While Cain was enjoying his sleep, Clan Chief Schmidt of the Hill Giants was having a very frustrating day.

The spot that the majority of the Chiefs wanted to attack was clearly still in Dragon territory, and they had been arguing against him and the Big Boss all day. He couldn't understand why they didn't see what the problem was.

"If we attack Dragon Territory, the Dragons and all their friends will attack us. They are bigger than us, and they breathe fire." The Big Boss tried explaining again.

The Chiefs didn't understand the problem, thinking that it would only be one or two Dragons in town. The concept of more Dragons than two just wasn't getting through to them.

Schmidt tried a new approach, hoping to convince them. "Dragons eat Gnomes, just like giants do, you bunch of idiots. There are no Gnomes there. The Dragons ate the ones there, and Ancient Cain already captured all five of them on the Central Continent, so the only spot left with Gnomes is over here, where the humans had them ready for us to pick up."

The Hill Giant chief thumped on the map where the last prisoners came from and the rumbling in the room started to turn in his favor. Now he just needed to make the final move.

"The sneaky humans must be hiding more Gnomes for themselves." Schmidt wasn't sure when his fellow chiefs got so stupid, but it worked, they were ready for war with everyone in agreement.

Maybe it was the blessing? The Ancient made him taller and stronger, he must have made him smarter too, so the Hill Giants would have the best Chief. That Ancient really was a good guy, Schmidt decided.

With every Chief now ready to go to war with the same plan, the Big Boss ordered them to wake up their troops. Half the warriors of every clan would be going on this raid and they wouldn't return until they were sure they had all the Gnomes.

As the Chiefs left the hall, the Big Boss, Drakon stopped Clan Chief Schmidt. "You did well today. Did you get an item to increase your intelligence?"

Schmidt shook his head. "Ancient Cain offered to make me a better Chief if I sent you that message from the Dragons and Demons last week. He said I would be a whole meter taller, but I think he made me smarter too because I don't remember the others being that dumb."

"That happens when you get smart. Stay near me during the battle. Two smart Giants are better than one, and the humans have always been tricky with their walls and catapults." Drakon ordered him, making Schmidt his right-hand man and second in charge of the Giant army.

The Giants were all gathering near the beach, ready to start heading out the moment the order was given. With the Frost Giants leading the attack they didn't need boats, they would freeze the ocean and walk the army across it to their destination, two days away, so the only concern the Clan Chiefs had was getting everyone moving.

Two days was a short march for the giant army, but keeping them all together could be hard. Only the presence of a powerful leader was forcing the Clans to cooperate this long, and Drakon intended to let them split into groups once they were on shore and had captured the first city. That should minimize the infighting and give them the best chance of finding any Gnomes that were hiding.

Schmidt and his force shifted over to be near the Big Boss and the order was given to freeze the ocean, having the Frost Giants take the lead, with the Lesser Ice Giant Clans on the perimeter to keep the water frozen until everyone was through.

Their procession was pretty hard to miss, and the Wave Riders had sent scouts out to keep an eye on the troublesome Western Continent. Within an hour the message detailing the Giant army's movement had reached the Council of Captains along with their estimated destination, a human city on the Northern Continent that didn't allow the Wave Riders at their dock.

"That's all the news we need. Now we need a vote of Captains. Who is in favor of not telling the humans a damned thing?" The leader of the Elders asked, happiness with this idea clearly visible in his movements."Point of order. I would like to propose an alternative." One of the Captains called.

"Speak it now and we will consider it if the first motion doesn't get enough votes." The elder agreed.

"I say we send spies to all three cities in the region, informing them of an imminent attack further west. The more soldiers they send to their ally the faster they will fall." The captain suggested.

"Too risky. What if they fortify instead?" Someone else shouted, and insults began to fly back and forth between the Captains.

"Shut up you lot. Stand to vote for not telling them anything." The Elder shouted and an easy eight out of every ten Captains rose to their feet.magic

"It is settled then. The scouts will watch the giants in case they change course, but none of us will warn anyone about their movement." The Elder called the decision.

This would change their war plans a little since the army was in an unexpected location, but it was looking unlikely that the Wave Riders would have to get involved in the affairs of the land dwellers at all.

Back in Assah, Cain was brought up to speed on the affairs of the Wave Riders by Nila, who the Captains recognized as one of their own. It was good news for him, and for the Dragons who also didn't seem to be under attack, but he had other issues this morning.

Cyrene had been exceptionally restless all night and was in her second shower of the day already. If this kept up Cain would just read her mind to see what was bothering her, but for now, he was giving her some privacy, in case it was a personal issue. He had already cast both healing and cure spells on her, but they had no effect.

That meant whatever was happening was not an illness or injury. It might be a problematic shedding since Lamia shed their skin the same as most snakes.

"Boss, help." Cain heard her call from the shower and rushed over to see what he could do, only to be tackled by a flying Cyrene.

"What's wrong? I can call for a better healer if you need." He asked, not sure what the problem was.

Then the scent reached his nose. Pure arousal. Lamia didn't often go into heat, but they were also a female-only species of obsession demons and all obsession demons went into heat at some point to prevent their obsession from ending their species. It was a small evolutionary detail that had proven to be essential for most obsession demons to break away from whatever they were obsessed with and remember that children were needed to continue their work into the future.

Lamia were one of the species that weren't usually known to deny their urges, which normally prevented the heat cycle from triggering. Cyrene, on the other hand, had zero experience with men or women in that sense, and now her body had decided that it needed someone immediately and urgently.

"I am hot everywhere, and I itch, and I need you. Please?" The Lamia begged, writhing on the floor trying to alleviate the effects of the hormonal change that was tormenting her.

Cain briefly thought about calling a Summon to take care of things, but this was Cyrene. Not only is he her obsession, but it is also her first time and that should be special. More special than going into heat in the beach house, but there's not much to do about that now.At best he could move them both quickly to another house, but he didn't know how occupied the others would be, and the scent would draw every male human, Elf, beastkin, and demon near her into a lustful frenzy.

It was a good thing this didn't happen in Long Fang Valley, it would have been a disaster of epic proportions.

Nila and Mythryll ran in, having heard the commotion, just in time to hear Cyrene begging in a most unladylike fashion, which made both elves smirk and turn away from the scene in the bathroom.

"We will be busy downstairs. I will have the travel circle blocked for a while and I'll send a Guild Message to avoid Assah for a few days." Mythryll informed him, biting her lip.

Nila just winked and followed her little elven wife downstairs, locking all the windows they passed.

"I didn't realize that an Obsession Demon heat was that powerful," Mythryll whispered, giving Nila a kiss and pulling her down onto a couch.

"That's nothing, it's not even aimed at us. Just make sure the house is secured before we get distracted." Nila smirked, mentally ordering the Puppets to take care of it. One small perk of both her and them being Cain's summons.

"You know you might end up like Misha if it turns out that you're going to have a litter of Ancients," Cain warned Cyrene, who only snuggled into his chest and mumbled a response.

"What was that?"

"A clutch not a litter. Lamia lay eggs." She quietly corrected him, doing her best to keep herself together.

"As long as you know." Cain smiled, gently placing her down on the bed.

Through a viewing spell, Misha watched the scene from her bed in the Ancient's stronghold while snacking on cookies.

"She held out longer than I thought. I don't know if you've been watching our pet snake girl, but she's totally in love with him, in a crazy obsessive way.

Maybe now that she's finally getting some action she might calm down a little. Probably not, but it might help." Misha told Nyarla, who was watching the scene with very intense interest. Scenes like this, replayed from other worlds were the Ancient's equivalent of Soap Operas or Daytime Dramas, a guilty pleasure for the bored and idle.

"You're not worried about your position?" The Ancient asked and Misha slowly shook her head.

"She's as safe as any competition could be. She actually wants to be his pet. You might want to collect the eggs though before they hatch on that world and let baby Ancients loose."

Nyarla smirked and patted Misha on the head. "No need. Ancient genes aren't that dominant. They will be a Primordial Obsession Demon, like Oath Breaker, but with a Lamia's serpentine lower body. The species was actually quite cute when they were still around."

Misha and her self-assigned watcher, and new best Ancient friend settled in to watch the scene play out, with Nyarla initially trying to cover Misha's eyes at some of the more intimate moments, declaring that she was too young to be seeing such things. But as Misha pointed out, it was nothing that she hadn't seen before, and she didn't have anything better to do. Nyarla did change the destination of the spell not long afterward though, checking in on the rest of Misha's friends.

It took five days for Cyrene's heat to fade and by the end she was too exhausted to even hold herself up, just laying on the bed in a stupor. Even the smile on her face had almost faded away, taking too much effort for the energy that she had left.

"Are you alright now?" Cain asked gently, casting a long-duration healing spell on the nearly comatose young woman.

"Yes, everything will be alright. I had a vision of me telling Misha what happened, and she already knows and isn't mad at me. Wherever she is, the Ancients are letting her watch our world. There is something strange about the flow of time though, but I couldn't see what it was in the vision."

Cain smiled and brushed Cyrene's hair from her face. "So how dead am I?"

Cyrene stuck out her long, forked tongue at him. "Sorry, I didn't see that part."