DreadWolf

◈ Chapter 112:

The black furred rabbit person paced past the hole in the wall where the still form of Rain lay, his body unmoving. The rabbit was clearly wary, one paw resting on the pommel of a shortsword buckled to his belt, digits tense.

"Curious," he murmured, "A slave monster? But then how was it allowed in. Ah," his gaze moved to Lyra, "Nobility? That would explain that absurd bounty..."

Lyra didn't respond to his words, her eyes still rolled up, eyelids fluttering, a puddle of herself formed around her soaked through shorts.

The rabbit person squinted at her, his eyes moving down her now black wooled body to her still squirming hips, thighs desperately rubbing together.

"... but what exactly happened here?"

"Seems like sheepy came her brains out when she let wolfy out too quickly. There's definitely something suspicious about that, and the colour of her fluff now. Hmm."

The rabbit person turned to find a pregnant Goblin girl standing beside him also looking over Lyra and stroking her chin. Oddly there was a black singular horn on one side of her head, small and nubbed.

He furrowed his brow. A Goblin speaking up willingly? Without a care? One apparently evolved in some way judging by that horn? Strange. Very strange. It was unnatural enough that it almost made him uncomfortable, like a piece of furniture had suddenly grown a mouth and started making pointed observations about the room it was in.

After a moment he managed to bring himself to reply, unused to conversing with the green skinned monsters. "You also belong to this noble?"

"I don't belong to anybody, I'm my own Gobbo. If anything she belongs to me, my sheep."

Opal nodded as if that was a pleasing idea.

"Ah...I see, you've been mistreated and gone insane. I'd heard the nobility were particularly cruel to their Goblin slaves. I suppose you are the result of that. Your pregnancy, no doubt some Noble's drunken deviancy. I feel as though I am a little closer to understanding why this Lyra Bellerhorn is so wanted."

Opal squinted up at him. "What are you trying to say bunny boy?"

He drew the short sword from his side, the steel coming free with a ringing scrape of metal.

"If you call me that one more time I will cut your head off too. Being half mad won't save you. Although I guess killing you now would just be getting to the point a little faster, without an owner you are going to die as soon as you catch the wrong leveler's attention."

He took a step towards the still helpless Lyra and raised his blade, ready to start chopping at her neck.

"Maybe I should take you as my own, I will need assistance carrying the sheer amount of gol-AHHHKK!"

The rabbit person made an undignified screech and stumbled forward, nearly tripping over Lyra, sword and paw flailing as he regained his balance.

He steadied himself and his paw reached for his rear. Then he drew it back. There was blood, a lot of it.

"Wha-..."

He turned to see Opal. Somehow she had acquired a round ball of black fluff. She casually threw it up into the air and caught it, a few small drops of red falling to the cobble as it spun. His eyes moved to her other hand which appeared to hold some kind of sheer black sickle, a cruel and dangerously sharp looking thing. His eyes returned to the ball of fluff.

"Wow, this stuff cuts through flesh like it's nothing."

Even as the pain started to set in he didn't quite comprehend it, his... tail had just been instantly and easily sliced off... by a Goblin, a Goblin girl casually playing ball with it, tossing it up and down in front of him.

His tail.

The rabbit person made a wordless scream of pure rage and leapt at her, eyes wild, ears flapping, blade jabbing straight for her chest.

Opal blinked in surprise at the sudden motion and just, fell away, like she had been standing on a ledge and had stepped off, plunging down into the shadowed ground, her long fluttering hair the last to vanish.

The rabbit missed wildly and overshot, having to catch himself from falling to the ground with his free paw. He swung around breathing hard, searching for the strange Goblin, but he was alone, only himself and the still out of it Lyra lying on the ground.

"I'm up here bunny."

Confused, he looked up to find the Goblin high above on the rooftop, one hand resting on the chimney, his tail still in her hand.

"N-now listen to me, just give me the tail and this doesn't have to end badly. A simple healing potion and I can have it re-attached, no problem, I won't be angry I promise, you won't need to die for what you did. Come now, it's the smart, logical thing to do! Just toss it here!"

"MMMMM.... Yeeee-"

The rabbit nodded his head eagerly, lifting his paws ready to catch.

"-eeeea- No. My tail now. Maybe I'll give it back if you walk out of town without speaking another word to me or to anyone."

The rabbit spluttered, but then caught himself from speaking. Quick calculation followed. He wanted his tail back, but then, the bounty, an absurd amount of gold. As much as losing his tail hurt, a lot, he couldn't discard fifty thousand, he just couldn't. He grit his teeth, rabbit nose wrinkling as he scowled in fury, resolve straightening his back.

"I'll burn you alive Goblin, I'll tie you over a fire and watch you char and scream along with that noble's spawn in your belly!"

"You really shouldn't have said that."

He lifted his sword and took a step toward Lyra. "You are a Goblin, I do not care at all about what you have to sa-

"HUP!"

The rabbit paused as he caught sight of motion out of the corner of his eye. He turned in time to see Opal falling through the air, arms wrapped around knees, her body forming a ball as she dove straight down onto the cobble street, a suicidal leap considering the height. Fully expecting her to crumple and die against the stone the rabbit stared, but instead, she fell straight through it, falling into the shadow the building cast, only a small puff of dust kicked up from her motion marking her passage.

Unsure what was happening anymore the rabbit stared at the spot she had vanished, which was unfortunate as when Opal came flying out of the shadowed lip of the roof he was completely unprepared. Her full momentum from falling transferred into horizontal flight, a pregnant Goblin spinning through the air, a flicker of black held in hand.

The Goblin soared over the rabbit person's head in a smooth arc and then she was past, falling into the shadow cast on the wall of the opposite building.

She popped up again on the first rooftop, flung into the air by her momentum until gravity took hold and she managed to grab hold of the chimney, easing herself down onto the tile.

She had two things held in her hands, two flat shaped things covered in black fur on one side and pierced with gold earrings. She flapped them in the air experimentally, the fleshy things like some kind of grisly hand fans, the many gold earrings clattering against each other.

Below came a blood curdling scream, the rabbit person's paws clutching at the stumps of his ears, blood pouring down his face, filling his eyes, staining his chevron styled clothing red.

"MY EARS!" he shrieked, a kind of mortal horror in his voice.

"Well, my ears now. They'll make a nice snack for my wolf."

The rabbit gave her one terrified look, clearly completely out of his depth and set way off balance when it came to a Goblin slave being anything but powerless, and then he turned and fled from the alley.

"And if you come back I'll feed the rest of you to him too!" yelled Opal after him.

She watched him go and confident he was not stopping she slipped into the shadow and rose up beside Lyra on the street below. She poked her in the side with her big toe. The sheep girl let out a soft moan in response, her eyes closed, seemingly having fallen asleep.

"I don't have this problem when usingmyability you know. Are you sure you aren't just being weird about it when Rain goes into you?"

"Wha- whassa?" murmured Lyra, bleary half closed eyes peering up at Opal, her expression sluggish.

She sighed. "Nothing sheepy, now will you get up already, and Red, why are you so utterly useless huh?"

A flash of red scale could be seen at the opening of the dimensional bag on Lyra's hip and a muttered voice came from within, "What am I supposed to do? You never gave me a weapon and I'm not about to do some filthy disgusting vile foul nasty bribing withmygold."

"True," admitted Opal, "I should fit you with a pointy, that way you can stab people."

As she spoke Lyra was recovering, wiping strands of sweaty hair that had fallen across her face aside and sitting up, then looking down in dismay as she found her shorts soaked through and dark with slightly sticky wet. She blushed furiously as she realised what it was and awkwardly scrambled to her hooves, stepping aside from the puddle she had left on the cobble.

"Ahem, I uh, don't know what happened here... Wait, the Lapine!"

"Do you mean the rabbit leveler? He ran away."

"R-really?"

Opal waved the pair of rabbit ears vaguely in Lyra's direction. It took a moment for Lyra to realise what it was she was looking at and then she paled.

"What did you do?!"

"Took his ears, duh, oh and his tail. He was totally afraid of me you know." Opal gave her a slightly manic grin. "I've never seen a leveler fear a Gobbo like that before, not alone anyway. It feels... good."

Lyra rubbed at her face. "I don't think this is good at all, he will have gone for the guards, I'm certain of it, we- we need to get going. Where's Rain?"

"Having a nap," said Opal, flapping an ear in Rain's direction.

Lyra turned and looked at where she was pointing the still mass of fur mostly inside a building.

"What? Wh-why?!"

Opal shrugged. "He came out of you then he fell down and went to sleep. I guess there was a problem with your shitty skill, same as happened to you."

Lyra stared at her then raced over to Rain, coming to a halt by his legs. Not sure what to do she jumped up on top of him and entered the building. As she entered she was met with a scuffling sound and a cry of effort. Directly in front of her stood a male elf. He held a spear in his hands and had the blade pressed against Rain's throat. Even as she watched he threw his weight onto the spear, his entire body lifting up into the air as he repeatedly slammed himself down onto it, grunting with effort as he desperately tried to force the spear point into Rain's neck. Beside him a sweat covered female elf had one booted foot up on Rain's back, a longsword held in both hands, lifting it up and then stabbing it down at his heart over and over.

At Rain's head a pair of elven children kneeled, one trying to wiggle a long knife into Rain's ear hole, the other frantically trying to part his closed eye and force through a dagger.

None of them were having even the slightest effect.

"What in the abyss are you doing!" cried Lyra.

"Get back lass, this is ours, our kill, our leveling."

"NO! This isn't, he's not- I- I- He- It's my SLAVE!!"

The family paused in their work, and for the first time gave her their full attention.

"You are joking-"

"I'm not! How did you think it was allowed into the town in the first place!"

"See! I told you!" said the female elf.

One of the children kept stabbing her blade into Rain's ear hole until the other child elbowed her in the side.

"You're attacking my property! God knows what damage you've done to it, do you have any idea how important and wealthy I am in the city?"

"Your slave destroyed my wall and dining room!" scowled the female elf sheathing her longsword with a clack.

"Well, we'll call it even then since you damaged my property too."

"The monster is fine, my house on the other hand."

"He's..." Lyra looked down at the huge slumped form she was standing on, something wrong suddenly occurring to her, something terribly terribly wrong. Rain was still and unmoving... not even his chest rising and falling.

"N-not breathing?" she whispered faintly.