I mentioned before that I was so hungry I could easily gobble three steaks. Well, I devoured the whole roast ham the size of my thigh. Whatever grievances I felt against Deckard were forgotten the moment he took it out from his spatial storage and shoved it under my nose. I had no idea what beast or animal it came from, and honestly, I couldn’t care less. The smell of the meat was simply divine, making me drool even before I had taken a bite of the ham, and the taste...the taste was beyond words, bringing my taste buds to ecstasy.

Okay, I admit my hunger played a big part in the whole me pouncing on a ham like a wild beast, regardless of what others might say about my table manners. But at the same time, the relief that came with the slaying of the last rabbit, the realization that I had my team, my squad, my pack, and being accepted for who I was, rid me of the tension that was wracking my guts. With that gone, my cravings whetted all the more.

It didn’t take long, and as my stomach filled, blissful satisfaction, followed by weariness, settled in. The only thing that would make me any happier at that moment would be a bed. Any bed would do. The exhaustion that came after a good and hearty lunch was something that followed me throughout my life, and a bunch of mutations didn’t change that. There were some differences, though.

Despite all the skills, my fatigue was deeper. Well, my appetite was bigger, I ate more, and my stomach had more to digest. It was that simple, or so I believed. Then there were the actual signs of fatigue. While on Earth, I mostly fought with tired eyes. Here, with each bite, my wings dropped lower, and every mouthful torn from the bone that ended up in my stomach made my happy tail wag more sluggish.

But I held on, determined to finish the ham.

“Korra!” Harper screamed in my ear so loud it pricked my brain. Pushing her hand away from my shoulder to stop her from shaking me, I growled at her, my teeth bared. Best warning I could do, even though I was in my human form. It just didn’t have the same impact as with my fangs out.

“What?” I snapped at her as I gathered my wits.

“Awake? Good.”

What the hell was the baker woman babbling about?! “Why shouldn’t I be?”

Harper raised her eyebrows, wondering if I was fucking with her. “You dozed off. You know that, right?”

“No, I didn’t.” I wasn’t sleeping, was I? Wait! Was that big hunk of roast meat just a dream? If so, it was more like a cruel nightmare.

“You snored like a proper taurus lady,” chuckled Meneur. Whether I should take that as a compliment or an insult, I wasn’t sure.

“Yeah, you were snoring while licking that bone,” Freyde added, amused, gesturing to the fairly large and cleanly chewed white bone in my lap. The sense of relief that the piece of delicious meat was not just a dream and the shame of what I had done washed over me; I blew it.

At least those were my first thoughts, the thoughts of the old Korra’leigh, the one who went to Fallen’s Cry in the morning, hoping to impress her squadmates and convince them that she wasn’t just a dumb beast. Thankfully, fighting alongside them opened my eyes and allowed me to completely shed whatever scruples I had so far about the beast side of me, to act in front of them as my new nature as a hybrid between human and beast, urged me to do.

And so, I simply accepted what happened and laughed awkwardly while scratching the back of my neck. “Sorry.”

“Was it that good?” Freyde asked, the tips of his ears red. The quarter gnome was likely the only one who still found my nudity...distracting. Not that I didn’t understand him. I felt quite self-conscious myself, but all my private parts were covered by thick white fur, so...there was not much to see.

“I wonder, too,” Meneur grumbled. “You chased even Idleaf away with a growl when she wanted a taste.”

“That was pretty mean of you,” the spirit pouted as she emerged from behind the taurus, eyeing the gnawed bone. Her hurt look made me even more sorry. All the more so because no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t recall doing anything like that.

“Well, guys and gals, she strikes me as the type you have to keep fed,” Deckard threw in, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. “Take it from someone who’s been feeding her for a few days.”

Now he was just making fun of me. I was sure of that. He never thought of me as a beast, and so I couldn’t see his words as anything but a provocation, a way to piss me off.

To his disappointment, I reined my inner beast in and instead thought about what he said. Well, while I never considered myself someone who was grumpy when hungry, given what had happened, that was no longer true. And it wasn’t just today. When it came to food, my beast side simply had the upper hand.

So, I just shrugged, flicked my ears, waggled Sage, and grinned at them all. “That’s right. Keep me fed, and we’ll be friends.”

They all laughed.

***

As our lunch break came to an end, Pinescar came up with another round of rants about our performance before sending us off on another horned rabbit hunt. And we went, hunted down dozens more while making even more mistakes in the process but getting better with each fight. The sergeant then concluded the lesson, Squad Four’s first joint dive into the bowels of the Labyrinth, by descending with us to the second floor.

At least it was the way he intended it to end, simply to show the trio of my squadmates what such an advance to the next floor looked like and send them back to Castiana Barracks. Me telling him I’d stay here to catch a few rabbits for me to sell changed his mind. He saw it as an opportunity to show Meneur, Freyde, and Harper that diving into the depths of the Labyrinth wasn’t just about fighting the local flora and fauna.

And since Deckard, as it turned out, had no intention to teach me any new gimmicks today - apparently, I went through a fair share of shit, and the training he had in mind was better taken with a clear head and in a full-day session - I saw no reason not to demonstrate my squadmates how to do that. Not that I was an expert. Actually, the bear terran siblings to whom I was selling my catches always reminded me of the lousy job I did. But since being a butcher, skinning animals, gutting them, and carving still warm meat was not my dream job, I was rather proud of what I could do regardless of the quality.

This time I hunted alone on the second floor and made it a quick business. I simply hit the horned rabbit with my presence, and before it shook it off, I broke its neck.

“Deckard?” I asked through the link of the union rings. There was no need to say more. He knew I asked him for skinning and butcher knives. Sure, I could have done the job with my claws, and believe me, I tried. But the result I judged myself wasn’t even worth trying to sell. The fur was full of holes, and the flesh was torn rather than cut.

Perhaps with enough practice, I’d be able to use my claws that way and save money on the tools meant for the job. Honestly, it sounded sweet to my ears. I found it too revolting and savage, though.

Says the chick who stuck her hand in the beast’s chest. I know. What could I say...during the fight, I simply found it different. It was either the beast or me. Now it was just me and...the carcass of the beast I killed.

“Shit!” Harper gurgled, putting her hand over her mouth just as I went about gutting the beast and the smell rolled out. It looked like I wasn’t the only one having a hard time with the process, the blood, and the stench.

“I t-thought you’d be used to this?” Freyde teased her, quite pale in the face himself.

“Why?” she barked back, gagging as she watched me. “I-I was a baker n-not a butcher, pointy ears.”

“Not what I meant. I f-figured you were the street-hardened type, used to everything.”

She gritted her teeth and held back another gag. “S-seriously? I m-may have met a few b-bitches...in my life who enjoyed making f-fun of me, b-b-but I wasn’t f-fucking street rat.”

“Are you sure?”

“If I w-were, I’d have gutted you l-l-long ago like Korra is g-gutting the rabbi-t...” She couldn’t take it anymore and hurried off to the side to dump the contents of her stomach in the grass. With a whiff of the ever-present breeze, the stench of vomit hit my nose a moment later. Were it a few days earlier, I’d have ended up bent over, leaning on my knees and barfing next to her just like the quarter-gnome did, not as strong as he tried to make himself out to be.

“Now you’re going to skin it?” Meneur surprised me with his question after I disemboweled the beast. The fine short black hair covering his whole body, including his face, made it impossible for me to tell how he fared. Though given his steady voice and the lack of need to suppress gags, he seemed okay.

“I’m going to. Are you okay?” Even though all that came out of my throat was a growl, there was no need for translation. My glance at Freyde and Harper bent over nearby said it all.

The squad mage snorted, amused at their misery. “Nah, don’t worry about me, Korra. I’ve processed a lot of beasts in my lifetime.”

“Oh...” Not exactly the most intelligent response. I know. I should have figured, considering what he did in the taurus clan. Thankfully, he passed over my dumb reaction with a smile and pointed to the rabbit’s carcass. “You want some help?”

That was an offer I couldn’t refuse. Skinning was the hardest part of the whole bloody process where I had to roll the quarter-ton beast from side to side several times. It would be best to hang the carcass, as Deckard said. There were tools for that, the tools he had with him. Only the bastard insisted that I handle the processing of the horned rabbit without those tools.

Thankfully, with Meneur’s help, it became a matter of minutes.

The taurus certainly wasn’t a regular mage. At least not the one I imagined mages to be. Unlike them, he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty and put them to work. He even turned out to know more about that gory business than I did, which, to be honest, was not too surprising. I even ended up taking a few pointers from him.

A little embarrassed but with understanding from the others, I threw the processed meat wrapped in the fur over my shoulder and proceeded to find a second horned rabbit to kill. That was my limit. I couldn’t take much more than that without decent spatial storage while in my human form, the form I had to be in to deal with the merchants. Not that I’d want to parade around Castiana in my beast form anyway. And since using my squadmates as my pack mules didn't sit well with me hence the limit of two rabbits.

Meneur, as well as Harper and Freyde, once they got their shit together, offered to help me with my baggage. But my stubbornness and drive to earn my money myself kicked in, and I gratefully declined.

Thus ended our first dive as Squad Four into Fallen’s Cry.

***

The pair of bear terran siblings - I really should find out the correct name for their kind - weren’t hard to find, their stall in the same spot as always. Tarlo and his sister Berengaria kept their word and bought the meat and pelts from me for twelve silvers, six for each rabbit. With that, my hoard grew to a whopping 32 silver.

Sure, not much considering the prices and standards of the seeker. Even when entering the city, I was given more as an aid. But my heart danced as I let my entire fortune appear in my palms for a brief moment. Things slowly began to turn in my favor. Though I didn’t dare say it out loud or think about it for more than a few heartbeats, lest I jinx it.

Apart from those dangerous thoughts, I couldn’t help thinking about what I could buy with the money. New and clean clothes, some equipment, food, good food, and...well, that all had to wait. Sergeant Pinescar advised me to get some essential equipment at the barracks. Although not an official member, I was part of the Castiana City Guards. Plus, if I wasn’t stubborn, the Imperial Chief Healer, Deckard, and I believed Rayden too, would have given me the basic equipment long ago.

Just like with my pointless clinging to my humanity it was time to throw aside the pride of mine and accept their help. I was actually kind of pissed at myself about it. In all that happened to me, I forgot what my mother used to tell me, even as she lay on her deathbed. There was no shame in accepting help from others if it was offered wholeheartedly.

Sure, behind the help of Lord Wigram was a gain for the Empire; Rayden was doing it for Castiana City Guards and Deckard because he was stuck on the bottlenecks I was supposed to help him with, or rather the training of me was supposed to help him with that. So yeah, it wasn't a selfless act on their part. None of them tried to hide their reasons and were open about it, though. And perhaps it was my naive belief, but they held a grain of genuine concern and the desire to lend me a hand.

Yet, before I was going to take advantage of their generosity, I had one stop to make first, the library. I didn’t catch Mr. Sandoval all day yesterday, and it actually made me concerned if something had happened to him.

Well, those worries grew even more as I found the library closed today, too. Was the librarian sick or just away? Where? What if someone hurt him? After all, he was looking into the origins of my mutations, so…many questions swirled through my mind. Unfortunately, Mr. Sandoval didn’t bother to hang an explanatory sign on the door; the library was just locked.

Then as my concern for the old man grew and I pondered what to do, my ears twitched at the coughing and a ball of crumpled paper hit my head. Reminded of my high school years, I looked around and when I didn't find the thrower I picked up the crumpled note.

[Theodore Sandoval is fine. Met with Lord Wigram. Now with Margaterth Willowreaver, his friend.]

That was a load off my mind. Seriously, knowing the old man was okay meant a lot to me so I mouthed a silent thank you under my breath, hoping Agent Sah would catch it before I headed for the barracks, wondering what the Imperial Chief Healer could possibly want with the librarian. Well, with Theodore Sandoval. Seriously, his name was Theodore? And who the hell was Margaterth Willowreaver?

***

“Hello, Travis,” I greeted Captain Rayden’s assistant. The young man was sitting at a table overflowing with stacks of papers. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he didn’t give a shit about his job and let the papers just pile up on his desk. There never seemed to be any less of them.

He finished the paper in front of him first before looking up, to my surprise, not embarrassed at all after he found out it was me. Instead, fatigue appeared in his eyes.

“Do you know how much work I got stuck with in the last few days just because of you, Miss Grey?”

I could imagine that. “Sorry, I mean it.” I really did. It was never my intention to cause problems for others. Unfortunately, life saw it differently; no matter how much I tried, troubles had always found me and swept away the others with me.

Travis sighed, massaged his neck, and then gave me a weary smile. “What is it now? Did you trip over a mythical monster somewhere in Castiana, or did Traiana speak to you again?” Apparently, he already got the report about the apparition of Fallen’s Cry patron that, for once, I didn’t see alone.

“What if I did...?” I returned his blatant provocation with a smile of my own.

He chuckled tiredly. “More work for me. So, to whom do I owe your visit?”

“Sergeant Pinescar. Actually, Ensign Trueglow is the reason why I’m here.”

“Why would she send you to me?”

“Well, Sergeant said I should get essential gear if I want to keep delving into Fallen’s Cry as a member of Squad Four, but...I’m not exactly a city guard, I don’t have a rank, and Ensign Trueglow refused to assign me anything until she got the order from above.”

“Oh, I imagine she wasn’t so polite about it.”

“She was pretty rude,” Idleaf butted in as she appeared beside him, examining the papers on his desk. “What are you doing here, Travis Seamane?” They’ve already had the pleasure of meeting. Actually, the first time I came here as her Guardian. Not that it would have prepared him for the scare. Judging by his expression and silent curse, she scared the shit out of him with her suddenly popping up just like that. I could be wrong, but I suspected Idleaf had fun doing that.

“Don’t mind her,” I told him, giving the spirit an I’ll-explain-it-to-you-later look. “Anyway, that’s why I came to you, but if it requires Captain’s approval, then...”

“That’s not necessary,” he stopped me, eyeing the spirit of the World Tree as she turned back and forth a printed form she took from one of the piles. Travis opened the desk drawer and took out a different one, which he immediately began to fill at a speed I considered inhuman. “The Captain said you might show up. Here. Show this to Trueglow. I’m not saying she won’t give you crap, but she’ll assign the stuff to you.”

“I’ll survive, thanks. Can I call you Travis or...?” I wasn’t aware that we’d ever been formally introduced.

The young man threw me a smile. “Ensign Travis Seamane. I know, not the name from around here. I ran into Captain in one of the coastal towns and have stuck with her ever since. It’s up to you, but if you call me Travis like most people do, I won’t mind.”

“Well, Travis.” Why call him anything else if he didn’t mind, right? “I’m Korra’leigh Grey. Call me Korra.”

“Idleaf, I’m Idleaf,” the spirit stuck out her hand, excited to introduce herself...again.

***

“You two again,” Trueglow growled, her dark eyes piercing us both. Despite her size, a good half a head shorter than me, she gave the impression of someone I didn’t want to piss off. Which I did just by showing up at the barracks warehouse.

[Weapon Master: lvl ??]

“Are you just going to stand there, or are you waiting for me to invite your ass in?” she said as she rose from her chair and headed further into the building.

“Don’t you need to see...?”

“Just leave it on the table and get your ass over here.”

“But...”

“That’s why I don’t like dealing with civilians. They’re dumb,” she muttered under her breath, but deliberately loud enough for me to hear her.

“Look, you wouldn’t be here if the paper in your fucking hand didn’t say to give you some equipment, so...” She pointed to the spot next to her, and I didn’t dare linger any longer.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“You too, spirit.”

“I’m Idleaf.”

“Um-hmm,” hummed the woman, dully accepting her introduction. She didn’t show any rudeness, but neither did she try to be polite. Instead of introducing herself back, she looked over at me.

“Essential equipment?”

“Yes, and Sergeant Pinescar mentioned the outfit-spatial rings...”

“Shifter, huh? Show me your form.”

“Here?”

“Traiana’s tits, unless you’re turning into a fish, then damn right here. I need to see what you look like so I can assign you the right gear.”

It made sense, and so, albeit a bit unplanned, I shifted into my beast form. So much for my plan to conserve as much energy and nutrients as possible for the necessary transformations, but since it looked like I could get the shifter gear, the sergeant was talking about here, I was willing to take the chance.

Who knows when I’ll have a change of heart again and find this help... rubbing me the wrong way? Not that it was sitting well with me right now. Anyway, my temporarily shelved pride aside, I stood there in my beast form, waiting to hear what the woman had to say.

“Not that massive a change. Strong anthro legs, flimsier arms, small tits. Yeah, it’ll work. I’ll find something here for you. Follow me.” Her assessment aside, after a brief hesitation about whether to change back or not, I followed Trueglow in my beast form and, aided by Idleaf, whose eyes glowed with excitement at the sight of the tools and gear in the warehouse, I got mine.

***

“Are you sure it was her?”

“The description fits the bitch,” the man spat at the other’s feet, daring him to say shit about it. He didn’t, just grunted, but let it go. There were far worse things covering the ground in the narrow alley.

“It doesn’t say a dang word about runes and glowing eyes.”

“You fucker. It also didn’t say anything about her being a summoner or level fucking 113, and so what? Does it make a difference?”

“What if it’s not her?”

The brute, one apparently in command, smashed his hand into a brick wall, leaving a fist print. “You heard the dickheads at the barracks gate: Good afternoon, Grey.” He mimicked the city guards, sarcasm and contempt abound. “Korra Grey, she’s the bitch.”

“Our balls are on the line. I hope you’re not wrong.”

“Seriously, why did they assign a cunt like you to me? If I were you, I’d worry about your fucking mind instead of balls. You can always pay some pretty healer girl to grow you a new pair, but once they wreck your mind, you’re screwed.”

“That’s why I wear this,” said the other, pointing to the pendant around his neck.

The man snickered when he saw the trinket. “Maybe they’ve done you good already. Come on, let’s go report this shit.”

Without another word, the two left the alley and mingled among the people on the street, unaware of the shadow that moved in the alley. The Imperial Agent followed in their footsteps shortly thereafter.