LesbeanAda

  It doesn’t take long before I spot the wurm again; this time while it is resting. Observing it has clearly helped with my perception. It is just sitting there, digesting the sap as it probably tries to detect another tree that needs its help. A tree that will never get it from this one though.

  My leaps take me into the canopy above the wurm, and I find a branch to perch on as I wait for it to move. Attacking it while it rests against a tree will just have its armor get in the way, but when it moves? Its weaker belly will be exposed, and present a perfect opportunity for a surprise attack.

  I only have to wait a few minutes before the wurm goes on the move again. Its massive body slowly uncoils from the tree before reaching for the next one. The movement does expose its less well armored belly, which I immediately take advantage of.

  Loosening the grip of my tails around the tree, I kick off of it with a slight cracking sound, splintering the bark where I had been perched. The sound draws immediate attention from my adversary, but its reaction is too slow and I reach it before it can do anything. I use the momentum to cut a deep ceration across its belly with my tails, before grabbing onto its sides.

  It starts bucking immediately to get me off of it, but I sink my cw deep into its flesh to keep my grip on it. The spot where I hit with my tail is bleeding profusely, and I can see a bck patch slowly expand from the wound. My poison is already doing its work, though it seems much less deadly than it had been against the soldiers Mia and I had fought.

  The wurm quickly realizes that just thrashing around isn’t going to get me off of it, so instead it uncoils further from its tree. I hold onto it for a moment longer before I have to release my hold and leap away to avoid being crushed. The wurm still crashes its side into the tree, splintering its trunk in the process.

  There is a short moment of wood groaning, before the entire crown of the tree comes down on both of us, forcing me to quickly move further away. I make note to not underestimate the sheer force the wurm can bring to bear as I watch the crown fall on top of it. The wurm doesn’t even bother to move out of its way, instead uncoiling further and twisting around to face towards me.

  It lets out an earth shaking, or rather, tree shaking, roar, before starting to move in my direction. It’s decided that I am a threat to eliminate. A grin spreads across my face as I flex my muscle, propelling myself up into the crown of the trees. The creature is massive and going to need leverage to present its full strength, so a fight on the ground would be ill advised. But even though it seems at home with the trees, the crowns should offer me more opportunity to maneuver.

  The wurm is quick to follow me, shredding through the branches as its mprey mouth heads directly for me. I wait until the st possible moment before leaping to the side and using a nearby branch to change my trajectory back onto its side. The massive body of the wurm provides many opportunities to strike without being in direct danger from its mouth.

  The wurm continues to move through the trees as I ssh my cws at its back, though unlike its weak underbelly, the armored parts are rather resistant. I only manage to score a few scratches with my cws, far from enough to break through. Even my tails do not manage to break through its thick armor, not before I am forced to move again as this time the wurm uses the rest of its body to try and crush me. Its giant low half comes around, rushing at me much quicker than I thought the wurm could move. I release my hold on its back and try to leap away, but one of my tails trails too far behind. I let out a cry of pain as the appendage is crushed and arrests my movement mid air.

  My other tails frantically start stabbing at the now slightly exposed underbelly of the wurm, but it does not release its grip. Instead it brings around its mprey mouth in a bid to devour me whole. It takes me a moment, one that almost costs me my life, before I realise what I have to do. I stop stabbing at the wurm and instead bring my tails around and cut off the tail that is stuck.

  I immediately start to plummet to the ground, as behind me the wurm crashes into its own side, devouring the bit of tail I left behind. Using my tails I fre out their feathers as I frantically try and change my trajectory midair, as right now I am easy pickings for the behemoth. I manage to adjust my momentum quickly enough to get a hold on a nearby tree and leap away, barely avoiding the wurm as it brings another tree to fall.

  As I reach my next anchor point, I can already sense the massive beast rushing towards me again. The tree falling on it doesn’t even seem to register as it just barrels onwards, intent on killing the little critter that bothered it. I turn and watch it, the mouth is soft but the massive amount of teeth would just end in my tails being shredded were I to try and attack there. The only viable pce to strike is its belly still.

  Another leap carries me closer towards the ground, the wurm this time changes direction before felling another tree. However, its length still provides me plenty of opportunity to strike at its belly. I leap upwards again and ssh my tails across it, eliciting a low growl from the behemoth. This time, I do not hold on, and instead stay on the move, leaping between the trees to gain some more distance.

  The wurm follows me easily, sliding around the trees like water. I have a bit of a headstart, but it quickly starts to shrink, even the wounds I inflicted on it don’t seem to slow it down at all; the first cut has mostly healed already even.

  I continue to run for a few more moments before using a line of low hanging foliage to disappear from sight and circle backwards. Moving closer to the ground again I try to get underneath it once more, when its tail end rushes for me, stinger out and exposed, ready to impale me.

  My tails sh out at a nearby branch and kick me away to the side, causing the stinger to miss, but the rest of the tail still strikes true; knocking the air out of me and crashing me into the ground. As I am recovering, the massive mprey mouth starts coming for me. My heart rate spikes and panic starts to close in. I sh out with my tails, trying to move my body even a little, but without much luck; the wurm continues to close in, promising a painful death.

  Just as I am certain my life is over the sickening sound of chitin breaking and flesh being crushed drowns out everything. The entire wurms body bends and then is sent crashing into a few nearby trees.

  Naya nds next to me a moment ter, they look at me and a grin spreads on their face. “You did well.” Their legs flex and they leap in the direction of the wurm, a scythe-like weapon appears in their hand as they bring it down on its head just as it rears up, piercing it and bringing it down hard into the ground.

  They disappear in a blur a moment ter, and cause several deep cuts on the wurm, even as it tries to turn and fight. But Naya is too fast, avoiding each of its movements with ease as they cut through its armor as if it isn’t there.

  The fight draws to a quick conclusion a few moments ter when Naya bisects the beast in the middle. The wurms body twitches for a second or two before coming to a complete rest. Naya leaps up and towards me, and holds out a hand for me to grab when they nd. I am slightly terrified at their abilities, but grab hold of their arm with a tail and pull myself up.

  We head over towards its body in silence, as I try to process my near death experience; my entire body is in pain, and I am fairly sure at least a few of my ribs were broken. Once there, Naya is the first to speak. “Go on, eat, it’ll help you get stronger.” I pause and shake my head at her.

  “I… did you really think I could beat this thing? It looked so… slow, when I watched it. But it almost killed me, it’s faster than me, stronger, more armored. My cuts and poison barely did anything to it.” My eyes wander to where part of its belly is exposed, the pce where my first cut had nded is fully healed by now, only slightly off color. “I don’t deserve this. I’d just… be taking without having earned anything.” I can smell its heart and its brain, their smell is even more enticing than that of the octofiend, but I keep myself in control. I did not kill this foe, it is not my reward.

  Naya just lets out a scoff next to me. “Sure, you didn’t kill it, but you fought it. You almost died to it. What is more important to you, the honor of the hunt, or the power? The ability to save Mia? Yourself? We’re going to encounter much stronger enemies than this one the deeper we go. I can’t carry around deadweight, especially wounded dead weight that smells like a snack. You’re the one that knows where we need to go though.” Their voice turns into a slight growl at the end, and they are right, the power from the hunt could help with finding what we need for Mia. But… I am conflicted, part of me wants to eat, to consume, but part of me is repulsed at the thought of power unearned. Though that part is small, and becomes ever smaller as I mull over Naya’s words. I did fight, I am not just served this on a ptter. I almost died even, it would’ve been preferable if I could win without any aid, but I couldn’t.

  The adrenaline coursing through my body begins to subside; searing pain draws my attention towards my tails, towards the one that is missing. Naya is right, I would be a deadweight, especially hurt as I am. If I want to save Mia, then honor must come second. Looking up at Naya, I flicker acceptance across my skin, which earns me an approving smile from them. They motion towards the beast. “Go eat what you need, I’ll cut up some of its meat for ter.” I flicker my understanding before I let my magic guide me.

  The heart is close by, near where my original strike had nded. This time, I am not clouded by instinct as I dig into the body, each cut is quick but deliberate, closing in on the heart. Its blood still flows through its veins even now, gushing at me and feeding me; the magic concentration is surprisingly thick, much higher than I thought it would be. Each sip of the blood floods my body with vitality, causing the cerations on my skin to begin closing. Alongside that a numbing itch makes itself known, mainly concentrated at my stumped tail and my ribcage, but other pces that I hadn’t noticed are affected too. I clearly got hurt more than I thought. But it is lucky that our first foe has a healing ability like this, one that doesn’t stop at itself nor the trees. Or maybe it wasn’t luck, Naya is clearly experienced, knows the y of the nd. A bit of warmth goes through me at the thought that they care to make sure I’ll be fine. Though even then, I don’t know if my missing tail will grow back, but chances are it will.

  My movements quicken as excitement grabs me at the thought, if I can acquire it for myself, it could be an invaluable tool for me. It doesn’t take long before I finally reach the heart; it is even more massive than I anticipated, bigger than my entire body. Doubt fills me on whether I’ll be able to eat it, but it is quickly squashed by the need of my magic to eat it. Something in that need reassures me that the sheer mass of it will not pose an issue.

  I quickly cut a slice of the heart away and swallow it. The magic immediately floods into me as the entire thing seems to get dissolved by my magic, it never reaches my stomach. Each cut of my tails brings another slice of the heart to me. My work is quick but the size makes it take a few minutes regardless. The instinct to cocoon up starts to prod at me again, but it is much less intense. I can tell that it is merely a means to accelerate change, rather than a requirement, at least for now; it may change with how many things I am trying to absorb at once.

  Eventually I tear out the st bit of the heart and swallow it. The magic of the wurm is filling, even more so than that of the octofiend. A small gnce backwards shows me that sadly, despite the numbing and healing abilities, my tail has not started growing back. Likely, it’ll take some time to grow back, if it does at all, though my magic seems rather intent on soothing my worries, even though I am not sure it understands them.

  With the heart eaten, I let my attention shift towards the other piece of interest; the brain. Even from here, a fair bit down its body, I can tell that the brain is damaged; it is weak and fading. I am fairly sure I won’t be able to make it in time before it is fully gone. Regardless, I still begin to cut my way through its body, eating a bit of its flesh and drinking its blood on the way. My body is going to need whatever nutrients I can get, and the blood is still rich in magic.

  When I finally reach its head I find it almost completely extinguished. Naya pierced it right through the middle when they fought it. There is still a small bit of life left in it though, and I quickly cut the pieces out and swallow them; the effect is minor at best, but better than nothing.

  I start my way back towards the outside, the way is rather direct, but the outer yers are still harder to cut through than the soft inner flesh. When I eat a few pieces, I also notice a slight difference in their magic density, most of the inner flesh was devoid of it, but the outer pieces still have trace amounts lingering. They are filling, but in a way that doesn’t seem to matter to my body. Despite having eaten more than my own mass several times over I have no issue continuing to feast. It’s an odd feeling, but likely a side effect of my new physiology and magic.

  It’s only a minute ter, after eating a few more different bits and pieces of the wurm, that I break out of its body again. The blood flows off of me easily as I step into the fresh air. Naya is nearby and shouts out to me, waving me over. “There you are, I’m pretty much done here, got enough to st a while. We’ll leave the rest for the scavengers.” I head over towards them, they are holding their blood covered weapon in one hand, but otherwise only have a few sptters of blood on them.

  As I get closer to Naya, they turn towards me, their head slightly inclined as they watch me. “You’re not limping anymore. Still hurt, but…” They look towards the wurm. “More effective than anticipated, that’s good.” I tilt my head at them questioningly.

  “You mean the regeneration from the wurm? Or healing ability I guess. I’m not yet sure how it works exactly. It’s numbing the pain though, and the more shallow wounds have healed up already.” They not at that and start to walk, motioning me to follow.

  “Tree wurms have potent healing abilities, as you probably noticed. I’m not sure if it’ll be enough to grow back your tail though, but in combination with the rest of your abilities, it probably is? Might take a while. For now, we should go and find a pce to rest…” They look at me as I scurry along besides them, our pace isn’t as fast as before, but not all that much slower as Naya leads us away from the scene of the fight. “Well, unless you’re not exhausted yet?”I nod at them enthusiastically. “Besides the injuries I’m good! Eating that wurm gave me lots of energy!” Naya grins at me and chuckles a little.

  “Alright, just make sure not to aggravate your injuries for now. We still got plenty of distance to cover, so the longer we can go the better. And there’s a river a few hours from here, with a few good resting spots we can use.” They motion into the direction we are traveling. “Once we get there we’ll take a rest, unless you have to rest beforehand. But, frankly, I don’t like having my fur all bloody.”

  I suppress a little chuckle at their words, they’re mostly clean, most of the blood nded on their leather armor, but I understand the sentiment. I likely would feel the same if my own scale feathers weren’t as hydrophobic as they are. “I think I can manage that, yeah.”

  The journey further through the forest is a lot the same as before. Different trees and slightly changing density of underbrush every now and then. The only time we stop is when Naya comes to a halt and raises a hand. I quietly move to stand besides her, sharpening my senses to try and spot what they have, but with little luck. Naya’s ears are clearly better than mine, at least for now.

  Eventually the tightness in Naya’s shoulders loosens a little and they turn towards me. “We’ll be good to continue in a few.” They don’t eborate on why we have stopped until I prod them about it.

  “Why did we stop? I don’t sense anything.” I keep my voice as quiet as theirs, making sure that it doesn’t carry far.

  Naya waits a moment before replying. “Raptor herd. Quick and deadly when they want to be, but they prefer easy meals. It’s odd that they’re here though, means they’ve either had no luck hunting, or something has driven them out of their territory.” A little ter they rise back to their full height and nod towards me. “We’re good to go now, they’ve passed us.” I rise from where I am crouching and step up next to them. I flicker a go ahead at Naya and we continue our travel.

  It’s a few minutes ter when we pass an oddly vibrant section of the forest. Naya speaks before I can even ask about it. “That’s where they passed. It’s part of their hunting strategy, the matriarch uses magic to manipute the forest to their benefit. Makes it hard to escape the pack, and to fight them. Best to avoid any encounter.” Without the pack here the magic seems to already be receding, and we easily cross the schism with a few leaps.

  The rest of the day is rather uneventful, and we eventually reach the river Naya mentioned before. It’s rge, rge enough that I can barely make out the other side of it in fact. Naya doesn’t seem bothered by it though and just leads us up alongside it until we reach a slightly more area of the forest. They quickly direct us to a little copse of trees where a small outlier of the river is forming a pond. It’s an oddly well hidden area, vines having formed a natural shelter in cooperation with the trees.

  Naya answers my unspoken question after a few inquiring flickers. “The original owner is long gone, but most of the beasts still avoid it. Makes for a retively safe resting pce.” I nod at them and circle around the small area a few times. There’s a few spots of soft moss that will make for nice resting pces. Naya meanwhile has taken out a ft rock with runes engraved into it and a rge pot that they have filled with water from the pond.

  They take out another rock and a knife and cut up a few ingredients before dumping them into the pot alongside some meat. “Keep an eye on it while I take a dip?” I scurry over and flicker my agreement, curling up beside the cooking station to keep an eye on it.

  Naya takes a while before eventually stripping and leaping into the water. Their body was rather well hidden beneath their armor before; but now with just the fur to cover them, their breasts are rather noticeable, as well as how well toned the entirety of their body is. It’s a beautiful sight, though I don’t linger long, they haven’t exactly stated whether they are fine with being watched. They stay in the water for a few minutes, until eventually the soup they have prepared is ready.

  When they exit the water, they don’t bother drying or covering up, instead they just head over towards me. There’s a small grin on their face when they notice my eyes straying on occasion. While I might not feel the attraction the same way others do, seeing them like this does make it hard to keep my eyes off of them. Though considering their popurity and their reaction, I don’t think they have an issue with it either… It does make me question, however, whether every lesbian with that kind of power has turned into a nudist now. Sure, my sample size is two, three if I consider myself, but still! Not that I am compining though.

  LesbeanAda