Fenrir awoke in the gray light before dawn. At some point during the night Safara had rolled up against him and now she was snuggled into him as thoroughly as Chellise on his other side. As he shifted the blood in his fur, now dry, cracked under the movement and he had to resist the urge to shake himself. Moving carefully to avoid waking his bedmates, Fenrir peeled off one of his bandages and examined the wound beneath. It had closed well, now only showcasing an angry pink scar. The new tissue was still thin and tender, however, and he could feel how little it would take to tear it open again.

  Examining several other cuts showed more of the same, and he concluded that he was healed sufficiently to allow for the removal of his bandages, and consequently, a bath. For good measure, however, he attuned himself to the Serpent again. 'Love my enhanced regeneration. With my old body it would have taken months for me to recover. Even a physically fit human would have been out of commission for a couple of weeks at least, but from the looks of it I should be back to full fighting form by the end of today.'

  He gently disengaged himself from his companions and after building the fire back up to chase the chill from the room, left to wash himself in the bath. 'Damned lucky this is here,' he mused. 'I've used it more than I would have ever expected.' His back and side was still painfully sore, but several leisurely ps in the pool worked out most of the stiffness from his muscles and blood from his fur.

  Once clean, he proceeded back to the kitchens and settled down before the fire with several maps Nelith had found in the commander's tent. As of yet, no one was awake, so he decided to familiarize himself with as much of the country as the maps could tell him. Only one map actually dealt with the border region where they were now, and it was sparse in details. The road which crossed the pass was marked, as was the castle they were in, but either there were no other buildings or paths for many miles or this mapmaker had not known of them. It looked rather old in comparison to the other maps, and Fenrir concluded that whatever y on the far side of these mountains, the Vigil of Marstolle and presumably the kingdom of Mavenia as well did not know or care much about it. If another kingdom or nation y to the west, one would expect the road to be in use and the castle garrisoned by at least a token force. He could only conclude that Mavenia did not expect any activity from the west.

  Turning to the other maps, he found much more information to be gleaned here. Mavenia appeared to be rather rge, closer to an empire than a mere kingdom, but bounded on the east by another nation of equal size, and presumably, power. Mavenia's capital, which went by the same name, was a coastal city, pced to the southeast at the delta of one of the principal rivers of the nation. It was closer than he would have liked, and seemed to be where the Vigil of Marstolle was headquartered. The former Demon King's nds appeared to be to the north, and from what Fenrir could tell, north was considered the frontier and wilderness, and the heartnds of Mavenia were mostly to the south and east, closer to the sea.

  Aside from Mavenia, there appeared to be only a few cities of any consequence, trading hubs which sat mostly along rivers or major roads, and most other 'towns' were really barely vilges, scattered throughout the countryside. Aside from the mountain range he was in right now and a smaller range of hills to the northeast, Mavenia appeared to be mostly ftnd. 'A veritable breadbasket of a country. Access to the ocean for trading, too. Looks like I'm on the border of one of the major pyers in this world's politics.' He sighed. 'And here I was hoping I was out in the hinternds somewhere where no one would bother looking even if some weird shit went down. Instead I'm close enough to conceivably be a threat to the capital. That does make this fort being entirely unoccupied even more strange, though. Just what is on the west side of these mountains?'

  He was interrupted from any further musings by a sound behind him as Nelith awoke and getting up, came to the fire. "Good morning, Chief," she said, smothering a yawn. "I see you've been busy."

  "Yes, I figured it was high time to get some idea of who and what lies beyond our little slice of mountain. Am I reading this wrong, or is that really the capital?"

  Nelith sat down beside him, peering at the map he indicated. "Yep, that's it."

  "About how far is that from here?"

  "Oh, I dunno, maybe two hundred miles as the crow flies?"

  "That's what I was afraid of. Is Mavenia really as significant on the world stage as these maps make it seem?"

  Nelith gave him a strange look. "That's an odd way of putting it, but yes, Mavenia's the rgest human kingdom this side of the sea. The elven realm is to the southeast, that way, but it doesn't share any borders with Mavenia, and the only other human nation that matches Mavenia in strength is the Tethoros Empire, which you can see on the border here."

  "Do they fight much?" Fenrir asked.

  "Not officially, but there's been a rivalry going on between them for ages. You know how humans are. ...Wait, do you know?"

  The great bck wolf grinned. "Yes, I do. Whatever their other qualities, humans do seem to crop up just about everywhere, and they don't seem to change that much, except superficially. Makes you wonder, sometimes..." he trailed off, falling into thought for a moment.

  "Anyway," Fenrir continued, shaking free of his contemption, "Do you know what's to the west of the mountains? There's no indication on any of these maps, but you'd think that this castle would be garrisoned, as close to the capital as it is."

  "Oh, that? I've never been there myself, obviously, but according to the stories there's an ancient forest on the far side of the Kharos mountains -that's this mountain range, by the way- and it's filled with wild magic. No one who ventures into it returns, not even druids. With that kind of protection, why bother keeping a fort in the mountains garrisoned?"

  "Fair enough, but in that case why even bother building a road, or a castle to defend it if it's impassable anyway?"

  "That's because it wasn't always so dangerous," chimed in a new voice, Lilli coming to stand beside them. "It used to just be an ancient forest, not particurly dangerous if you didn't venture in too deep, but then some unknown cataclysm occurred when a major battle was fought there, and since then it's become suicide to enter into." Seeing his ck of bandages, she examined his chest closely, surprise in her eyes. "You weren't joking about healing quickly, were you?"

  "No, I wasn't," he smiled. "So the forest entirely blocks off that side of the pass?"

  "So far as I know," Nelith replied. "At least to most people. You might be able to find a way around, what with your absurd abilities."

  "Yes, there's no way you'd be able to get an army or even a caravan through, so this pass quickly fell into disuse," Lilli said, kneeling by the hearth to begin preparing breakfast.

  "I see," Fenrir said thoughtfully. He began gathering up the maps, satisfied he had learned all they could tell him at present. "Well, I had hoped to be able to use this castle as a sort of home base, at least for now, but with Mavenia's capital so close, I'm going to have to do some reconnaissance before settling on that pn. No point in trying to set up here if we can't evade the notice of anyone with the power to force our removal."

  "You mean the Vigil," Nelith stated.

  "Possibly, or even Mavenia itself, or worst case, the Saintesses."

  "You don't think they'd care about us," Nelith said, looking nervously up at him when he did not immediately reply.

  "I hope not, but my gut tells me not to be too sure of that. Either way, I'd rather not risk it. It's not generally considered wise to call the bluff of a weapon of mass destruction. So before I commit to anything I'm going to go snooping around a bit and see if I can't find out what the general temperament of the powers close by are."

  "What about us?" Kira asked, stepping up to stand beside them. Most of the group was now awake and attempting to shake off the st remnants of sleep.

  "Oh, I haven't made any concrete pns, but most likely I'd take one or two of you with me, and everyone else would wait here. Too many of you would draw too much attention, and I'm not exactly inconspicuous myself."

  Kira snorted. "Ain't that the truth."

  "I can choose to pass unseen by all but the most observant for a short time, but you're correct, most of the time I'll need a disguise of some sort to avoid drawing too much attention once we do reach civilization. But as for you, none of you are particurly unobtrusive. Those of you with human skin tones still have horns and tails, not to mention most of you have wings as well."

  "Oh, you don't need to worry about that, Master," spoke up Yumiko. "Succubi can sort of fade into the background, so long as we don't draw too much attention to ourselves."

  "Don't count on that ability too much," Lilli interjected. "Sufficiently powerful individuals can see right through it, and in the capital in particur, there's bound to be plenty with the ability to do so. But stop worrying about that for now, breakfast is ready."

  Fenrir stood and stepped over to where Safara was still lying. Pcing one hand on her shoulder, he shook her gently. She shifted slightly, gasping in pain when the movement aggravated her injuries. "Easy there. You're still plenty banged up. Just be still, and I'll bring you something to eat." Helping her to a sitting position, Fenrir retreated to the fire to grab food for them both and then returned to her side. "Eat this. You'll feel better."

  She did as she was bid quietly, not meeting his eyes. They ate in silence, the only sound being the conversation of the succubi several feet away. Fenrir pretended to be engrossed in his meal, but in actuality kept a close eye on Safara. She was clearly uncomfortable, and several times opened her mouth as if to say something, before changing her mind and closing it again. At st, however, she could no longer restrain herself, and mumbled bitterly, "Why did you have to save me?"

  "Would you have preferred that I leave you to the tender mercies of the yeti? I very much doubt you would have left their embrace alive."

  She didn't answer, looking down and away.

  "Is death truly preferable to spending more time in my company? But if such is the case, why did you assist me against the yeti?" Fenrir continued, keeping his tone gentle.

  "I-I can't- I shouldn't- I mean, I-" she went silent again, her face obscured by her hair. Behind Fenrir, the succubi had gone very quiet, but she didn't seem to notice.

  "Running away on foot, you had to know I would soon catch you. Why did you not at least take one of the horses?"

  The only answer was a slight shaking of her shoulders. Fenrir waited patiently for her to speak. At st she murmured, "Why?"

  "What?"

  She raised her head suddenly, beautiful blue eyes swimming in tears as she met his gaze. Every line of her face showcased her inner torment as she cried, "Why do you have to be so damned kind?! I'm supposed to hate you, so why can't you just be cruel and hateful and..." her voice trailed away as it became choked with tears, and Safara buried her face in her hands. Her next question was much softer, and somewhat muffled. "Why can't you be a monster?"

  "Ask the sky why it cannot be the earth, or the moon why it cannot be the sun. I cannot be other than what I am." Fenrir swiftly shifted to sit beside Safara, and putting an arm about her shoulders, gently pulled her to lean against him. Dropping any pretense, she turned towards him, sobbing openly into his fur. Being careful to avoid her injuries, Fenrir hugged her, stroking her hair as she cried.

  It took some time, but once she had calmed somewhat, Fenrir released her. "Feel better?" he asked kindly.

  Safara took a handkerchief from one of the pockets of her robes and blew her nose. "A little," she admitted. "I'm sorry."

  "That seemed to be a long time coming. I don't think you need to feel sorry for that," Fenrir replied.

  "It's not that. It's just... Well, I shouldn't have run, I know that, but I didn't feel like I had any choice."

  Fenrir cocked his head. "What do you mean?"

  "I'm an elvish noble. I'm supposed to be a paragon of wisdom and virtue. I'm supposed to be able to master my body and its urges, and I'm especially not supposed to fall in love with a monster. But I feel like that is what will happen if I spend much more time around you. Even just sitting next to you like this makes me want shameful things. Things an elf shouldn't even consider. But it's more than that. You're strong and fierce, but you're kind and caring too. You're a warrior, but you're wise. Our conversations, even such as they have been, have taught me that. I don't really know much about you or what you want, but I do know that I could love you, and that scares me. You scare me, so why is it that when you're around, I feel safe? I just... I don't know. The st few days have just been so... difficult." She gave a sad little smile. "Do you know, I've been touched and hugged more in the st few days than I have in years? And despite your threats, you've been nothing but gentle to me. I guess I was just afraid that if I didn't leave soon, I wouldn't want to anymore. It's been a long time since someone looked at me and just saw me, instead of my name, or my race, or my power."

  Fenrir pulled her close, and she did not object. "Why do you not want to stay? Or rather, what precisely makes you feel you should not?" he asked in a soft tone.

  She ughed softly. "Are you serious? Elves aren't supposed to consort with monsters. It's shameful to even consider it."

  He gave an answering smile. "But I thought we had already established that I am not a monster. Nor are these women, demons though they may be."

  "That's not the point- wait, they were here all this time?!" Safara buried her face in her hands, mumbling, "gods, that's so embarrassing..."

  "I thought it was very sweet," Lilli said, smiling.

  "Girl, you need serious help," Kira commented. "Fucking elves and their over the top prudishness. There's nothing wrong with sex. Or wanting it. Especially with a hunk like this."

  Fenrir grinned. "Thanks for the compliment, but Safara's already had to adjust her beliefs fairly heavily in the past few days. I hardly bme her for having difficulty uprooting a mindset she was taught to hold from birth. That said, while you're right, there is a bance to be struck."

  "Yeah! Like if I'm not banced on a dick, then I need more sex!" Aimi crowed, grinning widely.

  Everyone ughed at that, even Safara unable to suppress a giggle.

  "Word of advice, maybe don't take life lessons from the nymphomaniac," snickered Koreen.

  Aimi pouted at her in mock hurt. "Rude. True, but rude."

  "Aww, you know I love you anyway," Koreen grinned back, unfazed.

  Turning his attention back to Safara, Fenrir told her, "You already know what I really want, but I won't ask it of you before you're ready. You can take your time to come to terms with the feelings you're experiencing. When you decide you're ready to take that step, I'll be here."

  "So sure that I'll take the step, huh?" But she smiled as she said it.

  TheBestofSome