The leader of the beavers may have hyped them up, but weren’t the Ogres very easy to beat? Wilona walked back to the gathered Castorimorphians with a confused look; they, in turn, looked at her with apprehension and slight fear. None of them bothered to raise their spears at her when she got close, though, so they obviously weren't that bothered.

  "The Ogres are pretty easy to kill, what are you talking about?" This was the first thing that Wilona said after she got back. She honed in on the giant Castorimorphian that claimed to be the leader of the other beavers. "Also, give me your name! I'm tired of finding ways to address you!"

  "Borrzon," the 9-foot-tall beaver pointed a thumb at his chest, "that's my name. I'm the head of my pod and its best protector." He bowed—a show of respect, maybe? Wilona frowned. Who still does this? She retracted her thoughts when she realized that she was in a fantasy world. "Thank you for helping my pod."

  "Okay? I'm Wilona." Does she bow here or something? What's the attitude she needed to adopt here? She decided she didn't know anything about these guys and just stuck with her own understanding of social boundaries. "Nice to meet you all!"

  "I feel the same." Borrzon turned his gaze to the distant stick piles; most of them were still intact, thankfully. Wilona felt pretty proud that she had stopped the Ogres from ruining more of these guys' homes. "If you come with me to my Burrowlodge, we will talk about your payment. I'm not comfortable with owing a favor to a witch."

  Witch? Wilona tilted her head. She's a wizard, though? Or are these guys not aware of the differences? Maybe. Maybe. She's a Warlockdom too, whatever that is. So she herself was unsure of her title as a magic caster, but getting called a witch did feel more appropriate...

  "Sure, let's go there," Wilona replied and watched as Borrzon and his men dived into the waters to swim back to the groups of Burrowlodges. She stared. Does she...

  Okay, no, she can't just ask the poor things to take her there, so maybe she can start flying? How does she do that? She could feel sylph skin across her body still. Maybe that's the perfect spell to utilize when she wants to fly?

  Wilona weaved the air flowing around her body to lift her up, a surprisingly easy task given all she needed to do was condense the air until it was able to lift her. After that, it was only a matter of getting used to directing herself while in the air. She did this on dry land. Why? Because she was scared of the water. Sue her.

  She followed after the Castorimorphians with her new spell. Since she wasn't panicking anymore, Wilona thought it was kind of cool that she was able to do this. She had never really dreamed of flying before, but that was because planes had colored her opinion on how good personal flight actually was.

  If this is how a bird felt all the time, then Wilona was kind of jealous.

  Wilona landed after Borrzon and his group scaled the walls of the closest Burrowlodge. The giant beaver stared at her, then he nodded. Wilona could not help but frown when she saw him punch the roof of the structure.

  "What the hell?!" Wilona screamed as she jumped back. Is this guy trying to kill her or something?! Borrzon looked at her like she was the weird one for reacting like this. "I thought you were just compressing the sticks! Not shattering your fucking roof!"

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  "It's fine. I'll spend the night rebuilding this," replied the beaver, which—okay. But she saved this thing! She didn't do it only for it to be demolished! Wilona kept her words to herself as she fixed her clothes while in the safety of the air. Flight was very convenient, she decided.

  "What is this?" An angry, feminine voice emerged from underneath the rubble, and Wilona saw Borrzon flinch. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Borrzon?"

  "Ylvin... We have a guest," said the beaver after taking a deep breath.

  And just like that, the angry tone disappeared and became one of joyful happiness. Holy shit, do the attitudes of housewives not change across different realities or something? Because this is how her mom acted whenever they had guests as well! And her friend's mom. And her teachers, sometimes. And—okay, maybe this is just a thing that happens everywhere.

  "Oh! It's the witch! Thank you for helping out our pod! We were struggling with the Ogres and would have needed to relocate if it wasn't for you!" Like, this is how her mother acted. Down to the smallest detail. "I can't thank you enough! Oh! I made lunch! Both for you and my husband!"

  Next to her, Borrzon chuckled. The man sounded nervous.

  Wilona took the invite and flew down the newly made hole in the roof. "Sorry about the, uhm..."

  "Oh, it's nothing! Borrzon can fix that later, and we can't have you going in the usual entrance now, can we?!" Ylvin laughed heartily as she pointed at the pool of water in one corner of the room. Right, beavers swim to reach their burrows. "And besides! You saved our pod! This is the least we can do for you!"

  Wilona smiled lightly. She was used to playing along with this type of thing. In the end, it was obvious that Borrzon was going to get an earful from his wife. Poor guy. Wilona knew that usually didn't end well.

  "Come! Come!" Ylvin grabbed Wilona by the hand and dragged her across the lodge.

  For someone who's basically a beaver, Wilona thought that Ylvin dressed like a proper housewife. It was kind of uncanny to see her wearing an apron on top of a light yellow dress. She also had gloves on her hands. Leather.

  These guys knew leatherworking, shockingly.

  Lunch was pretty neat. It was full of vegetables and some kind of kelp. Algae and moss, too. She'd tasted duckweed before and... Actually, she still had a half-empty container back in her room because she ate it whenever she felt snackish.

  The algae on her plate was good. It had a texture similar to corned beef, but it was stale. It didn't taste like anything, and the same went for the rest of the meal. Wilona wasn't sure if these beavers had different taste buds or what, but she knew one thing: she never wanted to eat with these guys ever again.

  Next time, she'd find a reason to deny the offered meal.

  "Borrzon, eat your entire plate." Ylvin stopped talking about the rest of the pod to glare at her husband, which was a funny sight, to be honest. This giant thing shivering under the gaze of his wife. Kinda neat.

  "I..." Borrzon said with reluctance. He looked around. His eyes landed on Wilona's plate, and they widened into saucers. "You finished it?!"

  "Am I not supposed to?" Wilona tilted her head. She was just being polite. It would have been rude if she didn't eat everything, even though she took a plate for herself. "Uhm, I'm sorry if I like—"

  "No! It's fine!" Something slammed hard underneath the wooden table, and Borrzon flinched. "My husband was just shocked!" At that, Borrzon nodded hastily. "You're good, sweetie. You didn't do anything wrong!"

  "Okay?" Wilona leaned back. What was going on here? Is... Borrzon's wife a vegan? That makes a lot more sense, honestly. She's had vegan friends before, and Wilona never understood how in the hell they were able to eat their food. But then again, maybe she should thank them. They did let her practice eating greens without wincing, after all.

  "Anyway, where were we?" Ylvin's attitude went into another shift, and she, just like most mothers, continued gossiping about the rest of the beavers.

  It was kind of neat.

  In the end, Wilona did have to leave because she had to talk to the Ogres about no longer invading the wetlands. So, with one last goodbye, she left the Burrowlodge and flew toward the prairie.

  She saw that the Ogre camp was a whole lot more disorganized now that she was close to it. Bones were everywhere, rotting meat sat on stumps beneath the sun, attracting maggots and other parasites, and a stew riddled with fuzzy, fungal growths was in the middle of their camp. Had these guys never heard of sanitation before?

  Wilona flew low until she was close to an Ogre and started talking. "What are you even here for?"

  "Land," the brute said in a tone that Wilona imagined Neanderthals would use.

  "You want to take over the wetlands?" Wilona asked. "Can't you just leave?"

  In response to that, the Ogre threw the meat it was chewing on toward her. It roared and began shouting profanities at her. Wilona flew away. This may be a stupid decision, but she didn't want to hear them out anymore.