Chapter 125

I can scent your fear as clearly as I scent your magic, Rowan-Tobias. All is well, I am well-fed, you will follow," Terrox "assured" with their trademark rumbling chuckle.

Tobias swallowed hard again, which earned him a swish of her massive tail.

"Wait a minute, you smell magic?" Riley asked.

Terrox tilted their head back, muzzle swaying like a barn door, to watch her with one bright purple eye. "Yes, it is the way of the Dracovani, and your scent is... most strange."

She scented the air again, tilting her muzzle up as she walked through the empty, balmy streets. "Life, yet death; celestial, yet infernal."

Riley boggled. "Does it smell good?"

"Better than human fear. The celestial scent, most rare, oddly pleasing. I have only caught it at a few shrines to ancestors, high rites... but no fear from you, yet small, yet food," Terrox rumbled again, enjoying their intimidation game.

Riley's eyes narrowed as the power leapt to her paws. "I'm used to being surrounded by predators and even more accustomed to humbling them. I am not food."

"I like you, tiny fierce creature, sure in your power, like a Dracovani." The reptilian praised.

"So where are you taking us? Is it far?" Tobias pressed as he moved like a ghost, with his hood up and his eyes down on the ground ahead.

Riley, hopping beside, could not miss his hand ready on his sword.

"Outside of the city is the meeting place. I have done this many times before," Terrox assured.

"So you're a spy?"

"Riley!" Tobias spat her name like a curse.

"Much like a Dracovani! I am... what is the word in Calarian..." A series of clicks and guttural growls escaped her throat.

"Mercenary, opportunist, or rogue? You work for whoever pays you best," Riley puzzled as the words popped into her mind.

"Yes! I am clanless. Opportunity is found where it is found. No blood family exists to give me title or aid. You speak my language?" Terrox, this time, boggled.

"Kind of," Riley offered in a non-explanation.

"Follow, follow. You are safe. I am paid well and have honor. This one knows you have no choice but to trust, but you can trust Terrox, yes."

Tobias, in that moment, gripped his sword harder as Riley felt the beginnings of a cast starting in his spirit.

"We'll be okay," she projected, hoping she was right, and, with nothing better to do than ignore her prompts, tried to enjoy the scenery.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Keeping an eye on things was good tradecraft, after all, and this was a new country with new dangers.

Ashenvale felt closer to the world she had known, but in Delos, even the passing familiarity was gone. Nothing looked, sounded, or even smelled the same. Even something as simple as door frames and windows were outsized and odd.

Strange signals that her translation power did not parse hung from buildings that were otherwise mysteries. No pubs seemed to exist on corners, but some buildings had a strange blue smoke drifting lazily from their windows in great clouds. Anything familiar only seemed to accentuate the avalanche of oddity, as Riley felt even more out of place than normal.

Though it was only early evening, the streets were deserted like the Ashenvale at four bells. Only guards walked the empty streets, carrying blue crystals in lanterns that draped from their raised tails.

None of them had paid them any mind, never bothering to check, sure in their authority, passing Terrox without even a nod as if she was somehow beneath them.

"It's Gojira!" Riley exclaimed to Tobias as they passed another sentry with a bemused chuckle.

He did not even bother to sigh, his head on a swivel as his hand stayed near his sword.

Finally, after a half hour of winding streets and new mysteries, a massive wall came into view, with two guards in shiny black armor guarding it.

"What do you want, Terrox?" The one on the left said in Dracovani.

"Two for the embassy. Their papers were lost, and in accordance with treaties, this one was contracted to conduct them safely to have this remedied," Terrox withdrew a piece of paper from a pouch on her belt and handed it over with a deferential bow of her head.

They passed it between each other, "What do you make of such things? This one is ever an errand runner for the humans."

The guard on the left began scrutinizing the document, her eyes flicking to Terrox, then Tobias, and finally Riley.

Riley sat up on her hind paws, holding up a forepaw in greeting, before projecting, "Hello, we've had some bad luck," in perfect Dracovani.

The two guards shared surprised glances. "You speak our language?"

"It's helpful when you're visiting a foreign country, don't you think?" She replied.

"This one would not know firsthand but agrees all the same. The papers are in order; there is nothing suspicious. The human is afraid, also not suspicious," the growling, rumbling laughter suffused through all three of them.

"He's good for opening doors, but little else. It's so hard to find good help these days," Riley lamented.

"Take your servant and travel safely. May you have better luck in the future," the guard on the right said with a bow.

"Were you talking to them?" Tobias asked, having been left out of the loop.

"Obviously, I was conducting diplomacy," Riley explained.

"I can feel you grinning even if I can't see it. Did you make me look like a fool?" Tobias complained, drafting off her emotions.

"I'd never do that. I was outlining our unique arrangement, and we're out, aren't we?" She replied.

Tobias only sighed in response.

"How much longer?"

"There is a thicket of jungle not far from here, no more than thirty minutes walk. We will rendezvous with Birch there," Terrox assured.

Having no better choice, they each followed until, about ten minutes in, they turned off the main road onto a disused and overgrown path.

A human was waiting in an old grove with his hood up. Terrox held up her hand and crouched low, blending into the night.

"What's the matter?" Tobias whispered.

"Something smells wrong," She prompted.

Riley scented the air. "That's blood, fresh."

"Yes, and that magic, it is not Birch!" Terrox replied.

"You can come out, I've already heard you! " The figure said, with his back still turned.

"Where is Birch! What is the meaning of this?!?" Terrox demanded, rising like an oak.

"Oh there's been a change in plans," the man turned to reveal a blood-soaked face.

Kicking at the ground, a ball-like object arched through the ear with a sickening plop.

Terrox growled with menace as she regarded the human head that stopped its motion just a few feet from her.

"That is Birch... This is Enemy... We fight!" She cried, drawing the massive claymore off her back.