"I didn't expect for us to be leaving already. I thought we were leaving at the end of the week," I said.

  Piper laughed. "We said by the end of the week. We already took care of everything we needed to do here and the association already found us an escorting job."

  It's been two days since Luna and I formally proposed to each other. We mostly spent the time since then relaxing, shopping, working on my reading, and eating out in the city since we didn't have any more pressing matters before we needed to leave. I thought we still had another two days to relax but it seems I was mistaken...

  ("It'll be fine. There will be plenty to do in Ironcastle too when we get there. It's an even larger city so there will be plenty to explore,") Luna said to all of us. It took me a little while to notice, but she sounds a little bit different through the rings when she speaks to everyone in the group. She's been using her rings to talk to all of us regularly since she got the new one. It's been a huge relief for her. Her mood has noticeably improved in the last few days.

  I was wearing my full set of imposing armor right now since we wanted to make a good first impression. We were going to meet the caravan of wagons we would be escorting through the wilderness toward Ironcastle today. From what I've been told, the first two-thirds of the trip will be through the forest with the last third changing to arid grasslands. My weapon and backpack were stored in my new ring and my new lantern was hanging on my belt. Luna and I were also both wearing each other's braids on our chest from the ring near our collars, she's made it clear that she wants me to wear it as much as possible for a while. I'll probably put it away once fighting is more likely to happen though. We got them reinforced by an alchemist but I still don't want to risk losing it.

  "Your armor really does look good on you," Maxwell said. "It makes you look a lot more dangerous as a human."

  "Thanks," I said with a nod. We agreed that I would have to hide my wolf form unless there was an emergency. I didn't want to get in trouble with that crazy hunter's association manager. He was pretty scary. I would need to get used to fighting in my human form for this trip, but my friends told me there wasn't much to worry about. We shouldn't run into anything as dangerous as we had been fighting in the dungeon for a while. Most of the smarter and more dangerous monsters avoided the road we would be taking since the caravans routinely killed any monsters that were near. The path we were taking was the most dangerous when the road was first being trailblazed by the hunters that were connecting the two towns, nowadays it shouldn't be as dangerous. Not that I have the best luck when it comes to these things, our trip through the dungeon was a lot more dangerous than most people's as well.

  "This wagon yard coming up on the left is where we're meeting the people we will be escorting," Maxwell told us as we approached the large gated clearing. This place looked similar to a trainyard to me. There were so many lined up wagons with people working on loading and unloading them. The only difference was the slight smell of manure and hay coming from the nearby stables in place of coal and grease. Rather than horses like I initially expected, the wagons were pulled around by monstrously huge cattle. Or oxen? I wasn't sure if there was a difference or not. The fifteen-foot tall at the shoulder beasts seemed surprisingly calm when being hooked up to the large wagons they would be pulling, their temperament was a far cry from the bison we fought on the tenth floor of the dungeon. I wasn't sure if that was attributed to those being dungeon monsters or these being domesticated though. Probably both.

  A young drakken with brownish-red scales was waiting for us at the gate and led us over to the caravan we would be working with as soon as they were loaded up. It was still pretty early in the morning but we would be leaving pretty soon from what I was told.

  "This is the leader of the caravan, Korr'tak," the drakken waved over a draco with shiny green scales.

  His scales looked somewhat translucent, making him look like his scales were made of emeralds. He was a muscular draco that was above average height but still shorter than me. The draco came over and looked to immediately be sizing us up. He seemed to approve of us though because his face spread into a toothy grin before resting on Maxwell.

  "Hello! Maxwell I presume? I'm happy to see that your group is here on time. Many independent hunters aren't always punctual," he said.

  Maxwell nodded. "I'm happy to be here. Getting the opportunity to work with such a large caravan to Ironcastle is good fortune for us."

  "I'm happy to hear that. My name is Korr'tak, I am in charge of this caravan and I own four of the eight wagons we'll be traveling with on this trip. The four remaining ones are independent transporters that I've been working with lately. They're trustworthy people, no need to worry about that. You'll be riding in the fourth wagon of our convoy, right there in the middle, to give you the best opportunity to deploy against any danger with the other group we hired. Since... three? of you are humans, we'll use this standard human whistle to signal you in case there is trouble." His eyes trailed over me before deciding to count me as one of the humans in our group. I was so big that I think he might not be sure if I'm human too, which to be fair, isn't entirely inaccurate.

  "Let me call your runner, she will be in charge of relaying information to you or sending your messages to other members of the caravan." Korr'tak pulled out a different whistle and blew on it. The sound was so high pitched it hurt my ears but the only ones that seemed to react to it at all were Luna and Aria, whose ears twitched subtly. They didn't wince from it like I did, sometimes having good hearing sucked.

  Maxwell and Piper asked the draco some questions while we waited but I stopped listening so that I could look around at all of the busy people nearby. It was kind of amazing to see so many different varieties of beastkin, drakken, and draco running around working here. The sight looked more like a scene from an alien planet in a sci-fi movie than the magic one I was supposed to be in. Maybe I was just a little disappointed there were no elves and dwarves to round out my fantasy checklist.

  "Oh shit," someone said under their breath. I turned to look at the source of the voice and found out that our message runner was none other than the little mousey thief who tried to pickpocket Luna the other day.

  "Ah good, you're finally here Iris. This is the other mercenary group we hired to escort us to Ironcastle. Your job will be to coordinate messages between us and bring them anything they need to help defend us." The draco turned to Maxwell. "She looks a little rough around the edges but she's a good kid and she's a hard worker."

  Now that I was getting a better look at the girl without her hooded cloak covering her, it was more obvious that she had large mouse ears and a long pink tail. She nervously looked at me and Luna before bowing in front of Maxwell. "I will be taking care of you. If you need anything don't hesitate to ask."

  Maxwell raised an eyebrow and glanced back at me before laughing. "If you're afraid of Helena, don't be. She's nice. She won't hurt you, no need to worry about her."

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  Korr'tak cleared his throat. "I have other things to get ready before we leave the city. Iris here can lead you to the wagon and tell you when the last whistle sounds before our departure. Your foxkin friend there should be able to hear it too, not sure if you'll be able to hear it though," he said to Aria.

  She shrugged. "My hearing is pretty good but I'm not sure either. I guess I'll find out."

  He nodded. "Quite. If you'll excuse me then." He headed off toward another one of the wagons and started talking to someone who was holding something that looked a bit like a clipboard. It sounded like there were lots of manifests to check over before we left.

  ("This girl tried to steal my coinpouch a few days ago,") Luna told everyone through the rings.

  Iris didn't hear it of course and waved us in a direction. "This way to the carriage you'll be staying in for this trip." She gave another hesitant glance at me and Luna before hurrying forward.

  Maxwell sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Seriously? Why didn't you say anything?"

  I shrugged and whispered my reply, "I caught her and she gave the coinpouch back. So I dropped it."

  "This girl is our runner. We need to be able to trust her," Maxwell said back.

  "I'm so sorry!" The mouse girl was bowing low at an almost forty-five-degree angle. The only way she could have bowed even lower was if she was kneeling on the ground. "I shouldn't have tried to steal from you! Please don't tell anyone, I need this job!"

  "It was dumb trying to steal from delvers kid, you never know when one of them has better senses than you think. We use Helena as a scout sometimes because her hearing is so good," Piper told her.

  The girl hesitantly stood back up and looked at Piper with a guilty look on her face. "They weren't dressed as delvers at the time... and I thought she was blind..."

  Piper laughed. "That's exactly what I mean. Unless you know how strong someone is, you shouldn't steal from them. Helena here is pretty relaxed and carefree, but if you stole from someone as strong as she is, that was just a little more mean, she could have ripped you in half in an instant. If she grabbed you, she was probably being very careful not to hurt you. And Helena isn't blind, that blindfold lets her see just as well as you or I can and her vision is probably even better without it."

  The mousekin gawked at me in disbelief. "S-she's that strong?"

  Aria coughed and got the kid's attention. "Helena is probably the strongest one in our group, at least in melee. She also chose to keep your secret from that draco, you should probably thank her for that."

  I turned to Aria, "Wait, how'd you know that?"

  She shrugged. "You were looking intently at the kid from the very start. I was wondering what was up with it. It's obvious now that you recognized her."

  Piper bumped the kid's shoulder to recapture her attention. "Let this be a lesson kid. Don't steal from people in dungeon towns. It's not worth it. If they're walking around without help, they're not blind."

  I laughed. "Shouldn't you be telling the kid not to steal in the first place? Rather than essentially telling her not to get caught stealing?"

  Piper shrugged. "I mean sure, but if she's stealing stuff from people she probably has her reasons."

  "So... you won't tell anyone?" she asked. The anxiety in her voice was thick.

  I shrugged and looked at Luna. She sighed and shook her head. ("Tell her not to steal from any of us again and we won't tell. But I'll be watching her.")

  I relayed the message from Luna and the kid started nodding animatedly. "Yes! Yes! I promise! Thank you!"

  "Okay kid, show us where our wagon is then. I don't want to be the last ones ready to go, it'll look bad," Piper told her.

  The mousekin girl immediately turned around and started leading us through the crowd once again. "Sure, it's this way. There is another group of hunters with us so the two of you will be sharing the wagon."

  "Is there anything else in the wagon?" I asked.

  She nodded. "Heavy stuff in crates, that way your two groups can sit on them without any issues. Just don't open or break any of them and you'll be fine. Since I'm your runner I'll be helping you and the other group the entire time, so if you have any other questions don't hesitate to ask."

  When we reached our wagon we saw the other group of hunters outside waiting. There were four of them, all beastkin. Two of them were full on wolfkin, they looked like upright talking wolves. They were some of the most pure animal people I had seen so far. The other two had rounded cat ears poking out of their blond hair with long spotted silver tails. The spots looked a bit different maybe, but they looked kind of like snow leopards to me.

  As we approached the two wolfkin stared at me... and they didn't look all that friendly.

  Hello! The time has come for the group to leave Fallow and move onto a new adventure! We're headed to Ironcastle now, I wonder what kinds of trouble Helena and her friends will get into. Looks like trouble is already here too! Thanks as always for reading, I hope you enjoyed!

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