The sharp pains struck through my chest right where the wound was. But there was something else that kept distracting me, no matter how badly my body hurt.

The old woman was calm again, her labor pains passed as she looked up at us with clear eyes.

Honorable one, these collars are impossible to remove with any sword or knife.

That made sense. With the thickness of the leather, if was impossible to safely saw through without cutting the delicate skin of the neck.

Urgh. Wincing, I freeze, waiting for the returning waves of pain to abate. Pain Resistance was a resistance. It didn't cut off the pain reception. No matter how badly I wanted the pain to be completely gone, it still remained.

There were two voices. One that screamed at me to hurry up and fix my wound, and the other one that was yelling and pounding clenched fists against the ground, saying 'Gimme my shinies first!!!'

Pain!

Shinies!

Pain!

Shinies!

It was like I had two small devils on each shoulder, both yelling at me to do different things. My head hurt so badly. With these two priorities blaring away in my head, it was messing with me, even with increased focus from the pain resistance level up.

I'd never really loved jewelry this much in my past life, but to think it was so important to me now, as if...if..if I didn't obtain the lovely gems before me, the tension of my head wouldn't go away.

Like an instinct that was too powerful to reign in..

The lake was still far away, so my pain still remained...

Fine!

Shinies first!!

But how to remove them..

A voice speaks up, breaking the connection between the old woman and I as we communicate telepathically.

"afjkh dfhj afgyu, sdgjhsg afshjk iouwet hnjvf."

Immediately after the words that I don't understand, the hag turns to me and translates. The dwarf says that only magic works against magic items like these.

Ok, focus Raven. Magic. My status said I didn't have magic, and Greenie didn't either. It was probably the Elemental Wolf King and the Mirror Snake who had magic, but who was to say for sure. My appraisal skill only showed a brief description of the target, updating when I learned new information about whatever I was observing. And it didn't seem to work as well on living beings, like animals, humans and the trio here.

I mean, we couldn't use the stinky wolf's magic even if we wanted to now anyways.

Hmm.

But the closed off path was a result of this old woman's magic, right?

You have magic, don't you?

Yes, Honorable One, I wield magic, but my power has diminished.

What can you do?

I can speak to the trees, request their help. They grow in the directions I desire.

Only trees?

No Honorable One. Any living thing that is of the plant variety, I can commune with.

So she was some kind of nature magician. Hmm.

Thud. Thud.

Blood was still slowly leaking out of my chest, staining Greenie's fingers.

Think Raven, think!!! Those collars were made out of a thick brown leather with metal rings where the gems lay embedded…

Leather....

That makes an old memory, a human one, float to the surface of my thoughts. If it was really made of leather, and had similar properties as my old world...

What about mold? I ask her.

Mold?

Yes, like fungi. Bacteria. What can grow into mushrooms on trees.

Ahh, yes. I can commune with the small ones as well. She nods, breathing heavily through flared nostrils.

That is probably the only thing I can do now. I'd used most of my power to summon you here....

Ok I could work with that.

It doesn't take long for me to explain to Greenie what I wanted to do. All the while, his one hand was occupied holding onto my chest and keeping pressure on my wound, which made things a little unwieldy, but we did it.

Honorable One, I am in awe!

Even through clenched teeth with returned labor pains, the old woman's green eyes were lit up, alive. She was looking at me as if I was the smartest person in the world. And I might be, for this weird idea.

The thing was, I'd glimpsed some strange shades of green between Greenie's toes that I'd never gotten round to cleaning.

I mean, I'd drawn the line at cleaning Greenie's privates. The bottom of his feet had also been a no-go. Having a smaller body meant that if I wanted to try and wash off his feet at least, I'd have to get up close and personal with the Jackson Pollock mold paining growing between his toes and in the crevices of the soles of his feet.

But I'd known what it was. A mutated, overgrown sort of athlete's foot that made Greenie scratch the pads of his feet and between his toes, flecks of skin peeling off.

I'd had him take the Soldier's Dirk and scrape some of that nasty stuff off, and place a mound on the leather collar of old woman who lay on the ground.

Ok, now tell it to grow.

Yes, Honorable One. The hag's eyes grow a clearer shade of green as she places her hand on the scraped off pieces of Greenie's dead skin and mold growing on his feet.

Please work, I begged, staring leather collars. So that I don't have to be preoccupied with the lovely shinies, and we can get ourselves quickly fixed up.

Be a good shiny and become mine!

Creaaaaaak.

Under her fingers, blue-green mold begins to bloom like flowers into the leather, like I was watching a fast forward of a lab's petri dish. It was eating into the leather, exactly like the mold had done to my patent-leather work shoes that I'd kept outside during one hot summer.

As the mold grew, the leather beneath it began to wither. Parts of it began to lose its shine and thickness, until finally, with one light tug, the leather band simply fell off the woman's neck. Tears drip down her eyes as she stares in shock at the collar that dangled off her hand.

"Jhjkshgd asfja afgjsg!!!!!"

Argh!!

Greenie jumps in surprise, loosening his grip on my wound and accidentally letting his fingers scrape over the angry open indentation.

The Minotaur, who was somehow standing right behind Greenie and I before we'd noticed, had bellowed in shock. The sight of the slave collar no longer on the hag's neck was that shocking to him. Even the dwarf falls on his knees, cradling his head after the Minotaur says something to him.

I didn't have time to enjoy their reactions.

Hurry, we don't have time!! Tell the other two to come here to get their slave collars removed!

The old woman translates my words and the Minotaur practically bounds over, happily letting Greenie put the chunks of his scraped off Athlete's Foot on the collar and helping Greenie put it on the dwarf as well.

Creaaak. Crackle. It doesn't take long for the old woman to grow the mold, this time much quicker than before.

Hahhhh. Hahhh.

But she was breathing much rougher now. And she was looking at me as if I was her savior or something. I wasn't going to bother asking. We needed to get to the lake and get me fixed up.

So I don't let the three have any time to celebrate, taking the collars and having Greenie hide them in a tree hollow, marking the bark with an X using his Soldier's Dirk. It would be faster if I could remove the gems and fly them back to our cave later, but for now, Greenie was carrying me. I didn;t want either of us distracted by the beautiful gems.

The shinies were mine now!! I would come back for them later, but for now, lake!!

Here, follow us!!

There wasn't any time.

Yes, Honorable One.

The old woman does her best to get up.

"Earrrnghh!"

But she collapses, groaning, unable to stand anymore while she wrapped her arms around her stomach. Cocking my head, I stared at her, focused on her stomach.

It didn't seem that big to me. At most, her stomach was as big as I would have gotten if I was in my human form and 'accidentally' ate one pizza too many.

She tries to get up again, and fails.

But keep those two away from me. The moment they try to come too close for my comfort, we're leaving. I add.

Tell the others to follow us.

"Mngshj. Anjvf dfhjs asfjkhaf!!" She calls out to the two, and the Minotaur sits up from his kneeling position, using his head as leverage, and goes to the dwarf, slapping the dwarf with his tail. THe dwarf then ties the loose rope around his waist to connect it with the one around the Minotaur's.

So that's how they'd been traveling. Extremely inefficient and dangerous if you ask me. I wouldn't even tie myself to Greenie.

Thud.

Thud.

My chest still hurt, even if Greenie was holding down the wound for me.

There's no time. The MInotaur had no arms to carry the lady with, and the dwarf would probably injure both himself and the hag if he tried to carry her.

Which left..I tap my beak against Greenie's arm.

Greenie do you think you can carry her?

Yes Master! Greenie strong!

And he was strong! Strong enough to carry me and pick up the woman with one arm,

settling me under his armpit (it smelled badly, but I bore with it for the sake of getting to the lake so I could treat my wound).

But while Greenie was picking her up-

No!

Looking a little hurt at my strong outburst, Greenie pauses. He'd tried to throw the hag over his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

Yep. That was exactly how you would NOT carry a pregnant woman.

Greenie don't hold her like that. That'll hurt her.

Try and hold her like you're holding me right now. I don't even bother to gesture, just bobbing my head slightly at him while sending him the picture. He knew that things were really urgent right now. Luckily thanks to the level up of the Pain Resistance, I had increased focus, but I didn't know for how long this would last.

And he does it, which allows us to quickly be off and on our way. Sensing the pain and urgency through our link, Greenie was walking as fast as he could, not jogging, but not walking either.

He'd tried to run at first but the combined screech of pain from both the hag and I had made him slow his pace. The other two followed behind us, the blind dwarf cradling the sword in his arms. He came out practically unscathed from our fight, except for the occasional sticking his finger in his ears which told me my mimicry had done some damage.

Let's go to the lake, Greenie.

Feeling my anxiousness through the bond, Greenie tightly holds me to his chest and starts walking. It was a good thing we were still close by, close enough that I could guide Greenie using landmarks to get to our lake.

With Greenie in the lead, we trekked our way through the trees to the lake. The trees parted for us now, even making way so that no long branches whipped into our faces, very different from our usual jaunts through the woods.

The identity of the mold growing on Greenie's feet:

Tufted Redring Mold: A more hostile variation of the Redring mold, which is commonly found on slum-dwellers, this variety can be fatal to a human when infected. Extremely viral, the tufted variety only takes a week for the mold to cover every surface of skin exposed to open air. At this point, it takes 3 days until death. Can cause skin flaking, burning and itching sensations, and in rare cases, blistering. However, it's susceptibility to sunlight and vinegar make it rare to see outside the slums. This mold can also easily be prevented by regular baths and wearing shoes.