Travelling up-mountain with my Bound is a relaxing experience. The new deri – who accepts the name of Orion – turns out to be a pretty cool guy. I won’t know what he’s really like until we’re in a fight together, but so far he seems pretty chilled, though protective. He reminds me a little of Hades watching Persephone – accepting that his mate knows how to defend herself, but there for her anyway.

  Kalanthia’s presence certainly wards off the beasts meaning that we’re unbothered by any attacks. It seems that there aren’t many Tier three beasts up here – perhaps none. We certainly aren’t bothered by any, though that could be due to the burning waves of anger which regularly expand out from Kalanthia; I don’t pay close attention to Lathani’s side of the Bond, but I sense enough to make an educated guess that they spend the whole journey arguing.

  When a familiar hill comes into view at sunset on that day, I feel a pang of fond memory pluck at my heartstrings. We stop at its base to drink from the river and wash up a little – we’ve travelled hard all day and even if we haven’t had to fight our way through the forest, I for one am covered in sweat and dirt.

  Even Kalanthia stops radiating quite as much anger at the sight of the place that used to be our home. Still, her body language is stiff and sharp. Clearly, she hasn’t convinced Lathani to stay with her yet. I can’t deny that I feel a curl of satisfaction at that. And then I’m reminded that her coming with me means that she’ll lose her mother. Unless…. I cut off that thought before it goes further. Kalanthia’s enough of a mind-reader that I don’t want her hearing it. It can’t be me who makes that suggestion.

  Bastet darts a glance at me, and then takes Ninja up the hill, Sirocco soaring above them, the three scouting ahead as they’ve been doing most of the day. Catch and Iandee, though both technically scouts, have chosen to stick by River, Hunter, and Happy to protect them.

  Hunter and Happy were both surprises. I had been fully expecting them to want to stay behind, to continue enriching their village. But Happy had been clear that she wanted to stay with me. Hunter, on the other hand, seemed more interested in travelling to a new world where she could perhaps learn more about runes than she had been able to discover for herself. Both of them assured me that they had trained Unevolved to do almost as good a job as they could themselves.

  On Happy’s side, that meant teaching the Unevolved to create the weapons and tools without magic in the way that I had taught her before she Evolved. Hunter had already been teaching the non-magical aspects to her assistants, but she apparently agreed with several of the Pathwalkers that they would take turns putting mana into the runes to activate them.

  With the clear evidence that they had been planning for a while to come with me, I could think of no good reason to deny their presence. And, frankly, I don’t want to. Both of them are samurans I worked with closely and would be Bonds that would ache far more to lose than most of those I broke.

  A sudden wave of excitement mixed with unease sharpens my attention and I pick up the pace, almost running up the steep hill. My scouts inform me of what they’ve spotted at just about the same time as I see him.

  Trouble has returned.

  He’s sitting near the entrance to the cave, looking relaxed. That’s more than can be said of Ninja and Bastet who are both stiff with their hackles half raised and their teeth visible.

  I approach the little group carefully. Trouble stands and the two female raptorcats stiffen further as he steps towards me. Perhaps in recognition of that, he steps carefully. Reaching me, he presses his head against my hip and rubs it firmly. I reach down and rub at his neck beneath his proto-feathers.

  He’s grown, I realise, and has put on at least three inches of height. His feather-fur coat is now completely adult too – it’s lost all the remaining fluffiness he had last time I saw him. Ninja’s has too, but for her it was a gradual process which I barely noticed.

  We still have the Bond and, this close to him, it opens up fully once more – I had unconsciously dampened it a little, I think, knowing that I wouldn’t be able to do anything if he was in trouble. He enthusiastically pushes his pleasure at seeing me again along it, and his excitement. Excitement about what? He answers my unspoken question with an inviting chirp.

  All of my Bound tense around me as two male raptorcats emerge from the cave where they had been hidden. They’re stiff and nervous, their body language showing that they’re only a beat away from either fleeing or attacking. I start feeding a little mana into the ground just in case I need to take preventative measures.

  I can’t really blame them for being so frightened, though. We’re an intimidating group, and that’s without the Tier three beast who slinks past them to take obvious possession of the cave where they were hiding. I wonder why Kalanthia didn’t attack them – I can tell from her body language that she’s not in the best of moods. But perhaps she realised that they were here for me – she probably recognised Trouble.

  I’m rather surprised that the cave is empty – I would have thought that another creature would have come to occupy it as soon as it became clear that Kalanthia had moved out. Though perhaps it wasn’t when the raptorcats arrived – there are still some signs of fresh blood that I can see smeared on the cave floor.

  “Either you’re just bringing your new friends to me to show them off before saying goodbye,” I venture, looking at Trouble closely, “or you want me to take all of you with me to the next world.” His preference is immediately obvious by what he sends over the Bond. “They’ll have to accept a Dominate Bond like you,” I warn Trouble. He seems unbothered by the idea. “And they’ll have to choose for themselves. I’m not taking anyone unwilling.” Again, he seems unbothered.

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  What is with all these last-minute additions? And how come Trouble has brought two males with him? From what I understand of raptorcats, it’s the females who stick together – the males are solitary and only stay long enough with the pack to mate and then move off again. But here are three males all together – and no females. I sense a story behind it.

  But right now, I need to find out if Trouble has actually managed to communicate the idea that we’ll be leaving this world never to come back. Since I don’t know how he’d manage to do that, I doubt it.

  “Alright, let’s get started,” I sigh, meeting eyes with the less wary male.

  *****

  By the time darkness has fully fallen again, I find myself sitting by a fire in my alcove. The whole situation is so awfully familiar to me, I could have gone back in time by a few months. That is, if not for the fact that behind me is a proper mattress instead of a mess of clothes, and that the dampness of everything indicates that a fire hasn’t been lit in this hearth for far too long.

  Most of my Companions are in the tanning cave – Ivor and Noir couldn’t have hoped to fit in the alcove, and even if they could have, there really isn’t enough space for everyone. River is already lying on the mattress, dead asleep. I regret once more that Hades and Persephone chose not to come with us, if only to have made the journey easier on the Pathwalkers. Hunter is also dead asleep, as far as I can tell, curled up in the other cave with Iandee and Catch watching over her. Happy, with her better physical stats, found the journey a lot less challenging, but she also indicated that she wanted to go to bed early and is curled up with the other samurans though hasn’t yet dropped off.

  I really should go to bed too – everyone else seems to have. The journey was hardest on the Pathwalkers, but we’re all tired. Lathani is curled up with her mother, their disagreements not extending to being estranged when sleeping. Fenrir, Sirocco, and the raptorcats are all in the alcove with me. I trust the Bond to control the two new raptorcats – Blaze and Spot, named for the markings on their heads. They’re only Tier ones and look to Trouble as their leader, so I don’t think there’s any risk of another Flying-blade-style murder attempt. And that’s an odd thought – Trouble as a leader.

  I haven’t managed to get a completely coherent explanation out of him but he’s done his best to tell his story through pictures. He went somewhere, called by a sense of beckoning – a cave of some sort. There he seemed to eat mushrooms which made him feel…stronger? And he met others of his kind, all males. Some were aggressive, and he got in several fights, but when he saw two males attacking a smaller one – Spot – he decided to step in. Outweighed, he and Spot fought the two males – and won, by using a strategy that Trouble had seen Bastet use against Fenrir.

  After that, Spot stuck near him and they explored the cave together, eating the mushrooms. Blaze joined them when Trouble saved him from a pool of oddly-sparkling water in the cave. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t Pure Energy, but it definitely wasn’t normal water either.

  After that, the three males stuck together. And for some reason, even when the rest of the raptorcats went their own way once the mushrooms had all been consumed, the three of them stayed as a team, something previously unheard of. I get the feeling that it’s Trouble’s influence – and his experience with our pack. He hasn’t experienced the males that come and go, and the females that stay. Instead, he’s seen a pack that only grows, males and females alike, all helping each other. I have to wonder what influence Trouble might have had in this world if he hadn’t chosen to come with us.

  But he has. I even released his Bond just to give him a little time to choose without its influence. Bastet and Ninja are keeping an eye on him overnight, but I don’t get the sense that I need to worry about him attacking us or anything – we raised him, after all. I’ll give him a Companion Bond tomorrow if he still chooses to come with us.

  Lifting a pot of stew to my lips, accompanied by pseudo flatbread, I remember that I felt the nagging of a notification earlier, but since it was just after we spotted Trouble, I didn’t check it then. And then I forgot about it. Opening it, I regret not looking earlier.

  Well, I suppose I’ve got confirmation about whether I have to return to my starting point or not. And it seems like I don't, which is a relief. I’m confident that we could have made the journey within the time – on my way down, I took several days to do it, but then I was moving slowly because I had lower stats, was looking for a shelter, and kept getting attacked. Still, it’s all the better if we don’t have to. Happy, Yells, and River are tired enough after today’s travel. Taking them into a new world already exhausted is probably not the best idea. If we can stay here, maybe make some preparations to do our best to tilt the odds of making it through safely….

  Of course, that depends on whether the space on the plateau is big enough to support this ‘size 2 Gateway’, but surely it is? The plateau is more than twenty metres wide. A bare mountainside offers more space than that, sure, but it’s also not as flat. I don’t know whether that makes a significant difference, but I’m going to gamble on the plateau being big enough.

  And ‘soul-bound’? I have a feeling that it means they must be Dominate Bonds or Dominate type – I’m confident at least that Companion Bonds will work. If they aren’t ‘soul-bound’, who is? It’s good that I released all my previous Bonds and offered those who wanted to come with me anyway Companion Bonds. And that the new Bound have Dominate Bonds.

  I wonder what does it mean by ‘not making it through the Passage as intended’? What, would they fall between worlds or something? Or would it be that the tie between us wouldn’t be strong enough to pull them through at all? Or is it that the portal on the other side might not accept them?

  Maybe we could use a cord to hold us together? Perhaps that would help avoid one or more of my Companions being lost? Spider silk is very strong, but I don’t know how it would work in an inter-world portal or whatever this ‘Passage’ is. Still, is there any harm in trying it?

  As I finish my dinner and then settle myself down for bed, feeling River press herself against me in search of my warmth, I continue thinking of options that we might be able to implement tomorrow. Most of them, I discard as being impractical or unlikely to succeed, but some of them stick.

  I’ll see whether anyone else has any ideas, I decide as my eyes slide shut and sleep claims me.

  here!

  here!

  here!

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