Emily pulled her face out of the travel pillow and blinked away the sleep that had collected at the corners of her eyes. For a moment she glanced around her lair in confusion. Why was there so much sand everywhere? She struggled to remember what she had done last night but her body was throbbing with something fierce, like she’d just gone a couple of rounds with Cosmo.

  Finally, Emily managed to stand up. Her head hit the tent ceiling, and she scowled. Taking in the tiny cloth room, she remembered where she was.

  Emily grimaced as she rubbed the side of her neck trying to work out the kinks.

  Yawning she moved to the entrance and out into the dunes. Dusk had just fallen and the sounds of people moving around assaulted her senses.

  Emily vaguely remembered having Dunham set up her tent as the sun was climbing into the sky before she crawled in and fell into a deep sleep. She must have slept straight through the night, which was good but she would have loved to continue her slumber. From the feel of things, her powers were still stabilizing, and her healing was struggling to deal with the aftermath of her change. Or she wouldn’t still be feeling like a truck had hit her.

  Emily made a beeline for breakfast, grabbed her portion, shoveled it down, and went back for seconds. Fox eyed her while and shook his head.

  “We’re on rations, Emily. It's one plate per person… but I hear you that you were the one that put up that spell, so here is something extra to help you keep your strength up.

  Fox shoved something into her hands quietly winking at her.

  Emily looked up at the grouchy man and grinned, pocketing the contraband. She quickly washed up and found a secluded place to bite into the morsel. What found when she reached into her pocket was a ripe orange piece of fruit. In the desert, this may as well be gold. It had to have been retrieved with Nox’s spatial magic.

  As she bit into the sweet flesh, the juices filled her mouth, and the flavor was similar to apricot. Emily sighed contently through the mouthful.

  She never would have thought that something as simple as a piece of fruit would be so exciting.

  Their recent fair had only been meat and porridge. Which wasn’t bad at all but it was only a matter of time before their diet would only consist of meat.

  The biggest mystery for Emily was where all their water came from. She was sure Nox had a fair amount in his storage, and everyone carried emergency flasks, but every morning, they were allowed to refill them with Fox. She suspected there were wards to create water, but considering the sheer amount they needed each day—not to mention the needs of their beasts—it was a troubling thought. If they ever struggled to find enough water, Emily would have to secure hers and Alex’s supply first.

  When Emily was done she pocketed the pip from the fruit and went find Cupcake.

  Following her connection to the beast, she got at the spot where they had arrived yesterday. The lazy creature hadn’t moved from where she had nestled in the sand the day before.

  “Oi, come on girl we’re leaving in ten and I need to get you ready.”

  Cupcake didn’t respond, ignoring her voice.

  Emily’s eyes narrowed dangerously.

  “Are you really going to be that way right now?”

  Emily spotted a small spot where the sand shifted. Immediately recognizing one of Cupcake's whip appendages, Emily reached down and grabbed it.

  Pulling the limb out from the sand.

  This got a reaction from the beast as the sands churned below.

  Suddenly the ground under her feet bulged and Cupcake stood from the sand. Her glossy pelt caused the sand to cascade down her back like water.

  Emily had to jump back as the form that rose from below was far larger than it had been when she had borrowed in there this morning.

  Emily’s eyes widened as she took in Cupcake's new bulk. Although she was still lithe, the Rime wolf was almost as large as Gerades's old partner.

  The beast could easily carry three to four people, their gear, and still have room for extra. The next thing Emily noticed was her saddle hanging limply to the side. Cupcake's new body had gone through such a huge growth spurt that it had ripped the saddle’s straps that held it in place.

  Other than her size the beast's fur had turned an even more vibrant crimson if that were possible. The last thing Emily noticed was the wolf's eyes. Their brilliant blue had shifted slightly and just near the pupils was an alluring red that framed the edges. A new pride filled her eyes and chest causing her to stand straighter.

  Cupcake looked down on at Emily with a snort as though to challenge her, new dangerous air leaking out of her form. However, this only made the woman laugh as her eyes dared the beast to lunge.

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  “Oh, so now you think you’re hot stuff, huh.”

  Emily reached up and grabbed Cucpake under the chin, her hand barely able to close around the bottom half of her snout, and pulled the beast's head down to her level. Staring into her eyes

  “You’re mine, don’t get all high and mighty with me young lady”

  Cupcake tried to pull her head away gently, but Emily grabbed it again with her other hand and held her in place. Gently resting her forehead on the beast's warm nose.

  Excitement, pride, and fondness wrestled in the beast but eventually, she plopped back into the sand, defeated. The action drew Emily's attention back to the saddle and she groaned.

  “Oh great, now I have to get that fixed. Come on let's go, bring the saddle,” she said as she started walking to the mount tarp.

  A couple of people did double takes as they saw the beast's new size but no one blocked her path.

  When Emily got there she saw Gerade and Loch dealing with the rime wolf pups. These pups had been the only beasts they had managed to rescue back in Sam’eth’s camp. Unlike the fully grown wolves, it seemed they had mercy for the pups because they had been left in nearby cages. Over the last few days, they had been splitting the pups between the mounts as they were getting too big to fit on any one galendmare. One of the main reasons why Emily thought the man had recovered from his partner's death as much as he had was because of them.

  The moment the pups saw Cupcake they scampered over to her, who, like a mother wolf, welcomed them, bathing in tongue kisses.

  Gerade looked up at Cupcake and hummed.

  “Well, it finally happened, she advanced.”

  Emily looked at the usually quiet man and raised an eyebrow. Loch turned to look at Cupcake and his eyes widened.

  ”Oh my gosh, is that Cupcake?!”

  Seeing as Gerade seemed to know what was going on she looked at him.

  “Advanced? Is that something Rime wolves can do?”

  Gerade nodded.

  “Yes.” he nodded firmly.

  Emily stared at the man dryly.

  “Ever the conversationalist, Gerade. What does that mean?”

  Loch looked like he was about to answer for Gerade but the man finally gathered himself.

  “All creatures can advance their bloodlines as they get stronger, just like we can rank up. Their titles are more limited but they can be just as dangerous. After a Rime wolf, comes a Dire Rime wolf. It is a stronger, faster variant with some bloodline abilities, but as for what those are it could be several things. All that matters now is that she will be far more deadly in combat”

  Emily was glad that the man was willing to say so much about her ally's new deadly form.

  She looked at Cupcake who was currently lying with her belly exposed amongst the pups as they encircled her yipping away.

  Sure, far more deadly. She thought sarcastically.

  “Right, well, the harness keeping her saddle on is torn in three places, so she is certainly more deadly when it comes to that”. Can I get some help repairing it?

  Gerade scratched the back of his head as he stared at the gobby stadle riddled with teeth marks, and turned to Loch.

  “Go get Nox to give you my spare saddle. The normal one won’t fit her anymore, even on their largest notch. Oh and the the spare baskets”

  Loch paused before he left.

  “Boss are you sure that’s…” he started, but shut up when Gerade glared at him.

  “Oh course I’m sure. I’d rather it be put to use than sit in our supplies.”

  Emily pressed her lips together when realized he meant to give her his partner's old saddle.

  Alex had said that he had lost his wolf in combat against their Black Cardinal, but he hadn’t gone into detail.

  When Loch left Emily didn’t bother trying to strike up a conversation with Gerade. Instead, she began playing with the pups. They had grown a lot since she’d caught them.

  Each of them was now as large as a medium-sized labrador with full coats and gangly limbs.

  It was a stark difference from the blurry-eyed creatures that could not even walk a few weeks ago.

  As she played with them they nuzzled into Emily, happy to nip and growl at her. Their sharp fangs even managed to poke through her Tested flesh but she let it go because of their clumsy cute faces. Emily giggled as they went through all manner of antic while Gerade watched.

  “They respect you, that's good…” he said.

  Emily looked up from playing and shrugged.

  “They’re puppies, no need to look that close into it.”

  Gerade nodded.

  “Perhaps, but pups won’t usually play like that without first checking in with a protector that it's safe. In your case, they consider you the same as your beast. Which is good because they need to do some running, and I think you’d make a good tether.”

  Emily frowned as she ruffled the top of the pups' heads.

  “Sounds like a lot of work.”

  “It is…” he said.

  Emily was about to decline when Cucpake sent feelings of joy down their connection.

  She sighed and retracted her hand from the creatures.

  “Fine, what do I do?”

  Gerade nodded and began to explain; by the time Lock had returned, she already had everything committed to memory.

  She helped to fasten the saddle to Cupcake, along with two baskets to her flanks.

  They were identical to the ones Emily had seen before,e only now they were just half domes. Each pup could fill up the entire space of their basket, whereas when they had first arrived they could all fit snuggly in one.

  Pretty soon, Kael and Selia began to spread the order to head out, and Emily whistled sharply three times.

  Three of the six pups hopped up into the two baskets, with the one resting on the she-wolf's rump. While the other three gathered around her paws.

  Because Rime wolves needed so much exercise as they were growing up, it was good to have them travel with them, even if they could not be mounts.

  However, seeing as they were still young, Gerade didn’t want them getting too exhausted so they were set to take turns. While three would walk beside their tether, the other three would rest.

  It took a bit of memorization to get down the different calls, but once Emily had them, they worked a treat.

  Emily guided them forward as she sat in the middle of the pack with Dunham at her back.

  Thus, they continued their journey into the desert with three pups chasing after a large Rime wolf and her riders.

  As time went on, Emily fell into a rhythm with the little beasts. She started to notice when one was falling behind and called for a swap. She kept doing this until Gerade fell back to have them rest for the day as they had only managed to travel for half the day. Emily didn’t know of many animals that could travel for that long when they were less than a month old.

  They returned to other riders who had made space for them to rest on their mounts.

  When they were around three-quarters of the way through the night, they came across what looked like a cluster of trees hiding in the shadow of a butte, and there, under their shade, was a small pond glittering in the moonlight.

  Blood points: 527