I left Jackson to fine tune that taunt ability. What he said really made me think. I nearly ran into Petar from fourth squad. He was our lone Plains Elf and leaned down as he walked the hallway like is more than seven foot height might hit the ceiling. ”Hey Mike. How’s it going, man?” He asked, sounding like the California surfer he’d been on the other side.

“I’m good bud. What are you up to?” I asked.

“Aw, you know. Taking it one day at a time, brother, just one day at a time.” He was really touchy and reached down to put a hand on my shoulder.

“I hear that. I’ll just take it any way I can.” I grinned.

“Right on, man, right on. Hey, have you seen Izzy? The laundress is looking for her to take a shift doing the laundry, and I can’t leave until I find her to replace me.” He said, obviously looking up and down the hallway.

“I haven’t seen her, but I’ll let her know you’re looking if I do.” I told him.

“Hey, thanks, man. You’re a cool guy.” He told me, loping off with his long strides.

I was lost in thought, kind of staring at Petar walking away, when I noticed a little bush sitting against the wall. Looking at it for a moment, I thought it was strange and dismissed it. I could get the idea that easy going Jackson was secretly harboring a burn it all down streak. I just wonder wha…

“GOTCHA!” Izzy said, springing from the bush.

I jumped, moving into a ready position and slapped my belt, hand fumbling for my axe. The sea elf doubled over laughing. “Dammit Izzy, what was that?” I demanded.

“You should have seen the look on your face!” Her high-pitched laugh was like silvery bells.

I stood there, waiting for her to collect herself. It took a minute. Finally, she came in for a hug. I allowed it, begrudgingly.

“Not a bad new power, huh? I was that bush.” She bragged.

“Yeah, I realized that when you jumped out at me.” I nodded.

“NO! I don’t think you understand. Did you notice the way your eyes just slid off me?” She asked. “It’s an avoidance power. You have to do a resistance check to even look at me. If you make the resistance, then I’m a bush.”

I raised my eyebrows. “That is pretty cool.”

“It’s the base ability of my priesthood.” The little sea elf danced in excitement. “And! Do you want to hear the best part?”

Seeing how badly she wanted me to ask, “Sure. What’s the best part?”

“I can cast spells during the period the ability is in use!” She did a fist pump, which looked SO adorable with a three foot tall elf doing it.

“Really? Can you attack?” I crossed my arms and stroked my chin with one hand.

Her face fell, “No. Can’t attack, I can heal, though.” She brightened.

“That’s a really cool ability.” I held out a fist and she bumped knuckles.

“Also, I got a butt load of new spells!” She crowed, “Check. It. Out!”

She chanted a quick incantation and twisted her fingers into the gestures, then grabbed a holy symbol of an oak tree I hadn’t noticed her wearing before. All of a sudden, I was conscious of her femininity in a way I hadn’t been before. I thought of her as something of a little sister, but now I realized she was all woman.

What previously had been cute was suddenly alluring. The subtle way the light played through the webbing of her fingers entranced me. The way her ears went straight up when she smiled, and that smile.

WOW! Her smile was electric. How had I not noticed before? It was wider than a human’s in proportion to her face, but framed as it was by the faint green of her hair. I just couldn’t take my eyes off her.

She put a hand up to my face and looked deeply into my eyes. She sang, “You love me. You want to kiss me!” and the effect ended. I blinked. Izzy looked like she always had the same cute little Keebler elf.

I blinked. “What was that?”

“Enhanced Charisma.” She beamed.

“What good is that? Is the spell for the express purpose of vamping on guys?” My brow furrowed.

“Nah, it enhanced a lot of the priestly abilities, like Divine Weapon or Fae Light.” She told me.

“I’m about getting tired of having my mind messed with today.” I shook my head again.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“You’ll like this one!” She declared, and started to chant. After a moment, a low green light, similar to dawn viewed through trees, settled on me.

+1 to Natural Armor Class, +10 temporary hit points and +5 Resistance (Disease)

“Wow, how long does that last?” I asked.

“Hmm, not long. It’s tied to my caster level, which is still zeroth.” Izzy told me ruefully. The notification blinked off.

“That’s huge for during combat, though.” I nodded.

“Right! It’s my only Crusader spell at the moment. My fortune still sucks, so not many spells are available.” She shrugged.

“Really good improvement, though. You’re becoming an all around caster.” I grinned.

“Lady Isabel, Mistress of Magic at your service, sir.” She curtsied low.

That made me laugh. “Well, Mistress of Magic, I think they’re looking for you in the laundry room.”

“Ugh.” She stomped a tiny foot. “Its impossible to stir the vats of clothes when you’re as short as I am.” She shook her head. “I swear whoever did the duty roster put me on that one because they thought it was funny.” She crossed her arms. “I was hiding from Petar, trying to avoid working my shift.”

“Ah, that sucks. So he’ll have to do it?” I frowned. “You’re better than that Iz.”

The sea elf dramatically lay on the ground, covering her eyes with one arm. “I don’t want to be better than that. I want to play with my new abilities, but we have to train, and do extra duty and exercise and UGH!”

“I understand, but it still has to be done.” I held out a hand for hers. She put her little webbed hand in my big, rocky one. I pulled her to her feet without apparent effort.

“I’ll go do it, but completely under protest.” Izzy shook her head and ran after Petar.

Just on a hunch, I walked over to the skill training room. As I suspected, Niobe was in there with Instructor Stethyr. “Move! Ssspeed is life. If they catch you, then you’re already dead!” The midniss shouted.

My roommate was moving through the obstacle course with a few of the other skills focused trainees holding blunted long weapons. Where we’d been sneaking through the ropes and hanging hand holds before now, Niobe was doing them at a dead run.

Watching her move was like seeing water flow over rocks. She was unbelievably agile, spinning and twisting in a way that made my back hurt just looking at it. The huge majority of the skills focused trainees that were trying to hit her hadn’t taken any priority points in combat and it showed. They looked like one of those blowy guys that get plugged up by a dodgy auto dealership to attract attention, just waving their padded sticks in the air randomly.

“Mike, sso glad you’re here.” Stethyr hissed and threw me a padded training version of an axe. “Let’ss ssee if you can get a hit on her.”

All the skills people watched me as I moved over to them. I swung the training axe a few times to get the weight of it and nodded. Niobe bared her fangs at me and moved back to the other side of the obstacle course. I took position between a bunch of vertical cords on my left side and a fifteen-foot wall of rough hewn wood on my right.

She stood at the beginning of the course, breathing deeply. “Anytime now.” Stethyr carped. Niobe started running. The first part of the course was about twenty wooden circles slightly offset she’d have to run through. A human trainee stood to the side of that with a pair of padded batons.

The cat woman hit the wooden circles at a dead run. The human standing to the side swept with both sticks held together. She ducked them without slowing down.

“Evassion.” Stethyr muttered under his breath.

Niobe ran into a pool that held water up to about knee height. Several trainees stood on the sides with padded quarterstaves. She sprinted into the water and didn’t slow down like she should have, maintaining most of her speed as she dived and ducked, taking one pretty good hit on the ribs but avoiding most of the rest.

“Athleticss.” Stethyr hissed.

Next, she got to the vertical ropes. Rather than grabbing one and swinging to the next she leapt to one, then grabbed it with her feet and launched from it to the following one. She went through the forest of ropes with incredible speed.

Seeing all the trainees lining the sides of the course I made a decision. Walking a few steps forward I stood a few feet in front of the roughhewn wooden wall and got behind my shield. I watched her coming closer and closer and got a good grip on my training axe.

Niobe focused on me and snarled. She reached the last rope and launched herself in my direction. Seeing where she was going to land, I backed up.

Her hands, claws extended from her fingers, stretched out towards me, but she was going to miss. I cocked my axe back to swing.

Niobe rolled in front of me, staying low and to my right side. I swung the axe and missed. I heard her laugh as she came out of the roll explosively and landed halfway up the wooden wall.

“Feint.” Stethyr said, shaking his head. He clapped slowly as the felinoid dropped to the ground on the other side of the wall.

She was breathing hard, but her eyes were lit up, sparkling with excitement. I grinned and walked over to shake her hand. Holding my hand out, I got engulfed by a hug from the much taller woman.

“Did you see?” she gasped between breaths. “Did you see the movement abilities my kit gave me? Oh, it was awesome. Just awesome.”

Niobe was draped over my shoulder, hugging my neck for all she was worth. “I did see.” I wrapped her up in a firm hug. “and you were awesome! Poetry in motion.”

“Yess, wonderful.” Stethyr hissed. “Now do it again.”

I managed to escape that room and grabbed my gear from the trunk. That secured, I went to find Instructor Falaise. She was still out on the front lawn.

Falaise and the Armsmaster were instructing the other dwarves in marksmanship. I got out my crossbow and took my place in line.

The Armsmaster looked down his magnificent moustache at me. “Surprised to see you here.”

“I just realized how badly I’m falling behind. My roommates all got their kits while we were chasing Deniz.” I took my position and put the foot of my crossbow down and drew the string. Raise it up to my shoulder I dropped a quarrel on the string.

Oryan called out, “Aim for the 50 meter right target.”

The crossbow turned slightly as I tried to zero it in. I toggled the trigger and the quarrel buried itself in the straw of the target, slightly low and to the left of the bullseye.

“You’re anticipating the trigger squeeze. Let it be natural, relax.” The armsmaster told me. I put my foot in the foreloop and pulled the string.

Bringing the bow back to my shoulder, I dropped another bolt into the groove. I pulled the trigger. The quarrel flew straight, hitting the bottom, right of the bullseye. “I want back in a training dungeon. Need to catch up.” I told Falaise.