A loud two toned whiny broke Seras out of her own brooding. It had been a week since she had spoken with Novidara and she had been trying really hard to distract herself. Hunts with the tribe outriders, studying the Magitech book, and even sketching out ideas for her first attempt at blending formation and technology. But nothing really worked.

But that familiar call drew her out of her head, she turned just in time to see a massive Heidel charging her. She had plenty of time to dodge away, but instead she chose to set her stance low and take the impact head on.

The Heidel hit her with a solid thud, and Seras slid back through the dirt a few dozen centimeters, but her stance did not break and she completely stopped the Heidels momentum. “Buck you bastard!” Seras cursed, though there was no hiding her grin.

Her Heidel in response leaned over and bit her ear, not gently, but not maliciously either.

One of Buck’s heads turned and saw something neither Seras nor the other head saw, because the Heidel backed away quickly. That was when the second bulky figure smacked into Seras.

She and the furred figure went head over heels, and somehow through the scramble in the dirt the Leonid lifted her over her head and made a triumphant roar, like a hunter with a kill. “Haha, I knew you were too stubborn to die!” Petra roared.

“Put me down you overgrown furball!” Seras yelped.

Petra set her down but made sure that Seras was right before the trio of Flint, Dustin, and Rohan. The latter of which was looking around wistfully, these were his people after all.

“Have a fun adventure?” Dustin asked with a wry smile.

“You don’t know the half of it,” Seras retorted.

“Knowing you its probably full of graphic violence and is deeply depressing.” Flint was still his standoffish self, but she was pretty sure the relieved look in his eyes wasn’t her imagination. He noticed Seras smiling at him and forced his face into a scowl, “did you at least gain some good powers from those new stones of yours?”

Petra grabbed Seras by the shoulder and shook her a bit, “yeah, spill it. Anything good, or are they more useless technology powers?”

Seras smirked smugly, “they’re only so-so. Just a looting power and Teleportation.”

The outcry of ‘unfair’ from everyone had Seras laughing so hard she was clutching at her sides and bent over at the waist.

When she finally composed herself she noticed Athena on the outskirts of the cluster. Things between them had cooled off over the week, they were comfortable around each other still, but there was a weariness to it. Seras waved her over, “come on over, quit skulking.”

“I was giving you space for-,”

“-none of that now, come on,” Seras interjected.

They all turned to regard the tall woman, still wearing the strange green and silver robes of the Akemi healer priests.

Dustin squinted at her, “you’re the girl she jumped in after.” Dustin was good with faces and probably remembered Athena even though he had only seen her briefly during a chaotic night battle.

Athena shuffled on her feet, “yes, um, I’m sorry Seras had to jump in after me, you probably wouldn’t have been so worried if she had just left me.”

Rohan seemed to notice the robes she was wearing, “are you a healer?”

“Of sorts,” she hedged.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Seras put a hand on her shoulder, “her powers work more on a karmic level of transferring ailments to herself. They are potent self-sacrificial powers that saved my ass way too many times. She even lost an arm for me.”

They all stared down at her two fully functional arms.

“I got better.”

Dustin met her eyes, “they were that effective?” he asked. What he left unsaid was that he was amazed they worked on her. Seras didn’t have flesh to heal, at least not any that was easy to heal.

She nodded.

Dustin smiled and reached out a hand, “well then it’s a pleasure to meet you miss…”

“Just Athena.” She insisted as she took his hand.

Neither Dustin nor Flint missed Athena’s aversion to giving her family name, but neither commented at this moment.

Seras glanced around curiously, “hey where’s the rest?”

“Had to leave the normal rankers behind, the trail here was really dangerous,” Petra answered.

Dustin nodded, “the Toruach are blocking the easy routes here, so we had to go up and over the Heidel-back mountains. Dangerous country, we were in a group of bronze rank adventurers and we still had a couple of close calls. Its what held us up.”

“And why they wouldn’t let us leave on our own,” Seras finished. She glanced to her friends to make sure they were all okay. Dustin and Flint were the same as ever, though Dusitn’s Heidel Jesse had a burn on her side. Rohan had bags under his eyes and looked very tired, and Petra… “Wait, did you rank up?”

Petra grinned and stepped back to better present herself, “what, can’t you tell by how handsome I got?”

Handsome was the right word there. Male and female Leonid’s had a pronounced sexual dimorphism, with the males towering over the females by a good margin. Rank ups typically had a beautifying effect on, but not always. Some people became uglier, a reflection of their inner self. Petra however became more masculine, but in a way that still made it clear she was female.

She was bigger, both in height and build, she had lost the slight bit of feminine sleekness she had before and became more like bulked up body builder. And something about her face had changed to look rougher.

A thought struck Seras, “you’re not, like, going to slowly become a guy with each rank up, are you? Is that even possible?”

Flint scowled at her, “rank ups reflect the soul, why do you sound surprised.”

Seras shrugged, “because I didn’t expect you to have that here, back home it took some serious conversions to let a person do that. Costs a fortune. But you guys can just magic your way past that problem.”

“Essences ain’t cheap. Nor are monster cores.” Flint grumbled.

“Fair enough.”

“Besides,” Petra interjected, “that’s not what’s going on with me.”

Seras shrugged, “just wondering.”

Petra rolled her eyes, “I’m a lady, I just define it differently. I’m not some demure little thing that gets shorter with every rank up.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice, when you were wrangling me I got a whiff of your pits, stench like that needs crystal wash at the minimum.”

Petra lifted an arm to check for her self. Tellingly everyone backed up a step when she did so.

“Not wrong. Is there a creek around I could run through?”

Rohan scowled, “this is an Akemi camp, and we’re not backwards savages. There should be a proper bath tent around here somewhere.”

“That’s less fun,” Petra grumbled.

Dustin turned to Seras, “which bunk tent are your two in, we might see if there’s available space for some of us in there.”

Seras blinked, “uh, we didn’t get put in a bunk tent, they gave us a private smaller tent.

Rohan, Dustin, and Flint, all turned towards Seras and Athena, giving them an askance look.

“What?” Seras asked.

Rohan looked between her and Athena before blushing, “nothing, we just didn’t know you two were that close already.”

Seras was confused for a moment, until she remembered that the other tents around them were also smaller tents with only two occupants. Most of whom seemed to be intimately involved with each other, “we’re in the love tent, aren’t we?”

Rohan nodded.

Seras pinched the bridge of her nose, “that explains so much.”

“Like the sound proofing.” Athena commented.

“Or the mood lighting.”

“Did you two really not realize where you were?” Dustin asked, a wry smile on his lips.

Seras glared, “no, and we’re not a couple. We’ve barely known each other a few weeks now,”

“Doesn’t stop you,” Athena muttered.

“I said sorry.”

“Doesn’t change anything.”

They scowled at each other. Seras glanced back to her friends, “its this whole thing, tell you later.”

Flinted huffed out a loud sigh, “I see you still find trouble wherever you go.”

“Like I said, it finds me.”

“Doesn’t stop you from being bait for it though.”

“Touché”

Dustin laughed, “alright, enough gabbing, I need to report into the tribe elders and get us lodging. You all can just explore the camp for today, we’ll join up with the next group going back over the mountains. Save all the important talk for until I’m back.”

At that a warm maw bit her ear and Seras yelped. She turned and glared at the Heidel who had been patiently waiting for her to finish reconnecting with her friends, but now that it was all wrapped up he was anxiously shifting around. Animal auras weren’t usually as defined or easy to read as people’s but Seras could feel the pent-up energy and excitement of the beast.

“Has… has anyone taken him out since I’ve been gone?” Seras asked.

Petra scoffed, “like who. You’re the only one who seems to enjoy getting bucked out of the saddle.”

“And there wasn’t space on the mountain trails for that kind of thing,” Rohan added.

Seras nodded, “want to ride and talk then?” she asked.

Rohan rubbed at his backside, “if its all the same I’d like to rest for a time, maybe I’ll find my parents.”

“I’ll come,” Petra said boisterously.

Athena glanced at her robes and shrugged, “I don’t think the healers need me that badly.”

Seras grinned, “alright, just us two ladies, and Petra.”

Petra shoved Seras. And she laughed. Slowly a little knot in her chest unwound, one she hadn’t noticed until it loosened.

Athena was fine, Seras could scarcely recall ever opening up so quickly to a person in her life. Even with Cash and Frost there was a sense of distance. But there were still some uncomfortable points of tension between them, things that felt too real.

Things were different with Dustin’s crew, with them there wasn’t any of that. She could just laugh and bullshit her way through the day with them. It almost remined her of a different crew, her old crew.

But she wouldn’t let things end the same way, not this time.