path. Olivia was able to right herself quickly, and stab at its side as it barrelled past her.

    ¡°Hah, not so tough now, are you.¡± She said mocking the deer at its failure to hit her.

    The deer screeched out in pain from the stab wound, but one wound would not be enough to stop the deer. It turned around and tried again, using the same tactic asst time. Due to this, Olivia was able to do the same, giving the beast another wound.

    Once it passed her and had some distance from its foe, the deer started wandering around its area as it watched her. It was at this point that the deer realised it had to be more cautious. Seeing that its charging only led to being hurt, it stopped doing that. Now, it moved forward cautiously towards its enemy, wanting to try another tactic.

    In ce of a headlong charge, where it can¡¯t see what is happening in front of it, it moved close enough that it could headbutt its enemy. While it still had to look down to do so, the amount of time that it was unable to see, was reduced drastically.

    As Olivia pulled back her spear to lunge at the approaching deer, she did not realise what was going to happen. Due to this, Olivia took the brunt of its first headbutt, her spear missing its target, ending up with her being knocked to the floor, which winded her.

    *Gasp**Gasp* ¡°Damn that was painful.¡± Looking up at the deer, she then shouted, ¡°Just you wait. I¡¯m going to make a shish kebab out of you.¡±

    The deer hearing this threat,pletely disregarded it, since it was a deer and all and did not understand thenguage.

    Seeing that its attack worked, It quickly moved forward again, hoping to get another hit on the prone girl.

    Nearing her, Olivia quickly brought her spear up and thrust it forward, right towards the deer¡¯s face. While not yet skilled with the weapon, her attack missed where she was aiming, only skimming the neck of the deer. But still, she managed to draw blood.

    The deer feeling this, jumped back, cautious of its attacker and possibly being hurt again. As it moved back, Olivia managed to stand back up and readied her spear out in front of her.

    ¡°Yeah, how do you like that! Come on, what are you waiting for.¡± She shouted, trying to goad the deer to attack.

    Like before, this goading just went over its head. It stood in the same ce, looking at who it had been attacking, likely figuring out what it should do.

    After a short while, whether it was instinct kicking in or something had startled it, the deer decided to flee instead of fight, running off into the forest.

    ¡°What? No, I was winning¡­ You coward!¡± Olivia shouted into the forest, in the direction the deer had fled. With peace now back in the forest she picked her bag up and slung it back over her shoulders.

    ¡°Grrrrrr.¡±

    It didn¡¯t take too long for Olivia to realise the reason that the deer had dashed off, the growl behind her being the evidence of which one it was.

    Slowly turning around, a massive wolf covered in thick ck fur started to circle around her. Apanying it was three smaller versions of the wolf, likely its young.

    Olivia could see that this was not a fight she would be able to win. Four against one was not very good odds. It also didn¡¯t help that she was still feeling some of the pain from when the deer had knocked her down.

    The wolves moved in zig zags getting closer to her. Olivia responded by slowly moving backwards, trying to keep her distance. She also brought her spear up, readying it to be thrust forward in a futile effort to either intimidate the wolves or to give her some form of defence against them. While she may be able to deal with one, for a short while at least, four was a different story.

    Still backing away, Olivia looked behind her. The only direction she could go was further along the edge of the river. The river blocked one side, and the thick tree line blocked the other. While she could try and make a break for the thick forest area, it¡¯s likely she would just end up tripping and ending up as a nice easy snack for the wolves.

    Still in thought about what to do, one of the young wolves decided to be ambitious. It charged ahead of its pack and went straight for her.

    As it neared her, it bared its teeth and jumped.

    While Olivia had been startled by the attack, given that she was figuring out a way out of this situation, she was still able to form some basic defence against it. With her spear still gripped tightly in her hands, she brought it up in the direction the wolf was going to reach.

    She thought about trying to stab the wolf, but as a moving target and quite a small one at that, Olivia was not confident in her skills with her spear to actually hit it. Due to that, she brought her spear up in a blocking fashion, hands gripping either end of it. She hoped that she would be able to block its path and push it in another direction.

    What she didn¡¯t count on was the ferocity of the wolf, and its need to take a bite out of her.

    This meant she ended up with a wolf, hanging off the spear, the pole firmly lodged in its mouth.

    It snarled and thrashed as it tried to pry its jaw off the spear, but it would seem that the force from its jump had jammed it quite far into its mouth. Given the closeness, its paws ended up hitting her, scratching down her chest, drawing blood.

    The remaining wolves quickened their pace, seeing that one of their pack was in distress, and Olivia was running out of time.

    With gritted teeth at the pain, given that the first wolf neutralised for the time being, she continued to look around, trying to find an exit solution.

    As her eyes skimmed the river, she spotted what may be one such solution. The hanging vines.

    When she first saw them, back when she was making her bag, she wasn¡¯t sure they would hold her weight. Guess it was time for her to find out.

    She quickened her pace as she moved backwards, getting closer to the nearest vine. Once she reached it, she realised she had to deal with her passenger. While she could just drop the spear, she had a better idea.

    *Swing**Thump*

    Not long after she put her n into action, the wolf was down on the ground whimpering. She had managed to swing her spear towards the nearest tree, and the wolf followed its momentum, mming into it. This loosened its grip on the weapon, dislodging it from the spear, as well as hurting it badly.

    The remaining wolves saw all this and broke into a charge, dashing forward to help their pack member.

    With the wolf down, Olivia turned towards the river and ran.

    The wolves were hot on her heels as Olivia reached the edge. As they were about to chomp down on her ankle, she jumped.

    Soring over the river she reached out to grab the vine and held on tight. While it did strain and shift, it was able to hold her weight and allowed her to swing

    A couple of the younger wolves followed suit and leapt, but given their size, they did not make it as far as she did, causing them to fall into the river.

    The flow of the river, while not massively strong, was enough to carry the wolves, taking them further down the river. What happened to them after they fell in, Olivia did not know, as having reached the end of her swing, she let go of the vine and flew through the air.

    *Ssh*

    Even though the whole scene looked amazing, from the chase and the jump to swinging on the vines, it would seem that they were not long enough for her to actually make it across the river, leading her to fall into the cold depths.

    Unlikest time, she did not panic. Quickly standing up, the water was a little higher than before, the river having gotten deeper since thest jaunt in it. A quick look around and she was able to see the other edge of the river, which was practically just in front of her. Back over her shoulder therger wolf had given up on her and was making its way down the river, likely to find its young.

    A few steps and she was back on drynd, where she proceeded to copse,ying on her back on the ground.

    ¡°I hope not all of the wildlife in this damn forest is like that.¡±

    Whether this was the case or not, only time would tell.

 Chapter 4

    The Incident

    With the deer gone to lick its wounds, and the wolf off to save its cubs, Olivia checked herself for any prominent injuries. Still recovering from being winded and pumped full of adrenaline, she looked all over her body. Aside from the bruise that was forming on her stomach from the head butt, she seemed to be ok.

    ¡°Well, at least that¡¯s something. Best get on my way in case theye back.¡±

    Back on the journey, she picked up several of the fruits that she had seen the deer eat, which were thankfully on this side of the river as well. The fruit itself had the same texture as an apple but was orange in colour. Taking a bite of it, she found it to be quite sweet.

    ¡°What is this? I don¡¯t think I have ever heard of an apple-like fruit that is orange. Also, what was with that deer and the spikes forming on its antlers. I¡¯ve never heard of a species like that. Am I in another country? Are they both gically engineered or something? I really hope my memoriese back to me soon.¡±

    With a rational mind, it had not urred to her that she had somehow been transported to another world and transformed by magic into something other than the human she was. That was just a preposterous idea.

    ¡­

    Hot on the trail of the smoke again, nothing else happened as she followed the river to her destination. No other aggressive wildlife jumped out to try and make her its next meal. Of which she was very thankful.

    As she went, she continued to collect more fruits, as she did not know when she would experience an actual cooked meal, and these fruits may be all she can enjoy for some time.

    .....

    With the sun still high in the air, there was plenty of time for her to travel. Enough that she may even reach the smoke within the day. To finally find some sort of civilisation after having trekked through this forest with no memories of how she got here was an exciting prospect. She only hoped that unlike the animals in this forest they were actually friendly.

    ¡­

    A few hourster and she was now very close to its location. As she was nearing it, she could not see or hear anyone nearby. On top of that, she couldn¡¯t see any buildings on the outskirts. This all meant that it was likely a campsite rather than a vige or town. While not great, as a vige or town would be better, whoever was camping, may be able to tell her where she was and possibly what she was.

    As she came to the end of the tree line, peering through it, she saw a small clearing in the forest. Smack bang in the middle of the clearing was a tent, simple in nature, along with a firepit and some supplies. She could see nothing technically advanced, no gas camping stove, or other equipment, it was all very basic camping gear.

    As she was examining this, she suddenly heard a couple of voices, one very calm and somewhat sinister, the other was very much distressed.

    ¡°Let me go this instant. Do you know who I am? If my parents find out you took me, they will hunt you down and kill you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, quite down princess. You forget you hired me to help you run away from them. Besides, once I¡¯m done with you, they¡¯re not even going to want you back anyway.¡±

    The couple quickly came into view of Olivia, where she saw quite a gruff looking man holding a girl over his shoulder. As they spoke, Olivia could see the look of dread take over the girl¡¯s face as she realised what he meant. She quickly started screaming and shouting for help, hitting the man¡¯s back and trying to get away from him.

    The man looked very strong, and from his scars had been in several fights. She could see that he hardly felt the fists hitting his back, and just tuned out the girl¡¯s cries for help.

    His face was covered by quite a thick beard, but his head showed signs of balding. Some sort of leather clothing was covering his whole body and arge sword was attached to his waist.

    Looking at the girl, she was unable to get a clear view of her, with the massive man being in the way. What she could see was the expensive clothes, covered in various shades of purples and blues of what looked like silk, that she wore, showing she was quite a rich person. Long blond hair flowed from her head, but in this position, it all but covered her face and almost dragged on the floor.

    As the pair neared the tent, it was obvious to Olivia, obvious to anyone really, what this man had in store for the girl. In the middle of nowhere, no one woulde running to save her, meaning this man would have his way with her for as long as he liked. It was even possible that he would physically harm her in other ways, maybe even kill her once he was done.

    ¡°That¡¯s not happening.¡±

    Olivia knew she had to do something. There was no way her conscious would allow her to just leave knowing what she knew. But with her fighting experience being below minimal, and the man looking to be some sort of seasoned fighter, she had to be smart about this.

    Waiting for the man to enter the tent, she quickly but quietly made her way towards it.

    Peering inside, the scene she expected was taking ce.

    The girl was thrashing all over the ce, as the man tried to remove her clothing. He pped her face a few times, trying to get her to stop, but she was not going to go down without a fight.

    Not going to allow this to go any further, Olivia grabbed thergest rock she could find. She would have used her spear, but with his leather outfit and the tight confines of the tent, it would have just been a disaster to wield it. There were also the sharp rocks in her bag, but by the time she had taken it off to locate them, things could have escted.

    With the clothes starting to be ripped off the girl, the man sat up and started to remove his own. Olivia took this opportunity to make her move, given that he was focused on his own task.

    Moving quickly, she entered the tent and smashed the rock against the side of the man¡¯s head as hard as she could. An audible crunch could be heard from the hit, sounding like she may have broken some of his skull with the hit. The brute of a man toppled over, and fell to the side, eitherpletely unconscious or dead, she did not know.

    With the job done, she dropped the rock and looked at the girl to see if she was alright. What she saw was an incredibly attractive girl, with brown eyes, a straight nose and the luscious locks of blond hair from before. Beautiful long eyshes framed her slender upturned eyes, and her face was clear of any blemishes, giving a very clear almost pale skin tone. What she also saw, were the tips of two ears poking out between her hair. Tips that were pointed in nature, pointing upwards, as opposed to her ears that pointed out to the side.

    The one word that quickly came to mind was, ¡°Elf¡±, where the unrivalled beauty and pointed ear shape all matched what she had seen in films and novels.

    While Olivia was stunned by the girl, and happy that she had managed to save her, the girl had a bit of a different response upon seeing her saviour.

    ¡°Monster!¡± is what she cried out, fear marring her face as she did.

    This knocked Olivia back to reality.

    ¡°I was expecting a thank you.¡± She replied. This though only caused the girl to scream louder, struggle andsh out with the first thing she could find.

    The rock Olivia had dropped.

    There was probably some kind of irony, where the weapon she had used to save the girl, was now being used by the same person as a weapon against her.

    In all of the panic, the rock hit the side of Olivia¡¯s head, knocking her down to the ground, alongside the man. While not as strong a hit as she did to the man, it was enough to knock her head around silly, where eventually everything went dark.

 Chapter 5

    The Memory

    It was the same old same old for Olivia. Walking down the street having just came out from college, she was heading home. It had been a long day, filled with boring sses, listening to boring stories from her friends, and being given boring homework to do. How she wished she could just skip this part of life.

    That wish though was soon to be granted, but she just didn¡¯t realise it yet.

    She passed several shops down the street, from the usual supermarket and off-licenses to some takeaway shops. There was also the caf¨¦ that she sometimes frequented, but that was only when her friends asked her to go.

    As she was walking, she passed a fenced-off forest, of which some of it had been cleared and was now used as a park. It had plenty of space for dog walking and enjoying a pic. It also included jungle gym equipment for the kids. On the far side, a small tennis court was located, along with a basketball court, none of which Olivia had ever used before. Trees bordered the park area, creating a natural fence. This area of trees could be entered, and it was frequented by hikers and the like. Several hundred metres in, wrought iron fences were present, keeping people out of the rest of the forest. This was all mainly for safety reasons, to keep people from getting lost while allowing others to hike in this essible forest area.

    Walking by the entrance and looking into the park area, it waspletely empty. The weather was quite dreary and not nearly sunny enough for families to be spending time in the park. They were probably all in family-friendly restaurants or resting at home.

    Looking around at the sad state of the park, she saw a bright burst of light in the tree line. Curious as to what it was, Olivia diverted from her current route home and entered the park.

    She travelled to the other end of it and reached the essible forest, looking for any other shes of light. As she peered through the trees, more lights shed further in. This was then followed by the sounds of groans as if someone was hurt.

    Olivia being who she was, had the usual need to go and help whoever was hurt.

    .....

    And so, she did.

    While she couldn¡¯t just stand by while someone was being hurt, it didn¡¯t mean she would just headlong into danger. She was smarter than that.

    Taking her phone out, she saw that it was half full of charge, and there was still a signal in case she needed to make a call. She would have called the police, but since all she had seen was light and heard a groan, it wasn¡¯t really much to go on. It may not even be the case that someone was in trouble. It could have easily been something else happening in the forest.

    It was possibly the sound of a couple getting busy in a risky ce.

    With the phone light on, she entered the tree line and followed the bright lights. It didn¡¯t take too long, and she reached the fenced area of the forest. At least she thought she did.

    Where she was expecting to see a fence, was just empty space. It was as if all of the iron fencings had disappeared. The only reason why she thought this was where the fencing used to be, was because of the holes in the ground, where the iron poles would have been.

    ¡°Did they remove this to expand the essible fenced area? I didn¡¯t hear anything about that though. Shouldn¡¯t they have put up temporary fencing or a sign at least?¡±

    Thinking that was probably the reason and she had just missed a sign at the entrance, she continued on her way, getting nearer and nearer to the shing lights.

    As she did, she started to hear voices. What they were saying though made no sense.

    ¡°It¡¯s all your fault we are in this mess. If you had made them look nicer and more muscr, then no one would want to kill those little monsters.¡±

    ¡°My fault. How is it my fault? You made a bunch of massive brutes that attack anything that moves. That¡¯s why they¡¯re being killed.¡±

    In the distance, Olivia was eventually able to see the people to whom these voices belonged. Both were girls, looking somewhere in their twenties. One was quite short with long blond hair and the other was very tall with short brown hair. Their clothing consisted of casual wear for the girl with blond hair, and smart office wear for the other.

    This though was not nearly as interesting as what the two girls were doing. As they shouted at each other, they held out their hands and bright light grew. Then all of a sudden, the girl disappeared into thin air, only to reappear a short distance away. The light on her hand then flew rapidly away from her towards the other girl, who dodged it. This back and forth flinging of light kept urring, where they teleported about constantly during the fight, also hurling insults andments at each other. At least teleportation was the only way Olivia could think to describe it. What the light was she had no idea, the closest thing she could rte it to was magic from films.

    Speaking of Olivia, she was standing there frozen as she was seeing this happen. She was not a believer in the ult or aliens but seeing this out of this world disy was slowly changing her mind.

    ¡°You are an idiot. We would never be in this mess if you hadn¡¯t tricked me into helping you.¡± The tall girl shouted to herbatant

    ¡°Trick you. What a stupid thing to say. I very clearly told you my n and you went along with it. It¡¯s not my fault you were dumb enough to get caught.¡± The short girl retorted.

    As she watched them shout at each other, Olivia tried to figure out what they were doing. As far as she could tell, before they attached each other, they readied whatever it was, then teleported so the other couldn¡¯t see where the attack woulde from.

    ¡°I only got caught because you were too busy trying to sleep with everyone that you didn¡¯t end up distracting the right person.¡±

    ¡°I did distract them. Very well actually. You¡¯re the one that was too busy trying to grow yourself a penis for your new ¡®lover¡¯, that you didn¡¯t notice you were being watched.¡±

    ¡°You are so annoying. You are just like them, short, dumb and ugly. Always trying to breed with something, like a dog in heat. You should just go back to our world and live like the goblins you¡¯re so fond of.¡± The tall girl with brown hair shouted. As she did so the light grew on her palm like before, only this time, it was a deep green colour, unlike all the other lights which had alternated between white and yellow.

    ¡°Oh, so that¡¯s how it¡¯s going to be. Well, you are just the same, being tall, dumb and thick-skulled. Why you thought they would work, I will never know You are just like them, always wanting to stick it in something. You should just be an orc as well, given how much you like them.¡± The short girl with the blond hair said, where she too held out her palm and light started to grow, this time a deep brown colour.

    Like before the girls disappeared. Looking around to see where they would reappear, Olivia found them on either side of her. Whether they knew she was there or not, she did not have time to figure out, as the next thing that happened was that the balls of light left their palms and shot towards her.

    It was too quick for her to do anything. Before she even had a chance to move, the light hit from both sides.

    There was no pain, but it felt like the light was seeping into her body, spreading throughout her.

    It would seem that the two girls had not realised she was there, as upon seeing that their attack missed the other, but ended up hitting someone else, they quickly teleported and came right up to Olivia.

    Worry was evident on their faces. They looked at each other and then back to Olivia, unsure of what to do. Olivia could see their mouths move as if they were talking, but she could not hear anything. As it turned out, all she could hear was silence now.

    Looking down to where the light hit her, she found empty space, which she panicked even more at, as it looked like her body was disappearing. The shock of it all finally won out, causing Olivia to pass out.

    The next thing she knew, she was on the floor of the forest, with blood on her head.

 Chapter 6

    The Prisoner

    ¡°Uhhh, what¡¯s happening? Where am I?¡±

    Out of her memory and back into the real world, Olivia awoke to find herself looking up at the sky. She tried to stand upright but failed to do so as something was stopping her. Looking down she saw rope wrapped around her feet and hands.

    Next to her, a man was also tied up, who was looking down his body at something.

    Seeing him, things finally clicked, and she recalled the events before she was knocked out.

    This also brought a look of annoyance to her face as while she did quite a lot of damage to the man, he was still somehow alive.

    ¡°Look, girl. I wasn¡¯t really going to hurt you. I just wanted to scare you a little. It was just a bit of fun. Come on, untie me and we can forget all about this.¡±

    Olivia could only roll her eyes at what he had said. Only aplete idiot would think he was telling the truth after what he tried to do to the girl.

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m stupid? If that orc thing hadn¡¯t shown up and knocked you out, you would have done that and more!¡± The girl shouted back at the man.

    .....

    After hearing the response, Olivia followed the man¡¯s gaze and found the girl sitting down by the fire pit, with the man¡¯s sword by her side. It looked like she was no worse for wear, aside from the torn clothes she had wrapped cloth from the tent nearby to keep it together.

    It was at this point that the girl saw that Olivia was awake, if the sudden look of shock on her face was anything to go by.

    ¡°Ahh, it¡¯s finally awake.¡±

    Olivia rolled her eyes again andid her head back on the grass, ¡°As I said before, a thank you is the appropriate thing to say after being saved.¡±

    Both the man and the girl were awestruck at the words that came out of Olivia¡¯s mouth. This was unprecedented as it was the first time, they had heard a monster talk. Both had heard tales of some monsters being able to say a few words, but this was usually limited to the words ¡®food¡¯ and ¡®die¡¯. Neither of them truly believed the stories as they were so few and far between, but for them to hear this monster not only talk but talk so well, was just shocking.

    ¡°You did speak in the tent.¡± Her eyes widened as she realised this. ¡°With everything going on, I wasn¡¯t sure I heard correctly.¡± She looked up in wonder trying to recall what had happened, then quickly shifted her eyes back to Olivia ¡°What are you? How can you talk?¡± she asked rapidly, curious as to the origins of this talking monster. It would seem her sheer intrigue had pushed through against the fear she had of the monster killing her. For now anyway.

    ¡°Yes, it was me, but before I answer your questions, I still think you owe me a thank you,¡± Olivia replied with a smug face. Being tied up there wasn¡¯t much she could do. Why not have a bit of fun she thought.

    ¡°Err, Wha-, No. I don¡¯t have to listen to you. Do you know who I-¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t, but all I¡¯m asking for is two words to show gratitude to your saviour.¡±

    ¡°Bu- no, I¡­.*huff*¡­ Thank you¡­ I guess.¡±

    ¡°Good, was that so hard. Now can you untie me?¡± Olivia asked, hoping this would be an easy conversation and she could just get on her way and leave this situation. Now that she had saved the girl, there wasn¡¯t much else she was needed for, and given the response from the girl and her somewhat haughty attitude, any further interaction with her could just be troublesome.

    Looking back up, it would seem her straightforward request had practically froze the girl.

    As shey there, waiting for the girl toe out of her stupor and respond, Olivia thought back to the memory that she had while unconscious. While she had no idea who the two girls were, it was clear that they were the reason she was in this form, and what she now realised, was also in another world. While she had no idea what the light they were firing at each other was, it was clear that it was the cause of her change.

    She thought back to what the girls had said. They spoke of goblins and orcs before they flung the light. If she was remembering correctly, they actually spoke about turning the other into one of them and sending them back. Could it be that the light actually made their intent possible?

    ¡®Now that I think about it, from how I look it does sort of make sense. Therge muscr body and tusk-like teeth are reminiscent of orcs from fiction. They though are normally green in colour, but I think goblins can be either shade of either green or brown, maybe that¡¯s where my skin tone hase from. Also, the ears did look like that of a goblin.¡¯ She thought to herself. Everything seemed to add up. She was no longer human, but now some sort of orc-goblin hybrid.

    ¡®Saying that though, why do I have both sets of genitalia. Could it have been all that talk of breeding and growing a penis that made it happen. Who were those girls?¡¯

    While still in thought about her situation, she was suddenly pulled back to the conversation with the girl.

    ¡°No, wait. Now that I said thank you, can you tell me how is it that you can talk, and talk so well?¡± The girl asked her, the haughtiness in her voice having dissipated slightly

    Looking quickly over to the man, it looked like he had just resided himself to his fate and listened to the conversation, while the girl sat there with her arms crossed, waiting for a response.

    ¡°I learnt how, like I imagine you did. Now, could you please untie me? I have somewhere I need to be.¡±

    ¡°Wha- no. If I untie you, you¡¯ll attack me.¡±

    That threw Olivia for a loop. She managed to save this girl¡¯s life and suddenly she was seen as the bad guy.

    ¡°Why would I do that?¡±

    The more she thought about it though, she realised that she did look like a monster to this girl, and probably to everyone else. Also, from her knowledge of fiction, goblins and orcs are never the good guys, and given that she is a mix, it is somewhat understandable why the girl is worried.

    Mostly understandable.

    ¡°Yeah girl, you better untie me so I can save you from this monster. Who knows what it will do when it breaks free? You need a big strong man to help keep you safe.¡± The man called out, trying to wriggle his way into the conversation having seen an opening.

    ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s not going to happen.¡± But he was very quickly shot down.

    The girl, just sat there in thought, trying to figure out what to do about this situation.

    She threw a few more questions out to Olivia, asking why she had helped her and what she was doing here. Both were easy for Olivia to answer, but it just caused the confused look on the girl to grow.

    While she was still trying to deal with this situation, the girl was suddenly interrupted by the sound of snapping.

    The sound of rope bindings snapping.

    Hearing this the girl quickly looked at Olivia, fearful of the monster getting free and attacking her, but she found her still lying there. Confused at this, she then quickly realised her mistake, and turned to the man, finding him quickly trying to remove the binding on his legs, with a small knife.

    With Olivia being tied up, the girl was actually helpless as to what the man would do once he broke free. She went to grab his sword as a way to defend herself, but its weight and size made it almost impossible to move.

    Olivia, seeing that the man was trying to break free, and knowing what he would probably do should he manage it, knew she had to do something. Still bound, she rolled on her side over to the man, whereupon reaching him she shouted ¡°grab his arms¡±.

    The girl hearing this, still frozen in ce, was pulled out of her daze and ran to the man. While this was happening Olivia brought herself to a sitting position and used the only tool she had at her disposal to deal with the man. Her teeth.

    She bit as hard as she could into the man¡¯s neck. He cried out in pain and went to grab her with his free hand but struggled to do so as the girl had jumped on top of him to hold his arms out of the way.

    ¡°Get off me you b*?&%!¡± He cried out. ¡°I am going to beat the s*?& out of you when I¡¯m free.¡±

    Still clinging on, Olivia bit deeper and with more force, eliciting more pained cries of anger from the man.

    He managed to get his free hand out from under the girl and tried to reach Olivia but to no avail. All he could do was punch the girl on top of him, to try and get her off his body, causing her to cry out in pain.

    After a while, he continued to cut away at the rope, but his movements started to slow down, and the strength from his punches was sapped. The pain and loss of blood were getting to him, slowing him down, where eventually he finally stopped moving.

    Both Olivia and the girl stayed in their positions in case he was faking, but after several seconds they rolled away, with Olivia spitting up the blood and the girl still groaning from the pain. As they rolled, they did so in the same direction, ending up with Olivia and the girlying next to each other on the ground, both facing the other, only a hair¡¯s breadth away.

    ¡®So close¡¯, was the thought roaming around Olivia¡¯s head, and she was sure that same thought was in the girl¡¯s.

    Silence echoed through the area, as neither knew what to do, until the sound of a nearby bush rustling broke them out of their stupor, causing the girl to jump up despite the pain she was feeling.

    ¡°Th-thank you again.¡± She looked away saying this.

    A few momentster, she turned back to look at Olivia and saw her still bound on the ground with blood around her mouth, ¡°I-I think I¡¯m going to trust you and release you now. You know, after having saved me. Twice.¡±

    Making her way over to Olivia, she did just that. The girl released Olivia from her bindings who in turn gave her thanks. Olivia then slowly stood, rubbing her wrists as she did.

    The girl moved away and looked at Olivia, staring almost as if she was trying to figure something out, while she kept her distance.

    Olivia, now back into the world of standing people looked at the girl, then turned to look at the man.

    This was followed by her throwing up after seeing the mess of contorted flesh and blood.

 Chapter 7

    The Aftermath ¨C Part 1

    *Urggkk*

    ¡°Are¡­are you ok?¡±

    *Urggkk¡±

    Hunched over Olivia threw up thest of the fruit she had previously eaten.

    ¡°Yh-yeah. I¡¯m ok. Just not used to seeing a dead body and all the blood.¡±

    ¡°How is an orc not used to seeing a dead body. They kill people all the time.¡± The girl replied with a confused look on her face.

    A few momentster and Olivia was able to right herself again, thest of her previous meal, now on the floor below her.

    ¡®I guess this is something I will have to get used to in this world.¡¯ She thought to herself as she identally spots the body out of the corner of her eye. Thankfully, no retching followed.

    .....

    With the small vomiting incident out of the way, silence reigns, but this is quickly snuffed out by the girl.

    ¡°It¡¯s still strange to me seeing an orc speak Seeing any monster speak really. Actually, are you an orc? I-If you don¡¯t mind me asking? It¡¯s just that, you look like one but don¡¯t at the same time.¡±

    ¡°I think I¡¯m a half-orc half-goblin.¡± She said wiping her mouth with her hand, as she gave her reply.

    This answer practically caused smoke to flow out of the girl¡¯s ears as the gears turned trying toprehend this.

    ¡°So, your parents were a goblin and an orc. How does that work? I¡¯ve never heard or seen a monster that looks like you before or heard of goblins mating with orcs.¡±

    Olivia wasn¡¯t sure what she should say. If she talked about how she was a human in another world, would the girl just think she was some crazy monster? Thinking about this, she came to the conclusion that less would be more in this situation.

    ¡°I am not sure. I practically woke up a few hours ago in this forest. I have no memory of how I got there.¡±

    Olivia then went on to tell the girl what she had been through since then, namely the fight with the deer and the wolves. She left out the river incident though.

    As she spoke, Olivia noticed the girl¡¯s eyes drift down her body, inquisitive as to what she was. This led to her eyes bulging once she saw Olivia¡¯s genitals out on disy.

    ¡°Like what you see.¡±

    ¡°W-what. No, It¡¯s just. Yo-you, you¡¯re a man. I mean a male. I thought with the way your v-voice is, you were a girl.¡± She said blushing. While the girl wasn¡¯t attracted to the look of the half-orc that Olivia was, as far as she realised, it was still very embarrassing having been caught looking at her penis.

    ¡°Oh, I am a girl. I just have some additional¡­ equipment.¡±

    The girl was listening, but the sight of this female half-orc penis, which wasrger than the few human and male ones she had seen, identally, of course, kepting to the forefront of her mind. It also didn¡¯t help that it waspletely out on disy, making it hard to keep her eyes off of it.

    In order to distract herself, and hopefully push the penis out of her mind, she tried to move the conversation along.

    ¡°I-I think I understand. Aside from your¡­ thing¡­ why are you so different from other goblins and orcs? All they do is attack people and kidnap women.¡± Her eyes drifted down as she brought up her ¡®thing¡¯, but quickly rose to Olivia¡¯s face again.

    ¡®I assumed that was the case here. It¡¯s just like most of the fiction on Earth. I¡¯ve never had to think about it much, but I bet it¡¯s some urge or instinct built into their race that makes them do so. Like how animals have the need to hunt for food, orcs and goblins have the need to breed. With anything.¡¯ She thought to herself, trying to figure out how to answer the question. ¡®I really hope I don¡¯t have the same urge. That would make things very difficult.

    Olivia knew she was right on that. No good woulde from having some constant need to attack, kidnap and then breed with other women, this was obvious. Thankfully, as she stood here now, in front of this girl, who she would easily call beautiful, she felt no need to do this. Given her sexuality and the attractiveness of this girl, she did have thoughts about her, but nothing she would consider being an orc-like snatch, grab and breed thought.

    Whether this would remain the case in the future was anyone¡¯s guess

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m just different, I guess. I¡¯m pretty sure I¡¯m smarter than all other orcs and goblins, plus I have just always been helpful by nature. As far as I can tell, I don¡¯t have the urge, to just attack you.¡±

    The girl pondered on that for a while, until eventually, she moved closer to Olivia. Not to stand right next to her, but it was a step in the right direction. Literally.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Both girls just alternated between looking at each other and looking around the area, not really sure what to do now. This silence though couldn¡¯t go on any longer, so Olivia decided to break it.

    ¡°So, I was going to say that you would probably want to get back to whatever town you came from, but I just remembered that man said you had run away. Do you want to go back, or are you nning to go somewhere else?

    The girl looked down, a little sad once she remembered how she got here. ¡°I did run away. It was a foolish thing for me to do. Look where it got me, almost raped by this horrible man. I¡¯m just going to go back and face what is toe.¡±

    Olivia was going to ask the reason for running away, but from the girl¡¯s expression, she realised this may not be the best time to bring it up. She could tell the girl really didn¡¯t want to go into it.

    Given this, she decided that moving away from the subject was probably for the best.

    ¡°I don¡¯t expect they allow orcs or goblins to enter the town, do they. A shame, as I could do with some clothes.¡±

    The girl¡¯s expression quickly changed from sadness to embarrassment, as Olivia¡¯s words brought back the image of her ¡®package¡¯ to the forefront of her mind.

    Olivia having seen this and the few other times she was embarrassed at Olivia¡¯s nudity and package, Olivia realised she had quite an innocent girl in front of her. While she acted tough when she and the man were tied up, and had a bit of a haughty personality, given that she was obviously some sort of a noble girl, deep down she was still an innocent person, likely only having had a few or maybe even never had romantic rtions with anyone.

    Trying to shake it out of her mind to focus, the girl then came up with an idea.

    ¡°While you can¡¯t go into a town, I could go for you.¡± The girl said quite suddenly.

    Olivia looked at the girl, unsure of what she was trying to say with this.

    ¡°I-I mean, as a thank you for saving me, I could get you some stuff from the town to help you. Food, water and gear. Plus, being a noble I should never be in another person¡¯s debt.¡± Thest sentence was spoken as if she was reciting a list.

    Olivia could see that the girl was sincere and was more than happy with the n. ¡°That sounds like a good idea. I guess we should get going then.¡±

    The girl looked relieved once Olivia agreed with her, probably thankful that her saviour agreed with her, and that she would have someone with her on her journey back to town. For thepany or for protection, Olivia did not know, but it was probably both.

    The girl suddenly gasped. ¡°I just realised; we don¡¯t even know each other¡¯s names. I¡¯m Ameril.¡± She said as she performed a quick curtsey.

    ¡°Olivia.¡±

    She didn¡¯t want to do a curtsy, it just didn¡¯t feel right, so she followed her response with a slight bow.

    ¡­

    The two girls, the elf and the half-orc, half-goblin, ransacked the camp and sifted through the man¡¯s pockets. Being dead and all, he had no need for the stuff. Some may see it as being wrong to rob the dead, but after all, he had done, neither of the girls had any qualms with it. The only thing on him was his armour and a small pouch of coins, both of which they kept.

    After a quick clean of the armour, Olivia tried it on. As she looked at it, she knew she would prefer something different, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers, and it fits surprisingly well. Mostly.

    It would seem that it wasn¡¯t made with Olivia¡¯s assets in mind, which meant it strained against her body in two notable areas. I¡¯m sure you can imagine which. She spent some time loosening both areas and thinning out the material so everything would fit rtivelyfortably until she was able to get some clothes that actually fit.

    While she was going this, Ameril had taken it upon herself to make a quick meal for them both, using some of the rations the man had in his tent. The meal wascking, being that it was only some sort of jerky and soup, but it was better than nothing.

    Throughout all of this, while Ameril had warmed up to Olivia, there was still a lingering fear in the back of her mind. It was probably the same fear that everyone had when they were face to face with the monster they had been warned of so many times over. This caused her to involuntarily keep a cool, short distance between herself and Olivia at all times,

    While hurtful, Olivia understood why she did it. It would take some more time before they could stand together easily and the unease Ameril felt would dissipate. Still, it wasn¡¯t like she had any pressing concerns, so she had plenty of time to get herfortable with what she was now.

    Olivia was quickly pulled out of her thoughts, as by the time they had finished and decided that they should leave, they realised that the sun had started to set.

 Chapter 8

    The Aftermath ¨C Part 2

    ¡°Well, that makes this difficult,¡± Olivia said. Given the danger she had already faced, heading out into the forest at night would just result in a quick death for both of them. She knew that the only option was to find a ce to camp, get some rest and head out in the morning, to which Ameril agreedpletely.

    Thankfully, they were already at a campsite, meaning it would be a shame not to use it. The problem with it was the dead body, which they needed to deal with, lest it draws any wildlife to the camp.

    Knowing they needed to get their hands dirty and do this, Olivia took the head and Ameril grabbed the legs. They then proceeded to carry the body as far from the camp as they could, where they then dumped him.

    The best thing to do was to probably dig a hole and bury him, butcking the equipment this was not possible. They could have dug with their hands, but neither of them was going to go that far for this man.

    So they moved to n B. They rolled him into the nearest ditch and covered him with leaves and branches from nearby. The way they saw it, it was better than nothing. Once done, they turned around and headed back.

    A light conversation arose between the two as they ate. Ameril told Olivia some history and the recent event around the world, as Olivia stated she was a bit foggy on all of that given the amnesia. Olivia, listened intently, wanting to get as much knowledge as she could about her new home. When they exhausted all of that, it was Olivia¡¯s turn to talk. Due to the ¡®amnesia¡¯, she decided to ring off stories from Earth, fictional tales and scenes from her life, mainly films and TV shows, adjusted to make sense in a world without technology. She said these were tales she had heard about long ago, or things she had dreamt, which is why she still remembered them. Ameril was fully engrossed in what Olivia was saying, hanging off every word of the fanciful tales of heroes fighting strange monsters.

    As they spoke about anything and nothing, Olivia thought about how grateful she was that she met Ameril. Here she was, part goblin and part orc, both species that are at odds with the elves and other sapient species that they are seen as monsters to be exterminated, yet they were able to have a civil conversation with each other. While the whole saving of her life probably had more to do with it than her charming conversational skills, Olivia was sure this was a first in the history of this world.

    They may even eventually be friends.

    .....

    But while possible, there are still a few hurdles to ovee.

    ¡­

    As the sun set, the next order of business cropped up. Sleeping arrangements.

    While they did have a good evening together, Olivia knew that being saved and one night of good conversation would not be enough to remove the years of hatred the sapient species had against orcs and goblins. So, while Olivia had not done anything to Ameril, the idea of falling asleep and beingpletely defenceless with her around was probably still a frightening prospect for Ameril.

    This was also very evident on Ameril¡¯s face, as when she looked at the tent to wonder how they would go about turning in the for the night, she started fretting, trying to figure out what to do next.

    It was clear to see she was conflicted. Olivia had saved her twice and had done nothing to show any aggression towards her. But she was still an orc and a goblin, two monsters elves had been told should be killed on sight. The stories about all these species had done didn¡¯t help either.

    Olivia could see all this on her face and knew she had to do something to make her feel at ease. There was a time for teasing and jokes, but now she had to be serious, as anything like that would probably just stress her out further.

    ¡°I know what you¡¯re thinking. You can sleep in the tent, and I¡¯ll stand guard nearby. You can¡­ restrain me if that makes you feel morefortable. If something happens, I can call out and wake you. When it reaches the middle of the night, I¡¯ll call out to you to change over the watch.¡±

    Ameril looked at Olivia stunned. All she could think was how selfless Olivia was to suggest letting herself be tied up outside the tent in order to make her feelfortable. A part of her wanted to say there was no need to do all of that, but another part, ingrained from the many, many stories she had heard, told her it would be best if she was tied up.

    The emotions Ameril was feeling, showed on her face and Olivia decided to jump in to help her out again.

    ¡°Really, it¡¯s ok. I don¡¯t mind. Nowe on, tie up my wrists. Leave my legs though. Might need them if something does happen.¡±

    Still speechless, Ameril did just that. As she bound Olivia¡¯s wrists behind her back, she whispered a quick thank you and then headed off to the tent. Olivia stood and then took her position guarding the camp.

    The wrists being tied up was the only real practical thing they could do. She would need her feet to run to or away from a monster in the night, so they couldn¡¯t be bound. Being bound to a tree wouldn¡¯t help either as like with her feet, it would stop her from moving. With her wrists bound, while this meant she couldn¡¯t really fight, she could still move, and kick should the need arise. It also brought some peace of mind to Ameril, as from stories, orcs and goblins generally needed their hands to attack women.

    ¡­

    For the first half of the night, Olivia spent her time patrolling, checking to make sure nothing approached the camp. This was also interspersed with some exercises, wanting to improve her body¡¯s strength and stamina. There wasn¡¯t much else she could do while tied up.

    Thankfully, nothing attacked them during the night. There were sounds of rustling and howls all around them, but that was the extent of any problems.

    Then as the moon reached its pinnacle, Olivia stood near the tent and called out to Ameril.

    It took a few tries, but she finally saw rustling in the tent. Grogginess was evident on her face as she left the confines of the tent and looked to see who had called her name. Upon seeing the half-orc half-goblin girl, she almost cried out for help but managed to stop herself as it all came flooding back to her.

    Switching over, Olivia took her ce on the ground andid down to get some rest. She was sure that it would be better that she remain outside, where Ameril could see her, rather than hidden in the tent, which may cause her some distress.

    Even with the cold dirt floor and the breeze, it didn¡¯t take too long for her to drift off.

    ¡­

    As the sun rose, so too did Olivia. Looking around from her spot on the ground, she saw Ameril sitting by the tent looking around and still guarding the area.

    ¡°Good morning¡±

    The sudden greeting startled Ameril, who jumped a little at the noise.

    ¡°G-good morning Olivia.¡± She was able to reply once she managed to calm down.

    With the start of the new day, Ameril removed Olivia¡¯s bindings and they both got to work.

    They had themselves a quick breakfast using the provisions the man had to make themselves a very simple meal. Hardtack and jerky were the specialities for the start of the day, but it in no way tasted special. You could easily tell this was the food you only ate if you had nothing else.

    Next, they were up and about and dealing with the camp. They dismantled the tent, which was still pretty decent and could be used again. There were also some odds and ends lying around, a few pots, cooking utensils and a tinder box, which they all bundled into therge bag that was in the tent, which very quickly reced her makeshift one. The coin pouch was at Ameril¡¯s hip, given that she would be the one to enter the town and actually buy things. The sword was ced into its scabbard and ced on Olivia¡¯s hip, given that she was the only one who could actually lift it.

    While Ameril still had some worries about the half-orc half-goblin, most of these had dissipated due to the whole, night time selfless bondage episode. Plus, it was clear that Olivia would need the sword if they were attacked.

    One final check of the campsite area for anything they missed and they then headed out to reach the town.

 Chapter 9

    The Trip

    As they journeyed, they stopped for some water and shared some of the fruit in Olivia¡¯s makeshift bag. They travelled through a lot of dense forest, saw some wildlife and avoided some when necessary.

    They spoke about what Olivia would need from the town, which amounted to a few items. A water skin was definitely needed, as you never know when you may see a river on your journey. Rations were also needed for pretty much the same reason as the water skin. Fruit and meat rotted over time and they could be far and few in-between when travelling through a forest. Not all trees are fruit trees, and not all fruit is edible, just like how if your hunting skills are not up to snuff, you may not be able to catch dinner.

    Clothes were also a necessity. While the ones she had on worked, for the time being, it would be much better if she had ones that fit. New clothing would improve herfort immeasurably. Lastly was finding a proper weapon to use. While she had to sword, it just didn¡¯t feel right to her. She didn¡¯t know what it was, but the movements of swinging the sword didn¡¯t sit right for her. Even using the makeshift spear felt better than the sword, but even that didn¡¯t feelpletely right. Not knowing what weapon would suit her, they decided to sell the sword for some profit and buy a spear, until there came a time she could train with other weapons and find the one that suited her.

    ¡­

    As they walked, Ameril continued to talk about the history of thend.

    The day before, she spoke about the current status of Khasia, which was thend they were in. She learnt that Khasia was made up of four major kingdoms, where each was run by the dominant race in the said kingdom. These races were the humans, elves, dwarves and demons.

    This was not to say that these were the only races present in Khasia or that they were the sole races in these areas. Many other races had set up shop centuries ago in different parts of thend, such as beast-kin, dryads and merfolk to name a few. There just weren¡¯t as many of thempared to the other races. In addition to this, there is much more diversity in thend now, with the various races being spread across all of the kingdoms.

    But the kingdoms have not always been as progressive as they were now.

    .....

    A case in point was when she told her about the incident with the goblins and orcs. It was the story that all of the races told their children in order to ingrain the absolute fear of goblins and orcs in them. Facts about the incident had been embellished over time, making them more monstrous than they were, but that was to be expected.

    Back then, the races had been much more solitary than they were now. Each kept to their own kingdom, but the goblin and orc incident brought them together. The meeting of the kingdoms in the human city back then was to form alliances, but the incident also gave them amon enemy and helped bring them together, increasing diversity within their kingdoms.

    For most of the races that is as problems long before this, still echoed into the present.

    Centuries ago in thend, when the races were first building a foothold and making their own kingdoms, not everyone wanted to make friends. Some of the races saw themselves as superior to others and wouldn¡¯t deign to form an alliance. This also affected some of the smaller races.

    Giants were within the dwarven kingdom, and they fought with the dwarves daily in order to control sections of thend.

    The dryads, druids and merfolk formed smallmunities mainly in the elven kingdom, eventually leading them to form alliances and merge societies with the elves.

    Beast-kin on the other hand resided in the human kingdom, and at the time, they received no such weing party as the others did. What they received was violence and very. They were faster and stronger than humans but numbered less than them. The human king at the time was egotistical and took it upon himself to deal with them. This led to many being enved.

    Now, thankfully, very has been abolished. Some people may still practice it, but it is illegal in all of the kingdoms. But, while this may be the case, beast-kin are still seen as second-ss citizens in the human kingdom and are treated poorly.

    Then there are the demons.

    Like beast-kin, they had always been at odds with the other races. Many people chalked this up to the simrities between the races. Aside from the obvious good looks and pointy ears of elves and shortness of dwarfs, they have some simrities to that of humans. But the animal characteristics of beast-kin and varying skin tones and horns of demons was the clincher and caused them to be seen as different and outcasts.

    Around the same time as the beast-kin very, the human king took it upon himself to go to war with the demons. It raged for many years, with no side really winning in any way. It was a disappointing war that really only ended when the king died, and his son took over. He saw it for what it was and formed a truce. But because of this and the demon¡¯s long-life spans, things never truly healed between the races. It caused them to remain solitary, going so far as to not attend the gathering of the races.

    But thankfully, even with the alliance between the many races aside from the demons, no wars have been started. Whether this will remain the case is yet to be seen.

    ¡­

    The history Ameril now spoke of, was for the town they were headed to.

    The town was called Cassus and was governed by a human lord, Lord Edgar. He recently took over from his father who passed away.

    Olivia asked if it was foul y. All of the films and shows she watched reared their heads as she wondered if it was a takeover by the son. But there was no such luck. The father died from an illness at the age of 51. This though wasn¡¯t enough to convince Olivia, as it could have been poison.

    The son was in his twenties and wasn¡¯t known as the most reliable type. There were plenty of rumours about how he was usually seen in the taverns drinking with other nobles and trying to flirt with any woman he saw. How he would deal with running the town was anyone¡¯s guess.

    It was at this point that Olivia realised something. With the lord of the town being human, that meant they were in the human kingdom. While she had learnt that things were more diverse in Khasia, given that Ameril was an elf she had assumed they were in the elven kingdom.

    She asked why she lived here, but the only answer she could get from her was that her parents moved here due to business opportunities. It was clear she didn¡¯t want to go into it any more than that.

    ¡®I wonder if it has something to do with why she ran away¡¯, She thought to herself.

    ¡­

    History wasn¡¯t the only thing they talked about. They also learnt more about each other.

    They spoke about their childhood, funny experiences, embarrassing moments and even ns for the future. Thest one was mainly Ameril talking, as Olivia didn¡¯t really have any set goals right now.

    It was a real bonding experience between the two. Enough so that the distance between them had shortened considerably. There would probably always be a lingering fear for goblins and orcs, and rightly so, as Olivia was an outlier. Any other goblin or orc would jump at the chance to kidnap Ameril and have their way with her. But, other than this, it was clear to see that Ameril hade to trust Olivia. She may even go so far as to call themselves friends now.

    ¡­

    The journey took several hours to travel through a very dense forest. They ended up turned around a few times, given how it all looks the same no matter where you are.

    Scrapes, trips and falls happened very regrly for both of them, where roots and brambles were always in ces you didn¡¯t expect.

    They had to make a few pitstops along the way, where bodily functions reared their heads, forcing the call of nature. It was also necessary to just rest for a few moments before getting back into the thick of it.

    As they journeyed through some more shrubbery, they had just got onto an embarrassing story where Ameril had ended up falling into a pond during a friend¡¯s wedding, when they passed through a row of trees. As they came out the other end, the scene that greeted them was astounding.

    They stood atop a hill and could see rolling hills covered in crops of various colours. Vibrant yellows and purples were among the few that graced thend before them. At its centre was a massive town, surrounded by high walls, spanning a great distance. Houses filled every part of the town, all leading to a majestic castle in the middle. It was hard to see, but it looked like a moat even surrounded the castle as well.

    On the outskirts of the castle,rge houses could be seen, possibly mansions, likely to be upied by the rich and wealthy.

    Given the distance, it wouldn¡¯t be much longer before they actually reached it, and the next part of her story wouldmence.

    A part of her story where she might even get some clothes that fit.

 Chapter 10

    The Parents

    Along the walls, there was one entrance. It was arge archway with two massive wooden doors on either side. It was big enough for one carriage at a time, with some space on the side for people on foot. Several guards were stationed at the entrance, where some were looking for some form of ID or coinage to enter the town and others were performing their namesake.

    ¡°Right, you can probably get a closer by staying in the tall grass and crops, but too close to the gate and the guards will attack.¡±

    As they walked down towards the town, Oliviapletely agreed with Ameril and stuck to the tall grass, crouching low to remain out of sight. The guards carrying bows on the town walls gave her ample reason to be careful.

    As they got closer and closer, the tall grass turned to crops, some sort of wheat as far as she could see, and as luck would have it, this wheat-like crop was brown in colour. The perfect camouge for a brown half-orc half-goblin. The area for this group of the crops was vast in size, spanning far and wide across the surroundings of the town, where it merged into crops of other various colours. It also happened to lead right up to the town walls, with only a narrow path between it and them. Close enough that if Olivia reached the end, she was able to hear all the conversations at the gate.

    ¡°If you stay in the area, assuming all goes well I should be able leave the town at the fourth bell from now,¡± Ameril said to Olivia. ¡°Be at the tree line we came from before, and I will meet you there.¡±

    ¡°Stay safe.¡±

    ¡°I think I should be saying that to you, being a half-orc so close to the town.¡±

    A quick moment of camaraderie passed between the two, where Ameril gave a quick hug to Olivia and then headed off towards the entrance of the gate.

    .....

    Olivia watched her go fondly, hoping she would be fine, given that she had run away from the town in the beginning. Olivia turned to leave with all the gear from the camp, heading back to the forest to rest and probably do some exercise to strengthen her body, when she heard raised voices at the gate.

    Turning back, she saw Ameril being restrained by two of the guards, while another ran off into the town. Olivia almost ran out of the crops towards the gate to help, but caught herself before she did. Being what she was, charging at the townsfolk and guards would not go down well.

    But if they did more than just restrain her, then all bets were off.

    After a while, the voices quieted down and Ameril was taken to the side of the gate, where the two guards kept her there. The rest of the traffic continued on their way after seeing that the guards had things in control, and got back to either entering or exiting the town.

    Olivia continued to watch from the crops nearby to make sure Ameril was safe, and by the few nces Ameril made to where she had left Olivia, she could see that she was appreciative of her remaining to watch what was happening.

    Several minutes when by where nothing happened, and all of a sudden a very ostentatiously decorated carriage rolled up to the gate from inside the town. It was very mboyant, clearly showing off the vast amount of wealth of whoever owned it. Vibrant blues and purples covered each of the sides of the carriage while jewels and crystals ran along the edges, giving it a nice, over the top frame.

    As Olivia pulled a face at the hideousness of the carriage, she saw Ameril¡¯s face suddenly be downcast, as a man and woman exited the monstrosity. They too were covered in wealth, silk of some kind flowed down their bodies, while jewellery adored their necks, arms, hands, ears and several other ces on their bodies.

    They strode right up to the gate, walked right up to Ameril and the woman then pped her.

    ¡°How dare you run away from your family, you ungrateful b%*&¡ê$. After everything we have done for you.¡±

    ¡°Your mother is right. Why did you do this to us?¡±

    ¡°I di-¡± Ameril tried to get a sentence out but was cut off by the woman as she pped Ameril again.

    *p* ¡°Who said you could talk back. Your parents are talking, and you should listen to us when we tell you things. Now you are going toe back to the mansion, and you will stay there until the date of your engagement.¡±

    ¡°Wha- You can¡¯t do that. He is a horrible man; I will not marry him.¡±

    Another p ringed out. ¡°You will do what you are told. The man you will marry is very rich and connected to the royal family. You will do your duty to your family, and that is final.¡± Her mother said, where she then ordered the guards to take her to the carriage.

    Olivia couldn¡¯t watch it anymore. She had to do something to help her friend. She needed to talk to Ameril, to find out for sure what was going on and figure out a way to help her.

    All she had to do was figure out a way to reach her.

    There was the chance that she would be out of the town by the fourth bell, however slim it was no that she had been confined to their home. But as a n B, she decided that looking for a way into the town would be the way to go.

    The main entrance was a no-go, as the guards would be there day and night. Making her way around the town took a lot of time, as she had to make sure she wasn¡¯t seen. As she did, she found two other entrances to the town. Both were simr in size to each other and slightly smaller than the main gate. But, another thing they had inmon was the number of guards that were present. Like with the main gate there were taking entry fees and patrolling along the perimeter. Both were out of the question for gaining entrance to the town.

    By the time she had made her way around the town to look for the main ways in, the third bell had chimed, so she headed to the tree line from before to wait for Ameril. She was able to make it back, and not longter, the fourth bell chimed. And so, she waited.

    ¡­

    And waited.

    ¡­

    But Ameril didn¡¯t show.

    There was no doubt in her mind that the reason Ameril hadn¡¯t shown, was because she was being kept from leaving the town, and probably even her own home. Thoughts of her possibly changing her mind and deciding to forget about her, didn¡¯te to her mind at all. She could tell Ameril wasn¡¯t that kind of person.

    The next day, she did the same thing again, this time looking for any other ways into the town. As she moved around the wall she looked for any defects in it, cracks, openings and holes were the things she was looking for. Given these massive walls have probably been standing for an age, and may even have been involved in many a war and battle, it was likely there were some ws that could be exploited.

    Like before she spent a good several hours or so travelling around the wall, staying hidden as before, searching. She managed to find broken stonework and cracks in several locations, but once she had managed to evade the guard¡¯s line of sight and make it up to the wall, it wasn¡¯t enough to make any way into the town.

    Eventually, she made a lucky discovery. She managed to find a few stone bricks that looked out of ce. Getting up to the wall and inspecting them, she found that they were loose, as inpletely loose. While heavy it was very easy to remove them from the wall, and what she found was a hollowed-out section of the massive wall, as if someone had dug a tunnel.

    This was the perfect way for her to enter the town and find Ameril. Assuming that whoever made the tunnel wasn¡¯t there when she did. It was equally likely that it was made ages ago and has been forgotten about though.

    All she had to do now, wase back at nightfall, and pick up a disguise when in the town, in order to move about freely.

    She made her way back to the treeline to get some rest and be ready for the evening when she found something she wasn¡¯t expecting.

    ¡°Wha-, Ameril. How are you here?¡±

    There at the treeline was the girl she had been waiting for, holding a bag with arge assortment of items.

    ¡°Olivia, you¡¯re still here. I was afraid you would have left when I didn¡¯t meet you yesterday.¡±

    ¡°I was worried about you, so I was looking for ways into the town to find you. Are you ok, are you safe here? What was all of that with your parents?¡±

    Ameril just stood there and couldn¡¯t believe that the kindest person she had met in her life was a half-orc half-goblin. The fact that she was looking for ways to break into a town that would kill her on sight just to check she was fine, really pulled at her heartstrings.

    ¡°I-I¡¯m fine. I¡¯ve had worse from them.¡±

    Olivia grimaced at that and so she reached out and rubbed the side of her face where she had been pped. Parents hitting their child was another thing that obviously did not sit right with her.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be ok.¡± Ameril cupped the hand that was on her face. ¡°I¡¯m not supposed to leave my room, and the guards around the house have been told to watch out for me. I¡¯m supposed to stay there until I have to get married, all so that my parents can get better connections to the royal family. The man I am to marry has had three wives before me, all of which died by ident,¡±, of which thest word she air quoted, ¡°But, I managed to bribe one of the maids to help me escape, so I could get to you with the things you needed.¡±

    ¡°So, you cane with me then, now that you managed to get away. You don¡¯t have to stay here.¡±

    ¡°Very tempting, really, but I can¡¯t right now. If I leave, the maid and the rest of the house are sure to be punished. Also, this time they will be warier and will send someone to search for me should I flee again. That would just put you in danger. I need to figure some things out here and find a way to get out of this marriage. But when I do, I will leave this ce and never return. The ceremony is supposed to be in several weeks from now, so I should have things sorted by then.¡±

    ¡°I understand.¡±

    Ameri smiled back at Olivia, ¡°I thought you would push back more on me staying here.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ve been forced enough into doing things. There is no way I will add to that.¡±

    Tears started peaking in the corners of Ameril¡¯s eyes, but she quickly wiped them away.

    ¡°Ah, before I forget. I couldn¡¯t go into town, but I managed to get things from around the house. And maybe a few things from the armoury.¡±

    ¡°Armoury! Won¡¯t someone notice?¡±

    ¡°Should be fine. It¡¯s not like there is a record for it. It¡¯s just there for the house guards, and if they need more stuff, my parents just buy it. They don¡¯t care, they have plenty of money to do it.¡±

    Handing the bag over to Olivia, she set it down and opened it up. Inside there was a set of clothes, all looking to be the right size for her. It included a white shirt, brown trousers, a belt and some shoes. There was also a waterskin, a dagger, a small amount of food and a crystal orb of some kind all of which should fit into the bag she currently has. Off to the side was arge roll of cloth as well as a spear.

    ¡°The clothes are my grandfather¡¯s. He was quite arge man so it should fit you.¡±

    ¡°Wait. Are you saying I¡¯m fat?¡±

    ¡°What. No, no. It¡¯s just-. You. Your part orc. Your-¡±

    Olivia just burst outughing watching Ameril fumble over her words.

    ¡°That¡¯s not funny.¡±

    ¡­

    Once they had calmed down, Ameril continued to talk about the items.

    ¡°The spear is just a normal one that the guards use, nothing fancy about it. The roll of cloth is a tent you can use. It¡¯s just a small basic tent that is given to guards that have to head out of town. Lastly, is amunication orb. It will let usmunicate over long distances. We should only use it for emergencies though, as it can only be used to send a message five times. The way to use it is you hold the orb, think about the person you are trying to contact, and then say your message. If the person you thought about is linked to an orb, the orb glows when it receives a message, then you can hear it by doing the same thing as when you send one, you just don¡¯t say a message. Now let¡¯s link this to you.¡±

    Handing the ball to Olivia, she held it in one hand, and Ameril took the dagger to one of her fingers on the other. A few drops of blood on the orb, caused it to sh, and then return to its original colour.

    ¡°There, all done. Now I need to get back before they find I¡¯m missing.¡±

    With a heartfelt thank you and a tearful goodbye, Ameril turned to leave. But before she did, she turned back, leaned upwards and kissed Olivia on the cheek. Turning on her heel she headed back to town, flushed red on her face, which matched what was on Olivia¡¯s.

    As Olivia saw her go, she hoped that today would not be thest time she would see her again.

 Chapter 11

    The Future

    Standing there at the treeline, Olivia watched Ameril head back into the town. As she got smaller and smaller, Olivia knew that it was time for her to move on.

    It was still light out, but she felt that she needed to get moving and journey out into the wide, wide world.

    Really it was the forest that she would be seeing first, but it was better than nothing.

    With her new clothes on, a dagger at her hip and a bag and spear on her back she was geared up and ready to take on this journey.

    Looking out over at the town, she headed towards the east, making her way to the dirt road or path that was leading away from the town. There want a specific reason for choosing the eastern path. It was only due to the reduced amount of traffic along it that she chose that path over the others.

    She could have just headed in any random direction into the forest but felt that it would be better to be near the well-travelled path. While she couldn¡¯t just join the people travelling along it, it was likely that she would be better suited to getting any necessities if she travelled along it. If she really had to a littlete-night thievery could be done. There was also the benefit that it should end up taking her to a water source that the next town or vige use.

    She gave the town a wide birth as she headed to the path, being sure to keep out of sight of the guards and any other people travelling to and from the town. Once she was there, she gave the town one final look, and started her new journey, heading east into the forest.

    A journey that currently had no real purpose.

    .....

    ¡­

    As she travelled, she realised that now was the first time that she actually had some time to think. Ever since she woke, she had been dealing with some kind of conflict or struggle. First was figuring out what and where she was. Then came the fight with the deer thing and the wolves. Then it was the rescue of Ameril from the man, andstly was worrying about Ameril in the town.

    Now that she was alone and had no one trying to kill her, she actually had some time to figure out what she wanted to do.

    So that¡¯s just what she did.

    Being in this new world and having a different body, she realised there was a lot she could do. Explore thend, settle somewhere and all manner of things. Unlike the modern Earth that she came from, she no longer had any responsibilities. There was no more turning up for college and studying. She felt truly free.

    But, as she delved into all these possibilities she realised there was a lot more that she couldn¡¯t do

    While she could go on a massive adventure and travel all over the other kingdoms and see the wonders of this world, her appearance would not be well received by anyone. She would always be seen as a monster to all the other races.

    This bared her from ever seeing the inside of towns and viges. She would never be able to just walk up to someone and start a conversation, or make friends with anyone. While Ameril was the exception so far, the only reason they were truly able to be friends was because she had saved her from being assaulted by that man, twice. Unless something like that happened again, there wasn¡¯t any other real way she could meet people.

    As she came to that conclusion, she also realised that the fact that the first person she met had been under such dire straits, meant that this was not a peaceful world. Simr to what all of Ameril¡¯s stories had already shown. The chances of her actually meeting someone else under a simr situation was quite possible.

    So, baring her meeting someone outside of a town and under attack, as far as she could see, the only other people she may actually get along with, were Orcs and Goblins. From her memory from before she ended up in this world, she was sure that she was a mixture of orc and goblin. So, of all the races out there, they were surely the only ones that would wee her with open arms.

    Whether this was the case or not would only be known once she made contact with them.

    There was also the problem of actually finding them.

    From the stories Ameril had told her, the goblins and orcs had been hunted to near extinction. While they were still regarded as the stuff of nightmares, whether there were any actually left was anyone¡¯s guess. The only ce she assumed they would be is somewhere in the forest. But that doesn¡¯t help when it is a massive forest that you need to search. Especially if having nearly been culled, they would have ended up going into hiding.

    So as far as she saw it, this was a long-term goal for her. If however, she manages to meet other races some other way without being killed, then great. This would put finding the goblins and orcs on the back burner.

    Another long-term goal she could think of was actually being able to enter a town or vige without being attacked. To do this, she would need to form rtions with the right people and have them help with getting her ess to the town. This, like finding the remaining orcs and goblins, would be a task that would take a long time toe to fruition.

    For the short-term goals, she decided that she needed to learn to survive. She needed to know how to fight with her weapon, fight without it, and how to live in the forest. Sure, she had a basic understanding of all of these things, but she was by no means a master of the spear or whatever weapon she ends up using. She also had no hand-to-hand fighting experience, and if she doesn¡¯t learn how the forest works in this world, such as what can be eaten, what the poisonous nt are and other key things, then she would probably find herself in an early grave.

    For this to happen though, she needed to find someone to help her.

    Again, without being killed by them.

    The only way she could see this happening, aside from saving someone in peril and having then help, was to find a small vige. Once there she would need to find someone who could fight, and someone who journeyed out into the forest regrly. Then she just needed to broach the subject with them. How she would do that, she didn¡¯t know. But it was as good a n as any right now.

    She could try this in a town that would have more people to choose from, but it also had more people that could kill her.

    So on she went, following the path away from the town and heading on her journey to improve herself. As she travelled still worked on her muscles with exercises, ate some more fruit and drank some more water until it started to grow dark.

    ¡°Better make camp.¡±

    Tonight would be the first night that Olivia would try to use her new camping equipment.

    She turned off the path and headed into the forest looking for somewhere toy her head.

    As she headed further and further from the path, she managed to find a nice clearing. There was some shrubbery and fallen trees lying about, but for the most part, it was clear. It was surrounded by trees forming something of an easy-to-breach wall all around it. But what really sold it for her, was the drooping trees on one side of the area,

    Heading under the trees, as far as she could see they were benign and looked simr to a willow. The drooping branches gave her some more cover and protection from the elements. It was quite a good spot to rest.

    Gear on the floor, she got to work on the tent.

    And it almost killed her.

    ¡­

    ¡°Why won¡¯t the stupid thing stand up.¡±

    The bundle of cloth came with several wooden poles in order to prop it up, but no matter how she arranged it, it just would not stay there.

    She continued for a good twenty minutes until she finally had something half decent. It was a little lopsided and a stiff breeze could probably knock it down. But it was home for the night.

    She headed into the forest and gathered some firewood, where she also tried her hand at hunting some food for dinner, but had no such luck. Until she acquired some actual snares or hunting lessons of any kind there was little to no chance she would be having deer or rabbit for dinner for quite some time.

    Back at the tent, and with the tinderbox out, she lit a small fire, which she surrounded with stones. As it was getting dark, the small fire kept the cold at bay.

    Thankfully the tree she was under wasrge enough that none of the branches were anywhere near the fire, as that was sure to cause some problems.

    She started to munch on another of the fruits in her bag, but as she did she noticed she only had a couple left. Once they were gone, she would be on the camping rations.

    On the journey here she hadn¡¯t seen any more of the fruits which worried her. While it was a problem, it brought up another thing she needed to learn about. What things were edible in the forest.

    It also urred to her that she should have asked Ameril these things, but realised that given she was a noble girl, she probably didn¡¯t have much information on these sorts of things.

    With her meal now starting to digest, she put aside the worry over her food, and headed into the tent.

    She kept the dagger close at hand and the rest of her gear she was able to tuck into the corner the tent.

    Now all she had to do was get some sleep.

 Chapter 12

    The Intrusion ¨C Part 1

    All was quiet in the forest. Well, as quiet as it can be with insects and other animals making noise throughout the night. But either way, Olivia was able toy asleep in the tent through all of it.

    The fatigue from the day hit her harder than she would have thought, putting her straight to sleep once she hit the bedding she hadid out.

    It wasn¡¯t much to look at, but the shelter of the tree and the tent, along with the small bundle of cloth for the bed, was much better than if she had toy on the cold, dirty floor.

    As the night dragged on, the fire eventually died out, but Olivia was able to bear the cold as the tree kept the harshest of the wind out. It also helped that with her new body, she had a lot more meat on the bone, which improved her resistance to it as well.

    Sleeping on her lonesome wasn¡¯t the best idea, but it was the only option she had. Being by herself left her open to any number of problems. It would be better if she had a partner with her, one who could keep watch when she slept and switch midway through the night.

    Given the dangers, she knew she would have toe up with some rm system she could set up for the night, but for the time being, being without was a risk she would have to take.

    Thankfully, the tree was a lucky find. It kept her out of view of most things and gave her shelter from the wind and rain. The hope was that the closed fabric of the tent, along with the surrounding tree branches, was enough to keep her out of sight of roaming predators.

    The only thing it didn¡¯t keep out was the very inquisitive wildlife.

    .....

    Or anyone up to no good.

    ¡­

    *crunch*

    The sound of a few sticks and twigs snapping nearby rang through the forest, seemingly having happened during a lull of insect and animal noises.

    Although it wasn¡¯t much of a loud noise, it caused Olivia¡¯s eyes to shoot open. Having woken up at who knows what time in the night, she found herself in a bit of a daze and groggy from the partial sleep she had managed to achieve.

    In her tired state, she looked around at what she could see, but all she saw was the darkness of the night. It would seem that while the tree provided her with a lot of benefits, it also blocked out most of the moonlight. Not a great thing in this situation.

    *crunch*

    ¡®That one was louder than before.¡¯ She realised and decided she would need to move about to locate where it came from.

    She couldn¡¯t pinpoint exactly where the sound wasing from, but due to the crescendo since thest one, whatever was making the sound was getting closer. Her first thought was that it was most likely a wild animal. Whether it was there to get its fill for the night or just passing through was anyone¡¯s guess. But while she could hope for thetter, she would make sure to prepare for the former. Which she did by taking hold of the dagger she had.

    She did try to look for her spear, but with the nketing darkness, she was unable to find it. Plus it would be unwieldy in this small tent, and from the shifting she did in her sleep, she couldn¡¯t recall from memory where it was located in the tent. So, it was all up to the dagger to help defend herself.

    A less likely thought urred to her, that it may be a ¡®someone¡¯, rather than an animal wandering through the forest. But the more she thought about it, she could only wonder who would be travelling through the forest at this time of night. The darkness would make it nigh impossible to travel, it was also much colder and surely this would be the time to sleep rather than travel.

    Thieves were a possibility, but for them to have found a lone tent, in the middle of nowhere, hidden by the tree, was hard to fathom.

    Putting the thought aside, she tried to turn to get a good look around the tent. As her eyes scanned the sides of the tent, she saw no silhouettes or movements through the fabric. She continued to move her head and body in order to look at the entrance to her tent, and she made sure to do this slowly, not wanting to make any sudden moves and possibly startle the animal into attacking her.

    As she got into view of the entrance to the tent, se was able to actually see into the outside world.

    It took a short while to realise that that shouldn¡¯t be possible, as she closed the fabric at the entrance once she entered it to sleep.

    She wasn¡¯t able to think about this for too long, as the view into the wide-open world, was quickly reced by a silhouette.

    A humanoid silhouette.

    She only had a few seconds to think as she watched the silhouette raise its hand holding something that, while still somewhat blurry and dark in her vision, closely resembled the shape of a knife.

    While she did have a dagger herself which she was currently holding, through the shifting of her body in the night, she wasn¡¯t in the best position to use it. So, as if on reflex having seen the person and the knife, Olivia reached out and grabbed the person¡¯s arm, keeping them from doing anything with their weapon.

    ¡°Ahh¡±

    Her assant cried out as Olivia manhandled them. With the knife now stuck in the air and unable to be plunged down into her, she decided to do the only thing she could from her prone position.

    She pulled.

    The hope was to bring them down to the ground and then they would be in the best position for her to use her own dagger.

    Using all of her strength, she pulled her assant into the tent with her. Her assant ended up toppling over her body and falling into the fabric of the tent. As they fell, the knife slipped out of their hand and fell, plunging into the ground and thankfully not Olivia¡¯s body.

    As they fell, this knocked all of the precarious wooden poles down and caused the tent to copse, where it then followed the trajectory of the person as they continued to travel.

    Given that it was a tent that had no bottom to it, as her assant rolled into the tent, twisting up in the fabric, this caused Olivia to be exposed to the elements, as shey prone on the bed roll she had beenying on.

    ¡°Err, okay. Didn¡¯t expect that, but sure.¡±

    Her attacker struggled, punching, kicking and pulling at the fabric, as they tried to untangle themselves from the tent. As they iled about, several groans and grunts, followed by hissing rang out from the perpetrator.

    Olivia took this as an opportunity to get the upper hand, not that she didn¡¯t already have this, where she ran and threw herself at them, holding them to the ground. A groan and a cry of pain, feminine in nature, rang out from the tent as they copsed to the ground, unable to move given the massive block of meat on top of them.

    ¡°Get off of me you beast.¡± The assant cried out as they tried to push Olivia off them. This was quickly followed by the sound of tearing as several very sharp nails, almost like ws, pierced through the fabric and ripped it.

    ¡°You attacked me first, so why should I,¡± Olivia replied.

    Her response caused her attacker to suddenly freeze, surprised by the reply.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°I said you attacked me f-¡±

    ¡°I heard what you said,¡± was the muffled reply, ¡°It¡¯s that¡­ how is it you can speak.¡±

    Olivia just sighed, realising she would have to go through the whole rigmarole of exining who she was and how she could talk. As she realised this, she could only wonder why her assant would ask that question. Why would they be surprised that she could talk. The only reason she could think was if they knew she was a monster of some kind. But how they would know this having seen her in theplete darkness around them, she didn¡¯t know.

    Putting that aside, she needed to figure out how to deal with her attacker first before she went into who she was. That was assuming they could have a civilized conversation, and not end up having to have full-on fight to the death or something.

    ¡°Before I get onto that, why did you attack me?¡±

    While it would be obvious that if her attacker had seen what she was, they would attack her. But given the time of day, surely they only saw her silhouette, so how would they know what she was. Because of that, it seems like they entered her tent with the intent to just kill whoever was in there. If that was the case then they may have done so before, and that was not someone Olivia wanted to deal with lightly.

    ¡°Why? Because you are a monster. Why else. I was afraid that you would wake up and kill me. So I decided to kill you first.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯spletely dark. How could you tell what I was? Or did you n to just kill whoever was in the tent.¡±

    ¡°What? No. I saw what you were. I can see in the dark very easily. I am a cat-kin.¡±

    ¡®A cat-kin.¡¯

    From her knowledge of fantasy novels, that was surely a cat girl of some kind, which would make some sense that they could see well in the dark as they had some traits simr to cats. Such as being able to see well in low light.

    While Olivia did know that beast-kin were in this world, she had yet to see one. As far as she could recall, there were none at the entrance to the town. Saying this, from Ameril¡¯s stories, beast-kin had not had an easy life, which may be why none were at the ¡®human¡¯ town.

    Now that things made a little more sense, Olivia decided to continue the interrogation.

    ¡°So, did you enter my tent nning to rob me then, expecting me to be human or something?¡±

    ¡°I¡­N-no.¡± The cat-kin said in quite a quiet voice.

    ¡®Well, that was clearly a lie.¡¯

    ¡°You¡¯re not a very good liar. It¡¯s clear you came to rob whoever was in the tent. My question is whether you nned to do so using that knife of yours.¡±

    ¡°No! I have never hurt anyone. I always get away unseen. The knife is just for protection in the forest.¡±

    As far as Olivia could tell, it sounded like she was telling the truth. It almost sounded like her honour was being besmirched by assuming she had hurt people.

    Now that she had the situation under control and could reasonably tell that the cat-kin hadn¡¯t nned to kill who she was going to rob, it made her feel a little better about it all. Hopefully, they could continue this conversation and not end up having to fight each other.

    Who knows, things may even end up as they did with Ameril. Attempted assault and **** aside.

    But one thing was clear, Olivia was not going to get the rest of her sleep back.

 Chapter 13

    The Intrusion ¨C Part 2

    As shey on top of the catkin bundled in her now ruined tent, Olivia wondered where to go from here. Now that she had determined the catkin wasn¡¯t as bad as she thought she could have been, there was the chance for them to actually get along with each other. But first, they would need to get to a point where they were talking face to face, rather than face to fabric.

    ¡°Ok, I believe you. Now as you can probably tell, I¡¯m no ordinary¡­monster, if that¡¯s what you want to call me. So, I am going to let you go, and then we can have a calm talk in front of each other, where I can answer your questions. If you try anything, I will fight back. Is that clear?¡±

    Silence permeated from under the tent as the person just listened to Olivia speak, realising their life was in her hands, but this was soon followed by an agreement of what she had said.

    ¡°Yes. On my honour, I promise I will not attack you.¡±

    Olivia slowly moved off the bundle and helped to unwrap her assant. As she got near to the end, she moved backwards allowing the girl to finish freeing herself.

    As the girl pulled thest of the fabric from the tent, nowpletely unusable due to the damage, Olivia was able to get a good look at them.

    Sort of.

    It is still obviously pitch ck, but her eyes had adjusted somewhat to the darkness. While she couldn¡¯t see much in the way of colours or fine details, she could see a few things. The girl was quite slim, not athlete-looking, but slim nheless. Her hair was of a medium length, onlying to her shoulders, and peeking above it all were two furry ears. Lastly, her clothes were damaged, torn and ripped in ces. She would need to wait till morning to get a better look at her, assuming she stuck around till then.

    .....

    Now free of the fabric, the girl looked around and spotted Olivia, shuffling back once she did. Olivia sighed at this but honestly expected it.

    The girl sat there just staring at Olivia. Every now and then she quickly looked around as if expecting to see something or someone.

    The silence just dragged on and Olivia had to break it lest it go on all night, and really not get any sleep.

    ¡°Are you hungry?¡± Olivia asked as she went into her bag and sifted out one of thest two fruits she had left.

    The girl quickly perked up after seeing the food. She was still very cautious of Olivia, but her hunger won out, if the rumble from her stomach was anything to go by. Not wanting to cause her any more distress by getting the girl to take it from her, Olivia chucked the fruit over to the catkin, which once she caught she quickly devoured with a gleeful look on her face.

    ¡°When was thest time you ate?¡±

    ¡°Three days ago.¡± She replied during mouthfuls. ¡°Haven¡¯t had time to hunt for food.¡± Once she scoffed it down, she gave a reply of ¡°Thank you¡±.

    ¡°No problem. I¡¯m Olivia by the way.¡±

    ¡°Lyrika.¡±

    It didn¡¯t take to long to finish the fruit, and once done she leant back in bliss.

    ¡°What are you?¡± Lyrika asked as she turned to look at Olivia.

    Olivia was a little taken back by the bluntness of the question, but she replied all the same, exining who and what she was like she did with Ameril. Like with Ameril, she went through the same things, about how she was likely part orc part goblin, and only woke up several days ago with ¡®amnesia¡¯, all of which managed to cate Lyrika¡¯s curiosity.

    She stayed away from exining how she was transmigrated to this world, as even she wasn¡¯t sure how all that went down.

    ¡°So that¡¯s why you look the way you do. Well, you look much better than other goblins and orcs I¡¯ve seen.¡±

    ¡°¡­Thanks.¡±

    Olivia wasn¡¯t sure how to take that. It sounded like it could be apliment, one that she would¡¯ve probably ended up blushing from, but the tone just made it sound like just a fact more than anything else.

    Lyrika asked a few other things about her, one of which was where her tribe was. It made sense to Olivia why she would ask this given how Goblins and Orcs normally worked, but all she say was that had been solo all this time. It would also seem that was the reason why Lyrika had been looking after every now and then, looking out for other Orcs or Goblins. As well as wild animals and monsters of course.

    She even very bluntly asked why Olivia hadn¡¯t attacked her yet, which really threw Olivia for a loop. It would seem though that the short exnation of how she wasn¡¯t like other orcs or goblins, being smarter than them, not having an urge to do so was enough to just make Lyrika answer with a short, ¡®Huh, Interesting¡¯, as if it hardly mattered.

    Moving on, Olivia decided to bring up a question of her own.

    ¡°So, why are you out here, robbing people in the middle of the night?¡±

    Lyrika looked a bit apprehensive after hearing the question but gave a reply anyway, ¡°Some things happened in my vige and I was exiled.¡±

    Exiled! Olivia wondered if she had been conversing with a criminal. A criminal with crimes worse than robbing strangers that is, but thankfully, she was proven wrong as Lyrika continued her story.

    ¡°I am the daughter of the Chief in my vige and my life was good. We hardly had any problems, aside from the asional monster attack. But one day the chief of another beastkin vige came to us, along with his tribe, mainly made up of warriors. He told us how he was going to bring together all of the beast kin viges together, strengthening us against whoever would oppose us, not that anyone had for quite some time. While we have not had the best rtionship with humans they mostly leave us be now, aside from a few that think it¡¯s fine to make ves of us. For many it sounded good at the time, improving the ties between the viges, and bringing us together, so many people agreed. But as the days went by I learnt how wrong we were. He said that for it to work, a form of unity was needed to show we were with him and that unity would be through marriage. My father was still all for the idea and was fine with marrying off his daughter in order to bring all of the beast kin together, but I soon learnt of what happened at the other viges.¡±

    Olivia was on the edge of her seat. While this was shaping to be a tragic story, it was a thoroughly engrossing tale.

    ¡°On one eve, I happened upon one of the tents the new chief had set up near our vige. As I walked past I heard sobbing and crying. When I entered I found several women of various beastkin all tied up, bruises on different parts of their bodies. I went to help but they told me no, fearful of the punishment that woulde from the chief should he find out. They told me that they were the women who had married into this alliance. They were all either the daughters of their own chiefs, and in some cases, if they had no daughter the current wife of the chief went with him. Some went into this voluntarily, others the new chief forced their hand. For some he killed the current chief and for others he threatened their children and the lives of the tribe. Since they joined he had beaten them daily and used them as he pleased. They told me to leave before he learnt I was there, so I ran back to my father, to tell him what I had learnt. He was horrified about what I told him and in order to save me, came up with a solution. He exiled me, saying I hadmitted some crime and that once my sentence was up I could rejoin the vige. The new chief was angry at first, but but none the wiser that I had found his secret. He eventually epted it as well, saying that punishment was necessary to keep people inline, and that when I return, they would continue the marriage.¡±

    Tears fell from both Lyrika¡¯s and Olivia¡¯s eyes as she finished her tale. Swept up in the moment, Olivia moved over to her and pulled her into a hug, where she continued to cry.

    Both tensed up at this, given they hardly knew each other, attacked each other, and that Olivia was a ¡®monster¡¯. But with all of the emotions from her story, Lyrika just didn¡¯t have the energy to just pull away, taking the contact for thefort she needed.

    ¡°I do not know what to do. The new chief has moved onto another vige, but he left some of his men to ¡®help¡¯ the vige. I still have two months left on my exile and the new chief said he would return then to im me.¡±

    Olivia stroked the girl¡¯s back and could help but decide that she had to help this girl. How, she did not know yet, but she had some time to think.

    Still stroking the girl¡¯s back, she all of a sudden stopped crying. Looking down, she found that she had fallen asleep in her arms.

    ¡°Adorable,¡± she thought to herself as she looked at the sleeping girl¡¯s face. She quickly wiped away the tears, and slowly moved toy her down on the ground.

    Once done, she moved away and decided to give the girl some space. While it wasn¡¯t much, Olivia took the remains of the tent and the bedding, pulling them over to her to use as a cover for her. Tearing it up, was able to use some for herself and so made her way a short distance from the girl andid down.

    ¡®Huh, looks like I will get to sleep after all.¡¯

    They then slept soundly through the night.

 Chapter 14

    The Surprise ¨C Part 1

    As the sun rose, so too did Olivia. Still under the tree, the sunlight trickled through the dropping leaves as they sashayed from the wind. It twinkled along the ground like stars in the sky.

    The remains of the tent she had used as bedding did its job, and gave her a, slightly, morefortable surface to sleep on. Now that the night was over, it was bundled up ready for the next night. Something was better than nothing.

    She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, and suddenly recalled her assant turned guest. Peering across the campsite, the beddingy on the floor, but her acquaintance and her gear were nowhere to be found.

    ¡®Probably fled once she woke. The emotions fromst night probably clouded her judgement, but a good night¡¯s sleep probably solved that and told her to run away from the monster.¡¯ Olivia thought as she shrugged. It was disappointing, but Olivia half-expected it. Not everyone could end up like Ameril. In this case, they had a true confrontation with each other, which couldn¡¯t have helped. Plus, why would she want to stick around a monster that may attack her. It was just the way her world worked now.

    It may be possible that she would meet someone who wouldn¡¯t run away again, but people like that may be few and far between.

    *Ssh*

    ¡®Huh¡¯

    The sound of something hitting water rang out passed the tree, in the opposite direction Olivia had arrived here in.

    .....

    ¡®I didn¡¯t realise I was near water. Better fill up my waterskin while I¡¯m here. I just hope the ssh was a fish and not some monster.¡¯

    In case it was a monster, Olivia took her spear and headed towards the sound. A few more sshing sounds came from the direction she was travelling in, louder than before as she neared the water.

    If it was a fish, she wondered if she could try her hand at spear fishing again but quickly gave up on that given thest time she tried and failed.

    ¡®I need someone to actually show me how to do it. Or get a, that would make things easier.¡¯

    As she moved through the brush and the trees, she travelled up a short hill. At the top, she pushed through a couple of trees and froze.

    The vision before her was amazing. She saw a gorgeous river, glistening in the sunlight. The water was a brilliant blue and meandered in thendscape, which was a small section of this incredibly long river. While it was lovely, what really caused her to freeze was the beautiful girl standing in the river. She could only see her back, but even from that, she could see she was a beauty. She was slim and slightly tanned. Silky brte hair flowed down to her shoulders, which she threaded her fingers through, removing non-existent knots. The fingers she used were petit, but housed nails that ended in with a point, simr to that of ws. She had yet to see the girl¡¯s face, but her head was crowned by two furry cat ears on the top of her head. But this was nothingpared to the long, thin furry brte tail that protruded just above her b-

    ¡®Wait, cat ears. Why does that sound familiar.¡¯

    It only took a few seconds for it to finally click that it was her guest, the cat-kin.

    ¡®She didn¡¯t run away. She just left to take a bath. Away from prying eyes¡­ Like mine. Ok, I need to get out of here before she sees me.¡¯

    Slowing backing away, Olivia passed back through the trees. As she didn¡¯t, she failed to notice the cat girl¡¯s ears twitch. And that if she managed to hear that, she must have heard her turning up.

    Once she was unable to see Lyrika, she headed away from the river and hurried back to camp. Yet she could not get the image of her out of her head.

    ¡®Wow, It was only her back, but she is gorgeous. Her ears are so cute and that tail¡­what it would feel like to stroke and y with that. Then, just below that just was a lovely touchable butt-¡®

    She quickly shook her head, not sure where these thoughts hade from. While it was clear Lyrika was a beautiful girl, from behind at least, it didn¡¯t feel right for her to be thinking these things about her. Yet anyway.

    Lyrika was someone she had just met, fought with and then watched as she poured her heart out. For her to be thinking these things about someone she had just met, and from only seeing, their beautiful naked back, with water dripping down it, running through the crack in her-

    ¡®Stop that.¡¯

    As she shook her head again, her eyes finallynded on another problem, very much linked to the situation. Between her legs, her little fried bulged and strained against the clothes she was wearing, enough that it opened the waist of her trousers for her to see it.

    ¡®Well, that¡¯s new¡­ Is this what they call ¡®morning wood¡¯. But, isn¡¯t that supposed to happen when you wake up. I don¡¯t recall it being there when I did.¡¯

    Then it hit her.

    ¡®It can¡¯t be from seeing Lyrika, can it?¡¯

    As she said that, her mind wandered back to the same image, causing it to jolt suddenly and push harder.

    ¡®Well, if that¡¯s not a sign I¡¯m right, I don¡¯t know what is. Now, how do I get it back to normal.¡¯

    Pondering this, she continued on her way back to the camp, but a few stepster and she had to stop due to her now big problem.

    ¡®Why is it so difficult to walk now. Who designed something like that.¡¯

    With the difficulty in walking, Olivia practically waddled the rest of the way to the camp. Once there she awkwardly took a seat on the torn-up bedding to figure out what to do.

    ¡®How do I get rid of an erection¡­masturbate, yes that¡¯s what I need to do. But how do people with a penis masturbate.¡¯

    ¡°Good morning.¡±

    ¡°Ahh.¡±

    As Olivia sat there trying to recall how to solve her problem, Lyrika called out to her as she passed the tree branches into the camp. The startled Olivia quickly moved the bedding over herself to cover it up.

    ¡®Better cover this up. We only just met, don¡¯t want to make things awkward between us, considering she¡¯s the cause of it.¡¯

    Itpletely slipped her mind that upon meeting Ameril, she was stark naked and the girl had a gander at her area and that didn¡¯t seem to affect their rtionship. Granted, she didn¡¯t actually have clothes at the time and was tied up so she couldn¡¯t really help it. But it was alsoid at the time.

    Now though, she had clothes and was sporting an erection, so it was a slightly different situation. It wasn¡¯t that she was self conscious, it just wasn¡¯t something you would put on disy to a stranger if you had a way not to.

    As she ran through her thoughts trying to deal with the situation, Lyrika took a seat at the camp. It also hadn¡¯t urred to her that she had yet to see Lyrika¡¯s face yet given that she had been looking down as she attempted to hide her problem.

    ¡°There is a river over the hill in that direction if you want to take bath, I just finished mine.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah. That sounds good.¡±

    With Olivia¡¯s excellent performance of showing that nothing was amiss, Lyrika looked over at her with doubt, knowing that something was different or wrong.

    It had only been a night that they had known each other and while Lyrika had confided in Olivia, she was still very much, in her mind for the time being, a monster who had not yet attacked her. When she woke this morning, she thought about leaving and running away, but as she looked over at Olivia¡¯s sleeping form she decided to see how things would go.

    The way she saw it, she would either die from this Orc and Goblin thing or she would survive long enough only to return to her vige and end up as a sex ve. If she had left the camp, she would probably be killed by an animal or monster, maybe even several of them, as even her proficiency with a knife could not save her from that. But with Olivia, she had some muscle to keep her alive.

    Besides, if Olivia ended up being a bad egg, like pretty much all other Goblins and Orcs, she liked her chances at dealing with the problem if the need arose. While her failed attempt in the evening did put her skills to shame, now that she was no longer hungry and thinking clearly, she reckoned she could take her.

    Which led her to wonder if that situation hade sooner than she thought, where looking over at Olivia, she could see her acting all strangely and hiding something beneath the ruins of the tent. She wondered if it was the dagger and that she was concealing it to use it on her. Or it could be that she had tried to use it when she wasn¡¯t looking and was now trying to hide it from her. It may even be something worse, like a potion to put her to sleep or paralyze her, allowing the monster to do whatever she wanted to her. It may even be a ve cor.

    Many, many thoughts ran through Lyrika¡¯s head. Some would call it paranoid, but when you had just spent the past day running from someone that was nning to make you a ve and may have decided to follow you to do it, it is quite reasonable to be paranoid. Not that she suspected that Olivia had anything to do with him, but it could be that the nice act was just that, an act, luring her into a false sense of security before she strikes.

    As Lyrika delved deep into the conspiracies of what Olivia may do to her, the girl in question had no idea this was happening. She sat there trying to look inconspicuous while trying to figure out how to deal with her problem. It didn¡¯t take too long to realise what she needed to do, it was just the how.

    ¡®Masturbation. That¡¯s the only way to solve it. But how do you do it with a penis?¡¯

    Given that this new life was the first time she had had a penis, and that she had always preferred the fairer sex, it made sense that this was all new to her. This would very much be a trial-and-error exercise. But first, she had to get out of sight of Lyrika.

    ¡°I¡¯ll head over there now.¡± She said before standing up to head to the river, still holding the fabric. Which didn¡¯t look suspicious at all. This didn¡¯tst very long though as she could hardly move properly with her situation, and so sat right back down.

    ¡°You know, I think I¡¯ll go in a while. I-I¡¯m going to rest my legs a bit longer.¡±

    The poor excuse had been given, and Lyrika was not buying it.

    ¡°Are you ok?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine, why do you ask?¡±

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re being evasive, stuttering and hiding something beneath that piece of the tent.¡± Lyrika replied as she slowly started to stand up.

    Olivia ended up looking at the tent fabric, likely to make sure it was still covering what it needed to. But, as she turned to finally look at Lyrika, she was face to face with the girl¡¯s face. While she would have taken this time to think about how beautiful the girl looked, she didn¡¯t have time.

    Startled at suddenly being so close to her, Olivia went to say something but was stopped as she pushed her down and felt a knife against her throat.

    ¡°What are you hiding? Is it a cor to make me a ve, is that it? Your dagger to attack me. I knew I shouldn¡¯t trust you. Let¡¯s see how you will like it as a -¡±

    Lyrika froze mid-sentence, where in order to make her point she had pulled the remains of the tent away and out of Olivia¡¯s grasp. This fortunately or maybe even unfortunately did not reveal a ve cor as Lyrika thought, but ended up finding a ¡®weapon¡¯ of sorts. A weapon that had broken free of the confines of Olivia¡¯s clothes and was standing at full mast.

    The redness on Lyrika¡¯s cheeks was to be expected, as was the same for Olivia. Both were incredibly embarrassed with the situation, rightfully so, and ended up just frozen in ce for a good several seconds.

    This was soon broken by Lyrika, who slowly pulled the tent fabric back over her ¡®weapon¡¯, removed her de from Olivia¡¯s throat and walked back to her side of the camp and sat down. She then proceeded to just stare at the ground.

    ¡®Well this got very awkward very fast¡¯

 Chapter 15

    The Surprise ¨C Part 2

    With the atmosphere changing drastically over thest few seconds, it took a while to realise she was no longer pinned to the floor with a knife at her throat. But once her mind cleared and she noticed this, she rose back to a sitting position and just stayed there as she tried to figure out what to do next.

    She wondered how she would deal with this now. On the one hand, she had just been attacked, again, by this girl. She could have killed her very easily with that knife, and she would have been powerless to stop her. By all means, she should just cut the girl loose, as who knows when next she may try to attack her again.

    But on the other, Olivia understood. This girl went from enjoying her life with her family, to finding out she was going to be made a sex ve, to then being exiled and having to survive in the forest on her own. This would make anyone jumpy and paranoid. Olivia¡¯s actions when hiding her erection definitely didn¡¯t help the situation either.

    So how was she going to deal with this girl?

    She looked over at Lyrkia who was still in her position, hunched over and staring at the floor. What she was thinking about, Olivia wasn¡¯t sure, but she found out pretty soon.

    ¡°I thought you were a girl. Why do you have¡­that?¡±

    ¡®Really, that¡¯s the first thing you say. I know the girl is quite blunt with things, but an apology would be a good ce to start.¡¯

    ¡°Before I answer, I think you should apologise first.¡±

    .....

    ¡®After saying that, I¡¯m getting deja¡¯vu¡¯

    Lyrika looked up at Olivia making a face as if she had been slighted in some way. ¡°Wha¡­ But I thought... Why¡­ *sigh* I am sorry.¡± But while she tried toe up with some sort of rebuke, even she eventually realised there wasn¡¯t much to say other than sorry.

    ¡°Thank you. I am a girl, by the way, I just have some extra equipment.¡±

    ¡®I can¡¯t believe this is the second time I have had to exin this to a beautiful girl. All because I saw her naked¡­back. I wonder if seeing Ameril like that would have done the same for my¡­extra equipment.¡¯

    As she thought about this, images of what Ameril would look like naked came to the forefront of her mind. As you can imagine they were very pleasant even if it was mostly all guesswork.

    ¡®Stop that.¡¯ She quickly scolded herself like she did recalling Lyrika¡¯s body. ¡®Why do I keep on thinking about these sorts of things.¡¯ The scolding had to be done as she shouldn¡¯t be thinking about this while trying to have this conversation with Lyirka.

    But she did wonder if there was some deeper reason behind all of these very pleasant thoughts. Could it be the biological urge that Goblins and Orcs had started toe through? Or was she just sexually starved? It might even be both.

    ¡°I see.¡± Was the only reply that came from Lyrika.

    Silence reigned in the camp again as they both contemted the situation, but Olivia quickly spoke up needing to know for sure why Lyirka did what she did.

    ¡°Why did you attack me?¡±

    The question caused Lyrika to close her eyes and sigh, where just from that Olivia knew that she was right about why she did it. She went on to talk about how she thought Olivia was nning to attack her with whatever she had concealed under the tent fabric, how it could have been a ve cor or something else.

    ¡°I just don¡¯t¡­ trust you yet.¡±

    Olivia liked how she added yet on the end, but given what she was and how they met, while Olivia could only sigh at the response, it made sense.

    But it doesn¡¯t have to stay that way.

    ¡°Ok then. I guess we¡¯ll just need to fix that.¡±

    A quizzical look from Lyrika was the only response she received.

    ¡°So, I think I am going to have the bath. It looks like the fear of having my throat slit took away the problem I was having¡±

    ¡®If it hadn¡¯t, I think it would have been more concerned.¡¯ She couldn¡¯t help but think to herself.

    ¡°When I get back, I think we should talk about what we do next. That is unless if you decide to leave.¡±

    Lyrika looked up and Olivia as she stood to make her way to the river, paying careful attention to what she was saying.

    ¡°While you don¡¯t trust me right now, which I can understand, all I can say is that I am not like other monsters. I will not hurt you as long as you do not hurt me.¡±

    ¡®Not that I stood by that mentality since the incident, but what can you do.¡¯ She realised.

    ¡°So, you can either leave or stay. I shall leave the choice up to you.¡±

    While Olivia would have preferred thepany, this wasn¡¯t going to work if Lyrika felt that trust between the two of them would nevere. If that was the case, then it would be better that they part ways now and forget about each other.

    If she felt that they could work on things, then Olivia hoped she would decide to stay.

    ¡­

    As Olivia entered the river,pletely naked like when she first woke in this world, she felt truly rxed in the water. It was nothing like taking a bath on Earth, given that the water flowed against her and there was no way to turn up the heat, but it was the most rxed she had been since she arrived here. Walking over to the side of the river, sheid herself down, fully submerging herself in the river, minus her head, and let the rushing water flow over her body.

    She had no soap, but she honestly felt like there was no need for it, the water having done the job it needed to. She also took her time in the river, soaking her hair in its depths, and pulling out all the knots that she could.

    A good deal of timeter, she arose from the water and used some of the cleaner tent fabric she managed to find as a towel to dry herself off. It wasn¡¯t the best material to use for a towel, but beggars can¡¯t be choosers.

    Dry and with her clothes back on, she made her way back to the camp. As she entered through the leaves of the drooping tree she found Lyrkia still at the camp, hunched over the cooking pot making the first meal of the day, using some hardtack and jerky for Olivia¡¯s bag.

    Seeing this Olivia realised she should be annoyed that the girl had gone through her bag, but all she felt was happy given that she had decided to stay.

    ¡®If it happens again, then we can talk about it. For now, I¡¯m not really bothered.¡¯

    ¡°So, what now,¡± Olivia said as she sat back down at the camp.

    Lyrika finished up the meal she had made and passed a bowl over to Olivia, stretching her hand out as far as possible, where Olivia had to do the same, given that Lyrika was still keeping her distance.

    ¡°I would like to stay, if that is fine with you. So far you have been nothing but kind to me, and I have¡­ well. It may take some time, but I think I may be able to trust you eventually.¡±

    ¡°That is fine by me. Now, what do you n to do about your problem with the chief.¡± Olivia asked, knowing that after the story Lyrika had told, she would be helping her and so needed to know her n.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. I have been running non-stop since I was exiled and have not had a chance to think. I do not know how I can fix things. If I return after my exile ends, I will end up with that horrible man. I cannot return before my exile as the guards at the gate will refuse me entry. The only thing I have left is to not return and try to live alone in the forest. But if I do this, then he shall just take another girl in my ce, which would not sit right with me if I allowed that to happen.¡±

    She sighed as she went through all the possibilities of what may befall her, all of which were bleak.

    ¡°Then there are the girls he already has. Knowing what he has been doing to them, it cannot be allowed to continue. But I do not know how I can help them. He practically has a whole army with him.¡±

    As Olivia listened to Lyrika, she couldn¡¯t agree more that the girls needed to be helped. No one should have to live like that.

    But while she agreed with that, she also had to agree that doing so, seemed like an impossibility, the man having all the power that he did.

    As she thought about this, something hit her.

    ¡­

    Thankfully, only metaphorically.

    ¡°Why is he gathering the tribes together. I know you said he spoke of bringing the tribes together and improving theirmunity, but I would think a man that abuses the wives he gained from these alliances, doesn¡¯t havemunity rtions on his mind.¡±

    ¡°But, what other reasons are there.¡±

    Olivia contemted that for a while and spoke up with a few possibilities.

    ¡°Well, it could be that he ns to go to war with someone. Bringing all of the tribes together at the end of the day, givens him a massive army that he can use. While the chiefs of the tribes may not want to start a war, all he would have to do is fake some provocation from whoever he wants to attack then the rest of the alliance would feelpelled to fight back.¡±

    A look of shock grew in Lyrika¡¯s eyes as she came to understand what Olivia was talking about, knowing that if this was the case, many lives could be lost in the future.

    ¡°There is also the possibility that he just wants the power. He may not be thinking about wars and the like, but with all of these alliances he is making, his true goal could be to be a leader for all of the tribes. All the marriages put him in the centre, and he may have other ns once he has all of the alliances sorted.¡±

    While not as bad as him going to war, letting a man like that have all of the power over all of the beast-kin, would only lead to problems. There is also the possibility that while war isn¡¯t on his mind right now, once he has the power he wants, it may end up being where things lead.

    ¡°He could be using all of this for some type of criminal activity. What it could be I don¡¯t know. Other than that, he could have done all this just to get wives from each of the tribes.¡±

    The more they thought about this, Olivia suggested though that the idea of him wanting to do all of this to get arge collection of wives was likely a secondary benefit, rather than the primary focus. There were many reasons why this man was doing what he was doing, but until they had more information it was only guesswork.

    ¡°So, what do I do. How do I stop him?¡±

    ¡°I think you mean, how do we stop him.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying you will help me?¡± Lyrika replied with a surprised look on her face.

    ¡°Of course. I would have to be some kind of monster to just sit back and do nothing after all you have told me.¡±

    Olivia chuckled to herself at that, but got nothing from Lyrika.

    ¡°I-I. Thank you. I appreciate the help.¡± It was clear to see that Lyrika really wanted to hug Olivia, but the other half of her brain was keeping her back.

    They both then thought long and hard about how they could deal with this situation. Thankfully they had a lot of time to deal with it, given the length of Lyrika¡¯s exile, but it would be good to have a game n as soon as they could and it may take a while to set it in motion.

    After a good deal of time contemting this, things started toe together in Olivia¡¯s head.

    ¡°As just two people, there isn¡¯t much we can do, especially since he practically has an army. That means we need to level the ying field, which means we either need to increase our numbers, or reduce his, or both even.¡±

    ¡°He had a lot of men with him when he first came, but I think a lot of them came from the other tribes.¡±

    ¡®So, he picked up other beast-kin to add to his army from the tribes he formed alliances with. Then with each tribe he visits it grows and grows, adding to his intimidation factor as well. So how do we deal with that¡­Ah.¡¯

    ¡°We need to get the other tribes to go back on the alliance. Doing that means the men he took should be against him, increasing our numbers and dropping his. The problemes from how to get the other tribes to do that, given that the other chiefs have been all for what he has said.¡±

    ¡®How would we get them to change sides. Money is normally a good motivator, but it¡¯s not like we have any of that to use. We could try and persuade them, but why would they go against him. We need something that would cause the chiefs to want to have nothing to do with him.¡¯

    ¡°We need proof. We need proof of what he ns to do, whatever that is, and on what he has done to the girls. If we can get that, we can bring it to each of the chiefs and that should make them see clearly. Once they break off the alliance, he will be left with his smaller group, and it will be possible to stop him.¡±

    ¡°That makes sense,¡± Lyrika replied. ¡°But how do we do that.¡±

    ¡°We¡­err. I¡¯m not sure. If I get close in order to find out, I¡¯ll probably be killed. If you go, he might just take you then and there. Is there anyone you know that could help? People that you trust but can also get close to him.¡±

    ¡°I still have many friends from my tribe. They might be able to help, but I don¡¯t want to put them in danger.¡±

    ¡°If you exin everything to them, they can decide whether they want to do it or not. I can¡¯t think of any other way to deal with him. Besides, they might already have some information.¡±

    ¡®If wee up with something else down the road then it shouldn¡¯t be hard to change ns, but for now, knowing what the enemy has nned is vital.¡¯

    .....

    So, with their n of action decided, for the time being anyway, all they needed to do was get back to the tribe and talk to Lyrika¡¯s friends.

 Chapter 16

    The Hunt ¨C Part 1

    Once they packed up the tent, they started to head toward Lyrika¡¯s home.

    As they walked, Lyrika still kept her distance from Olivia, but now things were no longer as tense as they were before. The incident with Olivia¡¯s little friend, while incredibly embarrassing, had helped alleviate the tension between the two. Lyrika no longer kept looking over at Olivia to see what she was doing, fearful that she might attack her. She just let the distance she kept between them deal with that.

    After the long talk about the n to deal with the horrible chief, they ended up speaking more as well. Now that they were on a mission, other fears and thoughts were somewhat pushed to the back of her mind, allowing them to talk more casually with each other.

    As they walked Olivia talked about herself, and brought up Ameril, telling the tale of how they met. Lyrika was thoroughly engrossed in this, as if true it gave her hope that she could end up being just calm and rxed around Olivia, where if it was true she wasn¡¯t the monster she had been warned about since being a child, she wouldn¡¯t need to keep her distance from her. Of course, she had no way of knowing what Olivia had said was true. But the hope was still there.

    Lyrika also spoke about her vige and the tribe. She didn¡¯t go into massive detail but spoke of the different races present, how long it had been around, and a bit of its history. It would seem that the vige was built not long after the episode of very started for beast-kin. As a lot of them fled from the human cities, many did travel to the other kingdoms seeking refuge. The problem was that after travelling for so long, some were turned away from the other kingdoms. The need to provide additional food, water and shelter, for all of the beast-kin fleeing was a massive undertaking for the elves, dwarves and even the demons where at the time, they generally only had enough for themselves.

    Some were taken in by the other races, but these were generally the most healthy and skilled beast-kin, leaving all the others to fend for themselves. Many were enraged by this and had tomit crimes just to survive, food being stolen along trade routes being the main one. This obviously did not bode well for the leadership of the kingdoms and so they ended up exiling them from theirnds, forcing them back to the human kingdom.

    While all of the beast-kin this happened to were stuck between a rock and hard ce, a few of the wisest members came up with a n to take refuge in the forest of Gradia. The humans hardly ventured into the forest, for fear of animal and monster attacks, and so all of their towns were built a good distance from it. This gave them a good ce to set up camp, and eventually a vige, in an area hidden by trees and not visited by humans. While the monster and animal attacks were still a problem, choosing between being enved and having to fight beasts, was an easy decision to make.

    With time, many viges were built in the forest, as the beast-kin expanded. Once very was made illegal in the human kingdom, they then expanded out of the forest back into the ins of the kingdom. With all that urred with the beast-kin, it was decreed by one of the human kings that reigned that they were free to do so, providing them with the deeds to thend they now upied, asking only for trade agreements and non-aggression pacts.

    .....

    It would seem that this king was quite the saint and beloved by the beast-kin for the opportunity. There were however rumours that he had a beast-kin as a lover, so she may have influenced over some of his decisions.

    But anyway, he gave them the opportunity to truly settle themselves into the human kingdom, where eventually, the majority of the viges in the forest were abandoned in favour of ones outside the forest, like the vige Lyrika was from.

    Her vige while outside of the forest, is close to its border, which is why Lyrika fled in this direction. The hope was the chief would not follow her into the forest, or not even think she would go that way, which as it stands, seems to have worked.

    As Olivia continued to learn more about Lyrika and the history of her vige, they walked through the dense and repetitive forest, where with all the greens and browns you really had no way to tell if you were just walking in circles.

    Thankfully, she had Lyrika with her.

    Olivia not being native to this world, still had a lot to learn. While she was by no means a navigator or a tracker, on Earth everyone knew the direction the sun arose, giving you a good way to tell the direction you were travelling. There were also other ways to navigate such as with the North Star, which she had learnt from school.

    None of this though gave her an edge in this world.

    While the sun did rise and set as you would expect, what direction it did so in waspletely unknown to her. Thankfully, she now had someone to tell her that.

    Sort of.

    ¡°It normally rises from the forest, travels over our vige and then descends past it. So, we just need to follow the direction it travels and that should take us out of the forest close to my vige.¡±

    Olivia just stared nkly at her once she said that. While it may make sense to Lyrika, Olivia wasn¡¯t too sure how this would work out. Granted the girl had only travelled in the forest for a day, but who knows how turned around she became. Whether they end up close to her vige or somewhere else along the forest edge was anyone¡¯s guess. All they could really be sure of was that following the sun would lead them out of the forest, but where it did was another question. But, it was the only n they could follow, as Lyrika was the only one who knew where she lived.

    ¡­

    It had been a good several hours since they started to head to Lyrika¡¯s home, and both were starting to get hungry.

    ¡°Should we stop here and have some lunch.¡±

    ¡°Sure. What are we having?¡± Lyrika asked as her stomach rumbled.

    ¡°Hardtack and jerky.¡±

    Lyrika¡¯s face just dropped at hearing that. ¡°Again. What about some meat. There should be plenty of animals around to eat. Do you not have any kills with you?¡±

    ¡°If I knew how to hunt I¡¯m sure I would have, but for now I only have hardtack and jerky.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t know how to hunt.¡± The stupefied look on her face only grew, ¡°How do you not know how to hunt? It¡¯s hunting. It¡¯s what all Orcs and goblins do to get food. How could you not know?¡±

    ¡°Well, as I said, I¡¯m a bit different from Orcs and Goblins. I also lost my memory, so if I did learn how to hunt, I¡¯vepletely forgotten it now.¡±

    Whilepletely false about possibly having learnt to hunt, it was better than trying to exin that she came from another world, where all you had to do was go to the local supermarket and pick your food up off the shelves.

    Lyrika stunned look quickly changed as she came to understand what Olivia meant as she recalled her mentioning her memory loss. But as her stomach growled for the second time, she jumped back in to deal with things.

    ¡°Ok, we shall have the hard tack and jerky now because I am starving, but then we are going hunting. No way I can eat that stuff three times in a row.¡±

    The way she spoke almost reminded her of Ameril where, as a noble, she imagined her stating she was too good to be eating themon camping food in a haughty tone. Thankfully, Ameril had changed a bit since they met, but she could still imagine her saying it.

    ¡­

    Setting up a small camp, they got to work on lunch. The annoyance on Lyrika¡¯s face as she ate the hard tack, showed how much of a struggle it was to do so. Olivia could almost imagine her staving herself rather than eating it again after this. Why she was so affronted by the food she didn¡¯t know.

    Olivia had no qualms with the food. Itsted a long time, and while not a tasty treat by any means, it didn¡¯t taste horrible. But, if she could learn how to hunt, that would definitely improve her vour pallette.

    It didn¡¯t take long and the meal was finished, which was followed by a grimace on Lyrika¡¯s face. But now that the meal was over, they decided to get to work¡­ and hunt some animals.

 Chapter 17

    The Hunt ¨C Part 2

    After finishing their meal, Lyrika headed off into the forest and got to work with gearing up for the hunt. In contrast to this, Olivia could only just sit there and watch, not having any clue what the girl was doing.

    Or even what she herself should be doing.

    Which didn¡¯t go unnoticed by Lyrika.

    ¡°Are you going to help me?¡±

    ¡°Sure. If I knew what I was doing.¡±

    ¡°Wha- how do you not. Oh yeah, never hunted before. Look just grab as many vines as you can, nice and long ones. ¡±

    So off to work she went searching through the surrounding area for any vines hanging off the trees. Thankfully, there were quite a few around and some were nice enough to be on low-hanging branches, making their collection quite simple.

    Once she had gathered enough, she headed back to Lyrika who had just started on the next step in the preparation of hunting for food. Using her knife, she started to peal some of the outeryers of the vines, making them thinner and more streamlined, which Olivia did so with hers.

    .....

    ¡°Ok, so how do we make a bow with these.¡±

    ¡°A bow. What are you talking about? These are for snares.¡±

    Well, this was not what she was expecting.

    All of the images in Olivia¡¯s mind of hunting showed people with bows and arrows taking down deer and rabbits as they trekked through the forest. There was also the image of people holding rifles with dogs alongside them, but that wasn¡¯t going to happen in this world any time soon.

    Saying this though, it was probably a good thing they were using snares rather than bows. Olivia had no confidence that if she was handed a bow she could hit anything with it.

    There was also the fact that she did not fancy taking on another one of those spike-growing antler deer things like she did when she first arrived in this world.

    Ploughing ahead with it then, once all of the vines were stripped and smooth, it then came to the creation of snares, which Lyrika took her through.

    ¡°Very simply, you make a small loop at the end and pass the end through it. Then you tighten it up to about this size.¡± She said as she brought down the width of the snare.

    Simple in design and quick to do, the snares had been made. All that was left was to set them., which meant the tracking portion of the hunt had to begin.

    Almost like a bloodhound, Lyrika bounded off into the surrounding forest and scoured the forest floor. She spoke about searching for tracks and damage, which would show areas that animals had been through.

    It took some time, but they managed to find small paws tracks in the dirt, heading off in different directions. Leaves and twigs had been broken along the tracks and what Olivia could only assume were droppings of some kind were scattered nearby.

    Through further searching, a short distance from this area, they eventually came across a couple of burrows on the side of a small mound of earth.

    ¡°This is where we shall set the traps. It shouldn¡¯t be too long before we get a catch.¡±

    In order to set up the snares, they needed something to tether them to. Thankfully, therge trees nearby provided this service free of charge and allowed for arge number to be tied around it. The loops of the snares were then positioned around the burrows, and along the trails that the, what Olivia assumed were rabbits, had taken. Whether they actually were rabbits in this new world she would find out soon.

    With the traps in ce, they headed back to the camp and got some much-needed rest from all the trap building and walking. They decided to wait a few more hours before going off to check the snares, as Lyrika stated that this was around the time ¡®they¡¯ woulde out to feed, which gave them plenty of downtime.

    The conversation continued to flow, where Olivia spoke more about her life, adjusted to work with the new world of course, and Lyrika spoke about some fond childhood moments.

    Olivia also decided to spend some time exercising and stretching to try and improve her form. The increased strength from her new form was a massive boon, but that didn¡¯t help when you needed to chase or outrun something. Saying this, she did still do some weightlifting with logs from a dead tree, but she mainly focused on cardio.

    Lyrika also ended up joining in once Olivia exined what she was doing, which led them to have a workout session. Unfortunately, Lyrika could only exercise for so long before she had to stop, opting toy down, which was in a position where she could watch Olivia as she did her workout, not that either of themmented on this fact. While Olivia was seen as a monster, that didn¡¯t stop the fact that with her muscr and toned body, she looked good as she exercised.

    ¡­

    A good few hourster they weing up to the evening. The sun was a short way away from setting and now was a good time to see what they caught.

    Making their way back to the traps, they saw that their hard work had paid off.

    While not all of the traps had caught their prey, a good number had, where half a dozen had been triggered and caught something.

    And what a something it was.

    Olivia was expecting a rabbit of some kind, and while she wasn¡¯t far off, these were definitely different from what you would see on Earth.

    While a simr color to what you would find on Earth, that was one of the few simrities. Their tail was more of a spike rather than bushy and the ears were also strange as in ce of the floppy ears you normally ascribe to rabbits, they were more akin to that of a wolf or fox ear. Then, while the animal was still fluffy like you would expect, they did not act the same. Cute and meek were not words that you would describe these bunnies, given the way that while they were snared, they lunged for both of them as they inspected their catch. The shear aggression they exuded as they pounced for Olivia and Lyrika was frightening, as was the shark-like teeth they bared and used to try and bite each of them.

    ¡°Well, these are horrible.¡±

    ¡°Yes, they are called Efflers. Nasty creatures. They eat all manner of things, be it vegetables, fruit or meat, it does not matter to them. They also attack anything, even things that can easily kill them which is one saving grace about them; they are very stupid. They attack things as directly as possible, making it easy to know and understand what they will do. They are also easy to kill, the only problem is their numbers, which constantly grow. So, while they are easy to kill, if too many attacks a person, they can easily overwhelm them.¡±

    They were horrible. Even as Lyrika spoke, they constantly tried to run and attack them, as if they did not realise that the rope that Olivia could only assume was slowly choking them, kept them at bay.

    ¡°Here take a stick and just hit them. That should be enough to kill them.¡±

    Taking the offered branch, she got started. The sooner these things were dead the better, as they were creeping here out.

    It didn¡¯t take long and they were all down for the count. One conk, anywhere on them, was enough to kill them. All that was left was carrying them back to the camp and having a nice meal.

    *Snap*

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    Hearing something snap, Olivia looked up to find out what it was. As she did, one part of her brain could only imagine this as the clich¨¦ scene where she gets attacked by one of these horrible creatures that had been sitting nearby. That or some much bigger predator that had decided it was its time to dine.

    With all of the trees and obstacles around her, her spear wouldn¡¯t do much good, getting caught on everything and so she held her knife as she looked around.

    Looking around through the forest, in the distance, something tall and dark dashed between two of the trees.

    ¡°Wha-¡±

    Lyrika looked over at her to check what the problem was.

    ¡°What is it?¡±

    ¡°Did you see that? Something was moving through the trees, over there. Did you see it?

    Lyrika moved around a bit to get a good look at where Olivia was pointing but could only shake her head given she saw nothing before or now.

    ¡°No. It was probably just another beast travelling through the forest.¡±

    ¡°Maybe. Probably.¡± Was all Olivia could say. While it was very possible it was another animal just roaming about, the fact that the dark shape was very tall made her think otherwise. It was also odd that she saw it move between two trees, but saw neither hide nor hair of it elsewhere past at point.

    While she could think about it all day, there wasn¡¯t anything she could do and so got back to work. Looking down she got back to collecting up the snares, both triggered and untriggered to bring back.

    *Grrreee*

    And was assaulted by something small and fluffy screaming at her. Which then decided to pounce.

    ¡°Ahhhh.¡±

    She fell back, mainly from the shock of it and very quickly found herself starting up at a hideous visage of an Effler that was now sitting on her stomach.

    Her thought of ¡® It actually happened¡¯, was quickly pushed to the side in favour of a scream as the little monster used its razor-sharp teeth to bite down into her abdomen.

    Lyrika rushed over to help, but given how weak they were and how panicked Olivia was, a very quick smack with her fist was enough to dislodge it and send it flying into a tree.

    ¡°Ahh, that stings. For something so small they have such a painful bite.¡± She said followed by the gritting of her teeth at the pain.

    Hardly saying a word Lyrika was by her side, checking the wound. While not deep by any means, it was still pretty bad.

    With Olivia¡¯s extensive knowledge from TV, she knew she needed something to clean the wound and a bandage. The trouble was, that she had neither.

    ¡°It does not look bad, it should not take long to heal.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s not the problem. Do you have anything to clean the wound with? Stop it from being infected.¡± Olivia asked, hoping that Lyrika had some knowledge on this.

    ¡°Err, I. I have nothing on me, but I do know what the healers in our vige use. It is a blue flower, that is crushed and applied to the wound. It should stop it from being infected. I shall go look for it.¡±

    Then quick as a cat, she was off.

    While still in pain, Olivia righted herself into a sitting position and watched her go. She then turned toward the horrible little thing that attacked her and one thought popped up in her head.

    ¡®You have ruined rabbits for me now.¡¯

 Chapter 18

    The Hunt ¨C Part 3

    With Lyrika out in the forest searching for the flowers that should stop her from getting an infection, Olivia moved on to the other item she would be needing.

    A bandage.

    Given where she was, it was slim pickings in terms of what could actually be used. There was no first aid kit nearby, no hospital to go to, so all she had was what the forest could provide and what she had on her already.

    Thankfully, her injury wasn¡¯t bleeding much at all. The horrible rodent hadn¡¯t bitten her too deeply, but it was still an utter mess where having knocked the thing off of her, it had torn quite a bit of her skin off.

    This meant that while she needed the bandage to hold down the ground flower, keep pressure on her wound and just generally keep it covered for when she was active again, she wasn¡¯t pressed for time to find one. The problem was actually making the bandage, as given the small amount of choice, there were only a few things that could be used.

    As she looked around, there were many, many leaves, somerge enough to probably wrap around her whole body. While close to hand, the issue was that she had no idea about any of these leaves. Some may be absolutely fine, but others may be poisonous. Then there was no telling what bacteria was present on the flora here, which could make things even worse it if got into her wound. Boiling the leaves was an option, but that would likely just cause them to shrivel up and be unusable.

    That means she would just have to bear it until they reached the camp and boil some of the ruined tent, in order to kill any bacteria on it and use that as a bandage. While bing more unusable by the day, they thankfully still had the cloth from the tent, as they kept on finding uses for it.

    With a n in ce, all she had to do now was wait until Lyrika returned, which thankfully wasn¡¯t too long.

    .....

    ¡°I managed to find it. They are quitemon within the forest and not hard to miss given their vibrant colour.¡±

    Lyrika sat by her side and started searching for something to crush the flower, which as she said was bright blue giving quite the contrast to the green and browns around them. Taking the petals off, she ced them on a slightly concave rock and got to grinding them with another. The scratching of rock against rock was the only sound that could be heard as she toiled away ensuring it was ground to a fine powder.

    Several minutester, she was done. Her arm was now dead from the repetitive movement, and so she struggled just to gather it up in her hand.

    She hurried back over to Olivia and checked on the wound, before applying the powdered nt with her fingers to the torn flesh.

    Olivia sucked in a sharp intake of air as she started to rub the flower in, it stinging as it touched her exposed flesh. Thankfully, it did not feel as bad as when people poured alcohol on wounds like she had seen in films. It was possible that her body had other benefits such as better pain mitigation and maybe even quicker healing, just to add to her already increased strength, but she would only find that out with time. And from umting more injuries.

    The blue powder stood out whenpared to her dark brown skin and given the way the wound was shaped, it almost formed something akin to an oval, albeit a messy one making it look like she had a bright blue tattoo.

    ¡°This should stop it from getting infected, but it looks like it is still bleeding a bit.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s get back to the camp and I will bandage it up.¡±

    Olivia made her move to stand up on her own, but Lyrika quickly held her down.

    ¡°Don¡¯t be stupid. You are hurt. Moving like that will just make things worse.¡± Lyrika quickly said, all but forcing Olivia to remain where she was. She didn¡¯t think that moving to stand would make much of a difference to the bite wound, given it was by no meansrge or deep, but she figured it would be best to follow her advice. She was a little annoyed at being called stupid, but with the way Lyrika was worrying about her, she ended up just breezing past it.

    ¡°I will help you stand¡­ slowly. Now give me your arm.¡±

    Doing so, Lyrika helped lift her up, not that Olivia couldn¡¯t have done it herself, making sure to keep her as still as possible making sure not to agitate the area around her wound. Once they were both up, they grabbed the dead Efflers and snares and started to make their way back.

    Olivia was worried the blue flower would just pour out of her wound, but it held quite well. She didn¡¯t want to think too much about why that was the case.

    ¡­

    As they travelled back, Lyrika stood by Olivia¡¯s side the whole way. She nced over to Olivia a few times looking at the wound to see if there was any change with it or see if she was in pain, but this thankfully never urred. Olivia pretended not to see this and just kept moving forward. The wound did still sting a little, but that was likely from the flower doing its thing, she hardly felt it as she was distracted by Lyrika¡¯s worrying and caring attitude, as well as the fact that the distance between them had dropped considerably.

    Whether this would be the case going forward was anyone¡¯s guess, as the closeness had clearlye from the fact that she was wounded, and that Lyrika may have felt somewhat responsible. Obviously, she didn¡¯t cause the Effler to attack her, but it was her suggestion to go out hunting in the first ce.

    Either way, she would have to wait and see how things would go once the attack was off both their minds to see whether they could continue as they were.

    ¡­

    Reaching the camp, Lyrika helped Olivia down, who then went to boil the cloth. But, before she could she was very bluntly told to ¡°stay down¡± before she could even get started.

    Now unable to move for fear of Lyirka getting annoyed with her again, Olivia watched her work. She heated the water that they had, bringing it to boil, where she then ced some of the ripped tent in the pot and waited. Once a good enough amount of time went by, she let it cool down, removed the cloth and rung it out.

    Then came the making of the bandage.

    The cloth wasn¡¯t very long though, so they had to improvise a bit. They did have longer pieces but there were being used as bedding for the time being.

    cing it over the wound, Lyrika took one of the vines andy it over the cloth, which Olivia held. She then wrapped it around her body two times and tied a knot, finishing the makeshift bandage.

    ¡°Thank you for helping me,¡± Olivia said as she looked over at Lyrika, who had just sat back down to rest after that fiasco.

    ¡°You say that like to didn¡¯t expect me to.¡±

    ¡°Wha- that¡¯s-. I in no way meant it that I didn¡¯t expect you to. It¡¯s just that even though you still don¡¯t trust me¡­fully, you still helped me without a second thought. I am very grateful for that.¡±

    The only thing that came as a reply from Lyrika was silence. But really, that was all that was needed, to know that she took Olivia¡¯s words to heart.

    The slight blush of embarrassment on her face showed that too.

    ¡­

    As the day came to a close, whileter than they had hoped, they got started on dinner.

    The Efflers would keep for a while, so they decided to have one each, along with a small amount of the usual hard tack and jerky. Olivia was worried how Lyrika would react to that, but with the luxury of meat in her hands, it didn¡¯t even crop up as a problem.

    As they got to work preparing the meal, this was the time for Lyrika to impart the final lesson on hunting.

    Dealing with the kill.

    She took Olivia through how to skin the Effler and then the process of removing its innards. She had to pause halfway through her lesson though, as Olivia had to look away and almost vomit from the sight of the organ removal.

    ¡°How can that affect you? You are supposed to be a big scary monster.¡±

    ¡°How does it not affect you? That is disgusting.¡±

    Gagging again at the sight, Lyrika had to wait for Olivia to sort herself out before she could continue¡­ and continue she would. Nothing would stop her from eating this meat, even Olivia¡¯s revulsion to her gutting the animal. She could have just left her to almost throw up, but she felt that she needed to finish off the hunting lesson before she did.

    It took a while, but Olivia was finally able to watch her do it without needing to look away, and with that out of the way, they got to cooking and a short whileter were sitting back and enjoying a lovely vourful meal.

    ¡°This is so good. We definitely¡­need to keep meat on the menu¡­ for every meal.¡± Olivia said as she chewed the Effler. While it wasn¡¯t like having steak on Earth, having had only fruit, hardtack and jerky since she ended up here, a freshly cooked almost-rabbit-thing, even without seasoning was a godsend.

    ¡°That should not be too hard. Efflers reproduce constantly so there are always some to kill. We could also try and hunt a Gootra as well sometime. They taste amazing. Much better than the Effler.¡±

    That sounded good to Olivia. She could only imagine what it would be like if she could actually find some kind of seasoning in this world. Being able to add that to the already delicious-sounding Gootra would be perfect.

    ¡°But for those, snares will not do much. We would have to actually fight it, or use a pitfall or rope trap.¡±

    ¡®Thatplicated things, but setting up a rope trap in the right ce sounded feasible.¡¯ She thought to herself. All they needed to do was get some rope. There was the option of using the vines, but they might be too fragile for a rope trap,pared to the strength of actual rope.

    ¡°What does it look like?¡±

    ¡°Err, it walks on four legs. It is very quick and will attack you on sight. But, they are much smarter than the Effler, running if they know they are outmatched.¡±

    ¡®Ok, this is sounding very familiar.¡¯

    ¡°They also have long jagged bones that stick out from their head. The grow spikes on it when they try to attack making them very dangerous.¡±

    ¡®And there it is. Of course, it¡¯s the deer-looking thing.¡¯

    ¡°I guess we have to keep an eye out for one,¡± Olivia replied. She still remembered her fight with the deer thing, now known as a Gootra, and how she almost beat it before it scampered off. She had gotten very annoyed that it deprived her of her victory and had hoped to settle the score at some point. So now, she had another reason to try and beat one.

    ¡­

    The light in the sky hadpletely disappeared and it was time for some shut-eye. Now that there were two of them, having someone on watch was the way to go from now on. All of the previous times she had been alone and slept in the forest, she had been very lucky that nothing attacked her, aside from the time Lyrika attacked her that is. But now, someone keeping watch was the smart thing to do.

    For this night, Lyrika went to sleep first. Whether it was due to her beginning to trust Olivia more, or that she was just dead tired from all the excitement of the day, she ended up sleeping only a short distance from her and went out like a light.

    The wound on Olivia¡¯s chest hardly hurt now, and the stinging had died down. Hopefully, it wouldn¡¯t be too long before she could remove the bandage. The fact that it was this quick, gave more credence to the fact that she may have improved healing or pain numbing.

    Olivia sat there just looking around the area and tossing an odd branch onto the fire every now and then to keep it going. It waspletely silent, and she saw nothing as time dragged on. She ended up just thinking about the day and going through some random thoughts. One of which was whether what they did was actually hunting or if it should have been called trapping.

    These thoughts didn¡¯t go on for too long though as all of a sudden something hit the back of her head.

    It was not physically hard, and she felt hardly any pain from it, but when she turned to look behind her she saw nothing. There wasn¡¯t any sign of anyone or anything. Not long after that, while she was still trying to figure out what happened, she started to feel drowsy, much more so than she already did.

    This wave of tiredness hit her fast and she ended up toppling over and staring at the sky as her eyes started to close.

    Darkness was all she could see, as she drifted off, but not before hearing a voice.

    ¡°Just sleep for a while. Don¡¯t worry we shall talk when you wake up.¡±

    And with that, she fell asleep.

 Chapter 19

    The Exiles ¨C Part 1

    ¡°What did you do.¡±

    ¡°I just put her to sleep.¡±

    ¡°What¡­ why!?¡±

    ¡°What do you mean why? So, she wouldn¡¯t overreact when she saw us.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think she would do that?¡±

    ¡°Really. Are you seriously asking that question? I always knew you were stupid bute on. We are in a forest, in the middle of nowhere. It¡¯s pitch ck and she was on guard duty. The onlypany you expect in those conditions is someone trying to kill or rob you. Case in point, her new friend.¡±

    As Olivia slowly regained consciousness, these were the voices that she heard, and she had no idea what was happening. Thest thing she could recall was falling asleep after being hit by something and then someone speaking to her. Now awake, for some reason, she was greeted by two people just having a chat near her, where she could tell that they were both girls and that one of them sounded like the person who spoke as she fell asleep. This should have just been obvious, but in her delirious ad groggy state having just woken up from whatever put her to sleep, she hadn¡¯t managed to see this.

    ¡®How did they do it?¡¯ she wondered, ¡®was it a poisoned dart that I missed or something? Could it have been magic?¡¯ were the thoughts going through her head as she tried to recall how she ended up asleep in the first ce.

    .....

    She really didn¡¯t know what to do now. She thought about just waking up and confronting these two people, but given they were somehow able to put her to sleep, who knows what could go wrong. It was also possible they mean her harm, and that given she was asleep, they hadn¡¯t done anything yet. She figured that the longer they thought that the better.

    So, she decided to remain where she was, with her eyes closed, listening to them babble. Hopefully, they would talk about what they wanted and she would figure out the right time to ¡®wake¡¯.

    ¡°Ok. You might be right about her overreacting, but you are wrong about me being stupid. I am not stupid. You¡¯re stupid.¡±

    ¡°Really, you¡¯re going to stick your tongue out at me. Real mature.¡±

    ¡®How long are they going to argue like this¡¯

    The back-and-forth retorts kept going for what felt like hours, and she was sure the sun would be rising soon. All she could do was hope they would stop insulting each other and actually talk about why they were. Even just stopping to notice that she was still asleep would be enough for her.

    It took some time, but at longst, she was rewarded, as they finally stopped bickering and actually agreed on something.

    It¡¯s just that what they agreed on made her feel a bit¡­ strange, vited even.

    ¡°At least I have a better aim when firing my spells!¡±

    ¡°What are you talking about? You have never hit me with your spell work. You even missed so bad you hit her.¡±

    ¡°Hey! My aim was perfect, you just appeared behind her. Also, it wasn¡¯t just me who hit her. You messed up as well. What were you thinking firing a spell to turn me into a goblin.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t you dare just me this on me when you were the one who tried to make turn me into an orc! To top it all off, because of that we somehow made her.¡±

    Silence reigned for a while, and Olivia felt like they were using this moment to recount what happened and deal with the guilt they felt for what they did to her.

    How wrong she was though.

    ¡°While we both messed up, I must admit our spells worked very well. Just look at her. I never imagined those two spells could bebined like they were¡±

    ¡°Ipletely agree with you. She looks so beautiful. Orc and Goblin in one. It even looks like she got the best features from each.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I mean have you seen her abs, look how amazing and toned they are. I wonder how they feel.¡±

    This statement was then followed by the girl doing what she said. Olivia was startled by the touch on her stomach, but she managed to stop herself from jumping.

    ¡®What is with these two, this is starting to make me very ufortable.¡¯ She still wasn¡¯t sure whether she should ¡®wake up¡¯ now as she still had no idea what these girls wanted. Aside from touching her that is. So, she kept her cool and remained where she was.

    ¡°Oh and look at her skin ¡­ and those ears, just like my lovely goblins.¡±

    The other one started to touch her ears, and Olivia had to try as hard as she could not tough from how ticklish it was.

    ¡°But the best part. Have you seen what she¡¯s got below? It¡¯s just beautiful. Not sorge it can¡¯t fit anywhere but also not so small you can¡¯t feel it, it¡¯s just right. I don¡¯t know how our spells produced this, but next time I need one, I¡¯m modelling it after this. I just need to see how it feels to know how to incorporate it into my spells¡­¡±

    ¡°Ok, that¡¯s enough! Who are you two? Why are you here? What did you do to me? And will you stop touching my body?!¡± Olivia shouted as she jumped up. She couldn¡¯t take it anymore. All these two had done was bicker and then move on toplimenting her body. Sure, thepliments were nice, but having two strangers you couldn¡¯t see touch you was no, especially since the next ce would have been her little friend.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°Well?¡±

    The two girls just sat there with their mouths open, not sure what to say. Now that Olivia was finally standing, she could see who they actually were. Looking at them, the memory of her final moments on Earth came to mind and she realised that these were in fact the two girls who sent her to this world. While it was obvious from what they spoke about, it was good to finally put match them to what she saw on Earth.

    ¡°Err, well. We¡­wee in peace.¡± The short girl said as she stood up. ¡°Ta-take us to your leader.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re such an idiot.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°No, no, no. No more bickering. I¡¯ve heard enough from you two tost a lifetime.¡± Olivia jumped in before they went off again. She was not going to sit through all that again.

    Olivia took this time to look around and check where she was but found that she had not moved from the spot where she had been in for guard duty. As she looked around, she saw Lyrikaying down as she did when she first went to sleep. The problem was that surely with all the noise she should have woken up by now.

    ¡°What have you done to Lyrika!¡±

    The tall girl in the business suit stepped forward and stood tall as she started to speak.

    ¡°Your friend is fine. We just gave her the same sleeping spell that we gave you. It will wear off in while, don¡¯t worry. Now, I think we should properly introduce ourselves. My name is Carinthel and this short waste of space is Lilestia ¨C¡±

    ¡°I can introduce myself¡­ wait¡­ hey you insulted me again-¡±

    ¡°We are what you would call goddesses.¡±

    ¡°Exiled goddesses, you annoying bit-¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­ exiled goddesses.¡± Carinthel quickly said, cutting Lilestia off.

    ¡°¡­I see.¡± That was all Olivia could say. It wasn¡¯t every day you met you met a goddess. While they said they were goddesses, there was always the chance they were just crazy people. But with the magic and how she had seen them on Earth, she was inclined to believe them.

    ¡®Could they kill me with the flick of their wrist?¡¯

    ¡°Why¡­why are you here?¡±

    The two girls looked at each other and nodded before turning back to her.

    ¡°We need your help.¡±

    ¡°Err, how can I help two goddess-.¡±

    ¡°Exiled goddesses.¡± Lilestia quickly added.

    ¡°¡­exiled goddesses.¡±

    Carinthel looked down and sighed. Olivia could tell she didn¡¯t want to have to talk about it, but obviously, the only way she could get Olivia¡¯s help was by telling her the situation.

    ¡°We messed up. A couple of times actually. But to really exin I need to go back a bit. You see this world was made by many gods and goddesses, where everyone worked on different aspects, creating mountains, rivers and all manner of things. Once that was done, we moved on to creating life to roam the world. Are you with me so far?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I guess. Why did you all make the world anyway.¡±

    ¡°Because we could¡­ and for fun I guess. We get to watch all of you just live out your lives. Its like a gods version of television.¡±

    ¡®Well, that¡¯s quite the revtion. It pretty much sounds like this whole ce exists because some random gods were bored¡¯

    ¡°So, when it came to creating life, we all ended up making different creatures. We were lucky enough to be chosen to make two sentient species. I made the Orcs. ¡±

    ¡°And I made Goblins.¡± Lilestia jumped in to quickly add.

    ¡°Yes, anyway, what you have to understand is that while we had fun designing them, each of the species and races was made to have a specific role. So, for example, some creatures are there to help nts grow, some are food for others, and things like that. I mean, if you think about it, while we made the world for us to watch and enjoy, it doesn¡¯t help if it just copses instantly because all the nts making oxygen are killed by some animal, dooming the rest of life on the world.¡±

    Olivia could see that, even through the absurdity of it all.

    ¡°The higher gods who are above us decided the rules for the world and who made what. They ended up making the elves, humans, dwarves and the other advanced sentient races, most of them in their own image and how they liked. They made them smart, skilled and powerful, but while good on paper, with free will it was easy to see how they mighte to fight each other. Now while it would be amusing to watch the sentient races duke it out, with how they were designed it would likely end with a lot of death. There was even the possibility that if they be advanced enough, they might end up taking most of the life in the world with them as well, during those wars.¡±

    ¡°Ok¡­¡±

    ¡°And, well¡­what¡¯s the point of having a television if there¡¯s nothing to watch?¡± Carinthel said as she shrugged.

 Chapter 20

    The Exiles ¨C Part 2

    Silence.

    That was all Olivia could reply with. After hearing Carinthel¡¯s casual remark about most of the life in this world dying, a stunned look was the only thing that formed on her face. She was tempted to actually try and say something in response to this, but they continued talking about the situation before she could.

    ¡°So, because of the possibility of the other sentient races killing everyone, we had to make something that could stand up to them, give them a challenge so to speak. That is how we ended up making the orcs and goblins, where in the forest they kept the sentient races in check which lived nearby and travelled past them as well as help to stop animals and monsters from growing to rapidly. They were a middle man so to speak.¡± Lilestia chimed in with.

    ¡°I designed the Orcs.¡± Was what Carinthel¡¯s jumped in with. ¡°I just love the idea of someone tall, strong and fierce taking hold of me in their massive arms, making me helpless to do anything and unable to free myself. Ohh, so good.¡± This was apanied by Carinthel shivering as she thought about this image. To her side, Lilestia made a gagging motion.

    ¡®I did not need to know that. Who just tells someone their fetish out of nowhere.¡¯

    ¡°So that is how I designed the Orcs. I made them just how I like, tall, strong and aggressive giving the other races a tough opponent to face. We were not allowed to make them truly intelligent beings like humans and elves, and so to help them survive, I made their skin tone green to allow them to blend in well with the forest since they were unlikely to build something like a human town. To add to their strengths, I gave them increased sexual stamina and the ability to reproduce with any other sentient race. This meant there should always be a good number of them to fight against the other races as they breed multiple times one after the other. There was also the added benefit that breeding with women of other races helps to stunt the growth of that race.¡±

    Thest part put a horrified look on Olivia¡¯s face. While she knew that this is what Orcs did, to hear that they were created for this purpose is just horrible.

    ¡°I know it sounds horrible, but we had a lot of rules to follow and needed toe up with ways to curb the mistake the higher gods made but do not admit to, as of course ¡®they could never be wrong.''¡± It was Carinthel¡¯s turn to make a gagging motion as she spoke thest part of her sentence. ¡°Plus, it would be boring to watch a world where all the different races just lived in peace. Anyway, there are plenty of other animals and monsters in this world that are way worse than the Orcs and Goblins.¡±

    .....

    ¡®Oh, I did not need to know that. I really hope I never run into one of these monsters she¡¯s talking about.¡¯

    ¡°Anyway, while she did the Orcs, I made the Goblins. I¡¯ve always loved being with a lot of people at the same time, and that idea is what I used to design the Goblins. Even though they are small and not as strong as Orcs, they more than makeup for it with their numbers, agility and aggression. With their dark brown skin tone, they can blend in well with the dirt and the trees improving their survival. They also work well together, better than the Orcs do, which is what they do when breeding as well. Oh, and like the Orcs, they can also mate with multiple women and breed with any other sentient species.¡±

    ¡®This one is the same, I don¡¯t need to know you like being with several people at once. What are these goddess¡¯s problems.¡¯

    ¡°We were both pretty proud of our creations and they ended up doing their job well. They mainly kept to the forest, attacking travellers that went by and capturing women when they could. This then forced the other races to send warriors into the forest to deal with them to keep traders and travellers safe. With them being focused on so much, while wars still happened, they were nowhere near as devastating as they could have been as they had to focus on multiple enemies.¡±

    ¡°But, over time we noticed there were some problems with how we designed them. The aggressiveness we gave them mixed too well with the ability to breed with any sentient species, as I am sure you are aware. It was like the aggressive part of the Orcs and Goblins ended up focusing only on the need to breed with women from other races, giving them urges to do so. It got to the point where that was their only goal, to get more and more women from other races to breed with. They also got bolder and bolder when looking for women, venturing closer and closer to towns to find them. At some point, they probably would have attacked a vige or town, practically starting a war themselves, when they¡¯re only supposed to distract and cause some trouble for them. Then there was the attack on the elven princess.¡±

    Olivia could recall the story of the elven princess being attacked near the human city and being taken by them, where as a result they were hunted to near extinction.

    ¡°Because of that incident, it has caused a big problem. I imagine you may be thinking that fewer monsters in the world is a good thing, but they still have important roles to y. Without them, the other animals and monsters in the forest are growing rapidly, getting stronger and stronger by the day. While they could be used to keep the other races in line, they were made to be unpredictable and there is a chance they may be too strong and end up doing irreparable damage. Also, with the Orcs and Goblins no longer around, the other sentient races don¡¯t have anything keeping them on their toes, aside from the odd random animal or monster attack. This means that they are building up power and are likely to end up going to war again¡­and it will be a big one, since they can now just focus on each other.¡±

    It made sense. As much as she did think that having fewer monsters in the world was a good thing, with the other races just left to their devices who knows what they would do having nothing but each other to focus on. While she could hope they would focus on peace, the history of Earth very clearly showed that wouldn¡¯tst forever. But there was still that one big question on all of this.

    ¡°But, how can I help with that.¡±

    ¡°We want you to find the remaining Goblins and Orcs¡­ and help them.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Yes. The thing is, the only ones that have survived are the best of the best so to speak. Natural selection has left the world with some very smart Orcs and Goblins. They grouped together and decided for themselves to leave the forest and hide. That has never happened before as they never work together. They have also been able to resist their urges much better than other Orcs and Goblins, which is probably another main reason they are still alive.¡±

    ¡°Because of this, you should be able to talk to them where you can then help them, and sort them out. You might be able to rehabilitate them, maybe even get some of the other races to like them. We don¡¯t know how you should do it, but it needs to be done, for the sake of this world you are living in.¡±

    ¡°But how does that stop a war¡­ and if the Orcs and Goblins are there to keep the other races in line, trying to integrate them into the other races just defeats the purpose, doesn¡¯t it?

    ¡°Doing this obviously won¡¯t stop the war from happening, but there are many years before that is going to happen, so we have time to figure it out. But you helping the Orcs and Goblins, needs to happen in order to keep thest remaining ones alive. They need to start building themselves back up in order for the race to survive and the only way for this to happen though is if they are no longer being actively hunted. Getting at least some of other races to not fear them but actually help them, is sure to do that. Some will probably never help them, the humans and possibly the elves being a couple, but the demons might be more¡­sympathetic. Hopefully.¡±

    ¡®That doesn¡¯t sound good. But also it still didn¡¯t make sense to Olivia, were they not supposed to attack the other races. How does possibly joining with the demons, who I assume they also attack, help anyone.¡¯

    ¡°There are a lot of problems, and there will be more. One of them is that with their current numbers, it will take a long time before they will get back to where they were and they will need protection for that to happen. Because of this, there is no point in them attacking the other races right now. They can however help with culling the animals and monsters. If they were to do both or even just go back to attacking the races, they would just end up extinct. Once they have the numbers, they can go back to doing it, but who knows when or if that will happen. But like I said, there is plenty of time before the wars should happen, so we will figure things out before then.¡±

    ¡®Ok, this is getting veryplicated. I really wish I didn¡¯t have to be involved with this. Oh, that reminds me of something I need to check.¡¯

    ¡°So, while that is all well and good, with you telling me all this, does this mean you can¡¯t just magic me back to Earth then?¡±

    ¡°Err¡­ no.¡± Embarrassment flooded both of the goddess¡¯s faces after they said that. ¡°That¡¯s where the other messes came into y.¡±

    She had a feeling it wouldn¡¯t be that easy to get back to Earth. Knowing now that she couldn¡¯t, for the moment anyway, she decided to follow up on what the goddess said.

    ¡°What happened then.¡±

    ¡°Well, err.¡±

    ¡°We might as well just tell her. What does it matter if she knows.¡±

    ¡°But it¡¯s embarrassing.¡±

    *sigh* ¡°As the hunt for all of the Orcs and Goblins in thend happened, we realised we needed to do something. We came up with a n-¡±

    ¡°You- you came up with a n.¡± Carinthel quickly added.

    ¡°Fine, I came up with a n to steal an item from the higher gods that would let us¡­ remake the Orcs and Goblins. It should only be used by the higher gods, and they said they couldn¡¯t just remake our creations and mess with the world. I thought that if we could steal it, we could use it to reign them in a little, curbing their urges, which would stop the same thing from happening again. We were also going to change some others things to keep them in the fight as well, but we never managed to steal the damn thing.¡±

    ¡°We were¡­ distracted when we were trying to steal it. We got caught and were exiled to Earth, thankfully with a lot of our magic still. But, when we messed up again during our fight and sent you to this world, we were caught again, and they exiled us here as a ¡®fitting punishment¡¯.¡± Carinthel air quoted.

    ¡°We have only a slither of our magicpared to what we used to have. Enough to keep us alive and let us travel, but that¡¯s it really. There is nowhere near enough for us to send you back to Earth.¡±

    ¡°And even if we did, we would only get punished again for messing with things again.¡±

    ¡®But how would sending me back to where I came from be a problem? Is it just the act of the gods or goddesses doing anything to affect the world since they made it, seen as a problem?¡¯

    ¡°So will you help us?¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t really say no can I? If I do, I¡¯m probably going to get killed since everyone still hates Orcs and Goblins, so fixing that, if only slightly definitely helps me. Then it¡¯s just the problem of the war. You are going to figure out how to stop it though¡­ right?¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes of course. We are both very smart and have plenty of time to figure it out. We might not even need your help with the n either. Now, with the Orcs and Goblins in hiding it will take some time for them to be killed off so you have probably a year or so before they die, in which time you need to find and help them. Other than that, I guess you can just enjoy your new life. Oh, and sorry again for sending you here.¡±

    *pop*

    And with that, Carinthel vanished.

    ¡°Yeah, sorry again. But anyway, have fun.¡±

    *pop*

    And so was Lilestia.

    ¡°Urrggh¡± Olivia ran her hand down her face now that they were gone at the absurdity of it all.

    ¡®I have a year or so to save thest remaining Orcs and Goblins in this world. If I don¡¯t, they end up extinct, and monsters and animals will roam free probably causing destruction. But even if I do that, the other races will probably end up killing everyone anyway. Well, that¡¯s just great. If I forget about the war for a bit, the first big problem is how I¡¯m going to find the Orcs and Goblins when they¡¯ve gone off the grid. Then there is actually helping them, improving their image and possibly getting another races protection. How am I going to do all of this.¡±

    She held her head in her hands for a while as she though about all of this, but quickly decided to look up into the sky before shaking her head.

    ¡®Now, I¡¯m sure I could go on thinking about this for a long time, but I really need to get some sleep before the sun rises, and there is no way I can think clearly on this matter at this time. Time to wake Lyrika.¡¯

    Olivia expected something to happen when the goddesses left in regards to the sleeping spell, but aside from the fact that the talksted quite some time and that the new day was close to dawning, everything looked the same. Hoping that the sleeping spell had worn off Lyrika she calmly shook her shoulder to wake her.

    ¡°Umm, no, let me sleep more.¡± Lyrika groggily moaned out before rolling over and trying to go back to sleep.

    ¡°Lyrika, you need to wake up. It¡¯s your turn for the watch.¡±

    It took a little more rousing, but Lyrika finally woke up. She looked around at the darkness and eventually saw Olivia. She did jump a little at the sight, but seeing someone, whether a monster or not, right next to you as you wake up would startle anyone.

    ¡°Wha-, Why did you wake me up.¡±

    ¡°You know why, it¡¯s your turn to take watch.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­ok.¡± She finished with a yawn.

    It was clear to see that Lyrika was not happy about it, but it had to be done. Olivia could only imagine what would happen the next night when she would have to wake her up earlier than she did today.

    Olivia took her ce in the bedding and slowly closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

 Chapter 21

    The Return ¨C Part 1

    As the new day started Olivia slowly opened her eyes as she awoke to the new day. The sun was peeking through the trees, which scattered rays of light over her face, almost blinding her as she sat up. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and trying to regain her sight, she looked around the camp for Lyrika.

    As she searched, she found her sitting in the same spot, looking around the area checking for danger. The sighs every now and then, told Olivia she was not enjoying her duty of keeping watch. But then again, who would? Sitting in the same ce for several hours looking at just darkness. The only excitement that could arise would be if something tries to attack you, which is not something you want, even if it would spice up the night.

    Olivia looked around the area they were in as she tried to adjust the light of the day, and couldn¡¯t help but think that she needed a drink of water.

    This thought, brought another to mind, where she recalled the first morning she had spent with Lyrika. It was not the best night as it involved her being threatened, but the bit before that had contained a lot of awkwardness. This thought, with the little knowledge she had, led to her wondering why she didn¡¯t and if she would end up experiencing morning wood.

    She hardly knew much about the new anatomy she had, but this was one thing she had heard of, and how it affected many people with penises, experiencing an erection in the morning. Yet so far, she had not been included in that category.

    She did however realise that since she came here, there was some sort of incident or emotional distress pretty much each night she had been here. Whether that had any effect on her state in the morning she did not know. For this morning, she had a feeling that either the weighted talk with the goddess or the small amount of sleep she managed to achieve could be the reason she didn¡¯t have it. If she would get it at all.

    Not that she wasining or anything. She had yet to actually deal with an erection, given that the first was pretty much scared out of her, so the longer it could be put off the better as she was clueless about what to do if she got one. But she knew that she would need to figure out how to deal with it sometime soon.

    Pushing those thoughts aside, Olivia stood and shifted amongst the tattered tent cloth that was still being used for bedding. The noise was heard by Lyrika causing her to turn and face her.

    .....

    ¡°Good, you¡¯re awake. Keeping watch is so boring. Let¡¯s get out of here quickly and try to reach my vige today. Would be nice to sleep in an actual bed after so long of having to rough it.¡±

    ¡®She makes it sound like it¡¯s been months in the forest. She only ran away a couple of days ago.¡¯

    Olivia shook her head at Lyrika¡¯s greeting of the day and got started on her morning routine. In-between a few yawns, she worked with Lyrika¡¯s to put together a simple breakfast of the usual. Having an Effler in the morning was a bit much for breakfast, so they only ate hard tack and a small amount of jerky, which Lyrika absolutely enjoyed if the grimace on her face was an indication.

    Once done, they got to work with packing and headed off through the forest towards Lyrika¡¯s vige.

    ¡°Did you not get much sleepst night,¡± Lyrika asked as Olivia yawned again.

    ¡®Can I tell her what happened? How is that going to go down? Oh, I had a long talk with a couple of goddesses about the state of the world. Because of that, I have to save the remaining Orcs and Goblins in the world. Not sure how much good wille of that. She will probably just think I¡¯m crazy or something.¡¯

    And so she decided to go for the easy response.

    ¡°I think I stayed on watch for longer than I should have, so I didn¡¯t get much sleep after I woke you up.¡±

    ¡°Really, you mean my time on watch was shorter than it should have been. But it was so long.¡±

    Lyrika sighed as she realised this and decided it was vital they reach her vige in order to get a good night¡¯s sleep.

    ¡­

    As they continued their trek, Lyrika looked over at Olivia and the bandage she still had on. She winced a little as she recalled what happened.

    ¡°How ¨C how is your wound? Does it still hurt?¡±

    ¡°Oh, er no. I can hardly feel anything now. It might be possible to remove the bandage soon.¡±

    ¡°I think it should stay on a little longer¡­ to make sure there are no problems. We might also need to change it soon.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense.¡± It didn¡¯t really affect Olivia. It was decided they checkter today the state of her wound and see if the bandage needed to be changed. Whether it was still bleeding or not, keeping it on for a little longer to be cautious wasn¡¯t a bad idea.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry that it happened to you. I mean, if I didn¡¯t make us go hunting then-¡±

    ¡°Hey, hey. There¡¯s no need for that. This is not your thought. It¡¯s that little rodent¡¯s fault. We could be attacked anywhere in this forest, so saying that going hunting was the reason for it is silly. You have no reason to be sorry.¡±

    That was the end of the conversation. Silence reigned once again as they walked. Lyrika had her head facing downwards a short while after Olivia spoke, likelying to terms with what she said, but not longter she blushed, smiled and then got back to walking like before.

    ¡­

    A few hourster they stopped for lunch, having another Effler. As they came to a halt, they were lucky enough to see some fruit in a few of the nearby trees, which Lyrika said was fine to eat and that it meant they were close to exiting the bulk of the forest. So they decided to grab some for the rest of the journey

    The problem though was getting the fruit which took some trial and error. This included trying to shake the tree and throwing things at the fruit before Olivia decided to just try and climb it.

    As she went to grab hold of the tree, Lyrika immediately shot her down quoting her injury. When Olivia tried to brush it off, the response from Lyrika managed to knock her downpletely. The only thing she could do was watch as Lyrika climbed up the tree. She ended up falling off of it three times, without injury thankfully, before she reached them. After the first, Olivia did try to jump in and help, but the stare from Lyrika, like before, made her stop very quickly.

    ¡­

    Lunch was a very nice ordeal where they were able to dine on the Effler meat like before, but now they had themselves dessert thanks to Lyrika¡¯s efforts.

    The fruit was an odd shape, looking simr to a courgette. This though, was offset by the bumps and groves along it, and that it was a fruit and not a vegetable. The vour was also quite strange, where it started out as how a strawberry would, but once you swallowed it, an incredibly sharp note hit you. Really, if you were half asleep and needed to wake up fast, this was the fruit to eat, as the sharp note really shocks you.

    Once done, it was time to check out her injury. As Olivia reached for the bandage, Lyrika jumped at the chance to help her with it. Why she did this, Olivia didn¡¯t know. She could only think she was still trying to make amends in some way for her having gotten injured, even though she had told her not to worry. What was odd was the blush that she saw on Lyrika¡¯s cheeks as she slowly removed the bandage.

    ¡®Is she¡­enjoying this.¡¯

    Olivia could only watch as she slowly took off the bandage and practically caressed her abs as she inspected the wound, which as far as Olivia could see, was pretty much non-existent now.

    ¡®It was odd when the goddesses were doing it, but if feels really nice with Lyrika. Does she¡­like it? Like me? No, can¡¯t be. It must just be the abs. Even I had to look twice when I got a good look at them.¡¯

    Chalking it up to her physic as being the cause, as why would she like an Orc Goblin monster, she continued to watch Lyrika enjoy her fill. It would seem that after a while, Lyrika realised what she was doing and quickly stopped, removing the bandagepletely.

    ¡°They err. They look good- I mean it looks. The injury¡­the injury looks good.¡± She stammered out as the blush on her face intensified.

    Olivia¡¯s face turned to a bit of a cocky grin as she decided to have a bit of fun of her own.

    ¡°I figured. You can have another check if you want to. Better to be safe than sorry. Right?¡±

    The conflict on Lyrika¡¯s face was clear to see, but she managed to get passed it. ¡°No, no. Its- they. I mean I already checked and it¡¯s almostpletely healed.¡± Which was followed by Lyrika quickly standing and moving away from the situation.

    ¡­

    With the moment over, they pressed onwards and eventually came to the edge of the dense forest. While there were still trees past this point, it was no longer the case where just sticking out your arm meant you hit a tree no matter where you were. There was much more space between them past this point and it was much easier to see what was in the distance, which in this case was Lyrika¡¯s vige.

    They still had a good distance to go to reach it but being out of the dense forest took a lot of weight off their shoulders and allowed them to rx a bit more. But, with Lyrika¡¯s eagerness to get home and put their n in motion, rxing was not what happened as she took off for her home with Olivia following behind her.

    ¡°We are almost there. It feels like it has been ages. I can¡¯t wait to see my father again.¡±

    ¡°Wait, wait, wait. Stop.¡± Olivia called out to her. She thankfully heard and stayed where she was. ¡°You know you can¡¯t see your father right? You have been exiled, remember? We have to do things secretly. How we do that, I¡¯m not sure as if I go there I¡¯ll be killed and unless you sneak in they won¡¯t let you in. What happens if you get caught inside I don¡¯t know, but we need to figure out how to do this.¡±

    Lyrika¡¯s smile dropped as she realised this was the case, and Olivia almost regretted saying it.

    But it had to be done, which meant they now had to truly figure out how to put their n into action.

    And get Lyrika an actual bed to sleep on.

 Chapter 22

    The Return ¨C Part 2

    A frown stayed on Lyrika¡¯s face as they continued to walk, much slower than before, her enthusiasm having dropped drastically.

    ¡®She would have remembered eventually. Or she would have tried to enter and been turned away. It was better that she knew now¡­I think.¡¯

    Olivia wasn¡¯t really sure what to say now though. It was as if all her hopes and dreams had been shattered with a single sentence. How do you console someone after that?

    ¡°What can we do then? I want to see my father. He needs to know about what the new chief did¡± She said with a croak in her throat. ¡°I also want to sleep in a real bed.¡±

    Olivia scratched her head as she tried to figure this out when she realised there was a simple solution. She wasn¡¯t sure about the whole bed thing, but while she may not be able to talk to her father, that doesn¡¯t mean there is no way to tell him what happened. Informing her father was more important than sleeping on the bed. Right?

    ¡°Is there anyone you know who would help you that leaves the vige? If so all we need to do is talk to them and they can help.¡±

    ¡°Err¡­I¡¯m not sure.¡± She stopped in her stride and wandered around, probably going through faces and names to figure out who there was. ¡°Ah, yes. Tarquin. Tarquin can help. He is an old friend. Err, well more like an old¡­ partner. But he should help us, we are still on good terms. Mostly.¡±

    ¡°Should I ask?¡±

    .....

    ¡°Well, he is a hunter and has to leave the vige often with another hunter. The previous hunter that joined him was injured and could no longer go with him, so after a while he ended up with a new trainee, Cecelia. They were very close, always together, even when not hunting and I thought he was cheating on me with her. I confronted him and he said no, that they were just friends and hunting partners, but I didn¡¯t believe it. I was sure he was lying to me. So, I may have followed them on a hunt, scared off a kill, got caught and had an argument where he then ended our rtionship.¡±

    Olivia watched Lyrika as she spoke and aside from a slight sad look she didn¡¯t seem too troubled by what happened.

    ¡°After I cooled down, I tried to make things right a few dayster, but in perfect fashion, I found him kissing Cecelia. He was adamant that they only started their rtionship after ours ended, but who knows? It has been quite a while since all that happened. I moved on and started dating some guy, which didn¡¯tst, but we eventually reconciled and went back to being friends.¡±

    ¡°¡­I see. Well, it¡¯s good that you were able to move on, and we now have someone to help.¡±

    Olivia wasn¡¯t sure what else she should say to that, so she decided to go with a safe option.

    What was odd to Olivia though was how what she said made her feel. It annoyed her for some reason. She figured it was the fact that this Tarquin actually did something like that to Lyrika, but mixed in there was something else.

    While she couldn¡¯t give it a name, it¡¯s not like it was a mysterious feeling or anything. She had felt something simr to it before whenever she felt attracted to someone or during the few dates she had been on. The issue again though was whether these were her own feeling or rted to her being an Orc Goblin hybrid. It also didn¡¯t help that she now knew from the goddesses that they have a gic urge to aggressively take women. Which is probably what she has as well. While it hasn¡¯t manifested itself yet, it could just be a matter of time.

    She shook her head getting rid of her thoughts. They were on a mission to save the girls in a horrible situation. Thoughts of high school romance and the possible criminal assault charges she may incur in the future could wait.

    ¡°I think he should still be out hunting. We can try and catch him as he returns.¡±

    ¡°While I would love to go with you to meet your ex-boyfriend, I don¡¯t see this guy reacting well if he sees me with you.¡±

    ¡°Oh¡­yeah good point. Ok, I shall talk to him and exin the situation both with the chief and with you. Hopefully, I can convince him you¡¯re no threat and then you can join us. ¡±

    ¡°Sounds good. But if experience has told me anything it won¡¯t be that simple. Now, do you know where he is going toe from?¡±

    The reply of yes was followed by the two of the heading to the right of the vige, aiming for a patch of denser forest, which was separated from the rest by the ins.

    The trek wasn¡¯t far, and they mainly had to keep out of sight of anyone wandering around outside of the vige.

    As they got close to the area, Lyrika said that she could see him walking by in the distance. With a bit of squinting, Olivia managed the same feat.

    ¡®I guess better eyesight didn¡¯te with the rest of the package.¡¯

    As she watched him walking, she also, through gritted teeth said that Cecelia was there as well. It wasn¡¯t like she was surprised since they hunted together to keep each other safe, but it was clear to see she still had some grievances with the whole situation.

    She looked around to check for anyone else and then told Olivia to stay where she was, keep low and watch for her signal.

    ¡®Let¡¯s hope this goes well.¡¯ Was Olivia¡¯s final thought as Lyrika took off.

    ¡­

    She watched Lyrika head off in the direction of the two hunters in the forest.

    She wasn¡¯t close enough to see many details of what they looked like, but as far as she could see, Tarquin had ears simr to Lyrika¡¯s, although they looked fluffier andrger.

    ¡®Could he be a wolf-kin? May even be fox-kin¡¯

    Cecilia on the other hand had what Olivia thought looked like a dog¡¯s ears. They were floppy and drooping over the side of her head atop brte hair. It sort of worked and made her look quite adorable.

    Halfway towards them, Lyrika looked around, then stood out in the open and called out his name. It was better that they knew she was there rather than shooting her because they heard someone sneaking up on them.

    Now knowing she was there they met up and exchanged a few words. Tarquin looked worried, possibly for Lyrika given that she had been exiled, or just for her in general. The crossed arms from Cecelia showed she wasn¡¯t too happy about him acting like that.

    After a while, they were both engrossed in what Lyrika was saying. Which like the rest, Olivia couldn¡¯t hear.

    ¡®I wonder if I can get a little closer to try and listen in.¡¯

    Staying crouched she started to move forward until she could actually hear what they were saying. But this ended up being interrupted by a couple of sounds.

    *crunch*

    *thunk*

    As Olivia got into position, she stepped on arge branch snapping it in half. The noise however rang through the forest, alerting the group to her presence. This was then followed by an arrow sinking into the tree next to her.

    Olivia was startled at the shot and gave a short cry when her brain caught up that it nearly hit her. As she looked up she saw the two hunters running over to her with their bows raised.

    ¡°No, no, stop.¡± Lyrika ran after them and dddddd in front to halt their execution of Olivia. ¡°She is a friend. Put your bows down.¡±

    ¡°What. What are you talking about? Get out of the way before this thing attacks us!¡±

    ¡°Hey. That¡¯s just insulting calling me a thing.¡± Olivia said to the hunters. She then turned to Lyrika, ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t get to telling them about me yet.¡±

    ¡°No. I didn¡¯t. Just don¡¯t say anything, so I can sort this out.¡±

    Olivia ran her finger across her lips, zipping them and let Lyrika diffuse the situation. She could have tried herself, but she could see no oue that didn¡¯t involve an arrow in her chest.

    ¡°Look, just step back. Lower your weapons and I will exin.¡± Lyrika asked as the two hunters tried to get around her to shoot.

    Cecelia was looking over at Tarquin as if waiting for his guidance, but he was solely focused on getting a clear shot.

    ¡°Just move out of the way Lyrika and I shall take it down. Quickly, before it hurts you.¡±

    Lyrika kept stepping back in order to keep herself in front of Olivia, who had to follow her steps as well. The two hunters continued moving forward while slowly spreading outwards, trying to line up a shot around Lyrika.

    ¡®So I¡¯m an ¡®it¡¯ now. That¡¯s just great.¡¯

    Lyrika¡¯s expression very quickly turned to annoyance as Tarquin just ignored her again. So, she decided to up her game and just go for it.

    ¡°Stop what you are doing you stupid idiot. Olivia has done nothing to you and all you¡¯ve done is threaten her. I know she looks like a monster, but just listen to what I¡¯m saying you numbskull!¡±

    The dumbfounded look on Tarquin¡¯s face told everyone that he had not been expecting Lyrika¡¯s outcry and he really didn¡¯t know what to do about it. He was still holding his bow, but he was frozen in indecision.

    ¡°I think we should listen to what she has to say Tarquin. Please?¡± Was the quiet sentence that came from Cecelia. Lyrika looked at her and smiled having found the voice of reason between the two, but that didn¡¯tst long as she remembered who she was smiling at.

    Tarquin finally put down his bow but stood well back, bringing Cecelia with him. It was enough distance that if Olivia did try to make a move, he could easily get a couple of shots in and probably take her down.

    ¡°I-Ok. I shall listen. But, if¡­she, does anything I will not hesitate to fight back and kill her. Now, why are you with that thing? Orcs are dangerous, you know that.¡±

    ¡®Now I¡¯m back to being a thing again, great. Also does he not know what listening means.¡¯

    ¡°I thought you said you were going to listen to me!¡±

    ¡°Err, ok. I¡­I¡¯ll listen.¡± Tarquin managed to squeak out as he lowered his bow. Cecelia stood by him and rubbed his shoulder to try and console him, given that he must have thought he was doing the right thing.

    ¡°Good. Now, this is Olivia, the¡­friend, I mentioned. It¡¯s unfortunate that things got a little out of hand there, but before they did, I was going to tell you about her. Olivia has been very good to me and helped me during my exile. She is not a bad person and is very differentpared to¡­ well monsters. Also, she is half-orc half-goblin.¡±

    Both Tarquin and Cecelia peered at Olivia as they were told this. They probably wondered how it was possible, but Lyrika jumped ahead before they could ask.

    ¡°Olivia has helped me a lot, and she helped me figure out how to solve my exile problem and deal with the new chief. I already told you about why I was exiled and what that chief did with all the wives he gained from the other tribes. I need your help to stop him.¡±

    ¡°Wait, wait¡­ what. Look, what you said may be true, but as far as I can see you¡¯re the only one who¡¯s seen this. How do we know you¡¯re not lying. You could have said that in order to get out of the marriage with the chief.¡±

    ¡°What? How does that exin why I¡¯m here now? If I wanted to get away from the marriage, why would Ie back here where I¡¯m likely to be found? I could have just continued running if that was the case.¡±

    ¡°She has a point Tarquin,¡± Cecelia very slyly brought up.

    ¡°Ok, but what about her?¡± Tarquin pointed at Olivia as he practically spat this. ¡°While you say you are ¡®friends¡¯ how do we know she is not controlling you somehow, making you say all this,¡± Tarquin said, air-quoting friends. He then stood tall and crossed his arms as if he waspletely right. ¡°She could be using you to get to the rest of our vige, her tribe hidden away somewhere waiting to pounce.¡±

    ¡°So, you¡¯re saying a race that is known for kidnapping women and having their way with them, decided and managed to instead control me somehow, without a ve cor¡± Lyrika countered as she pulled her cor down slightly to show it was bare. ¡°She then forced me to take her to my vige, find you, almost get shot and tell you a fake story. Even if her tribe was waiting, how would this help take the vige? It¡¯s not like we can go to the vige anyway without either being captured or her being killed.¡±

    ¡°She could¡­err. Well, she might¡­she¡­¡± he trailed off as he couldn¡¯t think of aeback. Now it was Lyrika who had the smug look on her face as he hung his head in defeat while trying to think of a retort.

    ¡®These two are just like children,¡¯ was Olivia¡¯s thought as she watched these two try to beat each other with words, trying to get thest word in.

    It was at this point that something urred to her.

    ¡®When will I be able to speak again.¡¯

 Chapter 23

    The Return ¨C Part 3

    ¡°So, what do you need us to do.¡±

    ¡°Cecelia, what are you saying?¡±

    ¡°Tarquin, while you can keep trying toe up with reasons they are lying, it¡¯s clear none of them will be true. We might as well just hear them out.¡±

    He hung his head in disappointment given that he had been unable toe out on top in this situation, and so resided himself to the doom he expected to ur from helping these two.

    ¡°Fine. What do you need from us then?¡±

    Olivia had managed to get herself up off the floor while everyone was shouting at each other, but she still couldn¡¯t find the time to jump not this conversation. All she could do right now was watch Lyrika talk about their n.

    She spoke about how they needed proof that the chief¡¯s wives were hurt and were being hurt by him. Having that would surely cause outrage amongst the tribe leaders they had been taken from. She also told them about needing to learn why he was gathering all the tribes together and how it seemed like he was creating his own personal army, taking members from each.

    Tarquin and Cecelia responded by saying how he wanted to build amunity, but Lyrika brought up what Olivia had said about how a man that does that to his wives is unlikely to be doing this for the munity¡¯.

    .....

    Once she said that, both of them agreed that she might be right, assuming they confirmed he was in fact hurting his wives.

    ¡°So, you want us to ask around, see if anyone else has seen or heard about any of this.¡±

    ¡°Yes, but be careful of whom you trust. I know it¡¯s a lot to ask, but those women need help, and whatever the chief ns to do with everyone may be way worse than what¡¯s he¡¯s already done. We all need to know before it¡¯s toote.¡±

    Tarquin and Cecelia looked at each other and after a few seconds, both nodded.

    ¡°We will help you. To be honest, a few people have had some doubts about his motives as well. I¡¯m sure they can help find out what you need.¡±

    A massive smile formed on Lyrika¡¯s face as she heard his response.

    ¡°Yes, thank you thank you thank you.¡± Lyrika then went to jump forward, likely to hug Tarquin out of impulse but managed to catch herself. When she realised what she was about to do, her eyes couldn¡¯t help but wander over to Olivia as if she was looking for some sort of reaction from her about what she almost did. By the stoic look on Olivia¡¯s face, she didn¡¯t know what to feel by that. Disappointment maybe?

    As she looked back at Tarquin, she noticed the re from Cecelia meaning she clearly realised what Lyrika was about to do. She definitely made the right move by stopping herself.

    Olivia¡¯s stoic look had nothing to do with Lyrika almost jumping to hug Tarquin though. It was more the fact that since she had not spoken and was basically excluded from the conversation, she had slowly started to slip into aa and miss most of what they were talking about.

    Lyrika took her eyes away from Cecelia¡¯s annoyed look and managed to get herself back together and continue the discussion. ¡°We also need a ce to stay. Sleeping in the forest is exhausting. Do you think you could sneak us into the vige so I can sleep on an actual bed?¡±

    Cecelia giggled at this, likely because she realised the absurdity of trying to sneak an exile and a part Orc part Goblin into a tiny vige. Tarquin¡¯s reaction was the exact opposite of this, being one who easily showed his expressions.

    ¡°What no. We can¡¯t sneak an exile and an Orc-Goblin woman into the vige. That isplexity against ourws and there are so many people in the vige, that they will easily find out. And besides¡­ I still don¡¯t fully trust her. What if she attacks someone.¡±

    Olivia had an offended look on her face, but no one bothered to notice as Lyrika could kind of understand what he was saying.

    Cecelia quickly whispered in Tarquin¡¯s ear, causing his expression to change to shock and then back to anger as she spoke.

    ¡°No, they cannot go there. That is¡­¡± he trailed off mumbling thest part of his sentence.

    ¡°What. What is it?¡± Lyrika asked. It seemed like there was a ce they could go, so what was the problem?

    Cecelia turned back to Lyrika and after a sigh, reluctantly brought up her proposal. ¡°There is a hunting cabin¡­ not far from here. It was assigned to us to use as a safe haven in case of monsters or bandits. You can¡­stay there. For a while.¡±

    ¡°Well, that sounds good, does it have a bed?¡±

    Lyrika was so engrossed and happy in having a proper ce to sleep that she had not noticed the expressions and emotions the hunters were showing. With Tarquin¡¯s annoyed response in suggesting they could stay there, to the pauses in Cecelia¡¯s sentence, Olivia was quite sure she knew what this ce was, and it wasn¡¯t just a safe space to get away from monsters.

    ¡°But, no! That is our ce. They will ruin it.¡± Tarquin cried out in annoyance.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°Wait, ¡®our ce¡¯, ¡®ruin it¡¯¡­ oh no. Is this where you to go to sleep together!¡±

    The blush on both of their faces told Lyrika everything, which coincidently caused her to make a gagging motion.

    ¡°Ugggh, is there really nowhere else we can go.¡±

    ¡°Im afraid not. Now, while it is our¡­special ce, it is clear that you need a proper ce to rest. Also, the cabin it is only essible by us, so no one will find you there. We can even give you new¡­ bedding if you would prefer.¡± Cecelia chimed in.

    ¡°Uggh.¡± Lyrika liked away to fake vomit after hearing that.

    With no other option, aside from roughing it, once she recovered, all she could really say was ok and that they will definitely need new bedding. With that decided, the hunters took them to the cabin.

    ¡­

    Heading through the forest they eventually reached the cabin. There was nothing special about it, as it was made for functionality rather than aesthetics. Simple in design, it was made out of a dark wood and blended well with the surrounding forest. The walls and the door looked strong, and the scratches they saw that looked like they came from ws, showed that it could take a beating.

    As they headed inside, they gave Lyrika and Olivia a quick tour. Well, it was mainly Lyrika that received it as they wanted Olivia to keep her distance. Even though they somewhat tolerated that Olivia was a part of this, neither of them wanted to be in a confined space with her, where anything could happen.

    The inside of the cabin was pretty bare. There was a table and a couple of chairs, a few chests for storage containing some well-preserved food, a veryrge jar-like container filled with water and two beds which were pushed together¡­for some reason. Why that was, was anyone¡¯s guess.

    All kidding aside, there wasn¡¯t much, but there didn¡¯t need to be. You had food, water and shelter. Where was this during her first day in this world when she set those as her main goals?

    Back outside, Cecelia said they would head back and pick up some new bedding, which Lyrika wholeheartedly agreed on. As they watched them go, Lyrika very quickly and adamantly said ¡°We need to air this ce out.¡±

    With the doors open they waited outside as the air did its thing, and as they waited a paranoid thought came to Olivia.

    ¡°I think we should wait for a short distance from the cabin.¡±

    ¡°Wha- why?¡±

    ¡°Well, you¡¯re an exile and I¡¯m a¡­ let¡¯s face it, a monster to them. Who¡¯s to say they won¡¯t tell other people about us.¡±

    ¡°But they¡¯re-¡± Lyrika started to say something, but ended up stopping herself. While it was likely she was about to say friends, while it wasn¡¯t untrue, the situation between them was definitely moreplicated. ¡°Anyway, I know them and they are not bad people¡­¡±

    ¡®It almost sounds like she was trying to convince herself.¡¯

    Lyrika stood there just thinking about it and after a while, sighed as she took in the situation.

    ¡°Ok, we can wait away from the cabin. But I¡¯m sure there is nothing to worry about.¡±

    ¡­

    A few hourster and as far as she could see, Lyrika was right. No other hunters or warriors were following Tarquin or Cecelia as they arrived at the cabin, so it seemed like everything was fine. There was the possibility that someone wouldeter, but only time would tell. But she didn¡¯t think that would be the case.

    With the new bedding handed over, the hunters bid them goodnight and that they would ask around about the chief. Cecelia also said to Lyrika that if she needed anything, to just let her know and that they would be back tomorrow afternoon.

    Watching them go, Lyrika brought up a question that had been confusing her for a while now.

    ¡°Why is she being so nice to us? I don¡¯t even really know her?¡±

    It hadn¡¯t urred to her that it was strange, but Olivia went ahead and pondered why this was the case as well. It could have been just her nature and that she was a nice person. The other reason was quite a bit worse as it involved Lyrika romance with Tarquin. It may have been that while Tarquin was adamant that he had only got together with Cec after he and Lyrika parted, that may not have been true. This could have led to Cecelia feeling guilty and her being nice and helpful to Lyrika is her way to¡­ atone, so to speak.

    When Lyrika didn¡¯t receive an answer from Olivia she looked over and asked again. Startled out of her thoughts, she quickly said she had no idea why Ceclia was being so nice, trying to just sweep it under the rug.

    But she did so quite unconvincingly.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Lyrika just stared at Olivia who clearly knew something was up.

    ¡°You know something, don¡¯t you?¡±

    ¡°N-no.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Olivia didn¡¯t hold out for long and so she told her. She told her how it might just be her usual personality or that she felt guilty.

    Thankfully, she took it rather well.

    ¡°I knew it, I knew he wasn¡¯t being honest when he said nothing was going on! The liar!¡± She shouted angrily while every now and then she gritted her teeth. She seethed for a while but eventually calmed down. She said that while she was angry, it was way into the past and that she had moved on, which she said while her eyes very quickly nced at Olivia.

    ¡­

    New bedding in hand they got to work changing things. Lyrika was tempted to light the old bedding on fire, but Olivia managed to calm her down enough that they just left it in storage.

    They then had the final meal of the day, using thest of the Efflers and then got to bed.

    The blissful sound Lyrika made as sheid down showed how much she had been looking forward to this, and how much nicer it waspared to in the forest. While it wasn¡¯t like a modern bed, even with its simple design it was so much morefortable that the dirt and grass.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­what for?¡± Olivia replied a little startled at the thanks from Lyrika.

    ¡°Everything. We only met a while ago, and it may not have seemed like much but you have helped me a lot since we met and you¡¯re still doing so. You practically saved me from starvation, consoled me about my exile and forgave me when I attacked you¡­ both times. You helped mee up with a n to set things right, got me meat to eat, kept mepany throughout my exile and got me back to my vige.¡±

    ¡°They all seem quite small things to me.¡±

    ¡°Maybe so, but to me, you managed to help and take care of me through a very tough time in my life. You¡¯ve been so nice and caring¡­even when I wasn¡¯t always the same to you. I feel like¡­I feel like I should repay you in some way.¡±

    ¡°There is no need for that. I did what anyone would do.¡± Olivia said, shrugging as she did.

    ¡°Oh please, as if most would help someone who attacked them,¡± Lyrika mumbled, rolling her eyes at the absurdity of Olivia¡¯s statement.

    ¡°Well, that may be, but as I said, there¡¯s no need to repay me. It¡¯s just in my nature. Anyway, I haven¡¯t finished helping you yet, as we still haven¡¯t stopped the chief or saved those girls.¡±

    Oliviaid back and tried to get some sleep in this new bed, thinking she hadid Lyrika¡¯s thoughts to rest.

    Lyrika though was looking over at Olivia, contemting something. She looked at her face, and her eyes then drifted down her body to where her breasts were under the fur cover, showing their contours. Even though she was unable to see them, she ended up blushing slightly. This only intensified as her eyes moved down to her body to where her abs would be, her memory going back to all the times she had watched Olivia exercising with them and her muscles on full disy, with the sweat running between them. This also brought up the Effler incident and the time she had helped to ¡®check¡¯ her wound. All of this caused her to rub her thighs together.

    .....

    Then she spotted the slight bulge in the bedding where she knew Olivia¡¯s package was. This sent her mind back to the second time she had attacked her and her discovery of it for the first and only time, turning her tanned skin into that of a tomato.

    She thenid herself down and tried to get to sleep as her thoughts turned dirty. Part of her mind fought against this, telling her that it was a monster that was causing these thoughts. But eventually, the devil on her shoulder won and all she could think of was seeing Olivia¡¯s package again. And hopefully doing something more with it.

 Chapter 24

    The Morning ¨C Part 1 ¨C R-18

    Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next chapter when avable.

    Contains Masturbation.

    ¡­

    With the new day came more sun rays shining through the murky window of the cabin. While the standards of ss were not like they were on Earth, it was still transparent enough for the rays to shine brightly on Olivia¡¯s face and hit her eyes. She rolled her head around trying to rid herself of them, but the trees the sun peered through moved with the morning wind causing them to almost follow her as she shifted in her sleep.

    ¡®That was such a nice night¡¯s sleep. Do I have to get up today?¡¯

    Her question was quickly answered as the leaves parted momentarily allowing a thick beam of light to shine on her. The heat and the intense light were enough for her to get the message.

    Yawning, she slowly rose to a seated position and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Still half asleep she wondered where she was, as she groggily looked around the area.

    It took a few moments for her to actually remember what had happened the day before and looked to see how Lyrika was doing.

    .....

    In the bed to her right a short distance from her, it having been separated from the other bed when they dealt with the bedding the night before, to ensure they could both sleep well, she found Lyrika was sound asleep. It seemed that the sun had not yet reached her yet, which Olivia somewhat grumbled about. With the bedding over her, she could only see her tanned face, but she looked so peaceful.

    ¡®Well, I think I¡¯ll let her wake up on her own. If I tried to wake her up now, I¡¯ll probably get my face scratched.¡¯

    With all they had been through, and Lyrika¡¯splete and utter need to get a bed and have a good night¡¯s sleep, it was a possibility.

    Deciding to leave sleeping beauty to it, Olivia started to get up and head outside for some exercise.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    But was stopped by a problem.

    A rather big problem as it stands.

    ¡°Ohh¡± and ¡°Ahh¡±, were a few of the whispered cries she let out as she tried to shift her legs to get out of bed. Every movement she made seemed to hurt in some way as her now big friend stood erect. It was at this point she also realised that even if she managed to get out of bed, there was no way she could exercise while she was like this.

    ¡®Is this what they call morning wood? Why has this happened to me now? How do I get rid of this? Maybe if I wait long enough it will go down on its own.¡¯

    Laying there just waiting, thinking about nothing and everything, five minutes turned to ten with no sign of change. Olivia looked down at the tented bedding and sighed. ¡®Well, looks like this is it. Time to learn how to masturbate.¡¯

    Lifting up the covers she was exposed to a simr scene to what she had seen before. Thankfully, thest time she had an erection had been solved by other means, if you can count being threatened as other means. But, she didn¡¯t see that as an option right now.

    She shifted the bedding pulling it down so she could see the issue clear as day. Then doing what she had been fearful of all this time, she grasped her penis.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡®Ok, what now.¡¯

    She had no clue how to deal with this thing. Sure, they taught sexual education back on Earth but they never went into details about how you masturbate. Or maybe they did, and she turned away from that part, not wanting to listen. Either way, this being the case, all she could do was usemon sense and trial and error it.

    ¡®Ok, how about this.¡¯

    With a loose grip, to tried to rotate her hand around it.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡®It feels¡­strange. I can feel the friction from it, but¡­is this it. Should I go up and down as well?¡¯

    Before she could even get to adding vertical movement to it, she ended up putting a bit too much pressure in her grip and ended up twisting.

    ¡°Ahhh, no, no. Bad, bad. That can¡¯t be the right way to do it¡± she cried out.

    She quickly stopped once that happened and had to wait a while before she felt like she could start again.

    ¡®Well, it¡¯s definitely not that way. It can only be up and down then.¡¯

    Following her thoughts, she gave it a try and started to rub her hand up and down herrge, slightly sore penis, feeling the veins along it as she did. It felt strange when she started, as she ended up dragging against the skin, but felt much better than when she was twisting. So, she continued, and eventually, she was able to adjust the pressure of her grip so that her hand glided along. This caused a good deal of friction without it hurting, giving her a strange but nice feeling.

    ¡°Ohhh, this is so weird. How do guys do this? I think I even heard that some do it several times a day.¡±

    With the odd sensations and pleasurable feeling, she kept it going.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    And going.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    And going.

    All at the same slow speed.

    ¡°Why is nothing happening? The friction feels nice, but isn¡¯t something supposed to happen? Guys are supposed to release their stuff¡­ right?¡± Olivia said in a frustrated manner.

    ¡°How are you so bad at that?¡±

    ¡°Wha-? L-Lyrika. How long have you been awake.¡± The blush on Olivia¡¯s face was instantaneous, as she looked over and could see Lyrikaying on her side just watching her failed attempt at masturbation. She was so startled she hadn¡¯t even thought to cover herself up with the bedding and so remained open to the world with her hand wrapped around her penis.

    ¡°I¡¯ve been awake since you hurt yourself trying to twist it. Why would you twist it, and with nothing wet on your hand to make it move easier? From the noise you made, I thought someone attacked you or something. Have you never masturbated before?¡±

    Olivia¡¯s blush only grew knowing she had seen her failure and decided toe clean.

    ¡°No, ok. I¡¯ve never done anything like this before-¡±

    ¡®Ah, my memory loss, that should help me out of this.¡¯

    ¡°-as far as I can remember, which as you know isn¡¯t that long ago.¡±

    Olivia¡¯s face was still tinted red, but inside she looked smug, happy that things should now fall into ce, and that Lyrika would let it all go given it could be med on her amnesia.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    But Lyrika just stayed there in silence staring at her. Well, staring at her erect problem is more like. She started to chew the inside of her mouth as if she was trying to figure something out.

    With the pause in the conversation, gone was the embarrassed Olivia, as she decided to bring back some of the bravado she had when she found Ameril in a simr situation.

    ¡°You do know my eyes are up here. Unless something else is keeping you more captivated.¡±

    Yet this received little to no response as it seemed Lyrika was deeper in thought than Olivia realised. She went to ask if everything was all right when suddenly Lyrika spoke up.

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll help you.¡±

    ¡®Wha-¡®

    ¡°Wha-¡±

    The bravado was shattered instantly as Olivia ended up with a jaw-dropped expression mixed with shock and slight confusion, as she wasn¡¯t sure she had understood Lyrika correctly.

    ¡°Err, wh-what do you mean by¡­you¡¯ll help me.¡±

    Lyrika getting out of bed¡­with only her underwear on, only gave Olivia a mixed bag of feelings. There was the worry over what would be happening, but seeing her almost naked warmed her face and seemed to cause her penis to twitch a few times.

    ¡°Just-just like I said, I¡¯ll help you. You can think of it as my way of¡­repaying you. Yes, that¡¯s what it is. As well as helping myself.¡± Lyrika replied, mumbling thest sentence so Olivia couldn¡¯t hear.

    ¡°I said that you don¡¯t-.¡±

    ¡°I know, but please. I¡­I want to help.¡±

    ¡°Err.¡±

    Now she really didn¡¯t know what to say, especially when Lyrika crouched next to the bed giving herself a very clear view of it.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Her gaze was held on the dark brown rod and did not waiver. That is until identally Olivia cleared her throat, startling Lyrika to continue talking.

    ¡°Oh. Ok. Now, what you were doing was right, but you need to pick up speed as you do it. Also having the image of someone that¡­turns you on in your mind helps.¡±

    ¡°Oh, err ok.¡± She said as she looked at Lyrika, thinking in her mind about how weird things had turned out. She ended up looking right into Lyrika¡¯s eyes, seeing a somewhat curious expression looking back at her. This, while also being almostpletely naked showing off her beautiful tanned skin, forced her to look away as her face flushed.

    ¡®Well, I¡¯m pretty sure I know who I¡¯ll be thinking of now.¡¯

    ¡°Come on, get started.¡±

    ¡°With you right next to me?¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah. I-I need to see if you¡¯re¡­doing it right.¡±

    Slowly and surely, she took a hold of her penis and started to masturbate, properly this time. Under Lyrika¡¯s guidance, she ran her hand up and down herrge veiny penis, increasing her speedpared to before. Her hand, covered in a small amount of sweat from the situation and from her earlier attempt, flowed over the bumps and groves and with a slight increase in pressure, caused more friction as she stroked it.

    Which felt amazing.

    Lyrika sat there, with her eyes wide as she watched her go, seeing her hand glide along her throbbing penis, which caused Lyrika to gulp. Moans started to arise from Olivia as she got faster and faster, the friction increasing the pleasure she was feeling.

    ¡°Oooh¡±

    ¡®This feels so strange but so good. No wonder guys do this a lot.¡¯

    As she kept going she felt something building. Her mind started to sh through images of Lyrika from when she was bathing and other random moments from their time together. At some point they change from memories to more imaginative images, seeing her in various poses while naked. They even transitioned into images which included Olivia, where they touched each other in very intimate ces. Some even had her big friend taking centre stage, with it being handled by Lyrika, leading to her being bent over ready to receive it.

    .....

    All of a sudden, these images started to change, bringing Ameril into the picture, before changing back to Lyrika. The images kepting and going, shifting between both girls, some including both at the same time, where Olivia¡¯s body touched and yed with both of them.

    As she watched all of these images and scene y in her mind, she couldn¡¯t help but hope that these woulde true in the future. All the while thinking this, she continued to stroke herself, until finally¡­

    ¡­the building of pressure burst.

    ¡°Ahhh.¡±

    She cried out as she was flooded with pleasure. Her head flung backwards as she rode out the waves that hit her, where she eventually justid their bathing in the afterglow of the dissipating pleasure, still experiencing a pushing sensation from her penis.

    She hadn¡¯t seen it at the time with her head tilted back, but cum has exploded out of her penis, flying out the head and coating her chest. This continued even when sheid her head back, the steam sputtering out with every push she made. Lyrika sitting nearby had just watched the whole show with rapt attention, her body getting hot from the sight of it all, seeing her seed coating her chest, watching some run between the groves in her abs. She ended up licking her lips at that.

    ¡°What. What happened? That felt so good.¡±

    ¡°Oh, er¡­well, that was your very first release.¡± Was Lyrika startled reply as she tore herself away from her now white stained chest.

    ¡®Release, I guess it¡¯s this world was of saying ejaction or¡­ I think it was also called cuming. If anything, I can definitely see why guys do it multiple times a day. That felt so good.¡¯

    Olivia was stillying there just breathing heavily from the exertion, when all of sudden Lyrika¡¯s voice grew concerned.

    ¡°Olivia, why is it still up?¡±

 Chapter 25

    The Morning ¨C Part 2 ¨C R-18

    Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next chapter when avable.

    Contains Assisted Masturbation.

    ...

    Olivia just felt so at peace as shey there, but Lyrika¡¯s somewhat worried words brought her out of that feeling.

    ¡°Up, what do you mean up? What¡¯s up?¡±

    Struggling to right herself, she looked down her body first spotting the white fluid on her chest.

    ¡°Err, what¡¯s that?¡± Olivia asked as she pointed at the mess that now covered a good deal of her torso.

    ¡°What¡¯s wha- Oh, you mean your seed. It¡¯s what came out of your penis when you¡­released. How do you not kno-. Ah, the amnesia thing.¡±

    .....

    ¡®Oh yeah. Of course, that¡¯s what it is. So it¡¯s known as seed here. Wow, it¡¯s like I can hardly think properly.¡¯

    Olivia rolled her chest slightly and saw the thick gloopy substance start to slide along her skin. She moved her hand over to touch it but backed away at thest second, really not sure how to deal with the weirdness of all this.

    ¡°You look like you¡¯re afraid to touch it. It is safe to do that you know. Some people even like the taste of it¡­is what I heard.¡± Lyrika said looking a bit embarrassed as she said thest sentence. ¡°Anyway, forget about your seed. I was talking about your penis.¡±

    Her curiosity sated, she skipped over the ¡®seed¡¯ on her chest and saw her penis looking the same as how it was before she had even started to masturbate.

    ¡°Is that not something that normally happens?¡±

    ¡°No, of course not, otherwise I would have said why is it down.¡± Lyrika quickly retorted. ¡°Guys are normally always one pump and done. I¡¯ve never seen or heard about it still being up after release. Could it be because you¡¯re a girl with it, or is it an Orc or Goblin thing?¡±

    Upon hearing that, while still having a bit of trouble thinking straight, her mind was able to go back to the meeting with the two goddesses. It brought to mind theirments about Orcs and Goblins having increased sexual stamina allowing them to mate with multiple women. Could this be part of that? Another thought that came to mind was whether her being made up of both races halved that fact, or maybe even doubled its effectiveness.

    ¡°I-I don¡¯t know, it might be an Orc or Goblin thing. But anyway, what do I do now? Do I have to do that all over again, as I have to say, while pleasurable, my arm hurts a little from all that moving?¡± She decided to y it off a bit, as revealing the fact that they had increased sexual stamina would bring up the goddesses, as with amnesia, it was probably something she wouldn¡¯t know.

    It would seem though, that she worried over nothing, as Lyrika had her own thoughts on this.

    ¡°I mean, Orcs are known for having harems, granted unwilling ones. Same with Goblins, although it¡¯s less like harems, more like find and breed with anything that¡¯s female. If they could only release once and need to wait before they can do it again, it would take them ages to get through the harem. It must be that you have more stamina than other races or something, which is why you can go again.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s always nice to know I¡¯m special and all.¡± She could only sigh again. ¡°But now, I guess it¡¯s go time again,¡±

    Now it¡¯s not to say she was disappointed with doing it again, as the pleasure the first time felt amazing. It¡¯s just that with so little time since she experienced it, doing it again felt more like a chore now. Plus her arm with her dominant hand hurt. Doing the same thing all over again was just going to make it worse. Switching hands could work, but like with using your other hand to write something, it just feels wrong.

    Moving on, she brought her hand up towards her overachieving friend to give it another go. As she did, aches and groans arose from Olivia as she moved her arm, still recovering from the fast repetitive motions she had been doing from the first masturbation.

    As she drew closer, she suddenly felt something grip her penis. Looking over to see what it was, she found Lyrika¡¯s hand wrapped around her girth, with the girl just staring at it almost as if she was in a trance

    ¡°Lyrika, what-¡±

    ¡°I-Ill do it.¡± She quickly jumped in with. ¡°I m-mean your arm hurts right? Doing it again will just make it worse.¡± She said as if it was the obvious answer, and that nothing else could be done. But Olivia wasn¡¯t socking in mental capacity from the blood rushing to her penis to not realise that.

    ¡°I could just use my other hand you know.¡± Olivia replied with a smug look.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°I know that. B-but. But. If I do it, you¡¯ll be able to see how it should really be done. I-it should also feel better than doing it by yourself.¡±

    ¡®Well, this weird situation has turned even weirder. Why would she want to do this? Is this still just her¡­repaying me for my help? Or, could it be that she wants to do it because it¡­excites her. That can¡¯t be it¡­can it.¡¯

    Olivia could see the massive blush of embarrassment on Lyrika¡¯s face, as she held onto her penis. But one thing was clear, Lyrika wanted to do this. Whether it was for Olivia, for herself somehow, or even both, she didn¡¯t know. But really, at this point, Olivia was starting to think it didn¡¯t matter. Who was she to say no to the beautiful girl who wanted to help Olivia, part Orc part Goblin, masturbate.

    As she went through this thought process, she missed the fact that Lyrika had removed her hand from her penis, moving it to her mouth and thoroughly licked her palm, applying some lubrication. She then quickly took it in her grasp again and sat there watching it as she slowly slid her hand up and down the shaft.

    ¡°Oooh. That feels-. Oh wow, that¡¯s different.¡± Was all Olivia could manage to say as she was torn away from her thoughts when Lyrika started.

    ¡°Does-does it feel good.¡± Lyrika silently asked. It was quite the contrast to her usual bluntness but given the strangeness of the whole situation, it seemed right somehow.

    ¡°It feels really nice. Much nicer than when I did it.¡± Olivia tried to keep looking at Lyrika but every now and then the sensation caused her to drop her head back down and just experience it. The slickness of her hand let it slide up and down easily, removing any problems of it dragging along the skin. It all just felt amazing to Olivia, even more so since the gorgeous girl she had been having feelings for was the one doing it.

    Lyrika¡¯s face grew redder as she continued her ministrations on Olivia¡¯s penis. The redness was from both the embarrassment of it all and because it was making her feel very hot. She looked over to Olivia¡¯s face asionally to see what she was feeling, but her expression didn¡¯t really change throughout, since it was stuck on just blissful.

    Olivia in her blissful ignorance also missed the fact that Lyrika¡¯s other hand was nowhere to be seen on the bed, but had managed to make its way between her own legs, in order to deal with the heat she was feeling. She rubbed herself through her underwear as she continued stocking Olivia¡¯s penis, but bit her lip to stop her own moans. A feat that Olivia probably wasn¡¯t coherent enough to do herself.

    Lyrika started to speed up her strokes, keeping her eyes on the prize as she did. She did continue to look at Olivia every now and then, where at one point Olivia turned her head and ended up staring straight into her eyes as well. The look of lust was prevalent in both of their eyes, and the heavy breathing from Olivia only added to the look.

    Her speed increased and Olivia could feel the tell-tale signs that she would ¡®release¡¯. The friction of her hand stroking up and down her shaft felt incredible. She could feel her hand running all along her skin, causing every nerve in her penis to re up as she moved. As the lubrication dissipated, Olivia could feel the skin from Lyrika¡¯s hand as it moved along her shaft. Her hand was mostly soft but some sections started to grow rougher. It showed that, like with the trap making, she did do manual work. Thisbination of textures felt really good against her penis, where each stroke changed between the two or somebination, just adding to the crescendoing pleasure.

    But it had to end at some point.

    ¡°L-Lyrika. It¡¯s-it¡¯sing.¡±

    With onest stroke down her shaft, she felt herself release, exploding from the pleasure of it all. Olivia moaned out loudly as it happened, probably startling the wildlife in the trees outside the cabin awake.

    This time she ended up seeing it all happen, and what she saw was impressive but slightly disgusting to her. Her ¡®release¡¯ exploded out of the top of her shaft, firing in spurts. Itnded on her body again, and again, but this time a lot also ended up covering Lyrika¡¯s hand. What was once beautiful and tanned was now covered with a thick, white and gloopyyer, which a part of Olivia thought was quite beautiful in its own way. The other not so much.

    ¡°Wow.¡± Was all she could manage to say at this point.

    ¡°There¡¯s so much,¡± were the first words that came out of Lyrika¡¯s mouth as she looked at her covered hand. As Olivia had ¡®released¡¯, she had put a hold on her own ministrations, which very much annoyed her, but the shock of seeing all of Olivia¡¯s seed made her forget about that annoyance. The heat though did not go away that easily.

    ¡°I-err. I¡¯m sorry it got all over your¡­hand.¡±

    Still gripping onto Olivia¡¯s nowid penis, Lyrika was brought out of her stupor as she looked at the stuff.

    ¡°Huh, oh err that¡¯s ok. I can-I can just wash it off. But, anyway. It¡¯s finally down.¡± Lyrika said with a smile.

    ¡°Oh, yeah. I guess two rounds is the maximum it can go for.¡± But Olivia couldn¡¯t help but wonder if that would always be the case.

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to¡­clean myself up. I¡¯ll be back in a while.¡± Lyrika stood up and walked over to the barrel of water, filling a cup nearby. She then walked over to the door and went to step outside. Olivia was still reeling from the experience and wasying down as her seed pooled on her body. All she could see was the ceiling of the cabin and so missed Lyrika moving her hand up to her face and taking a quick lick.

    ¡°Huh, not bad.¡± Was her response to the taste, before she quickly left and headed outside.

    Olivia took some time toe down from the high she was feeling, but she was now finally able to move without any problems. Getting up to get ready for the day, Lyrika re-entered the cabin after several minutes. It was clear to see that she had cleaned Olivia¡¯s seed from her hand, but in addition to that, gone was the redness from her face, where now she looked refreshed and happy.

    As they passed each other, Olivia quickly spoke up.

    ¡°Thank you. For everything you did this morning.¡±

    ¡°It-it was nothing. It was¡­it was my pleasure to help.¡±

    ¡°¡­Ok. Well now that I know how to do it properly you don¡¯t have to feel obligated to help me again. I should be able to handle it now.¡±

    To Olivia, she still thought Lyrika had done all of that out of obligation, and so said all of that in order to give her a way out. The response she got was not what she had expected.

    Lyrika¡¯s head snapped up quickly as she heard that. ¡°No! I mean, err, I didn¡¯t mind doing it. It has nothing to do with obligation. S-so if you want my help again, I¡¯m fine with that. I mean it also felt better when I did it¡­right?¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah. It felt so good when you did it.¡± Blush burst onto Lyrika¡¯s face as she heard her say that.

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case then, how can I say no to doing that together again? But next time, I think I may need to repay the favour.¡± Olivia replied, saying thest part to herself more than anything, as she now realised something from all that had happened. Olivia could see that there may be more between them than just helping and repaying the favour. And surprisingly, giving what Lyrika had said, it seemed that was the case for both sides.

 Chapter 26

    The Morning ¨C Part 3

    As the sun continued to rise, Olivia was thankful that the situation of Olivia¡¯s morning wood had been resolved with a happy ending. She had also learnt how to masturbate herself, and received some hands-on tutge from Lyrika, with the offer of more in the future. With Lyrika helping her with it, Olivia hade to realise her reasons for doing so may not have been as altruistic as she imed them to be. She would have to see how things progressed between them as their time together continued, but it was possible that even in this form, she might be able to form some kind of romantic rtionship. But it may be some time before that happens.

    Putting that aside, both she and Lyrika started getting ready for the new day, but there was a problem. While all was well and good for them both, they now had to get ready or the day and deal with the evidence of the morning¡¯s escapade. While it wasn¡¯t like they had sex, with Tarquin and Ceceliaing to the cabin to meet them, neither wanted to know what would happen if they learnt they had, in a way, been intimate with each other. Olivia was sure that being what she was, if Tarquin found out, he would have some words to say about it, which wouldn¡¯t benefit anyone. There was also the possibility of either of them thinking she had forced herself on Lyrika, given that that is what Orcs and Goblins are known for. Then there was the fact that they also did it in their¡­ love nest, so to speak. Because of all these reasons, lips were shut in regard to what happened.

    So, they spent most of the morning cleaning up the mess making it spotless. Olivia did her sheets, removing the stains as best as she could, while Lyrika cleaned up any remnants on the floor from when she left the cabin to clean herself up. It was horrible work, but it was necessary.

    Once clean they then aired the ce out, removing any lingering smells, even bringing in a few fragrant flowers to help cover anything up.

    It took a good deal of time, but eventually, they were done and the ce looked brand new. Well the bedding and floor did.

    ¡°Well, I think we should be in the clear.¡±

    Lyrika agreed and with that done, they decided to get on with the rest of the day. Which to start consisted of waiting for Tarquin to return to talk about whom he had informed and who would be helping. Once they had this information, it would be some time before they got any real information and so they figured that they needed to bring other viges into the know, as many had been affected by the chief and his deception.

    ¡­

    .....

    As Lyrika and Olivia waited for them to turn up, they did the usual activities of eating and exercising. The meal contained some of the cured meats from the hunting cabin, which Lyrika greatly appreciated as well as hard tack to increase its filling potential. The exercise portion was mostly filled with Olivia doing her stretching, running and weightlifting, usingrge chunks of firewood around the cabin. Lyrika did join in like before, but like before could only go so far, and so ended up resting and watching Olivia do hers. By the time that was all over Tarquin showed up with Cecelia in tow, and thankfully his bow was down as he arrived, even once he saw Olivia.

    ¡°Are you ok Lyrika.¡± Tarquin said as soon as he arrived, which while a nice thing to ask all this did was annoy Cecelia, and to be fair Lyrika and Olivia as well.

    A lot of the thoughts in Cecelia¡¯s head revolved around how he was no longer together with Lyrika, yet he still does stuff like that. The rational side of her brain though understood the concern, given who Lyrika was with. Even with the¡­alright first impression, it would take more than that topletely trust her.

    On the other hand, Olivia was annoyed because him saying that, meant he thought Olivia had hurt her, even after all they had spoken about. There was also a niggle at the back of her mind where his question also meant that he thought she couldn¡¯t look after herself and that she was weak.

    Olivia¡¯s thoughts were on the simpler side, annoyed that he was basically assuming she had hurt Lyrika in some way.

    All in all, those four words had managed to ruin the mood of all three of the girls in one go. Quite the achievement.

    Tarquin somehow managed to miss this, along with all of the annoyed scowls and frowns that each of the girls had, him being focused on check how she was.

    ¡°She didn¡¯t do anything to you right.¡± Tarquin followed up with.

    ¡°No¡­ she didn¡¯t do anything to me.¡± Lyrika replied, but in her mind, she tacked on, ¡®but I did something to her¡¯, causing a bright blush to form on her face.

    ¡°Are you ok? You look like you¡¯re burning up.¡± Tarquin replied in a concerned voice as he slowly leaned forward to put his forehead against hers.

    The cacophony of disagreement at what he was doing and that she was absolutely fine rang out from each of the girls causing him to reel back. Cecelia pulling him also helped do this.

    ¡°Huh- what. What¡¯s wrong Cecelia.¡±

    None of themmented on how stupid he seemed to be and so all he was left with was silence.

    ¡­

    ¡°So, we¡¯re you able to talk to anyone.¡± Was Lyrika¡¯s question after the fiasco of Tarquin¡¯s failure to understand human emotion concluded.

    ¡°Huh- ah yeah. We were able to get in contact with a lot of people in the vige who were unsure of the new chief. When I told them about what you found, some believe it instantly, but some want proof. Most of them have agreed to help and will be keeping their ears open around his men.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s great. It might take some time before we get information on what his ns are so, we figured we shall visit some of the others viges and talk with them. They may have more information and may be willing to help.¡±

    ¡°Err, are you sure? It¡¯s not very safe.¡±

    A disappointed sigh rang through the girls as he said that.

    ¡°Look, stop worrying. I¡¯ll be going to another vige, not the demon kingdom. Now, we¡¯re you able to learn anything else about him.¡±

    ¡°Not really. He was only here several days ago, and he didn¡¯t get to form the alliance by marrying you. He just left a few guys here to ¡®help protect the town¡¯ is what he said.¡± Tarquin replied using air quotes for what the chief said.

    While Lyrika just nodded, Olivia reckoned they were here to see whether she returned while the chief was away. If she did, then that either meant she couldn¡¯t hack it on her own or that the exile was a ruse to stop him from getting what he wanted. What the repercussions would be for either scenario, she didn¡¯t want to know.

    There was also the possibility they were here to make sure the vige didn¡¯t cause any trouble. If they heard whispers that did not favour the chief, they would surely inform him of that and who knows what would happen then.

    ¡°I think you should tell everyone helping to stay away from them,¡± Olivia piped up. It hadn¡¯t urred to her that this was really the first time she had truly spoken to these two, aside from the ¡®hey¡¯ yesterday, but that didn¡¯t really count.

    Both Tarquin and Cecelia looked stupefied as they heard her talk.

    ¡°It speaks. It can actually talk.¡±

    ¡®Is this guy trying to be horrible or is he just that stupid.¡¯

    ¡°My name, is Olivia, and I¡¯m a she, not an it, and of course I can talk. I spoke yesterday, I shouted ¡®hey¡¯ at you. Also, if I couldn¡¯t, how could I have be friends with Lyrika. Or tell her my name.¡±

    There were a few blinks from both the hunters as they tried toprehend the situation before Tarquin let out a sigh.

    ¡°Your female¡­well that changes everything. I guess I have nothing to worry about.¡±

    ¡°What?¡± Olivia was very offended by what Tarquin had said. Her name was Olivia, and yet he didn¡¯t realise or care to notice that she was female. Olivia couldn¡¯t help but seethe at that. While she might not look like a tall and slim female model, she was sure that she looked feminine.

    ¡°Well, being a female you don¡¯t have a¡­penis, so you can¡¯t do what Orcs or Goblins are known to do. That¡¯s put my mind so at ease.¡±

    Lyrika awkwardly looked away from him as he said that and she was followed by Olivia ncing down, then back up before subtly trying to shift things around to make things less¡­ noticeable. While Tarquin was still in his own head and mumbling about how relieved he was, he missed all of this, but Cecelia didn¡¯t. It confused her at first, but once she spotted what Olivia had quickly nced at and was trying to cover up, it all clicked into ce.

    The bulge in her trousers.

    Cecelia wondered how had she missed that but figured that you never really think of a girl having one, which is probably why. She decided that it would be best not to say anything, lest Tarquin get on his high horse again and try to save Lyrika from the monster that threatens her chastity. Not that she was chaste anyway, given she was with Tarquin before.

    But, with Tarquin now rxed, they pushed past the fact that an Orc sh Goblin had spoken to them, and very well at that, and got onto future ns.

 Chapter 27

    The Morning ¨C Part 4

    Olivia spoke of her fears over the men from the chief¡¯s group, of how they may inform him should they see Lyrika or any sort of dissidence in the town, which Tarquin and Cecelia understood and agreed to inform the others about. She then spoke about going to visit the other viges the chief had passed through, to learn more about this man and what he had done.

    Another way to learn more about him that cropped up, was to have someone infiltrate his ranks. He had soldiers, some of whom came from the previous towns as they wanted to help bring his vision to life. The trouble was getting in contact with them and finding ones that wouldn¡¯t rat them out. There was the possibility that the group of people already helping would do the same, but there was no way this could happen without some risk being involved. This risk was higher when the people they asked to spy on were much closer to him than the average viger. Whether they would have to use this option in the future though was not known.

    ¡­

    With the discussion between them all done and the ns finalized, it would soon be time to leave. But before they could say their goodbyes, Lyrika had to see her father. While she hadn¡¯t been exiled for long, when you spent every day in a vige living with your parent, even this short time apart, and under these awful circumstances, it was difficult.

    The trouble with this was that if her father, being the head of the vige, just up and left the vige while those men were around, they were sure to report it as some suspicious behaviour, given he hadn¡¯t done so since Lyirka was exiled. But it was also equally troublesome for Lyrika to enter the vige to speak with him. The guards would deny her entry, and again the men may report this to the new horrible chief. They may just try to kidnap her if they saw an opportunity. Either way did not have a good oue.

    They racked their heads trying to figure out how to make this happen, scaling the wall, tunnelling, and dealing with the men. While many ideas were brought forward, some had more negatives than positives and others just took too long.

    The idea of Lyrika just sending a letter was an option, but who knows home long it would take before Lyrika would return. There was also always the chance she wouldn¡¯t. To say her goodbyes to her father through a letter would just not cut it

    It took a good deal of time, and they even ended up discussing it over lunch, until they eventuallynded on apromise.

    .....

    ¡­

    Tarquin and Cecelia headed back to the vige in order to put their n into action. They also got the message around about avoiding the new chief¡¯s men.

    Thankfully these men were not omnipotent and there was only so much they could do. Several were on guard near some shops, and a few were eating and rxing in the local inn. They were on a rotation, ensuring there was always someone from their group watching the town. This again meant there wasn¡¯t a feasible way to either bring Lyrika in or her father out.

    First Tarquin and Cecelia headed over to store their gear in the hunter¡¯s barracks, before making their way over to the infirmary. There was thankfully nothing wrong with them, but they needed to make things look believable for the n toe. They waited around for a while, making it seem like they were being looked at for injuries, before then heading out and over to, Lyrika¡¯s house.

    Having grown up with Lyrika, Tarquin did know her father. He had been in and out of their house for years, until that fateful incident, when the number of visits dropped. When they reconciled, he did show up a few more times before Lyrika was exiled. This meant that there wasn¡¯t anything too strange with his visit.

    As he entered the house, Cecelia headed off in another direction. They found themselves under the watchful eyes of the new chief¡¯s men but pushed this to the back of their minds to not look suspicious. As he entered he found her father, spoke in hushed tones, telling him all that Lyrika had said. Her father¡¯s voice ended up raised at one point when Tarquin mentioned she had befriended a part Orc part Goblin, but quickly quieted down as he said he would talk to her about it.

    Now though was the tricky part. With no way for Lyrika to enter or her father to leave, they needed to find a ce for them to talk. The only possible location. Through the wall surrounding the vige.

    The wall around the vige was more a palisade made of wood rather than a thick stone wall like the town Olivia brought Ameril to, which meant, talking through it would be simple. The problem was getting her father into the spot without it seeming suspicious.

    But this was something they had thought of, and so Tarquin discussed the n with her father. Once done, they both left his house and Tarquin got the scene rolling.

    ¡°Look, I know you¡¯re worried about Lyrika, but she has to do her time as an exile. There isn¡¯t anything you can do. What will be horrible though, is when she returns, she finds you in a worse state than when she left. You need to take care of yourself.¡±

    ¡°I know Tarquin, it¡¯s just hard. She¡¯s all alone out there.¡±

    ¡°I know. But you also know how smart and resourceful she is. She will be fine. You on the other hand, you need to get some exercise. Come walk around the vige with me for a while, you need to get those legs moving.¡±

    *sigh* ¡°I understand what your saying. It¡¯s not as if the healer hasn¡¯t told me the same thing. Ok, let¡¯s take a walk.¡±

    With that, Tarquin and Lyrika¡¯s father headed off into the vige. The men watching did eye them suspiciously, but while out of the norm, it wasn¡¯t anything they thought to be concerned about, so they just let them go.

    As they headed off into town, Tarquin spoke about his hunting exploits and things that had been happening around town. Lyrika¡¯s father could hardly reciprocate though as he was just struggling to keep up and busy thinking of his daughter. He was never a very active man and since Lyrika had left that had gotten worse. This truly was the first time in a while since he had exercised.

    They headed towards the edge of the vige and moved to walk right by the wall.

    While things had gone well so far, the only issue remaining was the guards to worry about. The wall being a palisade, it did not have an upper level, so to speak, in which guards could patrol. What it did have, was a few wooden tforms with steps leading up to them at regr intervals along it for guards to be posted at. All of whom were there at the moment doing their jobs.

    So that¡¯s where the next part of the nes into y. Dealing with them.

    No one was going to die. It was just a case of getting them out of the way for a while so that they could talk. At the section of the wall they nned to use, there were two guards, one at either end of the section. Where they stood, the wall bent and continued on around the vige, making it the best ce they could go, as it was out of sight of guards further along.

    In terms of the guards though, thankfully one of them was sympathetic to the cause. He had his doubts about the new chief and had already agreed to help Tarquin and Cecelia. So, when Cecelia asked him to look away when Lyrika turned up, he had no issue with this.

    The other guard was trouble though. He cared very little about the politics in the vige. It didn¡¯t matter who held the reins of leadership as long as he had a good life. The way he saw it, the new chief would only improve things, and bringing the other tribes together just gave him more women he could chase.

    Yeah, Cecelia did not want to deal with this guard.

    But while these were his goals, in order to enjoy that life of his, he needed coin, which is what he requested from Cecelia. Well, that is after he was rejected when asking for Cecelia herself.

    Joining up with Tarquin and Lyrika¡¯s father on their walk, she told them the situation, and the chief very easily handed over enough to bribe the man. Bringing it to him, after checking the contents, he quickly epted it and headed off to miss his shift.

    With the coast now clear, Lyrika was able to get right up to the vige wall and wait for her father. Olivia on the other hand had to stay back. Even with theck of guards, the one who was sympathetic to the cause was not told anything about a half-Orc half-Goblin. So if he saw her, he probably wouldn¡¯t hesitate to take her down or raise an rm. He could have been told about her, but why take the risk for something she shouldn¡¯t be a part of.

    With Lyrika waiting by the wall, she finally heard the voice she had missed so much

    ¡°Lyrika, sweetie, are you there?¡±

    ¡°Papa, err I mean Father. Yes, yes I¡¯m here.¡±

    ¡°You know I don¡¯t mind you calling me papa. How are you doing? Are you ok? Are you hurt?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m fine papa. You know I can hunt. A little exile won¡¯t kill me.¡±

    Both tried to grin at that, taking it as a joke, but knowing the situation, neither could do it fully.

    ¡°That¡¯s good. That¡¯s good. Now, what¡¯s this I hear about some Orc or Goblin travelling with you. Just what¡¯s going on?!¡±

    Lyrika had to practically pull her head away from the wall as he somehow managed to whisper and shout that at the same time.

    ¡°Papa, it¡¯s fine. She¡¯s a good person. While she looks the way she does, she is nothing like the Orcs and Goblins you hear about. She helped me survive in the forest, saved my life, helped mee up with this n, she¡¯s¡­she nice.¡± Lyrika said with a smile.

    ¡°¡­I see. Well, I imagine whatever I say you won¡¯t do, so all I¡¯ll just say¡­be careful.¡±

    ¡°I will, as long as you are too.¡±

    ¡°When am I not.¡±

    And with that, they reached the corner of the wall. Had they continued the next guard would have spotted her, so they had to end it. They could have stopped midway and talked, but who knows if one of the men would have decided to see what was taking him. It was also possible the next guard was working for the new chief as well. Any number of things could have spelt disaster.

    It was a short talk, and they hardly got to say anything, but it was more than enough to sate Lyrika¡¯s need to talk to him. It was not a goodbye, as she woulde back, and they could then talk to each other face to face.

    Her father and Tarquin headed back to his house and said their own goodbyes, before heading out to join Cecelia and continue his job, leaving her father to sit and contemte what to do.

    ¡­

    ¡°How was it?¡±, were the first words Olivia spoke as Lyrika joined her in a small portion of trees away from the vige.

    ¡°It was good. It was¡­good.¡±

    The tear rolling down her eye betrayed her though, and before either of them could think, Olivia wrapped her arms around Lyrika hugging her. Given their difference in stature Lyrika¡¯s head ended up resting on Olivia¡¯s breasts, but neither thought about that as she needed the ¡®non-human¡¯ contact, so to speak.

    ¡°You will see him again, and not through a wall next time. Remember that.¡±

    ¡°Y-yeah.¡± Lyrika managed to choke out as she started to cry.

    Neither moved as they just held each other.

 Chapter 28

    The Traders ¨C Part 1

    A good several minutester they were both walking away from the vige and on to the next. Neither said anything more about what had happened as it was not needed. Like she had said, it wasn¡¯t a goodbye and they would return to Lyrika¡¯s home. For now, they put that behind them, moved on to the future, and talked about how they would deal with the viges toe.

    ¡°So the closest vige to us is the one the chief was at before us. It is quite arge vige as it¡¯s near the road that connects a couple of human towns. Traders sometimes divert from the road to trade there sometimes.¡±

    ¡®Oh, I wonder if one of the towns is where I left Ameril. I really need to get a map of this world or something to figure out they of thend.¡¯

    ¡°The problem with this is that there will probably be a lot of people there, more so than in my vige. The chief might have also left people in this vige as well which makes things moreplicated. They may also know about me.¡±

    Olivia thought about this for a moment and realised the chief¡¯s men might not be a problem.

    ¡°That might not be the case. He left those people before reaching your vige right, so they probably haven¡¯t been told about you. Even if they were, they haven¡¯t seen you before, not like the ones in your vige. All they would have to go on is a description of you, or maybe a sketch. All we have to do is get you a disguise, just in case.¡±

    ¡°Why didn¡¯t we do that before? I could have seen my pa¡­father.¡±

    ¡®Ok, I¡¯m going skip over the slip as she looks very annoyed.¡¯

    .....

    ¡°Everyone knew you in your vige. Even with a disguise someone would probably recognise you and ruin everything. But, in this vige, do you know anyone there?¡±

    ¡°Err- no, never met anyone from there..¡±

    ¡°There you go. No one at all will recognise you. Which is why a disguise works here.¡±

    Lyrika just grumbled as she realised she was wrong.

    ¡­

    Their trek took them to the morning of the next day, the night of which Lyrika did not enjoy, as she had to stay awake for longer in order to keep watch, having rotated through their positions. This also had the added benefit, although Olivia wasn¡¯t too sure that¡¯s what it should be called given how good the solution to it was, but with the differing and shorter sleep cycles she didn¡¯t have her morning wood. It was also possible that dealing with Lyrika¡¯s emotional state and the journey had exhausted her enough that it didn¡¯t happen. She also thought that maybe the evening activities from the night before may have been the reason it didn¡¯t show. She honestly had no clue how this morning wood thing worked.

    What she did know was that the ambivalent look on Lyrika¡¯s face when she woke up and saw that Olivia was fine in terms of her little friend meant she too wasn¡¯t sure whether her having no morning wood was a good or bad thing. It did however look like she was leaning more towards the disappointment side of things though.

    Putting that aside, and the fact that Olivia knew she would have to look more into the whole morning wood and dealing with her penis in the future, they got to work packing up and heading out.

    ¡­

    They had been very lucky in their travels. Aside from the wolves, deer thing and the man that held Ameril captive she had not tangled with anything else on her own. Even when travelling with Lyrika the worse she had faced so far was an Effler.

    Having said this thought, it urred to her that, while they were in the forest, it was only ever the outskirts she was in. While denser than where they currently were, it likely paled inparison to the centre of the forest. She really did count herself lucky that she arrived where she did when firsting to this world.

    The outskirts had a lower amount of trees and the surrounding kingdom would likely deal with any pests that leave the forest where they could. All of these probably went towards removing dangerous threats in this area.

    Now though, they were in andscape more akin to ins than forest, as they travelled further away from it, the likely hood of a wild animal or monster attack dropped considerably.

    But, even though they were heading away from the forest, there were stillrge clumps of trees here and there. Because of this and being around viges and towns, the chance of a bandit attack was now very high, which is why having someone on watch waspletely necessary.

    While this was the case and the risk of this type of attack had increased, being in an area far from roads did decrease it somewhat, and so they were both able to reach the next vige with ease.

    Now all they needed was a disguise of some kind.

    ¡­

    As they walked ever closer to the vige that was in sight, they looked around the area for any ideas. Trees, bushes and flora were all that graced their sight, and none provided any inspiration on a disguise.

    They still had the disintegrating tent fabric they had been using for sleep but using that to assist in making a disguise just seemed wrong. They really needed to get rid of that thing and get some actual bedding.

    As they ventured closer and closer, they realised this ce was a little different to Lyrika¡¯s vige. Given her home¡¯s proximity to the forest, it had walls surrounding it, but with this trading vige, there were hardly any. In the distance, they could see a few watch towers and it seemed that only the centre of the vige was enclosed in walls, the rest of it was very much open n.

    Thankfully, this meant that if they needed to they could ¡®borrow¡¯ something from a house nearby to use as a disguise. But given that they were trying to convince these people to go against the new chief, stealing something from them would not help their cause.

    As they looked around for something to use, they continued moving towards the vige, where they realised that with all the houses around there should be people as well.

    There were a few fields that were starting to get overgrown and houses that had gardens contained nts that were dying. Looking at each other they realised there was something a little odd about this scene and decided to get closer to the nearby house. As they drew nearer, Olivia was able to see that it was reminiscent of a wooden cottage and looked quite homely.

    They got to the back of the house and slowly peered through the window, but all they saw was an empty home. Nothing was disturbed, toys of some sort were on the floor, and nothing was damaged, it just looked like someone had left the house.

    ¡°They could be in the vige centre.¡± Was Olivia¡¯s thoughts that she told to Lyrika.

    There were a few more houses before the vige grew denser in buildings and so they decided to check on them as well, but the same story revealed itself.

    One thought was that the people were just in the vige, shopping or something, but that was quickly thrown out the window as they saw mouldy food on a couple of tes. It also didn¡¯t exin the dying gardens.

    Thoughts of what had happened to these people ran through Olivia¡¯s and Lyrika¡¯s minds. Did they just leave? Have they been abducted? These were a few of the scenarios that they came up with. Either way, they needed to get to the bottom of this, since it¡¯s difficult to talk to these people about the new chief if there were¡­no people.

    Continuing past the buildings they came across the same scenario in each. Even the outside and the areas around the houses looked fine with nothing appearing to be out of the ordinary.

    They decided to take on a bigger risk and moved towards the denser area of the vige. The houses were more frequent and some stalls also appeared along the road. Olivia stayed back slightly as they walked, the hope being that Lyrika would see people first, and then her, rather than Olivia being seen and causing an incident.

    But that didn¡¯t happen.

    Now surrounded by buildings they were still weed to emptiness. In all of the houses they looked in they saw no one. They even found the main market area deserted. Stalls were empty, shops were the same, it was like a ghost town. Or ghost vige more urately.

    ¡°What is going on.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± Was Olivia¡¯s dumbfounded reply.

    ¡®What happened her?. Mass vanishment. Is that a word? Were they all kidnapped? I would have thought the chief¡¯s men would have done something if that was the case. Unless the chief had something to do with it. If it was an animal or monster attack, surely we would have seen people hiding in their houses as well as damage and animal tracks or something.¡¯ Olivia wondered as she looked around.

    To be sure of that, they did enter a few houses, of which the doors were unlocked. But s, no matter how much they searched there were no signs of people. What they did find, was that now that they were closer to the centre of the vige, mess and damage was actually visible. In these houses, it did look like someone had broken a few chairs and tes. There was no blood, but the damage and destruction were evident.

    ¡°What do we do?¡±

    As Olivia thought about that, her eyes wandered, and she caught sight of a church. Wooden in construction, but it looked soundly built. If you wanted a secure ce to stay, the biggest, strongest building was your best bet.

    ¡°Well, if people are going to be anywhere, it¡¯s in the church.¡±

 Chapter 29

    The Traders ¨C Part 2

    With the church as their destination, they started to make their way over to it, where again they saw no one outside on their route. What they did see when they got closer, was that therge, massive wooden door was closed. They also found nks of wood baring the windows, from the inside.

    Once they were near it, they leaned right against the door and listened.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    It was faint but they were rewarded with the sound of voices. It was also too muffled to hear what they were saying, but it was clear that people were in there.

    ¡°Well, we found them. That¡¯s a start.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, but why are they all hiding in the church? What happened to this ce?¡±

    The only way they would know is to find out, and so Olivia decided to knock on the door.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    .....

    As she expected, if you¡¯re hiding in a church you¡¯re not going to just answer the door. But, she had to let them know she was there. How else would they get to talk to them and find out what had happened.

    While she waited for some form of response, it also urred to her that there was the possibility these were not frightened vigers, but someone else, maybe the ones that had done something to the vigers. Saying this though, she highly doubted it. But to be on the safe side, she kept a hand on her spear.

    ¡°Hey, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on, but we just arrived in this vige. Can you tell us what¡¯s happening? Why are you all hiding in the church?¡± Olivia shouted to the masses as she knocked again hoping to get a response. Be it vigers or someone else, there wasn¡¯t much they could do from outside the church, of Olivia needed them out in some respect.

    Silence took over again, and Olivia was about to knock for the third time when a voice broke through the silence right from the other side of the door.

    ¡°You¡¯re not with the bandits?¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Why are you here.¡±

    ¡°To talk to you about the new chief.¡± Lyrika piped in with.

    There was the sound of shuffling and mumbles before the voice spoke again.

    ¡°I-I¡¯ll open the door. If you try anything, know that we have weapons.¡±

    ¡®I¡¯m surprised they are just opening the door. There being bandits, wouldn¡¯t they think that we could be bandits tricking them to open up?¡¯

    Before they opened the door, Olivia stood to the side allowing Lyrika to take centre stage. Granted this stage was a good distance from the door in case the people inside were not trustworthy. Plus Olivia was at the ready on the side with her spear out. If these people were friendly, them seeing an orc-like monster would not help anything.

    The creaking of very old hinges was next to follow, and as the door opened, it gave way to a man. He was not old by any means, and if he was the years had been kind to him. He had salt and pepper hair, and hardly any wrinkles on his skin, but while he looked good for his age, the lifeless eyes told a different story. It was as if he had just given up all hope in whatever the situation with the bandits was. By his side several people held up farming tools, aiming them at the door, ready to strike if anything happened.

    As he stood by the door, Olivia was hidden in a crook in the woodwork with her spear raised. Lyrika was off to the side so not in any direct angle from the man in case something happen, such as someone with a bow and arrow.

    ¡°You came to talk about the new chief. Well, there aren¡¯t many people left to talk to, but I assure you, you will find no good words about him here.¡±

    The giddy look on Lyrika¡¯s face as she heard this was infectiously spreading to Olivia, but it quickly changed back to a frown as they recalled that this was not the right time to be happy about things.

    ¡°I see, well, we wanted to talk to you about what he has done and see if you had any other insights into his ns. This thought can probably wait, you mentioned bandits before what have they done and what happened here.¡± Lyrika decided to reply with.

    ¡°It¡¯s been- wait you¡¯re not the one I spoke to before. You said ¡®we¡¯, but there is only one of you.¡± The man said in a worried tone and slowly started to step back and close the door, afraid and not sure about this girl.

    ¡°Ah, wait.¡± Lyrika quickly said with her hands outstretched with her palm out. ¡°There are two of us, it¡¯s just me and my friend. It¡¯s just¡­ she doesn¡¯t get the best response when people see her.¡±

    He stopped closing it after hearing this. ¡°What do you mean? Is she disfigured, as I assure you no one is going to care about that? We have honestly been through too much suffering to do the same in some way to someone else.¡±

    ¡°Err, no not exactly.¡± Lyrika looked over to where Olivia was and they had a silent conversation. From what the man said, and how he and the rest felt, this might be the perfect time to see the response Olivia got from the masses. They would have to do this someday, as Olivia could not continue hiding from everyone all the time. In order to stop being seen as the monster, she needed people to see her as a person, and this small group of people was a good starting point. Plus, with there being some problem with the bandits, they were probably going to help them out in some way, which would be hard to do if she was hiding all the time.

    As they came to this understanding in the silent look, they decided to be honest with the group and, test the waters so to speak. If they couldn¡¯t handle her, she just had to stay away from them, and they could move on. She was sure she could get away from vigers using rakes and pitchforks. As bad as that sounds there are plenty of viges that the chief went through before he reached Lyrika¡¯s home. They probably didn¡¯t need all of them to help deal with him.

    ¡°Ok. She¡¯s¡­ well she¡¯s a half Orc half Goblin.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    The man just blinked rapidly as he heard that. It would seem that the quiet discussions that had been happening behind him also stopped and grewpletely silent.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know why you would be making jokes at a time like this.¡±

    ¡®Yeah, should have expected that¡¯

    ¡°I¡¯m not. Look, she is a good person and has helped me a lot since we met. You have nothing to fear from her. Are you fine if shees out?¡±

    Silence reigned as the man and the rest were still trying toe to terms with it all. It was clear to see that many still thought it was a joke.

    ¡°I-I.¡± He quickly turned to the people in the church and spoke to them. There was a lot of back and forth, with some scoffs here and there, where others were fearful.

    Eventually, he turned back to Lyrika. ¡°We are in a desperate situation here. I know you came here to talk about the chief, but¡­ would you be able to help us.¡±

    Another quick look between the two was had, but Olivia was pretty sure she already knew the answer. Olivia not being one to just walk away from people she could help, there was only one option. As long as they didn¡¯t try to kill her that was.

    ¡°We can try.¡±

    ¡°Ok¡­it¡¯s still hard to believe, but.. we really need help. If you say she can be trusted, then she cane out.¡±

    He then turned to the rest of the vige behind him and spoke.

    ¡°I do not know if what thisdy says is true, and I am sure some of you are fearful that it may be just that. If you are scared and do not wish to remain here, please head to the back of the church. But know that if what she says is true, you may have toe to terms with who she is.¡±

    They all looked at each other, not sure what to do now. A few headed to the back, deciding to choose safety because of their fear. How that would actually help them if Olivia was a horrible monster and started attacking people she didn¡¯t know. Maybe they saw the rest of the group as human shields for them or something.

    A few beats after he said that and the vigers made their decision, Olivia stepped out from where she was hiding. As she moved in front of the man and the others that had gathered around the door, a round of gasps rang out. A couple ran to the back of the church, and others just mumbled that they couldn¡¯t believe it.

    The man was also conflicted about what to do. He stood there looking brave, but the slight shakiness in his legs betrayed him.

    Not the best situation, but also not the worst. Now she just needed to introduce herself.

    ¡°Hello.¡±

    *thud*

    Of course...someone fainted.

 Chapter 30

    The Traders ¨C Part 3

    It took a while, but people finally started to calm down. The fact that Olivia only stood there and did nothing must have helped with this. All these people knew tales of what Orcs and Goblins did, and here was one, the monster they had been taught to be afraid of. Yet this one spoke and just stood there calmly, waiting for them to sort themselves out, doing nothing of what the stories said they did. She was even with a very attractive girl, who looked to be with her willingly.

    This was something that a few did make sure to ask Lyrika about, wanting to make sure she hadn¡¯t been coerced. Some even asked if she was wearing a ve cor or if she had been hurt by the monster.

    This was all quite the affront to Olivia, and even though she understood why they asked this, it didn¡¯t make her any less annoyed by what they were saying.

    After a while, it seemed like many of the questions that were asked of Lyrika ended up being repeats of things they had already asked. By this point, some had actively started to ask Olivia some questions. Albeit at a distance. She was asked what she was, where she came from, how she can talk and why she was not like other Orcs and goblins.

    She did her best to answer these, but for some, there just wasn¡¯t a way to do so. The whole incident of where she came from was not one she could go into detail on. Then there was how she could talk. Aside from talking about learning when she was a human baby, which she couldn¡¯t really do, there wasn¡¯t much else she could say.

    Eventually, the questions died down and they were able to get on to the main matter at hand. It was during this that Olivia and Lyrika spoke to the man who had answered the door and learnt that he was actually the current chief of the vige. He spoke about how this ce used to be a bustling trading vige which many people journeyed to in order to buy all manner of things, mainly people from the nearby towns. But, its proximity to these towns kept a lot of beast-kin away, as while rtions were better with humans, not everyone felt the same way and still feared contact with them.

    It was also quite a small vige and its onlymodity was trading with others. Members of the vige travelled to others, buying up items, to then sell in the town to human and elven traders from the towns. There were, of course, houses for the people who manned the stalls, ran the inns and took care of security, as they had seen journeying in, but when youpared the numbers to other viges the number of buildings wascking. There was also the fact that the people in the vige hadn¡¯t changed in a good long time. No one new came to settle down, which also meant no one wanted to or in some cases, could leave either.

    When the new chief came along promising them a bettermunity, they figured that would lead to more trade, which was always a good thing. There was also the hope they would get some new blood in the vige, meet new people, and improve rtions. He also spoke about helping to bring beast-kin and humans together, which again would only improve things for their trading vige. They had no reason to doubt what he was saying, especially when he came to them with ns and money on how he would make things happen. With all the other viges jumping on the bandwagon, this also added to his authenticity. When he also left some of his tribe to help with security in the vige, this further endeared him to them.

    .....

    ¡­But then the bandits came.

    The men he had left in their vige proved to be nothing more than useless. When push came to shove, they did nothing.

    It was slow at first. The number of carriages arriving in the vige started to drop, until they eventually stoppeding altogether. When the town sent people to investigate, most of them ended up never returning. The ones that managed to return spoke of the bandit group beingrge in number and residing along the path that met the road connecting the two nearby towns.

    They had hoped that at least one of the towns would help them, given their own carriage had likely been attacked, but they received nothing. The vigers thought to contact the towns themselves, but they could not reach either of them having to get past the bandits to do so. They had no idea whether the attacks on carriages were heard by the people in the towns, but surely someone would notice.

    So, they were on their own, and that was when the bandits decided to take advantage. Before they could send people away from the vige to get help from the other beast-kin viges, they were attacked. It happened in the evening under the cover of darkness. Supplies were being prepared by members of the vige to give to the ones leaving in the morning when all of a sudden fighting was heard throughout the vige. The people on watch were hit first, and many were killed or taken. Once they were dealt with, they then had free roam in the vige and started to take people from their homes.

    With all the panic, only a good handful was able to fight back, but the bandits knew how to fight and had arge number. Some tried to flee but were very quickly picked up by the bandits. A good deal of the beast-kin took refuge in the church, where they were able to hold them off and stop them from getting inside.

    Members of the vige had high hopes that the new chief would save them, but theyter found that the men he left had fled as soon as they could. Some thought they did this to reach the chief and bring help, but it soon became clear that that would not happen, when they found that each of the men hadmunication orbs in their belongings that they left behind.

    The bandits soon left, and after the mess of that day, people left the church to mourn, gather their belongings and bury the dead. A good number decided to leave, which inspired the rest to do the same. But, when the bandits returned and caught them as they travelled, that changed a lot of people¡¯s minds.

    Especially considering they kept returning each day right as people are starting to leave, giving them more people to capture, before they then harass and try to get into the church.

    Which is why they were here now. They were expecting the bandits to turn up today, but they had not yet arrived. Whether that meant they would stille, or they had given up on thest remaining people was any ones guess.

    ¡­

    But this was quickly resolved when a man at the top of the church rang the bell.

    ¡°They havee, quickly¡­ into the church.¡±

    Lyrika and Olivia followed suit and waited for the bandits toe. As far as they had been told, there was a good number of them. Not an army by any means, but enough that Olivia on her own could not handle. It was even worse if these men were well-versed inbat, which was likely a given since they managed to deal with the security in the town.

    Soon, shouting and expletives were heard from the other side of the door. It was then followed by banging and the sound of swords hitting wood, where they tried to break through.

    This ce was built tost though, and so all they managed to do was create a few chips and cracks in the wood. They did break one of the nks the vigers had put on the inside of the window, but the other three nks held firm. All it would take is another couple of nails to put it back up.

    These bandits could have used fire to burn the church and smoke them out, but that would probably end up damaging the merchandise that was within. There is also the possibility that even as bandits, they were religious and god-fearing, where destroying a church would be very sacrilegious.

    They were at it for an hour before they stopped.

    ¡°You can¡¯t stay in there forever. You only have so much food, and there is none left in the vige that you can eat. No one¡¯sing to save you so you may as well give up!¡± We¡¯re the final words one of the bandits said before they heard footsteps heading away.

    ¡­

    ¡°It¡¯s been like that each day, and they¡¯re right. We are running out of food, we are all alone here. None of us are strong enough to take down the bandits. Even if we run, they will end up finding us like they did the others.¡±

    Now while Olivia did help people when possible, the keyword, was possible. That didn¡¯t mean in this situation she wouldn¡¯t try, but if a group of guards on watch were unable to take down thisrge group of bandits, how would one half-orc half-goblin do it?

    Taking Lyrika to the side while the vigers wallowed in sadness at how doomed they were, they looked at their options.

    ¡°What can we do?¡± Lyrika asked. ¡°If we leave we run the risk of being attacked by the bandits. If we try to go to one of the towns for help, we again will probably get attacked by the bandits.¡±

    Olivia did wonder about this. She was by no means a detective, but even she knew that these bandits were not omnipresent. How did they capture the ones that were going to flee. Was it bad timing or something else?

    Her mind immediately went to an inside man or woman, given all the films she had watched on Earth. Someone could have betrayed the town and told the bandits that people were going to escape through amunication orb or something, which they were probably hiding.

    If this was the case, was that person still here?

    She did look around the room after thinking that, but quickly realised there wasn¡¯t much point in doing so. For one, what would she glean from looking at these people? Did she expect to see one of them sitting there with an evil grin while rhythmically touching each of their fingers together and cackling?

    She had to wonder that if they were here, why had the vigers not been captured? Surely, they could wait till they were asleep and then open the doors. Even if people were on watch they just had to get themselves nominated for it. Unless that¡¯s not possible for them to do.

    So, if they are here, is there a reason they haven¡¯t got the rest of the vige captured?

    By this point, Olivia had confused herself and decided to move on while remaining weary of the vigers. While inconclusive, it was probably best to inform Lyrika.

    ¡°It¡¯s possible someone on the inside helped get people captured. I don¡¯t know for sure, but it¡¯s possible. It¡¯s also possible that they are still here as well.¡±

    Lyrika gasped at that revtion, but Olivia cut it short as she held her hand over her lips.

    ¡°I said possible. Now, I want to help them too, but like you said we are on our own. We can try to get food for them. Even if there is someone feeding them information, we should be able to get some before we are found out. We also might be able to figure out how to deal with the bandits if we find out where they are.¡±

    After Lyrika agreed, they took out all of the snares from Olivia¡¯s pack and informed the vige chief of their n. Then with a bit of shuffling, and head nodding, they were back outside.

 Chapter 31

    The Bandits ¨C Part 1

    Back in the vige, with the bandits having left, it was as quiet as the grave. There was a chance that the bandits woulde back if Olivia¡¯s inside man theory was correct. Thankfully, given the time since they left, had someone managed to inform them, it would be sometime before they arrived.

    They also only told the chief their n. Even if someone had seen them leave, they probably just thought they were getting out of there as fast as they could. The vigers would likely feel ill of them having left them to their fates, but that didn¡¯t matter, as all would be fine once they returned.

    So, in order to give them something to be happy about, Olivia and Lyrika headed out of the vige and into the nearby woond, keeping as low a profile as possible, keeping watch for any bandits.

    ¡°Ok, let¡¯s look for a ce to set up these traps.¡±

    Heading off, Lyrika led the charge in search of tracks of something edible. With her skill, they headed further into the greenery and searched for some food.

    As they did this, they saw neither hide nor hair of the bandits, so both thankfully remained uncaptured.

    That wasn¡¯t to say that because they managed this they could just go back and bring everyone out now the coast was supposedly clear. It was one thing having two people moving swiftly and stealthily in the forest. It was a whole other thing when it was a massive group of civilians. Plus, there was the fact that fear would probably keep them there as well.

    ¡­

    .....

    They eventually found a location and set all the traps, the area being rife with droppings and traps. They hurried to do this and then headed a good distance away in order to not disturb the critters and let the traps do their thing.

    As they stayed in the forest they also searched for any edible fruits or vegetation, as even a small amount would help bring the viger¡¯s morale up.

    All that time searching and waiting, they only said a few words to each other, with the looming threat of bandits, they figured silence was the best option, lest they be heard by someone they hadn¡¯t spotted.

    And luckily, they made the right call.

    It had been several hours since they had left the snares and were nning to head back and check their catch. But as they did, they heard voices nearby.

    ¡°¡­girl, and an Orc, talking to that old chief. Is he losing his mind?¡±

    Freezing at what they heard, Olivia looked around and found where the voices came from. Off in the distance, she saw four men traipsing through the forest covered in ragged leather and metal gear.

    ¡°With theck of food, he might just be. Better check it out though.¡±

    ¡°Why though, surely they would be gone by now.¡±

    ¡°Still, boss said we had better go and make sure.¡±

    ¡°So much walking. I just want to sit back, have a drink and y with some of the girls.¡±

    From the conversation, it lent credence to the fact that there was someone on the inside talking to them. She also now knew that they also had some girls with them too. They could be there voluntarily, but she was fairly certain they were people captured from the vige.

    ¡°We got all night for that. If there is an Orc with a girl, she¡¯s likely a ve. I ain¡¯t never heard of Orcs talking to beast-kin though.¡±

    ¡°Either way, he said she was quite the looker. We kill this Orc, if it exists, then she¡¯s gonna be very grateful to us.¡± The bandits said as they started sniggering at each other at the thought.

    At this, Olivia looked over and saw Lyrika faking a gag as she heard them, of which she had to stifle augh.

    Not long after this, they had moved far enough away that the conversation was muffled.

    ¡°Why are theying back so soon, and how do they know about us?¡± Lyrika asked.

    ¡°Well, I think my theory of them having someone on the inside must be true. The good thing is we can follow their tracks at a distance and keep out of their way. Once they leave, we can get the food to the vigers.¡±

    And so, they followed the n.

    The sun was still in the sky but was starting to head over the tops of the trees when they headed to the traps, and as luck would have it, they had a good haul. It wasn¡¯t great, just good. There were enough critters to probably add a day and a half of rations to the church¡¯s stores.

    Their catch consisted of mainly efflers and one other weird and wonderful creature, what looked to be arge furry grub of some kind. Before Olivia could get near to the creature she hadn¡¯t seen before, Lyrika jumped in and cut the line to the snare that held it.

    ¡°Err¡±

    As she went to ask why she left the potential food go, she watched as therge furry grub started to move away. As it did, the fur on its sides started to sink into its skin, and gave way to strange glossy skin, coated in some gloopy fluid, which didn¡¯t take her long to realise what it was.

    The fluid rose to the surface of the skin, and the vine still wrapped around its body started to sizzle and slowly dissolve. Now free from the vine that bound it, Olivia saw it move away and the surface under it was now just dirt, the grass and flowers having dissolved as well.

    Once it had taken care of its problem, it returned to its furry form and continued on its merry way.

    ¡°What the-¡±

    ¡°Fortublers. They are very passive creatures. I¡¯ve never heard of them attacking anyone. If something traps or touches them, when they move they can release that liquid which destroys whatever it is touching them. They are full of the stuff and so cannot be eaten. Best to just release them.¡±

    Another strange creature to add to her codex if she had one.

    With that out of the way, they got to the usual conks on the heads for the efflers, and they then headed back to the church. Stealthily.

    Now that they knew who was out there, they stuck to the trees, as sparse as they were, and hid among tall grass and shrubbery. From an outside view, it looked very funny seeing two people dash as quietly as possible between bushes. But this was serious as they did not want to be spotted by the bandits whose trail they were loosely following

    ¡­

    They eventually made it back to the vige without encountering bandits and found them heading away from the church, and now towards them.

    Keeping themselves hidden they waited for the group to pass.

    ¡°Of course, they fled. If they were here when we first arrived, they probably just left soon after. How that idiot missed them leaving I don¡¯t know.¡±

    The bandits grumbled as they walked back along the same path heading to where they came from. Once they were out of sight, they headed back into the vige and brought their catch to the church.

    As they got to the door, Olivia told Lyrika to act natural, as if she didn¡¯t know there was someone on the inside at all. It took some convincing, but when she realised that all the information would do is make her a target of whomever it was on the inside, she understood.

    After knocking on the door and checking who it was, the vige chief cried out in joy, as did the rest of the group when they saw the food. All of which caused both girls to blush at the attention and praise.

    While this was a step in the right direction, Olivia knew something more needed to be done than just managing to sneak food into the vige.

    ¡­

    As she looked at the possible scenarios, hardly any had a good oue.

    One, the bandits managed to get inside and take everyone. This would either happen through their perseverance or unlikely ingenuity. It was also possible that the inside man or woman would assist them in doing so.

    Two, the bandits give up trying to get them. This was a good or bad scenario as they could just leave, meaning everyone was free, or in their anger, they go against their fear of the gods, assuming they have that, and just burn the church.

    Three, help arrives. But this seemed unlikely. With no one managing to get out and no word from the human towns, this seemed like a pipe dream.

    As far as Olivia saw, she and Lyrika should be able to escape pretty easily but like she thought before that may not work with the people in the church. This being their home and there being a lot of them, something was bound to go wrong, especially with the person on the inside.

    So, the only other option she could think of was to deal with the bandits somehow. Which is what she nned to do.

    Well less nned and more hoped she could do.

 Chapter 32

    The Bandits ¨C Part 2

    After exining to Lyrika what she nned to do in hushed tones, who was very much against the idea, she managed to convince her to stay in the church. This understanding was conditional that she did not try to be a hero and take everyone on though. She said that she should return in the evening and that Lyrika should keep pretending that she knew nothing about a person on the inside.

    Exiting the church, she headed off to follow the footprints the bandits made, all the while leaving Lyrika to be bombarded by questions about herself and the monster.

    There was a chance that the bandits would be contacted again, but with the sun setting it wasn¡¯t likely they would make another trek through the forest. They may be on guard though if they were told that the Orc had left the church, but she doubted they would think she was heading to them.

    Moving towards the edge of the vige, there were a good number of footprints left by the bandits, and it was still light enough to see them. So she set off.

    As she did, she told herself that this was just to scout them out, taking Lyrika¡¯s words to heart. It also warmed her heart how worried she had been over her, given that she told her this.

    She hoped that she could find something in their base or near them that could help deal with them. That or she could get enough information about them to pass along so that one of the nearby viges could help, as right now all they knew were that bandits are in the forest. There was also the fact that from what they had said when they walked passed them, they probably had some ves with them, something that would be useful to confirm along with the numbers they had.

    Entering a denser area of trees, she continued following the prints, all the while keeping a low profile. With these bandits treading the same path each day and having done so twice today, she had plenty to work with in terms of tracking. Even being inexperienced in tracking didn¡¯t matter with this number of shoe prints in the dirt.

    She continued on and on, where eventually the sun ended up descending enough that she had to struggle to see the tracks. But even with that problem, she eventually found the bandits.

    .....

    What she found though, differed from what she expected.

    With what the chief had said, telling her of therge number of bandits that attacked them, she was surprised to find only a group of seven or so. As far as she could tell, the group that had ventured to and from the town had returned to the camp, and from what she saw when she and Lyrika followed them, they made up most of this group currently in the camp. This was not what Olivia would consider arge number, especially for attacking a vige which had guards. Either the chief and the vigers had exaggerated the numbers, not noticed how many there were because of the darkness and the fighting, or something had happened to the original group.

    Even though the numbers were less than she expected, it was still way more than she could handle with herck ofbat experience. Even if she was a professional with her spear, one verse seven was not a good fight to be in, unless you were a part of the seven.

    As she moved closer to the camp, she watched carefully as she moved low to the floor of the forest for traps or trip wires, expecting there to be something from all the films she had seen. But she ended up somewhat disappointed but also relieved as she found nothing to keep the base secure. All she could see from her position was all of these bandits gathered around a campfire.

    Singing

    And drinking.

    ¡®Why aren¡¯t they worried about being attacked? If not by a person, but by a wild animal at least.¡¯

    It just didn¡¯t make sense. She figured that there may actually be people on watch and that she couldn¡¯t see them because of the tents in the way. Either that or were they so sure of their abilities that they didn¡¯t need anything like that.

    She had to get closer to figure out what the deal was with these guys. Who knows in their drunken stupor they may just blurt out everything.

    Yeah right.

    As she kept low and moved among the brush, she was practically invisible. While she already had a somewhat natural camouge given her skin tone, the darkness just made it impossible to see her. So, she was able to reach the edge of the camp and listen to what they were saying with ease.

    ¡­

    ¡®Urrg, when will they stop singing. None of them have a good singing voice. This is just torture.¡¯

    So far they had sung for five minutes and Olivia was starting to get fed up.

    ¡®It¡¯s just all noise, interspersed with burps.¡¯

    But as she started to smash her head against a tree, they finally started making sense.

    ¡°Hey, h-*hick* hey boss. When are we gonna sell thesest ones and leave? Who cares about the ones in the *burp* in the church.¡±

    As she looked around, she found one man who had not been joining in the festivities as much as the rest. He had been drinking, but he was very much watching his intake. This was the man that replied, showing he was the boss of the group.

    ¡°It¡¯s the vige that matters, not the ves. We¡¯ll try one more time to get them out without killing them and add to what we have, but after that, all bets are off. We¡¯ll get them out in pieces if we have to.¡±

    After that quick discussion, the first man just shrugged and carried n singing and drinking.

    ¡®Well, it might not be their whole n but it¡¯s enough to know they need to go now. There¡¯s no way I could get to another vige in time to ask for help. Help which they might not give anyway.¡¯

    As she thought this, she realised the man had also spoken about ves they already had, confirming what she suspected. Now she just had to locate them.

    So far, she had only been able to see the group of men from her vantage point. With all the tents present she couldn¡¯t see much else, so she took off and circled the camp to get a clear view of it all.

    ¡­

    Heading in a circle under the cover of darkness, she found what she was looking for.

    The ves.

    Ten in total.

    Moving around she found what she realised must be the reason the men had no fear of being attacked by animals. On the perimeter of the camp, she found very small tents, basic in construction, dotting the edge at equal intervals. Getting closer she saw what could only be described as a horrible perimeter rm.

    In each of the tents, a male ve sat. The light from the campfire illuminated things enough that she could see he had a metal cor around his neck, which was attached by a chain to a stake in the ground. The man also had his arms and feet chained together, stopping him from being able to movepletely. As far as she could tell, they were basically sacrificialmbs to be attacked by a wild animal or monster first, bleating as it was when they were, which would inform the bandits there was a problem. It was horrific.

    Continuing on her circle, passing the men and maintaining her distance as they were sure to make a noise if they saw her, she found even more ves. At one end of the camp, she found four women gathered around a tent. She could see that one was a cat-kin, two were dog-kin, and thest was a bunny-kin as far as she could see. The tent they were in front of housed what was clearly the bandit¡¯s supply of alcohol, given the smell of it all. Like the men, they were wearing metal cors as well. These were also tied, this time by rope, to a stake in the ground. The rope of which was quite long,pared to the short chains the men had, and she couldn¡¯t figure out why.

    That is until she heard one of the bandits shout out for the bear. As she watched them the girls hear the call from the bandit, it was up to them to bring them a drink. They stood there for a good several seconds where they decided amongst themselves which one of them would bring the alcohol.

    The chosen one walked over to them, and it was clear to see the fear in their eyes. She was tense and scared as she reached the group and started pouring. Going around the drunken group, the men grabbed and groped the unluckydy as she did her job. A couple of times the bandits ended up exposing their private areas to the rest, yet until they finished pouring they could do nothing. Once done, they headed back in tears, where the other women helpedfort her.

    As she circled she saw this happen a few times, each with the same result. It even seemed like the bandits were only letting the girls pour small amounts of alcohol so that they could call on them again quickly.

    It was vile.

    What they were doing to the women, along with just having these innocent people as ves only cemented the fact that they had to go.

    But how could she take these guys on, when it was seven verses one?

 Chapter 33

    The Bandits ¨C Part 3

    As she sat there watching the bandits and looking around the camp, she thought about how she could deal with these horrible people.

    She thought about heading back to the church, but with the darkness that would be difficult, and she might end up tripping or being attacked by an animal. Even if she did get back, she didn¡¯t think the vigers would jump on the bandwagon very easily to go and attack the bandits given all they had been through. Especially since many were quite weak from theck of food.

    So, she searched high and low at a good distance away from the camp for anything that could help her take them out. She found tents housing food, water, and what looked to be loot from their raids, given the dirty and what looked like blood in some cases gems, jewellery and other odds and ends. But eventually, she came across the equipment tent, which was full to the brim with swords, spears, daggers and all manner of armour.

    She could gear herself up and take them on, but as she had thought before, there was still ack of experience and arge number of bandits to fight. Another thought was to rid the tent of its gear, leaving the men to only fight using what they had on them, but even then, the swords and spears they had by their side just made that n pointless.

    As she moved to search somewhere else, she spotted a satchel poking out from the pile. She didn¡¯t know what was inside but she had a couple of guesses given it was with the weapons.

    Sneaking into the camp, away from the eyes of the ves and the bandits, she made her way to the tent and entered it. Opening the satchel she found she was right.

    Bottles filled the satchel, all holding different volumes of liquids of varying colours. Across each of them was abel with a symbol, which as far as she could tell, told the effect of the liquid. The symbols ranged from what looked like a church¡¯s cross, to a snake¡¯s head. But, the one that interested her the most was the cloud and moon. She racked her brain trying to figure out what it could symbolise. The cross probably had something to do with healing or dealing with the undead, should they exist in this world. The snake head was either venom or anti-venom. But the only thing she could imagine the cloud and moon to represent was sleep. That or something to do with werewolves, but she didn¡¯t think that was likely.

    If it was to do with sleep, she might just have something to help take out the bandits. But she just had to figure out if it did what she thought and how to get them to take it.

    .....

    ¡­

    The night dragged on, and the men grew drunker and drunker, with no sign of stopping, all aside from the boss who Olivia now saw had a veryrge sword at his side. While it grew darker and harder to see, the moon still gave her a source of light to see with, but Olivia knew she had to act soon.

    She wondered if she could wait for them to sleep, but who knew when that would happen. Plus, she also figured that while they had no traps, the boss might end up being a lookout for the night. That, or this being a fantasy world, they might have something to sober themselves up and any number of them could end up on watch. The possibilities were endless.

    As she continued to think about what to do, she heard the bunny-kin tell the girls she was going to relieve herself and started to walk away from them.

    Olivia watched as the girl travelled just outside of the camp, heading as far away as the rope would allow, the light of the campfire hardly reaching where she was. At this point, a n suddenly formed in her mind. A bad n mind you.

    ¡®I don¡¯t know what else to do. I need someone¡¯s help and she¡¯s on her own. It¡¯s now or never¡­I just hope this doesn¡¯t cause some trauma for her down the road.¡¯

    Not seeing any other option on how to do this, she slowly snuck her way closer to the girl and waited for her to finish up. Then¡­ she made her move.

    Olivia dashed up behind the girl, and put one hand over her mouth and the other around her waist. They were just far enough away that the men and women in the camp couldn¡¯t see her, and the drunken noise covered up the sounds of struggling from the girl. With all her strength though, the leg kicking and panicking didn¡¯t hurt her. Mentally it did, given what she was doing, but physically, not so much.

    ¡°Shh, shh, calm down. I¡¯m not going to hurt you, I just want to talk.¡± Olivia whispered into the girl¡¯s ear, as she pushed and struggled against Olivia¡¯s grip.

    Nothing changed as she heard Olivia¡¯s voice, so she tried again.

    ¡°Please, just stop and listen. I¡¯m here to help¡±

    She continued to shift about, but it seemed that managed to get through to her as she slowed down her movements. After a while, she ended up limp in Olivia arms, knowing that there was no way out of her grip.

    ¡°Listen, I am here to help. I¡¯vee from the vige that was attacked by these bandits to save you. I just need you to calm down and listen to me. Ok.¡± Olivia said, before waiting for some form of response. She then realised she still had her hand over her mouth. ¡°Nod if you understand.¡±

    The girl quickly nodded her head.

    ¡°Ok good. Now, I¡¯m going to release you ok. I want you to stay where you are, talk very quietly and¡­ try not to look at me. My appearance will probably startle you and that¡¯s only going to lead to us getting caught. Do you understand?¡±

    After a slight hesitation, the girl nodded again.

    Olivia then made good on her word and slowly moved her hand away from her mouth and waist. The girl thankfully followed her instructions and remained facing forward.

    ¡°Now, I think I know how to deal with them, but I need your help. First, do you know what this is?¡± Olivia said as she brought the bottle in front of the girl, the low light being just bright enough to show off the symbol. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t good enough that she could see the colour of her hand. It didn¡¯t ur to her, that she would be able to see how muchrger her hand waspared to humans or elves, but while that was the case, the girl didn¡¯t spare it a second thought.

    ¡°Where did you find that?¡± The bunny-kin whispered in a quiet voice.

    ¡°I found it where they stored all their weapons. Do you know what it does?¡±

    The girl quickly grabbed the bottle.

    ¡°Wha-¡± Olivia managed to get out before she was cut off.

    ¡°Of course I do. It¡¯s mine. It¡¯ll put whoever drinks it to sleep.¡±

    Olivia was a little confused by this. How was this bottle the girls? Does this mean that the rest of the bottles in the satchel were hers as well?

    Putting those thoughts aside as the bandits needed to be taken care of first, she spoke about her n.

    ¡°Ok good. I was thinkin-¡±

    ¡°-Put it in their drinks so they fall asleep. Got it.¡± The girl said as she stood up and walked and started walking over to the camp.

    ¡°Errr.¡±

    Olivia just sat there stunned. She thought she would get confirmation of what it did and have to ce it in their drinks herself somehow before one of the girls then took it over to them. That or she would be hesitant about wanting to hurt people. Yet here she was, stupefied as she watched the girl just stroll over to the drink tent and dump about half the bottle into the ale that was going to be served.

    ¡­

    Olivia quickly managed to break out of her stupor and journeyed back over to where she had a good vantage point of the men. Once there, it wasn¡¯t long before she saw the bunny-kin very calmly bring the bottle over and start pouring drinks.

    The men groped her as she did, but it hardly seemed to affect her. Whether this was due to knowing it should hopefully be over soon, or she just really wasn¡¯t affected, she had no idea. Given her collected response when Olivia was talking to her, it may be thetter.

    In the brush, she watched as the girl headed away and the men heartedly gulped down their drinks.

    But as before, it was all but one that did this.

    The boss was still slowing down his consumption, trying to not get blind drunk, and was only taking small sips of his drink.

    After a good few minutes as he slipped from his drink, his eyes started to get droopy, and he had to shake his head to stay awake. But once he got his eyes opened, he looked at his colleague and realised that all of them had copsed on the floor asleep.

    ¡°What?!¡± He shouted, quickly standing up. He wobbled as he did and nearly fell sideways. Holding one hand on his head to steady himself, he waved his other around trying to find his sword.

    Having seen all this happen, Olivia knew she had to act fast.

 Chapter 34

    The Bandits ¨C Part 4

    Seeing the leaders of the bandits take his sword and stagger around looking for whoever had drugged his bandit group she knew she had to take him down fast. The longer she waited the more time he had to both sober himself up and break through the effects of the sleeping potion.

    Knowing it was now or never, she hefted her spear and charged. As she neared the man she lunged as quickly as she could straight towards his midsection. But in the flickering light and due to his stumbling stance, she ended up stabbing into his side.

    ¡°Arrrgh!¡± He cried out as her de slid along his side and created a deep gash. He iled about and reached over to where he felt the pain. As he did, he swung his sword with abandoned nature, hitting no one, as he came in and out of his drowsy state. With all of his struggling, he ended up tripping over one of the other men, falling into Olivia who had no time to move out of the way.

    *Thud* Both Olivia and the man fell to the floor, losing their weapons as they did. Pain wracked their bodies as they hit the ground, as both ended upnding on the armoured men, the rough hard leather and metal cushioning their fall by no means.

    Olivia managed to push herself up from the floor before the man, likely due to the drug in his system, but it didn¡¯t take him too much longer.

    Both upright, the man turned to Olivia, shaking his head as he did to keep himself awake.

    ¡°Where did youe from¡­. did you do this to my men¡­¡± He staggered to the side but stopped himself from falling. ¡°Whatever, it¡¯s not like a monster can understand what I¡¯m saying. All a monster is good for it dying and looking good on my wall.¡±

    At those words he just started running at Olivia, with both hands out front, thinking that he would easily be able to grab Olivia. This obviously was not going to be the case.

    .....

    As he came barrelling towards her, Olivia managed to duck under his arms and moved to the side, causing him to miss.

    That didn¡¯tst long though, asing out of his failed grab he swung his arms around, catching Olivia in the face, and knocking her down to the ground.

    *Groan* Olivia moaned from the ground, hand holding her face. There was no blood that she could see, but it was very painful. As she was recovering, the man, made his way over to her and went to pin her down.

    Thankfully, Olivia saw this and in his drunken and drowsy state, she was able to dodge him, rolling out of the way. He continued his path, copsing onto the floor, which Olivia used to her advantage by reaching up and taking hold of the knife she had and stabbing it down into his shoulders as he was on the floor.

    The man cried out in pain, as the metal de sank in into his body, slicing through skin and muscle. He thrashed around trying to knock her off of him, but aside from a few hits to her side, the angle made it impossible to cause any real damage.

    Taking hold of the knife to pull out and stab him again, she suddenly found her side wracked in pain. Looking over she saw that the man had found arge rock and was going in for another swing.

    She had the choice between getting another stab in or stopping him from hitting her again. She didn¡¯t have much time to think though as her body took over, causing her to dive across his body, and take hold of his hand.

    He shouted for her to get off of him, grunting and swearing as he did. Nowpletely immobilised, he could no longer attack her, and her body weight held him fairly still.

    This gave her the time to shift around, allowing herself to still hold his arm down, but also be in a position to plunge the knife back into his body.

    Which is what she did.

    Several times.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Then it all went silent. There were no more cries of pain from the man. All of his struggling ceased.

    At that point, Olivia rolled off his body and justid there. Her eyes closed as the stress and fatigue of it all caught up to her.

    ¡­

    Olivia groaned as she opened her eyes. She still felt the pain in her face from the hit, even more so when she rubbed that spot on her face.

    ¡°Ouch. Note to self, always protect the face.¡±

    As she looked around, she saw the dead body of the manying a little way away from her. As she looked up, she was met by inquisitive big brown eyes. Looking further up, she saw the flopped over ears of the bunny-kin girl.

    ¡°Hello.¡±

    ¡°Hello.¡± The girl replied in a sweet voice. Turning over her shoulder she called out. ¡°She¡¯s alive.¡±

    Olivia looked over to the direction she was facing and saw the three other girls all huddled by one of the nearby tents. Having heard her, the three girls cautiously walked over to her, eyeing Olivia wearily, and stopping a short distance from her.

    Once they were close enough one of the dog-kin girls stepped forward. ¡°T-thank you for saving us.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s no problem. After having seen what was happening here, I couldn¡¯t just let them continue.¡±

    As she said that, she remembered that the men had only been put to sleep, and she had no idea when they would wake up. Looking around though, she found all of the men still very much in a deep slumber, but they all had ropes tied around their hands and feet.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry. We tied them all up while you were asleep.¡± The cat-kin girl stated.

    ¡°That¡¯s good, I was afraid they would have woken up.¡±

    Olivia slowly rose off the ground and looked around at the scene. She tried not to look at the man she had killed for too long, as bile started to swell in her throat as she did. Like when saving Ameril, while the person she killed was a bad man, the idea of killing someone wasn¡¯t a fun thought for her. She did, however, quickly pick up her knife and wiped most of the blood off of it by rubbing it against the grass.

    Looking at the girls, she saw they all had smiles on their faces, happy to no longer having to follow the whims of the bandits. But, as she expected, those smiles shifted momentarily when they saw her looking at them, weary of the monster among them.

    All except the bunny-kin though who took no notice and had no response when Olivia looked at her.

    Putting the looks she got back aside, she noticed a couple of things when she was looking at the girls. All of them still had the ve cors on. They had managed to remove the rope but had not taken off the cors. Even if they needed a key to do so, surely one of the men had it on them, and they would have found it when tying them up.

    There was also the fact that she could lonely see girls. Shouldn¡¯t there be several men with ve cors as well?

    ¡°Why do you still have those cors on, and where are the men that were chained up.¡±

    The girls all looked at each other slightly confused about something before turning back to her.

    ¡°You do know that ves cannot remove ve cors right? The magic engraved in them stops them from doing so.¡±

    Well, that was new information. It was also the first real time she had seen some form of magic in this world. For it to have been introduced first by ve cors was just depressing.

    Olivia had assumed that the cor was just what it looked like, a metal band showing you were someone¡¯s ve. For them to actually make it impossible to remove a ve cor was just devilish. She now understood why Lyrika had been so fearful that she was hiding one when they first met. Aside from actually being made a ve that is.

    ¡°Ah, I see. Did you find the key for it?¡±

    The bunny-kin quickly walked over and handed the key to her. It wasn¡¯t so much a key but more akin to a gemstone with a metal band around it. On the band, there was some form of engraving, but it looked more like symbols than any tangible words.

    ¡°Also, in case you didn¡¯t know, having the key to a set of ve cors means a ve cor cannot be put on you.¡± The bunny-kin quickly said, before bending forward and lifting her head to allow Olivia ess to the cor.

    ¡®Huh, well that¡¯s even better information. I was worried I would need to find some way tobat bing someone¡¯s ve but looks like I already have that.

    Some would say it was very convenient, but it actually made sense. If you can figure out how to make a ve cor to stop your ves from freeing themselves, why wouldn¡¯t or couldn¡¯t you put some failsafe to stop yourself from being made one?

    ¡°If that¡¯s the case, why doesn¡¯t everyone just get one so they can¡¯t be made a ve.¡± was Olivia¡¯s question, even though she thought she already knew the answer.

    ¡°They are very expensive. Unless you are a very wealthy person you won¡¯t be able to buy one. I¡¯m surprised this bandit even had one.¡± the cat-kin said as she looked at the man lying dead on the floor.

    If that was the case, then it was very strange. It was possible he stole them, but he may have paid or been given them. That plus the mention of ridding the town of its inhabitants made this whole bandit operation suspect.

    These however were thoughts for another day, as right now she had ves to free and a possibly worried cat-kin girl to get back to.

 Chapter 35

    The Bandits ¨C Part 5

    With the gem key in hand, she got to work removing the girl¡¯s cors. It seemed to be as simple as running the gem over a section of the cor in order to remove it. Asking what she should do with these cors, she was told to keep them.

    It felt like these girls were saying or just implying she was some sort of ver, but as it stands that wasn¡¯t the case. While very is illegal in thisnd, that is not the case when dealing with criminals. In this kingdom, if someonemits a heinous crime, they were captured and ced in a ve cor, which is owned by the nobility in charge of the region. Doing this makes a statement to others, and helps keep track of them when they are either imprisoned or forced into servitude doing some form of menialbour. If they somehow manage to escape, they can easily be caught again, given that they have the cor showing what they are.

    It was apparently also stated that if you have the ability to put ve cors on people, it was your duty to do so if youe across a criminal where punishment for their crime is envement. In the case of these bandits, that was very much the case. They can then be handed over to the authorities in the nearest town, giving you a small fee for performing a service. Assuming you have some proof of what they have done.

    Moving along, with the girls now free, and the ve cors collected up, they then moved on to the men. Sure that she would not get a favourable reaction if she just strolled up to these guys who were scared and alone, she brought a few of the women with her to help keep them calm. The two dog-kin decided to join her, and it would seem that even though she removed the cors from them, they still decided to put some distance between them and her.

    ¡­

    Having headed to each of the small tents to release the men, with thankfully no issues, they then headed back to the centre of the camp and ced the ve cors on the bandits. With there being ten ves and now only six living bandits, they had more than enough to keep them in line.

    They then quickly searched through the tents and found a good amount of gear that was usable, including plenty of rope which was quickly tied to each of the bandits, meaning they were unable to go anywhere when they woke up. With that done, they all became rxed and the conversation started to flow.

    ¡°What are you?¡±

    .....

    That was the first question that arose from one of the men when he finally worked up the courage to ask.

    It obviously annoyed Olivia, given this is what she had to answer the most since she ended up in this world. She was tempted to just wear a sign around her neck telling people what she was.

    After exining who and what she was, she then told them that she hade from the nearby trading town. Most of the group had originallye from their two, but a couple of the men had just been hunting in the forest nearby when they were captured.

    Before they got onto introductions from the beast-kin, groans started to arise from the bandits. This was then followed by struggling, shouting and grunting as they all tried to untie themselves. A few noticed their bossying dead on the floor, and got really worried, afraid they would meet the same fate.

    Muting out the sounds of the bandits, Olivia decided that they needed to get out of here. There was no way she could stay listening to them moan and groan for any period of time. She also had to get back to let Lyrika know she was fine.

    She spoke to the former ve group, asking if they knew how to get back to the vige, and from their response, it seemed that they were not that far from the road that travelled into the vige. Again, it somewhat made sense. The bandits had to be nearby to stop and attack traders travelling along the road.

    With their direction known, they loaded a few wagons with loot, geared themselves up, took several torches from the equipment tent, and headed towards the road. They did however leave much more than they took, but one of the beast-kin said that they would return with more wagons tomorrow to get the rest of it.

    The path out of the clearing had actually been ttened and cut to make it possible to wagons to travel down. Something the bandits would have done when raiding trader wagons and carriages. This made it much easier to get through, and there were fewer things to trip over, in the darkness.

    At the back of the group, the bandits were all tied along in a line, with rope wrapping around their hands and their throats, meaning if any should get any ideas, all of them would end up choking as the rope tightened. This kept most of them quiet as they resigned themselves to their fate. The rest still shouted, angry at their situation.

    As they walked, Olivia spoke to the beast-kin, asking about the bandit group. It turned out that they had been arger group, but after the initial attack on the vige and the carriages, the rest had taken the money and left.

    ¡­

    After a good while, they eventually made it to the road, well dirt path, and they headed towards the vige. It was quite the detourpared to just walking through the forest, but with the darkness, that would not end well for anyone.

    Travelling along the road, it took quite a while to make it back. There were quite a few twists and turns along the road, and it was not very direct. When they made it back, the vige was still inplete darkness, andcking any life, where the only light present was from candles and oilmps peering through the wooden panels across the church windows.

    They travelled between the houses, following the road to the marketce, where they left the wagons. The women left and headed to the church, with the men staying behind in order to keep guard over the bandits. As Olivia watched them go, she realised they were missing someone. She looked around the wagon she stood by to see who was left but found no one. As she turned around to look at the other wagon, she almost jumped out of her skin, finding the other girl right behind her.

    She stood there staring at Olivia, not her face, but more just her body, with a scrutinising look on her face.

    Olivia still had not had a proper look at this girl given the darkness, but the two bunny hears that stood erect right in her line of sight told her who this was.

    ¡°Err, hello.¡±

    The girl just stood there looking at her. Her gaze shifted across her body as if she was trying to figure out something about her. As she stood there, it wasplete silence, aside from the groans of the bandits.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re half-orc half-goblin.¡±

    Olivia was not expecting the statement. She had already told them what she was in the bandit camp. So why was this girl just saying it again? The way she stood there staring, it was like she was analysing her. Compared to the other girls, it also seemed like she didn¡¯t care that she was, being a monster and all.

    ¡°Err, yes.¡±

    The bunny girl tilted her head to the side as if she was trying to figure something out. This was followed by a sudden and short cry of ¡®ahh¡¯ as if she realised something, where she then headed to one of the waggons.

    The girl rummaged around in the gear they brought back from the camp, before pulling out a thin leather-bound book on a nk of wood that was twice its size. The wood had a couple of small areas that had been gouged out of it, one circr and the other long and thin. These were filled with a pot of ink and a quill.

    The girl headed back over to her and started writing.

    ¡°How did you end up a half-orc half-goblin? Mother a goblin father an orc? The other way around? Spell?¡±

    ¡°Wha-¡°, confusion just hit Olivia as she was suddenly bombarded with questions.

    ¡°Come on. This is the first of maybe a hundred questions I have. Can¡¯t spend all night on the first one.¡± The girl said as she cocked her head to the side.

    ¡°Ok, hold on. I get that you have questions. Lots of people do and will when they see me. But what I don¡¯t understand is why you are writing it down. Also, shouldn¡¯t you be¡­ I don¡¯t know, scared of me?¡±

    The girl ced her quill down in its slot and ced the board on the edge of the nearby wagon before turning back around, and extending her hand.

    ¡°I just realised I never introduced myself. My name is Philine Portanthas, but most people call me Philly. I am a researcher at the Elven Institute of Knowledge. I came here to learn more about beast-kin, their habits, culture and society, and things like that. Pleased to meet you¡± She said holding out her hand.

    Olivia could only look back at her quizzically.

 Chapter 36

    The Reprieve ¨C Part 1

    Not one to just leave someone waiting for a handshake, Olivia took Philly¡¯s hand and shook it.

    As she did, she couldn¡¯t help but think about how what she said made no sense. Beast-kin have been around for a long time, so surely people would know what they do in their life and have it written down. Plus, she is a beast kin herself.

    ¡°But, you¡¯re beast-kin as well. Surely you already know about their culture and how they live. A lot of people must do.¡± Octavia asked.

    ¡°Ahh, well, I see why you¡¯re confused. I was raised in elven society, so I have no clue what it¡¯s like with other beast-kin. On the matter of my research, the sad fact is that no one has¡­cared enough, forck of a better word, to write about them. Having been ves for a good deal of time, beast-kin, even now are not really¡­seen as an important race. Plus, things change over time, so even if someone did write about them decades ago, how things are now could be different to how they were then.¡±

    ¡®That¡¯s so sad.¡¯ Olivia couldn¡¯t help but think. For them to just be seen as some sort of lesser species was just wrong. Having travelled with Lyrika all this time Olivia had found to her to be lovely and amazing. There was no way she could be a lesser¡­anything.

    ¡°So, I decided that my paper would be on them. But¡­that was until I met you. Ill probably still do something on them, but you are much more of a mysterypared to how the beast-kin live. Part Orc part Goblin, two races nearly extinct, known for attacking people and kidnapping women to forcefully breed with, and neither known for their intellect. Yet here you are saving people and talking like a natural, so why would I be scared of you after you saved me from very.¡±

    It shocked Olivia a bit after hearing all of that. She couldn¡¯t help but wonder if maybe Ameril, Lyrika and most of the other people she had met and saved were the strange ones, keeping their distance from her even though she helped them.

    As she thought about it though, she very quickly shook her head at that. No, this bunny girl was the odd one.

    .....

    ¡°How did you end up being captured and enved, if you don¡¯t mind me asking?¡±

    ¡°Not at all. Answering your questions should be reciprocity enough given you will be answering mine soon, right?¡±

    Olivia grimaced at that.

    As she was about to start, one of the women came back with a good number of the vigers from the church. Some were there to help deal with the prisoners, some to see the rest of the former ves that had been captured, and others to hurl insults at the bandits.

    Hugs were given and abuse was thrown, and then they got to work taking the wagons to the vige hall and mansion. Given the size of the vige, the vige chief¡¯s home was used as both his home and meeting ce, among other things. It also contained a few jail cells, which is where these men were going.

    As they moved, Lyrika found her way to Olivia, where she saw a sh of relief show on her face once Lyrika saw her. This quickly changed to a slight grimace, the reason for which Olivia did not know. She continued heading over, but her pace slowed as she saw a bunny-kin excitedly talking to Olivia.

    ¡°How I was captured, well it all started at the institute with my boyfriend, or I guess you could say ex-boyfriend, who helped give me the idea for this trip. I told him all about wanting to learn what beast-kin were like when not influenced by other races for my research paper and to better understand myself. A whileter he told me about settlements of beast-kin in the human kingdom, and about how they mostly lived independently from the humans and that I could visit and research them at the source. He practically packed my bags for me.¡±

    ¡°That seems odd¡¯ Olivia couldn¡¯t¡± help point out

    ¡°Yes well, I thought so too. I did a little digging and it seemed that him getting a very buxom elven girl as his research partner had something to do with his eagerness to send me away. But honestly, what a coward. If he wanted to start dating some elven girl he could have just ended our rtionship. But no, he had to create some convoluted scenario of sending me on a trip in order to, I don¡¯t know, not feel guilty about cheating on me.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry to hear that.¡± Olivia said, not really knowing what else she could say.

    ¡°Why? He was an idiot doing all that. After finding out about it, I broke things off with him. Someone like that isn¡¯t worth the time or effort to be with. But, it wasn¡¯t all bad news, as the trip was still a good opportunity for my research, so I took it.¡±

    ¡®There is one word that describes this girl well. Pragmatic.¡¯

    ¡°But as it turns out, this was the first vige I got to when I arrived. I walked right into the vige when they returned to try and break into the church a couple of days ago¡­ Huh.¡± Philly said as she cocked her head to the side.

    ¡°Err, what is it?¡±

    ¡°I wonder if my ex-boyfriend knew about the bandits and that¡¯s why this was the first ce he said to go. Maybe he¡¯s smarter than I gave him credit for?¡±

    This girl was so calm and collected as she wondered whether her ex-boyfriend had set up her capture to be a ve. Yeah, she was the weird one, not Ameril or Lyrika.

    ¡°I mean, with him being so cowardly that he had to send you off on a trip rather than break up with you, I doubt he would have been able to work up the nerve to set up your capture by human bandits. It was probably just bad luck.¡±

    ¡°You might be right there. You are actually quite smart yourself. Which is very surprising for Orcs and Goblins. Why is that?¡±

    ¡°Err¡­¡± Olivia was both insulted and confused by the question from Philly, but thankfully, before she had to answer, Lyrika had decided to push her way into the conversation, which Olivia was very thankful for.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    For about five seconds as she realised what caused her to grimace when she saw her.

    ¡°Why would you take on all those bandits on your own? How can you be such a reckless idiot? You could have died.¡±

    ¡°Err¡­I-¡±

    Both girls were just staring at her in anticipation of Olivia¡¯s response. One was full of curiosity and excitement, while the other, while she sounded angry, Olivia noticed that it was out of concern for her well-being more than anything else. But even so, she did not feel like answering either of them right now and so, took the third option.

    ¡°I-I better go check on the prisoners and talk to the vige chief.¡±

    And so she hurried off. Cowardly, yes, but it probably saved both her life and sanity.

    Only for the time being, as she doubted neither were going to just drop it.

    ¡­

    Making her way to the vige chief¡¯s home she found the leader of the town overseeing the jailing of the bandits.

    ¡°Ah, Olivia. Thank you for all that you have done for this vige. Capturing the bandits and saving our friends. I don¡¯t know how we could ever fully repay.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s-it was nothing. I couldn¡¯t just sit back and let them be sold off as ves.¡±

    ¡°Such modesty. It¡¯s not much, but everyone has decided to some money together to say thank you. It doesn¡¯te close to repaying you for what you have done thought. I should be able to give it to you tomorrow morning. It¡¯s much toote for any of that, and I¡¯m sure everyone just wants to get some sleep.¡±

    Olivia wasn¡¯t too sure how to deal with this. Taking a reward for saving lives just feels wrong. She was thankful that there had been no talk of a mary reward before she had saved them, as that would have been a lot worse. She was tempted to say no, but she did need the money, and from the look on the leader¡¯s face he wanted her to take it to feel like he had actually thanked her.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Like I said, it will be but a small token and doesn¡¯te close to thanking you for all you did.¡±

    ¡°Well, about that. There is still the matter that myself and Lyrika came here for. Would you be willing to listen to what we have to say?¡±

    ¡°Of course. I know you have been waiting to talk to me about this, so I am more than happy to hear you out now before we head off for the night. I have a feeling I may need the night to process what you are going to tell me.

    ¡®He¡¯s got that right.¡¯ Olivia thought to herself, knowing that he would not likely take the information well.

    And so, Olivia headed out with the leader in tow and went in search of Lyrika to exin everything that had happened

    ¡­

    Looking around, Lyrika was no longer where she had left her, and given the darkness of the evening, she had probably made her way to the church.

    Now that the danger was over, many of the vigers were moving gear out from the church and back into their homes. Only a few homes had beenpletely ransacked and had been left inoperable, but as far as Olivia could tell, those homeowners were no longer present.

    While the imminent danger was over, many members of the vige were lost. Some had been killed and some had been sold as ves. It was disheartening, more so given that Olivia couldn¡¯t do much in that regard. She can¡¯t bring the dead back.

    There were also the ones taken as ves, but they could be anywhere. Depending on the size of the vework, they could already be in towns or viges far away from where they were. It would take a miracle to find them, which even the vige chief knew was the case.

    For the ones that remained, while they had lost friends they were all just thankful to be alive. Some had lost family members, and either mourned or decided to set off in search of their loved ones. Others tried to change their minds, telling them it¡¯s a fool¡¯s errand, but what mother or father would give up looking for their child, just like that?

    The vige chief did say that he would reach out to the other viges for help now that the bandit threat had been neutralised. Hopefully, with more people, they may be able to do something.

    Olivia couldn¡¯t help but wonder what would have been if she left Lyrika¡¯s vige earlier. Could she have saved more people? But the more she thought of the good, the bad reared its head. Had she turned up sooner, it could have been a time when the bandits were in the vige. She could have turned up during the initial attack. All of these scenarios were unlikely to have ended well for her and Lyrika.

    Nothing good woulde of thoughts like these, so she put them to rest and headed to the church.

 Chapter 37 - Chapter 37: The Reprieve - Part 2

    Chapter 37: The Reprieve ¨C Part Even though it was getting darker by the minute, people still moved back and forth around the vige. All were holding possessions in their arms, likely to take to their homes, to give them some semnce of normality once they returned now that the bandits had been taken care of.

    Food and water were being distributed around so that they all had something to eat and drink for the day toe. Repairs were being made to some of the houses that had been hit the worst, making them more liveable. The whole vige was on the move now that they no longer had to stay in the church. The church of which Olivia was nearing the door to.

    As she grew closer the vige chief told her he would wait outside, wanting to get as much fresh air as he could before he had to head home, having been stuck in the church all this time.

    So, leaving him where he was, Olivia went to open the door. But as she did, she was greeted by quite an interesting conversation.

    ¡°-so big. It was rock hard and felt so good to touch.¡± Was the sentence she heard as she entered.

    Looking around she found Lyrika and Philly sitting on one of the church benches talking. Philly had her book out and was hastily scribbling away at it while Lyrika spoke.

    ¡®Big and hard. She¡¯s not talking about my¡­ No, she can¡¯t be.¡¯

    She was tempted to hang back and wait to confirm if that was indeed what she was talking about, but before she could, Lyrika looked up and saw her.

    ¡°Olivia¡­y-your back,¡± Lyrika said, talking louder than she had been. Her voice startled Philly slightly, who quickly closed her book and looked around.

    ¡°Yes, I was just talking to the vige chief. What have you two been talking about?¡±

    ¡°Huh, oh not much. Philly wanted to know about how we met, and our journey together.¡±

    ¡°Right¡­I see.¡±

    Philly looked over at Lyrika and then Olivia, before she stood and started walking over to her. ¡°Yeah, Lyrika was just telling me about your muscles. May I see them?¡± She said as she started to move and grab hold of her shirt.

    ¡°Err, hey, hey.¡± Olivia quickly jumped in with, before grabbing ahold of her arms to stop Philly from stripping her. ¡°You can¡¯t just start stripping me without my permission, and so no, you can¡¯t see my muscles.¡±

    A frown appeared on Philly¡¯s face but was very quickly reced with a smile. ¡°Very well,¡± she said as she took out her book again and started writing,

    ¡°Unwilling to expose her body to strangers. Dissimr to Orcs who are mostly nude. More trust with the subject may be needed to further research.¡± Is what she said quietly as she wrote. It would seem that Lyrika heard this, given that she covered her mouth to stop herselfughing, but Olivia had no clue what she mumbled.

    ¡°What did you talk to the vige leader about,¡± Lyrika asked as she got herself under control and changed the subject

    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s just outside. He said he would listen to us about the new chief.¡±

    ¡°He will. That¡¯s great.¡± Lyrika quickly replied moving to exit the church, leaving Philly who was still jotting in her book.

    ¡­

    As they left, they found the vige chief stood a short distance away from the church, where no other traffic was nearby. This was not the sort of conversation you wanted to be public, so it worked out well this way.

    ¡°So, what is it you wanted to tell me about the chief? Other than the fact that he doesn¡¯t care about our vige.¡±

    Not sure whether his anger toward the new chief already would help or hinder their discussion, Lyrika spoke about what she had seen. She told him about what she had found when going through the new chief¡¯s camp, the many abused women that she found. She also spoke of how she got out of bing his wife for the time being, and that people were currently looking into things from her vige.

    The leader rubbed his head after hearing all of that and thought to himself for several seconds, sighing as he did. Before he spoke, a frown now stered on his face.

    ¡°So, you mean to say that the women the vige leaders gave up to secure an alliance have been abused by this man? You mean that while I thought my daughter, was going to help bring our tribes together, she has been¡­ abused and beaten by this man all this time.¡± His voice quivered towards the end.

    ¡°¡­yes.¡±

    It was horrible having to say it, but he needed to hear it. It was the only way for him to know something needed to be done, and that his daughter was in danger.

    He closed his eyes and walked off, stopping a few meters away where he leaned against the church. Lyrika and Olivia looked at each other but remained where they were, knowing that he needed a few minutes to digest the information.

    He returned a whileter with tear streaks in his eyes. ¡°I-I don¡¯t know what to say. I thought securing an alliance with him would be the best thing for our vige and the rest of the beast-kin. My daughter even agreed with me, although I think she may have done so because she found him attractive. To know that she is being hurt by that monster, it just¡­¡±

    He took a deep breath to calm himself down and continued to speak.

    ¡°Part of me wants to ask for proof, hoping that you would say no and joke about this all being some borate hoax. If that happened, it would annoy me sure, but I would feel much better than I am now. But, after all you have done for our vige, and for you to travel here just to tell me this, why would you lie about something like that? I can¡¯t see what you would gain from doing so. So as much as I wish it were not, I am disheartened that I believe you are telling the truth.¡±

    ¡°It is. And you are right, we have no proof, only what Lyrika saw. We are hoping to get some form the people in Lyrika¡¯s vige and from the vige chiefs from the other viges we will visit. I¡¯m sure we will need it to prove to the¡­stubborn ones.¡± Olivia replied.

    ¡°Yes. Had you not saved us from bandits, I doubt I would believe your words either.¡±

    He quickly sighed and looked up into the sky in thought, before wiping his eye. He stood there for a minute or so and both of the girls were starting to worry. But, he eventually tilted his head back down and spoke.

    ¡°I need to save my daughter. All of the girls too. But as you know, that chief is well protected. With all the viges he has visited and alliances secured, he has a veritable army around him. I think your n may work, but as you convince people he has already visited, he will continue visiting more.¡±

    As he said this, both of them realised that was something they hadn¡¯t taken into ount, as obvious as it was. They could continue ying catch-up, but who knows how long that would take before he figured out what was going on. Maybe there was another way to deal with this that they hadn¡¯t spotted yet.

    ¡°I will speak to the rest of the vige. Or what¡¯s left of it, to see if they have any information. Other than that, I don¡¯t think there is much else we can do. No men were taken for his army, as he stated they were needed to keep the trade town running. Because of that, there is no one with him we can tell about this, without being ousted. But¡­, I may be able to help with one of the next viges you visit. To the west is where the chief came from when he visited us. In that direction, there is only one vige and the vige chief there is Teagan. He is a stubborn old bull, but if I vouch for you, he will believe what you say¡±

    The vige head headed off to his mansion with Lyrika and Olivia in tow.

    ¡°I shall write a letter of introduction you can give to him and should make him listen to you. It will take a while and so I shall give it to you in the morning. Other than that I don¡¯t believe there is much else I can help you with.¡±

    ¡°We understand.¡± Olivia looked out through the nearby murky window and saw that there was still a good deal of night left, and many of the vigers had headed in for the night. Something that Lyrika and herself needed to do.

    ¡°Saying that there isn¡¯t a ce we can stay for the night is there?¡±

    ¡°Of course. I have a couple of spare rooms avable here that you can take.¡±

    ¡°Just one is fine.¡± Lyrika quickly piped up, yet still managed to say it in a very casual tone.

    The chief and Olivia looked at Lyrika with a bit of confusion, but he must have realised that with them travelling together, they must befortable sleeping near each other, and Olivia just let it be. She figured with all that happened, she would prefer to be in the same room as her. Safety in numbers and all.

    ¡°One it is then. You can have one of the guest rooms upstairs,¡± he said before heading towards the stairs.

    ¡°Thank you¡­¡± Olivia ended up trailing off, having realised that she didn¡¯t know the vige chief¡¯s name.

    ¡°Ah, I apologise. With everything that has been going on I don¡¯t think I ever told you my name. I am Wilfred Yoban.¡± he said with a slight bow.

    Finally knowing the vige chief¡¯s name they continued on their way to Olivia and Lyrika¡¯s room for the night, where he took them up a few flights of stairs. Down the hall, they passed a few rooms, all of which looked to be guest amodations of some sort and each had the sameyout and only had a few furnishings. But, given everywhere else they had been, this was the fanciest and most sophisticated ce they had been, and probably will be for some time.

    The room Wilfred took them to was not massive, but it had a wardrobe, dressing table of sorts, a screen divider and a bed, which was close in size to that of a double bed. It was big enough for them both to lie on.

    Which right now was all they could think of doing given the day they had.

 Chapter 38 - Chapter 38: The Reprieve - Part 3 - R-18

    Chapter 38: The Reprieve ¨C Part 3 ¨C R-1Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next chapter when avable.

    Contains Assisted Masturbation

    ¡ª

    The day had been exhausting. For Olivia mostly. But she had achieved a great deal. She saved a vige, well what was left of it, got the assistance of the vige chief, and now had an in with the next one. But because of all that, Olivia wanted nothing more than to get some sleep.

    ¡°So, you¡¯re fine sharing the same bed as me.¡±

    ¡°Huh, yeah of course. If I didn¡¯t think that I would have said two rooms,¡± was Lyrika¡¯s curt reply as she made her way behind the screen.

    ¡°Do you think we should move on to the next vige in the morning?¡± Lyrika called out as she started removing her clothes. Even though it was just her silhouette from the candlelight, it was still quite an erotic sight from where Olivia was sitting as she stripped.

    ¡°Err, I-I guess. There isn¡¯t anything left to do here, so moving on would be the best thing.¡±

    Lyrika stepped out from behind the divider d in her nightwear which as before, hardly left anything to the imagination. As Olivia¡¯s thoughts and visions started to excite a specific area, she quickly jumped up and got behind the screen and started changing into her own evening wear which was more or less this era¡¯s and world¡¯s version of boxers and a shirt, both of which she got from Ameril. While these did look a little odd together, it was much better than if she had tried donning a nightgown of some sort. With her build, that would not look right.

    There was also a wash basin hidden behind the screen divider, giving them some water to give themselves a brisk wash. It wasn¡¯t anything like a shower, but it did remove a good amount of dirt and dust from the day.

    Clothed and somewhat clean, she made her way back to the bed, she found Lyrikaying on the bed as stretched out as she could, taking up the entire thing.

    ¡°Err, excuse me.¡± Olivia coughed out as she looked at the sight. ¡°Where am I going to sleep.¡±

    ¡°Oh, right,¡± Lyrika replied as she quickly moved over. Olivia couldn¡¯t tell whether she was just being yful or actually forgot in her sleepy state. Either way Olivia crawled in and very quickly realised this was likely a bed for very intimate couples. It being a guest room for other high-ranking people, they probably came with their partners, which is why the bed was small and pushed them together. Because of this, to make sure neither of them fell off, they had to press against each other, as Olivia¡¯s muscture meant she fille dup more of the bed than Lyrika did.

    Olivia stayed facing upwards, as it didn¡¯t feel right turning her back to Lyrika, and turning the other way would probably end with her poking Lyrika with something. Lyrika on the other hand decided to sleep on her side so that she was facing Olivia.

    Blush on both their faces, they drifted off to sleep.

    ¡­

    *moan*

    ¡®What was that?¡¯

    Olivia was woken by the sound of someone moaning. Still, in bed, she looked to her side and saw Lyrika was still asleep and looked peaceful.

    ¡®Was it her?¡¯

    Her question was immediately answered,

    *moan*

    as a moan rose from her throat.

    She quickly covered her mouth, not understanding why she had just moaned. Now that she starting to awaken, as the next moan arose, she suddenly became aware of what was happening to the lower half of her body.

    Looking down at the sheet, she could see what looked like a tent being propped up by her erection. What she also found was something moving underneath the tent, shifting up and down along the supporting shaft of said tent.

    Lifting up the sheet she saw what was happening, as she found a tanned hand wrapped around her cock, rotating and slowly moving up and down it.

    ¡®Ohhh, that feels so good. She can¡¯t be doing this in her sleep could she.¡¯

    She did entertain that thought, but she was pretty sure Lyrika wasn¡¯t as asleep as she appeared to be.

    From Lyrika¡¯s hand, she gazed upwards along the connected lithe arm and saw Lyrika once again. But as before, it truly looked like she was sound asleep.

    But as she shook away the sleepiness, she finally saw why that wasn¡¯t the case. Closed eyes on Lyrika face gave Olivia the impression she was still resting, but as she strained her neck, she was able to see they were half-lidded, and that she was focused on a very specific part of Olivia¡¯s body.

    ¡°Lyrika!¡± She whisper shouted to get the girl¡¯s attention, which did the trick. Hearing her name, she froze her movements and slowly turned her head to look at Olivia.

    ¡°Oh¡­ good morning.¡±

    ¡°Wha-¡°, Olivia quickly looked around and foundplete darkness. Only the moonlight provided the scant amount of light in the room, ¡°it¡¯s nowhere near morning. Now¡­ what are you doing?¡±

    It was an obvious question, but one Olivia wanted her to answer. The only way they could figure out what was happening between them was if they talked about it. And considering Lyrika has been the one to initiate things both times, her thoughts on it were what Olivia wanted to hear.

    Lyrika at first looked worried at having been found out, but it would seem that the eroticism of the situation overwrote that fear.

    ¡°It feels like it¡¯s been ages since Ist ¡®helped¡¯ you with this. I¡­I want to do it again¡± Lyrika said as a blush burst forth on her face coating them red. Not that Olivia could see it very well, given the darkness.

    ¡®Ok, well I¡¯m pretty sure this is well past ¡®helping¡¯ me.¡¯

    ¡°Lyrika. How is it ¡®helping¡¯ me when it¡¯s your touch that has made it so I need ¡®help¡¯.¡±

    ¡°I-I. It was already like this when I started.¡± She quickly replied hoping to put the matter to bed.

    ¡°Really?¡± Olivia said as she looked right into Lyrika¡¯s eyes.

    ¡°Grr, fine ok.¡± Lyrika grumbly said as she sat up, her grasp still wrapped around her penis. ¡°Look I know I said this before, but you have been so good to me ever since we met. Nicer than anyone I have dated before. Thest time I helped, part of me saw it as a way to say thank you. But since then, all I can think about is you and doing it again. I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s just lust, or if there is something else, but right now all I can think about is your cock. So¡­just let me have this. You didn¡¯t get your morning wood yesterday and it annoyed me for some reason.¡±

    Olivia was stunned, as, she hadn¡¯t expected her to say all that. There was the possibility that it was just lust she was feeling. They had been travelling for a while and there had been a few, erotic incidents, which may have turned up the heat. Her meeting with her ex-boyfriend may have given her some thoughts, leading to her need for relief.

    Olivia hoped it wasn¡¯t. She had enjoyed Lyrika¡¯spany and would be disheartened to know that there was no actual feeling between them. While she would enjoy this, it would feel hollow if it was just empty lust.

    As she was about to say something in response, she was cut off by Lyrika¡¯s now well-lubed hand stroking down her shaft, having licked it as Olivia was processing what she said. The sensation was just like before, and it felt lovely.

    ¡°Ohhh.¡±

    Lyrika was concentrating, just staring at the same spot. She even unconsciously licked her lips at one time, not that Olivia could see with her face turned away.

    As she ran her lithe fingers along her cock, they ran over the bumps and veins that ran down it, causing a multitude of sensations for Olivia. Throaty moans were all that arose from her lips as she watch Lyrik¡¯s hand make its way along its length.

    Every so often, Lyrika turned her head to look at Olivia, like she had before in the hunting cabin, but when their eyes locked, they stayed like that for a good long while. Pure feelings of excitement and sexual energy bounced between them as they stared at each other, only being broken when Olivia closed her eyes as she moaned.

    Lyrika sped up, only pausing one other time to give her hand a lovely long lick. She did so slowly causing Olivia to give her tongue her rapt attention, as she saw her coat her hand, and lick her fingers. Seeing that, and knowing where her hand was going again, felt like it caused her cock to grow even harder if that was possible.

    As Lyrika went back to her strokes along Olivia¡¯s throbbing penis, Olivia thought about just falling back and letting her do her thing. But as she was about to, a thought came to her. Wasn¡¯t this a bit selfish?

    All the while still moaning from the sensation it urred to her that including this, she had always been on the receiving end of Lyrika¡¯s ministrations. Shouldn¡¯t she give something back? Be this lust or something more, it felt like she was taking more than she was giving.

    She couldn¡¯t really do much from her current position, and she was fairly certain that she wouldn¡¯t be stopping Lyrika anytime soon to change positions, given how good it felt. But what was different fromst time was Lyrika¡¯s proximity to her. Before she had knelt down but the side of the bed, reaching over. Now though she was sitting upright next to her as she stroked her shaft. Her head was not far from her and close enough to reach her. Along with some very adorable cat ears that twitched every now and then.

    She had always wondered what they felt like.

    ¡®I know she¡¯s not a cat, but with the few simrities, would she like having her ears stroked.¡¯

    There was only one way to find out.

    As Lyrika continued stroking up and down Olivia¡¯s cock, stroking along the bumpy veins and then running her fingers over her top collecting her precum, she did not notice Olivia move her hand towards her head.

 Chapter 39 - Chapter 39: The Reprieve - Part 4 - R-18

    Chapter 39: The Reprieve ¨C Part 4 ¨C R-1Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next chapter when avable.

    Contains Facial, Blowjob and Ear scratching?

    ¡­

    As Lyrika sat there running her hand up and down Olivia¡¯s member, she felt something touch her hair causing her to freeze on the spot, stopping her strokes.

    ¡°I-err. Olivia. What are you-.¡±

    She was cut off from speaking as Olivia started to stroke her head, moving her fingers through her hair to her cat ears, and rubbing along them.

    Lyrika remained frozen for only a few seconds, after which she started to move her head without thinking, moving it into Olivia¡¯s hand. As she did, Olivia was sure she heard her humming every time she ran her fingers over the fluffy tips of her ears.

    As far as she could see, this was the most rxed she had ever seen Lyrika. But even though, she felt wonderful from the ear rubs, she still managed to get back to stroking Olivia¡¯s cock, eliciting another throaty moan from her.

    ¡®Huh, I wonder.¡¯

    As she rubbed Lyrika¡¯s ears, with her forcing her head into Olivia¡¯s touch, she moved her fingers over them and slowly ran them along the inside.

    ¡°Ahhh.¡±

    Thankfully it was not a cry for help that came from Lyrika, but a soothing moan as if she was feeling blissful and very rxed. So much so that she ended upying her head down on Olivia¡¯s abs, resigning herself to the lovely feelings she got from Olivia¡¯s touches.

    Olivia continued to stroke in and around her ear, touching all the sensitive areas and fluffiness of them. After a while, in amongst her own moans as Lyrika continued her strokes, she started to hear a rumbling and realised that Lyrika was making a sound akin to purring.

    ¡®I did not expect that. But I guess I¡¯ve found her weak spot. This is such a good way to calm her down.¡¯

    As the touching and stroking continued, Olivia saw Lyrika move her own hand between her legs likest time. It seemed that her ear touching felt plenty good to her right now, and she needed her own release toplete the feeling.

    Both continued to stroke their respective body parts, Lyrika speeding up in both areas she was touching and not before long, they could both feel the telltale sign of being close to release. Olivia at this point decided to look down at her body, as she was hoping to see it this time, and get a better understanding of how it all worked. Her penis wasn¡¯t going anywhere, and she needed to understand how it worked. But as she did she realised the view was obstructed by Lyrika¡¯s head.

    ¡°Err¡­ Lyrika. I¡¯m going to release¡­ and your¡­right in front of it.¡±

    Whether she had not heard, or did but didn¡¯t care, the only response she got from Lyrika was a mumble and a moan. She was much too engrossed in both activities her hands were performing to focus on what was said.

    Unable to hold it in any longer, pleasure exploded within her as she felt herself cum. Releasing a loud moan as she did, she also heard Lyrika release her own, and she realised that she was able to see it all happen.

    Well, some of it.

    She saw the tip of her dark brown cock jerk and fire a globule of seed up into the air. Where it thennded on the side of Lyrika¡¯s head, seeping into her brte hair.

    ¡°So good.¡± Was the mumbled voice of Lyrika as shey there relishing the feeling of her orgasm.

    Like before, it was not one pump and done, and Olivia watched as another stream flew from the tip andnded somewhere on Lyrika¡¯s face. And then another, and another.

    From her position, she couldn¡¯t see where exactly it hadnded, but she figured a lot of Lyrika¡¯s face was now covered in her seed. Which for some reason excited Olivia a bit. More so when Lyrika turned over and she was able to see what she looked like.

    The globule on the side of her head had started to run down through her hair. On her face, one hadnded across her nose, another on her right cheek and thest across her chin and mouth.

    ¡°Wow.¡±

    This was only topped as she watched Lyrika stick out her tongue andp some of it up. All she could do was stay still, reeling from the pleasure of her release, getting even more lustful as she watched Lyrika hum as she swallowed her seed.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Silence reigned for only a moment as Lyrika suddenly raised her head almost as if in shock about something. Olivia hoped it wasn¡¯t because she had swallowed some of her seed¡­ or was covered in it. But it may have been because she stopped stroking her ears.

    ¡°That¡¯s it. Is it still up?¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡± was all that Olivia managed to eke out while still distracted by everything that had happened. She looked down and saw it still standing tall. ¡°Looks like it.¡±

    ¡°Good. There¡¯s something I need to try.¡±

    ¡°Wha- what do you need to¡­woah.¡± Olivia almost threw her head back as she felt a very strange sensation. It was very new and with the pleasure she felt from it, her brain ended up foggy as she tried to figure out what happened.

    ¡®What did she do? That is very different from when she used her hands. How is she-¡® her thought were derailed as she managed to lift her head and see what was going on.

    Lyrika had manoeuvred herself so that she wasying on her belly across Olivia¡¯s, with her feet in the air and her knees near the head of the bed. She propped herself up by her elbow as sheid across Olivia¡¯s toned body. All of this gave her easy ess to Olivia¡¯s little friend, letting her do what she was.

    Licking the entire length of it.

    It was a sensation that Olivia didn¡¯t have the words to describe, it being very foreign to her. While it was very, very pleasurable, there was a slight roughness to Lyrika¡¯s tongue as it ran along its side. For some, Olivia could see it hurting as time went on, but with the strength and resilience of the race she was, the continued addition of friction only added to the mounting pleasure.

    ¡°Ohhh. That feels so good.¡±

    ¡°If you think that¡¯s good¡­ you¡¯re going to be in for a real¡­ surprise soon.¡± Lyrika quickly said in between licks.

    Olivia¡¯s face should have been stupefied, but the stupid grin on her face as she just floated through the feeling cancelled it out. She wasn¡¯t sure what Lyrika meant by that, but not longter after Lyrika had coated all sides of her cock with her saliva, she found out.

    When she was looking down the bed towards Lyrika, still only able to see the back and part of the side of her head, she watched as she licked all the way up her length and then stop. Olivia was worried something was wrong at that point and went to call out to her, but that was reced by a deep moan, as Lyrika tilted her head, opened her mouth and engulfed the tip of her cock.

    ¡°Wha-, wow. Ohhh.¡±

    Olivia could hardly blink as she watched Lyrika practically move to swallow her penis. She moved her head down, causing more of her cock to be surrounded by her lips and saliva-filled mouth. As she moved, Olivia continued to feel her friend attacked by Lyrika¡¯s tongue, but this time in a swirling motion, starting at the tip and working her way down, rotating all around her cock as she moved.

    ¡°Ohhh my. This feels amazing.¡±

    Lyrika could hear Olivia speak but blocked it out as she just continued and focused on making her way down. She continued to push her head downwards, a part of her wanting to see how far she could make it. But she ended up surprised when she started to gag and had only reached a little bit further than halfway down. As she did, saliva from her mouth pushed out from around her lips and Olivia¡¯s cock, frothing as it managed to make it outside, before running down and pooling at the base of her shaft.

    She quickly pulled back up and gulped some much need air, coughing a few times from the feeling of almost gagging. Before Olivia could say something, probably to ask if she was fine, she dived back down, sealing her lips around it again. She pushed her mouth down Olivia¡¯s thoroughly slick shaft and realised she could feel movements within it. Whether it was Olivia¡¯s heartbeat or the throbbing from a straining penis made it feel so much¡­more. She wasn¡¯t really able to describe it.

    Reaching as far as she could before the tell-tale signs of gagging came up again, she slowly retreated back to the tip, keeping a tight suction around it. Then she repeated the same thing again, and again, getting into a nice rhythm as she bobbed her head up and down Olivia¡¯s cock. Saliva and spittle continued to escape her mouth as she licked and sucked along its length, slowly running down it, making it a very messy sight.

    ¡°I don¡¯t, I don¡¯t think I canst much longer.¡±

    Lyrika too realised this as she felt the slight throbbing and twitching of the cock in her mouth, and she knew it wouldn¡¯t be long now. So, she decided to speed up, seriously increasing how fast she bobbed her head up and down. With the increase in speed, she ended up misjudging where to stop when she moved down a few times and ended up gagging on asion, further adding to the saliva that coated Olivia¡¯s rod.

    Olivia just felt incredible, constantly moaning throughout the experience, and struggling to talk, only being able to do it a few times. As she had said before, she knew what wasing and that it wasing fast. And how could she me it? Or was it herself to me for nearing a release?

    While she could have gone onto this little debate, the quick sound of Lyrika gagging stopped that instantly as she just relished in the feeling of it all. She could feel the heat from Lyrika¡¯s mouth as she moved up and down, her tongue running against it and the suction holding it in ce. When she felt Lyrika practically gag against it, that was just the icing on the cake.

    Then she felt iting and knew she had to quickly warn Lyrika.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ going to ¡­ happen¡­ again,¡± Olivia said between moans and pants.

    Lyrika just grinned as she continued bobbing her head.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Then all of a sudden, Olivia cried out in joy as she released.

    ¡°Ahhhh¡­Wow.¡±

    She could feel herself explode like before, but this time, she felt nothing hit her stomach like the first time they ever did this. After the second pump, she was able to look down at her body again and saw the reason.

    What she found was Lyrika with her mouth still engulfing her cock. For every spurt she felt pump out, she saw Lyrika swallow the load down. It was enrapturing.

    Several spurtster and her ejaction finally stopped, and she could only sit and wait as she watched Lyrika suck and slowly pull her mouth up and off her shaft, making sure she cleaned the entire thing of any leftover seed. As she reached the tip, she pulled off with a popping sound.

    Turning to her, Olivia was able to see Lyrika¡¯s face as she licked her lips. She could still see the remnants of the first load covering different sections of her face, but she could also see a small amount of white fluid in her mouth as she spoke.

    ¡°That was nice. Very nice.¡± Lyrika managed to say.

    ¡°You enjoyed it?¡±

    ¡°Yes, and I would think you did too with all your moaning.¡±

    Both red in the face, they just sat in silence for a few moments taking it in. Then Lyrika remembered something.

    ¡°Oh and about my ears. It¡¯s been a long time since someone¡¯s touched them.¡±

    ¡°Err¡­ should I not have done that. Sorry if it¡¯s-¡±

    ¡°No, no. Well, in our culture they should only be touched by someone¡­¡± She trailed off after this. ¡°What I mean is, I was just going to say that it felt nice. I had almost forgotten what it felt like. And I really enjoyed it when you touched them.¡±

    ¡°You know you purred right,¡± Olivia said with a slight grin.

    ¡°Wha-no I did not. You are making that up.¡± Lyrika replied in faux outrage, ¡°that does¡­I do not purr.¡±

    Olivia thought about rebuking, but really, she was still struggling to get her brain working properly. So, she decided to let sleeping cats lie and forget about it.

 Chapter 40 - Chapter 40: The Reprieve - Part 5

    Chapter 40: The Reprieve ¨C Part As Olivia and Lyrika just looked at each other after thete-night festivities, Olivia mentioned that she should clean herself up.

    Lyrika wasn¡¯t sure what she meant by this, having thought she managed to¡­catch it all, so to speak, but as she touched her face she remembered the first part. Jumping up, she made her way to the washbasin and rinsed her face, before grabbing a cloth to dry as she sat back down on the bed.

    Olivia was about to start the conversation again just to say she missed a spot when she heard the door creek open. Looking over at the door to their room, she saw a man enter the room, holding a knife in his hand.

    ¡°What the-¡± Was Olivia¡¯s startled reaction.

    ¡°Wha-, where¡¯s Yoban.¡± The man quickly looked at the scene before him and realised he¡¯d messed up about something.

    Both froze for a few seconds as they tried to understand what was happening. Olivia had no idea how he got in since they locked the door and all. Given what he had at his belt, it was likely that during the time Lyrika had cleaned herself off, this man had used lockpicks to break in. Both groups had been quite quiet at the time, the thick wall and door helping with the soundproofing.

    The silence couldn¡¯t go on for much longer and Olivia realised she had to do something. Quick.

    Jumping off the bed she ran for the man. Both her weapons, her spear and dagger were out of reach, something she would need to fix for next time.

    The man seeing this entered the room fully and charged at her with his de outwards.

    As she got close, the man shed with the de, but he did so too soon. It may have been fear of the orc heading towards him that caused this or just ipetence as a fighter. Either way, Olivia was easily able to dodge the de and took hold of his arm at the end of his swing, forcing him to continue on his path and twisting him towards the door. She then managed to throw all her weight into him, pinning the man to the wall. She held him in ce, with one hand holding his arm which had the de, ensuring he couldn¡¯t wildly swing and stab her.

    ¡°Grr, get off of me you monster.¡±

    The man kept shouting out at her all the while struggling to free himself. Olivia wasn¡¯t sure how long she could keep him pinned, as he might have a trick up his sleeve. What she did know was she needed to disarm him.

    Moving her hand up his arm, she took hold of his hand and pulled, twisting his hand as she did causing him to drop the knife.

    ¡°What are you-, agggh. Let go of my hand you beast.¡±

    He managed to free his other arm which had been held against the wall by his body and started smashing it against Olivia¡¯s side. Her own arm, the one not holding the man¡¯s hand, was trapped against her own body, pushing against him. She had to take the punches as shifting it free might give him the opportunity to get out from under her.

    While taking his hits, she eventually managed to twist his hand enough so that after a guttural cry he released the de, where it ttered against the floor.

    Olivia looked around the room trying to figure out what she could do to restrain this guy and she came across the cloth Lyrika had used to clean herself off. The only problem was reaching it. As she searched though, she also found Lyrika still frozen in shock from this man attacking them. She needed to snap her out of it.

    ¡°Lyrika!¡± She shouted across the room hoping it would break her out of her stupor, which thankfully it did, and after she had finished jumping out of her skin, she turned to look at her.

    ¡°Y-yes.¡±

    ¡°Get the cloth.¡±

    ¡°The wha-, Ah. Ok.¡± Lyrika said as she headed over to the other side of the room where she had chucked it.

    ¡°Ahhh!¡±

    As Lyrika went to grab it, Olivia felt a horrible pain in her leg and cried out. Looking down she found that this man had stopped punching her, opting to take the lock picks at his side and jam them into her leg. He then proceeded to pull back and stab her with it again, but she managed to move her leg out of the way just enough that it scraped against her skin. She wouldn¡¯t be able to keep doing that forever though.

    As he was about toe down again, Lyrika got to her and took a hold of his arm, stopping him from making further attacks on her leg.

    ¡°Here¡¯s the cloth?¡±

    ¡°Right, we need to restrain him, wrap it around the arm you¡¯re holding.¡±

    Turning to the side, Lyrika was able to keep some of her weight on his arm and reach up to wrap the cloth around it. The man swore and shouted as he felt this, and he knew he was fighting a losing battle. He struggled and shifted trying to free himself, where at one point this caused Lyrika to slip as his arm dropped, allowing him to get another stab into Olivia¡¯s leg after scraping along Lyrika¡¯s as well.

    Once she had steadied herself again, she took hold of his arm again and made sure to wrap it tight, causing him to grunt in pain as he felt that.

    Olivia then managed to help pull his arm back, and Lyrika took the one she had wrapped behind his back and was able to tie both arms together.

    Now bound, Lyrika tied it as tightly as she could, stopping him from being able to move his arms at all, before taking both the knife and lockpicks so he had nothing should he free himself. Unable to fight back now, Olivia threw him to the floor, knowing it would be a little harder to get up without the use of his arms. This meant they now had ample time to figure out who he was and why he had tried to attack them.

    ¡°Who are you? Why did you attack us? Why were you looking for Yoban¡± Olivia seethed as she asked the man who struggled on the floor.

    He grunted and rolled around, kicking as he did, and Olivia knew that with this man was focused more on freeing himself than talking. So, she needed a¡­motivator.

    Picking up her spear, she walked over to the man. Lyrika saw this and had a slightly worried look in her eye, but this was quickly alleviated by Olivia winking at her to let her know it was all fine. In his struggle, he saw the glint of metal and started to pay attention. When Olivia positioned the weapon so it was right against his face, he stopped movingpletely.

    ¡°Ok good. Now I have your attention. You are going to answer my questions. When you don¡¯t I¡¯ll start poking holes in things. Understand?¡±

    ¡°Y-yes.¡± It seemed that being a half-Orc half-Goblin had some benefits, the intimidation factor being a big one. It was probably very easy for him to believe that the monster would hurt him like that.

    ¡°Good. Now, who are you.¡±

    ¡°Hold on. He looks familiar¡­Wait. Ah, he was in the church.¡± Lyrika quickly added in. Olivia tried to ce him but failed to do so. Lyrika had been with the group for longer, so it made sense that she recognised someone from it.

    ¡°So there was someone on the inside. I knew it.¡± It was at this point she realised she had kind of forgotten about that once the bandits had been brought back to the vige, so she tried to just breeze through that. No one had to know she had momentarily forgotten.

    The man seethed as he realised his identity had been found out.

    ¡°Now that that¡¯s cleared up, why did youe to attack us and why were you looking for Yoban?¡± She asked. It was probably obvious why he had attacked them given that he was skulking around at night with a knife. He didn¡¯t want to be found out.

    ¡°I-I needed to get his keys to free the bandits. I saw shadows under the door, so I thought it was his room. But when you saw me, I knew I couldn¡¯t let you live. Why are you here anyway? And why are you both naked and in bed together?¡± ¡°Err¡­¡± Olivia quickly looked over at Lyrika and found her looking down and blushing. This also made her very much aware that they were bothpletely naked as well, which Lyrika solved by wrapping the nearby bed sheet around her. She decided that not answering his question about the two of them was the best bet here.

    ¡°We don¡¯t have to answer questions from someone like you. Now, I think we should get you into the cells your bandit friends are in. Lyrika, can you go wake Yoban and let him know what happened? I¡¯ll watch over this guy.¡±

    ¡°Ah yeah. Of course.¡± Was Lyrika¡¯s reply as she looked around figuring out what to do about the clothing situation.

    ¡°I think your clothes are over there. You may also want to¡­wipe your face a bit more again.¡±

    Lyrika paused and blushed before heading behind the screen to put her clothes on and clean up a bit more. Once done she got back to the task at hand and headed off to Yoban¡¯s room.

 Chapter 41 - Chapter 41: The Reprieve - Part 6

    Chapter 41: The Reprieve ¨C Part Olivia stood in the bedroom, standing guard over their prisoner. He had been grunting trying to free himself, but with the bindings in full view, she could see he hadn¡¯t yet seeded.

    She also took this time to clothe herself having been nude the entire time after what happened with Lyrika. As she changed, the intruder spoke up.

    ¡°You¡¯re a monster.¡±

    Olivia didn¡¯t know how to take that. Sure, she was one, technically. But for this man to be saying that to her just¡­ felt wrong.

    ¡°I¡¯m a monster? Sure, I guess. But you¡¯re the one who came here to free bandits that have been enving and killing people from this vige. Also, given the knife, you had you probably meant to kill Yoban. You¡¯re more of a monster than I.¡± Olivia rebuked.

    ¡°I know what you did to that girl. For a monster like you to enve such a beautiful girl and force her to do... that with you. You are a horrible creature.¡±

    She was fairly certain that when he said ¡®that¡¯, he was talking about the sexual activities they had together. She could understand how it looked, she was therge monster with a penis and Lyrika was the smaller, innocent cat-kin being forced. How wrong he was given that she had initiated all of their times together.

    ¡°You were in the church when we first arrived right? I¡¯m pretty sure Lyrika told you she was with me of her own free will. And really, forcing her. You are very much mistaken if you think anyone can force her to do something she doesn¡¯t want to.¡± She replied with a grin at that, her thoughts going back to the times Lyrika had attacked her.

    ¡°She did say that yes. But there is no way that can be true. You must have told her to say that, threatened her life or the lives in this vige if she did not. You ¨C you won¡¯t get away with it.¡±

    As he continued to rant about how she was the worst being in thend, Lyrika turned up with the Yoban and a couple of the temporary guards.

    ¡°I apologise Olivia. For you to have to go through something like this in my own home is just appalling. I feel like such a failure of a chief that I am unable to protect my people and my guests¡±

    Olivia could understand how he felt, but really, as a small trading town, no one would imagine they would be besieged by arge number of bandits. Tonight, was just an after-effect of it as well. With many members of the vige gone, he no longer has guards to stop this from happening.

    ¡°Lyrika exined to me some of the situation. For there to have been someone in the vige working with the bandits. It is hard to think about.¡±

    The guards moved over to restrain the man and hold him up, which gave the vige chief a good view of who he was.

    ¡°Jonah, this can¡¯t be. Why would you do something like this? You wanted to free the men that have enved so many people from our vige. Why? Why would you do that? Why would you work for them?¡±

    *Ptui* the man Jonah spat at the ground. ¡°You are such a fool. This vige is a soul-sucking graveyard. Traders from the nearby townse to trade, yes, but they all look down on us beast-kin. I have worked and worked a good deal of my life, living with the disrespectful gazes from the human traders. I just wanted to leave, but you never make enough in this business to do so.¡±

    He looked away as if thinking back on the problems he faced as a trader.

    ¡°Trekking through the woods helped me deal with the stress of it all. But one day I was caught by the bandits out there. I was scared for my life, but as I learnt what they nned to do, I figured it was the opportunity I was waiting for. I could get a cut of the action by helping them, get out of this ce, live my life how I want. All it took was letting them know what was happening in the vige and¡­leaving a few gates open.¡±

    ¡°You helped them from the start!¡± Yoban shouted once he heard this. ¡°You helped them enter all of the watchtowers, letting them kill all of the guards and anyone who resisted. You disgust me. Search him and then take him to the jail cells with the rest.¡±

    ¡°This will not end here. I will get out of this vige and be free.¡± He had a seething look in his eyes as they picked him up, which he then turned onto Olivia, ¡°Then I shall go after that monster for what she has done.¡±

    The guards had taken him out of the room by this point and his voice ended up muffled.

    ¡°What was he talking about?¡± Lyrika asked.

    ¡°Oh, he seems to think I¡¯ve enved you and am forcing you to do things you don¡¯t want to.¡±

    ¡°Pffft, what an idiot.¡±

    Turning back to the chief, he apologised again, saying he would leave us to get the remainder of our sleep and would talk in the morning.

    Given all the excitement, they managed to copse and fall asleep almost instantly.

    ¡­

    While she thought it was the new day rolling in, it was actually the afternoon sun that caused Olivia blinked her eyes open. As she woke, she also felt a slight pressure on her body. Nothing likest nights fun, but as she looked down, she found Lyrika leaning into her with her arm over her chest, almost hugging her. It was adorable.

    But, as much as she wanted to stay looking at the lovely view, they needed to get up, and so she reluctantly woke Lyrika. As she stirred from her sleep, Olivia bore witness to a lovely sight as her cat ears twitched and she rubbed her eyes.

    ¡°Good. *yawn* good morning.¡±

    ¡°I think its actually good afternoon now. Sleep well.¡±

    ¡°Really. Well, I guess that means I slept very well. The bedding I was sleeping on was veryfortable¡­¡±

    As she slowly rose, her cheeks tinged the same colour as the action, when she noticed how she had slept and what she was sleeping on. It probably also didn¡¯t help that she recalled what she had donest night as well, before they had been interrupted.

    ¡­

    They got ready for the day, and left the room, making their way through the Yoban¡¯s manor. The n was to head off today, hoping to reach the vige he had spoken of, but first, they needed the letter he said he would write.

    As they made their way down the stairs, they found him in what looked to be a study of some sort. He sat there bent over the desk writing on some paper and as they came into view, he noticed and greeted both of them.

    ¡°Good morning. I hope you were able to have a good night¡¯s sleep, even after everything that had happened.¡±

    ¡°It was fine.¡± Olivia looked over at Lyrika and found her yawning, so she decided to get things moving along. ¡°Thank you for your hospitality and for allowing us to stay here. But we should be off. We still have more viges to go to and chiefs to talk with.¡±

    ¡°Ah yes,¡± Yoban said before standing up and heading over to them. ¡°Please take this with you. If you give this letter to Teagan he will listen to what you have to say. I cannot promise he will believe or ept it, but he is more likely to if he knows I have vouched for you.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Other than that there are a few other things to mention, First-.¡± He said taking a pouch from the desk. ¡°-As I mentioned yesterday, here is the coin the rest of the vige put together to say thank you. It is not much as with everything that has happened, we don¡¯t have much to spare. But with the bandits we have in the cells, we should be able to sell them off so that they are sentenced to forcedbour. Make them do some good with their lives. It shouldn¡¯t take too long to do this, so I should be able to send the coin we will get to Teagan¡¯s vige where you can receive it there.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s very generous.¡± Olivia had no reason not to believe him, being the vige¡¯s ¡®saviour¡¯ and all. She had no idea how much you get for selling off a bunch of bandits, but hopefully, it would be a good chunk of change for her to be able to actually buy some things. Not that this mattered unless she had a ce to go and buy stuff.

    ¡°Next is the matter of the gear from the bandit camp. A group headed back to the camp early in the morning and brought back the rest. Most of it has been distributed back to whom it belonged to, as you can imagine. Stuff from people we have lost has been returned to their family members and other rtives. Food and the like we have just kept in our stores, but you are more than wee to take what you like for your journey. The only stuff left is unimed items and the gear the bandits had. All of which the vige has decided belongs to you.¡±

    ¡°Wha- really.¡±

    ¡°Of course. Now follow me and I¡¯ll take you to it.¡±

    Not really sure what to expect from a group of bandits and thieves in the woods, they both followed Yoban to see what things Olivia had ¡®earned¡¯ from dealing with them.

 Chapter 42 - Chapter 42: The Reprieve - Part 7

    Chapter 42: The Reprieve ¨C Part Yoban took them out of his office and headed into another room in the manor. Inside stood a few tables covered in various bits of gear and items.

    ¡°After everyone sorted through it, I had them bring it here. Now, all of this belongs to you.¡±

    While he had already told her this, it was still a shock to know she owned all this stull. Looking through it all, she found the weapons and armour she remembered the bandits having, including the massive sword the leader had. The rest of the pile had several other bits of gear, which was likely a small portion of the armoury tent the bandits had, possibly from guards they had killed protecting carriages. Other than that, there were other odds and ends that the bandits must have taken from traders or brought with them.

    As she started to look for anything useful for her and Lyrika¡¯s travels, she saw all the tents they had, along with pots and pans and other cooking utensils. A lot of it was very bad quality, worse than what she already had. She did however take one of the tents that were in good condition, her current one being just shreds of cloth now.

    She also found a few bits of jewellery, some odd gems and silverware which the bandits probably nned on selling. It did surprise her though that none of the people in the vige had just imed it was there¡¯s given its value. Maybe them still dealing with the upsetting situation kept them honest when they sorted through it all.

    Pocketing these valuables so she could sell them off herself when she had the chance, she moved on to the weapons and armour. Like with the cooking gear, most of it was badly damaged and rusted beyond use. The only items of any use were the weapons and armour the bandits had been wearing. But, even then the spear she had at the moment was a lot better than what they had been using, it havinge from Ameril noble¡¯s estate.

    Shifting through the serviceable armour, she did try a few pieces on, but none of it really fit her body type. She felt very ufortable wearing it as if it restricted how she moved, and it even dug into her skin. In the end, she left it and stuck to her guns, remaining in her clothes and letting her tough skin do the work of protecting her.

    Lyrika did however take some of the avable armour, it fitting her nicely, ending up with leather armour that covered her legs and arms. She did try on the chest piece, but it did not work with her assets, squeezing them in all the wrong ways, so she would have to wait until she found some leather armour fitted for a woman. In addition to this, she found herself a nice-looking bow and a vambrace, hidden underneath a few swords. There were however no arrows, annoyingly, but Lyrika said that with a knife, some wood and a few feathers, she could make her own.

    She was by no means a savant with a bow, but when she learnt how to hunt and track, she did use one on asion. Given her n to deal with the new chief, having just a knife with her felt a littlecking, so she figured taking up the bow would be good for her situation. Plus, it would probably help her get more meat to eat, but neither mentioned this as possibly being her main reason for taking it.

    Olivia continued to browse through the weapons and armour not seeing anything that really captured her interest, that is until she saw light glinting off something at the back of the table. Making her way around, she then pulled the few swords, axes and pieces of armour out of the way and found something surprising in the junk.

    It was an odd-looking weapon, different from all the others on the table. It was simr to the spear she currently had, in that it had the same reach as it, but the shaft was entirely made of some sort of metal. Another difference was that in ce of having just a single point like a spear, this one had several, all on a massive solid ball. All were made of the same metal as the shaft as if it had been forged all together in one go. The spikes at the top were asymmetrical and covered the entirety of the ball having only a short amount of space between each one to the next. Olivia¡¯s first thought was that it was a mace of some kind, but with the length of the shaft, that didn¡¯t seempletely right.

    Taking it off the table, she found that it was quite heavy, but with her strength, it felt just right. It wasn¡¯t unwieldy and impossible to lift, nor was it so light it felt like lifting a grape. Examining it further she saw that it was quite ornately designed, but thankfully not in an ostentatious way. A nice pattern was lightly engraved all along the shaft, made up of swirls and flourishes, and a few ces just had a wide circle engraved into it, all of it giving it an expensive look but still making it practical, not like it was some sort of disy piece.

    ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Lyrika asked as she made her way over.

    ¡°Not sure, some sort of mace.¡±

    ¡°Huh, I¡¯m not a weapon expert myself, but I think what you have there is a Morning Star,¡± Yoban said as he too walked over and examined it. ¡°With the detail on it, I think it must have beenmissioned by a noble or someone of a high rank. It would have been made by a master cksmith, known for their skill in creating the weapon. This would then have been sent to the noble, and the swirls and patterns engraved into it would be filled by the noble¡¯s own cksmith with various metals that show off who the noble is and their rank. Those engraved circles that you can see would have the crest or symbol of their region ced inside.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s beautiful.¡± Olivia couldn¡¯t help but say as she now understood more about the weapon. ¡°Is it really fine for me to take this?¡±

    ¡°Of course. It was likely a human noble that ordered it. If they heard of the carriage being attacked or the delivery just not being made, they likely would havemissioned another one from somewhere else. No one¡¯s going to be looking for it. Even if for some reason they are, it¡¯s not like the noble would know all the detail that would have gone into the weapon as they would have given some simple description of what they wanted. Only the cksmith would have this information and they are not going to be out searching for it knowing bandits stole it.¡±

    ¡®Makes some sense. I guess it should be fine to keep hold of it then.¡¯

    Lyrika asked if she could see it, but upon handing it over to her, she found out she could not handle the weight of it.

    ¡°Woah!¡±

    The Morningstar fell while in her hands, falling to the floor with a thud and pulling her down with it.

    ¡°You could have said it was heavy.¡±

    ¡°Sorry,¡± Olivia quickly said apologetically as she reached down to help her up.

    After a bit of dusting herself off, faux annoyance appeared on Lyrika¡¯s face as she headed back to the table, letting Olivia take the Morningstar again. Back in her hands, Olivia knew that she had found her weapon. She still had the spear and her dagger, she hoped to rece the spear with the morning starpletely.

    She did however have no idea how to use it, not that she knew how to use the spear either. But she knew she wanted to learn. The spear was probably the only weapon she had some confidence in using, so until she better understood how to use her morning star, she would stick to the spear.

    Whom she could get to actually train her when she was a monster in this world she didn¡¯t know.

    But really did she need to? How hard could it be? Swing to hit things, and block to not be hit.

    ¡­

    With the selection of gear out of the way, both of them walked away with their new toys, and some camping supplies. They decided to leave the rest of the gear to the vige to do what they liked. There was no way to take it with them, and a lot of it would probably have to be scrapped or melted down to be of any use. With how the vige currently was, leaving the rest to help make them some extra coin seemed like the best idea.

    Next on the agenda was to grab some grub and visit the vige stores to stock up for the journey.

    It didn¡¯t take too long. They helped themselves to some fresh fruit and vegetables as well as preserved goods such as the staple of hardtack and jerky. They didn¡¯t have much in the way of space, so not much else could be brought with them, but from what they did manage to get was a good several days worth of food which should be enough to reach the next vige and then some. With thest bit of space they had, they decided to take a good small bag full of salt. With Lyrika¡¯s voracious appetite for meat, salt as a way to cure it would be necessary to keep the meat from rotting for longer. Something Lyrika wholeheartedly agreed that they needed to take.

    ¡­

    For thest item on the agenda before they left, something that only cropped up recently, they both figured a little practice with their new weapons was in order. While there wasn¡¯t anything like a training ring, target dummies or a teacher for that matter, all they really wanted to do was feel out the weapon and get used to it.

    First came the arrows for Lyrika, who after some searching, was able to get a few arrows from one of the vigers, them being part of what was left to them after their husband had died during the initial raid of the vige.

    After giving their condolences, they headed to the outskirts of the vige and set up a few ces to practice. The only stuff they had to hand though was a wooden cart and a young tree.

    Lyrika took the cart, standing a good distance away and got started with her practice shots. Olivia took some time to just watch her shoot before heading over to the tree. It took Lyrika a while to get into the grove, but before long she was able to get¡­most of the arrows in the cart. Just not with much uracy. But given that Olivia probably wouldn¡¯t be able to even pull the arrow back in the bow without it falling then and there, meant that Lyrika was doing very well with it.

    As Lyrika continued with that, Olivia decided to give her weapon a try. By the tree, she hefted it up, holding it in both hands, one by its base and the other just past the midpoint. Then she swung.

    With the size of the thing, it would have been pretty terrible if she actually missed the tree in front of her.

    Which thankfully, she didn¡¯t.

    However, she didn¡¯t hit it with the head of the Morningstar but with the shaft instead. Adjusting herself, she was able to get the distance right and m the spikes into the wood of the tree with a reassuring thud.

    There wasn¡¯t much else Olivia could think to do without having someone to actually train her in its use, so she just continued to swing the thing in different directions and angles, trying to get her uracy, speed and strength to work together to give a good hit each time.

    After a while with this, she figured some practice with the spear was in order as well, just to cover all her bases.

    ¡­

    With all their business in the vige now concluded, they decided now was the time to head off to the next vige. Saying their goodbyes to Yoban and a good deal of the vigers, they headed out and took off towards the next one.

    As they did, both missed the scathing insults the prisoners were spouting in their cells at the guards, all annoyed at how things had turned out. They also missed Jonah sitting quietly, plotting and nning how he would get out of this mess and make the monster Olivia pay.

    But more importantly, they also missed Philly heading out to find her new research subject, having spent the afternoon writing in her book, only to have found her gone.

    Not that that would deter her though.

 Chapter 43 - Chapter 43: The Predators - Part 1

    Chapter 43: The Predators ¨C Part Having left the vige, they headed northeast, which would take them to the vige Yoban mentioned. There, they nned to get an audience Teagan, the vige chief, using the letter of introduction to gather more information. They just hoped that nothing bad had happened to that vige like Yoban¡¯s.

    The journey through the ins and sparse woond took four days and was mostly uneventful. By the end of it, they still had some food remaining and having hunted a little as well, they also had some cured meat to add to their future dinner options, which Lyrika was very pleased about.

    The nights were spent cosied up in a tent keeping hold of each other for warmth, which both very much enjoyed. The walking was however shattering and exhausting, causing both to pretty much pass out once they stopped to rest for the evening. They mostly trekked through t ins where the only obstacle was shrubby, but several times they ended up travelling over hills, covered in rocks and trees, which really tired them out.

    This meant there was hardly any time to¡­ relieve themselves of the stress of the day, when the darkness fell. While that did cause some annoyance for both of them, the hope was that the sooner they made it to the vige, the sooner they could get themselves a nice bed and deal with it then.

    Assuming things went well when they got there.

    All in all, the four days passed by with nary an incident.

    Well almost.

    ¡­

    On the second day, wanting to do a little hunting, and grab some meat for the meal in the evening, Olivia got the snares set up like before, and Lyrika decided to try her hand at archery again.

    Olivia was sessful in capturing the usual Efllers, but they also managed to find a Gootra strolling around on its lonesome. The deer-like creature was wandering around and stopped to graze every now and then. Olivia did turn to Lyrika to see if she wanted to try and kill it, but the licking of her lips told her the answer before she even asked. With a pull on the bow, she aimed and let her arrow loose. Only for it to go soaring over the Gootra¡¯s head and embed in a tree.

    Olivia quickly consoled Lyrika over the failed shot and both waited, expecting it to turn and attack them as it did the first time she met one. But, for some reason it decided to just run away. It had looked up to where the arrow had sunk, then turned towards them, and then ran.

    At that, both looked at each other in confusion.

    Lyrika had seen several Gootra before when she had joined hunts in the forest near to her home, so she knew how they acted. Never before had one fled instantly when she or other members of her vige tried to hunt one. Olivia also knew this to be the case, having fought one herself.

    As she thought back to that faithful day, she couldn¡¯t help recalling that the animal was rather smart. When she had got a few hits in, the creature realised it was out of its depth and then fled. But why would it do that straight away? Did it see both herself and Lyrika together as such a threat that it didn¡¯t even think it was worth trying to fight?

    That just didn¡¯t seem right to her.

    *Growl*

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    It was at this point that Olivia found the reason for its behaviour.

    Only just hearing the growl of something nearby, before she could even attempt to grab one of her weapons, she felt a massive force hit her in the back, knocking her to the ground.

    ¡°Oof¡±, Olivia involuntarily let out as she hit the grass. With her hands out in front of her, she stopped her face from mming into the ground, and so kept her wits about her and managed to get herself off the ground in no time. The problem was what she saw once she was up.

    Lyrika was thankfully still standing. Whatever had hit her, had only done so to herself. As she saw her, she found her with an incredibly tight grip on her bow, staring in the direction they had been heading.

    Turning to see what had drawn her gaze, she spotted a creature she knew was going to ruin their day.

    The only way she could describe it was as a mutated version of a tiger. It had the same physique as a tiger, lean, agile and strong given the muscles it had in its legs, but there were a good few differences that told her this was anything but. One thing was that she could hardly see it, its skin almost camouging it into its surroundings, being made up of stripes of green and brown.

    Then there were its weapons, so to speak. While it clearly had the ws and teeth to aid it in killing things, therge bone-like spike on the end of its tail just added to how fearsome this thing looked.

    It moved about back and forth, its tail swishing around as it did, and its skin changing colour as well. The colour changing reminded her of a chameleon, which did so to match its surrounding. While this was interesting and all, Olivia knew she had to do something quickly. Reaching behind her back, she grabbed the first weapon she could feel, and brought it to her front. That though was when the beast made its move, and Olivia lunged forward with the spear, which was grateful to have grabbed. She was sure the morning star would not have worked well with these agile creatures.

    The dead silence that could be heard as each lunged at the other was only overshadowed by the roaring of two more of these creatures which were headed towards them.

    ¡­

    ¡°Lyrika, get somewhere to hide!¡± Olivia shouted as she looked around.

    Her spear was stuck in the body of the tiger-looking thing, having managed to pierce its hide while it was in the air.

    When it first pounced, Olivia had lunged out, but it managed to lunge at her arm, scratching and digging its ws into her flesh. It pulled back as it fell, causing several deep w marks to form. Blood rippled out of the wounds, pooling and dropping to the floor.

    As Olivia cried out in pain, it had gotten ready for another go, skidding to a stop and turning to face its prey again. Olivia fought through the pain and made sure she was ready for it, mustering up all the strength she had, thrusting her spear towards it, this time meeting its mark as it jumped.

    She was ted, but honestly, she had only gotten lucky that she had hit the thing. It felt like it hardly saw her as a real threat and hadn¡¯t put much effort into trying to take her down. Its mistake, obviously, but from the sound it¡¯s twopanions were making as they watched its death, meant that luck would not besting long, as they would probably go all out against her now.

    Lyrika dashed to the side and was huddled by arge fallen tree to keep herself hidden. But, there was no way she was going to just leave Olivia to deal with these things herself. Taking a hold of her bow she aimed at the creatures heading towards them. With the stress of it all, her hands shook as she started to loose her arrows.

    They soared through the air, one after the other, towards the beasts that were heading their way. But, with how scared she and let¡¯s be honest, Olivia was, she hardly had theposure right now to aim urately.

    Many of them just flew to the side and ended up flying over their heads, but one didnd. It didn¡¯t kill the thing, but it did end up ripping through its side and taking a chunk of it with it. The creature that was hit roared out in pain and fell back a little in its run.

    The one that had managed to avoid the arrows, continued at full pelt and headed straight for Olivia, who was standing firm, with her spear at the ready, waiting for it to attack.

    As the beast got closer, Olivia shored up her stance, digging her feet into the dirt, not wanting to be knocked down by another one of these, and got ready.

    She had assumed this thing would try to pounce on her as the first did, but these were not just mindless beasts. It had seen what happened to itspanion and somehow, it had learnt.

    As it got within spitting distance of Olivia, it fell back on its back legs as if it was about to pounce. Olivia seeing this, got ready to thrust forwards as it would be in the air soon. But, not knowing anything about this creature meant it had the advantage.

    In the small amount of time after it sat on its rear legs, ready to pounce, it changed up its movement and headed straight along the ground to Olivia¡¯s legs. It had in effectively performed a feint.

    Reaching her legs, itshed out with its jaws and wholeheartedly took a deep bite into her ankle.

    ¡°Ahhh¡± Olivia cried out from the pain of the bite. Gritting her teeth, she rose the spear up and thrusted it downwards to stab at the horrible monster, only for it to let go and head past her, dodging the strike.

    Lyrika at this point was still firing shots at the other one that was on its way, but she could not get a hit on it. It was as if it had learnt that the strange wooden objectsing towards it would hurt it, so it made sure to make it its mission to dodge them as it ran. This slowed it down a bit, which was good, but it meant that all she could do was fire to try and suppress it, rather than hit the thing.

    Neither had to say any words, but both knew that this was going to be a tricky and likely bloody fight. It was just that neither knew whose blood it would be at the end.

 Chapter 44 - Chapter 44: The Predators - Part 2

    Chapter 44: The Predators ¨C Part As Olivia turned to face the one that had taken arge bite of her leg, she was greeted by its paws and ws heading right for her face. It all happened so fast, and with a block that was more akin to scared iling, Olivia managed to hit it with the pole of her spear.

    She managed to knock it off course, sending it at her shoulder, keeping her face intact. But this did mean that the weight of it hitting her shoulder caused her to fall with it.

    With her hitting the ground, the beastnded just ahead of her and rolled along the ground into a tree. It would have been funny had she not needed to defend herself almost instantly as she saw the other tiger-like thing closing in and heading straight towards her.

    It ran at full pelt, its wound be dammed, and Olivia only had the option to roll out of the way as it pounced.

    Barely getting out of the way by the skin of her teeth, she brought her spear up, holding it in both hands to block, which thankfully saved her life.

    The massive monster having missed its first pounce was back on her very quickly, jumping at her again. With Olivia¡¯s spear in the way, it ended with its front legs over the spear, stuck in mid-air as it tried with all its might to scratch at her face. Olivia on the other hand was stuck having to push with all her strength to keep the thing from being close enough to reach her face.

    While it did still il about to try and reach her face, it still had plenty of other weapons at its disposal. It used its hind legs to dig deep into the flesh of her legs, scratching and wing away, causing cries to arise from her throat. This though was outdone by how the horrible thing used its tail. Still stuck in the same position, it swished the tail high into the air, tilted the spike on the end downwards, and plunged it into the lower portion of her leg, digging deep into her, practically scraping against the bone. It was excruciating and she knew she had to get out of this fast.

    With every attack it did elsewhere on her body, it only made her weaker and weaker, and little by little the spear she was holding got nearer and near to her face. Which meant so did its ws.

    Sweat rolled down her face, the situation only growing worse as she noticed the other beast in the corner of her eye, managing to get up and start making its way over to her. It did however limp as it moved, likely due to the lump of wood stuck through its leg, causing blood to gush out with every step.

    Lyrika was still terrified of the scene and didn¡¯t know what to do, but upon hearing Olivia cry out, she knew she face these creatures and fight back against the fear she was feeling. She was however out of arrows, but given how her shooting had been under the stress of it all, she may have ended up hitting Olivia anyway if she had some left. So, she worked up her courage, stood up, and dashed towards Olivia with her knife in hand, making it to her before the limping tiger thing did. Once there, she hefted it up high in the air, and lunged it down into the beast, stabbing just above the base of its tail.

    The beast roared out in pain and anger as it felt the metal dig into its body. The damage was minor against the animal as a whole, but upon inspection, it would seem that where she hit, had done something to the tail, it nowy limply at its side, not moving at all.

    Lyrika pulled the knife out, it squelching as it did and blood tting against her face, and went to give it another blow. But the animal in its fury kicked its legs out, hitting Lyrika in the chest knowing her to the ground.

    The attack was also a very good distraction. As it felt the knife, it stopped what it had been doing to focus on what had caused it pain, which meant it stopped wing away at Olivia, as it tried to figure out what had happened. This gave Olivia a good opportunity to get this thing off of her. Which is what she did.

    No longer being put through the constant pain of ws embedded in her, she was able to push her spear up and to the side, turning the tables on the beast, allowing her to topple it and force it on its back.

    With the tables turned, the beast frantically kicked its paws out trying totch onto something, which in a few cases it did, but Olivia grinned and bared it as more skin was ripped from her body. With her on top now, she used all her weight and strength to push the shaft of the spear downwards, into its neck, hoping to crush it and cut off its airwaves.

    Blood was pouring out of all her wounds and the pain was unbearable, but she had to take this thing down. With a scream of anger, she gave a final push and was rewarded by the sound of bones breaking. With a few more pants, the beast slowed down its movements and finallyy still.

    Olivia just wanted to rest at this point as she rolled off onto the floor. She had won. But as she heard a quick yelp from behind her, her mind cleared and she remembered the other one and Lyrika being knocked down.

    Looking over to where yelp came from, she found her target. But she also saw Lyrika facing off against it. She had managed to recover from the blow the beast gave her, but now she was stuck facing one on her own. It probably fought Olivia was down for the count, its partner having taken care of her, and so went for Lyrika instead.

    Not going to stand for that, Olivia moved to get up, only to find that the damage the bites, stabs and scratches had done was more damage than she realised, making it practically impossible to walk. So, she had to do the next best thing and used all her strength to crawl over to Lyrika and the other one.

    She dug her nails into the dirt trying to find purchase and pulled herself along. Scraping her body and fresh wounds along the rocks and ground only added to the pain, but she did not let that stop her. Looking up at where she was going, she saw that even though it was limping it still managed to move and defend itself and was getting closer to its target.

    Lyrika kept moving backwards and looked over at Olivia. She was tempted to just run, as with its limp, it would not be able to catch up. But, it did still have all of its weapons, so to speak, so she knew that if she left, it would just turn to Olivia. And with her crawling along the floor, a quick stab of its tail could be the end of her. So, for that reason, she tried to keep its attention on her, while trying to fight it.

    As Olivia hurried, crawling as fast as she could, she watched as Lyrika swung the knife in her hand at it, forcing it to recoil, growling in pain as it moved. The next time Lyrika went for another swipe though, the thing had managed to back away again, but also extended its tail out in order to stab at her hand. Unable to react in time, given the speed of the thing, the spike on its tail scratched along the surface of her skin and prated the edge, slicing the skin between her thumb and first finger. She cried out from the pain and ended up dropping the knife as the damage it did, messed with her grip on her weapon.

    Now weaponless, all she could do was back away, looking for something else to use as she did. The beast though, managed to somehow gain a burst of energy and forced itself to move faster even with its broken leg.

    But, before it could reach Lyrika, Olivia hefted her spear up and swung down as hard as she could, hoping that either the edge of the spear would cut it deeply or that the weight of the staff and force of her strike would break some bones.

    *crunch*

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Olivia thought to be happy hearing that sound, but she soon realised that was not the be. The little terror must have had a sixth sense or something as it got out of the way so that only the tip of the spear scraped down its side. The crunch came as itnded on its bad foot, and all but copsed, shattering the bone that was broken. It roared out in pain, blood now dripping from all the cuts and damage it had gained.

    The attack Olivia had made had exhausted her quite a lot, and so she ended up gasping for breath as shey face down on the floor, with the spear rolling out of her hand.

    The problem was that where shey was not far from where the beast was, making her easy prey for it.

    As Lyrika tried to move, she was assaulted by its tail again, as it turned, and headed over to the now weaker prey. It moved to Olivia¡¯s side and lunged for Olivia¡¯s arm biting into it hard, causing more screams of pain to rise from her. It pulled back and went again, this time changing its angle and heading to her neck instead.

    But before did, Lyrika had managed to grab the spear and lunged with all her might at the horrible creature, gouging a hole into its side and forcing it off of her.

    She did not get off scot-free however, her screams of pain showed that. The monster having tried to keep her back with its tail had continued to do so, but Lyrika knew she had to just go for it to save Olivia. So, she had charged in to grab the spear, receiving a punction wound to the side of her body from its tail.

    As Olivia¡¯s vision grew blurry and her arms grew tired she saw Lyrika with tears in her eyes, yet standing tall, stabbing over and over again with all her might in the creature, where it yelped and cried out on the ground.

    It tried to pull its tail back and go for another swipe at her, but the damage she had done to it, made it impossible for the thing to move it. It also tried to get up, moving its legs back and forth, but Lyrika in her frustration and anger kept it pinned to the ground as she kept stabbing it.

    Over.

    And over.

    And over again.

    Which she kept on doing until the spear broke. Splinters of wood flew off and embedded themselves in both the beast¡¯s and Lyrika¡¯s legs.

    The sound of her crying and then screeching in pain, managed to shock Olivia out of her daze and fight back against the pain. She then called for Lyrika, who finally stopped attacking the now thoroughly dead creature before crawling over to her and pulling her into a hug.

 Chapter 45 - Chapter 45: Notice

Chapter 45: Notice

    Hi All. Sorry, no chapter this weekend, been busy with Christmas and all that. I will try to double the chapters up for next week in order to make up for it.

    Happy Holidays

 Chapter 46 - Chapter 46: The Predators - Part 4

    Chapter 46: The Predators ¨C Part So, with vignce in mind, they continued moving forward, listening out for anything that sounded like trouble.

    *growl*

    Like that.

    Both tensed up immediately at hearing a growl simr to the one those beasts made. Olivia went for her spear, but remembered it was broken, and so had to take the dagger instead with her free hand. Again, with her condition, she couldn¡¯t wield the Morningstar effectively, so opted for the safer and easier option. Lyrika too took out her knife and got ready, also tightening her grip on Olivia to keep her up.

    Both stood there, fearful and looked around in every direction. They knew they were hard to spot given the camouge-type skin they had, so they had to remain vignt for any odd movement or blur in the scenery.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    But nothing happened.

    Olivia had a silly panic moment, thinking that it had been her stomach making the noise. But when another growl passed through the air from the direction they were going, she knew that was not the case.

    ¡°What do we do? Where is it?¡± Lyrika said shaking slightly.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. If it was anything like the other three, I would think it would have attacked us now.¡±

    Confusion flooded their minds as they continued to search with their weapons drawn, but nothing happened. The few moments they stood there turned to several seconds and finally a minute, where nothing happened, aside from still hearing the growl every now and then.

    ¡°I wonder if its trapped or hurt. That might be why it hasn¡¯t attacked us yet.¡± Olivia put out there. ¡°Plus, while it sounds like them, the growl is a little¡­off.¡±

    She couldn¡¯t put her finger on it, but it just sounded a little different to how the others did, which Lyrika agreed with.

    ¡°Should we look for it?¡±

    Olivia almost put the idea down instantly, but as she thought about it, it was probably the best thing to do. One reason was to find out what was going on, just for curiosities sake. The other was that if it was hurt or trapped, who¡¯s to say it won¡¯t get better and free itself at some point. If its anything like thest three, then that means it¡¯s going to attack someone at some point. Or attack themselves if it frees itself soon.

    ¡°Ok, but we need to be careful.¡±

    So, with their decision, they headed off towards the noise, weapons out at all times. They made sure to survey the area as they went, as who knows what was out here.

    Before long, the noise got louder and louder, where by now the growl had changed to something more akin to a cry, which led them more along the idea it was trapped. But as they got nearer to the source of the sound, they soon realised they were a little off in what they were expecting to find.

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­ok, I didn¡¯t expect that.¡±

    ¡°W-what do we do?¡± Was Lyrika¡¯s question.

    Standing before the source of the noise, they could see a small pit that had been dug into the dirt, and right at the centre of it was one of those creatures. It was however more than half the size smaller and very young. Its skin was the same, being the same odd camouge that they had, but they could see only the beginnings of ws growing on its paws, and the tail was just that, a tail, missing the deadly spike they had.

    In essence, they had happened upon a baby of one of those beasts

    ¡°It weird to say this, but its¡­kind of adorable.¡±

    Olivia agreed with her. How could she not. While there was still the trauma from the fight with those creatures, both mentally and physically, it didn¡¯t change the fact that this baby was so small and cute.

    By this point, it had seen them and grew a little fearful. It tried to pull itself out of the pit, but struggled to and fell back down,nding on its back.

    ¡°Aww¡± both cried out at seeing it fall over.

    They continued to watch it as it tried the same thing twice more,nding on its back each time and wiggling it paws to try and right itself, which is when Olivia noticed something.

    ¡°I know it¡¯s a baby, but it seems very weak, weaker than I thought it would be. The pit isn¡¯t steep, yet it can hardly climb it.¡±

    Sure, Olivia had no idea about the species, and yes babies were generally weak, but something about this one seemed¡­off again.

    ¡°What¡¯s it doing here? Do you think they were travelling back to it when they spotted us. Could that be why they attacked us?¡± Lyrika asked.

    It was a possibility. But it was also a possibility that they had been wandering away from it, and then caught their scent and decided to go after them. This was another thing they would never truly know.

    The only question now though, was what to do with the creature.

    ¡°We can¡¯t just leave it. It feels wrong to do that. Same with¡­killing it. I don¡¯t think either of us could do that.¡± Olivia said as she looked over to Lyrika who nodded her head agreeing with her on that. The adult versions had nearly killed them, but this thing was innocent, hopefully. But really, if it could hardly get out of a shallow pit, it¡¯s not like it had or would be able to kill people as it was right now.

    ¡°Should we¡­keep it?¡± Olivia put out there. The quizzical and downright shocked face from Lyrika was one she was expecting, but really, what choice did they have.

    ¡°And do what with it?¡± Lyrika said crossing her arms with a look of confusion at the stupid suggestion.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I mean it¡¯s a baby. Could we train it, tame it? Can people do that?¡± Olivia asked. She was very much aware that you can train animals, being a usual urrence on Earth obviously, but did that also ur here. And could it be done with something like this.

    She hoped it could. Her times from reading novels brought to mind animalpanions that the protagonist would have with them. She always liked the idea of that and wondered which animal she would have. She couldn¡¯t recall all the ideas she had on it, but she was fairly sure she never pictured have a creature whose parents had nearly killed her.

    Hearing the question, Lyrika huffed and looked up in thought on that, trying to recall if she had heard anything about taming creatures.

    ¡°I¡¯m not sure. People do tame animals for their products and some to ride, but¡­ with something like this, I really don¡¯t know. With the ws and spiked tail its going to get, it seems like it¡¯s made just to kill things. They were also really aggressive. I don¡¯t know if you can train a creature like that.¡±

    Olivia had no clue either. She had heard news stories of people training deadly animals such as tigers, lions and a hippo if she recalled correctly. But she had also heard of times those animals had killed the people that trained them. It was anyone¡¯s guess how it would go if she gave it a try.

    ¡°There may be someone we can ask at the next vige. We might be able to find out what it is or even see if it¡¯s possible to tame it.¡±

    It was as good a n as any, and so with that in mind, they decided to use Olivia¡¯s shirt to put the creature it. It was torn in ces, but still held together enough for them to ce the creature inside it.

    Once that was done, they headed off to the vige again.

    ¡­

    Through the journey, the creature mewled and made many other odd noises as it tried to move inside the shirt. Olivia was currently holding it with one arm, pressing it against her chest. Her other was still over Lyrika, who was holding onto her and a good deal of gear.

    When they sat down for a rest, as they day wasing to a close, they sat by the fire and ced it nearby in order to keep it warm. Then came dinner which, as usual was effler meat and hard tack. It was at this point that Olivia realised they definitely needed to get some fruit or vegetables in themselves at some point. Bnce diet being needed and all.

    As they stuffed their faces, they heard the creature making noises and so Olivia took this opportunity to feed it some of the meat they had, which ended up being quite hard to do.

    Oh, there were nothing hard about the actual feeding. No, the hard part was trying not to let Lyrika¡¯s distressed and quivering face faze her as she watched Olivia take her meat to feed it.

    She took bite sized chunks of raw meat, figuring that¡¯s what they ate given the others perseverance to kill them, and ced it next to its head. Having seen this, it looked up at her, then down to the meat, before giving it a cautionary sniff and gobbled it down.

    ¡°Well, I think it likes it.¡±

    ¡°Of course, it does¡­its meat.¡± Lyrika said sulking a little.

    She continued to provide it with some morsels of meat, where soon, light turned to darkness and they turned in for the night. But first they had to figure out what to do with the creature.

    The good thing was that it hadn¡¯t attacked either of them when they got near it, whether it was some form of imprinting on them, or that itcked the strength or will or ws to do so, neither knew. This though meant that it should be fine to keep in the tent.

    With its small size, it needed to be kept warm so inside the tent, out of the wind and with two warm bodies near it, was the best ce to keep it healthy.

    It wasrge enough that there was plenty of space for them both to sleep and as well as the creature, so digging out a little pit, with steeper walls this time, just to be sure, they ced it inside. They created the pit to make sure it didn¡¯t wander off in the night should it wake up at some point.

    Then they got to sleeping.

 Chapter 47 - Chapter 47: The Bulls - Part 1

    Chapter 47: The Bulls ¨C Part The next day was actually uneventful, as all they did was walk and had no more encounters with the fun wildlife. Olivia was now able to walk on her own, albeit at a slower pace, and eventually they could see the vige they had been heading to.

    ¡°Finally. Civilisation.¡±

    ¡°You say that like we¡¯ve only ever lived in caves. We just came from a vige.¡± Lyrika curtly added.

    ¡°I know, its just¡­ forget about it,¡± Olivia responded with a sigh.

    Moving past the moment, they started to head towards the vige and ran through the n for contact. With the hustle and bustle, they could see from their vantage point, it looked like the vige was running how it should, which mean they shouldn¡¯t need to deal with bandits or the like to speak to the Teagan, the vige chief. But this did mean that Olivia would likely need to stay out of sight until Lyrika could talk to the man and exin the situation.

    The hope was that Yoban had exined things in the letter he gave them. They couldn¡¯t check to be sure, as that would require them to break the wax seal, which would only cause problems when they gave it to the chief.

    As they got nearer, they saw several fields that were surrounding the vige, all being worked in by beast-kin from the vige. As she got a better look, at the farmers nearest to them, she realised that Yoban¡¯s statement of ¡®being a suborn bull¡¯, may have been an actual description rather than just a metaphor. As far as she could see, all of the people working had bull horns on their heads.

    They could have been demon horns or horns of some other animal, but upon discussing it with Lyrika, she was sure they were bull horns. Some were shorter than others and bent in slightly different directions, but the fact was that everyone she could see so far had them, meaning there were¡­bull-kin. Possibly.

    Anyway, she could ponder on thatter, but for now, given their proximity to the vige, this was as far as Olivia could go.

    ¡°Right, I¡¯ll stay here and you head into the vige and ask to see Teagan saying you have a message from Yoban. Someone will surely point you in the right direction. Just, be careful. Ok.¡± Olivia said to Lyrika as she ced her hand on her shoulder.

    ¡°I¡¯ll-I¡¯ll be fine,¡± she said flushing a little at the gesture. ¡°All of the beast-kin viges get travellers from others. A cat-kin turning up should just be normal for them. Anyway, if anyone needs to be careful, it¡¯s you.¡±

    ¡°Oh please. I¡¯ll be fine.¡±

    Olivia did still have injuries, so taking it easy was in her best interest. She was well out of sight of the people on the farms, hidden within a small cluster of trees, so she should be fine. But, that doesn¡¯t mean another wild animal like the beasts that had attacked them before won¡¯t just show up and attack her.

    After saying a quick ¡®see you soon¡¯ to each other, followed by a short hug that Lyrika had initiated, Olivia took a seat and rxed after all the walking. She also had in her hand her torn shirt and the baby creature inside it. On the way there, they had provided it with some more meat, and right now it was taking a nap, so all was quiet with it. But this meant, that Olivia really had nothing to do.

    ¡­

    Boredom struck Olivia hard as she really had nothing to do. To pass the time she plucked des of grass, before trying and failing to tie them into knots, herrger fingers making it impossible. She surveyed the area every now and then, making sure there were no animals about. But when you look around for the seventh time and see the same scenery, it really just adds to thecklustre feeling.

    It had been about twenty minutes and the baby was still asleep. She was tempted to wake it, just so she had something to do, but she was sure she had read something once about never waking a sleeping baby. That probably went doubly so when the baby was from a species of predators that seemed to be built for killing.

    As time seemed to drain on, she did start to worry. But with every worry, she had to remember that it was quite the walk to the vige from where they had parted. Then Lyrika probably had to ask around to find the leader, get to where he was staying and talk to him. Olivia had no idea what vige chiefs did on a day-to-day basis, but she had to imagine they were busy most of the time. It may take some time to actually get a meeting with him. A letter from a chief in another vige being delivered by a random girl might not be high on the priority list of things to do.

    ¡°Mon-¡±

    Olivia all but froze as she heard someone speak. Looking up, she scanned the area and found two people in the direction she and Lyrika had originallye. Both were a good distance away, but she could see that they had bull horns on their head and carried swords at their sides. And worse of all was that both were staring right at her.

    ¡°Mon-¡±

    One of them rose their hand up and pointed at her.

    Olivia was no idiot and knew what was going to happen. So, with the slight pain still wracking her body, she slowly moved to stand up before she heard him finish his word.

    ¡°Monster!¡±

    The man had yelled this out, but thankfully, only the guy next to him would actually be able to hear it. Olivia thought she may be safe given that the people on the farms were too far to hear since none made any movements after he said it. But that was before she saw the other pull something from his hip.

    It was an odd shape, slightly curved with a conical shape, pointed at the end. She almost pped herself when she didn¡¯t recognise it instantly, given all the ones she had seen on the viger¡¯s heads.

    A horn.

    The man holding this horn in his hand raised it to his lips and blew, sending a thunderous sound out to his surroundings.

    Olivia may have been right that the word the other guy shouted was heard by no one. But the horn was a different story. Turning to the fields, she saw all the farmers in the area drop their tools and head towards the vige shouting out as they did. People on the wall of the vige, started to arm themselves up, taking their arrows out of their quivers and nocking them on their bows.

    Turning back to the two men, she saw both unsheathe their swords and she knew she had to run.

    With both of them stopping her from running back to the forest area, she only had a few options. Heading towards the vige was obviously not an option she was going to take, as all those guards with their bows were sure to gun her down if she got close. That meant the only options were to run to the side, parallel to the farms and hope she can head back into the forest at some point.

    Taking off, she ran as far as she could in her slightly slow and damaged state. A quick look to the side and she saw them both still heading towards her with their swords out. Looking to her other side, she saw the entrance to the vige, which was now closed, very likely to keep everyone inside safe and her out.

    Moving as far as she could, she headed through a good deal of uneven terrain, making sure to keep the baby firmly secure in her arms. This though, meant she was unable to use her hands, something she needed given that the next step she took, she tripped over a rock in the ground and toppled to the floor.

    She only had a split second to think but managed to roll to her back as she fell, keeping the baby on her front and safe. Her back however did hit the floor hard, a few rocks digging into it as she did.

    Groans of pain rose from Olivia¡¯s throat as she forced herself to stand up, needing to get away from these people chasing her. Once she had managed it, she realised the sound of shouting was much closer than before, and upon looking in its direction, found that the two men had split up and were heading towards her at different angles from the forest.

    The slip had cost her. They had managed to get into a position that now forced her to run towards the town,ing at her in different diagonals. With this movement, it meant that should she run into the forest or even to either side now, they would have a much easier time catching her.

    One thing that was odd was why they were sending her towards the town. Surely, they would be fearful that she would injure some civilians if she headed that way.

    She couldn¡¯t ponder this for long as with theming, she had to act fast. The only thing she could do though was fall into their trap. So, turning away from them, she fled, straight into the fields and towards the vige.

 Chapter 48 - Chapter 48: The Bulls - Part 2

    Chapter 48: The Bulls ¨C Part She ran as fast as her injured legs could carry her. The two men behind her were gaining, albeit slowly. In the distance, she could see several people gathered along the wooden wall of the vige. While, because of the distance she couldn¡¯t make out anything about who they were, she could clearly see them all taking hold of bows and nocking arrows, waiting to get a clear shot on the monster that was attacking them.

    The only saving grace that Olivia had was that she had a good several massive fields that she had to travel through. All of them had crops of varying colours, from yellows, to greens, one purple, whatever that was, but thankfully there were some that were brown. Not the exact same tone as her skin, but they did haverge stalks of the crop, which should enable her to blend in with it for a while, keeping her hidden from the archers.

    The only problem to this though, was that the brown field was not in the direction she was being forced into. No she was headed for a very lush field, made from a green crop that was short and stumpy, which would provide absolutely no cover for her.

    Once she had made it to the first field, all she could do was head towards the brown field, which in this case had her heading towards the corner at the other end. She needed to make it there to then hop over the fence, and dash through to the brown one. The men behind her continued to shout, and it wasn¡¯t long before they entered the green field with her.

    As they shouted, now closer to the vige, it ended up alerting the people on the wall, who shifted their gaze that way. And wouldn¡¯t you know it, saw arge hulking brown monster struggling to speed through a sea of green nts.

    Nearly all of them took aim and fired their arrows at her. It was tense as she heard the twang of the bow string. It got even more tense when she couldn¡¯t even look to see where they werending, too focused on making it to the hopefully safety of the brown field.

    When the first few arrowsnded only a few meters in front of her, it gave her quite the fright, almost making her freeze mid-step, but she managed to regain herself. She really hoped that the field would provide the safety she needed.

    Thuds of arrows in dirt more or less surrounded her, and not long after, she heard the bow strings twang again. She pushed through the pain still affecting her body and continued, finally making it to the break in the green field.

    When she had finished struggling over the fence, she ended at what was basically a dirt path, separating the fields, which would have let people move between them and stop the crops from mixing. She only had a few more steps before she would be in the brown one.

    But the thoughts of some form of safety were shattered when she felt a massive amount of pain in her shoulder as something embedded itself there.

    ¡°Ahhhh,¡± she cried out from the pain. She felt the need to check out what happened, but she knew she had to keep going, and she knew it was an arrow that had done the deed. The rest of the arrows again thunked into the dirt.

    But thankfully, by this point, she had made it into the brown crop field.

    The two men still followed behind her a short distance away, and she knew she had to somehow lose them in this one. She also heard more arrows be loosed from bows, but instead of just heading in the same direction, she shifted to her right and took a different path.

    She really hoped this would work, that the brown crops would provide enough of a camouge to hide her, but she would only know when the archers took another shot.

    The arrows from before hit the dirt again, and when she expected to hear them go again, all she got was silence.

    ¡®Yes¡¯ she all but shouted in her head.

    The only reason she could think for them not firing again was because they couldn¡¯t see her. No point firing into a field asrge as this when you didn¡¯t know where you were aiming.

    She was very happy that her idea had worked, but she knew it might only be temporary. And while a good idea against the archers, the two men that had followed her in here would have a much easier time finding her, them being at the same level.

    She continued making her was through the field but was starting to slow as she did. It was partly due to the injuries she had sustained, but it also urred to her that her lumbering about in the field would surely cause a lot of damage to the crops. Damage that these guys could easily follow. So, she slowed her movements and tried to slip past the crops with as little disturbance to them as possible, hoping to hide her movements and get them off her tail.

    ¡­

    It felt like she had been moving in and amongst the crops in this field for hours, but it had only been a several minutes.

    Things were going well. Reasonable, anyway. As she moved she still felt pain with every step, even more so given the exertion from the run and the fall, probably damaging things even more. She also had the time to check out the damage on her arm, not that she could do anything about it. With a baby creature in her arms, and two people with swords after her, she couldn¡¯t just stop to yank it out. There was also the fact that she wasn¡¯t sure yanking it out was the best option. All she could do was look and see that the arrow had embedded itself nicely in her shoulder, causing an excruciating amount of pain whenever she shifted it.

    She decided to just push that to the back of her mind and figure out how to get out of this mess. She hoped that Lyrika would be able to do something, but who knows what had happened to her inside the vige. Being a civilian they might keep her out of things, stopping her from talking to the chief, now that they were ¡®under attack¡¯. She honestly had no idea and all she could do was hope she was fine and safe.

    Now, as she got further and further into the field, she was at a loss of what else she could do. The only thing she could think of reasoning with them. She had yet to try and talk to them given all the excitement but she could only hope that if she talked to them, it might put them at ease. The only problem was that the only people near her were armed, so if diplomacy didn¡¯t go well, she might not make it out of here.

    But, with no other options, she had to try it. As soon as she left this field, the archers would be on her again. And surely, if she did stay in this field, either those two would find her, or more people would turn to hunt her down.

    ¡­

    It wasn¡¯t long though, and she got a chance to try out that diplomacy. As she was walking, trying to think of other options, she spotted one of the men, treading through the field. He had his sword brandished as she expected, and before long, he turned and ended up facing her.

    His eyes went wide, and she knew what he was going to do, so before he could, she spoke.

    ¡°Please, stop. I¡¯m not here to hurt anyone!¡± she cried out, with one of her arms outstretched, while the other still held the creature.

    This had the desired effect, practically shocking the man. He was speech less for a while, but quickly shook himself out of his stupor.

    ¡°An Orc that can talk.¡± he said looking shocked. But a few secondster he took control of his emotions and showed only one on his face. Anger. ¡°I¡¯ve heard that monsters that can talk are far more dangerous than others, being more intelligent than the rest. I best deal with you quickly then¡±, the man said replied, more so to himself than to her, as if what she had said went in one ear and out the other.

    He then started to walk towards her, his sword at the ready, forcing Olivia to backtrack and keep away from him.

    ¡°No, stop. I¡¯m not here to hurt anyone. You don¡¯t need to attack me.¡±

    ¡°I won¡¯t be deceived by the lies of a monster that kidnaps and rapes women. One of your ilk took my wife from me and I will be damned if I let you do the same to another in my vige. The world will be much better without you in it!¡± he shouted before speeding and running at her.

    ¡®Well, looks like diplomacy has failed.¡¯

 Chapter 49 - Chapter 49: The Bulls - Part 3

    Chapter 49: The Bulls ¨C Part It was as Lyrika said. Hard-headed. He wouldn¡¯t listen to a word she said. He waspletely focused on her as a threat, and that was it. She would not be able to get through to him.

    Granted he had a damn good reason for his hatred of her race, but still.

    While the diplomacy route hadn¡¯t worked on this guy, there was still another. But whether she could actually talk to him was dependent on how she got away from this one.

    Olivia turned to run, but the man was gaining on her fast, and before long, he had caught up to her.

    As he ran he swung his sword, only missing her by a hair and she knew she wouldn¡¯t be so lucky the next time. She did have her weapons on her, but she couldn¡¯t really use them. If they thought she was a monster now, what would happen if she injured one of them, or even killed them? There was no way she could continue with the mission to talk to the chief if that happened. It also didn¡¯t help that with the creature in her arms, she couldn¡¯t heft the Morningstar anyway, so the dagger would be the only option.

    But while she couldn¡¯t use it to attack, that didn¡¯t mean defence was off the table.

    There wasn¡¯t a way she could seriously defend herself, so this was more of a statement than anything else, but she knew she had to deal with this guy somehow. Taking hold of her dagger, upsettingly in the arm she had an arrow in, she still managed to keep a good grip on the creature with her other arm.

    He shed towards her, but his swing was slow and she managed to block it with her dagger and step to the side. As his de met hers, it just increased the pressure on her arm with the arrow, causing her to grit her teeth in pain.

    She had to end this fast, and she thought she saw how.

    After a few more attacks, the man overextended causing his de to end up hitting the dirt, leaving him exposed. He stood there hunched over, struggling to get it up and out of the ground. It must have been all the running and searching that had tired him out, and who knows what he had been doing in the forest. So, with him mostly exhausted, she decided to use a blunt object to knock him down and hopefully out.

    And that blunt object was herself.

    She charged forward and using her good shoulder mmed in the side of the man, knocking him down to the ground. He fell back hitting the dirt, and justid there. With a quick check to see if he was ok and still breathing, which he thankfully was, she dashed away as fast as she could.

    As she got further away from the man, she happened to see through the crops what appeared to be a building of some kind. Her thoughts were that it was a barn of some sort, and so she headed towards it, hoping she could hide in there without anyone knowing.

    This though wasn¡¯t to be, as before she knew it, she had exited the field, the barn being just outside of it. She froze for a second, before continuing her stride and finally made it to the building, before dashing inside. She hoped that no one saw her, but with the sound of an arrow thunking into the wood, she realised that wasn¡¯t the case.

    She had screwed herself and had nowhere to run. The only thing she could do was try and keep herself secure. Looking around, she found sacks of grain and various crops along with pieces of equipment, from hoes to rakes. So, she did the only thing she could and formed a barricade.

    ¡­

    With the rake across the door through therge door handles and the heavy bags of crop pressed against it, it wasn¡¯t long before she heard the first people trying to hammer it down. Next came a few swords shing against the wood, where on asion a de would pass right through the seams of the wood freighting her to no end.

    ¡°Ok, how do I get out of this? Think Olivia, think!¡± she shouted to herself hitting her head with her hand.

    Looking around she couldn¡¯t find any other way of egress from the barn. It was just one way in one way out. There was a second level to the ce which she could easily reach up to ce the baby creature on it, before climbing the nearbydder, but even then it was all solid walls. There were a few windows dotted along them, but by windows, she meant tiny, open-to-the-outside, square gaps in the wooden structure, none of which she could squeeze through.

    She did find one that was slightlyrger than the other and attempted to see if she could widen it enough that she could make it through. But when a nearby guard of the vige patrolling the area fired an arrow towards it, where it then ended up barely missing her before hitting the roof of the ce, she put that idea to rest.

    There really was no way out. No more ideas came to mind. The smashing and shing of metal against wood made it almost impossible to try and figure one out either. By this point, the baby creature had woken from all the racket and started to make a whining and mewling noise, probably because it was woken from its nap.

    How it hadn¡¯t woken when she rammed into the man she had no idea.

    All the noise and tension made it so stressful for Olivia, and panic continued to build and build as more and more wood from the door fell to the floor. It was a hopeless situation.

    She had so far not really hurt anyone. The only person that she hade into contact with was still alive and would probably just walk away with a nasty bruise. But, when these people came in swords swinging, she would need to take her defence seriously. Even it if meant injuring them or in an extreme case, killing them. She wasn¡¯t going to just let them take her down.

    Looking around the barn, she found the most defensible ce she could see. Really though it was just an enclosed area which means people firing arrows couldn¡¯t do so from the door to the barn, and by its narrow entrance, meant only one or two people could attack her at the same time. In there, far at the back of the area she dug into the dirt and ced the creature, hoping to keep it out of the danger.

    She then proceeded to take the Morningstar off her back and got ready. All she could do now was wait.

    ¡­

    The constant hits against the barn managed to make her jump every time, grating on her nerves. It was a frightening prospect and really, she didn¡¯t know what the oue of this would be. Even if she wasn¡¯t in her injured state, if any of them had some realbat experience, they would surely take her out easily. Even if they didn¡¯t, she was severely outnumbered.

    There was the possibility that she could deal with enough of them that they would decide to back off, which might allow her time to escape. Then there was whatever was happening with Lyrika, who she really hoped was on her way to save the day somehow.

    *Thud*

    Everything went silent after the final thud of the hammer. The only reason she could think for them to stop hitting the door was if they had managed to break their way through.

    How right she was as the next thing she knew; a man was standing right in front of her with his sword raised.

    Fighting against all the pain in her body, she managed to raise her Morningstar and block his hit, the metal scraping against the metal as he continued to try and push his de downwards.

    It was agonising. Her injuries just made her feel so weak, and this man¡¯s attack caused her to struggle against it. When she was in her peak condition, she was sure she wouldn¡¯t have had that problem, but now, she didn¡¯t know how much longer she couldst.

    The man finally pulled back and went in for a thrust, trying to stab her. She turned to the side, the de only slicing against her skin slightly. But while the man thought he had done well, Olivia used what he had done to her advantage.

    His arm forward along with his sword, Olivia brought her Morningstar down as fast as she could towards the man¡¯s hand. She didn¡¯t, however, aim properly,ck of training and injuries making it hard to do so, causing therge metal ball covered in spikes to glide through the air, and just clip his hand. It was enough though, as the spikes on the end sliced and scraped right along his skin, ripping it apart and causing blood to spurt everywhere. He cried out in agony and dropped his sword from the pain, jumping backwards to cradle it as he shook.

    With him shouting out, it only brought more people towards her, where this time, two men wedged themselves together in the opening as best they could. They couldn¡¯t get in, but it was enough to get their swords through, where one ended up thrusting his sword to stab at her and the other going for an overhead swing.

    She tried to move out the way to doge the stab as well as block the one that was heading for her head, but too much was happening in such a short amount of time, and her body just couldn¡¯t keep up with it.

    The man thrusting his sword managed to gouge the side of her body, the pain of which causing her to lose focus as the de sunk into her flesh. The shock of it all caused her to falter with her grip, allowing the sword that had been swung overhead to slide along the shaft of the Morningstar and dig into her shoulder.

    She was feeling weaker and weaker by the minute but all she could do was continue to hold them off. It couldn¡¯t end here for her. Not after all she had been through in this new world.

    But then, as she went to block the attacks of the men yet again, who had pulled their swords from her body, she heard a voice rise high above the others, causing the ones attacking her to freeze.

    ¡°Stop!¡±

    ¡­

    It was like time was standing still. The men in front of her was frozen in position, their swords ready and waiting to continue their decent into her skull¡­but neither made a move.

    With them in this state, it was the perfect opportunity to attack back, her mind being in overdrive it thought this was a good idea. But as she went to, she found that her injuries had made it impossible to do so, the Morningstar having fallen from her grip when they pulled their weapons back.

    Olivia for a moment thought that time was actually frozen, but when she saw the man from before rolling bout in agony as he held his hand, she realised that some sort of time-manipting magic hadn¡¯t been used. If there was such a thing.

    ¡°Everyone, stand down.¡±

    At hearing the very deep and authoritarian male voice, the men in front of her all pulled back and started walking away, always keeping her in the edge of their sight as they did.

    Confused at everything, Olivia looked out through to where the men that had been attacking her hade from and realised how thankful she was of the person who had spoken. In the barn alone she saw around a dozen people all with various weapons, which was bad enough, but just past them through the entrance to the barn, she saw a good number of people with bows and arrows, along with even more people holding swords and maces. It was like she had been up against an army. She didn¡¯t even realise there where that many, figuring it would have been several guards that were after her or something.

    ¡°Olivia, you cane out, its fine.¡±

    Olivia sighed as she heard the voice she had been waiting to hear for a while. As she stepped out, in amongst the people leaving, she found Lyrika just heading into the barn. Upon seeing each other, Lyrika dashed towards her, grabbing her as Olivia ended up copsing from her injuries.

    ¡°Its¡­its good to see you again.¡± She managed to eke out.

    With thosest words, Olivia passed out to the sounds of Lyrika trying to keep her awake and the mewling of the creature in her torn shirt.

 Chapter 50 - Chapter 50: The Letter - Interlude - Part 1

    Chapter 50: The Letter ¨C Interlude ¨C Part Having parted ways with Olivia at the boundary to the vige, Lyrika headed down the dirt path between the farnd and headed towards the entrance. The farnd she passed had various shades and colours of crops and it somehow felt like she had walked for ages, just to get to the end of it.

    She soon came across the wall on the outside of the vige, where like her own, it had guards stationed along the wall, all checking out the surrounding area for danger.

    ¡®I hope Olivia stays away from this lot. They look to have more guards than we had people my own the vige.¡¯ It was an exaggeration, but with the number of people she had seen on the wall, and the number of guards that stood around the entrance to the ce it wasn¡¯t far off from the truth.

    All of the guards had the same features atop their heads, denoting them as being bull-kin. There were a few that differed, having ears of various beast-kin species adorning their heads, but the majority of the guards were bull-kin. She didn¡¯t know much about bull-kin, but from what she could recall they were well known for their strength but also hard-headedness. Generally, if they thought they were right, it was hard to change their minds on that.

    At the gate to the vige, she had to pay an entrance fee which was normally the case if you didn¡¯t actually live there, so the fee provided her with a permit allowing her to enter and exit the vige for a few days.

    With the fee paid and the permit in her bag, she headed into the vige. Now all that was left was to find the chief.

    ¡­

    As she walked around, the main thing she noticed was how much more active the ce seemed to bepared to her own vige. Someone was always doing something, running about, hanging outundry, buying something, selling something, it was go, go, go all the time. She could not see anyone just sitting down and rxing. In her vige, sure people did their day-to-day activities, but you would normally see people just rxing in their homes, or sitting on a bench outside, but she saw none of that here.

    Wandering around the vige, she also saw how muchrger it was than her own. The sheer number of people told her this, but so did the houses and buildings as it was just chock-a-block with buildings practically being side by side to each other down the street. You couldn¡¯t just walk between two buildings, you had to get to the far end of the group just to get around them.

    This caused a problem, which was how disorientating it was to navigate through the vige. She had wandered around for a while now, figuring it would be easy to find, but couldn¡¯t see anything that looked like or told her where the chiefs building was. She could have continued to try and find it herself, but knew she needed to ask someone.

    Making her way over to a nearby house, she found ady hanging upundry just outside her house and so made her way over.

    ¡°Hello, I was hoping you could help me.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yes dear. What¡¯s the matter?¡± she replied as turned away from the clothing.

    ¡°Can you tell me where the chiefs house is?¡±

    ¡°Of course dear.¡± she said before walking a little ways away and then turning back to her. ¡°Are you new to our vige, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen you before.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yes. I¡¯m just passing through.¡±

    Making her way to the edge of the path that passed through this section of the vige, she pointed to a few houses on the other side.

    ¡°You just need to get to the other side of those houses, and you will see a sign with two horns on it. That is the chief¡¯s house.¡±

    ¡°Thank you very much.¡±

    ¡°Oh, before you go.¡± Thedy gave her a quick look up and down. ¡°I must say you are a very beautiful girl.¡±

    ¡°Err, thank you.¡± The statement from the woman seemed a little odd to just say out of nowhere making her want to just leave quickly.

    ¡°Do you currently have a suiter? Because if not, my son will be back from workter today and I¡¯m sure he would love to meet you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s¡­I¡¯m sure your son is lovely, but I already have a suiter. Sorry,¡± she said with embarrassment on her face. She really wanted to leave right now.

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s a shame. Anyhow, it was nice to meet you.¡±

    ¡°Yes, nice to meet you too,¡± Lyrika said before walking away with slightly faster steps than normal.

    Heading in the direction she had said, Lyrika decided to put the odd encounter and the very causal matchmaking she was almost involved in to the back of her mind. Walking down this side of the vige she looked out for a houserger than the rest which was generally the case with the chiefs home, but could not find one. She did however find the sign the woman had spoken of, though it was just attached to the front of a house that looked the same as all the others.

    ¡®Odd¡¯

    But, she had no reason to think thedy lied and so headed towards the door, where upon reaching it she went to knock, but the door just opened on the first touch. Venturing inside, she found several chairs all in the entrance of the building. This room was quiterge, where towards the back was a table and chair, which had a cup of water, some half eaten food and several sheets of paper. Right by the table was a hallway leading to who knows where.

    Looking around the room, she saw a few people sitting on the chairs, and before long, ady entered the from the hallway, before sitting down at the table to finish eating what must have been her food.

    This was a little odd to Lyrika, theyout and all that, but she realised that this must be where you wait to see the chief. Things were a little different in her vige. You had to request a meeting in advance and then turn up on time. There wasn¡¯t anything akin to a waiting room, or whatever thedy was supposed to do. But given where she was sitting, Lyrika headed over, figuring she had something to do with this system of meeting the chief.

    ¡°Hello, I would like to talk to the chief.¡±

    *sigh* ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± thedy said as she put her food down again.

    ¡°Lyrika.¡±

    ¡°There are three people in front of you. Take a seat and once they have had their meeting, it will be your turn.¡±

    ¡®Three people in front of me. How long will that take.¡¯

    ¡°I really need to talk to him. It¡¯s very important.¡±

    ¡°Everyone has something important to tell him. Now sit down or you won¡¯t get to meet him.¡±

    It was quite a rude response from thedy, but annoyingly, all she could do was follow what she said and so, she took a seat.

    ¡­

    ¡®I¡¯m going to die of boredom.¡¯

    She had been sitting in this chair for quite a while and so far only one person had headed down the hall for a meeting.

    ¡®This is going to take forever.¡¯

    As she felt like she was going to slowly drift off to sleep, she was instantly shocked out of this by the sound of horn that sounded like it came from a good distance away. At the noise, all of the people in the room stood and started to move to the door.

    Lyrika had no idea what was happening and so quickly asked one of the men leaving the room.

    ¡°Wha-whats happening.¡±

    ¡°A monster has been spotted.¡± He said quickly turning to her before heading out the door.

    ¡®Well that¡¯s rming, knowing that a monster has been spotted nearby.¡¯

    Was what she wanted to think, but she had no doubt in her mind that the monster spotted was Olivia. All she could do was hope that she was ok and had managed to get away in time.

    As she thought about what to do now, she heard footstepse down the hall, where she then saw thest person to head that way as well as a veryrge man behind him.

    He was about as tall as Olivia and as she looked at him, Lyrika was sure that this man was the chief. The air of authority along with his clothing told her he was important, and was surely the man in charge.

    ¡°Ok youngdy, the horn has been sounded so you need to head outside. Come on now.¡± He said as he got to the door next to her.

    ¡°Ah, no ¨C wait. I need to talk-¡± she quickly tried to say as she was more or less pushed out through the door, but before she could continue, someone bumped into her, and the chief headed off in another direction.

    What that direction was, she couldn¡¯t see as the area she found herself in was just jam packed with people.

    ¡°Great, how am I going to find him in this sea of people.¡±

 Chapter 51 - Chapter 51: The Letter - Interlude - Part 2

    Chapter 51: The Letter ¨C Interlude ¨C Part ¡®Damn, where is he.¡¯

    Lyrika started to push her way through the crowd, bumping into what felt like everyone in the vige. The response she got as she tried to move past people was filled with annoyed grunts and words as the cat-kin tried to push them out of the way.

    She ended up deep in the crowd, almost in the middle of it and it felt like it just went on forever. As she was about to despair that she would never find him in the mess of bunched-up people, she heard his voice again.

    ¡°Ok everyone. You know what the horn means, so no one is allowed to leave the vige. The entrance to the vige has been closed and only vige guards will be able to exit the vige until the monster is dealt with. Now, I want you all to remain calm while we deal with this threat.¡±

    Looking up above the crowd as best she could, she saw Teagan standing on a tform and giving this speech. Once that was done, he headed down and followed the guards that were heading towards the entrance, talking to them as he did.

    ¡®I need to go after him.¡¯

    Pushing through everyone, she finally made it out of the crowd and continued down the path where she eventually came across Teagan and the guards. She headed towards them, only to be stopped by a few of them that were stationed to block the way.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, no one but guards and the chief is allowed beyond this point. This is for your own safety. I would ask you to head back into the centre of the vige and wait out the monster attack.¡±

    ¡°No, this-this is important. I need to talk to Teagan. It¡¯s about-¡±

    ¡°Teagan?¡± He replied looking surprised that someone was being so formal with the chief. ¡°I¡¯m sorry miss, but you need to head back. I¡¯m sure you think whatever you have to say is important, but we need to deal with this monster first. It can wait.¡±

    ¡°No, it can¡¯t. Just let me through.¡±

    ¡°Look it¡¯s clear to see you have a thing for him given how informal you are with his name, many girls do the same, but he has more important things to deal with than needing to reject some random girl¡¯s advances.¡±

    Lyrika just ended up speechless after that, her mouth gaping open as she could believe this guard¡¯s assumptions. As much as she wanted to retort about that, she realised that could wait as getting to the chief to inform him of Olivia was more important.

    She broke herself out of her shock, but before she could say anything else, two other guards appeared and took her by the arms carrying her back into the centre of the vige as she yelled for them to let go, before they deposited her with the rest of the vigers.

    ¡®Damn, what do I do now.¡¯

    Watching the guards head back, she followed them as stealthily as she could, hiding behind buildings and shrubbery as best she could. As far as she could see, with the lines of houses, guards were along the only paths that could be taken to reach the entrance to the vige. As she had seen before, the tightly packed houses meant there was no way to just squeeze past them, so she realised she only had one other option.

    Finding the shortest house she could in the line, she got to climbing.

    With all the rest of the vige in the centre, there was thankfully no one around to see her do this.

    The stone and wooden structure was not perfectly t on the sides, which mean handholds were easy to find. It was, however, quite the chore and struggle to climb the structure. After a couple of slips, she manages to make it onto the thatched roof, where she needed to keep her footing on the areas where the wooden beams were, lest she make a grand entrance into someone¡¯s living space.

    With her needing to tightrope walk, more or less, across the building, she made it to the other side and climbed back down. Having aplished that, she was now on the other side that the guards had closed off. She then headed across and stuck near to the houses as she moved down the path towards the entrance.

    She managed to slip past the guards that had stopped her before, and now all that lie ahead of her was therge hardwood double door. On either side of the door, guards were on the wall, thankfully looking outwards. The only problem now was how to actually get on the other side of it.

    Making her way over to the door, she did try to move it herself but very quickly realised she couldn¡¯t budge it at all. It was then that she noticed, the massive beam of wood that locked it in ce, but realised couldn¡¯t move that either when she tried to lift it. So, with the front door not being an option, she headed past it and made her way up onto the wall.

    If she couldn¡¯t go through it, she would have to just go over it.

    Sneaking her way up, she managed to get past the guard by the entrance, and then quickly dashed along it. Finding a reasonably short in height section of the wall, she hoped over the wooden poles of that acted as a railing, and slowly shimmied her way down it.

    Things were going well¡­until.

    ¡°Hey, stop. What are you doing?!¡± was spoken by one of the nearby guards on the wall as he noticed her climbing down the wall. ¡°Get back up here, there¡¯s a monster on the loose.¡±

    She paid no attention to him. Not even when he himself hopped over the wall and made his way down in order to catch her.

    The wall was quite tall even on this smaller section, but she finally made it to the ground, and after a quick search, she found where all the guards had gathered, and so headed towards them. As she neared it she saw what they were surrounding. Arge barn. Simple in design, but apparently sturdy, as she saw several men hacking away at the door to it with their swords and hammers.

    ¡®Ok, got to find the chief quickly.¡¯

    It thankfully didn¡¯t take her too long to find the man, him being taller than everyone else around him, so she sped up and dashed towards him. The guard that had followed her over the wall, had made it to the ground and was headed after her, shouting as he did. His voice soared through the air and caught the attention of the guards around Teagan, turning their attention to her.

    As she made her final approach, the guards dashed forward and held her back.

    ¡°Miss, I¡¯m sorry but you can¡¯t be here.¡±

    ¡°No, you don¡¯t understand. I need to talk to-¡± Looking up she saw Teagan who was now looking at her, so with ast-ditch effort she called out to him. ¡°Chief Teagan! I need to talk to you. It will exin everything that is happening.¡±

    He looked like he was going to just roll his eyes and tell his men to send her away. To him, dealing with the monster was more important than some cat-kins nonsense request. But before he could, Lyrika spoke up again.

    ¡°There¡¯s an Orc in there isn¡¯t there.¡± The single sentence got his attention, causing him to turn back to her. Reaching inside her pocket, she pulled out the letter she had been holding onto and held it. ¡°This letter is from Yoban and will exin about the Orc.¡±

    She could see him mouth the words, ¡®How can Yoban exin an Orc being here¡¯, but she had peaked enough of his interest that he ordered the guards to let her go.

    Quickly heading over to him, she handed him the letter, to which he opened quickly. She was going to say something herself, but figured her word wouldn¡¯t be enough to persuade him, so she let him read the letter.

    His brow shifted all over the ce as he read through it, trying to understand what his friend Yoban was saying. Lyrika didn¡¯t know what was in the letter but figured he must have spoken of the attack on the vige and the struggles they had been through. While he was still continuing to read through the letter, Lyrika noticed that the guards had managed to break down the door to the barn.

    He obviously wasn¡¯t going to stop dealing with the potentially dangerous monster, because some odd cat-kin had told him to, so the n to take it out was still ongoing. But as he read through the letter, he realised that he needed to stop his men.

    ¡°Stop!¡±

    He shouted out to all the men around him once he had finished the letter. The men that had all started to head into the barn froze in their movements, and silence was all that could be heard.

    Now, all Lyrika could hope was that she had made it in time and that Olivia was fine.

    ¡°Everyone, stand down.¡±

    On the final words of the chief, he beckoned her forward and so she headed into the barn and called out to the woman that had saved her and changed her life.

 Chapter 52 - Chapter 52: The Son - Interlude

    Chapter 52: The Son ¨C Interlude

    The town of Caldaria is a reasonably sized townprising mostly of humans and a few other races. It is connected to the town of Cassus, via a well-trodden road, where close to halfway down this road, there is a branching path that leads to Yoban¡¯s vige.

    Within this town resides the lord who reigns over the area, who was currently sitting in his study doing some paperwork, when one of his guards rushed in.

    ¡°My lord. I have grave news.¡±

    Lord Abern was in histe forties and the signs of age clearly showed on his face. He had been in power as the lord of the town for a good fifteen years. His father had been in power before him and passed his mantle on his deathbed.

    But, before Lord Abern was a lord, he had been a soldier, joining the military might of the King. He had been trained inbat by some of the best teachers the royal capital had to offer, and quickly rose through the ranks. He had taken part in skirmishes with rebels from various regions, bandits attacking the surrounding areas and monsters that had encroached on their territory.

    And he lived for it.

    But for Lord Abern, it ended too quickly. During one such skirmish, he was injured by a bandit of some skill, the injury destroying his ability to wield a weapon, destroying his career in one fell swoop.

    Because of this, he was made to retire from the ranks and was sent back to his hometown of Caldaria, where soon after, his father passes away.

    Since then, he had done well in leading the town, seeing it as a new venture to jump into. But as time went on, the excitement of it all waned. Each day that passed ended up being simr to thest. Nothing really changed. It was too¡­peaceful.

    Only a few good things urred for Lord Abern in his time ruling. He married a year or so after his father passed, to a lovely woman who ended up baring his child. He was happy for a time, but an attack on her carriage as she was heading to an event in another town, ruined that for him. Her carriage was attacked by a group of beast-kin and his wife ended up taking an arrow to the chest during the raid. Lord Abern¡¯s son was two years old when his wife passed, leaving him to wallow in despair as he tried his best to raise his son.

    After that, for the rest of the years that he ruled, aside from the perpetrators who killed his wife being captured and executed, again not much of anything happened. Where many would rejoice at this, Lord Abern loathed the experience. He was meant to lead people into battle and win wars, not sit behind a desk all day signing trade agreements and listening to minor noblesin about one another.

    So one day, he decided to do something about it. He wanted to relive his glory days in some way, and not die from boredom as a decrepit old man. With his injury and the¡­peace that gued the town, there was not much he could do, so¡­he decided to mess with that peace and try to bring some action back into his life. He began to dabble in the criminal world.

    He was a born tactician and was able to make a name for himself quickly in the criminal underworld rising up the ranks to the top, all the while making sure no one knew he was also the lord of the town. He became the true ruler of his town, being in control of everything, and no one knew it. He felt powerful, and he didn¡¯t want to stop.

    At one point he also remarried a woman a lot young than himself. It was by no means romantic, only using it as a way to gain the power that her family could offer him. He all but left her to fend for herself within his home, taking more pleasure in focusing on his son and criminal activities than on her.

    She did try to engage with him, but he made sure to keep her at arm¡¯s length. She was not of his blood and he did not trust her, opting not to reveal the other half of his life to her.

    As he got older, he looked to the future and realised that he didn¡¯t want all his hard work to just be lost when he died. So, to ensure that didn¡¯t happen, he made sure his son, his heir, was involved with both sides of his life. His son grew to be a fine young man, strong, fit and loyal, all the while being an integral part of his father¡¯s criminal activities. Even going so far as to adopt his father¡¯s prejudices, such as his hatred for beast-kin.

    Lord Abern was now very happy with his life. But all that was shattered, by the message he was about to receive.

    ¡°Yes, what is it?¡±

    ¡°My lord. I am sorry to say this but¡­your son is dead.¡±

    ¡°What?!¡± Lord Abern shouted as he sprung up from his chair, knocking it to the ground. ¡°What happened?!¡±

    ¡°I was informed by the family of one of your son¡¯s friends. It would seem that while on their hunting trip, they were attacked by an Orc. It managed to drug them and then killed your son. After leaving, beast-kin then happened upon them, who then imprisoned and sold them.¡±

    Lord Abern was in shock. His son was a brilliant fighter. How had he been beaten by an Orc of all things? And what is an Orc doing here anyway? They haven¡¯t seen any in ages.

    And then there was the beast-kin. In his own words, they were disgusting and vile for what they did to his wife. It did not matter that it was only a few that had done it, in his book they were all bad. Which was why he came up with the hunting trip.

    He knew of the beast-kin trading vige, and always hated that humans journeyed there to trade. So, he asked his son to¡­deal with them. To capture and sell them as ves and remove all of them from the vige. He had ns for that vige, but with his son¡¯s death, they would note to fruition yet.

    Right now, he wanted to just send the soldiers to the vige and deal with them, but he knew there were too many loose ends doing that. The story from one of his son¡¯s friends had too many holes. He knew they had been captured because of the illegal very they were performing, and all it took was for someone to look into it a little more deeply for the story toe crumbling down. Which someone might do if he suddenly sent people to wipe a beast-kin vige off the face of the world.

    The only way he could think to deal with this was to agree with the story and pull focus away from the beast-kin. How thankful he was that there was someone in the story that already did that. Someone that he needed to find, in order to avenge his son¡¯s death.

    ¡°An Orc! You can¡¯t be serious. Put the town guard on alert, where there is one Orc, there may be a whole tribe more.¡±

    ¡°Right away sir.¡±

    The guard turned and headed out the room off to follow orders. Where a short whileter the entrance was then upied by someone else.

    ¡°My lord. Is everything ok?¡±

    Lord Abern looked up from his desk, where he saw his current wife, Lady Emilia. At the age of twenty-nine she was a beauty and was sure to have many suitors vying for her affection. With her cream-coloured skin, long brte hair, lovely round green eyes and kind heart, she would have many heads turning. But no matter how attractive she was, she could neverpare to his first wife or to the empire he had built.

    ¡°Emilia, what are you doing here? I thought you were out for the day.¡±

    ¡°Oh, er yes. I just got back a short while ago and saw the guard running out of your room. Is something wrong?¡±

    ¡°Yes. I don¡¯t know how to say this, but it would seem that¡­my son has been killed.¡±

    *gasp* ¡°Oh, no. That¡¯s terrible. I¡¯m so sorry.¡± She said as she moved to hug him. But before she could reach him, he stepped out of the way and moved to the door.

    ¡°Yes. It would seem that an Orc took his life during his hunting trip with his friends.¡±

    ¡°An Orc. No one has seen an Orc for so long. Is everyone else ok?¡±

    ¡°Huh, oh yes they are fine. They were captured by beast-kin and sold off as prisoners.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­But why would they do that.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. They are a despicable race. Probably saw them as a way to make more coin.¡±

    Lady Emilia was silent as she heard that and just watched Lord Abern move to stand by the doorway.

    ¡°Now, I am sorry Emilia, but there are some things I need to take care of. Alone,¡± he said as he held his hand out, gesturing to the door. ¡°The first of which is finding this Orc.¡±

    Emilia saw this gesture and quickly moved to the door, not wanting to anger him. She left but not before offering her condolences again, to which Lord Abern thanked her for and then shut the door.

    He headed back to his desk and sat down and sighed. Lord Abern knew that he should take the time to grieve for his son, but all he could think about doing was exacting vengeance on the monster that had taken him.

    Opening one of the drawers in his desk, he took a sheet of paper and started to write a letter. Once he was done, he called a messenger and sent it off.

    All he could do now was wait for the response.

 Chapter 53 - Chapter 53: The Recuperation - Part 1

    Chapter 53: The Recuperation ¨C Part ¡°¡­be fine. Just needs to rest up now.¡±

    Slowly opening her eyes, having heard a voice nearby, Olivia bore witness to a few different people surrounding her, none of whom she knew.

    One was a very tall and gruff man, who unless she was mistaken might be about as tall as her. Adorning his head like the rest of the people she had seen, he had two horns on his head poking out of his slightly greying hair, although one had been snapped off and all that was left was a short stump. His garb was mostly made up of leather armour, with a nice shirt and trousers underneath it.

    Opposite him was an older woman who had fewer grey hairs than the man and of which was shaped in a bun. She had a very simple outfit which was a cream and white dress. On top of that, she had a leather apron that covered most of the front of her body. There was a small pouch in the front of the apron that had various des and what appeared to be rudimentary surgical implements.

    As she looked around the room she was in some more, she saw some windows made up of murky ss, a table with arge basket on top, along with a couple of chairs, and eventually, she saw the door. On either side of it, she saw two men head to toe in metal and leather armour, both with their hands over the pommels of the swords.

    Continuing her gaze around the room as the two nearby continued to talk, she eventually found what she was looking for.

    Lyrika.

    She was sitting on a chair right next to the bed with her arm outstretched. It was at this point, she realised that Lyrika¡¯s hand was in hers. If anything, this reminded Olivia of so many of the romantic movies her friends had forced her to watch. If it was anything like this, she could see the next scene being her squeezing her hand to let her know she was fine causing Lyrika to notice.

    Figuring why not, she decided to go for it.

    Although, she was denied this opportunity when the man above spoke out.

    ¡°Ah, she¡¯s awake.¡±

    At that, Lyrika stood up and leaned over the bed Olivia was on, causing her to let go of her grip on her hand. That did disappoint Olivia a little since she couldn¡¯t do the clich¨¦ moment, but she got over it quickly when she saw the concerned look on Lyrika¡¯s face.

    ¡°How are you feeling? Are you ok?¡± Lyrika quickly asked, as she worriedly looked over her.

    Olivia honestly felt fine. All the pain that had covered her body was now gone, reced by just a dull ache in ces. She was no longer in agony from all the damage she had received.

    ¡°I feel much better now. What happened? Where are we.¡±

    ¡°What happened is you terrified everyone in my vige and nearly died when our guards attacked you in one of our barns. After the battle, you passed out and have been asleep for a couple of days as you¡¯ve been recovering. If it wasn¡¯t for Lyrika getting to me in time, I¡¯m afraid to say you wouldn¡¯t be waking up in our vige right now.¡± The gruff man said with a voice that demanded authority and respect. Olivia could recall some of what happened before, and she realised that this was the same voice that had told everyone to ¡®stop¡¯.

    ¡°Ah¡­I¡­¡± She¡¯d been asleep for two days. Olivia really didn¡¯t know how to respond to what he said. It also felt like she was being told off by her father when she was six. She could imagine him saying ¡®there are always consequences for your actions¡¯ and making her feel even more guilty. Even though, it wasn¡¯t¡­really her fault she ended up here. At least that¡¯s what she told herself.

    ¡°Now, enough of that, allow me to introduce myself. I am Teagan, the chief of this vige. I will apologise on behalf of the people in this vige, but I¡¯m sure you can understand how seeing a¡­seeing someone that looks like yourself would cause panic.¡± He said, managing to catch himself before he said monster.

    Of course, Olivia knew that what he was saying was true, which was why she had nned to stay out of sight the whole time. If it wasn¡¯t for those two mening out of the forest it would have been fine.

    ¡°Lyrika did say that you were hidden on the outskirts of our vige, and I imagine it was only dumb luck that caused this to happen.¡± He looked away and sighed. ¡°But thankfully, aside from yourself with your prior injuries, no one has been gravely injured from all that mess which is a blessing. Both of the people you¡­encountered are fine and only have some minor damage. I imagine their bruised ego feels worse than the actual injury they received.¡±

    Olivia was thankful for that. As she thought back to whom she fought against, she has been worried about how much she hurt them. There was the chance that her body weight had done more damage than she thought, or that the hit from her Morningstar had caused more permanent damage to that man¡¯s hand. But that was not the case which put her at ease.

    ¡°You on the other hand, I am surprised you managed to make it so close to my vige in the state you were in. I will say that you heal remarkably fast given what Lyrika told me of your journey, but even still, walking, and especially the running you had to do, with the injuries you had sustained has not done them any good. Erina here has applied a good many salves and potions to your wounds to help fix the damage. I would say that with the way you heal, you should be mostly injury free by tomorrow morning.¡± Teagan said, as he gestured over to the woman he had been talking to, who gave a quick wave.

    ¡°Thank you. That is good to hear.¡±

    ¡°Rest here for the rest of the day and tonight. In the morning we shall talk about what you are doing here and Yoban¡¯s letter.¡± He quickly looked across the room and pointed at the two men at the door. ¡°I shall leave two guards here who will stay with you at all times. While Yoban¡¯s letter has exined things, you are still¡­ what you appear to be, and have caused a lot of trouble. Because of that, they will remain inside the room when someone else is here, but will stay outside when you are alone or with Lyrika.¡±

    It was fairly clear what he was saying. With all the trouble that urred he didn¡¯t fully trust her, so they were there in case she was a¡­bad egg, so to speak.

    ¡°There are not here only for you though. A good deal in the vige are still shaken up after all that happened, and in their worried state, may decide that removing you from the vige would be the best thing to protect themselves and others. These two guards will make sure that no one enters the room aside from me and Erina. There will be a change of guards in the evening as you can imagine, but all of the guards that will be with you are the most loyal people I know and will not let anything befall you, or others. Now, it is starting to gette and I have ces to be so I have to leave you. Someone will be in soon with a meal to help you regain your strength.¡±

    After that he gave a quick farewell and headed out of the room with Erina, the two guards exiting and standing by the door as he said they would.

    ¡°Well, he seems¡­ nice,¡± Olivia said letting her thoughts out.

    ¡°He seems strict. As far as I can see he appears to be a good leader. Everyone in the vige respects and listens to him. Do you remember how just him saying stop was enough to make everyone listen and stop attacking you? Even though they were still fighting, well you, they still followed his order while still in the middle of their fight.¡±

    Olivia had to admit, that seemed like real power and respect. A good thing too, as if they didn¡¯t do what he said, she would surely be dead as he said.

    It was then that she remembered something.

    ¡°Ah, where is the, err¡­ we really need to figure out what it is. Where is the baby.¡±

    ¡°Oh, he¡¯s just over there in the basket. I gave him some more meat, which was provided by Teagan, and not long after that, he fell asleep.¡±

    Olivia looked over at the basket and was thankful. They had only had the creature for a short while, but it honestly felt like forever and both were starting to get a little attached to it.

    ¡°I¡¯m just so d you¡¯re ok. I was so worried.¡± Lyrika said with a very sad expression as she lent over and hugged her. Olivia hugged her back and they just stayed there for a while, only being interrupted by someone entering the room with a tray of food, followed by the two guards.

    The person entering was a young man who as quickly as he could, just left the tray on the table and headed out of the room.

    Both thought it was a little rude that he just entered and left without saying anything, but it didn¡¯t bother them too much. With the food in reach, they continued talking about what had happened and got to eating, fuelling themselves up.

    ¡­

    Once they had eaten their meal, it was getting closer to evening, given the darkness that slowly started to fill the room. With the advised bed rest, there wasn¡¯t anything she could do, and Lyrika didn¡¯t seem keen on just leaving Olivia anyway. So, all that was left was to get an early night, which Lyrika started off by jumping into the bed and wrapping her arms around her. She was careful to avoid any of the injuries she had sustained, keeping her arms around her chest.

    Both then tried to get to sleep, but Olivia just felt ufortable. There was still the dull ache pain along her body, but the fact that there were two armed guards outside the door and possibly a load of people that might decide just kill her, didn¡¯t help with the whole wanting to have a peaceful rest. Because of all this, she fidgeted and ended up keeping Lyrika awake.

    She did get a little angry, but once she heard her reason, she understood.

    It was at that though, that Lyrika thought of a way to help¡­ease the stress she was feeling. Lyrika quickly whispered that she would help take the edge off before slowly running her hand down Olivia¡¯s chest.

    ¡°But...there are two guards just outside the door.¡± Olivia quickly whispered back worryingly althoughpletely looking forward to it on the inside.

    But it would seem Lyrika hardly saw that as a reason to stop and so just whispered back with a grin on her face.

    ¡°I guess you just need to stay quiet then.¡±

 Chapter 54 - Chapter 54: The Recuperation - Part 2

    Chapter 54: The Recuperation ¨C Part Oliviaid there and could feel Lyrika slide her hand down her chest and stomach, and it caused a lovely tingling sensation across her skin. She knew what Lyrika was thinking and couldn¡¯t help but agree that it probably would help with the situation.

    But, just as she was about the reach where she was heading, both of them had to shield their eyes from a bright shing light that enveloped the whole room.

    Olivia¡¯s first thought was someone had thrown a shbang, the many shoot-em-up films she had seening to mind. But once she thought more clearly about this, realised that wasn¡¯t the case.

    Looking over in that direction, in between the shes, she found her backpack, the lighting from inside it.

    ¡°Wha-what is it?¡± Lyrika asked as she nted her face in the bed linen to stop the light from blinding her.

    Olivia didn¡¯t know how to answer, struggling to think what could be causing the light.

    But then, it hit her. One of the first items she ever ced in that backpack. Themunication orb from Ameril.

    Hopping out of the bed as fast as she could, which in her case was a somewhat slow straining step or two given her inactivity for a while, she walked over to the bag shielding her eyes as she did, all the while thinking about why it was so bloody bright.

    She figured if it had been during the day, it wouldn¡¯t be so bad, but at night, it was ridiculous.

    As she rummaged around inside, she finally managed to find the crystal ball and brought it out, quickly thinking of Ameril in order to hear the message.

    ¡°Olivia, I hope you still held onto this and have not forgotten about me after we parted in Cassus. I have been trying to get things sorted like I said I would, and I have done the best I can with the time avable. But a problem has arisen. My parents are sending me to the next town over, Caldaria, much earlier than they should in order for me to stay with my future¡­husband. They are probably doing this to get rid of me and to make an impression by showing how ¡®eager¡¯ I am to marry him,¡±

    Olivia could practically hear the almost gagging on the word husband.

    ¡°They shall be packing everything and making arrangements for me over the next three days, and then in the morning after those days, they will be sending me in a carriage with several guards. I¡­I¡¯m not really sure how to say this but, this may be my only way out of the mess that is this marriage. I need¡­ I need you to pretend to be the monster I know you are not and¡­kidnap me.¡±

    With that the message ended, leaving Olivia toprehend all that she had said.

    Lyrika was trying to understand what was going on as well, but her first thought was who this woman was that knew Olivia.

    Olivia thought back to Ameril and the problem she was facing, where her parents were forcing her to marry some wealthy man in another town who was very shady. There would be no romance between them. Well definitely not from Ameril, but who knows what the man would be like. It was more a business move for her parents than anything else and they had no qualms about sending their daughter to be with this creep.

    She had offered to take Ameril with her when she brought her back to her home town, but being who she was, a noble of some sort, she had to deal with quite a few things before she could just run off. Things had already gone wrong for her the first time, so she wanted to make sure the next time she did it, she could stay out of their reach and be able to start a new life away from them.

    Hopefully, she had managed to get everything she needed done before they sprung the new travel arrangements, meaning she would be free and clear if she got away. Something she would have to ask when she met her.

    That though did beg the question. How would she go about kidnapping her?

    ¡­

    ¡°Who was that?¡±

    Olivia looked over at the bed and saw Lyrika sitting there is a little bit of an annoyed expression on her face. She wasn¡¯t sure why she was like that but figured it was the shing lights and all that, ruining what was probably going to be a fun evening.

    ¡°Oh, that was Ameril. I told you about her before when we first met. Remember.¡±

    ¡°Ameril¡­ yes, I think I remember you telling me about her,¡± Lyrika replied with a couple of twitches in her eye as she got through the sentence.

    Olivia waited for a while, thinking Lyrika would have more to say, but all she did was get back under the sheets of the bed.

    ¡®Huh, that was¡­odd.¡¯ Olivia thought as she walked back to the bed after cing the orb back in the bag.

    She decided to reply tomorrow, hoping toe up with some ideas in the morning, as right now all she wanted to do was sleep. As she fell back onto the bed, she couldn¡¯t help but wonder why Ameril had sent the message sote. Could this have been the only time she could be alone? If so, that meant she should probably send the message around the same time tomorrow evening.

    Deciding to leave things for tomorrow Olivia to deal with, she got herselffy and started to try and fall asleep again. But as she did, she realised that they had some unfinished business to take care of.

    ¡°Lyrika, shall we continue what we started? I for one am still feeling quite stressed and in pain and what you nned to do would really take my mind off it. Plus, I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll be able to repay the favour.¡±

    By this point, Olivia hadpletely forgotten about the guards outside, and Lyrika¡¯s touch had made her very¡­ready for what was going to happen. So, moving into position to get things started she was surprised by Lyrika¡¯s response.

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t feel like it.¡±

    ¡®Wait, what. Doesn¡¯t feel like it. She was the one who started it.¡¯

    Confusion just flooded Olivia¡¯s brain as she tried to understand what had happened. The almost sulky behaviour from Lyrika made her wonder if she herself had done something wrong.

    ¡®All I did was get the message from Ameril. How would that make her annoyed?¡¯

    Looking over at her, she saw her facing away from her in the bed which never normally happened. Usually, she would be facing her, all the while sleeping with her arms wrapped around her.

    ¡®Is she¡­jealous of Ameril. That can¡¯t be right, she hasn¡¯t even met her and I¡¯ve only ever done things with Lyrika. I don¡¯t know¡­ I¡¯m sure we will talk in the morning.¡¯

    And with that, the state Lyrika had put her in made it even harder to sleep, causing her to struggle all through the night.

    ¡­

    The light streaming in through the windows should have been the first thing to wake both Olivia and Lyrika up. But today, it was the sound of someone clearing their throat. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes Olivia looked up to find the woman, Erina standing there with her hands on her hips and a slight frown on her face.

    ¡°Come on you two. Time to get up.¡±

    Groans arose from both of them as they struggled to wake up. Lyrika rolled off the bed and sat down on the chair that was still nearby and Olivia went to sit up in the bed. But, she was very quickly stopped by Erina who told her to remain where she was.

    ¡°I¡¯m just going to check your injuries and see how you¡¯re doing. Justy still for a moment.¡±

    The guards, different ones from yesterday evening, were both standing in the room and had their hands over the pommels of their swords, ready in case she did anything. Erina made her way around the bed and gave Olivia a check-up, looking over the scratches and bite wounds. She applied a few salves in various ces, to rece the stuff from yesterday. Once she was done, she headed to the door.

    ¡°Ok, you look fine. It should be fine for you to move around now. Just, don¡¯t do anything to strenuous. Some breakfast will be here soon and then I think Chief Teagan will being here to talk to you.¡±

    With that, she left.

    Now being given the ok to move about, not that she didn¡¯t do sost night or anything, both got ready for the day and waited for breakfast which soon arrived. It didn¡¯t take long to finish it as eating was all they could do since for some reason the conversation had stagnated between them.

    Olivia thought about trying to check with her if everything was ok but was stopped by the arrival of Teagan.

    ¡°Ah, good to see you are up and about. If it¡¯s all right with you two, would you like to go for a walk around the vige? I¡¯ve been stuck at my desk all morning, so would love to get outside for a while.¡±

    Even with thecking conversation, both looked at each other with knowing looks. The events of yesterday were still fresh in everyone¡¯s mind, so who was to say what would happen if they saw a monster that looked like an Orc walking around?

    Teagan did see this and quickly realised what the problem was. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about everyone in the vige. The two guards on the door will apany us for your safety and if needed the safety of the vigers. I did also hold a meeting with everyone to inform them about you and what Yoban had said. There may still be some hostility from some people, but for the most part, it should be fine.¡±

    With Teagans¡­word on how he had helped with the problem, they both decided to go for it. With Olivia in better shape, she was able to pick up her Morningstar which made her feel safer. Lyrika also took the creature in the basket, which was so much easier to carry around.

    Teagan almost stopped her when he saw the Morningstar, but realise that like what she thought, it would make her feel safer, and if someone did get any ideas, it would probably deter some people. Besides, given how expensive it looked, he couldn¡¯t imagine she would just leave it lying around to be stolen.

    They would have to wait and see if her keeping her weapon and Teagan¡¯s talk within the vige would help keep the vigers cid as the monster roamed the streets.

 Chapter 55 - Chapter 55: The Recuperation - Part 3

    Chapter 55: The Recuperation ¨C Part Sunlight hit them right in the eyes as they headed out of the building and bore witness to the vige that was until recently, closed off to her. Lyrika had journeyed around it a fair bit but didn¡¯t really have time to see the sights given that she was trying to find the chief.

    As they walked out, there were stares from the many vigers around her. Some showed curiosity, and a few were hostile. Whether it was because of what she was or just from the episode yesterday she didn¡¯t know and didn¡¯t really want to ask.

    Teagan seeing this stepped out in front of her and held his hands up to cate everyone. He made sure to tell them that she would not cause them any harm, and for them to get on with their day. For the most part, it worked. Pretty much everyone got on with their lives.

    A few did remain just looking at her. Mainly these were people that were just too stunned to even realise their chief had said anything. But, as she looked around, she was sure she spotted someone with what could only be described as a lustful face.

    It was only for a split second, as when she turned back to look again, they had already moved on and she couldn¡¯t spot them anymore.

    ¡®That was¡­weird.¡¯

    She wondered if maybe she was just mistaken about what she saw. It was a very quick nce, so that may have been the case.

    Moving on from the vigers, she looked around at all the buildings and saw the same thing that Lyrika had from her time in the vige, where they were all tightly packed together. The architecture was simr to Lyrika¡¯s vige, them all being stone and wooden houses, it was just the space between them that was different.

    ¡°Let me give you a quick tour of the vige and then we can talk about what you came here for.¡±

    With a quick agreement, he then took them to what was essentially the marketce of the vige, passing by many houses in the process. There were various stalls in the centre of the area and surrounding them were permanent buildings which were a variety of shops.

    ¡°We have what you would expect in a vige of this size. You have the butchers, fishmongers and general stores over there which all deal with your basic necessities. On the other side are some more specialised buildings such as an apothecary and the cksmith to name a few. There are a few Inns in the vige, the nearest being just down that path,¡± He said as he pointed in the direction, ¡°It¡¯s not far from here and like you have seen with some of the shops, it¡¯s made up for a few houses connected together. If you do choose to stay here, I can speak with them about amodations for you two. Other than that, there are stalls in the centre where we have local produce, fabrics and other goods that the people have made. By the looks of it, there are also a couple of merchants from other viges which have set up stalls of their own.¡±

    Looking around, she could see the many different stalls in the centre, as well as signboards on each of the buildings giving a good idea as to what they were. They would need to check these ces out and grab some new supplies with the money they had.

    ¡°Other than that, if you wish to send letters to anyone, that can be done from my house. We have runners that will take them to their location, within reason. Oh, that reminds me. This came for you while you were asleep.¡± Teagan said as he procured a pouch and handed it to Olivia. ¡°It¡¯s from Teagan who said it was payment for the bandits you helped deal with.¡±

    ¡°Ah thank you.¡± Olivia quickly said pocketing the pouch.

    ¡°Now, the day is still early, so if you would be so kind, I would like to get this business with the¡­other chief, out of the way. Please follow me to my home.¡±

    ¡­

    It didn¡¯t take long to reach his house, being just on the other side of the marketce, and this time Lyrika was thankful she didn¡¯t have to wait in the waiting room as she had done before. Passing through the hall, they eventually came to his office where he took a seat behind his desk and requested they sit as well.

    ¡°I have read through Yoban¡¯s letter and I must say it was hard to believe. First is how you are half Orc and Half Goblin, and not an aggressive monster like both races usually are. But, having met you and given that no one was seriously hurt in the incident yesterday, I am inclined to believe him. It is just¡­very odd.¡±

    He quickly pulled out a bottle and poured himself a ss of some sort of alcohol before taking a swig of the stuff.

    ¡°The next part is what concerns me more deeply.¡± *sigh* ¡°When that chief came to us, telling us how he would help make beast-kin better, bringing themunities together, strengthening their bonds, many readily jumped on his bandwagon. A good number of the guards and vigers went with him to travel and join him in achieving his goal, one of which¡­was my wife.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Neither Lyrika nor Olivia knew what to say there, and Teagan could easily see that by the gaping jaws they had.

    ¡°There is no need to think too hard about this or feel sorry for me. My wife and I have been together for a few years, but it was more a political marriage than anything. Neither of us had feelings for the other, so when this man came along spouting all those lines about making dreamse true and looking to form an alliance through marriage, my wife was all for it. She saw it as a way to get a nice new younger man in her life and to see the world with him.¡±

    He leaned back and sighed again after this.

    ¡°I do of course care that my ¡®wife¡¯ and the other women with him are being abused, do not get me wrong, I just do not have much of a vested interest in seeing here back to me. She wasn¡¯t a very nice person. I will still help in any way that I can get save those girls, and it also pains me that the people who left our vige either know what he is like and are with him willingly, or they are being deceived and do not know. Either way, something needs to be done about it, and you have my full support going forward. If Yoban trusts you, so do I.¡±

    Both of the girls now sighed as they heard this.

    ¡°Thank you. That is good to hear.¡±, ¡°Yes thank you.¡± where Olivia and Lyrika¡¯s replies.

    Teagan however raised a hand to stop them from talking as he continued.

    ¡°The only problem I have is what your n is. Sure, I¡¯m d you got to me and told me this, but is that what you n to do going forward? Just visit each of the viges the new chief visited before. What will that aplish? All it does is cost you time having to travel to each of them, all to learn, probably, the same information.¡±

    ¡°Some of the viges may have more information than others.¡± Olivia decided to bring this up in hopes to prove that their n wasn¡¯t as¡­wed as he had stated.

    ¡°Sure that may be so, but do you really need to travel to each of them, one by one? There are people that work as messengers to do just that so you don¡¯t have to.¡± He said as he looked at Olivia who was about to open her mouth. ¡°Yes, any one of these messengers may be in league with the chief or end up attacked and captured by his men. But what I¡¯m guessing you didn¡¯t learn from Yoban, is that vige chiefs don¡¯t use people as messengers. They usemunication orbs.¡±

    Olivia¡¯s mind just shed back to the conversations from the Orb yesterday and had to rub her head at the thought of the shing light.

    ¡°I¡¯m guessing Yoban was dealing with a lot, or his Orbs got smashed, but each chief has a set of orbs and spares for emergencies, which means I can get a message to all of the chiefs quite quickly. That will stop you from needing to go to each one. I can let them know the situation and ask for information on him and what he ns to do. Does that sound agreeable?¡±

    Olivia looked over at Lyrika and she did the same where they had a quick discussion about it. They spoke about whether there were any problems with it, whether it would tip off the horrible chief, and what could go wrong.

    They realised that it was a gamble. For each chief they inform, there was the possibility that they wouldn¡¯t believe it and would inform the man himself of the ¡®lies¡¯ being posted. But the more they thought about it, that could just as easily happen with each vige they go to by themselves. Besides, the messageing from one of the respected vige chiefs would likely hold more weight than from a ¡®monster¡¯.

    Going to each vige themselves was the only n they had at the time, as they had no help or anyone else they could turn to. How long would it take to visit each? Likely way too long. But now that they had help, why not use it?

    Aside from Teagan possibly being in league with the new chief, which she was fairly sure wasn¡¯t the case, the only other problem that Olivia could see was how they would know what viges to send the message to. Sure, all the ces the new chief had been to were where they wanted to send the message, but how do they know which ones they are? There was the possibility that they might send a message to one he hasn¡¯t visited yet. If they tell the chief there what he ns to do, the chief of that vige might fight back against him, which could lead to a massacre given the numbers he had.

    It was a horrible thought, and even more so when that meant the only way to stop that, was to not tell viges he hadn¡¯t visited what he nned to.

    ¡°Ok, that sounds fine. But what about the viges he hasn¡¯t been to yet? If we end up informing them they might try and fight back against him. Who knows how many people might die if that happened.¡±

    ¡°You make a good point. Well, why not just ask them then? I can send a message asking if they have joined with the alliance, along with some pap aboutmunicating with each other more and how joyous things are. Then we just wait for the responses and then let the right people know. There is no reason for the other chiefs to lie if they have or not, and many who haven¡¯t been visited already know he¡¯sing to see them. That should solve the problem.¡±

    Olivia again could pick out some problems with it, but it did solve one problem itself. And like he said, why would any of the chiefs lie about joining the new chief? So, in lieu of another n, they decided to jump on the bandwagon for now, and confirm which viges have joined the alliance.

 Chapter 56 - Chapter 56: The Training - Part 1

    Chapter 56: The Training ¨C Part Walking through the vige they all experienced the same thing. Stares of both wonderment and hostility. Thankfully, none of the vigers acted on it. Whether it was actuallying over to ask them questions or to take out their swords and attack them, they all remained where they were and got back to what they were doing once they passed.

    There was also one time when she saw an olddy looking right at Lyrika. She quickly turned her head to her and then back to Lyirka, all before shaking her head and heading inside. What that was about she didn¡¯t know. She also didn¡¯t quite get the slight blush on Lyrika¡¯s face when she noticed her as well.

    The whole situation with the vigers was odd, to say the least. Olivia had expected some inquisitive people to actually work up the courage to talk to them, or someone to actually snap and rush them, but no one did. Not that she wasining.

    She had to imagine it was the work of Teagan. The mere fact that his shouting out ¡®stop!¡¯ had caused all the guards to stop their attacks, even the ones that were fighting her, was telling. It showed that theypletely respected him, so when he basically told them not to worry, interfere or try to attack her, they all followed his order to the letter.

    Only time would tell how long they would do so though. Surely, their respect for the man could only hold out so long against the anger and fear that some felt.

    ¡­

    After several minutes of walking through the vige, they finally reached the training grounds. It looked almost deserted, with only a few people in the area actually training.

    It was however quite early in the day, so it could be that others had chores or jobs they had to get to first before they could actually train. With the number of people that had been there to take her down in that barn, she had to imagine that this was the case given how empty it was.

    Towards the back of the dirt and sand-covered area, she could see around four men all following another bull-kin¡¯s instructions, who was walking around them as they swung their des. It looked like it wasbat drills that they were practising, going from overhead strikes to shes left and right, followed by some fancy footwork. From where she was standing, they all looked to be in sync and quite deadly with their attacks. The instructor must really know his stuff.

    Olivia wondered if he would be willing to teach her how to fight properly. She had thought it would end up with her just practising by herself, but that may no longer be the case. Assuming he had no problem teaching a half-Orc half-Goblin how to fight better and inevitably kill people.

    That¡¯s how she imagined he would see it.

    As they entered the grounds and started walking over, they heard a ¡®thunk¡¯ from afar. It was a sound Olivia was all too familiar with, having had to dodge what caused the sounds in the field.

    Looking over, they saw a woman holding a bow and arrow, having been hidden by the nearby building, who was firing arrows into straw targets a good distance away. As she fired them, she was steady as a rock with her stance. The arrows speedily flew through the air before hitting the bullseye, which already had a good dozen arrows embedded in it.

    Having been watching her fire arrows, they missed the men they were heading towards start to remove their gear and thank the instructor. As they put away their gear in the nearby weapon rack, the instructor looked over and noticed them standing there in the centre.

    He watched them for a moment, and after a deep breath, spoke out to them.

    ¡°You must be the Orc everyone has heard about.¡±

    Turning away from the archer and to the instructor that had walked over to them, they could see he was quite an old man. His hair was mostly grey and his face, the only thing not covered by armour, had a good deal of wrinkles in between several scars, showing he was quite the veteran ofbat. It made sense that he was training people.

    She could also see that while he spoke in a friendly tone, he did keep a firm grip on the pommel of his sword.

    ¡°Half-Orc, but yes that¡¯s me. I was hoping you could help train me to fight.¡± Olivia quickly replied as she took her eyes off his sword.

    ¡°Half-Orc?¡± He walked a little closer but stopped himself before he ended up right in front of her. ¡°Ah, yes I see it now. You have the body of one, but I¡¯ve never seen an Orc with your skin tone. Plus, the ears are all wrong. I would get you are either part-elf or part¡­how it would have happened I don¡¯t know, but part-goblin.¡±

    She was very surprised, something that was also evident on Lyrika and Philly¡¯s faces. Why wouldn¡¯t she be? Not only did this man correctly figure out her species, but it also seemed like he was familiar with Orcs. For the most part, the people she had met knew of them but had hardly encountered them.

    ¡°Yes, that¡¯s¡­yes, I¡¯m part-goblin. Have you¡­have you seen other Orcs before.¡± Olivia asked. She still needed to find the ones that were hiding, and who knows, him seeing one may have been recent.

    ¡°Part-goblin. Now that is a surprise. How does that even happen? I thought Orcs only went after beautiful women.¡± He said before looking over at Lyrika and Philly. ¡°Something that still appears to be the case today I see.¡±

    Well. If Olivia was sure of one thing. It was that he was very much adies¡¯ man in his day if the slight blushes at thepliment on both Lyrika and Philly¡¯s faces were anything to go by. To be honest, she was sure that if she was in their shoes, she would be doing the same.

    ¡°But on your question about Orcs, I have seen others before. It¡¯s been quite some time though, twenty years ago I think.¡±

    ¡°Where was this? What happened?¡±

    ¡°Huh, well it was just in my travels. I was making my way through the Demon kingdom and I spotted a few travelling in the forest. I can¡¯t for the life of me recall which forest it was though.¡±

    The Demon kingdom. It had been a good deal of time since he saw them, but it looks like she just got her first and only lead on them. Pretty much out of the blue too.

    But, while good to know, she still had a maiden to kidnap and a chief to deal with. Searching through dozens of forests to find a few Orcs could wait.

    Coming out of her thoughts, she saw the instructor wave at the men he had been training, sending them off. They looked a little reluctant to actually leave, probably fearful for his life, but he shooed them off.

    ¡°So, if I can recall what you said before, you want me to train you. I would have thought your tribe or parents at least would have already taught you how.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m a little differentpared to other Orcs you may have heard of.¡±

    ¡°I would think that¡¯s an understatement given you¡¯re in our vige and you know, not killing people. Ok¡­ but I¡¯m only going to teach you the basics. I am not going to teach you how to kill a man.¡±

    ¡°That is fine by me.¡±

    ¡°And what about you two? You looking to learn how to fight.¡± He said looking over at Lyrika and Philly.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just here to watch¡±, was Philly¡¯s very quick response.

    Olivia quickly turned to her after she said that.

    ¡°You know, if you are travelling with us, which it seems is the case, you should probably learn how to defend yourself. You¡¯re going to need it where we are going.¡±

    The girl gave a slight huff at that but relented and decided she would learn too.

    ¡°And you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m an archer.¡± She said ncing over at the woman who was still firing her arrows at the target.

    ¡°Well, if you¡¯re fine with it, I¡¯m sure Marielle won¡¯t mind giving you some pointers.¡±

    Even with the distance from them, the woman managed to hear her name, quickly turning her head to whoever called her. Olivia had to imagine she was a hunter or something with hearing and reflexes like that.

    The woman quickly walked over to them all the while keeping an eye on Olivia as she did.

    ¡°Adan, what did you call me for.¡±

    ¡°Your free right now, right? Fancy helping to train¡­err.¡± He drifted off, not knowing her name.

    ¡°Lyrika.¡±

    ¡°Yes Lyrika. I¡¯m going to train these two in meleebat, but she is an archer. Are you fine to do so?¡±

    The woman, Marie, did roll her eyes at him as he said that, but ended up saying ¡®sure¡¯ and agreed.

    ¡°We can only train you for a while. Another group will being a littleter.¡±

    And so they headed over to their respective sections of the training grounds and got to work.

 Chapter 57 - Chapter 57: The Training - Part 1

    Chapter 57: The Training ¨C Part Walking through the vige they all experienced the same thing. Stares of both wonderment and hostility. Thankfully, none of the vigers acted on it. Whether it was actuallying over to ask them questions or to take out their swords and attack them, they all remained where they were and got back to what they were doing once they passed.

    There was also one time when she saw an olddy looking right at Lyrika. She quickly turned her head to her and then back to Lyirka, all before shaking her head and heading inside. What that was about she didn¡¯t know. She also didn¡¯t quite get the slight blush on Lyrika¡¯s face when she noticed her as well.

    The whole situation with the vigers was odd, to say the least. Olivia had expected some inquisitive people to actually work up the courage to talk to them, or someone to actually snap and rush them, but no one did. Not that she wasining.

    She had to imagine it was the work of Teagan. The mere fact that his shouting out ¡®stop!¡¯ had caused all the guards to stop their attacks, even the ones that were fighting her, was telling. It showed that theypletely respected him, so when he basically told them not to worry, interfere or try to attack her, they all followed his order to the letter.

    Only time would tell how long they would do so though. Surely, their respect for the man could only hold out so long against the anger and fear that some felt.

    ¡­

    After several minutes of walking through the vige, they finally reached the training grounds. It looked almost deserted, with only a few people in the area actually training.

    It was however quite early in the day, so it could be that others had chores or jobs they had to get to first before they could actually train. With the number of people that had been there to take her down in that barn, she had to imagine that this was the case given how empty it was.

    Towards the back of the dirt and sand-covered area, she could see around four men all following another bull-kin¡¯s instructions, who was walking around them as they swung their des. It looked like it wasbat drills that they were practising, going from overhead strikes to shes left and right, followed by some fancy footwork. From where she was standing, they all looked to be in sync and quite deadly with their attacks. The instructor must really know his stuff.

    Olivia wondered if he would be willing to teach her how to fight properly. She had thought it would end up with her just practising by herself, but that may no longer be the case. Assuming he had no problem teaching a half-Orc half-Goblin how to fight better and inevitably kill people.

    That¡¯s how she imagined he would see it.

    As they entered the grounds and started walking over, they heard a ¡®thunk¡¯ from afar. It was a sound Olivia was all too familiar with, having had to dodge what caused the sounds in the field.

    Looking over, they saw a woman holding a bow and arrow, having been hidden by the nearby building, who was firing arrows into straw targets a good distance away. As she fired them, she was steady as a rock with her stance. The arrows speedily flew through the air before hitting the bullseye, which already had a good dozen arrows embedded in it.

    Having been watching her fire arrows, they missed the men they were heading towards start to remove their gear and thank the instructor. As they put away their gear in the nearby weapon rack, the instructor looked over and noticed them standing there in the centre.

    He watched them for a moment, and after a deep breath, spoke out to them.

    ¡°You must be the Orc everyone has heard about.¡±

    Turning away from the archer and to the instructor that had walked over to them, they could see he was quite an old man. His hair was mostly grey and his face, the only thing not covered by armour, had a good deal of wrinkles in between several scars, showing he was quite the veteran ofbat. It made sense that he was training people.

    She could also see that while he spoke in a friendly tone, he did keep a firm grip on the pommel of his sword.

    ¡°Half-Orc, but yes that¡¯s me. I was hoping you could help train me to fight.¡± Olivia quickly replied as she took her eyes off his sword.

    ¡°Half-Orc?¡± He walked a little closer but stopped himself before he ended up right in front of her. ¡°Ah, yes I see it now. You have the body of one, but I¡¯ve never seen an Orc with your skin tone. Plus, the ears are all wrong. I would get you are either part-elf or part¡­how it would have happened I don¡¯t know, but part-goblin.¡±

    She was very surprised, something that was also evident on Lyrika and Philly¡¯s faces. Why wouldn¡¯t she be? Not only did this man correctly figure out her species, but it also seemed like he was familiar with Orcs. For the most part, the people she had met knew of them but had hardly encountered them. ¡°Yes, that¡¯s¡­yes, I¡¯m part-goblin. Have you¡­have you seen other Orcs before.¡± Olivia asked. She still needed to find the ones that were hiding, and who knows, him seeing one may have been recent.

    ¡°Part-goblin. Now that is a surprise. How does that even happen? I thought Orcs only went after beautiful women.¡± He said before looking over at Lyrika and Philly. ¡°Something that still appears to be the case today I see.¡±

    Well. If Olivia was sure of one thing. It was that he was very much adies¡¯ man in his day if the slight blushes at thepliment on both Lyrika and Philly¡¯s faces were anything to go by. To be honest, she was sure that if she was in their shoes, she would be doing the same.

    ¡°But on your question about Orcs, I have seen others before. It¡¯s been quite some time though, twenty years ago I think.¡±

    ¡°Where was this? What happened?¡±

    ¡°Huh, well it was just in my travels. I was making my way through the Demon kingdom and I spotted a few travelling in the forest. I can¡¯t for the life of me recall which forest it was though.¡±

    The Demon kingdom. It had been a good deal of time since he saw them, but it looks like she just got her first and only lead on them. Pretty much out of the blue too.

    But, while good to know, she still had a maiden to kidnap and a chief to deal with. Searching through dozens of forests to find a few Orcs could wait.

    Coming out of her thoughts, she saw the instructor wave at the men he had been training, sending them off. They looked a little reluctant to actually leave, probably fearful for his life, but he shooed them off.

    ¡°So, if I can recall what you said before, you want me to train you. I would have thought your tribe or parents at least would have already taught you how.¡±

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m a little differentpared to other Orcs you may have heard of.¡±

    ¡°I would think that¡¯s an understatement given you¡¯re in our vige and you know, not killing people. Ok¡­ but I¡¯m only going to teach you the basics. I am not going to teach you how to kill a man.¡±

    ¡°That is fine by me.¡±

    ¡°And what about you two? You looking to learn how to fight.¡± He said looking over at Lyrika and Philly.

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m just here to watch¡±, was Philly¡¯s very quick response.

    Olivia quickly turned to her after she said that.

    ¡°You know, if you are travelling with us, which it seems is the case, you should probably learn how to defend yourself. You¡¯re going to need it where we are going.¡±

    The girl gave a slight huff at that but relented and decided she would learn too.

    ¡°And you.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I¡¯m an archer.¡± She said ncing over at the woman who was still firing her arrows at the target.

    ¡°Well, if you¡¯re fine with it, I¡¯m sure Marielle won¡¯t mind giving you some pointers.¡±

    Even with the distance from them, the woman managed to hear her name, quickly turning her head to whoever called her. Olivia had to imagine she was a hunter or something with hearing and reflexes like that.

    The woman quickly walked over to them all the while keeping an eye on Olivia as she did.

    ¡°Adan, what did you call me for.¡±

    ¡°Your free right now, right? Fancy helping to train¡­err.¡± He drifted off, not knowing her name.

    ¡°Lyrika.¡±

    ¡°Yes Lyrika. I¡¯m going to train these two in meleebat, but she is an archer. Are you fine to do so?¡±

    The woman, Marie, did roll her eyes at him as he said that, but ended up saying ¡®sure¡¯ and agreed.

    ¡°We can only train you for a while. Another group will being a littleter.¡±

    And so they headed over to their respective sections of the training grounds and got to work.

 Chapter 58 - Chapter 58: The Training - Part 2

    Chapter 58: The Training ¨C Part ¡°What is that? It¡¯s massive.¡±

    Those were the words that left Adan¡¯s mouth as he saw Olivia¡¯srge weapon. Thankfully he was only talking about the one made of metal. They had just walked over to the section the men from before had been using and were standing in front of a few training dummies and weapon racks when Adan had turned to them and finally noticed Olivia¡¯s weapon.

    ¡°It¡¯s a Morningstar.¡± She said taking it off her back.

    ¡°Where did you get something like that?¡± he said after blinking a few times.

    ¡°From the bandits that attacked Yoban¡¯s vige, we think they took it from some trader they killed.¡±

    Adan waspletely in awe of the weapon watching Olivia as she held it and moved it about to show it off.

    ¡°Mind if I have a look.¡±

    Olivia handed it over so he could have a look. She did have a wild thought that he might try to take it. But he was in the middle of a massive open area right in front of arge Orc, so she didn¡¯t think that would be happening.

    ¡°This is a thing of beauty. Very good craftsmanship and lovely detail. I don¡¯t know who made this, but they are excellent at their craft. It¡¯s a little weighty but I guess that¡¯s not much of a problem for you. I¡¯ve never wielded or even seen a weapon like this before. This does however resemble a mace and I have used many of them in my time. So¡­ I should be able to help you out with how to use it.¡±

    Handing it back he then turned to Philly.

    ¡°What weapon do you have?¡±

    Philly jumped a little at the question, having been more focused on Olivia and her weapon.

    ¡°Oh, er, I don¡¯t have one. I mean I have my potions, but you can¡¯t really fight with them.¡±

    ¡°Huh, well is there a weapon that you would like to use.¡± He asked.

    Philly contemted on this, before just turning back to him and rebuking that she doesn¡¯t know. As a researcher, she doesn¡¯t have much experience with weapons andbat. She hardly knew what most were called.

    ¡°Ok then, let¡¯s see. Given your stature, I¡¯m sorry to say you won¡¯t be wielding anything¡­massive.¡±

    As he said that, Olivia was sure she heard a cough from Lyrika¡¯s direction.

    ¡°Two-handed swords and the like could only be used if you trained up your strength and physique a great deal. So, it looks like one-handed weapons will be the way to go. You¡¯re also quite short, nimble so something with a little finesse will be needed.¡±

    He took a good long look as he contemted something else about her.

    ¡°And I must say you have a very innocent look about you, fragile even. I would say that anyone who¡¯s not a heartless monster would feel the need to protect you in some way before they think you¡¯re going to hurt them. And I think this is something you can use to your advantage.¡±

    He nodded his head as he came to a conclusion about what weapon she would use and her role in a fight.

    ¡°I think you would be best as some who makes surprise attacks. You¡¯re not going to be able to hold your ground in a prolonged fight, but if someone lets their guard down around you, and many probably will, you could strike and take them out very easily. Something akin to how an assassin operates.¡±

    ¡°Huh. Makes sense I guess.¡± Philly just replied nonchntly in understanding

    ¡°Yes that¡¯s¡­ huh. Well, you took that better than I thought you would. Not many people like the idea of fighting like an assassin. Ok then. Doing this role, means you will probably want to use a dagger or a small de. Something you can conceal and keep hidden right before you use it to take someone down.¡±

    He quickly walked over to the table and picked up a dagger, before turning back and holding it to show her.

    ¡°But before you can actually use this to fight, you¡¯re going to need to improve your speed and strength. Let me give you some exercises that will help with that.¡± He then turned to Olivia. ¡°And while she¡¯s doing those, we can get started on your training.¡±

    ¡­

    The sounds of thunks could be heard in the distance as Olivia was still in the same ce and Philly was listening to Adan. As she looked over her shoulder, Olivia could see Lyrika holding her bow and arrow, taking shots at her target. All the while Marielle walked around her watching her movements as she fired her shots.

    ¡°¡­I want you to do these exercises every day. This will help improve your speed, stamina and strength, all of which will be needed then ites to surprise attacks. Now I want you to do¡­ three sets of them, and once you¡¯re done I¡¯ll go through actually attacking with your dagger.¡±

    At that, Philly, albeit reluctantly, set off. He had told her about several different ways to exercise, the first being just running while holding weights, which is what she was doing now. He also told her about a rudimentary form of weightlifting and also a strange exercise which involved bending and straightening her arms as fast as possible as well as some variations on squats and the like.

    While Philly was doing that, Adan turned to Olivia and got to work training her.

    ¡°Now, how much have you used your Morning Star.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I haven¡¯t yet. Just a few practice swings.¡±

    Adan looked confused at that.

    ¡°How did you take out the bandits at Teagan¡¯s vige then.¡±

    ¡°Oh, I had a spear, but it broke on the way here. I didn¡¯t really know how to use that eithere to think of it.¡±

    Adan scratched his head a little and told her to do a few practice swings with her Morning star so he could see what he was working with.

    She did what he said and took a few swings, which thankfully, didn¡¯t cause her muscles to ache, them having healed quite nicely. But she didn¡¯t think she would do well in a full on fight yet though.

    ¡°Ok, ok. As far as I can see you have the strength down, which makes sense, but that¡¯s about it. You need to work on your speed, uracy and technique. Then there is your stamina, which I¡¯m sure you have a lot of-,¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll say,¡± Were the words mumbled by Lyrika having heard Adan with her strong hearing.

    ¡°What was that,¡± Marie asked as she heard her speak.

    ¡°Oh, er nothing.¡±

    ¡°-being part Orc and all, but that stamina won¡¯t help with the pain you¡¯re going to feel from constantly swinging it,¡± Adan said.

    Olivia couldn¡¯t help but agree. Sure, it seemed they didn¡¯t have a clear understanding of how muscles work, but at least knew how repeating odd not normally done actions would cause pain. And that is what would happen. Once she knew the swings she would have to keep doing them, ingraining them in her mind so it was just second nature, and strengthening the muscle as she kept doing them.

    She also had to imagine that the improved speed and uracy just came from repeating swings again and again as well.

    ¡°First, like with Philly, I will show you some exercises you can do that will help specifically with wielding a weapon.¡±

    So, like he said, he showed her several exercises to do. Most were what she normally did once she woke up, but a few were specific to wielding a weapon like he said.

    One focused on the use of her arms, which involved moving it around in many different direction and bends of the elbow, putting her muscle through a good deal of motions it never normally had to do, all of which would help things for any new and wonderful techniques she learnt on how to swing her Morning star.

    Adan realised that most of what he had said was all second nature to her, exercise-wise, so he decided to get started on her swing while Philly was finishing up. And by finishing up, this meant slowing down and running out of breath.

    ¡°Now, first we shall go through your footwork and stance. Stance if going to be key when using a weapon like yours. Sure, your strong, but if you¡¯re in a bad stance or someone puts you in a bad one, the weight of your Morning star might just end up toppling you in the heat of a fight. That is not something you want to happen.¡±

    He spoke of how she needed to keep both her feet firmly nted at all times, and if possible for the stance to be staggered and wide. With her feet inline with each other and standing narrow, it would be very easily for someone to knock her down. But with a wide stance and her feet nted almost diagonally from each other, that gave her the best grounding.

    He also took her through digging in her heels. Quite literally, if the opportunity presented itself. If you end up against someone or something charging at you that you cant dodge, then actually digging your feet into the dirt would allow you to better stand your ground. This could then be coupled with lowering your center of gravity, something else he took her through. Not that he rted it to gravity though.

    By this point they ended up distracted by the sounds of wheezing and huffing nearby, showing that Philly had returned. This was followed by her hitting ground andying down.

    ¡°Hey Philly. How are you feeling?¡± Olivia quickly asked her, seeing the state she was in.

    ¡°Just¡­*huff*¡­ Just great¡±

    ¡°d to hear it, because like I said, this is something you should do each day. You rest for a while and then I¡¯ll show you how to actually wield a dagger.¡±

    There was no response aside from a louder huff of air, which was either enthusiastic agreement or thinly veiled contempt.

    ¡°While she¡¯s resting, let me show you how to actually use that thing now.¡±

    ¡®Finally¡¯ was the only thought that popped into Olivia¡¯s head after she heard that.

 Chapter 59 - Chapter 59: The Training - Part 3

    Chapter 59: The Training ¨C Part ¡°I¡¯m going to go through some basic attacks and blocks that you will absolutely need if you get into a fight. They may be basic, but really, any advanced move will stems from them. So having these in you repertoire and knowing them off by heart will really help you.¡±

    Taking his own mace from the nearby weapon rack, he gave it a few practice swings before standing in front of Olivia again.

    ¡°Now, watch what I do. Then when you¡¯re ready, I want you to copy it. It doesn¡¯t have to be fast or strong when you do. You just need to get the movement of it down urately.¡±

    Getting himself into a stance, which he exined was well suited to using a mace, he performed a swing from the left, one from the right and then one from above, all of which were very simple.

    He then moved on to a couple other different types of attacks, one of which was a quick hit with the pommel of the mace rather than the head and the other was a low attack which swept close to the ground.

    ¡°These are the basic building blocks you want to have ingrained in you. Like I said, every technique you learn going forward will stem from each of these in some way. They look simple, but are effective and will be used all the time when fighting.¡±

    With the attacks with the mace done, he asked her to try as well. So, taking her Morningstar, she proceeded to follow the same pattern. But as soon as she started he jumped in having noticed problems.

    ¡°You want your feet nted a little wider and slightly more backwards for your left foot. Given your stature, you need a better footing to keep yourself from being knocked over by others and the momentum of the Morning star, like I said before.¡± He said before turning to Philly.

    He had just gone through the whole section on stance, but it felt like she had forgotten it already. She would really need to practice to make sure she had this down to muscle memory.

    At this point, Philly had managed to find the energy to stand up, and so Adan took her through some basic attacks as well. They were pretty much the same as the mace, aside from it being one handed, and the overhead and pommel attacks were reced with a stab and upward swing from below, which Olivia cringed at when she realised where that attack would be hitting when inbat.

    Philly then jumped in and did as he had, following the same moves, but like Olivia he spotted issues with what she was doing.

    ¡°You need to bend your knees some more, keep yourself agile and ready to spring forward at a moments notice. If you lock your legs that can cause all kinds of problems when you¡¯re in a fight.¡±

    Both took the advice to heart, sorted their stance and then got to work swinging. It was torture on the arms after those exercises, but thankfully, they didn¡¯t have to go full steam ahead with attacking.

    Like before, Adan walked around and pointed out any problems he saw with the swings. He mentioned when their arms weren¡¯t bent enough to, or if they were bent too much, overextending their reach when they shouldn¡¯t and if they ever came out of their stance among many other things.

    He exined his reasoning for all thements he made, one such being why it was a problem to move out of your stance. As Olivia saw it, it¡¯s not like you can stand still in a fight.

    ¡°Of course not, but the hope is that when you are in a fight, even if you move, you will instantly put yourself into something akin to this kind of stance whenever you attack. Sure, you can vary things as you learn more, but if you try to attack without some grounding, the momentum from your Morningstar is just going to send you onto the floor or into someone¡¯s sword if you¡¯re not careful.¡±

    He had simr exnations for all the things he pointed out. Olivia couldn¡¯t verify them, but most made sense, so she came to the conclusion that he really knew his stuff.

    As time went on, both got to a point where he couldn¡¯t find much fault in what they were doing. Sure, he could nit-pick, but for a first lesson he considered that they were both in a good ce.

    ¡°I think that is a good ce to stop in terms of the offensive. Now we should move onto defensive.¡±

    Walking over to the weapon rack he picked up the shield and brought it over to them.

    ¡°When ites to defence, nothing is better than the shield. As far as I know anyway. But, with your weapons, it¡¯s not something you are going to be using often. But a lot of people do use them, so I would rmend you learn how to as well. There may be a time you end up losing your weapon and can grab a shield of someone else.¡±

    Handing the shield over to Olivia, she ced her Morningstar on the ground and put her hand through the straps on the back of the shield. It was simple enough to hold, and aside from the slight weight to it, felt quite natural.

    ¡°Now¡­defend!¡±

    ¡°Ahh,¡±

    The next thing she knew, Adan had his mace in the air and quickly brought it down. Olivia was in a panicked state, but her primal survival instinct took over and brought the shield up to make sure she didn¡¯t lose her head.

    The resounding ng was deafening and the hit felt like it almost pushed her into the ground.

    ¡°Very good. Quick reactions.¡±

    ¡°You could have killed me!¡±

    ¡°I am a very skilled instructor. You don¡¯t think I would have been able to stop that from happening.¡± He said as he walked over to Philly to hand her the shield.

    ¡°No, I¡¯m good. I think I get the idea.¡± was her response as she tried to back away.

    Olivia was sure that he was a very experienced instructor but could he have stopped the swing from hitting her. She didn¡¯t know. And honestly didn¡¯t want to find out.

    ¡°I¡¯m not going to attack you like I did Olivia. Just see how it feels to hold it.¡±

    Philly, had a very worried look on her face, understandably so. But Olivia. All she had was outrage. Not that she wanted him to attack Philly like he did her, it felt like a double standard, which annoyed her. It must have been his was of messing with her.

    Philly did as Olivia did and held the shield. Barely though. The weight looked to be too much for her and she struggled to keep it up. Olivia had to quickly grab it in order to stop her dropping it and possibly hurt a muscle in the process.

    ¡°Sorry, I only have one shield, but at least you both know how to hold one if the need arises. Now, onto defending with your weapons. For the Morningstar, that will be easy. But for your dagger, not so much. Not impossible, but you need to be very skilled to be able to do so. But as an agile and quick attacker you will be focused more on dodging attacks than blocking them, so I will show you how to do that.¡±

    To start, he showed Olivia how to hold her Morningstar to block in different angles, where you mainly use the shaft of it to catch a sword. Mainly they were all the same, it just depended on the angle the iing attack wasing from that dictated which way you would block.

    Once he taught her those, he left her to, like with the attacks, ingrain them into her mind. They needed to just be reflexes rather than a conscious thought of, ¡®oh I need to defend¡¯, so she continued to do each of the movements.

    He then moved onto to Philly, showing her how to dodge attacks. It was all however down to reflexes and required constant practice for it to be second nature, to know which way to move depending on which way a sword wasing. He took her through the different ways she could move to actually dodge a de, along with how to regain your footing after the dodge. It sounded simple, but in reality, was quiteplex and needed a lot of focus to get it right.

    They continued to practice blocking and dodging, but the sounds of footsteps behind them, forced them to stop.

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s the next group. Sorry, but that¡¯s the end of the session.¡±

    It had to end sometime, but before they left, he gave them a final few words on what to do next.

    ¡°For all those exercises I taught you, you should do those a few times a day till you can¡¯t go further. Over time they will help improve you physical abilities considerably, which will make attacking and defending a breeze. For the swings and defensive measures, keep practicing them. The more you do it, the easier it will be and the better prepared you will be if you find yourself in a battle.¡±

    With that they both started to clean up the weapons and area for the grouping. Philly went to hand over the dagger, but Adan told her to keep it.

    ¡°You can keep it to use for practice. But you may want to buy one yourself that feels better to hold for when you actually end up in a fight. If you would like more training, myself and Marie should be without students around the same time each day, for the rest of the week, so if you fancy another lesson, so feel free to drop by. ¡±

    ¡°Thank you, I think I¡¯ll take you up on that offer.¡±

    ¡°I will too,¡± replied Philly.

    ¡°Good. There¡¯s still lots to learn. And I have to say it¡¯s been ¡­odd teaching a Half-Orc to fight. It¡¯s not everyday you get a chance to do so.¡±

    With that, they had to head off. After picking up the basket with the creature in they walked the way they came and Lyrika journey over herself, her lesson ending as well.

    ¡°How was it?¡± Olivia asked.

    ¡°It was great. I feel much better using a bow now. Still a lot to learn, but I manage to hit the target a lot more just from today. ¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s great.¡±

    ¡°How about you two?¡±

    ¡°Well aside from being sore and exhausted, it was good too. He mentioned possiblying back for more sessions. Do you fancy that as well.¡±

    ¡°Definitely¡±

    Heading out of the training grounds, they passed the next group, who as expected gave her a wide berth. A couple of the men in the group did try to walk up to then, a look of lust in their eyes when they saw Lyrika and Philly, but they were held back by the others.

    ¡°Where to now?¡± Lyrika asked, seeming to have gone back to her usual self after the training.

    ¡°Well, I don¡¯t know about you, but I think it¡¯s time we learnt what this little thing is.¡± Olivia said as she held up the basket.

    ¡°Ouch,¡±

    Which she quickly lowered once her sore muscles started to throb.

 Chapter 60 - Chapter 60: The Creature - Part 1

    Chapter 60: The Creature ¨C Part Heading back through the vige, they made their way to the exit, Harding to find in the farms. As they walked, something urred to Olivia.

    ¡°Philly, how did you get to this vige?¡±

    ¡°I walked.¡±

    ¡°No, I mean¡­ Forget it. Did you travel by yourself?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t you encounter any monsters or animals?¡± Lyrika piped in with.

    ¡°I came by myself and I sort of encountered animals. I figured if I followed in your footsteps you would have dealt with any problems along the way. And I was right, having found a couple of dead adults of the creature that you have. I take it that was how you got it. Those were the only things that I encountered.¡±

    Well, curiosity satisfied she guessed.

    They eventually reached the exit of the vige, which was thankfully open and not closed because of a monster sighting.

    That however didn¡¯t change the fact that she was the centre of attention as they tried to leave the vige.

    ¡°May I-may I see your permits.¡±

    One of the guards nearby who handled entry and exit of the vige spoke. It made sense that they needed to see your permit before letting you leave. One was to make sure you had it if you needed to get in. And two, in case it expired and they needed to relieve you of it as you left.

    Lyrika and Philly both took theirs out and went to hand it over. The fact though that only two hands were outstretched made them realise that Olivia, having been unconscious when she entered this ce, didn¡¯t have one.

    ¡°How do you get one of those?¡±

    ¡°You-you don¡¯t have a permit. How did-how did you get in here without one? I¡¯m afraid you need to-toe-¡± the man said as he slowly moved his hand over the pommel of his sword.

    ¡°Easy there Geoff, no need for any of that. She was carried in while unconscious. It¡¯s not really possible to get a permit when that happens. You go and attend to those people over there, I¡¯ll take care of this.¡±

    The man that took the young guard¡¯s ce sauntered up to them and started to rummage through the bag he had.

    ¡°Sorry about him. He¡¯s new. He was still in training when you were brought in. Here¡¯s a permit. This will allow you ess in and out of our vige for the week. After that time you will need to renew it.¡±

    ¡°How much does-¡±

    ¡°No, no need for that. Chief Teagan has handled it for you.¡±

    ¡°Ah, ok. Thank you.¡±

    ¡°Where are you heading anyway. Just surprised to see you leave when you just got here is all.¡±

    How it was his concern Olivia didn¡¯t know, but there shouldn¡¯t be any harm in telling him.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯re not leaving, just trying to find Ortan to ask him some questions on creatures.¡±

    ¡°Ah, that old guy. He should be in one of the fields south of here. You shouldn¡¯t miss him. He¡¯s the oldest one out there.¡± the guard said chuckling a little at the end.

    At that, he moved to the side and beckoned them past. As they started to walk through, his eyes lingered on Lyrika for a moment, before he spoke up.

    ¡°Hold on, you¡¯re not Lyrika are you?¡±

    ¡°Huh, how do you know my name,¡± Lyrika responded with surprise, which was mirrored in Olivia¡¯s eyes as well.

    ¡°Oh, sorry. It¡¯s just that my mother mentioned you.¡±

    *Urk.* Lyrika¡¯s face bunched up at that. She had only met one mother in this ce and she wanted to set her up with her son.

    ¡®She probably hasn¡¯t told him.¡¯ We¡¯re Lyrika¡¯s thoughts as she remembered the look she gave when she saw her and Olivia.

    ¡°I must say, she was not lying about your beauty. Perhaps you would like to join me for dinner tonight.¡± He said as suavely as could be.

    The men around him all had either a look of jealousy or resentment at this man asking out such a beautiful woman. The expression on Olivia¡¯s face differed from theirs being more of a mix of anger and shock.

    Lyrika did look over to Olivia just to see her reaction, and as soon as she saw the death re she was unconsciously giving the man, she knew how to answer.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I¡¯m already¡­taken.¡±

    At that, Olivia¡¯s re of death at the man very quickly became one of surprise at Lyrika.

    ¡°That is a shame. He must be quite an amazing person to have won you over.¡±

    ¡°Yes¡­she is.¡± she replied in a rather meek tone while looking down giving the embarrassment of answering honesty.

    But as soon as she said it, Lyrika quickly covered her mouth and the embarrassment she felt red up tenfold. There wasn¡¯t a problem with a same-sex rtionship or anything. It was more that she had just announced it to all of these strangers trying to get in and out of the vige.

    Looking around, there was a multitude of faces and emotions at what she said. Sure some did look like they didn¡¯t approve of that sort of thing, but she very quickly skipped past them. Why give them any attention?

    But good majorly had a look of surprise and a few you could see peering off into the distance probably daydreaming about who Lyrika was with.

    But again, what surprised Olivia as she looked at the crowd was one face that stared at herself in lust. She got a better glimpse of the person¡¯s face, but as soon as she did, the woman walked away. What was stranger though was that she couldn¡¯t recall anything about their face. Skin tone, eye colour and even hair colour, none of it came to her mind once the woman disappeared into the crowd.

    ¡®That¡¯s very odd. How could I just forget instantly? I think we might need to watch out for that person.¡¯

    It could have been nothing. It could be that she couldn¡¯t actually remember what they looked like, like thest time she saw them. That is assuming it was them before, as she couldn¡¯t remember what they looked like either. If it wasn¡¯t just a failing memory, then that meant something was stopping her remember.

    ¡®Could it be some form of magic,¡¯ she wondered.

    She could have mused on that for ages, but right now they needed to get out of the vige and find Ortan. Plus, Olivia was sure a little teasing would be needed on the walk as well.

    ¡­

    They had their permits, so while everyone was still thinking about Lyrika¡¯s words, they quickly bypassed everyone and left the vige.

    As they did, they ended up in front of the massive colourful fields from before. Now they just had to find the possible creature expert. So, they started walking.

    ¡°So¡­Lyrika. Who¡¯s this amazing person you seem to be infatuated with? She must be quite the girl,¡± Olivia said with a cheeky grin. Obviously, she knew whom Lyrika was referring to, but she couldn¡¯t help but tease and make say it. How bad it would have been though if she was referring to someone else.

    ¡°I¡­you¡­just shut up!¡±

    ¡®Aww, I thought she would say it.¡¯

    Lyrika sped up a little getting herself in front of the group by a short distance. Clearly, she didn¡¯t want any more teasing or embarrassment, considering the redness of her cheeks.

    As they walked, Philly appeared to be deep in thought as if trying to figure something out. Every now and then she looked over at them both and put on a contemtive face. It didn¡¯t take long for her toe to a conclusion though.

    ¡°Ah hah. It¡¯s Olivia that Lyrika has fallen for. It took me a while to realise, but that can be the only possibility.¡±

    Olivia put on a bit of mock gasp as she heard her and turned to Lyrika.

    ¡°Is that true Lyrika? Is it me that you have fallen for!¡±

    A few meters ahead, she could see Lyrika shaking a little and she was sure she could see her ears turning red.

    ¡°Maybe.¡± Was the only reply she gave.

    ¡®Better than a resounding no I suppose.¡¯

    ¡°Have there been or will there be any mating rituals between the two of you that I can observe?¡±

    *Pfft* *Ack*

    Both Olivia and Lyirka did spit takes and ended up choking on air once they heard Philly speak.

    ¡°Wha-*cough* what.¡± Lyrika was finally able to say.

    ¡°Mating rituals. Knowing how a half-Orc half-goblin actually attracts and interacts with their mate would be very beneficial to my research.¡±

    Olivia just held her head in her hands as she continued to talk.

    ¡°No. No, no. There aren¡¯t any¡­mating rituals. It¡¯s just¡­no.¡± Lyrika adamantly stated as her face became a tomato.

    ¡°Huh, then how did you end up as a mated pair.¡±

    ¡°Mated pair¡­really?¡± Olivia replied a little confused why she was throwing that term around.

    ¡°No, it was just¡­ we¡¯ve journeyed together for a while. And Olivia has been there for me all that time. It just sort of happened. But there was no¡­mating. Not in that sense anyway.¡± Lyrika replied, saying thest sentence in a quiet tone.

    Philly ended up looking to the sky again in contemtion as she tried to understand how it all worked.

    ¡°That¡¯s odd. I would have thought the only way for a half-orc half-goblin to have a rtionship like that of Elves and Humans, was if some form of mating was involved. If not, then does that mean you are part of her harem.¡±

    Yeah, Olivia nearly tripped and facented at that.

    ¡°What, harem? No there¡¯s no harm. It¡¯s just¡­whatever is between me and Lyrika. There¡¯s no harm.¡±

    ¡°Maybe for now,¡± Lyrika said quietly as she rolled her eyes, which Olivia couldn¡¯t hear.

    ¡°You really are quite a strange specimen. You are made up of two races well known for forming harems and kidnapping women to forcefully breed them. Yet here you are walking and talking like a human with two attractive women, even being so far as to be romantically involved with one. How odd.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not that odd¡­ is it?¡±

    No one responded to her question.

 Chapter 61 - Chapter 61: The Creature - Part 2

    Chapter 61: The Creature ¨C Part After the¡­ strange discussion with Philly, Lyrika re-joined them. It seems the embarrassment from the incident at the gate had dissipated and they were now back to travelling as a group, with Olivia in the centre while Philly and Lyrika walked either side of her.

    Travelling between the fields, they walked over to the nearest farmer hoping to get some directions for where Ortan was. The only problem was that they couldn¡¯t stop shaking in fear, so getting a response took a while.

    ¡°He¡¯s-he¡¯s over in th-the furthest one. Th-that way.¡± was what the woman managed to eke out before copsing on the floor.

    ¡°Err, thank you for the help.¡± Olivia quickly responded before she turned away in the direction she said. She figured it would be best to leave before the woman she actually fainted or passed out from fear.

    Taking the offered directions, they continued on their way, passing a beautiful assortment of colourful crops. She had seen them before but wasn¡¯t able to actually appreciate them at the time. It was lovely to see and the vibrance of it all contrasted very well with the green and brownndscape.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen so many different coloured crops in all my life.¡± Lyrika said as she ran her hand along some purple stalks of a crop that looked simr to wheat.

    ¡°You didn¡¯t have any near your vige?¡±

    ¡°Sure, we had a few to go with the animals we raised to keep everyone fed. But it was nothingpared to all of these,¡± she replied turning her head to Olivia.

    ¡°It is nice. I wonder if anyone has looked into why they are all different colours. I mean what purpose does it achieve?¡±

    Turning to look at Philly, Olivia realised that the few biology sses she had may juste in handy here. Assuming things worked the same in this world as they did on Earth of course. And if she could remember it correctly.

    ¡°I imagine the colour is so they can attract insects and other animals to help them with¡­spreading their seeds¡± she couldn¡¯t remember if there was some technical word for it. Not that it mattered as she couldn¡¯t imagine it would mean much in this world.

    ¡°The different colours probably attract different creatures which then end up carrying the seeds from the nts in some way, letting it be spread around to grow elsewhere.¡±

    At that, Philly looked up at her in surprise.

    ¡°Strong, kind and now intelligent. If only more possible candidates for rtionships were like you.¡±

    ¡°Huh?¡±

    Lyrika all but pped her forehead as she heard Philly¡¯s response.

    ¡­

    They continued travelling and eventually reached the furthest section of the farnd.

    The field they were next to was dark orange and came to about waist height. The crop looked to be an oddly shaped vegetable, somewhat simr to a carrot or parsnip, but it was curved into a spiral.

    At the centre of the field, they could see a man hunched over tossing the vegetables into a basket. He eventually stood up, which wasn¡¯t much different from when he was hunched over though, and wiped the sweat off his brow.

    Hopefully, this was Ortan, and so they journeyed into the field and headed over to him.

    As they got closer, they could see that he was a very old man. The hair on his head was almost non-existent, and what did remain waspletely grey. They could also see how thin his arms and legs were, along with the wrinkles and signs of ageing that covered them. How this man was still able to do manualbour at his age was astonishing to her.

    Only a few meters from him now, the man ced another vegetable into the basket and turned his head at the sound of footsteps.

    Olivia had expected the usual look of surprise, but the only expression that showed on his face was that of a confident smile.

    ¡°Is it my time already? I had expected to get another year in before I passed on. But if it is to be today, then so be it.¡±

    The looks of confusion that appeared on each of the girl¡¯s faces were to be expected.

    ¡°Do you think I¡¯m here to¡­kill you?¡± was the only thing Olivia could think to reply with.

    ¡°Of course. Why else would an Orc with two ves visit me.¡±

    Lyrika looked affronted and annoyed at the insinuation, likely because it also meant they would have to exin things again like at Yoban¡¯s vige. Philly however was too busy examining one of the vegetables to notice.

    ¡°Half-Orc.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m a¡­ forget it. I¡¯m not here to kill you and these two are not ves. Are you Ortan?¡±

    ¡°The harbinger of my death knows my name. Fitting I suppose.¡±

    ¡°No, I¡­¡± was all she managed to get out before just exhaling loudly.

    Lyrika realised that it may be the right time for her to jump in, and so walked closer to him.

    ¡°Ortan. No one is going to kill you. We were hoping you could tell us the name of the creature we found.¡±

    It seemed that caught his attention. Although it may have just been the beautiful girl next to him rather than the request.

    ¡°She¡¯s not here to kill me.¡±

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°And you¡¯re not a ve to this Orc.¡±

    ¡°Half-¡±

    ¡°No. Didn¡¯t you hear themotion a few days ago?¡± Lyrika said, interrupting Olivia who now had her head down.

    ¡°I do recall something happening. I was on a field on the other side of the vige, so I didn¡¯t see it. People did mention a monster, but I figured it was killed.¡±

    They quickly exined what had happened, and Ortan became more amenable to the situation.

    ¡°So, you have a creature you are looking to identify. I was quite the explorer in my day. I travelled through all of the kingdoms and saw all of the wonders of the world. I even met the Queen of the demons at the time. Boy did we have some fun.¡±

    ¡®That¡¯s too much information.¡¯ was what everything ended up thinking as he said that.

    ¡°Now, let¡¯s see this creature.¡±

    Olivia quickly walked over, and the man didn¡¯t even flinch as she did. cing the basket down, she opened it and they were all greeted by the sight of the sleeping creature. Its eyes were closed and its belly raised and lowered very rhythmically. It was a very adorable sight.

    ¡°Now that is odd. Where did you find it?¡±

    ¡°Just south of the vige, between here and Yoban¡¯s vige,¡± Lyrika responded.

    ¡°Huh. Someone must have brought it from the Demon kingdom then, as I have only ever seen them there. This creature is what is known as a Zentora. It¡¯s an old demonic word, anguage that isn¡¯t really used anymore, and it trantes Hidden Horror.¡±

    ¡°Apt¡± Olivia quickly said.

    ¡°Indeed. They are not to be trifled with, but they are fascinating and very intelligent creatures. Very protective of their young, unless there is something wrong with it, and given its size, I would say that is the case here. It is very small for a baby, and I¡¯m surprised it¡¯s still alive.¡±

    ¡°We found it in a small hole after we killed its parents.¡±

    ¡°Ok. If I recall correctly, that is how they determine whether it¡¯s worth taking care of it, so to speak. I believe the idea is that the hole stops it from fleeing in the night, but after a week or so, it should be strong enough to get out itself. If it does, then it is deemed strong enough, and the Zentora leave with it. If it can¡¯t get out in time, then the Zentora just leave it to die. Quite horrible, but tis the nature of these beasts.¡±

    ¡°But the parents were near it when we fought them.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s likely they were probably in the process of leaving it, when you came across them.¡±

    ¡®Huh. That may have been the case.¡¯

    Ortan then looked up in thought as he tried to recall some more information on the creatures.

    ¡°I¡¯m sure you can recall your fight with them. How you managed to survive I don¡¯t know, as I have hardly heard good news whenever someone encountered one. They can blend in with the woods, are very agile and that spike on their tail, you do not want to be on the receiving end of it.¡±

    Olivia slowly ran her hand against her body where the spike on the end of one of the adult¡¯s tail had pierced her, and she fully agreed with him.

    ¡°But even then, people still try to buy and capture them. Probably thinking they can keep it as a pet to kill their enemies or something, fools. They grow up fast, and there is no way to train an adult because they are too free and aggressive by then. I had heard that some people were trying to breed them to get a baby, hoping it would be more malleable when training, which may be true, but these creatures do not breed in captivity. I don¡¯t know how they do it, but they can stop themselves from giving birth, keeping their young inside them indefinitely, so they can do it when they are free. Which more often than not, doesn¡¯t take long for them to achieve.¡±

    Olivia had liked the prospect of keeping this, Zentora, as a pet and training it. From all the novels she had read, having a animalpanion sounded great. But after hearing all that, and how training didn¡¯t usually turn out well for the trainer. The idea didn¡¯t sound as good as before.

    ¡°So, do you think there is any chance that we could actually train him. Or is he just going to try and kill us at some point?¡±

    ¡°Well, that is hard to say. These creatures are all about strength, dominance and free will. As an adult, they know they are strong and try to remain the most dominant, and if you take away its free will, things go badly. But as a baby, and a weak one at that, I would think that as long as you show it that you are stronger and the dominant one in the rtionship, it should respect you. Same for the free will. As long as you don¡¯t keep it cooped up all the time once it grows up, it shouldn¡¯t see you as a problem. If you do all that, I don¡¯t see why you can¡¯t train it like you would any other animal.¡±

    ¡°Ok, that doesn¡¯t sound too bad,¡± Olivia said now warming up to the idea. From this, as long as she trained, which she is going to be doing, she should get stronger and show it who¡¯s boss. And on the free will side of things, they have spent most of their time in a forest, and will probably continue to do so, so that¡¯s covered.

    ¡°Also, before I forget. It¡¯s not technically a him. I mean sure you can call it that, rather than well, ¡®it¡¯, but it doesn¡¯t really have a gender till ites to¡­mating. Then it sort of¡­decides what it wants when it¡¯s with another of its species. It¡¯s probably down to whichever is the strongest or most dominant between them, but again, I don¡¯t know for certain. Then when ites to it, its body just changes to match, and can keep changing either way for every subsequent mate.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s very weird.¡±

    *cough* ¡°Says the half-orc girl with a dick.¡± *cough*

    She heard it, but Olivia refrained from looking over at Lyrika whom all of a sudden found herself looking away at the vegetables.

    ¡°You know quite a lot of¡­ facts about the Zentora. How?¡± Not wanting to go into how he knew so much about the mating process.

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to make it sound weird. I studied them. Many creatures actually. I wrote a massive bestiary, adding to it all through my journey. When I finished writing it, I gifted it to Prisci, the Demon Queen at the time. She said she would keep the original and have it transcribed so that the world would know all about the beasts that roam it. It¡¯s been some time since then, so I wonder whether she was actually able to.¡±

    Ortan quickly moved down to pick up the basket of vegetables he had been picking and then turned back to the group.

    ¡°Well, it was a little odd but quite nice to meet you. On how to actually train it, I can¡¯t help you there. You may wish to visit the stable for some ideas on that. Anyway, I wish you luck in training it, and if you manage to, I would love to see it in action. Now, I need to get these back to the storehouse.¡±

    At that, after saying their farewells, Ortan headed off, slowly, for the long journey back to towards the vige, leaving Olivia, Lyrika and Philly to just look down at the Zentora contemting on all that he had said.

    The Zentora all of a sudden woke up where it then yawned and stretched. It then looked up at the three heads, where it then tilted its own and mewled, causing a round of ¡®As¡¯ to ring out.

    ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¨C

    Hi All, I am just putting the note here in case not everyone reads the author¡¯s note. In case you don¡¯t, I do putments there and on asion, questions to you readers. So, in case it wasn¡¯t seen before, please let me know your thoughts on a name for the Zentora. It being Androgynous might make things harder in terms of a name, but for some reason, it felt right to make it like that given that Olivia is a futa and has both sets of genitalia. I have seen a fewments on a name for it already, so thank you for those, but given its gender, these may need to be rethought. I can¡¯t promise I will use one, as I will go through the names and see if any fit with what I had in mind for the Zentora. If not then I will try ande up with one.

    Also, I have seen a fewments in regard to the censored swear words, so wanted to ask officially whether they should remain as such. If you can leave ament on whether they should stay censored or be uncensored, then I will go with the majority.

 Chapter 62 - Chapter 62: The Creature - Part 3

    Chapter 62: The Creature ¨C Part ¡°So, I guess we need to learn how to train it then,¡± Lyrika spoke up, ¡°Do you have any ideas on how it¡¯s done Philly?¡±

    ¡°Just because I¡¯m a researcher doesn¡¯t mean I have all the answers. I researched cultures and races. Not animals.¡±

    ¡°Well, as Ortan said, the stables are the first ce to go. They probably train horses all the time. They may have some insight on how to train a Zentora. Well, at least something simr to it at least.¡± Olivia said, skipping past Philly¡¯sment.

    ¡°Horses?¡±

    Olivia missed the confused response from both Philly and Lyrika, being too focused on the Zentora.

    Having finished talking to Ortan they watched him head towards the vige, where they then took some time to y with the Zentora before heading back to the vige themselves, passing Ortan in the process.

    They did offer to take it back for him, but he was adamant that he would do his job.

    Once they got back, they quickly made their way through the gate, providing their permits to a guard they hadn¡¯t seen before, hoping that he knew nothing of the fun they had a while ago.

    Now, back in the vige, after getting some directions from a nearby viger, they made their way to the stables. As they neared it, where Olivia had expected to see horses, she was surprised to see animals that looked¡­a little different.

    ¡°It¡¯s a unicorn¡­ with six legs.¡±

    ¡°Unicorn. No these are called Umbrae. They are the best way to get around. Their six legs make them capable of going almost anywhere. And their horn makes them deadly in a fight.¡± Philly spoke up providing a quick description of the beast.

    ¡°They¡¯re oddly beautiful. Did you have any in your vige Lyrika and where ever you¡¯re from Philly?¡±

    ¡°Oh no, they are incredibly expensive to buy. No way anyone from our vige would have one. I¡¯m surprised they even have any here.¡± Lyrika replied.

    ¡°I saw a few. People used them to travel to the institute. I have never seen so many in one ce though, I was sure they were hard to breed.¡±

    ¡°Your right on that little bunny.¡±

    All three quickly turned to see a woman that rivalled Olivia in terms of height. She had some muscle tone, but it was minusculepared to Olivia. She stood only slightly shorter than Olivia, but that hardly mattered when somehow her aura made her even very imposing. It even easily affected Olivia.

    Although, it could have been the massive breast she had, rather than an aura.

    Olivia just stood there just gaping at her, unable to speak as her mind went nk. But when the woman snapped her fingers, it suddenly wore off. It was like the haze had been lifted from her mind.

    ¡°Are you all right there? It¡¯s like you were daydreaming or something.¡±

    ¡°Err¡­it¡¯s. Sorry.¡±

    Olivia just looked down as she responded, not wanting to show the embarrassment on her face, or see the stern look that Lyrika was probably giving her.

    ¡°No worries. Happens all the time when people meet me. I have some sort of effect on people.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    None of them knew how to respond to that.

    ¡°So, what can I do for you? Looking to purchase an Umbrea.¡±

    ¡°Ah, no. Not today anyway. We were hoping to get some advice on training a creature. Can you help with that?¡±

    ¡°Sure. I trained all these beasts myself so I can give you some advice. Oh, my name is Milly by the way.¡±

    Each of them greeted her back, and Olivia brought the basket over.

    ¡°How do you have so many Umbrea anyway?¡± Philly asked, still surprised at that fact.

    ¡°Oh, well if anything it was luck. I happened across a few that had been attacked on my travels. I helped nurse them back to health, and after that, they just stuck by me. From there, we travelled, and they bred and gave birth along the way and the rest is history. I only ended up in this vige a few weeks ago, hoping to sell some of them, but so far no ones brought them.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s a shame. What do you n to do now them?¡± Lyrika asked.

    ¡°Well, given what you said little bunny, I¡¯ll probably head to the elven kingdom after a while. See if some people there can afford them. Anyway, enough about me. Let¡¯s see what you want help training.¡±

    Reaching over to the basket she opened the top, and Milly, with a smile on her face, looked in. But as soon as she saw the creature, that smile quickly turned to a frown before she caught herself and changed it back.

    ¡°That¡¯s an¡­interesting creature have there. Do you know what it¡¯s called?¡±

    Olivia had seen the slip, but given she didn¡¯t even know the species of the creature, figured she had grimaced when she saw the sharp ws and spike. At least that was what she thought.

    ¡°It¡¯s a Zentora, from the demon kingdom.¡±

    ¡°Demon kingdom. Makes sense, with the ws and spike on its tail. I can tell you would not want to be attacked by an adult of these.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right there,¡± Olivia said.

    They spoke of how they found the Zentora and the fight they had with its parents. Milly listened with her full attention.

    ¡°I see. So that¡¯s how you came across one.¡± Milly replied. As she did she almost sighed in relief for some reason, but stopped herself. ¡°Why do you want to train it? If it going to be such a dangerous beast, surely killing it would be the best thing to do.¡±

    Philly did shrug at that, seeing that it was quite a logical argument. Olivia however, felt a little differently.

    ¡°Wha-. We can¡¯t just kill it! I know it¡¯s dangerous, but surely if it¡¯s trained from this age, that shouldn¡¯t be the case. At least that¡¯s what Ortan figured. Besides, it seems like it¡¯s a runt anyway, it¡¯s not likely to be as strong as another of its species when it grows.¡±

    ¡°What do you want to train it to do? Kill people?¡±

    Olivia was a little shocked at this. A psychopath would probably think she was offering to train it to do just that. But the tone of her voice told Olivia that was not the case. There was almost a hint of fear in it as well as some probing. Was she trying to gauge if Olivia was truly the monster she looked like, hoping to get some pet to help her kill people?

    Was the statement from before about killing it now to be safe also a way to figure out what kind of person she was? Or did she actually mean it?

    ¡°No,¡± Olivia said as she looked right into Milly¡¯s eyes. ¡°It needs to know how to defend itself sure, but I think it should be trained so it can understand us in some way and not just run off into the wild to kill something or someone.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Silence grew between the two, but before Olivia could speak up, Milly finally let out that sigh of relief.

    ¡°Ok then. Come inside and I¡¯ll show you how I train the Umbrea and how it can be applied to the Zentora.¡±

    Just before she turned around, Olivia could have sworn that she saw Milly look her up and down. And as she finished checking her out, her face shifted into one that felt familiar. A look of lust.

    But as soon as she turned her face away. It was like the image of how she looked just fell out of her head, vanishing from her mind entirely.

    So, she got to walking and followed her into the stables, none the wiser.

    ¡­

    Once they were inside the stable, it was as she had expected it to be. Made of wood, it was quite spacious. On the walls were various bits of kit for grooming and riding the Umbrea. Then to the side of that, was more Umbrea, all trotting around in their pens.

    ¡°Now, a lot of what is needed to train an Umbrea won¡¯t apply to your Zentora, but there are some key things that you need to do when training any animal. The first of which is bonding with them. You want the animal you¡¯re training to know you and for you to know it. It needs to get used to how you act, how you smell, how you talk. You need to make it see that being around you is a nice thing.¡±

    ¡°Ok makes sense,¡± Olivia said as she thought back to her time on Earth. She did have a dog at one point, but was not involved around training it or the like, being around twelve at the time. But, associating the time you spend with it as a positive thing is definitely needed.

    ¡°While it¡¯s getting to know you, you need to get to know it as well. Not smell, obviously, but how itmunicates. I don¡¯t know how smart a Zentora is, but whether it is incredibly intelligent or quite dumb, it will try tomunicate with you in some way. You need to be on the lookout for this to figure out what it likes, what it dislikes, and respond and help it when you can.¡±

    Milly walked over to one of the tables and picked up a massive bag, holding it up to show them.

    ¡°Next you need food. Lots of it. I imagine it eats meat, so you will need a lot. You can probably cut it up to make itst longer though since it¡¯s quite small, but you will need it in order to reward it when it does something good. This depends on what you¡¯re training it to do, but everyone needs tomunicate basicmands. Telling it to stay, follow, hide maybe even hunt if it can, will need to be backed up with food it really likes to show it that it did well.¡±

    ¡®Ok, positive reinforcement, that shouldn¡¯t be too hard. But what about¡­¡¯

    ¡°What about if it does something bad?¡± Olivia quickly followed up with.

    ¡°That again depends on you. Some trainers just tell them no in a stern voice, others use a sound and some use¡­force. Thest one though is not something you should entertain.¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t n to.¡±

    Olivia didn¡¯t even want to imagine how some owners might actually hit their pets. That was not a picture she wanted in her head.

    Milly walked over to one of the Umbrea and gave it a little stroke before looking back to them.

    ¡°But really that¡¯s the basics. You can probably buy gear for it once it¡¯s bigger that will help. Anything you get now it will probably just grow out of. If you have enough coin you could probably buy magic items that help you keep track of it and, if memory servers there was one that lets you trulymunicate with it. Assuming its smart enough to understand you as well though.¡±

    ¡°Thank you, you have been a big help.¡±

    She had received a good lot of advice, and while she would have liked to stay in the stable for longer to see the Umbrea and talk more with the big-breasted beauty, they needed to visit some shops for supplies, and she needed to figure out how to save Ameril. Then there was even trying to figure out a name for the Zentora.

    As she went to leave, this n was thwarted though as neither Philly nor Lyrika were with her. A quick look around though, and she saw the reason why¡­it being one of the same reasons she had wanted to stay as well.

    Over by the stables, both Lyrika and Philly were stroking the heads of the Umbrea, making lovely cooing noises. It also seemed like some stable hand hade by and given them a basket of food to give the animals, as she saw Lyrika holding one end of an odd spiral-shaped carrot parsnip thing like they had seen on the farm, while the other end was in the Umbrea¡¯s mouth.

    ¡®Well, it couldn¡¯t hurt to stay a little while,¡¯, was thest thought she had before she headed over and took one of the vegetables from the basket.

    All the while, Milly just stood to the side and watched her walk over to them, a slight smile on her face as she did.

 Chapter 63 - Chapter 63: The Plan - Part 1

    Chapter 63: The n ¨C Part It took a good long while before they left the stables. They probably would have stayed longer, but Olivia and girls ran out of the food they were given, and the stable hands then took the Umbrea out for some exercise in a fenced off area just outside of the vige. So, after they all said their goodbyes to the Umbrea being trotted away from the stables, they decided to leave.

    And not head after them. Which annoyed Lyrika.

    ¡°I want to see them run around.¡± Lyrika whined to Olivia.

    If it was any other time, she may have broken down, but they all had stuff they needed to do before they could truly rx. The ticking clock on Ameril¡¯s kidnapping came first.

    ¡°We take them out everyday around the same time, so you cane see them tomorrow if you like,¡± Milly jumped in with, ¡°It¡¯s quite a sight seeing them gallop around.¡±

    ¡°See, there are plenty of opportunities to see them. Once we have that¡­problem solved, then we can watch them.¡± Olivia said as the voice of reason.

    ¡°¡­fine.¡±

    Walking out of the stables they all said goodbye to Milly, Lyrika grumbling it as she moped, and headed off towards the shops in the vige.

    They had only made it a few steps before Olivia felt something strange. The presence or aura that she felt when she first saw Milly suddenly came back and then all of a sudden disappeared. Turning back to look at Milly, her possibly being the strange denominator in the first instance when feeling the aura, but only ended up seeing only empty space.

    She looked around the area, assuming she had walked off to get back to work in the stables, but saw neither hide nor hair of her. It was as if she had just vanished.

    ¡®That¡¯s¡­odd.¡¯

    She figured she could go back and try to find her, but it looked like she was just gone. Whether she dashed away or hid for some reason, she didn¡¯t know. But, just from that, Olivia felt that they would need to watch out for her in the future. Whether she actually had anything to do with the strange aura, or the odd feeling it gave, she didn¡¯t know. And while she hadn¡¯t done anything bad to them, there was something about her that she felt they needed to be weary of.

    ¡­

    ¡°So, what are we going to name it?¡±

    ¡°Name what?¡± was the response from Philly, all the while being focused on observing the beast-kin around her.

    ¡°The Zentora, obviously,¡± Lyrika said as she shook her head.

    ¡°Oh right.¡±

    After a quick hum Philly looked up in thought for a moment, and before long inspiration hit her.

    ¡°Spike.¡±

    ¡°Spike?¡± was the response both Olivia and Lyrika gave having heard that.

    ¡°Yeah, spike. Because of its tail.¡±

    bbergasted Olivia just shook her head at the suggestion.

    ¡°We are not naming it spike,¡± she retorted.

    ¡°Why not.¡±

    ¡°Because it¡¯s a stupid name,¡± Lyrika said agreeing with Olivia.

    ¡°Spikey then.¡±

    ¡°No, just no.¡±

    Silence prevailed for a time after that, the only sound being that of the vigers walking nearby. With theck of side streets, it was taking some time to actually reach the shopping area, as they had to get to the end of a whole row, to then travel down another. All the while as they walked, Philly was stuck trying to figure out what was so bad about the names she gave. To her they made logical sense.

    ¡°What sort of name are we going for then. We could name like Philly did, basing it on what it¡¯s like, just with better sense than Spike. We could also name it after a god or goddess in some way. Other than that we could just give it a normal name.¡± Lyrika said as they turned the next corner on the way to the shops.

    ¡°A normal name, what like calling it Gary or Tom or something?¡±

    ¡°Gary? Tom? What sort of names are those, I¡¯ve never heard of anyone called either of those before. Have you Philly?¡±

    ¡°No. But saying that. Olivia doesn¡¯t really sound like a name I¡¯ve heard before either. And it really doesn¡¯t sound like and Orcish or Goblin name. How did you get your name?¡±

    ¡°¡­my parents gave it to me.¡± This wasn¡¯t a topic she wanted to deal with right now as it was bound to lead into her transmigration from Earth, so she quickly changed the subject. ¡°Anyway, what sort of normal name are you thinking then?¡±

    ¡°Althea, Effany, Lilestia, names like that.¡± Lyrika mentioned.

    ¡°Do you know one that¡¯s androgynous.¡±

    ¡°Androgeeness? What¡¯s that. Is that even a word?¡±

    ¡°I mean, for something that can be used for either a male or a female.¡±

    ¡°¡­Huh.¡± was all Lyrika managed to say as she really thought about it.

    Yeah, Olivia knew it wouldn¡¯t be easy. Coming up with a name on Earth that could be used for either a boy or girl was simple and could have been applied to the Zentora such as Sam or Sydney. But it felt much harder to do the same with the fantasy type ir that the names had in this world.

    ¡®Why do they all have to sound like that in this world. Whose bright idea was it to make that the standard for naming?¡¯

    While all three mused away trying to figure out names, they eventually reached the shopping area, which meant the naming would have to go on the back burner for the moment.

    ¡°Right. We need to figure out how to kidnap someone from a carriage travelling with several guards. With only us three.¡± Olivia said as the searched the area for what ever shops could be useful.

    ¡°¡­Well while you figure out that¡­there is something that I need to get from the¡­apothecary.¡± Lyrika replied with as she turned and quickly headed away from the group.

    ¡°Wha-¡±

    ¡°So, What¡¯s all this about a kidnapping?¡± Philly then asked with utter confusion.

    ¡­

    After Olivia realised that while they may have thrown the word around a few times, neither her nor Lyrika had actually exined the situation to her. So, she gave her a quick recap of events, and told her about the situation where they needed to save Ameril.

    ¡°I see. Well, I¡¯m d you¡¯re not actually kidnapping someone. Against their will I mean.¡±

    ¡°¡­err. Yeah¡­So, we need to figure out how to save her. Without killing anyone. We don¡¯t want them hunting us down in revenge.¡±

    ¡°Understandable. Well while I have just learnt how to use a de, I don¡¯t see an in the face confrontation going well.¡±

    ¡°Yes. It¡¯s just a shame Teagan couldn¡¯t help me with this. If we had more people with us, we may have been able to intimidate them into handing her over.¡±

    As she mused on that, she then spotted and started to head towards what was effectively a general store. She hoped something inside might give her some idea on how to solve the problem. As they reached it, Lyrika popped up next to them.

    ¡°Oh¡­nice to see you again. Get anything interesting?¡± Olivia asked surprised at how quick she was and the oddity of her just dashing away.

    ¡°No.¡±

    ¡°Then¡­wait¡­what did you get?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­it¡¯s nothing. Don¡¯t worry about it.¡±

    ¡®Does she have a problem or something. Is it medicine for some underlying condition?¡¯

    Olivia couldn¡¯t help but be worried. But with her refusal to tell her, she had to just let it go for the time being.

    ¡­

    Before long they entered the general store. But as they did, where there was hustle and bustle, a silence quickly nketed the area. All of the shoppers turned and stared at the hulking mass that had appeared in the doorway. To Olivia it felt like she was a bull talking into a China shop, and everyone was afraid that sun on movement would set it off.

    The two guards behind them, having been forgotten until now, scared Olivia out of her wits as they appeared at the door.

    ¡®Have they been with us this whole time. Its like they vanished and appeared out of thin air.¡¯

    One of the guards remained outside and the other ventured in with them. As they entered and the light reflected off their armour into the eyes of everyone in the shop, they all got back to what they were doing.

    Now, with the awkwardness gone, they all had a look around.

    To Lyrika, it wasn¡¯t anything unusual. Sure, they may have had more than their smaller vige did, but most of it was the same. Plus, a lot of it was already gear that they had.

    Philly went off in her own world examining anything she hadn¡¯t seen before. Having grown up in the Elven kingdom, and somewhat privileged having gone to an institute to learn and study, a lot of it was foreign to her. Even simple things like the tinderbox, was something new to understand, probably having left the creation of fires to others.

    Olivia went ahead and stocked up on some of the supplies they lost from the trip to this vige such as refilling the tinderbox and grabbing a new waterskin, her current one having gotten damaged without realising it.

    Then came the supplies for their new party member, where she got the usual stuff that was needed. She grabbed another waterskin, bedding, a few emergency rations to name a few of the items Philly should be carrying with her.

    Then came the topic of tents. The shop had a good few, varying in different sizes but all looking to be made of a sturdy material. She just had to check with Philly what she wanted.

    ¡°Philly, which tent would you like?¡± Olivia said as she called the girl in question over.

    Philly turned up and Lyrika joined them as well having not found much of interest in the shop.

    ¡°Can¡¯t I just sleep in your tent?¡±

    ¡°I mean it is big, but I don¡¯t think all three of us could sleep in there.¡±

    At that, a thought urred to Olivia. Would they be able to continue theirte night escapades. It was harder to do when you were camping out, the need to keep watch and not really feeling safe. But it wasn¡¯t impossible for something to happen, which may have been the case with the tent she and Lyrika would have been sharing.

    But with Philly now joining them, there was no way they could just continue what she and Lyrika had been doing. The girl was bound to hear them. Also, how would she exin that she and Lyrika would sleep in one tent, and Philly had to be in another. Sure, she already had an understanding of their rtionship, but it hardly seemed fair for her to remain on her own in the night. Maybe it would be best to buy another tent and they all sleep separately. Or maybe they could get an evenrger one, and all three could actually sleep in one.

    This idea of the likely new sleeping arrangement was bound to cause some¡­difort for both of the, but it felt wrong to be doing those sort of activities with Philly nearby.

    ¡°In that case then, should we buy a newrge tent for all of us, or we could get another tent so we can all sleep separately. Although, looking around I can¡¯t see an even bigger-¡±

    ¡°No!¡± Lyrika quickly shouted out as she realised that this all meant. The problem though was that it made sense given the new travellingpanion. So she had to back down from adamantly refusing. ¡°¡­I mean. There is no need to do that. We can just¡­take turns sleeping in the two tents. Maybe even put them close together so none of us are truly alone. No need to waste more money on another one. I¡¯m sure we can¡­manage.¡±

    ¡°Are you sure?¡±

    ¡°Yes. It will be fine. I think.¡±

    ¡®I mean it¡¯s not like we have to do it. But having been doing those activities together it feels almost wrong that we wont be able to. Will I be able to deal with not doing it.¡¯

    That was question only time would answer.

 Chapter 64 - Chapter 64: The Plan - Part 2

    Chapter 64: The n ¨C Part So, having not brought another tent, Olivia got onto figuring out if anything could be used to help kidnap Ameril.

    Looking around, a lot of it wasn¡¯t going to do much. An extra bag, rations and cookware wouldn¡¯t help with taking down guards. It wasn¡¯t until she got to the tool section that she managed to get some inspiration.

    In her vision she saw all that she associated with a vige from a fantasy work. Well, all that people working would use. There were hoes, fishing rods, watering cans and axes all with different variationsying on the shelves. They were just as she imagined, being made up of some sort of hard wood for handles of the tools like the hoe, along with a metal end. The watering can was very basic and was made entirely out of a green metal. She thought it had been painted in some way, but as she inspected it realised the metal itself was actually green.

    Near all of this were other basic items that you would or might need for your profession. This included things such as rope and string of various sizes, bait for fishing and leather gloves and aprons.

    And as she looked at this, ideas came to mind.

    Her mind went back to the simple yet effective way of stopping a carriage she had seen in old films or fantasy shows, where you cut a tree so that it crosses the path, stopping carriages from proceeding. This would keep them trapped, especially if they did it behind them as well, stopping them from turning around and speeding away with Ameril.

    ¡®We¡¯re going to be in a forest, so with abundance of trees, surely that should work.¡¯

    So, picking up the axe she made herself miss the way all the people nearby shook as they watched the monster pick up a weapon. Why it only happened then when she had an actual massive weapon on her back she didn¡¯t know.

    Putting that aside, she decided to go ahead and grab a few more things that may be helpful for the mission. She took the thinnest but strongest ball of rope she could find, figuring that it would probably end up being used to tie the men up once they took them down.

    But other than that, nothing else felt like it would help.

    Walking away from that section she ended walking up to a group of people that parted to allow her through. She hoped it was because of kindness and not fear, but who knows. Eventually she came across severalrge jars all filled with various liquids.

    ¡®Are these potions. Surely, they would be in the apothecary if they were though.¡¯

    As she looked through them all, a few were pitch ck with others varying between grey, brown and a sort of off white. Looking at thebels, she discovered that the ck ones varied between different inks for using a quill, and a few others was some sort of oil or tar, likely for antern or some such. The off-white one was actually animal fat, probably used for cooking and the like, while the brown one. Well, lets just say she decided to steer clear of it when she realised it was used for fields to help nts grow. She did not want to go anywhere near that.

    The grey one however was something she couldn¡¯t quitepare to anything found on Earth. That she knew of anyway. As she read itsbel, it sounded like it was the mucus of some sort of animal, the name of it not being given. It was utterly disgusting, but when she picked it up and gave it a little shake she expected it to be a thick and slimy, it being mucus and all, but it flowed very easily, almost like water.

    She didn¡¯t know if it would help, but an inquisitive part of her wanted to find out what it was and what it did. Som, she brought it up to the shopkeeper to ask.

    ¡°Hello, could you tell me more about this?¡±

    The shopkeeper was a short gentleman with sses, and once he readjusted them and himself having seen an Orc right in front of his face, he spoke back.

    ¡°Ah¡­ I cant recall the creature it came from. It-it just happened to be one of the few things left over when a trader came. But while I don¡¯t know where it came from, I can tell you it is quite interesting. It flows freely as you can see, but once it is outside of a container, it bes very thick, almost solid. I don¡¯t know why, but that is how it is.¡±

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡®That is odd. The way he said it, makes it sound like it bes more viscous when exposed to air.¡¯

    Now that he exined it, it kind of made sense. They were able to get enough of the mucus to fill the whole the jar, to her that made it sound like it didn¡¯t juste from the odd sneeze, but that it produced this stuff regrly. Possibly it used it to attack or defend itself, so that if you got this on you, it would be incredibly hard to move.

    The gears in her head continued to move as she realised that this was something she could use.

    ¡­

    With another look around the shop she came up empty, not finding anything else that could help her, so she took all that she had picked up to the counter and paid for it.

    As it turned out, she had quite a sizeable amount of coin on her person. With what they had taken from the bandits and the reward of their capture and the selling of the left over gear, all of the stuff she brought only made a slight dent to it. But without some form of ie, it would just continue to decrease as they stocked up on stuff every now and then, so it would onlyst for so long.

    But for now, it was plenty, and having paid for it all, they left the store to the sighs of relief from many of the shoppers.

    ¡­

    ¡°Why did you by that jar of gunk?¡± Lyrika asked making a grossed-out face.

    ¡°Oh, I figured we could use it on the guards. If we pour some into smaller bottles and throw them, when they smash it should coat whoever it hits. Then, when they try to move, it should slow them right down.¡±

    At that Philly¡¯s interest was piqued, it now venturing into her territory of potions. Reaching over, she pulled the jar out from the bag Olivia was holding.

    Philly just stared and examined it for a while as they walked, and tried to figure out where to go to next.

    ¡°I think it could work. We will need to get lots of bottles all made with rather thin ss if possible. We could also add a little something to help it explode when it shatters. If you throw it and it hits the ground, it will just seep into the dirt. But, you could make it so when it breaks, the liquid gets blown outwards, making it more likely to hit its target. We should head to the apothecary to get some bottles to use.¡±

    With that, they automatically started to head towards their new destination. Hopefully it would have what they needed to make which Olivia figured were ¡®sticky bombs¡¯, it would also be a good opportunity for them to purchase any potions Philly didn¡¯t have that could give them an edge or help them down the road.

    ¡°That sounds good. It¡¯s a pretty big jar so we have plenty of it. We should leave some without an explosive¡­agent, so that if you can make a good shot, or are close enough you can shatter the bottle on them, it will end up coating themplet¡­¡±

    Olivia drifted off as she said that, her brain turning as an improvement on it all was on the tip of her tongue. A way for them to better hit someone with the bottles, and, as it stands, something that could be very useful for Philly to go with herbat skills for any fights in the future.

    ¡°A slingshot.¡±

    ¡°A what?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s what we need. Do either of you know about a weapon which sort of has this shape¡±, Olivia mimed the Y shape as saying it wouldn¡¯t work given the differentnguage. ¡°Then it has stic and a little pouch you can ce things in to fire them.¡±

    ¡°I mean it sounds like a sling, but I¡¯ve never heard of something with, that odd shape you showed or whatever stic is.¡± Lyrika replied.

    Looking over to Philly, she gave a simple shake of the head as she inspected her pouch of bottles to see what could work with the new substance they had purchased.

    ¡®Ok, well the Y part would be simple. Just need to find a branch in that shape and cut it down to size. The pouch again wouldn¡¯t be hard, just a bit of leather. It¡¯s just the stic part of it. Would they have anything stic in this sort of time. Probably not. But just because that¡¯s the case doesn¡¯t mean there isn¡¯t something like it here. There might be something magical that acts the same.¡¯

    ¡°Do either of you know of something long and thin like string or rope that when you pull it, it stretches and when you let go, goes back to its original shape?¡±

    Again, her question was followed by a set of resounding nos and head shakes. Only this time, a third voice popped up.

    ¡°That sounds like the vines from a Chrysanium tree.¡±

    All three jumped out of their skin and turned to find someone unexpected now with them.

    ¡°Milly¡­fancy seeing you here.¡±

 Chapter 65 - Chapter 65: The Plan - Part 3

    Chapter 65: The n ¨C Part ¡°What-what are you doing here?¡± Olivia quickly asked.

    ¡°Oh, just got board in the stables and decided to go for a wander. Then I saw you lot. What are you up to?¡±

    ¡°nning a kidnapping.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Stunned silence was all that could be heard as Olivia and Lyrika just craned their heads to look at Philly who was still going through her bottles and spoke out of impulse.

    *pfft* ¡°A kidnapping.¡± Milly said in amongst herughter, ¡°You almost got me there. For a moment I was like, woah, are these actually bad people. That was a good one little bunny.¡±

    ¡°Ha, Ha, yeah. Good one Philly.¡± Olivia could only say in a very robotic voice.

    ¡°Ahhh, so seriously. Are you buying anything special.¡±

    ¡°Just stocking up on supplies, ready for when we head out next.¡± Olivia replied.

    ¡°You¡¯re not staying. That¡¯s a shame. When do you n on leaving?¡±

    ¡°In err¡­¡±

    Olivia quickly managed to stop herself as the whole oddity from thest meeting came to mind, so rather than state how many days, she just decided to be vague about it.

    ¡°¡­I mean, we don¡¯t know yet. We still need to get ready and figure out where we are going, then we will head off.¡±

    Milly just blinked a couple of times, and to Olivia it felt like she could tell that she was lying.

    ¡°I see. Well, I hope youe see me before you do leave, say good bye and all. Anyway, mind if I join you. I¡¯m free for the rest of the day and haven¡¯t got anything nned.¡±

    ¡°¡­Yeah. Sure.¡±

    Olivia had wanted to say no, but knew that is she did, there wasn¡¯t any real reason for doing so. All it would do is cause an awkward silence and probably bring about many more questions on her decision.

    At that, they all headed into the store. It then urred to her, Milly¡¯s first words when she arrived, having changed topics quite quickly since then.

    ¡°You mentioned some vine when you arrived, what was it again?¡± Olivia asked.

    ¡°Oh, the vines from a Chrysanium tree. They are found all over the Demon region. They don¡¯t have much use aside from being used as an ingredient to add vour to food. So, if you¡¯re looking for some, it shouldn¡¯t be too hard to find. Might be able to find some in the grocers.¡±

    ¡®That¡¯s good, we shall have to head there after. I just hope it works like I imagine.¡¯

    ¡­

    They all headed into the apothecary and were greeted by the woman behind the counter.

    ¡°Hello, is there anything I can help- Wait, didn¡¯t youe in a while ago.¡± the woman said as the looked at Lyrika. ¡°Do you need more of the-¡±

    ¡°No! No, I don¡¯t need any more of that. I¡¯m just here with my friends. I¡¯m fine.¡± Lyrika quickly shouted out, startling the woman.

    ¡°Okay¡­ ¡±

    Having turned her head away from Lyrika, she finally noticed the hulking mass of half-orc that had entered her shop. How she missed her at the start Olivia didn¡¯t know.

    The woman all but froze at the sight, but after a few deep breaths, she managed to calm herself and looked away.

    It did feel odd to Olivia that so far, no one had been overly¡­terrified of her. Sure, there were the nces, stares and the looks of shock and fear that many had, but no one had ran away in terror or tried to attack her. Not yet anyway.

    When they were in Yoban¡¯s vige, the vigers were desperate and probably more fearful of the bandits that had killed their friends. Some, it¡¯s sad to say, may have seen the monster turning as a wee sight, allowing them to be with their friends and family. But here, it was a vige full of people and so far nothing horrible had happened. Aside from her entrance that is. The only reason she could think of was that Teagan¡¯s words had a very big impact on things. For that to be the case, it was truly astonishing that only his words were needed to cate everyone.

    ¡­

    After the oddity with Lyrika turning up again and seeing a monster in her shop, the woman at the counter decided to leave them be, not wanting to be involved in any more drama. The scene with Lyrika however just further caused more questions on what she was hiding.

    ¡®I thought it might have been some medical thing. Like a condition, she has needed to take treatment for. But now it just seems like it¡¯s something embarrassing. I guess it could always be something embarrassing that she has to take medicine for.¡¯

    Milly did raise the same question to the group, but like when Olivia asked, Lyrika just shot her down, not wanting to exin.

    ¡°Any idea what it could be she got,¡± Milly asked as she leaned right over to whisper in Olivia¡¯s ear.

    ¡°Err¡­ no, no clue. I¡¯m sure will talk about it in time.¡±

    Putting that all behind them, they decided to browse the store. A store which was quite amazing in Olivia¡¯s eyes. Sure, the ce was small, it being in a vige and all, but each and every one of the four walls was covered in shelves and held an incredible number of potions. As she looked around, it was an assortment of colours, where practically every colour from the rainbow was present. The bottles themselves were in many shapes and sizes, some being incredibly long, almost like test tubes from her science lessons, some were conical, spherical, cuboid, really the list went on.

    Looking closer at the shelves she went ahead and read thebels, showing what each one was. One of the walls she was perusing, as far as she could see, held cures. Well rather than that, they were all potions that helped to alleviate symptoms of some form of sickness, illness or poison, while only a few treated the cause. Only a few of them imed topletely cure something, mainly the ones that helped with poisons, which felt like a disimer you would find back on Earth. The rest all helped deal with things like colds and fevers.

    On another wall she found what she had expected. Health potions, or more urately, healing and ailment potions. They stated they helped improve the recovery rate of the body, helping to seal wounds and replenish life fluid, which she assumed was blood. There were also ones that helped with things like tiredness and stress, where it replenishes your energy and keeps you going. It did however state that it was only temporary, where she imagined it was like receiving a burst of energy, and when it fades you fall hard back into the problem you had before.

    Then on thest couple of walls were random misceneous ones that really made no sense to her, but the rest were what she could only refer to as buffs. She didn¡¯t know what she was expecting when she walked into the apothecary, but she didn¡¯t expect to see potions that buffed a person¡¯s strength as you did in video games. But, she guessed that in a world with magic, it wasn¡¯t too far out of the realm of possibility.

    Looking through thebels, she could see that there were ones for strength, speed, even one for reaction time or your thought process. Those were Olivia¡¯s words, not what was stated on the bottle. But, where she thought there were miraculous, many of them had down sides. It seemed that while they did help improve those aspects, by only a small amount though, once it wore off the opposite happened for a short while. So, when you finished being able to bench press boulders and it wore off, you wouldn¡¯t even be able to lift your arms up. Same with the reaction times one, once it finished, you would be hard-pressed to be able to dodge or react to anything without it taking ages.

    So, while quite amazing that something like this existed, they had their pitfalls. That however didn¡¯t seem to take away from fact that they were being sold for exorbitant amounts of coin. Inparison to the healing potions, they were about three of four times dearer. Olivia really wanted to know what sort of people would be buying these.

    Thinking back to the action n, she could see it being good to have something like the strength or reaction time potion, but if it wore off in the middle of the fight, she would just be a sitting duck.

    Leaving those behind, she perused some of the healing potions, which is when Philly wandered over.

    ¡°It¡¯s disappointing, they only have the basic stuff. No sleeping potions or poisons, just stuff to help stop you vomiting or sneezing.¡±

    ¡°Not all of it. I¡¯m sure these healing potions wille in handy.¡± Olivia said as she picked one up handing it over to Philly.

    She gave it a quick inspection and after a while just sighed.

    ¡°This won¡¯t be helpful. Sure, the root that this potion uses does help with recovery, but it¡¯s more like taking a day off when you need to heal for a week. This won¡¯t help if you¡¯re severely bleeding or in the heat of a battle.¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­think you can find us some good ones then. Something to keep us all alive should anything happen.¡±

    ¡°Sure. Leave it to me.¡±

    At that, Philly started taking bottles off the shelf and sorting through them, trying to figure out which ones would be best for the situations they would likelye across.

    ¡®Well, I am very d that Philly is part of the group now. Having a potions expert is quite the boon.¡¯

    Hopefully, she would find some good potions to keep them all alive for the fight toe and any other adventures that await them.

 Chapter 66 - Chapter 66: The Plan - Part 4

    Chapter 66: The n ¨C Part Turning away from Philly, Olivia looked around the room. She could see a few other shoppers as well as Lyrika and Milly, both of whom were looking through the bottles to see if anything took their fancy. Each of them were holding a bottle but they were still perusing, likely trying to see if there was anything better than what they had found.

    Before long, Philly had finished and had grabbed several of the healing potions that she said would be very helpful. The only problem was that being as good as they were, they were being sold at prices that matched that. One or two had been undervalued, ording to Philly, but the rest were still pricy. They had enough money thankfully, but they would definitely need to get some more ie before their next trip to an apothecary.

    From the bottles she chose, she told Olivia how they worked. For a couple of the ones she chose, she stated they were strong enough that you only needed to pour a few drops on minor injuries like a cut, which would then cause it to heal up in a matter of seconds to heal up. It would also work like alcohol, disinfecting the area to stop infections.

    The rest were for more serious injuries, where they did different things ranging from closing uprge wounds in a matter of minutes to stopping the bleeding in the area it applied. These would all end up working in conjunction to help stop you from losing a limb or dying from blood loss.

    Olivia was very pleased with what she had chosen, them all sounding like they would be essential for the road toe, even though she hoped they wouldn¡¯t need them. So, figuring that was it for today, Olivia headed over to the counter with Philly. But as she was nearing it Lyrika intercepted them, with Milly joining as well once she saw everyone was together.

    ¡°What do you think about buying this?¡± She said holding a bottle out in front of the group.

    The substance inside was a murky brown, which immediately brought her mind to the jar in the general store. Thankfully, they were not the same as each other.

    ¡°Monster repellent, really?¡± Olivia asked with a sceptical look. For some reason, it just sounded like a scam. She wasn¡¯t sure why. Probably because of some novel or TV show she had read or seen before.

    ¡°Yeah, I mean we don¡¯t want any monsters to attack while we¡¯re dealing with the guards, right?¡±

    ¡°Guards? Wait, are you actually kidnapping someone?¡± Milly whispered to the group, trying to understand what was going on.

    Not wanting things to be blown out of proportion, Olivia quickly exined the situation, which thankfully alleviated her fears.

    ¡°Ok good. I was worried for a moment there. Why didn¡¯t you just tell me before when the little bunny brought it up.¡±

    ¡°I just¡­I thought it would be better if you didn¡¯t know. Deniability and all that.¡±

    ¡°Huh¡­ok.¡±

    Turning back to Lyrika they got back to the topic of the monster repellent.

    ¡°I mean it¡¯s true that having monsters attack while we¡¯re trying to grab Ameril would be a problem. But I mean, does it even work.¡±

    ¡°We could open it and find out,¡± Milly said with a slight grin on her face.

    A grin that Olivia was not happy about.

    ¡°How could we-¡± and then it hit her.

    She quickly turned towards Lyrika.

    ¡°No don¡¯t open-.

    But it was toote. With an audible pop, the cork came off the end.

    ¡°I can¡¯t smell anything.¡± Was Lyrika¡¯s response as she breathed in deeply.

    But right after she said this the eerie silence that was present for only a short while was soon reced by the sound of gagging.

    A strong and pungent odour hit Olivia like a truck and assaulted her senses. So much though that she could taste it down the back of her throat.

    She coughed and sputtered, gagging at the rancid terrible smell. Her eyes started to water and the only thought in her mind was to get as far from it as possible.

    Thankfully, Lyrika quickly put the cork back on, but the smell lingered in the air, causing Olivia to have to run and open the door to the shop to get some fresh air.

    In the open she gulped down the untainted air, and after several deep breaths, she could breathe properly again.

    ¡®That was horrible. What sort of sicko creates something like that.¡¯ She wondered to herself. It didn¡¯t however ur to her that generally, monsters were not the sort of creatures to end up being part of civilized society like herself. There was cause to have repellent like that in this world when monsters usually wanted to eat you.

    Heading back inside, she was treated to the sight of the three girls dashing over to the door, all looking at her with worried looks on the faces. Except for Milly who, while still looked worry, did show a slight hint of amusement.

    As she walked over to them she just stared Milly in the eyes.

    ¡°I¡¯m sorry. I didn¡¯t know it would be that affective. I just thought it would make you wrinkle your nose or something.¡±

    With the look of worry on her face, it did in part sound like she was being honest. But after that, she wasn¡¯t willing to just take her word for it.

    ¡°Are you okay?¡± Was what she received from both Lyrika and Philly.

    ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m-I¡¯m fine now.¡±

    ¡°Well at least we know it works.¡± Lyrika stated. But what she said next threw Olivia through a loop. ¡°Let¡¯s buy it then.¡±

    ¡°Wha-! You want to buy it. I thought you liked having me around?¡±

    ¡°Not to ward you off you idiot. For other monsters, for whenever you head off on your own, like with the bandits.¡± She said with a slightly annoyed tone. Olivia guessed that bringing it up made her remember how worried she got. ¡°Besides, Philly might be able to adjust it, so it doesn¡¯t affect you or something..¡±

    Turning her head, Olivia saw Philly just nodding.

    ¡°Yeah. I don¡¯t see why not. Might take some time though.¡±

    ¡°¡­fine. Just don¡¯t you dare use it when I¡¯m around.¡±

    By now, while she hadn¡¯t noticed it, everyone else in the vicinity had stopped staring at Olivia having seen her run away from the potion and had gotten back to shopping. This was also the point when Milly spoke up again.

    ¡°You could also use this.¡± She said bring the potion she found into view.

    ¡°No offence, Milly, but I really don¡¯t feel like taking a potion from you.¡± Olivia immediately replied.

    *sigh* ¡°I said I was sorry. Look it¡¯s an invisibility potion. They only had one, but if you¡¯re going to take down guards, it might be good to do it so that they can¡¯t see youing.¡± She mentioned as she stretched her arms out further to Olivia. Who, in turn, very reluctantly took it.

    Given where it hade from, the shelves with the buffs, she was sure it had a downside. And she was right.

    ¡°It onlysts ten seconds, and when it ends it makes your skin glow for an hour.¡±

    To her it didn¡¯t sound like it would help much.

    ¡°Do you need more than that. It¡¯s not like your sneaking into a bandit camp or something. You just need it to work long enough so you can reach them before they see you. And what does it matter if you glow after, when you¡¯re already in the heat of battle.¡±

    She made some good selling points there, but Olivia didn¡¯t want to just agree with her like that.

    ¡°I¡¯ll even buy it for you as another way to say sorry.¡±

    ¡°Why that one over the others?¡± Olivia asked.

    ¡°Ah, most of them are for if you need a quick decisiveeback. If you¡¯re losing badly, downing one of those potions would help you out and give you a fighting chance. But you¡¯ve read thebels, you would be useless after a while, so taking it at the start of the fight just means you may get the bad side effect during the fight. You could grab one for if you end up in a sticky situation, but I don¡¯t see that happening, and you may not even get a chance to use it then. So, I can¡¯t see one of those helping in your battle. The invisibility was one of the few that didn¡¯t cripple you after its effects wore off.¡±

    ¡°¡­ok¡­ I¡¯ll take it.¡±

    Milly lips turned into a small smile at that, happy she had taken her advice and epted the potion. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t the same as the smile she had during the repellent incident.

    ¡°You should turn invisible as soon as you drink the whole thing.¡±

    It was a very small bottle, almost smaller than that of a shot ss. Hardly a mouthful so it should be easy enough to take a quick swig when needed.

    Taking them up to the counter, theyid them out and Olivia then asked her question for her slingshot n.

    ¡°Do you have any ss bottles we can buy? They should be quite small. About this size,¡± She said holding up one of the smaller potion bottles, ¡°But should be round. Also, the ss should be reasonably thin so that it smashes easily.¡±

    ¡°That is a rather odd request. I think we have some, but why do you want them? Most peoplee here to buy potions. Are you nning to make some?¡± the woman asked.

    ¡°Yes. But none of them are simr to what you sell.¡± Olivia said, figuring she had to add that on. Why would the woman sell them the bottles, if their n was to save coin may making copies of her potions?

    The woman did seem relieved at hearing that, and Olivia was sure she wanted to ask what potions they would be making. But she thought better of it, figuring it was better to not get involved.

    She headed into the back of her store and came out holding a basket full of bottles.

    ¡°Is this the sort of thing you were looking for?¡±

    Looking through them all, they were about the right shape and size, and after purchasing one, then giving it a little smash test, they found that broke easily when hitting something, but not when you held it tightly which worked quite nicely for a slingshot.

    Purchasing a good couple of dozen, which came out to be much cheaper than buying just a couple of the healing potions, they said their goodbyes to the shopkeeper and headed out to their new destination. The grocers.

 Chapter 67 - Chapter 67: The Plan - Part 5

    Chapter 67: The n ¨C Part The sun was starting to drop below the tree line when they left the store. Right now they were heading to the grocers, and while there were likely to be more ces to go after, it was likely that this would be thest stop for the day.

    Heading over, Milly still with them, they entered and had a look around.

    They got the same response as they did in the apothecary and general store, but with it being only a few people, none of them paid any attention to it.

    It was nice to see all of the vegetables and fruit they had amassed from their farnd and the vibrant different colours they all showed, but it wasn¡¯t really appealing for a group that would be travelling soon. You couldn¡¯t easily prepare and use vegetables to make a hearty meal on the road. Sometimes there just wasn¡¯t time, or it was a matter of space in your bags. Either way, it wasn¡¯t something they would be buying.

    They did grab a few smaller fruits though, simr to what Olivia had gathered before. When asking the shopkeeper, they learnt that they kept well, so decided to get a few for their provisions.

    The only thing left was for Olivia to see if her slingshot idea coulde true.

    As she moved around the store, she found what was essentially an exotic food section. There were a good number of fruit and vegetables, as well as herbs and spices from the different regions.

    Browsing through them all, she eventually came across the nt she was looking for. It was pretty simple, just being a green vine, so it didn¡¯t look like much. But once she grabbed a piece and pulled, she knew it was the thing for the job.

    Like stic, it stretched and grew taught as she pulled, getting harder and harder to continue pulling the more she did it. There were no tears or damage as she pulled which also bode well. Releasing it, it snapped back to how it was before, pinging across and hitting her other hand as it did so.

    ¡°Ouch!¡±

    The girls got a goodugh from that.

    Doing it a few more times but holding it and retracting the vine rather than letting go, it remained intact.

    ¡°I think this should do nicely.¡±

    The girls showed signs of confusion, not really knowing what purpose the vine would have, them seeing it as food over anything else. So, after quickly paying for it, and not finding anything else of interest, they headed out.

    ¡°With the hard part out of the way, now I just need to find a branch the right shape and get a small piece of leather.¡±

    But if anything, that would have to be left till tomorrow. It was starting to get dark and shops were closing up. There was also no way they could go searching for a specifically shaped stick with the light levels being this low. That and the tannery waspletely shut as well, so the leather would also have to wait.

    Oilnterns along the paths were being lit by several different people. These though hardly gave off enough light to do anything. It seemed it was just done so you could just about see people around you and the path you were walking on.

    The day was over, and they all needed to get some grub in them. So, the only ce left to go was the Inn that Teagan had spoken of, the one closest to his residence.

    As they walked, Milly quickly moved ahead and stood in front of them.

    ¡°Well, I think that¡¯s it for me today. I had a lot of fun with you lot and I hope you¡¯lle see me tomorrow. I can also take you to see the Umbrea galloping about in their field as well. If youe just after lunch you should have plenty of time to see them.¡±

    Lyrika was very excited about that, so it was definitely in the n for tomorrow. Hopefully, they could get the branch and the leather tomorrow morning and be done with it. Then it was just a case of heading over to the road Ameril would be travelling on and setting up camp.

    Milly then walked over to Olivia and spoke so only she could hear.

    ¡°It was a lot of fun travelling with you. I hope you seed in the ¡°kidnapping¡±,¡± she said while air quoting the word kidnapping, ¡°and that it all goes ok. Also, let me know if the vine works like the stic from your world and you can make your slingshot. You might be able to make some good money selling them in the future.¡±

    Once she had spoken, she turned around and waved goodbye to everyone, heading off towards the stable. At that, the girls turned and headed towards the rmended Inn and started to walk.

    But then Olivia froze as she realised what Milly had said.

    ¡®Did she just say ¡°stic from your world¡±. No, I must have misheard¡­ or did she actually say that. How-¡®

    Confusion flooded Olivia¡¯s brain as she tried to understand how Milly would know she came from another world. She turned back to where they just were, but like before when she tried looking for her, the girl was already gone.

    ¡®Does she know I¡¯m from another world? Or did I hear her wrong? Did she use some sort of magic to find out? Who is she?¡¯

    Lyrika and Philly, both asked her what was wrong, but she passed it off that she was just thinking about something. Neither of them knew she was from another world, and it wasn¡¯t something she was going to just casually bring up now. She will probably tell them one day, but for now, they needed to get something to eat and get some sleep. Questions on how Milly knew she was from another world would have to wait till tomorrow. Who knows where the girl could be now?

    ¡­

    After a good long walk through the vige, they finally made it to the Inn that Teagan had spoken of. It was, as he stated and like many of the other ces, made up of a few houses, rather than being just arge one. It was made of three houses to be exact, where the doors on the houses on either side of the middle one were blocked off. So, heading to the only way in, they then entered the building.

    The first thing they were greeted with was the hustle and bustle of what looked to be the dining area. All around the room there were tables and chairs, almost all of them being upied by someone. The majority were bull-kin but every now and then she saw some other species of beast-kin.

    All of them were heartily eating their meal, and enjoying the evening, chatting with their friends, and gossiping about events of the day. A few were even ying some rudimentary dice game, consisting of several dice and a couple of cups.

    She could also see, towards the left what was in effect a bar, along with a couple of barmen. Every now and then a waiter or waitress would enter and exit the room behind the bar, bringing out some lovely-smelling dishes or drinks, and taking away the empty ones.

    It was a lovely scene and atmosphere. It truly was what she imagined an Inn looked like in a fantasy setting.

    It¡¯s just a shame that her arrival put a sudden damper on the atmosphere as she gave one of the waitresses carrying several pints of alcohol a scare, causing her to drop the whole lot. The cups hit the floor, shattering into pieces, sending the alcohol spewing along the ground. The woman backed away, having had the scare of her life, and themotion caused all the revelry to stop, which was followed by several dozen heads turning her way.

    Olivia expected some form of response when she entered the building. This wasn¡¯t her first rodeo, and given all the previous arrivals into shops, she knew what to expect. This time though it was different. There was arge number of people staring at her, many of whom were drunk and not entirely in control of their emotions and faculties. A lot of them also have quite angry looks on their faces, possibly thinking she had scared the waitress or done something to her. It was quite a frightening sight and actually caused her to freeze up as she didn¡¯t know what to do.

    Lyrika and Philly were obviously not oblivious to this, but most of the looks were towards Olivia. They could see a few looks from very drunk men that were aimed at themselves, but they just ignored them. As Lyrika looked up at Olivia, she could see the impact that it all had on her. No one would want to be the centre of attention for a massive number of drunk and angry men.

    Just standing in the doorway wasn¡¯t going to help with anything, so they slowly walked into the Inn and headed towards the bar, Lyrika taking Olivia¡¯s hand as she did to pull her along as she was still frozen as she was trying to deal with it all. Once they reached the bar, one of the barmen, walked over and spoke to them.

    ¡°Yes, what can I do for you?¡±

    ¡°We would like a couple of rooms for the night as well as dinner.¡± Lyrika quickly said, as Olivia wasn¡¯tpletely with it yet.

    ¡°I take it that¡­that thing is joining you as well.¡± the man said pointing at Olivia.

    ¡°I think you mean, her, rather than, that. And yes she will,¡± Lyirka said with a frown.

    ¡°Ah, sorry. I couldn¡¯t tell whether it was male or female just from looking at it.¡± he said chuckling to himself. A few others around the roomughed a little as well. This all just deepened the frown on Lyrika face and cause one to appear on Philly as even she got a little annoyed at someone insulting her research subject.

    ¡°Just a bit of bad humour to lighten the mood. Now I¡¯m sure you can see the looks she¡¯s getting and don¡¯t get me wrong, we all heard about themotion and the Orc in our vige, it¡¯s just seeing one is very different to hearing about one. Everyone knows what Orcs are like, so it¡¯s a little hard to believe you have a tamed one. Besides, even tamed beasts can fight back against their owner, which is why everyone¡¯s weary,¡± the man said as he nonchntly cleaned the cup he was holding.

    Anger red up on Lyrika¡¯s face at how insulting this man was. But before she could explode, his words managed to break Olivia out of her stupor.

 Chapter 68 - Chapter 68: The Plan - Part 6

    Chapter 68: The n ¨C Part ¡°Wha- she¡¯s not-!¡±

    Before Lyrika could get even angrier at the man over what he said, Olivia broke out of her stupor and quickly ced her hand on her shoulder before she blew up at him.

    ¡°Lyrika. It¡¯s-it¡¯s fine.¡± she quickly said before bringing her closer to whisper in her ear. ¡°Look, as much of an ass as this guy is, causing a scene will not end well for us right now. All the people in this Inn wille to his aid, not ours. Leave it for now, and I¡¯m sure he will get what he deserves in time.¡± she said being the voice of reason.

    Obviously, Lyrika wasn¡¯t too happy with it, but she understood, as when she looked around the room, everyone was staring at them. Who knows what would happen if she kicked off?

    But while they had to keep cool in this situation, that didn¡¯t mean Olivia would just leave it so that the man felt he had won.

    ¡°Barman, I¡¯m not some tamed beast. I am my own person. And I think the fact that I¡¯m here talking to you, rather than attacking people, means I¡¯m not like the Orcs you know of. Plus, I¡¯m a half-Orc anyway. Now, if you have a problem with us and aren¡¯t willing to ept our coin, letting us stay here, then I would ask that you talk to Chief Teagan about that.¡± Olivia replied, staring the man down as she did.

    It felt like a bit of a cop-out, but until the people in this town actually got used to her, she wasn¡¯t going to be intentionally starting any fights.

    Before long the man grumbled and headed towards the back of the bar. When he returned, he held tworge, rusted iron keys in his hand.

    ¡°It will be ten silver coins for the night and dinner.¡±

    Handing the coins over, which he was a little reluctant to be taking out of Olivia¡¯s hand, he passed the keys towards them.

    ¡°It¡¯s thest two rooms through that door and up the stairs. We will continue to serve dinner for the next hour. Thank¡­thank you for your patronage,¡± the man said, thest part being mumbled reluctantly.

    At that, they headed out of the room and towards the door that he mentioned. They then came to a hallway, and after heading up the stairs stood before two rooms. As they went to unlock and head in, Olivia realised something.

    ¡®Wait, Lyrika only said two rooms. Who¡¯s bunking with whom then?¡¯

    But as if they had already determined it at some point, Philly headed to the other room, leaving Lyrika with her. While she did feel a little bad leaving Philly on her own, when she asked if she was fine, her response was that she needed some quiet to work on some things.

    All three headed into their rooms and dropped off their gear. As they had a look around at the rather simplistic room, they noticed a couple of things with it. First, was that there were two beds. Both grumbled a little about that, especially when they realised they were nailed to the floor. Second was that there was a door on the wall, that looked to connect to the room Philly was in.

    ¡®Adjoining rooms. I didn¡¯t expect that.¡¯

    The fact they were adjoining was odd but figured these were likely used for families. Getting back to storing their gear, they ced it all towards the corner but made sure to keep a few things with them. They decided to keep with them their daggers and knives, not wanting to bepletely unarmed in this ce, and they also kept the Zentora, not wanting to just leave it in the room. Besides they would probably be feeding it as they ate.

    Locking up, they headed back down to the dining room, where they then grabbed one of the few ces that were free. The room had be a little more empty since they had gone to their rooms. Whether it was just because people had finished their meals, or it was because of the Orc that was present she didn¡¯t know.

    Whichever it was, it didn¡¯t matter, as it meant they had more space avable, so they were able to sit at a sizeable table, quitefortably, where they then waited.

    ¡­

    As she observed when first arriving, the wait staff attended the tables, so all they could do was wait for someone to arrive. The problem though, was that as they looked over at the bar, she could see a waitress standing there who seemed to be looking everywhere but at them.

    ¡°I guess that¡¯s our waitress,¡± Olivia said gesturing at her so Lyrika and Philly could see.

    They waited for a little while longer, and thankfully, before any of them decided to head over to get her attention, the barman spoke to the girl, and she then reluctantly walked over.

    ¡°He-hello. My name is As-Asteria. What would you like to eat?¡± the girl managed to squeak out.

    As Olivia looked at her, she just knew the girl was reciting a mantra of ¡®don¡¯t say me, don¡¯t say me¡¯ in her head, thinking the big bad Orc would gobble her up.

    The girl went through the food they had, but it really boiled down to two dishes. One mainly consisted of meat, Gootra meat specifically, as well as a few local vegetables. While the other was just a simple vegetable stew.

    Olivia very quickly asked for the meat dish and paid a little extra for an extra serving of Gootra, the deer-like creature from before. This wasn¡¯t her being gluttonous. She just ordered it, so she had extra to feed the Zentora.

    Lyrika also opted for the Meat dish, which made sense given the ravenous carnivore that she was, Olivia having taken the brunt of her craving during their trip.

    Philly however took the vegetable stew. It seems that growing up in elven society, their diet consisted heavily of vegetables. Since that was all, she really ate, Gootra just didn¡¯t sound appealing to her.

    Lastly, they also decided to order a round of drinks, namely the only ale that was being served in the bar, and then waited for their meal to arrive.

    They spoke about the day, and what would be happening in the future. Philly asked more questions about both Lyrika and Olivia, namely how they met, what they had done together, the adventures not the naughty stuff, and their lives.

    They also got to know a little more about Philly, where she spoke about her life in the elven kingdom. It would seem that her ancestors fled to the elven kingdom during the human war against beast-kin. They were something close to scientific advisors, and all of their children had followed suit in some way or another.

    Her parents were still alive and living happily in the elven kingdom, along with several brothers and sisters. When she was in the institute and her now ex-boyfriend suggested her trip, she had told them about it and it being for scientific pursuit, they were all for it.

    The one thing Olivia was a little unsure about as she spoke about her family, was how she had already written a letter about her journey so far¡­which included meeting and deciding to study Olivia¡­which she sent off to her parents when she arrived in this vige. It would be some time before she received a response, but Philly was sure they would only be positive about her new pursuit.

    Olivia wasn¡¯t quite sure that would be the case.

    ¡­

    As they were talking and waiting for their food, they all of a sudden saw Teagan walk into the Inn, who then quickly headed for the bar. Leaning over the bar, he spoke to the barman for a few minutes. Olivia would like to say it was on apletely random issue, but the asional nces and the pointed finger at herself from the barman told her otherwise.

    It took some time, but eventually, Teagan left the bar and headed over to them.

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, you should have no problems with the staff of the Inn. Just¡­watch out for any drunkards, and please keep in sight of the guards.¡± was what Tegan said before pointing just past her.

    Turning to look, she saw two guards standing there in full armour at the ready. It gave her quite the fright, having just tuned them out and forgotten about them the whole time.

    ¡®Are they like ninjas or something?¡¯

    ¡°A few more days with them at your side, then I think most people would have gotten used to your presence. At that point, we can rx the guard detail a little. Now I have to head off. Hope you have a nice meal.¡±

    A quick wave and he was off, leaving the girls to their own devices again. Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t too long before the waitress came over with the meal. She still looked a little scared, but it seemed like, once again Teagan¡¯s words held weight.

    Depositing their tes on the table, Olivia and the girls got to eating, and boy was it a treat.

    Compared to camp food that is. It still had nothing on eating at a restaurant on Earth.

    ¡°This is so good.¡± Lyrika said praising the meal, ¡°Much better than what you cook,¡± she said looking over at Olivia.

    ¡°Hey¡­ this is an Inn, of course it¡¯s going to be better than what I can do in the woods using just Effler meat and hard tack. I¡¯m quite a decent cook I¡¯ll have you know. I just need the ingredients to truly show it off.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡± was the only response she got from her. It was clear she didn¡¯t believe her.

    ¡°It is ok. Food in the institute is way better than this. But for a meal in a small vige, this tastes alright.¡±

    Olivia was sure there was some sort of veiled insult or displeasure in the way Philly had said that. She did, however, think it was entirely unintentional, Philly being the pragmatic person that she was.

    ¡­

    As they continued to eat and pass small bites of Gootra meat to the Zentora who cutely nibbled away at it, the merriment and revelry in the Inn began to start up again. Since they hade down from their rooms, it had been quiet, people only talking among themselves. But as the night dragged on, a lot of people just ended up putting Olivia at the back of their minds. Now they were talking loudly and heartily drinking ale.

    While great that things were getting back to normal, moving away from the tense atmosphere from before, it did bring its own problems.

    One of which came in the form of a very drunk man who figured himself adies man and a saviour.

    ¡°Hey, err miss, *hick* stand back. I¡¯ll-ill *hick* take that monster d-down.¡± he barely managed to say to Lyrika.

    The disgusted look on her face she gave in response just said it all.

    ¡°I¡¯m fine. Just leave me alone,¡± she replied waving her hand to go away.

    Olivia was a little tipsy by now, so the sight made her a little angry, but theughter bubbling up at how stupid the man was ended up taking over.

    ¡°Don¡¯t *hick* don¡¯t be like that. Once I *hick* take it down, you can show me how much you ap-app-appreciate *hick* my saviournessness.¡± The bumbling buffoon managed to say.

    This though was followed by him slowly reaching down to touch Lyrika¡¯s leg.

    A good deal of people around saw this, a few even moving to stand to stop the man knowing he was in the wrong, or afraid that the Orc would do something.

    Olivia also ended up seeing the move he made, which sobered her up instantly. Standing tall with her imposing figure, she called out to the man.

    ¡°Hey, get your hand off-¡±

    Only to be interrupted by a screech of pain.

    The next thing she saw was the man hunched over, and his face on the table, as Lyrika now stood holding his wrist having twisted it behind his back.

    ¡°I said to leave. Me. Alone.¡±

    The man just whimpered as he tried not to cry from the pain. Happy that she got through to him, she let him go, sending him off the table and onto the floor.

    There were many shocked faces looking at them, but thankfully none held any anger. They could see it was the man¡¯s drunken idiocy that got him in that state, so no one said anything.

    Lyrika just quickly sat back down and got back to her meal.

    A part of Olivia was surprised, but given how they met, and the confrontation soon after they did, it wasn¡¯t too surprising to see her like that.

    ¡­

    Before long they had finished dinner. It was a lovely meal and felt good to be eating among other people rather than just in the middle of nowhere in some forest.

    With the meal over, the only thing left to do was get some sleep. It had been a long day and they still had more things to deal with tomorrow, so an early night would be good for all of them. Heading up to their rooms, they said goodnight to each other as Philly headed to her room while Olivia and Lyrika headed to theirs. Once inside and the door was locked, they changed out of their clothes and plonked down on their own beds to get a good night¡¯s sleep.

 Chapter 69 - Chapter 69: The Visitor - Part 1 - R-18

    Chapter 69: The Visitor ¨C Part 1 ¨C R-1Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next chapter when avable.

    Contains Handjob

    ¡ª

    All three of the girls pretty much tried to just pass out once they hit the sheets. But with it being a new bed to lie in, along with what happened when they first entered the Inn, it proved a little tricky to do so.

    The Zentora had managed it just fine, having had its fill at dinner and tiring itself out. But for herself and Lyrika there was no such luck.

    As Oliviay there, she tossed and turned all the while hearing Lyrika do the same. She had expected Lyrika to get up a join her, but figured she must be eager for some sleep rather than a roll in the hay.

    After a while, as if to confirm her thought, she could no longer hear her rolling around, the room grew silent as shey there still trying to get some rest.

    ¡®How is this so hard. Ok all I need to do is just not think of anything.¡¯

    But of course, her mind went to their n to save Ameril, Philly using the slingshot she would make, Lyrika¡¯s anger over what the Barman said, and to top it off, the mystery that was Milly.

    If anything, that was probably the main culprit. She still had no idea whether she misheard, if it was a slip of the tongue, or if she somehow actually knew she was from another world. On top of that, how did she just manage to disappear and reappear all the time.

    Her thoughts however were interrupted. Not by sleep, but by a rustling of bedding and then footsteps. The room was locked, and she hadn¡¯t heard a key or someone breaking in, so it could only be one person.

    ¡®Looks like she couldn¡¯t fall asleep after all.¡¯

    ¡°Well hello there Lyri-¡±

    But before she could finish her, what was bound to be a very seductive sentence, she was pounced upon and pinned down. Before she could even voice her surprise, lips touched hers, turning into a deeply intimate kiss. She felt her tongue touch hers, slowly running along all sides of it like she was mapping it out.

    But while it felt amazing and was very stimting, something was amiss.

    ¡®This isn¡¯t Lyrika.¡¯

    As soon as that thought ran through her mind she broke the kiss and pushed the stranger up off of her, holding her up by her arms. It was still pitch ck and could only see a faint outline of the girl. Annoyingly she could hardly make out any of the girl¡¯s features. But, if it wasn¡¯t Lyrika, then it had to be,

    ¡°Philly¡±

    There was a short pause as if she was figuring out what to say. This however ended when she felt a firm grip on her cock and the girl finally spoke up.

    ¡°Wrong again,¡± was the yful response she received.

    ¡®I know that voice.¡¯

    ¡°Milly! What- What are you doing? How did you get here? What do you-¡±

    ¡°Shh shh shush,¡± Milly said as she pressed her finger to Olivia¡¯s lips. ¡°Less talking more kissing.¡±

    ¡°Wai-¡±

    But once again, the force of nature that is Milly leaned down and pressed her lips hard against Olivia silencing her. At the same time, she could feel Milly start to stroke up and down her penis.

    ¡®Wow, that feels so good.¡¯

    It had been a while since thest time she and Lyrika had been intimate, so even with this small amount of stimtion was getting her hard fairly quickly. The only problem was that it was this mysterious girl she felt she needed to be weary of that was doing it.

    Using all her might she pushed Milly up again, breaking the kiss. While it was fun, she needed some answers from her. The problem with this though was that while she stopped the kiss to get her to talk, she didn¡¯t have enough hands to stop her from stroking her shaft.

    As she held her up, now knowing it wasn¡¯t Philly or Lyrika, she got a good look at the outline of her body. What was odd though, was that she was more lithe than when they saw her at the ranch, but Olivia just chalked this up to eitherck of sleep or being so close to her that the darkness muddled things.

    ¡°No, no let me kiss you.¡±

    ¡°No, I want answers. How did you get in here and why?¡±

    ¡°I teleported and I think the why is obvious. Now back to the fun right?¡±

    ¡°Stop, just¡­¡± she let out a quick sigh and got down to the real question, ¡°how do you know who I am? You said ¡®like the stic from my world¡¯, how did you know that?¡±

    ¡°Oh that,¡± she quickly replied coyly while speeding up her strokes causing Olivia to moan, ¡°I heard about you from a couple of girls. They wouldn¡¯t stopplimenting you, your strength, your will, your kindness and more importantly your cock. They were talking about you to¡­someone I know, and I overheard. Ever since then, I knew I had to meet you. And I¡¯m so d I did.¡±

    ¡®So, she can teleport, and she heard about me from two girls. That can only be the two goddesses that sent me here.¡¯

    Somehow Milly gained a burst of strength and pushed herself down, pinning Olivia¡¯s arms to the side just from the force of her body, allowing her to go in for another kiss. This was followed by her dragging herself down her body, kissing along the way, where before long she reached the prize she had had a firm grip on since the start.

    Olivia knew this situation was just so odd, but with all the stimtion, further questions just fell out of her head, and all she could do was wait in anticipation for Milly¡¯s lips to nearer the head of her cock.

    *groan*

    But everything froze as she heard a groan that was from neither of them. Looking down she could see Milly¡¯s mouth just above the head, but she quickly turned to the side and grumbled.

    ¡°Damn, the sleeping spell wore off. I knew I should have paid more attention in magic ss all those years ago.¡±

    ¡®A sleeping spell as well. Sort of like what the goddesses did before.¡¯

    ¡°This is really annoying and not how I wanted our night to end, but I better go now. I can¡¯t see your little kitty seeing me ending well. But don¡¯t. You. Worry.¡± she said emphasising this by poking her boobs. ¡°We will continue this at ater date and have a great night together. But for now, I better go and just make you forget about all this.¡±

    ¡®Make me forget, is that why I could never seem to remember her face until I saw it again? More magic I guess.¡¯

    ¡°Wait what? So, you can make me forget this. Why would you though?¡±

    ¡°Well¡­ for a couple of reasons actually. One, so that it will be nicer when we have our night. Make it more spontaneous and all that. The other¡­I can¡¯t really tell you. But let¡¯s just say it¡¯s for¡­protection.¡±

    Olivia had been worried about this woman for a while now, and just forgetting such key information about her was not what she wanted. While it didn¡¯t seem like she was dangerous per se, seemingly being more interested in her penis rather than attacking them or something, she still needed to remember this and find out who she was. So, she racked her brain for a way to get her to leave her memory intact.

    ¡°But¡­But, if you do that, then next time, I¡¯m just going to ask you all those questions again and be weary, which would¡­shorten our time together and ruin the night,¡± she said hoping that would be enough of a reason for Milly.

    ¡°Huh. What you¡¯re saying makes sense, but it doesn¡¯t feel like the truth. It feels the same as when you said you didn¡¯t know when you were leaving.¡±

    ¡®Wait, she can also pick out lies. What sort of magic is that? Who is this girl.¡¯

    ¡°But while I don¡¯t quite believe you, I also don¡¯t want to have to go through that long discussion again. So, okay.¡±

    Olivia gave a sigh of relief at that.

    ¡°I¡¯ll just muddle the memory a little, rather than remove itpletely. Now I better go.¡± Milly stated as she quickly looked over at Lyrika.

    ¡°Wait, what?¡±

    Olivia voiced her concern over muddling her memories, and then followed her gaze over to Milly who was slowly making her way out of the bed. Turning back to look up at Milly, she found her gone, leaving her exposed and hard.

    ¡°*groan*, I must have fallen asleep while I was trying to stay awake. Philly should be asleep by now, and even though it¡¯s still pretty dark, I think we still have time to- oh, Olivia, your still awake.¡± Lyrika said as she slowly walked around her bed towards Olivia¡¯s bing startled once she saw her looking at her.

    ¡°Yes¡­I am. I just, err-¡± Olivia started to trail off, and ended up being interrupted by Lyrika.

    ¡°Oh¡­well good. I was hoping we could¡­ spend some time together,¡± she said taking a couple of steps towards her. ¡°It also looks like you¡¯re ready for me as well,¡± she said as she noticed Olivia¡¯s weapon standing at full tilt. ¡°Were having some fun by yourself to pass the time.¡±

    Olivia was about to say no, but her mind went nk. Had she been masturbating, or at the least just been thinking about Lyrika? How else would she have ended up hard as a rock? Not quite sure what had happened, she decided to respond the best she could.

    ¡°Well actually, this happened because I was just thinking about you.¡±

    And at that, a smirk appeared on both their faces, before Lyrika quickly jumped into her bed, smashing her lips with Olivia¡¯s.

 Chapter 70 - Chapter 70: The Visitor - Part 2 - R-18

    Chapter 70: The Visitor ¨C Part 2 ¨C R-1Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next non-R-18 chapter when avable.

    Contains Blowjob, Cunnilingus

    ¡ª

    Feeling the warmth of Lyrika¡¯s slender body touching hers, Olivia roamed her hands all across it. As she did, one thought entered her mind.

    ¡®Have we kissed like this before.¡¯

    Her mind was a little muddled as she tried to remember, but she was sure this was the first real intimate kiss they had. Before this it had just been¡­well sexual acts.

    Lyrika soon pulled back in order to gulp some air into her lungs, and as she did Olivia voiced her question.

    ¡°That was quite the kiss. I don¡¯t think we have ever had a kiss like that since we started doing this.¡±

    With the darkness, things were still hard to see, but she was sure Lyrika had a blush blooming on her face.

    ¡°I-I. Let¡¯s discuss thatter. Right now, all I want to do is kiss you and then have some more fun, just¡­a little lower.¡± Lyrika finished off with a very sultry look before she got back to kissing.

    The kiss was intense, and Olivia knew that it said more about their rtionship and feelings than either of them had spoken about so far.

    They lost each other in the kiss, the passion intoxicating, as Olivia slowly moved one of her hands into Lyrika¡¯s hair as she held her firmly but also gently.

    Not long after it started, she felt Lyrika¡¯s tongue enter her mouth almost like it was searching for something. Before long, it found it when she started running her own tongue against Olivia¡¯s. Throaty moans could be heard by each other, their heated kiss blocking out the sound, but just the rumbling of their throats was enough to spurn things further.

    From her position, Lyrika reached down to quickly wrap her small hand around Olivia¡¯s alreadyrge girthy cock. She hadn¡¯t considered lubricating her hand, but once she reached her target, she found it was already wet and ready to go. Being so focused on their activities, she could only think Olivia had wet it herself when she started the fun on her own.

    Lyrika continued the kiss and in her fervent mood ended up using her tongue to try a subdue Olivia¡¯s if at all possible. As she could hear Olivia moaning from her stokes, along with the feelings she herself had been dealing with, she felt a need to show Olivia how good she could be.

    But that all fell apart when she found Olivia¡¯srger tongue practically tangle and pin hers down in her mouth. The strength even her slippery appendage had just made her feelings more intense, sending a burst of need to her privates, soaking them further.

    Olivia could feel Lyrika¡¯s strokes already speeding up, but while she was facing a losing battle down there, she had easily won the battle of dominance Lyrika had tried to fight in their mouths. As she practically held Lyrika¡¯s tongue against her own, she heard Lyrika moan out even more, telling her how much she had enjoyed it. This moan from her was followed by her own load one as they pulled apart from some fresh air, right as Lyrika¡¯s strokes had finished her off.

    The passion of the kiss and lust of all that and below, caused her to release her seed hard. Her seed hit record heights as it sted out of her four times, all of which fell down onto her chest, abs and Lyrika¡¯s hand. Thetter of which Lyrika quickly disposed of by bringing to her mouth and slowly but sensually running her tongue all across it, as Olivia watched in rapt attention.

    As she gobbled up thest of her seed, she lent in for another quick kiss, letting Olivia taste both the beauty above her and herself. Which thankfully, wasn¡¯t that bad.

    As Oliviay their breathing heavily from the experience, she could see Lyrika sitting over her stomach. Her eyes had adjusted to theck of light a little more, and the moon had since peaked out from behind the cloud, as if it had done so just to see them. Because of this, she could see Lyrika move down her body towards her already hard again shaft to start round two.

    But, before she let her do her thing, Olivia remembered something from their activities before.

    ¡°Wait¡­ I think it¡¯s about time I made you feel good.¡±

    Blush grew on Lyrika¡¯s face as heard this.

    ¡°What, what did you have in mind?¡±

    ¡°Lay down.¡±

    ¡­

    Before long, Lyrika was strewn across the bed, looking up at Olivia wondering what she would do. Olivia however could only look down at the girl in all her naked glory and wondered how she had gotten so lucky to have met this beautiful girl.

    While Lyrika had an almost weary look on her, seemingly this scenario never having happened to her before. Olivia however was confident, as having been with women before, this was the part she was familiar, and if she could be so bold, was quite good at.

    ¡°What- what are you going to do. Are you going to put it in me, as I¡¯m not sure I¡¯m ready for something of that¡­size.¡±

    ¡°Huh, oh no, no, no. I won¡¯t be using that. No, you justy there and rx.¡±

    ¡°Oh-Okay.¡±

    For Olivia to have seen her nervous just felt strange. She had spoken of previous boyfriends, and from what she had said, had had sex before. But it seemed that none of those boyfriends had used anything other than tool rod they were born with. How Lyrika was in for a shock.

    Olivia slowly lowered herself down onto Lyrika and began kissing her body as she moved down it. Her neck, her breasts and then to her stomach, where she finally finished off by kissing each of her thighs.

    ¡°Wh-what are you going to do to me down there without your thing.¡± Lyrika asked unsure on how things were going to go.

    ¡®Maybe eating someone out isn¡¯t amon thing in this world or time.¡¯

    Olivia just responded with a smile and then headed towards Lyrika¡¯s honeypot. It was at this point that she finally understood, but as she saw her head move down out of her sight, a sudden worry entered her mind.

    ¡°Wait. What about your tusks?¡±

    That froze Olivia for a moment as she hadn¡¯t even considered them. Sinceing to this world, her tusks had not done much of anything, and were really just a frightening feature on her face. They were however incredibly sharp and while she didn¡¯t manage to cut Lyrika when she kissed her lips or her body, down there was a whole other story. It was a lot more sensitive and exposed. Plus, she was sure there would be a good deal of movement from both of them, which meant if they poked the wrong way, she could stab something. But, in no way was she going to let those stop her from tasting Lyrika.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be careful. If I hurt you, let me know.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m sure my cry of pain will do that just fine.¡±

    Leaning in, she closed in on her destination and pressed her lips right against Lyrika¡¯s folds, giving it a simple and subtle kiss. This however was enough to get a slight shock from Lyrika as she felt Olivia¡¯s warm breath and stared down at her gorgeous red hair.

    What was surprising was that the tusks did not end up being a hinderance. Quit the opposite in fact, where, as she neared Lyrika lower lips, the hard tusks pushed against the skin of her thighs right next to her honeypot. It pushed against the skin but did not cause any pain for the girl. What it did do was press its toothy curvature against the edge of her folds and sort of¡­push her vagina outwards towards her. This gave Olivia more ess than she had expected, getting her closer to it, while also widening it slightly, leaving her much more to y with.

    With everything in ce, she slowly ran her tongue along her slit, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from Lyrika. She ran it all the way from the bottom up to the top, where she finished with a quick lick of her clitoris. The ¡°Ah,¡± that arose from Lyrika¡¯s lips above was music to her ears, so she delved back in.

    She continued to slide her tongue along her slit, up and down, up and down, causing Lyrika¡¯s breathing to be audible as she tried to deal with the sensations she was feeling. Every now and then, she would stop at the top and flick her tongue along her clit, sometimes even giving it a slight nibble, which really set Lyrika off, making her gasp at the sensation.

    ¡°It¡¯s so¡­Ah¡­ so weird, but so¡­ *gasp* so bloody good.¡± Lyrika managed to say, which she then ended with a moan as Olivia yed with her clit some more.

    Olivia continued her tongue workout sending Lyrika closer and closer to the edge. After she felt her moves have a diminishing return, she changed tactics to something Lyirka did not expect.

    ¡°Ahhh,¡±

    By sliding her tongue into her pussy.

    *groan*, ¡°Ahh, wow.¡±

    She had wanted to taste Lyrika, and now she had gotten to the main course. The taste of which was foreign, but it was a mix between strawberry and apple.

    ¡®It¡¯s quite nice¡¯.

    She slid her tongue only a short distance, wanting Lyrika to get used to its size. But once she did, she kept moving forward, sliding more and more into her golden pce with each piston of her tongue. By now Lyrika could not stop moaning, and it would not be long before she had her own release.

    ¡°I¡­err¡­I¡¯m going to¡­*gasp*¡­¡±Ahh,¡±

    She could hardly get a sentence out as all she could feel was pleasure coursing through her body, as Olivia explored her sacred ce with her massive tongue.

    As Olivia sped up, the dam broke and Lyrika cried out at her massive orgasm. Olivia kept her tongue inside running it along the walls of her pussy, sending even more sensations through her body, prolonging her release. Where she had ended up lifting her pelvis up from all the feelings coursing through her body, at the end of her orgasm, Lyrika dropped to the bed, breathing heavily.

    Olivia extricated herself from Lyrika¡¯s cave, and sat up to have a look at her, licking her lips to catch Lyrika¡¯s juices that lingered there. As she looked down, she could see a light sheen of sweat covering her body. Her bare chest was heaving up and down rapidly as she breathed fast and heavily. Looking up at her face, she could see that her hair was aplete mess, beingpletely in disarray, some even covering her eye. Even the fur on her tail looked scruffy, where she realised that in all the pleasure, she had grabbed hold of it at some point and ruffled it.

    All in all, she could tell she had enjoyed it. But this didn¡¯t stop her from asking, wanting to hear her say it from her own lips. So,ying down next to her, she voiced her question.

    ¡°Did you have fun?¡±

    ¡°So¡­much¡­Never ¡­before¡­Amazing¡­¡±

    It wasn¡¯t quite a sentence, but Olivia was happy with what she said.

    And now with Lyrika satisfied, they would be able to end the night and get themselves some much needed sleep.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Well, that was until Olivia remembered, she still had her hard little friend to deal with.

    ¡°Up for round two,¡± she said, turning to look at Lyrika.

    ¡­

    She did give Lyrika a few moments to catch her breath. She wasn¡¯t a monster.

    But once she was ready, Lyrika quickly moved over and leant against her stomach, getting ready to have some fun with Olivia¡¯s cock again.

    With the position she was in, this gave Olivia the perfect view of ¡­ the back of her head. Yeah, she felt like a change to that was in order. Something that came about as she looked over to see Lyrika¡¯s gorgeous legs and the sopping mess between them.

    Reaching over, she took hold of Lyrika¡¯s legs and lifted them up, startling the girl.

    ¡°Hey, wha-what are you doing?¡±

    Olivia however, didn¡¯t answer her question proceeding they them down either side of her head. She then brought her head up, and went exploring inside Lyrika¡¯s scared cave again.

    ¡°Ummm.¡±

    Lyrika let out a short moan before she remembered the rod in front of her, where she lifted her head, and brought her lips down over the top. This sent a shock through Olivia, making her moan as she slid her tongue in and out of Lyrika, sending vibrations through her.

    Back and forth, gasping, moaning and sighing was all that was heard in amongst the licking, sucking and on asion some gagging.

    While beautiful to them, it was somewhat loud to others. Loud enough that they didn¡¯t hear the door nearby opening.

 Chapter 71 - Chapter 71: The Visitor - Part 3 - R-18

    Chapter 71: The Visitor ¨C Part 3 ¨C R-1Warning ¨C This is R-18 content. If you do not like it, then do not read. This is entirely optional to read and you can skip to the next chapter when avable.

    Contains Blowjob, Cunnilingus, Fingering, Voyeurism.

    ¡­

    The sound of licking and sucking, along with a good helping of moaning and panting was all that emanated from the room they were staying in. This prated the silence of the night very easily, but thankfully, didn¡¯t travel that far out of the room.

    *pop* ¡°How can your¡­Uhm¡­Uh¡­tongue feel so¡­Ahh¡­good.¡± Lyrika managed to say after she removed her mouth from Olivia¡¯s shaft.

    Olivia pulled her tongue out and away from Lyrika¡¯s lower lips to say something in response, but she had no time to do so since Lyrika shifted back pushing her pussy against her face.

    ¡®Eager.¡¯

    Now unable to pull away again, she dug back in, where she also ran her hands along Lyrika¡¯s legs, touching her beautiful, tanned skin. She moved them all the way up towards her bottom, finding it to be soft yet firm, to which she gave it a quick knead. This causes Lyrika to jump, pushing both ends of her body downwards. Her back end on Olivia¡¯s tongue and her mouth down Olivia¡¯s cock, forcing it further into her throat and temporarily cut off her airwaves, making her gag again.

    She quickly pulled up and popped of the end of Olivia¡¯s rod and gasped for air, as she looked down at it in its tall, hardened glory, she could see several thick strands of saliva connecting her mouth to Olivia¡¯s penis. She didn¡¯t know why, but she liked the sight of that. So, without further ado, she wrapped her plump lips against the head again, and slide down to start sucking.

    Olivia could feel every inch of Lyrika¡¯s mouth against her cock, along with her tongue licking up and down its sides, running along the raised veins and bumps. It was an incredible feeling, and one she had not forgotten since the first time Lyrika had done this. But while a simr feeling, every time she felt Lyrika wrap her luscious lips around her shaft and swallow it, it felt even better than thest time. She could only imagine that she was mapping it out and finding all weak and sensitive spots along it.

    Which was exactly what she was also doing with Lyrika¡¯s sacred cove. As she pushed her tongue deep into Lyrika¡¯s stretching it as far as she could, she ran it all around the inside of her vagina. She circled around, taking in everything, looking for anywhere that was more sensitive than the rest.

    And eventually, she found it.

    ¡°Ahhhh,¡±

    ¡°Uhmmm.¡±

    And then stopped as she realised something wasn¡¯t right.

    ¡®I¡¯m sure I just heard two moans there, and the second wasn¡¯t as throaty as it should have been. Especially with Lyrika almost halfway down my cock, and my face being buried in her pussy.¡¯

    Pulling her head back, she was weed at first by a whine from Lyrika, and at second, when she looked around the room, a figure by the door.

    She started to panic. There was someone in their room, an intruder. But as her mind cleared a bit, she realised that the door, was the one that led to Philly¡¯s room.

    ¡°Philly?¡± She asked the darkness directed at the figure.

    ¡°Huh.¡±

    ¡®Yeah, that¡¯s her.¡¯

    She confirmed her suspicions, the voice that responded sounded just like her. Next thing she saw was Philly freeze as she realised, she had been caught. And caught she had, given that one hand was buried in the lower half of her nightwear, while the other held¡­her book.

    ¡®Really?¡¯

    ¡°No, your¡­your supposed to be¡­saying my name.¡± was the desperate sentence she heard form Lyrika as she alternated between sucking and speaking.

    ¡°Lyrika. We have a visitor.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    She wasn¡¯t really listening.

    ¡°Philly is in the room.¡±

    ¡°What?¡±

    But telling her as she came up for air, finally broke her out the lustful haze. She had to move her head to the side so that Olivia¡¯s cock wasn¡¯t blocking her view, but she finally saw what Olivia did.

    ¡°Philly?¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s¡­I¡­¡± she said very flustered. But as if she had caught herself, she straightened out her posture, and then spoke in her usual tone. ¡°I was¡­observing. Yes¡­ observing your¡­err¡­mating habits. Like I said. Before.¡± she said quickly holding up the book in her hand.

    Olivia was surprised she could remain so steadfast in this situation. So, she decided to push a little harder.

    ¡°Oh really. Then how do you exin you touching yourself?¡±

    ¡°I wasn¡¯t¡­¡± Philly started to say, but once she saw the slight smirk on Olivia¡¯s face, she changed her tune realising that she couldn¡¯t just outright lie. It was obvious what she was doing. ¡°I mean, I was, but I did so because, it¡¯s called¡­err¡­a shared experience. Yes, that¡¯s it. It¡¯s a research tool. Where you share in the experience¡­ in order to understand it¡­ and stuff.¡±

    ¡®That was poor.¡¯

    ¡°What do you want to do with her Lyrika?¡± Olivia asked looking up over Lyrika¡¯s back to see the hair on her head. But while she expected a response out of her, or something, the whine she received back was something she didn¡¯t expect.

    ¡°I don¡¯t care. Stay or go.¡± she then turned to look at Olivia, ¡°All I want is for you to get your tongue back inside.¡± she shouted out, before licking up the side of Olivia¡¯s cock and bringing her mouth down around it.

    As she felt that, everything came rushing back to her, and Olivia didn¡¯t really care that Philly was there either.

    ¡°You heard here. Either stay or go.¡± she quickly said, before plunging back into Lyrika¡¯s honeypot.

    Before long, she heard the door close, and had expected Philly to have left. But the moaning from Lyrika¡¯s bed told her otherwise.

    Pulling back she looked over and found that Philly had stripped off her nightclothes and was sitting therepletely naked as she ran her finger up and down her own lower lips, all the while still holding her book in her other hand.

    Annoyingly, with the darkness, she couldn¡¯t actually see what she looked like, but one thing she could see, was that she was enjoying herself immensely. It also came with an added benefit, as watching Philly made her realise something.

    She had fingers she could put to use.

    ¡°Ohhh¡­wha-wha¡­ahhhh.¡±

    One of which she used by sliding it into Lyrika while she still slid her tongue up and yed with her clitoris, which gave her a lovely result in the form of a deep moan from the girl.

    ¡°Wha- is ¡­ umm¡­is that your finger?¡±

    Being to preupied to answer, she decided to redouble her efforts, pistoning her finger in and out of Lyrika¡¯s sopping wet pussy, telling her instantly that she was right. A quick gaze over to the side, and Olivia was able to see, Philly copying the exact same action, being lost in lust as she was. She finallyid her book down to rest, using the now free hand to tightly grip the bed sheets as she pounded her own sacred grove with the other.

    Moaning grew louder and louder in the room, so much so that they could hardly hear the squelching from the fluids gushing out of both girls lower lips.

    Olivia continued fingering Lyrika with reckless abandon, going so far as to try and add another finger into the mix.

    ¡°Ahhh, I can¡¯t¡­Nggh.¡±

    But this didn¡¯t take given the size of her fingers.

    Before long, as she beefed up her speed, she heard Lyrika¡¯s lips pop off the end of her cock and cry out into the darkness as she was pushed over the edge. Lyrika¡¯s fluids gushed out her pussy, soaking Olivia¡¯s face, which she ended up getting a few mouthfuls of.

    From the other side of the room, Philly had her back arched as high as possible as she strained against the bed. One hand was in a tight fist, keeping hold of the bed sheet, while the other moved so fast you could hardly see it, in and out of her own honeypot. A short whileter, she gave an incredibly loud moan, where she spasmed for a good several seconds, still arched off the bed. Her juices sputtered out of her, and soaked the bed, before she copsed and sighed in bliss.

    Olivia was not far behind either of them, as Lyrika havinge out of orgasm, moved down to finish her off. Olivia¡¯s cock was ram rob straight and strained with all its might. It only took one more trip down Lyrika¡¯s throat before the dam burst and she too moaned at the release. The first of which travelled straight down Lyrika¡¯s throat without her even having to swallow. As she released for the third time, Lyrika slowly pulled up, causing it tond on her tongue, allowing her to actually taste and swallow it. While she hadn¡¯t thought much of the taste the first time she tried it, it was starting to grow on her. She relished the feeling of the Olivia¡¯s seed flowing over her tongue and down the back of her throat.

    All three of the girls were spent. Philly after her copse had drifted off to sleep when she hit the bed. All the while lying in the sheets that were now damp from her own release.

    Olivia as well started to drift off to sleep after the second release. It was quite the night that she had, and while the very first part of it was a little blurry, she knew that all of it had been enjoyable. Especially the revtion that their bunny was also quite naughty as well. So, with the time being what it was, she too passed out, all the while having two very soft thighs either side of her head.

    Lastly, Lyrika soon followed, stillid out across Olivia. But, as she too rested her head against Olivia¡¯s abs, she was able to see her cock still standing up straight a good while after her release. But then, as her eyes started to close, in her sleepy states she then saw it return to itsid form, and promptly fall down.

    Hitting her face in the process.

 Chapter 72 - Chapter 72: The Slingshot - Part 1

    Chapter 72: The Slingshot ¨C Part *scratch, scratch, scratch*

    As the sun rose for a new day, the sound of scratching was the soundtrack that Olivia woke to. She would have preferred a lovely melody start the day off right, but not everything works out perfect.

    But, while the morning didn¡¯t start offperfectlyt,st night was as close as she had gotten to since she came to this world. Not only did she get to spend some very nice quality time with Lyrika, but she also learnt something new about their resident bunny-kin.

    That being how much of a voyeur she was.

    With all her talk of researching and observing things, Olivia should have put money on it being one of her kinks.

    ¡°Urgh, let me stay asleep.¡±

    Olivia poked her head up and saw Lyrika as she turn hers as she groaned at the new morning, trying to find a morefortable sleeping position. But as she turned to the side, she slowly opened her eyes and saw a sight that frightened her.

    ¡°Ahh,¡± she quickly cried out, which was then followed by her rolling off from where she wasying, knocking Olivia in the head with one of her legs in the process, and falling off the bed with a thud.

    ¡°Ouch. What did you do that for?¡±

    Olivia spent the next few seconds rubbing her head, where Lyrika¡¯s leg had impacted. Looking across the room, she saw what had frightened Lyrika so.

    Philly. Sitting on the bed and scribbling in her book.

    ¡°Are you okay Lyrika?¡± Olivia asked as the snort lived pain in the side of her head dissipated

    ¡°Yes. Aside from my pride.¡± she gripped the side of the bed and pulled herself back up, ¡°Olivia, what is she doing in here with us?¡± she whisper shouted as she pointed at Philly.

    ¡°I¡¯m writing about Olivia¡¯s penis.¡±

    *Grk* ¡°Wh-what?¡± Olivia stuttered as she choked on air. ¡°You¡¯re writing about my¡­ Why?¡±

    This sent a blush across Lyrika¡¯s face as Philly¡¯s mention of it, made her think about it and all that they had gotten up tost night.

    ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t able to write down my observationsst night during your amorous activities because I was¡­err, upied with something else.¡±

    ¡®That¡¯s one way to put it.¡¯

    ¡°So, I¡¯m writing it all down now,¡± Philly replied while not even looking up from her book.

    ¡°Wait, she was with usst night?¡± Lyrika asked.

    ¡°Yes. How do you not remember?¡± Olivia asked sceptically.

    ¡°Well, I was busy. I was focused on¡­ you know.¡± Lyrika said as the blush on her face intensified.

    By this point, Olivia honestly didn¡¯t know what else to say. The situation was much too awkward to deal with this early in the morning, and most importantly, she was way too hungry as well. So, putting food ahead of what would end up as a very strange conversation and probably a thorough analysis of her genitals in Phillys book, she decided to get up, get dressed and get some grub.

    ¡­

    After leaving their rooms and heading downstairs, they entered the same dining area they did the previous evening and were greeted by a much quieter and calmer sight than they had before. Only six or so people were present, all sitting down for the first meal of the day. These were probably the only ones actually staying in the inn, the rest fromst night likely havinge from around the vige for a fun night. Of which only got partly spoiled by the half-orc rocking up to the ce.

    Heading over to the bar, thankfully the horrid man for yesterday wasn¡¯t there. They were instead greeted by a woman, who like many others, took some time to get over the fright she felt when she saw Olivia.

    ¡°What-what can I do for y-you?¡±

    ¡°Can we get some breakfast?¡± Olivia just responded calmly, being used to this reaction by now.

    ¡°Ah, err, sure. That will be three silver.¡±

    Handing over the coin, they headed over to a free table and waited, which didn¡¯t take long. Before long the woman behind the bar came out holding three bowls and set them down on the table. At first nce it was clear to see this was some sort of porridge. It was a wet, gooey and bumpy mess. And it tasted how it looked.

    But, even though it tasted nd and almost horrid, it was still better than the hard tack they would have had to deal with in the forest.

    ¡­

    ¡°So, are you going to tell us why you came to our roomst night?¡± Lyrika asked as she turned to Philly.

    The girl in question just looked back at her as she gulped down another bit of the porridge she was eating.

    ¡°¡­It was for my research. I was observing Olivia¡¯s mating ritual. I did say I wanted to before.¡±

    ¡°That may be¡­but that doesn¡¯t exin everything else that happened,¡± Olivia then said with a smirk.

    Blush flooded Philly¡¯s face, which also tinged her ears, as she remembered what happened when she entered their room.

    ¡°Yes, that was¡­unprofessional of me and not what a researcher should have done. It-it won¡¯t happen again. You, you have my word.¡±

    ¡°Wait, what did she do. I don¡¯t even remember seeing here into our room?¡± Lyrika asked as she frantically looked between Olivia and Philly.

    ¡°You do remember saying that she could either stay or leave right?¡±

    The response Olivia got was just a shake of her head and a look of confusion.

    Taking pity on the girl, Olivia leaned over and whispered in her ear about what had happened, and the unprofessionalism that Philly had shown in her ¡®research¡¯. As soon as she told her, Lyrika gave her a look about Philly not doing it again. And Olivia agreed one hundred percent.

    A look that just said, ¡®Yeah right.¡¯

    ¡­

    Before long, they had finished their meal and headed out for the next day. There were a few things on the to do list for the day, which was mostly still preparation for saving Ameril. But, there was also one item that Lyrika was thrilled about.

    Seeing the Umbrea galloping about.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go there now.¡±

    ¡°Lyrika, you know Milly said to go out to the fields after lunch.¡±

    ¡°I know, I know, but¡­¡± she turned to look at Olivia¡¯s stoic face, ¡°¡­ fine.¡±

    It was clear to see how eager Lyrika was to see them, but first there needed to take a trip to the tannery for a small piece of leather.

    Sure, Olivia could take a piece off of her bag, or buy a waterskin and cut a piece out of it, but it would be best to have it be mad and fit for purpose. Also, she was living in this fantasy world that was like medieval times. She had to see what these ces were like at least once.

    They headed through the streets which were as busy as ever. Dozens and dozens of people were walking aboutpleting some task or another and like before, she could not see anyone just rxing or enjoying the day.

    ¡®They¡¯re all such workaholics¡¯

    After getting some directions, they eventually ended up travelling all the way to the edge of the vige into a section that was sparse inparison to the rest of the town. She hardly saw anyone walking by, and it didn¡¯t take long for her to see why.

    *Gurk* ¡°Wha-what is that smell,¡± *cough* Olivia managed to say in amongst bouts of coughing and gagging fits.

    ¡°I guess you¡¯ve never been to a tannery before. This is how they always smell.¡± Lyrika said as she held her nose.

    ¡°How do-how can they work here *cough* if it smells this bad?¡± Olivia asked looking at them both, seeing that Philly had the same idea. But even when she went a copied it, it was like the smell had clung to the inside of her nose and would not let go.

    ¡°We get used to it.¡±

    All three of the girls turned in the direction of the voice to find a very muscr man standing just out front of the tannery. He was the only one not holding his nose.

    ¡°It takes some time, but when you¡¯ve been tanning leather since you were born, the smell means nothing to you.¡±

    ¡®The only way I can see that happening is if it¡¯s destroyed your sense of smell. Wow, this is horrible.¡¯

    ¡°So, what do you threedies want with my tannery.¡±

    Olivia felt it was a pleasant surprise, especially while trying to keep her breakfast down, to see someone not recoil in fear at seeing her. But that then did bode the question of why he didn¡¯t.

    It was possible that, given it had been some time since she had arrived, it had sunk in quickly for some people, this man being one of them and that he didn¡¯t actually care what she was. That, or maybe he thought that with his bodybuilding physic, he could handle her if it came down to it.

    Whatever the case, she wasn¡¯t one to look a gift horse in the mouth and so brought up the subject of the slingshot.

    She quickly exined to the man what she was looking for, showing him the vine and how it would work. The man was very intrigued about what she had nned and thought long and hard about the type of leather that could be used.

    ¡°So, it needs to be light, flexible and durable. I think we have something that fits that description. Would you like toe in and have a look?¡±

    ¡°Is the smell worse inside?¡± Olivia knew she had to ask.

    ¡°Huh¡­not sure. Like I said I¡¯ve gotten used to it.¡±

    ¡®My guess is it probably is.¡¯

    ¡°No, we¡¯ll wait outside.¡±

    ¡°Ok¡­suit yourself. Let me go find and cut a piece, and then I¡¯ll bring it out.

    Olivia¡¯s overwhelming desire to be able to keep on smelling things in life won over wanting to see what a tannery is like. She was also thankful that the tannery owner came out after ten minutes, which meant they would soon be able to leave and breathe some fresh air.

    ¡°Here you go. What do you think?¡±

    Olivia was not an expert on slingshots. Well, she hardly had any experience with them at all really, making them even more so. This meant all she could do was vaguely try and judge whether the small bit of leather would work for it. Taking the piece, it felt soft and not so bad to the touch. It was also light and bent without any issues. No rips formed and it stayed strong as she fiddled with it. All in all, with herck of expertise on the matter, it seemed like it would do the job.

    ¡°It looks great. How much for it?¡±

    ¡°Just twelve copper. It¡¯s such a small piece so it hardly costs anything.¡±

    ¡°Thank you.¡± Olivia said as she handed the coins over.

    ¡°Come back again if you need anything else. Or if you feel like seeing the inside of the tannery,¡±

    Yeah, Olivia didn¡¯t think that would be happening any time soon.

    Now that she had the leather for the slingshot, all that was left was to find a stick or branch in a ¡®Y¡¯ shape, that was strong and durable.

    How hard could that be?

 Chapter 73 - Chapter 73: The Slingshot - Part 2

    Chapter 73: The Slingshot ¨C Part ¡°This is ridiculous. How is it this hard to find a strong ¡®Y¡¯ shaped branch in a forest!¡±

    That sentence was shouted at the top of Olivia¡¯s lungs, multiple times for that matter, as she scoured the surrounding forest for the branch that would make up the slingshot. The sun was peaking right above them signalling it was lunch time, and yet, she had not found what she was looking for.

    There were plenty of trees, hundreds even, but finding the right branch seemed an impossibility. They had found a good number that were shaped correctly and some¡­not so correctly. Many were crooked, didn¡¯t for a symmetrical ¡®Y¡¯, the list went on. It may have been possible to use them, same with the ones that were shaped almost perfectly, but even then they were either too thin, too small or worse of all, too brittle. That one annoyed Olivia the most, mainly because the first time she found a branch that looked exactly how she pictured it, she was ted. But that all changed very quickly when she ced the vine around the top and gave it a tug to see if it worked right¡­and then the whole top just snapped off.

    So many of the trees looked the same, and going off of that, it was very likely they would all end up having branches that broke just as easily.

    She would have to keep going, a fact that both Lyrika and Philly were annoyingly aware of, having been dragged into the forest to search as well.

    But thankfully for them, Olivia had had enough for now and knew it was time to stop. Especially when she found out lunch was calling, given the very loud rumble from Lyrika¡¯s stomach.

    ¡­

    Heading back into the vige, Lyrika wondered whether there was somewhere else they could eat. Just because they stayed at the inn didn¡¯t mean they were obligated to eat there all the time. It was very much a pay-as-you-go kind of ce, the first night having had to pay for dinner and the room, and the morning a separate breakfast fee. So, why not dine out for the meal. This was probably thest time they would have lunch in the vige for a short while. As tomorrow, they would be heading out and travelling west in order to reach the road that Ameril would be travelling down.

    Saying this though, it wasn¡¯t like there was a caf¨¦ or restaurant they could go to. Things like that did not exist here. It was just a vige, which is one of the reasons why this was the case, but it was also possible that not even towns would have such things. With it being close to Medieval times, the only ce you could go out to eat would be an Inn. Other than that you just ate indoors, especially if you couldn¡¯t afford it, which was probably the case for most people.

    But, as Teagan had told them before, there were a few Inn in the vige. So, off they went to find one of the others, all the while wondering if the food would be different, new or exciting.

    ¡­

    But it wasn¡¯t.

    It tasted just like the dinner they had at the other Inn, where it was just some Gootra meat alongside vegetables. It was very disappointing.

    Sure, to Lyrika this was probably amazing. Having been stuck with Effler meat and hardtack for so long, to be able to eat food simr to what she had in her vige must have been lovely. But for herself and Philly for that matter, it was just not for them.

    ¡®I definitely need to buy some spices or something.¡¯

    Unfortunately, there had been none in the general store or the grocer, so she would have to keep an eye out in her travels. She needed something, anything, to make her camping cooking taste better. But for now, she could make do with food from the Inn, until he could improve her culinary skills.

    ¡­

    They all chatted with each other as they ate, and asionally passed along some of the meat to the resident Zentora, whose name was still up for debate between the three of them, and before long, they had finished their meal.

    Before Lyrika¡¯s bowl had even hit the table, she was up and ready to go, very eager about the next activity for the day.

    ¡°Come on,e on. We have to get there before they take them back inside.¡±

    ¡°Yes, yes, I get it. You do recall Milly saying to visit after lunch right? They aren¡¯t going anywhere.¡± Olivia responded to Lyrika¡¯s hurrying.

    ¡°You don¡¯t know that¡­ now let¡¯s go.¡±

    With a groan, Olivia stood and headed out the door of the Inn with Philly trailing behind as they followed Lyrika. Her pace was almost twice as fast as it normally was, meaning she was well ahead of them as she headed towards the stables.

    It was only a short walk through the vige in order to get back to the stable, and they got there just in time to see the stable hands bringing the Umbrea out of their stalls.

    ¡°You made it, that¡¯s great.¡±

    Turning to the voice they were all greeted by the sight of Milly with open arms, weing them toe and see the Umbrea. While Philly and Lyrika just had smiles on their faces, a look of confusion clouded Olivia¡¯s as it felt like her mind was spinning.

    Images shed through her head as if a whole series of memories just popped into it. It all happened so fast and ended up iplete. She had these odd memories of seeing Milly, and learning things about her, but what happened before and after were just blurs. But, one thing she could tell was that they were somewhat pleasurable memories, even if she couldn¡¯t picture them properly.

    She could however remember that the girl in front of her was more than she seemed. That she was able to cast magic and knew about how Olivia came from another world. And that it was the two goddesses from whom she learnt about it.

    But, there was something in her mind that told her she wasn¡¯t a danger, and that Milly had some other motive. She couldn¡¯t however quite tell why or what that was though.

    ¡°Hello, are you in there Olivia?¡±

    She was broken out of her stupor as Milly waved her hand in front of her face.

    ¡°Ah, sorry. I was just¡­thinking about something. It¡¯s good to see you Milly.¡±

    ¡°And it¡¯s very nice seeing you again Olivia.¡± Milly responded as the all too familiar lustful face appeared on her face as quickly as it disappeared. Olivia was the only one to see it, Milly having gotten up close to and personal with her, so that her back was to the rest.

    ¡°Well, we¡¯re just getting thest of the Umbrea out of their stands. Shall we head over?¡± Milly asked as she turned back to Lyrika and Philly, putting on a normally happy face.

    Lyrika was the first to agree and joined her as she started to walk out of the vige alongside the Umbrea. Philly and Olivia ended up trailing a little behind.

    They headed towards the front entrance of the vige, and were very quickly let through. Milly told the guards that they were with her, so no permits needed to be shown, which got them out of that hassle again.

    They then travelled past several of the fields that were still being harvested for crops, and eventually came to an open area filled with just grass and wildflowers. It was surrounded by fences, all of which were likely to ensure the Umbrea didn¡¯t just jump out and run away.

    They lead the Umbrea to the side of the area, where the stable hands opened the gate, and brought them inside. Once there, they then removed their leads and let them run free.

    ¡°Wow.¡±

    Olivia looked over and saw Lyrika just in awe at the Umbrea galloping around the field.

    The Umbrea ran around stretching their legs. Some ended up ying with the others, galloping around almost like in a race, bumping into each other as they moved, trying to get ahead of one another. Some spent the time just grazing, nibbling away at the grass and wild flowers getting a couple of their five a day. It was a lovely and majestic sight.

    ¡°They¡¯re beautiful aren¡¯t they?¡±

    To her side, Milly was leaning up against the fence looking over at the six-legged unicorns galloping around. If Olivia didn¡¯t know any better, it looked like she had the same sort of shine that Lyrika did. She guessed you don¡¯t go into caring for them, without truly caring about them.

    ¡°They¡¯re lovely.¡±

    All four of them just watched them run around and mess around with each other. Even Philly who had been engrossed with writing about them, stopped a few minutes in to just watch and be in the moment. It was a lovely way to pass the time, and it truly made Olivia forget at the hardships they had sinceing to this world.

    ¡­

    But, as they say, all good things muste to an end.

    They had stood around for a good couple of hours, the time just flying by given how enjoyable the moment was. True to Lyrika fashion, she really didn¡¯t want them to leave and head back to the stable. But after some words from Milly about them needing to get some rest and that she was more than wee to visit them anytime, Lyrika stopped her embargo at the fence gate.

    Milly left them soon after, saying her goodbyes but all the while saying they should meet up again. The sun was still shining bright in the sky, but before long it would be heading below the trees.

    As Olivia looked around to see the sun, trying to judge how much time they have till they should get back for dinner, she spotted something in the distance.

    Thankfully, it wasn¡¯t a shadow or silhouette moving amongst the trees, like she had seen when the goddess paid her a visit. But what she saw was a tree that was muchrger than all the rest they had been searching around.

    She started to wander over, and after a quick shrug of the shoulders from the girls, they followed after her.

    As she got closer the tree just grewrger in scale. It was a massive thing, covered in bright orange leaves. The best bit of all though, was that there were a good number of low branches, many of which looked almost like ¡®Y¡¯s.

    Dashing over, she got to work, taking some branches off the floor and snapping a few from the lower branches, and then gave them a test. She attached the vine to each and it a pull, the ouing being ¡­ that nothing snapped. Even when she took it off and just tried to bend it herself, she hardly felt it move. When she put in a lot more strength, it snapped very easily, but it was definitely strong enough to handle the vines.

    She moved around, looking for any more sections of the tree that had a very nice-looking ¡®Y¡¯ shape section¡­ and she managed to find several.

    ¡®I could make slingshots for each of us.¡¯

    And that¡¯s what she decided to do. It wouldn¡¯t hurt to have a backup weapon, especially it being a ranged weapon. Even Lyrika who had her bow could make use of it, as who knows when she may run out of arrows. Plus, with the slingshot being so small, it would be easy to carry without adding much weight.

    As she gathered three of the branches, she saw that as a job well done, which she followed up by turning around to head back to the vige to rest, rx and then grab some dinner. As tomorrow they would be setting off to go save Ameril.

 Chapter 74 - Chapter 74: The Mercenaries - Interlude â€“ Part 1

    Chapter 74: The Mercenaries ¨C Interlude ¨C Part All was quiet in the town of Caldaria, as Lord Abren scribbled away at thetest document bureaucracy required him to fill out. But that was all about to change as one of the guards knocked at his office door.

    *knock* *knock* *knock*

    ¡°Enter.¡±

    ¡°My Lord, there is a ¡­ group of people here to see you. They didn¡¯t mention why, just that you were expecting them.¡±

    ¡°Ah, yes. I have been expecting them. Please can you lead them to my meeting room. I shall join them momentarily.¡±

    ¡°Yes, my lord.¡± the guard nodded before closing the door and heading off.

    They had arrived. Lord Abernathy had received a response to his letter a few days ago stating they were on their way to visit him. He was truly blessed that they were in the areapleting a job.

    And now, they were finally here. The vengeance for his son¡¯s death would soon be at hand.

    ¡­

    He walked through his manor passing the many rooms that it contained, many of which were not even in use and soon came to the meeting room. It was his preferred location for him to meet others. He had others meeting rooms in the house, but he only ever used one, as this one had been designed to give him the advantage for whatever maye.

    As he entered, he turned to the guard at the door and told him to make sure they were not disturbed. Once inside, he closed the doors and turned to what greeted him.

    First was the room. It was as opulent as possible, with some of the most expensive d¨¦cor that his money could buy. It was also all well-known expensive items that covered the walls, so that anyone who entered knew how much wealth he had. Whomever he met here would be crushed as they realised how little they hadpared to him. Everyone aside from someone of higher rank than him of course. But for the group currently present, it was more than enough to demoralise them in some way.

    There were more design features that helped to show he was someone to be feared and respected. At the back, behind where he sat, four of his most loyal guards stood. Each wore near pristine armour, made of very expensive and durable metal. The gimmick though, was that it was only near pristine. All along the armour in random ces were scratches and dents. They were marks that someone using a sword would make, giving the illusion that these men had seen many skirmishes.

    This was not the case though. The dents had been done by his own de, rather than an actual enemy. He even had the swords the men used coated in blood, staining them so that the shiny silver was tinged red. He made sure that the guards kept their des just slightly pushed out of their scabbards, so there was always a small amount on disy, showing the blood-stained sword to make a statement that they had killed before. Which was also another lie.

    It was all theatre.

    But that didn¡¯t phase Lord Abern. If he was to be the best in the business both as a lord and a criminal, who said you can¡¯t use tricks to make it happen. The way he saw it, it was the victim¡¯s fault for not spotting it. Just as inbat, what was important was killing your enemy. If a dirty trick was all that stood between you killing them or them killing you, you use that trick.

    That¡¯s why he was thankful that all of the tricks he was using worked on the group in the room. Well¡­most of them.

    The group was d in armour and was made up of various races and disciplines. There was the elven man who was a mage, the dwarven assassin, the human greatsword wielder, a half-elfncer, an elven bowman and¡­someone he hadn¡¯t seen before.

    ¡®They must have gotten a new recruit.¡¯

    These were a band of fearsome mercenaries who had made quite the name for themselves. They had saved viges, rescued some noble¡¯s children¡­ they even guarded a princess once. But even with all that fame, it wasn¡¯t enough. Their leader was hungry for more.

    Sure the group also liked the fame and the coin that came with it, but their leader was an ambitious fellow, who worked very well with Lord Abern.

    ¡°Lord Abern,¡± the leader said bowing his head slightly as he came in, customary when in the prescience of a noble.

    The rest of the group followed suit, bowing and curtsying where appropriate.

    ¡°Stefan, it is good to see you. I hope you had no trouble getting here.¡±

    ¡°Ah, no trouble at all. We had justpleted ourst mission when we received your message, only a vige over. One quick carriage ride was all it took to return to your town.¡±

    ¡°Good, good.¡± Lord Abern said as he sat down just in front of his guards. Stefan followed suit and sat down in one of the chairs as well after Lord Abern has done so. The rest of the group stayed standing.

    ¡°I take it you have a job for us.¡±

    ¡°Yes, I do. An Orc has been spotted in the forest southeast of here.¡±

    Gasps flooded the room as they heard that.

    A couple of the others behind him went to speak but stopped as Stefan held up his hand.

    ¡°An Orc. No one has seen an Orc for years. Where did ite from?¡± Stefan asked.

    ¡°I do not know. It may be from a tribe hiding somewhere, or it may be thest of its tribe. Whatever the case it hardly matters. This¡­monster killed my son while he was on a hunting trip with his friends.¡±

    Sadness then took hold of the room as the band of mercenaries learnt of this news.

    ¡°My deepest condolences, Lord Abern. Do not worry. We will hunt this monster down for you.¡± Stefan said as he stood up in what he felt was the most heroic way possible, looking like he was going to instantly leave the room and get on the hunt.

    As he stood there, garnering looks of respect from his group at his dedication to going after a monster that killed a noble¡¯s son, Lord Abern began to speak. He put on a slight frown as he spoke the next part, almost to show the sorrow he felt from recalling the matter.

    ¡°On the matter of pay, I shall give you your usual amount. Is that fine with you?¡±

    Stefan turned back to him, and in an almost exaggerated way held his hand to his chest and the other outstretched to Lord Abern.

    ¡°My lord. I think I speak for all of us that you need not do that. We shall take half of what you would normally pay. You have been our benefactor for so long, please let us do this for you.¡±

    It was quite a thing to hear his enchanting speech, causing the rest of the group to agree with him and his principles. They all agreed that just removing the monster from this world that killed this poor man¡¯s son would be payment enough.

    ¡°Now, let us be off. We should get started on this mission to hunt this fiend down and y it.¡±

    ¡°Ah, but it will be dark soon. Please stay for the night and you can start in the morning. I am no mercenary, but I imagine trying to track a monster in the night is not an easy feat, and may be problematic.¡±

    Stefan looked at the group and all of them nodded. It made sense as none would be able to track in the night. Besides, they get to have a nice dinner in a noble¡¯s house. Who would turn down that offer?

    ¡°The maids will show you to the rooms you can use.¡± Lord Abern said as he gestured to the door, showing that they could leave. One of the guards also left to inform the maids of Lord Aberns request.

    ¡°Thank you, my Lord.¡±

    ¡°Stefan, would you stay for a moment? It has been so long since west met and I would love to catch up with you.¡±

    ¡°Of course. You lot go on ahead and get yourselvesfortable. We gave a long day tomorrow.¡±

    With that, the rest of Stefan¡¯s team left the room. Then with a quick nod of Lord Aberns head, the guards then left as well, closing the door behind them.

    Then it was silent.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°Did you have to be so theatrical?¡±

    ¡°You said to put on a show. I think I did that perfectly.¡± Stefan said as he rolled his eyes.

    ¡°Sure, sure. You know, you actually should be asking me to pay half. Not just saying it so that you can trick the rest of your group so you get more.¡±

    ¡°Ohe now. We may be friends, but we are not that good of friends. I am sorry your son died, but our rtionship is still mainly a transactional one. I have goals in life that require coin to achieve.¡±

    ¡°I would hardly call whores and drinking goals in life. If so, then you have set the bar very low.¡±

    ¡°Those are my hobbies. You have no clue what I wish to do with my life.¡± Stefan said with a pointed look towards Abern, which very clearly said to leave the subject alone.

    ¡°So¡­what¡¯s the real story here. I¡¯ve met your son many times and I have never heard about him having an interest in hunting. Come on, give me the truth.¡±

    And so, Lord Abern told him the tragic tale. The tragic tale for the beast kin that is. Of how his son had managed to capture and kill a good deal of them, almostpleting his goal, before being killed.

    ¡°Think we should check out this vige?¡± Stefan asked.

    ¡°By all means. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s still there, but someone may have seen it. Just be careful what you tell them, both your group and that scu¡­those beast-kin I mean. I don¡¯t know if they learnt anything from my son¡¯s friends, so don¡¯t let anything slip about what I just told you. I have a reputation to uphold. Both of us do.¡±

    ¡°Of course. Now if you don¡¯t mind, I¡¯m going to enjoy that free meal your giving us.¡± Stefan said with a wink as he stood up.

    Just as he went to open the door he turned back to Lord Abern.

    ¡°Oh, make sure the wine is the good stuff.¡±

    He then shed a smile and left, leaving Lord Abern to his thoughts.

    But only one was at the forefront of his mind.

    ¡®What a dick¡¯

 Chapter 75 - Chapter 75: The Mercenaries - Interlude â€“ Part 2

    Chapter 75: The Mercenaries ¨C Interlude ¨C Part Meryl was quite a distrustful person. Had been since a young age.

    She was born as a part dark elf and high elf, but her characteristics are most discernibly that of a dark elf. There are manymon simrities between the two races, pointed ears, longevity, and good looks, but the main difference between the two is the skin tone, eye colour and the stigma that is associated with being a dark elf. High elves can be varying shades of pale white to tan, along with the usual eye colours you would see, such as blue, green and brown, dark elves are generally dark grey with blood-red eyes. Many see them as cursed, given these attributes, or that they were originally the offspring of elven and demon rtions. But whether one of these is the case, or it is just how gics diverged many years ago, no one knows.

    With this being the case that she was born as a part high elf and dark elf, you would imagine that she grew up alongside both dark and high elves and that her parents consisted of one being a dark elf and the other a high elf. But that was not the case for her.

    Her parents were actually both high elves. So when she was born, as you can imagine it was quite a shock to them. Not long after her birth, her mother ended up alone, her father iming that she was unfaithful¡­but that couldn¡¯t be further from the truth. She had only ever loved him, so when he left, it crushed her. It was just pure luck, or unluckiness that she was born as part dark elf. It was likely they both had dark-elven ancestors and didn¡¯t know. Not that such a theory helped save their rtionship.

    So, after he left, her mother was the only one around to take care of her. But, even at a young age, Meryl could see theck of love in those eyes as her mother held her.

    Her understanding was spot on when her mother threw her out once she was considered an adult, which for elves is twenty-one years old.

    Before she was forcefully kicked out of her home, she had attended the local school, where she spent several years learning all that she could. It was almost irvoyance or something, but she made sure to learn as much as she could and put her all into her studying during her time there, afraid that something would happen once she left.

    How right she was.

    But while she gained a lot from her time there, the other students ended up causing her to be distrustful. Being the only dark elf in a school full of high elves was hard. It was a struggle as she contended with rumours, whispers behind her back and even a few fake friendships, all of which really hurt her through her time there.

    So, by the end of it all, she became mistrustful of anyone and everyone.

    Which obviously got worse when her mother threw her out.

    After the much-needed grieving period over the situation, she had to put it behind her and get on with her life. So, she travelled, picked up some skills, and made a living.

    It was her good luck that she happened upon a vige filled with many races and people, where she learnt the skills that would keep her alive, in more ways than one.

    It took time for her to even consider it, but she met and eventually learnt from a master swordsman how to fight and found a rapier to be her weapon of choice. With the lifespan of dark elves, she trained and travelled for a good six years, allowing her to be extremely proficient with her weapon. She got so skilled that she learnt how to perform tricks with it, and at one point joined some performers and learnt how to sword dance. She kept her distance from them, and after some years the group parted ways with her. But she continued travelling using the tricks and sword dancing skills she had gained to impress people, earning some good coin as she went from vige to vige and town to town. All the while she made sure to keep herbat skills fresh in order to survive on the road.

    She continued to travel and over time made a name for herself. But given how long elves lived, there came a point where performing the same dance and tricks just grew boring. She wanted a change. And that is when a mercenary group came by one of the viges she was performing in.

    Their leader asked if she could actually fight with it, and so after setting some conditions, she had a duel with the sword woman in their group.

    It was a long and spectacr battle but in the end, she lost due to a cheap trick the woman performed. She was obviously upset, but the leader justmented about how a cheap trick could stand between you dying or living to fight another day. The whole group was very impressed with her and offered her a position with them. After looking into them, and learning all she could about the group, she agreed to join. It helped that from her inquiries she found that they were not armatures but a well-known and honourable band of mercenaries.

    But even with her sess in life after being thrown out, nothing had ever rid her of the mistrust she felt towards others.

    ¡­

    After joining them, she participated in several missions. Most were bog standard and simple, such as defending a caravan or taking out bandits. But there was one mission that caused her mistrustfulness to re up.

    It was one where they had to take out a ve trader.

    It all seemed legitimate and from what the baron that hired them said, it seemed all above board. But once they found the ve trader, it was a different story.

    The man they found wore inexpensive clothing and was shocked to see them. She thought they were going to question him, but Stefan, their leader, ended that thought with a swipe of his great axe. The kicker though, was that he had no ves or any coin with him.

    After they returned to the baron and were paid, she questioned it. Stefan said that all the ves had been sold ording to a ledger he had given the baron. He also said that the baron would use all of his power to find and bring back the people that were sold. And that theck of coin was likely due to him hiding it somewhere.

    But she couldn¡¯t help but think back to how he was dressed and his shock at seeing them. Not that he was shocked to be found, but more that people were after him due to him being a ver. And what ve trader has no ves or coin at all? Sure, he could sell a good number, but having none at all just seemed¡­odd. It was also odd that he hid all of his coin. Surely, he would have some on him too, you know, buy ves or even food for that matter.

    A lot of it just didn¡¯t add up.

    And her mistrust only got worse on the day they travelled to Lord Abern¡¯s estate in Caldaria.

    ¡­

    She had listened to Lord Abern talk and even gasped after hearing about the Orc and about his son¡¯s death. Like before, everything he said sounded truthful¡­even with the mention of an Orc, a monster that hadn¡¯t been seen in a long time. She even agreed with taking less coin to help out a grieving father, even if he was a noble and could probably easily afford the full price. But once she left the room, things took a strange turn.

    ¡°Does he normally catch up with Lord Abern on his own when youe here?¡± She asked Helena, the swordswoman she fought in their ¡®interview¡¯.

    ¡°Yeah, normally. He¡¯s worked for Lord Abern way before we even became a group. They¡¯re old friends.¡±

    ¡°Huh, ok.¡±

    It did still seem a little odd to her, but she didn¡¯t think too much of it.

    They were currently following a maid that took them upstairs and down a hallway, bringing them to several rooms, one for each of them. After the shock at the luxury of it all, they made themselvesfortable and unpacked for the night.

    Before long though, nature was calling for her and she headed out of the room¡­ only to bump into someone.

    ¡°Sorry.¡± they both said at the same time.

    She assumed that it was either one of their group or a maid, but as she reorientated herself, and got a good look at whom she bumped into, she realised it was neither of them.

    The woman before her was dressed head to toe in finery, but not so much that it made her look ostentatious. That¡¯s when it urred to her who this was. Only one woman would be wearing finery like this in this house.

    ¡°My Lady, I sincerely apologise for hitting you,¡± Meryl said as she moved into a kneel.

    ¡°Oh, please no. You don¡¯t have to do that,¡± thedy of the house said as she pulled Meryl up, ¡°It¡¯s as much my fault as it is yours so there is no need to apologise like that.¡±

    Meryl looked up and saw the sweet smile on her face. She could feel the kindness exuberating from her. But all she could think was that the reason she acted so kind was because she wanted something from her.

    ¡°So there is really no need to trouble yourself. Actually, saying that¡­who are you?¡± Thedy questioned.

    ¡°I¡¯m Meryl. I¡¯m part of the group of mercenaries going after the Orc that killed your son. Did Lord Abern not mention us?¡± Meryl replied confused herself now. How could Lord Abern not tell his wife about the group of strangers staying with them?

    ¡°Emilia¡± she said beckoning to herself, ¡°But no he didn¡¯t. Although he hardly tells me things like that anyway. And just so you know, he was not my son. I grew to care about him of course, but he was born of Lord Abern¡¯s first marriage,¡± she said looking a little upset. Whether it was because of the death in the family or something else, she could not say.

    ¡°I¡¯m d he has someone going after that monster. It was horrible news¡­even if it was a little odd.¡±

    Meryl jumped on that.

    ¡°Odd, odd how?¡± she asked.

    ¡°Well, first is that it was an Orc in the first ce. None have been seen for ages.¡±

    At that, Meryl agreed.

    ¡°But then also how it killed him but did nothing to his friends. And besides how could he along with his friends not deal with one Orc.¡±

    She recalled Lord Abern mentioning his son¡¯s friends but now realised he said nothing about what happened to them. She had assumed they were injured, but ording to Lady Emilia, it seems like the Orc just let them be. That was odd.

    ¡°You mean it didn¡¯t attack them.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t quite know. It¡¯s possible it may have attacked them, but no one else was killed. All Lord Abern said was that beast-kin nearby took them as prisoners. Why they would do that I don¡¯t know. I know Lord Abern has no love for beast-kin, but it¡¯s not like they are ve traders or anything. It was a vige that did it, not some bandits, otherwise, they wouldn¡¯t have been sold off as prisoners but as ves or something.¡±

    As Meryl thought about it so many questions rattled through her head. If the beast-kin took them as prisoners that means they either saw an opportunity to get some coin and ransomed them back without a real reason for imprisoning them. Or he and his friends weremitting some type of crime and that¡¯s why they were imprisoned. But this also led to the stranger question. Why would the Orc leave his friends alone? Was it smart enough that it saw it was outnumbered, even though it managed to kill one of them somehow, and then leave? And if it did leave them, did it do so for the beast-kin specifically? Surely they would have fled after being attacked by an Orc. That or go after it. How did the Beast-kin then capture them? Were they working together?

    This whole situation just kept spiralling and ended up creating more and more questions to be answered.

    ¡°I don¡¯t even see why he went on a hunting trip anyway. They were all terrible at it.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by that?¡± Meryl asked thedy of the house.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯ve seen them go on a dozen hunting trips before, but I have never seen them bring back anything. If you¡¯re that bad a hunting why bother.¡±

    This just added another question about what happened. Could it be that the hunting trip was just a cover for something else?

    ¡°Sorry for rambling on, it¡¯s just that I¡¯ve had all these thoughts on the matter but no one to tell.¡±

    ¡°Why not inform Lord Abern?¡±

    ¡°Ah, no. He doesn¡¯t¡­it¡¯s not¡­.¡± Thedy said looking a little sorrowful at that, ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m sure you have heard me talk for long enough. I had best be going, and given the speed you left the room I assume you had somewhere to go too.¡±

    At that, the need to head to the privy came flooding back to her. So, after saying her goodbyes, she headed away, all the while her mind tried to wade through the mess that was now stuck in her head. A mess that was sure to reduce her trust in Lord Abern and maybe even the group she was with.

 Chapter 76 - Chapter 76: The Ambush - Part 1

    Chapter 76: The Ambush ¨C Part After the affairs of the day, they headed back to the Inn they slept in before, had some dinner and headed off to bed for an early night. It would seem with all the searching they did, and the excitement Lyrika exuded when seeing the Umbrea, had tired her out, and falling to sleep almost instantly.

    Given this, nothing like the previous night took ce, and to be fair, Olivia felt it would be best she get some sleep so she was ready and set for the trip.

    Philly was in the adjoining room like before, but she too had ended the day early, stopping her writing early.

    Although this was the case, Olivia was sure she heard the door to their room open not long after she herself had tried to fall asleep. This was then followed by a sigh and the door closing again.

    ¡®I¡¯ll never do it again she said.¡¯ Olivia could help but chuckle to herself.

    So aside from Philly instantly going back on what she said before, the night was peaceful, and they all managed to get a good night¡¯s sleep.

    ¡­

    As morning came, they headed down for a quick breakfast, which like before wasn¡¯t anything to write home about, and so after finishing up, they headed out.

    Leaving the vige they travelled west as Teagan had said. The road they were travelling to was more or less perpendicr to the direction they were heading, so as long as they didn¡¯t stray too much, they should hit it at some point.

    Teagan said it was about half a day¡¯s walk, which wasn¡¯t that far. It also made sense given they had travelled north from Yoban¡¯s vige that also connected to the road.

    She did wonder then why Teagan¡¯s vige didn¡¯t connect to the road as well but soon found the answer before long.

    ¡°We have to go through that. It looks even denser than the forest we came from!¡± Lyrika shouted.

    ¡°Looks like it.¡±

    ¡°But given how close it is to the vige and the road many people travel along, I doubt there will be any beasts or such. Bandits are a possibility though,¡± Olivia said to somewhat reassure both the girls. Besides, if need be they could go around bandits if they found any.

    ¡°I hope so. We may have gotten some training, but there is no way we could take on something like a Zentora again. Without getting away unscathed I mean. We would surely end up half dead if we did.¡±

    Skipping past the pessimistic statement from Lyrika, Olivia started heading into the forest, stepping over some massive tree roots. With a sigh, Lyrika followed after her, and Philly actually had to take her head out of her book so as not to trip.

    ¡­

    As they had expected, a lot of careful treading was needed to get through the forest. You almost had to be a master of gymnastics to get through this with any speed. But s, none of them had such a skill under their belt. As evident by all three of them having tripped at least twice¡­and they were only an hour into their journey.

    ¡°This is ridiculous!¡± Lyrika shouted as she lifted herself up from the floor, Olivia helping her up as well.

    ¡°I know. But hopefully, it will thin out at some point. It can¡¯t be like this all the way.¡± Olivia said as she helped steady her.

    ¡°How are you doing Philly?¡± She called out behind them; Philly having fallen behind a little.

    ¡°I¡¯m doing, ouch¡­I¡¯m doing fine. Aside from the spiky tree branches and not being able to write anything.¡±

    ¡°How can she want to write now? How does she have so much to write? She spent most of the evening scribbling into her book,¡± Lyrika said quietly to Olivia.

    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Could be she¡¯s writing about her whole journey, you know, as it happens.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s¡­weird.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s not weird. It¡¯s called being detailed and a good researcher. As I study Olivia and the beast-kin culture I am recording all that urs in case I miss something. I would prefer to have everything at my disposal when ites to publishing my paper rather than have missed something I shouldn¡¯t have.¡±

    ¡°But that seems so¡­longwinded. Couldn¡¯t you just write about what happened at the end of the day?¡± Lyrika asked.

    ¡°I do that too. I fill in anything I may have missed when writing throughout the day.¡±

    Olivia and Lyrika just looked at each other and sighed. It seemed there was nothing they could say, and really if Philly was fine with it, who were they to tell her how to do her observation and research.

    ¡°I can prove how useful it is. I bet I can tell you things even you have not noticed.¡±

    That caught their attention. They readily agreed to it. They couldn¡¯t see how she would know more about things going on around them, than the two of thembined.

    ¡°First of all, did you know that your stamina is increasing,¡± she said as she looked over at Olivia.

    ¡°Well, yeah. I exercise every day. It would be odd if it wasn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°Ah, I mean your sexual stamina. During that night together, you were almost able to go a third ti-¡±

    ¡°Wha- what. How do¡­what?¡± Olivia stuttered out at the embarrassment of it all, stopping Philly from continuing. For her to just casually talk about a topic like that, which she guessed was in keeping with how she usually was¡­but still.

    ¡°It¡¯s true. When it happened, Lyrika had a slightly shocked look on her face. And given that you fell asleep means you were not expecting to¡­be able to go again.¡±

    The most annoying thing about all of this was that if true, then Olivia and even Lyrika by the look of her face, had no idea. She did start to wonder how Lyrika didn¡¯t know if she had apparently seen it happen, but since she couldn¡¯t even remember Philly showing up, it wasn¡¯t a stretch that she would forget that as well.

    ¡°That¡¯s- You could be lying.¡±

    That was the best Olivia coulde up with. Even Lyrika had a look of derision on her face when she heard her say that.

    ¡°Well, I¡¯m sure you will see the next time you engage in your mating rituals.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Silence reigned for a few moments after that.

    ¡°Onto the second one then. Just several trees over to the left from when we entered this forest was a pathway leading into it.¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Silence reigned once again, but for an entirely different reason now. That is until Lyrika spoke up.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°See, I know you did not see it. But, because I have written everything down I-¡±

    ¡°No, Lyrika isn¡¯t surprised you noticed it and she didn¡¯t. She wants to know what you mean by there was a path and why you didn¡¯t tell us?¡± Olivia said while trying to contain the annoyance bubbling towards the surface.

    ¡°Ahh. Well, you didn¡¯t ask. I also thought there may have been a reason for the direction you were heading. So, I decided not to say anything.¡±

    Nopunction. That was the main thing Lyrika and Olivia could see when they looked at Philly. She stood by her words and could not see a problem with what she did.

    The worst thing though was that because of this, it was hard to take apart what she said in order to admonish her about it. It sounded like she truly thought they had a reason for entering the forest in such a way.

    ¡°Philly.¡±

    ¡°Yes.¡±

    ¡°Next time, if you see an easier or more efficient solution to something, just say something. Even if you think we have a reason for doing it otherwise.¡±

    ¡°Sure.¡±

    It was done and sorted, but honestly, it felt like Olivia had lost in a big way during that.

    ¡­

    Now knowing about that path that wasn¡¯t too far from them, in ce of struggling through the dense forest, they headed left towards it. There was still a good number of trees and foliage to get through to reach it, but thankfully a lot less than what they were going to be travelling through, and even what they had travelled through so far.

    Before long they had made it to what was technically a path. It wasn¡¯t anything as fancy as a cobblestone path, nor could you even call it a dirt track. It was just a thin path that had been cleared of trees and nts t some point. Nature was however starting to reim it, where nts were once again growing all along it, and a few shrubs and newly sprouted trees dotted it too.

    But it was still good enough that they could travel down it with ease. Something they should have been doing since the start, but there was no point crying over spilt milk.

    Their journey since they reached it was much smoother than before, and it hardly took them any time at all to reach their destination.

    The road Ameril would be transported down.

    Here they would be setting up an ambush for the carriage holding her. They would need to deal with several guards, preferably in non-lethal ways, then get Ameril out and abscond with her without the guards giving chase.

    Simple. Right.

 Chapter 77 - Chapter 77: The Ambush - Part 2

    Chapter 77: The Ambush ¨C Part They were finally at their destination. So, the first thing first was to get they of thend, which she did by checking out where they would be ambushing the carriage.

    And what she found was¡­

    A road.

    Well, there wasn¡¯t really much to it was there? It was a well-trodden dirt road, consisting of footprints, wheel tracks and horseshoe prints in both directions scattered everywhere. It looked very busy but given it hadn¡¯t rained for a while the prints could be a few days old. Plus, when she looked either way, Olivia couldn¡¯t see anyoneing along it. And she could see a good distance down the road.

    On either side of the road was the forest, where it was denser on her side and began to get sparser on the other. Trees lined the whole edge on either side which meant she should get some use out of the axe as she thought.

    But first, other preparations were needed. There was no point in cutting a tree down now to stop a carriage, as it wasn¡¯t until tomorrow that it would being. All that would do if done now, is just cause a lot of problems for those on the road, and then they may get found out.

    So, they retreated a little bit back into the forest, finding a partially open area to use. It was the best they could do but they still ended up with their tents over a few root systems.

    With the camp set up, they got down to building up their ambushing supplies.

    ¡°Okay, Philly can you put together some of the bottles with that mucus and the explosive powder, as well as some with just the mucus,¡± Olivia said to the girl in question.

    ¡°How much should we use?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know how useful it is outside of being something to throw. Use about half of the jar then we can see how many we have. Then we can see if we want to keep any of the mucus rather than use it all.¡±

    ¡°What should I do?¡± Lyrika asked eager to help.

    Olivia looked over at her and wondered what she could do. She was sure that when it came to the ambush, she would need Lyrika¡¯s skill as an archer to either distract the guards or take them down. The problem was that in taking them down, she didn¡¯t want to get them killed. And firing an incredibly sharp arrow at someone might cause that to happen. So was there something she could use instead?

    As she then looked around the area for some inspiration, she saw lots of stones littering the floor. The first thought was that they were fine for ammunition for the slingshot should they stop using the bottles of mucus Philly was making. But then, a second thought entered her head.

    Blunted arrows.

    They would very much be makeshift blunted arrows, and probably wouldn¡¯t be as good as ones made of metal, but finding some way to blunt the arrows meant it would be simr to using stones in a slingshot. It was possible that you could just attach a stone to the end of it, but she couldn¡¯t see it being easy to keep it tied on the end. So, if stone wasn¡¯t the way to go, what about wood?

    ¡°Do you think you could make blunted arrowheads? They won¡¯t be as lethal as the arrowheads you have now, but should still do some damage. It might even daze them if you hit their helmet.¡±

    ¡°Huh. I don¡¯t see why not. I have heard of them being used to stun animals when you hunt them. A few of the arrows have metal heads, but for the ones which are just a sharp point on the wooden shaft, I should be able to¡­add some wood to the end of it. Can I have your axe?¡±

    Handing it over, Lyrika headed over to a nearby tree where after some careful inspection, hacked off a few branches. She then proceeded to cut the branch into chunks and then spent time chipping away at the wood, making it more aerodynamic.

    So, while the girls were off doing their parts, Olivia got to work making her creation. Taking the vine, leather and one of the Y branches she went ahead with creating the slingshot.

    The people at the tannery were nice enough to gouge some holes into the leather, so she got to work threading the vine through them. First, she cut it in half, and passed one half through the corner hole, sending it behind the leather and then passed it through the other corner. She then did the same at the bottom of the leather with another vine.

    Next came a bit of whittling. The only thing she had that could do the job was her knife, so, she got started on the holes. She poked two holes on each end of the Y branch, but only got so far with the knife given its width. She could make a great big hole, but that could stop the vine from sitting in the hole snuggly. So she looked elsewhere.

    So, after some searching, she managed to find a long rock that she tried to grind down against another, but that hardly helped. This whole thing was a long and slow process, and if she was going to make another one of these, she would definitely look to getting some proper tools. For now though, she made do with what she had, even taking one of Lyrika¡¯s arrows, annoying the girl a bit, but she did manage to break through each of the holes.

    With the four done, she then passes the vines through and spent some time fiddling with the lengths for a bit, trying to get a good starting length for the vine to how far and taught it could stretch. It took a while, but she managed to get the ends of the vines the same length and a good resting length that gave a powerful shot when pulled. She tied them off a couple of times in order to secure them, and once she did all four she help up her masterwork in all its glory.

    And to Olivia, that¡¯s what it was.

    It was also the first slingshot in this world, as far as she knew. With the girls not having a clue about it, only knowing about a sling, she had actually invented it. We¡¯ll sort of.

    Now though, came the testing.

    Getting up she grabbed a few stones she found on the floor and stood a few meters from a tree.

    By this point, Lyrika had made a few blunt wooden arrowheads, which she had then forced onto the pointed ends of her arrows. After that, she went for some target practice against a tree in order to deal with any problems the additional weight caused.

    Olivia with her slingshot didn¡¯t really know about any specific stances to use when firing the slingshot, so she decided to follow what Lyrika did, standing sideways to the target. With the stance taken care of, she took firm hold of the slingshot, she ced a pebble in the leather pouch, pulled back, took aim and then fired.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    Rustle

    Well, she wasn¡¯t a marksman or anything. But, while she missed the tree by a long way, it definitely had some distance. The rustle was a result of it slowly dropping as it moved and then hitting the ground covered in leaves. It was almost silent, it being that far away.

    But while distance was good, and likely meant it was a powerful shot, she really needed to get her uracy right and hit a tree to see how well it worked.

    Taking aim again, she tried to figure out how the way you held it and positioned the slingshot would affect where it ends up. It took a dozen or so shots, but she started to make some headway in terms of uracy.

    All in all, she knew she needed to make another for herself.

    ¡­

    ¡°Is that the slingshot thing you were talking about,¡± Lyrika asked as she came over taking a break from her archery practice. Not using typical arrowheads you couldn¡¯t see them all sticking out of a tree or anything to see how on point she was. But, the dents and chips in the bark told her how well she had done. It had taken her a few tries in order to deal with the additional weight, so now she decided to take a break to whittle several more blunt heads.

    Which is when she heard the thinks of stone against wood and headed on over to see what she was doing while she got to work.

    ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s not bad right? Quick, simple, andpact. Might not do as much damage as an arrow going through someone, but if you need to hit someone at range and arn¡¯t a marksman or don¡¯t have a bow, this would be a good thing to have.¡±

    ¡°Can I have a go,¡± Lyrika asked as she put the arrow shafts to the side.

    Handing it over, Lyrika gave it a shot. Being the archer that she was, and the technique Boeing quite simr, it was no surprise that she managed to hit the tree in her first shot. A tree that was several meters away mind you. I made a massive dent and snapped some of the bark off.

    ¡°It¡¯s good. I¡¯d probably still you a bow, but if I ran out of arrows having this would be a godsend.¡±

    With Lyrika¡¯s approval of the new toy, this meant she needed to get some more leather pouchesmissioned and grab some more vines.

    She fired a few more shots at the tree, getting a feel for it. Thest shot she fired though for some reason ended up making a muchrger sound than all the others. If anything, it sounds like a small explosion.

    ¡°What was¡­Philly!¡±

    With it sounding like an explosion, it could only be something to do with the explosive powder Philly was using. So, with worry on their face, they ran back to the clearing all the while hoping that Philly was all right.

 Chapter 78 - Chapter 78: The Ambush - Part 3

    Chapter 78: The Ambush ¨C Part Dashing through the forest they very quickly made their way back to Philly and the sight they were greeted by was¡­thankfully not disastrous.

    Olivia had all these thoughts running through her head like Philly having lost an arm or a leg. Or even worse dead. But that was very much not the case.

    Philly was still with the living, and still seated in the same ce as Olivia left her. To one side of her was the jar of mucus along with several empty bottles. To the other was the finished product, two piles of filled bottles, each with small tags attached to the bottles saying what they were. This was likely due to needing to know which ones were just mucus and which ones had the explosive powder.

    The girl in the middle however looked a little differentpared to thest time she saw her. That was because she could see a good amount of mucus dripping down the left side of her face travelling all the way down her neck and continuing till it covered most of her shoulder and arm.

    ¡°I¡­had a mishap.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t say.¡± Olivia retorted.

    ¡°I was messing with the ratio of powder to the mucus when one of them¡­ exploded.¡±

    Olivia heard the faint sound ofughter to her side.

    ¡°It¡¯s not funny,¡± Philly responded with a very stoic yet somehow also grumpy face.

    ¡°Maybe to you, but where I¡¯m standing it¡¯s hrious.¡± Lyrika couldn¡¯t help but belt out as she giggled away.

    *huff* ¡°Do you have any water?¡±

    ¡°Only what¡¯s in the water skins,¡± Olivia stated as she took out hers and walked over to the damsel in distress.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°I know it¡¯s bad, but it¡¯s sort of also a good thing, in a way,¡± Olivia said. This didn¡¯t please Philly though. ¡°What I mean is, we haven¡¯t actually seen the effect of this stuff, and we don¡¯t know how to deal with this stuff for when¡­things like this happen.¡±

    Olivia used a bit of the water in her water skin to see how the mucus would react. Not really knowing much about it, she decided not to go straight to human testing. She felt a little of the mucus to see how sticky it was and then poured a little water onto some she found on the ground. Annoyingly, it didn¡¯t do anything to help, it just ran right over the mucus as if it was waterproof.

    ¡°Do you have any potions that could work?¡± Olivia asked.

    ¡°Maybe.¡±

    Turning to her side she went to reach for her potion bag. It was closest to her left side, but as she went to grab it, there was hardly any movement in her arm. It looks like the mucus did its job and did it very well, almost solidifying the area it touched. Seeing that it wouldn¡¯t work, Olivia went to grab it, but Philly just reached over with her good arm.

    After a little bit of scrounging around, she pulled out a bottle.

    ¡°This is a cleansing potion. You pour it on wounds to stop them from getting infected. It¡¯s the only thing I have that might do the trick.¡±

    Taking the bottle, Olivia poured a small amount onto the now-hardened mucus, but like the water, it just rolled off of it as well.

    As she looked at the stuff more closely, it now looked like it had bepletely solid, almost like a shell encasing her arm. Touching it, it was rock solid, but as she pushed on the mucus, with enough strength small hairline cracks started to form in the stuff.

    She asked Philly to try and move her arm, see if it was possible for her to break it as it was now.

    She struggled to move her arm, only being able to shift it very slightly, which meant even in this state where it could crack, it was still pretty tough.

    This though presented a problem. As effective as it was in its liquid state and in the process of hardening, once it got to this state it became brittle and she was sure that the guards, who had surely undergone training for their physique, would be able to break it. In the early stages, it could probably do well in slowing and even stopping them, if it managed to get in the recesses of their armour, but it was now clear this was a dy tactic at best.

    Hopefully, it would be enough of a dy.

    And there was nothing to say you couldn¡¯t throw another bottle of mucus at them to continue the effect.

    Turning back to Philly, now knowing it was possible to break, she began to break the hardened mucus, creatingrge cracks all along it, until eventually, she managed to pry it all off of her.

    ¡°Thank you.¡±

    ¡°No problem,¡± Olivia replied as Philly moved her arm around to get some feeling back in it.

    ¡°Well, I better get back to filling these bottles. Don¡¯t worry, I will not be making the same mistake with the powder again.¡±

    As she got back to filling, Olivia thought that maybe a break from all of that would do her good. So, she brought out the slingshot.

    ¡°Before that. Do you want to try out the weapon you will use to fire those bottles?¡±

    Handing it over, Philly just shrugged and stood up. They then all headed a short distance away where Olivia then taught Philly the basics of using a slingshot. Lyrika jumped in now and then with her archery knowledge to provide assistance.

    Picking up some more stones, Philly tried her hand at firing the slingshot.

    *Rustle*

    But like Olivia had, she missed the first¡­well several shots.

    It took a lot longer to train Philly on how to use it. With Lyrika¡¯s archery skills and Olivia¡¯s innate strength, they had found it easy, but Philly had neither of those, so a lot of work would be needed to get her skills up to snuff.

    ¡­

    Philly practised with the slingshot for a good long while, where eventually, she was able to hit the tree a few times when she tried it from a long distance. As she got closer, her aim improved as you would expect, and around the distance they expected to be from the guards, she could hit the target most of the time. Now, whether that would continue when in an adrenaline-fueled fight would be a different story.

    When she had enough, she headed back to the camp and continued making the bottles of mucus. Lyrika got back to creating and shooting with blunted arrows, changing the design as she went, trying to find the best shape to do some damage but not¡­ well hopefully not, kill.

    By this point, Olivia wasn¡¯t really sure what else to do now. She made the slingshot for Philly, which was the main thing she needed to do. She could go ahead and cut down some of the trees, and possibly put them aside in the forest and roll them onto the roadter, but that seemed like it would be more trouble than it was worth. It would probably be better to cut them down tomorrow, cutting them at the right angle so that they fell into the road.

    Other than that she had the gear ready for the ambush. She had the invisibility potion, rope in case there was time to tie some people up and the monster repellent, which she really hoped would not be used in this battle.

    The only other thing she could think to do wase up with a battle n, but until they saw who they were up against, she couldn¡¯t even do that.

    Thankfully, she was pulled out of her thoughts of worrying over what to do by the sound of scratching nearby. Looking over, she saw the basket holding the Zentora, shaking every now and then. Opening it up, she found the Zentora pressed up against the edge of the basket, wing it up.

    It was clear to see that it wanted out of the basket, so reaching in she pulled it out and ced it on the grass.

    ¡°Hey there. Finally awake I see.¡±

    The Zentora mewled and started to wander around. When they first found it, it had struggled quite a lot when trying to just stand on its own four legs, but now, it was trotting around with ease. It was growing in strength quite rapidly.

    It hadn¡¯t changed much in terms of size, still as small as when they found it, but it did look like the spike on its tail was growing. It might not be too long before it grows to the size of the adults that attacked them.

    The Zentora explored its surroundings, not moving too far away from the basket, possibly seeing that as a point of safety. Before long, it turned and then caught sight of Olivia. It tilted its head to the side as if trying to remember something, but after a while, it slowly walked towards her.

    Not sure what it was going to do, the only real experience with a Zentora was her being attacked by one. Unlikely to happen here, but it could still try to stab her if it felt like it. Thankfully it did no such thing and decided to rub its head against Olivia¡¯s leg.

    ¡®It¡¯s just like a cat.¡¯

    As it moved around, stroking itself against her, she slowly reached out, making sure her hand was in in view so it didn¡¯t frighten the animal, and ran her finger along its head. Her hand was much toorge for the beast¡¯s head so just a couple of fingers was the best she could do. This had the desired effect when it started to make a sound reminiscent of a purr.

    Before long, Philly and Lyrika finished up what they were doing, and head over to Olivia. Finding her ying around with the Zentora rather than working, they both ended up a little grumpy. But as she beckoned them to sit down, those frowns turned upside down very quickly as the Zentora ventured over towards them.

    It didn¡¯t take long for them to join in with the head strokes. Even Philly couldn¡¯t resist the appeal, where they all finished off the long day of hard work with a rxing Zentora petting party.

 Chapter 79 - Chapter 79: The Ambush - Part 4

    Chapter 79: The Ambush ¨C Part After having fun with the Zentora, they ced it back in the basket once it started to get sleepy, ate some dinner and headed off to the tents to sleep, with Lyrika staying up for first watch.

    Before Olivia did though, she pulled out themunication orb and sent a message back to Ameril.

    ¡°I¡¯m in position. Let me know when you leave the town, tell me how many guards are with you and what the carriage looks like.¡±

    It was short, but nothing else needed to be said.

    Making her way inside the tent, she ced the orb right by her head, ensuring that if they didn¡¯t wake at the crack of dawn and Ameril started on her journey, the bright light from the Orb would wake her up if she managed to get a message out.

    ¡­

    The night passed by without incident. They had all taken turns keeping watch, just to be sure nothing happened. There were in a very impassable area though, so it was unlikely anyone or anything would find them. But still better to be safe.

    When they woke up, they packed up the tents, had some breakfast and moved closer to the road.

    The dirt looked even more churned up, some carriages and horses must have passed by when they were back at the camp preparing their gear. The question now though was how to use all of that gear to its fullest.

    The road was quiet. Dawn having just broke meant carriages would only be starting on their journey now. With them being about midway between the two towns they had a few hours before they would see the first carriages from either direction.

    As she looked at the road, things started toe together in her head. For one, no matter how many guards there were, surely, they would have an even amount on either side of the carriage. There may also be some upfront or behind, but either way, she couldn¡¯t see them having uneven numbers on the side of the carriage. It just wouldn¡¯t make sense in terms of protecting it.

    The annoying thing was that their group was uneven. This meant someone would have to be on their own on one side of the road. But while this should be an important decision, she already knew the answer was that she would be on her own.

    For one thing, if Lyrika or Philly were on the other side with her, when it came to fleeing, they would have to dash across the road, leaving them open to attack. Not something Olivia wanted to happen. If they remained here, they could just slip back into the trees and head back to the vige.

    Olivia herself was already going to be in the thick of it, and she would be the one to actually get Ameril out. It didn¡¯t make sense to add to the number of people she needed to protect.

    So that is how she would position them, as well as have Philly and Lyrika a short distance from each other in order to cover a wider area.

    As she began to think about what they should do next, themunications orb started to sh.

    Taking hold of it she listened to the message.

    ¡°I¡¯m leaving now. There is one carriage that departed before us, much to my father¡¯s chagrin. There are six guards, and the carriage is¡­well, it¡¯s one of my families.¡±

    Philly and Lyrika having heard that wondered what they were supposed to do with thatcking description. But, Olivia having been there when she watched Ameril off, knew that the statement was more than enough.

    ¡°Okay. Six guards and the carriage will be the most ostentatious one you have ever seen.¡±

    ¡°Wha-¡±

    ¡°I know. Just, trust me on that.¡±

    They now knew the numbers protecting it, which if anything meant two on either side of the carriage and then one in front and one behind. Or it could mean three on either side. Either way, they had a better idea of what they were facing. The tricky thing was getting things set up so that they would only be affecting the second carriage.

    And that brought her on how to block the path.

    ¡­

    Moving over to one of therge trees by the road, she tried to figure out how to do this. Oh, she knew how to cut the tree right. Her father liked watching random shows on TV, one of which was about lumberjacks racing each other to cut trees down the quickest. The problem was that she didn¡¯t think she would have enough time to cut it between carriages. Especially since she needed to cut a couple of trees.

    Looking through her bag, she tried to see if she had something that would help.

    ¡°¡­¡±

    ¡®What could I use, what could I use.¡±

    ¡°Ah,¡± she cried out as she spotted something in her bag.

    ¡®Guess we won¡¯t be tying anyone up today.¡±

    She pulled out all the rope she had and came up with the solution. She just had to tie the tree to another and cut the tree just enough that cutting the rope would set it free. Granted this was risky. The rope could snap at any time as they waited for the carriage, so turning to Philly she asked if she had something to toughen it up.

    ¡°You want something to strengthen the rope so that it can hold a tree upright.¡± She replied followed by her looking upwards in thought. ¡°My potions are all for human consumption really. I don¡¯t think I have anything that would work on a rope.¡±

    She went into her bag anyway pulling out bottles upon bottles, all of which she rejected. She also ended up pulling the jar of mucus which was a bit less than half full.

    ¡®Could that work?¡¯ she wondered.

    As they had seen, it formed a hard shell around something when exposed to air. Sure, it wasn¡¯t too hard to break by smashing the outside, but if it seeped in between the diners of the rope, could it help strengthen it?

    She had to try it out.

    Cutting two small lengths of it, she tied one of the ends of each to a small log as a test. The other end she tied to a thick and solid low-hanging branch. One of the ropes, she then coated in the mucus.

    Waiting a while for it to do its thing, she then jumped up and wrapped her arms around the log attached to the normal rope. As she stayed there, she yanked it as best she could. She even asked the girls to pull her, which they did so with some funny looks.

    It didn¡¯t take long for her strength to cause the fibres in the rope to snap. So, she moved on to the other one.

    Doing the same thing again, she had a much harder time breaking it. Sure cracks formed on the outside, but it seemed that the mucus did deep into the rope and ended up coating all the individual fibres. That was a massive amount of surface area now covered in the stuff. So much so that she had no luck pulling it apart.

    While it would work great for holding the tree in ce, the question was how to then let the tree go. She tried snapping and breaking the mucus-dried rope, but it would not budge. Even the sword could barely get through the stuff.

    ¡®It must have a weakness.¡¯

    Looking around, she saw something that was generally the best at destroying things.

    Fire.

    Picking up a branch she held it towards the campfire. Pulling a me from it, she headed back over and held it to the rope. And wouldn¡¯t you know? It did just that.

    *whoosh*

    Almost instantly the fire zipped across the mucus. It travelled insanely fast along the rope, disintegrating all of the hardenedyers, leaving just the rope which had now started to burn. A short whileter the log dropped to the floor, and Olivia then made sure to put out any remaining mes.

    At least they now knew one thing.

    It would do nicely for the task at hand.

    ¡­

    Putting the n into action, there was likely only an hour or so till the first of the carriages arrived. So, taking hold of the axe, she got to chopping. The spectators just watched with rapt attention. Lyrika more so once Olivia ditched the shirt due to the sweat she was building up.

    ¡°You two want to help?¡± Olivia asked as she wiped the sweat from her brow.

    ¡°Huh.¡± Lyrika replied with her lowered gaze on a specific muscr part of Olivia¡¯s body. ¡°No¡­ err. You¡¯re much stronger than us. You¡¯ll get it done well before we can. Just keep at it¡­and keep facing this way.¡±

    ¡°Yeah. I also need to catch up on what¡¯s happened so far.¡± Philly said as she scribbled away. ¡°Plus, it¡¯s going to take a while to write all about your muscles.¡±

    As Olivia looked at them, Philly actually sounded serious, but Lyrika on the other hand. Well, the bit of drool that dropped from her lip told the whole story.

    Getting back to it, as she got closer to the point of no return, she wrapped the rope around the tree and coated it in the mucus, before she jumped back to cutting.

    Before long, she made it to the point where it should just tip over now. She could tell it was as she heard the slight strain of the tree against the rope. But, it held, and the tree waspletely still.

    With that done, she then moved a little further back down the road and did the same thing with another one.

    With this, the carriage would be trapped so it couldn¡¯t flee with Ameril.

    ¡­

    *clop* *clop*, *clop* *clop*

    And that is when they heard the sound of hoofs hitting the ground in the distance. It was almost time for the show to start.

 Chapter 80 - Chapter 80: The Ambush - Part 5

    Chapter 80: The Ambush ¨C Part They knew this was the first carriage, so they would be letting it pass by. But it wouldn¡¯t be long before the next got here. With that in mind, she told them the n.

    ¡°Once this one is out of sight, each of you should wait by one of the trees. When the carriage gets to the middle, you burn the rope and send the trees down. You might need to give it a push if it doesn¡¯t drop instantly.¡±

    The girls nodded.

    ¡°I¡¯ll be on the other side of the road, and while the tree dropping startles them, I¡¯ll charge in and take a few down. You then start firing at the ones on this side. Then I¡¯ll grab Ameril and we all head back to Teagan¡¯s vige.¡±

    That was all that needed to be said, so Olivia dashed across the road. The carriageing towards them was still quite a distance away, so her moving across could hardly be seen.

    Now all they had to do was wait.

    ¡­

    ¡°How much longer till we reach the town.¡±

    ¡°Oh, not long now my lord. A few more hours and we should be there.¡±

    ¡°Good, good. After everything that happened, being out in the open like this worries me.¡±

    The carriage that was currently passing must have belonged to some powerful noble. He had around a dozen or so guards around him, all wearing pristine armour. But while pristine, she was sure it was because they kept it well maintained, not that it was brand new and had never been used.

    The looks in their eyes, and how they were constantly monitoring the area around them, told her they were good at what they did and were not strangers tobat.

    But, while a terrifying sight, all they had to do was wait for them to pass. They were close to the road, they had to be in order to see what was going on. But thankfully with all the foliage and trees, they were hidden enough. Especially with the natural camouge that Olivia¡¯s skin tone gave.

    At least that is what she thought¡­but was proved wrong when she locked eyes with one of the guards.

    How the man saw her, she didn¡¯t know. But, once he did, he brought his weapon up into a ¡®ready forbat stance¡¯. And once he did, all the other guards around the carriage did the same.

    She started to panic, and she was sure Lyrika and Philly were feeling the same as well, thinking they were going toe after her. But, the guards and the carriage just continued moving. She guessed, that their priority was keeping their passenger safe, not running off to fight someone. Rushing into the trees could lead them into an ambush, and would leave their passenger with fewer guards. Plus, really, the disy of them all being ready forbat was more than enough to put a whole group of bandits off from trying to attack them.

    ¡­

    The carriage eventually moved on without further incident. Even Lyrika and Philly gave a long sigh once they were out of earshot.

    And that is when they heard the sound of more hoofs hitting the ground.

    Looking both ways, thankfully there wasn¡¯t oneing from the other direction as far as she could tell. That meant the one they could hear, was the one they were after.

    Getting everything ready, she pulled out the invisibility potion as well as three bottles of mucus. Then she pulled her morning star off her back and moved a little closer to the treeline by the road.

    Across from her, Lyrika and Philly each moved over to one of the trees. Lyrika then took her bow off her back and made sure she had her blunted arrows all ready. Philly did the same with the slingshot and checked her bag for the mucus bottles.

    They were all ready to go. As ready as they could be, Olivia thought.

    There may have been another way to do this, but right now, this was the only n and the only option they had.

    ¡­

    The sound of hoofs got louder, and they also heard footsteps, which were then followed by some voices.

    ¡°Hey, fancy hitting the tavern once we drop the princess off? Might be able to have some fun with a couple of good-looking girls.¡± One of the guards on said.

    ¡°Sure. But you know we can¡¯t get drunk. We need to be back for the changeover.¡±

    ¡°Come on. Why do we even need to keep guard of her in the town? Can¡¯t we just lock her in her room and be done with it.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t be an idiot. She¡¯s managed to escape from her home several times since she got back thest time she ran off. If she gets away when all of us are guarding her in Caldaria, her parents will kill us for sure.¡±

    ¡°No, they won¡¯t.¡±

    The guards went on and on, talking about how annoying their situation was and how they would keep the ¡®princess¡¯ secure.

    As everything came more into view, it was clear to see that these men were much more disorganised than the ones with thest carriage.

    And that Ameril¡¯s statement on what the carriage looked like was urate.

    Trees and shrubbery had obscured the view as the carriage travelled down the road, but once it got closer to them all, they could clearly see what it looked like. She was even sure she heard Lyrika say ¡°What the-¡± when she saw it.

    Like the carriage that her parents rolled up in back in the town of Cassus, it was over the top and ostentatious, showcasing their riches in a horrible way. Why they would send a carriage like this into the forest she didn¡¯t know. A bandit seeing this was like them looking at a retirement n on four wheels.

    But enough on the ridiculous carriage, they had work to do.

    The number of guards was as Ameril had said, and they were positioned so that three were on either side of the carriage.

    And it didn¡¯t take long for them to be right in front of her.

    *creak*

    The guards all stopped talking as they tried to figure out what the noise was. As they looked around, they saw nothing. That is until the driver of the carriage pulled on the reigns of the Umbrea to stop them moving.

    One of the guards was about to shout at the man, asking why he had stopped. But that was before he noticed the massive tree tiling and ultimately falling down onto the road.

    *thud*¡­*thud*

    They were surprised by a second thud. A couple of the guards turned around and saw the second tree that had fallen down behind them.

    They were all quite slow on the uptake, probably not having expected anything to happen on this journey, so only a few had actually gone to pull their swords out.

    Olivia on the other hand, had just downed the invisibility potion, and as Milly had said, it was almost instant. She couldn¡¯t see her own hand which was very disorientating, but the best thing about it was that it somehow affected the things she was touching. She didn¡¯t know how it worked. It might be that once ingested it formed a field around the person, or it could be that it radiated an invisibility spell around her affecting the things she touched. Whatever it was, it meant that her clothes, morning star and the bottles she held could not be seen.

    And that was her cue to run out from the trees.

    She stayed as silent as she could and headed towards the nearest man. As she got closer, she threw the potion bottles towards to other two men, further down the carriage. She realised that with what she was about to do, having those bottles on her person would not be in her favour.

    The bottles flew out of her hand, one hitting the nearest man, but the other two missed their mark, with one hitting the floor and the other, the side of the carriage.

    Throwing them as she did was a long shot and she knew it. But either way, it had done its job.

    The one who was hit, ended up getting hit on his crotch. She hadn¡¯t been aiming there, obviously, but alls well that ends well, as the mucuspletely coated that area of his trousers going so far as to also coat most of the top half of his legs.

    The bottles had also worked as a distraction, the other man having turned around to look behind himself to see what had hit the ground. He even when so far as to bend down analysis it more. That is until he heard a massive thump and saw the carriage shake in the corner of his eyes.

    Olivia hadpleted her charge and flew straight into the nearest man. The force of the hit lifted him into the air very slightly and sent him straight into the ornately carved hardwood and bejewelled carriage. He smashed into the surface hard, cracking and slithering the woodwork as he did. It had been such a hard m into the carriage that it knocked him out instantly. This may have also been attested to his armour possibly being more of a hindrance than a help in that situation, his head having been knocked around in the slightly too big helmet that he wore.

    The guard struck with the mucus saw all of this happen, but he could not see the assant. All he saw was his colleague fly into the carriage and crumple to the floor. Not knowing what it was that attacked him, he readied his sword in case whatever it was showed itself, and started to move backwards towards the other guard behind him. As he did though, he started to struggle with just bending the top portion of leg backwards, meaning he could only shuffle to get there.

    The one who just got up from crouching unsheathed his sword as well and readied himself. Just in time to see the massive form of an Orc materialise before their eyes, and head straight towards them.

    But, while the potion had worn off, Olivia saw this as a win so far and that the battle was going quite well. She just hoped that Lyrika and Philly were having the same luck on their side.

 Chapter 81 - 81: The Ambush - Part 6

    Chapter 81: The Ambush ¨C Part On the other side of the carriage, the three guards had heard the thud and seen the carriage shake. The remaining guards that had not yet done so also pulled out their swords and slowly started to move around the carriage.

    But, the ones at the front and back of the group stopped in their tracks when they heard a thud and the sound of a metal sword nging against the ground, right behind them. This was then followed by someone shouting out in pain.

    Turning around they saw the guard in the middle holding his arm, with his sword on the ground. Why he had done so, neither of them knew, not seeing any real cause. But just as they went to ask, they saw an object impact the man¡¯s head, denting, the helmet he wore.

    This sent a shockwave through his head, knocking it back and sending him down to the ground, probably with a concussion.

    The two guards were shocked by this turn of events, and turned to the tree line, just in time to see, what they now realised was an arrow, heading towards them.

    These men, while not veterans of war, were still prettypetent, and so the one in the firing line quickly raised his arm, hoping to shield his face, not wanting what happened to the other guard, to happen to him.

    The arrow, fortunately for him, ended up skimming the leather armour on his arms.

    Not wanting to stay under fire from who knows how many men in the trees, they both started to sprint at their attackers, heading towards where the arrows wereing from, keeping a lookout for any more that would be heading in their direction.

    But as they moved, something new came at them from their right and headed right in front of them. Like everything else, it was sudden, only one having spotted it and even then, just assumed it was an arrow of some sort. That is until it hit the ground and exploded, ending up with them being thrown back from the force of the st.

    They didn¡¯t go flying. But in their sprint, they were off bnce, so the shockwave from the st knocked them back and down onto the ground. Groans of pain echoed through the trees, reaching both Philly and Lyrika who looked mighty pleased with themselves. Lyrika even more so with the next shot she made, sending the arrow right into one of the men¡¯s special ce.

    He had not been crippled by the explosion. But the blunted arrow to that area took him out of the fight instantly.

    He cried out hard, and tears poured out of his eyes, all of which stopped when a second arrow, flew straight towards his head.

    ¡­

    As the girls were taking shots at the guards on their side, she was face to face with the only guard that could move properly. Both had their weapons drawn and were heading into a showdown.

    She had tried to use the remaining time with her invisibility potion to charge straight into him, but as she did, it wore off and he had more than enough time to dodge to the side.

    As her appearance manifested itself again, she could clearly see the look of shock and the terror on their faces. But, just her appearance alone wasn¡¯t enough to stop them from defending and fighting back.

    The one with his lower half coated in mucus, moved to swing his sword out of desperation, but he was nowhere near Olivia, and ended up toppling backwards, falling into the carriage like the first guy. He was still very much conscious, but now he could onlyy there against the vehicle, struggling to break free from the gunk on his legs, all the while watching the other guard fight the Orc.

    In her now one on one fight, Olivia nted her feet like she had been told, and swung her morning star horizontally, hoping to m right into the man¡¯s side, sending him into the carriage as well. With the environment around you, you may as well use it, as far as Olivia saw.

    The man though, was noplete amateur. He quickly moved backwards, out of reach and followed up with a sh of his own. Which Olivia managed to block.

    They went back and forth like this, one attacking and the other blocking, and it felt like they were at the same level in terms of skill. But, before long, she realised it had only been the fear and shock of it all that had the man off bnce.

    After one such strike from Olivia, which was blocked, he quickly followed this with an overhead strike.

    Olivia barely had the time to pull back on the reigns of her first swing to bring it up to block, but somehow managed it, his de nging against the metal shaft of the morning star.

    The man pushed with all his might. He was either trying to cut through the solid metal of the morning star, which meant he was probably panicking and losing it. Or he was trying to push her down and cut into her head or shoulder as he overwhelmed her. How he thought he could beat an Orc in a test of strength she had no idea, but, if that was the case, she had tomend him on his gumption, as stupid as it was.

    As he strained with all his might, Olivia decided to break the ice a little by pushing his de upwards, which she then followed by sending her foot outwards to collide with his chest.

    Winded, he fell back, staggering towards the tail end of the carriage. But he was not one to give up, and so still breathing uneasily, he dashed forward.

    As he did, Olivia thought it would be easy to disable him, but she was wrong. Even though he was struggling to breathe, that did not affect the tactical side of his brain.

    As he reached her and went in for another overhead strike which Olivia quickly went to block, he changed the angle of his swing and ducked. He went under her arms, and slide his sword out, slicing at her leg. He wasn¡¯t at full strength, and his de was not the sharpest, so he did not cut it off. But the gash it made was deep and pain shot through her body as she stood on it.

    His move, while quite the achievement in his eyes, did have some consequences. The main one being that while Olivia was crying out in pain, this also came with a lot of anger. Anger that she utilised in a frustrating and sudden uppercut of a swing as the guard was trying to stand up.

    A swing that impacted his body, hitting the metal chest te and denting it with ease. Like a superhero throwing someone into the air, he was lifted off the ground by the force. Only a few inches, but still, and was sent backwards into the dirt with a resounding, and to Olivia, a weing thud.

    Their battle had been short and brief, but that¡¯s how they usually would be. Long unending fights were not the norm.

    And even though it had been quick, it was by no means an easy one, where whether they lived or died, hung in the bnce.

    On that note, she knew she had put a lot of force into that final swing, the sudden rage from being attacked fuelling it. She had no idea if he would make it. The only saving grace she had was that she could still hear him wheezing away from the winding he received. Both the first and second time.

    At this point, she moved to get a good look at her leg, in order to see the extent of the damage. But was stopped by the sound of cracking.

    As well as the sound of a man possibly having lost his means of creating a family, which instantly made her move one of her hands to cover her own special ce.

    ¡­

    Having taken two of the men down, Philly and Lyrika were left with only one left. But he was a slippery bugger.

    He was much more agile than his colleagues, and now knowing what was being fired at him, he was more prepared for their attacks.

    He was very well trained, maybe even more so than the other guards, as he only got better and better at dodging their attacks as time went on. Some did hit, a blunted arrow here and there managed to find its mark. But, it was only ever a graze or a hit to an area that was well armoured and had little effect on him aside from a bruiseter.

    They were getting nowhere and were losing supplies fast.

    Another arrow dodged; another bottle jumped away from.

    Philly had alternated between the explosive kind and the ones with just the mucus, but neither were doing the job. Having seen how destructive the first bottle that hit them was, there was no way he would do anything other than dodge any bottle that came at him.

    It was getting bad, and it only got worse as he finally decided to make a move.

    He had taken his timeing to this conclusion, probably hoping the guards on the other side of the carriage would join him. But in all his time dodging, no one joined him. He must have realised they had been taken out. So, the only thing he could do now was deal with the archers he had been managing to evade.

    As he started to get closer to them, Philly and Lyrika realised they had to try something different. There had to be some way to get him to slip up.

    And that¡¯s when they realised it was because of theck of synchronicity between them. Lyrika could fire her shots quickly, but Philly was new to the game, and had a little trouble in matching her speed. This meant there were only a few asions when they both fired at the same time. And even then, the bottle travelled slower than the arrow.

    They needed to fire shots at him at the same time and use something that was even harder for him to dodge, as arrows were not cutting it.

    That¡¯s when Lyrika realised the mucus bottles would be the way to do.

    And so, looking over at each other, Lyrika pulled out one of the few bottles of exploding mucus that Olivia had forced her to keep just in case. She raised this up, along with one of her arrows towards Philly, hoping that she had gotten the n across. She then got to work tying the bottle to one of her arrows using some of the leftover vines. It didn¡¯t have to be perfect. As there wasn¡¯t much time left.

    Philly having seen her, didn¡¯t quite know what she was going to do, but made sure to keep firing at the man as fast as she could using the mucus bottles to keep him upied, which was doing a good job forcing him to jump all over the ce to dodge them. This stopped him from heading straight to them, and even stopped him from running, as he would have even less control over his ability to doge if he did that.

    This gave Lyrika the time she needed, and once she hadpleted it, she gave a quick whistle to tell Philly she was ready. The girl in question looked over and saw Lyrika holding the arrow with the bottle, and she realised what she was doing. So she too pulled out an exploding bottle.

    Both of them then aimed and lined up their shots.

    The man was sweating profusely, even more so since the bottles and arrows had suddenly halted.

    But that is until he saw one such bottleing his way.

    Doing as he had been, he dodged to his left, given the bottle was heading towards his right. But once he did, he realised his mistake.

    As looking up, he saw an even faster bottle, now on the end of an arrow, heading towards his left.

    It was at that point he realised he messed up.

    He tried to dodge, moving backwards to get some distance from them, but both hit the ground within seconds of each other, and the force flung him backwards.

    He flew straight back down the slight hill he had been heading up and mmed against the ground hard.

    He hadn¡¯t died, and he hadn¡¯t passed out. But every part of his body hurt.

    Looking up to see what he could do, the only thing he did see was something heading straight for his head.

    And this time he couldn¡¯t dodge it.

    ¡­

    Olivia knew what the cracking meant.

    The mucus had hardened, and now, the man was freeing himself.

    By the time Olivia had turned to see the man doing just this, it was toote. She had ended up only a short distance from the carriage, but it was enough that she wouldn¡¯t make it in time to take him out before he got free. That was all because of the nature of the mucus. It all hardened at about the same time, and for someone who had a good deal of strength training like that guard had, even just a pelvic thrust was probably enough to break it around the top of his pants.

    That¡¯s not how he did it mind you. He was using the pommel of his sword, which caused it to break very easily, crumbling away before she had even started to move.

    So, rather than cause herself more pain moving on her damaged leg, she nted her feet as best she could, and got ready to defend.

    The guard, once free, saw the Orc standing there, and with a war cry, went on the charge.

    *thump*

    But was halted as the door to the carriage was flung open, right into his face, knocking him to the ground.

    ¡°Finally. That was quite a tough lock to break. My parents spared no expense I see.¡±

    Standing in the doorway was the first person she had be friends within this world. The first person she had saved. And the person she had been looking to kidnap.

    Ameril.

 Chapter 82 The Ambush - Part 7

    82 The Ambush - Part 7

    Framed by the doorway to the carriage stood Ameril in all her glory.

    She was still as beautiful as Olivia remembered. She still had her long blond hair that flowed down her back almost reaching her hip. Piercing brown eyes looked at the mess of crumpled bodies around before turning towards herself. Once she spotted her, Ameril blinked a couple of times, her long eyshes fluttering as she did. Her skin was still free from any sort of blemishes and was still the same pale skin tone that she remembered. Thenstly was the aspect that had surprised her the first time they met, her elven ears, introducing her to one of the races in this fantasy world.

    "Olivia!"

    As soon as Ameril spotted her, she cried out in joy and jumped down from the carriage. She dashed across the dirt road and leapt at her. It didn''t help however that she was holding her Morning Star and could hardly stand on her leg without feeling intense pain.

    Not wanting to hurt her, Olivia quickly dropped her weapon and braced for impact. Ameril flew through the air and mmed right into her, wrapping her arms around the Half-Orc she had not seen for so long.

    While Ameril was by no means strong or heavy, the impact caused Olivia to wince and cry out in pain, ending with her toppling backwards onto the floor as she wrapped her own arms around Ameril as well.

    Ameril was overjoyed to see her, given the overzealous greeting that was not bing of a nobledy. But even amongst all the excitement, she realised something was wrong.

    "What happened? Are you alright?" She asked as she pushed herself up.

    "Not¡­exactly. One of your guards managed to cut my leg."

    Shock and horror on her face, Ameril jumped off of Olivia and checked the wound for herself, seeing if there was anything she could do.

    "Oh, I''m so sorry. I was just so excited to see you I¡­Oh, it looks bad. We need to get you somewhere to treat it."

    "I''ve got that covered. *wince* We just need to get back to the camp and there are a few potions that I can use."

    Right as she finished her sentence, she went cold and froze. So too did the Ameril.

    It wasn''t because of any of the guards. No, they were all still out cold and oblivious to the reunion. It also wasn''t because the driver they had forgotten about had decided to be a hero. No, because as it turns out they didn''t exactly forget about him¡­he had actually fled when the battle started and none of them noticed. No, what caused the sudden onset of paralysis was from the sound of horseshoes hitting the ground.

    "We need to go. Now." Olivia quickly said.

    Moving to stand up, she cried out in pain and toppled back down as she put weight on her wounded leg. Ameril seeing this quickly moved over to catch her¡­with no luck. But, while she had failed to stop her from hitting the ground again, she was now there to help lift Olivia and stead her as they moved over the carriage.

    "Wait here. I need to grab a few things."

    Jumping into the carriage, Ameril then spent only a few seconds grabbing a couple of items from inside, both of which were leather bags, where one was pretty much a backpack, but the other was much smaller and square.

    No time to go into what it was that she had taken, she waited for Ameril to jump off the carriage and then move under her arm. They then hurried as best they could around the carriage and into the woods.

    The sound of hoofs clunking against the ground grew louder as they slowly walked away, but thankfully, they could not see any carriage as they passed the tree line. But even though this was the case, they wouldn''t stick around. As when the carriage arrives and the people onboard try to rouse the guards from their slumber, they would likely be very quickly informed of who attacked them, and probably also figure out the direction they had headed.

    Well, two of the guards would be able to say who attacked them, and if one Orc was fighting them, it wasn''t a stretch for them to think the ones firing arrows were Orcs as well. Then on the direction they are travelling, it''s not like they''ve been covering their tracks as they limped away. Because of all that, they needed to go and figure out a way to stop themselves from being tracked.

    ¡­

    As they headed further into the woods, she felt Ameril tense up.

    "There is someone else here." she quickly informed Olivia. Where only a few moments after, her ims we found true as Lyrika and Philly walked out from behind a few trees.

    "They''re¡­they''re with me. Introductions cer. We need to go." Olivia managed to say through gritted teeth as she pushed ahead.

    "Why so quickly?" Lyrika quickly asked. She was still a little pumped from the fight, but as she saw Olivia wince and desperately try to leave, it was quickly exchanged for a look of concern. Sure they had just ambushed a load of guards, but to Lyrika it felt like there was another reason behind fleeing quickly.

    "Another carriage ising." Olivia quickly said.

    Philly and Lyrika looked at her, worry on their faces hearing that, so they both turned to move, not wanting to stick around for whoever was going to show up. They really hoped it wasn''t a group like the guards from the first carriage.

    But as they started to move, they heard a short cry from Olivia. Sure, they had seen her leaning against Ameril, but they figured she had received a minor injury from the fight. As they now looked closely, they could see the sword wound on her leg, and the blood that was dribbling down the side of it, causing an even greater look of concern and worry to now flood both of their faces.

    09:05

    But, while they were both feeling that, this didn''t blind Philly from realising what she had to do to fix the problem. And so, she delved into her bag in order to grab a couple of potions.

    "Here. Drink this, and just stand still as I apply this one."

    They had to leave fast, but it would be so much faster once Olivia had some measure of first aid applied to her leg, helping improve her stability and speed. So, she waited patiently for Philly to do her thing.

    Handing over one of the recovery potions that they had acquired in the apothecary, Olivia went ahead and drank it. Philly then moved down to a crouch to get a better look at the gash, before she uncorked the other bottle.

    Grimacing a little at the damage, she turned to Lyrika.

    "Find something for her to bite down on."

    Lyrika quickly snapped out of her stupor and rummaged around the area, before she found a short branch, which she handed over.

    Olivia then ced it into her mouth and bit down hard as she waited for what she assumed, was going to be a lot of pain. Much like alcohol being applied to a wound.

    And how right she was.

    "Grrrrh!" A muffled cry slipped from her lips as she felt the cool potion pour over her wound. It stung and burnt as it touched the cut and it proceeded to do so for a good long while after she finished.

    Once she had covered the entirety of the wound with the potion, she then took out a piece of fabric and tied it around her leg in order to keep it clean and keep the pressure against it. At that, Olivia was now in the best shape she could be in the time they had. Pulling away from Ameril, she now found she would put some weight on her leg, and it only improved as they got going. With everyone now in tip-top shape, almost, they got on with the escape part of the n.

    ¡­

    It wasn''t too far to reach the camp, and so once they arrived they got to work with packing up.

    Thankfully, they didn''t have to disassemble the tents or anything. They had done that on instinct when they had gotten ready in the morning. It was more a case of just gathering everything up they had left there, and making sure they hadn''t left anything behind.

    As they were doing this, Olivia''s mind wandered to how they would stop themselves from being tracked.

    It was possible that no one would even follow them. If the guards thought they were being attacked by several people, Orcs at that, then the people turning up may just help them rather than pursue a bunch of Orcs. But there was a chance that they would take the opportunity to im the bounty for an Orc head and be gung-ho about going after them.

    This means they had to deal with the tracks they had left behind. Or more than likely the ones they would be leaving as they left the campsite. Going back to deal with the tracks they lefting here would be a terrible thing to do, and might end with them being caught instantly.

    The ce they were in was a dense forest with roots and shrubbery everywhere, but it''s not like there are no patches of dirt that they could step on. Even just stepping on shrubbery would deform it so, making it easy to see if someone had walked that way.

    Hiding those sorts of tracks was a must in order for them to not be pursued.

    Option one was to just not stop anywhere you could clearly see a footprint. But how likely and easy would it be to do that when trying to get away as fast as they could?

    That left option two, which took a while, but Olivia eventually found it when she was ncing around and saw Lyrika''s tail moving about.

    ¡­

    "This is humiliating," Lyrika grumbled.

    "That may be. But it''s necessary in case someone is trying to follow us."

    Olivia had thought it was a great idea, but it seemed that Lyrika wasn''t too happy about it. It probably didn''t help that Philly had a permanent smirk on her face and that Ameril, a girl Lyrika had only just met, couldn''t stop giggling behind her hand.

    "Once we are about halfway to Teagan''s vige you should be able to stop. By then, there wouldn''t have been anything for them to follow, so we should be in the clear."

    "I know, but still."

    The group was heading through the dense forest all in a line, going towards the ''path'' that they had taken before. At the front was Philly, her keen observing eyes on the lookout for any hazards, and her ears for any signs of life other than them. Behind her was the new addition to the group, who was staying quiet until they were out of the woods. Aside from the random giggling every time she heard Lyrikain.

    Behind her was Olivia. The wound waspletely healed, or at least it felt like it. So, she had no problem keeping up with the rest of the group. And at the back was Lyrika¡­with a grumpy look on her face.

    Nothing looked amiss when you looked at her, but every now and then, when she swung her tail, you could see a bunch of leaves from a tree swing by with it. n/?/vel/b//in dot c//om

    That''s right, Lyrika was being used as a broom.

    Before they left, Olivia had seen her tail moving back and forth, along with broken branches and the like in the background. Her mind instantly put them together, and so with some of the leftover vines to tie them both to each other, you then gained a semi-automatic broom.

    The simple idea worked very well, where as they walked Lyrika would swing her tail, and the branch covered in leaves that was attached to it, ended up being swept along the floor to cover up any footprints they had left behind. It even helped shift any patches of grass and shrubbery, removing the indentations of footprints.

    As Olivia looked behind them, she could see nothing in the dirt whatsoever. It was like they hadn''t even been walking through the forest at all. It worked so well, she started to wonder if they could create a permanent version that they would put on and take off of her tail as needed.

    09:06

    Whether Lyrika would be fine with that though, was a whole other question.

 Chapter 83 The Newcomer - Part 1

    83 The Neer - Part 1

    "When can I stop?"

    "Huh?"

    "Swishing my tail back and forth. It''s starting to hurt." Lyrika moaned from the back of the group.

    "Once we leave the path you can probably stop. We''ve travelled quite far and hopefully, this should have stopped them from following us by then." Olivia responded.

    All she got back as a response was a grumble of the word ''fine''.

    ¡­

    Since they had started walking down the path they had travelled on before, those were the only words that had been spoken.

    It wasn''t like no one had any questions to bring up, as Olivia was sure there were a few spinning around everyone''s heads. But right now, they all knew that silence, and getting out of this dense forest and back to Teagan''s vige was the highest priority.

    The sweeping of the path should do its job well and keep them off their tracks. But if it hadn''t having a conversation while on the run would definitely make it easy for them to be found if someone was pursuing them.

    So far, as she looked over her shoulder down the path and into the forest, it didn''t look like anyone was on their tail. There were no voices in amongst the bird calls, no shes of movements amongst the trees, which meant it was possible they had eluded anyone that was following them, or no one had tried in the first case.

    And with that thought and understanding rattling around in her head, they finally made it out of the dense section of forest.

    ¡­

    "Finally."

    As soon as they came out, Lyrika passed her tail around, unwrapped the vine and flung the branch with leaves on it, back into the forest. It was easy to see she had not enjoyed any of that.

    After wagging and bending her tail in ces, trying to get it feeling how it used to, she then let it down and gave arge sigh.

    "We must have lost them. You know, if someone was following us, we would have lost them by now." Lyrika brought up with the group.

    "With the state, you left those guards, they would be hard pressed, probably incapable even, of pursuing us. It''s just a matter of whether the guards, assuming it had any, of the other carriage would leave their post to search for us." Ameril responded.

    "Unlikely. A guard''s job is to protect their client. They would first have to wake the guards that we knocked out, and then learn that it was an Orc, maybe even a group of Orcs that attacked them. Knowing that no group of guards would venture into a dense forest to find a group of Orcs that easily took out six guards. Their client wouldn''t let them. For their own safety and the guards. It''s not logical." Philly chimed in.

    The way she said it, it made sense. If it was a merchant''s carriage, or even someone simr to the first carriage that passed, would they have left their client for the possibility of finding and killing a group of Orcs to save a girl? Some might, sure. The heroes of the bunch. But not knowing how many Orcs there were, it could be a suicide mission, as even though Orcs had been culled, given people hadn''t seen them for quite some time, who''s to say they hadn''t repopted a fair amount?

    If this was the case though, and they decided not to go after them, what would happen next?

    Then it hit her.

    "They are probably going to inform your parents though, right? The guards I mean," she asked Ameril. "Doesn''t that mean they would send a lot more people after us to save you?"

    How Olivia hadn''t realised this before she decided to ambush the carriage, she had no idea. But it was quite a pressing matter. That is until Amerilughed it away.

    "Ha, that''s not going to happen. You saw my parents before. We are not close by any means. When they learn I have been kidnapped by Orcs, all that will mean to them is they have lost out on a business deal. The coin and effort they would need to send people after and actually find me would far outweigh what they would have earned from my so-called marriage. They may send a few people to look into it, just to show they are seriously searching for their dear daughter, but it won''t be thorough by any means. Besides, even if it was, you are but one Orc, and by the time they hire people, we will be far from where the ambush took ce."

    Everyone was stuck in thought as they listened to Ameril wondering if what she said was true. Lyrika and Philly didn''t know her parents, but as she had said, Olivia did, in part. But even with the short moment she had seen between them, she could see there was hardly any love between them. From both sides.

    Then there was what those guards had spoken of. How she had kept escaping from her home. If you had to ''escape'' from your own home then surely things are not working out with your parents.

    Given all that, what she said sounded like it could be true. Olivia had thought that Ameril, upon learning of her departure had panicked and saw having herself kidnapped on the journey as the only way out. But from the sounds of it, it seemed like she had thought it through.

    Whether her parents would send a small group or arge force after her, or whether they would search day and night, or just for a short while, only time would tell. Time that they would need to use wisely in order to get far away from the scene of the crime.

    ¡­

    As the journey continued and they headed to Teagan''s vige, things started to flow a little better between everyone. All of which started off with some much-needed introductions.

    "It''s been a while since we all actually met, but I think we should be quite safe now. So, as I''m sure you two know, this is Ameril." Olivia said beckoning to the new addition to their group. "And Ameril, this is Lyrika and Philly." she finished doing the same with them as well.

    "It''s a pleasure to meet you. Thank you so much for helping to rescue me." Ameril said with a curtsy.

    "Err, yeah. It''s nice to meet you too."

    "Nice to meet you as well," Philly concluded.

    "Thank you so much as well Olivia. I can''t tell you how happy I am that I no longer have to go along with my parent''s whims. I finally feel free."

    "I''m just d I could help. All that time ago when we first met and I saw what your parents were like. I had hoped I would be able to get you away from them."

    Ameril blushed slightly at that, as she recalled their time together.

    "You did in the end. I would have liked to have joined you then and there, but I needed to make some arrangements and business deals myself before I could leave. I even spent a great deal of time learning some new skills just for this escape."

    "What deals?" "What skills?" Lyrika and Philly both asked at the same time.

    "Well, if I had just run off, and seeded unlike the first time, I would have been a noble''s daughter with nothing. So, I made sure I had what was rightfully mine before I left. I purchased and sold a few items, and made some investments, all so I could make some coin. I mean, make some coin that is actually mine. I left everything that my parents had brought for me, including what I had used to start those deals, which meant everything I earnt was my own. More or less."

    Possibly a grey area, Olivia realised, where if you made a profit using someone else''s coin, did it then count as your own? Well, whether it did not, it''s unlikely her parents would know about the deal anyway, so they would still have the same wealth as before.

    "While I felt it was important to have my own coin, I also did not want to feel indebted to them, lest they use it in some way to force me to go back to them."

    Olivia was sure there was more to it than just potentially being in debt to them. While not great parents, they were still her parents, so stealing from them was probably something she just couldn''t bear to do.

    "On the matter of skills, well, with my partially sessful attempts to flee from my home, both the first time and when I met you again Olivia, my parents decided to take more drastic methods to keep me from leaving."

    Olivia''s mind went to shackles and chains, thinking they had turned her room into a prison cell or something. Thankfully, it wasn''t as bad as that, but still, it was pretty bad.

    "They realised that during those escapes, I borrowed the key from one of the maids or attendants in the house, in order to leave. Because of that, they took keys from all of the staff in the house and handed them to a few select guards whom they had hired. They also brought more locks and started to keep doors in the house locked up as well. It felt like I was in jail."

    All three of the girls looked at her with sympathy at what her situation had been like. Philly''s sympathetic frown however also had a tinge of intrigue in there are well. Probably thinking she could add some of this to her book as well.

    "So, on the rare asions where I did leave the house, needing to make some form of appearance so others didn''t think I was dead, I managed to escape the guards with me, and I brought a set of lock picks," Ameril said with glee as she held up the small leather bag she had grabbed from the carriage. "It took me quite a while to learn, but I eventually became quite proficient with them." N?v(el)B\\jnn

    ''A nobledy that can pick locks. You don''t see that every day.'' Olivia mused.

    "Being able to leave the manor with ease, I had hoped to learn how to wield a sword or something. But before I could do so, my parents had brought up my journey to Caldaria¡­ but enough about me, please tell me about yourselves. How did you all meet?" Ameril quickly brought up once she had finished her story, where she looked towards the two in question waiting for some answers.

    Hi All, I hope you liked the next chapter. With the excitement of the ambush over, it looks like they have escaped and evaded any pursuers. With introductions underway, we shall have to see how everyoen gets along as they journey back to Teagan''s vige.

    Braderzsz

 Chapter 84 The Newcomer - Part 2

    84 The Neer - Part 2

    With Ameril having finished telling her story and all that she had been up to, living in the prison that was her own home, she eagerly awaited Lyrika and Philly to talk about themselves. While she did want to know who these two very attractive girls were that were travelling with Olivia, for non-selfish reasons, of course, she just wanted to get to know them. Having been stuck in her home and unable to do much, including making friends, a part of her hoped that she could actually achieve such friendship with these two girls that were close to her age.

    As she waited, Philly decided to speak up first. She told Ameril her full name, where she originally was from, and how she was a researcher. It did get a little awkward when it came to what her research project was now.

    "Your researching¡­Olivia?"

    "Of course. In all my time at the Institute, Olivia is the first subject I have found that is truly worth researching. I will still continue my research into beast-kin culture, as that is what I said my trip would be to learn about and will need to provide a paper on when I return. But Olivia is just an oddity in this world. A half-Orc half-Goblin is strange on its own, but then with her being nothing like Orcs and Goblins at all, even going out of her way to help people. She is truly unique and who she is and what she does needs to be documented. I also hope that in our travels even more shocking revtions about her wille to light."

    It was quite a strange thing to hear someone right next to you talk about how odd and unique you were. A part of Olivia felt insulted at being called an ''oddity'', but at the same time, being seen as a unique wonder, she added the wonder herself, felt nice.

    "I see where you areing from. But I can''t imagine Olivia is fine with-"

    "I''ve gotten used to it."

    And she had. Philly had been with them a short while, and by now, she had written all about her exploits. The impressive thing was that Olivia had managed to deal with the fact that she had also documented her exploits of a more¡­sexual nature as well. With her managing to get past and no longer be phased by that, she didn''t think there was anything else she could write about that would actually affect her.

    So, putting up with it was hardly a chore now.

    "What about you, Lyrika?"

    At Lyrika''s turn, she spoke about how they met. It had shocked Ameril a little at first when she spoke of their fight under the dead of night, but as she talked more about what had happened to her, and how she ended up in that situation, Ameril quickly understood and felt sympathy for her.

    Lyrika then went on to talk about all they had done since the meeting, with them hunting for food, or more like trapping, travelling to the beast-kin viges, the bandit trouble, the Zentora ambush and finishing off with the lovely fiasco at Teagan''s vige.

    09:08

    She then told her about her goal of going after the chief and what he had been doing.

    "That is awful." she then turned to Olivia, "And so you''ve helping to try and stop him as well I take it."

    It was possible that their travelling together was only a temporary thing, and that whatever had kept them together would end at some point before Lyrika had managed toplete her task. This is why Ameril thought to confirm the situation.

    She didn''t ask with Philly, as it was already answered by her n to research Olivia.

    "Of course. After hearing what he had done, I can''t just let it continue." Olivia quickly responded as if it was only natural. She couldn''t see how someone could learn about all the man was doing and just walk away from it.

    "That''s so like you," Ameril said with an appreciative air, something that Lyrika noticed, given the slight frown on her face. "I-I''m not a fighter, by any means, but if you need it, I''ll help in any way that I can. We''ll be travelling together and like you said, it doesn''t feel right to just let something like that continue."

    "Wait. You''re going to travel with us." Lyrika asked with a quizzical expression.

    "¡­yes, of course. Do you, not¡­want me here?"

    Olivia looked over at Lyrika a little surprised by her response. Sure, they hadn''t talked about Ameril joining them on their travels, having been so focused on just rescuing her. A part of her thought it was just implied though. She had spoken about how they had travelled before, albeit very temporarily and it seemed obvious to her that they would do it again. But while it seemed like Lyrika thought it would only end up being temporary again, what was more surprising was that it seemed like Lyrika had a problem with it as well.

    "No. No, it''s nothing like that. I mean ¨C it''s just that you''re a noble. You already said you''re not a fighter, and well, everywhere we go there seems to be some sort of battle that happens. I wouldn''t have thought you would want to have to deal with that. Couldn''t you just use your status and coin to start your new life in another town?"

    No one seemed to realise that Lyrika had forgotten that Philly had no knowledge of how to fight either. But if anything she was a little bit differentpared to the Noble that hardly ever left the town she lived in. Plus, Philly was adept with potions, where as seen, some were very capable of dealing with viins.

    "I understand what you are saying, but there is a simple solution to me not knowing how to fight though. I''ll just learn how. And on the topic of settling down in another town, that, as you say would be easy to do, but¡­there are some other things I want to do before that." Ameril replied as she looked over at Olivia. Again, this was something that Lyrika very clearly saw, and given the slight eye twitch was something she didn''t quite like.

    "Does that include being part of Olivia''s harem?"

    "Urrgk," *cough* *cough*

    Olivia choked on the air she breathed in as she heard Philly''s statement.

    Lyrika pulled her vision away from the new member and ended up just staring down at the ground as she rubbed her brow.

    Ameril on the other hand, ended up doing a double take not sure she understood what Philly had said. It was so sudden and such a blunt and surprising thing to say, that it would throw many for a loop.

    If anything, Olivia and Lyrika should have expected something like this to happen, given the few times it had before. But, Philly being Philly, you couldn''t predict when she would bring something like this up.

    "Philly, *cough* why do you keep saying things like that?" Olivia asked, just trying to understand what was going through her mind. How she could just ask someone she had just met a question like that she did not know.

    "What was wrong with what I said? It was a simple question."

    "No, it''s no a-" Olivia ended with a sigh before she turned to Ameril. "Just don''t listen to her. I don''t have a-"

    "You have a harem?" Ameril asked at the same time cutting her off.

    Silence captured the group as no one knew what to say, and they all realised they should think before they spoke about something like this. Well, almost all of them realised this.

    "Orcs and Goblins have harems. So does Olivia." Philly responded.

    "I don''t have a harem."

    "Okay. If you want to be technical. You are in the process of forming a harem. Happy?"

    "What no, I- this- *sigh*" At that, Olivia gave up and threw her hands into the air.

    "¡­"

    "¡­"

    "To be forming a ''harem'', that must mean at least some people are already part of it. Right?" Ameril cautiously said, looking a little worried as she did.

    The question instantly caught Olivia''s attention and she knew she had to respond and shut this all down. Anything further would end up giving Ameril a bad impression of her.

    "Like I said there is no ha-"

    "I''m with her¡­"

    Olivia and Ameril both turned towards the voice that had cropped up, obviously finding it to be Lyrika who stood there with her head held high. n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    "I''m with Olivia. But¡­ as she said¡­it''s not a harem."

    Olivia could only stare at Lyrika with a quizzical look on her face. Sure, it''s not like they were going to hide what they had been doing, but they hadn''t had a serious talk about what they actually ''were'' to each other. So, she couldn''t help but wonder why she had said that, and almost with a proud look on her face.

    What Olivia didn''t see, was who that look was directed at. If she had broken out of her thoughts, she would have seen how Lyrika had been looking right at Ameril as she said that.

    A look that was returned by an annoyed frown and narrowed eyes.

 Chapter 85 The Newcomer - Part 3

    85 The Neer - Part 3

    Things got quiet after Lyrika''s statement. A short while after she said it, she turned and just carried on walking. Ameril did so as well, but as she did, it looked like she was in deep thought.

    Philly, having said everything she wanted to, and somewhat getting an answer from Lyrika about Olivia''s, nowck thereof harem, she continued walking without another word.

    Olivia was just silent as she didn''t know what to say after that. She did however know that she and Lyrika needed a talk to discuss what their rtionship was.

    ¡­

    After a few hours of this, they finally reached Teagan''s vige. It was all hustle and bustle as before and it felt good to be back.

    Rolling up to the main gate they entered with their permits, and Ameril paid for her own before Olivia could offer to pay for her. Granted she had forgotten for a moment everything Ameril had said about having earned her own money before leaving.

    Back in the safety of the vige, they headed over to the inn they had been staying at and brought some grub. All of them were famished, Ameril even more so as she hadn''t had anything since breakfast, since she was thrown into a carriage not long after.

    As they ate, they did so mostly in silence. Ameril and Lyrika looked over at each other with a bit of a scowl every now and then.

    Not wanting the mood to be so aggressive, and not really sure how to deal with it, Olivia decided to throw a cat among the wolves.

    Well in this case, it was more like a Zentora.

    ¡­

    When Olivia brought it out to show Ameril, seeing it gave her a little bit of a startle, but she soon began to swoon once it looked up and mewled at her.

    "Ahhh, it''s adorable. What''s it''s name?"

    "We¡­still haven''t thought of one. None of us could decide, and then we headed off to save you."

    "I still don''t understand why you won''t go with Spike." Philly brought up.

    "Spike?" Was the confused response from Ameril.

    "Just¡­don''t listen to her." Turning to Philly, Olivia repeated what she had said several times, "We are not naming it Spike."

    Philly just shrugged as she went back to finish off her stew.

    "What about naming it based on what it''s like? We already know how adorable it is. Yes, we do. Yes, we do." Ameril said as she held the Zentora in her hands holding and cradling it against her bosom, an act that made Olivia blush a little as she watched.

    Getting over that, Olivia then smiled as she saw how happy she was from just ying with their possibly ''very dangerous in the future''panion.

    "Its parents were deadly. But we think they left it because it was too weak. The runt of the litter so to speak."

    "Oh, that''s awful. Good thing you found it when you did. It could have died all alone." n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om

    At that, everyone around the table had quite a sincere calm look on their face happy that they had found it when they did. Even Lyrika who had been silent all this time.

    "So, it''s a survivor."

    "Lucky is more urate." Lyrika finally spoke up to say. "It''s lucky that we found it."

    Ameril looked a little annoyed that survivor had been cut down, but even then, she knew what Lyrika had said was more apt to the Zentora''s situation.

    ''Lucky. Wait isn''t the Latin for it Felix or something? Wait, where did I learn that.''

    Before going down the rabbit hole trying to recall where she may have learned the Latin for Lucky, which is was probably from a film or something, she decided to bring it up as a possible name.

    "How about Felix?"

    "What sort of name is that?"

    Olivia had thought it was a great choice. But when you have three women all say the same thing to you, it''s clear that what you said was wrong.

    "Why is Felix a bad name?"

    "I don''t think I''ve heard of anyone called Felix before." Lyrika replied.

    Olivia was about to bring up that it meant luck thinking it may change their minds, but stopped herself, not having a way to exin how she knew that. Not that that stopped the question being asked though.

    "By the way, where did you get Felix from?" Ameril asked.

    "I err¡­read it somewhere. It sort of means lucky." she responded with this being the first thing that entered her mind.

    "If that is the case it is rather apt for the Zentora." Philly brought up, to which the rest agreed. "But it doesn''t sound right though."

    "Okay. How about¡­Felixia" Olivia responded with, trying to add the fantasy zing that many of the names in this world had.

    The girls all looked at each other trying to see if it was a name they had heard of or if it sounded right.

    "I haven''t heard anyone with that sort of name. But it does sound more like a name you would hear in Khasia."

    "Yeah, I''ve not heard of it before, but I think it could work."

    And with that, the whole naming fiasco was finally over.

    It had been quite some time since they found the Zentora, and when they first started with deciding it''s name, it had not gone well. It was clear to see that Philly was still a little annoyed they were not calling it spike.

    The name represented the Zentora''s situation, well the good parts anyway, as it wasn''t very lucky being left because it was weak. But luck summed up all that had happened after they had defeated the adult Zentora.

    It also helped to sum up how the whole group had got together, so it worked on that front to. Ameril was lucky to have been found by Olivia before she was sexually assaulted. Lyrika was lucky to have run into her in the vast forest. And Philly was lucky that she was found by Olivia before she was sold by the bandits.

    For Olivia, a part of her felt she was unlucky to have ended up in this world. But, as time went on, while this world was dangerous, the rtionships she had been forming made her feel a lot more lucky to havee here.

    But enough of dwelling on the past. With the name decided, they all leaned over the Zentora and spoke its name. To which, the Zentora, now Felixia, responded by not really caring.

    Well, no one said it would be easy to train a Zentora.

    ¡­

    Once their meal was digested and they all had their fill from ying with Felixia, they headed out and into the vige. Ameril only having seen the town she grew up in was enthused to see what the vige had to offer. More so given it was a beast-kin vige.

    It''s not like she had never seen a beast-kin. Several did visit and a few even lived in the town. But here she was surrounded by nothing but beast-kin.

    They decided to take Ameril all around the vige and show her the sights. It was even done in such a way that Ameril remained out in front of the group with the others trailing. How they managed to be great guides while being at the back was quite an achievement.

    She was very enthusiastic about seeing everything it had to offer, but she made sure to keep herself in check and not just sprint around everything. This was her first real time outside of the town she grew up in. Even though the vige had much less to offer,pared to it, she still found it to be enthralling and managed to find new and exciting experiences within it.

    She looked around all the shops, seeing what they had to offer and how it differed from her town. The main thing that she found was that there were a lot of hand-crafted objects. By this, she didn''t mean that in the town, things were mass-produced, but stuff was done by hand here. That sort of technology didn''t exist yet. What she was referring to was the variety and the volume of handcrafted items.

    With everyone in Teagan''s vige working pretty much all day, it was to be expected. No one''s jobsted the whole day. People had to close up shops as people went to eat their dinner. It eventually gets too dark to be able to work on any of the farnd. And even the people that went around lighting up the town only had to work for so long to do it. So, this begged the question of what they all did when their jobs were over, especially when none of them seemed to stop working.

    They worked on other projects. Some helped with maintenance around the houses. Others provide services to other members of the vige. There was a lot that could be done that wasn''t considered their main job. But the one that most people did was just create stuff with what they had to hand in order to sell it.

    Of which it was clear to see in the market that they found that had been set up in the vige square since they had been gone.

    Looking around, a massive variety was being sold. Produce, meat, weapons, leather, handcrafted items, it was endless.

    This is why they all ended up excited to peruse what was being sold when they saw it, Ameril''s excitement seemingly having been infectious.

    But¡­that excitement was put on hold when they saw the Chief of the vige running towards them.

    "Girls. We have a big problem."

    Hi All, I hope you liked the next chapter.

    We finally have a name for the Zentora. It took a while, but its name works with what happened to it, and also has the Fantasy zing it needs to work in the world. Now, the only question is what problem it is that they will be facing.

    Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.

    Braderzsz

 Chapter 86 The Chase - Part 1

    86 The Chase - Part 1

    "Lord Abern. We shall now depart. Thank you for your hospitality."

    Meryl could only wait and watch Stefan do an over-the-top bow to Lord Abern as they left his manor. As they walked away he eximed that you needed to ''perform'' in order to win over and remain on friendly terms with Nobility. If you are not doing something to show gratitude to a noble, they just won''t care about you.

    Putting that depressing topic of how life worked with nobles to the side Meryl followed after the rest of the group, yawing a little as she did. They had spent the night in thep of luxury, but she could not enjoy it. After everything thedy of the house had said, fears and doubts just spun around in her head. Something was definitely wrong with this whole situation.

    The only thing that kept her going strong was the firm knowledge that Orc''s are dangerous and need to be taken care of. This was unrted to the oddity with Lord Abern''s son''s hunting trip and needed to be done to keep others safe.

    And so, with that as her focus bouncing around the many other thoughts in her head, they headed out toplete their mission.

    And they did so in style.

    "That was nice of Lord Abern to lend us a carriage" Helena said as she ran a sharpening stone along her sword.

    "Yes. From his point of view, what is one carriagepared to the need to quickly find his son''s killer. It needs to be done as both a matter of revenge and before they kill someone again."

    With them now all sitting in the carriage, they got to talking about ns for dealing with their target and the first stop on the journey. The only one missing from this discussion was Ethandril, the elven bowman of the group who was driving the carriage.

    "Okay everyone." Stefan said to get the groups attention. "We are heading to the beast-kin vige to see if they know where this Orc went. The only problem with this is that since they took a hunting party and unjustly imprisoned them to make some coin, I can''t imagine they will tell us a single truth. As soon as we bring up that we are looking for this Orc because of the hunters that were attacked, they may lock up and not tell us anything."

    There in lie the first problem. Well for Meryl it was more understanding why this was the case. Why had a vige imprisoned a group of human hunters for no reason? There are people out there that would try to kidnap people as ves to sell, but for a whole vige to be a part of that, it just doesn''t sound right. But while she was still trying to figure that out, the rest of the group had already agreed with Stefan''s statement.

    "So, we can''t let loose that we know they imprisoned them, as that might even make them go after us. We need to ask about the Orc, iming we''re after the bounty on its head. Nothing more. As they might get suspicious. But even then, they will probably tell us all lies about what happened in order to remove the me from them."

    Another resounding set of agreements was heard once he said that. All aside from Meryl who just nodded with concern.

    "But even if they do, I am sure we can figure something out if we look around their vige and question the right people. When we have an idea of where the Orc is, we then head after it. While I would like to deal with them, we can''t do anything about the vige. They are not part of the job and we can''t just¡­.attack a whole vige."

    Merylpletely agreed and so did the rest. The only difference was that she saw it as a moral thing, the vige having many people who surely hadn''t been a part of the imprisonment. There were probably also children living there as well. Stefan however meant it as the vige likely had more people than their group, and taking them all on may not go well for them. The rest of the group just saw it as not being necessary as it wasn''t a part of the job.

    "When we are searching for this Orc, you need to be careful." He then looked between the Helena and Meryl, "you two especially. I''m sure you are aware of what Orcs are famous for. We don''t want it taking your innocence or anything," Stefan finished with a slight chuckle, which the other men in the group joined in on.

    "Innocence. Please, I lost that a long time ago." Helena replied.

    "S-so did I," Meryl managed to tack on through the embarrassment of the conversation.

    They continued talking for a little longer on how to face off against an Orc, but until they knew more about it such as if there was more than one and if it had kidnapped anyone, they didn''t fully know how to get rid of it.

    ¡­.

    The journey towards the vige steadily continued. The road they were on was like all the others, just a well-trodden dirt path.

    It was incredibly boring.

    Some of the others were ying some card and dice games to pass the time, but Meryl wasn''t feeling it.

    And besides¡­the boredom soon disappeared after what they spotted on the road.

    "We''ve got trouble ahead," Ethandril called out from his driver''s seat.

    "What is it?"

    "There''s a carriage in the road, no driver and it looks like all the guards are dead." He said replying to Stefan.

    "Okay. Let''s get over there as quickly as possible."

    Snapping on the reigns, the Umbrea that had been pulling the carriage went into overtime and almost galloped towards the carriage, taking them a while to slow down and stop.

    Once they did, they all disembarked and drew their weapons, not wanting to be caught off guard.

    As they moved, they paid close attention to the surrounding woods and the bodies, in case it was some sort of trap, but as far as they could see, nothing had been set up like that.

    As they reached the bodies, they moved around them taking a look at the scene. They saw six bodies in total, armour bent and crumpled for a few, meaning a massive force must have it them. They saw that the door to the carriage was open so either someone from inside fled, was taken or was part of the attack.

    One of the group bent down and held a piece of ss under one of the men''s noses and saw it mist over with the man''s breath.

    "This one''s alive."

    Shocked that this was the case, they then went around to check the others, and shockingly again found them all to be alive. Some were worse for wear being quite injured, but a good recovery potion or two should fix them up.

    As they moved around they heard a groan from one of the men, seemingly having woken up from his passing out. He groggily looked around not sure what was happening. But as soon as he saw someone moving by him he went to grab his weapon.

    "St-stay back." He said as he moved his sword about from his slumped position on the floor.

    Helena who had been near him moved back before the de cut her.

    "Hey, easy there. We are a group of mercenaries who spotted this carriage and came to help. Meryl can you pass me some water."

    Grabbing it out of her pack, she passed it over to Helena who then passed it to the guard who had started to calm down. After a few gulps, his thirst was sated and he breathed out a sigh of relief.

    "Who do you work for and can you tell me what happened here?" Stefan asked the man as he made his way over.

    "We work for¡­Lord and Lady Quinterus. We were travelling with their daughter Lady Ameril to bring her to Caldaria for her wedding ceremony. All was quiet during the journey but suddenly we were attacked by an Orc. It even used some sort of invisibility spell or potion. We didn''t see it until it had already knocked one of us out. It also had some odd potion that immobilised us."

    The guard pointed over at his colleague that was still passed out by the carriage. All around the ground and with some still clinging to his leather trousers they could see an odd grey shell-like substance.

    "It stuck to him and made it impossible for him to move."

    Stefan moved over to the guard on the ground and picked up some of the shell. With the faintest of movements, it cracked and crumbled.

    "Ahhhhhh!"

    Hearing a man cry out Sefan, Helena and Meryl dashed around the carriage to the rest of their group to see what was going on.

    "Well, it looks like another one''s awake," Helena said as she saw everyone giving the man a side berth as he screamed.

    "It hurts, it hurts so much."

    When Stefan saw where the man was holding, he grimaced as he realised where he had been hit.

    "Give him something to deal with the pain," Stefan said as he bent over to pick up what had hurt the man so. N?v(el)B\\jnn

    "A blunted arrow?"

    Merly saw him looking at it, and she could see that it was crude in design. It didn''t look like a Fletcher had made it. Comparing it to the others on the ground there were inconsistencies between them, and a fletcher would hardly be able to sell their wares if they did that. She came to the conclusion that an amateur had made them, not a professional by any means.

    But that just begged the question of why? If you''re up against a group of guards wearing armour like they were, the easiest thing would be to fire arrows that pierced the crude leather they wore or to hit the areas that were just cloth, killing them quickly. It''s as if whoever fired them was trying not to kill them.

    The guard that had been in agony had drunk a potion offered to him and was now calm again. It was then that he finally realised there were a bunch of other people around him.

    The group exined who they were, and the guard from the other side of the carriage spoke alleviating some of his stress.

    "Who took you lot down?" Stefan asked the guard in case his story did not match what the first guard had said.

    "I never saw who it was. They just kept firing arrows. At one point they threw a bottle that caused an explosion," he replied pointing at the shallow burnt crater. "They were good shots, took one of us down right at the start. It was only when the explosion knocked me down that they manage to hit me in my¡­. well. Then they finished me off by hitting me in the head. They were brutal."

    "It must have been Orc''s attacking you as well. While one of them took all three of us down, the others kept you lot upied." The guard from the other side shouted out.

    "Orcs. Here. Such vile creatures. Wait¡­ did they take-?"

    "Yes."

    "We must go after them. We need to rescue her. Who knows what a group of Orcs will do to her." The guard frantically said as he tried to stand. But even with the pain-relieving potion he drank, that didn''t help with how it had physically affected him, meaning he struggled greatly to stand.

    "We shall go after them. You stay here. Ethandril, you are our best rider. Take one of these horses and head back to Lord Abern. Let him know what happened. Meryl and Helena,e with me to try and track this beast down. The rest of you, help the guards while we are gone." Stefan shouted out to the group as he stood tall in an almost heroic pose.

    ¡­

    Meryl didn''t think this was a good idea. It sounded like there were more than one Orc and that they were actually quite smart. Just the three going after it may not be a match for them. Fears kept going through her head, but thankfully she voiced them to their fearless leader.

    "I understand what you are saying. Even I would struggle against a few Orcs, even more so since it sounds like they have some amount of intelligence. We shall follow them, and see what the situation is. It''s possible there is a group of Orcs waiting for the ones that left to raid. They may have other hostages as well. All this information is vital and will help dictate how we deal with them when we are able."

    While things were strange about Stefan and this whole mission, she had to admit, he knew how to be a mercenary and a leader.

    "If it''s only a few Orcs, then we can wait until they either separate from the others or fall asleep, then we rescue thedy and kill them. Come on."

    They headed into the forest, slow as can be. Helena was upfront using her tracking skills to follow where the Orc had gone. So far, following where they went had been easy. They had been running and moving without care. They even found drops of blood here and there.

    The odd thing was that she could only see one set of Orc footprints and a few human-looking ones. It''s possible the other Orcs took another route, trying to throw anyone following them off track. That is assuming they had that level of intelligence. But on the matter of the human tracks, one was obviously thedy that was taken. But who could the others belong to? ves maybe?

    Before long they came to a slightly tter area ofnd which had an assortment of tracks and damaged branches and nts. From all this, they figured that this was the camp they had used.

    "It''s hard to tell, but it looks like something had been burning here. Probably a campfire."

    "So, they picked up camp and they left. Which direction?"

    Helena looked all around the area, looking for any signs of where they had gone. The only problem was that nothing looked out of ce at the edge of the camp. There were no footprints in the dirt, all the nts a shrubbery looked as ruffled as everywhere else. Even the dripping blood had ceased and with most of it being root systems it wasn''t like there were many twigs and branches they could find snapped. Even when she did, she found some in three different directions. Which meant either they split up, or animals hade by at some point and broken it.

    "There''s nothing to tell where they went."

    "What?"

    Helena exined all that she was seeing. While it didn''t do much for Stefan''s annoyance at the situation, he conceded that it wasn''t her fault, but that of the Orcs that had fled.

    "Smart enough to have potions to immobilise and create explosions. And now they are also able to easily cover their tracks. These Orcs need to be dealt with as soon as possible, lest their numbers increase."

    At that, with no idea where they went, Stefan decided they should return to the carriage. The only thing they could do now was follow on with their original n and go to the beast kin vige.

    Hi All, I hope you liked the interlude. The chase is on, and while they may have lost Olivia''s tracks, who knows what they may find out at Yoban''s vige. We shall have to see how things go in the next chapter.

    Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.

    Braderzsz

 Chapter 87 The Chase - Part 2

    87 The Chase - Part 2

    Back at the carriage, all of the guards had awoken. They were all in much better health, and none had sustained permanent injuries, as far as they could tell. Whether the guard who had been hit in his privates would still be able to have children was still up for debate though.

    After checking on them all, Ethandril returned on the horse he had borrowed, handing it back to the men and informing them of what Lord Abern had said. He had practically raced back down the road, which was how he had gotten there and back so fast.

    Lord Abern didn''t take the news well obviously, knowing that the, now believed to be a group of Orcs, had attacked more people. He did say however that he would send a group of soldiers from the town down the road to meet the injured guards and assist them either taking them to his town of Caldaria or Cassus where they hade from.

    With the guards sorted for the time being, the mercenaries headed off to continue their journey and pursuit of this band of Orcs.

    ¡­

    The journey was quiet, as they all came to terms with what had happened. To think that their mission to go after a single Orc that killed Lord Aberns son would turn into a mission where a nobledy had now been kidnapped, that it was a group of Orcs involved as well and that their intelligence exceeded that of what you would normally associate to monsters like Orcs.

    It was quite a startling revtion, and all of the Mercenaries knew they needed to take it into consideration in order to stay alive and bring these Orcs down.

    While this had them alling up with battle ns, figuring out the best way to tackle these smart monsters, Stefan spoke up. n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

    "I know how we might be able to get the people in the vige talking."

    ¡­

    After a short while they came across the small road that headed towards the vige. It then didn''t take too long to reach it, but what they saw was quite a shock.

    "What happened here?" A couple of the group asked as they came up to what almost looked like an abandoned vige.

    It had rudimentary barricades around it, but it looked almost in disrepair. There were also only half the number of guards that there should be present given the number of walls and guard towers. It was like people had started to desert the area.

    "Halt. What are you doing in our vige." One of the few guards at the barricade said as he pointed his spear at Ethandril. The rest of the guards on the walls all had bows and arrows pointed at the carriage as well.

    None of them were shocked by this. Given that they had unjustly sold a bunch of people, they had to be fearing some sort of retribution from whomever they sold them to, or from the ones they sold themselves.

    22:02

    "We are a group of Mercenaries in search of a very dangerous bunch of Orcs. They recently attacked a carriage and kidnapped a nobledy that was on her way to her marriage ceremony. We were hoping that the good people of this vige may have seen these Orcs given the proximity to the road where it happened." Stefan said by shouting out of the window in the carriage.

    At that, the guard blinked a few times, not sure what to do. That is until another guard came and whispered in his ear, before heading towards the town.

    "We shall check with the vige chief if you are allowed to enter."

    This had been Stefan''s n. Rather than just bring up the bounty on Orcs and mention being after one, they figured they could use the incident with the Lady''s kidnap to their advantage. Given the scarcity of Orcs and how both the murder and kidnapping had happened so close to each other, the one that killed Lord Aberns son, was more than likely a member of the group of Orcs that had kidnapped the Lady.

    So, asking for help about a group of Orcs that kidnapped a nobledy, would surely get these beast-kin talking more than asking about one Orc. Especially since it was a single Orc that had been involved with them before.

    Before long the beast-kin guard returned stating that they were allowed in, but that they had to leave their weapons behind.

    This was pretty standard. It didn''t mean the vige was nning to attack them and wanted them disarmed before doing so. It was more that they were afraid of this new group of strangers attacking someone in their vige.

    So,plying with the guard''s words, they hopped out of the carriage and left with weapons inside. There was no way they would hand their weapons over to the beast-kin, so this was apromise. They didn''t however go in unarmed, all of them keeping a few concealed weapons on their persons, just to be sure.

    And so now only lightly armed, they headed into the vige and saw the state it was in.

    ¡­

    "What happened here? Where is everyone?" Meryl couldn''t help but ask.

    "Who knows? Could have been fights with other beast-kin viges or maybe even monsters and animals in the surroundingnds that caused this. That may be why they got so bold as to imprison and sell those men. Desperation."

    Stefan''s exnation was as good as any, and it almost made sense. None of them knew if there were any fights between beast-kin, and they had hardly travelled thesends to gauge the wildlife present, but they couldn''t think what else could have caused the damage in the vige and the drop in poption.

    Well, everyone except Meryl.

    After some thought, she realised that the problems this vige was facing had to in some way be rted to Lord Abern''s son and his hunting party. She just couldn''t quite see how or why they would be involved.

    Then there was the question of the Orc, which only added to the confusing situation.

    Ethandril remained with the carriage, keeping watch over their weapons and goods. The rest of the group headed towards the chief''s home, which had been directed to them by one of the guards that were walking with them.

    The beast-kin wandering around the area all looked at them with surprise, suspicion, and a little bit of fear. More so when they spotted the humans amongst the group, not that any of them realised this.

    Again, all but Meryl thought this fear was due to the possibility of being caught. Meryl was just not sure that was the case.

    Before long, they entered the Chief''s house and were brought to a meeting room. It paled inparison to the room that they spoke to Lord Abern in, easily showing the difference in status between the two. Not that it mattered though, as for Beast-kin, no thoughts were put into showing off all your coin to intimidate the people you meet.

    "My name is Yoban. I hear you are looking for a group of Orcs. I''m sorry to say that we have not seen a group such as this since¡­well forever, so I don''t believe we will able to assist you much in your search."

    The chief of the vige sat in his chair, nked by a few guards on either side as he spoke. He was concise, deliberate and fast. It was clear he was trying to get rid of them.

    One thing that Meryl, noticed, was that now that they could get a better look at the guards that were with Yoban, it was clear to see that they had very little experience. If anything, they looked like they had never stood guard before. They held their weapons at different angles to each other. There was no organisation between them.

    Putting that aside, she looked over at Stefan and she was sure he realised the same thing. Not that this would help them of course, as someone untrained with a sword could be as deadly as someone who is. Luck and being unable to predict movements could cause them to very easily injure their opponent. Fighting them was not something they wanted to get into.

    "I see. If I may, could we have a look around your vige? It is possible someone may have seen them and didn''t think it was worth bringing to your attention. It is also possible they may have travelled through here in the dead of night. I feel it is my duty to make sure these Orcs do not remain a threat to any of the races in Khasia."

    Meryl just looked at the chief and she could see him just stare at Stefan after he finished his monologue. His eye twitched a little, and he began to speak, only to stop himself. It took a while, but he eventually gave a response.

    "I see no issue with that. I would ask that our guards travel with you. We have had some¡­incidents with humans before, and I would prefer that the members of my vige remain at ease while you are talking to them."

    "I understand," Stefan said as he stood from where he had been sitting, before heading out of the door without so much as another word to the vige chief.

    While Meryl had hardly interacted with nobles and did not know their customs, even she could see that he was being deliberately disrespectful to the man. Sure, there was the imprisoning people and selling them, but still. To just stand before the noble and not even thank him for agreeing to meet with them and let them wander his vige, was the height of disrespect.

    The rest of the group quickly followed him, and so too did the guards. But before she left, Meryl turned back, spooking the other guard in the room and spoke to Yoban.

    "What happened to your vige?"

    It was a simple question and should have been answered with a simple answer. But Yoban just scrunched up his face as if he was struggling to figure out what to say.

    He did however stare deep into her eyes. Almost as if he was looked right through her.

    It creeped her out a little.

    But, after a few moments of that, he nodded and then spoke.

    "Like I said we have had a few incidents with humans before. Now, apologies but I must head back to my study. I have some paperwork to deal with."

    At that Yoban headed past her and out of the room, leaving her standing their perplexed with a guard who was waiting for her to move.

    "Ah, one more thing. It may be that you think you are after a monster, but I believe you should look a little more closely before you judge her."

    At that he left.

    ''Is he saying that humans did this to their vige? And what was that about thinking we are after a monster? And did he just say ''her''?''

    With more questions than answers, she slowly walked out of the room to catch up with Stefan and the group.

    ¡­

    "Well, this was pointless."

    Helena''s words could not be more true as everyone just ended up exhausted after scouring the vige and asking everyone that they could find if they had seen a group of Orcs, where the results of this search were bleak.

    They found no traces of any Orcs having stepped foot in the vige. It had been a while since the imprisonment incident, but they had hoped that they may havee back at some point or even left something behind.

    Then there was the questioning of the vigers, where they all just ended up saying the same thing. They knew nothing about a group of Orcs.

    They wouldn''t even go into any more detail, or say anything else helpful. It was clear they all had their stories straight and did not want to help them. Why though none of the group could understand. They had thought that if they knew of a Nobledy being kidnapped by them, they would have some sympathy and help out in some way. But, no such luck.

    If they hadn''t already had a bad opinion of the Beast-kin, this did not help improve it.

    "So what now?" one of the group asked, speaking out loud.

    They had expected a response from Stefan, but all they got was silence. Looking over at him, they saw what had caught his interest.

    It was a door to the chief''s house, but this one had a guard on either side of it.

    It didn''t take long for them to realise that this door led not to his house, but to a prison. A prison that hopefully had once held Lord Abern''s son''s friends.

    It was the only ce that they had not been to yet, and so it was the final hope they had of getting any information about where the Orcs were.

    ¡­

    Several minutes were spent formting a n, but it mainly boiled down to most of the group being a distraction, while Stefan headed inside.

    Within this n, Meryl was selected as the lookout.

    Putting it into action, it went ahead without incident. They were close enough to the guards that when they caused their distraction, which in this case was a drunken brawl between themselves about something stupid, the guards headed over to try and stop them. This left the door open for Stefan to head inside and Meryl stand nearby.

    "What are you doing?"

    That was until she heard a voice right behind her.

    Turning around, she came face to face with a female beast-kin. She looked to be around twenty years of age, give or take, and she was just staring at her, waiting for a response.

    "Err¡­I''m, waiting for my¡­friends. Yeah. What are¡­what are you doing here?"

    "I''m here to tell you, that what your friend down in the prison will find out, is true. But that your assumptions about the ''Orcs''" she did air quotes as she said that, "Are wrong. I can''t imagine any of your group will listen or believe you if you said that, but I think you understand what I''m saying, or are a least starting to. It''s clear to see you have some, let''s say doubts about all this. And I assure you, you are right to have them."

    ¡­

    22:03

    Heading away from Meryl, she had to run to catch up with Stefan as he headed towards the rest of his team who were still causing the distraction.

    Meryl, was just frozen in ce not sure how to react as this girl just stared at her, rattling off everything she had been worried about.

    "I can''t stop your group. I could give it a try, but your friend worries me a little. So the only thing I can do to help her is tell you this. When you do find her, think and talk before you rush to violence. Now I must be off. Your friend will be back soon, and I would prefer he not attack me thinking I''m a witness to his crime¡­just like all the others."

    That part stuck with Meryl. She went to talk in order to get the girl to exin what she meant by that, but before she could, she heard footstepsing from the door she was supposed to be watching.

    Looking over she saw Stefan, and while she then went to check on the girl, she found she had disappeared.

    "I got it. I know where we need to go." Stefan said with a smirk on his face.

    ¡­

    Heading away from Meryl, she had to run to catch up with Stefan as he headed towards the rest of his team who were still causing the distraction.

    With a fake apology, he was able to gather them up, and headed back to the carriage, before setting off again up towards the main road between the two towns.

    With everyone together again and away from prying eyes and the beast-kin improved hearing, he finally told them what he had found out in the prison.

    "We need to head to the vige northeast of here. It''s where I was told the Orc that killed Lord Aberns son would have been heading. A vige under a chief Teagan."

    Hi All, I hope you liked the next interlude. Things are heating up as the group are now on Olivia''s tail, heading to the vige she is currently in. We just have to hope that she and the girls can find a way out of this in theing chapters.

    Please let me know your thoughts on the chapter.

    Braderzsz

    The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and

    continue reading tomorrow, everyone!