Adabelle, initially frustrated by Trevor pulling away before he could kiss her, blinked and turned to see what he was pointing at.

Just like he said, fish were falling from the sky.

Not only that, but spikes exploded from them as they hit the ground.

Before she could answer, the sound of frightened baying reached them. Trevor stopped the wracors, and the well trained animals stayed put after that. Adabelle smirked and wrapped her arm around her boyfriend’s shoulder. “You may enjoy this.”

“Enjoy wha-“

Trevor was cut off as mangy, brown dog-like creatures fled from the trees where the exploding fish were raining. They were as large as the wracors, with huge claws that tore up the ground beneath them and spines along their backs. Their eyes were glowing red, and the young man realized he was looking at monsters for the first time. He froze up, his hand clutching onto Adabelle’s leg, though he was comforted by the fact that she was with him.

One of the beasts was hit directly in the face with an exploding fish. It fell to the ground, bloodless, before disappearing in a puff of smoke. Its brethren were quick to follow, unable to dodge the hailstorm of unusual rain.

From the forest emerged another figure, one that Trevor immediately recognized.

Rashie, clad in her armor, ran after the pack as she screamed out a battle cry. “Summon bigger fish!” she yelled, and the exploding fish stopped raining down. All the ones that were flopping on the ground, their spikes expended, disappeared.

A large shadow appeared over the lead monster as a truly gigantic fish appeared in a flash of light. It fell, crashing onto the fastest beast, and some smoke soon escaped from underneath it. As it flopped, the fish was able to clear at least ten or fifteen feet with every motion, catching one more and causing the others to pause.

This fish disappeared as Rashie summoned another that looked exactly like a tuna except that it was roughly twice her size. Her grip on its tail was ironclad, and the moment it realized it was in danger the entire creature froze as it turned into a pillar of ice.

“Frozen Tuna,” Adabelle explained as she pushed Trevor’s fallen jaw upwards. “That’s her favorite summon. Its defense mechanism causes it to freeze its body with nearly indestructible ice, which she then uses like so.”

Rashie jumped into the air and clubbed the nearest monster directly on its head. The beast turned into smoke before it had a chance to realize something was happening, and the shark girl was immediately on the one next in line.

She was fast, brutal, and effective even as she laughed with malicious glee. If Trevor hadn’t known Rashie to begin with, he might have been confused on which of the combatants were the monsters. Even seeing this, he couldn’t find himself to be scared of the shark girl.

The last of the monsters were dispatched in short order, and Rashie raised her frozen tuna in the air as she bellowed out a victory cry.

Adabelle took the reins and set the wracors back in motion. “Shark!” she called.

Rashie’s head whipped to see who was calling her, and her face lit up with unbridled happiness. “Addymanatine!” she yelled. “And Trevor I guess!”

“And Trevor, I guess,” he chuckled. “Hello, Rashie.”

The frozen tuna disappeared from her hand as she ran towards the wagon. She leapt into the air over the wracors, who were slightly startled but appeared to be used to it, and headed right for Adabelle. The demonkin grabbed the giggling shark girl out of the air and plopped her down. Since the bench was full from just the two of them, Rashie was set down on both of their legs while her tail squished between them.

“I’m so glad you’re back!” she yelled, unable to stop giggling.

“We were only gone for a few days,” Adabelle said, though she sounded happy as well.

“How are things going?” Trevor asked.

“Things are so fun right now,” she replied. “There were two dungeon surges, just like Jackson said, and I was put over here on this one. Wayne’s on the other side of town, but mine is scarier so it’s more fun. That was the last of them, so I’m really glad that you’re here because now I have to wait until tomorrow to fight more monsters.”

“All that stuff with the fish was pretty exciting.”

“Yeah, it’s- wait!” Rashie stopped, turning to look up at Trevor as she pouted. “You’re not supposed to know about my Power! I was supposed to use it to prank you!”

“Rashie,” Adabelle scolded. “You’re not supposed to use your Power to prank people. Not after the last time.”

“I only summoned a fish in someone’s mouth three times,” she claimed. “And they deserved it.”

“Rashie…”

“Fiiine, I won’t use my Power to play pranks on Trevor or anyone else,” she relented, crossing her arms petulantly.

“So your Power is, what? Summon Fish?” Trevor asked, bemused and sure that he was wrong.

But that had to be right because the shark girl started nodding. “Yeah! I call the explody spike ones porcupikes, and the ice one I call a frozen tuna, and the big one I call Logan.”

“Logan?”

“Yeah, Jackson came up with that name for me because it’s the same fish every time,” Rashie explained. “It’s big and burly and can jump so high that it seems to defy gravity sometimes! He’s a real beast of a bigger fish. Still smaller than I was though. For now, I’m putting points into it so he can be even bi-“

The shark girl paused, and Trevor was about to say something when Adabelle tapped him on the back with her tail. He looked over at her, and saw the twinkle in her eyes as she mouthed the words, one moment.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Rashie took in a deep breath, and then sniffed Adabelle and Trevor separately. She stood up, jumping onto one of the wracor’s back, causing it to list to the side before getting its bearings again. The shark girl turned and pointed at Trevor. “You are trying to steal Addymanatine!” she accused.

Adabelle’s tail hit Trevor on the back again before rubbing up and down. “Yes,” he answered, thinking that’s what she wanted him to say.

The shark girl gasped before jumping to the other wracor in front of Adabelle, hands clenched into fists flailing as she spoke. “Addy, if you are being held against your will, tell me and I’ll help, okay?”

The demonkin swallowed down a laugh. “I’m afraid it’s too late, Rashie,” she said dramatically. “I appreciate your concern, but there’s nothing you can do anymore. You’re too late.”

“I’m too late?” Rashie asked, jumping back onto Adabelle’s lap. She hugged the demonkin tightly, looking up at her. “Then I’ll just have to defeat him so that he can’t take you away.”

“Hold on a second now,” Trevor quickly said.

“No, Rashie, you can’t,” Adabelle said, taking Trevor’s hand and bringing it up to her cheek. “You see, I’ve taken a liking to him.”

“A- a liking?” Rashie stuttered. “No! That’s Stock House Synondrom!”

“Stockholm’s Syndrome,” Trevor corrected, figuring she heard that name from Wayne. He was barely paying attention, though. She had taken a liking to me, he thought to himself.

“Don’t say anything, I know what I’m talking about,” Rashie said, turning her nose up at him.

“You know I’m not actually stealing Adabelle, right?” Trevor asked. “I asked her out on a date, she agreed, and now we’re dating. She’s still going to live at the He- Wherever the mayor lives?” He looked at her questioningly.

“The Hero House until l officially become mayor,” Adabelle informed him. “But after that, I’ll be living in that building that blocks my office window from having a nice view. That’s where Jackson lives now, and I’ll be there after.”

“So I’m not stealing her,” Trevor continued. “We’re just very happy together.”

Rashie sniffed them both again before grunting. “Well, you both do smell very happy,” she admitted with no small amount of hesitation.

“You can smell that?”

“Of course I can!” she exclaimed, nodding vigorously. “Everyone smells different when they feel different things. Happy, sad, afraid, terrified. I know this smell, and it’s very happy.”

“Well, I’m happy,” Trevor said. “Adabelle?”

“I’m quite happy, too,” she replied.

The shark girl released Adabelle to cross her arms, thinking. They could see the gears turning in her head as she processed this new information. She looked at Trevor’s head for a moment before looking up at the demonkin’s. “I wonder if your babies are going to have horns,” she thought aloud.

“Okay, hold up a minute there,” Trevor said, laughing nervously.

“That’s not even something we’re considering at this time, Rashie, and won’t be for a long, long time,” Adabelle told her. “Right now we’re still getting to know each other better. We’ve only had one date so far.”

This caused Rashie to continue thinking before she suddenly gasped and stood up on Adabelle’s lap. She turned, smacking Trevor in the chest with her tail and knocking the wind out of him before jumping back onto the wracor.

“Are you okay?” Adabelle asked, placing a hand on his chest.

“Yeah,” he wheezed. “Got me good, but I’m alright.”

“Rashie, what are you doing?” Adabelle asked angrily.

“I gotta go tell Wayne!” she yelled before jumping off and running away at speeds he would have never thought possible for such short legs.

“Okay, I’m going to nip that in the bud right now before he tells her all sorts of terrible things.”

“Think he’ll do that?” Trevor asked.

“If he thinks it’s funny? Absolutely,” Adabelle said. “I’ll admit that I sometimes enjoy his antics, but not when I’m on the receiving end of them. Perhaps if it were only you, I’d be fine with it.”

“Gee, thanks,” Trevor chuckled.

“Are you going to be okay taking the wagon to Thimbleden’s?” she asked, glancing at his chest.

“I’ll be fine, really,” he said. “Go on and make sure Wayne doesn’t get to pull one over on us.”

“Thanks, Trevor,” she replied before pulling him in for a kiss. They lingered for a moment, perhaps unwilling to part as much as they thought, before Adabelle released him and jumped off of the wagon. “I’ll see you back at the Hero House!” She began running at much the same speed as Rashie, and the young man snorted out a quick laugh.

“Speed is a broken stat,” Trevor commented to himself as he watched her go.

To Trevor’s pleasure, the rest of the ride was completely uneventful. He bowed to those he passed on the road and the guards leading into town, and soon he was in front of Thimbleden’s Sundries.

Dismounting from the wagon once the wracors had fully stopped, he walked around to pet them on their snouts. The creatures really were remarkably like horses despite being reptilian in nature, and he had come to really like the big creatures. They snorted and nuzzled him, with one attempting to eat his shirt before he pulled away and walked inside.

“Trevor!” the bespectacled gnome yelled from behind the counter as soon as he entered.

“Hello, Mr. Thimbleden,” he greeted. “I’ve got the wagon parked out front. Not sure where you want it.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Billan, the human employed at the Sundries, said. He clapped his hand on Trevor’s shoulder before walking out.

“Thanks, Billan,” Trevor called after him. “I’ve got a delivery from Klar for you and some of the other merchants.”

“Just returned and you’re already working?” Thimbleden asked, finishing up with the last customer in his line. He walked around the counter and motioned for Trevor to follow him.

“It’s been a hectic few days, but I’d like to get this done so I can thoroughly relax,” Trevor chuckled.

“From the smile on your face, it looks like you had a really good time,” the shopkeeper remarked.

“It was fantastic, for sure.”

True to his word, Trevor wasted no time pulling everything for Thimbleden out of his inventory and putting it where it needed to be. He was just as quick to leave as he was to arrive, wanting to get done with everything as quickly as possible.

He visited Dory last, as her shop was the farthest away from the square, when he finally completed his quest.

[[Quest complete! Welcome home!

You have been sent back to Tosa after a triumphant stint in Eskretet with one mission, not counting your personal mission of wooing a fellow Summoned, and that was to make some deliveries. And you succeeded! Thimbleden, Grunder, Corrin, and Dory have all received the shipments they were expecting from the merchant prince Klarkartar and are very grateful for your prowess as a delivery man.

Now you can sit back, relax, and take a few days vacation from your vacation. We all know how stressful the dating life can be, so enjoy your time however you want to now that you’ve decided to be selfish. Go ahead, we’ll wait. But also…

Three gold pieces have been added to your inventory!

Level Up! You have gained one (1) stat point. It has been added to your bank, which has one (1) stat point left.]]

“Yeah, that sounds nice,” Trevor admitted after saying goodbye to Dory and Greer and stepping outside of the shop. Looking forward to meeting Adabelle at the Hero House, he started heading that way. “I am going to go and relax, Quest Master. Thanks.”