Two weeks passed in a blur. Well, not a blur, exactly, but with the days melting into each other, it seemed like nothing. Each day would be wake up, get horses ready to move, and trot them along the road with the wagons jostling and bouncing along behind.

Three little towns came and went. We stopped in each, I healed some people, told them about Molly when they asked, and we moved on. Molly was getting more busy each night, which I think she really liked, so it meant Taffy and me got to wander around in her lands and find nice little places to be alone together.

We were just setting up camp for the evening when we heard the first howl—far too close. I grabbed my staff and jumped down from the wagon. "What's going on?"

Yaff was just fading from view and stepping into the forest that now seemed way more hostile than it had seconds ago.

Another howl, closer, made me pull my robes a little tighter. "Where are they?" I called out.

"Let Yaff deal with some first. Get back on your wagon and use it to keep away from anything that—" Taffy's voice cut off as a series of growls came from the front wagon.

I was torn. I wanted to run to Taffy and help, but she had told me to get back up. Biting my lip, I pulled myself back up beside Caprice. "Are there any wolves around us?"

"Summon Nature's Ally! Cuddles, get angry!" Caprice was standing and pointing at something behind our wagon while I could hear Cuddles doing exactly what she'd asked.

Well, I didn't have any offensive powers, so I drew my knife in my free hand and cast, "Enhance Constitution!" When nothing approached me still, I added, "Bless!"

It was the weirdest fight ever, and given how many times I'd been in fights as a dragon, that was saying something. Cuddles was getting really scrappy behind us, Caprice flung the odd damage spell out, and I could hear Taffy up front of us using her heals.

Without any real targets for me to heal, I just decided to keep Group Channel Life up and ticking while giving off the odd Group Heal when Caprice asked me to heal Cuddles.

Just when I thought it wasn't going to ever end—things went silent. Well, silent except for the purring from Cuddles as she padded up and jumped up to lay her blood-soaked head on Caprice's lap. I looked at her for a moment and asked, "You need any heals?"

Cuddles looked up at me with big eyes and, purring, shook her head.

"Let me go check the front wagon." I climbed down, only for Cuddles to rush around the wagon and press her shoulder against my thigh. "You stay with Caprice, Cuddles. I can take care of myself." She glared at me. "Really."

With Cuddles walking back to Caprice, I kept my knife out and my senses peeled on the bush. Which is how I saw Yaff leaving the trees with a predatory smile on her face. "Good hunting?" I asked.

"They could smell me, but that helped me lure them into my traps. The heals were helpful at the end, though, when one blindsided me." Yaff looked back for a moment but fell-in beside me. "Good thinking, by the way. Those heals you cast were great, even way off when I was leading those wolves into traps."

I couldn't help but feel a little proud of myself. I'd never played the game as part of a group before waking up in here for the first time, but I knew there were heal spells that didn't need line of sight. Turned out that just fighting a common enemy probably counted to make them a party member.

Taffy, when we got to the front of the wagon, was standing up with the horses, giving them pets on their noses and talking softly to them. There were two wolves laying beside her in a pool of way more blood than should have come from them. "They went for our horses up here. Ripped them up pretty bad."

Barking a laugh, Jules climbed down from the wagon. "What she isn't saying is that she charged off and healed the horses while the horses stomped the wolves into the ground."

I giggled at that and walked up, noticing that Taffy's sword was still in her scabbard and there was no blood on her. "And now you have two friends for life, huh? Don't worry, I'll make a healer out of you yet."

Leaning forward, Taffy pressed her head to the bridge of the horse's nose and whispered something I couldn't hear. "I couldn't get to actually fight myself. The horses were doing a good enough job, though. I just kept on top of their health."

"Anything else out there?" Chloe asked Yaff. I could see that Chloe's big sword had blood on it.

"Some idiot was following us. I wouldn't have noticed except when one of the wolves tried to get away from me, it led me back to the body. Looks like we need to thank the wolves for dealing with our problem." Yaff was using her spotless dagger to clean her claws. "Are we cool to get moving?"

Everyone just shrugged. "I'll head back and tell Caprice. Cuddles was doing a lot of work there, the wolves didn't even get up to the front of the wagon." Turning, I walked back along the wagon with Yaff at my side. "Thanks for the hard work."

"Hey, I said adventuring was paying better than selling fruit. If I'm going to commit to the adventurous life, I have to commit all the way." She looked at me and smiled. "And it's nice to know I'm working for the good guys."

I put my arm around her and gave her a hug that had Yaff making an exasperated noise. "Working for the good guys? You're one of the best guys!"

"What is happening? Does Caprice need to move the wagon?" Caprice was pinned to the seat with Cuddles laying over her. What was surprising was how calm the horses were—they didn't seem to care that there was a huge tiger hanging around.

"Nah, Caprice. I'll take it," I said.

Yaff swung up behind me and jumped over me, Caprice, and Cuddles to land on the other side. Somehow she made it look both graceful and normal. "I'll take the reins. You can both have a rest."

"Only a few smaller towns between here and Shining City." Caprice kissed Cuddles on the nose. "Cuddles needs to make room now, please?" Letting out a yawn, Cuddles vanished. Caprice sat up and shook her head. "Cuddles is such a good kitty."

"She made a mess of the pelts of the wolves she killed, though." Yaff gently shook the reins when the wagon ahead of us started rolling. "I'll stretch out the ones I managed to get over the sides of the wagon tomorrow. I know we don't need the money, but it's good to be in practice."

Closing my eyes, I could feel the other me wanting to push out. She struggled and railed against my sensibilities. Pouncey. It shouldn't ever surprise me that this was going to be a complicated thing. Reaching my arm out, I gave into that other me's desire and hugged Caprice and Yaff against me.

Dragon-me seemed happy, and I wanted to keep her that way. It wasn't like we had to fight each other when there were plenty of safer things to fight. Also, she had good instincts when it came to relaxing with my friends.

We passed a bunch of small towns over the following week. Yaff spent some time scouting behind us, but said she couldn't find anyone else following. It was a relief after all the bullshit with Father's people.

"The next stop will be Walltown," Caprice said one morning, after we left yet another tiny town that didn't even have a tavern and, if it had a name, no one mentioned it.

"Walltown?" I asked her.

"Walltown is a growing city outside the wall of Shining City. People always say it will eventually get its own wall around it, but there haven't been any wars pushing this far into Grand Kingdom for sooooo long." Caprice stretched her wings and gave them a little flap. "Caprice think they will never build a wall and will just keep building out."

I laughed and nodded. "Probably. Though it would be bad if a war did start. They'd have way too many people to protect in the inner part of the city."

"The last war was when a dragon wanted to take over the world. It's why Kobolds aren't even allowed into some kingdoms." Caprice pressed tighter against me.

I didn't even need dragon-me to tell me to hug her. Moving the reins to my other hand, I stretched and pulled her closer. "We'll just have to teach those countries what they're missing out on."

She looked up at me with big eyes.

"Not just Kobolds, but the cutest Kobolds in the world. Also, Molly." The wagon in front of us finished cresting a hill and, on the horizon, I could see a huge golden flash of light. "What—?"

"It's not called the Shining City for nothing. The towers are plated with silver."

"Huh." After we crested the hill and started down, the bright reflection was lost to the trees ahead of us and the next low hill. "So we're going all the way into Shining City?"

"When Caprice was last there, there was about five times more city in Walltown than in Shining City. We stay in Walltown, but get wagon builders in the city to do work."

"I just thought, we might need one extra wagon." When Caprice looked up at me, I booped her on the nose. "For a little shrine to Molly."

She giggled, but just before she could actually do something, Yaff said, "Careful, the front wagon is about to stop. Might be brigands. Something's blocking the road." I couldn't see her, but she sounded like she was beside the wagon.

Sure enough, the front wagon slowed and stopped. "What's up?!" I asked.

"Tree blocking the road! Chloe's getting the axe to cut it up!" Jules' voice was loud and easy to hear, but what was Taffy doing? I felt worried, now, for what was going on up there.

Caprice cleared her throat. "Want Caprice to—?"

"No. Jules didn't ask for help. Plus, I want you where I can heal you if something goes wrong. But be ready." The waiting was killing me. I had a dozen spells, but I don't think I could cast any of them without giving away that we suspected something.

Five minutes passed. Then ten. I knew exactly how long because I was counting seconds. I was just about to suggest we go up front and ask what was happening when Yaff said, "They don't want to attack. They've been arguing, but their captain doesn't like the look of Taffy's armor and your staff. A lot of them are muttering about Caprice's wings—something about the dragon tyrant sending his daughter."

Caprice giggled and leaned closer to me. "Dragon tyrant is what they call the dragon that waged the last war. They really think Caprice a dragon?"

"The worst thing," Caprice said, "will be trying to cover for Dusky."

"Huh?" I wasn't sure where she was going with the comment. "Being Molly's—"

"How long has it been since the last full moon?" Caprice asked, raising an eyebrow. Okay, now I realized her point.

I slumped a little. "I completely forgot. It's been a bit over three weeks. So another week or so."

"Full moon?" Yaff asked. "What's so special about that?"

"Remember the dragon that Caprice was looking after while I was away doing stuff?" I asked.

Yaff's snort of laughter surprised me. "You mean the dragon that totally wasn't you?"

"Did everyone but Caprice know?" Looking up at me, Caprice looked genuinely hurt.

I squeezed her closer to me and hugged her. "I didn't tell anyone else, Caprice. Yaff has her fair share of smarts."

"No. I'm just a fruit merchant." I'd be more inclined to believe Yaff if she weren't currently invisible and hadn't just given us a report on all the bad people hanging around. "Give me a second, I think Chloe has things cleared up ahead." I didn't hear any footsteps from her, but there was a sense of her getting further away. Was that my healer's sense finally starting to do its thing?

"Has Dusky tried turning into a dragon when she wants? Without it being full moon?"

Staring at her in surprise, I shook my head. "Why would I want to—?"

"Because where we're going, dragons are significant. People would run away from a fight with a dragon."

"But what if I get stuck as a dragon? What if—What if I can't undo it until the next full moon?" My mind was running away with me and finding all sorts of possible problems. "And what if it means I start getting more draconic traits while like this?"

Caprice let out a kobold giggle, which had an odd purr to it. "Is Dusky afraid of getting horns? Of being horny?"

I stared at her. "That pun was bad, Caprice."

"What? Caprice's puns are the—"

"Ambush!" Taffy's shout made my blood run cold.

"Summon Nature's Ally! Cuddles, mess them up!" Caprice sounded angry as she shrugged out from under my arm and stood on the seat.

Shaking off my surprise, I decided some of my own spells were in order. "Enhance Constitution! Bless!" Above Caprice's head I saw someone in the bushes with a crossbow, lining it up on us. With barely a thought I threw my arm up—tracing the line between the bolt's tip and Caprice's head.

Pain blossomed in my arm and I distinctly felt the head of the thing grind on the bones in my arm. Past the blood and pain, and over the top of my arm, I watched as the shooter started cocking their crossbow—only for Cuddles to pounce on them, her jaws clamping on the guy's neck.

"Can you break this in half and pull it out for me?" I asked Caprice, holding up my arm so she could see the nasty-looking bolt head sticking out.

Caprice grabbed the feathered end of the bolt on one side of my arm, clamped her mouth around the other end, bit down and pulled it out from both sides. Staring at her work, I could see that her teeth had gone through the short metal shaft like a hot knife through butter. Wait, there was something I had to do. Right, heal. "Balanced Health!"

It was way more of a heal than my arm needed, but I was totally done with playing things conservatively. "Thanks."

"I didn't even see them! That was amazing, Dusky! Oh! Nature's Acceleration!" Over Caprice's shoulder I could see that Cuddles was done with the crossbowman and was heading after something right beside the wagon.

Grabbing Caprice, I pulled her into the back of the wagon with all the rough-bagged joints of meat. The big slabs of meat were cold, but that was the least of our problems. The wagon tilted as someone climbed up the side of it and I saw a man with a hand axe look back at us from the seat.

There was a lot I could do, but heal spells and buffs weren't going to help me against the guy. There was just one thing that I could think of—turn into a dragon and rip him in half. I was just starting to work out how to even think about it, when a blurry red-furred shape appeared behind him, a moment before the tips of two daggers poked from his chest.

The axeman screamed and turned, just in time for a huge cat to jump up and body him off the side of the wagon, leaving Yaff standing there with a big grin. "Sorry I couldn't get him earlier, I was taking care of his friend coming up the other side."

The thing that got me the most about Yaff was how gloriously happy she looked. She had a big grin on her face that made her practically radiate beauty and excitement. With a bow, she disappeared again.

That's when it sank in, the full reason why Yaff left behind her days of being a fruit merchant—she enjoyed this way too much to give it up.

Snapping back to reality—and the fight going on—I saw a huge kobold hand right in front of me. "Thanks!" I took Caprice's hand and she hauled me back onto the driving seat. I had the slightest tingle and, before thinking more about it, cast, "Group Heal!"

"Should we go and see what they're doing up there?" Caprice asked.

"No. We don't want a straggler to steal our wagon, plus Taffy's up there and can keep heals going. I know this might sound weird, but I can kinda feel when people are hurt and they—they all feel fine up there now. Besides, they have Cuddles." This new feeling of knowing when someone was hurting was strange, but I realized I could use it to cheat. "Hey, there's a guy in the woods just there."

My eyes locked with a pair barely visible in the bushes. I wouldn't normally have noticed them but, somehow, my new sense told me they were already a little hurt.

"Come out!" Caprice stood up and let her wings hang loose a little. "Caprice know you're there!"

There was panic and terror in those eyes. Slowly, carefully, the person stood up and stepped out of the bushes. They dropped their bow and continued walking with their hands out to the sides. "Please don't kill me." Their voice wavered with terror and, when Caprice jumped off the wagon, they fell backwards while letting out a broken-voice squeak of shock.

"Caprice won't kill you unless you give her a reason to. How many more of you out here?" I'd never really heard Caprice this forceful before. There was an aura of power wrapped around her—spilling out—that seemed to pin the bandit to the ground.

It hit me what it was—and why it didn't affect me at all. This was her being a high priestess of Molly. It's the same kind of aura that Taffy has as a paladin. Wait, did Caprice change her trade class? I slid over to the side of the bench on the cart without getting down, so I could better watch what was going on.

Walking right up to them, standing over the brigand, Caprice seemed so much larger than them despite her being short. "Are there any others around here?"

The human (I guessed they were human, anyway, since I couldn't see any elongated ears or odd skin tone) shook their head and whispered something I missed.

"Take out all your weapons, one by one, and leave them here. Then follow Caprice back to the wagon." Turning, Caprice walked back toward me with a troubled look on her face. When she saw my raised eyebrow, she sighed. "They're hurt, they smell terrible, and I think pregnant."

The moment she said it, I could see the brigand was female. It was weird to have my brain mentally backtracking, but there wasn't much I could do about it. "Check her to see if she still has a knife or something. Don't just—" Caprice grabbed the woman by the hand and, jumping up herself, pulled them up to the wagon's seat.

"You be good and let Dusky check that scar. And, if you still have a weapon, Caprice will ignore it so long as you throw it away right now."

I watched as the woman pulled a knife out from somewhere behind her and tossed it away.

"Good. Now Caprice doesn't have to eat you. Okay, Dusky check you over now." Turning to look at me, Caprice flashed a big smile.

The closer the woman got to me on the bench, the more I realized Caprice was right on all counts. I could detect a lot of harm to her, some that was beyond my ability to heal, and my nose picked up on the smell she'd described. Pregnant or not, though, she was underfed by a long shot.

I looked at her until she finally met my eyes again. "Don't make me regret doing this, okay? Major Heal!" My magic flowed out and into her and flooded her body. The magic ran out before aches, pains, and wounds did. "Major Heal!" This one got her. She was as healed as my cure spells could make her and even her status felt better now, though there were still things wrong. "How are you feeling?"

She just stared at me like I'd said the most insane thing she'd ever heard.

"Caprice, call Cuddles back and stand guard back here. I want to find out what's going on up front." Jumping down from the wagon, I could see Cuddles already bounding back toward me. "I'll be right back."

Walking along the wagon, I reached out to stroke Cuddles' back as she bounded past. I like to think she smiled as she did.

Taffy was standing beside Jules while Chloe worked the axe on the old tree that was barely holding on to its title as a roadblock. "Everything going okay up here?"

Jules had a little frown, but smiled when she turned toward me. "Chloe's almost done with the tree."

"Those heals were well-timed, thanks." Chloe's words were punctuated by the swing of the axe. Each chop made the tree move a little more before, finally, a loud crack sounded and the two halves bowed up into the air—now separated.

Seeing things well in hand, I marched up to Taffy and had to stand on my toes to get high enough to kiss her cheek—then tripped at the last second. She caught me, tilted her head down, and kissed me on the lips.

It was warm and affirming and reminded me how amazing she is. I pulled back first and leaned against her shoulder. "You're supposed to be on watch."

"She's watching something alright," Jules said.

I laughed and slipped out of Taffy's grip. "Were there many of them? One of their archers surrendered to us. She's back with Caprice and Cuddles now."

Walking back, Chloe hauled herself up onto the bench with Jules. "That's going to complicate things, but it's not like we could kill her."

It made me smile a bit. Chloe, for all her ferociousness in a fight, definitely had her heart in the right place. "Got it. I'll head back now. Are we going to make it to the city before nightfall?"

"Probably, but we won't go in. We'll camp just outside because we won't find anywhere to stay at that hour." Jules gave the reins a little twitch and the horses started rolling the wagon forward again.

I walked back to the second wagon as Caprice rolled it forward to me. I swung up and onto the bench. "We're going to make it to the city before nightfall, but Jules doesn't want us to roll in if we can't find anywhere to sleep. So, we'll be keeping just outside for tonight."

"I—I can't go into the city. They know about me," the woman said.

When I looked at Caprice, she blinked her big eyes and gave a slight nod. The woman beside her huddled close to Caprice.

"Then how are we going to do this? Could we have her spend the whole time we're there with Molly?" I asked.

"Caprice will vouch for her." At my droll look, Caprice reached out and patted my shoulder. "Don't worry, Caprice has this well under control. Blake attacked Caprice while carrying out her duty—she is now bound to serve Caprice."

Now it was my turn to look at her. "Huh? What do you mean? Is that actually a law?"

"No, but Caprice will talk to other churches. Molly will talk to other churches." She shook her shoulders and let her wings settle—I'd barely even seen her stiffen them up. "Dusky will be another problem. Could claim Dusky is a holy beast of Molly's."

"Well, we should probably talk to some of our allies before trying something that big. Uh, so, Blake was it?" The woman looked at me, seemingly trying to hide behind Caprice. "I'm Dusky Rose. You want to tell me what happened?"

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Her hand strayed to her stomach and I was reminded of what Caprice had said earlier. "They attacked my father's caravan m-months ago. K-killed everyone but me—said I would be good for some—some fun."

I didn't need to hear anymore. It felt a little awkward, but I had to face this because I'd asked her. "Was that all of them? The ones we killed back there?"

"Y-Yeah. They were arguing about attacking. They saw Caprice and thought she was a dragon. But when she didn't see them and attack, they figured she was using a disguise." She seemed to think for a few moments before finally asking, "Are you a dragon?"

Caprice giggled at that. "No. Caprice is a kobold with wings. Dusky is a dragon, though."

"What?" Looking at me in obvious surprise, Blake looked back at Caprice. "But she doesn't look anything like a dragon."

"Weredragon," I said. "I have about a week before I'm going to spend a few days all scaly and ferocious."

"Ferocious!" Giggling and pointing at me, Caprice turned to Blake. "Pouncey—that's what Caprice called Dusky when she is a dragon—is a big softie who would lie around in front of the fire all day wanting pats."

I knew exactly what Caprice was doing, and even if it meant being the butt of the joke, I liked the idea of getting Blake to at least smile. "Pats are really nice—as you know." I reached up to Caprice's head and started rubbing at the base of one of her horn nubs.

"H-Hey!" Caprice only attempted to pull away without putting much effort into it. I mean, of course she wouldn't—she liked having her horns rubbed.

"You can tell me to stop, Caprice. Go on, tell me to stop." I put one arm around her to hold her still while I kept rubbing with the other.

Rather than tell me to stop, Caprice just fell sideways against me and used her wing to grab hold of me. "Dusky is mean sometimes."

"You two are—you seem—close," Blake said. "When you called Caprice a high priestess—That was a joke?"

"Dusky and Caprice are sisters." Caprice's conviction was firm on that, as was mine. "And Caprice is definitely a high priestess!"

I nodded. "Go on, ask her something only a high priestess would know."

Caprice looked at me with a worried expression before turning back to Blake.

"Oh, uh. So what's your god's name?" Blake asked.

"Molly," Caprice said. "Caprice already said that."

"I… uh… what does she look like?"

"Molly is amazing! She's tall, and pretty, and wears silver armor. Also, she has big feathery wings!" Caprice squirmed in place. "And she makes you feel like everything is going to work out okay. Like—Like she has something planned."

I had to wonder about that. Caprice seemed to be convinced it was the case, but Molly was just like me. Well, okay, maybe she was a bit different, but she wasn't all-knowing or anything. Was this just something Caprice felt or did others feel the same? Why didn't I feel it?

Leaning sideways a little, I let Caprice hug me with her wing while I listened to her and held the reins. She talked to Blake, sounding more and more convincing that Molly was the best goddess out there. I might be a little biased, though.

The transition as we broke from the forest into wide, open farmland was startling. Fields stretched out to either side and before us, but were dominated by a huge sight. In the distance (when we turned a little to the side to follow the road) I could see the sprawling city and huge walls behind that. Above it all, spires reached up into the sky and glittered—reminding me why it was called Shining City. "Wow."

Caprice squeezed me with the wing around my back. "Looks impressive, right? Caprice grew up here. There are lots of kobolds in the city, you'll see."

"There are? I kinda expected it to be—" I stopped that question, realizing how short-sighted I probably was. "What's that population distribution?" When she looked at me blankly, I tried to say it a different way. "So, uh, what are all the races in the city?"

"Well, there are Kobolds, Elves, Dwarves, Catkin, Foxkin, Scalekin, Humans…" She tapped her chin with a finger, looking thoughtful. "There might be more, but there won't be many of them."

They were the species I know some of, though I had to wonder if there was going to be any issue with me being a half-Elf. "Many Elves?"

Caprice shook her head. "Mostly Humans and Kobolds."

So I was going to be part of the minority. Oh well, I guess I could just stand beside Taffy and hope no one notices me. But, of course, people were going to notice me when I grew into a twelve foot long dragon. "Many dragons?"

She giggled as she shook her head. "No, silly, the Humans and the Kobolds worked together to drive off the last dragon. Dusky, as a dragon and if we can't work out something, will terrify them."

"They really picked the wrong people to attack," Blake said.

It took me a moment to realize she'd meant the highwaymen. "Yeah. We've been training and working together for a while. Also, we all kinda complement each other with multiple people covering critical skills." When Blake just stared at me, I fumbled to figure out how to explain it. "Uh, so we each have strengths and weaknesses. The trick is to balance things out so that everyone's weakness has at least two other people covering it with their strengths."

She looked between Caprice and me, and after a moment Blake asked, "Do—Do you need an archer?"

"No," I said. I ignored Caprice's confused look. "For now, no. Once we find out if the city are after you, then we can think on it again, but I don't want to make someone feel obligated to fight with us."

"But I want to be useful." Blake was looking at her hands. "What can I do if not fight for you?"

"Blake, you haven't known us very long, but I'll have you know we aren't just a bunch of wandering adventurers." Looking at Caprice, I couldn't help but understand how the woman could have been confused. "In Shining City we're going to get a set of special wagons built so we can have a traveling tavern."

"A tavern?"

Caprice giggled. "Caprice and her friends all worked in a tavern, until it burned down. Now we make a new one that we can bring with us everywhere!"

"So you're—"

Nodding, Caprice pointed to both of us. "Tavern maids, bartenders, kitchen hands—All workers in a tavern and Jules is—was—is going to be the owner."

"Yeah, I promised her I'd pay for a new tavern, and she'll get her money's worth with one she can drive around wherever she wants it," I said.

Our conversation slowed as we rolled along. We passed farm after farm, then I heard Jules, ahead, calling for a stop. When I climbed down from the wagon and looked around, I saw another four wagons ahead of our two.

We might have been near a city, but we all slept in our wagons and held watch as if we were out in the middle of nowhere. I guess with so many people around that we don't know, it's extra important. I'd taken first watch and waited my two hours until it was Jules' turn.

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Though I sent a prayer to Molly, she didn't pull me into her world while I slept. Instead I woke after an incredibly relaxing night's sleep to find Taffy wrapped around me, holding tight and apparently not willing to let go for such unimportant things as needing to use the gong.

I tried. I really tried. Laying there and letting my girlfriend cling to what was now apparently her favorite stuffed toy—me—wasn't solving my very real biological problem. "Sorry, but I have to go."

"Dusky? Go…?" She sounded so adorably sleepy, but I really had to get away.

"Yeah, go-go." When I squirmed some more, she finally let go with a sigh. "I promise I'll be back as quick as I can."

I looked around for somewhere to go that wouldn't be putting on a show for anyone walking down the road, came up blank, and just huddled against the side of the wagon. It was probably one of the more embarrassing things I'd ever had to do.

By the time I climbed back up into the wagon and crawled under the covers, I needed the hug Taffy gave me. "Sorry, I tried to ignore it but—" Her kiss distracted me completely from the apology.

"Dusky, you don't need to apologize, even if you did climb back in with cold legs. We're going to roll in today and find an inn to store our wagons and things while we shop around for cartwrights." Taffy clung to me, her body radiating heat enough that I certainly wasn't going to complain. "And then we're going to see if there's anything we can do to keep busy. Maybe even show Jules how to fight."

Fighting. Except for the odd highwaymen, we hadn't been doing that much of it. "It'd be good if we could find some quests to do or something."

"Taffy and Dusky are too loud." Caprice, who'd been sleeping on the other side of Taffy, levered herself up to perch half of herself on Taffy's side. "But Caprice wants to know if we doing adventure stuff."

Yawning, I reached a hand up and booped Caprice on the nose, making her go cross-eyed for a moment. "Taffy was just saying we need to find somewhere to store our stuff first, then we can find someone to make our rolling tavern."

Flapping her wings in obvious excitement, Caprice started giggling. "Oh! Oh! Caprice wants to see what they can do with it soooo much."

A gasp and a muffled scream from the other side of Caprice surprised us all enough that Taffy and myself jerked upright, only to see Blake with her hand over her mouth.

"Caprice so sorry! Forgot Blake there." Caprice hugged the woman.

It took me a moment to realize what'd happened—Caprice'd slapped her with a wing.

Blake raised her hands, palms forward in a placating gesture. "It's okay! I was just surprised. I—I'm not used to people having wings."

"We're probably going to get a lot of that here, Caprice," I said.

"Caprice is a high priestess, the best kind of kobold. They will just have to get used to Caprice." Folding her arms across her chest, Caprice used her wing to hug Blake against her. "Right, Blake?"

A flash of intuition, maybe, or just hopeful thinking on behalf of my nest sister, but I wondered if there might be something there. Having the situation as Blake owing Caprice something was a bad way to start it, but I wonder if I could correct that?

Wait, am I playing match-maker? Is this a bad anime plot? Nah. If anything, that will also help Blake become part of our group on an even footing.

"R-Right. Uh, Caprice?" Blake sounded nervous about something.

"Mmm?"

"Can you let go, I need to use the jacks."

Caprice's gasp of shock and the ensuing scramble to let Blake move and get up made Taffy and me both giggle. When Blake had left the wagon and I heard her footsteps trail off toward the front wagon, I asked, "Caprice, do you like Blake?"

"Like?" Caprice asked.

"Yeah," Taffy said, sitting up. "Like. I like Dusky and she likes me. I'm pretty sure Blake likes you, too."

"Maybe she doesn't fully realize that yet." Sitting up too, I yawned. "But that just makes the whole her owing you thing a problem. So, you need to work out a way for her to pay you back. Hell, limit it to a month of working for you or something."

Caprice, for probably the first time since I'd met her, seemed unable to say something.

"I think we broke her, Taffy," I said. "Caprice, do you like her?"

"She—Uh—" Caprice looked and sounded shocked. For a start it was weird to hear her use a pronoun instead of a name. "But Caprice doesn't like girls like that." She still looked confused. "Caprice has never liked a girl like that…"

I reached out to her, and despite her closed-off posture she let me pull her into a hug. "You just need to relax. Don't think too much about it. It's how I've had to work since getting here. This"—I leaned back a bit and gestured to myself—"is a bit much to think about sometimes, to say nothing of becoming a dragon. So I just accept that I'm different to how I used to be and focus on others."

Blinking up at me, Caprice nodded. "Dusky is a good dragon." Then she stood up and patted me on the head. "Need to get ready. Going into city today."

I tried to say something, but she jumped out of the back of the wagon. I sighed. "I'll never, ever get the better of her."

"Keep trying, though. If you stop, she'll start to worry." Taffy helped me slip out of the shift I'd worn to bed and into a clean shirt and pants. In reply, I helped her get her own clothes on, then her armor over that. I didn't question why armor would be needed in the city—I wouldn't have thought it'd be needed in Northwind either.

We swapped again and she helped me with my corset. Finally, we both worked on getting our shoes on, then climbed up front to sit on the bench and wait. When the wagon ahead of us started moving, I gave the reins a little toss and we started rolling after it.

Eventually I couldn't help it. I had to ask, "You think Caprice is—?"

"Into girls?" Taffy turned her head to glance at me. When I nodded, she sighed. "The fact remains, that girl has it for her. Caprice is—she wouldn't have noticed if we hadn't said anything. Now she knows, she can think about it and not leave the girl hanging forever."

Okay, my earlier thoughts about being too much with trying to help was, apparently, amateur hour. Taffy had cut right to the chase of things I hadn't even spotted. "Guess I got really lucky—finding a girl who knew what she wanted."

"Who says you found me?" She put her arm around my waist and pulled me firmly against her side.

I couldn't help myself. I let out a little sigh. When I'd gotten a thing for strong girls in armor, I have no idea, but here I was and I certainly wasn't going to complain. "I'm okay with this interpretation."

As we rolled forward, slowly and with many pauses, we eventually neared a checkpoint. "What do you think Jules will tell them?"

"The truth, probably. We're coming south for work, ran into some annoying brigands, killed most and our traveling priestess took one as a servant," Taffy said.

"That," a cloaked young woman said as she jumped up to land on the seat beside us, "is a terrible idea. Don't worry, Max will come up with a much better one for them. Hi, I'm Max."

"Hey, Max, we are kinda busy here." Taffy reached out to gently push Max off the seat, but the woman somehow dodged the shove, ducked under Taffy's arm and over her leg, and insinuated herself between us.

"You two love-birds have room for a third? No? What about someone with all the paperwork, filled out and paid, for two wagons entering Shining City?"

I looked at Taffy while she glared at the woman. When I looked down, though, she drew her cloak aside a little to reveal a riot of colored clothing underneath it. Something, a memory, sparked in my head and I remembered a name: "Fool."

She lifted one soft finger to press to my lips. "Shhh. Not so loud."

"We can trust her?" Taffy asked me.

"You tell me. You have the whole p—thing going on."

"Oh. Yeah." She looked from me to Max and I felt the slightest hint of magic in the air before it was gone again. "Huh. Yeah, she's fine."

Max just giggled at that, but I wanted a bit more information. "Fine?" I asked.

"Fine like—She's not evil and she's not lying."

Giggling more, Max kicked her legs like she was hanging from a swing without a care in the world. "Okay, so our cover is that you're both my secret lovers. Neither of you know that the other is, but when I first get you in the bedroom together, you—"

"No," I said.

"That's going too far," Taffy said.

"Party poopers. So what would you say my role is on this wagon?" Max wiggled her rear on the seat.

She seemed, if nothing else, cheerful and playful. I could respect that as being nice to be around—for limited periods of time. "Do we need to give you a role?"

Shaking her head, Max turned her head to look past Taffy. "Here's our papers, sir!" She held out the paperwork to a guardsman who'd walked up beside us. "I hope it's all in order?"

Bracing his polearm (that had what looked like an axe, spear, and some kind of stabby bit on it) to his shoulder, the guardsman took and read the paperwork. "Yeah, yeah. Everything checks out. Head on through and, if anyone needs to see that, make sure they carry the city's badge."

"Thank you," Taffy said, and took the paper back.

It was then the guy looked up and paid more than passing attention to Taffy. I could see his eyes widen a little and he seemed to straighten and backed away. "Let them through!"

"This is signed by the king himself." Passing the papers back to Max, Taffy glared at her. "What's going on here?"

"Max and I have acquaintances, friends, and masters in high places. We're not important, not really, but we help keep things turning over like they should." Turning sideways and stretching out, Max lay across our laps so her head and shoulders were on my thighs and her hips were on Taffy's. "Oooh, the sights are better from down here. Anyway, someone in high places wanted you to get into the city without his people finding you. You know who."

"He has people here?" It came out of me in a gasp. Even with brigands jumping us, the world had felt a little safer knowing his people were behind us. Finding out they were here, of course, really sucked.

She giggled and closed her eyes, stretching out like a cat across our laps. "He has people everywhere, but not many where Max is leading us. You see."

"Wait," I said, "the person on the front wagon is also named Max?"

She reached a hand up and booped me on the nose. "You get a prize. Can you guess what the prize is?" When I shook my head at her, she giggled. "Me! My name is now Prize."

So what I found out about Max was she was an unapologetic flirt, but didn't seem to really be mean or nasty about it. She took our constant rejection without more than joking complaint, and any chance she got to make us blush made her giggle more. Giggling, it seemed, was one of Max's favorite things to do besides flirting.

We followed the other wagon as the street became less and less bumpy until we finally had to stop again. "What now?" I asked.

"Just show them the papers when we get to the gate," Max said. "Has anyone ever told you you're stunningly beautiful?"

"Me?" Taffy and I asked at the same time.

Max just giggled and said, "Yeah."

"Wait. Are we entering the central city? That's like super cramped, right? Expensive inns, rich district, all that." Taffy leaned off the side of the bench seat as far as she could while holding to the back to keep from falling.

"If you say it like that, it sounds way more impressive than 'we got special letters to get us into the Shining City walls and arranged you an inn to stay at until you want to leave'," Max said. "But, let's go with your thing."

The guard at the gate spent longer looking at the paperwork Taffy had, but eventually they just waved us through again. When we were out of earshot of the gate, I had to ask, "You're not leading us into some weird trap, are you?"

"Me? No. If there was a trap, it'd be Max leading you into it."

I couldn't help it. The pair of them had clearly spent time working on these gags and I started giggling.

"Don't encourage her, Dusky," Taffy said.

This seemed to get Max laughing too now. Not a sedate chuckle, either, a full-throated laugh that I joined in on. A moment later Taffy joined in, and we laughed all the way to where the front wagon turned into a back-alley leading to an inn yard.

Max and Taffy jumped down, and part of me kinda missed having the strange girl laying on me—probably the part of me that was getting a little chill around my legs. "Should have worn a dress." I climbed down too and walked forward to find Caprice had already taken the horses in hand and was starting to unhitch them.

That's when I spotted Max and Max. They threw their cloaks off, revealing a pair of tight, jester-like outfits. Max (the one who'd been with us) was decidedly more feminine in her outfit though. They hugged each other, kissed, and broke into giggles. GirlMax pointed at me, then to Taffy, and GuyMax giggled along with her at something they said.

Jules was walking toward them, so I walked over too.

"… me her. Oh, here she is. Hi, Dusky! This is Max!" GirlMax said.

"Now that we're away from the streets," Jules said, putting her hands on her hips, "do you mind telling me what's going on?"

Both Maxs bowed and then straightened. GuyMax said, "Our master, Fool, extends his warm welcome to the followers of Molly—her high priestess, her paladin, and…" He looked a little lost.

"What's wrong, Max?" GirlMax asked.

Shaking his head, GuyMax shrugged. "Her high priestess, her paladin, and her best friend. Either this is an elaborate gag at my expense, or—"

"No, it's right," I said. Stretching, rolling my shoulders and hearing an audible pop from my neck, I added, "Molly's my best friend, and friends do anything for each other."

"Well, you wouldn't be so interesting to Fool if you weren't a little different." GuyMax reached his arm around GirlMax and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Head inside and we can speak more openly. You're safe here."

Tilting her hips away from GuyMax, GirlMax brought them crashing back to shove him out of hug range. "Come on. Let Max take care of your horses and wagons and I'll get you cozy for snuggles."

"'Snuggles'?" Jules looked at me. "Dusky, do I even want to know what you and Taffy got up to with her on the other wagon?"

"It's not like that. She was—We weren't doing anything." Despite my protests, I followed GirlMax inside as she giggled her head off. The bottom floor of the inn had stone walls with three more above that made with wood. All the buildings in the inner part of Shining City seemed to be more build upward than build outward. I guess that was part of the premium of being inside the wall.

There were no windows inside, but it was wonderfully warm. Following GirlMax, we approached a low pile of cushions around a huge fireplace and, settled down there already, was a strangely-dressed woman.

She wore what would be absolutely ridiculous back on Earth. It was the very image of a jester costume, complete with colored patches, bells, and a staff with a little rat on the end of it wearing a crown. She turned her head to face me and I saw that she wasn't a lot older than me. The cap on her head covered everything but her face, but despite her rose-painted cheeks, her pale green eyes practically pierced all the way through me and saw every secret.

I felt a little panic until she smiled. Her smile lit up the room and was like the sun rising on a chill morning. Her smile softened her eyes and enticed me to approach and find out what made her smile. "I've been looking forward to meeting you and your little family."

I heard more steps coming up behind me, including one set that had a clank to them that ended right beside me before Taffy pulled me against her—my favorite spot to be.

"A priestess of Fool?" Taffy asked, because of course she could just sense that.

"Close," Caprice walked in and jumped over the cushions to land beside the jester. "She the high priestess of Fool."

"We should leave them to it. If I know Jester, she'll want to discuss everything that's ever happened since your friend became high priestess of Molly." GirlMax slid under Taffy's other arm and worked to steer us over to the bar. "Can I getcha anything?"

"You're a barmaid?" I asked. Her grin was infectious. "Okay, let's test some stuff out then." I stepped behind the bar too, rolled my sleeves up, and leaned on my Tradeskill class. Reaching under the bar instinctively, I pulled out a bottle of clear spirit, something bright pink, and another bottle that was blue.

I just smirked at her as I pulled out a glass and carefully mixed the three liquids so that they maintained their own bands of color, then I sprinkled some sugar on the top and watched as the crystals slowly rained down into the liquid like snow. "I have no idea what it's called, but that's what you drink, right?"

"Iced snow candy, wonderful." GirlMax picked up the glass and sipped at it. "Oooh, that's good, too. Perfect mix. Some kind of bar work Tradeskill?"

It shouldn't have surprised me that she knew what Tradeskills were. "Tap Jockey."

"Oh, nice! That was the same base class as I have. I went into Bed Warmer, though. Totally better for getting close to people under their radar." She leaned forward on the bar and sipped at her drink some more.

Taffy managed to hold back her giggles until just before I was about to explode with questions. "You know, Max, Dusky got so embarrassed that was a progression she could take."

"Whaaaat? But the bonuses are so good! I can still serve drinks—admittedly, not this good—but I get actual skill support to being able to go through people's pockets and talk them into doing things."

I reached out and took her drink off her. It got me a raised eyebrow. "Major Heal," I said, casting the spell and imbuing it into the drink. "Here you go."

She stared at me for three seconds before looking down at the drink. "No way. No way you can just make iced snow candy into a healing potion." She sipped it, then drank it all down. "Okay, credit where it's due. That's awesome."

"Best bit is it only uses a little alcohol. No special ingredients or anything. As long as I can cast the spell on another person, I can stuff it in an alcoholic drink." Pulling out a pair of mugs, I topped both up with what I could sense was just ale in a keg. Passing one to Taffy, I pulled out another glass and made GirlMax another of her apparently favorite drinks.

"Healing is a big thing. There aren't a lot of healing types outside of—outside of his group. We've noticed bullying of others by them for having healing magic." GirlMax was looking down at the bar and speaking into her glass. She looked upset about it.

"I noticed that. A town we passed through a bit ago had only one healer and he charged for it. We, uh, may have had a convert there. He's now a support type and wants to become a full healer eventually. The local Cartmaster is going to keep an eye on him, as well as the town." I sipped at the ale. It was a little flat for my tastes and needed a little more bitterness than Jules' ales had. "His lot tried to bully me into joining them back north. Ended up burning down Jules' tavern and driving us out of town."

GuyMax walked up to the bar and raised an eyebrow at me, then let out a relieved sigh. "You have a lot of things in those wagons. Most importantly, though, you should keep this better hidden." He lifted up a sack and set it on the bar. All my money was in that sack. "I didn't count it, but just judging by weight, there are a lot of high denomination coins in there."

Taffy took it off the bar and hooked it to the inside of her shield. "That's Dusky's. It's what will be paying for Jules' new tavern."

GuyMax shrugged. "We trust the guards, we trust the staff here, and we trust each other—but let's not tempt any of them with a king's ransom."

Change of topic. I don't want to think about how bad it would have been if someone stole that. "So, uh, what do you think they're talking about?" I nodded my head over to where Caprice and the other high priestess were talking.

"There's a rule I have," GirlMax said. "And it's a bit silly to say the whole thing, but the gist of it is, don't mess around trying to learn stuff unless Fool wants us to."

GuyMax nodded to that. "Saved our butts a lot, and Fool seems to like that about us."

"I guess my relationship with Molly makes it a bit different for me. I poke my nose in her business whenever I can." Taking a sip of my ale, I looked up at Taffy. "I have even been known to distract her paladin from time to time."

"So you are a paladin?" GuyMax looked at Taffy with what I now realized was some kind of awe. "I've been thinking of asking Fool if he'll have me as a paladin, but then I'd lose Bard and—well, I like being a bard."

"Just because you don't have the class, doesn't mean you have to stop playing," I said.

"Max likes having all the bonuses though, don't you Max?" GirlMax reached across the bar and booped GuyMax on the nose (and he seemed fine to just let her). "I tried to talk Max into getting Bed Warmer too, but it wasn't to be. Not that Bard doesn't get you plenty of action."

Mortification slammed into me and made me blush. Holding my mug up, I tried my best to hide behind it—to no avail.

"Oooh. Dusky? Run into a bard or two, have you?" GirlMax asked, lightly elbowing me in the side.

Clearing her throat, Taffy gave me that reassuring smile that told me everything was fine. Though that didn't mean she wasn't about to tease me a little. "Dusky was a bit new in town. The bard was, by all accounts, hotter than the embers of a fire and knew her way around an instrument."

GirlMax turned her attention to Taffy and not me. "Not jealous?"

"Of who, the bard?" Taffy asked.

"No, Dusky."

Shrugging her shoulders, Taffy shook her head. "Not in the least. Dusky is way hotter than the bard was."

I lightly bit my lower lip, still blushing, but now the reason for my blush was sitting opposite me. What really got to me, though, was how I didn't mind being called hot. I guess it's gender-neutral enough that I can just accept it without having to suspend my worries about everything that has changed. "Mmmm," I said, waiting until I had their attention. "Yeah, the feeling is mutual about you, Taffy."

She actually blushed at that, and the warmth of knowing I could make her blush gave me a fluttering in my chest. "Is there any adventuring to do around here?" I asked.

"You know how it is with civilization," GirlMax said. "The moment a wizard starts dropping their failed experiments down the gong, life finds a new way to get interesting. The city pays bounties for people to hunt the sewers and purge certain creatures."

Taffy perked up at hearing it, and to be honest so did I. "Sewers, though? We're going to have to all be extra nice to Chloe down there—well, her and Yaff," Taffy said.

It took me a moment to realize what she meant. "Oh. Oh no. Sewers and fur?" Taffy nodded to me when I asked. "Is there a spell or scroll or anything that we can do to help with that?"

"There's probably something you could get. Do you have any arcane magic users?" GirlMax asked.

"Yeah. Caprice is a Beastmaster."

GuyMax snapped his fingers. "Oh, right! Head to the arcane arts tower, they'll be able to sell you some extra spell scrolls to learn."

Right. You could get low level scrolls and stuff. High level and rare ones were raid and PvP rewards. "There's one for divine arts, too?"

"That's tricky. Each faith has its own specialty spells as well as the usual basic scrolls. Our own could probably kit you out with the latter, but you'll need to talk to your goddess for any specialty spells—unless you have thought of putting on a jester outfit?" GirlMax waggled her eyes at me, looked down, then back up, then waggled them more.

She was completely unrepentant about flirting. It freaked me out, at first, but I must be going crazy because I'm getting used to it. "Sorry, I like robes and leather pants too much."

"Leather pants, huh?" GirlMax stepped around behind me and leaned a little closer. I felt her hands touch my hips and smoothly slide down, then back up. It was weird to be touched like that, but at the same time I don't think she actually meant anything by it. "Sorry, Fool, but I think the leather pants-wearing church might be for me."

GuyMax snorted, then broke into laughter and fell off his seat.

Behind me, GirlMax left my personal space and half-finished her drink. "Fool knows I could never be with another. There's only one god in my heart." Knocking back the rest of the cocktail I'd made, she let out a gleeful giggle and I realized that this was probably a prayer to Fool's followers.

With all the time spent in lines to get into the city, and settling in at the tavern, it was mid afternoon by the time Caprice and Fool's high priestess were done talking. The tavern, it seemed, was less about providing somewhere for the general public to come and spend time and more about being somewhere specifically for Fool's people to come and relax.

With GirlMax beside me, I helped keep the few patrons' drinks topped up, and worked in the tavern until evening. It wasn't that I'd rather do that than adventuring or relaxing with Taffy—I guess I just liked being helpful.

"Dusky? Caprice thinks it's time we all talked about what's going to happen next." When I lifted my head, I spotted that she was still sitting near the fire, but the other high priestess was gone. Caprice looked—she looked way more calm and composed than I think I've ever seen her before.

I turned to GirlMax and was about to open my mouth to tell her I had to go when she pressed one delicate finger against my lips.

"Dusky, go. Molly might be your friend, but Caprice is your high priestess." She drew her finger back and plucked the cloth I'd been cleaning up with out of my hands. "Go on!"

If she was getting so much utility from Bed Warmer, I had to wonder at my dismissal of it. Walking over, I jumped over the back of the pile of cushions Caprice was sitting on and landed beside her. "Are we waiting for the others?"

"Yup. Then we all sleep and Molly can talk too. Fool is helping a lot." She stretched her wing around my shoulders and drew me against her.

"Caprice?" I asked.

"Mhmm?"

"You're making a great high priestess."

She giggled and squeezed me a little tighter before letting me breathe again. "Caprice said she would do her best."

And that's when I felt sleep pulling in around me. Warm and cozy with Caprice hugging me, I barely had time to murmur Molly's name before my eyes closed for the last time that day.

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This story is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license. If you are paying money to see this or the original creator, Damaged, is not credited, you are viewing a plagiarized copy of the story.