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peter-pantomime · 1 year

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Stranger Things Fic Recs, Part 4

Part Three | Two | One

Gen

Let Me Just Hold You Now (Steve and Robin)

Steve has a routine for nights like this. A routine for the times when his world gets flipped on its axis. Just four simple steps to keep his body alive while his mind tries to sort through whatever fucked up thing he just went through. Steve has a Routine. Robin breaks that Routine.

i'm right up the road (Steve, Max, and Eddie)

“Well—“ The guy flounders for a second before taking another very brave and heroic two steps into the room. “Does he have like, medication or something? Are you supposed to call someone?” “I don’t know! That’s why I asked you to help me!“ “Well I don’t know!” He nearly yells, more stressed than angry. This is definitely not what Steve meant when he’d advised them to stay calm and not panic. Don’t bring in a random guy who’s only going to fuel the panic.

A Heart Whose Love is Innocent (Wayne and Eddie)

Eddie hadn't spoken a single word to him since showing up on his doorstep with nothing but the clothes on his back and a single, half-empty backpack, about a week ago. Wayne had never considered himself to be a particularly patient person, but apparently he wasn't too old to learn something new about himself, because he was. He was so very patient with the boy. When he talked to the kid and received nothing but vague head movements or the occasional grunt for an answer, Wayne didn't press, didn't push, didn't do anything but accept that this was how they communicated for now, and it wasn't fine, exactly, but Wayne could wait. 5 times Wayne had a conversation with Eddie, and 1 time Wayne had a conversation about Eddie.

Steve/Eddie

the shame is on the other side

Steve wants to go to a place where monsters aren't real and people don't care about him, and he wants to drink and dance and stop thinking for once. Just once. He lands in a gay bar. And then he keeps landing there.

it would be surrender to let me see

[...] The point is, no one has ever done this much for Eddie in his life. (Well, he knows some very scary people in suits did something to get the murder charges against him dropped, but that happened while he was mostly unconscious, and he still doesn’t know or want to know the details.) As far as he can tell, Steve has spent every waking moment since dragging Eddie’s bleeding skin sack out of the Upside Down trying to make sure Eddie never wants for anything again. And that just makes the wanting so much worse.

A Gem Beyond Counting

The wrong feeling pitches and dives toward nausea again. Steve folds in half, eyes squeezed shut. The room spins, and his skin goes clammy. Behind the rush of white noise in his ears, he thinks he hears Eddie’s voice, calling to him, saying his name. There’s a soft pressure on his back that moves up to the back of his neck, and — Gone. Everything’s fine. He feels fine. He feels good, even. Eddie has a hand on the back of his neck and one clutching his forearm. Eddie looks frantic, eyes wide, a sheen of sweat on his face and stray damp curls stuck there. Steve’s gaze is drawn to his mouth, taut and worried and always in motion. He wants to lick into it. OR - Eddie falls first, Steve falls harder: sex pollen edition.

My Four Leaf Clover

“Do you wanna tell me?” “That depends, on if you’d wanna know,” Eddie replied in his most seasoned theatrical voice. Sometimes it was hard to remember Eddie played pretend almost for a living, and other times it was impossible to forget. “Doesn’t matter,” Steve said. It is June the ninth, 1986, and Steve Harrington has now lived through four world-shattering and world-saving events. The most surprising development of his life this summer, however, is the fact that he's currently lounging around outside with Eddie Munson listening to him prattle on about who knows what. The most surprising development of his life is that he's enjoying it.

sir stephen strider finds his suzie

Dustin watches Eddie's face as everyone else giggles. He's retained his typical intimidating smirk for much of this encounter, but as Steve stumbles through his fictional seduction, Eddie's eyes soften. His smirk slowly turns to a small grin. [...] Nancy presses a hand over her mouth, but it does nothing to hide her smile. Usually, this is the point where Eddie would make them all roll initiative. Dustin has his D20 ready. But Eddie smiles. Eddie fucking smiles, and not in that maniacal way he does before siccing something horrific on them, he fucking beams, and says, "You're gonna scrape your neck on his mace doing that, just so you know."

keep me in your glow

“You want me to apply this liberally to your hair from root to tip?” Eddie offers, shaking the bottle, trying to convey to Steve that he won’t make fun of him. Although maybe he still sounds like he’s making fun of him. “It’s just, uh–earlier you told Robin that raising your arms hurts so I thought…” Steve looks at him, expression unreadable. It’s probably weird, what Eddie’s doing. Standing in Steve Harrington’s bathroom is weird enough without the additional presumption that Steve would want him prolonging this experience. He really should’ve left the second Steve proved himself capable of showering alone, but – “Well we can’t use that one until my hair is damp, not wet.” Steve plucks the bottle from Eddie’s hand and promptly swaps it out for a smaller white one. “We can’t really do anything with my hair right now, it just needs to air dry. Um, I do kinda need it out of the way, though. If we’re gonna fix my face.”

getting lost in the dark is my favorite part

“Nice to meet you, Eddie,” said Nick. “It’s rare that I find someone else here who shares my interests.” “Interests?” He remembered he was wearing his battle vest, Nick’s hand lingering right in the middle of the giant Dio patch. “Oh, you like the heavy stuff too?" “I really do.” “Fuck yeah,” Eddie said before he could stop himself. His face got hot. Shit, that sounded way too eager, a totally excessive level of enthusiasm just for meeting another gay metalhead. He had given himself away as a clueless virgin, and Nick was going to stop smiling, walk away, and find someone with the ability to maintain his cool for the length of half a conversation. But Nick didn’t stop smiling. Instead he said, “I know you just got a drink, but do you want to get out of here?” Or: After his near-death experience, Eddie decides it's time to get rid of his pesky virginity and heads to a gay bar. It leads to some... realizations... for both him and Steve.

Like Strangers Laugh and Like Subways Feel

Hoisting his bat in the air, Steve unlocks the door and wrenches it open. Eddie Munson falls into him, up against his legs, half sprawled out across the step. Steve drops his bat with a clatter. Or: Eddie shows up on Steve's doorstep, hurt, panicked, and in need of a helping hand.

he's begging babe stay, stay

The late June heat lingers with a slow sort of stretch that envelops the two amid the sleepy safety of dusk. Steve’s sleeves hastily rolled and shoved haphazardly onto peeling, sunburnt shoulders in accommodation as they aimlessly walk empty neighborhood streets. Bathed in the golden lamplight of suburbia. Steve distracted enough to allow the older boy to lead him this far along without so much as a question of their destination since leaving the hotboxed confines of Eddie’s Uncle’s trailer. “Hey,” He begins conversationally. Eddie’s eyebrows lifting expectantly, though he goes on smoking. “The element of surprise and I don’t mix so well these days, you know? Not that consideration exactly comes to mind when I think of you, Munson. But — “Steve’s face softens as Eddie’s eyes roll theatrically. “Could be nice to clue me in now.”

in breakable heaven

Eddie leans out of the window on crossed forearms. Steve’s next projectile, thankfully, goes right over his head. “Hello." “Hi,” Steve says, “can I come in?” Eddie Munson and the terrible, no good, very bad, actually pretty alright summer.

Shame on the Night

[...] There’s a story Steve remembers about looking back, a punishment in salt. He’s got his key in the ignition and there’s something brackish in his mouth when he turns to see the shadow in the window. “We can’t…he’s alone,” he says and no one answers because they know he’s right but they don’t know what comes next. It’s Dustin who finally breaks the silence, a quiet, “where can he go where no one would look?” Eddie hides at Steve's house. There are consequences.

Ace of Spades

Eddie comes back. Steve helps.

the feeling that you give me, wanna give it right back

[...] Every time Steve comes over to Eddie's to smoke up, they end up in some kind of stupid argument. Usually it's about music, or movies, or whether Dustin should ever be allowed to have a pet again. But tonight, somehow – Eddie can't remember exactly how it got started, but he definitely blames Steve – they're in each other's faces about which of them gives better head.

Hard to Learn

[...] Realization dawns, then it’s quickly followed by anger and… hurt? The first quickly eclipses the latter, and Eddie flings open the car door. “See you around, I guess, Harrington,” he spits, beginning to limp away. [...] “Oh, for the love of-,” Steve mutters, then runs the couple of hobbled steps that Eddie has managed to put between them, grabbing his arm to spin him around. “Your home is half portal, idiot,” Steve says. “You’re staying with me.”

man's good faith and will to perservere

Eddie Munson's birthday is in November

600 Square Feet

There’s no response from Steve and Eddie is contemplating swapping out his bun for donuts when Steve starts laughing. A full bodied laugh that has him pressing his wrist to his mouth to keep from losing his lunch all over the car and Eddie finds himself smiling despite his confusion. “Are you— Are you experiencing a medical event? What’s happening here?” Steve chokes down some water and sighs, “My parents really sold me on this idea that I was gonna get out of school, go to college for business, take over for my dad, live in some— some mansion on a lake.” He gestures between them, “And now i’m waiting on tourists and sharing table scraps with Eddie Munson.” Eddie huffs out a small laugh, “Bit of a downgrade, huh?” “Are you kidding me?” Steve shoves his fingers through his hair, “This is— kind of perfect, actually." Falling in love on a shared mattress.

defrost

“So what’s the plan?” Steve shoots him a look. “Why do I have to have a plan?” “Your car.” Eddie shrugs. “Your call.” "I think..." Steve sighs. "It would be safer to wait for the snow to stop, and then go from there. I don't want to actually crash into a ditch or something." He glances at Eddie, nervousness on his face. "What d'you think?" "I'd say we're fucked either way but if this means I don't have to walk in the snow, I'm all for it." "That's the spirit." (Eddie hates Steve, for the most part. And now they're stranded in the middle of nowhere. And it's snowing.)

sloe gin fizzy, do it till you're dizzy

[...] Steve doesn’t flinch away from the closeness. Just breathes and blinks. And then his eyes flicker down to Eddie’s lips and right back up, so quick that Eddie’s hazy brain would have missed it if he hadn’t been paying attention, hadn’t been anticipating it. Eddie takes it as the invitation it has to be, and slowly, slowly closes the distance. His nose does bump into Steve’s as he enters his space, but he pauses, hesitates with his mouth hovering a hair’s breadth away from Steve’s. He waits for the rejection, for the brutal shove away, for the disgusted “what the fuck man?”. But they don’t come. What does come is Steve’s mouth, pushing forward to press against Eddie’s.

so destiny has brought us oh so close together

When Steve inhales he shuts his eyes and lets his head fall back, exposing the line of his neck, sending the smoke upwards on the exhale. Eddie watches because he can’t help himself. This is another strange thing. He’s always known that Steve Harrington is attractive, but it had always been in an almost clinical way, like the way he could look at Nancy and know she’s pretty. It was objective. Simply an observation that Steve’s features formed a pleasant arrangement. He understood why all the girls in Hawkins tripped over themselves for the pleasure of King Steve’s attention, but it had never affected him personally. Eddie knew better. Or he was supposed to know better, anyway. Or, 5 times Steve and Eddie have sex with no strings attached +1 time it actually means something.

#steddie #steddie fic recs #steve harrington #eddie munson #stranger things #stranger things fic recs #myficrecs

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lizard-shifter-noms · 1 year

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Still Subject To Change Chapter 7

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Chapter 7! so now only 3 left!

turns out i like cliffhangers as you get another one!

once again blood warning i guess (Oakley doing Oakley things)

the first part is somewhat graphic with my limited writing abilities.

Mentions of injury and Vore (also using normal thread to suture wounds is a bad idea as Donovan will Notice)

and as always reblogs are appreciated! (even if barely anyone does)

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Oakley yanked and the sharp spikes vanished from the chest of the Vampire as it fell limply to the ground with a dull thud.

I could also see Oakley holding something pale that had a purplish red liquid on it.

He had ripped the Vampires spine out, or at least part of it and was still holding it in his weird claw knife contraption.

At this point I was glad I didn't need to eat as I was sure I would have vomited otherwise.

He then picked up the magical staff that had fallen to the floor and examined it before tapping it twice on the ground gem first.

It had already gotten noticeably warmer since the ice mage died but whatever Oakley was doing with it now accelerated it and I could see the snow melting around me.

Oakley was ignored for the moment as everyone came out from cover and made sure that the entire division survived and nobody aside from Nea got hit with an ice blast.

I could see some Guards immediately rushing to get to Nea who insisted she was fine.

She was not fine, her foot looked like it had been dipped in a swamp and left to rot, I hoped that was fixable.

I turned away from the woman that already had way too many people looking after her to find Rikaad.

I hadn't seen him since the mage had randomly shot ice blasts around so I was very worried.

It took me a few seconds to spot the armorless man standing on a small rock and I immediately went over to him, momentarily forgetting that I didn't have hands at the moment and was way too big as I tried to go in for a hug.

I remembered a few seconds later that I wasn't bipedal right now but I couldn't stop, the muddy ground made me slide the rest of the way and I ended up softly headbutting the poor human.

He took it in stride, I gave him that, by patting my ear and smiling softly.

He didn't even lose balance on his little boulder.

“I'm also glad that you are alright, god knows Robin would never have stopped crying”

I just huffed, Rikaad was alright that was all that mattered right now.

Even if his jokes were awful, his sense of humor was very, Well, not there really.

As for everyone else, well except Nea nobody got injured as far as i knew.

Rikaad tapped at my leg and pointed over to Oakley who was sitting on a broken wall, still messing with the magic staff.

“What do you think he's doing? I do not want him to somehow blow himself up with it”

A valid concern when looking at how Oakley handled the thing, he was even twirling it in his fingers like parade staff.

Yeah that didn't look safe at all, we better interrupt that.

“Maybe we should just ask? He can't continue to mishandle the thing if he's talking to someone right?”

Rikaad nodded and went over to the winged madman and I slowly followed him over the muddy ground.

About not even halfway to Oakley we were joined by Norrin who immediately started fretting over Rikaad.

He sometimes acted as if the black haired human wasn't perfectly capable of handling himself.

“Sire? Are you alright? When we lost sight of you I got immensely worried! Do you need any help? Medical supplies? A-”

His worried rambling was cut off by Rikaad himself.

“I am fine, thank you for asking, but i would like to speak to Oakley now, i have some questions for him”

“Ah, of course sir”

Norrin stepped out of the way as fast as he could without tripping.

I didn't know what to think of the man.

On one hand he was the royal headguard, not a title that was easily achievable, on the other hand he acted like a worried uncle that had lost the kid they were supposed to babysit.

He was well meaning enough, even if he had a stick up his ass, though he was probably just following some protocol.

The worry in his voice was very real though, and I could tell he tried his best.

Turning to look at Oakley I saw that he was still manhandling the staff by testing out how much the wood could bend.

That mad fucker!

“Oakley! What the fuck? Stop!

That thing is gonna explode or something!”

He turned to face us after I spoke.

“Hmm? No this isn't gonna explode don't worry!

It's more likely to implode really”

As if that was any better at all, and what the fuck did implode even mean?

“But really, I know what I'm doing! Don't worry!

I'm just inspecting how well made the staff is, Besides, as long as nothing happens to the gem it will be fine!”

As if to prove his words he twirled the staff around with his two pronged tail and then held the end with the gem over a little puddle of melted snow, freezing it instantly.

“I might not have an affinity for ice magic but I know how to use a magic staff, if anything I should be worried about anyone else getting their hands on this! Who knows what would happen!

If the gem explodes then you have an even worse problem than before!”

Even worse? Oh man, this cold had already been near unbearable, I didn't dare imagine what could be even worse.

Rikaad stared at the staff intently for a few seconds before speaking.

“If it is that dangerous, where do you suggest it should be kept?

I do not want some thief to send us into an eternal winter”

Oakley cocked his head in that eerie birdlike manner.

“I think i'll just hide it with my other stuff, nobody ever found that, nobody can unless they are me as there are various magic wards in place that only allow me passage”

Of course he would have something like that, why the hell not, but if it really was that good of a hiding place then why was the bracelet stolen?

Or the trinket wasn't in that stash in the first place seeing as Oakley thought anyone using it would just die.

Well the thief did die, a few hundred miles away from his shack and I ended up finding it.

What a weird world we were living in.

Rikaad just nodded to Oakleys words, and the winged man was right, if it was kept in the castle someone WOULD steal it, That was only a matter of time.

“If you are sure you can keep it safe then go ahead, but please stop manhandling it in front of everyone, they are nervous enough as it is after all of this”

Oakley nodded and stopped messing with the staff, switching to hold it securely in his tail instead.

He hopped down from the broken wall he had sat on and landed on one leg.

Looking down as to why he did that and making sure he wasn't injured I could see he was still wearing the knife glove thing.

He was also still holding the vampire's spine and it took everything in me not to dry heave at the sight.

Instead my pouch started itching again now that the adrenaline from the fight had subsided and I decided to simply look away from him.

Instead I found myself looking at the rest of the Vampire's corpse.

I turned my head around so fast that I could have sworn I heard my neck make a cracking noise.

The sight of the lifeless pale body lying face down on the ground with a horrible hole torn into the back that leaked the purplish red liquid would haunt me in my nightmares I was sure.

It really did look like Oakley had shredded everything around the pieces of bone he had ripped out, and I quickly excused myself to dry heave behind a wall where no one could see.

Yeah, I was really glad I didn't eat, anymore at least, but the dry heaving upset my pouch and it hurt an awful lot.

I hoped I hadn't ripped any stitches as repairing that would be impossible, especially with all the people that were in and around the castle.

I sat down where i was, leaving the guards and everyone else to sort themselves out, i would just patiently wait until moving wasn't irritating my pouch so much.

Despite living on the streets i had only ever seen a total of two corpses, My own Mother after she passed from disease, And the man that got thrown into the crab tank,

who then was fished out again days later as a skeleton with only some pieces of cloth and meat on it.

But none of them had looked as horrible as the dead Vampire, Oakley was thorough in killin the thing I gave him that.

But i still wished i hadn't seen that, that would haunt me for sure.

At the sound of footsteps from behind me I turned to look at who was approaching me.

I had expected Rikaad or maybe even that Arthur and Robin had come looking for all of us, but I had not expected that it was Norrin.

The royal head guard had some mud on his armor and his hair had come loose from the bun he'd made, but he looked concerned at me, not caring about being caked in dirt from dodging the ice blasts.

“Are you alright? I saw you vanish behind a wall pretty quickly after you spoke with the winged man”

How was I supposed to answer that? After seeing a torn apart corpse of something that should not exist, at least anymore, I was definitely not okay.

I suppressed another wave of nausea at the memory.

“I’m- Oakley- he just, fuck, i never want to see a spine outside of a body ever again”

“First time seeing a dead body?”

I shook my head at his question.

“Technically third, but this is definitely the worst”

He walked over to me and stared me right in the face, his light indigo blue eyes a bit too close.

“I'm not going to tell you that seeing dead bodies gets any better, you just get more desensitized and numb to such stuff.

I'll be honest, if someone wasn't having a bad reaction to seeing that up close I'd be more worried than if the person was just sneaking off to throw up behind a wall.

I wasn't sure what to think about you when I first saw you standing behind the new king,

but now i think you are even more human than some of the other people i met, even if you are big, green and furry.

Though why the fuck are you green? you're not a plant, ... right?”

I had to laugh a bit at the last part, technically no, i was not a plant but i could draw energy from sunlight like one, and it was nice hearing him tell me that while he had no idea what to think of me at first wasn't opposed to try and help me when he saw that i wasn't so well.

“No i'm not a plant, but i can use sunlight as energy like one”

He looked surprised for a second and then smiled.

“Well that is going to save you a lot of money i guess, Do you feel a bit better now? I think we should all head back.

No doubt there's going to be some celebration about the weird magic winter ending and i'd like to wash the mud off first”

He scratched a bit of the dried mud off that caked one of his arm plates and shook the resulting dust off.

I had to sneeze as some of it got into my nose.

“ACHOO”

Norrin had ducked down and covered his ears at the noise but stood back up again after he was sure I wouldn't sneeze a second time.

“Hell, i think my eardrums popped”

I used a paw to rub at my twitching nose that still tingled a bit.

The sneeze had made my organs squish into each other and now my pouch was aching a bit.

I must have pulled some of the stitches a bit somehow, whatever, that would subside with time.

“Sorry, but i think i'm alright now, let's go back im sick of this mud”

I stood back up and followed Norrin back to the group.

When not in the presence of Rikaad he was a pretty alright guy, Seemed that he only acted like he had a stick up his ass when a higher ranking person was around.

In the background I could see Nea loudly complaining and demanding someone give her the helmet back.

Norrin saw it also and looked at me.

“Never cross her the wrong way, she can and will end you, I just wish she wasn't the most difficult person in the division”

The least part did sound like he had dealt with a lot already regarding her, and after what happened today and the courage she's shown I did not doubt that she was very capable of fighting.

Or just running blindly into danger, after the drake story, who i still wasn't sure if i believed it, that might just be what she always does.

Norrin went over to her regardless and picked the now deformed helmet from the ground where it had landed after it deflected the ice.

As soon as the armor piece was handed to her she hit him with it loudly stating that she did not need to be carried back along with a string of curses i had never heard before and was not going to repeat.

“I don't need ta be carried like some dumb Damsel in distress! Just gimme something I can use as a crutch! I'll be fine! Stop fussing over me ya wanker!”

She was not fine, her foot still looked like her shoe had rottet onto it and I doubted she'd make it far even with crutches.

I had to admit that I was impressed though, not by her hitting Norrin with the helmet but for the fact that she didn't shed a single tear.

I was pretty sure if that had happened to me I would be screaming and crying in panic, which probably would just make it worse.

Nea however was just hitting people with her deformed helmet and hissing at them that she didn't need to be carried back and plainly refused help all together.

Suddenly Rikaad was back at my side, he was a very silent walker and I hadn't noticed him till now, and I barely kept myself from flinching.

“Are you okay? You left pretty quickly back there, what happened?”

Right, he was focused on Oakley and probably hadn't paid the corpse any attention.

“I saw the dead ice mage vampire up close, let me tell you i'm glad that i don't eat anymore, but dry heaving is just as bad to be honest”

“The corpse? Ah yes i avoided looking at it and focused on Oakelys face instead, but i think he took the part he ripped out with him”

Great, what would anyone need that for? A trophy maybe? Or even more magic fuckery.

I absentmindedly scratched over my pouch using my claws, Rikaad of course immediately noticed.

“How is… well your body attempted to vomit so not great i imagine”

His voice was tinted with guilt, and I could see one of his eyebrows twitch.

I knew he was talking about my pouch, he probably just didn't say it out loud because there were other people present that could overhear.

Even if all the focus was on Nea right now who currently threatened to break someone's knees.

He really was feeling guilty about stabbing me, That was strangely relieving to know.

But I couldn't blame him, he thought he was going to die.

“Im fine, just saw a dead mutilated body and my pouch hurts from my body attempting to get rid of its own guts”

I tried bringing some humor into the conversation but I felt like that failed.

From the look Rikaad gave me that definitely failed, I probably wouldn't attempt humor again anytime soon.

At least that made two of us who had a skewed sense of humor.

“Maybe we can find something you can use as a painkiller back at the castle? Or we should probably ask Oakley, he knows more about Ardua than we do so he might be able to help”

I nodded at him, something to make the horribly itchy ache go away would be great, and Oakley, well he was the one that read about Ardua so he'd probably know what to use to make the itching stop.

I’d ask him later as for now it wasn't that bad, just annoying.

Also maybe I should offer help in transporting Nea back to the castle, while she wasn't okay with being carried she might not mind if I offered to let her sit on my shoulders.

Or maybe she would also hit me with her helmet if I suggested that, fifty fifty chance, but I'd still rather not be hit with a solid metal object.

I wouldn't know until I asked though, so I went over to the angry woman that currently tried to use a really long stone brick as a crutch.

Even I could tell that that wouldn't work,

but she looked really determined.

“Nea? I don't think you can walk on that foot, maybe i could help?”

“I don't need help, i need an usable crutch, im not going ta be carried like some stupid helpless maiden!”

Well technically it wasn't carrying, more like a piggyback ride but i would not say that out loud.

“That is not what i meant, i don't have thumbs right now anyway, i wanted to offer that you could just sit on my back?”

She looked a bit confused at that but then seemed to remember that Robin had already done that, Arthur too.

“Fine! If ya wanna play horse i'm all for it, maybe those idiots will stop fussin when i don't walk myself”

She grumbled and using the stone as an anchor slowly stood up.

I could see some of the guards slump over a bit, clearly in relief and I went over to Nea who had managed to climb a broken wall with one leg.

I bent down so she had an easier time climbing on and she just jumped using her good leg up onto my back.

While I stood back up she made herself comfortable by sitting like a man on horseback.

Right, she said she used to be a farmhand so surely she had sat on a horse before, she even grabbed some of my scruff like it was reigns.

I started to feel like this was a bad idea, I didn't know her very well and she was in the prime position to stab my spine at the base of my neck.

But somehow I doubted she would do that, tugging at my fur however…

“Let us all go then! I can't wait tha get home and toss tha stupid snowgear in tha closet!”

She softly yanked at one of the handfuls of fur she held like she wanted to steer a horse.

This was gonna be really stupid, at least for me.

But on the bright side the tugging actually distracted me from my aching pouch so I let her.

If she did yank too hard I would just tell her.

The thing that worried me was that her injured foot still felt cold even against my thick fur, and with the way it looked I really hoped she wouldn't have to amputate it.

I didn't want to paint the devil on the wall with such thoughts but it was a valid concern, none of these people knew what to do when dealing with magic as today had shown.

The only one with any knowledge on such things was Oakley and I hoped he'd be willing to help.

Since all of the Guards were now ready to move we could finally go.

Now that all the snow was gone I had thought we would have an easier time traversing the ground but as it turned out everything was mud now.

It clung to my legs and I accidentally dipped my tail into a puddle, making a lot of wet dirt cling to the fluff at the tip.

Somehow this was even worse than the snow but at least I wasn't the only one that would have to scrub all of this muck off.

Rounding the corner of another broken wall I had to stop dead in my tracks as a human shape with red hair barreled into my leg.

“You fixed it! It's not cold anymore! What even was it?”

Now i was more glad than ever that i had told him to hide,

I didn't think he would have had an easy time handling that.

Now I had to come up with what to tell him what even happened while leaving out the gorier details.

I myself had not really a clue what was going on most of the time so-

My thoughts were interrupted by Nea, loudly proclaiming.

“There was some ugly guy with a magic staff but we kicked him and took his staff, so no more ice magic fer that idiot “

Well, that was one way to explain it, and it seemed Robin only noticed someone else was on my back as she spoke and looked a bit surprised.

And now Arthur finally showed up from behind a fallen boulder, panting a bit, looking at me then at Robin before doing a double take back at me.

“Why's Nea on your back? Nevermind, i'm just glad the snow is gone”

“We all are, though now everything is full of mud and that's going to be a nightmare to get out of fur”

I got a laugh out of Arthur for that comment.

“Yeah it think you have it the worst, but at least it fits the green colors”

I had to smile at this, yes the mud was stupid but that would go away, My friends wouldn't go away though.

Maybe I should offer to take them back also?

Not like they could put much more of all this muck on me.

And looking around, i could see that all of the people involved would need a bath, though i couldn't see Oakley,

he was probably flying ahead or something.

Lucky fucker avoiding all of the dirt like that.

Rikaad who was on the front of the convoy with Norrin again somehow managed to only have some mud on his shoes and pants.

Norrin however looked like he'd been thrown into a puddle of it,

and he also was back to looking uncomfortably uptight.

Nervousness in front of a higher ranking indeed made him act a bit weird, poor guy.

I looked back to Robin and Arthur, both of whom looked like they had tried to stay out of the muddy puddles by climbing the ruins around us.

“You guys want a ride also? Not like i can get that much more muddy anyway”

Robin enthusiastically nodded while Arthur shook his head.

Well that were two completely different reactions, Then I remembered that Arthur said he had motion sickness.

Made sense for him to avoid anything that would cause it, and it wasn't like I could go much faster than the rest of the group anyway.

I'd still give Robin the ride though, he seemed to love not being so small for a bit.

So I bent down again, being mindful of Nea, and let him climb up once again.

He adjusted himself about three feet behind Nea and clung to my fur, Carefully holding on.

I was glad he wasn't tugging at it like Nea did, but since Nea was injured I figured to let her have that, it didn't really hurt after all and she wasn't ripping it out so it was fine if a tiny bit annoying.

But not nearly as annoying as my itching pouch, I really should ask Oakley if he had anything to make it stop.

Well Oakley was who knew where right now, and I had the suspicion that he went and hid the staff like he said he would.

He'd come back soon enough, He did want to live in the tower with the Oaktree next to it after all, and then I could just go over to him and see if he had anything that could make the itching stop.

I hoped he had something to make the itching stop, this was annoying as fuck.

Well, first we had to make the trek back to the castle, and now it was the middle of the day, Fuck.

That made it a hundred times more likely for the townsfolk to see me.

If this ended with pitchforks in front of the castle I would have a real problem.

Hopefully it wouldn't come to that, ...right?

Well the only thing i could do was hope for the best.

The trek back down the hill was a logistical nightmare as everything had turned into one giant mudslide and nobody managed to get down without slipping.

At some point i decided fuck it, and laid on my front just sliding all the way down even if that made my entire underside completely soggy from the mud.

That would be hell to get off, not to mention that if it dried it would get uncomfortable and stick to me even more.

At least Robin thought sliding down was fun judging by his laughter.

I was also pretty sure that I heard Nea giggle a little too but I wasn't sure.

I would never mention that to her though.

Looking back at everyone else I could see that Rikaad was the only one that somehow did not fall into the mud.

He must have a good sense of balance.

Looking at myself I could see that my entire underside and legs were dripping with mud.

Yeah, i definitely needed a bath later, maybe dip myself in the ocean before shifting to avoid dragging mud everywhere.

That would make the castle staff hate me for sure.

It took another five minutes for everyone to get down, most of which just slid down like me either on purpose or as an accident.

This did not look like the royal guard at the moment, more like a bunch of kids that had gotten outside after rain.

I would have liked to shake the mud off of me like a dog but with the two on my back that wasn't a good idea, I'd fling them off.

Suddenly Nea yanked on my fur again, this time with both hands like she wanted to stop a horse.

I looked in her direction as well as I was able to, and the guards around us also noticed that I had stopped dead in my tracks.

“Wait a second, we can't just waltz right through town with tha big guy here! Now that everyones awake there would be a panic!”

She was right, and now that she pointed it out I realized I should have said something about this sooner.

But being around so many people made me nervous, especially since they all had weapons.

Norrin looked between me and the way to Tunstead, before going over to Rikaad and quietly speaking with him.

It wasn't long after that that both came over to us.

Robin waved down from my back at both of them earning little waves back in return.

Then Rikaad and Norrin turned to me,

with Rikaad not talking long around the matter at hand.

“Nea is right in that aspect, having you walk through Tunsted in the middle of the day is going to cause chaos, maybe you should walk the longer route around? If not i'm sure someone else can help Nea get around so you can shift down”

I could practically feel Nea glaring at the prospect of being carried like an helpless damsel, but she couldn't refuse the king after all.

Though-

“Wait, shift down? Ya tellin me this muddy furball can shapeshift???”

Well that was not how i wanted people to know, and i for sure would take the longer route now to avoid getting stared at by all the other guards.

Not to mention that I would be covered in mud even more if I shifted.

I really didn't like mud anymore after so much of it.

“I think i'll just go around, gives whoever medic you want to call for her foot plenty of time to prepare, and i don't want to be stared at if i'm honest”

Both Rikaad and Norrin nodded before Norrin spoke.

“I think the fastest way would be to head northwest a bit until you see the treeline and then follow it until you get closer to the ocean, by then you should see the castle anyway, good luck”

He had pointed in the direction we needed to go while he talked, not that that was necessary as I could see the trees in the far off distance quite well, then again I had the height advantage here.

I nodded at them and Norrin went back to organize the rest of the division who in the meantime had tried to scrape some of the mud off using whatever they could find to do so.

Rikaad lingered a few more seconds with us though.

“Stay safe, since you are between the forest and the city there still might be either People or Monsters so keep an eye out”

After that he went back to the group next to Arthur who tried to wring out mud from his shirt unsuccessfully.

Since they would now go back through Tunstead I decided to ask if Robin wanted to go with them, since I would take the longer route around with Nea he might want to stick to the other two.

“Hey Robin? You wanna go with the other two?

The long way around might be a bit boring”

I could feel him lean to the side a bit and I turned my head accordingly so he could see at least one of my eyes.

“I think i'll stick with you, i don't really know what to do in the group anyway and they make me kinda nervous”

I nodded and turned to walk towards the trees.

Robin was right, the guards did have a tendency to make me nervous as well so I could perfectly understand what he meant.

“Then let's go, who knows how much longer this will take”

I settled into a steady walking pace, but that pace was still at least twice as fast as that of a jogging human.

The four legs really were practical in that sense, I could walk very fast and having people sitting on my back like this was almost no inconvenience.

I still was careful though, I absolutely did not want them to fall off.

That would not bode well for me, or my sanity, not to mention that Nea was already injured.

I did have to admit that she was one tough Woman though.

I probably wouldn't be this calm if my foot had been hit by an ice blast, An event that she was currently telling Robin after he had asked what happened to her.

“-and that's why my foot looks so ugly right now,

but don't worry, at tha castle they are gonna get tha boot off and fix it, I'll be good as new in no time!”

Yeah that about summed it up, i just hoped she didn't have to amputate it, that would suck.

“Yeah, as soon as we get there some doctor is going to help with that so we better get a move on”

I slightly sped up my gait, much to the amusement of the two sitting on my back, and it made mud drip everywhere.

I didn't think I had that much of it in my fur but apparently I was mistaken.

Suddenly Nea leaned forwards a lot, and with a mischievous tone asked.

“Hey ya walkin mud puddle, how fast can ya get?”

There was amusement clearly evident in her voice and I decided to indulge both of them as Robin had started to chant for me to go faster at Neas suggestion.

“Alright, but if you feel like you can't hold on anymore tell me and i'll slow down”

I could feel both of them grip my fur even tighter and I slowly accelerated, gaining steadily on speed.

I went faster and faster as neither of them told me to stop and eventually the ground was just a blur underneath me while I leaped over the earth.

Ohh this was fun!

I didn't even care about being covered in mud anymore.

I just went as fast as i could get all the while i heard Robin and Nea laughing.

“WOOHOO! Now that's what I call fast! Well end up in tha castle before them if ya can keep that pace up big guy!”

Nea seemed thoroughly amused by the prospect of being there before the rest of the division.

To be fair it would be funny, so I kept the pace I was at, making the ground almost fly away underneath me.

Being this fast was weirdly fun, I hadn't anticipated being able to go at such a pace but I wasn't complaining.

The four legs clearly were an advantage for this.

The ground was far from even so it was a bit of a bumpy ride, but none of the humans on my back complained, instead they cheered when I had to take a particularly big leap to get over a ditch.

That made me wonder how far I could actually jump.

I decided to test it out by jumping over a small stream that came up ahead.

The Stream itself had swollen with melted snow and was an ugly brown color from all the mud, I'd guess it to be about eight feet across.

There wasn't really any way around it, only a small dingy bridge that would never hold me so I had to jump regardless, and slowing down wouldn't help me so I went even faster.

“Are you gonna Jump over that water?”

I heard Robin call from somewhere behind Nea.

“YES! So hold on and do not let go! This is going to be a rough ride!”

I could feel both of them lean forward as much as they could, which meant they were half lying half sitting on my back as I prepared to jump.

The water was now right in front of me and I jumped as soon as I felt it on the tip of my front paws, near flying over the dirty muckwater.

I could hear Robin let out a squeal of joy and landed a few feet after the water on the other side.

I didn't really know how far exactly that was but I would put it at about twelve feet.

Huh, that was impressive, I wondered how far exactly it was.

Suddenly I heard Nea call right into my ear.

“That's tha fastest I have ever traveled!

we're going to be at tha castle first fer sure!”

I just grinned and kept the pace I was at, occasionally jumping over various obstacles.

At some point not even five minutes later I could see the Castle in the Distance, yeah, we’d be first for sure.

Another good thing about being this fast aside from the obvious joy of my passengers was that the mud on me had mostly come off and only some dried bits were still stuck to me.

Id still take a dip in the ocean to get it off though,

that would make the bathwater itself less muddy.

I’d bet that the castle even had hot water, That was something I had always wanted to try.

On the streets it was either rainwater showers or a dip in whatever river I could find.

I'd shift down for that though, I didn't think anyone would have a bathtub big enough for an Ardua.

Now that the Castle was within sight I changed course slightly to steer away from the treeline and towards the imposing building.

Ït was a good thing that i remembered where exactly the door was i had used when i first arrived here, even if it meant that the two on my back had to get down for a bit.

I was suddenly glad Robin had come with as he could help Nea getting down and then climb up again.

And he could also go ahead to inform a medic about Nea so they could prepare for whatever was wrong with her foot.

After that we could wait at the gate for everyone else,

they'd be really confused as to why we were here before them.

Maybe Nea was lucky and got to see their reactions from out of a window.

I gradually went slower and came to a halt right before the closed door that led into the garden so as to not throw the two on my back off.

The door was still closed and I doubted anyone would open me without orders, sooo.

“Hey Nea, can you tell them to open the door?

I don't think they'll do it if i ask”

She leaned forward a bit and out of the corner of my eye I could see her nodding.

“Sure! I can do that!

OI YA FUCKERS OPEN THA DAMN GATE ALREADY!”

I took everything in me not to flinch at her sudden outburst,

but at least I could hear the creaking of the door mechanism already.

“Nea! You are right behind my ears warn me please before you just holler so loudly”

“Sorry big guy, didn't mean ta do that, also i don't know how sensitive yer ears are but i won't do it again”

I just huffed and bent down so Nea and Robin could climb off.

“Whatever, but you have to get off for a bit, i just barely fit through the frame and you would just fall of, you can get back up after i went through the gate though”

Robin immediately slid off and then stood awkwardly near where Nea would climb down as if to help.

Nea herself carefully swung her leg over and then slowly climbed down as well as she was able to with only one functional leg, and having to be caught by Robin after stumbling for a second.

“I'm fine, don't make sucha fuss! I can stand on my own”

She did not look fine, at least her foot didn't but I chose to not say anything about it.

Robin also kept his mouth shut, instead just offering support by standing next to her so she could grab his shoulder if needed.

At this point the Door had completely opened and we could go through, I let Nea and Robin in first so I didn't have to worry about accidentally hitting them with my tail.

The thing still was rather unusual to have and I didn't exactly have full control over it so I'd rather not have it smack someone.

That would be really awkward.

Better not dwell on it, instead I focused on getting through the door myself, by ducking down again and shuffling forward while trying not to scrape my entire back on the top of it.

It only half worked and I hoped there wasn't too much mud on it now.

On the other side of the gate I found a lot of guards, not the royal one but the ones stationed on the defense walls.

They were all standing around Nea and asking what had happened and why we were here already while the rest of the division wasn't.

Nea herself raised her Helmet like she wanted to hit something and suddenly had a lot more space as nobody wanted to get hit by her.

She really did have an effect on people, just the wrong one.

“I'm fine! I just need tha see a medic, and tha rest of tha division will come here later! Just be glad we fixed tha stupid snow!

Now GO BACK TO YER POSITIONS!”

At her bellowing a good majority of the guards scrambled back to wherever they came from safe for a few that had offered to help her.

While she winked off most of it she still took the long and sturdy branch that a man gave her that definitely wasn't a guard.

He was not wearing any sort of uniform whatsoever and had mud covered pants held in place by a toolbelt that had a variety of small shovels and other weird equipment stuffed into it.

I would guess him to be about forty, with Brown hair that had some gray streaks in it and a bit of a scruffy beard.

I could see his brown eyes flickering over me and landing on the flowers that grew on my back, turning to barely hidden curiosity.

The curiosity wasn't aimed at me though, it was aimed at the very visible and in some places bent flowers,

and I realized that this man must be the Gardener.

Well he'd be happy to know that he could pick up tending to the plants again now that the snow was gone.

I just hoped that he'd ask first if he intended to pluck one of the flowers on my back.

He seemed friendly enough and had not looked at me with hatred or fear like most people did when they first saw me.

That could come later, for now Nea needed medical attention and some of the Guards had already ran ahead when they saw the condition her foot was in, likely getting every medic they could find.

Since there were already enough people looking for a doctor Robin had opted to stay close to us, not like he would have known where to go anyway.

And neither did I, except the shed maybe.

The Castle was new to all of us and I didn't exactly know how big it was so he could easily have gotten lost searching for a Doctor.

Since help was on its way I wondered if I should offer to get Nea closer to the castle or if we should stay here and let the Doctor pick her up.

Considering how her foot looked, The latter might be best to avoid further irritation.

That meant I was just awkwardly standing there with nothing to do.

At least the mud on my fur had stopped dripping some time ago so nobody got a surprise mudshower.

Robin had also mostly dried but now the mud was caked onto the fabric of his clothing and that did not look comfortable.

Maybe asking about where we could wash up would be a good idea as Nea was adequately supplied with care that she only reluctantly accepted so she didn't need us anymore.

I would still go take a dip in the ocean though, just to get rid of the outer layer of mud and who knew what else.

I just hoped if i went out to do that they would open the gate again to let me in.

If not i would have to wait for Rikaad and that would be really stupid.

I turned my head a bit to face Robin and inform him what i was going to do, while i was an okay swimmer it still was a good idea to tell someone that i was about to go out into the ocean.

Getting most of the mud off would be wonderful as the dried bits cracked when I moved and stuck my fur into unpleasant little clumps that gave an unusual tugging sensation.

“Robin? I'm going back out for a bit to wash out some of this mud in the ocean.

I'll be right back after I get this annoying stuff off, okay?”

He nodded and stepped aside a bit to let me through, instead opting to stick closer to the only other person he knew, Nea.

While Robin followed Nea to wherever the Doctors room was i went back out the still open door and walked down the elevated peninsula to a spot where i could access the water.

I had to go a little ways away from the castle itself before I found a path that led down to the ocean, path being a generous titlement though.

To a human the path might have been nice and wide but to me it was a narrow winding route where I had to be careful not to misstep as it was very steep to my side and falling would hurt.

I made it down without any accidents and just jumped into the cool saltwater, watching it turn muddy from all the dirt that had dried on me as the waves sloshed against my body.

Getting it off felt great, now my skin didn't feel like it was cracking anymore and the clumps that had tugged at my fur were also gone.

Using my paws to scrub off as much of the rest as I could with the thumbless appendage wasn't very effective sadly, as I couldn't reach much more than my underside and legs.

I decided that it was good enough for now, I could probably take a proper bath later, the castle surely had something like that.

Stepping out of the ocean i was dripping with saltwater, to combat that i shook myself like a dog, i mean if it worked for them it surely wouldn't hurt.

Water was flying everywhere as I tried to get myself as dry as possible and I went back up the winding path up the cliffside.

Since I was wet I had sand stick to my paws but the grass managed to get most of it off while I walked.

Looking back up ahead I noticed that the Guards had not yet closed the gate, either out of consideration or because they were waiting for the rest of the division to also come through here.

Probably the latter as I knew none of them and doubted they would just hold it open out of kindness.

Regardless of what it was, I didn't have to stay outside so I took it as a plus.

Though walking through I could see that none of the Guards got closer to me than they absolutely had to.

I ignored them as they clearly did not want to interact with me and instead went to the castle itself to find Robin who had trailed after Nea.

I hoped the kinda deranged woman was alright, and began to wonder where Oakley was, he could probably help her when he showed up.

The problem was when was he coming back?

he was stashing the ice staff somewhere safe but who knew how far away that was and when he'd be back.

I hoped he'd be here soon as I wasn't sure what the human doctors would do to her or if they were even able to help at all.

And I could absolutely not ask them for something to help with my still itching pouch.

It took me a few seconds to realize that I currently did not fit through most of the castle doors, I only got through two as far as I knew and neither led me to where I wanted.

That and i didn't even know where the medical wing was,

let alone anything else.

“You alright there green being?”

I swiveled my head around to the source of the voice and saw that it was the Gardener.

“Just looking for my friend, and i realized i do not fit through any of these doors, did you see where he has gone?”

It was also weird that he didn't call me a beast or monster or even a big guy like Nea, instead opting to call me Green Being, which was a pretty basic description of what I was at the moment.

The Gardener looked at me for a moment and his gaze once again lingered on the plants that grew on my back for a bit.

“What does your friend look like? I know most of what is going on in the garden so i might have seen him”

That was admittedly a first, someone just straight up offering me help had not happened before, and i didnt even know the man.

But it was strangely nice, I would make sure to treat all of the plants in this place with respect now.

“Well he's ginger and not very tall, i think he went after Nea but i'm not sure where she is either”

The Gardener hummed and seemed to search through his memories for a bit before answering.

“Well i'm fairly certain he went through the yellow painted door over there after a group of Guards that tried to help Nea”

While speaking he pointed over at the mentioned door that had slightly chipped paint on it.

So that's where I had to go and then?

I had not been in the castle itself except for the grand entrance hall with the throne that I didn't bother to look at.

I had absolutely no idea of the layout of the imposing building, but before I could ask anything else I heard a commotion from the front of the actual entrance gate.

Alarmed, I looked over as fast as I could, trying to figure out what was going on.

“Ah seems like the rest of the Division has arrived, well then, i'll be off for now but i'm sure you’ll see me around”

I looked back at the Gardener but he had already walked away.

Wait, he had said that the rest of the division must have arrived, which meant Rikaad and Arthur were also here now!

I trotted over as fast as I dared, I didn't run as that would surely freak people out but it was still fast regardless.

Going around the bend of the castle I could see the muddy forms of the Royal Guard led by Norrin and Rikaad.

After a few more seconds I also spotted Arthur who looked like he had fallen front first into a mudpit.

He probably had done just that, I was pretty sure all of us were in dire need of a bath.

At least my short dip in the ocean had helped a lot already.

I came up to the troup from the side and the first person to notice me was Arthur.

“HOW in the FUCK are you here before us?!”

At his sudden outburst everyone else in the division turned to look at me.

Great, not what I had wanted at all, being stared at like a freak, but seeing their confused faces was kinda funny.

I'd have to tell Nea that later, if I even found where in the castle she was, she'd be amused I was sure.

Still, being stared at was not something I liked and I wished they would go somewhere else.

I tried my best to ignore it as I approached Arthur, bending down abit to be more eye level with him.

“I found out that i can run really fast, the other two just kept urging me to go faster and faster so i did”

He just stared at me as if it had not crossed his mind that I could actually sprint in this form.

“So wait, how long have you been here? And Where are the others?”

Well I wasn't sure how long I had actually been here,

but the other i could at least answer half.

“I don't really know how long, just long enough for me to go and wash off the worst of the mud in the ocean, as for the other two they brought Nea to a Doc in the castle somewhere and Robin followed her”

He looked past me at the castle looking like he wanted to barge in and search for the ginger.

He was however, like everyone else in the division, still dripping with mud.

Whoever was in charge of cleaning the castle would have a stroke if they all went inside like this.

I swiveled my head around to try and spot Rikaad, he was standing next to Norrin again and apparently had asked one of the not muddy Guards for a bucket of water.

Why became clear not even a second later as he poured it over himself to wash the worst of the muck off.

Norrins face to this was hilarious, he looked really shocked, like he had just seen someone grow a second head.

But it did make sense, it got at least some of the mud off and the rest could be scrubbed off later.

Some other Guards had brought even more buckets so the rest of the division could rinse off too, which they promptly did, following Rikaads example.

Rikaad came over to me and Arthur while everyone else was busy with trying to get the mud off.

His hair was dripping with water and his clothing clung to his skin showing off his muscles.

He could probably toss me if I was my human sized self.

Ignoring the fact that the man could just fucking break me if he so desired i instead asked him how the trek back was.

“So you finally all arrived too, anything else happen that's noteworthy?”

He shook his head.

“No, it was rather boring even, but walking while covered in mud is not something i recommend”

“Yeah especially as it started to dry, urgh i feel like my skin is cracking and i just want a bath to get all of this off of me”

Arthur chimed in, and a bath did sound good as there was still some muck stuck between the hairs of my fur.

That was not a sentence I ever expected to think.

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea, and i kinda want to shift back to my human size but i'm worried about getting stabbed if someone sees my pointy ears”

This was the place the old king had declared to kill any Faefolk so it was pretty obvious why i was so nervous about it, But I couldn't stay as Ardua the entire time, I wanted to be able to use my thumbs and actually fit through doors.

“They wont as long as i'm near you, and that is also one of the things i will have to fix later as soon as i can get access to all the papers the old man signed”

Well, that was reassuring, and it was nice to know that Rikaad intended to fix all the Bullshit the old git did.

But there was also the fact that i did not want to shift in front of so many people, stupid as it may sound i felt kinda embarassed, like changing pants in public, also i didn't want everyone to know i could do that.

I was pretty sure that would be a recipe for disaster, especially if it was found out that it was the bracelet that let me do this.

No doubt someone would try to steal it, even if I was the only one that could actually use the thing.

If the thief then tried to use it they would die, like Oakley said.

So maybe I should find cover instead and shift there?

The weird barn storage area would probably do, and there was a door into the castle right next to it that I could use.

Yeah, that sounded like a good idea.

“I'm not going to shift in front of so many people though, what if one of them gets the idea to steal the bracelet? I'd rather not have that happen.

I think i'll just hide in the weird built on shed for that”

At a nod from Rikaad i went around the castle again, followed by both of the smaller men.

Well smaller for now, Rikaad was a good bit taller than me at my normal size.

Human size? Smallest size?

Nothing about me was normal anymore so i wasn't sure if i should call that my normal height, maybe original height?

Thinking about that too much would probably give me a headache so I let it be, it wasn't really important anyway since I could just shift whenever I wanted.

As long as there was enough space of course.

While stepping around the corner of the castle I made sure not to accidentally tread on any of the meticulously planted flowers.

Then before I could push the door to the oversized shed open I heard a voice behind us.

All three of us looked back to who had spoken in unison.

“Sire? Where are you going? Do you need anything?”

It was Norrin, apparently he had seen us leaving and decided to follow his new king.

Rikaad actually didn't look too happy about it, likely realizing that his private and freetime would be rather limited from now on.

Regardless of that he wasn't unfriendly or rude about it as Norrin was only doing his job.

“I was going to bring Donovan and Arthur into the castle and look for Robin”

Norrin looked confusedly at me for a second.

yeah i didn't fit inside the castle as Ardua but i intended to change that.

“Wh- i don't think Donovan can fit through the doors, or do you plan on letting him climb through one of the bigger windows?”

The poor man was thoroughly confused now, and I guessed that I actually might fit through some of the bigger windows, but those were not on ground level and to reach them I would have to get to the second or third story.

Oh what the hell, Norrin knowing what exactly made me shift wouldn't be bad, he might even be helpful with it.

“No that's not the plan, i'm going to shift into a more human form and use the door”

He stared at me for a few more seconds, one eyebrow twitching a bit for a moment.

“You can do that? Why did you stay in the fuzzier form for so long then?”

Well now he was just as confused as before, as for why I stayed as Ardua, well.

“My ears are pointy in human form, i thought if i shifted i would immediately get stabbed, or worse”

Well I did get stabbed, but not in human form and not while in the kingdom, the itchy stitching was a constant reminder of that.

It was really annoying and I would ask Oakley if he had anything to stop it as soon as I could.

But Oakley wasn't even here right now, so I would first go look for Robin and then see if I could take a bath to scrubb the rest of this muck off of me.

Norrin still looked a tiny bit confused but didn't seem to have any more questions.

There was nobody else here so I probably didn't even have to go into the shed to shift.

Besides there was a good bit of open space around us aside from the castle wall so I doubted that if someone was looking our way they'd see what I was doing.

So without further messing about I twisted the gem back into its original position with one of my claws after fumbling with it for a second.

Shrinking was not the most pleasant sensation as it felt like air was just rushing out of my lungs and I couldn't inhale for the duration of it but once that was done I was back down to my five foot eight height.

Not a lot compared to Rikaad and Norrin, but at least I was still taller than Arthur.

I bet he was not happy about that, but suddenly being smaller than Rikaad again was really weird.

Norrin just stared, like his brain was having trouble catching up with what he saw.

I couldn't blame him for that really, that was not something you see everyday after all.

He stared for a few more seconds and then his brain seemed to have caught up with the present.

“I don't know why but i expected you to have green hair”

Were the first words that left his mouth, and honestly?

That assumption wasn't even that out of the box.

My entire fur had been green so to someone who didn't know what my human form looked like such a guess was not far off.

But it was still funny, my hair was a normal shade of brown but as Ardua i had a green mess.

I'd have to ask Oakley why that is when I went to get help for the annoying itching.

But for now he wasn't here, probably still hiding that ice staff somewhere so I would do the other stuff first.

On the to-do list was to find Robin and then get the rest of the mud off.

Now that I was in human form the muck clung to me and had soaked into my shirt, it was really unpleasant as it was starting to dry again from my dip in the ocean.

Eurgh, that felt awful.

Whatever, I would deal with that soon enough.

“I mean, my fur is green so I guess that would be an obvious assumption?”

Norrin was still just staring, and his gaze ended up wandering to my pointed ears.

I already did not like being stared at, but having people look at my ears especially made me uncomfortable and I self consciously put my hands over them.

Normally having anyone see them would only spell trouble for me so I was quite nervous even if I didn't really have to be anymore.

Years of hiding them out of fear wouldn't go away in a few days, hell it probably would take quite some time to even get used to actually sleeping without worry of getting stabbed or worse.

At least Norrin had the decency to look away after he saw me put my hands over them.

“Well uh where in the castle do you want to go?

I can show you the way? I know the layout pretty well”

Right, none of us had been in the castle that long, I hadn't even been inside before so I would have no idea where the hell I was going.

At a nod from both me and Arthur, as well as Rikaad’s go ahead, He went inside first.

“You are looking for your red headed friend right?

Where did you say he'd gone?”

I just realized that Norrin did not know all of our names, He knew Rikaad of course as he was the king and maybe mine but I was pretty sure nobody had told him the names of the other two.

“He should be with Nea i think? He did enter the castle with her while i used sea water to get the worst mud off”

He nodded.

“The medical wing then, well, if they managed to convince Nea to go there at least”

Convincing Nea would probably take twice as long as her just accepting help and getting it over with, but aside from that there weren't many other places to go in the castle.

At least not that I knew of.

Following the armored man through the tall corridor I noted that I could actually fit through the biggest ones as Ardua.

Also walking on two legs again was suddenly weird, I had become accustomed to the four legs way too quickly and now I felt I could way too easily be toppled over.

And without the fur my skin suddenly felt way too exposed, which in turn made me a tiny bit nervous again.

I ignored it as well as I could as I knew that was just nonsense, I was IN the castle next to the king who the hell would try anything?

I was actually glad that Norrin was leading the way as I would already have gotten lost in the countless hallways that went who knew where.

How did anyone here even know where to go?

After rounding a corner I could see a big door that was painted white with the medical symbol on it, a snake winded around a staff with a round thing on top, an orb maybe?

I briefly wondered if it was inspired by a magical staff but discarded the thought as soon as I got it, now was not the time to dwell on such things.

Norrin had already Knocked on the door and someone who I believed to be a nurse opened the door a crack.

“Can I help you?”

Norrin nodded briefly.

“Is Nea here? Or have you seen the ginger boy that was with her?”

The nurse glanced back into the medical wing before looking back at Norrin.

“Nea is here, yes, making a fuss as usual, as for the red headed young man we sent him to go scrubb off all of that dirt he was covered in.

We can't have that much bacteria in the medical wing so he was sent down the hall to the bathrooms and clean it off”

“Thank you miss, and send Nea our regards for a fast recovery”

The nurse nodded then closed the door again, and I could actually hear a faint cursing coming from somewhere inside.

Yep definitely Nea, she was probably cussing out whatever poor soul was tasked with helping her.

Since the nurse had said that Robin was just down the hallway that's where we went.

We came to a stop before the last door in the entire corridor that Norrin informed us housed an actually heated bath big enough to fit ten people!

Still, to not be rude he knocked a few times but there was no answer.

He knocked again but there was still no answer, was he even still there?

He might have left already and gone who knew where.

Pushing past the taller man I knocked on the door myself,

a bit harder than Norrin did.

“Robin? Are you there? Were going to open the door now”

Pushing the door open revealed a lot of steam for one, as well as a bunch of messy shelves that contained a lot of weird smelling stuff that assaulted my nose with a mess of different scents.

There were also a lot of basins laid into the ground with an elevated rim, separated by curtains,

some of them emitting the steam that was everywhere in the room and a bunch of water filled buckets strewn about.

Going around one of the strange smelling racks I found Robin sleeping and half lying in one of the warmer basins whose water for whatever reason was completely lilac.

There were also a ton of bubbles everywhere and it smelled strongly of lavender, he'd messed with the stuff on the shelves no doubt.

“Found him, he fell asleep half buried under bubbles”

A blonde head popped up from behind another shelf, and Arthur leaned over to take a look.

He seemed quite amused at the sight before him.

“That's not too bad of an idea, but i don't think so much soap is necessary”

Rikaad also appeared from behind Arthur, making him jump a bit in startlement.

He glanced at Robin once and then turned back to face us.

“Since we found Robin I am now going to go and take a look at all the papers my predecessors have signed, i'll rejoin you later”

I was a bit confused that he didn't even want to get rid of the mud first but then again he'd barely had any on him, somehow.

While he went to do that with Norrin I decided to take a look at the stuff on the shelves.

There were a ton of things I did not recognize, such as various oils and grainy pastes that smelled strongly of a variety of flowers.

There were also a lot of pale, hard bars that smelled strongly of apples.

I picked one up to examine it as I had never seen something like that before, it was a bit slippery and I almost dropped it.

Raising it up to my face I wondered if it was edible, it smelled like it was at least.

Eh, one bite wouldn't kill me.

Before I could sink my teeth into it however, I heard Arthur call over from the basin he crawled into clothes and all, only his shoes discarded next to the water.

“Don't fucking eat Soap! What the hell are you doing?”

“This is what soap looks like?”

I stared at the bar again, I had expected soap to have a more soft composition, like fat.

It was made from fat as far as i knew so i really had expected it to be softer than this if not a more liquid form.

“What do you mean that's what soap looks like??

Have you never seen soap before?”

“No? Remember i was a street rat, and a Bastard one at that, so why the fuck would i ever have had acces to this?”

He looked baffled for a second.

“Ah yeah right, sorry, but still don't eat that!”

“Now that i know its soap why the fuck would i do that?

I'm not keen on getting sick”

His amused face at me trying to eat soap shifted into something else as he looked at his soggy mud covered top.

He threw it off next to his boots without much thought, and I could see the manticore scar again.

“I have to say the mud is even worse than your spit, the mud is way harder to wash out”

I felt my ears heat up, right, I did eat him.

With us being about the same height now that was very easy to forget, And it had been a week or so ago since that happened, and neither of us mentioned it ever since.

At least he didn't seem to take it badly.

Also I probably should get rid of the mud on me as well.

Taking off my rather run down boots and setting them to the side of the basin.

Climbing into the tub that was next to Arthur's I also took off my own shirt and tossed next to my boots.

Then I took a moment to look at myself, or more specifically the area where my pouch was.

There was no outward sign of the stab wounds but I could feel them well enough.

The annoying itch was still there and I knew exactly where the stab wounds were so it was kinda freaky to not see any outward sign.

But that was probably a good thing, if there actually was any outwards sign it would be way worse for sure, maybe even deadly.

The only thing I could see was the scar from the time I lost a kidney.

“Hey you forgot your soap! Catch!”

I whipped my head around to Arthur who had pulled me out of my thoughts.

It took me a few seconds to register what he had said but by then he had already thrown the soap.

Since I was not prepared to have anything thrown at me I failed to catch it and it hit me square in the torso.

Or more specifically the area where my pouch was located.

I doubled over in pain and just about managed to not land completely in the water with a strangled whine.

“Oh fuck! Donovan, are you okay?”

Arthur had jumped out of the water after he saw me fall over and then just awkwardly stood there not knowing what to do while I tried to get back up.

“my pouch hurts, you hit it right in the middle”

I wheezed out, holding the area that had been struck.

“its still hurting? Are you okay? I’m so fucking sorry!

I didn't mean to do that!”

“I’m fine gimme a minute, i wanted to ask Oakley for help anyway”

He didn't look convinced, and neither was I about what I just said, but he didn't do it on purpose and I wouldn't hold that against him.

“Wha’s goin on?”

Robin had woken up, likely from Arthur's loud voice.

Oh dammit, and now he was standing there in a pair of soaking wet pants and absolutely covered in bubbles looking rather concerned at me.

I was still half lying on the floor so I sat up completely if a bit hunched over.

“Im fine don't worry, Arthur threw soap at me and hit the stitches, but it's okay just surprised me”

He still looked concerned, well as much as he could with bubbles covering everything but his face.

“Maybe you should go to a doc? Maybe they can at least give something against pain?”

I shook my head.

“No, I mean how the hell would I explain that?

My anatomy differs quite a bit from that of a human, besides I don't think telling anyone why exactly i have those stitches on the INSIDE would go over well, I'll ask Oakley later as soon as he's back, okay?”

He didn't look too happy about it but said nothing else to the matter, Instead he took a handful of bubbles and threw them at Arthur.

Arthur then retaliated by jumping into the basin and splashing water at Robin.

Since I already felt better than just a moment before, which I blamed the soap for just hitting a nerve, so I decided to grab one of the buckets and splash both of the other young men.

Robin dodged with a squeal and Arthur got the entire brunt of it.

“COLD!”

In response to me throwing water he grabbed a bucket that was filled with soapy bubbles and threw that at me.

Since I was still sitting on the floor I had no way to avoid it and got covered in the lavender smelling liquid.

Pain temporarily forgotten in favor of adrenaline it grew into a full blown water fight in mere minutes.

On the plus side that did get all the mud off, and it was way more fun than just sitting in a bathtub.

It was a wonder nobody else came in while we splashed water absolutely everywhere but I was not complaining.

I never in my life had this much fun before!

After who knew how long we stopped and sat out of breath on the floor.

So that's what it's like to have fun with friends.

I realized I never had that before as every parent kept their child away from a bastard like me.

Also the fact I lived on the street probably didn't make that better at all.

While I sat there the adrenaline slowly wore off and I could feel my pouch hurting again.

I hunched over a bit and tried to disguise it as just being out of breath.

It seemed to have worked as nobody said anything about it.

Robin was making bubbles by cupping his hands weirdly and blowing air into a soapy membrane that formed between his fingers.

They even floated for a bit before slowly falling down to the ground and popping.

Arthur was just poking the floating ones with his finger to make them pop prematurely, and I decided to join in from where I sat.

“Maybe we should leave soon? We made a hell of a mess and i'd rather leave before we get found in the middle of this chaos”

Arthur had a point, it looked as if the entire room had been a flood victim.

I decided to go and dip myself in one of the not-soapy basins to get the oily feeling of and then search for my shirt and boots.

In the heat of the water battle I had forgotten where exactly I put them.

In the end I found them around the corner near Arthur's shoes.

Grabbing my shirt and wringing out the water that got splashed onto it I shook it out and fumbled for the bottom of it so I could put it on.

Putting my arms over my head proved to be a mistake however.

It hurt, like something had snapped in my pouch and I realized that I must have ripped one of the stitches.

I was proven right when I tasted something metallic at the back of my throat and spat it out.

It was a tiny bit of blood,

not much and certainly not enough to be extremely worrisome.

Still, I should better check if Oakley has come back.

And I better not mention this to Arthur and Robin, they would probably blame the water fight for it and feel guilty.

Powering through the throbbing pain I put my shirt back on and poured the water from my boots.

I really needed new ones, These were just a few millimeters from losing their sole.

Washing the blood my body had ejected away with some water I stood up and went back to the other two.

Looking around the corner again I could see Arthur tossing towels onto the floor in front of the door.

Probably a good idea, otherwise the water would leak under the door.

Robin used the only dry towel left to dry his hair, making it stick in all directions from static.

He almost looked like a dark orange thistle.

Still, my pouch fucking hurt and i wanted to see if Oakley finally came back so he could help me.

“Let's go look if Oakley has come back, the stitches are itching and its so fucking anoyinng, im sure the winged fucker knows what to do”

At my words Robin tossed the towel next to the ones Arthur had used to stop the water from spreading, and Arthur opened the door which caused some water to pour out regardless of the towels.

“Aww fuck, i hoped that would work, lets just hope nobody complains about it”

To avoid just that we all quickly walked down the halfway again before we came to a split in the corridor.

I looked down both of the halls but couldn't really make out a difference,

Maybe the other two had remembered where we came from?

“Uh, does anyone remember which way we need to go?”

I was met with incomprehensive stares.

“No, sorry I'm really bad at directions, you Arthur?”

Arthur also shook his head.

“Eh fifty fifty chance to get it right, let's just go trough one and we'll find our way somehow”

He randomly chose the left tunnel and me and Robin trailed after him,

trying to find anything that was familiar.

There was nothing I recognized, Then again I had not been paying much attention when we came in.

After a bend we could see a ton of doors laid into the walls, yeah this was not the way we came from,

and the windows were gone too.

“Where the hell are we? Maybe we should backtrack?”

I received a bunch of nods at my suggestion and we turned back around.

Only to find that there were two possible ways we could take as there was a fork in the hallway.

“Im sorry, but what the fuck? Who builds a castle like this?”

Arthur complained and I had to silently agree with him, How was anyone supposed to find whatever room they were looking for?

“So which way do we take now?”

None of us knew the answer to Robin's question.

Though it would help to find a window or something, just to see what side of the building we were on.

“Well i say we should look for a window, maybe we can see where we are that way?”

I really hoped we would find an exit, and that as soon as possible.

I needed to find oakley, my pouch was hurting like crazy and I did my best not to show any outward signs of it.

Still, I'd like to solve that as quickly as possible as I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this facade up.

Since we went left to get into this hallway we chose the one on the right this time, hoping that this was the one we came from.

Robin was idly looking around.

“I wonder how the people that live here find their way? Do you think they have tiny maps of just the palace to orient themselves?”

I had to smile at the mental image of someone using a tiny map just to get around a building, a big building though.

“I doubt that, they probably are just used to it”

After wandering around aimlessly a little bit longer we came to a dead end.

The place we ended up in was circular with decorative stone benches attached to the walls, and best of all a big window.

Arthur immediately went up to it and stuck his head out, only to get back inside really fast again with a pale face.

“Nope, not that way, lets go search for another exit”

Out of curiosity both me and Robin stuck our faces out the window and looked down.

And even more down until there was only water very far below us.

I could even see some stalagmite like stone pillars poking out of the saltwater.

The ocean, right, the castle was built right on top of a giant cliff.

I pulled my head back in, Arthur was right there was no way out unless we wanted to fall who knew how many meters to our death.

I pulled Robin back inside by the back of his shirt as he was still staring at the waves crashing against stone far below.

“And how do we get out now?”

He asked after I let go of his shirt and put him back on the ground.

Arthur looked down the hallway we had come from.

“Maybe we can find someone and just ask how to get out?

There's a lot of doors in some of the other hallways, someones bound to be there”

He was right, we had wandered aimlessly around for who knew how long now and clearly didn't know the way.

And I wanted to get out already, I needed to find Oakley and ask him for help.

So knocking on random doors it was until someone opened that could tell us how to navigate this place.

I really wanted to punch whoever made the design for this place.

After finding the corridor with the ton of doors again, at least I assumed it was the same,

We just started knocking on the doors.

It was after about five minutes that someone opened the door we knocked on.

In the doorframe was a soldier, a scruffy looking man that was not wearing his helmet, Nea would probably punch him for that, and behind him were some more soldiers that had apparently played some card game up until now.

Tha man gaze swiveled over us and i noticed he seemed to be slightly inebriated, was he drunk?

His glassy stare came to a stop on my pointy ears and I could see his entire demeanor shift from relaxed to high alert.

Before I could react he drew a dagger from his belt and aimed to stab me, yelling.

“FAELING! INVADER!”

The man raised the blade over his head and let it swoop down, aimed at my face.

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NEXT / PREVIOUS / OVERSIGHT

#Still Subject To Change #SSTC #lizards writing #vore story #g/t story #giant/tiny #extreme cuddling #fear play #sstc #g/t vore #v0re #soft vore #Blood mention #death mention

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