Using his dagger, Dem stripped off pieces of his rain cloak to fashion Ina something to wear. If not for her sake, than for his own, she needed to be wearing clothes. The clothes wouldn’t be much, but hopefully she would be less.. distracting. The conversation about the clothes had been awkward. Rather than speaking through the bond he tried simply talking to her. After all she was a person now, and he intended to treat her like one. He also needed to assess her level of understanding of herself and what was going on. Would she be like a child? Would he have to teach her everything? He had a lot of questions about her, and he didn’t know what kind of answers she would have. Would she be a stranger now? Anxiety turned his stomach suddenly, at the thought of his life-long companion becoming a total unknown.

“Ina.. is it alright if I call you Ina?” It had occurred to him that she might think of herself as someone else entirely. He had given her the name Ina, but did she like the name?

Ina had been pacing around, but stopped to look toward at him as he spoke. In turn, She tried to give some sort of response, but her voice came out as something like a growl. It wasn’t really surprising she had yet to master her newly changed vocal cords.

After a moment of listening to her try to speak, he heard from her, “Y-eshh”. Her voice was rough at best.

He sighed and decided to trying speaking through the bond instead. Normally, he just sent the underlying intent of what he was trying to communicate to her, but this time he sent words, not sure what he would get back from her.

“I can call you Ina, yes? How are you feeling?”

“Yes. I am well, bondmate.” Her inner-voice was deep and more smooth than he would have imagined.

“Huh. Would you listen to that.” Dem couldn’t help but vocalize his surprise at her voice.

“Uh, Ina you’re very well-spoken, do you know why that might be?” This question was a shot in dark. He couldn’t decide what to ask her right away, so he went with what came to mind first.

Her head cocked slightly to the side and she gave him a quizzical look.

“I’ve been listening to you and other humans speak for many rotations. I also seem to have some memories of human speech. Perhaps these memories are a gift from my bloodline, though I can’t be sure.”

“This is.. convenient.. Hey wait, you’ve been listening to me for rotations?” He gaped a bit her, trying to imagine what she had overheard. If she had been listening for rotations it would have started around the time he successfully established their bond.

“I’ve heard you speak, but I also listen through the bond. I hear everything you hear.” She said said matter-of-factly.

“Everything?” He asked again, just to make sure he understood completely.

“Everything, bondmate.” Her voice was completely assured.

“Did.. did you understand much of it?” His voice was a bit shaky, he wondered what sort of embarrassing thing she had heard. Had she been listening while he..

“Not really at the time, but the underlying intent made it easy to remember what certain words meant. I developed a.. vocabulary, though I had no real use for it.”

He supposed greater beasts remembered a lot more that he had assumed.

“Ok, well.. Ina, I need you to wear some clothes. You understand clothes I assume?”

He finally managed to broach the most basic subject he needed to talk to her about.

She once again looked, a sense of confusion coming through the bond.

“I understand clothes, bondmate, but I do not possess any clothes right now. How can I wear clothes without owning clothes?” Her tone changed. It suggested maybe that he was slightly touched in the head.

“Uh, yea, sorry. I will make you some alright?” He felt a bit silly now, that he had been worried he would have teach Ina like a child. Clearly Ina was more competent than he assumed.

“Wait! Ina, uh.. what is a bondmate?” He interjected with a new question, suddenly feeling very nervous.

“Why, you are, bondmate.” Her answer was immediate and confident.

He felt a sheen of cold sweat begin develop all over his body. Could a bondmate be.. He needed to know what she was expecting of him.

“Ina, what does being a bondmate entail exactly?”

“It means you have a bond with someone.” Again, her answer was immediate.

“Uh.. OK, Ina. I guess I understand.” He needed to change the subject quickly.

“We do not need to mate in the reproductive sense, bondmate.” This statement from her made him choke on his own spit. He didn’t have to teacher her anything it seemed.

He spent most of his life being called a ‘beastfucker’, he didn’t need to open old wounds. He scrambled to change the subject.

“Uh, yea, we need to get out of here Ina, are you OK with moving? I would like to get back home.”

“Of course, bondmate.” She said, sounding utterly calm.

“Could you not call me bondmate? You know my name right?” He needed to get on with this conversation, but every time she called him bondmate, it halted his thoughts completely.

“Of course, Demneh, or would you prefer Dem?”

Hearing her smooth voice in his mind saying his name, was nearly as bad as being called ‘bondmate’.

“Dem is fine, Ina. Are you fine with your own name? You never got the chance to choose your name, I suppose.”

He suddenly felt guilty, she never got to choose almost anything when she was a mere beast. She pretty much did what he asked most of the time. Even as a greater beast, she was always agreeable to his plans, only occasionally offering her own input via pictures through their bond. His Path was one of mutualism, of teamwork, it hurt to think maybe they hadn’t really been partners in the way he had imagined.

“You did not choose your own name Dem, it was given to you, as my name was given to me. Why should I not be fine with it?” Her response choked him up a bit. He was glad she didn’t seem to resent him.

“Thank you, Ina. So are you fine with moving out.? Going home?” He quizzed her.

“Yes, Dem. Though, I would like to harvest from the elder viper-wyrm.”

“Harvest what?”

“Meat.”

“Ah…”

Some things never changed. Ina still thought of food, despite everything.

***

They got fairly lucky, the elder viper-wyrm, was not only a tasty treat, but also held a number of parts that had value. Ina seemed to be able to use her nose to figure out what was edible and what was venomous. It took her almost no time to butcher the carcass. She had gotten her new ‘clothes’ dirty, but used a cleaning cantrip on herself. He hadn’t had to say anything to her about cleaning. It was a relief that she understood so much.

As he waited for her to finish a quick meal, he lost himself in thought for moment, thinking about how useful Ina would be in the future. At some point though, the danger of the situation they were in, caught up to him. They needed to leave quickly.

“We need to move out soon, there will be other greater beasts coming to investigate. The scent of venom and blood will only keep them away so long before they get curious and challenge the elder beast’s territory.” He said nervously.

“They are already on the way, Dem, but don’t worry. I will protect you.” Ina’s voice held utter conviction.

“Can we at least start moving home so we don’t have to fight everything that shows up?” He asked, not feeling her confidence.

“We can Dem, but it will not make much of a difference.” She paused a moment.

“They are already nearly here.”

Divinity-Damned Wilds, he had been distracted. Too distracted.

“How many are there Ina? What are they?”

“There are only two serious threats, Dem. A greater rubber-rhino and a greater vine ape. The great vine ape is accompanied by many lesser vine apes.” She said, without batting an eye.

“We need to run Ina, the rhino is too large to fight, and vine apes will surround us. Our only chance is that they fight each other while we run.” Dem’s concern evident from his strained tone.

Dem pulled their biggest prize from the elder viper-wyrm out of his pack. It was a beastcore, the centered of a beast’s power. A physical manifestation of their bestial Path. They were used as an alchemical base, in spelled items, and in the empowering of spells. Many adventurers would wear a piece of jewelry made of beastcores strung together. It gave them a reserve of power to boost their spells at the cost of burning out the beast cores.

“Maybe if we leave this here, they will fight over it?” He suggested hoping that it would be enough.

“Dem, it is too late for that. They are here.” Her voice was still solid. Was she overconfident? Why was she so calm? Were they going to die despite everything that happened?

“I.. I don’t know what to do, Ina.” He admitted, his voice shaky. There wasn’t any time to plan, and they held no advantage. The rubber rhino would hold the ground, while the vine ape would fight them in the trees.

Ina’s claws began to extend slowly as she spoke.

“I do, Dem.”

***

There was a rumbling, the vegetation around them shaking, the rubber-rhino was first to arrive. It was huge, twice the size of the hovel he called home, perhaps larger. It rose to a height nearly twice his own. He had always felt rubber-rhinos were particularly absurd creatures, which belied the real threat they represenated. They moved through the dense forests of the wilds by squeezing through them. Their bulk could stretch, squeeze, and bend, allowing them to move between trees that were no wider apart than the span of his arms. As the rhino beast moved it constantly brushed against the trunks of granite-trees. This process served to help build a thick, tough hide on the beast. Not only were they tough, but they were fast despite their bulk. They flowed through a forest more than they ran. They also sported a sharp, bladed horn, sprouting from their snout, which they used to chop through the dense vegetation. Sadly, they were not herbivores. Most greater beasts ascended by eating the flesh other beasts. They ate humans too of course. Ina had been right, there wasn’t much chance of out-running one. Even if they were able to escape into the trees, the rhino would chase them and repeatedly ram the tree until they grew exhausted and fell out of the tree on their own. Rhino beasts were known for their stamina and patience. This beast looked particularly old too, not at the peak of greater beast like the viper-wyrm, but close to it.

The rubber-rhino stopped, ten paces or so, from the carcass of the viper-wyrm. It took a few deep inhales of the air through its nose, probably smelling what had happened in the vicinity more so than seeing it. As it inhaled, small apes began to appear in the trees all around them. There are had to be tens of lesser vine apes appearing continually from every direction. Dem felt something was off here, but it took him a moment to understand what was strange. The vine apes were all eerily silent. Normally apes would make quite a bit of noise, communicating challenges to each other with hoots and hollers. These vine apes seemed to be constrained, hardly moving, not daring to make a sound. Then a very large shadow seemed to materialize from the gloom of a tree to the left of the rubber-rhino. This greater ape was old as well, perhaps older than the rhino even. It was about the size of a large full grown man, but it's flesh rippled with a completely alien musculature. Its arms were massive, each nearly as thick as Dem’s chest. The rest of its Ape reminded him of a tree stump near his home. It was the same overall stout, squarish shape. Its coloring was a dark, almost black, green color, with moss and vegetation growing in its fur. As it took a moment to take in the scene, it's eyes were black, glassy, and dead.

The two greater beasts actually looked at each other for a moment. Something seemed to pass between them. Dem half-expected them to nod to each other like old acquaintances, but they looked an Ina and him instead.

Then both greater beasts spoke.