Wade watched as Jasque all but stalked out of his tent. His bodyguard was not furious because Jasque was too strong-willed to let emotions cloud his judgment. Still, this was, without question, the most damaging transport they had ever done in terms of training and progress.

  Or, that was at least Wade's theory about why his bodyguard was so upset. Jasque did not confide in him. Unlike him, Jasque was not the sort of person who struggled under the weight of happenstance and needed to vent.

  Still, Birch was taking up so much of his time, and it was impacting Jasque's ability to monitor Wade and keep up his training. If not for Scotty being there to keep an eye on him, there was no telling how things would have gone.

  Some small part of him clenched up at the idea. So much luck. If he hadn't had supervision, if the laxity hadn't helped recruit an important asset, if Scotty wasn't qualified to guard him, and if Scotty wasn't one of the few people who could actually improve his marksmanship more than Jasque… well, they may have needed to substitute intensity for duration. That meant healer-assisted sparring.

  Wade's stomach twisted, and it was all he could do to keep from sneering at himself. What kind of pussy was he to get a tummy ache just imagining hard work?

  With a grunt, the were came up to his feet, intent on leaving the tent and adding another training session in, just to show himself what he was supposed to be like.

  The attempt failed. His stomach went from emotional clenching to cramping, and he found himself hunched over and hissing through his teeth.

  "Son of a succubus," he muttered, eying a canteen with longing.

  But he persisted. There was no way to skip the calorie contest with Shilloh and Scotty; it made them too happy. But he was still going to be weighing in soon. A day and a half of fasting with no water would lower his weight enough to help him avoid the fallout from Jasque for a bit. It was also good training. Voluntary suffering hardened one so they could survive the inevitable, eventual, involuntary suffering.

  Shilloh found him, still in his tent, wondering if he should request the healer-assisted training. If he was this afraid of it, then he probably needed it.

  Feelings—at least his feelings—weren't to be trusted anyway.

  Plus, it might help prove his resolve when Jasque's scale and calipers finally made their appearance.

  "Knock knock," a now familiar voice said from outside his tent.

  "Come on in."

  A gorgeous woman ducked into his tent.

  Shilloh was, well, he wasn't a poet. Simple words were all he had. The trip agreed with her. Ripping off his blinders agreed with her. Smiling at him agreed with her. And some part of him wanted nothing more than to sit her down and ask her again if she had liked him. Just so he could hear a one-of-a-kind woman like her say that she had. To know that someone so excellent had seen something in him.

  "I didn't see you at breakfast," she grinned, holding out a part of her mess kit, "so I grabbed your favorites."

  She had…

  He almost wept.

  He almost took the food.

  He almost took her into his arms and tried holding her to see if there would be a moment where both their muscles loosened. If she would lean into him and—

  He patted his stomach and told her part of the truth, "My stomach is a bit annoyed at me this morning. I think it would be best for me to skip this one. But thank you. That was incredibly kind."

  "You sure? We've got big plans today."

  Wade laughed, "We've got big plans every day. Plus, how do you know I'm not going to be training with Jasque? I told you I might have to cancel."

  "You're not training with Jasque today."

  "And how do you know?"

  "I have connections. Ones as competent as they are unhinged. But seriously, you want me to whip you up some oatmeal. We can't do a full brat diet on he road, but something plain on your stomach might help."

  "I'll be fine. But thank you," he tried to look at her without actually taking in what he was seeing. If he let himself notice her body, then it would be obvious how much more he was struggling with being friends than she was. "You need to eat more."

  "I swear to God, Wade," she snorted. "If I didn't know you were setting me up for a calorie ambush, then I would think your flirting skills had just gone up an order of magnitude."

  All the heaviness left him, and he forgot about his stomach.

  "What do you mean?"

  She cackled, took a bit of the food she had brought, and started walking away, "Don't worry about it."

  "No, what did I say?"

  "Why do you need to know? You trying to impress someone?"

  He carefully avoided saying 'you.'

  Instead, he followed her out for another of their 'important' days. Though he couldn't remember what they were doing today. Maybe it was PR day for her sprints?

  Couldn't be another familiar hunt. Those were getting too demoralizing.

  ~~~

  "Okay," Shilloh said, the only one of the three of them not covered in translucent goo that smelled like sugar and magic, "the good news is that it definitely had marks showing that it had been a Wingin host."

  Scotty stood perfectly still, his arms outstretched, unwilling to feel the sticky, gripping sensations when he moved. "The bad news is it's not your familiar?"

  "No, the bad news is that goo is going to attract some very interesting biting insects."

  ~~~

  If royalty could be embodied in the poise of a living beast, it would reside in the fur coat of the creature in front of them. It looked like a quadruped, but when it walked, one noticed extra legs striding forward. Though the limbs disappeared when you looked for them.

  A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  It was neither fox, nor wolf, nor bear, nor bird, but carried the grace and dignity of all. The only part of it that could be described in language was the sense of peace and benediction that came from looking at its pure white coat. Life flourished around it; birds landed on its horns. Wade found a knot of hurt dating back to the time of his parents easing when its blessed eyes passed over his hiding spot.

  He let out a shuddering breath. Tears came from his eyes, but even with the rest of the world blurred, he could still perfectly see the calm way it moved towards him. The compassionate tilt to its head. Effortlessly, it spotted him and approached until its snout hovered over his forehead and breathed out.

  A word was there, carried on the magic of its breath. One ancient word that resonated in his soul even as he felt the chronic injury to his left rotator cuff heal.

  "DIBS!" Shilloh screamed, leaping from the puddle of mud she had been hiding in.

  "Shilloh, no!" he tried to stop her, but she had the creature in her arms before he could move. The deer-sized, perfect being was hoisted up, cradled in her arms like a baby. It thrashed and cried with the sound of a thousand orphaned babies.

  The healing of his shoulder stopped. The supernatural peace disappeared. The world became dimmer. The bird that had been perched on the divine creature's horn shit on his hat as it fled.

  When that turned out not to be her familiar either, Scotty stopped him from kicking her.

  ~~~

  "Scotty," Wade said, gently holding his friend's arms, "We can't shoot Shilloh."

  "Speak for yourself. I can shoot anything I can see, and I see a bitch."

  All three of them were hanging upside down from a tree. A living, moving tree carved with arcane symbols that seemed right on the verge of legibility, even though the only thing that he got from looking at them was a headache.

  "I find that very rude," Shilloh said. She glanced significantly at the tree's leaves. "Rude, I say! So rude a familiar would totally defend me."

  A branch whipped down and smacked Wade in the face. He yelped as a second branch hit his butt. He let go of Scotty and drew his biggest knife. "Son of a succubus!"

  "Wrong one," Shilloh called out to the tree.

  "It's. Not. Your. Familiar." The Were grunted, punctuating each word with a slash of his big knife.

  "How do you know?" She crossed her arms, looking unbothered despite having been upside down so long that all the blood was settling in her face and turning it red.

  "Because a vine just tried to get familiar with my colon!"

  "See! So aligned with me and my priorities. I'm getting a good vibe—"

  "NOPE!" Scotty drew, loaded, and fired a magnesium scatter shot faster than a pissed off dryad could yell 'Don't you dare!'

  The now-smoking tree dropped them, and as they plummeted. Scotty fired twice while still in the air, once with a confetti-looking arrangement that was terribly flammable. The second was another magnesium shot.

  He did that faster than Wade could yell, 'Don't start another fucking forest fire!'

  They landed, rolled away, and Shilloh was forced to launch herself through the air with impossible strength to kick both feet into the burning tree-creature. It was knocked off its insect-like base of moving roots and tumbled backwards into a pond. Luckily, it had disguised itself as a regular tree on that bank so that it could catch, carry off, and eat local game as it came to drink.

  Shilloh sent it falling towards the water in almost the exact amount of time it took Scotty to scream, "Die, hentai tree! Die!"

  ~~~

  The three of them stood over a mundane bear. It was very, very tranquilized. But they still stood ready to run. If a bear took umbrage, whether you were a crypto, bane, or dryad, it was hard to be magical enough to get away scot free.

  "We're getting closer," Shilloh said, looking at the furless spots on its back. "I think we're catching up to Wingins."

  "I mean," Wade said, taking in the magnificent tank of a beast. It was not supposed to be here, but the Wingin possessing it had outgrown its host and left a magnificent adolescent bear far from its normal range. "Do you really need a crypto? You could do a lot worse than this."

  She sighed, "I know. But it's not my choice. The familiar chooses you. And this isn't my familiar. Nothing to do but trust the process and know what finds me will be better than anything I could choose."

  ~~~

  "I don't give a damn what my bullshit, magic fart of a spell says. This is my familiar!"

  "Shilloh—"

  "Period!"

  "I don't think—"

  "Exactly! Stick with not thinking," the dryad snarled. In her arms was what appeared to be a Bush Baby the size of an elementary schooler. Its big eyes were closed because it was too bright during the day. But Wade knew from experience that this crypto could see by other means during the bright hours.

  The thing was cute. But not that cute.

  Shilloh twisted, still baring her teeth, so her body was between him and the Bush Baby looking crypto.

  He threw up his arms and looked at Scotty.

  The other bane had been confirming their kill on a displaced creature that looked like the mixture of a chimp and an alligator. The slight man took in his 'what am I supposed to do with this?' expression before sighing.

  "Alright, dear. Explain it to me like I'm an idiot. Why is this your familiar when you told us it wasn't at first?

  "Just come here," she said, shifting the creature to one hip and bouncing it like a baby.

  He came over, the dryad grabbed his wrist, and shoved his hands onto the creature's fur.

  "Holy shit."

  "Right?"

  "Fuck."

  "Right!"

  Scotty started scratching, and the little creature let out a chirping purr as it snuggled its face deeper into the crease between Shilloh's neck and shoulder.

  "This is what a warm cloud should feel like," his friend whispered.

  "It's what love wishes it felt like."

  "But," Wade interjected, "it's not what your familiar feels like! Come on, guys. We can't be late."

  Both of them snapped at him. Shilloh yelled, "It's my familiar!" while Scotty snarled, "That's my nephew!"

  He argued until the dryad marched over and forced him to pet it. But only after insisting that, as a dryad, she was one hundred percent positive it didn't have lice.

  Wade glared defiantly as he scratched the purring creature's head.

  Then he blinked. "Well… Fuck."

  "Right?"

  He tried to stop petting it, but a small hand darted out and pulled his hand back against its face. The creature gave him a little lick and slowly pulled on his arm until his bicep was being used like a pillow.

  Wade sniffled, blinked his eyes, didn't get teary at all, and coughed. "Hey, Shilloh?"

  "Yeah, Wade."

  "Want to get married so he can be my son?"

  When the creature's actual mother showed up, it almost killed them. The little fella was just so happy to see her, though. They had to let it go and then ignored each other's sniffles and leaky eyes the entire hike back to the caravan.

  ~~~

  Wade winced and shook his head. What had he been thinking about?

  Oh yeah! He couldn't recall what the big plan for today was.

  Honestly, he felt a little woozy. Maybe the dry fast had been a bad idea. The lack of sleep certainly hadn't been smart.

  But Wade was used to not sleeping, so he and Jasque could train.

  "Sorry," he said, tongue thick. "I missed that. Say again?"

  The three of them were looking at a dead creature. This one had its head eaten while leaving no other discernible injuries on its body.

  After finding it, Shilloh had looked closely at two bald patches on its otherwise furry shoulders, looked up at the weather, and sent a pulse of magic out into the ground beneath their feet.

  "I said that we finally caught up to the Wingins. And this feels right."

  "Like, a gut instinct right, or voice-of-the-forest right?"

  Their resident dryad cartographer beamed at him as she said, "The second one. What do you boys say to finally catching me a familiar?"

  Scotty smirked back, "I say hell yeah. But also, look at that," he pointed to the body. Which was, as close as Wade could guess, the headless corpse of a prehistoric giant sloth. It was large enough that its claws would need their own seat in a car. It was the sort of creature that made your reinforced steel blast door feel about as safe as a beaded curtain. "I think this flock has gotten pretty strong."

  Shilloh responded to his concern with easy confidence. "So have I," she said, flexing a bicep that could curl a motorcycle if magically enforced.

  But he and Scotty met each other's eyes. For security reasons, they weren't supposed to pass the information along, but even with the winding route they had paid the caravan to take, they were about to enter a long stretch where Wade had no territory.

  He was about to go from 'trump card' to 'Achilles heel.'

  "I hate to say it," Wade said. "But this is more than the three of us can handle. If you want to go after the Wingins, we'll need to get Jasque's help."

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