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Everywhere she goes that doesn't have an Adventurer's Guildhall reacts the same. The people see her and either turn to run or draw their swords. Nighttime is always better. The guards are either too sleepy to care or more eager to accept the "gnoll toll" Adaeze has to pay so that the guards don't raise a fuss. So, as she rides her camel through the cold, starry, but moonless night and heads towards town, she's surprised by the commotion in front of her.

A band of four dark-robed creatures surrounds a woman, laying on the ground and naked. Adaeze grips the reins of her mount and pulls back her lips, snarling into the darkness.

The robed figures turn toward her, each of them hissing and brandishing their scimitars.

Adaeze leaps from her camel, pulling out her sap and throwing off her traveler's cloak. She reveals before them her armored and massive form. Her spotted fur bristles, and her eyes glow in the dim starlight. "Alright, you vagabonds, you want to mess with someone? Why don't you pick on someone who can actually fight back!?

Two of the rogues rush forward, and she steps out of the way of one, smacking it in the back of the head. The garments of the creature collapse as its sandy body dissipates into the desert. Her tail flicks out from behind her, her tail blade cutting along the abdomen of the second rogue. Sand spills out from its gut. It fights desperately to stuff it back in but manages a quick glance up before dissolving into a puddle of dust like its companion.

The third and fourth look at each other and then bolt back into the darkness, leaving the woman lying on the ground all alone in the night with her bestial rescue.

Adaeze slips her tail over her cloak and picks it up, approaching the woman, but slowly with her hands up. "Easy there, miss. I'm not gonna hurt ya."

The woman stares up at the gnoll. If she wasn't so frightened, she'd be gorgeous with her long straight black hair and deep brown eyes. The gnoll flicks her tail and lets the cloak fall over the woman's body. "Here, take that. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Those... those men..." the woman says, shuffling the robe over herself, pulling the hood over her face. "They attacked me, and I could do nothing."

Adaeze laughs. "Men? Hardly. Those are sanders, nasty monsters that take on human form. I don't see any of your stuff here. Only tattered and torn nonsense from their disguises. Did they take you out here like this or what?"

"No, nothing like that," the woman responds, rubbing at her neck. "Just... I can rest for a few hours, and then I can head out once my power recharges."

"Ah, so you're a caster? Yeah, that makes sense." Adaeze says. "Want to head into town, then? I can take you there Shouldn't be more than an hour or so from here."

"No, that's fine... we can camp here. I'll leave on my own in the morning."

"Right... okay. Well, I wasn't planning on sleeping until morning, anyway,. Hold on a moment, and I'll get something going for ya."

With an experienced adventurer's practiced skill, Adaeze sets up a small camp, complete with a cozy tent and a gentle fire. "You can sleep in the tent tonight. I don't plan on doing none with sanders about.

"No... that's fine," the woman says, staring into the flame, sitting upon her knees.

"Right, of course." Adaeze plops down across from her from the fire. "Well, then, we might as well find some way to spend the time."

The woman grabs the robe.

"Whoa, now, don't get any wild ideas. Not that you aren't a sight for someone so long on the road. Ah, geez, sorry. Listen, let's start again. I'm Adaeze, and you?"

The woman responds. "I am just a frail thing you shall see thisnight. I am only a dream and a pleasant memory."

"A fan of riddles, eh? Listen, Riddles, I get it. I'm a monster, but I'm acting like I'm your friend. I get it's weird, and I have this conversation nearly every day. I'm not bad, just a mercenary. The only way we're going to go to blows is if you're a monster, and, well, the only kind of monster you could be is one of the fair folk... or maybe some type of lost maiden undead, or... Hm... actually, there's a lot of things you could be, but what's the point of speculating, right? Tonight, we're just two travelers on the road sharing a fire. I'm not a gnoll, and you're not some enigma. You're Riddles."

Riddles raises her head, her lips quivering.

"Hey, now, if I struck a nerve on your fairy style, I didn't mean to offend."

"I'm not a fairy," Riddles says.

"Heh, of course not," Adaeze responds.

Riddles stands up. "But, I recognize a compliment."

"Eh, no problem, lady, just-whoa"

The woman drops the cloak to the ground, her body glowing in the firelight. "This form... it pleases you?"

"I'd be lyin' if I said 'no', and I ain't no lion. I'm a gnoll." Adaeze slaps her knee, her cackle rising high into the sky.

The woman smirks at that and approaches her. She slips down into the gnoll's lap, delicate hands moving over her muzzle, soft and long fingers running through her fur and up and over her ears and down her mane.

Adaeze shudders, closing her eyes. "You know how to treat a lady right," she sighs. "But..." she grabs the woman's wrist. "There's something I gotta tell you about me. Gnolls, lady gnolls, we ain't exactly ladylike."

"So I've heard."

Adaeze sighs. "Of course. Why wouldn't that be the first thing you've heard about gnolls?"

The woman's hands move down, and she brings the hand to her chest. "The first thing I've heard about gnolls," the woman begins, "is that they are strong warriors who master the land and command great respect among the dunes."

Adaeze shakes her head, her eyes lost in the woman's. "Well, you sound like a fan."

"I happen to like beasts of all kinds."

"Yeah, well... kinky is as kinky does, I guess.."

"You hate yourself unfairly, Adaeze," Riddles says. "Just enjoy my company."

"Can do!" With that, she lays the woman down on the discarded robe and climbs up to her. Adaeze brings mouth to mouth and loses herself in the entwinement of their bodies.

"I tell you, it was a magical evening. Another conquest to add to the notches on my belt, you know?" Adaeze says this to the bartender at the Adventurer's Guildhall.

"Oh, I'd imagine," the tender says, "if you're talking about it a month later."

"Yeah," Adaeze says, tapping a folded-up paper on the table. "Damn shame that none of us can make out this note she left behind." She barks this out louder, much to the chuckles and jeers of her fellow adventurers and bounty hunters."

"The translator is supposed to come in today, isn't he?" the tender says. "That will be exciting."

"Yeah, it's why I'm here early," Adaeze says, spinning around in her seat and resting her shoulders on the bar. "Makes me wonder what the hell is taking so long. I could have sworn he'd be here sometime in the daytime, not the middle of the night-"

She stops and sniffs the air, jumping up to her feet. "No way..." She rushes out of the bar area, nearly bumping into a figure about to enter. She looks down to the smaller, thin form--someone with long and straight black hair and with delicate features, but that scent... it smells like... Riddles!

"My apologies the man speaks, adjusting his glasses. "You must be Adaeze, yes?"

The gnoll blinks down at him, her muzzle turned down into a frown.

"I'm Syros... the guild translator."

"Have we... met?"

The man sighs and holds out his hand. "The document, if you'd please, Miss."

"Uh... r-right." She says, holding the folded-up paper in her hand. He takes it in his much smaller hand and unfolds it, looking It over quickly before handing it back to her. He quirks his eye up at her. "You can't read gnoll script?"

"I... I didn't know gnolls had a writing system."

Syros's frown increases at that. He hands it back to her and says. "It's a riddle."

Adaeze snorts, folding her hands over her chest. "Huh... well, isn't that perfect? What's it say?"

"Well, the nuances may be missed on a non-native speaker, but it reads something like "When does the hunter gain a heart?"

She snickers at that. "Well, I may not be able to answer that question, but that sounds less like a riddle and more like words to remember her by. Guess I'll keep it in mind."

"Well, I suppose," he says, a smile forming on his face, "that words do hold meaning as far as we understand them. Keep that to heart and move on." He bows and turns, exiting the building.

Adaeze looks to the note again but then snaps out of her stupor, only to rush out, calling for him, but getting no response.

--

The adventurers ride out in the fading sunlight, with Adaeze bringing up the rear of the party. To the edge of the desert and into the mountains they go, where only one trail allows for contact to the supply trades beyond.

"Well, here we are," their leader says.

"This is where the others saw the Hermaphrosphinx. Be on the lookout for-."

Under the sand erupts a leonine figure, spreading wings and chomping onto the adventurer with a massive jaw. The beast flies up into the air and drops the man, sending him screaming into the ground below and tumbling down the last of the dunes before rocky earth takes its place.

The mage and Adaeze are all that's left, and Adaeze pulls out her sap, her tail blade also gleaming in the setting sun.

Their mage fires off a cold burst, but the sphinx speaks arcane words, its crimson eyes glowing with a yellow light. The ice shoots back at the adventurer, knocking her down against the ground.

Adaeze runs over towards her companion, who shouts. "Dammit, don't worry about me, get the thing!"

The sphinx lands on the hill in front of Adaeze, narrowing its eyes.

"Come here, you!" Adaeze roars, but the sphinx stares her down, the look in its eyes sending a jumble of thoughts and feelings in Adaeze's mind. The gnoll falls to her knees, clutching her head as the sphinx flies off to the mountains.

It takes a few moments to regain herself, and she beckons her steed with a whistle, giving chase.

The hunt leads her up into the mountain pass, where she can find a cave entrance thanks to her gnoll eyes. She hops off of her steed and rushes towards the cave, only to be hit by a strong, familiar smell.

A figure in scholarly robes fit loose over a naked but definitely feminine body out from the cave. "When does the hunter gain a heart?"

Adaeze frowns, lowering her knife. "I... wait... you're... Syros, but... Riddles...??"

"A true riddle," the woman, Syros, says. She shrugs off of her robes, showing off her naked form. "I am Syros, yet I am the one you call "Riddlest." I am the one you adore and the one you abhor."

The moonless night bathes both of them. Syros raises her hand up over her head, and golden energy coalesces over her palm, forming a globe of brilliant light that fires off into the air.

Adaeze winces at the sudden brightness, like that of a full moon.

With that lunar light in the sky, Synos falls to her hands, arching her back, a sneer upon her face, her eyes red. "After months of work!" she growls. "I'm finally free to be me!"

Gasps of delight fill the air as she arches her back and throws her head back, her mouth lined with sharp fangs and erupting into a furry muzzle. Wings burst from her shoulders, and her body shifts and morphs right before Adaeze's eyes until suddenly, standing before her with those crimson and domineering eyes, is the very monster she was hunting--Syros the Hermpahrosphinx.

Adaeze stands in astonishment at the sight of the beast before her. The Hermaphrosphinx grins at the gnoll, the impressive and frightening creature growling in the back of their throat.

"Syros... you're the sphinx?"

The sphinx leaps forward with a pouncing snarl. The bounty hunter dodges out of the way, but the monster swipes, striking the gnoll against her armor. Sharp claws tear at leather, and flecks of blood fall to the sands.

"Syros, wait!" Adaeze says, tightening her grip on her sap. "We don't have to fight like this!"

"Don't we? You came here to kill me, and I'm here protecting my life, seeking what I desire more than anything in the world! To live... as my true self!"

The sphinx roars, and the sand beneath Adaeze's feet shifts and loosens. The gnoll's boots sink into the shifting ground, and the sphinx rushes in for another attack.

Adaeze drops her sap, the weapon disappearing into the newly-formed quicksand. She grabs the paw swiping at her, its claws inches from her face. "But... but we made love!" she growls.

Syros puts their weight upon the paw, pushing Adaeze deeper into the sand. "You foolish human-raised whelp!" they snap. This curse of mine that puts me in that abhorrent and weak humanoid form requires that I betray someone to retain my proper, bestial form! It wasn't until you saw me here that I was able to cast the spell! Do you know what it's like to be a beast and forced to live inside society, unable to show your true self?"

Adaeze yanks the arm down under hers and pulls against the more gigantic creature, slipping herself out of the sinking sand with a pop. Syros snaps at her with their jaws, but Adaeze grabs onto their mouth, muscles screaming from the fight. "Yes, I do! Every day, I live my life in the skin of a gnoll, but wanting to be just like anyone else around me! I can't be what they are, and that sickens me!"

Syros swings their neck, flinging Adaeze aside. Rolling their jaw, they turn back towards the gnoll and growl. "You privileged cur! How do you think it feels to be a superior and stronger creature, trapped in a weak body of a human, forced to hide one's true self? Sometimes a woman, sometimes a man, never the perfection that is my hermaphrosphinx self! I was never really whole, except on nights like tonight!" They leap forward again, slashing against the gnoll's snout.

Adaeze yelps and tumbles across the ground, blood dripping from her snout. She shakes her head, her mouth pulling back, showing off her sharp teeth and her maw. "He... hehehe... so, is my life just a joke to you? Make me feel like... I've got a friend--a lover, and then do away with me?"

"At least you're laughing at what a joke you are," Syros says.

"Laugh at this!" Adaeze roars, bouncing off of the ground and leaping into the air. She slashes at the sphinx's face, her jaw opening wide and biting down into Syros's shoulder.

The sphinx roars, thrashing around, desperately trying to throw Adaeze off. The hyenic woman holds on, biting deeper, feeling the rush of heat from the blood spilling out and staining her armor and fur.

Syros rolls onto their back, smashing Adaeze onto the sand, but the gnoll holds on, tearing a chunk of meat from the creature.

The sphinx clambers back to their paws, letting out mournful groans. "Aaah, if I'm to die tonight, let me die as myself, and not as some weak human!

Adaeze spits out the chunk of flesh and clambers up to her feet. Hunched over, she stares at the sphinx, breathing slowly. "You stupid... bastard..." she huffs, blood dripping from her maw. "Is it worth throwing away your life... to be something?

Syros, their legs trembling, chuckles, stumbling forward. "Is it worth living if you're forced to be something you're not?"

"Another fucking riddle?" the gnoll says, standing tall. "Let me guess, it's like that last one and up to interpretation?"

"Pathetic," Syros responds, front legs giving out. They collapse onto their side, their side rising and falling. "That you didn't realize the truth of it. 'When does a hunter gain a heart?' The answer is simple." Syros coughs, their whole body shuddering. "A hunter... gains a heart... when they tear it from the corpse of their prize."

Adaeze slumps onto her knees beside the creature, finally holding onto her bleeding side. "No, you're the pathetic one," she says. "I got an answer to your stupid riddle for you. 'When does a hunter gain a heart?" she chuckles. "When they mourn the loss of life they take."

"Your sentimentality... will be your downfall," Syros says.

"Maybe," Adaeze says, "But I'm willing to die for what I believe in, just like you are."

"Ah... so you finally... understand," Syros continues, looking up towards the night sky. "Do you know... how happy I am...?"

Adaeze slumps down on the ground next to the sphinx and stares up with her. "How exactly did you get this curse?"

With labored breaths, the sphinx responds. "Ah... looking to live... a transformed existence? The answer... is in... the Wildlands."

"The Wildlands...? But that's the middle of nowhere. What could possible be there?"

A moment passes, and Adaeze repeats her question, but silence follows her. The gnoll pushes herself up and looks towards her quarry, only to see the lifeless eyes that remain. "Yeah..." she says, pushing herself up and getting back to her feet. "I guess it doesn't really matter..."

The next day, a group of adventurers from the guild ride up through the desert. They find the gnoll in the shade of the mountain cave, guarding the corpse of her kill. When they approach, they double-take, but Adaeze gives them a wave and staggers to her feet. "You guys got something to transport this thing with? Drinks are on me tonight. I got quite the story to tell."