FSE

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Sitting on the edge of the cliff, I peeked over the side and watched Exir slowly making his way lower and lower into the canyon. He was supported by climbing rope, thankfully, and would anchor more bolts in as he went down. Sighing, I shifted my wide-brimmed hat to block the sun as it slowly lowered towards the horizon, then rested back against the field pack, which I'd taken off and was using as a pillow.

Nara sat to my right, leaning against the other side of the same pack, though she also kept an eye on the half a dozen base anchors we had set up at the top of the cliff now for the climbing rope. Her guards were... somewhere behind me I was pretty sure, but I didn't particularly care. "Well you've seen all the basic techniques for harvesting plants now, including the poisonous ones. I should take you out sometime later this moon and have you try it yourself. With supervision of course..." I suggested.

She gave a little snicker as she looked over at me and winked, adding, "I'm sure you'd be traumatized if I goofed up and fell into that one plant that had the aphrodisiac toxin... I can't believe we use the extracts as contraceptives."

"You'd be... surprised at how terrifying that thought is in my mind. Though you're right. It's an alchemic fundamental to be able to inverse properties of things you're extracting," I explained, not having gotten to that part of her training yet obviously.

She grinned, as if victorious, and immediately announced, "I knew it! There had to be a way to reverse things! Hmm, that opens up a lot of possibilities actually... wait, are you still scared of me?" She switched to pouting as she realized what I'd said first.

I hesitated there, as any male hearing that rightly should. "No, it's not... Well, more like I'm terrified of the aspect of actually mating. Performance jitters I guess, coupled with all the emotions and expectations it brings?" I attempted to answer as earnestly as I could.

Nara rotated around, bracing herself up on the pack with her arms now instead so she could look directly at me. Her expression was curious for a moment as her ears slowly lifted up of their own accord. "That's... very mature, I admit. Again, I expected most males to let eagerness override any anxiety but..." she noted, then slowly relaxed again into a smile once more before outright purring out, "Though I think I like your maturity. You'd be one to ace your Trial Mating in one go, wouldn't you?"

My left cheek spasmed a bit at that, causing an eye twitch. "It's not like it's an exam!" I pointed out, then huffed and crossed my arms over my chest again, causing her to break out into snickers. I rolled my eyes, then just sighed and gave up as she shifted around the side of the bag and pressed up against my left side. I flushed a bit again, but I was indeed getting more used to her and just relaxed, letting her rest against me.

"I know, I know. It's finding out compatibilities. But I think we're pretty compatible already. Wouldn't you think we're already doing phase one, even if it's not official?" she asked quietly, looking up at me at the same time.

It took an intentional effort to pry my thoughts out of drifting into those two amethyst pools. She hardly seemed to mind, a light blush creeping up on her cheeks but her smile just widened a bit and she let me ogle her all I wanted. I had to actually blink and avert my eyes to snap out of it, which only seemed to amuse her even more. "It... yeah. I mean, phase one is rather tame and such. Just getting to know each other better seems for the best, no? Even if not interested in being mates, we're going to be together for quite some time regardless," I reasoned, wondering who I was attempting to fool. It may have been only myself, as I doubt she bought it even slightly.

Even if she didn't, she took it gracefully and nodded. "Of course. As you know, I could also just make it official by sending one message. You and I both know that Mother would be overjoyed..." she reminded. This time there wasn't teasing in her voice, and she just kept that gentle smile going.

Nodding slowly, I relaxed again when she didn't press it any further. Her expression relaxed a little too as I did, and she leaned in suddenly, just resting her cheek against the side of my chest. I felt my heartbeat quicken just by her getting closer to me, and wondered if this was what falling in love was like. The lingering weirdness of the situation was still present, but her being a Princess was indeed slowly falling by the wayside. I started to, at some point, just see her as Nara. She was a brat sometimes but seemed to be letting herself relax as well. Maybe we really were quite a bit alike?

I didn't know when she started looking at me again, but swallowed the growing lump in my throat as she leaned up, hovering her nose just centimeters in front of mine with her eyes lidding again. My arm, not listening to normal signals I sent it, perhaps urged things on by finishing sliding around her torso and pulling her closer to me.

"Hey Exes! It's the silvery flowers with purple markings inside, right?!" Exir suddenly all but screamed up at us, causing both of us to jump with a start. I'm vaguely glad for not having fallen off the cliff, as I wasn't attached to the rope yet.

Nara huffed, and I coughed to myself, clearing the fuzz from my brain before running what he said through it again. Right! "Yeah, those are Moondust. Don't get too close to them though. Raw, they're a powerful psychotropic agent," I called back down the cliff to him. Extracted, they could be processed into our most potent anesthetics and pain medicine however, and were highly useful.

"Yeah, not even taking a sniff. They're all yours!" he called back up, giving me the thumbs up, even as he lowered himself a little further down to give me room.

"Guess we're up," I muttered, glancing over at the still pouting Nara before giving a little shrug. She relaxed after and nodded to me, readying her own climbing gear, even as I attached the field pack to the rope itself. Once it was strapped onto the cable, I tossed it off the side of the cliff before attaching myself as well. Nara was the third one down, with my intention in that gave two people to stop her if something happened and she fell. She also noted that it would let her stay out of my wave above my position, and now I regretfully noticed on the way down that it afforded me a distractingly excellent shot right up her tunic above me. I was both thankful for, and resentful of the fact that females wear undershorts. Exir probably wasn't nearly as lucky with my own tunic as I slid down from above him. Heh.

Having to chain the two hooks for the bag and myself each time we passed an anchor slowed down our descent in stages, but didn't take terribly long to catch up with where Exir had halted. Sure enough, there was a rocky outcrop, with a nice shade going, that hosted dozens of silver flowers with purple markings to them. I nodded after seeing them, then slid the mouthpiece up that was strapped around my neck still, switching on the filters in one practiced motion. Nara slid down just above me and halted, watching as I lifted up the grapple tube at my belt and fired off a secondary cable violently into the rock face on the other side of the flowers. Exir fed me more line as I pulled myself over using it until able to prop myself up on the ledge.

The flowers were deceptively pretty really, the silver glowing naturally in the dark with latent vita from the plant. They were a rare alchemical ingredient that was naturally charged, which made them very dangerous to those not aware of their properties or having protection. I double checked my gloves and made sure they were sealed at my elbows before reaching to the side and getting my grasping clippers ready.

For her part, Nara grabbed the field pack and switched its clasps to my own line instead before sliding it over. I nodded to her, then quickly started grasping directly under the bulbs of each flower, clipping beneath and letting the tool touch them for me. The gloves were just a precaution I was intending to not need at this point. Moondust in its raw form was known to punch through up to three centimeters of clothing over time. I saw the strings of sticky, glowing silver drip down from the stem, even as I moved the flower away and used the clasping tool to tie off the bulb, trapping the bulk of the fluid inside. Working with active ingredients always made me nervous, and I doubted that would ever change...

Getting into the pattern, I managed to get a dozen or more flowers without incident, before I had to change out the clasp on my clipper. Eventually the tying off mechanism got gunked up by the overly sticky fluid from the stem and had to be swapped out. They were cleanable of course, but I lacked the means to sterilize them again of the fluids, so I just carried extra on me. Nara, to her credit, watched my every motion with intense interest, as if she were memorizing what I was doing. I knew she was teasing me earlier, but she also at least took to heart my warning about having her do this next, I realized.

It took me about ten full minutes to carefully extract three dozen mature flowers to add to the pack. I zipped it up again after and slid it back down the line, letting her catch it and switch it to the main line again before I moved myself back over to it. Exir moved up and caught me as I grabbed the main line, and I smiled down at him with a nod as he held me there, me switching my connections over.

"Ready. We got over twice as much as we needed, so this was a good haul..." I confirmed, earning a grin and nod from Exir beneath me.

"Good. As much as this is good exercise, those flowers make me nervous..." he admitted, to which Nara nodded in agreement.

"Yeah. On the trips to the market that I rarely make with my mother in the capital, I can see the people on the street that clearly have... problems with the stuff. It's kind of horrifying to watch. They'll literally do anything to get more," she muttered, frowning as she looked back over at the silver flowers.

Sighing, I admitted, "A lot of alchemy can be abused if used incorrectly. It's disgusting, but some people use it as a way to control and exploit others for their own gain..." The drug trade was probably unavoidable to be honest. As I already knew, our civilization wasn't nearly as pure and just as I'd thought so long ago. And it wasn't just Inaga. I was pretty sure every species had issues of one kind or another. Aion was a diverse, if flawed realm.

Nara just paled considerably, her paws clenching down on the climbing rope as her expression soured, staring hard at the flowers. Maybe she never got exposed to that sort of thing very often from her self-professed 'gilded cage'. Maybe that's why her mother wanted her to experience other sides of life in the world? "I... yeah. Let's just get away from them," she finally muttered quietly, then started to climb back upwards using her rappel clasp.

"Yeah. I don't like being on a cliff anyway..." I muttered, lifting myself and the pack up one nudge at a time using my clasp as well. I admit to feeling far better knowing that Exir was under me just in case I fucked up.

Thankfully it never came to pass, and the three of us were soon struggling to the top of the cliff again afterwards. I took amusement out of the fact that Zira and Ziri helped Nara and I up off the line, then pointedly ignored Exir. Sure we were their charges, but I liked to think they might also be remembering his ballsy behavior earlier, heh.

Safely nudging the field pack away from the cliff's edge, I made sure everything was still secured before looking up at the sun to check the time. I estimated we had about an hour left of usable light before we'd have to break out torches, and sighed. We were cutting it close, but we could probably make it back to camp in time for-

Both Zira and Ziri drew their shields and weapons at the same time, suddenly moving front and forward away from us into a half circle, snapping my attention to the side.

"Kargor pack!" Zira suddenly warned, as they both dropped down into a guarded stance with their shields out, spears flicking around to rest against the upper right of their shields.

"Fuck!" Exir yelped, snapping his bow off his back and moving behind and between the two elite guards, immediately taking aim. About two dozen meters ahead of us, an entire pack of kargors were slowly approaching, definitely aware of us and moving into a spread-out position, looking like they were going to encircle us against the cliff edge.

"W-What are they doing out in force in the daylight?!" Nara asked, suddenly slipping behind me instead, as I moved carefully away from the edge of the cliff as best I could. The field pack got kicked aside, and instead I opened up one of the side pouches of my belt, eyes glued to the pack that was now moving halfway around us.

My blood ran cold and I swallowed, pulling a small, flexible tube from the pouch and cracking it with my thumb, breaking the barrier that was inside it, splitting the fluids in half. "Bomb!" I called out, whipping it to the right and in front of the path of the pack. The fast motion brought snarls from them, but not nearly as much as the chorus of yelps and yipes later as the mana inside flared up and violently exploded. The radius was only a couple of meters, but one kargor went flying on fire, and two others were blasted sideways. It's a pity there were dozens, but at least that should drive them-

There was more growling, and instead they just finished enclosing the half circle around us, locking us against the cliff edge. What? No, they should be running, why were they...? "They're not running!" Exir growled, seemingly deciding better of it and swapping from his bow to shield and spear instead as they were far too close. The second they didn't retreat, Ziri flipped her spear around for a split second, and suddenly shot a red flare up way into the sky. There's no way help would arrive in time to actually save us though! What was wrong with these kargor?! Actually, the more I looked at it, the more I saw that they didn't look so good.

Normally kargor were large, forward-weighted wolves of a sort. I'd heard far to the north near Koramir, they were fully furred to deal with the cold, but ours just had clustered fur like a mane around their necks and going partly down the front of their torsos and barrel. They were large, standing almost to neck level on an adult Inaga, and probably weighed twice as much as one of us. Normally they were night hunters and stayed away from lights and, well, bombs. These ones looked like they had ugly black splotches on them though, and seemed to be missing large clumps of fur. Great...

Then everything started to move fast, and I was distinctly aware of why they were elite honor guards. Zira did not, in fact, let the kargor finish encircling us. She flickered forwards instead in a leap, vita suddenly flaring down her spear as it momentarily moved out of my being able to track its speed. The point of it cleanly split the first kargor's skull in half, cleaving most of the way through its shoulder too as it moved and halted it dead, at least until the point kept going and smashed into the ground instead. There was an actual explosion then, the shockwave shaking the entire cliff as several more of the large beasts sailed backwards and away from her.

Ziri acted in the same instant, dropping herself and her shield down to the ground, her own vita lighting up the metal plates as she did. The line the shield made as it hit split and warped, shooting outwards in both directions and suddenly making an arcane barrier in a fraction of an instant. Two kargor were literally sliced in half by the sudden barrier, while the rest leapt backwards before quickly trying to run around the side of it.

Exir was already closing the gap between the two however, even as several of the huge dog things rushed in. My paw shaking, I tried to pull another bomb out of my side pouch, accidentally dropping one before my fingers managed to latch fully onto a second. My friend moved fast too. Not nearly as quick as the twins, but enough that he drove his spear through the eye of the first kargor, then lunged forward with a flare of vita and shield checked the second with his shoulder bracing behind it. The beast yelped as its head got smashed into the ground instead, the edge of the shield driving down on its neck, even as Exir stomped down with his lower left paw, snapping its head sideways under the force of the blow. I watched, swallowing hard as he hit it again, slicing through its neck with the edge of his shield, and tried really hard not to throw up suddenly as the cold lump in my stomach grew.

"B-Bomb!" I instead managed to call, almost snapping the tube in half with a thumb spasm before hurling it a good distance over Exir and into the back of the pack. He raised his shield up against the blast, half a dozen kargor taking a direct hit this time. Half the pack was dead now, and they were still rushing us!

The bulk of the surge hit us now, them moving like a cohesive, single entity almost, clearly completely maddened. Ziri leapt in from the left, and Zira the right, both of them again bursting with vita as their arm motions moved out of what I could track. Exir did something I didn't realize he knew how to do and dropped down to a knee with his shield, the entire thing flaring up with his life force. With that, he extended a barrier up, moving fully defensively all of a sudden as he winced, a dozen huge, moving slabs of meat crashing into the front of his shield.

Exir slid backwards, even as the twins became a blender against both flanks of the pack. They were absolutely single minded however, driving as hard as they could right against the shield, and I took my last step backwards before my paw knocked a few loose stones off the cliff. Nara was forced to move out to my right in order to avoid falling off, and I tried to steady her with my right arm.

That was apparently exactly what they were waiting for. With unnatural intelligence, two kargor bolted around the side of Exir's shield, taking a sharp turn and suddenly going right for Nara. "Shit!" Exir hissed, his spear flicking up and to the right, smashing through the neck of the second kargor. Zira lunged as well, leaping after the beast from behind, but my eyes widened as Nara screamed instead, raising her arms up as the beast leapt right for her.

I was an idiot. There was maybe a bit of poetic irony in that it was a kargor attack that would probably kill me too. It was one of those split-second decisions that you just do before it even reaches the processing center of your mind. My bad leg made it even easier to just kick myself sideways and to the right, rotating as I did. It was all I could do, and I simply shoved Nara as hard as I could with both paws, flinging her to the right. She hit the ground and slid, even as probably a hundred kilograms of moving meat and fangs crashed into my left side. Stars exploded into my vision as I felt stabs of pain drive hard into my left pectoral, and another into the deltoid of my shoulder, even as its momentum sent both of us off the cliff.

Rolling. I was fully rolled by the giant dog as it careened in the air and went over top of me with the inertia. I saw the spray of blood come off me as it lost its grip, even as I tried to reach to my right and grab the anchored line that was still hanging there. My paw missed, being just out of reach of the thing as I fell past the dip of the cliff and spun in the air again, still reeling from the impact. Everything was a blur, and all I saw was the color of the blue climbing rope as it shot past me to the right again as I did another complete rotation in the air.

The only thing that really saved me was the fact that I never had detached the side line I made to the outcropping the flowers were on. Angled, it stuck out from the cliff another good two meters. I saw the blue and just instinctively grabbed for it, limited memories from the few climbing instructional sessions I'd been forced to go through. My right shoulder snapped sharply with a loud pop as I suddenly jerked hard, refusing to let go with my paw even as I screamed from the sudden intense burning fire that was streaking through my arm. Instincts of not wanting to die only carried me so far sadly, as I lost strength in the paw before I could even do anything with my injured left arm.

I fell again, another three meters before I grabbed the rope again with my left paw this time. This rope, sadly, was vertical instead of horizontal, and my momentum carried me down it, with probably smoke coming from the friction off my climbing gloves. The ground of the gorge was still a good half a dozen meters away when I ran out of rope and flailed sideways. I only managed to get "Shi-" out of my mouth before the not so soft sand of the canyon floor met my back, and everything went black.

---

Sometimes life gives you lemons. And sometimes it throws rocks at you instead. I was vaguely aware of the dancing light in my vision and dull aching pain that was remarkably hard to specifically locate. Well, unless the Great Beyond was filled with misery and agony, I suspected that I'd somehow managed to live through that fall.

To be honest, I'd liked to have said that I'd really wracked up the amount of times I'd been injured since Nara got here, but when I thought about it, I actually really hadn't. I gave a tired, exasperated sigh, then decided to just forget about it and closed my eyes again.

It felt distinctly different the next time I opened them. If I'd fallen asleep, there weren't any dreams, but the air of the room felt a bit cooler now. Night maybe? My vision seemed to cooperate quite a bit more this time, and I managed to open my eyes to find a very blurred view of what looked like the back room of the main medical tent, where we kept the overnighters. Yup, not surprised at all. I'd actually been back here quite a bit, and it was comfortingly familiar.

I took stock of my position a moment later. My right arm was heavily bandaged and cast by the looks of it, which meant I'd broken bones. Oddly my right leg also looked royally fucked over and had a cast. I don't remember what happened to it at all unless I landed on something sharp or overly, extra solid. Left shoulder was bandaged heavily, with wrappings going over a good quarter of my chest. Probably the bite wound there. By the smell though...

My muzzle scrunched up as I smelled the disinfectant and mixed antibacterial tinctures. Fuck. I figured the kargor were diseased somehow, but did it give me something in the bite? Great... I turned my head away before the fumes got to me more than they already had. My left paw was movable however, and with a little bit of effort and only moderate pain, I managed to shift the arm down so it was resting on my stomach. My mana activated within, and the paw lit up as I managed to channel it at least partly.

It was a little slow going as I found it hard to focus, but after a couple of minutes, I managed to complete the magic for a basic medical scanning spell, and start to analyze my chest wound. It took another minute or so to analyze, but easily picked up the four puncture wounds first and foremost. Each was about six centimeters deep, making me wince, but looks like they'd been treated already, partly sealing up and the muscles knitting back together now. Clearly the affect of a regenerative potion, but why wasn't it completely healed yet in that case? The stabs were rather thin in nature by the looks of it.

What startled me more was that my skin, spread out a ways from each stab wound, was badly damaged. It looked almost like new skin that had been completely grown from scratch, and all the fur was gone from the area. What in Aion caused this?! Swallowing the lump in my throat, I shifted the scanning magic over my other arm, indeed noting a mostly fully restored break that had been in it. Also, by the looks of the swelling, I'd dislocated the shoulder. The scan of my leg was far worse, showing three breaks in it, and to my shock, another four puncture marks. What the fuck?! Were there more kargor in the canyon, or did the one that fell off with me somehow not die from that massive fall?!

I closed my paw and dismissed the magic after, giving a little groan. Whatever the disease had been, Master Chronak had obviously gotten it under control. Though there had obviously been some difficulty involved in that, which scared me a little. We had most diseases strictly cataloged now, and being surprised by something didn't seem... possible. What did those kargor have?!

"Oh, you're up!" suddenly interrupted my thoughts. I gave a start, only to look to the door and see an apologetic looking nurse. I didn't recognize her immediately, then noticed she was rather young and realized she was probably one of the new recruits. "I'll go get the Elder! He asked to see you immediately upon your waking!" she chirped, then dashed out of the partition before I could even respond.

Well, that sounded serious then. Either there were further complications, or there was something very important to discuss. I knew I was covered for the shopping list. He'd had a big request of the contraceptive herbs already on the list, so me having gotten extra if Exir hadn't managed to put any of them aside, wouldn't have raised any flags. Not that sneaking a priestess in training contraceptives was 'illegal' per se.

Master Chronak must have been in the tent already, as he arrived in less than a minute. He gave me a rather warm smile coming in, and I exhaled, assuming that whatever was going on wasn't necessarily detrimental. Well, at least not detrimental to myself or himself. I suspected if something happened to Nara, Master would be less than concerned.

He sighed, looking me over for a moment before popping up his own magical scan. He smirked as the residue from my own mana probably showed up. "Awake for only a few minutes and you're already scanning yourself. Smart boy..." he admitted, looking my shoulder over before adding, "And with that, I also assume you saw your shoulder and leg."

I looked back towards the shoulder in question, then slowly nodded. "My guess was that the kargor had some sort of disease. From the wound I got, and their behavior..." I muttered, looking back to Master Chronak, who actually looked troubled.

"This is... remarkably bad, Exes. It took me almost two hours to stabilize your arm and leg, and if it hadn't been already into your core, I may have considered just amputating it..." he revealed, looking fatigued just by saying it. My eyes widened at that. There hadn't been an amputation in years, and that was when there was a complication with physical damage to the entire limb! Our medical magic and alchemy had always been on top of things like diseases and infections!

Master nodded slowly, watching my expression before bringing a finger to his lips. "Tell no one about this yet, Exes. Nara already knows, but her guards and your friend do not. The council has already sent the information to the Queen directly, and the entire camp may have to relocate again shortly..." he warned, pacing over to my left side and starting to undo the bandages on my shoulder. I winced, realizing the skin was still tender underneath.

"As my apprentice, I need you to know this. I didn't cure the... no, it wasn't even a disease that was inside of you. It was practically a blight to your very vita..." he explained, finally revealing my shoulder. The skin was pinkish white and brand new, to my surprise, looking like film over muscle. The puncture wounds were also just lightly filmed over on the top, with the hole still visible underneath that hadn't sealed up yet. The rest of me probably paled to the same color looking at it. It was like nothing I'd seen before.

"Whatever that kargor had, when it bit you both times, it transferred some sort of foreign... energy into your body. As far as I can tell, there were no actual disease vectors used, and it was definitely not an infection in a physical sense. Your life force was infected instead! Worse yet, it seemed to completely disregard magic used upon it. The only way I managed to stop it at all was by literally pulling the infected vita out of your body. Then I had to cut the warped tissue off and completely regenerate your skin from scratch. That's why you're just now starting to heal up," he elaborated, slowly shaking his head as he touched the wound marks.

Swallowing, I nodded slowly, processing all the information as fast as I could. This was something... totally new. Perhaps in all of Aion. "And I assume it was the same with my leg? Would this... energy have made the kargor act like they did?" I asked, remembering how hyper aggressive they'd been when they attacked us in broad daylight, almost like they had a singular desire to simply kill us.

For a moment, Master didn't respond as he quickly moved to the other side of the room and unlocked the restricted resources cabinet. I'd not seen that one opened very often, despite having a key to it myself now. It didn't have ingredients that were frankly that useful for day to day alchemy, and apart from my supply of explosives that I keep with me and under the level of power that they'd be classified as restricted, I didn't have need to get anything out of it.

Instead of the ingredients however, he opened the secondary locks on the bottom that I didn't have access to, and pulled out the isolation vault. That was bad. His fingers blurred over the magical rotating dial on the top of it, and then he tapped the center which scanned his mana for identification data even, all before the vault itself popped open. We were a small tribe, and the least important in the entirety of the Inaga lands, so as expected, most of the vault was entirely empty. It did have two vials in it, however. He withdrew both and presented them to me, my eyes widening as I took them in.

At this point, with as much alchemical and magical experimentation that I'd done, I could fairly accurately recognize my own vita, distilled to liquid form. This was darker however and had murky, black and scarlet streaks running through it intermittently, reminding me of the color of dried blood. "These samples were taken from your shoulder and your leg. I'll be sending them as far as Keldonia if I have to. I've never seen anything like this, and that's terrifying to me. The stuff is highly contagious and needs to remain in complete isolation for now. We're honestly lucky you were the only one actually bit by those things..." he admitted. Yeah, so lucky that... only I was almost eaten...

He saw my expression for a moment before starting to chuckle dryly. "No, I'm not pleased you were endangered, but only one person to cure was helpful. We also have two of the corpses that were reasonably intact in lockup, including the one that somehow lived through falling off the cliff after you..." he corrected. Well, that explains that part.

"How'd it die, then...?" I asked, startled more at how it _didn't_die.

"It seems only head strikes are truly effective at putting them down. That's why the twins were initially not as effective against the beasts I'm told. Now they, and we, know where to hit them. And it died because your guard friend is a very good shot with a longbow, and put a hunting arrow through its eye as it tried to drag you off..." he revealed. Oh. Well now I definitely owed Exir that tincture...

It hit me a second later. "Wait, drag me off?" I asked, wondering why it hadn't just gone in for the kill if it had time to bite me in such a highly non-lethal area.

"Exactly. This is why we may have to relocate. This pack encountered displayed unnatural aggression and mindless pack intelligence, on top of having an unknown reasoning. Like I said, don't spread this around. Panic is the last thing we need... The camp guards have been given the specifics about requiring a head hit, but nothing else," he warned, sighing and putting the samples back in the vault before locking it up.

For a long moment, he just rested there, looking clearly tired after what must have been a terrible day. Not that it was that much better from my end, but... He hesitated before lifting his arm up and doing a quick magical pulse of the partition flap. I saw it react to his magic, meaning that the wards for privacy were still in place. He watched it disperse before sighing again and turning to face me fully.

"To be honest, I should have spoken with you in length before even taking you on as an apprentice. You have my deepest apologies, Exes. I've pulled you into a sort of political game that I've had with Queen Calien for many years now, and that wasn't fair to you at all," he explained.

My expression softened as I relaxed back against the tilt of the bed. It honestly felt weird resting in an actual bed. "I figured there was something going on politically, yeah. It feels like Nara, and now myself, are pawns in it..." I reasoned, searching his expression, but only picking up that he seemed... sad somehow.

"That and so much more, Exes. You see, long ago, about two years after I became the Grandmaster Alchemist, I became privy to a particular, well, let's just call it a state secret. I'm not going to tell you what it is just yet, so please don't ask. Just know that my moving out of the capital and out here was because of my disagreement over it with the Queen herself," he explained. Whoa. I stayed respectfully quiet however as he continued.

"I've never cooperated with her over this secret. It requires the help of the Grandmaster Alchemist to function, and I refused to take part in it. But just my refusal hasn't... done anything. It turns out allowing something to go unmaintained is not the same as actively removing it, and that applies to this situation. My refusal set her back and frustrated her, but ultimately, the secret survived my absence, and now she no longer needs me." Because now I was here. An incoming new Grandmaster Alchemist, potentially, that she can work with instead. Master smiled at me as he probably saw the proverbial gears spinning in my head, and nodded. "I suspect you realize it's because of you, Exes. I'm not going to be around forever. I knew that even going public with this secret wouldn't generate enough publicity to actually make a difference. The only thing I can think of to do is try to make my successor able to resist the Queen as well. I knew she was using her daughter as the carrot on the string for you," he theorized. Well no, he was probably dead on if I were honest. Nara just seemed...

Frowning, I asked, "Is that why you don't like Nara?" If she were just the pawn of the Queen... and I suppose really, really good at acting...

He chuckled softly at that and shook his head however. "I don't not like Nara. She's a pawn just like you, but I've been watching you two for a while, with my own ways in place. If anything, she's a willing pawn, and especially now, I know she has real feelings for you," he assured, surprising me significantly. Ways in place...? He made it sound like he was subtly using magic to detect lies or something. He continued before I could ask, however. "Two can use a pawn however. My intent was to put you on even ground with Nara and let her make up her own mind. She can fall for you just as readily as you for her. And if her loyalties to you become greater than her loyalties to her mother..." he pointed out.

"I'd gain a form of protection then..." I finished, frowning at all of this. I'd thought the situation was fucked up before, but it turns out I didn't know the half of it. So his plan was to hopefully get a second generation of Grandmaster Alchemist to not help in whatever this was, and let it die out on its own. It must be one huge secret if he didn't just go public with it and expected it to be silenced that hard. I was back to not trusting the Queen again, but Nara...

Master Chronak gave a soft nod before admitting, "I've no taste for any of this either, Exes. But the Queen and the rest of the royalty... are leaving me with no choice. If anything, consider that by pulling Nara free of obligations to them, you're actually saving her from a lot of misery. You're her escape, and I think, to be honest, she knows it. Just keep a level head with her, and always watch your back."

Giving a polite nod to me, he turned with that and slowly walked back towards the partition before suggesting, "Get some rest now, Exes. You'll need to stay here for tonight, but I've already let your mother and sister know you'll make a full recovery..." I nodded in return to him, and he quietly left through the partition once again. The candles in the room flickered and automatically dimmed as the mana lowered to them after he left, and I exhaled. He'd given me a lot to think about, that was for sure.

Closing my eyes again, I rested against the bed's softness and sighed. I really would rather my hammock any day to be honest. The scent of disinfectant and antibacterial was less potent thankfully with the bandage swapped out, and I exhaled tiredly, realizing that everything had taken a lot out of me. Literally. Master had to pull out a part of my life force, twice, to get rid of whatever those beasts had.

I shivered again, remembering the lance of pain burning into my chest and shoulder so vividly suddenly. There was this lingering sense of dread now, like there was something wrong under the surface of the realm. Like I could peel back the skin of the air and see pulsing darkness on the other side.

I gave a start, looking up from my snowy rock and not realizing that I'd fallen asleep. Wait, was I asleep? I looked out on the featureless expanse of ice and snow, stretching far beyond the horizon yet again. What little I could see of the starless black sky was eclipsed almost completely by blue fire once again, shading everything in its particular tint. This time the massive wall of blue flames remained exactly where it was however, just bathing myself and everything else in its light.

That unease was still buried inside of me though. My eyes slowly widened the longer I looked up at the flames. That sense of dread, where there's something just outside of the edge of your vision that you just know is there, waiting to pounce on you if you turn and look at it. But this time it wasn't a creature I was suddenly afraid of.

Slowly, with more and more dawning unnatural horror, I looked down at myself instead. My fur was gone, and my flesh was a blackened, warped husk of its prior self. My tongue caught in my throat as I saw the deep, sickened looking veins crawling all over the twisted ridges and bends of my skin, glowing a fiery blue color with raw energy. All of it leading right into the center of my chest, where a light rivaling the sky above radiated from me. As I stared, an eye suddenly opened up inside of it, made of the same colored light, and I screamed...

---

So, I actually screamed. Well, when I say screamed, I meant screeched. It's kind of an Inaga thing. I looked around, horribly embarrassed for a moment before I remembered the privacy ward magic and just exhaled. Of course, my heart rate...

A different nurse this time slid in a moment later, looking startled. The fact that I was awake and just looking a bit shaken must have caused her to relax a little and she exhaled. I recognized her a moment later, and gave a sheepish smile. "Ah, sorry, Tora. Uh, nightmare..." I admitted, causing her to giggle a bit.

"It's fine, Exes. You know I'm just obligated to check on patients that are potentially dying in our tent," she reminded, to which I sagely nodded in return. The standard affair.

"Thankfully I think I avoided that. Again. This time... Uh, do you know if I'm clear to leave?" I asked her curiously, looking down at my still bandaged form.

Her ears perked up at that and she padded over to my bed herself, checking my bandages. "I believe so, but let's see if your fur's back yet," she suggested, starting to unravel the shoulder one first. I winced as indeed there was some tugging, and she wasn't exactly being gentle.

"Surely, the best test if there's fur back yet is to try to rip it all out..." I noted, earning a wink from the Inaga girl.

She looked my fur over a moment later and scoffed lightly. "Not even a scratch. You're fine, Exes. Don't be a little kit," she teased, following up with, "It sounds like the Princess herself is going to be your mate now, so you gotta start showing some ego finally." Well, I'm glad that got around fast.

"Is this something I should already know, or new information bouncing around?" I asked, flopping my ears back against my head as I frowned. Tora grinned at that of course.

"Probably a little of both. After your apparent heroics last night, you're all she can talk about, and trust me, she's definitely talking. It's making quite a few girls that were interested in you before _very_jealous, you know. How could a normal Inaga hope to compete with Princess Nara after all!" she chirped, sounding even more mirthful now as she moved on to my leg. Oh gods beyond...

I paused a moment after that, then scowled again. "Girls interested in me...? Quite a few...? Where do you even hear your rumors, Tora?" I asked incredulously, teasingly snickering to her after.

When Tora peeked back up at me, her grin was almost predatory however, and I suddenly swallowed uneasily. "Oh poor, foolish Exes. Not even considering how fast rumors of your lovely massages, caring and loving attitude, skill with kits, and even tasty size would spread. Not even considering that your unique position as Master Alchemist and Medical Mage would put you still within reach of the 'long-tongue' status for the guards and such, but still put your station as above that of all of the tribe's actual working staff! You have a lot of admirers down lower," she teased, face shifting to a more mirthful grin as she snickered again. Then whacked the front of my shin with a cracking hammer.

I went from immensely flushed to wincing and completely disoriented a moment later, and hissed out a "Brat!" just for good measure. She burst into laughter, though wore a more normal smile afterwards as she got to my right arm finally. "Seriously though, I'm not joking. If Princess Nara needs a Second, Third, or even Fourth, I can totally hook you two up with a lot of girls," she offered.

This time I gave a distinctly frustrated groan, which only earned a snickering chitter from her. Cracking open the cast on my arm was far gentler; she must have been feeling merciful this time. Instead, she slowly pulled the pieces off, using the hammer as more of a wedge to pry than to hit. I winced a little when she messed with the shoulder itself, but otherwise it didn't hurt nearly as much. She carefully dusted my fur of after, smiling softly as I looked over and watched her work. She was blushing a little too, I realized. Wait...

"Mmm, and um, yes. I'm one of them. You're clear to go though, Exes!" she chirped out, turning even more red as she winked to me, then immediately scampered to the door, actually dropping down to all fours before bursting out of the partition.

Dumbstruck, I stared blankly at the still flapping partition before barely resisting screeching at the top of my lungs again. What the fuck?! Did I die and go to the Great Beyond?! Did I get sucked into some parallel Realm where everything's messed up or something?! Ever since the bloody testing day, everything was changing and different. Was Aion always this weird and I'm just now seeing it for what it was?!

I landed on my paws a moment later, then actually stumbled sideways, catching myself against the bed. Oh, okay, so my right leg had even less strength than normal. Guess I should have anticipated that. Limping to the partition exit finally, I peeked out into the main room and saw it was completely empty now, with Tora nowhere in sight. Of course. Actually, what could I even say to that? She'd done a slight faux pas by hunting above her station, but not by that much so it wasn't a huge deal. But she shouldn't have approached _me_about it at all. To pick her at all, I'd have to pick her instead of Nara, which...

Pausing, I smiled to myself for a moment when I realized that was a deal breaker. No, I actually liked Nara. Maybe more. So, she'd have to go to Nara if she wanted Second that bad. Having actually made up my mind for possibly the first time, I exhaled softly and walked with a little more invigoration to my step, moving outside of the tent a moment later.

"Hey Exes!" I heard, before my eyes had even adjusted. I looked momentarily in confusion at the random passing guard I didn't know who just decided to wave to me. Hesitantly, I waved back and he grinned, nodding before continuing on his way. To my surprise, two more guards, female this time, and a caretaker girl also waved at me by the time I'd even gotten past the training grounds.

Now I was getting seriously weirded out. Nara was the only thing I could think of, if she'd started spreading around things intentionally about me. I exhaled softly, then looked down at my clothes before frowning. I'd forgotten I was wearing the same stuff I had been yesterday, which was now stained with blood in multiple spots. Great.

Prioritizing, I made a sudden pathing change and went straight for my home tent instead. Three more jovial greetings later had me finally reach the family tent, and I exhaled, blundering in through the entrance as quickly as I could to escape the weirdness outside. It didn't help much though, as it was a little weird inside too. And crowded.

"Heeeey, Exes!" Exir called out, grinning as he was the first to spot me while sitting at the cooking fire.

Mother and Nara looked up almost at the same time, with the prior smiling brightly from the cooking fire, and the latter almost beaming as she stood up immediately from one of the logs opposite Exir. Even as fast as Nara was though, Exia beat her to me by a mile and buried her face immediately into my chest, almost pushing me back into the tent wall.

"You're alright!" she whined into my tunic, and I was suddenly even more self-conscious of the blood.

"Of course I am, Sis. It's okay..." I assured, smiling down at her, just in time for her to look up with water eyes instead.

She shook her head rapidly, ears flapping against my chest before she requested, "Please don't go outside the camp again! It's way too dangerous out there!" Pulling her tighter against my chest, I just smiled softly before giving the top of her head a little kiss, which seemed to relax her.

Nara had walked up by then but was patiently waiting and watching the two of us with a grin on her muzzle. "I tried to assure her that her big brother was just fine, but she wouldn't believe me until she saw you," she teased, giggling as Exia only pushed her face harder into me in response.

Exir smirked at the exchange before assuring, "Can't keep a genuine hero down, can you? Seriously Exes, I thought I had balls. You jumped in front of an enraged kargor to save Nara! Damn!"

Naturally, I felt the heat burning into my cheeks, but was surprised to see Nara mirroring my flush. Her expression was entirely different though, and very hard for me to read, with large eyes almost shimmering with energy, and a soft smile on her muzzle. Seeing it made me both nervous and happy at the same time. Was that even possible?

My mother gave a softer chuckle, then ordered suddenly, "Give the hero some room, Exia. He's probably hungry!" At the reminder, my stomach did indeed give a rather furious grumbling, and my little sister started snickering again before dancing away from me, ears and pigtails swaying as she moved. It was a bit hypnotic to watch for a moment, but I snapped out of it and huffed.

"Food would be nice, but so would a change of clothes... and I desperately need a bath-" I started to admit. Nara clearly cared not for any of the needs I listed off, suddenly all but pouncing the second Exia had cleared the space she needed.

There wasn't any teasing this time, or coy one liner, or even hesitation. My eyes shot open as both of Nara's arms slipped to both sides of my neck, her entire body pressing up against me, even as her muzzle pressed rather heatedly into my own. The world froze as her eyes closed, and for just a moment, it was only us in all of Aion. My arms gradually started to move almost of their own accord and hold her tight, even as she tilted her head and let her warm lips caress over my own. I was conscious of a light lick a moment later, and instincts seemed to take over as I opened my muzzle against hers. Her tongue teased against my own, drawing me back out into her muzzle instead, even as my paws clenched and grasped at her back, trying to pull her even tighter to me. The sensations were almost too much, and I think a groan escaped my muzzle, earning a heated and urgent sounding moan from her in return, even as I coiled my tongue around hers.

I didn't want it to stop, but she slowly pulled back away from me, both cheeks and part of her neck a fiery red flush, but grinning. It felt like I could probably cook the food better on my own face than the fire was doing at the moment, but I couldn't seem to stop smiling. I must have looked like an idiot, I realized. Wait...

My eyes flicked to the right for a moment. My little sister was just staring at us, flushed pink and covering her muzzle with both paws, but wiggling excitedly in place. Exir just lounged back sporting what could possibly be the biggest shit-eating grin I'd ever seen him wear, and my mother was just minding her own business wearing an incredibly knowing smile and stirring the pot over the fire. I wanted to crawl somewhere and die now. But die happily!

Nara slipped a bit closer again and I quickly snapped my attention back to her, just in case she wanted to further seal our fates with another kiss, but she moved her muzzle past mine instead and whispered ever so quietly into my ear with, "More later, my hero. Soooo much more." She shot me a wink, then backed away from me again and slowly padded back over to the cooking area, with a highly noticeable sway to her hips as she walked. Fuck. I couldn't take my eyes off her rear until she sat down, and I just winced, forcefully pulling my attention back to reality.

Exia just grinned, looking down at my groin a moment later instead. AAAAHHH! "I'm uh, g-going to go change my clothes. Be right back," I quickly excused.

"Of course, dear. We'll probably have to retire that tunic, sadly..." my mother admitted, giving a little sigh as she looked it over as I walked. Yes, I know. Teeth holes and blood all over it. Very important. I all but dove into my room's partition, then flailed for several seconds to nothing in particular, thrashing the air as I wobbled about, ears twitching furiously. There was too much energy in me suddenly, and it felt like it wanted to explode outwards, but my thoughts were steaming mush and I didn't even know what I wanted... apart from Nara that was. Then it dawned on me. That was possibly the largest tease she's actually ever given me. I wanted to scream "Brat!" at her at the top of my lungs, but knew it wouldn't do any good.

Sighing, I opened the trunk up next to my hammock and picked up one of the neatly folded tunics within. Unhooking my simple knotted cord at my waist, I pulled my tunic off over my head and sighed, tossing it onto my hammock with the same fluid motion and for a moment, standing there naked except for my sandals. I stared down at my very much at attention, pulsing erection afterwards, giving it a skeptical observation. I'd never really measured myself. Never saw a need. It always seemed just average and normal to me, and not that high of a priority anyway. From sheath to tip, it was maybe a little shy of twenty centimeters. Maybe three and a half centimeters at its thickest, and my knot was probably twice that at full size. I watched a little bead of pre leave the tapered tip and sighed again. For most of my life this had been more of an annoyance, I admitted.

Still, there was nothing I could do about it right now. Thankfully this wasn't the first time I'd had this problem. Sure, with my new station in the tribe, I could be like the other higher ranks and just go find a caretaker, but I didn't particularly want to be like the other higher ranks, or subject one to that in the first place. Though, I wondered if I'd still think that way if I didn't know what it was like on the other side of things. A few of them looked like they outright enjoyed it.

My alchemy kit had a lot of already mixed up tinctures, potions, and salves, thankfully. Peeking through my various vials, I found the one I was looking for. The flat glass disk contained an extremely pale blue salve in it, obviously for topical use only. The almost-white cream was cool to the touch when I put a bit on my finger, and even cooler to the touch when I stroked said finger up the underside of my length, causing me to shiver slightly. That same cool tingle quickly became a numbing sensation, and within seconds, I couldn't feel my male bits at all, the sensations being replaced by a chilling nothing.

Just as expected, this rapidly triggered my instinctive responses, and it started shrinking, slipping gently back inside the sheath instead. Exhaling, I put away the alchemy kit again and padded back over to my hammock, using the discarded tunic to wipe my finger off, and the sticky mess I'd already made of my fur from just the short time of getting excited. Sheesh. Normally I wasn't quite so... sloppy. Nara really smashed buttons down in me I guessed.

With the new tunic on and tied off, I exhaled and slipped back out of the room, at least looking fresher. I was still probably sweaty and stinky, sadly. "Ah, there you are. That took a while. No issues?" Exir asked, being the first to see me thanks to where he was sitting. Nara perked her ears up and looked over her shoulder, also grinning in my direction, even as I rolled my eyes.

"No, no issues. Though that tunic's probably done for, with the bite marks and blood and all..." I muttered, stepping around the log in front of me, careful of my weaker right leg, and sitting down next to Nara. I contemplating my own increase in daring, realizing a moment later that a couple weeks ago, intentionally sitting down next to a female would have been unfathomable to me.

She seemed less than bothered by it, instead giving a warmer smile and sliding over even closer to me until our hips were touching. Mother just smiled at us and nodded, assuring, "You have plenty of others, and we can make a new one once we figure out if we're moving or not." Oh, right.

"It's a pity they had us burn most of the kargor corpses. That's a lot of good leather gone, though I suppose with how they were acting, they might have been diseased or something. They took two I think to find out just that," Exir muttered, looking back over to me for confirmation.

My eyes widened a little, then I swallowed and nodded. "Yeah, that's what Master Chronak said too. I saw the samples he'd already taken..." I returned, failing to mention that the samples were from me of course. My answer seemed to please Exir regardless with him giving a nod.

"Yeah, the Elder Council was already meeting about it. I imagine they already know if we're moving or not, but I heard they also contacted the Queen herself about the event," my mother murmured, sounding a bit stressed actually. A frown played at my features, but Nara shook her head and sighed first.

"Even if it didn't involve me directly, aren't attacks like that always reported to the capital? I really don't think we have much to worry about..." she reasoned. Right, she knew the extent of how badly things were going wrong already. Her right paw stroked over my left, and I instinctively rotated mine around for her to slip hers into while we rested there.

My mother smiled again at the assurance, then nodded to herself. "We'll make do. We always have. But we won't do so on an empty stomach. Eat first, then you can go wash up in the pool, Exes. You're sweaty, and you smell like mintleaf extract..." my mother warned, causing me to cringe.

"Eh? What's that?" Nara asked, just as Exir burst out laughing. Yeah, he'd know what it was too. Tch. I just flushed and looked away from my mother, giving a frustrated groan, even as she giggled and started dishing up what looked to be a rather heavy breakfast mix.

"Don't worry, dear. Just male problems..." she assured, officially making me want to bury my head in the sand under me. Nara froze for a moment at that, then started to grin, her tail swaying behind her slowly. Now she knew she'd gotten to me, of course. Exia, sitting to the left side of Exir, just looked lost though.

My mother gave me a softer smile as she handed me my own bowl, and I huffed, earning another snicker from her. "Relax. It just means you're a healthy adult!" she chirped, then swished to the side to give Nara her own before moving over to the other side of the fire for Exir and Exia. I tried to clear my head and exhale the tension out, but Nara suddenly stroked a finger gently over my palm, causing me to look towards her curiously. She took the moment to lean in at the same time, and I gave a start as she gently kissed me out of nowhere. This one wasn't heated, and she turned it into a nuzzle against my nose in the same motion, backing away a moment later and giving a warm smile.

Somehow, she seemed to know what to do to pull the tension out of me for me. Smiling back, I nodded gently to her in quiet thanks. That distinctly felt like her own way of saying "It's okay." Releasing her paw so I could move mine up to hold the bowl, my other one grabbed the spoon and I wasted no time in digging in, my stomach reminding me pointedly about how long it had been since I last ate.