Sometimes when you do something, you expect something specific to happen. Other times you're not sure what will happen. And as I focus my magic into my claw holding the villager, I did not expect him to start gurgling and melting. It's freakin' disgusting!

As I hold my position in the sky, the cat person becomes increasingly goopy as he melts through my talons. The slimy substance dripping down to the ground and leaving a disgusting residue on my claw.

The dang thing becomes a glop of goop reminding me of a mushroom from back in my old world with an impressive but disgusting appearance. Some of it may have fallen away, but there's a layer of the goop stuck to me, and no amount of shaking my arm appears to help. It better not be something gross like a slime...

Since I'm experimenting anyway, I might as well try reducing my magical output. Drawing my magic back into my weird magical landscape inside of me, the goop... doesn't do anything. I think I might have killed it and the string attaching it to the ground appears to have disappeared too.

Well, I am very resistant to fire, even my own, so the obvious thing now is to try burning it! Unleashing my flame against my poor, gooped claw results in the cool night air turning steamy, but the sensation of my claw being coated doesn't subside one bit. As I stop spewing flames, the light from the moon becomes reflected in a shiny surface...

The dang thing crystallized! Dang it! Now I've got some sort of solid, somewhat transparent crystal stuck to my claw... Flexing my fingers doesn't do much as the crystal withstands my natural strength with ease. I should've held my claw in a more favorable position than a claw grip... Now it's stuck...

"Lauren, hypothetically, what do you know about cat people melting and turning into crystals?"

"What? I have no idea what that even means."

I'm getting the impression that this might be a 'show, don't tell' situation, so I think I might have to go back to the others and show them the crystallized cat person. At least it isn't uncomfortable, aside from restricting me, so that's a good thing, I think. Still, though, I can't walk around with a cast of person goop.

The villagers below, aside from watching me, don't seem to pay me any mind as I fly. As far as I can tell, they show no interest in my having induced the melting function of one of their own. It's kinda creepy how they all keep their eyes locked on me with frightening precision.

A sense of peace fills me as I reach the trees and fly over them. The sounds of animals scurrying away in the night are exciting and-

"Kira, where are you going?"

Right... I'm flying too low to see any clearings and I'm gonna need to get a bit higher to spot the gathering. Good thing Lauren's still awake, and hopefully enjoying the calm night. Looking up, it appears the clouds have taken a break and parted to make way for a beautiful night sky.

With a little more altitude, it becomes obvious where Raya and Lauren are camping as they have that fire going and I just flew past it... I'm gonna blame my expansive wingspan and say that I didn't stand a chance to smell it. Approaching, the trees near the campsite rustle their leaves as they bend out of the way, leaving a clear landing site.

I like these trees, they're making it a lot less risky to drop down. Angling my body to land on my hind legs first, I fly as low as I can before tucking in my wings. The drop doesn't feel like much, but the soft forest floor and the chuckling Raya stand in the way of me showing off my grace.

I've sunk into the ground a little, covering my feet and hands in the duff surrounding the trees. I'm getting stuck in all sorts of things today... At least the detritus of the forest doesn't offer as much resistance as the crystallized cat does as I pull myself free.

"Hey Kira! What's that you've got there?"

"Hiya Raya!"

With a greeting out of the way, I explain what happened, and while Raya isn't much interested in magic, she does appear interested in this thing as she starts inspecting it. It doesn't take her long to begin scratching and hammering on the crystal, even going so far as to ask for my saliva to try its magic-disruptive properties.

Her experimentation doesn't yield much in the way of results, and I feel like we should head for the campsite first. Mentioning as much to Raya falls on deaf ears as her inspection of the oddity continues. And just like that, I'm heading back to camp with a limp as Raya sits atop my wrist, making noise.

Reaching the campsite takes longer than I'd like, but I'm not used to walking like this. And having to make little jumps does not work out well for the trees and branches I bump into.

The moment I spot the fire, I'm reminded of a mild annoyance I forgot about. The dang wolves are still here. They all raise their heads in unison to stare at me before lying back down. I'm just gonna lie down around them.

Spotting Snarlacus, and with some quick mental math, I approach and find a spot so my head will end up next to him when I coil around everyone.

The moment I lie down and get in position, Lauren stands up and becomes visible. She wanders over to me and stares at Raya and the clump of crystal as she hesitates for a while. Instead of speaking up, she begins walking back to her previous spot, but the mental link between us makes it clear that she wants to ask something.

"Lauren, you can ask me anything. There's clearly something on your mind, and I'd like to hear what you have to say."

With a sigh, she turns back around, hiding her face as she blushes. Ooh, Lauren is embarrassed about something, and she needs a moment to gather herself. Naturally, I'm a responsible and caring friend, so I'm not gonna push her on the matter.

"Kira, Lauren wants you to turn around so she can sleep on you."

Raya helping out doesn't do much to lighten Lauren's blush. In fact, it's much more significant now as she starts making excuses for why it doesn't matter and how there's not enough room for me to move freely. And to that I say: this isn't the first time I've caused some havoc for a friend!

As Lauren starts berating Raya for spilling her secrets, I get up and start moving around, rustling trees and breaking branches as I do. It takes some effort, and as I manage to turn around and lie down and coil around the campfire, a previously unknown part of my anatomy makes itself known. I'm freakin' left-handed!

I can't stay like this. My body doesn't like to twist right, and it feels like my lungs are being compressed. It turns out I'm a counter-clockwise coiler, and that's important if I want to do stuff like breathe. This warrants more exploration. Standing up and moving around a little, bending my body this way and that, it becomes clear that my hypothesis is correct.

It appears Raya and Lauren are staring at me, and I get that. I have been moving around a lot in a quite peculiar fashion, but experimentation is important and I've learned something important. If my memory of biology is correct, certain animals have an underdeveloped or just smaller lung to accommodate the striking and resting poses. And it appears I share some of that peculiarity.

Focusing my attention and magic on my body, I can tell that I do, in fact, have a smaller lung, but it isn't vestigial. That's probably good, but I'm fascinated by the implications. I might be a lot more flexible than I previously thought if my organs have adapted in such a way.

Pulsing my magic through my internal bits, the sensation of my magic's flow implies that my right lung is almost twice as big as the left. And as my magic flows through me, more oddities of my anatomy become apparent. I don't have a lot of intestines, and going from my stomach, they lead into some unknown organ that looks like a secondary pouch. I think that might be the part of me that converts things into magic.

All in all, my insides are odd, but I do have most of the parts I'd expect to have. I'm curious to learn more, but I don't think I want to make a habit of ripping apart dragons. It could be useful to build a friendly relationship with one in the future to learn more about the history of my species.

Unfortunately, the sum of all this biology is that Lauren will have to contend with the chunk of crystal stuck to me as I'm not all that able to lie down the way she wants me to while staying comfortable. I'm big enough for her to have the room, but I don't think she likes the mysterious material.

I should probably stop standing around and let her sleep. With a glance their way, the sight of Lauren leaning on Raya's head with her arms crossed almost makes me want to wait. Lauren has somehow managed to fall asleep while balancing against Raya as Raya stands still to not disturb our friend.

Unfortunately, as I move to lie down again, the crunching underbrush wakes Lauren, resulting in her jerking and knocking Raya forward. As Lauren gets her bearings and spots the fallen Raya, she's quick to help the goblin up as she brushes the detritus away while apologizing.

Raya isn't one to hold a grudge, though, so a quick punch to Lauren's thigh and all scores are settled. With my body snaked around the camp again, a few wolves take the opportunity to move closer to me and sleep against my body. It's hard to dislike them when they're being cute... Those jerks...

As Lauren climbs up on me and lies by my neck in the designated sleeping spot, she yawns as she mumbles something, but I don't quite understand. Asking her to repeat it, she does.

"Thank you, Kira..."

"What for?"

"Your eyes told me you were very curious about what I struggled to ask, but you didn't push it. I appreciate that, so thank you."

Oh, well, that's basic boundary-respecting. Gotta know when to pry and when not to. She doesn't appear to be upset with Raya about the whole spilling the beans thing as Raya joins her and they snuggle together.

Placing my head along the outer circle of the camp, Fenja the troll lady comes up to me and rubs my cheek for some reason. Her hands feel warm, and after some rubbing, she sits down and rests against my head. Without any invitation, Snarlacus skulks over and joins us. As he lies down against me, he rests his head on Fenja's lap, appearing to have forgiven that I bit off most of his tail.

This is pretty great. Aside from the settlement of weird goop people, the campsite is great. Letting sleep win, the day comes to a much-needed close with far too many things having happened.

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

The sunlight beaming through the canopy above wakes me, and judging by the position of the sun, we've slept until noon. A few of the wolves appear to have left, as I only count twelve instead of the original sixteen. I guess they might be out hunting.

Snarlacus and Fenja are still resting against my head, not minding the soft movements of my awakening. I believe I feel Lauren and Raya still sleeping on me, but I can't quite see them, and the cacophony of snores from the wolves around here isn't helping me listen for the two of them. As I'm minding my own business and being lazy, a goblin voice of responsibility pulls me out of my cozy rest.

"Kira, from now on, when we leave home, we're bringing your bag. We could gather so many more things if we had you carry everything."

"I am carrying everything, Raya. Even you. So there."

As she comes into my line of sight, her smile at my retort gives me a spark of joy. She does have a point, though. I had the satchel made to make transporting goods easier, and I have been far too good at forgetting about it. With a few pats on my neck, Raya lets me know that she'll remind me in the future, so we can collect all sorts of treasures.

Now I want to leave this settlement behind and collect treasures, but it feels like a good idea to find out what's going on with the maybe-a-fungus thing. I'm confident that leaving something like that unattended for too long is gonna become trouble down the road, and that road is already littered with plenty of trouble.

"Dragon!"

"By the Gods! Why?!"

Familiar voices! Somewhere in the woods opposite the settlement, the familiar sounds of Sarah and Punchy's voices ring out as they shout with very different moods in their tones. I haven't seen them since I kidnapped them and had to let them go.

Punchy is holding a large, bulky hammer made of metal, the heft of which is almost as tall as Lauren. It appears he has abandoned his old wooden log on a stick. His armor consists of loose-fitting leather, which is a stark contrast to his previously naked torso. Good on him, protection is important.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Sarah, on the other hand, is wielding a large staff that cackles with magic, making it look quite delicious. And she's chosen to wear a short robe appropriate for the terrain. It even has some sort of symbols on it. And underneath, she's wearing some leather pants, which I'd imagine are great at protecting against poisonous plants. I should wake up Raya so she can see the symbols on Sarah's robe. She likes odd symbols like that.

Between them, their enthusiasm is neutral, as Sarah looks quite upset at finding us here, but Punchy is very happy. Instead of lingering on that, I'm asking them what brings the two rascals here, since we're probably quite far from Oakhold. With Punchy not showing any willingness to leave, Sarah takes a few steps closer with obvious reluctance.

"Sarah, don't fret, the Dragon wishes us no harm. We have battled and found each other strong! The respect of combat grows vast, and we are like brothers!"

"I don't care what your culture says, that thing tried to kill us! Let us just find the spirit and make our offering before the beast decides to kill us."

Apparently not one to let his point go unproven, he walks right up to me and starts scratching my chin in just the right spot and geez, that feels good...

As the glorious sensation of scritches overstimulates my senses, Fenja the troll decides to climb my face and greet the two adventurers. Being a bit lazy, the wolves are sluggish to move, but with Fenja's movement, they stir and surround my old acquaintances.

"Hah! We found the spirit, Sarah. Goddess Mairleark's fortune favors us this day! We meet old friends, and our search ends."

Having him stand next to my face reminds me of just how big the guy is. Freakin' guy is, by my estimate, around two meters and eighty centimeters tall (9.2 ft). And the bulk... Even looking at the ground, his feet are sinking into the soil, and I'm not sure that's because of his equipment's weight.

I'm still curious what he is, so I just ask him outright. He seems to be in a talkative mood, and he isn't the only guy with an impressive stature like that. Turgai's commander has a similar build, although he's more into wearing armor than Punchy is.

"He's a dumbass..."

"Do not pay Sarah any mind, Dragon! I am a proud member of the Northern Giants clan! We stand tall and proud like the mountains that raised us! Sarah is one of the elves from the Heart Song Glade."

"Shut up! Don't tell it where I'm from!"

To emphasize her point, she whacks him over the head with her staff. I'm not sure a powerful magical item should be used for teaching your friends lessons through blunt force, but to each their own. Punchy just shrugs it off with a hearty laugh.

Sarah's animosity is understandable, but Punchy might actually be a muscle-brain, considering that we met after I burned down Plainshold. I'm pretty sure he should have some dislike for me because of that, but I'm not gonna question it right now.

Unable to sleep through the bombastic voice of Punchy's enthusiasm, Lauren stirs and climbs onto my back along with Raya.

"Kira, how in the hells did you find those two again?"

"That's the neat part, I didn't!"

"Don't point out that he's short, Kira. Giants are supposed to be twice as big as he is, but he's a half-giant, and they can be a bit sensitive about their height."

Oh, that's good to know. I did not have the impression that he was short, though. The guy is a freakin' house. Rather than waiting for Sarah to build up her courage, Punchy scoops her up in his arms, resulting in some ferocious cursing and shouting that makes Lauren look downright polite when she's angry. With her firmly in his grip, he places her on my muzzle, resulting in her becoming very quiet.

"See? Let your bravery shine as you face the Dragon of fear and turn it into a friend!"

She doesn't seem to be turning fear into friend, but she is smelling very afraid and... she's peeing... She's so scared that she peed on me...

I'm not sure what to feel about that. Hopefully, nobody else noticed, but we might have to have Punchy let go of her. I'm all for teasing people, but this is closer to bullying, and that's something we should try to limit.

As Punchy lets go of her, she continues to sit on me, frozen. I'm not sure what to do at a time like this, but I'd prefer not to scare her any more than we already have.

The sensation of Raya's feet along the back of my neck brings me hope that this debacle will be solved in short order. Moments later, the goblin is walking atop my head and continuing down to Sarah.

"Hi! I'm Raya! Don't worry about the pee, Kira gets into more mess than that every day."

That can't be true... Can it? I'd rather it weren't, but I can't deny the possibility. At least Raya's direct approach brings Sarah out of her frozen state, and the two of them shake hands. Sarah hasn't been cured of her fear, but at least she's moving now. And with a quick greeting, the elven healer begins blushing, realizing what has happened.

"I peed on a Dragon... I peed on a fucking Dragon! My lineage is cursed for eternity!"

Now she's spiraling in a different direction, and I can't tell whether that's progress or not. At least Raya knows what to do as she keeps their hands clasped while she leads Sarah to stand and walk further up my head.

As they settle down on top of me, Fenja joins them, making me the impromptu meeting place of the tiny ones. I guess that's what we're doing today, holding meetings on the dragon.

Not one to rest for long, Punchy starts wandering the campsite and petting wolves. Only stopping when he notices my hand encased in crystal.

"What is this? Do you require assistance, Dragon? I am very good at smashing rocks."

He might as well try, and with an affirmative, he takes out his hammer and tightens his muscles. The bulging mass of muscle stretches his leathery armor, making it clear why he isn't wearing tight-fitting armor. The dang thing might've broken if he flexed like that. With all his might, he swings his hammer, and now it's my turn to feel fear.

The freakin' beast of a man radiates power as the hammer impacts the crystal. A song of resonance rings through the forest, no doubt startling every animal. Even the wolves leap backward. And my claw is forced into the ground, pulling my body to the side from sheer force.

The result of the impact is a crack in the crystal perpendicular to my talons, but geez, this stuff is stupid tough. He seems to think so too, as he begins inspecting the impact area.

"It did not get smashed."

No, it did not, he's correct about that. And he sounds quite perplexed at the development. Since I'm interested in getting rid of this block of whatever it is, I suggest we find something hard to put under it, but he doesn't seem keen on that.

"For smashing, soft on hard is better. Hard on soft smashes the soft part. That is the nature of smashing. With a partner piece, it can work."

Well, he's the smashing expert, so who am I to argue? We can get more of this stuff, though, but I'd prefer knowing what it is before we start melting more cat people. A sudden yelling alerts me to my passengers and indicates that the loud noise has broken Sarah out of her bout of fear. All of her energy is now focused on yelling at Punchy for not warning her before making so much noise.

In response, he walks over to my head and reaches up to take her hand before pulling her down into an embrace. As soon as he holds her close, all remaining fear melts away, making it obvious that these two know each other very well. As he plants a kiss on her forehead, she starts making a token effort to struggle out of his grip.

"Not in front of the Dragon..."

There's no reason to bring me into this. And what about the wolves? Why not bring them into this? I'm innocent in all of this.

With impressive grace, he lets her down, making sure her feet are planted firmly on the ground before letting go of her. Watching someone capable of slamming my face into the ground move with such soft motions is impressive. He handles Sarah with such care that I have no doubt that she is safer in his embrace than on her own.

"Now! Where were we? How do we break the rock that does not want to be smashed?"

To emphasize his return to the subject of smashing, he claps his hands together, startling Sarah and ruining the hard work he put into calming her down. Skulking away with a groan and a few grumbles, she finds a wolf to cozy up to. A few scratches behind its ear and it loses any will to protest her actions.

Fenja is quick to jump down from me as she moves to join Sarah.

Leaving the top of my head, Raya slides down and walks up to Punchy as the two of them begin to study the crack in the crystal.

"Can you smash it again and break it apart? What if we use a knife in the crack to spread it into two pieces?"

"Excellent idea, but not for this, tiny Dragon. The chisel would split the material and the material would split the Dragon."

Yeah, that's a bad idea. Don't split the dragon. Geez, he makes it sound terrifying, but I get the gist of what he's saying. Splitting it into two halves wouldn't free my talons, it would just leave two large pieces with a gap between them that would stretch my limbs. Or worse, rip them off. I'd rather that didn't happen.

Raya and Punchy go over a few other options as Raya taps on the crystal, creating pretty sounds. My thoughts wander to my physics class on toughness. I'm pretty sure there was something about very few things having high performance in toughness, ductility, tensile strength, and compressive strength.

This might be risky, but I think the way to go about this is to make a chisel and work on small chunks at a time, chipping away at the large bit. Raya's focus turns to me as she throws out another suggestion.

"We could go back to Volkai's place, Kira."

I don't feel like going back there, and it annoys me how much sense it makes. If I shrink down, the chunk of crystal wouldn't fit anymore. On the other claw, I never did go beyond the wall, so I didn't really see the Land Beyond Death. We should focus on this village situation first.

"How did you become stuck in such a material, Dragon?"

A fair question, and as I retell the epic tale of abduction, melting cats, and pieces of crystal, his eyebrows rise and a glint of excitement appears in his eyes. It doesn't take him long to figure out that he can shape it into the head of a hammer and have me create more of this very durable material.

If it's some appendage of whatever lies at the center of the main village, we could do it, but if they're independent creatures, I'm not gonna turn one of them into an object like that. Again. The first time was accidental, so it doesn't count.

In fact, we've been dillydallying around here for several hours and we're closing in on late afternoon. We should get something done today, so being responsible, I suggest we all get to it and head for the village to find out what's going on. Of all the people to interrupt my motivation, Sarah offers a reasonable question.

"What lives in that village? Our objective is to scout and learn, not to fight."

I guess she didn't pay attention when I told Punchy about my epic tale, but I stand by it being reasonable to ask. Better to ask one too many times and annoy someone than one too few times and break something valuable.

Sharing the information I know, I leave no detail out, even describing the magical tendrils to them, which frightens her again. At least it's not because of me this time. Point to Kira.

Whatever therapeutic impact Punchy's hug had appears to have made her much less frightened of me. She's not even cursing at me as she asks questions about my descriptions of the village. By the time she's satisfied with the information, we've gone through an exhaustive list of things, including the layout of the village. With the topic on the village layout, Raya and Lauren take over the talk for a while as they know more than I do about it.

Now that it's my turn for questions, I ask why she's so afraid of this goopy fungus.

"It is a beast from the Dark Below, a parasite that grows wide and fast. By the current spread, I would estimate its arrival to be around the time of the fall of Plainshold.-"

I hope those two things aren't related, but I don't see how they could be, so I doubt they are.

"-And with so many of our Guild drawn north to deal with you, too few were left to scout and fight off threats in these parts."

Oh. And that didn't even work out for them, making it all a huge wasted effort, especially when all they had to do was leave me alone. Although...

"I don't feel like there were that many adventurers, if you people were amassing groups from all over. There were a lot, sure, but not enough to fit what I feel was a region-wide effort."

"Your notion is correct. Our forces were so thoroughly defeated that those fleeing intercepted the reinforcements and called for a retreat. The Guild does dangerous work, but suicide is not part of the goal."

As the topic delves into adventurer matters and the ruins of Plainshold, Sarah's voice becomes increasingly harsh as her tone becomes aggressive, but it doesn't all feel directed at me. With a deep breath, she seems to calm down again as Punchy places a huge hand on her tiny shoulder.

As she leans into his hand, she appears to prepare to proceed. She stares at me with fierce determination unbefitting someone who peed on me. With a sigh, she lets the ferocity drop.

"No. Now is not the time for such a discussion, we must focus on the task at hand. What we know of the creature is that the puppets it creates match the host from which the puppet was created. They are hollow and do not possess life, so you need not fear harming them. Before you ask, the hosts remain alive, locked in a dream within the beast's lair as it feeds on their life. They can be saved, but only through the destruction of the creature."

That's good news! We can save the fuzzy cat people, and maybe they'll be grateful, and we can snuggle with their soft fur! First things first, though.

"How do we defeat them, and how many do you think there are, Sarah?"

"They can be defeated by making them too costly to maintain. The creature must focus magical energies into them to maintain their integrity. As you cause damage, it spends energy to restore the damage so as not to lose the puppet and the unbound host as the link is severed."

Sounds like Punchy is the right guy for the job. I'm sure Raya can do some damage, too, but I'd rather not have her coated in that oily goop. I guess the question becomes whether I should join in on the town battling or not. The ropes and narrow streets do not appear enticing, and I don't know how firmly the ropes are attached. I feel like destroying settlements should be a once-a-decade kind of thing at most.

Oh, that host thing does mean... Looking at Punchy, his wide grin and sparkling eyes indicate that he has already figured it out. Making his hammer is viable now that we have an idea of what we're dealing with. Following my gaze, Sarah looks up at the goofy giant and sighs with a smile of her own, followed by a punch to his abs.

"It is a blessing from Goddess Mairleark, Sarah! She has deemed me worthy of a grand gift for our journey!"

"If that were the case, you attacked a servant of the Gods by attacking the Dragon."

"Bah! The Will of the Gods is known only to the Champions. And rumors of a Champion have spread wide, but none with substance."

Oh, they don't know about Lauren. I have no idea whether that's useful or not, but that's for Lauren to decide, I'm not gonna out her. I am curious about the will of the gods being known to her, though.

"Hey, Lauren, do you-"

"No, I don't know what Merciferus is planning. All she has told me so far is that we have done well to disrupt the cult and that enlisting adventurers was clever."

Ooh, point to Kira again. Actually, two points because I've been putting aside my own benefits, like robbing adventurers, to make allies from a group of people who are literally out to get me.

"The actions of Gods and Champions are immaterial to our current objective. Dragon, do you wish to assist in the creation of a new weapon? We would understand your hesitation as we share a history of animosity."

I'm sure Punchy wouldn't use it against me, and he appears very trustworthy. Looking back at Raya, I ask her opinion on the matter, and as she jumps up and gets ready, she appears far more willing than I had anticipated. I'm not sure what she has planned, but she has been tapping on the crystal for quite some time.

As people start getting ready to move out, Fenja even joins in by climbing on me as I pull the crystal out of the earth, leaving a large hole. The trek to the villages-

"Oh. It is considered bad luck to harm the forest of a spirit, Dragon. Did you apologize to her?"

Punchy seems to have an opinion on the casual destruction I've caused, but as far as I know, Fenja and I are fine. She has climbed onto my nose and she's smiling at me, so I'm gonna interpret that as us being fine.

Testing the crystal with a step, it appears that I can walk somewhat normally, although it feels odd and requires some compensation, but it's working and that's what counts!

"She did not answer me. Is that unusual, Cleric?"

"No, it is not. Kira is a bit special, but you learn to travel with it, and she isn't trying to be rude. I would wager it was what saved you and Sarah's lives in your first encounter. I have no doubt that Kira started having fun and forgot she was there to hunt trespassing Guild members."

Okay, I feel called out. And worse, I can't freakin' deny the possibility...

I think it might be time to get moving. As I take a few steps toward the villages, the people on the ground begin following, and before long, we're on a journey to beat some underground invasive species!