Mage And Wolf
Chapter 99

Chapter 99: Chapter 99

I step through to see the ladies held at spear point, hands on their heads.

"That’s my fault, sorry ladies, I should have told someone we were coming" I call loudly enough to draw the guards attention, causing them to bow and stand down.

I’m just about to order the gate closed when 3 more people come through in the robes of High River Sect.

"Ladies, you realize this is another world, yes? And that the portal is about to close?"

They nod frantically. "Please do. We’re escaping from truly terrible arranged marriages. The further we go the better"

"Then if nobody else is coming, Priestesses, please close the unstable portal."

The flickering gateway slides shut behind us and the girls heave a sigh of release.

"They must have been bad for you to chase a High Priestess of the Black Dragon, God of Death, into another world" I laugh and the girls flinch.

"Too late to reconsider now".

"Vitale wasn’t joking about that?" one girl asks.

"Nope. But this is a very different world. We’ll go over the rules later, but in the meantime, don’t attack or kill anyone. Especially Priestesses or non cultivators."

They all nod in unison, like a trained reaction "So, where are we going?"

"First up, to my hometown to meet my family and recover my acolyte. Then up to a major city north of here to take a Travel Gate home."

Everyone is staring at the Dragonkin. That might be an important bit of information I missed out on telling them.

"You should know, that since the portals opened there are a lot of non humans on this planet. There were some before, but a lot more arrived. The city north of here is split between Dragonkin and humans. These guards are from their garrison. My hometown is full of shape shifters, it is a fully Lycan Community."

"So then you’re?"

"Lycan" I answer, shifting after months of hiding myself.

"The ears, and is that a tail under your robe?" Sect Master Becky asks.

"It is. Though I must warn you, the others don’t look like this when shifted, they’re three times my size and more wolf than human looking." the High River girls grimace at the mental image.

"They’re also very protective, so no flirting ladies. They’re large and well muscled in human form, but you don’t want to get murdered by their wives" the Forbidden Treasure Sect all laugh at this.

"Occupational hazard" one jokes "We’ll be on our best behavior around your family"

Instead of calling for a ride we run. A slip of energy pushed into the effort and keeping up with traffic along the highway is no trouble at all, but we keep it to a moderate jog. A few hours later and we’re near the pack borders.

"Now ladies, I will talk to the guards, everyone be on your best behavior."

"Sorry, um what do we call you here?"

"In front of the Dragonkin, High Priestess, Highness or Priestess is best, they’re mostly quite formal. Alone, Kat or Katrina is fine."

Lately I’ve found that the casual nickname I used most of my life just doesn’t entirely feel like me anymore. I’ve changed so much that even my own name seems outdated.

"You’re still Young Miss to us" Sect Master Becky laughs with a bit of a mischievous edge. What’s the laugh all about?

"Do you mind if we all call you Young Miss?" one of the High River ladies asks "We’re all from noble families at home, and as I understand it from Nanny Vitale, Dragon Priestesses are sort of the nobility of their worlds."

"So she did go over things with you. That makes it a bit easier. Young Miss is fine."

The pack border patrol waves at me in recognition, running over to give me instructions.

"Wait here for the Alpha, he wants to say hello to your companions before they enter Pack lands." The Young warrior keeps darting looks at one of the High River Sect girls and trying not to get caught.

"She’s a bona fide noble lady, young warrior" I whisper too low for most of the humans to hear "better have your A game ready if you want to court her" and he nods with a smile.

He’s confident, I’ll give him that.

Alpha Petros arrives with his Beta Reggie and a handful of warriors. All have been cultivating, and Petros has made it to early Fortification.

"Tell me again why we can’t flirt?" One of the Forbidden Treasure girls sighs dreamily. "All that muscly man meat can’t be off limits, the Gods aren’t that cruel"

"Alpha, Beta, meet the ladies of the Forbidden Treasure Sect. As you can see, they’re a delightful and tactful bunch, and I think their style of cultivation might actually suit mated couples quite well." The girls laugh openly at that thought.

As Becky explained a while back, one man near her level is enough to progress, but 3 is better. Mated couples don’t need to worry about finding a cultivation partner, so it’s even better.

"Beside them are a few of the Noble Ladies of the High River Sect whose arranged husbands were deemed to be unsuitable. They’ve come along to continue their studies at the University in Arcana until they decide what their future holds."

"Welcome everyone, and welcome back Katrina. Let’s head to the Pack House and get ready for dinner. Everything else can wait until we’ve eaten."

"I learned to cook in this Pack Kitchen" I inform the ladies and all the Lycans smile at their enthusiasm. They do appreciate a woman who can eat.

"You have no idea how bad the food of our world seemed after trying her cooking Alpha" Sect Master Becky jokes. "In our world plants are medicine, not flavoring for food"

The Lycans look horrified. Unseasoned food, that isn’t raw meat? That’s almost torture to them.

Hui’Jin runs up to hug me as soon as she sees our group. "I’m so glad you made it back!" I mean, it hasn’t even been a week, and this place is a lot of fun, but I missed you" she giggles happily, nestling her face into my dress.

"What is this material? It’s so soft." She sighs.

"I’ll get one made for you when you make junior Priestess. Now let’s eat" I tell her.

"The ladies of the Forbidden Treasure Sect call you Young Miss, have you taken over a Yakuza clan? Or perhaps you’re taken with that old Biker Karl and wanted to match?" Alpha Petros laughs.

"The Dragon tattoos are beautiful, but they definitely give you a mafia princess sort of vibe" one of the warriors jokes and I stick my tongue out at him.

"He’s not wrong though, it started with a little mark, high on your outer chest, now it’s much larger, plus you’ve got a lower sleeve on your right arm." Alpha Petros whistles, lifting my sleeve and moving my collar to get a better view.

"Now now Alpha, if you’d like to undress a lady in public, I can suggest a few" Sect Master Becky teases him, causing both laughter and angry glares from all over the room.

Dinner is a grand affair, the kitchen went all out to impress their guests, finishing with cream puffs that have actual magical cow cream in them.

Even the pack is mostly on its best behavior. There’s far more males than females and they’re very strength and status conscious, so they’re doing their best to impress. If only they knew what the Forbidden Treasure Sect is really like.

The only exceptions are the mated men, doing their best to mollify their mates, who have mostly taken the arrival of all these powerful women as a direct threat.

"Where did you find this?" I ask Petros when the cream puffs come out.

"Farmer on the east border found a bunch in a portal and realized they give milk all the time, despite not having calves, so he cleared out as many as he could to his fields before we showed up."

"I’ll be needing a bunch of it, the cream puffs are a favorite" None of the girls can even answer, so full are their faces with creamy pastries.

"Now how is the potion to cure the curse coming along?" I grill Hui’Jin.

"Not well. We’ve got enough ingredients for 10 tries and we used 3 already on failed attempts. Not even the Blue Priestesses knew how that remedy was supposed to be made, the recipe the witches divined only has ingredients and a cooking order"

Cooking Order? That sounds like a pill recipe.

"Let me see, and I’ll try to make sense of it. I gained a little bit of alchemy knowledge in the other world" Becky rolls her eyes at my understatement.

It’s not a pill, according to my memory. It’s a cleansing incense recipe. I dig through the mountain of supplies Elder Po managed to obtain for me during his aborted shopping trip, and my raid of the Sect storage, pulling out a bronze cauldron.

" Let’s go to the basement. It’s quiet this time of day and made of concrete in case of mishap."

I lead her and Alpha Petros down to an empty storage room the Omega pups like to play in, finding it just as clean and empty as I remember.

"What is this room? I don’t recall setting a use for it." Alpha Petros mutters.

"It’s the play room for when the Omega kids have time off. Nobody will be here in the middle of the day."

Petros nods "Why do you know more about my Pack House than I do?"

"Because I cleaned it" I tease him, making him laugh.

I’ve got all the ingredients purified and we’re ready to start. Hui’Jin will be doing the honors, for the experience of course. Not because I want to know what it’s like to be the Elder Overseeing the trainees. Definitely not.

"Alright, now Hui’Jin, warm the cauldron to 150 degrees Celsius. Add the charcoal, good now grind all those seeds directly into the cauldron. Increase the energy flow until they mix, you feel that? Good."

It takes over an hour to get everything added and the energies mixed, with a number of close calls on the energy control. But finally the incense cone is formed.

"Now, we take this to the highest point near the middle of pack lands and let it burn. The height will help the energy spread and clear the curse."

The highest point would be the hill we use for pack ceremonies. It’s a steep rocky climb with a flat top, cleared of all but grass by centuries of use. Perfect for our purposes.

Once the incense is in a censer and lit, creating little sparks of white light that are spreading at random across the lands, we sit down to enjoy the view.

The censer burns all night, leaving a refreshing feeling and the smell of ocean and forest in the air. The smell of home.

As it finishes the gathered cultivators all feel the pop of the curse breaking and we know it’s done. That energy felt familiar though. I think it was Elder Po who cursed the area for invading his territory.

Grumpy old man.