Klein comes running and catches up to us, she didn't have a town pass too so she wasted a few seconds with customs.

The caravan is just outside, a few wagons with "horses" pulling them and a crowd of people following.

As far as I know, horses aren't supposed to look so… muscular and threatening. I can see blood dripping out of the mouth of a horse as he chews on something. Another horse neighs and I see sharp teeth below his lips. They stare at anyone who gets too close with hungry eyes and huff in annoyance.

The fuck are they feeding these monsters?

A short silver elf boy with long hair comes towards us with 7 horses behind him on leashes. His face is very feminine and if it weren't for the sleeveless loose shirt I think I would mistake him for a cute girl like Silvane.

"Here's the horses for the Helios fellowship," he says as he approaches us, his voice is high pitched and crystal clear. "My name is Nito and I take care of the horses." He bows lightly to us.

We introduce ourselves and he distributes the leashes, Lina's the smallest while mine is the largest. I look at Nito but his face is solid like stone.

I sigh internally and put on 10 points into [Riding], masking it as we pull out our armor and put it on except the helmets.

"So, be careful with the horses, please, consider them as rentals so you will pay for any wounds on them," Nito starts once he deems us ready to mount. "They like to eat goblins and orcs but please don't put them in battle, only let them eat the bodies not live ones. Keep your dragon with you, they might mistake it for a Dragolite and try to eat it too."

From Hana's shoulder Aoi puffs smoke in the air and the horses huff in response. "They, won't, try," she says with a glare towards the horses.

Through [Animal Tongue] I see that they are quite nervous about Aoi.

Nito turns to the horses and speaks in Ingua, the high elven language. I feel he's using [Animal Tongue] too and trying to calm the horses, he's saying Aoi is friend, not food.

The horses calm down and Nito motions for Hana to approach, she obeys and the horses don't become more nervous to see Aoi approach.

"Seems fine. Right, continuing, I will follow you with my own horse so in case you need to drop the horses to battle don't worry, they will obey me and not get scared at the sounds of battle. In case I'm not present once you dismount, the horse will try to return to me so don't go too deep or too far from the caravan so the horse doesn't get lost. Also don't stay too long inside the Sea of Trees, they don't like it in there."

We nod in understanding and approach the horses to mount, the beasts remain still and barely respond. Once I approach, through [Animal Tongue], I feel amusement coming out of my horse, the other horses seem curious about me.

I put the left foot on a stirrup, grab the mane and reins with the left hand, and with the right I grab the saddle's cantle. With all my leg strength, and with the help of [Telekinesis], I spring up and swing my right leg over the horse in one smooth movement, allowing me to sit perfectly on the saddle. I grab the reins properly and try to look for the right stirrup, with a little fiddling I find it and put my right foot on it. Perfect mounting, I'm very proud of myself.

My horse's amusement increases and the others lose interest.

Lina has the most difficulty and requires Hana to pull her up, her horse is small but it's still a little too big for her. Roxanne awkwardly mounts on hers but succeeds, Ciel does it slowly and gracefully, the other two are naturals and do it effortlessly. Klein mounts the same horse as Hana and I get suggestive situations in my head with the two of them together.

"They look old but they are perfectly trained," Hana says while patting her horse tenderly, I feel it is quite content with its rider.

"Well… they served nobles once," Nito says and scratches the back of his long ears uncomfortably.

He looks at me while I try to handle my horse, making me sweat a little. I have very little idea how to do it, even with the skill. What the skill does give me is "intuition", so I follow it, without any idea of what is going to happen next.

"Click for walk, squeeze for speed, smack the rump lightly for a canter, and add a 'yah!' for a gallop," Nito says.

I pull the rein to the side and turn, I bump my heels on the horse's body and click my tongue, the horse obeys and starts to walk. My body sways along with the horse's, uncomfortable and a little nauseating.

Alissa quickly comes to my side and says, "Doing good for a first time."

Ciel comes on the other, "Doing good for a fake."

I feel a little too tense to respond, this is a beast I'm riding. I feel small on top of the mean-looking monster, smaller than normal at least.

The horse huffs and I got the feeling that I'm not in full control.

Gihihih.

What are you laughing at? I'm doing perfectly fine, Rande's attempt to embarrass me didn't work.

Gih.

No, that just makes me look more manly, a small man on top of a large beast is like a short man surrounded by many tall women. You get curious at which member of him is magical.

We continue forward towards the caravan. The crowd following the wagons is being herded by men with spears and flimsy-looking armor. There are many families in there, few look like they are polygamists. There are a lot of children, though, this makes me quite uncomfortable.

They look at us curiously, confused, or surprised. I think they know we are responsible for keeping the monsters away and our composition brings smirks to many men.

We pass by the four wagons, inside is packed with things and a few people sitting in very comfortable-looking chairs. Those are the space mages, they get treated well because they are transporting the perishable goods.

At the front are a few more guards and Rande. He's on a horse beside a carriage. On the window of the carriage I see Osaria, a tired-looking gold elf woman wearing mage's clothes, and a lean weredog archer. He looks like a husky, white face, black fur and hair, glacial blue eyes, and a perpetual frown.

"Mr. Ryder," Rande says with a wide smile once he sees us. Osaria looks out of the window satisfied while the other barely look interested.

"Rande," I greet back.

"I see you are doing fine with your horse, a fine beast, is it not?"

"It is a magnificent beast," I say and caress the side of the neck of my horse.

It neighs happily.

Rande raises an eyebrow, "I see, so you are using [Animal Tongue]?"

"Indeed, I'm the one who tamed the nature spirit after all."

Gih.

Yeah, but he doesn't need to know that.

He looks at Alissa, who's holding Gify and enters deep thought. He must have believed that Alissa did it, this is why he thought he could embarrass me by giving me the biggest horse.

"Anyway," -Osaria starts, bringing attention to her- "these are Oura and Laertes," she points to the two on the carriage. "We are enough to keep the caravan safe from goblins and such if you need to move away to deal with something else."

Oura is a baggy-eyed woman with long, slightly unkempt hair and a delicate, round face. Laertes is serious and rugged but young man with an oval face, his permanent frown makes him look older than he is. They give us a short greeting.

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Laertes leans over Oura and speaks out of the window of the carriage, "Klein, how long are you going to keep out there?"

"Aaaall the time, I have a lot to catch up!" She answers with a satisfied smile.

Laertes looks at Hana and then to me and his frown becomes slightly deeper. "Your job is with the caravan, not them, understood?" He asks sternly.

"Yeees, daddy."

He cringes and returns to his position, Oura already fell asleep.

"He's not my actual daddy, but he acts like it," Klein says lowly.

"Mr. Rande," Hana says and approaches him.

"Just Rande, please," he says with a grin.

"What are the combat capabilities of the other guards?"

"Meat shields," he says flatly.

I share a concerned look with Ciel.

"Can we rely on them for something?"

"We can rely on them as bait, they are only there to keep the commoners from doing something stupid, don't expect them to show much loyalty."

"Talking about the commoners, you brought more commoners than we had agreed," Hana says and narrows her eyes at him threateningly.

"Last minute changes and a few desperate poor commoners were in need of help. Shouldn't make things much more difficult for you," he calmly says.

"It's not your name that gets dragged in the mud when people die," Hana hisses at him.

He hardens his expression and swallows nervously.

Hana moves past him and we follow.

"You told me he would do that but it's still annoying, the more commoners following the more monsters that will come to us. If they remain until the High Forest then it will make things harder for us," she says.

Klein smiles wryly, "That's his biggest fault, I guess, the easy money always charms him."

"Does he even know you are a Blood Slave?" Ciel asks.

"Don't think so, at least, I didn't show the mark to him," Hana answers.

"Keep it that way," I say, me and Hana share a knowing smirk.

"Wolfy, your horse is big enough, can I go with you?" Lina asks.

"Getting spoiled, aren't you?" Ciel asks with smirk.

"Yes," Lina answers and shyly lowers her head.

"I'll miss giving you two a ride," Alissa says.

"We can still scout ahead once in a while, just us three," I say.

"I would highly prefer that you didn't do this often," Ciel says with a worried look.

"I know, I know, just something to pass the inevitable boredom," Alissa says.

"Have you ever ridden Alissa?" I ask Ciel.

"Oh! If we are doing this then I want a ride too!" Roxanne exclaims.

"Me too!" Klein lifts her hand high in the air.

"Same," Hana says with fearsome smile that leave Alissa concerned.

She looks Hana up and down then says, "You might be a bit too heavy for me, so I won't last long."

"Sure, just like always."

We smile at each other but Alissa pouts.

I lean over to my horse and softly whisper on his ears, "Can you handle one more person?"

It huffs in disinterest.

I will take that as an "eh, sure".

I stop my horse and Lina drops from hers, with help of [Telekinesis] I pull her up to my saddle. Her horse immediately turns back to Nito, who's following us from a distance. Lina leans over my chest and closes her eyes in satisfaction when I hug her tight.

I summon two birds, a Holly, and a Shad and spread them out except the Shad.

"Oooh, [Summoning Magic]?" Klein asks curiously, she takes the reins and pulls her horse beside mine. I nod to her. "How is it? Having more eyes and senses than normal?"

"Straining and nauseating, specially if you have too many senses coming all at once," I answer.

"How did you learn it?"

"Secret," I smile wryly.

She immediately pouts cutely.

"Really?"

"Really, can't tell."

"Muuh…" She groans like Aoi.

"Curiosity got the monkey eaten," Hana says and Klein pouts harder.

"Say, Klein, do you have any stories about Hana?" Roxanne asks with a smirk.

Hana's face hardens and she keeps looking forward.

"Girl, do I have." She smiles evilly, "There's plenty but I think it's hard to beat the time she pissed on a noble's mouth."

She what?

"Klein! You weren't even there when it happened!" Hana complains, her hands grip Klein's shoulders strongly.

"But I heard all the details from Mimi," she grins evilly.

"N-not that one, please, I was too stupid at that age," Hana pleads with a frown.

"Too late, I want to hear that one," Roxanne says. Ciel comes beside Hana and nods repeatedly.

"What about that time that you ate some 'shrooms and tongue kissed your Da?"

Hana facepalms and speaks, "Oh Gods! I'm already regretting coming!"

"Okay, now, what?" Ciel leans closer with a smirk.

"It's exactly like that, she got some weird 'shrooms from Betoverd Bos and we shared them and boy, did I trip hard on that, I still remember it vividly how I could see sounds. But for Hana it was worse, she got all horny and masturbated, I think, I don't remember, Mimi told me what happened. But then she was so horny she kissed the first man she saw, which was her Dad."

Now that is an awkward memory.

Hana blushes and starts laughing. She shakes her head and then covers her face with her hands. "That was a tongue kiss! My first real kiss!"

"Oof," the girls, including Aoi, all groan in sympathy.

"Now that we are talking about it, who was the first kiss of everybody?" Klein asks with suggestive grin.

They all start by staring at me and I suddenly awake from my blissful trance induced by their pretty voices.

"I think I was 10, I don't remember the name of the girl anymore, she was the maid's daughter," I say.

"Maid? So you do come from a wealthy family," Klein says.

"Kinda," I smile wryly.

Alissa frowns at me, and the others look disappointed.

"Men," Ciel says lowly and they nod.

"Oh come on, I was 10, I barely remember the name of anybody when I was that age," I protest.

Ciel's tone turns colder, "It was your first kiss, possibly for both of you, you should at least memorize her name due to how important that is."

"Thirty years," I say with a shrug.

"What?" Klein asks.

"Nothing, internal reference," I say.

Ciel sighs, "Fine you get a pass, this time."

We turn to Alissa.

"Nen, Nenvieu, oh wait, no, it was Ofilia," she says and blushes.

Oh wow.

"The Blood Slave your family had? A woman?" I ask, impressed.

"Yeah but it didn't count, it was for my slave training."

"So it was Nen then?" Ciel asks.

Alissa nods and blushes harder.

"How did you do it? Was he your first love? Did you really ever think about another man before Wolfy?" Roxanne asks with a smirk.

"Well…" Alissa's mouth moves silently a little, she's getting really flustered. "Ofilia told me to lose my virginity before I met my master so it wouldn't hurt so much…" Alissa finds difficult to continue talking.

"Ohohoh, so you did love him?"

"No! Not in that way, not in the way I love Wolfy…" She releases the reins and slaps her cheeks repeatedly.

"Awn…" I grab her hand and squeeze, she giggles once.

"But I got close to doing it with him…" She cringes and keeps her head down.

"Oh my," Roxanne smiles. -

-

"W-what about your first kiss, Roxanne?" Ciel asks, a little uncomfortable.

"We have the tradition of kissing our parents on the lips so the first time that counts was my instructor. She was a bitch but by the Gods, she was hot," Roxanne says with a silly smile followed by a sad sigh.

"Oh, so you like men and women?" Klein asks innocently.

"Everyone here does," Hana answers.

Klein chokes on her spit and looks around warily, she's the little virgin among wolves. Suddenly she turns to me and lifts an eyebrow. "Even you?"

"Wait, not like that," -I chuckle- "I only like women."

"Well watch out when you enter the High Forest, you are really cute and they like to hide boys among the girls," she says and snickers.

Seeing how Nito is and how much gayness there is in elven history, I believe that wholeheartedly.

"So you find my husband really cute?" Hana asks in a low sultry tone in Klein's monkey ear. She puts her hand over Klein's exposed brown mid-riff and hugs her tight. Klein remembers her position as sheep and shivers.

"Not you too," Ciel says with an eye-roll.

"It's not cheating until Wolfy says so," Hana answers matter-of-factly.

They turn to me and I remain quiet with my expression frozen in slight content. Beneath that, - I'm heavily considering my options, everyone's position, and trying to ignore Alissa's intense smug stare.

"A-ny-waays…" Ciel starts and looks at Lina, "you?"

"Wolfy," she answers with a small amount of pride.

"Awn… you are so precious," Klein says and gushes at Lina's cuteness.

"That one is a filthy pervert, don't be deceived by her innocent appearance," Roxanne says and Ciel nods.

Lina looks hurt and stare at both of them in disbelief.

"You are my pervert and we are filthy together, don't forget that," I say.

Lina sighs and hangs her head, "Fine, I'm a pervert too."

"I may not be the most experienced person but I'm certain you all are very weird," Klein says, with a slightly amused smile.

"You are Godsdamn right," Hana says in a low growl.

Put on some glasses and shave your head.

"What about you?" Alissa asks Klein.

"My brother," Hana says flatly.

Klein smiles and giggles happily. "He's soo cute!"

Hana scoffs and tickles Klein's rib from below her shirt, "He was 12 and you were 18, you stole his heart and then broke it. It's because of you that he got obsessed with being a knight."

Oh my.

Klein pouts and sounds slightly offended, "I didn't break it, he still has a chance."

"Your father doesn't really like my family so I'm not sure how high that chance is."

"Well, I'm not listening to Dad anymore so his chance is pretty high!"

Hana cringes hard and looks at us, desperately asking for help.

"Did you, uh, have a fight or something?" Ciel asks cautiously.

"Not yet but we will have one when we reach Goldcross. I waited long enough, I want either a husband or to be able to choose one," she says with bitterness.

"Why would your father wait so long?"

Klein shrugs and throws her hands in the air, "I don't know! I think he just doesn't have the balls to do it, he's too soft on me and Mom. I would rather do what I want instead of waiting for a stupid opportunity to be someone's pet."

Hana's frown deepens, she remains quiet to not provoke Klein further.

"You should talk to him, don't go to Goldcross looking for a fight. You need to talk things calmly not blow off your anger on him," Ciel rides closer to them and puts a hand on Klein's shoulder. "Don't let something like this ruin your relationship with your family, I saw too many get disowned for being hasty on things like this."

"Hmph," Klein puckers her lips and cutely and groans. "Okay," she says lowly.

We stay quiet for a while and then Klein suddenly turns to Aoi. "What about you? You kissed a monster?"

Oh boy.

"Kwah!" Aoi shows her tongue in disgust, "I, kissed, Wolfy!"

Klein's tail slows down until it's completely still, her pupils open wide and she slowly turns to stare at me.

"You what!?"

I smile wryly and keep quiet, it makes her reaction even funnier the longer time passes.

"Aoi is a breeder type," Ciel says in a tired tone.

"Wolfy is going to - have children with a dragon one day," Hana starts.

"And create a new race of intelligent, talking, friendly dragons," Roxanne continues.

"Maybe we could even convert them to the side of the Humanoid Gods, he will literally be a father of a new race," Alissa says excitedly.

"WHAT!?" Klein yells, getting the attention from the caravan behind.

"Klein, please," Hana covers Klein's mouth with her hand.

Alissa chuckles nostalgically and says with a happy sigh, "Dragon Fucker."

"Please don't say it like that, I don't want that Title," I plead.