Arlie looked through her wardrobe, she was leaving today to collect the Solunes, she needed to replenish her stocks following yesterday’s accident. She’d spent most of the day looking after the injured and getting her supplies in order for today’s trip. Which is why she hadn’t left already. At the moment she wore only a simple pair of panties secured in pce by a simple ribbon, given the weather she rarely bothered with more during the night.

  Flipping through her robes, she soon found one of her more durable ones, made from sturdy cloth, the simple brown and blue robe was perfectly suited to long hikes through the woods and would protect her more delicate skin from brambles and the like. Well it would if she actually needed it, as a goddess and a Skylord her skin wasn’t as delicate as it looked. Honestly the outfit was more for her perceived modesty than anything else, and after so many lifetimes she was kinda used to dressing as a human.

  Setting the robe aside, she pulled out one of her breast wraps, and with practiced ease began to wrap her decently sized bosom. Like many of her kind, her stature was on the short side, but she did have a well-developed bosom. One many of her friends had been jealous of when she’d been growing up. It was funny to consider how used to wrapping her boobs she was, it wasn’t really needed any more than the robe, but she’d lived among humans for countless lifetimes. In fact she’d thought she was human until just a few months ago, if not for Xaros she might have gone on living another lifetime without knowing her past.

  She scoffed at the thought that good-for-nothing brat had brought nothing but trouble, though she wasn’t sure that one good thing outweighed the evils he’d brought to the nd.

  Checking herself in the mirror, she smiled at the reflection. Her dark brown hair was rather messy at the moment, in the way it always was after a good night’s sleep, despite that she looked adorable standing there in nothing but her panties and her breast wrap. Arlie felt a little funny about how her own reflection made her feel, but there was nothing she could do about that. Idly she brought a hand to her belly, feeling the modest swell there, a blush touched her cheeks as she thought about what she’d gotten up to on her adventure but she didn’t dwell on the thought.

  Grabbing a brush she straightened her hair out, then slipped into her robe before finding her boots. Moments ter she was about ready for a trip into the woods, the only thing left was to grab her pack.

  It was settled by the door to her bedroom, and she took a moment to double check the contents of the bag. It didn’t have much, she wasn’t pnning to be gone for that long, but she had water, a couple of potions, a first aid kit, and some food packed away. Pretty much all she would need for a day’s trip, she also had a few empty jars to store the raw gel of the Solune pnts with.

  Feeling ready, she secured her pack, and headed out. The twins, Rose and Lily were settled at the table already, a third pte set aside for her. Rose smiled as she came in, “About ready to go I see, but you should sit down and eat first.”

  Arlie grinned and took a seat, “So what are two going to be doing today? Or do you still want to come with?”

  The two shared a look, and after a moment Lily said, “Wel as fun as pnt hunting goes, the Vilge is short on meat, with the accident we didn’t get the usual amount of game. Rose and I figured it would be a good idea to go out ourselves, we are the best archers in town afterall.”

  “That you are, but I think you should take Horon. I’m sure he could use the distraction, and you’d be able to bring more game back.”

  “Not a bad idea,” smiled Lily as the trio sat for an early morning conversation. Arlie enjoyed a nice breakfast of fish and rice, and was out the door a few minutes ter. Several people spoke to her on the way to the gate, but nobody stopped her for more than a minute.

  After a quick chat with the vilge guard, she was on her way to the Solune field, a trek of several hours on foot, through the dense local vegetation. A part of her was tempted to try flying when she was out of sight, but honestly, she hadn’t used her wings in many lifetimes, the st incarnation to have actually flown was her first, and that was over five hundred thousand years ago. Idly she felt her back, would her wings be okay? It was a question she’d have to answer sooner or ter. Yet Arlie decided that day wouldn’t be today, she wasn’t going to risk breaking her stuff trying to fly on wings that hadn’t been tested in this life. Perhaps another time, when she wasn’t doing something so important. Choice made, she marched off into the forest, her feet easily moving over the roots, rocks and other debris that littered the forest floor with practiced ease. She’d grown up here, in this incarnation and several before, to her the forest was practically her home, she knew every tree, every root, every bde of grass as intimately as she knew the backs of her hands.

  Several hours ter, she paused in a clearing, and looked up at the sky. Judging by the position of the sun, it was about midday. That felt about right, and she knew the Solune patch wasn’t that far off, it wasn’t even a handspan’s travel away at this point, but it was about time for a meal. Settling down by a tree, she started to unpack her lunch, when voices carried by the wind reached her.

  “Ugh, can we stop yet? My feet ache something fierce.”

  A sigh, “Not yet Leif, we’ve got a schedule to keep.”

  “But Tom! There is nothing out here but cursed trees and rocks!!! Who the fuck is going to buy our merchandise out here?”

  “You’ll see soon enough, and careful! We don’t want to damage the goods.”

  “Yeah, yeah, I don’t care.”

  Arlie blinked, as she bit into her bread. It sounded like merchants, but this wasn’t the usual road for them to take. Not only that, but the usual merchant caravan to Voros had departed just st week, it would be several months before they returned. Sure these two could be lost, but it sure didn’t sound like it.

  A theory sprang to mind, but she hoped that she was wrong about that. Yet she had a feeling she’d find out soon enough, the sounds were getting louder.

  “Just tough it out a bit,” a pause, “but If I don’t miss my guess there should be a clearing up ahead. We can rest for lunch.”

  “Rest for lunch? I’m going to have bruises on my bruises!”

  “Should have brought better boots.” ughed the other man

  “Yeah, yeah. Very Funny Tom.” said Leif just moments before they came into view. The two men were pulling along a floating cage, but they stopped where they stood.

  Time seemed to stop for an eternity before Lief spoke, “Hey Tom? Is this our client?”

  The other man, gred at the first, “Hell no. I don’t know who the girl is.”

  “Oh? Then I guess we got lucky, she’s pretty cute. Think we could get a good price for her?”

  “Too old, our client doesn’t want mature kids, but we might be able to find a buyer elsewhere.”

  Arlie brushed her robes off and stood up. Her gaze fell on the cage, within was a familiar creature, a variant of Arachne known as an Arusi Arachne. It was a girl, and clearly quite young, most likely a hatchling stolen from her mother. Given her age, she hadn’t had much time to grow and stood about 35 centimeters tall with the upper body of a young girl, and the lower body of a spider. Her adorable face was framed by short green hair that matched her green eyes quite well, and like most Arachne, she was completely naked. Arlie wasn’t that surprised, Arachne didn’t really like clothes, and that was true of most subspecies.

  “For a pair of svers you two aren’t that bright.”

  Tom scoffed, “Oh, don’t bother fighting girl, it will be much easier to come with us.”

  Arlie blinked as she felt something bounce off her mental shield. It seemed she was dealing with a mind mage, how quaint. She giggled, “Really? Did you think I was that young or something?”

  Tom gave her a second look, and chanted something under his breath real quick. Just before another spell hit her with equally minimal effect.

  Leif commented, “Um, Tom? I’m getting a very bad feeling about this girl.”

  “You’re imagining things, she just happens to be a tad skilled with defensive mind magic. So just put that Earth magic you are so proud of to use. Just don’t crush her, she’d sell for a good price.”

  Leif sighed, and started to chant a spell.

  Arlie watched his spell work, the two weren’t bad, but they weren’t at her level. Not even close, she’d have called them both high mages, which meant they were fairly practiced actually. They’d have no shortage of jobs they could do, yet for some reason they were working a shady sver job. Arlie reached out with her mind, and channeled a bit of mana, just as the earth started to move, it froze back into pce. A moment before Tom’s mind spell fizzled out as well.

  She chuckled, “A pair of high mages, are we? You should know not to judge a book by its cover, but then again you were stupid enough to steal an Arusi hatchling from her nest.”

  Lief grabbed the cage, “Tom, let’s get out of here! We can’t handle her.”

  Tom gave him a look as if he was crazy. “She’s just one mage, there’s two of us!”

  Arlie finished with her own spellwork, cast a spell. Nature itself came alive and wrapped both of them in vines, vines that started to glow as their mana was drained away.”

  Lief shrieked, “See, see! We can’t handle her, we should have run like I told you!”

  Arlie drew closer, “Now then, I happen to have a few questions. Why don’t you two stay and chat a bit?”

  Arlie smiled as she looked at the little spidergirl nested against her. Idly she stroked her head, “It’s okay Ren, the bad men will never hurt you again.”

  The spider girl nestled her further, clearly taking comfort in her warmth, and Arlie wasn’t lying to her either. She’d made sure the bad men wouldn’t hurt the little spider again. Neither will their client, she had a solution for the foul man as well.