CHAPTER 47 On My Knees at Her Feet

CHAPTER 47

On My Knees at Her Feet

Rufus

Someone poured an antidote down my throat.

The tart apple flavor filled my mouth, and I marveled at the high-grade potion. They were expensive, since they were designed to cure most everything, with some small exceptions. My low-grade Wolfsbane antidote would have sufficed; Bronwynn probably didn’t have any grade Wolfsbane antidote on hand like I did.

The rare poison had a continuing damage effect, and critical success rate against canine beastfolk. My notification logs could attest to that.

[You have taken 14 points of Critical Damage. Health 602/616.]

[Warning! You have been poisoned by Wolfsbane . You will lose consciousness in 00:00:10]

[Unique Effect Wolfsbane triggered: Beast Form . Spend mana to maintain current form or revert to Beast Form .]

[You have taken 14 points of Critical Damage. Health 588/616.]

[Warning! You will lose consciousness in 00:00:09]

[You have been immobilized by Sturdy . Duration remaining 00:00:34]

[You have taken 14 points of Critical Damage. Health 574/616.]

At that rate, I would’ve been dead in two minutes. While I was particularly susceptible to the poison, at least with wolfsbane I could still [Revive]. That was why wolfsbane, while being incredibly rare and expensive, wasn’t illegal like molten ash vane.

My original plan had been to jump off the carriage, clear the wolfsbane smoke, pop an antidote, and then fight off the assassins. I was not expecting to get grabbed and stumble into Bronwynn’s awaiting arms. I’d barely caught myself as my body had landed on top of hers, which had been strangely immovable and soft and—

I shook my head and groaned.

The antidote was working, and I could feel the last vestiges of poison fade away, but I still felt a slight headache and a touch weak from my depleted health. I’d need to pop a health potion soon.

I realized at this point that I was transformed into my full beast form. It was as natural to me as any other form, though it came with the freedom of not wearing pants. Luckily, my clothes were tailored to go into my storage ring when I transformed.

Dreading what I’d find, I opened my eyes.

Curly hair tipped with red as rich as flames and warm eyes filled my gaze. My chin was in Minstrel Bronwynn’s lap as I lay on the floor, my tail hanging over the edge.

We were traveling at an unnaturally fast pace.

“We’re safe. Just take your time getting oriented,” her soft voice soothed as one of her hands pet me. “They’re long gone behind us.”

The feeling of her hands running over my body felt amazing; so amazing that I quickly lifted my head out of her reach to escape.

I immediately missed her touch, but fought my base urges until I could convince myself to change back to my usual beastfolk self: short beast ears, mixed ruddy brown and golden fur, muscular chest, folk-shaped arms and legs with canine feet. My paws were similar to my beast shape, simply smaller and upgraded to an opposable thumb.

When I finished, I was on my knees at her feet, leaning against her left leg and looking up at her. Gods, I wanted to change back for more pets. Or kiss her. Or … This was probably the heightened adrenaline that I’d read about. After battle or any stressful encounter, the body’s physiological symptoms could be mistaken for lust or love or even hatred. I needed to drag my eyes away from her lips and get myself together.

My heart raced as I scrambled back to my seat. “Sorry, um, how long was I out?” I asked, ignoring my pounding heartbeat and feverish disposition.

“Not long, maybe a minute? I’m sorry for grabbing you like that; I’m not used to having other people along on my adventures. I know you can handle yourself, but I didn’t want to leave you behind …” Bronwynn’s hands flexed once before she grabbed and handed over her waterskin.

“It’s fine. Just … don’t do it again?” I took a swig and almost choked when my thoughts caught up with me. In the span of fifteen minutes, I’d received a lap pillow, pets, and an indirect kiss from the Minstrel Bronwynn. Then told her not to do it again !

I told myself I was being ridiculous and took a second drink. It helped. Stop it, tail.

“What happened after I was out?” I asked.

“They shot at us; two arrows hit the wagon, but nobody got hurt in the exchange,” Bronwynn said. Donna interrupted with a gruff whinny, and the bard added, “Well, technically, Donna took out one of them, and they hit our bag of oats. We’re going to need to stop somewhere and buy her a fresh bag—the arrows were laced with poison.”

I looked over the back of the seat and found an arrow pointing out of the backrest close to Bronwynn, and another, as she’d described, in a bag of oats. I leaned closer to the arrow next to Bronwynn and gave it a sniff. It was also coated in wolfsbane. Between the smoke bomb and all the arrows, this attack had to have cost a fortune in the rare herb alone.

“I’ve never run across the Blackfog on an encounter before. Unless you count getting kidnapped alongside one of them at the Spring Ball,” Bronwynn said.

“I was the target; they were prepared to fight me.” I frowned in thought. It might have been related to the current case, or someone might’ve just seen an opportunity to go after the commander general of the Dark Enchanted Forest in an isolated location.

“I’m still counting it as an encounter.” She reached up and fiddled with the pendant flute at her throat. “How are your ears?”

“Nothing a health potion can’t fix.” That explained the slight headache. My impressive Constitution was the only thing that’d allowed me to remain conscious as long as I had after breathing in the wolfsbane. Still, I wasn’t healing near fast enough, so I pulled out a medium health potion and downed it.

Brownie’s shoulders relaxed, and she gave me a relieved smile. “Thank goodness. I was worried, since I blew it right next to your ear.”

I flinched and thanked the gods I’d been knocked out. “I can’t complain if it saved us. Speaking of, I owe you an antidote potion.”

“I wouldn’t say no to a replacement,” Bronwynn said. “I only had the one.”

I didn’t have a high-grade potion on hand to compensate her, so I just nodded. I wasn’t going to offer her anything less than what she’d given me.

“Since it looks like they were after me, I’ll also replace the oats.” Donna’s ears flicked at that, and I hoped that the mare wouldn’t hold the attack against me. “And I’ll have the wagon repaired. Do you know when we’re going to reach the next town?”

“We passed it already,” she said. “I didn’t want to stop and give them the opportunity to catch up.”

“At this speed?” The wagon was blowing past other travelers on the road at breakneck speeds.

“Donna is a Windrunner,” Bronwynn explained. Donna neighed loudly, starting to slow down. “She’s very fast; she just doesn’t like to run very much. ”

“I see.” Nothing much surprised me about that horse at this point.

When Donna had gone back to a reasonable trot, Bronwynn leaned back into the seat and retrieved Danielle from her storage ring. She caught me staring and gave me a casual shrug. “If Donna thinks we are far in the clear, then we’re fine. She’s really good about that kind of thing.”

“Donna,” I addressed the mare. “Thank you for saving us. You are an absolutely wonderful horse, and we are lucky to have you. I promise to buy you the nicest oats money can buy when we stop for the night.”

The horse continued on, but she stood straighter, and her tail flicked with pleasure at the compliment.

Bronwynn was staring at me.

“What?”

“You are really good at that,” she told me.

“At what?” I repeated.

“Compliments.” There was something in the way she said it that made me think she wanted me to lavish her with compliments as well. But she was Minstrel Bronwynn, a confident and self-assured famous musician that played for kings and made the common man weep at her song.

Still, just in case I’d heard correctly, I said, “You are very astute, Minstrel Bronwynn. I enjoy showing people my thanks for their hard work, and I find it best to do so with honest praise. I’ve spent my life trying to build up people’s self-worth and let them know they are seen and appreciated … It’s almost a habit at this point.”

Bronwynn stared at me for a long moment, and I wondered if I’d said something to offend her. She was frowning.

Then she said, “Does anyone let you know that you’re seen and appreciated?”