A cloud of dust rose up behind the speeding ship, bushes disappearing into the billowing haze as it passed. Leaning sideways, Christoph steered the craft around the trees as best he could. Clay had given way to dirt a few days ago, and regular plant-life had appeared soon after. What trees they saw now grew densely in patches, dry-looking branches adorned with thin leaves if they had any at all.

“I wonder if there’s any water around here,” he said, shielding his eyes from the afternoon sun. “I don’t think we’re in the desert any more.”

“Do I still have to sit in front?” Emilia asked, fur shaking as she shivered. Lifting a hand, she pointed to where the mountains were clearly visible in the distance. “You said until we got out of the desert, right? Can’t we walk the rest of the way?”

“Deal with it,” Christoph replied. What sort of warrior was afraid of skimmers, anyway? Now that he had his memories back, he couldn’t see the craft as anything more than a floating motorbike, in purpose if not appearance. Instead of wheels, it ‘stood’ on invisible stalks of mana, and was propelled along by a jet from behind. The shape itself was almost arrow-like, a kind of jagged fleur-de-lis if seen from the top. “Do you know how long it would take us to walk all the way to the nearest village? It’s your fault you’re sitting in front, anyway.”

“Can’t we switch back?” The cat-girls eyes pleaded up at him as she turned in her seat, her arms clamping around his torso with enough force to make his ribs flex. “Please?”

“Deal with it,” he repeated. “I’m not going to spend the whole journey to the mountains trying to ignore what your hands are doing under my clothes.”

“I can still touch you from the front, you know!” Turning around in her seat, she swayed in her seat as her legs lifted over his own. Locking her heels around his back, she grinned up at his sudden scowl. “What now?”

“Cut that out,” Christoph said. “I have to dodge the trees, and we’re going slow enough already.”

They might be travelling many times faster than a wagon would, but it still felt like an age to Christoph. As someone who’d spent the last few years of his life in a city, the backwards limitations of this world were stifling. This was a place where horses were considered commonplace, not that you’d find any on the plains without a wagon attached. Having to carry a food supply for your beast was not something you could ignore.

“Hey, I’m hungry,” Emilia said, hands pausing as they lifted up his shirt. “Feed me.”

“Feed yourself,” he replied, ignoring her closed eyes and open mouth. The ravenous beast-woman was eating through their meagre supplies with alarming speed. The provisions were dwindling fast, even with the added food that he’d looted from the various abandoned wagons yesterday. His own hunting took a large amount of time as well, especially considering the fact that his crystals were reserved for powering the skimmer’s mana shield throughout the night. “Actually, don’t. It’d do you good to go without for a while.”

“Stop complaining,” Emilia said, snapping her mouth closed.

Christoph’s frown deepened at the cat-girl’s dismissive words. Although he’d told her they wouldn’t spend so much time in bed, she seemed to determine to chase her pleasure, even at the expense of their limited sleep. The increased toll on his body only served to encourage his ever-present hunger. Looking up from where the beast-woman was reaching down into the saddlebags, he slapped at her hand as it hooked into the waistband of his pants.

“Look, a town,” he said. Pointing over her shoulder, he winced as she bit into the soft flesh of his upper arm. Rocking the skimmer side-to-side in retaliation, he gripped the seat with his legs and manhandled her back around to face the front when she froze up in fright. Wiping his wet arm off on the side of her head, he resumed his gesture. “Look.”

“A town!” Bobbing excitedly, Emilia patted at his thigh. “Hey, do you think they’ll have food?”

“There might even be an inn,” Christoph replied with a wry smile. Sighing, he thought of the nights they’d spent between the blankets on the plains. “I miss my bed.”

“Me too,” Emilia said. He could tell she wasn’t talking about sleeping in it, but he didn’t have the energy to correct her. “Hey, isn’t it a bit empty though?”

The skimmer began to slow as it approached the buildings, the dust cloud dropping away behind it. Emilia was right – the small wooden buildings looked empty, doors wide open but not a person in sight.

“They might think we’re pirates,” Christoph said, guiding the skimmer deeper into town before he set it down on the grassy earth. Patches of dirt could be seen here and there, although the bushes and trees had ended at the town limits. Raising his voice, he waved his arms above his head. “We’re with the guild! Is anyone here?”

A familiar ‘twang’ reached his ears a moment before an arrow appeared in his left shoulder, shaft wavering as the arrowhead slid between his bones. Falling backwards, Christoph clutched at the wound as Emilia pulled him down behind the skimmer.

“I’m an adventurer!” Shouting out into the building, he wrenched the arrow from his arm as Emilia bounded away, daggers drawn. Inspecting the projectile’s steel tip, he grunted as the wound sealed itself shut. The absence of poison was a small blessing, at least. “Jesus Christ, what is wrong with people in this world? Why always arrows?”

A squeal sounded from behind a short wall nearby, and Emilia reappeared carrying a small figure under her arm. A child? No, a young woman perhaps. The teenager kicked out her legs as she struggled, arms beating at the beast-woman’s body with each step.

“Here,” Emilia said, throwing her captive down in front of him. “It’s just this one.”

“Just her?” Rolling the girl over onto her back, Christoph frowned down at her ragged state. “Did something happen to the village?”

“I’m surprised you realized it was a girl, this time,” Emilia said with a grin. “This one isn’t even wearing a dress.”

“Be quiet,” Christoph replied. Reaching down, he brushed the girl’s hair from her face, a dirt-smeared scowl appearing underneath. Pausing, he looked back up towards his companion. “You know, I’m pretty sure I saw some wizards wearing robes in the city.”

“I never said they didn’t,” Emilia said. “That girl was definitely wearing a dress, though.”

“It looked like a robe to me,” Christoph said, looking down at the girl before him. “Anyway, that isn’t important right now. What happened to the villagers?”

…

“Lord Charter, please don’t let me die like this.” Frederick’s prayer huffed out between his lips as he ran, his short legs carrying him across the ground as best as they could. If the dwarven god heard his plea, there was no sign. “I knew I should have donated more to the church,” he said. “Next year! I’ll donate twice as much next year!”

A burst of fire roared through the air nearby, the dry grass lighting up behind him. Yelping in the sudden heat, Frederick forced his body to move faster. The short man was somewhat unfit even for a dwarf, his rotund stomach a testament to his days spent swilling alcohol rather than swinging an axe. Never before in his life had he regretted his lifestyle as much as he did in that moment.

“Hey! Is anyone there?” Arms waving wildly, the short man raised his voice in a wailing shout. The village should be empty by now, and his horses weren’t about to come running to aid either. Even so, he’d have no chance of hiding from the beast anymore, and unless someone suddenly came to his aid then he doubted he’d live to see his next transaction. Decades of faithful business would come to an end just like that.

Looking backwards, he saw the beast emerge from the entrance to the mine, enormous mouth gaping wide before a ball of fire splashed out towards him. A house disappeared as he ran into the town, and Frederick shivered despite the heat. Taking even one of those attacks would leave him nicely roasted for the monster’s lunch. Dust rose up behind him with a thump, and he changed his course, lumbering to the side as a blast of fire singed the hair on his short-cut beard.

As a dwarf, Frederick had grown up in the underground cities of Mount Glimmer and various settlements of Charter’s Chain. A miner in his youth, there wasn’t a member of land’s other races who could possibly approach his knowledge of the earth, but right now this fact only increased the humiliation he felt at the current turn of events. Magma whales were not an unknown beast to begin with. Sluggish but powerful creatures, they were named so not for their appearance, but their eating habits. Sifting through the molten rock, they would devour smaller beasts and leave behind a higher quality vein of ore. Some of the larger workshops even kept a pair of them as living purifiers!

The heat of the mine shaft, the unreasonably well-aired tunnels, the fantastic lustre of the ores they had pried from within, there had been so many warning signs, it was a wonder he hadn’t seen them at all. Struggling to keep up his pace, Frederick glanced back to where the red-hot beast was hopping along behind him. The dwarf’s feet thudded at the dirt and grass in rapid succession, but the monster behind him seemed almost languid in comparison, back legs stretching out to ridiculous lengths as it closed the distance with irregularly timed leaps. The toad-like creature might not seem in any rush to catch him up, but it made no difference in the end. No matter how fast he urged his legs to move, Frederick simply just wasn’t quick enough to escape.

Panting heavily as the magma whale leaped towards him, Frederick’s watched in horror as the beast opened its toothless jaws wide one last time. The attack this time wasn’t a burst of flames but rather another projectile, the lobbed ball of flames quivering as it flew through the air. Eyes squeezed shut, the dwarf dove to the dried grass below, feeling the heat of the flames as they approached. An enormous crash sounded above him, and he was slammed into the hardened earth, a wave of cold air washing over him instead of the expected inferno.

“A giant frog?” The voice came from the direction of the magma whale, and Frederick jerked to some approximation of sitting upright, eyes open wide. A skimmer had occupied the space where the creature had been, and he could see the beast itself pressed up against the blazing remains of a house nearby.

“Oh, hey Frederick,” Christoph said. Pulling his sword from the whale’s stomach, he deactivated the skimmer’s shields and allowed the beast to fall forwards off the smouldering wooden walls. “It’s been a while.”

…

“We have a problem.” The adventurers gathered around their armored leader, a map spread out on the flat surface of the table between them.

“You mean besides the magma whale?” one of them asked, leaning on his spear.

“Oh shut up.” One of the party’s two female members slapped at his arm, scowling him into silence.

“We’re missing two people,” the first man continued, ignoring the remarks of his companions. Reaching a hand out, he tapped at a symbol on the map. “A merchant and child, both were last seen in the vicinity of the mines.”

“We have to go!” The party’s shortest member spoke her mind instantly, staff thumping down on the guild building’s wooden floor and causing the table to jump ever so slightly. “There’s no time to waste making plans!”

“I agree,” the armored man said. “Any objections?”

“None here,” the spear-man said. One by one, the rest of the party shook their heads and readied their weapons.

“Well then,” Ruth said. “Let’s g-”

“BAM!” A woman’s voice cut him off, the room’s occupants turning towards the door as it slammed wide open. “The heroes have arrived!”

“Calm down, Emilia,” Christoph said, struggling to keep his balance as the energetic cat-girl bounced against where he was carrying her on his back. “Hey, calm down I said!”

“Christoph?” Regal asked, blinking as she turned to look at the two of them. “What are you doing here?”

“Ah!” Emilia’s cry was punctuated by the sound of her left hand slapping against the top of Christoph’s shoulder, her right extended to point toward the group. “It’s that girl! Look, look! She’s definitely wearing a dress, see?”