Lubus woke up to the sensation of something poking him in his upper back. He must have shifted in his sleep to lay on a pointy rock or something. Lubus rolled over and inspected the place where he had been sleeping, sure enough, there was a root sticking up out of the ground at the perfect position to cause him discomfort. Great, now I’m going to have a sore back for the rest of the day probably Lubus thought as he got up from the ground and stretched. Most of his body was aching in one place or another, the earth didn’t make for great sleeping, especially not for him who was used to soft sheets and clean matrasses. His right shoulder blade hurt the most from sleeping on the root all night, but there was little he could do about it now.

Lubus knew little of healing spells. He had focused mostly on offensive type magic. Looking back now, he wished he at least had learned some minor healing spells. Then he could ease this pain and be on his way, free from discomfort. He had been pretty naive back then, and probably still was if he were honest. Lubus believed that he could tackle every problem that came his way if only he had time to prepare. The world didn’t conform itself to fit his wishes though, and there wasn’t always time to plan and strategize. He was supposed to be smart, and yet he had made some huge mistakes in coming out here on his own.

He would have to seriously rethink his mindset, to start with he could begin by learning more spells of different types to widen his arsenal. Healing magic would be good, right now he wasn’t sure what he would do if he got injured in the middle of the forest with no one to help him. Speaking of other people some allies would be helpful, and they could distract enemies while he focused on casting spells. Finding someone who would be willing to work with a stuttering wizard would be difficult when other ones could cast their spells properly.

He would have to make himself a valuable member of a team, his way of casting spells beforehand was a good start, but right now he could only juggle two spells at once, three if he pushed himself. Perhaps if he practiced some more he could increase that, right now three shots didn’t seem like much, and if he wasted his spells in the middle of a dangerous situation, he would have to pause to stutter his way through incantations always risking them misfiring or not working correctly. It would be hard, but Lubus had made it through graduation with his condition, surely he could make it through this too.

Things were starting to look hopeful for Lubus, and he was in a good mood this morning. Then he remembered the warrant for his arrest, and his mood shifted again. How was he supposed to gain allies when every interaction he had ran the risk of someone recognizing him and reporting him to the guards for a nice reward. Not to mention the spells he meant to learn, he couldn’t just waltz into a mage’s guild and expect them not to recognize him. His image had been sent to all the major guilds in the country. He would have to go very far away, or maybe clear his name somehow, but he didn’t know how he could possibly do that.

He decided to think about that when he was safe in the next town and had some food in his belly. He went over to his firepit to make sure that the fire was truly out, finding only coals and no embers he still piled dirt over it to make sure he didn’t accidentally burn down the forest. Making his way towards the road, he found something strange laying in his path just outside his wards. Three little packages of leaves wrapped around something, and what looked like a leather waterskin. Had some traveler noticed his camp and left these items here for him, if that was the case how had they known not to enter the wards? He didn’t have his wizard robes on so they couldn’t have known unless they watched me carve them into the ground. Perhaps it was a bounty hunter trying to set some trap for him, maybe the water was poisoned and would make him unable to move, and he would be carried, helpless, right into the hands of the guards. Or maybe this was related to whatever had happened to the guards. But why would whatever it was, leave gifts for him? Luckily he had had a drink the day before so he wasn’t very thirsty, but as hi unwrapped the leaves from their contents his stomach rumbled at the sight. Dried meat, it was not the most delicious of meals, but it smelled good and would fill his belly well enough.

Lubus decided to hold on to the food and water, he didn’t feel desperate enough to risk being poisoned now, but he could think about it if the next village was too far away and he got too hungry. He made it to where he could see the road and started following it again, sticking to the woods for cover. After some time spent walking a jolt went through him, making him drop the dried meat he was carrying. Someone or something had just entered his old camp, stepping over the wards, alerting him. He debated with himself over what to do but decided it was best to confront whatever it was following him while he knew where it was, even if it was just a wild animal.

“Fireb-b-ball,” Lubus said, and he kept the spell fed, but contained to his hand. Making his way quickly towards the camp, fireball at the ready, he found it empty. Empty except for a little squirrel that was munching on a nut in the middle of his ring of runes. He had been worrying about nothing after all. “Just a little squirrel, you couldn’t hurt anyone, could you mister squirrel?” he said and extinguished the flames in his hand. Look at him, talking to animals, when had he become so paranoid? He thought this and chuckled at himself. The sound seemed to startle the squirrel, and it rushed off into the trees. Why would he talking to it not scare it, but him laughing at himself did? Unless? He turned around slowly than, having a hunch that it was not he who had frightened the animal away.

He came face to face with a woman, a naked one in fact. Lubus stood there speechless for a moment, he looked down at her body, he found her beautiful, but as he got to her long green snake tail where her legs should be, he flinched away from her. This was not just some woman. It must be some type of monster taking human form, he fell and landed on his butt, crawling frantically backward on hands and feet to get away from the creature. It made calming gestures with its hands, but Lubus wasn’t fooled, it probably wanted to eat him. It got an annoyed look on its face, and then a panicked one as Lubus raised his hand trying to cast a spell. “F-f-f,” he said, but he couldn’t get the words out for his most reliable spell, he tried again. “F-f-f-fire,” but before he could finish a steal speartip was placed against his throat.

He looked at the weapon pressed against his throat and recognized it. The spear was the same as the ones the guards had used that chased him through the forest. She said something in a language he didn’t understand, oh to the depths with it all. She must have been the one to scare away the guard, or did she kill them? He couldn’t be sure, it was suddenly tough to breathe, and Lubus took short quick breaths becoming panicked. She must have followed him all the way to this campsite, he wasn’t paranoid after all, and watched him set up the wards, but how could she know not to cross them, maybe she was just cautious. Did she lure an animal over the wards and wait to see if he would return? Oh dear, he was going to get eaten he thought, and then he fainted.

Lubus woke up to the sun being high in the sky, man, that was one hell of a dream he thought and sat up from his lying position. Some sort of animal pelt was draped over him, that was strange he didn’t remember bringing a hide of any kind or blanket for that matter. Then he looked up and saw her and the memories from the past few hours came rushing back to him, he panicked for a bit but then he calmed himself by taking a deep breath and reminded himself that she could have killed him a thousand different ways while he was out of it. If she indeed was the one who had dealt with the guards maybe he should be thankful towards her instead.

Lubus watched her for a while, admiring her beauty, her breasts looked to be two big firm handfuls as they bounced on her chest as she moved around. Her stomach was toned and muscular leading down to her… he caught himself staring at her and turned away his face heating. Their relationship wouldn’t come off to a great start if she found him staring at her bouncing, nevermind. Hadn’t he thought about gaining allies just the other night, this was a good a time as any, he had never seen anyone with a snake tail instead of legs, maybe she was lost. If they could find a way to understand each other, perhaps the could help each other. He seemed to remember her talking to him in some strange language before he passed out.

What had she been doing anyway? She had a fire going and was in the middle of placing rocks into it before he had turned away. He took a peek at her again, trying not too leer at her, he watched what she was doing. She had found two sticks, and she was using them to remove the glowing red rocks from the fire, she placed them in a little clay pot filled with water it started to boil almost instantly. She added various things to the pot that she must have gathered and prepared earlier. Strips of that dried meat were added and what looked to him like garlic and different spices. She was cooking he realized, it seemed such a regular thing to do that he had somehow not made the connection with this unusual creature. That little pot is way to small to fit him into, and she seems to have plenty of food already, so she does not need to eat him.

She noticed him watching her and smiled broadly at him. This showed off the long fangs she had in her mouth. They made Lubus slightly scared, but he was determined not to offend her. She seemed to notice his discomfort anyway, and the two fangs retracted themselves up behind her upper teeth. She approached him slowly as if she was afraid to scare him away, he stood up from his seated position, intending to introduce himself. He forgot all about that though as she stood before him, she grabbed his hands gently and explored them. Turning them this way and that, she seemed fascinated by them. Even her forked tongue flickered out of her mouth to smell them. It tickled slightly and brought him out of his daze and back to reality, and he realized that he had been staring again. He could feel his face heating up again and he turned away from her quickly. He could hear her trying to contain a laugh, but it burst out of her anyway. Instead of it embarrassing him further, it instead reassured him, you didn’t laugh with something you were planning on eating after all. He chuckled slightly too, and still keeping his back to her he removed his shirt and handed it to her behind his back. She grabbed it, and he could hear her pulling it over her head.

“T-t-there, much b-b-better,” he said and smiled broadly at her. She got a bit of a worried look in her eyes, and she came forward. She started rubbing her hands quickly up and down his arms. Then it clicked, she must think he was cold and freezing, he started laughing again and grabbed her hands in his own. At least that was better than her thinking he was dumb. He placed one of her hands against his heart and his slow heartbeat, and warm skin seemed to calm her, and she smiled at him again. “Lubus,” he said while pointing to himself, and for once his voice didn’t stutter. She seemed to understand, and she pointed to herself saying.

“Eshanai,” Before Lubus could say something more, they were interrupted by a voice coming from the woods.

“Eplubus Broken Tongue, you are under arrest. Be aware that we have you surrounded, give yourself over to us and no one has to get hurt.”