Whydah idly plucked the strings of the lyre harp as she and Bird bumped northward on horseback towards the Luminarium. The tune was a required piece on the entrance exam from the Bard’s College back in Buhlent, difficult, but not impossible. The music always made her feel complete. Whole. It calmed her, washing stress and worry away with every note struck. Throughout their travels, it was the journeys themselves she most relished. Be it on horseback, wagon, or boat, every hour of travel was an hour of music. Bird had an opposing viewpoint on the subject. The Tabby loathed the hours spent traveling, finding them a necessary evil between the more interesting pursuits – planning a heist, crawling through caves after some cryptic legend, or performing for a crowd as they had the evening before. From her perspective, the greater joy was in the spaces between destinations. Moments like these – a gorgeous mountain vista and the playful rhythm of the river on a sunny day with her lyre made it all worthwhile. While he tolerated the travel to enjoy the destinations, she tolerated the destinations to enable the journeys and the music that accompanied them. Today’s trip included a new sensation. She felt the pendant, her secret prize from last night’s work, gently tapping against her breastbone with each step of her mount. An internal metronome of sorts, she immediately incorporated it into her routine, timing her melodies to the subtle beat it generated.

They had been riding since just before dawn. Bird favored a dimly lit departure, particularly when it involved borrowing someone else’s property as they had from the White Horse stables this morning. They had chosen well and made good time, toggling the pace to preserve the horses now owed a brief rest. This seemed as good a place as any. The relatively sparse cover on the riverside made this one of the more open stretches they had crossed in some time. Green grass filled the space between the wagon ruts, offering decent grazing fodder for the horses, while the noon sun promised a warm spot by the water for their meal. Whydah stowed the lyre into her pack and gave a quick shrill whistle. Glancing back over his shoulder, Bird nodded in response to her hand signal calling for a stop, navigating his horse to the left-hand side of the path, allowing her space to pull in beside. Although her quarter horse was more than two hands shorter than his full-sized steed, it still pushed her limits of control. A pony would be better proportioned to her stature, and it didn’t matter at today’s pace, but a full gallop would be problematic and likely end with her getting dumped. Mounts and dismounts also required a little help.

She waited patiently as Bird dismounted and removed his pack, setting it off to the side before walking around to her horse.

“You Ready?”

“Yep!”

The Tabby stretched out his arms as she swung her leg over the animal’s back and let herself slip into his firm grasp. He lowered her to the ground before removing her now out-of-reach pack. The two of them settled on a fallen log facing the river as the horses wandered nearby, heads bowed nibbling the roadside grasses.

“How’s the hip?” he asked, fishing in his pack for one of the traveler’s meals they secured that morning.

“Been better. Having to stretch so much to straddle the horse doesn’t help.” She smiled “But I’ll live!”

Bird withdrew a waxed bundle marked with the outline of a rearing white horse, unfolding it to reveal a small loaf of fresh bread, a few slices of cured meat, and a wedge of cheese. They shared the meal, watching the sunlight dance across the Shand’s flowing waters.

Whydah held up the last piece of her cheese before popping it into her mouth. “Not bad for a roadside flophouse in a two-horse town.”

“Better than I expected!” The tabby turned his head to look at her before reaching out a finger and tucking his claw under the silver chain peeking out from the neck of her tunic lifting it gently. “That’s new” was all he said before letting it fall back onto her collarbone. She felt the blood rush to her face. Oh shit! She hesitated, never raising her gaze from the bread crusts in her lap. I feel like such an ass!

“Oh, this? She slid her thumb under the chain, pulling the pendant into the sunlight. “It was in Red Beard’s coin purse. I liked the way it looked, so I tried it on. I just forgot to tell you, I wasn’t trying to cheat you, I swear!” Regret replaced embarrassment as her gaze dropped to the exposed pendant, not wanting to confront the hurt and anger she expected to see on his face.

To her surprise, he chuckled instead. She returned to his toothy grin, confused.

“Relax!” His rolling ‘R’ always reminded her of a purr.

“You’re not mad?”

“Nope. It’s part of The Code. In joint initiatives, the finder has right of first refusal over any non-currency acquired during the operation. It’s, basically, a ‘finders-keepers’ situation for anything other than coin.” The grin on his face belied his amusement with her embarrassment. He raised his hand, palm up. “Let’s have a look.”

Whew! She closed her eyes and exhaled, relief washing away the tense knot in the pit of her stomach. She embraced him in a side hug.

“I’m sorry, I promise I’ll tell you next time!”

Slipping the chain over her head, she passed it to her partner. Bird held it up into the sunlight rolling the sliver between his fingers to make the crystal pendant spin slowly, the sunlight returning flashes of color across the spectrum from within its dappled interior.

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“It’s crystal, but these flecks inside that refract the light are unusual.” He considered the setting. “Looks elvish, very pretty!” He passed the chain back and she slid it over her head, tucking the pendant back under her tunic just as a series of screams to their left interrupted the conversation.

Their heads immediately turned to the road ahead disappearing around a nearby bend.

“That’s not a creature. It sounds like a man.” The tabby craned his neck to focus on pinpointing the location. “I think it’s just up around that next bend!”

Whydah jumped to her feet. “I’ve got the horses.” She hurriedly gathered their reins and led the animals off the road before tying off around a nearby limb. Bird shoved the remains of their lunch into his pack before grabbing hers as well, hiding them under the overgrowth nearby.

“You want the lyre?” He called to her over his shoulder, holding up the instrument.

“Please!” she confirmed collecting the harp from his grasp and they rushed down the road on foot towards the next bend, painful screams echoing in the background.

Peering through the tree-covered corner, the halfling identified the source of the anguished cries. Two unnatural-looking creatures that Whydah had never seen before – seven feet tall, black skin, eyes that shone like embers, and a single hooked horn curving forward from the rear of their skulls – had three humanoids on the ropes. Fifty feet beyond the turn, a male dwarf lay prone, the armor on his torso glowing red hot. And they’ve got magic too. Charming. His screams began to transition to guttural wails. He doesn’t have long. To his right a wizard, sporting a gash under his ribs scrambled to his feet, collecting something important from the dirt. Most peculiarly, a female gnomish druid brandishing a small carpenter’s hammer stood over the dwarf, poised to defend him from the closer of the two attackers. She doesn’t stand a chance. Her hand reached for the Tabby’s bicep.

“We have to help!”

“I had a feeling you’d say that” Bird muttered as she felt his muscles tense, ready to spring.

Spying the matrix of red energy bouncing among the fingers of the farther creature, their plan solidified rapidly.

“Far one is casting, I’ve got him. You help her.”

First thing first. Reacting quickly, Whydah flicked her fingers towards the rear creature, immediately dissipating its spell. It looked down at its empty hand, then to the wizard before hissing wildly and rushing forward. Let’s see how you like me inside that hooked head of yours. She focused on the advancing demon and whispered a haunting dissonant melody, feeding a little extra magical juice into the spell. The creature stopped in its tracks and let out a wail of agony, both hands pawing the sides of its bony head. Its gaze snapped to Whydah’s position before turning to flee in the opposite direction.

“Well, they know we’re here now…”

Taking that as his cue, Bird sprung from the overgrowth towards the nearer adversary. Unaware of his approach, the creature shifted its spear into one hand as the familiar red matrix sprung to life in the other. Whydah could only watch as the druid was surrounded by an eerie red glow and levitated from the surface of the road. Extending its fingers in a flicking motion, the demon pushed her kicking form thirty feet through the air - to the middle of the flowing river - before ending the spell and dropping her into the water. Shit. Returning both hands to the spear, it plunged the tip into the prone dwarven fighter before Bird collided with the creature at top speed.

The two tumbled into the dirt, as the impact separated the attacker from the spear still embedded in Grym’s chest. The cat smoothly drew both katanas from over his shoulders as he rolled to his feet. Sunlight glinted from the slightly curved steel as he circled to his left to put himself between the creature and the two injured humanoids. The demon too recovered quickly and rose to face this new foe, blood-stained jaws snapping. Farther down the road a roar followed by several grunting clicks told Whydah the second foe had shaken her spell as she watched it lope at top speed towards her feline friend. The tabby stood stark still; swords held high.

I’m sorry, you’ll have to manage without me for a bit. Whydah jumped from the cover of her hidden position and took off towards the river’s edge pointing at her partner while shouting assertively in Glynfir’s direction.

“Help him!”

Does she think I’m stupid?! Glynfir collected the rest of his spell components from the road, grimacing as he stood, assessing the situation anew. The black cat, garbed in leathers and a cape, held two wicked-looking swords aloft, constantly adjusting his footwork ever so slightly as the two creatures crouched low and attempted to flank him. The wizard removed a small sphere of bat guano and sulfur from his satchel, examined it, and quickly blew off the loose dirt accumulated from its short time on the ground. As he drew the symbols and muttered the incantation, an orange mote of magical energy began to circle his right hand.

“Incoming!” he shouted at the back of his new ally pointing at the space between the two attackers. The mote of energy left his finger and grew exponentially into a raging fireball as it arced toward the target. Recognizing the troublesome trajectory at the last second, Bird caught the corner of his cape with the tip of one sword and rolled to his right, using the garment to protect himself as all three were engulfed in a fiery explosion. The wizard winced at his miscalculation.

“Sorry!”

Rolling back to his feet, Bird shot him a look over his shoulder before adding

“That didn’t slow them down much – try something else!” extinguishing the smoldering fur on his right leg as the demons converged. A flurry of blades and claws erupted as the three figures danced around each other and the blackened crater in the middle of the road. The Tabby embodied lethal grace in his swordsmanship, leading and feinting with his off hand before delivering crippling blows with his second sword when his opponent exposed itself. At least, that was how it usually went. These creatures were fast and intelligent, playing off each other’s movements to expose his flank. His technique was on point - landing all the right blows and painting the road’s surface with their black ichor – yet they kept coming. He dodged and spun until one of them caught the back of his ribs. I don’t know how long I can keep this up. Where is Whydah???

He knew the slightest hesitation in positioning would mean his end and felt the ache of fatigue creep into his shoulder blades just before his feet lost contact with the ground. His legs futilely scrambled for purchase as he extended both blades to either side of his body to hold the advancing figures at bay. Noting the telltale red energy pulsing among the fingers of both creatures, he felt the palm of his right hand begin to burn as the standard silver hue of the katana changed to bright orange. Heat rippled off the blade into the surrounding forest air, and as the pain became unbearable, he had no choice but to let it fall.