Chapter 1

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"I doubt this new leg will work any better than the last, so can you please take it outside?" Miraj said in exasperation, hoping that the Kapybara would settle on something that was less of a public safety hazard

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"I doubt this new leg will work any better than the last, so can you please take it outside?" Miraj said in exasperation, hoping that the Kapybara would settle on something that was less of a public safety hazard. But she knew by now that talking logic and reason to the green spiny guinea-pig like girl would only go in one ear and out the other, causing another catastrophe.

"Shut your yap and watch it work, kitsune." The Kapybara said nonchalantly. Miraj shook her head, her orange fur blazing in the summer sunset and her four tails waving slowly behind her in apprehension.

"Hey, Manx, can you pass me the blackberries?" Vaskin asked. He was a paraglisp, a creature resembling an elf but with slightly sharper canine teeth and a long tail ending in a venomous blade, and the ability to fly. Vaskin had long messy spiky hair on top of his head with the sides and the back closely shaved off due to Miraj having to shave his head after the battle so she could bandage a wound on the back of his head. The Kapybara had been so bored and upset with Miraj just shaving off the hair in the back, so she had taken it upon herself to give him a free haircut without his consent while he was still unconscious from his injuries.

Everyone including Manx had seen it as a major improvement from the brown spiky mop he had walked around with before that was mostly hid under a floppy brown cap. It was the perfect hairstyle for him, edgy and carefree with its own cute little flair, except for the smiling kitten The Kapybara had shaved into the back of his head, which sometimes scared passers by whether from its wide grin or its crazy looking eyes. But Vaskin loved the kitten, and he kept coming back to the Kapybara to have it shaved back over, no matter how many times his girlfriend had threatened to burn it off.

Watching the Kapybara test out her newly and poorly invented prosthetic legs had become an afternoon ritual for them, Miraj coming because she was a medic and she wanted to be sure to be there if anyone got hurt, and Vaskin coming for entertainment, while Manx came along because it was an opportunity to spend time with Vaskin without having her father looming over her shoulder at every turn. Manx was a withyr sprite, with golden fur and a very catlike face, and deep sunset orange and red eyes, and she was very slight of frame and delicate like a spring lily. And she had been dating Vaskin now for three weeks, but most outsiders thought of them as close friends at first glance because of Manx's mysterious and aloof nature and her habit of sometimes gently smacking Vaskin when he annoyed her. Before she liked him, he had been madly in love with her, and she had used slapping as a defense mechanism to make him go away when he got too close to her personal space, but now it had turned into an affectionate yet startling way for her to show him she loved him.

Manx awkwardly passed Vaskin the bucket of blackberries they had picked that day from the magical palace garden, and he began happily popping them into his mouth.

"Haven't you had enough of those already?" Manx asked him, and he shrugged and replied with his mouth full, "There is no such thing as enough when it comes to blackberries, especially with how Ivy now tends to the garden. These are delicious!"

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