A Path Of Bone And Poison

He had already told us that he had been compromised, even if his behavior was well mannered. We only had to look at him to know the truth. His personality was his own, but we could see the faint purple glow in his eyes. The glow was all we needed to co firm that we were being observed.

Occasionally he would get a strange look on his face, and his eyes would begin to wander. When this happened Hylia would prove into his mind. However, after the first time she quickly retreated. According to her there was an extremely strong presence in his head, something that she dared not provoke.

We did not interfere after that. The only true way to free him would be to kill the creature that had infected him. I caught myself several times watching the grove in front of us, but I knew we were not ready yet. Not until I was fully healed.

Despite the obvious problem with hunter the overall mood of the party was relatively calm. To my surprise Leisha had approached me several times. Despite her savage nature as a werewolf she was a kind and gentle woman. I think she felt the most sympathy for Hunter, as she herself was a slave to something she could not fully control.

I observed her several times bringing him food and water. No one had asked her to, but there was always a smile on his face when she came. The two communicated seamlessly and I could only shake my head.

Sierra did not seem to mind the situation and had freely gone and joined them several times. Laughter could be heard all around. The look in both girls" eyes was pure happiness as they talked and flirted with the man. I could only shake my head as I saw Hunter falling deeper into their trap. What man could resist two beautiful ladies after all?

Their relations.h.i.+p was not the only one that was growing. Hylia and Bailey had begun to communicate in a semi civilized manner, but I could feel a tension between them. Their words were amicable, but the look in their eyes was anything but.

I was not left out of the festive atmosphere. The first person after Hylia to approach me was Bailey. She smiled the entire time we talked.

"Isn"t this place beautiful? you know in a we are risk of parasites kind of way?"

I smiled at her as she spoke.

"It was kind of like this back on earth. There were florescent signs everywhere to try getting your attention. It is kind of reminds me of Vegas back on earth. It was in a way the entertainment capital of the world."

"Earth? isn"t that where the visitors come from? I didn"t know you were a visitor"

I nodded at her words. "Yea, I was actually born on earth. I lived the first 16 years of my life as a human. A male human."

She looked at me oddly for a moment. "How do you go from being a human boy to well..." she looked at me for a moment, her eyes moving up and down my teenage body. "A female...whatever you are now."

I laughed. The truth was I did not really know what I was now either. The closest I could figure was a dragonkin of some kind. "Adjusting to being a girl wasn"t hard at all. With everything that happened, being in a new world with a different body of a completely different species... well the s.h.i.+ft in gender was only a small thing. I am the same person I was before, only now I have different body parts." I laughed as I said this. "It"s honestly easier to deal with than the constant evolutions."

She could only smile at me as she shook her head. As an elf and a native to Kaos she could not relate to the things I was saying. But her eyes opened wide when she found out I used to be male, and then she turned a deep shade of red. The conversation was kind of ruined after that because her mind kept wandering.

I did not get much time to talk to the other two girls, they seemed obsessed with their victim. But they still managed to come over and talk for a little bit. Of the two Sierra was the more talkative. I never had much of a connection with them, and the last six years of training had put even more s.p.a.ce between us. Still the conversation was rather pleasant.

"What does it feel like for your core to be outside of your body? can you really not cast spells anymore?" Sierra asked.

I nodded "I really can"t. My future as a spell caster is basically over. Honestly, it is kind of a relief, I do not have that constant pressure in my chest, even though I still have to meditate. I still have a connection with the core, and I feel like if I tried hard enough, I might be able to convert my old spells into arcane abilities. But I have not really experienced much. The only spell I would really want anyways is my grenades."

The conversation had granted a spark of an idea in me, and with nothing else to really fill my time with I began to experiment. I was not expecting immediate results, and I was not disappointed. I could feel the spell resonating with my core as I concentrated on it, but I was not able to make it do much of anything yet. It would be a long process, maybe one day I would figure it out.

Like that the days finally pa.s.sed, and my body had healed from its exhaustion. I could move freely, and my power had mostly been restored. The team had decided unanimously that Hunter would join us once the threat had been eliminated. We were lacking a good melee combatant, and with his party dead he had no place to go. His fate would only be death if we left him here.

The dungeon seemed to agree with our decision, as a notification appeared in front of us stating that he had joined our squad. He had officially been labeled as our 6th and final member. Even if we wanted to oppose it would require the act of a G.o.d to change it. That is how powerful the system was.

The system notification had appeared before Hunter as well. His brown and purple eyes opened wife in astonishment. before they gained a resolved look. His voice was firm as he spoke. "I will not let you guys down. I will not make the same mistake as before. If we die, we die together."