We parted ways with Jeremiah within the hour. Rieka wanted to get moving and not leave the carriage by the road any longer than we had to. Anything to not draw attention to where the scouts were keeping watch.

  “Do not take any chances,” Rieka ordered before we left. “Right now, we are trying to find out how deep this goes. The last thing that we need is to betray our presence and send whoever is involved in this deeper into hiding.”

  “So you believe that this is something sanctioned by the Icefangs themselves?” Jeremiah asked, the large bear kin arching an eyebrow curiously.

  “I’d be a fool to not consider that,” Rieka replied in a stern tone. A moment later that stern mask cracked and she gave Jeremiah a wink. “But that is also why I want irrefutable proof that they are. This would be the perfect cover for someone trying to discredit the family, especially after the scuffle between Josephine and myself.”

  “Just as I taught you,” Jeremiah replied, his beard cracking in a grin to match Rieka’s—albeit far hairier. “See what is in front of you and give it proper weight, but also keep in mind who might have pushed it into plain sight.”

  “An interesting lesson to learn, especially with how you chose to teach it,” Rieka replied dryly.

  "I'm glad you appreciated-" began Jeremiah, but Rieka cut him off.

  “But framing my little brother for stealing my favorite sweets was still cold blooded,” Rieka shot back.

  “Did I frame him?” Jeremiah countered. “Or did he frame me?”

  Rieka looked about to protest, but she stopped herself, shook her head, and then turned back to our group.

  “Let’s get going. Otherwise, this furry menace will have me questioning my own sanity as well as my memory.”

  “Hard to question what doesn’t exist,” Kassandra quipped, before turning to slither quickly away as Rieka made to chase her.

  The scouts escorted us back down to the road, with one of the silent figures signaling that the carriage was safe to approach. On the way back, Jeremiah reminded Rieka that this area was not very heavily patrolled and to be careful during our travels, as monsters might be using the road as hunting grounds.

  Our driver was already putting out the fire using water from a kettle that still rumbled with a boil. In his off-hand he had a steaming flask that he sealed with a screw-top before tucking into his jacket with a smile.

  Hope that’s just tea or something hot to drink and not spiked… I thought, studying the man as we approached. No, he’s been too professional to drink on the road.

  Even though we had traveled with this same driver for the last several days, my instincts told me to check the carriage before we loaded up. Nothing seemed out of place, so I gently handed my ladies up into the space while the driver packed away his kettle and got settled onto the bench.

  The two of us met eyes before I got in, and he gave me a respectful nod, one protector to another, and I saw in his eyes the same kind of iron determination that Cerebaton got when he was teaching me, or Valda had while we sparred.

  Yup, that just confirms it, I thought, pulling the door closed to the carriage. I suspected before but I’m sure now, the driver is a disguised or retired guard sent along to help keep us safe.

  “So how far out from the duchess’ palace are we now?” Jane asked once the carriage was moving at a steady clip along the road.

  “Several days more travel at least,” Rieka answered. “It’s a balancing act. If we approach too quickly, it’ll draw attention and that will set a certain expectation for the encounter we will have with the duchess. Too slow and it’ll be suspicious.”

  “Which is why we are moving from village to village,” Kassandra interjected from her spot in my lap.

  My dwarf lamia had called dibs as soon as I was in the carriage, ambushing me in the confined space where I couldn’t dodge before wrapping around my waist and snuggling herself across my lap from left to right. She’d been clingier than normal lately, but I didn’t have any reason to deny her so I just got comfortable with my new snakeskin belt and lap-warmer while the girls talked.

  “Makes sense,” Jane said, her long tail flicking back and forth above her head like a hand gesturing to make points. “That’s what I had thought was the plan, but I wanted to make sure you didn’t want to change it after getting those reports.”

  “Still need to read over them,” Rieka murmured, tapping her chin. “The enchanted pouch will open for me, and Mother told me I had permission to inspect any reports that went in. We just need to make sure they all go back in and don’t get damaged.”

  “Do we want to do it here or wait till we are at the inn and can spread out?” Shayla asked curiously, her antennae swaying gently.

  “Probably best to wait until we stop and can look them over,” Rieka replied.

  The wolfish princess was sitting neatly in her corner of the bench, the fluffy mass of her platinum-blonde tail draped over her lap and her fingers idly combing through the fur. I’d been around Rieka and most of my girls long enough to read in her posture that she really wanted to get started on reading through the reports, but waiting did make the most sense, so she was forcing herself to have patience.

  Silence settled over the carriage as the girls all traded glances, uncertain of a topic to pass the time until we reached our next stop. It ticked along for almost a minute until Valda came to the rescue.

  “Rieka,” the lizard-folk woman said with a tilt of her head. “You were the most recent of us to visit Liam’s home. I find myself fascinated with the idea of visiting another world and we’ve heard the stories from Kassandra and Shayla several times over. What did you get to experience?”

  Rieka blushed immediately, shooting me a shy glance. I didn’t respond, just wiggling my eyebrows at her suggestively. There was quite a bit that we did during our brief visit to Earth, but I would leave it up to my princess what she wanted to tell the others about.

  I don’t care either way, I thought silently. If she wants to go into excruciating detail about the sexy bits, then she’s welcome to it. It’s not like the girls aren’t all aware of what we get up to. Hell, even Valda bathes with us when we do the group baths, but I can tell she’s interested in more. Wonder what’s holding her back?

  While I was lost in thought, Rieka reddened further before sputtering and giving herself a firm shake.

  “We went for a drive!” Rieka exclaimed, her ears popping straight upright like someone had grabbed her tail and given it a tug.

  “Something tells me that isn’t the only thing you did,” Kassandra teased.

  Rieka shot her serpentine friend a dirty look while Shayla attempted to deescalate the situation for the clearly embarrassed princess.

  “I’m sure that you did other things,” Shayla said gently, her antennae wafting like a pair of hands patting the air to calm them down. “But I’m curious where you went on your drive, and what you enjoyed the most about it? Liam took me into the mountains and let me draw a noble’s retreat from the side of the road.”

  Shayla’s soft voice and the gentle smile on her face from the memory did actually help Rieka relax. She stuck her tongue out at Kassandra once, who burst into another fit of giggles, before turning her attention back to Shayla.

  “We also went into the mountains, but deeper to what Liam called a ‘national park’ where we drove along the roads and looked for wildlife. I saw an absolutely massive deer with wide, flat antlers watching us from the tree line.”

  “Huh? You saw a moose and didn’t tell me?” I asked, turning to her in surprise.

  Rieka’s blush, which had been fading, darkened again.

  “You were distracted,” Rieka said, her tone taking on a sultry note. She finished her statement by biting her bottom lip alluringly.

  That expression and the way she squirmed in her seat reminded me of just what I had been doing, and I had to agree. I’d had far more interesting things in mind—and in hand—than a moose watching us from the tree line.

  <><><>

  Despite the best attempts of the other girls to tease all the gruesome details out of Rieka about what we did during her visit to Earth, my princess managed to keep the story to the ‘safe for casual conversation’ subjects.

  I could tell from the looks on Kassandra and Jane’s faces that they had an idea of what we’d gotten up to in my truck and then again later when we got back to my hill-house. Valda clearly had a suspicion, but was too polite to join in the outright asking and teasing with the other two. But Shayla was the most adorable in her reaction.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  The beautiful moth woman spent most of the ride with her sketchbook out, her cheeks dusted with pink and half hidden by the fluffy white ruff of down around her neck from how she was sitting with her shoulders hunched. She squirmed occasionally, but most of her focus was divided between listening to Rieka talk and her hand moving over the page sketching something.

  I’d put good money that she’s sketching out what she imagines we did, I thought with a grin while I watched her work.

  Once during the trip, Shayla’s eyes drifted up from her work to meet mine and she blushed even harder when she realized I was watching her. From the way her antennae balled up and she shyly hid her face in her ruff, I knew it was something lascivious that she was drawing.

  For all that she’s as sweet as candy and the kindest woman I know, Shayla’s got a really dirty mind, I thought, grinning at her and making the moth woman blush harder.

  From the conversation of Rieka’s visit to Earth, we then segued into rehashing what Kassandra and Shayla had done, before moving Jane poking at me with various requests of things that she’d like to do when it was finally her turn.

  It was a good several hours after we’d left the spies camp when our conversation was interrupted and not in a polite way.

  “I know that I won’t be able to read any of the books from there, but I still would love to see the libraries or book shops that you have in your world, Liam,” Jane said, her eyes wide and sparkling with excitement.

  “I’ll have to take you to the used book shops,” I replied. “They are some of the best places to find off-the-wall and interesting books. They aren’t as common nowadays due to the increase in e-books, or electronic books, but they are still present.”

  “E-books?” Jane asked, tilting her head curiously. The gesture made her rounded mouse ears flop cutely, which distracted me for a moment.

  Before I could respond, a sharp thump of something impacting the wood behind my head made all of us jump.

  “Predator in the woods,” called the carriage driver, his gruff voice iron-hard. “Something large enough that it’s pacing the carriage even in the trees.”

  “Of course,” Rieka growled, her pointed wolf ears laying flat on her head in irritation. She shouted the next part so that the driver could hear her: “can you outrun it?”

  “Maybe, but the road has been rough and I’m dodging potholes,” called the driver back.

  “Pull over then,” Rieka decided in a snap. “Safer to confront it than risk damaging the carriage.”

  “And if we do evade it, then it might prey on someone else that cannot defend themselves,” Valda said, her brows drawing together with a near-audible click and her hand tightening on her sword-hilt.

  “Are you sure—” the driver began, but Rieka’s barked order cut him off.

  “Pull over. There is nothing in this forest that I’m afraid of in my present company.”

  I won’t lie, I straightened with pride at that statement. Kassandra giggled in my ear, clearly amused by my response. Thankfully, my mischief-noodle didn’t call me out on it. Instead, she just pressed a kiss to my cheek before quickly uncoiling from around my waist.

  The dwarf lamia slid to the floor of the carriage with a thump, retracting her coils to get them out of the way and under her as the carriage began to slow down.

  As soon as the rattle of the wheels on the hard dirt quieted, I picked up the distant crunch of breaking branches and the sound of heavy footsteps on the south side of the carriage.

  “Yup, sounds like something big and dangerous,” I said, shifting to take a knee by the door on the side the sounds were coming from, holding the handle firmly in one hand.

  “Liam, you are out first with Valda right after you,” Rieka ordered, unholstering her spell-rod with easy precision.

  Her hands danced over the metallic baton, working the simple mechanical catches to bare the row of mana-infused metal discs inside. All around her, the other girls were doing the same thing. Even Shayla, who quickly traded her sketchbook for her modified spell rod that had a high-end glass lens mounted on the end that I had brought for her from Earth.

  “Once you have the exit secured, the rest of us will disembark. I’ll go first, then Kassandra, Jane, then finally Shayla. I’ll anchor middle. Kass, you go right. Jane, left. Then Shayla, you support me in the middle,” Rieka said, continuing to reel off orders.

  “I’ll go right,” I offered to Valda. “That way you don’t end up with your sword-side constrained by the carriage.” She nodded sharply in understanding, rolling her head on her neck to loosen the muscles.

  The carriage continued to slow and I took a moment to flip back the curtain to check our surroundings.

  We were still in a forest, though this was a far younger section of forest than where we’d met the spies. The trees loomed higher than the carriage, but only by a few feet rather than a dozen or more. Undergrowth choked the spaces between the trees, leafy bushes and clinging rock vines.

  I immediately spotted the figure pacing us. A large, russet colored beast that was half the size of the carriage but its main body was twice as long. It moved with an odd, wiggling gait that didn’t look like it should have been able to keep up as well as it did, but it was. The russet coloring made it hard to tell its exact size or shape, blending in with the tree trunks behind it. But it was big and clearly following the carriage.

  The squeal of the hand-brake finally being applied to bring the carriage to a stop was the signal to me. The vehicle was still in motion when I threw the door open and swung myself out, banishing my shirt and pants into my Dimensional Pocket and sending thick, armored scales in a dark red racing over my body.

  I clung to the wooden door as it swung open and banged into the side of the carriage, dropping down to the ground once the carriage stopped. My limbs immediately began lengthening. Given the size of the creature we were facing, I didn’t want to take chances, so I dipped into some of the tricks I kept in reserve.

  My arms gained a dozen extra joints while my hands merged into singular needle-sharp spikes that were half a foot in length. A mental command with Shape-Shifting pushed venom production into overdrive.

  Valda hit the dirt road on my left, her sword ringing with a sweet, clear note as she drew it from its scabbard. A spin of her wrist showed me she had engaged her own borrowed Shape-Shifting to adjust the range of her joints.

  Rieka was stepping clear of the carriage, spell-rod held out while the sun shone on her pale hair when the creature surged out of the brush.

  Since coming to Cortha for the first time, I’ve encountered a number of odd looking and magical creatures. Everything from fire-breathing serpents, to flying whales, to quadrupedal land-sharks. But this creature was just bizarre in the extreme.

  Easily twenty feet long, the creature powered along on eight sturdy legs, lunging out of the bushes with its long, flat snout yawning open wide. Shaggy brown fur hung from its hide, with twigs, moss, and even a few mushrooms scattered amongst its tangled mass. If it had been sitting still, I would have mistaken it for a mossy log at a casual glance. But the snapping, hissing mouth brought to mind only one animal and it was one I did not want to get bitten by.

  “Is that a goddamn crocodile? A wooly crocodile?!” I exclaimed, lashing out with one of my scorpion-tail arms.

  The animal checked its charge, hissing like an angry steam engine and snapping at the limb. I retracted my attack before it could get hold of my arm. It was fast—far faster than its size should have allowed—and I heard the carriage driver swearing at the horses, who were whinnying in panic.

  “Tree-stalker,” Valda replied, a note of concern in her tone. “This won’t be a straightforward fight.”

  “Fuck that,” I replied, sidestepping further and lashing the air with my tail-arms. “I know how to deal with oversized threats.”

  “And this time you don’t have to face it alone,” Rieka added, hopping down from her spot at the door to the carriage. “Bolt Chain!”

  A sharp crack came next as the writhing length of lighting shaped like a white-hot chain lashed from Rieka’s spell-rod. The tree-stalker snapped at the attack, hissing in pain as the magical attack hit its upper jaw and made it seize once, then again when Rieka flicked the back half of the crackling chain into its shoulder.

  Taking the opportunity, I lunged in from the side, punching forward with both arms to drive the thick, organic spurs topping my shifted arms into its side. Contracting the venom sacs, I pumped toxins into the creature’s body as fast as I could before whipping back and away.

  The tree-stalker’s hissing roar was even more furious now, whirling toward me with its mouth open wide. Its front four legs snatched at the air before slamming into the dirt road and dragging it forward to snap at me, but I gave ground and danced backward, drawing it along the road away from the girls.

  “Ice Lance!”

  “Wind Blade!”

  Kassandra and Jane joined the fray, slamming magical attacks into the creature’s side while Valda sidestepped to put herself between the monster and the girls.

  The creature began to turn back toward my girls, its massive body flexing as it did so.

  “No you don’t!” I snarled, winding up a ferocious overhand punch.

  Being so large, it took time for the venom I had pumped into the creature to take effect. I’d gone for a fast-acting paralytic, but even that was taking time because of the creature’s sheer size. But that sheer size also had a major downside:

  It was really easy to hit.

  The overhand blow drove down onto the top of the tree-stalker’s snout like a dropped boulder. In the moment of frantic rage, I pushed all of my considerable, System-enhanced strength into the attack.

  Crunch.

  The bone spur on the end of my right arm punched into the top of the creature's snout.

  Bang!

  The tree-stalker’s wide mouth—easily large enough that it could swallow one of the horses or me in a bite—crashed shut like someone slamming the hood of a truck. The clap of the upper jaw meeting lower was so thunderous that it nearly knocked little Jane off her feet.

  Valda didn’t hesitate. With the mouth closed, she lunged forward just ahead of its forward-most legs and slashed at the nearest, bulbous eye with her sword.

  The burning-hot blade sent a gout of steam up as it sliced into the thick eyelid the tree-stalker tried to close protectively, before passing into the glaring orb.

  With a squeal of pain, the tree-stalker thrashed its head back and forth to try and escape the attack before stiffening suddenly and falling to the ground dead, my spike-fist still buried in the middle of its head.

  The transition from combat to still was so sudden that my girls actually fired several more spells into it before they realized it wasn’t moving anymore. A ravening beam of light from Shayla seared through one of its near legs, another spear of ice from Kassandra took it in the ribs, and Rieka’s second chain of lighting seared into its side.

  “It’s dead?” I panted in surprise, still pumping venom into it to make sure.

  “Yes…” Valda said, eyes wide in surprise while her hands still gripped the hilt of her sword. “It… it impaled its own brain when it tried to thrash away from my sword…”

  Everyone stopped to stare at that. Because indeed, Valda’s sword was buried to the hilt now in the dead creature's eye. She gave it an experimental tug to try and remove it, only for the blade to barely budge more than an inch.

  “Well then,” muttered the carriage driver from his perch in a low voice that still carried nonetheless, “that’s a bit anticlimactic… but I’ll take it!”

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