Charlie greeted the dawn of a bright new day with a yawn and drooping eyes.

Stretching an arm out, she sat up in her bed of leaves and surveyed the clearing.

The sun was already up and shining—pouring golden sunlight through the verdant leaves. Evelynn was bustling about the camp, dumping dirt onto the extinguished campfire and moving aside a bundle of furs. She had somehow managed to scrape away the fat hanging inside the fur and had even partially cured it.

Charlie was a little disappointed that she hadn't gotten to see how Evelynn had cured the pelts. But learning how to cure pelts was a secondary consideration.

Because most importantly she had a human now!

For once, there was a human that wasn't trying to kill her, and had gone even as far as to exchange names. Charlie was happy she found Evelynn, and had decided to glomp onto her and follow her around.

"Good morning, Evy!"

"Morning, Charlie."

Evelynn glanced up at Charlie, and wordlessly handed her a chunk of warm meat on a stick.

Charlie was salivating just looking at her breakfast. Nevermind that she had eaten the entire second pile yesterday, since Charlie always had room for more food.

She took a bite and savored the taste of greasy lard and the chewy texture of the wolf haunch. With a rivulet of juice running down a corner of her mouth, Charlie ravenously tore into the sumptuous snack.

Before she finished crunching on the leg-bone, Evelynn handed her a side of ribs.

Engrossed in her meal, Charlie didn't notice Evelynn was done packing.

She felt a light pat on her head—and looked up with a mouth ringed in fat.

"It's time to leave."

"Mhokay," Charlie mumbled through a mouthful of half-masticated meat.

Evelynn barely winced at the sight, and just calmly shouldered the bundle of furs that was tied together with the wolf pelt acting as a basket.

Charlie followed after Evelynn as they left the camp.

The only sound in the silence was Charlie loudly crunching on the remains of the wolf carcass.

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They had been walking for a while when they saw the road.

Charlie didn't realize the significance of the road, and thought it was just an abnormally large animal trail.

She was all ready to run down the animal trail and play with whatever large animal was at the end.

After all, she had fun frolicking around in the woods and scampering up trees. She also made a game of catching animals and releasing them whenever Evelynn wasn't looking. The only animals she never managed to catch were the flying-creatures that sang so beautifully in the morning.

Evelynn broke out into a smile when she saw the road—dashing all thoughts of play from Charlie's mind.

Playing with large animals could wait, since Charlie was fascinated that Evelynn was smiling. The always dour and taciturn Evelynn.

Evelynn rarely smiled for anything, which meant the road must be very important and great news!

Charlie happily skipped along as Evelynn followed the path.

As the long hours turned, Charlie ruminated on the promise Evelynn had her make this morning.

Evelynn had stopped their trek through the woods, and clapped her hands on Charlie's shoulders.

"Charlie. You must promise me to never show your tentacles around another human. Both of us would be in danger if anyone else sees."

Staring into Evelynn's serious eyes, Charlie solemnly said, "I promise Evelynn."

The same as yesterday when Evelynn mentioned tentacles—Charlie didn't want to ruin that serious moment, so she decided to shelve her opinion on tentacles for later.

She was still a little indignant that Evelynn had called her tendrils, "tentacles."

Charlie shuddered in disgust.

There were many loathsome eldritch beings with tentacles, and she was most definitely not one of them. She could feel her stomach roil just thinking about the dastardly hunting practices of the eldritch tentacle monsters.

Fishing her mind out of the gutter, Charlie took a moment to look around their surroundings.

Along the sides of the road, the forest was as vibrant as ever. The rustle of lush leaves drifted through the air as a gentle breeze cooled their skin. The trees reached ever skyward, providing shade and homes for the cute little animals.

It was a beautiful day with the blue sky and chirping flying-creatures.

"Are we there yet?"

Charlie whined, breaking the tranquil silence.

The forest was fun and interesting, but Charlie wanted to see more sights. Given the size of the sky there must be so many new and fascinating things she had yet to explore. Also, the road must lead to somewhere.

Somewhere that could make even Evelynn smile.

"Aaarrre we there yet?

Charlie could see Evelynn gritting her teeth as she asked the same inane question for the umpteenth time.

She just couldn't help herself. Everything was so boring, and the taciturn Evelynn refused to talk. Maybe if Charlie annoyed her enough, Evelynn would finally respond and they would be able to start a conversation.

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"Aaaaarrrrre we theeerrrre ye-"

Charlie cut off her question and blinked.

Yay! More humans!

Five rough looking human men had walked out from behind a copse of trees and were now standing in front of them. All of them were holding either a sword or a spear, and some of them even had a dagger or two strapped to their belt.

Charlie felt sorry for them holding such rusted and poorly maintained weapons. Maybe she should tell them that there were proper weapons in a facility just a day's travel away. They would surely thank her!

Before Charlie could open her mouth and give her helpful advice, she saw that Evelynn was tensed—and had subtly moved to shield Charlie from view.

The human men were walking towards them and fanning out. A few of them were wolf-whistling with a lecherous grin plastered across their face.

Charlie felt Evelynn tug on her hand.

Evelynn glanced at her and silently communicated to run.

They turned around, but before they had taken a single step, Charlie saw three more human men standing in the road and cutting off their retreat.

"There's a good girl. Now, don't up and run on us. We need a bedwarmer tonight."

Chuckling, the human men drew closer, mockingly waving their weapons.

"Um, Evy? What do we do?"

"Kill them with your tentacles," Evelynn whispered out of the side of her mouth.

Charlie winced at the choice of words.

But a moment later the words reached her. She looked at Evelynn incredulously, before lowering her voice for a reply.

"But, what about the promise?"

"This is an exception."

"Gotcha."

Charlie spread her arms wide and beamed at the humans.

"Can't we talk about this? We're just passing through, and I don't want to have to hurt you."

After a moment of shocked silence, the humans laughed uproariously. Slapping each other on the back, they chuckled and wiped tears from their eyes.

"Now, that's a good one. Maybe we'll save ya as a jokester."

The human standing closest to Evelynn was shaking his head. He motioned and the four humans behind him trudged closer.

"Awww. Final warning! If you don't leave you will be hurt!"

"Nah, we'll take our chances," the same human drawled.

Charlie's face fell, and she watched with sad eyes as the humans drew closer.

"So be it," she mumbled.

Tendrils shot out from under her robe and speared the three humans blocking their escape. The tendrils went through their padded coats like paper, and slid into their ribcages with a squelch and crack of shattered bone.

The three humans jerked before hanging limply in the air like hooked fish.

Retracting her tendrils, the corpses fell to the ground in a heap of splattering crimson.

Charlie turned her head and saw the five humans were staring at her in horror. While they were still in shock, Evelynn calmly walked around Charlie, placing Charlie in between her and the humans.

"Charlie, can you kill them more cleanly?"

Cocking her head, Charlie shrugged.

"Sure."

"M-monster!"

The humans were now running for their lives—screaming at the top of their lungs and pleading for help. They were shouting something about regretting their life decisions, and that they would become better people.

"Well, I told you so."

Charlie grumbled as she rolled her eyes. She wanted to make more friends, but they took the choice out of her hands.

She unspooled a cloud of tendrils from her sleeves and from underneath her robe.

The tendrils extended, acting as supports as she rose into the air—rising first one, then two, and finally a full five meters in height.

Digging her tendrils into the ground, Charlie set off at an easy, loping gait. Covering a large distance with each sweep of her many tendrils.

She saw two humans sprinting down the road, but she decided to chase them later. The other humans had broken off to the sides of the road and were now trying to lose her amongst the dense covering of trees.

She loped after them, catching glimpses through the forest canopy. Reaching the two humans in the span of a few seconds—she pierced through several tree trunks and curled her tendrils around their necks.

One quick swing later, and their necks snapped.

That was surprisingly easy. Was it really alright to kill these defenseless humans? After all, they didn't seem very threatening.

Charlie peered at the noosed corpses.

Well, Evelynn said to do it, so it should be fine.

Some of her tendrils were wedged through the tree trunks, and she didn't want to pulp the corpses by dragging them through such a small hole.

Taking care to keep the corpses clean, Charlie sawed through the side of the tree trunks. She held the corpses in the air as she made her way back to the road.

Bursting out of the forest canopy, Charlie wrapped her tendrils around the necks of the two humans who made the ill-advised decision to run on an open road.

Another shake later, and the humans were dead.

Dropping the four corpses onto the ground, Charlie dove into the forest—searching for the last human. She ran closer to the ground, having lowered her height to avoid getting a faceful of leaves.

After nearly a minute of weaving around tree trunks and crashing through shrubbery, Charlie realized she couldn't find the remaining human. She definitely ran further than the human, even with her adopting a semi-circular search pattern.

She stopped, and cocked her head quizzically.

There also weren't any sounds that would pinpoint the human's location.

Sitting down on a tree branch, Charlie swung her legs and thought. This human was pretty smart. Everything pointed to the human hiding, but she had no idea how to find him.

Her cursory sweep turned out nothing, and if she started a detailed search into every nook and cranny, the human would have time to leg it.

Charlie tapped a finger on her chin, and leaned back until she was hanging from the branch upside down.

Welp, that left only one solution.

With a slight grin, Charlie righted herself and stood up on the branch.

A torrent of tendrils poured from underneath her robe, flowing down the tree trunk and coating it in a sheen of unearthly black.

The tendrils pooled on the ground before shooting out in the direction of the road. Branching and carpeting the forest floor with numerous threads. Brushing by countless quivering animals, her threads hunted for a quarry.

As the minutes dragged on, Charlie couldn't help but frown.

She had covered nearly everywhere the human could be hiding on this side of the road. Did the human really manage to evade her? Also, how was she going to explain this to Evelynn?

That was when she heard the sound of ringing steel.

It was coming from the road.

Coming from the direction of Evelynn.

No! This couldn't be happening!

With her heart in her throat, Charlie rushed towards the sound of steel.

No longer caring about the wonderful trees, Charlie sheared through the trunks in front of herself and heaved the trees aside. She didn't bother wasting time ducking and weaving around the foliage.

Instead, she charged through the opening, darting past the toppled trees so quickly that they appeared to be falling in slow motion. Everything in her way was uprooted and trampled.

All the shrubs and undergrowth were torn away and flung aside. She forged a path onwards, heedlessly razing a swathe of the forest to reach Evelynn in time.

It was all to clear the way forward.

The peal of ringing steel had suddenly stopped—but Charlie continued onwards with her heart beating a fast staccato and her breath coming in short gasps.

Every second she spent running was a second she could arrive too late.

Fearing the worst, Charlie burst from the foliage and saw the road.

She saw Evelynn lying in a pool of bl-

...

Evelynn was wiping the blood off her sword on a piece of cloth.

And... the last human was lying on the ground missing his head.

"Charlie, would you like a change of clothing?"

Evelynn pointed at the ground, which had four sets of clothing neatly arranged. The tattered garments Evelynn had been wearing for the past few months were unceremoniously dumped to the side.

Charlie could only stare dumbly, blinking.

Evelynn was wearing a dark brown coat and a pair of cream pants. A chunk of the wolf pelt was wrapped tightly along her left forearm, forming a patchwork armguard. She slid the worn sword into a scabbard on her belt beside three daggers.

Charlie slowly shook her head.

Filching a pouch of clinking coins off the decapitated human, Evelynn poured it into a bag that she tucked into her coat.

Dusting off her hands, Evelynn looked at the road strewn with dead bodies.

"Alright, time to leave."

Charlie wiped away the tears leaking from her eyes, and fixed her tremulous smile.

Rubbing her face, she could only numbly follow Evelynn as she walked down the road.

She was relieved that Evelynn was okay, but she was feeling a little annoyed that they were leaving such good food lying around.

Feeling a little peckish, she glanced at the human head lying on the ground, and extended a tendril.

Hesitating, Charlie glanced at Evelynn's retreating back—before retracting her tendril and skipping to catch up.

Charlie had a mischievous smile tugging on her lips.

"So, Evy?"

Evelynn raised an inquisitive brow.

Charlie pranced up beside Evelynn, and circled around with her hands clasped behind her back.

With a cheeky grin she opened her mouth.

"Aaaarrrrre we theeeerrrrre yet?"