I was surprised as I slid easily on the wet surface, pushing myself back from the wall and barely dodging the harpoon-like appendage, which the moth pulled taut just before it would have crashed into the stony mountainside. I slid below the massive hulking beast, claustrophobia-fueled regret immediately setting in. All I could think about was being crushed.

  A hand reached below the moth and pulled me out just as it slammed its thorax against the ground. Katarina flung me, sending me sliding on the layer of grime, away from the monster. She leapt as the moth turned towards me, pushed herself further with a mid-air double jump, and screamed as she brought the heel of her foot down like an executioners axe on the moth’s head.

  Abernathy ran over to me as the head slammed into the ground. Katarina, still standing on the head, pirouetted and brought her mechanical leg down with a vicious kick.

  The moth’s health was flashing, deep in the red. It spasmed, lurching up and to the side. It’s wings pumped as it tried lifting itself away from the road, but the damaged wing produced no lift, causing it to jerk and fall to the side. It thrashed out with its legs, shoving itself from side to side, trying to dislodge Katarina. Her leg was still half-sunk into its body.

  She shifted, unsuccessfully trying to pull her leg free from the moth, as it thrashed once more and slid from the edge of the cliff. I saw the blue flowers in her hair pass beyond view as Katarina was pulled with it.

  Not again!

  I ran and leapt from the cliff. I saw Katarina flying back up towards the cliff, leaping upon a surface of solidified air, her eyes widening with shock as we passed each other. I turned as I fell, looking up and watching as she landed safely back on the road, her head cocked quizzically to the side and a small smile on her lips.

  She watched me for a half second, then launched down at me with a hungry expression in her eyes. I glanced around and saw the moth descending about ten feet further down. We were high, thousands of feet. The mountainside descended to a stony, tree-speckled valley far, far below.

  Katarina crashed into me, wrapping her arms around me and pressing her lips to me ear.

  “Better use that cloak, lute boy.”

  A flash of electricity shot through my body at her words, her touch, her proximity. I activated Breezestride, and we became the wind.

  Katarina’s past rolled through me like turbulent winds, her victories and failures. An indomitable will and blazing passion rivalling the Sun. I experienced her rebirth into the world of Veil, the restoration of her ability to move as we flew up the cliffside as one.

  The moment was fleeting. We returned to our corporeal forms a few feet above the ground. I landed and managed not to lose my footing on the slippery gore. Katarina jumped off a small platform of solidified air, avoiding the gore entirely, and landed safely on the other side.

  We were both breathing heavily. Her gaze found mine. Midnight black locks of hair that had blown free during the battle drifted on the mountain breeze. I lost myself in her intense stare.

  “Wow,” I breathed. It was impossible to give words to the emotions coursing through my body. Windmeld was unlike anything I had ever experienced.

  “Yeah, wow,” she breathed back, eyeing me up and down. “That was cute, diving after me like that.”

  “I… thought after last time…”

  She laughed. “I can look after myself. If I’m awake, atleast.” She looked away, rubbing at the shoulder that had been hit with the sleeping dart from the moth.

  “Shame we couldn’t get some of those purple things from the moth, they were potent,” Abernathy walked past us and towards the cart. The donkeys stood calmly. Encore flitted down onto my shoulder, shrinking to the size of a small cat.

  “Whatever you did to those donkeys seems to have calmed them down.” I reached up and scratched him between the ears. He made a purring sound for a second before replying.

  “I did nothing more than speak a few reassuring words to them. They are a hardy breed. I am sorry for delaying in assisting with that fight.”

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  “You can talk to the donkeys?” Katarina asked as we began walking back to the cart.

  “Of course.”

  “And they understand you?” She glanced at me, then back to Encore.

  “They understand you as well. They may lack my intelligence, or even yours, it doesn’t mean they don’t understand.”

  “Wait, did you just infer that you are smarter than me?” She stopped walking next to the wagon, turning and putting her hands on her hips. Abernathy hopped into the driver seat of the wagon with a small laugh.

  “I would consider it an outright statement that you inferred information from, which supports my statement on more than one level.” Encore’s voice was laced with amusement.

  “That… that is rude.” Katarina reached over and playfully flicked at Encore’s ear, but missed.

  -Ding!-

  Welcome to level 12! New Stat Points available for distribution!

  “I think the moth finally hit the ground,” I said.

  “Did you just level up as well?” Abernathy asked, nodding.

  “Yeah, me too! I just hit level fourteen!” Katarina pumped her fist into the air.

  “Damn, fourteen? I just hit twelve.” I replied.

  “Twelve? I just got to level ten!” Abernathy was shocked, but then seemed to realize something. “I bet its because I get less experience from killing and more from crafting. I need to craft more.”

  “And you need to fight more, lute boy. Levels are important.”

  “I really do. I broke my wrist back there when I punched that moth with Kinetic Overload. I think I punched it wrong or something.”

  Katarina sighed as we began making our way along the mountain pass. “You really need to practice more. I might not always be around to protect you.”

  “Oh? Are you going somewhere?” I asked. I knew from the windmeld that she had no such intention.

  “No, but what if you're attacked while using the bathroom? Or while we're separated for whatever reason? I cant keep an eye on you every waking second of the day.”

  “That’s a good point.” I acceded.

  “So its settled. We'll spend at least an hour, each day. I'll teach you how to fight.” She spoke with determination, nodding. “But for now you should practice with that lute. I don't want any surprises. Into the cart with you. I’ll keep an eye out here.”

  “Yes, boss,” I said, walking over to the cart. She swatted my rear as I passed. I looked over at her and she winked before skipping ahead to walk alongside Abernathy.

  I shook my head, pulling myself up into the cart. Encore spoke softly into my ear as Katarina engaged Abernathy in conversation.

  “I believe that human woman to be in heat.”

  I choked, nearly falling from the cart before catching myself and pulling up to land on my side. “Humans don’t go in heat.”

  “Her scent indicates otherwise.”

  “That’s—” I snorted, took a deep breath to compose myself and continued. “It's… odd that you can smell that. I promise you, humans do not go in heat.”

  “Then how do you mate?”

  “I… I don’t know. I really don’t. I guess we're always in heat?”

  “That sounds very distracting.”

  “It… it can be. Let’s practice the Tatsu.”

  I sat down with my back against the wall of the cart and pulled the Lute of Azure Skies from my inventory. My affinity with the lute had increased steadily over the last few days. I was nearing the next breakthrough, currently at 89%. If I played for the rest of the day, I thought I might get to the second tier of the bond. The first tier had granted me the Songcache ability, which allowed me to store a song in the lute. I wondered what the next tier would bring.

  “But first, let’s restock Songcache with another instance of Radiant Winds and enchant a coin, just to be safe.”

  Encore nodded and crouched, lifting his rear and lowering his head to the floor. He produced two circular subwoofers from his shoulders where his wings normally be, and produced an underlying rhythm of low bass thuds. I performed Radiant Winds at 95% and stored it in my lute, pulled out a coin and enchanted it with Kinetic Overload. It went into my inventory and I smiled.

  “Alright. Let’s play this horrid song.”

  My fingers quietly and deliberately plucked the first few notes, something I had made a practice of after seeing Cahl perform the song, then frantically danced across the frets, picking and plucking notes faster than I would have thought possible two weeks ago, as the music cloaked us in a dome of illusory and auditory invisibility.

  I was getting better at the song, after many hours and several days of practice. The tips of my fingers were covered in hard calluses and my body was growing used to the strain. I was able to play for almost ten minutes before I needed to stop and refresh myself with Radiant Winds. I was resting, having just recovered myself with the song for the first time, when Abernathy came back into the cart.

  “Mind if I join ya, mate? Want to do a bit of crafting while Katarina drives the cart.”

  “Not at all, welcome to the party!”

  “Party, hah. Wait. Remember that disco ball you got from the party chest?”

  I looked through my inventory menu and found it, pulling it out. “Yeah, right here. You need it?”

  “If you don’t mind, I have a bit of an idea.”

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