An Age of Mysterious Memories

B 3 C 23: Reunited, and It Feels So Good

Lil decided to leave their chit with Dehlia. Chit is the official term for the mark of importance, I probably should have been referring to it as that the entire time, meh. Dehlia will be able to call a tribunal in case of an emergency and it might help her fight for peace, or for the disbanding of the Black Fangs. I’m pretty sure Lil is twitterpated with Dehlia, or Dehlia, or both, but I don’t have an aura sense, so I can’t confirm it. Still, Lil now leads the entire chameleon village in a sub party under the elder of that village, as well as several dozen Naga in Dehlia’s organization in a sub party under Dehlia.

Personally I now also have a secondary sub party of Naga under Brastley of all people! Brastley has decided to journey with to see what kind of life I live that I have such a huge party, large family, and the powers that I do. Brastley and Szintoc had a tearful goodbye. My broken memories from fakeworld would find that to be an unusual sight. The sight of a couple of muscular athletes hugging and sobbing as they say their temporary farewells. Brastley is one of the Nagas that has a serpentine face instead of a human-appearing face, I’m not sure if that’s a different evolutionary stage, or if it’s a personal choice from magic, or what. The serpentine faced and human faced Nagas are both roughly the same size, it’s not like where a feraform is generally half the size of a humaform stage individual.

As much as I’m in a hurry to get back and see my family, to snuggle for ages, Lil and I have decided to move only slightly faster than the Nagas. The reason is so that we can scout ahead and swing back repeatedly. We’ve informed Teuila that we’re bringing Nagas and have negotiated for safety for our contingent. Thus, word should be spreading throughout the camps, which should include letting Linti know to not hunt any serpents for the time being.

It has been almost exactly three weeks since Lil and I veered off on a different path from Luni and Teuila on the eastern side of the river. We’ve gotten to see one another a couple of times during that, but the worst part is having memories of decades spent being unable to contact them. Even when Lil and I tried to use the comm stone to reach out, during our many-years attempt in the third trial, we weren’t able to reach them. I guess because technically we never really left the same day. Maybe?

I ache and yearn for my beloved inner circle to be reunited, but it’s only a few more hours until we’re meeting up regularly once again. Thankfully we’ve passed or subdued most dangers at this point. Mataalii and a possible critterkin civil war are the only threats I can think of right now. I am however mentally exhausted from this mission of establishing peace and trust, so I will straight up murder anyone that starts trouble at this point. If the Black Fangs try something, I’ll just have to apologize to Dehlia later for killing them all.

That seems pretty cocky, doesn’t it? Especially since one of them technically killed me already, kind of twice. I was trying to respect rules of a game though. Without having those sorts of limitations on myself, or Lil, either one of us could have ended them before they began their first attacks. I will have to be a bit more wary of timed detonation spells from now on though, now that I know they exist.

I also gained a lot of lightning resistance from having my organs atomized by internal lightning. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, right? And what does kill you, makes you even stronger than that. Or something, hah.

Brastley being with us is a bit fortuitous. I think if we want to open further lines of communication, so that Bettie isn’t burdened by being the only mediator between the critterkin and human groups, we’ll need more wind mages. As far as I can tell, that’s our best bet for being able to get our voices to literally be heard.

I know, I know, I can be the mediator since humans can speak to me, and now all the critterkin that remain are in my party, but, ugh. I’m not a leader, or a mediator. I’m a mediocre adventurer, and a murderer. I wonder how much better off the world in my memories would be, if societally, those humans had stopped letting murderers lead them long long ago. Individuals that crossed oceans and claimed continents, or fought one another to be the dominant kingdom to be able to levy taxes, never really made good leaders in my books.

To me, in my eyes, I’m pretty much like those humans, and I think that they’re scum.

Lil tackles me, interrupting my train of thought, “Knock it off Reggie! You’ve been through a lot pal, but you always try to do what’s right, and, and, and like, like when you can’t figure out what’s right, if there even is a right, you try to keep us safe! Even the times you lose control, it’s only around really dangerous people! And like, the cragbeasts, Lu said they were going to break, wait. Ignore that, Lu said not to talk about it.”

My jaw drops as I stare at Lil. I’m pretty sure I know how that sentence was going to end. Cragbeasts had a population that continuously spawned, the only reason they were stuck in their warren was because they constantly killed and ate one another. If it weren’t for their own population control, they might have been able to find a way to break out of the barrier. By the time we had arrived, something caused the cragbeasts to stop having any hostility for one another at all. Their population would have started skyrocketing soon after. I’ll have to compartmentalize that thought though and ignore it. If Lu said not to talk about it, that means I’m not supposed to know, yet. Maybe the time is already past where it’s okay to tell me, but I’ll wait until My-Anchor is ready for me to have the information.

Sighing, I nuzzle my forehead to Lil’s, “You’re right, sorry buddy. I’ll always struggle with self-deprecation. I hope you can forgive me for that. It’s not going to change. I’ll try to be better, but the thoughts will always find a way back to hit me once again eventually.”

Lil returns the nuzzling, and my comment, “You might not be able to change your thoughts, but I’ll always be there to knock some sense into you or knock them out of your head. Ya dig? You’re my best pal. We watch out for each other, even when who we have to watch out for is each other. Right buddy?”

Chuckling, I nod, “Right Lil, right. I love you. Let’s meet up with the girls and catch up, maybe if Luni comes along, we can get the Nagas to catch up in a few minutes instead of hours or days. I love her speed magics.”

Lil yips in joy, “Heck yeah! I hope my Gal-Pal is coming with. I know my It’s-A-Secret is faster, but I want to see them both, ya know? And, and, and, I have new things to talk about, and a whole new partner, my Tongue-Tie-er.”

My face screws up as I try to imagine what Lil meant by that last bit. I thought I was mistaken, but I swear I saw Lil and Dehlia flicking their tongues into each other’s ears, or well, auditory orifices, more than once, which I thought was just a once-in-a-blue-moon good luck thing. Ah, Lil is blushing, yeah, apparently that’s a thing now. Chuckling, I rub Lil’s tail while giving them a playful noogie.

Not long after Lil and I are done goofing around for the moment, Luni and Teuila arrive. My heart virtually soars, and My-Heart literally soars to tackle Te out of the sky into Lu, Lil transforms into Lilagnewt on the way to bring Teuila down to the ground. The three of them are plowed into the ground but are trading flips and pins amongst themselves while exchanging gleeful noises. Then, Lil adopts their spherical form for the best cuddles. I put on a burst of speed to join up as well. We all roll around laughing, hugging and kissing one another non stop, while the fastest few Nagas show up from behind us. Brastley, being a wind mage of course, is one of them, and he makes a very enamored expression when seeing us share our affection. Brastley and Szintoc, as burly as they are, seem more in touch with their emotions, or at least more expressive, than some of the lady Nagas who had battled us in the tournament. Some were so cold and dispassionate, that I wondered if they even enjoyed the games.

Since he’s here, I introduce him, “Brastley, these are the rest of my beloved inner circle, my SAP. This is Luni, Lu, My-Anchor. This is Teuila, Te, My-Wings. Obviously you know Lil. Guys, this is Brastley. He’s one of the first people we had to beat to start drumming up some challengers to be able to earn our chits. Brastley and Szintoc were a little bit ruthless, but otherwise good sports.”

Brastley blushes and motions apologetically when I call him ruthless. I adopt a wry smile and chuckle, waving it off. He picks up the four of us in his burly arms and massive tail for a great big group bear hug. Oof, coughing, I pat his shoulder to indicate he can let us down. He once again motions apologetically. I wonder if he realizes I can understand him now that we’re in a party. We can talk now, I mean, he heard me introducing them. Ah well. He’s giving us our space to catch up, now.

My inner circle sits on the ground snuggling against one another as we wait for the Nagas to finish catching up. Teuila drops her Valkyrie form, since she’ll be marching alongside all of us for the return journey anyway. Lil remains spherical since it’s easier to feel close to one another when Lil isn’t like four times the size of any of us.

Te starts to describe the situation at camp, but Luni keeps talking over her, earning many a call of, “Luuuuu, I was gonna say that!” We’re all laughing too hard to really get any serious information out of the exchange for a while. Eventually Teuila relents and just lets Luni relay the information.

Luni starts to explain, “So, that cat family you sent to us, their matron, Fawns, is all over everyone, all the time, but especially Lao and Ag. There isn’t a night where she’s not part of the family cuddle pile, and frequently she’ll bring Blossom or Six along, or well, they’ll bring themselves along. Hehe, it’s kinda cute. I can see why you fainted.”

I flush deep red and I lightly steam from my ears as I try to cool myself off with a micro FFS. Lil you boogerbutt, did you have to tell them about that?

Lil telepathically sends, “Yes, yes I did, hehehe.” Lil starts giggling uncontrollably in our mental wavelength, the meanie. Okay, yeah, it’s kind of funny, but still.

Lu continues, “Magnus and Spice are thick as thieves, Magnus is excited about anything and everything Spice designs or draws, and they’re basically joined at the hip, or face, any moment of the day. Adom and Sofu actually seem a bit bored without you around. I’m pretty sure they think of you as their personal rivals. Jazharn has actually been trying to get to know some of us through Bettie. She’s kind of nice actually. At first there were jokes that she’d have an acidic personality, because of her specialty, but I think she wishes she could speak to us herself, without needing a translator. I think she’s sort of twitterpated for some of the catfolk too.”

Lu ponders before carrying on, “Oh yeah, Priss has been, well, Priss. She’s a bit distant, she’s struggling to come to terms with things. I think she wants to ask something of the critterkin, but can’t bring herself to do it, so she mostly shuts everyone out and just passes out marching orders and calls to break camp and barely participates with anyone. Sir Reginald checks in on her fairly often, but I don’t think she likes him, since he thinks highly of you. Sir Reginald is kind of nice, but also kind of a butt, because his job was essentially to be your liaison, and you’re not around. So he basically complains about feeling useless, even though he’s essentially leading everyone in place of Priss, he just doesn’t notice he’s doing it. He’s good at the job too. Not that Priss isn’t, she’s just struggling, really hard. We flipped their world upside down, on top of all she has lost.”

Lu looks a bit embarrassed, “They don’t know, um, a certain thing. So they let some things slip. Some of the troops still had, um, supplies, not eggs, or more people, but they were still eating, uh, people meat is the only way I can put it. Priss couldn’t bear to punish them, neither could Sir Reginald, but they were both repulsed and sick over the news. Not everyone in the human party is adjusting well to mostly having to eat fruits and veggies. The amount of fish or insect meat we can get isn’t enough to even ration a little bit to everyone. Not even with Linti’s family sharing so much of it with everyone. Linti hunts like a maniac, apparently their insect hollow is way more populated than it ever was before, but she’s running herself ragged.”

I cock my head to the side and squint at Luni. How does she know something that Priss and Sir Reginald didn’t want to let slip? Was Bettie spying and confiding in her? Or, hm. Is Luni psychic enough to understand what they’re saying? I’ve seen Lu hanging around Priss before. I know you’re riding my thoughts Luni, want to weigh in on any of this?

Lu telepathically sends an image of herself blowing a raspberry and winking at me.

Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’re a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Hm, my brain just had a minor BSOD at that thought.

I wonder if we should just make our new home over the insect hollow. I don’t suppose that would work though, if Linti is already hunting nearly all the spawns, and even that isn’t enough to feed everyone, then it wouldn’t make sense to settle there. I’ve got thousands of units of insect meat, but even that is only maybe enough for half a day for the whole contingent, and we wiped out everything in the tunnels. What we really need is some fertile open land, and people with plant or earth based powers, and a massive lake with tons of fish spawns.

From what I recall about Priss’s original plan, the elven lands might have exactly that. Although I think they also have a fairly large critterkin community. One that Priss was going to raid for eggs. I really hope I don’t have to slaughter a bunch of dissenting human mages that are meat-starved when we arrive at Point B, to prevent them from going on an egg and meat raid.

Regardless, it sounds like people were carrying on pretty much how I expected them to, in the march. I can’t wait to get back to Lao and the others for snuggles.

Lil, privately, mentally chimes in, “And Fawns too, I bet!”

I blush heatedly again. In our private thinkspace I glare daggers at Lil. Dangit Lil, you’re so mean. Ugh, my heart’s racing, ooo you booger. Te and Lu are gazing at me in confusion.

I mumble, “Dun worry, s’nothin’. Just Lil being a dorky little dragbutt. Making me think of things, teasing me. Stuff.”

I avoid everyone’s eye contact as I try to still my fluttering heart. Lu and Te exchange a glance before bursting into laughter. Te says, “Fawns really got her claws in deep didn’t she? Your aura is going wild!”

Agh, ugh, no fair, no fair. I feel like the scales on my reptilian face are going to straight up melt. But to be honest, as much as cuddling with Fawns was amazing, the cat woman I most want to speak with is Linti. Everyone gazes at me with new wonder, I’m sure my aura changed somehow as my thoughts drifted to the Lightning Hunter. I’m not even sure on my feelings for Linti. She reminds me of Teuila in ways, maybe I’m projecting some attachment towards her because of that? I’m not sure. My heart aches when I think about the fact that she basically said she wanted to kill me herself when she was leaving The Hollow. Are we enemies? Rivals? Does she really want to kill me? I want her to be happy. She deserves happiness. She’s like Teuila, but also like me. She protects her family, seeks out threats to them and takes them out in one way or another. I try to do it by securing peace, but I’m not above murdering the everliving crap out of someone who is a threat to my family.

Do I just wish for her happiness from our similarities? Or am I smitten by her? She’s definitely a strong, cunning, beautiful woman. Based on my inner circle, I probably have a bit of a type. A type being the sort of person that draws my affections. At least, that’s what that use of the word type means in my fakeworld memories.

For an example of my type, Lil’s greatwyrm evolution allowed them to shapechange, and they took on a slightly androgynous but very strong, female-esque form almost every time they used it. I have decades of memories of sharing more intimate affection with that version of Lil, since we had thousands of years together in accelerated thinkspace across the decades we spent training.

Thinking about that time, Lil and I are both agendered, maybe gender fluid at best, but I think we were slightly femme leaning for the majority of our time together. I was very strongly neither for quite some time. Then for a period, I was masculine. There were times when Lil or I, or both of us, would make our transformations lean slightly more to the masculine side of agendered, but usually we leaned mostly femme. I suppose we could have even fully committed to a biology if we really wanted. I mean, we could have had physical characteristics of a biological sex. We had powerful enough shape-changing abilities. Neither of us wanted to during all that time though.

Luni and Teuila, riding my thought waves, dive into my memory logs to see what I was thinking about. I can feel them rummaging around for the thousands of years of sub logs within the longest attempt that Lil and I spent in the third trial. I think they’re both a little jealous, but they shouldn’t be, since even Lil doesn’t have those memories. It’s as if they were just a dream that only I had.

The Nagas have all arrived and caught up though, so I clear my throat, and my winsome coterie stands up, one and all. Lu begins playing music as we all make way to meet up with the rest of the survivor’s crew. I should come up with a name for our overall group. Are we a pilgrimage? What about the Lavaborn Alliance? That feels fitting. Everything we’ve done since has been because of the Night of All Burn. I’d rather not be the NOAB Survivors, so yeah, I think I’ll refer to us as the Lavaborn Alliance.

As much as I love my Shellcracker family, I’m not really willing to share their name with all of these strangers, even if they’re all going to be a part of the community I’ve been trying to found for so long. I don’t want to share as intimate of a relationship with all of them as I have with the Shellcrackers. Even Magnus feels more like a, hm, in my memories it would be called a brother-in-law situation. So, yeah, Lavaborn Alliance it is.

I wonder if I can manage something that my future self from one of various timelines was able to do. They could change their form back and forth between forms we’d already finished creating, or had already been at one point or another. It only took a single attempt. Let’s see how many attempts it takes for me to bring back cherubic Reggie. I tether my own heart, partially, without fully committing to the transformation, and self actualize my old appearance. I drop the tether, and hear some gasps and some cheers from those around me. Gasps mostly from the Nagas, cheers from my SAP, my Shellcracker Adventuring Party.

Lil telepathically sends, “As much as I love having you be a dragon, like me, pal, you’re so much softer and more fun to cuddle like this.”

I chuckle as I nod mentally in agreement. I’m definitely softer like this. I’m looking forward to sharing my softness with some people that I’m twitterpated with soon. Luni, stop snickering. Why do you even have concepts where phrasing implies things? I love you, my mysterious Anchor.

We arrive at the Lavaborn Alliance’s marching column in short order, it stretches for miles from west to east. They’ve been careful to not disturb the forest, at my request. It’s a very slow procession, because they essentially need to build another shop every day, travel backwards, tear down the old one, build a new one further ahead, and continue to do that. People are constantly filtering in and out of the shops to be able to keep up with food consumption. That means Lao or Lu or other top tier merchants have to stand in the shops almost all day every day, trading off when they tire. There are currently three shops, one at the front, one at the middle, and one at the rear of the procession, and the rear one is in the middle of being torn down, to be moved several miles ahead.

Luni could possibly transport segments of the Lavaborn Alliance en masse to far further locations, but she’d have to make dozens or hundreds of trips back and forth, ferrying clusters of people with her Seven Leagues Songs. I have a promise to keep, so I’m going to shut my brain off for a bit and stop trying to plot out next moves and stuff. I’m going to find Magnus, cuddle and catch up by telling him some of the basics of what happened. No need to go over centuries of time in some weird magic temple.

Magnus eagerly awaits, but like Lu mentioned, won’t settle down to catch up until Spice is free, so the three of us can cuddle together as I share the tale of my adventure. I mostly just talk about meeting Linti, hunting in the Hollow to rescue her family, the chameleon village in a short blurb, and the naga sport tournament to earn a chance to ask for a tribunal. I don’t bother explaining how Mataalii is the reason we had to rescue Linti’s family, or that Lil acquired a book with their own memory logs in it. Nor do I tell them that we left that book, and two more, in a temple of time secreted away beneath the Nagas’ society. Sugar passes by once or twice, always keeping a bit of a sharp eye on Magnus. It’s cute how overprotective Sugar is of Spice.

They are dismayed to hear that I died, and used up the last red potion. There may never be any more, unless more Octorochi creatures spawn. I’m honestly not looking forward to the idea of something like that happening, even if it meant I could earn more lifesaving potions. There’s the tiny possibility that maybe the Nagas have some hidden away somewhere, in some kind of ‘of blood’ apothecary, but I wouldn’t hold my breath on it.

After catching up, I’m duty bound to check in on Priscilla. Priss is, as Lu mentioned, distant. She’s far away, barely cognizant of us exchanging words. That’s a bad way for a leader to be, but I’m hoping she can pull through. I’m relying on her to keep the humans in line. I risk approaching her and squeezing her hand reassuringly. I’m not even sure if it registers in her mind that I’ve done it. Still, I feel like I sense something shifting, or cracking. Something made an impact, somewhere. I’m not sure how I know, but I just sense that something is changing in Priss. I hope it’s for the better, for all of our sakes. She commands a massively powerful populace after all.

If she’s changing for the worse, steeling her resolve to turn on all of us, then we’re in for a hellish battle. I’m pretty certain she knows she would have to attack at some point when I’m away, because I can fend off the majority of her forces with a single spell. Her most prevalent troops are fire mages after all. I mean, obviously if she’s far away because she’s plotting out the safest way to betray us, she’ll have thought of contingencies and plans and strategies and formations that I can’t begin to pick apart. She is a strategist, a general, and the warden of a prison, so she has decades of experience commanding others, after all.

As I’m about to reunite with the majority of my family, I spot Blossom waving at me from afar, blushing. I’m not sure what she has to be shy about. As I’m pondering this, I’m blindsided by Fawns At Sunsets.

Fawns exclaims, “I heard you were back, my deliciously sweet, cuddlesome little Reggie! Truly a joyous occasion. I hope I can steal you away for a while before Linti returns from her hunt. I know she’d like to have words with you. I’m not certain what about, but I’m sure it would be best if you went into such a conversation as relaxed as possible. Don’t you think?”

Fawn picks me up in a hug that smothers me in her ample bosom, and my embarrassment radiates heat into the pilowy cushions. Sure Fawn, relaxed, right, yes, I’m not nervous at all. Mentally I’m laughing hysterically from anxious nervousness. I manage to lightly chuckle, and reply, “I, um, that would be nice. I’d be happy to, um, yes, with you, cuddle. You’re wonderfully kind to be so considerate Fawn, thank you.”

As I compliment her, Fawn begins to groom my forehead and hair with her incredibly rough tongue. What is it with the people I’m twitterpated with licking me lately? Fawn, Lil, even Dehlia. Though I’m not sure I’m twitterpated with Dehlia, her tongue got pretty intimate with my ears. Even Teuila was nibbling on my nose and collarbone when we met up on the way here, and I could swear she snuck in at least one lick as well.

Fawn retires us to a tent that she apparently commandeered almost entirely for private cuddling. I see several human soldiers blush as she walks by, carrying me against her chest. Linti really was honest about Fawn being an inveterate flirt. How did she even manage to communicate her flirtiness and cuddling desires with any humans, let alone as many as I’m seeing appear nervous or embarrassed right now? Not that I can blame any of them for taking her up on any signals she managed to send.

Oh jeeze my heart’s racing a mile a minute again, and Lil isn’t even nearby teasing me. Lil is getting private snuggle time with Luni and Teuila. I suppose I can’t be too jealous, since Fawn is taking me aside for the same, when I was supposed to be going to see Sir Reginald. Wow, it is plush in this tent, either Fawn convinced many people to give up their pillows, or she saved pillows from their settlement, or she has been buying pillows from the shops.

Fawn sees my gaze and wonderment at the amount of pillows, “Little known secret, though the birds used to be rare, I’ve seen more and more. If you manage to catch a few, sometimes they drop little golden feathers. They’re apparently worth a lot of currency to your interesting little shop system. Plus, a little bit of extra meat never hurt in such difficult times.”

Dumbfoundedly I reply, “Huh, neat. Oh, I mean, actually yeah, that’s really useful information. Thank you Fawn. I’ll try to keep an eye out. Gosh, you are just full of wonderfulness. Such kindness, secret wisdom, lovely face, luxurious fur and soft br, I, uh, mean. I’m going to go find a gag to tie my mouth shut now.”

Fawn laughs like the tinkling of a bell and she wraps her limbs about mine as she lays us amidst the pillows. As she directs my right arm around her waist, placing my hand on the small of her back, she exclaims, “I thought perhaps you’d been cured of that nervousness, but it’s just as adorable as ever, you charming little sweetheart. Here, rub right here please. Feel how tense it is? That spot right there was my worry for you. You came to us nearly dead, you came back to save us quite injured, and then we parted once more with you taking on a task of peace greater than any we’d ever thought to attempt. It was literally tying me in knots with worry, do you feel it?”

Gulping, I massage the spot Fawn directs my hand to along the top of her tail. Sure enough, the muscle is knotted tensely. She begins purring as I stroke around the spot, loosening the muscle before I try to work and knead it with more force. I nearly faint again as she purrs with her face pressed against my head, licking my jawline, cheek, and ear, grooming me. No wonder those human troops looked so nervous and embarrassed! In human society, a tongue is a really intimate thing to share, sort of. I mean, humans just don’t go around licking one another. It would be nice if I didn’t even know about human society, since neither of us are human. I don’t need their embarrassment added to my own.

Fawn arches her back while her own clawed hands carefully knead my shoulders. Now that I’m paying attention to her affection, I’m far more tired than I realized. After so much excitement, and danger, and emotional drain from doing things I don’t feel qualified for, I’m in an extremely safe space, being loved on by a wonderful person that I hold dear. Even if we hardly know each other, we’ve shared several tender moments, and at least one life saving experience apiece. My eyes droop and my muscles begin to slacken as I let myself relax in her embrace. Fawn was right, how much tension and nervousness was I carrying around? It would probably be best to let go of all this before speaking with Linti.

This is nice. I like this. Her throat vibrates against mine as she continues to purr while I knead her muscle knot. I wonder if she was being honest or facetious about the cause of this knot. Not that I’d accuse her of lying, but it’s cartoonishly sweet as a sentiment. We hardly know each other. Still, she’s an amazing source of affectionate cuddles. Her family, and mine now too, are lucky to be blessed with such a loving individual to share so much tenderness with us. Matron of affection of a cat tribe indeed. If this were the world in my memories, I’d imagine she was some sort of deity, like a goddess of affection, or seduction, or the bedroom, or interpersonal grooming, or something like that. There’s quite a large number of those across all the cultures of that fake world.

Hm, I must have dozed off for a while. Fawns’ breath is soft, low, regular. The gentle rise and fall of her chest against mine is rhythmic, soothing in its own right. I slowly begin extricating my limbs from hers. What a marvelous person. I knew I needed some cuddles to recover from this last adventure, but I didn’t know how much I needed this in particular. I kiss her brow as I slowly rise to walk away. I swear her smile widens from the kiss in her sleep.

Phew, my heart is fluttering like crazy, but still, that was a fantastic, and restful, experience. I don’t think I’ve been out for more than an hour or so, based on the light making its way through the canopy, unless I’ve slept for over a day. I think my SAP would be teasing me relentlessly across my mental wavelength right now if that was the case though. Lu, Lil, Teuila? Are you close enough to ride along on my thoughts?

Three affirmatives reach my mind. Their presence in my brain fills me with warmth and happiness. I’m unbelievably lucky. Hm, based on the charge in the air, and that faint crackling sound, I believe Linti is returning. I don’t have a sense of smell anymore, but I could swear there is the faintest hint of ozone. Sure enough, loud crashing begins to sound off in the distance as Linti’s lightning leaps smash into trees and the ground all over. Somehow she manages to not damage trees, even though she plows into them on the regular.

I spy the majority of Linti’s family nearby, so I go to sit by Blossom and Six who glom onto me from each side. Six’s strong hands ruffle my hair that had been flattened by Fawn’s licking-grooming. He’s saying something about how it looks better messy. I can’t really hear him though because I’m staring at Linti as she arrives, and the look in her eyes is mesmerizing in a dangerous way. She looks like a hunter who has found her prey, or a predator that’s ready to strike. Which I suppose makes sense. I gulp and begin to stand to try to sneak away, but Linti sets a hand on my shoulder, and extends her claws ever so slightly. Their sharp presence only barely hints at their ability to gouge my flesh.

Linti growls out a challenge, “You, me, no more holding back Shellcracker. I won’t be. That clearing over there.” Linti points to a fairly wide open empty space.

I glance around at the rest of her family, and the best they can offer me is shrugs, frightened grimaces, or nervous smiles. Gulping, I march towards the clearing. Linti surmises, “So, based on the Nagas around camp, you managed to secure peace, safety for my family?”

I nod tentatively.

Linti states, “Good, get ready, when this bag drops, we fight. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you too hard. No more holding back, got it?”

Again I hesitantly nod. Linti throws Luni’s spare magic backpack to one side, and my gaze widens as I stare at it falling, almost in slow motion. I see lightning begin to coalesce and crackle along Linti’s body as she begins to transform into lightning. I’m already leaning away from the angle she’ll be leaping at as the bag hits the ground. While she passes just above me, the tiniest thread of lightning rakes along my flesh. It causes a smoking sizzle but doesn’t otherwise damage me at all. I know as soon as she lands, she’ll be turning to either jab, or fire her crossbow from close range at me, but I’m not going to let her do either.

My counterattack is decisive. As she’s touching down to change directions, I trap Linti in an umbral tetrahedron duplicate, and immediately summon water from my inventory into its airtight inside. The water apparently disperses her form with violent sizzling and crackling. When it sounds like there’s no more sizzling or crackling from the inside, I claim the umbral tetrahedron back to my inventory worriedly. The water sloshes out across the ground as it spills forth, no longer having a container. Linti’s limp form flops onto the ground. She’s unconscious and not breathing.

No, no no no. She has a pulse but it’s weak and erratic. I clear Linti’s airway, and begin passing her rescue-breaths. Her heart continues to slow to the point where I don’t know if it’s beating any more. I pass her more breaths and straddle her hips so that I can offer her chest compressions with my hands between her breasts. Two more repetitions of breathing, and compressions pass and she’s still unconscious. As I’m in the middle of passing her another breath, Linti grabs the back of my head and begins laughing, coughing, and kissing me.

I’m caught in a confused panic, and caught in her muscular grasp. Similar to the last time I was kissed on the lips, it’s not unpleasant, but I’m startled. Yet, thanks to Fawn, I’m mostly relaxed enough that I find myself returning Linti’s kiss for a moment, forgetting my worries. Only for a moment, before I blush and nervously try to scrabble away.

It was a long enough moment though for Linti to grin and begin laughing, “Haha, I knew it! I never even stood a chance! Of course my family is safe with you. How in the hell Shellcracker? Why even let me think I was in your league? I died. You killed me, without me even laying a scratch on you.”

I interrupt, “Well, I mean, uh, you, well, sorta actually, a tiny trail of lightning did scratch me a little.”

This only earns more laughter, “Pfft, hahaha. Okay, I want you. You and me. You train me to be as strong as you, as creative as you with your powers. I want every bit of that crazy little brain of yours. Really, letting me blow a hole in your neck, on the off chance I might be willing to read your little notes? Knocking me out with altitude sickness and then breaking yourself to pieces to make sure I’m the one that’s okay? Turning your little dragon friend into a god when you flooded them with mana from your soul? I heard their attack, Wrath of Godsbreath, what the everliving hell Shellcracker? What even are you?”

I blush and chuckle nervously. This is sort of more than I had thought to hope for from Linti. I don’t have answers for her either. Those things just, well, seemed like good ideas at the time. I guess I could tell her that. “Those things, uh, well, they seemed like good ideas at the time.”

Linti barks uproarious laughter and approaches me, offering me a hand up from where I’d scrabbled away to. As I take it, she wraps an arm around my neck and noogies me with her free fist. She then virtually pins me to a nearby tree in a Cicada Block. My heart skips a beat.

She then asks, “So, yes or no? Come on, I’m literally dying here. Well, I was. Thanks for that, by the way. The saving me I mean.”

I can’t help but laugh as I wrap my arms around this crazy jaguar huntress. I nod, stating, “Sure, of course, jeeze Linti, you could have just asked. Yes, I’ll train with you, we can hunt together, whatever you want. You’re amazing. But, um, my brain though, I’d prefer to keep it, heh. Also, well, like figuratively, it’s already split with three other people. My inner circle and I have psychic bonds.”

Linti bursts into more laughter when I say I want to keep my brain, but she leans in and smooches me roughly on the cheek before ruffling my hair once more. She adds, “Sure thing Shellcracker, whatever you say. Tomorrow, you and me, crack of dawn, yeah? Hell, if I didn’t know you’d be sleeping with Fawn, Six, Blossom, and your otter fam, I’d say we just sleep together so we’re ready at the same time.”

I chuckle at Linti’s straightforwardness. I also try to push back thoughts of the implications of her phrasing that come from fakeworld’s human society style memories. This has been a bit of an unexpected whirlwind. Do I even want to know how or why she feels the way she does? She was mostly friendly when we were in her settlement, while I was dying. She was a bit upset when I accidentally disrespected her, but then she was angry on the way to the Hollow. I remember her angrily mentioning Teuila held back when sparring with her.

Oh, wait. The reason she was so cold and annoyed was because she suspected I was holding back against her, and felt disrespected because of it. I can be really dense sometimes, can’t I?

Screams cleaving through the chilly evening air cut off my thoughts and my reverie. Linti and I both rush in the direction of the sound. I’m about to JT, but Linti’s literally lightning fast reaction speed has her grabbing me and transforming us both into lightning to leap in the direction of the sound before I even get a chance to. A glob of lava falls through the air in the path of Linti’s lightning leap, and she drops me out of her transformation, throwing me to the side. She can’t change direction until she touches down, she doesn’t have flight, only lightning fast leaping.

No you fool, I’m almost immune! Not again! I can’t have someone dying again to try to save me from lava! Linti’s fractions of a millisecond from impacting the lava as I Flash Freeze Storm the entire area. My removal of massive amounts of atomic kinetic energy causes Linti to drop from her lightning transformation and bonk almost harmlessly into the pumice that falls in front of her.

I gulp back tears as I order, “Please, don’t ever, ever try to save me from lava! It can’t hurt me. I would, I’d. I’d bring you back to life to kill you myself if you died to lava for me. Got it?” I barely maintain my composure, though my voice cracks several times as I make my request of Linti.

Linti offers a nervous, chagrined chuckle, but she nods, wiping a tear from her eyes. We both scan the canopy for who we know to be behind the attack. The problem is, it’s not just Mat. Critterkin that aren’t in my party, equipped with stolen human weapons, are marching in from the west. I can see what emboldened them to do this as well, Mat is floating above a platoon of armed critterkin.