Shaggy came back to himself and immediately noticed something strange. On top of the staggering amount of pain he was in, he also felt overwhelmingly warm. Like he was covered by a huge, rough blanket. He thought, momentarily, that it was a sign of him finally conquering his inner beast. But a quick glance around proved him wrong.
“Why in the hell are you hugging me?” Shaggy asked, voice muffle by Vance’s shoulder.
Loud breathing and his pack link let him know Cekrass was draped over his back. The large lizard’s head was right next to his ear. Shaggy tried to jerk away from the hot breath, but pain in his arms and legs screamed through him. His friends cautiously pulled away. With Vance being the last to let go. Shaggy saw that Vick had held his waist as Sybil, Levy, and Rita stood nearby. Levy and Sybil had their weapons drawn, but Rita was strangely unarmed.
“We were holding down your damn-blasted demon wolf.” Vance grumbled. “Thanks to your wife and pack, we held you back. Barely.”
Shaggy’s nod of acceptance brought a fresh wave of pain through his whole body. The magical manacles were still in place. He could feel how they had rubbed the skin of his wrist raw. However, a shooting pain in his left leg drew his eye to a leather-wrapped hilt of a sword. Shaggy raised an eyebrow and glared at Rita.
“Seriously?”
“Demon asshole was a kicker, boss.” Rita shrugged, looking unapologetic.
Shaggy groaned as he tried to stand, the magical manacles falling away. He gave his wife a tired grin and pulled the sword from his leg. The wound remained open, blood pouring into the dirt. Shaggy could sense his healing ability had run dry. A loud gurgle from his stomach confirmed this. Everyone glanced at him before he waved them off. Vance was still studying his face and seemed just as exhausted. Luckily, the demon-wolf fight hadn’t taken that long, it seemed.
Tom’s voice broke the silence. “Uhh, are y’all done with whatever the fuck that was? The kids are kinda hungry!”
Shaggy snorted as Vick and Sybil spun around angrily. The short blonde woman marched over as Vick called back.
“Yes, we’re all clear. Get everything back in order. We need that food! Also see how much the fire damaged.”
There were some grumblings as Tom and the teens filed back into the Cavern. Shaggy guessed that they hadn’t run that far to get away from him. Shaggy took a tentative step forward to help, but he immediately stumbled. Right into Vance’s arms. The old wolf grunted as he caught Shaggy by the arms. They stared into each other eyes for a second before Vance rolled his eyes. With a huff, Vance dropped Shaggy into the dirt and stepped back. Levy and Rita yelped and growled respectively at the old man’s action. Levy helped Shaggy to his feet as Rita retrieved her sword.
“You look fine now, son. We just need to see how your wolf reacts when you change now.”
“I killed it. The wolf is gone.” Shaggy said, almost with pride.
Vance took a step forward and tried to flick Shaggy’s head. But a purple wall of magic popped up between the finger and Shaggy’s forehead. The finger was locked onto the purple shield as Levy glared at Vance. Levy quickly released the magic, and the old Were took a few steps back. Coughing awkwardly as he was given control of his hand back, Vance muttered.
“You can’t kill your wolf, stupid. It’s you. You ARE the wolf. You just taught it that you’re the boss. It’ll be easier to control now. But you’re not going to be able to shift while it heals. You need to realize that you and it are one. You need to operate as one.”
“What if it gets uppity again? I have to do this all over again?”
Vance waved a hand dismissively, but then a thoughtful look formed on his face. Finally he said. “I don’t know. Normally not. But with you Mutant Weres? Who could say?”
“That’s fair.” Shaggy grunted as he and Levy started walking.
He wasn’t sure where his wife was leading them. But he hoped she had finished their log cabin. They walked through the cave collection of sparse trees, Rita and Vance following behind. Nearby, the teens checked on their campfires and personal items. They didn’t have much, but everything seemed to be fine. Although everyone aside from his pack and Levy seemed to not want to look at him. Which was fair. The guy they had followed into an underground cave just went beast mode all over the place. Probably a hell of a thing to see. Shaggy expected a few of the kids to run back home in the coming days.
Levy sat him down as gently as possible next to the metal terminal. Vance and Rita seemed to stare off into space. Shaggy didn’t think they could see the terminal. But who knew? Instead, he decided to give out orders. Although he wasn’t sure Vance would follow them.
“Vance, why don’t you grab us some food? Rita, can you get all that sorted out? We can inventory later, but for now, make sure everything is stored away down here. Also, check if the kids who dumped the M-Mart trucks are back? Finally, set some lookouts.”
Rita looked like she wanted to argue, but she just gave a curt nod before she walked away. Vance glared at Shaggy. Probably trying to nonverbally remind Shaggy that he didn’t work for him. Shaggy smiled back until the old werewolf marched off, grumbling. Levy snorted as she tapped away at the terminal’s holographic keyboard.
“You are a pain in the ass. You know that?”
“What did I do? I didn’t know my Mutation would work out this way. Besides, it doesn’t look like I did too much damage.”
“True. Your weird ass fire wolf-lady did most of it. She needs to learn to control a fireball.”
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Can you help with that?”
“Mmmhm.”
Shaggy looked up at Levy as she gave her non-answer. She seemed enthralled with whatever the terminal was telling her. Shaggy waited as she pondered whatever she was thinking about. Soon she came back to the conversation.
“Yeah. I can help.” She answered. “The damage to the trees wasn’t too bad either. The mana crystal can have them back in order. We can still have our tree grove.”
“That’s fine. What about our house?”
Levy fell into silence again and Shaggy groaned as he tried to look at her. Everything still hurt. So much that he wanted to look at the game’s pain settings again. But he knew they were set to the optimum levels. Vance returned with some packaged sliced meat and a bag of sliced bread. Not quite a sandwich, but Shaggy wasn’t going to complain. The old Were walked off with a sullen grunt and Shaggy munched away. Levy’s response was so delayed that Shaggy had scarfed down two meat sandwiches before she answered. Shaggy even had to grunt to bring her back to the conversation.
“Huh? Oh, the Fairy’s house is fine.”
Shaggy wanted to slap his forehead, but he was afraid of hurting himself more. “Not the Fairy’s house. OUR house.”
Her mention of the little Fairy brought his memory back to the wounded little thing. He wondered where it went. But apparently Levy had built the thing a home. He wondered if they needed a tiny doctor or something. But he shook off the thought. Levy knew what she was doing.
“Oh, we got all the wood sorted down here and I wanted to talk to you about designs. But then you went all big, bad, scary, demon-wolf. Seriously, this is going to be a project. It shouldn’t take away from our game time. But this is going to take some time. Mostly getting the grass to grow how I want it and get the trees arranged.”
Shaggy nodded as he felt his wounds begin to heal. Didn’t take away the pain. But it helped.
“Sounds good. But the kids are set and the pack?”
“We just need to get them some furniture. Although moving beds and end tables down here is going to be a pain.”
“Maybe a portal?”
“Again. I’d have to study how to do that. But I’m not made of magic. It’s going to have to be the old-fashioned way.”
“Great. Y’know, this was supposed to be about helping my Legion get a foot-hold topside. Not setting up a grove for me and you.”
“It can be both!” Levy snarked. “We just have to take things slow. No reason to rush. Besides, we are going to have to wake up soon. Work and the real world await.”
Shaggy grimaced as he tried to remember how long they’d been immersed. It was probably close to eight hours of real time. Which meant they were going to have to get things squared away here. Shaggy grinned. That meant that the pack and the kids could steal their own damn furniture. They just had to be smart about it. But Levy disabused him of that notion.
“We should have the NPCs turtle up while we are gone.” She said.
“Why!? They can handle themselves and think about what they could get done.”
Levy finally turned away from the terminal and looked down at him. “You’ve already caused a bunch of problems topside. Robbing K-Tech, a construction company and a grocery chain. Better to lie low for a day, at least. When we come back, we can focus on getting things settled here. But while we’re gone, we should have our people rest. Not to mention I’ve got a few of my witches coming.”
Shaggy grumbled, but he could see the logic. They were already in enemy territory and he had gone and kicked more hornet nests. But having his pack laze around doing nothing seemed wasteful. Then his eye was drawn toward the surly old werewolf chewing on a large piece of what looked like ham. He grinned as he realized he could put his pack through the Vance School of Werewolf nonsense. That would give them something to do. Meanwhile, the kids could get comfortable. They’d also have to be wary of any scouts from the Wild Bunch.
Shaggy sighed. They needed to arrange so much before they logged out. Which was probably why Levy had her face back in the terminal. He rose to his feet and gave her a quick peck on the cheek.
“I’ll get the pack their orders.”
“I figured. I’ll try to get this thing to automate some of the grass growth. If we can come to an agreement on our cabin design before we log, the system can build it.”
“Sounds good.” Shaggy said as he started walking toward Vance.
“Also, we need to figure out the raid on Cog. We still haven’t found him, but we need to be ready!”
“Yes, dear.” Shaggy said over his shoulder.
Shaggy jogged over to his Werewolf mentor and sat down. As he did, he felt his mouth drool at the smell of the raw ham. Blood dripped down the man’s bare chest and Shaggy started as he realized they were both shirtless. Damn demon wolf.
“I ain’t the sharing type.” Vance rumbled as he took another large bite.
“No. But you are the teaching type. Levy and I have to handle some stuff. I was wondering if you could stick around and watch my pups.”
Vance swallowed roughly before replying. “Why the hell would I do that? You lot are way more trouble than you’re worth. I have stuff to do too, y’know?”
Shaggy gave Vance his best disbelieving look. The old were shook his head and took another bite. He was ignored Shaggy for a few chews before he finally grumbling.
“Fine. I’ll watch’em. But when ya get back, visit Wayne.”
Shaggy’s face twisted in confusion before he remembered the leader of the biggest Mutt Pack in Austin. He needed to present himself to the dude. Shaggy sighed at another item being added to his list. But it needed to be done. Especially if he was going to wage war with another gang. He didn’t need a pack of angry Weres on his ass, too. Shaggy nodded at Vance and rose to his feet. He brushed the dust off his pants, started back to Levy.
As he did, he took in the tiny magical light above and the growing trees. Nearby, he could see the teens moving their meager possessions into the shabby-looking building they had the system build for them. Sybil and Cekrass were helping as Rita and Vick were getting their stolen loot sorted. Again, he didn’t see Tom, but his pack link told him the lanky bastard was above him in the Deli. Hopefully moving whatever else was up there down to the cave. They had accomplished a lot in a few days. Probably pissed off a fair number of people.
Shaggy couldn’t keep the smile off his face as he thought about pissing off even more when he and Levy logged back in. It was going to be a hell of a time. Shaggy thought he’d shoot a message to the others in Under-Town while at work. He was willing to bet they were going to be jealous, and he really wanted to know how everything was going. He also hadn’t heard from Obadiah since they dropped off the Jerruza stuff. With a final sigh, Shaggy arrived next to Levy and gave his distracted wife a side-hug. They were going to do so much more when they came back, and Shaggy couldn’t wait.