The Scavenger

She laughed, "I was joking, little fox. Well ... sort of. I wish I could make that disappear but not yet. I wish I had someone to help go through this though."

The fox dropped back down, looking up at her. She then stepped away from the table and started to grow...And her muzzle pulled in. Her hair also shed save for across the shoulders and up the lower arms and legs. The cloth of the collar seemed to stretch to match.



She half-fox woman stepped over to the table, stark nude and not seeming bothered by that. "What needs doing?" She asked as she took a look at the paper with her good eye.

When the fox grew then changed into a person Avera stepped back, watching her as warily as the fox had watched her. She readied a song just in case but then the other woman asked what she needed to do to help.

"By Tyr's left buttock." She chuckled, "You're a shape changer."

"Yes." She said. "Work needed doing. What needs doing?" Her tail swished back and forth slowly with impatience.

At five foot two the fox woman was much taller than the halfling who stood at two foot 9 but the size did not bother the tiny woman. She smirked, "We need to separate these into categories then I can figure out what needs to be done now and what should be done later. But first ... what do I call you?"

"No name. Just called fox." She said as she looked at the papers. "Se-par-ate by what? By name on paper?" She asked, pointing to one person's signature.

"Just 'fox'? Didn't your mother give you a name?" Avera wondered if she could call the fox woman something other than "fox." The papers were nothing confidential or even anything that could be used by outside influences so she shrugged, "By who signed them is best. I know what they are for from there."

"No mother to give name." She said as she started to sort, going by the shape of the letters. "Old master call me fox."

Avera sat on the ground and sorted the papers with her, "Master? I don't think I like that. Would you like a name? It would be easier calling you by a name."

"Name not needed. Fox is good. Know to answer." She said as she paused, trying to get one person's signature in her memory. It looked weird to her.

"If that is what you like, Fox. What are you having difficulty with there?" She looked at the sheet, "Someone not know how to sign well?"

"Name is odd." She said as she gave the sheet a small shiff and set it in a new pile. "Will make easy to recognize."

"Really? What is the name?" Avera took the sheet to look at it.

"Cannot read letters." She said.

"Ah." Avera put the letter in the pile and continued on, "So what are you doing here and what happened to this Master?"

"Old master long gone." She said. "Hunting since then."

"Then you are a free woman to do as you please. You can stay here if you wish. I can get you a room and maybe some clothes. I'm sure that a paladin or two would have a heart attack seeing you this way." Avera chuckled thinking of Casavir then turned her head, the thought of her Casavir from her dimension hurting her heart. She tried not to think of him or even go near where she could even see the Casavir of this world.

She set the last of the papers in the sorted pile. "Not need clothes." She said. She shifted back to fox formand looked up at Avera.

"Changing makes that much easier." Avera smiled as she picked up her paperwork and arranged them on the table. She stretched as she opened the door to the bedroom section and flopped onto a mattress that was on the floor. The rest of the bed was not in the room as she'd had it removed. It was nicer for her to sleep this way as beds were so high.

The room was much larger than she could truly use and the mattress was huge compared to her tiny form. There was a soft, round pet bed in a corner that was also huge which Keza the dire wolf had used.

She snuffed at the pet bed before deciding to lay down near the matress. She wasn't about to intrude on what was clearly a larger animal's territory.

Avera looked over at Fox noticing that she was avoiding the mattress, "You can sleep on the bed if you like, Fox. Keza is ... Keza is not around anymore." It was the hard truth that her companion was nowhere in her mind. Worse that she had no idea how.

She looked up at Avera, curiously, making a small whine.

The whine made Avera breathe deep so she could gain her composure, "Keza is ... was my companion. I don't know what happened to him. He hasn't died or I would have ... reacted badly to that sensation ... but he is gone because I can no longer feel him."

She stood and hopped onto the matress, laying down close to her.

Avera petted Fox's ear and sighed, "It's only going to get worse around here, Fox. There is a war coming and I don't know who will survive it." She pushed the pillows and sat up against them, "I don't even know where the Knight-Captain is. I can't do this myself again and certainly not alone."