As I was engrossed in my conversation with Sid, I somehow missed that the two coaches had crossed over the bridge. Now that they were moving further away, I nearly sprinted behind them.

"Hey guys, where are you going?" I asked in my booming voice.

The only response to my roars was the orcs' line becoming increasingly tense.

I sighed, torn between whether to walk over the orcs or not. Nobody seemed to understand me. Nobody? I turned to Sid who was watching me, unsure of what to do. He did understand me!

"Should I do something, mama? Should I stop them?" he asked, ready to lend a helping claw or two.

I quickly looked back at the coaches and caught a glimpse of Alice seated on the coachman's bench, giving me a discreet hand signal that everything was under control. It was a brief gesture, a swift flick of the wrist, in that sign language she and Cala had devised over the years. In that fleeting motion, she conveyed a sense of reassurance, and I immediately grasped her meaning.

"No."I turned towards Sid. "Let them go."

He let out a growl and nodded, continuing to scan the orcs.

I let out a sigh. So, after that initial moment of misunderstanding, Alice had finally grasped the situation at hand! It seemed that Ju, too, had caught on, as she appeared highly agitated. Through the coach's side window, her eyes locked with mine, filled with a mix of concern and fear. One might have thought she was terrified of the dragon, but as our gazes met, I realized her apprehension stemmed from her worry for my well-being after the transformation. She was fearful for the state of my soul, fearing I might be too stressed by the change. However, I had to admit—there was a strange contentment, a deep sense of peace, in this new dragon form. Perhaps Ju’s concerns were unfounded after all. Maybe she had misjudged the situation.

I shrugged. It seemed Alice had made a conscious decision to keep her distance, likely to avoid having to explain everything to the orcs. Her actions also suggested that she didn’t think the situation was immediately dangerous, and well… maybe I shouldn’t devour the orcs after all.

I sighed and turned to Sid. "Let’s head into the woods and have a little chat," I said in my mind, feeling the instant telepathic reply: “Sure, mama!”

Telepathy really is a cool thing.

"You guys do remember I’m not a telepath, right? Too much to ask for a translation, eh?" Lynx grumbled from his side, though he followed us anyway.

While I was telling Sid a summary of what had happened and where we were, Sid kept interpreting things in a way that put me in a positive light. It came naturally and surprisingly sometimes, leaving me speechless. For instance, I explained that we had the situation with the decaying ring, and nobody knew how to wake him up. He then completed the story by himself:

"And then you came and woke me up with your dragon call, saving me from oblivion! Thank you, mama!"

It was a bit unnerving but also strangely fulfilling, like my soul needed such praise, contrary to what Lynx was adding, as if trying to puncture my too bloated ego.

"Yep, she chose the best moment to do it, and almost got us to fight Alice and our guys. Well done, Lores!"

I snorted, annoyed. Somehow, Lynx was managing to understand the context and was placing his puncturing comments based on the verbal feedback from Sid. He seemed to enjoy the fun of playing riddles.

As I paused my storytelling, Sid asked if he could see Alice and Tina again. I explained that yes, of course, we would meet them.

Well, maybe it was time to go to the inn and meet them. Even though Alice had made that sign that everything was under control, I still feared the orcs might do some mischief, so I decided to turn back into my human form and go together with Sid and Lynx to meet them.

While dark clouds of the spell gathered around me, I had a short moment of hesitation, thinking that I maybe should go back first to the lynx form. But then, I decided to go with the spell and transform directly into a human.

Once the dark clouds surrounding me dissipated, I heard Sid praising me. "Cool spell! Mama, I like your improved human avatar!"

Improved? What did he mean by that? I wasn't sure if it was something good, but I couldn't answer him as suddenly, I got the feeling that I was being torn apart. A moan escaped my lips, and I almost fell down. His giant head balanced in front of me, with his big black eyes looking worried at me. Behind me, I felt Lynx trying to support me.

I fell to my knees and then rested on one hand. As I was breathing hard, I saw that my hand had claws. It was not a human hand; it was a paw. A lynx's paw.

It took me a long time to do something or say something, frozen due to the splitting pain.

Other parts didn't feel quite right; my legs were strangely curved with prominent muscles. At least my breasts and belly seemed to be okay.

"Tell us if we can do something," Lynx said after a certain time.

After another couple of minutes, Sid turned to him.

"I know that creating a human avatar can be a long and painful process. It's a good start!" he whispered.

While until then my brain had been shock-pain-frozen, slowly a few brain cells had started to work. I briefly wondered if the mishap happened because of that brief moment of hesitation or if this was the soul stretching backlash that Ju had warned me about?

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"What do you know about creating a human avatar?" I asked.

My voice surprised me; it was harsh and guttural, but the words were understandable.

His eyes lit up at my question, and he eagerly responded.

"My mommy had told me many stories about spells. So many stories! There were several about creating avatars!" His tone changed suddenly as he exclaimed, "Oh, I miss my mommy so much! You won't leave me, right?"

"Of course not!" I replied, trying to sound consoling as he placed his huge head in my reach. I touched him, and he sighed, then after a short break, continued,

"I learned of a young dragon who wanted to create himself a human avatar. He had worked for months to create it, changing back and forth, correcting the mistakes. At times, it even changed a bit his dragon form, and he had to change back, but it worked in the end."

"How long did it take him?" I wondered.

"I don't know, mama," he replied, lowering his head in shame. "But I know it was a long time. And I know he died—killed while in human form! Human forms are so much weaker!"

Him calling me 'mama' was starting to grate on my nerves. When I agreed to it, I hadn’t really thought it through. "Can you call me Lores when we talk?" I asked.

A flicker of panic flashed in his eyes. "Is this a punishment because I didn't know the answer to your question?" he whispered, his reaction surprising and shocking me.

"No, no! It's... I’d just prefer if you called me Lores."

I was about to explain that 'mama' made me feel old, but I stopped myself at the last second. Who knew how he’d react to that?

He let out a huge sigh, and a grin spread across his dragon face, showing off a lot of sharp teeth. "Oh, cool! So I can call you Lores, and it’s not a punishment?"

"Of course!" I replied, relieved to have that sorted out.

As I finally gathered my wits enough to conjure a mirror in the air, I took a good look at myself: I mostly resembled a female human, but my legs were bent wrong, more like a feline's, and though my arms were human, they ended in paws. Strangely, I hadn’t noticed before, but I had a long, wide reptilian tail. My back was partially covered in chestnut hair, and my face was a strange mix of reptilian and human. Two huge black horns spiraled upward from my head.

I sighed in despair, but before I could dwell too long on my reflection, Lynx interrupted my self-admiration session.

"I don’t want to rush you, but I sense Alice and Ju are approaching us."

Even in my current state, I couldn’t help but feel a bit of envy toward Lynx. He could sense them, even though we couldn't see or hear a thing. How far did his domain reach? True, we were in the forest, and visibility was limited, but still!

“I wonder why Tina didn’t come!” Sid grumbled.

“I’m sure she wanted to, but they probably told her it was too dangerous,” Lynx explained soothingly.

“Is someone following them?” I asked, as Lynx's explanation reminded me of the orcs.

Lynx's ears twitched slightly, his eyes narrowing as he focused for a moment. "I don't sense anyone right now, but it doesn’t hurt to stay alert."

“I'll go get the girls!” Lynx suddenly said and vanished into the forest. Less than a minute later, he reappeared with Ju and Alice in tow.

As soon as Ju caught sight of me, her eyes widened in shock. “Oh, my! What have you done?!”

“If you tell me 'I told you so,' I swear I'm gonna explode!” I snapped back, already bracing for her lecture.

“You may have wrecked all your transformations! Don't you understand how this works? It’ll take you eons to recover!” she scolded, her voice sharp with frustration.

“Now's not the time, Ju,” Alice interrupted sternly. “You promised you wouldn’t make a fuss.”

“I’m not making a fuss,” Ju said, though her tone softened. She took a breath and explained more calmly, “It’s like trying to cram too many things into a tiny space. Force them in, and you end up with a pile of broken pieces.”

She sighed, noticing Alice's disapproving glare. Then, placing a hand gently on my shoulder, I felt a soothing spell wash over me, easing some of my tension.

“Sorry,” Ju said, her voice quieter. “It’s fixable, but you’re going to need time to rest and work on it.”

“What’s the deal with the orcs?” Lynx asked.

“They all report to a captain named Drackar,” Alice explained. “I couldn’t quite gauge his strength, but I know the name. He’s a well-known mercenary captain. Cala once negotiated with him for a raid, but in the end, he didn’t join. Back then, Cala said he was a respectable captain and that his orcs always keep their word. Do you remember him?” she asked, turning to me.

I nodded. “Yeah, I do know him, though we only communicated through an intermediary. I haven’t met him face-to-face. He’s a native wororc—ruthless but honorable. That’s about the extent of what I know.” I sighed, recalling the details. “So, what did they want at the bridge?”

“They were charging a tax for crossing—one silver per coach, twenty copper for horsemen. I had to calm Durham down; he wanted to challenge them.”

I huffed. “You did the right thing. Some of those orcs are pretty high-level. But are you sure they won’t attack once you’ve left?”

“They wouldn’t dare. It’d be dishonorable. They won’t touch anyone unless one of ours does something reckless,” Alice assured. “It looks like they’re just content to exploit the domain for now. There was also a boy from the inn working as their interpreter. He was happy to fill us in on details—he’s earning ten copper per coach, which is pretty good pay if you think about it.”

I sighed. "So, we’ll have to dislodge them... That could turn bloody. They’ve got some pretty high-level fighters in their ranks."

“I’d guess the captain’s around level ninety-six,” Ju chimed in, though she didn’t sound entirely certain. At Alice’s curious look, Ju shrugged innocently. “I have my ways of gauging people. I send out small healing pulses. Most don’t even realize I’m doing it…”

Alice sighed and shrugged, then turned back to me. “Well, he wants to meet you.”

Ju’s brows furrowed. “Do you think it’s safe?”

Alice shrugged. “The locals claim it’s been safer since the orcs took over the domain. They’re administering it through the xsoha. From what I gather, it might be possible to reclaim the domain without a fight—maybe after paying some kind of ransom.”

“There’s no need to pay ransom! I’d grill them until they leave! How dare they squat on Lores’ land?” Sid interjected, his voice sharp with indignation.

Alice raised a brow at his sudden outburst. “Maybe meet and talk with Drackar first before jumping into a fight?” she suggested calmly.

“How many orcs does he have?” I asked.

“Probably a couple hundred fighters,” Alice replied, then added, “and an unusually high number of them are high-level. It feels almost like standing in front of the king. This is an elite troop, or at least the part I’ve seen.”

“This could be a trap! You’re too weak in your human form!” Sid protested, turning to me with concern.

“If we’re thinking about a fight, we’ve got a lot of soft spots with us, don’t we?” Lynx added, then faced me as well. “Can you fight as a dragon?”

“I’m not sure, but I hope my instincts would kick in,” I replied. “Still, if we can avoid a fight, I’d prefer it, especially now with all those 'soft spots,' as Lynx calls them, back at the inn.”

“That’s wise,” Lynx nodded in agreement. “Let’s see what they want. You can throw some illusions over yourself—that should be enough. I’ll carry you to the inn, and Sid and I will offer protection in case things go south. What do you think, Sid?”

“Sure! I’ll fly above and circle around, and mama just has to tell me who needs burning!” Sid said enthusiastically.

“Should I tell them you’re ready to talk? Can you manage a conversation in your current state?” Alice asked.

I nodded.

“I’ll stay with Lores,” Ju chimed in as Alice was preparing to leave. “She needs some care.”

“All right,” Alice said with a nod. “Anything else before I go? No? Then see you later at the inn!”