The Battle of Harper's Haven

Sam was flying towards Harper’s Haven. Thanks to Sadie, the goblin warren took no time at all to find, as she just bribed the local wildlife. Also recruited more of them full-time. Sadie now had a literal swarm of rodents at her bidding, to the extent that Talia had joked Sadie should be grateful she wasn’t human anymore, or she would almost certainly be getting a rodent animal-girl TF at the end of the round. Sadie had not found it funny. After they found the warren, Sam just filled it with water using her breath weapon, and recharging it at the local river while Talia created a time wall to prevent any goblin from escaping. Sam then swam through the tunnels to collect any loot, not that there was much. The supply pickup took almost no time and was only worth stopping to do the quest because it was between two other quests. Then the trolls were handled in much the same manner as the goblins, except out in the open forest, Sam just blasted them with torrents of water and lightning while Talia immobilized them with time bubbles. Now they just had to figure out what the threat to Harper’s haven was.

Sam landed at the eastern gate to the city, startling the guards. Slevia came running out to meet them. “You must be Lady Irving,” Slevia said, pounding her chest with her fist and holding it there as Sam had seen other soldiers do in the empire. “We were told to expect you.”

Sam transformed into her humanoid form and said, “First, it’s just Sam.” Then she flared her dragon aura ever so slightly, “Don’t make me insist you call me that.”

“Uh… yes, Sam. I’m Knight Captain Slevinka. It is a pleasure to meet the famed Azure Dragon.” Sam flared her aura ever so slightly. “My apologies. If I’m not mistaken, you are Lady Sadie and Lady Talia.”

Sadie stepped forward. “That is correct, Knight Captain. We were informed that a priestess of Cassandra believes the city to be in danger. Do you know from what?”

“No, Ma’am. Just that she received a revelation from the Goddess, so we have been on alert.”

Sam sniffed the air. “I can tell you what the threat is already.” Sam’s tail and right eye twitched in irritation. Her tail then slapped the ground in annoyance. “The thief is here. The little thief who stole from me.”

Sadie asked, “Who?”

“Mary was here. Judging by the strength of the smell, it was fairly recent, too. Knight Captain, the champions of Smug are nearby. You should call all guards to active duty immediately. Expect an attack before the morning.”

“Yes, Ma’am.” Slevia turned to another guard, “See, that all the guards are either on duty or scheduled for relieving the on-duty soldiers in an hour or less.” The guard saluted and went to obey the order.

“Sadie, do you mind if I take the lead here?” Sam asked.

Sadie shook her head, “Go ahead.” While replying, Sadie brought Bertha out of her companion cage. Then a stream of rodents followed. Slevia looked at the pile and was rather surprised by just how large it was, since it was big enough to literally cover her from head to toe. Sadie said to the swarm, “I want a quarter of you to go into the city and recruit as many of the locals as possible and establish a network. The rest of you spread out. I’m willing to bet our targets are in the woods somewhere nearby.” She threw three cheese wheels towards the swarm, and like feeding piranhas, they were gone in seconds.

Sam asked Slevia, “Do you have anything to detect invisible enemies? One of the champions has an ability to go unseen.”

“We have a few mages, but not many.”

“What strategic resources are here?”

“This is the trading hub with the fey lands, so we get a lot of food traffic here, and various exotic materials. That’s the only reason I could think that they would want to attack here. With the outbreak of Mad Cow-Girl in the east, the empire's food supply has been crippled, as that is our best farm land. It would be a real blow to lose the food imports from the fey lands, too. Honestly, I assumed that is why they razed Asherland, to slow the transport to the rest of the empire.”

Talia said, “Okay, Sam, spill what’s wrong? You clearly don’t think that’s the reason they are here.”

“It’s just… Captain, have you heard any reports of Smug’s Champion’s activities today so far?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve gotten reports about the Mad Cow-Girls, that the orc tribes seem to be mobilizing in the north, Asherland needing supplies, and some feud in the south between two lords starting up again. Those are the major things of note.”

Talia asked, “You’re trying to figure out what they’ve been doing yesterday afternoon and all of today, aren’t you?” Sam nodded. “Well, I would assume either the orc tribes or the feud was likely caused by them, maybe both.”

“Yeah, but… it just seems like it isn’t enough unless there is something we aren’t seeing.”

The three of them thought about it, and then Talia realized something. “Oh! I can’t believe I didn’t think about this before. Knight Captain, can you tell me if there are multiple idols associated with Smug or her allies that have to do with: pride, wrath, greed, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth?”

“Yes, there are. Why?”

Sam asked, “You think there is another idol that they are bringing here?”

“Yes. The trial that we went through at the abandoned temple of Cassandra was the Trial of Humility. Which is one of the seven virtues which are the counterpart to the seven deadly sins. We also know that there are six other temples. We didn’t hear anything about their activities on the day we were summoned, either. I bet they went through a trial to get the idol they used in Lakeview. Then they either went through another yesterday evening or this morning.”

Sam nodded along. That does sound like the sort of thing Cassandra would design for the challenge. “Slevinka, please fortify the church of Cassandra. It is the likely target.”

“At once.” Slevia moved off to go see to her directives.

“Talia, can you reach out to the others? We might need their help if they can make it over here in time.”

“Will do.” Talia nodded. After a brief conversation with Laura, Talia said, “There’s a problem. They can come help, but Isabella is currently **** and will be for a bit more than three more hours. Mark thinks he can get them here in under two hours if he pushes it, but then Isabella would be here, helpless, and Mark would need some time to recover before he would be effective.”

“That would still give us Laura and Allie as help. Were they able to deal with the Mad Cow-Girl problem?” Sadie asked.

“That’s the other thing. Sort of. They currently have the idol, but they need to get it cleansed before the problem will actually start to resolve. They think handing that off safely to a priestess in the capital would take at least an hour, and they have no idea how long it could take to cleanse it.”

Sam shook her head, “We can’t afford for another thing like that to happen. We have to fight for this one. Ask them to come. Even with the risks.”

Talia nodded. A moment later, she said, “Okay, Laura says Mark is flying as fast as he can.”

“Good, I think it’s time we catch one or more of them. They might have gotten us with surprise tactics before, but in an actual fight, I think we will kick their ass. Sadie, have your mice found anything yet?”

“A few cats, and a hawk, but nothing of note.”

“Okay, well, we should go see what we are working with and see how we can help prepare. Talia, keep the line with Laura open, and keep them apprised of the plans and us apprised of how far out they are.” Talia nodded, and the three went into the city.

An hour and a half later, Sadie reported, her mice had found something odd. A significant number of them were going ‘missing’ around the same area, and when she had another go to investigate, an arrow struck it and incapacitated it.

Sadie said, “I think I found one of them. Probably Flora. Maurice just took an arrow to the face and is down.”

Sam said, “Maurice? You gave them names?”

“No. They all have names. Squeak said it was important to remember names. My father says the same thing, actually.”

“You have a few hundred rodents.”

“Five hundred forty-three to be exact. Of which currently, seventeen are all incapacitated in the same general area. I would assume that is where they are located.”

Sam said, “Perfect, give me their location, I’m going to rain hell down on them.”

Sadie replied, “No.”

Sam growled, “Sadie, don’t stand between me and my hoard.”

“Sam, Hilde was able to walk on air. Flora has a bow. If Ellen is there, she could turn into you and become a dragon herself. You are absolutely not going out there alone.”

Talia agreed, “Sam, Mark says they are about twenty to twenty-five minutes away.”

Sadie exclaimed, “Oh no! I just lost a bunch of mice all at once. Some kind of gas, and it’s all over the place.” Sadie plotted the spots on a map.

Sam said, “Probably Hilde and Chloe’s work. Chloe’s an alchemist, but nothing says she has to use her own creations. Hilde probably dropped the canisters of gas while sprinting around the city, and she is fast enough that there wouldn’t be that much of a delay between drops. I’m glad we asked for backup. We have four of them confirmed.”

Talia said, “Laura just told me Allie has been feeling dizzy, on and off, but doesn’t know why. Also, her breasts feel swollen.”

Sam turned to Slevia, who was at the table with them inside the church. “Knight Captain, can we mobilize a squad to flush them out here and **** their hand?”

“I’ll see to it at once.”

Talia told Sam, “Be patient, time benefits us over them. If we can hold off truly engaging them until Isabella wakes up, that would be ideal, but even delaying them another fifteen minutes would be huge.”

Sadie said, “I have Aubrey at the north gate. She… She completely destroyed the gate. She’s… she’s fleeing? The guards at that gate are chasing her.”

Sam swore, “Damnit, can we stop them? It’s a trap!”

Slevia asked a mage, and then shook her head. “No, the mage at the gate was apparently taken out in the destruction.”

“Shit, reallocated some guards to that gate. I don’t want to leave it defenseless.”

“Hilde just incapacitated two guards at the south gate and fled.”

“With Aubrey, we are up to five. I would guess that Merida is here, too. Ellen is either also here or doing something on her own, to catch up in levels after being incapacitated for a day. What’s the ETA on Mark?”

“They just passed Westgate,” Talia replied.

“Excellent. They should be able to see the city in a few more minutes. Any word about the guards to the north?”

Sadie said, “They’re down, mice in the woods confirm it.” A moment later, Sadie exclaimed, “I have eyes on Chloe and Mary.” Sadie marked the location. Sam barely resisted sprinting out of the church and going there immediately. “What the… they vanished. Like just disappeared before my eyes. Merigold and I can only assume another Merida are on top of the west wall with Hilde. Hilde seems to be protecting them while they launch firebolts at the roofs of buildings. They are trying to do the same thing as they did in Asherland.”

Talia said, “If they can start a large enough fire, holding the city will be untenable.”

Sam asked, “ETA on Mark?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Damnit, Hilde and the Meridas are bait, but also a problem. You don’t have eyes on Merida herself, right? Just her alts?” Sadie nodded. “Meaning they are definitely bait, but bait we can’t ignore. Knight Commander, do you have any water mages to deal with fires?”

“A few, but I worry that if we send them, they will simply get taken out before they can do anything. They aren’t really combatants.”

“Damnit. I think I have to go handle Hilde.” Sam said. “I can at least get rid of the Meridas starting fires and put out the fires they have already started. Sadie, between you, Talia, Bertha, and the Knight Commander, here you should be able to hold out even if this is a trap. We still don’t have any of them actually in the city, right?”

“No, but I also don’t have eyes on any of the others. Correction, Aubrey, Chloe, and Mary are at the north gate. No eyes on Flora or Merida.”

“Well, it isn’t surprising you don’t have them on Flora.” Sam said, “I’m going now, protect the church.” Sam stepped out of the building and transformed, taking flight. Sadie watched from her mice as Sam unleashed a storm of lightning at the three on the wall. Hilde sprinted out of the way, while the Meridas simply discorporated. Sam then used her water breath to douse the fires.

Sadie said to Talia, “Sam’s chased them off and doused the fires. It looks like she’s circling to the north, though. Damnit, she’s going after Mary.”

Talia replied, “Well, that was expec—” Sadie watched as an obsidian arrow struck Talia in the side of the head, and she went down.

+7 CP Flora Incapacitated Talia (1 per target's level)

Bertha immediately moved to deflect a second arrow aimed at Sadie. Sadie looked up to see that Flora had come in through a window. Sadie was glad she had learned about Sam’s ability to understand the mice. As she had a swarm of them gather together in Sam’s path, which worked to get her attention. Sam redirected to the church fast. Which was when Flora drank a potion and disappeared. A few seconds later, Sam stormed in through the doors in her full dragon form. “WHAT HAPPENED?! I can smell that Flora was here.” Sam surveyed the room, but didn’t see an immediate danger. Then she saw Talia ****. “FUCK! Sadie, do you have a count on how long until Mark is here?”

“I think five or six minutes.”

“Damnit, that isn’t fast enough. Sadie, we need Talia. Can you hold on your own for ten minutes?”

“I don’t know, but I’ll try.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect.” Slevia said.

Sam nodded and grabbed Talia in her claws and flew east towards Mark.

Sadie said, “Okay, so we have Aubrey, Chloe, and Mary, slowly making their way here from the north. Flora is likely around here somewhere. Merida and Hilde are… Slevia, Hilde is coming here FAST!” Slevia took a position at the door. Which was flung open.

“Hey Slevia. How’s it going?”

“Name’s Slevinka, I will crush you.” Slevia lifted a two-handed warhammer.

“Oh, and the moose is here, too.” Suddenly, Hilde had five mirror images, and Sadie noticed a partially translucent Merida behind Hilde, who, to her astonishment, then flew away.

Hilde engaged the trio, but she wasn’t really interested in Slevia or Bertha. Not that she didn’t land blows when she could, but Hilde kept targeting Sadie, forcing Slevia and Bertha to intercept attack after attack.

The cramped space of the church wasn’t conducive for Bertha, and when moving to block an attack at Sadie, left herself open, and Hilde finished her off. Hilde was battered as well. She backed off for a moment. “Damn Slevia, you seem like you have eyes in the back of your head. What gives?”

“I see through your petty tricks. I will crush you.”

Slevia was a blur to Sadie, for a moment, as she dashed forward towards Hilde and actually landed a heavy blow on Hilde, sending her into a wall. Hilde drank a potion and seemed to recover a bit, and then ate something, but she still looked haggard.

Hilde used the space between Slevia and Sadie to go after her. Sadie felt a series of punches land and watched as her HP was close to its limit.

Slevia was able to **** Hilde off before Sadie went down. Which was when an arrow struck Sadie in the back, knocking her ****.

+3 CP Hilde Incapacitation Assist on Sadie
+4 CP Flora Incapacitated Sadie

Sam was flying as fast as she could and saw Mark in the distance. Once she was certain that Mark saw her, she angled towards the ground between the two of them, and he did the same.

As both landed, Sam lay Talia down. “Mark! She’s nearly at the time limit!” Mark was breathing heavily as he knelt beside her.

Mark kissed the **** Talia. “Now, is not your time to rest, and fade into the darkness. Come back to me, my princess of the night.” Talia gasped as she regained consciousness.

Sam sighed in relief. “Oh, thank goodness. Now we need to get to the church. Sadie is there by herself. All of you get on. Mark, heal Talia as much as you can.” The five of them climbed on Sam’s back, and she took off towards the church. When she landed, the group took up a formation and proceeded inside, seeing that there had been a battle. Bertha was down, Slevia was down, and Sadie was nowhere to be found. “FUCK!” Sam swore. “This is my fault! I left her alone.”

Laura placed a calming hand on Sam’s shoulder. “They aren’t gone yet. We can still get her back. I saw Aubrey’s armor to the north. They were still fighting.” Sam nodded.

Allie asked, “What do we do with Isabella?”

“We hide her somewhere,” Laura said. “We’ll put her in a building between here and the battle.”

And so they moved, stashing Isabella in a townhouse. The residents reluctantly took her in.

The five of them approached the enemy team. Talia and Laura were on Mark’s back as a dragon, and Allie was on the back of Sam. They saw Aubery, Chloe, Hilde, Mary, Merigold, and Mira standing near the gate. They were a hundred meters away and staring them down. Sam said, “Wait, they planned this. Merida and Flora aren’t here, or at least aren’t visible. They also don’t seem afraid to engage us. Talia, how close do you need to get to time bubble them?”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

“Twenty meters. It probably won’t immobilize Hilde with her speed either.”

“Okay, Mark, we'll go in together, fast. Talia, time bubbles them, and we breath weapon them. After, find a place to put Laura and Talia down and let them nova the other team.” Mark nodded. “Three, two, one.” The two took off flying towards the gate. A bunch of things happened all at once.

Aubrey charged out in front of her team and shouted, “BAAA BAAAA BAAA!” A bridge formed on the ground in front of her, and a semi-transparent pink wall was visible to either side of the bridge, creating a **** point in the street. Sam and Mark both tried to simply fly over it, but found that when they tried to, they were drawn towards Aubrey instead.

As this happened, Merigold and Mira both launched firebolts not at the opposing team but to the sides.

Talia landed her time bubble on all of the opposing team, but as she had surmised, the bubble was too big to actually freeze Hilde in place, as two breath weapons came down on the opposing team, one of acid and one of water. Hilde managed to be fast enough to grab Mary and get her out of the blast, but the rest of the other team was caught to some degree in the dragon's breath.

+4 CP Sam Incapacitated Chloe
+2 CP Mark Incapacitation Assist on Chloe
+1 CP Talia Incapacitation Assist on Chloe
+2 CP Sam Incapacitation Assist on Aubrey
+5 CP Mark Incapacitated Aubrey
+2 CP Talia Incapacitation Assist on Aubrey

As the dragon’s breath hit the edge of the time bubble. Two explosions went off on either side of the street, hitting team Fairy Castle. Allie was knocked off of Sam, landing on the ground. Both were injured, but not critically. Mark and Laura were in the same condition, but Talia hadn’t regained enough of her HP and was incapacitated again.

+4 CP Chloe Incapacitation Assist on Talia
+4 CP Merida Incapacitated Talia

When the time bubble popped. The ones left standing were Hilde and Mary on one side, and Sam, Allie, Laura, and Mark on the other. At least until Mark was shot in the back by a trio of firebolts and four arrows, taking him down.

+4 CP Merida Incapacitation Assist on Mark
+5 CP Flora Incapacitated Mark

Merida, Mira, Merigold, and Flora were on a roof behind them.

Laura grabbed Mark and Talia, hopping on Sam, as did Allie, and they took off. Laura passed the two over to Allie and then created whirlwinds and launched lust bolts as quickly as she could. They were charging Flora and Merida. Sam crash-landed on the roof, with Allie and Laura engaging Flora and Merida. Flora went down fairly quickly, but it was Merida who managed to get away, as she flew straight upward and towards Hilde and Mary. Who were both administering something to Aubrey and Chloe, respectively.

+2 CP Allie Incapacitation Assist on Flora
+2 CP Sam Incapacitation Assist on Flora
+3 CP Laura Incapacitated Flora

Sam saw as Aubrey and Chloe both stood up and downed several more items, and Mary let Chloe suck on her naked breasts. Flora was ****. So were Mark and Talia. Sam thought, This is bad, we have to at least get one more of them. Otherwise, this was our loss.

Laura told Sam, “Hey, make sure I’m not interrupted.”

Laura knelt down and held Mark in her arms. I’m so glad you are **** for this. “Mark, the fuel of my desires, this goddess is humbled by your continued benevolent offerings. Allow me to show my gratitude by returning a fraction of the generosity you have shown me, as I bestow upon you this blessing.” She leaned in and gently kissed him.

With that, Mark regained consciousness. “What the heck?” He said.

“Mark, you should have all your abilities back. Get Talia up.”

Mark nodded and did the same thing as before. When Talia got up, he pulled her into a long, passionate kiss.

When Mark broke the kiss, Talia said, “We have a problem.”

Sam said, “No shit.”

“No, we are on a clock now.”

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked, not taking her eyes off the other team.

“You probably missed it during the explosion, but we got a notification about them placing the idol. Check your status, you can see the timer.”

“Shit, she’s right, we only have forty more minutes,” Laura said. “Sam, I think you should go to the church and get it.”

“No, Hilde will be able to get there, and I don’t know if I’d win a one-on-one fight. Not to mention, even if I go, can you four handle the five of them?”

Talia nodded, “If Hilde isn’t here, it would be four on four.”

“Yes, but she could stay here and decide that incapacitating you again is worth it. Plus, they seem to have better healing than we do. Between Aubrey, Chloe, and Mary.”

“Yeah, but I have another breath weapon in me, thanks to Laura.” Mark resumed kissing Talia.

“Save it,” Sam said, “I think we all retreat to the church together, taking Flora with us. We stop the desecration and hold there.”

Laura nodded. Mark ceased kissing Talia and transformed into a dragon.

They mounted up like before, with Laura carrying Flora. The opposing team watched as they flew towards the church.

The group landed in front of the church and went inside. Mark and Sam went back to their humanoid forms for the tighter quarters. What caught them by surprise was a Hilde with tits at least twice the size of her head, flying towards Talia as they entered the building. For the third time, Talia went down as Ellen went careening out the door, from her momentum. Ellen landed hard and rolled across the ground outside the church. Sam and Laura sprang into action and attacked the fallen Ellen, while Allie moved to protect Mark.

+7 CP Ellen Incapacitated Talia

Ellen was hit by several lust bolts and couldn’t move fast enough to avoid Sam’s follow-up. She wasn’t in a good place, but then Hilde herself showed up. “OH GREAT, THERE’S TWO OF THEM!” Sam shouted.

Allie shouted, “SAM, LAURA! We need to go before the others show up!”

Sam realized Allie was right. DAMNIT!

Sam transformed into her dragon form, and Laura climbed on, still blasting away at the Hildes below. Mark did the same, and Allie grabbed Talia and Flora. The two took off. Mark saw the others coming up and decided to leave them a parting gift as he used his breath weapon as he flew over them. Which caught Mary and Chloe off guard as they were coated in the acidic slime. Sam saw an opportunity as she was trailing behind Mark and attempted to grab Mary in her claws, but missed as Chloe pushed her out of the way, and Sam grabbed Chloe instead. Chloe fell limp in her grasp as they flew to where they had stashed Isabella.

+6 CP Mark Incapacitated Mary
+6 CP Mark Incapacitated Chloe
+1 CP Sam Incapacitation Assist on Chloe

Sam panted, “Okay, here’s my plan. They still have to be at the church. Laura, you come with me. While Allie and Mark here take all the **** people far away.” Sam said all this as she was tying up both Flora and Chloe.

Laura looked at Sam like she was crazy. “The two of us vs. what the five of them?”

“First, Mary was covered in the slime, I wouldn’t be surprised if she was downed. Second, Hilde’s aerial maneuverability isn’t the best. Third, I’m pretty sure they will be affected by the idol if they remain here. When it goes off. Fourth, our endurance far outstrips theirs. If Hilde and Ellen can’t beat us two-on-two, we can just keep attacking them, forcing them to flee. Merida, Aubrey, and Mary don’t have the ability to outrun the two of us. ”

Mark said, “It’s a good plan.” Mark pulled Sam into a fierce kiss, “You best come back to me now, you hear? You think you’re harsh when something happens to your hoard? I’ll be down right… draconic.” Mark slid up behind Laura and kissed her on the neck while fondling her. He whispered into her ear, “I just want you to know, I’ll continue to generously offer you fuel for your desires.”

Laura went pink as she recovered significant health and stamina. “Don’t tell me you heard that?”

“Every word,” Mark said, smirking.

Laura grabbed Sam’s arm. “Lets go before I die of embarrassment.”

Sam nodded and took off with Laura on her back. Allie picked up Isabella and asked, “So, I can’t actually carry all of them.”

Mark transformed into a dragon, saying, “Don’t worry, I can in my claws.” Mark grasped Talia and Flora in his foreclaws and Chloe with a back claw and took off heading east towards the capital.

Back at the church, Sam and Laura found the doors shut, but through the same window Flora used, they could see that at least Hilde and Merida were inside the church, but they couldn’t see the others. A moment later, they spotted Ellen entering through the front door. They listened in.

Ellen said, “Okay, the others are out of the city. Merida, you really should have gone with them.”

“If Sam comes back, I can help.”

Hilde nodded, “I actually agree, Ellen. I’m not sure the two of us could win against Sam, and definitely not against Sam and Laura, but with her, I’d give us better than even odds.”

Ellen shrugged, “Okay. So this went sort of tits up, didn’t it?”

“Aye, that it did,” Merida replied.

Hilde asked Merida, “How long do you need to get out of the city?”

“Mebbe thirty seconds, if I cast haste on a' o' us afore I start movin’. The plan is tae wait doon the timer an' flee?”

“Yeah. If we stay inside, it eliminates the largest advantage the other team currently has, which is true flight. If they come in here, I’m pretty sure they're screwed.”

Ellen asked, “What if they all come back?”

“No way. Master is probably flying off with Chloe and Flora right now. I’m not actually sure Sam will come back; she might just decide to cut her losses and take the capture of two of ours as an acceptable trade for one of theirs and let us have this quest.”

Laura whispered, “Are we going to try and stop them or not?”

Sam considered that. The church was small enough that she wouldn’t be able to carry Laura properly and maneuver inside while flying. Sam shook her head. “No, our goal is to follow them.”

“We’re really just going to let them have another thing like the Mad Cow-Girl Plague? Sam, it’s rather bad.”

“Can you think of a way to stop it? That isn’t incredibly risky?” Laura shook her head. “Then yes, we will let them have this. Hey, wait a second. Where did Merida go?”

An illusion of Merida appeared in front of Sam. “I’m richt here, I am.” Sam swiped at the illusion and moved away from the church. Another illusion appeared on top of the church. “OCH! That wisnae very polite! Juist wantit tae chat.”

Keeping a healthy distance. Sam moved slightly closer so Laura could talk, but Sam kept her eyes peeled for Hilde or Ellen ambushing her.

Laura said, “What did you want to chat about?”

“We wur discussin’ things, an' assumin’ things shake oot as we expect them tae, Hilde wis thinkin’ mebbe we dae a prisoner swap. No’ taeday, mind ye. Ye gie us back Flora an' Chloe, an' we gie ye back Sadie an' Ethel. I reckon we micht come oot slichtly aheid in this trade, but Flora mentionit ye need a strong priestess o’ Cassandra tae cleanse that idol ye got. Aiblins this ane tae, if ye can manage tae get it efter the initial effects. She seems like a talentit ane tae me. Aiblins wis the ane meant tae dae it, tae. Ye dinnae hae tae decide noo. Laura, ye can reach oot tae Ellen.”

Laura replied, “You assume that you can get away from us.”

“Ye mean because ye can flee an' hae ranged attacks? Laura, I’m projectin’ an illusion on the ruif. Why wuid ye assume that whit ye saw inside wis us?”

“No way you try and bluff us.”

“Or mebbe we are juist in a nearby biggin’. Regairdsless…” Four more Merida illusions appeared. “Hoo will ye follow every copy o’ me?” The four extra illusions vanished.

“You’re right that prisoner exchange does sound like it benefits you more than us.”

“Ay, but I think we baith ken if we dinnae dae it, then thae three are placin’ at the bottom o' the challenge, an' Sadie cannae really affoord tae dae that.”

“I'll discuss it with the others.”

“That’s a' I’m askin’. I’d raither a' three hae a fair chance tae place in the challenge. So, hoo are things goin’ on yer side o' things?”

Sam was the one to interrupt, “Are you seriously just going to act like we aren’t opponents, Merida?”

“I mean, we are pals, richt? Aye, we are opponents, but I think we a' ken that ye aren’t goin’ inside, in case we really are in there an' it’s a trap, an' we winnae be really comin’ oot here tae expose oorselves until the timer draps low enough that ye hae nae hope o' stoppin’ it. Since it isn’t as simple as juist pickin’ up the idol. So, why no’ chat?”

“Because it’s a trap,” Sam replied.

“Sam, ye need tae relax, juist calm doon. Let things go.”

“Sam! Stop listening to her now!” Laura exclaimed. “She’s trying to hypnotize you.”

“Shucks, I thocht I wis gettin’ close. I guess a dragon an' a goddess are trickier targets. Weel, I’m goin’ tae end this illusion; we’ll see if ye manage tae be able tae follow us or no’.”

The five of them waited for the timer to tick down. When it got down to one minute, they all got ready. Sam perched on the roof across from the church doors. Sam said, “Laura, the moment the door opens, flare your divine aura.”

The doors opened, and Laura did as requested. Sam did the same thing with her dragon aura, trying to disorient the others. Which partially worked as a half dozen Hildes and a half dozen Ellens, looking like big-titted Hildes came rushing out of the church and stumbled from the auras. Sam unleashed a cone of lightning. Sam’s breath weapon destroyed every image below, leaving Ellen reeling from the electricity. Though Hilde appeared unharmed. A moment after the aura suppression, Laura saw a Merida appear next to her. “Laura!” Merida said, trying to get her attention, which worked. “Sleep!”

Laura felt her eyelids sag slightly, having trouble staying awake, but blasted the illusion with a lust bolt. Hilde had moved to protect Ellen for a moment, causing Sam to hesitate about diving in. After Ellen had recovered, both she and Hilde sprinted out of the city. Sam and Laura were flying hot on their trail. They all managed to flee over the north wall before the timer hit zero. Sam and Laura saw Hilde and Ellen, but not Merida.

When Ellen and Hilde went into the forest, Sam lost sight of them.

Larua said, “Sam, I think we should call it. If we hurry, we can go back and grab the idol now before things get out of control, here.”

“Okay. You’re right, damage control.” Sam flew back over Harper’s Haven, and Laura jumped off Sam and floated down onto the church. They looked around but didn’t notice what the idol had done, but just in case, Sam stayed flying above the city, in case she could get infected. Laura grabbed the idol, jumped to the roof of the church, and then jumped again, propelling herself into the air with her wings. She landed on Sam’s back, and they flew off towards the capital with the idol in tow.