"You can shear a sheep many times. You can only skin it once."

  - Amarillus Slimus

  A sea of grey, green, and white surrounded Aurelia as she looked over the edge of the cliffs which surrounded their camp. The Sun's rays were just beginning to burn away the morning dew, and fog rose to obscure the endless fields of green treetops. For a moment, standing there at the edge, she felt like she was on an isnd in the sky.

  Thessa and Junia were still asleep in their tent. They had both seemed pretty tuckered out, particurly Junia after her first time. Aurelia, by contrast, had been awake for hours. She'd been having odd dreams tely.

  She heard the footsteps of someone approaching behind her, but they fell silent a polite distance away. Aurelia's long hair swished as she turned, she hadn't tied their golden strands back yet. Comak stood a few paces behind her. He too looked over the edge at the morning view, but Aurelia couldn't gather his reaction. His face was it's usual impassive self. He came forward to stand over the edge, looking straight down at the rather perilous plummet below, then huffed and walked back to camp.

  "It's a wonder none of the animals have fallen off." Aurelia heard him grumble as he stalked away.

  She wasn't so sure. Mare, Junia's horse, seemed intelligent enough. The pack mules followed her, and the horse seemed at least smart enough to not lead it's small herd off the edge.

  Aurelia sighed as she looked over the view one more time, then turned around to walk back to camp. She was burning daylight, and if she wanted to greet her lovers with a morning surprise, she'd have to be quick about it.

  Most of the morning was spent packing and pnning for the day. Gregorios's party had seen signs of the Razortails yesterday afternoon before Junia's spider excitement, so today's groups had prepared for a more extensive search of the area. Aurelia, Thessa, and Junia were one group, with Comak, Gregorios, and Monin in the other, while Tullius and Gaius were keeping watch over the camp.

  The trio of women were a bit awkward together at first. The memories of st night still prevalent in their minds. Aurelia was gd that though there was some adjustment, neither seemed to have any compints with the arrangement.

  Junia's bruised rib was healing remarkably fast, and all three were in high spirits as they set off into the brush. The Razortails were supposed to be a little further into the highnds than their camp, and their aching calves did nothing to dampen to their enthusiasm.

  They walked between walls of deep green, enclosed by the thick canopy of branches above. Though Aurelia had spent most of her childhood finding her way through Ceres's groves, those tranquil and holy grounds were incomparable to the dense wilds they trudged through now. Aurelia went first, following a game-trail. Being the one in front, and by far the rgest of the group, she was the one to walk face first into branches and nearly invisible spiderwebs.

  She coughed as the wiped the wispy strands of her test decoration from her face, and grumbled to herself about how one of the boys really should be in front. Her wings were tucked tight to her back, reminiscent of how she used to hold them under the tutege of the Temple. Where before they were kept back for appearances, now, she simply dreaded preening herself after.

  Though she grumbled, there was no amount of spiderwebs in her face or twigs in her hair which could dim the deep, primal satisfaction she felt when she gnced down at Thessa or Junia. At knowing these women were hers. That her seed dripped down their thighs, ciming them. She knew that it was an animalistic urge, but it was one they seemed to reciprocate. Aurelia had broached the subject of their "retionship", and had found that both were surprisingly accepting of it. Thessa had grown up in a tribe where harems were a known quantity, even if her parents had been a devoted pair. And Junia, coming from an equites lifestyle, had been raised to defer to the family patriarch in all things. Her adventuring penchant notwithstanding, of course. Aurelia made it clear to her that when she was with her, she needn't think of herself so diminutively but Junia had simply smiled and said: "Aurelia, that's very kind of you, but your dignitas is showing." She paused a bit to look down at her feet, then she met Aurelia's eyes and continued. "Besides, with what's hiding in your skirts, and what's dripping down my legs, we'll all be part of the gens Aurelii soon enough."

  Those words sent both Aurelia's heart and mind racing.

  They kept their eyes peeled for any abnormally rge spiderwebs, but there was no sign. They did come across the desiccated corpse of a deer though. Aurelia was using her spear like a walking stick, Thessa used her crook in a simir way, and Junia had her sword by her side through a beltloop. They were taking no chances today.

  Pausing in a small clearing to rest and have a snack, the trio took a small break. Hopefully the boys were having better luck.

  Further north and a little east, a woodpecker poked it's head through the hole it had been drilling. What had once been a great tree was now nothing more than a rotting husk, and that meant food. It had been crawling with tasty bugs and critters. Good eating. Pausing to lean it's head in close to the peeling trunk, the bird stood motionless for a moment, trying to listen in to where the next meal could be found. Instead of bugs from the tree, it heard heavy footfalls from outside. Withdrawing it's head from the trunk, it froze where it perched. From where it was sat, it saw two rge creatures pass by without noticing it, followed the head of a shorter one, though the bird could only see the top bit. When they were gone, it ducked it's head back into the tree and resumed it's feast.

  Gregorios, Comak, and Monin marched confidently through the dense woods. They had all worked together at least once before, and Gregorios and Monin specifically had completed many jobs back when Gregorios was newly out of the military. They knew the job, the stakes, and the pay. The only thing they didn't know, was the mettle of their newer members. Monin was the first to break the silence.

  "What do ye think of the new blood, Gregorios?" He asked bluntly. Of the three newbie adventurer women accompanying them, he had conversed with Aurelia the most.

  "What about them?" Gregorios responded. He was only half paying attention to Monin. At the front, he had his eyes peeled for signs of the Razortails and other things besides.

  "What do ye think of them? Would ye take them on again?"

  Gregorios stood on top of a low rock and paused for a moment to take in the surroundings. To their left was the sudden drop of cliff edge, their right was a carpet of green.

  "They handled themselves adequately during the fight with the orks." He said measuredly. "And they've made less mistakes than most I've taken on over the years."

  Comak snorted at that, but said nothing. Gregorios gnced at him pointedly, then continued.

  "I'm not sure if I'd have them under my command back in the day, but then again I forgive them for their... disposition."

  "What sort of disposition? I thought it was only the one ss who had blue blood, and only barely at that!"

  "Not that sort of disposition Monin." Gregorios said with another pointed look at Comak, who simply shrugged.

  "It's not my fault the dwarf's blinder than a bat." Comak said in a tone that was half neutral, half jibe.

  "Oi."

  Monin quickly searched around for a taller rock than the one Gregorios was currently standing on. After a moment of looking and cry of satisfaction, he hopped up a boulder so that his head was above the two men's.

  "Now, tell me what I missed!" Monin demanded while rubbing his hands together. There was nothing he loved more than gossip and hearsay, though he'd deny it till the day he died.

  Gregorios sighed, and shot a gre at Comak, who was both trying to seem innocent and prideful at the same time.

  "Monin, I know when you sleep, it takes a dragon's roar to wake you. But how you remain so obtuse yet so interested in other people, I'll never understand." Gregorios said with a shake of his head.

  "Oi, just because ye saw a dragon once doesn't mean ye get to bring it up any time ye want to lord over me." Monin responded. "Now tell me what I need to know!" He was practically vibrating in pce, and if it was possible for someone to be cute with a beard almost as long as they were tall, he would have been it.

  Gregorios sighed, and looked to the sky almost remorsefully. "When I took the first female adventurer with us, Monin, remember how I was worried it the dynamics might harm the unit's cohesion?"

  "Aye?" Monin responded with a quirked eyebrow, not understanding.

  "I never thought that the first time I'd have to deal with this sort of thing would be between two women." Gregorios said, before correcting himself. "Three women."

  Monin let out a "Huh?", still not getting it for a bit. After a few more minutes of silence broken up by idle chat as the men continued walking in their search, his eyes light up in realization.

  "Wait! Ye're saying they all..." He trailed off.

  "Yes Monin, all three."

  "Oh."

  Monin pondered this revetion for a while, then a question leaped into his mind.

  "The big one, Aurelia. She used to be in the Temple of Ceres, I didn't think they endorsed that kind of thing. I thought they were all about big big families and being fruitful and all that. I didn't think she had the equipment?"

  Comak sniggered. "Whether she's got the equipment or not, she's certainly trying her hardest to fulfill the Temple's mandate."

  Back over with the girls, things had progressed. They had only taken one break where Aurelia had bent Thessa and Junia over when she had felt her balls getting full. Aside from that, they'd been dead set on their mission.

  The dense underbrush of the deep woods had yielded somewhat as the incline had lifted them above the trees. The wood was sparser now, and Aurelia could feel unfiltered sunlight gracing her brow. They should be right around the area Gregorios had indicated they should explore when they had touched bases that morning.

  They took their time to inspect the foliage as they moved from clearing to clearing. Green Razortails should leave neat, even cuts where they flew. And sure enough, they began to find pieces of leaves and branches on the ground which had been sliced cleanly, as though with a bde.

  Thessa, usually the quietest of the group, spoke up when they began to find signs of their quarry.

  "Are we really sure we should be doing this? I mean, it sounds like it's going to take a lot of feathers. Are we really just going to mindlessly sughter every bird we can get our hands on?"

  "I wouldn't phrase it like that..." Aurelia said. "I think you're imagining the Razortails as birds like any other, just with special feathers. From what I've heard from Gregorios they can be quite nasty and-"

  Aurelia never finished the rest of her sentence. As they emerged into the next clearing, what she saw stole her voice.

  In front of them, stretched across the open air of the clearing, was a giant spiderweb. This was nothing like the tiny strands Aurelia had been wiping from her face all day. Even at a distance, she could see the thick strands reflecting the afternoon light. Caught in this massive web, was a wide assortment of birds. Chief among them was a massive flock of rge grey-green birds. Their forms looked crumpled, as though they had fallen into themselves.

  Junia drew her sword as the trio readied their weapons. Judging by the size of the web, the beast which had spun it had to be enormous.

  They were determined they wouldn't be caught off guard this time.

  SarcasticMisfit