Into the Fire
Six
Kerrik’s eyes opened when something hit the ground outside the tent with a loud thump. He reached for the shotgun as Scheherazade sat up. More thumps sounded around them and suddenly the tent shook and collapsed on top of them as something smashed into it.
Claw resistant fabric tore loudly as Scheherazade shredded it with her enhanced strength and surged to her feet. The Dread Wolf grabbed her tamer by the shoulder and lifted him free as more thumps sounded around them and a cry of pain mixed with anger came from Dominique’s tent as it folded up. Sparks flew as something hit the center of the banked fire and a terrible stench immediately filled the air.
“Help Dominique and Eve.” Kerrik knelt to reduce the size of the target he presented to attackers as the Dread Wolf ran for the other tent and began tearing her harem mate and the Archmage free. He frowned and poked at something that glistened on the ground. His frown deepened and he sniffed his fingers. He looked up as the three pokegirls joined him and pointed at the morning sky. “Look. Pegasluts.”
A large herd of the flying pokegirl was sailing directly over them, lit by the rising sun. “Scheherazade, Eve, catch a couple of the adults if you can safely do so. We’ll need them to help cover the cost of new tents.”
“What happened?” Eve summoned a robe and slipped it off to hand to Dominique before creating a light dress for herself. “And what is that stink?”
Kerrik pointed at the glistening object. “That’s a Pegaslut turd. Apparently they void their bowels before their morning feed. The stink is from some shit that fell into the fire.” He scrubbed his hands clean in the sand and quickly dug his pack from the ruins of the tent to hand out some empty pokeballs. “Be careful. I’ll stay close to Dominique.”
The Archmage looked him up and down and sniffed. “Please put some clothes on or I won’t stay close to you.”
“Right.” He knelt and dug his pants from the tent as the Dread Wolf and Megami-sama shot skyward in pursuit of the herd. “Sorry about what happened to your tent.” He slipped the pants on and buttoned them up.
Dominique shrugged and sat down on a small pile of rubble after checking it for Pegaslut droppings. “As far as we knew, we were under attack. I’m glad you thought to aid us, or was it just Eve?”
He tapped the side of his head. “You know it wasn’t just about Eve.”
“I try not to use the bond between us.”
“Am I really that bad?” She got an impish look and reached out to pluck a hair from his chest. “Hey!” He rubbed his chest and gave her a hurt look.
“No, you’re not really that bad.” She examined the hair and tossed it away. “A lot of men would be having a fit right now after I did something like that.”
He was pulling on a shirt. “I’d prefer you didn’t do that again, but it’s not worth a fight. If you start pulling hair off my balls then that’ll be a different story.”
“Why can’t you be a bastard?”
He smiled. “Oh, I can. It’s just that I haven’t had a reason to be one yet and even when that time comes, it probably won’t be aimed at you.”
“Most of the tamers I’ve had to deal with in the last decade or so don’t seem to need a reason.”
“Most tamers are kids, no matter what the pokedex on their belt suggests. They’re still defining the world around them and they’re trying to grow up. Throw pokegirls on top of that and it’s not surprising that they’re overwhelmed. They can’t shortchange the world and they’re not going to shortchange themselves, so pokegirls get shafted. I’ve always been mature for my age and I’m an adult.”
“I suppose you’re right.” Dominique made a face. “What can we do about the smell?”
“It’s in the fire. Even if we put it out, the smell will linger for days. All we can do is bury the fire and move somewhere else.” Kerrik looked around. “We should be moving anyways since the dig didn’t pan out like we’d hoped.”
The Archmage slid off the rubble, exposing a long line of dusky leg as she stood. “Eve’s spell worked fine, it’s just that we didn’t expect the limitations. We did find sapphire just as we’d been looking for.”
“Yes, but I was hoping for a jewelry store, not a ring with a single sapphire stuck on a corpse.” He shrugged. “Still, we are finding the supplies we need, just not as quickly as I’d wanted.”
“And you’ve made a lot of enemies in doing so. The reclaimers do not like us.” Dominique dug her clothes out of her tent and looked up in time to see Kerrik turn around to put his back to her. “Thank you.”
“I know you don’t want me drooling over you while you get dressed.” He listened to the sounds of clothing sliding over skin and forced himself to look steadily at the nearby ruins of a shop of some kind. Her perfume drifted over him and he wondered briefly if it was natural or if she had brought something with her. It was faint and something kind of floral or woodsy.
“I’m done.” Dominique had put on jeans and a heavy shirt for the day’s work. “The problem, Kerrik, is that we both know that at least part of me does want that and much more. That’s why I wished you were more dislikable.”
“There were times in my life where I was a right bastard and I’ve worked hard to get past that sort of thing. I’m not going to go back to it just to satisfy you.”
“And I thought you liked me. If you really did, you’d do this for me.” Dominique used a little girl voice that made both of them laugh.
Still chuckling, Kerrik dug the rest of his belongings out of the tent and rolled the ruined structure up. “We’ll keep the tents. We can use them for tarps and such.” He pulled a folding shovel from his backpack and started dumping dirt on the fire.
***
Scheherazade and Eve climbed rapidly until they were above the Pegaslut herd. They faded from view as both became invisible and accelerated to intercept their prey.
From above, the organization of the herd was obvious. Single mares were in the back while the lead mare was in the van. Behind her were the mares with kits. The smaller pokekits were easy to identify and flew in close formation with their dams, making a V with the mother in the lead. For the same reason ducks and geese flew in V formations and dolphins skimmed along the sides of ships, the mother’s flight created a bow wave that allowed her kits to fly using much less energy than if they did so alone.
Their delta bond with Kerrik allowed the invisible pokegirls to keep rough track of each other and without communicating they split up as they approached the rearmost rank of Pegasluts. They drifted over the herd and dove in the attack.
Eve darted down, her hands outstretched as she shimmered into view. She’d moved first and led her alpha by several seconds. Chains leapt from her hands to bind two Pegasluts, trapping their wings against their torsos. As the herd began to scatter she fired the rune chains at two others, but one was already swinging around and the chain aimed at that one went wide. The fourth pokegirl was trapped in her chain and tumbled after the other two. The Megami-sama hesitated, torn between her desire to catch a fourth and the urge to chase the falling ones so she could pokeball them on the bounce from the first impact before they died. The desire to not kill her victims won out and she turned after them, ignoring the others as the herd fragmented with Pegasluts fleeing in all directions.
The lead mare turned to face Scheherazade as Eve chased the falling trio. She whipped her wings and energy slashed from them at the Dread Wolf, who went into a hard turn to evade the feather shuriken before changing her path and making her challenger her primary target. The Pegaslut used mach breaker and climbed in a direct line at the Dread Wolf, who dropped her head and met the attack with a headbutt to the center of the Pegaslut’s equine chest, her horns hitting just below where her human torso merged with the horse body. The impact shattered the Pegaslut’s breastbone and sent her dropping limply towards the ground. Scheherazade pegged her with a pokeball and retrieved the ball with her telekinesis as she gave chase to a group of the magic pokegirl.
Thick white clouds erupted from the group when began to she close on the Pegasluts as they used mist while diving in a vain attempt to lose her. The pokekits in this group began to fall behind and they panicked as she blew through them like a hawk through a flock of pigeons, completely ignoring them to focus on the adults. An energy blade sprouted from her hand as she flew over them and she slashed carefully, partially crippling a wing on each strike. Four Pegasluts fluttered towards the ground, each of them fighting to stay aloft. They managed to stay close together and were scattered over a fairly small area when they plowed into the ground. Scheherazade came to a halt and hovered overhead. Her eyes flashed four times and, one by one, the Pegasluts went into convulsions and then went limp as the psychic attack ripped through their minds. None of them were critical enough to worry about their dying in the next couple of minutes, so she landed and pokeballed the first one, taking the time to wait for the capture tone before collecting her prize and moving to the next.
Scheherazade was landing at her final capture when something slammed into her back, knocking her into the turf. She jumped to her feet, spinning as she cursed at herself for becoming complacent. As she finished the turn, she prepared to crush her attacker, only to come to a halt and stare at the pair of Pegaslut pokekits who stood between her and the dying mare. The largest of them bugled a challenge and stomped her hoof on the ground as she spread her wings to make herself as big as possible. A heartbeat later, her sister copied her threat posture.
The Dread Wolf’s ears flicked. “You have got to be kidding me.” Her eyes glowed and both kits slumped bonelessly under the hypnosis attack.
Eve landed nearby. “What’s going on?”
“This one has kits.” Scheherazade stepped around the slumbering kits and healed the Pegaslut. “Come help me fix her up.”
“I’m glad you’re not going to catch her.” The Megami-sama began using healing magic on the mare.
Eve’s alpha snorted. “What would we do with pokekits hanging around and begging for food? Besides, he’s kind enough to keep them and her. If he’s going to keep one of the Pegasluts, I’d rather he chose the herd mare. She’ll be easily the strongest and smartest of them.”
“You have a valid point. Do we stick around until they wake up?”
“Yes, but as soon as they’re up, we need to get back to Kerrik. I’m not sure I trust Dominique until she really joins us. Until then, I don’t like where her loyalty might lie.” Her ears flattened for a heartbeat. “If she betrays us, I’ll tear her limb from limb. Slowly.”
“I’ll help.”
***
Kerrik was eating a breakfast of berries that he and Dominique had found in the shadow of a building he thought might have been a petrol station when Eve and Scheherazade returned. “Eve caught three and I caught four. There was a fifth that I was ready to catch when her kits landed in front of her and challenged me.” The Dread Wolf handed over her pokeballs. “I let that one go.” She met his gaze. “Did I do wrong?”
“Nope. We don’t have any pokekit balls and I’m not going to leave them to starve to death.” He took Eve’s captures. “I’m also not into breaking up families, even feral ones and there’s no way to ensure they would stay together.”
“Are you going to keep one of them?” It was Dominique. “Pegasluts can be very useful.”
Kerrik looked shocked. “I don’t want to take you three to Sanctuary. I really don’t intend to take a half tamed pokegirl who hasn’t learned when to keep her mouth shut and is going because she’s blindly loyal to me just because I fucked her. You three are smart enough to bail if things get too ugly.”
The Archmage scowled. “Why do you keep including me in your discussion?”
“Dominique, it’s because you are here and because you’ll be going with us. If you decide not to make the trip, I’ll understand.”
She folded her arms. “What if I don’t want to help you at all?”
Scheherazade’s ears went flat and she started forward only to stop when Eve put a hand on her arm. Kerrik either didn’t see or ignored the activity. “Dominique, it is your choice. You are a free pokegirl and you are always free to leave.”
“What about them? Are they free to go?”
“What about them? Are they free to go?”
Eve’s eyes narrowed. “Either you are in the harem and you already know the answer to that or you are not and it’s none of your business.”
“I’m not talking to you.”
Kerrik’s mouth firmed. “I’d really like it if you didn’t try to run roughshod over us, Dominique. We need your help to do this, but if you want to leave, do so. I’ll find another way. I don’t have time to spend every other five minutes fighting with you and neither do my ladies. Please stop.”
“Make me.”
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “No, I won’t.” He turned to Scheherazade. “I’ll finish with putting out the fire. You and Eve gather our things, and make sure it’s only our things. I want you to leave Dominique a third of the food. You are a much better hunter than she is and she’ll need it more to get back to civilization.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a pokeball, which he tossed to the startled Archmage. “Here’s one of the Pegasluts. She should sell for at least a hundred and twenty five thousand, so that’ll more than cover the cost of your tent and time. You already have your pokeball, so you should be good to go.”
“But,” Eve began.
The Dread Wolf cut her off. “No buts, Eve. She made her choice. We don’t need her that badly. I’ll get our gear. You guard Kerrik.”
They finished packing quickly and headed off. Dominique watched them go with a defiant look on her face until she vanished from sight as they headed deeper into the ruins of Edinburgh.
Kerrik stopped after about ten minutes of hiking. “I know, you both probably think I’m letting my anger run away with me.” He glanced at the sun. “I don’t think I am, but in any case we don’t need to put up with her issues.”
“What about your delta bond with her?” Eve looked worriedly into his eyes.
“It’ll just have to be one of those things I can’t change about myself, like the fact that my dreams are usually violent and my nose is crooked. It’ll give me a good chance to practice my control in trying to block her without blowing her brains out her ears. Even if I can do that to someone I’m delta-bonded to.”
“Why bother trying,” Scheherazade said cruelly. “She could inform the league or the Pendragons that we’re here.”
Kerrik shrugged. “There are some chances we’re going to have to take, but if your precognition twinges we’ll run. We need more money if we’re going to buy an Archmage or Enchantress and we have the list of supplies we’ll need for the gear for me. As for Dominique, I have killed before but it was for a damned good reason. I’m not going to zap her just because she’s a bitch. If I started killing people for that, well, I’m pretty sure there aren’t enough bullets for all of them.”
Eve reached out and touched his face. “Your nose isn’t crooked.”
“It’s been that way since I was sixteen and broke it playing football.” He touched his nose. “Well, hell. Apparently one of those healing spells while I was being tortured or possibly one afterwards fixed it. Maybe there’s hope for the delta bond, too. Oh and Scheherazade, Eve, that does not mean you get to track Dominique down and kill her.”
Scheherazade gave him an innocent look. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“That’s good to hear. Keep it that way.” He started to shoulder his pack and cursed when Eve plucked it out of his fingers and tossed it to the Dread Wolf. “Damn it, women, give me that back.”
Scheherazade lifted off and hovered in front of him, drifting backwards when he lunged. She gave him a wry look. “No. You can have me if you catch me.” Then she was off, with Kerrik in pursuit.
Eve chuckled and trotted after her tamer.
***
If he squinted, Kerrik could almost pretend that the pile of stone had been a home. Or maybe it was an office or a merchant’s shop of some kind. He cocked his head and shrugged. In any case, according to Eve’s spell it held the next on their list of needed supplies. He looked over at Scheherazade. “Proceed, pretty young thing.”
Her jaws lolled in a grin and she was suddenly covered with bright silver armor that covered her completely like a second skin. Her metallic ears flicked and she turned to face the stone as her fingertips sprouted silver claws. She bent and her claws sank into the largest chunk of stone. She stood and twisted to toss the stone away from her with a casual gesture that Kerrik could have duplicated with a medicine ball. The stone crashed to the ground and rolled a short distance away. Before it had stopped moving, a second stone was bouncing after it.
The Dread Wolf worked quickly and methodically, making sure she was set before picking up the next piece of stone or rotting timber as she slowly dug her way into the rubble.
“We have company.” Eve nodded in the direction of a human and a pair of pokegirls some distance away. There was a flash of light as the human trained a pair of binoculars on them. Kerrik gave a wave and the figure waved back before all three moved out of sight behind the wreckage of a building. “Think we’ll have a visitor tonight?”
Kerrik shrugged. “Reclaimers remind me of the bone hunters of the 1800s. They destroy more than they collect in their haste to find the real valuables and they steal from each other when given half a chance. If we’re still here, someone will probably drop by to filch something. We’ll station a guard tonight.”
The silver form that was Scheherazade paused. There’s a basement under here. I’ll be right back. She sank into the ground and was gone.
Eve glanced at him. “What are we going to do if she gets in trouble under there?”
“Be frustrated.”
“As long as we have a plan.”
He chuckled. “I’d probably put you to opening up the hole she started as quickly as possible while I stood guard. Needs must when the devil drives.” His eyes flicked in her direction before returning to scanning the area around them. “How fast could you do that?”
“Pretty quickly. Scheherazade broke through to the cavity. It wouldn’t take me much to tear it further open, although I’ll smash anything in the way. However, if she needs help then that’s what I’ll do.”
Fortunately, I do not need any assistance. The Dread Wolf floated out of the ground in front of them. Her armor vanished. “It appears to be the basement of a pub, and it appears to still be watertight. It doesn’t look like it’s been disturbed, either. We could set up inside and not have to get another tent for a while.”
“Whether or not we set up down there, I want the tent and a pokepack. We’re going to go get them as soon as we can.”
“Yessir.” Scheherazade cracked her knuckles. “I’ll make the opening big enough for us to crawl inside and then we can see if it’s suitable as a shelter.” Her armor appeared as she turned back to the job at hand.
Kerrik looked at Eve and shrugged. “It would be nice to not have to worry about dying from a pokegirl dung bombardment. I’m pretty sure that if you die that way they won’t let you into the lands of the dead and you have to wander the earth forever.” The Megami-sama giggled quietly.
Over the next half hour the Dread Wolf carefully removed enough rubble to allow them to enter, shaving the final tunnel with her energy blade whenever possible as opposed to removing whole chunks and possibly causing a collapse. Then she took some of the items she’d already removed from the rubble and reinforced the tunnel. Finally she was satisfied and stood back, her armor disappearing as she joined them. “I’ll go in last.” Eve dropped to her hands and knees and started to crawl inside. Scheherazade nudged Kerrik. “I doubt you’ll find ferals staring at her ass.”
“It’s a very nice ass,” he said defensively. He started chuckling when Eve looked back at them and wriggled her rump in their direction before scrambling inside. “Spoilsport.”
“I just let her know you were admiring her. Like most pokegirls, she appreciates any attention from her tamer. I would hope you stare at my ass, too.”
“I do.” He crawled into the hole. It ended abruptly, and he dropped into space with a yelp as he painfully scraped his arm.
Eve caught him and helped him stand before releasing him. “Are you ok?”
“I’m good.” Eve had summoned a light globe that floated over her head and he pulled a torch from his pocket and flicked it on. “Nice.”
From what he could see, it looked like the building above them had collapsed during the destruction of Edinburgh and sealed the basement until today. The air was dry, but the beam from his torch was almost free of dust particles. He swung it around to reveal wooden crates and rotted cardboard boxes. He aimed the light straight up as Scheherazade dropped down and landed lightly. The reflected light dimly lit the area around them. “Eve?”
The Megami-sama closed her eyes and murmured for a few seconds before opening them and heading off, following the open ways between crates. She finally stopped near the north wall of the basement and scuffed the floor with her boot. “The gold I sense is under the floor here.”
She stepped out of the way as Scheherazade dropped to her knees. Her armor appeared. Points on the face just above where her eyes were began to glow softly as she slowly pressed her face through the floor. She leaned forward until her shoulders and upper chest also vanished. Then she sat up. There is a box of some kind about two feet under the concrete floor. Oddly enough, I can’t find a way to get to the box without destroying the floor. She looked over her shoulder at Kerrik. Shall I cut it open?
“That’s the only way we’ll know what we’ve found. Try not to alert ground types that might be in the area.”
The Dread Wolf nodded and summoned her energy blade. She quickly cut a circle in the floor and dismissed the blade as she formed the claws on her hands. They sank into the concrete to the fingertips. Then Scheherazade flexed her shoulders and rotated the plug before slowly pulling it from the floor with a grating noise. I’m sorry, but I can’t do this without some sound.
“Now that it’s separated from the floor, why can’t you phase the plug?”
The plug stopped moving and silver ears flattened for a heartbeat before Scheherazade looked over her shoulder at Kerrik. I knew I kept you around for some reason. Then she easily pulled the plug from the floor, ignoring how it passed through the rest of the concrete, and set it down next to the hole to reveal the dirt underneath.
Eve chuckled softly as the Dread Wolf began digging into the packed rock and dirt. “She’s adopting some of your sardonic humor. That’s fairly normal with an alpha.”
“Wow, I hadn’t noticed.”
She winked. “I didn’t think you had.”
Scheherazade finally sat up and put a small wooden chest down next to her. Is this the source of the gold or do I need to keep digging?
Eve held her hand over the hole and then swept it over the chest. “You found it.”
Kerrik looked the chest over. It was roughly a foot tall, two feet wide and a foot deep, and was really more of a crate with a hinged lid than something with the domed lid that seemed to be the archetype chest. “It looks like a steamer trunk. I don’t see a hasp or anything like a lock.” He squatted in front of the trunk and brushed at the front to dislodge the dirt along the seam. Corroded hasps emerged from the dirt, but there was no sign of a lock. “I stand corrected.” He glanced at Scheherazade. “I don’t suppose you could turn down your hydro pump to something along the lines of a garden hose?” She shook her head. “Yeah, I didn’t think so.” He went back to using his hands to brush off the dirt. “Then I’ll just have grimy fingers.” He finished knocking off the worst of the dirt and pulled at one of the hasps. “I think the hasps are rusted shut. Someone else care to open this thing so I don’t tear my fingers open?” Eve summoned a dagger out of the air and used it to pry the hasps open. “That’s a neat trick.”
“I can summon weapons and my armor for battle. Unlike Angels and some other weapon using pokegirls, I’m not limited in what I can summon.” The dagger vanished.
Kerrik smiled. “You gotta love magic and the lack of conservation of energy.”
Scheherazade’s nose wrinkled when he opened the box. “What is that stink?”
“Some kind of petroleum derivative.” The interior of the box was filled with a dark, slightly shiny object. He leaned down and sniffed it. “Tar.” He poked at the object. “What we have here is oilskin.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s usually canvas that’s been impregnated with oil. Often it’s linseed oil or tar.” He turned his torch back on and looked closely. “It’s some kind of bag.”
Scheherazade reached for it and he blocked her hands. “No, I don’t want to move it just yet.” He pulled out his pokedex and took some video of the box and its contents. “Oilskin stopped being used for this sort of thing long before the revenge war. This may be a lot older than three hundred years and I don’t want to move it and accidentally destroy whatever is inside. If it’s something interesting, it could be very valuable.” He looked at Eve. “I don’t suppose you could summon a blade with a monomolecular edge could you?”
She gave him a blank look. “What is that?”
“It’s a very sharp edge for a blade that currently only exists in fiction.” He grinned suddenly. “Just like pokegirls. See if there’s anything about it in the Awareness.”
“I’m not sure the Awareness is supposed to be used as a technical reference.”
“The Cosmic Awareness is the sum knowledge of all beings everywhen. Armsmistresses and other pokegirls use it as a technical reference in exactly the way you’re suggesting it’s not supposed to be used. I’m not asking for you to give me the plans for an antimatter warhead or,” he broke off with a frown.
Scheherazade’s ears flicked. “What is it?”
“Just an odd idea. The Cosmic Awareness is usually portrayed as the knowledge coming from people after they die. That means if we can find the mage who brought me here and she proves uncooperative, I can kill her and either you or Eve can access her knowledge of where my world is.”
Eve’s mouth dropped open. “What a horrible idea!”
“You’re right. It’s a terrible thought. It also may work, so I will not dismiss it out of hand.”
Scheherazade touched his shoulder. “We are delta bonded. If we find a way to your world, would you leave us like Dominique or would you take us to your home?” Eve’s mouth snapped shut when she realized what the Dread Wolf had asked. They’d been very careful not to mention the Archmage’s name since they’d left camp three days ago out of worry about how he’d respond.
“I didn’t leave her. Dominique didn’t want to be with us and we don’t have time for that.” He covered the gray furred hand with his. “But you and Eve and I are together for the long haul. Taking you to my world would very likely be a horrible thing to do to you, if not a certain death sentence. You’d certainly be taken away from me since I’m nobody important in the government and I’m not a celebrity of some kind.” He sighed. “I’m not sure what we’re going to do, but trade with my world might be beneficial to both worlds as well as us.”
Eve touched his cheek as her eyes searched his. “You intend to remain here?”
He rubbed his face, leaving a dirt mark that he didn’t seem aware of. “I don’t know what I intend anymore. I’ve never been into casual sex and I don’t usually have a relationship with a woman without my emotions getting involved. Not surprisingly, that’s happened with you two. I would like to go home, but if we decide that it isn’t a place for you, then the decision has been made because I will not let you two get taken away from me and turned into somebody’s super soldier project. You two being with me is much more important than where we live.” He woofed loudly when both of the women grabbed him and wrapped him up in their arms. They held him while he fought to return air to his lungs.
Finally they let him go, but not until after Scheherazade had licked the dirt from his face. He scrunched up his face during her ministrations and whined softly until she was done. “That tickled.”
She gave him an impish look and licked his nose. “Good.”
Eve had her eyes closed. They snapped open and she shook her head. “I can make nothing like monomolecular weapons. Sorry.”
“I wasn’t asking for a monomolecular sword. I wanted to know if you could make a blade with an edge that’s only a few molecules wide.”
“There’s a difference?”
“A big one. A blade with a monomolecular edge is a normal looking blade with a really thin edge. Unless you can make exotic alloys, too, it’ll be hopeless as a weapon in a fight since a good blow would ruin the edge even as it cut through the item dulling it. A monomolecular weapon is usually some kind of wire that’s held in position in a variety of ways. They’re pretty impractical and if I could do that route, I’d go with some kind of forcebeam projector instead. Those just shut off when they malfunction instead of doing something wacky which results in bits of the operator getting separated from the main part.”
Eve was staring at him. “I just learned something new. If I’m accessing the Awareness when you’re talking, I see what you’re describing. It turns out I was thinking about the monomolecular weapon.” She held out her hand and a knife appeared. “It’s not a true monomolecular blade, but it is very sharp.”
Kerrik carefully took it from her. “Most of my fingers are still original, so I’ll try to remember that.” The bag was sealed with heavy rope and he carefully lifted the mouth of the bag and ran the blade over the ropes, which nearly completely parted under the stroke. “Wonderful job, Eve.” The Megami-sama beamed as he finished cutting the ropes and offered her the knife, hilt first. “Thank you very much.” She took it as he worked the ropes off and then slowly opened the bag. He directed the beam from his torch into the bag and stared. “Well now. We may have a problem.” He reached into the bag and pulled out a small collection of circular objects that glittered a buttery yellow in the torch. “Feast your eyes on these, ladies.”
Eve looked closely. “Pre-war coins? What’s the problem with pre-war coins? They’re pretty ragged, too. I think they’re children’s coins.”
“No, they’re not. Access the awareness again and ask it about gold Spanish two escudo cobs.”
Her eyes flared a dim blue and the sound of her indrawn gasp was loud in the stillness of the cellar. She plucked one from his grip and slowly turned it over. “These would be EF or VF grade coins. The Mo mark indicates these cobs were struck in Mexico, they were struck in 1708, the J means the assayer was Jose Eustaquio de Leon and the king was Phillip V.” She met his gaze. “So what is the problem? They’re still gold.”
“These coins are six hundred years old. The price they’ll bring will be much more then the value of the metal. It’s very possible that they were stashed in this cellar by the original owner and then lost somehow, probably when he died unexpectedly. We’ll find more gold, but we should sell these instead of melting them down. Each of these could fetch more than a rare pokegirl, if we’re careful. If nothing else, with the money we can buy pure gold.” He put the coins back in the sack. “The problem is that if we sell them all at once, it’ll depress the market and bring unsavory people looking for us.” He smirked. “Different unsavory people this time. We’ll have to take a couple of coins in to a numismatist in Glasgow or London and see what he thinks.”
Scheherazade’s ears flicked. “The league will want their cut.”
“And I pay taxes on every sale of pokegirls and I’m sure I’ll pay taxes on the coins I sell, but you have an excellent point.” He looked thoughtful for a moment. “Not only should we consider selling the coins in various places, we may want to sell these through a proxy, if we can find one that we can trust. I sure as hell want to start minimizing the use of my name so the Goths in government have a harder time tracking my butt down before I’m ready to act.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Well, as soon as a couple of those Pegaslut sell, we should be able to afford a pokepack, which would be a great place to hide those coins.” He looked around. “In the meantime, let’s see what else we can find in here.”
***
Kerrik opened his eyes briefly in the darkness as Scheherazade unzipped the sleeping bag and slithered out of it, leaving him alone. It was so dark that the rods and cones in his eyes fired randomly as flashes so his brain would have something to interpret. He yawned and pulled the bag back closed while waiting for Eve to join him.
Because of what they’d found in the cellar, the decision had been made to mount a guard outside the ruins in order to intercept any reclaimers hunting for something to steal. In addition to the hidden stock of gold, they’d found some unopened cases of whisky, wine and food. The food was long rotted and the wine had been stored upright and therefore was useless. The whisky may or may not be ruined and he was unwilling to open a bottle just to find out. It also may or may not be worth anything.
He’d been vetoed when he’d suggested a three guard rotation, and the idea that he couldn’t really help with the watches rankled to say the least. However, Scheherazade had been very blunt about how much danger he was offering to put himself in and Eve had completely agreed with her. He wasn’t going to be allowed to put himself into danger that could be prevented by keeping him in the cellar at night, and that was that.
It had still pissed him off at the time.
His thoughts were disturbed when the sleeping bag opened and a nude Eve slid in with him. She fumbled with the zipper and finally got it closed before snuggling back against him, rubbing her rump against his groin in an unmistakable invitation. She sighed happily when he slid his arms around her and pulled her back against him. He nuzzled into her hair, enjoying the faint scent of sandalwood and wood smoke as he kissed the back of her neck.
Then his mind ground into motion. No matter what else she might have come in contact with, Eve always smelled of bluebonnets. But it was a scent he knew, and it belonged to the one person Eve and Scheherazade could have let come to him without a fight he would have heard. “Dominique.” She stiffened and started to pull away, but he tightened his arms around her. “I have only one question. Did they force you here?”
She stopped trying to get away and rolled over in his arms, making him wince as she bent a certain rigid portion of his anatomy. Her breath was warm on his face and he wished he could see her in the total darkness. “What would happen if they did?”
“You’d be free to go and I’d tear a bloody strip off of them for this.”
“You really can’t be a bastard to me, you know that. No, they didn’t force me here. The situation is quite the contrary, in fact. If Eve hadn’t interceded for me, Scheherazade would have driven me back into the ruins.” He could feel her heart pounding against his chest. “You’re really not going to ask why I came back, are you?”
“Do you want me to?”
“It would be nice to know you cared enough to ask. That perhaps you were glad to see me again.”
He chuckled softly. “I am glad to see you, and not just because you’re naked in my arms and I’m harder than diamond right now.”
She scooted forward and lifted her leg slightly to trap his erection between her thighs in that hollow that all women had. “If it’s not just this, why don’t you tell me why you’re glad to see me?” She shifted her hips slightly, and he shuddered at her warmth and wetness as it rubbed against him. “You can tell I’m happy to be here.”
“I’m glad you’re here for several reasons. First of all, you’re a beautiful woman, and I say that not only as a man whose dick is between your legs right now.” She chuckled softly and squeezed her thighs together. “You’re strong willed and opinionated and I like that in you. If everyone agrees with me, then we’ll all go blithely sailing off into disaster together. If they disagree and won’t speak up, that’s even worse. You are strong enough to tell me if you think I’m screwing up. You’re also smart enough that I can expect you to help find any flaws in our plans so we don’t all die. Finally, I’m glad to see you because I really, really need your help and I trust you to do what we need done and I know you’ll do it right.”
“You need me?” There was an odd note in her voice. “Wouldn’t any Enchantress or Archmage be able to do what you need?”
“As far as the crafting of magical items, I have no idea, but I really doubt it. I have always figured that there varying levels of ability amongst the pokegirls of a specific breed, which means that not all of them might be able to make all the items we need. I already know you can.” He tightened his arms around her. “I need you and I want you, not anyone else.”
She leaned forward and, after a moment’s hesitant searching in the dark, found his lips with hers. “Mister Wolf, you are going to so get fucked tonight,” she said just before she kissed him.
***
Kerrik sat and sipped at his tea while Eve mixed batter while she watched him and Dominique. “What happened last night?”
The Archmage gave her a rather contented look. “I joined the harem.” She stretched languorously. “Why?”
“You look like a Catgirl who found a patch of catnip.” Scheherazade added some wood to the fire. “And the cellar smells like an orgy took place in it last night. Then there was the fact that it sounded like someone was trapped with a lust dusted Jigglyslut.”
Kerrik turned slightly pink. “She has a rather interesting spell.”
“Oh really?” The Dread Wolf’s ears pricked up. “Something that’ll make you blush sounds interesting. What kind of spell is it?”
Dominique smiled serenely. “It gives him recovery and endurance and a bit of extra energy.”
“That it did. The spell did something else too; it made me hornier than a sixteen year old seeing his first pussy.”
“Sorry, Kerrik, but it doesn’t do that. That was all you. Apparently there’s a raging sex fiend in there just waiting to get out.”
He looked surprised. “Really? Me?”
“You’ll teach me this spell.” Scheherazade’s ears canted sideways.
Dominique smiled at her. “No, I won’t.” Her smile widened. “But if you don’t try to make my life miserable, I might be willing to use it on him for you.”
Eve was cooking breakfast. She added dollops of batter to the skillet and watched as they started to turn brown. “Will you teach it to Kerrik?”
“When he can learn it, I certainly will. It’s nice to be surprised with something like that from time to time.” The Archmage looked around at everyone. “So, what did I miss while I was stumbling around avoiding tamers and trying to decide what I was going to do?” She blinked at the sudden smiles on the two pokegirls. “Oh, crap. What was it?”
“We went looking for gold since we figured it would be easier to find than some of the gems.” Scheherazade’s face couldn’t smirk, but somehow she conveyed the expression. “In the cellar of this ruin we found a box filled with six hundred year old Spanish doubloons. Kerrik wants to sell them for their monetary value, which would allow us to buy a lot more gold than if we just melted them down.”
Eve nodded and used a spatula to turn the pancakes in the skillet. “I know they’re salvage, but is there a special tax for really valuable items?”
Dominique snorted. “Of course there is. It’s fifty percent of what you find. The league has to finance all of those bounties somehow. There’s even talk of taxing the bounties themselves at ten or twenty percent.”
Kerrik blinked. “Scumbags.”
“That comment is for which, your finder’s tax or the proposed bounty tax?”
“Both.” He blinked again as the scene around him stopped moving. Even the flames were frozen in place. “Oh, shit.” He reached for his shotgun, but paused at the voice.
“It’s all right, Kerrik Wolf who isn’t my husband.” It was Magdalene. She stepped around Dominique, who was frozen in the act of sweeping her crimson hair back, and sat down next to him. “I don’t think that it’s best if they know about my presence just yet, so I have taken you outside of time.”
“They’ll find out from my mind and Scheherazade will probably be pissed at me.”
Magdalene cocked her head. “I hadn’t considered that. I will leave and return after I have returned us to the timestream.” She got up and retraced her steps until she was once again out of sight.
Suddenly the scene came back to life. Kerrik watched for a few seconds. “Ladies, someone is coming to visit in a minute or two. Her name is Magdalene and she wants to help us. Don’t be alarmed if her manners are a bit off, she’s not from this world nor is she from mine.”
Scheherazade gave him a sharp look. “And how do you know,” she broke off and sniffed the air. “Someone is coming from that direction.”
Magdalene appeared and paused. “Hello the camp.”
“Come on in,” he called softly.
She walked to the perimeter of the camp as delineated by the pokegirls sitting around. Her eyes swept over them. “My name is Magdalene and I am the wife of the Kerrik Wolf who your tamer is rightfully concerned about meeting. I am, however, not a pokegirl. I mean you and your tamer no harm and, in fact, am here to offer my aid. However, I cannot return him to his home dimension. Do you have any questions?”
Eve pulled the pancakes out of the pan and looked at Kerrik as she added more batter. “Do we trust her?”
“I believe we can. She’s one of the ones I’d trust the most, but like I said about immortal beings, caution is still advised.” He looked at Magdalene. “Would you like some pancakes?”
She looked surprised for a second and then smiled cheerfully. “They smell heavenly.” Eve filled a plate with the pancakes and handed it over. “Thank you.” She bit into a pancake and her face lit up. “My compliments. They taste as good as they smell.”
Eve smiled at the praise.
Kerrik watched the kami eat for a moment. “May I ask why you are here?”
“You found some coins that you’d like to sell. If you try to dump them on the market, you’ll drop the price precipitously and the league will want their cut in taxes. I’ll buy them at the current rate with no discount. Given the amount you have and their quality, the price without market depression or discount would be eighty three million SLC.” Everyone else froze for a second as she smiled. “Yes, I said million. While not as much as a couple of pokegirl bounties, it is still quite a sum.”
Kerrik chuckled. “I’ll throw in a free Pegaslut as a bonus.”
She shook her head slightly. “While I like sex with a woman once in a while, I’m not ready to have a full time female lover. Thank you, but no.”
“Why do you want to help us?” Scheherazade was eyeing Magdalene warily. “Are you in league with Evangelion?”
“That’s an excellent question, but no, I’m not. Since we’ve never met, I don’t really know much about her, but from what I can tell, Evangelion is only oriented towards catastrophic events. I think that catching them while they’re still minor problems is a much better way to limit the loss of life.” She smiled slightly. “Unfortunately, I came on the scene after Sanctuary had already become an issue. I’m not nearly as adept as my husband at time travel so, even if I were inclined, I wouldn’t dare attempt to change that much of the past.”
Dominique leaned forward. “What kind of aid can you provide, beside money?”
Magdalene gave her a cool look. “I am a Wolf from a different branch of the family that your government drove from Caomh Sith. I have access to all of the technology that slipped through their fingers. However, your tamer hasn’t asked for anything yet.” She looked at him. “And I very much respect your attempts to be as self sufficient as possible.”
“Will our ideas work?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know what they are. I try not to pry, even if my curiosity is very much aroused by what you have done so far. I do know that Sanctuary is very upset that you’ve slipped through their fingers twice. I also know that their agents in the Blue League and their solitary agent in the Order of Pendragon have been given explicit orders to neutralize you if they can find you. Apparently you and your pokegirls are completely undetectable to any sort of scrying except direct visual observation.”
Eve frowned. “How did you find us?”
“That’s another excellent question.” She smiled and ate more of her pancakes.
Scheherazade’s ears flattened. “Well, are you going to answer Eve’s question?”
“I am not. The answer wouldn’t make much sense to anyone except perhaps Kerrik. Suffice to say that nobody else on this world uses my methodology. They can’t.”
His eyebrows rose. “I would like to hear that explanation, if you don’t mind.”
She gave him a measuring look. “Non-scrying.”
He blinked. “You scanned the entire Blue League for the places I am not?”
“You have a delightful way of taking very complex things and explaining them in very simple terms. That’s exactly right.”
“I don’t understand.” Dominique had a rather cross look on her face.
Kerrik frowned. “Let me try to explain it. What Magdalene did was examine the Blue League as a whole, but instead of trying to find the place where I am, she was scanning for all the places where I am not. By eliminating all of them, she determined where I am. It’s something I came up with for a fantasy murder story that never got written. It takes a mind that can conceive of many millions of places at once, like a computer can process gigabytes of data in an inventory.”
Magdalene nodded sagely. “Or it takes access to a computer with a magical interface designed on Tirsul, which I have.”
A look of hunger crossed the faces of Dominique and Scheherazade and vanished as Kerrik rubbed his jaw. “I’m willing to sell you all but four of the escudos.”
“May I inquire as to what you intend to do with the ones you won’t sell?”
“I’m going to have them mounted as medallions and strung on necklaces for us. Finding something like this doesn’t happen every day and I think we need a memento of the occasion.” Suddenly all three pokegirls were staring at him. “What?”
“You would give us such a gift? That’s wonderful.” Eve’s eyes glowed with joy.
Dominique was more reserved. “I don’t think I deserve this. I wasn’t here when the discovery was made.”
“I agree.” Scheherazade and Dominique exchanged glares.
Kerrik clapped his hands loudly, making everyone jump. “Scheherazade, Dominique, it just so happens that I think Dominique deserves a medallion too. It also just so happens that I can give gifts to anyone I fucking well want to. Dominique was here when the coins were discovered, she just happened to be skulking around in the ruins nearby. I never told her she wasn’t part of our group and this is my call to make.” His eyes met the Dread Wolf’s. “Care to disagree with me on that?”
Her ears flicked. “I have one question before I answer your question. Was the scene when we left Dominique staged so she would make up her mind about where she belonged?”
Kerrik shook his head. “I didn’t stage anything. I merely took advantage of an already existing situation to try and resolve some problems within our group. Dominique was as free as I could let her be to go somewhere else.”
The Archmage’s mouth dropped. “You manipulated me?”
“I certainly tried. I’m just glad you decided your future lay with us.”
Scheherazade watched Dominique sputter furiously and lolled her tongue in a grin. “I do not care to disagree with your choice. Even if hiding nearby, Dominique was more a part of the harem at that point than she was when we left her to her own devices. She deserves to share in our reward.”
Eve put the skillet aside. “I agree and the pancakes are finished.”
Magdalene put her plate down. “I thank you for breaking bread with me, but I would like to conclude our business with the coins before I leave. Where are the coins?”
Kerrik nodded towards the entrance to the cellar. “Scheherazade, please get the box.”
Magdalene produced a credit chip and a pokedex from her pocket and slotted the chip into the portable computer. She worked for a moment and then tossed the chip to Kerrik. “Please verify the amount.”
He put the chip into his dex. “I read eighty three million, two hundred and sixty one thousand SLC.”
Scheherazade appeared with the box and put it down. She opened the sack and removed four coins. “It’s ready to go.”
Magdalene waved her hand. “Done. I don’t need the bag or the box, so they’re yours to keep. Remember to call me if you need some real help, Kerrik.” She nodded to each of the pokegirls. “Ladies, I wish you a good day.” Then she vanished.
Dominique suddenly smiled. “She put the money on a credit chip. That means it doesn’t have any of our names on it. That’s perfect. We can use it without leaving a trail leading back to us.”
“What do you want me to do with this thing?” Scheherazade picked up the box and frowned. “Wait a minute; I think she forgot her money. This thing is still heavy.” The Dread Wolf put the box down and reached into the bag to pull out a handful of small gold ingots. “What the hell?” Something white glittered in the pile and she tugged it free with her other hand. “There’s a note.” She opened it up. “In value, gold is almost worthless in the Tirsul Confederacy, and so I give this to you without obligation. I suspect buying enough gold for your projects on the open market would cause as much of an uproar as if you appeared in the Sanctuary Council chambers. Use it in good health, Magdalene.” She blinked. “Gold is worthless?”
Kerrik nodded. “They have access to all of the asteroid belts in the systems of the Confederacy. Pretty much all metals are very common and inexpensive, even the so called rare ones like gold and the heavy metals. So we can mark off gold from the list and move on to the next item. However, our next trip will be to a city where we can get pokepacks and other gear for everyone.” He smiled slightly. “Oh, yes, and two new tents.”
***
Scheherazade appeared. “Ok, I’ve flown to Belfast and established a teleport point. When we get there, Eve can do the same.” Her ears flicked as she turned to Dominique. “I want you to learn to teleport ASAP, so you can help more.”
The Archmage looked at Kerrik. “Is it really necessary?”
“I’d like you to. It could prove helpful in the future.”
“All right.” She glanced at the Dread Wolf. “See, he suggests and asks instead of giving orders, which is why I don’t feel like punching him in the face.”
Eve grabbed Scheherazade as the alpha’s ears went flat. “Dominique, do you enjoy baiting her?”
“Actually I do, even if it’s like electrocuting fish in a barrel. However, I’d like to point out that I have a valid point. She’s alpha because she’s the first pokegirl he had. I don’t see where that gave her special skills, especially since she hasn’t really been with him much longer than you, or even me. She might be better suited to being his bodyguard instead of trying to run this harem.”
Eve gave her a half-hearted glare. “You think you can do a better job?”
“Actually I was thinking you would, and you’d be a respectable front for us, being a Megami-sama and all. As long as they don’t know you enjoy getting your hands dirty, you’ll have all that grand respect they automatically give celestials, the poor benighted fools.”
Scheherazade’s ears flicked again. “Fools?”
“I am, or was, a civil service pokegirl. That means I get to see a lot of the behind the scenes crap that goes on and celestial pokegirls are just like everyone else. Their shit stinks and they are an arrogant bunch with pretensions of grandeur that sometimes makes them blind to reality.”
“Are you saying that I’m blind to reality?”
“I’m saying I don’t know if you’re the best person to be alpha and Kerrik needs the best. I need the best or else I’m going to die. In that case we’re all doomed and when you were a Dire Wolf you’d have understood that. I don’t know if you still do.”
Scheherazade shook off Eve’s hand. “You have raised some valid points. Kerrik, as a Dread Wolf am I less able to be tactically aware?”
He frowned and cudgeled his brain for information. “The truth is that most Dread Wolves are so wrapped up in protecting their tamers that they kind of lose sight of the big picture and don’t necessarily make the best alpha. It doesn’t mean they all are, but it is a characteristic of the breed.”
Scheherazade nodded. “If someone else could be a better alpha, then you should replace me. I won’t take umbrage since I can do a much better job of protecting you if I am not trying to make Dominique obedient.”
One eyebrow shot up as Kerrik cocked his head. “Obedient? And just to whom are you trying to make her obedient?”
The Dread Wolf’s muzzle opened and nothing came out as she paused. Her ears drooped. “Me.” She turned to the dusky skinned Archmage and bobbed her head in a tiny bow. “I’m sorry, but I was trying to make her obedient to me, not to you. I didn’t realize what I was doing.”
Kerrik nodded. “I understand and I accept your apology. Eve?”
The Megami-sama blinked. “Yes?”
“You’re the alpha.”
Her eyes went wide and she straightened up stiffly. “Yes sir.”
“Get the camp struck and get things ready to go to Belfast. Have the entrance to the basement buried and camouflaged to make it difficult for anyone to get into. Hopefully that’ll hold any visitors until we can return. Dominique, if we clear out the basement, would it make a suitable workshop for you?”
The Archmage nodded. “I’d need more lighting, but that’s one of the spells I thought I’d start you with. It’ll be good practice for you.”
“I can be useful? With more than my dick?” He grinned when everyone refused to meet his eyes. “That’s about what I thought, too. Fine, just shatter all of my illusions. In the meantime we’ll get the stuff built that we need and then we’ll begin our investigation of Sanctuary.”
Dominique frowned. “I know you said not to worry about it, but I am concerned that once we have the items we need, how will we get to Sanctuary?”
Kerrik’s smile became hungry. “Through blood and bone and meat and brain lies the path to the belly of the beast. It’s also the path that we’ll walk on our trek there.”
Kerrik Wolf - Tradesman
Eve - Megami-sama (alpha)
Dominique - Archmage
Scheherazade - Dread Wolf
DREAD WOLF, the Queen of War Pokegirl
Type: Anthropomorphic (lupine)
Element: Magic/Psychic/Dark/Ghost (Celestial)
Frequency: Extremely Rare
Diet: mostly human style, more protein than a human
Role: Battle Commander, personal bodyguard
Libido: Average
Strong Vs: Psychic, Ghost, Poison, Rock, Fighting, Infernal,
Weak Vs: Bug
Attacks: Energy Blade, Power Bolt, Magic Fist, Shield, Teleport, Tectonic Slam, Fissure, Bestow Luck, Thunderbolt, Energy Drain, Phase, Lure, Invis 3, Imitate, Absorb, Agility, Telekinesis, Dream Time, Hypnotize, Psychic, Flamethrower, Hydro Pump, Double Edge, Head butt, Dive, Ice beam, Ice wall, Dark Goggles, Cocoon of Darkness, single-beam laser, Spells
Enhancements: Defense, Enhanced Endurance (x8), Enhanced Strength (x19, x24 when armored), Enhanced Speed (x18), Enhanced Senses (x10), Wingless flight, Extremely high psychic and magical abilities, Eidetic memory, precognitive abilities, telepathy, organic body armor
Evolves: None
Evolves From: Dire Wolf (not completely understood, but it is known that a delta bond is required)
Where the Dire Wolf is the heart of her general, the Dread Wolf is the fist.
Towards the end of the Revenge War, Sukebe looked at the alarming rate that his forces were being subverted by human tamers and decided that he needed a pokegirl that was designed to fight other pokegirls and beat them. Time was limited, as were resources, so he needed a powerhouse that could take on groups of pokegirls and hopefully slow the human advance while Sukebe worked to raise the forces to check them for good.
The Dire Wolf was already powerful and tactically superior to many breeds, and so he decided to use that as the base evolution for his new soldier.
The Dread Wolf usually stands about six inches taller than her previous form and is much more muscular. Her eyes stay blue or become blue in cases where they weren’t. The fur becomes colored like a Gray Wolf, with dark gray fur on the upper head and back which lightens on the lower jaw, neck, chest and stomach. Short black horns sprout from the forehead and curve over the skull, stopping even with the ears. Her tail grows longer, with the tip often touching the ground when she stands and lets it lie limp. Her legs remain digitigrade , but they are proportionally stronger. All Dread Wolves are anthropomorphic and any that weren’t as Dire Wolves become so.
In her combat mode, the Dread Wolf is completely covered by a silver armor that looks like liquid metal. It protects her from liquids, gasses, pollens and dusts. It filters air from the surroundings, including underwater, and she can operate in space or any other oxygen deficient atmosphere with it for nearly a day before needing to return to an atmosphere for an equal length of time to recharge. It is partially organic in nature, and can be healed with any normal healing technique. When subjected to any energy attack, including electricity, fire, hyperbeams, dragon techniques and cold, it sublimates under the assault, reducing damage by half. Of the remaining energy, half of that is absorbed by the armor and fed to the Dread Wolf, leaving only a quarter of the original damage for her to take. Dread Wolves always have cocoon of darkness up when they are armored, as the healing technique heals both the armor and the pokegirl. The Dread Wolf can manipulate the armor to create blades in the hands and razor sharp claws for the feet and uses these in melee combat. She can also fire laser beams identical to those used by the StarlightXpress from her hands, although not from both simultaneously and she can only do this only while armored.
In battle, the Dread Wolf uses her eidetic memory to full effect in analyzing her target(s). She changes her attack profile to maximize the weakness of her enemy, so if a pokegirl specializes in close combat, she will keep the range open and attack from there. Dread Wolves are often found with their tamer’s pokedex, using it to read up on the various breeds and memorizing their basic information in case she might be pitted against one.
The Dread Wolf is not interested in sex battles and is not a good choice for such a venue. They have great control over their abilities and have never accidentally harmed a tamer. They prefer their sex such that they can see their partner, i.e. face to face, and are not into dominance games. Domina breeds tend to get angry when Dread Wolves have either phased through the restraints, or simply popped them before walking away.
Dread Wolves exhibit the same levels of loyalty to their tamers that the Dire Wolf does. There are records that one was put through a level five conditioning cycle after being stolen and when released she killed the thief and returned to her tamer even when she could no longer remember his name.
The Dread Wolf is not recommended for alpha as they tend to focus on combat and the protection of her tamer to the exclusion of all else, although if necessary they will take the job.
Feral Dread Wolves are almost unheard of, but in the handful of cases that have been documented, the Dread Wolf avoids contact with humans, even flying away at full speed. Her precognitive abilities, invis and phase remain in full effect, however, and most tamers and their harems will never know she was around.