The shock of seeing Priya again had pushed Ed further towards getting out of town. Unfortunately, she had seen Ed's real face. Which would pose a problem if he was ever seen in public by her with others who saw him as Erust. He wasn't sure if she could expose the change of face or what that might have meant for them.
So the trip was made at first light through the gate that led into the lands that Ashra came from. She was feeling better now that the damage that had been done to her soul, and the powers that had done it, were slightly reduced. It had that same sort of relief you get from loosening your pants after a huge feast. Everything was still there, but it was far more tolerable of an experience.
The trip into her town took about 4 days by cart. They had sold their northern oxen the market for a sizeable profit and purchased a small team of Lloras, who could pull the unladed cart faster than the lumbering bovines could. It reduced the trip time in half compared to the soft lumber of the previous animals.
When they rolled into town they were greeted by almost no one. Word of their visit had spread somehow from up the road. The three had refused to wear the cloaks outside of town on the open road and it made Ed almost regret doing that. He wasn't sure if it was fear or what that drove them away, but he almost preferred this to some parade and huge ruckus by the city people.
The town was called Cervais, and to Ed's surprise, it was only a 2 day ride to the oracle from here. This fact had made them believe they could have used it as a base camp of sorts until they saw the reception. They knew they couldn't stop the commerce of a whole town just by visiting and not have some kind of repercussions later.
Ashra led them towards her home. All the houses in this town seemed to be a mix of wood, stucco, and thatch. They had a sturdy, well-made look to them and the streets were cobblestones mined from a dark gray.
Ashra's house looked to be one story with a large pitched roof. This gave it room for a discrete second floor to be used for sleeping or storage.
Ashra's father and mother stood at the end of the walkway when they pulled up and were staring with their arms crossed scowling. Her father was a sturdy man with well-muscled legs and thick arms. He had far more feline features than his daughter and might have been mistaken for an abnormally large cat under any other circumstances.
Her Mother on the other hand was small, with human eyes, nose, and mouth but otherwise feline feet hands and fur. Ed suddenly understood why she felt like she was an outcast. Aside from the few features she had, she would have passed as more human than feline. Ashra had tufts of fur between far more human hands and toes. Her feet were a little smaller than normal but that wasn't anything odd. All people are shaped differently, or so that's what Ed thought. He also noticed that her ears were not as high as either her mother or father's ears were.
"You return, wedded to this man and slink home to your parents in shame." her father said holding his hand, indicating they were unwelcome.
"Hush up now. Let's at least see the pilgrim." Her mother said, trying to diffuse what was already an awkward family situation.
Ed had run this scenario through his head multiple times. Meeting his new inlaws was giving him chills. Ashra had filled him in on as many customs as she could and tried to give him all the lessons she could on other forms of Felis culture.
His worst-case scenario came true though in the next few minutes. "Jump down man!" her father said with his arms still crossed.
Ed exited and walked forward just to the edge of the Lloras. Coming into someone's house uninvited was considered a huge insult and he was trying to save some face for the sake of his wife.
Her father eyed him up and down trying to assess his worth. "To think you could trick our daughter into this. She is beyond the years of mating and suitable as a hand-maiden but not for breeding. Our family suffers enough human traits. We agreed to send her off in the hopes that you would resolve the suffering of so many in the south but to do this is akin to the further abuse of our kind. You look like nothing but a cheap, soft, savage from the north."
"Father!" Ashra said before leaping from the front bench almost fully over the Lloras and landing between Ed and her parents. "You should mind your manners! Erust is kind and compassionate. When I was afflicted, he put my comfort first. He is not a savage, and he wed me to save me from embarrassment and I wed him to save him from a fate worse than death." Her fur ruffled across her back in a sign that she was angry at her father. Ashra stood a few units smaller than her dad but she was muscled more like him than her mother's petite frame.
"Oh, you dare defy your father in the face of this human?" He put his hands down at his side and leered at his daughter down his own long feline nose.
"He is worth being my mate!" She said and crossed her arms in stubborn indignation and stood as tall as she could.
"Then show me!" He yelled and pointed at Ed.
"Now stop!" Yelled her mother. "This is madness, this is the prophet of change. The pilgrim who wandered and helped stop the human church in its wicked ways of persecution. It is only natural he would marry into a family like ours and not some human woman!"
That stung Ed. The thought that he was to never be with a human woman had crossed his mind but he had not expected her mother to make it sound like it was a forgone conclusion.
"He will be part of our family if we accept this pairing. That will make him part of the felis-ine people. He will need to prove he can defend this family and its honor when I am gone. Ashra is the oldest female and her mate becomes head of the family when I am gone and passed to our ancestors." He stated more for Ed's benefit than anyone else's.
"Fine," said Ed who removed his jacket and shirt from his chest. The normal fight was nude among the Felis people but Ed knew he could just go barechested. He wasn't embarrassing himself, he had muscles from his years as a blacksmith but fighting still wasn't his strong suit.
"You don't have to. My stubborn old father can just accept what has happened." Ashra said looking at him and putting her hand out but stopping short of touching his shoulder.
"No, if this is what it takes, I will fight. I have no idea about winning but I won't run away either." Ed said with a smile on his face.
Rennish had moved up to the front of their carriage and pulled it away from the fight. He stopped it about 30 feet ahead and set the brake on the wheel so that the Lloras couldn't move it away or stampede.
Ed and her father walked into the street. Her father leaned down towards the ground, bringing his powerful thighs into tight masses like springs. He would be impossible to stop in a sheer match of strength. Ed quickly surveyed the area to make sure that Rennish and Ashra were far enough away to not get caught in anything and look for anything he could use to his advantage.
The road was cobblestone. Ashra's family home was set back from the road and the road was amazingly clean. Ed had his work cut out for him in this fight.
Ed lifted his arms up and stretched them out. His muscles had become tight from several nights on the road and sleeping in cramped conditions on the dirt. Her father began to move from foot to foot waiting for some sign that he could pounce and end this quickly, showing that he did not deserve what he considered such honor.
Ed tipped his head sideways against his shoulder and heard it pop. He was using this stretching as an excuse to eyeball his opponent and see if he would strike first. Ed knew what all young boys knew in a fight. You had just one chance to win if you were vastly overwhelmed in a fight. Realistically Ed should fight dirty if he wanted to survive but he didn't want to kill him either, even if that was also a totally acceptable result of this fight to prove his prowess.
Ed took a step back with his right foot and turned his shoulder towards the man who was waiting to kill him. Ed poured as much mana as he could muster into his body to harden it and reinforce his muscles. If he took a hit he needed defense and the ability to dodge another quickly.
Her father attacked first. He leaped at Ed, with claws drawn, lunging for his torso for a quick kill. Ed used mana to help glue his feet to the ground and then leaned as far back as he could as quickly as he could. He dodged the man who twisted in the air to try and catch him with his legs.
Ed had anticipated this and released his feet causing him to fall backward to the ground and under the razors sharp claws that had just been where his stomach would have been only moments earlier.
Ed poured power into his own legs and rolled over and tucked his legs up under himself. He leaped off the ground with as much force as his mana would allow and leaned his shoulder over to plow it into the large man's chin, hoping to knock him out.
The hit grazed his head and caused him to stumble just one step back. Her father laughed and shook his head. "That's better than I expected. Come on finish me off!"
Ed swallowed, his attacks were all the result of doing bullies and muggers at home, not for winning street brawls. So Ed dug deep into his memories in search of anything to help him out right now.
Her father was walking slowly back towards Ed. He had learned that leaping gave him no real advantage in this fight and he was going to use claws and brute strength at this point.
Ed took two steps forward and balled up both fists at his side. Ed didn't move his arms until just before their arm's length apart. Her father struck first and swiped at Ed's head with his claws out trying to leave huge bloody gashes that might throw his opponent out of the fight. Ed pulled his arms up at the last minute and put them up against this head. The hit rattled his brain but his body reacted quickly. Ed reached out with a hand to grab her father and took a hold of the hair around his jawline.
Ed swung his body as hard as he could and pulled down on the man's lip and jaw while he twisted around. Her father twisted his head to try and get the human's fingers out of his cheek but Ed had used mana to glue himself to her father. In a fight of sheer muscles, Ed would never win unless he fought just smart enough to impress her father.
Momentum carried her father's head down and Ed swung his leg up into the man's face. He grunted in pain and coughed more than once as he got air back into his lungs. Ed took the initiative and further rolled himself across the back of her father's neck and tried to fall as far flat as he could and hopefully knock him out.
Her father reached one hand up around his shoulder and trapped Ed's arm that was currently still holding onto his face and gums.
Her father pulled Ed over his head but that also pulled harder on his cheek and jowl which was magically glued together at this point.
He squealed a little in pain, which motivated Ed. He released his grip on his face and put his hands on one of the man's ears and one over his nose and pulling as he did so. Ed watched as the man fell to all fours. "Submit and tell everyone that I can defend the Southern Peoples."
"No, never You have to stop me to win my approval!'
Ed reached out and used the trick he didn't want to in the fight. He released his head and shoved as hard as he could, hoping he wouldn't be able to regroup with himself before Ed was able to pull off his next attack.
Her father shook his head at the sudden change and looked up at where Ed had been.
Ed had been studying the magic in their cape and the instructions were actually inside a leg hem in case you needed to repower the cape. Ed used divine power to try and switch his face. The face of his wife showed up causing him to stumble just one step as he looked to make sure she was still where she had been before and hadn't actually jumped between two fighting men.
Ed put his hand in the dirt and turned some of it into a long club. Fights among the Felis people were supposed to be unarmed, but Ed lacked claws and considered his using a club to be an acceptable exchange.
He swung the club up from out of the dirt with as much force as his body could produce naturally. The hit took the man in one wrist and then glanced his head. Ed's body spun from the force and he used the moment to bring him back around in a full circle. He swung one more time, during the spin he had turned the crude club of rock into a hammer. A shape he was familiar with and brought it down in the man's foot.
"Submit!" Ed screamed as the man howled and dropped to one knee clutching his foot.
"Welcome home Ashra," said her mother, declaring the victor. She was judge all along and could have ended the fight earlier. "You brought home a crafty husband. Come inside and tell us what happened."