Melanie walked the dirt road, thankful above all else that the party had been able to limp its way back to the path. Her feet hadn't gotten snagged on a single root in at least an hour. That was a sign. They were in the clear.
And none too soon, either. Justin was still lying in the cart, looking worse than ever. All the color was gone from his face, and he was drenched in more sweat than an exhausted field hand. Whatever those goblins had coated their spear tips with clearly didn't agree with him. She felt another wave of guilt-tinged relief that she hadn't been the one who took the brunt of that second ambush. Ariel was alternating between driving the cart and doing what she could for Justin. She'd drained her medicine pouch on him yesterday, and admittedly had seemed to slow the advance of whatever toxins the little bastards had stuck him full of. For now, he seemed to be in a fitful (and merciful) sleep. Zacharia was somewhere up ahead, scouting the road and searching for more herbs Ariel might use. If nothing else went catastrophically wrong, the ramshackle and ragged adventurers would be back in Durnsfall before sundown, and collecting their payment before midday tomorrow. After that. . .
She shook her head. There would be time to figure all that out later. Until then, she just needed to focus on putting one foot in front of the other. The thought made her look down, examining her footsteps. They were
almost
natural now, she had learned to use her larger assets to balance her stride rather than fighting them. The tightness of her gambeson helped, but her chest had grown too much to bind like she had before. Each breast was more than a handful now, and she had a suspicion they were still growing, however slowly. The same was true over most of her body; her hips were wider, posterior larger, it had been hell on her wardrobe. It felt as though there wasn't any part of her that would fit in the palm anymore. She wasn't sure the Melanie of last year would recognize her now. At least some aspects were the same, her pale skin and raven hair had thus far been untouched. She was confident no force in the world would be able to rid her eyes of their dark bags. Maybe soon, she would stop looking like she was so hyper-aware of how she stood, how she walked, how every part of her sat. She tried to put it out of her mind, only for the source of the changes to make itself known.
An invisible, familiar weight perched itself on Melanie's shoulder, warm even through the gambeson she hadn't dared to take off yet.
'You're gonna dump these idiots, right? I mean, come on, you're better than this.'
The voice slipped into her mind from seemingly nowhere, on the same level of her own surface thoughts. She still hadn't gotten used to it, even after almost half a year.
She glanced back at the cart, then over her other shoulder at the road behind. No prying ears made themselves known. "I don't know yet," she hissed under her breath. "This job just went a little sideways. We all got out of there alive." Justin gave a loud painful sounding groan, prompting Ariel to hang up the reins and fling herself into the back of the cart. Melanie dropped another few paces back. "Mostly, anyways. If I hadn't been there-"
'If
we
hadn't been there-'
the voice interjected.
"Fine, if
we
hadn't been there, it would've been even worse! They need us!"
The weight on her shoulder shifted unhappily.
'Speaking of 'needs,' duck off the path. We've been in the middle of nowhere for days. I'm getting pent up!'
For the briefest of moments, a shape flickered into being on her shoulder. A dull red figure blinked into existence, all too familiar to Melanie; Vex. His body was as it usually was, cord-like in its lack of fat and seemingly dwarfed by the large black batlike wings that sprouted from his back. Horns curled up from his forehead, which from certain angles worked with his long and pointed ears to create the illusion of a crown. None of this, though, was what he intended her to look at. He was leaning back, propping himself up with his arms and spreading his legs, allowing his cock to hang free off Melanie's shoulder. She glanced down at it, gasped, then shot the imp a furious glare.
His fiery eyes stared back at her, brow waggling for just a moment, before silently vanishing again.
"Are you-" Words came tumbling out of her mouth, "How can- Why would-" She swatted at where he'd been dangling his dick, but unfortunately only felt it graze past her fingers. Much more satisfying was the shrill shriek that accompanied the invisible weight pitching backwards and tumbling off her shoulder. Melanie would have laughed, in most other circumstances. "Just an ounce, a single
ounce
, of gods-damned decorum! You can't muster a drop, can you?"
Angry words flooded into her mind, and with a frown she noted the fluttering of wings rather than the satisfying
thump
she'd hoped for.
'Decorum?'
He sounded indignant, a rarity for the demon.
'Whos been doing all the work the past few days? Who's been spoiling ambushes, wrecking traps, keeping
you
from winding up in that cart too?! You might own me, sister, but you
owe
me!'