Jac had tried to tolerate the wild undergrowth of Silvax Forest that snatched at her arms and legs, that snagged on her tunic for as long as she could. Which was about five minutes. It was hard enough to move through, but the worst part was that she had no way of knowing what beasts might be hiding among the gnarled roots and thorned bushes. She’d already accepted that there was no way she was getting through this without a generous dose of poison ivy, but no way was she going to let some monster snake or spider anywhere near her. It had taken no time at all once she’d passed under the tree cover for the monsters to make their presence known. Rustling in the darkness, bright, glowing eyes, the sound of flapping wings, a strange, almost mechanical clicking that followed her.
Her last nerve had snapped in minutes. She told Clarix to move aside, gripped her hammer, and took a deep breath, bringing all her magic up and into the hammer’s head. Then she swung, shooting all of her magic straight ahead, into the darkness. Undergrowth exploded, monsters shrieked, and leaves and small branches rained down. Before her, a clear path, ten feet wide and Mother knew how long, had opened up.
“See?” Jac told Clarix with an ale-heavy tongue. “Much easier. Lead on.”
Clarix stared at her with bulging yellow-green eyes, trembling.
With a sigh, Jac returned her hammer to its home on her back and showed Clarix her empty hands. “I’ll speak warning before I use it again. Promise.” Then she blinked. “Shit. She’s got me talking to monsters, now.”
The beast seemed to steel herself, then raced forward again and disappeared down the new trail and into the darkness.
The monsters stayed away after that. At least until they reached the end of this trail and Jac had to cut another one.
Jac wondered, as she sprinted through the darkness so muggy it felt a bit like breathing water, her head pounding worse and worse with every step: How had she gotten to this point? Running through Silvax Forest. At night. Actually following a monster. Voluntarily.
More than once, she’d had to stop and swing her hammer at a nightbeast that leapt out of the darkness, snapping wicked teeth or flashing curved claws. So far, she’d only had to kill one of them, an enormous snake that had dripped off a branch, landing right in front of her. The other times, the beasts had fled once they felt the ground shake as she brought her hammer down. She noticed fewer and fewer monsters appeared as they went on—perhaps those that had escaped her had gone and told their friends that the hammer lady wasn’t worth it.
Jac prided herself on her stamina as well as her strength, but Mother Light this journey was not easy. She was dehydrated as hell, both from the ale in her bloodstream and the sweat pouring off her in sheets; at least she’d sobered up, but that just meant trading her wobbliness for an ever-increasing headache. Her nerves were shot, expecting an attack from all sides at all times. And she was pissed.
In front of her, Clarix looked even worse than Jac felt. The beast’s breathing was ragged, desperate. She’d stumbled a dozen times, and each time it took her longer to get all four feet back under her. She was slowing slightly, and Jac couldn’t blame her. But the fact that this monster was pushing herself so hard to help a human she’d just met had warmed Jac to her a bit. Begrudgingly.
It seemed the beast really was that desperate for a bit of kindness.
Not too long after sunlight began filtering through the trees, Clarix stopped, so suddenly that Jac nearly crashed into her.
“What?” Jac rasped.
Clarix’s head swung to the left, foam flying from her lips. After a moment of hesitation, she trotted off to the left. Jac followed, and a minute later she understood the sudden detour. The sound of rushing water.
“Thank the Light Mother,” Jac panted.
Both she and Clarix practically fell into the stream as soon as they saw it. Jac didn’t bother filling her canteen, she just dunked her head straight in. She drank, then splashed water over her neck, then drank some more, then—
“Uh—”
Clarix whirled so fast she nearly kicked Jac in the head.
Some twenty feet downstream stood one of the most beautiful people Jac had ever seen. Completely naked.
This trip just kept getting weirder and weirder.
Long black locks, glistening and dripping in the dim morning light, fell to their elbows. Their high cheekbones and delicate features looked to be carved by the Light Mother herself, but Jac felt sure Mother Dark had sculpted the rippling muscles of their torso, their slim, defined thighs, and the ample dick between their legs. The only thing they wore was a necklace with a charm resting against their dripping chest, what looked to be a violin carved from bone.
“Well, howdy,” they said, a crooked smile pulling at their full lips. “Who might you be?”
They seemed utterly unashamed of their nudity, which was good, because Jac couldn’t seem to stop herself from looking, much as she tried. She couldn’t seem to do anything but look. All the thoughts in her head a moment before—of frustration, of irritation, of wringing Belle’s neck the moment she was done rescuing her—were replaced by a fuzzy, giggly haze in her head. Mother damn it. Not now.
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That crooked smile only widened, and the naked stranger cocked their head. “You and your friend alright?”
Friend. The word brought her back to her senses enough for her to slide her hand back toward the hammer she’d dropped at her side and ask, “You wouldn’t happen to have seen a freckled blonde who talks to monsters tonight, would you?”
“I wish,” they said.
Clarix stood as still as she could on her exhausted legs, staring at the stranger with wide eyes.
“You take naked walks through Silvax Forest in the early hours of the morning a lot?” Jac asked.
They shrugged. “Maybe once a week.” The stranger’s pale eyes trailed over Jac appreciatively, though she couldn’t imagine why, as sweaty and scratched up as she was. She squirmed there on her knees. Mother Light, why did this always happen?
Then their eyes flicked over to Clarix. “I don’t usually stumble upon any parched beauties nor tame monsters when I do, though.”
“Name yourself,” Jac said, making her voice firm.
“I asked you first,” the stranger replied, blinking long, dark lashes at her.
She heard herself saying, “Jac.”
“Jac,” they drew her name out, savoring the feel of it over their tongue. “Pleasure to meet you, Jac. I’m Tobei.”
Ignoring that telltale flip of her stomach, that tingling up her spine, Jac stood, lifting the handle of her hammer with her, needing to even the field. She straightened her back and lifted her chin.
“So,” they started, but Jac didn’t get to find out what came next. Their head turned toward something deeper in the forest just as Clarix’s ears swiveled in the same direction.
“Ah.” They held up a finger. “Just a moment.”
They waded out of the knee-deep water toward a pile of clothes and—an open violin case? They grabbed only the shining black violin and its long, silver bow and continued into the darkness.
Unfrozen now that Tobei was out of sight, Clarix quickly sloshed out of the stream to hide behind Jac. Jac sucked her teeth and said, “Coward.” But she lifted her hammer onto her shoulder, ready to swing in an instant.
Voices drifted toward them, that of Tobei, and one new voice as well.
“…I’ve got a half hour of freedom before guard duty, so—”
A deeper, more somber voice argued, “That doesn’t mean you leave a stranger out here so close to camp, gorgeous or not. Daivad’ll have your ass.”
Jac’s stomach flipped again, in a much less pleasant way this time. Daivad?
“The foul mood he’s been in lately, he’d find a reason to chew me out even if I toed every line.”
“How would you know?” Deep Voice asked. “You’ve never tried it.”
They appeared out of the shadows suddenly. Deep Voice knocked back their hood, revealing long dreadlocks with yet another carved-bone charm woven into them and skin so dark it looked almost blue in the morning light. They carried a gnarled staff as tall as they were, with a few white blooms dangling off its twisted head. Despite the fact that Tobei had obviously warned them of Jac’s presence, they still looked shocked to see her standing there. Maybe it was the hammer. Or Clarix.
Tobei nudged Deep Voice with their elbow, grinning. “Didn’t I name her? Gorgeous.”
Deep Voice said, “Put your pants on, Tobei,” without looking away from Jac.
Tobei huffed like this was some great inconvenience and went to fetch their pants. “I beg you pardon Ben’s manners, Jac. Both he and our fearless leader walk around like they’ve got sticks bigger than that one there shoved up their asses.”
“Pardon his manners,” Ben said, quiet. “He’s an asshole.”
“Fearless leader, huh?” Jac said through gritted teeth, gripping her hammer with both hands and cursing the shit out of Belle in her head. “Please fucking tell me that when you name him Daivad, it doesn’t come with ‘Mother-damned Earthbreaker’ attached?”
Tobei tied his pants and shared a look with Ben. “Ha-ha. You fucked up this time, not me.”
In a low voice, Ben spoke to Tobei. “He’s headed for the pen. Go get him.”
“Me? The fuck up was yours. And I’m the one that found this beauty, that means I’m the one to handle ‘em.” Pause. “Wait, why’s he at the pen?”
Ben set his jaw. “Thought you weren’t on guard duty yet.”
“Why’s he at the pen?” Tobei asked again, then glanced at Jac. Realization narrowed his pale eyes. “Hang on, y’all didn’t pick up any freckled blondes in Urden tonight, did you? Is that who he put in the pen?”
The words lit a fire in Jac’s belly that burned any butterflies to ash. Like that, Jac didn’t give a fuck how pretty this asshole was. “You put her…” she clenched the handle, “in a fucking pen?”
“She was at Ike’s tonight,” Ben told Tobei under his breath, nodding toward Jac. “She’s strong.”
“Yeah,” Tobei grinned, swiping the bow of his violin through the air before him like he was flourishing a sword, “I can feel it.”
“Bring her to me,” Jac said. “Right. Fucking. Now.”
“Go on,” Tobei tipped his head in the direction Ben had come from. “I’ll keep her from causing too much damage while you fetch the boss.”
“You and that little violin?” Jac asked, striding through the stream, all exhaustion and anxiety gone from her body. “Gonna play me a lullaby?”
“Little?” Tobei said, mock-offended. “Just ‘cause you’re overcompensating with that massive—”
Jac swung.
CRACK.
It wasn’t like the strikes through the air Jac had used to clear their path through the forest. The whole forest shook. Water exploded out of the stream behind her, and not just leaves and twigs rained down around them, but a few small beasts too. Overhead, birds screeched. And where Tobei had stood a second before was a crater five feet in diameter. Jac lifted the hammer again and whirled, looking for her prey.