If Clarissa and Ezekiel didn’t have a chance in hell walking away from this fight, the shadow lycros just had to sneeze and Quetzal would disappear into oblivion.

The shadow creature took a firm stance before it roared right at Clarissa and Ezekiel. Time stopping cut the roar off as words popped into Rafael’s sight.

Make a wisdom saving roll.

Rafael grabbed the d20 out of the air. The roar was laced with infernal speech, meaning their characters might go mad with fear if they didn’t roll high enough.

Ten. With a +2, that was twelve. That seemed frighteningly low.

Failure. Ezekiel is now afraid. All dice rolls will be at a disadvantage.

“Shit.” If Clarissa didn’t roll high enough, she might bolt.

Time resumed, and Clarissa snorted, backing away as Ezekiel grabbed her mane. The panic appeared on his face, his breathing sharper. Clarissa looked unaffected. “Ezekiel!” Rafael shouted. “Hold on to her! Don’t let go!”

Being terrified out of his mind, Ezekiel did as told. Quetzal came in fast, and there was only one thing to do. Rafael charged the shadow lycros. It was stupid. Tyler would give him an earful, but he couldn’t look Alejandra in the face and say he didn’t try everything to save the baby drake. He pretended this was a football game, and his job was to tackle the opponent.

The shadow lycros didn’t expect Rafael to charge him, which made him the center of attention. Clarissa took the distraction and galloped toward Tyler’s car as Rafael closed the distance between him and the shadow lycros. At the last second, Rafael dodged the creature right as Quetzal made his bum wiggle and leapt.

Rafael snatched the baby drake around the middle, then pulled him into his chest before his shoulder smacked the ground. He then scrambled to his feet and sprinted toward the car with Quetzal tucked under his arm like a football. Clarissa already changed back into herself and slid into the back of Tyler’s car, leading Ezekiel inside. Rafael focused on Derek’s car, the back door open. Derek was in the driver’s seat, car on, waiting for him.

Wings flapped behind him, dust kicking up into the air. Quetzal was much heavier than a football, but Rafael trained for moments like these. Enemies behind him, sprinting as hard as he could, goal in sight. Get in the car. Nothing else matters. Pump his legs until he made the goal.

The shadow lycros’ claws circled around Rafael’s midsection. He held Quetzal away from the claws. Rafael couldn’t get hurt. Quetzal could.

His feet lifted ever so slightly, almost like the shadow lycros could lift him, before Rafael slammed back down and kept sprinting. The creature was surprised, but Rafael wasn’t. And that’s what saved Quetzal’s life.

He dove into the back of the car. “Go! Go! Go!” He barely had time to shut the door before Derek slammed on the gas, screaming with laughter.

“Why am I laughing! This is not funny! Holy shit Rafael!” Derek was talking fast as they pulled onto the road.

Rafael couldn’t answer, gasping for air. There was no one on this back road, and Derek was gunning it to catch up with Tyler.

He didn’t realize the d20 was hanging in front of him and time came to a standstill. He used some time to regain his breath before grabbing it. It wasn’t until the dice clicked across the invisible table that he realized it was a question about stealth. Eighteen. That was a good roll. The d20 popped up again, and he remembered Ezekiel was terrified and rolling at a disadvantage. He grumbled and rolled again, this time landing on a ten. Not as great. He saw the +10 and assumed Clarissa was casting the pass without trace spell. Good. Ezekiel needed the buff.

“Rafael! What the hell were you thinking!” Tyler screaming at him on speakerphone made him realize time had resumed. Derek’s phone was on the passenger side of the car.

“Is Quetzal safe?” Evelyn asked.

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Rafael was still out of breath, so Derek answered for him. “He’s fine. Both of them are fine.”

Rafael should buckle up. He should also check out the window to see where the shadow lycros was. But he still needed air. That was an insane sprint.

“Clarissa just cast pass without trace, and it seems like the shadow lycros is ignoring us,” Evelyn said.

Rafael felt a weight lift off his shoulders. The three characters were safe. It was enough for him to sit up and grab the seat belt. Derek sped by, well over the speed limit, kicking up dust. It wasn’t exactly covert. There was a chance the shadow lycros could still hurt Quetzal.

The baby drake climbed up on Rafael’s lap, chattering away. Rafael scratched him under the chin. “You owe me one, do you understand?”

Quetzal kept chittering. There was something odd about his chatter. If Rafael could guess, the little guy sounded concerned about something. His body shook. Rafael kept petting him. “Okay, okay. I know. We’ve got to keep an eye out for the shadow lycros.” He glanced out the window, seeing the creature in the sky heading toward them.

Tyler’s voice came in calmer, though still worried. “Ezekiel’s having a panic attack.”

Rafael winced. “The shadow lycros’ roar scared him. Talk to him about books. Lord of the Rings. Sherlock Holmes. Fairy Tales. Whatever is his favorite, talk him through it.”

“A shadow lycros has an eighty feet speed distance for flying,” Derek was saying to himself. “Each combat is supposed to be about six seconds per turn, which if we divide eighty by six, that gives us…” Derek closed an eye as Rafael pulled out his phone, struggling with the calculator app.

“Thirteen point three three three,” Rafael said.

Derek glanced out the rearview mirror as the shadow lycros receded from view. “In miles per hour?”

Rafael’s fingers shook as Quetzal kept chirping at him. “I know,” Rafael said, though he still didn’t know what the baby drake wanted to tell him. He found a converter on his phone and plugged in the numbers. “Nine miles an hour.” Rafael glanced out the window. “Meaning you can stop speeding.”

Derek let up on the gas, but only a little. Rafael watched as four hundred and fifty experience points tumbled into Ezekiel’s bar. He’d finally crossed two thousand total points. That was nice. Rafael scratched his side as he assured himself they’d be fine. “As long as we drive like this for a while, we’ll lose the creature.”

“We’re not stopping for an hour,” Tyler said. “That’s how long Clarissa’s spell lasts.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea,” Derek said.

Rafael’s fingers brushed against Quetzal again, the drake chittering and shrieking. He glanced down to look at the drake, which is when he noticed his fingers were red. Actually, his entire hand was red and sticky. His heart plummeted. “Shit. Quetzal? Did you get hit?”

Derek glanced at the rearview mirror again. “What?” Rafael tried to inspect Quetzal’s body, but the only blood he saw was on his hand. But if Quetzal didn’t get hit…

Rafael reached behind him and realized the sensation he thought was a sweaty back from a fast sprint was, in fact, something else entirely. He lifted his arm, seeing his entire side streaked in blood, leading toward his back. He turned to see blood on the car seat. “Oh, shit.”

“What? What is it?” Derek was panicking. “Give it to me right now. What’s happening?”

“I… I’m bleeding.”

Derek’s eyes widened. “You’re bleeding?”

Rafael moved as best he could. “I’m so sorry, Derek. The seat, it’s—”

“You’re bleeding?” Derek asked again.

“It’s on your car. I’m sorry. I can give you money to rep—”

“Shut the hell up about my damn car, man. You’re bleeding?”

“Who’s bleeding?” Tyler demanded.

“Rafael’s bleeding.” Derek shouted this partly for Tyler’s benefit, but no doubt to process this.

“I’m fine!” Rafael shouted back. “It’s not a lot of blood.”

Now that it came to his attention, he felt his heartbeat from his side and back as his side and back started to sting. He lifted his shirt to see his sides where the shadow lycros had grabbed him around the middle. He remembered how the creature couldn’t get a hold and instead slid off. It reflected that on his skin, and yet there were no holes in his shirt.

“Okay. Okay. Okay. We can work with this. It’s… okay.” Tyler did his own sort of panicking.

Rafael sighed, touching the wound. They weren’t deep, but there were ten scratches now on his back. “Alright, listen. I am fine. I’m not passing out. The wounds aren’t deep. We keep driving, like you suggested, to make sure that shadow lycros cannot follow us. We’ll regroup in an hour. Derek, do you have anything I can press against the wounds to keep your car clean?”

“Uh…” Derek mulled something over. “There’s a blanket in the trunk. You can lower that middle seat to access it.”

Rafael nodded, grabbing the seat and pulling it down. “Cool.” He reached in to find a blanket, then pulled it out. Quetzal sniffed it curiously, and Rafael closed the seat to make sure the drake didn’t get in there. He pressed the blanket against his back, seeing the black creature in the distance.

“If anything changes at all, you call immediately, and we meet on the side of the road,” Tyler said.

“Alright. Thank you, Tyler.” Rafael said it because it was the polite thing to do. Give people peace of mind. Tyler hung up, and Derek met his gaze in the rearview mirror.

“You’re stupid. You’re insane. And you should have never done that. But it was totally, completely badass,” Derek said.

“I know you don’t actually want me to say thanks, but I will anyway to prove I’m fine,” Rafael said.

Derek chortled as they drove away.