"How are you doing cutie?" Clara asked as I tucked the two pouches away in my small backpack.

I made a face, "That was gross and smelly and I want to go home and have a nice hot bath with my two hot girlfriends."

The tall sexy ranger smiled, "The life of an adventurer isn't always glamorous."

"No," I pouted. "Sometimes you have to spend an hour plucking feathers off a stinky magic murder chicken."

Avril called from where she was standing watch several meters away, "If you two are finished complaining let's go grab an egg. Then we can visit the river and you can at least wash your hands, ok?"

I was still pouting as I grumbled, "Dipping my hands in a cold river is no replacement for soaking in a hot tub with you two."

Clara just laughed, "Come on cutie. Let's go get us a cockatrice egg. The sooner we finish this quest the sooner we can get that warm bath together."

That got my tail wagging again, and with my pack secure on my back I followed the tall strong ranger as we set off towards the nest we'd found the day before. It was only about a half hour's walk from where we killed the cockatrice, soon enough we had the location in view. At that point Clara was all business again.

"Same plan as before," the ranger stated quietly. "Fiona and I will move a few meters apart then approach from downwind. Avril you stay back and keep watch, and be ready with the magic incase things go wrong."

I asked, "Why all the caution? Didn't we just kill the thing?"

"If it was nesting then there could be a mate around," Avril pointed out softly.

Clara nodded, "I haven't seen a second one, but that doesn't mean it's not around here someplace. So let's not get careless, ok Fiona?"

"Right," I grimaced. "Good thinking."

Approaching from downwind meant coming at the nest from a different angle than where we'd seen it the day before, the terrain was a little more rocky and the footing a little less stable. It also wasn't as convenient for Clara and I to be so far apart this time, so only about three or four meters separated the two of us as we carefully made our way forward.

She still had one of those special arrows ready on her bow, while Avril hung back several meters behind us and observed our progress.

We were nearly at the nest when the ranger stopped and muttered a curse under her breath. I gave her a worried look, and she gestured towards something on my left. I turned to look, and my blood went cold as I spotted another of the cockatrice's victims. And this time it was no warg.

There were still a few scraps of cloth hanging from the statue, which made it even more obvious that it wasn't a sculpture at all. It was a man, he was on his knees with his right arm tucked in against his stomach. His right shoulder leaned against a larger rock, and his head was tilted down facing towards the ground. His left arm hung by his side, a knife clutched in his petrified fist. From where I was crouching I couldn't see his face, a small mercy for which I was grateful.

After another couple seconds Clara gestured for us both to continue our approach. I nodded, and with my attention on the nest area ahead I continued matching her slow cautious pace as the two of us advanced.

We sort of converged on the nest, then she gestured that she'd cover me while I retrieved the egg. I nodded again, and cautiously edged forward the last couple paces.

The nest was tucked away between three or four large stones, a tangled mess of dried twigs and branches with a single baseball-sized egg resting in the middle. While Clara stood guard a couple meters to my right I carefully stepped closer, then leaned forward with my right hand extended to grab the egg.

Just as my fingers were about to reach the prize there was an explosion of bawks and squawks, flapping wings and slashing claws, and an ugly grey-brown beak snapping and hissing at me.

I let out a shriek and stumbled backwards, and the instant I was clear the ranger's arrow flew in from the side and snapped the monster's neck just like the other one.

All three of us let out loud sighs of relief as the beast keeled over backwards into the rocks where it had been hiding. I quickly checked myself over as Clara asked, "Are you ok Fiona? It didn't bite you did it?"

"It's just a scratch," I said as I gestured to a thin red mark on the back of my hand. Then the pain hit and I nearly fell to my knees as I let out a loud cry.

Suddenly my heart was pounding in my chest as I stared wide-eyed at my right hand. The skin around the scratch had already turned grey, and the grey was quickly spreading across the back of my hand and up my arm.

The pain was intense, worse than anything I'd felt before, but beyond that was a cold numbness that scared me more than anything else. My right hand was already stone, and it looked like the rest of me wasn't far behind.

I barely even heard Clara's shouts of alarm, or Avril's response. All I was aware of was the pain, the cold, and the grey that was spreading up past my elbow as it continued to consume my body.

Then I felt a wave of warmth pass over me and the pain began to fade. The warming sensation of Avril's magic quickly began to thaw the numbing cold of my petrified flesh, and to my immense relief colour started returning to my immobilized limb. Within a few more seconds I could feel my hand again, and not long after that I could even flex my fingers.

Despite being saved I ended up crumpling to my knees as the fear and shock and relief all sort of hit me at once.

Fortunately my girlfriends were with me a moment later, and I was being hugged from both sides. The two of them took turns petting my head and scritching my ears and telling me I was a good girl and that I was safe and everything was going to be ok and they were going to take me straight home and look after me.

• • • • •

"Fantastic!" Herve announced with a wide grin. "Better than fantastic, I asked you for eight drams of blood and a hundred feathers, you've brought me twelve drams and a hundred and twenty eight feathers! Not to mention an intact egg! Her ladyship will certainly be pleased with this, and I'll try to ensure your names reach her ears."

Clara frowned, "A noblewoman? I thought you said this stuff was for some alchemist?"

The merchant nodded, "That's right. Lady Cathryn is an up and coming alchemist, I've been hearing rumours of her successes for some months now. The young woman was granted a title not long after the first anniversary of opening her apothecary. Quite unprecedented, I'm told. Rumour has it she's even done work for the royal family, and the title was a reward for some royal commission."

"But enough talk of distant nobles," he added. Then he gestured at the goods we brought him and stated, "I knew you girls could pull this off! And you didn't even need the full two weeks to do it!"

Clara responded calmly, "Thirteen days or fourteen, it isn't a big difference. And I always say, it's better to take the time to do the job right, rather than rush it and get it wrong."

The merchant laughed, "An excellent policy Clara. But I'm sure you've heard the saying, time is money?"

The ranger responded, "Speaking of money Herve, if you want the extra feathers and blood I'm prepared to haggle over them. But first let's take care of the agreement already in place."

"Of course, of course," he replied. "For an adventurer you certainly are a shrewd businesswoman."

The four of us were meeting in Herve's office this time, rather than Emilou's restaurant, and we'd just finished telling him some of the details of our adventure. We didn't actually want to, but he insisted. It's what passed as entertainment, since this world didn't have TV or movies or internet.

After my near-petrification we grabbed the egg and beat a quick retreat out of cockatrice territory, but our trip home wasn't without incident.

Halfway back to Riverside we had an encounter of the greedy human variety rather than more monsters. And as much as I hated to say it, they were a lot easier to deal with than stinky magic murder chickens or giant stinging bugs. That skirmish even gave me a chance to put some of my mundane rogue skills to work. Instead of using magic, my iron darts and short sword both saw a little action. Although to be fair Clara and Avril still did most of the work.

We finally got back to town yesterday afternoon, and the instant we were home the three of us ended up in a nice hot bath together. From there we didn't venture any further than the bed. It wasn't until this morning that Clara sent word of our successful return, and Herve sent a messenger back asking us to meet him here at his workplace this afternoon.

The fruits of our labour were on the table before us, but off to the side now that our customer had finished inspecting the goods. The egg was safely secured inside the padded wooden box, one hundred feathers were stuffed in a little leather pouch, and one glass vial full of the monster's blood sat in between the box and the pouch. The remaining feathers and half-full vial were set off to the other side of the table for now.

And a moment later a small but heavy canvas sack was placed on the table in front of Clara.

We were letting our tall strong girlfriend handle all the business stuff today. I was cuddled up so close to Avril I was practically on her lap, and she kept an arm around me and made sure to give me head pats and ear scritches every so often.

"Three hundred less the thirteen percent we agreed on," Herve stated as he gestured to the bag of coins, "Works out to two hundred and sixty-one platinum sovereigns for you fine young ladies."

Clara accepted the payment for all three of us, then she haggled a bit with the merchant over the remaining goods. Since it was all surplus beyond the original contract he wouldn't offer us the same rates, but in the end the strong sexy ranger got us a pretty good deal. Rather than one platinum per feather they settled on fifteen coins for the twenty-eight feathers, and the four drams of blood were valued at thirty platinum. Less Herve's standard ten percent fee of course.

After all was said and done, our profit for the quest less the supplies and gear we bought ahead of time still earned us almost a solid three hundred platinum coins. Which wasn't bad for two weeks' work.

On the other hand, Avril and I each had a brush with death. And even though the gorgeous druid's magic was able to heal our bodies up without so much as a scar, all three of us agreed to maybe take two months off this time, before we ventured once more into the wildlands.

After all, three hundred platinum paid for a whole lot of meals at Emilou's.

And speaking of which, we all decided that we'd more than earned a special treat after our most recent adventure. We left Herve's place and headed home first, both to securely stow our big payout in the hidden safe with the rest of our treasure, and to get changed into some nicer clothes now that our business was concluded.

"I guess we should dress up fancy for this?" I asked as I started undressing once we were back home. "Emilou's for dinner, plus we're celebrating, right?"

Clara was already looking in our closet, but she turned around then exchanged a look with Avril.

The gorgeous druid smiled and reached out to pick up my leash from its usual spot on the wall and said, "You've been a very good girl for the past two weeks Fiona, our brave little adventurer. I think you've more than earned some quality time now as our happy little pet foxgirl."

That got my tail wagging even faster than the prospect of dinner at Emilou's. I opened my mouth to respond but the tall sexy ranger spoke up before I could say anything else.

"Avril and I will pick out something for you to wear tonight cutie," she said with a smile. "Don't you worry your pretty little head about anything. We'll make all the difficult decisions for you."

By that point my tail was wagging up a storm behind me while I was grinning so hard I positively beamed. And sure enough my wonderful girlfriends picked out a perfect outfit for me to wear. By the time the three of us left the house again an hour later all three of us were indeed dressed up fancy.

Clara wore this world's equivalent of heels, they were basically leather sandals but with a five centimetre lift at the back. A pair of skin-tight dark brown pants almost looked like they'd been painted on, and an off-white scoop-neck blouse completed the outfit. She also wore a belt with a couple daggers and a money purse, not that any of us expected trouble but as a life-long adventurer she always liked to be prepared.

Avril was dressed in a beautiful knee-length pink sleeveless sundress, and she had white sandals on her feet. Her simple white cord belt around her waist helped show off her curves, while giving her a place to keep a coin purse and a knife. She also held the end of my leash, with the loop wrapped around her right wrist.

And for me they'd picked one of my skimpiest and most-revealing outfits. I had cute little black slippers on my feet, a wrap-around mini-skirt that was just barely long enough to keep me decent from the front while at the back it was tucked down below my tail, and a tight cropped tube-top that was just big enough to conceal my chest while leaving very little to the imagination. The skirt and top were both dyed a soft pale orangey-red to match my hair and fur. And of course my leash was clipped to the metal ring on my collar, so there was no chance of anyone mistaking my status as anything other than a pet.

Unlike my girlfriends I didn't have a belt, no money or weapons. The only exception was I still wore that little gemstone necklace, so if something unexpected did come up I had my casting focus to help with my magic.

With the three of us all ready to go Clara and Avril led the way, while I followed along behind my mistresses like a good obedient little pet foxgirl. As expected the three of us attracted plenty of stares as we made our way through the heart of town towards the restaurant. And between the smile on my face and the way my tail was still wagging like crazy, everyone who saw us could tell just how happy I was.

"Avril, Clara!" Emile greeted my mistresses with a smile when we reached the restaurant. "I see you've brought your pet Fiona out this evening too, this must be a special occasion?"

The first time they brought me to the beastkin-owned restaurant in 'pet mode' caused a bit of a disturbance, but once everyone understood it was my idea and realized how much I enjoyed it they quickly decided to play along. Without the leash I was an adventurer, my girlfriends and I were equals. With the leash I was their loyal obedient pet. Either way, the three of us were all very much in love.

"It sure is," Clara responded to the dog-kin restauranteur. "We just got back from two weeks in the wildlands, and we're looking to celebrate."

Avril reached over and gave me some head pats and ear scritches as she added, "And Fiona here was a very good girl, so brave and strong, such a talented adventurer! She's earned a night of being spoiled."

"Excellent," Emile grinned widely. "In that case let's make sure the three of you have a wonderful evening here."

He took us to one of the best tables, where we had a great view of the rivers and the sunset. He must have talked to our waitress too, the eager excitable bunnygirl did everything she could to ensure we had an outstanding romantic dinner. She even played along with me being my girlfriends' pet.

Like Clara promised, I didn't have to make any difficult decisions. In fact I didn't have to make any decisions at all. My girlfriends ordered my meal for me, they decided what I'd have to drink, and they took turns petting me and stroking my tail. I even got to sit on Clara's lap while she and the gorgeous druid cuddled together and the three of us watched the sun set at the end of the river valley.

It was a beautiful wonderful perfect evening, and it reminded me yet again just how lucky I was to have this wonderful perfect new life.

~ The End ~

PurpleCatGirl

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