Walking through the forest I thought back to the mornings events. Not long after waking up the rest of the Wolf’s Maw arrived in full force and made their triumphant entry. Some bastard had gotten their hands on a horn of all things. Wanting the world to know of their latest acquisition they blasted it out in an ear wrenching groan of a sound as the bandits exited the tree line. To a tired and groggy me, I almost shat myself in fear that some kingdoms army was about to run me down, but fortunately I saw the worn out clothing and familiar faces before any accidents occurred. At the time though, I promised to myself that I would find whoever owned that horn and stuff it so far down their throat they would have to eat through it.

I continued making my way through the lush forest, keeping my senses aware of danger because I knew just how dangerous it was to carelessly have mild flashbacks in the middle of a wild forest inhabited by all sorts of creatures which wouldn’t mind a Yura sandwich. Or soup. You’ve got to keep the possibilities open; you never know what danger you might face.

As soon as we gave our reports of the ranch, the camp started getting put up and Crow began directing people to places their tents were and weren’t allowed to go. The boss decided that she wanted a feast to celebrate their arrival and so Cavendish being his shameless bootlicking self told the boss what a great idea it was and how he would prepare one right away.

Obviously for such a large force, a large amount of food was needed and if they didn’t want to deplete all the supplies already brought with them, they were going to have to hunt. This is when I found out that my hunting duties yesterday in fact spread further than I realised. Since I hadn’t been able to scout much of the forests surrounding us I was only really able to give advice to a couple of the hunters going towards where I had previously and I also gave a quiet word to some of the hunters going in the direction of Mr. Fluffy to be careful of ‘strange furred frogs with ears’.

As he had likely planned when he sent me out yesterday evening, Cavendish got me to show him the game trails I’d found which would have the best chance of getting something good to impress the boss. “The glory belongs to me tonight Yura!” he’d said gruffly “don’t you dare show me up or you’ll get what you deserve”.

Now you are probably wondering to yourself why I was letting the shrimp force me around like he was doing, I should just kick the shrimp and see how far he flies. But alas, the midget had friends. A whole posse of midgets followed the man. Gnomes like him tended to stick together and rightfully so, when you’re that small, there are times you need the strength of numbers. Unfortunately, in a bandit gang that use tends to be as a threatening tool.

So I accepted that I was just going to have to wander around the forest for an hour or so doing nothing at all for the simple fact that I just really didn’t want to set up tents. It was so complicated and boring. Doing nothing was boring too but in this forest full of the unknown who knows what she’d find. Maybe some handsome dude washing himself in an open air hot spring with a body like a sculpture! Oooh maybe four handsome dashing young men! And they all want a piece of Yura! …but they’re not cannibals. Oh I wish it would happen so so much!!

Unfortunately for this heroine she was no longer having mild flashbacks and so her awareness of the forest around her. So she didn’t notice the steam rising from past the thick bushes she was making her way through.

When she finally noticed the steam her heart beat intensified. Her body stopped as she realised that on the other side this bush, the four young men she had wished for bathed! And to prevent any of them pre-emptively covering their bodies before she ‘just happened’ to stumble through the bush, she made a mad dash through the remaining foliage between her and her harem salivating from the mouth all the while.

But alas; we can’t have all that we wish for.

Bursting through the bush into the clearing I was welcomed by the steamy scenes of a hot spring. A veil of mist hung in the area covering all the important bits on the leathery flesh. Wait what.

I rubbed my eyes and saw what appeared to be a grey-green thing with a round snout upon his head with some holes where I assumed the nose was. It copied my actions, apparently assuming the heat had got to it and as it opened its eyes again I noted that they were a dark yellow with vertical slits running through the pupil. Hot liquid rolled down its body and there was what looked like a shell on the ground behind it. The middle of its torso seemed to be paler than the rest of its body tone and there was a thick tail coming from his pelvis.

Noticing my gaze he followed it looking down at himself. I saw him visibly shudder as he must have realised what I had seen. It was of course his massive green-

“SCRREEEEEEE!!??!” suddenly I was hit with a wave of sound as whatever I had found having a bath covered himself with his hands, each finger adorned with a sharp, thick claw. But the sound (and quite a bit of the embarrassment) sent me to my knees as I instinctively tried to block that wretch ear piercing scream with my arms. And remain like that for a couple of seconds even after the scream had ended.

Ears still ringing, I gathered myself and steadily rose to my feet. As I did, I caught sight of him tumbling as he desperately tried to pull his shell over his head. His flailing about certainly wasn’t helping him hide that thing. Ahem. Getting my dazed mind together I pulled out my mace just as he managed to pop into his shell. My legs were still shaking. I don’t know what that scream did to me but I knew that if he did it again, I wouldn’t be able to stand.

He turned towards me as I slowly regained composure, too slowly. With anger on his face and liquid which could have been water or tears, he dropped onto all fours and headed towards me. And that’s when I realised he must have been further away from me than I had thought, he was huge! Sheldon, as I decided to name him, was 6ft tall standing on all fours and he seemed to hold his bathing time dear. Just as I regained control of my body he did something I didn’t expect for one his size.

Sheldon charged.