For the next three days, the Deliverance marched northwards in relative peace without any interruptions, outside of stopping to make camp. None of the transformees within the group had any issues or unexpected developments along the way either, though Shade and Faye found no chance to break away from the party to "feed" each other. Neither of them particularly struggled with this though, as they weren't expending much energy on the journey and they both overfed each other before their departure.
As the travelers finally approached the outer walls of the city surrounding Zofia Castle, they were approached on horseback by Clive and Mathilda, who were currently on patrol. "Welcome back, milord, it's a pleasure to see your safe return," Clive addressed his liege, bowing slightly. The paladin's wife joined in, asking, "How did your expedition go? Were you able to find the shrine?"
"Thank you, it is good to be back," Alm said graciously before answering Mathilda's question, "Indeed, we did find the altar, but there were some complications."
"Complications?" Clive asked as the entourage behind Alm drew closer. "Surely, nothing that your capable lead- Milord! Behind you!" the blonde knight exclaimed as he grabbed his sword, seeing a bipedal lizard monster and a couple of gelatinous beings behind the convoy. Turning to look, Alm immediately noticed what startled Clive and turned back, waving his hands and entreating him, "Stand down! Those are our allies."
"What madness is this?" the paladin asked, still gripping the hilt of his blade.
"I mentioned complications..." Alm started, "behold, the complications. When our comrades attempted to use the altar in the shrine, they did indeed gain new power, but the side effects were as you see. The lizard girl you see is in fact Silque, and those slimes are all Faye."
Putting a hand to his forehead, doubt set in as Clive responded, "I'm.... not sure I understand. Is this real?"
Coming up beside Alm, Celica backed him up, "Indeed, your eyes do not deceive you. Don't worry, we plan to explain things as best as we can later once everyone is gathered."
"Meet us in the castle's audience hall later, after you two get off your guard shift, and we'll get all the Deliverance members caught up to speed," Alm directed the couple. "Oh, and by the way, don't speak of this to anyone for now, we have reason to believe that the remnants of Duma's followers are pursuing this power. So the less word of this gets out, the fewer prying ears there will be to leak information," the commander added.
"You have our word," Mathilda acquiesced, bowing her head as she place her hand on her chest.
Turning towards his companions, Alm addressed them, "Alright, since we're almost at the city, I'm going to need your help to keep your transformations hidden until we can get to the castle. Shade, I know I don't need to concern myself about you since your disguise is impeccable. Tatiana, Genny, I think it might be best if you ride inside the convoy from here. Silque, you can stay outside as long as you keep your hood up." Looking at the crowd of Fayes, Alm had some doubts. "Faye, you've grown quite skilled at imitating your normal human appearance, but I'm not sure what to say about walking into town with almost fifty clones of the same woman."
Chuckling a bit awkwardly, the slime girl apologized before suggesting, "I might have an idea for that. What if I try to imitate as many other different members of the militia as I can? It would also make it look like Silque, Genny and Tatiana were walking with us ordinarily without any change."
"That's... surprisingly logical of you, Faye," Alm answered with a small amount of awe. "Sure, give it a shot; think you can fill in any extra spots with random appearances if needed?"
"I think that should be possible, I'll just try to recall other people I've met over time," the goo girl replied.
With their coverup plans in place, the group proceeded onwards to Zofia Castle. Whenever the group passed by another member of the Deliverance, Alm and Celica were sure to alert them about the upcoming meeting at the castle. After some time, they successfully made it into the castle, hopeful that they hadn't aroused any suspicion from their larger-than-ordinary group.
Afterward...
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author
