Nessy moved along the junkyard, sniffing left and right, still humming softly to herself.

"Here!" she pointed toward a particularly dense pile of scrap metal near what might have once been old snowmobile treads. "There's something under there that smells... alive. Helpful. Potent."

"Kristi," I turned to the raptor, "Take this pile apart."

Kristi flexed her claws with a nod. "Can do."

"Candace, keep watch for more ceramic monsters," I instructed. "Adelle, just... try not to bleed to death over there."

"On it, boss," the cheetah mumbled, giving me a thumbs-up with her bloody hand as she started to lick her cuts.

Kristi flipped the last rusted piece of debris aside, revealing a patch of vibrant orange plastic-looking moss studded with small pink-white flowers. The moss seemed to pulse slightly, as if breathing.

"That's it," Nessy confirmed, sniffing deeply. "That one smells like... life. Like regeneration."

Before anyone could stop me, I plucked one of the small flowers and pressed it against a cut on my forehead. The effect was immediate, a warm sensation spread from the point of contact, the pain reducing.

"Perfect," I breathed. "This is even more potent than what I found at Highway 69, thanks Ness!"

"Slayer, Alec!" Kristi hissed. "You can't just keep putting random magical plants on open wounds!"

"Why not? It's working," I grinned, already gathering more of the orange moss and pink-white flowers. "Besides, my Reconstitution would eventually fix any horrific problems if something went wrong."

"Eventually isn't immediately," Nessy pointed out. "And your skill takes forever to regenerate, yes?"

"Which is why we need these plants," I countered, continuing my harvest.

"Don't demolish them all," Nessy commented. She ran off away from us and returned with a ceramic pot and relocated the remainder of the moss into it. "There. Now we can take care of it n' grow it in a garden or something!"

"Great idea," I nodded. "You can handle that. I suck at gardening. The one cactus I had in my room died."

"How do you manage to kill a cactus?" Nessy asked.

"Don't know," I shrugged. "Too much sunlight, not enough hugs?"

The husky shook her head at my joke.

Candace circled the perimeter, occasionally stopping to stare into the distance with a somewhat unfocused, Topaz-enhanced gaze.

Once I'd collected a suitable amount of the moss, I sat cross-legged on a relatively clear patch of ground. The fox rushed over to me and flopped at my side. "Let's work together. You fuse em' and I'll Bind the result into greater permanence. Sounds good? Here, let's use these wyvern core shards too, they're basically pure crystallized mana. Should make it extra potent."

I nodded.

"Oi, doggo, sing us a motivational tune!" She added.

The husky stepped behind us, wrapping her paws around us both. She started to hum something about running under her breath.

Closing my eyes, I reached for that tree-consciousness within me, channeling what little mana I had into my hands.

"Syntropic Fusion," I murmured.

The familiar silver glow emanated from my fingertips, but this time as Candace assisted me with her skill, holding onto my hands, and Nessy sang at us, the action felt different, stronger, more focused. The orange moss and crystal fragments seemed almost eager to be combined, melding together under my guidance with unexpected ease. As I worked, weaving and infusing the materials, I could feel the high mana cost draining my skill. Yet it wasn't draining as quickly as usual, likely because Candace was somehow sharing her mana with me.

The materials slowly began to shift and merge under my guidance. The orange moss wrapped itself around the violet-silver-brown core fragments, the pink-white flowers blooming and then crystallizing. The entire mass contracted, glowing with silver-orange light as it took shape—a bracelet formed of crystallized moss with the wyvern core fragments embedded throughout like multifaceted gemstones.

When the glow faded, I held up my creation. It looked far more refined than my previous flower bracelets—this one had an actual design, with intricate patterns reinforced by the crystallized moss fibers.

[Congratulations! You have created: Revitalizing Wyvern-Heart Bracelet (Medium Quality)] [Effect: Regenerates 3.5% Health per hour, increases natural healing by 75%] [Duration: Permanent. Mana: 200/200. Fuse more shards in once mana runs out.]

"Whoa," I breathed. "This is actually... good. No, that's the best I've ever managed!"

"Das' right!" Candace grinned at me, wrapping her fluffy silver tail around me and mussing up Nessy's mane. "With our Bind, Bard and Fusion powers combined we form…"

"Three dweebs," Adelle commented from where she sat.

I stood up and stretched with a groan.

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"Here," I said, approaching the grumpy cheetah. "Hold out your wrist."

She looked at me suspiciously but complied. I slipped the crystallized bracelet onto her wrist. Immediately, the bracelet flowers ignited with a warm glow pulsing like a heartbeat. The bleeding from her knuckles began to slow and tiny bits of metal and ceramic rained from her hands, coming out from her fingers on their own.

"Fuck me sideways," she breathed, watching as the cuts on her hands began to close. "That's good shit. Way better than chugging overpriced healing potions from the Superstore with dubious side effects. Thanks, tater, candy n' paws."

She stood up and smothered our trio in a furry hug.

"It should heal you up in a few hours," I told her. "After that, we can take turns wearing it."

With our immediate medical concerns addressed, we turned to the matter of transportation. Kristi's once-immaculate Strand Glider lay partially crumpled against a pile of scrap, its anti-grav systems occasionally sputtering and raining sparks.

"My dad is going to absolutely murder me," Kristi groaned, staring at the wreckage.

"Got insurance?" I suggested.

"Yeah, but still," she sighed, pulling out her phone. "Ughhhh. He always said I'd wreck it with my reckless driving. Guess he was half right."

As Kristi called her insurance company to report a "wyvern-related accident," Candace pulled out her phone and started to type rapidly.

"Ordering us a flying taxi from Pawber," she said to me. "We can get back to town that way quickly. Also, I booked the same room for us at the Moonshard Inn for the week!"

"Aight, thanks," I nodded tiredly.

We watched as a flying tow truck arrived to retrieve Kristi's damaged vehicle, strapping it to its underside with magnetic clamps.

"There goes my allowance for the next decade," she muttered with a sour look.

"Pfff, your dad can afford it," Candace said, patting the raptor's shoulder. "Plus, wyvern attacks are totally covered under the act of Slayer clauses!"

The Pawber glider arrived just as the sun was setting—a sleek, black Glider van piloted by a German Shepherd prad in a crisp gray suit. He eyed our bloodied, dirt-covered group with professional disinterest.

"Moonshard Inn?" he confirmed as we climbed aboard.

"Yes, please," Candace replied cheerfully.

"Been delving?" he asked conversationally as we lifted off.

"Something like that," I replied, not wanting to explain the whole "my grandfather's farm is a magical junkyard death trap" situation.

The ride to the Moonshard Inn passed quickly, mostly filled with Candace's chatter.

Once there, Candace rapidly handled the check-in. The girls went together into the large walk-in shower. Candace attempted to pull me in too, but I resisted and she gave up quickly.

By the time we were all showered and changed into the complimentary white hotel robes, a knock at the door announced the arrival of room service—a lavish spread of food on a double-decked hover table that Candace must have ordered while I was in the shower.

"Dinner to share!" she announced proudly as we gathered around the large table in the suite's dining area. "I got all the things on the menu! I figured we could all use the fuel after nearly becoming wyvern chow."

The spread was impressive—steaks, pasta, potatoes, fresh salads, bread baskets, and an assortment of desserts that made my mouth water just looking at them.

"You didn't have to go out this much," I said.

"Pfft," she waved dismissively. "I wanted to. Supporting the pack, remember? I'm definitely winning that number two spot!"

"In your dreams, fox," Kristi scoffed, brushing Nessy's curly mane. "I saved everyone from the wyvern."

"By crashing your dad's glider," Adelle pointed out, reaching for a huge steak.

"It was a calculated collision!" Kristi fired back primly.

"Did you just steal my excuse?" I smiled.

"I did, what are you gonna do about it, human?" she laughed.

"Was the calculation 'I pray this effin' works'?" Nessy asked innocently, leaning into the raptor-provided brushing.

Kristi's somewhat indignant look sent us all into a round of laughter.

"Nah, I kid. It was badass is what it was," Nessy said, tail wagging. "I've never seen anyone ram a level 41 flying monster with a glider before. I like ya a lot, Kristikins."

"You… do, do you?" The raptor arched an eyebrow. "Hrmmm… Might as well get over it now, so it doesn't hang on my soul anymore. Why did you reject me back in grade eight?"

"Reject you?" Nessy blinked. "I don't remember… hum. I'm sorry. What happened in grade eight?"

"I… asked you out," Kristi let out, blushing dark violet. "I heard you sing about a raptor girl delver who's skills Highway Sixty Nine took and fell in love with your music. You said you were going to think about it and then never replied, acting like you didn't know me."

"Ummm… shit," Nessy said, lowering her eyes. "I'm so sorry. That was 'bout the time the Krishna monks assigned me to the Well of Severance. It must have erased any feelings I had for you."

"Ugh, now I feel bad about hating you for so long," Kristi sighed.

"Ah! Ah! I knew it! Ha! There's an effin' triangle there!" Candace clapped, piling extra-rare steaks onto Nessy and Kristi's plates. "Also, since Kristi's dad is going to kill her, should we start planning her funeral now or after dessert?"

"After dessert," Kristi deadpanned, putting down the dog-brush and digging into her steak. "I want to enjoy my last meal."

What followed was possibly the most aggressively supportive dinner I'd ever experienced. Kristi and Candace competed to fill my plate with the best cuts of meat, trying to cut it up and feed me, getting into each other's way. Nessy joined in by offering me tastes of different sides, her eyes watching carefully to note which ones I enjoyed most. Even Adelle, still nursing her healing hands with occasional licks, got into the spirit by regaling us with increasingly outlandish stories of her past adventures.

"So there I was," she said, gesturing wildly with a half-eaten bread roll, "hanging upside down from this chandelier in the Iona Lord Marshall's mansion—"

"Why were you hanging from a chandelier?" Nessy interrupted, giggling.

"Because the floor was covered in carnivorous carpet!" Adelle replied as if this was the most natural thing in the world. "Those fancy man-eater rugs they import from the Eastern Reaches? Turns out if you spill enough tequila on them, they wake up and try to eat your toes!"

"That is absolutely not how imported rugs work," Kristi said, but she was struggling to keep a straight face.

"Are you calling me a liar, bird bae?" Adelle demanded.

"I'm calling you a dramatic storyteller with a loose relationship with reality," Kristi countered with a smile.

"That's fair," Adelle nodded jovially. "Carry on then."

"So," Nessy asked between bites, "is life with you always this exciting, Alec?"

"Slayer, I hope not," I laughed. "I've had enough excitement these past couple days to last a lifetime."

"It's def never boring with our new Alpha," Adelle confirmed, already on her second steak. "One day you're getting your ass kicked by me n' my gang at a gas station, the next you're bossin' four pradavarians like a pro!"

"I'd like more deets about this please," Nessy demanded, squinting at the cheetah and the fox. "Start from the beginning of how you two met Alec, please."

"Well," Adelle began dramatically, "picture this: our innocent little Alec, alone at a remote gas station close to Highway Sixty Nine, when suddenly—five drunk, high, horny biker prads show up…"

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