Bellona was chafing at the amount of time it was taking to get to her assigned post. Not that she articurly eager to be an envoy to a living dungeon, but she also did not care for not doing much either. Everything had been going so slowly since she had left the where she’d been training. Which started on the m she was going to leave, when she’d beeed with the pair of ursaviane cubs she’d captured on her . They’d grown bigger too, and had received their own training while she’d been infusing elements into her soul.

  At least they’d provided a rge cart with a cage. She hadn’t been about to try ahem on a leash the whole way down the mountain, and she had a few long leads to let them roam around her campsite each evening, and again in the m. She also worked on tinuing their training regimen during that time.

  Needing t them all the way to the capital to the i debriefed, and then take them with her to her destination would have been bad enough. But once she finally got back to Ekuinot only had there been more paperwork aings with various officials, but she’d also been assighe task of delivering some of those tentacled wolf creatures. At least she was traveling with a small voy for this leg, though getting to escort a group of young nobles eager to get some real bat experience wasly her ideal traveling sario.

  The tentacle-wolves were kept in their cages or in a temporary pen rge and strong enough to taihey had not yet proven as tractable as the ursaviao being traihough at least they were not stantly trying to attayone who got hem either. The erip with them had been a lot of work.

  Work that looked to be ing to an end finally. The turn-off from the main road was very visible, it was clear that it had been used a lot tely, and they had been passed by a few groups who had been traveling lighter as well. So she had been expeg to find the dungeorance before too long, and a small trading post.

  What she had not been expeg was to find a small town built up around the dungeorance, filled with the erratic flow of a popuot familiar with the location, and a few groups ing and going from the dungeon. She pulled her horse and her charges off from the rest of the group to let them go ahead while she tried to make sense of the situation.

  The young nobles were quickly intercepted by some of the adorable rabbit people who seemed to be in charge of everything, and they were then directed to a pair of training or sparring areas where it looked like they were to be tested.

  While that was going on, Bellona was making sense of the rest of the flow of things. Part of the semi-anized chaos appeared to be that the entrao the dungeon was time-gated, with a pair of queues oher side of the entraself. The lines were broken into distinct parties, and by that measure were fairly short, but one party from either line was ushered in, there was anroup joining that queue pretty quickly, and it looked like someone was cheg their names against a list. Huh.

  “Hi! Are you lost?! Do you need me to show you the way?! Are you here to fight? Do you have a Party?! Or maybe you need oell me what you need and I help! I love to help! The bosses say I am a very enthusiastic helper!” The tiny, high-pitched voice erupting near Bellona’s ear caused her to jump, startling the animals with her as well.

  The source of the eioise was a tiny fairy beaming at her with an unfortable amount of sincere bubbliness and eagerness. “Er, I’m not lost, but I suppose I could use a bit of help. My name’s Bellona, and I am supposed to meet Mordecai and Kazue. Moriko met me before.”

  “Oh! You want to meet the bosses! Well, you ’t really meet boss-dy right now 'cause her body is out with Moriko, but Mordi’s body is just ihe fairy paused and blinked. “ht, ‘avatar’, not body. I don’t really get the difference, but they get picky about that. I think it’s kind of weird that they have a body and brain in one pce, but still be here too, don’t you? Or is that something lots of other people do too? Do you have another you somepce else or is this the only you?”

  “Um, just the one me,” Bellona replied, then tried to get the versation ba course, “Is Mordecai avaible to talk right now? you lead me to him? I have some gifts for the dungeon as well.”

  “Oh, gifts! They do like gifts especially things that are new. Are these going to be the gifts?! They look like they’ll be fun pymates eep! Bad puppy, n to eat me! Ah, the bear tried to eat me too!” This was the start of a bit of chaos as Bellona tried to get the animals to calm dowually, she got the two ursavianes not only calmed down but on leads so that she could leave their cart behind. She attached their leads to the back of the tentacle wolves’ cart and made sure the cart was securely hitched to her horse, and then started making her way toward the entrance of the dungeon while leading her horse. The chatty fairy tio dart about Bellona’s head excitedly, the trauma of her near-death experience already fotten.

  When they finally got inside, Bellona was relieved to find the man waiting for her was only a few inches shorter thahe number of tiny creatures the dungeon had in its employ had been making her feel awkward and clumsy. She exged bows with him and asked “Lord Mordecai, I presume? My name is Bellona, I was sent to be the envoy of Kuic to your dungeon.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Lady Bellona, we’ve been expeg you.” She couldn’t help but wince slightly at the title, and he gave her a small smile, “Shall we dispeh titles?”

  “Yes, thank you,” Bellona said with a slight sigh.

  “Well the’s start with unencumbering you.” He looked over the animals for a moment. “From what your escort told me, you ihem as gifts? Do you have any need for the cart after that?”

  “Well, I’ve got some luggage, but other than that, no.”

  “Mm, well, we have a suite prepared for you, so with your permission, I move those to your rooms, and have one of the bunkin stable your mount.”

  “Alright, let me get him out of the traces,” by the time she was done, one of the tiny rabbit people had arrived, and as she handed over the reins she spoke to the horse, “Artax, be a good boy. Our friends are going to make you fy, get some rest.”

  After the bunkin had led Artax outside, Mordecai said with some amusement in his voice, “Those sounded like very specific phrases. ands to let him know he actually rex?”

  Bellona fought off a slight flush of embarrassment at having been caught out, she’d practiced to make her delivery natural and smooth, “Er, yes,” This whole pce was making her feel a little off bance, “What gave it away?”

  He shrugged slightly, “Just experience, literal turies of getting to know people. It’s not ohing, just a lot of tiny things most people won’t pick up on. Now, let’s take care of these fine fellows, shall we?”

  A nephilim man with celestial heritage approached them then and looked over the animals before shaking his head. “No, these are born of magic, they are not for me to awaken.” He and Mordeodded to each other, and the winged man turo leave. That was when Bellona realized she’d been wrong, the man’s presence was too intense for a mortal. The realization that an actual celestial was casually hanging out left Bellona speechless.

  Mordecai turned his attention to the ursaviane cubs first, and then their leads disappeared shortly before they did. “Kazue is setting them up with a den in our warrens, I don’t think they’d do well inds zone we are setting up.”

  Mordecai frowned slightly after shifting his gaze to the wolves. “Damn. Well, let’s find a home for the healthy ones first.” All but one of the tentacle wolves disappeared, leaving behind a female that had always been a little rger and mgressive than the rest. “She’s refusing the invitation, and while I would normally let an animal go, I don’t think I in this case.” His eyes were locked on the wolf’s as he began casting a spell. The wolf stiffened briefly, then crouched down submissively. The rest of the cart disappeared and the wolf nded on her feet, then walked over to Mordecai, waiting patiently as he examined her closely. Bellona noticed that the wolf’s eyes were a little gssy, and she assumed that he was using some sort of trol spell on the wolf.

  After a few minutes, Mordecai shook his head with a sigh. “She’s got a spark of madness in her, and it’s actually made worse by the fact that she’s smart. It won’t let her give herself over to us so I ’t fix it, and it’s the sort of madhat would turn her into a pure killer if she was left to her own devices, driven by blood frenzy.” A rge pieeat appeared in his hands, and he id it on the floor in front of the wolf, and then told her to eat it. “Given the slight awkwardness of their forms, I take it they are ret monster spawns?”

  Bellona nodded, “Yes. I art of the party that entered them. We got all the adults and captured several young. Not all of them were sent with me. So, what do you pn on doing with her, if you ’t let her go?”

  “I’m already doing it,” Mordecai said, and the weight of sadness in his voice as he watched the wolf eat her meat told Bellona what she o know. She stood vigil with him as the wolf slowly grew drowsier aled onto the ground. Soon, she fell into a deep sleep, and not long after that fell iernal slumber. “May your spirit fi at least,” Mordecai whispered, giving the wolf’s body o petting before the dungeon absorbed it.

  Bellona appreciated the care he took in making the creature’s st moments peaceful at least, and waited until he was done before speaking. “I also have some gifts I collected during my training. The animals were by act, but these I hunted out, partly as a challeo myself.” As she spoke, Bellona moved over to one of the donation tables to start unloading her elemental crystals. She also took a moment to read the rules that were posted, and the requisites for being a tractor. “Huh, do you get a lot of applits?”

  “No, actually. Most people who might be willing to take on the responsibilities are the sort to find themselves already occupied by obligations. And thank you for these, they are beautiful and iing. I think we will be able to find good use for them. Oh, and a question for you,” She turned around to find him looking amused, “I believe you were the one chasing down troublesome street urs? Yes? So tell me, did you enjoy pying tag with Li?”

  “Tag? What-” Then it struck her. The gang of kids that just happeo strike hardest on merts involved with some nasty business, a ratling kid who vanished like smoke, and all the other ces surrounding those events, “I feel like a fool, I should know my lore better than that.”

  Mordecai ughed. “It’s alright, no one expects it to actually be him until they’ve had the experience. Well, let me show you around, and we discuss the tractor details as well. It might be useful if you will be staying with us for the long term.”

  Zagaroth