The innkeeper walked over, having noticed our conversation.

  “What manner of nonsense are you going on about now, Elgor?” he said.

  “Tis’ true! I had ta’ leave it behind, screamin’ while they ate its guts!” the drunken dwarf shouted.

  “You know there hasn’t been a confirmed case of scaled wolves in the southern plains for going on twenty years, since those alchemists discovered some’at or another that made’em sell so high,” the innkeeper responded. “You’re drunk. Take a healing from Chanter and get home, and stop scaring the young adventurers with your tall tales.”

  Elgor grumbled something about ‘his donkey’ under his breath before walking away, refusing the offer of healing.

  “Scaled wolves?” I asked, before the innkeeper could walk away. “What are they?”

  “Don’t worry, lad,” he said. “They were a real menace thirty, forty years ago. Nothin’ but stories for drunks to tell now. Haven't seen hide nor tail of them for a long time.”

  “Well that was… interesting.” Arlo said.

  “Yeah, do you believe that guy, Elgor?” Tobias asked.

  “He seemed pretty upset about his donkey,” Hannah said.

  “I think he was just a drunk that likes scaring people,” Katarina said.

  “We’ll find out tomorrow!” I said, stretching with a yawn. The yawn was contagious, spreading around the group.

  We separated to our rooms for the night. Memories of the day kept sleep at bay and I spent a while practicing Cahl’s Tatsu, leveling up my Stringed Instrument skill again. I was getting to the point where I could get through several refrains before missing enough notes to fail. I was nowhere near where I wanted to be, but it provided about fifteen to twenty seconds of stealth and was a massive improvement over where I had started. I could play for half an hour now before I needed to take a health potion to restore the fatigue that the ridiculous song caused.

  I fell asleep with the lute in my hands, sitting in my bed with my back against the wall.

  Knocking dragged me out of a dream wherein I was being chased by red eyed abominations through a grassy plain. I started, nearly dropping the lute in my surprise. The knocking sounded again.

  “Coming!” I said, standing and gathering a few things I had scattered around the room.

  I opened the door just as Katarina was going to knock for a third time. She flashed a large smile.

  “Good morning sleepy-head!” she said, bouncing on her toes.

  I groaned, pasting a smile I didn't feel on my face. After a second, the smile became real. I’m not a morning person, but her positivity was contagious.

  “Morning,” I said. “I’m sorry, did I sleep in?” I stepped through the door, closing it and following Katarina downstairs.

  “Only a little. Everyone else is ready to go. You weren’t responding to messages, so I volunteered to wake ya up!”

  I pulled up my message log and groaned again. I had half a dozen messages from different people in the group asking after me. I sent out apologies as we walked down the stairs.

  The rest of the group was gathered outside of the inn. We were supposed to be meeting Balen at the Southern Gate at first light. The first rays of light were peeking over the buildings to the east.

  “I am so sorry, everyone!” I said.

  “No time for that, we need to go!” Arlo said. “It’ll take about ten minutes to get across the city. Let’s see if we can do it in five!”

  Abernathy sighed as we all began jogging through the city. Abernathy actually traveled in little hops, which seemed natural to his quokka beastkin form. Katarina scaled up the side of a building and kept an easy pace with us, flipping between buildings and double jumping when the space required.

  Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

  “Parkour!” I shouted.

  “Parkour!” she echoed back as she somersaulted between two buildings high above.

  This set off a chain reaction of “Parkour!”s throughout the group. Everyone partook except for Elsetha, who was grumpy about the prospect of us being late.

  Katarina’s parkour antics set a grueling pace, but we were through the city and at the Southern Gates in less than ten minutes. The buildings gave way to a wide courtyard leading to the gates. She leapt from a three story building, laughing. My stomach fell as I watched her descent. I eyed the merciless cobblestone, than back up to her. A gust of wind swirled beneath her, slowing her descent at the last moment and kicking up a small cloud of dust. We coughed as she touched down.

  "Oh, sorry." She looked around, cheeks flushed from the run, and smiled. "Haven't used that skill much. Didn't think is would--" she cut off, coughing. "Yeck, that dust tastes awful."

  "Oy! You the adventurer's I been waitin' all mornin' for?!" A gruff voice called.

  Balen was a grizzled wood-elf wearing thick canvas clothing and a wide-brimmed hat of woven reeds. He leaned against a cart, chewing on a reed of grass. He stepped away as we approached, scowling.

  “Adventurer’s Guild make it a habit to be late fer missions we pay good money for?” he asked.

  “My apologies, good sir,” I said before anyone else could. Arlo’s mouth had been open, likely to apologize on our behalf. “It’s my fault. We will make it up to you.”

  “Oh, an’ how are you gonna be doing that?” He asked.

  “By getting you there faster than planned,” Katarina said, walking up to the massive ox harnessed to Balen’s cart. A single beast, half again as tall as me, stood with a leather harness affixed to two wooden staves protruding from a large wooden cart. The cart was large, and held several barrels of salted fish.

  “A’n how are ya gonna do that?” He asked.

  “Why, by whispering to the wind, of course.” Katarina laughed, as if explaining a simple fact. She winked.

  “Are you ready to go?” Arlo asked.

  “Aye, aye, was ready narry on an hour gone now. Let’s have at it. Got room for two in the cart, rest’ll have to hoof it.”

  Abernathy wheezed, leaning heavily against the cart. Elsetha was not fairing much better, but put on a better show of strength, breathing heavily with a flustered red face.

  “Can… can I please…” Abernathy said through heaves, “please ride in the cart.”

  “I would also request to ride,” Elsetha said.

  “Get on up, then. Hope ya don’t mind the smell o’ fish.”

  I don’t know how he managed it through the fur and pudge, but Abernathy looked green as he climbed into the cart. Elsetha followed.

  Balen climbed up onto a single seated bench at the front of the cart, picking up a pair of reins. He gave them a flick and the beast started plodding forward.

  Katarina walked alongside the beast, placing a hand on its shoulder and whispering. The ox flicked its tail and accelerated. We had to jog to keep up. She made her way to each person in our group that was jogging and whispered something, touching them on the shoulder, arm, or wrist. She jogged up to me last, whispering a few short phrases in a language I didn’t understand. She placed her hand on my chest, smiling. Her touch was electric, but not from magic.

  I felt a… lessening of the pressure? It was easier to run. There was less resistance from the air, as if it shifted in small ways to help me move forward. Breathing was easier, as if the air wanted to be breathed. There wasn’t one major effect from her buff. It was cumulative — several small things that made running easier and faster.

  The ox continued picking up speed, causing the cart to rattle and jump over small stones and imperfections in the road.

  “Hoo! Lass!” Balen called, “What’d you do to Jules?”

  “Your ox?” She replied, running easily alongside the cart. “Just a little help! It should last about half an hour.”

  “That’ll more than make up the lost time!” he called, nearly losing his hat to an errant gust of wind.

  "This is awesome!" I said to Katarina, who jogged easily beside me. It took nearly all of my effort to maintain the pace, but she seemed to be going on a light stroll.

  "Yeah, I'm pretty great."

  "What else can you do with your wind-monk powers?"

  "My wind-monk powers?" she eyed me, pulling ahead slightly and turning to run backwards.

  "Oh come on, now you're just showing off!"

  She laughed. "I can condense air into platforms to jump off of. Or fight with it, make it like a blade. All kinds of stuff." She winked.

  I saw a stone about two fists in size just ahead of her. I started to call out, to warn her, but we were moving too fast.

  "Wa—" was all I managed before she stepped down on the stone with one foot, twisting her ankle and falling backwards. I stopped, but she threw herself backwards and did a handspring, flipping around in the air and continuing to jog. I hurried to catch up.

  She favored her ankle for three steps, then began running smoothly again.

  "Man, healing potions are amazing. Something stupid like that would have probably taken me out for weeks." She chided herself, the smile gone.

  "Still, that was impressive. You've got some crazy moves!"

  She laughed again, and the return of her smile ignited a warm flame in my chest. "I'm just lucky you're the only one that saw me acting like an idiot, lute boy."

  I glanced around. She was right, we took up the rear of the procession and no one was looking back at us. They were all looking ahead, watching where they were going. Like rational people should. I joined in on Katarina's soft laughter.