Aki smiled as she watched the temple rebuild itself before her. In a matter of moments, it went from a clear ruin to a beautiful shrine to the Goddess Dewari. She glanced over to see the clumsy cutie was still spying on them, and that Maron was keeping an eye on the girl. On the alter a map fragment appeared seemingly from nowhere. Floating a few inches above the surface. She grabbed the fragment and declared to the group that they were heading back to the ships. She gave another glance at the lamia in the tree spying on them and felt she really wasn’t going to try attacking their group.

It turned out that she was right and they made it back to the ship without incident. Almost immediately Suzu started playing with her tail. The young fairy absolutely loved being penetrated by her tail, and she could tell that she really enjoyed the sensations of it blooming open inside her. All lust demons grew tails at some point and they were a very important organ for a lust demon. Some species could even retract their tail into their body. As a method of protecting it, but hers wasn’t one of them. Like all lust demons, her tail was an organ for pleasure, and it seemed Suzu had become a bit addicted.

It seemed she would have to satisfy the lustful little fairy soon or they wouldn’t be getting anything done today. First, she would need to talk with the captain so that they could set sail for the next island. She had glanced at the fragment, and it looked to be a desert this time, and that would mean they would need extra preparations before searching for the temple with the next fragment. So far she really enjoying this floor, and it was a very welcome change from the labyrinth that preceded it.

Meanwhile, in Lily’s mansion, Lily was stepping out of the bath. Water dribbled of her small frame and was absorbed by a towel placed on the floor for that purpose. She grabbed a towel to dry herself off with a grin on her face. Mom was finally going to let her out of the house for something other than school. Even that had taken some arguing on Misaki’s part to get her to allow. School was actually a lot of fun, her favorite classes were the ones that dealt with magic. She shared her classes with young lust demons, and she was always a bit conscious of the fact that she was the only one there who actually wore clothing. Lust demons and demons, in general, didn’t believe in clothing their children. They only provided clothing when a child was fully grown. She had also learned that most Elven families didn’t cloth their children until they learned to walk while Beastkin didn’t provide clothing until they earned it. To the Beastkin everything had to be earned.

It was a fascinating subject, but being the only kid in class wearing clothes was awkward to the point that she often took them off during school. She did, of course, put them back on after school so her mom didn’t find out.  Today however she was actually going to go out with a couple of her friends. She had become close friends with a pair of twins during magic class, and she had been invited to a sleepover. Even better their mom had actually managed to convince her mother to allow her out of the house.

Satisfied that she was dry she tossed the towel over a bar and rushed out to her room. She already had an outfit for today in mind. One nice thing about living in a dungeon was that she didn’t need shoes. At least here in the castle town with its smoothly paved roads, and clean walkways there was little reason to wear them. Mom still insisted she wore some, but they weren’t the sturdy boots that she insisted on back in the village.

Rushing to her wardrobe she brought out a pale blue dress that had ribbons sewn into the hemline. Mom bought it for her because she thought she looked cute in it, and she had to agree. She slipped it on over her head and glanced at the drawer with her underwear in it. Mom rarely checked to see if she had put some on, so she ignored the drawer. On her way out of the room, she grabbed her sandals. Lily was practically excited as she rushed down the stairs to meet her friends for a sleepover.

Umeko twirled left out of the way of the kick, and returned one of her own. Her kick was immediately blocked, and then Arlie stepped back. “Very good you almost got me there.”

Umeko panted a bit as she was tired. They had been practicing all afternoon, and well into the evening now. Only taking breaks so that Arlie could feed Ren. Despite all this training, Arlie didn’t even seem winded. Umeko nodded and thanked her for the compliment. “Looks like I chose well. You have gotten the basics down. Tomorrow we can work on the more advanced techniques.”

She had to suppress a groan that nearly escaped her. This training was turning out to be quite the nightmare. Arlie was a harsh instructor, and she had only learned the form so quickly because of how harshly Arlie punished her mistakes. The training amulet she was wearing had turned out to be quite the double-edged sword. Thanks to its ability to prevent her from actually being injured Arlie didn’t have to hold back all that much, and thanks to its other effect she became very familiar with what it felt like to be torn apart by the other girl’s talons.

A moment later the pain almost seemed worth it when Arlie rewarded her with a few delicious fishies. That she devoured in an instant, only to immediately regret it. She was completely unaware of how cute she was behaving. “I think I will spend the morning teaching you how to hunt.

Confused she looked up, and replied, “But I already know how to hunt!”

She wasn’t kidding either, as hunting had been a skill she had picked up during her time as a paladin. She wasn’t the best with a bow, but she knew enough about snares and tracking to catch an animal. Arlie came over pulled her into her lap and stroked her head, “Little one, you know human hunting methods. We hunt very differently from humans. Snares, tracking, and bows are for landlocked predators like humans, but we have wings. We hunt from the air, and I am going to teach you how. There is an art to diving down on an unsuspecting prey, and pulling it into the air. Even more difficult is catching flying prey, but we can cover that for later. Tomorrow we will start with Spinebacks.”

Puckering her face, she looked up at Arlie, and asked, “Spinebacks?”

“It’s a large lumbering creature that is quite common around here in Varixyies. An adult can easily grow to be nearly ten meters long, and they eat mostly plants and rocks. They are named for the large spines that grow out of their backs. They are gentle creatures and natural siege weapons. For us, they are perfect for a first hunt.”

She frowned, and said, “Wouldn’t those spines protect them from an aerial attack?”

Arlie chuckled, and replied, “Their spines are meant to protect them from dragons, not us. There are gaps we can exploit, and I will point them out to you tomorrow. For now, let’s get you to bed.”

As she tiredly followed her inside she idly wondered what Arlie would be doing, and considering the hour she felt like a young girl being put to bed, but she was way too exhausted to care.

Arlie tucked her in and walked out to her living room. She knew thanks to their bond that Lily (Contrey) had put Ren to bed. This meant she had a bit of time for herself. She quickly found her favorite chair and settled into it. Opening up her top, she reached towards her own chest. A tool materialized in her hand, and she pushed it into her flesh. Using it to carefully fix an artifact that was implanted right next to her heart. The artifact was a small reactor that she used to generate power for the other artifacts in her body, and the excess energy became mana that fueled her body.

Her repair was just part of the regular maintenance cycle for the device. Most of the maintenance was done by the nanites in her blood, and regulated by a series of implants called ARUs. She just had to do the fine adjustments every few months, but it was just something she was used to. Although she did try to do it in private.

She had just finished and put her tool away when the kitchen door opened and Rose walked out. She smiled when saw Arlie, and only spared a single glance at her exposed chest, “I take it you put the new girl Umeko, right? To bed?”

“Yes, did, and she is so cute when she is tired. I’m going to teach her how to hunt tomorrow. I’ll have to break her of the human methods. Speaking of human methods, I’ll need to reteach her how to wield a sword. She is much smaller than she used to be, and her new body is completely unsuited to wielding the longswords she used to wield.”

Rose winced, “I feel kind of sorry for her. Why did you change her race anyway?” Rose thanks to the bond already knew that it was Arlie that was responsible for the girl’s race change.

“It is a long story. Suffice to say that I have plans for her, and the new race is part of that. Nothing of immediate import anyway.”

Reading the mood, she said, “I’ll take your word for it. Has your divine sight seen anything interesting?”

Arlie scratched her cheek, “Not really. Things have been pretty quiet in the world of late. A few lightyears away on another world a colony ship crashed into a swamp? That might be a little interesting, especially given that they lost most of their stores during the crash.” Arlie wasn’t worried about her misunderstanding her. The sacred bond they shared allowed them to share their understanding of concepts. She had already used this to share a great deal of her knowledge with her two mates. Mostly so that she had people that she could talk to and actually understood what the hell she was talking about.

“I’m not really interested in hearing about other people suffering, but can you do something for them?”

“There is a local species that would be inclined to help them. Well, their children anyway.”

“Why only the children?” she asked her face scrunched in that cute look she always had when she was thinking.

Arlie leaned back a bit, and replied, “Well it has to do with the fact that children are easier to mold than a full-grown adult.” Soon the two were in a little discussion about things of no real import. It didn’t last long before they headed to their bedroom, with a heat building in Arlie’s abdomen. It was a familiar one to Arlie and more than just arousal. Her body was preparing to have a child something she would have to tell the twins before they did anything.

Aki stretched after she stepped off the boat. She was a little sore in a number of places, but she was very satisfied with the last few hours. In front of her was a small town. The buildings were made from roughly hewn stone, and the small port town was surrounded by a low stone wall. The wall was barely half as tall as the buildings, and clearly wasn’t intended to protect the town. At least not from monsters but it would keep animals from wandering in from the desert. The rough surface of the wall was decorated, and gleamed in the setting desert sun.

She did not stand there admiring it for long as she had goals. Near the dock was a small inn/tavern that would likely be a good spot to learn about the island. She needed to know what monsters could be encountered on this island or she wouldn’t be able to prepare. Another place she knew that she would need to visit was a general goods store. The party would need additional water skins, and other examples of basic desert gear to get anywhere in the island desert. The island was big enough that she couldn’t see the other side. The dry rocky desert soil was sparsely broken by the occasional desert plant. Sightlines were broken by the occasional hill and cliff. 

Looking back at her party, she said, “let’s stop by the inn, and get some rooms for the night and perhaps visit the bar before settling in for the night. Now might be a good time for gathering information on the area.”

No one had anything against her proposal, and they made for the inn. While the captain set about talking with the port manager. The ship would still be there when they got back from the desert tomorrow, but for now, they needed some rest. Sure there were beds on the boat, but an inn would be better.