The Goblin's Pet Part 3 by Diregnoll

“Yahaa! Go Pet go! Kiyaah!”

Selair winced as the goblin on her back swung down with a crooked stick and stung her in the ass. It didn’t seem to matter what she was actually doing, the goblin just enjoyed riding and hitting her. Selair let out a short yelp and continued onward. She only had a minute or two left of this particular torment anyway, no need to cause a ruckus right at the end.

The goblins around the pen were much more enthusiastic though. Over the past eight months, they had gotten more and more attached to Bugu’s pet big one. Chances to interact with her were relatively far apart, but recently Bugu had come up with a brilliant idea. For those who produced wonderful results under ‘Bugu’s plan’, and those who were showing remarkable improvements, time with Selair had been offered up as a prize. On the days where these prizes were offered, the rewarded goblins could play with the pet however Bugu had set her up for the day. And today was one of their favorite’s…

Riding Day

For Selair though, this was one of her least favorite days. It started with the costume Bugu put her in every time it came up. The intelligent little gremlin had studied the horses and had been inspired one day by the saddlery the big ones had come up with to ride them. Two days later and he had approached her with a body harness from a nightmare to place on her nude form. Leather strips would wrap up and down her body in a way that delicately framed her ass and breasts, while not hiding any of her still well-toned abs. But the strips had a purpose. They connected her arms to the bottom of a small seat on her back that would allow a goblin riding her to clamber on to her without the need to grip excessively. The one currently riding her for instance sat comfortably with the majority of his grimy little body pressed against her back.

But that wasn’t all. Bugu had come up with two more ideas from the horse. The first was a pair of fur boots that forced her onto her toes and ended in a pony hoof. The other was a wooden bit that he shoved in her mouth and attached a pair of reins to. Of the pair the boots were crueler by far, but Selair loathed the bit. Pain she could handle, but to be reined in was too blunt a reminder of her current position.

She would have screamed in protest when she saw them, but ancient magics lit up her silver collar and held her tongue. Gubari’s blessing at work again.

Instead she submissively accepted it, like the magic’s compelled her to do with every other degradation Bugu put her through. And for every other week the past two months, a three-hour portion of time would be given to the special goblins to clamber into her ‘saddle’ and ride her. Her athletic body would be forced to bring her legs up into trotting steps as they whipped and ran her around a small pen Bugu set up. The goblins loved seeing her twist and writhe, and they especially loved it when she ‘whinnied’ every time one of the sticks they picked up struck her. They never cared how miserable they made Selair as they joyously cheered on her rider. After all, she was just Bugu’s pet.

Ding

The goblins grumbled in disappointment as Bugu rang his bell to signal time was up for the day. The goblin who was riding her hopped down, causing Selair to groan in relief as the weight was lifted off her. As he landed, the rider gave Selair one final swat on the ass before turning to an approaching Bugu.

“No fair. When does Waki get pet of own?

“Soon, when everybody ready to make big one traps.” Bugu replied. The goblin was looking rather well, at least as well as a goblin could. His role as trap teacher and pet owner had garnered him more respect than he had ever expected. And so fine goblin clothes, a good goblin hut, and the like had been offered to him, some as shows of respect and others as poor bribes to play with Pet.

Selair hated seeing him like this. Every fine item he wore had been earned off of her novelty after all. She tried to suppress those thoughts though. Negative opinions tended to activate the magical ‘intrusions’ the chieftain had cursed her with, causing them to torment her with pleasure and muddle her mind for days.

Bugu grinned a big toothy smile as he beckoned for Selair to follow. At once she felt her collar grow hot and her invaders hum lightly as she hesitated for but a second to follow Bugu’s command. If only to avoid an inciting incident, she began to trot after him. Bugu’s hut was on the other side of the village, so the trip took the pair on their daily tour of the village.

Just on the outskirts of the village that they started from was the goblin testing ground. Aware of the general ineptitude of his brethren, Bugu had insisted on putting their lesson area as far away from occupied buildings as possible. The move, as with most of Bugu’s moves, had proven to be a smart one. The student goblins regularly blew up the traps they were working on, causing panic and havoc for all nearby. For the traps that were intended to capture big ones, this usually led to a humorous goblin ball. For the ones meant to kill though, it led to an almost cartoonish ball of goblin limb ball. That had been one of the few things that brought Selair joy in the early days of her imprisonment. Now the collar and her magic invaders teased her for even thinking of enjoying it.

Gah! Those damn curses. The goblin chieftain had as a show of her faith to Bugu placed a pair of plugs inside of Selair. She had called it Gubari’s blessing, but for Selair it was nothing but a curse. For the past eight months, her hands hadn’t been able to even approach her lower regions. Any attempt to move within a few inches of them resulted in her arms flailing out against her will and a sudden burst of vibration. Bugu always laughed and laughed at the humiliating display. But that had only been the effects the chieftain had told them about.

The pair walked past what Selair could only describe as a dining pit. She glanced down into the pit, seeing the goblins tearing away at chunks of a boar that they had just captured. When Bugu had taught them how to trap, a few enterprising daredevils took their poorly made creations and tested them in the wild. They couldn’t catch a big one like they wanted, but the trio did discover they could catch food instead. Since then, the goblins had been eating like kings. But not Selair.

Gubari’s blessing didn’t just make Selair obedient to the goblins. It had given her a few of their characteristics. For one, it had given her a goblin stomach, capable of eating almost anything, though the same could not be said for her tongue. The goblins, thinking of her as a pet, couldn’t even consider giving Selair a portion of their food. So Selair, had been given what goblins used to eat…

Whatever could be found.

On the luckiest days, she could pray for a bone to be tossed her way with a few scraps of fat on it that the goblins hadn’t noticed. But lucky days were not common for Selair recently. Most of the time, Selair was handed a single mushroom, the kind that aren’t poisonous since the taste was so bad no sane animal would eat it.  But on the days Bugu felt that Selair hadn’t been a good pet, he would overturn a rock and pick out whatever insects were living there. It was a remarkably good incentive to try.

Regardless of the meal, Bugu always gave her the same commands at mealtime. She would be dressed in her typical pet outfit, which was essentially a platinum blonde fur bikini that matched her hair. Selair would then make her way to the dining pit and squat down on all fours and wait for Bugu to join her. These waiting times were dreadful, as while she waited like a dog for its owner the goblins would often come up and ‘pet’ her, squeezing the various bits of her that fascinated them so much.

When Bugu would arrive half an hour later, she had to wait for him to take the first bite. Master eats first after all, according to Bugu. Then and only then was Selair allowed to eat, though Bugu had forbidden the use of her hands. But Selair didn’t care. She was usually so hungry at this point that she would shove her face into whatever bowl Bugu placed in front of her and ravenously devoured everything.

It was never enough. The hunger was constant. But Gubari’s blessing came with a few more surprises. As they had learned, as long as Selair ate even a single bite of food, her body would never degrade or atrophy. In fact, it the blessing had given her the goblin’s knack for minimal care. Goblins could survive on almost nothing, and now Selair could too, though it felt like hell.

This translated into other areas like hygiene as well. The goblins never showered, why should she. While for her captors this meant that they never cared about the dirt they were frequently covered in, for Selair it meant that she was just as clean as the day she was brought into the goblin camp. While this was a small miracle for her, she had no idea how much she would miss the feeling of water trickling down her back until it was taken away from her.

But mealtime was later. Right now, Bugu had other intentions for her. He led the former warrior further into the village and back to his hut. Recently it had gotten slightly bigger, but not taller. Selair still had to duck down and crawl whenever she went inside. Bugu didn’t seem to care. If anything, he seemed to prefer her crawling around after him. It probably made her look more like a real pet in his eyes.

Bugu beckoned her inside and began to undo the harness. As the leather fell away, Selair reveled in the brief moment of freedom. Thanks to the chieftain’s command, Bugu was never to allow Selair to be unrestrained. Thankfully, it seemed that he thought Gubari’s blessing did a good amount of the job. Most of the time he simply cuffed her wrists and ankles in stolen chains that could were just short enough to impede her running and fighting without interfering in whatever tasks he came up with.

And sure enough, only a minute after she had been undressed Bugu returned with the pairs of chains and her fur bikini. He placed them in front of her and snapped his fingers. The expectation was clear. She was to dress herself today.

She wanted to attack. She wanted to leap at Bugu and tell him that she had had enough of his twisted idea of pet ownership. But as the thought subconsciously ran wild, Gubari’s blessing came into effect. A wild power suddenly began titillating her pussy and ass. Apparently, the thought had been much stronger than she thought. Bugu looked back at her and shook his head in disappointment as Selair suddenly collapsed to the ground, pathetically pawing at the air near her privates.

“Bugu sad Pet still feels mad.” He sighed.  “Bugu do nothing but care. Now once Gubari stop yelling at you, get dressed. Pet have chore to do.”

Selair writhed pathetically in a sexual frenzy. Eight months! This kind of mental punishment had been happening on and off for her for the past eight months! It was hell. A never ending teasing that always brought her to the point of climax only to pull her away from as a whimpering frustrated mess. It was exhausting and left fogged her mind with latent desire. Her hand was always mere inches away from granting her the release she so desperately desired, but nothing helped.

She had even broken once. On one autumn day a few months ago Bugu had tasked her to organize the homes of promising goblins. She had been crawling around from building to building, forced to pick up the disgusting messes that the goblins wallowed in. At a certain point Gubari’s blessing had kicked in as her resentment reached a fever pitch. It was intense, more intense than any of her other mystic punishments had been, and as she was brought to the edge over and over again she begged to the goblins in a moment of weakness. She had thought for sure they would make let her orgasm, seeing as they loved seeing the big ones in degrading circumstances and what could be more degrading than begging to cum in a sea of wicked goblins. But to her surprise, none even came close to her. As Bugu explained later that day, the reverence they had for Gubari was far greater than the joy they took from playing with Sleair.

As long as she was receiving Gubari’s blessing, she would never cum again.

But that was then, and this was now. Her punishment lasted another twenty minutes and Selair only reached her fever pitch once, but that was still enough to make her angry with the world once more. But now was not the time to act on it. Instead, she started picking up what Bugu had provided, her hands still shaky with physical and sexual exhaustion.

Without the room to stand, Selair began to twist and bend to put the bikini on. The garment was not particularly difficult, but the lack of space meant Selair was forced to take each motion very carefully or risk knock Bugu’s house down with her comparatively massive frame. It worried her how regular this seemed now, but that was a thought to be pushed back for later. The garment went on, and the long chains followed. She was not the pony reward anymore. Now she looked like Bugu’s pet.

She looked up at him quietly. Bugu punished her if she spoke without permission as she had learned and he could be very creative. Today he simply went back outside and beckoned for her to follow. When she crawled out, he gave her another hand signal to tell her to stand up. When she did, Bugu went to the back of the hut and returned with one of Selair’s least favorite objects, the water yoke.

“Bugu has idea to make, so Selair help out village while Bugu work. Go! Goblins thirsty!”

The water yoke was an insidious device. It was technically just a single rope with ten buckets on it. But with Gubari’s blessing, Bugu had commanded Selair to extend her arms out to the side and hold them their whenever he balanced the rope on her shoulders. The result was a string of buckets supported solely by her athleticism. Nothing actually bound her to this damned rope, but through this mystic obedience she found that no matter what she tried she could not remove it.

At first it wasn’t a problem. It was just a few empty buckets on a rope after all. But then, she would arrive at the well. A goblin would always be waiting for her and then the filling would begin. He would always start on one side and move down the line. One by one extraordinary weight would be burdened upon her, and as they never bothered to balance the bucket she would often find herself struggling to support one arm as she waited for her other to be burdened as well. But when all the buckets would be filled, that’s when the real torment waited.

The goblins insisted that their water be delivered according to rank. Unfortunately, the highest goblins lived in the center of the village while the well was on the outside. So her chore began with a long trek to the chieftain’s hut. Most times she would just drop the bucket off and leave quickly. But there were days the chieftain noticed she was coming, and on those days the chieftain would chant and shake her staff. All of a sudden, Selair would find herself unable to take a step longer than shoulder length, and her toil would last three times longer.

But after the chieftain’s hut, there still remained every other goblin hut. As she hobbled through the village, her toned body glistening as she moved, the goblins would often stop and watch her work. They had taken to giving her a pinch or a spank after she had dropped off their bucket, some twisted payment for her labor she assumed. They would cheer with every delivery, and soon her body would be covered in stinging red marks.

And when the tenth bucket was dropped off, Selair would return to the well and start all over. The size of the camp was deceptive due to the huts’ sizes, Selair learned. What she originally thought to be maybe a hundred huts was easily over seven hundred and fifty. And with each trip back to the well her arms got more and more exhausted. If wasn’t for Selair’s adventuring constitution, she was certain she would have collapsed from exhaustion after the fourth trip.

Today’s water trip was no different from any of the others. It took maybe five huts for the goblins to notice what was happening and soon her personal parade began. Looking down at them, she couldn’t help feeling anything but revulsion for their little faces. They all looked up at her like she was some remarkable spectacle. Back in her old life, the thought of turning heads had filled her with a sense of pride, but now… now it was her worst experience.

The plugs vibrated softly. Apparently, that thought had been too negative for them, but not bad enough to make her work impossible. A low sexual fever rose up as she walked through the village, being harangued by the taunting and pinching of excited goblins. As they smacked her ass she let out an equally low moan, causing the goblins to clap. They loved seeing her in heat, like the animal they were beginning to consider her as.

On the eighteenth trip, true fatigue started to build. And for some reason, a thought she’d never had came to her mind. Bugu was planning on capturing more humans wasn’t he. If she was the only reference they had for how to treat people, would they be expected to be complete this same level of task? Selair was only capable of lasting as long as she could because she had come in with an adventurer’s stamina. What would happen if some poor peasant girl was put through the same ordeal?

Gubari’s blessing suddenly revved up and Selair fell to her knees. This was apparently a dangerous line of thinking, and Gubari would have none of it. But for some reason Selair held on. The thought was so worrying to her she allowed the plugs to light up with a passion she had never felt before. Loud moans and gasps came out as she writhed on the ground, water spilling everywhere. The goblins cheered louder than they ever had before as Bugu’s beautiful pet began to roll around like the dog she was.

Selair had no intention of letting this concern go. Before any of this had happened, she had been a hero. And she would be damned if she was going to stop thinking like a hero when it counted. So in spite of Gubari turning her pussy and ass into a sexual warzone, Selair steadied herself. She slowly rose to her feet, knees knocking wildly and turned back to the well. With a single unsteady step, she began her chore anew.

Fifty more trips. That’s how many more she made under this new condition. It was during this trip that she learned a new punishment Gubari had in store for her. Around the thirtieth hut she reached the edge of her sexual peak, and she had assumed that the vibrations would stop until she ahd calmed down like usual. But to her surprise, the vibes kept going. Part of her thought that this might be the day she finally came again, only to discover to her horror that even at her limit she was incapable of cumming. Gubari had pushed her to the point of orgasm, and now through ancient magics was preventing her from doing so as he pushed past this point.

And on the fifty first trip, Selair fell to her knees once more. It was maddening at this point, and Selair was beginning to weep in her frustration. The goblins laughed heartily as the pathetic pet cried up to the sky. She couldn’t get rid of the thought, it was too important. But she couldn’t keep going like this, or she would lose her mind. As wave after wave of torturous pleasure washed over her, Selair began to reshape the thought into something the blessing would accept. Poor girls became future pets, ordeals became trainings, and so on. As the thought modified, the vibrations began to slow down until finally they stopped.

Selair looked down. Juices had started to leak out from the edge of her fur bottom. Bugu would definitely know she had been severely punished. There was no time to consider that now though. She still had at least twenty more trips. As buckets sloshed, precariously on the edge of tipping over, her aching arms lifted them back up and she went forward to finish the last few trips.

By the time the last buckets were deposited, Selair was in shambles. Her staggering walk and total exhaustion made her wobble wildly and on the last trip she had spilled the buckets and had to go back one more time. Her return trip to Bugu’s hut was met with applause as the goblins celebrated her completion. The stunning image of an elite warrior stumbled home in a degrading bikini, unable to even lower her arms without permission.

Bugu was already waiting for her when she arrived. “Pet! Put down bucket and get in! Quickly” He squeaked excitedly. With a sigh of relief Selair dropped her arms, letting the rope of the water yoke slid off of her. To be sure she wouldn’t be punished later, she righted the buckets and put them next to the house before crawling inside.

She entered into a slightly different room. Bugu was sitting at a small table facing her as she came in. Designs and maps carvings littered the surface but Bugu wasn’t looking at them. He was holding a small plank of wood with a carving knife, the closest thing the goblin had to a notepad. Bugu cleared his throat and looked at her with curiosity.

“Exciting day. Bugu have good idea! But Bugu need answers. So Pet get to talk today! Very special, yes?”

Selair was shocked. It had been weeks since she had been allowed to speak without Gubari torturing her. She assumed that she was still expected to treat the goblin with respect, so in place of taking the opportunity to shout every obscenity she could think of at the goblin she replied, “Thank you, Bugu. What did you want to know?”

Bugu shook with glee. “Why did Pet get caught? Not first big one trap I laid, but first one that work. What was better about this?”

Selair thought back to that miserable day, hanging upside down for hours several feet away from the sword that could have easily cut her down. She didn’t want to tell Bugu too much, for fear that he would catch more women in the same way. “A few accidents happened, and your knots were too tight to undo by hand.”

Bugu nodded and eagerly carved the knowledge into the plank. “But why did Pet go to trap? Seemed out of way.”

That was when Selair remembered the incident. It had slipped her mind in the chaos of what happened. “There was a girl. She had been crying and I went over to help her. When the trap sprung, she was gone.”

Bugu looked up. “Girl? Who?”

“I don’t know. She was small with purple hair, but that’s all I remember. I thought she was part of the trap.”

The goblin shook his head. “Not part of Bugu’s trap, no. But not important right now. Bugu just learned something neat!”

Selair looked up. She hadn’t seen Bugu grin so widely since the day he caught her. That couldn’t be good. “What?”

With a devious chuckle Bugu replied.

“Bait.”

Selair watched with horror as Bugu ran around and started carving designs into the table. What the hell could he think of using as bait? Worse, how effective would it be. Bugu had been quite insistent that they don’t move forward with setting the big one traps until all the goblins knew how to make them safely. The goblins were fortunately slow learners, but would the bait make it easier for them to learn.

As her mind raced Bugu suddenly stopped. “Bugu need to test. Pet! Come! We go now!”

Bugu raced out of his hut and Selair felt her collar light up. Like an invisible leash, it tugged at her to follow and already the blessing was beginning to start up again. Not eager to repeat recent events, Selair crawled out of the hut after him. Already Bugu was halfway out of the village. With the much more visible chains on her legs, it was much more difficult for her to keep up, but at full pace she was just barely able to keep up with only a hint of movement that Gubari was dipleased.

The pair rushed out of the village and into the outlying wood. The rotting trunks of the Spittlewick hills that marked goblin camps lined their path as they made their way through the underbrush. Bugu led them far, close to the edge of goblin territory. Until finally, some of the trees began to show signs of life. Selair looked around and realized something truly disheartening.

She was close to home.

Only a few miles away, her town was waiting, probably brokenhearted that one of their hero’s had disappeared without a trace one day. Had they looked for her? Did they even know she was still alive? Home should be a pleasant memory. But as Selair was compelled to follow this clever little goblin, the memory brought nothing but an empty despair. As she was, she could never return home.

Bugu didn’t seem to notice the change in his pet’s mood. His attention was focused on a rather large oak tree. He studied the wood for a few minutes before nodding in approval. “This good. Pet, stand by tree.”

Selair took the position Bugu asked. He nodded once more.

“Raise arms high. Spread legs apart.”

Selair did so. It wasn’t the first time he had asked her to take up such a vulnerable and exposing position, but this time felt different. She felt a nervous heartbeat rise up as Bugu suddenly unchained her wrists and ankles.

“Good. Pet talk no more. Time for idea. Don’t move from spot.”

Bugu suddenly ran off, back towards the village. Selair waited alone in the woods and thought. She thought of how unrestrained she was, how easy it would be to simply run off and escape back to her home mere miles away. She thought of how brutal Gubari’s blessing would revolt against her should she try. And she thought of the revenge the goblins would exact when they recaptured her.

So Selair stood there, almost totally exposed to the elements, bound to the tree by nothing but a simple command and the fear of mystic punishment.

When Bugu returned, it was with a large bag. Pulling things out from the bag, she realized with despair that these were the components for a very complex trap. She watched in compelled silence as the goblin began scampering up and down the tree, lining it with all the necessary pieces. Selair had no idea what would happen when this camouflaged monstrosity went off, but it couldn’t be good.

With pride, Bugu wiped some sweat off his brow. “Trap set! Now bait.”

He went back to his bag and pulled out a small stick. But with terror, Selair realized it wasn’t like the ones the goblins randomly picked up to hit her with. It was smooth and covered in the same designs the chieftain’s staff was. This was a wand. This was goblin magic.

“Chief give me this to help train you. But Bugu think he have better idea. Make you bait.”

Before Selair could even guess what that meant, Bugu poked her in the armpit with the wand. Immediately, Selair felt an intense tickling sensation running rampant. She bit her lip, desperate not to laugh but Bugu was already poking the other pit. Selair had never been very ticklish, but the sensation was so powerful that even she was forced let out a soft giggle.

But Bugu didn’t stop. He poked and poked and poked everywhere he could think of. He ran the wand up and down her sides. He danced it across the soles of her feet. He gently moved it onto the small of her back. A few pokes into the sides of her neck. He even traced it around the edge of her pussy. More and more he poked until he could think of no new places to poke.

Selair didn’t laugh. She giggled. She guffawed. She chuckled and cackled and every other version of laughing that meant it was so much more. The magic tickling had no object she predict, and always seemed to hit her right in spots just as she was praying it wouldn’t be affected. Tears streamed down her face as the mad smile of uncontrolled delight took over. To anyone looking in, she would seem like a mad woman.

Bugu smiled as well, though much more sanely. “This perfect. Girl bait cried. Caught Pet. Pet now laugh. Who Bugu catch now?”

Selair began thrashing, while Bugu’s orders held her arms legs in place. She wanted to close herself up. To curl up into a little ball and hide away. But the collar compelled her to stay exposed, twisting and shaking her well-toned body disgracefully for anyone to see.

Bugu packed up his bag and began to head back for the village. “Bugu back in few hours. Maybe catch someone new!”

The little goblin sauntered away triumphantly, as if he had already caught whatever prize he was looking for. But Selair was not so lucky. She simply stood there, fighting wildly against the will of Gubari as her laughter filled the woods. As painful joy overwhelmed her, she prayed no one would hear and look for her.

---

Evelli poured herself another drink. She wasn’t supposed to do that, but the barkeep was currently unconscious. It wasn’t her fault. He shouldn’t have tried to cut her off.

The bar was filled with similar patrons, all slumped over on the tables, and in the case of a pair of dancers ass up on the stage. That had been unintentional, but magic was tricky. You try to make one person fall asleep, and all of a sudden everyone in the room was. Evelli was usually better at this. She was also usually sober.

The sorceress took down the drink in a single gulp. Not a drop got on her flowing green dress. She had sewn it herself, and though it may have been simple she was still proud of it. It did hang off her petite form quite well, and made her delicate form seem much more enchanting.

She leaned back in her chair, almost tilting the pointy hat she was wearing off in the process to reveal her long raven hair. With practiced reflex, she caught it just in time. It was a silly hat, and she used to never wear it. But Selair had gotten it for her as a joke, and right now it was the only thing she had to remember her by. Nothing was going to pry that off Evelli’s head.

Her cup was already back in place to pour drink number ten when the doors to the bar burst open.  A scrappy looking woman with short red hair wearing form fitting trousers, a loose white undershirt, and a leather chest piece that did nothing to hide her remarkable curves strode inside. “Hey witchypoo. Thought I might find you in here.”

Drink number ten returned to Evelli with a mellow sigh. “Go away Teller.”

Ignoring her command, Teller pushed the sleeping patron off of the stool next to Evelli and sat down. “Listen, as much as I appreciate the need to get pissed every night of the week, I think I might need you to sober up quick.”

Evelli threw back the drink and slammed the cup on the bar. “Why? So that I can feel miserable about Sel with clarity? No I’d much prefer to be very drunk forever thank you please.” She slurred.

Teller scratched the back of her head. “That’s just it. While you was wasting away in here, I kept looking. I think I found something.”

“Teller. We’ve looked everywhere. We scoured the Yontak Ravine, the Freton Pass. Every nook and cranny of Eldrit, Dubas, and Appleton. I even tried scrying on her! There’s no sign of her anywhere. You can’t have found anything…”

Teller’s face scrunched up with slight indignation. “Well, if you’re going to be all negative about it… No I didn’t find anything. But someone else did. And guess where. Right in the Spittlewick hills.”

Evelli reached over to pour number eleven. “Spittlewick. Home to the dumbest creatures alive Spittlewick? No. There’s no way that Selair’s been hiding out for eight months in Spittlewick.”

“I was hesitant at first too. But the girl’s just outside. At least hear her out.”

The drink swirled in Evelli’s hand. “…Fine, but I’m taking this with me.”

The sorceress was led outside and was greeted by a girl. She had to have been no more than ten, and had the brightest purple hair Evelli had ever seen. She was shaking nervously as Teller knelt down to her.

“Alright love. Could you tell the nice swaying woman what you told me?”

The girl sniffled before whispering. “I was up in the woods, when some mean wolves started chasing me. I thought I was gonna die, when this pretty blonde lady with a sword saved me. She killed all the wolves, but one bit her really badly. She needs help.”

Teller looked back up at Evelli’s stoic face. “It’s slim, I know. But even if it’s not her, we still have to try to save this woman. It’s what Sel would have wanted.

Evelli stood silently for a few minutes before weaving her hand into a series of complex shapes. On the last motion, the smell of alcohol dissipated. She stood up firmly, no longer swaying.

“Let’s go Teller.”

Teller pumped her fist before noticing that Evelli had already sped away. She caught up rather quickly to her unathletic friend and the two began their journey into the Spittlewick Hills. The purple haired girl on the other hand waited until the pair were out of sight. Her sniffling stopped without a second wasted. The girl ran into the darkness of a nearby alley and disappeared into the shadows.