Jack asked "I'm not very familiar with Dragonkin. Are you really related to Dragons?"

Yukali looked thoughtful and said "That is a extensive debate among Lord Attomas and his friends in the research community. Lord Attomas believes that we are either related to Wyverns or some of the great lizards of the east. Not Dragons like so many have claimed."

Ritalassa said to Jack "I've met several Dragons, I do not get the same feeling from her as I did them."

"What do you believe Yukali?"

"I believe my masters beliefs have blinded him to the truth. No matter how powerful the Kingdom of Sevaris may have gotten, they could not create a soul. Monsterkin have souls, which means we must have been developed from something that has a soul."

"Could they not have just manipulated monsters, and souls naturally appeared?"

"There is several reason's why I don't think that is the case. First is the mating issue of Monsterkin. We don't produce halfs. We only produce more Monsterkin with whatever race we mate with. Except monsterkin, it's rare but occasionaly we produce a non-monsterkin child."

"Why do you think that is?"

"I believe the Kingdom of Sevaris used monster blood to change a portion of the population into monsterkin for some reason."

Jack looked in thought and said "That would be logical to think. I have seen several machines that indicate that they were working on changing the very nature of their people. You said you had several reasons?"

"Souls of races tend to have a unique signature for each race. While each soul is unique, one can usually tell if it comes from a human or say an elf. Except for monsterkin. Our soul signatures are each vastly different from one to another. I believe this is proof they took multiple races as the base rather then a singular species."

"It sounds like you have thought about this a great deal."

Yukali nodded "Serving Lord Attomas, I have learned a great deal about monsterkin."

"Have you informed him of your ideas?"

"I have. He has disregarded them, partly as I suspect because he expresses an intense dislike for other races."

Jack nodded and said "Are you his child?"

"He did sire me, but I would not say I am his child. He has not treated me as such, so I do not view him as my father."

"I was told he takes his children as his lovers. Is that accurate?"

Yukali looked down at Jack and said "Lovers is too strong a word for what he does. When he needs a physical release, he has used those he sired. Including me. I see you are sickened at this practice of his. I assure you other nobles have done similar if not worse acts. In the eyes of the law, monsterkin barely count as a race."

"I see. Forgive me for being so blunt, but I deeply despise your father's actions."

Turning around Yukali said "We are done. Go put away the gear."

Ritalassa chuckled and said "Looks like you got under her scales. Are you not troubled she will report back to Lord Attomas?"

"She might. Not much he can do."

Jack carried Ritalassa over and began to put away the tents. As they were doing that, Ritalassa saw Princess Falean yanking her horse out of the barn. When she had got him out, a worker passed behind Snort to get into the barn. When he did so, Snort let out a massive fart, and a cloud of green gas enveloped the worker.

The worker began screaming and stumbled out of the gas and began to puke. He collapsed soon after, and several other ranch workers carefully went to him and dragged him away from the disappearing cloud. Princess Falean called out "Sorry about that. Hay makes Snort really gassy. I typically feed him chunks of beef as he's not very good with plants.

"What kind of horse just eats meat?" Ritalassa said stunned.

Jack said "Keep an eye on that thing. I suspect it's here just to protect the Princess."

Jack finished putting away the gear and went to the horse he was provided and climbed on it. "Jack the way you ride your horse is really strange." Ritallassa said. "Can't you ride your horse normally? It really makes you stand out."

"What do you mean?"

"Your floating an inch off the horse. Others might be unable to see, but it looks really weird to others."

"It's very comfortable. Plus it doesn't put any strain on the horse while I do it."

"It's freaking out the horse."

"It doesn't mind. I think it's just spooked by Snort."

Ritalassa argued several more minutes with Jack while the rest of the group got ready. Soon Lord Attomas said "Lets get going, just a few more days then we will be making the greatest find of our lifetimes!"

They began to trot, and Ritalassa said "Can you find me a book or something to do at night? I'm bored out of my mind."

"I can do that." Before long they were on their way.

---

The unmistakable sound of ringing metal filled the backyard as Debra worked next to a fierce fire she painstakingly built. The fire had been tricky to properly manage, but with her new blacksmithing knowledge she had got it hot enough to start fixing the broken items of Petele's. The grumpy healer had agreed to aid Nicholas for her fixing some things around his home.

Nicholas was pretty banged up from the fierce battle. While he was healing faster then anyone she had ever seen, he still needed to rest in bed. Petele gave him some strong pain relief medication while his body healed itself. The last she had seen his health was nearly eighty percent back to normal.

Pulling out the scalpel from the fire, she began to hammer it straight again. Seeing it was good to go, she quenched it in a bucket of oil she got from a local shop. When it was cooler, she pulled out the sharpening stone she had got at the same shop and began to put an edge on it.

When she was done with the gleaming blade, she placed it with the other done projects and stretched out her tired muscles. She had been working for the better part of the morning and was getting exhausted. While Debra was genuinely enjoying working as a blacksmith, she willingly admitted it was tiring work. She pulled up her status to take a look.

 

Debra still had five skill points. She had placed three points into Forging Strike yesterday during that battle, and it still caused negligible damage to the banshee. The skill was definitely not meant to hurt things, unless she met a monster made out of metal, it wasn't going to be useful in battle. At best she could use it to knock a creature about.

Pulling up her class description, she wanted an idea of what to do. That battle had been intense, and Debra felt she was completely useless during it.

 

Because she was a Dwarf, when Debra leveled up she also obtained an extra point into constitution. Carefully looking at her attributes she decided to put a point into strength and another into intelligence. What she required right now was a skill to help her fight up close. Going through her viable options, she picked out a cheap skill.

 

 

Acquiring it, she added her last skill point to it. Now she felt a bit better about helping out her sister. Denise was still recovering from the mana drain. Her head was hurting, so she was not able to help Debra out with the metal work. As she was virtually out of mana herself, she decided to take a break.

Debra began to walk towards the cottage and encountered Frankie coming out the back door. "Hey Frankie, how is Nicholas doing?"

"He's doing a lot better. We should be good to head out by tomorrow morning. Speaking of heading out, I require your help with something."

"What do you need help with?"

"Well since we want to start heading out to the next temple tomorrow, I was thinking we could achieve the task Skydia gave us done today."

"You mean handing over the token over to the nearby wolf pack?"

"Yeah. I can feel that they are actually really close by. I think we can get to the pack within an half hour."

"Shouldn't we bring some of the others with us? Maybe that black staff as well. I'm not keen on confronting that thing again."

"That's the thing, according to Carol, it seemed really fixated on Nicholas. It's not likely to attack us, unless we get in its way. As for the Black Staff, Carol says it is not a good idea to take it with us. The pack is extremely close, we will be safe."

Well, she did need to a break, and meeting a pack of wolves would be interesting. "You sure they won't attack us?"

"Definitely not. The tattoo I received, and the token will prevent that."

"Okay. Since you can detect them, lead the way."

Leaving the backyard, they began heading into the forest. Debra kept out her hammer just in case. As they walked the path, it soon began to get quite a bit steeper and they had to slow as they climbed. "So, you seem to be quite close with Nicholas."

"Yeah, he and I go back. When Nicholas first came to the city, he was like a stray lamb. I took him under my wing and explained him the tricks of the trade. Turns out he's a whole lot better then me at the trade then me. He's my best friend."

Scrambling up the slope, Debra helped up Frankie and said "Sounds like you want to be more then just friends."

Frankie hesitated and said "I don't know what to believe. I was never attracted to men before I was cursed. Right now, I can't stop thinking of Nicholas. I want to be with him, and it's killing me how much I just want him to embrace me."

"You were not attracted to Nicholas before you changed?"

"Only just when he crossdressed and became Nicole. But that was just sexual attraction, nothing like what I'm experiencing at the moment."

"Do you even want to change back?"

"I don't know. Nicholas says I feel like this because of the curse. At first I was terrified of remaining like this, but as the days have gone by, I'm beginning to like my new body. I enjoy the way he looks at me, even if he pretends he isn't."

Debra thought for a minute as they walked and said "I don't know what to say. My advice is to ask the Goddess who cursed you. After of course you calm her down."

"You may be right." Frankie said. "They are up ahead."

As they approached a series of large rocks, a large wolf appeared, followed by several others. It looked at them and began to walk towards them. Frankie pulled out the token and began to walk cautiously towards the wolf. When she was next to it, she bent down and slipped the token onto it.

A glowing flash of light pulsed through it, and it let out a howl, that made the other wolves howl as well. When it finished howling, it licked Frankie's hands. At that time it began to walk away. They waved goodbye to the pack of wolves and began to walk back to the village.

"That was straightforward."

"Yeah, I wished it was always so easy." Frankie said, while carefully going down the steep hill. "So what about you? Have you had a relationship?"

"No. Not interested, I have never been interested in anyone." Debra said.

"So your still a Virgin?"

"Yes."

"Oh okay."

Debra heard a note of disappointment in her voice. "If you want to know what it's like, ask my sister. She has had several lovers."

Frankie blushed and said "Thank you." The village soon came back into sight.