By the time the wagon train arrived at the gates to Dorn, Mau's fingers finally stopped tingling. She sat in the back of the wagon that had carried her, flexing and curling her fingers while waiting to read their destination, She poked her head out when the wagon rolled to a stop.

"We're here." Suvdaa said as Mau squinted in the fading light of the setting sun. The vast silhouette of an absolutely gigantic tree stretched to the sky, its bare leafless branches spreading to the heavens as it stood in silent, slumbering, majesty.

They had reached Dorn, and in just a few days time the tree would blossom and bloom, beginning the Blossom Festival and a whole season of wealth and prosperity for the sprawling city at the tree's roots.

The tree was even bigger than Mau had imagined, and the city surrounding it must have been home to thousands of people. The old dragon kin that had told her about the city really wasn't exaggerating when he had told her about the great tree. Mau whistled at first as she appreciated the great tree's staggering height. But then she scowled. Celebrations like the Blossom Festival are loud, randy, rowdy, and generally run for days. There was no way she would be catching up on the nap time she wanted.

"Home!" Andy, the acolyte said excitedly, tail wagging behind him. Mau chose to ignore the youth's excitement as the wagons rolled to a stop at the gates.

Through the front of the wagon Mau watched as several figures in dark armor approached the elves at the head of the wagon train to speak with Lirien and their other leaders. Andy's wagging suddenly stopped, and the young acolyte frowned.

For some reason this made Mau frown too, she didn't exactly like the gut feeling the dark armored figures gave her.

"Who're those guys." She asked, giving Andy a light nudge to get his attention. He nearly jolted when she did.

"Ah... Over the past year these people called the Deathdealer party have been flooding Dorn. They somehow won over enough support that they're kiiiiind of the people running the city now instead of the governor." Andy answered.

Mau didn't like that at all. She remembered what the old dragonkin had told her about them, as well, from when she was younger. She scowled when the elves pointed at the wagon she and Andy were in and the armored figures turned to approach.

Instinctively she reached for the hilt of her sword, fingers curling around the leather wrapped grip, until Andy placed a hand on her shoulder and shook his head.

"They're probably going to just ask us to use a different gate." He explained. "They funneled most demi-humans like you and me into the eastern quarter of the city and they mostly like to keep us there."

Mau slowly released her sword but scowled.

"That doesn't sound overly welcoming to demi-human kind." She muttered as the cloth panel on the wagon pulled aside and the two men in black armor peered inside at them.

"Dogboy. Catgirl." One muttered irritably, at the sight of them. "State your business in Dorn?"

Andy raised his hand like a boy at school.

"I'm an acolyte at the temple of Galatea. I was returning from a training mission to the neighboring village of Dren's Hollow."

The black armored guard grunted in vague acknowledgement before he looked to Mau.

"Adventurer." She grunted at him brusquely. "I've got jobs to turn in at the guild and wanted to see the Blossom Festival."

This earned silence from the black armored man for a moment before he turned to his companion and they began to whisper amongst each other as Suvdaa chose that moment to return to Mau's wagon.

"The hell's going on, are you in trouble already, dumb cat?" She prodded, staring at the two armored men, who barely bothered to look at the raider girl.

"Demi-humans use the east gate." One of the guards suddenly said, motioning toward a portion of the city wall in the distance.

"The elves and the human can pass, but you two have to go through the Beast Quarter." The second dark armored man rumbled.

Andy's floppy ears dropped when he turned out to be right. Mau frowned.

"Why the hell do we have to go all the way to the east gate, we're right here?" She asked firmly, glowering at the men. She had experienced such things in prior lives; factions growing in power and making life miserable for one group or another just because they could, and she wasn't in much of a mood to deal with it now.

However it seemed like her pressing the issue did not go over well with the guards making the demand. The two men slowly reached for their weapons and things suddenly grew much more tense as Mau's hand drifted back to the hilt of her sword. Suvdaa slowly reached for one of the knives at her belt, and Andy began to sweat.

"Are you objecting to the way things are done in Dorn?" One of the dark armored men growled.

"Hell yes I object to this bullshit." Mau said, shifting her weight onto her toes, only making the two men more tense.

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"This really isn't necessary!" Andy blurted, spreading his hands and gesticulating for Mau and Suvdaa to calm. "We'll go to the east gate; the three of us, and then we'll go about our business peacefully- very peacefully!" The young acolyte said with great haste.

Much as Mau didn't agree with kowtowing to the bullying demands of the lackeys calling themselves guards, she snorted and let go of her sword.

"Fine." She said, earning a balking look from Suvdaa as Mau and Andy hopped out of the back of the wagon. "We'll walk all the way to the east gate, but only because you two asked so nicely."

"The hell?" Suvdaa snapped, but Mau silenced her with a glowering look cast over her shoulder.

They said their goodbyes to the elves and the three started walking along the city wall towards the east gate, with their backs to the two smug, but sweating, guards.

"I can't believe you just let them do that." Suvdaa hissed in Mau's ear as they walked.

"What else were we gonna do?" Mau replied. "Kill a pair of jackass guards and be branded criminals before we set foot in the city?"

Briefly, Suvdaa went red in the face, hot with anger, but then calmed realizing that Mau was right and that would not have been the best course of action.

It was an hour and a half of a walk down the beaten road to the east gate, and the three were sweaty, irritable, and annoyed long before they had reached their destination.

Of course when they arrived they were greeted by more men in black armor, who pressed them on their reasons for coming to Dorn, and made things as absolutely difficult as possible for Mau and Andy before finally allowing the trio into the city.

The Beast Quarter was aptly named due to the very large concentration of demi-humans that has been funneled into the eastern section of the city in the past several years since the Deathdealers had come to Dorn. Children played in the filthy streets as various merchants hawked their wares from their stalls and carts while the three made their way down the main thoroughfare towards the heart of the city. Dorn was already bustling with life, and it was only going to get more crowded and lively as the days of the Blossom Festival grew nearer.

"We should figure out lodging first." Suvdaa pointed out, and Mau agreed.

"After we get our budding acolyte back to his temple, though." Mau pointed out, not wanting to leave Andy alone in what was clearly a very hostile city towards demi-humans.

"Oh!" Andy exclaimed, "thank you! But I can make my way back to the temple from here! I insist! It's all the way in the north section of the city and that's a real hike from here; I wouldn't want to inconvenience the two of you!"

Mau shook her head. "I insist. You really did me a huge favor keeping me from dying and all. The least we could do is walk you home." She said.

Suvdaa nodded in agreement even though she made something of a puckered and sour face at Mau.

"Besides." Mau said, "we can see where the guild headquarters is on our way up there and figure out what to do once we find a place to stay for the night."

"Well... If you really don't mind." Andy said sheepishly.

❧

With Andy returned safe and sound to the temple of Galatea, Mau and Suvdaa made their way back to the Beast Quarter. Inns around the city refused to serve them due to Mau's ears and tail, and they were forced to return to the eastern sector of the city in the shade of the great tree to find a place to sleep. As it turned out, the Adventurer's Guild headquarters was all the way on the western side of the tree, and they wouldn't have time to visit it until the next day due to the sheer size and sprawling nature of the city.

Unfortunately most of the inns in the Beast Quarter were fairly run down and shabby, but that meant that they were cheap enough to not be too much of a strain on Mau and Suvdaa's finances. It was as Suvdaa stepped inside one of the several inns in the quarter, named The Cat's Meow, to barter and haggle for a room that Mau's ears twitched. She had felt like they were being watched since they had re-entered the Beast Quarter, but the tingle in Mau's palms said it was more than that. They had been followed.

The shuffle of feet in a nearby alley put Mau on alert and her hand drifted to the hilt of her long blade at her hip. Especially as it grew closer. While Mau casually made herself look vulnerable and oblivious, someone was approaching her from behind. It was just as they approached- just as they got within striking distance to land a blow at her back that...

Mau flicked her tail, deftly evading the small hand that reached out to tug at it. There was a squeak and the small child that had been trying to catch her unaware tumbled forward into the dust.

A small chorus of whines and huffs sounded from the alley as Mau glanced over her shoulder at the pouting children, before she reached down and scruffed the tiny catgirl that had boldly made a go for her.

"You know it's rude to pull on people's tails." She said conversationally while the kitten mewled and wiggled but couldn't free herself from Mau's grasp. "Spill it." Mau said gently. "Which one of your friends put you up to this?"

The blonde kitten dangled limp in Mau's grasp, and that was when Mau remembered, from experience, that scruffing a cat absolutely deactivates them. She released the girl, and the girl dusted herself off with a dismayed pout. But it seemed that when Mau didn't retaliate or punish her that the other children grew emboldened to come peeking out.

"Are you really an adventurer?" The small girl asked as the other children cautiously drew nearer. Mau plopped her butt on the stairs up to the inn door and crossed one leg over the other.

"Yep." She answered as two more catboys, a dogboy, and a girl with feathers for hair inched out of the woodwork.

"Wow, Meu, she caught you. She wasn't even looking." One of the catboys said before excitement got the better of the lot of them at getting to meet an actual adventurer.

"Can we see your sword?"

"What monsters have you killed?!"

"What's it like outside the city?"

The children bombarded her with a series of questions and Mau couldn't help but giggle softly.

"No, you can't see my sword, it's very sharp and dangerous." She replied, lightly patting Meu free of dust and presenting her to the others, safe and sound.

"Orcs, recently, but I've killed a few ogres, a troll once, lots of goblins, and even a wendigo." Mau replied to the children- who only bombarded her with more questions while a catboy climbed onto her shoulders.

"Oop- easy up there." Mau chuckled as she supported the boy's weight easily enough.

"What's a wendigo?"

"Is it scary?"

"Does it have sharp teeth?" The children babbled all at once.

"Oh man, let me tell you how scary a wendigo can be..." Mau started to speak, before the door to the inn swung open.

"I got us a room." Suvdaa said as she stepped out. "But it only has a single bed and--... What are you doing?"

In an instant the children scattered, squealing in terror at the sight of Suvdaa's bear cloak.

"Wendigo! Wendigo!" One shouted as they all bolted into the night and back down the alley whence they came.

"... I'm not a wendigo." Suvdaa said, sulkily while Mau had herself a hearty laugh.

"You're bad with kids, you know that." The catgirl said to her raider friend, earning a dejected huff.

"I am not! And just for that you're sleeping on the floor tonight!" Suvdaa said as she stormed back into the inn and slammed the door behind her.

"... Wait, a single bed?" Mau blinked, suddenly realizing.

"... God dammit."