A young man named Freak made his way as quietly as he could through the dense forest.  He had been trying to navigate his way through this god forsaken place ever since he first reached it about three days before, according to the rough map he had obtained before he left the shit hole town of Hopeless a week prior, there should be a decent size settlement just on the other side.  Freak had been on the move since long before he had left Hopeless, it was just another in a series of shit hole places he had passed through over the last several months, maybe year, the days and weeks all kind of blurred together into a mosaic of endless trudging broken up by the occasional spell of back breaking labor.  He would walk endlessly from settlement to settlement usually barely finding enough work to feed himself and stock up enough supplies to get him to the next place.  

Sometimes it seemed to Freak as if he had been basically on the move for his entire life.  The longest he could remember stating in one place was a year and a half and that was back when he was still traveling with the old women who had taken him in sometime after his parents had died leaving him to wander the wastes by himself at an age so young he could barely remember what they looked like.  He could only remember that they had almost been like gods of the waste that every one called reality.  His father whose name he could not remember had been an ex solider who had a strong back ground in construction and just a large amount of general survival knowledge, and his mother had been a nurse and a near Olympic caliber athlete, and between the two of them they had over saw a prosperous settlement somewhere to the south.  That was of course until the place was overrun by a mass of slithers, a mutated race of humans that now bore more of a resemblance to snakes than the humans they were descended from.  

Freak’s internal musings were interrupted when he finally reached the top of the tall hill he had been climbing for the better part of that morning.  He dropped his pack weighted down with what equated to the entirety of his worldly possessions near the base of a particularly tall tree.  He leaned his rifle up against the tree next to his pack and then warily stretched his tired muscles.  They didn’t quite burn with the fire that he expected he would be feeling by the end of that day, he figured if it didn’t look like he would be getting out of this thrice damned forest soon he would perhaps just camp at this spot for the rest of the day, since it was a rather nice spot and he could here the running water from the near by creek that his path had been occasionally intercepting over the course of the last day or two.  He could probably use the extra time to put out a couple of snares and do a little foraging to restock his dwindling supplies.  But first things first he thought to himself, as he stretched his upper body limbering up for the exertion to come, then he sprang up grabbing the lowest branch of the tree next to him and pulled himself up.  He quickly scrambled up the tree with the ease of someone with lots of experience doing just that.  With in a matter of minutes he found himself standing on one of the uppermost branches, as high up as he could possibly go and still expect the branches to hold his weight.

The immensity of the forest opened up below him, he first looked back at the direction from which he had come noting that the edge of the forest from which he had entered was far beyond the limits of his eye sight, he found himself once again wishing he had a pair of binoculars like the ones he remembered his dad having oh so many years ago, he briefly thought back to those times and how they brought barely visible objects far on the horizon so close it was almost as if you could touch them.  He dismissed these thoughts quickly, as they were not helping him achieve anything at this point.  He instead turned around to look in the direction he was heading hoping to see the settlement that was his destination or if not that at the very least the other edge of this seemingly endless sea of trees.  He was mostly disappointed as there was no sign yet of this supposed settlement, and while he could just barely make out the edge of the forest, it was at the very edge of visibility, and as high up as he was between the tall hill and the tree, that meant he still had at least a day or two of walking still ahead of him before he would even get that far, and his map was so rough and inexact that he really had no idea how much further beyond that he would have to go, he sighed wearily deciding that he might as well go ahead and camp here for the rest of the day, he should be able to scrounge up enough food to get him through at least a couple of more days, with any luck he might even be able to get some fish from the stream to smoke, which would be a nice change form his usual diet of jerked rabbit and nuts that he had been able to lay in a stock off before he left Hopeless.  

With this in ming he looked to the east hoping to get a better view of the stream in question, if it was close enough then he would just camp here, as the clearing around this tree would make a good spot to set up camp, but if it was far enough away then he would probably need to find a closer spot, which might be easier to do from up here.  He of course found the stream quickly as it was actually quite close, but he also found that he was not alone, there was a small encampment next to the creek with several tents and cook fires, which implied that there were actually quite a few people there.  “Damn it” he muttered to himself as he began shimmying back down the tree.  This really threw his plans out the window, somebody already had their claim in on this spot.  While there was a chance they would be peaceful and willing to share, his eighteen years of experience living in the wastes told him this was highly unlikely, if not down right ludicrous.

He reached the bottom of the tree and grabbed his rifle, and was about to pick up his pack fully prepared to get out of the general area as quickly as his legs could carry him.  Then he heard the scream, it was the scream of someone unmistakably female, and quite clearly distressed.  It was followed by another female voice obviously just as agitated, but much less panicky.  He closed his eyes as he stood there for a minute, fighting an internal dilemma, everything in his experience told him that he should be getting the fuck out of there at the greatest possible speed, but there was something there in the back of his mind telling him that there was someone there that needed help that he could provide.  As he wared with himself, memories resurfaced, the barely remembered blurry faces of his father and mother, who would have without question gone to aid those people.  Then there was the face of the old bitch who had taken him in and looked after him for so many years.  For some reason he remembered her face with a stern disapproving look, sh used to always say that surviving was pointless if you lost your humanity. 

Then another scream reached his ears, “Fuck, this a bad idea!” He yelled to himself as he put his bag back down next to the tall tree, then taking up his rifle he began moving cautiously but quickly towards the encampment by the stream.  It wasn’t far as he had seen from the top of the tree, only about three or four hundred yards, and he managed to clear this distance in a manner of minutes, but as he grew closer, he began to move slower and with more caution. His best bet of doing more then becoming another victim most likely relied on maintaining the element of surprise, and also making sure that he was able to get a good grasp of the situation before he just threw himself into it.  

He finally got with in twenty yards or so of the camp, just inside the wood line, before the trees gave way to the rocky creek bank that scythed it’s way through the forest.  He found a conveniently placed fallen tree which gave him excellent cover from which to assess the situation.  He saw a group of eight large and hair-suite individuals surrounding two other figures that were on the ground.  He was not able to get a clear view of them but from the sounds of the voices he inferred that they were two young women who had been taken by surprise by a group of males that appeared to be fur trappers from all the pelts that could be seen around the encampment.  Then on of the figures turned and faced in his direction giving Freak his first good look at them.

“Shit, Ursines.”  He muttered to himself, momentarily considering getting back out of there while he still could.  Then one figure reached down and the sound of ripping clothing could be heard followed by yet another loud scream from one of the women.  Freak sighed to himself in resignation, as he pulled his Glock 19 from the kydex holster at his hip, he quickly removed the fifteen round magazine in the gun switching it out for one of the 21 rounders he kept on his belt, he knew that going up against Ursines like this was going to require fire power and lots of it.  He returned the pistol back to it’s holster after doing a quick press check to make sure there was a round chambered, then brought his rifle into a ready position, he worked the lever to chamber one of the 44 magnum rounds, then turned on the red dot optic mounted to the barrel just ahead of the action.  

He took aim at the tallest and largest of the creatures who by his position closest to the captives marked himself as the leader and greatest threat.  Through the slight magnification of the optic the features of the Ursine male were more distinguishable, and that was really not the most pleasant development.  Ursines were a species of mutant that had once been just as human as Freak himself, but in the tragic events that had killed off most of the human race so long ago they like many others had changed to take on more animistic characteristics, while not all mutated breeds were inherently hostile, the Ursines by and large usually were, especially to humans, who they seemed to almost hate with a passion.  He transitioned his aim from the leader back too the ursine closest to him then to the next closest, these were both significantly smaller, probably only juveniles, thus their placement furthest away from the spoils the group was so focused on.

Satisfied with his plan of attack he once again took careful aim at the leader of the group.  He took one final deep breath to steady himself, then on the next breath, he inhaled deeply, then as he let it out he put his finger on the trigger, finally once his lungs were empty he squeezed the trigger, the boom of the 44mag round leaving the barrel roared through the forest. Freak didn’t even wait to see where his shot hit, he immediately worked the lever of his rifle, ejecting the spent case and bringing another round to bear, all while maintaining the leader of the group in his sights, rifle ready to go again he let out another deep breath, as the bastard turned towards him still on his feet despite the red mist that had exited from his fore head.  Freaked squeezed the trigger once again, working the lever as soon as the boom of his rifle once again broke the stillness of the afternoon.  This time the big bastard went down, having hoped this would be the case Freak had already moved his sight to the nearest of the young juveniles, whose inexperience showed as he stood there in shock, another boom, the little one went down immediately as the round punched through his head.  Freak worked the lever again moving to the next of the young ones, who had at least turned around to find the source of the noise.  This was find by Freak as he shot it square in the face, it’s right eye pulverized in a red mist.  

Freak thought to himself, three down, and probably out of the fight, five left, four rounds gone, six rounds left, shit I might be able to do this.  Of course the moment of surprise was well and truly gone now, as the remaining members of the group had all turned to face his direction, and two of the closest ones had already begun to charge his position, he pumped a round into the one closest to him, his shot was hurried and hit it center mass, which at least slowed it down but did not seem to put it out of the fight, his second round was aimed at the other charging creature, and went even further astray, but at least hit the thing square in the right hip, which while not putting it down seemed to at least put it out of the fight.  Freak darted to his left exiting the wood line and running a ways along the rocky shore of the rushing stream, trying to put some distance between himself and the now very pissed off bear-men.  He fired a round at the largest one still moving but his shot went wide ricocheting off a stone a few yards up the bank.  “Shit!” he cursed himself for the bad shot, he quickly worked the lever again, this time taking a moment to take careful aim he fired once more, this time scoring a hit right in the creatures massive head, it went down as half of it’s ugly mug disappeared now nothing more then a bloody mess of blood and bone.  

He was down to just two rounds in his rifle and there wasn’t time to try and top it off, as the remaining two  uninjured Ursines were quickly closing in on him.  He fired his rifle twice more as rapidly as he could, barley even bothering to aim the rifle, both rounds hit the target nearest him, one round hitting just about where the things sternum would be and the second round luckily penetrating it’s neck and it went down thrashing and gurgling as it’s life blood spurted out onto the pale stones of the bank.  Freak quickly dropped his rifle as he pulled the Glock 19 from the holster at his waist.  He brought it up to eye level and fired a quick string of five rounds into the other Ursine that had still been uninjured, then quickly transitioned to the one who he had only caught in the hip, as it was now back in the fight and closing in on him fast.  He fired another string of five closely spaced shots, the thing had gotten close enough to him that almost all the shots hit it square in the face and it went down as it brain, pulverized into mush, ceased all function.  This left just the one he had shot with his pistol, it was already moving towards him close enough now, that it’s enraged bloodshot eyes were clearly visible.  Freak fired three more rounds, a bit too hurriedly as two rounds went wild and the third only grazed it’s arm.  He backpedaled to get more distance between him and the bearlike monstrosity, this gave him time to take more careful aim, and he put two evenly spaced rounds into the things head and it went down as well.  He scanned the area to see if any of the things were still moving, when suddenly a massive paw caught him a glancing blow, while it didn’t manage to penetrate his clothing it did send him flying on his ass, which caused him to lose his grip on the Glock as it went clattering onto the near by rocks.  He bear crawled away form the massive beast, it was the leader who he had shot at the very beginning of the fight, the two rounds pumped into it’s head hadn’t been enough to put it down.  He scrambled trying to get to his pistol lying just a few feet away, but the big beast was at least smart enough to not let him do that, it stomped one of it’s massive legs in between Freak and his pistol, narrowly missing his out stretched hand.  Freak quickly drew his hand back before it could be pulverized, and scuttled back a bit more, then the wounded and angry beast reared back preparing to eviscerate this puny human on the ground before it, and Freak found himself wondering if this was going to be the end of his run, he put his hands up in a defensive posture that he knew would do him no good, as he waited for the blow to come.  Then it never came, he heard the creature suddenly roar with pain, and he opened his eyes to see a young woman, tall an thin with dark shoulder length hair, dressed in somewhat tattered clothing standing there behind the pissed off Ursine. In her hands was one of the support poles from one of the large tents, the sharpened end was planted firmly and deeply in the creatures side.  This had certainly drawn the things attention away from Freak, giving him just the chance he needed, he quickly reached down to his ankle with his left hand while pulling the leg of his heavy canvas pants with his right.  He grabbed the Springfield 911 micro 9mm form  the ankle holster on his left leg and quickly brought it up and put three quick rounds into the creatures chest from point blank range.  It roared again, but this time it’s movements had become slow and sluggish.  Freak quickly got back on his feet still pointing the pistol at the large creature, and once he was upright again and could get a better angle he fired three more rounds into the creatures head, and finally he saw the life go out of the things eyes as it’s legs went out from under it and it fell to the ground with a heavy thud.  

Freak took a moment to hit the mag catch on the tiny pistol, as he fished the spare magazine he carried for it out of one of his cargo pockets.  He slapped the new magazine home, and gave the locked back slide a quick yank chambering around, and then stood there panting, looking for any signs of life from any of the downed forms around him.  One creature just up the bank began trying to pick itself up, and Freak ran over to it and put two rounds into the back of his head, knowing that he should try to conserve ammo as much as possible now that the danger was past, but at the same time these things were tough as the massive leader had just demonstrated so he figured it was best to be sure.  After delivering to coup de gras to the last figure to show any signs of live, he finally felt the tension leave his body, almost going to his knees as the adrenalin went flooding back out of his system.  Instead though he just returned the Springfield to it’s ankle holster with shaking hands, taking two tries to get it firmly fastened in, then he walked back over to where he had dropped the Glock, and picked it up giving it a quick inspection for any damage that he really didn’t expect to see, he ejected the mostly spent twenty one round magazine, and replaced it with the loaded fifteen rounder he had removed earlier, managing to only fumble this well practiced motion two or three times in the process.

As he was about to go collect his rifle from where ever he had wound up dropping it, he turned around to find it in the hands of the young lady who had just saved his ass with her timely assist.  He nodded to the woman still too wound up to speak, and she simply nodded back as she handed the rifle back to him.  “Thanks.”  Freak said as he took the gun, checking the optic for function the satisfied with that he turned it off before he drained the precious batteries any more than he already had.

The woman looked at him with a slight smirk on her face, “I’m pretty sure I should be the one thanking you.”

“I would have been gutted back there if you hadn’t jumped in there with that stick and saved my ass.”

She shook her head, “And far worse would have happened to us if you hadn’t decided to help us, but we don’t have time for this,”  She began hurrying back over to the center of camp where everything had kicked off. “If you’re still willing to help us my friend was hurt, I’m not sure how bad.”

On hearing this Freak rushed to catch up with her.  In the midst of the scattered Ursine bodies they came across a young girl lying on the ground in obvious pain clutching her bloodied mid section.  Freak quickly went down to his knees next to the poor girl and began to carefully try and move her hands so that he could get a clear view of her injury, “Hey there, easy now.” He said as soothingly as he could.  “Let me look at it, maybe I can help you, there’s a good girl.”  He said as the girl looked at him fearfully, while grudgingly letting him move her hands.

He took a deep breath almost involuntarily, as he finally got a look at the girls injury.  Three long jagged angry lines ran across her stomach from one side of her body to the other, frankly it looked terrible, but fortunately one of the things he had been taught during his youth spent wandering the wastes was how to care for wounds such as this, as the knowledge could very well mean the difference between life and death.  So he calmly examined the poor girl, thinking that the fact that she was conscious was in itself a very positive sign.  He took a small water bottle from a pouch on his belt and used it to wash some of the blood away from her midsection, so he could get a better look, and was encouraged when it was not immediately replaced by yet another spurt of blood.  

He looked up at the uninjured woman, “What’s her name?” 

“Tico”

He nodded his thanks then turned back to the younger girl.  “Okay Tico, the good news is, it doesn’t look like they got a good hit on you, probably didn’t want to make it to quick.  It looks really bad but it doesn’t seem like these gashes go to deep.”  He tried to smile at the poor thing as encouragingly as he could.  “But if we don’t want it to get infected we are going to have to clean it out really good, and that is probably going to hurt like nothing else.”  He turned back to the other woman, “I can clean it up a little bit here, but we really probably need to get back to where I left my pack, it’s not far from here, but before we move her we will need to get some more water from the creek to take back with us and also we need to find something to bandage this up.  I don’t think we need to worry about her bleeding out, but the more blood we can keep in her the better her body will be able to heal itself.”  HE turned back to the injured girl using the water from his small bottle to flush out the wounds as best he could only to turn around quickly again as he heard a loud sound of ripping cloth.

He looked back to the other woman again to see that she had ripped off the lower half of her tattered shirt leaving her well toned mid drift completely exposed, Freak had to admit he wasn’t unpleased by this change as it was quite a pleasant sight, but he tried not to get to absorbed in it.  The woman handed him the material fro  her shirt, “Here use this, it’s relatively clean, which I have a feeling is more than can be said for pretty much any other piece of material we might find in this camp.”

Freak took the cloth from her. “Thanks, this should work, um, sorry I haven’t gotten your name yet either.”

“I would say that is understandable all things considered.  I’m Luna, thanks for asking.”  She paused as Freak turned back to her friend and pulled out a small pocket knife that he used to begin cutting the large piece of her shirt into some smaller strips.  “While we are on the subject, what is your name.”

Freak didn’t look up from his task, “People call me Freak.”

“Freak?”  She queried in mild disbelief, “I sincerely hope that isn’t the name your parents gave you.”

Freak sighed, used to this by this point in his life.  “It’s not, I think anyway.  Just my parents died when I was so young, I don’t remember what name they might have given me.  So when I was taken in by the old lady she started calling me Freak as kind of a joke, but of course it stuck, and now that’s what people call me, I have come to terms with it.”

“I see.”  Luna said obviously feeling that this might be kind of an awkward subject, so she changed it. “I am going to go see if I can find something relatively clean that I can carry some water in then.”

“Cool, but don’t worry to much about the cleanliness, I have small mess kit in my pack and a camp stove that we will use to boil the water with, and it’s really not that far away so we should be able to make trips to get more pretty easily.”

“Got it.”  She went off searching through the camp while Freak kept working at bandaging up the injured Tico.  He finished cutting several long strips out of the remains of Luna’s shirt, then folded what was left into a large enough patch to cover the large gashes across the small girls stomach.  Tico winced as he placed the patch over the wound.

“Sorry bout that Tico, I will try and be a little more gentle.”  He said as encouragingly as he could.  “You’re doing great, a real trooper.”  As he said this he tied of the last of the strips, trying to get it as tight as he could with out causing the girl any discomfort.  As he finished he finally took the time to get a good look at the girl, noticing for the first time, the small fur covered ears at the top of her head, almost hidden beneath her long somewhat wild hair, this led him to look down where he saw yes there was a tail coming out from under her, in his surprise he blurted out, “You’re a Fenie!”  The Fenie’s where another mutant race much like the Ursine, just unlike the Ursine they tended to retain their human intelligence and generally got on well with humans.  

Of course that didn’t mean that they weren’t still frequently subject to a large amount of hate and discrimination. Which explained why Tico winced and recoiled a bit with his exclamation.  “I’m sorry, sir, so sorry!”  she cried out with a degree of panic.

Freak realized his mistake and said soothingly, “It’s okay, it’s okay.”  He reached up and lightly stroked the top of her head as tried to reassure her.  “I was just surprised, I haven’t met many of your people, but I always wanted too, their always so cool looking, just like you.”

Tico calmed a little bit, “You think I’m cool looking?”  She said hesitantly, with the air of  someone obviously used to scorn more than praise.”

“The coolest.”  Freak said with a smile. 

“I see you finally noticed who you were helping”  Luna almost startled him, as she quietly came up behind him with a couple of large water skins hanging from her shoulders.  “I wasn’t sure if you had noticed before and just didn’t care, or if it was going to be an issue, glad it wasn’t.”  She sat the water skins down and knelt next to Tico giving her head some reassuring strokes.  “Lot of bastards out there get real nasty with people that are to different than them, really nasty.”  This last was said quietly with a look in her eyes that made Freak wonder what her story might be at the same time almost dreading the possibility that he might find out.  If there was one thing he had learned from his time growing up, it was that while his story was one of loss and hardship, it was nothing compared to so many others, compared to a lot of them, he had gotten off kind of lucky.

Luna was lost in her self for a few moments there as she tried to reassure her small friend.  Then she shook her head obviously dispelling  some dark thoughts.  “Well I got some water, should we get back to your camp?”

Freak nodded as he stood up, “It’s not really a camp, I was about to set up when I noticed this place, then I was about to high tail it out of her, but then I heard you screaming, and well, never got the camp set up, but my pack is there and I should be able to get the wound cleaned out better there.” 

“Well let’s get going then, I can carry the water, especially if it’s as close as you say ti is, so could you please carry Tico?  I don’t think I could carry her very far at all, and I don’t know if she can walk yet.”

Instead of answering Freak simply reached down and scoped up the little cat girl, surprised at just how light she actually was. “I don’t know if she could walk it, but I know that she really shouldn’t walk it, it will just open up what bits of her wound that might already be closing, and we don’t want her to lose anymore blood then she already has, there is no way I could pull of a transfusion out here.”  He held Tico close and gave her a reassuring smile, “Come on Tico, lets go get you fixed up”

Tico Blushed and nodded mumbling out a very quiet “Thank you.”  As she hesitantly wrapped her arms around his neck to keep herself more stable.

  He turned to Luna “Follow me, it’s really not far at all, maybe five or six hundred yards.”

They covered the distance between the Ursine camp and the tall tree where he had dropped his pack quickly, maybe not as quickly as he had the first time, being as he was somewhat more encumbered, but it still couldn’t have taken more then tenor fifteen minutes.  Once they reached his pack, Luna set the water skins down, and Freak laid Tico down gently next to them, Luna knelt on ground next to her and placed her head in her lap stroking her head reassuringly.  

Freak then grabbed up his pack and brought it over, and began pulling items out of it.  He started with his camp stove and mess kit.  He cleared out a small section of level ground and set up the tiny folding metal stove, then took out one of the solid fuel blocks placing it in the middle, he lit it with a match from a box of matches that he kept stored with the stove.  Once the stove was lit properly, he took the lid of his mess kit and put it to the side and then uncollapsed the central pot that doubled as a container for the rest of the kit he placed it over the fire on the stove, and then filled it with waster from the skin.  

While he waited for the water to boil, he removed a medium size canvas tarp and a heavy wool blanket from the roll he carried at the bottom of the pack, also in the roll were a couple of pieces of rope and a few metal stakes.  He tied the end of two of the thin pieces of rope to the trunk of the tall tree he had climbed earlier that day, he then pulled the ropes tight several feet apart from each other and hammered two of the metal stakes into the ground.  He then took the tarp and draped it over the ropes securing at the top with another piece of rope run through several eyelets making a quick lean to shelter which he placed the blanket under motioning for Luna to move Tico under it.  

By that point the water had started to boil and he poured some of it into the metal cup from his mess kit that he had set aside earlier, which he set next to the girls leaving it for a bit so that it could cool enough to not scald the wound and possibly make it worse than it already was, he toped the pot off again from the water skin as to boil as much of the water they had brought from the stream ass possible.  Once this was all taken care of he removed another smaller packet from and exterior pocket of his pack and then moved over to join the girls under the lean to. 

Luna had watched him go about his business silently but with interest, “You’re pretty good at this.”  Sh commented as he began to open up the packet which contained his limited but not unsubstantial medical supplies.

“The old woman that took me in, the on I mentioned earlier, she made sure I was trained to handle a lot of different situations, mostly by just taking me with her as she roamed about.  I never was really sure if she was looking for something or just couldn’t stay settled down, and she certainly never told me.”  He replied without looking up from his task.

He began by removing the improvised Bandage from the Tico’s injury, encouraged by the lack of a substantial amount of fresh blood, which reinforced his earlier assessment that the wounds while nasty looking weren’t in fact that deep, in fact he was pretty much certain that they wouldn’t require any stitching.  He handed the bandages to Luna, Here hold on to these for me, we can still use them here in a bit, while I do have some sterile bandages it is only enough to cover the wound, we can use those again to hold them in place and put pressure on it.”  He then took the cup of boiled water that had cooled to the point where he could dip his finger in it with only moderate discomfort.  He locked eyes with Tico then, “Okay now Tico, I am going to need you to be a brave girl, this is going to hurt, but we need to make sure we get the cuts as clean as possible, otherwise infection might set in, and that would be very bad.”

Tico gave him a cross look that surprised him a bit, until she said, “Why do you keep talking to me like I am a little kid?  I am at least as old as you are!”

Freak was taken aback for a moment hesitating with the cup of water suspended over the girls midsection. “Say what now?”

“I’m nineteen!” 

“Oh wow, yeah you’re actually a little older then me, sorry, like I said I haven’t meet many Fenies before.  I forgot that they tend to be smaller even as adults.  Please Forgive me.”

Tico gave a satisfied nod, “Good just as long as you remember that.”

“Well then, Tico, this is going to hurt like a bitch so you might want to bite down on something.” He looked over at Luna, “You might want to hold her shoulders.”

Tico gave him an apprehensive look as she took the stick that Luna offered her, “I take it back, I think I liked it better when you treated me like a kid.”

Freak couldn’t help but smile a little at her joke.  But he quickly got serious again, as he refocused on the task at hand, he carefully took the cup of very hot water, and began to pour it into the cat girls wounds.  Her body stiffened in pain, and despite her obviously being a trooper about it Luna still had to put some effort into forcing her to remain on the ground.  He thoroughly rinsed each of the three long gashes with the hot water, sopping it up with a spare shirt from his pack, then once the cup was empty he quickly went and refilled it from the pot of once again boiling water, to this cup he added a few medicinal herbs from his med kit, that were good for fighting infection and promoting healing.  While he let the dried herb seep into the water as it cooled down he went ahead and toped the pot off emptying one water skin and using part of the next. 

He took the cup back into the tent with him, and left it to cool down a bit more, as he prepped some bandage material that he had boiled to sterilize before putting it into his med kit.  Finally with those prepped and the herb infused water cool enough, he once again thoroughly rinsed the wounds, then placing the damp herbs from the bottom of the cup onto the prepped bandages to act as a poultice, he placed them onto the wounds.  

“Well Tico, that should be the worst of it.”  He said as he took the remains of Luna’s shirt and used them to begin binding the poultice firmly in place.  “We will let this poultice set over night and then check on your progress in the morning, and if everything looks all right, then we shouldn’t have to do this a second time.”

Tico nodded wearily, beads of sweat glinting on her face from the strain of the treatment.  “Oh, I really hope we don’t have to do that again.  Once was more than enough.”  She laid back down onto the mat and closed her eyes in relief, as the pain of her wounds began to lessen, as some of the herbs in the poultice also worked for mild pain relief.  

Luna looked to Freak, “Thank you so much for all your help, if you hadn’t been here,”  she choked up a bit as she lost the words to express just how dire their situation had been.  “I just don’t know how we could ever repay you, you didn’t have to save us, and you certainly didn’t have to treat Tico, but you did and I just don’t know how to thank you.”

Freak smiled at her reassuringly, “Don’t worry about it so much, I helped you because well, really I guess because I would want someone to do the same for me, and because if I hadn’t then I think it would have haunted me for a long time to come.”

He began to once again sorting through his pack, finding another spare shirt which he handed to Luna.  “Here you can use this, hell, you can probably just have it, your shirt is pretty much about done, for, and then Tico can have the other one once it’s been cleaned and dried out.”  He then put the med kit back into it’s pocket and slung it over his shoulder.  “You can get changed into it here in a minute, I’m about to go back to the stream and refill those water skins, and while I am there I am going to scrounge around the camp and see if I can find anything use full.”

Luna stirred as to get up with him.  “I should come with you then.  I might be able to help with something.”

Freak motioned for her to stay put.  “I really think someone should stay here and watch Tico, if anything because I don’t want her moving around much, she needs rest right now, and food as well, hopefully I can find something while I am out and about.”  He paused for a moment as something accrued to him.  “Actually, should I be on the look out for any of your stuff that they might have taken with you when you were captured?”

Luna’s face darkened “No, there isn’t anything you should be looking for.”  

Freak felt like this was getting into something that perhaps he shouldn’t pry into.  “Hey that’s fine, you don’t need to talk about it, but if you want to then hey that’s cool too, but we all have things we would just maybe prefer to leave behind us.’

Luna gave him a slight smile, “Thank you, and not right now.”  She looked at him appraisingly for a second, “Maybe later, but not right now.”

“Fair enough, I’m going to get going then, shouldn’t take me to long, if I can’t find much of use there, then I will head back pretty quick and then we can forage around this area for something, I will probably set a few snares on my way back, and we might get lucky and snag a rabbit or something.”  He moved from under the improvised shelter and started making his way back towards the stream, Luna smiled at him and gave a small wave, and Tico even opened her eyes and gave a brief wave and a smile of her own, before closing her eyes once again.  

Freak poured the contents of the boiling pot into the cup and set it aside, filling the pot once again with the rest of the water from the water skins, with just enough excess to wash the blood and gunk off of his hands.  Then he began to make his way quickly along the now familiar path back to the stream.  He set a slower pace this time, keeping an eye out for anything that might be useful.  His efforts were well rewarded as he managed to not only find a group of edible mushrooms under a wind fallen tree, but also a nice little patch of wild onions not to far from the Ursine encampment.  He gathered up as much of both as he could and stored it all in is his pack, thinking that at the worst they could make a soup.  He didn’t find much else before he finally reached the camp, beyond noting a few places that might be good for setting some snares, and also a couple of good places for gathering wood for a fire.  He wasn’t sure how long it would be before Tico would be okay to travel so he figured it would be best to prepare to be in the area for at least a couple of days.

With all this in mind he finally reached the remains of the Ursine camp.  In the hours that had passed the bodies of the large creatures had begun to enter the early stages of decomposition, making for a rather pungent and unpleasant atmosphere that made Freak want to hurry about his task so that he could get away from it as soon as possible.  In fact he figured if they were going to be in the area for a while then it would probably be best to find a new place from which to access the stream, as this area was going to be even more unpleasant by the next morning.  He quickly made his way from tent to tent rooting through each one as quickly yet thoroughly as possible for anything that might be of some use.  Being as the large creatures were not known for intelligence of hygiene, the pickings were slim, but the effort was not a complete waste.  He did manage to find two more decent size water skins that would significantly increase their water carrying capacity, as well as small relatively clean pot, which would also help to boil what they did find.  He also found hidden away in one of the tents a small back pack that had obviously belonged to yet another unfortunate traveler who had now perhaps been as lucky as his new companions.

This impression was reinforced when he found what the beasts had been using as there waste dump, the smell here was almost enough to make Freak loose consciousness, so he did not linger here, but he was unfortunately there long enough to see some of the contents of the pile, a mess of bones and skins, and half rotted flesh, placed quite conspicuously on top of the pile he saw what was most certainly a human femur.  He almost retched as he moved away quickly, finding himself glad that he had killed those things.  It wasn’t the first time he had killed to protect his life or another's, but this was one of the few times he found himself glad that he had.  

He took a moment to gather himself.  He considered giving up his search, thinking that perhaps he should be happy with what he had found, and just fill the water skins and get the hell out of this stinking cesspit.  But he figured it was best to be thorough if anything so that he wouldn’t ever have to return to this spot again.  His perseverance was rewarded and well, in one tent he found to small bags, that looked like they may have been looted from a small trade convoy, one contained a couple of pounds of rice, and the other contained an assortment of dried beans and peas in their own smaller individual sacks, a pound each of two different kinds of beans and about a pound and a half of the peas.  He was even more pleased to find a couple of pounds of fish drying on a rack just outside of the last tent.  Freak was almost giddy with this haul, this by itself was more then enough to get all three of them to the next settlement with probably even a good bit left over.  He stopped to consider for a moment, he found that he had already started thinking of himself, Tico and Luna as a group, there was no way of knowing if they would want to stick with him after Tico was healed up, and of course he had no intentions of forcing that on them.  But as he thought about the two he found himself hoping that they would travel with him if even for a little bit, he hadn’t realized how lonely he had been, and just how nice it was to have someone to care about other than himself.

He though on this as he made a quick pass through the last and largest of the tents.  It seems that this one had belonged to the leader because it seemed to have the most stuff.  Much of which was either broken or in such ill repair as to be almost useless, but he did find several of the silver coins that were frequently used for trade by the people of the waste, certainly enough to get the girls equipped with what they would need, with a good chunk left over, in some settlements Freak had visited over the years, this would have been enough to set them up well for a couple of years even, so a pretty nice reward.  That wasn’t even the best part, as tucked away in a bag he managed to find two fifty round boxes of 9mm ammo, which more than made up for what he had spent in the afternoons fire fight, as well as a pair of decent size belt knives, along with a couple of strips of leather which would make decent belts.  These would be great for the girls he though, they had next to nothing, and everyone should have a good knife. 

Finally feeling he had exhausted the possibilities of the camp, and feeling quite pleased with his exceptional haul, he quickly took the water skins to the stream and filled them up.  While he was doing so he took a few moments to strip his shirt off and washed some of the sweat and grime off, as it had been a stressful afternoon, and he really couldn’t remember the last time he had managed a proper bath.  Feeling somewhat refreshed, he put his shirt back on and took the now full water skins and began making his way quickly back to his own camp and his new companions, taking only a brief moment to stop and look towards the reeking waste pit and offer up his condolences and thanks, as he was well aware that his found plenty came at the expense of many peoples lives.  

Having paid his respects to those before him, he quickly made his way back towards the camp, stopping only briefly along the way to gather a arm load of fire wood along the way.  Weighted down with all his new found plenty he made his way back into the clearing where he had set up the shelter as the sun was beginning to hang low in the sky, they would have to work quickly to get the camp site set up a bit better, if they wanted to get everything done as well as dinner made before dark.  Then he actually caught sight of the camp and was surprised to see that it was going to take a lot less effort than he had first thought.

Luna had obviously not been content to watch over the injured Tico during his absence.  She had already gotten the camp site fairly well set up, she had cleared the area around the shelter of grass, stones and fallen branches, going so far as to stamp the loose dirt done, giving them a more or less level area around a stone fire ring where she had already set up a small fire just waiting to be lit.  He was also surprised to see that Tico was no longer resting in the shelter but was instead propped up against one of the large logs that had been dragged around the stone fire pit giving them some nice spots to set on.  At first he was wondering where Luna was, but then he saw here she was lying prone behind the log closest to him with his rifle that he had left behind pointing out over it.  Once she saw that it was him she stood up leaving the rifle lying on the long and gave him a wave, then surprising him even more Tico was quickly one her feet two giving him a more exaggerated wave of her own.  He noticed that they were both now wearing his spare shirts which were almost large enough on them to be dresses, this was for the best as it seemed the girls had taken this opportunity to clean up the rest of there cloths a little bit, and Luna’s pants and Tico’s shorts were both hanging to dry on the lines that were holding up the lean too.  

He hurried over to them. “It’s good to see you guys too.”  He said as he dropped his load of fire wood onto the pile that Luna had already gathered. “I see yo were busy while I was gone.”

Luna blushed slightly almost as she had been caught at something, “I hope you don’t mind, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to make the area more livable, especially as it was taking you a while, and I figured it would be much more difficult to do after dark.” 

“I do not mind in the least, I was actually a little worried that we wouldn’t be able to get everything set up and get supper cooked before it got dark.”

“So you had some luck finding food?”

“That and more, going back to the camp was a really good idea, I was able to get enough food to get us through for several days, but we can talk about that more while we eat.  More importantly,” He turned to look sternly at Tico. “I really don’t think you should be up and moving around so much.”

Tico gave him a mischievous smile, and obediently set back down against the log, “Oh don’t be such a worry wart, I’m fine we Fenies heal fast, and you did a really good job fixing me up.”

“Still I think you should at least rest for tonight, but I am glad you’re doing better, maybe we can get moving tomorrow morning then, but we can talk about that later lets get some food.”

“Yay!”  Tico gave a small cheer from where she sat making as to get up again to help out.

Luna just shook her head with a small smile, and gave Tico a gentle wrap on the head, “You heard the man, you just sit there and we will take care of things.”

“Meanie!” Tico exclaimed as she rubbed the imaginary injury on her head.  Freak couldn’t help but smile to himself as all this went on, finding himself enjoying the sense of camaraderie with these new companions.  He sat his pack down on the ground and began unpacking some of the new found supplies.

“I managed to get a fair bit of stuff, but a good bit of it’s dried so we will have to soak it for a while before it will be edible, but I did find a bunch of rice, and some wild mushrooms and onions, that with some of this dried fish that I also found should make for a pretty good meal.”

Luna was already beside him looking over what he had brought, “I’ll help, I can do the rice.”  Freak nodded his agreement, and they busied them selves preparing the food.  About twenty minutes later as the sun was just starting to go down they were all seated around the fire with generous bowls of rice topped with grilled fish and wild vegetables and digging in with a gusto.  Freak only then realized that he had barely eaten anything all day, and who knows when the girls had last ate.  So between the three of them they polished off the generous portions of food with little conversation, other than the occasional guttural sound of pleasure.  

Finally once they had finished eating they sat around the fire as the late evening finally transitioned into full night.  Freak had put on a pot with some of his limited amount of coffee stores, and finally broached a subject he was somewhat hesitant to touch, but figured it would have to be done and he might as well get it out of the way.  “Well” he began hesitantly, “Now that we got that out of the way, I guess we need to discuss a few things.  But first I wanted to show you guy’s something else I found at the camp.”  He fished around in his bag pulling out the two knives and the strips of tanned leather, “I got these for you, it’s not much but at least you won’t be totally defenseless.”  The girls took them with a somber air as if they had some inkling as to where the conversation may be going now. Freak continued, “And well, I guess we need to talk about where we go from here, I guess in the back of my head I have been just assuming that you would come with me at least as far as the next settlement, but I really don’t feel like I should be making that decision for you.  But I did want you to know that I would be more than happy to take you that far and honestly I would be happy for the company.”

Tico’s face brightened, “Hooray!  I was afraid you were going to be all like ‘we have to go our separate ways, I can’t have dead weight holding me back’” She said in a comically gruff voice that was clearly supposed to be an imitation of him. 

“Stop that we are trying to be serious here.”  Luna half heartedly admonished her, “Thank you Freak, you really have been most kind to us, and helped us far more than I ever could have hoped, we would both to be happy to travel with you until the next settlement.”

“Next settlement hell, I would be willing to travel with you forever!”

“Tico! What are you saying!”

“What sis, he’s obviously a keeper, unless the name Freak is because he has a stinger where his dick should be.”  She narrowed her eyes looking at at Freak. “You don’t have a stinger where your dick should be do you?”

Freak flushed a little at her forwardness, but also couldn’t help but laugh at the girls antics. “No, no stingers everything is pretty much normal down there.”

“Prove it!”  She challenged him with yet another mischievous grin.

“Tico! That’s enough!”  Luna scolded her younger friend, “I think it’s time for you to go get some rest, your injuries aren’t healed yet, and you better be careful are you will be dead weight and we will just have to leave you behind.”  The last was delivered with out any fire, as everyone present knew it wasn’t true.  Tico responded by just sticking her tongue out in defiance before quickly moving under the lean too just ahead of the clump of dirt Luna hurled her way.  Now alone Luna turned back towards Freak.  “Sorry about her, it’s just been a pretty hard time for her lately, and I think she is just relived at just how much our fortunes have improved in such a short amount of time.”  She hesitated for a moment, “And I have to say I am to, just a few hours ago things just seemed so bad, and I didn’t know what was going to happen to us, I just knew it wasn’t going to be good..”  She trailed off fighting back tears.

Freak wasn’t really sure what he should do in this situation, he sat there awkwardly for a minute before finally, “I’m glad your happy, and that I was able to help, and honestly I’m happy too, I’ve been on my own for so long that it really is kind of nice to have some company.”  He tried to smile reassuringly.

Luna wiped away her few tears smiling radiantly at him, that smile alone was enough to make Freak feel like his effort and risking his life had all been completely worth it.  “Well, look at me just trying to fall apart like that, I guess I am more tired than I thought, I guess Tico isn’t the only one who needs to recover.”  She stood up, smoothing the material of his spare shirt down, but not before Freak caught a tantalizing glimpse of her upper thighs.  “I think I will go ahead and turn in now.”  She went to join Tico under the improvised shelter.

Freak found himself sitting alone with his thoughts staring into the fire.  It had been a pretty wild day, and he would never have expected for it to end like this with him well feed and enjoying this new companionship.  Not to mention the companionship of such interesting and attractive girls the eighteen year old in him couldn’t help but add.  He blushed to himself as his hormone rich thoughts took some rather risque turns.  He heard rustling from inside the shelter, and Luna poked her head out, “Are you coming?  It’s been a pretty crazy day, and tomorrow will probably be a long one, I’m sure that you could use some rest yourself.”

Freak thoughts stumbled over themselves, “I..I..Was just going to sleep out here by the fire, it’s a nice night and it would be kind of crowded with all of us under there.”  He finally managed to reply.

“Nonsense, there’s still plenty of room, and I don’t want to kick you out of your own shelter.”

Freak sighed to himself, looks like he wasn’t getting out of this easy, “Okay, I’ll be there in a minute.”  Luna nodded at him and then went back inside to lay down.  Freak sat there for a bit longer trying to get his ragging thoughts, and hormones, under control.  He quietly sipped his coffee until it was finely finished and he was finally able to stand up with out any difficulty.  He then went about tamping down the fire, until it was just low glowing embers providing just enough light to maneuver his way into the shelter.  Before he went in he striped off his shirt and gun belt setting them just inside the tent, keeping the pistol with him of course.  And as his eyes slowly adjusted to the dim light he saw that the only space for him was in between the two girls.  So he laid down on his back carefully placing his pistol done just above his head in easy reach in case something happened and settled in to try and get some sleep.

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He almost started when he suddenly felt a slight pressure against his left side, he looked to see that Luna had moved over closer to him, and was now resting against his arm. “The bear guys, when they captured us were in a caravan, they killed everyone else but us.”  Freak said nothing sensing that he should just let her talk.  “But that’s not actually something that bothers me.., it was a slave caravan, me and Tico we were being taken to a big market somewhere back east.  We were going to be sold there, we were going to be sex slaves.  We both grew up in the same village, her parent’s and mine they got along pretty well so we did kind of grow up as sisters, but then one day these raiders came through, they captured us and killed a lot of people, including our parents.”  He could hear the tears in her voice and he reached down and grabbed her hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.  “What..what I’m trying to say is, that you didn’t just save us from those beasts, you saved us from the misery that our lives had become, and that we don’t have anywhere to go or anything to go back too, so what Tico said, she was joking, but it’s true, we would like to stay with you, to the settlement, or as long as you are willing to have us with you, and if you want we can..”

Freak stopped her, sensing that while he might not mind where she was going with this, it would be best for all of them if he didn’t let her finish.  “I can’t tell you how much I would love that, I’ve always wanted to have friends, and I don’t know how far or how long I’m going to travel, I never had a goal, a place I was trying to get to, it’s just all I have ever known, but I do know that the idea of having friends with me whatever winds up happening, well that’s just like a dream come true, a dream that I never even knew I had.”

“Friends huh.”  Luna muttered sleepily “We really did luck out when you came in to rescue us, we really did..”  She trailed off as the physical and emotional exhaustion of the day and who knows how many days prior to that finally caught up to her.  Freak laid there for a time thinking to himself about just how much had changed over the course of this single day, and just what the future might hold for him now, until finally his own exhaustion caught up with him and he drifted into a deep comfortable sleep, unlike any he had experienced in many years.

Freak opened his eyes blearily the next day as the first warm glow of the sun was felt seeping in under the flaps of the improvised shelter.  He momentarily berated himself for sleeping in so late, and for sleeping so deeply.  The events of the last day must have taken more out of him then he had expected.  He went to stretch only to find his movements hampered by an unexpected weight resting against him.  He looked down to find Tico curled up like and extremely large cat practically on top of his chest. He couldn’t help but smile a little bit, before being momentarily panic when he realized Luna was no where to be seen, but then he herd a light humming coming from the direction of their campfire last night followed by the pleasant smell of cooking food, which pretty much told him where the other girl was.

He reached down with his arm that wasn’t pinned under the sleeping cat girl and gave her a slight nudge, “Time to wake Tico, or we might miss breakfast.”  He said gently.  This didn’t seem to work, so he decided to be a bit more forceful.  “Move your ass you lazy cat!”  

Tico’s eyes opened almost immediately, and she gave him her usual mischievous smile, “That’s a little more like it, one of these days you’re going to stop treating me like a little kid.”  As she said this she pushed herself up off his chest, in a way that made him almost uncomfortably aware off her sex.  Instead of completing the motion and getting off of him she stayed in this position for a moment looking at him with an uncharacteristically serious demeanor.  “I heard what Luna told you last night” she began.  “Thanks for listening to her, I know she seems all mature and put together, but that’s just because she’s the real serious type you know?  But that also means that she can be the type to break and break bad, and she was getting real close to doing that, especially after I got hurt.”  She paused for a minute thinking, “I’m not serious about stuff all that much, it’s part of what gets me through shit like that, but I just wanted to say thanks for being there for her, and what she said that goes double for me..” She paused again then the mischievous grin came back to her face, and she reached down and flicked his nose, “About everything she said, and maybe some things she didn’t.”  She laughed at Freaks flustered expression and then bounded up and out of the shelter before he even had the chance to say anything.  He sat there for a while longer, to both try and process what had just happened and also to let certain uncontrollable responses run their course for a bit.  Finally once he could finally get up with out embarrassment he moved out from under the shelter stretching as he did so, then went to join the girls by the fire.  

He found Luna dishing out a generous portion of beans, mushrooms, onions and mysteriously eggs to Tico, and as she finished she began doing the same for him, and he couldn’t help but ask, “Where did you get eggs?”

“Oh I forgot to mention, yesterday while you were gone and I was looking for fire wood, I found a nest I tried them this morning and they seemed edible enough so now, we should have enough for a couple of more meals.”

Freak couldn’t help but show how impressed he was, and with a grin, “Well at least one of the new mouths to feed is capable of looking out for her self.”

Tico quickly swallowed a mouth full of food in indignation, almost choking before she could finally chime in at his subtle dig, “Hey, you were the one telling me to rest and take it easy and shit, just you wait, once I’m back up and running this weird little family ain’t never going to want for meat on the table again,”  she paused and then added with a smile looking down at the bowl balanced on her knees, “Or on the lap as the case may be.”

Luna almost dropped her own bowl as her eyes went wide and slightly misty.  “She called us a family.  Is that what we are?”

Freak thought about it him self for a minute, “I guess we could be.  Why not?’

Luna and Tico both smiled at this, the later even gave a small little fist pump of victory.  They finished their morning meal quickly, and then set about cleaning up.  Once this was done they gathered around the newly extinguished campfire and began discussing their plans going forward. 

Freak started off the discussion, “I was originally thinking that we would have to stay here at least another day possibly more so that Tico could more fully recover, but seeing as she seems to be doing just fine, I think we should go ahead and move camp today.”

“So are we going to be heading towards the settlement?”  Luna asked.

Freak thought about it for a minute, “Well in the general direction, but I’m pretty sure it’s still several days away, and I really think we should still take it easy for today at least.”

“Hey don’t go and be treating me like dead weight again.”  Came fro an indigent Tico.

“I’m not treating you as dead weight, I’m treating you as a valuable companion who was injured, who I don’t want to push needlessly until I’m sure she is better.”

“I guess that’s okay, for now.”

Freak decided not to try and get into that last part instead continuing with his previous thought.  “So what I was thinking, is that the camp by the stream is turning into a pretty terrible place to be, so we need to find a different place to find water anyway, so I think we should head in the direction of the settlement until we intersect with the stream again, and then find another good place to camp.  When I observed the area yesterday, it looked like there would be some good spots maybe two or three miles in the direction we need to go, in fact that’s kind of where I was going to head to before I herd you guy’s screaming and well everything changed.”

Luna nodded her head in agreement.  “That sounds like as good an idea, if we camp close enough to the stream we should be able to boil enough water to fill up all the water skins we have and maybe even take a bath.”

“Oh, a bath sounds great, I don’t remember the last time I was able to get really clean!”  Tico chimed in.  “I bet we could all really use one of those, in fact I know we can, it was a little ripe under that shelter last night.”

Luna’s face flushed a little in embarrassment as she nodded in agreement with this statement as well.  Freak took a subtle sniff at his own body, thinking that he also couldn’t remember the last time he had taken a good bath.  “All right sounds like we have a plan, so lets get everything packed up and get moving.”  

They made fairly short work of packing up the camp site, as they still didn’t have much more than what Freak had been carrying on his own all this time.  Tico helped him take down the shelter as Luna busied her self cleaning up the mess kit, and packing away all their food items, they packed most of the load into Freaks pack still leaving the new ones he had found for the girls largely empty, as they had decided that Luna would carry the packs while Freak would be carrying Tico, who Freak and Luna still didn’t want to exert herself too much, despite her instance that she was perfectly fine now.

Once everything was packed up and their presence there had been largely covered up, it was usually best to try and cover your tracks as much as possible when traveling in the wastes, Luna hoisted Freak’s laden pack onto her shoulders, while Freak had Tico hop up on his back, and they set off in the direction of the settlement.  The mornings trip was fairly uneventful, they took a fairly slow pace and stopped about every thirty minutes or so to let every one rest a bit, since they were not planning on going far they all agreed it would be best to take it easy, so that they would be a little more well rested the next day when they planned to resume their journey with greater urgency.  So they continued like this for the better part of a couple of hours later, after they had covered about six miles or so, they finally found themselves next to the stream once again.  

This section of the stream featured a wide bend that went around a jutting outcrop of flat rock which made for a pretty good spot to camp, it was elevated enough to minimize things crawling out of the stream and into camp, and even featured a couple of good size trees that would be perfect for setting up their little shelter.  As they went about the process of doing just that, Freak found himself wondering if maybe he shouldn’t have tried to make off with one of the tents from the Ursine camp when he was looting it the day before.  But he dismissed that thought as he thought about how heavy and bulky the furs they were constructed from would be for him to carry, much less either of the girls, they might have been fine for the giant bear men, but he would just have to hope they would be able to purchase something more appropriate to the size of their group when they hit the next town.  

Once they had the shelter set up, they went through the process of making their campsite more livable, they set up a good fire ring, and laid in a stock of fire wood, and Freak even dragged over some good size logs that would serve as a place to sit being as they would be here working on one thing or another for a good portion of the day, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to be comfortable.  They managed to get this process all taken carte off well before midday and even had a time to set out some snares in the surrounding forest in the hopes of maybe augmenting their food supply with an unwary rabbit or two.  Finally Freak felt they were set up well enough, and looked over at the girls, “Well, looks like we got things set up well enough, guess now would be as good a time as any to wash off in the stream and get our cloths a little cleaner.”  He looked down as he reached into his pack to pull out a bar of soap he kept in there, then Tico let out a loud yell.  He looked up quickly in alarm only to catch a brief glimpse of Tico running to the stream shedding her cloths as she ran.  He looked away to catch Luna’s slightly flushed face, she simply looked back at him with a smile and a small shrug.  He handed her the soap “Well glad she’s happy, here’s some soap, I have another one I can use, but that’s it, so try not to loose it if you can.  I’m going to go bath on the other side of the bend so you can have some privacy, I’m going to leave the rifle here, but holler at me if there’s any kind of trouble.”  Luna just nodded as she began making her way towards Tico, the quickness of her pace perhaps indicating that she was almost as eager for this at this exuberant cat girl.

Freak made his way over to the other side of their camp just around the bend of the river, the outcropping that their camp set upon served as a decent enough divider so every one could have a bit of privacy, he took his spare pants and small cloths with him, figuring his spare undershirt would suffice until his cloths had a chance to dry.  He quickly striped down and got up to his news in the cold stream, lathering the soap in his hands he gratefully began to wash away the many days worth of grime, regretting only not having a chance for a hot bath.  He zoned out a little bit as he lathered up, dreaming of how glorious it would be to sit up to his neck in piping hot water, he sighed a little bit, maybe once they hit town.  

Satisfied that he was about as lathered up as he was going to get he set the bar of soap on his dirty cloths on the river bank then fully submerged himself to rinse off, he repeated this process several times to both get all the soap off, and to hopefully drown any creepy crawlies that might have been trying to take up residence in his hair.  Feeling refreshed, he began working on cleaning his cloths lathering up with the soap then trying to work it in to the fabric of his cloths as best as possible, he was just finishing this up, when he heard a scream break the silence of the afternoon, he quickly dropped everything on the side of the bank.  Grabbing his Glock from where it had been setting just off to the side he quickly raced through the camp over to where the girls had been bathing.  

He found Tico standing there laughing at a sheepish looking Luna who had jumped on top of a large rock lying on the river bank.  “What happened?  Are you all right?”  

Luna called out, “We’re okay!  Sorry, there was a snake, and well I kind of panicked.”  She looked over at Freak, and then looked down at herself, only then did Freak himself notice that they were all still completely naked, He got a brief glimpse of her bare backside as she grabbed her cloths and dived behind the rock she had been standing on.  

Tico on the other hand struck a brief pose putting one foot forward and jutting out her chest, drawing Freaks eyes inevitably to her modest breasts, he briefly marveled at the her dark nipples as they jutted out, before he realized he was staring and quickly moved his gaze back up to lock on her eyes.  She smirked back at him then ran her eyes up and down right quick, “Well now you’re definitely not treating me like a little kid.”  She said with a laugh as she then slowly sauntered over to where Luna was with her cloths.  It was only then that Freak finally realized that he had been standing there as naked as the day he was born the entire time, and that his anatomy had responded as it normally would to such visual stimuli.  He sheepishly turned around and quickly ran back over to the other side of the camp, where he dressed hurriedly, and then gathered up the cloths that he had dropped and finished rinsing them off right quick before draping them across a couple of flat stones tor dry before finally making his way back over to were the girls were, figuring he had given them enough time to get dressed themselves.  

He found them thankfully dressed, setting out their own cloths to dry, what they could anyway being as they didn’t have a lot in the way of spare clothing, fortunately The spare shirts of Freaks that they were wearing had been relatively fresh when they put them on the day before and didn’t really need to be clean, and fortunately the shirts were big enough to almost act as dresses on them, because that was pretty much what they were wearing.  

“Sorry about that, I just heard the scream, and though you were in trouble.”

Luna looked at him face still slightly flushed, and smiled, “It’s okay, I was the one who might have overreacted, besides it is comforting to know you are there if we need you.”  She replied obviously trying to be diplomatic about things.

Tico of course had no inclination towards such things.  “You got a show, we got a show, I think we can call it even.  Unless of course we want to continue the shows?  Not like we have anything else going on today.”  She said the last with a laugh and exaggerated waggling of her eyebrows.

“Tico!”  The sting of Luna’s admonishment was taken away buy the slight stutter of laughter in her voice.  

Freak was a little thrown buy this conversation, but he had learned not to take Tico to seriously, although at times he wondered if the forward cat girl was really joking  quite as much as he tended to think.  “Um, I think we’re good for now, sorry again.  Anyway I guess we can take it easy for a little while, maybe grab a quick bite to eat, then I might try my hand at fishing for a while.”

Tico’s eyes lit up, “Ooh, fish! You certainly know your way into a girls heart.”

They all had a laugh at this, as they went about preparing a midday meal.  The rest of the evening passed by rather peacefully, Freak fished for a while while Luna attempted to repair some of their original clothing, and Tico much like the cats she resembled settled in for a long nap.  As the day finally drew to a close they sat around a small fire eating freshly caught fish, they had also managed to snag a rabbit which was being slow cooked under the fire itself for breakfast the next morning.  They spent the rest of the evening talking trading tales from their younger days, focusing on the better times.  They told jokes, and Tico of course teased everyone mercilessly,  and then they finally turned in long after the moon had come out still laughing a little, almost as if they had been together for far longer then a day or so, and as if the craziness of the day before had never happened.  As Freak once again settled into sleep between the two girls, he found himself wishing that the days like this could go on forever, knowing in his heart this could not be the case.  The coming day would prove to be more right than he could have imagined.  

It was still almost dark outside when Tico woke him up the next morning, and Luna was still sleeping soundly on the other side of him.  There was none of the teasing playfulness of the previous morning in her demeanor now.  Her face had a panicked look about it that automatically drove all of the pleasant fuzziness of a deep sleep behind him in an instant. “I heard something.”

He grabbed his pistol from it’s normal place by his head and quickly exited from under the shelter, keeping his body low and his ears open, he began examining their surroundings.  The area they had camped in was open enough to prevent anything from sneaking up too close with out being visible, and as he finished scanning the area he began to relax just a little, hoping that it had just been a false alarm, or she had just heard some large animal that had passed them by on the way to get water.  

Then he heard, a loud bloodcurdling roar that reverberated across the forest.  Freak already feared that he knew where it came from and what it meant.  He looked in the direction they had traveled from the day before and he heard it again.  Now he was certain.  He quickly ran back to the shelter, finding that Tico had already woken up Luna as well and they both sat there, Tico with her knife out and ready, and Luna holding his rifle in a white knuckled death. He nodded approvingly, then broke the bad news to them.  “It’s more Ursines, there must have been a part of the group that wasn’t in the camp the other day.”

Tico gave a small hiss as the hair on the back of her head and tail spiked up in alarm, and Luna, face pale but resolute, simply asked, “Do you think they are coming for us?”

Freak nodded, “From the direction their roars were coming in, it sounded like they are already on the way from their camp to the camp we had last night, they don’t seem to be moving to quickly, I hope, so we should still have a pretty good lead.  But we need to break camp as quickly as possible, I’m almost certain they will be coming for us.”  

The girls didn’t hesitate as they quickly began gathering up supplies and packing them away, they ate a quick breakfast of leftovers from the previous nights meal.  While the girls packed up the remaining water skins and the shelter Freak went about trying to cover their trail as best he could.  He scattered the ashes from the fire around the campsite, to try and through off scent and tried to brush away whatever evidence of their presence he could find.  In a matter of minutes they had everything packed up and ready to go, Luna made to hand him back the rifle she had been holding on to as they went about their frantic scramble.

Freak shock his head pushing the rifle back into her chest, “No you hold on to that, I would feel a bit better if more of us were armed then just me, you look like you know how to use it so hold onto it.”  He then had another thought and he reached down and unstrapped the holster that held the Springfield 911 from his ankle and handed it to Tico.  “It’s not much but why don’t you hold onto this.”

Tico took it from him, the small pistol not looking quite as small in her diminutive hands.  “Never was great with a gun, but I guess something this small you just wait for them to get really close to ya, sure sounds good.”  She used the straps from the ankle holster to hang the pistol from her belt, as there was no way it would fit around her ankle securely.  

Freak made a quick check of the area, making sure there wasn’t anything else they could do to through off the potential pursuers.  Then he remembered something he had learned from the old woman years back.  “Okay lets go, we are going to start off by crossing to the other side of the stream.  But instead of going straight across we are going to follow it for a while, hopefully that will through them off our trail.”

The girls both nodded in understanding, and then they set off.  He led them into the middle of the stream, which thankfully did not go more than waist high in most places, and they went like that for about ten minutes or so.  But this was slow going that ten minutes only moving them a couple of hundred yards from their campsite, Freak could even see it still just beyond another bend in the stream, for just a second he looked back at it with a since of loss in his heart, as it had been the only place where he had made any  happy memories in many years, it seemed such a sad thing to be leaving it like this.  He quickly dispelled those thoughts and led the girls into the shallow area on the other side of the stream.  Now that the water was more ankle deep at best they made much better time, covering another four or five hundred yards in the next five minutes.  He could still here the occasional roar from their pursuers, but they grew more distant, which probably meant the beasts were still tracking them to the original camp.  Hoping this meant they had enough of a lead to through off their pursuers he finally led the girls on to the far bank, the most recent bend in the stream meant this had them facing in just the right direction to begin a mad dash to the next town, where hopefully they might be able to find some help, if they weren’t able to shake off the pursuit.  The small party took a quick five minute break to let some of the water drip off, and to get their breath back after the long slog through the water.  After instructing the girls to take a quick drink and doing so himself they then set off at quick but steady pace.  He knew better then to start running this early in the game, as right now saving energy was more important then speed.  

They kept this pace up for the next several hours, before finally arriving at the base of yet another tall hill. The sounds of their pursers had grown faint, which could mean they had lost them, but Freak knew better then to count on that, more then likely the forest was just making it harder to hear.  So after a quick break to eat some nuts and berries they had stumbled on at their rest spot, and another drink of water, they made their way quickly up the hill, it stretched out to far in either direction for Freak to want to go around it, and there was also the hope that they might be able to get a look at their back trail from the top, giving them a better idea of how good their lead was.  Hopefully his efforts when they were leaving the campsite were at least enough to slow the beasts down Freak silently hoped to himself.    

 After taking their quick break they finally made their way to the top of the tall, and relatively steep hill.  By the time they reached the top it was well past mid-day.  Freak quickly dropped his pack and leaving the girls on lookout he quickly climbed up a fairly tall tree, hoping to catch sight of any pursuit that might still be on them, and he also wanted to get their bearings in relation to the edge of the forest and hopefully the next town that should be just beyond.  He was able to quickly ascertain that they were still heading in the right direction, in fact with the fast pace they had been keeping that morning, it looked like they would be out of the forest some time in the next day or so.  Having accomplished that he turned to look back the way that hey had come hoping to catch sight of the beasts that had been hounding them.  After several minutes of looking he was able to identify both the hill they had camped on the first night as well as their camp from the previous night by the stream, he was unable to see any signs of activity at either site, which had him momentarily hopeful that they had shaken the beasts off, or that they had just given up.  But then much to his dismay he was able to identify several fleeting figures moving through the wood line probably four or five miles from their current location.  As if to confirm his fears a furious roar came fro the same direction.  He quickly made his way back down the tree, finding the girls waiting for him with apprehensive faces, as they had heard the sound as well and had a pretty good idea what it meant.  

“They’re still following us,”  He reported confirming their fears, “We still have a good four or five mile lead on them, and with any luck they could possibly loose our trail.”  He continued knowing this was unlikely but trying to keep every ones spirits up, including his own.  

“So what next?” Luna asked.

“We are getting a lot closer to the edge of the woods, and according to the map I have there should be a village or town just on the other side of it close to the stream we keep running into.  It doubles back again a ways further in, and there is a little valley on the other side of it that should be a good place to camp for the evening if we can get there before dark.”

“All right then, lets get going and try and put as much distance between us and those smelly monsters as possible.”  Tico chimed in. 

Freak nodded his agreement, “If we follow the summit of this hill a little ways down, there is a nice gradual slope that we can use to get down at a pretty good speed.”  He picked his pack up as he was saying this and the girls quickly followed suit, and moments later they were back on the move.  

They quickly made their way to the gentle decent that Freak had noticed earlier, and after some mild words of caution, they began making their way down, using gravity to help propel them to greater speed.  The ground was rocky, but not loose, thus providing smooth ground to run on and hopefully less possibility of leaving a trail.  They made their decent with out incident and quite quickly, and they used the momentum to carry them across a flat open field that provided a break in the dense forest.  Once on the other side they slowed their pace again, as the dense trees made going to fast impossible.  Then after another several hours of this they reached a small tributary of the larger stream running through the forest.  Freak called a quick break here, and they took the opportunity to wash some of the sweat from their brows and even managed to cool off a bit.  During all this time, they heard no more of tell tale roars that helped them keep track of their pursuit.  Not wanting to misinterpret this as a positive sign, Freak got the party moving again not ten minutes after stopping, although after the grueling pace they had been keeping they all could have used more time.

He led them down the middle of the shallow stream for several hundred yards, hoping this would help hide their trail.  Then once they came to another wide open area, of rocky ground, he once again picked up their pace moving at a near run for the almost half mile or so until they reached the other side of the clearing.  He called another break here, just a short one, for water and to take a minute to observe their back trail, they were on enough of a rise to see for a good ways behind them, which turned up no sign of pursuit.  This at least meant they were holding onto the lead and perhaps even gaining some ground.  Taking heart from this the party resumed moving, taking a slower pace now, to conserve what energy they still had left.  After an hour or so of this the sun began hanging low in the sky, and as the sun sank lower so did the general energy levels of the party.  The pace they had been keeping through most of the day had kept them moving in silence for the most part, but still Freak could tell from the way they were carrying themselves, that the girls were getting to be almost as tired as he was.  Luna was perhaps the worst off, Freak had a suspicion that she had taken on more of the load than she perhaps should of to spare the still recovering Tico, who was surprisingly the one with the most energy still in the tank, she at least still had the energy left to grumble the occasional curse at the forest, the Ursines, the uneven ground.  It might have been annoying in other circumstances, but now it just was nice to have the occasional break in the tension.  

Finally as the sinking sun began to give way to night, they found themselves crossing the main branch of the stream yet again, and once again they moved through the water for a good ways before coming back up onto the bank, although only a few hundred feet or so, as it was to dark and they were far too tired to go very far.  Then they found the small valley that Freak had noticed fro up high earlier in the day, and wearily they dropped their packs and slid to the ground.  They stayed like this for a while grateful for the chance to rest their tired bodies.  Eventually they went about setting up their camp, which was a far simpler affair, as they decided it was to risky to set up the shelter as they might have to leave in a hurry deciding it would be best to simply huddle together under the ground cloth they had been using.  They also decided a fire no matter how small would be to risky, even just to prepare a meal, so they settled for some dried fish and fruit, along with some nuts and berries they were able to scrounge up from their surroundings.  Finally they collapsed together, and Freak having decided it would be best to keep some one awake through the night took the first shift as the girls quickly succumbed to sleep next to him.   He eventually woke up Tico to take the next shift, and then finally got some sleep himself.

He was woken in the early morning hours well before dawn by yet another loud roar, followed by another, then another.  He was instantly awake, Tico who had never woken Luna to relief her was awake as well, already on her feet facing in the direction of the sounds.  

“Their close.”  Freak muttered.

“Way to fucking close.”  Tico responded. “I’m going to climb up that tree right there, might be able to catch sight of them.”  She wasted no more time as she sprang up the tree, climbing it far faster then Freak ever could.  He made a mental note to let Tico take over reconnaissance duty if they happened to survive all this.  He gently nudged Luna awake cautioning her to keep quiet.  He quickly caught her up on what was going on, and she simply nodded, and then helped Freak break down what little bit of a camp they had set up the night before, she also put together a quick meal out of what little they still had that didn’t need to be cooked, handing him his portion, and then handing Tico hers as she reemerged from the tree tops.  

She gave her report in between quick bites, “I saw them, there’s four or five of them, they are just on this side of the stream, maybe a quarter mile away.”

“Shit.”  This was the only response Freak had in the moment, “That’s way to damn close, they must have been tracking us through the night, damn those fuckers are persistent.”

“Yeah you would think we killed their leader and all their buddies or something.”  Tico added flippantly.

“Do we run then?”  Luna asked keeping them on subject, “Can we run?”

Freak though on this for just a second, “Running isn’t doing us any good.  If we run now they’ll just catch us when we are even more tired, and at least this way we have a chance to pick our battle ground.”

“So we fight then?” Luna said her face calm and resolute.

“Hell yeah let’s take those bastards down, then I can actually get some sleep!”

Freak was glad that his new found companions were such strong and capable sorts, with out them he might have found himself giving in to despair by this point.  “All right, so here’s what we are going to do, Luna you are going to take the rifle and go up to the top of the rise just over there,”  He pointed off to the left side of the valley they were in, “And Tico you are going to go up into the wood line just a bit over on that side,”  he pointed off to the right.

“Okay I get it you’re setting up converging fields of fire, but how are you going to make sure they take the bait?’  Luna responded her agile mind quickly picking up on Freak’s hastily concocted plan.

“Easy I am going to start a fire right here, and wait for them.”

“So you get to be the bait? I’m not sure how I like that.”  Tico furrowed her brow in displeasure as she began to pick up on it as well.

“With the Glock, I have the best volume of fire, which gives me a better chance going toe to toe with those things, and this can give Luna the space for precise shots, and I figured with as agile and stealthy as you are, you can probably harass them from the rear.”  Freak explained, feeling it was important to get every one equally on board.  “Believe me, this isn’t some grand heroic offering up my live to save you kind of thing, not that I wouldn’t do it if I though it was necessary, you both have come to mean a great deal to me in a short time, and I find myself not wanting to lose that, not yet anyway.”  He paused as his words sank in, realizing that he truly meant all of it, “This a calculated risk, but if we work together and keep our heads we can all come out of this alive, no one dies here today.”

“Except for those horrible bastards chasing us anyway.”  Tico quipped, “All right, I guess it’s as good a plan as any, but you better not fucking die, or I’m going to murder you.”  She added as she darted in surprising Freak with a quick hug before bounding off to her position.

“What I think she is trying to say is that you have also come to be very important to us as well, and we don’t want to lose you either.”  Luna said quietly as she went in for a hug of her own, which she followed with a quick peck on his cheek as she also broke away and began moving towards her own position, “Be careful.”  She whispered as she went, quickly disappearing into the trees.

Freak stood there shocked for a moment, finding it almost unreal that in the matter of just a few short days he had gone form being so utterly alone, to having two stalwart companions who he would do anything not lose.  He quickly put these thoughts to the side, figuring that he could deal with all of that when and if they all survived this.  He waited until he received signals from Tico then finally Luna that they were in position, then he through several of his fire lighters into a pile of loose brush and kindling that he had quickly assembled while waiting.  Then with three quick strikes of his knife against flint, he had a raging fire going almost instantly.  He took position behind a large fallen tree just ahead of the fire, figuring that in the low light of the predawn hours the fire behind him would help make him a bit less visible to their attackers, he hoped anyway.  Now all he could do was wait and hope they took the bait.  

He didn’t have to wait long, just five minutes after he had started the fire behind him, the roars and bellows of the Ursines grew louder and more frequent, and began to get increasingly closer to his position.  He could tell from the cacophony of the snapping and rustling branches that they were now headed directly for his position at great speed now.  While this is exactly what he wanted, as far as his plan went anyway, it didn’t stop the butterflies in his stomach from starting up a complex and rigorous series of gymnastics.  In the few moments of peace he had left he though to himself, good thing I haven’t eaten a whole hell of lot in the last day or so, other wise I would be puking my guts out.  Not long after this though passed through his head the bastards that had been hounding them for the lats day or so finally made their appearance, they came rushing into his field of view, heedless of their surroundings, running through bushes, and he even saw one run into a tree nearly uprooting it.  

The leader of this band began to slow as it caught site of the fire raging at Freak’s back, and Freak was almost shocked when instead of barreling towards him it began to sniff towards each side.  “So that’s how you’ve been tracking us, didn’t realize you ugly son’s of bitches were part fing blood hound!”  He yelled at them trying to draw their attention on him as it seemed they had caught the scent of his companions in the trees to either side.  He reinforced this by aiming at the beast in the lead and firring of a rapid double tap, at this range and it this kind of light he didn’t expect a solid hit, but when the two rounds went into the beasts shoulder rocking it back, his desired effect was achieved.  The other four creatures that had been following the one he just winged broke ranks and barreled past their wounded leader making a bee line towards his position.  Freak fired another five rounds quickly in the direction of the charging group, not really going for solid hits, more just trying to keep them enraged and off balanced, and hopefully chipping away at them.  Although he had to admit to himself that this engagement was not likely to last long enough for blood loss to take out any off these hulking beasts, especially as they seemed to have quite a lot of it.

As the creatures moved with in fifteen yards of his position he stood up, moving a few feet back fro his position, then took careful aim, and fired the last eight rounds out of his magazine, splitting them between the two creatures in the lead four and four.  The first one took the rounds all center of mass and went down, but didn’t look to be out, but the second string of shots caught the next creature higher up two high center mas one in the neck, and the last round luckily enough piercing the creature’s right eye, instantly penetrating it’s brain and it fell limply impeding the momentum of the other three creatures still charging forward.  

Almost in shock at how well things had worked out Freak almost forgot about the second part of the plan, but as the still mobile creatures began regaining their momentum, he quickly put phase two into action, he quickly ran away jumping over the fire behind him, he felt the flames licking at his legs an feet and he came down into a roll to make sure nothing had caught fire, then he was quickly back on his feet and threw himself into cover behind a rock out crop.  The creatures of course were not hindered by the fire in any way, as they barreled right through it heedless of the flames even though the fur on two of them was obviously smoldering.  But then the plan had never been for the fire to stop them, or really even slow them down.  Suddenly a shot range out behind him followed in short order by another, both rounds caught the creature closest to him in the head and it began to wobble slowly to the ground Freak having dumped his spent magazine and replaced it with a fresh twenty rounder from the pouch on his belt fired two more rounds into it finishing off.  Luna who now had clear shots on the creatures now silhouetted by the flames around them quickly fired three more rounds as quickly as she could, two rounds caught one beast in the chest and the third caught another one high up on it’s thigh.  Freak moved around the chest shot creature leaving the mortally wounded creature for Luna to finish off, and moved up to near point blank range on the thigh shot one, raising the Glock 19 in both hands he fired five rapid shots straight into the underside of the beasts jaw and into it’s neck, at this range it was impossible for him to miss and the 9mm rounds were devastating as they turned the creatures neck and lower jaw into a gory red mist of blood and bone.  The creatures jaw disintegrated and it fell limply to the earth as it’s life blood gushed out onto the ground, and onto Freak.  He quickly wiped the blood away from his eyes and forehead as now was the worst possible time for his vision to be obscured, he turned to check on the other creature he had bypassed but it was down for the count, as Luna hired fired a couple more rounds into it.  He turned back towards the fire, knowing that there should still be two beasts left, injured but not out of the fight by any means.  He was almost to late, as both creatures came barreling through the fire he jumped back just barely managing to avoid the powerful swipe of the lead beasts claws.  It still clipped him riping through his shirt and sent him flying back, where he landed hard against the stone outcrop that had earlier provided him cover.

He found himself unable to do anything lying there stunned as the remaining two creatures advanced on him intent on finishing the job.  Then suddenly a wild string of shots range out from behind them.  Freak watched as Tico came leaping over the fire with ease having emptied the little 9mm pistol she carried into the back of the smaller creature, she dropped the pistol on the ground, then amazingly she leapt through the air once again landing on the lead beast’s back she plunged the five inch blade’s of her knife and the one she had borrowed from Luna into either side of it’s massive neck, it roared in pain as it tried to feebly reach behind it to remove the small cat girl from it’s back.  But the agile Tico easily evaded these ponderous movements, and pulled one knife back out of the creatures neck with a arterial spray, quickly plunging it back in then repeating the action with the other knife.  She kept repeating this alternating one knife with the other until the beast gave one last soft gurgling cry then fell to the ground dead.  By this time Luna had rushed up to join them having abandoned her position when she saw freak go down, she quickly put a round into the head of the creature Tico had shot in the back, then levered another round into the chamber and put another round into it’s head for good measure.  Then while keeping the rifle at the ready she moved over to where Freak was still lying there stunned.

“Oh my God!  Freak or you okay!?”  

Freak groaned, then began to wearily pick himself up onto his elbows, “Fuck me, remind me not to do that again!”

Luna laughed as she threw her arms around his neck in relive, then suddenly they were both boweled over to the ground as a blood soaked Tico hurled herself into them, throwing her arms around both of them laughing her merry little ass off.  “Holy shit you guys I can’t belief we pulled that off!”  They all laid there in a pile of laughing and gratefully intact bodies for a moment.  “Wow so now whose in the mood to fuck?”

Surprisingly the one to respond to this was Luna, “I really think you are both going to need to clean up first.  Blood isn’t that big of an aphrodisiac for me.”  She said with a perfectly serious tone.

Tico pushed back from the huddle staring at Luna in abject shock.  She looked at Freak “Did she make a joke?”  She turned to Luna looking at her blankly, then turned back to Freak, “Did sis really just make a sex joke?!”

Freak found himself laughing at this, harder than he could ever remember laughing in all of his life.  Finally when he could finally get some words out with out choking on his own mirth, “I’m not sure, probably, but either way she has a really good point, we both a little to filthy to take to bed.”  While not as good a joke, the other one hadn’t been all that great either, this was still enough to send the group into another series of laughing fits.  Freak could only chalk it up to them just being caught up in the unexpected joy of still being alive, and relatively unscathed, he found himself wincing at this thought as he was reminded of the grazing cut he had taken to the chest as the adrenalin began seeping out of his system.  

“I think we should grab or stuff and get out of here.”  Luna began as she got up off the ground trying to wipe the worst of the gore she had picked up from the mad dog pile with her very gory companions, “I think that we should move back down to the stream right away, so we can clean up and then find a place near there to set up camp, we can get a good couple of meals in us and rest up, and worry about getting out of this damn forest tomorrow.”

Tico quickly bound to her feet flashing her friend a mocking salute, “Yes mam!  You know I love it when you get all authoritative like that!”  She said throwing in a bit of a purr at the end for good measure, then she quickly ducked out of the way of Luna’s half hearted chop that had been aimed towards he head.  

Freak got up a little slower, still feeling the effects of his hard landing.  “Luna, that sounds like a great idea, I can’t think of anything that could possibly sound better right now.”

“How bout a hot bath and a warm soft bed?”  Luna supplied with a small smile.

Tico groaned at this, “Oh god now you’re being the horrible tease, damn it that’s my job.”

The whole group got another good laugh out of this.  Then they quickly grabbed their things and began the short trip back to the stream.  They followed it for a little ways in the direction they needed to be traveling anyway until they reached a good spot with a nice place to set up camp and series of rock outcroppings that would provide some degree of privacy.  Tico voiced a mild objection at this, making a half hearted and only partially serious case for mixed bathing, but was overruled by the others who stated that right now they just wanted to clean up and get some rest.  

The cleaning up took a while, but once he was finished Freak felt refreshed but incredibly drained, with barely enough energy to crawl under the shelter that the girls had set up.  They were both already under it sleeping deeply, and he collapsed beside them and drifted off himself. 

Several hours later he woke up to find Tico wrapped around him and Luna no where to be seen.  He carefully untangled himself from the blissfully unaware Fenie, and made his way outside where he joined Luna by a small fire.  She handed him a small plate full of feed, and he gladly nodded his thanks.  “So where do we go form her?”  She asked as he greedily stuffed his face.

Freak was caught off guard with a mouth full of food.  He tried to quickly chew and swallow, not really succeeding, then finally choking that down he replied, “Well we got out of the woods and see if we can find that settlement.”

Luna looked at him seriously, “Then after that? What then, are you wanting to settle down there, are is it just another stop on the road?”

“Honestly I don’t know, I originally was heading there because anywhere was probably better then the last place I was at.”  He paused for a moment.  “What about you what do you want?  Do you want to settle there, or somewhere or do you want to keep traveling?”

“Why are you asking me?”

“Well, because I guess now your input is something that matters in whatever my plans are going to be.”

“Truly”  Luna replied looking at him with a mix of hope and apprehension, “I kind of though we might be holding you back.”

“Not in the least, without you two I don’t think I would have survived the last couple of days, and I think we are stronger as a group then I ever was on my own.  Besides, all the sexual teasing aside, and well honestly included, it’s a whole lot more fun having you around, so I guess if it’s cool with you two I would like to stick with you for as long as you’ll have me.”

“I think I would like that very much.”

Suddenly Freak was almost bowled over as a fully awake Tico hurled herself onto his back, “Oh and I am so fucking in on that!”

Freak smiled at her antics, of course some of the teasing was bound to eventually result in some degree of sexual tension forming in the group, but Freak found himself strangely okay with that.  With a certainty life was going to be a lot less boring for a good while to come.

They ate together and then spent the rest of the day resting up, alternating napping with some fishing and forging of the near by woods to augment their food supplies, and they passed yet another pleasant evening around a camp fire with good food trading happy stories, and even some hopeful plans for their future.  Then as the day moved well into night and they found themselves each trying to nod off around the fire, they called it a day and crawled under their cozy little shelter and blissfully passed into sleep happy in each others company.

The next day they woke up early and well rested and after a light breakfast of the left overs form last night, augmented with yet another nest of eggs Luna had manged to find.  Then they once again broke camp and resumed their journey.  The frantic pace they had kept up while being pursued had actually gotten them well on the way to finally getting out of the massive forest.  So it was that only a couple of hours after the midday sun had passed over head, they found themselves finally exiting from the densely grown wood line, as the land transitioned to a grassy plane of rolling hills.  Then just a mile or so of travel later they crested one such hill and were greeted with a most welcome sight.  Sprawling out before them was a decent size little village, a collection of single story villages surrounding a central square consisting of several larger structures, the out skirts peppered with the occasional large barn circling around the village edge.  Tico whooped for joy, and the others found themselves joining her exuberance.  

They covered the last couple of miles to their destination at a quick trot, weariness overcome by thoughts of hot baths and warm beds that they hoped civilization would have to offer.  But as they closed the final distance something seemed off.  Someone should have noticed them by now, and there was little to know signs of life.  Then as they drew into the village proper, they noticed that many buildings seemed to be ill repaired, a window broken here, a roof collapsed there, and even several doors hanging loosely off their hinges.  

Then finally they reached the central square, a place that should have been humming with life.  An there was nothing.  Luna looked around a look of mild bewilderment on her face.  “Um, so where is everybody?”

Tico of course summed it up in a much better way, “Goddammit, this place is a fucking ghost town!”

The only response Freak had to that was. “Well shit.”

end  

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