Marked by the Four Beast Lords After Transmigration

The southern descent remained broad enough for Nia and Shen to walk beside each other through the first several turns.

Spring water darkened the outer edge of the stone. Workers had scattered rough grit anywhere runoff crossed the path, but dampness still shone between the grains. Below the last shelter row, a fresh route marker stood above the lower trail, its bark strip tied high around the post.

One patrol male packed stones against its base while another blocked a worker carrying a frame of clay jars toward the flooded turn.

“You cannot take that below the black rocks,” the patrol male said.

The worker shifted the frame against his shoulders. “The upper crossing adds half the slope.”

“It adds less than losing every jar when the bank gives way.”

The worker glanced toward the water, muttered under his breath, and turned toward the higher route.

Shen stopped near the new marker.

“The water rose another finger after dawn,” the patrol male told him. “The mud has almost reached the second post.”

“We will remain above it.”

The male nodded and returned to packing stones around the base.

Nia looked over the path’s edge as she and Shen continued. Water moved between the black rocks below, brown where the bank had broken and clear where it spread across stone. The lower path disappeared beneath it before curving out of sight.

Past the patrol turn, the worked road ended on a broad shelf of stone. Beyond it, roots divided the ground into uneven rises, spring growth crowded the older trail, and the sound of running water came from several directions at once.

Shen placed their gathering basket near the inner wall. The broad straps lay across the covered bark container and empty sample pouches inside it.

“From here, walking would take most of the morning,” he said.

Nia studied the darker line pressed between the roots. “It still looks like a path.”

“It is a path for people who know which ground will bear their weight.”

“And you will know?”

“Yes.”

Shen loosened his outer wrap. He folded each layer he removed and placed it inside the basket, beneath the bark container. When he finished, Nia drew the cover over the clothing and tightened the ties.

She slid her arms through the broad shoulder straps. The basket rested high against her back, leaving her hips free.

“Is that comfortable?” Shen asked.

“It will be once I am sitting.”

He stepped toward the middle of the shelf.

Nia had watched his white tail appear beneath his robes, had slept with it curved around her legs, and had traced the silver pattern of his scales while the rest of him remained human.

None of that prepared her for his full shape.

White scales spread over his skin in a swift ripple. His body lengthened across the stone as his shoulders narrowed, his arms disappeared, and the line of his spine continued far beyond the space a man had occupied.

Then he widened.

Power gathered beneath the pale surface. Scale after silver-edged scale expanded over a body broad enough to fill the shelf, and still more of him emerged. His length crossed the open stone, curved around its far edge, and continued down the path they had just climbed.

Nia stepped backward to give him room.

Broad plates along his underside pressed over the scattered grit without scraping. Along his back, silver deepened near his spine and faded into white toward his sides, catching the morning light whenever muscle shifted beneath it.

His head rose above her.

Nia tipped her face upward.

His head alone was larger than her entire body—longer than she was tall, broader than she could have reached across, and heavy with controlled strength. She could have stretched herself along one side of his jaw and still failed to cover it. His neck widened behind it until the broad shelf no longer seemed broad at all.

Silver eyes lowered toward her.

The pupils had narrowed, and the face surrounding them belonged wholly to a beast, but his attention remained unmistakable.

Nia approached and placed both hands against a scale beside his eye. The single scale was larger than her palm, smooth beneath her fingers and quietly warm.

Shen lowered his head until the side of his jaw rested near the stone.

“You are much larger than your tail suggested,” Nia said.

His voice came from deep in his throat, lower than his human voice. The sound vibrated through her palms.

“My tail was not intended as a measurement.”

Nia laughed, and a deeper vibration answered beneath her hands.

“I knew you would be enormous. Seeing you is different.”

“Do you need more time?”

“No.” She stroked her thumb along the silver edge of the scale. “I want to ride you.”

Shen lowered the broad section behind his head until it rested against the shelf.

The scales there overlapped in long, smooth rows. Their backward edges rose enough for Nia to grip without forcing her fingers underneath them.

“Sit behind the third line,” Shen said. “The movement closer to my head will be sharper.”

Nia approached the lowest part of his neck and lifted one foot.

Even lowered, he stood too high for her to climb easily with the basket against her back.

A gentle pressure gathered beneath her sole and raised her enough to reach the next scale. Nia caught its edge and pulled herself upward. Shen remained completely still until she climbed onto the wide curve behind his head.

She swung one leg across him.

Her knees did not reach far down either side. The breadth of his neck left her sitting on a pale, silver-lined rise of muscle with more of him beneath her than she could judge.

“Which scales should I use?”

“The two before your hands.”

Nia curled her fingers around their raised edges.

Then Shen’s magic settled around her thighs, hips, and lower back. It felt like steady pressure rather than a rope or hand, keeping her centered against his body while leaving her free to lean.

Nia shifted deliberately toward one side.

The pressure followed and stopped her before she could slide.

“You could have lifted me all the way up,” she said.

“You wanted to climb.”

“I did.”

“Now you know how.”

Shen lifted his head.

The stone shelf dropped away beneath them.

Nia tightened her grip as his neck rose in one long curve. The sudden height pulled at her stomach before her body adjusted. From the top of his neck, she could see across the brush and down the damp path behind them.

His white-silver body filled the entire route.

It curved around the black rocks, passed below the new marker, and disappeared beneath the shadow of the shelter wall. The end of his tail remained somewhere beyond the lower turn.

“You were hiding most of yourself,” Nia said.

“I was keeping my tail away from the food.”

“That does not explain all of this.”

“It explains the portion inside our home.”

Nia leaned forward until her chest rested closer to his scales.

“What do I need to do?”

“Follow the direction of my body. You cannot fall, but fighting every curve will make the journey unpleasant.”

“So I move with you.”

“Yes.”

Shen began with one slow length of his body.

There was no step beneath Nia and no single impact traveling upward through her bones. Muscle gathered in sequence, creating a long wave that passed beneath the scales and carried them forward before continuing through the body behind her.

Stone slipped beneath him with almost no sound.

He curved left.

Nia leaned away by instinct. The pressure around her waist kept her centered, but the movement twisted awkwardly through her hips.

Shen stopped.

“Lean toward the curve,” he said. “You are following me, not balancing against me.”

Nia settled herself again. “Try it once more.”

He crossed the shelf slowly.

When his head turned, she allowed her hips to follow the widening curve of his neck. The movement carried her smoothly instead of pulling across her body.

Shen turned at the far edge and brought her back.

“You have learned one turn.”

“Then give me another.”

A quiet vibration moved through his throat as he left the shelf.

The narrow trail beyond it had been formed by ordinary feet. Shen followed its direction but chose the open ground beside it whenever the trees crowded too closely.

Roots that would have forced Nia to climb disappeared beneath the broad plates of his underside. Ferns bent beneath the outer edges of his body, while smaller growth beneath his weight remained pressed flat after his tail passed.

The motion was smoother than riding Kael, though the two could not truly be compared. Kael gathered power into each stride, his shoulders rising and landing beneath her. Shen moved without interruption, every part of him carrying the next.

A heavy bough hung low across the clearest opening ahead.

Shen curved away from it, his head passing between two older trees before his neck followed in a wide arc. Nia felt the turn gather beneath her left leg and leaned with it before the curve reached her hips.

“You moved before I warned you,” he said.

“I felt you turn.”

“That will help.”

The route narrowed around an exposed wall of roots. Shen’s head disappeared behind it while the portion carrying Nia still approached the bend.

The snake mark beneath her clothes pulled faintly to the left.

A moment later, the muscles beneath her left palm tightened.

Nia followed the curve.

His enormous head appeared on the far side of the root wall, one silver eye turning back toward her.

“You used the bond,” he said.

“And the movement beneath the scales.”

“The muscles beneath them,” Shen corrected. “The bond will tell you where I am. My body will tell you what the ground requires.”

Nia pressed her palm more firmly against his back. “Then I am learning you.”

“Yes.”

The old trail descended toward the upper crossing.

Warm water spread through the lower ground, brown near the broken bank and clearer where it moved over black stone. The second route marker remained visible downstream, with water touching its base.

Shen slowed before the mud.

From her higher position, Nia could see where thick roots kept the upper bank firm and where darker earth sagged toward the stream.

“The ground near the rocks looks stronger,” she said.

“It will bear me.”

“You sound certain.”

“It does not need to bear all of me at once.”

Shen entered the water.

The current divided around his head and spread along both sides of his neck. Water climbed partway over the pale plates beneath him, but Nia remained well above it.

Much of his body still rested across the upper bank, distributing his weight through a length greater than the crossing itself.

A loose stone rolled beneath him.

Nia felt his right side tighten before the change reached her seat. Shen shifted toward the black rocks, testing the ground ahead and finding firmer stone beneath the cloudy water.

The pressure around Nia remained steady.

She released one scale and laid her hand flat against his back. Strength moved beneath it in several directions—forward through his neck, down against the streambed, and back through the length braced on the bank.

“You could carry half of Hearthfang across this stream,” she said.

“I would prefer that they wait for the bridge.”

“That was not a refusal.”

“It was not permission to gather them.”

Shen climbed the far bank.

The rise passed beneath Nia in several broad waves, lifting her gradually until the water fell behind them. His body left a wide disturbance across the stream before the current closed over it.

Beyond the crossing, the worked trail thinned to flattened leaves between older trees.

Shen followed a wider course through wet ferns and young brush. Moss-covered stone vanished beneath him. Small branches bent or broke along the center of his path, while leaves brushed over the silver scales at his sides.

Nia stopped thinking through every turn.

One hand remained curled around a scale. She placed the other flat against his back and let his movement travel beneath her palm.

A short tightening warned of a curve. A deeper gathering came before a climb. When Shen rose over a fallen trunk, Nia leaned forward with him and followed the descent on the other side.

“You can move faster,” she said.

“No.”

“I am following you now.”

“For several body lengths.”

“That sounds impressive when your body is involved.”

Shen turned his head far enough for one silver eye to come into view.

Nia smiled at him. “A little faster.”

His eye narrowed.

Then he lengthened each wave of his body.

Trees passed in a steady rhythm. Leaves blurred along the edge of Nia’s sight, and wind lifted the loose curls from her face.

She leaned through the turns, lowered herself when his neck dipped beneath hanging growth, and rose with him over dark shelves of stone warmed by water beneath the earth.

A laugh escaped her.

Shen’s answering vibration traveled through the scales beneath her.

Nia looked back.

White and silver moved between the trees far behind them. His body curved through shadow, crossed a patch of wet stone, and disappeared beneath a bank of ferns before emerging again. The gathering basket remained secure against her back.

The end of his tail was nowhere in sight.

Ahead, the last bark marker passed beneath a curtain of new leaves.

The cut stones of Hearthfang had already disappeared behind them. Then the pressed trail vanished as well, leaving only roots, warm water, and deep spring growth beneath Shen’s immense white-silver body.

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