The "Best" RPG Ever-86

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"Ahh, the cliffs again," Aria said. "Those birds seem to love this area, eh?"
"Please be quiet...I'm trying to read the map," Nora said, that in one hand and a compass in the other. "..I think it's...this way?" she said, pointing hesitantly.

"That's correct," Clera agreed. "It appears we are quite close, actually. I'll scout its location more exactly." She ran a short distance and took off, steadily circling up into the air for a bit before sighting something and quickly diving back down.

"Well, d'you find it?" the shifter asked.
"Small complication," the winged girl replied. "There are two."
"I bet we can still take 'em!"
"Of course you do," she replied. "We can certainly try. Our highest priority is to land them and clip their wings. I can outmaneuver one, but if they work together..." She shook her head slightly. "It would be best if the other has its attention on someone else."

"I should..be able to get it," Nora said. "My power over electricity isn't terribly...strong, really, but..it has a long range."

"Hey, just get one on the ground at all and I'll suck it dry before it can take off again," Aria said with an exaggerated thumbs-up.

"Sure," the elf said, flatly enough to communicate less than total confidence.

They continued the short distance until the giant birds were visible from the ground, and after exchanging a brief look the three of them split off, Aria waiting in the center while Clera walked right and Nora ran to the left. At this point one of the birds happened to look down and notice them below, letting out a loud squawk that got the attention of the other before both took off together, diving in Aria's direction. Clera went into a run and took off into the air, quickly circling upward a bit and shooting a fireball at the nearer of the two birds. It caught it in the side and turned sharply in her direction, chasing her through the air. Before the other one could follow, some thin streams of lightning fired into the space between them from Nora's position, goading it to split off into a talon-first dive at her. She turned and ran, listening for it to get close so she could dive out of its way.

---

"I'm fairly sure it's in this cave," Lynn stated, pointing.
"How d'you know?" the dragon-girl asked.
"For one thing, its path is consistently littered with broken twigs, sometimes fallen trees...and just look at the vegitation around here," she said, waving a hand at the collection of torn, broken, or otherwise destroyed plants nearby. "For another...there's lots of, leavings around here. Territory marking. And we haven't seen any normal animals since we got close; they'd know where it is and stay away."

"I see. Soo, um...do we go in, or yell at it to wake it up and make it come out orrr..?"

"If it's awake, it should be on its way out by now." Mira said. "Surely it could hear us talking at this distance. Otherwise I suggest a repeat of the worm strategy."
"Hmn—oh," Rose said, taking just a secod to remember what she was referring to.

"Then we should wait a moment and see if we can hear it coming out," Lynn said, crossing her arms.

The three of them stood quietly for a long moment, but there was no sound. Then, nodding to the dragon-girl to follow, Mira stepped up closer to the mouth of the cave, and made a small light to get a better look inside.

"...Huh."
"What?" Hearing some confusion in that, the archer came close too.
"Looks like there's been a cave-in." Just past the reach of the sunlight from outside, a pile of large rocks and boulders blocked the entrance save for the tiniest of cracks. "If the bear was in here when it happened, it either got caught in it and/or left another way...if it wasn't, then we should be looking out, not in," the witch stated.

"Humm.." Rose produced a seed and grew it out into a mass of thick, tentacle-like vines before sending them into the cave, wrapping them around several of the boulders near the bottom and pulling them out to either side.

"What're you doin'?" Mira asked.

"Thought I smelled some blood...aha!" She pointed, and Mira brought the light closer to the spot she'd temporarily moved boulders aside from. The head and a bit of the upper body of a dire bear was visible; the rocks directly on top of it had sharp edges that had pierced into its body, and a bit farther back it seemed as though a stalagmite had somehow grown up out of the ground straight through the monster's body.

"That doesn't look..natural," Lynn said while Rose relinquished the vines, allowing the boulders to settle back into place. "I suppose...an earth mage could've done this?"
"Sure, but then why was the quest still up?" Mira said. "The guard didn't act like anyone else had taken it, either."

"Must've been...someone from out of town, then?" the archer suggested.

---

Aria drew her weapon, forming it quickly into a chain-harpoon, and waited until the giant bird chasing Nora was close enough to the ground before throwing it just slightly ahead of the beast, landing a solid strike into its side and burying it halfway in. The monster twisted around in the air, trying to salvage a clean landing while tethered to the unmoving shifter, but ultimately crashed onto its side. The weaver whirled around, capitalizing on this with a quick jet of flame toward one of its wings; Aria ran up to it, yanking the harpoon out, swinging it up while turning that end into a bladed implement, then swinging it down again at the thing's wings.

Clera, meanwhile, let her opponent chase her for a little while before making her way toward the ground, planning to goad it into increasingly steep dives and then pull out of the way at the last possible second. Before she could, however, the other one cried out at its wing being cut and drew its partner's attention elsewhere. Clera followed, tossing more fireballs at it, but it seemed determined to come to the other's aid now, swooping toward Aria with its talons out.

Nora dove out of the way of a gigantic beak pecking toward her. "Aria! D-duck! Move! Something!" she yelled, waving emphatically behind the shifter to try and warn her of the oncoming bird. Aria looked back for just a fraction of a second, then swung her weapon up off of her present target, turning its end into a massive spiked ball and swinging it around to catch the other one square in the side. This threw the monster's momentum off just enough for it to crash-land next to her, sliding along the ground a couple of yards before coming to a rough halt. Clera was right behind it, making a slightly rough landing before spreading out her hands, chanting briefly and summoning a wall of fire behind Aria where the other bird had just finished turning around and raising its beak to attack them. Seeing this, it cawed and flapped its wings instead, knocking the lighter half-avian over onto her back.

Nora pulled at the ground beneath that monster's talons, raising it beneath one and collapsing it under the other in an attempt to throw it off-balance. It stumbled slightly, but took off into the air with another giant flap rather than trying to right itself. The other one had stood up by this point, and hopped toward Aria, who readied her weapon for another strike, swinging it in circles above her head. Clera managed to stand up at this point, and dismissed the wall, watching the airborne monster carefully.

---

This is the place, Rayna reported mentally. Right?

Looks like it to me, the psion agreed. Then—heard by everyone but clearly directed toward Jacob—she said, We're invisible, but stay behind Zack anyway. I'll bring up the rear.

Got it. In this formation, the four of them (plus the wolf) cautiously entered the caves that a number of monstrous cats had inhabited recently.

You hear that? the fox-girl asked.

Hear what? replied the elf—the only one who didn't hear it now. It was a pained, mewling noise accompanied by an irregular scraping sound.

This way, Zack instructed rather than explaining. Katherine passed on her sensory information to Jacob so he'd know what they were talking about. Soon enough it was audible to him, as they came into a partially-collapsed section of the cave.

Seems like there was a cave-in since the last time we were here, the catgirl said.

Very recently, Rayna agreed. Last few hours? She mentally pointed out the source of those noises—a cat monster with the back half of its body pinned under a rock. It was scrabbling its claws across the cave floor, trying repeatedly in vain to pull itself loose. Its voice and movements were weak; it had been at this for quite a while.

Pathetic, the wolf thought. Should put down now. It took a couple of steps toward the injured beast.

Not just yet, Zack put a hand on the wolf's back, stopping it. Then, looking back at Jacob. I guess this will work for your scan?

It should... He took a few cautious steps toward it, then around to one side of where it was still running its claws across the ground. Never thought I'd feel sorry for one of these things.

Pretty sure it'd still be trying to kill us if it could see us, Rayna said. Do you need to chant anything, or can you cast this silently?

I think I can manage a silent cast. It just takes a bit longer, a bit more concentration.

We'll stop distracting you, then, Katherine said, and subtly shared a little of her own concentration with him while they waited.

---

The bird on the ground raised its wings, preparing a sharp flap to try and knock everyone in front of it over. Seeing this, Nora tried to pull at the ground under it to knock it backwards—and found this more difficult than usual. The element there seemed to resist her, and on closer inspection this was due to a sharp pull from the other direction, behind the bird—a far stronger hand tugging on the same string. She had just enough time to perceive this before that hand really pulled, raising the ground beneath the monster as a giant pillar which rocketed into the sky with enough speed and force to hit it into its partner just as its path took it directly above that position. The pillar's lower half—all very solid-looking rock—was thrown to one side while the rest, both birds stunned on top of it from the impact, began to fall; then it was tossed up, moved above them, and slammed down, sandwiching the monsters between the pieces of torn-out ground with a distressingly loud crunching noise. Fially the whole mass was tossed to one side, landing a messy pile of earth and the now-dead monsters to one side of the near-cylindrical hole the pillar had come out of.

Both of the others watched this happen, before turning around toward the weaver with astonished faces. "Nora?" the winged girl said.

"That, um..that wasn't me." This was followed by a loud, boistrous laugh in a man's voice from behind the two of them, drawing their attention that way.

"Haha!" Its owner, standing a few yards on the opposite side of the hole, was a tall, slightly slim but well-built Felis man with dark blue hair and fur, with some stripes of slightly lighter blue running across his tail. He had on a long shirt, partially-torn jeans and boots, and there was a distinctive horizontal scar just below the left of his two bright golden eyes. "That's wha' I call a clean kill, ey? Two birds wiv one stone an' all?" He audibly hiccuped and halfway stumbled a few steps forward. Aria watched about this much before nodding in Clera's direction and quickly running toward the dead birds, her weapon retracting back to its native sword-form. "Heey, where ya goin'?" he waved.

"Please excuse our friend," the winged girl said while Nora came up next to her. "We are grateful for your assistance."

"Hah! Glad to hear that. I'd hate to see those bloated squawkers hurt anythin' as pretty as you lot are," he said with a grin. He stopped approaching them once in conversational distance, which was close enough to pick out a strong scent of alcohol on his breath. "Name's Randall, miss—?"

"Clera," she nodded. "This is Nora, and that's Aria," she said, indicating the cat-eared weaver (who was wincing slightly from the perceptively stronger smell) and then waving toward the shifter, who was now busy sticking her blade into the freshly-dead birds to drain out their blood.
"Is she a'right in the head there?" he said, turning to watch this.
"Her weapon bears a curse which requires blood to mitigate," Clera explained—it was close enough to the truth, anyway. "She should be back to normal soon enough."

"Well, ah—since I saved you ladies an' all," Randall said, leaning forward just slightly, "I don' suppose you know whever there's a town nearby here? I've been wanderin' aroun' the bush here for days tryin'a' find one."

"Hey, we were doing just fine thanks!" Aria yelled, overhearing the conversation.

Clera cleared her throat. "Regardless. We did come from a nearby town, and should be able to lead you back to it."

"I swear—" The shifter punctuated this by pulling her sword out of the now-drained bird and loudly stabbing it into the other one "—killstealers, man."

"Good news for me, anyway," Randall said, apparently ignoring that comment. "Your town got a tavern or two, innit? I'm runnin' mighty low after my journey, an' all my cold ones are more like left-out-in-the-sun-for-a-day ones at this point, if you know my meaning."

Clera raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps you should consider waiting for what's already in you to wear off before drinking any more. But, there are a few, I'm certain."

"Hahah! I can handle a lot more 'n this and still be more than competent, li'l miss!" he said boistrously. The sooner they got this one into town and off of their hands, the better, she thought.

---

...There. Jacob took a small step back, away from the wounded beast. I've completed the scan.

You've got everything you need from this thing? Zack clarified.

Yes. I'll have to run analysis later, but the spell made a detailed record for me to examine, which should... His thought trailed off when he saw the knight step forward and run his blade through the monster's neck.

Sheathing the weapon again, Zack said, Let's get out of here, then.

...Sure... The elf took a couple of nervous steps away from the wolf-girl at this curt response.

While they followed the knight and wolf out, Katherine informed the elf privately: He's worried there could be another cave-in while we're here.

Ah..somehow that failed to occur to me. But you know something— At this point Katherine switched him back to communicating with all four of the others. —I don't think this cave-in looks entirely natural. The concentration of the rocks to a single area, plus the walls here look far too sturdy to have just fallen apart like this...

If something or someone caused it, that's even more of a reason to get out of here quick, Rayna pointed out.

I suppose you're right. Could be some kind of earth-monster...like a fire giant, but with rocks, Jacob mused.

No need to worry, then, Rayna teased, we took out a fire giant just a couple days ago, after all!

---

"So, you three are adventurers of some sort, ey?" Randall asked, once they were on their way. "Monster slayers, leastwise?"

"Close enough," Aria said. "I hope you're not planning to claim the bounty for those birds."
"Haahah! You can take it, I got more money 'n I know what to do with anyhow! As for me, I'm an earth mage if you can't guess from that mighty display I jus' put on. Any major construction goin' on, I'm sure I can get it moved faster'n anyone else alive!"

"Sober, I hope?" Clera said.
"I get a lo' better work done drunk, li'l lass, trust me. Helps me to relax and all."
"I won't argue that," the shifter said. "I don't think I'd wanna be anywhere near your worksite, though."
"Haahahah! You got nothin' to worry about. I haven't had a workplace accident in—aawh, what year is it? At least a couple a'centuries, anyhow! To be fair, though, it's been a couple decades since the last time I had serious work, either."

"You're an immortal?" Nora asked. "Or are you..just exaggerating?"
"Immortal, for sure, miss. It was a right shock when I found that out. Sometimes I forget it ain't normal for us Felis, I s'pose."
"To clarify...I'm actually an elf," she said. "This is a...magically assumed form."
"Ahh, tryin' to fool me, ey?" Randall teased. "I already saw your friend there was a shifter," he said, waving vaguely in Aria's direction, "an' mighty talented one at that."
"I don't mean to be deceptive...this form, grants some useful advantages, is all," she said.

"You still a half-Avian, li'l miss?" he asked Clera.

"That has not changed, no." Why did she always end up meeting the obnoxious ones, she thought.

"Crikey!" Randall stopped in his tracks for just a second, seeing the other party of three walking toward them. "Is that a humanoid dragon up ahead? I can count how many a' those I've seen my whole life on one hand."

"That would be Rose," Clera said. Speaking of the obnoxious ones... "Please try to be polite toward her."
"I'm plenty polite, all the time!"

They came close enough to speak not long after. Mira said, "Well, our quest was kind of a bust, so we went to see if you needed any help. I see you found some, already, huh?" Randall was busy staring at Rose, who fixed him with a bemused expression.
"You're a real beaut," he said finally. "Every dragon I seen take a human form wants to be some big ugly, but not you, eh?"
"Um, I guess not?"
"Well. Name's Randall, miss," he said, striking out a hand, which she took as cautiously as ever to shake. He pulled it into a firmer grip and forcibly shook her hand in a sharp, somewhat rough manner which resulted in a couple of light scratches to his own wrist—not that he seemed to mind.

"Uh. Rose," she said, nervously watching this. "N-nice to meet you."
"Likewise. Prolly more so from my end, really. Say, are all your friends this pretty?" he asked, finally letting go of the scaly hand and looking toward Clera.

"I'd say so~," the witch interjected with a grin, drawing his attention to her.

"Ah, pardon me, didn't even realize I was lookin' at a witch before," he said, holding the same hand out to her. "You an' I should get on just great," he said with a wide grin.
"I certainly hope so. Mira," she said, taking the offered hand and returning an equally firm shake to his. Lynn gave the three who'd met him first a questioning look—as he seemed to have completely ignored her—but they could only shrug in response.

"We were on our way back to town," Clera said.

"Yeah! Can't wait to take a load off. Haven't slept well in all this wilderness," Randall said. "Felt like I was just goin' around in circles lately, too!"

"That might have something to do with the drink on your breath," Mira said, pretending to fan the scent away from her face with a hand. "Was it your only source of food out here, or something?"
"Naah. I jus' think life's boring otherwise," Randall said. "Can't have things get too easy on me, eh?" From the casual way he expressed this, Mira concluded their new friend was probably at least slightly insane. Well, at least he was in a good mood, she thought.

Battle Vixens! - 51

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Episode 51: Knight Sacrifice

At 9:17 AM, a young woman walked into a small clearing in a certain forest. She was tall, dark-haired, her eyes lit by a fiery blue glow which blazed brighter than usual just now. Her cheeks were stained by some recent tears, since evaporated by the morning sun, her present expression a complex mixture of doubt, regret, and determination. She stopped at the edge of the clearing, drew herself up, sighed, and then walked to the center. Nothing happened right away, and she put up her arms in an irritated gesture.

"Ya gonna make me wait all day?"

The first reply was a crossbow bolt from her right, which a quick puff of fire from the already-outstretched arm burned out of existence before it could reach her. Then a stilted voice from behind said, "Not, planning to make, this easy?"

"Naw. Ya want some a' this?" Dawn dropped her left hand, holding a blue flame above her right and drawing it back, like the first move of a windup to a baseball pitch. "Come on out. Real you."

"Oh, very well." The light, airy voice that said this spoke at a natural cadence, and would only have been familiar to two people alive—including its owner. "...Not that you would accomplish much." Its owner stepped out, one particular puppet—known to be able to teleport—flanking her with its hand firmly placed on her shoulder. At about the same time, nine more puppets stepped out from all around.

The second living person to step into the clearing was tall—taller than Dawn, even—with flowing dark blonde hair, black tips to the golden fur of her ears and tail. She had a somewhat thin, almost wispy build, which hardly looked suited for comabat, and her clothes were far from practical—a long, flowing kimono cast in white and red. Her grin seemed almost innocent, but there was a certain cruel gleam to her eyes. A thin red string hung between her hands, bits of it wrapped around each of her fingers—each of which made constant complex, delicate movements which somehow seemed to relate to those of the puppets around them.

"What is it?" the puppeteer asked. "You must know how this ends."
"Sure." Dawn slowly lowered her hand to the side, dismissing the fire. "D'you?"

"Now that's a silly question."

"Don't mean this," she clarified, waving to their present surroundings. "Y'know, I ain't never been so good with words. But, you were right about one thing.

"M-hm?" While she remained in place herself, the puppeteer had her nine soldiers who weren't occupied protecting her close in toward Dawn, slowly.

"I'm a murderer, jus' like you. Even if you wanna chalk—" she visibly choked for just a second, but pressed on: "—Cynth—down as a mercy kill or already dead or whatever, I still killed somebody. I been hangin' out with a former police officer for a little while, y'know. 'Cause, like all murderers, I got caught. It's where folks like us are headed."

The puppeteer's smirk grew just a bit. "You really think you can 'catch' me all by yourself, little one?"

"'Course not. Won't be me. But murderers get caught anyhow. In the end, we'll die for what we done."

"Interesting theory." The puppets surrounding Dawn couldn't get much closer without crowding each other. "You first."

---

Clark had a break starting at 9:30, after his earliest class. Officially, his office hours were later in the day, but he tended to sit around in his office anyway; occasionally a student would knock, and he could answer. He sat for around fifteen minutes before deciding to make a particular call, fussing with the VI app for a bit before remembering the correct name.

"..Yello?"
"Is this Simon?"
"It is! Dr. Quinn, I presume? Don't actually know your 'real' voice, after all, but that's what the ID says anyway."
"That's right."
"Well, ah, how can I help you then?"

Clark cleared his throat. "Well, I'm sure you've seen my wife and I on the news..or, at least heard about it."
"Mm-hmm?"
"It's just that—she's very straightforward with her opinions. I love her for that, but...I'm concerned. It's sunk in for me lately that we're quickly turning into some sort of public figures."
"When did that hit ya, eh?"
"Let's, just say I've got some people auditing my class...who don't seem very interested in the material." Simon chuckled to that. "Anyway, since you seem pretty comfortable in the spotlight, so to speak, I wondered whether you might..know some people? Look, neither of us took the sort of career path that usually lands you with fame, is all. I feel like I could handle it alright, but—just privately speaking, I'm worried she could say something..bad enough to get us both in trouble. What I'm saying is, I don't really even know what sort of person we're looking for, much less where to look for a good one. A public image consultant? Something like that?"
"Well, I know me. But I am rather busy as of late."
"Of course. "
"Just messing with ya a little. I can point you in a few directions, give you some numbers—but nobody like that works for free, of course. You should consult with your wife on whether you're willing to sell some rights to the VI for royalties or something, or come up with something else on your own of course. No pressure there."

"I see. Thank you."

"Er, I'm not kidding about being busy, though. Have to look that stuff up, I can text it to you a little later."

"Is everything alright?"
He sighed over the line. "Ah, well, we've had somebody fly the coop, is all. Rowan's...not happy. I fled to my humble abode, but I don't think they've turned her up yet."
"...Not to volunteer somebody else, but has he contacted Light?"
"Light?"
"She can track people."

"Oh, riiight! I forgot about that. Well, I don't really know who all he has asked for help—seemed like everyone he knows—but there's no harm in checking. Since I need to do that now, I'll text you some numbers afterward. Ciao!"

"Goodbye."

---

A thin blade of ice pierced through the chest of the shadow puppet. She dropped her scythes, making a pained, choking noise, and turned to dust. Dawn took a small step back and hunched over, dropping the weapon and panting heavily, her body covered in frozen sweat. Parts of the forest around her were on fire, other parts cut or pierced with partially-molten weapons of ice stuck into tree trunks fallen or standing. The puppeteer stood a few yards in front of her, the last of the ten puppets still with her. Her expression was one of mild displeasure, or maybe just annoyance—not fear, defeat, or even real anger.
Forcing herself to her feet, the dark-haired vixen shouted, "C'mooon!" After another gasp of air: "That all you got, or you gonna fight me yourself?"

She glanced to the side slightly, and with a small flick of her fingers the teleporting puppet let go and took a small step back, away from her. "Oh, very well. You've fought so hard; who am I to deny you a taste?" The puppeteer put her hands palm up and raised them slightly in the air, before curling her fingers. "I'll show you my power." All around them, porcelain arms struck up out of the ground, placing their hands to either side and pushing up. Dozens of featureless, clothesless puppets raised themselves up from the ground, pulling onto their feet in jerky, stilted motions and turning their faceless heads toward her opponent.

"You like it? I've been sowing them for just a few days now," the puppeteer said. Dawn looked left and right, still huffing in air and trying to draw forth the strength to do anything. She was ready to die, but her body refused to stop trying to fight—even now. "There's plenty more where these came from, naturally." The puppets made their way to Dawn, and jumped on her, throwing their arms around her. She remained standing through the first few, thrashing to try and get them off, but by the time five of them were on top of her she fell to her knees, and the next few threatened to make even that impossible. Before falling to the ground, she took in one last sharp intake of breath, and with it screamed—a pained, enraged yell that brought with it her final act.

At 10:38 AM, there was an explosion in the forest—a sudden, bright flash of blue fire piercing past the treetops which a few passing on the roads nearby, and some park rangers and highway patrolmen, took note of. There was concern at first that it was the start of a forest fire, but almost as soon as it began, the smoke stopped coming—the fire responsible for it having promptly been put out somehow.

---

"Rowan! Hey! I've been trying to call you for like ten minutes, man!"

"What is it Simon." His voice was stiff, clearly very much on edge.

"I, ah—I assume you haven't found her yet."

"No." The 'hurry up and get on with it' was understood.
"Well—did you ask Light for help? I mean, I know she might be busy with school today and all, but—"

"She can track her." Simon could hear Rowan's eyes widening on the other end of the line. "..I have to go."
"Su—" The beep of the other end hanging up. "..err." Simon leaned back in his chair and sighed to himself, before slowly standing up. He probably wasn't going to have any more time to paint today. Then he looked down at his phone, remembering he was supposed to send something to Clark. That was probably a good use of the bit of time left before something happened.

---

The science building's graduate lounge was empty, except for Clark Quinn. He was pacing up until his phone rang, and he quickly picked it up. "Rowan. Light's almost to me; we should be on our way soon."

"Never mind."
"..Come again?"
"Don't bother. Tell her...tell them I'm sorry I wasted your time." There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "They found her. She's already...we were too late."

"Hold on. There was nobody else there?" Clark asked.
"No. I don't know why but it's obvious now the plan was to send her to her death, and give the enemy two more powers to play with."
"Well—in that case...Is it true, you think, that she can't take a power without being there herself? Or at least, that she believes that?"
"That is our prevailing theory, yes."

The door opened, slowly and carefully, and then shut again, before Light and Amory appeared just inside of it.

"..Then we should still come. We can find out where she's been hiding." There were some questioning looks from the young people; Clark held up his free hand just slightly—he would explain soon.
"You're right. It was out in the woods...plenty of hiding places there. Probably far enough away, and she'd take other measures to prevent conventional tracking. But no car to stall us like last time, if that's the case."
"Right. It's worth a shot."
"Just—don't confront her. Either of you. Finding out where she's hiding is important, but we need a plan before taking her on."
"Of course."

"So, what's going on?" Amory asked first. Clark began his reply with the kind of sigh that indicates impending bad news.
"Early this morning, Dawn left the VI headquarters, apparently to confront the puppeteer by herself. Rowan is convinced that she was..talked into it somehow, last night."

"Why?" Light said, looking agitated. "Wait, is she—?"
"The idea was for you and I to track her down. But she's already.." Clark shook his head.
"But she can still track the puppeteer from that spot, I gather?" Amory said, to which he nodded.

"I'm going to drive my sword through her throat," Light said quietly, with the sort of calm rage that manages to far more terrifying than shouting.
"Not now, though," Dr. Quinn said, holding out a hand. "Please. We have to do this sanely or we'll just lose more people."
"I know that. I just—rrgh. Wish I could punch her in the face." He gave her a look of confusion just briefly, before realizing that her antecedent had shifted. "What is she doing? Whose side is she on, anyway?" Both of her fists were clenched and shaking just slightly.

"..I think, ours," Amory said after just a second, which led to her snapping her head his direction with a questioning look.

"Just—think about it. The puppeteer probably doesn't know you can track her, but she would never come out into the open like this anyway, not with everyone looking for her. And—the one thing she was here for, is gone now, so there was a huge flight risk. But now...baiting her out by promising her two more powers, gives us an opportunity to find her, and keeps her here a little bit longer. It's just..."

Light shook her head. "Using someone as bait is one thing. Doing it this way, letting her actually die..."
"Because our enemy doesn't know we have a good way of tracking her, it convinces her that she's on her side," Amory countered. "I don't like it either, but...we can't let it go to waste. Right?"

"I guess not."

"Well, I suppose we should get this over with, then," Clark said, followed by the phrase to change forms. Amory did the same, and quickly brought both of them to full power.

"Please be careful," she said, stepping back slightly to give both of them a look of concern. "I don't think—it's probably not gonna come up, but if you're getting close to running out of energy get away from there. And, don't talk aloud—some of her puppets can sense past illusions but we're banking on her not 'looking' up with them. That's ruined if she hears something from above."

"Yeah. I can make it look like some birds are where we are when we get close, just in case," Light said. "And..I'll make text for you to read. I guess you can just gesture, nod and shake your head?"
Clark produced her phone. "I can make text for you to read without using any magic," she said. The phone was open to a global positioning app. "Rowan's sent me the coordinates Dawn was..last seen at. Once we find where she's hiding out, I'll record that location and send it after we're far away from there again."

"Good plan," Amory agreed, and then changed back. "I guess—I'll get on to my next class, then. Good luck."

Floating above the site of the battle, Light looked down, tuning her vision to the approximate time of the explosion. Dawn's body had already been moved, but she got a look of where it had been lying, face-up, with a hole in her chest straight through the heart. She traced the time back, getting a quick view of the fight. She took out nine of the ten puppets by herself...

Looking back up, she returned her vision to normal long enough to read Clark's reply on the phone. Deliberate? Forced her to spend resources better put elsewhere.

Maybe. Light looked back down, and found the moment of death. A trick up her sleeve we haven't seen before. Faceless puppets—maybe her original power? Over twenty of them just popped out of the ground and piled onto her.

Does one's own power grow as other powers are taken?

Probably.

Clark shook her head. That number's not a good sign.

Light looked back down one more time. Got her. Follow me. To this Clark nodded, and the two of them floated in silence while she tracked the puppeteer's image through the woods, occasionally stopping to pick her back up when she disappeared due to teleporting.

After a while, Clark made a winding sort of gesture with the index finger of her free hand. Light nodded. She put lots of effort into making her trail hard to follow. Went over several rivers, teleported a lot.

No match for you, Clark offered. Light just shook her head and continued.

Eventually Light stopped. The canopy between them and the forest floor was thick here, but her vision was able to filter that out and focus on what was beneath it. This is it. Big cabin below those trees. The car from before is parked by it, and there's a path cut for it going that way, along with an arrow indicating which way she meant.

Clark looked down at the trees briefly, then back up at Light—and her own phone. Hear talking, she typed quickly; Light nodded.

"You idiot! How could you do this to us?!" They both exchanged a look; neither of them knew this voice—a girl's. After a pause long enough to have accommodated a response, it continued: "You were supposed to use my power to help people, Donny! Not—turn us both into monsters!"
"Well?" Another voice neither of them knew. This one had a teasing tone; she was clearly enjoying the conversation. "Won't you answer her?"

Dawn's voice could be heard mumbling something not quite intelligible at their distance, even with fox ears.
"What was that?" the teasing voice said, a slight chuckle in her voice.
"I just wanted to see you again."

"Wh—really? No way, not like this! You're better than that, Donny! How—" The angry voice choked on tears. "How could you..?"

Light shook her head, her ears folded back against her head. It's her all right. No more, please let's get out of here.

Clark, busy for the past several seconds recording their location, looked up from her phone to see this message, then nodded agreement.

---

Phew...tough to write, as usual, due to all the logistics involved. 

Well, maybe this is a turn some people weren't expecting. I certainly don't take major character death lightly; I agree with the idea that they should at least do something cool on the way out. Just wait and see, I say.

Also, there is a fairly obvious objection to Amory's theory which maybe you can pick out.

Fluffy Summer

I could not think of a good title for this one at all. I'm also still not entirely happy with the ending, but it's better than the first draft of it that I wrote, I guess. It's also a little long for being a caption...



Edit: I have this caption in "text with image" form below per a request to make it easier to read.

---

Lucas sighed to himself, watching the buildings zoom by from the passenger seat of his roommate's car, listening to him half-mumble the words of the song on the radio. Ever since he looked up beaches on the map and realized how close their campus was to one, Kip had hardly talked about anything else—well, apart from complaining about his oncoming finals. And now that those were over, there was nothing that could stop him going to that beach and dragging his roommate along for the ride.

His thoughts were interrupted by a fist lightly bumped against his shoulder. "Hey, come on! You look like you're goin' to a funeral," Kip said. "It'll be fun!"
"This isn't really my idea of fun," his roommate replied. The two of them had been assigned the same room by the college for their freshman year, more or less arbitrarily, and they couldn't be much more of a contrast. Kip was a tall, muscle-bound jock with endless enthusiasm and poor studying habits. Lucas was a bit on the short side, not overweight but hardly fit by any meaning of the word, and liked almost every variety of "sitting quietly indoors" that existed. Despite all that, they'd gotten along surprisingly well as roommates, with hardly any real arguments or difficulties sharing a room. Largely at Kip's initiative, they had even developed something closely resembling a friendship, which even Lucas had to admit he enjoyed. Yet—there was always stuff like this, where he got dragged along for whatever crazy idea his roommate latched onto this particular week.

Before long, they parked and got out. Kip was in white swim trunks and a tight tank top deliberately chosen to show off his prized six-pack and abs, as if his fierce green eyes, short dark hair and handsome, rugged face really needed any help. Lucas had chosen a long, dark t-shirt and a blue pair of trunks bought entirely at his roommate's insistence a couple of days before, when he would rather have been studying for his last final.
"Aw yeah! Feel that sun!" Kip stretched. "I bet all the cute girls'll be out in this!"
"I just feel exposed..."
"Really? You're covered from the knees up, man!"
Lucas crossed his arms. "I burn easily."
"So we'll buy some sunblock! C'mon!" Kip lightly grabbed a forearm and led his roommate along toward the sandy beach for a few steps until he started heading that way under his own power. Once they were there, their first stop was a beachside stall selling various necessities and amenities—including sunblock, of course. While Lucas was busy trying to remember whether a higher or lower SPF gave better protection, his friend went poking around through the store's other wares.

"This, please," Lucas said, finally choosing a tube that seemed promising.
"This too! I'll get it," Kip said, slamming his choice onto the counter not quite hard enough to make the whole stand shake. Lucas looked first at the purchase, and then his friend, with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. The thing was a white volleyball, decorated past the point of its intended use to resemble some sort of rabbit whose lower half was pink with white polka dots. While the cashier quietly rang up the check and took his money, Kip said, "What? It's cute. Girls love cute things! They see me running around with this, they'll at least be curious!"
"I guess I would be, too, if I was one," Lucas snarked.
"Hey, not funny. I just bought you sunscreen," he said, holding the tube out toward him.
"..Which I wouldn't need if I wasn't here," Lucas replied. "Thanks anyway." He stepped away from the shop enough to be out of the way, then half-bent over and started applying it to first his legs, then his arms. Meanwhile his roommate held a hand up to his brows, shielding his eyes from the sun as he surveyed the beach. As soon as the half-spent tube was in his pocket, Kip grabbed his hand and started leading him off in the direction of a little food-court-ish area with wooden tables in the middle and a few various food stalls scattered around.

"Look, there's *loads* of cute girls over there!" he said in a half-whisper that failed to lower his usual volume much.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure they won't disappear in the next thirty seconds!" Lucas said, pulling his hand out from his roommate's grasp. "Anyway, what're you gonna do? Just gawk at them?"
"No, I'll..I dunno, flex a little bit. Try to get someone's attention," Kip said, stopping to turn and talk.
"Yeah, sure. Show them you can lift a volleyball?" Lucas teased, poking the weird rabbit-thing in what might have been its 'nose' or its 'mouth'.
"Maybe I'll pick up one of those tables. Actually, maybe you should hold this thing—I don't really need the extra help," Kip said, halfway pushing it toward him.
"Keep it. I'm not really looking for dates right now," he said, shaking his head and waving for it to be pulled back.
"Oh, alright." He pulled it back, holding his arms around it as if in a hug. "I'll find someone to give it to." Then Kip shuddered slightly, as if a sudden chill had hit him. He looked down, realizing how he was holding the thing, and moved it to under his arm—the whole time having a slightly confused, almost dazed expression.
"Hey, uh, are you okay?" Lucas asked, giving a slightly concerned look.
"Sure, I feel great! Just, had sort of a weird feeling for a second there..." Now that he was really looking at him and watching him speak, however, Lucas could swear there was something a little off in what he was seeing. The color of his hair looked too light, maybe—which was perhaps a trick of the sunlight gleaming off it. Or..maybe he didn't seem to be quite as tall as usual, which was simply an absurd thought—people aren't just suddenly shorter, Lucas told himself.

His attempt to figure out what was different involved looking at Kip just long enough to qualify as staring. "..What?"
"Uh, nothing." Lucas shook his head, and turned toward the tables again. Maybe he could at least get something tasty to eat, he thought, and began leading the way. It was only a few steps, however, before he heard his roomate stop again, and turned to see the very end of another slight shudder.
"Whoo! What was that?" Kip said. "Same thing again."
"Are you cold?" his roommate asked, looking carefully to see if anything was off this time.
"No, it's..I dunno...like a weird tingly feeling in my back, all down my spine." Indeed it was—the sense that he was shorter than he should be was a little stronger, and his hair was definitely lighter colored than before, now. Furthermore, Kip's usual rugged, semi-shaved beard seemed thinner than before, and his hairy arms and legs were a bit..less so. "Wah, there it is again!" he said, halfway fighting off the latest shudder—and this time Lucas caught sight of a subtle, yet definite, downward motion of his roommate's head as he lost no less than an inch of height.

"Mnngh, it's not going away this time, either," Kip said, unconsciously closing his arms around the bunny-volleyball again. He was still shrinking, and his beard and body hair were thinning too, but slower than during the shudder a second ago. "I better not be coming down with something, maan, my summer vacation just started!"
"Um.." Lucas was pondering how to break the impossible news to his roommate that he was, in fact, shrinking, when he felt a strange sensation across his scalp—a not entirely unpleasant, tingly feeling like someone was gently running their hands through his hair—and, at the same time, the tickling of soft, increasingly long strands trailing down across his cheeks and the back of his neck, the slight weight of hair hitting his shoulders and flowing nearly all the way down his back all at once.
"W-what?" Lucas said, grabbing a lock of his suddenly very long hair in front of his eyes to confirm it was real.
At the same time his roommate raised a hand slightly to point, saying "Dude, your hair!"
"I-I noticed! Why did my—" Lucas's question was cut off by a sharp, involuntary intake of air as he felt a sensation not unlike someone running a feather from the nape of his neck all the way down the center his back.
"Y-you too?" Kip said
"I-I guess so. Hey, you're um, sh-shrinking!" Lucas finally blurted, just as his roommate's eye level sank down to his own.
He leaned back a bit in shock. "Wha—no way! Wait—I, you're..but.."

"I am shrinking!" Kip concluded once his brain finished short-circuiting. "Why am I shrinking?!"
"I, I dunno, but..y-your hair's different too," Lucas pointed out, fighting the urge to shudder again as the ticklish feeling spread out from his spine across the rest of his torso, and up to his face, down his legs, and across his arms. Looking briefly down, he was able to quickly confirm that his body hair, too, was thinning and shortening, and much more rapidly than his friend's had.
"M-my hair?" Kip reached a hand up to grab it. "How—wait." Now that his wrist was in front of his face, he finally noticed—just as the last of his body hair vanished, leaving the skin of his face and limbs looking soft and smooth. "Wha..?" Not able to process this much at once, he lowered that hand to get a better look at his whole arm and blink at it in confusion as his height continued to diminish.

That wasn't all that was shrinking, Lucas noticed, as he also looked at his roommate's arms—and his stomach under the tank top, and what of his legs the now-overlong trunks didn't hide. His abs were quite faded, barely visible at all; the once-solid muscle of his arms and legs had diminished to a merely 'slightly athletic' look; and he even seemed a little less broad-shouldered, with a smaller, softer face. As for his head-hair, its color had faded to a bright off-white, and while it hadn't grown quite so drastically as Lucas's own, it did look a bit longer than before, and was clearly still growing, too.
"Mngh.." Just as the tingling faded across his skin, leaving it as soft and smooth as that of the shrinking man in front of him, Lucas felt a much sharper version of the same placed exclusively between his legs. He squirmed them slightly back and forth, feeling some heat in his cheeks as, quite against his intuition and will, whatever was happening down there felt rather pleasant.
Kip had problems of his own, his eyes widening as he registered the slender, weak shape of the arm he'd been staring at for the past several seconds and snapped his head downward to look at the other arm, finding much of the same. "M-my muscles!" he said, in a voice that sounded...less mature than before. "Lucas!" he exclaimed, excitedly reaching up to grab his roommate's shoulders and dropping the rabbit-ball to the sand below in the process. "W-what happened to my muscles?!" He wasn't getting shorter anymore now, but his eye level was just barely at the top of his friend's chest, so he had to actually look upward to face him.
"They..shrank? I-I dunno what to tell you," Lucas said. "Aah!" He felt something pressing against the top of his head, and suddenly he was a few inches shorter. "Th-this is all just, impossible..mnnf.." His blush deepened as he stared slightly less down at his roommate's face and found it to be..extremely cute.
"W-what's going on, w-with you?" Kip asked, finally noticing the reactions to the weird feeling between his legs. His voice sounded higher in pitch and less mature still.

"I..I'm..mnnh.." There was a sharp tug now, as the very small bit left between his legs pulled inward. "I th-think we're, turning into gh—" Lucas gasped, feeling another tug and shrinking another couple of inches, too—the pressure was on his shoulders this time, alongside his roommate's tiny hands, and it caused them to pull inward, sharply narrowing his frame. His throat felt strange for a second while he caught his breath, and then he said, "Girls," in a deep, womanly alto tone that caught them both by surprise.
"W-whaa..y-your voice.." Kip said, his astonished expression as bright, soft hair trickled down past his cheeks to frame it only making his small, round face cuter. "My voice!" he realized finally, sounding like a young boy as he did.
"Aa~aah!" Lucas felt one final motion between his legs, a tug that terminated with a strange yet deeply pleasant fuzzy sensation and a slight upward push as the equipment necessary to make her prediction come true rapidly formed into place. At the same time, she shrank several inches more, until her eye level was about at the small boy's forehead.

"W-what happened?" Kip said, an adorable look of concern on his face.
"I-it. I. I'm." Finally, Lucas couldn't take the cuteness, and burst out into a giggle. "Eheheh..heehee..!" Her chest felt tingly, and she wobbled back and forth as her hips began to push outward to either side, her butt plumping out behind her—all of which made her current stance increasingly awkward to remain balanced with.
"Lucas! Wh-what's so funny?!" Kip demanded, his voice now completely out of the male range. His hands still on her shoulders, he swayed with her as he tried to keep them both upright. "Wha-aa~aahrrf!" Another attempted question terminated in an unexpected, canine noise as his ears suddenly pushed their way out past his hair, white fur covering them in an instant as they flopped down across either side.
"Aaawwh~!" Lucas couldn't help herself; it was like looking into the face of a confused puppy—and a cute girl—all at the same time. Before she could even think about it she leaned forward, wrapping her arms around the tiny boy, costing  both of them any semblance of balance and ultimately knocking him over onto his back underneath her.
"H-heey!" was all he managed before he hit the sand. And then Lucas could feel the tingling in her chest grow stronger, as her nipples pressed forward against her shirt, slowly expanding the flesh around and behind them—beginning to form a small pair of breasts. At the same time, she could feel that her roommate was still male—at least for the moment—but considerably smaller in that department than she would've expected him to be before he started shrinking down.

"G-get off of me..rrf!" Kip barked involuntarily again, and then let out a high "Aah!" as the thing between his legs shrank some more. "Lucas! Wh-what's gotten into you?!"
"Heheh...you're just too cuu~ute!" the new girl exclaimed, followed by a strange sort of chittering sound from her throat as she felt her own ears stretching up and up and up, tingling as bright white fur grew across them—in under a second, they had become huge, floppy bunny ears, which promptly fell across the top of her roommate's head. At the same time, Lucas's budding chest expanded at least a cup size and a half, eagerly growing out to press against the flat chest of the boy who would quite soon be a fellow girl.
"C-cute!? B-but I...I..Mnf..rrf!" Kip's manhood shrank twice more, and then with a high, girlish gasp, it was gone. "N-no..!" she said quietly—but it was done now. "Aah, rrf!" Lucas's gigantic new ears could pick up the sound of a tail pushing its way out from the other girl's back, its fur quickly swishing through the sand. Then her own body gained a tiny bunny tail, in a swift push from her lower back that ended just as quickly as it began.

"Mnrgh..t-this feels so weird..!" Kip complained as her own chest slowly pushed forward into Lucas's still-growing pair. At the same time, their clothes began to rapidly reshape themselves. The bunny-girl could feel her trunks shrinking into a tight bikini bottom, her shirt removing itself from her stomach, arms, shoulders, and just most of her in general as it became a matching top. Meanwhile the adorable puppy-girl's trunks shrank to a frilly bottom adorned with cute ribbons, the top turning into a slightly more modest, equally frilly top around her slowly-forming breasts. Hairpins—including an adorable bone-shaped one—and a yellow flower ornament appeared in Kip's hair, and Lucas was sure she could feel her own hair being rearranged slightly to accommodate some similar cute decorations. A bit of her shirt's collar was left behind around her neck to turn into a little necklace, which hung down enough to just barely touch the other girl's neck.
Lucas felt a slight buildup of pressure from her already-huge chest. "Mnn~nnhh..aah!" The pressure popped as they grew even more enormous, eclipsing the smaller girl's pair by quite a bit as they, too, seemed to reach their final size, their owner blushing brightly as she involuntarily yipped in pleasure at the wonderful new sensations coursing through her.

"Heheheh..w-wow.." Lucas slowly pulled herself up onto her knees, and after panting softly for a moment the other girl did the same.

"W-what happened? Why am I so tiny?"
"I dunno. I-it feels kinda nice though, doesn't it?" She reached over and rubbed one of Kip's puppy ears, and found the fur just as soft as it looked.
"Rrf..h-hey! Don't just do that!" she said, swatting the hand away; her tail, however, continued to whip back and forth, kicking up more sand, from the moment Lucas's hand had touched her onward.
"But you're so cute!" the bunny-girl protested, as if that meant something.
"E-enough of that! Why, why are you so huge?!" she demanded, poking the generous chest her roommate had wound up with.
"I...guess I was just made that way? By whatever happened to us.." Lucas half-muttered, finally remembering there were other people and looking up and around to try and gauge reactions. However, everyone was just going about their business—not even looking in the two girls' direction. As if nothing had happened at all.

"Nobody noticed this?" she said, waving slightly to her own new figure.
"I, g-guess not," the dog-girl agreed. "H-hey Lulu."
"Huh?" She responded to the name despite knowing it wasn't quite her own.
"Um..y-you're cute, too," she said, blushing brightly again and her tail still wagging.
"Awwh, Kiara!" Despite hearing a different name come out of her mouth, the bunny-girl found it quite natural, proceeding to reach over and pat the top of the shorter girl's head a couple of times. "Hey, let's get some popsicles!" she said, popping up onto her feet.
"Um...o-okay," her roommate said nervously, slowly standing up herself.
"Oh! Don't forget your little friend," she said, bending over to pick up the bunny-ball and offering it over.
"Thanks..." Kiara held it in her arms, against her belly, and slowly followed her energetic roommate the rest of the way to the food court, looking back and forth with a slight nervous air as she wondered whether perhaps all these people had seen what just happened, but for some reason didn't think it was at all unusual? Whatever the case, they were soon sitting across from each other at a previously-empty table, enjoying some popsicles.


"S-so what happened?" Kip asked. "And..why?"
"I dunno. Maybe..your little bunny friend had some part in it, 'cause we both touched it before all this happened? Or that sunblock could've been magic," the bunny-girl said, reaching her free hand to where a pocket might be—but of course the contents of her pockets had vanished when the trunks turned into a bikini bottom. The cash for the popsicles had been...well-hidden elsewhere, and come to think of it she'd acted just as though she'd known that all along.
"Mmnh," the dog-girl mumbled through the treat in her mouth, before carefully pulling it out to speak again. "Maybe someone...um...h-heard me talking about cute girls, and thought this'd be funny to do this to us."
"Yeah, could be," Lulu agreed. "Well, I'm happy at least. You just turned out so cute, after all!"
"H-heheh.." Her roommate looked off to the side, blushing again. "You're um..pretty good-looking yourself."

After eating in silence for a moment longer, Kiara continued. "You know something, um..the more I think about it, the more it feels like we've always been this way?"
"Yeah, me too!" the bunny-girl agreed. "And the new names? I mean, we know what happened, but it sure seems like nobody else noticed, sooo..."
"It's convenient, at least." The dog-girl shook her head slightly. "I dunno how I would've explained me looking like this to anyone I know."
"Heheh, not to mention buying a bunch of new clothes to fit us. Then again, we might do that anyway!"
Kiara's face lit up, her ears raising slightly and her tail's usual wag picking up the pace a bit. "Yeah!"

It didn't take them long to stop thinking about what had happened and start enjoying their new lives. They left the beach much closer than they'd entered it, and found their dorm room the way their new memories said it should be—including its closets being full of clothes fit to their gorgeous new forms.

The "Best" RPG Ever-85

 First / Previous / Next / Latest

---

"Soo, do you know where Jacob lives or anything?" Rayna asked, following the other two out of the door to town.

"No, but his letter said he would probably be at the library," the catgirl replied. "I get the impression he practically lives there, anyway."

After only a short pause, the fox-girl said, "Hey Zack."
"Can it not just be quiet around you for ten seconds?"
"I guess not!" she said playfully with a small shrug. "Especially when I think of something to talk about."

He sighed. "What."

"I was just curious whether, with the curse and all—are you, attracted to guys? Like..?"
"Yeah, obviously. It wouldn't make much sense for it to leave that alone, would it?"

"Soo, you're not..?"
"I don't feel anything toward girls right now, no. At least not that. Why do you care."

"Well, like I said, I was curious. You are living with a bunch of pretty girls now, so..."

Zack sighed again. "Even if I did still feel attracted to women, that wouldn't matter to me. Except for making everything more awkward."

"Really?" She moved up next to him. "You think you wouldn't stare? Or 'appreciate'? Even a little?"

He threw up his hands. "I don't know. Maybe it hasn't occurred to you how bizarre a situation this is in the first place, or that I've never been in one like it with my real body to compare."
"You can't even speculate?"

"I don't want to."
"Sooo, what happens if we do get rid of the curse eventually, but we're all still here?"
"Well I know everyone now, so I'm not gonna just start acting stupid. If it got too weird anyway, I could just move out, go back to living at the inn or something."

"There wouldn't be anything wrong with your being attracted to us, in my opinion," she pressed. "I'm a little curious who you'd find the most attractive, though. Or could even end up with!"

"I refuse to have this conversation. Anyway, we're nearly there." He picked up the pace slightly to get away from her, and hurried into the library.

He seems at least a little flustered to me, she thought toward the catgirl.

Are you surprised? You've been male about as long as he has; how would you like to be asked all that?

Well—I've been asking it of myself for a little while now. I think I would hold up very poorly if I was turned back and faced with all the temptation—seriously! So I was just looking for a unique perspective on the matter—since, unlike the rest of us he hasn't been female very long, much less 'raised' as one. Right?

You really need to put something like that more gently if you want any reply other than grunts of general annoyance, Katherine advised.

Noted.

After they caught up to Zack and the wolf just past the front counter, the catgirl picked up Jacob's location and nodded to the others, leading the rest of the way to him. This time, he had commandeered a table at a somewhat secluded corner of the library, and had several papers of handwritten notes, complete with diagrams, spread out on it, a stack of several more laying off to his right. He was bent over it all, scribbling something on a differently-colored sheet, presumably his own personal notes, and so didn't notice their approach.

"Hey," Katherine said quietly, but it was still enough to jolt him slightly. He looked up, and briefly between the three of them in what seemed to be confusion. "Uh, I got your letter?" she offered.

"Oh, that. Right. Er.." While he shuffled the leaves back toward the stack, Rayna noticed that a couple of the diagrams present looked rather familiar. "I didn't expect you to show up quite so soon."

"Well, we didn't have anything planned for today. Unless this isn't a good time?" the psion said, leaning ever so slightly forward and to her left.

"No, no, this should be fine." He lightly tapped the upright stack of pages against the table a couple of times to further straighten them. "Honestly, the sooner this part is over with, the better. I've known, what it is I need to know, for a while now, and there's nothing in this new information to modify that much."

"Well. You know Zack," the catgirl said with a small wave, "and his wolf. And this is Rayna; she's an illusionist."

"Pleased to meet you," he said, placing his own notes at the top of the stack and finally putting the whole thing away before standing up and politely nodding toward her. "I can see how that power might be helpful here."
"Sure. Say, where'd you get those papers from?"

"Er.." He hesitated for a second, but his eyes flicked toward the psion briefly and then he was over it. "Well, I see no particular reason to hide this. The Captain commissioned me to use some information she had translated toward a certain end. Some kind of, ancient research found in some ruins of late. The..content of the research itself is potentially dangerous, but what I've been asked to develop is either useless but harmless, ooorr perhaps helpful—depending."

"She tell you much about those ruins? I did pick up an interesting journal from some and hand it over to her just the other day," the fox-girl said.
The elf shook his head as he came around toward the front of the table. "I learned more about the facility from those notes than from her. I imagine, however, that if you recognized something in the notes, it could be the very same place."

Rayna crossed her arms. "Something bad definitely happened there. But if she trusts you with this stuff, then I do, too."

"Glad to hear it," he said with a touch of uncertainty.

"Anyway," Katherine interjected. "We have a location in mind where some cat monsters were living pretty recently, and probably still are. Or if not, it should be easy enough to track them a short ways or find an alternative."
"Lead the way, then," Jacob nodded.

---

The witch mounted her broom and took off on a wide, upward-spiraling path, but no sooner had she ascended past the height of the house than she noticed a pair of gigantic golden wings glinting in the sun to the east. Waving to the dragon-girl, she took her time floating down to the backyard and set the broom upright next to her, waiting only a moment before Rose landed nearby, flapping her wings to slow her descent but digging some long ruts in the ground all the same.
"Hii~!" She hopped excitedly out of the holes her foot-claws had made, waving. "How are you today?"
"Pretty good," Mira said, nodding. "You seem to be in a good mood."
"Heheh. I'm just really happy to see you," Rose said. A second or two later she visibly backpedaled, "Um, I-I mean, you know..just, uh.."

"It's fine, you can be happy to see me. I know I'm happy to see you~," the witch teased, drawing some embarrassed giggling. She took a couple of steps closer, putting the broom away and getting out the letter.

"Vae was pretty prompt in sending you a letter," she said, offering it toward the dragon-girl. Rose reached for it at first, and then seemed to really notice her own hand and drew it back again, holding onto its wrist with the other one.

"Um..M-maybe you can open it for me?"
"If you want." Mira set to work on carefully unsealing the envelope.

"'Vae-din'," the dragon-girl read aloud, rocking back and forth on her feet. "Wonder why she just said 'Vae' yesterday?"
"There's all kinds of reasons someone might use a shortened name," the witch said. "Here we go." She offered the letter, pre-unfolded and face-up, toward Rose, mentally noting that she could apparently read, so there was no need to offer that service. After carefully taking it up in just the palms of her scaly hands, the dragon-girl stared intently at the paper for a moment, slowly nodding and making small "mhm" noises to herself the entire time. With the way she was holding it, Mira didn't need to lean or move closer to catch some of its contents; she had plenty of experience reading upside-down anyway.

Please come at your earliest convenience at one of the following times...

...In addition, I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to visit your Domain two days hence, once I have concluded certain delicate projects requiring, if not constant attention, continual proximity in case of any unexpected change...

...I will endeavor to make my own travel arrangements as necessary...

Rose pushed the paper back toward Mira, who took it and carefully folded it together again for safekeeping. "Um..so like..I don't actually know what 'time' it is right now. Do you have any..uh.."
"Clocks? Sure. There's a few in the house, at least." Thus far nobody had deemed it necessary to purchase a watch, especially when Rayna had the power to always know what time it was.

"I kinda wanna see her whatever the first of these times is," she said, following the witch toward the backdoor. "Um, I spent a lot of time thinking of cool stuff I might be able to tell her..or show her...picking up a few seeds and clippings and stuff..."
"Heheh. Well, I'm sure she'll appreciate your enthusiasm," Mira. "Just remember not to talk over her too much."
"I-I won't talk over her!" Rose protested.

Once they were inside, Mira quickly determined that the first time listed in Vae's letter had been much earlier that morning, and so was already past, and the next was near sundown, leaving a wide gap in the middle of the day for Rose. Nora was in her feline form, lying on her back across the living room couch with a book held above her head; Lynn was sitting on a nearby chair. Before long, first Aria and then Clera also emerged into the living room, the examinations done.

"Well, there's no good reason for us to sit around here doing nothing all day," Lynn said. "Maybe there's an easy-ish job posted."
"Yeah, I should probably kill something soon," Aria agreed.

"Um..?"

"Blood-hungry sword and all," she clarified for a slightly confused Rose.

"Oh, r-right! Well..I guess I'm not busy either right now, sooo, I can help too!"

"Well then. Off to town, I guess," Mira said, waving vaguely in the direction of the door to town.

"I will...be out after you, um...in just a moment," Nora said slowly, her eyes still glued to the pages.

A short while later, Aria grabbed a piece of paper off of the request board and waved it around enthusiastically—too much so for the others to read. "Aha! Bird monster spotted!" she said.

"Give me that," Lynn said with a touch of annoyance, snatching the loosely-held sheet. "Mm-hm..another like the one we fought before," she nodded slowly. "They're hoping to get it taken out before it starts airlifting livestock and people this time."
"Yeah! And I want a rematch. I can do all kinds of ranged stuff now!" the shifter said.

"No illusionist to draw its fire this time," Clera pointed out. "Although, we have much more overall firepower, ranged capability, and people who can actually pursue it through the air present..."

"What, like all six of us hunting it?" Aria protested. "There's hardly any challenge at all in that."
"We do not hunt down monsters to be challenged," the winged girl said.
"Maybe you don't."

Mira cleared her throat quietly, but just loudly enough to get their attention. "Maybe it's better to say that it could be a bit of a waste for us all to go after the bird instead of just whoever's necessary. You know, when the rest could be taking care of something else. I suspect a carefully-chosen trio will do, so that we could split off evenly."

"Yeah, exactly!" Aria agreed immediately, although it obviously hadn't been her stance until a second ago.

"...Very well, then. At least one person who can fly should go, however, and since you are still extremely prone to injuring yourself, that will have to be me," Clera said.

"Makes sense, yeah," the shifter nodded. "And Rose should be with the group I'm not in. Otherwise they won't have a good tank."

"Um..tank..?" the dragon-girl said, confused.
"You know, a real heavy-hitter? Someone who can draw fire and take hits?"
Her eyes widened ever so slightly. "Fire?"
"Uhh, not literal fire. Like...get the bad guys' attention, away from more fragile people," Aria said, with some unhelpful but energetic gestures.
"Oh! Yeah, okay, that makes sense," she nodded.

"Well then, I'd like to go with Rose," Mira said, "if that's alright with you." Aria nodded her assent, and of course the dragon-girl had no objection.

"That just leaves me and Nora," Lynn said. "I guess it'd make sense for me to help with the bird, since I have a good ranged attack..."

"I dunno..that leaves all of the good elemental coverage with them," Aria said. "Say we encounter something only weak to ice on the way there or back."
"I have ice arrows," the archer pointed out.
"Yeah, but that's not much."
"Come on, you're talking about putting both of the healers in the same group," she protested further.

"Rose can do healing too," Aria rebutted.

"Excuse me," the object of discussion said quietly.

The shifter took note, turning toward her right away. "Yes?"

"Is there um..some particular reason...you want me to go?"

"Well, Lynn's already fought something just like this bird. If we do that party, it's like we just took Rayna out of our original group. And we're trying to mix things up as much as possible to be ready for anything, yeah? Plus, you don't have much experience fighting a flying foe, even though you definitely have the right powerset for it—right?" (she didn't pause for an answer) "So, since I think the two of us—now that she can throw fire and all—could maybe take it if we had to, it'd give us a chance to try working together in a...well, I wouldn't say 'safe' but way less risky environment than we might encounter later?"

"I see...that makes sense." Nora nodded slowly. "If we...can find something for the others to do that has, um. Either an easy fight, or no guaranteed fight and a low risk of something terribly dangerous...then, perhaps an 'actual' healer with them will not be necessary. If not...then, I should remain with Rose and Mira."

"Good point! I'll get looking," Aria said, turning back to the board and shuffling through the papers again.

After digging through them for only a moment more, she pulled another out with a triumphant "Aha!" before displaying it in the others' general direction. "One dire bear."

Lynn's initial response was a flat "What."

"Yeah, they're a little strong, but no match for a dragon! I bet Rose could kill something like that by herself, right?"
"Um, 'dire'?" the dragon-girl questioned, while Lynn examined the request a bit more closely.

"You know," Mira said, "the giant monster-bears as opposed to normal bears, which—aren't exactly small, but small-er and less aggressive?"

"Oh yeeeah! I'm sure I've killed a few of those," she nodded. "Usually bears can be good for my forest, but the huge ones like to trash things a little too much, and sometimes they won't take the hint to leave, either."

"Seems like this one's come too close to town a few times...the guard drove it off but it's been more aggressive and taken longer to flee each time. The usual, 'danger to livestock and life in general'," Lynn said. She sighed slightly. "I guess this is fine."

"Doesn't seem like they know where it is, though," the witch said. "Since the only interaction they've had with it is when it came near town."
"Well, I do have a bit of tracking experience," the archer said. "Obviously Rayna's powers are the best for this sort of thing, but I could probably follow the trail of a hulking furbeast like that no problem. The only thing is, if that leads us to more of them instead of just one..."

"Bears are pretty solitary overall, right?" Mira said. "So it's not gonna be an army of them. I'm pretty sure I can take one too, and the right arrows in the right places could at least slow the otherrr—let's say three tops, and prolly not all full-grown if that—down enough for Rose and I to get to them before you needed to worry."

"I suppose so. I'm staying way in the back row, though," Lynn said, half-unconsciously rubbing her previously injured side with the back of a hand.

"That's perfectly sensible," Aria agreed, nodding and relinquishing the paper to the witch. "Well, with that settled, let's go get these quests registered with the guard!"

---

"So—I understand our target needs to be alive, but as far as you're aware, does it need to be awake?" Rayna asked on their way out of town.

"Unconscious is fine. In fact, better since it's pretty difficult to scan something that won't hold still," Jacob answered. "Can you..?" he asked in Katherine's direction.

"No," she said, shaking her head, "but maybe they'll already be asleep if we're lucky. Or if not, Zack could just hit one hard enough with the flat of his sword. 'Mortally wounded but alive' is fine too, right?"
"..I, believe so. From what I'm able to tell, the relevant magic only leaves a monster upon its death, and not before."

He realized after a moment that none of them were looking at a map. "Er...excuse me, but, how do you know where we're going?" he asked.

"I'm leading us," the fox-girl said, "using some 'information' from Katherine's head since I wasn't actually there the first time. And I don't really need a map or compass."
"You don't?"
She shook her head. "It's not so much that I have a good sense of direction, as it is that I can literally 'see' where I am and where I'm going at will," she said, tapping a finger against the side of her face just next to an eye to indicate what she meant. He perceived a slight glow to her eyes when he looked there, which hadn't been present at the library.
"I have heard that the best illusionists can do more than fool one's eyes," he said. "Though details are scarce since naturally talented ones are so rare in the first place."

"I'll tell you something else cool," she said, turning forward to continue leading the way. "I don't actually know the language that journal from the ruins was written in, but I was able to See the meaning of its words anyway, to some extent. It didn't help me understand the research itself, though."

"I'll admit to being envious of that," he said, thinking back on long hours of studying ancient languages.

"Once we get close, we'll need to rely on mental communication," the psion informed him. Such as this. Just think something 'at' one of us and I'll make sure it gets through.

...Understood, he replied. "I'm, ah, not exactly the stealthiest walker if we're hoping to keep those things asleep, however."
"I can mute sounds and scents," Rayna said, looking backwards briefly. "Just a little bit, but probably enough for this."

"Good, that's..ah, good." He hadn't even thought of that.

A short while later, Katherine said, "Are you alright? You seem much more nervous than before."
"Tell the truth, I am terrified of all kinds of monsters," he said. "I've had enough time to get used to your, uh.." He waved vaguely in the direction of the wolf. which happened to be turned away from him at the moment. "..friend? But out here, I feel rather exposed to an ambush."
"Well, we're invisible right now," Rayna informed him. "And there's a pretty low chance of encountering anything along the path we're on right now. Hey, if you're that scared how did you even get here in the first place?"
"I hired passage aboard a particularly well-armed, and prohibitively expensive, caravan taking some noble who wanted to come out this way," he said. "I generally tried to read quietly and not think about what was going on whenever there was a lot of noise outside."

"That brings up the very obvious question of 'why'. I got some of it, but..just for some books? There's not some way you could've hired someone else to copy them for you at those prices?"

"Perhaps. I did think of it. But...I don't know, somehow I felt it would be best to go myself. I am the only person who would know if he ran across a reference I would be interested, but had never heard of before. And, as much as it does terrify me, getting up close and personal like this may well be the only way I have available to make better sense of the workings of chaotic magic. I don't regret being here, even though I know I'm risking my life. That..journal you found, although it's tangential to my primary research, is just the sort of finding that I would never have had an opportunity to encounter otherwise."

"Well, you know what they say about bravery," Rayna commented after a moment.

"What's that?" Jacob said.

"You know—it's not someone who's not afraid that's brave, it's someone who's scared but takes the risk anyway."

"I suppose so."