Chapter 48

The old man led them outside and into the woods. About half an hour later, and after following a small stream for a time, they came to a stop by a large and heavy disc-shaped stone. The old man set his muscular body and heaved against it. The stone gradually began to move, then suddenly lurched to the side as Rain joined in and pushed it more easily. The stone was shifted out of the way revealing a cave

“Uh, thanks,” said the leveler awkwardly.

“ ... No problem.” gravelled Rain.

“My bird herd is inside here, forty odd of them. I’d stick around but I’d rather not know what you’re about to do, so...”

The old man backed away and then turned and jogged back into the forest.

Opal watched him go.

“This sucks.”

“You think we could have found this herd without paying him?”

“...”

Red lowered his voice in a way he hoped Rain wouldn’t hear. “That was the gold! H-how could you!? The precious goollllld!”

Opal snorted. It’s gold not swords, plus that was nothing, there’s still heaps.

“I think it was worth it, at least this way I don’t feel bad,” said Lyra with a sigh.

A bird squawk came from in the cave and Opal turned to see that Rain had already gone inside.

“Mmm. Maybe it was worth it for this bit,” she said hurrying toward the entrance.

Inside she found Rain already going to work, the birds in the cave weren’t so much birds as huge flightless ostrich-like raptors, each with large hooked claws reminiscent of a Panthara and serrated beaks. Despite being supposedly domesticated they did not go down docile and came at Rain with a wild fury. Opal looked on in shock as Rain disappeared behind a cloud of feathers and a cacophony of echoing squawking. It wasn’t long before the birds realised they were hopelessly outmatched however and tried to flee. Rain didn’t let them, his paws reaching out and dragging their long necks into his teeth sometimes two at a time.

Only two of the birds managed to get away and Opal was waiting for them, their necks made nice targets for her blades.

She finished to see Rain sitting in the middle absolutely covered in feathers, a feather balanced on the bridge of his nose comically and Opal couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?” The motion of speaking lifted the balanced feather into the air for a moment before it drifted back down somehow in the same spot.

“N-nothing!”

“Hmmm.

Rain lifted the bird in his paws and took a bite out of its side, feathers and all.

“Tastes like turkey chicken,” he mumbled from around his teeth.

He pulled away to see Opal staring at him, her lip twitching. He checked himself and realised he had a fan of feathers sticking from his mouth, the quills stuck between his teeth. He scowled and plucked and spat them out.

“Taking off points for featheryness...”

He continued with the bird and as he was finishing it Opal rolled another into his lap and he devoured that one too. He wasn’t going to let the feeling of growth he craved go to waste nor minimise it by dividing it up so he dived straight onto the next one, letting the growth bank up deep inside of himself like a lake above a rickety dam just waiting to burst free.

He enthusiastically gorged himself, trying his best to ignore the feathers, rapidly eating his way through ten, twenty, thirty of the birds, Opal eagerly shoving another bird into his paws as soon as he was done with the current one, the Goblin getting progressively more excited as he neared the end.

At last he tore into the last bird and devoured it all. He spat free the feathers caught in his teeth and flopped backwards on the ground, which happened to be covered in loose feathers making a surprisingly comfortable natural bed. A groan slipped from his lips as the dam began to break, ‘lumber’ splitting and falling as more and more of it spilt forth until with a sudden rushing surge the growth exploded outward, rolling down his body in pulsing waves. He felt Opal climb atop him, her legs wrapped tight around his hips. She ground her crotch down on his sheath, her hands clutching at his abdomen as she was lifted up into the air by rain as he arched his spine bucking his hips upward as his insides shifted and stressed and strained outward, growing larger and longer. He gasped as the feeling peaked and he collapsed back to the ground, the Goblin riding him going limp across his chest with a little breathy whimper.

“So fuckin gewdd!” sighed Opal. “I need to find you so much more food so you can surge and grow beneath me bigger than ever!”

“Maybe we’ll find something in town.”

After a moment of resting in comfortable silence Rain sat up, Opal falling into his lap.

She pouted up at him.

“I can’t sit here like this. I’m covered from head to toe in feathers and muck and there’s a stream nearby. I can have a bath.“

Opal let out a pained groan and covered her face.

He stood up, tipping the Goblin off of himself and wandered outside. Lyra’s face dropped in confusion when she saw him until she realised the feathers he was covered in must have come from the birds. Red made round eyes and firmly put his claws over his muzzle, even still a small giggle escaped his lips. Rain gave him a dangerous look and he immediately froze up.

The stream was quite small and not very wide but fairly deep. That didn’t stop Rain though, he sat down in the middle, his back facing downstream, and the water flowed around the large obstacle of his body. The blockage was enough that a broad pool started to form where the water ran into him, filling out and deepening. An absurd amount of feathers came off his body and were washed downstream as he sat in the water.

Opal emerged from the cave and narrowed her eyes, watching as Rain washed, eyeing the water around him nervously. Swallowing, she carefully stretched out a leg and dipped a toe. She immediately jumped backwards like a startled hare and rubbed her toe where the water had touched.

“Disgusting nasty water!”

“I know you secretly want to come in, try again,” gravelled Rain.

The Goblin set her lips in a line, unimpressed, but after a moment approached the water once more. This time she closed her eyes before dipping her toe in. She managed to hold herself in place for a moment, this ... wasn’t completely awful ... the sensation of liquid on her skin was kinda nice.