As the young girl’s stomach whined again, her mother’s expression tightened.

  “Thesa,” Zove said to her daughter, “I miscounted and it looks like we have more Cottonscale meat left over. Have some.”

  The malnourished ten-year-old nodded weakly and ate the fire-cooked meal offered to her, The meat tasted salty and metallic, and Thesa failed to pick up on the low gurgle of her mother’s stomach.

  The remains of IsterNgiv were far behind, but the memory of its destruction remained visceral for Zove.

  Slow winds full of spring pollen shook shivers into the desperate pair. The fire only stayed lit for cooking. Light could be dangerous.

  That night, half-asleep and shaking, Thesa dreamt the smell of blood. The sensation of the stiff ground never left even as she felt herself suspended in a nebulous darkness. Silent bursts of lightning struck closer and closer. She woke up to her mother shaking her with a hand over the young girl’s mouth to remind her the importance of silence.

  As Thesa blinked, Zove hefted her daughter in her arms and began to step carefully. Thesa still didn’t know what was happening. Something close by, perhaps.

  Zove continued carefully. A pair of hooves tapped uneven behind the pair. Bits of flesh slapping the ground and surrounding brush. Thesa craned her neck to see, but the shift in weight knocked her malnourished mother off-balance and the two clattered to the forest floor.

  A pained squeal let out behind as Thesa and her mother picked up and broke into a run. In less than an hour, they finally spotted signs of civilization.

  Torches on the edge of the wood created a halo of light around the Knight’s Convent.

  ***

  ***

  Thesa’s second day in Knight Training started out just as exciting as the day prior, which is to say that she was brimming with anticipation to get out of her uncomfortable chair and start doing some actual training. So far it had all been rules and expectations, things that Thesa already knew backward and forward from her years in the Convent Schoolhouse. She tried to stay attentive, but her eyes wandered the room.

  “Armor inspections will occur nightly, so…” Vicaress Garteth continued as Thesa’s focus drifted.

  Beside Thesa, Kelreyn sat nearly motionless except for one hand taking swift notes. The two women looked vaguely similar with their pale skin and blonde hair. The freckles on Thesa’s skin were wider spread and denser, but the most obvious difference to an outside observer were the ears. Kelreyn’s were round and human while the points of Thesa’s revealed her half-elf ancestry.

  On the wall hung a map of ItherBeau and some of the surrounding regions. Thesa hoped that becoming a Knight would give her the chance to spread the light of Beautuk further than ever.

  “Brushing up on your geography, Thesa?” Sir Garteth scowled.

  “Sorry, ma’am,” Thesa said as she sat up straight as an arrow. “I was just thinking about all the places I’ve never been before that I might get to bring Beautuk’s light to.” She rambled on and hoped her explanation was functioning well as an excuse (it was not). “Like, I’ve never been to Candix & Rosell Territories,” Thesa added.

  Sir Garteth made a strange face. It was a face that said she knew something that Thesa did not. However, Thesa was never good at reading faces and in her panicked state was interpreting all signals as signs of dissatisfaction and disapproval.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Most people just call it ‘Candix’ for short,” Kelreyn chimed in. “It's less of a mouthful.”

  “Enough,” Sir Garteth said with a stern look at Kelreyn. “The time for digressions was over before it started.” Without another word, the Knight resumed her lecture. “This afternoon you will have sparring practice as well as a series of practice modules led by Vicaress Skilda. The modules are intended to simulate a real [Dungeon], so I expect you to take this seriously. Then tomorrow, you will meet at the library where Vicaress Zagth will explain how to access important literature throughout your training.”

  ***

  The days chafed by like palms skidding forcefully against a coarse rope. Even with the start of spring, the dryness of winter had yet to completely loosen its grip.

  Considerably, Merijest's allergies complicated the getaway. The demoness's magic and capacity for flight might have lent themselves toward a more totalizing escape but her power was in a significant depression and her capacity for thinking was much the same.

  Witmie and Durn, for their part, managed everything that wasn't Merijest. Tents, fires, camouflage, routing; the works.

  Meanwhile, Thesa could only look over her [Stake] with pity as she held a damp strip of cloth to the demoness's forehead. The [Witch] was running fresh rags and seeing to Merijest's every need.

  The sinus tension seemed to draw Merijest’s facial features inward toward a central point just above her nose which was constantly wet with snot.

  What little supply of allergy potions she'd packed had run out a week prior and leading their escape route too near any settlements would be risky. They were, after all, on the run.

  It was a characteristically dry evening and the party was preparing to set out. Benefited by Merijest’s [Darkvision] and the [Infravision] which Witmie and Thesa shared, they had taken to moving by night and sleeping hidden with a rotating watch during the day.

  Witmie showed Durn an imprecise draft of a map in her leather-bound journal. Unfortunately, their location was further northeast than Witmie had ever been so the best she could do was a rough estimate.

  “The [Hex] we’re in right now is somewhere in the middle,” Witmie explained. “I probably should have taken notes while we were running. [Dungeon] maps are so much easier than this.”

  Durn put a hand on her girlfriend’s shoulder. “You’re doing the best you can,” she said with a smile.

  ***

  ***

  The Bronze Motif, with the subtle noise of jingling coins, floated from person to person, curious and looking for attention. Eventually, it settled into a spot on Durn’s shoulder.

  Thesa carefully tied up a bundled bedroll and affixed it to her bag while Merijest laid on a wide, flat rock with the Foxtapus curled at her feet.

  Merijest mumbled something to Thesa, beckoning the half-elf to lean closer and feel the whisper of Merijest’s hot breath against her ear.

  "Dank yuw," Merijest said. Even raw and stuffed with snot, the demoness was effortlessly devilish.

  Thesa found she could hardly look at Merijest’s figure, nude (as always), sluggish and anemic as she was, without feeling an intense yearning to meet the demoness’s every need. In short, she was devoted to the one who had saved her life. Or…half-life.

  When the camp was finally bound into packs, Durn took most of the weight on her shoulders, and the rest was born by Witmie.

  “We need to find a settlement,” Durn said, summarizing the decision she and Witmie had come to while planning.

  “What about the risk?” Thesa asked.

  “We need supplies,” Witmie said, gesturing toward a still-prone Merijest. “And without a local map, we’re liable to run into anything.”

  Thesa hefted the demoness onto her back. The Foxtapus sat looking up. The non-sapient [Familiar] had taken to walking alongside Thesa, its concern for the ailing [High Devil] apparent in the tone of its sporadic yips.

  Thesa took one final look at the spot where they had laid. The dirt had been swept this way and that and hidden under thick brush. “Where is Yabba?”

  ***

  Yabba, an infant Nest Walker and Thesa’s [Minor Familiar], wobbled its chicken legs about a hill near to the camp. Its torso, or rather the wooden birdhouse which composed its whole form aside from its legs, stared (if it could be said to stare with the shadowy hole in its face, and the wooden peg which might be read as a nose) at a far-off light. A flame flickered yellow amidst distant trees.

  “There you are,” Thesa called from the foot of the hill. Having set Merijest down, Thesa’s search had relied on intuition and the magical connection with her [Minor Familiar] (although her understanding of that connection was tenuous at best). “What are you doing?”

  Yabba turned its birdbox-body to Thesa and made a sound like creaking wood. It shook its body so that the loose weather vane on its roof made a quiet jingle. Thesa tried to intuit some meaning from it, but came up short. Then she saw the flickering, yellow flame. As soon as she laid eyes on it, the distant fire ceased.

  “They’re closer than I thought,” she said. “We need to move.”

  Returning to the now-disguised campsite, Thesa lifted Merijest onto her back once again and the party set off.

  ***

  ALSO, it has been awhile and I have some things I want to bring to your attention:

  1. I've added alt text descriptions to all of the images up until this point and will do my best to have them ready with each released chapter. Please let me know if you have suggestions or edits for the alt text as I have a hard time knowing exactly what needs describing.

  2. I made a . Please consider leaving a tip to support my writing. This is completely optional! Emotional Appeal Alert: I'm trying to have all the monster art be in color for Volume 2 and my wife and I are trying to have a baby.

  3. I am working on self-publishing volume 1 digitally and physically but the chapters will remain available on RoyalRoad. More details .

  4. If you've read this far and you care about my writing, please let me know in the comments what social media I should be on for you to see posts when new chapters come out or stuff like that. I'm going to stay on since that's the only social media I regularly use these days anyways. I have a different BlueSky account that I don't use often but I would be up for making one to post updates if that's something people want. If you don't want updates and just want to randomly remember this exists sometimes and wander back in to read a handful of new chapters, I understand and that is how I keep up with most things so we are kindred spirits and I love you (in a way that is parasocial but maintains healthy boundaries).

  Ok, time to return to my box...

  ***

  Thanks for reading!

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  Dungeon Maps by Ailish Maura using

  Region maps by Ailish Maura using IbisPaint and FireAlpaca

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