“My girlfriend is trying to kill me.” I say before using my fear and anxiety for [Triggered Action] as I dive out of the way while shooting my pistols into a tusked horse thing.
Zia slams the head of the beast with a microburst of air before blinking behind it and slashing at the backs of its knees. “I like it when you call me that, and I am not trying to kill you.” The horse thing bucks around in pain while trying to gore Zia. I pump more rounds into its body and finally my pulse pistol creates a wound that penetrates its tough hide.
“One of our guides is dying! An experienced guide!”
“Chill, Kimber.” She blinks again and stabs her daggers to the sides of the beast’s spine, just forward of the hind legs. “They’re Academy guides, this is just a wandering, high-level monster.” She explains before summoning a swirling column of hot air around her daggers before jumping off.
The swirl dissipates after a few moments and a blinding crack of lightning knocks me down. Once I can see again, watch the horse thing completely crippled from the lightning, trying to crawl away into the forest. I grab my sniper rifle from my storage, hunker down, and fire at the beast’s head. It disappears as the gun kicks me to my butt and is easily as loud as the lightning. Too bad it takes seven minutes to get the enchantments up.
“Ow.” I groan. I wonder how bad it would have broken me if I’d have tried that before I tiered up.
Zia comes over to drag me to my feet, inspects me briefly before going over to our guide to see if he is alive enough to save. She bends low and stabs him in the neck with an ampule, so he must be alive enough. My hearing starts fading back in before Zia walks back, and I know my second rank in Enhanced Recovery is doing work.
My girlfriend hugs me tightly, and we kiss in our triumph for a few moments before she saunters over to the animal and starts dressing it for storage. I stow my rifle and search for the pistols I dropped. By the time I find them in our little clearing, Zia’s done with her work and is asking me to help carry our unconscious guide back to camp.
I work hard on my fitness, so with the new strength upgrade, have no issue slinging the man over my shoulder and hiking back with Zia leading us.
“I knew that Talent would let you compete above your level.”
“Zia, you were playing with it while I was trying to stay alive.”
“Well, yeah, I wanted you to have the chance to meaningfully wound it before it died. Otherwise you would barely get any experience. Then you turned its head into paste, which was a very loud by the way.”
“And the lightning wasn’t?!” I realize I’m shouting, but I can’t help it.
“Oh, you’re fine you big baby.” She boops me on the nose and grins at me. Stupid cute girl and her stupid cute face. I huff, pout and stick my tongue out at her. She giggles and takes my hand while we walk beneath the thick jungle canopy of Elysium.
The hunting camp is a simple thing: semi-permanent open stick structures with cured hide covers slathered with waterproofing from the forest. Zia tells me it’s positioned at the very edge of the claimed Academy land, so they could have buildings and modern crafting stations, but the vole-like hunting tribe that have made a home slash business here prefer the more tribal furnishings. Zia greats the voles with a series of chirps and one of the guards go running. Tova tells me she asked for a healer.
“What’d you run into that Haunts the Grass was injured so gravely?” a greying vole man asks.
“Tusquine Mare. Thirty five. Haunts tried to parry a charge headed for my companion that partially worked. I was scouting at the time and found the stallion but did not make it back in time to save him from injury,” She reports.
The man scrutinizes me before replying. “That is uncommonly high level for your hunting area. Especially this soon after a Great Hunt. He will be praised for his courage. I am relieved your companion was unhurt.”
Zia nods in agreement, walks over to the prep table behind the man, and lays about twenty pounds of meat on the table as well as the skin. “To aid in his recovery and to busy him while he does so.”
The vole smiles and nods. “Thank you, Princess. May the Hunt favor you with good fortune.”
“Good Fortune, Tailor of the Hunt.” Even mussed from flipping to and fro, Zia still looks amazing, and when she’s being all professional I feel all the more warm and gooey.
She takes my hand again and we head to our shuttle parked next to the cave that leads up to the valley that the Academy is nestled in.
“That was kind of you.”
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“It is customary when hunters are injured doing their job. If I had offered nothing, it would imply that he was injured doing something foolish.”
Guilt is a funny thing. Even though I know that I didn’t encourage him to guard me, even though I know I was out of the way with my talent before the Mare would have reached me, I feel guilty that our guide likely decided to take the hit for me because I’m level 16. If we’d taken time to explain my Talents, would he have done the same?
Lets see if it was worth it.
/Increased experience is awarded for returning the aether of an animal a tier above you.
/Decreased experience is awarded for being in a party.
I guess that’s not terrible for one kill.
“You didn’t seem to surprised to see the Yinda Hunters, are you used to the idea of aliens already?” Zia asks as she lifts us skyward.
Is that it? After seeing a real live Pixie and a giant ass Tiger man, is that all the exposure I needed? “It’s not like that. I’m used to being on the back foot, a little unsteady. After meeting a Herrati Engineer yesterday, the vole men didn’t have such a visceral effect on my psyche. I might gush about how neat it is later, or ask if any other races look like things from Earth. But for now, I’m still coming down from the horse thing, and that our guide isn’t dying.”
She nods, staring through the view screen at the front of the craft as she takes us into orbit on our way back to Penny’s castle in Aelea.
***
Zia prepared a nice picknick for her mother’s private garden, and she’s pacing at the edge of the blanket, picking at her nails. She doesn’t know I’m watching, so lost in her thoughts, so I cough to announce my presence. She looks startled and a little frightened.
“Zee, what’s got you so nervous? It’s just me. Even if you have something important to say, it’s just me.”
“That’s just it, you’re not just anything. You’re important to me and, well, I’ve been hiding stuff.”
“Are you keeping a girl on the side?” she shakes her head. Whew, a little bit of the stress that ramped up leaves with my sigh. “Are you using me and our relationship for personal gain.”
“Only if snuggles are currency.”
“I’ll accept that.” I smile a confident smile that I want her to feel. “Then we can probably talk through whatever it is, okay.” I walk over to her and give her a quick kiss and hold her firmly on her hips. “What hidden thing are you trying to tell me?”
She sighs and thumps her head on my shoulder. “You know how I said I’m a shapeshifter?” I hum the affirmative. “Well, I have another permanent form, and I feel like it’s more me. I know you like my elf form, but staying in it this long has me itching a little to change back.”
I push her hips to arms length, “Zia! I don’t want you to torture yourself just because I think this version of you is pretty. Whatever form you take, it’s still you right? And with how much you look in the mirror, it’s gotta be at least passable to look at.”
“Hey!” she pushes me away in protest. “You weren’t supposed to notice. I think I’m prettier in that form? Mostly because I feel the most comfortable in it.”
“I’m in for a more comfortable you.”
She takes a step back, nods a little and then shows me a defiant, regal chin of confidence before erupting into a cloud of smoke. The smoke blows at and over me for a few seconds, but when it clears I see a sparkling vision in a ray of sunlight.
A figure of purple and pink with swirls of tourmaline cascade down the scales of her side and arms, leading to elongated fingers whose claws are retracted like a raptor’s. Her snout? Maw? Toothy-boop? Is mostly smooth scales like a western dragon, but more humanized muscles that are currently telling me she’s nervous. She also has a tail that’s nearly her torso length and a set of wings that slightly brush the ground.
“You are the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” The shimmer of her scales lull me into a trance and before I know it, my hand is hovering beside her jaw, feeling the warmth radiating off of it. “Is it okay if I touch you?” Her snout bobs and my palm contacts the multitude of small rigid surfaces that are smooth to touch as I drag my fingers down to her collar.
“I can’t believe my girlfriend’s a dragon.”
Her giggle is still cute, but has a raspy undertone? Bi-tonal vocals is a new one for me.
“Draconid. There are several stories in Earthen fantasy that had mixes of human and dragon that really appealed to me. Being able to fly and have natural weapons was a big draw. That and the scale pattern makes me feel really pretty.”
“I agree, you are a very beautiful creature, Zia.” I grab her snoot and kiss her little scaly lips. A very odd sensation, but not unpleasant. I grin back at her and I can tell she’s flustered, but she can’t blush in scales, so that’s kind of a bummer.
“Really? You’re not grossed out or think I’m weird for identifying as a Draconid?”
“Really, really. Is this why you were asking how I was dealing with the other aliens?” she nods. “I’ll be honest, we’re going to have odd moments if you try to get frisky with me in this form, and the only adverse reaction I’m getting from this vision of you is a little wing envy.”
A big toothy, slightly intimidating, grin breaks out across her maw and she reaches out with her wings to pull me into arm’s length to pull me in closer. She is now much taller than me and is resting her snout on my head.
“I like this very much.” The warmth she is radiating permeates the surroundings and is almost too hot on this sunny day.
We embrace for a while and I pet her back rhythmically for which I’m rewarded with a rumbling purr. That is until I find her tail and give the joint a good squeeze, causing her to squawk. She bonks me on the head with her jaw.
“Pfft, like you could have a tail and I wouldn’t touch it. Is it really sensitive?”
“N-not as such, just alarming. You are grabbing my spine after all.”
“Hmm, I don’t think I can promise I won’t do it again, but I can certainly be more gentle. Can you become a larger version and take me for a flight?”
She chuckles and shakes her head. “I can size up, but not so quickly after a change. I like that you’re curious more than afraid though.”
I ask her questions throughout lunch and she seems to relax as our picnic progresses and she finally believes that I like her Draconid form, or at least find it fascinating. She uses her retractable claws to spear food and I geek out over how neat that is. Afterword, we lounge with some refreshing beverages while I snuggle a toasty dragon belly and nap in the sun.