Chapter 119: Chapter 111: Are you the…

"Now that is a life!" Olesya sighed in a honeyed voice, submerging herself all the way into a hot, steaming bath, crossing her paws on her chest, and lying on the bath’s floor.

"Does this even do anything for you?" Aranea inquired, sliding into the bath after her and feeling the warm water wash over her skin.

"Yes," Olesya gurgled back with a stream of bubbles, unafraid of any short-circuits and enjoying her relaxation at the bottom of the public bath. "Shut up and relax."

A whole day had passed since the fall of the city. Life was slowly returning to the streets, the wailing and crying of people who lost loved ones could still be heard around the cemetery and before the palace buildings, where whole groups of demonstrators gathered to shout curses at the invaders, but overall, the people were calming down, either relieved at the thought of being spared or too busy rebuilding what was lost.

After a full day of work, Olesya dragged her fellow warlords and a few other wolfkins to what she called "an amazing spot". It turned out to be a massive public bath, placed in the middle of the city. Its walls were made of marble and decorated with bronze, and the water pouring into the enormous pools came from steel pipes in calming and pleasingly sounding streams that vibrated from the walls, creating a gentle music.

The whole place was split into several parts, some baths were meant for cubs, others for women and men, and finally, there was this one meant to be used by the mutants. It was slightly cheaper when compared to the gorgeous carvings in the other halls, but the wolfkins could care less about it. All they wanted by now was to remove the dirt and tiredness of the day and have a few calm moments of rest.

The locals and some mutants wanted to leave the baths upon seeing the soldiers, and Aranea had to convince them that everything was fine. The man explained that black wyrm Scorpio arranged for free access to public baths officers in the army in exchange for providing the owner with a way to obtain a government loan for expansion. After hearing this, the warlord forced the man to take tokens at least from her. She was unwilling to owe anything to Scorpio.

The segregation between the mutants and everybody else was officially banned by the state, and now people of all kinds were sitting at nearby tables, discussing potential business opportunities or grieving about the losses. The other locals tried to keep their distance from the wolfkins, preferring to swim on the other side of a massive pool of water.

Out of curiosity, Aranea asked the owner about this place. Normally, due to the water shortages, the public baths were opened only once per month, on the very last day of the month, to celebrate the passing of time. With the arrival of the Reclaimers, Ivar gave the order to supply the population with an abundance of food and water in order to placate them. From this day on, these public baths are supposed to be open each day of the week.

The halfbreed spotted Keyl in the male section of this establishment and decided not to bother him. The knight captain sat at a table near the pool's edge, sipping wine and talking about something with an overly gesticulating Sly and a worried-looking Kaleb.

Seems like Kate finally kicked Kaleb out of the hospital and told him to have a little fun. The warlord’s lips changed into a smile. So, this means the boys found this place and refused to share… Traitors!

Aranea followed Olesya’s example, sliding down the stairs into the warm waters, leaving just her head on the stairs. Her whole body sang in response to the calming pleasure. Some device beneath the bath was gently moving the water, massaging her skin beneath the fur, ripping dirt, dried blood, and parasites from her. The chemicals in the water immediately killed the filth that was busy sucking the blood from the wolfkins, allowing Aranea to feel herself truly in heaven.

The halfbreed trembled from pleasure, ignoring all her worries and fears for a while, concentrating only on the enjoyment for a while, and allowing calmness to fall on her thoughts. The pleasant smell of burning incense located in small bronze bowls around the edges of the room filled her nostrils, bringing her into a half-dreamy state.

Calm. Safe. Surrounded by friends. That is indeed a life. Aranea half-closed her eyes, submerging herself fully for a minute in the pleasant silence, and then emerging, floating on the waves, holding on with only her fingers and toes. Her heartbeat increased, sending the blood even faster across her body.

I am swimming! Swimming! I need to find a way to persuade shamans to let us build one such bath in each village. Maybe I can convince them that knowing how to swim is vitaaaa… Aranea shrugged off the rest of her thoughts, feeling relaxation running all the way across her body.

"Just step in already, the water isn’t going to bite you." Annie spread her arms wide, laying on the stairs leading deeper into the pool and allowing the water to reach all the way to the chest. The warlord spread her toes, letting out a sigh of pleasure, and closed her eyes.

"I am fine right here." Virginia walked on all fours on the white floor around the bath’s edge, sniffing the water with suspicion, looking at the warlords and other wolfkins with disapproval.

"Chicken."

"Reasonable. No one in their right mind willingly dives into quicksand."

"You are not going to drown!" Annie opened her eyes, extending a paw to the rust-colored wolfkin. "Here. Grab on, and I’ll hold you. The place is awesome!"

"It's rather warm and pleasant," Virginia nodded, curling up behind Annie and grabbing a dried-up cusack's meat from one of the servants, gulping half in one bite. "Good den. Nasty water."

"It’s just like a shower! You use showers, right, Virginia?" Annie turned all the way around to look at the wolfkin. "Virginia?"

"What?!"

"You use the bloody showers, right?"

"Ummm…" Virginia took another bite of the dried meat, "To shower with blood… What a nice idea…"

"Warlords." Wolf hag Bel stepped inside, lowering herself on one knee to greet her superior. She was dressed in simple pants and a white shirt today, her hair was gathered in a long ponytail that hung freely from her left shoulder, and her eyes were hidden behind sunglasses. "My apologies for the interruption. Warlords Alpha and Zero demand your immediate presence."

"But we just started!" Olesya came from beneath the water, standing up like a pillar made out of metal.

"Duty calls." Aranea grumbled angrily, climbing from the bath and wiping herself with a towel. So now I am a warlord, huh, Alpha.

Olesya followed after her, spreading her arms wide. A low humming came from her chest, her artificial eye flashed crimson, electrocuting every single strand of fur on her body, causing her to become dry and puff out in an instant. The water on her metal parts became evaporated by the surge of heat running over the warlord’s body, and the woman started dressing herself, ignoring the envious looks of her fellows.

Annie silently came onto the surface, violently shaking her fur and ignoring Virginia’s complaints. The moment the wolf hag stood up to change her napping place, Annie’s leg appeared in front of hers, and almost innocently, the warlord pushed Virginia into the bath.

"Soak up a little in my place!"

"Aiii! Belly, save me!" Virginia shrieked like a vulture before grabbing the other wolf hag's ponytail and dragging them both into the water.

With a loud boom, one black and one rust-colored form surfaced at the same time. Bel punched with her left arm, missing Virginia’s jaw by the hair, and dived to the left, evading a kick that was supposed to cave her nose in.

"I will massacre you for this, Virginia! After I tear your insides for this ignobility, the waters will turn crimson... My sunglasses!" The serious tone disappeared in an instant. Shouting in panic, Bel pushed a paw before her crimson eyes, trying her best to hide them from the other wolfkins. "Where are my sunglasses?! Look elsewhere, you bastards!" The wolf hag shouted to the wolfkins from the other packs. "My eyes… I am normal! Normal, you hear me!"

"Bel, we literally don’t care." Sonya stretched her back.

"Yeah, Bel… I mean, wolf hag Bel!" Velka quickly corrected herself, raising her paws in a gesture of peace at the sight of enraged wolfkin. "It doesn't really matter what color your eyes are. "But we do care about you as an individual, and…"

"It’s not my fault, Bel! Water! Nasty water scared me!" Virginia jumped back, evading a high kick that was meant to land on her neck. "Annie! You were right, it’s totally awesome in here!"

The rust-colored wolfkin backed off just enough to gain distance, before diving forward like a torpedo and trying to land her fist in Bel’s belly. Still holding one paw against her eyes, Bel swam aside, evading the incoming attack, growling and cursing in the process.

"Enough! No fighting! Don’t do anything to bother the locals." Aranea told them strictly, putting on her jacket. The warlord nodded to the onlookers on the other side of the pool. "The owner allowed us in, so behave in his den. Sonya, Velka, please help Bel find her sunglasses."

"This is not over," Bel hissed to Virginia, "I challenge you. Right here, right now, Virginia!"

"Accepted!" Virginia’s fear changed to immediate excitement. Ignoring the splashes made by Sonya, the wolf hag pressed a finger to her lips. "Not bothering the locals… Not bothering the locals… Aha! Diving! The first one to come out for air will lick the winner’s legs in front of everyone!"

"Agreed. Prepare to be humiliated, Wildling." Both wolfkins vanished under the water at the same time, sitting at the bottom of the pool.

Aranea only shook her head at this childish behavior, walking out and wondering what exactly Alpha wanted with them now.

****

"Wake up, sleepy head." Carty narrowed her right eye, enduring the annoying light.

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It took her a few seconds to understand where she was. She was lying on a hospital bed, and thick bandages were covering the left side of her head. Aside from her, she could see a few other injured wolfkins and people in the room. Some of the patients, mostly wolfkins, were tied up to their beds with chains to prevent their escape.

"We were worried, you know." Her nurse told her, helping Carty sit and starting to remove bandages from her head.

"Sorry for being a bother… Leila." The blue-furred wolfkin scrunched her nose due to the tearing feeling around her left eye.

"Not a lizard woman?" Leila smiled to her and started using water and scissors to remove the soaked-in-blood bandages without harming the skin. The half wyrm was dressed in a field medic's white uniform, with slashes across the uniform's back to free her tail and wings. The oversized and barely buttoned uniform still looked like a skin-tight suit on Leila’s body, threatening to crack at any sudden movement.

"You are lying too good for some reason," Carty looked around with her good eye. She saw an air balloon with ‘Get well soon’ written on it. Annie. It was almost cute. She half expected to see either Ultis or Lucendra, but neither was in sight. As expected. Who cares about me, right? "I almost believe your sincerity. How is my eye?"

"I wasn't lying," Leila removed the filthy bandages. Carty expected pain or anything to indicate that the woman enjoyed her misery. Instead, the half-wyrm began to work gently, removing pieces of torn fur and dried blood and pus from her snout. "The flesh around your eye stopped leaking pus. These bentos really know their craft."

"First he beat me up, then he patched me up." Carty gave out a laugh, remembering the enemy’s surrender and what followed next.

"Carty… It’s a bit early to say…"

"Stop sugarcoating. Am I going to be blind in one eye or what?"

"No, but your vision will suffer."

"Oh well, on the bright side, I will get a really dashing looking scar."

"That you will, Carty," Leila took two syringes, injecting the scout with something, before rubbing in some medical gel. With this done, she started putting on a new bandage. "Annie gave the order for you to have a rest for a couple of days. Should I call your pack? We had to shoo them away because they were in the way."

"No!" Carty replied a bit too quickly, feeling a light dizziness. I guess I owe them one. Grabbing a glass of water, she focused on Leila, "Is Tiny still going to…"

"Yes. She and Alpha will have their ‘duel’ today."

"Are you insane?! Why didn’t you stop her! She is going to get massacred! Call Aranea and Annie at once! We must save Tiny!"

Carty tried to stand up, feeling weakness all over her body. In the battle, one of the cyborgs almost liquidated all the ribs on her right side, pushing the shards of bone into her lung. Her left arm was dislocated after the flesh carver slammed the scout into the ground with all her might. Even with the injury in her eye, this was nothing, she endured and survived far worse.

Yet now she has failed to even stand. The most she could do was grab the rails along the bed, trying in vain to push herself up. Drugs. They sedated me.

"Calm down," Leila’s wing moved under her arms, gently pushing the wolfkin back while the half wyrm was busy bandaging Carty’s head. "Tiny is not an idiot like you. If she challenged Alpha, it means she has a plan, that is why…" Leila looked at the sleeping member of the Alpha team. "No matter. Trust your friend for once. Besides, someone wanted to speak with you."

The unlikely nurse pushed a table to stand before Carty’s bed and placed a large-sized terminal over it, struggling to connect it to the display. After a whole minute of cursing, Leila finally found the correct cables and tapped something on the keyboard, allowing a figure to appear on the screen.

"Nice to see you, Carty!" Zeke, lying on a far more expensive hospital bed in the fort, waved his paw at her. His legs were covered by a blanket, on a table next to him stood countless gifts and well wishes for his soonest wellbeing, no doubt sent by either his family or friends. "This might be a bit strange, but care to talk a little?"

"Hey, Leila! Can I still call you a lizard and receive that KO you promised me?"

"Nope!" The woman said cheerfully before leaving to give medicine to one of the soldiers.

"This answers it," Carty sighed, and Zeke beamed. "Let’s talk… sir Zeke."

****

Alpha summoned the warlords to a small restaurant at the edge of the Moon City. The place had suffered from a random shell that collapsed the upper floor and was left in a state of disrepair for now. To Aranea’s surprise, the place was crawling with Omega team members, who were busy rummaging through the wreckage of nearby buildings, finding stragglers, and sending them off with the military police to nearby soup kitchens or temporary places to stay.

Wolfkins of the Alpha team were manning the walls of the damaged restaurant, scanning the surroundings with a sound detection device and with the lenses of their armor. A new wall, made of living soldiers, was formed around the place where Alpha had decided to stay for some reason.

Coming inside, Aranea saw Lucendra working in the kitchen, furiously cleaning the relatively undamaged space and cataloging the remaining supplies. The warrior only nodded to Annie before apologizing and returning to work, placing undamaged coffee bags into the sole remaining case.

Alpha and Zero were waiting for them in the basement. Despite the cracked ceiling and smell of dust and burning wood, the place looked rather expensive. Alpha was sitting, arms spread, on a gigantic sofa covered by yellow-colored silken cloth, dressed in a military coat and long pants. Her harness, a set of metallic arms, was thrown carelessly on a large table that was dragged to the corner.

Zero, clad in her pitch-black power armor and cloak, was busy admiring the paintings and wood panels that decorated the walls, taking photos from time to time. Upon the warlords’ entrance, she immediately walked to them, hugging them, while Alpha merely gestured for them to get seated on chairs before her.

"Warlord Annie. Warlord Olesya. Coward." Alpha’s eyes burrowed into Aranea.

"Warlord Aranea, sister." The halfbreed replied to her.

Alpha’s jaws opened, letting out a low hiss of hatred. The fear wave slammed into Aranea, demanding that she bare her neck in a show of submission. Clenching her teeth, Aranea kept calmly looking at the warlord, refusing to submit this time, ignoring the feeling of being small and insignificant compared to this massive body. Alpha started to stand up when Zero moved behind the sofa, placing her paws on Alpha’s shoulders.

"Fine. Greeting, sisters," Alpha stopped. New veins appeared on the thick neck, while the warlord strained herself to say the words. "Warlord Aranea. We have something to discuss. The history of the Wolf Tribe, to be exact. It is a custom of our people that upon accepting new warlords, we reveal the truth about our people. Truth that no one outside our closest circle should ever know," Alpha's voice changed, extinguishing all aggression. Instead, she spoke almost kindly, looking at each wolfkin before her with something akin to worry and regret. "If you are not up to the task of knowing the truth and keeping it secret, leave. I will not think worse of you. Otherwise, swear on your very life, that you will never disclose the knowledge we are about to tell you."

"I swear on my life. Should I lie, may the Blessed Mother devour me whole for this." Aranea spoke the ritual words first, followed by Olesya and Annie. Aranea bit her own finger, allowing blood to come out. Annie sliced her wrist, and Olesya followed Aranea’s example. The warlords offered their words and blood to Alpha, cementing the pact.

"Wyrms came from humans," Alpha started taking, licking her lips and swallowing the offered blood. "Trolls as well. Our cousins are the same. Almost all of the new breeds in this world are transformed humans. This change came about because of the glow," Alpha looked into the eyes of each warlord, "We, the Wolf Tribe, are not humans."

"What?" Aranea blinked at this declaration.

"Yes. In fact, you have far stronger ties to humanity than anyone else in this room," Alpha said, pointing her claw at Aranea. "Before you came to be, the Wolf Tribe had no blood ties with the ice fangs. We are not cousins or kin. Zero, show them."

Zero nodded, stepping from behind the sofa and reaching for her helmet with her paws. Something clicked inside the helmet, and the back of it started to slide within the front part, segment after segment.

"Now?" Annie asked bitterly, looking at Zero. "Now you will show your face? Not when I begged you?"

"You will understand, Annie." Zero responded quietly, sounding both tired and guilty.

With a soft hiss of some device, Zero took off the helmet, filling the room with a new light coming from her eyes and forcing Aranea to experience pure dread. Zero was perfect. Her elongated snout was scar-free, and her stunning black fur would make even the ice fangs green with envy. Her eyes looked like twin amber suns that somehow found their way into the eye sockets. The shape of her skull, the white, gleaming fangs when she smiled, the bright light coming from her eyes, the sense of danger coming from her—she looked exactly like...

"Blessed Mother," Annie fell on her knees before Zero, pressing her paws together in a praying gesture and showing the back of her neck. "Forgive my impudence, I…"

"Ravager?" Aranea asked with a weak voice, feeling her paws trembling, "Is that you?"

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