Decision point

I was invigorated.

The princess's quiet, futile struggles in the dark had been everything I could have hoped for and more. She was exquisite, and I'd made her mine against her will. With every fiber of her being, she loathed me. I'd defiled her, deflowered her in the night, and **** her cooperation. The look on her face when she spotted me had been an incomprehensible mask of too many emotions.

I wanted more.

Thanks to the Dark goddesses who had pulled me into this world, I knew that the girl would become pregnant if she hadn't already, but I wasn't counting on her actually managing to carry it to term. She'd be under too much scrutiny. Too many people pay attention to princesses. I didn't much care about forming a whole race of creatures like me, but neither was I wholly apathetic to my own bloodline.

On the other hand, the more of me there were to be found, the more motivated the locals would become to rid themselves of my kind. So after thinking about it, I decided I had two options: I could keep moving, dropping the occasional clutch of miniature me's into convenient targets here and there as I went, or I would need to dig deep into one place to cultivate a safe, secret hive for my kind.

Because celibacy was out of the question, and that meant babies. Babies were evidence of my existence. What a hassle. Oh well, if that was the price of living my new life then I would pay it. It occurred to me I could even follow the princess and her companions back to wherever they came from. There would likely be a great many elves there. And a queen. I hadn't technically seen her in Stern's significant memories; it didn't work quite like that, but I knew she inspired him in more ways than one.

Odds were really good that she was gorgeous. So that was definitely an option. Follow Legs back to her home and settle in for a long stay. If the city were any decent size, I could hide rather well. There were always slums, or abandoned buildings, and maybe sewers and outlying farms. But there would also be a lot of people. Potential playthings, yes, but also would-be exterminators, each of them. I wondered how quickly I could grow in power if I just threw caution to the wind and just had fun in a city...

It was a tempting prospect, high risk for potentially high reward. I still had plenty of time to actually pick up the elves' trail. They'd only just finished packing up Legs' things.

Of course, the migratory life would be nice and easy. Very few concerns, and I'd be in my forest element where my Ranger skills were most useful. Also a tempting option, if for no other reason than it sounded fun and easy.