As scared as Ves was of the giant insects or drones, the voice called them. She couldn’t help but feel at least a little relieved to have the added protection. After all, she had zero confidence in her ability to fight with such a shoddy weapon and her non-dominant arm to boot.

  By the end of the day, she was mostly used to them. Though the closer she looked at them, the stranger they seemed. For one, they didn’t have a mouth as far as Ves could tell. She asked the parasite in her head, but they were as confused as she was. At first, she also thought they had no eyes, but she did eventually find a discolored spot on what she assumed to be the head, which the parasite thought were eyes. Still, how they actually could see with them, neither Ves nor the voice had any idea.

  The most important thing about them, which Ves only realized later that night, was that they didn’t sleep. The drones could stand watch and protect her.

  ‘Wake up’

  “Five more minutes…”

  ‘Ves!!’

  Groggy and feeling a sense of déjà vu, Ves opened her eyes.

  ‘Ves! Get up!’

  “What’s wro-”

  A roar piercing through the forest told Ves all she needed to know. Leaping to her feet, she quickly saw the problem. They were under attack. It was a land drake, wingless beasts that honestly looked more like a giant lizard with horns. Twenty feet long, covered head to toe in scales that left them armored like a knight.

  All around the drake were the drones, carefully trying to draw the beast’s attention and keep it away from Ves. Best as Ves could tell, any damage they caused was superficial at best, even if it looked painful.

  ‘What do we do? Should we run? I don’t know if the drones can win.’

  Ves could feel her parasite’s panic, and it wasn’t without good reason. Looking off to the side, she could see that one of the drones was already dead.

  “Not sure if that’s a good idea”. Drakes were tenacious, refusing to ever abandon the pursuit of their prey. She had even heard stories of people who thought they had escaped, only for the drake to show up days or even weeks later. So no, running was not an option. If she and the drones couldn’t kill it now, she knew she would stand no chance if it found her alone in the future.

  Looking around on the ground, she found the spear she had made the day before. She had no hopes that it could pierce the drake’s scales any better than the drones, but she had to try.

  ‘Are you sure about this?’ The voice asked as she cautiously approached the drake with her spear at the ready.

  Was she sure? Not in the slightest, but dying while fighting sounded better than dying in an ambush after weeks of looking over her shoulder. “Wish me luck.”

  With the remaining drones distracting the drake, Ves thrusted her spear into the beast’s side with all the meager strength she could muster with her left arm.

  It did nothing.

  The spear just slid across the drake’s scales without leaving a scratch. She wasn’t even sure the drake felt it, as it gave no reaction to her strike. It even made her spearhead loosen, forcing her to tighten the knot with her teeth as she tried to stay clear of the drake’s tail, snapping around like a whip each time it turned.

  Void-cursed beast had to have some sort of weak spot. The issue was that Ves was no fighter and so far wasn’t even useful enough to serve as a distraction. All the while, the drones were taking a beating. Enough so that she was unsure if any of them would survive even if they won. It was time to change her approach.

  Its face and eyes had to be a weak spot. That was if she was willing to get close to a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. With no better ideas, Ves closed in towards the drake a second time. With one of the drones slicing a shallow but nonetheless painful-looking wound, Ves saw her opening. With a shout, she lunged forward, aiming straight at the beast’s eye. It was close, a near hit, but at the last second, the drake saw her and lifted its front into the air to dodge the attack.

  As Ves began to curse her foul luck, she noticed something. On the drake's underside, the scales were a lighter color, and they even looked softer. That flashed back a memory, one containing a hint of how they might just have a chance to beat this thing. Distracted Ves didn’t see the drake swipe at her until it was too late. By little more than dumb luck, she managed to block the attack with her spear. Unfortunately, that did little to prevent the force of the blow itself from sending her toppling across the ground before slamming into a tree.

  It hurt, it really hurt, but somehow what was it? Ves was certain that any blow that sent her flying like that should have broken a bone. At least cracked them. Yet somehow, at worst, she felt she would have a nasty bruise in a few hours. Ves thought it was a safe guess that the parasite was the cause, but if it was making her more durable, who was she to complain? She could still move, and now she had a plan.

  “Attack its belly! The scales should be weaker there!” The memory Ves had was from a few years back. Her master had caught a lesser drake on a hunt, and Ves was made to clean the corpse. While much smaller than a land drake, around the size of a goat, they still had thick scales. Thick enough that Ves’s knife could only pierce it on its underside.

  ‘Understood, I’ll tell the drones!’

  “I’ll give them an opening!”

  They could do this. She had to believe that. If they could win this, maybe, just maybe, she could find a way to make a new life out here. It would be hard, but she would be free. But first this beast had to die.

  Despite the protest of her battered body, she charged. Spear out, ready to thrust, she aimed for its eye a second time. For the second time, the drake dodged, and this time it was pissed. Rearing its torso into the air, the drake prepared to pounce and trample Ves. There was no escape.

  For the drake that was.

  As soon as the drake reared itself into the air, the drones struck. With its belly exposed, they dove in and went for the kill. Within a few heartbeats, the drake was dead, its insides ripped to shreds, spilling out, coating the forest floor in a thick layer of gore.

  Battered and exhausted, Ves dropped to her knees as the spear gently fell away from her grip. She did it. They did it. The drake was dead, and they had won. For the first time in her life, Ves was able to stand up and defend herself. It may have been a simple beast, but still, she won. It felt amazing. Unfortunately, the battle wasn’t without losses. Upon its death, the drake toppled over onto several of the already badly injured drones, crushing them. There was only one left.

  Not one to waste a meal, Ves dusted herself off and walked towards the dead beast. Before she could take even a few steps, a gale of wind raced through the area as the trees shuddered. The force alone nearly slammed Ves to the ground. By the time she scrambled back to her feet, it was already over. She caught only the briefest glimpse of something green, almost like the forest itself, as whatever it was skimmed the tops of the trees as it flew overhead and deeper into the forest.

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  The only large flying beasts she knew of that frequented this part of the woods were griffons, but they were smaller than the wolves. This creature was massive, many times the size of a griffon. And somehow she only noticed it when it left. Had it been there the whole time, hiding amongst the trees, watching her? It was a terrifying thought, and Ves, for one, didn’t want to stick around in case it came back. Forced to abandon the kill, Ves and the remaining drone fled.

  After a few hours of fumbling through the woods, they found, well, calling it a river may have been generous. More like a large creek, still, it was much cleaner looking than the river she nearly drowned in. Enough to wash herself and get a much needed sip. Stripping herself, she waded in, shivering slightly in the cool spring waters. She was used to cleaning off with just a bucket and a rag. In turn, a creek, which she could really soak in, was wonderful by comparison despite the temperature. The drone also seemed to enjoy the water, curling up just beneath the surface.

  Scrubbing the dirt and grime off her skin wasn’t too bad. On the other hand, her hair was naught but tangled knots, blood and gore, twigs and leaves. She did what she could, but wouldn’t call it clean. Even just a comb would have made a world of difference. Despite being a slave, she was still a servant to a noble. As a result, Ves grew up accustomed to maintaining a relatively high level of personal hygiene. If for no other reason, it helped avoid drawing her master’s ire or that of his guests. Roughing it in the woods would take some getting used to. At least she smelled better; she had worked up quite a sweat traipsing around the woods.

  While taking a moment simply to relax in the water, a question popped into her mind. One she was honestly surprised she had not asked until now.

  “What do I call you anyway?”

  Ves was left waiting a moment before it answered. ‘I hadn’t thought about that… I don’t have a name.’

  “Would you like one? Not sure what to call you otherwise.”

  Another pause.

  ‘Yes… yes, I believe I would like that.’

  “Hmm, I guess to start off, are you a boy or a girl? It’s not like I truly ‘hear’ your voice, but in my mind, it always has a feminine feel to it. Hard to explain.”

  ‘I don’t know if that really applies to me. That said, likely as a consequence of our ongoing merger, female may be the closest. As well as I can produce more of myself.’

  Ves paused for a moment, eyes unblinking. “Wait, are you planning to make more of, well, whatever you are?”

  ‘Not at present. Your body is made to make human young, for now anyway.’

  That was ominous, yet another reminder that her body was feeling less and less her own. If she woke up one morning and found out she was laying eggs or something, she may truly lose it.

  “For my sanity, let’s table that for now and get back to names. Any ideas of what you might like?”

  ‘I rather like your name. Short and simple.’

  “Umm, thank you? Short and simple then, eh?”

  Ves scrunched her eyebrows, and she tried to come up with ideas. Cassandra? Alice? Alex? This was harder than she had thought. She had never been asked to help name, well, anything. Though she remembered that her master’s daughter used to have a stray cat that Ves had helped take care of.

  What was it called again?

  “What about Nell?”

  ‘Nell…. Nell… I like it. From now on, you can call me Nell.’

  Bath complete, she turned back to her next problem, clothing…

  Her uniform was ruined. To the point, it would be beyond even a professional to salvage. With only one usable hand, she wasn’t even sure she could fashion the remains into anything remotely useful. She had tried to wash it a bit, but that only worsened the damage. A few pieces even escaped downstream as she tried to grab them with a hand that was no longer there.

  “Well, shit…” Ves uttered as she lay on the grass drying off in the sun.

  ‘Is it really that bad?’

  “I wouldn’t call myself a prude. All the servants changed and bathed together, but that’s an entirely different situation from running around the woods naked. My shoes are still in pretty good shape all said and done, but that’s it…”

  ‘Your skin is getting stronger. It should protect you from any minor scrapes from wandering around. Beyond that, it’s not like your old clothes would have protected you from beasts like the ones before anyway.’

  “It’s still embarrassing. Just glad there is no one around to see me.”

  After salvaging what remained of her old uniform, she had on, to put it kindly, a crude approximation of undergarments. Or as best as she could manage with only one hand.

  With a stretch, she sat up. “I suppose it is what it is, what now?”

  ‘I’m not sure what you mean,’

  “Like, next steps, do we just plan to live out here in the woods? I can’t risk returning to Kohdessia, and there are no other nearby nations.”

  ‘Why can’t we go to Kohdessia? Shouldn’t we be fine if we avoid your old master?’

  Ves shook her head. “No, ignoring that the brand itself is a dead giveaway, it also lets them track me. Being in Kohdessia would just make it that much easier. At least out here, they have to deal with the dangers of the forest. Actually, speaking of, can you remove the brand?”

  ‘I already tried. Whatever cursed you is too strong for me to remove it. The flesh there just refuses to change.’

  “Damn,” Ves didn’t honestly think it would work. Still, it had been worth asking. Unfortunately, as far as she knew, the brand wasn’t just a physical mark on her body, but something that infected her very soul.

  Lacking any better ideas, Ves set off again using the water for guidance as she trudged along the rocky shore. For someone who grew up in the city and spent most of her life living in fancy estates, this was hard going. Thankfully, it was late spring, so the forest stayed relatively warm, but even still, she knew she needed to find shelter. If anything, for a place to sleep in relative safety. By mid-day, after hours of trudging through the forest, she had found nothing. Frustrated, they stopped for a break.

  ‘Aren’t you being too picky? I doubt we are just going to stumble upon some perfect spot.’

  “I don’t know how to build a shelter. Do you?”

  ‘Fair, but eventually, we just need to pick a place and make do. Continuing to search for some perfect spot is a waste of time and energy.’

  “I’m the one stuck doing all the walking. I’m cold and sore all over. While you get a free ride inside me. Not to mention my thighs chafe like mad… I look like I’m wearing a fucking diaper…”

  Ves cradled her head in her palms. Only to be again reminded of the changes to her body as the gray sack encasing her right arm slapped against her face.

  She was miserable.

  She was free, or at least the closest to it she had ever been in her life.

  She should be ecstatic, but it just felt like one nightmare had been traded for another. Despite all she told Nell about how bad her life had been, she still had some people important to her.

  Now she was sitting practically naked in the middle of the woods, with several near-death experiences in just as many days. Then, gods know what living inside her body, changing her. It was just too much. Life was simpler before; keep her head down and obey. As long as she did, she knew she would have some food and a place to sleep. But no, she knew she couldn’t think that way. The senator simply held her leash for now. At any time, her true owners could drag her back. Memories of her life in the castle reminded her of how bad it could be. She hated those memories. Like how the woman who birthed her endlessly apologized for bringing her into the world. Or how her siblings and other branded children’s bodies grew cold, never to wake again any night the beating got too severe. What they did with the bodies during ‘play time’ with the princess.

  THAT, that is what she could never risk returning to. So she swallowed her tears. She would stay strong. She did not know what to make of her current situation. But maybe, just maybe, she could put it to use. Not just for herself, but for those she left behind.

  ‘Are you feeling better now? Want to talk about it? You went quiet for a while…’ Nell carefully asked.

  “Sorry, it’s just been a long few days, and I still can’t wrap my head around it all.”

  ‘I’m sorry. If it’s any consolation, we share a body. So I am VERY well aware of how uncomfortable you feel. Especially the chafing…’ Nell said with mirth.

  Ves let out a good chuckle at that before a thought crossed her mind, “Wait, didn’t you cut off any pain I felt before? Couldn’t you just do that again?”

  ‘I wondered if you would ask that. Even ignoring the fact that the ability to feel pain and discomfort is an essential bodily function to prevent you from unknowingly causing yourself even more significant harm. Which I will add you did do when you tried to walk on your broken ankle.

  It’s not like it’s a switch I can simply turn off. Before, I flooded our body with chemicals to dampen any sense of pain, but they take time to take effect and wear off. To be honest, I’m not even sure how we survived all that. Your spinal cord was nearly severed several times when we were being thrashed about the river rapids, let alone all the wounds you already had before we met.’

  “I wasn’t aware it had been that bad. Thank you, for you know, saving my life.”

  ‘You’re welcome, we are in this together.’

  Still, Ves was worried. So far, they were barely surviving against common beasts, but her old master was still out there, and she knew he would want his property back.