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Lyra picked her way out of the forest and through the front gates of the mansion, or what remained of them. The large iron gates had been torn off their hinges and thrown aside. A worrying sight. What the hell had Rain done?

It was dark out but she was still able to see, the great many coloured moon in the sky above helped a little with its illumination. As she neared the front of the mansion she realised that the entrance doors were missing. Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of magic barrier to stop this kind of thing? Had it been mistakenly turned off? She knew most estates outside of walled towns and cities had one, it just made sense when monsters filled the countryside. 

As she cautiously stepped inside the mansion the mana powered lights flickered on, dimmed, then managed to hold somewhat steady, then growing steadier. Her brow raised as she looked about the destroyed lobby. Furniture had been turned into kindling and anything loose was scattered across the floor, paper, lamps, broken china. Black burn marks were on every surface in lines and patches. Overall the lobby was thoroughly wrecked.

She bit her lip as she noticed the bloodstains. There were an awful lot of them, even on the walls. She wondered if any of them were from Rain. It wasn’t hard to see where they had gone next, the main door out of the lobby was just gone. She carefully crept toward it, cursing how loud her hooves made her as they clacked against the floorboards.

She released a held in breath as she poked her head around the frame and found no one there. 

“What are you doing?” came a voice from behind.

Lyra yelped and pinged into the air, somehow twisting mid-leap at the same time as materialising the black knife in her hands. She thudded back down on the floorboards, knife held in front, breathing hard, eyes wide.

Opal gave her an amused look.

“D-don’t do that! You almost scared the fluff off of me!”

“Did I? Hmm too bad. Rain wants you, come on, follow me.”

The Goblin pushed past her, although she paused for a moment to admire Lyra’s knife.

“I’ll trade you for the knife,” she said as she passed.

Lyra blinked before hurrying to catch up. “Uh, I’d have thrown it away a long time ago if I could, it’s cursed, I can’t get rid of it or trade it, I’m not even sure what it’s cursed with… It’s a bit concerning.”

“But it can teleport into your hand any time! Sounds pretty useful to me, I know I wouldn't mind having instant access to a pointy at any moment.”

Lyra eyed the multitude of blades strung around the Goblin girl’s shorts. She somehow doubted that she had issues with access to ‘pointys’.

“Erm yes, I suppose. Where is Rain?”

“I left him eating.”

Lyra shivered at that, she wasn't sure she wanted to know the details, in fact she was very sure she did not want to know them, however she was sure she was about to find out.

They passed through hallways where the lights hadn't fully recovered, only giving dim and shadowy illumination. She paused as she passed by a doorway, the room catching her eye. Metal glinted in the gloom, lots of metal, lots of metal in various contraptions covered in alarming spikes and engraved in a strange jagged scripture that glowed a faint orange-red. As she looked she realised that various parts of the things were meant for various parts of a person’s body, some even specialised for different species, beaks, tails, claws, different variations, all contraptions designed for maximum effectiveness at their job...

This was a torture chamber, and a well fitted and well used looking one at that. She suddenly felt a heck of a lot less sorry for the occupants of the mansion and what Rain might have done to them.

Opal grabbed her hand and tugged her along. She slowly followed, having to shake her head slightly to stop imagining just what some of those horrible contraptions were used for. 

They soon found what they were looking for in a different room deeper in the mansion.

The room was dark and a shadowy mass could be seen in one corner, it took Lyra a moment to realise it was Rain. He was crouched over something, his paws moving. The sound of eating filled the air. Lyra nearly lost control of her bladder as she realised what was happening, she stumbled as her legs went weak and fell against the door frame. He was eating levelers. She shuddered, this was one thing she was sure she couldn't get used to, monsters fine, but levelers, no, it wasn’t right, levelers were different from monsters! Completely different… right?

As the last of a limb disappeared behind his massive jaws he eased himself back onto a nearby couch, lazily slumping on top of it, his legs spread. The couch groaned desperately under his weight.

Opal happily skipped forward and pounced on the wolf, her fingers rolling through his fur as she prostrated herself on his torso. As she lay atop him one hand slipped down her own body and below the hem of her shorts, her fingers finding her sopping wetness and exploring her folds, pushing and teasing herself as she felt Rain begin to change beneath her.  

Rain growled and a paw wrapped around her hip causing her to coo and gasp aloud. Rain himself was straining against the crouch, his feet slipping against the floor. Lyra watched with fascination as she saw his body shift and grow, his mass swelling larger, his clawed feet scoring the floorboards as his paw slid along the back of the couch, he gruffed and groaned and thrust his hips into the air even as Opal wiggled and squirmed herself against his body.

Lyra bit her lip, she had to admit there was something about seeing the dominating mass of Rain grow larger and even more dominating that was tugging at her buttons. The sheer size difference, that huge overwhelming masculine physical presence next to the tiny Goblin who was desperately humping herself against him like her life depended on it, whining and mewling.

She chided herself, that feeling wasn't normal, clearly this was her Elf part being Elf like. Elves had infamously broad taste, herself being evidence of that. 

The poor couch that had barely been holding itself together suddenly gave up the ghost as Rain reached the peak of his growth. With a crash it fully collapsed leaving Rain in a crater of broken furniture. Opal let out a long desperate lush moan and her eyes rolled up before she collapsed on top of Rain burying her face in his chest.

Lyra swallowed, her throat a little dry. They certainly knew how to put on a show.

After a moment of awkwardly standing in the doorway she made a polite cough into her fist.

“Uhm, I’m back now.”

Rain lifted his head.

“Good. Were there any problems? Anything dangerous?”

“Er, no, it went perfectly fine, although I couldn't do much but eavesdrop in a couple of inns and ask a few casual questions.”

Rain lifted his paw and peeled the limp Goblin of himself. She mumbled in protest as he leaned forward and then climbed to his feet. 

Lyra gulped, he was definitely over an inch taller, which due to square cube law also meant he was significantly larger and heavier in every other way. The floorboards did not sound happy with this new weight as he stepped toward her and she was sure most of them had been permanently cracked or splintered under his broad pads. She looked up at him fearfully, unsure what this unpredictable monster intended to do next. 

He loomed over her as he neared, his intense yellow eyes the eyes of a predator, was he coming for her? To eat her like the other levelers? Her trembling hand reached for her mouth as unprompted wild imagery of being eaten by this beast slipped into her mind. Was she prey? Maybe she was prey! Her instincts were taking over, she needed to flee!

“Move.” said Rain.

She blinked. Oh, right, she was standing in the doorway. She backed away hurriedly and Rain ducked down through it and moved past her determinedly. She watched as he passed down the hall filling most of it with his body. Opal appeared by her side, her cheeks still a little rosy.

“Wh-where is he going?”

“Dunno, wanna follow?”

“...Yes?”

The pair followed Rain as he made his way down the hallway, turning left then right. Light returned and filled the corridor although mostly blocked off by Rain’s size.

He pushed open a door and ducked down inside. Opal and Lyra glanced at each other and then Opal approached the brightly lit door. Her jaw dropped, a look of open dismay on her face. 

“How is it indoors!”

“What! What is it!”

Opal put her head in her hands and groaned. “I just can't escape, everywhere I go, it’s always there, I’m being changed against my will!”

Lyra approached the door wondering just what she was going to see, another torture chamber? Worse? The well-lit room revealed itself, a… bathhouse. To be fair it was a very large bathhouse, with multiple large pools steaming in the air. Red was excitedly running around one of the pools, his claws clacking on the tile. He came to a raised circular pool and tipped the two bottles he was holding into it, a syrupy purple ooze poured out. He shook the bottles to get the last drips free then carefully placed them to the side. Then he jumped in the pool and began swishing it around with his claws, bubbles and foam began to pile up around him and Lyra realised he had discovered the wonders of bubble bath.

Rain ignored the Kobold and waded into the largest pool, ducking down below the waterline for a moment and sending a small wave of displaced water over the tile that washed up to the doorway and out into the hall. Lyra lifted her hooves as the water touched up against the bottom of them. 

“I’m not going in there!” said Opal.

“Come here,” growled Rain, commanding.

Opal looked flustered, fighting a desperate inner battle between her desire to avoid water and her desire to be with Rain. She cried out and ran forward, shedding her clothes. Rain caught her as she jumped into the water and pulled her into his lap. She glared at the water angrily but after a moment she paused.

“It’s… warm?”

“These are heated baths, magically heated, and probably self-cleaning, the water isn't getting murky. I think that’s a filter at that end of the pool. This is the Ranker’s mansion so it would have something absurd like this.”

Opal swished her hands in the water experimentally. 

“This, this is kinda nice…”

As the pair began to wash Lyra made a decision. She had lived in the city her whole life, public baths were a thing and she had regularly used them, especially after dungeon diving. Dungeons were not clean places and right now she was filthy with dungeon dirt. She wanted, no she needed to be clean, and this mansion’s bathhouse had all that she could ask for. 

She carefully and slowly stepped inside and made her way toward one of the pools, glancing awkwardly at Rain and Opal who were busily splashing and ineptly washing themselves. She passed by Red too, or rather the pool where Red was, it was currently a six foot tall dome of white bubble bath foam. A red scaled muzzle poking out at the bottom of one side was all that was visible of the Kobold.

Lyra reached her chosen pool and then wiggled her hips and slipped out of her shorts, hooking them over her hooves and folding them to one side. Next was her black panties, she couldn't help a little colour coming to her cheeks as she glanced back over to double check the others weren't watching. She slid the panties over her wide hips too and then passed them down over her fluff. Now she was semi naked, she almost left her jacket on, but then decided that would be silly. She reluctantly pulled off her jacket and then her shirt leaving her bra which she unbuttoned and let fall, in doing so her soft expansive breasts were left to spill out, bouncing up and down slightly in the air. They were quite nice breasts in her opinion.

She snuck another look at Rain to see if he was watching. He was not. Good. She chose to ignore the little disappointed feeling in her gut. 

She slipped into the warm water with a sigh. She was pleased to find that there were a number of shampoos and soaps and conditioners and oils to the side of the pool, which made sense, there were likely a variety of species who lived- who had lived here and they would of course each need their own personal care, oils for scales, shampoos for fur, and so on.

She ran an expert hand over the glass bottles until she found the ones she wanted and began busily washing. It didn't take her long, she had a ton of experience dealing with problematic and difficult to keep clean white fluff that had made her quite skilled. As she was finishing up she glanced over at Rain and Opal and paused. They had moved to the shelved area of the pool designed for sitting and Rain had his back against the pool edge with Opal in his lap, Rain was large enough that the tops of his thighs were above the waterline. That wasn’t the problem, the problem was that they quite clearly had no clue what they were doing, Rain was just using his paws and water for gods sake! And not even doing that right! That wasn’t going to get him properly clean!

She looked between the various soaps and shampoos and back to the hopelessly incompetent cleaning the pair of monsters were attempting. As she watched she slowly became more and more annoyed, her inner stylist screaming at their amateurishness. Without even realising it she stood up and grabbed an armload of the bottles and began marching purposefully toward Rain.

The pair turned and looked at her in surprise. She froze up as she abruptly came back to reality.

“Uh-Uhm, d-do you w-want some help w-w-washing?” she squeaked.

She suddenly realised that Rain was looking over her exposed and completely naked body. She blushed deep red and tried to keep in mind that this was a public bathing situation, mixed bathing was an accepted thing, especially in the cities, this was fine. Her nipples were getting a little cold against the glass she held. Completely normal situation she firmly repeated to herself.

Rain seemed non-plussed but raised a paw in a gesture to carry on. 

Lyra let out a breath and stepped closer, praying that her legs wouldn't give out while she was carrying so much glass, she would rather not get shattered glass all over herself thank you.

She came up to Rain’s broad back and kneeled, taking in the size of him, still alarmingly large, and all that fur! She realised that this might actually take a while. Well, no point stalling. She picked out a promising shampoo and poured it out on Rain’s back. And then she placed her hands on him, well she tried to, her hands didn't seem to want to obey, instead staying where they were by her sides. With difficulty, she raised the trembling shaking things and brought them toward Rain’s black fur. She knew he used to be a leveler, as long as she kept that in mind and kept repeating that fact then this was easy and not scary at all.

She let out a little whimper as she succeeded in touching him, running her fingers through his fur, feeling the heat of his body. Her hands were very very small next to his back. She began massaging the shampoo in.

A Goblin head peaked over Rain’s shoulder and peered down at what she was doing.

“What is that? What are you doing?”

“It’s, uhm, shampoo it makes your hair or fur especially clean and nice.”

“What? You mean it’s worse than water?!” Opal drew back slightly, suddenly wary of this new frightening development.

“It does a much better job than just water, yes.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?”

“Why clean extra?”

“Because it looks nice, look see how much glossier this spot I just cleaned is compared to this spot?”

Opal narrowed her eyes.

“It’s fine, tell her Rain, you used to be a leveler.”

Rain paused and seemed to think for a moment. “...I’ve never had shampoo before… Just soap.”

“You were a leveler, of course you have!”

“I was a low leveler, a very low one, they don't let low levelers into the good public bathhouses, we were lucky to get soap.”

“Oh.”

She continued rubbing at his fur for a moment until Opal made a noise to get her attention. 

“I wanna try.”

“On yourself?”

Hell no!... On Rain.”

Lyra raised an eyebrow but passed up one of the shampoo bottles. Opal grabbed it and poured a thick mess of the stuff over Rain’s chest. She began smearing it around his pecs as she tossed the bottle aside, quickly building up a lather. 

“Hmm this is kinda fun.”

“Being clean and stylish is something considered really important in my home city, you would get laughed at if you came back from the dungeon and didn't tidy yourself up.”

“Being clean is dumb… but it doesn't look bad, I guess.”

“Of course! You know I could teach you a thing or two about making yourself presentable, for a monster anyway.”

Opal didn't reply, only the sound of the two girls working shampoo into the wolf filled the air.

Lyra worked her way to the side of Rain’s back and decided to take a look to check if Opal was actually doing anything useful. She carefully leaned to the side and peeked around Rain and found the Goblin with her hands massaging Rain’s massively thick sheath, her foam covered fingers squeezing and pushing at it excitedly.

Lyra froze up, what the hell was the Goblin doing?! She blushed as she continued to lather Rain’s arm and shoulder. She should look away, she really should look away.

She continued to peek.