“Lyria get your fat ass over here, he doesn't look like he will survive for long.”

The black clad Inara shouted towards her lagging companion.

Nyla was fidgeting around unsure of what to do, he had made eye contact with her for a second before he promptly fainted. He looked half dead, his face was smashed and covered in muddy blood. But the weirdest part about him were his clothes, unlike anything they have ever seen before. A dark blue thick coat, with some-kind of shirt under with a colorful picture on it. The pants were a shade lighter blue also made out of an unknown material, and the boots were really well made looking high class with a unique design.

Cassandra the fourth member of their party quickly cut a path open through the tight foliage, making a path for Lyria to catch up.

“Move Nyla” Lyria quickly passed by her companions while she started to chant her healing spell. Her hands glowing with a golden glow that spread towards the unconscious man. They could see his nose popping back out and the bleeding from his several wounds stopping before they closed up and healed at a visible pace.

“And your ass is fatter than mine, can you please stop calling me like that” Lyria interjected after the healing had done its work with a slight pout on her face.

“As long as your ass is the slowest you will forever be the fat ass of the party” Inara grinned while poking fun at her friend.

“Enough, we are still in the endless forest. Go and make sure there isn’t anymore danger around if you have nothing better to do.” Cassandra admonished Inara.

“Hey I also want to see the guy, at-least clean him up first so I can take a peek” Inara pouted slightly before her perpetual mischievous smile came back to her face.

Cassandra could only sigh before she quickly started to chant.

A water stream materialized around the guy before it gently flowed around his body, picking up muck and blood from him. She followed up with another chant that created a warm breeze that quickly dried of the remaining liquid that was left from the cleaning.

There was a collective moment of silence followed by Nyla swallowing.

Lyria had a slight blush on her face, and Inara was starting to chuckle after the initial moment of shock.

“Hehehehe, we hit the jackpot. We found our own hunk in distress. Do you think he is some-kind of noble with those clothes?”

Inara couldn’t help herself and ask the question.

“Stop daydreaming Inara, we don’t know who he is. And don’t expect that he will fall for you like in the stories you read.”

Cassandra like always was the voice of reason to Inaras crazy delusions.

“Hey, it’s Nyla and Lyria who always reads those stories not me. Nyla this will be up to you. When he wakes up you have to show him your best side.”

Inara quickly threw the responsibility on their knight.

That was enough to wake her up from her stupor.

“But I don’t know how? What if I fail?”

“Shut up you sissy, you’re our best bet. You just have to be confident and show of your strength. Guys love strong confident women that can protect them. With the dramatic rescue we had, you should be a shoe in.”

Inara quickly answered while plotting the whole ordeal.

“Stop dillydallying, we should bring him back to camp and rest for the night. We can’t stay here fantasizing the whole time.”

Cassandra could only sigh again while taking control of the situation.

“Good thinking, then I'll just scoop him up and carry him to the camp”

Inara quickly stepped ahead while she got a lecherous grin on her face.

“No, you will do your job and scout ahead for danger. Nyla will carry him while Lyria sticks close. Ill cower our back”

Cassandra interjected before Inara could pick up their rescue.

She also had to tap Lyria on the shoulder who had been staring at his sleeping face with a slight blush, completely oblivious of everything around her.

The trek back to their camp was quiet and without any new surprises. With Inara scouting ahead and Nyla floating on cloud nine with her price, getting to carry a pretty man in a princely carry was the highlight of the entire foray. Forget the fact that they had completed their misson or had the biggest harvest of monster cores ever, they also found some rare plants that would net them a hefty sum on their return. Top it off with the last minute rescue the trip couldn’t get any better, well it could but then she would be dreaming. Getting a stupid grin on her face she was almost ready to start humming and skipping the last stretch of the trip.

***

Waking with a start I found myself resting in a small tent. My jacket and shirt were gone, replaced with a rough linen shirt that scratched my skin and was really tight around the waist and shoulder. Fortunately my jeans and boots were still on. I suddenly remembered the escape and the bear that raked my back. Quickly checking myself for injury I was shocked that I felt better than I have in years, and all my injuries were gone.

Before I could properly orient myself the tent flap opened and the giant elf peered inside. Without the tears in my eyes and dizziness from getting my head smashed against the tree I could clearer make out her features, she didn't have her platemail on which meant that I could clearly see the muscle bulging everywhere. Even her face looked more masculine now, everything except her silver hair that was put up into a ponytail and had some shimmering rainbow underlights. Her body was like that of a strongman with arms bigger than my thighs. Pure muscle on her chest and a hefty stomach, not from fat but pure girth and power almost like the world-record holders for power-lifting. She hadn’t skipped legday either, and came in the whole I can crush you into a pretzel package.

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She had a strained smile on her face that didn’t quite match the rest of her countenance.

“Heime, tye're awa. Manen are tye eling? Ni'm Nyla bime i pata.”

Her melodious voice with a hint of bass shook me out of my stupor and I instantly bowed my head down.

“Thank you for saving and nurturing me back to health, but I don’t understand you.”

It would be rude of me to openly gawk at my savior. So I tried to convey my sincerity and gratitude through my voice and bodylanguage as I was sure this wasn’t earth and I really doubted that she would understand anything I said either.

When I lifted my head she was fidgeting with her head slightly cooked to the side. She glanced behind her before saying something new to me, but as it stood we were at an impasse where both were uncertain on how to properly communicate with eachother. While I was racking my brain on how to proceed, as it was vitally important for me to stay on good terms with my rescuers if I wanted to have any chance to survive in this strange new world.

The few seconds of silence was enough for the giant, she got a slight frown on her prominent brows before she stepped outside the tent and yelled out to her companions.

‘Well that didn’t go as I hoped’

Unsure of what to do I stretched and marveled on how good my body felt. I felt better than I can remember, and that was after I almost died to a giant monster bear. Either I was asleep for a long time or they really had magic powers, which wasn’t something I would discount after everything I have seen.

I could hear some noises outside and a couple of women talking to each other. After what felt like an eternity, but was probably a couple of minutes I couldn’t sit still anymore. Standing up I left the tent and right outside I came face to face with the most beautiful women I have ever met. She was just about to enter the tent so we were practically brushing our noses together. She had straight dark red hair down to her shoulders, sharp reddish brown eyes with delicate eyelashes. High cheek bones with a perfectly shaped nose. She was wearing thick leather with a cloak over that cowered most of her. I couldn’t help but swallow while fidgeting for a response. She looked equally surprised as me, but quickly composed herself and took a step back while saying something in their melodic language.

I scratched my head before I noticed what I was doing, and that there were three other women standing behind looking in our direction. One was of course the giant elf, the other was wearing very dark brown leather armor, she had black wavy hair down her neck. She also had cat ears on top of her head and a sensual face, while the woman in-front of me had a beautiful while strict face. The cat girl still just as beautiful had an outrages body and a predatory glint in her eyes, while sporting a mischievous smirk on her full lips. And the last was a short girl with a baggy cloak that covered her, but I could see a cute dainty face with a small nose and pretty pink lips, she was a mixture of both beautiful and cute leaning towards the cute side. But she slinked back when my eyes turned towards her direction.

At this point I was completely out of water, they would put models back at home to shame and here there were three of them standing ahead of me.

Taking a deep breathe I focused on the girl in front and bowed down while saying.

“Thank you so much for saving me.”

Hoping that it was a universal sign of gratitude and respect. I held my head down for a few seconds before I raised my head.

The red headed beauty had a stoic expression on her face before quickly saying something herself.

I could only shake my head, pointing at myself.

“Alex”

Looking expectantly at her, she gave a slight sigh before copying me.

“Cassandra”

She pointed at the muscular elf who quickly shouted with enthusiasm.

“Nyla”

Followed by the cat girl giving me a slight wave.

“Inara”

And finally the cute girl with barely a whisper that I couldn’t quite make out.

“Lyria”

I could see Inara laughing and giving Lyria a hard time, while Cassandra was shaking her head, Cassandra promptly pointed at Lyria and repeated her name for me.

They seemed like a close and nice bunch, but the atmosphere was still kinda awkward. There was some fidgeting going around, and everyone except Cassandra were giving me slight glances here and there.

I could understand, with me being a guy dressed in distinctively different clothes from any of them. Helplessly lost and dying in the forest, who couldn’t even speak their language. I would be skeptical and curious about me as well.

While musing about how I could better communicate with them and how to proceed my stomach interjected and gave itself known. With my loud stomach rumble I could see Cassandra pointing me towards a fire they had in the middle of the camp. Giving her a quick nod I stepped towards the crew who were getting back towards the log they used as a bench and joining them.

When Inara saw me slightly hesitate, she grabbed a rabbit skewer from the fire and passed it to me while indicated for me to sit down. She than pulled Nyla towards me and gave her a slight wink before finding her own food.

While I was trying to absorb this whole situation I saw Nyla was sitting next to me while throwing me glances. I could see in my periphery that Inara was indicating and saying something to Nyla, she patted her arms and nodded towards me.

While I was eating the surprisingly delicious rabbit skewer Nyla got up her courage and pointed at the rabbit and called it “Tyre” she continued to point and gesture while clearly pronouncing the word for the gesture like eating was “Arde”. They were really considerate since we clearly had a communication barrier they went out of their way not only rescuing me, but also healing, feeding and now trying to teach me.

I could see she was also flexing her muscles, when she pointed at certain stuff she would curl her arm up so she could flex her bicep. Especially when she passed me her water skin. She was also contorting her body slightly as if she was casually practicing for a bodybuilder contest, but it looked kinda awkward with the fact she was trying to act natural while at the same time flexing her muscles. I could feel my face muscle twitch as my smile was getting more and more strained by the second. Paying attention to her lessons was really important for me to learn and understand them better. Yet the blatant display of her body and the overly friendliness couldn’t help but remind me of how some awkward nerds flirted when I was in high-school, if you replaced the flexing part with inane random knowledge that they spewed to hold the conversation going. Everything seemed strained and forced with the slight glances towards me to see how I react to every move she does, to the fact she turned towards Inara several times when she couldn’t come up with something new to teach me. The answer always came back to more flexing. It was clear she was trying to show off, and Inara was giving her full support.

‘Is she trying to set me up with Nyla? Maybe she has problems with getting a guy and they are trying to hook us up.’

Even though I can’t really know what she was trying to accomplish it was so silly I couldn’t help but hold back a laugh and my smile grew slightly wider while nodding towards her. She was contorting her upperbody while flexing her offhand and pointing towards a tree pronouncing its name “Verde”. And when she saw me smile her whole face lit up and she became even more enthusiastic about the whole ordeal.

I really wanted to pay attention to all the words she was teaching me, but I couldn’t keep up with the tempo of the whole experience. Especially while I was trying to eat my giant rabbit skewer. My rescue came when Cassandra called out to her members who promptly started to pack up the camp. Even though I would have liked for any of the other girls to show me the same interest as Nyla did, but it still felt kinda good to be wanted. It was a new experience for me and the fact that I was working on a full stomach and had people to help me really reduced the stress and anxiety I had in the first few hours of waking up in this world.