Ignoring the questions that presented themselves in her mind, Lyca sighed with a smirk as she stood up. "It's almost time for dinner, which means it's time to get you all cleaned up. I'm keeping my promise right now."
"Huh? MEAT!?" Shurry asked, confused about what Lyca meant. "Won't it take too long to reach the surface?"
"Not that promise, now come on, it's bath time." Lyca said, picking Shurry up.
"Oh? Yay, I like baths!"
It wasn't long after the women had started their bath when Lyca arrived with Shurry in her arms. It was then she realized he was shaking, almost as if he was trying to hide, or cover up his terror, mixed with how much he liked baths.
"Is something wrong? You're still really young, so there's no need to worry about bathing with us." Lyca asked, and quickly made herself ready to enter the stream.
"Awe, he's so cute."
"Really cute!"
The Amazoness in the stream realized that Shurry was actively trying to ignore their presence. "Hey, Lyca, are you gonna give him a bath?"
"Yep, he got himself so dirty in that last fight when he bore a hole through the Amphisbaena, he needs lots of scratches."
Shurry, with a look of surprise turned to look up, into Lyca's smiling face. "Scratches?"
"Yep, gotta get all that crusted blood off of you." Lyca confirmed. "Can't let the young alpha be dirty for too long."
"Hmm?" Shurry tilted his head, and then transformed, this time into the size of a small puppy, and made a few lite howls, and tickled Lyca's cheeks with wolfy kisses.
It wasn't long before Shurry had been thoroughly cleaned off, then passed around to the others for a few minutes as if he was some sort of emotional support animal. He didn't mind it cause even when in the Amazoness' arms, he was made to feel comfortable.
Empress was the last one to have Shurry, upon which he transformed back to normal. "Oh, did you run out of energy again?"
"Hmm? No, it's just easier to talk like this." Shurry answered, his tail still wagging.
"So you have a question then?" Empress smiled, rubbing Shurry's head.
"Is it true that aunty Lyca can't transform right now?" Shurry asked, extremely curious.
"Well she's never been able to do it down in the dungeon before. But why do you ask?"
"Aunty Lyca, can you try to transform?"
Lyca, not wanting to disappoint, sighed, and then began to try initiating the strenuous transformation under her own power. It failed… "I can't even force it."
Shurry transformed into his usual big wolf form, a size that can comfortably carry two people on his back. "Can you try again?" He asked, with an excited pant and tail wag.
Was he able to sense my questions from before?Now that I think of it, I do feel somewhat different. It's not the same as with a full moon, however, it's not that much different… Lyca began trying to transform again… She succeeded in taking on the usual humanoid wolf state that other werewolves had under the full moon.
"Holy shit!"
"Lyca, you, actually pulled it off… How does it feel in comparison to normal?" Empress asked.
One of the Amazoness ran to the camp not even caring to bother about dressing. She grabbed a book, quill, and ink, then ran out of the camp again. Of course, she was seen by some of the men giving them nosebleeds, but she didn't care. This was not the time to worry about stuff like that. She arrived back at the stream and prepared everything for the elf lady to write everything down, all the details…
"Well, Empress, I think it's similar. Maybe a little weaker in some stats, and stronger in others. Though I can feel something else in every fiber of my being… It's telling me to protect the alpha, him. It also seems to suppress any and all of my other womanly urges, save for coddling and protecting."
"That's interesting, perhaps it's because you're older, I wonder what would happen to males, and younger werewolves..?"
"From what I can feel right now, it would be very difficult for others his age to transform like this. And I don't think it's a good idea for me to remain like this." Lyca answered, returning to her normal form. "It feels like I'm drawing upon the alpha to transform, using him as a replacement for the moon. I don't know what kind of side effects that'll have."
While the others were worried, Shurry was excited, running around through the water, doing his happy dance, and shaking the water off. "It worked! It really worked! Luna was right!" Shurry cheered, and let out an echoing howl in his excitement.
"So, you thought it might be possible, but wanted to wait to try it?"
"Yep, Luna woke up and said it might be possible to act as a full moon to others. But right now I'm limited to just one." Shurry answered, in a childish tone.
"Little brother is so cool!"
"Hmph, it's not that cool." … "It's actually pretty cool."
It wasn't much longer until bath time was over, however, once returned to the camp, it was clear by the blood on Maxim & Zald's weapons that they had dealt with a ton of monsters just then.
"Well, I hope you enjoyed that bath, cause I'm docking your share of the meat this time."
Shurry cried. "Nooo! Not the meat!"
"Then don't summon the entire floor's monsters to our location again, unless we say you can. Contain yourself."
Shurry pouted a little bit. Maxim went to place a reassuring hand on Shurry's head, however, Shurry winced as if preparing for a beating. Maxim continued anyway, to prove it wasn't scary. "In time, once you're strong, and old enough, I'll test your strength through combat, but I'd never hit a child for making such a mistake. It was our choice to bring you with us, knowing the risks that would come with it."
"Huh? Then, meat?"
"Nope. You're going to have the same amount as everyone else. A proper portion."
"I'm gonna have to eat monsters!"
And so begins their meal, and then once it was time for bed…
"Shurry, I want you to try sleeping in my tent tonight…" The Amazoness that Shurry injured before, spoke up. "I won't do anything but my best to keep you comfortable."
"No fair! I wanted my little brother to sleep in my tent!" Meteria shouted.
A stare down began, with the ultimate result being, Shurry was surrounded… It was not a restful night.