Unfamiliar Territory - Chapter 7 (Early Access) (Patreon)

An hour or so into the morning’s hike, Tove began… twisting. There wasn’t another way to politely describe it. Every few steps she would pick a new part of her body to twist and turn and stretch, while pulling faces to herself. Sometimes relieved, sometimes frustrated.

“Are you in pain?” Chloe enquired quietly. The bonding spell should have cured any and all ailments, unless it was a new affliction. Since she passed her teenage years she hardly ever kicked in her sleep anymore…

“Hm? Nah, just creaky.”

Chloe was none the wiser as to what was going on. Tove looked over at her and chuckled.

“When I haven’t shifted in a while, my muscles get stiff." She raised her arms above her head in demonstration, baring an inch of her abdomen where the t-shirt rode up. "I slept in human form last night, which isn’t normal for me, so it’s been…” She squinted at the sky as she calculated and let her hands drop behind her head. “Maybe twenty-six hours since my last shift?”

“You’re welcome to take whatever shape you like, don’t hold back on my account.”

Tove’s eyes wrinkled a little above her grin. “Mmm…”

“What?”

“It was pretty obvious that my nakedness made you nervous before.”

“Well,” Chloe said, quick to deny her words. Then in the pause as she searched for her own, she realised Tove was absolutely right. Still, it was cruel to dictate when she could and couldn’t change shape, especially when the only reason was Chloe’s awkwardness.

They were adults. Chloe about to enter her final year at the academy. Nakedness was natural and-

“If you insist,” Tove teased, throwing off her shirt and slinging it over her shoulder to free her hands for working on the tie at her waist.

And Tove’s tits were looking at her again.

“I didn’t insist!” Chloe sputtered.

“Too late.” She hopped free of her skirt and bundled both items into a ball that she tossed at Chloe’s chest.

Chloe snatched the clothes and turned back to the path, forcing her eyes away from the bronzed body trotting at her side. Even in the mere moment, hardly half a moment, that she had spent looking, Tove's toned and tanned limbs demanded Chloe's appreciation. She buried her face into the clothes, willing away her blush. They didn't smell like her anymore...

A low huff announced the transformation was complete, and the enormous furry form that was wolf Tove bounded ahead, leaving Chloe literally in her dust as her hind feet kicked up a spray of dry dirt as she ran. Chloe shielded herself behind Tove’s discarded clothes, peeking out from them to see a fluffy tail disappear amongst the trees. After forcing the bundle into the top of her pack, the wolf returned, running a circle around her before darting off again.

This wasn’t a pause for a simple stretch then, they were continuing on six feet. Chloe ploughed onwards, assuming that if forwards wasn’t the right direction, the wolf would set her straight. Everything looked the same after two days of walking, if she walked in one big circle she wouldn’t notice. Lots of pretty trees, sprouts of weeds and grass, patches of pale-coloured wild flowers… repeated over and over.

At times, wolf Tove disappeared completely from sight, lost in a blur amongst the undergrowth. If Chloe wandered off course she was at her side with a helpful nudge or a bop of damp nose. Chloe thanked her with light scratches between the ears she could only just reach. No matter how slow Chloe plodded, wolf Tove was always circling her, bounding around at a dizzying speed.

It was... delightful. For the first time, out in the wilderness, Chloe almost... felt in control. Destiny was giving her a taste of her future, a nature witch wandering the wilds fully trained. Familiar protecting her in a looping barrier. A master of the earth's craft. At home in-

A dip in the mud surprised her foot, and her ankle buckled.

In her daydreaming, she'd wandered too close to the edge of the Tove-tested-and-approved trail. One slip and one sprain and she was sliding feet first into a ditch. The fall knocked the air out of her, and the gasp her lungs squeezed for instead caused a wet croak. She flailed and scrabbled at passing roots, hardly managing to slow her descent until she reached level ground again, far from the trail and scraped all over at the bottom of the ditch. Tove was at her side immediately with a skid of dry leaves and broken roots, kneeling over her, two-legged again and noticeably naked despite Chloe’s spectacles having flown off her face in the fall.

“T-Tove!” Chloe yelped, breathless. Her ankle seemed to throb in time with both syllables.

“Chloe,” Tove answered, easing Chloe’s specs back onto her face gently, her grin missing.

Roots rose up all around them, with thorny vines invading any cracks they could find. Anything close enough to brush Chloe, or even her clothes, was torn up and tossed away by Tove. With every movement, the lines of her muscles flexed effortlessly. The concentration creasing her brow was unjustifiably endearing.

Chloe's limbs stung with injuries while her face stung with shame. Half red-hot mortification at tripping into a ditch and the other half that Tove's unburdened body was managing to distract her from her own body’s pain. Tove was far more concerned with all the small cuts Chloe had accumulated in her fall. Her knee was criss-crossed with thin, bloody stripes, and her palms and elbows were pitted with tiny stones and thorns. She lifted and turned Chloe’s body in her hands, inspecting her closely.

“It’s fine, they’re just scrapes, my pride is hurt much worse-” Chloe babbled.

“Looks painful,” Tove said, sympathy sincere.

“Y-yeah, a little,” she admitted. “It’s just the ankle that’s… really sore.” Feeling pathetic was becoming part of Chloe’s daily routine, maybe one day it wouldn’t make her feel so hot and uncomfortable.

Tove lifted Chloe’s leg by the back of her knee and she squeaked, pushing her skirt down between her legs to keep some decorum. Tove wasn’t looking at her leg, or between them, though. “And you’re leaking.” She nodded at the ground, where Chloe’s cuts were dripping into the grass.

"Are you worried something out there will..." Chloe leant in closer, stretching muscles she hadn’t felt in years and dropping her voice. "Smell the blood?"

"You're still thinking of the hunter?” Tove asked with a head tilt. She was carefully picking debris from the indents in Chloe’s knee. “He's long gone, and human noses are useless."

"No, I meant like an animal." Although she was glad to know that the hunter was definitely gone... hopefully for good. A human with a crossbow was almost as scary as a wild animal.

"There isn't anything in this part of the woods that would challenge a wolf," Tove boasted. "You're my catch." The way she drew out the word ‘my’ with a cocky wink… it squeezed the soft section of Chloe's tummy.

"I don't know if I like being prey." Except she did, if she was Tove’s. But that was not important. Not right now.

Tove hooked the bloody knee over her shoulder and took one of Chloe’s palms to begin de-thorning. "Does anyone?" Her knees were splayed either side of Chloe’s hips. Any closer and it would only be Chloe’s knickers maintaining a barrier between their-

Chloe sucked in a breath and Tove gave her an apologetic smile, the thorn pinched between her thumb and forefinger dribbled a little blood back onto her hand. It was longer than Chloe’s nails. "You can say that because you're at the top of the food chain,” she grunted through the sting. The winces couldn’t be restrained, but at least she didn’t cry as the sharp pieces were all pulled free.

"There are creatures that would hunt me, they just don't live in these woods." The dark words, said with such a light tone, sent a shiver up Chloe's spine. "And, in your cities, aren't you at the top of your... chain?" Tove blew across Chloe’s palm, hurrying the drying blood.

Chloe blanched. "We don't eat each other."

"Humans eat animals, don't magic folk?" Satisfied with her treatment of Chloe's first palm, she gestured for the other to begin the thorn-removal process again. Chloe allowed the manhandling, mostly because she didn't know what to do to alleviate her embarrassment aside from obeying.

"Some do," she answered. "It's less common, though."

There were less protrusions in this palm, and Tove's pincing was fast and efficient. "Is that because of us pets?”

"It’s partly because of our familiars." Chloe put extra emphasis on 'familiars' in a polite correction. "But also an... economical difference. Meat is cheap and filling."

"Humans have less money?"

"On average." Chloe tried to shrug off the uncomfortable reality, but Tove's grip was too firm around her hand. "But some do very well with their own businesses and things," she added.

Tove pulled a strange face down at Chloe's bloody palm. "So... they do the jobs you don't want, and don't get paid well to do them?"

"Tove, I'm not a politician, I'm a student lying in a ditch with a sprained ankle and my pride in tatters."

"Sorry." She didn't look it, and somehow it soothed Chloe all the same. She pressed Chloe's wrists together within her hand and lifted them to her forehead to perform an elbow inspection, flicking minute rocks free from her skin. "Let's get you cleaned up and then we can discuss how we'd rule the world."

Chloe nodded, the adrenaline fading and the weariness setting in. When Tove released her wrists, they flopped to her lap limply. "I have my first aid kit somewhere in my pack, there are wound wipes in the-"

Tove's arms slid between the ground and Chloe with little resistance and lifted her into the air, pack still strapped to her back. "There's a river nearby. No need to waste your special supplies."

"A river?" Chloe repeated, reflexively reaching for a shirt to cling to and finding only bare chest. She squeaked and grabbed Tove's shoulders instead. They were roasting hot under her palms, but it was too awkward to change her mind a second time.

Tove turned her ear forwards as though to listen out for something, and Chloe suspected this was just for her benefit.

"Slow-moving, too. A good spot to set up camp once we're washed."

Washing. In a river. With fish. And fish... excretions.

She couldn't argue, instead Chloe attempted to come to terms to losing her leg to a fish-borne infection. What would Tove classify a witch with scales? Lizardfolk?

Tove trounced through the forest, climbing the almost vertical ditch walls with only her two bare feet for stability. And yet, Chloe knew down to her soul that she was safe. It was difficult to describe the sensation. Almost dream-like, where you know something to be true despite never needing to be told or shown.

It took some time before Chloe could hear the water too. Burbling and gurgling with the occasional splash. It was quite soothing, something a healer might conjure up as white noise for a stressed patient. When the trees halted, the dry earth continued for a few feet before transitioning into a pebbled embankment that lined both sides of a wide river.

The water was clear, but it didn't settle Chloe's concerns.

As Tove lowered her to the stones, just a little way back from where the water lapped them, Chloe mumbled, "I don't mean to sound rude..."

Tove dashed into the water like a playful puppy. "I hope you say something absolutely vile,” she called over her shoulder.

"Tove!"

Tove laughed and splashed a little water in her direction, not enough to actually pass the wet stones that lined the river's edges.

"How can we know this water is... clean?"

"Usually we would boil river water, and filter it,” Tove explained with a smirk. “But someone forgot to bring any pots or pans."

The burn was back. Full body shame this time.

"I-I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to imply anything about werewolves." That they were too primitive to know river water wasn't entirely clean.

"I know.” Tove waded back towards her, good-nature grin back in place. “You're worried about your leg. Trust me, while I wouldn't live off the stuff, I've drank and bathed in river water plenty of times growing up. Occasionally, it's perfectly fine."

Chloe nodded. "I trust you."

"Really? I thought you'd need more convincing, this is your life on the line here-"

"Tove!" Chloe whined, feeling her bottom lip scrunching involuntarily and her eyes welling up.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!” Tove laughed, clambering closer and settling on her knees by Chloe’s boots. Almost the obedient pet she seemed to think familiars were. “I'm only kidding."

"I know,” Chloe said with a shake of her head, fuzzy braid smacking her shoulder blades. “You're always kidding."

Tove reached for the laces of Chloe’s boots, pausing with the aglets between her fingers. “May I?”