“Well, you look like yourself,

But you're somebody else,” Chess sang like her life depended on it because it did.

Water flew with every strum of her fingers across Sprig strings, distorting the tune in interesting but not unpleasant ways. Hurry the hell up! she thought as Amber and Masae spanned crossbows behind Amber’s blood shield. The pair were hidden in a dense thicket to Chess's right and she glanced at them out of the corner of her eye.

“Another one!” Amber hissed, and the pair leaned forward to shoot the latest gnoll to break free of Chess’s spell in the side of the head and chest. Both bolts impacted in near-perfect unison. Luckily this gnoll stood near the rear of the pack and its fellows didn’t see it fall. The last had been near the front and its death had freed another to rush at Chess only to take a bolt to the brainpan a half step later.

Chess was all too aware of how bad it would be for her if her companions didn't continue to get immediately fatal or devastating hits. She slid back a step as she put all of her concentration on the song.

“Only it ain't on the surface

Well, you talk like yourself,”

Chess took another two slow sliding steps backward. Just keep on smiling Chesty. Only four left.

Two of the gnolls were weeping while the others wandered back and forth in dazed confusion.

"No, I hear someone else though

Now you're making me nervous”

Masae stood and took careful aim before letting loose at one of the wandering gnolls. It took two final steps before collapsing in a boneless heap.

Amber matched her by firing at the last stumbler. Unfortunately, instead of stumbling and falling to the side, the big female fell forward into one of its spellbound friends. This broke the last two free of Chess's spell.

In a desperate knee-jerk reaction, Chess switched to shaped growth and surged the tree roots between her and her enraged foes before they took their first steps free of the Charm.

One fell forward like it had tripped on a stair and Masae morphed into a sleek fox mid-jump and attached herself to the prone gnoll's neck like a glowing lamprey. She shook violently, tearing chunks of flesh from its throat while using her tails to fend off its grasping hands and to reposition when it tried to roll to crush her.

Chess had just enough time to take three steps back and wonder, just how strong are her tails? before the final gnoll pounced on her bearing her to the ground with a thump. Her armor dulled the impact to something like falling into a very lumpy bed.

She managed to get Sprig between her and the gnoll before he could bite at her exposed face. Sorry, she thought with a wince for her instrument before something pounded into her side with enough force to steal half a breath through her armor. When another blow didn't outwardly affect her, a crushing grip found her arm and dug bits of her bracer into her flesh, forcing a half-whimper to escape her lips.

Chess tried to Thump-smack the side of his head, but when he turned his head and tried to bite her hand, she changed tactics and fumbled at her belt for her knife.

Then the grip eased and an absolutely absurd amount of blood fountained down on Chess, getting everywhere, even in her mouth, followed moments later by the gnolls crushing weight settling on her.

Shit, shit, fuck! Chess scrabbled at the sodden weight. Even with all her strength, she couldn't budge it an inch. Sprig creaked ominously between them.

"Help," she wheezed out dramatically around the mouthful of cloying copper. Though her armor prevented her from losing her breath.

After a soft laugh from Amber, the gnoll’s weight shifted as her companions rolled it off her.

Amber stood over her, her athame dripping blood with Masae giving Chess a blood-filled smile beside her.

Chess blinked then stood and spat out the remaining blood she hadn't swallowed, before turning to Amber. "Really!? Just really? You couldn't let me back up a bit before you did that? You got a bunch in my mouth, inside Sprig! Even the rain stayed out until now." Chess held Sprig out dramatically and shook the instrument to get the blood out. Nothing happened and Chess turned Sprig so she could look inside. She was pristine, dry, and undamaged, despite the rain. That's strange.

Sprig

Bonded: Chess Stewart

Type: Acoustic guitar

Rank: 3

Rarity: Custom/unique

Properties: Living Dryad Ironwood

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

Durability: 9744/10000

Enchantments:

Musical Ease: Sprig is enchanted to work with Bonded’s music, correcting up to (Rank) number of mistakes per song. [Current 3]

Synergy between bonded’s Musical Memory skill and Musical Ease found:

Musical Storage: Store one song played on Sprig per Rank each day. Stored songs can be played back once for each time stored. The first (Rank) songs played on Sprig each day will be stored. All stored songs fade at midnight.

A gift, freely given, to a traveler for her gift of beautiful music, magic, and patience.

Chess brought up Sprig's window quickly to see and winced at the small loss of durability. She's still in better shape than a week ago.

"He had you pinned," Amber explained.

"Be thankful he didn't get his weapon free," Masae admonished.

"Right, you're both right," Chess said with a deep breath as the thrum of adrenaline left her, leaving her feeling like a wrung-out dishrag. She removed her still-open helm and rubbed at her face before freeing her hair from its braid and shaking it out. A spike of pain ran up from her arm with the motion.

Thankfully the warm rain continued to fall, washing most of the blood away. The lightning had passed hours before, taking much of the storm's ferocity with it.

Masae nodded and turned. "You need to work on your willpower, Chess-san. Although this was much better with them closer," she whispered as she moved to make sure of their foes with the large ironwood bowie knife Chess had lent her. It looked like a thick short sword in the petite kitsune's hands.

"Yeah, it was," Chess agreed, removing her bracer so she could study the red of the growing bruise on her left forearm. Making it so others can take it off has its disadvantages, she mused.

“I know it makes you uncomfortable, but she's right. That wasn’t nearly as bad as the last group," Amber said.

“Speak for yourself. You didn’t have to stand here and face them down on your own from ten feet away. I swear my heart was near to bursting,” Chess grumbled. She summoned her vault and stepped in to retrieve the harvester, then said, "Next time some distraught little girl tries to talk us into attacking her enemies in exchange for a custom weapon, please slap me on the back of the head," when she stepped out and lined up with the first neck.

Amber shook her head and smiled. "As you say, my lady. We do get all the loot in our deal. And kitsune smiths…"

"Are among the best." Chess rolled her eyes. "We'll see. It's still an absurd risk we're taking here. I still think we should get the others to help," Chess murmured and studied the rain-dampened woods around her. Nothing moved. Maybe this is the last search group.

“I'm 139. I'm by no means a young girl," Masae cut into their growing argument. "These were some of the younger hunters. I recognize most of them. It would explain why your charm ability worked better on them than the last group."

If Chess had been drinking, she would have spat it out in a fan. As it was, she ended up taking a large portion of the jaw from her latest target. "139!? You look 18—if that. How bloody long do kitsune live for?"

"It shouldn't be much of a surprise to you. You look no older than a 16 or 17-year-old human but must be much older if you have an awakened daughter," Masae reasoned while rubbing absently at the ring of abrasions circling her neck.

“This is moon steel,” Amber said, handing Chess a large double-headed hammerhead. Chess squirreled it away, happy that she’d made space in her inventory before their trip. She brought out two large empty boxes when she left her vault.

Amber picked up the conversation. "Kitsune aging has something to do with their tails, I believe." Amber glanced at Masae who now busied herself cutting charms and other valuables from the fur and straps of their fallen foes.

Masae stood and nodded, then brushed her tails in front of her, tapping the ends of each with a knuckle. "Each tail indicates a significant increase in lifespan. What language are you using for your songs? I've never heard it before," Masae inquired.

"English," Chess said, not seeing any harm in the information. "That doesn't explain how you look eighteen."

"As long as I have a century to spare, I'll keep my ideal base form. English? I don't believe the lore keepers have a record of this language. Is it a rift tongue?"

Chess smiled and nodded. "It's one of many from my homeland, it's widely used for music even where the language is Uncommon. Are three tails normal for your kind? It seems a little impractical to me."

"She can use them as extra limbs. I've seen a kitsune use them to juggle before. They're prehensile. You've seen her fight," Amber pointed out, before passing Chess two spearheads she'd removed from their shafts.

"Okay, that's a fair point," Chess conceded and added them to the box.

"Most kitsune die with only one or two tails. Our legends say we can gain up to nine and Inari's companion has thirteen. Three is rare," Masae said with evident pride.

Amber snapped her fingers. "Inari! I couldn't for the life of me remember your Goddess' name."

Masae smiled like an indulgent grandmother and corrected Amber, "The great spirit Inari has many forms, Amber-san."

"Sorry, I meant no offense," Amber nodded her head in a slight bow. "While I find this all fascinating, we should drop it for now. We are in a forest filled with gnolls trying to recapture Masae," she added.

"If they were nearby, they would have heard the fighting," Chess reasoned.

"All the more reason to light a fire under our asses," Amber retorted. Chess smiled at the idiom she'd taught Amber.

Masae dumped an armful of bags and other knick-knacks into the box and stood. "That should be it."

Chess nodded and dropped the last head into the headbox before summoning her vault and depositing their loot. "Let's go. Hopefully, your chief shows up with the next patrol." She stifled a yawn before retying her bracer and donning her helm.

"If they've even noticed the others are missing yet," Amber tempered.

"They have. They aren't that stupid," Masae cautioned.

Chess looked at the dead gnolls. "Are you sure?"

"Sadly yes. When Uilba died the others were freed along with me. Lentan and some of the others would have attempted to run already. Hopefully in the same direction, I went.

Chess sighed at another reference to the real reason she'd agreed to this lunacy. The captives kept for the stewpot and the women. To give them a chance when and if they ran. At least we aren't charging in to fight the entire tribe.

With that they headed out again, to continue the wide arc around the gnoll's burrow in search of other patrols and sentries, in order to whittle down the tribe's warriors.

Chess groaned softly as all her new contusions ached now that the adrenaline had fully fled her system, and she followed, Sprig set and ready before her. Thank Freya for this armor. Or me, she smiled ruefully.