Chapter 56: Chapter 56: Never Letting You Go

The bed in the Lammermoor mansion feels like heaven. Almost as good as Kaline’s back home. Either way, I don’t have to be worried about goblins anymore. Or being chained up. Or dealing with a dim-witted, annoying, but strangely sympathetic bird as a companion.

Instead, I have Gussie. Over the top, over-enthusiastic, and completely what I needed.

She fusses over me, her beak preening grime and goblin stink from my fur, even though I’ve just been bathed and dried and brushed. [I don’t know why you bothered being nice to that Dag. A fencepost is smarter.]

[He was useful,]

Gussie squawks. [Useful! Useful would be deciding you don’t belong there and helping you escape. Useful! You are too trusting.]

Demos bats at her with his paw. [You have never been caged, Gussie. You were wild.]

Gussie is underwhelmed. [He wasn’t caged.]

I close my eyes, feeling too relaxed to argue. [Not now, both of you.]

Demos doesn’t hold back. [He may not have been physically caged, but he never left that cave. That was his whole world. When the prison is all you know, you don’t even think of leaving.]

Gussie squawks again. [Lobo, Lightning, help me.]

Lobo wags his tail. [I had a different chain with my former Mistress, and I didn’t see any escape. Until Blaze and all of you arrived, I didn’t even realize I wanted to escape. I’m with Demos.]

Gussie stares at Lightning. [It’s down to you.]

Lightning puffs out her fur and bares her teeth. [I’m with Gussie. Lobo, you had people who cared about you who wanted to help you. And you were willing to risk a change.]

Gussie perks up, fluffing her feathers. [And Dag could have had that, too. We’d have taken him.]

I yawn. [Can we debate this later? In the morning? It was evening when you rescued me. It was a long day, even with a nap.]

Lobo growls. [A long two days.]

I burrow into the blankets, relishing the warmth of being somewhere there are clocks and day and night and people who can communicate with me intelligently. [I stand corrected. Nobody would tell me how much time had passed. Or could tell me.]

Gussie makes a rude sound. [That Dag.] Lightning roars agreement.

[And that goblin chief.] Lobo bristles. [We can all agree that he knew he stole Blaze.]

A chorus of noises, roaring and screeching, greets Lobo’s declaration.

I sigh. Despite feeling slightly sorry for Kasz, I can’t find it in me to be too sorry. [He knew what he was doing. The rumors about me being stolen were just convenient excuses for him.]

[I doubt he’ll try that again for a long time with any other beast.] Demos sounds smug. [Or any beast taming households. Ours least of all.]

I purr my agreement. [We beat goblins. You raided a goblin lair, all of you, to save me.]

[And you managed not to get yourself seriously injured before we did.] Lobo licks my face. [You really fooled them.]

[I did. It helped that they don’t understand the first thing about real beast taming. They don’t know about bonding or anything.]

My revelation has my friends rolling over in shock.

“They don’t KNOW!” Gussie crows the words, and I suspect we’ll hear them over and over for at least a week.

[And yet they stole a beast.] Lightning is agog.

[It’s lucky for me they were completely ignorant.] I shiver. [They could have forced me to bond with Kasz, and break the bond with Kaline. Maybe.]

[Impossible/] Demos gnashes his teeth. [Otherwise, why did we risk ourselves and skulk in the shadows to free Lobo?]

Lightning shakes her head. [Real beast tamers are careful, Demos. We all heard Lord Lammermoor talking about how sometimes people can break bonds, if they don’t care about harming the beast or if they don’t know any better.]

[I must have missed that part.] Demos spits as if trying to expel rotten food from his mouth. [You mean to tell me those goblins, if they had any brains, could have bonded Blaze?]

[Their wizard could have helped.] Lightning relishes her superior knowledge. [This Kasz didn’t seem entirely brainless.]

Lobo woofs. [If you say so. Robbing a High Elf noble’s household was not exactly a genius move.]

[It had a certain daring.] Even Demos sounds grudgingly impressed.

Snuggling close, Gussie lays her wings on me. [We are never letting you out of our sight again, Blaze. I wanted to pull all my feathers out, I was so worried.]

[Well, we can’t have that.] I lean into her wing-hug.

Demos, Lobo, and Lightning surround me in a cuddle pile. Even Einswine joins us, the big mature wild boar acting protective, as if making a barrier should any other goblins dare to invade tonight.

Kaline’s voice fills the room. “Look, Hans, they’re all so cute.”

[Cute?] Einswine grunts. [I AM NOT CUTE.]

Lobo woofs. [Especially with your breath.]

Lightning disagrees. [He is cute.]

{Hmmmm.] Einswine snorts. [Perhaps I am.]

Hans and Kaline climb up on the bed, with our cuddle pile between them as furry chaperones. The door to the bedroom is open. Of course, Lamant, Minette, and Lord Lammermoor would want to look in, if they were so inclined.

Hans stares at us, his hand coming to rest on my head. “You will never be out of our sight again. Any of you.”

Kaline looks fierce. “I wanted to throw that old goblin chief across the room.”

[That’s my human.] I feel such pride that it warms me all over. [You are fierce, Kaline.]

She blinks, startled. Her big brown eyes pop. [I forgot you can talk to me now.]

[I can. And I want to tell you that you’re fierce. And funny. And smart. And loyal.]

Demos gives me a mock eye-roll, but the grumpy bear looks absurdly pleased. I conclude that I must be doing well in the “how to take care of your human” department.

Kaline scratches my ears. [I’m never letting you go, Blaze. It’s you and me. And I am tired right now. I know you are, too. You couldn’t sleep in a goblin lair. Nobody could.]

[You’re not wrong.] Sleepy, I close my eyes and wriggle closer to her. How I missed her warmth! There is no one like my Kaline.

[Blaze, you’re safe with me.] Kaline pulls me onto her. [You’re getting bigger. But I’ll still hold you. I’ll always hold you.]

Yawning, I nestle close. After being surrounded by rude, noisy, dirty goblins for two days, being snuggled with Kaline feels like a little slice of paradise.

[Kaline?]

A snore answers me.

I open my eyes and see a hill of beasts, exhausted from the desperate rescue mission. Brown for Demos, gray for Lobo, brown for Einswine, golden for Lightning, red and brown for Gussie.

[Lightning?]

Her sleepy voice answers. [Why aren’t you asleep?]

[Ah…I don’t know why. It’s awfully hard. I’ve never been captured by goblins. And I worried that I wouldn’t come back. Not that you all wouldn’t save me. But there were so many goblins.]

Lightning’s tail flicks above the pile of beasts like a reassuring signal. [You must have been scared. I would have been. Those mean goblins.]

I close my eyes and yawn. [I know.]

[And I was scared, Blaze! For you.]

Her fear washes over me, and for the first time, I feel embarrassed. She worried about me.

[I’ll never let go, Lightning. I’ll never let any of you go.]

I borrowed that line from the movie Titanic, but Lightning won’t know the difference.

Then, I feel her paw on mine, pressing down, making sure I don’t disappear in the night.

There’s this weird feeling in my chest. I’ve felt it before. It’s not love, or a crush. I’m just a tiger cub. Although I’m growing by the day. It can’t be love, or a crush, can it?

[Lightning?]

She sounds mildly exasperated. [You aren’t asleep?]

[Just talk to me. Everyone else is asleep. Even Gussie.]

Lightning relents. [Everything is good again. Lord Lammermoor is back. Hans is happy. Lobo is even happy.]

[Hans! He’s asleep on Kaline’s bed!]

Lightning huffs. [So? They are warriors, tired together. Friends.]

She’s right. And honestly, if it doesn’t bother Lord Lammermoor or Lamant and Minette, it should not bother me in the least, right?

[Thank you, Lightning. I think I can sleep now.]

Her voice sounds mellow and pleasant. [That is all it took? You are an easy beast.]

[I wouldn’t go that far.]

A yawn. [Go to sleep.]

[Goodnight, Lightning.]

A soft roaring snore and a little purr answer me.

Closing my eyes, I say goodnight to the System.

Goodnight, System. Can I get a stats check?

[Name: [Blaze]

[Class:

[Journeyman]

[Race: [Common Wolf]

[Level: 3/10 [XP 15/100 STATUS: Full

[HP: 6/6 [MP: 0/0 [Stamina 100/100

[Strength: 22

[Defense: 24

[Magic: 21

[Resistance: 13

[Speed: 22

[Charisma: 37

[Luck: 24

[Skills: [Bite (Attack Skill] [Pounce (Attack Skill)] [Sprint (Skill)] [Camouflage (Skilll) [Escape Power (Skill){Divine Vision/(Skill)[Telepathy]

Good enough. Now I can sleep again. And tomorrow I will go home!

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