I sighed in relief again as my plate mail appeared on my body, my spear and shield in hand I turned to see the looks of astonishment on my sister's faces and smiled.

“This is one of the improvements I learned of on the mainland, come feel it, the mainlanders use this material to armor themselves before a fight.” My words brought them out of their surprise, and they took my suggestion to heart to come forward to feel the hard metal or tap on it with their hands.

“Like removable scales,” I heard one of them say. “It’s hard as a rock, if not harder,” said another as they gathered around me.

“With this, defeating the goblins should be an easy task, I plan on armoring all of like this for the coming battle,” the chatter around me died down at that, but the excitement of the warriors only grew. Before they could get out of hand though, I held out my arm and conjured a sizable ball of flame above my hand. There were gasps of shock and my sisters backed away to give me some room to breathe. “And with this, I can protect us from the goblins ice magic,” the small gathering muttered among themselves.

“Magic?”

“She’s a speaker.”

“Does she commune with flames as Rulan speaks to nature?” Were among some of the things I could pick out, they seemed to have formed their own way of casting magic. Sometimes it did feel like I was negotiating or coaxing my mana to do what I imagined, Rulan certainly had no problems from what I could see, I decided to go with it.

“Yes my friends, Lubus has taught me how to command flames, but that is not the whole story,” I paused to see my sisters looking at me expectantly, waiting for what I would say next. “My power may include fire, but that is not where it comes from, it’s the sun itself that nourishes me,” I said and threw my arms up in the air as if to cup the yellow ball hanging in the sky. As I bathed in the suns rays, I noticed my mana refilling slower than I was used to, was it because my armor was in the way? That must be it, that was the only thing I could think of that was different from before. It made me a bit uneasy if I ran out of mana I would have to reabsorb my armor to regenerate quickly. I sent a quick thought to Lubus, and he confirmed my suspicions.

That might be the case, but you shouldn’t need to worry, I have use of all my mana again, after all, Lubus answered accompanied with the feeling of him grinning like a fool. I felt him grow more severe as he continued, you should deal with your people for now though, they seem a little intense. I lowered my hands and looked down from my basking in the sun to see that he was right. Everyone was staring at me, with mouths agape, completely silent.

“But enough of this,” I said suddenly, “Nala,” she was among the crowd and closed her mouth with an audible click when her name was called. “I need you to divide everyone into two groups of the best archers and the best spearwomen,” Nala nodded before she stammered.

“Yes speaker, I mean first hunter… yes, Eshanai, I can do that, it’s just that,” and her eyes drifted to where the big corpse had been resting just a few moments ago, “what happened?”

“I learned many things on the mainland and brought a lot of those things with me. Let’s just say that I sacrificed the crab thing to allow me to make armor for all of you,” Nala accepted my answer and started organizing her warriors into two groups. She Likely held back a lot of her questions, but she would have her answers soon enough.

Shisha had been divided into the spear-wielding group along with two other Naga, Khosiss, and Minmahyosa were their names, with Minma being the youngest. They all stood proudly in a line as I approached, my wishes were thought to Red with a quick thought and three sets of identical, armor, shields, and spears appeared in front of the three Naga. I helped them put the armor on and showed them where all the straps were, they looked very menacing with their helms covering their faces. They were practicing with their new shields and spears as I made my way over to the next group. I was surprised to find Nala standing among the archer group.

“Well this is a surprise, I figured you wanted to be in the thick of the fight,” I said trying to be light-hearted, to my further surprise Nala grinned and gave a hearty laugh before answering.

“That might be true, but we can’t always have what we want. I have found that I can see the whole battle better from a distance and give better orders. Not to mention, you have more experience with this armor so you would be of more use commanding the melee fighters,” these were wise words coming from Nala, I felt a bit bad for doubting her before as I was reminded why she commanded the warriors.

“So, are you sure about these picks, Minma seemed a little young to be here if I’m being honest,” I said, wanting to know more about their abilities. While I knew them and had slept with all of them, I didn’t get many opportunities to see them fight.

“Minma might be young, but both you and I know how fierce she is in the bedroom,” we both chuckled at that and Nala continued. “Well, her fierceness translates to battle,” she gestured to the spear group and I saw that they had begun a sparring match to no doubt get used to their new gear. “Minma was one of the best fighters among the young hopefuls this year,” Nala said as I watched the young Naga slip out of the coils of her opponent and bash her shield against the back of her head, making the helmet fly off of Khosiss’s head. I couldn’t see Minma’s face of course but her bright yellow scales stood out while most of the other warriors had green or dark brown scales. Shisha was standing off to the side, watching, waiting her turn with the victor. Minma seemed to be winning, but the older Khosiss had more experience and soon had the younger woman pinned and trapped under her coils. “Her inexperience will be balanced out by Shisha and Khosis, they have been with me for a long time,” Nala said and I turned my head from the sparring to look at the archers standing just as proudly as the spear group had been.

“And these are your best archers?” I asked gesturing to the group of them.

“Certainly, they are trained to shoot rapidly and in succession to rain death on our enemies. In addition, Sikhez here is our best tracker, I’d say she is skilled enough to join your hunters, but she has chosen a different path,” Nala said and gestured to the woman standing straight-backed and proud beside her sisters.

“I know,” I said as I slithered in front of the woman. My hand stroked her cheek and rested against it as she gave me a mischievous smirk. “I never could convince you to join the hunters, no matter how hard I tried,” I said and smirked back at her, Sikhez’s hand came to rest on top of mine and her smile grew more tender.

“You tried very hard, and I always enjoyed it,” she said and we both chuckled, “I would like to have you again sometime, I hope my decision hasn’t ruined things between us,” she nuzzled her cheek into my hand, I could never be angry at her for long, not at any of my sisters.

“Never, you know that, it’s not my place to decide the path your life will take. You will always be welcome in my bed, but you might need punishment,” I teased, and enjoyed the blush that came over her cheeks and the shiver that traveled up her body. I pecked her on the lips before I turned to look at the other two archers standing beside her. They had been watching as it turned out, and were both sporting grins from ear to ear. Racki and Tiva quickly straightened but struggled to school their features under my cool gaze.

I had a different idea for the archer's armor, they needed to be more flexible, so I sent my wishes to Red again hoping it would work. I hadn’t seen him absorb what I had in mind, but he should have the materials memorized. Four sets of studded leather armor appeared in front of every archer including Nala, it came with a thin chainmail shirt underneath for further protection. I helped them with the straps and buckles as I had with the fighters, Rulan wanted one of these armors as well so I summoned one for her and an adjusted one for Lilian. Lubus still refused to put any form of protection on, stating that his newly unlocked magic would be enough to protect him. Lubus acted a bit strange around me after that, always avoiding eye contact, if I was not mistaken, the feelings flowing through our link were embarrassment, but mostly jealousy. Was it because of the way I had greeted Sikhez? I wasn’t sure, I would have to ask him later when things calmed down.

Despite his feelings, Lubus was very helpful, suggesting that the mages should be in the middle with me and the fighters in front and Nala’s archers in the back. I suggested it to Nala and she accepted it readily. We were finally on our way to rescue our people and maybe get rid of the goblins for good. Rulan kept the grasping vines and roots at bay, as she had done before. I couldn’t help but wonder how the goblins managed to travel through the jungle and not get snatched by the plants. Perhaps they had enslaved some beast that could help them with that, or they might have some other magic that we didn’t know about. If not, that would mean we were the only ones capable of traveling through the woods safely. Well, not safely, but safe from the plants at least.

The sun sank lower on the horizon, and we decided to make camp for the night and attack the goblins' cave in the morning. With Red back on my side, setting up camp was an easy thing. Tents for everyone appeared, already set up, and a place for a fire was set up with a kettle hanging over it. Lubus set up his wards around the camp, to warns us of approaching danger. After eating a delicious stew prepared by Lilian, we sat around what remained of the fire telling stories. I told them of what I had seen and experienced on the mainland, they were doubtful that anyone could build such things with their bare hands and argued that humans must use similar powers as I had displayed with Red. They scoffed when I insisted that they indeed did use their bare hands, but the arguments were put to rest when I asked about what had happened while I had been gone. Lilian had a hard time following, but I translated the important parts.

Rulan, Sikhez, and I went to my tent for what promised to be a fun night. I found Lubus waiting for me, at first I was happy to see him, perhaps he wanted to join us. I could show my sisters the wonders of men, but the scowl on his face stopped me in my tracks. I sent the others in ahead and took Lubus aside to hear what he wanted.