John finished patching up the Gnoll, being careful around her rather sizeable chest and her very noticeable abs. She chuckled watching him work, knowing very well why he was being careful. They sat there quietly for awhile as he finished up before John nodded. “Done.” He turned to go to help the others only to see Jack and Nelva pretty much already done.

“I took the most injuries. I am big so I am easy to hit. I carry the biggest weapon so I was also the scariest.” She explained. “I am very tough though. Many levels helped that out.” She thudded her chest a bit with a deep chuckle. “Most would be… unhappy to see the sort of wounds I had. I can guess you have experience like me?” She asked as she started to get up, yipped with a wince, then chuckled a bit more as she sat back down rubbing some of her wounds.

“Yeah.” His answer was short with only a nod as he finished putting up the supplies. He didn’t really want to go into the details with someone he had just met after all. Hell, he barely talked about it with Jack.

“Hm. You are not lying.” she said with a deep breath. “Only the cowards brag.” She then leaned back again with a sigh. “Zilta.” She calmly yipped out. “Zilta is my name. What is yours human?” She asked watching as Jack and Nelva talked with the leader of the caravan to try and sort out just what to do with all the injured. She could hear both Jack and Pio agreeing that the bumpy carts would be bad for their injuries and now were just sorting out details.

“Jack is a good person.” She calmly pointed out before turning back to John. “Very confident. Very smart too. I have seen eyes like his before.”

“What do you mean?” John asked before sitting by her having nowhere better to go. Not that this spot was bad though.

“He sees many things, understands much, and has… his own experience. His eyes hold the cold of one who has brought death to others.”

John couldn’t help but chuckle. “Him? Nah. We have only killed monsters so far and he didn’t have military service on his record. I checked.”

Zilta calmly shook her head just a bit. “Ah, one does not need to be a soldier to kill, but that is his story.” She looked back down to John with a grin. “I am more interested in our story. Being one of the most injured I assume I will be loaded onto your ship, correct?” The large gnoll adjusted some of her bandages that were already turning a bit red again. Sure the stitches were done well, but healing still took time.

“Yeah. Don’t want the stitches popping back open due to a hard bump. Your skin was pretty hard to get through too.” John agreed before he got up. “Want to be first on board?” He asked as he held a handout to her. He grunted as she grabbed his hand and gave it a test pull, only to smile wide as she found him strong enough to actually hold her weight!

“I met a few humans before. Mercenaries. None could hold me.” She confessed now looking him over with a new spark in her eyes as her short black head fur flowed in the breeze a bit. “Impressive. How?” She lifted an eyebrow as she looked back up at him wanting the answer to this secret. Both to hopefully get stronger herself as well as due to her “interest” in him. She always did enjoy her men strong and “exotic.”

John pulled up the woman that would make an Amazonian blush trying hard to ignore two “pressing” issues against his side. “Soldiers in my world get access to… potions that help us get stronger faster. Add in special training and the fact I always was pretty strong and you get this.” He explained as he started to help her towards the ship.

“Damn. Talked to long.” She growled out seeing a few more injured already being loaded up onto the ship.

“We got a few beds. If push comes to shove I will just let you use mine.” He offered with a nod. Seeing the look she gave him he let out a sigh. “Without me in it.” He added on as he could even feel her tail thwacking against his back.

“Damn, and here I was thinking I was being subtle.” Zilta whimpered out.

“Besides. Stitches.” John reminded her as he helped her up the step and into the ship. She rolled her eyes and was about to make a snarky reply before she looked around the ship with a whistle.

“Damn, you have enough metal to armor a dragon!” She yelped out in surprise. “No wonder your buddy was able to rip apart those bandits so easily. To be able to afford this kinda gear you have to be seriously well funded. What is your group and how can I join?” she asked looking around without paying too much attention to the other injured slowly being put into the spare bedrooms, in the infirmary, and the last couple on the floor of the cargo bay.

The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

There were six bedrooms in total. One was full of weapon diagrams, a couple of metal music posters, and a few propaganda posters for the military. The bed was carefully made up and a few other bits of memorabilia were about like photos from a warzone and a worn pair of dog tags.

Another empty room had a few art pieces hanging on the wall with a mix of traditional and classical mixed in. There were also a couple of wall scrolls and a couple figures of dragons and other scaled or horned girls in quite suggestive poses.

The last room was empty sans Nelva’s bags and staff. She had yet to even lay down to properly enjoy the bed. All bedrooms had a small desk, a bed, a closet, a few storage drawers, and a door that could lock to give whoever was inside privacy.

“Alright. My room it is.” John grunted as he led the awestruck gnoll to his bedroom before laying her down carefully on the bed. It was very fortunate that they made the beds large just in case any new members of a crew were large like her, or if the current crew needed to, or wanted to, share a bed. Her moan echoed down the hall making more than a few helpers poke their heads into the door just to see what had happened.

What had happened was a gnoll spread out on the bed, closed her eyes, and let her body sink into the mattress. “Ohhhh I have never laid on a bed this nice before.” She groaned out as she refused to even move her ears. There was no way in hell she wanted to risk even losing a bit of the pure comfort she was now in!

John chuckled and sat down at the desk looking her over. “So, do you have a place to rest and recover once we get to where we are going?” He asked as he looked over the huge woman on his bed. Sure, the bed was nice, but was it really that good? He then grinned when he realized she probably never really got a bed at all, then squirmed imagining riding on those old wooden carts for days. He knew how tempting even a nice bit of carpet was after a few weeks out in the field himself.

“You okay?” John chuckled watching her pretty much melt into his bed. He didn’t care at all that it was getting dirty since Truck-kun handled the cleaning.

“Mmm. Seriously. Who? Who do I join to get a bed like this?” She asked not bothering to open her eyes as the only thing keeping her from simply falling asleep was the pain across her body and the conversation she was having with John. She really wanted to learn how she could live in such luxury herself, and preferably with him as well.

“The company doesn’t exist here really. We got sent here from another dimension to gather magical gems to send back. We send gems, they send supplies and more. Other than that, we are free to do what we want.” He explained as he took a large mug of water that slid out of the wall from truck-kun. He then sat by her on the bed and held it down to her.

“Here.” John pressed the mug against a rather nasty bruise on her shoulder getting another moan from her. This time nobody bothered to come check in on them since they all knew who was involved and the condition she was in.

“Oh that is ice!” She yelped out as she sat up and grabbed the mug. “John, my gratitude is more countless than there are blades of grass in the planes.” She stated before starting to chug the water. Her body shivered and shook from the cold and from the taste of pure water. “Ohhh I would have taken FAR more bolts for this.” She groaned out before leaning against the edge of the bed.

“If you keep giving me water this nice and a bed this soft I will gladly work for you.” She admitted before her ears flicked. “Oh, shit! And for food and a little bit of pay too. Can’t live off of water alone no matter how good it-“ Zilta’s words cut off as she sniffed a bowl that had slid out of the wall in front of her. Inside was red meat covered in salt and pepper with a bit of herbs on top.

She looked at the food, back to John, then back to the food before taking the bowl not even bothering to question the fact the food had just come out of the ship in a metal hand. She took one bite of the “fresh” meat before leaning against the wall even harder. “Fresh water, ice, comfy bed, and the best meat I have ever eaten? All inside a metal moving fortress?” Zilta gently shook her head thinking for awhile before looking John right in the eyes.

“I am an elite mercenary. Retired from service which I proudly served the kingdom of Ulatria with honors. I have lived life as a mercenary clearing bandits, dungeon monsters, and guarding various things. If you feed me, house me, and keep me healthy then I will work for you without needing gold.” She offered with a cold determination showing her professionalism at last.

John let out a chuckle. “Well, Jack picked one of our party members so guess it’s my turn.” He then looked her in the eye returning the cold, determined aura she was putting out. “Maybe. One, you are in no condition to do anything right now. Two, while I did see your combat skill I need to make sure that you will fit in with us personality wise. We will continue to house and care for you until you are healed. While that is ongoing you and me will get to kn- talk and hang out.” He took a breath keeping his composure after nearly saying something that could be taken very much the wrong way. “If everything works out then we will take you in and negotiate then. I won’t be making you work for us with that little compensation so we will work things out more fairly. BY that time hopefully we will have a bit more supplies or other means to pay you more as well.”

She nodded before returning to her food. “That is a very fair offer John, and one I will happily take you up on.” With that she took another long gulp of her water. She was hoping that she would be taken in by them. Just being around one who had served a proper military alone was worth the deal! She was sick and tired of being around those who only knew basic hired work.

In the kitchen Jack was still working out details with the caravan leader. Trying to figure out compensation as well as more about those he had just helped.