“Vel, you’re greedy.” I smiled as I finally managed to break away. She had tried hard to keep my head down. It took my pedipalps tickling her armpits to break her hold.

“I’m sorry, Elania. You’re just delicious.”

“Is that so?” I said, as I laid down my head next to hers.

“Hmmm, speaking of delicious, what do you use to wash your hair?” I asked.

“You like it? It’s hardfruit oil shampoo mixed with roses and shadowbloom scents.”

“I love it, I’d like some for myself, if we can get our hands on it.”

“It’s a bit of a luxury product, I’d have to check if it’s available right now.”

“Expensive?” I asked.

“Not really, just not on sale for everyone.”

So it was a social status issue, lame.

I spread my legs once more. My right legs still had the elf under them. I took some of Velariah’s hair and spread it on the grass next to her head, then rested my head on it. I closed my eyes and let go of everything.

She smelled wonderful.

Velariah grasped my hand again.

“You’re getting there, El.” She whispered.

“I have you to blame for that,” I whispered back.

Letting go of everything turned out to be harder than expected, with my heart racing. She really had me in a stranglehold.

We remained silent and I simply took in the sun’s rays. I could feel my carapace harden and warm up.

I used my second right arm to hold on to Velariah’s frame and relaxed.

I think I may have fallen asleep. The next moment I registered, she had an arm around me and shook me gently.

“Oi, sleepyhead. If you keep that up, you won’t sleep tonight.”

“Hmm, I was far too comfortable. How long was I out?” I asked.

“No idea, I fell asleep as well.”

“Nice going, Vel.” I grinned. “How are things looking back there?” I pointed my head in the direction of my rear.

“Want me to check?” Velariah asked politely but with a slight tease in her voice.

“If that makes you happy, by all means, go for it.”

I moved away the prison bars that were my legs in order to allow her to stand back up. She walked up to my rear and put her hand on it. She then took her other hand and knocked twice.

What was I, a watermelon?

Why did people knock on watermelons anyway?

“Actually, I have no idea what I’m doing.” She admitted.

“I figured as much,” I replied. “It does seem it’s hardened out pretty well already.”

I looked up to the sky. It seemed like it was still afternoon.

“Shall we get some things out of the way in the village?” I suggested.

“Could do.”

“You hungry?” Velariah asked as I stood up.

“Not really. I’m actually surprised at it. God, this body’s food intake is impossible to schedule.”

Velariah grinned. “I thought it was as simple as just stuffing your face before heading out.”

“That’s mostly true, though.”

I thought about what I said for a second.

“Yeah, forget what I said, it isn’t hard to plan at all. Eat before missions and then again after, depending on how much silk I spent and the amount of running I did.”

“See, I knew it was simple,” Velariah said as she stretched. “Let’s cash in on your silk, shall we?”

I nodded and followed her lead.

While we were still in the grass, I tried walking the other way some more. I didn’t trip this time so that was an improvement in itself. I stopped it when we reached the village with its cobblestone streets.

Our first stop would be the tailor. It didn’t take long. It was a simple matter of get in, get paid, get out.

And so we were on our way to the second stop. We came to the front of a wooden building behind a market stall filled with everyday items. Everything from sponges to towels, cutlery, and tools were displayed.

I waited outside as Velariah entered to buy some shampoo.

She returned with a large, corked, glass flask. Inside were different colors of liquids in layers. I could see white on the bottom with a small layer of red and purple above that.

“That looks quite fancy,” I admitted as she put it away in her pack.

“It does.” She sighed. “But it’s pretty annoying you need to mix it before every use.”

Oh, I could see what was going on here.

They hadn’t discovered emulsifiers yet, or at least, not the kind for shampoos.

I looked around to check nobody was going to hear what I was about to say.

“You know, back on Earth, we had things that we added that would keep it mixed together all the time.”

“No fucking way,” Velariah exclaimed.

“Yeap, we could pretty much mix everything we wanted and have it stay that way.” I smiled.

‘’That’s so cool!’’ She said.

We walked onward in the direction of Dworag’s store.

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“By the way,” Velariah started. “What kind of enchants would you like on those gauntlets you commissioned?”

I thought for a few moments. “How many slots do they have?”

“Three.”

“That’s pretty neat. I was thinking to at least go for a featherlight enchant - they are bound to be heavy. Besides that, probably one of those block enchants that Draco has and, lastly… I guess something for the sword? Maybe a fire one? They seem to be quite effective in combination with dragon-blessed steel.”

“You don’t want poison-enhancing enchants?”

I shook my head. “I didn’t get the feeling it did much work. Injecting my venom is far more effective.”

“Fair enough. I’ll be using the money from the silk to get them at the same time I’m picking up the gauntlets.”

“Sounds good to me,” I answered.

We reached the dwarf’s store and Velariah entered. Soon enough, she came walking outside with said dwarf.

“Miss Elania, always a pleasure to see you.” He eyed me for a few seconds. “Ooooh, and I see ya got your leg back.”

“Thanks, Dworag, and yes it does appear that way.”

“Hold on a second here. I’ll insert the gems into the gloves and see how they fit you.”

The dwarf walked back inside. It took a minute before he returned, during which I awkwardly stared at my lower set of arms.

Dworag exited his shop with the items that I'd imagined in my head: a set of gauntlets with round shields attached that covered a fair deal of my arms. The shield stopped at the wrist and attached to the shield was a blade about sixty centimeters in length that passed over the gauntlet. The shield and blade glowed with a slight red color when held in sunlight.

He offered them to me and I equipped one. It fit like a glove. I inwardly giggled at my terrible joke as I observed the three gems that sat in the steel plates on the inner side of my wrist. A red, teal, and white gem were positioned right next to one another.

The inner side of the gloves seemed to consist of fine chainmail, which allowed for my fingers to move freely and provide extra grip.

I made my hand a fist and aimed the gauntlet in front of me. The blade that was attached to it was extremely easy to handle. This was an excellent choice of secondary weapons. I put on the left gauntlet while the dwarf walked back inside again.

I assumed some more poses to see how I would use these in combat. I assumed a blocking stance where I stacked the shields on top of each other before my torso and found that they blocked my entire human body.

I couldn’t wait to try these out. Was this how Draco and Velariah felt when they got their new weapons too?

“Is there any easy quest in the area? I really want to try these.” I asked excitedly.

“Haven’t looked. I’ve been with you the entire time, remember?”

“Let’s drop off the shampoo and gold at home and check!”

“If you think you’re okay for combat then I don’t mind.” The elf answered.

“I think I’ll be okay.”

Dworag appeared in the doorway again with another set of gauntlets. I was so excited with these that I’d almost forgotten I asked for a second set.

“These are a bit more plain with only a featherlight enchant.” He spoke.

“That’s fine. I am already very thankful for your work. It seems you and Coldanus created a masterpiece.”

“Heh.” The dwarf chuckled. “He wasn’t that cooperative until I told him it was for you. He changed his mind quite quickly after that. Perhaps your beauty struck him too?”

I imagined it was Valtheril’s fist that struck him sooner than my beauty.

I shrugged. “Who knows?”

He handed me the second set and I equipped them as well. I had Velariah hold on to my spear a bit. I was going to have to be careful with these blades attached to my other hands.

“These are excellent,” I commented on the weight and protection that they seemed to provide. “Thank you so much, Dworag.”

“No problem, Miss Elania. Happy to help.”

“Have you paid for the gems, Velariah?” I asked.

She nodded in response. “Two gold down, this means we own thirty-four total gold coins now.”

“Getting there,” I said in response.

We were making headway on our quest to acquire fifty gold for the inherity ritual.

At this rate, we might even have the entire sum before Valtheril returned. Actually, with the few days lost from my molting, he shouldn’t be gone for too much longer, anyway.

I thanked Dworag again for his work, took my spear back from the elf, and, together with Velariah, quickly made my way over to her mansion. The elf had to start jogging in order to keep up with me.

“Holy, El, chill!” The elf panted when we reached her home.

“I’m sorry! I want to try these so badly.”

“I get it, I get it. I felt the same way,” She said, then knocked.

Elly soon opened the door and Velariah handed her the shampoo and a coin pouch. Elly took them from her and couldn’t help but stare at my new equipment. I smiled at her and she returned a polite smile before she walked through the doors to the dining area and Velariah closed the door leading outside.

After that, we made our way to the guild hall.

“It’s going to take some time getting used to these blades,” I said. “Gotta be careful when in the village, don’t wanna accidentally stab someone.”

I tried out a few poses. The best one seemed to be the one where I literally had the blades pointing to the ground with the blunt side and the shield in front of me. These weren’t exactly the most wieldy items I could have commissioned.

I shrugged.

As long as they worked, right?

We reached the guild hall and made a beeline to the quest board.

“Let’s see what would be a good target.”

I eyed the quests and found one that caught my interest because we already had experience fighting it - there was an open quest for a Bunbear. I figured it would make for excellent target practice. The one gold reward was mediocre, compared to what I could make just eating and excreting silk, but all small things did add up.

I took the paper and headed over to the Lore keeper.

I showed her the quest and asked for any information on the beast’s whereabouts.

“I believe that one was last spotted next to that goat farmer’s fields.”

“What, as in, outside the forest?” I asked.

She nodded.

Interesting.

“Alright, let’s have a look.”

Before heading out, I decided to get a drink first.

“Vel?” I turned to the elf. “You want something to drink as well?”

“Sounds like a great idea, I was about to ask you the same.”

I was looking forward to some strawberry juice but, unfortunately, they were out, so I had to settle for milk.

That was a bummer.

One glass of milk later, we were on our way to the southern village exit.

Walking past the cherry bushes was painful. Partly because I forgot to ask Dworag for the saddlebags (I think he forgot as well, judging by how enthusiastic he was about these gauntlets) and partly because, even if we collected them, I couldn’t drink coffee.

We kept a close eye on movements in the forest but didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

No Bunbear here.

We reached the end of the field and walked along with the fencing in the direction of the farmstead. There weren’t many places to hide, if there was a Bunbear here, it would probably be behind the building on the other side.

It wasn’t long until we had found our quarry. It was currently feasting on one of the goats in the field adjacent to the farmstead.

That poor goat…

If only it had eaten those berries, it could have outrun the Bunbear for sure.

I doubted the beast was going to be able to outrun me.

“There it is,” Velariah said. “It’s all yours, enjoy.”

She unsheathed her weapon. I assumed she did that just in case things took a turn for the worse. I sneaked behind the animal while it was eating the goat carcass.

I thought about how I would go about this, but I guessed I shouldn’t play around too much and actually use its distraction to my advantage. I decided I was just going to charge it from its rear and plunge my three weapons into its body.

I built up speed and momentum and charged at the animal, which wasn’t suspecting a sudden attack.

I held out my hands in fists so that the shields were facing upwards and ran. Not at the fastest speed I could, because I feared I might break an arm or two if I impacted it too hard.

I was certain these blades were sharp and would be able to penetrate the beast’s skin without too much effort.

I reached the beast and impaled it with two blades and a spear at the same time. I had calculated my speed correctly, as I came to a halt with only minor strain from the impact on my arms.

The beast roared in pain and I quickly retracted my weapons as it turned around. I held my gauntlets in an X formation and allowed the Bunbear to take a swipe at them.

I could feel the impact, but that was about it. That block enhancer really seemed to do its job well.

After I blocked another swipe, the beast let out a roar that died down with it.

Piercing seemed to be fine. I was already thinking of other ways to use these weapons when Velariah came walking up to me.

“That looked neat.” She said as she sheathed her sword. “Can’t wait to see more.”

“Yeah, I just thought of the other way I intend to use these.”

“Which is?” She asked.

“Running at high speed with my arms like this.”

I stretched out my arms to the sides, holding the shields with their blades diagonally.

“That looks painful. Not for you, but for anyone that is next to you as you run past them.”

“That’s the idea.”

I would turn myself into a living, scythed chariot. All I was missing was a rider. Well, maybe I wasn’t missing a rider. I did need some more equipment to allow Velariah to be more effective when she was on my back, though.

And for that, I had to practice walking… again…

Fun times ahead…

“Should we inform the farmer?” I asked, looking at the goat.

“I’m sure the guild will reimburse him. Let’s take this beast to the guild and collect our reward, a gold is a gold after all.”

“That’s a lot of blood though,” I stated, while looking at the Bunbear’s corpse. “And I can’t be bothered to close the wound, you think it’s alright?”

“We’re close enough to the village that it isn’t an issue.”

“Alright.”

I tapped my spinnerets with my back leg and felt proud when I managed to get it right on the first try. I then stuck the thread to the Bunbear’s corpse and dragged the line forward to one of my hands so that I could take hold of it.

“Not bad,” Velariah commented. “You’re really starting to get the hang of it, aren’t you?”

I smiled. “Sure seems that way.”

I cut the thread that still connected to my behind and repeated the process several times so that I had hold of multiple threads that were connected to the Bunbear.

I did the same with my leg on the other side of my body and also repeated the process several times. There were faster ways to do it, but I reckoned some practice wasn’t a bad idea.

When I had two bundles of threads, one on each side, I fastened them to my lower waist and dragged the beast’s corpse towards the village.

Velariah had to open one fence gate for me to be able to get out of the fence with this thing in tow, but after that, it was a fast trip to the village and our destination: the guild hall.

The Lore keeper took notice of us and I saw her disappear through the door behind her. I moved onward to the warehouse and it opened soon after I arrived.

I dropped it off in the area that seemed to be reserved for felled animals and received a gold and five silver from the Lore keeper.

“For the silk.” She winked.

Seemed the tailor and Allina weren’t the only ones aware of its value.

I thanked her and followed Velariah out of the warehouse, its doors closing behind us.

“What next?” I asked, handing the coins to Velariah.

I believe I could see the sun fairly low over the horizon, the red glow of day’s end would soon set in. There were still a couple of hours to go before evening fell, though.

“Dunno. We could look for the others or we could spend some quality time together.” She smiled at me.

“Quality time sounds good. We can talk to the others tomorrow. Anything you had in mind?” I asked.

“Not really. We could just spend a few more hours in the fields, I guess.”

“I’m fine with that.”

Velariah took my only free hand and held it as we made our way to the eastern village gate once more.