Head resting on my paws, I stared down at the hall of origin where Meissa was greeting a newly arrived disciple.

As Meissa gestured for one of her disciples to escort the new arrival towards the hall of alchemy, I made a mental note to check in on him later.

I could sense the new arrival was one of my direct disciples, but the man was not one I’d interacted with much.

Focusing on the disciple, I connected with the spark connected to the man, discovering his name was Atticus.

With a canine snort, I cut off the connection without speaking to the disciple. I wonder if he chose that name for his life in this world, or is using his earth name?

Movement at the far end of the hall caught my eye, and I watched as Rainy entered from a side door, heading to the stairs.

Rising to my feet, I waited by the door to my office for her to arrive.

“Hey Foxy,” the pink haired woman greeted as she reached the top of the stairs. “Still haven’t managed to turn back, huh?”

Shaking my head in response, I leapt up onto the desk at the center of the office, and faced Rainy who sat in one of the chairs opposite me.

In the three days since I’d woken after the spider incident, I’d only managed to restore a little less than a quarter of my core’s mana reserve.

Even going hunting with my team, and killing an entire pack of frost wolves did nothing to help fill my core, as all the mana released by the battle was eaten up by the ethereal fox who’d taken up residence inside me.

Even my team hadn’t been able to absorb anything once the fox came bursting out of my chest to fly circles around the battlefield.

When the fox returned to curl itself around my mana core, I did notice a slight increase to the rate my core was naturally regenerating mana, but it was still excruciatingly slow.

With my core heavily depleted, and my mana returning at a much slower rate than I was used to, it meant I wasn’t able to reform my human guise, despite it being three days since the incident.

“We’ve finally managed to cull the spiders who escaped Pyr, thanks to an excessive use of Kitsune fury orbs, and have mapped out the cave system. We’ve also found several clusters of Arcanium crystals in the caverns.” Rainy began, flicking through a notebook as she spoke.

Turning the notebook to face me, Rainy pointed to a roughly drawn sketch of the caverns layout. The underground cave system began in the cavern where we'd first encountered the spider’s, and split off into three more caves, one of which Rainy had marked down as being underwater.

With a soft yip, I nudged the book with my nose, pointing to the underwater cave.

“That cave is almost completely underwater,” Rainy said. “We aren’t sure how large it is yet, as our light doesn’t reach the back wall or roof. Pia tried going in to see how deep it is, but she wasn’t able to be in the water for more than a few seconds due to the temperature. There are small fish, with luminescent scales swimming in there, so we believe it is part of an underground stream. Liam is currently checking the books in the alchemy library to see if he can identify the fish, and Pia is making a fool of herself trying to catch them in a net. We’re all waiting to see if something eats her, to determine if there is something more dangerous in the water.”

Tails swishing behind me, I let out a huff of amusement at the mental image, and pondered over the idea of making a trip down to the caverns myself. If there were Arcanium crystals down there, it meant the mana density was stronger in the caves. So perhaps it would help speed up the regeneration of my core’s reserves.

Leaping off the table, I padded over to the door, which was still open, and waited for Rainy to follow me out, before sealing the office to prevent anyone from entering. With more disciples showing up every day, I wasn’t taking any chances with leaving my office unsealed, even when I was inside.

As I made my way downstairs with Rainy, a red blur rushed towards us, and I was almost knocked off my feet as Leo crashed into me.

Growling at the Leosaur who was almost twice my size, I squirmed out from between his paws as he tried to groom the fur on my head. It was at moments like these, that I missed the days when the cub was small enough I could carry him by the scruff of his neck.

“Oh dear. So that's why the little rascal was so anxious to escape.”

Pushing Leo’s head away from me with a paw, I glance up to see May walking towards us, wiping her hands on an apron tied around her waist.

“I was heading out to feed the horses, and he shoved through the door before I could stop him.” The dwarven woman explained, shaking her head with a smile. “He must have smelled you out here, Kadia.”

I turned my head to snarl at Leo who’d pinned one of my tails to ground, and was biting at the fluffy tip. The cub was unrepentant as he ignored my snarl in favor of trying to trap my second tail under a paw.

Growling louder, I twisted my body around, and swiped at Leo’s head with a paw.

Eyes lighting up, the cub released my tails, and leapt away to crouch on the stairs. His tail swished behind him, and I let out a growling hiss, warning him away from attempting to pounce on me.

Not heeding my warning, Leo jumped towards me, and I leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding being squished by the larger creature.

The sound of laughter filled the air, as Leo made his second attempt to pounce on me, and successfully managed to pin me to the ground, where he proceeded to drag his tongue over my head.

Huffing, and snarling, I wiggled my way free of the reptilian feline, whose body rumbled with loud purrs as he continued trying to groom my fur.

Once I’d gotten out of Leo’s hold, I glared at the dryad, and dwarf who were grinning unashamedly down at me. Pointing a paw at the dwarven woman, I gestured at Leo with a yip, doing my best to communicate that I wanted May to take him away.

Leo still wouldn’t wear his enchanted collar, and on the few occasions it was placed on him, the cub would turn into a living statue that refused to move even an inch until it was removed.

This meant he was restricted to being inside the temple, and only allowed out when Pyr was warming the air around him. With my mana core depleted as it was, I wasn’t able to summon the fire wisp. Which meant Leo couldn’t go with me into the caves, as they weren’t heated by the same magic that kept the temple warm.

Removing a dried chunk of meat from the pocket of her apron, May clicked her tongue to get Leo’s attention, and used the meat to lure the cub back towards the door that led into the staff quarters.

“Want me to fix your fur? Or do you want to keep the mohawk look?” Rainy asked as May managed to get Leo back into the staff quarters, where he usually spent most of his day napping in front of the fire, or playing with the various members of the guild who were staying in the temple.

With a huff, I plopped down in front of the dryad, who knelt, and pulled out a brush. The last thing I wanted was to go running around with my fur styled by Leo, as the feline did not make for a skilled hair stylist.

“Hey, Foxy, can I ask you something?”

“You can try, but it’s not like I can actually answer.” I yipped, tilting my head back into the gentle strokes of the hair brush.

“Theoretically, do you think Victoria would be upset if I dated one of her brothers?”

Since when did I become the dating guru? Yesterday it was Roswyn asking if Kip was dating anyone, then Meissa complaining about her disciples being petty bitches over the whole Noctus thing, now Rainy as well?

I whined, ears drooping, as I slumped to the floor. Why would anyone ask me for advice about personal relationships? I never dated, and wasn’t interested in anyone romantically, so I didn't understand why people were asking me for advice.

“You’re right, Vicky is really protective of her brothers.” Rainy sighed, shaking her head. “I like Liam, but I don’t know if we’re really compatible. It would probably lead to some difficult situations if it ended badly.”

“Liam? I thought you meant Roan, he’s always watching you, and he keeps bringing you plants.” I said, despite knowing she’d have no clue what I was saying, as she would only hear a series of yips, and barks. “I wish he’d bring me plants. That last flower he gave you was great. The powdered petals are used in a recipe called Ingrid’s Tears, which creates a mist that causes the victims to weep uncontrollably.”

“I agree, he is pretty good looking, isn’t he? For an orc, I mean.” She mused, scratching behind my ear as she put her brush away, and got to her feet.

“That's not what I said you deaf flower.” I yipped, chasing after the dryad as she entered the door that led into the room below the hall of origin.

Reaching the tunnel entrance, I peered into the open doorway, my hackles rising as I recalled my last trip into the tunnel.

“Spider!” Rainy shouted suddenly, as something nudged me from behind.

Yelping in fright, I leapt away from the dryad’s touch, eyes scanning the area for spiders as my brain sluggishly processed what had happened.

“Bitch.” I growled, ears pinned back against my head as I glared up at the laughing woman.

As we walked on down the tunnel, a loud shriek echoed towards us from the cavern ahead, bringing us both to a halt. I almost turned around to flee, memories of the last time someone came screaming and running out of the tunnel fresh in my mind.

Following the sound of shrieking, we passed through the first cave which was empty of both spiders and guild members.

Clusters of glowing crystals shimmered in the light cast by half a dozen lamps, but I did not stop to admire them as I ran alongside Rainy into another cave.

Seeing a screaming Pia being hefted over the head of a red skinned woman, and flung into a dark expanse of water, I skidded to a halt. As the trembling faun swam back to shore, I attempted to summon Pyr to help warm her, but the wisp did not appear as I lacked the mana required to give him a corporal form.

That was one of the downsides to the wisps, if I un-summoned it, my body reabsorbed the mana that gave it a corporal form. Re-summoning them drained that portion of my mana reserve to reform the wisp's body; if I didn’t have it available to drain, then I could not form the wisp.

As the shivering Pia wrapped herself in a towel, she grabbed a container from the ground, and I recognized it as one containing the warming lozenges manufactured by the guild lab in Caruan.

“What did she do?” The dryad asked, looking over at our team captain who was glaring at the faun.

“I left one of my shields here while I went to check on the progress of the canoe, and this idiot tried to use it as a raft.” Victoria seethed, pointing a finger to the water. “It sunk, and wasn’t destroyed, so I can’t reform it.”

Walking to the edge of the water, I peered into the dark depths. Flashes of light appeared darting through the water near the surface, and focusing on one, it appeared to be similar to the drawing Rainy had shown me.

The fish were the only thing I could see, no signs of the Kijo’s shield.

“Can’t you bring it back up using the enchantments?” Rainy asked, and I looked up at Victoria in time to see her shaking her head.

“It’s out of range, which means the water is deep as fuck.”

“Cold.” I yipped, dipping a paw into the water before yanking it quickly back.

“I agree, we should make Pia dive and retrieve it.” Victoria said, arms crossed over her chest as she scowled at the bedraggled Pia.

“She was actually commenting on how cold the water is.” An amused voice called from the tunnel, and I turned to see Darius entering with two of Victoria’s brothers, who were carrying what appeared to be a wooden canoe.

I whined in agreement as shivers racked my body. The paw I’d dipped into the water felt like it was encased in ice, and weak as I was, I couldn’t even use my inner fire to dry my own fur.

Whimpering, I stared up at Rainy, who moved quickly to my side, and wrapped my paw in a dry cloth.

As the dryad rubbed my paw between her hands, I watched the orcs set the canoe they were carrying into the water.

“Well, at least it floats.” One of the orcs said.

I stared at him intently, trying to remember which of brothers he was. The second one, I knew, was Ethan, as he was the youngest, and had a hawk feather earring dangling from his left ear.

But, I wasn’t sure if the other one was Daniel, or one of the twins. I still didn’t even know how Victoria’s parents were able to have so many children with the restriction on having more than two children. Though, I supposed it might be a situation of each child having a different mother. I had seen news articles about men who’d gotten around the procreation laws by having multiple romantic partners.

“Still not getting in it,” Ethan said, looking over at the guild leader with a grimace. “Unless you're making it an order.”

“It's not an order,” Darius said, eyeing the canoe with a sigh. “If no one is willing to investigate in the canoe, we’ll wait until others arrive. I’m sure someone among them will brave it.”

At this, the orc who I thought might be Daniel, puffed up his chest, striding towards the canoe. “I’m not scared of a little water.”

“It’s not the water that I’m worried about.” Ethan retorted.

I disagreed with that, and my frozen paw could attest to the dangers of the cold water. As could the trembling Pia who was stuffing fistfuls of warming lozenges into her mouth.

Seated on Rainy’s lap as she massaged my paw, I watched as the orc settled himself in the canoe with the help of Victoria, and Ethan who held it steady.

As the canoe was pushed away from shore, Daniel pulled out a paddle, and began moving in a straight line towards what should be the rear wall of the carven.

The lamp filled with light potion that was attached to the front of the canoe, and the faint shadows of the orc was soon the only thing we could see.

As the light grew further away, and I began to wonder just how large the cavern could be, the sound of shouting echoed back across the water.

Loud splashing, and shouts rang out through the cavern. But all we could do was stare at the light, as it moved violently back, and forth.

There were no other boats, and no one would be able to swim through the chilly water to reach him without dying of hypothermia first. We could only listen helplessly from the shore as an unseen creature killed the orc.