“There she is: the heart of the Dourland,” Titania said back to us with a smile. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

‘Beautiful’ was an understatement: the trees parted over the hill we had just climbed to reveal a breathtaking panorama. Rolling green hills as far as we could see ahead of us rose up into countless snow-capped mountaintops, all covered by the hazy colors of morning mist. The entire landscape that wasn’t filled with the deep green of trees was instead all jagged, rocky terrain. I was more glad than ever that we wouldn’t have to climb all the way to the highest peak for the herbs we needed, but I couldn’t help wondering what kind of view the four of us would see standing all the way at the top, looking down over this whole world.

Well, five of us now. Or maybe it was more like seven…

“Humans,” Freya grumbled. “Are you going to stand around and stare all day long?”

After we had set out from our camp shortly after the sunrise, a trio of snow leopards followed our lead. Alice was overjoyed that we would be traveling with ‘the kitties;’ the rest of us weren’t as easygoing, given that the snow leopard spirit’s mood hadn’t improved much at all overnight. At first, Freya followed us in her animal form with her cubs keeping pace behind her, but the two younger snow leopards couldn’t last as long as the rest of us on the march. When they slowed down, their mother shapeshifted again to her fully nude, half-human form and picked one up. The cubs were too big for her to hold both of them in her arms, so to carry the other one, she chose…

“Wait, why me?” I asked.

“Well… You’re the one who’s closest to that fox, aren’t you?” Freya replied. “Can’t you just take some responsibility and carry Arwen for me?”

While it was already rather grueling having to hike with all the gear on my back, to think I was actually getting this chance to hold a real snow leopard cub…!

Alice bit her lip as she watched me bend down to grab the exhausted cub, but said nothing. The young snow leopard was about the size of a full-grown cat with wider furry paws, and her coat of fur was much thicker than Viela’s fox fluff.

Ahh, this is actually kind of nice…!

Fortunately, I seemed to have gotten the more docile, well-mannered cub of the two. Now that I thought about it, that was probably intentional on Freya’s part.

After she had rested a while in my arms, I couldn’t help thinking that the cub was practically just a really big kitten. When I gently stroked the fur on her back, she began to purr almost like a happy cat would, giving my cheek a kiss like sandpaper with her rough tongue if I bent my head down far enough.

Another hour of hiking for us and rest for the cub made her more energetic—and restless. She began to stir a bit more in my arms, occasionally pressing against my breast with a gentle head rub. Actually, something about this was just…

I turned to Freya, who surprisingly had been me watching me for some time. “Um, you—”

“Don’t worry!” Freya said with pride. “I’ve already weaned Arwen off milk!”

Huh?

“What were you even thinking about?!” I shot back. “Wait, that’s not even the issue here! How long are you going to keep following us?”

The snow leopard spirit gritted her teeth before she tilted her head at Viela. “I still need to reclaim my honor!” she huffed. “I won’t be satisfied until I beat that pervert fox in a duel.”

The fox spirit rubbed her forehead as if massaging a spontaneous headache. “This is why I can’t deal with ferals…”

I pulled her aside. “Okay, what’s a feral?”

Viela explained that feral spirits were spirits like her from the Spirit World who chose to live most of the time shapeshifted in their animal forms. Spending too much time like that began to make their half-human form look more like their other form, especially for spirits staying in the ‘human world’ for some reason. That was apparently the reason why Freya had claws as well as fur on her hands and feet, unlike Viela. Given how the snow leopard spirit hadn’t showed any signs of foot pain while hiking—even without wearing shoes—I had to imagine her feet were stronger like a snow leopard’s, so maybe there were some advantages…

“And there’s more,” Viela continued with a slight grin. “As you can probably guess, the appearance of ferals like her are often a reflection of their… savage personalities.”

“Why don’t you try saying that a little louder, fox?!” Freya barked.

The fox looked as if she was ready to hurl a damn fireball at the snow leopard spirit and be done with it. Actually, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to know if she had that spell…

I found myself petting the cub in my arms again for comfort as I mulled over our dilemma. Even if Viela had any interest in dueling Freya for her ‘honor’ or whatever, was there any way it could be a fair and safe fight? The fox spirit had her beat in magic, and Freya simply outclassed Viela in physical might.

Freya wasn’t exactly a threat to us now, but all the time she spent following us was time she didn’t spend hunting. By sunset, the three snow leopards would be hungry all over again. The cub I was holding even seemed to want a snack now. At first I thought she had tried to climb up on my shoulder to get a better view behind me, but she appeared more interested in my backpack like she smelled my food and couldn’t resist.

While the snow leopard spirit insisted on a fight with Viela, out of all of us, it was probably Titania who seemed the most interested in some combat. The lancer had even offered to hunt for us, so it wasn’t as though she would be against…

Oh, that’s it! That’s how to solve everything!

“Freya, I have an idea,” I said. “Where I’m from, humans don’t do violent duels like that. Instead… why don’t we try settling things a different way?”

Viela sidled up next to me. “Beryl, just what are you suggesting?”

“Hear me out; it’s a little unorthodox, but this will work!”

Freya hefted the cub in her arms with a frown as if to say, I’m listening.

I cleared my throat. “How about this: why don’t we try doing this with a contest? Viela might not be interested in fighting, but there’s an ancient tradition we have where each side can pick someone to compete on their behalf.”

“You mean trial by combat with champion warfare!” Titania said. “That sounds like fun! Then, who’s going to fight for Viela? …Beryl, why are you grinning at me like that?”

***

I wasn’t thinking of trial by combat in the traditional sense, but this almost qualified, in its own way.

It didn’t take us long to spot the sort of ‘contest material’ I was hoping to find. I had been expecting we would encounter something like a mountain ram on our way, but instead we came across a different kind of creature.

We took cover behind a small boulder while I stared at our quarry. In a grassy patch next to a mountain lake, an animal was taking a drink that looked almost like a giant chicken with feathered arms. Although, its body was fairly slender and leaning forward, and instead of a beak on its head, it appeared to have a dinosaur’s mouth with teeth…

“Is that a feathery raptor or something?” I asked Titania.

“Yeah, we basically call them raptors,” she nodded. “They don’t really bother humans and they’re dumb as rocks, but those things will eat just about anything if they’re hungry enough.”

To Titania’s dismay, Freya refused to wear anything, even after we offered her some spare clothes. I knelt down between them and tried to keep the susceptible lancer’s attention off of the nude snow leopard spirit.

Alice had been making pouty faces at me earlier while I played with Freya’s cub. As the official coordinator of this ‘contest,’ I said I needed my undivided focus for the moment. Alice gave me a big hug and squealed with joy when she got to hold the cub for me. Freya growled for a while, but thankfully didn’t stop Alice from getting her turn to fluff some fluff.

Anyway, while this would have worked better with two raptors, we would have to make do with one.

“Your combat skills are the real deal, right?” I whispered to Titania.

She nodded and gripped her lance a little tighter, eager to prove herself.

“Okay, here’s the challenge,” I began. “The first one who takes down that raptor wins. If Titania does it, Freya has to accept that Viela never had any bad intentions with that Pacify spell back when we first met. If Freya wins, she… uh, gets to ask Viela to do something for her.”

“Beryl, what kind of ‘something’ is this?” Viela asked with her arms crossed.

“No, that’s not fair!” Freya protested. “The fox should be the one facing me! And her weapon is cheating!”

“What do you mean?” Titania asked, trying not to make eye contact. “My lance is like your claws; it’s just a little bigger and longer!”

With the way Freya started growling again, I thought this whole idea was falling apart right before my eyes…

“Guys, the raptor stopped drinking from the lake,” I said. “We have to do this now!”

“I never agreed to anything!” Freya huffed.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of white and grey fur jump into view. Freya had set down her other cub earlier, which I realized was now chasing a butterfly through the grass, jumping and pawing at it in the air.

At first I was surprised the raptor hadn’t heard us debating behind the boulder. Then I saw it staring in our direction; maybe it had noticed us and the fairly large beast just didn’t care.

What the raptor did care about, however, was the small snow leopard playing out in the open. The beast narrowed its eyes like a hawk the second it spotted the cub, not wasting another second before charging straight at it with powerful strides.

It didn’t take long for the others to realize what was about to happen.

“SASHA!” Freya screamed.

With a blur of light and fur, the spirit shapeshifted into a snow leopard as she leapt forward and sprinted for her cub. The rush of fear made my hands slick with sweat; she could probably make it just before the raptor, but what that thing would do facing her head-on at full speed…

I could hurl a Mana Bolt or two at it to try making it trip, but I had a better idea.

“Titania, can you—”

She didn’t even hear me. Titania was already moving into position, changing her grip on her weapon like she was about to…

Oh my God.

The muscles on her right arm bulged and strained as she hefted her lance up and over her shoulder, determination burning like hellfire in her eyes.

“Gungnir, I choose you!”

With one practiced, jaw-dropping motion, Titania launched her lance at the raptor. It bolted through the air almost faster than the eye could follow; one moment the lance was in her hand, the next it had found its mark, piercing the raptor right through its long neck.

The beast let out a hair-raising gurgle of a roar as it collapsed to the ground, helplessly sliding forward on the grass until its momentum was spent. It kicked the claws of its scaly legs in the air, thrashing about in futility as a pool of blood gathered under its neck—until the raptor lay still, having thrashed its last.

Alice and Viela were just as shocked as I was. Even the cub in Alice’s arms sat motionless, processing what had just gone down in stunned silence like the rest of us. Freya hardly seemed to have noticed; she held the other cub tightly in her arms, having shifted back into her human form and retreated a safe distance.

Titania stepped forward to retrieve her lance from its target. Only when she had finished did she turn back and realize how the other three of us were still too speechless to break the awkward silence around us.

She offered an equally awkward shrug.

“So… who’s hungry?”