<~> CHAPTER 47

The good news is we didn't need to hunt for them. The bad news is... Fifteen of these fire-maned zebras are about to surround us. These weren't exactly what I was picturing when she told me striped horses earlier but it made sense. We had been struggling along and getting through more fights with those dumb golems. Eventually, we walked into a larger cavern for the last stretch of this place. Unfortunately, this cavern is filled with those flaming zebras right now.

("You didn't hear them?") Luna asked.

I shook my head. ("I didn't. They were also quieter than I expected, I expected clopping or something... Plus it's hard to focus...")

A wall of flame flared up in front of us but the zebras calmly walked through them, completely unfazed by the fire. Luna sighed and her ears went back. I didn't think she expected the fire to hurt them but probably hoped it would at least deter them. No such luck.

"Helena! Piper! Circle!" Maxwell called out.

I hefted my axe and slung my shield in front of me. For now, I would fight as a human and hope I didn't get burned. Fighting in my wolf form took too much out of me when it was this hot. ("Piper, I don't know how well my human form regenerates. You might need to heal me if I take a nasty hit,") I warned her.

"Okay!" she called out to me while getting in formation herself. Piper was never undaunted in standing in front and taking hits herself, seemingly just as eager to take hits as any other front-line fighter despite being a healer. Aria however didn't argue and took a stance in the middle of the group. She had switched back to a sword for this fight but I wouldn't be betting my life on her swordsmanship skills in front. We're best off letting the three of us handle it.

The fire-maned zebras were making barking noises and slowly circling us. The dungeon was a strange place. I didn't know why these monsters that looked so similar to animals behaved this way. I couldn't imagine the herbivores these things resembled being this aggressive around people. The monsters in this place were borderline suicidal, trying to fight us to the death rather than attempting to run away most of the time. It was hard to understand their motivation as anything other than the dungeon itself trying to kill us.

Suddenly one charged me. I planted my feet and held up my shield. It hit so hard that my entire body rocked in place and one of my feet was lifted off the ground for a brief moment the first time. I absorbed the shock fine though and swung my axe down at the monster before it could get away. My slash clipped its ass but it didn't go deep enough to leave a major wound. Before I could fully recover I heard Piper grunt behind me as she took the hit a little harder than I had. Unlike me, she took too long to recover and didn't get a hit in, but Aria managed to slash her sword and get a nice wound on the zebra monster's leg. The monster limped back into the group circling us and continued on.

After their first couple of probing attacks, they were smart enough to start attacking us in pairs or all at once to catch us off guard. There was one sure standout in this fight though. Every time Maxwell was attacked he was the quickest to redirect the attack and get a slash in with his magical sword. Maxwell was the most practiced with counter-attacking so even though not every attack hit its mark, he was the most consistent at getting devastating hits in. It happened often enough that the beasts had stopped attacking him nearly as much and focused on the two comparably weak links in our group.

Piper was the weakest of the three of us but Aria had been doing a good job of taking advantage of the openings she was making, so it was actually me that wasn't able to capitalize much on their attacks. Using my giant axe one-handed in the heat while holding up my shield wasn't working for me. Even when I did get a hit in, they were only minor slashes because I just couldn't muster much force behind my attacks like this. I really hope these monsters give me heat resistance, I was so miserable.

Then, I got really lucky. After one of the zebras kicked against my shield, I twisted for a counter-attack and my axe landed square on the monster's spine as it tried to get away. The monster crumpled over, completely unable to move its legs anymore.

My mouth began to water and my brain howled to take the kill and flee with it. But I grit my teeth and ignored the blaring screams of my instincts in my head. I needed to stay in formation and protect my packmates. Redirecting my instincts to something else my instincts agreed with was easier than trying to stamp them down. I gave my friends a quick glance. Everyone was okay so far but understandably hot. Luna was hurling balls of water at the animals and misty steam billowed off of them from time to time. It seemed like they were trying to cook us if we didn't fall to their kicks. While Luna wasn't taking any of them down, she was counteracting the haze of heat they were trying to create around us. Their little herd was thinning though. It was slow going, but we were winning.

It was a long battle of attrition, but at last, Maxwell cut down the final one. The very moment we were safe I nearly jumped on top of the one I had gotten myself, the one I had severed the spine of. It wasn't dead yet, it had been lying there paralyzed and unable to move so I put it out of its misery with a quick stab of my claws through its head before I had even realized I had shifted. I tore into the large barrel of the zebra ripping its ribcage open to get them out of my way. Most of the good meat on this isn't in this part of the animal, it was on the back and sides of it but there was still a decent amount of good meat to eat near the ribs. I wasn't that hungry after my encounter with the panther so I was mainly looking for its heart.

I licked my chops before biting into it. It had a larger one than most of the other animals I had fought, second only to the bear and maybe the minotaur. It took several large bites but I finally finished it and once again shivered as I felt the power I gained from the monster flow through me. This time flames visibly flickered down my form for a moment before fading away. I panted and barely managed to step out of the carcass before shifting back to my human form. I didn't get heat resistance but I think I may have gotten something slightly similar. My fur had felt slightly itchy like the properties of it changed again. The feeling reminded me of the itchy feeling I got when Luna first found that sash that improved her fire magic. It wasn't the same though, it had a different... scent to it, for lack of a better word. I couldn't really explain how it felt different.

("Heat resistance?") Luna asked.

"No. Still hot." I replied out loud for the benefit of the others. But I followed up in more detail for Luna. ("I think it did something to my fur though. I'm not heat resistant the same way I'm cold resistant, but maybe my fur is less flammable or something.")

("I wouldn't be surprised. Fire magic does nothing at all to them,") she replied.

"The stairs up aren't far from here," Maxwell said pointing off in the distance.

I couldn't see them from here but the fact that Maxwell was pointing at the stairs reassured me that we were close. The relief I felt was palpable. I almost wanted to skip our post-combat rest but I knew that wouldn't fly. Everyone was too tired and hot after the fight. I slumped down on a rock and took long draws from my canteen.

Aria was watching me again but averted her eyes the moment ours met. I decided to see what she was curious about. I dragged myself to my feet, then sat down cross-legged in front of her. "Do you need something?" I asked.

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She looked a bit anxious that I was sitting next to her but she didn't run away or avert her eyes again. Now that I had come over she was looking me in the eye.

"Just... I want to know why you eat the monsters," she said.

I shrugged. "Eating the hearts make me stronger."

"Why? How?"

I shook my head. "I do not know. But it does."

Her brow furrowed but she kept watching me. "Do you like it?" she asked.

Hmm... I'm not sure how to answer that... I scratched the back of my head and looked away. "Not at first. But I do now... I think."

"Were you an umber wolf at first or a human?" she asked.

I laughed. "A human."

She didn't find it as funny as I did. She didn't argue though she just looked at me with a concerned look.

I pointed at her. "You like Maxwell," I said with a grin.

She turned red and gaped at me, completely caught off guard. "What? N-no."

"Easy to..." I cocked my head, unable to find a word that fit here from my limited vocabulary. "see?"

She blushed and looked around at the others. "Quiet, don't .... ...." I squinted, unable to pick up the words she used but I could guess the gist.

"Piper knows, she saw it first. I told Luna. Don't know if Maxwell knows. Hard to see. Maxwell quiet."

Aria was bright red now. "You aren't upset .... it right?"

I grinned. "No. I don't like men. I like Luna."

Her eyebrows went up. "Oh... that .... .... ...." her reply trailed off into mumbles I couldn't understand.

Piper noticed us talking and came over to check us out. "You two .... .... okay?" she asked jovially.

Aria gave Piper a hesitant smile. "I think so?" she said while eyeing me.

I nodded. "I am good. Just hot."

Piper sighed dramatically. "I know. We are almost there ...."

I looked in the direction of the stairs. Soon we'll get out of here.

"I think we're about ready," Piper said.

With another swig of water, the five of us started making our way over to the stairs once again. I would have liked to say the last stretch went quickly but I would be lying. Knowing the stairs were off in the distance almost made things worse. Like when you're exhausted but you have 1 minute left on the treadmill so you keep running at full speed even though you wanted to stop five minutes ago. I almost wanted to hug the marble stairs and it seems I wasn't the only one because that's what everyone started doing. The marble somehow stayed cool to the touch even in this hot atmosphere.

"Let's go," Maxwell grumbled out as he finally peeled himself away from the stairs. He was the first to start climbing. In the usual formation, we started heading up. Unfortunately, that meant that I was last. But fortunately, the heat fell away not that long after that. Maybe a quarter into the weirdly long stairs the heat disappeared and the temperature became temperate again. Temperate to our heat-soaked bodies felt downright frosty and all five of us sighed in relief once the oppressive heat was finally gone.

I smiled wide when we reached the top of the stairs. There was a gentle breeze with the smell of moisture in the air from the large lakes breaking up the giant open meadows. The entire floor was locked in a perpetual golden hour, the last hour before sunset when the sky is orange and beautiful. The floor looked like it went on for miles in all directions and the only thing that looked out of place was the giant dirt road that led away from the floor stairs and off into the horizon. The floor reminded me of the large stretches of farmland you see in the middle of the United States, except there weren't even any mountains in any direction. Just more plains as far as the eye could see in all directions.

Our entire group flopped down in the grass and groaned in relief when we finally were out of that hellish hot cave.

I had only barely managed to stop myself from passing out in the grass with the thought that somebody should probably keep watch. And so I only sat in the grass, rather than roll in it like my friends.

I looked out at the lakes wistfully and hoped that bathing in them would be okay. I wanted a bath so bad I might actually risk it even if there are monsters inside.