________________________________________________

Elaria

Elaria thought over the past hour as she laid against Leo's warm back, as he carried her to Telnar. It was just supposed to be a normal patrol, her calming walk along the river. Now she felt like a part of her cracked from the stress, and was moments from another breakdown.

‘Gods, this is why I joined a border guard and not the core military. I can fight just fine, in fact I love to, only two other people and my sister could match me in basic. Put me in a situation that's well out of my control and I fall apart.’ Elaria felt like she was about to start crying again, but Leo interrupted it by tilting forward to pull her in closer.

‘I feel so pathetic... But at least I’ll be compensated for having the summon brought back, and he-’ Elaria’s thoughts cut short, as she actually took a moment to think about the fate of the kind man that was helping her.

‘What will happen to him?’ Elaria’s mind went through a dozen scenarios before settling on two.

The royalty would either hand him over to the dragons, or keep him hidden as a backup for when war broke out, but if the dragons find out about him, then he will be handed over regardless. A shiver went up her spine when she thought about what happened, or is still happening, to the last summon. She may not have gone to the monument herself, but a few relatives went to see it out of pure curiosity. A journey that every one of them seemed to regret, something that unsettled her given her family's line of work, especially those who had horrific expressions, and others refused to even tolerate it when someone tried to bring it up.

They described the monument as a large glass sphere, a little larger than a carriage, held up by obsidian. And inside the sphere floated the blue misty shape of a winged figure, whose form is slowly ripped apart by the glass and then put back together. The details of the descriptions always stop when they get to the screams, heavily muffled and distorted by the thick glass.

‘And, he could suffer the same fate…’

________________________________________________

Leo

Walking in relative silence, Leo thought about what he was going to do when he got to Telnar. ‘I could leave her close to the entrance and book it? No, then I would just go back to being lost, while eating leaves and bark strips to get by. I could try and pass myself off as a tall lanky dwarf, wait, are there even dwarves on this world? Hmm, nah. If they pressed me like Elaria did, then it would fail immediately. I simply know nothing about this world, so my human art of ‘the bullshit’ won't work any time soon. I may as well just go with it, and hope I don't get tortured forever.’ He paused in thought to mentally sigh. ‘I'm on another world that has magic, and the prospect of endless torment is already staring me in the face. Fuck that's a mood killer.’ The thought finished with a pout.

A soft familiar sound came from behind Leo, as Elaria seemed to be starting up another breakdown. Leo tilted forward and pulled her in, to try and take her mind off of whatever she was thinking about. He was familiar with her type, because he used to act the same way growing up. ‘Emotionally unstable’ would cover it, but it's way too broad a term. A feeling of no control over your life, however small a part, plays havoc with your mental state.

‘A person just needs an outlet, whether it be an activity or just venting your feelings to someone, but I would imagine that it is quite hard to find something like that with this world's level of tech and social structure.’ Leo paused to sigh again, while he thought back to a few incidents of his own. ‘I can't count how many times I lost it when the little problems seemed to pile over in my head, seems dumb now but I could have really been fucked if my grandfather didn't teach me how to work a computer. I simply needed an outlet, something to escape to and just tolerate the world around me while I found my footing.’ Leo thought to himself as he neared Telnar.

After a few more minutes, Leo finally exited the forest, and saw large walls that were about a football field away. The walls ended a little into the river, and then continued again on the other side, letting the river narrow a bit as it cut through into town.

Leo craned his neck to take a glance at Elaria. “Hey, Is that it up ahead?” He asked his injured passenger.

Elaria gave Leo a nod, then leaned into him to get a better view over his shoulders, the feeling making him blush slightly as he felt a certain pair of cool mounds press against his back. “Yes. Right over there, to the left of where the wall stops.” Elaria confirmed, as she pointed a claw-like nail toward a small entrance with someone sitting just outside it.

Leo shook off the embarrassment, something that Elaria seemed to notice, as she pressed a little more sensually into his back. “...in for a pound.” He muttered to himself as he walked over to the small gate, believing that the exotic woman was just teasing him, but still held out some false hope.

The guard at the gate stood up, and gave them both a once over before asking. “The hell happened to you Elaria, and who's your ‘interesting’ looking friend?” The woman said with a hungry lick of the lips, something that Leo no longer associated with actually wanting to eat him, given Elaria’s actions, which added even more to the hope counter.

Elaria rested her head on his shoulder, and let out a groan. “Hey Glia. I twisted my ankle chasing this dumb ass.” She answered bluntly, which made Leo cringe at the words.

Elaria took a moment to look directly into Leo’s eyes, and her large amber windows nearly made him lose his own train of thought for a moment. “And as for who he is-”

‘I wonder if I could still run?’ Leo contemplated before Elaria finished her response.

“A minor race from far up north. He's a runaway slave, and he thought that I was a slave catcher.” She stated, acting like she was exhausted from the whole ordeal.

Glia seemed to take a glance to the side of Leo, before giving him a complete once over with a raised eyebrow. “Would explain the hair on his limbs, very sparse though. No tracking collar too, your previous owner must be fucking livid to let a man like you slip away.” She snickered, while giving him a slightly lustful look.

Leo arched his brow in surprise at the blatant flirting, making him question if their race really found him all that good looking. “Uh, huh…” He said, not exactly knowing how to take the suggestive compliment.

Leo felt a sharp pull on his shoulders from Elaria as she spoke up. “Well I better talk to the head of the guard about my situation, so ‘we’ should really be on our way.” She said with a light edge.

Glia seemed to tense at the response, and gave Elaria a disappointed look before waving them through the gate.

Leo didn't exactly know what to expect when he passed through the walls, but what he saw when entering Telnar was the last thing he would consider in a magical fantasy world. Everywhere he looked were one to two story buildings, made of very large and smooth brick with wood shutters on the windows, and the layout of the buildings looked like it was referenced out of a modern city. Wooden posts were at every corner, probably to denote the street name, while large and smooth stone slabs were used for the sidewalks, and looked more modern than anything he expected to see. The streets were very smoothed over stone, as if they were made not too long ago, which confused Leo even further.

Noticing that Leo wasn't moving, a little dumbstruck while gazing at the town in front of him, Elaria waved a hand in front of his face. “Leo? Are you alright?” She asked with a bit of concern.

“Yeah, I’m just surprised at the amount of... Stone…” Leo said while trying to hide his bewilderment.

Elaria chuckled. “Well while it's amusing to see a summon be impressed by our architecture, I’ve got somewhere to be. So if you'd please be so kind.” She requested as she started to direct him down the populated streets.

As Leo traveled across town toward their destination, he saw a variety of different variations of the lizard people called selarin’s. Sizes varying from half his height, to double. Some had four legs with a centaur-like form, some had no legs with the lower half of a snake, and there were many different variations of lizard species, gecko's, cobras, chameleons, and so on. As He continued to look around he began to notice something that started to give him a bit of concern. Almost every selarin was either glancing or outright staring at him, but that's not what troubled him. What troubled him was during the entire walk to the base, there was not one person who looked male.

After just a few short minutes of walking, the two of them reached the guard base. It was a four story brick building that seemed to look like every other building around it, with the only difference being the height.

Looking over his shoulders at Elaria, Leo noticed that her scales were a lighter shade of green. ‘I guess being carried like that through town would be embarrassing to anyone.’ He thought sympathetically, but as she looked back at him he noticed that she was trying to control her breathing, and her pupils were-

‘Dilated?’

________________________________________________

Elaria

Elaria had discovered that she may be a bit of an exhibitionist, because riding Leo through town had become one of the most exhilarating moments of her life, and she could barely contain herself with the heat he was giving off, making her body feel even hotter than her normal arousal state.

‘It felt so good to be openly close in public like that, but doing it in private might be even better…’ Elaria thought with a bit of aching desire, not having had any ‘stress relief’ in quite a while, but brushed it aside as she climbed off Leo's back to enter the base.

Leo helped Elaria as they traversed the base, supporting her to the infirmary so she could get her ankle properly set and bandaged. She received a sympathetic look from the medic, as they knew that she was going to be let go until the injury healed. The military cared for its own during times of war or minor conflicts, but any time else was seen as ‘a wasteful use of resources’, as some aristocrats would say.

‘Why waste coins on an unimportant lowborn guard who got injured, when you can buy a fancy bauble.’ Elaria thought in disgust.

After she was given a crutch, she made her way with Leo to the head guards office, and told Leo to wait just outside while she went in to talk.

Elaria saw that Leo was a bit fidgety, as he looked toward the door with apprehension.“Don't worry I'm not going to reveal who you are. I couldn't live with myself if you ended up like the last summon, and no one deserves that fate.” She reassured him before entering the office.

________________________________________________

Sel

Being the head of the guard for a distant town used to be an easy task when she received her position all those years ago, and since then she grew to love and cherish the people here. But now she felt ashamed of herself, because with a war that could break out all over the continent at any moment, her beloved town was the last place she wanted to be. And judging by how tense her subordinates have been acting the last few months, they were of the same mind set.

Sel ran a finger across a large stack of papers on her desk, and looked at the pile with a bit of resignation, but it was a small price to pay to keep the town running, since the local lord shirked their duties. “Another day, another pile of paperwork to read and sort.” She sighed while leaning back in her chair.

Patrol reports, public fights, trade disputes, a few muggings, and the occasional Tavern brawl was more or less the norm, but there were multiple reports of dwarf and elf sightings from the forests outside other towns. They were most likely scouts, spies or saboteurs, and normally she would be unconcerned with the reports sent to her from other towns, she had her own to deal with after all. The point of concern was that not a single one of her patrols had reported any such sightings. Not one sighting from her town and that made her more than on edge, as at best the town was seen as strategically unimportant, or at worst something very bad was going to happen in the all too near future.

The sound of a knock echoed from Sel’s office door, and she looked up to regard the visitor. “ Enter.” She called out, and a green selarin that was supported by a crutch hobbled in not a moment later. Sel grimaced upon seeing the injury, as she knew what was about to happen to her, and the reason for it angered her as much as the fact that she had to carry it out.

“Entry rank guard Elaria reporting.” Elaria announced with a salute, which made Sel hit a new low of pity for the fresh faced selarin. Three months of service promotes someone from entry rank, so they haven't even been active for three months.

Sel struggled a bit to maintain eye contact, as she felt her body ache with what she was required to do. “How long?” She asked, while not needing to provide any context.

Elaria looked down to her ankle with a sullen expression. “The medic said a month and a half at the least, and that's for me just to move it.” She answered as she looked back to Sel, and gave her an obviously fake and hollow smile.

“Well Entry rank, by sectional amendment twenty-four of her majesty’s military allotment quota, you are hereby relieved of duty. Until the time of your recovery, or in the event of a crisis, you will not be allowed back into the military. Your rank will be held at the point of departure, but you will not receive monetary payment during your recovery. All equipment and weaponry that was provided to you upon entering the military will be held until you return back to active duty, with a retrieval deadline set by a medic that estimates a point of full recovery.” Sel recited from memory while being completely monotone, as if she was reading instructions off a book.

Elaria’s eyes grew wide with concern. “Does… Does that mean my clothing as well?” Elaria inquired with a gulp, seemingly unaware of the full military charter.

Sel, whose eyes were finally locked with Elaria’s during her whole display, looked away from them in shame.

Elaria was speechless, and seemed to be taking full advantage of her crutch’s support that was for far more than just physical. “I...I see.” Was all she could say in response.

The military didn't allow personal effects, causing those who joined to be solely reliant on what was provided, and the exceptions were always those with connections and authority, which sickened Sel.

“You know, I always tend to make mistakes on my ledgers. Sometimes an entire set of gear can go unaccounted for, and I wouldn't know until months or even years later.” Sel mused while she thoughtlessly shifted some papers around her desk.

The young selarin was about to speak up, but Sel cut her off. “Just leave the building, and come back when you are healed. Take that as my final order.” She finished warmly, and Elaria gave her a small smile while she saluted and rushed out the office.

‘Hopefully she gets a good price on that equipment, the coin should support her well enough to make it back.’ Was Sel’s final thought on the matter, while she began to reorganize the mess on her desk, and remove a certain set of equipment from the guards ledgers.

________________________________________________