Grant skeptically looks over the palanquin that I had built for him; It's identical to mine. I considered just making him ride in a featureless wooden box, but Sarah would have gotten mad. Grant isn't that bad, really. I might still be holding a grudge from when he almost spilled alcohol on me at the party.

My drones are stowing the last of our stuff, there's a separate luggage box for most of it. Sarah hands off a bundle of five swords. Who needs five swords? Especially when her main one is so great!

I look up at Grant, "Last chance to back out."

My offer is met with a jolly smile, "Trying to get rid of me already, your goodness? I know you don't like human company, but I was hoping you were used to me at least!"

Pouting, I quickly look away, "You're not so bad. Not my favorite human, but I trust you, I guess."

The man just laughs, "Ha! Good enough!" He strokes his chin, I made him shave all his facial hair off before the trip, "I will admit, riding in a box being carried by a drake, is a bit nerve racking. But think of the stories I'll have to tell, no one will believe this one!"

Sarah finishes looking over the supplies and walks over to us, clapping Grant on the shoulder, "You're a brave man, Grant. Wouldn't be a surprise if you got a hero class evolution after this."

Bleh, human solidarity. At first, Sarah wanted to ride with Grant, to keep him company or something stupid, but I whined and complained and basically threw a fit until she relented and agreed to stay with me. I'm not proud of it, but you can't argue with the results.

Grant grins back at the hero, "I'd better get a heroic class after riskin' my hide like this!"

I roll my eyes, "Are you even close to level forty?"

"Twenty four!" The adventurer proudly proclaims.

I just stare up at the adventurer, my tail gently sways back and forth. Grant's smile falters and he shifts uncomfortably, "Uh, is that a problem?"

"Weak." I point at the offending human.

"Ren!" Sarah admonishes, "He's at a perfectly normal level for his age, above average actually!"

My hand covers my mouth but completely fails to hide my snickering. Grant looks more confused than embarrassed. Sarah just sighs with her hands on her hips. "You know what happens to bratty little Vess."

Sarah takes a menacing step towards me, and I automatically stumble back, right into Sarah's embrace. When did she get behind me?

Impossibly strong arms close around me like a vice. I squirm and kick, but it's useless. I'm lifted off the ground, hugged against the hero's chest, while her fingers creep closer and closer towards my sides. I try wrapping my tail around her leg to throw her off balance, but my two strength fails me again.

Sarah's fingers dig into my sides, and I squeal, giggling as she relentlessly tickles me. "Stooooppp!!!" I scream, "Not fair!"

My tormenter grins, "Ohhh it's plenty fair. Might makes right!"

"Please! Please!" I gasp between fits of giggles. My tail is whipping around uncontrollably, smacking Sarah in the face a few times. For her part, she just laughs and continues her assault. After enough kicking and squirming, Sarah finally shows mercy and puts me down.

"Well?" Sarah smooths my dress down and fixes one of the ribbons wrapped around my horns, "Apologize to Grant. We are going to start trying to get along with humans who are helping us."

I wipe the moisture from the corners of my eyes and grab my tail, hugging it to get it under control. Peeking up at Sarah, she looks pretty serious. Is she really trying to make Grant a permanent thing? I guess it would be nice to have more humans I can rely on… "Okay, sorry Grant. It's not your fault you're a weak, short lived human."

Grant belts out a jolly laugh and Sarah groans, "You brat." She reaches menacingly for my tail.

"I'm going into the palanquin to take a nap!" I stiffly turn and run over to my box, climb up into it, and slam the door. The chamber is pleasantly warm, a fire-like glow emanates from a stone embedded in the ceiling, a fire crystal from one of the dungeons.

I shed my cloak and throw myself onto the bed, sinking into the welcoming covers. This is going to be a four day trip. Two to get over the mountains and two to get to the main orc camp. I fully intend to take advantage of the downtime to catch up on some sleep, I only got eight hours last night!

Reaching out with my senses, I double check that all my Vess are in position. My main force of soldiers and squires are going to be two days behind my drakes, more or less. Enna estimates that the soldiers are going to take the most time to cross the mountains, then they will make up the lost time speeding effortlessly over the plains.

The door opens; Sarah and Enna enter while chatting and sit down at the table. "I think it would be fine. Again, he's proven he's a good guy a bunch of times." Sarah removes her sword and kicks off her boots.

Enna crosses her legs, tapping a claw on the table, "Perhaps. My opinion of him will be better defined after this quest." She looks over to me, "Your grace, would you object to Sarah taking the man, Grant, into a dungeon for training?"

I roll over and sit up a little, clutching the blankets just in case there is another tickle attack. "Mm, it's fine? I trust Sarah."

"I've talked to him over drinks a bunch of times. He can be a little much," The hero admits with a rueful smile, "But he's trustworthy. Everyone in the village likes him."

"Town." I correct.

"Huh?" Sarah gives me a blank look.

"We have a road, a mayor, a market, and an adventurer's guild. I think Blackroad qualifies as a town now."

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Sarah lets out an easy laugh, "Sure, sure."

Closing my eyes, I let my senses shift into one of my scouts. I watch as the drakes lift off, flapping their wings and screeching as they ascend. The palanquin lurches, but quickly stabilizes.

The Spinesnape mountains reach into the sky, some high enough to touch the clouds. They are a proper fantasy mountain range with snow on top and everything. The cliffs used to be crawling the monsters until my Vess swept through, devouring everything for XP like a swarm of locusts, not even the deep winding caves and their inhabitants were spared.

From this high I can see the forest and plains of Lotheris stretching out from the base of the mountains. Pretty much a generic fantasy starting zone, in my opinion. The land is just forest and rolling hills, plenty of farming and hunting, not too many monsters.

I'm looking forward to going somewhere a little more exciting. Apparently, the lands to the west are much flatter, with far fewer trees and far more monsters.

The scout dutifully flies close to my palanquin, giving me a breathtaking view around me. We are passing over a small vale with a large glittering lake. Giant deer with glittering crystals on their horns and vines growing off their bodies look up at us as we pass by. If we couldn't fly, we would probably have an encounter with them, something magical and dangerous and exciting.

I sigh in relief.

My daydream about the encounter with the deer is interrupted when I feel the bed depress next to me. Opening my eyes, I see Sarah has sat down next to me looking very green.

"Are you okay?" I quickly ask, sitting up and scooching next to her.

She swallows, "I'll be fine, I'm much better compared to when we first took off." The hero looks down at me, I don't like the expression on her face, "Ren, I've been thinking. We need to talk."

My face falls and I have to physically fight myself not to burrow under the covers and run away. Sarah is cool. She's not going to hurt me. I nod.

"Ironhead is dead, isn't he?"

I shoot an accusatory glare at Enna, "Did she tell you?"

Sarah shakes her head, "It wasn't hard to figure out, plus you are easy to read." She takes a deep breath when the palanquin sways a bit further than usual. After a few moments she gathers herself and continues, "I don't like how casually you killed him, and you didn't even come to me for help."

I look down at my hands and fidget.

Sarah sighs, "Why did you kill him?

"Why?" I look up, "Because he was rude and stupid and annoying. Because he should have known not to mess with me, I mean, who acts that way towards a queen? It's my town, it's so annoying that he thinks he can just walk in and act like that, so stupid, humans are so stupid and small. He deserved to be swatted like the ant he-" I slap a hand over my mouth and look up at Sarah.

Her face is impassive. "Ren. You're important to me, you're the only other person from earth that I know. I need that connection." She pauses to pat my head, running a finger over a horn, "I guess I haven't been taking you seriously enough, I'm sorry." She bows her head slightly.

I throw up my hands, waving them frantically, "No, no! It's okay."

"It's not, and it's dangerous." Sarah steels her expression, "You're adorable, so when you talk about how much you hate humans, it's easy to just brush off."

"I don't hate humans." I grump, "It's hard to explain. My Vess feel safe and familiar. Whenever a human looks at me, I just feel mistrust or alienation or something. And humans are always acting like they are above me; it pisses me off so bad, it's like an instinctive reaction."

"Not all humans think they are above you. Don't you think you're being unfair to my race?"

My mouth hangs open, struggling to find words. I can feel myself begin to curl inward, away from this conversation.

"Look," Sarah wraps an arm around me and draws me close, hugging me, "I've really been trying to think about things from your perspective. You barely remember anything about your life on earth, and you have all these new feelings and instincts from being Vess, you really are more Vess than human and I don't think I've been conscious of that."

She stops to rub my arm, and squeeze me, giving me some time to think. All I can think about is how badly I want to sleep.

"It's okay," The hero's voice is gentle, "You know, you've been doing so good since we got to the Spinesnap. You haven't been sleeping as much, you've been going out and talking to the refugees, you've really been facing the world head on instead of hiding from it."

I squirm; this is bad. Abort. Abort. This was already a dangerous conversation, but it just took a turn for the deadly. My brain is desperately shutting down all unnecessary systems and preparing for a crash landing.

"You can talk to me, if you want." She brushes some hair out of my eyes, "I don't like the anti-human talk, but I understand that, to an extent, you can't help it. I also know that you are a kind, sweet girl. I know that you don't just kill randomly, you only hurt people who threaten you. I'm not going to ask that you stop or even change your behavior."

Tears are pooling in my eyes; I rub them with the heels of my hands.

"All I ask is that you try to be mindful of yourself and keep me in mind." Sarah kisses me on the side of my head, "And I have to do a better job too!"

I glance up at her, "What?"

She grins, "Well, if you only feel the need to kill in response to being threatened, I just need to do a better job protecting you, so you don't feel that way. I'm trying to focus on the stuff that I can control."

"Um," I hesitate, "I think when a big man yells at me or tries to, I dunno, talk down to me, I get triggered." I sniff, and lean more into the hero, "There's this memory, it's vague, but it is really upsetting. I think it happened when I was really little. It's stupid, it shouldn't bother me so much, but it does."

Sarah's voice is gentle, "It's not stupid. It's painful to you and that's real."

I think I might be shaking a little. Sarah seems to figure out that I'm done because she moves me into bed, tucking me under the covers and lying down next to me. "How about a nap? I think we'll both feel better after some sleep?"

I nod and turn the opposite direction, curling up. I'm having a really hard time retracting my claws.

The memory is painful, but I examine it anyway. Older man, bigger than me, bald with a bushy mustache. Yelling at me, making me feel small and ashamed, like I did something unforgivable.

I shiver. I never want to be at the mercy of someone like that ever again. Someone in a position of authority, abusing me, making me believe that something is wrong with me. The thought makes my heart race, I feel sick, I want to hide. I can't let someone have power over me like that. Never again. Never.

I wish I could send Enna back to protect my past self. To tell her that it's okay and I'm not broken. It's stupid, I know I'm not broken, I know I'm a good person. But a part of me just can't let go. A part of me believes I am shameful, and I am wrong, and I'm afraid it will always be that way. My throat contracts, I can't seem to swallow anymore, and breathing isn't as easy as it should be.

Stupid old man, hurting me. He was a human too.

The thoughts really resonate with the Vess part of me. The man I can't remember was weak. He was as emotionally intelligent as a piece of shit. He should never have had power over me; he doesn't deserve to have power over me. He was wrong and he's beneath me and he should be killed and ground down into black paste and smeared across the walls of my hive. My claws are almost painfully extended now, and my tail is curling around my leg so tightly I let out a whimper of pain.

Sarah wraps her arms around me and pulls me back into her. It's really warm. It helps, if only a little, and my claws retract. I curl my tail around Sarah and blow out a long breath.

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