“Alright, the pouch is empty. Good work.” Impeerio said before tossing the empty pouch towards me. That pouch fell straight to the ground; I couldn’t catch it.

“Impeerio. My hands are full! How did you expect me to catch that?”

Truthfully, they were; I could hold no more bags. This was the product of a shopping trip that took three hours. Impeerio had taken me all around the town, down dark streets and safe looking streets both, and everytime he bought something for the sleeping woman, he had me carry it.

“No, no, no what do you know about fashion,” he would say. “Since you can’t contribute to the purchases, you will carry the loot,” he would justify.

With just my vague description of her size he went about picking all manner of colorful clothing. Occasionally I heard him say that if it were left to me, I would have bought the woman a black potato sack.

What was most surprising however was how much Impeerio was able to buy for so little. Part of me believed he stuck some of his own gold in there in order to be able to buy enough such that my hands were full with bags.

“Use your big ogre arms! You know the big ones.” Impeerio said, framing the size of my arm in the air.

“Impeerio, you know that tires me out,” I complained, I wasn’t going to unleash my race’s Incarnate form for a shopping trip. As an Ogre Variant, my Incarnate form, the form people call the true form of a race, that form would allow me a strength that far surpassed my standard form. But using that form totally would make me grow twice or thrice my size, I wouldn’t fit anywhere, I’d get tired easily and I’d have trouble coordinating my body. That and I felt sure that if I did, Impeerio would’ve bought heavier things. “My form’s not made for walking and shopping in a town, Impeerio.”

“Excuses, excuses,” Impeerio complained, slapping a long, gaudy feather across my face; he went shopping too. He was now wearing a pink boa and red framed sunglasses. “Nevertheless, the trip is done. I’m sure that woman will enjoy the beautiful clothes you so kindly got to her.”

I peered into the bag. “Beautiful?” I scoffed under my breath.

In the bag was a literal rainbow, the assortment of colors covered so much of the spectrum. I looked back up to the smug looking Impeerio. “Right.” I was sure she would hate them if she saw them. “I’ll let you know,” but I wasn’t going to let him know what I thought.

We walked together down a street until we reached a crossroads; my inn was just down the one of the streets.

“Well, come find me tomorrow morning, we can meet here.” Impeerio said as he observed the environment, “We can decide the next course of action then, maybe you’ll have a new perspective on what to do.”

“Okay, understood,” I said with a nod. “I’ll be off then.”

“Great, see you,” impeerio replied, waving.

Before I took my first step, I looked back at Impeerio; I had something to say to him.

“Thank you by the way.”

“For what?” he asked, dropping his glasses lower down his nose.

“For telling me about the Blood Hounds.”

This wasn’t the first time that Impeerio handed me information on the Blood Hounds, but our contract had nothing to do with them. I had gotten the power I needed a long time ago, but the intel that Impeerio gave me, that was an extra I never imagined I would receive. Even though the focus should have been on finding Impeerio’s Seven Treasures, very often he would tell me where Blood Hound activity was likely and let me take the time to investigate without penalty. This time, it just so happened that our interests aligned.

Impeerio seemed to be confused as he looked at me before eventually waving me appreciation away saying, “No problem at all. We help each other out when we can!” he said with a smile.

I smiled back at him before I could notice I did, and then took my leave.

 

***

 

“Huh? What’s going on here?!”

I had gotten back to the Inn that Teach, Ange and I were staying at and when I opened the door I was greeted with a sight I wasn’t expecting.

“Look! Fin’s back!” Ange shouted.

“Yay… Hellooo Fin,” said the woman who should have been sleeping; the woman that we were all fretting over.

The woman and Ange were sitting on the bed, Teach was nowhere to be seen and Ange was busily brushing the woman’s massive bush of hair.

“What gives?” I asked, gawking at the strange sight; I hadn’t even thought to drop all the packages.

“I’m brushing her hair, Fin! Obviously! You wouldn’t believe the knots she has!” Ange was ecstatic, that much was evident in how much force she was pouring into her arm. A standard person would have had the hair ripped from their scalp. “You’ve been sleeping for a long time haven’t you?” Ange asked the grey skinned woman.

“I have… a lot of knots,” the woman, with a sleepy-looking smile, replied. She was covered in bed sheets and would slightly wince when Ange snagged a particularly nasty knot.

“Wait, that's not what I was asking- where’s Teach? And how’d she wake up?”

“Look Ange,” the woman said, ignoring my confusion. She pointed at what I was holding in my hands, “Fin brought presents…”

“Oh my gosh, you’re right, Hanna! I almost forgot!”

Ange excitedly ran over to me and snagged the packages out of my hand, “Hanna?” I asked, before Ange could run back to the bed. She looked back up at me and winked.

“I named her,” she replied, flashing me a smile.

I was taken aback, “H-Hey, isn’t that a bit-”

“Let’s see what Fin got you Hanna!” Before I could say anything, Ange had already scurried back to Hanna, packages in hand.

“Yay… I’m excited!” she sleepily said, clasping her hands.

Seeing the girls about to break open the packages, I couldn’t help but want to defend my pride; the outfits were sure to raise some brows.

“Listen,” I started, “I didn’t pick those out, Impee-”

“Oh my gosh! Hanna these are beautiful! Don’t you think so?” Ange had pulled out one of the one piece blue dresses and was holding it up for Hanna to see. She seemed shocked.

“So… pretty….” Hanna followed, burying her face into a comfy looking, light pink shawl.

“Fin!” Ange screamed, putting the dress down. I was in shock because of the reaction still, I couldn’t respond fast enough. “I was so sure you were going to buy Hanna a black potato sack!” Ange yelled, her eyes glowing so brightly in the darkness of her skull that I could tell she was shocked.

“It’s true… Ange told me to not get my hopes up,” Hanna reported, lifting her face from the shawl.

Ouch.

“Teach and I only realized the mistake we made afterwards! We were dreading what you would come back with!” Ange kept going, not noticing that I had already been torn down.

“We had no hope…” Hanna continued; that was the most energetic statement she had uttered so far.

“I- I wouldn’t have gotten her a black potato sack,” I feebly replied as I fiddled with my fingers in shame.

“Well of course not,” Ange haughtily replied, “You would have gotten her stuff that looked like a black potato sack. But look at all of this! You must have even been looking for sales! But you’re the worst shopper!”

It didn’t help. I was crumbling; destroyed. I couldn’t believe Impeerio was right.

“Ange…. What’s this?” While I was busy picking up the fragments of my pride, Hanna had stuck her body into one of the bags to pull out some unexpected purchases.

“Oh, let’s see- HUH?! F-F-F-Fin!” Ange shouted.

I turned up to see what the problem was,”ACK!” I almost bit my tongue.

Ange was furiously blushing; I could see beads of sweat forming. In both her hands she was holding two separate sets of lingerie. An intricately detailed black pair of bra and underwear and a light red corset set. What’s worse, each had a card that designated who they were for, in this case, the black one for Teach, and the red for Ange. Hanna was looking off from the side at the scene with a confused look as she tried to make sense of why Ange was so flustered.

“F-Fin, if this is what you’re interested in,” Ange yelled out everyone of her words abruptly, it didn’t seem like she was processing this well, “We could talk, you know! Maybe Teach might-”

“It wasn’t me!” I yelled, “Impeerio bought everything! I would have bought potato sacks!”

“Ahh.” Ange replied. Her face had frozen but the sweat had not run dry.

“Hey… what’s this,” Hanna asked. Ange was still frozen, but I looked over. Hanna was holding up a transparent pink camisole with the tag, “for the sleeping woman.”

It took a while, but the misunderstanding was cleared up and I was able to get up to speed about what happened while I was out. As it turned out, Hanna woke up after I was gone and Teach got to work trying to figure out what she was. Apparently, Hanna didn’t know all that much, not even her name, which is why Ange named her. Hanna did say something however.

“I need to protect the temple, by inviting people in.”

Those were the only words she told the pair. Naturally, any talk of a temple was curious; Teach went off back to her own room to try digging through her books. According to Ange, Teach was considering looking into races that were known to protect temples at some point.

I wanted to go check on Teach in order to touch base with her and see what she discovered but Ange and Hanna kept me with them for longer. They wanted to try on the clothes and wanted my company. All things considered, I didn’t feel all that comfortable just leaving them high and dry, so I stayed while they had their fun.

And now, the pair were totally asleep, falling asleep holding hands; it seemed Hanna really bonded with Ange. Hanna also seemed like she was sleepy the whole time she was playing with Ange and it seemed like that sleepiness was infectious. The two were in bed uncovered, surely to catch a cold during the night.

As I covered them with some bed-sheets, I couldn’t help but take a closer look at the pair. Hanna was roughly the same height as Ange and definitely had womanly curves. She had decided on a soft looking pair of sleepwear and seemed very happy to have them. She seemed to have the disposition of a child, but she had the body of an adult.

I wonder if Teach factored that into her analysis…

I had heard of other races of sentients that had those kinds of dispositions, so maybe she was one of those? Ange funnily enough was a bit of a contrast; she was an adult, the same age as me, with a slightly immature body.

“That just means I’m spunky!” she would always say.

As my eyes wandered over to her sleeping face, I noticed the little scars under her skull helm.

Ahh right, it’s been so long.

Memories flooded back into mind, of the days we were still kids. Ange was of a race of Sentients called Skull Knights. The skull knights after coming of age would grow excess bone in certain parts of their body, outside of their skin. The most distinct growth being the one that covers the head, the skull helm. Other distinct growths would be at the kneecaps and the elbows, the spine and the collar bone. When we were kids and it started coming in, she tried prying it off - the skull- for days, tearing the skin underneath enough for a few small crack-like scars to form right under the skull.

“I want to look like me! I want to look like Fin!”

I still remember her crying face from that time; how she hated her bones so much. For me, the majority of my racial traits are locked behind my Incarnate form, but for Ange, she had them on full display. She hadn’t gotten over it yet; just a few months ago, I caught her sobbing when we learned of a skull knight variant that actually had an Incarnate form.

I patted her head as I remembered the sight; careful to not wake her.

Even though you don’t need to do this, you’re still with me.

It has been a long journey so far, years in fact, but I couldn’t stop yet, and Ange wasn’t going to stop following me as much as I’d told her to stop.

“We’re in for the long haul,” she would always say with a bright smile.

I covered the two up and prepared to leave the room. But before I left, my little eyes wandered over to a chair in the room, where a particular pair of lingerie lay.