I wake up with a start as I hear banging on the front door. Lupa jerks herself up right growling at the direction. I look out the small window and notice it is the morning. I must have slept through the entire night. I quickly get out of bed and throw up on clothes. I hear Alistar open the door and hear him talk to a group of people. I frown cursing him in my head. I barely open the door and see a group of guards standing there. I slowly close the door as it makes a squeaking sound. One of the guards try to make his way in as I hear Alistar block him. I frown backing away from the door. We are so screwed. I look around and I pause at the window. I quickly go to it and open it. I help Lupa out and climb through it landing on the ground. Lupa takes down the alleyway and I try to keep up with her.

We make our way down the alley and we stop before getting onto the street. I poke my head out and make a sweeping motion. I don’t see any guards currently so I look down at Lupa. “Come on. We need to find Aleem and get out of here.” Even though he is a major pain in my ass, at least he has a plan. It’s better than the current one that I have which is none. We dart to the next alley across the street. As we are running down that alley. I come across a few bigger set clothes. I pause and take them. I put them over my current set and make a makeshift cloak. I look down at Lupa, “Can you do anything to change how you look?” Lupa pauses and runs over to a mud puddle. She starts to roll around causing her pure white coat to become dirty. She doesn’t look exactly the same but it will have to do for now. We walk out into the street and head down.

As we walk down the street, the town becomes alive with men going to the wall and women working small tasks. It looks like they are preparing for the horde of monsters coming. The guards are also on high alert looking around everywhere for me and Lupa. In the distance, I can hear town criers shouting both our names. Saying something about an award for our capture. I shake my head at the failure last time they tried to capture us. As we make our way toward the center of town, a few children have taken an interest in Lupa. They keep trying to play with her and I can tell that she wants to play with them. I pet her head telling them not right now. They leave as I catch a glimpse of Aleem with a large cart. I slowly make way over to him as he seems to be arguing with a shopkeep.

“You expect me to pay this much for a broken cart and horse?” The shopkeep looks annoyed at him.

“Yes. I do. I am the only person in town that has the things you need. So take it or leave it.” I seem Aleem get angry as I cut in. I try to sound girl as I can be.

“Oh pay the man already. I am want go home already.” It barely sounds like a female but Aleem pause realizing it’s me. He sighs paying the man as the shopkeep smiles.

“Thank you for your business.” Aleem grabs my arm and leads me to the back of the cart. Once there, he glares at me.

“What the hell are you doing here? I was just coming to get you and the group.” I frown and yank my arm from him.

“Alistar opened the door to some guards and we were almost captured. So I don’t want to hear any sass from you.” Aleem pauses slightly cursing a few times underneath his breath. Lupa tries to climb into the cart a few times but keeps failing to do so. I sigh and help her up slightly smiling at her. She lays down hiding in the cart. I look at Aleem, “So are we going?” Aleem sighs going to the front of the cart. I follow him and he climbs up sitting in the driver’s seat. I sit next to him as he starts driving the cart. The horse pulling us is a strong looking white mare. I don’t understand why Aleem thinks this horse is broken though. She almost looks about the same age of Bruce. I hope that he found a good family to take care of him.

We make our way down the street and we stop just outside a shop. A few guards walk past the cart as I pull my hood down.

“What are we doing here?” I say with some distrust. Aleem looks at me rolling his eyes.

“We have to get supplies for the road. After this we are picking up Titus and Alistar.” I frown and grab his arm. I hiss at him.

“No we aren’t.” He removes his arm from my grip and nods.

“Yes we are. As far as I know Titus is gathering magical supplies in the forest. Alistar was suppose to be closing up the home. I don’t blame him for opening the door. It would look worse that he didn’t.” I frown realizing that he is right. Aleem gets off and goes inside. I look in the back of the cart to see Lupa looking at me. I show her a smile as Aleem comes out with a man carrying a large amount of supplies. Lupa does her best to hide but I see that when the man was putting the supplies in the cart he saw her tail. Aleem pays the man and the man goes into the store. Aleem climbs back up on the driver’s seat and starts to take the cart out of town. Just as we reach the edge of town, we see a road block set up.

As we get to the roadblock, the guards start to look over the cart as the main guard comes to Aleem, “Hello sir. We are just looking for two fugitives. It will only be a few minutes.” Aleem slightly looks at me and nods at the guard.

“Of course. Go ahead and look.” One of the guard looks in the cart and sees Lupa. He calls for the other guards over to look at her. I frown and slowly grab my hidden dagger. Lupa starts to act like a dog as some of the guards start to pet her. They seem to like her enough and I slowly let go of the dagger. The main guard looks at Aleem.

“Go ahead you are fine. Make sure you stay safe from all the monsters.” Aleem nods and starts the take the cart out of Wealdstone. As we make it out the gate, I hear one of the guards yell for us to stop. Aleem stops the cart for a second before he spurs the horse forward. The horse speeds away from Wealdstone. Luckley we make our getaway. We travel for a little bit and circle back around going down the road. In the distance, I see Titus and Alistar waiting on the road. Aleem pulls over the cart and I get off. I march over to Alistar and try to punch him in the gut. He moves out of the way and glares at me.

“I didn’t want to raise any suspicions.” Titus steps in front of me and smiles.

“Come on everyone and play nice. We have a lot of ground and training to do. Alistar please go get the rest of the supplies.” Alistar glares at me as he goes into the woods. A second later he comes out with a few bags. He tosses them into the cart and Lupa jumps out at him growling. He jumps backing away from her. I smirk at him and come over to Lupa.

“What’s wrong Alistar? Scared of sweet innocent Lupa?” Alistar glares at me and her.

“I don’t like animals.” I roll my eyes. Well he is going to be in a huge surprise then. I climb into the back of the cart with Lupa. Titus climbs up next to Aleem. Alistar sits on the edge of the back of the cart. We travel south along the road all day. Lupa and me listen to Aleem tell stories to Titus. Both of them seem to be best friends at one point. There is a weird air around them though. Alistar doesn’t speak the entire time. We eventually stop by when it starts to get dark. Aleem pulls the cart into a safe area. Titus and Alistar get out of the cart first. Lupa quickly hop out of the cart and darts into the forest. I get out watching her run around in the forest. I laugh watching her. Aleem unties the horse from the cart and ties her up to a nearby tree. Alistar is setting up a tent and Titus is sitting down against a tree. He seems to be drinking something out of a bottle. Aleem goes to collect some sticks to start a fire. I start to dig into the cart to find some food to make. I pull out some meat, bread, and a few apples. By the time I do this, the tent is set up and there is a fire going. I head to the fire and hand out the food to everyone. Titus smells of wine and Alistar refuses to take the food. I roll my eyes at him.

“Lupa! Come get something to eat!” Lupa runs over to me panting heavily. I smile tossing her some meat. She attacks the meat easily tearing it apart. I sit down starting to eat the apple when Titus stands up.

“Come on you two. Time for training.”