A Monster Life

77 - While Two Dogs Fight

The guard at one of Abana's gates watched the group of diverse people on their wheeled mounts approach on the road into the city early in the morning, and gazed dumbfounded at the softly growling parade as they passed. He shook his head and resumed his watch on the road and the familiar kind of visitors to the city. His commander stepped out of the guard house when he heard something suspicious, and hurried up to him when he saw the back of the party. 'Hey! Why didn't you stop them? Did you not see them?'

The guard turned to him. 'I saw a bunch of hot women, a small dragon, and a cloaked canine with a bloodwolf on two-wheeled stone animals. I thought it safer to assume it was something in the beer that I drank earlier.'

The commander stared at his subordinate for a moment, then the last members of the party disappearing around a corner, and returned to his desk. 'Someone throw away the beer and order a new vat of wine!'

The party stopped at a large square with folks distracted enough with their activities to take much notice of them. Ulric stepped off of Harry and pat Susi on her head, who stayed on the seat. 'Are we good, Val?'

Valdys pulled an artefact from a pocket enchanted by dimensional storage magic. 'Yes, it's somewhere around here.'

Elzbieta stretched herself and her protruding bosom distracted the few curious men gazing from a little distance at the odd construction and trying to figure out what to make of them. 'We'll have to snoop around again?'

Valdys returned the artefact to her pocket. 'Unless we find a better way. I removed the names we discovered at Havenno but there's still many left.'

Yingshien looked around at the people on the square, and those who met her intense gaze quickly returned to what they were doing. 'Can't we just ask everyone here?'

'That would just alert them all the more to us.' said Ulric. 'At least now we can simply pass ourselves off as an adventurer party travelling around without suspicion.'

She raised an eyebrow as she looked at him.

'Okay, okay, less suspicion. As long as we can keep our real goal hidden and not alert whoever has the artefact.'

Once again, the same pairs went around keeping eyes and ears open as they looked out for names, and the others stayed at the golem bikes to keep an eye on their possessions and preparing the next meals.

***

Rachael looked around casually at a few weapons from a specialist blacksmith while Handil discussed business with the owner of the shop. She kept an eye out for anyone nearby while examining a dagger, and kept her retracted staff loose in her belt in case she needed it fast. The sudden appearance of the black and brown canine next to her startled her.

Tarrence peered inside the shop through the door opening, hummed in slight disappointment when he took a quick survey of the inventory and saw nothing of interest, and walked away. He had noticed the subtle change in the Safo's stance and her quick glance at the Ruza inside, and thought she might not be such a bad bodyguard when it came to regular opponents, while she would be dead at his hand before she even realised it.

Rachael cursed inwards. If the canine had been an assassin sent after her, she would have had a hard time fighting him. That is if he wouldn't have ambushed her in the first place. She hoped the troll enemies had no idea who she was, and she planned to do more training during the trip to prevent future surprises like this one. Handil stepped outside of the shop and noticed the tension in her girl. 'What's wrong?'

Rachael sighed and put the dagger back in the weapons rack. 'Nothing much. I just realised I need to be more vigilant. I'll have to work on it while we're travelling.'