Waking up, I was acutely aware I was back in the real world again. I don't know exactly how I knew, or how it had happened, but I was in bed and tangled in the thick, soft blanket I used as a cover. It was wrapped around me tight enough that, at first, all I could do was get my legs and arms free.

Well, I didn't care. I was waking up from that freaky dream about living in Shadowverse and that was all that mattered.

Stumbling through my house, I reached out for the light switches, but it seemed hard to reach them for some reason. I got to my bathroom and fumbled until I found the light.

I fought with the blanket still trapping me and finally got rid of it. "Damn thing—"

Freezing in place, I turned my head to look at the mirror as my too-high voice still echoed off the wall. Dusky Rose stared back at me from the mirror, winked, and smiled.

When I started to scream, I felt hands grab me.

----------------------------------------

"Wake up, Dusky! Wake up! You're okay! Nothing bad is happening!" The light in the room was dim—candlelight. I stared up at the Kobold holding me and finally managed to close my mouth and stop my scream. "There now. Caprice heard you and came to see what was wrong."

I reached up and wrapped my arms around Caprice, pulling her onto the bed and myself against her. I just needed—needed some time to get things straight.

It was a dream. I'd been back in the real world, but it was a dream. How the hell did I not notice I was a girl?! The worst thing about dreams was how little sense they made when you really thought about them, but at the time it all seemed right.

"Th-Thanks, Caprice." Clutching turned to a hug. I couldn't help myself, I just needed some reassurance, and hugging her was something I wouldn't do in a dream.

"Dusky is alright. You don't have to thank Caprice." She let out a little giggle that was so her it was unbelievable. "Do you want help getting dressed, or are you going back to sleep?"

My brain tried to work around what she'd said that was making part of my mind scream. The disconnect of sleep made it hard to work out what was—Oh! I could feel how soft her scales were against—against my bare chest. She'd asked if I wanted help getting dressed because I'd stripped off naked before bed.

Alright, Harper, don't scream. This is just a case of a little early-morning mistake, that's all. "I'll try sleeping thanks." The words tumbled out so fast and sudden that they sounded all mashed together. I squirmed, trying to get out of her arms and back under the covers.

"Does Dusky want Caprice to sleep in here too?" She let me free, finally, and I squirmed down until only my neck-up was visible.

Was she always doing this just to tease me? Was she flirting with me? It was impossible to tell exactly what Caprice was thinking. I knew for a fact she wasn't as stupid as she liked to let on, but I couldn't work out what she was all about with this. "I-I-I'll be fine, Caprice." When she narrowed her eyes at me, I thought she was going to call my bluff. "Really."

"If Dusky has another nightmare, Caprice will have to insist. But I'll go—" She paused and looked at me, then tilted her head to the side. "Does Dusky want to talk about their nightmare?"

"I do—" I froze. From experience, if I went back to sleep right now, I'd be dreaming that same thing again. How did she always manage to just know when I needed help? "It was a good dream at first. I woke up back in the rea—in my world. I was all tangled up in my blanket, like usual, and got my legs and arms free enough to get up.

"It didn't seem strange to still be wearing the blanket, or that I couldn't find the light switches. I guess that last bit was because I was shorter."

"Shorter?" Caprice asked.

"Yeah, I'm getting to that. So I walked into the bathroom and got the blanket off, then I cursed at it. That's when I heard my voice." Caprice was looking at me for all the world like she got what I was talking about.

"Because you should have been a guy, right?" Yup. She removed all doubt I had that she was a smart Kobold who hid behind being a stupid one.

"Bingo. I couldn't reach the lights because I was shorter than normal. My voice was high pitched, like it is now, because I was Dusky Rose, not—not Harper Davis." I lay there for a moment before something hit me and I began to giggle. "My stupid nightmare was PG rated."

"Huh?"

"PG—Oh, right. For some reason I couldn't see my boobs because the mirror was all fogged up from the neck down. Like—like even my subconscious couldn't accept all this." My giggles stopped as realization hit me. Was I so terrified of what I'd become that even in my dreams I couldn't deal with it?

"Caprice has made a decision." She stood up and walked to where a candlestick was burning on a little plate-thing and blew it out. The room was plunged into instant darkness. Well, there was a little light coming through the window, but it was either snowing or there wasn't a moon out, because it was still really dark.

When I felt her weight on the bed again, and her tugging at the covers, I scooted to the other side of the bed. "Caprice, I don't know as it—"

"Dusky just like nest-mates. Needs a good Caprice-hug to help sleep." There wasn't a thing in the world that could have saved me from the impending hug that she gave me.

I lay still for nearly a minute before it sank in. Nest-mates. So she didn't like me that way, she thought I was like a sister? Relief flooded me, and at that moment I lost my focus and sleep reached out and hugged me like a Kobold.

----------------------------------------

I woke up tangled, as usual. The night's events were hazy, but I could remember the nightmare and my conversation with Caprice—which led to me remembering that what I was tangled up in was likely Caprice herself.

Stop being such an idiot, Harper. She's just being nice, and it's not like you're going to poke her with morning wood or anything awkward like that. Besides, would it be wrong if—

Don't even go there. It's been one day—well, a day and a half—and you don't jump into a relationship that fast, Harper. Remember your last girlfriend? Oof. Inner-monologue-me is a fucking bastard who punches for the gut, but he's right.

"Caprice?" I asked.

"Hrmm? Oh, Dusky is awake?" When she squeezed me, I realized both where she was laying. Her arms around my shoulder and belly tightened a little, pulling me back against her warm body. There was not an ounce of sensuality in it.

"Y-Yeah, Caprice, I'm awake." What was extremely obvious to me was that the rest of my night had been repeat-nightmare-free. "And thanks. I-I didn't have the nightmare again."

"Caprice is glad, but I really have to get up and start doing my chores. Would you like me to wash your clothes again?" She let go of me and slid out of the bed.

Immediately I felt colder. Who knew that spooning with a Kobold would leave you waking up feeling warm? "Would you? Trudging in the snow caused my robes to get a little wet and soggy."

In the dim light filtering through the window, I watched as Caprice stretched and walked over to where my clothes were. Her movements were strange because of how not-human they were. Because of her heavy tail, her steps had a slight waddle to them, but far from making her look ungainly, it seemed to work as that made the rest of her body move to balance. She bent down easily because her tail stretched back a little more and countered most of her torso's mass.

"Caprice will bring you another bathrobe. You could probably have a bath before Julia starts making breakfast." She turned to look at me and winked. "Unless you want to try running for bathing room?"

Now she was just teasing me, but… "Well, in my nightmare I was wrapped in a blanket." With confidence that I didn't feel, I climbed out of the bed and grabbed up the top blanket and pulled it around myself. Okay, so it wasn't like when you see a woman in some movie wrap herself all neat and tidy, but it hid all the bits that needed hiding. "Can you just bring the bathrobe to the bathing room?"

Turning at the doorway, Caprice beamed a smile. "Of course. You know where it is?"

"Is it near the, uh, toilet?"

"What's a toilet?"

"The—uh—place where you go to"—I fished for words to explain it, then realized who it was I was talking to—"pee and poop."

"Oh! No, silly. It wouldn't be a good idea to keep the cleaning area near the gong. Follow Caprice." What struck me the most about her was how happy Caprice always was about helping. There was never that Ugh, I guess I can help you tone, she always sounded like helping was what she enjoyed doing.

Gong? Huh, okay, as good a word for it as any. I got out the door and halfway down the hall before Caprice's state became more apparent—in particular that she wasn't dressed in anything at all. Not even the neat dress she'd worn yesterday. "Uh, Caprice? You know you're naked, right?"

She stopped and turned, looking back at me with the biggest grin ever. "Does Caprice not wearing clothes embarrass Dusky?"

It was obvious, given she stopped in the hallway and not in private, that it didn't embarrass her one bit. I shrugged my shoulders—which almost lost me my blanket. "You know I'm not exactly from around here. I take it there isn't a nudity taboo where you come from?"

"Nudity taboo?" Opening the door, Caprice led the way, slowly and with an even more exaggerated hip-wiggle, into the bathing room. "I know what it is, don't worry. I just never saw much reason for it. All Caprice's bits are hidden, after all."

Inside the room was a large metal tub set into a raised section of floor. It looked a little like a spa, but obviously lacked the water jets of one of those. It looked to be about a four feet deep. I walked up to the edge and felt a warmth coming off it.

"Is this heated?" I asked.

"From fire downstairs. It has a thingy that keeps it getting too hot. Climb in and Caprice bring you a towel and a bathrobe." She reached out for the blanket and, before I could process what she planned, whipped it off me.

I had exactly two options. I could stand there, naked, and argue with a Kobold about personal space, or I could climb into the warm bath. With a sinking feeling I realized I might never be able to out-play Caprice in these kinds of interactions. I made the sinking feeling a reality by stepping into the warm water and sinking down in it to my neck.

"There's little platforms in there. Find one your size and start washing up. Caprice will go get your things and then do the laundry." As she turned away from me, I caught a big grin lighting up her face. She didn't just play these games, she played to win—and she enjoyed winning.

Looking around, I found a few bars of hard soap in a bucket at the back of the big tub and there was even what looked like a big cheese grater. Figuring it out was easy—I grated the soap into my cupped hand. While doing that, though, I was uncomfortably aware that I was pressing my chest against the side of the tub. How do women get used to boobs? They're just in the way all the time.

Well, there was nothing else for it, I needed to wash down this body-that's-not-mine. Scooping up some water, I mixed it with the soap shavings and got to work. The tub had a bench around the edge that slowly got higher the further around you went. I started washing my hair, then moved my way down.

Distracting thoughts were what I needed, and there was nothing more distracting in my life than managing characters, gear, and even class abilities. What would I be getting next level? If I was playing Espy—a Martial-Champion with a prestige class that made all my buffs single-target but more powerful—I would know every single level and what I got. But, this was Dusky Rose. I was on a healer. The next 45 levels might as well be a dark road without any lane markings.

And what of the others? I only really knew Chloe's progression, assuming she takes my advice and goes with Champion.

Standing on the highest of the benches, I scrubbed at my feet with the last bit of my soapy handful, deep in thought. And of course that's when the door opened.

My head spun to glare at it, only to see Caprice poke her head in before smiling. "Julia said Caprice needed a bath too. Does Dusky want me to work again today?" She didn't ask permission, just walked in and put a stack of towels on a bench just to the side of the tub before climbing in herself.

"Yeah. I mean, if you want to?" I hadn't actually counted on any of them not wanting to. They'd all been so enthusiasti—

"Boop." I hadn't seen her move, but one of Caprice's big digits was pressing down on my nose. "You get distracted easily, you know that right?"

"What?"

"Of course Caprice want to come on another adventure. It's fun, and I want to see how strong Caprice can get." She lowered herself fully into the tub and floated with just her nose and eyes above the water. I realized, then, how much she resembled an alligator.

I climbed down from the bench and dunked myself under the water to wash all the soap away. When I stood back up and let the water wash down from my face, I saw Caprice looking at me with a grin. "I'm glad. I don't know exactly how the system works now, but I'm betting if I had to get someone else from town, they'd start at level one again."

"Caprice wouldn't do that to you. What will we do today?" She walked up the benches and grabbed a big brush.

"Well, probably more of the same, though maybe we'll get some other critters to fight." As I watched her struggle with using the brush to get her back, I couldn't stop myself from asking, "You want help with that?"

Holding up the brush, Caprice looked at me in surprise.

"Yeah. Let me get behind you and take care of that." I took the brush from her stunned hand and started working on her back. After getting down to the small of her back, I realized how quiet she'd become. "You okay, Caprice?"

"It's always annoying for Caprice to reach my back. I hardly ever get someone to just—Please, just there. A little harder." As she spoke—and I followed her directions—Caprice seemed to melt a little. Her arms went slack at her sides and she crouched a little lower. "Ooooh. That's soooo good."

A whole new world of Kobold cuteness had erupted, and I was in the front-row seat for it. She squirmed and wiggled around, but she didn't move away from my brushing. When I got to the top of her tail, I started down the top of it and had to keep up with its wiggling. At last, when I reached the tip of her tail, I realized Caprice was laying down on the benches with her snout above the water, blowing bubbles slowly.

"Caprice?" I asked when I stopped brushing. "Earth to Caprice?"

"Hrmm?" Caprice rolled over sideways into the water with a splash. Laying on her back, she seemed capable of floating without a problem. "Caprice follow Dusky anywhere if she keeps giving back-brushing."

"I mean, it was just brushing. Besides, you helped me get over that nightmare." It was the warm water that made my cheeks feel hot. I definitely wasn't blushing.

"You would be a very good Kobold, Dusky." Rolling back onto her belly, Caprice picked up the brush again and started on her front. "So, Beastmaster? What sort of beast should Caprice get?"

"Well, I think you can swap between them as you level up, but if you get something that's a mix of damage and tanking, or even a pure ranged damage dealer, that would be great." I started climbing out of the tub by using the benches as steps.

"Ranged damage? What kinds of beasts have that?"

I tried my best to ignore that she was using that stiff-bristled brush between her legs even as I climbed out of the tub and felt a chill all over my body. The room was probably warmer than the rest on the second floor, but it was still colder than the tub. "Well, any that have psychic attacks would be good. Those get past a lot of resistances too. Some creatures are magically aligned and can use fire or ice attacks."

"Interesting." Caprice started to follow me out of the tub, climbing up the benches while the water sluiced off her. "What is Dusky's name?"

That got my complete attention. Caprice always blindsided me with her intelligence, usually while changing the topic just like this. "Harper Davis."

"Harper. That's a cute name too. Which would you prefer Caprice use?"

I hadn't even started drying myself off, let along putting on the bathrobe, but I walked over to where Caprice was and wrapped my arms around her for a hug. Feeling Caprice's strong arms wrap around me and hug me back was the best thing that had happened since arriving.

Leaning against her, I felt my emotions start to overflow and before I knew it, I started crying.

Caprice's grip tightened, which only made me cry more. I didn't care how odd it was, I didn't care if someone walked in, and I didn't care if she wasn't human. Caprice got me more than anyone else and it made me so damn happy all I could do was cry.

"You need to let go of your emotions sometime. Caprice can help with that, as all good nest-mates should, but you need to take charge." She rubbed my back and let me wail until everything just seemed too much of a mess to deal with. When I finally managed to get my tears under control, she repeated her question, "What name do you want Caprice to use?"

"They'd"—I snorted, fighting the tears that stained my cheeks—"they'd get confused if you called me Harper. I'm Dusky Rose here."

"Dusky, if you ever want to be Harper, you just tell Caprice, okay?" She drew back a little from me and looked up into my eyes. "Oh goodness. Dusky needs to wash your face again. Quick, lean over the tub and wash away those tears."

Turning, I did as she instructed and lifted my face out while rubbing at my eyes. "Thanks, Caprice." I took the towel she was holding out and started drying myself off. "Getting used to this world is hard enough without having to deal with not being me as well. I'm sure we'll do just great today." Grabbing up the bathrobe, I pulled it over my shoulders and headed downstairs.

Breakfast went the same as yesterday. Something hearty to eat helped my spirits and, when Caprice called me upstairs, I went up let her teach me how to get my clothes on again.

Breasts, I'd decided, were annoying. They felt way too heavy when I didn't have my underthings on, and at the end of a day they felt cramped in that corset thing. Still, I'd rather be able to walk around without them wobbling around and hanging.

I waited for Caprice to get her adventuring gear on before we went back downstairs. Surprisingly, Chloe, Yaff, and Taffy were all waiting for us. "Good Morning," I said.

"You all came!" Caprice ran up to Chloe and hugged her, somehow managing to grab up the others as well and squeeze all of them. It was the first time I got to appreciate her hugging without being tangled up in it—and I'm pretty sure I wasn't actually part of the hug only because I was more than two Kobold-arm-lengths away from her.

"Caprice, I live here too, remember?" Sounding not the least bit admonishing, Chloe hugged Caprice. "Besides, like I'd miss the most fun I've had in ages—and gotten paid for."

"Yeah," Taffy said, "as if I'd give up on adventuring after just one day?"

"I mean, someone probably took my spot at the market, so I might as well keep doing this. Money's better, anyway." Yaff looked past Caprice to me. "Are you going to work your magic and get us all going as a group again?"

"Oh, right." I knew I was smiling a lot. Caprice might have covered for me, after all it was me who was worried about seeing them all again. Mercenary! Nothing happened. "I might have—" The interface flicked up in my vision, still backwards, and I realized the last group I'd built was still loaded. All I had to do was Okay.

There was a tingle in the air and I felt a connection form with the other four. I'm sure, somewhere, there was a connection formed with my money. "Okay, I got it worked out," I said.

Taffy, who was trying to get free of Caprice's extended Kobold-hug (something I learned is impossible to do until Caprice is finished with it), said, "I can tell. I feel, I don't know, a little stronger when you do that. Also, it's kinda reassuring to know I have a great healer watching my back."

"Yeah. It was like nothing cou—Caprice, I think we're all hugged up now." Chloe waited for Caprice to let go before patting her on the head. "Thanks, I needed a good hug. As I was saying, with all of us doing our jobs, it was like nothing could really hurt us. Even with all those rabbits at the end."

"Maybe we'll get to hunt wolves today!" Taffy took a stance like she had her sword and shield out. "I think we could take them! What do you think, Chloe?" And there it was. This was my group, I was the only player character, and Chloe was the leader.

No. That was a stupid way to think. This world was—Chloe might not be from Earth, but she was still a person. And, being who she was, Chloe was better at leading this group than I was.

"Well," Chloe said, "we need to head out to see who's on guard and have Dusky ask them for something to fight, right, Dusky?"

"Y-Yeah!" I closed the distance and put out one arm to catch Caprice in a hug. "Though they won't always be Kill x of y quests. Sometimes we might have to rescue someone, or other things."

Caprice let out a surprised—and happy-sounding—peep and hugged me back.

"Come on, then. Also, I had a thought today and packed up some food we can have while out." Chloe walked to the door and opened it. "That way we can do more stuff for the day and not feel hungry mid-afternoon." It seemed more sensible than my plan of rushing back here at midday.

The walk out to the guardhouse was uneventful, and we again found Trelkin at his post. He and Chloe chatted for a few moments, but when he spotted me his voice dropped into that passive monotone. "Please escort the cheese-maker to the river to gather thistles to make their rennet."

"Oh no," I said. "Oh, no, no, no."

Sure enough, a young man ran up to us. "Hi! I need some help getting to the river to gather thistles for my cheese-making. Can you help me?" He was tall and handsome and completely ruined my day.

"Escort quest…" The words fell from my mouth like I'd just thrown them up. When Caprice hugged me, I leaned against her for support. "This is the worst thing."

"Can Caprice help? What happened?"

"We have to escort him to a spot at the river. It will have to be an exact spot. If he gets attacked, you can bet he'll panic and run into danger. And I can promise you, Caprice, absolutely promise you, that he will move the slowest out of all of us." I slumped into Caprice's embrace. The day was over. I was already defeated by this game/world/whatever.

"Oh, don't worry, I'll be able to keep up with you. I just need to make a new batch of rennet to make my cheese." His words were a little stiff, but they weren't anywhere near as robotic as the quest ones had been.

I let out a reluctant sigh and glanced at the quest box that was hovering in my sight. "Okay." The box went away and I straightened up in Caprice's arms. "I think I'm okay now, Caprice. This might not be so bad."

Chloe looked at me with a searching expression, then turned to the cheese-maker. "You'll need to keep up with us. We won't move fast, but we will keep moving. I want you to keep close to Caprice and Dusky, okay? Also, what's your name?"

"St-Stephan. I'll keep up." Despite his promise, I had a sinking feeling that escort quests would be just as terrible living here as they were just playing the game.

"Want me to hang back and guard the rear?" Taffy asked as she lifted her shield from her back and drew her sword.

"Yeah, it couldn't hurt. Yaff, don't go too far ahead. If you want to just shadow the party, do it. Just like we talked about." Now Chloe gave me a wink. "Dusky, Caprice, try to take care of anything trying to beat up our guest, okay?"

Oh, how I felt like replying Hai! to that. This was so much of a setup, and this whole thing felt like some crazy anime adventure, that I almost expected to start spouting anime-Japanese at any moment. "Yeah, let's go."

GM-Molly:-

Sorry about yesterday, Dusky. This is really putting my teeth on edge trying to deal with this place. I hope you're not freaking out half as much as I am.

The message surprised me so much I forgot to step forward with the others, though Taffy's hand landed on my shoulder. "Hey, Dusky, something up?"

Should I tell her? She'd stood with me when fighting monsters. She'd bled for me. "Yeah. A friend from the other World just contacted me."

"Chloe! Hold up a second!" Taffy called.

We literally hadn't gone anywhere. I tried to put together a response, though it took a lot of focus to get the words into the chat box.

Dusky Rose:-

And I'm sorry, too. You're the only other person from Earth I know on here. You know how I was in this game. All my chatter was smack-talk in forums and in streams.

GM-Molly:-

Yeah. We're both kinda alone here I think. There are others, but I don't want to jump out and PM them.

"Dusky? Who are you talking to—and how?" Chloe leaned down and brought us eye-to-eye, but part of her was blocked by the chat.

"I'm talking to them by—by thinking words at them. It's hard to explain. She says she's seen other people like me, but she hasn't contacted them. She was—" How do I describe the job of a GM to someone inside the game that they're the GM of? "She helped people like me while we played the game."

"Can she help us now? I mean, what kind of help could she offer?" Yaff being invisible was probably the least odd part of this conversation.

Yaff's question, however, was a good one. GMs, or so Molly had told me once, have heavy limits on what they can do, and only a genuine request allowed them to modify anything in-game—and even then they could only modify that one character and in certain ways.

"Let me ask her."

Dusky Rose:-

Is there anything you can do to help me? I've started leveling up, mostly because boredom, but if you could make me lvl 50 I could at least multiclass into something that can beat things up.

GM-Molly:-

Can you send a GM request? A GM can't do more than chat with players until they get a request.

Dusky Rose:-

I don't even have an interface. Well, not unless I get a message like this or it's a quest or something. Oh, you're not going to believe this. As a joke I was messing around with friends in a tavern, and I wound up getting Barmaid as a trade class.

GM-Molly:-

That's an NPC-only class, Dusky.

Dusky Rose:-

Huh. So it might be a little broken then? Good to know. So, I need to work out how to file a report?

GM-Molly:-

Bingo. Then I might be able to give you some gear and a ton of money. Not much else but that, though. I was only a low-tier GM.

Dusky Rose:-

Thanks for the headsup. I'll see what I can do. How are you holding up?

GM-Molly:-

Well, it's kinda weird. I don't have a body, but I can see a huge area with my GM tools. Does that make me some kind of god?

Dusky Rose:-

It could do. I've noticed some parts of the game sticking around, but most of it is so real now. Like all the friends I've made.

GM-Molly:-

At least you have people to keep you company. I'll keep trying to figure this out. Stay safe, Dusky.

Dusky Rose:-

You too, Molls.

When the chat window was gone, I shook my head. "Ugh. That takes a lot of focus. Okay, she can help, but I need to work out how to ask her for help the right way. That used to be part of the game, but I can't work out how to do that right now."

Chloe patted me on the shoulder. "You'll figure it out, I'm sure. Let's get this job done in the meantime, if you've got your head in the game."

Always pushing forward. Chloe was all sorts of amazing in that regard. I nodded. "Yeah. I'll wait until tonight and see if I can figure out how to ask her for help properly."

We formed up and started moving properly this time. I couldn't spare any time to think about Molly, especially given how Stephan kept trying to slip away and gather herbs.

"Oh! Fennel!" Stephan said, and turned to walk off without any escort.

"No you don't. Our deal was to get you this rent stuff, and that's all we're doing." Reaching out with her shield-arm, Chloe caught hold of Stephan's shirt and held on tight. "Stop struggling. Ugh!"

Somehow he managed to break free and raced off into the forest.

"I warned you guys of this. Next time we bring a leash," I said. "And a collar, of course."

As a group we turned and marched after him. A few yards into the trees we found him surrounded by four squat, upright creatures that I recognized. "Goblins!"

"Hey!" Taffy led the rush right up to where the goblins stood, clanging her sword on her shield. "Why don't you pay some attention to me? Arc Taunt!"

Chloe wasn't far behind her and raised her shield as she drew up beside Taffy. "Shield Wall! I've got you, Taf!"

"Bless! Try and pull them away from Stephan. Caprice can't nuke 'em with AoE if she'll hit him too." My Bless spell was, thankfully, quick to cast, but I still wouldn't be able to get off my Channel Life until the goblins had reached Taffy.

"Enhance Weapons!" Everyone's equipment flared with spectral flames at Caprice's spell. "Yeah, back them up a bit and Caprice can burn all of them!"

Taffy got two steps back before Yaff lunged in. "Backstab!" I could see shock register on Yaff's face when the goblin, instead of dying or staying focused on Taffy, turned toward her.

The goblin facing off with Yaff swung its blade around in an arc. "Divert Allies! This one! Kill this one first!"

"Blaart!" the other goblins shouted as they turned their attention on Yaff. In three quick swings of their blades, I watched her stagger back from them. One of the goblins had missed, but the other two had connected—one hitting her thigh and the other her hip.

"Group Taunt! Arc Taunt! Dammit, why won't they attack me?" Chloe sounded panicked. "Undercut!"

The goblins all squealed as her attack caught them in its cone.

I aimed my staff at Yaff, trying to ignore how much damage the goblins were doing—she needed health quickly. "They used a force attack skill! Weak Heal! They'll probably ignore your taunts for a few more seconds."

"Burn! Fast Cast! Burn!" The quick double-spells were attained, I knew, by the Fast Cast skill she used. It was an instant-use skill, and made the next spell instant-use—but used twice the mana to cast it. On the plus side, the goblin that had directed the attacks toward Yaff went down. "That's for hurting Caprice's friend!"

With the directing goblin down, the other three visibly turned away from Yaff and to Chloe. Yaff reacted quickly and drew back from them and used her Stealth to fade from view.

Taffy positioned herself so she could swing on all the goblins and did so. "Undercut! Shield Wall! I've got your back, Chloe!"

The goblins took another swing each at Chloe, and only one managed to hit her.

Unable to see Yaff to target her, I had one option for healing. "Group Heal! Yaff, come over here and drop your stealth so I can heal you!" I only had to look around for a moment because Yaff dropped her stealth right beside me a moment later. She looked pale and more than a little scared—until my big group heal went off.

The spell had an annoyingly long cast time, but it let Chloe and Taffy both get more swings off and establish their order in the agro list. My heal went off and brought Chloe back to showing no injuries and Yaff looking much better.

"You need to let everyone else do more damage before you lay in your big hits. These guys aren't as stupid as bunnies. Channel Life!" I put my heal over time on Yaff to get her back up to full. "Getting Yaff back to full. You got things, Chloe?"

Chloe gave a laugh. "Yeah. These little guys don't hit all that hard once we got them sorted. Caprice, can you hit them—"

"Burn!" Caprice gestured into the goblins and two fell down at the flames she produced. "Save the last one for Yaff!"

"Me? I—" Yaff looked down at herself and we both watched as her wounds healed. "Y-Yeah! Coming!" She disappeared from sight and my ears definitely weren't good enough to hear her. A moment later came her shout, "Backstab!"

The last goblin gurgled as it found the tip of a shiny dagger poking out its chest. It fell face-down on the ground while Yaff pulled her blade back out.

"I got it! Oh, this fennel will be a delight!" Walking back from the patch of plants he'd apparently been busy with, Stephan looked at us with confusion evident on his face. "What's wrong?"

"I've got rope. Can I just tie him up and carry him?" Yaff sounded ready for blood, though with her it was sometimes hard to tell if she's joking or not.

To all our surprise it was Caprice that marched up to him and glared up at Stephan's confused face. "If you leave the party again, we won't help you. You understand? No more herbs. No more bee nests. And, if you so much as look away from the path, Caprice'll set you on fire. Got it?!" She was panting hard by the time she was done, and I realized how worked-up she was.

"Oh. Uh. O-Okay."

"Good. Now follow us to stream and keep your mouth shut!" Caprice turned around and for just a moment I saw the look of fury she'd been giving Stephan. I also saw when it melted and she was left struggling to hold back tears.

I'd already surrendered myself to her friendship, which meant that her expression physically hurt me more than words could. I held out an arm toward her and she rushed over and let me pull her into a hug for once. "It's okay, Caprice. Everyone's fine, and we learned a lesson about fighting intelligent monsters."

"But what if Yaff got hurt worse?"

"Then I'd heal more. Better we all learn this stuff now before we get into more dangerous places." Despite my words, I squeezed her for all I was worth and kept squeezing until she stopped crying.

"Thank you, Dusky." Caprice rubbed at her cheeks with her big hands. "Caprice just worried about friends."

"I know. That's why we're all waiting for you. Come on, let's get this escort quest over with." I gave her shoulder a squeeze.

"Alright. Everyone good after that break? Let's head out," Chloe said, taking charge of things as normal.

It still amazed me how good she was at doing that. I thought I'd been a bit of a leader, but I guess it's easy to lead when it's only yourself.

Yaff dropped her stealth beside me and walked along easily at my side. She was a little taller than me—but then everyone except Caprice was—but she didn't seem intimidating. "So how long should I wait to Backstab them?"

"At a guess? Wait until at least two taunts from the same person has hit a creature before backstabbing it. Probably let Caprice burn them a bit too to spread the agro out," I explained. "Think of it like the monsters will have a list of people who have annoyed them. You have to make sure Taffy or Chloe are at the top of that list. Their taunts help with that, but you need to hold off on damaging things until you've seen those taunts land."

"That makes it easier to understand. Thanks, Dusky." Yaff surprised me by leaning in and down, then kissing me on the cheek. Her lips were warm and fuzzy and her fine whiskers tickled at my ear. "That's for the description." She kissed my cheek a second time. "And that's for keeping me alive with those little bastards trying to do me in."

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Caprice gasped. "You made Dusky blush so much with just two kisses?"

"I don't like to brag," Yaff said, "but I like to think my kisses are pretty good. Seriously, though, thank you, Dusky. I know Chloe takes the lead on tactics, but you know how the world works and can describe it in ways that make a lot of sense."

It was a little embarrassing, but I could accept that at least. I did know a lot about MMOG mechanics, though group settings weren't my strong point. "If you need a hand with any other things like that, just ask."

"Well, I've certainly made my mind up about one thing. Whatever suggestion you have for my profession is what I'll go with." Yaff plucked out a knife and twirled it in one hand idly. "Because after seeing you keep us all going back there, I'm really impressed." She disappeared again, stealthing away.

"Caprice going to use your suggestion too, Dusky."

"So now we're all just letting Dusky choose for us?" Demonstrating her acute hearing, Chloe turned her head just a little to glance back at me with one eye. "Now there's all kinds of pressure on me to go this leadership thing, isn't there?"

Rolling her eyes, Caprice stomped up and walked around to stand in front of Chloe. "You like being bossy. Admit it!"

Reaching out a huge fluffy paw-hand, Chloe booped Caprice on the nose. "Yeah, now get back in line before something jumps out and bites your tail."

Caprice giggled as she moved back around and fell in on the other side of Stephan. With one of us on each side of him, we had a much better chance of stopping him from getting away.

With the escortee under lockdown, we made it to the river with no more interruptions and he set to work picking thistles while we stood on watch.

The sun high in the sky when Chloe started to pull out hunks of bread and a pat of butter each. "Here we go. Lunch. I have a jar of stew here we can share around too."

Silence reigned while we all painted our hunks of bread with butter and poured cold stew over them. The bread soaked up the liquid and cradled the creamy butter and vegetables on top perfectly. Everything was going so well I was suspicious.

"Well, I'm done with all these. Let's head back!" So swift was his decision and movement that none of us reacted in time to stop Stephen as he charged back toward town.

Gulping down my mouthful of bread, I tried not to choke as I picked up my staff, and we headed off after him.

"How is he moving so fast now he has a full load?" Chloe asked as she jogged along in her armor. Taffy was at her side, and we all trailed behind the pair.

Yaff's hands were on her weapons as she ran. "I have no clue, but—"

A loud howl cut our conversation off. It had been close enough that we could work out the direction, which was straight ahead. We sped up and came around a corner and into a clearing just in time to see three big wolves surrounding Stephan.

"Bless!" It was always my first choice for the start of a fight because it meant everyone hit better and everyone had better defense. It did mean I had to pause while casting it, however, and that meant that Taffy and Chloe would get to engage a little further away than normal.

Caprice stopped by my side and raised her staff. "Enhance Weapons!"

Taffy got close to the wolves first and clanged her shield with her sword. "Arc Taunt! Come on, leave him alone! Taunt!" The last she did on a specific wolf as she pulled them back a little from the cowering Stephan.

"Undercut! You saw the one Taffy Taunted, Yaff?" Chloe asked as she set all three ablaze with her swing. "Shield Wall!"

"Give me a second. I'll let Caprice burn them a little first. I don't want to be top of the agro list." Yaff's voice came from literally nowhere.

I stepped forward a little more to get a touch closer to the action. Gesturing at Taffy with my staff, I cast, "Channel Life!"

The first tick of my heal over time was wasted, what with Taffy blocking two of the wolves and parrying the third's bite aside. Not that I was complaining since that meant she didn't take any damage at all.

"Burn! Caprice doesn't like big doggies!"

"Backstab!" Yaff appeared, two daggers sunk into the ribs of one of the wolves. She quickly let go of the weapons and jumped back. It didn't turn its attention to her as she drew two more daggers and disappeared again.

This fight was going so much better. We played it by the numbers and—even though the wolves seemed to have triple the health of anything we'd fought before, we wore them down one by one. When Yaff's daggers sank into the last wolf and it fell over, we all cheered.

Caprice had positioned herself correctly to grab Stephan by the belt and hold him back with the strength that had made her type of Kobold famous for their earth-moving skills. "No. Bad human! Heel!"

"Thanks, Caprice. Next time we get one of these quests, I'm bringing rope." Chloe looked over the wolves and rubbed her jaw. "Is there anything we can do with them? Can we skin their hides?"

I tried to remember that stuff. Not having gone into trade classes beyond power-leveling potions on Espy, I had no idea what player trade classes had the skills, let alone what NPC ones would. "We'd need someone with harvesting skill. You can get it automatically if you take some kinds of trade classes. I don't think Barmaid gives us access to it."

"Huh, I think I can." Yaff crouched down at the wolves and had a knife in her hand before I could even see her reach for it. Watching her work, I think I knew who was going to be our scavenger of corpses for the party. In a moment she held up a skin. "Yup. Seems this is my deal. Uh, why is it my deal?"

"What do you do normally?" I asked.

"I, uh, buy and sell fruit from my stall."

"I guess there's probably a trade class for being a general merchant. I guess that might have it." I looked at Taffy. "What about you? Can you do anything with these?"

Likewise, pulling a knife from her belt, Taffy went to work on the second wolf carcass. Not only did she get the hide from it intact, she also started butchering it. She honestly looked shocked as she carved out the legs and removed its heart and… other bits I had no idea about. "Huh. Looks like I can do this too."

Chloe licked her lips and stared openly at the small stack of meat. "Should we take those back to the tavern? I think Julia would be all over making stuff with that. If nothing else, it would be more meat for the meaty stew."

Shaking her head, Yaff pointed to the three stacks of meat and hides that she and Taffy had produced. "We don't have any way to carry it."

I reached down and hoped my inventory system was still working as it did in the game—like my money was. "Here, I can carry it." Touching the pile of meat, I focused on Add To Inventory—and it vanished. I repeated the same for the hides. "I don't know why that's still working, but they won't go bad or anything. I hope."

A big and fluffy paw-hand landed on my head and patted me a few times. "It's fine, Dusky. You might be a little hard to understand, sometimes, but you're helpful." Chloe. Of course it was the big kitty petting me on the head. "Come on, let's get this idiot back to town and get our reward."

It would have me smoldering with anger if she wasn't so nice about it. It barely even felt demeaning to be praised for your skills and smarts while also being rewarded like a pet. But it was all kinda… Ugh. It was nice to have friends. At least I could admit that in my head.

We made our way back to town and, when we reached the guardhouse, I heard everyone exclaim in excitement. With Stephan beating a hasty retreat from her, Caprice was bouncing up and down.

"Caprice got more things! Dusky! We got another level!" She held up her staff and aimed it at the ground away from us. "Incinerate!"

A pool of red-hot lava bubbled up from the ground in a large circle and sizzled away the snow. It fumed and spat burning rock for a few seconds before fading. Looking very happy with herself, Caprice leaned in and kissed my cheek. "Thank you, Dusky."

I knew better than to fight off or complain. "What for, Caprice?"

"For letting Caprice have this chance to be more than I was. It's freeing. A barmaid, or tavern maid, is a fine job, but Caprice always wanted something more." She looked over at Taffy. "And Caprice is not only one."

Taffy and Chloe were talking excitedly about whatever new skills they'd gotten while Yaff looked thoughtful. When Caprice and I approached her, she seemed startled to be broken from her thoughts. "S-Sorry. I was just trying to work out this." She reached behind her back somewhere and drew out a small mass or twine and rope. "I think it's a trap."

"Yeah." I could well remember the problem of stalking groups with trap-maker rogues in them. "Some rogue classes can make and lay traps. That one looks like a pretty classic snare that would slow things down."

"Oh! So it is. I have Snare Trap, Tethered Snare, and Poison Trap." As she spoke, Yaff pulled out two more traps. The second had a set of large steel spikes while the last was just a bunch of sharpened sticks with some kind of goop on the pointy ends. "Oh, this is neat!"

"I'll go get another quest. Who knows, maybe you'll all level up to five with this one." I turned and made my way over to the guard. "Excuse me, but do you know what's good to hunt around here?"

"Well, we've been having trouble with some wolves, but I heard some adventurers have been dealing with those. Some goblins around too. Kill twenty goblins." His voice swapped to the monotone again, and once more I got a quest box pop up.

"Okay! Thanks!" Working my interface replies into conversation made me smile for some reason. I mean, I could easily just think it at the box, but saying it out loud was fun. With the kill-tracker hovering at the edge of my vision, I returned back to find all four of them chatting excitedly. Walking up to the group, I asked, "What's up?"

Chloe had a big grin. "It seems we got some skills to help manage agro in the party. Reduce Threat seems to just make a party member generate less threat than normal, while Absorb Threat lets us have some of your threat. Seems like we can only put one of each up at a time, though."

"It's a little worse than that. You can only have one or the other on someone, even from multiple users. Also, they only transfer threat from damage and healing, not from taunts. You can't use Absorb Threat on each other to boost your threat super-high," I said.

"There goes that idea." Taffy sighed and looked at Caprice and Yaff. "But I think we both have good targets for our abilities. Yaff builds so much agro—Is it called agro or threat?"

"Both," I said.

Shrugging her shoulders, Taffy continued, "Huh. Okay, so Yaff builds so much threat that whoever uses Absorb Threat on her will be best friends with everyone."

"Not exactly," Chloe said. "When Yaff hits something with a Backstab, it builds a lot of threat—but only on that one targeted creature. If you put Reduce Threat on her, then Absorb Threat on Caprice, that would gain threat from everything she hits."

"How does healing affect threat?" Taffy asked.

I laughed out loud. "Healing usually adds threat to everything that is involved in the fight. It's one of the widest methods of gaining threat, though if the monsters aren't doing much, I don't heal too much. Probably one of you Absorb Threat Caprice and one me. Or, just get Caprice with Absorb Threat and use Reduce Threat on me."

"What about Yaff?" Chloe asked. "Should we Absorb Threat her or Reduce Threat?"

"At this point we need to decide who will be the main-tank and who will be an off-tank—that is, the person who picks up additional monsters or ones that break off from the main tank." I realized they were both looking at me like I'd said crazy words. "What?"

Taffy giggled while Chloe asked, "Main-tank? Off-Tank?"

It was all meta-tactics. Stuff that players took for granted or learned early, but it seemed a little unique to be teaching them to people within the game. "Main-tank is the person best able to get and hold agro. They are the one who should be using their area taunts as much as possible and calling targets to be burned down by Yaff and Caprice. Err, burned down is figurative. The off-tank picks up any extra monsters or ones that break off from the main-tank. Usually off-tank is done by a lighter armored person. When they don't have any targets, they should jump on the target the main-tank is calling out.

"Sometimes you have your primary melee damage dealer call targets. If we all go with the builds I suggested, that would be you, Chloe, with Taffy as main-tank."

"If we're going to do that, and I now see why you selected all those classes, we should start practicing that combat-style right away." Chloe looked down at her shield and sword. "Taffy, you okay with that?"

"You got it, boss." Taffy punched Chloe in the shoulder.

"Well, I'll be the boss of everyone else. You will be doing your own thing. In that regard,you and Dusky will be your own team."

Taffy looked at me with a cocky smile. "This should cement things in and make it simpler, right? You'll only need to heal me."

"Yeah. If you take the Valkyrie class, you'll have your own healing too." Gripping my staff a little tighter, I nodded my head. "But I'll do my best."

"Dammit, Dusky, you're too cute." Taffy pulled me into a hug against her armor, squishing me under her strong arms. "We should probably start moving again. You got another quest, right?"

I could barely speak. Getting squeezed by Taffy really demonstrated how her strength had grown. "I can't breathe—"

Letting go of me, Taffy took a quick step back. "Oops! Sorry, Dusky."

Gasping for breath, I held up a fist with my thumb raised.

"What did you do to Dusky? Dusky! Are you hurt?" Caprice rushed over and latched on, hugging me. At least she wasn't hugging as tight as Taffy had—not that I could ever tell Caprice to stop.

"I was hugging her too hard. Guess I don't know my own strength," Taffy said.

"Oh gosh!" Caprice let go quickly and held me at arm's length. "Dusky? Did Caprice hurt you? Are you okay?"

"I'm okay, Caprice. Neither of you hurt me, I just got a bit winded by Taffy's hug was all." Despite my efforts it seemed like Caprice was almost in tears. There was only one thing I knew of that would restore her to her usual self.

Stepping forward, I hugged Caprice. "It's alright." Her happy squeal was enough to salve my manly pride. "I'm a tough g—half-elf."

"Guy," Caprice whispered. "It's okay, Dusky."

Damn her for being so savvy sometimes. I won't cry on my friend's shoulder again. Not over such a silly thing. Squeezing her one last time, I let go. "Okay, I'm good now. Sorry for the freak-out, Caprice, Taffy."

"Kinda my fault. I guess this leveling up stuff has been making me stronger and I didn't notice." Taffy offered her mailed hand out to me.

Fresh out of my hug with Caprice, and still carrying a bunch of emotions from that hug, I put an arm around Taffy and hugged her. She was nearly a foot taller than I was, which made it a little awkward, but with just one arm around her and one of hers around me, there was no deathly choking happening. "We can figure things out, don't worry."

"Damn it, Dusky, how can you be this awesome?" Taffy asked. "I mean, you really are. After everything you've dealt with over the last few days, and you do this to make me feel better?"

"It makes me feel better too." I leaned back, my brain suddenly making me aware I'd been leaning into a woman and pressing myself against her front like… Ugh, stop it, Harper. You're a girl too. You were pressing your bits against her too. She didn't say anything about it, so don't make a deal out of it. Besides, she has so much armor on she probably can't feel a thing.

"One thing I want to know, why make me take on a tank-healer class? You're literally a healer. Won't you be up to it?"

"If this was still just the game, probably. Your heals will be different to mine. Quick bursts of healing to everyone in your party that's close, as well as—" I had to bite back my emotions for a moment. "I don't know how dying works here yet. Until I know for sure we can all respawn, I don't want to test it, either."

"Huh. That's a good point. I guess the sooner I get to level five and get my healing, the better." Her words made me jerk my head to look up into her eyes. "What do we have to fight today?"

"More goblins. The quest wants twenty goblins." It only took a glance to the side of my vision to see the count, though it took a little more time for me to work out the silly backwards numbers. Reaching up, I rubbed the almost-tears (they totally weren't) from my eyes and steady my staff.

We formed up and headed back along the path until we found the spot where the goblins had been. Chloe pointed her sword into the trees. "Down this way."

"Don't forget you need to let me get enough threat, Yaff. I have my Reduce Threat on you, which should help a lot, but I don't want to risk it." Reaching her fist out at empty air, Taffy somehow found just the right spot for a return fist-bump from Yaff to bump her arm back a little.

We found the spot of our previous fight, but there were no goblins there. Of course, if this was still a game, it would be because they only spawned for the quest. "We might have to go deeper," I said.

"Yeah, keep an eye on the trees for movement. Shout if you see any—" Chloe cut herself short. "Like that. Incoming, three goblins!"

As the three neared, I started my preparations. "Bless!"

"Enhance Weapons!" Caprice's shout came on the heel of mine.

Just before the three goblins reached us, one squealed and stopped dead in its tracks. I knew the effect that hit it: Tethered Snare. "I rooted one. It should be busy for thirty seconds. Deal with the other two first." Yaff's voice came from just beside the trapped goblin.

The other two goblins didn't seem to notice their friend as they ran up to Taffy.

"Arc Taunt! C'mere and play with me! Group Taunt!" Really getting into her role, Taffy just swung lazily at one of the goblins.

"On it. Get this one, guys." Chloe walked up to the one Taffy had swung at and hit it with her sword too.

"Oh! I can get that other one too, since it can't move! Incinerate!" Caprice cast her spell under the trap-rooted one, only for the first bit of damage to break the root effect. "Ack!"

Chloe cursed with a growl and then shouted, "Taunt!"

The goblin that had been running to Caprice changed course and bee-lined to Chloe.

"What happened?" Caprice asked.

I aimed my staff at Taffy. "Channel Life! Damage breaks root, Caprice. Don't attack ones that are rooted like that. Hit what Chloe says to."

"Oh! Caprice didn't know that. Sorry, Yaff!"

"It's alright, Caprice. Backstab!" Yaff became visible beside Chloe, her blades stuck deep in the goblin. I half expected it to turn to her, but then I remembered the threat abilities. Obviously, Chloe had had put her Absorb Threat onto Yaff.

"Burn!" Caprice sent up a plume of fire under the one on Chloe.

I turned my attention back to Taffy. She had some marks on her armor, but she was blocking and parrying really well. Aiming my staff at Chloe, I cast another, "Channel Life!"

No sooner had Yaff become invisible than she snarled out another, "Backstab!" and the goblin that had been on Chloe fell to the ground.

"Change targets!" Chloe marched over to where Taffy was holding the other two with her earlier taunts. "This one. Take it down fast! Undercut!"

"Burn! Sorry again, Yaff." Caprice's spell hit both the goblins, though they showed no interest in leaving Taffy alone.

"Taunt!" Taffy shouted and then swung her blade. "Undercut! Get the taunted one."

"Backstab! Don't worry about it, Caprice. No harm done now we have our tactics worked out. Just remember for next time." Yaff stepped back from the one she'd hit and disappeared again.

"Torrent of Fire!" Caprice sounded excited as she cast the spell on the goblin. "Go attack other one, Caprice got this." With her staff aimed at the already hurt goblin, bursts of fire shot from the tip constantly, getting larger with each one that shot out.

"You sure?" Yaff asked.

"Caprice very sure."

Chloe shrugged and edged around the target of Caprice's spell and lined up on the last one. "Changing target. Let's get this other one smacked down."

I'd seen Torrent of Fire before, had it used on me too (on Espy, of course). While it was up, the mage couldn't use or do anything but maintain it. The longer it ticked, the bigger the damage became until it was ripping you apart. Used by someone who knew what they were doing, it was devastating.

"How are you feeling, Taffy? Need more heals?" I asked.

"I'm pretty good. These guys are fast, but I've got a shield and skills. Taunt!" Aiming her shout at the one that Chloe had marked, Taffy swung her sword at it—scoring a hit that increased the flames burning it already.

"Backstab! Time for some pain!" Yaff's blades drew back almost before she was completely visible.

The goblin let out a shout, "Reinforcements!"

The one Caprice was burning opened its mouth to shout too, but fell down before it could manage to yell.

Two more goblins appeared from behind trees and charged us. Chloe was the first to move, stepping between them and the group. "No you don't. Arc Taunt! Group Taunt! Come on, try me!"

"Backstab!" As Yaff struck, the last of the first group of goblins went down.

"Shield Wall! Got your back, Chloe!" Taffy marched over the dead goblins to where Chloe had intercepted the additional goblins. "You got them?"

"Yup. You want to call targets?" Chloe asked.

Taffy nodded her head and took a swipe at one of the goblins. "Got it. This one first. On my target!"

"Channel Life!" I directed my heal to Chloe, who I noticed wasn't parrying as much as Taffy had been, but was blocking more.

"Burn!"

"Backstab!"

"Undercut!"

The fight went on and we demolished the remaining goblins without any work. What surprised me, though, was when the last one died I felt a rush of sensation. It started at my feet and poured upward like backwards honey. Shivering, I realized what had just happened only because a text box popped up to announce it. "I leveled up!"

To say I was immediately pounced by an excited Kobold would be silly. It took her enough time to gasp and take a running leap before I found myself sprawled on my back with an excited and embarrassed Caprice hugging me. "Congratulations! What did you get? Sorry for the hug but Caprice is too excited."

"I can't tell until I check my spellbook."

"Oh! Caprice hop off then." True to her word, Caprice climbed off me and offered me a hand to help me up—which I took.

Her strength never failed to surprise me. I might as well have been a little kitten the way she hauled me effortlessly to my feet. Brushing the snow from my robes, I reached into my pack and produced my spellbook.

In the game, this was a simple interface that told you all about your spells and let you drag them to your hotbar. Well, I don't have a hotbar, and so far I've just been able to cast any of my spells. Opening the book, I found there was four new spells.

"Oh wow, I forgot how many healing spell types there were. Okay; I got a constitution buff, that boosts everyone's health; a big heal over time, it heals for more and lasts twice as long; a group heal over time, same amount of healing as single-target, but for the whole party; and lastly I have Balanced Health, which heals everyone to the same percentage starting at the lowest first—it's kinda hard to explain, but it heals the most hurt people first and spills over until everyone is full or it runs out of the healing amount. Lots of mana use, but really good healing spell." Everyone looked a little bewildered. "Uh, what don't you understand?"

Chloe shook her head and, as usual, spoke for the group. "Most of it. Probably easier if we see you using the spells than just having you explain them."

"It'll mean I make a lot more agro, but we can probably take on bigger stuff now."

Taffy cleared her throat. "How much agro are we talking? Do you think I can hold it?"

"Best way to find out is to try. I'll keep my emergency taunts on standby. Caprice, Yaff, get ready to work over whatever I target," Chloe said, the predatorial look in her eyes were a sure sign she was done delaying. When I nodded to her, she grinned. "Come on."

Finding goblins, however, turned out to be harder than we'd thought. We wound up fighting all the way to a huge cave mouth, with only one or two goblins facing us at a time. There was still ten to go and we were losing light.

Looking at the entrance, Chloe bared her teeth. "Come on, let's hit their den and see if we can find any treasure inside while we finish this quest. How many do we have to go?"

The backwards interface wasn't hard to read anymore. "Ten, but we—"

"Come on. Yaff, scout ahead. Taffy, get ready to taunt. Caprice, Dusky, get your buffs up and lets do this." It gave me chills sometimes how well Chloe could inspire not just me, but everyone.

Yaff immediately stealthed up and I heard her footsteps lead away toward the cave.

"Enhance Constitution! Bless!"

"Enhance Weapons!"

"Hey, Dusky, I can feel that. Quite a boost to my—err"—Taffy fished for a word by waggling her sword—"solidness, I guess you'd call it. I feel tougher."

"It should mean you can take a lot more hits before you start noticing it. There's—It's hard to describe. There's a way the game calculated player stats and non-player stats. If it uses the player system for you, it will make you have more total health. If it uses the non-player system, you will just take less damage. The latter would be best." I really didn't want to use the term NPC with them. It had connotations I realized were not applicable to them.

Caprice nodded along to my words, then smiled. "Because your heals would heal more then, right?"

"Yeah. Normally, when all this was a game, I could see health bars and totals, and could have looked at your stats and damage to work this out. Instead, I'll just have to test it the old-fashioned way." That's when I saw Yaff standing beside the cave and waving us up. "Yaff's signaling us to move."

We approached and she waved us in further. "They're doing some kind of ritual inside. About ten of them. We're probably better off attacking them rather than pulling them."

"A ritual? Magic stuff?" Taffy asked.

Yaff nodded to that. "At least one is. It's probably the boss for the area or something."

Chloe turned to look at me. "What do you think, Dusky? With your new heals, can you keep up with whatever they'll throw at us?" She wore a smirk that said exactly how excited she was to take on bigger fights, but what really got me about that was how infectious it was.

"With three new healing spells? Yeah, I think I got this. You call the shots, Chloe, and I'll follow you." The words tumbled out, but the truth of them was undeniable.

"Right. Yaff, you sneak around to that caster. Taffy, you taunt the group but ignore the caster. Caprice, I want to see the ground burning under all of them and burn all your spells to take as much down as possible. I'll Shield Wall Taffy and then beat on the caster as well. When I'm on the caster, Yaff, you start going to work on them." Looking around us all, Chloe's fangs showed she was grinning so much. When everyone nodded to her, she laughed. "Let's do this. Yaff, you'll have ten seconds to get around and onto the caster."

In answer, Yaff walked deeper into the cave system and stealthed up.

"Okay, Taffy, this is your show. Get all the agro and keep Dusky behind you." Chloe turned and started walking in the direction Yaff had, and before I knew it we all were.

The tunnel we were in opened out into a big chamber. It was well-lit by a raging, green-tinted bonfire in the middle. Around the fire was a group of goblins all dancing and chanting, but like Yaff had said, one was wearing robes. Filthy, disgusting robes, but they were robes.

Taffy looked back at me and we shared a nod together before she marched forward. "Alright you little bastards, have a piece of me!" She clanged her shield with her sword and shouted, "Group Taunt!"

Ten heads snapped around to lock eyes with Taffy. Nine of them started running wildly for her while she'd already broken into a trot herself.

"Kill this one!"

"Their meat will be our offering!"

"Dibs on its leg!"

Well, now I had to keep everyone up. "Major Channel Life! I got you, Taffy!" The spell was a moderate cast time and a moderate amount of mana, but I had to pre-heal in this kind of fight.

The goblin caster waved his staff around and aimed it at Taffy. "Thunderclap!" A jagged line of lightning launched itself from the goblin's staff and shot directly at Taffy—and me behind her.

It was the first serious bit of hurt I'd taken, not counting what Caprice had done to get my attention yesterday, but it hurt. Clenching my teeth, I straightened back up to see Taffy advancing on the caster while the group of goblin martial types were trying to get more than a lucky swing past her shield and parry skill.

"Hey, buddy, you should be focused on me. Taunt! Arc Taunt!" Chloe had circled around Taffy's engagement and got right into the goblin caster's face. The moment her second taunt landed, its full attention turned to her.

"Backstab!" Appearing, as usual, right behind the goblin, Yaff had a feral grin on her face as she started to pull her blades back out of the creature.

Caprice gestured at the ground in the middle of the mob of goblins. "Incinerate! Burn you poopy-heads!" The rock under the goblin pack turned bright red and bubbled into an inferno.

I counted a few seconds, not wanting to have the damage from the goblins spell interrupt me. "Group Channel Life!" I twirled my staff, not needing to target with the spell since, like all the group spells, it targeted me. When it went off, a surge of life started stealing the pain of the lightning spell away.

"Burn!" Unloading her mana, Caprice managed to get most of the goblins in her AoE.

As it turned out, not only was my healing up to keeping Taffy alive, but being a group-affecting heal over time, it kept Chloe on full health while the caster (who apparently lacked any melee combat abilities) swung at her inexpertly with its staff.

The interface ticked over to let me know a goblin had died, but it wasn't any of the ones (still on fire) that Taffy was dealing with. "You got the caster?!" I asked.

"Yeah! Coming back over there to start helping you guys!" Chloe's voice got closer, but then my counter jumped again.

Under Caprice's constant rain of AoE damage, the goblins started dying rapidly, so much so that Chloe didn't reach us before the last one fell down and the quest completed.

"Yeah!" Caprice turned to me and the look on her face was the only warning I had of an impending Kobold-pounce. She didn't actually jump on me, instead picking me up in a tight hug. "I leveled up!"

Her enthusiasm was contagious, and I couldn't help getting excited as well. Hugging her back, I bounced in place. "So you're level five now?"

"Yes!" My bouncing apparently had Caprice bouncing too, and the joy in her was just too much. "Now we get to try out these new classes!"

"Actually, let's call it there." Chloe's big paws settled on our shoulders, seemingly trying to calm us by pressing down as firmly as she could. "We should head home and celebrate. Everyone got levels today."

"I don't think I should celebrate tonight. I won't lie, I've drunk more with you guys over the last two days than for the rest of the year. It'd be nice to just relax and have an early night." I could already see that nice warm fire and a delicious meal waiting for me.

It was true, too. The only time I really got to drink alcohol was if I had a meet-up with other gamers or fans. While mentally working around the idea that I used alcohol to deal with stressful social situations, I spotted something important. "Hey, there's a chest."

I mean, we didn't exactly stampede to the chest, but excitement made us all move quickly to the back of the cave. Reaching out to it, I paused. "It doesn't feel right that I always get to open these."

Caprice stepped forward and grabbed the top of the chest with one of her big hands and opened it. "Well, if you won't—Oh! A new staff!" She reached in and pulled out the staff with a big red gem set in the end of it. The crazy thing was the staff shouldn't have fit in the chest at all.

We all crowded around the chest, and it seemed like there was something for everyone. Chloe found a pair of bracers that she said made her feel stronger, Taffy found a necklace that she said made her feel tougher, like my spell, and Yaff found what looked like a leather corset.

"This isn't armor!" Yaff held it up before her. "How does this protect me?!"

"Bikini armor rules." I was looking inside the chest myself and found a new set of robes. Lifting them out, they seemed to be the exact opposite of what I had to explain now. "The more revealing a girl's armor, the more protection it gives."

Looking down at her new equipment, Yaff looked back up to me. "You're joking, I hope?"

"A little. The odder thing is how everything I put on adjusts itself to make me—well—show myself off. These robes I'm wearing don't have a V-neck in them." Looking at the new robes, I held them out and narrowed my eyes. These were more revealing just by the look of them—which didn't bode well for when it came time to put them on.

"Ooh. I guess these will be a big upgrade on your current ones, then?" Taffy asked.

When everyone laughed, I found myself feeling embarrassed. It was odd, but Dusky's body really started feeling like my body. How long was I going to be her? I closed my arms around the robes and hugged them against me.

"Dusky?" Taffy asked.

"Call her Harper." Caprice's use of my real name startled me enough that I looked up.

—just in time to have a clanking tank wrap her arms around me. "Harper, I'm sorry. It's hard to remember that you're—that this is all new to you."

Taffy wasn't just solid, she was tall too. All of a sudden I could barely stand upright and found myself slumping against her. "It hits me hard sometimes. This is—all of this is so easy to get carried away in, but then I remember that this isn't really me and I just—"

"Come on. Let's get back somewhere warm and you can try your new robes on." Taffy moved me to her side, her strength still a surprise, and put her shield-arm around my shoulders.

She walked with me tucked into her side like that all the way to the tavern. Taffy was so solid and strong that I felt safe and protected. It helped that nothing tried to attack us on the way back. The others all chattered, but without me choosing them their advanced class, they wouldn't have any new abilities or spells. All the way into the tavern, to the fireplace, and into a comfortable long couch-thing.

"This better?" Taffy's tone was soft and I could feel her armor starting to heat up more thanks to the fire. When I nodded, she gave the slightest extra squeeze. "So, how do we pick our new classes?"

"Well, you kinda don't. I assign them through the interface." The change in topic was good, it let me focus on something that wasn't the female body I was stuck in. "Want me to try doing it here?"

"Yeah. Lock me in as a Valkyrie. After seeing what I could stand up to today, with your healing behind me, I was really impressed and want to go further."

Okay. Party interface. No, I had to really focus to get it, and it was Mercenary Interface. The window came up—backwards—in front of me. Sure enough, it had warnings on all four of my party members. "I got it to come up."

"Well, what are you waiting for?"

I focused on Taffy's name and a new window opened. It showed Level 5 Martial and had a drop-down beside it. Sending my attention to that, I selected Valkyrie and hit the are you sure box that appeared.

"Oh wow. Hey, was that it? I feel—I feel more solid than ever!" Taffy turned and looked over her shoulder into the rest of the tavern (presumably at the others). "Check it out. I'm a Valkyrie now!"

Caprice walked over and jumped over the couch to land on it beside Taffy. "Cool! What new stuff did you get?"

"Ohh!" Taffy blinked her eyes rapidly, apparently able to do mentally what I needed to read my spellbook for. "I can use a bigger shield and better armor, and I got a heal spell. Blast of Life!" A wave of warmth poured out of Taffy and made me sigh happily. Valkyrie were pretty solid solo characters and I'd fought my fair share of them—their heals were pretty amazing.

"That tingles! Can you do me next, Dusky?" Looking past Taffy, Caprice was bouncing in place with excitement.

"You sure you want Beastmaster?" I asked.

When she nodded, I started in on the interface again. Selecting Beastmaster for Caprice, I locked it in and accepted it. "There."

"Oh gosh! Oh gosh! Oh! Gosh!" Caprice began bouncing more, then gestured before her. "Summon Nature's Ally!"

A very confused looking tiger appeared between us and the fireplace. It took one look at us all, then up at Caprice, and pounced.

"You're so soft! Ohhh! This is the best class! I have a kitty!" Caprice seemed completely ignorant of whatever else she might have gotten now she had a pet cat that outweighed her about six to one. Said cat was purring loudly while she petted it.

"That," Chloe said as she walked over, "was about how I expected her to handle that. When she first got here, she tried to spend every free moment she had petting me."

"You liked it!" Caprice said while still petting the huge tiger that seemed just as happy to get the attention as it would ripping something apart.

Blushing, Chloe let out a resigned sigh. "No comment. Anyway, can you hook me and Yaff up next?"

When Taffy put her arm around my shoulders, I unconsciously leaned a little against her. Looking up at Chloe, I felt extra comfortable and safe. "Sure, let me just get you both done here. Okay…" Opening the interface, I selected Chloe and set her to Champion, then Yaff and set her to Bushwhacker. Accepting and locking those in, I heard both gasp. "How's that?"

"Field plate, War Shout, Two-Hand Focus…"

"War shout is awesome. Your next attack—err, I guess it will affect everyone around you—does extra damage. It's percentage based, which means it should give Yaff's backstabs huge damage." Excitement that I could actually offer advice almost overwhelmed me. I squirmed in Taffy's hug but didn't try to break free.

Yaff climbed onto the couch on my other side. Her fur was so soft it was astonishing, and where it touched my leg practically radiated heat. "Okay, I understand how Quick Swipe works, I hit with it and it gives me money, but what does Pacify mean?"

"Pacify is a skill that works in different ways on players or monsters. Against players it will make it so they can't target you for ten seconds. On monsters it makes it so they completely forget about you. Your agro is removed," I said.

"Oh! So if I hit something with a Backstab, then use that, I can stealth?"

"Right. A combo you can use is Backstab, Quick Swipe, Stealth, Backstab. Lots of damage and they can only actually hit you between your Backstab and the Quick Swipe." Even if Taffy was wearing light armor, she was still cozy to snuggle against. The guy-part that still existed in my head approved of snuggling.

If there was a guy-part of me, was there a girl-part too? No. That was just because everyone treated me like a girl. Dusky was a girl after all. Maybe I could dress more like a guy? Something to tighten around my chest and some bulkier clothes to wear under my robes. Cut my hair short, too.

"You okay, Dusky?" Yaff asked.

"This is still a lot to take in. Sorry if I keep repeating that, but it is. Just now I thought how cozy and safe it felt to let Taffy hug me like this, which led me to think that it might be guy-me still hanging around—then I realized that implied there was a girl-me too." When Taffy's arm tightened around my shoulders a little more, I let out a soft breath. "I don't even know how long this will last, but I need to keep going. Kinda like my work back home. It was a little unpredictable at first, but then I started making money and could live off it."

"Well, you said you have enough money here, so that's not the problem." Circling around, Chloe crouched low between the couch and the fire. "You like the adventure, don't you?"

That got a laugh from me. "I had a job where I got to run around in this world—in the game—for half a day at a time. Yeah, I love adventuring and pitting my skills against—against other players. I don't know if I can still do that, but the adventuring is fun."

"I also got a Lock Picking skill. What's that do?" Yaff asked.

"It lets you open chests—even locked ones—with a chance of not setting off the traps. Also, you can use it to disable mechanisms for other traps. It gets better the higher your level. Also, you can get items that make your level count more for it."

Caprice, who was presently laying on her tiger's belly and running her fingers through the fur there, leaned out a bit to catch my eye. "Why don't you try on your new robes?"

That wouldn't be a bad idea. For one thing I could try my plan out. "Yeah. I might do that." It took a bit of squirming to get out from under Taffy's arm, but the struggle made me feel safe all over again. She was a Valkyrie now, the very symbol of protection in Shadowverse.

I walked upstairs and to my room. Now, I could use the belt of my current robes around my chest to keep everything tighter. My hair could wait until tomorrow, as could buying some bulky clothes.

Taking a deep breath, I walked over to the big mirror and slipped my robes off. Almost afraid to look in the mirror, I forced myself to not just look—but stare. Dusky's robes were already fairly loose, I realized, since now I was in just my underwear, all my curves were… curvier.

My chest was supported by the corset-thing, so I loosened the strings off on the back of that to let my breasts hang a little more.

Focusing on my new robes, I made them appear in my hands and put them on the bed beside me, then grabbed the belt of my old robes and started at the top of my breasts. There was enough to go around me four times and each time I had to pull tight to keep from giving my breasts room to swell out again.

Odd, though, it made breathing harder. I could exhale easily enough, but breathing in took some effort. Well, if that's the way it had to be, that's the way it had to be. Tying the belt off behind my back, I reached for the robes and pulled them on.

Just as I got them settled around me, the stupid appearance magic of this world kicked in. The robes had already looked a little tightly cut, but now the neck-line plunged down halfway to my belly button and I could feel the bottom of them around my mid-thigh. These weren't robes, they were an oversized bikini.

But the stats on them…

I could feel a tingle running through me. My magic felt stronger and I could swear that I had a sense of speed there too. Faster casting, then. Sweet!

Turning for the door, I started to head back down to my friends and again felt that tightness in my chest holding back my breathing. I just had to man-up and deal with it. Besides, I could still breathe. I walked to the top of the stairs and felt a little light-headed, and when I put my foot on the first step to start going down, the room started to spin. Darkness closed in around me and I realized I wasn't doing so well.

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I could hear talking. Hushed voices murmuring about something—no, someone. "So tight she couldn't breathe. Had to cut it off."

"Yeah. I tried my heals, but they might only work on combat damage. How is she now?"

"She needs rest. I didn't realize how much this was getting to her."

"You're awake, aren't you?" The voice was closer—right beside me in fact. I opened my eyes a crack and saw Caprice's snout right in front of my face. Close enough to kiss. "There you are. I won't tell them if you don't want. How are you feeling?"

She didn't look her usual overflowing-with-happiness self. "Like crap. What happened?" I asked.

"You tried wrapping up your chest with something. It stopped you from breathing and you fell down the stairs. Taffy healed your wounds, but when you still weren't breathing, we stripped your robes off and found the wrapping."

As Caprice spoke, the memories dimly came back to me. I'd gotten my chest flat and was about to show off my robes when— "I mean, they were a bit tight, but…"

"Harper, don't do that again." Caprice's capricious tone was long gone. "Caprice doesn't want to lose you. You're like a sister."

Using my real name made her words seem all the more important. I blushed and pulled my head down a little, but her arms reached around me and pulled me closer to her in the bed. The movement reminded me how sore I felt all over.

I literally couldn't avoid it. After trying to look less like a woman, there was no option than to just deal with it. "Sorry."

"It's late. Did you want something to eat or do you just want to sleep?" Caprice asked.

Stupidity. It had been stupid of me to ignore the fact I couldn't breathe while wrapped up. I tilted my head forward and pressed against Caprice. "I'm not hungry," I said, though the truth was I didn't want to talk to the others.

"Caprice thinks you are, but you don't want to see anyone. Come on, you're getting up." She squirmed backwards in the bed and pulled me with her as if I were a doll that wasn't taller than her. Dragging me from the warm bed, Caprice hauled me to my feet and worked quickly to dress me, though she skipped my corset-bra thing—apparently I'd been naked in the bed with her.

With a loose-fitting dressing gown on, she took my hand and led the way to the door. Just outside, the two whisperers were revealed to be Chloe and Taffy. They both looked at me and my chest, then back up to my face.

"Caprice is taking Dusky to have some dinner. No loud noises and no bugging us, got it? Good." When Caprice started marching forward, both of them moved to the side to let us through. She was the smallest freight train, and like a freight train Caprice would not be stopped.

We took the stairs slowly, and with her arm around my hip I felt the steely strength of the Kobold keep me balanced. All the way to the tavern floor we went, then across to the couch where a very cozy tiger slept. "Cuddles, make room for Dusky. She needs someone warm to snuggle until I can get her some food."

The huge cat looked at Caprice then looked at me and let out a tiny meow.

Caprice didn't give me a choice in the matter. She guided me right up to the tiger and set me down against it. The fur was unlike any cat I'd ever felt before. It was thick and stiff, but deep into the coat it was so soft.

I reached one hand up and started ruffling and scratching at the tiger's neck out of instinct. Here was a cat. Cats liked scratches. Well, it seemed Cuddles like scratches too—moments later they were purring loud enough that the vibrations shook through me.

The cat reached up a deadly paw and pressed it to my belly, then pushed me down onto my back. For a moment I was trying not to panic, but then a huge, raspy tongue licked my cheek. Then it did it again and again, and soon I had to surrender to the fact that a cat about ten times my weight had decided I needed cleaning. Even if I used magic, I don't know if I could have stopped Cuddles.

"Aww, look at you two! Hop off her, Cuddles." Settling down beside us, Caprice had two bowls in her hands. "I mean it, Cuddles. Let her sit up."

It was impossible to hold back my giggles at the last lick from Cuddles. The big cat sat up, lifted its paw from me and climbed off the couch. When I sat up, it leaned up and set its head on my lap—my hand automatically started rubbing one huge ear.

"I'm an idiot." I took the offered stew with my free hand, then realized I had no way to hold the bowl and eat it at the same time. The solution came when Caprice dipped a spoon into my stew and held it up in front of my mouth. I looked at her like she'd gone crazy. "Really? Are you—?"

"Yes. Don't talk, just eat." Of course she'd taken the advantage by shoving the spoon in my mouth when I'd said a syllable that widened my lips enough. Damn sneaky Kobold. "Tomorrow we're taking a day off from adventuring. No, don't try to tell me no—it's already been decided. You can work on learning your craft skill, if you want, but it will be a day of relaxation and rest for you."

"Yes, mom."

My tone might have been sarcastic, but it was no match for Caprice. She delivered a pinpoint accurate boop to my nose. "Sisters stick together, and when one looks like she's having the worst day of her life, well, the others have to pitch in. Now, open up and eat more of this."

"I coul—" I took the spoonful and started chewing. When I got done with it I tried to continue, "… feed myself if—" Another mouthful. "… Cuddles wasn't taking up—" Another. "… my lap."

I gave up talking and stuck with letting Caprice feed me. I'm not even sure what time it happened, but it was like one moment to the next I fell asleep.

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It was a nightmare, because even cuddled up with a sweet Kobold and her ferocious (and fluffy) guardian—I'd have a fucking nightmare. I was back in my old place, finishing up a stream, and then I heard a knocking at the door.

Getting up, I seemed rail-focused on that door. It took forever for me to reach it by walking, and it was like bits of me sloughed away with each step. My clothes were the first to go, then my hair, and finally my body started breaking up into cubes of meat and falling off.

When I finally reached the door, I was nothing but a diamond. A floating, multifaceted diamond that floated there. The same diamond shape that Shadowverse used for GMs when they had to manifest in the world. Was that it? Was I a powerless god?

The door opened and Espy Death stood there in his terrifying armor. It wasn't terrifying, of course, it was just spiked and looked nasty, but his eyes were focused on—well, on my diamond.

"Pathetic. Look at you. How could you hope to be me when you can't even be—" The tall, lithe Elf warrior looked like something terrible had just happened. I realized then that there was a staff between his legs—a healer staff.

As Espy Death folded into the typical position a male attained when struck in that particular location, Dusky Rose literally walked over him. "Who'd want to be you, idiot?" She kicked off his helmet and brought her staff down on his head—knocking the Elf out cold. "And no, I'm not going to heal you."

Dusky looked up from Espy to me and shook her head. "Harper, what a mess we have here, huh? You're stuck in my body, with my… attributes, and I bet it's eating you up inside. Oh, right, Super Mega Ultimate OMG LULZ WAT Heal!"

She didn't point her staff at me, instead literally bonking me on the head with it. My head! I looked down to see I had hands, and feet, and legs, and arms, and boobs—Wait, wasn't I meant to not have boobs?

"Can't help it, Harper, you've only got one bod' now, and it's mine. Cute one. Mind if I come in?" She didn't actually wait for an answer, just kicked Espy out the door and closed it. "You might want to put something on, I got a bunch of truths you need to hear." When I didn't immediately move (mostly because I was stunned), Dusky rolled her eyes and reached out with the staff again. "Enclothe!"

It was basically like a magical girl anime transformation, but in reverse. It started with the naked bit, and then clothes just seemed to fountain out of her staff before they landed on me. Corset, panties, sandals, and robes. It was like they were alive and trying to consume me—until they weren't. They were just clothes again.

"Alright, Harper, mind if I put something on to pass the time?" Sitting on the couch, Dusky pulled out the remote and aimed it at the TV.

Slumping down beside her, I looked at the show that came on. It was her—me—appearing in the bank hall as if I'd just logged on. "What's—?"

"Oh! Hold on, this is a good bit. Watch when you, rather than freaking out and screaming, literally just gather your wits and walk to the tavern." Dusky let out a sigh. "Look, Harper, this isn't working for you. These are reruns—I was watching live when you did the binder thing. Not. A. Good. Idea."

"Yeah." The word came out of my mouth, but I didn't really say it. Was this some kind of script? Was it my brain messing with me? The answer was obvious—yes to both. Was it a nightmare or was it just—just a normal dream?

Dusky hit fast-forward, skipping through until we'd gone out on our first fight. "I thought you held up well so far until then. Harper, what's really wrong?"

It was like my subconscious let go for a second. "You have to ask?"

"Off-script? You'll wake up soon at this rate. Yes, I have to ask. You're alive, Harper! You have a whole world to explore and friends to enjoy it with. What. Is. Wrong?"

When I tried to reply to her, she held up her finger. "If you talk now, you'll wake up. Look, neither of us know if you'll ever get back to your body, so, if I were you, I'd get used to my body and have some fun. You're a half-Elf! Live a little!"

"You're not me. I'm you." As I said the words, the TV melted into the floor and it felt like the couch was wrapping around me. "What's—?"

"Waking up, remember? Harper, keep it together, relax, and live a little. I promise I won't hold it against you if you—"

The couch wrapped around me completely and I was suddenly in a fluffy wrapping that sounded like thunder.