Travis and the Riane came running towards us. I guess they heard the scream and came to see what was going on. The spotted me and Greta looting the carriage but didn’t really say anything. It was when they saw the unconscious girl that they had a large reaction. They both yelled “PRINCESS!!” and dashed towards her. Riane held her hand over the girl’s head and a warm gentle light flowed from her palm. The light seemed to float around the little girl’s head for a moment before slowly being absorbed into her scalp. Travis and Riane both sighed in relief as the princess stirred. I watched the whole thing, both interested in what the mage just did and also silently urging Greta to hurry before the princess wakes back up.

Sadly, the princess shot up and let out an odd sounding squeak while looking around in all directions till her eyes locked on me.

“THAT MAN! HAVE HIM ARRESTED.” She screamed at Travis while waving her finger in my direction.

“I saw him eyeing me hungrily, like he was going to devour me right then and there and YOU!” She shifted her anger to Greta. “She dared to strike a member of the royal family and now she is STEALING MY STUFF!. I want her FLOGGED AND THROWN OUT OF THE KINGDOM! ”

I almost broke out laughing. She was the classic princess type, spoilt and jumping to all manner of conclusions. Greta paused as she was stuffing a loaf of bread into a large sack she found and looked at the princess. The princess froze when Greta looked at her, I think she even stopped breathing for a moment.

“Please your highness calm yourself! These two saved us and the man….isn’t exactly human. He…..ate the corpses of those that fell here.” Travis tried to calm the princess down. She turned back towards him with a curious look on her face.

“Barbarian cannibal? If that is so I guess I can excuse his state of dress and lack of manners. But I still want him beaten for eyeing my body!”

I couldn’t hold it in and burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but laugh at the princess. But I felt I was spending too much time here, so I turned around and helped Greta filled a couple bags with useful stuff. I noticed she only took food, water and a couple weapons. I took out all the daggers though, I took a look at them and could tell they were expensive but only decorative. Out of 5 daggers there were two we could use. They were simple steel daggers with black handles. They came with their own sheathes so I just kept those and left the others in the pile. Greta saw what I was doing and looked confused but didn’t stop me. She strapped one of the bags filled with food and several water skins to her back. I walked up to her and offered her one of the knives, she looked at it and then took out a stone knife that she had in her belt. It was extremely crude and old, it didn’t look very sharp anymore either. I tried to take it from her and give her the steel one instead but she would not let me take it. It must have some meaning to her if she wants to keep it.

I gave up on taking the stone knife and just kneeled down. I strapped the sheath to her thigh so she could easily reach it. I took the other knife and walked over to Riane, who of course saw me walking towards her with a knife and backed away from me. I wanted to move on so I just dropped the knife next to the princess. I was going to take the other bag of food and leave, but I felt bad leaving them here with nothing but a knife so I tossed the bag of food over to them. I waved at Greta and turned to leave.

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Travis watched as the man turned to leave. He took a look at the princess who grew silent since Greta looked at her and then at the Riane who was still on her butt in the grass. The safest place for us were our original destination. We wont make it on our own as it is still kind of far. He hated to admit it but they needed this….man’s help so he called out after him.

“Wait! Please!” Travis caught up to him and bowed low.

“Please sir, we are in need of your assistance. We swear not to reveal your identity to anyone and will reward you handsomely if you simply accompany us to the city. It is around a day’s travel in the direction you are currently heading. You see this young lady is the pr-”

“Okay let me just stop you right there. I don’t want anything to do with your princess. I already did you all a favor by not eating you. Bye.” The man just turned and continued walking. Travis was desperate, he had to secure the man’s help somehow. He caught up to the man once again.

“Please sir, we will promise you anything. Money, slaves, treasures. What would you like? Women? Men? Whatever you want we will give you. This mission we absolutely cannot fail.” The man paused in his walking and turned around and looked at me. He had an almost predatory smile on his face when he turned.

“Anything I want?” He asked.

“Within reason sir..” Travis was starting to regret his life choices until he heard the mans next words.

“I want her” He said as he pointed at Riane and the princess.

“Riane sir?” Travis thought about it for a moment. He thought about how she had treated him until now. How she had just tried to sacrifice him to save herself. How almost everyone hates her for how she treated anyone that hadn’t reached her ‘level’ in magic. Travis smiled in a way that was almost as bad as the man as he came to a decision.

“That can be arranged sir.” Travis felt like a weight fell off his shoulders as the man nodded at him.

He ran back to the princess and told her we were going to be escorted by the man and the orc girl. Of course the princess and Riane were extremely opposed to this. Travis spent the next hour and a half explaining to them why they needed the man’s help. Of course it helped that during this time a monster attacked and was killed by the man before it even got close. The man was going to just leave, but the orc girl grabbed his arm and pointed at the corpse. He nodded and the little girl gave him what looked like a smile. Or maybe she was just hungry, Travis didn’t really know anything about orcs.

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Victoria was stuck. The man’s apartment was empty. There was a mattress in the bedroom that didn’t even seem to be used. She also found super expired milk and eggs in the fridge. No one had been here in a long while. She left but marked the man’s name on her list just to be sure. There were some scientists at the base that practically lived there so this wasn’t entirely unusual. She just got a weird feeling about this man. The building his apartment was in had a weird feeling to it. All the people she had seen entering or leaving all seemed so….lifeless. She left the building and moved on to the next name on her list. She was making good time, she might even be able to investigate every name on the list before her break ended.

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I watched as Greta skinned the animal I had killed. It was a little smaller than a wolf and didn’t feel very strong. I was still going to absorb it but Greta had asked for it. She took the skin and some of the meat and dragged the rest to my side and proceeded to poke me with it. I was curious at what she was trying to do. Maybe she was trying to get me to absorb it? She mimed eating it but kept poking me in the side with it. I couldn’t help but chuckle. I let my body absorb it and she just stared at me as it disappeared. I didnt even get enough biomass from it for a window to pop up. I laughed despite that though, she was acting a lot cuter than she normally does. Maybe she is starting to realize that the wolf she had lived with since now was a person and could understand what was going on around me?

I really need to find someway to understand what she is saying soon.