Deflect! Deny!

  "Mostly just hitting me and throwing me. Oh, and making me read BOOORING, long, old books about runes. And magic. The magic ones are nonsense, though."

  That ought to distract the vixen. Phew.

  "Mhmm, I'm sure. Dru does love hitting people. And scratching them. And biting them. But I'm sure she's been nothing but a respectable dy and only taught you combat basics and maybe tormented you a bit with her hexes."

  Goddamnit, woman. Wait, is she sniffing my hair?

  "Yep. For sure. Saints, are you sniffing me or what is happening!?"

  She giggles. GIGGLES!

  "Yes, you smell wonderfully of our Drusil, with a hint of forest fire. It's quite pleasant. If we could get the snake to bottle this, we could make a fortune selling it."

  "We most certainly could not, Sonne. Now leave the poor dear alone before she catches fire. Or turns into a small animal and hops off."

  Oh yes, Drusil, get her off me. Also HEY! That only happened once...twice…? Not often enough to bring up!

  Sonne lets me go, and I skedaddle over to a couch. The instant I'm seated, there's a wolf woman id across my p who grabs my hand and puts it on her head. Who am I to deny skritches? Fine. Ooooh, soft. Drusil has sat herself down in a lounge chair, and, oh. my. god, is that what it looks like when I sit on her p? Except Sonne is way shorter than I am. She's so tiny. ADORABLE! AAAAAAAAA!!

  As I squee with my inside voice, Drusil carries on.

  "As for what we've covered in her education... She's passed the basic combat evaluation, although she seems to have met one of the stronger remnants in the hallways. Her magical theory is cking, but she shows outstanding potential with the orcish rune nguage. Her magic seems closer to a sorcerer's than a proper wizard's. We haven't looked into schema or anything in retion to more advanced magical things, as I'm not sure how it'd interpy with her otherworldly nature. All in all, she's a competent combatant and an average sorceress, with a mana pool well above average."

  That's... a lot of words... Sorcerer? Sure, why not? Heh, I guess if we go by tabletop logic, I did get born with mystical powers I don't understand. The schema thing seems to be like some sort of... soul/mana engraving they do on themselves to specialize? Hells if I understand. I think my eyes glossed over, and Drusil gave up on expining it.

  "Dru. My esteemed dyship. Oh, wonderful vampire lord. Please tell me you didn't just test her combat capabilities and spend the rest of the time having sex."

  [!]

  "*cough* Well, I did show her the library and the nature reserve in case she needed it for some druidic rites or something along those lines."

  ... Did I get shafted, heh, by having the hot, powerful vampire as a teacher? I mean, I'm not compining, but, like, I guess I haven't really learned anything about the world?

  "Strax, do you have anything to add to my dyship's defense?"

  "Uhm... I did a lot of self-study?"

  SorryNotSorry Drusil.

  "On the world?"

  "Hells no, I can barely read anything you have. On runes! They're fun!"

  They really are. It's like... like... that thing. Fuck. This memory thing is wonky sometimes.

  ""You can't read?""

  Oh, I guess neither of them was aware of that. Awkward. I could've sworn I mentioned that to Drusil.

  "I can too! Just not new nguages! It's not my fault; only orcish and the nguage of gomorphs, is that the term?, make sense."

  "Drusil. You didn't even think to test her on something as basic as nguage?"

  "I'll be honest, it was low on my priorities. We had to know what she was capable of first. Besides, it's not like she'll have any interaction with others for the foreseeable future. Strax and I are quite sure she can help us get back--" we are? "--but if she can't defend herself by the time others meet her, get past her not being a demon, and learn she's a druid, it'd all be pointless. Divines help us if the dragons think she's theirs to protect."

  Hmmmm... That is a problem. But I really feel I should ask about this by now...

  "So, uhm, about these divines... They're not, like, real gods or anything, right? I mean, it's not like Tinea is gonna smite me for thinking they're an asshole, right?"

  Wrong thing to say, as three things happened at once.

  Drusil went white, or well, whiter, as a sheet.

  And a swarm of moths appeared and covered my face in fluttering wings.

  And Freki started yelling as she jumped off me and started growling.

  "GODSTOUCHED! GODSTOUCHED!"

  Whoops.