It was the day after Aliya left Erend. Fern was ready to take the lull in pressing activities to gather more information about the beautiful bird-like creature he saw only a few days ago. He was already waiting by the northern gate for Ciylia and Meowlynn to arrive. They wanted to grab some last minutes things for their trip.

The sky was clear of cloud with a small chilling breeze blowing in from the Stormclasp sea to the far east of the city. Wind always had a way of making things travel across impossible distances. The young druid created a sphere that floated above his palm so that he could check the weather for the next 24 hours. It showed nothing but clear skies for the day so at least that was something to look forward to. He was thankful that rainfall wasn't going to hamper their progress.

The waiting was killing him and he had begun pacing at the gate when his two companions showed up. "Took you long enough," he said impatiently.

"Sorry," chuckled Meowlynn. "I had to pick up some materials for my magic and Ciylia had to purchase some more arrows. But now we are ready to go."

"Well, the weather is in our favour. Let's set out and use our hours of sunlight well," grumbled Fern.

"Yeah, yeah," shrugged Ciylia. "Follow me. I know the way best when it comes to forests."

The trio set out of the city, Fern was bubbling with excitement. The air was crisp and slightly stun the back of his throat when he took a deep breath. He had to slightly pull the silver fur he wore around his shoulders across his chest. He wasn't able to grow hair on his body except for above his neck. The druid didn't enjoy the feeling of his nipples being erect from the cold and then rubbing against his garments.

The fur seemed to have some sort of magic attached to it, but that could have been because his mind thought it did. It was a gift from his grandfather who claimed he found this fur on an island far away, where giant lizard-like creatures that were in abundance. His grandfather had drawn pictures of them and fern always thought they looked cool but believe they weren't real because he was never able to shift into them.

He couldn't explain why but he always thought about his grandfather the closer it got to his birthday. Even the magical silver fur was a gift from him. But the last he heard, the old man was dead. He succumbed to illness or old age on one of his adventures.

These thoughts occupied Fern's thought until Ciylia motioned for the group to stop. The sounds of laughter filled the space in front of them. The group slowly crept closer while being as quiet as possible. Ciylia was slowly guiding Meowlynn through the leaves and twigs on the ground to make sure that she didn't cause a loud cracking sound that would alert whoever was ahead of them.

Ahead were giant, lumbering, thick green-skinned humanoids. One look at them it was easy to recognize them as orcs. They were taking turns throwing rocks at a man tied to a post. Orcs were a rare enough sight already but that man on the post was the second cursed blood he had seen in his life, and it was only a few days ago since he had seen his last. The druid's brain was racing with confusion. Was there some sort of unrest in the world that he did not notice? He had never even heard of the cursed-bloods until Gene told him and now they were popping up like weeds.

That man's violet skin did little to mask the red blood that dripped from a wound on his head where a rock had hit him. The sight of blood only made the green oafs laugh more deeply.

"Should we free him," asked Ciylia as quietly as she could while still letting her companions hear her.

"Not our problem," replied Meowlynn. A tiny piece of copper was in her hand. She placed it on her throat as she mouthed words and the words appeared inside their heads.

"We can always get him to help us," suggested Fern. "An extra set of hands can't be a bad thing."

"I hate to say it," sighed Ciylia. "But, I agreed with Fern. Worst case scenario is we will have to kill him and that should be easy given the man's current condition."

"Fine," grumbled Meowlynn. "I'm not taking any responsibility if things go south."

The Jellybeans crept closer and took up their positions. Ciylia has an arrow knocked and ready to fly into an orc and Meowlynn was preparing to roast another.

Fern transformed into a spider and skittered along the ground towards one of the three orcs that were tossing the rocks. The half-elf has full confidence that his two teammates would take care of the two in the back that looked like there were watching their camp. With any luck, the trio would wipe out three of the five orcs before they even knew an enemy was attacking them.

Once the tiny spider-shaped druid reached his target, he began to climb up his leg. The climb went quickly but on the way up Fern was regretting making this orc his target. The orc in question wore his top very loose making the next part of his ambush more noticeable. Fern would have to climb on the inside of the brute’s shirt and prayed that the wind was kind to not allow the shirt to rub against the orc’s skin as he was climbing.

Fern leaped to the man’s shirt and carefully started to climb up. He could still hear the orc tossing rocks at their prisoner until he felt an uncomfortable heat surrounded him. “That stupid wench roasted the wrong person,” thought Fern. The spider tried to drop off of the burning man but the orc fell backward and started rolling on the ground.

Fern’s worse fear had come true, complete mission failure. The druid braced himself for the inevitable outcome. The orc roll and Fern heard the exoskeleton of his spider form crunch and felt his inner burst out. Once that happened, the orc’s shirt ripped off his body as Fern laid there in his half-elven form prepared to be slashed at.

The fire burned the orc and the cursed-blooded man was laughing. The orc looked at the pathetic-looking form of Fern but walked away preferring to teach the laughing prisoner a lesson.

An orc that was on the lookout had other plans. He marched up to Fern as he was scrambling to his feet and swung an axe down. The druid tried to roll out of the way of the attack but wasn’t able to completely dodge it. It sliced through part of his liver and embedded itself into the ground. Blood began squirting from the wound and Fern groaned from the immense pain.

As he turned to face his attacker, a bolt of fire from Meowlynn scorched the orc's body and an arrow pierced through its throat but that didn't kill the orc. Finally, Fern got to his feet and morph his body into a bear. He then opened his maw and bit the bastard where he was sliced. Anger had gotten the better of Fern and even though he knew it was wrong and savage he chewed out the liver and ate it happily. He then noticed an orc going to the tied-up cursed blooded male and three were going to his allies.

Fern decided to save the demonic-looking man because that was the whole reason they even engaged these orcs. In addition, the young half-elf had a lot of confidence in his teammates. They defeated Shield and people that could become half animal and half man, how hard could some orcs be?

The bear-shaped Fern ran to the man tied to his post and his would-be assassin. Instead of attacking the dark green-skinned man, the bear swung its claws at the rope that bound the prisoner to the post. Fern’s claws couldn’t completely rend the rope but it was enough for the man to free himself. He kicked off the post as hard as he could and the rope’s strands snapped allowing the purple-skinned demon to stand on solid ground.

With his freedom, the man dashed into a nearby tent. While he was doing that, the confused orc swung a scimitar into Fern’s flank. The boar roar in pain as the cursed-blooded man emerged from the tent with two scimitars of his own. He dragged one of the blades across his neck and flames erupted from his blood.

Fern flinched slightly at this sight. Could all cursed-blooded people do that with their blood? The sound of fighting was happening near the bushes on Fern’s right side. Meowlynn dashed out of the tree line and into the camp. Throwing a bolt of fire at an orc hitting him in the chest, but he didn’t fall. Meowlynn had a deep gash on her left arm and had a look of fear lingering in her eyes.

Shortly afterward, Ciylia also broke from the tree line and fired an arrow but missed. Blood was staining her armour in many places where it appeared she was stabbed. The wood elf looked like she was about to fall over.

The orcs pursued the fleeing duo and started slashing. The closest one to Ciylia attacked her but she barely dodged to the side but one of the orcs was waiting for her to do this and skewed Ciylia through her gut. The hulking man then kicked her off his blade and made his way towards Meowlynn. The final man slashed at Meowlynn with his greataxe, she tried to use an arcane barrier to slow the attack down but that's all it did. The big axe sliced down her chest. Luckily, the cut was shallow and the only place really bleeding was her left breast that got hit. This still didn't stop the weight of the axe from knocking her to the ground though.

Fern chose to ignore the orc beside him and rushed to help his allies. The demonic man would have to fend for himself. He has a burning blade so the druid wasn't too worried about the man. The bear rushed at the orc that just stabbed Ciylia and bit the top of his head with his massive jaws and then used his sharp claws to help him tear the head from the body.

The now freed prisoner pointed the scimitar that had flames dancing upon it at the orc and muttered something in a language that was guttural, deep, and sounded very demonic. Some of the red flames jumped off of the blade and onto the orc. As they touched the man, they changed from red to bright blue with hints of green. The muscular leafy-skin toned man tried to pat out the weird flames but they dance around his hands. Then, the eyes of the cursed man glowed dark red as it appeared there was a fire made of blood burning from his eyes. The self-induced cut on his neck erupted into flames and this caused the fire on his blade to swell in size. The weird flames dancing on the orc also grew in size and some of the wisps of fire seeped into the orc's skin. Pure horror consumed the orc as he watched his veins and arteries glow through his thick body. The demonic man then swung the flaming scimitar that the glowing male. The fire from the blade and on the orc's body flew to one another and formed a line of fire from the sword to the orc's neck. The orc tried to dodge out of the way but was so preoccupied with the burning blade that he forgot about the second sword the cursed blooded man was holding. As he moved to the side felt the second scimitar slam into the side of his neck, stopping his movement. The poor man glanced just in time to watch as the fiery sword cleanly cut off his head. The demonic man only chuckled slightly.

Meowlynn began to panic and lifted up her wand, "Get the fuck away from me!" A giant green bubble came out of the stick and splash on the two remaining orcs. One of their faces melted from the acid that sprayed from the bubble. His brain spilled out of the side of his head as the bone and flesh quickly disintegrated. The other orc was quick enough to raise his arm and allowed it to melt. The last surviving orc dragged his greataxe and swung it up at the helpless wizard. The blade sliced up her chest, blood sprayed from the opening and the high elf slumped over.

Enraged, Fern slashed at the huge orc and ripped off the melting arm with his claw then tried to bite him. Using his remaining arm the orc punched the bear in the side of the face causing the bear's teeth to miss their mark. Even though blood was leaking from the stub of an arm, the orc didn't flinch or show fear. He had a face of determination.

That determination vanished as quickly as it appeared when a sword covered in magical fire went through his back. Fern and the orc were so focused on each other that both parties forgot about the demonic man. He pulled his blade out of the dead orc and the flames snuffed themselves out.

Fern changed back to himself and administered some healing magic to Ciylia first. Using the magic that flowed through nature, he allowed the elf's body to repair itself. The wound was almost fatal but because of the timely healing, Ciylia's shallow breathing returned to normal.

The druid then went to help Meowlynn. He pushed her flesh close together so that the magic didn't have to travel far to close the gash in her chest. Fern did his best to focus on helping her but could help but think of the beauty he was touching, not to mention where he had to touch her so he could heal her. His face became beat red but he still continued to work. He would think about asking her on a date later but for now, he'd have to avoid the subject. Dating within a team never ends in happiness. Maybe once the group got tired of being together he'd take his chances. Unless an even more beautiful lady appeared in his life. The young half-elf was so lost in thought he didn't realize he was done healing her until he felt a smack across his face.

"What was that for," he yelled.

"You pervert! You were groping me!" Meowlynn shouted back.

"I was not," said Fern while lowering his tone. "I was healing you. It's not my fault your big breasts acted like a shield for you."

"They are big aren't they," laughed Meowlynn. "Thanks for saving my life. Consider that as your payment. You are still giving me my promised pay after this is over."

With the party stabilized, the trio turned to the cursed-blooded man. "Thanks for rescuing me," he said in a smooth voice. "My name is Blaine."