As the three of us walked back into the hamlet I found myself paying closer attention to the locals. I'd guess the entire community was between one and two hundred people, including the outlying farms.

From what I could see, between half and two thirds were all human men. The rest were primarily beastkin, and unlike the human population probably nine of every ten beastkin I saw was female. There were catgirls, bunnygirls, doggirls, and of course foxgirls like myself. The big problem was too many men for the number of women around. Almost all of the beastkin I saw were collared, the few who weren't tended to be armed even more heavily than the three of us.

I wasn't sure what to make of a lot of those details, and it definitely didn't feel safe to start asking my companions about it while we were in the middle of it. One thing that was clear though, two attractive young human women with their cute pet foxgirl were obviously going to attract a lot of attention. With so few human women around I could sort of understand why that big guy was trying to get his hands on my girlfriends.

Clara did all the talking again when we got back to the tavern. She made arrangements for the three of us to share a room in the back, along with meals today and tomorrow morning. Then we got a table while the unpleasant barkeep brought over three big mugs of ale to get us started.

Unlike the weak flat watery stuff we'd been drinking on our travels this was stronger and more flavourful. It was still nothing like the beer from my previous life, but it wasn't bad.

A few minutes later the barkeep was back with our food. We each got a bowl with a few slices of roast meat ontop of thick vegetable stew, and he left a loaf of bread on the table for the three of us to share. There wasn't any cutlery or napkins, I figured we were expected to use our hands then wipe them on whatever surface was handy. Fortunately we all had our own cutlery, which the three of us used.

The meat was possibly the best thing I'd ever had. It wasn't even really seasoned, but it was moist and succulent and carried a smoky flavour from the fire it had been roasted over. Even the stew was pretty good. And the bread was fresh, better than the dry rugged stuff we'd been eating on the trail.

"Someone's enjoying herself," Avril grinned. She made a point of looking past me at my tail, which once again was wagging up a storm behind me.

I blushed but shrugged, "It's good food, so I'm enjoying it."

"Same," Clara agreed. "We'll eat even better when we actually reach civilization, but until then this is a nice treat."

We were all quiet again for a few more minutes while we focused on our food, but eventually I asked "So what's the plan from here? What are we doing next?"

The ranger replied, "One night here, then breakfast, then we stock up on supplies and hit the trail again. Keep moving north."

She paused for a gulp of ale before continuing, "It'll take us another week or so to reach a proper town. There'll be more little settlements like this along the way, but the town is our real goal. From there we'll have more options in terms of where we want to go and how we want to get there."

"We never did settle the by-sea or over-land debate did we?" Avril asked with a smile. "The place Clara's talking about is on a river, downriver from that is a port where we could get passage on a boat. Or if we're sticking to dry land, we might be able to find escort work like we discussed the other day."

I nodded as I took all that in, then asked "What about this afternoon? We have several hours before dark right? What are our plans for after dinner?"

The gorgeous druid grinned as she teased, "We could retire to our room and spend the rest of the day breaking in our new pet foxgirl?"

My cheeks went bright red, while once again my tail betrayed me with its happy excited wagging.

"Or I could take you out somewhere quiet and work on your magic training," she added a moment later. "Probably that second thing? Magic training's important. Pet fox training can wait till later."

As much as I wanted to learn more magic, I actually found myself pouting when she suggested taking the responsible choice.

Avril grinned, "Don't worry cutie, we'll have plenty of time to work on your pet training later on."

"A whole week at least," Clara agreed, getting in on the fun. "We could even make it part of our evening routine? Every night when we stop and make camp we'll spend some time training our new pet."

By that point I was both blushing and pouting while my tail wagged happily. I had another gulp of ale then mumbled, "You better, or I'll be grumpy."

Avril giggled quietly as she reached out and gave me some head pats, which only got my tail wagging even faster while I leaned in for more pets and scritches.

Jokes and teasing aside the three of us finished our meal soon enough, then Clara decided to accompany Avril and I for the training. Not that she could really participate in it, but there wasn't much else to do. And to be fair I'd do the same if I was in her position. I'd much rather watch my girlfriends train than do literally anything else on my own around this place.

The three of us ended up a few hundred meters away from the hamlet, halfway around one of the small hills so we were out of sight from the community. We all took off our packs and stuff, then Clara sat down and got comfortable while Avril and I stood several paces away and began the lessons.

And the reason we were in a secluded spot away from the locals was two-fold. It meant nobody could listen in on us, but more importantly these lessons came with some practical demonstrations.

Avril wasn't teaching me spells or anything, it was all just basic theory. But it was stuff that applied to magic in general, whether druid or wizard or in my case, arcane rogue. And that meant she was using her magic now and then, to demonstrate some of those universal concepts. Then after a while she also had me using my magic too, so I could get first-hand experience putting my new-found knowledge to work.

We worked at it for a good few hours, and by the end of that I was honestly feeling pretty pleased with myself. Not only had my spark-spell improved to the point where was actually useful in a fight, but I'd also learned how to do two more spells ontop of that.

The other two weren't dangerous but they were definitely cool.

The prettiest one let me conjure up three or four glowing balls of light. I could control them, move them around and change their colour and stuff. It meant we didn't need candles or torches at night, I could just summon magical lights and we'd be set.

My third spell was a bit weirder, and a lot harder to get my head around. The best way I could describe it was like an invisible ghostly hand, that I could control as if it was my own. I could move it around, it could pick things up and manipulate things for me. I wasn't sure yet how useful it might be in the long run, but it was definitely cool.

For now the most entertaining thing I found to do with it was tease my companions. I could undo their clothes with it, or even touch or caress them with it.

Unfortunately all that magic work left me kind of tired, and by the time the sun was low on the horizon I was almost ready for bed. Avril and Clara both saw that, so the druid decided that was the end of our training session. Then we gathered up our things and headed back to the tavern.

It was much busier inside now that the day was over, all the tables were in use so the three of us sat on stools by the bar as we had more drinks.

"We should probably eat a bit more," Avril suggested quietly. "A magic work-out might not be as physically demanding as other activities, but it still takes energy."

Clara took care of that, she got us a half loaf of bread and four or five slices of roast meat to share, which seemed ideal. In fact seeing the meat and the bread gave me an excellent idea.

"This is perfect," I grinned as I used my new knife to carefully cut two slices from the bread. Then I placed a thick juicy slice of meat in between, and put my knife away while I enjoyed a delicious sandwich.

It didn't even need butter or mayo or anything, the meat was juicy and succulent enough on its own. The only thing I could think of to improve it would be some crunchy vegetables. It'd have to be something flavourful though, like spinach or arugula.

After my third bite I finally noticed how my companions were both staring at me with bemused looks on their faces. At the same time I also became aware of how much my tail was wagging again.

"What?" I asked self-consciously. "Why are you two looking at me like that?"

Clara responded, "We've never seen anyone eat like that before."

"What would you call that arrangement? Does it have a name?" Avril asked.

I found myself trying not to laugh. It was a scene that probably played out a hundred times in a hundred isekai stories.

"It's called a sandwich," I told them quietly. I even managed to keep a straight face as I added, "It's the traditional food of my homeland. And before you ask, it has nothing to do with sand or witches. It's just a name."

My companions exchanged a confused look, but they didn't question any further.

As I finished my sandwich I made a mental note for the morning. I needed to get us some bacon and some more nice bread, then I was going to introduce the two of them to the joy of bacon on toast.

It was only another five or ten minutes before my friends were both finished eating as well. Then Clara asked, "Either of you still thirsty? Or hungry? Or shall we retire for the night?"

"I've had enough," I replied. "I think I'm about ready for bed now?"

Avril agreed, "Same."

There was a doorway next to the bar, and Clara led Avril and I through that and into the back part of the tavern. Our room was a small space in the back corner of the structure, it felt almost tiny and cramped like it was half the size of my bedroom in my last life. There were no windows and we didn't have a candle or any other source of light, which made it really hard to see what was inside. Fortunately I had a solution for that.

A moment later a couple little balls of magic light floated ahead of us and illuminated the tiny space. The room couldn't have been more than two meters by two and a half, I thought it was more like a big closet than any kind of bedroom. In fact I was pretty sure it really was just a storage room, based on the crude shelves built into one wall. The only other furniture was a simple straw mattress on the floor.

Despite my misgivings Clara and Avril didn't seem surprised or put off by it. They both squeezed into the small space, so I followed them in and closed the door behind me. I noticed there was a crude wood bar to secure it, so I slid that into place in hopes it would prevent anyone from disturbing us. Then before anyone got started getting comfortable Avril cast a cleansing spell over the room, just to be safe.

It was a bit awkward with the three of us getting our gear and stuff sorted out, but the shelves actually came in handy for that. After getting a couple blankets out of their packs, my companions started to stow their gear, followed by their clothes, on the lowest shelf.

I followed their example, and soon enough my clothes and gear were on a shelf and I was naked apart from that new collar I was still wearing. Shortly after that the three of us were cuddling naked on the small lumpy mattress. It was a pretty useless bed as far as I was concerned, but I had to admit it was better than sleeping on the ground outside. Apart from the lumps it was kind of soft, and we had a roof over our heads.

My magic lights were still floating up by the ceiling, but I let them flicker and vanish now that we were all laying down.

"This isn't what I imagined when we talked about getting a room," I admitted quietly as I cuddled up in between Avril and Clara.

The tall strong ranger replied, "This is fairly typical accommodations for an outpost like this, or other small villages. Not just for travellers like us, but the people who live here. This might even be the barkeep's bedroom. Maybe he's going to sleep on the bar tonight since we've rented his room."

"Oh," I grimaced. "I didn't realize."

After a few seconds of awkward silence Avril suggested, "Why don't we all try and get some sleep?"

Clara and I both agreed, and for the first night of my new life the three of us fell asleep together without any sex first. Not that I was complaining, and I probably wouldn't have been comfortable doing it in the barkeep's bed anyways.

PurpleCatGirl

If you're enjoying our work and you'd like to support us, please consider joining our patreon & get early access to new chapters, bonus chapters, and more! Patrons have already read chapter 16 and you could too!
https://www.patreon.com/purplecatgirl