Enjoy!

The horned rabbit was down; the prey was hunted.

Yet the feeling of glee and satisfaction failed to settle in. While Freyde, Meneur, and Harper burst into cheers, I stood there, my mind still highly focused, my heart racing, instincts on high alert. No, I didn't sense danger, the presence of another beast. It was just that I gave it my all in that fight. And what a fight it was, totally out of my expectations.

Despite there being four of us against a single beast, I found the fight many times more challenging than my one-woman hunt. 

Not surprising, though. Fighting alongside the three of them forced me to do things I'd generally avoid, like deliberately exposing myself to sharp teeth and claws. It was a fight like no other I've experienced so far, making me use my skills and focus in new and different ways. It wasn't just the beast and me. There was also an accountant who had taken up the sword, a baker who was fed up with baking, and a mage who was just beginning to discover what his magic was capable of.

Yet, I did my job, protected them all, and kept the beast's attention on me. For most of the fight, at least. The pack part of me was proud of it. The other was pissed that it wasn't me who killed the rabbit, that the honor was stolen from me.

Just nagging feelings that I pushed aside as my breathing calmed and my heart rate slowed. We did it, and that's what mattered. I took a step to join the rest of my squadmates when my slow brain finally worked out that I was not so okay. The pain has settled in.

'Fuuuc....k!' It should have been a silent curse in my mind, but I couldn't help hissing aloud in pain.

"Korra? Traiana's tits...your hands!" Freyde pointed to my arms, the delight of the kill forgotten, replaced by the horror in his eyes. 

"What the...that's..." The disgust in Harper's eyes and voice spoke volumes. Even I felt sick at the sight of the unnatural angle my forearms were bent, the bones undoubtedly broken. The only good thing about it was that the pain drowned out any attempts of my stomach to refute its contents. 

Meneur surprised me when he rushed up to me and gently took my right arm into his hands. "This is going to hurt." Before I could process what he said, he yanked my arm.

"Holy mother of f...!" I let out a torrent of profanity, most of it unknown on Eleaden. Did that matter? No, all that came out of my throat were growls and hisses that Meneur wholly ignored. Satisfied with his butchery torture handiwork, he took my other hand and....knowing what was to follow, I hit my mind with the full power of [Indomitable Will], hoping to somehow miraculously acquire the ability to ignore pain through this skill in that brief moment. Swordmaster Blaine said I should be able to do it.

The miracle did not happen.

The skill helped me not to cry like a little girl and stopped me from trying to escape or struggle - the thought of biting Meneur's throat crossed my mind. But if I wanted to heal fast, his way was the way to go. So, with gritted teeth and my reactions dulled by the skill, I endured through the straightening of the bones I felt to the full extent.

"Damn!" Harper whistled, still disgusted, while I slammed my ass down on the ground, more exhausted than from the fight itself. I was pouring so much mana into the fractures that just a little more, and I was sure it would start leaking out of my body. 

"Do you need a healing potion?" asked Freyde, a vial of vermilion liquid in his hand.

Letting out a deep breath as the pain was fading rapidly, a strange dullness settling in its place, I shook my head and gave him a smile. There was no need for potions. The thought and gesture were nice, though.

"Idleaf?" I growled to find the spirit I hadn't seen anywhere. She appeared in a flash. "Yes, Korra'leigh?" Was that an imitation of 'Yes, sir?'? As long as she had fun, right?

"Can you ask Meneur if he did this for the warriors in his clan?"

She grinned and happily relayed my question. For some reason, she enjoyed translating. My hunch was that she was just having fun talking to the others, whether human, terran, quarter-gnome, or beast.

Taurus, towering like a mountain over me, nodded. "Not often. The warriors, as far as they could, dealt with the injuries themselves." I understood; dignity, honor, and pride. If they could do anything about it, they wouldn't come back looking like beaten dogs in need of fixing.

"Thanks," I growled, and Idleaf translated.

He smiled back. "Few have ever thanked me or those who helped them."

The more I heard from him about the Taurus clans, the more it sounded like a place I wouldn't want to grow up in. Definitely not as a little human girl with a fondness for flowers.

"Korra'leigh?" Something weighed on Idleaf's mind.

"Umm-hm?"

"Why did you call Menermut a motherfucker and son of s bitch?"

If my hands weren't in the state they were in, I would facepalm myself. 

"Does that mean his mother is..."

"No, Idleaf! It doesn't, and I didn't call him that? It was meant for the pain," I said quickly to stop her, damn glad she was using beast-tongue to speak to me. "It was just swearing, empty words, nothing more. I used them to ease my...pain." Not sure where or how long it's been since I read it, but some studies back on Earth showed that swearing could help us better tolerate pain or stress. And it damn well did. I could only hope that the young World Tree would understand and won't dwell on it any further.

"I see....fucking cunt, too?"

"That too, basically everything I said." There was a lot that left my mouth.

"And a piece of shit?"

"That, too." 

"Bitc..."

"Idleaf!"

She giggled, and I knew she was already messing with me, having her fun. Rascal. Did she even care that I was hurt? I would bet she didn't. Yet, despite the fact and pain, I chuckled softly.

"You seem all right, Grey," Sergeant Pinescar noted. He and Deckard took their time getting to us. I would say deliberately so that we, as Squad Four, handle the aftermath of the fight ourselves. His little off-hand remark wasn't as appreciated, though. So...I bared my fangs and growled back.

"My bad. You took one hell of a hit there. How long do you need, Grey?" He meant my regeneration, and considering how fast my hands were healing, I had no fucking idea. Idleaf translated it for him, though I didn't use the exact words when I was telling her what to say to him.

"Throw me your best guess, so I know the time frame to work with. Half an hour, an hour, two hours, a day? I assume you don't need a potion or a healer?"

Well, since I was doing what I could to fix my hands, the broken bones aligned thanks to Meneur, I'd say... "Twenty minutes, sir." Idleaf even saluted him as she relayed my words.

I have to admit, when he just accepted it with a nod, I was a little disappointed. My regeneration was one of the few things I was proud of, and as such, it didn't hurt to hear praise for it.

"You took the beast down faster than the first one, Squad Four," Sergeant Pinescar boomed, the 'but' evident in his voice. "I'm glad you took some of my points to heart so quickly, but the fact that you and Grey fought together for the first time did impact your teamwork." He then turned his attention to me. "Especially you, Grey, you've never fought on a team, huh?"

'What the hell did I do wrong?!' 

"Honestly, I don't know what to make of you. On the one hand, it seemed like you trusted your squadmates to do their part. If so, you've pulled off one of the hardest things in teamwork right off the bat."

Was that praise? Sounded like one to me.

"Don't get me wrong, you did your job, and you did it well. You just got a little too carried away in the process."

"Sir?" I faced the horned rabbit head-on, tanked its attacks as best I could, no one was hurt but me, so what was his beef?

Idleaf didn't even have to translate my bafflement, it was all over my face. "When on the battlefield, being on a team means having trust in each other, but also knowing where on the field your team is; in what state it is in. Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, it seemed to me like your focus was solely on doing your job, not screwing it up."

Fuck no! He was wrong. I was aware of the others. They did what I did, focused on what they were supposed to do. What was wrong with that? My ears twitched, and I growled, raising my rapidly healing hands to prove him wrong, but deep down, I knew he wasn't.

My mind raced to find a valid point to tell him otherwise. Yet my eyes wandered inevitably to Deckard, seeking his help. I was kind of hoping he saw the way I did. He didn't. 

"You did your best, Little Beast. No one questions that. But I think you already realize that you've been trying not to screw it up too hard."

"Is that wrong?"

"Oh, no. It's not. At least, as long as you're fighting alone. It's different with a team having your back, though. You can afford to make mistakes."

"So what you're saying is I should relax more, not try so hard?" I couldn't keep the sarcasm from seeping into my inner voice.

"What I'm saying is that when you're on a team, the team should be on your mind, not how you do on your own. Look, when that beast turned on your sword wielder, you didn't have to meticulously block all of its attacks. From what I've seen, he lacks experience and skills, but he's not that incompetent. He can read his opponents well, and if you give him a chance, he can deal with a few strikes on his own."

"Or let me put it this way. If you block all the attacks for him, what do you think will happen? You could make him a swordsman that depends entirely on the tank, and trust me; you don't want that."

No, I didn't. I definitely didn't want that. No doubt there will come a time when, for whatever reason, I would not be able to deal with all the attacks. Plus, I didn't just want to be a pure tank. I wanted to be able to do some damage, sink my claws into my prey, and not having anyone on my team to cover for me even for a moment won't allow me to do that.

I'm sure I would have figured it out on my own; deep down, I already knew, but Deckard's words opened my eyes. And he wasn't even finished yet: "Your over-effort has caused you to get in his way a lot. That is partly on him, too. He should have read your moves better. That's the kind of cooperation you have to learn over time, though."

Well, I was more aware of that part. A couple of times, Freyde almost slashed me when I tried to block an attack coming at him. Like any criticism hard to listen to, I still took it to heart. This was why we were here, to learn to work together, to fight as a squad. Nobody, at least I think nobody expected us to be a coordinated team from the get-go.

"What about Harper and Meneur?" I asked, mentally prepared for more criticism.

Deckard glances at the two. "They're long-range fighters. It's up to them to find opportunities to land an attack. The baker girl did okay, the mage guy, not so much. Keep them in mind, too, though. Part of a tank's job is to create openings for team members. Don't worry, don't think about it too much. It'll come to you, Little Beast."

I honestly hoped he wasn't wrong, and it would.

"Are you done?" Sergeant Pinescar asked, sensing that my mental conversation with my mentor had come to an end. And in all honesty, it wasn't hard to say. With every sentence Deckard said, I got more and more disheartened until I fully dropped my head, wings, and tail, reflecting on my mistakes in the fight.

"Sorry for meddling in," Deckard apologized as one drill instructor to another. "She needed to hear it from me, though."

Pinescar nodded. "As long as she heard everything she needed to."

Then he took a breath and bellowed, hurting my ears. "Okay, Squad Four. We'll wait until Grey recovers and try again and better. In the meantime, gather your strength."

Meneur, Freyde, and Harper joined me in the grass, settling their asses on the ground, silent, each lost in their own thoughts. I wished I could talk to them, even considering whether to reverse my beast change, but then a thought crossed my mind.

"Idleaf?" I growled softly at the spirit that was rolling next to me, playing with a blade of grass. "Isn't there a rune somewhere on my body that would allow me to talk to others?" From what I understood, the Guardians of the World Trees came from all races, and not all of them could be like me, understanding both the speech of men and beasts and animals.

"Hmm...there's one that lets you understand any language but not speak it."

Not speak it, huh? Understandable. If one was talking to someone who understood him and vice versa, it didn't matter what language they spoke. It was a bummer for me, though. No one but her among those here could understand me.

"Which one? This one?" I asked out of curiosity, pointing to the rune under my left collarbone.

Idleaf shook her head and touched her finger to the one on my left butt cheek. Why she put the rune there, was beyond me, but in the end, it didn't matter whether it was on my throat or the soles of my feet. In this form, I was stuck with just my beast talk.

"I could make it more powerful," Idleaf threw in casually. "You need to get stronger, though. And I can't do it here but at my core."

My ears perked up, Sage wagging in the grass behind me. That was great to hear. Admittedly, while not a solution that would be of help to me right now, going back to Esulmor was not a big issue, and getting stronger was a matter of time. In the future, then? It was something to look forward to. 

With all that, one question came to mind. The question I should have asked a long time ago? What were the other runes for? 

It turned out that all of them were for the link between Idleaf and me. They were making me what I was, her Guardian. Understanding the speech of others was just part of the package. None of the runes allowed me to shoot a stream of lightning from my hands when activated as I had secretly hoped. 

What a disappointment.

 

***

 

I regretted it so damn much.

A weak moment, that's what I had to have. I wouldn't have done such a dumb thing otherwise. My hands were regenerating, Idleaf lying there in the grass next to me, her unusually helpful attitude, I decided, I don't know, as a way of thanking her... for everything, to show her a trick my grandfather taught me once. The secret of playing the blade of grass.

Fucking stupidity.

She was thrilled and picked it up quickly. Once she did, she refused to stop and whistled nonstop. While I had to admit she was good at it, it was torture to my ears. And Idleaf didn't stop until we set out to hunt again.

On the plus side, thoughts of her strange tune, which I couldn't get out of my head, distracted me from fretting about the upcoming fight. So much, in fact, that I almost bumped into Harper when she came to a halt and raised her hand in a stop gesture. As per Sergeant Pinescar's instructions, this time, she was the one leading the squad, tracking to gain experience. No matter how I looked at it, it was nothing more than randomly wandering around until we came across our prey. 

The rabbit was on the hill in front of us.

There was no way we could get too close to it unnoticed, yet I switched into hunting mode, crouched down, and with the rest of the squad, we moved forward. Just like last time, the moment the rabbit's ears twitched, I darted forward.

Even though I had to run uphill, I was at the beast in seconds, way before it could take charge. Warier of its hind legs, this time, I opted to confront the rabbit face to face, so to speak, from the get-go. A few days ago, I would not have dared to do it unless necessary. Now I was dancing the tango between fangs and claws as if it was an everyday thing for me. It was interesting and strangely funny how things could change in a few days. Such was life, though.

Before Freyde joined me in the dance, a bolt from Harper had already struck the beast. A stream of red-hot embers came two heartbeats after that, working its way into the horned rabbit's flank. 

As the stench of burnt fur and skin hit my nose, I was reminded of my mistakes. If it wasn't for me bouncing around, Meneur would have hit the beast in the head or the front legs. It was hard, though. I mean, shake off the habits. More than a few times, I found myself too aware that I was getting in Freyde's way when he could have handled the situation well enough on his own. And then there was Harper and Meneur. Knowing that I should make an opening for them was one thing. The execution was another matter. I just had no fucking idea how to do it.

Didn't stop me from trying, though.

All in all, the fight went smoother than the one before. I didn't suffer any major injuries except for a few scratches, it took us less time, the others got in more hits faster and even Pinescar said we fared better. 

Encouraged by that, we plunged into further battles with the beasts of the first labyrinth floor, our cooperation steadily improving with each next fight. 

That's how it went until the curse struck.