Chapter 11: Reunited

The one downside of keeping watch with Yume curled into me was that I couldn't make breakfast without risk of waking her up so we ended up taking a while to reheat the leftovers from the night before, not that either of us minded. I was desperate to see my women again, but for Yume returning meant having to follow that bastard Chosen One's orders again.

During breakfast I pulled out a bag of maiden's tea and asked her whether she needed it and she chuckled and told me:

“I really am not ready to have children yet. If it had been risky for me I wouldn't have let it happen.”

“So it was safe?”, I asked.

“You'll know when it's not safe”, she said with a smile and I was instantly reminded of Alisha's cycle.

“How do you mean?”, I asked.

“I'm a fox”, she said, showing off her long canines and wagging her tails. “If I'm not in heat it's safe.”

“Not another one”, I muttered under my breath and her ears pricked up.

“Another one?”, she asked.

I sighed. “The day before we began traveling Alisha had her risky day and elves get... a little bit crazy on their risky days. I'm assuming it'll be the same for you.”

She chuckled. “If only it were just one day”, she said. “It happens twice a year and goes on for an entire week. And I know what was up with her. I could smell it on her during the meeting. Did you seriously delay us just so you could satisfy her?”

“Trust me, with how crazy she got there was no point in trying to travel that day.”

**

“I am going to invite him down to the tavern to drink with him”, I told her as we began our journey. “I'll get him so drunk he won't be able to do anything to you.”

“Thank you”, she said, sounding honestly relieved. “I'm glad you remembered.”

I patted her head and scratched behind one of her furry ears as I said: “Even if I hadn't, did you really think I'd let another man have you? You're my little fox now.”

Some women might have been put off by a declaration like that, but Yume leaned into me as much as she could while walking through the forest and said: “And don't you forget it.”

Soon enough our cuddling came to an end when we ran across another boar and Yume fell back into the role of instructor. I alternated between practicing my two Qi abilities and by noon I had managed to cut down the time for Qi Burst to just under one second and the time for Qi Projection to just under three seconds. For my effort, Instructor Yume rewarded me by letting me take her roughly against a tree as our lunch cooked over a small campfire, though from her yips it was pretty clear that it was just as much a reward for her.

After that little excursion and what we did the night before we had to find a nearby river to get cleaned up before meeting up with the rest of our party. It wouldn't do for her to be soaked in my juices while she was still pretending to belong to the Chosen One.

All too soon we reached the place my map indicated to be the next stop on our journey, the village our party was most likely to be waiting for us in. I'd never been to Shackled Hollow and as we reached the place I stared. I might have even gawked.

“What in the name of Inari is this?”, Yume asked, just as baffled.

Shackled Hollow wasn't very large of a village but that didn't make it any more believable. A single enormous disc of rock hung in the sky, floating apparently of its own volition and chained down to the ground by four titanic lengths of chain. On top of the rock disc they had built a village while the underside was overgrown with mosses and mushrooms, many of them luminescent and glowing with faint blues and greens in the twilight. Underneath where the rock disc floated was an entire ecosystem of insects and more mushrooms, like a giant cave laid bare to the public, and mortal workers were busy harvesting anything from mushrooms to a strange silvery honey produced by a bizarre type of albino bee the size of a dog that apparently made this open cave its home. It looked like a glimpse down into the underworld and for a moment I wondered if it actually might be.

“The real question”, I said, trying to keep calm and not gawk like a fool, “is how we get up there. Those chains seem too huge to climb.”

“Over there”, Yume said, pointing at a transport post next to one of the huge links of chain.

We walked over and I noticed a rather large group of guards protecting the post and I spoke to them as Yume pulled her brown travel cloak back on. I wanted to tell her not to but it was the Chosen One's order that she couldn't show herself near villages without his permission, so she had to.

“We've had trouble with a Dark Lord sending raiding parties, so we stay here to make sure the civilians can get to safety if another party comes along again”, the guard explained once we'd approached. “Are you gonna make trouble?”

“Not at all”, I assured him. “We're actually here to meet a Chosen One we hope is staying here waiting for us.” Then I remembered something. “Did you notice a bunch of goblins herd a hydra past here a few days ago?”

The guard nodded. “Yeah, we had to rush everyone up the chain but the thing just waltzed right past. Why do you ask?”

“We fought that thing by Ymir's Scar a few days ago”, I explained.

“Oh, you're part of that party? Yeah, they're still here. Two pretty ladies and a creep, right?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, pretty much”, I said. “So, how do we get up there?”

“You buy a ticket and then they'll get you onto a strider.”

I smirked.

“What's a strider?”, Yume asked.

“Oh, you're gonna love this”, I told her.

I went over to the counter and paid for a ride for the both of us. The cashier took my money and whistled. Soon enough a strider came, well, striding up to our position. Yume jumped when she saw it but then caught herself, which was a common reaction. I knew Yume wasn't afraid of bugs but striders were a different problem entirely. Striders looked like huntsman spiders, with very long legs and two very prominent mandibles at the forefront of their face. Except where the average huntsman spider was barely half an inch tall a strider stood at five feet, more if it bunched up. Or, in other words, they were giant spiders used as mounts in terrain that horses couldn't traverse. They were also extremely docile so long as they were well fed and while they had enough venom to kill a human even if they failed to tear them apart they didn't attack unless provoked. This particular strider had a black and white stripe pattern and huge glossy eyes that made it look like a puppy.

I rubbed the top of its head and then climbed into the saddle on its back, then held my hand out to Yume, who took it after the slightest bit of hesitation and then slid into the saddle in front of me. Once we were both seated I cinched the belts tight to keep us in the saddle and we were off.

The strider was very well trained and we were barely jostled as it skittered up the long chain, not even slipping once, and in just a minute we had reached the top of the disc and arrived in Shackled Hollow.

I let Yume dismount first before I slipped down, then searched around my bag of holding and put a big dollop of honey on my hand and held it out for the strider. It stared at me as if asking if I was serious and when I nodded it got to work licking the sweet sticky stuff off. There was something terribly disconcerting about watching your hand disappear into a mouth with way too many moving parts but other than an almost unbearable tickling sensation nothing bad happened as the strider eagerly lapped up the honey.

“If I ever hear anyone call you a coward I'll bombard their mind with this image”, Yume said as she watched my hand within the strider's mouth.

I used my other hand to pat the strider's head and once it was done with the honey it skittered back down the chain to wait for the next people to give a ride.

Yume and I turned around and went looking for an inn.

Despite the craziness of the subterranean garden underneath the floating rock disc the village itself was fairly normal, except for the fact that the streetlamps were giant luminescent mushrooms. It was small, of course, but other than that it was fairly normal. The most baffling part of the place was clearly the wells dotted around the village and when I asked about them I was informed that they used spatial enchantments to connect these wells to a nearby lake. The man who told me that also told me that further spatial enchantments were used to transport waste products down into the pit to serve as nourishment for the mushrooms they grew down there. It sounded gross. Honestly a lot about this place sounded gross, but it was also an ingenious solution to the problems such a village would face.

All the spatial enchantments did indicate that the place was home to at least one very powerful wizard and, sure enough, the center of the disc held a tall spire that apparently belonged to the lord governing the village who was also a talented wizard training half a dozen apprentices.

It quickly became apparent that Shackled Hollow only had a single inn so our party would most definitely be staying there and we made our way to the place.

“No matter what he makes me say, I am still yours”, Yume said quietly as we approached the inn.

“Yes, you are. No matter what I have to say today, I still care deeply about you, my little fox”, I told her just as quietly before we stepped apart and I opened the door to the inn.

As I stepped into the inn I immediately began looking around and found Alisha and Selene sitting at a table, having dinner. They very pointedly did not share a table with the Chosen One, who was nursing a very black eye. It looked to be at least a few days old but was still swollen shut.

Alisha sat with her back to me but Selene could see me just fine and for a moment she stared at me as if she'd seen a ghost before she grabbed Alisha by the shoulder and pointed at me. I gave a warm smile and as Alisha turned around I saw the most distraught expression I'd ever seen on her face. But then she caught sight of me and the expression melted off her face, replaced by the same radiant smile she'd given me after I had given her the necklace around her neck, the one she'd used to save my life.

The two of them rushed over to me and slammed into me, all but knocking me over. Alisha bawled, there was no more flattering way to put it. Her face got red and puffy and huge tears streaked down her face as she wailed. Selene was more dignified but even she quietly cried as I held the two of them.

“I'm so sorry I made you worry”, I told them quietly.

“Don't you ever, ever, do that again”, Alisha told me in a quaking voice. “My heart couldn't take it!”

“I'm glad you're safe”, Selene said quietly.

“Thank you for saving my life”, I said. “Both of you. And thank you for waiting on me.”

Just then the Chosen One finally noticed the commotion and came strolling over.

“I didn't save your life”, Selene said. “Alisha did.”

I snorted. “You used your ice storm miracle to save us all”, I told her. “Despite everything you went through thanks to Freya, you still put us before your pride.”

Selene blushed and looked away.

“You better tell us everything that happened”, Alisha said.

“I will, I promise, but first I need to do something that'll probably upset you”, I said.

“What do you mean?”, Alisha asked.

“I'll need to spend some time with that rat bastard”, I said quietly before the Chosen One reached us. “I'll explain later.”

“Mercenary”, he said. “It's good to see that you're safe and I thank you for returning my property to me. Yume, heel.” Yume's collar flashed red and she walked stiffly to him until she stood directly next to him.

“You can thank me by buying me a beer”, I told the Chosen One.

“Of course”, he said. “It's the least I can do.”

The girls seemed upset that I would be spending time with him rather than them but I felt Yume establishing a mental link with me as she went with the girls while I sat down at the bar with the Chosen One, so I hoped she would be explaining things to them.

**

“So, what the fuck happened to you?”, I asked him once we sat down, indicating the shiner.

“Well”, he hedged, “let's just say that your women and I had a slight difference in opinion.”

I could immediately think of several reasons one of my women might have struck him and most of them made me want to strangle him, but I held back.

“Guess you've lost, then”, I said.

“Yes. Your women are powerful warriors. You will make my quest much easier”, he said.

“Glad to hear you're not regretting your purchase”, I said and then the barkeeper set down two bottles in front of us.

“That's not beer”, I said as I smelled it.

“True”, he said. “They don't serve beer here. This is the closest you can get. Takes some getting used to, but it's not bad.”

I took a swig and was immediately glad he'd told me that it wasn't beer beforehand. It tasted sweet and sour and was slightly fizzy. I ended up asking the barkeeper what this stuff was and as he explained it was apparently tea fermented with mushrooms and flavored with fruit. I'd never heard of such a thing, but given their reliance on mushrooms in, well, everything, I wasn't too surprised. Soon after the barkeeper handed me some food and it was, of course, a mushroom stew. Given that their other house special was something made of bug larvae of course I had ordered the mushroom stew.

“So”, I said as I dug into my stew. “You used to be a soldier, right?”

**

There were many different kinds of drunks. There were surly drunks, happy drunks, horny drunks, belligerent drunks...

The Chosen One turned out to be a whiny drunk. Two hours after we started drinking I knew more about the man than I had ever wanted to know. He'd been a Centurion in the army of the Southeastern city, Sparta, before he had been dishonorably discharged for raping demihuman women, though of course he had phrased that in a much more flattering way.

Sparta was a city of warmongering nutcases who were always chomping at the bit to march to war against anything that pissed them off but they were generally honorable folk. They didn't rely on foul trickery or traps, they just outmaneuvered and overpowered their foes. They were also worshipers of the god Ares, which made it so surprising that someone who had been discharged from a group that was generally seen as Ares' personal army had then been picked by Ares to be a Chosen One. But then again, the Spartans had a reputation for only worshiping Ares on sufferance.

Obviously.

Ares was a dishonorable whoreson and the Spartans, as I mentioned, were nothing if not honorable folk. They likely only worshiped him because he was the god of war among the Olympians, who were most popular in the East of the kingdom. It did leave the question of why they didn't worship Athena instead but as far as I was concerned Athena was only marginally better than Ares and Demeter.

In fact, I had been doing some thinking. If Yume had been given to the Chosen One then that would mean that Ares had owned her, at least for a while, which in turn meant that the slavers who had captured her had probably been working for him. That meant that Ares was now at the very top of my shit list.

I had to grit my teeth and bury my face in my drink when he started whining about how Yume didn't respect him and asked me what he could do to make her respect him. Thankfully I was spared from having to answer him when he passed out and smacked his head on the bar.

With the help of the innkeeper I managed to drag him up to his room and Yume came rushing out of the room my girls were staying in. We shared a passionate kiss before she went to the room the Chosen One stayed in in case he woke up, but I handed her a thrumming stone in case he started getting grabby.

**

After I entered the room my girls were staying in they all but mauled me, dragging me to the bed and cuddling up against me as if worried I would disappear if they weren't keeping skin contact. We just sat there cuddling, not saying anything for quite a while, before Alisha said:

“So, what happened while you were gone? We barely got anything out of Yume.”

“Yeah”, Selene said. “She said that everything was fine and that the two of you came to an understanding, but she said she was going to let you explain.”

“Figures”, I said, then pulled an item from my bag of holding and activated it. Instantly a shimmering cone snapped into existence around us.

“What is this?”, Selene asked.

I was about to explain when Alisha beat me to it:

“It's a cone of silence, it's completely sound-proof, for discussing sensitive information. Wow, Felix, I didn't know you had one of these.”

I shrugged. “We never needed it, but we do now, in case the Chosen One wakes up.”

Alisha smiled wickedly. “So you've already hatched a plan on how to steal Yume away from him?”, she asked and I smirked.

“No”, I told them. “I've already stolen Yume away from him. He just doesn't know it yet.” And then I began telling them of what transpired. I told them of the collar and how we would deal with it. I told them how I had made her promise to wait in exchange for making sure he wouldn't touch her anymore and that that was the reason I had spent time drinking with him. I told them that I had claimed her as my own and that she couldn't wait to play with the two of them. Alisha got all sparkly-eyed at that. And then I told them of the wendigo and the Qi techniques. And finally I finished with: “And she can use her magic to talk to Syr.”

Selene's eyes went wide at that. “Do you think she could let us talk to her?”, she asked.

“I don't know”, I said. “Possibly. We need to ask her when we can speak openly to her.”

“And what about those Qi techniques? Can you show us?”, Selene asked.

“Not here, but once we're on the road, sure. We just can't let the Chosen One know that I learned them from Yume.”

“And she said she'd teach us, too?”, she asked.

“Yes. Apparently there's even ways to improve magic with it”, I said, looking at Alisha. “The way she supercharged her fire magic with it was amazing.”

“I have to admit that making my air lances stronger sounds great, but that's really not why I'm excited”, Alisha said and made a lewd gesture with her fingers and tongue.

“Oh, you have no idea how much you're going to love playing with her”, I said with a smile as I thought about the fruity flavor of my little fox.

“What's that supposed to mean?”, she asked.

I grinned. “You'll just have to find out for yourself”, I said, then got serious. “But anyway, tell me what happened while I was gone. Why's he rocking that shiner?”

Alisha looked away and Selene began to explain.

“After you fell and we beat the hydra Alisha was inconsolable. I kept telling her she saved your life but she wouldn't listen, she was completely catatonic until she felt the thrumming stone vibrate. And since then she's kind of been glutting herself on the fruits they sell here.”

“I have not”, Alisha complained quietly. For how much she liked fruit she was kind of embarrassed when people pointed it out.

“Don't listen to her”, Selene said. “She's been eating like a pound of fruit a day. I don't want to imagine the kind of indigestion a human would have gotten from her diet. Well, anyway, after you two fell down that cliff that bastard Chosen One told us to get a move on and I... sort of... punched him right in the face.”

“Fuck me, it's been, what, three days?”, I asked. “And he still looks like that? That must have been quite the punch.”

“Actually”, she muttered, redness spreading over her cheeks, “that one was almost healed. I had to punch him again yesterday when he was being... inappropriate.”

I gritted my teeth.

“It's all good”, she said. “We can stand up for ourselves and you already got Yume away from him.”

“True, but still...”

“It's alright”, Alisha said. She'd been pretty quiet and had barely let go of me, but every minute she had grown more relaxed as if she'd finally managed to convince herself that I was actually there. “We're all together again so it's all good. If he tries that again, you can beat him up yourself if it'll make you feel better.”

“Actually”, I said, “I just want to reach the end of this journey so I can see the look on his face when Yume takes that collar off in front of him.” Then I looked at them again. “Anything else happen?”

“Well”, Alisha said. “Let's just say that Selene really doesn't like striders.”

I smiled as I saw Selene shudder.

“I still don't get how you're fine with them”, Selene said.

“Wood Elf, remember?”, Alisha replied. “Our village is full of giant insects and most of them are nice and helpful. I can't understand how you people survive the summer without a frost spider in your room.”

“What's a frost spider?”, I asked.

“Big light blue spiders”, Alisha explained. “They weave a big net in the corner of your room and catch mosquitoes for you, but they also cool down any room they inhabit.”

“What do you do during winter?”, Selene asked.

“They hibernate and we replace them with a fire snail that generates heat if you feed it greens”, Alisha explained.

“Can't you just use magic to temperate your rooms?”, I asked.

“We could”, Alisha said, “but the frost spiders and fire snails are around anyway, so why bother?”

“I just can't believe you're fine with that”, Selene said, then turned to me and asked: “How did Yume handle the striders, anyway?”

“She hesitated a little but then she just climbed on”, I said.

“And you?”, she challenged.

“I fed it honey”, I said and had to smile as Selene blanched.

“You mean... you stuck your hand into all those icky twitchy mouth parts?”, she asked.

“Yeah, why not? They're perfectly safe. Yume said she was going to send the mental image to anyone who ever calls me a coward, so that's nice, too.”

“She can keep it to herself”, Selene said. “Just the thought of it...” She trailed off and shuddered.

“I don't really recall you having an issue with bugs”, I said.

“Oh, I don't”, Selene replied. “If they're small enough to squash or bat away. But you can't bat away a strider. Not unless you're a mountain giant.”

“Gods I'm glad to have you back”, I said as I hugged them both closer and they both cuddled in.

We sat in silence for a while before I asked:

“Did you sell the manticore and hydra parts yet?”

“Yes...”, Selene said hesitantly.

“But?”, I asked.

“That's the reason the Chosen One has a black eye now”, Alisha said. “He said that since you weren't here yet we could just split the profits two ways between us and him.”

I chuckled.

“Yeah. Selene hit him in the exact same spot as the first time so hard that her knuckles cracked. It was so loud I thought something in his face had broken.”

I couldn't stop myself and laughed out loud. “So he saw reason, I presume?”, I asked.

“Yes”, Alisha said with a smile. “So all in all, that was three thousand mun.”

“That seems a little low”, I said.

“She means per person”, Selene said. “Yume also got a cut, though of course he pocketed all of it.”

“Three thousand per person?”, I asked. “Wow.”

“Yeah, I also pulled a page out of your playbook and broke off the hydra's horns”, she said, then added: “None of the merchants here even knew what to pay for them, so I kept them.”

“Good girl”, I said and she smiled. “Dragon horns of all types sell for a fortune if you know where to sell them.”

“That sounds shady”, Alisha said.

“Not at all”, I said. “See, dragon horns can be used for a lot of things but working with them requires special equipment that most people just don't have. I bet breaking them off was a pain, right?”, I asked, turning to Selene.

“It was, actually”, she said. “I couldn't break them at all. I had to crack the skulls around them to get them loose.”

“Exactly”, I said. “Now imagine grinding one of them into powder or forging one into a weapon. That's what the special equipment is for.”

“That makes a lot of sense”, Alisha said.

We talked a little bit more until we finally fell asleep cuddled up under the blanket. As fun as my time with Yume had been, I couldn't help but be glad I was back with my two lovely women.