Jozef read the letter he just received from Nanbasa, it was short, and it didn’t have an author, but he recognised the traces of elven calligraphy on it. The curls in the letters, to make them look like waves on a gentle ocean flowing into each other:

“Arcadia is rallying. I will be there soon. Get ready.”

Fer stepped over curling jungle roots as she returned to Zalewski’s camp after yet another hunt. Third of the week, the war was ramping up. Maisara was no doubt losing her mind with the constant losses she was taking. Today had been a good hunt, a large platoon of sixty Paladins had been lured into the Jungle. Zalewski’s troops had escaped from them, and they followed into the impassable jungles that inhabited this area.

Fer had gotten her Code-One-Yellow alert, the signal that she and her forces were needed. Zalewski already had ambush locations scouted out, by that point, it had merely gotten to just getting there before the Paladins did. They had two mages as support. Elassa must be hurting too with her losses. Paladins took a matter of months to replace, or they did in the Great War. Mages, even with the most brutal of trainings, were an expensive investment. It took years to replace even one of them.

And so, the Maisara’s armies had been reorganised. From the teams of a dozen to simply a pair. It didn’t matter much if a mage faced ten or a hundred men, and a dozen per platoon was simply overkill for what they were needed for. Likewise, just as it didn’t matter how many mundane men a mage faced, it didn’t matter how mages a Divine such as Fer or Anassa faced. The greatest hunt of this war so far had been Anassa’s attack on fifty mages.

It had lasted all of a minute, and Anassa was the only one who had left that battlefield.

So Fer had assembled the fastest blood she had. And she had ran across the jungles with her pack behind her. Fifty beastmen waited on a cliff, all armed with rifle and grenade and machine gun for Zalewski’s retreating forces. They had passed by, and then the chasing Paladins had come into the clearing. The beastmen opened fire, the mages put up barriers, and Fer had jumped down from the cliff.

Fer flicked her hand in attempt to get the dried blood off. It didn’t work, so she merely started to lick her fingers and get the redness off. That worked at least. She circled around a tree and decided she wouldn’t be heading back to Logar to give him a report. She wouldn’t be doing it if little Kassie didn’t want them, and if she hadn’t be told to why she should. Kassandora demanded to know the exact numbers of the dead, hers and theirs. “Logar.” Fer growled, her throat rumbled across the jungle and the nearby birds went quiet.

“Here Packmaster!” Logar shouted from close behind her. The wolfman always kept close.

“Losses and casualties.” Fer knew them, she was just checking if the man had them correct.

“Sixty-four Paladins, two magicians, seventeen of Zalewski’s men, none of the pack.” Logar shouted back immediately.

“Good.” Fer said. “Go report to Zalewski in my place.”

“Yes Packmaster!” Logar shouted back, Fer didn’t even turn to look at him.

“The rest of you, return.” She shouted and turned directions. There was a stream nearby and she didn’t particularly like the taste of blood tainted by Maisara. It was a mix of bitter vegetable and cold mint, two flavours that really did not complement each other. Kassie’s was much better, Kavaa’s too. Maisara’s had always been disgusting and Fer suspected it always will be.

“Yes Packmaster!” The rest of the beastmen shouted back. The din clicking rifles, roots and twigs being snapped, bushes being ploughed through was drowned out for a moment with their cry, but then it returned. Fer immediately set off and made a turn North. When it came to directions, she liked to think of herself being as good as Kassie. The only difference was that Kassie knew how she was sure, she would look at moss on trees, feel the breeze through her hair and calculate based off the Sun’s position. Fer on the other hand simply felt what direction to go.

She trekked alone through the jungle as the blood stuck to her, until she came to a clearing. It was rough ground this far north, although here the jungle intersected with part of the central Kirinyaan mountains. Plenty of ravines and cliffs, some hidden by bushes and trees, others out in the open as the woods got sparser. It was impassable land for a large army, although maybe that was why Maisara had such issue with conquering the area. Even Alkom’s Sun, the few times he had been deployed onto the field, would only scorch an area and then the God had to leave to recover.

Fer stopped at the edge of a cliff and looked down. She had found it again, a small pool of cool clear water. There was a waterfall close by, a small one, coming from the melting snow-caps of the mountains in the distance. Fer threw all her clothes off. It was a simple shirt of hard leather and a battle skirt. Heavy too, although it would be considering the shirt had enough leather to make a whole coat for a mortal man. It was also covered in blood, with a few scratches where she had been callous and allowed herself to be touched.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Fer scrunched everything into a ball and threw it into the water at the bottom of the cliff, and then dived in herself. The clothes slowly made a splash, and Fer’s hands cut into the water like a splash. She burst forth from the water’s surface, floated on it, and slowly drifted to the edge. Eyes closed, this was perfect. Fer felt the cool water run past her as it picked and scrubbed flakes of blood off her body. She smiled to herself and started humming a tune, an old marching one. This was perfect, she drank the water and submerged into it to scrub her legs clean.

And then Fer jumped up again, hair flinging a stream of water away. She saw black boots with a tall heel in the air, they burst out from red silk. Her eyes travelled further up to meet a sour face, two crimson eyes framed by black hair. “I see I’m the only one working.” Anassa’s said, she was as sour as a lemon today.

“I just finished for today.” Fer said and let herself fall backwards to sit on the rocks. A human wouldn’t be able to do it, but she was tall enough for the water to only go up to her shoulders. Her ears bounced and she shook her head quickly from side to side to get the water out of them. “Lovely to see you Ana.” Fer said happily, then splashed her sister with water.

Anassa did not even react, the water simply stopped in mid-air, then fell back into the lake. “You finished?”

“I did.” Fer said earnestly. Anassa shook her head and sighed.

“And Kass didn’t give you anything to do?” Anassa said from above. Fer flicked a drop of water at her. It got caught again.

“Why would she give me anything to do?” Fer gave up trying to splash Anassa and just leaned back in water, staring up at the cloudless blue sky above them. The view was only slightly disturbed by the cliff, the running water and the canopies of tall trees.

“WELL THEN WHY I DO HAVE WORK?” Fer rolled her eyes at Anassa’s shout. Anassa was always like this. She hated not working, that was an insult to her because it meant she wasn’t important enough to be useful, and she hated working, because whatever people thought, Divines could not do everything.

“Do you not want to?” Fer asked.

“I DO!” Anassa shouted back.

“So what’s the problem?” Fer said and Anassa stammered out some odd sounds that struggled to form a word. “What are you doing anyway?”

“I’m searching for candidates.” Anassa replied and Fer watched a cloud appear from behind the cliff. That meant Anassa was recruiting sorcerers again.

“Have you found any?”

“Two-hundred and thirty.”

“And?”

“Twenty-eight made it.” Anassa said it flatly. Fer smiled up and splashed Anassa again. Once again, Anassa merely moved her hand and the water stopped in mid-air, then dropped back down. “Fer…” She said slowly.

“That’s not a good ratio.” Fer said.

“In the best it was one in five.” Anassa said. “One in ten isn’t much worse.”

“That’s twice as bad.” Fer said and Anassa made a sarcastic clap.

“I’m so happy you can double numbers.” Anassa said dryly and Fer burst out in laughter. She splashed Anassa again. The hand wave was a swing this time, and it came faster. “Will you stop that?!” Anassa scowled the words out.

“You’re disturbing me.” Fer made her tone as sweet and as annoying as she could. “So? Why did you come to visit me? Do you want me to scrub you back?” Fer got up, turned around and pulled her hair over front. “Or scrub mine since you’re here.” Fer bounced when she felt something smack her rear. She jumped up and turned back around, Anassa was still there, arms crossed, staring down at her. Glare on her face and eyes brimming with fury.

“Are you serious?” Anassa said flatly. Fer shrugged and collapsed into the cool water again. Once again, the water did not touch Anassa.

“I tried, so what are you here for? You know I love you but…” Fer trailed off and made a stupid grin. “You’re annoying.”

“Kass told me to tell you to start moving the herds back to CR. Trek, not fly. You’re to stop near some location on the map, Zalewski has it. Don’t even ask me, I don’t know where.” Fer smiled up as she closed her eyes and let herself float in the water. The currents slowly started to carry her around the lake. She thought on what it meant, there was only one thing that made sense.

“So Elassa is finally making her move?” Anassa stared at Fer from the air.

“Do you think I know that?” Fer rolled her eyes. Of course Anassa wouldn’t know.

“This is why you get sent off on the terrible jobs, you know.” Fer said. She saw the chance to get Anassa wet, and let the currents carry her further, towards Anassa.

“I don’t know actually, thanks for telling me!” Anassa once again moaned from above.

“Are you brining something to eat at least?” Fer said sarcastically. “Honestly, imagine coming to the Goddess of Beasthood without food.”

“Imagine coming before the Goddess of Sorcery and not dressing.” Fer saw Anassa slowly lose her cool. There it was.

“Excuse me.” Fer said. “But the Goddess of Sorcery appeared before me. That’s not my fault.”

“At least cover yourself up!” Fer grinned up, now she had caught Anassa in her trap.

“Scared that Beasthood outcompetes you?” Fer snickered from below as she dragged her hands along her torso. The current carried her to below Anassa.

“Not another word.”

“Men grow tired of noble queens, don’t you think they prefer something more…” Fer made a purpose pause to add effect. Anassa was already cooking with rage, and when she got mad, her reactions became slower. “Feral?” Fer made the word as alluring as she could manage.

“I actually, utterly, wholeheartedly despise-“ Anassa began slowly, then realised Fer had caught hold of her leg. The expression immediately changed, from the one that was bursting in anger to one of panic. Anassa was fast, she could teleport, but Fer had long worked out how the woman’s insane powers worked. Or she thought she did anyway. Or rather, she simply that Anassa could not escape once she was grabbed, however that happened. “If you do this Fer.” Anassa said slowly. Sorcerous energies crackled around her.

“Do what?” Fer said, her feet barely touched the floor in this deep pool.

“Pull me in.”

“Oh sister, you know me.” Fer cooed from below. “You know I love you. And you know I know you hate ruining your hair. Would I ever pull you in?” Anassa raised an eyebrow and wiggled her boots. Fer gripped tighter, she would not slip out.

“You would.” Anassa said after a second of silence.

And Fer did.