A Vulpine Spanner in the Works
Chapter 22: You'll Soon Believe That a Tree Can Fly
[Unknown]
You know, over my long course of living, I've done a lot of different assignments. Some good, some bad, some boring, and some exciting. Today though, I found this particular assignment to be quite enjoyable.
I didn't have to kill anyone or anything directly. I got to walk around and interact with people as long as I remained close to my target and protected her, not that I didn't enjoy spending time around my charge. She was definitely easy on the eyes. For all intents and purposes, this was essentially a vacation for me.
My only annoyance of the job was the fact that I had to stay in my human form for extended periods of time. My body felt like it was in a vice after an hour or two and forced me to find a hidden spot and take on a more animalistic form. While that wasn't a complete relief, I found that being in the form of a fox with one tail was a whole lot better than the form of a human with none.
Honestly, I'm both amazed and horrified at how the Princess is able to go almost the entire day in her human guise when just two hours makes me want to start clawing my skin off.
Still, at least when I had to dip out for a minute or two so that I could 'decompress' as it were, the little kobold that invisibly followed her was able to act as a good backup.
I revealed myself to him on the first day of my assignment so that he didn't end up mistaking me for a hostile entity. And while a little- no cut that- very eccentric, he was a nice enough fellow that made this job entertaining. I'd seen him slip enough potions into the drinks of people we both found to be distasteful. I'd gotten quite a few laughs at drunk and rowdy patrons who suddenly had to leave and clear their bowels.
Yet, aside from the entertainment, I just loved this food! I have no idea what it is that they do with the meat pies in this place, but I think that I'm starting to get addicted. And, looking down at the delicious pie set on the table before me, I could just feel my mouth watering in anticipation. Taking a sniff, I could tell that they used ham this time. I'm excited!
Just as I was about to dig into the delicious meat pie fit for Lady Inari herself, my blue eyes caught sight of someone being handsy with my charge, making her very uncomfortable. And it didn't seem like he had any intention of stopping.
With a sigh, I pushed my chair out and got up before giving the little kobold, Meepo, the assurance that I'd take care of this issue.
Then, I made my way over to the boisterous man, already deep in his cups, sitting at a table with his friends. One of his hands was wrapped around my charge, Tuare's, wrist while his other was reaching for her rear. Taking note, all three of the men had gold tags around their necks identifying them as members of the Adventurer's Guild.
"Sir, please let go. I need to take care of the other customers that are here." Tuare worded sternly to the drunk.
"But my friends and I are also customers! We've paid good money for the service here, so why don't stay here a little bit longer to keep us company. We'll even throw in a little something extra." As the drunk said this, he finally groped my charge, much to the guffaws of his two friends sitting at the table with him.
That was when Tuare had had enough as she slapped the drunk hard enough to be heard around the restaurant. That caused the men to stop laughing and instead glare at the blonde serving girl.
"Let. Me. Go." Tuare demanded, keeping an even tone which I found to be quite commendable. Most people would be screaming out their anger while she continued trying to remain professional. I liked that.
"That wasn't funny, girl…" The drunk said as he pulled his fist back. I rushed over, and may have used a little of my inhuman speed, and arrived next to Tuare before catching the fist rocketing towards her face with my hand.
His punch was like an infant trying to swat at me. Pathetic.
"You know, when a lady asks you to let go, it is typically impolite to try and grope her afterwards, much less punch her for receiving a justifiable slap in response." I stated as I tightened my hand over the drunk adventurer's fist. I could very easily crush the bones in his hand to powder, but that wouldn't be nice to let the lady witness maiming on her behalf.
I spotted his other hand let go of Tuare before forming into a fist that was thrown in my face. I quickly caught it with my other hand before I started to really squeeze my grip, making the drunk wince in pain.
"What the hell, Vern? You're a gold-plate. How are you unable to hit a random guy?" One of the drunk's friends, a man in a set of scratched up leather armor, asked as he stood up and moved to attack.
"Don't know! Just help!" The drunk, now known as Vern, demanded. I decided to move behind the man and wrap his arm around his throat, slightly choking him while also pulling said arm enough to be on the verge of dislocation.
I looked to my charge and gave her a wink and a smile, "Would you mind moving a little back? I need to teach some manners." I asked and Tuare nodded before stepping away just before the idiot friend arrived to punch me.
Now, I could just let him hit me and watch as his fist broke on contact with my face, but that was both boring and a little 'unnatural' for a human. So, I went with the fun option and pulled Vern from his seat and into the punch, enjoying the thud of a fist followed by a shout of pain.
"You idiot! Hit him, not me!" Vern shouted. I decided to treat this fight as a dance since these idiots didn't deserve the respect of a fight.
Speaking of idiots, the third tried to rush behind me until I spun my unwilling dance partner behind me by their arm, releasing them from the chokehold that they had been wrapped in before. Vern and his other companion, a man in steel plates, slammed into one another, much to the growing laughter of my audience.
Spinning Vern back into a neck lock, I outstretched his free arm forwards with mine before having us march in step to an unheard beat as the idiot in leather armor rushed us.
I used Vern to block the next hit and then quickly wrapped our free arms around the neck of leather idiot, pulling him into our odd-looking dancing hug.
"Don't worry, always more room for others to tango!" I said as I spun the three of us around until we were all stepping over the steel plated idiot, much to his groans of complaint and pain.
Letting go of Vern's choking arm, now held in place by leather idiot being pressed against him, I pulled up steel plated idiot from the ground by the arm before wrapping it around his neck like Vern, choking the man while rendering him trapped against my body. Then, I stepped us all past the laughing crowd, adding a few twists and spins to the beat before I finally spun the three out the door and onto the street before letting them go to collapse in a heap on one another.
With that, I went back inside, closed the door, and gave a bow to my applauding audience before making my way over to check on my charge who was laughing after my improvised dance.
"Seems like you're in good spirits. I hope my unwilling dance partner didn't disturb you too much." I said with a grin.
"Even if he did disturb me, I doubt that it would compare to being 'danced' out of a bar like you did to him." Tuare replied with a smile.
"Eh, I wouldn't feel too upset about it. The idiot trio needed a lesson in proper manners when interacting with a lady. I was quite happy to provide it." I said with a wiggle of my eyebrows.
"Well, regardless, thank you for your timely assistance." Tuare replied warmly, "Would my savior be willing to provide me with his name?"
"For a pretty girl like you, I can." I was pleased to see her slightly blush, then I answered, "My name is Saizo. What might your name be?"
"Tuare." She replied before asking, "I feel like I've seen you around here before. Do you come here often?"
"I'm a little new to the city, but I'm enjoying it so far. I've been to this place a few times since and, honestly, I think I'm getting addicted to the meat pies here." I finished with a conspiratorial whisper.
"If that's the case, perhaps I could have another meat pie prepared for you as thanks." My mouth almost started watering at the thought of another meat pie, and this one would be free! I'll finish off the first meat pie and have another for seconds!
"That would be heavenly, Tuare. With amazing service like that in combination with the delicious meat pies here, I'll probably be coming by a lot more." I answered.
"I think I like the sound of that." Then she slightly blushed at her words before adding, "Oh, and Miss Celica will also be happy to know about that as well."
I think that I'm definitely going to enjoy this assignment in the coming future.
Watching outside the restaurant as my charge finished her shift, I had taken on my fox form minus six of my tails, of course. As she exited the restaurant, I began to follow her from the rooftops as Meepo trailed invisibly behind her.
Tuare looked quite happy which pleased me to know that even with a few bumps in the road, curtesy of being told about it from the Princess' copy, the girl had managed to move past it and make a better life for herself. I guess you could say that I'm a sucker for those with a chip on their shoulder. Another aspect about this human that impressed me was her independence.
I've no doubt that with how generous the Princess is, she likely offered Tuare an easy life. One where she didn't have to work and just had her needs cared for. And yet, she still decided to take the harder path in an effort to repay the Princess for her kindness.
I found it commendable.
Then, a smell assaulted my nose and I took a sniff in the air. My eyes quickly followed the location my nose had tracked, an alley about 50 yards ahead of where Tuare was walking. Speeding off, I jumped to the rooftops on the other side of the street before silently making my way to alley and looking down.
Hiding within that alley were three creatures that definitely weren't natives to the city.
Two of them were tiny red-skinned beings about a foot tall with wings, small horns that curved back on their heads, and a tail that curved upwards with a stinger on the end.
Those were definitely imps. Yet, the strangest thing was a being next to them that was slowly shifting their hairless form. As I watched, it slowly grew out long blonde hair as its facial features changed from a trio of holes into the pretty face of Tuare's. A doppelgänger.
That made me narrow my eyes as I took note of the chains and cloth in the hands of the imps.
"The human will approach the area soon. We'll need to take her quickly and have you swap places with her before anyone notices." One of the imps said to the other two.
My charge would likely arrive at this alley within three minutes. They'd be dealt with in one.
Dropping down behind the trio of monsters, I shifted into my humanoid form before hitting the stone ground in a silent crouch. Then, I dashed forwards and ripped my tails through the heads of two imps in an instant. They didn't even get to make a sound before I extended the claws of my hand out and dragged them along the brick wall of the alleyway.
"A shame that my charge's face is being sullied by a cheap copycat's mimicry." I said slowly behind the doppelgänger, causing them to turn around and look at me with both surprise and fear. Good.
"B-But there was only supposed to be one kitsune! She's supposed to be out of the city!" The faker said with Tuare's voice, making me a little upset. I didn't say a word as I continued dragging my claws along with wall, creating deep tracks in the brick.
"Life is full of disappointments in that way. Too bad you aren't going to experience anything more." I taunted with a large grin.
"Who are you?" The copy demanded as it shifted Tuare's arm into a vicious set of claws.
I took that moment to pounce. Seven spears that were my tails ripped into the copy from every direction as my claws tore at the face it shamefully recreated. It didn't even have a moment to defend itself since blocking two of my limbs just left seven others to continue shredding.
When I had finished, the fake had finally reverted back to its original form, well, what remained of its original form.
"I'm just a happy little guardian fox. You're just meat." I said before igniting all the corpses in [Foxfire] until nothing remained but ashes.
My work done, I shifted back into a gray fox with one tail and leapt up to the rooftops once again.
In hindsight, I probably should've kept one alive. Sadly, I've never been one to hold back once I was upset. I'll have to keep that in mind for next time. I'd need to let the Princess and others know, at the very least. Some little worms were after her people.
At least this assignment wasn't going to be boring. And, if I'm lucky, I'll get to be posted here even longer which gives me even more opportunities to eat those meat pies! I was already licking my lips at the thought.
[Lukrut]
Day 17:
As the dawn slowly rose, allowing beams of light to filter into my face, I turned away from it and tried to bury my face into the soft pillow I was sleeping on. I was too comfortable to want to move.
Wait… Pillow?
My eyes quickly shot open as the events of last night came back to me. Looking down, I found Kashia resting her head on my chest with a peaceful expression on her face. At the top of her head, her long golden-furred ears twitched every few moments which caused them to tickle my face.
Looking down from her resting face, my eyes traced the contours of her nude form to the nine golden tails that were splayed around us. Five or so of the tails covered the pair of us like blankets while rest snaked about us, like the one my head was currently resting on as a pillow.
An adorable thing I took note of was that one of her tails seemed to be wagging slowly like a dog's. I guess that my beautiful fox is having a nice dream. I didn't exactly want to disturb it, so I just remained as I was, enjoying the feeling of her warm skin against mine.
What a rush yesterday was. I find out I can do some weird kind of magic, Kashia reveals that she's a kitsune, we have sex, and then I find out that her mother is a goddess. That's a lot to happen in the span of one day.
Thinking more about what she had told me last night, she had called herself a demigoddess. Would that mean her father was mortal? Was he even a kitsune or could he be some other race?
I also had to wonder about what she said during the feast. She mentioned that her family had extremely long lifespans. Is Kashia around the same age as I am or is she centuries to millennia old? I kind of doubted it just from how she acted. She didn't seem mentally burdened by age like other older people I've met. Her eyes were quite young.
And speaking of the feast, there was something else I realized about her in combination of what she had said before about the deities that blessed her. One of the deities that blessed her is a fertility goddess. Kashia's mother is also a fertility goddess.
That told me two things. The first was that it explained why she was so ridiculously 'blessed' with certain assets of her body. The other was that Kashia's guaranteed to become pregnant if we aren't careful.
Not that I wouldn't mind having a few little children with some fox tails and ears running around. It's just that I doubt Kashia or I are ready to settle down from a life of adventure just yet.
Aside from 'positive' aspects of her divinity, I also had to consider the negative aspects. A whole country south of us specifically. Looking down at the beautiful woman sleeping in my arms, I couldn't help but think about what might happen if they learned of her existence. And that made me hold her a little tighter.
From the stories I've heard of the Slane Theocracy's zealotry, the outcomes didn't look good. Would they try to capture her as an attempt to either breed more divinely blessed warriors? Or would they try to kill her due to being a foreign demigoddess? From what I know about their treatment of non-humans there, none of it bode well for Kashia.
She's powerful, but I didn't wish to find out how she'd fare by herself against an entire country. I needed more power so that she didn't have to do this all alone.
But I think that was enough focusing on gloom and doom. I needed to enjoy what I had now.
With a smirk, I began to gently caress one of Kashia's ears, causing it to twitch about in my hand while my beautiful fox muttered in her sleep. Feeling emboldened, I began rubbing her ear again, causing it to shake this time before she sleepily blinked her orange eyes open and began looking around and then up to me.
She gave me a smile before resting her chin on my chest. "Morning."
"Morning." I replied.
"How long have you been awake?" She asked as one of her fingers began tracing the brand on my chest.
"Just a little while. Thought about letting you sleep for a little while longer." I said while continuing to rub her ear, much to her happiness as I saw one of her tails wagging.
"Yet it seems that you decided not to. If the fact that you are rubbing my ears is anything to go by." She remarked with a tone of mirth.
"I can't help it. You have very pretty ears that are soft to the touch. What man could resist caressing them?" I stated passionately as Kashia moved up and kissed me before returning to her prior position.
"Flatterer." She joked before saying, "So, I don't doubt that you have a few questions for me. Anything in particular that you want to ask?"
Thinking about it, this might be one of the few chances that she would actually answer a few of the questions I had while being straightforward. "What happened in Tob? I've heard the talks and now that I know who and what you are, I'd like to be a little enlightened."
"A little while back, I encountered a tribe of lizardmen on the lake who I decided to help. In order to prove my claims of who I said I was, I may have ended up conjuring a giant stone tree that managed to get seen by members of the Magician's Guild. They created an expedition into the forest to get to the bottom of it. Then, due to hearing that I could cast spells of the 3rd Tier, they brought me along in an effort to either recruit me or establish a good relationship.
In an effort to make sure the lizardmen would be safe from the over-inquisitive mages along with covering my tracks, I created a magical duplicate of myself that would act like a goddess while I maintained my cover. That backfired and now I have a bunch of mages who are worshipping me."
"Okay, the religion thing I can understand just because your magic is ridiculous. But a magical copy? What's that about?" Kashia was silent for a while before she seemed to have a mental argument with herself. Then, she looked to me again.
"Lukrut, try to-"
That was when I felt another warm body at my side and I looked to my left to see… Kashia? Looking between the pair, the only differences I could spot were the new Kashia's eyes being golden while her expression was a lot more mischievous compared to my Kashia's friendly and inviting.
"Hello, Lucky!" She moaned out with Kashia's voice yet was missing the tone that I was used to. "Seems like the Boss had a lot of fun with you last night. Guess I was right after all." My Kashia hid her face in my chest while flipping the bird to the fake Kashia.
"Oh, shut up." Kashia muttered.
"No thanks. Besides, now that you've had some fun with our boyfriend, I want a turn." She then looked up to me and tried moving closer to me until my Kashia blocked the fake with her tails and pushed her away. Then, she tightened her grip on me while glaring at the fake.
"Mine!" She stated with a primal tone before calming down, "Don't make me dismiss you. And put some fucking clothes on." The copy just rolled her eyes before getting up from the ground.
"Have it your way." The copy conceded before looking to me once again, "You know, you should try to convince the Boss to try a threesome one day with you, me, and her. It would be a nig-" A ball of fire was quickly flung at the copy who blocked it with her tails.
"Leave. Now." Kashia ordered.
"I'm moving. I'm moving. Guess I'll just have to live vicariously through your memories and my left hand." She said before disappearing. I looked back to my Kashia who was blushing up a storm.
"So, your copy…" I trailed off.
"She's a construct of mana that is essentially an exact replica of me. The only real difference being her personality. She's me if you took away all my inhibitions. It's also because of her that I now have a random religion worshipping me. If she had made things simple, then I probably wouldn't have to deal with hearing the prayers of mages in my head." Okay, what did she mean about hearing prayers in her head?
"Two things; what did your copy do to cause your religion issue? And what do you mean when you say that you can hear prayers in your head?" I asked with a bit more concern on the second question. If something was really bothering her, then I wanted to know if there was anything I could do to help.
Kashia's face filled with annoyance at recalling the thought before she answered, "When I had last been at the lake, the only thing that I had done there was make the giant stone tree and a bridge to reach it for the lizardmen. When I came back there with the expedition, there were now multiple bridges lit with braziers and decorations that all led to a solid gold palace at the foot of the tree. That is in addition to the literal army of kitsune she summoned to guard said area. And don't even get me started on the skimpy outfit she chose for the goddess disguise."
"And what outfit might that have been? Now I'm intrigued." I teased Kashia which earned me a flick to the forehead.
"I don't feel like showing it to you right now. We'll just let your imagination fill in the blanks." She taunted back before continuing, "So, after all of that, the Magician's Guild's leader, Theo Rakheshir, partially figured out who I was because of the kitsune my copy summoned letting too many details slip. He confronted me about it, I revealed who I was, then he pledged his undying loyalty to me in exchange for magical knowledge.
I gave him a tome containing knowledge of a simple spell. After that, he started up a religion with a bunch of his mages the next day. And now, I have to deal with hearing their prayers in the back of my mind due to being a demigoddess." She finished with a huff.
"If you don't like people praying to you, why don't you ask them to stop? I asked while now rubbing her other ear. She closed her eyes and leaned into my hand, seemingly enjoying the feeling. Then, she opened up her orange eyes and looked up at me with a smirk.
"You try convincing a bunch of zealots to not worship you. They probably won't unless you start smiting them. And if that doesn't work, then cults start sprouting up which could vary from having weird dancing rituals up to human sacrifice. I picked the lesser of two evils which I could at least have a measure of control over."
"I see your point. This is your area of expertise, so I'll leave it to you since I doubt that I know better than you on this." I remarked which made Kashia giggle for some reason. "What's so funny?"
"You, my silly archer." She then gave me another kiss before lifting herself off of me.
[Kashia]
Pulling myself up from Lukrut, the blond archer sat up with me. While the instinctual side in my mind was, thankfully, quieter after the events of last night, it still whined about me moving away from Lukrut or not continuing some more intimate activities with him.
And by God, I was tempted. It seemed like this body's nerves and pleasure center were dialed up to 11 with how I felt after everything Lukrut did to me last night. It was probably the method that the two goddesses of fertility I was either blessed by or the daughter of used to ensure that the fertility part of their domains would be followed. It was a whole lot more intense than my original body, that was one thing I was positive on.
Still, I really needed to watch my step or I was going to get addicted and/or pregnant.
All in all, though, I wasn't that bothered by my first time in this body sleeping with a man. I blamed how the hardware of my body was affecting the software of my mind. But at this point, it was a little too late to start feeling regrets, especially because I liked Lukrut. Or did this body like him which then changed my mind to follow?
Great, now I can start philosophizing about whether the mind is a plaything of the body or if the body is a plaything of the mind. Next will be if the chicken or the egg came first?
Even with all of this possible mental reprogramming, I'd like to believe that I, myself, chose to be with Lukrut instead of some instinctual drive to mate that was built into me. It allowed me to believe that I had free will. This aided me in not putting to question all the choices I have made or will make because it's what my body wanted.
"Guess we'll have to get up now. I just wish we could spend a little bit more time as we were." Lukrut remarked in disappointment. Pulling up my wandering eyes from his body to meet his face, I gave him a reassuring smile.
"Honestly, I'd like to just go back to cuddling or some more physical activities." I admitted, "But I know that if we do that, we likely won't get up till mid-afternoon at the earliest." Lukrut chuckled at my response.
"You're probably right. Can't leave the others waiting after all." Lukrut said as he began reaching for his clothes.
That was true, but, giving him a sultry look and leaning over to his ear, I spoke in a breathy tone, "Depending on how well you do today, I think I might like to go on another walk with you tonight." That immediately cheered my silly archer up.
"Then I definitely can't disappoint my beautiful fox today." I giggled at that before using my tails to gather all of my clothes along with Lukrut's together which we began putting on.
As I watched him put his shirt on, I couldn't help but wonder what that strange symbol on his chest was for. It looked like a basic design of what I could guess was a seed, but I wasn't sure about all the lines that spread out from it that seemed reminiscent of circuitry. It was definitely a strange tattoo, if it even was one, especially because it seemed to be slightly raised from his skin, almost like scar tissue.
While putting my gloves and rings on, I asked, "What is that symbol on your chest for? I didn't take you for someone that had tattoos."
Lukrut looked down at the symbol in contemplation before looking up at me. He seemed to hesitate with his answer before finally speaking, "Not really sure. Just woke up with it after a wild night of drinking."
I could tell that was a lie. But I decided not to needle him about it since it seemed that it was personal to Lukrut. If he wanted to tell me about it one day, then he could. After all, everyone has at least one secret in their life that they're allowed to keep.
"Wild night, huh? At least the tattoo you got isn't as embarrassing as the ones I've seen others wake up with." I said while pulling one of my boots up my leg.
"Speaking of, Kashia. I've noticed that you never seem to take that choker of yours off. Why's that?" Lukrut asked with some curiosity as he buckled the leather chest piece of his armor.
Hmm, now that is a tricky one. Might as well just tell him since I doubt said knowledge would be an issue. "This is called the Seed of Yggdrasil. It's one of 200 immensely powerful magical artifacts that have power beyond even my greatest spells." I began while feeling the jewel at my neck. Lukrut just looked amazed at the item.
"You mean to say that that little thing is stronger than you are?"
"Yes. Though, compared to other items, its ability is relatively tame. The Seed of Yggdrasil allows me to store an infinite amount of mana into it. Then, whenever I choose, I can release all that stored mana into my next spell, completely empowering it. For most, it would be an item that would take a long time to empower to devastating levels. But for me, with my unique heritage…"
I took off one of my gloves and used my sharp nail to slice a thin line into the palm of my hand. This allowed for my golden blood to seep out from my hand until the wound closed.
"My blood is a concentrated source of divinity and magic that allows my body to continually regenerate mana at a rapid rate. This allows me to store some of that constant regeneration into the Seed at all times. I haven't had to use it for over three months." That caused realization to dawn on Lukrut's face.
"So, if you were to use that on your weakest spell…"
"My weakest spell would probably be [Magic Bolt]. It'd likely turn anyone it touched to ash at this point." I could only guess what that tiny bolt of mana would do if it made contact with something in this New World when empowered. Ash was probably being generous, not that I was willing to test that out and waste the stored mana.
"I guess I see why you never take it off." When Lukrut said this, he finished pulling on both of his boots as I finished dressing myself.
I then went to stand except my legs ended up wobbling beneath me and I landed back on my ass absolutely mortified.
My ability to walk had literally been fucked up.
Lukrut walked over to me and kneeled down next to me in concern. I found it impossible to suppress the red on my face as he looked into mine with concern.
"Are you alright, Kashia?"
"I can't walk right now." I muttered quietly.
"What-"
"I can't walk." I said more clearly. Lukrut remained calm for a moment, then he burst out laughing which made me want to curl into a ball and die. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. You ended up fucking away a demigoddess' motor control. This is the closest you'll ever get to defeating me."
As his laughter died down, his face continued to hold that expression of amusement as he gave me a kiss to appease my mood. "I'm sorry, Kashia. It's just really funny that the woman who could alter continents on a whim ends up defeated because she had sex."
"I can still drop you in the middle of a lake." I warned dryly.
"Okay. I'll stop making fun of your issue." He conceded, yet I still saw a twinkle of laughter in his eyes, "Now, how much time do you need before you can walk again?"
Testing my legs out, I still felt a bit of weakness which I couldn't judge how long it might take to work out. "Don't know. Never had this happen before."
"Well, we can't exactly keep the others waiting." As Lukrut said this, he scooped me into his arms and stood, causing me to yelp in surprise.
"What the hell are you doing?!" I demanded to know as I realized exactly what he planned to do. I could not let anyone see me like this.
"If you can't walk, then I'll just have to carry my princess instead." Lukrut answered. Out of sheer spite, I lifted my tails off the ground and let him take the full weight of my body. Lukrut visibly started to struggle when I did this.
"I probably weigh about 140 to 150 pounds with just my body. My tails likely weigh around 30 to 40 pounds each. On average, you are probably deadlifting about 460 pounds right now. Think you can hold that for as long as it takes to get back to camp?"
"Probably… Not…" Lukrut strained out before I decided to take it easy on my silly archer and cast [Kitsune Illusion], hiding away my tails and ears in that weird state of both existing and not existing. That also came with the benefit of freeing up over 300 pounds which Lukrut was appreciative of.
"Really convenient that whatever the spell you use to disguise yourself also removes the weight of your tails." Lukrut remarked. I just crossed my arms.
"Yeah, well, I'm being kind by lightening the load for you. But you are not allowed to carry me into camp like this." I ordered to the dummy.
"Don't worry, none of the others will see you like this." He said in reassurance. Then he added, "It does make me sad that I'm not able to carry my princess, tails and all, like this. I guess I'll need to work on training my strength so that I'm able to carry my beautiful fox princess over the threshold if we were to ever get married."
I felt my face heat up with this declaration. In an effort to hide it, I tried looking away and frowning.
"I find it cute to watch my buxom fox try hiding her embarrassment." Lukrut teased as we exited the copse with me still in his arms. I think that this was as much embarrassment as I was going to take, so I began kicking my legs to regain my motor control.
"Alright, I'll let you down." As he said this, he lowered me to the ground feet fist. He was careful to be slow and make sure that my legs would support me before finally letting me go.
While I was steady, I made sure to take a few testing steps before taking longer strides.
"You think the others are awake by now?" Lukrut pondered.
"Maybe. I couldn't say for sure. What I can say is that you'll all be running a mile if you want any breakfast." I answered with a satisfied grin at Lukrut's disappointment.
"And what should we say if they are awake and they see us coming to camp together like we are?"
"We can just say that we went on a walk to enjoy the scenery. I doubt that they'll think much of it." I replied.
As we arrived at the camp, Lukrut and I found Ninya, Peter, and Dyne already awake and gathering their gear together. When they noticed us, Ninya immediately looked away from Lukrut and I with a blush, Peter snorted before breaking out into laughter, and Dyne had an amused smile on his face.
"Morning, everyone." I greeted as I slowly became worried.
"Good morning, Kashia, Lukrut." Dyne said before adding, "It sounded like you two had a very good night." My jaw dropped as Peter started howling at this point.
"How?" I asked. This time, it was the still blushing Ninya that spoke up.
"W-We could hear you from over here…" Ninya answered as I started hiding my face in my hand.
Peter finally was able to compose himself before adding, "At first, we thought that you were being murdered, Kashia. Then, we figured out pretty quickly afterwards that it wasn't the case."
Oh no… I inherited the other trait foxes are known for…
I'm a loud screamer…
Lukrut didn't seem to be taking it that well either considering the massive blush on his face that matched mine. At least I wasn't the only one suffering.
"At least you two finally made it official. I just wish that it hadn't kept us awake when it happened." Dyne said with a chuckle. I conjured a chair to sit in before burying my face in both my hands. I felt Lukrut put his hand on my shoulder to try and comfort me. That didn't exactly help, but the thought was appreciated.
Still, I needed time to myself to cope with the embarrassment, I pointed off into a random direction. "All of you, mile, now!" I commanded which got the reaction I wanted as they all started running.
I'm never going to live this down…
[Albedo]
Today was a day for all inhabitants of Nazarick to be worried about or, at least, those who I had assembled in this meeting room. To my right sat Demiurge, Cocytus, and the tit-less traitor Shalltear. To my left was Aura, Mare, and Victim who I had called to this meeting due to how serious it was.
After the battle of my Love, the traitor, and the whore, Demiurge and I had been informed by Narberal Gamma about a massive problem that my Love was facing. From what she had said, my Love had spoken with the fox whore about the curse he was suffering from. One that dulled his emotions in such a cruel way. While Demiurge, Cocytus, and I had heard of it when my Love and the bitch went to deal with the traitor, hearing one of the Pleiades fully explain it made us immediately look into solutions.
She had initially heard talks about it from my Love with the fox whore during their first meeting. Yet, she hadn't spoken of it because she was commanded by him not to. Yet, as time went on, he spoke more and more about it which was when she could no longer contain such information.
On the same note, Narberal had also spoken of the fox whore and how her body had entered a mating cycle. While I am uncertain on how such information might be used in the future, it was good to know just in case. Any potential weakness needed to be utilized if I was to fulfill my Love's desire to subjugate and enslave the bitch at the very least.
But back to my Love and his horrible curse, Demiurge and I had started scouring for any information that we could find within Nazarick's library. What we came to find was that undead liches, like my Love, were typically cursed by other deities to endlessly suffer for their ascension into lichdom along with the necromantic powers that came with it.
Obviously, my Love had been cursed when he was much younger and weaker by a multitude of deities before finally ascending into his ultimate form. Then, upon his glorious ascension, he struck down those who would dare claim the title of deity in his presence. Yet, this curse must have remained, as a spiteful vengeance from such weak and disgusting beings.
My Love has such a kind heart, keeping such a terrible burden to himself. I just wish he had told me instead of somehow being tricked by that fox whore to reveal such a weakness. Unless, it was according to his plan, as much as I hoped it was.
"Greetings, fellow Guardians. I thank all of you for coming to this emergency meeting." I said to them all.
"Albedo, why have you brought us here? And why isn't Lord Ainz here for it?" Cocytus asked quite puzzled.
"The reason for our Lord's absence is because this meeting concerns him in particular." That drew that attentions and justifiable worries. "It has come to the attention of Demiurge and I that Lord Ainz is currently suffering under a terrible curse."
"What?!" Most of the Guardians shouted shock.
"It is true," Demiurge spoke, "Lord Ainz has been under the debilitating effects of a divine curse which Albedo and I had been researching for the past two days before bringing it to your attention."
"But why not let us all know sooner? Maybe we would've been able to help." Aura asked.
"I am in agreement, why keep this information to yourselves when something like this should be told to all of us?" Cocytus demanded as a breath of frosty mist puffed from his mandibles.
"Albedo and I decided to keep this silent until we had more information to provide to all of you for this meeting. It seems that Lord Ainz didn't want this information to spread and make us worry. He obviously has been diligently trying to find methods to cure himself but has so far been unsuccessful."
"What curse would hurt our Lord so much?" The traitor asked.
"It is one of suppressed emotions. Lord Ainz has slowly been losing his emotions to this curse which is immensely worrying. It could possibly end with our Lord losing even the will to continue existing." I answered.
"Then we must do something immediately! What has Lord Ainz looked into so far?" Cocytus asked.
"That, Albedo and I are not sure of. But I have a possible theory…" Demiurge answered before pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. "Of everyone Lord Ainz could have told of his curse, only two people knew before us. Narberal Gamma; who only learned of this curse due overhearing his conversations, and Kashia Blanc. Originally, I believed that Lord Ainz was interacting with the kitsune due to both harboring feelings for her along with intent on recruiting her to Nazarick.
Now, I believe there may be another reason for his constant interest and interactions with her. She may have the key to breaking his curse. Either she can do so with her own ability, as something that can, or she has the knowledge on how to do so."
"I-If Lady Kashia knows of how t-to break Lord Ainz's curse, then why doesn't she d-do so?" Mare timidly asked. I found it infuriating that he referred to the fox whore by the term 'Lady', but I kept that opinion to myself. It would not do to disrupt this meeting over that slut.
"Potentially, she may be leading Lord Ainz on, but I believe that Lord Ainz is actually after something from her that she doesn't even know he's interested in. After all, if Lord Ainz were to display direct interest in what he is actually after, Kashia may demand a great payment that our Lord does not wish to pay."
"What if all of us Floor Guardians assaulted her at once? We should be more than enough to defeat and capture her. Then Lord Ainz can just take what he wants from her while also enslaving her. It would accomplish all three of our Lord's goals; curing himself, taking her for her power, and making her his woman. I might not enjoy the thought of him taking an outsider as his concubine or consort, but I am willing to share if it is what our Lord wishes." The traitor's words caused me to clench my fists in anger. The fox whore didn't deserve anything but to be chained to my Love's throne as a trophy!
"Shalltear, your knowledge on the kitsune is quite lacking if you believe that us simply assaulting her would work. Kashia Blanc, formerly known as Fox13itch, was known for having defeated multiple Supreme Beings at once by herself, one of which was my own creator. She is a trickster, making regular combat a foolish endeavor. Instead, what we need is finesse." Demiurge explained to the tit-less traitor which made her look foolish in front of all of us, giving me no small measure of happiness.
"Then, must we perform a secret assault upon her?" Cocytus asked. While I appreciated my fellow Guardian's enthusiasm, he sadly only had a mind for straight combat. Subterfuge was something beyond his personality and mindset.
"No, we just need to acquire her weaknesses. For instance, she has a close connection to a pair of human sisters that she seems to treat like daughters. There is also, according to a new report from Narberal Gamma, a human that she has taken as a mate."
WHAT!? THAT FOX SLUT WOULD DARE TO TAKE ANOTHER AS HER LOVER WHEN MY LOVE IS TRYING TO TAKE HER FOR HIS OWN! SHE WOULD SUFFER FOR THIS! THE MOMENT MY LOVE WANTED HER, SHE LOST ALL CHOICE IN HER FUTURE!
"Ah, you are continuing the original plan, then? Will you also add the human mate to this?" Cocytus asked.
Demiurge shook his head, "While the original plan to capture one of the sisters is ongoing, I believe that it is a bad idea to attempt it with the mate. Since she would have a much more intimate relationship with him, there comes more chances of any doppelgänger we replace him with being discovered that much higher. Instead, we'll continue our efforts on the sisters."
"What else could we do about Lord Ainz's curse then?" Victim finally spoke up softly.
"We research other methods just in case. Our Lord is wise, so he likely isn't completely gambling on Kashia being able to remove his curse. Instead, we must aid him in his continued search." Demiurge then pushed his glasses up once more and smirked, "I already have one experimental outpost that was converted from a village in the Baharuth Empire. I've been experimenting on the effects of curses with the materials there. There have been some promising outcomes that have been discovered."
"Excellent work, Demiurge," I complimented the Arch-Devil with utmost sincerity, "but we must continue our efforts for Lord Ainz. In addition, we must keep what is said here amongst ourselves. While we need to know about such problems troubling our Lord, it would not do for the rest of Nazarick's inhabitants to be told and start an unnecessary panic."
"W-What else shall we do i-in the meantime?" Mare meekly asked.
"Look into information on curses. We must know everything we can if we are to aid our Lord."
Every single one of us, regardless of how we felt about one another, understood the gravity of this situation. We knew that we must work together if we are to save my Love.
"For the glory of Lord Ainz and Nazarick." The others said together.
For the glory of Momonga.
[Kashia]
After having the others complete their run and eat breakfast, I had everyone start with their individual training. For Dyne, he spent his time growing trees. Currently, he had already completed two large oak trees which hadn't fully winded the druid like the bridge he pathway he created yesterday. That was good progress, even if he still showed exhaustion from the effort. If he continued to keep this exact effort up, then he'd make a new copse of trees by the end of today.
For Peter, I wanted to build up his strength, speed, and endurance before working with his skill. Once those were up to a good level, I planned for the swordsman to begin sparring with one of the kitsune bodyguards that I knew were hiding around here. Peter's skill after being forced to keep up with over seven limbs of a kitsune would likely skyrocket. But that first required his body to be made ready to even start that training. So, I made multiple weights which were now attached to his body and sword.
He had to practice with all his regular sword skills while weighed down by over 100 pounds of metal weights attached along his body with ten pounds attached to his sword. He struggled trying to do this, but after enough weeks, he'd be swinging that blade around like twig. Then, I'd increase his training weights.
For Ninya, aside from having her push her limits by continually casting her spells, I gave her a very special gift.
"Ninya, I have something for you." I said as the others split off for their training.
"What is it, Kashia?" Ninya sked with interest. Giving her a wide grin, I used [Create Greater Item] to conjure up a white leatherbound spell tome with a stylized blue flame on the cover. My design choice for the tome was more based around how it thematically fit the contents within.
I then handed my adorable apprentice/daughter the tome which she took from me and gently opened. On the first page was the title of a spell labeled '[Foxfire Will O' Wisps]'. She looked up at me with a gaze full of surprise.
"Is this what I think it is?" Ninya asked with amazement.
"If what you think is a spell tome filled with multiple spells I felt appropriate for you to learn at the moment? Then, yes, it is. The first spell within the tome is a 2nd Tier spell in the [Foxfire] family that conjures flame wisps that are useful for both offense and defense. I made the teachings as detailed as possible for you to be able to replicate." I answered with a warm tone. Ninya replied to this by closing the tome and giving me a tight hug.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!" She said excitedly as I replied to the act with a hug of my own to my apprentice/daughter. I couldn't help but wonder if this is what a parent must feel when they get to watch their child open up a birthday present.
"You're welcome, kiddo." I said happily before we finally separated. I then ruffled her hair before saying, "I felt that it was about time to give you some spells to start sinking your teeth into. Since you managed to learn [Foxfire], I felt it only appropriate to teach you a few more spells related to it."
"I'll make sure to learn them quickly. I'll get all of these spells mastered by the end of the year!" Ninya claimed boldly which made me happy to hear how excited she was. From what I know of the spellcasters of the New World, learning spells took months to years for most to learn. Ninya, with her talent, could cut that time in half. But I truly believed my kid could learn it even faster with the detailed instructions I gave her.
"And I have utter faith that you will, kiddo. Now," Pointing to the tome in her hand, "you should spend an hour or so reading up on that and practicing the first spell. Then, continue the rapid-fire casting training with your other spells after."
"Will do, Kashia! I'll get started right away!" Ninya answered before running off to a secluded space where she then sat down and began reading.
And that finally left Lukrut.
With Lukrut, I moved him over to an area away from the others. With his immense skill as an archer, he didn't need as much practice aiming. Instead, I wanted him to work on those root arrows he could conjure. Both to see what they could do along with what their limits might be.
It was extremely interesting to watch him 'grow' those root arrows from the palm of his hand before firing the arrow at random targets. Upon impact with any of the targets, the roots making up the arrow would immediately start growing throughout the targets that were pierced. It seemed that they had a maximum spread range of five feet.
Once reaching that limit; the roots, if they hadn't found any further targets to impale, would perform one of two actions based on Lukrut's desire. They would either wrap around the target before constricting or pull themselves back within the original target. Aside from that, we learned that Lukrut's current limit of 'growing' those root arrows was four at a time.
After that, he needed to mentally recall the roots back to himself. We found out that his current range for commanding the roots to return was 50 yards. Any further and they'd remain 'inert' in the fact that they wouldn't move to Lukrut. Yet, they did seem to slowly slither about like a giant mass of white worms. Funnily enough, one of the small roots ended up wiggling enough like it was a worm that a bird swooped in and took off with it in its mouth. It was likely in for a big surprise when it found out that it was just eating a magical tree root instead of a worm.
Aside from testing out those limits, I also had Lukrut work on trying to prevent the root arrows from exploding outwards upon hitting a target and just try to remain in its arrow shape. That was a little more difficult.
"Damnit!" Lukrut cursed in frustration as another target exploded with roots. He'd been working on this specific task for almost an hour at this point. "Every time I try to hold my arrow together, it keeps exploding instead!"
"And what seems to be the problem?" I asked calmly. He looked at me and just squeeze his hand into a fist before unclenching it.
"When I try to keep the roots together, I can just feel them listening and attempting to obey, but then I end up losing control. The longest I've held my root arrow together after it hit a target was about seven seconds. Then," He mimed an explosion with his hands.
That was quite the conundrum. Yet, over the time I've been watching him practice, I did notice one thing. Even without his command, those roots of his always seemed to try grow and spread. Were he to command it, the white roots would try to spread as far as they could, but if he didn't, they'd just expand slowly. Maybe he was looking at this with the wrong kind of mentality.
"Have you tried to not fight it?" I asked, making Lukrut look at me with confusion.
"But that goes against the entire point of the exercise I've been working on." He replied. Walking up to him, I put a hand on his shoulder and then pointed over to his most recent target and the roots growing from it.
"Have you noticed that those roots always seem to be trying to grow? Even without your input?" I asked as Lukrut's eyes trailed to the roots I was pointing at.
"Yeah, I've noticed that. But what of it?" He asked while meeting my eyes with interest.
"Maybe movement and growth are their default state of being. Your attempts to prevent that and make the roots stay put goes against that instinctual desire." And instinctual desire was something that I have had way too much experience in dealing with over the past few days. "You can't really make the roots go against it, since that is essentially making them fight themselves, but you can always try to aim it."
Lukrut was silent for a moment as he thought about this. Then, a spark of inspiration filled his eyes and he said, "Let me try something."
I backed away and watched as his fourth arrow 'grew' from his palm. Then, he raised his bow and nocked the arrow into the string before pulling it back. The archer took a deep breath, then released the string and let the arrow fly through the air until it slammed into the target. Surprisingly, I didn't see the target explode with roots. At the same time, looking at Lukrut, he seemed hopeful as he jogged over to the target while I followed after him. Upon getting a better look at the target, I couldn't help but smirk at what my silly archer had managed to do.
From the front of the target, the root arrow had maintained its shape as it penetrated through the wood and stuffing-filled target. But once you went behind the target, that was a different story entirely. From the rear, the root arrow had penetrated completely through with an inch of the root arrow that had maintained its structure. But past that, the arrow grew further into a jagged spear shape of three feet that tried slowly growing further.
"Fuck yeah!" Lukrut cheered before rushing over to me and picking me up off my feet in a hug before spinning us around. "Thank you for the advice, my beautiful and intelligent fox!" He eventually set me down before deeply kissing me in gratitude.
"You are quite welcome, my silly archer." I replied after separating. "At least we have a little bit more understanding on these abilities of yours."
"That's true. Though, I feel like there's a whole lot more than just shooting root arrows that I could do. I'll just have to work on it and see where that leads." Lukrut then held his hand out and we both watched as the roots tangled over to his hand where they just seemed to get absorbed into his body.
"Still looks really weird to see you do that." I remarked. Lukrut shrugged.
"If it's that bad for you, then how do you think I feel? These roots are going into my body after all." We laughed at that.
"Hopefully, those roots don't have too much of an effect on our walk tonight." I teased before strutting away with a bit of a sway.
"Not at all!" The archer answered excitedly as he now had something to look forward to tonight.
[Ninya]
Reading through the tome that Kashia had given me on just the section for the spell [Foxfire Will O' Wisps] was incredible. It had more information on the mechanics, array formation, mana manipulation and usage for just this one spell than most spell tomes had for the entire book. And if that wasn't enough, there were also step-by-step instructions for casting this spell which I've never seen as well explained in any other tome that I've been lucky enough to read.
Most tomes, while teaching a user about casting a certain spell, only explained specific areas of the casting, such as the spell array formation or probable estimations of mana usage. And those instructions were typically only useful with performing that specific spell.
Yet, with Kashia's tome, it explained so much about the manipulation of fire magic inherent in [Foxfire] that I could probably create a whole bunch of fire spells just off the teachings in this one section of the tome for this one specific spell. By Kashia and Grandma, if this was from only the first teaching of this tome, I think that I'd become an archmage of fire spells by the time I reached the end of it.
Kashia gave this priceless gift of knowledge to me, that most other mages would burn kingdoms for, without a moment's hesitation. The fact that she treated such knowledge as trivial really did put into perspective that she was a demigoddess of magic in comparison to us mortal mages. Yet, the fact that she believed that I could learn everything in this tome made me all the more determined to meet her expectations, both for her and for myself.
I think that I have a new goal to set for myself, because, by Kashia and Grandma, I think it might be possible.
I'm going to learn a spell from every Tier of magic in my lifetime.
As I swore this, I felt a warmth in myself that made me feel all the more confident about my new goal.
[The Hungry Bird]
The swallow had flown far on its migratory journey. It had crossed vast oceans of desert, above towering mountains filled with the short and stout hairy beings. That had been a difficult section of its journey as some of those strange hairy beings with pink skin had shot twigs at it. Yet, the swallow managed to avoid the flying twigs with ease.
It passed over a great forest that stretched for miles as a sea of trees until it reached an odd one, seemingly made of stone in the middle of a large body of water. That day, the swallow decided to rest upon one of the free branches that hadn't yet been claimed by any of the other birds and slept.
On the next day, the swallow, hungry from its travels, went to one of the many plants growing on the odd stone tree and munched on some of the seeds and insects that it found. Following this, it dove down to the water below to drink.
Upon being sated, the swallow once more took flight and continued flying over the seemingly endless sea of trees until it sailed over another odd structure. It looked to be a circular white mountain, yet the inside of it nested two more of these odd mountains. Within them, strange hairless creatures moved about like ants in an anthill. These strange creatures almost looked like the others it encountered at the last mountain, except many of them lacked the fur on their heads that the others had in abundance. In addition, they were considerably taller.
The swallow didn't believe that this mountain would be suitable to rest at for the night, considering that the hairless beings from the last one shot those twigs at it. Instead, the swallow continued on a bit further until it spotted a nice bunch of trees to hide in for the night.
It would've even had a good night's sleep until it was awoken by some tall hairless beings mating beneath it. Due to the female one that had multiple strange tails making so much noise, the swallow took off to another tree, away from the noise.
Too bad that its sleep was ruined by those tall beings which forced it to move. It had found such a nice tree to rest on as well. Yet, the swallow was able to find another nice branch to rest upon, and so it did.
The next day, a little later than usual due to being awoken in the middle of the night, the swallow finally roused itself from slumber and shook its feathers before looking around. It was quite hungry, yet it saw more of those tall beings moving nearby. Two of them, the same tall beings that had woken the swallow and forced it out of the comfortable tree, were making strange noises that it had heard others of their kind make before.
Oddly enough, the female one didn't have the many tails it had last night. These hairless tall beings were so strange.
Yet, regardless of the strange beings and their behaviors, the swallow did need to continue its journey. And to start this new day of travel, the swallow wanted to fill its hungry stomach. Looking about, the swallow eyed what looked to be a strange white worm hiding on a similarly colored white bush.
Taking off, the swallow dove to the white worm and ripped it from the bush before flying back to the tree from earlier and eating its prize. The swallow did find the worm to be odd, especially because it still seemed to wriggle in its stomach, but the swallow ignored the feeling. The worm probably just needed to be digested first.
With a shake of its feathers, the swallow took to the sky once more and flew over to a nearby pond that it dove down and took a drink from. Then, it took to the sky once again.
As the swallow passed over a tall range of mountains, it felt an odd itching feeling from its stomach. This was ignored as the swallow soared over a multitude of strange caves that contained more of those hairless creatures. Why did they have such strange homes? Why weren't their nests off the ground and away from predators? Such weird creatures.
That night, the swallow landed, yet it felt another strange itch coming from its stomach. Looking down, the swallow noticed a strange red worm, similar to the white one from earlier, wriggling into its feathers near its stomach. It was fortunate that its meal had come to the swallow instead of the swallow needing to search for the meal.
Quickly snapping the worm up, the swallow quickly consumed it, enjoying another evening of rest after a long distance traveled and a filling meal. Oddly, this worm also seemed to continue wriggling around its stomach for some time afterwards. The swallow ignored that and went to sleep.
The next morning, the swallow awoke to find some of those tiny red worms wriggling from not just the feathers on its stomach, but now on its wings as well. While appreciative that the meal came to it once again, the swallow didn't enjoy the worms on its wings that would interfere with its flying. So, it quickly began plucking the worms off its body and swallowing them.
By now, the swallow was getting used to the odd wriggling inside of it.
Taking off, the swallow found another pond and went to drink from it before flying once more. Unfortunately, filling its belly with water only seemed to make the wriggling increase. The swallow hoped that it would stop soon.
Yet, as a few hours passed, the wriggling did not cease, in fact, it only increased. It was during another wriggling fit that the vision in the swallow's right eye turned into the color red. This threw the swallow off for a few moments as the loss of vision temporarily disrupted its flight until the swallow stabilized once more.
Shaking its head, the red still wouldn't disappear, in fact, now there felt like an itching coming
from its head. It tried to ignore this, considering it had a few hundred more miles to go.
Another hour went, and the wriggling picked up once more. Now, the swallow's wing felt itchy. Looking over with its one good eye, the swallow found another red worm that was beginning to push itself out of the swallow's wing. Before it had long to contemplate this, the wriggling picked up pace and the swallow found itself falling.
No, it was getting so close to the nesting ground!
It was just past that strange squarish range of mountains that stretched for miles which those hairless beings were always walking on. It's just a little bit further…
The swallow felt more itching, except now it came from its other wing. Craning its neck, the swallow looked to see more of those worms pushing out from the wing. Before the swallow could try pecking them out, it felt something squirm up its throat before pushing out of its beak, forcing it to remain open. As it grew larger, the swallow found that it was another red worm, yet this one was splitting into other red worms!
Now, the swallow was becoming too heavy, and it found itself losing altitude until it ended up forcefully landing on a hill near some strange pig creatures. This was bad. These were probably predators, and from the way that one of the pig things was moving towards the swallow, it likely was hungry.
The swallow tried to make a noise to scare the creature off, but all that came out was a garbled choking caw. It tried taking off, but those red worms were beginning to become too numerous, and prevented the swallow from spreading its wings.
And then, the worst thing happened. The vision in its other eye turned red. The swallow was now blind, and it was rapidly losing the ability to move due to those red worms that were covering it.
No, it needed to reach the nesting grounds!
Then, the swallow felt a large hand roughly grab it before lifting it up.
It was so close. The nesting grounds were-
CRUNCH!