In a blatant and self-serving ploy to garner a little more exposure for Ouroboros Ascendant, we're gonna move to a Tu/Th/Sat release schedule (since most stories seem to release on M/W/F). Since I don't want you all to have to wait an extra day, this chapter is releasing a day early to get us on the new schedule. The next chapter will drop Saturday, Sept 5.
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After breakfast, they’d broken camp and continued northwest, chewing through lower-level creatures here and there. Nothing like the Ratite or the wyrm showed up again, and they slowly fell back into a comfortable rhythm, until the fading light prompted them to make camp. Jack and Erin conferred and generally agreed they’d made another twenty miles, though they were sure to admonish the rear guard that the gently descending trail they were following to away from the Shrine would have to end at some point. Jack estimated they had another two days before they reached the thick forest they had spotted at the foot of the mountain. 

“Do you feel like our leveling has slowed down?” Rory asked absently.
“Yeah, without stuff to fight like the big red chicken, or at least stuff close to that, our Skills won’t level as fast, and if they don’t level, we don’t get class experience,” Layla replied, lounging on her bedroll in her natural form. Her tail occasionally twitched and swished.
“Do you think it’s weird we haven’t seen any other people on this trail? There has to be a village nearby. Those bandits had to come from somewhere,” Erin pitched in.

Jack was finishing up with dinner, seared thin slices of lean lizard-chicken with a sauce made from a ridiculously sweet fruit they found during the day.

“There could’ve been a village a couple miles off the trail and we’d have never seen it through the treeline,” he threw in his two cents as he stirred the saucepan. “Pfft… level fifteen in cook, guys.”
“Grats, mate. How’s your nightbringer level?” Rory grinned.
“Bout two and a half today, so twelve. Used my option to pick up a new spell,” Jack replied.
“Ooo, what is it?” Layla rolled onto her elbow.
“Raise Zombie,” he stared at the saucepan.
“Shit, really!?” she sat up.
“Yeah. Huge mana cost. Animates a corpse for a few minutes. They’re dumb and pretty slow, but they’re tough as hell,” he still didn’t look up.

Erin sat down next to him at the campfire.

“You ok about it?” she rubbed his back and leaned into his shoulder.
“Yeah. I knew what this class was when I picked it. I guess the racial class made it real, ya know?” he leaned back, resting his head on hers.
“I noticed you haven’t been checking your panel as much,” Erin offered.
“What’s would be the point? I can quote you the entire class by now,” he finally looked up, eyes hollow, but his face softened and he gave her a smile as he kissed her cheek.

Layla rolled her eyes at them and plopped back onto her side, pulling up her panel and scrolling through a few entries. 

Rory smiled wistfully as he watched them, “Have you decided what you’re gonna do, Jack?”
He stole a glance at Erin, “Yeah, I think I have.”
“So?” she nudged him.
“Dinner’s ready,” he pulled the lid off the pan and the smell of sauteed fruit and savory meat saturated the camp.

He got up and walked away from the camp, standing at the edge of the clearing, watching the clouds pass over the moons and the brilliant alien stars.

“Give us a minute, guys,” Erin stood up and went after him, approaching him slowly.

“I’m not a deer that’s gonna bolt, Erin,” he laughed.
“You know, I had a vision from the big guy, the night you told us about the race change,” she reached out and folded her hands in his gambeson, pulling herself closer to him.
“You what?!” he spun around.
“I prayed you would be ok, and he came to me in a vision… or a dream… if there’s a difference,” she unclasped the top button of his padded armor.
“What was it like?” he whispered.
“He was… nice… I guess. I got the sense he was lonely. Hurt. Disappointed maybe?” she unbuttoned the second fastener.
“In us?” Jack finally noticed she was disarming him. He put his hands over hers.
“Nah. Just… in people. In the world? Maybe in himself? The Brothers killed all the nightwraiths a long time ago. They were like his priests, maybe? He gave you the class as a gift,” she pushed his hands aside and unfastened the third button.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Undead are… evil?” he tried to push her hands away, only to find she had grown stronger than him in the past weeks.
“This isn’t earth, Jackson. You’re not gonna turn into Count Dracula,” she shook off his hands again and undid the last button, opening the gambeson and stripping it off his shoulders. She let it drop to the grass beneath their feet. “So, why are you so terrified?”
“I’m not terrified, Erin. I just… I don’t want… I don’t want you to think I’m a monster. I don’t want to finally have you in front of me and never be able to hold you again because you can’t bring yourself to touch a corpse,” he shook under her hands.
“Jackson, you are as stupid as you are pretty, you know that?” she shook her head.
“What?” he stared at her, his mouth hanging open.
“Don’t get me wrong, you are pretty, Jack. But I loved you way before that kiss in the Cask. Way before I’d ever seen your face,” she leaned up and pressed her lips against his.

He wrapped his arms around her and crushed himself against her, lifting her up to meet his mouth. The kiss became something more than a chaste brush of lips, almost desperate, as though her lips could wash away the horror of the last two weeks, the death, the constant fight for their lives, their murdered friends, and the incomprehensible burden of their quest.

“Easy, killer, I need that mouth,” she laughed.
“Shit. I’m sorry, Erin. I didn’t mean-” he moved to let her down.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist and squeezed, then laughed at the involuntary wheeze she wrenched from his lungs.

“You didn’t hurt me, Jack. I’m not sure you could hurt me without your sword. I wear the plate in this relationship, got it?” she stuck her tongue out at him and dissolved into giggles.

It was a beautiful sound, free of the stress and constant anxiety of the past weeks.

He looked up at her, “I don’t wanna die without ever having made love to you.”
“That’s a hell of a pick-up line, Jackson,” she gave him a wry smile.
“Is it working?” he smiled back.
“Yeah, it’s working,” her eyes were dark and heavy in the moonlight.

“You wanna know when I knew I loved you, Jackson?” she whispered in his ear.

He leaned back, the question plain on his face.

“When I told you that you could take that stupid rifle shot ringtone off your phone, but you never did. No gamer who wasn’t batshit crazy about me would keep missing his taunt cooldown because I wouldn’t stop texting fried shrimp in the middle of the Halls boss fight,” she stuck her tongue out again.

“I fucking KNEW you were doing that shit on purpose!” his face was a portrait of indignance.

She dissolved into giggles again. When she caught her breath, “Of course I was. Shit was hilarious.”

He let her go with every intention of dropping her on her butt, but she simply hung in the air, attached to him like a spider monkey, a supernaturally strong spider monkey with great legs. He glared at her, willing her to fall on her rear. 

She winked at him, “So, your bedroll or mine?”
“Uh? What?” he seemed confused.
“God, it is so good you’re pretty. If you’re gonna take the race change, I want at least one shot at the real thing. You following?” she put her legs down but stayed wrapped around his shoulders.
“I… u-mm... “ he stuttered.
“Sex. Jackson. Do. You. Want. To. Have. Sex. With. Me? Do I need to get Layla over here to explain how it works?” she kissed him again, just in case he thought of answering her and ruining the moment.
“Yph,” he mumbled against her lips, then when she pulled back, “Yes. Yes, I do.”
“Atta boy,” she patted his head and finally let him go. “I’m gonna go let the rear know we’re gonna be off in the woods for a bit. Hey, do you remember how far back that stream was we passed?”
“Bout three or four hundred yards back east. Why?” he asked.
“Because I want a bath before I have my way with you,” she grinned again.

-----

The moonlight dappled through the trees in a kaleidoscope of blues, greens, and pale white, painting their bodies in flecks of ghostly color. They laid together, passions spent, beneath a copse of trees.

“That, Mr. Holt, was pretty damn good,” she breathed. “Worth the wait, even.”
“I don’t have a lot to compare it to, but it was amazing,” he kissed the top of her head and took a deep breath of her scent.
“What does that mean?” she laughed.
“I’ve only had one girlfriend before you,” he mumbled.
“You’re shitting me, Jackson. There’s no way,” she turned and propped herself up on her elbow.
“It was a bad relationship. It messed me up for a long time,” he whispered.
“Well, fuck her. You’re mine now, and we’ll have plenty of chances to make up for lost time,” she smiled again and draped herself across him.
“Will we?” he tensed under her arm.
“Oh, right… Damn,” she sighed.

“Yes. We will. We’ll try, at least, right? No matter what. After all, aren’t you gonna be like a shadow or something? Not like you’re gonna be a zombie,” she gave him a reassuring pat.
“Ok. We’ll try,” he relaxed a tiny bit.
“Didn’t mean to spoil the mood,” she frowned in the moonlight.
“It’s ok. We should get back before we get eaten by something out here,” he grimaced.
“I wanna argue, but you’re probably right,” she sat up and threw her on her blouse.

-----

When they returned to the campsite, Rory had fallen asleep, but Layla was propped against a tree trunk, nibbling on a bowl of their dinner.

“You two have fun?” her golden eyes shone in the campfire light.
“Tehn-outta-tehn,” Erin gave her a thumbs up, then as Layla dissolved into giggles, she broke and laughed until she collapsed next to the fire, holding her sides.

“I think I’m ready,” Jack sat down next to the fire, feeding split pieces to the waning flames.

“Yeah?” Layla excitedly sat up.
“You sure?” Erin’s voice was warm and gentle.
“Yeah, I’m sure. I’m ready,” he put his bedroll down and sat on it.

“Not sure what’s gonna happen though. Little nervous about that,” he stared into the fire again.
“It’s ok, Jack. We’ll stay up with you, no matter what,” Layla walked to him and hugged him.
Erin joined her, sitting next to him, “Everything’s gonna be fine.” She snorted, and he laughed.

He pulled up his panel, and with a final glance back at Erin, poked the luminescent plane of light.

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Advanced chapters available at Patreon.com/Kherev.
As always, thanks for reading!