Finley took one last sad look at the camp that he had called home for two days.

He was not leaving on purpose.

Just because they could and should leave didn't mean that he wanted to. He resigned himself to his fate as a nomad Tinker a long time ago. He still hadn't realized how safe he had felt. With dwarven mercenaries and the adventurers' guilders able to do subjugation quests to keep monster levels low, he knew that the dwarven lands were safe for him.

Now? They were so perilous that he was considering going on a boat of all things. Tinkers almost never went onto boats or over water. Finley in particular hated the idea. He felt like he would be weaker over the water and he certainly would have less options.

Thinking about boats made him itch.

But, he had signed on with the Caravan and he would make the best of it. He had made Tinker cards for Bob, Sonya, Stella and Sophie. He was in the process of making a few more. It took a little bit out of them every time to make one. It wasn't derived from his Mana. It was drawing from his resolve, something he felt tangibly every time someone asked him if the stew was adequate. It wasn't but he could only be so kind. Without resolve, he could and would give a full unfiltered opinion.

In making so many Tinker cards, he needed frequent breaks. He did need the person to be there part of the time he made the card. He had to keep a warm image of the person in his mind for much longer than the first one, but it did get easier.

He briefly considered what would happen if he gave a Tinker card to someone that he hadn't envisioned. His skill told him that was a bad idea. Let them do that themselves. He just wouldn't tempt fate or the new god Murphy that the humans always referenced.

When they got to their stopping point for the day, Bob took him aside and began giving him some spear lessons. Finley had been avoiding it for a long time. He realized that with the amount of spears that they had, and his inexperience, he might have a problem.

The best thing about spears was that they let you reach out and touch something from a fair distance.

He still did not want to kill anything, but stopping a zombie charge? He would volunteer for that.

Having the Tinker King skill made him feel like there was always a way for him to talk his way out of something. That skill had clearly been made for a more peaceful time. Generations and generations of Tinkers had been able to create a culture where it was expected that they were non-violent. For most people, seeing a Tinker was a welcome sight.

It was a culture that allowed for them to be able to travel miles and miles in safety and live a nomadic trading lifestyle.

In the time before Gates, they had learned how to pass on the news between communities. Family even heard a story once about a Tinker who delivered mail between various settlements. It was done for money of course as most Tinkers did not want to be tied down to a particular route or area. One Tinker had found it suitable for their lifestyle. Perhaps the story about him going around in a loop was for the children to understand but they didn't have to leave and appear at random.

They could have a predictable route and work it over time.

Their next location for the day was unremarkable, just close enough to a stream to avoid the grumbling.

Finley judged that they had gone far enough south that the worst of the winter would avoid them. Regardless, it was still encroaching upon his domain. The biggest change that made him consider how far they had gone was the foliage. Where once it was only pine trees and evergreens, now some of the trees were less hardy stock.

He was grateful for Valerie's help in using several of the trees to set up both shade structures and keeping onto the road. Sophie helped him weave trip vines around their area as well.

Sonya had grumbled but Valerie had joined him and Anthony in his wagon just so she was able to get a view and passed on any information. Halfway through that first day of travel, Sonya had taken a horse and taken to scouting with Bob's team.

It made Anthony fret a little bit to see his girlfriend heading off but he didn't tell her. He sure as heck told Finley and Valerie. He was taking his role as emotional support elf seriously. Valerie, much too young to understand what was going on or pretending to not know just that and listened to Anthony. Wishing that so he would stay close by.

So while Bob was training Finley on the spear, Sonya and Anthony were talking it out. Finley was doing his best to focus on the spear training but he kept sneaking a glance back at them. Now this is what being in a relationship was like, he was not ready for that. He didn't think he would ever be ready for that.

Bob fixed his footwork.

"Finley, you're crossing your legs. They need to be wide apart."

He used the base of his spear to nudge them in the direction that he wanted. This caused Finley to assume a slightly lower pose. Then he fixed Finley's grip. Finley's two hand grip near the base of the spear was swapped out for a mixed grip in the center.

"I would tell you to choke up on this spear but I don't think you've ever played baseball before, so just trust me when I say you need to grab it closer to the center."

For someone who had been using his body for so long, Finley was still surprised at what it could do. He was equally surprised at hat Bob could get it to do just by positioning it. He intuitively knew he was doing everything wrong and tried to correct it. Finley just sat there trying to imitate Bob to the best of his ability.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Stella and Sophie were watching and began giving pointers as well after a while.

"You know I think I can make you a target. Prepare for a mud golem," Sophie said.

A humanoid shaped patch of dirt rose up in front of him.

Finley paused and reset his stance.

He waited until Bob gave him a nod then thrust his spear into the target. Bob had him reset and do the same drill several times. It wasn't that he was bad at it. It was just that Bob wanted him to have more practice or at least that was what the ranger said.

They had finally gone for at least another half hour before he needed to stop. He wasn't tired. The target was gone, disintegrating into dust.

"That's about enough. You should be able to hold a door if we ever need to press you to do a house by house search," Bob said. "Too bad you never Tinkered around with any of these when you were bored before all of this."

He gestured at the caravan around them.

"My spear, as I said, is ornamental. It's for grabbing fruit. Tinkers are by our nature, non-violent, despite what outside groups might think of us."

He returned the practice spear to his wagon. He didn't want to keep a weapon in there but if one needed a spear then it needed to be close by. He didn't want to sleep with it outside of the wagon either.

Then he took a well-deserved nap.

----------------------------------------

The location that they had taken wasn't too far from a stream so Anthony went down there to see if the water was any good. He had expected it to be terribly cold. He was pleasantly surprised when he realized that Sophie had warmed it up. He saw her floating out there and waved.

She floated back in to talk to him.

"How are you holding up?" She said.

"I'm fine, I think," he replied, taking off his shirt.

"You'll be a lot better when you get in here. Trust me," she said.

He got in unceremoniously. It would have been nice to have a picnic basket or towel or something but he would just have to deal with what he had.

He floated out to meet her.

"Oh this is great! It's not even that deep. So what does it feel like having three classes? "

"I feel like it's not that different. But my warlock class is very special. I never expected to be in a situation-ship with a goat but here I am listening to his commands like he's my sugar daddy. Actually, I'm not even sure if the Goat Lord is male or female so she could just as easily be a sugar mama."

"This is true. None of us could have expected that we would get a visit by a god. It's a bit ridiculous to even think of the concept. Like what even is he the god of? Sonya told me that her patron is the god of overland travel and I'm just at a loss. Is the Goat Lord just the god of eating stuff? I know Finley said he's half party, half animal but that just can't be correct, right?"

"Oh it is right. Like if you wanted me to I could summon a party but I don't even know what that means. It's just a freewheeling ability that I have to just have a goat themed party. Actually, I'm not even sure it needs to be goat themed. Would you like me to start a party?"

The question threw Anthony. Though he had thought a lot about what they were doing and how they were doing it, you never thought about what kind of parties they could have. That just wasn't a thing. But without the constant threat of a zombie looming do directly next to them, it was a lot easier to think about things that weren't strictly speaking necessary.

"No. I think I'm good without a party. But we might want to do one soon. Maybe the next time that we camp down for two nights. Maybe a longer stay every other week. It gives people a lot of time to do things that aren't directly related to the mission. We've been through a lot together. And yeah, maybe party isn't the right word. Like that game of werewolf the other day. That was great. That was unexpected and it made sense. If I won't feel good if the good lord could provide an experience like that? That'll be ideal."

He knew that there were not going to be a lot of chances to just kick back if they were next to a town or city. Camp Delta was uniquely suited for their needs.

"Yeah, the Goat Lord works in mysterious ways. Don't we all?"

They floated around in comfortable silence for a minute or so. They both looked up and over back to the Caravan. Anthony was hoping that Sonya would join them in a little bit but she was still deep in conversation with Stella.

"So Stella told me a bit about how you were before the transition?"

"Oh yes, oh shit. Are we doing this right now?" Sophie said blushing with her full body.

"We don't have to talk about anything you're not comfortable with but know that I'm here for you. If you have any weird questions about anything, let me know," he said.

"That whole thing about pregnant women getting this like insight into how they're actually pregnant? Is that a thing?"

"I've seen it both ways. Some women are in denial up until the baby comes out of them. Some women? They know immediately. Usually the women that are more in tune with their body can tell. Do you feel in tune with your body?"

"I do now, yes. It was jarring before. Like I now had the party that I wished that I had, and it's not too different from how I was before," she said.

"You were on estrogen?" He said, floating around her.

"I was yes. It took a lot of work for me to get from being a little baby egg to becoming a woman. And now I'm here...It's like I have everything I wanted but everything's changed."

"You don't think that this is some sort of divine punishment right? Cuz that would be pretty fucked up. Like give you the body that you're comfortable in but then...were you comfortable back on earth?"

"It took a lot of work and soul searching but yeah I got to a good place."

"And are you in that good place again here? Again, stop me if I'm-"

"You're alright. Frankly, I thought I should have asked you a few questions already. Like you have this experience of working with women in what has to be one of the most important times of their lives and here I am, finally feeling on the outside like I did on the inside and now I'm like..." Sophie said.

She sighed. He waited, in full dad mode. He might be a nurse and a midwife, but he was also a father. She might not need his advice or counsel and she appeared to be doing fine on her own.

"...well let me come back to that. How are you and Sonya doing?" Sophie said.

"Umm."

"Are you sleeping on the couch tonight?" Sophie teased.

"That's pretty close to it. She decided to run off on the horses with you and Bob and Stella and I wanted her with me. I guess I can't protect her, but for as strong as she is..."

"I understand. She's invaluable. If we didn't have those walls up before we would be in a terrible place. That whole maze thing as well? Well if you don't want her I'll have a go," Sophie said.

"I mean it's a free Kingdom, I guess. Wait, if there is a Kingdom, wouldn't Valerie as one of the last living dwarves be the queen?"

"Let's not let it go to her head."

"Agreed."