Torill and I woke at the same moment, I had curled around her while we slept, my tail was covering her like a fluffy blanket. I felt her move, and moved my tail to reveal her.

"Good morning!" She said, as she ran her hand through some of my fur. "So that was Belua's realm. It was pretty nice as godly realms go! And wow, that blessing, I feel so good!"

She tried to put her arms around my neck, but I'd grown so large that her hug only made it a little over halfway around. "Thanks for getting me that invitation."

I shifted to demihuman and put my arms around her. "I'm not sure I can take credit for her inviting you, but I'm glad she did."

"Oh you're definitely the reason she brought me in for that chat." She pushed away from me.

I let her go, and she scooted away from me on the bed. The look on her face was suddenly so conflicted. "What did she talk to you about?"

"Well, you of course, she wanted me to keep looking after you while you're in Brightwood. She was pretty happy that we seemed to like each other. But." The beautiful woman across from me sighed. "She wanted to make sure I made it very clear to you how things were going to be. You'll be leaving Brightwood in a month or so, and I won't. My contract is here, and that's not about to change. Your contract needs you to go to a more populated, higher tier place to be more effective. So whatever happens between us? It's temporary."

My shoulders slumped, my ears flattened, my tail which had been slowly swishing, stilled. I knew that was how things had to go, I'd always known it. But hearing her say it, brought it home.

"Hey, that's how it always is for contractors, you have to get used to it, nothing is permanent. Every single relationship is temporary. You just get what you can, when you can, and enjoy things every second that they last. It's rare to ever run into a contractor you know again, unless you both decide to stay on with a god for more than one life." She moved over to me, and put her hand on the side of my face.

I leaned into her hand. "I knew all that." I put a hand over hers. "I guess I needed a reminder. So what now?"

"Now, we enjoy the time we have." She said, with a sad smile.

When we left the apartments for breakfast, the sun had fully risen.

I was starting to feel a subtle pull to hunt, which reminded me that Belua's command was active. I would be leaving town with Ivo and Pierce to hunt something of Belua's choice. Thankfully it felt like the command was subtle enough to ignore till we were ready.

I told Torill about it, as we walked together to the guild hall.

"I know." My partner responded, with a small smile. "Belua told me to send a servitor spirit to watch you, just in case. I'll be able to see what happens through it, and I have orders from Belua that will invalidate the Guildmaster's Decree if you need help. But it probably won't be enough to save you if things go really bad, so you should pretend it isn't there."

I nodded. "Thanks for that, it'll make me feel better knowing you are watching over me." I leaned over and pushed the side of my head into hers. It was as close to a kiss as I could come, since I didn't want an accident with my venom.

She seemed to understand the gesture, and kissed the side of my face.

I was purring as we walked through the door into the guild hall.

When we entered, I saw everyone else was already well into eating their breakfast. I was surprised to see Nefen in his seat.

Everyone looked up when we entered, and we got more than one knowing grin.

"Finally!" Ivo said, with a laugh. "I thought the two of you would never come out of hiding."

"Eat quick, that call is only going to get stronger, the longer we sit around in town." Pierce said, gruffly. It seemed his ability change hadn't completely changed his character.

I was reluctant to let Torill go so we could eat, but we sat down in our chairs, and started to fill our plates.

"So do you know what the great mother is sending you after?" Nefen asked, the half goblin mage guild leader looked worried.

I shook my head. "I was thinking of flying out to see as soon as we finish breakfast."

"You can fly now?" The green man asked.

I described the sky terror form.

Nefen nodded at me, and smiled, showing his rather sharp teeth. "That seems like a very useful form, and if her command was to hunt her targets together, scouting should delay the intensification of the pull. I do wish this wasn't happening while we have such a dangerous monster on the loose though, if it were up to me you still wouldn't be setting foot outside the safety of the city."

I shrugged. "Belua promised that she would make sure that she led me away from the Wendigo, if it makes you feel any better."

Nefen's eyes went wide. "That it does. Now, could you tell me exactly where the pull is pointing you? Or is it still too weak?"

I gestured in the direction of the pull. "That way, but it is pretty broad. I just know I need to go that way."

Thinking about it actually seemed to make the pull stronger. My heart actually began to race, and I had to swallow as the glands in my mouth started to produce more venom. It seemed like all my hunting instincts kicked in. I no longer felt hungry.

I quickly shoveled what was on my plate into my mouth. Warned Nefen about the possibility of venom on my silverware, and plate. Then I got up, and walked swiftly outside, I needed to get started.

Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

I heard people talking, but they didn't matter. Only the hunt mattered. I looked at Ivo and Pierce, who had followed me out, and told them that I would be back.

I shifted to my sky terror form, noticing only vaguely that it had grown a bit since I leveled. Taking off was several orders of magnitude harder than it had been the night before. I was quite a bit heavier because of my new perk; if the air mana wasn't so friendly and helpful, I don't think I would have gotten off the ground at all.

The mana was enthusiastic about helping me share the skies with it though, so flying was still very possible.

As I flew, I felt the air mana begging me to channel it. I knew it was potentially dangerous, but with the form I was in, it seemed like it would be controllable. Rather, I convinced myself that it would be, the air mana's joy was simply too tempting.

When I shifted my core, I felt the wind that was pushing me join with me, and flight became simple. I soared so fast the forest below me became a blur. It was one of the most exhilarating experiences in my short life.

In no time, I reached the area I was being pulled to, and had to slow down. I looked down and saw that a mile of forest was covered in snow and ice. I could feel the cold seeping into me from below. It was definitely magic, I felt its Concepts as they tried unsuccessfully to penetrate my body. I recognized a few of them. Whatever was below me was a serious threat to life in the forest.

I hoped Ivo and Pierce had some sort of protection from the cold that they could use. I would obviously be able to nullify the cold with my snowy mountain prowler form.

I stayed far above the frozen forest as I tried to locate my hunting target. When I did, I swallowed back some fear.

It was a troop of over fifty primates. They looked like extra large baboons, which would be bad enough on its own. But they were very obviously entirely corrupted by water in the form of ice.

They were all entirely white. I had to revise my estimate of how many there were as I saw that they dived in and out of the snow below them like it was water.

From above, I was able to see three enormous males, they had to each be the size of a pickup truck. They didn't seem to like eachother very much. When one of the large ones made the mistake of wandering too close to another, the intruder had to dodge shards of ice flung at him at high speed from the coat of the slightly bigger male he had encroached on.

I circled the gathering a few times, I tried to get an accurate count, and ended up concluding that it had to be between sixty and seventy primates.

I watched their behavior for a while, hoping to get a glimpse of more of their abilities, but I didn't see much. They were definitely physically strong, and their coat was more ice than fur. They had large, intimidating canines, even for the species I had identified them as resembling.

They seemed to exist as three separate groups that just happened to be currently sharing space. The largest male was the only one I had seen use anything I would call an ability, but there were several short spats among the smaller creatures while I watched. I thought, perhaps we could split them up, but I would find out if Pierce and Ivo thought it was a good idea.

I wanted to get an idea of their levels, but when I tried to focus on them from above, I found they were too far away. I was given the knowledge that I would have to get within half my perception attribute in feet from them.

I was over two hundred feet above them, and the cold Concepts were already trying to intrude on me. I felt my innate Survivor Concept warring with a rather aggressive form of Daring that I was apparently channeling.

Daring won, at least partially. I sped up my flight, and swooped down, focusing on the largest male.

Level 110 Frost Tainted Primate Alpha

I took a moment to sweep my gaze to several of the smaller creatures

Level 85 Frost Tainted Primate

Level 72 Frost Tainted Primate

Level 92 Frost Tainted Primate

I had to quickly retreat, the air mana running through me was enough to prevent me from taking any real damage. But the air had become so cold that it hurt.

There was a layer of frost on my body, and my mouth was caked in frozen venom by the time I got away.

I was forced to land once I was a safe distance away, my body had become too cold to continue flying.

I moved away from using my air core, to pure mana and shifted to the snowy mountain prowler, I knew it would be fine.

I sat, panting for a moment after shifting, the reality of the stupid risk I had just taken had become clear to me. I hadn't felt too out of control, but I clearly hadn't been in my right mind.

After taking a moment to catch my breath, get my heart under control, and shake off the small amount of ice that remained on me. I looked around. I had no clue where I was, I had blindly followed the pull to the primates.

I was sure I could find my way back if I flew, but I would have to shift in stages. I needed to warm up, my snowy mountain prowler form apparently didn't care if it was cold. But I instinctively knew that if I shifted out of it to any of my other forms right then, I'd be straight back to freezing.

I thought about channeling my fire core, and at first that seemed like a terrible idea in the middle of the forest. But then I remembered the fire squirrel. That form was warm, comfortingly so. I thought I probably wouldn't get in any trouble if I shifted that way.

I tried to remember if it had any silly impulses. But really I thought it just wanted to bring comfort to everything around it. I was alone in the woods, so it probably wouldn't have anything to make me latch on to.

I shifted to my squirrel form, and shivered roughly, feeling deathly cold in the moment before my fire core activated.

I climbed the nearest tree, and began working my way through the trees away from the pull of my hunt.

When I was a decent distance away from the area I had been, I started looking for a break in the trees large enough for my avian form to take off.

It took a little wandering before I found one. I narrowly avoided being distracted by a desire to comfort a nest full of chicks by reminding myself that there was at least one person I would much rather cuddle with.

Actually thinking in those terms made it far easier to make myself move quickly.

Once I found a likely spot, I shifted and took off, shifting my core back to air for the ease of flight.

Once I gained enough altitude I was able to see Brightwood in the distance.

I sped back, as quickly as the wind could carry me, to tell my hunting partners what I had seen.

When I landed in a clear area of the Adventurers Guild, I was near the three people waiting for me, but still some distance away.

Torill started running to me, but stopped short when I raised my feathered crest, held out my wings and hissed a warning.

Something about being on a hunt had caused me to start producing tons of venom. It was dripping from my mouth, and while I flew it had coated every inch of my body. I had no control over it. The grass my venom dripped on began to visibly wilt, which, definitely was proof if I needed any, that the venom was magical enough that it clearly didn't need an open wound to do damage. Though I doubted it would do much as a contact poison for anyone with a class, it was the Concepts that oozed out of it and wormed their way into the grass that was causing the grass to wilt.

I quickly shifted back to demihuman, making sure to intentionally omit the venom glands. I would have to try to make it a habit to remove those, I generally didn't mind the little additions I got from my other forms, but having the venom glands in my demihuman form wasn't just useless since I wasn't planning on fighting in the form if I could help it, it had a chance of causing real problems.

"Don't touch me!" I said loudly, so all three of them would hear. I couldn't do anything about the venom that still remained on my fur, it was a part of me, so it would likely become immaterial with me if I tried to rid myself of it that way. "I'm going to shower before we leave. But first, here's what I saw."

I used mind speech to quickly show Ivo and Pierce every detail. Then, because I didn't want to leave her out, I sent it to Torill as well.

"You guys talk about it, I'll be back." I was in my birthday suit, but I didn't care. I didn't want to take the chance that the venom would somehow remain on my clothes when I resummoned them.

I went to the arena showers, being very careful not to touch anything I didn't absolutely have to. I worked the latch on the arena door with a stick that I threw into a convenient trash can inside the locker room.