A safe night

Hwin helps you remove your armour (I may have forgotten this since the first chapter, sorry) and you collapse onto your bed. Hwin joins you, cuddling into the gap between your equine legs as you lay on your side. Sometime late into the night you are woken by screaming. Still groggy from the **** you moan, your throat dry you croak "What's going on?"

Mary comes over to you from the bed you fetched from her parent's house. She did not have much stuff but what you could fit in the Yurt had been moved over, the rest would be sold. "Storm, can I sleep in your bed, I had a nightmare, the Manticore was coming for me again." She explained. "You saved me from the Manticore, I feel safe with you. "

Wanting to go back to sleep you don't even try to argue "Fine come here." You mutter. She slips into bed behind you and cuddles up where you human torso meets your equine torso. She is warm and soft, her hair tickles your back a bit. Were you sober you may struggle sleeping but the drink pulls you back into your dreams. Only the baby manticore in her crib left out of your group hug.

You all sleep safely in your bed. You feel Hwin slip from between your legs then later Mary moves from your back but stay half-asleep until late in the morning. Eventually, you rise and Hwin hands you a mug of water. You drink in large gulps then get up. You pull on a rough shirt, knowing how humans react to nakedness "I need to step out for a bit." You inform the others.

You make your way to a nearby stable, there are no privies in human towns big enough for you so you have become accustomed to doing your business on staw like a horse when in town. You enter one that seems to have been used by a horse last night and is already in need of mucking out. You relieve yourself and pay the stable hand extra. You go back to your Yurt and eat some breakfast that Hwin has prepared. She has already fed the baby Manticore and Mary. You get fully dressed and put on your armour, you want to look your best for the king.

"We need a name for her, you know." Hwin, commented referring to the Manticore.

"I will try to think of one, let me know if you have an idea" You ask her (and also the reader, comment if you have a good name)

After breakfast, you gather your things and head back towards the castle. Hwin, Mary and the baby ride in the Yurt, sitting on chairs you got from Mary's house that you had nailed to the floor of the balcony just outside the main part where a driver would sit if this was a horse-drawn caravan.