The cat ran to the window and looked out while Gerard deactivated his phantasmal assault skill or whatever it was called. The innkeeper didn’t even need to go over to know the man had gotten away. Instead, she turned back to the hall to see the lamia pushing past the other people in the hallway. Gerard had mostly blocked the hall while using his skill meaning no one save the nimble cat girl could get past him. As a result, the lamia sorceress hadn’t gotten to cast any more of her spells. She looked angry.
“I could have stopped him if there weren’t so many useless adventurers in my way,” she said while shoving people out of her path. No one wanted to be in the way of an angry snake woman. Gerard was frowning at the broken window but stepped back as brushed past him.
“That was more than just a burglar. He broke into our room and tried to kill me, however my team and I have not been in the city longer than an evening,” the lephori adventurer said with a grave expression.
“Which room is your room?” the snake woman asked. He gestured and she made a face. “Ah, that explains it.”
“Excuse me?” the lephori man said, confusion apparent on his face. Candice understood as well and she spoke up.
“Ms. Kseniya and her adventuring team have had some trouble lately. They originally booked three rooms but were kind enough to allow me to change their room arrangements to free up space. Your room was theirs at the start of the week,” Candice explained. Gerard looked from the innkeeper to the snake woman who was dabbing a cloth in the blood on the floor.
“And ‘some trouble’ involves men sneaking into your beds in the quiet hours of the night to knife you, I take it?” he asked. A number of other adventurers and guests were quietly listening in. Candice could feel them judging whether it was better to stay or go look for another inn on the morrow. She groaned inwardly. She was just thinking how good it was to have her inn mostly full again.
“Mostly our team leader,” the cat girl said while picking up the knife. It was a beautiful blade with a bejeweled pommel and an intricate engraving into the blade’s metal. It looked more like a display piece than an actual weapon to be wielded in battle but she supposed enough magic easily made them one and the same. Either way, it looked expensive.
“Yes, we’ve been here less than a week and this makes the fifth time someone has tried to kill us or Brivaria,” the lamia commented. Candice blanched and she wasn’t the only one. Some of the guests had gone back to their rooms but a few were still listening. One person went to fetch the guard while the rest talked.
“And how, exactly, does one get that many assassination attempts in a single week?” Murado asked, the lizardkin man being one of those who stayed alongside the rest of Tooth and Nail.
“Brivaria has white wings and blonde hair. She has been mistaken for Zenith Penrose several times now,” the lamia explained while putting the bloody cloth in a pouch. Candice didn’t miss that detail. Everyone noticed the sorceress had taken the blood of the attacker. Candice knew there were witches and other classes that could do terrible things with blood, hair, scales, or even a feather. The snake woman was already large but the innkeeper thought she saw a couple people give the sorceress just a little more room. No one wanted to be on the bad side of someone who might possess skills like that.
“Where is this Brivaria now?” Gerard asked.
“Handling other matters tonight. A girl needs a night off from the murder attempts, you know?” Finally some humor entered the serpent woman’s expression. Nervous laughter followed the jest but no one relaxed.
Brivaria wouldn’t have described her experience in the woods as relaxing but the evening was turning out to be less stressful than the morning and afternoon. Giselle was content to rest on the cushion with Trixie keeping her company. The little deer’s coat was gorgeous and incredibly soft. Her horns had a glow about them but they seemed to shrink along with her body making them small and cute shrunken down as the hind now was. The deer didn’t have an ethereal look about her but the slight glow of her horns alongside the sheen of her golden coat instantly marked her as special.
The angel made an attempt to carve the boar. That was the best and most charitable way to describe it. Brivaria wasn’t certain she’d done anything correctly but she stuffed the meat and other bits into her inventory. Maybe she’d show a butcher or a cook and get some help making sense of it all. For now she consoled herself that she was ensuring meat didn’t go to waste, probably.
She’d learned a few things while carving the meat. Firstly, she realized that her knife wasn’t very effective. The boar’s hide was very resilient to being cut, a fact she’d already discovered while trying to hit it with her sword earlier. She quickly abandoned the knife and used the blade on the end of her tail. It could cleanly cut the hide and she could hold it like a knife while getting the tactile feedback of using her own body. The whole carving process involved a lot of experimentation with her Natural Weapons skill but the angel felt as though she’d learned a lot.
Once the boar was taken care of, the angel convinced the dog and deer to move away from where they fought the bear just in case it came back looking for round two or the carcass of the boar attracted carrion feeders or, worse, people. The golden hind was happy to go with the angel and Brivaria considered that she might be the first person who’d ever talked to the deer.
Giselle had been trying to talk to the natural inhabitants of the forest as well as the people who visited it for weeks but with no luck. After being attacked by the silver people, the mercenaries Brivaria guessed, the deer began avoiding them specifically. Still she waited near the forest’s edge in the hopes that someone new would come out to meet her. She was scared and confused at why people were so mean to her.
That was going to be a hard conversation so the angel decided to have it over dinner. She setup camp and presented Giselle with food and more water. Trixie was a dog and, even though she could apparently fire holy bolts from her mouth, she was still relegated to dog-safe food. Giselle was a land spirit in the form of a golden hind so Brivaria was willing to be a little more adventurous with what she offered the deer.
“These are so good,” the little deer said with delight while trying various nuts and berries the angel offered. Everyone that lived in the country seemed to have a gardening skill and half a dozen berry bushes that produced daily so Brivaria had loads upon loads of berries of different types. They were one of the most common sides at meals and Brivaria had plenty of leftovers still as ripe and fresh as the day they were served thanks to her inventory skill.
“I’m glad you like them,” the angel said while watching her mana pool climb steadily. Her Rest skill was active and now past the halfway mark so she was finally getting mana back.
“I am glad I met you. You are so nice,” Giselle said while chewing her food. The voice wasn’t coming from the deer directly. That is, Giselle only made normal deer noises. The voice was magically projected to the angel’s ears. It wasn’t telepathy. It was technically possible for those who were nearby and listening to hear the golden hind speaking but her voice was soft enough that it may as well be telepathy for all intents and purposes. The angel imagined a lot of people were spooked by suddenly hearing the little voice repeating “hello” which no one else around them could hear.
“I’m glad we met too. I don’t have good news for you though,” the winged girl said and then began to explain about the mercenaries and the hunt. By the end of it the little deer was shaking in fear. It took an effort of will not to pick up the small animal and hold her.
“I don’t want to be hunted. I didn’t do anything to them, I promise. Please believe me,” Giselle begged. Brivaria could hear the fear and confusion in the magical voice.
“I know,” Brivaria reassured, “I know you didn’t do anything and I’m not going to let them hurt you.” Giselle rose up and walked to where the angel sat, cross-legged on the ground.
“Do you mean that?” Giselle asked and the angel nodded. When she realized the deer probably didn’t understand the significance of the nod she spoke up.
“Yes, I do. I’ve got some ideas on what to do already,” Giselle said with audible relief. She rubbed her head against Brivaria’s and the angel could all but feel the warmth and relief coming off the spirit. Damn the consequences, Brivaria reached out and pet the deer, just as she had done earlier while using Healing Touch. Giselle didn’t object though Trixie padded over to get her own share of the pets. The angel had two hands so she multi-tasked.
“What should I do?” Giselle asked after a time. The golden hind was relaxing on the ground while Brivaria stroked the deer’s fur. Trixie was now doing that thing where she laid on the ground and slowly wiggled closer and closer to the deer to see if or when Giselle would react. Her happy, brown eyes saw a new friend in the tiny deer. Trixie’s antics left the dog’s stomach woefully unguarded so Brivaria scritched the dog’s belly and got an excited wuff.
“What can you do? What level are you? Do you have classes or skills that might help?” the angel asked. Time began to pass while Giselle stared off into space, checking her status screen the angel realized.
“I’m a level 42 Spirit of the Golden Hind,” Giselle responded nervously. Brivaria blinked. The deer was higher level than she was.
“I can make myself bigger and talk to you and run really fast and…” Giselle began listing off skills then stopped. Brivaria counted the skills the deer described and frowned. Giselle listed eight skills.
“What are your other skills and classes?” the winged girl asked.
“Other classes? I do have 14 unspent skill point things but I wasn’t sure what to do with them. There are so many choices!” Giselle was excited and Brivaria was confused.
“Yes,” the angel said slowly, “do you have any pending class advancements?” There was a pause before Giselle replied as she once more checked her status screen.
“No, nothing like that. Should I use more skill points?” Giselle’s little tail was swishing back and forth not unlike what Trixie’s tail did and the little doe looked up at Brivaria with curious eyes.
“Yes, you should probably do so. You’re going to need those skills,” the angel replied but mentally added “sooner rather than later” to the statement.