The Dungeon Hound Vol. 1 pts. 9-13 (Patreon)

[Vol. 1 pt. 9]

I managed to find some of those gems the annoying bastard talked about. There was a small cluster of them right as I turned a corner, about five in total. Despite being attached to the ground, they were pretty easy to break off and collect.

The problem was that I had no method of transporting them. If a Chosen were to walk through the dungeon and collect these, they’d be able to carry them in a hand or pocket or something. But me? My only real option if I wanted to bring them with me was to carry them in my mouth.

Just the thought of carrying them in my mouth made me think of all the idiotic ways I might die. What if I tripped and choked on them? I didn’t want to die some stupid death like that. Then again, if I did, everybody watching might be entertained.

No. I’m not going to choke to death just for entertainment.

Leaving the gems behind was the only good option I could think of. So, that was what I did.

And to my surprise, I found the downward stairs after the next turn.

There weren’t any beasts around guarding it, either.

This feels way too easy. Are there any traps? Any hiding beasts?

I looked around and saw nothing. If something was hidden, it was hidden with such expertise that I would never be able to find it in the first place.

I approached the stairs, stopped, and looked around again.

Everything looked good still.

All that was left was to actually go down the stairs.

Wait, am I going to meet that annoying guy again if I go down there? I might be able to get an upgrade. Alright, no more wasting time. Let’s go!

I descended the stairs and, about halfway down them, I tripped. I caught myself to stop from falling all the way down the stairs, but I did trip down a couple of them.

Yeah. I would have just choked on those gems if I brought them with me. Good idea leaving them behind.

Unfortunately, the portal to take me to the dungeon’s master never showed up. I made it all the way down to the bottom of the stairs without any interruption aside from my own stumbling.

Well… he did say that it was random whether I’d get to visit him or not. That’s a pain. Could somebody go through the entire dungeon without ever seeing him?

If anybody was able to manage that, they must be seriously impressive. Like, as impressive as a god. That would require relying purely on personal ability while scavenging items from beasts.

That’s not a challenge I’d ever want to take. I’ll take free upgrades instead. Please and thank you.

As for the second floor, I looked around and felt like I was right back on the first floor. Everything looked the same. The color of the stone walls and floors, the length of the tunnels, the scent of the air—everything was the same. I knew that there with floors with different styles, but those must have been deeper down.

Hopefully this means there won’t be any surprises. I—

I hoped too soon.

I was only able to go forward.

Two rats, moving together, turned into the tunnel and were coming straight for me.

I was confident that I could handle one rat at a time, but two?! How was I supposed to go up against two of them at once?!

Going back wasn’t an option, either. An invisible barrier prevented me from going back up the stairs.

Oh, fuck you, I thought to the dungeon master. Seriously, fuck you.

I was stuck between an invisible wall and two rats that would try their best to kill me as soon as they saw me. Then again… that was if they saw me.

I have no idea if they’re stupid enough for this to work, but it’s my only hope.

Next to the bottom of the stairs was a small space between the final two steps and wall. It was just the right size for me to fit in and, hopefully, dark enough to hide me from the rats. I never would have been able to fit in the space when I was a Chosen, but as a beast? I could fit there.

I tucked myself into the spot and lowered my body to the ground to make myself as small as possible.

The rats continued along their path, coming closer and closer to me. I knew they didn’t see me yet since they would charge me the instant they did. As long as I remained hidden… I’d be fine.

Stay quiet. Don’t move. Dad taught me this. Don’t let him down.

When hunting in the forest, even the slightest movement or noise might scare off prey. Being quiet was something I got pretty good at.

There were also all those times as a child where my parents wanted to play the “quiet game” with me to see who could stay quiet the longest. I always beat them at it.

I didn’t realize they just wanted me to shut up for a bit until I was an adult.

Thanks to going hunting with my dad and playing the quiet game with my parents, I managed to stay quiet and still long enough for the rats to turn around and leave.

I was safe.

The bad news about that was that safe was boring.

There was no way I’d make it through the dungeon if I didn’t take risks and try to improve. Even if I could sneak my way through the entire dungeon, chances were that I wouldn’t entertain enough of the crowd that way to stay around.

If I can take one rat out before the other knows what’s going on, I think I can win. Maybe. Or I’m overestimating myself and getting cocky just because I took down one rat. Yeah, probably that.

My options were to play it safe and be boring by hiding all the time, and probably lose the interest of the crowd just to eventually come across an undefeatable obstacle that would kill me and make all of my previous sneaking pointless, or I could try to go out in a fight while putting on a show and getting stronger.

I might not have been willing to die via choking, but dying while trying my best to take out a couple of rats didn’t seem like a bad deal.

[Vol. 1 pt. 10]

My approach was slow and careful. I needed to get close enough to the rats that I’d be able to launch my attack and take one out before the other even knew what was going on. A lot of things had to go right for my plan to work, but I had some faith in myself.

First, I stalked after the rats until they turned to go back down the other tunnel. Looking into the distance revealed another rat travelling away from these two, so that proved trying to run past them was a bad idea. I didn’t want to get myself surrounded and there was the possibility of even more beasts being up ahead past that third rat.

Running wasn’t an option.

Killing the rats was a requirement.

The worst-case scenario of me trying to fight the rats was dying but becoming more experienced and a better fighter. So, even the worst possible outcome was better for me than trying to run past the rats and boring people who want to see a fight.

I seriously hate considering the entertainment of this, but I have to. At least I’m going to die in a fight instead of dying from choking on shiny rocks.

Then again, it was entirely possible that I’d survive. I’d kill both rats, then move on to the third rat, and then move on to clearing the entire dungeon!

That was possible.

Technically possible.

Only almost impossible.

Right?

I took a deep breath and prepared myself. The rats were turned away from me, the third rat in the distance just went down a different path, and there was plenty of darkness for me to stick to.

I just had to repeat the same opening as last time, but preferably with better aim.

As soon as I was close enough to begin, I launched my attack. I ran as quickly as I could while staying as quiet as possible, using the wall as a board to jump off of, and went for the right rat’s neck.

I might have messed up my aim the first time around, but I got a perfect hit the second time. My fangs tore into the rat’s neck before it had any idea I was there.

I tore as deep into the rat’s neck as I could before jumping off and running back in the direction I came. I wanted to get some distance between me and the second rat while the first one bled out. Going by how much blood was squirting out from its neck, I figured that I must have gotten it at a pretty good spot. I’d have to try and do that again with the second rat.

The problem was having no idea how to reach the second rat’s neck. Jumping off the wall to get in a sneak attack wasn’t going to work since it could easily intercept me. I couldn’t jump up from the ground and reach its neck, either, not to mention that I would probably screw myself doing that since it could easily bite me while I try to jump.

I seriously needed to think of what to do after first!

The chances of winning a direct, one-on-one fight were low. The rat was way bigger, stronger, and overall deadlier than me. I was only able to win with the element of surprise which I no longer had.

And that gave me an idea.

Let’s see just how dumb this rat is.

Honestly, I was a little impressed by the plan I came up with. I had no idea if it was a good plan, but it was the only plan I had in mind and the plan I was going to try my best to execute.

It was the only way I could think of surprising the rat.

I ran back to the stairs and stopped directly in front of them before turning around to face the rat, backing up just a bit more until I felt my tail against the invisible barrier.

“Come on! I’m right here!” I barked at the rat, still charging at me full speed.

I was only going to have one opportunity to try out my plan.

Perfect timing was required.

I waited until the rat was directly in front of me, just out of reach, and… ran forward between its front legs and out between its left legs!

While the rat bumped its head into the barrier at full speed, I was going to jump off the wall to get on its back and go for its neck.

I might be in a beast’s body, but I’ve still got a person’s intelligence!

Only… while I was in the air after jumping off of the wall, I noticed the massive flaw with my plan.

The barrier didn’t stop the rat. The rat went through it with no problem.

I blinked a few times at the rat, which had turned around to track me, and then realized what was about to happen.

The rat snatched me out of the air with its fangs that were sharp and large enough to impale me on them, shook me around a little, and flung me to the side.

That’s… seriously not fair.

The last thing I saw in my second life was the rat opened up its mouth right over my head.

Seriously, fuck you, dungeon mas—

[Vol. 1 pt. 11]

I woke up to the sound of Fane trying to grab my attention. He did so by making clicking sounds with his tongue and rolling pebbles across the floor into my cell.

It took me a few seconds to realize I died again. As soon as I did, I remembered how stupid I must have looked trying my wall-jumping plan on a rat that wasn’t standing where I planned on it standing.

“What do you want?” I asked, forgetting that he couldn’t understand me.

“About time you woke up,” Fane said. “Want a drink?”

“A what? Oh. You mean water—wait.” I sighed since I remembered that he couldn’t understand me. Instead of trying to say anything, I nodded my head. Some water sounded nice.

“Here, catch.”

Fane threw a leather waterskin into my cell. I didn’t feel like getting up, though, so I didn’t try catching it. It wasn’t like it’d be any less good if it fell on the floor.

“You’ve got to work on your reflexes,” Fane said. “Anyways, drink up. I want a drinking partner and the guard brought me extra tonight.”

The guard did? The same one who was pushing him around earlier? Or maybe it was a different one. It wasn’t like there weren’t multiple guards to watch over us prisoners. Regardless, it sounded like not all of the guards here were bastards if they were willing to sneak some water to us. Though, I wonder what Fane did to get on the guard’s good side.

Well, it didn’t matter.

I bit onto the cork sealing the waterskin and pulled it out while resting the drinking end on top of my paw to make sure that the water didn’t immediately spill out. Only, as soon as I unsealed the skin, a strange scent flooded my nostrils.

It definitely wasn’t water in there.

“You might want to be careful with how much you drink,” Fane continued. “With a body that tiny, it shouldn’t take much to get you wasted.”

Wasted?

What even was it if not water?

The only fluids I ever drank in my life were water, milk, and this fruity drink made with berries that I got in the city one time when I was younger.

Whatever it was, it smelled strong when I brought my nose closer to it.

“Being good with the ladies has its perks,” Fane said. “I might not be getting any while I’m in here, but I can help the guard get some.”

Was that how he was getting special treatment? By giving love advice to one of the guards? If so… they needed to get some better guards around the place.

That was probably bad to suggest, though, given my situation.

“Anyways, let me tell you. Made it down to the thirty-third floor earlier. There were no beasts, which surprised me, but there were traps everywhere. It was basically a floor of endless traps stacked right next to each other. Sometimes there were two traps put into a space that would normally only have enough room for one. I heard of trap floors before, but that was my first time ever seeing one. Ended up getting crushed by a boulder while stepping over some wires. Serves me right for trying to go over such an obvious trap instead of defusing it.” A heavy sigh left his lips. “I didn’t even get to become Sixty-Nine. I went straight to Sixty-Four today.” He sounded more upset about that than the fact that he died.

While he rambled, I took my first sip of the strange liquid in the waterskin. It tasted… strong. I wasn’t sure how to describe it. It was like water, but it was… dry? And it burned my throat a little when I swallowed.

Was that supposed to be enjoyable or something?

“You know something else that I noticed recently? Our audience is sexist. I mean, look at the longest lasting prisoners here. There are only two men in the top ten. Thirteen men in the top forty. You see what I’m saying? They like the girls better than us. Not that I can blame them. If I had to choose between watching a man or women, I’d want to watch a woman. It’s also all the women who end up getting sponsors! You know how many blacksmiths I’ve heard of sponsoring girls and decking them out in fancy armor and weapons? It’s like they’re using the girls here as walking advertisements. Ah… I can’t wait until my queen gets here. She’ll sponsor me and then I’ll be out of here in no time.”

He really liked talking. I wondered how he got along with that annoying guy in the dungeon. They seemed perfect for each other.

I took another sip of the liquid. Something about it was tempting and made me want more. Maybe it was because I felt like I was a bit happier all of a sudden. A bit more relaxed.

“By the way, since you’re new here, let me give you some advice. You’ll appreciate that, right?”

I nodded.

“Alright. One! Never take any fire-related abilities if you’re given the option. It’s a bad idea no matter what the context is. Given that there’s no wind or anything down there, any smoke just sort of lingers in the air. It makes breathing difficult, it gets in your eyes makes looking around difficult, and it can spread dangerously fast on floors with vegetation. A guy a couple of weeks ago took himself and three others out by using a fire ability on an overgrown floor. They couldn’t find the stairs downward, weren’t allowed back up the stairs to the previous floor, and the fire spread throughout the entire floor they were on. Everything, beast and prisoner alike, was burned alive. If that’s not enough to understand why you should never use fire down there, I don’t know what will be.”

“Never… never use fire, got it,” I barked.

Wait, was that really my voice? It sounded… different. My noises sounded slurred and they just sounded off. I also started to feel pretty funny, but in a nice way. A seriously nice way.

“Two!” Fane said, probably speaking in a louder voice than he should have been. “Speed is your friend. Anything that increases your speed or takes advantage of it, do it. It’ll let you get out of the way of attacks. It’ll let you run away from situations you wouldn’t survive in normally. It’ll also let you attack your enemies before they have a chance to try and block or counter you. In other words, always go for speed. The slower you are, the more dead you probably are unless you have somebody working with you where you’ll be tanking everything for them.”

I heard him say something about speed, but my mind went elsewhere. “Tank? Tank… starts with the same letter as… thighs… h-heh…” I took another sip once I was done giggling to myself. I didn’t understand the appeal of the drink when I first tried it, but I understood after enough sips of it. It was great!

“And now for third and final tip for now! Be flashy. The flashier you are, the more the audience’ll love you. Trust me. They appreciate flashy, showy action more than they appreciate somebody doing everything the ‘proper’ way. Heck, they appreciate people who make stupid, easy mistakes more than the guys who try to never make a single mistake. Remember what I said about the guy who used fire and took himself and three others out? Well, guess who was voted to stay around? The guy who started the fire was. The other three tried everything in their power to put the fire out or to escape it, and all three of them lost the interest of the people who matter. In other words, don’t try too hard to do everything the rational way. That’s boring to them. Instead, be flashy, put on a show, make mistakes—get it? I can’t even really be mad that I was crushed by the boulder. If I made it through that entire floor the first try, it would have been boring. But you know what’s not boring? Making a mistake, getting crushed by a boulder, and getting to see me whine about it the next day. Not to mention that now it gives me reason to try even harder the next time and blah blah. Gives me a revenge story of sorts. Makes people want to see me succeed the next time. That’s how you do it. If you fail too much, you get dropped. If you win too much, you get dropped. You have to show the people a struggle. Preferably give them some nice reactions to go along with it.”

“Struggle!” I barked and fell onto my side.

“Huh. Now that I think about it, maybe I was wrong about that first tip seeing as how the guy with fire is still here.”

While Fane switched over to talking to himself about whether or not it was a good idea, disaster struck.

By falling onto my side, I was no longer propping the waterskin up on my paw. That delicious, beautiful liquid within it started to pour out onto the floor.

The only thing I could think of to save it as quickly as possible was to wrap my mouth around the top of it to drink all of it as it poured out.

I downed the entire waterskin with no idea of just how much I would come to regret that decision in the morning.

[Vol. 1 pt. 12]

I woke up to the sensation of two daggers stabbed into my skull trying to pry it open. Except, when I opened my eyes, I didn’t actually see any daggers. I also felt like my guts were spilling out from under my body, but… again, when I looked there, nothing was wrong.

“I want to die,” I groaned. “Why… why do I feel this way? Did I eat something I wasn’t supposed to? Did I… wait, was it that drink?”

I felt horrible. No, I felt worse than horrible. I felt like a sentient pile of rotten shit that was left out in the sun and was being devoured by flies.

What was the point? Why bother living if I had to feel like that? Was there any good reason to not end it all right there?

“This is the worst. This is seriously the worst. I didn’t know it was possible to feel this shit.”

I died. Twice. Yet, despite knowing the pain of death, dying again sounded like a better idea to me than dealing with the sensation of my head trying to split into two halves.

“Is this my real punishment? Was all of this a trap? Was Fane planted there to gain my trust and give me that drink to torture me? Is everything else a lie?”

The more I talked, the worse I felt, so I gave up on that to instead roll onto my side in agony. I planned on staying on my side for as long as I could, too. I just… I wanted to stay perfectly still and pretend that I was dead since I felt worse than dead already.

So, that was exactly what I did. I stayed there, unmoving, silent, while wishing for true death.

Unfortunately, I was not given that. Instead, the guard arrived and knocked on my cell’s bars. Every burst of metallic clanking that reached my ears felt like a new nail being hammered into my skull.

“Get up. It’s time to—damn. What happened to you?” the guard asked.

I opened my eyes and could hardly even look at him. Then I tried to look over at the waterskin to give him a clue, but it was gone. Somebody had to have removed it from my cell. I didn’t see Fane over in his cell either, so it could have been him or whichever guard he was friends with.

“I’ve seen people die countless times working this job, but none of them have ever looked as dead as you.”

For being the guard who typically seemed like a total asshole the other days when taking me to the dungeon, he actually… sounded kind of empathetic. Almost worried, even.

“You won’t be able to put on a show if you’re like this. You want to call in a sick allowance? You get six per quadrant.”

I… I get those? I thought to myself. Seeing as how there was no way I would be able to fight in the dungeon in my current state, I nodded my head and shut my eyes.

“Alright. Take it easy. I’ll bring a healer to check on you.”

“Thanks,” I whined to him. “You’re not a huge bastard after all.”

I didn’t know if he reacted to that or not at all since I shut my eyes again, but I heard him walk away. The sound of his footsteps was lighter than normal, too. Was he trying to make as little noise as possible for me? I wasn’t sure. Regardless, I appreciated it.

Nothing nor anybody else came around to disturb me for a while after that, so I did my best to force myself back to sleep.

The next time I woke up, I still felt like shit, but I felt a tiny bit better at least. More importantly, I woke up to the sound of my cell opening up and the sight of a woman standing in the entrance.

I felt better as soon as I saw her.

Tall, long legs, dark hair in a ponytail that almost reached down to her waist, a huge chest, a pretty face with a beauty mark—I was in love. And all of that was topped off with a tight uniform only ever seen on nurses in the city. The uniform gave everybody a perfect outline of her curves, leaving little to imagination.

“Hey there,” she said with a sweet, gentle voice. “I hear you’re not feeling too good. We can’t have that! Anything that hurts in particular?”

I nodded and touched my paw against my head.

“Hmm. A headache? Those aren’t unheard of. The revival process can have unintended side effects at times. Here, let me check you out.”

Oh, I was more than happy to let her check out any part of me she wanted to.

It might have been a tiny bit emasculating to be so easily picked up by her, but why care? There was a beautiful woman handling me.

“Your head feels fine and I can’t sense any disturbances. You… ah, I think I may know the problem.” She brought her face closer to my own before sniffing the air right in front of my mouth. “That is the smell of something you most certainly should not have been allowed to have in here.” She turned her head to look into Fane’s empty cell. “I wonder how you got it.” Following a sigh, she set me back down and placed her hands on those wide, beautiful hips of hers. “I’ll let it slide this time, but don’t let this happen again. Understand?”

I still wasn’t really sure what was going on, but I was happy to nod my head if it was something she wanted.

“You need water. Since you’ve already called in a sick allowance, you might as well spend your day in the lounge relaxing, but I suggest you visit the cafeteria for some water first.”

None of that mattered to me. I wanted to spend my day with her and her thighs instead. They looked so soft and thick, and her uniform left some of them visible between the thigh highs and her dress.

“Now, let me—”

A loud smackrung through my cell.

And just as quickly as I heard the first smack, a second, even louder smack reached my ears as the woman spun around to slap the face of the man who just smacked her ass.

“He-hey! What was that for?!” the man who smacked the woman’s ass, who just so happened to be wearing another guard uniform, asked as he rubbed his cheek which now had a red handprint on it.

“You know exactly what that was for, Peter,” she replied.

“Come on, Saylee. I thought we were—”

The nurse, Saylee, raised a single finger and pressed it against his lips. “I told you,” she whispered, “not around the others.”

The guard, Peter, sighed and nodded. “Fiiiine.”

“Also, I can smell alcohol on his breath there. Do you happen to know anything about that, considering your friendship with that man?”

Peter raised a hand up to rub the back of his head. “Aha… well… I uh…”

Saylee sighed and stepped past him. “My checkup of the prisoner is finished. Do your duty and release him so that he can enjoy the rest of his day.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he replied with a defeated sigh. She was already on her way elsewhere before he could even finish his response. Now that it was just me and him, he turned his attention to me and pulled a collection of keys off from his hip. “Alright! Let’s get you—oh, wow, yeah. She wasn’t joking. You smell like alcohol.”

I felt worse now that Saylee was gone. Seriously worse.

I missed her thighs.

Not only did I miss her thighs, but I now knew that her thighs were most likely off limits as they were taken in secret by the guard now leaning over me.

The day started off shitty, became amazing, and went right back to being shitty.

Life was unfair.

[Vol. 1 pt. 13]

Peter led me down a few different halls lined with cells before we finally made it to a pair of large doors protected by another guard on duty. The guards nodded at each other, and the one protecting the door then opened it for me and Peter.

“Alright, here we are. This is your first time since being transferred here, right?” Peter asked me.

I looked up at him and nodded.

“I see. Well, you’ll be welcome here and in the lounge on your days off. Honestly, they should really let all of you use the cafeteria at least on the days you have to go in. You know? At least before you go in so that you go into the dungeon with energy and a full stomach, but I get it. They think it makes for better entertainment when you have to find your own food and water in there.”

Peter led me into the cafeteria as he talked. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I could at least confirm that what I saw wasn’t it.

It actually looked kind of nice.

I felt like I was in a really large tavern rather than a prison cafeteria.

Everything was made out of wood and while some of the tables and chairs looked like they saw better years before, they didn’t look any more worn than the furniture in any tavern.

The back side of the room had a few different workers behind a long table that… probably had food on it. I wasn’t tall enough to see the top of the table, but it must have had food on it since that was where the other prisoners were lined up and receiving food from.

The left wall of the room was covered in displays connected to those orbs in the dungeon, letting everybody in the room watch whoever they wanted in the dungeon.

As for the rest of the room, it had everything that a normal tavern would have except for a bunch of loudmouth drunks cheering and hollering over songs and stories. Those eating in the cafeteria were my fellow prisoners—everybody else trying to survive through the dungeon in an attempt to earn freedom.

But, looking at them…

I felt like most of them probably didn’t deserve freedom.

If I were to think of what a stereotypical murderer looked like, a lot of the men in the room fit the look. Some of them were large and muscular with ugly mugs that made them look like they’d happily stare into somebody’s eyes while choking the life out of them. Some of them had such punchable, untrustworthy faces that I wouldn’t trust a single one of them to be behind me since I’d probably end up with a dagger in my spine as soon as I turned my back to them.

The women in the room weren’t free from my stereotyping, either. They might not have looked as obvious as the men, but there were still a few who made me worried. One of them was a tall, blonde woman missing an eye with a scar across her face, and the look in her eyes told me that she’d happily kill every single one of us in the room if it meant surviving.

Her bared, muscular arms were covered in scars, too. She was either a veteran of battles or had a lot of unlucky incidents with knives.

I felt a shiver run down my spine the moment she looked my way.

Alright. We’re going to avoid her. We’re seriously going to avoid her.

“You listening?” Peter asked me.

Whoops. I shook my head and tried to look sorry, but I had no idea if my expression could translate to him.

“That’s alright. I bet you’re distracted from the scent of food. You know, despite this being a cafeteria for prisoners, they serve some pretty good food here. Anyways, through that door over there,” he pointed to the door at the right side of the room, “is the lounge. From the lounge, there are a few different training rooms you can access in case you want to get some more practice in. Just… be careful with that. You can’t reserve time in those rooms or anything, so if somebody wants to train while you’re in there, they might start a fight if you don’t get out.”

Right. Avoid getting into fights. Good idea.

“Then—well, here, let me show you real quick.” Peter walked us over to the door to the lounge and opened it just enough to point to the far end of the room to another door. “Beyond there is the… I’m not sure what to call the room. The socializing room? The ‘please sponsor me’ room? That’s where you go to try and find a sponsor. There’s a list that updates every day with which sponsor potentials are visiting, and it’ll be up to you to try and impress them. Also, no matter how rough people might get in the training rooms and lounge, everybody is on their best behavior in front of sponsors. Keep that in mind.”

Be on my best behavior. Sounds easy enough.

“That’s everything you need to know! So uh, enjoy the rest of your day. I’ve got to get back to my duties now. Well, technically, this falls under my duties… but I feel like the head guard sees our real duty as standing around being bored. So, I’m going to go find a spot to stand in.”

Peter waved down at me, so I waved a paw at him. He left afterward.

I like Peter. He’s nice. The smell of food is also nice.

But there was a problem.

How was I going to get food when I wasn’t tall enough to reach the plates? And even if I did have a plate, how was I going to put food on it?

It looked like the table was for self-serving, too. The workers behind it put food on the table and left it there for everybody else to take. Even if I stood far enough back for them to see me and tried to grab their attention to let them know I wanted food and needed help, I had no idea if they would actually help me or not.

So, I ended up standing there staring at the table while my stomach growled.

I seriously wanted some food but had no idea how I was going to get it.

They needed to add some steps or something for me. The cafeteria wasn’t very accessible to us short people.

“Hey,” a voice said next to me, making me jump because I was so focused on how to get food. When I turned my head to look at who the voice came from, I saw a petite figure with dark skin and a cloak that covered up her upper half. The hood of the cloak left most of her head covered, but I was able to see a bit of her face underneath it. “Your stomach is growling. Want me to help you get some food?”

“Are—are you a goddess?” I barked at her.

“Sorry, I can’t understand you. Was that a yes?”

Right. No speaking. Only nodding and shaking. I nodded my head while feeling my tail wag faster and faster behind me.

The girl showed me a soft, gentle smile before asking, “Should I… pick you up? I could carry you and let you see what’s available.”

That sounded a little bit… emasculating, but what other choice did I have? I nodded my head.

I only noticed that she looked a little too happy to pick me up once her hands were right next to my body. The moment her fingers grazed my fur, she giggled a little and wrapped her hands around my torso.

A feeling of vertigo hit me as she lifted me up all of a sudden, holding me against her chest before moving one hand underneath me to support my rear so that I wasn’t just dangling down.

“Good boy,” she whispered right above my ear.

She might have looked a little bit too excited to pick me up, but her hands were soft and warm. The way that she held me was nice. It would have been even nicer if she had more of a chest to hold me against, but that was alright.

More importantly, I was able to see the food set out on the tables. All I had to do was focus on the food instead of her fingers massaging me as she giggled.

To be honest, she was kind of creeping me out.

But I was starved for physical affection and too hungry to care.

Also, she might have had a cloak that covered up her upper half, but everything below that was on display.

She might not have had anything to work with when it came to her chest, but she did have thighs. Nice thighs.

And I knew I could always trust a woman with nice thighs.