Rick walked quickly down the road, his thoughts focused on the task that was ahead of him. In his mind there was little room for doubt about what was coming. Every part of him wanted to hope it wouldn’t. He wasn’t going to let himself get caught up in those anymore. His jaw was shut tight, mind racing through how many ways this could all go to hell.

“Gramps, this is the last chance, you should stay back.”

“No.”

Kat’s irritation only escalated at Mr. Gabriel’s dry response. The young woman glowered, glaring at the old man as he had, somehow, managed to keep the pace with them. Rick suspected some sort of magic was involved, but this wasn’t really the time to argue about it. The chemistry teacher’s eyes returned to Monica and the large backpack she was carrying.

There was a clinking within that came with every step, and each time the large feline shifted in some way that would make it ‘clank’, Rick felt his hackles rise and a tiny panic attack course through him. A shot of adrenaline that had him wondering how far back he ought to jump. But so far nothing happened, so at least things were moving along smoothly.

Just one more thing that could go wrong.

“How much farther ahead before you start insisting we should split up?” Tomas’ voice rung out with a tone that felt equally argumentative to Mr. Gabriel’s.

“You shouldn’t be here to begin with.” The chemistry teacher replied with a harsh bite to his tone. There was little patience to be had, not now. “This isn’t something you can help with.”

“That’s for us to decide.” Mr. Gabriel proclaimed.

“What he said.” Kat nodded, then paused, frowning after realizing she’d agreed with her grandfather. “Not that gramps should be here to begin with. How the fuck are you walking that fast!?”

“None of your business.”

“Could you shut up and stop this bickering?” Rick snapped, glaring at the trio of humans.

Kat and Tomas flinched, lowering their gazes, while Mr. Gabriel merely shrugged, nonplussed by his tone. Rick took a second to breathe in and attempt to calm down, his eyes turning towards the two maidens that were trailing behind them.

One was Freya, the elf sporting her bow and a dead-serious look as her eyes would bounce through their surroundings before halting at Monica every other minute. The other was… Ginny, whose eyes would be on Rick every time he’d glanced her way. The young woman was, for a lack of a better description, the second most fierce looking individual of the group short of Monica herself.

The brunette’s hands were covered in thick dark red green scales, hands that were almost claws, black sharp nails and a short thick scaled tail. She wielded a short sword and a round shield, and she looked far more nervous than Rick thought she ought to be. Perhaps a testament of the dangers that lay ahead in his harebrained plan.

“Our job is to keep them safe, sir.” Freya’s words came out curt and dry the moment she noticed his gaze. “That is as far as our orders go.”

“Though… we could lend a hand if a fight threatens their safety.” Ginny quickly added.

“This is bullshit,” Kat growled, quick to recover her annoyance. “We want to help and the only thing we can do is hope to sit on our ass and play damsel in distress to distract them?”

Rick felt like letting out a scream, instead he turned and began walking faster. Overtaking Monica, he gestured for her to follow as they kept to the dirt trail. If this were up to him, there would be no fight to begin with, but what he felt didn’t matter anymore. They had to get distance, reach the forest proper. Monica’s biggest advantage was her maneuverability in that environment. It was the exact thing that had kept her out of the Baron’s grasp for years.

“This should be far enough.” He finally proclaimed as he spotted the river. “Monica.” The word jolted the feline, she turned to face him and grinned as she bounced a little on the balls of her feet. Rick cringed at the clanking noise this caused. “Please… don’t.”

Maneuvering around her, he opened the flaps to the backpack and pulled out a bottle that was filled with a lime green opaque liquid. It was the only water-bottle in the backpack, repurposed from some of the things Tomas had not thrown away.

“So, to use this…”

“Drench cloth, rub cloth on self.” Freya pointed out. “It should remove your scent for six to ten hours, approximately.”

“Well, this is where we’re going to split.”

Kat squirmed at this proclamation. “Rick, are you… sure?”

“You want to help? This is how you help.” He removed his shirt, tossing it over to Tomas before taking a cloth and drenching it with the green liquid. Slowly he started rubbing it against his bare chest, arms, pants, legs, and shoes. He ignored the look Ginny and Monica were giving him. “You walk straight towards Monica’s cave, and don’t slow down.”

“And what will you be doing?”

“Preparing.”

Carefully he helped Monica remove the backpack, rubbing the drenched cloth against it before approaching the large feline. She looked down at him and scowled as he grasped her claw and rubbed the cloth on it. “Rick?” She immediately pulled her claw to sniff at it, eyes wide as she shook it, then sniffed again.

Rick didn’t waste a second, moving up her shoulder, rubbing it against her back, then moving to her other arm. Monica looked too surprised to try to stop him, sniffing every inch where he worked through and then sniffing him.

“Are you sure you don’t need help?”

Kat’s cocky remark came as Monica was now moving to pin Rick and lick his hair. The chemistry teacher was having an increasingly harder time escaping so he could continue his work rubbing the scent-remover on her.

“Shut up.” He managed to huff out as she broke into a fit of giggles.

More than one face cracked up, the only one who managed to keep a straight face being Freya.

“What’s in those, anyway?” Tomas pointed at the backpack and the pots left within.

“Phoenix Feathers, don’t open them.” He replied, wriggling out of the feline’s grasp and taking the bottle, using his thumb to cover most of the lid, and then shaking it in Monica’s direction.

She leaped away, hissing as he drenched her to the best of his ability. An angry glower that was followed by another hiss when he shook the bottle at her once more, making sure to soak her up and leaving her dripping the green liquid. Monica most certainly was not a happy cat, and Rick had little patience to care, closing up the half-empty bottle and returning it to the backpack before very carefully lifting it up.

Monica made it seem so easy, he grunted, glancing at the others. “Now mush, this won’t work if it’s too hard for me to predict the route they’ll take.”

“Should I repeat how much this sucks?”

“You’ve said that already.” He eyed the wary Monica as she stared daggers at him, trying to dry out the liquid that was now staining her fur and hair a light green coloration.

“We will look for a suitable crossing point.” Freya declared, stepping ahead of the group and approaching the river.

The chemistry teacher could only glance at the waters and shudder. The torrential rapids that had nearly drowned him had died down considerably, but the river was still swollen with water, and did not look safe to take a dip in at all.

“Rick.” Mr. Gabriel spoke, approaching him and giving him a cold hard look. “Don’t over-think it.”

That made him hesitate, Rick frowned. “What?”

“When you have to take a life, people hesitate. It’s normal.” He gripped Rick’s shoulders and squeezed. “But these are monsters that won’t give you a second chance.”

Lips thinning, the chemistry teacher could only nod grimly.

“They’re coming.”

The proclamation made Rick freeze and turn towards Ginny. The lizard-based maiden was looking towards the village. All heads turned to see at what she was pointing at. There was a dim glowing red light above the village, flying in a circle. Miranda. Her glow strengthened then dimmed, three times in quick succession, before stopping for a handful of seconds and repeating the signal.

“The Baron is coming.”