Chapter 1

“Oh~” I sighed as I stretched out my body. After unfurling myself from the annoying ball I’d been in for the last decade, I was long enough now that I could only see a vague outline of my tail in the distance.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Ayla whined. She was riding on top of my head and was in the process of regaling me with tales of her exploits since I’d last since her.

“Yes, brat. I’m listening.” I explained. I continued moving in the direction Ayla directed. Trees were brushed aside as if they were blades of grass and the light from the early morning sun cast the forest in a beautiful orange and purple glow.

“Good.” She huffed. “Anyway, as I was saying. So, there I am, surrounded on all sides by bandits with nothing but my wits and granny’s staff to see me through.” Ayla told her story with all the excitement and energy of a kid on a sugar rush and I couldn’t get the smile off my face. She told me of her adventures with Lena, Fenris, Hali, and Solon: How they fought off bandit raiders, explored a cursed dungeon, and saved the third prince of relatively powerful kingdom from being kidnapped by a race of giants.

“Wait,” I interrupted. “You fought giants?” The only “Giant” I’d seen was a huge, monstrous man-thing that even I’d hesitate to square off against.

“Well, Fenris said they weren’t the same race as the Titan you ate on Iorus. These were called jötunn.” She explained.

“Jötunn? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those.” I admitted.

“Well, jötunn is their name in the local dialect. The actual race is jötnar, which loosely translates to “Frost Giant” in our tongue. And I’d never met one either until we drove off the one attempting to kidnap the prince. They’re apparently on the verge of extinction after some war a few millennia ago.”

“Millenia? Surely, they would’ve repopulated by now.”

“Not necessarily, old man. You’re forgetting that the longer a species lives, the less likely they are to have kids. According to Fenris, jötnar aren’t known for dying of old age so they’re birthrates are even lower than that of the elves.” She corrected.

“… You’ve been hanging around Uriel too much. Your lecturing voice is starting to sound like him.” I grumbled.

I felt a weak thumping on my head and assumed Ayla was venting her frustration by stomping her feet.

“I agree, master.” A sultry voice interjected. “She is beginning to sound like an old woman.”

“Oh, definitely.” A boyish voice agreed.

“Findral, Hali, zip it. No one asked for your opinion.” Ayla scolded. Even though her words were harsh, there wasn’t an ounce of fire behind them.

The three of them had grown close over the years. What started as a rivalry between Ayla and Hali: Both being high-elf druids of similar skill, if not power. Though that wasn’t exactly Hali’s fault. Her half-warg parentage gave her a stronger, healthier body at the cost of her magic supply. While wargs were inherently magical creatures, they weren't exactly known to be spellcasters. Unfortunately, this creates a hard limit to the amount of power Hali would be able to use as she grew older.

Which is why she supplements it with the sword sheathed on her side. The girl was scarily good with that blade.

Meanwhile, the ever loyal Findral remained at Ayla’s side and acted as her older sister, confidant, and bodyguard just as I'd asked her to be all those years ago. Even after the other goblins asked to leave my company and start their own nest, she'd remained. I never asked why she didn't wish to join the other goblins and to be honest, I didn’t care. I was glad she remained by my side.

An hour or so after I’d been freed, we arrived at a small clearing littered with tents. The campsite was currently void of people, but I assumed that was due to the fact that it was early in the morning and most would be out doing their morning rituals. I slowly twisted my head to the side, allowing the girls to get as close to the ground as possible before they jumped off.

“We’re back!” Ayla hollered. “And we’ve brought a guest!”

“Yeah yeah, we know. Heard his fat ass coming from several miles away.” A shirtless man grumbled as he left the tree line on the far side of the camp and headed over to us. The man wasn’t all that tall, but he was solidly built with wild black hair that flowed freely over his shoulders. Long pointed ears, lava red eyes, and pointed teeth told me exactly who this was. I recognized the demi-elvan form of Fenris immediately and gave him a quick nod, which he returned. A few seconds after he entered the clearing, a mass of people began to trickle in.

“Thanks for looking out for Ayla, Mutt. I owe you one.”

“Nah,” He immediately shook his head. “I owed you plenty. Looking out for Ayla doesn’t begin to repay my debt to you.” He finished with a troubled look on his face.

“Even so, thanks.” I glanced around at the crowed forming around us. Judging by the matching robes half of them were wearing, and the upper-class outfits the other half wore, I assumed we were dealing with two separate groups of people. “So, what’s with all the people?”

Fenris made a show of looking around at the onlookers. “Escort contract. A merchant caravan from Odessa and the followers of some goddess from Phoria. They were going to the same place as us, so we figured we’d bring them along.”

“Oh? Where are we going?” I asked.

Fenris’ lips went tight, and he stiffened.

Before I could ask what was wrong, someone drew my attention away from him. I watched as a young man stopped beside Fenris. The young man looked to be about twenty. He was taller than Fenris by a couple of inches but wasn’t quite as solidly built and looked like a swimmer or long-distance sprinter. He too had wild black and lava red eyes, though his hair was kept short and barely hung over his ears.

“Solon.” I greeted him with a nod. “It’s good to see you again.”

“Hello.” Solon said in his usual stoic tone.

“Hi, little brother~” Hali said as she moved to his side. He gave the much shorter woman an annoyed look before promptly ignoring her.

“How was your nap?”

“Annoying long and uncomfortable.” I grumbled. “From the way my back was hurting, you’d think I’d just spent the last decade inside an egg or something.” I finished, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Aww, poor baby.” Hali cooed before she took a few quick steps forward to stand next to me. She patted my scales and tut-tutted at me.

Guess she also picked up some bad habits from me…

“I need to make sure the camp is ready to leave soon, so I’ll leave you kids to bring him up to speed and…” Fenris said, shooting Ayla an odd look. “Explain some things.” He turned on his heel and quickly walked away. I watched as he made his way over to a thin elf with red hair and a young girl: That would be his wife Lena and daughter Talia.

“What’s up with him?”

“Well,” Hali cleared her throat, “There’s been some changes since you decided to take a nap.”

Findral and Solon snorted in unison and Ayla looked decidedly uncomfortable with the change in subject.

“That wasn’t my fault.” I protested.

“Sure, it was,” She instantly shot down my protest with an irritatingly confident smirk. “Anyway, your incompetence aside. Dad’s been going through a lot lately.” Hali explained

“Which leaves him in a foul mood.” Solon added.

“Right.” She agreed. “He’s getting close to evolving, that’s weighing on his mind a lot. If he evolves successfully, he’ll be the first Warg in a hundred years to pass the tier 4 wall.”

“But no pressure.” Solon muttered.

“He’s basically a diamond at this point.” Ayla muttered.

I snorted in amusement at the byplay between them. I’d missed conversations like this. “So, he’s worried about the usual suspects: Lena, his kids, and not being strong enough to protect them.”

Hali nodded, Solon Shrugged, and Ayla sighed.

“Welcome to the club, Fenris. We have meetings once a week and commemorative alligator skin jackets.” The three teenagers stared at me with varying levels of confusion clear on their faces, which almost made me burst out laughing. As it was, I sighed to hide my amusement and looked away so they wouldn’t see the humor behind my eyes. Unfortunately, I’d turned towards Findral by accident. She watched me with a mischievous grin on her delicate face. She shot me a wink, which I decided not to think about. “I’ll have a talk with him. Maybe I can do something to ease his worries.”

“That may not be the best idea, master.” Findral replied with that same mischievous grin plastered on her face. “After all, I’m pretty sure you’re one of the things he’s stressed about.”

“Is that true?” I asked Hali after a moment.

“I mean, yeah-” She trailed off, shooting a glance in Ayla’s direction.

“O…Kay.” I also looked at Ayla, who was looked like she was simultaneously trying to imitate a tomato and a ghost. “Is there something you’d like to tell me, Ayla?”

“Not especially—”

“Ayla’s engaged to be married, master.” Findral chirped.

“What’s that?” Solon loudly exclaimed. He pantomimed listening intently to something. “Sure, mom. Be right there!” He took off without another glance in our direction.

I hardly noticed. Her words captured my complete attention and my eyes shifted back to her. This action was accompanied by an involuntary hiss. "Isss. That. So? And just when was I going to be informed of this, Ayla?”

"Um— Well,” She nervously laughed. “You did leave me alone, so it's not my fault that you don't know."

"Hmm, even so. Where I come from, it's impolite to ask for a woman's hand in marriage without meeting the parents first. So— Where is the rude little bastard?" I growled.

"Ayla refused to bring him along. He's waiting for us on the other side of the portal~" Hali chimed in with a smirk on her lips.

"Then we'd best not keep my future sn...son-in-law waiting. Should we?" I turned away from the girls and began eyeing the people I didn’t recognize. I briefly wondered who they were and why they were traveling with our group, but I was still too rocked by the recent revelation to care. What else did I miss in eighteen months?