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Lyra woke in a bed and for the first couple of moments she felt well rested and okay.

Then the memory of what had happened hit her and her stomach dropped. She put her hands over her beet red blushing cheeks and groaned, curling up into the fetal position. 

Memories stuck around to a varying degree, visual memory somewhat, auditory and scent memories with more clarity, but most of all the memory of taste was unforgettable, and Lyra was remembering a taste she really did not want to remember right now.

“Oh gods why me…” 

She recalled after accidentally taking some of Rain’s… stuff, into her mouth, that she had fallen into a pool and gotten lost in a vast blinding morass of bubble bath foam. That hadn't helped her hyperventilating level of hysteria and she’d thrashed around in the water bleating for help.

Help had come, but from the one she really wished it hadn't. The bubbles had been swept aside and Rain’s huge paw had pulled her from the water and up into his arms. His stuff hadn't come off and she still had a little of it over her face, as well as in her mouth, and she was just there, in the arms of the one responsible for it. She’d slapped her hands over her eyes and frozen up, refusing to speak or move, wishing the ground would open up and swallow her whole. Then again, that was reminiscent of Rain, never mind that metaphor, she just wished she was away! Away from his massive overwhelming masculinity and not butt naked in his arms with his taste in her mouth!

Rain had asked her something and she hadn't replied, then he had started moving, and then she found her skin touching down on soft cotton, a bed? And then the door had closed and she had been left in the dark alone. She made herself go to sleep as quickly as possible so as to escape thinking about the whole unmitigated disaster, escaping from the shame into unconsciousness. 

Now it was morning and the events were back at the forefront of her thoughts. Horrible embarrassing thoughts. What the hell had she been thinking? Clearly she had been letting her Elven side take the lead too much. Elves were naturally horny people and that had apparently been included with her Elven half. She promised herself she would primarily listen to her nice sensible Woollie half in future.

Giving up on pretending not to exist she rolled from bed and set her hooves down on the floorboards with a click clack. To her surprise her clothes were there, neatly folded to one side. She couldn't imagine Rain or Opal doing such a thing, so, Red… did it? 

She slipped into the clothes as she pondered the cowardly Kobold. He was pretty much a slave, just like at home. Kobolds weren't that popular as slaves but she had seen a few. She wondered if her new perspective on Goblins applied to Kobolds too. She considered investigating, maybe all monsters were as sapient as levelers? Hmm, food for thought.

As she was adjusting her shorts to be comfortable the door swung open. It took a second to realise that the wall of black filling it was not a shadow but Rain’s body. He ducked down beneath the frame and stared at her. She unconsciously took a step back and swallowed. That of course reminded her of his taste, and the shame. Her cheeks burned and she found she couldn't look him in the eye.

“I want you. Come with me.”

He turned and disappeared from view.

Wh-what did that mean? What did he mean by want?! Unsure quite what she should be expecting she nervously followed after him as he made his way through the mansion. They came out in what appeared to be the Ranker’s personal quarters. A huge common room with an open plan bedroom off to one side, even what appeared to be a sort of small kitchenette mostly filled with alcohol. The mixed purpose room was significantly more luxurious than the other rooms she had seen, with furs draped everywhere and excessive use of gold filigree and plush rugs.

There was seating in the middle which Rain quickly found. He slumped down atop a couch, stretching out his legs. Surprisingly the furniture seemed to be holding up well under his weight, although she supposed that made sense considering the size of the Ranker, he would need strong furniture.

Red and Opal were there too. Red was excitedly sorting through a pile of coins, the mansion obviously held a lot of treasure, she wondered if Red alone would be enough to carry it all now. There was also what appeared to be various random objects he had looted from around the mansion, including several jewellery boxes, a clock, a goblet, and an ornate sewing box. 

She eyed the sewing box, that would be an additional cog to one of her ideas.

Opal was lazing on a large cushioned footstool on her front, her legs dangling over the sides and her feet waving in the air above her rear.

“I want you to tell me everything you found out when you went into town. Did you get any names?” Said Rain, his arm across the back of the couch

Lyra blinked. “Oh- uh, you wanted me for that, right. Uhm, W-well I don’t know about the others but I did manage to find out something. The levelers Lira and Adlen are in town. They didn't leave with the levelers who went into the dungeon with the Inquisitor.”

As she spoke Rain’s paw slowly curled and the couch gained several claw shaped holes. Lyra eyed his paw warily.

“Uh, it seemed that the Inquisitor swept through town in a rush and gathered up everyone she could on the spot, not even telling them what was happening before going back to the dungeon. A lot of people just missed joining up.”

“And the others? Brax, Myra, Eliza?”

Lyra shook her head. “I don’t know, I- I wasn't there for long.”

Rain’s paw eased and he nodded slowly. “Fine. Then I just need to get into town somehow and I can kill the both of them, that’s two of the five who tortured and murdered me. It’s a start.”

Opal rolled her head to the side and peered at Rain as Lyra shifted her hooves nervously, not liking this talk.

“Uhm, about getting into town, I’m not sure invisibility will work, they are surprisingly careful about that kind of thing at the main gatehouses. I suppose it makes sense since we know for a fact that there were levelers who could turn invisible around here, that Dwarf, I uhm, well, yes. Additionally the walls are enchanted with something, either a monster alarm, or a barrier, or both, making climbing them a no go. But I had an idea while I was there, something that might make things much much simpler.”

“Tell me.”

“You pretend to be my monster slave and-”

"No."

"Uh- Really? B-but it could work, with some uh, bribes.”

Rain remained silent.

"Well I had another idea, that might actually work better for what you want."

Rain tilted his head at her, waiting.

“Not a slave, but you pretend to be a leveler.”

Opal snorted out a laugh from where she lazed. “Have you seen him? He looks like he eats levelers for breakfast! Which he does, actually.”

“Right, but, what happened with the old man in the woods gave me the idea for it. It seems like if you throw enough money at a problem it just kind of goes away, and since Rain is a unique monster with nothing else like him to use as a reference it makes it a lot easier for people to intentionally overlook things.”

“You really think that would work? I could pretend to be a leveler while looking like this?”

Lyra eyed him, true his fur was clean and glossy now, but that didn't take away from the wildly feral and dangerous atmosphere he seemed to exude, like he would rip you apart at the drop of a hat. His eyes were especially problematic, they looked hungry, predatory, just looking at them made something ancient and primitive wake in her hindbrain, something small and scared that wanted to flee from the thing that came from the dark. 

Her gaze paused momentarily on his sheath and she suddenly recalled his taste yet again. She screwed up her face and shook her head trying to get the memory to go away with little success.

“No, well not as you are right now, levelers do not go around naked, all levelers wear clothes, most monsters do not.”

Rain sat up. “You want me to wear clothing? Where are we going to get that? Have you not noticed my size right now? Nothing will fit me.”

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Lyra was very very aware of his size, she moved her hips a little, uncomfortably conscious of his gaze. 

“The Ranker-”

The couch groaned alarmingly under Rain as his body tensed up. Lyra looked at it worriedly before continuing.

“The Ranker is very large too, maybe seven foot tall."

"Not as big as rain…" murmured opal.

"She's right."

"I know that, not that it matters with levelers, but he's close enough that I think I can do something with his clothes."

"You can?"

"Yes, as you can tell from my extremely refined and high class taste in clothing I know something about the subject of fashion. Some cut seams here and there and I can maybe probably possibly get something to fit."

Rain looked at her sceptically and Opal lifted her head.

"Okay, I've changed my mind, I want to see him trying to fit in some too small clothing, tight clothing that can barely contain him.” 

“Er…yes?” said Lyra, eyeing the Goblin, not quite sure what she was getting at.

"Fine." said Rain reluctantly. "If you think you can make me look like a leveler then go ahead."

Lyra held up a finger. "Look more like a leveler, I don't think I could make you look like one, but that's where the copious amounts of bribery steps in to fill the gap."

Red gave her an offended look and shifted his body over the stacks of coins protectively, like a mother hen protecting her eggs from predators.  

Lyra turned to face the wardrobe. It was a large wardrobe and like the rest of the room it was gratuitously gilded around the edges. She stepped up to it and pulled at the doorknobs. After a moment of effort they swung open revealing what was inside. The Ranker’s clothing. 

"Hmm, this seems promising."

"Does it?" said Opal, appearing at her side. "Looks weird. Why would you even wear that? The dangly bits would get everywhere."

"Those are tassels, and that is formal wear," said Lyra as Opal hauled on a sleeve.

The sheep girl pursed her lips and batted her hand away. "Look, you clearly have no idea what any of- hey stop that!"

Opal pulled down a large fur-trimmed coat. It was so large that it covered her like a blanket, that is until she wiggled around putting it on. Her face appeared, tiny at the center of a huge donut of fur. She lifted her arms, the sleeves hanging down off her hands nearly to the floor. 

Lyra gave her an exasperated look. “Opal, look, just trust me to do this and go... go and make us some tea while I do my thing. This isn't a monster thing, this is a leveler thing, you’ll just get in the way, okay?”

“Wow, rude. I don't need snotty leveler clothes anyway.” 

Opal waved her arms at the sheep girl, her dangling sleeves flapping. Then she stalked away, the bottom of the coat dragging along the floor behind her in a long tail.

Lyra put aside the annoying Goblin from her mind and refocused back on the wardrobe. She pulled out each article of clothing and looked it over, practically ransacking the Ranker’s belongings. Black and purple coats, billowing white shirts, there was a lot, unfortunately she couldn't do a lot with most of it due to Rain’s size. Still, in the end, she found some things she thought she could potentially work with.

She dragged the stack of cloth to a chair, a Ranker sized chair, which is to say a large chair. She looked at it meaningfully while glancing at Rain. 

“Uhm, could you come sit p-please? I can't do this with you on the couch.”

Rain eyed the cloth she had brought but after a moment he rolled to his feet and strode over to her. He looked down at the sheep girl, cloth clutched nervously in her hands. She was still quite clearly terrified of him. Well, not much he could do there, she would just have to get used to being around him over time. He turned and casually sank down on the chair with his back to Lyra.

“Go ahead.”

“R-right. Red? Can you bring that sewing box over?”

Red looked at her suspiciously. “What are you planning to do with it? Is this one of these giving away the shiny things you like to do? Are you going to ‘bribe’ someone with it?”

“No I’m not going to bribe someone with a sewing box Red,” said Lyra, rolling her eyes.

“But you might-”

“Give her the box,” growled Rain, running out of patience.

The Kobold whimpered in fear and dived on the box snatching it up and running over to Lyra, he then grabbed a stool and pushed and shoved it near her before backing away bowing over and over. He then turned and dashed back toward the coins and hid behind one of the packs.

Lyra pulled the stool close and placed the sewing box atop it, opening it up and expertly darting her hands over the contents ensuring she had everything she needed. Then she held up a black cloak against Rains back. Eyeing it she pursed her lips. There was no way in hell this was going to fit. She began rifling through the clothes, and then she got down to work.

 

 

 

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