The greater beasts didn’t speak in words, nor could Dem speak with them over a bond, but nevertheless he understood they were trying to communicate. The vine ape grunted and hollered, the rhino snorted and made a whining noise that was sometimes high-pitched and at other times incredibly low. Dem couldn’t help but be confused, nothing was as he expected.
It took him a moment to realize they weren’t talking to him, but rather to Ina.
“Do you understand them Ina?” His question obvious.
“I understand some.”
“What are they saying? Do I even want to know?” He queried.
“I do not know what you want to know, Dem, but they want me to leave the carcass, the beastcore and.. you. I think they want to eat you.” Her voice was humorless.
“Oh, is that what they want?” He tried not to sound too frantic.
“Don’t worry, Dem. We will feast on Rhino and Ape tonight!” Her confidence buoyed him some, but not enough.
Ina began to cast spells on herself, not even asking for his help.
His thoughts, off-track, went immediately to the fact that vine ape tasted terrible, and the rhino would simultaneously be too tough and too rubbery to be good eating. He laughed at this realization, wondering if he had gone crazy.
At the same time he laughed, Ina charged in.
***
The vine ape tasted quite terrible, as he had predicted, but the rhino had a some good tender spots in its rump. It was rather delicious. Ina seemed to enjoy it all the more after Dem cooked and salted it. She made contented noises, while juices ran down her face as she ate.
He considered what he had seen earlier. The truth was he didn’t understand it at all. He knew, as a matter of his studies, beastwomen were strong, but he had never actually seen one fight. He knew they were on par with Classed Warriors and Classed Fighters, but Ina had been something else entirely.
His only job during the fight had been to keep clear of the lesser vine apes, which mostly threw stones and branches, or occasionally tried to charge at him. He dodged most everything that needed to be dodged. With his spear, he deflected stones and branches when he couldn’t dodge. Even the stones that managed to reach him, didn’t seem to hurt as much as he would have expected. They still hurt some, of course, and he had plenty of bruises to show for his weak efforts. He actually killed a half-dozen of the little apes on his own, before the rest ran away. They were fairly small, only coming up to little past his knees, so his victory wasn’t anything too amazing, but he definitely would have had more difficulty with so many enemies before the grimoire had changed him. He felt pretty good though, better than he usually felt after a fight.
He hadn’t managed to catch much of Ina’s battle with the rhino and greater vine ape. He would have assumed one of the two would have gone after him, but apparently Ina had taken all of their attention. She went after the greater ape almost immediately, jumping twenty spans into the air to land on the same large branch it stood on. From there, he only saw a flurry of blows, blood splattering everywhere. In end, all the was left of the vine ape was a bloody sack of skin, viscera spread across a dozen trees, and blood dripping from Ina’s claws. Ina seem to have a dislocated arm and a broken hand, but she hadn’t stopped for even a moment before she jumped down to take on the rhino. The rhino had little to do that could help the ape, but it did buff itself with a few spells. It seemed to loom larger after the buffs. Its muscles bulged, and it charged at Ina almost the moment she touched the ground.
At this point Dem was surrounded by lesser apes and had to charge his way out of an encirclement, dodging as he went, and skewering a particularly weak ape. He felt a spark of elation when he had killed the ape. A sudden confidence over took and he felt that everything would be fine and that he had control of the situation. He was ready to kill as many of them as it took to win. In retrospect, his feelings during the fight had been odd, and not his usual mix of fear and wariness. The Wilds punished those who were overconfident, and so he was weary of such strange feelings.
Eventually, the lesser apes started to disperse, after realizing their leader was splattered all over. Dem looked up to see that Ina had disappeared and the rhino was charging around, bashing into trees randomly, completely enraged. It had pieces of its hide taken out in long strips, was missing an eye, and was covered in scratches. Dem watched for a moment, before realizing he should at least go up into a tree for safety. By the time he was up a nearby tree and safe, he saw Ina was balanced on top of the rhino’s head, holding a big chunk of its horn in her hands. She jammed the horn-piece into its skull through its one good eye-socket. The rhino beast died right then, without further struggle. Ina was a little haggard looking, but none of her injuries were beyond his ability heal.
After taking some time to clean themselves, they decided to see if they'd profited from their ordeal. They found yet another beastcore in the greater vine ape, though it wasn’t really inside the ape when they found it, it had been tossed pretty far away actually. It was a little scuffed, but was still in reasonably good condition. The rhino held nothing of value, and was too large to harvest much from, but did taste quite good. Ina had healed nicely thanks to a combination of spells from both of them. She had set her own arm back in its socket at some point, not even asking him for help. He would have to watch her in the future. She was definitely stronger, but clearly less cautious.
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Truly he was shocked at Ina’s ability, but in retrospect, it was probably something similar to the power of a Classed Warrior. The strength, the power, weren’t anything he had seen before personally, but were what he understood a Warrior was capable of generally. Obviously, not every Classed Warrior would likely be so strong, an apprentice, for instance, would be weaker, but Ina was assuredly powerful. He also came to the realization she had buffed herself with a variety of spells, from his collection, of course, but also some new ones he had never seen before. She actually grew a bit larger, faster, and more agile. Her claws were sharper and longer in this state. That was definitely an ancestral bloodline spell passed down to her from a many-tailed progenitor from the past. The claws of her secondary tails were as long as the span of hand when fully extended with this spell enacted. He shuddered thinking about them.
He was a frightened of her, but didn’t know what to do about it. The Wilds didn’t afford much opportunity to just sit and be afraid. Tamers weren’t supposed to fear their own beasts, anyway. The change to Ina was just so sudden, he hadn’t yet gotten use to it, he supposed.
She was still Ina, just judging by her messy eating. He tried to send reassurance across their bond, both for himself and her. She looked up for a moment, seemed to smile at him in a toothy sort of way, though it was hard to tell with scraps of meat all over her face, and then she quickly went back to eating. When they finished their search of the carcasses, they had moved away from the territory of the viper-wyrm. They made sure to grab a good deal of meat for the both of them. Ina had actually offered to carry him so they could move faster, but he had convinced her she could carry more meat if he moved on his own. Her gluttonous stomach had saved him from being carried around like sack of root-bulbs. He was thankful.
***
After finding a place to rest and eat a meal, Ina once again kept herself clean, this time only using the cleaning cantrip spell after she had licked most of the scraps away. Would she have a problem with hairballs? He didn’t know. He knew very little of beastfolk and their care. He needed to do more research, but he didn’t want to arouse suspicion in the settlement. Ina going from greater beast to beastwoman in a fairly short amount of time might make some curious.
They camped on a particularly wide branch dozens of spans off the ground. The light above, coming through the nearly transparent leaves of the highest canopy wouldn't effect their sleep considering how tired they both were. He cast a couple different spells that would alarm them both if a beast came within a certain distance. The alarm spells didn’t give them a huge advantage, but, at least, no beast would simply walk up to them while they slept. They would be awake for any fight that would happen. Generally, only a greater beast would challenge another greater beast, and so they were fairly safe. He had always tried to camp on the edges of different beast territories, where greater beasts didn’t tread as often.
He examined everything that had happened and realized they had been awake almost two whole cycles. They needed rest. Too much had happened. He still had no idea what his Class was, or even what his Path was. He felt some stirring during the fight, like he might have inadvertently advanced down his new Path in some marginal way. His previous Path still allowed him enough power to cast some of his spells, it wasn’t entirely gone, but it wouldn’t move him forward any more.
He eyed her through heavily lidded eyes, and yawned out a question.
“Ina, are you going to sleep?”
Ina generally needed less sleep than he did, and sometimes she would just stay awake to stand watch, but he didn’t think that would happen this time.
“Yes, Dem. I am very tired.”
His curiosity overtaking his sleepiness, he felt like asking a couple more questions before falling asleep.
As he made up a ‘bed’ for himself out of the remnant of his rain cloak and his leather pack he asked, “How do you feel about all of this. Your new form? Whatever happened to us back there?”
“I am happy that both of us are alive and well. My form is something I would have gained eventually anyway, judging by my memories. Assuming I lived long enough, Dem.”
“Did you want to be a beastwoman when you were in your previous form?” A yawn nearly forming as he asked this question.
“It hadn’t occurred to me. I just knew it would eventually happen if I grew strong enough.”
Dem laid down, resting his head. Her answers were so.. matter of fact. He didn’t know what to expect from her.
He yawned, “I see. I’m glad we are alive too Ina.”
He was incredibly tired, his eyes felt heavier by the moment. Just as they were about to close, he felt something warm lay down right next to him. Suddenly, he felt a lot more awake.
His eyes snapped open, his vision suddenly full of Ina. She had scooted right next to him, her face close to his. He could smell her musky scent, and grease from the rhino meat on her breath. Thankfully, her breathing very quickly became quite regular, and he realized she had fallen almost immediately asleep. Ina had never really been a ‘cuddler’, except when she was very young, so he wasn’t sure what made her come over to him. This left him somewhat confused and uncomfortable, she was a deadly beastwoman after all. He tried to turn over, away from her, but just as he was repositioning his body, he felt an arm, then a leg, and then a tail, wrap around him, pulling him closer. Ina made smalls sounds in her sleep, as she reeled him in like a netted fish.
He felt nervous. Something like temptation gnawed at him, but he couldn’t fathom what he was tempted to do in this situation. Ina had him totally locked in, as more of her tails wrapped around his shoulders and legs. He hoped he would get to sleep eventually.