She tried to keep it simple and subtle, at first. Hilda was a beautiful woman in half pte and mail, and that was before Zerel caught the vibe with her cute girlfriends. Her immediate impression of Hilda was that the young dy DuSonde was fooling around with girls in her youth before some duty called her back to her home for good, or something like that. Of course, Dorin gave her the letters with the actual juicy details.

  Hilda Galea DuSonde was sixth in line to the most powerful duchy in the empire.

  According to the count, Duchess Verea DuSonde was a hero ruling over her northern homend, and not in some small way. She united the separated counties and marches of her people's homend under her own duchy, fought off a beast from “the deep”, and participated in several notable victories in the empire's stalemate war with the Vexwood. Vasi warned against wronging Hilda's family in grave terms for this reason. The Duchess of Sondervand honestly sounded like a Dragon Quest protagonist, but the part that sparked Zerel's interest was the spouses. Verea was openly polygamous, something that had prevented her from rising to a status that was second only to the emperor.

  Zerel was interested in Hilda at first sight, but the dy knight was clearly involved in something with her two companions, so finding out that further polyamorous development might be in store was good news. She had actually been a bit nervous the previous day, but covering it with extra confidence had looked like it worked. All the bustle of handing things off to Chron and the chaos around what the goblins were calling the “Looking” from the day before departure had gotten to her.

  For less than a minute, everyone in Ademhill could feel something looking at them. It was an uncanny feeling that Zerel might have disbelieved if she hadn't felt it herself. It was honestly a bit dysphoria inducing, which is why she asked Isra about it the next day, after Zerel's introduction to Hilda. Given the time of day, Zerel's coven sister thought she might have briefly felt something like it, but had attributed any mild dysphoria to the attention of their company.

  Figuring the phenomenon was unique to Ademhill, Zerel didn't bother telling the mercenaries cn business.

  The next day, she was up bright and early with Sachi to start breakfast before tearing down camp. When Hilda and company came out of their tent suite, she struck up a conversation.

  “What do ya know about the holy city, dies?” Zerel asked.

  “Not much,” said the catgirl, Sheryl.

  “A bit. I haven't brushed up on my southern history recently,” said Dalia, “I at least know about the serpent godbeast forcing an evacuation.”

  “Everything I could find in the capital,” Hilda expined, “I've always found the mysteries of the serpent a bit fascinating. Not to mention we lost most knowledge on the gorge since.”

  “Right!” Zerel said, “I was told there's a reason the canyon is like that, but the priests only kept the secret by oral tradition. Did ya find any good records on it?”

  Shrugging Hilda admitted, “No, all I found was some retively rare information I already knew. It's likely that the source of the effect is in a cave at the end of the canyon, but no one knows what.”

  Zerel sighed, “figures. You really looked in the capital? I thought your family was from further north.”

  Hilda's brow quirked, “did the count tell you that? I went to the imperial military academy before coming south.”

  Odd to go to the military academy when she wasn't in the military, no? Zerel set that aside, expining, “he mentioned a few details about your party in his letter. Said to watch out for your mother, but I think I'll be fine in that field, Hilda.”

  Tilting her head at the hobgoblin, Hilda asked, “and why's that, Zerel?”

  “I'm great at meeting parents,” she said with a toothy grin and a wink. Zerel found that faking confidence had gotten easy in her second life, with credit to her earlier transition and magical prowess.

  Hilda blushed, Sheryl frowned, and Dalia looked impressed.

  Hilda stuttered, “I- I'm sure you and my mother would get along well…” The woman grasped her composure, “Hmph! From what I've heard of you, though, you do have to watch out.”

  Throwing another quick wink at the elf, Zerel queried, “watch out for what?”

  “My sixty-four year old mother would want to test your strength in a spar,” Hilda warned with a mild sigh.

  Blinking at the warning, Zerel chuckled, “I'll have to take it easy on her.”

  “Don't. She'll obliterate you if she thinks you're holding back.”

  Dalia and Zerel ughed while Sherry quietly asked, “is your mother really that strong?”

  “She is,” muttered Hilda.

  “Oh, don't worry, midy,” came Zerel's dramatic follow up, “you're the noblewoman I'm most lookin forward to gettin along with, anyway.”

  Finished with her breakfast, Zerel swept off to clear their camp, leaving Hilda dumbfounded with her mouth agape. She followed up with a compliment on Hilda's gleaming hair as they started to pass through denser patches of woods. Dalia stayed with the group after agreeing to split scouting duties with Irul, and the mischievous fae seemed delighted at Zerel's advances. Sheryl was clearly uneasy, though, and Zerel considered backing off for the sake of the poor catgirl's heart.

  Given the retive ease of running the expedition, it felt like a vacation to Zerel, after a couple of years managing the entire fortress. Even delegation could only save her so much work during the earlier days after her election. Making young noblewomen blush in front of their girlfriends was a more than welcome reprieve from her regur leadership role. Thankfully, Chron was set up to run everything on his own. He seemed happy to do so when he wasn't finding improbably sized bones in the caves - a strange new hobby. Ramel could help in any emergencies, too, so Zerel wasn't particurly worried for the cn, even after the incident the other day.

  But then she felt it again, for just a few seconds. Everyone else clearly had, as well. The Looking washed over them, shaking the party, and they stopped in the next clearing to regroup. Anyone from Ademhill was clearly freaked out, and as Zerel was expining the details to Hilda and Aramis, Irul returned to the group.

  The scout was clearly armed as he expined what he had seen, “It was a rge serpent with the body of a woman instead of a head, too many arms, and too many eyes. I think it might be the source of the Looking. I felt something like what you described just before spotting it.”

  “We felt that, too. Before ya came back. Body of a woman? That doesn't sound like the serpent we expected.”

  “Too many eyes, though. It almost sounds like it's a spawn of the godbeast.” Hilda suggested, “The serpent of eyes was never known for spawning kin, though.”

  “Could it have changed over the course of a millennia? It’s not like anyone has actually seen it. No one could evuh get close to the sanctuary.”

  Hilda put on a considering expression, saying, “Yes, but in that case it might even just be that woman. Some godbeasts have changed in strange ways.”

  “Great, so we dunno what wuh dealing with.”

  Zerel crossed her arms and considered what the right py was, while other conversations continued around her. Over the course of a few minutes filled with nervous gncing, the conversations all died completely.

  A woman's voice called out from the east, a direction they weren't expecting, “Hello! Can anyone understand me?”

  While most of the expedition tried to spot through the trees and foliage for the source of the voice, Zerel bnkly stared in the direction it had come from. She'd taught some cnsfolk curses and a few phrases in English, but she hadn't heard anyone else outright speak it in her current world. She was so surprised that she didn't even notice Hilda's simirly astonished expression.

  “Jesus Mary and Joseph, what the fuck…” she whispered to herself, also in English.

  Isra elbowed her, “Hey Zer, isn't that-?”

  “Yeah,” confirmed Zerel, “it is.” After a quick gnce at Irul, who shrugged, she called back in English, “Yeah! I can understand ya! Who are you?”

  The voice called back, “I- I'm Dawn. Who are you?”

  “I'm Zerel! I'm the… leader of this expedition. Could you show yourself for us, please?”

  “Um! S- Sure. Please don't attack me.”

  Zerel turned to the expedition party, ordering in imperial, “weapons at ease. Don't be threatening, and only attack if attacked.”

  As she turned back, Zerel started to catch sight of a tall woman coming out of the undergrowth with eerie silence. Her eyes were completely green like the leaves, and slit thin, one pair over the other. She had a strong nose, olive skin, and sandy hair. She wore a red chiton that starkly illustrated her ck of legs as the fabric barely moved from her advance. Her four hands were csped together.

  Dawn raised a hand to greet the expedition. “Hi. I don't want to fight. I'm just looking for people.”

  “Cool,” Zerel said, “Are you… alone? Where'd you come from?”

  “Oh, I'm alone. I tried to go where I saw people, from the city.”

  “You came from a city?”

  “Yeah. There wasn't anyone there, ruined for centuries, I think.”

  A small voice in Imperial came from behind Zerel, “Hilda, are you okay?”

  Dawn's left pair of eyes focused on the speaker while the right pair still looked at Zerel.

  “I- I'm okay, Sherry.”

  Gncing back at the noble, Zerel saw Hilda holding the neck of her breastpte and the hilt of her sword in white knuckled death grips. The noblewoman was taking deep breaths; Zerel didn't think she'd panic just at the sight of some unexpected monster woman. What the hell was going on?

  Looking back at Dawn, Zerel said, “We're on our way to the city. It's supposed to be inhabited by an immense serpent covered in eyes. You wouldn't happen to know anything about it, would you?”

  “Umm,” Dawn replied, focusing on Zerel again, “I've seen it, but…” She inhaled through her teeth, putting a hand on her brow, covering her eyes and making a pained face.

  “But what?”

  The eye on the back of Dawn's hand opened, looking down at Zerel, and startling most of the expedition.

  “I ate it.”

  Hilda started violently coughing. Dawn's eye focused on her.

  “What da fuck duzzat mean?” Zerel asked.

  “I tore the serpent's flesh from bone,” Dawn said, refolding her arms and leaving all eyes in sight, “and ate the whole thing.”

  “That's- that makes no sense. How did- what did- what?”

  Aramis stepped forward speaking, “Queen Zerel, what is this… woman saying?”

  Zerel huffed, “she says that she ate the serpent of eyes.”

  The eyes of the entire expedition widened at the wild cim. “She can't be serious,” suggested Isra.

  “I think she is,” Zerel said before switching back to English, “Dawn, did you kill it?”

  “No. Um, this is a little hard to expin. I just kind of know that it decided to die? So that I could eat it.”

  “Why would it do that? What's so- Why you?”

  “I'm the serpent's child.” Dawn shrugged.

  “That's- that makes sense, actually. Just checking, but you remember living a different life on a pnet called earth, yes?”

  “Uh… Yeah. Yeah, I do. Can we… avoid that subject, though?”

  “Not a happy life, huh? Me too.”

  Dawn averted most of her eyes.

  “Sorry… I'll- ah, give you a moment. I need to talk to my people.”

  Turning back to the expedition, Zerel found Hilda and her girls huddled on the ground as the noble recovered from whatever her deal was. Everyone else was looking at her expectantly, as no one really understood the conversation in a nguage from a different world. Except that, as Zerel watched Hilda's party stand back up, a suspicion formed.

  Addressing the group, Zerel spoke, “Okay everyone, this is Dawn. She's the child of the serpent, apparently, and I do mean apparently. Look at her-” gestured Zerel, "unless there's any big objections, I'm gonna invite her to go back to the city with us. I'd like her to show us the bones to see if it's really dead.”

  “Are you sure she's safe?” Irul asked.

  “...no, but I think we'll be fine. She's like me, but different. She said she doesn't want to fight, and I believe her.”

  “Did you ask about the Looking?”

  “Not yet, but come on, though. The question feels like a formality given her whole-” Zerel waggled a hand at Dawn, “-deal.”

  Irul shrugged again, “I'll go make sure nothing is sneaking up on us. We don't want to be too behind schedule.”

  Zerel looked back over at Hilda, who was now just watching the conversation unfold with a passive expression. Turning to Dawn, Zerel said, “We're continuing to the city, and I don't mind if you follow along with us for now. I'd like for you to show us the remains, actually. After our expedition is finished, you can come to Ademhill - my home - and then we'll figure out what happens next, okay? How long have you known?”

  Unfolding her arms, Dawn expressed confusion for a moment, “Known wha- oh. Almost two weeks… If you'll have me then I'll accompany you. I need to be around people. I… this body makes me feel crazy sometimes.”

  “Okay. I need a minute before I address the very ominous statement you just made. We need to get moving.” Zerel yelled in imperial, “Alright everyone! Get your stares in and get going! We're moving on and taking Dawn with us.”

  As the expedition started to move, Zerel beckoned Sheryl over, who reluctantly left Dalia with Hilda.

  “Is she okay?” Zerel asked.

  The catgirl's ears fttened a little, “she's fine, your hi- Zerel. Said she was just shocked by- “ she gestured at Dawn, “her.”

  “Okay. Thank you for telling me. You can go back to your girlfriend.”

  Sheryl narrowed her eyes, “That's it?”

  “Oh, I'd flirt with you, too, Sherry, but I have to provide support and counsel to a mysterious snake woman right now.”

  Sheryl tilted her head with a vexed look and a hint of a blush before heading back to her partners. Zerel sighed and turned back to Dawn.

  “Alright, dy. We gotta lot to talk about.”