Dem couldn’t say he was impressed by the circumstances he found the commander in, but the man at least listened to Dem’s description intently. Dem could tell the man didn’t like what he was hearing though. The commander’s face went from exhausted and hungover, with drooping eyes and slouching poster, to hunched over, chin in hand, and a look of stress obvious by the man’s crinkled crow’s feet. Thankfully the commander didn’t ask too many questions, and let Dem leave quickly. Sumisi stayed to talk about whatever had them stressed, so Dem was left to his own devices for a short while. He wandered the slowly disappearing camp, gauging the reaction of the soldiers to his beasts. No one approached him, though a few did watch him warily. Eventually, a sergeant was sent to find him and explain that the scouts were being sent on ahead of the main force, and he was to join them. No other directions were given, the sergeant seemed to be a hurry and left Dem before any questions could be asked. Dem could only shake his head in confusion. Were breaker soldiers usually so disorganized, or was this an aberration? He wondered what waited for them at the border of the True Wilds.

***

Dem arrived at the meeting place for the conscript guides. They needed to meet to agree on who would hold what flank and how far they should be from the main body. Dem assumed the soldiers would have regulations for their own scouts, or at least a set of best practices, but local guides would have differing opinions about any number of topics.

As Dem took in the faces of the group he would be working with he recognized more than a few. There were six guides total, including one particularly familiar face, Ranger Keff. Dem couldn’t help but set his face to a frown at the idea of working with the nosey Ranger, but hopefully Wersa had scared the man into submission, but he doubted it. Wersa wasn’t here, but at least Dem had his beasts. They followed closely behind him, Graf towering over the small group of rough-looking individuals.

Surveying the group, there were two like him, from the hamlets and Classed, though their Classes were a lower-tier than a Tamer. They were a Hunter and a Guide, both amateurs, if he remembered correctly. Neither true Adventurers, but both would have good knowledge of the Wilds. He couldn’t remember their names, and they didn’t offer them to him when he glanced at them, but they did get an eyeful of his beasts. There was Keff of course, and then another woman and a man. The man was older, older than Dem’s father, and had sparse grey hair and clothing in poor repair. Dem had never seen him before. The woman was perhaps a little older than Dem, with short brown hair, that came down to her ears, and a fit figure. Her combat leathers reminded him of Dice. Perhaps, she was a fighter of some sort.

Dem’s arrival had stopped whatever conversation they were having before he’d arrived. His beasts were a little too eye catching, but he could do nothing about it. The two from the hamlets seemed to care little for him, but the other three were looking at him almost as much as they were looking at his beasts, though Dem had no idea why that would be the case.

Dem coughed loudly, to draw their attention, and then introduced himself.

“I am Demneh, a Tamer, as you can see. These are my beasts, Graf and Ina.” Dem pointed at the corresponding beasts, before continuing.

“What should I call you all?”

Keff, put on a strained grin, “I.. uh, thank you for your previous help, Tamer Demneh. If you remember, I am Ranger Keff.”

Dem, spoke, trying to be polite, “Indeed, I remember you Ranger, I hope your party member made a full recovery.”

“She will eventually, there are still some left over effects, but she will be fine.” said, Keff.

“That is a shame, but at least she will be fine in the end, as you say.” Dem wanted this awkward conversation over as fast as possible, but hadn’t learned any new names.

Dem turned towards the others expectantly.

The older man grunt, but the woman Dem didn’t know spoke for both of them.

“I am Firlith, a Terrain Fighter, this is my uncle, a Glod, a Woodsman.”

Dem smiled in greeting, and so did Firlith, but Glod merely grunted looking away.

Woodsman was a fairly mundane low-tier Class, meant to give a person a battery of spells to help them live in the Wilds. It was fairly common among those from the Hamlets, and only cost ten or twenty silver for its grimoire. The Terrain Fighter was an unknown to Dem, perhaps a fighter than had spells that helped with fighting in various terrains, he wasn’t entirely sure. There were always a number of strange Subclasses out there, not yet officially recognized by the Tower through the work of a recognized Classmaster. Perhaps Terrain Fighter was one of those.

The two men from the hamlets, eyed Dem’s beasts for a second, and the taller one spoke.

“I am Hunter Gram, and this is Guide Weer, I’ve heard of you Demneh, though I had no idea you had such beasts at your command.”

Keff focused on Dem, as Dem responded, “Yes, Graf here is new, but Ina I’ve had, she made something of a gain recently.”

The Hunter and Guide looked at each other and then simply nodded to Dem

Firlith spoke up then, breaking up an awkward silence, “Fellow Classed, shall we discuss our duties? The sergeant who brought us here has informed me we will also be bringing along soldiers for Wilds training as we move. It's more than a rotation to the furthest northern settlement, and a number of cycles past that to the True Wilds. Have any of you been there before?”

When no one spoke up, Firlith sighed, “We I suppose anyone with real experience is already up there.”

Dem was happy to let Firlith organize things and he listened intently as she spoke.

“I think we should take turns…

***

As they discussed roles and who would be doing what, Dem had a burning question on his mind, that he decided to put to his fellow guides. As they were wrapping up, and the local guides were beginning to step away, Dem stepped forward, and spoke seriously.

“Do any of you know why we are here? The real reason for all of this?”

Keff immediately answered with a series of questions of his own. “Do you you? Does it matter? They told me I would be arrested and put to labor maintenancing the Breaker Wall if I refused.”

A component of the pact he had made with Sumisi was that he couldn’t talk about the pact, and so Dem had to be vague.

Dem responded, “I only have guesses. I wanted to ask all of you. Maybe we could make sense of it together.” Dem waited then, for some sort of response, but no one else spoke for a moment.

Eventually, Glod turned his back to the group, and started walking away, ignoring Dem’s questions.

Firlith spoke, as she hurried after her uncle, “We aren’t sure either Dem, but there isn’t much point in speculating. We will find out when we find out.” With that that she too turned her back to the group, and disappeared from sight into the vegetation ahead of them.

Both Gram and Veer merely shrugged, and left as well.

Only Keff stayed, thinking, judging by the look of consternation on his face.

Finally, breaking the moment of silence, Keff spoke,“I don’t know, but I agree with Firlith, there isn’t much use in us worrying about it.”

Keff’s eyes shifted as they began to focus on Dem, “Did that Warrior you were with pay well? She was frightening. Speaking of that incident. You didn’t answer my question from last time. How did your beast grow so much so fast? You even have another beast now.”

Dem could see the calculation in his Keff’s eyes.

Dem decided to just tell the same lie he had told before, and then try to avoid any more discussion of it.

“Ina ate something, I don’t know what. She can’t really describe it. Something good obviously. We searched for it, that is why I was with the Warrior in the first place, but didn’t find anything. It's likely that Warrior will return. I would be careful if I were you.” Dem said.

Keff scoffed at Dem, “She is long gone, and my father could handle her anyway…”

Dem just looked at Keff, his expression neutral, waiting for Keff to think about what he was saying.

Keff saw Dem’s expression, and said “She is just a Warrior. My father is a Ranger!”

“She helped me defeat Graf, and bond him. He is a Classed beastman Warrior. She defeated him easily. She was also quite a bit older than she looked. You father would have sense enough to stay away from her.”

Keff looked angry then, his face growing red, “My father is a great Ranger! An arrow in the Wilds will kill anyone if they don’t expect it coming!”

Keff hefted his Ranger’s bow, as if it was proof of what he was saying. Dem also caught the subtle implication that an arrow could find Dem as well.

Keff seemed to be about to rant further, perhaps to threaten Dem more explicitly, but a clawed tail found its way near Keff’s face, hovering near Keff’s temple. Graf had also apparently been paying attention, as he took a large heavy step forward, toward Keff. Dem was pleased, the boar beastman at least understood his role.

Keff stopped dead, his mouth hanging open, before slowly closing.

Dem spoke then, to offer his own threat.

“Graf here is new to our bond, but Ina is my lifelong friend. Should something happen to me, well, I would imagine you will find out that a claw kills the unsuspecting just as well as an arrow.”

Keff’s eyes were still angry, but he began to back away slowly, keeping his eyes on Ina and Dem.

After Keff was out of sight, Dem’s face twisted in annoyance. Dem didn’t like the thought of having to watch his back all the time. Keff was right, an arrow at an inopportune time, would be a sure death. Would he have to find some way of dealing with Keff? What about Keff’s father? The idea of using his Class bubbled up immediately in his mind. The easy solution it provided was tempting. Of course, it wasn’t that easy. His skill with the spells was still far from subtle. He could control Keff surely, but to what end? He couldn’t be sure he could control Keff to such a degree it would go unnoticed, Keff would have to die by some indirect means. A Ranger would have decent innate toughness, so walking him off a tree wouldn’t necessarily kill him. Whatever happened Dem would need to have some sort of deniability. It would have to look like an accident.

Dem’s face fell further when he realized he was plotting murder. He shook his head trying to banish the dark thoughts, but couldn’t deny he was worried about retaliation in the future. Keff was a greedy, spoiled idiot, but Dem understood that from Keff’s perspective, Dem was just a Tamer, though a Tamer with a couple powerful beasts. Dem needed a way to project more strength so weaklings like Keff wouldn’t challenge him. The stigma associated with being a Tamer and someone from the hamlets worked against him constantly in the minds of those who met him. His young age was also not helpful. The only thing he could think of was either changing himself in some fundamental way or leaving for parts that might be more friendly to him. Neither option appealed to him because of his parents. His mind lay in turmoil, as he moved away with his beasts to do his portion of the scouting work.

***

Nearly ten cycles had passed and Dem still had no idea what they were all doing out there, but his duties weren’t terribly difficult. The scouts rotated every cycle, moving with the soldiers, one to the front, back, and both sides. There wasn’t much chance of major danger out here, or at least no more than the Wilds usually provided. They were still too close to human settlements for the truly fearful beasts, but there were always issues with the terrain and particularly nasty kinds of the beasts that swarmed, or were just plain annoying. The guides that weren’t currently out scouting would be taking turns training the soldiers in basic Wilds-craft, resting, or hunting. The scouts also were a big help in keeping meat in the soldier’s cook-pots. Keff was particularly good at snagging down different kinds of birds beasts from the upper reaches of the trees Dem had heard, a favorite with the soldiers. Dem had been lucky so far, none of his scouting duties had corresponded with Keff being free to hunt or roam near his position. Dem couldn’t be sure his warning had worked as he had hardly seen Keff since their last run-in.

There had been something of a silver lining and complication to Dem’s situation. He was rather popular with the soldiers himself, for a number of reasons. Ina brought in far more than Keff could, and usually a wider selection. It had been a simple exchange for her to find good tasting game in return for a bit of cooking, though it had taken the soldiers a few cycles to warm up to her, even with Dem acting as a go-between. Dem was also popular for another reason, one that surprised and confused him.

More than half the soldiers were women, and no small portion were interested in him. He hadn’t really realized they were mostly women at first, as most of the soldiers had similar stocky, muscled body-types, which he had assumed was the result of their training and Class, but most soldiers he had met so far, had been women. Being around so many combat Classes had been interesting enough that he hadn’t been looking at the gender of the soldiers. Most of them kept their armour and helms on whenever they weren’t resting. The armour had been spelled to keep them cool and keeping it on was part of their training.

More than a few of the female soldiers, and a small number of the male soldiers, had approached him, clearly seeking something more than training in surviving the Wilds. On the occasions he seen the other guides they had experienced similar interest, though not as much as Dem had. Dem considered for a moment that the commander might have brought the local guides as camp followers as much as anything, but that seemed far-fetched. It happened nearly every cycle, either when he brought back kill,s or when he was training the greener soldiers, it never failed that at least one would offer to ‘help’ him bring in the next kill or ask to spend some time with him alone in a tent. What surprised him most was that he hadn’t turned them all down. For the first few cycles, of course, he had turned them down, as he was a bit tired from his time with Greer. Eventually though, he began to miss the pleasures Greer had brought him, and had given in.

He had no interest in the male soldiers, but the women soldiers, were all fit and attractive in their own way. This was the part that surprised him most, that he would feel this way, needing the company of others, wanting take part in the pleasure of their flesh. He remembered a rotation ago, when he thought just having Ina’s company would be enough, but now, he wasn’t so sure. He had spent some quality time with Ina as well, but that had consisted mostly of her riding him hard, a good experience, but not quite what he was looking for. The way she cuddled him afterward told him she had missed him, while he had been absent. His time away from the camp and scouting, with Ina, had been enjoyable, but it hadn’t enticed him in the way his time with soldiers did. They were lonely out here, and entanglements with fellow soldiers were more complicated than fucking a local conscript. Maybe they were just bored of the other soldiers, Dem thought. Either way, they wanted Dem, in a rough, desperate way, he had never experienced. His Class was at work here, though to what extent, he had no idea.

If he had to be honest, the true benefit of spending time with the lonely soldiers, was that he often took control of their sexual encounter, dominating them thoroughly. Leaning heavily on what he had learned from Greer and Dice, he had done his best to offer pleasure, but in reality, he had to admit this was about advancing his Path. Each conquest was a small boon to him, nothing as significant as dominating Wersa, but still helpful. He understood, objectively, that advancing singularly down a powerful Path was often addictive and could cause a sort of single mindedness, or worse, self-destruction, but he couldn’t help himself. Most people would transition from one Path to another, or try to straddle multiple Paths, to help mitigate these sorts of issues, but his Class was bizarre, and rejected his previous Path. Though that did make a kind of sense, mutualism and domination weren’t especially compatible, mostly because Domination didn’t allow for equals.

Not every soldier had been interested in what he was looking for, but most had, and they had obviously told their friends, because now he was pretty much inundated in offers. They seemed to enjoy the thought of being with a Wilds Tamer, as if it were something of a taboo. He would often take them out into the Wilds for their trysts to add a hint of danger. Sometimes he would leave them alone long enough they would begin to fear how they would get back without him, only for him to appear and take them hard, bent against a tree. They were all strong enough to fight him off if they wanted, but they did not, the fear added to their pleasure. Not every soldier was interested in this sort of roleplay, and so sometimes the occasional quick session happened inside one of their tents. Dem had learned quickly how to take their armour off, finding a new appreciation for the spelled gear. When he got back to the settlement, he decided he would look into getting some gear of his own.

Dem had also been practicing his Gaze and Influence on these soldiers. As much as he was disgusted with the nature of his Class, he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to learn to use it better. It had saved his life a number of times already. He used his Gaze when he had one of the soldiers alone in the Wilds with him, where no one would notice. It seemed to enhance their pleasure in the situations he offered. He also learned to lower the intensity of it, so that the person he was using it on would hardly notice anything was different. Spreading his Influence around had also gotten him more offers, and more time to test the limits of what his Influence could do. He had learned that while he couldn’t directly control someone, his very presence often caused far more emotion as his Influence grew. These emotions, with the right words or situation, could often lead to him getting what he wanted through suggestion. It required more work than Dominate Mind but it was far more subtle. From the outside a person would just assume Dem was charismatic, but from the inside, Dem could tell people were far more suggestible, the more time they spent in his presence. There were limits, people wouldn’t harm themselves for him, but he believe with enough coaxing, they might harm others. He didn’t feel good about this latter possibility, but it was a tool he could use to save himself.

Over the last ten or more cycles, Dem’s life had been going better than he had expected it, with the exception of Keff’s possibly interference and the total unknown they were all heading into. Then on twelfth cycle of their mission, a strange thing happened. All the offers dried up, and hardly a soldier would speak to him. Then, early in the next thirteenth cycle, Sumisi asked to see him.