Dem sent over the bond, “Ina.. I brought you some clothes. I was hoping we could talk a bit.”

This conversation might actually be harder than talking to his Ma. His Ma didn’t have claws.

“Dem, It is good to see you.” She stepped towards him lightly, giving him a sniff here and there. Her nose would probably find nothing but the smell of guilt, he thought.

After finishing her investigation of him, she asked, “Let me see these clothes you have brought me.” Her voice, despite its smoothness, held a genuine curiosity.

Pulling out the clothes, he described what they were, where they were worn, and how they worn, though the latter part was difficult due to his inexperience. Finally, she took off the makeshift clothes he'd made for her, standing before him as he had first seen her, clad in nothing but her fur. Luckily they were pretty high up in the trees, well out of the view of most anyone. She took the clothes from him and, with a little help, was able to put them on. She was confused by the undergarments, but he said they were for comfort. She had simply shrugged, and put them on.

He had to admit that he hadn’t looked away as she put the clothes on, nor when she needed his help. He didn’t think she cared if he did look. She didn’t have the same sense of human shame he did. If anything he missed her, and wanted to look at her all the more. A lot had happened since he had last seen her, a little less than quarter of a cycle ago. The sight of her was a lighthouse in an emotional storm for him. Dealing with Greer, the Karmis woman, and then his mother was all too much.

She looked fantastic, and deadly, in the clothes, though perhaps he was a bit biased. The bustier covered her upper section in a nice layer of leather. It was pretty functional and didn’t show a lot of her furred skin, but it definitely lifted her bust up, making it look a bit larger. The pants only doing down to just before the hock joint in her legs. They fit great, he had to say. At least she was dressed now. The clothes were meant for the heavy wear of adventuring, so they offered at least a little protection.

Now came the hard part, he hoped she liked the clothes well enough that she wouldn’t immediately kill him when he brought up the next subject.

“Ina.. I have a question for you.” He tried to sound casual.

“Dem, What is your question?” She wasn’t looking at him, but rather still focused on the clothes and their feel.

“Do female many-tailed get.. jealous? I mean if their mates also have other.. mates?” He tried to be circumspect with his words. Maybe he get could get an idea about her feelings before he talked about Greer with her.

“Dem, do you another many-tailed you wish to mate with? Near here?” She suddenly turned to look at him when she said this, her voice like ice.

His body involuntarily trembled. This was supposed to be just a hypothetical question. She was clearly sharper than he he gave her credit. He needed to figure out how to defuse the situation. He paused for a moment to formulate a response, but in that moment Ina, had moved towards him in a flash. Her claws extended as she moved. She frightened him so badly he fell onto his ass.

By the time he spoke, she was standing above him, her eyes dark and ominous thanks to some shade from the overhead tree.

“I-Ina, there is no other many-tailed, I was just w-wondering how many-tailed dealt with jealousy.” He stammered out his response as fast as he could, hopefully in time to save himself. Technically she shouldn’t be able to hurt him without harming herself, through the bond, but beast Taming wasn’t without dangers. A beast could decide it was worthwhile attack, despite the cost, with the kind of bond Ina and he had. Other kinds of bonds were too restrictive, but offered more protection as a result.

She growled a little a him, “There are no other many-tailed in my territory?”

“No Ina, I was asking because.. because there is a human woman in the settlement that would like me to.. mate with her.”

She arched an eyebrow, “A human woman?” She actually sounded slightly disgusted, as if she wondered why anyone mate with a human woman.

“Yes, she will give my parents a place to stay, but in exchange, when I am not out with you, I may have to stay with her. She might expect me to.. mate with her. I’ve been trying to get my parents into the settlement for a long time, its safe there. I’m sure you’ve noticed something.”

This was another awkward conversation he didn’t relish, but at least she was slowly retracting her claws.

“Males often mate with.. others, especially if a particular mating is unsuccesful.” Her tone thoughtful.

“They leave the territory of one female and enter the territory of another. Females don’t enter each other’s territory unless it is to decide who is the weaker and must move further away.”

He had understood Ina was pretty set on this mating script from her bloodline memories, but this was a bit much. He would have to try to teach her human.. ‘scripts’, eventually. When he was honest with himself, he really only wanted to be with her, out in the Wilds hunting and.. everything else, but he needed his parents to be safe to live that dream.

She spoke again, her tone more neutral. “Human woman have nothing to do with our mating. I am only concerned with other many-tailed in my territory.”

This wasn’t exactly, permission, but it would have to do. This did beg a question though...

“Ah, Ina. What, exactly, is your territory?”

She smiled, though it came off as purely a predatory look, as she spoke her next words.

“My territory is wherever I am the strongest many-tailed, and you.”

“Oh, I see. Me too?”

“Yes, you are mine. No other many-tailed can have you, and must bring me all your gifts.” Her tone was less neutral this time.

Perhaps he had gone mad, but he decided to tease her a bit, despite being so close to death earlier.

“..but don’t males get to move on to other territories, and find other many-tailed mates.”

She growled at him, “Other males do, but not you.”

She pounced down him, pushing him onto his back. Perhaps she was more like a human than he originally thought, she was already changing the usual script a little. What they shared through the bond was obviously very special to her. It warmed his heart.

He let out groan, not resisting. “I see. Well I guess I don’t mind. I’m a one many-tailed sort of man.”

She snorted, something he hadn’t seen before, and lowered her head to take in his scent.

As she got closer to him, she spoke again. “Help me remove these clothes.”

“Do you not like them?” He asked, his mind putting the pieces together.

“They are fine, but they are gifts, so I don’t wish to ruin them.” Her face not far from his as she spoke.

“How will you ruin them?” He needed to tease her more.

She growled a bit at him, “We are going to mate now.”

He wondered how far he could push it, “Doesn’t the ritual say the male gets the first round?”

Her eyes narrowed, and her claws extended. She began to cut into the new shirt he was wearing. It didn’t look like he would get his round this time, not that he minded.

“Ina, I will help, I will help, Let me take that off.” He said hurriedly.

As he worked fast to remove both their clothes before she got impatient. She spoke once more, as if to herself, and not to him.

“You are mine!”

He couldn’t disagree with her, but then who would disagree with an angry, beautiful beastwoman?

***

He hadn’t got much rest during the half-cycle before he had to go meet the party. A jealous Ina had been nearly the death of him. A good death, but tiring. He had wanted to spend some time with the grimoire, but between Ina and his own fear of what it might say, he had put it off. There would be ample time once they were out in the Wilds. Knowing his Class wouldn’t necessarily be immediately helpful him. It often took rotations of practice to cast complex Class spells. There would be no guarantee he would be able to use anything from it right away.

So far the grimoire had changed his life immensely, both for good and for ill. His Path was radically different. He had gone through some sort of bizarre physical change. He had lived through a couple of situations he where he should have died. He gained a new sense of intimacy with Ina, something he couldn’t imagine not having now. Just thinking about further changes that the grimoire might bring made his guts flip upside down.

He left a pouch of silver for his parents with the last of what he had. Either he would make gold on this trip, or he wouldn’t need the silver anyway. He put the grimoire in an old sack and had Ina carry it tied to her back. She would range ahead and keep herself mostly out of sight of the party. Even if they did notice her carrying something, they would never guess what the old fiber-woven sack held. Tamers often had their beasts carry their supplies.

The grimoire hadn’t let loose any sort of aura since it was first opened. It looked like a used-up old grimoire at the moment, nothing more. Putting in more time asking it questions was definitely important. He still didn’t know his own Class. Just the idea of not knowing your own Class was absurd. He might very well be the first person ever to have this problem. The thought was amusing, but not a comfort.

He met the party at the Wilds-Deeper Door. They looked more refreshed than he felt. They hadn’t had a ferocious beastwoman ‘claiming’ them through their rest, he supposed. Both Dice and Wersa looked the same, their leathers and armors the same. Karmis had exchanged her dress for a functional leather suit, along with an armoured mantle and hood. An armoured headdress hung at her waist. He had heard of this, spell-castor armor was light-weight and heavily spelled. It was designed to protect heavily against physical attacks to vital areas like the neck and head. Karmis’ mantle was asymmetric, dipping down over her heart to form a heartguard. The armour was a deeper red than her previous dress. It must have cost a fortune, though he had no experience judging such a thing.

They walked casually until reaching the end of cleared area outside the settlement. Ina materialized out of the shade of a tree, showing herself as he had asked her to do. As Ina looked at the the members of their party, her tails slowly moved behind her, forming a confusing pattern that hurt his eyes to look at too long. Weras just looked at her coldly, hardly reacting. Dice had nearly gone for her blades, but had stopped herself. Karmis just smiled charmingly, and then gave him a stare.

She spoke, “What a lovely beast. She is quite beautiful. You’re a lucky Tamer.”

He responded politely, “Thank you for your kind words, I will pass them on to Ina.”

Her compliments were more like barbs full of implication. She was all but suggesting he was a pervert, but of course they were true, so he simply ignored them.

“Indeed. Did you have things you needed to tell us before we begin?” her voice, despite the question, sounding like a command.

“I have a route planned and a number of good places for resting. My only question is how fast we will move. Do you have some extra means?” He looked at Karmis, making his implication just as clear as she had previously made hers.

She laughed, “You are worried I will be too slow? Wersa, show him.”

Wersa grunted, and knelt on the ground, her back to Karmis. For the first time, he noticed Wersa had some leather hanging from the back of her armour. Karmis gingerly threaded the toe of her boot through a leather loop low on Wersa’s armor, she then grabbed another loop higher up Wersa’s back, before pull herself up. Finally, she threaded her last boot through an identical loop to the first.

Karmis intended to use Wersa as a steed, as was now obvious. He had never considered such a thing, but he had to admit she looked like a rider on a fine mare. Wersa’s lack of heavy armour made more sense in this context. She wanted mobility both for herself and her rider.

Wersa stood smoothly, while Karmis seemed to be concentrating to cast a couple of spells on them both. Dice didn’t bat an eye at of this, she must have seen this little trick some time before. He did notice Dice would stare at him every time he looked away. Where Karmis was direct, Dice was.. less so. He sighed, starting to cast spells on himself. He hoped he could keep up with the Warrior.