The Lost Bloodline Book 3

M. Tress

Copyright © 2025 by Royal Guard Publishing LLC

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Foreword

There are scenes contained within that are of an adult nature. These scenes are marked with a <3 in the chapter title. If you wish to skip them, you will only miss out on a bit of character development, nothing major in the plot.

Enjoy!

1

Returning to Silverstone Vale was refreshing for Koda and his warriors. The gentle feeling of the mountains enveloping them with open arms, as if to gather its wandering children close to its bounteous bosom once more, was like returning to a loving parent.

They’d spent the night resting in proper beds at Amberpost before making their rounds and heading out the following day. None of the hunters argued with the fact that it would be best for them to be out of the town before the baron’s soldiers arrived.

In order to cloud the trail of anyone wanting to follow them, they had left town on the road going north before circling quickly around Amberpost to head back east towards Silverstone. They had stopped along the way to recover the Crooked paychest they’d liberated. Arthene, having only a basic pack, quickly rigged up a frame to carry the chest herself so they could keep moving without slowing down.

Traveling by foot wasn’t difficult, as it was something they’d all gotten used to over the last several weeks. Once they were back on the road heading for Silverstone, though, the group slowed down to just enjoy traveling at a reasonable pace for once.

True to her word, Calandra had tendered her resignation to the Amberpost guard the morning they left, spreading word to those she trusted as to exactly why. The general reason was the incompetence and cowardice of most of the town guard, something the block had heard about, as the brunette firecracker had used the opportunity to let her commander know exactly how she felt about his attitude and actions over the duration of the crisis.

Koda had been there to help the smaller woman pack up her things. Despite how rough he’d been with her the night before during their coupling, he’d not actually left Calandra bowlegged, which she’d griped about playfully with him.

As they wound up through the pass into the mountain vale that held the sleepy little village that was his new home, Koda slowly turned over the last few weeks in his mind.

Who would have thought that a single hiking trip would have changed my life so much? Koda thought. He took a deep breath in through his nose, savoring the welcoming scents of the forest coupled with the crisp snap of the cool air flowing over the trees.

Another scent, this one of leather and forest, tickled his nostrils and he turned to glance towards his first mate and closest partner where she walked on his right side.

Sienna’s spear thumped into the packed earth of the road in a steady gait, accompanied by the swish of her fluffy red-brown wolf tail. She brushed her short hair out of her eyes with one slim hand, making the pointed tips of her wolf ears twitch where they sat on top of her head.

Hard to imagine that she went from nearly stabbing me with her spear to basically mothering me within a handful of hours. It helps that I proved I was here to offer assistance, and Thera vouching for me didn’t hurt. Koda caught Sienna’s brilliant blue-green eyes with his. The twin orbs snagged him as firmly as any trap, and he felt himself drown in them for a long moment before the wolf beastfolk blinked and released him from their grip.

“Everything okay, Koda?” Sienna asked calmly, shifting to bump her hip into his lightly.

“He’s probably daydreaming of your beautiful body, sweet Sienna,” laughed his other mate, moments before Arthene’s thick arm wrapped around his head and yanked him off-balance.

Despite being used to Arthene’s rough affections, it was still far too soon for him to be completely comfortable and able to predict his lover. One second, she was silently observing the world around her with a mysterious smile on her lips; the next she was playfully wrestling with him while spouting random innuendo fit to make everyone within a half-mile radius blush.

At the moment, it was just wrestling, as Arthene’s muscular arm hauled him sideways to playfully plant Koda’s face into the side of her bust.

“You’d think he’d have gotten his fair share last night, but I can’t blame him,” Arthene continued while playfully pinning Koda in place, so that all he could see and feel was the soft curve of her breast above the fur of her leather top.

“Oh, is that where you ran off to, then? I’d have been jealous, but you two came back when you were finished,” Calandra joined in on the teasing from where she walked on Arthene’s other side.

They’d camped partway to the mountains, and were now pushing to make it back to the village before nightfall. Koda and Sienna had snuck off for some private time in the woods, something that was entirely pointless from how loud Sienna had gotten.

“Arthene, let him breathe before he passes out. Cal, if you really are that jealous of him, then you could join us sometime. I wouldn’t mind,” Sienna fired back, but Koda could hear the blush in his wolfish lover’s voice.

The vise-like grip on his head loosened, but before he pulled back, Koda took the opportunity to playfully bite the upper curve of Arthene’s right breast. That sensation made the bear woman jump in surprise before laughing gaily, her rounded bear ears wiggling in amusement on top of her head.

“Oh, you are trouble, my mate. Don’t tempt me so much,” Arthene smacked him playfully on the shoulder before pushing him upright, so he stood straight once more.

Despite her size and the power that dwelt within her frame as an incarnate primal spirit, Arthene was surprisingly mindful of her strength. Koda had seen her literally tear the head from one of her opponents in a single gesture, but the tap on his shoulder was only enough to make him stumble and he knew it wouldn’t even bruise.

Heck of a thing to have as the result of a single afternoon’s spur-of-the-moment hike, Koda mused as he turned over everything that had happened, while Sienna laid a hand on his other shoulder to ensure he was steady. Met a goddess, and she turned me into her champion and promised to shower me with rewards. Now I’ve got the love of three beautiful women who are more than happy to work with and around each other to ensure our happy pile of affection continues. If this is the reward fate has for me after my parents’ bullshit, then I can’t complain anymore.

“I’d say he’s a lucky bastard, given how effortless he makes it look,” Hans grumbled from behind them, and Koda shot a look back at the man with a grin.

“You know you could do the same if you wanted to, Hans. Just requires application and effort.”

“I’d say I’d apply effort to you, but I don’t really swing that way, Aegisclaw,” the horned man replied with an amused snort.

“That’s fine, neither do I. Just give it some thought. You are going to have to work hard if you really want something like this,” Koda said earnestly, slapping Arthene on the ass when the bear spirit wasn’t looking. This caused the six-and-a-half foot tall woman to yelp in surprise and whirl on him, interrupting her playful banter with Calandra.

“I don’t think many would have the stamina to keep up with one of your three, let alone all of them. I salute your determination to be suffocated in your bed one day!” Hans replied with a laugh as Arthene snatched at Koda, but he was already moving, dashing away up the road that led into the trees with a carefree laugh.

Growling, Arthene gave chase. Sienna locked eyes with Calandra, who was grinning wickedly.

“What?” the dwarven woman asked. “I’d have done it myself, if it wasn’t such a pain to reach so damn high on that woman!”

“Are you sure this is okay?” Koda asked again while tightening the length of rope once more. Flicking the strand, it made a sharp twang, and he nodded.

“They are mine, after all. My word is final on their disposition,” Arthene replied, shifting to lift the bundle up onto her shoulder smoothly.

The pile of bones, packed like so much split lumber, settled into place and looked absolutely ridiculous on Arthene’s shoulder. The pile was so large that it would have been impossible to lift and balance if not for the spirit woman’s supernatural strength.

“I’m just surprised that the ropes held,” Sienna chuckled, hefting her own stack of smaller bones, having used a spare shirt as a sack and filled it up.

“They aren’t going anywhere,” Koda said confidently as he watched Arthene shift slightly and start towards the entrance to the cave.

“Famous last words there,” Calandra snarked. “Come on then, let's get back to your place. I’m curious to see what your house looks like.”

“It’s your house now too, Cal,” Sienna reminded the smaller woman, shifting her bundle to her shoulder as well so she could pat the dwarven woman on top of her helmeted head.

They’d detoured up to the Last Fang Cave, the site of power that Koda had claimed for Thera during his first few days in this world. It was also Arthene’s last resting place. The big woman had made a convincing argument that they should bring her old bones back to the village, since they were a good deal harder and stronger than any other material, save Koda’s totemic gauntlets.

There came a few amused whistles from the group of fighters who were waiting outside the cave for the four of them to return.

The Ivory Spear, as the last of Thera’s worshipers were called, had long had reverence for the cave, as it had been the place where Arthene’s body had rested as their last protector from the time when their goddess could help them. They still held the place in high regard, but with Arthene once more amongst the clan, it was easier to accept what amounted to grave-robbing.

“I still think ‘grave-reclaiming’ is just wrong,” Todd muttered, the fox beastkin shaking his head slowly as the others fell in around Koda and his mates.

“What else are you going to call it? It’s not theft. The owner gave you permission. Heck, at this point you could call it ‘salvage,’ since it sat around for so long,” Arthene said with a laugh as she led the group back to the road. “I’d rather see these things put to use. It’s why I’ve been using one of my old leg bones to crack skulls.”

“That mental image is just… bizarre,” sighed Hannah, the cat beastfolk joining in on the other side of their group.

“What? I have a spare, after all—several, actually!” Arthene teased, getting a few more groans from the others. “Seriously, though, think about it. These are the bones of an incarnate spirit, one known for strength and determination, if I can say so myself without sounding conceited.”

“You did, but it’s fine. It’s easy to forgive you for… other reasons,” Koda teased in return, shifting the massive skull around in his arms to find a comfortable way to carry the awkward object. It was easily as large as his torso, and all the teeth remained within its mouth, so he had to be careful as he lifted it.

Arthene had all but demanded that he be the one to carry the skull back, saying that as her mate, it was only right that he lay claim to it. The suggestive look she’d given him honestly made Koda wonder what salacious implications she was laying into it, but her request had been reasonable.

“I know you love my ass. If you smack it again while I’m carrying these, I will dump them on you, my mate,” Arthene warned with a playful growl, her stubby bear tail wiggling in amusement as she walked.

“Cal?” Koda asked, and the dwarven woman laughed.

“Oh, hells no. I just got in with this freaky little family and I’m having way too much fun to risk getting my arm ripped off,” the dwarven woman said with a laugh.

“Smart woman. Not saying it’s off limits, but⁠—”

The loud crack of a hand on flesh cut off Arthene’s statement. The big woman let out another yelp of surprise as she twisted to glare at her ‘attacker,’ who was grinning broadly up at her.

“Sienna!”

“What? If anyone besides Koda could get away with it, it’d be me,” Sienna countered before standing up on tip-toes to press a kiss to Arthene’s cheek. “You look really cute, all flushed like that. I can see why Koda likes doing it to you.”

Arthene blinked several times while staring down at the normally meek and quiet woman. Koda swore he could hear gears grinding in his big lover’s head while the dozen-odd warriors with him all smothered their laughter. They’d seen how bad Arthene’s teasing could get, so seeing it turned back on her was rather amusing.

“Sienna?” Arthene asked quietly.

“Yes, Arthene dear?” Sienna replied primly, her tail wiggling in amusement behind her.

“You said the carpenter would have the house furnished by the time we got back, right?” Arthene’s next question was just as quiet as her first. Sienna hummed thoughtfully, her tail not slowing down as she tapped her lips.

“Why yes, it should be done. We stayed out several days longer than we thought we would,” Sienna answered innocently, but Koda could see mischief in her eyes.

“Good, because I’m going to be putting our new bed to use with you.” Arthene’s calm tone dropped into a lusty growl, and she lunged at Sienna playfully.

The wolf beastfolk danced away with a laugh, and when Arthene gave chase, she raced up the road towards town, her red-and-black tail flying like a banner behind her as she ran off squealing, with Arthene in hot pursuit.

“Well…” Calandra said a moment later as the two ran off. “Are you going to let them beat you back?”

“Nope,” Koda replied as his smile widened even further, and he broke into a jog after his lovers, with Calandra falling into step behind him with a snicker.

2

The playful chase up the mountain only lasted for a few minutes, as they had been marching most of the day and still had a way to go. While Arthene could have likely continued without a problem, Sienna was still only mortal, after all.

Koda had caught up to them to find Arthene and Sienna discussing something in low tones as they walked, having made up from their brief, playful argument. This was good, as Calandra’s shorter stature meant that it was harder for her to keep up at a run.

Now that they were back in familiar environs, the group relaxed more. The hunters that Koda had begun to think of as ‘his warriors’ intermixed with the champion and his mates. Calandra discussed with Todd how they could go about training more of the villagers to fight, in case the Crooked attacked again. Sienna chatted with Hannah and Netta about the best ways to spread around the coins they had claimed from the Crooked to not raise suspicion, as well as how the gifts of supplies would be received in the remote village.

Arthene stuck closest to Koda during that part of the walk. The large woman was more introspective now as they neared the village, though that might have been her morbid burden making her think.

“What’s on your mind, love?” Koda asked the big woman, making her twitch slightly and shift to look down at him. Her large, yellow eyes stared deep into his soul for a moment before a small smile curved her lips. “Besides sex,” Koda amended when he saw the mischief growing there.

Arthene pouted at him cutely. Well, as cutely as a six-and-a-half foot tall amazon wearing furs and carrying a pile of her own bones can be cute, which was a surprising amount.

“You are no fun,” Arthene protested playfully. Koda shifted his burden to one side and freed up a hand, which he wiggled at her playfully.

“I can be fun, but you said not to do it while you carried that load. So I’ll have to wait till we get back to the house,” Koda teased, and Arthene’s pout melted into a hooded expression.

“Do you promise, my mate? It’s been days since I’ve had a turn, and you’ve already comforted the other two. I want you to spoil me some more. Maybe even put cubs in me.” The amount of sultry desire in Arthene’s voice sent a thrill racing down his spine. The idea of impregnating any of his girls made his blood heat a surprising amount.

“I… is that a good idea?” Koda stuttered and Arthene curled one eyebrow at him questioningly, though some of the heat went out of her expression. “I mean, I have no income at the moment. How would I go about supporting you and any kids we have?”

Arthene’s smile returned and her cheeks pinked faintly with a blush. She shook her head slowly, making those thick braids bounce back and forth for a moment before she let out a slow breath.

“Your only complaint is that you don’t think you could support us? Not that you don’t want to?” Arthene asked, clearly amused. It was obvious to Koda that she had expected more pushback from him on this.

“Look Arthene, you girls all think that you are being subtle about it, but I’m not so oblivious that I missed Thera’s suggestions. I’m the last of my bloodline. I don’t know which side of my parents it came down through, and they don’t have any other family that we know of,” Koda explained to her slowly.

The amused and aroused look on Arthene’s face was slowly drifting into a more pensive one now while they walked at the edge of the group. She didn’t speak or interrupt him, just letting Koda outline his thoughts.

“Thera’s promise to ensure my ‘bloodline is never again lost’ was a rather simple hint that she’s going to want me to have lots of kids. Your comments about your ‘sisters’ liking me as well also leads me to believe that Thera is going to throw more gorgeous demi-goddesses at me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I’m fine with that.”

“Why would you complain about being drowned in beautiful women?” Arthene asked with a small laugh. “You are doing fine in finding them yourself. You’ve even brought one of Chandra’s kind into the fold, and I’m sure that it is giving my lady hope to mend that broken bridge.”

“Cal just kind of fell into our laps,” Koda replied with a shrug. “Sienna… well, I got lucky with her. She was as interested in me as I was in her. Now, I can’t imagine my life without her.”

“So sweet,” Arthene purred happily. “But I interrupted you. Please, continue.”

“It’s okay. I got most of it out,” Koda sighed and looked up at the blue sky overhead, shifting his grip on the skull in his arms once more. “I’m fine with having a large family, as long as it's full of love and we take care of each other.”

“Oh… large will not be enough to define it, Koda Aegisclaw,” Arthene purred affectionately, shifting to nudge him with her hip lightly. “My lady intends for you to be the beginning of a new dynasty that will remain in force for millennia, if she has her way.”

“That’s totally not intimidating as hell to think about,” Koda grumbled, but returned Arthene’s smile. “As long as it's a family where we can communicate and look after each other. I don’t want to end up in a broken relationship like my parents had. That is not a healthy place to raise children. If I end up with as many as it seems you and Thera both want me to have, then I want the relationships to be healthy and strong.”

“Well, you are moving in the right direction, if that is what you want, my mate,” Arthene hummed happily. “Your women talk to and love each other just as much as we love you. Calandra slotted in with surprising ease.”

“Says the woman who showed up and basically stated I would be hers within a minute of meeting me,” Koda ribbed back. Arthene rolled her eyes at him comically before crossing them and sticking out her tongue.

“I was right, wasn’t I?”

“That’s not the point!”

Koda continued to think about Arthene’s blunt statement regarding children for the rest of their walk to the village. He knew they were in his future, and that he would need to find some way to support his women as well. He remembered having a similar discussion with Sienna before, and she had reassured him that things would be fine, as she was more than capable of earning a living herself.

I wonder if it’s different in a village like this, where you aren’t constrained by money and the million and one taxes I used to have. Hell, they gave me that house. I don’t have to pay rent on it or anything. There’s enough space in the backyard to plant a garden easily, and the mountain is plentiful. It might be plain food, but unless I’m totally off-base, we can do this, Koda thought as the village came into sight.

It was just as rustic as the first time he’d seen it, with whitewashed walls, thatch or tile roofs, and plenty of green and growing things all around it. Silverstone was the name of the village and the vale itself, and it had endured for hundreds of years. There was a quiet power in the buildings, which still showed the occasional mark of the Crooked raid he’d helped push back weeks before.

The defensive barricades were still in place, but of far better construction than they once had been. While previously they’d used overturned wagons and barrels to narrow the road into town, there were now large hedgehog defenses with sharpened wooden stakes lashed together, like they’d used in the last fight with the Crooked inside the vale.

Todd had gone ahead to warn the village that they were returning, and a welcoming party had turned out to greet them. There were maybe two hundred people that lived in the village and the surrounding land, but the cheer that greeted their returning group was thunderous.

“Looks solid. Plenty to work with, too,” Calandra muttered as she studied the buildings while they approached. “Do you have a stonemason in town?”

“No, but the miners can cut stone well enough for construction,” Hans answered. “I’m sure we can handle just about any—one second.”

The burly horned man held up one hand to Calandra as a bellowing roar of his name echoed above the crowd.

“HANS!”

A moment later, a stout but beautiful blonde-haired cow beastfolk shoved past the others in the crowd of villagers and raced the last twenty feet to the group, aiming directly for the large man.

Koda burst into joyous laughter as Hans tossed his mattock to one side and scooped the squealing woman into his arms, spinning her in a circle while they kissed.

That was the signal that heralded the breakdown of distance between the returning fighters and the rest of the village. The group surged forward to envelop them, raining welcome and congratulations in equal measure. More than one fighter was peeled off from the group by affectionate family or lovers intent on rewarding them for their return.

Calandra stuck close to Koda, watching the happy emotions flowing back and forth from everyone present. Koda kept her close, partially from not wanting to lose the shorter woman in the crowd and also to ensure that others knew her.

“Aegisclaw! You brought them all back! I don’t know if I should be amazed or worried.” Kris, the village headwoman, finally made her way through the crowd and stopped to goggle at the bony object in his arms. “What in the worlds is that?”

“A problem for tomorrow, I think, Kris,” Koda said with a laugh, shifting his burden to gently pat the aged cat beastfolk on the shoulder. “I promised you I’d bring them back as heroes and not as martyrs. Well, these dozen soldiers have been hammered in battle repeatedly and saved lives at every turn. The Crooked have been driven back, and we can rest!”

Koda hadn’t noticed that when he spoke to Kris, the other villagers went quiet to listen to him. It wasn’t an absolute silence, but those near enough to recognize it was him speaking did quiet down to listen. When he made his announcement, though, cheers poured out like a physical thing.

“We will talk on this,” Kris gestured to the skull he had in his arms and then towards Arthene, who was carrying a truly comically sized bundle, “tomorrow then. For now, we will be thankful for our returned sons and daughters!”

They were swept up into a lively party, where tables were broken out in the town center. Banno’s tavern did a lively business serving the returning heroes, while group after group came forward to beg for stories of their battles.

Koda mostly remained quiet, watching with smiles as his companions, each telling animated stories of their battles, were swarmed by the villagers. He’d known that the horror of taking lives was still there, lurking beneath the surface, but he could see his people growing strong with the reminders of why they fought and who they fought for.

While they hadn’t made it through the previous battle without injuries—his own wounds still hurt—they had been fortunate enough to not lose anyone, and that was something for which to be grateful.

His dozen warriors took turns to hurry off into the shadows, washing up as the party rose in volume and fervor. From the direction they were all going, it was obvious they were headed to the spring that he and Sienna had inadvertently blessed with healing properties during their first coupling.

Calandra spent some time talking with Kris, explaining why she was there and what she hoped to achieve in helping the village, which was greeted with enthusiasm from the elder.

After the food had been eaten, several people brought out instruments to play so that people could dance. Sienna tugged Koda out of his seat. “Come on, Koda. It’s time to wash up and tend to those injuries of yours,” she murmured in his ear.

“The others?” Koda asked as he let her pull him to his feet.

“We are right behind you,” Arthene chuckled huskily.

“I wouldn’t miss this for the world. Arthene was telling me how you two fucked the magic into this thing!” Calandra teased.

Sienna blushed furiously when Calandra’s words drew smothered laughs from those nearby, along with a few envious glares from the unattached young women who had tried to get Koda’s attention the entire evening.

“The Pack Lady blessed the spring, not us,” Sienna protested.

“It never hurts to repeat the ritual to make sure the blessing is strong,” Arthene said airily, wrapping her arms around Koda and Sienna, then bending down to stick her head between the two of them. “Right?” She punctuated the question by kissing each of them lightly on the cheek, before yelping in surprise almost in sync with a loud smack.

“Finally had her within range!” Calandra cheered from behind the group while Koda and Sienna laughed and Arthene pouted.

3

Waking up in a bed was still a novel experience for Koda. Given how much he’d been on the move for the last few days, it was certainly a change from what he had grown used to on the trail.

He’d become accustomed to the thin padding of the bedrolls, and sleeping in a pile with Sienna and then Arthene. He was still getting used to Calandra, but was sure that he’d acclimate to her presence quickly, given how hard the dwarven woman was working to coexist with him and the girls.

I wonder if it’s because we treat her like she’s capable, because she’d grown tired of dealing with people looking down on her in Amberpost? Koda thought as the early morning light leaked through the windows to illuminate his room. The light glimmered off his lovers’ hair and smooth skin as they lay in a pile.

“Why does she always sleep like that?” Sienna asked quietly in his ear, alerting Koda that she was awake and breaking him away from his thoughts.

“Hmm? I mean, Arthene likes to cuddle,” Koda said in a teasing voice, rolling his eyes to where the big woman lay on his right. Her arm draped over them both, and she was drooling lightly on the pillow only inches from Koda’s face as she slept.

He’d put Arthene through her paces the night before, the other two watching in amusement as he ‘balanced the scales’ of affection with his bear woman. Afterwards, he carefully washed all three of them in the spring, which healed their injuries. Calandra was still astonished as she’d watched this happen and had to dig out Koda’s stitches from his now-healthy skin before sending him back in to re-heal.

Sienna growled playfully in his ear, nipping his lobe before snuggling into her spot again. She’d captured his left arm and wrapped around it, tucking her head into his shoulder. Koda felt the soft tips of her pointed ears flicking against his cheek as she got settled in.

“You knew I meant Cal,” Sienna grumbled, darting her eyes down to indicate the dwarven woman.

“Of course I did, but if I stopped teasing you, then you’d think I didn’t love you as much, Sienna,” Koda replied, kissing his love on her forehead and getting a happy coo in response, before following her gaze down to Calandra.

The only reason he could see her was because the bedding had been thrown back in the night because of the excessive body heat. Arthene was like a furnace and, despite sleeping nude, didn’t really need blankets—and neither would anyone within about five feet of her.

Calandra also slept nude, the curvy dwarf completely comfortable in her own skin. Her mass of brown hair, now free from its trio of braids, acted as a dense cape that covered her muscled back and thick bottom. Koda could still feel her breasts pressed into the inside of his right thigh as she hugged his leg in her sleep. She was using his upper thigh as a pillow, and currently had her head wedged into his bare hip, facing towards Arthene’s tummy.

If she wasn’t, then little Koda would be even more alert than he normally is in the mornings, Koda thought wryly. He could feel Calandra’s breath gusting over his thigh, and knew that having it on his crotch instead would be all he needed to be reminded of their previous intimacies.

“Seriously though, why does she sleep like that?” Sienna asked, running her fingers over Koda’s bare chest before arching her back and snuggling closer to him.

“Warmth, maybe?” Koda said, and Sienna snorted derisively.

“I’m not even next to the hotbox that is our mate, and I don’t really need the blanket for more than the first bit of the night,” Sienna shot back.

“Maybe she feels left out not getting to cuddle an arm?” Koda replied. He turned his left arm in Sienna’s grip, tickling her tummy and the top of her thighs with his fingertips. The wolf woman wriggled and her tail beat against the bed.

“It’s so you can’t sneak off to have fun without me,” Calandra murmured sleepily, rolling over onto her back and stretching all four limbs out in different directions with a yawn.

This had the added effect of putting her lush body on display fully, and Koda couldn’t help but appreciate the woman’s curves where they rose from her body. While Arthene and Sienna were both fit and muscled, with the strength to live in the wild, Calandra had some muscle from her training as a guard; however, she was softer around the middle and across her thighs and bottom from an easier life in town. It provided a wonderful contrast in Koda’s mind.

“We’d never do that, Cal,” Sienna chastised with a smile, unwrapping one hand from Koda’s arm to finger-comb through the dwarf’s thick locks.

“You might not, but it wouldn’t shock me if the big one tried to kidnap him for a bit of fun,” Calandra said sleepily, groaning contentedly as Sienna stroked her thick hair.

“You might be surprised,” Koda said with a quiet chuckle.

“Might be, but I’d rather get my turn in, lover. You are an attentive one and I find I can’t quite get enough of you.”

Calandra finished her roll, moving carefully so as to not dislodge Sienna’s hand. Her olive eyes glimmered, and she gave him a sleepy smile in the dim morning light as she came face-to-crotch with his morning wood. Being surrounded by three beautiful and naked women had that effect on Koda, regardless of the situation.

“Hmm… speaking of my turn,” Calandra sighed happily and began to lightly kiss up his thigh. “I’ll take care of this for you. Sienna, will you help get my braids set later now that my hair is dry?”

“Sure, Cal. I’d be happy to help with both your morning tasks,” Sienna replied, her tone throaty as well.

As Calandra bent forward and fastened her lips around him, Sienna used her hand in the smaller woman’s hair to pull her down to take him deeper into her throat. Koda didn’t know what quirk it was of dwarven biology that allowed his lover to deepthroat him so easily, but he wouldn’t question it.

It was far closer to noon by the time Koda finally made his way down from the large main bedroom. Calandra had taken him partway there with her mouth before riding him to completion. Sienna had taken a turn next, being far more energetic than the dwarven woman and finally waking up Arthene, who’d slept through their fun that far.

Arthene had been grumpy for all of four seconds before she realized what they’d been doing to wake her, and then the big woman had demanded her own turn with her mate.

“Just be grateful that Cal made a run to the well for water. If all I have to complain about here is a lack of plumbing, then it’s worth it,” Koda muttered while straightening his tunic.

A savory smell, combined with the faint scent of woodsmoke, drew him into the dining area of the ground floor, where a sanded plank table sat with eight chairs around it. He fought back a yawn while following his nose.

“Plumbing? I assume that is something from your time before?” Kris’ question was unexpected, making Koda jump as he’d not seen her sitting in a chair with a steaming mug in front of her.

“Ah, Headwoman. Yes, it was something common back where I was from. They had rigged up supplies of fresh water to come into your home, so it was easier to get it to everyone who needed it. It was a service you paid for, as the city made sure the water was clean, but it was a very reasonable cost,” Koda answered, straightening his clothes again while trying to be subtle about it.

The aged feline beastfolk just smiled up at him, taking a long sip from her mug before speaking.

“Don’t worry, Aegisclaw. I was young once too, so I know what it is like. Though you seem to be blessed by the goddess. Or cursed, depending on how you look at the number of women who wish to share your bed.”

“Given that I can hear at least two people in the kitchen, and they have good hearing, I’m going to call it a blessing. My hips might argue, but they’ll either toughen up or break rather than give up,” Koda answered as smoothly as he could.

Laughter from the kitchen followed his words, and Sienna stuck her head out a moment later.

“Smart move, love. But if we are being too hard on you, just tell us. I’d hate to be the one to hurt you,” she said, blowing him a kiss.

“Fuck that! I’d be proud as hell if I cracked that bastard’s pelvis, given what he does to me,” Calandra shouted from inside the kitchen, which made Sienna blush and Kris laugh heartily.

“Have a seat at the table, Koda. I’ll bring some breakfast out to you. All we have on hand is the long-lasting stuff like grains and dried food. I’ll be stocking the pantry up today with some of the coin we brought back.”

Koda nodded in understanding but strode over to his lover first for a kiss, which turned into two or three before Calandra interrupted for her own attention. The dwarven woman had her hair in a dense ponytail for now, though Koda saw her brushes on the counter, waiting for when Sienna could help her tame it back down into the braids she normally wore.

Taking a seat at the head of the table, Koda had barely settled into the chair before Calandra bustled back with a steaming mug for him. She claimed another kiss by dragging him down to her height before hurrying back into the kitchen once more.

“You seem to engender affection in everyone around you,” Kris teased him, the older woman’s cat ears twitching in amusement.

“Is that your way of asking for a morning kiss, too?” Koda replied sardonically, making the gray-haired woman snort into her tea.

“Not me, but maybe my granddaughter. Hannah could use a firm hand to support her when the time comes to pass over my position to her. She’s a bit prickly, but you would know that from traveling with her,” Kris answered once she’d wiped the tea off her face.

Koda played for time by taking a sip of his own tea. It was a herbal blend of peppermint and something else he didn’t recognize, but it was hot and helped center him.

Given all three of my women wanted to ride me to the finish line this morning, I’m not surprised that I’m fully awake already, Koda thought sardonically as he savored the drink.

“I won’t reject anyone out of hand if they can coexist with my other… Wives? Mates? Whatever the hell our happy little family is. But I’m not one for arranged marriages. If Hannah is interested, she’ll need to be the one to approach us,” Koda said after another moment of thought.

Kris smiled so wide her eyes crinkled up and her wrinkles deepened. Clearly, his answer had pleased the older woman.

“Understood, Champion. I’ll relay your words to my Hannah. I don’t know if this is the direction her heart is guiding her or not, but I’d be a fool to not broach the subject at least and put it in your head, what with how fast your family is expanding.”

“Did she just call us fat? I swear she called us fat!” Koda heard Calandra ask Sienna from the other room and snorted in amusement. Rather than let that hang in the air, Koda changed subjects.

“So, what brings you to visit, Headwoman? I’d be happy to help you with anything that is needed,” Koda said earnestly and received a warm smile from the older woman.

“I just wanted to hear from you, in a calmer setting, the specifics of what happened while you were away. While I’m glad that the Crooked are gone, we need to be aware of the direction the wind is blowing so we can plan.”

Before Koda could begin his story, a loud clumping of footsteps preceded Arthene’s appearance. He remembered the first time he’d seen the large bear-featured woman. It’d been in this house, and she’d been hiding out of sight to give Thera time to introduce her.

But she was wearing more clothes back then, Koda thought with a sigh as Arthene appeared at the bottom of the stairs with only her skirt on. Each step sent a delightful ripple through her full breasts, and she paused only for a moment to sniff the air and turn to angle towards the table. Koda saw she had her top in one hand, but made no attempt to cover herself up.

“Good morning to you, Headwoman. Don’t mind me,” Arthene rumbled, skirting the table to claim a kiss from Koda that ended up with his head sandwiched between her soft mountains in a fashion that he really couldn’t complain about in the slightest.

Only when she’d finished soundly kissing Koda, releasing him from the plush prison of her bosom, did she wrap her top around herself and finish dressing.

“No problem, Lady Deepclaw,” Kris said with a polite nod, pointedly ignoring the other woman’s blatantly sexual actions with the ease of someone used to oddness.

Or maybe it’s the fact that Arthene is basically a goddess to them, Koda thought as the big woman slumped into a chair next to him and kept fiddling with her top, making her breasts jiggle. I’ve never really seen her as that, though—just as Arthene. I respect her, but I don’t revere her. I wonder if she prefers one way or the other?

As if she could hear his internal monologue, Arthene glanced up and caught his eye on her. She smiled and pointedly smooshed her boobs together in his direction playfully.

Yeah, I think she prefers me as I am, Koda thought with a grin.

Calandra and Sienna came out of the kitchen with a large copper pot full of thick oatmeal that smelled of fruit and honey, along with a stack of wooden bowls. Sienna was quick to dole out food to everyone present, including the headwoman.

Once they were seated with food and hot tea, Koda related to Kris everything that had happened since they left the village over a week ago. At her urging, he included all the items that were discussed in passing the previous night as well. How they had gone out into the plains, found the small camp that was maintaining the portal, and wrecked it. Pursuing the reinforcements and cutting them down. Aiding Amberpost in breaking the siege and invasion. Helping the outlying farmers. Evacuating the captives. And the final climactic battle with the Crooked warleader and his group of champions who had cut them off.

Koda also included an overview of them hiding using Sienna’s magic to avoid being seen by the baron’s men, and then the quick race back to town. The only part he didn’t mention was the different conversations they’d had with Calandra as the dwarven woman made her interest clear and burrowed her way into their relationship.

“Quite the list of achievements. If it was anyone else, I would expect you to say your adventures were finished, and you could settle down to raise a posse of children,” Kris said at the end, her expression pensive. She’d eaten while they talked, complementing Sienna on the food and her thoughtful attention as a hostess.

“Yeah, that isn’t going to happen,” Koda said with a laugh. He’d been able to eat while the girls took turns adding their information to the story, so now he just sipped his tea, which was still flavorful despite being cool.

Gonna miss coffee, but it’s like the running water indoors. If that is what I have to sacrifice to have a loving family, then I’ll accept it, Koda thought wistfully before focusing back on their conversation.

“What makes you say that?” Calandra asked from her seat beside Arthene. The dwarven woman was working her way through another serving of breakfast with a contented look on her face. It was clear to Koda that, despite only having come ‘home’ here the previous day, Calandra was already settling in and finding herself comfortable.

“Yes, my mate. What makes you say that?” Arthene rumbled, hiking one eyebrow at him thoughtfully.

“Oh, don’t tease him, you two,” Sienna interjected before he could speak. “We all know that there is no way that he’ll be able to simply rest. Our Koda is too driven, and you know that the Beast Queen will have more tasks for him.”

“If I didn’t take a cue like that, I’d be a failure,” a familiar voice chuckled from behind Koda. He didn’t react, having felt the attention of the goddess growing from the place within him where his totemic equipment lived.

Thera stepped around Koda, melting out of his shadow to stand at his right side between him and Kris. The headwoman’s eyes widened, and she quickly tried to both rise and bow, only stopping when Thera held out a hand to halt her.

“Be at peace, my child. While I appreciate your deference, I cannot dwell here long. My power grows slowly but steadily, thanks to my champion’s efforts.” Thera rested her left hand on Koda’s shoulder and he felt a jolt as her bare skin touched him.

The sensation wasn’t the sharp shock of static electricity, more like a steady thrum of touching a drum skin when you couldn’t hear it sounding. A resonating echo that reached deep into him and rebounded inside those shadowed recesses of his being.

“My Lady, how are you?” Arthene asked respectfully.

The only time she’s deferential is to Thera, Koda thought wryly as he studied his normally gregarious mate.

“I am recovering, but it will take a great deal of time and effort to restore me to what I once was, daughter.”

“Any clues on what I can do to help?” Koda asked, studying the goddess’ profile as she stood beside him.

He didn’t want to move too much, as the sensation of her hand on his shoulder was both comforting and oddly reassuring to him. Like someone had combined the loving feeling he got when his mates cuddled up with him with the sensation of a parent’s hug.

Thera’s long, curly black mane bounced as she turned her glimmering silver eyes onto Koda. The faint silhouette of pointed fox ears flicked above her hair before shifting and fading into rounded bear ears, like Arthene had. A fluffy tail flicked behind her back as she smiled down at him.

“You already are doing much for me, Koda Aegisclaw. I have to thank you for your hard work and reassurances.” The way Thera said ‘reassurances’ sent a thrill down Koda’s spine. He remembered days before, just after his first time with Calandra, he’d dreamed of comforting the worrying goddess inside an ethereal realm as she fretted over whether a close friend of hers would forgive Thera for letting the worlds believe her dead.

“All part of the service,” Koda replied smoothly, appreciating her thanks but not wanting to delve into it, to spare the goddess any potential damage to her reputation. Something that he saw she appreciated from how her eyes shone wetly for a moment and her hand tightened on his shoulder.

“I have to second my mate’s question, Pack Lady,” Sienna interjected and drew Koda’s attention to the rest of the table. He immediately had to smother a laugh.

Calandra was staring at Thera with wide eyes and her mouth hanging open. The dwarven woman’s spoon hung halfway to her mouth and was dripping oatmeal back into her bowl as she stared in awe at the manifested goddess in front of her.

Sienna continued, though, either not noticing the other woman’s surprise or just ignoring it.

“What can we do to help you further? I know that any of the Ivory Spear would ask the same. You have done everything you could to help us, sent us Koda in our time of need. Now, with his help, we can begin restoring your strength. What do you need from us?”

Sienna’s earnest tone clearly reached Thera, and the goddess’ smile softened further. That, or the happy bouncing of Sienna’s tail behind her did, Koda wasn’t sure.

“Continue as you have. Live and follow your hearts. Your instincts guide you, and the more of my people that allow themselves to be true in that fashion, the stronger I will become. The more sites of power that my champion can claim will help me as well,” Thera answered after a moment of thought and Sienna nodded rapidly, her tail speeding until it was a veritable blur behind her.

“That we can do.”

“Oh, that reminds me,” Koda said quietly and then glanced up when he felt the goddess’ eyes turn to him. The sensation was as if someone had just opened a window and the warm light of the sun had fallen on him. “Not trying to sound ungrateful or anything, but is there any chance I can get something more protective?” Koda held up his right hand and, with a flex of his soul, the totemic gauntlet slid into place over his limb. “These are rather… close range weapons, and I got the shit kicked out of me by that warleader the other day.”

“I saw that,” Thera said with a wicked smile that lent her an air of savage beauty. “I approve. Every time you end another of the Crooked’s champions or their empowered kind, you claw back another hunk of power they stole from me.”

“Really? A claw pun?” Koda groaned and Thera’s grin deepened while her sleek eyebrows rose in innocence.

Apparently, his irreverence was enough to shock Calandra out of her stupor. The dwarven woman threw her spoon down into her bowl with a clatter before pointing at Thera.

“You?! Wha? Who…” The rest of Calandra’s sentence trailed off into a series of statements shouted in dwarven that Koda assumed was profanity. Calandra’s face turned red as she slowly ran out of air during her rant.

Thera’s grip on his shoulder tightened, and Koda acted without thinking. He dismissed the gauntlet on his right arm and instead wrapped the limb around Thera’s hips from behind, giving her a comforting hug.

That action got a wide-eyed stare from three of the four other occupants of the table, and Calandra abruptly went silent. Thera leaned into his touch, but said nothing for a long moment.

“I wish to apologize to you, daughter of the mountains and howling winds,” Thera said quietly. “I know words cannot convey how much I wish I could have reached out to your progenitor, but at the time, I had no idea who I could trust. I was afraid. And that fear grew into resignation as years passed by.”

“But?” Calandra asked when Thera paused, and the silence drew out. The tone of the dwarven woman’s voice was that of a lost child, hoping for an adult to help them, and it tugged at Koda’s heart. Thankfully, Arthene acted for him, wrapping one arm around the dwarven woman to comfort her as well.

“But that will change. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but I will reach out to my sister once more. I know she mourns, but I have to be able to protect my people from those who would take advantage of my weakened state. The fewer mouths that could speak my secret, the better. For now,” Thera answered and her words seemed to reassure the stunned and lost dwarven woman.

“Then I need to get cracking on finding and claiming some more sites, then,” Koda asserted. “The sooner you can get back in touch with Chandra, the better for both you and my mate.” He gave the goddess another half-hug before releasing her, finally realizing just how familiar he was acting with a divine being.

Thera frowned at him for a moment, and he wasn’t entirely sure why. Before he could ask about it, Arthene spoke. She had been giving a slightly teary Calandra cuddles, as the dwarven woman smiled at him in thanks for his commitment.

“My Lady, we reclaimed most of my previous skeleton, and I wanted to ask if you could use some of it to help bless my mate? I was also concerned with his lack of protection during the fights.” Arthene’s words brought them back to Koda’s previous request before Calandra had snapped.

“That would make things easier. I was hoping to grant you something soon, my champion. Using the bones would allow me to fashion something far faster. Which did you want to offer to me, daughter?”

“The skull,” Arthene said with a smile to the goddess before dropping her gaze down to Koda. “It’s the strongest of my bones, and my mate bore it with ease on the walk up here. It would only be too proper to give him head. My head, specifically.”

“Wait, was that why you asked me to carry it?” Koda demanded, his brow wrinkling in annoyance for a moment before Arthene’s giggle scattered any irritation. It was hard to hang onto his anger at how joyful the noise was.

“To prove you were strong enough to handle the weight with ease and to forge a connection between an ancient artifact of power that my lady could exploit to protect you?” Arthene asked after she got her giggles under control. She tried the same regal eyebrow-raise that Thera had done but failed catastrophically as her giggles kept leaking out.

Koda opened his mouth to protest and then just sighed, blowing a raspberry that got him a glare from Calandra and a smothered giggle from Sienna.

“Give me a few days to craft it,” Thera said decisively with a nod. “But that is not why I am here.”

Koda felt her hand tighten on his shoulder once more and he felt another pulse of energy pass from the goddess into him. He turned his attention to Thera and waited.

“You were wise to avoid being seen by the baron’s local forces. Goldheart’s champions and an inquisitor ride with them, and they will come this way in the next few days.”

4

There was an argument. Neither Koda nor any of his ladies wanted to leave the village to fend for itself. However, Thera made a strong point that they could conceal the sanctified building, and use the cave where her totem had been hidden to cloak anything else that might give them away; however, they couldn’t hide Koda from other champions if they saw him.

He’d asked about the converted sites of power as well, but Thera had reassured him that they would remain undetected, as Golieas did not draw power from such things. Instead, he drew power from sites of worship, like churches and temples that his faithful constructed to him.

With the realization that his presence would cause more danger for the village and the people he felt as his family, Koda folded without further argument, though it was obvious to the others in the room that he was upset.

“You have a day or more to rest, but you will need to head into the eastern plains to avoid detection. Silverstone is one of the most-remote settlements on the baron’s land. There are tribes that live out in the wild of the plains and beyond, but none of them owe any allegiance to the baron,” Thera explained to the group quickly. “As long as you move out tomorrow, you should be clear of the vale before the baron’s people get close enough. Give it a week or two and then it should be safe to come back.”

“How do you know all of this?” Calandra asked in wonder, and Thera gave the dwarven woman a smile.

“My eyes are the myriad eyes of wild animals. I’ve been keeping watch on these people ever since Koda became aware of them. Since I only have a small field of worshipers, my gaze is not spread so far that I miss much around them.”

Calandra blushed furiously at that and coughed into a fist. Koda was sure that her mind had gone somewhere dirty, so he spoke to give Calandra a moment to collect herself.

“Well, at least we got word before we started really settling in. I enjoyed having the bed last night, but I’m going to miss having you girls⁠—”

“Nope,” Arthene interrupted him suddenly and the big woman reached over to smack Koda on the back of the head. “Don’t even think about it. You aren’t leaving us behind. You’d be daft to think that was a better option, and I know you aren’t that dumb, my mate.”

“She’s right,” Thera said gently before Koda could refute the bear woman’s statement. “Arthene would stand out to the champions as much as you would, Koda. And upon closer study, so will Sienna and Calandra because of their blessings.”

“Blessings?” Calandra asked in surprise, and Thera gave her a small smile.

“Those who join with my champion receive a blessing from me. Sienna and Arthene can teach you once you are out of town, but your title of ‘daughter of the howling wind’ is going to be even more accurate.”

Calandra just blinked at her in confusion while Sienna’s grin grew wider.

“Oh, that will be great! I’ve been experimenting a lot lately and can teach her quite a bit. I’m assuming it’ll be different since she’s not an earth mage like me?” Sienna asked with an excited clap of the hands.

“Yes, but the basics are the same. Now, you should prepare and I need to depart. Please, my champion, do not tarry here. Golieas Goldheart would like nothing more than to get his grubby hands on the remains of my power. If his champions catch you here, they will happily burn the village to the ground to take it for him.”

Calandra grimaced at that statement, but nodded.

“I could see that. The followers of Goldheart are the core of the Stalwart and they, along with the Wild, abhor anything that might be tainted by the corruption of the Devouring.”

Koda blinked in surprise and his confusion must have shown on his face, because Calandra explained a moment later.

“Those are the general umbrellas that the other species fall under. The fae and elves are part of the Wild, while the Crooked or Tyrantborn are part of the Devouring. The dwarves joined the Stalwart to help defend against the encroachment of the others, but some clans still follow the Wild. It’s a matter of ideology.”

Koda nodded in understanding before turning to look up at Thera. She read the question in his eyes and answered him with a gentle smile.

“I was allied with the faction of the Wild, as you might expect. But when my world came under siege by the Crooked and their kind, only Chandra aided me. None of my other ‘allies’ helped beyond sending limited troops.”

“And that is why Chandra stepped away from the Wild and joined the Stalwart when they promised to be a bulwark against the Devouring. Though the stagnation of the Stalwart has grated at many. We should push to reclaim those lost worlds, not just hold the enemy at bay,” Calandra grumbled.

“Regardless, these are political machinations that are not worth our time right now,” Thera said, finally lifting her hand from Koda’s shoulder to clap them together sharply. “That is a problem that can be addressed another day. For now, we gather power and grow so that those who would seek to rob you of your birthright will fall at your feet instead.”

The goddess departed a moment later, fading into Koda’s shadow from where she had appeared. Kris hurried off to get the bones that Arthene and the others had brought back moved into the hidden cave above the village.

That left Koda and his lovers to spend some time relaxing in their new home. Several of the warriors who came with them before stopped by to say hello, advising that Kris had already passed word that they would leave on a trip again soon. A few confirmed they’d be coming along as well; this surprised Koda, since only he and his mates were at risk. Hans’ answer summed it up best.

“We covered for you before and will again now. I won’t ask what kind of trouble you might find out on the plains, because that’s just borrowing bad luck. Instead, some of us will tag along to help deal with the trouble that finds you.”

The following morning, the group didn’t indulge in any bedroom play, much to Arthene’s disappointment. Instead, they met up with the selection of their warriors to head out. They had divided up the contents of the Crooked paychest with the others in their group, but Koda had them hold on to the chest itself, storing it along with the bones. Given that they were heading out into the wilderness of the plains, they brought little in the way of coinage with them. Any tribes they ran into would be more likely to operate on barter than money, anyway.

Hannah, Netta, Todd, and Hans met them at the edge of the village as the sun peeked over the horizon. The four of them looked refreshed after a few days of resting at home in beds rather than camping. They fell in silently, hurrying off down the road that led to the only pass that exited the vale.

“How did your lady take the decision to leave again?” Koda asked Hans after some time had passed and the sun finished rising to bathe the land in warm light.

“Brit understands what I have to do. I’m not just a miner anymore,” Hans said with a sigh, his cow tail switching behind him. “She wishes I could stay home, but she doesn’t blame me or you for this. It’s the fault of the baron’s people.”

While the others from their group had cycled through to visit the previous day, Koda had filled them in on what had happened and what they had to do. All twelve had volunteered to go with him, but Koda refused most, saying that he needed people he could trust to stay and protect the village. He’d tried to refuse them all, but the four with him now wouldn’t take his denial.

“True. We just need to make sure you bring her back something nice to make up for being gone,” Koda said, slapping the big man on the back and making Hans grunt in surprise, then laugh.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you have enough strength to knock me on my ass, Aegisclaw. Still startles me, given how much smaller than me you are.”

“You think it’s bad for you? Imagine how Arthene feels sometimes,” Koda snickered and got a glare from the big woman who had been listening in. He’d surprised her the night before by picking her up to pin her to the wall, and it had apparently lit a fire in the bear spirit, as she’d come both hard and loud.

“I can imagine. So, what is the plan, then?” Hans laughed before turning serious once more. “We spend a few weeks out in the plains hunting, and then what? Just circle back, bringing with us all the meat we can?”

“Meat is secondary,” Koda said firmly. “I’m hunting for more sites of power.”

Hans grunted in understanding, shifting his mattock to the other shoulder. Although the big man claimed to not be a miner any longer, the fact he still carried the tool as his primary weapon amused Koda. He’d never complain, though, as Hans wielded it with brutal precision in a fight.

“That’s good to hear. The more we can do for the Pack Lady, the stronger she will grow. It is the least we can do for all she sacrificed to shield our families in ages past,” Hans said quietly.

“She wouldn’t want you to sacrifice the family you have right now though, Hans,” Koda replied just as quietly, patting the big man on the arm. “Just don’t lose sight of what you have already, okay? Your instincts will guide you.” He wasn’t sure why he phrased it that way, or even mentioned it, but Koda felt like it was the right thing to say at that moment.

Clearly, Hans agreed with him because the horned man bowed his head.

“Yes, Champion Aegisclaw. If it wasn’t for my Brit’s acceptance, I wouldn’t have come along. So don’t fear for our relationship.”

“Good.” Koda chuckled before continuing, “besides, you can look forward to another energetic welcome home when we get back, right?”

The laugh that came from Hans then drew everyone’s gazes to him, but the burly former miner ignored the questioning looks from the others.

“That is also true! Pack Lady, bless me with the strength to withstand my Brit’s affections when I get home! She’s been threatening to bring her friend into the relationship to ensure I have ‘more reasons to return home’ ever since we got back the other day!”

“Hardly something to complain about,” Hannah interjected with a sardonic grin. “I’ve seen how Layla looks at you. I’m surprised she hasn’t asked herself yet.”

“Keyword being ‘yet’ there,” Hans sighed with a shake of his head that made his horns whip through the air with a sharp whine.

The conversation continued along similar lines as they hurried back down the road. Everything from touching bases with family, rehashing gossip, and general teasing flowed back and forth amongst the group. The only one who held back was Todd, as the slightly older fox beastfolk was quiet by nature, but he would interject with an amusing quip or anecdote like the trained hunter he was.

Calandra walked between Sienna and Arthene as the two of them worked the dwarven woman through her new status as a mage, practicing with her burgeoning power.

They reached the Last Fang Cave by early afternoon and stopped for lunch. They’d renewed their supplies in town and repacked for the longer trip out into the wilderness by bringing more stable foods, since they’d be hunting once they made it far enough into the grassland to be safe from the baron’s inquisitive men.

Their lunch consisted of bread stuffed with a stew so thick it was more of a paste. The sandwiches were quite flavorful despite being cold, and Koda was quick to bolt his down before hurrying to the ridge to look out over the grassland.

The rolling hills spread out to the south in all directions. Distantly, he could see another range of mountains rising several days' travel away, along with a few smears of green that were just collections of trees along one of the many rivers that fed the grasslands. To the far east, he could see a much darker and larger blot of greenery that he guessed was a forest. Spread out amongst the grasslands were the occasional patch of stone or glimmer of sunlight on water where it collected into a lake or pond. There were more than a few moving patches that he guessed were also herds of the plains animals moving across their grazing lands.

“Any idea of where you want to head first, Aegisclaw?” Todd asked, the older fox stepping up beside him while enjoying his lunch at a slower rate.

“Just east, away from Amberpost and the village. Maybe circle south or north from there. All depends where Thera guides me,” Koda answered.

Thera had explained before she left that she would gift Koda another sort of power, one that would allow him to better sense the open sites he could claim. It would not reach terribly far, but would vastly increase the distance that he could detect the sites. It would also be tied into his new armor, using the potential of a bear’s sense of smell to enhance his own.

“Fair enough. Once we hit the base of the mountain, we can go off-road and head straight east away from Amberpost. Sienna can cover our tracks down the mountain and a mile or so off the road. After that point, they’d have to be of a ridiculous skill level to track us.”

“I don’t like this,” Koda said quietly and Todd grunted in understanding.

“I understand, lad. I’ve only known you for a handful of days, but I understand how much you hate hiding rather than fighting. Just focus on the idea that this will protect the village, as well as help you and the Pack Lady grow strong enough that you never need to hide again.”

Todd thumped him on the shoulder, and Koda sighed but nodded in understanding.

They stood in silence for some time, studying the land spread out before them, only to be interrupted when Todd grunted in annoyance. Turning towards the older man, Koda saw him holding out a hand to point towards Amberpost. Koda squinted, barely making out a brief sparkle of light on metal and movement along the distant road in that direction.

“Looks like the baron’s men are moving. We should as well.”

5

It didn’t take much to get them off the road and out of sight.

The way the local hills rolled and moved with the landscape made it easy to break line of sight unless one was in possession of a height advantage, like being up in the pass. It still surprised Koda just how many little nooks and dells there were in the landscape, despite it appearing mostly flat at a glance.

Since they weren’t racing the clock for once, Koda and his group didn’t rush once they were out of the mountains and away from the road.

As Hannah had hunted the plains quite a bit, she was leading the group along a winding game trail that was barely wide enough for Hans to travel without falling over. Given that she was bigger than the horned man, Arthene surprised them all by trotting along without a care in the world.

“I don’t like this,” Calandra grumbled, the stocky dwarven woman stumping along behind Koda at the moment.

“I know what you mean. I dislike being away from the town when a potential threat is on its way,” Koda echoed back to her.

“What? No, not that.” Calandra sounded confused at first before waving a hand dismissively. “No, you are doing the right thing. Being there will only increase the risk that the others are under. You are making it safer by being away from town. No, what I meant is that I dislike this.” She gestured around her with one hand.

“The grass?”

Calandra rolled her eyes again and shot him a long-suffering look while pulling one of her braids over her shoulder to tug on it.

“Chandra’s tits, you are lucky that you are so damn handsome. No, not that, though it’s part of it. I’ve spent most all my life in town or near town. I’ve camped before I met you, but I think I’ve spent more nights outside than inside since we first ran into each other. It’s the not knowing that bothers me.”

“You dislike feeling helpless, right?” Sienna piped up from behind Koda, and Calandra grunted again, tossing her thumb over her shoulder at the redhead.

“That’s the one. I’m not experienced with the outdoors or the wilderness. I feel so out of my depth right now that I almost wish something would show up for me to deal with. I know I shouldn’t be thinking with my axe, but I can’t help it! I was all fired up to train your folks, but then this happened.”

Calandra heaved an even larger sigh and her shoulders slumped.

Since they were just traveling, the dwarven woman wasn’t currently wearing her armor. The chainmail shirt was tucked into her pack, while her helmet dangled from one of its straps. Her broad-bladed Dane axe rested on her shoulder, the early sunlight glittering on the polished metal with keen intent. This left her curvy form exposed, as she was wearing a pair of close-fitting leather pants tucked into her armored boots and a loose white shirt with most of the buttons undone. Only a wrapped breast-band kept her from exposing more of herself.

“I’m sure that they’ll look forward to your lessons when we get back, Cal,” Sienna reassured her, reaching out to tug lightly on one of Calandra’s three chunky braids.

The dwarf growled and made snapping motions at the hand, but didn’t try all that hard beyond making the warning.

“Yeah, but I want to pull my weight. I can’t earn my keep on my back after all, though I know our man might like that,” Calandra grumbled, prodding Koda in the butt with the pommel of her axe.

“Hey! No poking me in the ass,” Koda protested with a laugh, swatting at the weapon. “I won’t protest you trying to earn money yourself, but we will all look after each other.”

“Aye, and no earning on your back with anyone besides our mate,” Sienna added on, her pointed wolf ears flicking in amusement while her fluffy tail wiggled behind her.

Calandra sputtered in protest at her insinuation, as it was clear the dwarf hadn’t meant it quite that way. It took Calandra a moment to get herself under control enough to actually state outright what she’d been meaning.

“I wouldn’t dare! I may have been quick to jump in his bed, but I’m not a loose woman.”

“No, you certainly are not,” Koda muttered, daydreaming of the interlude he’d had with the dwarf woman back in Amberpost. He was broken out of the thought with a yelp of surprise when he got poked in the ass with the axe handle again.

“As I was saying!” Calandra growled. “I’m not a loose woman. The only man I plan to spread my legs for is that great idiot with far too nice of hair for how little fucks he gives about it!”

“It is aggravating, isn’t it?” Sienna asked with a long sigh. “I use special soaps and treatments to keep my hair shiny, and he just dunks his head in the rain-barrel and comes out looking like a statue of some fertility god.”

“It’s frustrating!” Calandra barked, stomping one foot firmly in the dirt. “At least he has the good grace to help me braid mine after washing, but it’s just straight-out unfair that he can look so nice while being ignored.”

Koda glanced back over the grumbling dwarf and caught Sienna’s gaze. His crystal-eyed lover shot him a quick wink before she went back to bemoaning her and Cal’s fates, as the gods of hair care clearly didn’t favor them.

Slick, Koda thought as he gave Sienna a smile and turned back to the path ahead. She immediately saw Cal’s problem and worked to distract her. We’ll need to help her find something else to feel productive while we are out here. Maybe planning training schedules and the like? She’s not wrong that we all need to provide…

Koda’s mind went back to the great moving herds they’d seen from the edge of the pass. Hundreds of thousands of animals roamed in the distance of the plains, horses, antelope, deer, and several others. What they were exactly, Koda couldn’t tell at that distance, but the moving carpets of animals were enough to pick out amongst the grass.

Too bad I don’t have some kind of storage power, Koda thought with a sigh. It would just be far too easy to kill something and stuff it into a pocket dimension to keep the meat fresh. It would make hunting a lot easier. But that is part of this. We have to keep in mind the heat, how fast the meat will spoil, and how long we have to travel. Sure, there are preservation methods, but nothing is perfect.

Before he could get too lost in his thoughts, Arthene’s boisterous laughter tore him from his distraction, as the big woman had come to a stop on top of a hill just ahead of him. She was standing with her hands on her hips while the bone club she carried leaned against her side, looking out over the plains with her back turned slightly towards them.

The pose that Arthene had struck put her body in profile, which let the breeze caress her figure alluringly. The way the wind whipped her long mane of brown curls and sent her skirt flapping had Koda thinking of things he probably shouldn’t have been right now, especially as it flashed him her muscled thigh as the skirt she wore stirred.

“We should braid your hair tonight, Arthene,” Koda said as he approached from behind. “If we are going to be out in the wind like this, it’s going to tie itself in knots.”

“Psh,” Arthene dismissed. “I’ll just have you brush it out for me later. But if you want to spend extra time pampering me tonight, I won’t object. Look, my mate.”

Arthene turned to lock eyes with him, her yellow orbs shimmering like two motes of sunlight while she posed for him before turning to gesture out to the plains once more.

Koda did as she directed, turning to stare out into the rolling grassland. He wasn’t sure exactly what Arthene was showing him, but he’d at least try.

There were several thin lines that shimmered amongst the waving fields of grass. Koda guessed they were streams based on how the greenery just seemed brighter near them. A few large stones covered in lichen and bleached by the sun lay scattered distantly, making him wonder what cataclysmic event must have brought those rocks to their resting spots. A distant smudge of movement caught his attention many miles away, and he focused on that as Arthene’s laughter rang out again.

“What are those?” he asked, unable to make out the specifics of the animal shapes beyond that they looked large and were moving at a slow plod.

“Bison. Lovely, fat bison,” Arthene rumbled happily, the hunger in her voice clear even as her stubby bear tail twitched above the curve of her ass. “It’s been so long since I’ve had good roast bison. And the hides are strong and make excellent bedding.”

“She’s not wrong,” Hannah said from Arthene’s other side. The cat beastfolk had paused as well, and was studying the distant herd. “The challenge is usually transport, but between you and Aegisclaw here, we shouldn’t have a problem moving one of them to the base of the mountain, where there are more trees. Then we can smoke the meat while we prepare the hides.”

“We can take three or four, I think,” Arthene said, not looking away from the animals. She bounced excitedly on her heels. “Koda and I can carry one each, then it’s just a matter of what the other six can support.”

Koda wanted to argue. The idea of him being able to carry an entire bison was ridiculous. Sure, he was better defined now than when he’d come to this world, but they were talking about an animal that could weigh over twelve hundred pounds.

But you aren’t operating on just muscular strength anymore, Koda, he reminded himself. The power granted by Thera has done more than just give you some fancy gloves and the affection of three beautiful women. You are stronger, faster, and noticeably more savage than you once were.

He noted the startled looks that Hannah was giving Arthene, and it actually reassured him that someone else was questioning the demi-goddess’ words. He had no problem imagining Arthene being able to shift one of the massive creatures, but him? That was a bit much.

“Better to only take two right now,” Todd added as the rest of the group came to a stop and looked out over the plains. “While we could haul them that far, it would mean spoilage of the meat. There is only so fast we can process the bodies, smoke the meat, and all the other things. I refuse to waste what we don’t need to.”

That statement brought Arthene out of her hungry staring and she turned a curious look on the fox beastfolk for a moment, her yellow eyes searching him before she nodded once sharply.

“That is fair and acceptable, Todd. I shouldn’t get greedy. Two will still give me enough to feast properly for the first time in centuries, and provide us with supplies for some time. They are still some ways off, so we should get moving.”

As if that decided everything, Arthene turned and gave Hannah a slight push, urging the cat beastfolk back onto the path. Hannah squawked in protest at first, arms flailing for a moment as she nearly lost her balance, but Arthene righted her with barely an effort.

“We don’t need to rush, Arthene. Those beasties make a hell of a landmark out there,” Hannah grumbled once she had her footing steady once more and dusted herself off.

“Yes, and if something spooks them before I have time to bring one down, I’ll be annoyed. The sooner we get moving, the sooner we can camp. If we are lucky, we can catch up with them either tomorrow or the day after, depending on which way they turn.” Arthene’s answer was just so enthusiastic that even Hannah couldn’t hang on to her irritation at the much larger woman.

“Fine, but no pushing me like that again! You might have the strength of a mountain, but the rest of us would be hurt if we went tumbling down the slope.”

“Koda would probably be fine,” Calandra chipped in, a teasing smirk on her lips evidence of her improved mood. “He’s much better at the tumbling, though, and I personally recommend it.”

Koda groaned in response to her joke while the others joined in with the laughter. They had all spent so much time together over the last few weeks that there wasn’t exactly anything that would really phase any of them.

When the amusement had died down and conversations had resumed, Arthene actually reached back to catch Koda’s hand with hers, looking over her shoulder at him while smiling fiercely.

“You did good claiming the little one,” Arthene said brightly, and Koda snorted.

“I’m still not sure if I claimed her or she claimed me. You all can be so pushy,” Koda teased back at his bear-featured lover. Arthene’s rounded ears wiggled happily, and she nodded.

“We did, because we are what is best for you.”

“And you just happen to know what is best?”

“Now you are getting it!” Arthene laughed, giving his hand a squeeze before releasing him, as the path was still not wide enough to allow more than one to walk comfortably. “You should keep your senses open for more sites of power. It’s been a long time, but this is roughly the direction our sweet Sienna’s forbearers trod when they fled from our homelands. The area should be littered with sites.”

“Really? How far did they travel?”

“Some hundreds of miles, so don’t worry too much about finding remnants of the Crooked out here,” Arthene reassured. “I just have memories of these plains, its tossing grass, the glittering rivers, and the fat bison.”

Arthene made a theatrical slurping noise, like she was sucking back a strand of drool, and Koda snickered at her. The hypnotic sway of her hips caught his eyes as her bottom bounced back and forth in time with her steps for several moments, before he forcibly tore his attention away from that lush cushion.

“Ahem, well, I will then. Do you know if or when Thera might be done with that improvement? I would dearly like to boost my ability to sense these locations if they are important.”

“Oh, they are important, as you well know. To Thera, myself, and those of my sisters that still dwell within Thera’s sanctuary.”

The last part of Arthene’s sentence was a reserved mumble, and Koda questioned at first if he’d actually heard her say anything. He was trying to figure out how to pry for more information when Arthene volunteered it for him.

“Many primal spirits gathered under Thera’s wings when she was at the height of her power. And just as many fell in battle to defend her and their lands when the Crooked tide came washing over the land. They now sleep in the same ethereal realm that she does, waiting for when she has gathered the power to return them to life once more, as she did for me.”

Koda wanted to inquire more about the other spirits, and about Arthene’s own experiences, but felt something tugging at his mind, telling him not to. So instead, he asked about something else her statement had brought up.

“Not that I mean to insult your sisters and my ancestors, but how was it that they were overwhelmed when we’ve soundly spanked the Crooked each time we have run into them so far?”

Arthene was quiet for the first few moments before she answered him at last. Her tone was hard, but determined.

“Do not doubt that those who fell fought hard and gave it their all. The difference that we face here is that most of those we fought are rabble, the merest of conscripts in the Crooked armies. The foot soldiers and cavalry we have faced were mere leftovers from one of their fronts, sent to raid the other lands to bring back souls to corrupt and create more of their own.”

Arthene growled under her breath before blowing air out of her nose in a furious snort that would have made Hans proud. The tension left her abruptly in the wake of that noise and she sighed, nodding.

“The other part is that they were all caught by surprise. To be caught as such by a champion and an incarnate spirit? They are doomed. Without more forces on our side, though? We will struggle to truly battle their trained warriors if more come. We have faced their chaff so far, with only a handful of truly strong opponents. I don’t know what Thera’s plan is, but we are still at the opening stages while we prepare.”

“And that is why I want to get the training started back in the village!” Calandra interrupted from behind Koda, clearly having been listening in. “I know that the Crooked are dangerous, and that’s not even including if they bring in reinforcements from one of the other monsters that they work with. I’ve heard enough stories about the Tyrantborn to keep me awake at night, let alone the Fleshmelt.”

Just the names of those things drew a brief shiver of dread out of Koda’s guts, but he crammed it back down with a fist of defiant anger instead. He would not cower at the mere thought of something dangerous!

“Indeed, we will have to work to refine the others. I’m not even sure if the Pack Lady has a plan yet, given that Koda came in out of nowhere like an unexpected spring blizzard. We just have to hang on and hope for the best,” Sienna added from behind Calandra.

Koda yelped in surprise when something again smacked him in the butt. This time, it wasn’t Calandra’s axe handle. Instead, it was a hand that gave his butt a playful squeeze as Calandra spoke.

“I’ve got something to hang on to right here! But I think he’s got a good handle on the other side too. Better grab it quick, Sienna, before Arthene gets that one!”

6

For most of his life, Koda had been a side sleeper. Sleeping on his back or front would always make it difficult to drift off and actually get anything approaching quality sleep. It was just part of who he was. Coming here, he’d learned to adapt.

When it was just Sienna at his side, they’d end up spooned more often than not, but he would occasionally wake up with her using him as a pillow while he was flat on his back. Arthene added to this, usually using him like a stuffed animal or a pillow, with the rare occasion where she’d drag him onto her like a blanket in the night.

Adding Calandra to the mix, with how the dwarven woman liked to sleep in the spot that was the warmest, cemented him now as a back sleeper for the rest of his life. But Koda couldn’t complain. The love of his women made it easy to relax and when you were surrounded by such things, it made sleeping easy.

And waking even more amusing.

Calandra woke him that morning as she had basically every morning since joining their happy little family. Arthene had grumbled at first, wanting a turn, but Calandra had simply said it would require Arthene to wake up sooner—something the bear beastfolk was against from the start. So instead, while Calandra woke Koda in the most pleasurable way, Arthene and Sienna clung to him, helping keep the champion silent as his shortest lover proved the other advantage of letting her use his inner thigh as her pillow at night.

Koda groaned quietly as Calandra finished her ministrations. The dwarven woman ensured he was tidy before shimmying up to lie on his chest, peeking out from underneath their combined blankets with amusement twinkling in her olive eyes. Strands of brown hair stuck to her sweaty forehead where they had escaped her braids.

“Morning, my mate,” Calandra crooned, kissing Koda’s chest lightly while settling into position on top of him.

He’d taken to sleeping naked after Arthene and Sienna had made a strong case for it, and he hadn’t regretted it yet, especially with the warmth of his lovers pressed in on all sides. Koda’s ‘little champion’ was already perking up in case he was called in for additional duty, but he doubted that the opportunity would present itself, given that he could hear movement from the other hunters. It also sounded like Hans was stirring the fire.

“Good morning, dear Calandra,” Koda replied.

He leaned down to press a kiss to Calandra’s forehead, getting a quiet hum of happiness as she nuzzled into his chest while wiggling her hips. The motion caused the plush dwarven woman’s curves to grind into him, further teasing his younger brother to rise for battle, even as her thighs slid closed on him.

“None of that now,” Sienna cautioned, her voice still raspy from sleep. “We need to keep moving. Once we set up a camp for processing the fruits of the hunt, then you can sneak off to fuck in the grass without feeling guilty. It’s what I’m waiting for.”

“As you command, sweet Sienna,” Calandra replied, turning to lay her head on Koda’s chest so she could shoot the wolf beastfolk a smile.

Calandra had adopted the pet name from Arthene, recognizing how much Sienna liked it. Sienna rolled her eyes, but Koda could feel her tail wiggling happily. She lay tucked into his side with her breasts pressing into his chest, one of his legs trapped between hers.

“What is the plan for the day again?” Calandra asked, wiggling again to make herself comfortable and sending another thrill of stimulation from where her thighs had his length pinned.

“Keep pursuing the herd. We are close enough to that large copse of woods along the river that we can use that as a processing site rather than have to drag them all the way back to the foothills,” Sienna mumbled sleepily.

She blinked several times, and her pointed wolf ears—which had been laying back in her hair during sleep—were slowly rising like the sun that was just now peeking over the horizon.

“Got it. I’m not much of one for such work, but I’m happy to learn. Can’t expect our big, strong champion to keep me as more than a mistress otherwise,” Calandra teased, giving another wiggle of her hips.

“Never,” Koda replied with such firmness that Calandra froze. She shifted again to peek up through her bangs at him, and Koda smiled at her affectionately. Something that she saw in his gaze made Calandra melt against him with a happy noise.

“Sorry, Sienna. We are just gonna have to be a bit late. I need to reward our mate for being so quick to reassure me,” Calandra hummed as she shifted before sinking herself down on Koda’s length.

While Calandra and Koda shared a quiet groan at the penetration, Sienna snickered and settled in to watch.

“I’d warn you not to tire him out, but I don’t think even Arthene’s been able to really wear our mate out yet…”

Calandra was quick enough in her rewarding of Koda that no one was the wiser, save for Sienna and Arthene, who had front-row seats. Arthene had woken shortly after the two of them started jostling, and joined Sienna in watching and lending a ‘helping hand’ in keeping them quiet. Or, in this case, a helping tit by smothering Koda with them to keep him from making too much noise while Sienna covered Calandra’s mouth.

When they were all finished up and dressed once more, Calandra and Arthene set about packing up the bedding while Sienna and Koda went to help prepare breakfast. The sun continued to creep towards the horizon and light up the sky.

Hans and Netta were both up already, the two of them arguing playfully over how they’d prepare the food and what would make for the best option to fuel their day.

“I’m telling you, Hans. We should save the dried fruit for later on. If we blow through it all now, then we are going to regret it later,” Netta was saying as the two of them crept quietly through the thin trees at the edge of the stream where they’d camped.

“And I’m telling you that porridge should either be sweet or not at all. The idea of meat in porridge just feels wrong to me. Sure, meat on the side—I’ll never say bacon is a wrong choice for breakfast—but not actually in the porridge.”

“Then don’t call it porridge—it’s oat and meat soup for breakfast. Plain porridge is gross,” Netta huffed. “I notice you didn’t deny my statement about wanting to save the dried fruit, though.”

“I’d be a fool not to. We all saw how Arthene was looking at that herd the other day. We won’t be short on meat, but unless we find some late season currents by the streams, all we have for fruit will be the dried apples and pears we have with us.”

Hans caught sight of Koda and Sienna approaching through the thick darkness and waved to them. The bull-horned man sat next to the small fire in the middle of the clearing where they camped, stirring a pot that hung over it with a large spoon.

“There you are, the others following?”

“Morning, Hans, Netta,” Koda said with a wave, “and yes, they are just folding up the bedding and will join us soon. Your summary about the meat is likely right. I know Arthene perked up when she remembered we were close enough to actually take down the bison, since they bedded down near that watering hole last night.”

They had followed the herd for the better part of two days. Arthene would have continued into the night if Koda hadn’t threatened to cut her off from snuggles if she came back smelling of blood, or woke them in the middle of the night to process the animal.

It’d been a good three days since they’d left the village. Koda was fairly sure of that, but his ability to track the passage of days was slipping, as everything seemed to run together without having specific days of the week matter.

“Honestly, it might be best just to turn your lady loose to hunt while we find another campsite. This one is good, but we are still more than a mile or so from that watering hole,” Netta suggested.

The avian beastfolk had caved in to Hans’ persistent defense of the plain porridge and instead produced a small, flat metal plate with a handle that she set on the edge of the fire. She was doggedly tearing a hunk of dried meat into strips, using her knife when needed, and laying them on the plate to warm up. Koda had a feeling that Netta’s share would end up in her porridge regardless, and he couldn’t fault her. Plain oatmeal never really sat well on his stomach.

“I think Arthene would love that. But we’d better scout that watering hole out first. Sources of drinking water that large attract more than just herds, and I don’t want anything surprising her.”

“Koda, while it’s endearing that you worry for her, I would feel bad for anything that tries to surprise our Arthene,” Sienna reassured him, laying a hand on his arm before kissing his neck.

“You lot are just too adorable,” Netta said with a grin, and Hans dipped his horned head in agreement.

“Aye, I almost wish that my Brit wanted to travel more so she would be by my side. But I’ll just be thankful she puts up with my seizing this opportunity to be more than just a miner.” Hans patted the haft of the heavy iron mattock that leaned against his thigh.

The mining tool would normally have been ridiculous to wield as a weapon, but Hans had made good use of both the pointed pickaxe head and the spade-shaped scoop on the other side in fights. Koda had seen the big man wielding it with one or both hands to vicious effect.

I need to see if Cal has any tricks she can teach Hans about using that. He wields it like an axe, which makes sense for how it’s weighted. He’s made do just on strength so far, but Hans is a good guy and I want to make sure he doesn’t get hurt, Koda thought before settling into a cross-legged position by the fire to wait for the other two to wake. When Sienna moved to sit next to him, Koda caught her hips and tugged his first mate onto his lap.

Sienna yipped in surprise at the sudden movement, but snuggled into Koda’s lap while her tail beat a happy beat against his chest as the energetic bundle of fluff showed her contentment.

“Way too cute,” Netta snorted, rolling her eyes as the feathers threaded through her hair flexed and resettled, blending in once more with the strands. “I don’t know how you four do it, especially at the rate Aegisclaw is expanding the family. No offense meant, champion.”

“None taken, Netta.” Koda answered, wrapping one arm around Sienna’s waist to hold her in place while the other reached up to start gently finger-combing out her short mess of hair.

Sienna had originally kept her hair trimmed short, citing that it made it easier to move amongst the trees while it was short. But at Arthene’s urging, the wolf beastfolk had been letting it grow out. It’d only been a few weeks now, but the mop of hair was slowly gaining length.

Koda couldn’t complain about the choice, either. He loved how all his women looked and agreed with Arthene that Sienna would look sexy with longer hair. If she worried about it getting caught, then they could just braid it for her.

That’d make all three of my lovers with braids. Handles for days, Koda thought with a small grin before turning his attention back to the others while taking time to spoil Sienna. He had to make sure he kept affections balanced between his women, so none of them felt left out or unappreciated.

They chatted quietly while the others stirred. Arthene and Calandra returned with their packs and distributed the food. Todd and Hannah were woken only when the food was ready, as the two of them had taken the late rotation on the watch schedule.

Koda’d had a word with Todd to ensure that he and his three girls were put on the rotation as well; their turn just hadn’t come up since they only needed one person on watch while the others slept with their smaller group. He didn’t look forward to having to leave his ladies behind in the middle of the night to stand a watch rotation, but he knew it was necessary.

With the food eaten and everyone ready to go, they set out towards the watering hole. The herd that they’d been chasing was still bedded down in the early light, though a few of the beasts were up and moving about.

Koda was walking in the group's lead. He’d felt something tugging on him almost as soon as they’d started moving, guiding them towards what he was sure was another site of power. Perhaps it was even linked to the watering hole ahead of them, where a half-dozen streams converged and pooled before flowing out as three larger rivers.

“Arthene,” Koda tilted his head to look back at his large lover, her bear ears twitching as she kept her yellow eyes fastened on the herd ahead of them. “Arthene,” he repeated when she didn’t respond at first.

Arthene blinked and shook her head, looking down to meet Koda’s gaze. He saw a deep hunger there, an almost feral need to feed. It rapidly faded, though, to be replaced by love as a wide smile spread across her features. She pointedly put more bounce in her step to make the upper slopes of her breasts dance alluringly for him.

“What is it, my mate?” Arthene husked.

Koda felt a thrill of desire race up his spine. It took him a moment to tamp it down, as he wanted nothing more than to put truth to that title she’d given him right now. Once he had his libido under control again, he responded.

“The other suggested it, and I agree. We are out here to hunt for sites of power and for food. We can set up a camp for dressing the animal once we locate the site of power. Do you want to⁠—”

“Yes!” Arthene interrupted with an excited bounce, lunging forward to grab Koda and drag him into her chest. Since he was turned slightly, this ended up with him wedged between her breasts, his face smushed into her right boob while she pinned him to her muscled abdomen.

“Mmph!” Koda protested before nipping Arthene’s breast firmly to get her attention. She moaned rather loudly before hauling him out of her cleavage and pulling him into a kiss.

“You are a wise and loving mate,” Arthene husked when their lips finally parted. “I will happily hunt while you prepare camp to dress the carcass and start drying the meat. I had worried at first that you might find it beneath you…”

Arthene let the sentence drop off at that, grunting in surprise when Koda got hold of the closest set of handles he could reach to steer her mind. His hands sank into the soft flesh of her breasts as he hefted the twin mounds bracketing him without leaning back.

“We are a team, all four of us. No task is beneath one of us if it supports the others. I know how much you want a bison, so I thought it would be best to let you pick. Just none with a calf, okay?”

Arthene gave him another kiss, this time using it to muffle a moan while Koda continued to knead her breasts for a few moments. When Arthene was done thanking him, she set Koda back on the ground and urged him to hurry. He caught smirks from his two lovers and long-suffering looks mixed with amusement from the other four.

“Come on! I want to see if we can find that site or not! Then hunting!” Arthene urged, pushing Koda along like an oversized toddler who had been promised ice cream if they went shopping.

Laughing, Koda let her push.

They found the site of power just as Koda had expected, along the shore of the lake overlooking the water. He followed the sense of pressure along the shoreline, wading right through the streams without hesitation while the group trailed after him. They’d all seen him claim one of these before, but it was still interesting enough that no one wanted to be left behind for it.

The site itself, when found, was unassuming: just a cluster of ash trees that grew so close together that their gnarled roots intertwined with each other where they sat between two of the streams. The branches of the trees knit together so tightly above that it blocked out the sun and provided total shade at the center of the little grove. The only way into or out of the circle of six trees was from a narrow slit that looked out over the lake. There was maybe five or six feet of space between the trunks in the center.

Stepping through the slot, Koda felt the power that dwelt there humming in his bones. This was a sacred site for sure, a place where time passed and one could observe the passage of the surrounding wild from shelter and safety. It felt like a favorite recliner to Koda, and he knelt on the loamy soil for a moment before conjuring his totemic gauntlet on his right hand.

Pricking his left thumb with the razor-sharp claws of his gauntlet, he let the blood drip into his palm for a moment, watching the red droplets as they gained a silvery sheen that reminded him of Thera’s eyes. With that done, he poured the blood onto the soil and opened the gateway in his soul that linked him to the goddess, through the distant bloodline she had blessed so long ago.

Unlike the deep wellspring he’d found the week before, no beam of light shot out to strike him. Instead, Koda felt a surge of something warm rise from the ground and wrap around him. It reminded him vaguely of Arthene bundling him into a hug while in her dire bear form—vast, soft, and affectionate.

The power sank into him gently, spiraling into his soul. Koda thought he heard the distant song of birds intermixed with the splash of water and a lowing of herd animals before the sounds faded from him.

While he had knelt there, reveling in the power flowing through him and to Thera, the shrine had appeared.

As always, it was simple and to the point. The furred hide of some large animal had settled onto the ground, before a stone bowl appeared, settling into place at the back of the hollow.

Koda swore he felt a kiss on his cheek at that moment, as well as the whiff of a wild scent which reminded him of Thera, before it was gone.

After he had finished claiming the site, he dusted off his hands and rose to his feet once more. Slipping out of the circle of trees was easy enough, and Koda was startled to see fresh buds on all the branches near him.

I wonder if that is because Thera is recovering? He thought, before turning his attention back to his group.

Arthene barely waited for his nod before she turned to Sienna and traded her bone club to the wolf beastfolk for her spear. Weapon in hand, Arthene bounded away into the grass, vanishing without a sound despite her size.

“Remind me never to offend her,” Hans muttered, staring in surprise after the vanished woman.

“Hans, if you haven’t figured that out on your own by this point, then you really deserve your family name,” Todd replied dryly, getting a glare from the horned man.

“What was his family name?” Calandra asked curiously as the remaining seven began casting around for a good spot to set up camp in the trees, some distance back from the water.

“Bellowtail,” snickered Netta, earning her own glare from Hans. “The implications stick; otherwise he’d be done with it, I’m sure.”

A round of laughter crossed the group as they set to work.

7

They found a spot to camp well back from the watering hole. They’d still have easy enough access to water via a nearby stream, but wouldn’t risk anything coming to drink at the little lake investigating their camp.

While they’d been traveling, it hadn’t felt worth it to bother with tents previously. Between needing to move quickly while chasing the Crooked, and having good weather afterwards, they’d just slept under the stars. But since they’d camp here for a few days while they harvested and prepared the bison they killed, the comfort would be worth it.

Sienna showed Calandra and Koda how to set up their tents. There were far more pegs, ropes, and poles being used than Koda was used to, but he had a starting point with which to work. Much of what Calandra knew she’d learned by observing others; any training when the guard had to camp had been limited, so she had little chance to put it to use.

While the three of them set up the larger tent they’d share with Koda, the other four set up smaller personal tents to one side of the clearing they’d selected before preparing the rest of the site for a several-day stay.

The site they’d chosen was relatively flat and surrounded by trees and undergrowth, giving it more cover from the casual observer. They marked out a clear path to the river for water. While Todd and Hans set up a station by the stream to clean kills out and wash the meat, Netta and Hannah got a good-sized firepit outlined and started collecting wood.

“I know Arthene is impressive as hell, but I’m also surprised that you just let her head off on her own like that,” Calandra said as she smoothed the blankets of their bedrolls out in the tent one last time. She hadn’t explained why she had volunteered to lay out the bedding, but Koda had a feeling that his dwarven lover had planned to tempt him, considering she kept her head down and bottom in the air, wiggling it teasingly as she worked.

“If Arthene has a problem, she has a way to contact Koda. Besides, I’m not sure I want to meet the creature that can tangle with Arthene and make her call for back-up.” Sienna watched the dwarf with amusement, having already finished tying in the last of the guylines to support the tent, enjoying the show as much as he was.

“Fair, but it’s better to not go alone, especially with us far from support and the towns. There are tribes that wander the plains and live in remote villages along these mountains. The city folk view them as savages, but I’ve met a few that came into town to trade.” Calandra sat up on her knees and surveyed her work once before nodding and smoothing her braids back out of the way.

“People say the same thing about beastfolk, though,” Sienna sighed and Calandra grunted in acknowledgement, clearly agreeing with her summary.

“People are dumb,” Koda added on, getting smirks from both of his girls. “Would be interesting to meet one of those wild tribes. Did any of them come up into Silverstone to trade?”

“Not really,” Sienna sighed. “For us, it was a chance encounter while out, like Netta talked about. They like to keep to their lands and the wilderness, so we just let each other be.”

Koda hooked an arm around Sienna’s hips and pulled her into his side. Her tail whipped back and forth, slapping against the back of his thighs happily at the affectionate contact.

“We will need to keep our eyes open, then. We are far enough from the mountains and the road that we are definitely near, if not on, their lands now. It’s important to be respectful of that.”

Sienna nodded in agreement with Koda’s words, her ears tucking back as she leaned into him comfortably.

“I doubt they’ll have an issue,” Calandra said confidently. “The handful that I talked to always disdained the idea of the baron owning the land. As long as we keep with the stud’s idea of being respectful and not making a mess, we should be fine.”

“Stud, am I?” Koda let his voice drop into a low growl that made Calandra stiffen, and he could see her nipples harden even through her shirt and breast band at the command of his voice. Sienna shivered against him and her tail beat faster on his legs. “Maybe I’ll have to put that to the test here soon.”

Koda’s teasing got heated looks from both of his women, even though they’d already had a conversation about being more stable before trying for children. All of them seemed excited by the idea, but they also weren’t in a rush at the moment.

Before the temptation to shove both his mates into the tent and test out their bedding overcame him, Koda blew out a sigh and gave himself a slight shake. That noise and gesture told them that the teasing was over and both girls sagged, Calandra pouting and Sienna giving a quiet whine.

“You both know if we got up to anything without Arthene, she’d pitch a royal fit when she got back and smelled it on us,” Koda reminded them and both nodded.

“Gonna pin that big-tittied bear down for you one of these days. Ride her face while you ride her ass…” Calandra grumbled, making Sienna snort in amusement while her tail continued its happy whirlwind, not phased in the slightest by their aborted lovemaking.

“You are welcome to try. I’d love to see that, Cal. Because I get the sneaking suspicion she’d bundle you up and then hand you over to me as a sex toy,” Koda shot back.

Calandra just grinned up at him, her olive eyes amused.

“You say that like it's a bad thing!”

“Come on, you two,” Sienna huffed, finally peeling herself off of Koda. “If you aren’t going to break in the bedding with us, Koda, then we should help the others finish setting up camp. The girls are almost done lining the firepit with stones, and you can never have enough firewood laid in.”

“Fair enough,” Koda agreed, reaching down to pull Calandra back to her feet.

The dwarf squealed in surprise when Koda’s tug did more than just lift her to her feet. It lifted her into the air, where Koda caught her with an arm around her thighs and hand on her ass, pressing her to him.

“Love you, Cal,” Koda murmured while pulling the dwarven woman to him. This pose had them face-to-face for once, mashing her tits high into his chest.

Leaning down, Koda pressed a kiss to the top of each of those curved mounds before kissing the base of Calandra’s throat.

The smartass remark she had been holding to throw back at him died in her chest as she moaned and ground her hips into him before grabbing Koda’s ears and pulling him in deeper.

Smirking into the kiss, he turned and followed the giggling Sienna to the firepit with his prize in his arms.

Collecting firewood was a simple task. Given his vastly increased strength, Koda could lift heavy piles of the stuff without a problem. The real challenge came in figuring out how to hang on to it all.

Using a trick he learned from another camper back on Earth, Koda stripped off his belt and tucked his pouches and knife into the top of his boots. He then wrapped the leather belt around the bundles of wood, cinching it tightly to hold the branches together while he hefted larger logs onto his shoulders.

The girls moved with him, collecting deadwood and fallen branches and ferrying them back to the clearing. They found several trees that had been downed in a storm. Sienna worked to snap the limbs off and prepare them, while Calandra used a smaller hatchet to split the trunks down. Koda would then haul the trimmed logs back to the camp, where Hans and Todd worked to cut them into sections that would fit in their firepit.

Netta and Hannah went out to scout the surrounding area, looking for anything that might come in handy. They returned with news that they’d found several patches of berries, a point that Netta rubbed in Hans’ face.

“Any idea when Arthene is going to be getting back?” Todd asked once they had the camp set and were taking a break.

It was getting on towards the late afternoon, and the sun was drifting towards the horizon. Without the looming mountains to cut the sun off early—they’d left those to the west and could still see the peaks despite days of travel—they had some time left in the day.

“When she gets the one she wants,” Koda answered with a shrug. “I checked on her not long ago using the connection we have. She’s hungry and excited, so she must be getting close. I imagine we’ll hear the beasties if something sets them off.”

“Fair. I normally wouldn’t want to camp so close to a herd of that size, because one stampede would kill us all, champion or not, but the lake is between us and them. I doubt they’ll charge the lake for any reason,” Todd said while he studied the distant forms of the massive animals as they milled about in a large group.

Koda turned to follow his gaze and studied the massive, fuzzy backs of the herd of bison as they grazed in larger and larger circles from where they’d rested the previous day. The animals looked like great, lumbering boulders covered in fur. Koda was just glad that the wind wasn’t blowing in their direction at the moment, as he could only imagine such massive creatures must create a titanic amount of poop.

While he watched, one of the large animals on the edge of the herd wandered further from the group. There was a flash of movement before it was snatched up and dragged into the deep grass, only having time for one short bleat of surprise.

The herd reacted, rippling away from the location where the massive, thousand-pound-plus animal had been just ripped from sight. All the adult bison in the area immediately turned to present their thick heads and stubby horns toward the threat, while the calves and yearlings all crowded behind their parents in surprise.

“I think that was Arthene taking her pick,” Koda chuckled, interrupting a conversation between Calandra and Todd regarding teaching the basics of what the former guardswoman knew.

“Oh? I missed it?” Todd turned to look towards the herd with narrow eyes, his fox ears flicking and tail twitching in annoyance. “Something definitely has their backs up… I wonder if the herd will move off or settle down. Where is she?”

Koda pointed out the location, easy to note because of a large rock that protruded nearby. But there was no sign of Arthene or her prey, despite the sheer size of the animal.

“You sure you aren’t seeing things, Aegisclaw?” Hans teased, and Koda shot him a frown.

“Something just snatched up a bison. Like yanked it off its feet and into the grass before ending it in a single blow. If you know of a predator out here besides Arthene that can do that, then you better tell us.”

Hans blanched at that idea before turning to stare back at the group of moving herd animals as they continued to back away from where their fellow had vanished.

The bison didn’t stampede, but it took the herd a good twenty minutes to calm down again. During that time, Koda got the rope and harness set up under Todd’s direction, while Netta and Sienna worked to help Hans and Calandra create smoking racks for the meat. Hannah got the fire going while they waited, ensuring there would be a good bed of coals for drying the meat without cooking it too fast on one side, and the other for cooking their meals.

Todd was the one to spot Arthene this time, as the incarnate spirit finally abandoned stealth and stood up with her kill over her shoulders.

The sight of anyone, Arthene included, carrying a creature the size of a bison slung over their shoulders was intimidating as hell. The big woman walked carefully, delicately balancing the immense weight of the animal even as blood leaked from the wound in its throat, dripping to one side. Sienna’s spear was slung across her back; the bear woman had used the two chunky braids they’d put her thick mane into as impromptu ties to carry the weapon. A red smear ran across her jaw.

As soon as he saw her, Koda raced out across the intervening grassland to help, allowing Arthene to pick up speed to meet him. “I saw what you did,” Koda grunted as he hefted the animal in his arms. Being this close to it, he could confirm that it stank. He just hoped the hide would lose that smell once it was treated.

“Oh? What did I do, my mate?” Arthene chuckled from the other side of the animal.

“You peeled this thing right out of the herd without them noticing, and took it down like you were grabbing a cookie off of a plate,” Koda laughed. That compliment made Arthene’s rounded ears wiggle on top of her head, and Koda bet that her stubby tail was kicking happily, too.

“I wanted to get a fat one for us to enjoy, but not scare off the herd. These animals have plenty of meat on them. It will take days to fully render one properly.” Arthene said excitedly. She explained, “I figure we can cut off a few large hunks for everyone to get their fill, shave off a batch of meat for drying and then I can finish off anything left over.”

Koda stared at his lover in surprise, and Arthene shot him a wicked grin, her yellow eyes sparkling in amusement as her mouth opened wide. Before his eyes, her teeth lengthened and sharpened until her mouth was a forest of canines inches long. Arthene wiggled her ears at him again before sticking out her tongue. With a snap, all of her teeth returned to normal once more.

“I have a big appetite when I want to, and something like this would have been barely half a meal for me in my animal form, my mate. So don’t worry about waste.”

“Noted,” Koda muttered, blinking in surprise as his brain fought to switch gears for him. “You… uh… do you always have to eat that much? Not that I’ll love you any less, it’s just gonna do a number on our budget for food in town, is all.”

Arthene laughed from deep in her gut, the joyful noise bringing a smile back to Koda’s lips and adding a spring to his step. She never dropped her burden as she laughed, and it took her a good half-minute to get herself under control once more.

“No, my mate. Not at all,” Arthene said in between giggles as her laughter tapered off. “While I can eat like that and it helps me build my strength, I do not need to in order to survive. I’m happy to feed my bear form when I have the chance, but it’s not something that you need to worry about.”

“Got it,” Koda said thoughtfully. “I just want to make sure that I provide for you as best as I can, Arthene. You and the others.”

“You do wonderfully so far,” Arthene gave him another grin before her eyebrows wriggled in amusement. “There are other ways to feed that hunger though… your latest ‘little’ conquest keeps stealing my morning snack, which is important to a healthy body.”

“Cal does what she does on her own accord. I trust you ladies to work out any problems you have or bring them to me if you need help. Besides, you can always tap that faucet before bed. Cal pointed out that you tend to prefer to sleep in longer in the mornings.”

“Before bed, hmm? That might not be a bad idea,” Arthene’s grin turned salacious, but Koda just rolled his eyes.

8

Despite the size of the bison that Arthene had brought down, Todd, Hannah, Sienna, and Netta processed it with surprising speed. Koda and Calandra did what they could to watch and learn, while Arthene seized the opportunity to bathe in the river and wash the blood off from having hauled the carcass back.

Arthene had tried to drag Koda off to help her wash, but Sienna had chased her away, insisting that Koda needed to learn how to process the game first so that he could provide for their little family. The logic of that argument surprisingly got through to the bear spirit and she sauntered off to wash without a complaint, though she demanded that Koda help her wash up after their next round of hunting.

The smoking racks the others had put together were quickly set to work. The long roasting pit was sectioned off, and they added just enough moist wood to provide plenty of smoke to treat the meat while the racks were set overtop of it. Hans set up several large slabs of flank steak to roast over the section that wasn’t covered by the smokers.

“The only complaint I have with these is there’s no backstrap,” the big, horned man said as he carefully impaled that night’s meal on trimmed sticks to cook over the open flame. “The hump roast is delicious, but deserves the low and slow treatment.”

“I never knew you were that much of a chef, Hans,” Sienna commented from where she was draping thin slices of meat over the green twigs of the smoker racks.

Koda couldn’t help but take a moment to admire the wild beauty of his redheaded lover as she worked. Sienna still looked just so damned attractive, even with blood covering her hands and smeared on one cheek.

“I’m not, but my mum was. When she realized I was likely going to be a bachelor for a good while, she taught me how to feed myself. Da was the hunter and used to hunt the plains,” Hans answered, turning a few of the sticks and shifting those that were cooking too quickly.

“Aye, I remember Ogam teaching me a few tricks too,” Todd said as he worked on the other side of Sienna on the smoking racks. “Just glad we came prepared this time. Arthene, are you sure that it’s going to be okay to leave so much?”

“Yup. You all take what you want and smoke what you can. Don’t hesitate,” Arthene chuckled from where she lounged on the pile of bedrolls, her hair still wet from her bath. “Anything you can’t get on the racks, I’ll finish so it doesn’t spoil.”

“That sounds so… gluttonous,” Calandra snickered from her spot, rubbing a mixture of salt and other herbs into the thinly sliced meat that she would then hand off to Koda to hang on the smoking racks.

“It’s practical. I could eat two or three beasts without hesitation. Don’t forget what I am, little Cal,” Arthene chuckled, shifting to roll onto her back.

This motion sent her large breasts swaying before gravity took hold of the delicious mounds and caused them to settle out to either side. Given that Arthene had just bathed, she was only wearing her skirt at the moment. Those not in a relationship with the large woman were avoiding looking at her ‘charms’ as she lounged, though Arthene made no effort to hide them.

Surprisingly, Koda didn’t mind Arthene blatantly showing off her body like this. He knew there wasn’t anything more to it than Arthene needing to dry off and wanting to tease him some. Arthene was his. Others might look, but she would suffer the touch of no other man but him.

Calandra glared at Arthene, glancing down at her own full bust, which was nonetheless overshadowed by the much larger woman’s curves.

“I’m not that little,” grumbled Calandra, as she handed off the next slice of hump roast to be smoked.

“No, you aren’t,” Sienna reassured the smaller woman with the ease of familiarity. “Arthene’s just ridiculously oversized is all. She has to put all that food she eats somewhere, and she’s lucky enough that it goes to her tits and ass rather than her waistline.”

“You never need to worry about your waist, sweet Sienna. At least not until you catch those pups from Koda that you want,” Arthene teased, rolling over onto her front once more and shooting a wicked grin over at them.

Now it was Sienna’s turn to blush and look away, but from how her tail picked up speed, her opinion on that situation was very obvious.

“Okay, I think we have everything we can take off the carcass,” Netta said, carrying over another bowl loaded with sliced meat. “This should fill the smoking racks for now. Hannah is washing the sinew in the river and should be back in a minute or two. Hans, do you have enough for dinner and breakfast tomorrow?”

“Yup, gonna make a nice hearty soup for breakfast tomorrow,” the horned man nodded to the simple cutting board he had next to the fire loaded with meat that he’d cubed up. “We’ve got enough meat smoking that we could eat bison for a week without a problem, though.”

Koda glanced back at the carcass. They had to have pulled over a hundred pounds of meat off of it, and had barely taken a quarter of the meat that was still there.

Too bad we don’t have time to do a proper pit roast. I bet the short ribs on a bison are damn tasty. Maybe we can do that with one of them, Koda thought, trying to keep his mind off of what he knew was potentially going on back in Silverstone. Knowing mentally that it was safest for him to be away right now was one thing, and it was entirely something else to know it in his heart and accept it.

“Well then, if you’re done, then I’m going to take my share,” Arthene chuckled before doing a press-up to get to her feet.

This motion sent another ripple of luscious action through her unbound breasts, making Hans choke on his spit, then shoot Koda a familiar jealous look. Koda returned it with a proud grin and wiggling eyebrows.

“Such a lucky bastard,” Hans grumbled while turning the meat on their spits once more.

“Don’t I know it,” Koda replied, bumping his hip into Calandra and shooting Sienna a wink, getting smiles from his other two mates.

“Arthene, don’t shift on the bedding,” Sienna called over her shoulder while she fought down her blush. “The last thing we need is you shredding the bedrolls with your claws.”

“I know, sweet Sienna,” Arthene replied with a laugh before she bounded to a section of clear ground, where her form began to ripple and change. Her mane of luscious brown hair flared outwards and raced to envelop her entire body, even as Arthene swelled in size to her dire bear form.

It took the spirit woman less than ten seconds to shift into the full majesty of her dire bear body. Over twenty feet long and standing eight feet tall at the shoulder, she was more like a furry bus than anything else. That same rich brown hair covered her entire form, and Koda knew it was as dense and strong as steel wire. Massive claws like short swords sprouted from each of her wide paws, and a head large enough to engulf his entire torso, were her weapons in this form and added to the intimidation factor.

“Beautiful, as always,” Koda murmured when Arthene tilted her massive head in his direction.

Love glinted in the bear woman’s yellow eyes as she huffed at him in amusement, swaying her head back and forth playfully before turning to amble towards the carcass.

Seeing Arthene shift between her normal amazonian form and that of her dire bear form was riveting, so everyone had been watching despite her half-dressed state. Everyone noticed when the amiable woman in bear form suddenly stiffened and whirled to her right, the fur on her back standing on end as she let out a deep, challenging growl.

The four hunters in the group stiffened at the fierce noise before immediately dropping their hands to their weapons. Arthene huffed and swung her big head back and forth for a moment before giving another loud growl of anger.

Surrounded, Arthene sent him through the bond that the primal spirit shared with Koda. Easily a dozen people in the bushes. I didn’t scent them earlier because of all the blood, but now I can tell they are there.

As Arthene continued to growl at the surrounding grasslands threateningly, Koda spoke as he stepped back, summoning his totemic gauntlets to his hands with a thought. He glanced towards the river to confirm Hannah was already hurrying their way, bow held tight in one hand and an arrow on the string.

“Show yourselves! I guarantee it will be far safer for you to come out now rather than stay hidden and have her come find you.”

“Koda, what—” Sienna began, before a rustling in the long grass preceded the appearance of several small clumps of people, maybe a hundred yards from their camp. They were in small groups of three or four, and at a quick count, Koda put their numbers at fourteen.

Their hands were raised in the air with weapons held in them, clearly signaling a peaceful approach. They glanced between the massive form of the growling dire bear and Koda’s imposing figure. He strode around the firepit to stand beside the massive creature, displaying the confidence of one who expected to be obeyed, a confidence he had developed during the intense fighting of the last few days.

At his back, the other six members of his group all held their weapons ready as they waited to see what would happen. The pride with which his group held themselves was another byproduct of the last several weeks of fighting. They’d faced far larger numbers than they currently did and emerged victorious, after all.

“I don’t know who you are, but if you mean us no harm, then I welcome you into our camp. Far better to be friends rather than enemies, right?” Koda called out after a moment of studying the group before him.

One and all, they appeared to be beastfolk, like most of his group. While the members of the Ivory Spear tribe were of varied origins, these people all had similar features. They had the pointed ears of cat beastfolk like Hannah, though the particular feline in their blood varied a bit.

Unlike his group, these people were dressed far more simply, wearing buckskins and other hide clothes decorated with small beads and polished stones. However, the quality of their weapons confirmed to Koda that they were not savages, just simpler people. Every one of them was staring at Arthene with eyes wide in surprise, save for one person.

A petite woman who stood amongst the closest group was darting her eyes between Koda and Arthene’s bear form, her tall feline ears flicking amongst a short mane of dirty blonde hair. The black, tufty tips of her ears wiggled in curiosity.

“We will approach if we have the blessings of the god-beast and her promise of safe passage,” one hunter called out. He was an older male, with the rounded ears of a cougar and a weatherbeaten face that looked like sun-tanned jerky.

The words of my mate should be enough, growled Arthene in his mind, her mental voice accompanied by an actual growl a moment later.

“Easy, my mate,” Koda said, reaching out to pat Arthene on the shoulder to calm her. The gesture silenced the growl and Arthene leaned into his touch a moment before going back to glaring at the speaker.

Koda turned back to the speaker to relay what Arthene had said to find the man staring at him in shock, eyes wide. Beside him, the fuzzy-eared woman was now peering intently at him, her brilliantly green eyes twinkling in the late afternoon sun as she studied him in fascination.

“You claim the god-beast as your mate?” the older cat man asked, and Koda snorted in amusement.

“She claimed me first, but we regularly trade off on that. Her name is Arthene, though, not ‘god-beast,’ and I’ll repeat my earlier statement.” Koda began, but before he could give voice to that repetition, the group of cat beastfolk all surged forward to bow in front of Arthene, moving bare seconds after he spoke her name.

The sudden surge of movement drew another challenging growl from Arthene, but she didn’t move beyond stamping the front leg that Koda wasn’t rubbing reassuringly. The Ivory Spear warriors all tensed, but when the other group went into deeper bows of submission, they froze.

“What are you doing?” Sienna asked, coming to stand beside Koda with her spear held ready. Koda didn’t need to look to know that Calandra was on her other side, the quiet grumbling of the dwarven woman enough to track her movements.

“We honor the Den Mother and her mate.” This time it was the curious woman who spoke, leaning back just enough to look up at them, her green eyes shimmering in wonder as she took them in. For all the world, the woman looked like she was seeing a god made manifest.

I suppose she is, though, Koda thought in surprise as he shared a glance with Arthene, who had stopped growling when she recognized their bows. But how do they know of Arthene?

It took a bit to get the newcomers to rise from their respectful bows and explain themselves, but once Arthene returned to a form that could speak, they were quick to obey.

Koda stood beside his annoyed mate, helping to keep her calm as these beastfolk explained themselves.

Their leader’s name was Cyrus, and he was quick to answer any questions that were put to him by Koda and his mates once Arthene confirmed their status. This was good, because Arthene was growing grumpy at their interruption of her plans for the evening. Though she didn’t have to say it aloud, Koda knew that what bothered Arthene was how close these people had gotten before her senses had picked them up.

“We apologize for spying upon the Den Mother and her people,” Cyrus explained once everyone had gotten comfortable once more.

Koda’s people got back to work finishing up with the smokers, and Hans saved their dinner from being burned. At Arthene’s grudging request, the newcomers had gone to the carcass and cut off several roasts for themselves, before setting up a pair of fires to cook their own dinner while Cyrus explained.

“We are hunters for our tribe and had been tracking that herd of bison. We were unaware of your group’s presence here until Samira witnessed the Den Mother taking down an animal bare-handed.”

Koda had to fight the urge to snicker at the unwitting pun the older man had made. The effort was worthwhile, as no one else in their group laughed while Cyrus continued.

“Since we did not know who you were or why you were hunting in these ranges, we observed in order to learn if you were a threat to our people. Anyone able to bring down one of the great bison with such speed is definitely someone of whom to be wary.”

“All three of my mates could do the same,” Arthene grumbled from her spot next to Koda, her eyes darting towards the carcass, where it hung by the river still. “One bison is nothing to them.”

“I don’t know about that, Arthene,” Calandra hedged, but the big woman cut her off with a gesture of one hand.

“You are a mage now, little Cal, just as our sweet Sienna is. That power is not something to be taken lightly. Trust me when I say that you could do it with ease.”

Calandra grumbled at the ‘little Cal’ name again before the rest of Arthene’s words sank in. She grunted in understanding before going thoughtfully silent. While Koda hadn’t seen Calandra really using her magic much yet, if Sienna was any indication of how quickly one could pick up the magic under Arthene’s tutelage she was just as dangerous as Arthene suggested.

Koda wondered for a moment why Arthene had mentioned the two of his wives that were mages in front of strangers, but after a bit of thought on it, realized that Arthene must have intended it as a statement of strength. Not that these people would underestimate them with the incarnate spirit around, but an extra insurance wouldn’t hurt.

“You claim two mages amongst your family?” Cyrus asked in awe, and Arthene turned her grumpy gaze back to him.

“Yes, and more. But that is not for this. Who is this Samira who was spying on me and evading my notice while I hunted?”

“That’s me!” chirped the inquisitive blonde woman from where she squatted behind Cyrus. A thin rope of blonde fur wriggled behind her, emerging from the seat of her buckskin pants.

Koda took a moment to study the woman while Arthene gave her a rather intense once-over. He knew from earlier that she was petite; he’d put her barely at five feet in height, but she had the corded muscle of a huntress, reminding him of Sienna. Unlike his wolfish lover, however, Samira’s breasts were smaller and more compact, just big enough to fit her smaller frame without being overly large like Calandra’s, held in place by a midriff vest of the same buckskin as her pants. Caramel-colored skin went well with her meticulously maintained mane of dirty blonde hair. A quiver of javelins protruded from behind her back and she had a pair of shortswords sheathed at her waist.

More telling than her looks, the woman was studying all four of them inquisitively, rather than darting awed glances Arthene’s way, like most of the others were doing.

“Hmm,” Arthene rumbled after a long handful of seconds. “You pass. You must have some skill if you could evade my notice.”

“I just happened to be looking in the right direction from far enough away, Den Mother,” Samira chirped, her black-tipped ears flicking, their tufted tops swaying.

Those ears look so distinctive… is she part caracal? Like how Sienna is not just a wolf but a red wolf, and Hannah is part panther? Koda wondered while the two women exchanged comments. Pretty sure those are the floppy ears of a caracal, if I remember that nature show correctly…

“So, you watched us to see if we were a threat. What is your assessment?” Arthene asked pointedly, reminding Koda that he needed to help soothe his blunt mate. While Arthene was loving and affectionate with him, she wasn’t the most tactful person with others.

Cyrus spread both his hands out wide and inclined his head respectfully to Arthene.

“Den Mother, you are a threat to anything that draws your ire. That is a fact as true as the color of the sky or the flavor of water. I simply pray that my people do not draw such attention from you. We have enough troubles already as it is.”

“Troubles?” Koda used that opportunity to step back into the conversation while laying a reassuring hand on Arthene’s knee. She twitched but relaxed into his touch a moment later.

For his part, Cyrus grimaced and hesitated, clearly not having meant to bring that point up yet. Thankfully, Samira had no such reservations.

“Our tribe roams the plains for part of the year. Our hunters return to our village to lay in supplies to prepare for the winter, while our elders and young stay there full time. Unfortunately, we were driven out of our village recently and are struggling to feed our people. That was why we were hunting the bison.”

Samira’s quick answer got her a glare from Cyrus that she promptly ignored, her tufted caracal ears twitching while her nose wrinkled in concern.

“So, your people need food?” Koda asked. He wanted to delve more into the problem, but he had an inkling that if he asked directly, Cyrus would clam up rather than explain. Samira had given him a foothold that he needed to exploit.

“That is the most pressing concern, yes,” Cyrus said grudgingly, his eyes darting to Arthene before his expression turned thoughtful. “We would hunt some of the bison, if the Den Mother permits it.”

“I think we can do one better than that for you, actually,” Koda suggested. “But first, we should all eat. I know my mate would like to have her dinner as well, and it might improve her mood.”

Arthene’s grumpy expression melted into a smile so wide it made her eyes squint when she turned it on Koda.

“You know me well, my mate,” Arthene rumbled happily, bending to press a kiss to Koda’s lips. “Do you have this?”

Koda darted a look at Cyrus, who was staring at Koda like he had just grown a second head and started singing shanties.

“Yeah, I think I have it. You go enjoy, love. You’ve been patient and shared enough of your kill already,” Koda answered. He wasn’t sure if he was imagining the amusement and curiosity he saw in Samira’s eyes as the caracal woman watched his interaction with Arthene in interest.

9

The sounds of gruesome crunching and chewing from Arthene while she feasted on the remains of her kill in bear form definitely put a serious note to the conversation between Koda and Cyrus.

The cougar beastfolk couldn’t help but dart his gaze over to where the bulky form of Arthene’s bear form sat with her back to the group, methodically consuming the remains of the bison. He wasn’t the only one looking; nearly his entire group of hunters watched as the incarnate spirit ate happily.

Only Samira kept her gaze on Koda.

“So something happened in your village that drove you out?” Koda reminded Cyrus after Arthene had shifted and ambled over to eat. The noise would have been intimidating to Koda as well, but he’d gotten used to such sounds from the battles they had fought over the past few weeks.

Cyrus swallowed hard before looking back at Koda with a new respect in his eyes. The cougar beastfolk still hesitated to answer the question, though. Again, Samira showed no such hesitation to divulge information to Koda, something that was rapidly endearing the perky woman to him. He couldn’t figure out if he could help without information.

“Our village is tucked into a fold at the foot of the mountains several days north of here. The land there is rich, and several rivers descend from the peaks to bring fresh water to us. It is a land of plenty that our people found and settled into generations ago,” Samira explained, her tail whipping back and forth in excitement.

“It sounds like a pleasant place,” Sienna said, getting a head-bob of agreement from Samira. The caracal woman’s ears wilted, sending the tufty tips swaying to either side in sadness.

“It was. Our people long roamed the plains to look for a home after being driven out by the elves far to the east. That was hundreds of years ago. We thought we’d found shelter here at the base of the mountains once more, and all was good. There are threats in the mountains, and also on the plains, but we had a home and a place of security.”

Cyrus took over for Samira, the resignation on his face showing that he knew if he did not tell the tale, then she would.

“Then the trolls came down from the mountains,” the cougar man said with a sigh.

The sharp inhalation from Calandra and Sienna told Koda all he needed to know about the severity of this situation, but he waited to see what else the beastfolk would tell him.

“At first, it was just one, poking around the lakes and raiding the fields. We chased it off as our ancestors taught us, with overwhelming numbers and fire, to ensure it knew this was our home. But then it returned and brought more of its kind,” Cyrus grumbled, thumbing the blade of his spear with one hand while staring into the worn iron like it was a mirror.

“Our people fought them off while we could, but around a moon ago there came to be too many of them, and our people were forced to abandon the village before the trolls began eating people. Only the elders and the injured hunters still healing were in the village; our hunting parties were ranging across the plains. Now our people shelter in the grassland once more, and the elders argue over whether we should fight for our home or move on to find a new place.”

Koda remained silent, thinking over what he’d heard. He recognized trolls by name, but he had no idea how much of what he knew from mythology matched what was going on here. Just as he recognized dwarves conceptually, but there were vast differences between the dwarves he’d seen in that movie about the magic ring and the reality of Calandra.

“Koda,” Sienna said gently, touching his shoulder and drawing him out of his thoughts. He glanced towards his lover and she leaned in close, murmuring into his ear while her blue-green eyes captured him as they always did.

“Trolls are a major threat. They normally live high in the mountains and rarely gather in tribes because of their predatory natures. Trolls see anything that moves as prey to be consumed, and it requires a powerful leader to keep them from falling into cannibalism. It’s even a problem during breeding and when giving birth; there are stories of mothers consuming their children as soon as they are born.”

Koda’s eyebrows shot up at that, and Sienna nodded seriously. She let him have a moment to digest that information before she continued.

“They are also incredibly hard to kill. If a troll isn’t destroyed outright during a fight, it will recover, given time and food. They are violent and dangerous, with only two drives in their lives: to eat and to breed. Fighting and cannibalism often make breeding unsuccessful.”

“I can imagine. If you literally take a bite out of your partner mid-fuck, that isn’t conducive to actually finishing,” Koda muttered, and the corner of Sienna’s eyes crinkled in amusement.

“No, it is not. Besides their violence and durability, trolls are huge. They are one of the few things I could see standing its ground against Arthene in her bear form. Not that they’d win, but they are large enough to keep her from just plowing over top of them.”

That thought, more than any warnings of violence and hunger, gave Koda pause. The idea of something large enough to stop his Arthene from just bulldozing them was mildly horrifying.

“What is your plan then, Cyrus?” Koda asked as Sienna leaned back into her seat.

“I would have us stand and fight,” Cyrus said simply, his brown eyes hardening and his grip tightening on his spear. “While I understand why our people fled the village, I do not agree with the idea that we should allow ourselves to be displaced so easily. We fought, bled, lived, loved, and died in that village for generations. My ancestors lay at rest in the mountain's womb, and I would have my bones lay beside them. This is the place our spirits call home now.”

“An understandable sentiment,” Calandra said, entering the conversation for the first time since it had started. The short woman didn’t flinch under the intense stare the beastfolk turned on her. “Trolls are no easy prey, as I am sure you are aware. How many did you encounter?”

“A dozen or more is what the villagers reported. Our hunting party was returning with meat when we found the refugees fleeing. Rather than return to scout, we set to work doing what we could to support our people,” Samira answered, her ears twitching in curiosity as she studied the smaller woman. “Do you know the best ways to battle trolls?”

“Aye, I was trained in it. Living this close to the mountains, it was necessary. We’d never had any come down to raid while I was with the guard, though,” Calandra said, crossing her arms over her bust. “They are like most large things. If you cut the right tendons, they fall down to a more-appropriate height. Troll-slayers don’t live in backwater towns, though, so this is just what trickled down from the army to us.”

Koda wasn’t sure, but the way Calandra said ‘troll-slayer’ felt like it had weight to it, almost like a title. He made a note to ask her about it, but set it aside for now.

“So, how many hunters are part of your village? And how far are they ranging?” Koda asked, drawing the conversation back to the important subject.

“We have over a hundred braves, divided into eight different hunting parties. Only two of them have rejoined the refugees so far, but that is to be expected. The hunting ranges are large and we all pursue different types of game. I just hope that they do not return to the village to be ambushed by the trolls.” Cyrus grimaced at the thought, his tail lashing in anxiety. “That is also why I want to push to reclaim the town. If this attack had come during the winter when our braves were there, I guarantee we wouldn’t have been pushed out.”

“But we found the Den Mother!” interjected Samira, her ears bouncing happily and sending their tufty flags flicking through the air. “With her help, I’m sure we can reclaim the town.”

Koda shared a glance with Sienna, while Calandra grumbled from her spot on the other side of the huntress.

“Samira, do not be rude,” chastised Cyrus. “While the Den Mother is here, that does not mean she will concern herself with our troubles.”

“But if the Den Mother is here, then maybe the legends are true?” Samira whined, her ears folding back against her skull while she stared at Cyrus.

“Legends?” Koda inquired, trying to be calm about it as he did so. Something in the way Samira had spoken sent a stirring through his soul.

“They are nothing but old stories. Please do not concern yourself about them.” Cyrus tried to mollify Koda.

Samira, as was proving to be her habit, was not willing to drop it and outright ignored Cyrus’ attempted deflection. Her expressive ears bounced upright, the fuzzy flags at their tips waving jauntily.

“The legends of the Before, when all creatures ran free beneath the open sky!”

Koda’s ears rang like his skull was a bell that had just been struck. He saw Samira’s mouth moving but did not hear. He saw the hope and excitement in her eyes, but could not think properly. His mind raced down recent paths to a memory that held so much weight to him. He’d heard these words since then, spoken them in passing himself. But in this moment, something reached out and touched the depths of his being.

A memory of a goddess reflected in a pool, her mane of black curls shimmering in ephemeral light even as the remains of hopeful tears glowed on her pale cheeks. She spoke a promise that sounded like a benediction to him.

“Take my hand, Koda Burke. Though you are of the blood of my people, and your line served me once, you still have the freedom to choose. All creatures should run free beneath the open sky.”

The freedom of choice. He’d chosen to step through the portal presented by happenstance to come to this place. To come to the aid of a woman who claimed to be a goddess, and proved the veracity of her words without hesitation. He’d found love, communion, and family in this world. All because of the freedom that Thera had promised him, when she had every right to demand his service because of oaths given by his ancestors.

Deep within his chest, in the space between his heart and his soul, where the nameless power that had aided him before dwelt, Koda felt an answering chime. While Samira’s words had sounded in his head like a silver bell, this was the distant rumble of an iron gong. Muffled by time and rust, the single note sent ripples through his spirit that shook off a measure of that corrosion, allowing the instrument’s voice to deepen as the seconds passed along.

These are your people, the gong said in his soul. Blood of your covenant. Though millennia separates you, they are yours to claim. Yours to protect.

What is that? Koda heard Thera’s voice echo from the portion of his soul that held his totemic gauntlets. The goddess’ voice was still tired, but he could hear the dregs of her returning strength, as well as a measure of hope. Koda, are you alright?

Take what is yours. Shelter your kin beneath your aegis, Son of the Covenant, demanded the echoing gong that welled up with the voices of his ancestors. It was not the voice of a tyrant, demanding that he bend to an unreasoned will. Instead, it spoke with the calm confidence of Koda’s own reasoned voice. It knew that he would do this, and was only speaking the words to reaffirm the commitment that Koda already felt.

“Koda?” Sienna’s soft voice broke through his thoughts and he twitched, blinking rapidly several times as reality reasserted itself around him.

Everyone was eyeing him now. Cyrus watched him warily, while Samira stared curiously. Calandra had leaned out to look at him in worry, while Sienna had one hand on his right arm, squeezing it gently.

“Are you okay, love? You looked like you were a thousand miles away there.”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Koda said, his voice suddenly hoarse and throat dry in the wake of… whatever had just happened.

The determination that settled into his chest like a weight was irrefutable as he turned his attention back to Cyrus. The cougar beastfolk was studying him warily, as if the older man could sense that something had changed in the young human in front of him.

“I’d like to help your people, Cyrus,” Koda said without hesitation. He knew that he’d said the right thing when Sienna gave his arm a reassuring squeeze and Calandra snorted in amusement on the other side of her.

“I do not know how much you will be able to do, but any help would be appreciated, Koda,” Cyrus said, his hesitation still hanging heavy between them. For all that he’d spilled his needs and worries to them, it felt like Cyrus was not quite ready to accept the help that it was clear he needed just yet.

Before Koda could speak to reassure him, Arthene returned to the conversation in her own unique way.

Arms wrapped around Koda from behind, hauling him back into a pair of soft breasts that sandwiched his head from either side. From the warmth against his neck and the bug-eyed stare from Cyrus, he knew that Arthene still hadn’t put her top back on yet.

“You would be surprised what my mate can do, son of the high plains,” Arthene rumbled in amusement.

Koda tilted his head to look up at Arthene and found his mate’s face covered in blood from the nose down, including a good part of her throat.

Of course she hasn’t washed yet, Koda thought in bemusement. I’m sure she finished eating and pranced over here to kidnap me so I can help her wash this time, since I wriggled out of it last time.

“We appreciate you coming with your mate, Den Mother. I just cannot say with any certainty what my elders will decide to do at this time,” Cyrus said, pulling Koda’s eyes back to the man who was doing his best to look Arthene in the eyes. He could see sweat on the beastfolk’s forehead as the vicious image Arthene presented—covered in blood, but snuggling with Koda—also added to his discombobulation.

“You misunderstand my words, son of the high plains,” Arthene chuckled, shifting to slide one large hand down Koda’s chest. “My mate has said he will help you. And if I know him like I do, then Koda Aegisclaw has taken you under his protection. You will have your home once more. By blood and instinct, he will return that land to your people, and see that the bodies of your enemies feed the land to make it richer.”

Arthene’s voice deepened as she spoke, until her words rumbled like a late summer storm over the grassland. In response, Cyrus’ eyes widened as the goddess in front of him made a promise. Samira’s grin was so wide that it looked like the top of her head might just fall off while she bounced excitedly on her seat.

“I… don’t know what to say, Den Mother,” Cyrus squeaked out.

“You don’t have to say anything,” Sienna interjected with a smirk. Koda darted a glance to see that his wolfish lover had one ear cocked like she was listening to something before it straightened. “Her champion has spoken, and we will help reclaim your home. This is the will of the Queen of Beasts.”

10

I really hope that this isn’t an indicator of how much trouble there is out in the world, Koda thought wryly as they marched. I saved Silverstone, and then interceded to help save Amberpost. Now I’m committing to trying to help these people reclaim their village from trolls.

Despite his worries, Koda felt the steady pulse of confidence within his soul. Not the blind confidence that this would be easy, but the steady thrum that told him this was the right path.

As if she could hear his thoughts and wanted to add her own reassurances, Arthene leaned over and gave him a lick that ran from his jaw to the top of his head, mussing his hair and making it stand upright on that side.

Arthene was in her bear form currently, so that tongue was large enough that it got the entire right side of Koda’s head.

“Arthene!” Sienna scolded from his other side, getting a huff of laughter from the dire bear. “You are ruining our mate’s noble image.”

“I don’t know. View isn’t changed for me,” Calandra laughed from her spot behind them. Koda could tell she was clomping along and staring at his butt while she worked her wind magic to help their speed.

“Of course you wouldn’t complain,” Sienna grumped at the shorter woman, but the anger quickly melted into amusement and then a devious grin. “I think it is only fair that, since Arthene was the one who messed up your hair, you use her brushes and combs to fix it.”

The dire bear gave a pitiful whine and got a laugh from those of the Ivory Spear tribe. The cat beastfolk—who called themselves the Silent Plains tribe—watched with a mixture of horror and confusion as a being of legend was teased like a naughty child.

Even Cyrus had been staring mutely for the last several hours after the revelations thrown at his feet the previous night and what he was witnessing now.

“It’s fine. Arthene was just expressing her affection. Weren’t you, love?” Koda said, reaching up to scratch behind one of Arthene’s wide ears.

The happy grunting of the dire bear was his answer. She didn’t slow her steady pace; the improvised harness on her back wouldn’t let Arthene move at her normal lumbering run even if she wanted to.

In the wake of Sienna’s statement, the Silent Plains warriors had retreated into a whispering conference amongst themselves. Without asking any more questions, they had all eaten and set watches the previous day, before everyone packed up to follow Cyrus’ directions to the refugees.

Before they’d left, Arthene had taken down two more bison, dragging the massive bovine animals back to the camp for cleaning and preparation to help preserve the meat. When Koda and Calandra had worked to rig up the harness on the dire bear so she could carry them, it had plainly horrified the Silent Plains warriors to see a goddess being used as a beast of burden.

Arthene had simply ignored their complaints and trundled off with her cargo, forcing the others to come along or be left behind. Calandra had gotten enough of a hang of her wind magic that she’d spread it out to envelop their group, making their steps lighter and strides longer, under Sienna’s careful guidance on how to help without burning herself out.

“Sir?” The soft word came from Koda’s left. He glanced over to find Samira working her way closer to him from Sienna’s other side.

Of all of them, Samira is the only one who doesn’t seem completely lost in awe over this, Koda thought, reaching up quickly to finger-comb the snarl out of his hair. He couldn’t do anything about the dampness, but he didn’t need to wander about with a cowlick and let it dry that way.

“Yes, Samira?” Koda answered once his hair was organized. Sienna dropped back to give the other woman space to trot beside Koda. He could hear the wolf woman talking quietly with Calandra, clearly continuing to give the dwarven woman more tips about her magic.

“Was what your mate said last night true?”

“About?”

“About your being a champion and that you have taken us under your protection?” Her words trailed off for a moment before Samira steeled herself and locked eyes with Koda. He could see hope glimmering there. “And about the Queen of Beasts?”

Koda grimaced slightly and the fluffy-tipped ears on top of Samira’s head drooped in disappointment as she misunderstood his look. Immediately, Koda hurried to reassure her, wanting to cheer up the inquisitive woman.

“Yes, they are all true. I was just… surprised again that Sienna spoke of her, is all.”

“Why?” Samira’s eyes had bounced back upright at his reassurance and her tail was flicking behind her as she bounced along now, in more ways than one.

Forcing his eyes away from the distraction, Koda considered his words for another moment before he answered.

“Because she is in hiding. So is Arthene for the moment—” An annoyed grunt from the dire bear interrupted him, and had to duck another—quite literal—tongue lashing. Reaching up to give Arthene a good scratch along the neck, right under where the ropes of the harness wrapped around the thick flesh of her throat, he continued.

“It will take time before she can proclaim her return, but she is healing and coming back to power.”

“Is that linked to what changed at the watering hole?” Samira asked, her head tilting cutely.

“You could sense that?” Koda asked, incredulous. So far, only he and Arthene could detect the way things changed after one of the ancient sites of power, or confluences was tapped.

“It’s hard not to. We found the altar inside the ring of trees but didn’t understand what it was. We just knew that it was special,” Samira replied without hesitation. Koda made a mental note of how long the group of hunters had been watching his group the previous day, if they’d had time to find the altar.

“Yes, it is linked to that. Any who revere Thera can go there to give offerings and pray. She will hear you,” Koda answered with confidence. While Thera had not explicitly told him this, he still knew it to be true. They were now places of worship for her, just like the temple he’d consecrated in Silverstone.

“And the Den Mother?” Samira asked, the curiosity in her tone overflowing. “I wanted to ask last night, but Cyrus insisted that we not hound her or you.”

“So you waited until this morning, then?” Koda teased back, getting an earnest nod. They’d only been traveling for about an hour, so he had to give the inquisitive woman a bit of credit.

“Yes. It was hard. There are so many questions I have,” Samira said with the confidence of one who would get answers. The slender woman’s earnestness brought a smile to Koda’s face.

“I woke her up from a nap and she followed me home,” Koda answered her previous question irreverently.

This time, the lick from Arthene got him right on the back of the head, balling his long black hair up into a twisted mess.

“With respect, Champion. I don’t think she agrees,” Samira said solemnly, though Koda was sure he could see amusement twinkling in her eyes.

“She does that,” Koda said with a sigh, trying to wipe as much bear slobber off of his head as possible. “I’m just glad her breath doesn’t stink in this form.”

“She is a goddess—bad breath is beneath her,” Samira answered for Arthene, getting a laughing huff from the dire bear, who bobbed her head in agreement.

While the two exchanged amused looks that only fellow troublemakers could appreciate, Koda thought over his conversation with Sienna before bed the previous night.

After their little declaration, he’d dragged Sienna off somewhere private to ask why she’d revealed so much. She had explained that Thera had sent her a vision, asking her to reach out to these people and give them hope. Sienna had taken that, along with how they had recognized Arthene in her bear form, as clearance from the goddess to reveal her existence. Koda could see the hope in his mate's blue-green eyes that these might be more allies, maybe even distant descendants of the tribes that had followed Thera once. So he had swallowed his concerns then.

Returning to the moment and the giggles of two of his mates behind him, Koda blinked and glanced back at them. He caught both of the girls staring at his behind while they walked, faint blushes on their cheeks. The twist of his shoulders was enough of a clue that they looked away only a moment too late, but the blushes remained as evidence to their actions.

Letting his gaze fall back onto the other four of his group, he found them talking easily amongst themselves, with Netta and Hans trying to engage the others from the Silent Plains tribe in conversation with mixed success. None of his people looked concerned, though the others seemed to waffle between worry and hope.

Turning back to Samira, he found her waiting expectantly, her tall ears poking up out of her blonde hair and focused on him like a pair of fuzzy radar dishes.

“You need to keep this a secret for now,” Koda began, getting a furious nod from the feline-featured woman. “Okay, I’ll start at the beginning.”

With Calandra bolstering their movement, it took just over half-a-day to reach the refugee camp. That had been enough time for Koda to give Samira the highlights of the last several weeks. In return, he got some more news from her.

The Crooked had sent several parties out into the plains, but they had all either retreated after a few days of travel, or been wiped out by predators when they wandered into the wrong areas. The tribe had ignored the Crooked though, as their troubles with the trolls had started around the same time.

He also learned more about the caracal woman, and about how beyond her hunting, Samira had a passion for stories and adventure. And despite her deference to him and his mates, Samira had little patience for most of the other hunters from her tribe. Cyrus had tried to chastise her for prying into the ‘champion’s business’ after the first hour. She’d replied him that if Koda had not wanted to talk, he would have told her so, and she would have respected that.

Once Cyrus had been dealt with, Samira went back to peppering him with questions about his story, her pointed ears bouncing and flicking animatedly. Koda had the feeling that Samira was committing everything he said to memory, adding it to her horde of stories that she held under those adorable and fuzzy-looking ears.

Once she was done asking her questions, Samira returned the favor by offering several stories of her own about different locations in the near plains that might qualify for sites he could claim for Thera. They varied from a deep, natural spring hidden within a rock—one he was fairly sure they’d already claimed—all the way to mysterious caves in hidden ravines scattered throughout the plains.

He mentioned in passing that it would be great if Samira could guide him to them once they assessed if they could help her village. She had immediately agreed, gaining a happy bounce to her step for a good hundred yards before she switched tracks to rambling about anything she could think of that might be pertinent to helping the village.

Samira was busy trying to tell all the stories she’d collected about trolls and fighting them when they finally came into sight of the distant refugee camp.

“There are some legends that the heroes of my tribe once took down trolls in single combat, and they gained titanic strength because of it,” Samira was saying as they crested one of the rolling hills that spread out from the foot of the mountain range. “The shamans say that it is because each of the trolls carried within them a drop of Oluk’s power, from when this world was his. And that is why the trolls fight each other so much and consume their dead, as they wish to collect more of their god’s power.”

“Interesting. Power is a motivator that even the dumbest of creatures can understand,” Koda replied. He had more that he wanted to say, but Cyrus called out from further on his left flank.

“Champion! Please wait, the camp is just on the other side of the hill. Let us warn them, so that the appearance of strangers does not panic my people?” The cougar beastfolk angled closer to Koda as he spoke, but Koda noted that the man continued to give Arthene a healthy amount of space.

“Go then. It’s not me you have to outpace,” Koda said with a laugh, tossing his mussed head towards Arthene. “She’s got dinner for your hungry people, and my mate takes care of those under her protection.”

Arthene grunted in agreement, not slowing her rolling gait in the slightest.

Cyrus stared at them in surprise for a long moment before a smile split his craggy face and he nodded.

“Understood, Champion! I will run ahead myself to warn the elders and let any others of our hunters that have rejoined them know. Proceed up and over the hill and simply head to the edge of the circle of huts. We will meet you there.”

“I’ll guide him,” Samira said dismissively, her tail lashing behind her. She didn’t even look at Cyrus, completely ignoring his rolled eyes before the cougar beastfolk turned and raced ahead.

For all Cyrus’ apparent age, he moved with grace and speed that showed his ties to the feline portion of his history. All around their group, the hunters from the Silent Plains sped up as well, moving around Koda and his group to join Cyrus in a headlong race over the hill and out of sight. In moments, they were gone, leaving only the Ivory Spear tribe and Samira behind.

“Excitable bunch, aren’t they?” Calandra muttered, exhaustion in her voice. Koda glanced back to check on his newest mate. She looked pale and sweat stood out on her forehead, but Sienna had stuck with her.

“Yes. You can release the spell for them, Cal. Just focus on us,” the wolf woman said, and Calandra’s shoulders sagged.

“Oh, thank Chandra’s sweet buttocks,” Calandra grunted.

“Easy there, lass,” Todd warned from right behind her, shifting so he could catch the dwarven woman if she stumbled. Calandra didn’t fall though; her pace evened out a moment later, and she took a deep breath.

“Now you know your limits, Cal,” Sienna said gently, patting the dwarven woman on the shoulder. “As Arthene told me, you have to push up against them to stretch your reserves. We were given these powers to help Koda, so we need to be sure to train them. But like any muscle, over-training can hurt you.”

“Yeah, Sienna. Over-training is bad,” chirped Netta, the hawk beastfolk shooting her friend a meaningful look.

“Emergencies happen,” Sienna replied primly, her nose tipping up snootily as she trotted along easily. “Why do you think I’ve taken my time and let myself recover after that utter shitstorm?”

“She’s talking about saving those people from the Crooked and getting them back to Amberpost,” Koda said to Samira quickly, cutting off the caracal woman before she could inquire.

“Oh, darn. I was hoping for more stories,” Samira said, pouting cutely at Koda. He had to fight the urge to reach over and tussle her hair, like he did with Sienna and Arthene—she was just that cute.

“Sienna talks a big game, but she only got that power like… two weeks ago?” Hannah threw in as they reached the top of the hill and caught sight of the settlement.

“Feels like it’s been a lot longer,” grumbled Hans good-naturedly. “Well, Thera bless me. That’s not good.”

Koda couldn’t help but agree with Hans’ statement as they started down the other side of the hill and caught sight of the camp.

He’d been calling it a refugee camp in his mind since he’d heard about it, but that thought was driven even further home to him right now. There were easily two or three hundred people milling around in an area that had been stripped of the grass and pounded into dirt. There weren’t any real structures beyond a few large huts made by bundling together the long grass. He could tell from here that the people were already looking thin, their hide clothing tattered and stained.

Every person he saw ahead of them was a cat beastfolk, mostly from groups of plains or foothill cats. Many were cougars, a few bore the patterns of lions, and whole sections had the look of lynxes.

But no others with those distinct caracal ears, Koda thought idly, stealing a glance at the now-silent Samira at his side.

He could see Cyrus and his hunters at the edge of the camp. They were talking rapidly and gesturing towards Koda and his group, clearly trying to reassure people. The shouts that rose up as Arthene crested the hill showed it was ultimately futile.

“Slow up, everyone. Like Cyrus said, we don’t want to scare them. Arthene, we’ll have to ask them where they want the meat, but I think we need you back in your cuter form.”

Arthene grunted in annoyance. The narrow-eyed look she shot him conveyed the thought of ‘aren’t I always cute?’ with its gaze.

“He means the one with tits he can play with, ‘Thene,” Calandra interjected, making the bear snort and roll its expressive eyes.

“I mean, she’s not wrong…” Koda added, hoping to defuse any annoyance his mate had with him before she subjected him to another lick. It would be impossible to be serious while talking to people with bear spit in his hair.

“There,” Samira interjected, to save the day. “To the left of where Cyrus is talking to the elder, they’ll have the cooking-pits there. They were working on bringing in enough wood to cook with when we left, so they should have some stashed around there.”

“You heard the lady,” Koda said, patting Arthene’s shoulder with one hand. He almost missed the surprised squeak from Samira, but given his company, he had gotten used to listening closely.

“Lady?!” Samira mumbled in confusion from behind him, clearly surprised at the designation. To spare her any awkwardness, Koda just pretended he hadn’t heard it, though he saw the grins on Calandra’s and Sienna’s faces.

Their group angled in the direction that Samira had pointed, sending some refugees scrambling. Arthene finally came to a stop, and Koda turned to untie her burden.

Cyrus led the elder over as the first of the bison corpses landed on the ground with a meaty thud.

“Champion,” Cyrus called from the other side of Arthene, while Sienna and Calandra joined him in working the knots free.

“Just a minute, Cyrus. I need to get dinner unloaded for your people,” Koda called back.

“You were not pulling my tail, were you?” mumbled another voice out of sight, and Koda guessed it was the elder.

“No, I was not. I think we have a chance at this now.”

“Is that?” the other voice said.

“Yes,” Cyrus said bluntly. “And she has said her mate promised to help us.”

There came a muffled choking noise that got a snicker of amusement from his girls as Koda rounded Arthene’s broad rump and settled himself against the large carcass.

“Okay, last knots,” Koda called, ignoring the observers. He heard someone start to protest and order others to help as the ropes came free, but he was ready.

The roughly thousand pounds of bison came free of Arthene’s side and dropped onto his shoulder. While the weight was ungainly and it drove Koda’s feet into the earth, he didn’t fold under it like a cheap suit.

When he’d unloaded the first bison, everyone had been staring at the bear. Now, they watched as the apparently human man shouldered the weight before carefully walking over to deposit the carcass next to the first.

“There. Should last your people a few days,” Koda said, standing upright and stretching his back out.

As Arthene glowed and her form shifted back to that of her bipedal shape, Koda waved to Sienna and Calandra, who’d had Samira’s help with the ropes earlier. “Come on, loves. Let’s see what else these people need. Especially since one of you talked me up so much.”

Koda pretended to glare at his lovers, getting only smiles in return before he turned to greet the elder of the Silent Plains.

11

“Is what my lead hunter said true?”

The hope in the elder’s tone was tempered with the weight of long years of hard life that hung in his eyes, but Koda nodded to him with confidence.

“That we are here to help your people? Yes. That she,” Koda hiked a thumb over his shoulder as Arthene’s form solidified into her bipedal shape, and she immediately set about unbraiding her thick hair, fluffing the chocolate strands out, “is what you think? Also yes.”

“And who do you represent?” The chief leaned in closer, some of the stress apparent in his eyes melting away.

Like the others of his tribe, he was dressed in simple hide clothes, though he had far more beads and bits of carved bone or stone decorating his clothes than most did. It appeared to Koda that the older the person, the more decorations they accumulated on their clothing.

Koda glanced behind the man to the dozens of watching faces from the young and old of the tribe. He saw hope, fear, despair, and worry in their gazes, but they still waited and watched. The young all bore looks of wonder or curiosity, though they were being held back by the elders as they waited to see what their elder and chief would say.

“Yes.”

The single word from Koda rang in the air between him and the elder with the finality of a tolling bell. Tears welled up in the older man’s eyes, his faded lynx ears folding out to either side as he let out a long breath.

“Ancestors be praised,” the old man breathed, looking to the sky. “We had given up hope she survived. We tried to carry on her traditions, but could not bring ourselves to hide behind worship of the human god. Long have we dwelt in these plains, where legends said the last of the goddess chosen tread, but could find no signs of her, and hear no response to our prayers.”

“You need to keep this quiet for as long as you can, elder,” Koda said, stepping closer to the older man.

The observers twitched together, not able to hear what was going on and making judgments based on what they saw. Cyrus calmed them with one hand held out.

“Did the Lady send you to us in our time of need?” asked the still-unnamed elder, turning his watery gaze back to Koda.

“No, she did not. She called out to me in her own time of need and I came to her. Chance and fate aligned to give her a second chance, and the tentative nature of that chance is why need you to keep this quiet,” Koda repeated, getting a quick nod from the elder.

“I cannot say exactly why, but your words ring true to me. I believe you, when my mind says that it should be impossible.”

“Impossible tasks are my mate’s specialty,” Sienna offered, slipping up to Koda’s side and linking her right arm through his left. Calandra stumped up on his right, remaining silent, while he felt the gentle rush of warm breath from Arthene on the back of his neck, as the larger woman settled into place there.

“Do you have any idea how much weight that puts on me?” Koda said with mock annoyance, which melted as soon as Sienna leaned in to press a kiss to his cheek.

“It’s the truth,” Arthene said simply.

“I agree!”

Samira made herself known, bouncing around on Sienna’s other side to stand between Koda and the elder. The caracal huntress was smiling broadly, her quiver of javelins rattling quietly at the energetic movement until she settled down.

“I’ve spent the last few hours conversing with him, and while they sound like they should be improbable, his words ring true. I think they can help us reclaim the village!”

The elder spared Samira a nod and a stern look that she promptly ignored. Having said her piece, the caracal woman was focused once more on Koda, though he saw her green eyes dart over his shoulder to study Arthene every so often as the larger woman loomed over him.

Deciding that the awkwardness had continued on for long enough, and the day was slipping away from them, Koda gestured towards the pair of bison with his one free hand.

“Those are for your people. Cyrus said your hunters needed to bring back game, so we claimed what we could easily and hurried here.”

“Why did you not take more of the beasts? It might have slowed you, but only two of them will last less than a week,” the elder asked, but his question was directed at Cyrus.

The cougar beastfolk coughed into one hand, his eyes darting to Arthene before returning to his elder.

“Elder, the herd has not left the watering hole. Our plan was to guide these folk to you and then return to hunt more.”

“How did you take down two of the bison without alerting the herd?” the elder asked incredulously.

Arthene snorted in amusement, pulling the attention to her.

“Easily,” she said with offhanded pride, and Koda could imagine his primal spirit puffing out her generous chest behind him.

At least she put her top back on this time, Koda thought, though he didn’t let that show on his face.

“Regardless, we cleaned the carcasses and bled them before coming here. But the longer we wait, the more chance for the meat to go off.”

Koda’s statement broke the spell again on the elder and he shook his head, making his ears flop a bit before gesturing towards the two carcasses.

“Yes, finish cleaning the kills and prepare the meat! While we do not have enough to feast, none shall go hungry tonight!”

A cheer from the villagers, who’d been slowly transitioning from fearful to curious, greeted that statement. A section of the villagers peeled off, followed by most of Cyrus’ hunters, and fell on the twin carcasses with a purpose to process them.

“Come, let us sit somewhere private to discuss the details, Champion,” the elder said, beckoning him to follow. “Bring your warriors. If the Den Mother would grace us with her presence as well, then we might put the time to good use.”

“Sure. I wanted to talk to Samira some more, anyway,” Arthene replied offhandedly, making the caracal woman jump and look up at her with wide and astonished eyes, while her tail went wild behind her.

The elder frowned and Koda immediately surmised that he hadn’t intended to include Samira and wasn’t happy to have her distracting the primal spirit. But in the hours they’d talked, he’d gotten comfortable with Samira’s open and honest personality.

“Far be it from me to tell my mate no,” Koda laughed before gesturing for the elder to lead the way. “I’m sure that she will still have something to offer to the conversation.”

“A bit,” Arthene laughed. “But Samira had most of my knowledge on trolls already buried in her stories.”

That statement made the caracal woman puff her modest chest out in pride before she skipped over to fall in just behind Sienna and begin peppering Arthene with questions.

The elder, whose name was Vysin, led their little group to one of the few grass huts that sat towards the center of the camp. The short trip from the edge to the rough building was enough to confirm to Koda that these people needed help. They were surviving for now, but it was clear they struggled.

What use was a blacksmith without his forge and anvil? What could a carpenter do without nails and a saw? These people clearly had skills, but had been forced to leave behind tools that Koda knew were critical in the rush to escape the troll attacks.

They remained silent for the most part until they reached the large grass hut and followed Vysin inside. It was a bit cramped, given that the hut was likely not intended to accommodate a dozen people.

“You know what,” Todd said after ducking inside and seeing Hans doing his best to not hook his horns on the bundled grass of the ceiling. “I think our time would be better spent setting up our tents. Aegisclaw knows our capabilities just fine, I don’t think you need us here for this. Anything that does need our opinions, we can discuss it tonight.”

“That sounds good to me, I never was one for planning,” Netta seconded. Hans just grunted in agreement, while only Hannah looked pensive about leaving. Given that Koda expected she would eventually inherit the headwoman position from Kris, her grandmother, he wasn’t surprised that Hannah hesitated.

But a moment later, the black-furred cat beastfolk nodded her agreement and half of Koda’s group trooped out the door to find a place to set up their camp.

“Cyrus, would you guide them and ensure they have a place to put their tents? Then return here. In the meantime, I will discuss our situation with the Champion,” Vysin said, his tattered lynx-ears flicking with more energy than they had before.

“Of course, Elder,” Cyrus said with a quick nod before exiting to follow Todd’s group.

With only Koda, Sienna, Calandra, Arthene, Samira, and Vysin in the hut now, there was enough space that Koda could dodge around ending up on Arthene’s lap. Not that the big woman tried this time; she was far too interested in her conversation with Samira at the moment, as the two of them discussed trolls and the legends Samira knew.

A small fire pit sat in the center of the room, its coals dark and dead in the middle of the afternoon. Given that there weren’t any forests nearby, Koda wasn’t surprised. It wasn’t cold out at the moment, so there was no reason to leave the fire burning.

But Cyrus said winter was coming in, Koda thought with a small grimace. If we are going to help these people, we need to get their village back before those trolls devour all their supplies.

The hut’s simple construction allowed a fair bit of light in besides through the door, so they made themselves comfortable before Vysin spoke.

“Please forgive me for asking again,” the elder began, but went silent when Koda held his hand up, palm out to the man.

“My name is Koda Burke, called Aegisclaw by Thera Ivorycrown.” The simple statement and the confidence in Koda’s tone made the elder pale again, but he didn’t interrupt. “As I said outside, luck and fate brought me into contact with my patron, and she bet the last of her power on my ability to help her people.”

Sienna squeezed Koda’s thigh from where she sat beside him, and he shared a smile with her.

“Thera grows stronger even now, but you must keep the information quiet. She is not strong enough to walk openly, and I am quite literally her only champion. If I were to die, then so would the chances of her recovery.”

“Then why risk yourself, Champion?” Vysin asked, his bushy eyebrows knitting in concern. “If you are her last chance, why not remain in hiding? Why spread word?”

A thump in Koda’s chest, like a small animal butting against the inside of his ribcage or his heart surging an extra beat, was his body’s response.

“Because it needs to be done,” Koda answered plainly. “I promised Thera I would help her people. My people. Your tribe is of the same line that once followed her. The fact you and your hunters recognize my mate tells me you have kept the stories alive, even if your hope died.”

“I’m not offended. A lot of time did pass,” Arthene interjected, looking up from her whispered conversation with Samira. “My Lady will accept you once more into her followers if you wish, because of the faith of your forebears. But my mate calls you kin, so even if she did not, I would offer you my help.”

“Kin?” Vysin asked in a lost tone. Koda simply shrugged and repeated the line that had triggered such a reaction in his soul.

“All creatures should run free beneath the open sky.” As he spoke the statement, Koda felt another thump deep within his soul, and a stirring from the place where his totemic gear lay beside his connection to Thera.

This time, he felt warmth and affection flowing from his goddess. He knew she was listening and approved. “Your freedom was challenged when the trolls came to your land. They are no kin of mine, so I will help you.”

“There are many opponents that will stand against you. It is why we hesitated as we have. Many of our tribe’s hunters are out trying to bring in as much meat as possible before the cold sets in and the herds move further south. Winter is months away, but we have harvests waiting to be brought in as well, so time is short.”

Vysin spoke with a hesitation, like he was still worried that he might dissuade Koda from helping them, but nothing changed in the intense young man or his mates after the declaration.

“Trolls would make good prey for our people though,” Arthene said, again turning from her conversation with Samira. “It will address a problem we ran into before, my mate.”

Koda craned his neck to look back at the grinning Arthene and quirked an eyebrow, so she continued.

“While trolls taste like shit, there is another purpose to hunting them. In the ancient days, to hunt a troll was to clash with a fragment of divinity. Samira’s story about them carrying a drop of blood from their progenitor is true. Oluk Bloodtusk, the troll god, spread a blessing of power and savagery to his people with the will that they would dominate all the worlds one day. Culling their numbers kept that as nothing more than an aspiration, because of a flaw in Oluk’s plan.”

Samira was bouncing in excitement at having the confirmation of her legends and jumped in to add on to Arthene’s statement.

“The legends of troll-slayer’s being gifted with power and strength are true! Oluk intended for the most vicious of his children to rule, and thus they could steal power from each other by fighting and killing. This would weed out the week among his people, and empower the strong. But the blessing isn’t bound to just trolls!”

Samira’s excited bouncing was calmed by a pointed look from Vysin, and her ears wilted. It was clear that, while she didn’t respect Cyrus as much, Samira thought differently of the elder. But Arthene didn’t have any problem taking back over, and the large woman picked right back up.

“The reward of power as a troll-slayer would go a long way to making sure our people can keep up. The strength such a feat grants can vary depending on the troll killed, but it is no small amount.”

“Why don’t more people hunt trolls then?” Koda asked, glancing between Arthene and Vysin.

“Most consider it suicidal to attempt to slay a troll. They are incredibly hard to put down and wickedly powerful. Not to mention they prefer the vastly inhospitable areas to live, only foraying into the populated areas when they are driven out by another predator or one of them grows in strength enough to become a chief,” Calandra answered the question for Vysin, and the elder nodded to the dwarven woman.

“Just so. Our legends speak of driving the trolls up into the mountains when we had heroes amongst us, but when time claimed those heroes, memories faded. We have the stories of tactics to use to drive them off, but for hundreds of years, the only time one would see a troll is if you traveled far into the dangerous reaches of the mountain peaks.”

“So,” Koda interrupted, wanting to drag the conversation back on topic. “What we have is a small collection of very large and very dangerous opponents. Opponents whose nature lends them to savage strength that our people can take for themselves if they can bring one down?”

“Yes,” Arthene answered succinctly. He didn’t need to look at her to hear the smile in the big woman’s tone.

“And this Oluk isn’t going to try to intercede? The last thing I want to run into is a trollish champion,” Koda asked. The question conjured a vicious enough image that everyone winced except for Arthene, who answered him with ease.

“Oluk considers all of his kin to be champions. It’s how he gives that fragment of divine strength to them. And the trolls repay him with worship in the form of violence, which restores the strength he spends to empower them.”

“Ah, okay, damn,” Koda grumbled, only elaborating when Arthene poked him in the back of the head demandingly. “I was hoping it might weaken him somehow if we can steal these bits of power. You said fragments of divinity and I hoped that we might take them and give them to Thera.”

A warmth pulsed in his soul, emanating from his connection to the goddess with amusement, love, and pride. For just a moment, Koda swore he saw the flash of silver eyes in the shadows behind Vysin, but then they were gone.

“A noble thing, but impossible. Oluk Bloodtusk wanted to prove that the trolls were the strongest of all species, so his power only passes on through combat. Specifically, single combat. Which is another reason the mortals don’t hunt trolls more often,” Arthene chuckled. “Even skilled knights are loath to risk their lives on the off-chance they could earn the power of a troll-slayer. Far safer to work in groups and forgo the rank, but keep your head uneaten.”

“That explains so much!” Samira chirped happily, the tone of her voice high and excited enough that it actually made Koda twitch. “The legends speak of driving the trolls off with a group to ensure survival, and being sure to burn the body if one is killed. I assume this is to avoid the other trolls coming back for the corpse?”

“Yes, they are cannibalistic. That is one thing of Oluk’s blessing that is only true for trolls,” Arthene answered easily. “While you,” she poked Samira gently, making the caracal woman jump, “might gain a measure of power for killing a troll in single combat, if one troll kills and eats another, they may gather as much as three measures of power, for example. So never leave the body of a troll where another troll might find it.”

“So it sounds like we have an opportunity to make ourselves a lot stronger here, as well as help people. Seems like a win-win to me,” Koda said with a snort and turned his attention back to Vysin, who was watching them with bemused eyes.

“You talk about slaying trolls like they are just an afternoon of work… do you really comprehend how dangerous these creatures are?” Vysin asked, his voice thick with worry.

“No more dangerous than the Crooked champions my girls have slain. At the very most, they cannot be more dangerous than the two warleaders I’ve killed,” Koda replied easily.

“What?” Vysin asked, his eyes growing even wider.

“I can tell you later, Elder,” Samira cut in. “But if Champion Aegisclaw says they can do it, then trust them! We can do this!”

“We should scout the village first, before committing to anything firmly,” Calandra insisted, speaking up for the first time in a while.

Koda glanced at his smallest mate to find her chewing on the end of one of her three braids in thought, staring at something that he couldn’t see. Her tactical mind was running in overdrive, likely going over what she’d been taught about fighting trolls.

“That is fair. Before we get excited about anything, we need more information,” Koda agreed, his words breaking Calandra out of her thoughts, and she shot him a soft smile, leaning to one side to bump him with her arm in a gesture of affection.

“I can send some of our hunters to guide you. While we are still missing half of our hunters that are on longer ranging hunts, we won’t let you go into this challenge alone,” Vysin assured and Koda nodded in acceptance.

“Appreciated. Having back-up would be nice and might allow us to test the waters some. Did you have anyone in mind specifically?” Koda asked. But before Vysin could speak up, Arthene did.

“I want Samira with us.”

The elder grimaced but was quick to wipe the expression off his face when he glanced past Koda at the incarnate spirit, clearly remembering exactly who and what Arthene was. So instead, he just nodded in acceptance.

Koda could actually hear Samira bouncing in excitement behind him.

12

As soon as their meeting ended, Koda and his girls—with Samira in tow—headed out to check on the others.

“Koda?” Sienna asked while walking along on his right, the butt of her spear thumping against the packed earth.

“What is it, love?” Koda asked as their group angled towards the canvas tents that he knew marked where their friends had pitched camp.

“Do you mind if I use my magic to make some better shelter for these people? It might be a bit before they get back to their homes and they have nothing to build with besides the grass.”

Sienna’s request was simple, but it made Koda’s insides clench. He hadn’t even thought of having her do that, and now guilt rose up for the oversight.

“Easy there, big guy.” Calandra elbowed him in the thigh from her spot on his left. The observant dwarven woman had been watching him and saw the momentary flash of self-recrimination across her mate's face. “If what Sienna has told me is true, she’s not had that ability for long, and you’ve had about as much time to get used to all this as she has. So take it easy on yourself.”

Arthene didn’t add to the conversation, but he could feel the warm affection flowing from his primal spirit along their bond.

Still don’t fully understand that, Koda thought wryly, allowing the distraction to push away the last of his regrets. In some ways, my connection to Arthene is not as strong as with Thera. But in others it is stronger.

“Yeah. Do that, Sienna. Just make sure not to overdo it, okay? I need my huntress ready for trouble tomorrow.”

Sienna’s pointed, red wolf ears happily bounced upright, and she nodded in understanding. Whirling in place, she interrupted Arthene and Samira’s conversation to pepper the caracal woman with questions about who would need shelter the most and to offer her help.

Koda half-expected Arthene to be upset by having her ‘toy’ stolen away, but his bear spirit joined in without hesitation, overwhelming poor Samira before dragging her off. Sienna’s tail whipped up a storm behind her while Arthene egged her on with a broad grin.

“And just like that, there were two,” Koda laughed, turning to look down at Calandra. The dwarven woman gave him a heated look, her eyes hooding alluringly.

“How about we go see if our tent is set up, and make use of the private time?” Calandra suggested, running her tongue over her top lip. The sexy look was enhanced by the fact she still carried her long-handled Dane axe over one shoulder and her armor on her pack, giving her a fierce air.

“Oh, I could use a nap,” Koda replied blithely, playfully ignoring her attempted seduction. “I’m sure you are tired after all—arg!” He winced away from Calandra, clutching at his thigh, which was tingling in the wake of the solid punch she had driven into him.

“Don’t you dare whine you didn’t deserve that,” Calandra growled at him in mock-anger.

“I’ll forgive you if you kiss it better,” Koda fired back, waggling his eyebrows at her as he hopped along on one leg.

“Do more than kiss it better, bite it off,” Calandra grumbled, still pretending to be upset at him. The one punch had been her way of telling him off playfully, but she couldn’t just cave for him that easily.

Rather than let his diminutive lover continue to grumble, Koda caught one of her braids in his hand and gave it a gentle tug, pulling the dwarven woman’s head back. She protested until Koda pressed his lips to hers, and then Calandra melted into his side readily.

Since he was already familiar with Koda’s group, Cyrus and his hunters were the ones selected to escort him to the village for scouting the next day. Also, Samira was one of his hunters too, so that handily covered Arthene’s demand to include the caracal girl with them.

Koda had woken up that morning like he did most days, to the sensation of Calandra’s lips on his manhood.

The dwarven woman had made this part of their routine on her own initiative, but Koda would not complain in the slightest, something Sienna had pointed out sleepily while she watched the third time it happened. He didn’t know why Calandra did this, but she clearly enjoyed herself and kept as discreet as possible in her actions, so he couldn’t really complain.

Except that Samira had invited herself over the previous night and fallen asleep on the other side of Arthene, happily cuddled into the massive bear spirit and listening as she wove tales of the Before, when Thera ruled her realm and the worlds did not know the taint of the Crooked.

Thankfully, Samira slept hard while curled into Arthene’s back, so hadn’t been woken by the sloppy noises that Calandra had made during her morning routine.

The villagers had celebrated having fresh meat the previous night, with spirits further bolstered by the handful of dugout shelters that Sienna had made. No one was forced to sleep out under the stars unless they chose to, and that had further improved morale among the refugee villagers.

Used to the early morning hours from their frantic marches the previous weeks, Koda and his group had their tents bundled up and were ready to leave as the villagers stirred to full wakefulness.

With the necessity of shelter handled, several groups of the villagers were working together to forage for food in the nearby area, roaming out in groups of six or more to find berries and other wild edible plants. With a solid night’s rest and better food, they looked to be regaining their hope.

Vysin met them with Cyrus in tow shortly after the sun crested the horizon, sending them on their way with blessings and a promise that he’d work to collect the other hunter groups to be ready to strike back and reclaim their village.

“Winter is coming in quickly. We can all feel it in the air,” Vysin said for the third time that morning. “We need to bring in the harvests that are ripe in the fields and make sure we are ready. Normally, this would be a busy season as foods are dried and prepared, but it will be even busier than normal because of the trolls.”

“And that is only if they haven’t already found and broken into the village larders,” Cyrus added, again for the third time.

“Then we should get going, rather than standing about jawing,” Hans grumbled from within Koda’s group. “The longer we wait, the more stone piles up to work.”

Koda wasn’t sure of the euphemism that the former miner was using, but had a decent guess, so sided with Hans readily enough.

“He’s right. The longer we delay, the less light we have. Cal, can you give us a boost like yesterday?”

“Sure, handsome,” Calandra said with a blown kiss to Koda, before closing her eyes to focus.

Just as the previous day, Koda felt his limbs lighten almost immediately. A gentle pressure slowly built up behind him, and he could feel the wind stirring gently in his hair, sending the long, straight, black strands dancing. To his right, he saw Arthene’s thick mane moving as well.

“Off we go. Cyrus, with me,” Koda ordered before bounding forward.

In a single stride, Koda covered almost ten feet of distance with the grace of a gazelle. Glancing back, he saw the others all staring at him except for Calandra, who was grinning broadly while a few flyaway strands of hair danced in the ghostly wind she had conjured. While they’d all felt the increase in speed from the previous day, this was far more than they’d seen before.

Samira was the first one to move, though Calandra and Koda’s mates were half a step behind her. The caracal woman gave a whoop and leaped forward, her powerful legs launching her into a bounding run that quickly closed the distance to Koda.

“Is this what it feels like to walk with the gods?” Samira demanded as she landed next to Koda, shortening her stride so that each bounding step matched his.

“Not even close,” Arthene answered with a booming laugh. “The gods walk the world between the beats of a hummingbird’s wings. Here and gone before you conceive of them. They can only do that when they do not possess a physical form. If one were to incarnate like I am now, then they would be bound by the same rules of the world as we are.”

“Amazing!” Samira crowed, bouncing in her step and accidentally launching herself further forward through the air. Only her catlike reflexes prevented her from tumbling to the ground because of her excitement.

“Easy there, Samira. Don’t hurt yourself, otherwise Cal might feel that it’s her fault,” Sienna cautioned, finding her pace easily on Arthene’s other side, holding her spear cross-body with the broad head high to not snag on the undergrowth.

“Naw, I can tell that she’d hurt herself without my help. So have fun, Samira. Just don’t get too far ahead of boulder-ass here,” Calandra called before poking Koda in the butt with the pommel of her axe.

“Boulder-ass? You wound me!” Koda protested, glancing back to see that the rest of their group was slowly closing in on them.

His fighters were actually doing better adjusting to the acceleration than Cyrus’ group, but he attributed that to the higher level of trust they’d already developed with the dwarven woman.

“I mean, it looks like it’s carved out of stone in those pants,” Arthene said bluntly. Her words got a cackle of amusement from Calandra before she rounded Koda’s other side and settled into a steady jog matching his bounding leaps because of her shorter legs.

“I suppose I can accept that,” Koda said with a laugh of his own. “I’d much rather you ladies ran ahead of me, so I get a treat as well.”

“Okay!” Samira cheered from her spot further ahead of Koda and to his right, now that she had arrested her near-fall. “Come on, ‘Thene! Sienna?”

“The things I do for my mate,” Sienna laughed, a faint blush on her cheeks. The wolf-featured woman’s tail was spinning happily though, whipping up a storm as she adjusted her stride to follow Arthene when the spirit woman galloped past.

“I mean, if it riles him up?” Calandra laughed in agreement, lengthening her stride and jinking around Koda to join the other three girls in the lead.

All four of their muscular bottoms bounced and flexed as they ran, a sight that definitely brought a rising motivation to his heart. He could hear Hans grumbling behind him again, complaining about how lucky Koda was even as Netta shushed him.

Cannot argue with the statement, though, Koda thought with a smile as Sienna pushed Arthene playfully, throwing off the bigger woman’s steps before dodging away from a retaliatory attack that resulted in her getting a swat to the ass rather than the shoulder. I’m just surprised Samira was the first one to jump on it. I’d been meaning to tease my girls. Then again, she doesn’t seem to have many friends amongst her tribe and has clearly been bonding with Arthene… which I’m not sure is a good thing now that I consider it.

He was dragged out of his thoughts when Cyrus finally slid into place on Koda’s right. The cougar beastfolk struggled a bit with his balance, not used to using the odd, bounding stride that went with the wind spell that Calandra was using, but he seemed to be slowly getting the hang of it.

“How long until we reach the village?” Koda asked, when Cyrus remained silent.

“It’d normally be a two-day trip, but I expect we will make it there before nightfall, if your mage can keep her spell up that long,” Cyrus grunted.

“I don’t want Calandra to burn herself out. This is still a new power to her,” Koda replied immediately.

“If she’s got this much power while she is still new to the gift, then I am a bit terrified of what it will be like when she’s used to it,” Cyrus said, his voice a mixture of amusement and actual concern.

“Look no further than my Sienna for what to expect,” Koda tossed his head to the wolf-eared woman trotting between Samira and Arthene at the moment, rubbing her ‘wounded’ butt with one hand while her tail continued its happy swishes. “In the course of an hour, she dug out and erected shelters for everyone displaced by this incursion, and she did it with the same amount of effort as I might by splitting firewood for the same amount of time.”

“That… I see,” Cyrus said, his voice twinging with concern. “Do you select your mates for their power? It is a wise choice to surround yourself with strength, given the dangers I’m sure you face.”

“No,” Koda replied bluntly. “I did not choose them for their power. I love each of them, and they love me. That came first in every situation. The magic they wield is a gift from Thera herself as part of my family.”

Koda caught the speculative look that Cyrus gave him, but the beastfolk man let that subject drop. Instead, Cyrus filled Koda in on what he might expect to see when they reached the ruins of the village.

13

Since they were on a scouting mission, the group pushed hard through the afternoon to make as much ground as possible. Only when Calandra advised she needed to let the spell drop to rest did they halt to eat.

“Dried meat again, well at least it’s better than ramen,” Koda sighed, gnawing on the salted hunk of venison he’d taken from his pack. The stew that they’d made with the fresh bison had been a welcome change, but once again, they were back on trail rations.

“It’s the easiest to eat for now,” Sienna countered, but there wasn’t much conviction to her words. It was clear to Koda that his red wolf was ready for a change of pace, too.

“When we have more warning and time to prepare, I have an old recipe for trail bread my mama passed on to me,” Calandra growled around her own salty mouthful. “It’ll keep for weeks and is right filling. Only hard ingredient to get at times is the honey.”

“Then you will have to make some for us soon,” Arthene asserted. Of their family, the bear spirit was already finished eating. She had bolted down the smoked meat without hesitation and was working on her favorite project—at least her favorite besides harassing Koda, that was.

She had her bone club on her lap and was using the dense claws of her fingers to slowly score symbols deep into the stained knob of bone at the end of her weapon and along its length. The club was made from her own thigh bone—taken from the remains of her last incarnation—and in her hands became a formidable weapon even before the power Koda could feel humming in the runes Arthene carved. She’d started them weeks ago, and now worked them deeper into the ancient bone.

“Of course the bear wants honey,” Calandra snorted, rolling her eyes and pulling one of her braids over her shoulder to play with the end.

“It is natural, after all,” piped up Samira from her spot on the other side of Arthene. “Honey is a delicacy, and thus a worthy offering for the Den Mother.”

That statement made Arthene’s eyes light up and she turned towards Samira with a question even as the caracal beastfolk continued.

“Sadly, the only honey our people have is in the village stores. It’s likely the trolls have already found and devoured it.”

“Thera blast it,” Arthene swore, slamming her club into the ground with a rumbling crash that left a deep dent in the soil and shattered two different rocks. When she pulled the thick bone out of the ground and revealed it bore not a single scratch, Koda rolled his eyes.

“We just need to get there before they find it then, right?” Koda urged, hoping to divert his lover from falling into a full-on pout. “I’m sure if we clear out the trolls, then Vysin might give some of their honey to you in thanks.”

“Yes!” Arthene crowed before pushing herself to her feet. “Come, we should get moving again!”

“Nope,” Koda countered, reaching up to grab the edge of Arthene’s fur skirt and used his goddess-enhanced strength to yank the incarnate spirit off-balance.

Arthene, as focused as she was on the idea of getting her paws on some honey, hadn’t been ready for his actions and tumbled to one side with a squawk of surprise that ended when she landed on Koda’s lap where he was sitting on a rock.

“Kodaaaa!” Arthene protested once she realized what he’d done, her whine trailing off when Koda’s arms wrapped around her and he gently began rubbing at her exposed tummy.

“Wow, I’m astonished that worked,” Calandra muttered in amusement as she watched Koda tame the spirit woman with a few touches.

“She was too focused on food and wouldn’t let the rest of us rest if I didn’t,” Koda said, peeking around Arthene’s shoulder. “Figured I just needed to give her something else to focus on for the moment.”

That said, Koda tossed the last of his jerky into his mouth and put his other hand to use running his fingernails up and down the center of Arthene’s spine where it was exposed between her top and skirt. The bear woman, who had been attempting to rally for a protest despite the tummy rubs, went limp in his arms at the combined assault of belly rubs and back scratches.

“Is it wrong that I’m kind of envious of Arthene right now?” Sienna teased, her tail flapping back and forth, every other swing smacking into Calandra’s shoulder with its energy.

“Nope. If it is, then I’m at fault too,” Samira muttered quietly enough that Koda knew he wasn’t supposed to hear that.

“Love you, Koda,” Arthene mumbled, rubbing her cheek into the top of his head as he continued to distract his mate, focusing her instincts on cuddles for now while the others rested.

“Such a lucky bastard,” Hans mumbled from Koda’s other side, before a loud whack sounded and he yelped in pain.

“Keep envying Aegisclaw like that, and I’m going to tell Brit and Layla on you,” ordered Hannah, getting a round of laughter from the Ivory Spear warriors.

Koda had Calandra rein in her spell as soon as they saw the distant shapes of the buildings.

The village of the Silent Plains tribe was tucked in amongst the foothills, with two large mountain ridges spreading out to either side like a pair of fingers that soared up into the heights above. Koda could see myriad thin trails that lined the steep slopes, evidence of wild animals and the tribe’s hunters going up into the foothills as well.

A broad lake sat at the back of the valley where the village sat, fed by mountain streams and a pair of short waterfalls that bubbled out of the rock a few dozen feet above the surface of the lake on its easternmost side. The lake emptied into a winding river that curved around the village, blocking its westernmost side with tall stands of trees that grew along its banks to provide timber and other supplies to the village.

The buildings themselves were simple adobe structures thatched with bundles of the plains grass in some spots and baked clay tiles in others. No building was taller than two stories, with most of them being built low to the ground and dug into the earth. At least that was what Cyrus had explained to him.

“Most of the buildings have at least one, if not two, levels dug down. The family compounds will actually have tunnels carved out to get between buildings during the worst parts of the winter, and the storehouses are buried as well. It helps the food last as long as possible, since the soil insulates it,” Cyrus explained as he lay next to Koda, peering down from the nearest hillside to get a view of the village.

Sienna lay silently on Koda’s other side, her ears twitching occasionally as she studied the collection of buildings. The village itself was almost as large as Silverstone if you went off the number of buildings, but based on the population that they’d discussed before, there was maybe half to a third of the population of her home village.

“That might help the trolls miss some supplies,” Sienna muttered as she squinted. “I wish Cal had brought her spyglass. Makes sense, though, that it was issued by the guard.”

“And not something that most would afford, though we could look into ordering one, considering the amount of coin we have from the Crooked parties we wiped out,” Koda muttered, his eyes turning to the fields that lay between the forest and the village.

He realized the occupants of the village did not farm as their primary food source. The crops planted were hearty grains and simple vegetables, but there were rows and rows of berry bushes as well. Plenty of food lay ready to harvest, with more on the way, but not enough to feed a village this size without supplementation.

Which makes sense, given they had what, a fourth of their population out hunting? Koda thought. His first impression of the Silent Plains tribe had been something similar to the Native Americans back on Earth, like the Lakota or Comanche. But that was fading with the odd mix of roaming and stationary nature he was seeing.

I still don’t know how bad the winters are out here. It might make sense for them to batten down for longer stretches in a village like this. Especially if it gets cold enough that the rivers freeze over. That lake is deep enough that it shouldn’t freeze solid and they’ll need water. Is it more efficient to keep a section from freezing, or just melt snow for water, I wonder?

“I am surprised they haven’t stripped the fields yet,” Cyrus muttered from Koda’s right, drawing him out of his thoughts.

“Trolls prefer meat. I’m sure any herds you had were their first victims,” Koda answered the man, remembering that bit of information from listening to Samira and Arthene talking the previous night. “Only when they’ve exhausted all the easy meat will they start on those is my bet.”

Cyrus growled at that and pounded his fist into the earth. The impact made a dull thump that was heavily muffled by the thick grass all around them.

“Those herds are family livelihoods. They weren’t for trade—they were the few mountain goats we could trap and bring down into the village for milk and meat while breeding them. That will be a sore blow to the village.”

“But the families will survive, yes?” Sienna asked, and Koda could hear the sharp points in her question. Cyrus didn’t miss them either, growling low in his throat.

“Of course they will, but it will still devastate them to see their hard work vanish down a troll’s throat. We look after our own, but it will be years before they can be replaced.”

“Better a few herds than the entire village’s food stores. It looks like the damage the trolls have done has been constrained to the barns and pens.” Koda pointed towards the obviously damaged buildings. There were entire walls knocked in and blood stains in what he guessed were the pastures for the attached buildings. Two of the structures had collapsed entirely.

“Yes, but not something I can be happy about regardless,” growled Cyrus, his eyes panning over the village once more, clearly searching for some sign of their quarry.

“Just be glad the trolls stopped to eat here rather than pursue your people,” Sienna reminded him, and that got Cyrus to stop growling and just nod.

“So, where are the village stores located?” Koda asked, noting several larger buildings that he guessed were either family compounds or storehouses.

“Scattered around. Each family had their own supplies, but the village rule is that half of all supplies brought in are contributed to the village to supply us during the winter. While the elders and the children cannot hunt or work when the snows fall, they put back plenty of handcraft supplies as well. Those will probably survive the hunger of the trolls, unless they like to eat colorful rocks and bones.”

“Bones probably,” Sienna asserted. “From what Samira was saying, they’ll stuff anything that looks or smells vaguely edible in their craws. So leather stocks, saddles, tack, bones, food—hell, even cookware might get chewed on.”

The trio went silent, studying the still village for several long moments. Again, Koda was struck by the fact that the village didn’t have a wall around it. The nature of the plains and their secluded location made it easy for people to keep watch, but there were no emplaced defenses here. Not even a means to prevent wild animals from sneaking into town, except for the buildings themselves.

“Why is there no wall?” Koda asked finally, his desire for knowledge getting the better of him at last. He’d not hounded Kris about it back in Silverstone, but every game he’d played or fantasy story he’d read portrayed frontier towns as having solid defenses in the form of walls.

Hell, even Amberpost didn’t have a wall. They just built an improvised one between the sturdier buildings, Koda thought wryly.

“We’ve never needed one before,” Cyrus sighed. “Threats either never find us because of our chosen location, are dealt with on the plains well away from the village, or are like the trolls: too large and dangerous for any wall we build to be of use.”

“But there are defenses you could have built,” Sienna countered, leaning forward to look around Koda. “What were those things we used on the Crooked called?”

“Cheval de frise,” Koda answered automatically, remembering the logs pierced through with sharpened sticks they’d used as barricades to channel a larger group of Crooked into a killing field. “They are simple enough to build, but they don’t last too long. Same with the abatis. They are emergency fortifications usually.”

“We grew complacent,” Cyrus admitted with a sigh. “Too long without facing a real threat or challenge. The trolls kept to the mountains and ignored us unless we climbed too high. Now that changes, though.”

“Indeed—” Koda began, but before he could continue, he was interrupted by a deep, basso roar from the direction of the village. Snapping his gaze in that direction, Koda scanned the buildings, trying to find the source.

He didn’t have to wait long, as a flitter of movement near one of the barns revealed his first vision of a troll a moment later, when the muscled creature was bodily thrown into the blood-soaked paddock. The troll rolled for a good twenty feet before getting to its feet with a slightly higher-pitched roar of its own before throwing a fistful of earth at something out of sight.

The troll was large, easily ten feet tall, if not taller. Its skin was a speckled gray-brown color that matched the cliffs far beyond the village. A head shaped like a pumpkin, with a mouth large enough to engulf Koda’s entire head, sat on a pair of broad shoulders. That wide mouth was filled with sharp teeth that glittered with menace even from this far away.

The creature's shoulders were corded with muscle and tied into arms as thick as trees that hung down to the creature’s knees. A chest knotted with muscle and criss-crossed with thick scars heaved as the creature pounded itself threateningly, like Koda had seen gorillas do as an aggression display. Tree-trunk legs powered it forward in a charge that ended in a shattering crash just out of sight, as more roars rose from the village.

“They are fighting over the food,” Cyrus said quietly. “I was hoping this might happen. Whatever drove them down out of the mountains has left them aggressive. And it doesn’t look like there is a chief amongst them to organize it.”

“How many?” Koda asked as the roof of one of the smaller buildings was smashed right off, revealing a pair of trolls hammering each other with knotted fists like anvils.

One troll was slightly larger than the other and seemed to have the upper hand as it snatched a log beam out of the ruins of the building and smashed it over the other’s head. This made the second troll, the smaller one that they’d seen earlier, sway before bellowing in fury and throwing itself at the larger while blood ran from its bald skull down over its face.

“The reports said there might be six to ten in the area. But with a fight like this? If any of the others were nearby, they’d be rushing to join in, or pick off the winner. So we might be lucky enough that only two are in the village right now. The others might have stumbled off into the hills to sleep off their full stomachs.” Cyrus’ voice was growing higher with excitement, and Koda could understand the other man.

Their enemies had foolishly separated, and two of them were distracted and brawling right now. If they moved quickly, they could finish these two off and test Arthene’s statements about how killing a troll could empower someone.

Just don’t think about the fact they are twice the size of anything else you’ve fought, Koda thought. Twice the size, and probably ten times heavier. These things are savage beasts, and they’ll eat people as easily as they ate the village’s herds.

That thought, and the image his mind conjured of his girls being dragged screaming towards those blade-filled maws, made Koda’s resolve as hard as steel. With a thought, his bladed gauntlets formed around his arms and he growled deep in his chest.

The noise rumbled against the earth and he heard Sienna take in a sharp breath before joining him in the challenging growl. He didn’t need to look at his mate to know she was grinning savagely, with all her teeth on display. Instead, Koda just spoke in a low voice, not relinquishing the boiling anger that roiled up out of his soul right then.

“Then it is time we hunt.”

14

“So how ‘single’ does it need to be in order to steal the power of a troll?” Koda asked Arthene as their group snuck closer to the abandoned town while the trolls continued to scuffle with each other. “Is interrupting their fight going to prevent it from working? Since one is beating the stuffing out of the other?”

“It won’t affect it,” Arthene answered quickly. “This isn’t really a fight to the death. Those two are likely tussling over something they found and don’t want to share. A troll will heal from near-death to full health in a matter of minutes. It still puts a weight on their body to do it, but with their sturdy constitution and enough food, they can survive anything.”

“So what about the hunters harrying them from a distance?” Koda asked, wanting to get more information.

Koda and Arthene decided to test themselves against the trolls first. That would allow them to gauge the threat of the trolls and see if they’d be something the others could handle to grow more powerful. Between Arthene’s nature as a primal spirit and Koda’s goddess-boosted strength, they were the most-dangerous of the regular fighters. Sienna and Calandra could keep up with their magic, but even admitted that they’d hesitate.

“The idea of single combat in the legends is that one would clash with a troll without support. But it’s not entirely true.” Arthene gestured for him to keep close and follow her around the edge of a low barn that was missing half its roof. “The more who take part in the slaying of a troll, the more ways it is split. And each split reduces the total gained. If I remember right, more than three means that the boost is smaller than any might recognize.”

“Then what contributes to the fight? Can a single arrow ruin it?” Koda was suddenly reminded of those who would steal kills in MMORPG’s by shooting a single arrow into them before you could damage the opponent.

“If the troll falls bearing unhealed wounds from more than one opponent, the split occurs.” Arthene gave a huff of irritation, glancing searchingly down at Koda. “Are you hesitating, my mate? Have more confidence in yourself. You can do this.”

“It’s not me I’m worried about,” Koda sighed as they edged up to the corner of a building, the fighting noises growing louder. “I’m worried about the others. It might be safer if we have them attack in groups to get the smaller portions, rather than die in the fight.”

Arthene snorted and shook her head in denial, an action that made her unbound hair bounce and shimmer in the afternoon light. She stopped shy of the corner of the building and turned to wrap her arms around Koda’s shoulders, crushing him into a hug that smushed his face into the tops of her prodigious breasts.

“I should have known that was your worry, my mate. I am sorry for doubting you,” Arthene rumbled in Koda’s ear.

Not wanting her to fall to self-recrimination, Koda returned the hug, not just because he was enjoying his plush prison. When they separated, he stood on tiptoes to give Arthene a quick peck on the lips.

“We will see what comes of it, my Arthene. How do you want to handle this?”

“I’ll take the one currently winning their little ‘argument.’ I’ve fought trolls before, and he’s the larger of the two. Don’t expect this to be a quick fight, though. Focus on leading it away from the village and wearing it down. No troll can fight forever, but it only needs to get lucky once.”

“Got it,” Koda said with a nod, accepting the carved bone club that Arthene normally fought with when she handed it to him.

“Hold on to this for me. My bear form will make it easier to handle the troll. Better leverage.” Arthene’s smirk widened into a feral grin before her body flowed.

Never gets old watching her do that, Koda thought with a grin. I might have goddess-blessed powers, but the idea of being a shape-shifter is just too neat. At least Arthene only has the one form to deal with. I don’t know if I’d be able to figure out how to make the most of an unbound ability to shape-shift.

Within a breath of time, Arthene’s form settled into her dire-bear form and she whirled to lead the charge around the corner and into the wide street that the two trolls were fighting in. Koda leaped to follow her, slinging the club over his shoulder onto the strap that Arthene had attached earlier in the day.

The two trolls had trashed most of the street. Building fronts were shattered or collapsed, and more than one roof had been swept clean in their brawl. Currently, the larger of the two trolls was sitting astride the chest of the smaller and using a fistful of adobe bricks to bludgeon his downed opponent with unrestrained fury.

Arthene hit him like a runaway semi-truck.

The big troll glanced up in time to see the blur of fur and widen its eyes in surprise before Arthene barreled into him, sending the troll sprawling on the street. She opened her mouth to bite into the troll, but rather than a throat, she only got its forearm.

Koda had to look away, because the downed troll was already rolling to its feet. Blood streamed from scratches and scrapes on its face, but the injuries sealed up like someone had hit the fast-forward button on a time-lapse video.

Ten feet of height didn’t look as intimidating from a distance, but up close like this, with the beast towering nearly twice Koda’s height, it was intense. The troll shook its head, scattering drops of its blood all over the place. The wide maw set into its pumpkin-shaped head yawned into a roar while it turned to set upon Arthene, but Koda acted first.

He’d already summoned his totemic gauntlets on the approach, and kept in mind Arthene’s words. He needed to whittle down this monster. His weapons were not long enough to cause critical damage unless he could get at its eyes or throat, which were well out of reach at the moment.

Gotta cut him down to size. Like Calandra would do for the larger Crooked, he thought with a fierce grin. His dwarven mate was with the others, standing ready up on the hill to come racing down and assist them if they needed it, or divert if another troll showed up. He could almost feel her intense stare as she watched the glimpses of the fight they could pick out from the hilltop.

As the troll turned and raised both boulder-shaped fists over its head to slam down on Arthene’s back, Koda darted forward with his arms held wide. His lunge fell just short of dodging between the troll’s legs and he snapped both arms forward, each clawed hand going to drag as deeply as possible into the thick tendons in the back of the trunk-like thighs of the troll.

Roaring in pain, the troll stumbled and flailed, his hammer-blow attack aborting as Koda’s blows tore through his granite-colored skin. Blood spurted, but not the torrent of life-fluid that Koda was used to. The troll’s thick skin was already beginning to seal up, but he continued his assault.

Half-stepping to keep in place—Koda did not want to end up underneath the troll’s hairy backside, after all—he applied another slash to the same sections of meaty thigh, digging deeper past the hardened skin and tearing into muscle and tendons. This time, the troll's roar was not just of surprise and pain, but fear as its right leg crumpled with the tendons cut.

Skipping to one side, Koda let the beast fall to the ground, slapping out with his claws instinctively to draw large, bleeding furrows in its sides, arms, and thighs as the creature crashed down.

Sparing a glance to where Arthene wrestled with her troll, Koda was astonished to see Arthene bodily thrown off the larger troll, sent tumbling across the ground. For once, her massive weight and strength in dire bear form was not enough to crush her foe.

The troll she’d been savaging sat up and shook its shredded arm in fury at Arthene before snatching a length of wood up from the wreckage to use as a club before the two clashed once more.

Focus on your fight, I have this. Arthene sent him along the spiritual connection they shared and Koda whipped his attention back to the troll in front of him.

The wounds were sealing before his eyes, though blood bathed the troll’s side. But he definitely had the knobbly monster's attention now. Its pumpkin-shaped head split in half, spraying spittle as it roared loudly enough that Koda’s ribcage vibrated in response.

Displaying a level of cunning he hadn’t expected, the troll whipped into a roll at him. He thought the creature was trying to snatch him despite being out of range, but the fistful of stones that the creature flung slammed into Koda like plus-sized buckshot and sent him sprawling.

Must have grabbed them when it fell, Koda thought with a groan. The rocks hadn’t been large enough to break anything, but he knew his girls were going to yell at him for getting hurt when the bruises he could feel presented themselves. Be glad it wasn’t one larger rock that caved in your chest. Stupid. You fought Crooked warleaders and champions. Don’t let some dumb troll with a rock end your story.

Letting the fall carry him into a roll away down the lane, Koda scrambled to his feet as soon as the tumbling ended. The troll’s mashed face split into a cruel grin as it ripped off a length of lumber to use as a club before limping after him. The cuts on its legs were already healing, but the tendons he’d severed in the right leg were still giving it trouble.

Got it, hamstrings, tendons, and joints. Focus on those, Koda thought grimly as he returned to his feet.

So the troll kept focused on him. He scooped up a watermelon-sized rock with one hand and flung it at the creature’s head. The troll’s beady little eyes widened in surprise moments before the hunk of stone bounced off its skull, splitting the skin and sending a fresh wave of blood down it, but not slowing the creature.

Koda grimaced. He’d caved in chests on Crooked with throws like that before, but the troll treated it like a snowball studded with rocks. It didn’t help that, now that the creature was facing him, Koda could tell that it was a male of its species as the crude loincloth it’d been wearing had been torn off in the fight with its fellow troll.

Not something I want to see ever again, Koda thought and grimaced, snatching up another rock and fast-balling it at the troll’s exposed junk.

With the sort of instinctive wariness that most males had, the troll twisted to take the rock on its thigh rather than its family jewels before bellowing and charging Koda, the club in its hand held high.

Koda feinted to one side before throwing himself into a roll on the creature’s left when the troll bought the feint. He slashed out at the creature’s ankle as he passed, but the troll’s thick bones kept him from doing more than surface damage to it.

The bruises on his chest throbbed angrily from the earlier thrown stones, and Koda landed awkwardly in the roll as he’d forgotten he had Arthene’s club strapped to his back, the length of thigh bone throwing off his balance.

With more speed than he had expected, the troll whirled and slammed its club down at Koda, only missing him by inches as he used his goddess-blessed strength to toss himself into a handspring out of the way of the blow.

Landing on his feet, Koda snatched Arthene’s club off of his back and brandished it threateningly at the troll while the creature limped in a circle to recover and angle towards him. In the distance behind the troll, he could see the outlines of the rest of his team watching on the hillside. A red-headed figure he knew to be Sienna was pumping her spear over her head encouragingly, while the shorter figure next to her was spinning her weapon anxiously.

“All right, shitbag,” Koda growled, dragging his attention back to the troll. “You wanna fight with weapons? Let’s see if your club holds up to mine.”

The troll roared in fury and lunged forward, the club held high over its head. While it had no finesse in its attack, there was an amount of raw power that demanded respect as the creature pounded towards Koda. And while he could tap into a fury all his own, Koda knew that, in this moment, cunning would carry the battle.

Arthene’s club was a good four feet or more long and had stood the test of many battles. Koda was confident in its durability and strength. The runes that he’d seen his wife carving into the shaft and head of the club were to further strengthen the weapon, or at least that was what she’d told him. So when the troll charged, Koda met that charge with one of his own, then slipped to one side at the last second.

The troll’s club crashed to the ground in an explosion of dirt, flying splinters, and fury. It missed Koda by half-a-foot, but he felt several large fragments of wood slam into his back and pierce his clothing.

Koda’s blow met the troll’s left knee just after it planted the limb to strike, the rounded knob of bone at the end of his club meeting the troll’s patella with every ounce of power and leverage Koda could muster. He felt the unearthly presence of Thera within the weapon as she guided his attack, just as she had taught him how to use her totemic claws weeks before, and that allowed the maximum force to be transmitted into the blow.

The troll's joint shattered. Its leg bent in the opposite direction with a gross crackling and tearing of flesh that would have made Koda’s stomach turn if they weren’t currently in the middle of a fight.

Howling in pain, the troll crashed forward onto its chest, both legs incapacitated at the moment. Koda did not let the opportunity go to waste. He rapidly slung the club over his shoulder once more, before diving onto the troll’s back as it writhed in pain on the ground for a moment. Several blows to the backs of its thighs ensured the healing tendon on the right stayed severed and then tore through the one on the left. He then scampered up the troll’s back as it swatted furiously at him, digging his claws into the creature’s wrist to sever tendons there and leave a flopping glove of meat behind in its right hand.

Reaching the troll’s head, Koda did not hesitate to drive the claws of his right hand into the glaring black eye on the left side of the troll’s face when it turned to snap at him. The howls of fury turned into screeches of pain when he yanked his hand out of the ruined eye-socket of the troll.

Flailing wildly, Koda’s opponent finally dislodged him in its frantic movements, sending the champion tumbling across the dirt packed street once more. Koda wanted to check on Arthene, to see how her fight was going, but he had to focus on his own battle. Just the troll throwing him loose had rewarded him with another bruise and a gash on his forehead that was bleeding sluggishly.

I would really appreciate that armor, Thera, Koda sent to the goddess. Her response of a ‘oh hush, you’ feeling made his fierce grin spread wider.

The troll continued to flail in the dirt, one hand over its ruined eye while the other raked over the soil as if it could find Koda by digging hard enough. Blood spattered the ground in steaming sprays while ragged meat flapped until it began to heal. The creature’s flailing was actually buying the time needed to let its healing take effect, so Koda couldn’t hesitate for long.

Again, he unslung Arthene’s club and darted forward, dropping to all fours to power his movement with the strange primal magic with which Thera had infused his entire body.

Approaching from the troll’s blind side, Koda leaped over the creature, swinging as he flew to put his entire body weight behind the blow. The rounded head of the bone club connected with the side of the troll’s skull with an ominous cracking noise that caused the creature to slump. The sensation of impact was so strong that it actually arrested Koda’s flight, and he tumbled into a heap on the far side of the monster.

Rolling to his feet, he quickly inspected Arthene’s club.

She’s gonna kill me if I broke it, he thought furiously, but there were no signs of a break in the sturdy thigh bone, just fresh smears of blood from where it had ruined his enemy’s flesh.

Returning his attention to the present, Koda looked towards the troll. Its flailing was weaker now, but it was still dragging itself towards him. The one remaining eye glared at him hatefully amongst a mess of blood and damaged flesh that writhed while it tried to reform. But just as Arthene had told him, if he dealt enough damage to the creature, its healing would slow. The dent in the side of its skull and the ruin of its ear didn’t hurt, either.

“You really are like a rabid beast,” Koda growled as he took a moment to get himself in order. The multiple tumbles and blows had shredded his shirt, leaving it hanging in rags that displayed his muscled torso and the speckling of bruises from the fight, but other than those and some deep scratches, he was in far better condition than the troll.

And how much of that is Thera’s blessings? Strength, endurance, and agility are tremendous boons that you’ve learned to properly wield, Koda questioned himself as the troll’s skull ballooned outwards once more, the ear slowly filling back in. A quiet crunch, and it had both hands to use once more.

“Enough,” Koda growled and lunged forward, club whirling up and over his shoulder into a blow like a blacksmith pounding down to flatten out metal.

The troll's long arms lunged forward, reaching for Koda’s legs to catch him. The troll was intelligent enough to realize that if it could get hold of the smaller man, it could rend him limb from limb. But Koda wasn’t going to just stand there and let it snare him.

Digging his feet in like a baseball slide, Koda arrested his charge early, forcing the pendulum of his club to come crashing down on the troll’s elbow with such force that it blasted the joint apart like someone hitting a sausage with a hammer. When the troll roared in pain, he turned and slammed the head of the club into the creature’s open mouth, shattering several teeth in the process before the troll choked on the bone.

It’s one remaining eye bugged wide, and the arm that worked properly reached to stop Koda, but he released his grip on the club to lunge forward. His left hand drove into the other eye of the beast, while his right opened the troll’s throat in a spray of gore.

A sharp kick diverted its one good arm before he pinned it down with one foot. He dug the claws of both hands into the creature’s elbow, shredding meat and tendons until that limb went limp.

Even so, its flesh writhed unnaturally and tried to knit itself together.

“Die already!” Koda roared, using the club choking the creature as a lever to flip it over before slashing into its throat once more. Blood and chunks of flesh flew as Koda hacked into its thick throat until he found its spine and severed that as well.

Like a puppet with its strings cut, the troll suddenly went limp. Blood flowed thickly over the grass, but the creature’s unnatural healing finally slowed and stopped.

Caked in blood from fingertips to his waist, Koda panted in exertion at the battle. Unwilling to accept the creature was fully dead, he yanked Arthene’s club from its throat and brought the weapon up over his head, intent on crushing the troll’s skull.

As the weapon descended, Koda felt the weight of a mountain come crashing down on his shoulders. Power enveloped him like an avalanche, sinking deep into his soul as he roared in fury at his opponent.

The bone club, which had previously only dented the troll’s skull when he’d struck with all his power, slammed home like a meteor coming to earth, shattering the creature's head into a thousand pieces.

15

Koda’s entire body felt both hot and cold at the same time. His muscles pulsed and twitched while his joints crackled. All that was left of the troll’s head was a bloody crater on top of its shoulders now, a carved bone club protruding from the center.

The legends Samira had told about the power of a troll-slayer were true, Koda could feel the strength surging through his body. While it wasn’t as much power as Thera had given him that first day, it was far more wild and unnatural.

The blessing from the goddess had wrapped around and soaked into him over several hours. This felt like he’d been struck by lightning that even now rampaged through his body.

“You had better wash that off before you give it back to me.” Arthene’s drawl cut through Koda’s focus and he flinched, whirling to turn towards her with the club in hand before he realized who had spoken.

Arthene stood in her mortal form, looking just as bruised and battered as Koda. She had a massive bruise on one side of her face that was slowly swelling her eye closed, and multiple cuts along her torso, but she was smiling down at him. Her hide wrap and skirt were disheveled and her hair a mess, but Arthene was just as beautiful as he remembered her to be.

“Wha…?” Koda asked smartly before snapping out of his confusion. The pulses of power still raced through his body and made his movements jerky, but he was slowly controlling them. Stumbling forward, he tried to check Arthene over for major injuries.

“My club. You jammed it down that troll’s throat. I don’t want troll spit on my things,” Arthene said with a laugh, catching Koda by the shoulders. “You did good, my mate. You fought fiercely and conquered your opponent. Oluk’s power will settle, given time. It does not like to be possessed by a non-troll, but he created the rules and must abide by them, just as Thera does with her champions and priests being the sources of her power.”

“Hurt?” Koda asked, the jolting energy running through his body making it hard to speak.

“Yes, I got beat up pretty badly. I’d forgotten how tenacious a troll can be, but nothing serious. Come, we should meet with our other mates before they worry. The villagers will need to burn these two before long, or they will draw other trolls.”

Arthene wrapped an arm around Koda’s bloody shoulders, not caring in the slightest that it made her just as dirty, and guided him towards the hill from which their party was even now descending.

Sienna and Calandra led the pack, moving at a dead sprint that was obviously augmented by the dwarf’s wind magic from how their hair whipped in the wind. The two of them beat the others to Koda by over a hundred yards, sliding to a stop and immediately fussing over both of them.

Calandra had bandages in hand already, but couldn’t tell what blood was Koda’s and what was the troll’s given the savage way he’d killed it, so she swapped over to Arthene, whom she could actually bandage. Sienna fussed over the cuts and bruises, promising to coddle the bear woman while she recovered, before turning to Koda. Getting out her waterskin, she tried to wash the worst of the blood from him.

“You two scared me half to death,” Sienna grumbled, her ears flat against her skull, and her tail hanging limply behind her. “I couldn’t even see most of Arthene’s fight, and Koda, you got so close to being pulped multiple times! That was absolutely terrifying to stay so far back. I don’t want—mph!”

Koda, not wanting to get his redheaded mate dirty, waited until she’d splashed water on his face to rinse the blood off and check him for injuries before he leaned in and muffled her protests with a kiss.

Sienna’s hand immediately went up to grip the tattered remains of his shirt, pulling him in closer to deepen the kiss. Her pointed wolf ears popped upright and her tail wagged as the two of them savored each other and took reassurance in their mate’s presence.

“Sorry for scaring you, love,” Koda said when they separated, his words still a bit jittery from the lingering effects of the power racing through his system. He was hesitant to reach out to any of his lovers, for fear of hurting them with power he wasn’t fully in control of yet.

“Idiot,” Sienna muttered, blushing cutely before returning to rinsing him off while the rest of their party descended on them.

Samira was the first to reach their group, having sprinted dead out to keep up with the two mages.

“That was the most brutal thing I have ever seen! Aegisclaw, you set on that troll like a stone-cracker leopard! I half-expected to see you tear off one of its arms and start beating it to death with it!” Samira gushed as she slid to a stop behind his mates.

The caracal woman continued to bounce in excitement, her wide eyes dancing as she jittered from foot to foot.

“Easy, Samira,” Arthene laughed before hissing in surprise when Calandra dabbed at a deeper cut in her hip. “Battle still runs high in my and Koda’s blood. Give us a minute to calm down before you bombard us with questions.”

“Of course, Den Mother!” Samira chirped with such energy that Koda had to fight the urge to flinch. He knew Samira didn’t mean anything ill with it, but after this fight and the way his muscles still twitched furiously, he was vastly overstimulated. Even Sienna’s soft touches as she checked him over were taxing his ability to be patient.

“Look, Samira. Love the enthusiasm, but you are up here,” Calandra said dryly, holding one hand over her head. “Need you to bring it down here,” she continued, dropping her hand down to about waist level on herself. “These two need time to collect themselves and your people need to deal with the bodies.”

“Aye,” interjected Cyrus, the cougar beastfolk finally arriving with the rest of the group, who were looking on in awe at Koda as his fight had been the only one out in the open for them to watch start to finish. “The village also needs to be assessed to see how much damage the trolls have done and what supplies remain. We can send some back to the refugees as well, but we need to secure it first.”

“If you run into any other trolls—” Koda began, only to be cut off when Cyrus raised a hand to him.

“We will call for you and the Den Mother first if we do. You have proven your strength to us, troll-slayer. We would be fools to engage one without consulting with either of you first. Come! Let us check on our homes!”

Cyrus led his group of a dozen hunters into the village—minus Samira, who ignored the orders to follow him because she obviously wanted to hear more from these two first.

“How are you doing, lad?” Todd asked, the fox beastfolk dropped Koda’s pack to the ground and flipped it open to rummage around before producing a fresh shirt. He laid the shirt over the pack for when Koda was ready to change into it.

“I feel like I was stuffed in a barrel and rolled down a mountain. Then struck with lightning,” Koda drawled in such a deadpan fashion that Todd barked in laughter.

“You both look like that happened indeed. I shouldn’t be surprised, given what I’ve seen you and Arthene do in the fights with the Crooked, but it was still glorious to see the savagery of the Pack Lady in action.”

“You should have seen him in the fight against the Crooked warleader and his posse of champions,” Calandra chuckled. “Tore more than one of them clean in half. Arthene was pounding them into the ground like she was driving wedges to split rock. I’m still astonished that your club is holding up like it is, by the way.”

Contrary to her previous demands that Koda wash the club before she’d accept it back, the bear spirit reached over and plucked the weapon from Koda’s hands with a smile, holding the bloody weapon aloft with pride.

“Yes, I am quite sturdy. This incarnation was even more powerful than I am right now, since it was from a time when I reached my peak of power. We will see that you all have weapons made of my bones soon, as my people deserve proper weapons to protect themselves,” Arthene said with pride before setting the club down at her side, leaning it against her hip.

“We will be honored to receive them. But I think I speak for us all that we would rather you be there on that day. I did not like seeing you two risk yourselves like that.” Hans said solemnly.

The normally jovial bull beastfolk’s brow was knitted in a mixture of worry and determination, his mattock sitting over one shoulder as he loomed at the back of the group.

“Hans is right. You four do so much to protect our people, but you can’t stand against all threats that might come,” Netta piped up, the hawk beastfolk’s feathers flaring out around her head. “This seems like a brilliant opportunity for us to take a step along the road to grow strong enough that we can do more than bring up the rear in your formation.”

Koda wanted to protest, to reassure them it would be fine, but Arthene spoke before he could. Her words immediately calmed the anxiety that was running through their friends as the ancient primal spirit spoke.

“You will have your opportunity to grow, but you must be careful. There is plenty that can be done to support your people that does not require you to risk yourselves. We will do all we can to stack the deck in your favor, because I would prefer that you stand beside us with pride, but I would rather you stand at the rear than join the honored dead.”

“She’s right,” Calandra grunted, having not stopped in her first aid work as she bandaged the slash on Arthene’s hip. “Moving smartly is the first and best plan. I’ve never fought a troll, but we have two slayers here that have, and I’ve been trained in how we are supposed to fight them if they were to attack a town. So don’t let yourselves get down.”

Hannah spoke up next, asking the question that it was clear Samira had been holding in this entire time.

“Were those legends true, though? Does killing a troll actually give you its strength?”

“Just ask Koda,” Arthene laughed, glancing down at her lover, who still had the occasional tremor run through his body. “He is still digesting the troll’s power. I know you all saw how he ensured his fight was over. Shattering a troll’s skull is no mean feat, regardless of your weapon.”

“It’s real,” Koda grunted, flinching when Sienna gently checked a large bruise on his side to make sure his ribs were not broken. “Hurts and feels really strange, but it’s settling in.”

“How much stronger do you think it made you? The legends say that it gave the slayers the power of ten men!” Samira chirped, though she kept the piercing tone out of her voice.

“I don’t know about ten men,” Koda said, swaying slightly as another tremor ran through his body. Without hesitation, Sienna shifted to support him while she continued to check him over. “But I was already wickedly strong because I was a champion.”

“The power of Oluk’s blood will turn men into monsters,” Arthene said when Koda did not elaborate. “I could not give you a solid number, but I guarantee that if, say… Hans were to perform the feat?” The bull beastfolk twitched, his big head twisting to look at Arthene questioningly. “He’d be able to do what I did with those bison the other day.”

“Those things had to weigh half a ton or more!” Hans protested, his eyes going wide.

“One handed,” Arthene continued, her lips splitting into a grin. “But only because his large ass would form a better counterweight than my delicate one.”

“Den Mother!” Hans protested in a whine as everyone else burst into laughter.

Once the worst of Arthene and Koda’s injuries were bandaged, their group headed into town to meet up with the Silent Plains hunters.

Samira continued to pepper them with questions about the fight, and Koda learned Arthene had been forced to dismember her opponent when the wounds inflicted by her claws and teeth were not enough.

Her larger size had given her a momentum and strength advantage, but also made it easier for the other troll to throw her off and pummel her. She’d finished her fight quicker than he had, but taken more injuries because of it. Though she assured Koda that she’d be mostly recovered in the morning because of her nature.

“Is there such a thing as healing magic?” Koda asked as they helped stack wood from the ruined buildings on the bodies of the two trolls to start the impromptu pyre for them. Cyrus’ group was still combing the village for any other trolls and cataloging damage.

“There are legends of it, but only from those chosen by one of the primal gods,” Samira piped up, hefting a chunk of broken beam onto her shoulder and trotting over to throw it onto the pile.

“She’s right,” Arthene answered as she dragged over one of the troll’s impromptu clubs. “War was the precept of the champions, while the priesthood would handle healing.”

“So does that mean that Thera can’t have priests anymore? Since I’m her last champion?” Koda carefully lifted a log as thick around as himself over his head, adding it to the pile. The motion was easy enough for him, but he was still getting used to the increase in power.

“No,” Sienna answered this time, and Koda turned to look at her with curiosity. The wolf beastfolk was preparing a bundle of shaved tinder with her knife to add to the pile, her eyes focused on her work while her ears rotated like a pair of radar dishes to keep track of everyone. “Thera told me that your bloodline carries both paths, you were chosen as a champion because of the battle at hand. Our children will be able to be priests, and she can grant them healing powers.”

The mention of children made Koda’s guts clench and a smile slip across his face despite the pain in his body from the fight. With each day that passed since his conversation with his mates, the idea of having children became more and more appealing as he left behind his previous worries from his old life.

We will find a way, Koda thought, his confidence bolstering him.

“Budge up, you great, splintery, bastard!” Calandra growled from the ruined stable as she furiously tugged on another beam. Hans, who was standing nearby, reached over to help pull the hunk of wood free. Calandra growled but accepted the help before resolutely dragging the log over herself while Hans chuckled.

“I wonder if having a few little ones will calm down our fierce Cal?” Arthene murmured in Koda’s ear as she passed and he nearly choked.

“Doubtful,” Calandra barked at Arthene, demonstrating that her hearing was as sharp as ever. “It would probably make me more prickly with some littles to protect. Chandra’s tits, I want a proper bath.”

“I think that is something we can accommodate,” Samira called as she dumped another load of branches and kindling into the nook Sienna was preparing. “There is a communal bathhouse in the village. Unless the trolls destroyed it. It would be easy enough to have folk rotate through to wash up tonight. And no one will deny we’ve earned it.”

“We need to be ready if the trolls come back, though,” Koda insisted, pausing to stretch out his back. “There is no way that only two trolls remained in the area after they attacked the village. Didn’t Vysin say it was like a dozen?”

“Allegedly,” Cyrus answered, the cougar beastfolk coming out from between two buildings alone. “My hunters have finished scouting the town. One of the storehouses was damaged and broken into, but the trolls didn’t eat much. It seems the herds kept them content for now. If we are lucky, then some judicious hunting will ensure our people stay fed through the winter. If we can keep the village secured.”

“Cyrus, good to see you,” Koda called with a wave as the beastfolk approached. “No trolls lurking in town still?”

“No,” the hunter said with a sigh, his shoulders slumping. “Though I almost wish that there were. If they are separated from their fellows, it would be easier to harry and bring one down, as you and the Den Mother showed us earlier.”

“That reminds me.” Koda paused and held up one hand. “How was it that you recognized Arthene for what she was so easily?”

“That would be Samira’s fault, at least partially,” Cyrus snorted. Speaking her name drew the caracal woman’s attention, and she stared in their direction curiously, but when they didn’t call her over, she went back to helping Sienna. “She’s always been intensely interested in the legends of our history. She would always tell stories of the great beasts that served under the Queen of Beasts ever since she was young and pester the elders for more stories whenever she could. There is only one type of creature that we know of which can change from the body of a mortal beastfolk into that of one of the great beasts, and those are the primal spirits.”

“So her shifting gave it away?” Koda asked and got a nod from Cyrus. “Okay, it has been bugging me for a while now. No one recognized her in town when we went to Amberpost, but no one saw her shift.”

“It is unlikely that even the beastfolk of the town would recognize her in that situation,” Cyrus sighed. “Many of our people have lost the old ways and adopted the new. The stories remain strong with us and the others who keep close to the heart of the land, though, so bear that in mind.”

“Good to know.” Koda gave himself a shake to get his mind to change tracks. “So, your hunters checked the village. Can you tell where the trolls came in from? If there are more of them and they didn’t remain in the area, they must have somewhere they are denned up nearby, right?”

“I have two hunters following their trail right now to gather information,” Cyrus said with a smirk that made his eyes narrow. “They complained we let you and the Den Mother claim the easy kills for the power of the troll-slayer, so I will remind them why trolls are feared by our people when they get to see a more up-close view of one still breathing.”

“Fair enough, but what about the count? Do you have any way of telling how many there are, and if one of these troll chiefs is with them?”

Cyrus’ jovial mood fell away into somber reflection and he nodded grimly.

“There are at least eight trolls left, and maybe as many as twice that. The tracks are muddled and we have not had rain recently, so it is hard to tell. But there will be plenty to fight with if we decide to go that route.”

16

The news that there were at least eight more of the massive predators wandering the hills was not welcome amongst the hunters. They’d seen just how their most powerful fighters had struggled with the beasts, and knew that they still had quite a bit to do in order to reclaim their village.

A quick discussion between Koda, Cyrus, Sienna, and Arthene had the elder hunter gathering his forces together and quickly securing the village where they could before they started ferrying necessary items away to the refugee camp.

Once that was done, Sienna and Arthene separated from the two men to stand watch over the pyres with Calandra and Samira.

Since the elderly and young had been forced to flee the village with few supplies or tools, those would be prioritized. Bundles were quickly made of blankets, clothing, basic tools, and firewood. Cyrus also gave the order to break into the storehouses and remove as much of their durable food as possible before the trolls got their grubby mitts on it.

“It’s unfortunate, but I fully expect the village to change hands a few times during this skirmish,” Cyrus sighed as he returned from giving his orders and most of his hunters set to work.

Samira hadn’t budged from her spot between Arthene and Calandra, though. The caracal beastfolk was hip-deep in talking with the two, and she outright ignored Cyrus’ orders to go with the other hunters. This earned her a glare from her ostensible superior, but apparently such antics were common and the glares didn't phase her.

“That is possible, and it is always best to plan for the worst-case scenario,” Koda agreed, carefully tugging his new and intact shirt down over his bandages. “Ideally, I’d like to avoid that happening. Any extra damage to your home will make the winter harder for you.”

Cyrus shook his head with a half-frown, half-smile on his lips. The cougar beastfolk clapped Koda gently on his shoulder to not aggravate his wounds.

“You are a good man, Aegisclaw. Even if you were not a champion to the Pack Lady, I feel you would do your best to help us.”

“Of course,” Koda replied with a shrug. “The world is hard and cold enough that we need to stick together. Looking out for yourself is all well and good until you get hurt or sick, and then you have to rely on others.” He grimaced as another thought crossed his mind.

Cyrus wasn’t a hunter and a leader for no reason, and he made a questioning noise when he saw the look of concern cross the powerful young man’s face.

“What bothers you, Aegisclaw? I know that look, it’s something I’m used to seeing on the elder’s face when he has far too much on his plate.”

“Just thinking about Silverstone,” Koda admitted with a sigh. “There is so much that needs to get done in the wake of the Crooked attack. The village is recovering from their raid and homes are being mended, but there is more to do. I have a home to settle into and a village to protect. We even have resources that can be traded for supplies, but that requires Amberpost to get back on its feet as well. But I have to be careful of where I go and what I do.”

The beastfolk hunter nodded in understanding, the creases in his weathered face deepening into a frown of empathy.

“That is very accurate. Your position is tentative, and you still thrive with the protections of obscurity. Thank you again for shedding your shroud to help us, by the way.”

“It’s fine,” Koda said dismissively, waving the thanks off with one hand. “It needed to be done, so it’s getting done. I’m just looking at your home and it is reminding me of everything I need to do to protect mine. We will need tools, walls, and hands to work them both. Defenses, trading partners, and time to thrive. Thera gave me a family and I have to safeguard them now so that family can grow.”

Cyrus' face shifted into a proud smile as he watched the champion ramble about responsibilities and duties despite his young age. He couldn’t help the urge to clap Koda on the shoulder once more and reassure him further.

“Well, if you and the Den Mother can help us reclaim our village, then you’ll have secured an ally in the Silent Plains tribe. We may not have much, but we will happily travel to your valley to trade. And we can spread word that the people of your home are honorable and can be trusted. Having a source of metal tools that doesn’t require us to travel to Amberpost would be a boon.”

At that statement, Koda looked up to meet Cyrus’ eyes with a thoughtful expression that was soon followed by a slow nod.

“I… yes. Spreading word is something I hadn’t even considered, to be honest. Ever since I got started as a champion, I’ve been moving at a run the whole time, except for a few days in between. I just launched myself into this because it felt like it needed to be done.”

“You need to take time to recover more, Champion,” Cyrus warned him, the hunter’s expression going stern. “You carry a great weight on your shoulders. While I cannot refuse your offer for help—and I know saying this makes for the height of hypocrisy—you will run yourself ragged if you do not slow to breathe for more than a day.”

“It’s nothing I haven’t done before at my last job,” Koda said offhandedly, trying to brush off the worries. It was true; he’d been moving at a sprint ever since he’d entered the workforce. Sure, he was worn to the bone by that, but he’d had his goal to chase. Now that he held that goal in the palm of his hand, Koda would die to protect it.

“Rest when you can, slow to enjoy what you have earned,” Cyrus insisted firmly, the older man’s back straightening as he laid some hard-won wisdom on Koda. “If you do not take the time to savor the flowers of spring, they will fade before you realize it. Do it for your mates if for nothing else, because I guarantee they would love to simply spend time with you. I can see it in how they look at you.”

That made Koda flinch.

Yeah, you might be able to keep up this momentum because of the goddess’ blessing, but what about Sienna and Calandra? he chastised himself internally. My girls are strong, but only Arthene carries immortal strength. I need to remember that.

Seeing his words had struck home, Cyrus nodded and patted Koda gently on the shoulder once more before stepping back.

“So, what are your thoughts now, Aegisclaw?” Cyrus asked, turning to scan the horizon as the afternoon light doused everything in a golden glow.

Koda tucked away his self-recriminations for later, promising to ensure he had the chance to love his wives and make sure they knew how much they meant to him. Then he shifted to scan the same horizon with the hunter.

“We need more information,” Koda said after a minute of thought. “I know what it is to fight a troll, and we have confirmed that the legends of the troll-slayer blessing are true. You found tracks for at least eight more trolls, but we don’t know their true numbers.”

“Further scouting then?” Cyrus asked.

“Yes. We know a group has come through here and devoured your herds, and that they will likely come back. I want to find where they have holed up. We don’t know if they are simply in the trees sleeping off their meal, or if they have retreated further into the mountains.”

“That is fair. I need to get these supplies back to my people, but I can spare a hunter to track for you. I wish your Calandra could come with us to speed our steps, but my people will endure.” Cyrus glanced at his hunters, who were working to stack bundles of supplies together, clearly thinking of who to call over.

“Why not Samira?” Koda suggested as he watched the caracal woman bounce while she talked animatedly, something in her words drawing a barking laugh from Calandra as the dwarven woman threw her head back in amusement. “I know you probably do not want to reward bad behavior since she’s ignoring you, but she is the most knowledgeable about trolls.”

“Samira has always been a free spirit,” Cyrus said with a sigh as he looked back at the animated discussion. “And I have a feeling that she would ignore the order even if I demanded she return with us. She is enamored with being in the presence of not only the Den Mother, but her family and a champion. As a keeper of knowledge, it is right that she should be an observer.”

“Keeper of knowledge?” Koda asked curiously.

“Her stories,” Cyrus explained. “She is not the only keeper, but is easily the most enthusiastic of them. While each family has its own histories, the keepers work to ensure that knowledge is never lost to misfortune. If—no, when we reclaim our village, I’m sure that Samira will be eager to share that knowledge with the other keepers so that it joins the records of our people.”

Koda didn’t comment on the brief stumble in Cyrus’ words. He’d fought a troll and knew the challenge that still waited for them himself, so Koda could understand that worry.

“Daylight is burning. Get the supplies back to your people, and we will strike out to get what information we can and make plans. I’ll meet you back here in… five days?” Koda said after some thought. “That should give you time to make it to the camp and return with a day to rest and prepare there. That will give us time to scout the trolls and make a plan.”

“Five days, in the afternoon,” Cyrus responded with a sharp nod, his weathered face going serious once more. “If I return before then, I will have one of my hunters enter the village and hang a white cloth from that balcony.”

The hunter turned and pointed to one of the few buildings with a second story that stood towards the center of the village. Koda took careful note of it and the surrounding buildings as well, to fix it in his memory.

“And if I get back early, I’ll hang a black one there. Whoever comes second will find the other outside of the village. Fair?”

“Fair,” Cyrus gave a sharp nod and offered his forearm to Koda. The champion gripped the older man’s forearm with his own, and they shook. “Good hunting, Aegisclaw.”

“Safe travels, Cyrus.”

Samira was ecstatic when Koda conveyed the orders that she would travel with the champion and his group to help track the trolls. She had made quick friends with the rest of Koda’s group, alternating between digging for more information on their adventures from Netta, and teasing Hans with Hannah.

The trail of the trolls was easy enough to find, given their massive feet had churned up the earth traveling right through one of the fields in a line that led from the cliffs overlooking the lake straight to the wrecked remains of the village’s largest paddock.

Calandra started up her spell once more, the caress of the wind at their backs buoying their steps and allowing the group to move without hesitation, despite the lingering injuries Koda and Arthene still bore.

Todd, Sienna, Hannah, and Samira lead the group. They spread out in a line to cover the entire track left by the trolls, in case one of the misshapen giants peeled off to go somewhere else rather than move with the group. Two of them had already separated or been left behind by the trolls.

The rest of their group moved behind the line of hunters, trotting along and exchanging ideas as they moved.

“I’m spoiled after all that our Sienna has done against the Crooked,” Hans was saying as they rounded the lake and followed the track into the foothills as rock became more common than the moist earth. “Those pit traps she used on the mounted Crooked were so useful, but we can’t just drop one of these buggers into a pit. It’s too damned tall to be efficient.”

“And they are strong enough they could just climb out,” Arthene reminded him from the other side of Koda. “Trolls are best dealt with via catastrophic damage. If you were to drop one into a pit, you’d either need someone to go into said pit to fight it, or fill the pit with something flammable and burn it alive. They are canny enough to break or steal any pole-weapons you try to use against them, and their hide is strong enough to resist arrows from all but the most powerful of bows.”

“What about a bear pit? Sorry if that is insensitive,” Calandra suggested before immediately darting a concerned look to Arthene, who just laughed.

“No, it is fine, dear Cal. I consider it a mark of pride that people fear my kin enough that they have to use such tactics to eliminate them. They might help to wound a troll, but as Koda and I learned, trolls take a beating to kill. Simple spikes in the foot wouldn’t kill a troll any more than your stepping on a nail would kill you.”

“What about spiked barricades?” Hans suggested after a bit of thinking. “If polearms won’t work because they can be broken, we could fashion barricades of sharpened logs. Even if they don’t just obligingly run into them, it can help funnel them into one spot.”

“Maybe,” Koda agreed thoughtfully. “We’d need to use long logs and bury them in the earth as well, but then it’d be as simple as the troll just breaking the logs. You saw them ripping roof trusses down to use as clubs.”

“The tyranny of raw power,” Netta sighed from the other side of their group. “While the rest of us have to be wary of such things, creatures like the trolls or champions can just plow through them.”

“I can’t just—” Koda started to protest but Arthene cut him off with a held up hand and a smirk.

“Yes, you can, my mate,” she asserted firmly. “You could before with your speed, but now that you have absorbed that fragment of divinity from your kill? You definitely could plow through a barricade like that. My mate is powerful,” Arthene rumbled the last part throatily, her yellow eyes flaring with arousal as she stared at him hungrily.

“Down girl,” Calandra laughed, elbowing Arthene in the thigh and making the bear-spirit stumble. “You’ll get a chance tonight, so keep your skirt on until then. Work before play and all that.”

Arthene, the Den Mother, an ancient spirit incarnate into flesh, pouted at the smaller woman like a little girl denied candy, which earned her a round of laughter from the others.

More ideas were shared back and forth as their group wound higher into the mountains. Calandra’s spell kept them from exhausting themselves, but everyone was flagging from having to run uphill for the last several hours as night’s cloak settled in around them.

Koda could still make out the faint shape of the village behind them when the troll’s track sharply veered off from the steady upwards march it had been following and his hunters came to a stop.

Trotting up to meet the four where they studied an obvious branch on the trail, Koda listened in.

“This is the older track,” Samira said confidently, pointing to the one that led higher into the mountains. “The tracks are softer around the edges, showing the age, and this would lead back to their original hunting grounds.”

“But did they all break off, or did some go back?” argued Todd, the fox beastfolk squatting in the dim light of the evening to study the trail. “When trails cross like this, it's easy to miss something. Especially in this light.”

“They didn’t,” Samira said confidently. “I should have guessed that they’d have sniffed out this cave. It’s not the only place for them to hole up, but it is one of the more likely ones. I’d just hoped they’d gone further into the hills.”

“What is along this track?” Koda interrupted, stepping up behind Sienna.

The red-wolf beastfolk turned her head to smile up at him, her tail whipping back and forth happily at the sight of her mate. Sienna took a trio of steps backwards until she was pressed to his chest and Koda slung an arm around her waist to hold her tight to his side, trapping her fluffy tail against his thigh, where it beat a happy tune.

“There's a large cave that the elders use for ceremonies. Legends speak of it being home to one of the great hunting cats that prowled this land in the time before the other gods chased Oluk out of his world,” Samira said quickly, bounding over to stand on Koda’s other side, her tufty-tipped ears flicking rapidly. “I’ve seen the inside and believe the stories. There are great rents in the stone of the walls where the cat would sharpen his claws before he hunted. No one knows where the primordial hunter went; only the marks in the stone remain.”

“I wonder if the scent of your people in the cave brought the trolls there…” Hannah muttered thoughtfully, her own pointed ears flicking as she rubbed at her chin. “You said it was used for a ceremony?”

“Yes, but only twice a year, at the beginning and end of winter. The elders leave offerings to appease the spirits of the mountains, so they do not descend to prey upon our village during the winter, and again in spring, as thanks for their mercy.” Samira’s words were again punctuated by her bouncing from side to side on her feet, the excitement obviously too much for her to contain.

“Then we should scout that cave. Todd, do you see anything that indicates they split up?” Koda asserted before turning his attention to the fox beastfolk.

“Nothing I can make out in this light,” Todd sighed, standing upright and dusting off his pants. “It’s getting dark enough that I’d be worried about stumbling on a sleeping troll soon, if they didn’t stink so much.”

Koda couldn’t argue with that fact. The sun was already nearly gone, and the moon had yet to rise, so the next few hours would be very dark.

Ideal for sneaking up on an enemy camp, Koda thought with a small smile before he turned to check on his group.

His team all stood at ease and ready to keep moving, but Koda had been with these people long enough to know that they were growing tired, and might make mistakes soon. With Calandra’s magic to strengthen their stride, they’d made good time and covered plenty of distance.

Glancing back out towards the plains, Koda studied the shadowed hills. The shape of the village was obvious by the organized rows of the fields from this high up, as they’d been traveling along a ridgeline. It also meant that the trolls would be visible against the sky as long as he had someone watching for them when they returned to secure the village.

Information, Koda reminded himself. Need more of it.

“Okay, we scout the cave and then retreat to make our own camp for the night. I don’t want to camp near the trolls if possible, so we need to get the information we can quickly and get out of there.”

17

With the falling night being so thick, Koda’s group stuck together as they followed the broad track of the trolls into the dense brush of the hillside.

The cave that Samira was leading them to was actually over the ridgeline, tucked into a small dell out of sight of the village by nearly a quarter of a mile over rough terrain, studded with boulders and clumped heather. There were small stands of thick pine trees as well that provided good cover, but were not thick enough to really block the line of sight.

Thankfully, the mashed track of the trolls didn’t wind or twist, it just pounded flat everything in its path that it could and shoved out of the way what couldn’t be stomped into submission. More than one cracked tree lay on its side, with boulders shoved far enough to leave a furrow in the earth and clear their path. The only rock that wasn’t cleared from the path was an absolutely massive boulder as large as a school bus that showed the marks of the trolls’ anger on its weathered skin.

Large scratches marked the boulder where the beasts’ claws had tried to get a grip, and chunks lay broken off of it where the trolls had vented their anger before just going around the massive stone.

“Makes you wonder,” Calandra murmured nearly silently from her spot beside Koda. “Eight trolls should have been able to shift that, but it doesn’t look like they tried together. They just beat on it and tried to shift it one at a time.”

“Pecking order?” Samira suggested. “I bet their chief tried to move it first and failed, so the others got it in their head that they could test themselves against it to see if they could beat their chief and take his spot without having to risk their lives.”

“That seems too smart for what we’ve seen of them,” Koda said at first, but he remembered the dregs of cunning that he’d seen in the eyes of the troll that he’d fought and grimaced. “Then again, maybe not.”

“Shh,” Todd hissed from the front of the group. “We don’t know how close we are to the cave.”

Taking the chastisement to heart, Koda nodded and focused on placing his feet carefully so that he didn’t trip in the growing darkness. On his other side, Arthene walked with an easy confidence that told him her night-sight was keeping up with the challenge.

I could really use something to help that, Thera, Koda playfully sent to the goddess.

He didn’t expect a response, since Thera rarely did answer to his thoughts and urges unless it was a direly important one. So when he got the sensation of annoyance and amusement along his bond to the divine being, he was surprised. The annoyance faded to affection a moment later and a sensation of ‘be patient’ before they vanished altogether.

Huh, Koda thought to himself. Maybe she is watching more often than I thought. Being a young man, his mind immediately went to his intimate moments with his mates, and he blushed faintly. Hopefully not all the time, though.

Before Koda could spend too long worrying about a voyeuristic goddess, a distant bellow of anger echoed out of the darkness ahead and everyone froze. The bellow was followed by a second, fainter one in a higher timbre.

“They are fighting amongst each other,” Arthene murmured quietly. “This is a perfect distraction.”

“Then let’s not pass it up,” Koda urged, and the group got moving once more.

Calandra had let her spell fade earlier when they turned off the main path, not wanting to speed them into danger if they happened upon the troll’s camp too quickly, so the group hurrying was more of a normal jog as the bellows and roars got louder. Soon, they were joined by the meaty punctuation of fists meeting flesh and guttural grunts.

Suddenly, something else lurched out of the darkness that they hadn’t expected as well. The flicker of firelight reflected off stone.

“Not good,” Arthene growled low in her throat. “Trolls don’t normally use fire. It’s a sign of intelligence in their chieftain and makes the group more dangerous.”

“Quietly!” Todd insisted, and the group slowed even more, as the noises of fighting continued.

They could hear the grunting and growling of more trolls as well, likely egging the fight on in their own tongue.

With the distant glimmer of firelight to guide them, it only took a minute more to find a broad cleft in a cliff face that was the mouth of the cave.

Rather than crowd up to it, Koda had them hold back a good three hundred feet away and sent his most stealthy forward as large dark shapes crossed in front of the light, roaring at each other as they worked to beat the stuffing out of each other.

Todd, Samira, and Hannah crept forward, the hunters moving like ghosts as they got closer to see what was going on. The entrance to the cave was easily twenty feet across, so even crouched in the bushes where he was, Koda could see fairly well into the yawning space.

A large bonfire that appeared to be made of whole trees sat in the middle of the cave, while a number of large shapes stood, crouched, or lay around it. Two larger shapes wrestled with each other while being encouraged by the observers.

Is the chieftain fighting one of the other trolls? Koda wondered as one troll wrestled the other to the ground by the fire and began smashing its face in with powerful blows.

Despite the graphic fight in front of him, Koda could feel the draw of the cave. There was a power there, an ancient sleeping strength in the cave that told him it was another site that he could claim for Thera to further rehabilitate his patron. But doing such with the trolls there would be suicide.

While the fight he’d seen earlier amongst the creatures was violent, it didn’t even hold a candle to this one. The first two trolls had been arguing; this was obviously one troll killing another as blood flew through the air.

His scouts reached the wall of the cliff and crept forward to peek through, only obvious in the thick darkness because of their shapes against the paler stone of the cliff. He knew Todd was on one side while Hannah and Samira were on the other, but that was all he could tell at this distance.

A sudden flare of light came from the cave and drew his attention back there once more, as a bellow of pain split the air.

The prone troll had snatched a burning log from the fire and clubbed its opponent in the head with it, sending the other troll flying with its clothes on fire.

The new development drove the other trolls scrambling in the cave to get away from their burning fellow as the bloody troll rolled heavily to its feet, still clutching its burning weapon in one hand. It found its balance and hefted the log over its head to club the still-burning troll down when something even larger surged into view from one side.

While the trolls they’d fought in town were large, easily around ten feet in height, this one was half again that tall and far wider.

With one large hand, the larger troll snatched the log from the hands of the wounded one and tossed it back into the fire. The gesture also split the air with a sharp crack of breaking bone as the first troll’s wrist broke.

Howling in pain, the wounded troll turned on the larger one that Koda guessed was the chieftain and threw itself in a rage. But the effort was futile.

The larger troll caught the smaller one by the throat with a snarl before leaning forward, literally biting half of its head off with a wet and meaty crunch. The smaller troll immediately fell limp in its chieftain’s grasp while the larger troll chewed, filling the air with a grinding and crushing noise of bone breaking and the mastication of flesh.

Koda heard someone gag off to his right and felt his own stomach roll. The chieftain had bitten through its underling’s skull with as much casual disdain as he might tear into a dinner roll.

The other trolls in the cave all cowered away from the larger shadow, scampering to the far side of the fire as the chieftain dragged its victim and current meal out of sight. Sounds of tearing flesh and breaking bones grew louder as the leader settled in to devour its underling. The still-burning troll that had been hit with the log continued to flail until it put out its smoldering clothes before dragging itself into the opposite corner from its feasting leader.

Movement by the walls of the cave told Koda that his hunters were returning, using the cover of the troll chief’s meal to hide their movements.

As soon as the three hunters rejoined them, Koda held up his hand for silence and gestured back along the trail, clearly signaling that they would wait to speak until they had more distance from the threat that the chieftain represented.

The absolute last thing I want right now is to get his attention. Not at night like this, Koda thought while their group carefully picked their way back along the trail. No one spoke until they made it back to where the trail split, and then Samira rattled off what they observed.

“That was the single largest troll I’ve ever heard about!” Samira whisper-shouted. “Did you see what it did to that one who cheated in the fight?”

“Cheated?” Todd asked, incredulity in his voice. “How could a troll cheat?”

“It used a tool against its opponent,” Samira asserted confidently. “Trolls value their strength above all else. Using tools in a fight is the purview of the weak.”

“But what about the weapons those two used in the village? We all saw them yanking beams out of houses,” Hannah hissed.

“Those were weapons—that’s different,” Samira said with confidence. “A rock or a log is a weapon, but setting it on fire makes it a torch and that’s a tool.”

“So the chieftain intervened and killed the wounded one because it hit its opponent with a torch and not a club?” Calandra asked in disbelief. “This wasn’t in any of the information we had on trolls.”

Samira just shrugged again and held her hands out helplessly, as if to say it was out of her control and she was confused, too.

“How do you know this?” Arthene asked sharply, staring at the caracal woman with her brows knitted. “How, and why did you not mention this before? I’ve never heard of such behavior from trolls.”

“It’s just a guess, but there is a story I heard from one hunter who observed a group of three trolls, and he said that they beat each other up with fists, clubs, rocks, and all manner of things. But when one grabbed the stick that had been used to stir the fire, the other two turned on it with even more fury and tore it limb from limb. Hence, my theory about tools is that they should not be used as weapons.”

“It’s solid enough of a guess,” Koda interjected, wanting to stop the argument he was worried was brewing. “It could also just be that the chieftain was annoyed with that troll and decided to eat it. We don’t know enough about them to really say for sure. Now, what else did you see?”

“There were a dozen trolls in there besides the chieftain,” Todd supplied helpfully, with Hannah nodding her agreement while Samira scowled, clearly annoyed at the idea of ‘not knowing enough’ but accepting of Koda’s need to change the subject.

“I saw a pile of dead goats in the back corner as well. They must have dragged off any of the animals that they were too full to eat,” Hannah added a moment later. “Several looked chewed on and were beginning to bloat, so they’d been dead for a bit.”

“Trolls won’t care,” Arthene said with a derisive snort. “They eat each other, so rotting meat won’t bother them. The worry is the chieftain. With it being so much larger, it’s going to want more food soon.”

“Devouring an entire troll will keep it happy for a day or two at least, surely?” Sienna asked, her distaste at what she’d just said obvious on her face.

“We can only hope. So we have time to plan at least,” Koda sidled around to wrap an arm around Sienna’s waist comfortingly and his first mate leaned into him thankfully.

Glancing around at the others, Koda saw they were all a bit green at what they’d just witnessed, but none of them looked like they were going to give up or run. Hans was the most pale of the group, but his grip on the haft of his mattock was tight and he scowled fiercely despite his pallor.

“What I want to know is why now?” Calandra asked into the silence, drawing attention to her. The dwarven woman was looking towards Samira, as the caracal woman was clearly the most knowledgeable about the situation. “Your people have stories of trolls, and know that they lived high in these mountains. You knew to avoid their grounds and everything, but why have they come down now?”

“I don’t know,” Samira said with a shrug. “But I have a theory. The stonecracker leopards are one of the few predators capable of hunting a troll, and they kept the population in control for a long time. Something must have happened to them. Either their numbers grew too much and drove the trolls out, or the trolls hunted them and cleared the path down the mountain.”

“Given the strength of their chieftain, I think the second is the most likely,” Arthene said dryly. “Though it offers us an opportunity if we can find their old nest.”

“Opportunity?” Koda asked, turning his attention to his taller mate.

Arthene had a sparkle to her yellow eyes that told Koda she was up to something, but from the squaring of her shoulders, he knew it wouldn’t be easy.

“Stonecracker leopards will eat us as easily as they would trolls,” Samira cautioned, but from the way her tail danced excitedly behind her back, Koda could tell it was a halfhearted warning.

“If they still survive. But I’ve fought them before. My old cave was a stonecracker den before I took it for myself,” Arthene said confidently. “But that’s not the point. My mate, you have a skill that you haven’t had the chance to use yet. That’s not your fault though, as my Lady took the only opportunity you had for herself.”

“What?” Koda asked in confusion. “Thera did what?”

“At the Windwalker’s Retreat,” Arthene added as if that explained the entire thing, but Koda remained confused.

“At the retreat…” Sienna murmured, clearly trying to solve the question herself. “Thera manifested and bound the ancient wendigo spirit to the location, then used it to clean up the Crooked. Surely you can’t mean the Crooked got up into the mountains?”

“No, sweet Sienna,” Arthene said with a snort. “Samira’s people would not have missed that if they did. I’m talking about the spirits. Koda is a champion of the Beast Queen, and he bears her totem as his weapon. I bound myself to his will joyfully—how could I not for my hero?” Arthene turned a heated smile on Koda that sent a thrill of desire up his spine and helped shake off some of his disgust.

“So wait,” Netta said, interrupting their conversation. “You are saying that, if Thera hadn’t done it, Koda might have been able to bind the wendigo to his will?”

“Possibly,” Arthene said with a shrug. “Or it would have devoured his soul from the inside and turned him into a wendigo as well. Those spirits are very dangerous, and that risk is likely why Thera took it for herself. It also gave her a tool to use to protect the site.”

“Yeah, I’d rather not be devoured in that fashion,” Koda said. He saw Calandra’s eyes sparkle, and she opened her mouth to say something, but he quickly covered her mouth before she could speak. “So what, you think I might be able to bind one of these stonecracker leopard spirits?”

“If they were defeated by the trolls, one of their food sources, then surely a ghost or two will remain behind because of their anger. We just need to find their den, and I can walk you through it, my mate.”

“How far?” Koda didn’t even argue with Arthene’s suggestion. If she said it was possible, then he trusted her judgment. Instead, he turned his attention onto Samira, who grimaced and rubbed her chin.

“A day, maybe two? It depends on how far we have to range. I know the landmarks that we were told to avoid that bordered on the stonecracker’s territory. But there is no guarantee that the trolls beat them. It is possible that the trolls fled the high mountains because the stonecrackers were too much of a threat anymore. The chieftain might be smart enough to have figured that out.”

Koda nodded in agreement to her point but glanced back out over the night-clad hills towards the distant and dark village. It only took him a moment to come to a decision.

“We will keep that in mind, but we need more information. The trolls will stay in the cave for at least a day or two, and we won’t have support from the Silent Plains hunters for another five days. For now, we are on our own. If we can get some kind of support from these ghosts, like Arthene thinks, then we need to make the most of it. Two days to check this out, then we head back. Let’s find a spot where we can make camp, and get some rest where a bored troll won’t find us.”

18

In order to find a safe place to camp, the group continued further up the mountain for another mile before Samira directed them off into a copse of trees that hid a secluded campsite built under an overhang of stone. The little nook was small, and looked like it might have been an animal’s den at one point, but would handily serve their purposes. There was even a small pile of firewood tucked under the overhang out of the weather.

“Normally, this is used by the hunters who venture into the mountains in search of the goat herds, or when we hunt for cloudberries during their season. It’s going to be a bit tight though, since those parties are normally only four or five people,” Samira said as she pushed through the thick bushes and emerged into the rocky clearing.

“I don’t mind cuddling,” Arthene snickered, pushing in after her. “Koda makes a good pillow, after all.”

“He does,” Calandra laughed. “But there’s not enough space to set the tents up here.”

“Looks like you’ll have to behave, then,” Sienna teased the dwarven woman, tugging on one of her three braids gently.

“It just means I need to wake up early.” Calandra let the pull on her hair tug her head back so she was looking up at the wolf beastfolk and smirked.

“Behave,” Koda warned as he stepped up behind his mates, pinching Sienna’s bottom gently and making the woman jump before leaning into him with a comfortable sigh. “Let’s get settled and get some rest. I know all of us could use some sleep. We’ve been running and fighting all day.”

“You’ve been fighting—the rest of us got to sit on our thumbs and watch you get the tar beaten out of you,” Netta teased with a grin as she pushed past. “I think this will be a good campsite, nice and cozy. And with the thick undergrowth, we won’t really need to set a watch.”

“Still going to set a watch,” Todd grunted from within the bushes. “The time that you aren’t wary is the time that you will lose everything.”

It took them a minute to all get into the small clearing. Arthene ended up claiming the overhang by dint of being the first one to just flop down there and drag Koda down onto her lap to check over his injuries. Sienna looked like she wanted to protest Arthene’s actions at first, until the ancestral spirit started checking the bandages rather than just dropping off to sleep.

There was just enough space for their entire group to get into the clearing and settle in around the weathered fire ring that sat under the front half of the stone overhang. They would sleep side by side, but that, combined with the small fire that Samira prepared and lit, would handily keep off any chill from the evening.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Arthene said as she gently probed Koda’s bruises, making him wince only slightly. The enhanced healing that came with his blessing as a champion had already blunted the injuries enough that they were turning a mottled green-purple, and Koda had a feeling that they’d be entirely gone by the time he woke up tomorrow.

“Second,” Calandra volunteered as she thumped her pack down, making her armor jingle quietly from where it hung on the pack. “I think that, starting tomorrow, I’m going to be traveling in my armor again. I should have put it on before we entered the village earlier, but I was too worried about Koda getting hurt.”

“I have third then,” Koda said, remembering that the late watches were the hardest.

I have my stamina and the blessing, so it’s best if I have the broken sleep, Koda thought, doing his best to not act uncomfortable as the girls settled in to make themselves comfortable. Arthene seemed intent on taking her turn on watch with Koda in her lap to cuddle with. He knew her senses were strong enough that she wouldn’t miss anything, even sitting down like this.

“Then I will take the fourth watch,” Todd said with a nod.

“Surprised you aren’t arguing more about it,” Koda asked as his mates fussed over his injuries while the others settled on the hard ground and warmed hands by the fire.

“You expressed a desire to not be left out of the rotation before, Aegisclaw. You serve Thera just as we all do, so I would be remiss if I just ignored your requests,” Todd replied with a smirk as he got comfortable against a stone and wrapped his cloak around himself, rather than lay out his bedroll like the others were.

“But you ignored it until now,” Koda shot back, making the fox beastfolk’s smile grow a bit more.

“I don’t know what you are talking about, Aegisclaw,” Todd replied dismissively before flipping up his cloak’s hood to cover his pointed fox ears. “No one roll into the fire; it would be a horrible way to wake up. Also, Hans.” The elder hunter peered out from under his hood to lock eyes with the bull beastfolk. “Back to the woods. The last thing we need is you causing a flare up in the night.”

Grumbling under his breath, Hans shifted to make sure his back was to the woods as everyone, save Samira, laughed. Netta and Hanna curled up back to back on Koda’s right, mirroring Todd in using their cloaks as blankets, given the tighter confines. Hans sat on the opposite side of the fire beside Todd, while Samira was on the left between Hans and Calandra. Sienna settled in on Arthene and Koda’s right, using the bear woman’s thigh as a pillow, while Calandra leaned back into the combined laps of Koda and Arthene, pointing her booted feet towards the fire instead.

“So, what can you tell us of these stonecracker leopards?” Koda asked as everyone worked to make themselves as comfortable as possible on the hard stone of the clearing’s floor. Samira was winding herself into a ball around her pack, but perked up at the question, her eyes sparkling in the dim firelight.

“They are supposed to be descendants of the great huntress who once lived in these mountains, though no one knows for sure, as we have no records of her existence beyond the scars in the stone of the ritual cave we were at before,” Samira explained, her tufty ears twitching in excitement while her tail wiggled through the air making sinuous motions. “I’ve seen one of them from a distance, and it was impressive. They stand almost as tall as the buffalo do, but with armored hides that allow them to blend in with the rocks of the high mountains. They hunt the sheep, the trolls, and other creatures of the high mountains like harpies, drakes, and tundra worms.”

“They are very impressive creatures,” Arthene echoed, stroking Koda’s hair gently with one hand, smoothing the long, straight strands back while tugging him to nestle into her bust more. An easy choice, given she had her other arm around his waist to prevent his escape.

Not like I’d want to, Koda thought with a silent grin. I love my mates, and I know Arthene does this because of her own issues. I can only imagine how lonely she felt as a spirit in that cave, trapped and dreaming of a day when Thera might return with enough power to bring her out of hibernation.

To spread the joy of loving touch, Koda set one hand on Sienna’s hair, getting happy little groans from his wolfish mate as he finger-combed her shoulder-length hair and rubbed the base of her pointed ears. The other hand went to cup Calandra’s cheek as the dwarf settled on her side with her head in his lap, and Calandra nuzzled into it before shifting so that his hand fell to cup her neck, and then sighed happily.

Samira had continued to rattle off information about the stonecracker leopards while they got comfortable, everything from how many there were theorized to be in the mountains, to a story about their progenitor and its supposed size.

It almost sounds like she’s describing another ancestral spirit like Arthene, Koda thought. But she said it existed long before, back when this world belonged to that troll god. I wonder if it ever swore to Thera, or if it lived and died before finding her?

“The most terrifying part of the stonecracker leopards, the reason they are called that, is their jaws. Teeth sharp enough to punch through steel and hard enough they can chew and swallow stones. Claws sharp and strong enough to slice through stone, too. There are some tales that said they can eat and digest metals, too, which is what gives their teeth the impressive strength,” Samira said with a flourish.

“Definitely sounds like something useful. Worst-case scenario and none of their spirits linger for Koda to bind, then those teeth might be useful,” Arthene murmured quietly. “Especially when we work with my bones to make weapons for the rest of you.”

“Bones?” Samira asked, perking up again curiously, but Arthene waved one hand dismissively.

“A problem for another time. Rest, wise Samira. You will need your strength for tomorrow so that you can guide us safely on our path,” Arthene chided gently. Samira nodded rapidly, her pointed ears flapping cutely at the gesture before she snuggled back into her blankets and silence fell into the campsite once more, only broken by the crackle-pop of the campfire and the quiet sounds of breathing.

Without distractions, Koda felt the formless monster that was sleep rise up to take him into darkness once more. The warmth of his lovers against him allowed his muscles to unwind, and the security of family close at hand eased his mind until sleep took him.

Koda’s awareness shifted, and he was surrounded by swirling mist. Underfoot was a rich carpet of green grass that supported his bare feet like the softest of carpets. Despite the thick mist around him, he wasn’t cold, even though he could feel the slight tickle of dew on his feet and arms as the dense cloak of gray-white mist swirled around him.

“What?” Koda muttered, but the fog muffled even his voice. Glancing down, he discovered he was clad only in a pair of close-fitting linen pants in a dark brown, but no shirt or boots. A flex of his spirit caused the bladed gauntlets to manifest around his hands, which helped to reassure him.

Allowing the gauntlets to fade away, he scanned his surroundings once more, trying to peer through the mist.

There was light coming from ahead of him, beckoning Koda forward, but he couldn’t see the origin of the light because of how thick the mist was.

Setting aside his hesitation, Koda took a step forward towards the light. The grass remained soft underfoot, the beads of moisture tickling his skin gently. But with that single step, the world blurred around him. A moment later, he stood beside a simple dirt path and was no longer alone.

Sitting in front of him was possibly the strangest little creature he’d ever seen. It stood roughly knee high on him and looked vaguely like someone had taken an arctic fox and given it a shampoo and conditioner job. The fluffy creature’s white fur shimmered like the mist was emanating directly from it. The creature’s face was nestled amongst the fluff, two bright yellow eyes glittering above a pointed snout that furthered the image of a fox. Balanced on its head was a fist-sized lamp with a dancing yellow flame that sent gold threads shimmering through its fur.

“Hello?” Koda asked quietly, and the creature blinked up at him, tilting its head slightly to one side before it made a cackling-chuckling noise that definitely cemented it as some kind of fox or fox-spirit in Koda’s mind. One paw-shaped hand emerged from the fluff and it beckoned to Koda, before turning and toddling off into the mist on two legs.

“Did Arthene slip me some kind of strange herb?” Koda muttered as he watched the creature move. “Clearly, this has to be a dream, but it feels far too real to be a dream. Wouldn’t making the connection wake me up?”

The little creature paused just before it faded from sight and glanced back at him over its puffy shoulder, waving again for him to follow before making that odd snicker-bark-laugh that foxes do.

Before he could hesitate, Koda took another step after the puffy creature. He knew he could summon his weapons if needed, so he wouldn’t be helpless if something went wrong. So why not follow the odd little creature?

All it would need is some purple wings and a red pom-pom to look like that one game character… Koda thought as the mists blended around him once more, leaving him right behind the creature and on the dirt path.

Now that Koda was following it, the creature picked up speed and trotted along. Despite being so short, it moved with a great deal of speed. Each step Koda made covered a dozen or more feet, but the creature had already bounded further ahead by the time he arrived. The motion reminded him of the last time he’d dreamed of Thera, and Koda wondered if that was where the creature was leading him.

Better Thera than one of the other gods. Though that Chandra that Cal keeps talking about might not be so bad, since Thera clearly misses her, Koda thought as the little critter giggled at him again, bouncing off the path and between a pair of trees. He adjusted himself and stepped in that direction next, blurring and appearing on the other side of the trees.

Another three steps later and a familiar-feeling mansion loomed out of the mist directly in front of Koda. The creature bounded to the door and shoved through a swinging panel that appeared to be a cat-flap for all Koda could tell.

“Wait!” Koda called, stepping again to pursue it.

Unlike before, when he simply phased through the trees to chase the creature, Koda thumped heavily into the door, only traveling about half as far as he normally would.

Growling to himself, he rubbed his chest where it had hit the solid wood of the door and looked around again. The style felt familiar; made mostly of smooth wooden beams with solid log trusses, which were supported by a base of carefully shaped stones that had been whitewashed in the past. However, the treatment had cracked and fallen away to reveal the ancient stone beneath it. Windows were set high in the wall but were firmly shuttered to the night and the mist.

With the loss of the little creature and its lamp, the area around Koda was dark save for where threads of light leaked from the walls and door. So he reached for the carved bone handle on the door and gave it a tug. The doors lurched and rattled, but did not budge.

“Locked?” Koda muttered curiously, and carefully shuffled backwards from the door.

Oddly enough, he didn’t teleport with that motion. So he studied the building. But Koda didn’t have long, as there came another bout of the yipping-giggles from the other side of the door and then the quiet thump of footsteps and a muffled voice that was nonetheless familiar.

“Pippin, why are you alone? Where… You didn’t leave him outside, did you?”

A moment later, there was a clatter from the door and a familiar face wrapped in raven-colored curls poked out to peer into the mist.

“Koda! Come in, please,” she held out a hand toward him and beckoned.

The gesture dragged Koda through the mist like his steps had transported him, dropping him on the other side of the door beside Thera before she yanked the door shut again and slid a large, wrought-iron bar into place to block it.

“I apologize for Pippin. He’s just excited to be awake once more and can’t help himself in teasing people.”

“It’s fine, Thera,” Koda reassured her, smiling as the goddess turned to glare at the fuzzy white creature, who was sprawled on the floor on his back, cackle-yipping furiously while all four little legs flailed in amusement. The lamp that had been balanced on its head was hanging on a hook at knee height beside Thera, clearly having been placed there when the little miscreant toddled in through his cat-flap. “No harm done. Worst case, I could have just crawled in through his door.”

“That is not proper, nor dignified for your station, Koda,” Thera replied haughtily, the svelte goddess continuing to glare at her small servant before turning a brilliant smile onto Koda. “Especially not given your exploits! My champion is a troll-slayer, and he’s worn the mantle for less than two moons of time! And now you lead my faithful in a hunt for more of Oluk’s foul kind to assist more of my lost children. I am so proud of you, dear Koda. My Aegisclaw.”

The last part of the goddess’ statement had a throaty purr to it as she pressed herself into Koda’s side, wrapping herself around one of his arms. The soft sensation of her pale skin against his bare torso brought a thrill of heat racing down Koda’s spine, and he fought down a blush.

Come on, Koda! Get a hold of yourself. You’ve gotten used to Arthene and Calandra’s teasing, so don’t freak out and make the goddess uncomfortable, Koda chastised himself as Thera hugged his arm for a long moment before using her grip there to tug on him.

“I won’t keep you long, my champion. Your body will need to rest to finish digesting the power you claimed from the troll. It will be days before it fully settles within you, so be gentle with your mates until then, all right?” Thera asked as she guided him into motion. “Pippin, lock your door and you may play for the rest of the evening.”

The white puff-ball fox gave a cackle of assent and rolled to its feet, toddling over to throw a latch on the cat-flap much like the bar that Thera had used on the door, before scampering down a different hallway.

As before, when Koda moved too quickly in this realm, the world blurred around him. He was aware of the movement, but with Thera clinging to him, he was distracted enough that it just passed him by.

The goddess’ scent enveloped Koda with a primal smell of a woman combined with wildflowers and the rich scent of pine-sap. As they walked, Koda saw feathers form in Thera’s black curls before they were replaced with tall, pointed ears reminiscent of Samira's, even as the faint pattern of spots in her hair shifted.

To distract himself from the feeling of Thera’s breasts caressing his bicep, Koda cleared his mind and focused on her face. The goddess’ silver eyes danced in amusement as she watched him while escorting Koda through the halls of her manor.

“How are you doing, Thera? Are you feeling better? Stronger, hopefully?”

“I’m doing well, my champion,” Thera hummed happily, her features softening into a smile as she tugged him through a door into another hallway. “Your continued work to find sites of power to claim for me helps, and every day that my people endure salves my heart. When my shrine was established in the mines above Silverstone, I was lost in mourning for my fallen. I had no idea that there were other tribes nearby that might still hold the candle of faith for me, and in my diminished state, I could not hear their voices. But the Silent Plains tribe… they speak to me again.”

Tears gathered in the goddess’ eyes, and Koda reached up with his free hand to brush them away gently. Thera’s smile brightened, and she nuzzled into his hand for a moment before taking a deep breath to control herself.

“I apologize, Koda. It is… I did not expect you to achieve so much so quickly. You continue to surprise me with your determination. But please, rest when you can? I know that you have taken up this burden for my people in helping the Silent Plains tribe, but you need to rest. Your body is still acclimating to the gift of power I gave you when you first arrived here, and you have received further blessings from me as you restored my strength, bonded with Sienna, Arthene, and now little Calandra. You wield not just one weapon, but two in my name, and have two mates learning to wield magic.”

“It’s fine, Thera,” Koda said when she paused to breathe, wanting to reassure the nervous goddess that was holding onto his arm still. “It needed to be done, so I did it.”

Thera’s nervous look disappeared beneath a frown and she stamped one foot rather cutely on the ground. The sharp clop startled Koda enough that he glanced down in time to spot the cloven hooves that had been Thera’s feet melt and slowly return to bare, human feet once more. Glancing back up at her, Koda found a blush laying thick on Thera’s cheeks.

“What?” she demanded, pouting at him. “Surely you’ve seen my body shift before.”

“Just never seen the hooves before. At least I think so?” Koda blinked at her as he tried to remember. But before he got too far down that particular rabbit hole, Thera gave his arm another tug.

“Look, just let me thank you, okay? You’ve done so much in so little time already, Koda. I’m terrified that I’m going to lose you because you are moving so quickly. I have something I want to give you, something you’ve asked me for before.” Koda continued to stare blankly at her for a long moment, and Thera sighed before rolling her eyes at him. “The armor you asked about?”

“Oh!”

“Yes, ‘oh,’” Thera snorted up at him cutely, her silver eyes flashing as the iris slitted before returning to a normal shaped one. “I wanted to give it to you before you fought that troll, but in your traditional fashion, you ran off faster than I expected. When I realized you were creeping up on the troll chieftain, I panicked and rushed the last of it. Then you were smart for once and didn’t race in to challenge that beast before you were ready. So I could wait until you dreamed to draw you into my sanctuary to give it to you here and save some of my strength.”

“Ah… sorry about that,” Koda said sheepishly. “I just… didn’t want to miss the opportunity. And Arthene said it would be fine!”

Thera shot him a level look at that, one hand coming down to prop on her hip.

“You’ve known Arthene long enough that you should be aware that isn’t a valid excuse,” Thera said accusingly, and Koda slumped before nodding in agreement. He did know better. “Anyway, come on. We only have a short time before you’ll be woken for your watch duty and I want to see my champion properly garbed for war.”

19

The door that Thera stood in front of was simple, unlike the ornate front door. It was made of dense wood, with iron banding that screamed ‘secure’ and ‘safe’ at the top of its lungs. The door was set in a solid log frame, and a single ring hung on one side, just above a keyhole made of black iron.

Now that Thera had focused Koda’s attention on it, rather than her own luscious frame, he could see and truly appreciate the door. It had just blended in with the blur of the walls before, and while he had known there was a door there, it hadn’t really stood out in his mind other than the general knowledge that it was closed.

“Sure,” Koda said when he realized Thera was waiting expectantly for him to speak. “I’d love to see it. Sorry, it is hard to focus on more than one thing at a time.” He flexed the arm that Thera had wrapped herself around, meaning to imply that he had been giving her proper deference by attending to her.

The goddess blinked up at him for a moment, the blush that had graced her cheeks returning in a fierce surge of color. It was obvious she had the wrong impression so Koda hurried to explain more.

“I mean, this dream realm is so strange. I feel like I’m just teleporting when I walk, and the fog from earlier. Heck, if… Pippin?” When Thera nodded he had the name right, Koda continued, “if Pippin hadn’t found me, I’d have just been wandering in the fog unable to see more than like… ten feet?”

“That’s why I sent him to find you. My sanctuary exists within a space that borders the realm of dreams and the spiritual realms. The fog is a construct that hides it away while I heal and recover,” Thera explained, biting her bottom lip. “I apologize for that, but it is the easiest way to ensure that I remain undetected. The fog clouds the awareness of those who travel through it, and lets me direct those I do not want to find me away. It couldn’t hold up to Golieas or one of the other gods looking in earnest, but for now, it keeps their agents away.”

“It’s fine, Thera,” Koda was quick to reassure, focusing intently on the goddess and letting the rest of the hallway fade out of his perception. “It just makes it a little hard to focus, is all, so forgive me if I’m a bit out of it. Everything feels extra dream-like right now.”

Either his words or the intense focus made the goddess smile once more. She nodded before using her free hand to fish in her skirt for a moment before producing an ornate, black metal key, which she slotted into the door with a click. Giving it a twist, the door made a grinding noise before it popped open and Thera returned the key to her pocket.

“This is one of the most secure rooms in my sanctuary, and I would not risk this being anywhere else. I have the only key to it, and it would take another god to break through the defenses; even then, I would know long before they reached the house,” Thera explained as she pressed on the door, causing it to swing open and reveal the small room on the other side.

Like the door, the floor and walls of the room showed quality and reinforcement with thick wood and iron banding. The floor was polished smooth enough that it reflected the light from the hallway. There wasn’t much in the room, just a pair of tables that held fragments of bone, stone, and leather on one side, and a vertical armor rack that held what Koda could only guess was the armor that Thera had promised him.

The outfit was like his gauntlets, made chiefly of dark brown leather and bone. Koda could see where the arms would overlap with his gauntlets, granting him protection from fingertip to shoulder. Just like his gauntlets, the upper arms had long bones worked into the leather and interspersed with glittering fragments of black stone.

For his feet, there were leather sabatons with the same bone and stone reinforcements running up to his knees, which had larger bone caps to protect the flexible joints.

Layered leather and more bones would protect his thighs, with a set of close-fitting leather pants, reinforced with longer strips of ivory, tucked under a short kilt of leather studded with stones to weigh it down and provide more padding. The kilt was trimmed with shimmering, chocolate-colored fur that Koda immediately recognized from Arthene’s dire-bear form. But what stole the show was the chest guard.

Unlike the mixture of flexibility and protection offered to his limbs, the chestplate stood as a resolute challenge to all comers. At first glance, it appeared to be constructed of a single massive plate of bone. A moment to study it allowed Koda to recognize the origins of that plate for what it was. He remembered before that Arthene had agreed to offer the skull of her previous incarnation to Thera to use as a material, and the goddess had made good on that. From the front, Koda could make out the thick plate of the top of that skull with the snout narrowing to his waist. A quick check around the back showed the underside of the jaw would protect his back and had long strips of rib bone attached to fill in the hollow under the jaw. It looked as if Arthene’s bear form had closed its mouth around the torso of the dummy and was protectively guarding it.

“Wicked,” Koda muttered, tugging on the front of the chestplate to see if it would open, but the hinge of the jaw didn’t move in the slightest.

“My daughter is so hard-headed that I felt it was appropriate to use that skull to protect you,” Thera murmured from Koda’s elbow, having moved to follow him while he studied the suit of armor. “That skull’s incarnation battled with champions from multiple enemy pantheons. Never once did a blow to her head pierce it. If some of her hide had survived, I would have had an easier time and probably been able to craft something more flexible, but this will mean you no longer need to fear the blows of an enemy like the warleaders of the Crooked. While some of that boundless endurance has faded with time, it will slowly grow again as you further bond with my daughter.”

“I feel like I should defend Arthene for the comment about being hard-headed. You know, since she’s my mate,” Koda snickered and squatted down to look at the leather kilt. It reminded him of the ones he’d seen on documentaries about ancient Rome, though definitely more decorated than those, with the fur trim and glittering black stone.

“You are uniquely placed to recognize the truth of my words, though,” Thera said with a quiet laugh, leaning on Koda’s shoulder.

A soft weight pressed against the back of his head, and given the penchant of a certain ancient spirit to do just what Thera was doing right now, Koda immediately recognized that the goddess had just dropped her tits on his head.

Is she doing this intentionally? Koda asked himself internally, remaining focused on the armor. She’s certainly been more affectionate, but that might just be the loneliness. I’m not dumb enough to discount it and say that there is ‘no way a goddess would be interested in me’ because I’ve seen enough anime to know that’s a flag. Play it cool, Koda. Maybe talk to Arthene about it, if my lascivious Den-Mother can be serious for a minute or two. Or would Thera see? She’s talked about watching me.

To push the thoughts out of his head, Koda focused on the armor again. He couldn’t see any securing straps or buckles, but he knew that there had to be some way to put the garment on.

Looking up, he nodded when he realized the teeth had been removed from most of the skull, save for the upper and lower fangs that met at what would be his hip when he was wearing them. Glancing up to the eye sockets, Koda found they had been filled in with large lumps of the dark stone, too.

“It looks beautiful, Thera,” Koda turned his head to smile up at the goddess, trying to ignore the sensation of her full breasts rubbing on the back of his head.

The goddess beamed down at him, her face literally glowing with joy at his approval of the outfit while silhouettes of a pair of large wolf ears sprouted from her dark tresses and Koda saw the edge of a fluffy tail whipping happily behind her. Sadly, the smile faded into a frown a moment later.

“I wanted to include a helmet for you as well, but it would have delayed this gift. So you will need to take care to protect your own skull for now. Or would you prefer I make another weapon for you? The totemic gauntlets have served you well, but⁠—”

“It’s fine, Thera,” Koda interrupted her as the worried goddess began to waffle and lean away from him. Taking this opportunity, Koda stood and turned around so he could wrap Thera in a hug. It was forward, and he knew it was, but he didn’t like seeing her worried like this.

Thankfully, the goddess didn’t object to his actions. Instead, she folded into his chest with a sigh.

“Sorry,” Thera mumbled, her ghostly wolf ears flicking like Sienna’s did whenever she was feeling sheepish, though the happy wiggling of the phantom tail told him she wasn’t that upset.

“I trust my goddess to decide what she thinks I’ll need the most. Regardless, I’ll still do my best for her,” Koda reassured her, and Thera gave a small snort of laughter and pushed back just enough to look up at him again.

“Like you would ever do anything less than your best. I am learning more about my champion every day, and I don’t think you can slack off. I should send another of my daughters to you, since one is obviously not enough to slow you down.”

“If that’s what my goddess wishes,” Koda shot back with a cheeky grin.

He was about to continue to tease the goddess when his whole body gave a lurch, like a ripple of static traveled through his soul. Thera’s smile turned into a pout, and she sighed.

“That is the end of our time together. Your little dwarven mate is waking you up. Take the armor before you go, though, Koda? I want to know you are better protected.”

“How?” Koda asked as another ripple ran through his body. It was unsettling, but not painful.

“Place your hand on the chestplate and state your name as my champion,” Thera instructed, wiggling to get free of his arms.

Koda didn’t release her immediately, squeezing Thera to him in one last hug that drew another happy sigh from her before he opened his arms to let her step back. As a third ripple traveled through his body and Koda felt his awareness start to drift away, he quickly turned and set his hand on the skull chestplate of his new armor.

“Koda Aegisclaw, champion of Thera Ivorycrown,” he declared, and there was a thump like a struck drum that ran through his bones before the armor vanished from view.

Inside his soul, Koda felt the spiritual garb settle into the same place that his twin gauntlets occupied, and his connection to the goddess abruptly strengthened. He felt a wave of satisfaction emanate from that link to Thera, before the mist of the dream world obscured his view completely and the world went dark once more.

The sensation of lips on his lower body was the next feeling that Koda detected as awareness rushed back to him. Blinking open his eyes, he glanced down to find Calandra had apparently seized the opportunity of waking him to get her regular morning attention in, as she grinned up at him in the dim light of the fire with him trapped in her mouth.

Shooting him a wink and tapping the side of her occupied lips in a shush gesture, she continued her task until he was fully awake and she’d finished their morning routine before snuggling up in his lap once more to get back to sleep and let him take his watch, wedged between all of his mates.

My girls are wonderful, Koda thought. And in that brief moment, he allowed himself to imagine the beastfolk goddess among their number.

“Fascinating,” Arthene murmured as they hiked through the hills the next day. “I would not have expected her to wake Pippin next. That little miscreant causes so much trouble.”

“Who is this Pippin?” Samira asked, bouncing happily along on the bear spirit’s other side.

They’d woken with the sun and immediately set out to travel into the mountains. Despite having interrupted sleep, Calandra had no problem maintaining the spell that boosted their movement now that their group was smaller. By the time the sun had risen above the shroud of the mountains, they’d made several miles of distance into the hills already and left the trolls well behind them.

“Pippin is a servant of our Lady,” Arthene answered with a sigh. “A bundle of mischief that hides behind an adorable appearance. He is a spirit of dreams and trickery. He serves the Beast Queen as her eyes and ears, as well as a messenger that can move unseen. If you ever meet something that looks like a bundle of cotton fluff given legs, be very wary of it. If he speaks in a language you can understand, though, heed his words. Pippin does not speak often to anyone other than my Lady.”

“He made a lot of noises when I saw him,” Koda said with a snort. “Guess he didn’t respect me enough to actually say anything worthwhile, though.

He’d related to his girls that he’d had a vision of visiting Thera the previous night, and Calandra had taken an odd amount of amusement that her ‘attentions’ in the night to wake him for his watch shift had been what ended that meeting. Everyone with him was relieved to hear that the goddess had empowered him with further protections. They’d insisted that he don the armor immediately, to get used to moving and wearing it.

Drawing the armor out of his spirit was much like producing his gauntlets. A flex of his soul that, rather than unsheathing claws, was like flaring out a set of wings he didn’t have caused the armor to form around him. The weight of it had thrown him off at first, but within the first five minutes of jogging in it, Koda grew used to how it affected his body and changed his center of balance.

“So if Pippin is basically her spy-master, then it would make complete sense for her to wake him, wouldn’t it?” Sienna asked from Koda’s other side, the lithe redhead trotting with her spear slung over her shoulder. “She’d want him to keep watch for dangers. Maybe even carry word to Chandra?”

“He’s far too recognizable,” Arthene countered. “His people were lost with the Twilight Realm when we were driven out. They remained reclusive and never really spread to the other worlds, and that was their eventual undoing.”

“But it would serve as proof of Thera’s return if one of her most recognizable agents showed up. So if she were to reach out to Chandra, it would be proof that she was alive,” Sienna protested.

“And if Golieas or one of the other gods that would happily claim her power for their own and stamp my Lady out were to spot the little fool because he can’t help but play a trick to mess with them?” Arthene shot back, her brows knitting in anger.

“Easy, ladies. We have to trust Thera knows what she is doing and won’t take unnecessary risks,” Koda intervened before an argument could break out. “It’s not as if she asked any of us for our opinions, after all. Just keep an eye out for that troublesome bit of cotton fluff, and keep his presence quiet if you see him.”

There was a bit of grumbling, but his girls all consented, though Samira still vibrated with excitement at finding out something new like this. So Koda locked eyes with the caracal woman when he spoke next.

“It needs to be kept quiet until Thera is ready to return to the light once more. So that means no records, no sharing. Got it?”

He’d expected Samira to be disappointed by the order, but her smile grew even brighter instead and she quickly bobbed her head in a rapid series of nods.

“Of course, Champion Aegisclaw. I would never dream of risking the Pack Lady’s secret. I will keep this knowledge to myself until such a time that it is safe to share with others.”

“Good,” Koda said with a sigh and ran a hand over his hair. He’d borrowed a leather tie from Sienna to get it out of his face, but as was common with long hair, several strands had wiggled free to tickle his face, so he tucked them back behind an ear for now. “Never thought I’d miss something like elastic so much,” Koda muttered to himself before putting aside his complaints to focus on the present.

The trail that they followed grew steadily harder and harder to make out. Not because the trolls had done anything to be subtle, but because the soft soil was slowly fading away to rocky ground, though the scars of the trolls' passage on the trees and moved stones were still present. Looking further up the mountain, Koda could see where the ridgeline joined the rest of the mountains and the high peaks where the snows still dwelt. He had no idea how far up the mountain they would have to go, but that wasn’t something he needed to worry about. That was why they had Samira with them.

And the caracal woman proved the wisdom of having a local guide an hour later when she gestured for them to slow down and then guided them off the path to a cliff-face.

“There, do you see them?” Samira said, pointing up at a flat section of stone that had a weathered look to it and was crumbling.

Koda was about to state he didn’t see it when the pattern of the crumbling began to look familiar to him. Blinking, he squinted and looked again before realizing that the ‘crumbling’ stone had actually been slashed out in regular rents, as if some huge animal had torn claws through the stone.

“What are those?” Sienna murmured, her eyes suddenly widening when she recognized the tears in the rock too. “Are those claw marks?”

“Yes,” Samira said, keeping her voice low. “These are territory markings for one of the prides of stonecracker leopards that live up in these hills. Many wild cats mark trees like this to scent their territory, but the stonecracker leopard does it on cliff faces. These are the marks each of my tribe’s hunters are taught to look for, so we know when we wander into a dangerous area.”

“I didn’t mention it before, but I am astonished such dangerous predators could live in these mountains and we didn’t know about it,” Hannah mumbled from the rear of the group, the cat beastfolk staring up at the marks in the stone in wonder.

“Stonecrackers follow the troll tribes, so if there are no trolls near your village, then it is unlikely you would hear of them. And those who accidentally ranged into their territory are likely hunters that simply never returned to tell the tale,” Samira said soberly, and Hannah grimaced but nodded in understanding.

“And Arthene took out the ones in the valley before, right?” Calandra asked, and Arthene nodded to confirm her previous statement.

“We need to be careful from here on out, as we are on their land now. Keep your eyes up high and watch the cliff faces. If you see one, don’t make a fuss, but point it out to the rest of us. If you threaten them, they may attack to escape. We will have to take each as they come,” Samira advised.

Koda took one last look at the long rents in the stone. They were easily two inches deep and ran for almost three feet through solid granite.

And here I thought the trolls were the most dangerous thing in these mountains, he thought wryly before turning to follow their guide.

20

“What are the odds that there are still trolls wandering around up here?” Hans asked after they’d been walking for around an hour.

The big bull man carried his iron mattock across his chest and was fingering the wooden shaft warily while he looked back and forth, scanning the treeline they were paralleling as well as any ridges that they walked under. It was clear to Koda that, for all his training and experience over the last several weeks, the former miner was feeling out of his depth.

“Not very high,” Arthene answered without hesitation. “The presence of an obvious chieftain is that much of a curse.”

“How is it a curse?” Hans asked. “I’d much rather not have one of those things come at us in surprise.”

“Because, Hans, it means that they will all be together when we see them next,” Arthene answered gently, shooting the nervous beastfolk a reassuring look. “Frankly, I’m surprised that the two in the village had snuck off. They were likely some of the more cunning amongst their number to have pulled that off.”

“So we killed off the smartest ones, that’s good at least,” Sienna piped up, her tail waving jauntily from where she marched beside Koda.

The wolf beastfolk had started teaching Koda more of her tricks for tracking, using the trolls’ trail as easy examples of what to look for.

“Yes, there is that,” Arthene assented before glancing back at Hans. “Do you think you’ll want to try for the troll-slayer blessing? I can see why you’d want to catch one alone if you can.”

Hans grimaced at that, looking down towards the trail they were following before he sighed and nodded.

“I don’t want to take the risk of leaving Brit without me, but I want the strength to protect her. It’s been bothering me for a while now.”

“Good on you for admitting it,” Todd said, clapping the larger man on the shoulder with one hand. “I think I’ll pass on taking one down in single combat. I’m too old to put it to good use, but I’ll happily support any of you young ones to get it.”

“Arthene and I will have the easiest time in claiming the blessing, given our first share of it. But I don’t want to double up unless we have to. I’d much rather use this opportunity to share the power amongst the rest of you. At least those willing, and I won’t shame any of you who don’t want to take the risk.”

Koda glanced back to lock eyes with each of his four friends. Hans nodded in understanding, clearly still concerned about the potential consequences of the fight. Todd looked thoughtful, but sure of his decision. Hannah and Netta both looked eager, the pair of huntresses clearly wanting to make the most of the opportunity.

I hope they don’t come to regret that. Hell, I hope I don’t come to regret it. They have to fight a troll alone and win to get the full measure. Wouldn’t it be safer to take a partial blessing first? Something to bring them closer to the level that Arthene and I are at?

Shaking the thought away from his mind, Koda turned his attention back to the trail they were following. Samira hadn’t joined into the brief conversation, as the caracal woman was leading the group while studying the tracks and surroundings. She’d pointed out several more territory markings as they went, showing they were getting deeper into the stonecracker’s hunting grounds.

“Samira, how much further?” he called, getting the feline-featured woman’s attention.

“Not much,” she replied tersely, looking back to meet his gaze. The normally excitable woman was serious for once, which told Koda just how focused she was at the moment. “While I haven’t been here myself, I’ve heard all the stories of the high-mountain hunters. They should have a den somewhere nearby.”

Koda nodded before turning his attention back to scanning their surroundings. There was something in their environment that was raising the hackles on the back of his neck. Koda wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but something felt off to him.

Arthene giving a deep, sniffing sound tripped his mind to what it was, and he finally registered the very faint hint of rot in the air.

“Arthene?” Koda asked, taking another sniff of the air.

“I smell it, too,” Sienna added, her ears laying back. “Something died nearby and is rotting, but not recently? Or maybe it’s just something small?”

“What? I didn’t…” Samira said abruptly before letting the sentence trail off as she sniffed at the air again.

“Well, don’t just stand there snuffling about,” Calandra prodded dryly once several more seconds passed. “Not all of us have sensitive noses—some of us are built delicate.”

“Nothing about you is delicate, Cal,” Koda laughed, bumping her shoulder with his hip playfully so she knew he was joking.

The blow made her armor jingle, and the dwarf stumbled a step, as Koda was still acclimating to his new strength. She righted herself without a problem though and mock-glared at Koda from under her helmet.

“I suppose you are glad of that, considering how rough you get with me when I⁠—”

“Peace, Cal,” Sienna interrupted, holding a hand out to the shorter woman. “This is serious. I think we are near the den, so we all need to be ready.”

The dwarven woman growled playfully but nodded, slipping her Dane axe down into her hands and rolling her shoulders to loosen them. Koda knew that she’d not drop the conversation and would want to harass him more later, but his mate would focus on the moment and protecting her family.

Amazing how quickly she slotted in beside the other girls, Koda thought as the group picked up speed again, with Arthene moving to the front to help Samira lead. Sienna was just luck, and Arthene already said she followed her instincts, which led her to me. But little Cal latched on like a limpet and has been happy to ride along since.

The thoughts of people acting like limpets drew his attention to Samira where the caracal woman walked beside Arthene, pointing to her left and whispering something to the bear woman, but Koda pushed that thought away.

I’ve got three women already and Thera keeps threatening me with more. Samira might just be curious and want to know more. I’m not going to chase her just on a hunch. If she makes her interest plain and the other three agree, then maybe. I’ve got more love in my life now than I know what to do with.

With the season drifting through the tail end of summer and into the fall, it put the sun at a steeper angle with a shorter amount of time during the day. But given the boost to speed that came with Calandra’s wind magic, especially as the dwarven mage was getting the hang of the power, they reached their goal shortly before midday.

The path had taken them up a wide ravine studded with pine trees. The increased tree cover made it far easier to spot the passage of the group of trolls, given their penchant for smashing and uprooting everything that was in their way. But when their upward-sloping path flattened out into a wide plateau centered on a crystal clear mountain lake, the trees fell away again and stone took over as several mountains soared higher in the distance.

The lake was small—Koda guessed it to be maybe three hundred feet across and four times that long. It backed up against a sheer cliff that soared upwards, distantly rising into a craggy peak several thousand feet above them. The clear water was deep, fed by several mountain streams he could see trickling down through the rocks on the far side.

Looking further up the other mountain side, Koda could see several more spots that he bet were other plateaus that slowly climbed higher into the mountains, and saw the silhouettes of several fuzzy figures walking the edge of those ridges.

Mountain goats, I think. Koda squinted his eyes, studying the distant shapes as their group followed the edge of the lake. The trail of the trolls was less obvious here given the broken stone of the lake shore, but Samira led them without hesitation towards the cliff that sat on the narrow side of the lake.

The scent of rot had remained with them for the last hour, still very faint on the wind but growing stronger. Koda couldn’t rationalize how any of them had picked it up, given the amount of greenery on the mountain and other smells competing with it, but it was there, and growing stronger now that they circled the lake.

“Cave?” Hannah broke the silence, pointing towards a shadow in the cliff face Koda had ignored at first, thinking it was just a fold in the rock.

“Yes, that’s the den, I’m sure of it.” Samira replied, keeping her voice low. “We need to be careful approaching it. The troll’s path goes right past it, so that’s more evidence for them having fought and defeated the stonecracker leopards. But we don’t know if they got them all.”

Koda felt a tugging sensation in his chest and didn’t hesitate to call his armor out of his soul. The rushing sensation that always accompanied the spiritual garb and weapons enveloped him like the wind, leaving behind the thick leather and bone garb. The rapid shift from his clothes to armor startled everyone save Arthene, who knew the moment he’d called it out because of their deep connection and her nature.

“I’ll take the lead,” Koda asserted, briefly catching Sienna’s hand and giving it a squeeze before stepping past her and his other mates to walk ahead of Samira. “We know where we are going, so tracking is not as necessary. I may not be the most stealthy, but I’ve got the best defenses right now.”

“Armor isn’t going to help—” Samira protested, before she remembered who she was speaking to and what he’d told them earlier that day already. “Right, that’s not regular armor. Sorry, Champion Aegisclaw.”

“It’s fine, dear Samira,” Arthene reassured her for Koda, patting the feline beastfolk between the ears gently. “Even his mates are still getting used to the way our Koda thinks. I swear he intentionally does things to confuse us.”

“I know he does,” Calandra grumbled as their group shuffled their organization a bit and followed Koda.

As soon as the armor had wrapped around him, Koda felt his sense of smell increase in strength. The smell of rotting meat was there, but not as cloying as it had been before. He could simply set it aside, as there was a far stronger scent billowing from the cave. Even without the trail of the trolls to follow, Koda was sure that he’d have been able to find this cave now.

The scent reminded him vaguely of that wild, primal scent that clung to Thera and Arthene. But unlike the purely animalistic scent of his patron and his mate, this one crackled like a late afternoon storm one second, then crunched through his nose like frost-clad grass breaking underfoot.

Is this what I think it is? Thera promised me the ability to sense the sites of power with this armor. I had forgotten until now, Koda thought as he closed in rapidly with the cliffside.

Now that he was closer, Koda could make out the fact that hundreds, maybe even thousands, of deep scratches marred the cliff. A small mountain of gravel had been crushed into the soft soil of the lake shore between the edge of the water and the cliff. The narrow slit that had been pointed out to him was far deeper than it had first appeared, yawning eight feet across and nearly ten tall now that his angle had changed, vanishing into the darkness.

“We are going to need light. I’ve got a lantern in here,” he heard Netta mutter behind him and there was a bit of a scrambling noise, but he didn’t slow his steady tread. The power that billowed out of the cave drew him like a moth to a flame.

Despite the many claw-tracks in the granite cliff, Koda could see hundreds of small smears of lichen clinging to the rock surface, along with ancient stains showing just how long this cliff had faced the sky. As he neared the cave mouth, Koda spotted a scattering of cracked and weathered bones amongst the gravel, but from their age he knew they had to have belonged to the prey of the stonecrackers.

“Koda, hold up!” Hans called to him, but he didn’t pause. There was something waiting in that cave for him, calling to him, and Koda stepped into the dim shadow that guarded the entrance.

The pressure shifted abruptly, from that of an oncoming storm to the silent regard of a looming mountain pressing down from above him, pinning Koda into place at the entrance to the cave.

Behind him, Koda heard the rustle of his companions’ movements and the click of flint and steel as Netta worked to light her lantern. His focus, however, was on this power he felt welling from the cave in front of him, and the intense gaze he felt emanating from the heart of the cave.

Deep within his soul, in the place where Koda felt the chains that tied him to the legacy of his forebears and the power that he’d tapped into in the past to defeat the Crooked warleaders, Koda felt something shift and rise to meet that weighty gaze laying upon him.

Determination and defiance wrapped about him like a warm cloak, banishing the weight of the invisible gaze on him. Buoyed by that rising tide of inner strength came a wash of confidence that he knew was from Thera, as it joined the other emotions as the power rose past the pocket in his soul that held his connection to her.

Behind him, Koda heard a faint grunt of surprise from Arthene when the trio of emotions washed past her own connection to Koda.

“Be at ease,” Koda said aloud. “We do not come as scavengers to steal.”

“What is he—” Samira said, but cut off suddenly as the weight of power shifted to her.

“No, you will talk with me.” Koda sharply demanded, and the sensation bounced back to him, the intense regard turning sharp.

“Shh,” Sienna hushed Samira. “The spirits are here, just like we thought. Right, Arthene?”

“Yes,” grunted the bear spirit from directly behind Koda. “Be silent and let him work. The trolls did more than just devour them, and their grudge must be laid to rest or else something darker will fester. I am suddenly very glad we came this way.”

“But—” Samira protested, then cut herself off again when Koda took a step forward out of the light and into the darkness of the cave.

The scent of many animals was thick here, cut through by the stink of the trolls, spilled blood, and fading rot. Having paused by the door, Koda’s eyes had adjusted to the shadows and he could see the faint outlines of the cave well enough for now.

Bones lay strewn about the floor, along with rags of flesh and hide that had been bodily torn apart. Hunks of meat, organs, and other bits of festering flesh lay strewn amongst the gnawed-on bones, showing the disregard of the trolls in their feasting on the dead.

Several larger skeletons were jumbled about here, but what drew Koda’s eyes was a small mound of tiny skulls that were piled in one corner amongst shattered bone fragments. The way the skulls sat, carefully organized, told him more than he wanted to know.

Unbidden, his mind played back how and why such a pile would occur. That more flesh clung to the skulls told him they’d been set there with intent and not part of the trolls’ feeding. That, and the tiny bones arranged around them in crushed fragments.

“They tortured your cubs.” Koda’s statement was a growl of barely suppressed fury. “It was not enough that they killed you and devoured your desecrated bodies. They tortured your cubs for amusement as well.”

The power that roiled about the cave swelled, and Koda heard grunts of surprise from his group, even from Arthene. But as the fury of that power washed outwards, it broke around him like water pouring over a stone.

“They did what?” Sienna’s snarl broke through Koda’s focus and he felt his heart swell at the disgust in his mate’s voice.

“Trolls are monstrous like that. I wouldn’t be surprised if they kept a few alive to toy with for a while,” Calandra added in her own furious growl.

“There are many reasons Oluk’s kin have no allies and only enemies,” Arthene stated firmly. “Not even amongst the dead.”

Koda heard movement behind him and a moment later felt someone take each of his hands. He didn’t need to look to know that Sienna stood on his right; the rich scent of pine that always followed her told him that much. The scent of leather and weapon oil on his left confirmed to him that Calandra had that side of him, while he knew without a doubt that Arthene stood at his back.

“Restless fathers and mothers,” Koda said, the words echoing from within his chest as the anger of ages rolled up from his ancestors and out through his mouth. “Your children will be avenged. I wish I could have stopped what happened here, but I was not. Death may be part of the cycle of life, but what was done to your children was unjust and gives me further cause to end their killers.”

The power pressed down on Koda again, and he felt his knees buckle for just a moment before steel shot through him. He felt his mates sway as well, clearly affected by the regard.

“No! Do not direct your anger at us! If you must bear rage, then rage against those who wronged you!” Koda ordered, taking a step forward to put himself at the front of a diamond shape with his mates behind him.

The pressure of the restless spirits, empowered by the energy of the site and the anger that they carried for what had happened here, split before him and receded.

Koda heard muttering behind him from his allies, but his mates remained silent as they waited. All four of them knew something was coming, but not what form it might take, so they prepared.

A stirring in the darkness ahead of Koda drew the attention of all four of them like iron to a magnet. A shifting of movement that was there and gone. Then another came from their left.

“Koda, call them into being. Offer them service to see revenge done,” Arthene coached in a low tone as another flicker of movement appeared amongst the bones.

Even as Arthene spoke, Koda felt the chains of his ancestry ripple with power and tell him the same thing. He was bombarded with a thousand visions of other people doing the same, either binding spirits to serve them or laying them to rest. Some commanded, some beseeched, and some bargained. But by far, most of them simply offered understanding.

“Come with me and my mates to bring down these child-killers. Or pass from this world into the next. Do not let your anger bind you here, away from the open sky. Run free.”

Koda’s benediction echoed like a struck drum, reverberating about the cave. Unlike a normal echo that would fade as time passed, this echo grew in strength with each rebound until it turned from words into a defiant and proud roar.

From amongst the scattered bones, seven ghostly forms, composed of brown and gray light, surged from the earth. Their forms were transparent and glowed faintly with power, shedding a shroud of light around them as they bounded towards Koda with mouths open wide in an echo of that earth-shattering roar.

The largest, a male leopard of size more akin to that of a draft horse than a hunting cat, bounded straight for Koda with its paws held wide. But Koda knew its intent. He felt the echo of that roar deep within his soul, a sound he’d made himself on more than one occasion.

Spreading his arms wide, Koda accepted the charge without a hint of fear in his bearing.

The ghost slammed into Koda’s chest, its paws catching him in the center as the spirit dove into his armor. A moment later, Koda felt a surge of power rush through his armor before the claws at the end of his gauntlets surged in length, doubling in size. Meanwhile, a pauldron formed from a massive cat’s skull flashed into place over his right shoulder as the spirit settled into him and empowered his armor.

Even as this all happened, he still sensed what else was going on. The group of six females split, with three going to each side. Two each mirrored the actions of the male, diving into Sienna and Calandra. The remaining one on each side circled around their group and vanished out of sight.

Koda thought for sure they were moving to Arthene until he heard a gasp of surprise from behind their group. Whirling even as his armor adjusted, Koda blinked in surprise when he saw Samira standing just behind Arthene, anchoring the back of their little formation, just as the last two ghosts vanished into the caracal woman.

Samira’s mouth hung open in a gasp, which is why Koda could see as her incisors sharpened and lengthened and a ripple of ghostly fur passed over her body before everything settled in once more.

The caracal woman stared at Koda in surprise, blinking several times. Her mouth opened to ask a question right before her eyes rolled up in her head and she collapsed in a heap, unconscious.

21

It took only a few minutes for Samira to wake after the encounter with the spirits. Koda had no idea why some of them had gone to her instead of to Arthene, and the incarnate spirit did not volunteer any information, either.

Rather than waste time worrying about it, Koda set about sanctifying the cave and consecrating it to Thera. He didn’t want to know what sort of dark potential had been brewing there, but it had been enough that Arthene had said something, so he did what he could.

The surge of power that came from claiming the site coursed through Koda and he felt the spirit of the stonecracker patriarch purr happily as the energy raced down into Koda’s soul to Thera.

A hide colored the same tan and gray as the ghosts materialized at the back of the cave with the stone offering bowl when he was done.

At a nudge from the spirit currently residing within him, Koda collected the skulls of the kittens, handling them with exceeding care as he carried them one by one to the offering bowl and set them within it.

When the last was set within the bowl, Koda felt his instincts rise once more and followed them without hesitation. Using the claws of his right gauntlet, he opened his left palm up and sprinkled his blood over the skulls in the bowl. A flash of ruby fire erupted where the blood met bone and moments later, the bones vanished.

A chorus of joyous sounds resounded through Koda’s soul: chirps, purrs, mews, and yowls for attention. Riding on the back of them was a squeal of joy and disbelief from Thera.

You sent me kittens?!

Koda was fairly certain that Thera was happy to have more company, and he couldn’t help but smirk at the idea of the fuzzy little Pippin being stalked by leopard kittens learning to hunt. The spirit in Koda’s armor made a happy growling noise and settled down once more, emanating contentment for the moment, contentment underlaid with eagerness to get revenge on the trolls.

“Collect what we can,” Arthene ordered from the entrance of the cave when Koda was done.

She’d been holding back the others while Sienna and Calandra looked after Samira. Now that the caracal woman was awake once more, the others crowded into the large cave to survey what lay all around them.

“The teeth are the most important, followed by the claws,” Samira muttered, holding a hand to her head while her ears twitched furiously, as if someone was tickling them. “They are… we have their blessing?”

Koda felt the spirit he carried echoing the sentiment and directed his attention to one side where the largest of the skeletons lay, its skull shattered into a hundred pieces.

“That’s what it feels like to me. That was extremely weird,” Calandra muttered as she flexed her arms and rolled her shoulders like she was settling a cloak into place.

“Koda made a convincing argument to the spirits,” Arthene said, giving Koda a proud smile. “You immediately recognized what was holding them here and addressed it with confidence. You could have bound one or two or sent them all on with force. But you claimed the pack’s loyalty by offering them revenge, and then guaranteed it by sending their children to safety.”

“Safety?” Samira asked in confusion, her ears flicking wildly even as she worked with the others to find the teeth and claws amongst the other bones.

“They are with Thera now,” Koda said simply. The statement made many of those in the cave stiffen, and Samira’s tail thrashed in excitement.

Before the excitable caracal woman could ask, Koda pointed to the altar in the back of the cave. The stone bowl on the hide was simple and easy to miss, but Samira bounded over to it in excitement, kneeling on the hide to inspect the bowl.

“This will make two in our territory! Two altars to give our honor to Thera once more!”

Koda could hear the tears in Samira’s voice before she lapsed into quiet reflection with her head bowed to the bowl. Not wanting to interrupt her, Koda gestured for the others to keep at their work.

Removing the teeth and claws from the ruined bodies was simple enough. Since the spirits’ blessing had been given, the parts came free without a fight. They piled everything into a sack that Hans pulled from his pack until they’d collected all they could.

Arthene was the only one besides Samira to not join in the collecting of the teeth and claws. She instead went over the handful of bones that weren’t entirely destroyed by the trolls' feast, testing each to see if any of them might serve as weapons, too.

Sadly, none of the bones had really survived the massive carnivore’s depredations; the tooth marks in the bone weakened them too much.

“It is too bad,” Arthene sighed, discarding the last of the leg bones that she’d been studying. “It would be quite appropriate to have armed the Silent Plains with such things. They wouldn’t have been as strong as mine, but if Koda were to bless them, then they could carry a measure of the spirit’s power, regardless.”

“Does it work with any such bones?” Samira asked as she rose from her prayer at the altar and skipped over. “The hunters will have the bones from the bison stored away in the village. We use them for many things.”

“It could empower them,” Arthene said with a thoughtful hum, rubbing her chin with one hand. “But not as much as it would these. Koda does not have a bison spirit bound to him yet.”

“Yet?” Koda questioned, hefting the sack of claws and fangs over his shoulder. “Should we clear up the rest of the bones here?”

“No, leave them. They are cleansed by the altar and will cause no problems. Other pilgrims may wish to honor the fallen, and this was their home. It is fitting that their bones rest here,” Arthene asserted.

They departed shortly after, with Sienna and Calandra insisting that they arrange the bones more respectfully than the scattered mess they had been, laying the cracked and damaged skulls out on the edge of the hide by the altar bowl specifically.

When everything was set, their group hurried back out onto the mountainside.

“I’ve experienced it several times now,” Samira muttered as she shaded her eyes and looked up to gauge the time based on the position of the sun. “But it still astonishes me how fast we can move with your blessing, Calandra.”

“Call me Cal,” grumbled the dwarven woman as she made several gestures to weave the spell to boost their travel.

“But I love your name. ‘Calandra’ sounds far more mysterious and appropriate for someone who wields such power. ‘Cal’ sounds like someone who would borrow my bow and return it without caring for the string properly.” Samira wrinkled her nose cutely at that and Calandra blushed.

“It’s just easier, okay?”

“And you like being easier?” Sienna teased their shorter companion, tugging on one of the trio of braids that protruded from under Calandra’s helmet.

“Only for our mate,” Calandra fired back in a deadpan tone. “Maybe for you and the big one too, if you both stop teasing me so damned much!”

“Never,” Arthene declared with a laugh. “It’s far too much fun to tease you, little Calandra. And you enjoy the affection, I know you do.”

Calandra grumbled under her breath about ‘ungrateful wenches’ but she gestured for them to get moving.

Okay, so we found the den and recruited several spirits. What sort of help they’ll be, I don’t know. But this evens the playing field some, Koda thought with a grim smile as their group broke into a jog.

Sienna joined Calandra in easing their way, using a ripple of earth magic to smooth the ground before them so they wouldn’t trip now that they didn’t need to follow the troll’s tracks.

The spirit of the stonecracker patriarch let out a low growl within Koda’s spirit, and while he couldn’t understand it like spoken words, Koda understood the implications.

Now that the field is more even, let's tilt it in our favor. Then we kill some trolls.

The group traveled into the night to make it back to the village. They only paused long enough to eat and water the bushes a few times on the trip, with one break to check on the trolls in the cave.

It only took a moment for the trackers amongst their group to confirm that the trolls hadn’t even left the cave yet. That then led to a bit of disgusting joking about having to wash the cave out when they finally finished this, since the trolls smelled like they didn’t understand hygiene or what a latrine was.

Samira bluntly stated that she would happily help cleanse the cave once the trolls were dealt with, because that would mean she survived all this. That cut down the joking as they all remembered the monumental task in front of them.

Arriving back in the village well after sunset, Samira guided them to the larger communal house. While it would be several more days before the hunters arrived back, that would give them time to prepare the village for if the trolls returned. Rather than camping outside the village, the group decided it would be better to just camp inside the borders of the town for security.

They didn’t light a fire in the massive central hearth of the building, instead piling into their bedrolls for warmth and to get some proper sleep. Koda’s mates all crowded in around him happily, and he fell asleep warm and content, with the spirit of the stonecracker patriarch purring happily in his soul as his mates crowded in around them, too.

Waking the next morning, they immediately set about preparing the village and its edges for the trolls.

Sienna and Calandra worked together to trap the path coming down the mountain, assuming the trolls would come down that way when they returned. Sienna dug out deep gopher holes, lining them with dense stone so that any troll who stepped in would trip and likely break an ankle or a leg. It wouldn’t kill one unless they fell off the cliff as a result, but it would slow them down and might lead to some infighting as their fellows capitalized on a moment of weakness.

Arthene worked with Samira to locate the village’s supply of wood for spears. She began mounting the fangs from the stonecracker leopards on them, churning out javelins and spears for the villagers to use with the dense teeth as tips.

Todd, Netta, and Hannah started putting together more of the cheval de frise by hacking down several sturdy trees and using tools in the village to drill holes for sharpened stakes into them. The trolls might simply smash through them or toss them aside, but there was a chance the barricades could block or divert them instead.

Hans and Koda worked to reclaim some of the wreckage from the damaged pens and barns. They used the brawny bull’s knowledge about trusses and supports from working in the mine, combined with Koda’s construction knowledge, to figure out which beams they could take or would need reinforcing to prevent further damage. Any beams taken out were sharpened into massive stakes that they could use to line other traps.

“I’m just worried about all this,” Hans said before bringing the iron axe blade down on the beam they’d been working on to narrow the point further. “What’s to stop these big oafs from just pulling it out of the ground?”

“I was thinking about that,” Koda answered easily as he used the totemic gauntlets to shave the other end of the log down with rapid swipes. It took him far less effort to sharpen the logs, but Hans was the only one save Arthene that could keep up with him on this, so they worked together. “What if we rig them with pits at the base? That way, we can lay the logs flat and bait them into charging, then jump on one end.”

“And hope they just impale themselves? I mean, that is a chance I’d be willing to take. They don’t seem very smart and a spear like this to the guts might even level the playing field!” Hans laughed, banging the head of the axe against the log.

“Provided they don’t just hit it so hard, it snaps. Be ready to get out of the way if it doesn’t slow them down,” Koda warned the big man, getting a nod and a huff from Hans before the bull man went back to his work, trimming the head off the log.

“You think we’ll get a chance to actually rest back home for long after this?” Hans asked after several minutes, only broken by the whack of the axe and grunts of effort.

“I hope so,” Koda sighed, flicking the scraps of wood away with one hand and stretching to pop his back. “I know you miss your lady and I feel guilty that you got roped into this.”

Koda gestured with both hands to indicate the deserted town before looking back to the other man. Hans just shrugged and lined up his axe for another strike.

“We volunteered to come along. Sure, we thought it was a simple hunting trip originally, but I guarantee that we would have come along even if we knew.”

“Yes, but you all have lives and could have simply stayed in town with them. You didn’t have to come chasing after me,” Koda protested again. “I appreciate you and the others coming, never doubt that. But⁠—”

“You don’t want to be the reason one of us doesn’t make it home,” Hans finished, without looking up at Koda. Grimacing, Koda nodded in agreement with the sentiment. “I thought the same when I learned your story, you know that?”

“You what?” Koda blinked in surprise at the other man. Hans didn’t meet his eyes, but nodded.

“You left behind your life to come help us. Sure, it might not have been a good one, but you’ve risked your life nearly every day that you’ve been here for folk you barely know. It’s a hell of a role model to have.”

“I don’t want to be anyone’s role model,” Koda growled, feeling the weight of such a position bearing down on him already.

“Tough shit, Champion,” Hans laughed at him. “You were destined for that fate on the first day here. You calling the hunters to task for hesitating to save the captives, then racing off to handle it yourself? Then continuing to run back and forth doing all you can to protect our village for us? You are lucky that more of the women of the village aren’t throwing themselves at you.”

“I’d have to actually spend time there for that to happen,” Koda replied sourly, getting another grin from the big man.

“I mean, if you want to continue to expand your family, then sure. But you’ve already got an embarrassment of riches in your three mates so far, and a fourth poking about the edges if Samira’s actions are what I think they are.” Hans waggled his eyebrows at Koda as they walked to the next log they were sharpening.

“Samira is even more confusing than my girls. I can’t tell if she just wants to shake me by the ankles until all my stories fall out, or if there’s something else more interesting to her,” Koda grumbled. Hans patted him on the back reassuringly while grinning down at the smaller man, who was magnitudes of power stronger than he was.

“I may not have the number of mates you do, Aegisclaw, but I feel I know women well enough to state that when you are confronted between two complicated factors in a woman, it’s almost always both at once, rather than one. We men are simple beings; we have to be in order to balance out how complicated our women are.”

“Oh, is that why you only have one?” Koda needled back at the snickering bull man.

“No, I’m just smart enough to make sure one complication is fully settled before I try to add another one!”

22

None of them let their guards down for long as they worked. When he checked on the groups, Koda noted no one moved in less than a group of two, and he would regularly catch the others glancing towards the mountains to check for any sign of the trolls approaching.

As soon as he and Hans had a good dozen of the trimmed beams ready, they started carrying them to the edge of the fields near the track the trolls had used last time.

“You can go check on them,” Hans said with a snort as they dropped the second batch of beams and he caught Koda eyeing the path that led up into the mountains far more intently this time, watching where Calandra and Sienna worked.

“What?” Koda blinked at him in surprise, and Hans rolled his eyes at the black-haired champion.

“Sienna and Cal are the furthest from the village, so it’s understandable you are worried about them.” Hans nodded to where the compact forms of Koda’s mates stood at the edge of the lake where the path wound up into the foothills.

“It’s fine, Hans. I appreciate it, but I’m not going to leave you to work on your own,” Koda said after a moment of hesitation. Hans swatted away his excuse a moment later.

“I’m not alone. I can drag Arthene and Samira into helping me find the right spots for these for a bit. There are only so many spears that can be made, even with them only needing to trim the branch and attach the fang. We should see if we can’t get some of those teeth worked into clubs. I remember hearing about this kind of club that used sharp bits of glass as a blade rather than a sword—might work for those.”

Hans said the last part thoughtfully and rubbed at the stubble on his chin with one thick hand, smearing dirt and chips of wood around his face. Koda wanted to argue, but he couldn’t deny that the large man had a point about checking on the two of their group furthest from support. He just didn’t want to be seen abusing his position.

But you aren’t abusing it, Koda reminded himself. Just because they are your mates doesn’t change the fact that they are the ones most at-risk.

“Fine. I’ll go check on them and then double back to help you finish up here. Take a break and get some water, too. For all the nights are cold out here, that sun has been damn hot today,” Koda agreed and got a nod of acceptance from the horned man before Hans turned to trot back through the ruined section of fields and into town.

Surveying the nearly ripe fields of corn, rye, and other crops, Koda shook his head before turning to jog towards Sienna and Calandra.

We need to resolve this, and soon. There aren’t enough hunters to guard the fields and village while all this is harvested, and I know they’ll need time to prepare it for winter storage. They’ll have plenty of meat—that’ll be easy to do with the herds and we can help them hunt—but better not to risk it. How their hunters roam but their young and old remain stationary is odd, but I guess that is because they’ve spent so long hidden safely by obscurity since apparently no one wants these grasslands enough to conquer them.

“Hey lover, come to distract us from all this hard work?” Calandra called, having caught sight of his approaching form. Sienna didn’t tease him though, instead turning to survey the trail leading into the hills, her ears upright and tail hanging limply in concern. Clearly, she was worrying that they’d missed the approach of the trolls.

“Not so much,” Koda returned as he slowed to a walk while stretching his arms over his head.

Calandra stood with her fists on her hips, her helmet hanging from a strap on her belt and her axe across her back. Sweat glimmered on her pale skin, but her olive eyes glimmered in amusement as she watched him approach, the sun glittering off her chain armor and the brass buckle of her wide kidney belt.

“Oh, good,” Sienna sighed and turned back to Koda with a relieved smile, her tail picking up into a happy wag now. “I was worried we’d missed them.”

“Naw, just wanted to check on my mates since you two were the furthest from support. I know if something showed up, you’d have both raised an unholy hell to get our attention. But I can’t help but worry about my beautiful mates.”

Koda watched them carefully as he approached and struck when he saw Calandra relax.

The dwarven woman let out a shriek of surprise as Koda dipped and scooped her off the ground, the weight of her stout form and the armor nothing in the face of his blessing enhanced strength. The shrill sound was rapidly muffled as Koda brought her up onto his hip and pressed a kiss to Calandra’s lips, morphing into a contented moan as she wrapped her arms around his neck to ensure he didn’t get away until she’d had her fill.

“Save some of that for me,” Sienna said with a playful pout, to which Calandra unhooked one arm—keeping the other firmly wrapped around Koda’s neck—then used it to beckon her closer.

Sienna’s tail spun faster as she stepped up behind Calandra, but the wolf beastfolk yipped in surprise when Calandra hooked her arm around the back of Sienna’s head and dragged the other woman in before seamlessly transferring her lips from Koda’s to Sienna’s.

“Should have seen that one coming,” Koda laughed as the two women kissed. Sienna’s ears were perked up happily and her tail was going wild as she pinned Calandra to Koda’s chest and happily kissed the thick dwarven woman. “I knew you were into girls from our time with Arthene, but didn’t know Calandra was, too.”

“Women are pretty,” Calandra gasped when she finally separated her lips from Sienna’s, her olive eyes hooded. She used her arm around Sienna to pull her towards Koda. “Now, give our mate a greeting kiss, Sienna.”

“Happily,” Sienna moaned and pressed harder into Calandra’s back to kiss Koda over her shoulder. Koda used the arm not currently supporting Calandra to hook around Sienna’s waist and crush her even tighter while they kissed.

Calandra watched the two of them kiss with a smug look on her face. While being picked up had surprised the smaller woman, it was obvious from the lack of struggles that she didn’t mind being manhandled like this.

When Koda and Sienna had finished their kiss, they separated to stare into each other’s eyes for a long moment of silence. Koda could see the desire in his redheaded mate’s gaze and could feel it rising in himself, but had to put it aside for now.

“You know that there are some convenient bushes over there,” Calandra murmured into Koda’s ear hotly. “I’ll stand watch for you two if you need to go nail your huntress to a tree.”

“Cal!” Sienna laughed and did something out of Koda’s sight that made the dwarven woman straighten with a squeak of surprise. “We need to get this done. As much as I’d like for Koda to do that, the defenses are more important.”

“Nothing is more important than—” Calandra protested, before squeaking in surprise again. “Chandra’s tits! Stop pinching my ass like that, Sienna! Do you have claws, girl?!”

“Nope, just learned how to shut Netta up when we were kids,” Sienna laughed and kissed Calandra’s cheek. “Seriously, though. What’s up, Koda? Were you checking on us, or did you just want a kiss?”

“Checking on you two. Hans and I are making log pikes to lay out near the edge of the fields. We are going to dig notches in the dirt so we can lay them flat, then stomp on one end to bring them up for the trolls to impale themselves on. Saw you two already down here and wanted to come check on you.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Calandra said with a thoughtful hum, tugging one of her braids over her shoulder to play with as she thought. “I really wish that there was more metal out here, but I didn’t even see a smithy when we were checking the village out. If I had access to a half-decent smith and a supply of metal, we could make some real traps for these beasties.”

“Yeah, the impression that I got from Vysin was that they trade for already finished pieces like arrowheads and spearheads, rather than forge their own. Something we can easily set up trade for back in Silverstone, but we’ve got to get them through this first,” Koda replied, shifting his grip on Calandra so he was palming her full bottom to help support her on his hip. Calandra gave a contended coo and wiggled her butt into his grip, clearly happy with his hands on her.

“Not a bad idea. I know that our smith back home is more than capable of turning out quality work. The only issue is the metals. The mines⁠—”

“You leave that to me,” Calandra said, cutting off Sienna. “I’m not a miner, but none of Chandra’s kin are unskilled with the secrets of earth and stone. If I can’t find more ore myself, I know a few people I can ask to do me a favor and come look at your mines to see if there are more veins of ore.”

“Our mines,” Koda corrected, squeezing Calandra’s butt again. “You are part of the family too, Cal. That makes you part of the village.”

“Agreed,” Sienna insisted, leaning forward to press a kiss to the smaller woman’s temple. “I know you haven’t had time to settle into the village, but neither has Koda. Hopefully, we can get that done when this is all finished up.”

“Sounds wonderful,” Calandra sighed happily, shifting to lean her head back onto Sienna’s shoulder while grinding her hips into Koda. “I still wake up doubting reality‌. I went from being lonely and ignored in Amberpost by those idiots in the guard to you all actually listening to me and letting me be myself.”

“Trust me, Cal. Koda is quite happy to let you be yourself,” Sienna snickered, eyeing Koda meaningfully.

“I am happy with all three of my mates,” Koda said with a shrug. “And I look forward to being able to shower affection on all three of you when we get to take a breath. I’m still worried about how we are going to provide for our family, but that’s something I can leave for the future to handle.”

“Good,” Sienna said with a cute little ‘hmph’ through her nose as her pointed ears flicked. “We have plenty of coins from the Crooked we killed. And it isn’t going to look odd using them for some time, given how many were in the area. Turning them into trade goods and supplies would be smart once Amberpost gets back on its feet.”

“If the baron’s forces do what they are supposed to, then it won’t be long before the roads are open once more for merchants. And they’ll flock to this area, knowing that people will be desperate for supplies to rebuild,” Calandra growled. “Something we will need to watch out for with our people. Our home,” Calandra paused at that, her scowl turning into a soft smile when thinking of the massive house waiting for them in Silverstone. “Our home wasn’t hit that hard, but we also won’t be getting as many traders traveling up into Silverstone. Those that do will expect to take us for everything we have. Can’t let them bully people.”

“No worries there. But again, that is a problem for the future. I’m sure Kris will know and be ready if anyone tries to cause issues,” Koda interjected, giving both his wives a squeeze. “But we need to focus on the here and now. How are you two doing after a day with those ghosts?”

“Odd,” Sienna said at first, with Calandra just nodding in agreement. “I can feel their lingering emotions, mostly with concern for their kittens and an even greater desire to see the trolls dead.”

“Tell him the rest,” Calandra teased, using the tip of her braid to hide the smile on her lips, but the twinkling of her eyes made it obvious. “If you don’t, then I will.”

“Cal!” Sienna whined. “You promised not to!”

“I promised to keep your secrets as long as necessary. I think it’s rather necessary that our mate knows—” Calandra began before Sienna cut her off with another pinch that made her yelp.

“If you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine,” Koda said, trying to mediate their argument. Sienna’s blush just grew thicker, and she looked down to avoid eye contact, muttering something.

“You are gonna have to speak louder,” Calandra said lovingly, leaning over to press a kiss to the base of one of Sienna’s pointed ears. “It is your right as the first mate.”

Koda was about to interject again when Sienna squared her shoulders and looked up to meet his eyes.

Just like every other time that they’d locked eyes, Koda felt himself falling into those blue-green orbs. Sienna’s eyes swallowed him whole, and he lost himself in the love that he saw reflected there. It wrapped around his soul and made the lingering aches of his day’s exertion fade away.

“Ever since the ghosts merged with us, we’ve both been feeling a shift in emotions,” Sienna explained, and the words gave him a handle to pull himself up out of the ocean of her eyes.

“How so? Nothing negative, I hope,” Koda asked quickly, and Sienna shook her head, biting her bottom lip for a moment before explaining further.

“I think it’s something to do with the fact that the spirits are constantly thinking about their kittens. It’s making us… broody,” Sienna said shyly.

“And horny. Well, more horny than normal,” Calandra interjected with a smirk, grinding her hips into his side. “Sienna’s had it the worst, though.”

“Broody?” Koda asked, not recognizing the word. He had a guess at it, but wanted it confirmed rather than operating on an assumption.

Sienna’s shy look turned to one of frustration and she glared up at him for a moment, clearly thinking he was teasing her. But the anger faded when she saw the earnest confusion in his eyes. Sighing, she buried her face in Koda’s chest. Her next words were muffled, but Koda still heard them clearly.

“I want your children, Koda. All your mates do, but since the other day, it’s gotten a lot worse. The ghosts want their children back, and because they are constantly thinking about that, it’s projecting into us.”

Koda blinked in surprise, but he felt the patriarch’s spirit stir at that idea, sending thoughts of approval and urges to Koda as well. Again, it wasn’t words but the concept that it was good and right to breed his mates. The sooner the better, because that would mean the kittens would be born in the spring and have time to grow before the next winter.

“Ah, I think I get it.” Koda cleared his throat and shuffled slightly as his body reacted to the idea. But with Calandra pressed to him like this, it was impossible to avoid her noticing.

“Oh, I think you do,” Calandra said huskily, her hip grinding increasing in speed. “Sienna and I have talked, though. It wouldn’t be right to rush into it before our home and lives are ready for children. But you can help scratch that itch, right?”

“Not right now,” Sienna interrupted, peeking up through her bangs again with an embarrassed blush. “We need to get more done today. But, if we get time tonight, maybe then?”

“Sure,” Koda sighed, his resistance crumbling in front of the temptation before him. “I think I can handle both of you⁠—”

“Just Sienna tonight,” Calandra interrupted. “My sister-mate needs it the most. I can wait until tomorrow night. I’ll just exhaust myself today.”

“Cal—” Sienna protested, turning towards the dwarven woman. But Calandra didn’t budge, leaning up so she could turn to look directly at Sienna.

“No, Sienna. You and Arthene opened your relationship to me, and you happily welcomed me in and indulged my fixation with waking Koda up in my favorite way. You earned the right to get some time to yourself. I would love to join you two in bed sometime in the future, but not this time.”

Sienna looked like she wanted to protest, but her expression turned startled and then amused as a broad smile crossed her lips.

“What?” Koda asked in confusion as Sienna giggled.

The wolf-eared woman buried her face in his chest to muffle the noise, but it was a good minute before she came up for air, tears in her eyes. By that time, both he and Calandra were looking on with worry as Sienna wiped at her eyes while smothering the occasional laugh that bubbled up.

“It’s fine. I was just thinking that it was a good thing that none of the spirits went for Arthene. Can you imagine how she’d react if she suddenly started feeling even more of a desire for cubs? I love our bear to death, but she’s not one for self-control!”

This time, Koda and Calandra joined Sienna in laughter.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of work. Koda rejoined Hans to finish setting the spikes. The impromptu barricades were set around corners to trip and injure trolls, since they couldn’t be used directly to stop them. Sienna and Calandra continued to dig gopher holes and small pits to trip the massive monsters up all around that edge of town.

Caches of the spears and javelins hid in the village for use if things came to that, but they all hoped that it wouldn’t be necessary to actually fight in the village proper. The damage that they could avoid to the buildings would help the survivors weather the winter.

No one slacked off, always keeping an eye on the mountains. There were still three more days before the Silent Plains tribe would return to the village, and Koda fully expected at least one skirmish with the trolls raiding it for more food before then. He just hoped to bleed the troll chieftain’s forces some before then.

To be ready in case they were forced to give up the town, Koda’s group moved their supplies to the forest, on the outskirts of the village. Sienna dug out a shelter for them amongst the trees that would be a camouflage fall-back point. They’d still sleep in the meeting house for security, but having the hidden camp would help if something went wrong.

True to her promise, Calandra worked herself hard. The stout woman flitted from group to group, doing whatever needed doing once she and Sienna had finished with the gopher holes and planning. She chopped and sharpened stakes or logs, felled trees, and carried things. Despite her shorter height, Calandra did not lack in strength and put it to good use.

By the time it came to evening, she had fully worn herself out. Barely able to keep her eyes open to eat, the dwarven woman actually fell asleep against Arthene, which amused the bear spirit to no end.

Samira was in much the same state, having tried to match Calandra’s enthusiasm throughout the day in preparing the defense of her home. She even mirrored Calandra in using Arthene’s thigh as a pillow as the group got comfortable.

Koda glanced at Sienna and caught the wolf beastfolk watching him with a hopeful look in her blue-green eyes, tail wagging slowly. He nodded to her and tipped his head to the door. Sienna’s face split in a broad grin.

“We are going to go for a walk to check the village out one last time, maybe get a bath in the lake,” Koda said quietly to Arthene. The bear spirit waggled her eyebrows at him knowingly and blew him a kiss.

“Do more than that if you have a need to, my mate,” Arthene murmured back, a hand on each of her dozing companions' hair. “I’ll keep an eye on these little cubs till you get back. Make sure our sweet Sienna knows our love.”

“Your intuition is scary sometimes,” Koda laughed and bent to kiss Arthene on the lips lightly.

“It’s not just intuition, my mate,” Arthene rumbled contentedly. “My nose is sensitive, even in this form. I can smell it on them.” The incarnate spirit pointedly stroked the heads of both girls in her lap meaningfully. “It’s why I didn’t dissuade them from working so hard today. Calandra clearly is being thoughtful, and Samira is not ready yet. But our sweet Sienna deserves it. Go soothe her fires.”

“Love you, Arthene,” Koda murmured, kissing one of the rounded bear ears poking out of the mass of curly hair that shrouded Arthene’s shoulders. That made the big woman shiver happily and nuzzle into him before leaning back once more.

Nodding to the others who were settling in for the night, Koda joined Sienna in slipping out into the shadows of the evening.

<3 <3 <3

With no lights in the abandoned village, the darkness of the night settled in like a heavy velvet cloak. The glimmer of the moon high above, barely more than half full, was all the light that they were spared. This made navigating the dark village a bit of a feat, but with how often they’d traveled about in preparing it for the fight ahead, Koda could walk behind Sienna with confidence.

His lover had left her spear behind for once, clearly trusting in him to protect her if something went wrong.

As she walked, the jaunty pace she set made her muscled bottom bounce in counterpoint to the sexy sway of her tail. Sienna knew he was watching her; that was the only way Koda could rationalize her putting so much sensuality into her normally confident stride.

“Lover?” Sienna murmured after they got a street away from their group’s hideout. “Would you do me a favor tonight?”

“Always, my Sienna,” Koda rumbled. Since their conversation earlier in the day warned him, Koda had been anticipating the chance to spend some loving time with his first mate. That bubbling anticipation had stoked his desire even more, as the hours drifted past.

The raw desire in his voice sent a shiver down Sienna’s back and her tail puffed up in response while her ears laid back. She twisted to shoot him a hot look over her shoulder, the faint light of the moon illuminating her blue-green eyes with an inner glow.

“Our dear Arthene is always lecturing us on trusting our instincts. Will you indulge those instincts with me tonight?” Sienna’s voice was even more heated now, the faint blush of embarrassment on her cheeks darkening into one of desire.

Koda didn’t respond verbally, he just kept his eyes locked on hers and grunted in agreement. His lust and the angle of the light kept him from losing himself in her eyes at the moment, but the way they glittered was just as enticing to him right now. Sienna let out a low groan of lust and another shiver of desire raced through her.

“Lover, will you hunt me through the village? Capture me and take me as a prize?” Sienna moaned, coming to a stop by one of the damaged barns. “The opportunity to do this in such a place is too good to pass up. Will you⁠—”

“Yes.”

Koda’s one-word reply interrupted Sienna’s request and her eyes widened as he lunged for her. Squeaking in excitement, Sienna broke into a sprint, her tail whipping up a storm in the wake of her movement.

Instincts roared in Koda’s chest. Both from the very depths of his soul that sang in time with his blood at the joy of the chase, and from the spirit of the stonecracker patriarch that approved of the mating-hunt.

Pushing both aside, Koda bounded forward after Sienna with long strides. His mate had better night-sight than him, so she used that to find and dart down alleys and duck behind buildings. He was faster, the boost to his strength allowing him to close far more quickly, but she was canny in her evasion.

Sienna led Koda on a merry chase, down one alley and up another, cutting through an abandoned house into their yard before using a half-collapsed shed to leap up onto the roof of the building. Rather than pursue her over the roof, Koda leaped the fence, and raced to the front of the building as Sienna dropped into the street.

She saw him turn the corner and gave a lusty laugh before lunging across the street and into another narrow passage. Koda barely missed her in his leaping tackle, having to hook the corner of the building with one hand to prevent from slamming into the opposite wall of the alley.

This continued for several minutes. Koda had the chance to capture her twice, but he was having too much fun with the competition to bring it to a quick end. Instead, he would use the opportunity to give his lover a grope or ‘nearly catch’ her, leaving Sienna’s clothing rumpled but allowing her to escape.

As they ran, Koda slowly corralled Sienna through the town towards the edge where the fields were. On open ground, he would have a far easier time making a decisive takedown that wouldn’t injure his mate. They’d nearly made it to the edge of town when Sienna darted into one of the intact barns rather than continuing along the lane like he’d expected.

Not hesitating, Koda followed her into the yawning darkness of the building. If not for the rapid breathing of his mate guiding him despite her best efforts to muffle it, Koda would have fallen for the ruse as Sienna tried to slip past him back out into the night.

Instead, his hand closed on the back of her chest wrap as she slid past.

“Got you!” Koda rasped, excitement pounding through him now that the chase was over.

“That’s what you think!” laughed Sienna, and then suddenly the tight leather top in his hand slackened.

A moment later, Sienna was free and racing out the door. The moonlight glimmered on her sun-kissed skin, revealing she’d slid out of the top after loosening the ties. Those soft mounds bounced as she raced away from him, the nipples two hard peaks on the mountains of full flesh.

“Damn it!” Koda growled, stuffing the leather top into his shirt and racing after her.

Sienna had cut back into town, but losing her top had slowed her. Not because she wasn’t capable of running naked, but without the support of the leather wrap holding her breasts in place, she had to be more careful and steady herself with an arm to pin those luscious curves in place. Koda capitalized on this without hesitation, taking a side-street and running flat out to get ahead of her.

When he emerged from one alley to see Sienna looking over her shoulder as she ran, hair flying in the wind and one arm cupping her bare chest, he growled happily and spread his arms to catch her.

Sienna whipped her head around, eyes widening in surprise when she saw him ahead of her, far too close to stop herself in time from slamming into Koda’s chest. She still tried, though, tucking to keep from hitting him too hard, but Koda caught her up in his arms, spinning with the impact to bleed off her momentum and trapping Sienna against his chest.

Her skin was fire-hot after the exertion and both of them were panting in desire as they crashed into each other. Koda had one arm wrapped around Sienna’s waist, palming her ass and the other around her shoulders, crushing her chest to his.

Now that she had been caught, Sienna did not fight against him and instead began scrabbling at Koda’s clothing. She rapidly untucked his shirt before beginning to fumble with his belt as Koda’s lips found hers in a fervent kiss. The pressure of his erect cock inside his pants both made it hard to think and nearly impossible to peel the pants off of him.

Their tongues danced as they fought with each other’s clothes, nearly tearing the offending garments off in their haste. The first touch of their bare chests to each other tore a ragged moan out of Sienna’s throat as her hard nipples dragged over his muscled chest.

“Mine!” Sienna panted in between kisses, shoving Koda’s pants down around his ankles. They both still had their boots on, so they could only mostly strip down right now, but the desire was burning too hot in either of them to care.

“My mate,” Koda growled back, nuzzling her head to one side so he could kiss and nip at Sienna’s neck.

The wolf-eared woman’s moans grew hotter as she ground into him. Her pants were bunched around her knees and the cool evening air on her molten sex was a glorious counterpoint to the burning heat of Koda’s member as he ground that into her stomach.

“Take me, Koda. You caught me, claim me however you wish,” Sienna panted, submitting to her mate without hesitation as his hands roamed over her tight body.

Koda growled deep in his throat, his desire thundering in his veins, demanding he claim her, breed her, and lovingly ruin the beautiful redhead in front of him. The pants that lay bundled between his feet were in the way, though, as were hers. An urge to just tear the garments away and consequences be damned surged through him, but Koda held himself back. Even as his teeth sunk into Sienna’s shoulder, marking the flesh without piercing through her skin, he searched their surroundings for a location to take his mate as she deserved.

The rational part of his mind supplied him with an idea that made Koda grin wickedly. It was an idea that he was sure Sienna wouldn’t object to and would spare their clothing for the moment.

“I’ll take you when I am ready,” Koda growled into Sienna’s neck after releasing his grip on her shoulder. Sienna moaned hotly as he licked the bite marks to soothe them, a tremble running through her body. “But first, I want to taste my lovely wolf.”

Sienna blinked through the haze of her arousal before yelping in surprise as Koda bodily picked her up and lifted her over his head. That yelp melted into a moan of arousal as he pulled her hips into his face before pinning her bottom-first to the wall.

Enveloped in the powerful scent of Sienna’s arousal, Koda’s mind went on autopilot as he lathered the lips of her womanhood with his tongue. His nose bumped against her clitoris while he nuzzled into the carefully trimmed bush of hair on her sex. It took only a moment to settle Sienna into place with her knees on his shoulders.

As his tongue bathed Sienna’s sex, Koda’s hands quickly went to her boots, undoing the clips and clasps to strip first them away and then her pants until his fiery-haired mate wore nothing but her skin as she moaned her arousal to the moon far overhead.

“Gods…” Sienna gasped as Koda showed his strength by pinning her in place with only his upper body and face. She tried to protest, make an offer, anything at all to let her return the favor to him, but he was relentless as he stripped her of every defense she had. She’d been caught and now she was being devoured.

Finally freeing Sienna of the last of her clothes, Koda trapped her clitoris between his lips and lashed it with his tongue, lifting his hands up to palm her breasts and treat her nipples to that same furious stimulation.

Sienna clapped both hands over her mouth to muffle her scream as she came hard on Koda’s face. A gush of feminine juices washed over him as Sienna keened into her hands, trembles racing up and down her spine. The orgasming wolf-girl didn’t even bother to spare a thought to supporting herself, trusting in her mate to keep her in place until he was done with her.

Which was very much Koda’s plan. He didn’t slow his stimulation as the wave of orgasm washed through Sienna. His instincts demanded that he claim every inch of his mate, and he would do so that night.

Just as the first wave of contractions began to fade and Sienna’s mind cleared, a second wave started up. Her hands were not enough to muffle the shriek of pleasure from the huntress-turned-prey, but she did her best.

Koda continued to lather attention on her sex, allowing Sienna to mark him with her scent as she came again and again on his tongue until she could no longer muster the strength to muffle herself. Only then did Koda let her down from his shoulders.

Twitching and breathing in fits and starts, Sienna blinked at her mate with eyes that refused to focus.

“Kodaaaa,” Sienna moaned, another contraction running through her body as her mouth hung open.

“Mine,” Koda asserted firmly, settling the insensate wolf-girl on his hip like he had with Calandra earlier in the day. With his strength, it was easy to hold her there.

“Yours,” Sienna moaned, burying her face in his neck and laying suckling kisses there. He felt her teeth nip at him affectionately in time with the grinding of her crotch into his hip as she continued to ride out the aftershocks of her orgasm.

His cock was hard as steel now and throbbing with the need to be buried within Sienna’s steaming body. All Koda could think of at this moment was claiming his mate again and again. He’d been gentle enough to remove Sienna’s pants earlier, but his patience had run out.

The sharp tearing sound of cloth shocked Sienna out of her daze as Koda kicked out with the leg to which she wasn’t pinned. His pants tore in half at the crotch, leaving trailing rags around Koda’s ankles. Before she could speak, though, Koda’s hands gripped her trim waist and lifted Sienna up.

When she felt the heat of his cock head nestle against the still-dripping lips of her sex, Sienna gasped and hunched forward with all her strength, trying to use the muscles in her legs to pull her mate into her. Unfortunately, his earlier oral attentions and the fire inside her had robbed Sienna of most of her strength. But there was enough there that Koda could understand her demands.

Cupping her tight ass with both hands, Koda let his lover fall down onto his shaft until his head breached her lips. They both let out sharp gasps of desire as Koda drove into her with a sloppy slap of hips to hips. And then he was buried to the root of Sienna’s sex.

“Mine,” Koda growled again, staring up into Sienna’s blue-green eyes as her breasts pillowed against his throat.

“All yours,” Sienna panted, her channel squeezing his shaft lovingly as her legs tightened around his waist to mirror it. “Now breed me, my mate. You claimed me before, but remind my body of whose children will grow in me one day. Champion of my heart and soul.”

The love and lust boiling in Koda’s heart slowed as Sienna’s eyes consumed him again. He swore he could feel the desire in those eyes, the want to carry his child and be his in a way that none could deny. He felt that same devotion deep within his soul and knew that he would die before this woman.

Koda knew without a doubt he would lay down his life for the woman in his arms, even if the gods themselves tried to come for her. That deep connection resonated into the base of his soul, echoing down the halls of his heritage, where that nameless power slept and settled into him like a rock falling into the bottom of a deep pool.

Then the world rushed back around him and his instincts roared in approval. Such devotion was just and right to them, and he knew that Sienna returned it. Just as he knew his other mates felt the same. That confidence shackled itself to his soul so that he would never doubt it and urged him to thank his mate in the way she desired the most right now.

Koda’s grip on Sienna’s waist tightened, and he lifted her bodily up, his shaft sliding slowly out of her, inch by inch. The beautiful, wild huntress in his arms moaned as he slipped free of her body until only the head of his shaft remained within her. Her grip on him tightened, urging him to return to her body once more. So he did just that, relaxing his grip to allow gravity to bring her back down until their hips met again with a soft pat.

“Harder, my mate,” Sienna begged sweetly, her tail thrashing back and forth until he gripped the base of the fluffy appendage where it emerged from her back just above her butt. The grip set off another small orgasm in the woman, and she keened in pleasure while her sex pulsed around him, desperately begging Koda to fill her with children.

Not one to deny his mate something they both desired, Koda turned around and pinned Sienna back to the wall, right beside the wet spot she’d left from his earlier oral attentions. Once he had her firmly trapped there, Koda fucked her in earnest.

The clap of flesh on flesh was loud and wet, echoing down the alleyway and up into the sky without a care in the world. To the two of them, there was nothing else but each other as Koda drove himself into Sienna’s sweet sex over and over.

Sienna did her best to muffle her cries, instinctively knowing that if she gave voice to her pleasure, it would draw attention that might interrupt the passionate fucking she was receiving. So she clapped one hand over her mouth as Koda pounded her hips back into the wall of the house, and the other mauled the breast that Koda wasn’t currently covering in kisses and licks.

The only times that Sienna removed her hand was to beg her lover for more. She poured loving filth into Koda’s ear, begging him to fuck her so hard she couldn’t walk, fill her with children, and mark her with his seed so that all could smell him on her. Every touch of his hands sent trembles through her body, and Sienna could barely perceive her surroundings anymore.

Koda could feel the climax building in his stomach, and he knew it was going to be a big one. Despite Calandra happily blowing him awake each morning, his desire was unabated. For a moment, Koda wished that the short woman was with them so he could show her how much he loved her too, but knowing that she had insisted he focus on Sienna allowed him to fold that desire back into doing more for the lovely wolf in his arms.

“Going to fill you up,” Koda panted into Sienna’s breast, the words making the woman tense in grip and her pussy tighten around him convulsively.

His hands had long since relinquished their grip on her ass, instead planting on the wall to either side of her hips as his fingers dug into the beam, leaving dents in the wood as he pounded into his lover. For all his strength, Koda’s instincts kept him from hurting Sienna with the force of his thrusts, though all that supported her lower half right now was her legs around his waist and his shaft piercing her sex.

“Yes, please?” Sienna whined, blinking furiously as she fought to focus, both hands shifting to cup Koda’s face as they locked eyes. “Breed me, Koda?”

The pleading tone of her demand was more than Koda could handle. His orgasm abruptly surged the last bit of distance to the peak and sent him tumbling over the edge. Koda drove himself to the root and came with a roar of triumph that was muffled by the pressure of Sienna’s full breasts pressing in on him as he pinned her to the wall on his shaft.

Wood cracked and splintered under his grip as Koda came so hard that his hands clenched into fists, tearing large chunks out of the treated beam of the wall behind Sienna. His whole body churned as rope after rope of burning hot seed filled his mate, each burst dragging another needy gasp, moan, or twitch out of the pinned woman, while stars and sparks raced throughout their bodies.

Gradually, the tension faded from each of them. Koda did not shift though, continuing to lean into Sienna and keeping her pinned there as they came down from their furious coupling, just savoring the soul-deep connection they shared as their bodies clung to each other in every way possible.

Sienna was the first to move, shifting from clutching Koda’s head against her plush chest to running her fingers through his sweat-soaked hair and combing it straight once more.

“That was glorious, my mate,” Sienna moaned in his ear, her words making him throb inside of her and tightening on him in response.

Koda could feel their combined fluids leaking down out of his lover, coating his shaft and dripping onto the ground beneath them. His cock remained unflagging, proudly pinning his lover in place as he savored the sensation of Sienna’s molten depths and the tiny tremors that ran through her body.

“You are glorious,” Koda mumbled into the plush tit flesh still pressed to his face. “Again?”

“Always and forever,” Sienna giggled, before gasping in surprise as Koda pulled back from her.

He pulled free of her with a wet squish and turned Sienna about to pin her to the wall face-first this time.

Her legs refused to support her, so Koda pressed his cock into her quivering sex once more and used that to pin her hips to the wall. His hands wormed underneath her torso to palm her breasts and protect them from the rough wood.

Sienna’s tail lay off to one side of their joined hips, pinned there by the position, but doing its absolute best to wag happily as Koda snuggled into her back. The wagging picked up as he pumped his hips again, lovingly fucking his mate into the wall right there in the middle of the abandoned village.

24

The sound of footsteps snapped Koda out of a sound sleep and he tensed. The motion had the effect of squeezing Sienna tighter to his chest, causing the luscious softness of her naked flesh to squish against him.

A tiny grunt told him that Sienna was awake, followed by the soft sound of a yawn as the wolf-eared woman nuzzled into his neck.

“Aegisclaw?” Samira’s voice called from outside of the barn that the two of them had fallen asleep in after their previous night of sexual escapades. “Lady Sienna? The sun is rising.”

Sienna groaned quietly, burying her face into Koda’s chest like she could burrow in and hide there.

“Don’t wanna get up,” Sienna grumbled cutely, her tail flicking slowly behind her and stirring in the warm hay that had been their bed.

“I know, love,” Koda murmured into one of her drooping wolf ears, kissing the outer shell of it gently. “But we have a task to see through to completion. Better to get it done now.”

Sienna didn’t stir from his arms, and despite his words, Koda was in no rush to move his mate away from him. The sensation of her soft skin against his hands, combined with the warmth of her body and the memories of the previous night, reminded him of all that he’d gained in this world.

But, as is an undeniable fact and reality, the world does not stop turning simply because you want it to.

“Are you in here?” Samira’s voice asked from just outside the barn before the door swung inwards to admit the watery light of the morning. “I hope I can find them. The Den Mother was concerned…”

That last statement was enough to get them both moving, despite their desires otherwise. If Arthene was concerned, then Calandra was fretting as well. The easygoing bear spirit was the hardest to stir up unless it was a threat to her family after all.

“Yeah, we are in here, Samira. Give us a moment,” Koda called as a form stepped through the doorway, silhouetted in the dim light with a long, thin tail flicking behind it.

Samira started in surprise at the words coming from the darkness, hands going to the weapons belted at her waist. After a moment, she relaxed and peered into the shadows towards where Koda was laying with Sienna.

“Ah, okay. We should head back to the village hall then. The others are stirring to look for you, but I left first since I’m the most familiar with the town. Why did you two sleep out here?”

“Distractions kept us away and then we were too tired to go back,” Sienna answered, rolling over onto her back and sitting up with another loud yawn and a stretch that ended in a wince.

Koda glanced up to see Sienna tenderly rubbing at one of the large bruises on her shoulder. The heated look in her eyes when she glanced down at him conveyed she was not unhappy with its presence.

“Ah… yes, I could imagine they would,” Samira’s voice transformed from one of concern to amusement, signaling that her eyesight had finished adjusting to the darkened confines of the barn. “That would explain the shreds of clothing that I found in the street. I was worried initially. But, since there was no blood present, I did not want to jump to conclusions.”

“Surprised that you didn’t find anything else there,” Koda muttered under his breath, smirking up at Sienna and making the wolf-eared woman blush and smack him in the chest.

“Hush you,” Sienna commanded imperiously before she began rifling through the hay for their clothes.

After their first few rounds of furious coupling in the street, she’d teased Koda into another chase that had ended inside the barn. The two of them had at least had the sense to bring their intact clothing with them, though Koda’s pants were ruined beyond saving.

Koda was staring at the two halves of torn cloth, wondering if he could somehow fashion them into a waist wrap to preserve his dignity, while Sienna and Samira watched him in amusement. It didn’t even occur to him he was giving Samira a show while sitting there in the hay, naked.

“I’ll get you a fresh pair, lover,” Sienna murmured to Koda as she tugged on her tunic and bent to kiss him, her tail flicking in amusement. Straightening, Sienna picked several strands of hay out of Koda’s long black hair and tossed them aside.

“I know we secured the village, but you aren’t armed right now. I don’t like the idea of not being there to protect you, Sienna,” Koda replied, ignoring his own nudity to gather Sienna’s pants up and help her step into them.

“Arthene would make you walk back naked,” Sienna teased him as she stepped into her pants and let him pull them up for her, taking the garment when it reached her waist and slipping her tail through the slot in the rear of the pants.

“Our dear Den Mother would walk back naked herself if she felt like it, so that’s not much of an argument for or against,” Koda teased right back, kissing the back of one of Sienna’s hands while she did up her belt.

“You can borrow my cloak, Champion Aegisclaw,” Samira suggested, swirling the fur wrap off her shoulders and holding it out to him with a bright smile. “It’s not large enough for someone of your height, but you can at least wrap it around your waist until you get back to your pack.”

“It’s fine, Samira. I appreciate the offer, though. I have another option that, while being less comfortable, is just as good.” Koda grinned after the idea presented itself to him.

“Oh? Oh! Your armor, right?” Sienna asked, stepping into her boots and bending to do up the buckles.

“Yes. I wouldn’t want to go without underthings for long, but it’ll give me enough coverage to get back without a problem,” Koda answered, quickly pulling on his own shirt and standing up.

Samira followed his motion with a hungry look to her eyes, before glancing away sheepishly when she saw Koda watching her and realized she’d been caught staring. He hadn’t really cared; between the open affection of his three mates, Koda didn’t really feel much of shyness at this point. That and Sienna hadn’t acted shy about being caught naked by the caracal woman, but he’d wondered how long she was planning to stare for.

Then again, Samira isn’t much of one for propriety. If she was, she’d have stepped back outside while we dressed, Koda thought, amused at the feline woman’s dichotomy.

A thought and a mental flexing of his ‘claws’ brought the armor into shape around his body, with the leg armor feeling odd since it didn’t sit right without his trousers underneath them. Koda stretched to make sure that nothing would pinch before helping Sienna pick the straw out of her hair.

Once the two of them were presentable, with Koda only stepping into his boots and not buttoning them closed for now, they headed out into the street.

The sun was barely cresting the horizon, its glow lighting the land with a gentle illumination that made the day feel ethereal. Outside of the barn, the air was chilly, and Sienna scooted over to walk close to Koda. Not hesitating, Koda wrapped an arm around Sienna’s waist to pull her to him while they walked in sync.

A small sound of amusement from Samira got their attention, but it was Sienna who spoke while they walked through the silent remains of the abandoned town.

“What?” the wolf beastfolk asked, arching an eyebrow at Samira.

“It’s nothing,” Samira deflected, blushing faintly.

Where was this shyness when she was staring at my junk earlier? Koda thought in silent amusement, but he didn’t confront the woman. Instead, he was curious to see how Sienna would handle it.

“It is clearly something, so spill. I’m not upset at you, Samira,” Sienna pressed, her ears perked up in curiosity.

Samira opened her mouth to speak and then closed it, her tufted feline ears wiggling for several long moments before she sighed and nodded.

“I was just thinking about how cute it was to see you two together. Champion Aegisclaw is so intimidating most times, and after watching him dismantle that troll the other day, it is obvious how strong he is. But with each of his mates, he is so gentle and affectionate. I suppose I’m envious.”

“He’s only gentle when we want him to be,” Sienna said smugly, shooting Koda a grin while tilting her head to expose the edge of one bruise over the collar of her shirt.

Koda grinned back at her and made biting motions at his mate, making her squeal happily and wriggle playfully in an attempt to escape that wasn’t the least bit earnest.

Watching them with a longing look in her bright eyes, Samira bit her bottom lip while her tail flicked through intricate patterns behind her back. It was obvious she had more questions—that expression was something that they’d all gotten very used to seeing on the feline woman’s face over the last several days. So when Sienna turned back to her, she raised her eyebrow at the caracal woman again and gestured for her to speak.

“How?” Samira said after another moment of hesitation.

“How what?” Sienna asked in return. “How does he do it? It starts with when he kisses every part of me so possessively⁠—”

“Not what she meant,” Koda interrupted with a laugh. Both women shot him looks of amused annoyance at that, but Sienna accepted his deflection and became earnest once more.

“His strength doesn’t scare me. I know Koda would never hurt any of those that he holds dear. That strength he has is to be wielded in the defense of others. It’s why Thera christened him as ‘Aegisclaw,’ after all.”

Koda felt a shifting in his chest at Sienna’s words, as if something slumbering in his heart rolled over in its sleep and gave a happy rumble at the acknowledgement of his determination.

Closer to the surface, he felt the contentment throbbing of the stonecracker patriarch as the ghost purred happily in agreement, confident that a protector should always wield its strength to benefit those under it. Though the ghostly patriarch had a more literal interpretation of who and what should be ‘under’ it at the moment, especially after Koda and Sienna’s loving interlude the previous night.

“I can easily believe that. But how does it work with the three mates? I know some of our greater hunters sometimes will take on second wives or husbands if they can provide for them, but their relationships are rocky, especially if there is much of an age difference between them,” Samira asked next, turning to walk backwards with bright curiosity in her eyes and a faint blush on her cheeks.

“Koda keeps up with all three of us equally. Cal only joined our little family around a week ago, but she’s slotted in without a problem. We ladies talk about everything and we ensure that there are no problems,” Sienna said confidently, the arm she’d wrapped around Koda’s waist tightening for a moment in a one-armed hug. “It sometimes results in over-communicating, but better to talk about it and ensure everyone is on the same level than for someone to be hurt by a misunderstanding.”

“That is fair,” Samira said with a thoughtful nod. “Having such open and blunt communication is very important, and each of you has an important role to fulfill in your tribe.”

“That and we all love each other.” Koda’s interjection drew a smile from Sienna and a thoughtful look from Samira before the caracal woman turned her attention back to the wolf woman.

“Sienna, when there is time, I would like to speak with you in private. As his first mate, you are uniquely situated to answer some questions I have.” The faint blush on Samira’s cheeks grew thicker, and she looked away from Koda pointedly as she spoke.

“When there is time,” Sienna answered gently, catching Koda’s eyes with hers and conveying with a silent glance to let her handle this. Samira nodded quickly and spun around, the bounce returning to her step as she led the way, tail writhing happily through the air.

Koda nodded in agreement at Sienna’s unspoken request, and instead spotted a different opportunity to tweak his mate’s nose lovingly.

Not saying anything out loud, Koda flicked his eyes to the side of a building as they passed. Sienna followed his gaze with her own and blushed furiously when she recognized the finger-shaped dents in the wood and the faint, still-drying stains on the wall of the house.

As she was still bouncing happily at the news Sienna would talk with her in private later, Samira totally missed the exchange, as well as the quiet moan Sienna gave when Koda smacked her lightly on the butt before giving the huntress’ bottom a loving squeeze.

As predicted, Calandra and Arthene were both worried, but that calmed when Sienna and Koda greeted the two of them with loving affection. Arthene’s nose wiggled and her worries turned into a broad grin.

“I see you two were too distracted to return last night. I hope you didn’t do too much damage to your surroundings.” Arthene teased, guiding her two wayward mates back to where their things lay.

“Only a little bit,” Koda teased back. “Nothing like what you can do when I really get you riled up.” He noted the knowing looks from the others of his group and nodded to Todd as the older fox waved towards the door and pointed to himself. Todd ducked outside a moment later.

“Good,” Arthene said with a confident nod. “Our sweet Sienna deserves all of your passion. Soon she will be strong enough that you won’t have to reserve yourself once we get her and our little Cal the troll-slayer blessing.”

“Still not sure if that’s a good idea,” Calandra grumbled under her breath. “I just got myself a loving family. I’d hate to lose that because one of those great, misshapen shitstains sat on me.”

“You just have to be quick enough that they can’t,” Samira interjected sagely. “With your wind magic, you will be fast enough to run circles around them!”

“She’s got a point,” Koda added as well, digging through his pack and finding his last pair of clean and intact pants. “You should look into accelerating your weapon like you do us while we fight. If you can pull that off and swing your axe with the speed of a shortsword, then you’ll be able to hack them down to size, no problem.”

“Huh,” Calandra mumbled thoughtfully, rubbing her chin. “I hadn’t thought of that. Ooh! Are you going to give me my morning treat?”

The last part of her sentence shifted from thoughtful to excited when Koda banished the lower half of his armor, revealing he was naked from the waist down.

“No. We don’t have time, Cal,” Sienna interjected. “Unfortunately, our dear Aegisclaw decided last night that he just couldn’t wait long enough to take his pants off. I think we might need to find someone with a seamstress’s skills if he continues to take this kind of toll on his clothes.”

“You weren’t complaining last night,” Koda shot back at his redheaded lover. Sienna just stuck her tongue out at him, only the barest hint of a blush coloring her cheeks.

“I would never complain about my mate showing me such affection, but I can complain as a wife of the costs after the fact,” Sienna asserted with a snort.

Samira was standing behind the girls, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully as she watched the banter fly fast amongst them while Koda dressed and secured his pants. All three of his mates moved unconsciously to screen him while he changed, giving Koda a measure of privacy from the other four in the meeting hall.

Once he was dressed, Koda quickly packed his things away and buckled his pack shut. It would be pointless to carry it with him while they worked, and if the trolls returned en masse to the village, then they’d have time to reclaim the packs.

“So, what do we have planned for today?” Hans asked as the small knot of four women and one man dissolved and returned to where the others from Silverstone were waiting. “Do we head up into the mountains to check on the trolls again? Do we keep preparing the village? We could start barricading the storehouses today. Make it harder for the trolls to get into them?”

“That’s not a bad idea,” Hannah said around a mouthful of jerky, continuing after she swallowed what she had. “The problem the people here are facing is three-fold, after all: the threat of the trolls, the loss of their homes, and the potential lack of supplies. We’ve already prepared what we can for the first, and the second will be taken care of by limiting the damage to the village. The third will be harder. We could start moving the supplies away from town?”

“I thought maybe Sienna could use her magic to seal the storehouses up?” Netta interjected, the hawk beastfolk tilting her head to one side curiously. “It’d be better to secure the buildings rather than move the food, I think. It’s already organized and settled there. I saw into the storerooms when Cyrus was getting supplies to take back to the refugees, and there is a lot stocked up there.”

“Sienna?” Koda turned his attention to the wolf beastfolk, and she shrugged faintly.

“I’d need to look at the buildings and the surrounding area to see if I can do anything. Without stone to work with, there is only so much I could do to reinforce the buildings.”

“Even just filling in the entrances with packed soil and rocks will help,” Netta pressed.

A sudden pounding on the door preceded Todd sticking his head inside.

“Trolls coming down the mountain! Four of them so far. I just caught sight of them through the trees.”

25

There wasn’t a moment of hesitation in the group. Breakfasts were discarded and equipment snatched up. Everyone was already dressed in what armor they wore, so within about ten seconds they were crowding out the door and hurrying down the lane towards the fields.

Koda didn’t need Todd to point out the lumpy figures moving down the mountain. With the damage from their earlier passage having plowed out a pathway down the mountain, it made picking them out against the skyline easy. Each of the beasts was as tall as a bus and about as smart, so they waddled along and didn’t even try to hide themselves.

“Only four?” Sienna asked curiously, shouldering her broad-bladed spear as she came up beside Koda to look up the mountain.

“Yeah, surprised that they aren’t sending more of their number out,” Koda muttered.

“Maybe the chieftain is being lazy?” Calandra suggested as she slapped her helmet into place and tightened the chin-strap. “I mean, he’s got plenty of his kind to boss around, so it kinda makes sense?”

“Unlikely. The chieftain wouldn’t want them getting the choicest picks of food simply because they could stuff it in their mouth quickly enough,” Arthene countered. “But regardless, I only see the four of them as well. We shouldn’t second guess our good fortune. We can strike a blow against their numbers here and now.”

The excitement and bloodlust growing in Arthene’s voice brought a fierce grin to Koda’s lips, and he twisted his head on his neck to make a sharp popping noise.

“Arthene has a point. We handled two before with just me and her. Four should be doable with the rest of you. Who wants a crack at the blessing?”

Sienna and Calandra’s hands going into the air was unsurprising.

Koda didn’t expect his mates to put themselves into danger as a matter of course, but he knew that each of his girls had a fierce determination to continue to grow so they could stick close to him. It hadn’t been voiced, but he knew instinctively that Sienna and Calandra viewed the opportunity that came with the troll-slayer blessing as a chance to close on him and Arthene in terms of physical strength.

What surprised him was the fact that Hans, Hannah, Netta, and Samira all raised their hands as well. Todd was the only one who didn’t volunteer himself, but he’d already made his opinion clear on the matter. Although the fox beastfolk had a bit of a lazy eye and his apparent age against him, he was still strong and vital. But Koda wouldn’t argue with him if his decision was to give the opportunity to another.

“Sienna, Calandra, Hans, and Samira. You four are going to get your opportunities today,” Arthene said, not hesitating in the slightest. “Netta and Hannah, I need you two to stand by and be ready to intervene if things should go badly. Both of you are accomplished archers, so you’ll be able to make a mark if you need to. If you have to intervene, ‌take them down. The blessing will still fall to you if someone helps, but remember that it diminishes sharply. Koda and I will run interference and separate the groups out, then stand by to assist.”

“We can injure them some to get the fights going,” Koda interjected as well at the looks of concern on several of the fighter’s faces, though Hannah and Netta had a decidedly annoyed look at being left out of this rotation. “If the troll has healed from those injuries before it’s taken down, then that person won’t count towards the limit, right?”

“Right, but they need to be fully healed,” Arthene said, stressing those words. “So we can wear them out some, but we can’t handle most of the fight for you. Are you all still game?”

That not just one, but four people are all trying for the troll-slayer blessing is absurd,” Samira murmured, her ears laying flat back against her skull while she gripped the haft of a stonecracker-tooth spear with one hand. She had three more in a leather quiver on her back, but her knuckles were white against the wooden haft. “But we are guided by two who already bear that title, so it’s not the most absurd thing I’ve heard.”

“There will be other opportunities. Your lives are far more important right now. I want living friends, not dead heroes,” Koda reminded them fiercely, getting nods from the others.

“Ladies, if one of you wants to split one with me, then I won’t object,” Hans said after a moment to consider.

“Good man,” snickered Netta, the hawk beastfolk shifting to stand at Hans’ back. “I was wondering if I’d have to box your ears for Brit since she’s not here.”

“Hannah?” Samira turned her bright eyes to the other cat beastfolk and got a nod from the taller huntress.

“Okay Hannah, you are with Samira then. Sienna and Calandra both have their magic to fall back on, so there is no shame in asking for help,” Koda confirmed before turning to look back up the mountain at the oncoming threats. “If we have to fall back, everyone knows the route to the forest camp. Regroup there.”

Several seconds ticked by as Koda studied the oncoming threats and the hillside, searching for any signs of others in the trees or clues that might indicate that he’d missed something. Seeing nothing, he nodded sharply, and the group broke into a trot as they hurried to the battle line they had prepared the previous day at the edge of the fields.

The four trolls were arguing in their guttural tongue when they came around the edge of the lake. Two of them held rough clubs made of broken trees while the other two had empty hands and were being driven ahead of the armed two, clearly intending to be used as casual labor for the armed ones.

Koda spotted three separate times when one of the four trolls had stepped into the barely concealed gopher-holes that Sienna had constructed the previous day.

Each time, the troll in question had gone down with an angry squall. Once, he’d heard the sharp report of a bone breaking when one of the unarmed trolls had gone into the hole up past his knee. The troll had writhed free and flailed its arms to keep the others back in the half-minute it took for its leg to mend enough to put weight on it. That one had limped for a minute or more afterwards until the healing finished setting the bone, hurrying ahead of its fellows to avoid being taken down while all three of the others had pursued while licking their chops with thick gray tongues.

Between the injuries and the arguments between the trolls, their group had stretched out some by the time they reached the edge of the lake and proceeded around it to the place where Koda’s fighters intended to meet the massive beasts. The troll that had been injured the worst by the pitfalls led the pack, and it showed its intelligence—or lack thereof—by roaring in delight when it spotted Koda, breaking into a lumbering charge with its hands held wide.

The troll was just as big as the others had been, standing around ten feet tall, with its arms hanging to nearly its knees. Its thick skin was a mixture of granite gray and mud brown, with patches of matted fur scattered around parts of its body. Dozens of thick scars marked it as well, showing where it had been forced to learn things the hard way.

The disgust and derision Koda felt welling up from the stonecracker patriarch was easy to sense, as the ghost of the hunting cat clearly looked down on the troll that was charging towards him. He had to fight the urge to confront the creature, as that was not his duty. They needed to kill these trolls, but he would not rob his people of the opportunity to grow, after all. They had a plan.

Koda backpedaled, giving ground to the massive creature as its reckless charge carried it along, pulling it to one side of the path as the other three spotted him and gave matching roars of fury before turning their ungainly walk into a lumpy run. The two trolls with clubs waved their weapons overhead, bellowing in fury as they corralled the other troll towards Koda. That was when Arthene sprung her part of the trap.

Bounding upright from the hollow in the grass by the path where she’d been hiding, Arthene swung her bone club in a smooth arc into the side of the lone, unarmed troll’s knee. The joint shattered with a loud crack, sending that troll tumbling to the ground in the road with a squeal of pain and anger.

Flicking her club around her hand, Arthene roared in challenge to the two unarmed trolls before she fell back as well, drawing the armed trolls to the other side of the road where Sienna and Calandra waited to take them on.

Samira did not hesitate to capitalize on the opportunity to get started, launching herself out of hiding as well to drive her tooth-tipped spear into the side of the injured troll’s neck even as Hannah sent a trio of arrows into the troll’s face.

Two of the three shafts broke on the creature's broad forehead, not even piercing its skin. But one slammed into its open mouth, driving through the soft flesh of its tongue and into the bottom jaw of the creature. The arrow was shattered a moment later when the troll’s mouth slammed shut instinctively, but it continued to squeal in pain as more blood fountained from its neck.

Koda had to focus on his own pursuer though, slowing just enough to ‘keep within reach’ but not so close that the troll might get hold of him. Once he spotted the rock that had been set out as a marker, Koda poured on the gas and sped away from the troll.

Bellowing in fury that its prey was getting away, the troll ran faster as well, ignoring everything as it focused on catching the fleeing morsel.

“Now!” Koda shouted and powered himself into a leap that sent him almost six feet into the air.

Hans didn’t hesitate, rolling out of cover amongst the brush by the edge of the field and stomping one thick foot onto the heel of the long pole that had laid buried in the grass. His stomp drove the near end of the log down several feet into the notch cut in the earth, and the other end swung upwards to reveal the pointed tip of the log just in time for the troll’s charge, driving it down the length of the log.

The troll’s bellow trailed off into a pained whine as its full weight hit the sharpened tip of the log and drove that point deep into its guts with a disturbing shlunk noise. A moment later, it was followed by a sharp crack of breaking wood as the troll’s mass caused the log to shatter at the midpoint, sending a cloud of splinters in all directions.

Koda landed and rolled, the momentum taking him into the stands of corn at the edge of the field. Letting his instincts guide him, he kicked out of the roll to save his momentum as much as possible and quickly ran in an arc to check on the situation at hand.

Hans hadn’t hesitated, either. As soon as he’d set the log to receive the charging troll, he’d lunged forward with his mattock raised high, hammering down with the pointed end like he was back in the mines and the troll’s skull was a dense node of ore he needed to break free. That the iron weapon didn’t immediately smash the troll’s head open like a bat to a pumpkin surprised Koda; it did, however, drive the troll off-balance and to the ground. Several arrows zipped away from Netta’s bow, smashing into the troll’s face, but they were less successful in finding a soft spot to bury themselves.

A rumble underfoot and another animalistic squeal of pain told Koda that his mates had engaged their enemies. A quick glance confirmed their status.

Sienna had used her earth magic to guide a spear into the chest of the charging troll. Even now, Koda watched as that troll jerked the sharp bit of wood out of its gut with a bellow fury before whirling to throw it at his wolfish mate.

The hunk of sharp wood flew true and would have impaled Sienna if his clever mate hadn’t already been moving. A mound of dirt surged into place to accept the sharp bit of wood, bleeding off most of its momentum before Arthene bounded past and snatched the log up, carrying it away from the fight before the troll could reclaim it.

In response to the attack, Sienna gestured with her spear and a trench opened up just as the troll’s foot came down, sending it forward into a stumble while she conjured a stone spike for it to land on, driving deep into the troll’s chest and drawing even more blood while she skittered backwards to get more space.

Just beyond her, Calandra was laying into her target with the same businesslike fervor that Koda was used to seeing his shortest wife apply in a fight.

The dwarven woman had used one of the log-spears as well, but her target had been intelligent enough to jink to one side and then smash the log with its club. That had opened it up to Calandra’s axe though. The troll was roaring in fury as it danced back and forth, trying to locate the nimble dwarven warrior as she raced back and forth, applying her axe like she was cutting down a tree.

As he watched, Calandra’s movements increased in speed as she got the hang of her spells, while the troll’s squeals of pain grew in volume as blood flew. Initially, the cuts barely made it through the beast’s skin, but they continued to rain down in rapid procession. First through skin, then muscle, and finally into the joints before Calandra severed the troll’s left leg with one furious blow that sent an arc of crimson blood through the air.

Flicking his attention back to the pairs, Koda launched himself through the air in a flying tackle that yanked Samira out of the way moments before the troll she’d been furiously stabbing in the kidney threw itself into a roll. If he hadn’t moved the cat beastfolk, she’d have been trapped and crushed beneath the troll’s bulk.

“Careful now,” he warned, rolling to a stop and setting Samira back on her feet.

“Thanks!” Samira chirped brightly. A smear of troll blood marked her face, giving the normally friendly and inquisitive woman a look of manic glee before she threw herself back into the fight.

The troll Samira and Hannah were fighting had several arrows protruding from its face, and somehow one from its nostrils, but it continued gamely on trying to catch the two women who danced around it.

A quick look at the one Hans was ‘mining’ showed he still had that troll off-balance, and Netta had claimed one of the beast’s eyes with an arrow. They were doing well at the moment.

Koda turned his gaze back to the one Samira was engaging. Her troll still bled from the neck wound it’d received earlier, as well as the injuries to its back, the stonecracker leopard tooth having sliced through the troll’s thick skin easily. But the arrows remained mostly ineffective.

“Hannah! Netta! Switch to your spears!” Koda snapped rapidly. “Samira, I’m going to put it off balance—be ready!”

Samira let out a sharp bark that was distinctly animalistic, reminding him of the noises cheetahs or other plains-cats would make that didn’t roar. It startled him enough that he missed a step in his charge, but he recovered before the stumble could throw him off.

While Koda didn’t have a club at hand like Arthene did, he still had his own goddess-enhanced strength, coupled with his blessing. So when he raced past the troll and shoulder-checked its hip, the creature stumbled sharply despite its immense weight. It felt to Koda like he’d just tried to tackle a tree, but after the initial impact, that tree had stumbled to one side.

Without a second of hesitation, Samira scampered into position and set her spear with careful aim when the troll tumbled to the side.

The crude-looking spear entered the troll’s side just below its ribcage, the stonecracker tooth vanishing into the troll’s chest almost gleefully before erupting from the troll’s opposite shoulder in a shower of gore as the creature’s weight fell onto the spear and drove it deeper into the creature’s body.

Having learned from her earlier mistake, Samira threw herself out of the way as soon as she was sure that the spear was set. That was fortunate, because the troll’s body took the entire spear save for the last foot, which finally caught on something and snapped off as the troll landed awkwardly.

Koda bounded away, with Hannah moving in quickly behind him to apply her own spear to the troll, rapidly jabbing it in the chest and throat while the creature flailed in fear as more and more of its lifeblood gushed onto the ground.

The sound of breaking wood drew Koda’s attention to the two armed trolls. The one that Calandra had de-legged was sprawled on the ground, having given up on remaining upright to bat away its attacker. Its blood had stopped flowing from the stump of its leg, the wound sealed shut already.

Calandra darted out of the way of each of the troll’s clumsy attacks, her axe trailing blood as she hacked at the creature’s wrist now while dancing clear of each blow with the clink and rattle of chainmail.

Meanwhile, Arthene roared in triumph while brandishing her bone club overhead. Sienna’s troll tossed away the shattered haft of its club and swung a thick fist at Arthene in an overhand punch, intent on driving her to the ground.

The bear spirit kicked off the turf, flying away from the blow. The troll over-committed to the attack, and its fist slammed into the packed soil of the battleground instead, with the sound of bones breaking.

Before it could recover, Sienna was there with her spear and magic, trapping the troll’s fist in the earth by opening a pit that caused it to fall forward and then rapidly sealing the hole up around the troll’s torso.

The troll began to flail and kick wildly, furiously trying to pull itself free but unable to get proper leverage.

“Good work!” Arthene cheered, flicking her club in a salute before racing over to shatter the weapon of Calandra’s opponent and then dodge back out of the way.

That’s smart, Koda thought with a grin. Disarming them doesn’t hurt them, and shouldn’t count for the blessing. Though Calandra is struggling now—is her axe damaged?

The dwarven woman was hammering just as hard on her opponent, but not doing as much damage to the troll’s wrist as she had to its leg. Which made sense to Koda, as iron weapons would still blunt when met with the stone-hard bones of the trolls. Arthene must have realized the same, and called out to the dwarven woman to trade her, tossing the bone club towards Calandra.

Not expecting it, Calandra had to drop her axe to catch the club, but still evaded the troll’s clumsy attacks. Spinning on her heel, she swung the bone club around and up into the air before dropping it down, like she was driving a particularly frustrating nail into the earth. The crack of the troll’s ribs breaking told Koda that Calandra had this under control.

A shout of frustration from Hans brought him back around, and Koda once again threw himself into the fight to pull someone out of danger.

The troll had gotten hold of Hans’ leg and had wrenched the horned man off of itself. The troll flailed about before throwing the bulky man away.

Rather than letting him land in an ungainly heap, Koda caught Hans and helped guide the fall. It wasn’t a matter of strength, but mass that prevented him from being neater about it, but he kept Hans from landing on his head at least.

“Netta! Buy me a second!” Koda shouted as he helped Hans to his feet. The former miner hissed in pain as he put weight on his leg, but squared his shoulders and shook Koda off after the first step while the hawk beastfolk ran interference.

“I got this!” Hans growled, hefting his prized mattock. The tool looked more like a bent metal hammer on a splintery handle after how he’d pounded on the troll’s thick skull. The pointed end was rounded off and nearly flat from the repeated blows, and Koda could see blood streaking the handle of the mattock from where Hans’ hands had opened up in his furious work.

Before they could get back to her, Netta’s spear stuck between the troll’s ribs and the haft was snapped off when the troll got hold of it.

Rather than fight for the broken spear handle, Netta let it go and kipped backwards, yanking her bow back over her shoulder. She put up an arrow that zipped away to slam into one of the open wounds she’d left on the creature’s chest.

“Too bad I didn’t think to integrate some of those teeth on my girl here,” Hans huffed as he pushed forward with Koda close at hand. “They are cutting through the hide with no problem.”

Koda was about to encourage him when he spotted the head of the spear still protruding from the troll’s chest, and an idea popped into his mind. Not able to find a downside, Koda called out to Hans while pointing with one hand.

“Drive the nail, Hans! Netta’s already set you up for it!”

The bull beastfolk’s eyes darted to where Koda was pointing, and he let out a challenging bellow before throwing himself forward with his mattock held high.

Too focused on the small woman throwing splinters at it, the troll ignored Hans as the horned man had yet to do more than bruise its head and annoy it. As a miner, Hans knew how to hit a precise point with his mattock. The blunted head crashed into the back of the tooth like a cannonball. The head of the mattock, despite being blunted to uselessness, sank deep into the troll’s chest as it propelled that fang deep into the creature.

In between steps, the troll stiffened and slumped. Its eyes went wide and sightless as the tooth was driven between its ribs and straight through its heart.

Hans didn’t stop though, and neither did Netta. Tearing his mattock free, Hans hammered it down on the troll’s temple, his muscles bulging when the blessing descended on him. With that stroke, he breached the troll’s skull even as two more arrows zipped into the troll’s open mouth and sank into its throat before Netta’s bow exploded with a thunderous crack of over-strained wood when her strength rose as well. Even a share of a troll’s strength was more than the weapon could handle.

Knowing that they were safe now, Koda turned his attention onto Hannah and Samira’s target in time to see that troll slump to the ground as well, blood soaking its body. Two different spears protruded at angles from its open mouth, while the cat beastfolk fought against the surging in their bodies as the blessing came to them, too.

Calandra’s bellows of fury and the crunching of breaking bones told Koda that the third troll was down before he could get there. The stout dwarven woman wielding the bone club as wildly as Hans had his mattock when the power surged through her.

Sienna’s troll was limp, still buried headfirst in the soil. One leg twitched occasionally as the creature fought against asphyxiation, even as Sienna swapped her iron spear for one of the stonecracker-fang ones and began stabbing it furiously into the troll’s back. Between blood loss and lack of oxygen, her target didn’t last much longer.

Within five minutes of the first blow, the four trolls lay dead on the shredded and pummeled battlefield at the edge of the crops, having never made it far enough to actually set foot in the village grounds.

26

“Everyone okay?” Koda called as relative silence descended on the ruins of the village.

Listening hard, Koda could hear the distant screech of birds disturbed by the fight, and the rough breathing of his companions, but no more roars to indicate oncoming trolls.

“Fine,” panted Samira, the feline beastfolk slumping over her kill, another spear buried in the back of the troll’s neck to confirm it was dead.

Hannah and Netta just threw him waves as they fell into the grass, clearly exhausted by the fight. Hans was still limping after being hurtled through the air by the troll, but with each step the broad-shouldered man took, he grew steadier.

“Ow,” Sienna said eloquently, her voice high and pained as she trembled under the onslaught of the full blessing. Nearby, Calandra growled in agreement as she slammed the borrowed club into the dead troll one more time before flopping onto her butt in the grass.

Silently, Arthene passed back the dwarven woman’s axe, accepting her club in return.

“Chandra’s tits! That beast ruined my axe!” Calandra snarled as she inspected the blunted and damaged edge of her Dane axe.

Koda held back the comment that it had been her own strikes against the troll that had damaged the weapon, showing that he was already learning wisdom as a married man. Instead, he let Calandra grumble while he hurried over to help Sienna into a sitting position. He remembered how his body felt like it was tearing itself apart as the blessing raced through him.

Sienna let out a pitiful whine as Koda scooped her up and settled into the grass near the stinking corpse of the troll, clutching his first mate to his chest.

“Hurts,” Sienna grumbled, and Koda could feel all of her muscles clenching and unclenching under her clothes.

“I know, love. It’ll pass in a few minutes. Just give it time.”

Sienna buried her face in his neck as she waited for the pain to pass, hands clutching at Koda’s armor.

Seeing Koda’s idea, Arthene bodily scooped up Calandra as the dwarven woman continued to growl and complain about the state of her weapon. From the way Calandra winced at the motion, Koda immediately recognized that the dwarven woman’s anger was her way of distracting her body while she writhed from the pain, adjusting to the increase in strength while her mind fought for control of the blessing.

I don’t remember how Arthene phrased it, but this blessing wasn’t meant for mortals. It was meant to breed the strongest trolls for dominance, Koda thought as he continued to soothe Sienna while Arthene settled down at his back and leaned into him with Calandra in her lap.

A crunch of approaching footsteps drew Koda out of his thoughts, and he looked up to see Todd trotting their way from the tree line. The older hunter had taken it upon himself to watch the troll’s backs and ensure none of the creatures were moving through the trees to flank the village. From his unconcerned expression, there wasn’t any sneaking about, and Koda felt another knot of tension unwind itself from around his heart.

“Looks good. I thought I saw some movement up the mountain, but none of the creatures came through the trees or onto the path. You all made this look easy,” Todd called once he was within earshot.

“It wasn’t,” Hans grumped, thumbing his bent and damaged mattock as he limped over to flop down near Koda’s little group. The other three drifted over as well once they’d caught their breath. “I’m going to need to find a different weapon. This thing might as well be a maul for its ability to pierce now, and I’m worried I’ll break the handle if I try to use it.”

“We can figure something out,” Samira said confidently as she crawled over to use Arthene’s thigh as a pillow, like she had in the past.

While Netta and Hannah folded themselves into sitting positions near the group, Samira had no hesitation in closing with the champion and his mates. But that was something that everyone had gotten used to. It was like the nimble woman cared little for society's proper notions.

“I don’t know how you all handled the full measure,” Netta groaned, rubbing at her left biceps with one hand. “I feel like my muscles are about to tear right off the bone.”

“Painfully,” Arthene answered bluntly. “This is another reason the troll-slayer blessing isn’t as common. If taking one troll down incapacitates someone for a time, then they become easier prey for any other trolls in the area. And thus Oluk’s blood returns to his tribe.”

“I’d call that unfair, but nothing about those monsters feels fair,” Hannah growled, glaring back at the quartet of dead trolls. “The only reason we had as easy of a time with these things was those spears. I think I broke more arrows on their hides than I did the entire time we fought the Crooked.”

“It’s the reason that our hunters have been so leery of engaging them,” Samira murmured quietly. “The advice we have to drive off trolls requires a coordinated group of a dozen or more hunters with long spears to bait them back into the mountains or drive them off a cliff.”

“Or into a hole,” Todd suggested with a smirk while he glanced at Sienna’s troll, still buried headfirst up to its chest in the hardened earth.

“That was harder than it looked. I was just lucky it couldn’t get proper leverage to pull itself out. If it thought to plant its feet and push with its legs, then I’d have had a much harder time. But it panicked and only was using its arms,” Sienna answered with another quiet groan of pain.

“Either way, you all made it through without permanent injuries,” Koda interjected. “Damage to equipment notwithstanding. Weapons can be replaced, but you all are not as expendable.”

Silence descended on the group after that as they all took the time to appreciate the fact they’d made it through the engagement.

“We need to get the pyre built for these four,” Arthene said after a few minutes.

“I need to repair the edge of my axe, too,” Calandra growled. “I don’t have a proper grindstone, but my palm whetstone might save it enough to get the job done. I swear, it was like I was trying to chop a boulder in half.”

“At least you were smart enough to split its head open,” Netta teased, rolling her eyes at Hans. “There’s a reason your mattock is ruined, Hans.”

“He kept it off-balance, which is important in a fight like this,” Todd interjected to defend the horned man.

“I tried to at least—bastard still got hold of me. Thanks for the save again, Aegisclaw. Was sure I’d break my neck in the landing,” Hans replied grumpily, still staring despondently at the iron weapon in his lap.

“I don’t want Brit after me for getting you killed,” Koda said with a snort, getting a low chuckle from the bull-horned man. “I have enough trouble with my mates as it is. I don’t need someone else’s mate mad at me.”

“Fair, still appreciate it. And I’m sure Brit will say the same when I tell her about this,” Hans said with a decisive nod before using the mattock to push himself to his feet with a groan. “Arthene is right though, we need to get these bastards burning before their kin come looking.”

There was some grumbling from the group. It was the kind of complaint that came with understanding that the task would get done, but it wasn’t a pleasant feeling to get back to it.

Koda and Arthene handled the bulk of the dragging and moving, allowing the others time to recover and learn how to control their improved strength. More wood was gathered from the damaged parts of town, including the troll’s own clubs and the damaged defenses.

Piling the trolls up as neatly as they could, they stacked the wood high on them before Samira retrieved some of the village’s supply of rendered oil that they used for lamps. That accelerant got the blaze going quickly, and the group of tired fighters retreated from the burning pile as the stink of troll-flesh got even worse while they burned.

“Well, this is a good start,” Koda sighed, staring at the blaze as it raced over the bodies. “But we still have the chieftain to deal with, as well as several more of the trolls. And I doubt they’re going to wait patiently for us to recover. We need to finish this, and soon.”

“What about the others?” Samira asked. “Even if Cyrus and his group moved with all speed, they are still several days out. We should wait for them.”

“There’s no way the chieftain will give us three days of time. Not after we’ve killed so many of the trolls,” Arthene sighed. The incarnate spirit was watching the billow of black smoke rising from the pyre with a thoughtful look, the wind stirring her cape of brown curls.

“Not to mention,” Todd said with a nod to the fire. “The first one might have been missed or mistaken for the villagers having returned, but that fire is big enough and in plain sight that even an idiot would see it. Hell, I’m surprised that the noise from the fight didn’t draw the others down the mountain.”

“We need to rest, for a few hours at least,” Sienna insisted around a hunk of trail bread studded with fruit and nuts. “Six of us are still adjusting to the increase in strength. We have to wait and hope that the trolls will be wary after losing so many of their number, at least until we’ve recovered.”

“Trolls being wary is at odds with their species inclinations,” Samira insisted.

Despite the caracal woman’s words, she didn’t stir from her spot on the ground now that they’d taken care of the dirty task of the pyre. She remained sprawled in an undignified heap, her leather clothes barely maintaining her modesty, while the occasional grimace crossed her face in time with a muscular twitch.

“Are we proposing to attack the trolls first this time?” Calandra asked dryly, the rasp of a whetstone on the blade of her axe a constant beat while she worked. “I wouldn’t mind it, since we know where they are hiding up in the hills, but we would give up the defenses we’ve already put in place.”

“Waiting for the others from Samira’s tribe would be the safer bet.” Hannah picked at her bottom lip thoughtfully. “The stonecracker tooth weapons made all the difference earlier, so we need to keep that in mind. More hands would be good.”

“The reason no one got hurt was because of Arthene and Koda, though,” Netta insisted. The hawk beastfolk glanced pointedly at the two. “They kept the trolls off balance and intervened before most of us could get hurt. That won’t be possible during the fight with the chieftain.”

“Indeed,” Arthene said with a sharp nod. “Considering we’ve already seen it devouring at least one of its kin, and the sheer size of that monster, then it will likely take both Koda and I to bring it down. We have four people with a full blessing, and four more with a partial, and at least another four regular trolls and the chieftain to fight.”

A grim silence fell on the group for a long breath while all of them considered the task ahead of them.

“It might be better to fight them in that cave, actually,” Koda mumbled as he thought it over. “The only reason these trolls were so dangerous was because they could spread out. If we can bottle them up in that cave, then only one or two could come out at once.”

“But their backs would be to a wall. That would both make them fight harder and impede flanking them,” Todd replied, the fox beastfolk being the only one still standing at the moment, keeping an eye on the mountainside. “But we need more information as well. If we are lucky, they’ll miss the smoke just like they missed the fighting.”

“What is the worst-case scenario if we wait?” Hannah asked, clearly trying to steer the conversation away from the circular part of their talk.

“They destroy the village in a fit of rage, looking for their kin,” Arthene answered bluntly. “Trolls are not smart creatures, but with six of them having died here and how long the pyres take to burn them to ashes, the stink doesn’t go away quickly. They’ll know if they come anywhere near the village.”

Sighing quietly, Sienna leaned into Koda’s side while the conversation returned to whether they should attack the trolls or stay in town. Koda was fine with letting it run its course, as he could see talking was helping the anxiety of the others while they rested and mastered the new strength that fought with them.

Creeping through the bushes, Koda did his best to be quiet while his group moved closer to the cave that the trolls had claimed as their own.

Their discussion had gone on for several hours until the sun was high in the sky and the pyre had burned low.

Sienna had used her magic to sink the ashes and charred remains when it burned out into the earth, hoping to conceal them just as she had the first pyre. She’d then interrupted the continuing discussion with a simple statement that they needed more information to decide, citing the previous knowledge that trolls were primarily motivated by a desire to eat.

So now their group crept through the early evening, paralleling the path the trolls had made. They would check the vicinity of the cave in order to find out the status of the trolls. If they had left the cave to hunt, then it might buy them time to wait for the others. If the trolls were still sleeping in the cave, then it might be an ideal time to ambush them and pick off a few more. The unknowns were such that they couldn’t concretely decide in the time it took the others to recover enough to move, so they would gather information.

The area around the cave was even further trashed than the last time they’d stopped to check on it. It didn’t have the look of anything organized; instead, it was just a mess of shattered wood, shredded foliage, and disturbed earth. More trees were uprooted and thrown about in great piles, mixed in with the tooth-scored bones leftover from the troll’s meals.

One corner of the clearing was covered in stinking excrement, clearly having served as the impromptu latrine of the trolls that were intelligent enough to leave the cave before relieving themselves.

Tracks marked the soil of the clearing, wandering back and forth in the destruction and pounding the grass flat into churned mud. There were so many tracks that Koda had no idea where the trolls had gone, and from glancing towards his more-experienced hunters, they were just as confused at the moment.

We confirmed that none of the others had come down the mountain while heading up here, and it didn’t look like any went back up either when we split from the trail, Koda thought as he studied the cliff face from several hundred feet back.

He could hear the clatter of rocks and the grumble of troll voices inside the cave, as well as see the faint flicker of the crude fire that they’d seen before. But he wasn’t sure what the trolls were up to, or even if the chieftain was still in the cave.

What he could tell was that the ghost of the stonecracker patriarch was champing at the bit to get his revenge on those who had killed it.

Koda was treated to the roaring anger of the ghostly animal, the boiling fury of a father whose children and mates had been killed because it couldn’t defend them. Whenever Koda tried to press the spirit for details on how it had been killed, it countered with images of the tiny skulls and more anger.

Sparing a glance towards his mates, Koda saw Arthene studying the cave and the ruined forest around it with an impassive look. Just beyond her was Calandra. The dwarven woman’s expression was one of anger as she clutched her Dane axe to her chest. She had worked tirelessly to restore the edge to her weapon, and while the blade was still notched in places, she’d given it enough of an edge that she was confident she could ‘finish this fight,’ as she had said.

Looking to his other side, he found Sienna glaring at the cave as well, with Samira on her other side. The wolf and the caracal beastfolk were both clearly just as furious as Calandra was, a fury that Koda could feel echoing in his own heart from the patriarch’s ghost.

Are these spirits affecting us? Koda thought, pushing down on the boiling anger in his heart and checking on the other four of his team. Hannah, Netta, and Hans all had looks of anger as well, but Todd was coolly assessing the situation. Or is it the troll-slayer blessing affecting their emotions?

“It doesn’t sound like they are all in there,” Samira hissed, her ears folding back against her skull. “We should strike while we can, kill the ones that are here. The fewer remaining, the less of a threat to my people.”

Koda grimaced. He didn’t like the idea. His instincts were screaming at him to walk away, but the anger boiling from the patriarch’s ghost was screaming right back at them. It had seen blood from the trolls today already, and demanded they end this threat.

Arthene and I can dart in and smash them if it’s only a few. We only took our time earlier to let the others get a boost, Koda thought quickly as he flexed his arms.

His leather and bone armor creaked quietly, the claws that tipped his gauntlet’s fingers dug into the earth beneath him while he unconsciously kneaded the soil.

The clatter of stone on stone echoed from inside the cave and a guttural exchange came from the trolls inside, but it echoed in the caves so it was hard to tell how many of the creatures were inside.

“Samira is right.” Sienna’s words came with a low growl to accompany them. “If we can pick off a few more of them, then defending the village will be easier.”

“But how do we destroy the bodies?” Arthene insisted, and Koda caught her shooting a concerned glance towards the redhead. “If we leave them behind, the trolls that survive will eat them and grow stronger.”

“That’ll keep them away from the village for a bit, though. Sure, they get stronger, but there are fewer threats,” Calandra added from her other side. “Maybe even long enough for the others to get back. I’d much rather they feed on their own than my family.”

That statement hit Koda like a physical blow, and he felt his control slip on the boiling anger from the patriarch. He snatched for it furiously, dragging back control on his body as he started forward through the trashed remains of the bushes.

“Arthene, with me,” Koda snapped, making his decision as he wrestled the anger back from the spirit. “All of you keep close as well. We check the cave to see how many there are. If it’s only a few, we pick them off. If the chieftain is there, we leave and wait.”

A chorus of agreeing growls rose from his mates, and Koda led the way to the cave, hurrying over the open ground and trusting in speed to remain unnoticed.

Approaching the cave mouth, Koda fought back disgust at the stench that billowed out of it. That many trolls all crammed into one space produced a mighty foulness that was supplemented by the ripe scent of rot and urine. But with each step he took closer to the cave, the stronger the stonecracker patriarch fought him for control.

The ghost demanded revenge, and Koda was bombarded with visions of another cave, one that he had already visited and laid to rest.

Or so he thought.

Visions of leopard kittens the size of regular house cats playing pouncing games slipped into view before they vanished into a stack of tiny skulls that stoked his anger even higher.

The wide mouth of the cave yawned in front of him even as the abyss of fury matched it. Koda abandoned sense and tact, leaping ahead of his mates to dive into the cave. His plans were forgotten as he turned the corner to find two trolls hammering on the ground with rocks in their hands, arguing with each other.

Bellowing in fury at the child-killers, Koda threw himself through the air with his arms spread wide.

He heard Arthene saying something, but couldn’t focus through his anger as the nearest of the seated trolls turned in surprise to look at him. Koda’s claws carved across its face, tearing most of said face free in one mighty swipe that creased the bone of its skull.

The troll howled in pain and backhanded Koda. The blow impacted with his skull-breastplate and tossed him through the air to land on the far side of the cave in a tumble.

Just as before, Koda trusted in his instincts when they told him to kick off the ground and arrest the roll, landing on his feet while his chest throbbed in pain. None of his ribs were broken, but the blow had hit him squarely. Without the armor, it would have definitely injured him.

Focus! Koda demanded of himself, stomping on the anger welling up from the ghost within him as his pain gave him control back once more. Do something besides roar in anger if you want to help me!

The ghost that had joined him snarled back in fury, and Koda could see the image of the massive creature baring its great teeth in his direction, overlaid with what he was seeing now.

Three of the women who’d been hot on his heels swarmed the uninjured troll as it tried to push itself to its feet. Calandra hacked at the back of the elbow on the arm it used to stand. The blow severed tendons with a ripping noise and sent the creature falling to the ground, while Sienna and Samira jabbed at eyes, throat, and belly with their tooth-tipped spears.

Arthene stood back, club held ready as shouted something to the others that Koda lost in the roars of the blinded and injured troll that had hit him. He finally caught Arthene’s eyes, and she furiously pointed over her shoulder at the mouth of the cave.

Looking past her, Koda saw the other four of his group still only halfway across the clearing. In their fury, they’d left the others behind. And even further back, he could see trees shaking furiously, meaning something large was coming up fast.

“Help them!” Koda ordered, bellowing to be heard over the roaring of the injured trolls and Arthene snapped off a nod, turning to race back towards the entrance to the cave with her club cocked back, covering the distance in great bounding leaps to support the others.

Three of them have a partial strength blessing. With Arthene there, they can slow them down. Shit, this was a bad idea, Koda thought even as he lunged towards the blinded troll, mirroring Calandra by targeting joints and tendons to reduce the threat the creature presented even as his three mates dismantled the enemy in front of them.

While their weapons had worked in the past on the trolls, with the blessing to power them now, it was even more vicious. Koda saw Calandra hack through the troll’s elbow with one furious blow, sending the limb spinning while Samira jammed her spear into the underside of the troll’s jaw, sending a gout of blood out of its mouth.

Sienna whirled to join him, her spear lashing out to take the troll high in the chest. The wolf huntress had left behind her iron spear for this fight, opting for one of the fang spears like the others. The head of the weapon vanished into the troll’s chest and the beast howled in renewed pain as its body fought to reassemble its face.

A thunderous roar from outside the cave interrupted Koda before he could capitalize on the opening Sienna had given him. A roar recognized by both him and the stonecracker patriarch.

The chieftain was outside, and about to attack Arthene and the others.

27

“Go! We have these!” Sienna barked, yanking her spear out of the troll’s chest and dancing backwards nimbly. “Arthene is going to need help!”

Koda wanted to argue with his mate, not wanting to leave her or the others behind. But he also knew she was right. At the moment, the larger threat was from outside the cave. The trolls would converge on his small group, and Arthene would fight furiously to protect their friends.

So he spun and launched himself for the entrance of the cave, bounding on all fours as his instincts took over and the blessings of the goddess guided his movement. It still mystified Koda, deep within his psyche, how motions that should have been so awkward felt so natural when his instincts took over.

The strength from his goddess and the troll-slayer powered him through the air like a bullet from a gun, and only two bounds had him at the cave mouth, allowing him to take in the view of what was outside.

Arthene howled defiantly at four trolls, with Hans on her left while Netta and Hannah had her right. The three blessed fighters were all wielding stonecracker-fang spears, though Hans held his awkwardly. Todd stood behind them, his bow drawn tight while he sent arrow after arrow with unerring accuracy into faces to blind the charging group of trolls. From the group’s flank came the chieftain, a club made from a log bound to a massive stone waving above its head.

Koda would have called the trolls hideous amalgams of human traits before he’d met the Crooked, but at least the trolls had a more uniform look to their bodies. The chieftain took that same look—arms that hung to the knees of their short legs, hide like stone, and a wide mouth full of sharp teeth set below a pair of beady eyes—and sized it up by another fifty percent.

The boulder on the end of the troll’s club had to have weighed at least as much as his old truck’s engine did, but the chieftain swung it with only one hand as it forced its way through the debris with a wicked laugh.

“Stupid prey!” the creature barked in a voice like two stones rubbing together, the words in the common tongue almost too harsh to understand. “Fell for trap, now we eat!”

That the chieftain was smart enough to talk was disturbing enough, but that it had somehow laid a trap for them was even more worrying. But Koda couldn’t hesitate as the massive creature closed in on Arthene’s group. They’d struggle enough with the four trolls coming at them; the chieftain would make it impossible.

Need to buy time, Koda thought even as he bounded towards the charging chieftain. Arthene turned towards the new enemy and he caught sight of the resignation in her eyes before she squared her shoulders and prepared to challenge the chieftain in a fight that would likely end in her death.

“Fall back to the cave!” Koda roared, landing beside a mostly shattered tree-trunk that he slammed his hands into, digging the claws of his gauntlets deep into the wood and heaved.

The trunk groaned as he swung it into the air, whirling in place to build momentum. As he turned, Koda caught sight of the Silverstone fighters turning towards him and falling back.

He released the hunk of wood to sail towards the troll chieftain, not aiming for its head or chest, but for the creature’s bony knees as it took another step in its lumbering charge towards Arthene.

Spinning through the air, the trunk whistled before slamming lengthwise into the chieftain’s planted knee. The heavy log caught it while the weight of the chieftain was planted and there came a loud crack when the joint shattered.

Bellowing in pain, the chieftain flailed as it tumbled downwards, digging a massive furrow in the ground as its weight slammed into the earth.

“Koda!” Arthene’s voice cut through the cacophony of the troll’s screams and roars, and he glanced backwards to see the bone club spinning towards him. Behind it, he could see Arthene’s body boil and shift as she swelled in size, assuming her dire bear form while she whirled to confront the four trolls closing in on their group.

This is bad, my love, Arthene sent him through her spiritual connection. We shouldn’t have taken the chance.

Too late now, Koda sent back as the bone club slapped into his palm and he let the momentum of the throw carry him into a turn. I’ll keep this big idiot busy while you get the others backed into the cave. Sienna and the other girls should have those two dead soon, and we’ll have something safe at our back, at least.

Do not leave us widows, Aegisclaw! Arthene demanded, and Koda felt his heart swell in response.

Even now, his mate included the others in their relationship. The love welling in his soul blunted the fury coming from the stonecracker patriarch, finally putting a crack in the blinding rage swelling from the ghost.

The troll chieftain was already pushing itself upright, the crunch of its joint resetting making Koda’s stomach twist. It had been a lucky blow, but took less than a second to repair itself in the face of the chieftain’s might.

I won’t, love. I promised you cubs, and I won’t be a liar, Koda shot back at Arthene.

The reminder of cubs brought another swell of anger from the patriarch, but this time it was more focused and tempered with regret. Its enemy was in front of it, and the ghost finally remembered Koda’s own obligations. He felt sorrow welling from the patriarch, the ghost regretting what it had done to drive him into this trap.

Don’t say you are sorry—prove it with your actions! Koda demanded of the ghost, switching Arthene’s club into his right hand and bounding closer to the troll chieftain.

In response, the ghost of the stonecracker patriarch roared in agreement, and Koda felt his armor tighten around him as his muscles swelled.

Bellowing in anger, the troll chieftain hammered down at the insect that had injured it earlier. Koda saw the blow coming and threw himself to one side. The ground cratered where he had been as the attack landed, sending a spray of dirt into the air around the stone head of the club.

The blow had fallen far quicker than he had expected, and Koda had only barely made it out of the way. He was still close enough that he could hear the wood of the club creaking in response to the strain it had been put under.

As the chieftain lifted its club for another blow, Koda threw himself forward. He worked to keep the head of the club between the troll’s face and himself, closing rapidly with the creature’s leg and winding up with Arthene’s club before bringing it down hard on the troll’s foot.

Bones crunched, and the foot dented inwards. Koda felt the blow reverberate up the club, but the weapon was made from the bone of an incarnate spirit and held under the strike.

The chieftain roared in pain and kicked out with the injured foot, knocking the weapon loose of the dent it had made in the creature's foot.

Koda ducked, the scarred toes of the troll swishing through the air directly above his head. He slashed on instinct with his left hand, dragging his claws over the bottom of the troll’s foot and sending a shower of blood spraying in their wake. But he could see the wounds visibly zipping closed bare inches behind the passage of his claws.

I need more, Koda thought furiously as he lunged behind the troll, slamming the club into its ankle this time. The sharp clunk of bone on bone echoed through the clearing and blood rained down as the blow tore skin, but there was no breaking of bones.

Between the chieftain’s legs, Koda saw Arthene backing towards the cave mouth while slapping out with her broad paws, driving the four trolls back that fought to get past her and to the smaller morsels on either side. Todd continued to fire arrows wherever he could, and the three spear-wielders jabbed and slashed while keeping close to Arthene’s furry flanks.

That was as much attention as Koda could spare for the other fight going on, as the troll chieftain swung its weapon like a golf club down at him.

“Puny!” the creature roared as Koda threw himself out of the way and the swing missed. “Eat you whole!”

The troll chieftain’s muddy eyes rolled wildly in its head as it went into a stamping dance, trying to crush Koda flat. He was forced to give ground, being driven back towards the tree line and the piles of broken branches and shattered trunks in order to avoid being stomped on by the massive troll.

I need to bleed it, to wear it out. Just like the first one I fought, Koda thought furiously. Smacking it in the feet and knees is well and good, but I need to do something besides a paper cut if I’m going to actually hurt it.

The snarl of agreement from the stonecracker patriarch set Koda’s focus, and he made his decision. Arthene’s club would let him use his strength, but he needed something with more weight. His eyes caught on the chieftain’s weapon, and Koda’s mind whirled. For now, he jammed Arthene’s club into his belt so he had both hands and set to work.

Baiting the chieftain into following him with a few feints, Koda teased out another massive overhand strike from the creature. It was just as close this time as it had been before, but Koda was ready for it.

Dancing towards the inside of the creature’s swing, Koda drove his claws into the thick muscles of the chieftain’s wrist. Flesh parted and stinking blood sprayed over him in response. His claws were several inches long now, and they dove beneath the surface of the enemy’s skin while Koda dug for the tendons at the center of the wrist.

Howling in pain, the troll chief yanked its hand back and away from him, showering blood all over before slamming its club down again to squash Koda like a bug.

Again, he launched himself out of the way, rolling towards the inside of the creature’s reach and diving into the wrist. The wound was already mostly sealed up, but Koda worked quicker this time, slashing and digging for his target.

The troll was not content to repeat its previous attempts, however, and Koda felt his instincts scream at him to dodge, barely moving in time to evade the slapping blow that would have squashed him flat to the ground.

However, the blow had the effect he’d been going for. The chieftain’s own hand smacked into its wrist. Its tendons, already damaged by Koda’s claws, tore, and its right hand fell limp. The club fell from its limp grip, landing with a thunk next to Koda.

Snarling in pain, the troll chieftain bent further over to snatch at the club with its left hand while shaking its right to speed its healing.

Not hesitating, Koda lunged for and dug his claws into the handle of the boulder-headed club. It took all of his strength to wrestle the weapon out of the ground, and he whirled it clumsily like he was a child playing with a driving maul, but he didn’t need to be nimble.

The troll chieftain’s howls of pain were cut off with a loud crunch when the boulder-headed club connected with its jaw. Fragments of teeth flew amidst a storm of blood and saliva.

Unfortunately, Koda could not keep hold of the ungainly weapon, as the reverberations of the blow echoed up his arms and tore his claws from the wooden handle. But his attack did exactly what he needed it to.

The chieftain stumbled and fell to one side, its already shaky balance from the position further upset by the blow to the head. Koda didn’t hesitate to scramble up the monster’s side, using his claws like climbing pitons and leaving behind long slashes in the troll’s stony hide as he scrambled upwards.

The chieftain bellowed something in the guttural language of the trolls, but Koda ignored it. The stonecracker patriarch guided him to where the troll’s shoulder joined its thick neck. Koda could see the veins throbbing underneath the skin and he slashed and gouged at the troll’s hide to tear them open, sending blood fountaining into the air.

Flailing, the chieftain slapped at Koda, catching him a glancing blow that knocked him away as it fought to staunch the flow of blood from its neck.

For once, Koda’s instincts failed him, and he could not recover from the tumble.

Instead, he was sent bumping across the muddy field in a mess of limbs and pain as his body howled at him in agony. His left shoulder screeched in pain for the first three seconds of his tumble before he caught a rock. It sent him flipping into the air with a sickening pop that oddly reduced the suffering rather than increased it.

Was my shoulder dislocated? Koda questioned as the world flipped around him, but he was forced to focus once more on the fight as he crashed into the branches of a tree that finally aborted his tumble.

Across the clearing, he saw the troll chieftain getting to its feet with a furious look on its gnarled face. The missing teeth were comical, as it blunted the fierce look for a moment before Koda spotted new ones growing into the empty sockets.

Fuck, he thought eloquently and fought to free himself of the tree branches.

“Peel you and eat you last,” the troll snarled in his direction. But rather than charge Koda, the much larger troll turned to where Arthene continued to fight her defensive battle with the other four trolls.

His mighty Den Mother was battered from the fight, and Koda saw blood wetting Arthene’s muzzle. He wasn’t sure if it was hers or from one of her victims, as the trolls sported their own bleeding wounds, but he could tell she was flagging already from the multiple foes. Adding the chieftain to the mix would spell her doom.

The patriarch’s ghost roared defiantly within his soul, and Koda mirrored that bellow of fury with one of his own.

He wasn’t strong enough, even with everything that had happened so far. But he wouldn’t give up yet. He would defend his family.

Thrashing, Koda shattered the branches holding him trapped and dropped to land neatly on his feet. He felt power rising within him, answering his call once more. It always came to him in defense of another, and with Arthene and those she was protecting being threatened, it raced upwards like a geyser powering through the layers of the earth to crash through his soul.

Riding that wave, the stonecracker patriarch drove itself forward as well, determined to right the mistake it had made in pushing him earlier, and to claim its own vengeance.

Ghostly fur rippled over Koda’s skin as a weight settled on his shoulders. A leopard-fur cloak draped itself over him even as a helmet snapped into place to guard his head. Great fangs settled in to protect his face, while the familiar thoughts of the patriarch melded with his mind, guiding his attention to targets only a predator would recognize in its prey. The spirit offered up all of its knowledge without hesitation.

Bounding forward in great leaps, Koda raced to intercept the troll chieftain while his claws tore furrows in the earth. He felt the spiritual armor that Thera had given him shifting and adjusting as the regretful spirit poured more of its essence into him.

The troll chieftain heard his approach and whirled to confront Koda, its beady eyes widening as the champion of the Beast Queen roared in challenge as he launched himself like a bolt from a crossbow at the troll’s broad chest.

Koda slammed into the chieftain’s ribcage with the force of a cannonball. The impact actually made the chieftain stagger in response. Koda dug in with both the claws on his hands, and the ghostly ones that sprouted from his sabatons at the order of the ghostly presence empowering him.

Following the guidance of the stonecracker leopard, Koda scaled the chest of the troll and drove his claws into the open front of the chieftain’s neck, digging a massive scoop of flesh out and throwing it behind him.

Balancing with just the spiritual claws on his feet, Koda lashed out with his other hand and tore another clump of flesh free, even as the troll’s neck fought to heal closed around the gaping wounds.

Koda scooped three more gobbets of flesh free before a familiar voice broke through his fury to scream a singular message his way.

Down!

Without hesitation, Koda released his grip on the troll’s throat, dropping downwards across its lumpy chest as the club it had recovered swung upwards to smash him away.

The blow crunched into the troll’s face, the creature not thinking in its panic to get the predator away from its neck.

Swaying drunkenly at the impact, the chieftain fell backwards as Koda dug his claws into his enemy’s gut this time. The sharp claws opened up the troll’s abdomen and spilled its guts. His weight pulled him downwards, tearing massive rents in the troll's front before he fell free to land on the ground.

But it still wasn’t enough. Koda watched as the fleshy mass of the chieftain’s guts drew back into its abdomen while the injuries sealed up. Its unnatural healing and resilience kept it alive through something that should have driven it into shock.

Koda would not be stopped.

Taking advantage of the chieftain’s prone and concussed position, Koda raced to snatch up the fallen wood and stone club and applied it to the troll’s knees and ankles. Each blow sent a massive shiver through the weapon, but also produced a satisfying crunch of breaking bone from the sheer mass of the weapon. Koda got three blows in before the chieftain lashed out with an awkward kick that tore the weapon from his hands, sending it crashing into the trees on the far side of the clearing.

Koda didn’t slow down, though; instead, he dug his longer claws into the inner thigh of the troll, finding and opening up the large vein there and sending a river of blood out to coat the mud of the clearing. That done, he dodged away from the chieftain’s slapping blows.

Seconds ticked by as he lunged in and out, opening wounds on every surface he could reach. With each moment that slipped past, the chieftain slowed more and more while the gaping wounds took longer and longer to close.

He could still hear the fighting going on behind him as Arthene bellowed and slashed at her opponents, but Koda heard the familiar shouts of his mates, as well as the rumble of moving earth, telling him that Sienna and the others had joined the fight now.

Koda worked his way around to the troll’s head, gouging out an eye before ripping Arthene’s club from his belt. It felt fitting that he ended this with her weapon, as she’d been the one to coach him through his first troll kill, and even now she stood guard over the others for him.

The chieftain still snarled and snapped at him, though its motions were sluggish now as its blood continued to flow over the earth. Koda had a feeling that the creature was doomed, but he would make sure.

The fallen demanded that he be the one to kill the chieftain, not letting its injuries take it.

His first blow cracked into the troll’s temple, rocking its head to one side with a wet crunch.

The second blow dented the chieftain’s skull inwards and its eyes rolled.

Roaring in time with the ghost of the stonecracker patriarch inside him, Koda slammed home his third blow and tore the top of the troll chieftain’s head right off in a spray of blood, bone, and brains.

A bolt of spiritual lightning struck him then, furious and mighty, as it sought to crush Koda’s soul for daring to do as he had just done. It crawled over his spirit, seeking any entry that it could to tear him to pieces. Red rage raced in its wake, urging him to a blind berserker’s fury.

Power thundered in his veins, driving ghostly spikes into Koda’s skull and doing its best to pry his own head open as righteous fury fought with insensate rage for control. The world washed red as blood in the wake of their battle, and Koda lost himself in that maelstrom while his body tried to tear itself apart.

And then a voice, a scent, and a memory wrapped tightly around Koda’s heart. The red of blood in his vision faded to the familiar red of his mate’s hair.

28

“Oh thank Thera,” Sienna sobbed as she clung to him, ignoring the blood that coated Koda’s body while she pulled him tightly to her chest.

“He’s breathing!” Calandra gasped in relief from behind him, and there came a thump-jingle that Koda guessed was her flopping down in her armor.

“Debatable,” Koda groaned, his entire body one massive ache. Every muscle he had was dancing the electric slide right now, and even breathing hurt. That pain was exacerbated by the tight grip on his neck and chest as Sienna clung to him.

His instincts refused to allow Koda to ignore his mates’ concern over him. Despite the pain, he raised his left hand and cupped the back of Sienna’s head gently. The loving touch made the redheaded hunter sob even harder as she squeezed him, though she calmed when Arthene appeared over her.

The brunette bear-spirit had a serious look on her face as she studied Koda carefully. After a moment, the much larger woman knelt and wrapped her arms around Sienna from behind, comforting the distraught huntress.

“Come now, sister. Let our mate breathe. He is fine and will recover. Your lover would not let something like the anger of a god stop him from returning to you.”

“At this point, I’d put good odds on Aegisclaw winning.” Hans’ voice was weak and Koda slowly twisted in place to look towards the miner-turned-warrior to meet eyes. The horned man had a look of awe spiced with fear in his eyes now as he studied Koda from a distance, but he didn’t approach.

Hans was standing a good ten plus feet back, with a log over one shoulder that should have taken four grown men to lift. His shirt was torn, and he had blood oozing from a cut over his eyebrow, but was uninjured besides that. Koda saw the others of his fighting team moving in the background, dragging the massive trolls into a pile around a bloody crater that had hands and feet sticking out of it.

“What happened?” Koda gasped.

“You did, Aegisclaw—” Hans began before he was cut off by a fast-moving blur of leather and words.

“ByTherathatwasthemostbrutalthingI’deverseen!” Samira squealed as she slid to a stop next to Koda, nearly tripping and tumbling ass-over-teakettle, but she caught herself at the last second.

“Easy Samira,” Arthene warned. “He’s going to be befuddled for a bit. No matter his strength, that took a lot out of him. Slowly.”

“Yes,” growled Calandra, and Koda caught sight of his shortest lover when she heaved herself upright and walked around his feet to stand between him and Samira. “We just got Koda back. I don’t want your storm of questions to drive him off into unconsciousness again.”

Samira took the chastisement with good humor, bobbing her head in a rapid series of nods that made her tufty ears flap like two little flags. Behind her, Hans rolled his eyes and shifted his burden on his shoulder before heading back to where the other three worked.

“Everyone fine?” Koda gasped out before Samira could begin her story.

“Yes, you and ‘Thene are the only ones who got hurt,” Calandra grunted. “The rest of us got a bit battered or scraped, but only you two really got injured.” Koda noted the battered and damaged Dane axe in his mate’s hands, the head looking more like a worn chisel than a blade after its latest bout with the trolls.

“I’ll be fine, my mate,” Arthene chuckled, reaching past Sienna to stroke the back of her hand over his cheek. “I heal quickly with rest and food, and since the trolls are neutralized, we can simply take our ease in the village.”

“What happened?” Koda asked next, the two-word question being about all he could squeeze out at the moment.

“I was trying to tell you!” Samira said with a pout, slapping one hand against the bloody earth next to Koda. She stopped when Calandra sent her a hard glare that made her ears wilt to either side. She continued at a lower volume, though she still vibrated with excitement. “You smashed the chieftain into the ground!”

“I remember that much,” Koda chuckled, taking a bit of energy from the presence of his mates and Samira’s exuberance even in the battle's wake.

“No. She’s being literal, Koda,” Sienna murmured, though her voice was still choked with the tears of worry and relief. “You overcame the troll chieftain, then went berserk.”

Koda tensed and groaned as a fresh wave of pain raced through him when his muscles protested. Samira took back over to fill him in, ignoring the pained noises the dark-haired champion was making.

“You killed the chieftain and there came this loud ‘boom,’ like lightning striking the mountainside. It startled everyone enough that the fighting stopped, even the trolls! Then you let out this murderous scream and began flailing around, smashing pieces off the troll and then hammering the dead chieftain into the ground like you were chopping meat, but using the club instead of a blade.”

Koda grimaced at the image that conjured, but it fit the swirling red mist that had descended on him. The only reason he wasn’t more worried was that the girls had already reassured him no one else had been hurt besides himself and Arthene.

Automatically, his eyes darted back to the bear-woman, checking her for any injuries he might have dealt her. Arthene just smiled down at him, though, her eyes dancing with affection while Sienna peeked out from between the larger woman’s breasts, tears still marking her face.

“The violence was enough that the other trolls tried to scatter, but we took them down! I think everyone in our group has at least a full measure of the troll-slayer blessing, while the Den Mother has at least two, and you have whatever benefit comes from the chieftain.”

“And everyone is okay?” Koda asked, shifting to lean more into Sienna and Arthene, but not trying to get up just yet.

“Yes, everyone is fine. After the partial blessings before, they knew what to expect. The other four are working on preparing the dead trolls to be burned. They are piling them on the remains of the chieftain, as no one wanted to scrape him off the turf after you pounded him flat.” Arthene reminded him, reaching around Sienna to run her knuckles against the back of Koda’s face. “They might look at you a bit differently from now on, considering what they saw. But give it time and they will relax.”

“They shouldn’t be afraid,” Samira grumbled, her tail lashing back and forth. “Sure, he turned and charged at us even after the trolls were down. But there was no guarantee he was coming to attack us! He calmed right down as soon as Sienna grabbed him.”

“‘Calmed down’ is putting it far too simply,” Calandra growled, turning to look down at Koda while tugging on one of her three braids thoughtfully. “Koda, you dropped like a puppet without its strings. We weren’t sure you were going to wake up—hell, I think your heart stopped.”

“I don’t remember any of that,” Koda mumbled. He glanced down over his body, and was startled to see that he was coated liberally with blood and bits of troll, like someone had sprayed it at him with a hose.

From the way Samira leaned in, her eyes sparkling with curiosity, he knew she was about to bombard him with questions. Only the stern look from Calandra kept the caracal-woman at bay.

“You stopped breathing for a bit there,” Sienna said, taking up the narrative. “Your body thrashed and twitched, and your armor vanished. You’ve torn up your clothes, too. We really need to find that seamstress to make you more pants…”

The resigned tone in her voice got a small laugh from Koda even as he shifted to make sure his manhood was covered. The pain from laughing was worth it when he confirmed his tattered pants still concealed his junk, at least. Wearing his armor without clothing had felt odd, and he hadn’t looked forward to the idea of hiking back to Silverstone like that.

“That was one of the most violent passing of blessings I’ve ever seen,” Arthene said, once his laughter had abated. “It was obvious Oluk was very displeased that you bested his champion. A fragment of his rage drove you into that rampage earlier.”

“I thought you said that all trolls are considered champions of Oluk?” Koda asked, trying to remember if it had been Arthene or Samira that had said it.

“They are, but lesser champions. A chieftain is far more powerful, and you robbed Oluk of a strong pawn. He will have felt the loss to his people and be looking for something to blame. But unless he was actually incarnated in this world, there is no way he could track you down,” Arthene reassured him.

Since he couldn’t really argue, Koda just nodded in understanding.

“Please, be careful?” Sienna asked, wiping at the tears in her eyes and smearing more of the blood on her delicate face. “I don’t want you to hurt yourself before you can figure out how to control this strength.”

“I’m more worried about hurting you,” Koda said softly, gently stroking Sienna’s cheek with his thumb.

Sienna gave him a watery smile and leaned in to kiss him on the lips lovingly.

That soft contact of the kiss did more to relieve Koda’s pain than the last several minutes. His joints, which had felt like they were swollen and filled with burning needles, stopped throbbing. His hands and fingers, which had felt like they were made of overcooked sausages, relaxed, and Koda let out a relieved sigh.

“You would never hurt your mates,” Samira asserted with all the confidence in the world. “I’ve only known you for days, and I know this! That is why it is so silly that your companions are afraid of you.”

“Fear isn’t rational,” Calandra stated simply, glancing between Koda and the others quickly.

Beckoning her closer with one hand, Koda watched as Calandra bit her bottom lip and then grimaced when some of the troll blood on her face got in her mouth. Spitting to one side, the dwarven woman sidled over and then bent down to receive her own kiss from Koda.

No sooner had their lips met than Calandra’s tense and tight bearing melted and she gripped his shredded shirt needily with one gloved hand. Koda stretched the kiss out, reaching up with his free hand to grip the front of Calandra’s armor and holding her in place firmly. He felt the metal links of her armor creak in his grip and let his hand relax.

Just like with Sienna, the closeness of his mate and her love for him gave Koda strength, and he felt more of his pain ease. It didn’t even hurt when Arthene slipped from behind Sienna and knelt over him, her skirt billowing out to cover his lower half as she leaned in for her own kiss.

“Damn…” Samira muttered, the envy obvious in her voice as she watched Koda kiss his three lovers.

“Patience,” Sienna reminded the other woman. There was more that was said, but Koda focused on the presence of his three lovers, one in each hand and the other on his lap, and let their love restore him.

Love as a medicine did wonders, but it could only do so much. Getting up and moving was still difficult, but Koda had a duty to complete.

The ghost of the stonecracker patriarch remained within his soul, though the spirit was exhausted and resting. He could tell that it wanted to see things completed before it would pass on though, so he pushed through.

As soon as he could stand without almost falling over, Koda set to work helping pile lumber onto the pyre. There was plenty of dead wood lying around from the mess the trolls had made of the clearing. Koda decided it had to have been their attempts at concealing themselves, which had worked enough for the crude ambush to be sprung, something Todd was happy to remind him of once the fox beastfolk had gotten over the initial worries that Koda would snap again. Oddly enough, the older man was the first to get past his concerns.

“There are plenty of tracks all over the clearing, but they piled trash and broken trees over their footpaths when they went to hide in the trees. My guess is that they saw us fight and take down the other four who came down to the village. Then the chieftain sprang his own trap on us.”

“Makes sense. Sorry for leading you all into that,” Koda grunted as he heaved another shattered tree over his head and lobbed it towards the pile. The several hundred pounds of wood flew with as much effort as shifting a sack of blown insulation, though was infinitely more unwieldy than he was used to.

“The ladies already explained part of it. The spirits that we contacted apparently were more than a little insistent that we get in there and deal with their killers.” Todd tossed his own burden, an uprooted bush, onto the pile as well. “Something to keep in mind for the future, right?”

“Yeah,” Koda grunted, rolling his right shoulder in its socket. Even without the story from the girls, he could have told that it was injured from overuse at this point based on how much it ached right now. Time and rest would let it heal, but he had a job to finish. “Something I’ll have to remember going forward. Especially since I just offered to help them rather than demanding they obey me. I have a feeling that they wouldn’t have pressed so hard in that situation.”

“You survived to learn from a mistake, can’t ask for more than that,” Todd reminded him. “I think this is going to be enough wood. We’ve stripped out almost everything the trolls broke or damaged.”

“Yeah, it’s gonna be smoky as hell, though. All of this green wood,” Koda sighed, glancing at the massive mountain of logs and broken remains.

“It’s life. Let’s get this thing going so we can go wash up and rest for a bit. My old bones are killing me.”

“Oh, come on, Todd. Despite your best efforts to ‘leave it to the young,’ you still pulled your weight in the fight,” Koda shot back with an amused grin at the older man.

Calandra had filled him in that Todd had received at least two partial blessings for pinpoint shooting that had grievously injured the trolls before the others took them down. Despite his joking about aches, Koda knew the older man was far stronger than he pretended to be right now.

Though the muscle aches are understandable, Koda thought and let his grin grow wider.

“Just because I made that mistake doesn’t mean I can’t ache, Aegisclaw.” Todd’s counter didn’t have any teeth to it though, and they stumped around to where the others were waiting.

Sienna was talking to Hannah and Netta, while Arthene and Hans were working to prepare tinder to get the fire going. Samira and Calandra were carefully sprinkling oil onto the wood to help the fire catch, the sprightly caracal-woman having run back down to the village to retrieve it while the others piled wood.

The conversations died off as Koda approached, and he fought to keep a frown off his face. Todd had always been a bit distant because of his age, but after their talk while working, Koda had hoped the others would relax more around him.

Be patient, Koda reminded himself, while doing his best to ignore the wary looks on the other’s faces. They’d have likely looked at you just as oddly if they’d seen what you did to that second Crooked war-leader.

“Right then,” Calandra said brusquely before looking at Samira. “As the representative of the Silent Plains tribe, it’s only right that you light this one up. The troll chief is the whole reason your village was put at risk, so you should signal the end of it.”

Samira was already fumbling in her belt for the flint and steel she carried there, tail wagging happily back and forth. While she bounced around the large pyre and struck the tools together to send sparks into the tinder placed strategically around its perimeter, Koda joined his mates.

Once the tinder had caught and the dancing flames had reached oil-soaked wood, Samira scampered over to stand beside Sienna with a small smile that the wolf beastfolk returned with a nod.

“Should one of us say something?” Hans asked after the first billow of black smoke began to rise from the pyre.

“Why?” Netta asked, the hawk beastfolk turning a questioning look his way.

“I don’t know, it just feels appropriate to say something to mark the end of this,” the bull-horned man said with a shrug of his broad shoulders.

“Good riddance,” Samira said suddenly, cutting off their argument before it could go further. “There. It’s done.”

“Not quite,” Koda said quietly, drawing the eyes of the others to him.

A sensation had been growing since Samira had struck the first shower of sparks into the pyre, and now it was pressing down on him from behind. A weight of potential power and the curious regard of eyes coming from the cave behind him.

There was a shuffling sound as the others turned to look towards Koda, but no one spoke. Not even Arthene, as Koda shifted and looked over his shoulder towards the entrance of the befouled cave.

The dark mouth of the cave remained empty, but that didn’t change the pressure that Koda felt rising out of it. A pressure that prodded at the ghost of the stonecracker patriarch in his chest, stirring it from slumber.

With the enthusiasm of a child waking and suddenly discovering it was Christmas, the spirit went from grumbling sleep to excited wakefulness. A ghostly image burst from Koda’s chest, followed by the shades that had joined Sienna, Calandra, and Samira, as the seven ghosts bounded away from the group to frolic like horse-sized kittens in front of the cave entrance.

The girls swayed on their feet when the spirits left them, clearly reacting to a loss of strength as the shades departed, but nothing worse than that.

“What is that?” Samira murmured in wonder as she watched, sidling over to stand closer to Koda. He felt the slight pressure of her tail as it coiled around his left arm like a fuzzy snake, but he didn’t push her away.

“The ghosts go to rest,” he replied, though something told him it wasn’t quite all that was happening.

The weight of eyes on them shifted away, and Koda felt it fall on the small pride of stonecracker leopards. As one, the ghosts froze and turned their attention upwards before pouncing forward with happy chitters and chirps to crawl all over a shape that had been invisible until moments before.

Revealed by the shimmering, ghostly energy of the seven shades, the form of an absolutely massive cat lay sprawled in the cave's entrance. The horse-sized stonecrackers looked like kittens in truth when compared to the creature that made even Arthene’s dire-bear form look small.

Forty feet long, with a whipping tail to match that faded in and out of view, the spirit of a massive cave lion leaned in to nuzzle the frolicking spirits. The gesture revealed more definition of the ancient ghost as it welcomed its distant descendants. The similarities were there, in the angles of the skull, the shape of its teeth, and the patterning on the fur. But while the stonecrackers were sleek predators, this was a behemoth of fur and fang.

No one moved as the ghosts interacted, though Samira had to strangle a squeak of surprise. Koda felt her tail tighten on his wrist when she finally recognized what was in front of them.

The spirits didn’t react though, ignoring them for now until the seven stonecracker ghosts curled up around the paws of the massive ancient ghost, their glow slowly fading as they drifted out of view.

Only once its ‘kittens’ were settled once more did the ancient spirit turn its gaze towards Koda and the others, its features revealed by the reflected glimmer of the slowly fading ghosts.

Twin pits that were its eyes met Koda’s, and he felt silent approval from the primordial creature.

The shade was ancient, having risen from a time when speech was still being discovered and one’s actions meant everything. And it approved of Koda’s actions.

Without him needing to call it, Koda felt his spiritual armor shift inside of him. The slight changes from the patriarch, which had faded when the ghost left him, locked into place and solidified. He felt fresh strength flow into the armor and his totemic gauntlets, and Koda knew he need not fear his equipment being able to keep up with his new troll-bolstered strength.

As the last of the glow from the fading spirits drifted away, Koda saw the great cat’s muzzle wrinkle in a smile as it gave a slow blink and then tilted its head over its shoulder to the cave behind it.

Then it was gone. Only the pressure of potential energy remained, emanating from the cave.

“Ancestors blessings…” Samira murmured and bowed her head towards the cave where the spirits had been only a moment before. “What a sight to see!”

The others murmured amongst each other in agreement, all save for Arthene and Sienna, who were watching Koda closely.

“Go,” Arthene said gently when Koda glanced her way, nodding towards the cave with a smile. “She will be pleased.”

“We’ll keep watch on the pyre,” Sienna added on, leaning in to kiss Koda’s cheek lightly. “After we get back to the village, I intend to recreate our first night in that spring, so don’t take too long.”

Her words sent a thrill down Koda’s spine, and he couldn’t help the smile that grew on his face. Sienna chuckled at him, her fluffy tail wagging furiously before she gave him a push towards the cave.

Doing his best to not race off, knowing that hurrying now wouldn’t make their return to the village occur any sooner, Koda excused himself from the group and headed into the dark cave.

The afternoon light barely penetrated the darkness, leaving the smoldering fire from the trolls the only source of light remaining inside. It was enough to avoid the rotting bones and messy bedding, though, and Koda didn’t have to go far to do what he needed.

Stopping in front of one of the heavily scarred walls, Koda focused inward to the place where his spiritual equipment hid within his soul. A mental flex and his totemic gauntlet appeared on his right hand, displaying the changes that had occurred.

When Thera had first given him the weapon, the claws on the ends of his fingertips had been a bare inch or two. When she’d grown in power and been able to strengthen him more, they had grown again, but were still only three inches long.

Now, the hooked claws on the end of his fingertips looked more like something he’d seen on the toe-claws of the massive raptors from the old Jurassic Park movie. They encased his fingers from the first knuckle before extending beyond into nearly half-foot long blades of hardened bone and keratin.

Gently, Koda raked his claws along the stone wall to mirror the way the stonecrackers would sharpen their claws. The pale granite parted under his claws with a screech of crumbling stone, leaving behind furrows almost an inch deep at the casual gesture.

“Thanks,” Koda murmured to the spirits before turning his attention back to the cave.

Focusing briefly, Koda followed his instincts and used the index finger of his right hand to open his left palm, flicking his blood out to spatter over the floor of the cave.

A brief flare of energy raced down his arm, leaving Koda weak for a moment. Blood-red fire poured from the polished stones on his gauntlets, turning pitch black as it left his hand before a thump of suppressed power washed out of him and into the cave.

Within his soul, Koda heard an elephantine bellow of anger that rapidly melded into the challenging roar of a massive feline as he claimed this site of power for Thera and cast out any claim that Oluk might have had to it by conquest.

The black fire washed through the cave in rapid order, burning away any sign of the trolls’ presence in a flare of energy that echoed like the distant boom of thunder.

A moment later, a pelt that Koda recognized as having belonged to one of the stonecrackers appeared on the floor by the back wall of the cave, followed by an equally large offering bowl that roared with power.

A wash of surprise and affection rolled up out of Koda’s connection to Thera, as well as something that he could only call amused exasperation. But unlike with the kittens, the goddess did not speak to him.

Swaying slightly on his heels, Koda blinked rapidly to clear the spots from his eyes.

The simple ritual had taken more out of him than ever before. This time the counter-swell of power had immediately sought the goddess, and he knew Thera would grow even stronger with this conduit channeling ancient strength into her. Especially as its previous guardian, the ancient spirit, had given its blessing to him claiming it.

Once he could move without wanting to fall over, Koda straightened, clenched his left hand closed over the still-bleeding injury there, and returned to his mates outside.

29

Koda and the others returned to the village, settling into the same building they had camped in before.

The pyre had taken the entire night to burn out, given the sheer size of the trolls and the amount of wood that it needed. No one had wanted to risk the fire getting out of hand, so they had all stayed on the mountainside to keep watch through the night.

Arriving back in town with the early light of morning, they’d taken turns washing in the chill waters of the lake before flopping down to sleep most of the day away.

Koda didn’t even protest when his mates had dragged him into bed to cuddle and sleep, with Samira sneaking into their pile in the night.

Waking late in the afternoon, Koda’s group set about straightening the village as much as they could while taking it easy. It was a surprisingly simple task, given their troll-boosted strength.

Damaged buildings were propped up or knocked over if they were beyond saving, streets were cleared, and the bloody pens were scraped out. It wasn’t much, but none of them could sit still after having been racing about for the last several weeks.

None of Koda’s team considered the effect that the large, visible pyre on the mountainside above the village might have had on others who saw it. Especially the hunting parties still out on the plains, and the refugees.

When Cyrus arrived early the second morning after the fight, with sixty hunters and another forty villagers armed with spears at his back, Koda was reminded of the spectacle the massive pyre must have made.

Hannah was on watch when the approaching group of fighters appeared over the horizon, moving at a dead run for the village. Her shouts alerted the others, and they hurried to meet the returning group.

“Aegisclaw!” Cyrus shouted, the cougar beastfolk skidding to a stop as the group pounded into the center of the village. “We saw the smoke and returned early, running through the night. What happened? I was certain that the village would be ashes when we got back!”

“Ah… sorry about that,” Koda laughed, stepping out of the group to speak to the lead hunter. More than a few of the hunters behind Cyrus tensed when they realized he was a human, with mutters running through their group.

Koda noted that those giving him suspicious looks were all unfamiliar faces, ones he guessed were likely folk who hadn’t been there when their group came by the first time. Putting that from his mind, he focused on Cyrus as the older man frantically scanned their group and then the village for information.

“Take it easy, Cyrus. Everyone is fine. We dealt with the trolls already, that was⁠—”

A surge of murmurs, shouts, denials, and derision washed out from the hunters close enough to hear what was being said.

Koda let them get the disbelief out of their systems. With the need to burn the corpses and dispose of the trolls, he didn’t really have any proof of the kills. It was not something he could casually show them. The only thing remaining was the charred shards of bone.

“Oi! Quiet, you lot!”

While Koda would let the worried members of the Silent Plains tribe voice their frustration and doubts, Calandra was another thing entirely. The stout dwarven woman’s bellow cut through and silenced the protesting people like a cannon-shot, drawing all eyes to her.

“Thank you, Calandra,” Cyrus said, getting a nod from the stout woman before turning his attention back to Koda. “You speak the truth?”

“As far as we can tell. You were here when we killed the first two.” Koda’s statement got a nod from the other man, and so he continued to summarize the events that followed Cyrus’ departure. “We gathered information and prepared to defend the village as much as possible. We got four more when they came back down to raid the village, and then went after the rest in the hills. I’m fairly certain we got them all, since the chieftain was up in the cave we fought at.”

“Cave?” Cyrus asked before shaking his head and holding up a hand. “No, I will ask Samira for details. She is used to dealing with the questions of others, and I know that the groups of hunters that came with us will want details.”

“She’s welcome to it. I’ve only known her for a few days and I can recognize she’s better at telling stories than me.” Koda said with a laugh before glancing back at the group of fighters with Cyrus. “I appreciate you rushing to help us. I feel bad that it was for nothing.”

“Champion, if you liberated our home and eliminated the threat for us, then there is nothing for which to apologize. Many of those with me expected to die in the fight against the trolls. The fact that your group of nine overcame them will be something many will question. But I saw that first battle, and I have an idea of what you and the Den Mother are capable.”

“Just don’t let your folks press too hard on Samira,” Koda warned with a wicked smirk, glancing over Cyrus’ shoulder at several of the hunters who still looked disbelieving at his statements. “She claimed one kill by herself, and another with aid.”

Cyrus gave him an astonished look and opened his mouth to demand more information before visibly taking hold of himself.

“I will ask her about it. I’m sure she’d be happy to recount the whole thing,” Cyrus said after a long pause.

“While you get that information, Calandra and I can go and retrieve the refugees. As comfortable as the shelters my Sienna made were, I expect they would rather stay in the village and begin harvesting the crops.” Koda suggested.

“Actually, that won’t be difficult,” Cyrus said with a smirk. “After we returned with word, the headman said he would get our people moving back this way. Something about ‘trusting in the Pack Lady.’ I’d thought it was just him wanting to show a strong front, but it looks like it was worth it. You shouldn’t have to go too far.”

Retrieving the villagers was easier, but still a pain in the butt.

While Calandra’s wind magic could help move them along, it didn’t change the fact that the elderly and the young couldn’t march like adults in their prime could.

Koda’s group was happy to be moving again. With the help of several of the hunters, they reached and convinced the villagers to double time back home.

Within two more days, the village was once more lively with people who were hard at work trying to repair their homes and prepare for the oncoming winter. There had been talk about throwing a party to celebrate, but Koda had insisted on them not wasting time for him, and to celebrate when they were prepared for the oncoming winter.

Samira regaled the villagers and anyone who would listen, with the battles against the trolls, finding the stonecracker den ruined, recruiting their ghosts, and the ultimate battle with the chieftain.

Koda was glad for the energetic caracal woman, as it allowed him to avoid many of the stares of both awe, fear, and lust in the wake of everything.

Several villagers tried to offer gifts to him and the others, but Koda declined any that were offered to him, stating that it was better for the villagers to focus on recovering in the wake of the raids.

More than a few of the young women of the Silent Plains tribe tried to sneak into his tent, but his mates barred entry to them all, stating that he needed to recover. The only one allowed to visit him, besides Cyrus and Vysin, was Samira.

The village headman was overjoyed to have his people able to return safely home, and insisted that he had to have some way to repay Koda and the others for their hard work. After trying to throw the party, he offered to send a number of his tribe to serve as guards and retainers for Koda, and when that was politely refused, he started to get annoyed until Calandra had suggested trade.

“A trading pact with the village of Silverstone? That is all that you would want?” Vysin had asked in surprise, and Koda seized on the idea immediately.

“Yes. Your tribe is known to others on the plains and trusted. If you were to act as a go-between for us and them, then we could all benefit. I’m sure you would like access to worked metals and other things, just as we would appreciate the fruits of your tribe’s hunts. Hides, meat, and other treasures of the land that you cultivate?”

Vysin looked thoughtful as he considered Koda’s words.

Their discussion took place the night after the refugees had returned to the village, and Vysin had pulled Koda’s group aside to figure out how they could be repaid. Samira had invited herself along with the same blithe ignorance as always, simply following when Vysin had drawn them into his home.

“It doesn’t feel like enough,” Vysin said after a long moment, and Koda gestured for the man to come closer. Vysin leaned in intently, the older man’s eyes sparking with curiosity and no small amount of respect for the much younger man.

“You know what I do to empower my patron?”

“Yes. Samira has kept the information out of her tellings of the tale, but she made me aware that you have claimed and consecrated three different sites in our territory. This will give us places to worship the Pack Lady and give her offerings. Oh!”

Vysin’s eyes widened as he realized what Koda was suggesting and nodded rapidly in agreement.

“Yes, that would be something we could do. I know a few of the other tribes that I would trust with the information, and those that might welcome the Lady’s return. I can gather information of different sites of power on my people’s land and begin inquiring with the other tribes to learn where more might lay.”

“Cautiously, Vysin,” Koda warned, holding up a hand to quell the man’s excitement. “We have to go about this cautiously. If word were to get back to those that wish her ill⁠—”

“I will not fail you, Champion. Far more of my people will survive the winter because of the risks you took and the blessings the goddess sent our way.”

Vysin’s aged voice had iron in it, and Koda forced himself to relax. He was still nervous about sharing the information, but he knew he needed help if he was going to find more ways to restore the still-healing goddess. The armor that Thera had given him would help guide him to the sites of power, but knowing what direction to travel in would help.

After we get a chance to rest, Koda thought grimly. I am going to sleep for like… a week when we get back to Silverstone.

A gentle hand on his back drew his attention to Sienna, who sat on his right. She gave him a loving smile and a nod. Behind her, he saw Arthene and Calandra grinning as well.

Okay, maybe not just sleep, Koda amended mentally and returned the smile.

“I do have a request for you though, Champion Aegisclaw. I hope you do not view it as an imposition, though,” Vysin said a moment later, and Koda turned back to the other man.

“What is it, Vysin? I am hoping to return to my home as well, and it is some days away.” Koda did his best to remain positive, but despite his best efforts, there was a note of annoyance in his tone.

The older man nodded quickly, his smile not fading at all as he explained.

“I had thought as much, and it will not slow your return home. It is two-fold. I would like to send one of my hunters back to Silverstone so that they could facilitate talk of trade and welcome those who travel to Silverstone with trade in mind.”

“That should be easy enough. If there isn’t space for them in town, then we can host them at my home. There are certainly enough rooms,” Koda said and heard a small snicker from behind him, though he couldn’t tell if it was Arthene or Calandra laughing.

“That would actually be ideal, as one of my tribe has petitioned to join your family. As headman, I would love nothing more than to tie the Silent Plains to your line, Champion. I know you would come again to our aid if we were to ask it, but this would give us cause and a duty to return that favor.”

Koda felt his stomach lurch before he forced it to settle with an effort of will. The last thing he needed right now was another mate to keep happy. He’d just gotten used to the idea of having three women and didn’t want to do anything that would damage his connection to any of them during this period of his life.

“I don’t—” Koda began, only for Sienna to interrupt him.

“—see anything wrong with that,” the wolf beastfolk said easily, the hand on his back rubbing gently. “Though it would depend on the individual in question. If it is who I believe it to be, then she has already made good progress to earning our approval. It is not a guarantee, just a chance.”

“That’s enough for me!” Samira cheered from her spot on Koda’s right.

Before he could react, the caracal-woman bounded forward to kneel in front of Koda and grin up at him, her tufty ears wiggling happily while her tail flicked and danced behind her in amusement.

“I, Samira Longtooth, seek to join with the family of Champion Aegisclaw as a full mate. Your valor and honor have impressed me, and I would add my name to your clan to bring its glory even higher!”

“Uh…” Koda said intelligently, getting another round of giggles from Arthene and Calandra.

“Yes, well, now you know who I was thinking of sending to assist with trading as well,” Vysin snickered, the older cat beastfolk rolling his eyes at Samira’s enthusiasm. “She came to me as soon as we returned and demanded my approval for her to leave the tribe to join your family. I told her it was contingent on your agreement.”

Koda still hesitated, glancing towards Sienna, who was smiling up at him lovingly.

“It’s not a guarantee. She just wants a chance to try and this will give her the opportunity to see new places and hear new stories.”

“Her real motivation,” Koda mumbled, his heart relaxing at the confidence in Sienna’s gaze and the revelation.

“Not entirely, but a decent one,” Sienna agreed, her smile growing wider.

“I guess—” Koda began, only for Samira to pounce into his lap with a happy yowl, her arms going around his neck while she tackled him to the ground.

He was half-worried that the girl would kiss him which, even after their adventures, Koda didn’t feel like would be right.

Instead, Samira just rubbed her face into his chest and neck, purring like a little motorcycle as she snuggled into him amongst the amused laughter of his mates.

They don’t seem surprised in the slightest, Koda thought wryly while Samira made herself comfortable on his lap. Suppose it’s to be expected.

30

Samira, for all her enthusiastic declaration of intention to become Koda’s mate, was remarkably respectful and in possession of self-control after the meeting with Vysin. If Koda didn’t miss his guess, Sienna and Arthene were coaching the caracal-woman through how to best appeal to him.

Not that he didn’t find Samira’s bubbly personality or her lithe body attractive, because he did. But Koda needed more time to solidify his emotions with the other women who had barged into his life, something that Calandra obviously understood as the most recent to join the family. The dwarven woman stuck close to him, working in her own way to deepen their connection and relationship at every opportunity.

They remained in the village for another four days after the villagers returned. Koda rationalized that, if there were other trolls in the mountains, they’d have found their way down to the bustling village by that point. When none of the massive predators showed themselves, Koda and his band began preparing to head back to Silverstone.

“I still wish that we could host a feast in your honor,” Vysin grumbled while he watched the saviors of his tribe bundle their things together from the rooms that they’d been borrowing in the main hall. “Especially after you lent so much of your strength to the reconstruction efforts.”

“Your people are welcome to celebrate the end of the trolls and return to their village. But we would rather not be the reason for any delays in the harvest that might hurt someone during the winter. That necessary work is already delayed by the trolls’ actions.” Koda repeated his previous reasoning why he ducked the celebration. “Your hunters need to use the time to restock your meats, and those who kept your animals will surely want the opportunity to start rebuilding your flocks.”

“It is the rationale behind your words that makes it hard to argue, Aegisclaw. You speak with a wisdom far beyond your years,” Vysin sighed, the older man leaning on his walking stick heavily. “I would expect a hunter of your years to know only a fraction of that wisdom, and to demand that he be elevated as the next village headman for his feats.”

“I grew up fast,” Koda said simply, not wanting to elaborate on the how and why. He’d already tread some of that ground with Sienna, and would rather leave it back on Earth where it belonged.

“I wanted to thank you as well for leaving behind the weapons fashioned from the stonecracker leopard’s teeth. They will provide excellent defenses if more trolls descend during the winter storms.”

“That also just felt sensible. I know my people kept a few of the teeth for themselves or to integrate into their weapons, but your people live closer to the trolls' old ranges, so it makes more sense for you to have those weapons.” Koda shrugged as he set his prepared pack by the wall.

The pack had felt solid and heavy to him before, but not more than he could carry. Now, bolstered by the troll-slayer blessing, the pack felt like a pillow instead of something that basically carried all of his worldly possessions. The only gift he’d accepted from the villagers had been two new pairs of pants to replace the single tattered set he’d had left, much to Sienna’s amused relief.

Well, any possessions that can’t carry themselves. My girls are the most precious things in my life, but are they really my possessions when I belong to them as much as they belong to me? Koda thought while Vysin rambled on about the blessing that their tribe had received in his assistance. The older man meant well, but he didn’t know Koda well enough to understand that such talk made him uncomfortable.

Behind him, Koda heard the four women who’d shared the room with him rustling and talking while they made one last pass to ensure everything had been collected. Samira’s bright chirp punctuated Arthene’s deep rumble of amusement before all four burst into laughter. The closed door between them muffled the sounds enough that he couldn’t easily understand them, and Koda didn’t feel inclined to spy.

It wasn’t until Vysin switched from thanking Koda to talking about the future that Koda tuned back into what the man was saying.

“I would expect the harvests to be done in the next two weeks, and everything will be prepared for winter before the snows fall. Our hunters will have time to bring in more meat and hides to prepare, but it will be a few months before anything will be ready to trade.”

“If you have someone willing to travel during the winter, they will be welcomed in Silverstone,” Koda promised the older man. “But if the weather is too bad to travel, it would be best for everyone if they stay safe and we consider trade in the spring.”

“Winters come in fast and cold, but once they settle over the land, we can predict them better. Expect to see our people and maybe some of the other tribes’ members. Our hunters still operate during the winter, once the snows have settled in,” Vysin said with a smile that made the wrinkles on his face deepen.

“I trust in the wisdom of your tribe. As long as no one risks themselves unduly because they believe I’m in a rush,” Koda said with a slight nod of his head to the older man.

Before their conversation could jump tracks to another subject, the door behind Koda popped open, and the combined tread of several sets of feet told him that the girls were on the move once more.

Turning, three smiling faces eager to return home greeted him, along with a fourth, possessed of equal excitement and curiosity to see new things. The sight of them together and happy lifted Koda’s heart and he could feel an itch in his feet to get moving once more.

“Ready to go?” Koda asked them.

Rather than answering, Calandra just reached forward and hooked his belt with her hand before she began dragging him towards the door to the lodge.

“I would take that as a yes, Champion Aegisclaw. Fair travels to you!” Vysin laughed while bowing to them in passing.

Koda was towed outside before he could answer, with the other three women falling in at his back like they were worried he might stop to chat with Vysin some more. Arthene had snagged his pack as she passed it, and turned over the bundle to him when they were outside in the thin sun of the late fall.

The air was already beginning to turn crisper, and Koda knew the chill would be even stronger when they got back up into the mountains where Silverstone was situated. They had supplies, though, and the village still had several weeks to finish its own recovery efforts and prepare for the winter.

Thoughts of winter preparations brought Koda’s mind back around to the herds of bison they had seen on the way over, and he grinned as they met up with the other four hunters, who were just as eager to get home as Koda was.

“Oh no,” Hans joked, squinting his eyes at Koda. “He’s got that look on his face.” The horned man had warmed back up to Koda during the reconstruction efforts, and while things were still stilted between them, their friendship was repairing itself. Hannah and Netta remained distant, but Koda chalked that up to concerns for their friends.

“What look?” Samira asked excitedly, bounding past Koda, only to turn back and study his face intently. “I don’t see anything different. What did you mean?” Her long tail flicked in annoyance behind her, while her tuft-tipped ears flapped curiously.

“That is because he went ‘innocent’ as soon as Hans called him out on it,” Arthene laughed, smacking Koda on the back with enough force to jostle his stride. “Own up to it, my mate. What did you have running through that devious mind of yours?”

Koda debated dragging it out some, if only just to tease his girls. But the intense glitter in Samira’s eyes and the wicked grin he spotted on Arthene’s lips told him that such joking wouldn’t work well. So he just owned up to the idea and was gratified when the others all nodded in agreement.

“I was just thinking, the entire excuse that we had for going out into the plains was a hunting trip. It’d be poor form if we came back to Silverstone without any meat, especially with all of us bolstered in strength.”

“Using travois helped to disguise it, but I think people can tell something is different,” snickered Calandra as she emerged from the butcher shop, dusting off her hands.

“That’s because you heaved the damn bison off yours and carried it back to his meat shed,” Sienna scolded the smaller woman. The grin tugging on the edge of her mouth and the twinkle in her eyes, evidence that she wasn’t as angry as she sounded.

“I want to get home, sister. I didn’t feel like waiting for him to get his apprentices together to transport it.” Calandra protested with a feigned pout.

“Well, at least we found some takers for the extra meat.” Koda sighed and picked up the head of his own travois. “Even with it getting colder, we are going to have to rush to get all this meat smoked and dried before it goes off. I didn’t expect Arthene to take down three of the damn things while everyone else was happy with just one.”

“You should have. Our sweet eldest sister is a bottomless pit. At least she ate two on the way back,” Sienna teased him in return. “Come on, love. Let’s get this back to the house. Arthene will meet us there when she’s done dropping off her last one with Banno at the inn.”

“I should check in with Kris,” Koda mumbled as he dragged the travois behind him with Sienna and Calandra on either side. Samira had gone with Arthene to meet Banno, the innkeeper for the village, since her people would likely stay at the inn while they came to trade.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Calandra grunted from his side. “Once we get this beastie to our house and get him hung up, you can do that while Sienna and I finish the butchering. We already gutted and bled it. Skinning and portioning are next. Do we have enough salt on hand?”

“Enough to get started,” Sienna said thoughtfully. “More would be better while the general store has it. Koda, can you pick up a sack or two of salt when you are done talking to Kris?”

“Of course, Sienna,” Koda answered easily.

They continued to make small talk as they wound their way through the late afternoon light that graced Silverstone.

The village showed no obvious signs of the Crooked attack now, with the buildings having been repaired and roofs mended. The only indication was how everyone they passed carried a weapon with them as naturally as if they’d always done so.

Their group had split up as soon as they reached the village, with the other four hunters eager to return to their homes and families. That the village looked untouched and hadn’t been burned to the ground was enough to confirm that their little ruse of leaving town had worked to divert attention from the baron’s people who had visited.

That was good, because even with the travois in use, it had drawn looks both amused and confused when the group had trotted up the road, each of them pulling a travois with at least one dead bison on it and Arthene just carrying hers on her shoulders.

Arriving back at their home, Koda felt the tension drain from his body as he studied the stately building.

The structure had been originally intended to be the residence of the baron’s representative in the small, frontier village. But when plans had been canceled for such things, it had sat empty for several years until he arrived. The headwoman, Kris, had gifted it to him and Sienna after his work in pushing back the Crooked in the valley. And now, hopefully, he would get to actually settle in for more than a day or two and make the house into a home.

“Take it around back,” Sienna advised. “There are larger doors that open into the kitchen. Since it’s so large, it’ll be better to hang it outside while we skin and prepare the meat, then we can carry it down into the cellar. Smoking this much is going to take days, but better to get it started now.”

“After fighting trolls, some domestic tasks will be rather nice,” Calandra chuckled as she bounded ahead of their group to open the side gate that led to the small yard at the back of the house. “Though we might have to put our mate to work splitting wood if there isn’t enough for the hearth yet.”

“Something that I am happy to do,” Koda countered as he went past the smaller woman. “I’ll even do it shirtless, just to give you all a show!”

He expected giggles or more teasing from his mates, but there was only silence. So he glanced their way as he dragged the carcass to a stop by the large doors that he remembered opening into their kitchen.

Both women were blushing faintly while biting their bottom lips, arousal glittering in their eyes.

“Promise?” Sienna asked with a toothy grin.

“Definitely don’t have enough firewood if that’s on the table,” Calandra added huskily.

“I promise,” Koda said with a laugh of his own. “Especially if the thought gets you two so wound up. The sooner you get this meat processed, the sooner I can give you a show. Don’t forget—we need to prepare a spare room for Samira too.”

“Do we have to? You know the kitty is going to just sneak into our bed,” Calandra said with an overwrought groan. “She did it every night on the trip back.”

Which was true. Samira had always found her way into their pile of bodies, though she stayed on the outside, usually finding someone’s flank to use as a pillow and not being discovered until morning. It didn’t bother him that much, but Koda was still firmly fixed on cementing his current relationships before taking on another.

“Even if it’s just fiction, it is polite for her to have her own space. I want to get to know Samira better before we bring her into the family,” Koda asserted, setting the travois poles down and lifting the dead animal up to hang it from the iron hook on the side of the house that Sienna pointed out to him.

“You knew both Arthene and I for fewer days than you have Samira, and Cal even less,” Sienna insisted, her brow wrinkling cutely as she used a key to unlock the back door and hurried through the house to open the kitchen doors. “What is making you hesitate so much?”

The last part was asked as she emerged from the double doors and drew her belt knife to peel the skin off the bison with a workmanlike efficiency.

“I’m not hesitating,” Koda denied, and got an arch look from both women as Calandra joined in. “I’m not. I have three beautiful mates already, and I still feel like I rushed with them. Now that we have the time to take a breath, I want to use that time to ensure I know everything about my mates. What your dreams and hopes are, and what makes you happy. Once I’m confident that I won’t say or do something dumb, then I can worry about adding another.”

As he spoke, Koda folded his arms around Sienna from behind, hugging her to his chest and pressing a kiss to one cheek, ignoring the bloody knife in her hands as she worked. Sienna slumped into his side with a contented noise and turned to nuzzle into his cheek lightly, though her hands did not stop moving. The noise turned into a low moan as Koda caressed her fit tummy with one hand while the other wrapped around her torso, just under her breasts, reminding Sienna of their little mating chase in the abandoned village.

“Fair enough. I’ll let her know then. I think Samira will understand, though she’ll be disappointed, given what your past record was,” Calandra answered for the happily humming Sienna, a small smirk on her lips. “Just don’t leave the cutie hanging too long.”

“I won't,” Koda said and released Sienna once he was sure she would support her own weight once more. That done, he bent to steal a kiss from Calandra, who growled happily into his lips. “Do we need anything besides the salt?”

“Nothing I can think of, but I haven’t had time to check the cellar either. I’ll go to the general store myself tomorrow to handle that. Go make your report and come back. I know the other two will be happy to enjoy the show you promised to put on for us too!” Sienna shot him a smoky look, her tail wagging happily behind her.

Koda nodded in understanding and dropped his pack inside the house. It only took a moment to collect some coins from the stash they’d hidden away before he was on his way in the village, already dreaming of what a domestic life might be like now that things had calmed down.

31

Word had spread quickly of Koda and the others’ return to the village. While he’d been greeted warmly by any he’d passed before, there were more out on the streets as the evening came in fast. People he recognized from the celebrations, villagers he’d helped or fought alongside during the skirmishes with the Crooked, hunters that had traveled to aid Amberpost with him, and even a few faces he recognized from the larger town were out and about, either visiting or having taken Calandra’s advice to move.

Thankfully, no one seemed intent on holding him for long. Most just wanted a quick word of thanks, or to welcome him back from the hunting trip he’d been on. So it wasn’t overly difficult to work his way through the town square to the headwoman’s house.

Kris was actually turning to lock up behind herself as Koda finally broke free of the mass of people. The older cat beastfolk wore a hide shawl about her shoulders against the cold and leaned on her knob-headed walking stick while she fumbled with the key.

“Kris, let me get that for you,” Koda called, bounding up the steps.

The sudden call of her name and the thump of Koda’s footsteps made the older woman jump, her pointed, graying cat-ears laying flat against her skull in surprise before she relaxed and let him take the large iron key from her.

“Cha—ahem. Master Aegisclaw, it is good to see you back in town. I saw your Arthene making a delivery to Banno and was going to inquire about it before coming to see you.”

Kris’ voice had the weight of her age on it, but there was iron beneath the weathered exterior. It was something that Koda liked about the older woman. She might not be young anymore, but that would not stop her from doing what needed to be done.

“We delivered two more of them to the butcher, as well as several that were taken to individual’s homes. My group will eat well and keep the tanner busy preparing those hides. I think we all fell in love with the idea of a bison-hide cloak for the winter.”

“I’m jealous of that. I would love to have such a hide for my bed. The chill gets stronger every year,” Kris said with a grin up at Koda that showed she still had all her teeth despite her age.

“Well, there might be enough to get yourself a coat or cloak too if you don’t mind it being stitched from more than one hide. Only Hans, Arthene, and myself are large enough to use most of the hide,” Koda offered with a laugh, mirroring his tone by offering his arm to the older woman. “I wanted to speak with you about the hunt and what happened in town. Do you mind if I accompany you?”

“If you’ve already given two bison to the butcher, then I don’t need to hound Banno about not monopolizing it for his stews. Walk me to the butcher’s so I can secure some of the meat for a celebration for the village. Having our hunters back before the snows begin is the perfect capper to the last week.”

“Oh? Mind filling me in?” Koda asked, towing the older woman along gently.

The crowds parted for them. The villagers just greeted the two of them with a nod or a smile as they hurried towards their homes, observing their headwoman and the man they viewed as their shaman conversing and not wanting to interrupt.

“Yes, there has been quite a bit achieved the last two weeks,” Kris began happily, though the twinkle in her eye told Koda to listen closely. “We finished repairs to the village in the wake of the attacks. The mine is still producing ore, and there are signs they might have found another vein, too. Which, if that is true, will mean the mines will keep open for another several years, I believe.”

“That is great to hear.” Koda didn’t have to disguise his happiness at that statement. “Calandra offered to have a look at the mines herself by the way, as well as maybe send for some folk who owe her favors to help sniff out where the ores might be hiding.”

“I had hoped that your mates might help with that,” Kris said in reply, stressing the plural ‘mates’ rather heavily. Koda easily took the hint and nearly smacked himself in the face for not thinking about Sienna possibly assisting the miners with her earth magic.

“That is wonderfully thoughtful. I’ll pass it along, as they’ll likely be going a bit stir-crazy once the winter sets in. We’ve been nothing but ‘go-go-go’ for the last month or more, so I doubt they’ll be happy to be at rest for long.”

Kris gave him one of those smiles that made her wrinkles deepen, giving the older woman the look of a walnut with her tanned skin before she continued.

“We also got word from the baron. Apparently, his forces swept the hordes of the Crooked from the land and have made it safe once more. They hadn’t expected us to be in as good of condition as we were when they arrived, but accepted the explanation that we hadn’t been hit by very many and got help from some travelers as well.”

Kris’ grip on his arm tightened, and she pulled him closer, speaking in a much lower tone to him as they wound between buildings to the butcher’s shop, pausing in the alley on the far side of the street from it.

“We weren’t able to keep everything from them. They wouldn’t believe that a frontier town had turned back even a small group of Crooked without getting suspicious, but we told them a ‘wandering group of mercenaries’ helped in exchange for food and lodging before departing and heading northwest to ply their trade to the baron.”

“Understood.” Koda gave her hand on his arm a squeeze, letting her know that the solution she’d come up with was acceptable. “As long as they didn’t cause trouble for anyone, that is.”

“Some—there was a priest and a champion with them. They made some noise about establishing a chapel out here to bring the ‘Word of Golieas Goldheart’ to protect the frontier. But when I explained the village’s situation with the mines running out and our coffers being empty after the repairs, they let it drop. Apparently, they didn’t have the authority to spend the church’s money on such things.”

Kris’ eyes twinkled in amusement and Koda had to suppress a laugh at that.

“Good to know. It is unfortunate that they left before the improvements to the mine were discovered, no?”

“Indeed,” Kris said with such false sincerity that Koda snorted in amusement. “What about you? Obviously, your hunt went well if you brought back so much meat, though I am surprised that you brought back the carcasses and not prepared meat and hides.”

“Ah, that might be a bit of a tale, and I have someone who can do it better justice than me,” Koda said with a grin, remembering Samira’s excitement in telling stories. “How about we finish our errands and you join me and my mates for dinner? We have a guest from the tribes of the plains with us who is here to help open trade up between Silverstone and them.”

“Oh? I will have to enjoy your hospitality, then,” Kris’ smile grew even wider and the older woman gained a bit more spryness to her step. “Come along then, young man! I want to hear this story you are teasing me with.”

The butcher was happy to sell one of the two bison to Kris for the village to use in a celebration. It meant he didn’t have to salt and dry the beast himself, just process it and let the village women take care of the rest the next day. He even sold Koda some of his supply of salt when he heard their plans, since he’d bought out the rest from the general store several days previous.

With two large burlap sacks of coarse salt on his shoulder, Koda led the headwoman back to his home as night fell in around them.

He’d only been gone for around half-an-hour to run his errands, slowed by the older woman’s pace. He wasn’t upset by it though. It was nice to walk at a slower speed, and being mindful of Kris’ age meant that he didn’t feel bad taking it easy.

The sounds of raised, happy voices from the backyard of his home told Koda where to find his wives, and he guided Kris through the shadows to the gate and led the way into the yard.

“I’m back, my loves. And I brought us a guest for dinner,” Koda called, getting a round of smiles from the girls.

Sienna and Calandra were both still processing the hanging carcass, with Sienna having switched to preparing cuts of meat to dry and smoke, while Samira and Calandra processed the animal. Arthene was sitting on a log that she’d dragged into the yard, a proud smile on her face telling Koda that she’d just felled the tree in anticipation of his ‘show’ that he’d promised the other girls.

“Oh, good evening, Headwoman!” Sienna called, waving one bloody hand at her to join them. “I’d be more formal, but well⁠—”

“No, there is work to be done and you are diligent about it! Niceties can be observed when the meat is cooking rather than going bad on the bone. Here, let me help you with that.” Kris detached herself from Koda and toddled into the kitchen with a broad smile. “Our good Master Aegisclaw told me that there was a story to be had, and those are best told while the hands are busy.”

“And he’s got work of his own to do!” Arthene called from her perch, hopping down off the log. “Someone promised us a show, and it is only fair.”

“I don’t have a saw,” Koda protested, feigning annoyance as he deposited the large bags of salt where Sienna indicated, stealing a kiss from the redheaded wolf as he went past. “Much less an axe to use to split them with.”

“You don’t need an axe—you could use that chin of yours,” Calandra insisted, pointing her carving knife at him with a raised eyebrow and a smirk. “Fortunately for you, Samira ran to get some tools for you when she and Arthene got back a bit ago. They are there by the wall.”

Turning, Koda spotted a large flat saw he could use to cut rounds off the log. It leaned against the wall, alongside a woodsman’s axe in the shadow of the back door. A figure with gleaming silver eyes that he immediately recognized stood in the shadows beside them.

Thera held a finger to her lips, the motion barely visible in the shadows while a grin danced behind it. Nodding to the goddess in understanding, Koda played along with the script that his mates had clearly come up with.

“Fine, if that is what you want.” He heaved an overwrought sigh and began peeling off his shirt.

As his bare torso was exposed to the evening air, Koda was treated to more than a few cheers from his girls, as if seeing him shirtless was a rare treat. Thera’s grin in the shadows only grew wider as she watched him approach where the tools were stored. Koda thought he even saw a touch of hunger in her gaze as he nearly brushed against Thera to retrieve the saw and the axe.

He didn’t need to imagine the light pat on the ass from the goddess or the faint, throaty laugh he heard when he turned away from her to head to Arthene’s log.

Doing his best to not give away the sneaky goddess, Koda set to work on the log that Arthene had provided. The saw bit through the wood like his claws had cut through stone, sending a cloud of wood-particles into the air as he made quick work of the task.

The women present made comments and complimented him, with Kris being the most surprised at the ease with which he worked. It took Koda only a minute to cut the first round off the log and set it up to be his chopping block before going back for a second.

Thera flitted around the yard, remaining in the shadows and just watching as Koda’s mates worked and talked.

The domestic feel of the moment warmed his heart, and Koda could imagine that seeing them all content after the hard work was doing the same for the goddess.

None of the others gave any sign that they could see Thera, as the black-haired goddess edged closer and closer to the group in the shadows. They moved around her without seeming to notice, talking and listening in equal measure as first Samira poured out the tale of the fight with the trolls, and then Kris returned the favor while she set a quick soup to bubble on the hearth while everyone did their part.

It wasn’t until the bison was nearly fully processed and even the bones stored away in the cellar for soups that Thera finally made herself known.

Koda had processed the log Arthene had provided and set the wood under the eaves to dry. It wouldn’t be perfect in time for the winter, but it would be better than nothing. Sienna had the last rack of meat ready for smoking and was turning towards the fire with it in her arms when she tripped.

Before anyone else could act, Thera flowed out of the shadows beside the hearth and caught the smaller woman with a smile.

“Easy there, sweet Sienna,” the goddess said gently, setting Sienna to her feet and brushing her now shoulder-length hair back out of her eyes. “You should know that you must watch your feet, especially with my daughter in your home. Otherwise, you’ll be tripping on Arthene all over the place.”

“Hey!” protested the primal bear-spirit, the only one to speak in reaction to the goddess’ appearance. Everyone else was staring in awe at the raven-haired woman, her mane of curls draped over her shoulders.

“It is true,” Thera teased, turning her smile from Sienna to Arthene.

“But you don’t need to spread it around,” Arthene grumped, scowling at the table before Koda came up behind her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. With the affection of her mate, Arthene relaxed once more and leaned back into his chest with a smirk.

“Pack Lady, welcome to our home,” Sienna stammered out, being the first to find her voice. “I did not expect you to come so soon, or else we might⁠—”

“Why would I not visit my champion and his lovely mates, especially after all the hard work you have all put in for me? Be at peace, dear Sienna. Do not let me intrude upon your home and plans. I won’t be long in expressing my thanks.”

The goddess’ words eased some of the tension, though Koda spotted the excited vibration of Samira’s ears telling him that the caracal-woman was boiling over with questions and awe. So he spoke first.

“I’m glad that you are happy with our work, Thera.”

The smile that the goddess turned his way was radiant, and Koda was suddenly glad to be leaning into Arthene, as his balance wavered for a moment under that affectionate light and the matching swell of emotion that had surged down his connection to the goddess.

“Happy is not a sincere enough word for what I am feeling, my Aegisclaw. You rescued a tribe of my people from the worst of predators, avenged their losses, and returned their home to them. In the process, you discovered several sites of power and brought me into contact with a wellspring of strength that has been growing since this world was first made. With its assistance, I will wake several more of my daughters and make great strides in my recovery.”

“Oh? Who are you bringing next?” Arthene asked, perking up against Koda. “It better not be⁠—”

“I have not decided yet,” Thera interrupted Arthene with a smirk. “But rest assured, that they will integrate happily with your family when I send them to you.”

“Do you have to?” Koda asked with a slight frown, still off-kilter from the sheer amount of emotion thrown his way. “I’m overly spoiled as it is.”

A round of snickers arose from all the women present, even the goddess, as a pair of shadowy wolf ears sprouted from amongst her curls.

“Oh, dear Koda. So unfortunate that you are surrounded by loving women,” Calandra said in a high falsetto. “To be drowning in sexy beauties is such a horrible way to go!”

“It’s not—” Koda protested, but was interrupted by Samira.

“He can’t drown! Not until I’ve had my turn,” she said with a petulant frown that set off another round of laughter.

“He won’t drown,” Thera reassured the caracal woman with a smile, her wolf ears melting away and being replaced with a pair of long, upright hare’s ears that wiggled and rotated attentively. “Our Koda is just being dramatic. Give him some time to settle in and catch his breath, and I’m sure things will change.”

The confidence with which the goddess spoke reassured Samira, though it made Koda’s heart lurch in concern. Thera had made it abundantly obvious that she wanted him to father many children, which was why she was pushing spirits like Arthene into his path. The bear spirit had apparently jumped the queue on a few of the others though, having insisted on being the first after he’d saved her spirit from being corrupted by the Crooked.

Take it easy, Koda reminded himself. As long as you work hard, love them, and make sure you communicate openly, then you are doing all you can. None of them seem put off by Thera’s push for me to have a ridiculously massive family. Just do your best to ensure none of them feel left out and that they can come to you if they do. Even a goddess needs an ear to listen sometimes, right?

Finishing the thought, Koda realized all the women were watching him with various expressions.

Sienna and Calandra both had loving smiles on their faces, while Arthene was looking up at him with a smoky look in her eyes. Samira’s hopeful expression tugged at his heart, as she’s already made her intent plain to him. Kris watched with a smile of maternal pride, clearly happy to see the loving support of this family towards each other.

But what surprised him the most was the sparkle of desire in Thera’s eyes, coupled with the faint blush that reminded him she could read his mind. She was the hardest for him to understand, with her switching between the mysterious goddess and her teasing sensuality. Right now, the sensuality was drifting to the forefront, and he wasn’t sure how to react.

Koda watched as her blush darkened again before Thera squared her shoulders and the serene goddess floated back to the surface, her smile going from lusty to amused.

“Koda,” Thera said, the single word breaking the silence and drawing attention back to her. “I want to thank you earnestly for everything you have done. But be careful as well. Though you are hard at work to ensure it won’t, your bloodline could still fade from this world and doom us all. More than that, losing you would devastate your family.”

“I know, Thera,” Koda agreed. “I hope to prepare more for the future, to be better ready for every—wait, what?” Koda cut off his words as the first part of her statement clicked in his mind. “How am I hard at work ensuring my line won’t end? I’m just trying to stay alive right now, unless that counts? I’m not even trying to add more women to my family—that’s all them.”

Koda indicated first Sienna, then Arthene, and finally Calandra. The gesture got shy smiles from two of the three, with Arthene giving him a lusty wink instead.

“Koda, my dearest champion,” Thera said in an amused tone. “You do realize how children are made, don’t you?”

“I don’t see how—” Koda began, then abruptly cut off as he made the connection.

“Yes, remember that such activities lead to fatherhood,” Thera said with a laugh. “I think you will make for a wonderful father, but I just had to make sure you remembered that. Your mates certainly don’t seem averse to the idea.”

And indeed, when Koda glanced away from the goddess, all three of his mates were giving him heated looks. Even Samira had a look of longing on her features as all eyes turned towards him.

Koda swallowed hard and remembered every time he’d lain with his mates. There had been no hesitation, not even a thought to doing something that might avert a pregnancy then. Would he change that now that it had been pointed out to him?

I’m not against having kids, but am I ready to be a father right now? Koda asked himself internally. Is this the right time?

Deep within his soul, where his instincts melded with his lineage, Koda felt an answer rise up that firmed his resolve.

There is no such thing as the ‘right time,’ the power and instincts told him. It is up to each to make the most of the time we are given. If we wait for the right time, we will wait forever.

Looking up again, Koda locked eyes with the dark-haired goddess in front of him. This time, it was Thera’s turn to shiver and blush at the resolve and desire in his eyes.

“I promised you that my bloodline would never be lost again, and I intend to make good on that promise.”

Author's Note

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Other Books by this Author

Steelforged Legacy Series

Book 1 - Steadfast Hand

Book 2 - Confident Stride

Monster Girls in Space Series

Book 1 - To Valor’s Bid

Book 2 - Honor’s Challenge

Book 3 - Duty’s Reward

Book 4 - Defiant Foes

Book 5 - Gathering Strength

Lost Bloodline Series

Book 1

Book 2

About the Author

I've been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember. According to my parents, that started really young. Apparently, my mother found me in the living room teaching myself to read with the book she'd been reading to me only an hour previous at around the age of four. Apparently, I wasn't done at the same time she was.

Since then, I've been fascinated with the written word. Everything from lore heavy games to literature to tabletop gaming as well. I wrote for the enjoyment of it and spent a fair amount of time in various pen names writing fan fiction, since those stories ended before I was done with them as well.

Now though, I can appreciate a good ending when the time comes. Especially since, as the author, I'm the one who gets to choose when the story wraps and the curtains close.

It is a good feeling!

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