Chương 29: Chapter 28: Rescue Hound

I didn't need sleep as much as I was used to needing. I tried to rest that night, once Torch and I got back to the inn. I did all the right things - I ate something, enjoyed some of the deer's bones I'd used to make stock, and settled down in front of the fire, all snuggly warm and comfortable, but... with a soft sigh, I rolled back onto my paws, and brought a hand up to my face and felt over my snout. It really was...

quite lupine indeed, I reflected, and it still felt odd having something this shape that was part of my body. I AM RESTLESS"Can't rest?" Gelidia asked, from the book she'd been reading beside me. I shook my head, and she got up. Even crouching down, I was still taller than she was standing up. She reached up, and I shifted my stance a little to balance as she dug her fingers into my fur and pet my face for a few moments, getting to my ears and ruff after a few moments.

Then, she put my book back into the backpack the group had given me, and closed it back up, leaving it beside the oven.

"Well... let's go for a walk then." Y E S I felt my tail waggle, felt my ears perk, and felt an animal part of me wish for this eagerly! Gelidia noticed - how could she miss it? - and grinned up at me.

"Ohhh~ You like walks then?" she teased, and I deployed my secret anti-teasing countermeasures, attempting to lick her! Big as I was, my tongue was big enough to probably wrap around a human sized person's head! She was becoming adept at countering my countermeasures though, and simply put a hand on my snoot to divert my face to the side. I let her, but captured her arm a bit as payment, sucking her into my chest in an embrace.

I didn't lick her now, even though I had prime opportunity, but I did scoop her up, making the shade squeek! Walking on three limbs, I hobbled out of the inn, scooping her against me like a princess as I went! She gave token protests, but clutched her fingers into my fur and didn't actually try to escape, so I figured it was alright. Once we were outside, after dipping my bulk through the doorway sideways, I looked down at the woman in my arms to find her staring up at me, cheeks bright.

I pressed her right against me, half concealing her tiny human frame against my floofy body as I squeezed her gently in a hug. So tiny, so precious, so fragile! Even if she was a spirit, she was real to me because of the curse I'd taken on willingly to help her.

"Are we going to walk together, or will you just carry me everywhere like a brute?" She said, and I could hear the half-hearted rebuke. A pleased rumble escaped my lips and rumbled in my chest. In response she reached up to scritch at the fur over my collarbone, right at the base of my neck where it grew thick and full in part of my ruff.

I set her on her feet carefully, and ignored the diplomatic spectral cough from the figure that had been standing there for a full minute, just like I ignored the skeletal man himself. Only once Gelidia was safely on the ground did I turn my gaze upon him, and the clipboard-bearing skeleton with the barest-visible shade body shrouding him rocked backward a step on pure reflex. WATCH IT LITTLE MAN THIS IS MINE I was amused by my Wolf's claim, and felt my tail waggle a little, even as a low rumble escaped me.

Part of me liked seeing the man nervous of me - that was him showing proper respect, but mentally I pushed my Wolf's muzzle away with a soft touch and gentle word. He isn't going to try anything, I thought, and my wolf responded HE BETTER NOT, HE WANTS SOMETHING FROM HER Remarkably perceptive. Gelidia stepped forward, and the clipboard bearer adjusted spectral glasses that hovered over his hawkish features.

"Lady Windbinder, Hound Goldtail, I am sorry to um..." he began, and Gelidia sighed at him.

"Yes, it is no trouble - James Stockpot, foreman designate of Lambstock, let me introduce you to Emily Goldtail, Hound of Lambstock. Emily, Mr. Stockpot's organizational skills will be indispensable in the repair of this town." Gelidia said formally, and the man's chest swelled with pride. His previous fright of seeing me half-forgotten, the other half pushed to the side at his Lady's formal introduction of me, he sketched a bow in my direction. I gave him a respectful nod of my own.

"I am so glad to meet you, Hound." he said, using my official title with a respectful emphasis. How did he do that? How could he make Hound sound... respectful? It wasn't just him pronouncing the capital letter, but he added spin and inflection on it, too! How? I leaned forward, and the fussy little man stepped back with a tiny squeek like a rabbit! My Wolf liked that, and I felt my tail sweeping the ground behind me as I wrote'NICE TO MEET YOU, MISTER STOCKPOT' and once he'd read it, he looked delighted!

"Literate as well, my goodness!" he began, and beamed a smile"What a pleasure!" and it was completely sincere. I couldn't even be mad - he was honestly pleased I was literate! Part of me wanted to be offended, but I figured most people weren't literate in this world. But how would that work? How would they understand their system?

HE IS A LITTLE BONE RABBIT My wolf sounded amused, and just a bit exasperated at me and my mile-a-minute-mind, but I felt my tail continuing to waggle behind me, felt my tongue loll out as I panted.

"What did you need, Mister Stockpot?" Gelidia prompted, and he seemed to snap out of it. He adjusted spectral glasses - how did that work? Habit? I could see my Wolf's sigh clearly in my mind's eye. I couldn't shut off my brain, What did she want from me? This was weird!

"Well, My Lady" he said, again dropping capital letters and a specific inflection of respect"While of course your noble person is the scion of the Windbinder line, and none question that in your service-" he began obsequiously and Gelidia sighed impatiently, slashing her hand across.

"Spare me the platitudes, you have bad news for me. Out with it man, you are in no danger for being truthful!" she snapped, and the little rabbit clutched his clipboard against his chest.

"Y-you do not have the consent of the crown to supersede your parents' wishes, and the town pillar doesn't recognize anyone in town as alive nor a citizen, not even you or your family!" he said"And... that means we cannot do much at all to repair or maintain the town, draw from its coffers, or meaningfully claim it in any way." she said flatly. Stockpot hung his head.

"Exactly, my Lady." he said dejectedly.

"You knew this already?" Gelidia nodded.

"I did. Tomorrow, Goldtail and I, along with some companions from the Republic of Deplia, the Kingdom's successor state, will be going to adress this with my parents." she began, and put a hand on Stockpot's shoulder. He looked up at her.

"What I want is for you to be ready when I take the title of Duchess-" Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site.

"Take?" He asked, shocked, and Gelidia nodded. I could see him stare transfixed and horrified at her with wide blank eyes.

"One way or another, yes. Take. In the meantime" she went on"oversee the clearing of debris. Place the inert poisonstone aside, perhaps there is something to be done with it, and salvage everything we can of the existing structures." she said, and the man's working jaw snapped shut. He nodded firmly.

"Urge everyone in town to Stabilize, as you have done. They will do so willingly, if it is explained to them. If not, that is of course their decision." she said. Stockpot shook his head.

"My Lady, I estimate that half of Lambstock have done so, or have been given final rites and sent on. Even beasts of burden and household pets." he explained. Gelidia raised her eyebrows at that.

"That many? How many are there at last count?"

"Counting all unlives, about seven hundred and twelve at last count are accounted for - either moved on or stabilized in your name. There are those in the Residential district still trapped in rubble, but this accounts for a full seventy five percent of the population of Lambstock, including the entire merchant board excepting the innkeeper, the guards that were stationed outside the keep, all within the town, six dogs, seventeen cats, four rats, and the bootmaker's pet crow.

Twenty percent of the last census's population are simply gone - likely they fled. The last five percent are still trapped in rubble, I am reasonably sure." Stockpot said, flipping a page up on his clipboard. Gelidia's mouth worked a bit! Mine hung open some too! He sounded so... confident, so precise. He must have seen our expressions, because he said"I am very good at my role, Lady Windbinder, there is a reason I worked for your Father in the office of Clerk." he said, and she smiled at him.

"You never cease to amaze, my friend. Keep up the good work." she said. She half turned, but he reached out and touched her arm, making my hackles raise a little. He didn't notice.

"Actually, I have heard from the Alderman about the good Hound's work this afternoon in freeing his dog Spelt, and the function of his shop." Stockpot said"I wonder if we might borrow her strength?" he asked"There are many yet trapped - five percent of the village is still a sizable number of people." he said, and I turned my attention inward. WHAT DOES HE MEAN? Gelidia spoke up for me, saying " She will make her own decision on this matter."

firmly, and the man looked to me, clutching his clipboard like a security blanket. I realized that outside this context, this frightened little man would never stand this close to a werewolf, alive or dead. He was frightened on general principle, I could see it as his knees knocked together, but he stood his ground before me, trusting me, and trusting his lady. He wants us to free townspeople from the rubble, like we freed Spelt. WHY My wolf didn't want a complicated answer.

I could feel that implicitly, but I wanted to respect her. It would help the people of Lambstock, and it would please Gelidia. I think so. For us together, it would be simple. THEN WE WILL HELP THE LITTLE RABBIT FOR HER He is kind of rabbity, isn't he? Like a little scared rabbit, fussily scurrying about on his busy little errands! Wolf chuckled at the mental image and thought about biting him until he made a noise, probably only half jokingly. Was that lupine 'pinch and squeal'?

Wolf didn't actually want to do that, it was just idle fancy, so instead I bent forward and wrote for his benefit.

'I WILL HELP' I said, and Stockpot practically melted with relief, and we bustled off to do just that. Many homes in Lambstock were of a type. Imagine a stone-lined and round pit, filled with masonry. This was about hip deep on a man. Poles would stick up out of the ground, held in place by that same pseudo-concrete, and would meet at the top in a gentle curve, held in place by a kind of metal thingy that the World identified as a Crown Wheel, the structure itself a Yurt.

That wasn't what a Yurt was in my homeworld, but I'd never seen one, so what kind of judge was I? These were a far cry from the wood and hide things from my world. These were indeed made with wood, and there was a kind of hide involved, but the shape wasn't quite right. Each beam that supported roof and walls were one single thing, as if someone had shaped the wood like a bow-staff. Maybe they had?

It did mean when something heavy hit them, they collapsed inward as bulks of timber snapped, and when they fell like that, they fell in completely and became a nasty tangle. The way to get them unstuck again I found after a couple attempts, was just to climb onto the wreckage, grab the crown ring, and haul. I could rip most of the structure apart that way, and it only cost me a few points of stamina to do so with relative ease.

If not, I could rip out the crown ring and break the ruined hide and cracked wood to free the people inside. At first, work crews I encountered didn't understand why this huge beast was tearing into the buildings as they hadn't met me yet, but on Gelidia's order, the shouting skeletons and shades were quieted, moved to carefully help things out of the way. First to come out were the shades of a mother, a father, and their little boy.

The heartwarming scene of the tiny ghost being led out by his parents was a counterpoint to the horror of the fact of what had happened to these people. Man, woman, and child - the demon that had done this... had spared none. Nobody had been spared. They'd killed indiscriminately, with the poisonstone siege boulders and whatever had raided the town afterward. A Greater Demon, I'd been told, hand-ruined the Kingdom of Stormwrack with the help of an army of monsters, and was this what that looked like?

The dead left to rot, while some engine of war ground its way without a care for the lives it destroyed? Sudden violent deaths had ended the people of this town and left their shades and bones to wander after. Anger bubbled in me, but it was a human anger.

It was something from the bit of me that had picked my way through the ruins of Milwaukee, that had seen corpses in the streets, that had witness what happened when people didn't capitulate to the raider bands, or who had and it simply amused them to kill them anyhow. My Wolf looked on, lent her strength to me, and watched my anger sear in me, but the beast I'd found in my heart when I'd woken up here didn't comment or question.

After the third house, when I'd gotten into a rhythm with the work, the growing work crew following my lead moved like ants over each Yurt's ruins. Some of these had a cellar, and workmen would skitter into them to pull out some huddled family or person and their pet, and we'd move on. Often, the person or people we freed joined the crew working with us.

The work was hard, and there was a lot of it - the ruined yurts, old brick and mortar buildings, networks of cellars, we were clearing a path through Lambstock, and freeing the dead. There was no point in even... being angry, was the general sense of things around me. Nobody wasted energy on being angry. The thing that had done this to them was long-gone. The greater demon had been slain ages ago. There was no time for tears, either.

We became one thing after a while all of us moving together, working together, each of us understanding what the roles of the others were and how we'd each move. It was a strange feeling, but not a bad feeling Then we reached the end of the homes, and Stockpot tallied the last 'survivor' off on his clipboard with a flourish.

"And that... is... everyone accounted for." he said.

"In fact, we have a few more than expected! All citizens are accounted for, and we have ten people who just... happened to be in town at the time of the attack!" GOOD GIRL! You have freed the late citizens of Lambstock! For performing a service for the Windbinder Family, you have gained bonus XP! For working as a team, the reward is reduced. Awesome! More experience! Your [LIFE, SYNERGY] Samu skill has improved, and is eligible for rank up! Rank D is a free rank!

[LIFE, SYNERGY] Samu, Rank D: 0% - Your mind and body are aligned as you meditate, move and labor, increasing your mana recovery and reducing stamina loss as you work. No real change there, but still! Rank D! And it meant my mana would recover more quickly, too! Your [MONSTER, COMBAT, SYNERGY] Bestial Might skill has improved, and is eligible for rank up! Rank B costs 2 Lycanthrope skill points! I couldn't actually level that up yet - didn't have enough skill points!

I was so absorbed in the menus that Gelidia touching me came as a surprise. She cupped my cheek in one hand, and dragged my face around to stare into her own. Then, she planted a kiss on the side of my snout and embraced my head, saying 'Thank you so much' softly. I slid an arm around her, and embraced her to me. Her weight, her scent, her cool touch, it was sweet and soothing. At last, I felt I could get some rest. The shade took my paw in her tiny hand, and led me back to the inn to spend the rest of the night.

When I shut my eyes, it was to the sound of her voice in gentle song, and the feeling of her gently petting my head in her lap.