Absorption 2.6.4

“They seem less than friendly,” Marianne said under her breath.

“Ignore them,” Gregory said with a sneer towards the nearest group of Halftown residents. “Ugh. There are beggars in the slums better put together than these… things.”

We had left the elevator and exited past the ore crates and empty barrels that were waiting to be loaded and then shipped topside. It was as we disembarked that we first caught wind of the overt hostility from the locals. Either the workers or the homeless, but all eyed us with a wary hate that had been missing in Southbridge, at least not to such an extent.

“It does cause one to wonder,” I said. “What cause is there for animosity? Sir Guardson, have you by chance murdered their mothers?”

“Ha!” Kate answered. “Maybe. Who cares, right? Not like any of them could fight me.”

“That is not my point exactly, but near enough,” Gregory said. “None of these locals have any bearing on us, other than their presence fouling the air. Although, without the benefit of mine or Kate’s station, I could understand the concern that a pair of barmaids have.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

“Very well then, Gregory,” I said. “As these barmaids know no better, perhaps you could explain to us our next steps?”

Kate was only bothering to pay attention with half an ear, still scanning the surrounding buildings for a source of martial entertainment. However, she did chime in with, “Yeah Greggy-boy. It’s your project we’re down here for…”

Gregory went from providing a knee-jerk retort to taking a calming breath.

“Indeed,” he said. “Our first task–” he licked his lips and stalled for a moment before continuing “-is to gain our bearings.”

He was watching Kate as he said this, as though seeking approval. When Kate proffered none, Gregory nodded. “Yes. That is exactly what we will do. We need to locate significant supplies of living metals and gems for my craft.”

“Uhm. Can’t you just buy that stuff?” Marianne asked.

Kate chuckled at the question, while Gregory shut his eyes and flared his nostrils.

“If only I could.”

“Nah, he probably tried already,” Kate said with a shrug. “Not that it matters much, since we can just find some down here, easy.”

“But… why couldn’t he have?” Marianne asked, still lacking confidence but brave enough to still put forward a question that obviously chipped at Gregory in a way sure to incite some aggression. I wondered where this sudden confidence stemmed from. Marianne had been giving off several mixed signals since this excursion had started.

“And what would you know?!” Gregory snapped.

“Do…” Marianne paused, tilting her head in a show of deliberate confusion, “Do people normally ask questions when they already know?”

Kate snorted and cut in before Gregory could throw another insult.

“The Silverborns have trouble enough keeping their little business going–” Kate said, casually insulting her friend’s family.

“Untrue!” Gregory protested immediately. “The Silverborns run a small business, not a ‘little’ one, and we are moderately successful, given our circumstances.”

“Yeah?” Kate asked. “Compared to what? What was it called again? Your competitors that got stores in all the districts?”

I thought I knew what Kate was referring to. There was a brand of artificed devices that seemed fairly consistent throughout Southbridge. In fact, it had been one of their shops that I had robbed some time back.

Gregory scoffed and turned away, cheeks reddening. He mumbled, “It is unfair to compare my family with the Union. You know this.”

“Ha. Yeah, I do.” Kate sounded unbothered. “But seriously, we gonna just chat or we gonna get you those mats?”

“And we shall,” Gregory stressed. “As soon as I–we–gather our bearings.”

Kate rolled her eyes and pointed at one of the grease-covered waif of a man who had been leaning against a slapdash shack. “You!” Kate called.

The man started and glanced around. None of the other locals met his eyes, throwing him to the proverbial wolves.

“Yeah! You, get over here! My boy’s got some questions for you.”

“What?” he grunted, not moving from his spot.

Kate nudged Gregory in an encouraging fashion.

Gregory winced and after a moment’s pause, approached the man, although he kept several yards between them.

“Yes, you,” Gregory started.

He was far enough away, our surroundings were noisy enough, and his back was facing towards us, such that I ought to have struggled to hear the conversation. However, all of my senses had been sharpened and honed. The downside was the itch I felt deep under my skin. The longer I dwelled on the sensation, the worse it grew. So rather than suffer, I focused on my senses, on the noise, on the scents, on any and all things external.

Gregory continued, “nor am I overjoyed to be speaking to you. The sooner you answer, the sooner we can be about our separate ways.”

“Nah,” the grungy man said, before spitting a wad of phlegm to the side. “Stay ‘r go. Don’t care.”

“W-what?” Gregory stammered, taken aback, as though the idea that any would choose to decline him was tantamount to insanity. “Just one simple question, and we will be on our way.”

“No.” The man appeared uncooperative and rather annoyed by our very presence.

“Well, why not?!” Gregory asked, offended that the man refused to bend over backwards to service his betters.

“Cuz. I don’t like ya.”

Kate was narrowing her eyes in the meanwhile, partly drawing her bastard sword while staring down the man. It seemed apparent that Kate was unappreciative of the man’s tone either. And given the sort of person Kate was, there was a very real chance for this situation to resolve bloodily.

“I don’t like the looks of this,” Marianne said under her breath.

“Are you able to hear what they’re saying?” I asked.

“No… but it seems Gregory is being rebuffed… and Kate–” Marianne looked at Kate from the side of her eyes “-might be–”

“Might be what?” Kate cut in.

Marianne coughed and looked away and at the ground.

“Will you intervene?” I asked Kate, drawing the attention away from Marianne.

“Maybe. Thinking about it,” Kate said, her sword still partially unsheathed. How the man had failed to notice the implicit threat, I was unsure.

All the while, Gregory continued.

“Look,” Gregory continued, speaking a little louder than before. “I just want to know the direction to the Under, the fastest way, that is all.”

“What do some uppity kids want with that?” the man asked. He spoke with a slur, as though there were gravel in his mouth, but otherwise seemed as eloquent if not more than the residents of the slums above.

Gregory gave a pained expression.

“Resources. Living metals and gems.”

“So?” the man said. “Buy ‘em.”

Gregory groaned.

“Yeah…” Kate said, finally coming to a decision as she unsheathed her blade. She then spoke loudly enough that the man had to have heard her. “I’m gonna stab someone.”

She began marching towards the man. Between her long pace, her sword, her manic smile, and the quality of her garments, it must have been quite apparent that she was some sort of spoiled madwoman, the last sort of person any rational person would wish to face, and the man seemed at least somewhat rational.

This meant that when the man heard Kate state her desire, when he turned to see her coming towards him, that his eyes widened appropriately and he flinched backwards.

Of course, Gregory knew the cause of this change in attitude was Kate, however, the change still granted Gregory an infusion of bravery. Gregory turned back towards the man with a smirk.

“Have you changed your mind, perchance?” Gregory asked in a smug tone.

“Yeah, yeah, just have your friend put the sword away, yeah? You wanna mine ore?” the man suddenly sounded incredibly deferential, backing away and bowing, if sloppily.

During this time, I considered that the man might have had friends in the works around us. This led me to nudging Marianne in the side.

“It would behoove us to remain wary of additional threats,” I said.

Marianne looked around at some of the onlookers, others acting the roustabout or moving goods to and fro.

Several of these locals shared hostile glares, although none seemed eager to risk themselves by attacking us, at least not directly. From their perspective, I could see that they would dislike outsiders lording over everyone else scrawling about in the filth. I could also see that they were not so eager to depart their mortal coils as to start a fight, at least not to be the first to do so.

“Good point,” Marianne said, making a point of visibly keeping watch.

“This guy hassling you, Georgy?” Kate asked, finally reaching the pair.

“That remains to be seen,” Gregory offered. “I was just waiting for him to give an answer.”

“And I was gonna give ya one,” the man said, slurring a bit more than before. “If you want the best veins, you’re gonna want the tunnel marked with a seven.”

“The number?” Kate asked.

“Seven marks. Gotta count ‘em.”

“Idiots,” Gregory said, shaking his head. “Very well. I would say it was a pleasure, but–”

“-wait, Gregory,” Kate said. “Let me do it.”

“Hm?”

“Just, say it again.”

Gregory rolled his eyes but gave a small and indulgent smile.

“Very well,” Gregory said, enunciating clearly and slowly. “I would say that this was a pleasure–”

“-but fuck you!” Kate finished with a crow, before guffawing.

The man frowned and shuffeled away from Kate who still had her bastard sword out and ready to go.

“Children,” Gregory said, amused but turning back to Kate, and also to us. “But, we have our directions. After me,” he called to the rest of us.

Kate gave the man a glare, flinched at him, causing him to stumble and fall away, before she gave a mean laugh and followed after Gregory. Marianne mouthed the word, “sorry,” to the man, before heading after Kate and Gregory, with me pulling up the rear.

Halftown was not a large establishment, more of a mining colony than anything else.

It had been built up of slag, waste wood, and irregular chunks of masonry. Roofing seemed to be optional, merely a suggestion in some instances. That was because of where the town was built, upon a recessed ledge, with the cliff-face forming an overhang above our heads. Some parts of the ledge might have been natural, but the melted wax look and unnatural smoothness proved that most of it had been formed intentionally.

Of course, I wondered what had prompted the town to form to begin with. As we walked I asked just that.

“Was there an incentive to construct this town?” I asked.

Marianne shrugged, Gregory ignored me, and Kate blew a raspberry.

“Yeah? Look around at these guys,” Kate said, nodding at three locals at work braiding a cable. Two of them showed visible signs of mutation. “Can’t live up top.”

My own false-arm twitched. I took her meaning.

“Then, the majority that live here are deviants?”

“Eh…” Kate said, waffling her hand. “Lots of them are. Then there’re the miners and workers and even deviants have friends and family, so…” she trailed off with a shrug.

“That… makes a lot of sense,” Marianne said, giving Kate a one-over as if with new eyes.

“Surprised by her acumen?” I asked, gently ribbing both Marianne and Kate.

Marianne’s cheeks colored slightly, her blush always a bit strange compared to what most pale-skinned girls would have. Hers was a dusting of an almost-but-not shade of blue. This trait was shared as well with Kate. Likely, they shared a common ancestry, although somehow Marianne was a petite slip of a girl, while Kate an absolute brute.

“Ugh. Barmaids,” Gregory complained. “Just keep your inanity to yourselves while I figure out where we need to go.”

“It’s gonna be pretty boring pretty quick if they can’t chat,” Kate said.

Marianne nodded to that, but we refrained from making more than a light conversation, instead pointing out the oddities of our surroundings.

We passed several intersections where a path would lead towards the cliff-face before entering a tunnel. Each of the tunnel faces were marked with a series of ticks. They seemed to sometimes repeat themselves in number, but generally were increasing. We passed a tunnel with three marks, then one with two, then another with three, before the next had five. Gregory was studiously counting the ticks on each tunnel we passed.

Of course, not all intersections led to a tunnel. Several terminated at the wall of the cliff itself, although often there were abodes carved into the stone. Several even had stairs leading up to elevated homes, although from the stains along the ground, and from the stench, it seemed unlikely they had plumbing.

“Nasty,” Kate commented.

One of the locals heard her and shot a glare, before Kate pulled her short sword an inch from its sheath. The locals made themself scarce.

Another intersection came, this one narrower and grungier than the rest, an obvious channel used to dump bedpans and empty intoxicated bladders. My eyes watered and I grabbed my nose with my good hand. At the same time, Marianne buried her face in her sleeve and Gregory held a handkerchief to his nose. Kate sneered at the alley and chuckled at the rest of our reactions. Notably, there were no locals idling about this particular path.

It was as I passed this intersection and glanced down the narrow path that my false-arm tensed, squeezing and causing a startling pain. A gentle whisper of pressure about my heart that caused my step to falter and a gasp to escape my lips, which allowed the foul air to then touch my tongue. It left me cringing. However, I also noticed a bundle laying on the ground further into the foul path. The bundle, about the size of a person, almost leaning against a wall, slumped, still, and definitely dead. My false arm twitched again. I took the hint and paused there, at the intersection, with the path to my right heading towards the Chasm, and to my left into the narrow space between buildings, nearly dark enough to require a lantern in its own right.

The others kept walking before Kate realized I had stopped. She reached out to grab Gregory by the shoulder, stopping him. Marianne ran into Kate’s backside, not that Kate seemed to notice.

Kate turned back towards me with an arched eyebrow. “You alright there?” she asked. “That’s not really the best place to break, y’know?”

Gregory, still holding a handkerchief to his nose, squirmed under Kate’s grip in an effort to keep putting distance between himself and the gutter. And that was what this narrow path was, I realized, a gutter of filth and what I suspected was a dead-body.

“Jackie!” Marianne said. “Come on! What’re you even doing?” she asked in a rush.

“Wasting our time,” Gregory complained. “All our clothes will need washing after this.”

Kate still had yet to release him, although he had given up struggling against her grip.

Where the gutter met the cliff-face, a shadow stood out against the stone. And while my eyes were excellent for piercing the gloom, even I had difficulty discerning what that shadow was. It seemed almost vantablack, just over the size of a human, and maybe wide enough for a person to squeeze through. It was then I realized what it was, a crevice.

Was that why my false-arm had accosted me and demanded my attention?

Another twitch, another whisper of pain. This, I interpreted as a no.

So the body then. It was only five feet in through the gutter.

I scanned the buildings and found a plank from a broken pallet. I retrieved this and approached the body.

During my distraction, Kate released Gregory and joined me as I slowly, and with hesitation, approached the body.

“What’s so interesting about that?” Kate asked.

I was loath to do so, but to reach the body I was forced to step off our path and into the gutter, where a layer of slime and muck would undoubtedly stain my boots. As I did so, Gregory cursed about ‘foulness,’ and Marianne made a mewling sound of protest.

Before my boot had a chance to test the slippery surface, I felt Kate’s arm wrap around my waist and lift me into the air and backwards.

“Nope. Not happening,” Kate said.

My false-arm coiled, and I thought it might have wanted to lash out, but if it did so I had no illusions that it would win. Kate had already removed one arm from me, I had little doubts she would do so again. I tried conveying calm thoughts to the false-arm, and maybe it worked, because while it did inflict some moderate pain within my ribcage, it also refrained from lashing out at Kate.

“Kate! Release me at once,” I demanded.

“What, so you can go poking the first ripe corpse we see? What’re you, a kid? I mean, c’mon!”

“And what if I did wish to do so?”

“I mean, normally it wouldn’t matter much. But if you go and get that gunk on you, then we’ll all be suffering tonight… and the rest of the excursion, for that matter.”

She continued carrying me towards where Gregory had stopped to pause at the next intersection, far enough to be free from the worst of the stench. Marianne was standing not too far off from him, although when she looked my way I swore that I saw a glimmer of amusement.

I crossed my arms and decided to keep silent. Protesting further would only weaken whatever authority I had, as little as that amounted to.

“Were you really going to poke a…” Marianne asked before trailing off.

“Perhaps,” I said, unsure of how else to answer while still maintaining a modicum of self respect.

Kate finally set me down, but before I could even consider going back, she put her arm about my backpack and my shoulders and forcefully guided me forward.

“But… why?” Marianne asked.

“And is that not the question,” Gregory said. “The answer: she is daft.”

I ignored him, all of us did. He seemed to wilt as he realized his barb went unrecognized.

Instead, I kept focused on Marianne. “I am unsure, exactly, but something about it caught my interest.”

“What coulda been worth heading in there?” Marianne asked.

“If I had been permitted to investigate, I might have been able to answer that.”

“If you found anything at all to begin with,” Gregory said with derision.

Kate slapped the back of Gregory’s head causing him to stumble and curse.

“Aren’t you supposed to be looking for a tunnel?” Kate demanded.

He said an impolite word under his his breath before releasing a breath and visibly calming himself.

“I am,” he said firmly. “Make no mistake, I am. A man can speak and lead at the same time.”

“Bit young to be called a man,” Kate said, before winking down at myself and Marianne.

“Ugh,” Gregory said.

After another intersection, my false-arm calmed itself and the pressure released, allowing me easier breathing.

“These fools could at least light their streets,” Gregory continued complaining as he peered down the next intersection, towards the tunnel and the markings above it.

A local looked like he had been about to offer advice, but upon hearing Gregory’s tone of voice thought better of it.

“We could always stop for the night?” Marianne offered. “It is getting pretty dark.”

Kate laughed and shook her head. “It’s barely past midday,” she said.

“Then why’s it so dark?”

Kate shrugged. “Something about the Chasm? Or the giant rock above us? Bit hard for light to work its way down here, yeah?”

“I guess,” Marianne said, sounding unconvinced.

“Besides the fact that we have the greater part of the day before us,” Gregory said, sounding almost civil, “but would any of us even want to find lodgings?”

“Maybe?” Marianne said.

“Probably get lice,” Kate added.

“Ew. Maybe not,” Marianne changed her mind.

I glanced down the intersection that Gregory was peering down and counted the marks.

“Five,” I said.

“Five again?!” Gregory said. “I suspect the man who advised us was pulling my leg.”

I probably should have felt flattered that he believed me, rather than marching up to the tunnel to verify the number of marks himself.

One of the locals had been pushing a cart towards us along the path and paused at Gregory’s outburst.

“Eh… can I help?” the local, I thought possibly a teenager but of an indeterminate gender, asked.

“If you would be able to assist us?” I asked the local before Gregory offended yet another. “We are seeking living resources.”

“So… buy ‘em?”

Marianne snorted as she tried aborting a sudden laugh.

“As if. Retreading the conversation…” Gregory muttered.

I attempted Kate’s tactic and placed myself between Gregory and the local. It worked better for her than me, as Gregory was taller than me but shorter than her. Regardless, it did the trick of focusing the local upon myself.

“We had hoped to perform the extraction ourselves,” I said.

“You want to mine ’em?!” they asked, incredulous.

“If possible.”

“That… huh. Why?”

“This is for a class assignment. I believe that the difficulty is intentional.”

They mouthed the word class, as though unfamiliar with the concept. Perhaps they were. I hoped that I had not alienated them without intention. However, they shook themselves and shrugged.

“Eh… gonna be hard what with most of ‘em tapped or claimed.”

“A previous source of advice pointed us towards a tunnel that was marked with six.”

“Ha!” they barked a laugh. I canted my head. A few seconds passed. “You’re serious?”

I shrugged. Gregory muttered something impolite, while Kate watched on with amusement, appearing indifferent. Marianne decided to throw her weight in, sidling up beside me and batting her eyes.

“If you wouldn’t mind helping?” Marianne said. “It would be really appreciated. We’ve been wandering around a bit.”

They grimaced, looked all of us over once more, took a measure of Kate and her swords, before obliging with a shrug.

“Alright, sure. Looks like ya can take care of yourselves. Towards the end o town you’ll start hittin’ sixes.”

“All the way down there?”

“Not that far,” he shrugged.

“Thank you,” I said, giving a smile as well.

“Yeah!” Marianne said, before pulling out the smallest denomination of Charger and tossing it to them. They caught it and frowned at it as though in confusion. A curious reaction, a curious encounter altogether, but not one that I felt compelled to dwell on.

I noted that the first had advised seven, and the second had advised six. I was unsure as to what the numbers signified, but as the second was significantly less antagonistic, I refrained from pointing out the difference to the others. Since none of the others mentioned we were now looking for a six instead of a seven, I suspected that they had forgotten the original target.

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The fools.

Regardless, we continued down the main thoroughfare of Halftown, traveling the length of the ledge. There were less people about as we went, but that did not seem so strange, and I sensed no malevolence or hostility, at least not when Gregory kept his thoughts to himself.

Perhaps ten minutes later, we could see the end of the road, and we finally found the first tunnel marked with six.

“Finally!” Gregory said, turning immediately and marching towards it. Some debris had piled up across the way, and he kicked at several planks before picking his way over it, keeping a hand on the wall to steady himself.

But that settled that question, I determined. The purportedly intelligent boy had failed the task of remembering a single number.

“C’mon, a little faster!” Kate taunted him for moving too slowly.

“Excuse me!” he snapped back, irritated. “But not all of us enjoy twisted ankles.”

“Pretty sure none of us enjoy that,” Kate answered back.

Before Marianne and I followed, Marianne pulled her lantern and set it to the most economical glow possible. Kate glanced back and Marianne shrugged, embarrassed. “Not all of us see so well in the dark.”

“Exactly,” Gregory said, pulling out his own lantern.

Kate huffed and glanced my way. “What about you? Wanna pull yours out too?”

“Not at present, no.”

“Atta girl,” Kate said, giving my shoulder a playful punch. Playful or not, it still left a bruise.

The tunnel continued downwards at a ten degree slope with smooth bore walls. It had been created through artificed devices, proven by the melted wax texture that was only broken along the mostly flat ground. It continued this way for what felt like hours with the only deviation coming from the graffiti carved into the walls, providing a colorful way for miners to communicate.

And while the lanterns we relied upon were efficient, they still required a trickle of energy from a Charger. As Marianne’s lantern was of a lower quality, hers was the first to exhaust its Charger. When this happened, she decided that Gregory’s lantern provided enough illumination for all of us, even though it was a sole point of light and a dim one at that, at least by the time it reached us.

It was dim enough that I worried the girl would stumble in the dark. For while I had excellent vision in low-light, I could not expect her to have the same. And while many would consider a stubbed toe or a stumble to be a trivial impediment, that was not so while away from civilization, as a stumble could easily turn to a sprain or worse.

Hence, I chose to make an offer, the other girl’s safety top of mind.

“If you are worried of the cost,” I said in a hushed tone that would be difficult for Gregory to perceive at the front, “I can gift you Chargers, or lend you my own lantern if required.”

Marianne shook her head and declined. Belatedly, I realized that I had misstepped upon the girl’s pride. She was rather prudish around funds.

“I suppose I could always light my own lantern to light my own way,” I mused.

She likely saw through my transparent ploy. She still declined, but this time she offered a reason for it.

“Thanks Jackie, but it’s fine. The ground’s flat enough it shouldn’t matter.”

Marianne had begun putting her lantern away, but Kate caught her before she finished with a bit of advice.

“Makes sense,” Kate interjected. “But before you put that away, put a fresh Cee in it.”

“Not that I won’t,” Marianne said, “but why?”

Kate rolled her eyes, smiled, her teeth reflecting just enough of the light ahead to grant her face an unsightly cast.

“So if something happens to Greggy-boy you’re not fumbling in the dark.”

“Oh,” Marianne said. She slotted in a new Charger after that, although her lantern remained off and put away.

Gregory mumbled from the front about cheapskate wretches and how if anything would happen to anyone it would be to the barmaids. None of us deigned to reply to his dourness.

But, true enough, Kate’s caution was proven to be warranted, as eventually Gregory’s lantern also expired. This plunged the entirety of the tunnel into darkness that was oppressive even to me, although not as absolute as vanta-black due to the slight glow radiating from our pouches of Chargers. This likely was insufficient light for the humans.

Gregory ended up fumbling for several minutes for a Charger, grumbling all the while as Kate laughed and Marianne complained. He was taking longer than I thought reasonable to swap out a single Charger, but it was possible that he was being obstinate as a form of vengeance.

It was during this point that Kate let out a sudden, loud, and quite jarring shout.

I jumped and landed in a crouch, my false arm coiling in preparation to lash out and my Guise nearly melting off in a second’s distraction.

Marianne cried out and Gregory face-planted on the stone as all my senses strained to identify the threat.

It was either invisible or otherwise undetectable. Perhaps attacking from a range beyond my own senses. However, I failed to detect any signs of motion or other besides our party.

After several seconds while Gregory and Marianne recollected themselves in fear, Kate began chuckling.

That chuckle morphed into a guffawing full-bellied laugh which echoed through the tunnel.

There was no threat, I realized, picking myself up and double checking that my Guise remained unaffected. My false-arm writhed in irritation and I narrowed my eyes as well, not that Kate seemed to notice, or care for that matter.

“What,” she said, struggling to speak over her cackles. “Fraid of the dark?” she taunted.

The others had managed to recollect themselves as well, likely equal parts embarrassed and irritated.

“Juvenile,” Gregory complained.

“Puerile,” I said, agreeing with Gregory. “I had thought we were under attack.”

Marianne huffed and crossed her arms but refrained from joining in on the complaints.

“Meh,” Kate said with a shrug. “Think of it like a drill. You all failed.”

I frowned, about to dispute that, when Kate added, “Except for Jackie, ‘course.”

I nodded at that.

Around a minute later, Gregory had his lantern lit once more and we continued our trek.

Eventually, all of us, even I, began to grow weary.

The tunnel remained regular and unchanging, a seemingly infinite tube that was lapping itself without us being any the wiser. Were it not for the gradual drop in temperature, I would have thought that we truly were moving in place.

The only alleviating factor was listening to our two resident idiots speak nothings to each other.

“This is so boring!” Kate complained. “I thought there was supposed to be fighting, or something?”

“Preferably just mining,” Gregory said.

“Yeah, that! Everything looks the same and this is just… bleh. At least show me where the ore is, right.”

“We’ll know it when we come across a vein.”

“Yeah? How's that?”

“They glow, for one,” Gregory answered dryly.

“You sure?”

“Kate. You are aware of my family’s business?”

“Not mining,” Kate said, sounding as though she were pointing out her tongue at Gregory’s backside.

He opened and closed his mouth several times before shaking his head and trudging on.

“Like I thought,” Kate gloated.

Ever the balm, Marianne joined in with her undue optimism.

“Come on,” Marianne said. “I’m sure we’ll notice something soon. This tunnel has to lead somewhere, right?”

“You sure about that?” Kate asked back. “I haven’t even had anyone to fight yet!”

If all others were joined in discourse, I found myself with no reason to refrain. Thus, I also joined in.

“I recall at least five persons that you have just today slain,” I said.

“I said fight! Not slay,” Kate said, pouting.

“Uhm… Is that really different?” Marianne asked.

“Uh, yeah?” Kate answered, confused at the fact that Marianne failed to comprehend.

Eventually, Marianne and Gregory began to suffer sore feet, enough so that we chose to break for the evening. After we had set out our bedrolls we set upon dinner. The others warmed water then mixed in spiced powders to create a slog of a soup.

I turned up my nose at it and chose to munch on my jerky instead. It left my teeth itching, which left me remembering all my other itches, which left me aching to drop my Guise.

This led to my less than altruistic offer.

“I will keep the first watch tonight,” I said.

“Uh. But. Why?” Marianne asked, before speaking more clearly. “Do we need to keep watch?”

“Not sure?” Kate said. “Nobody’s even around to fight. No beasties either.”

I gave an intentionally patronizing sigh.

“There are no potential enemies that we are aware of,” I said. “That does not mean they are nonexistent. Do we want to risk some under-thing sneaking up on us while we all sleep?”

“Under-things?” Marianne repeated, sounding somewhat concerned.

“Unlikely,” Gregory said. “Do you believe the miners that work these tunnels could survive if there were underthings? And we have seen no signs of life anyways. Even dark dwellers must eat.”

“Would you so devalue your own life as to trust it to chance?” I asked rather pointedly.

A moment’s pause, before Gregory blustered. “If you want to waste your night keeping watch, then do so. But I, for one, require all of the rest I can receive. Some of us have more taxing requirements upon us than others.”

“So,” Kate clapped. “Jackie gets first, I’ll get second, and Marianne last.”

“Not Gregory?” Marianne said.

“Pfft, nah. If something attacks, wake him last.”

He sniffed but remained silent.

That night, after everyone began breathing regularly, I snuck off until I could see not even a hint of them, until I could not hear them breathing or shifting in their bedrolls, and I allowed myself to relax as my Guise dropped off.

The changes came more quickly every time, now they took less than a minute to revert. Some day I hoped to get them down to seconds, to allow me to quickly drop and redone the Guise without anyone the wiser. The cracks of my bone shifting did echo a bit, but not enough that I thought the humans would hear.

After I finished once again luxuriating in finally being free of the infernal itching, enjoying my tail and the sense of balance and rightness, along with my greatly increased senses, I settled back on my hanches to wait and keep watch, as I promised to do.

Time was difficult to tell, but it felt like it had been a quarter hour when I heard a slight echo from further down the tunnel. I thought it might have been voices, but they might have also not been. The tunnel did odd things to sound. I made note of it and waited to see if they grew nearer or resolved into a determinate sound, but this was not the case.

I redonned my Guise, feeling the itching once more begin to build up, and I returned to the others.

And good that I did. For just as I came near enough to make out their outlines, I also found Kate coming towards me.

“Where’d you get off to?” Kate asked upon reaching me.

“Further down in the tunnel,” I said. I offered no antagonism nor justification, simply stating a fact as though there were no reason that I would not have been where I was. The tactic almost worked, but Kate still pressed.

“Yeah?” Kate said. “But what about guarding the other direction?” She referred to the direction from which we had come. Ordinarily she would have a point, that the best location to keep watch would be at our camp itself as enemies could approach from either direction. However, there was a greater risk from the direction which I had come, and I relied upon that to justify my absence from the camp.

“Really?” I said. “Do you believe those people we saw back in town could sneak up on us while we slept?”

“Well, no. But caution is better than not. You’re the one that said that, I think?” Kate frowned, before nodding. “Yeah. Definitely you said that.”

I sighed. Of course she would use my own words against me.

“That is true,” I admitted. “But the greater threat would come from below, and an advanced warning would be beneficial enough to outweigh the risk of impoverished and sickly Halftowners from somehow following and sneaking up upon us.”

Kate looked like she might have protested further, so I added, “Additionally, I had already checked the other direction.” It was not a direct deceit, but other than a glance towards the direction, I had not checked it further.

Despite my arguments and misleading statements, Kate remained unconvinced.

“If you cannot trust your own ability to sleep lightly, then at least trust that I would seek to protect both you and Marianne.”

She grinned, “Not Gregory?”

I went to split past her, intent on reaching my bedrolls for what passed for rest in these caves. But as I passed her, she caught my good arm and turned me towards her.

“No good night kiss?” she asked, forcing me to face her. She was pouting, she was close, her breath tickled my hair and brow.

With her oversized fingers firmly around my shoulder and her other hand finding my back, I had little recourse except to face her and choose between either resisting something that would not be entirely unwelcome or accepting and encouraging unfortunate behaviors and expectations. I decided to settle on a middle ground.

“Now I see why you arose before your shift began,” I said, attempting to add humor.

She hummed thoughtfully.

“That isn’t a no,” she said.

“Perhaps a quick one,” I said with a shrug, angling my face up towards her. “But it must be quick. I would not wish to distract you from keeping watch.”

The rest of the night passed without any notable events.

At some arbitrary hour, we declared that morning had come and we packed our bedrolls. We took time to prepare hot tea spiked with spirits, the others had their breakfasts, I had my jerky. My teeth ached to rend. At least I felt full.

And like that, we began our day.

The tunnel continued as it had before. The darkness continued to be prevalent, but I felt we were all adapting to it, at least I was. It certainly seemed less oppressive than the day before.

What felt like hours later, the shape of the tunnel changed.

Instead of a smooth tunnel, there began to be irregularities carved into the wall, as if large chunks had been torn from the stone. The first time we encountered one, Gregory investigated, shining his lantern into the gap. He frowned before regaining his feet.

“This vein appears tapped,” he explained before once more continuing down the tunnel.

The next gap was much the same, and the one after as well.

Near the dozenth or so, we encountered a significant deviation to the tunnel. One of the irregularities seemed to shift the direction of the tunnel altogether. Or rather, the tunnel terminated into a cavern bearing scars from pickaxes.

“Finally,” Gregory said.

As the cavern stretched both right and left, up and down, we had plenty of choices to choose from. Terraced ledges had been carved into the cavern walls, providing space to walk from deposit to deposit. At least, they had been deposits. Now they all appeared depleted, much to Gregory’s ire.

I came to consider the cavern to be a quarry, one in which we began our search for Gregory’s ore. The space was large, incredibly so, it seemed to be a mixture of natural and artificial, although I could not even begin to imagine the mechanism that would have formed such a mammoth space.

By the time we stopped for lunch, the best we had found was a sliver of luminescent silver wedged deep within a narrow fissure. Gregory decided it was too hard to reach for too little ore for the effort to be worthwhile.

It was while we breaked, after a thoroughly exhausting and fruitless effort to location resources for Gregory’s project, that Kate broached an interesting proposal.

“Could always head back and pick a fight for some–” Kate proposed, waving her hands in a broad manner around us “-for whatever it is we’re looking for.”

Of course, the only person that failed to realize what Kate was actually proposing was Kate.

“Unbelievable,” Gregory said, sounding exasperated.

“What?” Kate asked. “It’s a good plan. Faster than what we’ve been doing.”

That was true, I supposed. Fortunately, Marianne took the time to actually explain the issue.

“Uhm… Kate?” Marianne interrupted, “I think that’s called robbery?”

“What?” Kate said, waving Marianne off and blowing a raspberry, “No. It’s not.”

Perhaps not when you do it, I wanted to say, but I doubted she would share my feelings on abuses of authority. Instead, I hedged in a much more polite way.

“If that is considered robbery or not,” I said, “I think that this depends on the circumstances surrounding the fight.”

“Exactly,” Kate said victoriously.

Gregory groaned, Marianne shook her head, and my smile grew somewhat strained. At least when I stole, I knew what it was I was doing. Kate’s delusions were something else.

After a pause, Gregory finally had the wherewithal to respond.

“Do they even have anything worth taking?” Gregory asked in a doubtful manner. “I failed to notice any living ores or gems. I doubt the miners would be so impoverished if they had a ready supply.”

Kate laughed.

“As if!” she said. “If they don’t have any and they live down here, then how in the godslicking chodes are we gonna find any?” Kate said crudely. Marianne sputtered from the colorful language and Gregory grimaced.

“No,” Gregory declined. “While I appreciate your suggestion, Sir Garudson, I must insist that we continue our search. We are already over a day in, and we have reached a location most likely to have what we seek. If this fails, then perhaps we will discuss your… alternative solutions.”

“Sure, whatever. Just trying to help,” Kate said, sounding indifferent but with a slight note of irritation to her voice, likely at having her idea shot down.

Gregory nodded, missing the hidden note in Kate’s voice.

“With the number of deposits here, we are certain to find something. The locals could not have mined all of it, and even if they had, it ought to have replenished somewhat by now.”

That… that made no sense. I frowned, and not because of Kate.

“Pardon,” I said, interrupting. “But you mentioned that ore replenishes here?”

Kate laughed. “Called living for a reason, I guess.”

“Indeed,” Gregory answered.

“But… how?” I asked. “Can it be farmed then?”

Gregory pursed his lips, “No, I do not believe so.”

“Wouldn’t that be something,” Kate said.

The fact that valuable ores could somehow regrow over time was still boggling my mind. I could not fathom a mechanism that would account for that, at least not without some magical nonsense causing the phenomenon. And while a part of me thought to take advantage of this newfound knowledge, another part of me could not help but wonder where all of the miners were, if ore was known to regrow at this location. I had an itching suspicion that the process was either slow, unstable, or somehow dangerous.

The conversation continued while I was lost in thought.

“I think that’s kinda how the Crown makes Cee though?” Marianne said. “Don’t they farm the glowing stuff that goes in Chargers?”

“Pffft,” Kate said. “That’s different.”

After our break, we resumed our search.

As we walked, we could not help but marvel at the immensity of the cavern.

Our lanterns failed to pierce their entirety; even my eyes failed to discern the far corners. While the ledges provided enough space to walk, we were cautious in our single file as a single misstep could see us plunging downwards. Not that we would keep falling; there were ledges and walkways every dozen feet. Not that I would fall to begin with, not with my Talents. But even knowing my safety was secured I still was unable to shake the feeling completely.

And still, despite traversing what was clearly some manner of quarry, we failed to find what Gregory sought. Only the faintest traces of living minerals remained, the hard to reach places that not even professional miners bothered to claim.

I had yet to see any signs of the veins growing or returning, and other than the occasional echo of strange sounds and whispers of conversations carried like the wind, there were no signs of active mining either.

I found it strange, especially as the ore allegedly regrew itself.

At one point, I thought I heard a groan winding through tunnels below us before breaching the quarry. The others thought they heard a bark, and Kate thought there might be under-things loose. Both Marianne and Gregory were spooked by the claim. I thought that Kate might have exaggerated as the sounds were distant enough that they would likely be non-entity.

If there even were creatures making the sounds to begin with. I was not convinced that the strange sounds were the result of the rock adjusting or the air flowing through the labyrinth of tunnels and quarry.

Eventually, we crossed another straight tunnel, much like the one we had traveled originally. Other than making note of it we left it be. It was an ascending tunnel and we thought it might return to the surface, or another outpost such as Halftown.

Hours passed in the quarry; eventually, all of us grew weary and we made camp in a wide enough depression inset into the wall where a vein had once been carved from the stone. We set Kate’s lantern between us and our bedrolls and shifted about until we found somewhat comfortable places to rest. This was difficult as the rock ground was hardly smooth.

At some point before retiring, during our conversation, I voiced an observation.

“I find it curious that we have seen no signs of miners or traffic,” I said.

“Why would we though?” Marianne asked.

“The barmaid is correct,” Gregory added, no longer sounding demeaning in his tone. “Why would miners continue to dwell where there is nothing to mine? I am beginning to doubt the veracity of the directions which led us here.”

Kate tilted her head, idly munching on a dry chunk of what was some sort of concentrated foodstuff. Thankfully she swallowed before speaking, though crumbs still decorated her mouth.

“Nah, Jackie’s right. Something’s strange here.”

“Perhaps elaborate?” Gregory said, sounding both exasperated and respectful at the same time as he was addressing Kate.

“Meh. Jackie can if she wants. I don’t care.” Kate stood and stretched before ambling off to relieve herself. Sometimes I regretted my keen hearing.

“Fine. Then Jackie, perhaps explain?” Gregory asked in one of the more polite tones I had heard him address me with.

“Yeah, c’mon Jackie!” Marianne encouraged.

It was Gregory’s tone that convinced me to explain. I wanted to reward his behavior to encourage it in the future.

“If the miners actively worked this area,” I said, “Then they would have had to travel just as much as we did. So then, where are the signs of their encampment? Where did they sleep, eat, make waste? Besides what has been carved from the stone, there are no signs of such traffic. I find this absence curious and strange.”

“Now that you mention it, that is kinda weird…” Marianne nibbled on her upper lip in thought.

“Obviously,” Gregory said, “They took everything with them.”

“And their trash and waste?” I challenged.

“Likely filling the bottom of this quarry. Why concern yourselves with where they…” Gregory trailed off, making a face of discomfort.

It had been obvious what he had been heading for. Humans made waste. That was a fact. And there was a particular sort of waste that was almost always present alongside the dregs of society. Especially when there was a lack of plumbing. But of course, this subject was distasteful enough that Gregory refused to finish the thought.

I would have left it as it was as well, but Marianne, the crass soul, finished it with a teasing smile.

“What do you mean Gregory? You mean where they… pooped? Think they carried it with them? Maybe they had little baggies to put it in?”

Gregory grimaced and looked up at the stone above us. I also found that bit of stone very interesting. None of us answered Marianne’s teasing.

Of course, she found this hilarious, seeing the discomfort she had sown.

Kate seemed indifferent to my plight.

“They might not have packed it out,” Kate said. “I’m thinking under-things.”

“What do you mean?” Marianne asked.

“They came through and took everything organic, wood, waste, all that. Scrubbed the place like animals do.”

“Again with the under-things?” Gregory asked with a sneer.

“Can’t tell me you haven’t heard them while we walked,” Kate said.

“We don’t know for sure that was what it was, right?” Marianne asked.

“Sure, keep telling yourselves that,” Kate shrugged. “But we definitely need to keep watch tonight. Greggy boy? I don’t trust ya much to pull any shift but first, so that’s what you get. Jackie, you get second. I’ll pull third.”

“Me?!” Gregory protested having a watch shift, even if it was the easiest one. “What of the barmaid’s shift?”

“She’ll trade with ya tomorrow,” Kate said. “Fair’s fair, yeah?”

“No,” Gregory said sullenly, “but I suppose I can keep watch tonight. For an hour at least.”

“Two hours,” Kate said.

Gregory covered his eyes and groaned.

I awoke to a hard jab in my ribs on my left.

I gasped and tried to make sense of the sudden jarring at the same time I heard a surprised squawk. My false-arm had thrashed and had shifted me as a result in response to Gregory kicking me awake. I realized what was happening just as the tendrils uncoiled in a spring-shot towards Gregory. I pulled up and turned, causing the lashing tendrils to miss, passing just over Gregory’s shoulders as he fell back.

My false-arm returned and I sent my ire towards it and used every dead-ended nerve to that arm to communicate stillness. Perhaps the message worked, or perhaps the parasite decided Gregory was no longer a risk. Either way, it calmed and began to pretend once again to be an arm.

Of course, the event caused Kate and Marianne to stir

“Whaazat?” Kate slurred, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.

Marianne groaned and shifted in her bedroll, turning her back to us.

Gregory hissed, “You attacked me! What is wrong with you!”

“Is a fight?” Kate said, beginning to sound normal but not quite there yet.

I collected my thoughts and decided to get ahead of the accusations before they began piling on.

“My apologies,” I said. “The manner in which I awoke startled me. I had not intended to frighten you.”

“You did more than just frighten me,” he sneered. “You almost killed me, you deviant!”

“Ugh. Shuddup,” Kate said, realizing that there was no reason for her to stay alert. “Greggy go to sleep, Jackie up. Go, go… go…” she laid back down and almost seemed to be asleep, but her breathing was too regular and the slumber too immediate for the act to convince me. Gregory might not have caught it.

“Fine,” Gregory said. “This will be hard to forget, barmaid. You had best find a way to make this up to me.”

I scoffed. “As though accompanying you on this excursion was not enough,” I said while I pulled myself from my bedroll and made a show of limbering and readying myself for my turn at keeping watch.

“I did not ask for your companionship,” he said with some venom, although he was showing fatigue himself.

“Nor did I ask to be kicked in the ribs,” I retorted. “But yet, here we are.”

Kate just happened to snort in her sleep as I said that, which was rather suspect.

I put distance between myself and the camp rather than waiting for Gregory’s next snide remark. Soon I found myself far enough from the camp, far enough into the dark cavern that I felt safe enough to drop my Guise.

WIthout ceremony I allowed my Guise to drop and my form to revert. As the pressure released, my limbs and spine stretching and that constant itch abated, I indulged in a satisfied sigh. My chest felt light, my limbs lithe, and my sense of balance improved greatly.

The release had been very much needed. Compressing myself into a too-small skin felt more and more akin to the dysmorphia I had first felt upon entering this world as a beastkin. Strange, but this had not truly become noticeable until after I had begun at the Academy. I wondered if there was a correlation there, or if it was merely coincidence.

Regardless, the scant few minutes I had each night without my Guise seemed too little and already I was loathing having to redon the Guise within an hour. All the more reason to revel in the freedom of the now.

And revel I would, but in a productive fashion. I decided to perform additional scouting, so long as I kept from losing myself. I glanced up at the darkness of the quarry, then down at the quarry’s bottom which I could not see.

I slipped my boots from my clawed and oddly jointed feet. The floor was firm, my traction great due to my Talent. But that was only the start. However, the question remained, on where did I wish to explore.

If I went upwards, I could find the roof of the quarry, perhaps additional inlet tunnels.

If I went downwards, I could find the floor of the quarry, and perhaps if anything of value had been lost to it. The chance of stumbling upon a forgotten treasure lured me to investigate downwards.

I stepped up to the edge of the ledge, a raised heel and a toe hanging over the void, my tail swaying behind me to keep balance, I decided to indulge myself once again.

I pivoted over, one foot landing on the vertical wall.

And then, I ran; I ran down the wall, racing myself and gravity’s call.

Step after step, my feet sticking to the side of the cliff as though my toes were pressing against slight burrs in the stone. It would have been inadequate to guarantee my descent ordinarily, as even with my light weight, my center of mass was far from the wall which caused undue torque to twist upon my feet. However, my momentum released that torque, keeping my legs in line with my torso. I was traveling fast enough that keeping my balance and steering around irregularities in the stone would have been impossible were it not for my tail.

The air whistled past my fur and I felt it in my ears, almost an overpowering rush, my arms were spread wide and I could not prevent my muzzle from opening to allow air to press along my tongue and throat. It was a celebration of my Talents and my form and an exhilarating rush. A chance to enjoy myself after the stuffy pace the humans had set for so many hours.

I traveled quickly, within seconds I reached the next ledge down. Rather than tripping on the ledge and then face planting along the cliff-wall, I skipped from the cliff, passed over the ledge as the obstacle it was, then once more gripped the cliff beneath my face.

A whoop almost escaped my throat.

I passed another two ledges before my false-arm interrupted me with an unwelcome constriction.

My foot missed the next step, causing a stumble, causing my upper half to over balance causing my upper half to pivot inwards towards the cliff. Were my feet not stuck to the cliff, I would have spun off into the abyss. As it was, I caught myself with my arms so that I had three points of contact and my head facing downwards. The last of the momentum was bled off when my tail whacked the back of my head.

My false-arm continued to contort, but not nearly so great as to express ire. Either it was suffering from an unknown condition, or more likely, it had wanted to draw my attention in a dangerous, risky, and just generally irritating fashion.

And of course, I could not simply ask the parasite what it wanted me to notice. Of course, it might have been to warn me of impending danger. That ought to have been the first thought to cross my mind when I stumbled. Perhaps I had lost myself too thoroughly then.

This forced me to pause. I focused on the world around me, my hearing, touch, my sense of smell, all of it. There were some hints in the air, the acerbic afternote of faded alchemicals, the grease of laborers, the dust of the quarry, some iron, and a faint note of offal.

In the thorough darkness, even my improved eyesight was limited.

I failed to detect any unordinary sounds, just the natural air-currents and a general constant ambiance.

As nothing became obvious, my ire towards my false-arm continued to grow. I lacked a manner to reprimand it, but I thought I would have if I could. It was as I was fantasizing of punishments that I heard it.

From above, heavy stomping footsteps.

Then a call came.

“Jackie!” Kate was calling rather loudly, the echo reverberating again and again and mixing with itself until all the quarry was a hum. “C’mon! Where’d you get off to? Better not–” she continued to issue several ideas I would rather not have heard.

The second I realized Kate was there, I began resettling my Guise as I twisted around and began to climb upwards once more. If I had been at my optimal, I could have tried running up the cliff as well, but with my body changing and with Kate rushing me from above I found myself defaulting to what I knew, which was crawling upwards, if quickly, compared to the speed a normal person would climb.

All the while, Kate continued, “-and are these your boots?! What in the godslicking–”

Only part way transformed, I could hardly call out to her. I wondered if I was too near as it was in my partial state, if she could hear me, or see me, or use her other unnatural sense of perception. I climbed silently, except for the creak of my bones and the clicks of my talons and nails as they counterfeited themselves as human. Before I came through the final ledge, I paused and allowed my changes to settle before buttoning the back of my pants.

Finally I could risk it. I called out to her before she did something foolish.

“I am on my way,” I said.

“-wha?” Kate said, almost squawked. “What–what are you doing down there?”

“Scouting,” I said.

“Down there? Without your boots?”

“It is easier to climb if I can feel the stone.”

“Yeah… but that doesn’t make a lot of sense for a lot of reasons,” Kate said doubtfully, before offering, “You need any help getting back up?”

Rather than answering, I reached the ledge she stood on.

She quickly found me and reached down and clasped my hand before hoisting me up and setting me down on the ledge beside her. She brushed dust off my shoulders, or rather made a show of it.

“So…” she trailed off. “Not that I’m gonna push you on it, because whatever it was you were doing down there was dumb, but, uhh… wanna talk about it?”

I almost snorted at the trepidation in her voice, but that would not cause me to give in and admit my reasoning so easily. And so, I said, “Not particularly.”

“Oh.” She shuffled slightly, before finding her confidence. “Did you find anything at least?”

“My search was interrupted,” I said dryly, making sure she knew exactly who it was that interrupted it.

She handed me my boots and circled around slightly, putting me between her and the wall.

“Know what I think?” she asked, continuing to block me in. “I think you just got bored.”

I was not concerned by her posturing, although she was coming rather close. Instead, I continued in a casual and indifferent fashion.

“Compared to some of your previous ideas on what I was doing, I would consider merely being bored an improvement.”

“You heard those, huh?” Kate said, amused.

“I did, and I fear that Marianne and Gregory did as well.”

“Ha… yeah, that would be pretty funny… But… you know,” she began to sound somewhat sly. “It’s still your shift.”

“If that is so,” I responded, “Then why are you here early?”

“Well… I woke up a bit and thought I’d check on you,” she said.

As she said this, she gave me a hungry lookover before completely hemming me in between the cliff and her, her arm over my shoulder and against the wall as she leaned in. Her breath was hot and damp but the smell left much to be desired.

I crossed my arms over my too heavy and too bloated chest.

“And you accused me of abandoning my shift?” I asked.

“Well… I mean, I’d be right here with you in case something happened.”

“Perchance, have you considered the safety of the camp while we are otherwise distracted?”

“Ha! You’re one to talk. ‘Sides, they’ll be fine.”

I narrowed my eyes.

“We cannot jeopardize ourselves in such a fashion.”

“Like taking your boots off and climbing down a cliff?” Kate sounded far too confident in her position, but she may have had a point. “Yeah. So, how about you and I…” she wiggled her eyebrows and leaned in a bit more.

A jolt ran through me as her knee pressed between my thighs, applying enough pressure to raise me up until my toes left the ground. Were my body unenhanced, it would have been uncomfortable. But as it was, it was something… else. A compromise seemed to be necessary here, and it was not completely unenjoyable besides.

Suddenly I found it difficult to focus, but I managed to still protest, if not as strongly as I may have set out to.

“W-what are you suggesting then?” I asked, turning my face away slightly.

Her free hand tilted my face back towards her.

“I think you know,” she said, so full of herself that the possibility of me refusing her had not even occurred to her.

But, would it be so terrible to indulge? Maybe not completely. Afterall, the cavern was rather cold, especially without my fur, and I had no desire to fully explore that concept with Kate. But, a compromise could be enjoyable. I may have nodded slightly, only slightly though, as her fingers had yet to leave my chin. Her lips were very near my own.

“Clothes remain on,” I said, not allowing any negotiation on that part.

It was not the worst thing ever.