††††††

Haylee led Siegfried on a silent chase through the forest. They found a trail of broad hoof prints the diameter of a cooking pot and sunken quite deep into the ground. Haylee could have already followed it by scent but wanted Siegfried to learn some basic tracking skills. Alas, after a few minutes, the smell suddenly got weaker quickly.

"Damn, it's running aw— wait!" the cat-girls eyes grew wide as she sniffed the air once more, catching a different scent from their right. "I know that scent— clawbear! We need to head back and let the others—" she stopped herself when she caught the look Siegfried shot in the general direction of the apex predator. The way his chest heaved with deep breaths and his nostrils flared in anticipation, Haylee didn't need to ask what he was thinking. "Are you sure, Siegfried?" she asked instead.

A deep grunt of confirmation was all the warrior replied while he unbuckled his sword belt. Yes, he was sure. His muscles thrummed with excitement as he stretched his limbs. Dimly aware of Haylee changing to her fully feline form, he started walking. Sieg's pace changed into a run as he forced more mass into his knuckles, shifting the skin away to let hardened bone protrude slightly out. He finished with a thin layer of enamel.

Bursting through foliage and smaller branches, the warrior quickly spotted his unwitting sparring partner. The undergrowth was flattened around the clawbear, the half-eaten carcass of a massive bull-like creature decorating the opposite side of the clearing.

The nightmarish, insectoid head roared in Sieg's direction. The warrior didn't slow. With surprising quickness, the bear lunged forward to bring down its left claw diagonally like a scythe to reap Siegfried's life. He slid to one knee, passing below the deadly appendage, and threw an uppercut to the hybrid's underbelly. With his full weight behind the blow, the clang of enamel against chitin was deafening.

The clawbear howled as the chitin cracked. It turned to the human shapeshifter, swinging the left claw in a backhanded motion. Without time to back up, Sieg bent backwards at the waist, letting the claw pass over his head once more.

The bear was already following up with its right claw from above, missing the warrior as he sidestepped. Having its enemy strapped between both claws, the carnivore unhinged its jaws— pincers spread wide.

Siegfried once again laid his weight into a single punch. The force of the impact reverberated through his arm, rattling his bones.

Spittle flying from its teeth, the clawbear tumbled, dazed from the blow and holding one spiked appendage afront, as if to shield its head.

Sieg stepped in immediately to exploit the advantage. The bear swung out at him instantly, hitting the warrior with the backside of its claw. The strike hit Siegfried square in the chest, throwing his heavy form across the clearing.

Though his flesh was bruised, not a single rib had cracked. A broad grin stole its way across Sieg's features as he realised the animal had baited him into attacking. With a battle-cry of his own, the warrior charged the oncoming avalanche of fur, fat and chitin again.

††† Sally †††

Rak started the small campfire with practised ease. Sally was glad for it as she would have taken an hour for what he did in ten minutes. She was still a bit uncomfortable in the lizardman's presence. But at least Ryden was also there, keeping the mood up.

"Nature calls my friends! I'll be back in a few minutes. And no, Rak, I won't need an escort to take a dump," Ryden added with a chuckle as his former patient attempted to stand up.

Sally caught herself from reaching out to Ryden in panic. She had no qualms about rushing headlong into battle with her life at stake. But manoeuvring through awkward situations wasn't part of her skill repertoire.

Rak seemed to be content with the silence, staring into the fire with a serene calm to his presence. For the deserting enforcer, it was pure torture. Her embarrassment and the guilt of not coming clean with the victim of her former squad member was churning her insides to a mentally induced gut ache. If she could at least tell him the truth about who she was. But how to breach that topic?

"So, umm, Rak," she blurted out when she couldn't take it anymore. "I'm sorry about what happened to you and really glad that Ryden could heal you," she stammered.

She couldn't read the expression on his reptilian face as he regarded her with a deep sigh.

Her face heated up as Sally cringed from the awkwardness of her own sentence. She wished nothing more than for the earth to swallow her right then and there.

The corner of Rak's mouth turned into a lopsided smirk at the heavy blush that was colouring the timid woman's cheeks. "Sally adorable," the hulking hybrid chuckled. "For enforcer," he added with mirth, a sly gleam in his eyes.

Sally's stomach dropped— her brain went into overdrive as thoughts stumbled over each other. "You— you knew?" she stammered. "But— I mean, I'm sorry, I should have told you right away, but I—" she froze up when a green-scaled hand, large enough to encompass her head, grabbed her at the shoulder. The lizardman's gaze was nothing but gentle.

"All races, bad and good men," the low rumble of his calm voice assured Sally. "Rak knows. Drakish clan many bad men. But some good".

With those few kindly spoken words, Rak managed to throw Sally off once more. He suffered under the hand of an enforcer like her. But instead of viewing her as the enemy, the message of the battle-hardened clansman spoke of kinship.

The lizardmen were an aggressive species, and especially the Drakish were known as a warmongering clan. Rak's words implied that he viewed himself as similar to Sally in their position amongst their own people.

For a moment, she stared dumbfounded. In place of a new enemy, the enforcer found someone who understood her.

She placed her small hand atop his and smiled genuinely, "thank you, Rak." She barely held back tears of relief. "I guess I didn't even realise how alone I felt until now".

"Rak knows," was all he replied. But the depth of his gaze conveyed more than words could have told.

††††††

"Still no sign of Sieg and Haylee?" Ryden asked when he joined his companions at the fire again. He was beginning to worry by now. They were gone for an hour, and with Haylee's superior senses, it should have been a quick hunt.

"Do you want me to follow them?" Sally offered. "I have to use my gift carefully without the mantle, but I'm still faster than them if I need to be".

"Thanks, Sally, but we are only two days from Victor's Bounty. If a scout catches a glint of red in—"

"Hear," the guttural rumble of Rak cut him off.

Ryden strained his ears to catch what the lizardman noticed. After a few moments, he perceived a distant scraping sound intermitted by the cracking of brambles and foliage. Something big was approaching at a slow pace, dragging its body across the ground. Ryden and Sally quietly took position behind the trees. Rak kept his towering form in plain sight. He was going to play bait for their ambush.

Sally cursed herself for leaving her sword back where they buried her mantle as the noise came closer and more distinctive.

The air was tense as a familiar, energic voice reached their ears. "You know, I can smell you guys behind the trees!" Haylee shouted in a sweet-mocking tone.

Sally's sigh of relief was joined by Rydens heartful chuckle. Rak just seemed to be intrigued. The green-scaled hunter quirked an armoured brow when the dense foliage broke to reveal Siegfried's tall frame. The shapeshifting warrior had two massive, chitinous legs draped across his shoulders. The ruined remains of the clawbear's skull loomed above his head. Sieg's muscles bulged with strain, but he greeted them with a broad smile plastered on his face.

"Impressive," Sally admitted in wonder. Despite his physique, she couldn't fathom how Sieg was able to carry the enormous carcass. Her gaze swept over the thicket behind him, "Where did Haylee—"

"Surprise!" the cat-girl shouted into the enforcer's ear, causing her to scream out in shock.

"Gods, girl!" Sally panted. "You nearly gave me a heart attack!" she accused the silent assassin.

The mischievous shapeshifted laughed with unconcerned glee while Rak helped Siegfried drag his quarry over to the fire. When Sally calmed down, she immediately noticed something was off with the dead clawbear.

"I don't see a single cut on the bear. Did you set up a trap with a boulder to cave in the head like that?" the enforcer mused.

Haylee snorted, "nothing cunning like that, no. The big brute over there decided he would rather fist-fight the bear than using his blade!"

Sally was stunned while Ryden burst into a fit of laugher at the ridiculousness of it all. Siegfried scratched the back of his head, a slight blush on his cheeks.

"I had to test out my limits after all the new adjustments," the warrior justified his actions.

"Sure, whatever lets you sleep at night," Haylee snickered.

Rak sported a sage-like expression of understanding as he put a clawed hand on Sieg's shoulder, "Rak knows," he rumbled. "Drakish children kill grey-skin stag barehanded. Prove their worth," he nodded approvingly. The comparison threw Haylee in a fit of giggles. Terms like child and puberty were barely discernible between her contagious laughter.

Even Sally couldn't hold back a snicker, swept away by the merry atmosphere. And her future prospects suddenly didn't seem so gloomy anymore. Sure, she would have to prove herself to Siegfried and Haylee first, but being part of this extraordinary group wouldn't be bad at all, she decided.