The Village was looking lively as we pulled up. People were coming in and out of the shop. Villagers were mixing with the citizens of the city and a bunch of kids were running around.

I noticed that heads turned and were glued to us as we passed them and it made me uneasy being the center of attention. I had spent most of my life blending in and didn't know how to handle it. Onida hip-checked me and said, “Just keep a smile on your face and give out some nods to people, You know fake it til you make it as you humans say.”

I plastered a smile on my face as ordered and nodded at the next person that looked my way.

We rolled into the living area and I saw one of the girls on the couch with her eyes unfocused as she was reading something on a screen that we couldn't see. I noticed a purple streak in her hair.

Onida poked me. “See the purple? That's Carri, the assassin. She likes me.”

The girl looked up noticing us and sprang to her feet looking guilty. “Umm Chief, hi, I was just...”

I walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder. “Carri, did you not hear me today when I called you my daughter?” She nodded. “Inside this house, you will address me as Father, do you understand?”

She looked down at the floor. “Yes...Father”

I put a finger under her chin pulling it up and forced her eyes to mine. “What were you looking at, I hope it was something age-appropriate, you look guilty.”

She tried to look everywhere but at me and settled her eyes on Onida. “Umm, Do you know how many books the Truinnar have written on the art of spying?”

Onida laughed, “Of course girl, we have been doing it for a hundred thousand years.”

I snorted, “Where are Samantha and your sisters?”

She said, “My sisters are hooked up to the machine in the med room and Sam... Mother is in bed already.”

I nodded. “You okay? Need anything?

She said, “I'll be okay, I'm the tough one.”

I said, “Good, I'm going to eat and talk to Onida in my office if you need anything.” I went to the kitchen and opened the fridge. There were a huge pre-made salad and some hoagies in there. I grabbed both and waved at Onida and headed to the office.

As we sat down Onida said, “First things first. She reached into her inventory and pulled out my little external hard drive. This simple device is going to make us very very rich!”

I looked at it “How did you get that?”

She said, “You gave it to me in the store remember?”

I said, “I did?”

She replied, “Sure you did... Anyway, the entertainment shows you have are mostly shit, but there will be a huge amount of interest in them as a cultural reference and there are many, many planets out there to buy them. No one has started to introduce these to the galaxy yet, you will be first and reap the benefits.”

“The truly violent shows will do well, this Game of Thrones and Walking Dead stuff will sell like mad and your superheroes movies will do well also. I have already engaged a broker to start making deals in many systems and we are going to make a pretty penny. I don't know how this drive survived the initial system purge. It's like someone found it while you were asleep and paid the System to repair it. Like someone wanted you to be able to make money off of it.”

I sat back staring at her. “Really? I would think there are billions of these types of shows out in this galaxy?”

She shook her head, “Not like these, every culture has different tastes and every system produces very different forms of entertainment. This music you have on here will make us some money as well. We are going to be able to buy a very nice spaceship for the People, I'm talking a battleship.”

I sat up, “That much? I can't believe it!”

She nodded. “Brownbear, do you have any idea how many populated planets are out there with God's know how many people living on them? If even a sliver of a fraction of beings buys these, the number of credits will be staggering.”

I asked, “How many of the shows have you looked at?

She said, “I skimmed through the first episode of most of them just getting a feel for the type of show that they were. This Sherlock guy fascinates me, he has a supernatural sense of detecting details without using a skill! It's magnificent!”

I said, “It's fake, it's a show... er nevermind.”

“Moving on, I wanted to talk to you about the docks, and this fleet idea the Harbor Master was talking about. Let's see what ships Kelli has come up with and get that started, I want us to check out some of the islands nearest to us, I am very nervous that he is right and we might be fighting off monster hordes very soon.”

Douglas Island was directly across from Juneau and it was ten miles long. That could hold a hell of a lot of monsters, and Douglas was the smallest of the islands by far. Admiralty Island was next and it was over 50 miles long. We were the closest population of humans to them, and I did not doubt that if left unchecked the island monsters would become a huge threat to us.

Onida said, “We will have to start getting some forts built in some of those small towns and invest in a portal system. These islands will provide us with a large area to train up our people. No one on this planet will ever know what we are doing out here building up an army.”

I said, “You sound like you are having fun, how are you doing with all of this?”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

She said, “You don't know my entire story, but I was a slave even though I come from a royal family. I was handed over with no choice or say in what I was doing.”

I cut her off. “How royal of a family?”

She said, “Cousins, and I’m way down the line. We are used as fodder to make the families behave. Being bonded to you gave me a certain freedom that I wouldn't achieve on my own for many years. The Duchess can't kill me for fear of giving an excuse for war, and my extended relatives have probably just written me off, I am sure. I can do what I want to when I want to now, It is... Empowering. Being close with all of you humans is so liberating... Your emotions are on constant display. It is so very different than where I come from, I am starting to like it.” She had an evil grin on her face as she said the last part.

I said, “I am glad you are enjoying yourself, Now… I want to put your scouting expertise to good use. Start studying the maps of the islands in say... A 50 miles radius of us and figure out the best places to scatter forts. That will be a good start. We can lay down some sensors and Kelli can keep an eye on the situation. Now let's take a look at our waterways.”

The first thing we did was fix up the Aurora Harbor up by the North border and then we rebuilt the Juneau Harbor where the Nat Geo boat was. Onida picked out two 30 foot armored U.S. Navy Mark VI patrol boats that she said would be perfect for sticking close to the islands. We were about to open the maps up when the inside of my head rang out “HELP, NEED HELP BROWNBEAR!”

It was Yepa.

The call in my mind was so frantic and loud that I fell off of my chair. I yelled to Kelli, “WHERE IS YEPA?”

Kelli said, “She left 30 seconds after you entered the residence Chief, she passed the north border 4 minutes ago, so I can only assume she is at her normal hunting ground at the village of Lemon Creek on the way to the airport.”

I started running to the front door, Onida beat me to it. We ported to the stables and were pushing 100 mph seconds later. Juneau to Lemon Creek was a 4-mile distance. We made it in 60 seconds...

Lemon Creek was a little subdivision village all of 1.5 miles long with a couple of hundred houses. As we flew up the main street I could feel the presence of Yepa off to my left, she was furious and hurt. I put on more speed and had to backtrack when I felt her behind me. I turned down a street and found myself at a small Alaska Electric Light and Power station.

I could hear the furious sounds of Cats fighting as I flew around the building. What I saw was confusing. Yepa was covered in blood fighting off a dozen Wolverines. A huge pile of already dead animals were scattered about. She was standing over what looked like a dead pack of Canadian Lynx.

I was confused, why would she fight so hard just to protect her kill? It didn't matter what was going on, the bond had me furious. I was quickly going into an all out rampage! I leaped off of my horse and midair I switched. “STELLER SEA EAGLE!”

I hit the pack of Wolverines at 60 mph scattering them (Slow and small ground rats!). I snatched up two in my talons and pushed myself up in the air in seconds. I flung the stupid beasts a hundred feet away and laughed as they splatted. I let out a huge cry and dive-bombed the fuckers again that had hurt my Leopard.

I smashed through them again and switched, the primal need to ground and pound something taking over my body. “SILVERBACK!”

I turned into a 400-pound death machine with evil intentions and started grabbing them and bashing them into the ground into pieces and smashing and grinding and pummeling. (You DARE hurt my friend!)

I picked one up by the throat and started biting its face off. I turned to grab another but only saw one Wolverine running away(GET BACK HERE COWARD!). “DIRE BEAR!”

I charged down the coward and did a swan dive onto his back. I picked him up by the neck and shook him until he snapped all over and shook him even more! Then I started to devour him.

Behind me, I heard a cry of “BOWEN STOP!” I turned and saw a woman shouting at me. (I wonder if she would taste good?) I charged her...

I was just about to grab this yummy looking woman and eat her (She smells soo tasty) when vines sprang up and tangled my paws. They had big thorns in them that tickled my big fat belly. I giggled. I casually started tearing off the vines when Yepa walked up to me and bitch slapped me in the face. “Bad Bear!, BAD!”

I sat back on my haunches and looked at her in confusion. What did I do? The woman looked at me and started laughing and that broke the spell. I started coming back to myself.

I switched back and looked at Onida. “I'm so...”

She stopped me. “I know dummy, we are bonded remember? You had a big frenzy buff icon flashing over your head when you went into animal form. You just got lost in it for a minute, It happens. Don't worry, your fat-assed bear couldn't catch me in its wildest dreams. I have Spirit of the Wolf!”

I looked over at Yepa who was standing over 3 BIG Canadian Lynx who were cleaning themselves.

Onida said, “I healed them when you were gorging yourself.”

I looked at Yepa. “So Yepa, what's the deal here? Why were you fighting to the death over these guys?”

In my mind, she said, “Friends. We take home. New pack is good. We home for natives...”

Onida said, “Fucking amazing aren't they?”

I said. “What? What's the big deal?”

She gently slapped me on the back of the head. “Brownbear, these are native Lynx, not some System generated monsters. These beautiful beasts have survived and have been beating the System monsters all on their own...In the wild... It's fucking impossible...This must be the toughest fucking family of Lynx in the entire country!”

I walked over and looked down at them. I had seen a hundred Lynx in my lifetime, I had to admit these were special. They were bigger than any Lynx I could ever remember seeing and they were so silvery they were almost white. It appeared that this was a family of a Mother and her two Daughters. Daddy must not have made it. They all looked up at me with a shine in their eyes. I could feel the thanks with some hope pouring from them. I sighed. More children...

I said to Yepa, “These are wild animals Yepa. We can't have them in the Village, they will hurt a child or something.”

Yepa said, “I tell them. You Chief. We take home. New pack good. Get treatment like Sammy like Carri. Get better. We bond them. It good. They level.”

Onida was laughing behind me. She said, “Yepa is smarter than you and knows more about the System than you too haha!

I said, “You could hear that?”

The look she gave me made me feel like a 10 year old who couldn't add 2 + 2. I replied to myself for her in an imitation of her voice. “Of course I can hear her you idiot, I am bonded to her too!” She grinned at me.

We took a slow pace back to The Village, pack of cats trailing us. The guards at the border were barely bothered by the four animals behind us. The new world was weird.

I was explaining to Onida what was going through my head in animal form. All she kept repeating back at me with a grin on her face was, “You wanted to eat me?”

I looked over at her. “Okay enough already, you said it three times now. So tell me, really? We can get these Lynx a treatment, bond them to someone and they can go out with us and level? The System can do that?”

She said, “Brownbear, You need to start understanding that the System can do ANYTHING for enough credits. I mean anything. It could empty your oceans right now and make your moon into a sea planet. It could port your entire earth to another Solar system. I know of a legendary Star Ship Captain who flies an entire planet around instead of a ship! No lie, look it up in the shop, or just ask the salesperson in there. Swapping an animal so it can bond? Child's play. Hells, I bet a Master Beast Master class could do it, let alone the System.

We got back to the stables and Yepa said, “Kelli make pack den here... good.”

I yelled up, “Kelli, can you please make us a Lynx den, whatever that is, here in the back of the stables?”

“Yes, Chief. One Lynx den coming up!”

A structure appeared in the back. A big pile of tree logs that seemed to randomly fall all over each other. “Hmm, strange.” I said, “Okay Yepa, anything else tonight you spoiled princess?” “We take treatment now, need bond first thing morning...early, need quick.”

I sighed and looked at Onida. She said, “Annnd off to the store we go!”

We got the cats a genome treatment. Mali didn't blink an eye as if this kind of thing was normal. For all I knew it might be, I barely knew shit about the System.

I inquired about the bonding process.

Mali said, “Usually you need to have the skill or perk, but for a little extra credit we can do a reversal and just put one charge of bonding on each of the cats and they can do the bond themselves.”

I raised an eyebrow. “How much “little” extra credit?” Mali just smiled at me. Onida threw an elbow into my gut.

All of the excitement for the night was over and we took the Lynx back to their new home.

I said, “Kelli, make this my war groups private stable, please. Put a force shield on it and activate it if anyone else tries to go in.”

“Yes Chief”

I looked down at my companion. “Well Yepa, I am going to get a shower and some sleep, You have fun here with your new pack.”

I could hear the Leopard snort as she said, “Yepa no Lynx, Yepa sleep in soft bed.”

I climbed out of the shower, the steaming hot water had made me sleepy and my eyes were drooping. When I went into the dark bedroom I saw Onida was already in bed playing small spoon to Samantha who was wrapped around her from behind. I sighed and got into bed looking at my wife's back and fell asleep.