Just a word of warning, there is some objectionable content in this chapter. It is not too much by my estimation, but younger readers should be advised. Mature content: Minor sexual content included.

**********

Andaros did the thing most people would do when about to be eaten by a gigantic lizard and not having time to get out of it's way, he brought his arms up and covered his face so he wouldn't see death coming. The next moment however, he heard a load thump, followed by an extremely loud roar. When he moved his hands away, he saw a giant metal arm where the beast had been. Looking back, he saw a robot of massive proportions.

This robot had no head, just three pairs of eyes going down each side of it's overly large torso. Each set of eyes were different colors, those colors being green, red, and yellow. The armor of the robot was a silver-white, and golden, and it had tree limbs from the trees in the orchard stuck under certain parts of the armor. This gave it a strange part-tree, part-machine look that somehow fit.

The robot made some sounds that were somewhat familiar to Andaros, it took him a minute to recognize what it was, old morse code. Andaros was fluent in morse code thanks to his mother, she taught him it so he could use it as an emergency measure in case of getting lost. So, when the robot repeated, he was actually able to understand what the robot said.

'Are you okay master?'

"I-I-I-I'm F-f-f-fine," he replied.

'Let me deal with this Tyrano-supremus, then I'll help you deal with that beast.'

"Sh-sh-sh-she's w-w-w-with m-m-m-me."

'Understood, I would suggest having your companions check you for any injuries. Stuttering is often a sign of some form of trauma,' the robot told him as it started toward the "tyrano-supremus", as it called the beast.

"I-I-I-I'm f-f-f-fine," Andaros answered. "I-i-i-it's n-n-n-normal f-f-f-for m-m-m-me."

'Understood, engaging the tyrano-supreme, you might want to get back,' the robot replied, smashing it's fist forward.

The dinosaur stumbled backward as it took the hit. A moment later it let out a blood-curdling roar and swiped at the robot with it's tail. The robot took a couple of steps backward, and Andaros hurriedly grabbed the sabertooth.

While the beast and the robot continued fighting, Andaros carried the big cat and set her down one one side of the hill, checking if there was any damage to her. There appeared to be no problems from the fall, but she was still very weak.

"Where did that thing come from?"

"Do either of you have any jerky, or some kind of meat snack," he asked the other two.

"Don't ignore me!"

"Reiya, calm down. Here boy," the giantess said, pulling some dehydrated meat from a pack and handing it to him. It was a sizable portion since it was for someone twelve foot tall, which would certainly help in this instance. "Make sure you tear it into small portions. She looks to have been starving for quite some time, so feeding her too quickly can be more detrimental than helpful."

Reiya sighed at her statement. "Why are you trying to feed it," she asked, feeling very real danger in doing so. She really wasn't sure why, but she felt threatened by the sabertooth's presence. "What if it attacks you?"

"These guys generally don't attack our people without reason," the giantess explained, "and I think that big guy over there is reason enough why they were even willing to do so. From the looks of this child, they had been nearly starved to death by that lumbering oaf," she added while watching the battle between the titans. Compared to the two of them, she was rather small.

Reiya sighed once again. "I really don't get why we even risked our lives for this beast Qora," she told the giantess, "especially after their pride attacked us!"

"The Saberlions have never been aggressive toward us without reason," the giantess, Qora, replied. "The last time they attacked any of us was when a group of our prisoners ruthlessly attacked a pride's young. They didn't kill anyone other than the prisoners who originally attacked them, and injuries to others were kept to a bare minimum."

"Doesn't that just mean they didn't have the strength to do more," Reiya asked.

"They were toying with our people, let alone the prisoners! My father was there at the time, and even he couldn't do anything about it! You know what he told me?"

"No, what?"

"He told me these guys are intelligent! They were analyzing his every move, they weren't just reacting out of instict either! They seem to have a code of honor, and the strength of the group that attacked at that time far surpassed the group we fought earlier, if what he told me is any indicator," the giantess told her in an agitated manner.

"Are you sure he wasn't just pulling your leg?"

"You know my old man," Qora replied, displeased, "he wouldn't exagerate something like this."

"I suppose you're right," Reiya replied, continuing to watch the fight that was coming toward it's climax.

-----

While Andaros and the girls, well, mainly the girls, were having their little conversation, Scar and the robot were fighting an intense battle.

After the tail-whip that caused the robot to stumble backward, it returned the shot with a fist charged with electricity. Scar roared as a large amount of electrons flowed through it's body, but did not succumb to the power. He tenaciously swung his tail, knocking the robot back a bit, then charged it, headbutting the giant machine.

The robot did not fall down as Scar expected, it grabbed onto him as it's feet skidded backwards, digging deep trenches into the ground. Once Scar's momentum came to an end, the robot smashed one of it's three fingered fists into his ribcage, causing the beast to stumble backward a bit. It then proceeded to hit him another three times in quick succession.

Scar stumbled backward again and again, and the robot followed. He swiped his tail and knocked it over, before viciously biting it's arms and torso. He was then knocked off the robot, who got up and proceeded to hit it once again.

The two titans continued to battle it out within the spacious clearing, continually delivering blow after blow upon the other. By this time, Scar had forgotten about the female Mroa, and was completely focused on it's fight with the robot. The fight lasted for a long while, but eventually came to a climax as Scar rushed forward and bit the torso of the robot, refusing to let go. In response, the robot began to spin one of it's three fingered fists and then delivered what can only be described as a drill fist, breaking through it's ribs and delivering a blow to it's internal organs that turned them into meat paste.

Seeing his death coming, Scar refused to let go despite the fact that he was already on the edge of death, and tightened his jaws beyond normal limits, damaging several important internal components of the robot.That'll teach you, Scar thought as he died, his only regret being that he was not able to finish off the spawn of the two Mroa who caused his fall from glory.

-----

'Critical damage sustained. This unit will soon . . shut down forever. It. . was nice. . to finally. . be. . of . . service . . to . . . a . . . . new . . . . . mas. . . . . ter . . . . . . . .' As the robot gave it's final message, it's electronic voice became deeper and deeper, until it beeped no more. It's eyes grew dim, and finally went out all together.

"What happened?"

"I think they just took each other out. I don't think even that monster could survive an attack that brutal."

"What about the robot," Reiya asked, looking to Andaros for the answer.

"B-b-b-broken, c-c-c-critical d-d-d-damage," he answered as succinctly as possible due to his stuttering.

"Critical damage? That sucks. . . I wonder if we could salvage anything from it," Qora thought aloud while looking at the metal giant.

"I-I-I-I c-c-c-can tr-tr-tr-try," Andaros replied.

"Another time, we should be getting back," Qora quickly responded. "It's getting pretty late, and I don't want my men left alone for too long."

"Anybody remember the way back," Reiya asked worriedly.

"Uh, beats me," Qora replied.

The two soon turned to Andaros, who shook his head sadly while absentmindedly petting the young saberlion female. The saberlion was simply sitting there, gently chewing the last of the jerky he handed her a moment before.

"Just great, how are we supposed to get back now?"

"No clue, but it seems she's feeling a lot better," Qora indicated the saberlion female as she spoke.

"Just great! No way back, and we've got a hungry predator feeling better!"

"I don't think that's the problem here," Qora pointed out, "but let's just see if we can find some wood and harvest some meat from that thing so we can get a meal cooked. There seems to be a spring on the other side of the hill here with a small stream flowing out of it."

"Well, at least we have enough food for a week for all of us," Reiya said, trying to cheer up.

"I'll get to work on harvesting meat," Qora stated, "and the hide off that big beasty's corpse. Maybe we can use it to make some kind of leather clothes or something for the kid. I heard from the boss that he's not going to treat him as a prisoner for now, but we have no different clothes for him to wear."

"Yeah, there's enough of it, and it looks to be pretty tough if the amount of hits it could take from that robot is any indication," Reiya responded. "I wonder how intact it is after all those hits though?"

"We'll see," Qora answered as she took out a vibro-knife and headed toward the corpses.

The model of knife she pulled out had the ability to turn off or on the vibration function. She liked it in case she wanted to carve or skin things. The truth was, she used it more often for such things than she did in combat, and the vibration function came it handy for cleaning the blade. She did make sure she had the blade faced so she wouldn't get splattered when using that method to clean off the blade, but had still covered herself in blood splatter a number of times regardless of this fact.

Thankfully, Qora managed to find a large amount of hide, and it's accompanying scales, that had not been damaged by the giant robot during their fight. She harvested a lot of hide as a result, and put it into a special bag that was then vaccuum sealed in order to reduce the amount of decay the skin experienced before it could be turned into a usable product, hopefully without destroying the beast's scales in the process.

"Hmmm, I think if I use the right process on these scales, I should be able to strengthen them to be at least three times as strong," the giantess stated. "I'll have to have my pops take a look at them and see what he can do. He might be able to make them as much as five times as strong. He's been processing the materials from the beasts on the planet for much longer than me."

"That's only if we survive this," Reiya replied, a bit annoyed. "How can you be so optimistic?"

"Meh, beats being pessimistic anyday," Qora responded. "Besides, I have a feeling that this girl here can lead us out once she recovers a bit. That is, assuming we're polite to her at least."

Reiya could only sigh at the answer. "We'd better be ready to bed here then," she stated, "she's in no condition to be moving about tonight."

"I'll prepare some meat for dinner then, and vaccuum pack the rest for transport," Qora replied.

"How are we going to transport all that?!"

"Simple, the bags I brought have hover technology built in. I'll bet I have one large enough to transport that robot even."

"How the hell?!"

"You know my pops," she responded, digging through her backpack. After a minute she brought out a huge bag. "Ah, I knew I had one large enough, I just didn't want to waste it on the lizard. Btw, any clue what was damaged on the robot?"

Seeing Andaros shake his head, she said, "Well, I wasn't going to pack them up before, but seeing as we don't have a clue how to get back on our own, I should be able to bag these guys. The anti-grav won't last too overly long, but if we know where to head we should be fine. The charge each of the bags hold themselves is sufficient to last four hours without too much difficulty. We may only have two hours to move the robot however, depending on how heavy the components are."

Qora got a fire going and meat roasting before getting to fully bagging the meat from the dinosaur-like beast, as well as the robot. She left the meat to be attended to by Reiya, who handled the cooking deftly, and soon a meal was roasted for the four. The meat for the saberlion was less well cooked, but she slightly overcooked the meat for the three of them as Andaros distracted her a bit during the cooking.

"You know, we've been seeing a lot more activity from the local wildlife recently."

During their meal, Qora brought up recent events.

"Really," Reiya asked, showing a great deal of surprise.

"Yeah, those primates have been pressuring us on the east side, and the hyenas on the south side, down by the desert. The west side has been experiencing raids from the different beasts that resemble the dinosaurs of ancient Earth," she told the two. "We haven't seen any like this guy, but it doesn't mean they're not there. I wonder what species they are?" Qora squinted her eyes as she finished speaking, and looked toward the mostly vaccuum packed meat and hide from the beast the robot had dealt with.

"T-t-t-tyrano s-s-s-supremus," Andaros startled her by saying. "R-r-r-robot c-c-c-called i-i-i-t th-th-th-that."

"It did," Reiya asked, eyes raised.

"Hmmm, was it that wierd beeping," Qora hypothesized. "What was that?"

"M-m-m-morse C-c-c-code. . . F-f-f-from O-o-o-old E-e-e-earth."

The answer surprised Qora greatly, and she showed it. "It's been hundreds of thousands of years since you humans came out of Earth. What would an old code from Earth be doing here?"

"Too bad that thing's been destroyed," Reiya said, indicating the robot.

"I-I-I-I m-m-m-may b-b-b-be a-a-a-able t-t-t-to r-r-r-rig s-s-s-something f-f-f-from th-th-th-the r-r-r-remains," Andaros answered hesitantly.

"How," Reiya asked incredulously.

Andaros could only sit there unable to explain things. The explanation would be filled with technical terms they probably wouldn't understand. In this case, explaining would take much more time than tellling a few stories about his mother. That alone had taken half a day, but this would take far longer for him to explain in a way that made any sense at all for someone not well versed with the old Earth technologies. He wasn't sure how an Earth Era terraforming and construction robot could remain working for so long, but it had obviously been working until earlier. He shrugged to Reiya, and remained silent. His frustration at his stuttering was coming back with a vengeance.

Reiya pouted at his unwillingness to say more, but Qora stepped in for him.

"Let it go at that Reiya," she told the young lady. "He likely couldn't tell us how he'd get anything working in a reasonable amount of time, and he's obviously frustrated with his stuttering. He's starting to look like a devil rather than that angry look his features usually have."

"Sorry," Reiya apologized to him. She couldn't help sighing after being reminded of the issue. "The sooner I can teach you how to use galactic sign language, the better."

"Indeed. Well, now that I've eaten and had a bit of a rest, I'd better get back to work. I want to have everything ready to go tommorrow. Hopefully your friend there is willing to help us get out of here."

Count on it, the young Mroa thought groggily as she fell back asleep.

-----

Andaros awoke from a nightmare. He lived through finding his mother dead, and being convicted of a crime he did not commit. Unfortunately, it was not simply a nightmare, it was all true. Tears streamed down his cheek as he realized the truth of where he was once again.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Hearing a splash, Andaros inadvertently looked toward the only source of water within the clearing. He was surprised to see the well-endowed upper half of a naked giantess in the water, looking toward him. Rather than being angry at him for seeing her naked, as many women or girls her age would be, she had an amused look on her face as she watched his shocked look.

"Like what you see?"

Andaros, who was surprised by the question and reminded of of her current state, looked away in embarrassment and shame.

"Don't be ashamed," the giantess told him, shocking him greatly. "I was very interested in the opposite sex as well, still am, but it's nothing to be ashamed of. Why don't you join me? I know you got very sweaty and dirty during the run. We should clean you, and those stinky clothes you're still wearing."

"I-i-i-it w-w-w-wouldn't b-b-b-be r-r-r-right," he answered, not daring to look her way.

"What's not right about it? Or would it shame you to bathe with a beautiful woman," she added coyly.

"N-n-n-no," Andaros replied in a bit of a panic. He really didn't want Qora to misunderstand.

The giantess, for her part, couldn't resist giggling at his panicked response. "Then, if you wouldn't be ashamed, get your butt over here and let's get you washed," Qora instructed. "There's nothing wrong about a man and a woman washing together. Besides, you're likely a bit too on the small side for me, even if I like the determination you showed in saving that sabertooth over there."

Andaros sighed loudly. Being unable to explain yourself easily in such situations could be exceedingly difficult for someone to handle. It wasn't like all races had the same taboos, and he shouldn't force his ideals on others. Thinking this, he did as instructed, but still didn't feel comfortable looking toward her, so he avoided that.

For her part, Qora watched on with an amused expression as the young man who wasn't all that much younger than her clumsily approached. He awkwardly took of his clothes, and she was once more amused by the reaction his body had shown. She was also a bit awkward in this situation, but nevertheless flattered by the fact that she could get such a reaction from him. She was quite happy to have someone like him around, if for no other reason than to tease him, but was starting to like the idea of him being on the planet for other reasons.

She had been informed of her boss's suspicions about Andaros's situation and, after interacing with him for a little bit, happened to agree with those suspicions. Every action Andaros had taken thusfar showed him to be kind, consciencious, and self-sacrificing, even if his face could be a bit scary. If the boss hadn't informed her of his suspicions she may have reacted the same as the people in his world had, but now she had a very positive impression of the young man.

"Why don't you come a bit closer," Qora said, seeing him step into the pond as far from her as he could get, "I have some soap here that we can use to scrub your body. If you sit in front of me in the water, I can help scrub your back."

Initially, Andaros resisted that idea, he may be young but he was still a boy who was going through the later stages of puberty. He was excited by the idea, but still resisted as he was worried he may not be able to control himself. Little did he know, the giantess had no qualms with that, and was even looking forward to such a thing happening. First impressions are scary, they carry a lot of weight, and his actions had made a big first impression on her.

After a bit of cajoling, Qora got Andaros to reluctantly sit in her lap while she scrubbed his back. He was nervous, but everything was fine. Qora gently used her hands to scoop up water, and pour it down his back. She then began scrubbing his body with a simple abrasive type soap common to less advanced worlds. Everything was going fine, and Andaros was just starting to relax when Qora suddenly wrapped her arms around him, and pressed her "assets" against his shoulders and the back of his head. At this sudden stimulation, and hearing the heavy breathing she also did in his ear, Andaros began to panic.

Qora giggled directly into his ear. "You know, you're really too cute, regardless of how angry you may look all the time. I just might have to make you mine," she teased. "You know, I wouldn't mind if you were to give me a good scrubbing too," she added as she scrubbed the front of his torso with her hands.

Luckily for him, she avoided scrubbing near his crotch, but she certainly saw his situation down there and couldn't help grinning happily. Every women likes to feel beautiful. Even if most respond angrily out of modesty when a man reacts like that, assuming they aren't married, they like seeing that someone considers them attractive. As such, Qora was quite happy with the reaction, even if she wouldn't say anything more in order to avoid giving him any more ideas than were likely already swimming in his head. Teasing him was one thing, but actually going beyond that was not something she was willing to do after knowing him for such a short time.

Andaros, for his part, was quite excited at this point, but doing his best to hold his raging hormones in check. He realized that she was just teasing him, but the stimulation was just too much, so keeping himself in check was more than just difficult. He thought that if it were any other guy they likely wouldn't have been able to hold themselves back, and would have already jumped the giantess, proceeding to make her theirs. He miserably continued to fight the urge to do just that.

Little did he know that anyone else on the planet would have been too scared to even allow themselves to be put in the position he was currently in. Not only was her father scary as hell, Qora was one of the more dangerous wardens to mess with. A number of males had tried to molest the woman, only to end up dead at her hands before they could actually manage to copulate. They died at her hands, and died miserably at that, dying from bloodloss after having your entire crotch ripped out was certainly something that could be considered terrible. It took a few groups dying this way before the prisoners got the point, but not one of them would now dare approach her with thoughts of raping her in mind.

Qora was of the Hraelsen race, and stood at approximately twelve foot in height. Her race had an extremely high potential for strength as they had very dense muscular structure, but they were of average human build, just on a bigger scale. Andaros himself was quite tall for the humans of his world, standing at nine foot, two and a half inches in height as opposed to the usual six to eight feet of the humans of Meracene. This made him 3/4 as tall as her, a sizable difference, which is why her sizable breasts pressed against his shoulders and the lower part of his neck. The Hraelsen race were a warrior race in general, so they were easily inclined to violence and tended to be grumpy or unsociable toward other races, but Qora was quite a bit more genial than most.

While teasing him, Qora found herself growing a bit attracted to this man who's disposition was quite the opposite of his looks. He actually reminded her a lot of her father, without the grumpiness, so her attraction was quite natural, but was of a different race. There had never been an instance of Human/Hraelsen hybrids in the time that both races had interacted. This was due to many things, but the main culprits were the difference in height, and a large difference in mindsets. There had been a few couplings between humans and hraelsens, but due to the size differences they were quickly broken up. After all, it is hard to enjoy copulation when the man is either way too big, or way too small.

Seeing the size of Andaros's member, Qora didn't think he'd have that issue. He wasn't particularly large for a hraelsen, but was within acceptible limits. Despite this, Qora found that Reiya was already interested in the boy, though she'd likely never admit it, so she was hesitant to take things further. The was even when he was the only male on the planet that was up to her standards beside her father, which was completely out of the question for her race.

Despite his best efforts, Andaros lost his fight to resist his raging hormones. As Qora was rubbing his back with her chest, he suddenly turned around amd jumped her, pushing her over in the water. Qora was shocked by the fact that a human could manage to push her over, so her reactions were delayed. Thus, as the water splashed over her body and chest, he managed to enter her. He latched onto her chest, and after that only moans of pleasure could be heard from her as her own hormones took over.

-----

Andaros woke up with a massive headache. How he got back in his original position, and why he was dressed and under an emergency blanket he had no clue. The last thing he remembered clearly was being in the pond with Qora rubbing her breasts up and down his back before he lost control of his hormones. After that, everything was a bit blurry, but he was sure of one thing. He owed Qora a serious apology, and much more.

He looked toward the fire, where it appeared food was being prepared, and found Reiya and Qora there. The two were eating some more meat while the young saberlion was eating a serving of her own. The three noticed him stirring and looked his way.

"Hey lover," Qora said, giving him a sultry look, and licking her lips. Reiya, on the other hand, was giving him a reproachful look.

"I'm sorry," Andaros stammered as he bowed down before Qora. "I couldn't control myself, and that cost you something dear. Please, forgive me." It took him a while to finish speaking as his stuttering was worse than normal.

Qora giggled, almost cackling. "What are you doing," she questioned. "I should be the one to apologize to you. My teasing went too far, and I took you to the point you lost your self-control. It's my own fault for teasing you like that. Besides, I quite enjoyed our time together. Reiya, forgive him, he is a teenager with raging hormones after all."

"That doesn't mean he can just go bedding a woman because she's attractive, and what were you two thinking? . . . Taking a bath together," Reiya responded, turning a dark green upon mentioning the bath.

"Hehe," Qora giggled, giving Andaros a wink, "You just wish you had been the one to get in the water with him," she teased.

"Enough," Reiya said, blushing a dark green, "just eat your food and shut up."

"Yes Ma'am," Qora gave a mock salute, and went back to eating.

"And you," Reiya addressed him, sighing heavily, "come get some food before we leave. I'll forgive you this time, but don't do something like this again."

Andaros was puzzled at her response. It was obvious she knew what had happened last night, and he had definitely overstepped a few boundaries it seemed. He couldn't figure out why she forgave him so readily. For that matter, he couldn't understand why Qora wasn't mad at him. If he was right, he had basically raped her, but she didn't seem mad at all. If anything, she seemed quite happy with what had occured.

"Don't try to figure it out," Qora told him, seeing his puzzled look. "Our reasons are our own. I can tell you that Reiya and I are like sisters however. I'd better order the men to make some renovations to the manor so I can stay there too. Don't want you doing anything with Reiya without her twin, that could be very. . ."

"QORA," Reiya screamed, "Don't go blabbing things like that."

"It'd be best if you tell him early on," Qora told her, "You can't fool me, I know you're interested in him as more than just a prisoner. I'm willing to share him, seeing as I don't really know him yet, but he shouild be aware of the issues thast come with your race."

"You, what do you know," Reiya's response was crisp as he glared at Qora.

"I know you, Reiya Abraeam," Qora spoke evenly, "and I know how you think. If you weren't interested in him, you wouldn't have stayed by him and helped him deal with that monster I butchered yesterday afternoon."

Reiya stayed silent on the matter. However, she handed Andaros some meat as he approached.

"Th-th-th-thank y-y-y-you."

"You're welcome," she responded to him. "And you, keep quiet. I'll tell him when I want to tell him. IF I decide to tell him."

"Fine, fine," Qora responded with a small sigh, "I won't say anything, but you should. . . soon."

With that the discussion was dropped. The four ate in relative peace, but Andaros noticed Reiya glancing his way numerous times throughout the meal. Do I have something on my face, he wondered. In the end, he decided to just let things slide, and enjoy his meal with the two beauties.

-----

"Well, that about does it," Qora said, checking over everything one last time. Losing the bags, or their contents due to neglect would be bad, so she had quadruple-checked everything. "We should be good to go."

"Let's go then, better to get the annoying part done as fast as we can. We'll be counting on you Clenvef," Reiya said impatiently.

"Clenvef?"

"That's her name," Reiya answered.

Qora just sighed, "Did you even ask her about it," she asked in exasperation.

"No, but . . ."

"Then we'll ask her," Qora interrupted her, "Do you like that name?"

The saberlion shook her head no, surprising the others, then she looked to Andaros and stepped up to him.

"You want him to name you," Qora askef in understanding. The saberlion's response was to nod a yes. "You saw it, pick a name, lover," Qora told him, licking her lips and teasing him.

"I like Caera," he stumbled over the words as he told them, "because of her red fur."

None of the others had really noticed, or thought about it, but her fur truly was a dark red color, making her look like a bloody lion. The lioness took some time to think, and then nodded in acknowledgement. Thus, Caera got her name.

"Now that that is settled, let's get going, the charge on that big bag will only last a couple of hours, and I can't charge it on this planet, so I hope we can at least get it to someplace we can get to in order to salvage that robot. Lead the way Caera."

Caera began moving, and the others followed, as well as the things they had gained from this event. It actually didn't take them that long to get out. Caera didn't follow their original, circuitous, route, but took them by a much shorter route than their panicked flight had allowed. In the end, they made it to the manor just before the antigravity charge on the bag with the robot wore out. Andaros was just glad they made it back, before they ran into another woman who totally had his number.

"You made it back! Woah, what's this," one of the guards greeted them and looked incredulously at wha they had brought back.

"Yep, we'll be feasting on meat from a Tyrano-Supremus tonight," Qora responded. "How're the renovations going? I hope you didn't just sit around while we were out."

"No Ma'am, we've been working, but this place is so old it needs more work than we thought," the guardsman answered.

"How bad?"

"We gotta completely rebuild it," a dwarf of a man replied gruffly. "It's not gonna collapse immediately, but the foundation is shot, and the structural supports are rotten in a number of places. We've already moved anything salvagable outside. Just gotta blow 'er up and rebuild it from scratch."

"No explosives," Reiya replied, "we don't want to damage the orchard."

"Hmph, fine. We're gonna need more building materials though," the man said, "this thing doesn't have enough salvagable materials to make a building like the boss wanted."

"I'll fill out a material request then," Qora replied. "Include a room for me in the new design. I plan to move out here. Can't leave you two alone, you might attack her," She teased with a lusty look.

"U-u-u-ugh," was the only response Andaros could make in response to her provocation. She absolutely had his number. . . without a single doubt.