Returning to the campsite with Kassandra in tow, we found Rieka sitting woodenly by the fire while stirring the bubbling pot of stew that hung on the hook over the fire.
“Hey there, Rieka.” Kassandra trilled happily, slithering quickly past her friend to drape her wet things by the fire to finish drying before heading towards the tent.
“Kass…” Rieka said her voice was slightly strained. Before she could say more the dwarf lamia was already headfirst in the tent, humming loudly. Rieka’s ears were laid back and since I was behind her, I couldn’t tell what sort of expression she had on her face at the moment to guess her mood. Her tail was still so it didn’t provide any other clues.
Deciding to try and play peacemaker, I walked over and settled onto the other log seat that we’d been using, draping my torn and wet shirt over the log. I’d decided to just wear the wet pants once they were clean and let the fire dry them while I wore them.
“Hey, Rieka. Sorry you saw that.” I said gently, glancing over the fire at the still blushing wolf woman.
“It’s not your fault, Liam. I…well…” Rieka huffed in irritation after meeting my eyes once and looking away. Her ears popped upright as she scowled down into the fire. “I heard someone scream and came rushing down to see what it was. I thought one of you had been attacked.”
“Liam got attacked all right.” Kassandra cut in before I could speak, laughter in her voice. The peppy redhead slithered back over to the fire, taking up a spot between Rieka and I. With nimble fingers, she unlocked her spell rod and began swapping out the spent mana coins from the earlier fighting, inspecting each one before either returning it to the rod or exchanging it for a fresh one. “It was just me that attacked him. Boy that was a lot of fun, more than the books made it seem like. Gonna have to see if I can’t find any more books on techniques. Especially that thing with my mouth…” Kassandra giggled, bouncing her eyebrows at me. I just rolled my eyes, not wanting to encourage her.
After our interlude earlier the teasing from Kassandra honestly didn’t bother me as much anymore. She was a flirt, but she also cared about me. And even as thick as I was regarding women, I could see that. It didn’t hurt that I was rapidly developing feelings for her as well, or maybe it was that I finally acknowledged the attraction that had been growing.
For Rieka too. I thought quietly, glancing between the two as Rieka glared at her friend and Kassandra blithely ignored her. Whether that is more than just thinking of her like a little sister or a close friend is yet to be seen. I know whatever happens with Kass, it’s going to be complicated. Screw it, I’m just going to take her advice and handle things one day at a time. I remembered her chastisement only an hour before about thinking for myself and nodded.
“See! Even Liam agrees!” Kassandra’s loud statement drew me out of my introspection and I shook my head, glancing between them in confusion.
“What?”
“Kass, you really have to stop trying to trick people into agreeing on things…” Rieka sighed, taking a sip of the stew from the ladle she was stirring with to taste test it. “I haven’t fallen for that since I was eight, and I’m sure Liam knows better too.”
“I’m sure he’d agree if he wasn’t still distracted by what we got up to by the lake.” Kassandra snickered, shooting me a blatant wink and I couldn’t help but laugh along with her.
“Kass, I’m distracted by everything you do. What happened earlier was just another step on that road.” I shot back at her with an arched eyebrow.
Surprisingly, a blush spread across Kassandra’s features and she smiled warmly, her eyes darting down to her spell rod while she bit her lower lip.
“How, by all the gods, did you manage to do that?” Rieka asked in astonishment.
“Do what?”
“Shut her down so effectively? I’ve known Kassandra for over a decade and I’ve never gotten her to stop teasing that fast.” Rieka demanded. I eyed the platinum-blonde woman for a moment, checking her ears and tail to see if they gave away her mood at all. Her black-tipped ears were upright and quivering and her fluffy tail was swaying slowly behind her.
Amusement then. I thought to myself. Wonder if I can make them a matched set with the blushes?
“Kassandra is beautiful, intelligent, vivacious, and fierce. I just tell her the truth about that fact and because she trusts me, she believes it. Just like you are kind, clever, and stunning as well, Rieka. I am just as easily distracted around you. I’m just getting the hang of fighting it back so I can focus and do my best to look after two wonderful women.”
Rieka’s blush, which had faded once the conversation had turned away from sex, returned in full force. Her ears folded down to either side but I could still see that banner of her tail whipping back and forth and it was stirring up a storm.
Nailed it.
“Ha! Got one!” Kassandra broke the silence a moment later, brandishing an iron disc she’d just taken from her spell rod.
“Got what?” Rieka asked, happy to use the distraction to try and break past the embarrassment from my complements. She busied herself with pouring the tea from the little kettle into tin mugs now that she’d judged it to be done brewing.
“I only need a bit of mana for a spell and I couldn’t quite tell with them mounted in the rod still. Didn’t want to have multiple partially drained ones.” Kassandra explained, holding the coin out in her palm. It was faintly glimmering with the imbued mana, but not as brightly as the fully charged ones. The imprinted images were the standard for the Coldeye Queendom, but it was definitely duller than the regular mana infused ones the girls used for spells and for shopping on occasion but not as dull as a drained coin.
“Oh? What spell did you need?” I asked, leaning back and accepting the mug of tea that Rieka finally offered me. Taking a sip, I tasted smoke, spices, and a faint hint of honey and smiled. It’s not coffee, but it’s good.
“Nothing much.” Kassandra said, rubbing the disc of metal with her thumb and shooting me a wicked grin. Rieka was savoring her first sip while I took a second when she continued. “I just needed to cast a contraceptive charm. While I’m sure you’d make a great father, I’m not ready for a kid yet.”
I coughed in surprise and then choked when the tea went down the wrong pipe. Rieka reacted more explosively, spraying her mouthful of tea into the fire with a yelp of surprise.
Kassandra burst into a fit of giggles at both of us before making a gesture with the coin over her abdomen. The coin flared then went dark as the mana was used up completely.
“Such dirty minds you two! Shame on you.” Kassandra said between giggles.
<><><>
Another night of sleeping in the tent led to a bright and early morning. Kassandra was even more insistent on snuggling into me for warmth after our previous intimacy. At this point, I couldn’t really deny her. I had a few reservations, mostly that she deserved more attention and a true commitment because she was a wonderful woman. She shot them down in whispers that night and insisted that we just focus on enjoying life and the rest was a problem for our future selves to deal with. Not wanting to argue, I’d settled for a good night kiss and let her wrap herself around me.
Rieka had spent the night on the far side of the central tent pole, but she was snuggled back to back with Kassandra when I woke the next morning to the quiet twitter of birds and the glimmer of sun entering the tent.
It took a bit of careful maneuvering, but I was able to gently unwrap Kassandra’s serpentine body from my lower legs. She’d done the same thing as the previous night, outlining my lower half with her tail. I was able to shift enough that she began to wake and glared at me under hooded eyes.
“Gonna make breakfast. Rieka’s still here for heater duty if you want to snuggle her.” I whispered and nodded over her shoulder. Kassandra blinked at me blearily before turning over slowly and burying her face in Rieka’s back. With a fair degree of speed for someone who was still mostly asleep, Kassandra’s tail switched sides and wrapped around Rieka’s sleeping form. This was enough to wake the wolf woman up with a start and she grumbled before pulling the blanket over her head.
Chuckling quietly, I made my escape and dressed in the cool morning air before trotting quickly to the lake to get water. I kept a close watch out while traveling between the two warded spots, but the only movement I spotted was the distant shape of a ruumo cruising between the clouds further up the mountain.
Returning with the water, I got down our food supplies and recoiled the rope we’d used for tying it up. Today we would be heading back to town, so we’d be breaking down the campsite first, heading over to give the crag hunter’s cave a quick look, and then hiking back to town to make sure the girls would get back to Juneau in time.
“Heck of a weekend trip.” I muttered to myself, stirring the ashes of last night's fire to see if there were any coals remaining. While I wasn’t exactly skilled with a flint and steel like the girls were, I had been doing enough research that I had a few tricks for banking the fire so it’d just burn low and slow overnight and leave something to work with in the morning.
Finding several still glowing coals in the firepit, I stacked wood in and got it going. There would still be a bit of a supply of wood left when we headed out and I made a note to move it under a tree to help keep it dry for when we returned here again.
Considering that Kass wants to spend more time studying the ruins and I want to know more about that statue, then we are definitely going to be coming back here. I thought while getting the water heating for a simple oatmeal. Really need to do some research on camp cooking too. The girls deserve better than simple oatmeal, stew, or dried food. Too bad I can’t make a list or notes and have them come back and forth with me…
That thought trailed off as I realized I did have a way to make notes, after a fashion. Closing my eyes, I focused on the System interface and scanned over it. The entries for the different tabs were all the same and I took a peek at my Shape-Shifting (Lesser) to see what its mastery rating was at.
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Shape-Shifting (Lesser) - User is able to draft moderate changes to the body: altering weight, adding natural armor, claws, fangs, and secondary features. Basic partial shift is limited to no more than twenty pounds of additional mass that may be added, removed, or modified. Unable to mix more than two animal's features at a time.
Mastery - 447/1000
“Huh, well Cerebaton did say that it was going to slow down. Still, that was pretty good for just a weekend with only one major scrap and the practice I’ve done…need to get creative on what I’m doing with it to help it grow.” I smiled as a deluge of ideas started to flow past my mind thanks to my improved mental acuity score. It’d taken a bit to figure out the trick to it. Trying to force myself to think outside the box didn’t help that much but if I let myself relax then ideas would crop up out of nowhere.
A commotion from the tent drew me out of my inspection of the interface before I could go further and I blinked my eyes open. Looking towards the tent, I saw it moving back and forth slightly and the distinct noise of Rieka and Kassandra talking in low voices.
Thinking about the girls while also considering what ways I could get creative immediately gave me an idea. Concentrating, the world went silent around me with an odd pop noise for a moment before I felt something stir in my hair and was overwhelmed by a rush of sound as brown-furred wolf ears emerged from the top of my head and I felt the interior of my head rearrange to shift the nerve endings and ear canal.
Do not think about your brain or what is going on in there, focus on the change. Let the power instinctively guide it like with the tendons and everything else for a shift. I urged, keeping my focus intently on the mental image of what I wanted as I was assaulted by the rush of sounds. If I thought about it too much, I was worried that I’d mess something up in the shift and damage my brain. The only reason I was able to handle the spike in noise and not get distracted was because I’d been expecting it, but everything quieted down a bit a moment later.
“I don’t get why you are upset, Rieka.” Kassandra’s voice was distant still but I could pick out more of what she was saying. The words were followed by the sound of an absolutely cavernous yawn. “It’s not like I’m claiming him exclusively.”
“That’s not the point, Kass! You promised not to get up to anything scandalous while we were out here!” Rieka’s voice was full of annoyance but not any real malice as she protested.
“I promised not to do anything in the tent. And for that matter, it was only while you were also in the tent. I decided to not tease you too much and had my fun with Liam outside. It’s not my fault you came racing out to check on us…well no that is a lie. You heard me yelling and came to check on me like the awesome friend you are.” The irritation in Kassandra’s tone shifted back to affection. “Liam and I are just taking things as they come. We both know we can trust him and he’s not trying to woo one of us to improve his station. Icy hells, the man will likely exceed our stations in power within the next year or two if the legends I read about Travelers are true. And he’s our friend, you know he’d never harm us or even work against us. Heck, I’m convinced that if he could find a way to waive the mana to summon him, Liam would come any time we asked. I just wish he didn’t have to return home.”
There was a brief silence that was only filled with the rustling of cloth as I guessed the two of them dressed.
“You are right, Kass.” Rieka said at last with a loud sigh. “On all of the accounts. Okay, fine. I won’t say anything more about it. You two are both adults and can do what you want…”
“And if what we want is you?” Kassandra’s teasing voice was back and I heard the sound of a hand smacking into something and a delicate yelp from Kassandra.
“That was my bum!” Kassandra said in mock protest.
“You are going to have to wait on that idea, temptress. I prefer men after all, nothing against you but…” Rieka said, clearly ignoring her complaint.
“No offense taken, Rieka.” Kassandra was quick to say. “Dating is hard for anyone of station, since our parents and other nobles are so quick to try and sling about marriage contracts. Just consider it. It’s not like your mum could force either of you into a contract after all. She’d have to have some way to get hold of Liam to even discuss one. Also, you don’t even have to date him. If you just wanted to have some fun, Liam would understand. Just make sure you explain it to him up front. Consent and knowledge is key.”
“Fair enough. I’ll think about it. Just give me time, Kass?” There was another gusty sigh from Rieka following that.
“Of course, Rieka. I’ll even forgive you smacking my ass earlier, I kinda earned that. You do agree that Liam looked so sexy though, right? He’s firming up really well and I know he wasn’t using his Shape-Shifting last night.”
“Yes…” Rieka’s response was drawn out and I could entirely imagine the blush on her cheeks as she said it.
Assured that they were not actually fighting and a little embarrassed at intruding on their private conversation for so long, I focused for a moment to reverse the change. When it was complete, I took a deep breath in and then out.
Can my life get any more complicated? No, scratch that, don’t think about it. You are tempting Fate if you do. Kassandra alone is complicated enough. Add in Rieka and it’s even worse. The last thing I need is something as ridiculous as their entire sorority deciding they want to join in.
I felt a chill race down my spine as that last thought crossed my mind. I immediately dug into the cooking supplies and got out a pinch from the small bag of salt, which I threw over my shoulder to try and dismiss the bad luck. Bad luck I had literally just warned myself about attracting the attention of.
Rather than dwelling on it, I closed my eyes and focused on the Interface once more. The same screen I’d been looking at before was open again and I was surprised to see that the Mastery for Shape-Shifting (Lesser) had increased by several points.
Mastery - 479/1000
“Huh…well I have been focusing pretty heavily on combat rather than utility.” I muttered, considering the situation as other ideas of ‘utility’ shifts that would fit within the twenty pounds of weight that I could work with flowed by. Several were even smaller that I kicked myself for not thinking of. Cat’s eyes to see at night. Improved hearing for everyday work. Heck, I could probably do just a thumb claw for cutting open boxes and the like at work. Gecko pads while lifting to ensure I don’t drop a crate…I could use that while fighting too! It’d help me keep hold of my sword.
My thoughts continued for several minutes as I turned over the ideas, adding them in a list to send to Cariad via the Messages portion with a header of ‘shifting ideas, let me know what you think’. It wouldn’t hurt to get her opinion on them.
<><><>
Breaking camp was a lot faster than set up. Partially because we only really needed to tear down the tent and ensure the fire was out, rather than having to set up the wardstones, build the fire pit, collect wood, and all the other myriad tasks. The only extra task was ensuring the crag hunter hide was properly washed and had the preservation magics cast on it before we got it bundled up and tied to my pack.
Once our packs were loaded up again and breakfast was cleaned up, we doused the fire and trooped back around the lake and past the spring/fountain to follow what I was increasingly convinced was an ancient and overgrown road up into the ruins.
“I’d suggest we actually camp up here if we come back.” Kassandra said as she deftly slid over the long grass. The sun glimmering off scales that were still brilliant from their wash the previous night. She’d wrestled her naturally curly hair into a pair of chunky braids to keep it out of her face once it had finished drying and those twin braids swung back and forth in a counterpoint to her hips as she slithered along.
“It’s a bit far for water but we could probably make it work.” Rieka replied from her spot to one side of Kassandra and a little back. I was walking ‘drag’ for the group and keeping a watch out. When I wasn’t staring at Kassandra’s pert bottom that was. In my defense, it was very distracting.
“Yea…it might be better to stick further away too. Never know when we might be contaminating something important. We can make that call when we come back, so no reason to move the wardstones or anything yet. I’ve been itching to inspect this den since last night! I still think we should have done it before.”
“You wanted to go rooting into a dark cave while covered in blood?” My response to Kassandra’s question got a laugh from her and she shot me a wink.
“You can root in my cave anytime, Liam.”
“I’ll remember that, Kass.”
“You two are ridiculous. Focus please?” Rieka sighed. I nodded to Kassandra and she shot me a wink before nodding as well.
Following the ‘road’ up through the ruins, we eventually got to the sight of the previous day's battle. The carcass of the crag hunter had obviously been picked at, I could see several small forms that made me think of foxes, but they scattered as soon as we got closer and moved so fluidly they could have been tufts of russet cloud rather than animals. The grass was still matted with blood and trampled down in places, but the local bugs were busily working away to remove the evidence and return the field to its natural beauty. The den Kassandra had spotted the previous day lay right at the end of the ‘road’ and all three of us trooped closer for a look.
Rieka had her glow stone in her left hand and her spell rod in her right. Kassandra held her spell rod with both hands and kept a lookout. I had both of my hands shifted into the clawed and scaled version I was starting to think of as my ‘claw gauntlets’. While the scale pattern on my hands was similar to Kassandra’s in color, I’d stuck with the same type of scales as Lady Valda had and been able to shift my eyes into those of a cat. This was to let me see better in the dim confines of the underground den, but it did wash out color and took a while to get used to.
“I’ll go in first. Rieka, you are right behind me. Kass you have the back please, make sure nothing sneaks up on us.” I said as we approached the sloping hole in the ground, moving up to swap spots with Kassandra. I’d explained the shift in my sight to the girls and they’d agreed that even with my damaged armor, it made sense for me to go in first.
The entry to the den was low, only about four or so feet high so I had to bend down almost double to get in. The ground dipped sharply away before flattening and vanishing into the darkness as well as expanding to either side. We had to scramble down nearly a dozen feet of sharply piled and packed dirt. Only feet into the burrow though, it opened up into a large cavern with more than a ten foot ceiling. To my left the wall was slightly rough but regular as it expanded outwards and flattened. To my right was a pile of broken rubble that, after staring at it for a moment, looked like it was blocking part of the burrow's entrance from a cave in.
The room opened up quickly, it continued a good hundred feet ahead of us and easily a good forty or more feet on either side. I spotted what looked like the nest that the crag hunter had been using in the near corner though, judging from the bones scattered nearby and the scratch marks on the walls. That wasn’t what had most of my attention though as I felt another chill working its way up and down my spine, though slightly different from my earlier tempting of fate.
Rieka followed close behind, holding the glowing stone over her head and staring into the room with an awestruck expression that was mirrored by Kassandra when the dwarf lamia made it in as well.
“Ancestors…” Rieka breathed in awe as she looked around the open cavern in awe. The walls and ceiling were surprisingly smooth, while the floor itself was made of the same close-fitting bricks that the walls of the ruins outside were. The entrance was the only place that a large amount of dirt had accumulated, with it making up most of the slope we had descended to get here before abruptly giving way to bare stone. Despite the fact the burrow's entrance was flush with the ground above, there wasn’t any pooling water anywhere to be seen and while the air wasn’t ‘fresh’ by any means, it didn’t feel stale either.
“What are you staring at, Liam?” Kassandra pressed into my back and startled me out of my fixation. Glancing down at the redheaded girl that was rapidly worming her way into my heart, I smiled and gestured deeper into the cavern. Kassandra squinted as the light of the glowing stone that Rieka held cast shadows everywhere. It took a minute for her to find what I was pointing at, though Rieka’s gasp of surprise got a growl of irritation out of her and a mumbled complaint about being the only one without superior night sight.
When Kassandra spotted it though, she gasped as well and I had to wrap an arm around her shoulders to restrain her from hurrying forward.
Set into the far wall of the cavern, almost directly in the middle of the wall and stretching from smooth floor to the bare ceiling, was a set of massive doors made entirely out of glittering iron. Glittering and shimmering iron that rippled with the corona that showed it was charged with mana.