Monsters and Maidens (202 to 206)

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[202] [Barry]

Barry had spent so much time with the Court that, when he spotted the tiny city of Seledo, he’d been forced to reassess his perception of the kingdom. As well as that of the scale of the Court itself. He had heard that the group of ‘rebels’ were not really much more than a ragtag group of maidens scrapping for survival. But things had looked far better than what he’d expected it to.

There weren’t crippled maidens, or starving ones, there was a well built prison, a well built palace, the defenses were meager, but the sense of discipline he got from the Dark Elves and the non-dark counterparts had mostly left him feeling like it was just a tiny Queendom in some far-off place.

One look at Seledo and Barry suddenly realized the urgency and tension from Embla whenever she spoke of ‘interacting’ with the Kingdom. Seledo must have had maybe ten thousand or so souls. A town with proper houses, a wooden barrier, watchtowers, proper cobblestone streets. And by contrast, the Court was, perhaps, a thousand. With small single or double room houses built into trees, meager barricades, the trees themselves were the only option for a watch-post.

And that was if he was being generous.

Their survival depended on remaining something the Kingdom considered not worth paying attention to.

“Can I really do this?”

“You will.” Lala replied, tightening her hand on his own as they walked. The Dark Elf’s skin was fair, and her hair was dark green. The change was not from some spell, but from dyes one of the old ladies from the Court had used on her. And it would last only a handful of days before it started wearing off.

Because Dark Elves would draw more attention than regular Elves.

As would Barry’s red hair. Thus why it’d been dyed black as well.

“You remember what to say?”

Despite her earlier reassurance, the maiden still looked more nervous than he did.

“I lost everything to the feral wave, including my other maidens, and we…” His gaze flickered to the copper collar around Lala’s throat. “We’re married.”

She didn’t blush or react to that, merely nodding and tightening her grip on his fingers ever so slightly. “And you inherited me from your father.”

Barry coughed a little. “Why is that important?”

“Because if either of us slips, it makes sense I’m not a maiden you raised yourself.”

“Slips… how?”

“Like walking hand in hand.”

Barry froze, pulling his hand out of hers and watching the amusement in her eyes. “Is it really a problem?”

“It’s not a problem, just something that will look odd.” The maiden replied leisurely, her normal teasing mood gone. “And the less attention, the better.”

“I’m still queasy about it.”

“Everything should go smoothly.”

“You should be introduced to the laws of Murphy.” Barry muttered under his breath.

Lala snorted loudly. “Unless this ‘Murphy’ was a sage in curses, I don’t see why they should be going around making laws.”

“Huh.”

“What?”

“Now that you mention it, I do think Murphy was a sage of curses.”

The Dark Elf perked immediately. “Really? I thought your world didn’t have magic or enchantments?”

“We don’t, but Murphy’s law is famous.” Barry muttered. “Everything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Lala immediately deflated. “Bah.”

“What?”

“That’s just a seller of acro-dust.”

“A what now?”

“Fake things. Tricks that take advantage of superstition.”

Barry leveled a glare at her. “You’re kidding. You can literally enchant objects to be magic and you’re talking about superstition?”

“Seen it with my own two eyes, yes, yes.” Lala was talking with a strange slurred accent, clearly mocking someone Barry didn’t know as she held up a pebble she’d picked up. “This here fine gem in disguise is nothing more and nothing less than a miracle. Yup, yup. All it needs is a little polish and a little shine, and you will only encounter the most docile of ferals. Bonded a Tigress and all, made her soft like a puppy.”

“But maidens can detect the whole spells and enchantment.”

“And if someone could make an enchantment that actually controlled fortune, nobles would hoard the thing.” She shrugged.

“I saw you give a bracelet that made people trip.”

“And it worked by messing with their sense of physical self-perception.” She waved off, a proud smirk on her lips. “The bitch totally deserved that one.” The chuckle that followed was a dark one. “She still thinks it’s meant to make her tireless.”

“Does it?”

“Sure, but not really enough to matter. It mostly makes her not feel her tiredness. And that’s what counts.” Lala scratched the tip of her sharp ear. “With subtle curses, there are lots of things that are more powerful by just making the person know they exist because you just sabotage yourself a lot better than any curse could.”

“Like breaking them from the ‘flow’.” Barry pipped up, earning a curious look. “You know, like when someone is totally focused and moving or doing stuff without thinking, like it’s automatic, and you mess with that.”

An impish grin grew on her face. “Do tell.”

“Well, it’s just something I caught on when playing online games.” He scratched his cheek. “If someone on the enemy team was doing really well, I’d just ask them how they were doing it. And sometimes that would throw them off because they’d focus on their own actions.” A slight nod. “Kind of like telling you that you’re breathing or that you have a tongue.”

“That’s a cute idea.” She laughed, very slowly licking her lips. “I do know what I’d want to do with my tongue, though, I ha-.” Her face stiffened, and the smile vanished, her head bowed slightly.

“Wh-.”

“It’s time to start pretending.” She whispered in a very hushed voice. “Dear owner.” She added a slight strain to her lips and a plasticity to her smile.

Barry had been just about ready to look around when he felt the barest sensation pointing upwards. His head snapped, and he saw two shadows approaching. Flying maidens that looked like they were trying to pretend to be tough. But there were bags under their eyes, and a slight paleness to their complexion. It spoke of long nights without rest.

“What’s your business in Seledo?”

Their gazes were on Barry, and it took him a second to compose himself. “We-.” He coughed, feeling a pinch in his throat. “I lost my farm. I am traveling and looking for opportunities.”

“Traveling rather light.” The winged one spoke, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “You have money and food?”

Barry quickly nodded, patting the pouch on his hip. “Yes, we had to sell what had survived the ferals.”

A slight nod of approval, their shoulders relaxed at that proclamation. “Name?”

“Barry Dodson.” He’d been told to give a different name, but Barry had just blurted the words out, feeling a bit too under pressure.

And the tension returned. The leader grimaced, about to say something before her companion patted her shoulder. “There’s no way they’re related.” The wing was pointed at Barry’s black hair.

“Excuse me?” He asked, blinking.

“Nothing of concern.” The maiden shook her head. “Don’t cause a ruckus and don’t expect to be able to meet with the Lord.”

Lala tensed at that proclamation. “My owner may be seeking to buy a maiden.”

“If it’s one owned by the Lord, then he will have to wait until after the Lord’s guests depart.”

The duo of maidens spread their wings and, with a powerful set of flaps, threw themselves upwards into the sky.

“FUCK!” Lala cursed under her breath, stomping her foot, glaring at the town.

“Everything will go smoothly, huh?”

“Shut up.”

[203] [Alice]

Alice leaned over the veranda that oversaw the town of Seledo, taking a long deep breath and trying to not look as frustrated as she felt. The invitation of the local Lord to “celebrate” had been exactly what everyone suspected would be: an overt attempt to get into the pants of one of the women from the group.

It had been a very tiring night involving more alcohol than Alice would’ve found agreeable. The morning had come with new challenges of its own.

“It’s like a cheap buffet getting called high cuisine in there.”

The voice startled Alice. She glanced over her shoulder at Natalie. The woman was, as far as Alice was concerned, the closest thing to a friend from her group. She’d been one of the chaperons to come with the group, the mother of one of the students that had not survived.

“Tell me about it.” Alice muttered with a heavy sigh. “Is he still trying to talk about the golden boar?”

“I still can’t believe he’s doing that in front of his son. Poor kid looks like he’s getting stabbed.”

Alice’s lips curled into a grimace. “Whoever the mother is, she must be rolling in her grave.”

“One of the maids.”

“What?”

“The guy never married, the son’s from one of the maids. Bastard child made legitimate.” Natalie shook her head. “And don’t ask me how I found that out. This place runs on gossip.”

“Oh, that explains the kid.” Alice sighed heavily. “Looking for a more ‘legitimate’ heir, it seems.”

Natalie didn’t respond to that, her gaze turning distant, lips pursing into a slight scowl. Alice could only guess of what her friend would think of someone tossing their son aside when she’d lost her own.

“Want to take a walk?” Natalie broke the silence, her head made a motion to the town. “This place doesn’t feel like some tiny village, been wanting to take a look around.”

“Anything that gets me out of this box.”

Though they agreed, leaving was still going to be a pain, and they both knew it. Once they’d navigated their way through the ‘not-a-bunker’ mansion, four knights popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, to begin quietly walking behind them. Alice had spotted Helga circling them up above and felt like she was some sort of ambassador.

“Could you all just keep it discreet or something?” Natalie spoke up at the knights. “I know it’s your job to keep us safe and all that, but we’re trying to avoid drawing attention.”

“We’re human women. That’s going to happen no matter where we go. And it’s going to get worse, I’m betting.” Alice patted her companion’s shoulder, turning to focus on the armored maidens. “Just maybe not something that goes clanking around?”

“If you give us a minute, ma’am, we can change out of our armor.”

“That would be appreciated.”

They nodded and hurried off, leaving Natalie to give Alice an odd look.

“What?”

“And where did you learn to speak like that?”

“Helga.” The former psychology teacher sighed, pointing at the sky. “I swear she practices making puppy eyes.”

“I thought you’d have an easier time overcoming it. You being a teacher and all that.” Natalie chuckled.

“She’s a golden retriever with wings. No one can escape that.”

They both glanced at the knights as they’d returned. This time they were all wearing dresses, a rather odd sight considering they still had swords, maces, and shields. The leader of the group made only a small salute to indicate they were ready. And thus, with a weary sigh, they set off.

***

Seledo was a larger place than Astunes. Not by a considerable margin, but enough so that both Alice and Natalie had been able to easily pick up on how the town was a bit less homogeneous in terms of its population. The hospital… or “medicen” was a larger, newer building smack in the middle of the houses closest to the Lord’s manor, with the construction quality slowly deteriorating the further away they went.

Stone turned to wood, and with it the houses had started to stick closer together to one another.

And as they walked, their presence had not gone unnoticed. Maidens with black or green collars would start to emerge from their homes. Some would only peek, but others would look as if ready to approach them up and until their eyes landed on the four ‘not-obvious’ escorts trailing behind them.

Within minutes, Helga had drifted down from her flight, quietly landing next to both of them. She didn’t speak, only giving Alice a cordial bow before taking point in front of the group. The knights grumbled at that, but didn’t make a move or say anything. The group, as a whole quite tense with very pointed stares, met the eyes of anyone who stepped close to either Alice or Natalie.

“My Ladies.”

A small voice spoke up, an older woman with a black collar. Next to her was a little girl with a white collar. The two had moved to stand next to the group, the woman bowing as the younger girl looked at the ground with a grimace.

“I am owned by elder Vincent. I beg of you, my Ladies, our daughter, she-.”

Helga took one look at Alice’s tightened expression and put herself between her and the woman. “Please, move along.” She spoke with a soft voice, her wings spreading to block the mother and daughter from Alice’s view.

“My Ladies!”

Alice glanced at Natalie. The woman’s face was a mask that’d turned itself down to the ground, lips tight and shoulders tense. Her hands had tightened into fists as they walked in silence. They continued marching on, continuing all the way to the edges of the town. They were left standing in front of the farms that surrounded Seledo. Only then had she broken the uncomfortable silence.

“That mother was offering us her daughter, wasn’t she?”

“It’s…” Alice took a deep breath, hands tightening against one another. “Yeah.” She glanced at the knights. “That kind of thing is normal, isn’t it?”

“Life in service of a Lady will be a better future.” The red-head stated with little hesitation. “If you want to get the girl and the father cares for her, he is likely to only ask for a token price. Would you wish to acquire her? The Earl made sure you would be well funded for the trip, though under such circumstance, I would suggest a green-collar maiden, they-.”

“Stop.” Alice shook her head, looking at Natalie as the woman’s fists had clenched tightly enough her knuckles had turned white. “Just… give us some privacy.”

“Certainly.”

The knights didn’t leave, only spreading out and giving them a more comfortable distance. Natalie’s eyes were locked on something distant, lips curling as she turned to Alice. “How can you be so calm?”

The former teacher gave a sad smile. “While you were with the Baroness, I… had talks with some of the maidens in the village. Kyly wasn’t kind in her descriptions of how bad things can be.”

“And did she tell you what the core of the problem is?”

“In her ever wise words, ‘not enough humans, not enough gold’.” Alice replied. “Maidens need humans to bond to. Your average human can bond about ten, while a noble can bond about a hundred or two. But the maiden to human population is five to one and humans tend to only keep two to three maidens.”

“You’re shitting me.” Natalie glared. “The blood purity thing actually matters?”

“Elders help, a lot, apparently.” Alice continued. “They bond feralborns, and whatever other maiden hasn’t found an owner.” Her tone was neutral, as if she’d read them from a book. “Community helps the elders, while the younger men go about with a couple of wives in hopes of building something up for themselves. Or they get lucky and inherit the stuff gramps had set up, which is unlikely unless you’re a human woman or the firstborn male.”

“And here I wasted my time spending time with the Baroness and being told how to drink tea properly.” Natalie eyed Alice as the teacher grimaced.

“It’s… I just figured I wanted to learn about the culture. Look at the source.”

“The source?”

“The causes.” Now it was Alice’s turn to sigh. “People don’t just do things just because, not all the time at least, a lot of the stuff we take for granted about how society works has a source somewhere.” She gestured at the town behind them. “They talk about respecting the elders as if it’s just a given, but if you scratch the surface, you start seeing things. Like, feralborn maidens come from a world where everyone dies early because it’s just that dangerous. So they’re naturally going to feel respectful towards people who’ve managed to thrive and reach an older age. And tamed society will go out of its way to protect them because that old man in the corner has a dozen maidens that would go feral if he kicks the bucket.” She gesticulated with her arms, expanding to point to the world around herself. “Those kinds of things combine and it becomes clear why the Kingdom itself has sunk no small amount of gold into ensuring old people can live comfortably without needing to work. In exchange for them to teach the younger generation.”

Natalie nodded along, frowning. “And the cause for mothers to sell their daughters is because there aren’t enough humans or gold?”

“Simply put? Yeah. If you’re feralborn, you have nothing. And if you have a maiden daughter, she’s not going to inherit anything.” Alice nodded. “Chances are you-” Her words cut off as her focus turned to someone walking in the town.

A freckled young man with messy black hair.

“What is it?”

Natalie followed Alice’s gaze to the town.

Alice wasn’t sure why the young man had caught her attention. Her eyes lingered on the young man and the blond elf walking next to him, both talking amicably. “Just one minute.”

Something in her gut clenched as she felt she needed to talk to him. But the two had vanished before she could catch up, gone between the streets of the town and lost in the crowd.

Alice had moved quickly, her gaze focused on the dark-haired young man and the blond maiden walking next to him. It had been only a moment, a split second, where the former teacher had seen their faces, and now there was a gripping feeling inside her chest that she had to talk to him. Behind her trailed the knights and Natalie. Alice ignored their questions as she took a turn at the first intersection, trying to catch up as the duo had vanished in the crowd. She froze the moment she’d lost sight of them.

“What’s wrong?” Natalie asked when she caught up.

“Do you need help, ma’am?”

Helga’s question gave Alice pause for half a second. She weighed whether sending the Valkyrie to scout ahead was something she actually wanted to do. The thought was quickly discarded. She shook her head. “No, it’s just… I thought I saw someone I knew.” She waved it off, her eyes lingering on the street. “Yeah, just probably my imagination.”

“I’d say.” Natalie laughed, but it was a tense sound.

With a slight nod, Alice glanced back up the hill at the manor. “Let’s head back.”

[204] [Barry]

Barry’s heart was thumping in his throat. Lala had yanked him through the village and into a small corner to hide in. For a fraction of a second, he’d wondered what was going on until he’d caught sight of her. It was only a brief moment, barely enough time to process it before he lost sight of the crowd.

Miss Smith.

“What the-.”

“Shush!”

Lala had dragged him into a second alleyway. Her hands moved fast, pulling out a medallion from a pouch and slinging it over his neck along with a second one for herself. She then draped a hood over both their shoulders, fingers ruffling his hair right as she continued to pull him further away.

They zigzagged their way through the narrower streets until Lala finally let them stop. Barry’s chest was about to burst and his lungs were aching from the exertion, his eyes shooting questioning looks at her.

“These to hide scent and most other traceable things… there were knights.” She declared. “We absolutely cannot allow them to catch us. Things would get ugly fast.”

“What? Why?”

“If I tell you, you’re just going to get more nervous.”

Barry’s blood ran cold, his eyes widening. “We didn’t come alone… Embla’s near, isn’t she?” The moment he spoke the words, he could sense it at the edge of his focus. Embla was near, not within Seledo itself, but not all the way over to the court.

“We can’t let you get caught.” Lala stated. “And what was that look you had on your face back there? You looked like you saw a ghost.”

“I… think I did.” Barry said. “I saw miss Smith.”

“Who?”

“My psychology teacher.”

Lala froze, her eyebrows rose. “Otherworlder?”

“I thought they’d died.” He grimaced. “I should-.”

“Barry.” Her hands reached out to grasp his shoulders firmly. “Think what you’re about to say very carefully.” The fingers dug slightly, making him wince. She immediately recoiled, pulling away but lowering her voice. “Do you think it’d be a good idea?”

Slowly, he shook his head. She had a point, and he hated it. The thought that Miss Smith was alive was… immense. He couldn’t just sit still and do nothing, but at the same time, he couldn’t just walk out and wave at her. Not when they were in such a delicate situation, to say nothing that if Miss Smith was with knights, then approaching her could very well be dangerous.

How had she come to be with the knights? Who else had survived? Was it possible that Mark…?

Barry quickly shook his head. No, he couldn’t let himself be distracted right now. As soon as the mission was fulfilled, he’d tell Embla what he’d discovered and ask for help. “We’re going to have to cut our stay here short.” He said, feeling Lala nod and relax a little. “Where’s the girl I was…”

“Medicen.” She immediately pointed him down the street.

“What does that word mean?”

“Medical center.”

“Oh.” He blinked, nodding absently, trying to turn his thoughts to the goal. The sooner they were done, the sooner he could look into Miss Smith’s situation. “How…?”

“The girl in question is called Marianne. Rapha, so pink hair.” Lala nudged him forward.

“That part of the plan wasn’t ever really explained too well.” Barry frowned. “Like, I just walk up to her and tell her I want to buy her?”

“It’s exactly that.” There was a slight look-over at Barry and a smirk. “But I’m guessing you’re going to want to bond her somewhere along the way.”

“… in case the purchase doesn’t go through.”

Which was unlikely to go through anyway because the Lord was occupied with… guests. Barry blinked at that thought. Was Miss Smith that guest? It would explain the knights, but why would she be a guest to the Lord? So many questions.

Rounding the corner while carefully keeping an eye out, Lala had moved to walk behind him as they approached the medicen building. It was a large stone and concrete box that had been covered in a beautiful wall of green vines on every side. The building looked as if it was being overtaken by nature, but the concrete and stone were untouched, while the vines were covered in white flowers. The design as a whole almost made it look like it was a garden. Yet the front doors broke that aesthetic, heavy gunmetal blue doors, opened like the entrance of some vault.

“Be brave.”

Lala’s whisper came with a little nudge.

They were greeted with a cool breeze as they entered the building, a bored looking dog-eared maiden sitting behind the desk and twirling a pen. She barely registered their presence until they’d stepped closer to the desk.

“How may I help you, sir?” The smile was customer-service.

“I’m looking for Marianne.”

A slight pause as she looked down at the papers on her desk. “She’s with a patient right now.”

“I…” Barry swallowed. “… was looking to purchase her. So… I wanted to meet her first?”

The canine woman perked immediately at that, her attention turned to him in full. “Certainly. Do you have a forward deposit?”

“Here, Master.” Lala handed Barry a leather pouch, and he passed it on to the receptionist.

The dark brown ears perked as she confirmed the contents. “I will clear Marianne’s schedule for the day.”

“I was… wondering if I could meet her right away?”

His question got a half-nod in response. Her hand gestured towards the double-doors to the right. “She is on the second floor, room two zero three. But you’ll have to wait until she’s done with her current patient.”

“Sure, thanks.”

They followed the instructions, moving through corridors that didn’t feel like ones belonging to a hospital. The walls were stone, and the floors were wood, with nothing painted in the standard sanitized white Barry had been used to expect from such a place. His gaze caught on several patients, humans, most of them, and the nurses going around. The uniforms were like some sort of dress taken straight out of a world war two movie.

And right as they walked up the stairs to the second floor, they both froze at the sight of two armored knights standing right on the other side.

“State your business.” The duo declared.

Lala froze, going several shades of pale. Barry couldn’t blame her. “We… visit, um, I want to meet nurse Marianne…? I was, am, erm, I am going to buy her.”

The two knights didn’t bother to react, only a slight nod to let them pass. The corridor had four other knights, and Barry felt his stomach drop at the realization he couldn’t start running now that they were there. What was going-.

One of the doors opened, a voice carried over.

“I hope you can do your job properly next time, young lady.”

Barry’s blood froze, eyes widening, grip tightening on Lala’s hand as terror gripped his chest.

A woman stepped out of the room.

Red hair, craggy wrinkled skin, a richly decorated black and gold camisole and baggy pants that felt entirely out of place on the woman he’d known for just about every minute of his existence. She turned to leave, adding some berating word or three, turned and looked at Barry. Her expression was just as shocked as his was.

“Barry?”

And the world became ice, his feet rooted in place, his body a singular slab of metal that refused to move from the spot it had been bolted onto. A thousand and one memories and thoughts jumbled together through his mind.

“Hey aunt Erica.”

[205] [Rick]

Rick sat on his chair, a severe stare aimed directly at Monica.

Monica’s expression was equally severe, staring down at her paws, brow furrowed in steep concentration.

The air was thick, the tension could be cut with a knife.

“Well?” Rick prompted, crossing his arms, watching as Monica stuck her tongue out.

“… Li…” She muttered. “… tit…” A scrunch. “… le?” She glanced up to his face, then back down, and then back up again. “Li-tit-le?”

“Little.”

“Litit-le.” Next to her, several others broke into giggles. Monica’s head snapped in the direction of the sources, face severe. The silence became deafening.

“Monica.” Rick spoke with an admonishing tone.

The feline deflated. “Sorry.” She muttered dejectedly.

“Not to me, Monica.”

Her ears flattened, but she turned to the others all the same. “Sorry.” She mumbled.

“Jean sorry too.” The maiden gave a slight smile. “Tits funny.” She proceeded to reach up to her chest and squeeze, giggling again.

Monica appeared vindicated, nodding enthusiastically. “Rick tits grab good good.”

A hand raised from the opposite side of Monica. “Sir? They’re being indecent again.” The diminutive young maiden with a white collar declared airily.

“I’m aware Anette, thank you.” He rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “Have you finished your task?”

“I have, sir.”

“Could you read it for the rest of the class?”

The little girl stood up proudly, puffing herself up, unaware of the feline tail that was inching towards her ankles. Monica froze when Rick’s glare focused on her entirely. In response, she stuck her tongue out at him.

“She. Sells. Sea. Shells. By. The. Sea. Shore. The. Shells. She. Sells. Are. Surely. Sea. Shells. So. If. She. Sells. Shells. On. The. Sea. Shore. I. Am. Sure. She. Sells. Sea. Shore. Shells.”

“Very good Anette.”

“Runt.” Someone whispered in the back.

Whatever Anette was going to reply, she didn’t get the chance, Monica’s tail struck. She collapsed, right into the waiting paws of Monica. The feline pulled the little girl on to her lap even as she squealed in indignation. Her tail then lashed twice in contentment before she pointed at the word that was scribbled on her chalkboard. “Word, read, please?”

“Little.” Anette grumbled.

“Litit-le.” Monica replied.

“Lit-le.”

“Lit-le.” Monica’s ears perked up. “Lit-tle.” Her gaze went up to meet Rick’s, and he smiled back.

“Please let go of Anette.” His lips thinned, gaze moving to the back of the room. “And we do not appreciate insults here.”

“No hurt words.” Monica nodded with a growl. “Bad words.”

The maidens in the room paled, heads nodded in haste. “Monica.” Rick chided again, watching her flinch. At least this time she didn’t add a death-glare… little steps. His gaze shifted to the beam of light that was making its way into the room through the open window, it had reached the foot of the table. “Ok girls, time to wrap it up.”

There were several long sighs and muffled cheers.

“Before you go, there’s homework.”

Now there were groans.

“I’d like you all to try to see how quickly you can say the seashell poem. Just practice it a little here and there.” He put his hands on his hip, grinning at them. “Whoever can say it properly the fastest will get candy and no homework.”

Every pair of ears in the room perked at that.

“Monica?” The feline asked, pointed at herself. “Monica candy?”

“You get special homework.”

The enthusiasm deflated right out of her, shoulders slumping as she grumbled the loudest. All around her there were small laughs and giggles, the maidens filing their way out.

“Good luck, Monica.” Anette patted the feline’s head and hurried out, stopping at the door and bowing to Rick. “Thank you for the class, sir.”

“You too, be careful out there.”

The door closed, and Rick glanced at Monica, the maiden pouting more severely now, arms crossed and leveling a half-hearted glare at him. He rolled his eyes. “If you help me pick up, you can go out until lunch.”

Her enthusiasm came back instantly. By the time it took him to bend over and pick up the first slab of smoothed wood, she’d picked up the rest and stacked them neatly next to the dinner table. The feline was out the door before he could even confirm she could leave.

With a weary sigh, he picked up his notebook and scribbled down a handful of things before he picked up the bucket and began scrubbing the charcoal markings off of the wooden slabs. He’d have preferred chalk, and chalkboard, but money money money. His mind ran through the maths, Dia’s healing was getting a trickle of coins in, but-.

Someone knocked at the door.

“Class is over, if one of yours was here, she ran off only a minute ago.”

“Any lessons for some old students?”

Rick’s gaze rose from his work, Kat and Tomas stood at the entrance. Behind them, he could spot their respective maidens standing on guard duty outside. The teacher could only grin. “If you’re looking for a re-evaluation, I’m afraid all scores are final.”

Kat immediately grimaced even as Tomas chuckled. “I’m really not going to miss that part of the old life.” A quick shake of her head and she was right back to a smile. “We heard there’d been a commotion at the castle, Earl took it badly?”

“It was tense, but we parted on good terms.” Rick shrugged, standing up to give each of them a greeting hug. “Where’s Gabriel?”

“Old man’s enjoying doing whatever old men do when left alone with a young and nubile mouse and centaur.” Kat made a show to visibly shudder.

“He’s been taking strolls around the city.” Tomas rolled his eyes and snorted loudly. “Not even the rumors about the attacks slowed him down.”

Rick tensed. “Attacks?”

“Just some rumors about people not showing up.” Kat rolled her eyes. “I too would vanish from the face of the Earth if things were this boring all the damn time.” She frowned. “You look nervous.”

“I’m just hoping no one thinks it’s Monica. We’ve had enough… excitement for the time being.” Rick scratched the back of his head. “Anyway, either of you want something? Miss Angus and elder Pirro give us food for teaching their girls. It’s really good stuff.” His shoulders slumped. “Their help means I don’t need to worry about Monica’s infinite pit too much. And that’s going to have to be enough until I find something else.”

“Chemistry a bust?”

“Chemistry is a joke.” Rick snorted. “Alchemy is the big bucks, and whatever chemistry I mock up would have to be in service of it. There’s a market for substances that have low elemental-energy density, you know, cleansed of the physics-breaking-stuff. So that’s a potential ticket.” A flick of the knife, and some wood was flung off. “But to do that I need to figure out what substances they need, how to make them in laboratory conditions to ensure high purity, and to do all of that I need materials, which means gold, which means…” Another flick, he put down the ‘H’ he’d carved on the table. “That I need to find someone willing to finance a money sink that has poor prospects of an immediate favorable outcome.”

Tomas squirmed. “Thought about talking to Victor?”

“More than once, but I want to have something more concrete in mind before I start talking about money.” He frowned slightly. “How’s the whole ‘living with a merchant’ part going?”

“His wife has not been very happy when she realized we meant it when we said we weren’t interested in taking in their daughter.” Kat rolled her eyes. “We’re probably overstaying.”

“I’ve got two floors above my head devoid of furniture, feel free to crash there if you’d like.” Rick shrugged.

“Small change of topic, but have you thought about Kiara?”

Rick noted the subtle glare Kat shot at Tomas. “Who?”

“The cursed woman.” Tomas commented. “She’d wanted to meet you but I figured with the mess and everything…”

“Oh, sure.” Rick shrugged. “I guess I could talk to her in between classes or something. Area’s pretty safe too, so here seems fine.”

Tomas perked up at that. “Wait, really? We kept hearing how this part of the city was the most dangerous.”

The teacher shrugged. “I’m not going to jinx the peaceful streak.”

[206] [Monica]

Monica walked down the hard-stone smelly street with five kits. The kits were trying to run off, again, but Monica made sure they would not. It was important to get them to their burrows. Rick said so.

“Wrong street.”

Anette the smart kit tough-one pointed to another street. Monica hesitated, sniffing the air, the scent of one of the burrows was close. It was clearly this way, and not the other way. “This way.” Monica proclaimed, pointing forward through the smelly street.

“Mom says it’s dangerous.”

Dangerous? Another deep sniff, no, nothing here but prey. She shook her head. “Monica here.”

The kits were afraid, huddling together and following. Monica wasn’t sure what they were scare of, she wasn’t going to eat them, she wasn’t hungry, and Rick had said that eating kits was very bad. Even the ones that didn’t speak words. Thinking about meat made Monica grumpy, she grumbled and rumbled, Rick had sweets, and she’d have to do the hard stuff to get some.

Monica’s eyes flickered towards the large black rock.

She’d fought without asking, that had been bad.

“Hey, out of the-.”

A tough one barked at Monica, Monica sighed and shoved them out of the way. She wasn’t in the mood for playing with weak-tough-ones. There was a shriek and a complaint, and the kits stuck to Monica as she followed the scent to the closest burrow.

Monica didn’t roar, she knocked, because that was what she was supposed to do.

Rick said so.

“Oh, Monica! You’re… uh, early.” Prey spoke and quickly hurried their kits inside. “Thank you!” A fearful squeak, afraid, nervous.

“Bye Monica!”

“Bye!” She waved, even when the door slammed shut. Monica wanted to growl, but didn’t. She checked the kits, three left. She sniffed them to check, then followed the trail towards the burrow. “This way.”

***

“Bye Anette.”

“Thank you, Monica.” Anette nodded, hurrying inside her burrow.

The mother looked at Monica without as much fear as the others. She smelled of courage underneath. “Thank you.” The older tough-one declared, lowering her head. She had a small bag she gave Monica.

Blinking, Monica glanced at the bag, sniffing it. “For Rick?”

“For Monica.”

That perked her ears, she opened it and reached inside with a claw. Dried fruits, sweets, not the tasty tasty kind, but tasty. Monica quickly stuffed the bag into her important pocket and paused right before leaving. “Thank you.”

Without waiting for Anette’s mother to change her mind and ask for the bag back, Monica hurried off. She didn’t head back to Rick, she could feel he was busy and going back to the not-burrow would be boring.

And Monica had tasty sweets.

She knew a place where she could eat without being bothered, there was a street where others didn’t go to and there were only ever a handful of prey. It was out of sight, and there was a nice warm spot with good light.

“She’s back!”

One of the prey shouted off, and they ran off, which was better, they left Monica her spot to comfortably eat her tasty sweet fruits. When the bag was empty, Monica tucked it back into her important pocket and lay down on the warm spot, yawning. After all the reading her head was hurting and she could use the rest.

She might have had ‘homework’, but it could wait.

***

Monica woke to the scent of blood.

It had been subtle and soft, not the blood of an accident or the blood of a fight. It was the blood of a hunt, someone scared, frightened, prey that had been hunted and killed. One of the soft-ones. Monica sniffed again and stretched, looking over to the sky, the sun was still up, which was odd, this was the first time she smelled hunt-blood during the day.

Monica felt inside her chest where not-Rick-feelings were, to check that he was still busy. Not-Rick-feelings were focused and hungry, but quickly focused on Monica, and Monica felt he was a bit worried.

Monica sniffed again. Hunt blood wasn’t close, outside of the nice place and where the stuffy other smells were. With a huff, she went back to her not-burrow. But she wanted to go check, but she had to stay and be good. Because Rick said so and Rick was still angry at her sometimes.

But it was Monica that should be angry at Rick.

She could smell the food Rick had not hunted but was trying to make tasty. It was… not as tasty as the bad-good-not-burrow in the not-mountain. Monica’s shoulders slumped as she stepped inside.

“Oh, you’re here.”

Rick smiled at her and Monica grumbled, pouting. “Food bad.” She proclaimed, arms crossed and sniffling loudly in annoyance. “No meat.”

“Meat is expensive.”

It was the only thing he said, a word Monica didn’t understand but she hated. ‘Expensive’. They said meat was hard to find, but Monica could find meat easily. But it was bad meat, and Monica knew there was good meat she could also find, hunt, but Rick was angry at her, he didn’t say it, he tried to hide it, but Monica could smell it.

Monica hated that.

Angry but trying not to be angry and still being angry.

And it was hurting Rick. Inside.

But Monica would fix it, she didn’t like the food, but she ate it.

“Thank you.” She mumbled, eyeing her mate as he stared at his half-empty food.

The anger that wasn’t angry, it was in his gaze. If he hated the food, he could ask Monica to hunt, she knew he knew. But she didn’t know why he didn’t ask for hunt. Probably another wrong ‘complicated’ thing.

“Nap?”

Her offer snapped him out of the silent glare. Startled into finishing his meal. “Sure.”

Monica’s ears perked as he grabbed her paw and pulled her towards the not-nest. Her grip in his hand tightened as she smirked, moving forward and scooping him into her arms.

“Hey!”

He complained but wasn’t angry, which was good, Monica hurried them both into the soft not-cave and made sure to close the door behind herself. Rick tried to struggle again, but she had practice, she knew what to do, her claws carefully undid his clothes and her mate was nice and still so she wouldn’t tear anything.

Removing her pants, the only clothes she wore, Monica pulled him into the almost-soft bed and wrapped him into a tight hug with her furry claws. The smell of tiredness was strong, and though Monica could have given him sex, she just let him nuzzle into her.

Her soft-one.

“Rick good.” She patted him, stroking his soft hair and hearing his half-complaints.

“Monica good… sometimes.”

She snorted, she was good all the time. But Rick already knew that. His not-anger was leaving him and he was falling asleep, and Monica held him tightly.

With a sigh, Monica waited until he was asleep before she reminded herself of her ‘homework’. So she left him nice and warm in the bed, he needed the rest. She went up to the learning room and brought out the box with the wood in the shapes of the letters. Slowly, she put them together and sat down, making sure to organize them.

She hated ‘homework’.

But there was something else that bothered her mate, something ‘complicated’.

And she had to learn the complicated things if she wanted to help.

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