The Ranger: Ch. 14

"Augh, this place smells awful in wolf form," coughing a few times.

"He trick us, he wolf," Sandy says to Soviet who nods back to her.

"He is tricky, but he also horse and give us a ride later."

"Oh," she squints at me, "Okay." Looks like I lost my little friend to Soviet.

"I decide not to take you to trap." Sandy says as we look down a dozen side tunnels with nothing found yet.

"That's good," Soviet answers her, "would make for a bad friend."

"Yes, we will skip that room, nobody ever come back out from there."

"Hmmm, we'll save it for last, we have another couple of hours before we should head back, it's Midday about now, should get back before dinner.

"Dinner? Good," Sandy replies as Soviet stops her, and points her to the back of the group. "Keep the light back there, out of our eyes."

"How long have you been here?" I ask Sandy, how many have gone into the trap room?"

"Born here, all my life," I figure she is at least 30yrs from what I felt inside of her, sixty being their normal maximum age.

"They say it treasure room, it not." Sandy continues after a pause, "It trap."

"What if it's just a portal out of here?" Soviet asks.

"Could be anything, but so far, sickness and death seem more feasible than shiny magic exit portals." We have another landing big as the one used by the goblins, nothing here, no noises other than dripping water.

"Any strange noises from down here Sandy?"

"Long time ago, lots of growling and fighting, then stopped, we no go down there after gray dust show up, so many good places to have camp, and we stuck in middle of road."

Another few tunnels and nothing but deep pits until we get to another steep slope down. "Save that one for tomorrow?" I ask and Soviet nods.

On the way out I realize I can't turn into a horse, "Oh, I had my two times today, the horse and the wolf." We stand there and look off towards the east.

"We can walk for 5 hours, maybe 6 with short legs, gets distracted easily here, or I can take a nap for another hour and we should be good."

"Five hours of walking or 1 hour waiting for you? That's an easy one." Soviet throws his pack down again and sits.

"Five hours of walking!?" I'm going back inside." Sandy does start walking away. Soviet laughs like I've never heard him laugh before. "Wait."

"How long is five hours?" Sandy says when she turns around.

"Not that long, we have to wait for him to rest, then he can become horse."

"Thought he was wolf? Now horse," She walks over and sits next to me, "What else can you do?"

"I can sleep if you want to leave anytime soon."

"He's grumpy when tired." Sandy says sitting next to Soviet.

"OH! Big Horse," Sandy sits in front of Soviet, looking everywhere, she never paused as we got close to the entrance or exit. The trip back was uneventful, no wolves that I could smell and the time flew by now that I knew where I was going. I'm not sure if I expected the wolves to still hang around, it looks like everyone was good enough to travel, no signs of fighting when we came out.

'There are a lot of women and a few men in town, they are good people and will probably be happy to loan you clothes and other things.' I send her.

'Ha, talking horse, you are so funny, do they have food?' Sandy says and I agree with her, a bit hungry myself.

'Yep, many of them are great cooks.'

'I'll stay with you two until tomorrow, we go deeper down.' Sandy sends.

'You can stay with the ladies, I'll wake you up in the morning, get us all fed and then we'll head back.'

'hmmm, I found you.' She grumbles.

'I think we found you Sandy, and, we need you tomorrow so no fighting.' I feel her arms and legs around the back of my neck.

Katelyn and Jacobs team met us at the edge of Mertil's yard, not able to tell if they are watching for us or against anything else. Soviet brought Sandy to the ground with him, I change back and we were surrounded.

"Everyone! This is Sandy, we found her in the ruins, she could use a bath, some clothes if anyone has any left over." As she is pulled away by Abby and Erika. "Bring her to the Inn to eat, unless you have something already?"

"We got her Kae, We'll clean her up and feed her and then bring her over for the big reveal." Erika laughs, Sandy looked back at Soviet like he should save her again.

The Inn was full getting back, both teams minus those taking Sandy walked back with us to the Inn to hear the story, Sabina went to get Beau and Mertil.

People were pouring through the doors, this is what its like in a normal town, but, something new since I've been here, ohhh, everyone is eyeballing me so, yeah, they want to see what this is all about.

"Heran? Is your team here and ready?" I ask.

"Uh, yeah, right now?" She looks around and her mates were moving in on her, Heran and Evaine are easy choices as one already got Willow and Evaine has already taken to it with a nudge from Ninhersag. Niviena, Ewlene, Yesime, are the triplets of the team, they go everywhere together, spend a lot of time practicing and helping others in their practice, Anders has to be done if Heran is getting this done for their wolves to be together, and then there is Isabella, she has been nice, but not a lot of conversations with her, it was surprising she took the mana so well, I though it was going to spark and held on a little longer, might be very soon for her.

"What was that?" Isabella asks.

"Huh, you almost sparked on the first try."

"Is that a good or bad thing?" she doesn't look excited.

"IF it was to happen so soon, it would mean you have a strong affinity for it, I'd expect you'd have to help some of the others on how you remained so 'still', Niviena was pretty calm also, it helps."

"Shew, is it going to feel like that every time?" Yesime says, "You could come over next time it's our turn and we'll make you dinner." Niviena and Ewlene scooch up close to her and nod.

"Say yes." Cinthia says immediately.

"Why would anyone say no?" Grayson says and then, "Don't just stand there, say, "Dinner sounds nice."

"Dinner sounds nice." I say with his accent and Grayson groans, they didn't care. All Katelyn did was roll her eyes when Sabina and Beau appeared from the back room, her version had me eating it all up.

"I'd go with him if I was you," Mertil says and Katelyn nods.

We spent time chatting and laughing and having just the most relaxing time, it was nice, I asked if Sabina wanted to spend the night, she dropped everything she was doing and walked down the hall, a few kisses later and I was in there also, I bartered for morning sex after everything over the last few days.

"Sandy!?" Sabina says looking down at me, Sandy laying on my chest between the two of us..

"Whaaa,shhh," Sandy moves her shoulder at Sabina who pulls back and then scowls, Sandy opens one eye, "We leaving now?"

"A little while," I answer and her eye shuts.

"Nope, out you, we have, I need some time, go two doors down to my room, I'll wake you when the food is ready." Sandy doesn't move until Sabina picks her up and carries her to the door setting her down outside and nudging away.

"Hey! Two doors?" Sandy looks up at Sabina with the I can't believe you are making me move face.

"yep, its not locked, see you soon." Sabina closes and latches the door. "Okay, we both have a lot to do and shit, she," Sabina looks at the door and then me, "shut up and listen, I have to hurry, Sandy was tiny and tough yesterday, but her story is unbelievably sad, every day being the food for the wolves if they get hungry, she loves the name you gave her, brought the entire room to tears when she told us, and then she latches onto you in the middle of the night." She looks at me and then the door again.

"Us later? I need to go," she asks and I'm nodding as she gets dressed and runs out of the room, I hear her down the hall, "Sorry, I had to get dressed, do you want to help make Kae breakfast? Yah, okay, Yah, no, but you can wake him up when it's ready." Looks like Sabina is now Sandy's big sister.

We should leave her here today, if she gets hurt or worse I'd have to answer why I put a tiny, defenseless creature in front of me to begin with, she is not going to like that conversation, Soviet probably won't either, she knows things if she knows about the treasure trap room.

"What! No! You need Me!" Sandy is holding onto my ankle, I'm not going to drag her across the floor.

"Sabina? Can you teach her how to use the bow today?" I ask and she agrees with Sandy looking so she nods to her again.

"Everyone that lives here is learning how to use these, holding my bow out, IF you can learn like the rest of them, I'll bring you with us tomorrow.."

"You say you not go treasure room, but you will, then die, never come back." Sandy is not letting go.

"Promise we will not go into that room today, we'll do that later with you." I answer.

"What? No, not to go in at all, ever, see!" Sandy looks at Sabina, "He not ready to go back."

"I'll keep Soviet in front of me?"

"No! Like him more!" She is trying to work around my leg behind me and I sure as shit can't get ahold of her.

"Sandy! Come here." I command her to come back around and lift her up into a full hug, "We will be extra careful today until you can learn and help us tomorrow."

Soviet walks into the room from upstairs, almost smiling, "Glad you two got that out of the way. Ask Severan to give her the basics with a knife." He looks at Sandy, "no shooting or stabbing anyone."

"What, no, they nice, gave me these," Sandy turns and I let her down, she spins, showing her dress, and holds up her foot to show off her sandals.

"Tomorrow have shoes that cover your feet? Those are pretty clothes, tomorrow we need fighting clothes." She likes Soviets ideas and gave him a hug before I change and ride off into the woods.

The entire day spent moving down to the next level, nothing found, many, many drop shafts, these tunnels go for as far as it is back to town. Not that we would want a fight at every turn. A few creepy sounds, but nothing you could say wasn't normal creepy cave noises.

We get back faster not having to wait for a wildshape reset today, they had Sabina's team with Sandy, Joan, Annalise and Ivana surrounding her, they moved a target over about 20 paces for Sandy to practice on while Sabina, Analise, Desa, Amber and Treya fired at the others in the original spot 200 paces away. Joan was turned our way and let the others know we were coming in.

"Watch, watch, watch." Sandy doesn't wait for hello's or how did it go, she turns and pulls the short bow back and hits the target.

"I am death, come with me," Sandy says.

Soviet nods, "I might have to steal that phrase, that, was a good shot little one."

"Perfect Sandy! I taught her that one," Treya smiles and they all laugh.

"Wow, you learn fast." I say as I pluck the arrow out of the hay, it was boring today."

"Don't jinx it!" Sabina says quickly, "it's supposed to be boring."

"I guess your right, just stating a fact, letting Sandy know she got much more done today than we did. Show me your stance."

"They say you teach them, you teach me?" Sandy gets set and pulls back and releases the arrow, she is a bit smaller than intended but a good bit stronger than a 3 and a half foot tall human child.

"You need to eat more, get enough muscle to pull that." I show her my muscle.

"That not muscle, this muscle." She brandishes hers back at me causing Sabina's group to hoot and holler for her. She turns and looks at them with a huge smile.

"That's right Sandy!" Sabina walks over, let's get you some food from Mom.

"Katelyn your family? I thought them was." Sandy asks me.

"They are now, and with Evaine moving to be Kae's second, Heran has a spot for you?"

"Give spot to Evaine, I be Kae's second," Sandy says holding Heran's hand looking up at her. "He's mine." Heran is the smallest female in the town, but still a foot taller than Sandy.

"Evaine is magic like him, join my team," Heran shakes her little arm, Sabina walks over and takes Sandy's other hand.

"Okay." Sandy says after looking up at Sabina, they walk a little ways when Sandy starts lifting her feet off the ground hanging between and all three of them are laughing.

I spent the afternoon with Beau, Katelyn and Mertil with Sabina bringing her team over after dinner, a full team Sabina, Annalise, Abigail, Amber, Treya, Ivana and Joan are just as good at the triplets in Heran's team, Desa is the worst on Sabina's team about equal to Beau and Mertil.

Desa put her hand on my leg as we sat facing each other, "I heard Yesime and her roommates invited you over for dinner to do this?"

"Yeah, 3 of the 7 in one place is fine." I answer.

"So I just need two more," she puts emphasis on that and looks at her peoples.

"I'll join you," Ivana says without hesitation.

"Me too, all of them including Sabina agreed to go over with a grumpy looking Desa looking to me for help.

"Sounds great." I wink at her, "get with Beau on the Healer route and we'll make time just the two of you."

"Oh, good, I was about to have a long talk with my dense friends," Desa says giving them a look.

"Oh please," Amber lays all over Desa, "you love us."

I got fed right in the middle of all of the mana pushing, none of team two "took it faster" than anyone else, and there were no surprises, Desa has been eyeballing me long enough to no longer be a surprise.

I left my three at Mertil's figuring Sabina was going to show up in the room at some point, Sandy might find Soviet tonight, maybe.

*Thanks to everyone for making it this far, be gentle on the ratings, there are 7 more chapters written and will hopefully be transferred here once a week. Thanks to readers Soviet Degenday's and Boulder Dash for their support.