“So, then, how does this work? We just ride to Rājadhānī on these things?” I asked. One of the gigashanks caught my gaze, flicking its tongue to the wind. Like a giant bearded dragon.

“Hang on there for just a smidgen,” the orange-haired girl called. She vanished from the rooftop, her quick footfalls padding on the stone before she reappeared from the front door of the small dwelling. She was a lot taller on the ground than she was on the roof—at least a few inches taller than me. Lanky limbs draped in baggy clothing and a scarf tied around her throat. “Alright. Where was we?” Scratching her head, she looked around our silent group. “Right then. Well. I’m Agni. And if you want a ride, ya pay me to ride ‘em.”

Ravyn frowned. “How much?”

Agni grinned a brilliant white smile against her tanned face. “Depends. Ya can’t get ta Rājadhānī without goin’ through Madhyam, and that’s a full two day’s ride. Another three days, and we’ll reach Rājadhānī.”

“Five days?” Destiny’s eyes widened. She inched closer to Tristan and tugged on his sleeve. He bent low, and she whispered a string of sentences too softly for me to understand.

“Yeup. Five days, sugar. One of my shanks cost ten Bells a day to rent—the best offer around, ya know. If ya’ll are going, we’ll need—” Agni furrowed her brow and pointed to each of us, silently mouthing the count, “Four gigashanks. I’ll have ta guide ya, but you don’t have ta pay for my boy. So, that’ll come out ta—”

“Two hundred Bells,” Tristan announced softly.

“Right ye are!” Agni exclaimed brightly. Then her ears suddenly drooped, and her smile faltered, “But I have ta include the King’s tax, ya see—”

“King’s tax?” Ceres asked. “This is the second time we have heard of such a thing.”

“Er, right. King’s tax.” Agni scratched the back of her neck and looked between all of us, eyes finally resting on me. “Do ya really not have a tax on your island?”

“Not that I’m aware of.” I touched Keke’s shoulder, drawing her attention. “I mean, do we?”

Keke shook her head. “There’s never been anything like that on Ni.”

“San would fucking explode if Cailu tried to tax them,” Ravyn grumbled.

Agni shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “I’ve heard the other girls from San say somethin’ similar.”

“Nothing like that was documented on Shi Island, either.” Tristan frowned. “I’ve read a few books on Ichi Island, but not enough to make an educated statement on its history of taxes.”

“Where does this tax go, exactly?” I asked.

“Someone from the Rājadhānī fortress collects it from all of us every month.” Agni’s tail twitched, and she chewed her lower lip. “We all have to keep journals with our business exchanges in ‘em. Or else, well…” Her words trailed into the wind.

“Or else what?” Cannoli squeaked.

Agni’s eyes trailed upward, and she pointed to her left. We turned, following the direction of her finger. At the edge of Kandota were four towering wooden posts. I’d seen a few of them framing the port town, but the swirling sands had kept me from examining them much closer. At their peaks were rusted metal cages swaying in the breeze.

“Or else you spend a few days in the coop. Sometimes more, dependin’ on how bad they think you’re lyin’.” Agni dropped her arm and shivered. “Don’ think I’ve seen a girl last much longer’en three days.”

“They let her down, right? If they reach that point?” Cannoli asked, her voice quivering. “They don’t make her really stay up there for that long?”

Ceres put a consoling hand on her shoulder.

Agni shook her head. “We hafta play by the rules, sugar.”

Lara stepped forward and snaked her arm through Cannoli’s. “Wind says she tries to help them. Sometimes she forces Water to play nice and make it rain. They saved a few girls that way.”

Cannoli nodded but said nothing.

“Anyway. No long faces today, friends. No one’s in the coop, and the collectors won’ be collectin’ for some time yet.” Agni clapped her hands together. “Two fifty Bells even, and I’ll take ya’ll to Rājadhānī. I know the best stops for sightseein’ and the safest places ta set up camp. Then, if ya need me to help ya come back, we’ll go the same way. Sound good?”

I was trying to push away the thought of my girls stuck in a cage at least forty feet off of the ground. What the fuck, Magni?

“That sounds great, Agni.” Tristan fished out a sizeable chunk of Bells from the brand new [Cat Pack] that Ara had given him. All of us blinked in surprise, and he blushed. “A-Ara made sure I had enough money to take care of us.”

Keke grinned. “That’s adorable.”

Destiny puffed out her cheeks and shook her head. “Tristan—I mean, young Master, what of what I said?”

“Oh. Right.” Tristan turned to my Party. “Erm, Ravyn, Cannoli. Destiny said she’s…low on [Alchemy] supplies. If it’s not too much trouble, could you help her purchase some before we leave?”

“Mattaku. Seriously?” Ravyn groaned.

Destiny turned bright red and fussed with her apron. “I didn’t realize the, um, extent of our journey, I guess.”

Cannoli brightened. Her ears perked, and her tail was suddenly reanimated. “I would love to!”

“Well, I assume we need food for the journey, too, yeah, Agni? Or does our fare cover meals?” I asked.

“There won’t be much for forgin’ out there, no. I usually have enough for one or two riders, but eight? ‘Fraid not.” Agni tugged at her red kerchief. “But I can show ya what to buy that’ll make it go a lot easier. I don’ want any of ye goin’ hungry.”

“Perhaps I may also be of service in that department, Sir Matt,” Ceres suggested. “Keke as well.”

I nodded. “Why don’t we split up, then? Ravyn and Cannoli can help Destiny, and the rest of us can get ingredients for the journey.”

“I can tell you which things Fire likes to eat!” Lara exclaimed. “I may not be able to talk back to him but…he is very loud.” Every time she spoke, her words were slow and airy—like she was still putting her words together just as they escaped her tongue.

“Uh-huh. Glad that’s decided.” I flashed her an awkward smile. “Meet back here in half an hour?”

“Guess so.” Ravyn sighed and clapped her hands. “Let’s go, ladies.”

“There’s a right good potion and herb shop by the tavern!” Agni called out to them. Ravyn waved a hand without looking back.

“And I’ll lead ya down to the grocer.” Agni smiled at those of us who remained.

Keke’s eyes drifted back to the cages high in the air and took a step closer to me. I felt a shiver run through her shoulders.

I entwined my fingers with hers and squeezed her hand. “We’ll do what we can.”

She nodded but said nothing.

Forty-five minutes later, we were…on the road? Hitting the sand? We’d finally left Kandota. Destiny’s [Cat Pack] was filled with supplies that she assured us she could work with during our first night at camp. I guess she didn’t need a fully functioning [Alchemy] lab to do her magic. Ravyn and Cannoli had offered to help.

As for the rest of us, our [Cat Pack]s were filled to bursting with five days’ worth of food supplies. Tristan’s shock at the lack of item stacking paralleled mine when I’d first discovered Nyarlea’s ridiculous inventory system. We shoved as many spices as we could into my spice pouch that Shizen had gifted me, and Agni surprised us with a similarly crafted pack that could store multiple instances of foodstuffs.

We’ve really gotta get on the crafting train when we’re done with all of this.

Since it was two people to one gigashank, we paired off and picked out our own mini-dragons to ride. I had Keke with me, Destiny clung to Tristan, Cannoli and Ceres took the third, and Ravyn was left with Lara.

I think we’d all hidden a chuckle behind coughs at her incensed expression. No one gave her the opportunity to argue, as Agni ran a brief “How to Gigashank” tutorial immediately after we’d split up.

You would think a creature with black scales sitting out in the heat all day would at least be hot to the touch. But the gigashanks were cool and their scales silken. The golden eyes with thin black pupils were still a bit offputting, but they really did have a disposition like giant bearded dragons.

“They move so smoothly!” Keke exclaimed as Kandota shrank behind us. She rested her hands on her thighs and leaned back against me. “Even horses are harder to ride than this.”

I’d let her sit in front just in case the thing decided to buck us off suddenly. Better chances of me catching her. But really, the footfalls were so even and quick that it was more like riding in a car. Seemed I’d worried too much.

“I think Buttons wants to grow up to be a gigashank,” Cannoli giggled. Their mount was only a couple of feet to our left, and the Encroacher’s footfalls in the sand were almost silent.

Buttons had crawled up to the gigashank’s enormous head and basked peacefully in the sun with his tail wrapped around his body.

Glad this island is welcoming to at least one of us.

“Hey, then you’d have a sweet mount all the time,” I called.

“But then he wouldn’t fit in my pocket!” Cannoli countered.

Tristan and Destiny were on our right. Destiny was stroking the gigashank’s long neck and carefully touching the points on its frills. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

“They’re native to this island. I’ve read that there’s one farm of them in Nyarlothep where you can similarly rent them,” Tristan recited.

“There’re deserts on Nyarlothep?” I asked.

Tristan nodded. “Nyarlothep contains multiple biomes and ecosystems, but there are still many species of Encroachers and crops that only come from each of the other islands. It helps keep trade alive and the economies thriving.”

“Unless there’s a tax,” Keke grumbled.

“Gigashanks can actually grow larger than this. Enough to carry four people, if you’ll believe it.” Tristan laughed. “But I don’t know what you’d have to feed that thing to keep it happy.”

I recalled a few articles I’d read about giant pythons that could swallow deers whole. Catgirls, at that point, I think. “What keeps it from growing?”

“How much you feed it, actually. They don’t go hungry, but if you give them bigger meals, they’ll grow accordingly,” Tristan explained.

Agni rode the gigashank at the front of our caravan. She laughed and called back, “I don’t have the Bells ta feed them kinds of shanks.”

Ravyn and Lara brought up the rear of our parade, following immediately behind Keke and mine.

“You really can’t talk to Fire?” Lara asked.

“No,” Ravyn snapped.

“But you’re a [Sorcerer], right? And you’re attuned to him?”

“...Yes.”

“Hmm.” Lara paused, touching her chin. “I can hear Fire all around you. He seems…agitated. More than usual. Maybe he really wants to talk with you?”

“Kuso. Fire does not want to talk to me.”

“I could try to teach you, if you like—”

“Matt! Switch me partners!” Ravyn whined.

“Hang in there, Ravyn,” I called back, suppressing a laugh.

“I really do think you should try talking with Fire. Both of you might feel better for it,” Lara continued.

Ravyn groaned and rested her forehead on the gigashank’s neck.

Just another day in Nyarlea.