Bargaining, pacts, deals, sales or oaths are considered dangerous and should only be done as a last resort, since the price charged by the evil spirit is usually one's own soul/spirit. It is usually done to gain some advantage or something that would be very difficult to achieve; to cure an incurable disease, to guarantee success in life, revenge, material goods, fame and in rare cases it is done altruistically, for the benefit of others. First, contact is made with an evil entity and, through a summoning ritual, then the begging party makes the request and the entity says whether or not it can fulfill the request and the price to pay. Then follows a "contract" signing, which may or may not be physical, with the begging party's blood. From the moment the contract is signed, it is already valid. The day arrives and I realize that the Sky has 2 suns, one white and one blue, the white one is smaller and orbits the blue sun like a satellite. Crazy. Beautiful. A short time later, people begin to wake up, the fire still burning, releasing a small wisp of smoke in the still mild desert dawn.
The fire is made of uruk dung; in the desert sun and scorching heat, the dung dries in less than an hour. The dung also has the advantage of scaring away nocturnal insects.
“Child. You should offer this woman a contract; she has the potential to be a good servant. And it would be very beneficial for her too. If you offer protection, heal her wounds, and let her lie under your wings, you are sure she will accept.” Love speaks in my ear.
Seriously, a serpent speaking in my ear and giving me wrong ideas, all that is missing is a little angel to counterbalance it.
“Me, giving me wrong ideas, NNNEEEEVVVVEEERRRR. And angels, keep them away from you, your race and theirs usually do not get along.
“You read my mind too??? This has become a mess. It’s a public space.” I’m outraged, I don’t even have privacy in my mind.
“Privacy is overvalued. The best things are done in a group and with an audience. But back to the initial point. If you make a contract with her, you guarantee a lifetime supply, someone who won’t betray you and she wins, health and the protection of someone powerful. Everyone wins.”
“She’s not a meal, and powerful is not something I would use to describe myself.” Handsome, hot, lucky, now yes... before... no. No, no, no, that’s in the past and in another reality.
“Child, don’t belittle yourself, all my children are powerful, even the weakest among them is stronger than any mortal.”
"Suppose I make this proposal to her. How do I do that?"
"Normally the beggar performs a ritual, you are summoned, he says what he wants and you say whether or not to do it and what the price will be, then the beggar makes an offering of blood. But that is for normal demons, my children seal the contract with sex, of course. Much better.” Amor chuckles.
Naughty snake. “No selling your soul?”
“Normally yes, but it can be other things, like; sacrifices for the duration of the contract, servitude, or a gift. But of course it has to be something of the same value as the gift, you can’t give something great and receive a grain of sand in return. This is called the Law of Balance. After all, a constant flow of vital energy is much better than an explosion of energy. And once they get to know me, the souls, they love me.” Amor says with complete confidence.
“Okay, let’s do this, when she wakes up, I’ll make the proposal, if she doesn’t accept. We won’t talk about this subject again, agreed.” Margery, snuggled closer to my body, she mumbles something, dreaming, probably someone or something from the past. I extend my wing over us, making a shadow.
As the sun rises over the horizon, people begin to wake up.
Medrash is one of the first to wake up, and soon the camp is in motion, people preparing breakfast, feeding the animals. After a short while he comes to me.
“Honored,” he bows, “We will soon be ready to leave.” His eyes quickly scan Margery’s naked body lying next to me.
“Great, could you bring Margery something to eat, then I need you to translate something for me, I want to talk to her.” As they leave to do what I asked, I wake up Margery. She seems a little scared when she finds me next to her. She tries to leave, but I put my arm around her waist and make a ssshhhh sound, and she quickly gives up. The smell of mango rises strongly.
A few minutes later, Medrash returns with a gourd full of porridge with pieces of dried meat. He offers it to Margery, and I push her, gently, to go eat.
“Tell her I have a proposal. A contract, I offer protection, care for her, as long as she never betrays me and helps me when I ask. At no time can this help be used to put her life at risk. The contract lasts until one of the parties decides to back out.”
Medrash looks at me in surprise. He turns around and starts to translate what I said. She drops her gourd on the floor and starts to sob. She can only nod, agreeing with the deal.
Ouch, that was fast.
I reach out my hand and she throws herself at me like a castaway holding a buoy.
Camp is broken up quickly and efficiently. One thing I noticed is that the mountains were not a mirage. Although we are heading towards the mountains, I notice that our direction points to a smaller gap between the mountains, somewhere between 600-800m high, while the surrounding mountains are around 2000m. Margery tries to keep up with me, but her resistance is still low and using my new gift, MIND LINK, I communicated directly with her. I comfort her and tell her to go in the wagon, along with the others, and I make it clear that the deal will be sealed tonight. It will be a good test to see if the Control that Amor gave me, really works. Margery is supposedly not fully recovered yet and her vital energy should only be enough to spice things up a little.
Maybe I'm being a little irresponsible.
Everyone looks at me furtively, or maybe it's the blue snake floating next to me.
“The elves are looking at you, the cat man too. The draconian and the bald man are looking at me. Why don't you make a pact with the elves? That would leave only two missing from your minimum herd?” Beelshamor says this again, whispering in my ear...perverted snake.
“Of course I’m a pervert, in the best way possible.” He gives a mocking laugh.
“The Elf is pretty, I agree, but I don’t think she wants to get involved in this game. As for the elf, I don’t like male….BBBBEEEEEPPPPP….men.” That was never my thing.
“Too bad, but look, you don’t really need to do anything with him. You feed off sexual energy. Our little human friend seems to like elves, so if the two of them give in and you participate, you can consume his life energy without having to consummate the act, a waste, less tasty, but if that’s what you like.” He starts to mumble something inaudible.
It’s the first time I’ve seen a snake mumbling, but I’m sure it will happen more often.
“Are you talking about a Menage?”
“Of course not! Menage are a threesome and I thought of the four of you together. Why did you exclude the elf?” He says this in a tone of “you idiot”.
Lucky my skin doesn’t turn red. “I’ll think about it.”
Around noon we stop to eat, I take the opportunity and use my gift, HEAL on everyone. None of them had serious injuries. Nothing that rest, food and hope can’t solve. In fact, I did more to gain points with the other ex-slaves. It didn’t cost me anything anyway. During the meal I ask Riardon, how long until we reach the pass between the mountains?
“Honorable, tomorrow we will reach the foot of the mountain, there is a goat path there, difficult and dangerous, but we can cross without encountering Orks, goblins or anything worse, but the animals would have to be slaughtered and the carts would have to be left behind.” He says, his eyes wandering nervously between my chest, and in the direction of my best friend. I think I know why the two elves wouldn’t stop looking at me. I look at Elf and catch her admiring my best friend too, but she quickly hides using her hair in a curtain. She and Margery were gossiping about last night and my proposal. One thing I noticed is that the MIND LINK is almost effortless to use or maintain, and when I use it on Margery I can understand what others are saying when I talk to her. After the classic meal of water, porridge, and dried meat, we set off towards the mountains. In the late afternoon a strong wind comes and almost turns into a sandstorm. According to Riardon, this is good, any trail we left has been erased. That is, if there is anyone behind us.
Night falls and the smell of mango hits me hard right behind me, who was still staring in amazement at the clear night due to the many moons in the sky. I turn around and Margery is there, already naked, waiting for me. In the background, about twenty steps away, there are two carts, the animals and the others sleeping. I feel the strong attraction, I want to pull her to me and suck her until she turns into a raisin. But I feel the chains descending quickly and preventing me from doing so. It seems that Love has fulfilled her part of the agreement. I extend my hand to her chin and make her look at me.
“From today on, you belong to me and I belong to you. I will protect you and you will take care of me. You just have to agree and it’s done.” She looks at me with the eyes of an animal caught in a bright light. I see her swallow hard, her hands tremble.
It was practically a marriage agreement, after I stopped to think about it.
“I want to.” She says in a whispered voice. Soon she is in my arms, I waste no time, soon we are kissing standing up, her legs around my waist and my hands holding her weight by the buttocks. I feel the pact uniting our souls, a part of me says, this used and damaged vessel is not worthy of me and using our pact I grant her my gift of regeneration, soon her pregnancy marks, scars, hair, broken and dull and breasts sagging from so much breastfeeding, cease to exist. As if a key turned and everything her body went through and suffered ceased to exist. In the end I take just a pinch of life force, both to test the agreement with Amor, and to seal our pact with a flourish.
The next day when we wake up, a new Margery, one who never had her body damaged, is lying next to me and she is beautiful, small, delicate, but very sexy.
Medrash arrives with a gourd. He has already noticed that I do not eat. Right in an NPC who was born to be a butler.
Margery stretches next to me and wakes up. She sits up and grabs the gourd. When she grabs it, she lets out a little scream and lets the gourd with food fall to the floor. Through her mind, I see that she has noticed her hands, without calluses, without broken or bitten nails, skin tanned by the sun or hard work, arms without scars, legs without scars. And when she notices her hair, she starts to cry and I hug her, sending feelings of comfort straight to her brain. I have never been good at these things and in my previous life I was one of those men who would rather disarm a nuclear bomb than deal with a crying woman. Without thinking, I open a link with Medrash, asking him to come over later. Shortly after he leaves, I realize that I have maintained the MIND LINK with two people at the same time. Before, when I tried this, I would lose one of the links.
“This is standard between the contractor and the contracted party, and with one difference: unlike the normal version, the MIND LINK pact version does not require a line of sight.”
Amor says, already answering my question. I am starting to get used to not having privacy. I don't know if this is good.
“SIS, is it possible to put a mental barrier between me and Amor?”
YES, BECAUSE YOUR SOULS ARE LINKED, A BARRIER CAN BE PUT UP, BUT THE OWNER OF THE CONTRACT IS THE ADMINISTRATOR. THE OWNER OF THE CONTRACT IS BELLSHAMOR.
“Don't even dream, my dear, your soul, your mind, everything you have, is united to me for eternity.” The snake comes and licks my face.
I try to slap her, but she runs away laughing.
Margery and Medrash look at the scene as if they were watching a couple fighting.
Soon after Margery recovered and got dressed, we returned to camp, everyone looked at her in amazement. Soon the Elf and Margery were gossiping about what happened last night. The Elf looked at the two of them and at me… and from him began to come a smell of lemon mousse… did it have to be lemon? I love lemon mousse. If someone began to smell like Cassis liqueur I would be sure that someone was picking up my food weaknesses and using them against me.
“Another thing, the two fruits are ready to be picked, just reach out your hand and they will come peeled. If you pick them I will send two of my daughters to meet with you today. Treat them well and they will be of great help. If you succeed with the two tips I gave you and make me happy, more gifts will come. Don’t disappoint me!”
I felt a slight threat, but soon the spicy parts of the conversation between the elf and Margery and the smell of lemon become stronger and I lose focus on what to do with this threat. Was it really a threat or was it just in my head?
Soon the camp is broken up and we continue our journey. The elves' gaze becomes more intense and they whisper among themselves. The journey continues normally, without incident, apart from the two inclement suns and the intense heat.
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We stop to eat and rest the animals and soon the two elves come close to me, guided by Margery, Medrash stops eating and watches from afar. The one who seems to care least about what happened in the last few days is the cat man. The bald man likes to take care of the animals and cook.
“My lord, Jelen and Riardon want to make the pact too.”
“Are you sure?” I ask, but I already know the answer.
“Yes.” They both say at the same time, anxious and slightly excited.
“Tonight, they sealed the pact then.” I feel that they are relieved and at the same time disappointed. Maybe I am still a bit of a traditionalist, but some things are better done at night and in half light. As a consolation prize, I invite them to eat with me.
After the meal, we continue our journey and, as usual, every half hour or so, I take off and take a quick look at the path ahead. With each flight, my muscles get used to it, they hurt less and less and I can fly longer and higher. On the second flight, I see two figures coming towards us. I get off and inform the rest of our group. I see tension shining in everyone's eyes. Fear of being recaptured. Hands go to their weapons.
“They are my daughters, welcome them!”
“Any tips? I have never been the most diplomatic or social person.” I realize that I am also nervous. Amor said they are his daughters, but he is a deity of chaos. Soon, the two figures appear on the horizon, they come undulating, amid the heat rising from the ground. The caravan stops and we wait. When the figures reach about 200 meters, I see that the two figures are swaying, not because of the heat or the optical distortion of the hot air, but because they are actually swaying. When we get closer, we can clearly see that they are not humanoid beings. They are two women, that is clearly feminine, with two volumes on the bust, two arms, hands with four fingers, no hair, the body covered in scales, in shades of sand and earth. The part below the waist is serpentine, also covered in scales in the same pattern and color as the torso. They reach about 20 meters and stop. They have a type of leather side bag, with a strap that crosses the torso diagonally, on their backs a bow, on their waists a machete on one side and a quiver with arrows on the other side, and in their hands a spear the size of a staff.
I step forward and introduce myself. “I am Mallus, Son and priest of Beelshamor. Welcome to my caravan... sisters!?” Yeah. I stuttered a bit at the end, but I think I did well.
“You have eternity to improve, son.”
Of course, Amor, I wasn’t going to let one of those go by easily.
The two medusas look at each other, one of them takes a dead rabbit out of her bag.
“We thank you for your welcome, Mallus, Son and priest of Beelshamor and our brother. We are Suldrem and Kress, the hunters of the temple of Lorre, the hunter, daughter of Anthar.”
The one with the gift steps forward, I still hold out the dead rabbit. I also step forward and accept the gift. With one hand I take the gift and with the other I extend my open hand offering a “handshake.” She looks at me, at my hand, at another medusa behind her, and then looks back at me. She grabs my forearm tightly, a length where each of us grabs the other's arm at the elbow, I do the same and try to squeeze her arm as much as she squeezes mine, her skin is dry, smooth, it looks like plastic, acrylic. Different, but in a good way, like when you run your hand over the dashboard of your new car.
As soon as we finish shaking hands and Suldrem is at our side, they both bow to Amor.
Looking at them closely, I'm left wondering, Medusa, snake people? What race are they, half human body, half snake, scaly skin, beautiful face, exotic, thin lips, a hissing snake accent, but they don't have snake hair, they don't even have hair, eyes with vertical pupils and an emerald green. They're not Medusa, because no one has turned to stone. I think I've been staring for too long because now they're staring at me.
As soon as we finish shaking hands and Suldrem is at our side, they both bow to Amor.
“Haamm…hhaammm. Medrash, prepare the rabbit. Sorry I can’t offer much, we only have grains, dried meat and water, but come to our campfire.” I extend my arm inviting them towards the campfire. They accept with a nod and start heading towards the camp, I follow them. “I’m glad to find someone friendly in these desolate and dangerous lands, you said you were hunters, were you by any chance hunting?”
“No, we were running away. Our temple was attacked by the forces of the Lords of Ruin. They attacked us during one of our holy days, taking us by surprise. My sister Suldrem and I were hunting for food for the feast. When we returned, we saw smoke coming from our temple. We ran, but when we got there, there was nothing left to do. Everyone was dead. The sacred ground was corrupted. We burned the bodies and left. At night, we both had the same dream: to go south and find the son of the blue serpent. The blue serpent is a sacred spirit to our people.”
Heavy, very heavy. “My condolences. And what are your plans? Do you have somewhere to go?”
They look at each other and at Amor. Apparently, Suldrem is the quiet one, and her sister Kress is the talkative one. “Our dream said that if we stayed by the side of the son of the blue serpent, everything would be fine.”
I look at the snake and ask without speaking out loud, “What do you mean, everything would be okay? I’m in the middle of the desert, naked, surrounded by enemies, and now you throw me at two refugees. Do you have shit in your head?”
“What a dirty little mouth! You have big plans for you, my son, and don’t worry, that pretty little head shouldn’t care about these little details, it could give you wrinkles! And look, now you have two great hunters. And just for the record, they are Lamias.”
That must have lasted about six seconds.
“I see. Let’s eat first and then we can talk more about this.”
“Master Mallus, thank you. Are you and your caravan going to the gap between the mountains?”
“Yes, we’ll cross and try to reach some human village or city on the other side.”
We finish our meal and continue our journey. The hunters volunteer to go ahead, scouting the terrain. And when the sun begins to set, the hunters return.
They come towards me, hanging from their waists are three lizards, resembling yellow iguanas.
“Master, an hour from here, in a small valley known as a stopping point, because it has a well, it is now occupied by a caravan of slave traders, if we leave before the sun rises, we can go unnoticed.” I smell mango coming from both of them, strange.
“My second gift, son. It remains to be seen whether you will accept it or not.” Amor says as he pass behind me and lies down on Margery’s lap, who was helping to prepare the camp.
I close my eyes as I watch Amor go away, and since when did he and Margery get so close? I turn to the hunters. “How many are there?”
The hunters look at each other and the smell of mango grows stronger. “We count three wagons, one with twenty slaves, one with supplies and another with five humans. If we wait to attack them just before dawn, we will catch them when they are most tired.”
“I can distract and confuse them, make them fight each other, but personal combat is not my strong point. Can you take care of the five with this help?”
“We would attack them even if you weren’t there and then we would leave.” They say this without any emotion.
Uuuiii… that hurt. “Why?”
“We follow strong and bold hunters.”
Amor, help me out here, what do they mean by that? I say out loud. “We will do as you advised, two hours before dawn, we will attack.” They look at me and go to the fire to prepare the lizards.
“Lamias are proud, they only respect those who are stronger than them and they live for the pleasure of hunting. You can smell them, how excited they were with the promise of hunting humans, simple beings, with simple pleasures. But they have their charm, don’t you agree?” He pays me back by watching the two of them walk away with their undulating, very provocative walk.
I put my finger on my lip and start to think, unable to contain my curiosity I ask. “But I don’t see how it would be possible, anatomically speaking…”
“Just because I’m curious too, I’ll give you this tip. Desire Reflection, Mutable Form, Realistic Form. With this, only if you’re an ass, you won’t win over most of the intelligent beings in this world.”
“Yeah, sure.” I slap my forehead, it was in my face, but I give myself a break, after all I just died, reincarnated, gained a new body, killed another living being, had the best sex of my life. Yes, anyone would still be a bit lost.
Speaking of sex, I call Margery and tell her to bring the two elves, I think we can seal the pact in about two hours, maybe four. When they arrive the smell of mango and lemon burns my nose.
During that time I thought of a more standard way for my future pacts.
They stop in front of me, anxious. I am too. Clearing my throat I say.
“With this pact I become responsible for your well-being: food, clothing, health and shelter.
With this pact Riardon and Jelen are responsible for my well-being, safety and happiness.
With this pact, neither party can knowingly put the other’s life at risk.
Riardon and Jelen, do you accept?”
They both speak anxiously, nervously and excitedly. “We accept.”
Soon, we are embracing. I kiss Margery and Jelen voraciously, while on Riardon I use Compulsion, targeting Margery. Soon she is pressed between our bodies, as both Riardon and Margery lose themselves in the fire of lust and I focus my attention on Jelen. And I see that she is the romantic type. Lots of kisses, words of affection in the ear, fingers floating around the body like butterflies, very different from the wilder sex that Margery likes. For me, in this new body, it doesn't make much difference. I help her achieve the kind of pleasure she likes and then I feed on her life force. I try not to compare it to food, but it gets harder and harder. Jelen is a sparkling wine, light, acidic and slightly fruity with pineapple; Margery is a shot of vodka. Soon after, I lay Jelen's body on the floor. I take the opportunity to use Regeneration and make her body return to the peak of good shape. She is beautiful. I kiss her on the forehead and join the two of them, who are still under the influence of my Compulsion. Riardon's lemon scent is strong. I touch his back and suck his energy. He gives a hoarse moan and falls unconscious. Margery looks at me with eager eyes and attacks me. Short, horny girl, I help her reach climax and also suck her life force. She put the three of them together. I take the opportunity to use Regeneration on Riardon too. He also looks like a runway model, are all elves beautiful?
A shower, I don't sweat, one of the many good things about this body, but my partners do. The smell of sweaty bodies and sex is strong and sticks to me. I really need a shower. I'm seriously considering taking a sand bath.
At the appointed time, the hunters arrive. I carry my companions and place them next to the fire. "Medrash, the hunters and I are going hunting. We'll be back a little after dawn."
He looks at the two Lamias and I smell fear. The cat man is all huddled under the wagon, staring at us with bulging eyes. The bald man is snoring.
We continue through the desert. The night is lit by several moons, the constant sound of the two Lamias sliding across the compacted desert sand, the wind blowing through my hair. I've never felt so alive. I think less and less about my past life. Work, hours wasted looking at a stupid app on a smartphone screen inside a bus.
I felt like a zombie.
They slow down and soon begin crawling along the ground, lying down, I copy them.
We reach the edge of the depression. The slave camp is about 30 meters away and about 5 meters below.
“Shall I start or you?” I ask, trying not to sound too insecure. I think I failed miserably. Because they only look at me.
“Okay.” I use Compulsive (lust), Desire Reflection on the only sentry in the caravan. He stands up and walks towards us, seeing a young and scandalous woman.
The two of them stand up, in a fluid movement of practice, confidence and professionalism and at the same time two arrows are embedded in the sentry. One in each eye. The slaver falls with a dry TUM to the ground. Without saying a word they stand up and slide down, but now the sound of the scales accompanies the sound of the wind and is discreet, I just watch them approach. They put their bows on their backs and take out their machetes. Each one approaches a sleeping merchant and stabs their machetes into their skulls with a single blow. Their bodies shake but don't make much noise. They each pull an arrow from their quiver, put it through their mouths, and stick it in the legs of the two remaining slavers. They wake up screaming. They get up, scared and confused, and the Lamias move away. One of them turns and runs away, the other tries to pick up a sword from the ground, Kess, strikes with her tail and throws the weapon away. I hear her say something, but I can't understand her because I'm so far away. The man turns and runs in the opposite direction to his companion. They let them escape. I get up and fly to the camp. When I get there, I see that the slaves have woken up and are terrified. Then I see this.
"Why did you let those two escape?" Not that I thought they would get very far with an arrow in the leg.
"The hunted must feel fear, fear gives a personal flavor to the meat, pain strengthens the muscles and with time the hunt releases the impurities from the body. The hunted must have hope that it will be able to escape. That's why we gave it an advantage so it could escape." Kess says as she cleans the machete on the clothes of one of the dead.
“But they won’t get far, the arrows are poisoned with a paralyzing poison, in a while his legs will stop working. I love watching them crawl.” Suldrem says with a smile on her lips. Soon they bring the body with the arrows in its eyes and join it with the other two bodies, they take off everyone’s clothes and pile their belongings in a pile near the fire.
At that moment the slaves stop screaming, whether it was because of the shock or because they no longer had strength, I don’t know. I move away and get close to the slaves’ barred wagon, they huddle in a corner as far away from me as possible. I use Heal on all of them, some with serious injuries and others with only bruises and scratches. I go back and search the supply wagon for food and water. I find some empty leather canteens and fill them with what looks like dry rations, a bar the size of a bar of soap, dark, oily and smelling of meat and salt, wrapped in a cloth. I take everything and put it inside the cage between the bars and leave.
The sun rises and after a long time Kess returns alone. Her belly is swollen, somewhat large. She arrives slowly and says: “Suldrem went to call his caravan.” She turns around without saying anything else and climbs into the slavers’ cart, lies down and soon a rumbling comes from the cart. If I remember correctly, snakes have a slow digestive process.
Since it will be at least two hours until my carts arrive, I turn to the cage. Nothing like food and drink to lubricate social relations. Having cured all of them also helped a lot. I look and focus on the auras. Seven of them go from light red to gangrene red. The darkest souls are an Elf, redhead, playboy cover style, wonderful, the kind of woman who destroyed Troy, and the other a "Draenei", with blue skin, mountain ram horns and a gladiator's body, who is not far behind.
And eight with light souls, four with bright white souls.
I open the MIND LINK with the elf, she tries to resist, but hunger, fear and fatigue are my allies.
“Hello, my beautiful lady. My name is Mallus, and modesty aside, I am a savior. May I know your name?” As my mother used to say, politeness is never too much.
I feel her surprise. “No, I won’t tell you my name. I’m too tired to play games, demon. Leave me alone.”
“Okay, I understand. But you could still help me, it’s a very simple thing. I can’t make a mental bridge with several people at the same time. I would like you to pass a message to the rest of the group. Nothing major.”
“Speak.”
Gross and beautiful… reminds me of my ex. “Tell everyone, including yourself, that you are no longer slaves, that you can do whatever you want. If you want to leave right now, you can do it. I will let whoever wants to go, get supplies to cross the mountains. And whoever wants to stay and join my caravan, our group will cross the mountains, and look for civilization, and when we get there, each one will go their own way.”
“I feel like you are not lying, but I feel like you want me. Why did you choose me out of all of you to talk to?”
Why lie? She is beautiful, a goddess. It is hard to control my best friend. I have wanted her since I laid eyes on her, the "Draenei" too. Yes, I have a Pokémon syndrome.
“First, you are beautiful, second, I have wanted you since my eyes fell on you, third, our souls are compatible.”
She snorts and begins to convey the message. Soon a buzz starts. I take advantage and open the cage lock and walk away.
“Quelenna, tell Criella that I want her as much as you do and that they are both invited to be my companions.
She turns her face to me abruptly. I feel hatred, surprise and outrage coming from her, for having “stolen” her name. But I also feel recognition. Those who want, take, don’t ask.
Since I’ve been in this body I’ve done things that my old self would never have done. I feel more confident in myself, more daring. And I feel better and better about it.
“See, I told you you had potential.”
And the damn snake appears out of nowhere and licks my ear.
I jump in fright and try to slap the damn snake. And it disappears out of nowhere.
Soon two groups form. One with the individuals with clear auras, led by four people with bright white auras.
Quelenna asks. “And the Lamias? Aren’t they going to hunt if they decide to go?”
I raise my right hand and say, “No. Scout’s honor!”
Just then, a group of eight people leave the well.
They are no longer my responsibilities. Those white auras made my skin itch.
About an hour later, my caravan arrives. The Catman and the bald man have left. I already imagined this would happen.
Sooner or later.
