Melissa

  Lifting an arm to my eyes, I did my best to shield myself from the blinding sun as I moved through the door. In front of me, Lonna was already walking briskly down the street, with her head ducked, her eyes locked permanently in front of her. She seemed to be silently screaming, “Don’t get in my way.”

  So, I did the obvious thing and hurried to catch up with her. “Hey! What’s the pn?”

  “The pn is to get back to the gate,” Lonna said, not even bothering to look at me. She did raise her voice, though, speaking as loudly as possible. “We’re going to clear up our misunderstanding with the guards.”

  “You don’t need to yell…. And what misunderstanding? Isn’t everything on the poster technically kinda… true?”

  “The poster implies that you’re a false Heroine - which you’re not. You’re the true Heroine, as everyone will know soon enough!”

  Lonna’s voice rose as she spoke, making sure that just about everyone on the streets could hear us. Not that there were that many people on the streets…. In fact, the city around us seemed almost deserted.

  “Uh... great pn!” I told her, shaking off my sudden sense of foreboding. “But maybe we could try a different one? Like a disguise? If I had your cloak, I’d be a lot less likely to be seen in-”

  “My cloak stays on me,” Lonna growled, ferocious enough that I actually stumbled a step back. Talith caught my shoulders, though, with his surprisingly warm, cy hands, holding me up until I could get my feet back under me.

  “Careful there,” the Laspi warned. “That cloak was a gift from our mother.”

  “Your mom?” I looked between Lonna’s diminutive green-cloaked figure, and Talith’s gigantic cy form, mentally running through everything that they’d ever said about each other. “You’re… siblings?”

  “Adopted. Both of us.” Talith shrugged, before curving his slit-like mouth into a smile. “It’s not magic, or made of special thread, or anything like that if you’re wondering. It’s just a normal cloak. But Ma made it with love, and patched it every time it tore. Lonna wears it pretty much nonstop.”

  “Lonna can hear you!” Lonna called back, fists on her hips and a scowl on her lips. “Look, it’s just a cloak. Stop trying to make it seem all important, and start focusing on the townsfolk who want to murder us and kidnap Melissa for the Queen’s coin!”

  I paled, my legs suddenly turning to jelly. Despite that, I took a step away from Talith and towards Lonna.

  “Wait… was that why you were yelling? To warn people off?”

  “Like that would do any good,” Lonna said, shaking her head. “I mean, sure, maybe anyone with a conscience would listen, but honestly? I think I did more to draw the biggest, strongest idiots around towards us. Three of whom are currently walking right towards us.”

  “So it can count!” The voice came from an alleyway to the right. From it walked three people, none of them human.

  In the lead was what looked like a giant grey cat with a white muzzle, standing on two digitigrade legs. Sort of like an anthropomorphic human, but… more animal than the average anthro picture I’d seen around. If she got on four legs, she would have seemed like just an oversized house pet; as things were, though, she was nearly as tall as me.

  Next to the felinoid was a man with pale skin, golden eyes, and the lower body of a rge green snake. He was long enough that he could have likely curled around Lonna three times before running out of tail.

  Taking up the rear was a woman who looked, to me, like an angel: mostly human, with blonde hair, a vapid smile on her face. And swan wings stretching behind her back. They twitched, now and again, as if she were readying herself to fly. Despite that, her feet never left the ground.

  “A feline Sapphi, a mia, and a harpy.” Lonna listed them all off, in order. “Not exactly the powerful bounty hunters I was expecting. What brings you three together?”

  “Funny you should mention our roots, actually…” The cat ughed, and held a paw up to her mouth, just a moment too te to hide her disconcertingly fanged grin. “You see, we have a little bet going. About what you are.”

  “Just tell us,” added the mia, “and we’ll be gd to let you and your little heroine friend go on your way.”

  “Uh-huh!” the harpy chirped next. “I think you’re a Chimera, by the way.”

  “Nobody cares what you think, Harmony,” the Sapphi snapped, before turning with that predator's grin to Lonna. “I mean, I personally think you’re just a magic experiment gone wrong. That’s the real reason you’re always cloaked.”

  She stepped forward, reaching for the green fabric of Lonna’s cloak. “Come on. You can tell me. I’ll win two Crowns!”

  Lonna moved to sp the hand away from herself, but Talith stepped forward before she could. Moving with surprising speed he pinched the Sapphi’s wrist between his three thick fingers and lifted her into the air, causing her to cry out in pain. Then he swung her by the wrist and threw her into her two friends, knocking all three of them down.

  “Nobody talks that way about my sister.” Talith’s voice rumbled with anger, and the three figures trembled as they found their footing again.

  “T-This isn’t over,” the Sapphi warned, holding her limp wrist, and wincing in pain. “I-If you dare step foot in Ife again, we’ll be there! I promise you that!”

  Talith only scowled in response. Harmony practically squeaked.

  “Come on,” Lonna muttered, starting to skirt around her, now trembling, one time opponents. “These idiots aren’t worth wasting Breath on.”

  I stared, as Talith turned to follow Lonna past the group, hesitating for a moment. Only a moment, though, before I was running to follow after them both.

  Between Talith’s brute strength, and Lonna’s magic, I thought, we might just make it out through the gate.

  ***

  Lonna***

  I was, to put it lightly, in a bad mood. It was barely daybreak, and yet the Heroine had already been made a renegade, the city had turned against us, and three idiots had decided to test my patience, just for… I didn’t even know what. Casual racism?

  Word must have spread around about how we took care of them, though - that, or people in this city were just naturally smart enough, by and rge, to avoid facing a magi, a psi, and a mighty seeming Heroine all at the same time.

  That seemed like a lot more self-preservation than the average person came with, though, so I was willing to bet it was mostly exaggerated stories of Talith tearing them apart that had people second guessing any pns they had to attack us. Actions spoke louder than words, and all.

  I guess it didn’t matter much, in the end. We made it to the gates unmolested from there, moving at top speed - which should have put me in a good mood.

  It didn’t.

  Mostly because of the two assholes at the gate - Maxwell and Edison, the night guards we’d run into just hours before. Except now they were dressed up in proper armor.

  “Isn’t it a bit early for you two?” I asked, staring them down.

  The two pummeled their shiny new breastptes with freshly gauntleted fists. Both parts of their new kit looked like it was made of iron. They even had new helms, though they hadn't closed their visors.

  This was clearly an invitation to punch them right in their smug faces.

  “Still want to set us on fire?” asked Maxwell - the older of the two. Also the shorter. I would have called him the wiser one, as well, but if he was daring to stand up to me then he obviously didn’t have much wit going for him.

  “I wouldn’t dream of it,” I replied, voice dry. “I mean, think of all the extra funds it must have taken to get armor sized for a beanstalk like your friend?”

  “Cut the horseshit,” snarled Edison. “We both know Magi are defenseless against iron! Your magic won’t work on us, like this.”

  “Will it stop me from knocking your heads together like the rocks they're full of?” Talith asked, striding toward them.

  I held out a hand to stop him. “You go work the winch for the gate. I’m in a bad enough mood to deal with these two myself.”

  “Are you sure?” Talith asked, voice dropping low. His eyes darted to Melissa, just now coming to a stop behind us, and still looking over the scene. “Your heroine doesn’t seem to like violence. It might be better to put it all on me.”

  “She’ll see how I fight eventually, anyway,” I muttered, gd that my dark cheeks didn’t tend to show much in the way of blushes. “Just take care of the gate.”

  Talith shrugged, and moved toward the wheel that would lift the iron gate. The soldiers in turn pointed their spears at him, preparing to attack the Laspi, but he paid them no mind as he began to turn the wheel.

  “Melissa?” I called. “Go on ahead.”

  “Are you sure? They look like they’re about to stab Talith…”

  “He can take it,” I promised. “Body of cy - Lapsi are hard to kill. Just get through the gate.”

  Now Edison had spun toward Melissa. His ck of experience was pretty damn obvious, though; he couldn’t even decide which target to prioritize.

  Maxwell, on the other hand, had experience. Experience enough to at least choose a target, in the form of Talith. Sadly, as previously stated, his wits weren’t quite up to snuff - or he would have known better than to turn his back on me. Just because iron wasn’t very conductive for magic didn’t mean it was completely immune to said magic’s effects.

  Taking a deep breath, I exhaled a plume of fire towards his back - heating the armor, and causing smoke to rise from within. Likely from the padded gambeson underneath. If I kept it up, he’d have probably burst into fmes - but I wasn’t quite cruel enough to do that. No matter how tempting the thought was.

  In the end, my goal was just to get him to turn around. The moment he did - all snarls and impotent gres - Talith spun the wheel rapidly, moving the gate up far enough that all of us could duck under it. Then he bent the wheel in on itself, warping the metal and securing it in pce as we moved toward the gate.

  “Come on!” I urged, running for the opening at full speed. I waited until Talith and Melissa were through, both of them ducking almost in half to fit under the gate, before lowering my head a little to pass through myself.

  The guards weren’t just sitting around during that, of course. They were just a little busy trying to stomp out the fires I was starting. Even so, they were still making progress by ignoring the lightest of the fmes - at least until I blew a kiss towards the rope holding the gate in pce, burning neatly through it and causing the gate to crash close behind us.

  “That should buy us a few minutes,” I said, with a grin. “Now come on, the stables are this way…”

  I made my way towards the stable used by the gate guards. A young man stood in front of them - maybe fifteen at the oldest? He was armed with a spear, and wearing maille, pauldrons, and brown cloth pants - the local guard’s standard kit. I only spared him a gnce before deciding to give the best advice he’d ever get.

  “Be elsewhere. Go back to your family, if you’ve got one.”

  The boy hesitated, gripping his spear tighter. All the same, I could tell that he didn’t really want to attack me. I mean, he was just a kid, scared shitless by the not-so-big-or-bad adult who’d just waltzed past his seniors, leaving nothing but chaos and destruction in her wake.

  I could also see Talith narrowing his eye sockets, though. He looked maybe half a sec away from pulling back his fist and sending the boy to a medic.

  So, of course, I did the best thing I could under the circumstances - I grabbed hold of the spear shaft, muttered a spell under my Breath to burn through some of the dry wood, and then squeezed hard enough to break the now charred shaft in half.

  The boy squeaked in surprise and broke, running. I, meanwhile, bent down to pick up the blunt half of the splintered spear and tossed it to Melissa.

  “Hold onto this,” I ordered. “It might come handy in a fight.”

  “R-Right…” For some reason, Melissa looked pale and frightened; she really didn’t have a stomach for violence, it seemed like.

  She’d have to learn. Hopefully without losing her sense of gentleness… but what was a Heroine if not someone who could walk the path of violence while still caring about others?

  “I’ll saddle up two horses,” I told the group, for now. “Talith, you set the others free, and look for a riding drake. Melissa… Please tell me you can ride?”

  “My css went on a field trip to ride some horses in middle school?”

  “I didn’t understand half of those words, but good enough!” I grinned. “Doing better than I expected at this point!”

  Talith was already bringing out the horses. Most of them would be sent to roam the countryside, while Melissa and I would take one each. Talith, though, would need something bigger.

  “Did they not have drakes in the stable?” I asked, uncertain how to proceed. Talith could move surprisingly fast, but without a mount...

  “There’s one in the back,” Talith replied, stilling my fears. “I’ll get it next.”

  “Good. Be quick. Melissa - while he’s doing that, I need you to gather up all the equipment you can find. Riding crops, saddles, bridles, everything.”

  Melissa, clearly confused but eager for something to do, began to prepare.

  I nodded in approval. “Once we get our own rides secured? We’ll burn the rest of their gear. That, plus the missing horses, will buy us some time without riders on our trail.”

  Melissa nodded, throwing a saddle and some bridles on the ground before going back inside for more.

  This time, however, she stopped, and took a hasty step back into the light. It didn’t take much to see why: Talith was walking one the aforementioned riding drake out.

  It was a huge beast, about a dozen feet long and half that across. It had thick muscles, covered by hard green scales. Its feet had vicious bck talons. Even its snout was covered in small spines!

  Children were known to cry when they first saw a drake - but the beasts were actually pretty gentle, bred for size and strength as well as a gentle temperament, so that they could carry Laspi without effort or compint.

  “Don’t worry,” I said, heart soaring. “With this girl on our side, and the guard’s gear burnt, there’s no way they can stop us. Mount Drogone - here we come!”