Harmony: Harmony Book 1, page 37
With the golem octopus finally out of the game, all that was left to do was to collect the tentacles so they could continue swimming to where they hoped to find the way out of that lake. Nate wouldn’t leave something potentially useful behind, after all.
Chapter 41
No other golem octopus, or any other simulacrum of a sea monster, attacked them while Nate collected the tentacle. In the end, he only collected the most intact one, since he didn’t really need more than one in case he attempted to recreate the golem. He didn’t see much use for a giant wooden octopus, but the possibility of creating one certainly wouldn’t hurt if he found the free time to fix the one in his spatial storage.
When Leah saw that he had finished his self-imposed task, she first pointed to her own mouth and then to his. She was a little embarrassed by how much it seemed like she was asking for a kiss, but luckily he couldn’t see her blushing in her hybrid form.
Understanding the message, Nate approached her as quickly as possible, once again placing his mouth over hers and sharing his air with her. Considering that nothing was stopping her at the moment from just swimming to the surface and catching her breath, he figured she must urgently need air. He almost laughed when he felt her tongue touch his lower lip as if it wanted to invade his mouth, but Nate was pretty sure that was unintentional. Although the way she held onto his waist wasn’t helping her situation either. Part of him was starting to think the girl wasn’t as desperate for breath as she seemed to be.
When she signaled that he could stop, they separated and began swimming in the direction they had been heading before the golem captured Nate. Breaking the surface of the water, Nate looked around for opponents, but the area seemed empty of the boats that had been hunting them. Maybe they had destroyed all the boats that challenge in the dungeon had to offer, or maybe the dungeon had divided the lake into areas with their own challenges, which is why they hadn’t immediately been attacked by the golem octopus. Either way, the important thing was that there were no obstacles there to obstruct their path.
“Hey, do you see that?” Leah suddenly asked, confusion clear in her voice.
At first, Nate thought she was referring to the shore of the lake that he could see approaching. With every meter they swam, the shadows concealing it dissolved a bit more, and he could see more details. Leah’s night vision was better than Nate’s, however, which made her notice something moments before him.
“I hate this dungeon!” Nate practically growled as he finally managed to see what Leah had seen.
“You and me both,” Leah sighed and shook her head, wondering if she had done something to annoy the dungeon. Even with all the reports she had heard about how dangerous these magical places were, she still couldn’t help but think the dungeon seemed to have something against them. That chest literally full of crap certainly had been a good indicator of that, after all.
There, on the shore they so desired to reach, were three figures. And if Nate wasn’t mistaken, those figures were pointing something in their direction. Nate was still trying to figure out what those objects were when he saw something flying rapidly towards him. Out of pure reflex, Nate dove in time to avoid the arrow that passed through the area that had been occupied by his head until a moment before.
“Just what we needed, shooter golems,” Nate muttered as he surfaced again. He was speaking to himself, however, as Leah had to copy him and dive to avoid a second arrow that had been shot at her. “Well, two can play at this game.”
Using more mana than he had ever used for this spell, Nate formed the mana pattern of his fireball spell and launched it in the direction of their attackers. Overloaded with mana, the fireball shot forth and consumed the distance between the two groups in an instant. The golems, proving not to be the most agile of constructs, couldn’t dodge in time. Although only one of them was directly hit by the spell, the resulting explosion had the other two within its area of effect.
As Nate suspected and hoped, the golems waiting for them on the shore were made of wood, just like the other opponents they had encountered in that lake. So, when they were engulfed by the flames of the spell, they caught fire. Surprisingly, this wasn’t enough to prevent the third golem from shooting at them, but Nate dodged this new attack by repeating the method he used against the last one.
“Well, that’s certainly one way to deal with enemies made of wood,” Leah chuckled amusedly as she watched the piles of wooden human-shaped golems fall to the ground burning. “Why the hell weren’t you doing that from the beginning?”
“Because I didn’t want to risk sinking the boats that had electricity and end up getting us electrocuted, or then risk the fireball causing the boats with cannons to explode. You saw what just that one attack did; Although I don’t think it was using any ammunition, the risk was real that it would explode into an inferno that would put us in grave danger. And well, the octopus was underwater.”
Accepting his answer, Leah continued swimming alongside Nate towards the shore. They didn’t take much longer to reach it. Unlike what they expected, the lake floor they were on didn’t rise up to end in a beach or something like that. Instead, they were faced with an edge they had to climb over.
“You know, I think that makes this place more of a pool than a lake,” Leah commented as she easily lifted herself above the edge and sat on it with her feet and legs still in the water.
“Well, that doesn’t really fit the theme of a factory,” Nate shrugged from his seated position next to her. “But a lake doesn’t either, so who knows what the dungeon was thinking. If it was even thinking when it first created this place. It’s possible that this place existed before it gained sentience and it just tweaked some details.”
“I wonder what it’s thinking now,” Leah huffed and rolled her eyes. “There’s no way the dungeon can treat all its visitors like it’s treating us or people wouldn’t feel so comfortable bringing kids here even though it has a track record of not hurting them.”
“I don’t know what’s going on either,” Nate lied. He had a good idea of why the dungeon was acting this way, but he feared that revealing that would not only give the dungeon information it was better off not having but also possibly end up annoying and distracting Leah, which could be fatal in the situation they were in. And he would be lying if he said that having to reveal exactly why he thought the dungeon was paying so much attention to him wasn’t something he wasn’t still comfortable with. Leah knew he had done something to gain access to magic and alter his body in that way, but she didn’t know all the details behind it. So, he decided to continue keeping his theories to himself for the time being. “Nothing in the information I have about this place talks about behavior like this.”
“Information your fairy friend collected?” Leah raised an eyebrow as a knowing smile appeared on her face. “Do you think Gwen broke into the dungeon and went to talk to the core? Or maybe she tried to bribe the golems.”
“Hey,” Nate rushed to his friend’s defense, even though he himself was starting to question her information-gathering abilities. “I’m sure she did an excellent job!”
“Of course,” Leah said with a sigh. Looking at the pile of burning golems nearby, she got an idea and stood up. She then began to undo the straps of her breastplate, which luckily had been designed to be easily put on or removed. “Hey, I think we should take advantage of this improvised bonfire here and dry ourselves off. Do you have any towels in one of your spatial storage items? I hate having my fur wet, and this leather is bothering me.”
“As a matter of fact, yes, I have towels,” Nate nodded, accessing his ring of holding and retrieving a towel from it, which he held as she continued undressing. In moments, her breastplate had fallen to the ground with a metallic thud.
“Much more comfortable,” Leah sighed as she flexed her relieved shoulders. The armor wasn’t really heavy, especially with her superhuman strength, but that didn’t mean it was comfortable to wear for so long.
Leah then removed her leather armor, leaving herself in just black sports shorts and a white shirt that was so soaked it had become transparent, revealing the pink bra she wore underneath. In the next moments, however, the shirt and shorts had joined the rest of the clothing on the ground.
Nate felt a little uncomfortable having the girl undress completely next to him, but Leah seemed not to care at all. When she removed the bra, which was both tight and loose at the same time, Nate couldn’t help but glance at the area.
“There’s nothing there for you to see, Nate,” Leah chuckled, noticing where the man’s gaze was directed. “Well, actually, there are 6 things for you to see there, but I doubt you can spot them. And if you try too hard to find them, I’ll be forced to attack you, so be prepared.”
And indeed, there was nothing for him to see there. As with most female werewolves, the transformation to the hybrid form did a good job of increasing muscle mass and decreasing the amount of fat in the body. And unfortunately, that included the breasts.
“Wait a minute, do you have 6 nipples?” Nate asked astonished, never having actually thought about this aspect of the transformation.
“In my hybrid form, yes,” Leah replied without a hint of shame, as it wasn’t really a secret that werewolves had more than one pair of nipples, although the number varied from person to person.
“Does Harper also have...?” Nate began to ask without thinking about it, but managed to stop himself before finishing his question. Not that it helped much, since Leah had perfectly understood his doubt.
“Yes, but you’ll have to ask her the number,” Leah replied as she removed her panties, once again revealing an area that attracted Nate’s eyes like a beacon, but where he couldn’t see anything but fur. “I’m actually surprised that someone with a furry fetish like you doesn’t already know that.”
Nate just ignored the return of that tease. In truth, Harper had only had sex with him in her human form, so it’s not like he had had the opportunity to find out for himself. He wouldn’t reveal this to Leah, though.
Having removed everything she was wearing, Leah bent down and picked up everything on the ground. She then grabbed the towel with Nate and walked over to the bodies of the golems that were still burning, their wood taking longer to be fully consumed even though the fire had quickly destroyed something vital for them to continue being magically animated.
The young mage, for his part, continued to look at the water while thinking about how bad of a boyfriend he was being. How could he not know something so basic about Harper’s body, even though they had never been intimate while she assumed that form? And thinking about it, he couldn’t help but wonder if this was something she desired, or if for her it didn’t matter which form she was in. He decided that when he got back home he would take some time to talk about this and other aspects of their relationship that he might be ignoring. He knew, for example, that it was common for werewolves to hunt food for their mates as a way of showing affection. Maybe he could talk to Ursula first to find out what was expected of a multiracial and multicultural relationship.
“Hey, Nate, are you going to stand there all day?” He heard Leah say. “The flames here won’t last all day, you know. Well, at least not if you don’t want to sacrifice the tentacle you grabbed.”
Struggling to put these thoughts aside for the moment, he turned his attention back to Leah. As soon as he set his eyes on her, however, his mind went completely blank.
Nate had wondered how Leah planned to dry herself off with just one towel when she had so much fur. He had imagined she would use the towel just to remove the excess water while the real drying work would be done by the flames. He had forgotten, however, that there was a much simpler solution. Leah had simply returned to her human form.
Chapter 42
Nate was at a loss for words to describe the divine scene his eyes feasted upon. Leah, back in her human form, was kneeling on the ground with her back to him as she stretched her clothes in front of the flames.
Nate couldn’t tear his eyes away from her fair, soft skin, which seemed to beg to be touched. He couldn’t help but admire the muscles on her back that he longed to trace with his fingers, her slim waist that he yearned to put his hands around, or the impressive curve of her buttocks that formed a perfect heart shape. He only managed to break free from the hypnosis her body had placed him under when she leaned forward to stretch her shirt, and he was granted the sight of the beautiful flower she had between her legs.
He doubted the girl had done it on purpose or was trying to seduce him, and he also didn’t want to look at her in a way he thought she wouldn’t appreciate. So, he finally averted his gaze and turned his eyes back to the pool they had just left. The girl was relying on him at a moment like this, and he didn’t want to break that trust by bothering her with unwanted attention just because his hormones and perverted mind couldn’t stay quiet for 5 minutes. He was certain that in the girl’s eyes, she was as naked as before, and he certainly wasn’t looking at her in that way before.
“You need to warm up, Nate,” he heard Leah say with the concern she felt for him clear in her voice. “Is my butt so attractive to you that you’d rather stay in the cold just to look at it?”
Risking a glance back at the girl, he noticed she had changed position. She had turned to look at him while using the towel to dry herself, thus revealing more of her charming body. Her breasts, though small even in her human form, were crowned with small, cute pink nipples that were hard, probably due to the temperature of the water they had just left. But that honestly wasn’t what caught Nate’s attention the most, which was a surprise even to him. What completely mesmerized him was the way the flames reflected in her golden hair, giving her already beautiful face an ethereal quality.
Another thing he noticed was that despite Leah trying to act nonchalant, she was completely flushed with embarrassment, with the redness creeping from her face down to her breasts. The way she maintained eye contact with him while drying herself wasn’t helping him to control himself, either.
Sighing, Nate stood up and walked over to the campfire, trying to ignore how his eyes kept being drawn by the sexual gravity emanating from Leah’s body. He knew that nudity wasn’t such a big deal in her culture, and the last thing he wanted was to make her uncomfortable.
Reaching the fire, he took off the top part of his leather armor and the shirt he wore underneath, laying them both on the ground at a distance from the burning wood. Then, he took off his boots and placed them closer to the flames than the other clothes, knowing that they would probably be the most difficult item to dry. As he touched the hem of his pants, however, he hesitated for a moment as he glanced at Leah’s form. Just because nudity wasn’t a big taboo in her culture didn’t mean it wasn’t in his. He had planned to stay in his underwear, but that was still too close for his comfort. Especially after the reaction his body had had after seeing her naked like that.
“You don’t need to feel ashamed, Nate,” he heard Leah say. “The water was very cold, after all.”
Nate didn’t pride himself on taking a few seconds to understand what the girl meant by that. When the realization finally dawned on him, he turned to the girl and found her with her arms crossed under her cute breasts and a shit-eating grin on her face. He stared at her for a few seconds, but soon his expression broke, and he started laughing, being joined by her shortly after.
Deciding to be smart about it, Nate turned his back to Leah before taking off his pants. Ignoring her giggles, he grabbed the second and last towel from his spatial storage and began to dry himself off. When he thought he was dry enough, he tied the towel around his waist and took off his underwear. Then, he once again activated his ring of holding and got dressed.
“All this trouble so I wouldn’t see you naked?” Leah asked with a slight growl as soon as he finished dressing.
Hearing her tone change, Nate turned to the girl and found her back in her hybrid form. Interestingly, her fur was dry even though she had only dried her skin in human form. He wondered if she could have simply switched forms without drying in between transformations and that would have the same effect, but he thought it would be rude to ask. He would be lying if he said he wasn’t disappointed that the visual feast was no longer available to him, but he had to admit he was much less distracted at the moment than he was before.
“Yes,” Nate admitted as he picked up his wet clothes and threw them through the portal of his ring of holding, leaving only the armor there. “But be careful not to let the leather armor heat up too long or too close to the flames. It can stiffen the leather. It will dry quickly even if you move it away.”
“Oh, well thought,” Leah thanked as she stretched and moved her armor a little away from the fire. She still seemed dissatisfied with something, but Nate couldn’t figure out what.
With nothing else to say at the moment, the two of them sat in silence, just enjoying the warmth of the fire and the feeling of the cold leaving their bones as they listened to the sound of the wood crackling. Nate was glad to just relax and warm up after so long in that cold water, but Leah broke the silence with an important question. “That trap brought us to a tougher area of the dungeon, didn’t it? The golem octopus had to be Tier 2 because I would have made short work of it if it were Tier 1 like the other golems we faced.”
“And we would be screwed if it were Tier 3,” Nate added for her, receiving a nod in response. Both of them knew how powerful Tier 3s were, and neither of them had illusions that they could deal with one without preparations and a lot of luck. “Yes, I agree with you. The dungeon must have transported us to a more challenging area. The golem wasn’t Tier 2, though.”
