Alice sat down on the chair Helga had brought over from… somewhere. The Valkyrie stuck to her side like glue, so Alice wasn’t sure how it’d been possible to begin with. Still, the teacher was currently overlooking the same field where the Doggirls had been tied down and pinned not a full week ago. Now, each of the men was holding a bag of boar-jerky and, with varying degrees of success and failure, were trying to get the maidens they were assigned to stay put.

Some had the maiden stock still at their side. Others… not so much. A few of them were just running around while the human ‘handler’ was trying to draw their attention or get them to behave. Others would have to remind the maiden to stay in place every handful of seconds.

“Ma’am.”

Huge’s voice drew Alice’s wary attention, the man moving to stand next to her as if, somehow, she were in charge of the operation. The psychology teacher could only look up at him half in disbelief and half in exhaustion.

Long nights reading history in the Baroness’ library were not kind to the eyes.

“Yeah?”

“I’d just thought… erm, excuse me. Just reporting in, things are going smoothly.”

Alice looked at the half-cocked mayhem in front of her, and then back at him. “I have no sense of reference over what’s normal in these things.”

“They’re three weeks ahead of schedule, more or less… ma’am.” He smiled slightly. “At this pace, I’d expect they’d be able to start spending more time together in a week or two.”

“What do you mean with ‘more time together’?”

“Sleep together, eat together, those sorts of things.” The man shrugged. “My main concern is getting them through fragility training.”

“The what now?”

“The gals are currently under constant watch whenever their partners show up, so if anything goes wrong, it’s going to be hard for it to go wrong in a lethal kind of way.” He replied, shaking his head. “But once out there, on their own, they need to be able to understand that humans are more fragile.”

The psychology teacher felt herself grow tense. “And how would you normally… teach this?”

“Through example is the quickest way.” He grimaced. “Thought I’d give you a heads up, ma’am, so you don’t feel startled over what’s going to come next.”

Not giving much chance to ask what’s going on, Huge stepped forward, clapping loudly to draw everyone’s attention. As he did this, one girl hurried to walk up next to him, a Hunter girl, green uniform and green collar, but she was a Doggirl like the other ones.

“Time for a lesson.” The man called out, gesturing at his assistant of the day to step forward. The girl moved towards the recently feral Doggirls.

It was a slow thing to do, approaching each, letting them smell her hand, the young maiden letting out a small bark, and then moving onto the next. Many of the Doggirls that were behaving quickly broke from the rank and file, a gathering occurred, the maidens quickly devolving into barking and yipping.

Five more seconds and all the black-collared former ferals were in the group of maidens sniffing at one another and greeting.

Alice could only frown in confusion, not quite sure what was going to happen that the Major might feel necessary to warn her about. She almost missed how there were a dozen other maidens that jumped in, each approaching the humans.

“Now, I want you to cry for help.” Huge spoke softly, a tone that was so friendly one might have mistaken it for a joke.

There was only a moment of shared confusion right as the maidens that had approached each human reached out and grasped their forearms. It was so synchronous it might as well have been choreographed. Some of the humans called out in alarm, others a half-hearted attempt.

And then the maidens squeezed.

Shrieks and complaints began to emerge all over, the pack of Doggirls rapidly broke into chaos, each maiden appearing to lunge at their own partner. The Hunters that had grasped the humans had pulled away, letting go the instant a canine approached.

“That should form a bruise.” Huge spoke loudly. “Make very sure to show that it hurts whenever touching it, exaggerate if you must. Above all, you need to show that you are fragile and weak compared to a maiden.”

The psychology teacher could only wince at the proclamation, not everyone was likely to take that in a good light considering the current circumstances. Even with everything they’d gone through, she could tell most present weren’t happy with the Major’s request. But the man appeared entirely uncaring, glaring them down.

Sighing, Alice stood up. “Do I really have to be present in all of these?”

“The Baroness did insist.” Helga reminded her.

And the psychology teacher was left with an odd sense of wrongness about that. Shaking her head, she tried to take a moment to reconsider. “Maybe we should get the other women to participate… or at least observe.”

The women had mostly been studying books the noble-lady had suggested. From history to… genealogy, it was something that would supposedly help them at least not stand out like sore thumbs. Personally, Alice was quite fed up with reading about what noble killed what “rebel-leader” during the civil war they’d had almost a century ago.

Something that did catch Alice’s attention was the severe lack of territory-based war compared to every bit of history she’d known of back from her world. There were kingdoms and there were contrived legal disputes over some territories, but not an iota of actual war.

The ferals likely were a strong part of that reason.

“Where to, ma’am?” Helga interrupted Alice’s thoughts with a chirpy little smile.

“Just somewhere to sit back and think… alone?” She replied, glancing at the winged woman as she nodded along.

“Plenty spots like those!” The wings spread wide, and with a slight running start, she grabbed Alice into a bear hug and leapt into the air.

Barking noises broke out as they took into the air, the psychology teacher let out a chocked scream, holding back and clutching at Helga as the maiden easily adjusted her grip so she’d be carrying Alice by the armpits.

“Don’t worry ma’am, I’ve got you!” A laugh followed, the maiden beat her large wings with gusto, gaining height. Within moments the village below was nothing more than little squares.

“It’s cold!” Alice warned, and Helga flinched in turn.

The flying maiden lowered her altitude somewhat, though her trajectory was clearly not intended to be somewhere within the village. Her wings kept flapping, and they kept gaining speed, descending the hill and towards the farms.

It took little more than a handful of minutes, Helga angled them towards one of the farms that looked to have fallen into disuse. The fields weren’t uniform, small trees dotted the green pastures, the building itself had a collapsed-in roof. The place looked empty from above, and the Valkyrie slowly circled down near the entrance.

Setting down in front of the fence, they touched ground, and Alice was quite thankful for it.

“This place’s been empty for almost a decade.” Helga spoke, standing on one of the broken beams that stuck out of the building’s ruins. “Road’s that way.” She pointed to the left. “You’ll get to a farm before that though. The Crambers are nice folk, they’ve got a killer bean soup.”

“Why did you take me here?”

Alice looked around. Weeds and grass all around, little of note beside the remains from the building.

“It’s a nice quiet place, safe too.” Helga replied with an eager smile. “This is the best place to think stuff without others around. It’s inside the land-perimeter and the patrols, but the sky-patrols move a bit further than that, so very few people actually know about it.”

“I… um, thanks.” A nod. “I think I’ll… use it?” Looking around, the psychology teacher awkwardly scratched the back of her head. “Do you know what happened here?”

“It’s where I grew up!”

“Oh, sorry! I didn’t think you’d take me somewhere personal to you.”

“It’s ok, after the incident, the Major took me into the Hunters and gave me a good job.” Helga nodded. “So the Hunters are like a family, even if they sometimes get a bit too overbearing. Do you have a family?”

“I… did, do, it’s complicated. Family’s something I never really had much contact other than the rare call.” The woman sighed slightly. “I had a partner, boyfriend, been trying not to think about it too much.”

“Just because you close your eyes, it doesn’t mean the sun is gone.” Helga chided. “How was he?” There was a dreamy quality to her smile.

Alice arched a brow at her. “You know, the idea was that I’d have some time to think for myself.”

“Oh, right! Sorry ma’am!” Helga spread her wings wide. “If you need anything, I’ll be overhead. Just a shout or a really vigorous wave and I’m here. Whatever you need ma’am.”

It took her a single jump to take to the air, and the psychology teacher finally let out the sigh she’d been holding onto. The thoughts just rushed back in, the doubt and the… everything. Was she really supposed to somehow lead the group that, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t united to begin with? What the hell was she supposed to do here? Just… give up everything she’d had until now?

Leaning against the ruined house, the teacher looked at the stone that lay next to the door.

She wanted to laugh at herself.

Somehow, fighting the spider had felt easier than this.