# 005

"Cole!" Mom tackles me as soon as I get home. "Are you alright? You didn't get hurt did you?"

"I'm fine, Mom." I try not to sigh, and just let her have her way. I know she will anyway. "Annoyed at spending half the day in bubble with a couple of idiots, even more so at having to waste a perfectly good rabbit on them."

"Ooh, did you keep the fur?" Katie gets excited, she loves rabbit fur.

"Yeah, it's in my bag." I hand the whole thing to her. "Now, I'm going to go soak in the tub until dinner. I haven't thrown that much magic around in... ever."

"What did you use?" Jen starts following me to the bath, the others following in her wake. "Mom and Dad didn't tell us anything except that there was a rogue dungeon and you had to save some people."

"It was fucking wargs." They all gasp at that, though Mom only because of my language. "Sorry for the language, Mom. Blame the mana drain, or the idiot twins. I'm not sure which one gave me the bigger headache."

"It was that girl again?" Jen's eyes widen.

"Dish about the girl later." Kaitlyn cuts in. "I want to hear about the fight, there was a fight, yeah?"

"Yeah." I nod and start heating up the bath. "Two wargs and a wolf on the way there. The wolf was easy enough; slash to the throat and earth grasp until it bled out. But, I had to go all out for the wargs who were toying with idiot boy, aka Mason."

"Just tell us how it went down." My middle sister demands.

"Heh, fine." I chuckle at my impatient little sister. "Like I said, I hit them with everything I had. A lightning bolt took out the first, but the second dodged in time, so I had to get up close and personal. I'd already stack on all the buffs and defensive spells I could, but it was still faster than me. It took a trio of ice spells just to slow it down enough for a fair fight. Not that I fought fair. I feinted with my sword and caught it right in the eye with my belt knife when it jumped to the side. Two wargs down in just a few seconds."

"No way!" Katie cries foul. "You didn't even take your swords."

"No, but idiot girl, aka Madison, did. I just borrowed hers." I say with a laugh. "She's the reason I was even there instead of exploring the backwoods like I wanted to. I ran into her earlier in the day and she latched onto me after getting spooked by her own shadow. The girl may be stupid, but she cares about her brother. She took off running for him as soon as she heard him scream."

"I still don't believe you." She sticks her tongue out at me. "I bet you just hid in the bubble."

"No, but I should have." I state and bop her on the nose. "I can only blame contact stupidity for rushing in like that. But, why don't you ask Dad, he saw the dead wargs outside the bubble."

"Brought them home too." He announces, making the girls jump. "Your knife is still stuck in the one too, but you can get it yourself if you want it back."

"No way!" Katie rushes past him to go check out my kills.

"Did you really drag it all the way home, just so you wouldn't have to pull my knife out yourself?" I scoff, and then start laughing when he gets a sheepish look on his face. "Oh, Dad. Alright, you guys had your story. Now can everyone get out and let me take a bath now?"

"Oh, sorry." Jen blushes after realizing that I've been waiting for them to leave so I can strip.

"Come on girls, you can listen to me yell at your father for taking so long." The twins and Jen laugh at the face he pulls. "And, Cole... Good job today. But, if you ever pull another stunt like that, you'll wish you only had to deal with what your father is about to."

"Yes, Mom." I smile and sink into the bath after they all leave, only getting out when she comes back to tell me dinner is ready.

...

"Damn it." I mutter to myself later that night. "Why can't I get that idiot girl out of my head."

I keep thinking about her pulling down her pants just feet from me. And, even though I still don't like her, my damned dick doesn't seem to care about that.

"Dammit, you idiot girl." I groan and grab Lefty and Righty. "I should make you pay for all the trouble you put me through today."

Sliding my dick in between the slimes, I keep thinking about her today. The way she looked when out of breath from chasing after me. Her ass in those tight pants. The way her breasts would still jiggle despite the banding she was wearing.

"Oh, fuck yes, Madison!" That look of supreme gratitude on her cute face after I saved her and her brother fills my mind as the climax blasts out of me. "Oh, why does such an idiot have to be so cute." I sigh out and lay my head back to rest.

I even dreamt about the idiot that night, that she snuck into my room to have her way with me. I woke up feeling drained the next morning, but if I came during the night my slimes must have taken care of it.

...

"You're taking Jen and Katie with you today." Mom states as soon as I sit down for breakfast. "I know that you're still drained from using that much mana in one go yesterday, and I want you to take it easy."

"You actually got Jennifer to agree to this?" My sister smacks me for that. "Oh, fine. I guess I don't mind the runt." Another smack, this time from Kaitlyn. "But, I don't know what I need a bodyguard for, we both know that dad scoured the woods for any more wolves. There's nothing more dangerous than a slime out there now."

"Just humor your poor mother, please." She gives me 'the' look. That one that all mothers know how to use. "Good boy." She smiles when I give in to the inevitable and just nod.

"Katie, you're in charge of Jen today, try to keep her from slowing us down too much." Kaitlyn grins at my words.

"Mom!" Jen whines.

"Listen to your little sister today, Jen." Mom backs me up. "She's been in the field more often than you have, and you only have yourself to blame for that. And, Katie." Mom brings out her warning tone of voice. "Don't push it, or you'll have to face a day of having to listen to the twins."

"..." Katie gulps at the thought of that.

...

"No way! No fucking way!" I breathe out, barely audible, but my words are enough to alert Jenny and Kaitlyn. "Oh... no, nonono. We have to back off. Dammit!"

"What? What is it?" Katie tries to peek around me, but I give her the hand sign to stop. She knows that if I'm using the adventurers' signals that I mean business.

"It's a queen." They both give out the tiniest of gasps at that. "We are going to back the fuck away and then message Dad, so he can warn the idiots at the guild that one is this close to town."

"What?! No, we can take it!" Katie hisses emphatically. "You know how rare queens are, if we let this one go, we'll never see another."

"No!" I state emphatically. "Not with you here, not with me at half strength. Not going to happen. Period!"

"He's right, Katie." Jen backs me up. "Cole and I might be fine, but you're as bad at magic as Mom and nowhere near tough enough take a queen in melee."

"No! That's bullshit. Don't put this on me." Katie starts raising her voice until I clamp my hand over her mouth.

"Enough! We're leaving." I don't give her any option, and pick her up under one arm to carry away before the Slime notices us.

*Snap* My face pales when Jen steps on a dry branch.

"Fuck! Katie, run! Jen hit it with every stun spell you've got!"

"STUN!" The very air reverberates with the power of my sister's, and even then it's barely enough to make the slime flinch. "Slow! Bind! Grasp! Gods damn, what is this thing made of? Fucking STOP!!!"

"Oh, this is going to fucking suck!" Jennifer's overcast Stop spell gave me the opening I needed, and I take it.

I've been sprinting towards the slime since Jenny cast her first spell. So, now I'm close enough to dive for the slime and shove my arm in up to the elbow. Ignoring the burn as it tries to digest me; I close my hand around its core.

"Fight all you want, Girl. You are MINE!" All slime have the same weakness, if you can get to their core, they don't stand a chance.

Magic flows out of me and into the monster, binding it to me. This is the highest tier taming spell I know, and even with its core in my palm, it is just barely enough to bring the beast under my control.

"Yes! Hahahahah." My triumphant laughter rings out through the woods. "I fucking got you. Also, fucking Ow!"

"Oh, gods!" Jenny cries out when she sees my raw, bleeding arm when I pull it out of the now docile slime. "Cole, your arm."

"I'll be fine." I wave her off with my good arm. "But, we are having a serious talk about your gods damned bushcraft... right after you help me put the healing salve on. And, Katie!" She jumps in place when I direct my fury at her. "When I tell you to fucking run. You fucking RUN!!!"

"Eeek!" She runs behind a tree. "I'm sorry, Cole!"

"No! You're fucking lucky is what you are." I hiss when Jen starts applying the salve. "If Jen hadn't been able to stun it my only option was to hit it with lightning point-blank, so it couldn't dodge. Easy, Queenie, I'm not going to hurt you; I'm just mad at my idiot sister." I soothe my new pet when it starts quivering at the anger leaking over the bond.

Where the average slime is no bigger than a grapefruit, my new queen is the size of a large pumpkin. She like all slimes are resistant to magic because that's what they eat; everything that they absorb gets turned directly into mana to feed them. It's just that the small ones have so little mass that it's easy enough to overpower them.

"I'm sorry, Cole." My little sister walks out from behind the tree, her features painted with utter dejection. "I swear I'll listen to you from now on."

"No, you'll be listening to the twins, for a week straight." I think Mom's threat from this morning the perfect punishment. "You will do everything they say, without complaint, or I will never take you out with me again."

"Cole?!?" She looks at me with shock in her eyes. "...okay. Just please don't be mad anymore."

"Oh, I'm not really mad, you dummy." I motion her over and pull her into a hug with my good arm. "I'm scared for you, and for me. If I had to go with my plan b and it failed, then I would have been lucky not to collapse on the spot. Jen would likely be able to drive it away, but I'd have been lucky to get off this lightly."

My right arm, up to the elbow is missing several layers of skin right now. Only the palm was spared somewhat because it was wrapped around the core, but even it looks raw and pink.

"I'm sorry." She sniffles while staring at the red mess of my arm.

"You can make it up to me by teaching Jen how to walk in the damned woods on our way home." A snort of a laugh escapes from her nose just then, along with a bubble of snot.

"..." Jen just pouts, knowing that this whole ordeal was her fault.

...