"Wow." Sarah breathes, holding up her new sword.

"I can't inspect stuff, but it's pretty obvious that's a rare weapon. I only ever got one of them to drop from the last boss in the deep mountain dungeon." I explain to the hero. The sword looks like it's made of glass, with a blue flame burning inside the see through blade.

Sarah sheathes the sword, setting it down on the table. We are safely back in Sarah's house, just outside my hive. The party went on pretty late and I'm struggling to keep my eyes open, but I wanted to give her my present.

"It's a very special sword, I inspected it." She bends down to draw me into a hug, "Thank you Ren, this on top of all the XP you helped me get, I really can't thank you enough."

"Don't forget how I'm going to help you rescue more people from the orcs!"

Sarah laughs, "You brat." And kisses me on the head. "Want to know what my class evolution is called?"

"Yeah!" I bounce up and down a little.

"Goddess Touched Hero. The Golden Goddess came to me in a vision; she was impressed by my desire to help the Karnakan refugees and encouraged me to go after the orcs."

"Mmm," I nod, "I figured it would be something like that. Although I was kinda secretly hoping for a Vess related class."

"I was uh," Sarah flounders for a second, "Kind of thought you'd be more surprised. Turns out, gods are real in this world!"

"I already knew that." I yawn, hamming it up a little for the act.

The hero laughs and before I can react, flicks me in the tail. I yelp, and hug my tail, glaring daggers at the 'hero', "No fair! I only have, like, four agility."

"How did you know gods are real?"

"Why should I tell you?" I huff. Sarah starts moving towards my tail again, wiggling her fingers menacingly; I break instantly, "Enna told me!"

"Enna?" Sarah sounds surprised, glancing at her standing quietly behind me, "How did she know?"

I just shrug, "It's the combined knowledge of generations of Vess." I let my tail go, trusting the hero to keep the peace for now, "I was going to tell you about the Golden Goddess, but she reached out to you first; I thought she would."

"Yeaaahhhh…" Sarah runs her hands through her hair, looking a little stressed, "I kind of have those main character vibes, being summoned from another world and stuff. Honestly, I'm a little worried about it. I have no idea what to expect from an actual god, what if she demands I do something I don't want to do?"

Enna breaks her silence, "The gods often choose those who align with their beliefs. Unless your beliefs were to drastically change, I would not worry about such a thing."

"Right." Sarah doesn't look all that relieved. "Let's talk about something else, how many Vess are you planning on taking on our mission?"

"I'm going to leave half of my soldiers behind to guard Blackroad, so that leaves two thousand free to come with us. Of course, I'm going to bring like fifty knights, six drakes, and a few other miscellaneous Vess to take care of stuff." I hug Sarah's arm, look up at her, and try to speak carefully, "Are you going to be okay flying? My palanquin has been modified so that a drake can carry it. We don't have to fly though; we can travel with the main force of my army."

"I…" Sarah looks up and takes a deep breath, before looking back down at me and putting on a brave face, "I want to get there as fast as possible. Your knights can keep up with the drakes, right?" I nod, so she continues, "Hopefully we can confront the orcs with just your knights and drakes, we'll know more when we get there, and I can inspect the orcs. We might have to end up waiting for your army anyways, but I hope not; we really don't have much time before winter moves in."

I yawn out an 'okay'.

"Let's get you to bed." A hand is placed on my lower back, guiding me towards Sarah's bedroom, "You can sleep over tonight, you look like you're about to fall asleep standing up."

Sarah takes charge of me for tonight, removing my cloak and dress, letting my hair down and slipping one of her shirts over my head, it hangs down past my thighs, good enough for pajamas.

I crawl into the hero's bed and snuggle down under the covers, idly I wonder if Sarah ever brought any lovers back here. My scouts send the impression that Sarah has never come back here with anyone, she spends most of her time in the dungeon, only going to the village in the evening if she has the energy. My scouts are everywhere, watching for any sign of Gwyna and happen to pick up a lot of other stuff. I silently apologize to Sarah for creeping on her life.

It feels like I barely shut my eyes when loud knocking wakes me up. I sit up, bleary eyed and reach out with my senses, no Enna.

Stumbling out into the main room, I don't see Sarah around either and the knocking is growing insistent. A scout sends me the impression of a half dozen men in armor standing outside the door, adventurers by the look of them. I open the door and rub my eyes, looking up at the intruders. "Sarah's not home."

The men all share surprised glances, a clean cut man with a bow steps forward to address me, "Do you know where she is?"

I yawn and stumble, almost falling onto my butt before catching myself with the doorframe, "Probably in the dungeon." I really just want these guys to go away so I can go back to sleep; the sun has barely risen.

A bald scarred man steps forward, "Ironhead disappeared a while back, we're lookin' for 'im."

"Who?" My morning voice cracks.

"Big guy, wields a bigger hammer, silver rank adventurer." The scarred man growls, "Guild Master says the Vess Queen broke his legs an took 'im. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that would ya?"

I shudder as I feel myself being inspected by the clean cut man, his eyes flashing white with the use of the skill, "She's a Vess."

Scarred guy slaps him on the back of the head, "No shit. Little Vess, humanoid shape, sounds like our Vess Queen." With no further warning he reaches out and grabs me, throwing me over his shoulder, "Let's take her somewhere quiet so we can have a polite conversation."

My knights are about to descend upon these guys and cut them to shreds, I barely get the order out to stop them in time, telling them to stay hidden. This situation is just going to escalate further and further until I'm killing adventurers by the truck load. I'm feeling pretty human today, so I tell my Vess to send a message to Enna, I need Sarah's help fast!

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

The ride is very uncomfortable. The man makes no effort to care for me, holding me over his hard metal pauldron. The men mutter amongst themselves as they walk through the woods, away from the town. Well, if I do kill them, at least there won't be any witnesses.

The position is putting way too much pressure on my bladder, I never got a chance to go this morning and it's starting to become a problem, "Uh-" I stutter out, "I have to-"

"Shut up!" The scarred man barks. I squirm in his grip, trying to relieve the pressure a little, he turns his head and yells into my face, "Stop moving or I'll skin you alive you freak!"

It doesn't take long before they find a suitable spot, dropping me roughly on the ground. I push myself up and take in my situation. The men all take up positions around the small clearing, most seemingly content to watch my predicament. The scarred guy and the clean guy loom over me, trying to be intimidating, but all I can think about is how bad I have to pee!

I try again, "Do you think I can-"

Scarred guy draws a dagger and crouches down in front of me, holding it under my chin, "We will ask you questions. You will answer them. First." He holds up a finger, "Where is Ironhead."

"No idea." I deadpan, I think I'm done with this.

"Don't you lie to me." He presses the knife to my throat, threatening to draw blood.

"I sent him off to Ironhill, I promise." I can sense Enna approaching rapidly, I silently urge her to hurry.

Another man with an almost comically large nose steps forward and gruffs, "This is a waste of time, just start cutting it up and get the answers we need." He walks over and starts winding up to kick me.

The clean man shoves him at the last second, sending him stumbling away, "Dumbass, you'll kill it, it's only got one hundred health."

Some other guy leaning against a tree laughs, "So weak! How did that thing do Ironhead in?"

"That's what I'm aimin' to figure out." Scar guys spits.

"Wait," The clean cut guy cautions, "Someone is approaching."

"What?!" Scarred guy jumps up in alarm, "How? Were we followed?"

Sarah finally breaks through the trees, sword drawn, flame flickering inside the blade. She is covered in zombie guts, must have been in the middle of a dungeon. She calmly walks towards the two men threatening me, "Who the hell are you?" She flicks her sword; some blood flings off onto the grass.

"That's the hero!" The clean cut guy exclaims.

"We're lookin' for Ironhead." Scarred guy growels, "Last he was seen was here, with the Vess Queen, and he wasn't in good shape. Me and the boys are very concerned."

"He was sent away to Ironhill, have you looked for him there?" Sarah doesn't know the truth, I'm very grateful she is helping to corroborate my lie.

"Course we did." The man grits his teeth, he's starting to get pretty worked up, "C'mon, hero, help us out. This creature has done something to our boy, you just gona stand there and let that happen?"

Sarah steps closer to the man, causing him to back up and ultimately get out of her way so she can walk over to me. She bends down on a knee and runs her hands over me, checking for injuries. She briefly looks over her shoulder, "She's innocent, I understand your suspicions, but if you can't believe her; believe me. He is not here. She sent him to Ironhill. That's it." Standing up, Sarah casually holds her sword to the side, but her voice has a hard edge to it, "We're done here. Leave."

The clean cut man sneers, "Seriously? What is this shit? You're defending the little demon? I thought you were a hero."

The men are all on edge, I notice they all have their hands on their weapons, ready to attack.

I get up and tug on Sarah's sleeve, "Uh, Sarah, can I go to the bathroom while you deal with these guys?"

"Seriously?" She half whispers back, "Can't you hold it?"

I blush furiously and shake my head, the hero sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose, "Okay, go ahead, I'll take care of this."

The men all protest when I leave but I trust Sarah to hold them back. I walk away from the confrontation, a good distance and find a nice big bush to pee behind.

After finishing up, I sigh with relief and look up at the sunlight being filtered through the leaves. It's peaceful. I want to go home and have some breakfast, I'm getting hungry. Should I check on Sarah? I have no idea how I could possibly help her outside of killing all those guys and making their bodies disappear.

I begin walking back towards Sarah, only to catch my foot on a root, sending me stumbling forward. Enna catches me before I can hit the ground and sets me back on my feet, "I knew you were there." I grumble, pouting up at my caretaker.

"Someone is grumpy today~." It's the return of the teasing singsong voice.

"Maybe I am, I got woken up and kidnapped right away, I think I'm allowed to be grumpy." I cross my arms, "How's Sarah doing anyways?"

"She is handling herself like a hero. She only had to disarm half the group before they gave up."

"Ugh, they are totally going to cause trouble in the future… What should I do about them?"

Enna smiles down at me, crouching down to run her claws through my bed hair, "How about we just keep them away from you for now, sweetie."

"Can we go back now?" I whine.

"Of course, sweetie. Just make sure to tell Sarah thank you."

"Of course I will." I grumble again.

I am scooped up and quickly carried through the woods. I shiver and snuggle closer to Enna; my pajamas are way too light for autumn. "Hey, Enna. What do you think I should have done about those adventurers?"

Enna hums, "Delegating the task to the hero was a good idea, her timely intervention has turned away the humans and stopped their investigation. If they wish to find out more, they know they have to go through Sarah, whom they cannot hope to fight. It keeps their aggression off of you, which I also approve of."

"But" I squirm, "I don't want Sarah to have a target on her back."

"Worry not, Sarah is more than capable of handling it."

"Should I have just killed them?"

"You worry far too much, your grace." Enna plants a kiss on my head, "Humans are cowardly things, show them who is stronger, and they will go running to find someone else to fight their battles."

"Like Gwyna?" I growl her name.

"Indeed, she may very well be the only person who could truly be a threat to us. She is, of course, already an enemy. So, I see no reason to coddle the humans, just kill them and be done with it."

I squint as we come out of the trees into direct sunlight, at least it helps to warm me up a bit, "Sarah wouldn't like it if we killed everyone."

"Sarah," My caretaker pauses for emphasis, "Does not need to know all that you do."

"Isn't that kinda manipulative? I already lied to her once…"

"Indeed." Enna simply agrees.

"I don't want to lie to my friends." I can't help the whine in my voice; I had a rough morning.

"That is the trouble with keeping noble humans around, they do not think like the Vess, and conflict is inevitable."

"Mmmm… Ugghhhhh," I whine, squirming in Enna's arms. "Why can't people just realize they can't win against me and go away. That group of guys who kidnapped me should never have even thought about crossing me. Do I really need to go around setting examples of people so humans can understand how stupid and weak they are?"

Enna hushes me and lightly bounces me in her arms as we walk. I blush, at least no one is around. "Shhhhh, your grace. All will be well, given time. Word of your strength shall spread, and humans shall come to fear you. No need for a tantrum."

My face flushes even more, I decide to just let off some steam and lean into it. I growl and scratch and bite at Enna, my tail lashing back and forth angrily. Of course, I can't even leave a scratch on her. Even a few kicks to her stomach are totally ignored. She just continues to hush me and bounce me as she walks.

Stupid humans, so big and stupid and ugly. Picking me up and dragging me into the woods. Is there anything inside their big ugly heads? Disgusting hairy apes; I should have killed all of them and thrown their bodies into the depths of my hive to be disposed of.

I quickly get tired out and go limp, laying my head down on Enna's shoulder. That was embarrassing.

Enna sounds frustratingly calm, nothing ever seems to bother her, "Rest now, sweetheart. We must soon gather the Vess and prepare for our journey tomorrow."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.