“Spirits, send her an itch, she’s already disappeared!” Smar swirled around, looking through the narrow village streets. “How are we supposed to find her in this maze now? Can you use your power?”

“Eh, no need. Let’s just follow gasps and shocked faces.” Ratcatcher chuckled, pointing her tail out at the dumbfounded-looking people ahead.

They walked past the partying crowd of locals, following the small trail of chaos that Kayleen had left in her wake. As she promised, the Wolfkin laid no paw on anyone, ignoring every scowl or occasional curse aimed at her. But Ratcatcher could see scratched marks on the buildings’ walls and could easily guess just how stressful it must have been for people to see a large Wolfkin form jumping over their heads.

The village looked nice, despite her fears—the annoying smell from the walls could barely be felt inside the streets. Most people were dressed in white, dusty clothes, hurriedly scurrying around to do some chores. Children were busy cleaning clothes or carrying firewood collected in the mountains to their homes. Their parents, in the meantime, looked after their gear, keeping their weapons ever sharp, the work teams busily repaired any buildings damaged by a recent sandstorm, and fatherless families helped by gutting the insectoid carcasses and removing poison stingers. If the encyclopedia was to be believed, the locals did most of the work during the night, when the weather became cooler, and ventured out to hunt food and resources by day, avoiding the deadly dangers of the night within the safety of their walls.

Putting both hands behind her head, Ratcatcher inhaled hot air, allowing herself to put her mind at ease. All in all, she didn’t do this badly today, aside from hesitating when it came to killing. It irked her to this moment—the shocked look, the last gurgling, the thought of… Ratcatcher calmed herself, turning her attention to Smar.

All in all, the medic walked around pretty confidently for someone who had never left Iterna in her entire life. Ratcatcher half expected her to break down out of fear in the desert or whine about a long trip, but nope. Smar went above and beyond everyone’s expectations. She never once complained about how tight her exosuit was or how long it took to walk across the sand. If she hadn’t already had an important profession, Ratcatcher would have pestered the woman to no end about joining the explorators. Smar seemed to have a knack for it.

“How are you holding up?” Ratcatcher asked, eager to kill time.

“Freaking out, to be honest.” Smar tugged at her collar. “I mean, look at this.” Her finger pointed at a kid ahead. The boy’s left eye was missing, his eye socket got pierced by some accident in the past, and now a large bulging hole, covered by tanned flesh, decorated his right side. Heavily painting and almost deliberately slowly, the kid was rolling a barrel to his home. “I want to grab him and rush to a clinic straight away. His movements are slowed, no doubt he endured some poison that damaged his nervous system. Malnourishment, stress, and…” Smar fell silent for a second before continuing. You probably think that I am babbling. If we don’t succeed, all these people could die, and I…"

“Nope,” Ratcatcher assured her, wrapping her arm around the tensed woman’s shoulders. “It’s sweet, actually. Even here, you are more worried about your fellow humans than yourself. You are a good person, ain’t cha, Smar?”

“Good,” Smar laugher sounded like grinding gears to Ratcatcher’s ears. “Trust me, I am in no way good, Elisa. Not me. You’d be wise to… Hey, there she is!”

They found Kayleen before a wooden warehouse, leaning on a butchery table and smirking at a frowning man holding a sharpened butcher knife in his hand. Coming closer, the explorator smelled both fresh and dried up blood, along with a smell of wet furs.

“Hey, join right in!” Kayleen waved a paw at them. “My new friend,” her claw pointed at the man, “is the owner of the best shish kebabs in this modest abode. Here, have a taste, I am paying.” With a flick of her metal claw, Kayleen had sent a few pieces of roasted cusack meat from a plate straight into the women’s faces.

Ratcatcher caught both meats before one of them could have splattered against Smar’s visor, rolling her eyes at Kayleen’s antics. Taking a bite, she felt her mouth water at the taste of burning species, mixed with just the right time the meat spent above the flames. Not a single piece of vein or bone was present in this gift from heaven. The rough outer covering served as but a delicious diversion from the soft insides that almost popped on her teeth, instantly ending up chewed down.

Smar’s visor opened, and the woman gasped, inhaling the air. Something in her eyes changed. The askance look that she gave to Ratcatcher made her feel a tingle of goosebumps across her spine. Something so undeniably familiar was in these eyes, she could have sworn she had seen them before. But where? In the next moment, the feeling disappeared as Smar loudly closed her teeth on the meat, blinking once. The medic reached into her pocket, took out a small silver box filled with pills, and quickly swallowed one.

“Told you, this shit is good,” Kayleen laughed, noticing Smar’s look. “Oh, get used to it, princess! Yeah, the air here is hot, so what? You can’t hide behind a helmet all day long.”

“How much for a full bowl?” Ratcatcher fired up, lurking in her belt.

They had taken some currency that the locals were using—minted silver coins with an image of a clawed fist. To her knowledge, these coins were rarely used in actual trade, the village elder usually held them all to buy cusacks from either Changed or Naturalborns, and the locals used barter in their exchanges. Still, she had coins, even if they were made by Iterna.

Stolen story; please report.

“Thirty coins,” without baiting an eye, the butcher said, and Smar spat on the ground, seeing how Kayleen and Ratcatcher prepared to pay.

“Are you joking with us?” She looked up, reading a sign over the man’s head. “A full-grown cusack costs half of this price!”

“Buy a cusack then.” The man shook his shoulders, looking at Kayleen. “Changed called my food shit. She can pay more for it.”

“So you admit to extorting us purely because of our looks…”

“Of course he is trying to rip us off!” Kayleen pulled the fuming woman closer to herself. “The locals are always selling goods to tourists at three times the price that they are selling to the locals. Smar, I am a violent, tribalistic new breed right here, and even I know this! How in the Abyss is an Iternian not aware of this?”

“Three times is one thing, but a near hundred times a price is a disgusting way of price gouging! I won’t stand for this!” Smar shrieked in almost physical anguish, trying to break free and stop Ratcatcher from wasting money.

“There is a chair near the man.” the explorator joked.

“You haven’t seen the prices in our villages during the tourist season then,” Kayleen stated.

“Who even comes to your villages? Seriously, who? They have no hotels, no proper shops…”

“Hey! We have a shop! One per village.”

“Who are these ‘tourists’?” The butcher asked.

“Aha! My friend, I am more than willing to explain the miracles of the world to you… for a little discount.” Ratcatcher jumped at the opportunity to haggle, ignoring the arguing women behind her.

“No deal. You are Changed. I am tolerating you on the elder’s order, but I owe you no courtesy. You want a discount? Find someone to vouch for you.”

Ratcatcher turned around, looking across the street. Sure, she could pay the full price… But this was boring. Retreating without getting this super spicy meat was not an option either, her stomach would never forgive her for this weakness either. What to do, what to… She spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

“Oy! Arseface, come over here for a sec!” Ratcatcher shouted.

One person stopped amidst a large group made up of fifteen guards returning from their shift. The young guard, who had called the explorator a rat before, turned around, his eyes flashing with anger. Her hands trembled an inch above her dagger’s handle.

“How dare you address me like that, Changed?” The woman snarled.

“You seem to like the name well enough to respond to it, arseface!” Ratcatcher laughed and darted forward, taking the stiffened woman under her arm the moment she started walking away. “Anyway, sorries for being rude and all. You kind of get under my skin…”

“Say your piece and let go of me before I skin you for real,” the guard hissed.

“That’s the spirit!” The explorator beamed, leading the woman to the shop and ignoring the angry looks of the other guards. “Here is a deal. How about you take a bow and try to shoot me right between the shoulder blades?”

“What madness is this?” The guard tried to break free. “Are you trying to get me banished?”

“Nope! Listen, if you manage to injure me, I’ll pay you fifty silver coins. If I catch an arrow, you’ll vouch for me to this good sir.” She nodded at the butcher, walking toward the wooden table and spreading her arms wide. “Come on, it’ll be easy-peasy!”

She tasted the uncertainty of the woman behind herself. The guard’s thoughts were easy to guess. Doubtlessly, the woman wanted to shoot her in the back, seeing Ratcatcher as nothing more than a wicked Changed, an enemy who walks freely around their village and is mocking them. At the same time, backing down from the challenge would mean turning into a mockery for the other guards. Decisions, decisions…

Ratcatcher made it easier for the guard to decide, putting the hands on her waist and let out mocking laughter. A rustle of clothing flowed along with a sound of friction when an arrow left the quiver. The sound of a bowstring being pulled followed next, and she prepared, letting her tail run across the ground and laughing louder.

Here! A sound of the bowstring’s release! Without turning, her tail rose, wrapping itself around a flying arrow an inch away from her skin. Ratcatcher could have stopped it earlier but did not wish to humiliate the woman even further. Gracefully, she turned around, handing the arrow back to the stone-faced guard.

“Great shot! How about we share a meal to celebrate a win?”

“I don’t need your pity.” The woman nodded to the butcher. “I vouch for them.”

“It’s not a pity, I’m inviting you and your fellows to a friendly dinner, stupid!” Ratcatcher laughed, no longer mocking, and slipped some coins into the surprised guard’s palm. “We are all on the same side here, so let’s get to know each other, share some stories, and…”

“My turn!” Kayleen pushed the explorator aside, stomping at the ground loud enough to gather the attention of the remaining guards. “Listen up, allies! Aim your bows and crossbows at me!” The Wolfkin hit herself across the chest with her metal paw. “I dare you! Show me your pride! On my honor, I swear that if even a single edge’s kiss draws blood out of me, half of my tokens are yours!"

“She means coins.” Smar came closer.

“Yes, them! And if I win, you owe me booze! Enough to knock me off my paws! Oh, and Smar tries after.”

“What?!” The medic tried to leap away, only to be grabbed by Kayleen’s paw. “I am not a soldier!” Smar wailed like a banshee. “Not an abnormal either! I can’t do this kind of stuff!”

“Ah, but you are wearing an exosuit, my dear. Don’t you chicken out yet, I’ll about to teach you just how fast you can move in this thing.” Kayleen grinned, holding Smar next to herself.

Ratcatcher wanted to join them when Raaji pushed through the crowd, stopping for a moment just to see how fourteen guards aimed their bows at the Wolfkin. Ratcatcher waved to him that everything was fine, and he joined her, his steps accompanied by the sound of released bowstrings, Smar’s frightened gasp, and Kayleen’s laughter. In a burst of speed, Kayleen moved forward, her paws moving faster than the eye can see and turning into blurring whips. Not a single arrow reached her or Smar, every single one of them ended up in Kayleen’s paws.

“Is everything in order? No one is bothering you?” Seeing Ratcatcher’s nod, Raaji continued, while behind him, Kayleen dragged the frightened Smar into a firing line, standing right behind her to catch the arrow if things went wrong. “Sorry for ruining the fun, but your leader has asked for your immediate presence.”

Ratcatcher froze, forgetting all about meat or her plans to spend a night trying to get the locals to her side. There could only be one reason for Augustus’ call. Her performance on the field.