Karla was bathed and ready to go by the time the sun rose over the horizon. Although she wished Rex could go with her to town, after the last trip, the duke had decided against it, saying it was too dangerous. The townspeople had probably complained, not because Rex had misbehaved, but because he was too strange. A curious dragon poking around the local marketplace had drawn a lot of stares.

Knocking at Ashe’s door, she hoped she wasn’t too early to bother the half elf hunter, but the door opened quickly, and she found herself face to face with Ashe. “Master Ashe,” she said, “I was wondering if you’d be willing to go to town with me.”

Ashe smiled sadly, “I would love to, unfortunately, it seems there is a need for me elsewhere. We received reports of a dangerous beast out in one of the local farms just a little while ago, I’m off to try to track it down.”

Karla was disappointed. Ashe was one of the few people she’d consider a friend, since they had gone on hunting expeditions together they’d come to know each other a bit. Having gone with him shopping last time, she’d hoped to go with him again.

Ashe tried to cheer her up. “If it is a low level beast, I will try to find it’s lair and we might make another expedition together to hunt it tomorrow. You and Rex could always use a bit more exp, no?”

Karla nodded, in the last month, they’d only made it to level five, they’d not had many opportunities to level, the forests nearby had been quiet with few beasts bothering the local farmers. Karla was just grateful she was allowed to continue to go on leveling expeditions with Rex and Eric even after it had been revealed that she’d probably never learn how to talk to other dragons.

The maid who’d dragged Karla into Able’s office the day Blake had thrown the fox beast at her appeared, holding a warm mug of coffee for Ashe. Karla recognized her as being one of the maids who seemed to be most upset by her presence in the main house.

“Oh did I hear you were planning on going shopping?” The maid asked after handing Ashe the coffee.

“I didn’t ask for a coffee,” Ashe muttered, then shrugged and took it, “Thank you though.”

The maid seemed completely disinterested in Ashe, which was strange since she must have decided to come give him coffee of her own accord. It was a bit of a walk from the kitchen to the guest quarters Ashe was living in.

“Yes, that’s right, though since Ashe is busy, I might go another day,” Karla admitted.

“Nonsense,” The maid said, “I was planning on going today myself, I will take you.” She told Karla.

Karla frowned. She did not know this maid very well, her only interaction with her had not been a positive one. She didn’t even know her name. But… she did want to go into town, and she didn’t want to offend the maid by refusing. Rex had asked for some paper and ink, she didn’t want to disappoint him by not going. Karla hesitated.

“Don’t worry, I won’t let anything happen to you,” The maid lied smoothly, reaching out to pat Karla on the head. “My name is Carla with a “C”, isn’t it funny that we have almost the same name? Can you imagine?”

Karla smiled at the maid. Well, she thought, maybe this is a chance to make a new friend. “I’ll go with you, mistress Carla,” she told the woman, “Thank you.” Karla was mildly suspicious of Carla, but felt that if she refused, she’d make things worse somehow.

“It will be my pleasure,” Carla said with a false smile, carefully hiding the fact that she’d just wiped her hand on the hem of her dress, unhappy that she’d had to pretend affection by touching the beastman girl.

Ashe nodded and said, “Ok, well have fun, see you tomorrow Karla, miss Carla, nice to meet you, I best be off.” He took a sip of the coffee, grimaced apologetically, then set it down. “Sorry, must be my elf half, but I prefer tea,” and with that, he grabbed his bow and left Karla in Carla’s hands.

Several hours later, Rex was trying to master a few of the spells Idea had recorded with the camera function of Rex’s cybernetic eye enhancements. “You’d think this would be easy, all I have to do is visualize these patterns and move my mana in the same way, but, it’s hard doing it without being able to see what the heck I’m actually doing.” Rex complained.

Idea said, With that, Idea replaced the image of the page with two seperate images of Rex’s paws, one showing what the pattern was supposed to look like, another showing the current mana flow.

“Oh wow, that is super helpful.” Rex muttered.

Idea suggested.

Rex snorted,

Idea considered it,

Rex interrupted, then the mana between his paws suddenly burst into flames, distracting him.

Idea said.

Rex replied, willing to share the credit for his rapid progress. The flame between his paws looked much like a candle's flame, though it was hanging in midair with no visible fuel source. It didn’t look capable of doing any harm in battle however. Rex asked.

Idea said.

Rex said with a snort, dismissing the small flame.

Idea said in the manner of someone giving bad news.

Rex asked, fuming.

Idea replied smoothingly,

A static filled radio signal made faint by distance broke into the duo’s internal dialog. Karla's voice cried out, via the robofleas’ transmission.