The elven leader came up to Leo as he was collecting the Cores of the toads which had died. He’d refilled his own health and the extra bar which fed Healing Cloud by absorbing bodies. Isis and Luna were doing the same and helping to heal the rest of their Pride-mates. Luna hadn’t yet gained the Ability herself, so Leo had lent it to her again at his brother’s urging.

  Since two lions with Healing Cloud weren’t enough to heal everyone, the rest were absorbing the toad carcasses to top themselves off. They were careful to avoid touching the poisonous spines on the toads’ backs, though it seemed that the toads were coated in a weaker version of the poison too. Fortunately, using a claw tip which could then be wiped off in the dirt seemed to be enough to trigger the Consume effect. At his brother’s urging, he’d stored a few of the carcasses too – he wasn’t sure what the former-human was thinking of doing with them, but he trusted Dominic enough to do it without asking too many questions.

  The elven leader stopped near the big lion and waited patiently to be acknowledged. Curious about how long he would wait, Leo pretended he hadn’t seen the green-furred elf. Despite the fact that it had to be increasingly obvious that Leo was ignoring him, the elf’s patience never broke.

  ‘Come on Leo, stop being rude,’ Dominic told the lion with exasperation clear in his voice. Apparently he was the weak one when it came to patience.

  ‘I’m not being rude,’ Leo told him loftily.

  ‘Then what are you doing if not being rude?’

  ‘Testing his resolve.’

  ‘OK, why?’

  ‘It’s good to know how prey might react before pouncing.’

  ‘He’s not prey,’ Dominic answered, the exasperation even clearer. ‘And we’re not going to pounce on him either. So find out what he wants, already.’

  ‘Another predator then,’ Leo answered, unruffled. ‘Why don’t you reach out, if you’re so desperate?’

  ‘Fine then, I will,’ Dominic answered, sounding piqued. To be fair to him, they did tend to have an unspoken rule that whoever was in charge of their shared body was the one to communicate with those around, unless it was the middle of a battle, explicitly requested, or urgent for some other reason. But by this point, Leo felt like it was a competition between him and the elf to see who would blink first, and he refused to be the one who gave in first. But if his brother was the one to reach out….

  ‘Berion, I apologise for my companion,’ Dominic started with an obvious dig at Leo. The lion snarled internally at his brother in response. ‘He seems to be treating this like a game. What did you wish to talk about?’

  The elf appeared slightly startled.

  ‘You are…two minds in the same body? I have wondered at the way you seem to change dramatically from time to time.’

  Leo wasn’t surprised that it would be that obvious when a monkey-descendant took control of his body, though he was ashamed at what the females might think of him at those times. Apart from the ones with odd tastes, of course. Dominic seemed more surprised than he was.

  ‘Yes, we are,’ Dominic confirmed. ‘I’m Dominic and he’s Leo. Now, what do you need?’

  While releasing a scent of curiosity, the elf evidently decided to not pursue his questions further.

  ‘I wished to thank you, Honoured Brother, for your pack’s protection during the most recent altercation,’ he said, crossing his wrists and raising them to press against his forehead, his paws open.

  ‘Pride,’ Leo interjected – now that the silence had been broken, he didn’t feel the need to hold back.

  ‘Honoured brother…Leo?’ the elf asked with confusion.

  ‘We’re a Pride. Not a pack. That’s for canines and we’re felines,’ Leo explained with pride.

  ‘My apologies. We are grateful for your Pride’s protection.’

  ‘Of course,’ Dominic answered before Leo could. ‘We are travelling together; we fight together. Thank you in return for helping to clear the way and defending our flank even before that.’

  ‘Of course,’ the elf echoed.

  ‘On that note, actually, I have a question to ask you,’ Dominic continued.

  ‘You’re not going to invite them to join the Pride, are you?’ Leo asked his brother warningly, keeping his words private between the two of them.

  ‘It makes the most logical sense,’ argued Dominic, also privately. ‘Otherwise we’ll be restricted from using our full range of Abilities as long as they’re nearby.’

  ‘Brother, we can’t just pick up every stray that comes along,’ Leo objected.

  ‘It’s not picking up strays. Come on, Leo, think of it this way. We’re not in the Place of Power, so we don’t even have to share those points with them. We might share Prey Points from the fights with them, but they’ll be helping to kill the creatures anyway, so it just evens things out a bit. And we’ll even gain some Pride Points for it which don’t seem to be subtracted when they leave – as I’m sure they will after the current problem is resolved. It’s a win-win situation.’

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  Leo thought through it but couldn’t think of any good argument against it other than simply that he didn’t want the elves to become part of his Pride, part of his group of responsibilities. As if sensing his grudging concession to Dominic’s arguments, the human reached out again to the elf and made his suggestion. He explained much the same benefits as he had to Leo, though in different words.

  The former human was annoyingly good at convincing people sometimes, the lion had to admit. Though, the elf seemed to be a harder nut to crack than Leo had been as he didn’t seem entirely convinced.

  ‘I would not want to risk giving up my allegiance to my people,’ the elf explained as he hesitated. ‘I am already part of a community and a party. I fear that joining your Pride, even temporarily, might supplant one of those.’

  ‘What if we just try it?’ Dominic suggested. ‘Usually the System seems to warn me if an action is going to have significant consequences – if becoming part of the Pride would take the place of your party or community, we can choose not to do it.’

  The elf hesitated for a long moment, but Leo could smell the curiosity and interest coming from him. He already knew what the answer would be, even before the pointy-eared being could give it.

  ‘Very well, we will try,’ the elf announced a moment later. Leo felt his brother concentrate and send out the invitation. A notification flashed up in front of his eyes.

  By this point, Leo was actually able to understand enough of the message to get the gist.

  ‘It didn’t work, did it?’ he asked his brother.

  ‘No, it didn’t,’ the former-human said thoughtfully. ‘Wait, can you read now?’ he asked a beat later.

  ‘If hairless-primates can learn to do it, a feline surely can too,’ Leo proclaimed smugly. ‘But why don’t you read it out anyway?’

  ‘Uh huh,’ his brother replied dubiously, not entirely fooled. He extended the communication so that the elf could hear him too. ‘I tried to invite you, Berion, but a message came up. To paraphrase, it seems that because you receive XP from your kills and we receive Prey Points, our groups are incompatible.’

  ‘Interesting,’ answered Berion curiously. ‘Then we shall just have to be careful with attacks which could impact each other if we are pulled into another fight before we make it back to Selanthis.’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Dominic. ‘Avoiding fights as much as possible may be a good idea too.’

  After a few more words to determine exactly which way they were heading and how long until they could head out again, they both turned their attention back to dealing with the results of this fight. Leo had already continued absorbing carcasses and collecting the Cores from around the area. The elf returned to his group who were using knives to slice into other carcasses, retrieving items and tucking them away.

  ‘Looks like they have some extra-dimensional storage too,’ Dominic remarked, obviously paying attention to the same things Leo was. ‘I wonder what they’re finding in these toads that could be useful?’ he wondered.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Leo dismissed. He was more interested in what they themselves were finding. ‘What do you think about these Cores?’

  ‘Well, they all have Poisonous Mucus which is pretty gross. I hate to think about it, but maybe it’s secreted by those spines? It would make sense that those would be the most poisonous bits in that case, while the skin below them was just shiny and only a bit poisonous. My concern over that one – apart from the fact that no way do I want an Ability called ‘Poisonous Mucus’ – is that I’m not sure whether it’s active all the time, or whether we can choose to activate it. I don’t really want to be walking around, poisoning everyone around us who’s not part of our Pride.’

  ‘Though those would mostly be enemies,’ Leo pointed out.

  ‘Not in the elven settlement,’ disagreed Dominic.

  ‘We hope,’ replied Leo pessimistically, though he had to admit that his brother had a point. ‘But we won’t even be able to get the Ability until we level up again. And it might combine with Venomous Bite instead.’

  ‘True,’ admitted his brother, ‘Though we can’t be sure about that. And even if it does,’ he continues with a hint of wicked mirth, ‘imagine what might happen when we groom ourself – do you really want our fur to be wet and sticky at all times? Imagine our mane unable to ruffle in the wind because it’s slicked up like some kid who uses half a bottle of hair gel every day?’

  ‘Absolutely not!’ cried Leo, horrified enough to actually stand still and growl, his lips pulling up to bare his teeth. ‘What would the females think if my magnificent mane was…was…’ he sneezed as if he actually had an allergy to the idea. ‘No Poisonous Mucus! We are not getting that Ability!’

  ‘I suppose if we accidentally pick it up, we could get rid of it the next time we go back to our Place of Power – the Ability Forge might be quite useful at getting rid of unwanted Abilities,’ Dominic mused though Leo could sense the glee he was badly hiding. ‘Or we might be able to transform it into something more useful. What do you think about these other ones?’

  They continued discussing the secondary and tertiary Abilities from what were apparently called ‘poisoned spine zelops’ with an average level of thirteen, though they unanimously agreed to continue calling the things toads. By the time they left the area, Leo and his brother had gained a few extra Abilities to add to the list.

  Poisonous Mucus, of course, had reached the point of being acquirable on their next level up – with it being the basic toad Ability, it would have been hard not to absorb it. They had aimed for a few more interesting Abilities when they had the chance, though.

  His brother had been pleased about Extended Hop, seeing a chance to increase their leaps even more. He’d been even more excited about another one, though – Enhanced Regeneration. One of the most common secondary Abilities among the toads, Dominic thought that that explained the sacrificial strategy of the toads nicely. Leo had wondered at the point of having an Ability which was the same as the Aspect they had already gained from the chimera ages ago; Dominic seemed to think that the two might combine to offer even better regeneration. Since they’d managed to get that one to 100% too, they’d have to see on their next level-up.

  But there was something Leo found even more exciting, though: Enhanced Fertility. Although that Ability of his had been increasing steadily with his efforts in mating – efforts which his brother definitely didn’t seem to be as appreciative of as he should be – absorbing a few Cores which contained it sent it close to reaching the next level. A few more rounds of mating with the females in heat and coming into heat – since Sekhmet inexplicably didn’t seem open to his advances – should see it reaching level 2. Which meant an even higher chance of impregnating his mates.

  ‘Leo, are we leaving or what?’ His brother’s voice intruded into a lovely day-dream where his progeny covered the whole of the savannah and his mates were as numerous as the blades of grass.

  Leo sighed. No rest for the wicked. He thought the saying was to let sleeping lions lie – it didn’t seem to work out that way for him.

  here!