The "Best" RPG Ever-12

Zack woke up late the next morning, stood up and stretched, and then went and put his armor on. The others were still asleep; Mika had said she was going to go experiment with her fire powers in the training yard for a while, but apparently had come back after a bit. The wolf opened its eyes slightly when he got up, and then shut them again. Feeling hungry, he went downstairs to get breakfast, the wolf getting up and following him, before plopping down to go back to sleep the instant he sat down. Just as lazy as any real dog, he thought.

After a while the others came down. "Morning."

"Good morning~," said Mika, taking a seat next to him. "What are we gonna do today?"

"Well, I'm going to go buy some more sets of normal clothes. It's really getting annoying going around town in armor, especially this armor."

"What if you get attacked without your armor?" said Katherine, which Zack responded to by pointing vaguely at the wolf sleeping next to him. "Okay, fair enough, but you know buying a bunch of different clothes is just begging the universe to start tearing them up at every opportunity."

"No, it's what normal people do. It's not normal to go around wearing exactly the same thing all the time, unless you work in uniform."

"Are you saying I should get some new clothes, then?"

He shrugged. "You can if you want. I know I'd want to in your place, since there's definitely no reason you have to go around in a short skirt all the time."

"You don't think it looks good on me?"

Zack glared at her for a second or two. "It looks fine, but annoying to wear nonstop."

The catgirl gave a devious grin. "I dunno, I just thought out of all of us you'd be the last one to want to go clothes shopping, Zack."

He managed to somehow frown even harder. "There is nothing feminine about buying clothes. Especially if you have exactly one outfit to your name."

"I know, I'm just teasing you."

He gave that a large sigh. "Look, I'm through eating, and I'm going to go now. Do whatever you want for the next few hours. Maybe test out those rings we found if you wanna do something useful." The wolf, naturally, followed him out the door.

"Y'know you're poking a hornet's nest there, Kath," said the witch. "One of these days she's gonna bite your little head clean off~."

"But it's just so much fun. Besides, I can always tell when it's time to stop."

"A-aren't you being a little mean?" asked Nora.

"A little. But it's the friendly kind of meanness."
"That sounds like a, uh..a contradiction of terms."

"No no, it's perfectly normal. Only really good friends can throw verbal abuse back and forth nonstop."

"If you say so. But, um..I thought you just met two days ago?"
"I'm good at making friends," responded the catgirl.

"Soooo, what about it?" asked Mika after a bit.

"About what?"
"Are you gonna go look for some clothes?"

"Are you?"

"Mmmaaaybe..but I might not buy anything because I'm really picky. It has to have room for my wings, it has to keep up the whole witch look, and it has to be cute! You still didn't answer the question, though."

She shrugged. "I guess so. I am a little curious what some different outfits look and feel like with this body. And..hate to admit it, but Zack was right about this getup not being the most practical thing in the world. Do you want to look for some clothes, Nora?"

"Oh! Uh.." The elf hesitated a bit. "I-I guess I could, but uh, it almost feels pointless.."

"How so?"

"Well, I wish I could get something that hid a little more of my skin..b-but, anything that covered much more than what I've already got on would make it hard use my powers correctly. And, I don't know how to explain it, uh..even just having covers over me feels all wrong, like having a blurry filter over my eyes or something covering my ears."

"Well, that's fine, but it'd still be sensible to have a spare outfit or two, you know, in case what you're wearing gets damaged in a fight? I'm sure you don't wanna be left with even less."
Nora's face turned bright red. "O-oh, no. Definitely not."

---

"So, how long have we been walking now?"
The fox-girl looked up slightly. "Hmm...about an hour."

"And you're sure we've been going in the same direction."
"Yep, ever since leaving that weird castle place. Whoa, you hear that?"

"What?"

Rayna paused, her ears twitching a bit. "Sounds like..a wildcat roaring. Maybe someone shouting. I bet they need help."
"We shouldn't go looking for trouble."
"Well, I'm gonna go check it out anyway." She started running, and Lynn very quickly caught up.

"What are you doing?"
"I know a quest hook when I hear it. Besides, if there's people they can lead us to an actual town."
"This is such a bad idea."
"Bad idea, good idea. They're all the same until you try them out!"

"Said the guy who stuck his finger in a light socket."
"Whoa!" Rayna stopped short right the top of a hill; Lynn didn't, and went rolling down, recovering her feet only after reaching the bottom."

"You could have warned me, ya ditz!" yelled the archer.

"I didn't see it any sooner than you did!"

"Yeah, right! This--!"
"Excuse me!" said a male voice from behind Lynn. She turned around to see a man with wolf-like ears and a tail in some fairly torn-up leather armor, standing between three unusually large, spotted wildcats and an unconscious person in similar armor, holding a long spear out toward the cats. Two more of the same were lying unmoving on the ground nearby. "Little help please!"

"Right, that." Rayna quickly placed an illusion of herself holding a samurai sword right next to one of the cats while she dove down the hill to get in better range. The illusion swung the blade loudly and clumsily at the cat, which immediately got out of the way while its friend pounced at her..and straight through emtpy air, landing snout-first on the ground.

The third cat chose this moment to pounce at the man with the spear from the wrong angle. He batted it away with the side of the polearm and moved around to keep himself between it and the body behind him.

Lynn drew out an arrow and concentrated, causing it to start sparking while stringing it. Rayna got up, making another illusion of herself next to the cat that dodged the first one. The cat, now apparently suspicious after its partner's mishap, tried rearing up and taking a swipe with its claws. This of course hit empty air, but also gave Lynn a good target. The arrow sailed straight into the animal's underside and electrocuted it, stunning it.

The other cat recovered from hitting the ground, and turned, growling, toward Rayna. It charged, stopped, and swiped at her, hitting another illusion as she danced to the side. The fox-girl moved out of the way of another swipe while making three more of herself to keep it guessing. When it attacked one illusory Rayna and failed, she made herself invisible just long enough to move into its place.

Lynn shot a cold arrow at the cat the armored man was holding off; it ducked under it, making a small burst of snowflakes on the ground on its other side, and then hopped backwards away from his spear. She caught it in the side with a burning arrow, and then had to jump out of the way of the cat she had stunned earlier. "Ray!"

"On it!" Rayna kept an illusionary self between 'her' cat and the other one, made Lynn briefly invisible, and put a fake Lynn between the fake Rayna and that cat. It looked..off, with pointed ears, a small tail, and definitely too large of a chest, but it was enough to fool the animal. Both cats pounced, jumped straight into each other, and started clawing at each other before checking what exactly they were attacking. The fox-girl grinned wide, placing an illusion of herself, injured and lying on the ground, on top of each cat as they backed up and opened their eyes. So they pounced at each others' throats again.

"Come on. Come on." The cat with the burning arrow in its side growled at the man in armor. He nudged his weapon forward and then back again, and the animal moved with it. Then it was knocked over, on its side, by an arrow with what seemed to be a big rock for a head. "Good enough." He stepped forward and stabbed it, hard, and then stabbed it again, before turning toward the two remaning cats.

They were very angry, and running after Rayna. Of course that wasn't the real Rayna, who tapped Lynn's shoulder to clue her in to that. When the fake Rayna was far enough away, she turned around, allowing the cats to hit her and dispel the illusion while the real one briefly disappeared and another illusion appeared between the cats and Lynn, and started running toward the archer. One of the cats chased her, while the other started going around. An arrow hit the one chasing her straight between the eyes, and a couple of vines shot out from the head, wrapping themselves around its cheeks. That didn't actually do much, since the animal slumped over anyway.

The other cat jumped at Rayna, who very quickly ducked under the pounce, leaving an illusion standing up. Lynn quickly turned around and ran over next to the armored man's unconscious friend before drawing her bow back, aiming it to arc over his head. The man turned around briefly and nodded before getting his spear back up into position.

The last cat was in a rage, swiping at false Raynas every couple of seconds. She had to actually run and keep moving back and forth to keep out of its random swings, and when she finally got to the others she fell into a sitting position, panting more rapidly than she thought should be possible. The animal charged through her last illusion and straight into a rock arrow to its head, followed by a swift spear stab while it was stunned.

The man stuck his spear in the ground and physically relaxed. "Phhew..."
Lynn went over to Rayna, squatting slightly and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?"
"Y-yeah, hh-hh-hh-hh-hh, I think, hh-hh-hh, I think I overdid it, but yeah."

The armored man, meanwhile, knelt next to the person he'd been protecting. "Oh, thank th'gods," he said after a bit, "she's just knocked out."
Lynn stood back up and went over to him. "What happened, anyway?"
"Well, ah. We were just doing our regular patrols, and those cats came at us outta nowhere. I don't think we'd have been able to report it if you hadn't showed up."

"Is it normal for a bunch of animals to attack you like that?"
"Well..you never know out on the frontier. Not usually in such big groups, though."

He stood up. "Guess I ougtha introduce myself. Hold on." He removed his helmet, which obscured his face, and immediately a bunch of black hair fell to a bit past his shoulders. His fur was the same pitch black as the hair, except inside of his ears, which was a dark gray; he had bright yellow eyes, and a small but well-built face. He was of a more slim, athletic build, but obviously strong enough. "Name's Rast. I work with the town guard." He offered a hand to shake, which Lynn did, but she had trouble talking for a second or two after getting a look at his face. Something made her feel a little excited, almost light-headed.
"How did you fit that in there?" Said Rayna, now recovered enough to turn toward him.

"Oh, um..it's a special enchantment, long story with the, ah--"
"Never mind," said the archer, having shaken off the momentary..whatever it was. "I'm Lynn and this is Rayna. You're from around here?"
"Sure! Well, about 's much as anyone's really 'from' the frontier."

"Well, we're not. I'm assuming you know how to get to town?"
"Of course! But I can't go back without my partner."

"Hm..neither of us is all that strong, but I think you and I'd be able to pull her a little while."

"Sure. Town's not all that far off."

Rast carefully picked up one of the armored woman's arms, and Lynn got the other. The armor made her heavier than expected, but she managed. Rayna slowly got up, then took a deep breath, and then the three of them started walking.

"Oh, ah. M'partner's name is Pirr. Hate that you have to meet 'er like this, though."

"That's okay. You're not too badly hurt, are you?"
"Nah. This armor's pretty good at takin' damage for a body. Captain's sure to throw a fit about it, though, least till she hears how many of those things we clobbered."

"Is he strict or something? Did you not follow some rule?" asked Rayna.

"Nah, she just don't like the cost of replacin' and repairin' equipment all the time. More of a, 'this state of things I don't like much', fit than much else. Nah, we all know better than to really mess up with her in charge."
"Do you respect her or fear her?"
"Ahh..that'll be both, miss Lynn. For sure. She could scare off an Archdemon by looking at 'em the wrong way. Comes off as gruff, but always fair, you know? And generous in a pinch, I hear, but, well, in a you-didn't-hear-that-from-me kinda way."

"You mean she doesn't like that to be known," said Rayna, "because she'd rather be seen as tough, so people will only come to her for help if they seriously need it."
He shrugged with his free shoulder. "Guess that's it. Uh, you wanna change sides Lynn?"

"Sure."

Ring 5.2: Resistance

Ring 5.2:

Resistance

Kell (or mostly-Kell, at least) showed up at Liam's house Friday afternoon looking unusually pleased with herself. “Hey, what's up?” said Liam.

“Oh, that Morley guy decided to follow me off the school grounds today and start calling me names and stuff. So I punched him.”
“You punched 'im? Great! Where?”
“Just square in the face. He nearly fell over, and then said something about me hitting like a girl, I said 'I am a girl, you jerk', and then he started walking off, muttering something about getting me back later. I called after him, saying to put some ice or meat on his cheek, 'cause I'm pretty sure it was bruising up.”

“Hah! Serves 'im right. Oughta keep 'im off your back for a while, at least. So long as ya didn't do it unprovoked.”
“Nah, I gave him like five whole minutes to leave me alone. I think once I even said I was gonna punch him if he kept it up.”

“So, how's the progress with the ring?”
“Um..I barely notice any changes when I put it on, but it still glows. I'm sure it'll do something different when it's all done. I'm more curious what you're gonna look like as a girl..”
“Ah, don't worry about that. We have ta wait for the others anyhow.”

“Why don't you just use my ring and do it now?”
“'Cause I wanna use it as a demonstration for somethin'. A little bit 'a magic education for those guys.”

Akio was late, so the other two had to wait for him before heading off to Liam's house. Cole had a question. “Hey, Rolf. What do you think of Liam?”

“How do you mean?”
“I mean..you deal with a lot of bullies. He's kinda..isn't he?”

Rolf shrugged. “He's not a bully, if that's what you're asking.”

“Well I know that. But don't you think he could be, if he wanted? He has kind of a way of dominating people.”

Rolf nodded. “He does like being in charge of things. But he doesn't do it like your average bully. He talks people into doing things, keeps secrets and tells 'em when he wants 'em known. But..the best way I can put is, so far it looks like he uses his powers for good.”

“Yeah. I'm glad about that, at least.”

The missing member of the trio finally came running up, and stopped, panting. “Hff..hey, sorry I'm late!”

“What'd you do this time?” asked Rolf.
“Do? I didn't do anything. I just had to finish something in my last class, is all. No big deal.”

“Well, then let's go.”

Rolf led the way, and before long they were at the door. Liam opened it. “Welcome. C'mon in.” And then he led them to where Kell was waiting. “You bring your ring?” Liam asked.

“Yeah, I have it here,” said Akio, holding it up. It occurred to Cole that he didn't remember handing Akio the ring the other day, but since he'd managed to not lose it, he decided not to bring it up.

“Alright, lemme borrow it then.” He held out his hand, and Akio gave him the ring. He put it on his index finger and a few seconds later it glowed and he took it off again, handing it back to Akio.

“Now, consider this a demonstration,” said Liam. “As you c'n see, I ain't changing much at all. Folks with talent in magic, and who are magic, have a lot of resistance this sorta thing, and I've actually trained my own past that small bit 'a talent.” His hair was very slowly growing out—well, slowly compared to the explosion of hair that Akio and Cole had seen when changing, at least. “But it's my own magic workin', and I want it to happen, so it keeps goin' anyway.” Now he started to get shorter, very gradually and slightly.

“However, since I know how ta use magic, I can actually turn down that resistance and make it go as fast as someone not so resistant,” he said. “Watch.” He made a slight sweeping gesture with his hand, and suddenly his hair growth and height loss sped up. Within seconds he was reduced to about Akio's height, and his hair was down to his stomach on the sides and back. His eyes' color shifted to a bright purple, and then the more specific changes began.

His shirt turned black and pulled tighter on his stomach as it got slimmer. His shoulders pulled in, and his arms and legs thinned; his sleeves broke off at the shoulders while his jeans split at the thighs. The denim turned to white cloth as the leggings combined with his socks and pulled tight on his legs. His skin became smoother and paler all over, and his face shrank a bit, becoming rounder and softer-looking. His eyes took on a slightly more slanted shape; a pair of hair ornaments that looked like small leaves appeared on the sides of the top of his head, each bringing a lock of hair up and apart from the rest of the hair. Meanwhile, the sleeves grew longer, bits of purple cloth and a nature-themed pattern appearing on them.

Next, Liam's hips pulled their way out and back. Still standing, he took the change of balance gracefully, moving the position of his feet as necessary. The remainder of his jeans spread out into a skirt, the denim softening into purple cloth. His shirt split in the middle, turning to a sleeveless kimono top, and then her chest began to swell into it. A tall belt appeared around her stomach, along with a purple rope around its center held by a large purple ribbon near the front. Her breasts stopped growing at a medium size, and bounced slightly from the force of their rapid growth.

And then, Liam's ears suddenly grew, pulling their way up to the top of her head. Black fur appeared on their outside, and tufts of white appeared on their inside, and within seconds they had become two tall triangles. Then a long, wide tail burst out from her back, covered in thick black fur other than a white tip..and then another one came out, and all of a sudden Liam lost her balance, flailing slightly before falling over on her face.

She quickly pushed herself up to a sideways sitting position. “Do not worry, I'm all right,” she said, in a higher alto tone, and grinned. “It has been a while since I had to deal with these tails..”

Akio walked over and offered a hand to help her up. “Ha, you almost stayed standing the whole way through,” he said.

She took the help, but glared once she was standing up. “You have no idea how difficult just one of these is for balance..much less two.”

“Wait, you've had a..you've had tails before?” asked Cole.

Liam nodded. “I usually hide them, for obvious reasons. But it was much easier to make a disguise which more closely reflected my true appearance in that regard.”

“Um..Liam, you're kinda talking different,” said Kell. She was right; Liam's usual accent was missing, and her speech had a kind of crisp exactness to it instead.

She shrugged. “It is part of the costume. I believe I was thinking of an older, more traditional look, so this result makes sense. Anyway,” she said, Liam's usual accent reemerging, “I c'n stop anytime I want.”

Cole had another question. “Okay, how do you hide something like that? Can you just transform at will?”

“To an extent.” The fox-girl demonstrated, pointing at one of the tails as it seemed to shrink away into her lower back again. “Seems like anyone magic can look non-magic if they want. I am not sure whether it is something magic people could always do, or if we adapted it at some point. But my ability is limited to just hiding my unique traits; I can not even alter the length of a fingernail at will without help from something like this ring.”

“Are you gonna get rid of your other tail, too?” said Akio.

“Hmm..it's safe enough to keep it around here. Why?”

“Uh, no reason.” Akio's face was slightly red for a second, and Liam's ears could pick up his heart beating very slightly faster.

Rather than comment on that, she moved on. “All right. Now..there is something I want to tell you. I believe I have mentioned maybe once that I have a certain extra sense, being magic. It lets me get a sense of what sort of magic potential other people might have. When I met you three in that restaurant, my extra sense pointed out something to me about one of you that I thought you ought to know..but I wasn't certain which one at first.”

“And..what is that?” asked Rolf.

“Well, Rolf, I think you might be magic.”

“What? You mean like you are?” He was still calm; after all, Liam certainly made it seem like being magic was really not that big of a deal.
“Hm..not exactly. There are many different kinds of magic people. And I'm not terribly surprised if you didn't know. After all, a magic human sometimes marries a non-magic human and hides being magic for their whole life, and the children are born with the more obvious traits hidden.”
He looked more concerned about this. “You think my--”
“Hold on now, I'm not done. It might not even be your parents. After all, a person born and raised looking and acting like a non-magic human might never find out, and their children might not find out, and so on. So..maybe that didn't happen with your parents, or even with anyone still alive, but it probably happened somewhere up the ancestral line. Of course, I might be wrong. My sense for magic isn't perfect, after all.”

Rolf nodded, looking thoughtful.

“And..how would we test whether you're wrong or not?” said Cole.

He looked up again. “Yeah, I dunno how to grow a tail or whatever like you do.”

Liam scratched her head, thinking. “Hm..well, I was born with a tail and learned to hide it. And you might not even have a tail, so even if I tried to tell you how to make one appear it might not work. But..I thought about that, and had an idea.”

She held out a hand to Kell, who handed over her ring. (“See, some people know how to take cues,” said Akio, and Cole replied “Shh!”)

She walked over toward Rolf, saying, “Hiding or revealing one's magical traits is a change of form, and these disguise rings are able to change one's form. So if you ask this ring to turn you into your 'true' form, then whatever that is, it should do that. And..it shouldn't be very hard to figure out hiding whatever unusual traits that might give you.” Then the fox-girl offered him the ring. “Would you like to try it?”
He thought for a few seconds, and then nodded, taking the ring. “...Yeah, okay. But if it turns out I can't figure out how to hide whatever, though, you're gonna be responsible for the mess.”

“Sure, but I doubt that'll happen. After all, you have me to help you.”

“Yeah..sure.” Rolf put on the ring.

The "Best" RPG Ever-11

The witch stood in front of a pentagram of black powder arranged in the grass, facing the same way as the top point of the star, the others behind her and the wolf a ways off. A strange little altar built of wood and stone stood in the middle, with some farm animal's heart nailed to it. When they'd started setting that thing up, the animal had walked away, insisting he wasn't afraid but that he didn't want to be close to something "so unnatural" unless the Alpha said he had to.

Her lips were moving and there was sound coming out; it felt like words, but at the same time nobody quite understood what they were or even seemed capable of processing the syllables. It was like the meaning was deeper, not quite comprehensible. A small spark of fire appeared at the top of the star, and slowly spread down the lines—more slowly than it should have across the flammable substance, and moving along the path very exactly and carefully, seemingly ignoring the grass to either side. Eventually the whole symbol was on fire, and then all of the fire rose up off the ground slowly before all going toward the altar, covering the whole thing, moving up and beginning to resemble a single, straight vertical line, the altar having apparently disappeared. Then it opened up, pushing out to either side until it was a tall oval-shaped opening, the other side vaguely glowing red but otherwise..somehow indistinct.

Mika stopped chanting and panted slightly, feeling winded from the effort of just saying whatever it was she'd just said.

"So..now what?" asked Katherine.

After catching her breath, the witch answered, "I opened up a portal that'll let exactly one demon through. They all wanna be here for some reason, so the first one that comes to it will walk out and then probably attack us."

After a few more seconds, the glow on the other side became more intense, and then what looked to be a mass of fire moved through the portal, after which it closed. It was bright enough that their eyes had to adjust a little bit before recognizing its shape as a small humanoid one. Its feet were floating slightly above the ground but still singing it, head looking around as if curious or confused. After a few seconds, it seemed to notice Mika, made some kind of hissing-popping sound, and charged at her.

Zack, already in dark form, got in the way and blocked it. He could feel the heat coming from the thing as it bounced off of his shield, staggering backwards slightly, and when he tried to cut through it his sword went directly through the creature as if it were air.

He hadn't expected that, and had to move aside when it charged at him again. It kept going, toward Mika, who immediately turned around and ran.

"You missed?!" said the Psion. "How did you miss?!"

"I didn't miss," said Zack, chasing after the demon, "it's not solid. It's made of air or something!"

"Pure fire. Not natural," said Nora. She picked up a thin wall of dirt in front of the creature, and it smacked into it, bouncing back slightly. "Not very smart, is it?" When the wall was gone, it resumed chasing the witch.

Katherine said, "Incredibly determined, though."

"Just stop it already! I'm really flammable!"

Zack managed to catch up, and tried just hitting the demon with his shield. It made contact again, and the creature paused, having to shake off the shock of the hit before moving again. "Can you make a bunch of water, Nora?"
"M-maybe, but not enough to put it out! If it was all already here, I think I could just throw it.."

"Hey Kath, can you make it chase you instead?" said Mika.

"Uh..no. Too focused. I think I can stun it, though!"

"'Kay, do that!"

Katherine stunned the demon, and Mika turned around and threw a pumpkin at it. The pumpkin flew straight through the fire-demon and crashed to the ground, and then it started chasing her again.

"Grrh!"

"Hey, try that again," said Zack, catching up to the demon again and bashing it with his shield. This time, when Mika threw the pumpkin he cut through it right when it was in the demon. The vegetable burst open, and the demon hissed, steam pouring out of it as the pumpkin's guts fell out.

"Hey, it looks smaller!" said Nora.

Next, the weaver stunned it by pulling up more dirt, and Katherine held the pumpkin in place while cutting it in a few places with a knife, and the flame demon shrank a bit more.

"Good, keep going!" said Zack, chasing after the thing again. He noticed that it was more difficult to catch up to this time, but still managed to do it.

"Hey, can you fly faster than running?"
"Maybe, why?"

"It's getting faster!"

The knight bashed the demon with a shield, and Mika took the time to get on her broom and fly up. The fire-creature followed, and she had to dive down to get it back in range of the others. They continued the pattern for a few more times, taking turns stunning the thing and breaking pumpkins in it, and soon the demon had been reduced to a little ball of fire, zipping around through the air too fast for any of them to catch up with.

Then the witch, flying up and down and around trying to get away from it, looked over her shoulder and noticed how small it was. She turned around and charged at it, clapping her hands on it once she was close enough, and slowed to halt in midair, opening her hands up to find the palms slightly burned and something like a single glowing bit of red-orange fire. It floated still for a second more before zooming its way into her chest.

Mika's body seemed to glow bright red for a second or two, and she could feel a distinct, pleasant warmth spreading out along her body and then settling in. When the glow faded off, she flew back to the ground and landed, grinning brightly.

"So..what does that feel like?" asked the psion.

"Great! Like I just somehow had a huge meal and slept all day at the same time..except my stomach doesn't hurt and I don't feel groggy or anything."

"So you can use fire now?" said Zack.

Mika held a hand palm-up, and a small ball of fire, mostly orange but with what looked like something much darker in its center, appeared floating above it for a couple of seconds before blinking out when she made a fist. "Yep."

---

The elemental archer found herself in complete darkness. This was a rare opportunity, so she tried to literally see her hand in front of her own face, and could not. "Hey! Rayna, you still there?"

"Yeah," said the fox-girl from a foot or two away. "I think we got plopped in our first dungeon from the get-go."
"I can't see anything. You have fox night vision or something?"
"Hm..not exactly. Hey, maybe you can shoot a fire arrow. Like, not toward me?"

"Okay." Lynn's hands found the bow and arrow instinctively, and she drew back the arrow pointed directly away from her friend. The tip caught on fire just as she let go, and it flew up and down before burying itself in a crack between a couple of bricks.

The human's eyes adjusted fairly quickly to the little bit of light, and made out a hallway of large bricks, a ceiling below and a floor above. She walked a couple of steps and pulled the arrow out of the wall, holding it tip-up like a torch. Her partner was still looking around. "So what should we do now?"

"Pick a direction and walk, I guess."

"I say..that way," said Ray, pointing. She started moving, and Lynn followed.

Before long, the archer saw an actual torch hanging from the wall, and pulled it out, lighting it with the arrow. "Hey, can you hold this in case I need to shoot something?"
"Sure thing, buddy." Once the vixen had the torch, Lynn put the arrow's fire out and stuck it back in the quiver.

"So what do you think this place is?" asked Rayna, as they came upon their first wooden door. It opened into a big empty stone room.

"Just a dungeon, I guess. Maybe an abandoned castle or something."

The next door was ruined, and the room beyond it just as boring. "Then I guess we should be looking for a way up. Dungeons usually being underground and all."

"Mmh."

After some more walking, the hall ended at another big wooden door. Ray pulled on it and it didn't move. "I think it's stuck or locked or something."

"Step back a bit." Once the illusionist was out of the way, Lynn kicked the door square in the center. A bunch of the wood fell through the other side. She reached through the hole and away from the hinge, found a deadbolt knob and turned it before pulling her hand back out again and pulling the handle again. This time the door moved, opening up to a stairwell.

The stairs went up and down. Rayna led the way up, and after a few turns around they found another broken-open door. On the other side was a three-way intersection stone-brick hallway with faded, torn red carpet and regular openings in the wall letting in sunlight.

"Finally, some light." Lynn climbed out, looking around. "Windows are way too small to get out through, though."

Rayna followed, the torch mysteriously missing from her hands. "Hm..someone else is here," she said.

"What makes you say that?"
"I hear some metal clinking..like someone walking around in armor..that way," said the illusionist, pointing down one of the hallways.

"I don't hear it."
"Fox ears," countered Ray with a grin. "So what do you think we should do about it?"

"Well if it's an enemy, and if they're armored, I guess I might be able to hit between the armor. But if it's an animated-armor monster or something stupid like that, we aren't gonna be able to do much about it. I think it would be a good idea to get out of here, find a town, and get more familiar with the game-world, before attacking anything at all."

"Yeah, that's safer..but aren't you at all curious what it is? I mean, it might be someone who can help us out of here. Maybe we're in a legit castle dungeon."

"If that's the case, the next question will be how we got here, what we're doing here, and since we don't have any good answers for either of those questions, they're going to assume we are trying to get someone out of here who shouldn't be out. So we should definitely avoid them."

Rayna gave an exaggerated sigh, her sizable cleavage pushing out and back in again. "All right, Miss Safe, we'll do it your way for now." So they went the opposite direction.

The illusionist paused after a while to lean against a wall and squint out one of the slitted windows.
"What are you doing?" Lynn had started to turn a left corner, and had to walk back to the fox-girl.

"Well, duh. Why didn't we do this earlier?" She leaned back and pointed to the right. "There's a door over that way. It might be an inner courtyard, but if we can get outside maybe there's some way to climb up and get the rest of the way out."

Lynn shrugged. "Worth a try, at least. You haven't heard any more movement, have you?"
"Nope. You know I'd tell you if I did."

They started walking again. "Yeah, unless you made an 'independent decision' to not tell me so we'd run into them and you could find out what it was."

"I can't believe you don't trust me, friend."
"That's not—no, it is. Yeah. I'm your friend, so I know you, so I know when not to trust you."

"Well, I wasn't wrong about the door, was I?"

They stood before a somewhat larger, more intact door than the other ones inside. Thankfully, this one moved with a push. "Hey," Lynn said, "lean on this, would you? It's too heavy for me alone."
Ray put her side against the door and pushed. "What, are you saying I'm overweight?"
"No, I'm saying this door is way too stupid heavy. Maybe it wouldn't be if I hadn't gotten turned into a tiny, skinny girl."

"But then we wouldn't even be here."

"Even better." The door gave up and allowed the two girls to slip out into the sunlight.

"Hmm..sun's a little low, so it isn't noon. What do you think, morning?"

"Nope, it's afternoon," declared the fox-girl.

"How do you know?"
"I can see what time it is," she answered matter-of-factly. "Just like I can see that that part of the wall over there is fake," she added, pointing at a wall across from the door, "even I could probably kick it over."

Lynn walked over. "This wall isn't fake. It looks exactly like the rest of the wall.."
"Try kicking it."
"I'll just hurt my foot."
"Fine, then I'll kick it. Yaah!" Ray kicked the wall, and an area a few feet wide collapsed instantly, apparently turning to sand and dirt in the process.

She stood back, hands on her hips. "See? Totally fake. Maybe some kind of weak magic holding it up or something. And I think this is an exit, even!"

"Okay, okay, I believe you. You're gonna have to tell me how you're doing that, though."
The fox-girl led the way out. "It's because I'm an illusionist. I don't just make illusions, I can see them too."

"What's that have to do with seeing what time it is, or people's stats?"

"Well..I think the whole game is an illusion, in a way. It's what the class description was talking about with 'piercing the veil'."

"So can you bend spoons or something?"
"I can make you think I have..but I don't think I can actually warp reality at all. Not yet, at least."

"But you know it's fake. You can see stuff."
"Yeah well, you can see a missile in the sky and not have anything to shoot it down with, you know."
"Point taken."

The "Best" RPG Ever-10

Ray looked up at the description once more. "Illusionist: Those who have pierced the veil, and are able to both see beyond it, and manipulate it to fool the senses of others. A support class, illusionists have little in the way of raw fighting prowess, but possess a natural instinct in social situations that more battle-oriented classes often lack."

And below was a cloud of smoke. That was what it looked like, at least. "Guess I'll just..pull this smoke out then," he said.

"Get on with it," said Lyle, crossing her arms and quickly uncrossing them, frowning at the breasts her arms had just come into contact with a small bit of red on her cheeks.

"Anything for you, bud." He reach his hand into the smoke, and couldn't quite find anything to hold onto. Looking back up at the message box, he found that its text had changed to indicate that he should "look into the smoke" to confirm the selection. So he bent over and awkwardly stuck his head into the smoke.

He pulled back out again, immediately regretting having done that. "Ow!" His eyes were stinging and tearing up. He rubbed his eyes a few times, and they cleared up..but there was still smoke around them. In fact, there was smoke obscuring his vision entirely. "What the.."
"You okay in there, Ray?"
"Yeah, I just can't..see...whoa.."

What Ray saw was not quite comprehensible. It was as if the smoke presented an image of everything at once to his eyes, and somehow everything seemed to make sense. He could very briefly see that the smoke wasn't even there at all, and neither was he; there were just numbers, which pulled together into words and more numbers, and images and feelings and scents and sounds..and as quickly as the strange experience began, it was gone.

"Where'd it go?" he said, looking around, confused.

In fact, the smoke seemed to be gone. "The smoke? Went straight into your eyes. Didn't that..hurt?"

"Mostly no..only at first, actually. And then I saw..oh man, I have no idea how to describe it. But I..hm?"

Ray had to pause when he looked at Lyle. He could see some text over next to her head..but he knew somehow it wasn't exactly there. The first row said "Lyle – F Human", the second said "Elemental Archer", and the rest looked like a bunch of stats. While he was looking at that, he noticed that Lyle's head seemed to be moving up ever so slightly, even though Lyle wasn't actually moving.

"What?"
"Hmm.." He ignored Lyle's question briefly, instead holding up his hand in front of his face to try and look at his own 'text'. He wasn't sure why he thought it would show up if he did that, but it did. The first couple of lines said "Ray – M Human" and "Classless", but a bit behind that, seemingly moving up toward the closer text's place, there was another pair of lines, saying "Ray – F Vulpin" and "Illusionist". "I don't think you'll be the only one turned into a girl," he said finally.

"Are you sure? You don't look..wait, no, you were taller than me.."

"Mm-hm." Ray nodded, and he could feel his hair swishing slightly as he did, beginning to grow longer. Then he could feel a slight pulling sensation from his ears, like they were being stretched out by some invisible force. At the same time, his skin started tingling, and he could feel a gentle tugging between his legs. "Here it comes.." he muttered, bracing himself. Lyle had made this look painful.

But it didn't hurt, actually. The tingling was a little uncomfortable, but it subsided after a few seconds, leaving his skin feeling strangely smooth. He could feel air brushing against little hairs on his ears, and they were clearly longer than before, taller especially; his hair was already down to his shoulders, and now he could see by his bangs that it had turned a bright, reddish shade of brown. He could feel his clothes moving around, and looked down to see his shirt and pants both turn to white cloth, the pants spreading out into sort of a straight skirt, but then splitting into four pieces, the front, back and two sides, with the tears between the pieces reaching up nearly to his hips. The sides stayed long, while the front and back rapidly shrank up his legs to the thighs; little bits of red string tied the top parts of each section together.

He felt a gentle pushing on his arms, legs, and stomach, and an outward pull from his hips. His shirt became tighter on his waist, some kind of tall blue belt forming there with a rope pulling it close. As his shoulders pulled in, the collar fell off of his neck and shoulders, the sleeves becoming much wider and roomier near the wrist, but tighter on the biceps.

"Mm.." Ray closed his eyes, listening to a higher voice than his own coming from his throat. His hair brushed against the back of his thighs, and the gentle tugging between his legs subsided into a strange, very brief numbness. The feeling that came back after that informed Ray that he definitely wasn't male anymore. "Ah!" Her eyes opened at a sudden jolt from her chest, and looked down to find two quickly-growing bumps under the top that used to be a shirt. The shirt and pants had turned into a single garment by now, with a purple trim along the very wide, deep neckline and down the middle of the chest. As they continued to grow, Ray felt something like an appendage unrolling itself from behind her back as a long, thick-furred tail made its way out and began swishing around of its own accord.

As her chest continued to push out, Ray found her hands holding some short, thin objects—folding fans, she figured out by a look—and felt a small necklace falling across her neck, followed by a mild pull from either side of her head as some hair ornaments formed and brought sections of her hair into a pair of very long ponytails. Finally, her chest stopped growing at a very generous size, and she sighed slightly, idly opening up one of the fans with a hand.

"Phew...that didn't feel too bad," she said, "weird, but not bad."

"Haha, wow, did you ever get the short end of the stick," said Lyle.

"What d'you mean?"

"What..your clothes, that ridiculous hair, not to mention the uh," she pointed at her own breasts for a second. "I mean, I thought having a skirt was bad, but at least I'm wearing a shirt still."

Ray looked down, walking in a small circle to get a better look at what Lyle was talking about. "I think it looks nice. The tail's different, though.."

"How are you not concerned about having huge boobs."
"Weell..if I have to be a woman, I might as well be well-endowed, right? Maybe I can use it to our advantage, huh?"

"If you say so. I think the game screwed with your head."

"That's possible. I think I can see your stats. Mine too."

"I guess that's useful." Lyle walked into the circle that had replaced the class-picking pedestal.

Ray started to do the same with her own circle, but hesitated a moment. "Oh, wait! Maybe we should have character names! You know, for better roleplaying."

"Mmmgh, okay. I'll be Lynn, then."

"Great! Call me Rayna. I guess Ray for short if you forget."

"Whatever. Just get on the circle thing already."
"Oh, Lynn. I'm already there." The archer did a brief double-take as another copy of the fox-woman was suddenly standing on the circle, and then the one she had just been talking to disappeared.

---

Zack woke up in the inn room the party had rented the night before, lying on top of the bed, still in the torn-up underclothes he'd fought the wolf in. He sat up and looked around; it was late afternoon by the light through the windows, and Nora was lying upside down in her own bed. The others weren't there.

He moved his feet to one side of the bed, then stopped, finding a large lump of white fur in the way. After taking a few seconds to register the situation, Zack swung his legs around to the other side of the bed and stood up, and then went on to the door. The wolf stood up and followed him. He looked at it for a couple of seconds before shrugging and heading out and down the stairs anyway, the animal in tow.

Mika was sitting at one of the tables, which were mostly empty, and waved at him. "Mornin'! You're awake sooner than I thought."

"Well, I feel fine," said Zack. "Not sore or anything. Weird."

"Blame the RPG mechanics. Hey, doggie!" the witch reached out a hand to try and scratch the wolf's ears, but he drew back and growled at her. "Aww.."

"Do you not remember the part where it tried to kill us?" said Zack.

"I remember. All the more reason to try and make friends now, right? Powerful allies and all."
"..Did you leave my armor and weapons out in the middle of the road?"

"No, of course not!" Zack waited a few seconds without saying anything. "Well, I mean, at first we did, because everyone forgot and we were way too tired to pick up all that heavy stuff, but then a couple of people from the town guard brought it to the inn an hour ago and put it up in the room. You didn't see them?"
"I guess I wasn't looking. Was everything there, at least?"

"I think so? It was all kind of bundled up, but the gloves and leggings were on top and I saw two swords sticking out."

"Good enough." Zack paused after a second, realizing his hand had been playing with his hair just then, and slowly lowered it back to the table.

"Oh man, isn't having long hair weird?" said Mika. "I mean, it's all swishing around and brushing your stomach or leg or something. But I don't even notice it when I'm fighting stuff."

"Yeah," said Zack. "It's like whoever designed this..game..was willing to bend the rules of physics to make ridiculous hair practical for battle."

"I dunno, I mean, if there was a female knight who always kept her hair like that, don't you think she'd learn to maneuver around it?"

"Maybe, but it'd be a stupid handicap to work with while learning to handle deadly swords. Especially since you can literally just cut it off and not have to deal with it."

"But what if it was someone who was just that dedicated to having nice, luxurious, long hair?"
"Mh." Zack shrugged.

He felt a little hungry, so he waved at one of the waiters around and ordered some food. Mika did the same when the waiter offered.

"So, uh..you feel great, then? Not sore or tired or anything?" said Mika.

"Yeah. More RPG mechanics at work, I guess."
"Maybe you're just physically that good. Anyway, um..so you would be able to fight at full strength, like, tonight at midnight if you needed to?"

"I guess so. I mean, I just slept. Why, you have all the ingredients for the dem—uh,the, thing already?" Mika had put a hand to her lips rather quickly when he almost said 'demon'.

"Heehee, I thought you'd never ask. I'm sure we're more than strong enough by now to beat whatever will show up the first time, and Katherine said she'd be up for it. I dunno about Nora though, she's been conked out longer than you have."
"I suspect if we told her we wanted to do that tonight, she'd agree. Where'd that cat-girl go, anyway?"

"I dunno. She said she'd come here to lie down and rest when I went to go buy things, but when I got here she wasn't. Innkeeper said she left a little before I came in."

---

The Psion held a knife close to each hand, and the freshly-bought one in the middle and up slightly, a third point of the triangle. She faced the human-shaped bunch of straw, prepared, and then started swinging, hacking, slashing, and stabbing at it as quickly as possible. It didn't take very long to lose control of the extra knife and drop it, and she stopped, panting slightly, shortly after that.

Someone picked up the knife and offered it, hilt-out, to her. It was the guard captain. "You know, hacking at things with a weapon like that isn't going to get you anywhere. Even if you have a lot of force behind it, it's just too small to make a big cut," she said.

Katherine took the knife telekinetically, moving the three to one side of her and keeping them bundled like one object to save concentration. "So what, just stab things all the time?"
"Not all the time. I mean, if a little cut is enough to do some harm, go for it. But you have the advantage of being able to pick things up from a distance..so I would suggest throwing them. Especially if you're planning on making a collection of it."

"Hmm.."

The captain stepped back, and Katherine tried throwing one of the knives at the dummy. It landed square in the "head", and the human woman pulled it out again. "Your aim is good, but if you want to make longer distances or a better impact..." she said, walking several steps away from the dummy before suddenly turning around and tossing the knife. It buried itself down to the hilt in the middle of hte "chest". "...Let gravity do the hard work."

With that, the captain of the guard walked away.

The "Best" RPG Ever-9

Lyle sat up, opened his eyes, looked around groggily for a second, and lay back down. Then he bolted straight back up again, the impact of his surroundings finally hitting. He was in a white..room? It's hard to call something a room when it doesn't seem to have any entrances or exits. Just a strange enclosed space where all the walls, the floor, and the ceiling all look the same. Anyway, whatever kind of location it was, the only thing of note were the two circular pedestals with..hologram things floating around above them, the..was that a text box?..and..Ray.

Ray was here too. He was still lying down, unmoving. "Ray! Hey!" Lyle hopped up onto his feet and went over to Ray, kneeling over and shaking him. "Wake up."

"Mmghschrhmb'll hssn't rng 'et.." muttered his friend, turning over onto his side.

"Ray. Wake up, it's me Lyle, you have to see this, man!"

"Wzz..wha?" Ray spun himself around awkwardly until he was sitting up, leaning on his hands, looking wide-eyed around the not-room. "Lyle? What the heck—where are we?"

"I don't know. Last thing I remember we were sitting in front of the computer—"

"—waiting for that weird game we got to load, yeah, me too," said Ray, nodding. "So how'd we get here?"

"I don't know, abduction by..video game? Magic or something?"
"Magic isn't real, Lyle,"
"I know, but how else do you explain this?" he said, gesturing around.

"Uh..gonna need a while on that." Ray stood up and looked at the message box, reading it. "Huh..you know, the game was supposed to be an RPG, right? Maybe this is it."

"How exactly can this be a game? Ray, we are standing in some kind of white capsule. How is this place even lit up?"

"No, no, bear with me..maybe this is like, some kind of super-advanced VR tech or something?"

"What, activated by a CD on your computer? Ray, your computer has trouble playing Doom."
"That was just an overloaded mod, man. Anyway, it's the best I've got. I don't think they're gonna let us out of here unless we do what the text box says, anyway."

Lyle shook his head and walked up to one of the pedastals. "So what, I'm supposed to drag this hologram somehow?" he said, trying to grab hold of it and nearly losing his balance when his hand unexpectedly found something to hold on to. When he got the thing he was holding to go in a direction, the message box split into two smaller ones, one above the pedastal Lyle was messing with, and another above the other one. Lyle's box was a brief description of the knight class, along with a note it was already taken.

"So you think..you think we're somehow still sitting in our room in front of the computer, with the recorder running, and, but we're like zoned out and controlling virtual bodies on the screen?" said Lyle.

"I dunno," shrugged Ray, "good a guess as any."

Lyle scrolled through the next couple of classes, ranting as he read. "Why do they leave the class in the selection list if someone already took it? Why can't two people have the same class, anyway? And..who else is in this game?"

"Are you asking me questions? Because those sound like questions I can't answer," said Ray.

"I'm just talking, Ray. According to your theory, we should still be commenting on all this, right? Show's still going?"
"I dunno, man, that's just your version of the story. And even if you're right, Something this intensive, even my glorious computer would probably have to close some programs to run it smooth. I bet if the recorder is still running, it'll be choppy and out-of-sync as heck. No good for the show. What're you gonna pick, anyway?"

"Uhhh...oh, hey! An archer class. I know how to shoot bows. Think it'll give me a skill bonus or something?"

He read the description to himself while his friend talked: "Archer: Ranged fighters, specially suited to dealing large amounts of damage from afar. Archers lack in melee capabilities, but have the speed required to stay out of such situations in most cases. Usually one who chooses to become an archer has no particular magical affinity or talent; being so mundane is both a blessing and a curse."

"That doesn't sound like a fair game, Lyle. I mean, what if you were playing a fighting game and actually knew karate, and it detected that and gave you free bonus health and powerups? That'd suck for everyone else, wouldn't it?"
"It'd make gamers exercise more, that's for sure. I'm goin' for it anyway." Lyle pulled on the hologram of a longbow, and soon found himself holding what appeared to be a rather real wooden longbow in his hands. His message box changed to something rather unusual, which he looked up to read.

It said, "Preexisting skills detected. Please select a Prestige Class."

Lyle fist-pumped with his free hand, "Hah! I was right. Let's see what they got." The prestige classes had no description other than their names: Elemental Archer, Psionic Archer, or Grand Archer. "Hmm..I get it," said Ray, "I bet the grand archer keeps the whole 'mundane' theme going, but you get way better at shooting bows. And then, the other two give you, like, supernatural arrows or shooting powers or whatever."

"Well, duh," said Lyle. "What d'you think I should pick? What are you gonna pick?"
"I dunno, Illusionist sounds pretty cool," said Ray.

"Sounds to me like a class that can't fight," answered Lyle.

"Well, maybe not do a lot of damage. But I can make a lot of distractions to keep enemies off your back so you can focus on shooting 'em. I'm thinkin' of you, man."

"Well..I think if I'm gonna do one of these, just getting better at shooting bows is kinda boring. I mean, this is clearly a game full of magic, right? It'd suck to play it all the way through and not get to use any magic, huh?"

"Up to you, man."

"I'm goin' for Elemental," said Lyle, pulling out the small storm of various pulsing colors representing that particular class. Once he was holding the strange mass in his hand, small bits of each color represented snaked out from it and seemed to curl their way around his arm, and then beyond that to be around his whole body.

"Whoa!" Lyle panicked and flailed around for a second or two, but whatever the stuff was, it moved with him, and wasn't quite solid. Besides, after a few seconds it constricted and apparently absorbed itself into his skin. "What the..that was a weird effect," he said, shaking his head.

"Hey, it changed your eyes," said Ray, pointing as if Lyle could see his own eyes.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean I'm pretty sure they weren't purple before, is all."

"Oh. Maybe purple is magic? I—whoa.."

"What?"
"I don't know, I just felt something weird. Like a..tingly feeling. It's kind of..not itchy, but..aagh, there it is again."

Ray looked carefully, and noticed that Lyle's skin was clearly turning paler, and his facial hair looked much thinner. He didn't have time to communicate that before Lyle suddenly dropped the bow and folded his arms, shuddering.

"Aah! What the..heck.." he said, as his body suddenly started shifting. He became thinner everywhere, all at once, and his shoulders fell a bit, pulling in his frame. His shirt turned all white with a ring of black at the end of each sleeve, and his jeans turned into white cloth and started pulling up from his ankles. "My..body's..squeezing.." he said as he continued to shrink. He became no shorter, but before long his arms and legs looked much smaller, and his face seemed a bit rounder in shape, and very smooth, the last of his facial hair having left it.

Lyle shuddered again, his arms clutching each other tightly, as the shrinking faded off. His hair grew out, gaining long bangs and framing his face but stopping just below chin-height; it turned bright blue in color, and two hair ornaments in the shape of five-petaled flowers appeared on one side, just above the ears. Meanwhile, the hems of his pants found their way all the way up to his thights, before the pants themselves spread out into a single skirt with a couple of vertical blue stripes. His shirt pulled slightly tighter against his slim body, showing a bit of an inward curve to the sides of his stomach. Its collar grew out and folded down, a blue ribbon with a bow in front forming around the neck.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Lyle yelled, his arms separating off to his side as if they had been forced there by something. As he yelled, his voice audibly rose in pitch more than an octave, sounding by the end like a girl's voice, and Lyle's chest grew out, pushing two large, round bumps out into the shirt. Finally, as her tense posture relaxed slightly, a quiver full of arrows appeared on her back, the strap wrapping its way over her shoulder, down between the new bumps of her chest, and down the other side, and a glove appeared on her right hand.

Lyle looked down at herself in shock. "W-what the..did I..? I'm..!" She moved her legs closer together, blushing slightly, and paused a second or two.

Ray started, "Um, are you--?"
"Why did I just turn into a girl?!" she yelled.

"Well, uh, maybe Archer is a girl-only class or something?"
"But I picked Archer already, and nothing happened!"
"Maybe just Elemental Archer? I don't know. Just how..?"

"I feel very much like I'm not a guy anymore, thanks," interrupted Lyle.

"You definitely look the part. Actually, you're pretty cute."
"Not helping."

"Well, look, it's just part of the game. If they had real virtual reality and you picked a female player to play this would be a pretty cool feature, right?"

"Yeah, if I actually wanted to play a girl in that. Here I had no warning or..or anything! And the way it did that was really weird. Why make me actually feel like my real body is being turned into a girl, instead of just..doing it instantly?"

"Maybe it can't do that, since your real body was already in the game? I dunno."
"Ughhh, whatever. Let's just get on with this. Sooner we get out of this game the better."

"You do know once we get out of here all the NPCs and even any other players are gonna see you as a girl, right?"

"Just pick your class, Ray."

"Okay, okay."

---

Mika came along with her broom, and she and Nora helped Katherine pick Zack up and position him where he wouldn't fall off. The wolf looked up and growled.

Still listening for his communication, Katherine heard, Where are you taking her?

"Somewhere safer," she answered, looking at the wolf in hopes of not confusing the others.

I am here. Nowhere is safer.

"You wanna carry her on your back?"

He snorted. I am no burden-bearer.

"You'd do it if Zack told you to, though, wouldn't you?"

What the alpha commands is done. You are not the alpha.

"Well, you can come with us if you want, but I've known her for longer than you have, and I know she wouldn't like it if we left her out here in the middle of the road."

Mika got on the broom behind Zack, hugging him awkwardly from behind. "I can keep her steady, but I can't see where I'm going," she said.

"Just follow me," said Nora, starting to walk. Katherine followed the pair on the levitating broom, and after they got a few yards off she could hear the wolf standing up and treading along behind them.

"So why were you blocking the road anyway?" she said, looking back at the wolf.

I am strong, to others worthy alpha. I have no direction. Desired a worthy alpha with direction.

"And you think she has direction?"It matters not. She is worthy alpha.

"What made you challenge her in the first place instead of running off like before?"
Others were not even worthy to challenge. Form is man, but scent is wolf. Worthy to challenge, and proved worthy alpha.

When they made it to town, the guards looked at the group, then at Zack, and then around the broom at Mika. "What did you do to her?" asked one of them.

"Besides carry her here, nothing," answered Nora, frowning. "She tired herself out fighting that one," she added, pointing to the wolf in the back.

He gasped. "Ye gods, that's the.."

"Yes it is," said Katherine, giving a grin just shy of being a smirk. "He considers Zack his 'alpha' now, won't be making any more trouble for you guys."

"Oh, that's great news!" said the other guard. "We should tell the Captain immediately!"

"You mind helping us with Lady Zack first?" said Mika. "I don't want to bump into people all the way to the inn."
"Uh, sure," said the guard who spoke first. The two guards picked up Zack, and Nora led them to the inn, the wolf following a bit more closely now that there were so many people around. Nora was a bit surprised at how few of them reacted to the giant wolf in tow..then again, she thought, a few of them looked like they were part wolf or cat or bird or other things, too..

Katherine and Mika went to report that the job was done and claim the rewards. "'Lady Zack'?" said Katherine.

"Well, it makes sense, right? That's what you call a female knight, just like you call a male knight 'Sir Whoever'."
"Shouldn't it be 'Ma'am Whoever?"
"It'd be Madam. They didn't have that slang in the Middle Ages."
"They also didn't have female knights."
"There were a few..maybe..and even if not, it makes sense for any fiction with female knights to call them Lady. Whole lot more than Sir, for sure."
"You know she's gonna kill you if she finds you called her 'Lady', right?"
"Risk worth taking," said Mika with a grin.

Once the reward was safely in the party's inventory, Katherine started toward the inn, Mika following. "Well, I'm gonna lie down for a while. I'm beat."

"I'll be with you in a little while..I think I can probably afford what I need to s..uh..do that thing, you know, that I need to do," said Mika, deciding against using the phrase 'summon a demon' in the middle of town.

"Sure. Maybe we can do that tonight, you think? Since after that fight, all anyone's gonna do this afternoon is lie down and rest anyway."

"Sounds good. I mean, if Zack's okay with it."

"Why do you care so much if she's okay with it?"
"Well, you know, she's pretty much been doing all the heavy lifting so far. Wouldn't be surprised if it happens again~."

The cat-girl shrugged. "See you later."