Skinning an animal is as gross and difficult as it sounds.

This wasn’t the first time, nor would it be the last time, but the sticky peeling noise the hide made during removal still made my stomach turn. Thankfully, we were able to get it done without hurting ourselves or damaging the hide more, something that Rieka admitted to being a concern for her after the fact.

Even with the size of the creature we were working on, only two of us could work on it at a time. Rieka helped me through it while Kassandra worked on some improved wardstones for the camp and we all kept an eye on our surroundings.

My devious and cuddly noodle managed to pry over two dozen hand-sized bricks from the turf that were perfectly flat on one side, but she was careful to only take bricks that had fallen out of the walls. After confirming that there wasn’t anything of note on them, Kassandra set to work engraving the runes she needed onto the flat surface.

“These plain bricks will work perfectly for what I need.” She’d explained while Rieka and I were taking a break from dealing with the carcass. “The flat surface makes it easy to work with, and they’ll lay flat as well. Even better than the natural stones we found the other day. It’s just going to be a pain to lug them back to the campsite. We need to get a dimensional bag when we have a chance, Rieka.”

“I know, Kass.” The wolf-kin woman sighed, puffing at an errant lock of hair that had come out of her braid and was wafting in front of her. Kass leaned over and tucked it back into the braid without a word. “Thanks, I didn’t want to try and take care of it myself because…well.” Rieka lifted her hands which were covered in blood from the gruesome task.

“No worries. Your nose itch at all? Liam?” Kassandra turned the question towards me as well. I shook my head, focusing on carefully sharpening the skinning knife that I had been using. The knife and the whetstone would need to be washed too, but that was something to deal with later. “Okay. Wanted to offer before my hands got all bloody too.”

“Bloody?” That got me to pause and look up while Kassandra continued to carefully scratch the symbols onto each of the bricks with her engraving tools.

“Yea, I’m going to use some of the crag hunter’s blood to empower the runes. They have an earth alignment to their mana, so it’ll bond naturally with it, no problems.” Kassandra replied offhandedly. “I don’t need much. Rieka, can you try and catch some in a dish before it all gels up?”

“Sure, Kass. I’d forgotten about that. You want one of the fangs for a stylus too?” Rieka’s response was so straightforward, it drew my attention back to her immediately. Rieka’s ears twitched once while I watched her but she remained looking at Kassandra.

“No, that’s fine. My current engraver will do the job. Never hurts to have extras if they are easy to extract though. The skeleton would be worth something too, but not enough to haul it back.”

“Never thought I’d see the day that two refined young ladies were talking so casually about using something’s teeth as an engraving stylus or processing a skeleton.” I sighed, setting the whetstone aside and going back to sawing at the tough hide. Pretty sure that as long as I’m careful, this hide won’t be damaged just on how hard the damn thing is to cut. I thought to myself. It's a miracle my sword and claws cut through it as much as it did. Surprisingly it didn't damage the hide as much as I thought though. That thrust only worked because of its weight…

“Depends on the young ladies.” Kassandra quipped back with a grin, remaining focused on her work.

“True, we are in a class all our own.” Rieka added on with an airy tone that tapered off into a giggle.

“That sure is the truth.” I had to agree with a laugh. “Okay, Rieka. I’ve got this part loose, what’s next?”

<><><>

“That was gross, I feel gross. Blood is gross. I’m never going to get that brush clean again…” Kassandra whined, shaking her bloody hands in front of her like she could somehow shake the blood stains off, despite having already smeared them as much as possible with some grass to get the sticky substance off and then rinsed them in the spring. As soon as she’d picked up her impromptu wardstones they’d gotten bloody again.

“You were the…”

“I know that I was the one who suggested using the blood!” Kassandra hissed, glaring back at me for a moment before sighing and slithering closer to me. Rather than demand a hug or add more blood to the amount liberally smeared on me, Kassandra leaned over and bumped her head against my arm to give it a quick nuzzle in apology. “Sorry for snapping, Liam.”

“No sweat, Kass. I should have thought about it when you decided to make so many. Blood turns really sticky when it cools. I should have said something when I saw you pulling out that calligraphy brush.” I reflected that it honestly hadn’t occurred to me what was going to happen until I’d seen Kassandra start to dip the delicate brush into the little dish of cooled blood Rieka had set aside for her. It had immediately clotted into the hair and made a huge mess. Kassandra had resorted to finger-painting the runes onto her wardstone bricks. That had then ended up with her accidentally smearing some of it across her face as well when she’d rubbed at her forehead. She’d then gotten more on her arms and clothes when she’d bundled the bricks up to carry back, but after an aggrieved sigh and grumble about ruined clothes, she kept at it.

“I need to wash up…I hate having to wash in lakes and streams and that water is going to be cold.” Kassandra whined quietly, still carrying her half of the wardstone bricks. Rieka had the other half and I was carrying the hide from the crag hunter over my shoulder.

“We could heat water by the fire and do a sponge bath.” I suggested, but both girls shook their heads.

“Better to wash in the lake first. A rag bath would help but we are both too much of a mess. And you definitely need a good wash and scrub in the lake.” Kassandra sighed again. “Also, I don’t want to lug the water back and forth, we only have the one cooking pot and it’s not big enough to fully wash with considering my scales and Rieka’s fur…”

“Can’t fault you there. I want a wash too.” Rieka agreed from her position just behind me. “I am glad I brought extra clothes. Remind me next time not to wear such light colors, the stains will be impossible to get out.”

“At least you have some already ruined clothes to wear on further trips.” I suggested as we came over the hill and into view of the campsite. “You could trash them, but having clothes you don’t care about for stuff like this is still useful. I’m going to have to go shopping soon for some other jeans, the ones I’ve worn the last few times I came here are utterly destroyed from either blood or being shredded.”

“Sorry again about that, Liam.” Kassandra’s expression was remorseful as she glanced up at me as we came into the clearing with the tent.

“Not anything for you to blame yourself about, Kass. I’ll figure it out.” I reassured her immediately. “You two are paying me with the mana. It’s up to me to manage my budgets after all. I wouldn’t trade this for anything.”

“You sure about, Liam?” Rieka asked as we came to a stop by the rough fire-pit that we’d made and the girls set their burdens down. Rieka stretched with her hands in the small of her back and her tail extended behind her, getting a quiet pop out of her spine. “I mean…If you had a stack of gold, you could sell it and live in luxury for your life. Wouldn’t you want to spend time relaxing somewhere safe, surrounded by beautiful women and attentive servants? Live the life of luxury?”

There was something in Rieka’s tone that stopped me from immediately denying her statement and I considered what she was saying while setting down my burden as well.

What would it be like to not have to work any more? What would I do? I thought to myself. Images of a nice house full of antique furniture, like something out of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, immediately came to mind before it skewed towards something decidedly more Addams Family and I smirked.

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“Honestly, I don’t think I’d be happy just laying about all the time.” I said after a minute. I started to run my hands through my hair and grimaced as I remembered the tacky blood still on my hands. I’d rinsed them quickly in the spring, but there was still enough under my nails and on my skin that I needed to wash up too. That wasn’t even counting the extra smears I’d gotten from carrying the still-bloody hide. I gripped my sword-belt instead to keep from touching my hair or face before I washed up. The last thing I needed was spreading more of the blood on me to other things.

Gripping the sword belt reminded me of drilling with Cerebaton and what he’d said as well. Some are born with the spirit of the storm within their blood. Restless harbingers…I turned the lines over in my mind and smirked, remembering that the daemon man had been advising me to not feel odd that I’d rather fight monsters than load trucks after all.

“That makes sense. I can’t imagine Liam just hanging about. Though it would be nice to be able to spend time with him whenever I want.” Kassandra batted her eyelashes at me with a smile that was more predatory than normal and not just because of the smears of blood she had on her hands and face. She’d declined to wash more than just her hands in the spring, citing that she’d rather wait till we were back at the camp and take care of it all at once.

“Sure. ‘Spend time’ with him.” Rieka smirked at her serpentine friend before glancing at the smoldering fire pit and sighing. “Okay, I’m going to go wash up at the lake. Kass, the wardstones are good, yea?”

“Just need to be empowered. If you take at least eight and set them up by the shore, that’ll be enough space to wash. You just need to lay them out in the standard array and run mana through them. Speak a verbal password while you do so and that’ll let you bring it up and down. If something tries to cross them that is large enough, it’ll make a loud noise and send an elemental blast into them. So if you empower those ones, it’ll be lightning. When you are done washing, I’ll take my turn. Liam, your hands are the most clean, can you start preparing dinner? Rieka can finish it while we wash.”

“We?” The question dropped out of my mouth before I could consider it and Kassandra gave me a devious grin, her slitted brown eyes twinkling behind the silver rims of her spectacles.

“Well yes, I need my heater to help warm me up after the cold water…” Kassandra purred with a salacious wink before turning to collect several of the rune and blooded bricks. “I’m going to go lay out the better wardstones. If you can get a kettle of water going for tea as well, that might be good.”

“Uh…” Was my intelligent response. Kassandra purposefully put more wiggle in her hips as she slithered away, giggling to herself. Considering how much swaying she unconsciously did with her serpentine tail while moving, it was very distracting when she did it intentionally.

“Scamp.” Rieka chuckled. “I’ll take the kettle and cookpot with me, Liam. Just chop up the meat and vegetables and get the fire built up for me?”

“Sure.”

“Monosyllabic responses just from staring at her bum? Wow, you really do have it bad.” Rieka’s teasing voice brought me out of the hip-assisted hypnosis and I blushed.

“It’s not…” I started to protest, wanting to reassure her but Rieka’s happily wagging tail told me I’d been had.

“I can see why she likes to wind you up.” Rieka grinned up at me, her ears flicking happily as well. “Thank you again for looking after us, Liam.”

“Happy to, Rieka.” I responded automatically. The platinum-blonde wolf woman stared up at me for several more moments in silence, her icy blue eyes piercing as she studied me intently before nodding.

“I’m glad you are with us. I know you asked before and questioned the wisdom of us not having full guards here, but you trusted us when we said we wanted to do it this way. And you have gone to great lengths to keep us safe. Kassandra and I will find a way to repay you for your hard work, more than just the mana your System is compensating you, I promise.” Rieka’s serious expression melted into her normal, gentle smile. “Now though, I need to wash. I agree with Kass’ earlier summation. Blood is gross.”

“Agreed. I’ll keep an eye out while you walk to the lake, but once you have the wardstones set up, I won’t peek. Promise.”

“I trust you, Liam.” Was Rieka’s only response as the wolf woman collected some clothes and other things from her bag and headed down to the lake.

I did as I had promised, watching until she had the stones set up and tapped her spell-rod to them. When she started to undress, I turned away and hurried back to the fire-pit to start on the dinner the girls had asked, only pausing to get one of the spare shirts that the girls had bought me for my traveling gear out and set it on my pack so I could change into something after we washed up. My pants were a lost cause again, but I could at least swap to a clean shirt. Kassandra was finishing up setting out the last of the wardstones and got the barrier up.

“Password for the ward is Cosgrave.” Kassandra explained when she returned to where I’d been carefully chopping the slab of meat we’d taken from the crag hunter. No idea how it’ll taste, but it does make me feel better that we are at least eating some of it rather than leaving it all to rot. We’d tossed everything but the skin and the slab of meat we’d taken into the trees and away from the ruins to try and keep the scavengers away once we’d finished skinning it. Rieka had taken several of the creature's teeth for herself as well, but other than that we’d left it alone.

“Why my last name?” I asked once her statement had sunk in.

“Only us three know it. You should keep it a secret too. It’s also complex enough a sound to work and not something that will be called out at random.” Kassandra shrugged, glancing around then shooting me a questioning look. “Where’s Rieka?”

“Washing still, I think. I kept watch till she had the warded area by the water set up, then gave her privacy.”

Kassandra’s questioning look shifted to a gentle smile and she nodded.

“You are very considerate, Liam. Most would still take the opportunity to peek at a young lady in the name of ‘keeping watch’…but I know you are not lying.”

“You two trust me, I’d never violate that trust. Not without a very good reason.”

“I know, Liam. That’s why I want you to help me clean up. I got blood on my scales earlier and I really do need a hand getting it scrubbed off.” Kassandra turned away and started to reach into her bag before grimacing. “Liam, do you have something I can wipe my hands on? I got some more of the blood from the wardstones on them…”

Glancing around, I tried to find a bit of cloth Kassandra could use, but nothing presented itself. I had just started chopping up the slab of meat we’d taken from the critter and my hands, which had been clean only a minute ago were now covered in meat juices. The only thing I can think of is…I thought then sighed.

“Yea, if you stick your head in the tent, there should be a shirt on top of my pack. You can use that to wipe your hands off.”

“Liam, I can’t use that!” Kassandra protested, pulling her head back out of the tent and scowling at me. “I don’t think you’ve even worn that once since we bought it for you!”

“It’s just a shirt, Kass. I can wash it at the lake.” I didn’t meet her eyes, though I could feel them digging into the side of my head.

“Idiot.” Kassandra huffed a moment later. “You really need to think about yourself more often, Liam.”

That comment hurt a bit, but it also echoed something a few friends had told me about before.

Hell, it’s the reason you were so ready to agree to sign up to be an interdimensional bodyguard after all. You had a pair of cute girls ask you for a favor and you caved immediately. I sighed and turned to look towards Kassandra, who was carefully using her tail to tease something out of her pack. The tip of her tail was dexterous, but not nearly as much so as her hands as she fished about.

“Got it! Should have thought of that originally.” Kassandra cheered as she finally got something within reach and tugged loose a small roll of cloth. She carefully unrolled it and used her belt knife to cut off a section as long as her arm before dropping the roll back on top of her bag.

“What is that?”

“Bandages! Well, basically it’s just spare cloth but it’ll do for a rag to wipe my hands with.” Kassandra shot me another grin that made her eyes twinkle and my heart lurched at the sight of her happy expression. Trying to stall, I focused back on the chopping and asked a question that I’d been holding onto.

“Why shouldn’t I tell people my full name?” Kassandra hummed quietly as she finished cleaning her hands and got clean clothes out before answering.

“For summoned creatures, having their full name makes it easier to summon and command them. Not sure if the same rule applies for Travelers, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. Plus, it makes a good password.” She answered and I glanced back to catch her staring at me once more.

“Kass, I’m done. Let me back in through the wards! I don’t know what you set them to do, but I also don’t wanna find out on accident!” Rieka’s voice broke into the staring contest between the two of us and I blinked, looking away from Kassandra to see Rieka on her way up the slope, the pot and kettle in either hand and her hair still dark with moisture.

“Finish up with that, Liam. I need to get washed up and you are going to help me.” Kassandra’s imperious command made me spin back around to look at her. She was grinning again, a full smile that showed off all her teeth while her eyes twinkled merrily. We locked eyes once more and Kassandra gave me a long, slow wink full of promise before undulating over to the wardstones she’d set up on the path to tell the wolf woman the password.

Turning back to the ingredients piled on the rough cutting board, I stared at my hands as I thought about what she’d said.

“I thought she was kidding about washing her…” I muttered while my mind drifted over the vague memories of her body cuddling close to me for warmth under her blankets. “Yea, that’s more like it. She just needs something to warm her up…”